> Growth Spurts
>  by CarcinoGeneticist
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One: Sweet Summer Lovin'
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter One: Sweet Summer Lovin'

 
 
This was officially going to be the worst summer vacation in the history of Ponyville.
 
Well, okay, that was probably an exaggeration.
 
But for a young red-headed little teenage farm filly named Apple Bloom, and most of her classmates for that matter, it sure as heck felt like it.
 
It was the last two weeks of school for the fillies and colts of Equestria before they were released from the confines of homework and pop quizzes and report cards, and until about a month or so ago, summer vacation had looked like it was going to be the same beautiful, shining beacon of hope it had always been in years past. ‘No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks,’ as the old saying went. Nothing to look forward to but mountains and mountains of free time for a whole ten weeks. There was nothing and nopony in the world that could stop Apple Bloom and her two best friends, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, from spending every day together searching for their cutie marks, or at least just hanging out. There was so much fun to be had, it all seemed like one big, happy dream approaching on the horizon.

And then, well…
 
Then puberty happened.
 
Apple Bloom heaved a weary sigh, her head colliding with the surface of her desk in Miss Cheerilee’s schoolhouse, even the bow in her hair drooping as she ignored every word her teacher was saying up at the front of the room, and instead wondered which of the royal sisters had had the sick sense of humor to choose this summer to strike every filly in the class utterly boy-crazy. Not that it really would have made a difference; any point in time would have been a bad one for the fillies of Apple Bloom’s class to suddenly develop an interest in boys. It wasn’t exactly because she didn’t want to like boys, of course; thanks to the magic of adolescence, Apple Bloom found herself pining for a special somepony just as much as the rest of the fillies in her grade, and she would be more than willing to give a decent boy a chance, and see where it might go.
 
No, the real problem was that ‘decent boys’ were shockingly hard to come by in Ponyville. She hadn’t thought about it much before hitting the beginning of her teen years, but the more her increasingly hormonal mind pondered the subject in the last few weeks, the more painfully obvious it became that there were incredibly few boys around, and the ones that were didn’t give the fillies of Apple Bloom’s class much hope.
 
First there were Snips and Snails. And really, there was no separating the two in Apple Bloom’s brain, because not only did they go everywhere and do everything together, they were also both utterly unappealing to her in pretty much every way imaginable. Apple Bloom liked to think she wasn’t one to mind dirt and mud and grime, but those two took it to another level entirely, as if it was their life’s mission to find the absolute grossest things in Equestria and show them off to the entire class to see how many ponies they could cause to vomit. Or at least she would think that was their motivation, if she wasn’t completely convinced they were utter morons. Apple Bloom was no mathematical genius, but she was pretty sure that if Snips and Snails each had half a brain, they’d still only have half a brain. No wonder they kept getting duped into being minions for that ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’ character.
 
Then there was Featherweight, the editor and photographer for the school paper. And if Snips and Snails could be disqualified for being incredibly gross, Featherweight could easily be disqualified for being incredibly creepy. He was a walking stick figure, like those horrifying ‘Slendermane’ movies, so thin and lanky he looked like his body had been artificially stretched, and he had an obnoxious tendency to stick that camera he always carried with him into every nook and cranny he could find and take pictures of everything. Somehow Apple Bloom was convinced that that was going to get him in huge trouble one day.
 
Button Mash was a newer colt in their class, having joined from another teacher’s class as they climbed the ladder of primary school and classes began to merge together a little more once they reached middle school. He wasn’t horrible, Apple Bloom supposed, and for some reason Sweetie Belle seemed to think he was cute, which probably meant there were at least some redeeming qualities to him under that ridiculous hat he always wore. But nopony really knew for sure, because he never bothered to pull his nose out from behind his Joy Boy video game machine except to stuff junk food in his mouth and mutter something about defeating the armies of the rebel alliance. Apple Bloom admired dedication, but there was a fine line between dedication and obsession, and Button Mash fell frighteningly far into the latter category. She could only hope Sweetie Belle wouldn’t get sucked into that world as well if she ever got up the nerve to say anything to him.

There was Pipsqueak, of course, the transfer student from Trottingham with the cute accent, who’d made a big name for himself by being one of the few ponies Princess Luna called ‘friend.’ Sure, yeah, that could work, if Apple Bloom wanted a boyfriend barely half her age. (Okay, that was probably an exaggeration again, but still, seriously, Apple Bloom didn’t care how popular he was, Pipsqueak was at least three grades below her, and… no. Just… no.)
 
Spike the dragon was… well… actually Spike wasn’t too bad a prospect, if she looked past the whole ‘is a dragon’ thing. He was kind of cute, in his own draconian sort of way. And smart too – real smart, actually, which was probably a product of growing up living and working with Ponyville’s resident genius, Twilight Sparkle. Plus he was about Apple Bloom’s own age, extremely polite and well-mannered, and also not utterly gross. He was even starting to hang out with her and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders now and then, so she was already getting to be friends with him. He probably might have made a decent boyfriend for somepony who didn’t mind dating a dragon. Unfortunately he seemed to only have eyes for Sweetie Belle’s older sister Rarity, which sadly placed the young drake in the most depressing category of all: ‘The lost causes.’
 
This category had just one other member, and the last boy even worth mentioning, as far as Apple Bloom was concerned: Rumble, the storm-grey and dark-maned Pegasus colt. He was by far the most desirable boy in Apple Bloom’s class; slim, athletic, polite, clean, not creepy, not obsessed with video games or anypony’s older sister, and easily the cutest colt in school. Even Scootaloo had a huge crush on him, and that was really saying something; anything that could pull her googly eyes away from Rainbow Dash was worth mentioning, and Apple Bloom had literally seen Scootaloo forget she was even talking to Rainbow Dash one time because Rumble happened to walk by and catch her eye.
 
He was perfect.
 
And – to every filly’s immense disappointment – he was also gay.
 
Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. But it did have the unfortunate side effect of making him apparently uninterested in any filly that tried to ask him out (and a lot of fillies tried to ask him out). For a while most fillies actually thought he was just playing hard to get, or perhaps that he had his eye specifically set on one lucky filly. It wasn’t until one day about four weeks ago that a different theory came to light, when a particularly physical disagreement with Diamond Tiara had led to her and Apple Bloom crashing through the door of the supply shed behind the schoolhouse and discovering the dashing young colt in the middle of a deep, heated make-out with Featherweight.
 
Apparently Rumble didn’t find him as creepy as Apple Bloom did.
 
In any case, Diamond Tiara being the school’s most notorious gossip, everypony knew of Rumble’s scandalous little tryst by lunch that day, and it had been the talk of the playground for at least a week afterward. Featherweight really didn’t care for the added attention at all, it seemed, and had been quick to dismiss the incident as just a one-time, experimental thing that meant nothing (which probably had something to do with why nopony ever saw them together again after that, Apple Bloom observed). Rumble, on the other hoof, simply… didn’t care, period. It didn’t bother him at all what anypony said about him, least of all Diamond Tiara and her satellite minion, Silver Spoon. He seemed to overflow with calm confidence, and the snarky teasing those two fillies often aimed at him swiftly fell flat against such tough armor and soon died away completely.
 
It also probably helped that both fillies, and pretty much every filly in class in fact, still thought he was hot.
 
But despite the new evidence to the hopelessness of courting him, he somehow became more sought after than ever. Before long Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom herself were the only fillies in class that had never asked him out – although she had no idea what kept holding Scootaloo back, she probably liked him more than anypony. Sweetie Belle at least still had her eyes on Button Mash, it made sense that she wouldn’t take a shot, but Rumble was the only boy that even seemed to be on Scootaloo’s radar at all, and yet she never went after him, even before the Featherweight incident.
 
Maybe she was simply afraid of rejection, Apple Bloom guessed; after all, historically speaking, her odds were slim. Rumble never accepted any of the other fillies’ advances or date requests, although he was just so charming and polite and cute that most fillies simply didn’t seem to get the hint anyway. Maybe there was something extra attractive about the unattainable, Apple Bloom wondered to herself. Or maybe they, like Apple Bloom, saw how few other worthwhile boys were around, and were desperate to change Rumble’s mind. Or maybe they just hoped being close to him would give them a greater chance of seeing two colts make out.
 
Having seen it herself, Apple Bloom could definitely understand that angle.
 
The farm-filly blushed and shook her head swiftly to dismiss those thoughts as quickly as they’d come. Rumble would be quite a catch, if by some miracle he decided to date a filly, and in that case she wished Scootaloo the best of luck; but Apple Bloom was a very practical girl, like her older siblings before her, and pining over a colt that in all likelihood was impossible to have was not very practical at all. She was just going to have to find another boy to soothe the burning desire in her heart.
 
Or at least the one between her legs.
 
That was the other thing that made the whole ‘shortage of colts’ issue extra problematic, and what really looked to make her summer vacation an especially lousy one. As they’d all learned in one very special series of lessons the previous semester, along with puberty came estrus, and along with summer came mating season, and that all added up to Apple Bloom spending a whole lot of time sitting on an ice pack for the last few days. She wasn’t the only one either; estrus had swept across the entire class, just about, with varying degrees of intensity. Some lucky fillies were able to shrug it off without hardly lifting a hoof. Others had taken to bringing ice packs with them to school as well as at home, and carrying thermoses of Moon Tea, too, just so they could function without becoming a sweating, blushing mess around anypony with a penis. Apple Bloom herself wasn’t quite that bad, for the most part, but she had started bringing ice packs to school anyway recently. Otherwise she spent way too much time thinking about penises instead of paying attention to her lectures, as she’d realized shortly before her end-of-year geography test when her sister Applejack had come by her room to help her study and ended up demanding to know why she’d doodled a bunch of dicks in the margins of her notes.
 
Her best friends were a bit more fortunate in that department. Scootaloo didn’t seem to need ice packs much, maybe once every few days at most, and even then the worst she ever had to deal with was the occasional case of rigor-mortis in her wings when something really pushed her buttons, so to speak. It was still a bit embarrassing for a Pegasus, sure, but at least it wasn’t a literal erection or tail-flag. And Scootaloo wasn’t exactly shy anyway.
 
Sweetie Belle was somewhere in between the two of them; but quite the opposite of Scootaloo, she was actually so embarrassed about it that she went out of her way to keep any signs of her estrus hidden, a practice she’d almost certainly picked up from her sister. She was changing out her ice packs almost hourly for fresh and extra-cold ones from a magically-chilled lunch box, and taking a long swig of extra-strength Moon Tea every time she so much as glanced at a boy for longer than a second. Two swigs if it was Button Mash. It was seriously overkill.
 
She couldn’t really blame Sweetie Belle for her actions, though. No matter how she sliced it, Apple Bloom completely agreed that estrus sucked, and it was bound to make an already crummy-looking summer even crummier.
 
BRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!
 
“Alright class, that’s the bell! You’re dismissed!” Cheerilee announced from the front of the class, startling Apple Bloom out of her daze with the realization that those were the first words out of Cheerilee’s mouth that she had actually paid attention to all day. This was getting ridiculous, Apple Bloom thought; even with the ice pack under her seat, she still spent most of the day thinking about boys instead of listening to lectures, and that wasn’t a good thing. Last two weeks of school or not, neither Cheerilee nor Applejack would be pleased if she came to school the next day without finishing her homework because she’d missed the lecture on how to do it. She didn’t want to have to start bringing Moon Tea to school with her too – she hated tea in general, and herbal teas like that one in particular always tasted like dirt, even if it did take the edge off the smouldering ache in her lower half – but at this rate it was looking like she might have to if she didn’t want her grades to drop like a rock at the last minute.
 
Of course, there was always the more direct solution to estrus symptoms, which many fillies probably saw as a more appealing and much less stressful and time consuming alternative, even if it sounded a little gross and their families by and large encouraged them against it. But that particular method would require, well… a boy. Which brought her right back to the issue that there weren’t any suitable boys around, which was square one all over again.
 
Apple Bloom let out another sigh of frustration as she slipped out of her seat to pack her notes and books and ice pack into her saddlebags, and joined the crowd of her fellow students fleeing the schoolhouse for the day. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were already waiting for her at the door, and so she trotted swiftly over to join them.
 
“Hey girls,” she announced herself as she approached, and paused as she saw them both looking not at her, but at some fixed point outside the school. “Uh… what’re y’all starin’ at?”
 
“Oh, hey Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo briefly greeting her, and beckoned for her to join them. “Come here, check it out.”
 
Apple Bloom stepped up curiously beside them and followed their gaze, and quickly saw what had their attention: Cheerilee had slipped outside ahead of the class and was engaged in excited conversation with a light purple mare whom Apple Bloom immediately recognized as Twilight Sparkle. And just off to one side of the two mares stood Twilight’s live-in assistant, the young dragon Spike, fidgeting in nervous excitement.
 
“Wonder what they’re doing here?” Scootaloo thought out loud.
 
“Oooh, I bet I know!” Sweetie Belle chimed in.
 
“Huh? Ya do?”
 
Before Apple Bloom could press further, though, Spike’s ears twitched, apparently hearing their chatter, and turned to face them with a wave and a grin before jogging over. “Hey! Hey girls!”
 
“Howdy there, Spike,” Apple Bloom waved back. “What’re you an’ Twilight doin’ here?”
 
“Oh, it’s the best thing ever!” Spike exclaimed. “Twilight’s finally gonna let me come and join you guys in real school!”
 
“Hehehe, I knew it! I was right!” Sweetie Belle claimed.
 
“Heh, well hey, that’s real nice Spike, congratulations!” Apple Bloom said.
 
“Wait, you actually want to go to school?” Scootaloo said, raising an eyebrow at him.
 
“Oh, heck yeah!” Spike insisted with a frantic nod of his head. “I’ve been wanting to go to normal school and hang out with ponies my own age for months! Seriously, I’ve spent my whole life being homeschooled. By Twilight.”
 
“…Eeeewwww,” Scootaloo declared after a few seconds of imagining that.
 
“Shyeah, I know, right?” Spike vehemently agreed. “I mean, I love her and all, but man, that mare doesn’t do anything half-flanked. She’s pounded so many useless facts into my head, sometimes I think my brain is leaking out of my ears.”
 
“Eeeewwww!” Sweetie Belle declared after a few seconds of imagining that.
 
“Aww, come on, it’s just a figure of speech, jeez,” Spike rolled his eyes, and then gestured over his shoulder with a thumb. “Anyway, Twilight’s talking to Cheerilee right now to get everything set up and to make sure I’m ‘properly challenged’ and stuff. If it all goes according to plan, I should start school with you guys next fall!”
 
“Aww, that’s great, Spike!” Apple Bloom said. “But, how come ya can’t start now?”
 
“Oh, well, heh, it’s a little late in the year for that,” Spike pointed out. “But Twilight did say that I could sit in for the rest of the year to see what it’s like, if Cheerilee’s okay with it. Ya know, do homework and stuff with you guys, for practice.”
 
“You wanna do practice homework?” Scootaloo marveled, and quickly mimed retching.
 
“Well, it’s only fair,” Sweetie Belle said. “Otherwise he’d be the only one sitting in class getting all the assignments we do and then not having to do them.”
 
“That sounds awesome,” Scootaloo countered. “I wouldn’t blame him at all for taking advantage of that. Why would anypony volunteer to do homework?”
 
“Aww, lay off ‘im, Scoots,” Apple Bloom chided her. “Twilight’d probably just make ‘im do it anyway.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Spike chuckled.
 
“Besides, if it means Spike can hang out with us more often, then Ah’m all for it!”
 
“Hehe, yeah, he can be our newest Cutie Mark Crusader!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
 
Scootaloo rolled her eyes at the unicorn filly. “Dragons don’t get cutie marks, dingus.”
 
“Says who?”
 
“Uh, says everypony?”
 
“Have you ever seen a dragon besides Spike?”
 
“Well, no, but--”
 
“So you don’t know! He might get a cutie mark!”
 
“Don’t you have an ice pack to change?”
 
Sweetie Belle squeaked, going bright pink and instantly silent as she sat back on her haunches with her tail tucked underneath her, seeming to shrink into herself a little.
 
“Scootaloo, that wasn’t nice!” Apple Bloom snapped. “You know she’s sensitive about that stuff…”
 
“About… ice packs?” Spike wondered aloud.
 
“Yeah, y’know, ‘cause of--” Apple Bloom started, but swiftly stopped herself as she saw Sweetie Belle abruptly go wide-eyed and frantically shake her head back and forth. “…Uh… Ah mean… it’s, uh, nothin’ important, really, just a… a girl thing. Yeah.”
 
“A girl thing?” Spike echoed thoughtfully. “Hmm… a girl thing with ice packs… oh! Oh, I get it. You’re in heat, right?”
 
Sweetie Belle’s blush tripled in strength, while Scootaloo and Apple Bloom’s jaws fell slack for a moment in surprise. “You know about that stuff?” Scootaloo spoke up as she recovered first.
 
Spike shrugged. “Hey, I’ve been living in libraries all my life. And I’ve been brewing Moon Tea and chilling ice packs for Twilight for years. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.”
 
Apple Bloom had to admit, she was impressed. “It doesn’t… bug ya or… weird ya out or anything?”
 
“Naw, it’s just nature, you know? Twilight always says there’s nothing to be embarrassed about with natural body stuff.”
 
“Yeah, tell that to Sweetie Belle…” Scootaloo muttered.
 
“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom snapped again, and kicked the snarky Pegasus in the shins.
 
“OWW!!! Okay, okay, I’m sorry, jeez…”
 
Spike really didn’t seem to mind though, shrugging off their disagreement with a light chuckle. “Heh, don’t worry girls, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
 
“Easy for you to say,” Scootaloo retorted. “You’re a boy, you don’t have to go through all this stuff like we do.”
 
“Hey, we’ve got our own set of growing pains, trust me,” Spike argued. “Guys are a lot more vulnerable downstairs, if you know what I mean.”
 
“Ewww, Spike, I don’t wanna hear about how sensitive your junk is.”
 
“I’m just saying, it’s a thing us guys gotta worry about!”
 
“That’s so not even close to the same thing as estrus.”
 
“Aww, can it, Scootaloo, y’all barely even feel it anyway,” Apple Bloom said.
 
“I do too! I just don’t make a big freakin’ deal out of it!”
 
“Well, I’m a dragon,” Spike added, “and that makes it even worse. Did you forget what happens when my growth spurts go wrong?” He shuddered from head to toe. “Scary.”
 
“Okay, okay, fine, we can all agree that puberty sucks,” Apple Bloom threw up her front hooves in exasperation. “Can we drop it now?”
 
“Yeah, I better go anyway,” Spike admitted, glancing back behind them again. “It looks like Twilight and Cheerilee are finishing up. Heh, Twilight’s probably gonna go into total neurotic mode making sure I have everything I’ll need…”
 
“Bet ya she makes a checklist,” Apple Bloom snickered.
 
“Hah, I’d lose that bet!” Spike laughed as he turned to go. “But ya know, that’s one checklist I’ll actually be excited for. Later, girls! Seeya at school tomorrow, I hope!”
 
“Hehe, Ah hope so too! Seeya Spike!” Apple Bloom called after him, a vague smile on her face as she waved and watched him head home with Twilight a moment later.
 
“You totally like him,” Scootaloo said the second he was gone.
 
“S-shut up, Ah do not!”

“You’re blushing.”

“That’s just… it’s just the heat, that’s all!”
 
“The heat, or the heat?”
 
“Ah said shut up!”
 
Scootaloo laughed loudly and glanced over at Sweetie Belle, who was still huddled in an embarrassed little ball of fur, giving her a gentle prod with one hoof. “Hey, Sweetie Belle, you can get up now, he’s gone.”
 
Sweetie Belle finally poked her head back up from her hiding place behind her hooves. “Huh? Who’s gone?”
 
“Apple Bloom’s new boyfriend.”
 
Sweetie Belle’s eyes bulged. “Boyfriend? Really? I didn’t know Apple Bloom had a boyf--”
 
“He’s not mah boyfriend!” Apple Bloom shouted indignantly.
 
“Boyfriend?” a new voice drawled over their conversation before it could continue. “The little hayseed has a boyfriend?”
 
Apple Bloom immediately felt a groan bubble up in her throat as she turned to face the familiar voice. Sure enough, the bright pink figure of Diamond Tiara was strolling toward them, flanked closely, as always, by her best friend Silver Spoon. “Aww, what the heck do you two want?”
 
“Oh, nothing much,” Diamond said with a shrug and a casual flip of her mane. “We just couldn’t help overhearing you saying you had a boyfriend, so we thought we’d come over and see if he’d rather go out with a real filly like me.”
 
“Ah don’t got a boyfriend!” Apple Bloom insisted. “An’ even if Ah did, he sure as hay wouldn’t wanna let you lay yer grubby hooves on ‘im!”
 
“Deny it all you want, hayseed, I know what I heard, and I heard the word ‘boyfriend,’ right Silver?”
 
“O-oh, yeah… that’s what I heard too…” Silver Spoon swiftly agreed.
 
“Nopony has a boyfriend, go stick your nose in somepony else’s business,” Scootaloo growled scathingly. “We were just talking about Spike, that’s all.”
 
Almost instantly Diamond Tiara was sneering, and Silver Spoon followed suit a fraction of a second later. “Eurgh, Spike? That hideous little lizard is your boyfriend?”
 
“He’s not hideous!” Apple Bloom said, stomping her hooves a little in anger. “And he’s not my boyfriend either!”
 
“Yeah, he’s just a nice boy we know…” Sweetie Belle timidly backed her up.
 
“Whatever, I don’t really care anymore, you can have him,” Diamond said, turning her nose up at them. “That walking fire hazard isn’t laying a claw on this perfect coat.”
 
“He wouldn’t want you anyway, he actually has standards,” Scootaloo shot back.
 
“Standards? Puh… low standards, maybe, if he’s hanging around you.”
 
“You take that back!”
 
“Serves you right for getting us all excited about boys for nothing.” Diamond Tiara lifted her nose into the air. “Come on, Silver, let’s get out of here, we really shouldn’t have expected more out of the blank-flanks anyway. I can’t believe we thought they’d ever get boyfriends.”
 
“H-heh, yeah,” Silver Spoon added with a quiet laugh.
 
“Yeah, well, serves you two right fer eavesdropping!” Apple Bloom shouted at their retreating backs. “Ah hope you don’t ever find a boy and yer stuck in heat all summer!”
 
“Hah! As if we need some nasty boy to deal with estrus! We’re above such primitive things,” Diamond scoffed.
 
“Yeah, right.” Apple Bloom snorted and rolled her eyes. “What, you got some super special Moon Tea or somethin’?”
 
A wicked grin suddenly appeared on Diamond Tiara’s lips. “…You mean you don’t know? Why, we’ve been getting rid of the heat completely with just our own hooves… no dumb smelly boys and their gross wiener juice involved.”
 
“…Whaaaaaat? You liar, you can’t get rid of it by touching yourself,” Scootaloo snapped back. “Estrus doesn’t work like that.”
 
“Yeah, Miss Cheerilee said so!” Sweetie Belle agreed.
 
Diamond sneered back at them. “Puh, and you believed her? She’s just like all our parents, telling us not to do anything sexy because they don’t want us to know how great it is.”

“Yer pullin’ our tails!” Apple Bloom accused.
 
“Yeah, Miss Cheerilee wouldn’t lie to us…” Sweetie Belle insisted.
 
“Hah! You three are such little foals,” Diamond laughed mockingly. “Don’t tell me you actually believe the only way to get rid of estrus is having some boy’s junk spit a bunch of slimy goo under your tails? I mean really, how stupid does that sound?”
 
“No stupider than you, if you think we’re actually gonna believe you over Miss Cheerilee,” Scootaloo replied.
 
Diamond Tiara simply shrugged and smirked. “Fine, try it for yourselves if you don’t believe me. Or not. If you’d rather spend half the summer wallowing in misery instead of having a little fun and then being perfectly fine like us, it’s no fur off my back.” The pink filly laughed again, echoed swiftly by her bespectacled cohort, and then both fillies thankfully strolled off toward their own homes, leaving Apple Bloom and her friends in peace.
 
“Ugh, finally, I thought they’d never leave,” Scootaloo grumbled.
 
“They… they were lying, right?” Sweetie Belle asked. “They had to be, Miss Cheerilee taught us all about estrus, and… she wouldn’t….”
 
“Of course they were lying!” Scootaloo insisted. “It’s friggin’ Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon! Lying and being jerks is pretty much all they do! Why would they even try to steal somepony’s boyfriend in the first place if they didn’t want one?”
 
“Ya mean besides the part where they’re jerks?” Apple Bloom muttered. “Ah wouldn’t put it past ‘em if it was true.”
 
“Maybe, but it’s still bogus!”
 
“But…. they didn’t look like they had any symptoms at all, and they said they just used their hooves…” Sweetie Belle said.
 
Scootaloo hesitated for the first time at that. “…Well, maybe… maybe they’re just good at hiding it or something…”
 
“…I’m gonna go and ask my sister, she’ll know for sure…” Sweetie Belle insisted, picking herself up and trotting down the road to the Carousel Boutique. “See you tomorrow…”
 
“Yeah, I’m gonna double check with my parents too,” Scootaloo said. “Those two’ve gotta be lying, I’m sure of it…”
 
A moment later Scootaloo took a turn down another street toward her own home, leaving Apple Bloom to walk the rest of the way to Sweet Apple Acres with nothing but her thoughts to keep her company.
 
She wanted to believe Scootaloo, she really did. It made sense. Diamond Tiara was the worst bully, liar and gossip in the school. Her track record was overwhelmingly against her. And Apple Bloom didn’t think Cheerilee would lie to the class about the mechanics of basic pony biology, she was a teacher. Lying about stuff like that was probably against some kind of teachers’ code of honor or something. And Scootaloo was probably right about Diamond and Silver just being good at hiding their estrus symptoms, rather than being totally cured of it.
 
Still… what if it was true?
 
What if a pony could get rid of her estrus by herself?
 
After all, even if Diamond and Silver were experts at keeping their symptoms under control, they’d still have all the same symptoms every other filly did. But Apple Bloom couldn’t remember ever seeing them bring ice packs or thermoses of Moon Tea to class before. Not that she was ever really looking for that sort of thing in her most hated rivals, but still. And all the adults did seem to spend a lot of time telling Apple Bloom and her classmates that it was best for them to just take their teas and their ice packs and work through it instead of trying to quench the heat for real. Maybe Cheerilee had just… conveniently skipped over certain parts so nopony would think to try it. Yeah. Yeah, that could happen.
 
Maybe.
 
Okay, so it didn’t sound nearly as plausible, not by a long-shot. But Apple Bloom couldn’t help but hope it was true. If she could calm her estrus completely, then she could actually focus again for the home stretch of the school year when she needed it the most.
 
Apple Bloom took a deep breath, blushing brightly, but nodded decisively to herself. It was worth a try. Besides, what could it hurt?  Even if it didn’t work, it had always been so relaxing when she spent a little alone-time with herself before…
 
Scanning her surroundings, Apple Bloom determined she was still at the outer edge of the Apples’ property somewhere in the east field, far enough from the road to not be seen by the public, but also far enough from the house to not be noticed by her family either. A tall, shady tree nearby stood out amongst the rest of the apple trees around her, the shady side overlooking a small stream that ran through the farm with cool, clear mountain water; the perfect spot for her to lay down nice and cozy-like and enjoy herself peacefully.
 
With a soft, tense sigh Apple Bloom hefted her saddlebags off her body and laid them neatly against the base of the tree, and then laid back on the ground with her head resting against them as a makeshift pillow, her legs lying slightly apart on the grass. She glanced around one more time to ensure she was alone, and when she neither saw nor heard anypony else, she let out a long breath, and let her eyes flutter closed as her front hoof moved to begin its work.
 
In truth Apple Bloom was sort of still figuring out the whole ‘masturbation’ thing. She had only touched herself a couple of times in the past, and it was only the most recent time that she’d actually been able to bring herself to climax, which had still taken her upwards of half an hour to achieve, maybe more (she hadn’t exactly been in the right state of mind to be keeping time). So when her hoof first found the little nub of flesh at the top of her fillyhood that she had dubbed ‘the magic button,’ she was caught entirely off guard when she felt not a light, pleasant tingle, but a bolt of greased lightning shoot up her spine, making her belt out an obscene moan of surprised pleasure and splay her legs out rather widely to either side. Whatever cooling effects her ice pack had had on her arousal earlier were immediately and completely wiped away with that single stroke of her hoof, and now her entire crotch burned with an intense heat and wetness begging to be fulfilled.
 
“Oh, wow…” Apple Bloom whispered into nothingness as she caught her breath. Somehow she was suddenly certain it wouldn’t take her half an hour to finish this time.
 
She moved her hoof a little lower, deciding maybe it would be better to work her way back up to the magic button if it was going to be that sensitive, and instead stroked the outer lips of her fillyhood proper, in slower, more careful circles. Still, though, she shuddered at the touch; it was not just her button, but her whole vagina that was extraordinarily sensitive today. Even those slow circles were sending smaller sparks of electricity through her body, and her hoof was already getting coated in a thin layer of slick, sweet-smelling fluid. Apple Bloom blushed in amazement; usually that didn’t start happening until at least the point where she probed her hoof inside herself, but now she was so hot and wet down there she was making a mess of her hoof with the first few strokes, and her desire for a release was more intense than it had ever been. It was incredible how much of a difference estrus season really made. She needed to hurry up and finish, she wasn’t sure how long she could stand this feeling, it was almost unbearable.
 
Her hoof angled itself slightly, and Apple Bloom probed the slimmer edge of it gently between her outer folds, again making herself shudder. It was even wetter just that little bit inside, and a powerful heat was radiating from her very core, washing over her hoof like a heat lamp. Her hoof slid slowly up and down, rocking in and out barely an inch either way, her hoof of course being much too large to get any significant distance inside herself. Not for lack of trying though; her inner walls flexed and clenched frantically around what little of her hoof could slip in there, trying desperately to draw it in further like it was the proper colt’s penis her loins probably craved.
 
Apple Bloom let out another long, deep groan, the thought of boys and their appendages immediately drawing up some very particular mental images. For the most part she’d only seen an unsheathed colt in pictures – mostly educational textbooks that were more like diagrams than actual photos – but there was one time she’d seen the real thing. It was just for a second, and it had been dark, and he’d covered up all too quickly, and she’d never dared mention it to his face afterward… but for a brief moment, crashing through the door of that supply shed and encountering Rumble mid-make-out, she saw it. She saw him. Fully unsheathed, laying out across his lap, the same grey of his coat toward the base and slowly mottling into a fleshy pink up toward the tip. It was truly, perfectly glorious. She’d thought about that penis more than once before while her hooves were between her hind legs, and this was going to be no exception.
 
Her thoughts took it further than ever this time, though. Her estrus hormones craved fulfillment with an intensity that bordered on physical need, like she’d outright die otherwise, and so as her other front hoof moved to join the first and press gently on that magic button of her clit again, she did not stop at merely thinking about that glorious penis she’d seen, but imagining it being used on her, going inside her, filling her so delightfully full. She was completely soaking wet now, rubbing and stroking and probing herself faster and more harshly than she’d ever done before as she lost herself in fantasy, imagining how wonderful it might feel, what its owner might do with it to make her feel good. Heck, the owner didn’t even have to be Rumble. Maybe it could be Spike at the other end of that amazing penis. Did dragons even have penises? She didn’t actually know or care right then, because for the purposes of this fantasy they absolutely did. Yes, that was settled, it was Spike, Spike and his gentle voice and his pointy little claws that were probably great for brushing and back-scratching and he most definitely had a really good-looking penis and it was going all the way inside her and he was making her feel so incredible and tingly and gooey and--
 
Apple Bloom let out a loud yelp of shocked pleasure as she tipped over the edge of orgasm, barely five minutes into starting. Her hooves froze so as not to overwhelm herself, but in her orgasmic daze she still felt like she was coming for a solid minute, literally, soaking her tail and the grass underneath her with a few copious spurts of girl-cum. She heaved a loud, pleased sigh, shaking a little even as she came down from the peak of what was easily the best orgasm she’d ever had (not that that was difficult, it was only her second), and waited for the wave of relief to wash over her…
 
…And waited…
 
…And waited…
 
…But it never came.
 
“Wh…?” she began to whisper and wonder, but as she opened her mouth, her voice came out in a thick, strangled moan, and the fire in her loins actually flared hotter than before, quite the opposite of being quelled.
 
Apple Bloom lurched upright and doubled over, clenching her hind legs together around her front hooves and suddenly panting and gasping for breath. Mere seconds after an orgasm, a good one, her body was craving more, craving sex, craving a colt, craving a dragon, craving just about bucking anything with a cock she didn’t care who it was she needed a cock right bucking now!
 
Apple Bloom gasped for another breath, her eyes wide and almost panicked. What in Equestria was wrong with her?! Was this what full-blown heat felt like?! How could any mare on the planet even stand this feeling?! It was unbearable, a crippling, debilitating, burning ache, one she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy--
 
Apple Bloom jolted, a chill running through her.
 
Diamond Tiara.
 
Apple Bloom’s mouth curled into an angry snarl. She knew. That conniving, deceitful little brat knew this was what would happen! She’d intentionally lied about it just to trick Apple Bloom into doing this to herself! And she’d fallen for it like a sack of potatoes!
 
“NnnnnggggrraaaaAAAAUUUGHHH!!!!!” Apple Bloom bellowed into the sky. “DIAMOND TIARA YOU PINK-PAINTED PILE OF PIG PUKE, AH’M GONNA TAN YER HIDE FER THIS!!!”
 
Apple Bloom slammed her front hooves into the grass and panted for breath a few more times, the worst of her anger spent for the moment. Fortunately the anger had bought her a flicker of clarity in the foggy haze of her arousal; she had to get herself under control before it faded. But that was easier said than done. She didn’t have any Moon Tea on her, and the closest place to get any was back at her house; she’d never make it all the way there in this condition. Her ice pack was no good either; she’d been sitting on it since lunch and it had been sitting in her saddlebags out in the summer heat since leaving school, it was surely nothing but a bag of warm water by now--
 
She gasped again.
 
Water!
 
Apple Bloom willed herself to stand on shaking hooves, and set her eyes on the stream in front of her. The cool, clear stream that ran straight down from the mountains of Canterlot. It was her only chance now. She took a few shuddering steps toward the water’s edge, and when she was close enough, she leapt the rest of the way, plunging her body into the water. It was a shallower spot – even at her smaller size she could touch the bottom at the deepest point and still have her head and neck above water – but the important part was that her backside was in the water, and oh dear sweet Celestia, it felt so much better already. She turned her body to face the stream’s natural flow and sat there leaning back against a large rock for a few minutes to let the cool, soothing water run over and past her burning crotch, and to her immense relief, she felt it slowly but surely ebbing away the worst of the heat and the ache. It was a far cry from being gone completely, but at least she could think straight now, and could probably make it home to a fresh ice pack and a tall glass of Moon Tea without reverting to the burning, aching mess she was a few minutes ago.
 
Instead of getting up, though, she simply continued to sit there in the stream and stew in her own thoughts.
 
She hated this. Everything about being in heat was just awful. And it was only the first few days of estrus season. She had weeks of this crap ahead of her to deal with, and frankly she didn’t know if she could stand it for another day. She didn’t want to chug nasty herbal teas and sit on frozen plastic bags for half the summer, she wanted her estrus gone. She didn’t even care if she enjoyed getting rid of it anymore, as long as it would just go away and never come back.
 
But once again it was a self-defeating thought; there simply wasn’t anypony that could do the job. Colts remained in far too short a supply. Any boy she was even remotely interested in wasn’t interested in her, and worse, every filly in her class was probably in the same boat. They were all likely to be just as miserable as she was. With the possible exception of Diamond Tiara, she wouldn’t wish this agony on anypony. And worst of all, unless something changed, that was how things were going to stay. Nopony had a coltfriend. Nopony even had a chance of having a coltfriend.
 
“Can’t we just have a chance…?” Apple Bloom groaned miserably toward the heavens, her eyes inevitably drawn, squinting, to the sun. It was the sun doing this to them, she recalled, and the summer. Heat and light, Cheerilee had taught them, were what ‘told’ their bodies to go into estrus. And heat, light, the sun, and summer meant…
 
“Aww, Celestia… Ah know Applejack says ya can’t just hear ponies talkin’ to themselves, but… please give us a chance… just a chance. Ponyville ain’t got no decent colts, an’ Ah just… Ah can’t keep goin’ like this. Ah’m not even askin’ fer a sure shot, just, Ah dunno… a new colt in class or… or somethin’, anything, that’s all Ah’m askin’… please, Celestia…”
 
“‘Celestia?’ Mmm, so close, my dear, and yet so very far.”
 
Apple Bloom’s eyes shot fully open again, not just at the sudden voice actually responding to her plea, but also because the sun above her had abruptly stopped shining blindingly bright, and had even turned into a darker, more sickly shade of yellow. With a bright red dot in the center like the pupil of a great big bulbous eye.
 
An eye that blinked at her.
 
“AAAHHH!!!” the filly shrieked, rapidly dunking her face in the water as if afraid she was hallucinating. She hastily wiped her eyes dry as soon as she brought her head back up and looked back toward the sun, but it was once again a blinding glare that she couldn’t quite look directly at.
 
“You should be careful about staring into the sun, young lady. You’ll burn your retinas out and go blind, you know.”
 
Apple Bloom spun around again, frantically searching for the source of the voice…
 
And bumped nose to nose with a terrifying monster.

> Chapter Two: The Devil Went Down to Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Two: The Devil Went Down to Ponyville

 
 
The monster grinned at the teenage filly, chin propped up in its hands. “Praying to Celestia, are we? You know, if you’re going to implore the near-omnipotent and pseudo-immortal for help, you might want to ask for someone a little bit closer to home.”
 
“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!” Apple Bloom screamed again, flailing backward into the water before bobbing back to the surface, staring at the rock she had just been leaning against. Sitting on it now instead was some sort of hideous creature that looked as though it had been stitched together piecemeal one chunk at a time; like the old Apple family quilt, except instead of each square being sewn by a different member of the family, it was as if each individual part of his body had come from a different animal. One lizard leg and one goat leg; his arms a lion’s paw and an eagle’s claw; one bat wing and one Pegasus wing; the tail of a dragon but the head of a pony; even his horns didn’t match. There was surely no other creature in all of Equestria like it.
 
And still Apple Bloom recognized him.
 
“Discord?!” she gasped, scrambling backward in the water until she reached the shore and jumped back up on dry land. “W-w-what are you doing here?! Are you tryin’ ta wreck up Ponyville again?! ‘C-cause I’ll tell mah sister on you!”
 
The creature rolled his eyes. “Oh, really now, tattling, at your age? I was under the impression you were a little more mature than that these days. Unless I misheard that little plea of yours for ‘Boys boys boys,’” he added, mockingly batting his eyelashes at the filly.
 
Apple Bloom flushed all over again. “Y-y’all were listenin’ to me?!”
 
“My dear sweet child, it was almost impossible not to listen to you. I could hear you crying for vengeance from a mile away. By the way, you simply must introduce me to this ‘Diamond Tiara’ character you’re so bent out of shape about, she sounds like quite the delightfully wicked little trollop.”
 
Apple Bloom’s blush migrated from embarrassment to shame. “Y-ya mean… ya heard me screamin’ ‘bout that?”
 
Discord gave her a pleasant, disarming smile. “Don’t worry, little pony, I’m sure very few ears actually heard you. Truth be told I suppose I only heard you because I happened to be nearby.”
 
Apple Bloom frowned warily. “Whaddaya mean ya just ‘happened’ ta be nearby?”
 
“That’s my business. Kids are so nosy sometimes…” Discord scoffed, a look of mock-offense on his face. “I was having a pleasant conversation over a late lunch with my dear friend Fluttershy, if you must know.”
 
“…Fluttershy? Since when’re y’all friends with Fluttershy?”
 
Discord spread his mismatched arms wide and smiled. “You haven’t heard? Why I’ve turned over a new leaf! Thrown my hat in with the side of goodness and righteousness! Heavens above, what are ponies teaching their children these days if not the reformation of national criminals? You know, I was just having this conversation with Luna, and she had the exact same sort of reception when she--”
 
“Yeah, Ah heard about yer ‘reforming’ from mah sister,” Apple Bloom interrupted him, “an’ she told me yer not ta be trusted anyway! …An’ quit callin’ me a ‘child!’”
 
“Oh, young lady, that hurts. That hurts me right here,” Discord said, a convincing tear in his eye as he reached into his chest (more like through it) and drew out a beating heart that inexplicably had a large dagger sticking through it.
 
“Ewww!” Apple Bloom recoiled from him. “That’s disgustin’!”
 
Discord sighed dramatically. “Some ponies have no sense of humor.” A second later he tossed the heart up into the air, tilted his head back and opened his mouth wide, caught the heart in his jaws and swallowed it whole with a lick of his lips. “Alright then, miss--?”
 
“Apple Bloom.”
 
“‘Apple’ Bloom, of course. How original. Alright, little miss Apple Bloom, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll stop calling you a child, and you give me the benefit of the doubt for a few minutes. Sound fair? I did come by to help you, after all.”
 
“…Help me?” Apple Bloom echoed, and hesitantly took a step toward him. “You’re here ta… help me?”
 
“That’s right.”
 
“…Why?”
 
“My dear, sweet Apple Bloom, it’s what I live for, to help unfortunate ponyfolk like yourself. Poor souls, with no one else to turn to.”
 
Apple Bloom gave him the best skeptical frown she could muster. “Uh-huh.”
 
“What? I’m serious. I said I would start doing good… most of the time… and I meant it. And it just so happened Fluttershy and I heard your angry screaming, and she decided it was the perfect opportunity for me to help a pony in need.”
 
“…Ah still don’t know…”
 
Discord shrugged, lounging back on the rock and stretching. “Mmmhh, well, you don’t have to accept my help, of course… it’s not as though I’m a near-omnipotent demigod capable of chaotic and reality-defying magic the likes of which nopony in Equestria can compare to or anything. Case in point, care for a drink?”
 
A tall glass appeared out of nowhere in Discord’s more dexterous eagle-claw hand, and with a quick flick of his wrist he swept the glass through the stream, which for a split second had turned from a beautiful blue to a rather dirty brown. A second later it was back to normal and his arm stretched out impossibly far to hold the glass out right under Apple Bloom’s nose. It was now filled to the brim with the dirty brown liquid, complete with ice and a little paper parasol, and after a moment of bewildered staring she suddenly realized the glass was filled with Moon Tea.
 
“How did you--?”
 
“I promise it’s not drugged or anything,” Discord assured her with a grin. “Well, no more so than the fact that it technically is a drug. Ponies go to some rather creative lengths to medicate themselves through such a natural biological function, it’s rather amusing. Still, I can’t argue with its effectiveness. And I hear it works quite well as a contraceptive, too, in which case if you’re that interested in boys, you might want to drink up.”
 
Apple Bloom felt a deep blush creep into her cheeks, but there were far too many penises lingering in the corners of her thoughts to argue about it, and so with just a hint of reluctance she took the glass and drank it down. It was ice cold, which always had a tendency to make the concoction feel more effective, but this glass felt especially so, cooling the fire in her belly more than usual and doing so within moments. “Mmmhh… thanks…” she murmured.
 
“Extra strength,” Discord added, smiling as he wiped the glass out of existence. “You looked like you needed it. See, I can be nice.”
 
“That still don’t explain how ya did that in the first place, though…”
 
“Explaining it would probably break your fragile little pony mind. Suffice it to say chaos magic is wonderfully versatile. I’m certain we could find some way to use all that power to help your little problem.”
 
Again Apple Bloom hesitated. “…Yeah, well, that sounds real swell an’ all, but unless y’all can make colts appear outta thin air or make estrus hormones go away, Ah don’t think Ah’m interested…”
 
“Ahh, of course, of course, what else could it be? Can’t quite scratch that insatiable itch when mares outnumber stallions three to one, I take it?”
 
“Ah guess ya could put it like that, yeah…” Apple Bloom agreed with a blush.
 
“Yes, an odd little quirk of pony biology, I’m afraid. Just not enough males to go around sometimes.” Discord grinned and floated off the rock in the stream, landing on solid ground in front of Apple Bloom and giving her a little bow. “Well, fret no longer, my dear, today is your lucky day. It just so happens that there is a little something I can do about your colt problem.”
 
“…Really?”
 
“Certainly. I’ve managed to pick up a thing or two about the male species, what with being one and all.”
 
It was hard to think of it as possible, let alone relevant, but Apple Bloom had to agree that yes, Discord seemed for all intents and purposes to be male, whatever that had to do with anyth--
 
Oh, ewww.
 
“If yer suggestin’ yerself, y’all can forget it!” Apple Bloom spat out with a shudder. “Ah don’t got no interest in goin’ out with a… a whatever ya are!”
 
“Oh please, don’t flatter yourself,” Discord dismissed her objection with a wave of a paw. “I’m thousands of years old, I haven’t the slightest interest in dating children.”
 
“Ah thought we agreed ya wouldn’t call me--!”
 
“A child, yes, and only if you gave me the benefit of the doubt. I promise I have no desire to chase anypony’s tail. Now can we dispense with the childish accusations and discuss this like adults?”
 
“…Fine,” Apple Bloom agreed after a brief pause. “Then how are ya proposin’ ta help?”
 
“It’s quite simple. You want a new boy in your class. I can make it happen.”
 
“…How?”
 
“What did I say about trying to explain chaos magic?” Discord reminded her, pacing a slow circle around her now.
 
“Well, yeah, but… Ah don’t want some… made-up ghost pony or somethin’ that ya just poofed in outta nowhere… it’s gotta be a real pony.”
 
Discord held a hand up in a solemn swear. “I promise, no creating ponies out of thin air. When you walk into school tomorrow I promise you there will be a real, flesh and blood new colt there.”
 
“…An’ substitute teachers don’t count.”
 
“No substitute teachers.”
 
“…Or guest speakers.”
 
“Or guest speakers.”
 
“He’s gotta actually be part o’ the class.”
 
“A vital member.”
 
“…An’ nopony with a girlfriend already. He’s gotta be available.”
 
Discord smirked down at her. “Would you like it to be true love at first sight, as well?”
 
Apple Bloom couldn’t help blushing. “…Is… is that actually somethin’ you can do?”
 
“Puh, influence ponies to love each other? Who do I look like, Princess Cadenza?”
 
“Um… yeah, actually.”
 
The tri-colored wig on Discord’s head vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “Well, despite what appearances would suggest, I’m afraid that’s outside my realm of influence.”
 
“Oh… well, that’s okay,” Apple Bloom admitted. “Ah mean, Ah don’t wanna be greedy or anythin’. If there was a new boy in class, everypony else should have a fair chance at him…”
 
“Ah, how very noble of you. I’m sure your little friends will appreciate the opportunity.”
 
“…An’ what about, ya know… estrus? Can ya fix that too?”
 
“I promise, estrus will be the last thing on your mind.”
 
Apple Bloom’s frown grew more pronounced. “Yer bein’ awful vague about all this… what’s the catch? There’s gotta be a catch.”
 
“Oh really, must you be so suspicious? I’m here to help, remember?”
 
Apple Bloom stared him down intensely, searching his face and her mind as hard as she could for where a trap might be hidden, but she simply couldn’t see one. Still, perhaps it was better to be safe than sorry… Discord might have been reformed, but her sister had warned her he was still not to be so easily trusted, and she’d already been burned once today by being too trusting. She had no desire to be burned again.
 
But then where did that leave her? Still alone. Still in heat, which was getting gradually worse. Still with slipping grades. Still looking forward to a completely miserable summer of ice packs and nasty tea. The very thought made Apple Bloom shudder; nothing about that sounded appealing. Discord was offering her a chance at something better, and he wasn’t even asking for anything in return. Could she really say no to a chance like that?
 
Discord, meanwhile, nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders and moved away from Apple Bloom again. “Well, that’s alright. If you don’t want my help, no one is forcing you to take it. I suppose I’ll take my leave then, I really must get back to my own plans for the day. I’m a busy demigod, you know, and--”
 
“Wait.”
 
Discord paused, and turned back to Apple Bloom with a broad grin. “Yeeeeeeeessssssss?”
 
Apple Bloom blushed and hesitated for long moment. “…You promise you can do all that stuff you said?”
 
“Without a doubt.”
 
Another pause. “…Alright,” she finally agreed, blushing. “If… if ya can really do all that stuff, then… then Ah’d really… appreciate it.”
 
“Excellent.” Discord smiled wider than ever, shaking her hoof and patting her head. “You won’t regret it, my dear.”

“Ah better not,” Apple Bloom warned as she swiftly shook him off, “or yer gonna be hearin’ from mah sister an’ her friends.”
 
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head, Apple Bloom. If at any time you’re unsatisfied with my help, just say the word and I promise I’ll put everything back to normal. Now you run home and get some sleep. And by the time you wake up tomorrow, you won’t have to worry about estrus anymore, and there will be a new little colt in your class when you arrive at school. Toodles!”
 
Discord gave the filly one last little wave, and then vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving Apple Bloom to her thoughts once again.
 
Truthfully Apple Bloom still wasn’t quite sure she’d made a good decision. No matter how well-reformed he might have been, trusting Discord just didn’t sound entirely smart. But he had made a promise to help her, another promise to put everything back to normal if it didn’t work out, and she had her sister’s group of friends, the Elements of Harmony, to hold him to his word. And if it meant she could meet a nice new boy… if it meant her summer wouldn’t be quite so miserable… it sounded like a dream come true.
 
She sincerely hoped it was worth the risk.
 
With a nervous breath and a hopeful prayer, Apple Bloom finally picked her saddlebag back up off the ground, and scampered toward home.
 
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Applejack had initially demanded to know why she’d come home late and dripping wet, and Apple Bloom debated on whether to tell her exactly what had happened, but ultimately decided against it; she didn’t want to incur her sister’s wrath over associating with Discord unless it became absolutely necessary. Instead she settled for a partial truth, informing her sister that she’d felt momentarily overwhelmed by estrus hormones and taken a dip in the stream to cool herself off. Being her first active heat, Applejack swiftly took pity on her and withdrew any anger or punishment, though she wasn’t excused from her usual chores around the farm. But that was fine by Apple Bloom. Chores gave her something to focus on other than her deal with Discord, or the ache in her hindquarters that… actually wasn’t so bad anymore. The extra-strength Moon Tea really did seem to be working. Or perhaps Discord was already spinning his inexplicable magic, and the unbearable urges were slowly draining out of her. That would certainly be encouraging.
 
In what felt like no time at all her chores were finished, dinner was served and eaten, her homework was done (after some struggle and effort to piece together the lesson she was supposed to have listened to that day), and Apple Bloom was crawling into bed for the night with a heavy yawn. The day’s excitement had really worn her out, and the sooner she got to sleep, the sooner she could wake up and meet the new boy in class. She hoped he was cute… maybe a tough, strong Earth Pony like her who knew the value of family and his own four hooves and a hard day’s work, and wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty in all the best ways. Or perhaps he might be a cool, adventurous Pegasus that would take her flying and turn every date into a heart-pounding thrill-ride and then make out with her atop a big fluffy cloud, cuddling her nice and close so she wouldn’t fall. Maybe he would be a dark and mysterious bad boy Bat Pony, who didn’t get along with authority and her family didn’t approve of at all but was still incredibly dreamy and with a heart of gold deep down inside. Or maybe even a classy, romantic Unicorn, a noble gentlecolt straight out of a fairy tale that knew just how to make her heart swoon and brought her flowers every day just to show her how much he loved her.
 
A broad grin filled Apple Bloom’s face as she crawled under the covers and swiftly drifted off to sleep. She knew the odds of Discord being that generous were probably slim, but still…
 
It was nice to dream.
 
And a moment later, dreaming was just what she was doing.
 
 
---
 
 
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
 
“Apple Bloom, consarnit, wake up already, ya slept in long enough.”
 
Apple Bloom groaned and stirred slowly out of a heavy slumber at the sound of her sister pounding on her door, murmuring sluggishly. “Ah’m up, Ah’m up…”
 
“Well ya don’t sound up, ya sound half asleep with a frog in yer throat. Now come on, if ya don’t get up in the next five minutes ya won’t have time fer any breakfast!”
 
She heard Applejack’s hooves march away from the door, and then things returned to blissful, peaceful quiet. She very nearly fell asleep again anyway, but by some miracle she managed to hold on to consciousness. Actually getting up was proving a little harder though, and it was several minutes of lazy struggling before she could even get her legs under her. Her limbs felt sore, and oddly heavy, and she had a bit of a headache. Her hind end felt funny too, though she couldn’t quite place exactly how or why. It certainly wasn’t the usual pulsing heat of estrus, though, which made her sigh in relief. Finally, just one morning where she didn’t wake up uncomfortably warm and with slightly sticky thighs--
 
Apple Bloom shot fully awake in an instant, her eyes wide.
 
Her estrus. It was gone.
 
It was gone!
 
It wasn’t held down or chilled or medicated or anything, it was just straight-up gone!
 
Apple Bloom nearly jumped for joy as she sat up and stretched. She felt wonderful. Finally that annoying, throbbing ache in her crotch was no more, and she could think clearly, truly clearly, for the first time all week. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time her mind had felt so clear and calm at all. She felt stronger too, even. Empowered, almost. Like she could buck down a whole tree of apples in a single kick. Had she had a growth spurt while she slept? Her muscles were feeling a little sore, and her room did seem a tiny bit smaller now than it had last night…
 
BAM BAM BAM!

“Apple Bloom, this isn’t funny, yer gonna be late fer school!” Applejack shouted from the other side of the door, sounding decidedly annoyed this time. “Get yer flank outta bed, right now! If Ah hafta come in there an’ drag ya out m’self yer gonna be in big trouble, missy!”
 
Apple Bloom gasped and whipped around to face her bedside clock, reality swiftly swooping back down. She’d forgotten to set her alarm, which explained her sister’s angry thumping on the door, and now it was already well past sunrise; school would be starting in less than fifteen minutes.
 
Oh gosh, school! Apple Bloom realized. If her estrus was gone, then that meant Discord had really kept his word, and that meant… that meant there would be a new colt in class today! And she was on the verge of missing it!
 
Apple Bloom dove out of bed to grab her saddlebags and throw them over her back. She blindly grabbed a comb and ran it through her mane a few times, not even taking the time to tie her usual bow into it before jamming the comb in the saddlebags without so much as a glance in the mirror to make sure it looked okay. A second later she threw the door to her room open just as Applejack started banging on it again, and sprinted out in a blur.
 
“Gah!” Applejack yelped, leaping out of the way just in time to avoid getting trampled by a red and yellow blur. “What the hay--?!”
 
“Sorry sis no time to talk gotta get to school big day today!” she shouted back over her shoulder, grunting and coughing to clear whatever gunk was in her throat to make her voice sound so funny. Her brother and grandmother were given a similarly swift greeting as she tore past them, and she just barely took the time to shove an apple in her mouth before she galloped out the door and across the farm at full speed. If she hurried, she might make it just as the bell was ringing…
 
She crossed the farm and through town in record time – maybe she really did have a growth spurt the previous night, even her strides seemed longer – but unfortunately she was still a bit late. She could hear the school bells ringing just as she rounded the last corner. Hopefully Cheerilee would excuse her, she would only be a minute or two late…
 
Apple Bloom slowed as she approached the front door of the schoolhouse, panting and gasping for breath after her lengthy sprint, and as she grew near, she heard Cheerilee’s voice wafting through the open window.
 
“Everypony, settle down, I have a very important announcement to make before we start!” she was saying in her happy, singsong tone. “We have a new student joining our class today, and he’ll hopefully be with us for years to come!”
 
Apple Bloom gasped in delight and grinned ear to ear. A new student! And it was a ‘he!’ Discord had been telling the truth! There really was a new boy in class!
 
Brimming with excitement, Apple Bloom tugged the handle and threw the door open, her eyes flying immediately to the front of the class, where Cheerilee stood side by side with…
 
“I want you all to give a nice, warm welcome to mister Spike the dragon! Go on Spike, say hello!”
 
“Hey everypony! I’m really excited to finally be here with you all! I can’t wait to--”

“Spike?!” Apple Bloom burst out indignantly. “That’s the new boy in class?!”
 
Every head in the room whipped around and stared at Apple Bloom in stunned silence, but Apple Bloom was too angry to notice right away. Of all the cheap, lousy, low-down dirty tricks! She already knew Spike was going to be joining her class! He’d told her so himself! It was already going to happen! That so didn’t count! Discord didn’t even actually have to do anything! He cheated!
 
Well, sort of. He did still make her estrus go away. Apple Bloom had to admit that was probably the more important thing. Without that nagging in her backside, having a boyfriend didn’t seem so cripplingly necessary. But still! Discord had totally weaseled out of the other half of his promise!
 
Not that she had anything against Spike, of course… cheating or not, she was glad to have him in class with her now. He’d been a good friend lately, and she did like him well enough, even if his eyes were probably elsewhere, and--…
 
…and actually his eyes were fixed directly on her, staring at her for some reason.
 
Everypony was, in fact.
 
Oh, right. She’d interrupted Spike’s introduction. Whoops.
 
“Ah-heh…” Apple Bloom chuckled nervously. “S-sorry everypony, Ah… Ah was just… surprised ta see Spike here, that’s all…”
 
Apple Bloom forced a cough. Sweet Celestia, what was wrong with her voice? She cleared her throat a few times, trying to break up whatever gunk was back there, but her sinuses seemed clear. And yet she still sounded like she had a frog in her throat that was dropping her voice at least a full octave.
 
She swiftly forgot about that, though, when she refocused her attention again on the class and found that everypony was still staring at her without making a sound, and so intently that it was starting to creep her out. Even Cheerilee herself had been shocked into wide-eyed silence.
 
“…What?” Apple Bloom said into the silence, awkwardly running a hoof over her head. “Is it the mane? Ah don’t look that weird without the bow do Ah? Ah was just in a hurry…”
 
Nothing. No response at all.
 
“…What? …Is it ‘cause Ah was late? … Is it mah voice? ‘Cause Ah… Ah don’t know why… why it’s…”
 
Apple Bloom trailed off and looked around at everyone, from the teacher to her best friends and all the way back around again, eyes pleading for an explanation. But no one moved. No one spoke. Everyone just sat (or stood) and stared, on top of a number of other very strange reactions. Diamond Tiara’s jaw was hanging open so far Apple Bloom could see her tonsils. Silver Spoon was blushing beet red. So was Sweetie Belle, for that matter. Spike looked utterly thunderstruck and a little weirded out. And both Scootaloo’s and Rumble’s wings had snapped open to full extension and refused to move an inch.
 
“…What?! What’s everypony starin’ at?!”
 
And then, finally, someone answered.
 
“…Apple Bloom?” Spike hesitantly spoke up. “Is… is that you?”
 
“A’course it’s me, who else would Ah be?!” she demanded.
 
“But… but you… you’re… you’re a…”
 
“…I’m a… what?”
 
“You’re… a boy!”
 
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “I’m a what? That’s ridiculous, why would I suddenly be a--?”
 
Apple Bloom froze mid-sentence and joined the rest of the class in wide-eyed silence as her eyes fell upon a small vanity mirror on Diamond Tiara’s desk, where an oddly familiar colt she’d never seen before was looking right back at her. A colt with thick, muscular legs and a firm, squared jaw… as well as a soft yellow coat, a shoulder-length mop of messy red mane, and orange eyes.
 
“What the…?”
 
Apple Bloom grabbed the mirror from Diamond Tiara, who for once didn’t fight her in the slightest, and pulled it over for a closer look. The colt in the mirror followed her motion the whole way, and when she stood and stared front and center at the mirror, the colt stood and stared straight back.
 
“…Ah… Ah don’t… Ah’m…”
 
Slowly, shakily, Apple Bloom looked down at her own body.
 
Her ever so slightly thicker, taller, blockier, and undeniably colt body.
 
“…AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

> Chapter Three: The Stallion in Me
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Three: The Stallion in Me

 
 
Barely two minutes after her sprint to the schoolhouse, Apple Bloom was sprinting right back out of it, retracing the same old path she walked every day and putting as much distance as she could between herself and the shocked stares of her classmates. She felt the eyes of everypony in town on her as she ran, but it didn’t so much as slow her down, not even when she was clear of Ponyville proper and running down an empty road toward the edge of town. All that mattered was getting back to the farm, somewhere quiet, somewhere private, somewhere safe. She was fortunate that she had the route so completely memorized that she could follow it on pure, thoughtless instinct, because her conscious mind was raging uncontrollably.
 
A colt.

She was a colt.

How in Celestia’s mane had she become a colt?
 
Celestia? Mmm, so close, my dear, and yet so very far.
 
The ominous words immediately rang in her head, and the clear and obvious solution swiftly presented itself.
 
Discord.
 
Somehow, for some reason, he had done this to her. It had to be. Twilight Sparkle herself had said once, years ago in that magical duel against the Great and Powerful Trixie, that even as powerful as she was, she couldn’t change somepony’s gender. But Discord… he defied logic and reason and the very laws of physics on a daily basis. It was entirely within his power to do something like this; and she couldn’t ignore the convenient timing of her recent encounter with the creature the previous afternoon, either. It had to be him. There was no other explanation. But why? Why turn her into a colt on top of everything else he’d already done?
 
You want a new boy in your class. I can make it happen.
 
Oh no.
 
Estrus will be the last thing on your mind.
 
Oh goddess.
 
There will be a new little colt in your class when you arrive at school.
 
Of course.
 
Discord hadn’t known about Spike starting school with them after all. That had just been a freak, innocent coincidence. This… this had been his true plot. Spike wasn’t the new colt in class.
 
Apple Bloom was.
 
Of course. It explained everything. The extra muscle, the slightly larger body, the change in her voice… even how good she’d felt this morning. It all fit. Boys didn’t go through estrus. If she was suddenly a boy, all those needs and urges and mare-specific hormones would be gone in an instant. If she was a suddenly a boy, then…
 
…Then there would be a new boy in the class when she arrived at school.
 
Apple Bloom could barely think about it without snarling. She’d been tricked. Again.
 
Unbelievable. She’d really thought he’d changed. For the briefest of times, she’d truly believed he was actually turning over a new leaf and attempting to use his influence for the good of Equestria. But no. It had all been a lie. An elaborate hoax spun by a master con-artist, setting her up to become the butt of some absurd joke at best, or who knew what kind of sinister plot at worst. And now she was going to suffer for it. She couldn’t imagine the kind of punishment she was going to get for disobeying her sister and trusting Discord after being explicitly told not to. It wasn’t fair, she was trying to give him a chance to be nice and helpful, it wasn’t her fault he was still a no-good, lying, deceiving psychopath. To think that Fluttershy of all ponies would actually be friends with a creature like that--
 
Apple Bloom skidded to a halt.
 
Fluttershy!
 
Indeed, just ahead of her down the road, a familiar pink-maned Pegasus mare with a butter-yellow coat was trotting along toward the town marketplace, smiling to herself, calm and care-free. Fluttershy was easily the nicest, kindest pony in all of Ponyville, and if anypony in the world really could be friends with a creature like Discord, it would most definitely be her. She wasn’t the bravest pony around or anything, but when the safety and well-being of her friends was at stake, she would always step up to their defense.
 
Apple Bloom lit up in relief. That was the answer! Fluttershy would be able to rein in Discord and make him fix things! She could get back to normal right away, and nopony would have to tell Applejack what had happened and get her punished!
 
Unless they weren’t really friends, of course. For all she knew Discord had lied about that too. If that was the case she would be confessing for nothing, and Applejack would discover the truth just that much sooner. It was worth the risk, though. At the very least, Fluttershy would be understanding and sympathetic and not get angry at her, and might even promise not to spill the beans about what she’d done. She just needed to catch the mare before she got into a more crowded part of town…
 
“Fluttershy!” Apple Bloom called out, jogging toward her.
 
The older mare jumped a bit mid-stride and turned curiously toward the unfamiliar voice. Apple Bloom couldn’t blame her for being startled, she barely recognized her voice now herself. “Y-yes?” she answered in a near-whisper, her eyes landing on the young colt trotting up to her, and relaxed slightly. “Hello… um, can I help you?”
 
“Yes! Yes, please, Ah need yer help, real bad!” Apple Bloom pleaded.
 
“Oh, my, um… a-alright,” Fluttershy said after a moment of surprised pause. “How can I help you, um… erm… I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met before… have we? Oh but, wait, you knew my name… have we met before and I forgot? I’m sorry…”
 
“No, no, Fluttershy, it’s me!” she said, dropping her own voice and looking around to make sure nopony else was in earshot. “It’s Apple Bloom!”
 
“…Apple Bloom?” she echoed, blinking down at the filly-turned-colt. “…Um…”
 
“Ah swear, it’s true, ya gotta believe me! Ah got turned into a boy an’ Ah really need yer help ta get changed back!”
 
Fluttershy stared down at her for a while, looking her over in honest surprise. “…W-well… goodness… you do sound a little like Apple Bloom… and you look a lot like Apple Bloom…”
 
“That’s ‘cause Ah am Apple Bloom! Look, Ah’ll prove it! Mah best friends are Sweetie Belle an’ Scootaloo, an’ together we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, an’ one time we all had a sleepover at yer house an’ you sang us a lullaby an’ Sweetie Belle totally took it over, an’ then we got lost in the Everfree Forest and ya came lookin’ for us an’ saved us from gettin’ turned inta stone by a cockatrice an’ ya almost got turned yerself but ya fought it off just by starin’ at it--”
 
“Oh my gosh, you really are Apple Bloom!” Fluttershy gasped, swiftly convinced by the story.
 
“Ah told ya!”
 
“Goodness, but… w-why are you a colt now?”
 
“It’s ‘cause of Discord! He turned me inta one!”
 
“Discord?” Fluttershy echoed, and then swiftly shook her head. “Oh no, you have it all wrong, Discord wouldn’t do that, not anymore. He’s changed. He’s trying to be good now. Actually, just yesterday we heard you shouting and he went to help you…”
 
“So ya really are friends?” Apple Bloom pressed. Apparently he hadn’t lied about that after all.
 
“Oh yes, we’re very good friends now. And I’m sure he was happy to help you… um… did he help you?”
 
“No! It--… well… sorta, but… Ah didn’t want this kinda help!”
 
Fluttershy frowned confusedly. “Um… maybe you should start at the beginning…”
 
Apple Bloom sighed impatiently, but complied, giving her a quick and – for both their sakes – slightly censored version of the events of yesterday afternoon. Fluttershy listened patiently through the whole story, and her frown slowly became more pronounced with each word. By the time she heard the end of the story she looked outright disappointed, slowly shaking her head back and forth.
 
“…An’ so that’s the only reason Ah can come up with, nopony else woulda done this, or coulda done it…” Apple Bloom finished. “Please Fluttershy, you’re friends with him… somehow… you gotta get him to fix me! …And, um, don’t tell mah sister about it?”
 
Fluttershy let out a quiet sigh of her own. “Well, Apple Bloom, I promise I won’t say anything to Applejack, and I’m very sorry Discord did that to you… he really has changed, I know he has, but… well, he just can’t resist playing pranks on ponies still, sometimes.”
 
“Pranks?! This is his idea of a prank?!”
 
“Oh yes, I’m sure of it… he never does anything harmful or dangerous, but… well, sometimes he does do silly things… and Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie have a bad habit of encouraging him now that they’ve warmed up to him. They like pranking ponies too, and Pinkie takes any opportunity she can find to get him to make chocolate rain…”
 
“Uuuugh,” Apple Bloom groaned and rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine, he got me, Ah went an’ embarrassed mahself in front of the whole class, now tell him ta put me back ta normal!”
 
Fluttershy blushed and hung her head slightly. “Um… I’m sorry, but… I can’t.”
 
“What?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “Why not?!”

“W-well, normally I would, but… unfortunately, he’s… not here right now. In Ponyville, I mean.”
 
“Not in Ponyville?! But he was just here yesterday! Where the hay else would he be?!”
 
“He left just this morning for Canterlot…” Fluttershy admitted with a truly sympathetic sigh. “He said he was going to help the princesses with something, and that he’d be gone for a couple of days…”
 
Apple Bloom’s eye twitched. “D-days?!”
 
“I’m sorry…” Fluttershy said again. “I’m sure it was something important…”
 
“Yeah right, he was probably just trying to hide and laugh at me!”
 
“Well… I suppose that might be true, and if it is, I’ll talk to him about lying on top of pranking, but either way, I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do until he turns up again…”
 
Horror filled Apple Bloom’s expression. “So Ah’m stuck like this?!”
 
Fluttershy gulped. “Um… from the looks of it… I’m afraid so, yes… f-for a little while, anyway… I’m very sorry…”
 
Apple Bloom’s head drooped low to the ground, and her heart sunk all the way down to the bottom of her hooves. It was official, her life was over. Even if her appearance at school could somehow have been explained away as some kind of joke or magical illusion, and that was certainly no guarantee… there was no chance of it now. The story was going to spread. Everypony was going to know what happened to her. Applejack was going to know what happened, and as soon as she did Apple Bloom would be grounded until the next school year. And that was just at home. She’d be a total laughingstock at school. Diamond Tiara alone would be insufferable, but now the whole school would be laughing at her. Even her friends had been unable to do anything but stare at her.
 
Fluttershy laid a comforting hoof on her shoulder, seeming to read her dejected and miserable expression like a book. “Oh, don’t let it get you down, Apple Bloom… I’m sure being a boy isn’t so bad… most colts and stallions I know certainly don’t complain about being boys.”
 
“But Ah’m not a boy, Ah’m a filly!”
 
“I know… but try to look at the positives,” Fluttershy urged her. “It’ll only be for a couple of days, Discord can’t hide forever… and, well, really, you have a rare opportunity here… you can see how it feels to be the other gender. Nopony’s ever really gotten to do that before, as far as I know…”
 
“Well… yeah, Ah guess, but…”
 
“A-and at the very least, well, you get to spend a few days in the peak of mating season… not having estrus. A-a lot of mares would be really jealous of that… I know I am…”
 
Apple Bloom couldn’t help perking up slightly at that. As awful as everything else seemed, that was a really pleasant silver lining. Not dealing with estrus for a while, especially in the midst of all this other junk, was truly a gift from the goddesses. That would have been awful. And frankly she wouldn’t have put it past Discord to pull that on her anyway. She was certain it was within his power to do. But fortunately she seemed perfectly in control of her loins as a colt. The only thing they had to worry about was probably being out in public and getting an erection at the sight of a pretty mare. That sounded like a challenge all its own though, especially with mares as pretty as Fluttershy around and wanting to find somepony to--
 
A bright blush hit Apple Bloom’s cheeks.
 
Suddenly she really needed to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.
 
“W-well, uh, t-thanks for l-lettin’ me know what’s goin’ on, Fluttershy, but Ah gotta run!” Apple Bloom stammered out, turning to hurry away.
 
“O-oh, alright… I-I’ll keep an eye out for Discord and make sure to talk to him first chance I get… good luck, Apple Bloom!” Fluttershy called after her.
 
“Thanks!” she called back, picking up her pace and hurrying back to Sweet Apple Acres. She didn’t want to skip school, but there was no way she would be going back there like this, not right away, and especially not now that she was walking with a new, awkward sort of limp, courtesy of the strange and foreign appendage she could now feel dangling between her legs and brushing against her thighs.
 
For better or worse, she had a pretty good idea what it was.
 
In another minute or two she was back on Apple family property, hurrying through one of the more private and secluded acres and at last setting eyes on the sanctuary of her clubhouse, once built into an especially thick and sturdy apple tree by Applejack and later remodeled by Apple Bloom herself into the headquarters of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She made her way up the ramp and inside the little house, shutting the door behind her and tossing her saddlebag to the floor before flopping back on her butt on a cushion in one corner of the room. She leaned back against the wall corner and stared at the ceiling, trying to pretend she couldn’t feel the lump of flesh between her legs and that it wasn’t making her freak out a little, but it was no use. Even if she hadn’t felt it growing and tingling at the thought of a pretty mare, she couldn’t not notice it anymore. Something was there now that wasn’t before. And she couldn’t ignore it forever.
 
Gulping down a heavy breath, Apple Bloom chomped the bit and dipped her head to take a look between her hind legs.
 
A long, long look that left her blushing to the tips of her ears.
 
Welp. It was official.
 
She had a penis now.
 
Sitting back on her butt against the wall as she was, the new appendage was sort of dangling half-erect out over the floor, just aroused enough to come out of its sheath but not quite enough to perk up like a flag pole. It looked to be a pretty normal size; not that she had much to compare it to, of course, but sex-ed class had certainly made note of average sizes for both male and female parts, and this one seemed about in line with that. Maybe a bit bigger, she guessed, on account of her slight increase in overall body size. That stuff was usually pretty proportional. Her hoof reached for the appendage, gingerly lifting and pulling it away from the floorboards as if afraid she’d get a splinter, and let it lay across her own chest instead where she could get a better look at it.
 
“W-wow…” she whispered.
 
The shaft of her new equipment tingled a bit where she touched it, but she was too busy taking in the sight to worry about that just yet. Much like the one she’d seen on Rumble, hers was a bright, fleshy pink around the nearly flat and slightly fatter tip, and down most of the upper half of the shaft. And as she glanced down the length of it, the colors became mottled around the medial ring, transitioning away from pale pink until it matched her own coat color closer to the base of the shaft, as if her natural pigment seeped right into the flesh. Just below that was her new pair of testes, which appeared to be rather generously-sized to Apple Bloom’s admittedly limited knowledge and experience, the protective pouch of skin there also shaded the same color as her coat.
 
“Okay now… don’t freak out…” she told herself out loud. “It’s just a… a-a penis… all boys got one… it’s totally normal… other’n the part where Ah’m a filly an’ Ah should have filly parts…”
 
She reached down suddenly at that thought, feeling around underneath her sack for a moment, but there were most definitely not any filly parts there any longer. All she really managed to do was whack her testicles with her hoof a bit too hard in her haste, making her gasp and wince in a sudden, sharp pain. Spike really hadn’t been kidding yesterday, those things were sensitive, and not in a good way. She’d have to be super careful about that from now on.
 
Her hooves rested instead on the shaft of her new penis, carefully getting a feel for the strange and foreign organ. It felt a little weird doing so; it was of course technically hers, and there was really nothing wrong with exploring one’s own body, but still… it was brand new to her, unfamiliar, not at all the parts she was used to having, and in a lot of ways it felt like it wasn’t her own body she was exploring, but another colt’s, putting her hooves all over somepony that wasn’t herself, touching his penis, feeling it, getting aroused by it…
 
Apple Bloom gulped down a soft gasp, feeling the penis growing harder and more fully erect and blushing in deep, surprised arousal at the sight, which only seemed to make it harder. Wonderful, she was getting hard from watching herself get hard. That wasn’t weird or narcissistic or anything. But she couldn’t exactly help it; it really did feel like she was watching some other colt’s dick get all stiff and excited, and she hadn’t exactly stopped being excited by boys and their dicks just because she was one herself now. Except thinking about pretty mares was what had gotten the erection started in the first place, and her own memories of playing with herself the other day were suddenly much more appealing to recall and made her newly-hard dick twitch in building excitement.
 
Without really even consciously thinking about it, her front hooves curled gently around the shaft of her new colthood, sort of hugging it between them. The tingling arousal she was feeling grew stronger at the touch, until she was reasonably certain it was about as hard and erect as it was going to get. It looked bigger than before, all swollen and stiff. Certainly bigger than the last one she’d seen. It was at least a full foot long now, and big enough around that she wondered if it could even fit inside a filly the way it was supposed to.
 
Apple Bloom’s blush immediately grew stronger, and so did her arousal levels. Goddess above, was she really thinking about… doing that? About getting into bed with another filly while she was still stuck as a colt, climbing onto her back or laying her down and spreading her legs, and sticking this hard, twitching dick inside her? About holding some filly gently in her hooves and kissing her as she rocked her hips and pushed that dick in and out of her, over and over, in and out--
 
“Unnhh…” Apple Bloom let out a deep, low groan, feeling another jump of desire as she realized her hooves were actually moving now, stroking her dick between them in a slow and steady, up and down rhythm just as she’d been imagining. The feeling was incredible; pleasure was shooting through her body at every slight touch and rub, like she was stroking one big clit. Her mind had no trouble conjuring up helpful images now, and although her usual stand-bys of cute boys like Spike and Rumble and their wonderfully talented dicks still made her squirm in happy satisfaction, now she suddenly found herself much more amicable to picturing girls too, cute fillies and beautiful mares dancing through her thoughts like a parade.
 
There were so many of them to imagine, too. For a moment she wasn’t sure which filly she wanted to picture underneath her. It was the exact opposite problem from what she’d had as a filly; instead of no good colts to choose from, there were so many girls that she couldn’t settle on just one. Fluttershy had said she wished she didn’t have estrus… oh yes, Fluttershy was very beautiful, just the thought of getting a glimpse under her tail, let alone doing anything under there, made her body shudder and twitch, and especially her increasingly sensitive and excited erection. Or perhaps… Miss Cheerilee… ooh, that was dirty, filthy, Apple Bloom felt guilty for even thinking it, and yet it sounded so incredibly exciting to explore just what that whole ‘hot for teacher’ fantasy was about. Maybe her old friend Twist, with her big cute glasses and wild curls… or maybe the mailmare’s daughter, the cute unicorn filly in the Rainbow Dash fan club… or… or…
 
Oh, there were so many… and it felt so good, no matter who she thought of. Her hooves were pumping up and down the length of her shaft much faster now, making her moan and groan deep in her throat at the sheer satisfaction. At some point she’d started leaking some kind of thick fluid from the tip of the thing, a little sticky but at the same time very slick, just like the juices she used to get coated with when she got worked up as a female, and now it was smeared all over her hooves and her dick, lubricating both and letting her work herself that much faster. She could scarcely stand it, the pleasure was insane, and so much easier to achieve now. Goddess, what would Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo think of her if they saw her now, sitting here rubbing her big twitching colthood…
 
Apple Bloom’s blush grew stronger than ever. Goddess, what would they think? Would they be disgusted? No, they were her friends… her best friends, she adored them both, they wouldn’t be disgusted… they’d be supportive… maybe very supportive… maybe even help her out a little… yes, that’s what they would do, Apple Bloom decided, losing herself in fantasy completely. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo would love to help out… it was their hooves on her dick rubbing her now, one from each of them, making her feel oh-so-good, because that’s what friends did for each other… and Apple Bloom would help them too, of course. They were still fillies after all, still suffering from heat season… she didn’t want to be the only one lucky enough to escape it, she would have done anything to help relieve them of it too. Except now she had the means to do so… she could help them…
 
With another deep and heated gasp she imagined them, the both of them, laid back before her, legs spread wide, making Apple Bloom blush and grin and jerk herself even faster. She’d seen them down there before, of course, they all had seen each other before, in passing at the very least, but quite explicitly that one curious afternoon after sex-ed classes when they’d spent far too long talking about all the exciting grown-up stuff they’d just learned. They’d even shared their self-pleasure methods with each other after a three-way spit-swear never to tell another living soul. And that was how she imagined them now, splayed out before her and attacking themselves in desperation. Sweetie Belle had really sensitive nipples and almost spent more time playing with her teats than her pussy to get off, but Scootaloo went right for the clit and nothing else, rubbing it for as long as she could stand without getting overwhelmed and resting an absolute minimum before rubbing it again. But Apple Bloom knew all too well that it wasn’t going to be enough, not in estrus season, and now they were asking her, no, begging her to help them quell their estrus, spreading their soaked pussies and--

It was too much. Several tons too much. Apple Bloom clenched her eyes shut and let out a deep, guttural groan as she completely lost control, succumbing to the new frontrunner for “Best Orgasm Ever.” Pleasure and relief and satisfaction flooded her senses and filled her with an incredible warmth, and the pressure that had been building in her hips suddenly found its release and surged up the length of her now-flared cock, her hooves still flying up and down the whole of it. She forced one eye open to take a peek at herself, just in time to see the first huge pulse of thick, off-white boy-cum explode out of the tip and draw a line from her belly all the way up her chest. She gasped in awe just in time for the second shot to sail through the air and paint another streak of semen up her neck and chin and even a bit right into her open mouth. Instantly she snapped her jaws and eyes shut again in shock right as her cock fired the third and fourth and fifth bursts, hitting her full-on in the face and splattering her cheeks and muzzle and forehead with the hot, sticky goo. The next couple of shots were weaker, slowly squirting out of her tip more than outright firing, and falling to join the first one on her chest. One last dribble leaked out and left a small splotch of white on her belly, and then it was over as quickly as it had begun, her hooves at last coming to a stop, her body slumping lower against the wall, and her pleased new appendage finally relaxing and gradually receding back down into its sheath.
 
“Mmmhh… holy horseapples…” Apple Bloom murmured as she heaved a deep, happy sigh. She was a complete mess, covered in her own expulsions, but she had never felt better in her life. The actual orgasm hadn’t lasted as long as she was used to as a filly, but that had been easily made up for with sheer intensity. And better yet, the relief and satisfaction still running through her were so strong she almost felt like she could pass out for a nap. It was a far cry from her experience yesterday, when self-pleasure had only made things worse. Boys had it so easy this time of year… or any time of year they felt like enjoying themselves, really. Stroking a penis was so much simpler than trying to satisfy a vagina that wanted something inside it when she didn’t have anything smaller than a big honking hoof. Maybe this time spent as a boy wouldn’t actually be so bad…
 
…Although maybe in the future she’d try to be more careful about where she relieved herself. She was in dire need of a washrag now.
 
With a groan she sat up a bit straighter and slowly blinked her eyes open, which were thankfully clear and untouched by the mess she’d made of herself. She blinked a few times to focus her gaze--
 
And then froze.
 
Scootaloo was standing directly in front of her, her eyes and her wings as wide-open as they’d been back at school, her cheeks a bright, radiant pink.
 
And she was staring directly at Apple Bloom.
 
“…Uh.” Apple Bloom gulped and forced a smile, trying not to freak out or look too guilty about the fact that she’d basically (literally) just jerked off thinking about the filly in front of her. “Hi… Scootaloo…”
 
“…Hey… Apple Bloom…” Scootaloo swallowed hard too, and her throat sounded dry as she spoke. “M-Miss Cheerilee… sent me to… find you… we were, uh…worried…”
 
Her voice shook as she spoke, and Apple Bloom couldn’t help notice her eyes were darting rapidly back and forth between Apple Bloom’s face and her crotch. How much had she seen? Apple Bloom hadn’t even heard her come in, it could have been at any time…not that it mattered, any amount of time was too much, and she’d almost certainly seen the big finish, and the evidence of it was all over her face…
 
“Can you… make it come out again?”
 
Apple Bloom nearly jumped out of her skin. “W-what?! M-make what come out?” she asked, though she was pretty sure she knew.
 
“That…” Scootaloo pointed at her sheath, confirming Apple Bloom’s suspicions. “Can you make it… come out again?”
 
Whether she wanted to or not became swiftly irrelevant. The mere thought of Scootaloo wanting to take a good look at her new equipment was all the encouragement it needed to reverse course, come back out and say hi.
 
“Oh wow…” Scootaloo whispered, stepping closer and staring unblinkingly as her penis slowly grew back to full extension. “You really are a boy…”
 
“A-Ah am not!” Apple Bloom insisted. “A-Ah just… got turned inta one… i-it’s a long story…”
 
Scootaloo didn’t seem especially interested in hearing said story at the moment, though. She was moving closer and closer, her hindquarters shaking with each step, and her gaze was slowly drifting up Apple Bloom’s body to focus on her face. “Can you…” she started, hesitating for the briefest of moments. “…Can you make that come out again too?”
 
Scootaloo pointed at her face this time, and Apple Bloom went as red as the ripest fruit in the orchard. “W-w-wh… what’re ya talkin’ about?” she stammered, though again, she had an incredibly good idea.
 
“Y-you know… that… stuff,” Scootaloo said again, blushing just as hard and pointing more directly at the stain on her cheek, again proving Apple Bloom right. “That comes out when a colt has an orgasm… s-semen, or whatever it’s called… t-the stuff that makes estrus go away…”
 
Scootaloo reared up suddenly and planted her front hooves on the wall, on either side of the other filly’s head. Apple Bloom’s eyes widened, suddenly afforded a much clearer look at Scootaloo’s lower half, and even standing stock still her hips were shaking, quivering even. The fur on the insides of her thighs was matted down with a familiar-smelling liquid, and there was an intense, damp heat just above Apple Bloom’s back legs. Even if Scootaloo hadn’t just brought it up, there was no mistaking those signs; Apple Bloom knew them all too well.
 
“Holy ponyfeathers, Scootaloo…” she gasped, a wave of sympathy rushing through her to join her arousal. “Ah thought ya didn’t ever feel estrus that bad…”
 
“I told you before, I do too!” Scootaloo shot back. “I just don’t make a big deal out of it… doesn’t mean I don’t hate it as much as every other filly…”
 
Apple Bloom blushed and nodded vehemently. “Ah know, it sucks, Ah had a real bad day of it yesterday too…”
 
Scootaloo moved even closer, until she was almost fully upright, hovering over Apple Bloom’s body with that damp heat poised directly over her waist. “But you’re… you’re a boy now, right?” she murmured, staring down at the telltale dick. “You’ve got… you can…”

Apple Bloom nearly lost it again right then and there. Scootaloo’s hips were moving lower, like she was trying to sit in her lap, and the tip of her freshly-hard-again shaft was mere inches from getting in the way of that, pointing right at Scootaloo’s clearly-drenched fillyhood. The heat she felt was incredible, especially with her sensitive erection so very close to the source. If Scootaloo lowered another couple of inches…
 
“Can… can we? Please?” Scootaloo almost begged. “We’re friends, right? I can’t take this anymore, and you can help, Apple Bloom, you can make it go away, you gotta help me, please…”
 
Scootaloo shifted even closer. They were less than an inch apart now, and Apple Bloom could literally feel droplets of Scootaloo’s aroused juices dripping right onto the tip of her dick. But even that didn’t make her shudder as hard as Scootaloo’s actual words. Not even five minutes after she’d fantasized about nearly this exact scenario all the way to orgasm, here it was happening for real; Scootaloo, one of her best friends in the whole world, pleading for her to put her new dick to use, to put an end to the hormone cocktail that on any other day she would be too proud to admit was crippling her. And she really could do it, too; she could help Scootaloo. Everything seemed to work the way it was supposed to for a boy, as far as she could tell. Scootaloo was miserable, and Apple Bloom had the power to put an end to it.
 
Yes. She could do it.
 
She could have sex with her best friend.
 
“S-Scootaloo…” Apple Bloom gulped heavily, staring at the point where their bodies were about to meet. “A-are ya… are ya sure about this?”
 
“Yes!” Scootaloo insisted, moving lower still, and whimpering outright as Apple Bloom’s dick just barely brushed her outer lips. “Yes I’m sure! Please, Apple Bloom!”
 
“W-well… o-okay… i-if yer sure, then… okay, y-yeaAAAHH!!!”
 
Apple Bloom let out a shocked yelp as she felt a sudden intense heat and wetness engulf the entire length of her member. Scootaloo’s hips had dropped all at once the moment she’d gotten the go-ahead and impaled herself on Apple Bloom’s dick in one swift motion, apparently not wanting to wait even a second longer than absolutely necessary. Her hips landed in Apple Bloom’s lap with a wet smack, and she howled in some primal mix of pain and pleasure, her whole body shaking now.
 
Apple Bloom was barely aware of her though, because her own body was also wracked with truly mind-boggling levels of pleasure. However incredible playing with herself had felt, it was nothing compared to the depths of Scootaloo’s pussy, absolutely nothing. It was warm. It was wet. It was throttling her dick from base to tip, hugging and squeezing the sensitive flesh tighter than a cinched lasso. And it was absolutely wonderful.
 
“Oh wow…” Apple Bloom groaned. “Scootaloo… Ah had no idea… sex felt this good…”
 
Scootaloo whimpered something unintelligible, her front hooves still braced against the wall on either side of Apple Bloom’s head. Her muzzle was turned down and her eyes were closed as she gasped for breath, looking more overwhelmed than even Apple Bloom herself felt.
 
“S-Scootaloo? Y’alright?” she asked, prodding her friend gently in the cheek.
 
Scootaloo lifted her head with a grunt, giving Apple Bloom a slightly shaky smile. “I’m great… I’m really… really great… I feel better already…”
 
“Oh… heh, good…” Apple Bloom returned the smile, trembling herself in awe. “Wow… we’re… we’re actually… doin’ it…”
 
“Sure are…” Scootaloo agreed. “Mnnhh, holy Celestia, you weren’t kidding… it kinda hurt at first, but now… wow… it feels way better than doing it by myself…”
 
Apple Bloom nodded in vehement agreement, her front hooves finding Scootaloo’s hips and taking hold. “S-Scootaloo… should Ah… ya know… start?”

“Oh hay yeah…” Scootaloo answered, nodding frantically. “H-here, lemme help…”
 
Scootaloo moved her front hooves down to brace them on Apple Bloom’s shoulders, and shifted her back legs until she was on her knees, coiled like a spring ready to bounce. And a second later ‘bounce’ was exactly what she did, gripping Apple Bloom’s shoulders tighter and pushing off with her back legs. She slid all the way up Apple Bloom’s shaft, until it was more than three-quarters out of her again and made Apple Bloom shiver a bit at the feeling of cool air against the length of her dick, coated now in Scootaloo’s plentiful juices. And then just as the teenage Pegasus’ legs reached nearly full extension, they fell limp again, driving the entirety of Apple Bloom’s cock back inside her and making both of them cry out in sheer, shocked ecstasy. Her legs coiled again to repeat the motion, and this time Apple Bloom helped her, tightening her grip on Scootaloo’s hips and lifting her up at the same time, and relaxing when Scootaloo did, letting her drop and meet her hips with another juicy slap. Together they repeated the motion several times, finding a comfortable balance and rhythm, and soon they were sharing the exertion about evenly, thrusting against each other at a calm, steady pace that had both ponies gasping for breath after pleasured breath.
 
“Oh my Celestia, yes…” Scootaloo whimpered. “This is freaking amazing, Apple Bloom, holy ponyfeathers…”
 
“Yer tellin’ me…” Apple Bloom groaned back. “And Ah thought just doin’ mahself felt good…”
 
“Yeah, I noticed…” Scootaloo agreed with a breathless snicker, pausing their thrusting for a moment and leaning closer to poke a hoof against her cheek. “Made a real mess of yourself in the process…”
 
Apple Bloom flushed a bit as Scootaloo’s hoof pulled back with a sizeable glob of cum stuck to it, one of many that were still decorating her face. Apple Bloom thought it felt a little weird and slimy, and smelled even weirder, if she was being honest, kind of musky and sweaty. Scootaloo however seemed to be having an entirely different reaction, as though it was just one more thing about Apple Bloom’s new male-ness that was instinctively turning her on. She blushed even deeper than she already was as she brought the little sample of male essence close to her muzzle, taking a curious sniff and then, to Apple Bloom’s immense shock, outright licked her hoof clean.
 
“Eewww, Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom blurted out, flushing. “That… that’s…”
 
“Not that bad, actually,” Scootaloo finished for her, glowing brighter still. “Kinda exciting, really…”
 
Apple Bloom had no idea what to even say to that, her brain was so fried with disbelief, but she wasn’t one to stop Scootaloo from doing something she enjoyed. So when she leaned in even closer than before, Apple Bloom simply sat there and stared in awe as Scootaloo brought her muzzle right up to Apple Bloom’s cheek, stuck out her tongue, and licked all the way up the side of her face, taking every trace of cum she touched with her. Apple Bloom shuddered with arousal as Scootaloo repeated the motion on her other cheek, and then up her chin, and then across the bridge of her nose, and even over her forehead before starting it all over again, covering every spot where Apple Bloom had managed to cum on herself. By the time she finished the second pass Apple Bloom’s face was clean as a whistle, and when Scootaloo at last leaned back again, grinning and blushing like a fool, she tilted her head back and swallowed her mouthful, cum and all, in two loud, obscene gulps.
 
“Heh, see?” Scootaloo insisted. “It’s not bad at all. I’ve tasted way worse…”
 
Apple Bloom wasn’t listening though, because her cock was twitching and throbbing more excitedly than ever after Scootaloo’s display, and there were very few thoughts left in her brain that didn’t relate to the fact that she was very horny, and she really needed to cum again. She took a firm hold on Scootaloo’s hips again, and with much more insistence this time around she resumed their earlier motions, lifting her up entirely by her own strength and slamming her back down onto the stiff, soaked cock between them.
 
“AAHHH!” Scootaloo cried out, loosing track of whatever she had been saying. “O-oh, buck, Apple Bloom…”
 
“Shut up an’ help me finish…” she grunted back.
 
“Y-yeah… you got it…”
 
Scootaloo let her forehead rest against Apple Bloom’s and swiftly resumed her share of the work, legs pushing off as Apple Bloom lifted her by her butt and dropping onto her lap again with a satisfying squish every time she relaxed. Their pace was faster now, less consistent and more frantic, both knowing what was coming just around the corner. Scootaloo was completely drenched by this point, and by proxy so was Apple Bloom, their lower bodies a mess of matted fur and sweat and girl-cum that was only getting messier. And despite that making it slightly easier for Apple Bloom to push her way back into Scootaloo’s pussy at first, her internal walls were squeezing her much harder now, desperate to keep hold of the thrusting totem of male virility ramming its way into her and making it that much more difficult overall to split Scootaloo open. Apple Bloom could feel the head of her cock flaring too as she neared the edge, making Scootaloo’s pussy feel that much tighter right where it mattered most and forcing her to work extra hard for those all-important final thrusts.

“Scootaloo…” Apple Bloom gasped out, opening eyes she hadn’t even realized she’d closed and looking up at her friend. “Ah’m almost there again! Are ya… absolutely sure--”

“Yes!” Scootaloo hissed right back at her. “Yes I’m absolutely sure, don’t stop now Apple Bloom, don’t you dare stop now!”
 
Apple Bloom gave her what few more thrusts she could manage, but she had at last reached her threshold again, the thought of holding back nowhere to be found. Her hooves left Scootaloo’s hips on the final up-thrust, wrapping instead around her midsection just beneath her tiny, outstretched wings, and just as Scootaloo’s legs fully extended and went limp again, Apple Bloom kicked them out from under her and let the Pegasus’ full weight land unchecked on her twitching cock.
 
“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”
 
Apple Bloom didn’t really know or care which of them had screamed. She was as far inside as she could possibly go now, pressing into the absolute depths of Scootaloo’s pulsing, clenching pussy and holding there, and the sensation was more than enough to send both fillies to their mutual orgasms. Scootaloo screamed her name, twitching and bucking and cumming her guts out, and Apple Bloom was doing the same, holding tight around Scootaloo’s waist and bellowing her friend’s name into her neck and shoulder as her cock shuddered and convulsed. A second later there was a splash of warmth on her lap as Scootaloo released a small torrent of filly-cum just about everywhere, and Apple Bloom’s cock responded in kind, spitting volley after volley of fluids right back into her and coating the back of her pussy with every bit of semen she could muster.
 
The effect was nigh-instantaneous. Scootaloo’s shrieks of pleasure skyrocketed in volume as soon as the first blast of cum splattered inside her, as though it were a soothing balm on a nasty burn. Then another puddle joined it, and another, and another, every burst of warm seed that cascaded out of that throbbing, pulsing cock becoming another cry of relief that escaped Scootaloo’s throat, filling her and filling her and filling her until Apple Bloom just had nothing left to give. It was enough though, she was certain, and only became moreso when the two exhausted fillies flopped to the floor and pulled apart, and Apple Bloom saw that Scootaloo was stuffed so full of her load that cum was actually trickling out of her, now that she wasn’t stuffed full of cock too. If that hadn’t been enough to quell a bad case of estrus, nothing would be.
 
“W-well… S-Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom managed to say between gasping breaths, her erection at last relaxing and receding for good. “How… how do ya feel?”
 
“Like a million freaking bits,” Scootaloo answered with a tired grin. “I am never gonna waste my time on tea and ice packs again…”
 
“Really?” Apple Bloom brightened. “So it really worked, then? Yer estrus is gone?”
 
“Out like a light,” Scootaloo confirmed. “I haven’t felt this good since I figured out what a clit was…”
 
Apple Bloom’s eyes widened a bit again. “Wow, that good?”
 
Scootaloo nodded back. “Yeah. That good. You were freaking awesome, Apple Bloom.”
 
“Aww, shucks… Ah was just goin’ on instinct, Ah didn’ know what Ah was doin’,” Apple Bloom answered, blushing modestly.
 
“Hey, you did great,” Scootaloo insisted again, rolling up beside her and hugging her. “Seriously, I… I dunno how I can thank you enough.”
 
Apple Bloom hugged her back tightly. “Ya don’t gotta thank me, Scoot, yer one o’ mah best friends, if there was anything Ah could do ta help ya, ‘specially with estrus, a’course Ah’d do it…”
 
“Still…” Scootaloo murmured, a small blush reappearing on her cheeks. “Thank you. Really. It means a lot to me.”
 
In the blink of an eye Scootaloo’s head swept inward, and planted the smallest of kisses on Apple Bloom’s lips. It lasted only a second, but it created an exciting and electric tingle on her lips nonetheless, warm and wet and full of honest affection that Scootaloo rarely showed outright and left a surprised splash of crimson on Apple Bloom’s cheeks.
 
And then the second passed, and the sentiment was gone with Scootaloo’s lips. “If you ever tell anypony about that, I’m gonna buck you in the balls,” she warned. “Clear?”
 
Apple Bloom reflexively winced and crossed her hind hooves. “Heh-heh… crystal.”
 
“Good,” she said, standing up on wobbly legs and tucking her tail tightly down over her backside. “Anyway, we better go clean up… and then you are gonna explain to me how in freaking Tartarus you’re suddenly a boy.”
 
Apple Bloom heaved a weak sigh. “Like Ah said, it’s a long story…”

> Chapter Four: How Do You Like Me Now?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Four: How Do You Like Me Now?

 
 
Over the next hour, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both took a long, refreshing dip in the same stream Apple Bloom had visited yesterday, and scrubbed themselves clean of the smells and stains of sweat and sex. They didn’t have towels, leaving them resorting to shaking themselves off as vigorously as possible afterward and then drying in the sun, but Apple Bloom had been lucky enough to stash her comb in her saddlebags in her hurry to leave that morning, so that they could at least brush the sweaty tangles from their manes until they looked vaguely presentable. Appearances were the least of their concerns at the moment anyway. They needed to head back into town and toward the schoolhouse again. Once they were cleaned up, Apple Bloom shouldered her saddlebags and Scootaloo retrieved her scooter, and together they began the all-too-short trip back to school, Scootaloo idly pushing her scooter in time with her friend’s slow, reluctant pace.
 
Along the way Apple Bloom told Scootaloo the entire story, from the moment they’d parted ways the previous day until right up to the moment Scootaloo had found her (which, as it turned out, had indeed been just in time to witness Apple Bloom’s self-inflicted facial in its entirety). For once Scootaloo listened quite patiently, although her eyes grew steadily wider as the story went on, until by the time it was nearly finished her eyes seemed to have forgotten how to blink.
 
“…So now Ah’m stuck in this boy body ‘til Discord shows his big dumb face again,” Apple Bloom summarized, “and it might be days before that happens.”
 
“Jeez…” Scootaloo murmured sympathetically. “That’s a heck of a story.”
 
“Tell me about it,” Apple Bloom griped. “What am Ah gonna do, Scoots? There’s no way Ah’ll be able ta keep it a secret, everypony’s gonna know what happened ta me. Ah’ll be a laughingstock at school an’ grounded fer the whole summer at home!”
 
“…I hate to break it to you, Apple Bloom, but everypony at school kinda already does know,” Scootaloo pointed out. “I mean, when you showed up in class like that… it was kinda hard to miss.”
 
Apple Bloom let out a miserable groan. “Oooohhh, yer right, a’course they know, they were all starin’ at me like Ah had the plague…”
 
“Come on, can you blame us?” Scootaloo asked. “I know weird stuff happens around here a lot, but a filly walking into school one day and she’s suddenly a colt? That’s a new one.”
 
“Oohhh, can’t Ah just crawl under mah bed and hide until this goes away? Do Ah really gotta go back ta school?”
 
“Uh, yeah? That’s the whole reason I came after you. Besides, didn’t you say one of the reasons you agreed to this thing with Discord at all was so you could actually do your schoolwork and stuff instead of thinking about wieners all day? You’re not gonna get any work done hiding under your bed.”
 
Apple Bloom huffed and pouted as Scootaloo forced her to eat her own words. “But what am Ah gonna tell everypony? They’re gonna want ta know what happened.”
 
“Plead ignorance!” Scootaloo answered immediately.
 
“…What?”
 
“No, really, I’m serious! If you convince everypony you don’t know anything, they won’t keep bugging you about it!”
 
“Won’t they jus’ talk about it behind mah back instead?”
 
“…Ehh, they’ll probably do that anyway.”
 
“Oh great, thanks, that makes me feel better.” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes a bit. “Ah jus’ dunno, Scoot, Ah don’t feel comfortable lyin’…”
 
“Hey, you asked for ideas, that was the first thing that came to mind.”
 
“Ah know.” Apple Bloom sighed softly, and looked at Scootaloo with a sincere smile. “Ah appreciate it, Ah really do. Bein’ all boy-ified don’t seem as bad with y’all stickin’ by me…”
 
“Of course I am! We’re best friends, we’ve been through way weirder stuff together.” Scootaloo paused. “…Okay, well, maybe this might be the weirdest thing, but still.”
 
“Heh, yeah, Ah jus’ hope Sweetie Belle is that understanding,” Apple Bloom chuckled. “…Didja really ditch class ta come find me?”
 
Scootaloo shrugged. “Well… not exactly. Everypony was pretty floored by the whole thing, but Cheerilee snapped out of it real quick. She sorta tried to get everypony back to the lesson and stuff at first, but it wasn’t really working, and finally I was just like, ‘Are we really gonna just pretend that didn’t happen?’ And, well, Cheerilee agreed with me and gave me permission to go try to find you and bring you back. I guess she was pretty worried after all.”
 
Apple Bloom couldn’t help but smile at that, looking up at the schoolhouse looming ahead of her with a bit less dread. The rest of the class might turn out to be merciless savages, but it was nice to know Cheerilee at least would be on her side. It almost made up for the relentless teasing she was positive Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would soon inflict on her. Almost.
 
“Heh,” Scootaloo suddenly snickered, “I can’t believe you actually fell for Diamond Tiara’s stupid story.”
 
Apple Bloom’s smile rapidly turned into a groan. “Aww, shut up. Ah just thought it couldn’t hurt ta try, Ah didn’t know that was gonna make estrus worse.”
 
“Heh, hey, don’t worry, she probably only knew that was gonna happen ‘cause she did it to herself already.”
 
Apple Bloom cracked a snicker of her own at that. “Heh, yeah, maybe.”
 
“And hey, when you think about it, you falling for her dumb story actually kinda sorta worked out for the best!”
 
“…What.”
 
Scootaloo grinned disarmingly at Apple Bloom’s growl. “Really, think about it! If you hadn’t fallen for it and tried to get yourself off, you never woulda freaked out and gotten Discord’s attention, and he never would have turned you into a boy!”
 
“How the heck is me havin’ a big stupid wiener now supposed ta be ‘for the best?’”
 
“Uh, duh? Because we’re not in heat anymore!”
 
Apple Bloom’s glare softened slightly at that. “…Well, yeah, but--”
 
“No, ‘but’ nothing,” Scootaloo stopped her. “Look, honestly, you’re only gonna be stuck like this for a couple of days tops, and then Discord’ll show back up and everypony’ll make him fix things and you’ll be back to normal, right?”
 
“Yeah…?”
 
“So why not enjoy it ‘til then?” Scootaloo said, throwing her hooves up a bit. “You’re totally free of the absolute crappiest part of being a girl, and because of you, so am I, and we got to have an awesome time doing it! What part of that was even slightly bad?”
 
Apple Bloom had to admit, Scootaloo made some convincing points. No estrus, even just for a few days, was a blessing from the heavens, and she was happy that she’d been able to help her friend out of its hormonal clutches as well. And she couldn’t argue that it had indeed been immensely enjoyable doing so. It still felt weird being a boy, and she would be all too happy to return to normal as soon as she got the chance… but Scootaloo was probably right, just as Fluttershy before her had been. Being a boy for a few days wasn’t gonna be the end of the world or anything. It could even be fun. Like a little vacation from herself, almost.
 
“See?” Scootaloo grinned as she saw Apple Bloom relax and smile a little more. “It’ll be fine. And ya know… I’m probably not the only filly who’s eager to get rid of estrus.”
 
Apple Bloom’s cheeks went as red as her hair and she sputtered an unintelligible response, but that was all she had time to do before they reached the schoolhouse, and Scootaloo walked inside with a smirk just as the end-of-lunch bell rang.
 
On pure reflex she hurried inside at the sound right behind Scootaloo, and the frantic chatter among the other students in the classroom abruptly died. Once again Apple Bloom was met with a sudden and complete silence that Cheerilee probably wished she could command on a regular basis, and once again everypony in the room was staring at her. Apple Bloom was already beginning to regret letting Scootaloo convince her to come back, but it was too late now; running away again would just delay the inevitable. Instead she steeled her resolve, took a deep breath, and crawled into her seat at her desk, trying to ignore every eye in the room trained on her.
 
“…Well. Yes,” Cheerilee spoke up from the front of the class, apparently the first to snap out of the surprise and shock that had filled the room once again. “Welcome back, everypony. Scootaloo, I see you found Apple Bloom, thank you for bringing hi… her… erm…” Cheerilee stopped and cleared her throat awkwardly. “That is, thank you for bringing… Apple Bloom, back to class.”
 
“Oh, uh, yeah… no problem, Miss Cheerilee,” Scootaloo answered with a sheepish smile.
 
“And, Ah… Apple Bloom, welcome back,” she continued, turning her awkward smile on the farm filly.
 
“T-thanks, Miss Cheerilee,” Apple Bloom mumbled, shrinking a bit under all the stares of her classmates. “S-sorry Ah missed the first part of class…”
 
“That’s alright,” Cheerilee swiftly responded. “I’d be happy to send any make-up material you’ll need home with you after class… obviously there were some, ah… extenuating circumstances.”
 
Yeah, that’s one way to put it, Apple Bloom thought privately. “Thanks Miss Cheerilee, Ah’ll catch up as quick as Ah can…” she said aloud.
 
“I’m glad to hear it," Cheerilee said. “Well then, we’ll get back to work in just a moment, but… well, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. You seemed awfully, erm… out of sorts earlier, and… ah, well, you’re…”
 
Cheerilee seemed to have no idea how to broach the subject, and in fact looked oddly nervous about doing so, which was a rarity for her. She hadn’t even been this awkward about sex-ed lessons; there had been a few blush-inducing moments to be sure, but she’d always powered through it. But now, today, it was like she was trying to navigate a verbal minefield. Apple Bloom found it more than a little odd, but she supposed Scootaloo was right; this was definitely a new level of weird, even for Ponyville. Still, the last thing she wanted to do was have a conversation about it in front of the entire class, especially with everypony staring at her.
 
“W-what I mean is,” Cheerilee carried on, “w-we couldn’t help but notice…”
 
“Yeah, Ah know…” Apple Bloom spoke up with a sigh. “Ah’m… Ah’m a boy now. An’ Ah don’t really wanna talk about it, it’s kinda… personal. Can we please jus’ get ta the lesson, Miss Cheerilee?”
 
Apparently Cheerilee had gotten whatever answer she’d been looking for, because her awkward hesitation vanished in a split second, and her usual bright smile returned with surprising force. “Of course! I understand completely, Apple Bloom! Alright then, class, let’s get back to work. I believe we’ve finished with history for today, so let’s get out our math books…”
 
“Excuse me?!” Diamond Tiara abruptly burst out, standing upright and jabbing an accusatory hoof in Apple Bloom’s direction. “Apple Bloom. Is. A. BOY! Are we seriously just going to ignore that?!”
 
“Diamond Tiara, sit down and do not disrupt class again or you’ll be getting detention,” Cheerilee immediately responded in her sternest tone.
 
“But--!”
 
“But nothing. Apple Bloom’s business is his own, and if he doesn’t want to talk about it then he doesn’t have to. Now I’m not going to tell you again. Sit. Down.”
 
Diamond Tiara’s mouth was halfway open to continue protesting anyway, but she never quite got that far. The eyes of the class had finally left Apple Bloom for the moment, much to her relief, and instead were now all focused on Diamond Tiara in the midst of her outburst. The collection of stares seemed to take the wind out of the pink filly’s sails with frightening efficiency, and after just a few awkward seconds she mumbled an insincere apology and dropped back into her seat.
 
“Thank you,” Cheerilee said. “Now. Everypony. Math books.”
 
Apple Bloom had no desire to further Cheerilee’s sudden ire, and hastened to obey, grabbing her math textbook from her saddlebags and laying it out in front of her on her desk. When she looked back to the front of the room though, Cheerilee had relaxed, and gave Apple Bloom a silent, warm smile, which she gratefully returned. In the midst of all the trouble she was sure to face because of her awkward transformation problem, it was nice to know that Cheerilee was indeed on her side as well along with Scootaloo.
 
Although it did seem a bit weird that she’d referred to Apple Bloom as a ‘he’ just then. It wasn’t exactly wrong, all things considered, she was a boy now. Physically, at least. But it still felt odd. She still thought of herself as a filly, and she would be again shortly anyway. Not that it bothered her, exactly, Cheerilee obviously meant well, but all the same, maybe it was for the best if she spoke to Cheerilee after class and let her know that being a boy was not going to be a permanent thing. Everypony was going to know eventually anyway…
 
Unfortunately the end of class was still a couple of hours off, and those hours were looking to be some of the longest in Apple Bloom’s whole school career. The warmth offered her by Cheerilee’s support eventually evaporated as Diamond Tiara’s disruption faded from memory, and the eyes of the class moved back to Apple Bloom and her surprising change of form. She could ward them off briefly, as they always looked swiftly away when Apple Bloom caught their eyes, but they always returned when Apple Bloom shifted her gaze elsewhere, and soft whispers floated through the air, near the back of the class where Cheerilee couldn’t quite hear them, every hushed sentence clearly wondering and theorizing about the awkward elephant in the room sitting at the center of class.
 
Apple Bloom did her best to ignore it all and focus on the algebraic equations Cheerilee was writing on the chalkboard and lecturing them about, but the longer it went on, the more animated and obvious the murmuring became. Diamond Tiara’s whispers were growing so loud that they were more of a constant, angry hissing sound as though she were a snake, lashing her tongue at Silver Spoon, who was whispering heatedly right back at her and still red as a tomato. Rumble kept craning his neck from two seats over, trying to get a better look at Apple Bloom around Scootaloo, which for some reason seemed to annoy the other Pegasus enough for her to smack him back into his seat with the back of her hoof the third time he leaned too close. Spike looked abnormally tense in a way that had nothing to do with his first day of public school, casting worried glances at Apple Bloom every few seconds and at one point clutching his pencil so tightly he managed to snap it in half and had to fish out a new one.
 
Even Sweetie Belle, who she had been counting on for additional help and moral support, seemed to be reacting strangely to Apple Bloom’s new presence. Her cheeks were as flushed as Silver Spoon’s, she constantly fidgeted in her seat, and she seemed incapable of meeting her friend’s gaze for even just a fraction of a second. She was downright chugging her thermos of Moon Tea now, too, and a look of pure panic crossed her face as she went for yet another drink just minutes later and found no more than half a swallow before the thermos was completely empty. Apple Bloom felt a wave of pity and sympathy swell up for her friend; she knew all too well that Sweetie Belle hated showing obvious signs of estrus in public, and Apple Bloom was certain that sitting so close to her in her new body was wreaking havoc on her careful layers of suppression, just as it had done to Scootaloo. Maybe it was unfair of her to expect Sweetie Belle’s immediate and unquestioning support when her mere presence was having such an obviously troublesome effect on her hormones. She wished there was some way to help--
 
Wait.
 
I’m probably not the only filly who’s eager to get rid of estrus.
 
Oh. Oh horseapples.
 
Apple Bloom went as crimson as Sweetie Belle, losing all semblance of focus on the math lecture she was supposed to be listening to. Instead her mind was filling with thoughts and images of exactly how she could ‘help’ with Sweetie Belle’s embarrassing levels of estrus. Images of taking her back to the clubhouse where it was just the two of them, of calming her panic and assuring her there would be no more need for her trusty thermos, of laying her down and showing her the wonderful and sexy new solution they had discovered, of listening to her adorable moans and kissing her cute lips and rubbing her stiff, sensitive nipples and filling her warm, soft little--
 
Apple Bloom bit her lip as hard as she could stand to stop that chain of thought, but the damage was already done. Her male brain flooded with vivid fantasies of having sex with Sweetie Belle, and the matching male parts were rapidly responding. She swiftly clenched her hind legs shut to try to stem the tide, but the eager extremity was not deterred, unsheathing itself at frightening speed no matter how she tried to ward it back.
 
“Aww, c’mon, penis, not now…” Apple Bloom let out a tiny, miserable moan, trying to at least tuck the thing down and out of sight. “Haven’t ya had enough already today?”
 
Evidently it hadn’t. Despite two back-to-back rounds with her own hooves and then Scootaloo, it was up and ready for a Round Three, and hiding it away was proving more difficult than she ever could have imagined. She couldn’t let it lay in her lap, in plain sight, but tucking it down beneath her hind legs only left it hanging free over the floor, also in plain sight. The best she could do was just sort of… squish it awkwardly between her thighs, where she could feel it pulsing with every tense beat of her heart. How the hay did colts deal with this on a daily basis? It was no female heat cycle, of course, but at least as a girl she could just make a conscious choice to tuck her tail between her legs if she started feeling aroused, instead of letting it flag aside and flash a moist pussy to the world. Popping a huge, obvious boner was way worse, especially in the middle of class where just about anypony could see it, and she really didn’t know if she’d be able to keep the stubborn stiffy under control until--
 
BRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!
 
Oh thank Celestia, she sighed in relief. Class was over, finally.
 
“Alright, that’s the bell, everypony,” Cheerilee announced. “For your math homework I want each of you to solve problems one through twenty at the end of the chapter, and don’t forget to show your work. Have a good day, class… and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, would you two please stay behind for just a moment while I get your makeup history assignments together?”
 
Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo curiously for a moment before it dawned on her. “Oh yeah, Ah guess you did miss class too.”
 
“Yeah,” Scootaloo said, heaving a sigh. “Well, maybe Sweetie Belle can help us…”
 
Apple Bloom wasn’t too sure about that, though. As she slipped out of her seat to approach the front desk, she noticed that Sweetie Belle’s desk was already empty and Sweetie Belle herself was darting out the front door. Even Spike was leaving in a hurry, right on Sweetie Belle’s tail, neither of them seeming eager to stay and comfort the poor transfigured filly. It was surprisingly depressing, even with Scootaloo’s very enthusiastic support still fresh in her memory.
 
Although on the plus side, it was killing her boner at least.
 
A minute later the classroom was empty except for Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Cheerilee, who was swiftly scribbling something.

“I’ve written a note to each of your families,” Cheerilee explained once she spat out the pen. “You’re excused from the homework assignment, but the material will be on the final test, so I’ve asked your families to help you read and study the chapter you missed today. Alright?”

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee,” the pair chanted together.
 
“Alright then, here you go,” she said, passing each of them a copy of the note. “And Apple Bloom, I just want to make sure privately that everything is alright with you, what with your… ah… change, today--”
 
“Yeah, uh, Ah’m fine, Miss Cheerilee,” Apple Bloom insisted. “Ah actually didn’t mean fer ya ta call me a boy fer real, this ain’t permanent. S’just a dumb prank Discord pulled on me an’ then hightailed it ta Canterlot. Ah’m stuck like this ‘til he shows his face again.”
 
“Oh! Oh dear, that’s terrible,” Cheerilee cooed sympathetically. “That brute, picking on children, he ought to know better by now.”
 
“It was kinda mah own fault,” Apple Bloom admitted. “Ah just wanted ta let ya know, Ah’ll be back ta normal soon as Fluttershy gets a hold of ‘im, an’ Ah’m sorry fer disruptin’ class…”
 
“It’s alright, Apple Bloom. Discord is impressively talented at disrupting things,” she added with a sigh and an eye-roll. “I hope you get fixed up soon. You two can go. Have a good afternoon.”
 
Apple Bloom nodded and returned to her desk just long enough to pack up her school things before stepping outside with Scootaloo, fully expecting to find the grounds deserted. To her surprise, however, both Spike and Sweetie Belle had stopped to wait for them just outside, concern filling their expressions, as well as a blush in Sweetie Belle’s case.
 
“Sweetie? Spike?” Apple Bloom scratched her head for a moment, but smiled regardless. “Wow, thank Celestia yer still here. Ah thought you two took off like bats outta Tartarus.”
 
“Not a chance,” Spike insisted. “We weren’t gonna leave without making sure you’re okay.”
 
“Y-yeah,” Sweetie Belle agreed, though there was a noticeable tremor in her voice. “I-I just… needed some air first…”
 
“Jeez, Sweetie, you were friggin’ chugging that Moon Tea back there,” Scootaloo said. “Apple Bloom getting to you that bad?”

Sweetie Belle was squirming instantly, her whole face a brilliant pink. “I-I…”

“Scootaloo, knock it off, ya know she hates showin’ estrus in public!” Apple Bloom scolded, approaching Sweetie Belle and giving her a gentle, comforting hug. “Ah’m real sorry about all this, Sweetie Belle, Ah know sittin’ next ta me all afternoon musta been real hard, with me bein’ like this all of a sudden.”
 
Unfortunately the physical affection seemed to make the poor unicorn filly tremble even more violently than before. She seemed willing to tough it out, though, and returned the hug with quaking hooves. “I-it’s okay, Apple Bloom,” she stammered. “It’s not your fault. Um… o-or… is it? I-I actually don’t know, w-what even happened to you?”

“Yeah, I’d kinda like to know that too,” Spike agreed.
 
Apple Bloom heaved a sigh and released Sweetie Belle, turning back toward her other friends. “Ah made a big dumb mistake.”

“Best mistake ever, if you ask me,” Scootaloo snickered to herself.
 
“What mistake was that?” Spike pressed.
 
“Trustin’ Discord,” Apple Bloom explained. “Ah asked if we could get more boys ta come join the class, y’know, cuz all the gals want boyfriends lately with heat season going ‘round, an’ his idea fer how ta do it was makin’ me a colt.”
 
Spike groaned, smacking a hand over his face. “Of course… any time something completely ridiculous happens around here, it’s either ‘cause of him or Pinkie Pie. Sometimes both.”
 
“Ugh, Pinkie Pie and Discord working together, there’s a scary team,” Scootaloo mused.
 
“No kidding,” Sweetie Belle agreed. “I don’t even wanna know what kind of pranks they could come up with together.”
 
“Can you change back?” Spike asked. “Seeing you as a guy is kinda weirding me out a little.”
 
“Not fer a while,” Apple Bloom said with another sigh. “Discord ran off soon as he did it. Fluttershy said she’d tug his ear on it, but she don’t expect ‘im ta turn up fer a couple o’ days…”
 
Sweetie Belle squirmed again. “That’s a long time to be stuck like that…”
 
“Hey, I know, maybe Twilight can help!” Spike suggested brightly. “She can do anything!”

Apple Bloom frowned. “Ah dunno, Spike, last Ah saw, Twilight couldn’t turn a girl into a boy an’ back fer real. She had ta paint Big Mac orange an’ fake it back when she had that magic duel with Trixie.”
 
“She’s gotten a lot better since then, though, especially since she’s all princess-y now,” Spike insisted. “Maybe she’s figured it out for real! It’s worth a shot, right?”
 
“Mmhh… Ah guess so,” Apple Bloom admitted. “Not like Ah’m gonna be able ta hide this anyhow. After that scene Ah made in class, the whole town’ll know by supper an’ Ah’ll prolly be grounded.”

“Well, maybe Twilight will know a spell to fix you, and do it without telling Applejack!”

“That’d be a downright miracle,” Apple Bloom muttered. “But yer right, Ah guess it’s worth a try, at least.”
 
Spike grinned his best grin. “That’s the spirit! Don’t worry Apple Bloom, we’ll get you fixed up in no time!”

“Ah hope so,” Apple Bloom agreed, pulling Spike into an affectionate hug. “Thank ya, Spike, fer bein’ so helpful.”

“Ah-heh…” Spike chuckled awkwardly, coughing and squirming out of the hug as quickly as he could. “Uh, it’s n-nothing, really… so uh, I’ll go to Twilight right now. Just sit tight in the clubhouse for a while!”
 
And without another word, Spike whirled on the spot and raced off toward home, leaving a slightly confused Apple Bloom behind him.
 
“That was weird,” Sweetie Belle observed.

“I think he likes you better as a girl,” Scootaloo said, snickering.

Apple Bloom flushed in an instant. “He’s not mah boyfriend!”

“I didn’t say he was.”

“…Shut up.”
 
Scootaloo snickered again. “Anyway, we’d better go hide in the clubhouse just in case Spike pulls through. C’mon, Sweetie.”
 
Sweetie Belle jolted in place. “M-Me? Um… a-actually, I was going to go home and get some more Moon Tea…”
 
“Is that really more important than being here for a good friend?” Scootaloo argued.
 
“W-well… no, of course not, but… I’d still feel better if I had some…”
 
“Well don’t worry about it, we’ve got some at the clubhouse anyway.”
 
“We do?” Apple Bloom said, and swiftly received a kick in the shin from Scootaloo for her trouble. “Oww!”
 
Sweetie Belle, however, was apparently too distracted by her own nerves to notice. “W-well,” she stammered again and shuffled her hooves, “I guess that would be okay, then.”

“Great, let’s go!” Scootaloo announced, leading the way for the trio on her scooter at a brisk pace.
 
“Hey, wait up!” Apple Bloom called, limping on her kicked leg for the first few steps before finding her stride and chasing the four-wheeled contraption, with Sweetie Belle distantly bringing up the rear. Apple Bloom almost thought that she would eventually peel off from them and sprint home instead, but so far Sweetie Belle was still keeping pace with them. Apple Bloom had to admire the dedication; despite her obvious estrus-induced discomfort, she was still sticking by her much more unnaturally-affected friend. It left a warm, happy bubble in Apple Bloom’s heart to see, such a far cry from that initial fear that she’d run away without a word. She wondered how she could repay the kindness, and for a moment she thought once again about Scootaloo’s bold suggestion, of offering Sweetie Belle the same service Scootaloo had enjoyed, of curing her of the ailment she so hated showing to anypony--
 
Gah, no, stop it, Apple Bloom scolded herself. She wasn’t supposed to fantasize about her friends that way, no matter what had happened with Scootaloo earlier. Besides, she’d only just gotten her erection to go away a few minutes ago, she didn’t need it popping out all over again. It would probably make Sweetie Belle faint on the spot.
 
She didn’t allow herself to wonder what else Sweetie Belle might do with it instead.
> Chapter Five: How Sweet It Is
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Five: How Sweet It Is

 
 
A quick sneak through the apple fields later, the trio arrived at their clubhouse and took refuge inside. There was no sign of the rest of the Apple family just yet, and if Apple Bloom was lucky, it would stay that way until Spike showed up with Twilight to fix her. She still wasn’t betting on it, but it was hope, at least.
 
“S-so where’s your Moon Tea?” Sweetie Belle asked the moment the door closed behind her.
 
“Eh?” Scootaloo said as she flopped lazily onto a cushion. “Moon Tea?”
 
“Yes, Moon Tea!” Sweetie Belle insisted. “You said you had some!”
 
“…Oh, right. Uh, the Moon Tea. It’s, uh… er… say, Apple Bloom where did we put--”
 
“Oh no, don’t drag me inta this,” Apple Bloom scolded.
 
“…Er…”
 
Sweetie Belle’s face drooped into an annoyed pout. “You don’t have any, do you?”
 
Scootaloo let out a nervous chuckle and climbed back up to her hooves. “…Okay, no, I don’t, I made that up. But you don’t need it, we’ve got something way better!”
 
“…You do?”
 
Apple Bloom groaned. “Scootaloo…”
 
“Come on, Apple Bloom, we both know I’m right,” Scootaloo said.
 
“Right about what? What’s better than Moon Tea?” Sweetie Belle asked.
 
“She’s standing right in front of you! Or should I say, ‘he?’”
 
Sweetie Belle’s confused gaze turned to the new Apple Bloom for a moment, who could only offer an awkward, apologetic smile, and then she suddenly got it. Her eyes bulged impossibly wide, her cheeks turned pink, and she stumbled backward several paces until she lost her balance and fell on her butt. “What?! Eww, are you crazy?!” she exclaimed.
 
“Crazy like a fox,” Scootaloo said. “Just hear us out for a minute--”
 
“Ah said don’t drag me inta this!” Apple Bloom interrupted.
 
“Come on, Apple Bloom, don’t you wanna help her out?” Scootaloo said. “You’ve seen her lately, she can’t even function half the time!”
 
Apple Bloom shook her head. “Look, Scootaloo, it’s great that ya wanna help, but ya can’t drag her here under a lie an’ expect her ta just go along with… that.”
 
“But it works! We know it works! And it was way more fun than the alternatives!”
 
“An’ that’s great, Scootaloo, Ah’m happy it worked fer you, an’ yeah, it was plenty o’ fun, but--”
 
“Wait, what do you mean, ‘it worked for you?’” Sweetie Belle interrupted, her eyes growing wider still. “Did you two… did you already…?!”
 
“Hay yeah we did,” Scootaloo said proudly, “and it was awesome!”
 
Sweetie Belle gawked at them in shock, bordering on horror. “But… but… I didn’t even know you liked each other that way!”
 
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both looked at each other and paled. “W-what?!” Apple Bloom stammered first. “No, no no no, it ain’t like that!”
 
“Yeah, we’re not dating or anything, it was just one friend helping out another friend! Just to get rid of estrus, that’s all! Besides, Apple Bloom likes Spike, remember?”
 
“Yeah, Ah like--… wait, no I don’t!”
 
“Oh you do so, quit denying it.”
 
Apple Bloom’s cheeks filled with red. “Ah do not like Spike!”
 
“Sure you don’t. I bet you wish he coulda cured your estrus.”
 
Apple Bloom snorted at her, opening her mouth again to argue back, but another voice interjected before she could.
 
“Wait a minute, is that what you two were doing all morning while everypony was worried sick about you?!” Sweetie Belle said. “You were… you were mating?!”
 
Apple Bloom squirmed uncomfortably for a moment, the argument about Spike immediately forgotten. “Er… w-well, uh… n-not exactly. Ah mean, not the whole time…”
 
Scootaloo however just shrugged it off. “What’s the big deal? She was fine. And thanks to her, so am I. Check it out, Sweetie, no estrus!” Scootaloo did a little twirling dance in front of Sweetie Belle that involved wagging her rear uncomfortably close to the other filly’s muzzle. “See? Can’t smell a thing!”
 
Sweetie Belle went beet-red in a hurry. “Ewww, gross, I don’t wanna smell your butt!” she protested, shoving Scootaloo’s rump away. “What is wrong with you two?! Don’t you know how dangerous mating can be?! There’s… there’s diseases and stuff!”
 
“Yeah, only if you do it with somepony who already has one,” Scootaloo reminded her. “And neither of us ever did it before, so that’s basically impossible. Seriously, how am I remembering a lesson in school better than you?”
 
“Maybe ‘cause sex-ed was about the only lesson ya actually paid attention to this year?” Apple Bloom muttered.
 
“W-well… well…” Sweetie Belle stammered onward, “what about… what about getting pregnant, huh?! That’s the whole reason we have this season in the first place, it’s when we can make foals! If you mate during estrus you can get pregnant!”
 
Scootaloo scoffed at her. “Only if you’re an idiot who skips on the Moon Tea.”
 
“I’ve never seen you drink any!”
 
“Well I do, okay? My parents make sure I have a whole friggin’ mug of that nasty dirt tea every night before bed.”
 
Apple Bloom actually raised an eyebrow at that. “They make you? Why?”
 
Scootaloo immediately started fighting an embarrassed blush of her own. “I had wet dreams a couple of times, so what? It happens to a lot of ponies!”
 
Apple Bloom swiftly found her head filled with thoughts of Scootaloo soaking bed-sheets with orgasmic squirts, and immediately she felt her boner returning, forcing her to sit on it until she could will it away again. Sweet Celestia, how the hay did a normal colt control this stupid thing when it perked up at every halfway-naughty thought?
 
“Anyway,” Scootaloo went on, turning her attention back to Sweetie Belle, “the point is, I have a cup every day, so I’m fine on the ‘not getting pregnant’ front. Which means you’ll be fine for sure! You chug so much of the stuff I’d be surprised if you weren’t sterile by now.”
 
“Am not! Moon Tea doesn’t do that!” Sweetie Belle shot back.
 
“Ugh, I know that, I’m just… argh, stop being so difficult! Sweetie, I’m trying to help you here!”
 
“How is this helping?!”
 
“Um, duh, so you can get rid of your stupid estrus?”
 
“Hey, hey, c’mon girls,” Apple Bloom interrupted, “this ain’t somethin’ worth fightin’ over--”
 
“Would you stop bugging me about my estrus for once?!” Sweetie Belle shouted over her and stamped her hoof on the floorboards, loudly cutting off Apple Bloom’s attempt at intervention like she wasn’t even there. “You’ve been teasing me about it ever since heat season started and I’m getting tired of it!”
 
Scootaloo’s fur bristled and her wings flared up. “I’m not teasing you!”
 
“Are too!”
 
“I told you, I’m trying to help you! I know you hate dealing with it--”
 
“If you know I hate it so much, you should know to stop bugging me about it!”
 
“Girls!” Apple Bloom stepped between the other two. “Ah’m serious, knock it off!”
 
“I’m just trying to help her!”
 
“I don’t want your kind of help!”
 
“Well fine, then, forget it!” Scootaloo said, turning away from them both and marching for the clubhouse door. “Excuse me for trying to do you a favor! Have fun sucking down dirt water all summer!”
 
“Scootaloo, wait--!”

“Maybe I will!” Sweetie Belle shouted so loudly her voice cracked.
 
“Good!”
 
“Good!”
 
“GOOD!”
 
“GOOD!”
 
“Owww, mah ears…”
 
A second later Scootaloo was gone, the door slamming behind her, followed by the sound of her scooter rolling away at top speed. Now Apple Bloom was alone in the suddenly-silent clubhouse, with a dull ringing in her ears and a seething, red-faced friend to comfort.
 
Or she had been seething anyway. Within seconds of Scootaloo storming off, the fight seemed to leave Sweetie Belle entirely, her face drooping as it filled with shame and guilt, and her body flopping onto a cushion and curling up into an embarrassed little ball.
 
Apple Bloom heaved a sigh and trotted over to join her once her ears stopped ringing. “Ah’m real sorry about all this,” she began. “She really does mean well, Ah know she does, she just… er… she don’t always think things all the way through. Celestia knows Ah’ve done that lately,” she added, throwing a glare down at her strange new body.
 
“It’s okay.” Sweetie Belle’s voice was suddenly tiny. “It’s not your fault. I just wish she’d stop being on my case about the stupid mating season. Is it really too much to ask to not want to turn into a squirmy red-faced mess around anypony with a… a p-penis?”
 
“A’course it’s not too much ta ask,” Apple Bloom swiftly agreed. “Y’all remember what Miss Cheerilee said in those lessons, everypony goes through it a little different. If ya don’t like bein’ public about it, then that’s okay.”
 
“Then why is Scootaloo such a big jerk about it?”
 
Apple Bloom sighed again. “Aw, you know how she is. She probably sees her heat cycle like some kinda challenge ta be beat. Charges at it head on, ya know?”
 
“Yeah, that and she has no shame…”
 
Apple Bloom snickered softly. “Yeah, maybe a bit o’ that, too. But still, Ah know she don’t say the stuff she says ta be mean. She just… wants ya to not let the heat totally control yer life when it’s around, that’s all.”
 
“It’s not!” Sweetie Belle insisted. “I’ve had it completely under control!”
 
“Ah’m not arguin’ with ya!” Apple Bloom said. “Like Ah told ya, everypony deals with it their own way. Scoots just… thought maybe ya might like a way to be rid of it altogether. She really was jus’ tryin’ ta help.”
 
“Well she could’ve been a little nicer about it,” Sweetie Belle muttered.
 
“Well… yeah. She probably got a ways ahead of herself, on account of bein’ so excited ‘bout the idea that she could get rid of estrus. But nopony’s gonna push ya into anything ya don’t wanna do, Ah promise.”
 
Sweetie Belle smiled at that, finally. “Thank you, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom waved it off with a hoof. “S’what friends are for.”
 
“Yeah… what friends are for…”
 
There was a long silence as Sweetie Belle pondered that. Then with a deep breath, she glanced up to catch Apple Bloom’s eye. “Was it… was it really that good?”
 
Apple Bloom blushed and coughed, memories of earlier that morning flooding back to the front of her thoughts yet again and forcing her to push them away before another erection could take hold. “Er… well…”
 
“I mean, it… it really did make the heat go away? For both of you?”
 
Apple Bloom let out a breath of relief and pounced on the significantly simpler question. “Well, fer me, the heat was gone as soon as Ah woke up as a boy this mornin’, which was about the only bit o’ good news Ah got fer a while there. Not that bein’ a boy in heat season don’t have its own problems, but… er, that’s a whole other story. But uh, yeah, fer Scootaloo it definitely, erm… definitely worked. She said all those estrus feelings were totally gone after we, erm… ya know, did it.”
 
“Really? Totally gone?” Sweetie Belle echoed. “And it… it wasn’t weird or anything?”
 
“Oh, it was weird alright,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah didn’t exactly plan on turnin’ into a boy and matin’ that way at some point in mah life, let alone with Scootaloo. But uh, other than that, no, Ah guess it wasn’t too weird.”
 
“Just… one friend helping out another friend?”
 
Uh-oh.
 
Apple Bloom gulped. Suddenly she had a feeling somewhere in her loins that she knew where this line of questioning was headed. “Erm…”
 
“…Apple Bloom?”
 
Sweetie Belle was sitting up now, red-faced and shaking a little. “Maybe Scootaloo’s right. I-it’s only been a couple of hours since I had some Moon Tea, and l-look at me. Just sitting next to you is making me all shaky. Being close to any boy does this to me…”
 
Apple Bloom swallowed hard again. “S-Sweetie Belle…”
 
“We’re best friends, Apple Bloom, I-I don’t want to have to avoid you until… until you get fixed, or the season’s over, or whenever. But if I don’t, then I’m gonna be like this. All the time. I don’t think I can handle that…”
 
Sweetie Belle looked up and met her eyes, both fillies sporting bright pink cheeks, and now there was little uncertainty in Apple Bloom’s mind. Scootaloo’s idea had taken root.
 
“Can… can you please… help me?” Sweetie Belle murmured, laying a pleading hoof on her friend’s shoulder and erasing all doubt. “Will you make my estrus go away?”
 
Apple Bloom felt yet another hot, heavy swoop of lustful desire rock her back half, as powerful as any moment of heat season. Mere hours after one of her best friends had plead to her for relief, the other was doing the same. There was more uncertainty, more nervousness, more hesitation in Sweetie Belle’s words and actions compared to Scootaloo’s bold aggression, but there was no less determination. She wanted-- hay, needed this just as badly as Scootaloo had, maybe even more. There was no way Apple Bloom could deny one friend and not the other. Sweetie Belle deserved the relief too. And it wasn’t like her body had any objection; her male bits were out and ready at full mast, the fight against it lost the moment Apple Bloom had realized that Sweetie Belle was going to ask for this.
 
Still, her head, not her dick, was in control here, and if she was really going to help Sweetie Belle, that was probably the way it needed to stay.
 
“Sweetie, are… are ya sure about this?” Apple Bloom asked. “Ah don’t want that stuff Scootaloo said ta make ya do somethin’ yer gonna regret later.”
 
“I’m sure. I’m a little scared, but… you’re my friend, and I trust you.” Sweetie Belle paused as a grimace crossed her face. “Besides, Scootaloo was right about something else, too… Moon Tea’s disgusting.”
 
Apple Bloom couldn’t help a snort of laughter. “Heh, Ah hear ya there.”
 
“Yeah… hehe… thank you for asking though.” Sweetie Belle chuckled quietly and gave her a smile that quickly turned nervous. “Can we just… take it really slow?”
 
“Yeah, a’course we can, as slow as ya need,” Apple Bloom agreed. “So, uh…where do ya wanna start?”
 
Sweetie Belle thought about that for a long moment, her tail starting to twitch and sway excitedly back and forth. “Well… can I… see it?”
 
“See what-- o-oh,” Apple Bloom stammered, figuring it out before the question was even out of her mouth. “Well… yeah, sure, alright…”
 
There was no point hiding it or being embarrassed about it now, Apple Bloom reasoned, not when they’d already agreed to… this. It certainly couldn’t be as embarrassing as how Scootaloo had first seen it, at least, in the midst of ejaculating all over herself. So, with a steadying breath, Apple Bloom flopped back on a small pile of cushions so she could give her friend a proper look. As Sweetie Belle watched in awe, the entire package between her legs became visible, the firm, pink and yellow shaft slapping once against her belly before sticking fully up into the air, proudly displaying itself, while her testes hung just underneath, thick and ready with everything she’d need to help fix Sweetie Belle’s estrus dilemma.
 
“Oh my gosh…” Sweetie Belle marveled, not even blinking as she stared at it.

“Eh-heh…” Apple Bloom chuckled embarrassedly. “N-never, uh….n-never seen one before?”
 
“Not erect…” she said. Her jaw was actually hanging slack as she gawked at the thing, and might even have drooled a little before she caught herself and snapped her mouth closed. “W-why are you already… um… erect, anyway?”
 
“Ah can’t help it, this thing’s a lot harder ta control than Ah thought it’d be,” Apple Bloom said. “Every sexy thought Ah get makes it wanna pop up, an’ Ah gotta force it not to. And even then it don’t always work… soon as Ah knew y’all were serious about this, Ah couldn’t stop it from gettin’ hard as a rock.”
 
“Really? You… you really think I’m that attractive?” Sweetie Belle asked, her eyes wide with mild shock.
 
“Well… yeah, Ah guess so,” Apple Bloom admitted. “Ah mean, the boy part o’ me sure does, anyway. Obviously…”
 
Sweetie Belle hesitated. “You don’t… like like me, though, right?”
 
“N-no, no, a’course not,” Apple Bloom assured her. “Like we said, this is just, ya know, one friend helpin’ out another, right?”
 
“Right… whew, good,” Sweetie Belle said, relieved. “I mean, you’re a great friend, Apple Bloom, but--”
 
“Ah know, ya like like somepony else.”
 
“Yeah…”
 
Sweetie Belle went crimson again, and an awkward moment of silence passed between the fillies before Sweetie Belle pushed through it and crawled just a little bit closer. “So… could I, um… touch it?”
 
Apple Bloom gulped, feeling her dick twitch, and tried her best not to let on any more than that how amazing that idea sounded. “Sure… go right ahead.”
 
“Thanks… I’ll be gentle.”
 
“Yeah, please do. ‘Specially with the, uh… the sack.”
 
“Oh… you mean this?” Sweetie Belle asked, her hoof laying in Apple Bloom’s lap directly atop the organ in question. “Where your… t-testicles are?”

Apple Bloom squirmed the instant the hoof landed. “Ah! Y-yeah, those. They’re crazy sensitive.”
 
“Okay, I’ll be extra careful,” Sweetie Belle said, and proceeded to feel up her friend’s new genitals as gently as possible.
 
To Apple Bloom’s surprise and satisfaction, light strokes around her testes actually felt pretty good. They were still as sensitive as a clitoris, but also like a clit, touching them was more than welcome if it was gentle enough. Fortunately Sweetie Belle seemed satisfied with just exploring with her hoof for now, and so Apple Bloom enjoyed it while it lasted, heaving a content sigh as the dainty hoof played with each of her jewels one by one, and then together.

“You’re making a lot of funny noises,” Sweetie Belle observed. “Does this really feel good?”
 
“Sure does,” Apple Bloom said. “Long as yer gentle, it feels real nice. Like… a back rub, but sexier.”
 
“Oh… hehe… um, you’re welcome?” Sweetie Belle smiled modestly, her hoof lifting the testes a bit higher as she dipped her head low and peeked beneath them. “Gosh, you really weren’t kidding, your filly parts are totally gone. That must feel pretty weird.”
 
“A little,” Apple Bloom admitted. “But ta be honest, when this thing is gettin’ attention, it feels nice all the same.”
 
“Yeah, I guess it would,” Sweetie Belle agreed.
 
Her hoof left Apple Bloom’s balls now, moving on in her exploration and traveling up the shaft proper. Gradually she circled the pale yellow base, and then rose further, bumping over the medial ring on her way up toward the flesh-pink tip. The journey was both amazing and agonizing for Apple Bloom, pleasing her and turning her on something fierce, but at the same time making her long for more, for not just a hoof exploring her penis one spot at a time, but rather something more all-encompassing, something warm and wet and snug…
 
“Unnhh…” Apple Bloom let out an involuntary groan as Sweetie Belle’s hot, heavy breaths washed over the sensitive flesh, adding an extra dose of pleasure to the one her hoof was already creating. “Sweetie, that feels real nice…”
 
“Yeah, I-I could tell. It’s, um… starting to leak…”
 
Apple Bloom glanced down at herself, seeing that Sweetie Belle was quite right. Beads of pre-cum dribbled down the tip of her dick and along the rest of the shaft until they landed either on Apple Bloom’s pelvis or Sweetie Belle’s exploring hoof, leaving slick trails wherever they fell. Sweetie Belle seemed fascinated by this, much like Scootaloo had; the scent of male arousal surely had some sort of instinctual trigger to it, sending signals straight to the burning nethers of any filly in estrus, and Sweetie Belle was no exception. She was panting for breath now, drooling again and not even trying to hide it this time, and now another hot, wet scent hit Apple Bloom’s nostrils, informing her that Apple Bloom wasn’t the only one whose junk was lubricating itself.
 
“S-so, um…” Apple Bloom stammered in a husky voice. “Ah think… Ah think that means we’re ready ta get started.”
 
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Sweetie Belle said, shaking out of her slight daze. “How should we, um… do it? Are you supposed to… mount me, like the diagrams in class?”
 
Apple Bloom pondered that briefly as she recalled the textbook diagrams from their sex-ed class, and then shook her head. “Naw, me an’ Scootaloo didn’t do it like that. Ah don’t think it really matters, long as everypony likes it.”
 
“Oh… okay. Well… how do you want to do it?”
 
Apple Bloom paused for another moment of thought. “Well, climbin’ up on yer back sounds kinda painful fer whoever’s on the bottom… how about ya lay down here on the cushions like Ah am? An’ then, um… put yer legs out to the sides, an’ Ah’ll get between ‘em on top of ya?”
 
“Okay,” Sweetie Belle said, “if you think that’s best…”
 
Apple Bloom rolled off the floor and up onto her hooves, blushing only a little at the still-alien feeling of a dick slapping around between her thighs, and watched as Sweetie Belle adjusted the cushions and then took her place lying down on them. She took her time settling, making sure she was comfortable and that her tail was tucked neatly aside, and then slowly, hesitantly, she let her hind legs relax, and spread out and apart from each other.
 
Apple Bloom actually felt her jaw drop. She wasn’t exactly a stranger to a mare’s intimate parts, being quite familiar with her own over the years, and having seen under a hoof-full of other girls’ tails at a glance, including Sweetie Belle herself, but she’d never really looked at them before. Not even with Scootaloo that morning, really; that filly had been so eager to get going that Apple Bloom never actually took the time to check out her nethers before plowing into them.

This moment with Sweetie Belle, however, was worlds different. 

Most obviously (and most enticingly), what had once been a small and almost featureless little slit between her friend’s hind legs was now a very inviting-looking opening, the marshmallow-white outer lips gently parted, exposing the pale pink flesh of her actual vagina. It wasn’t nearly as drenched and dripping wet as Scootaloo had been, but it still looked slick and invitingly moist, helped in no small part by the way the flesh around her clitoris especially spasmed and contracted every few seconds seemingly all on its own, like it was winking at her, beckoning her closer, hypnotizing her with some powerful, instinctual allure that left her taking a turn at drooling. 

And that wasn’t all there was to look at. Where before there had been a smooth, featureless underbelly, she now saw two tiny little nipples, bright spots of pink against her white coat right below her belly button, like rosebuds just beginning to form, ripe and stiff for the suckling. And where once she had politely avoided looking directly under the base of Sweetie Belle’s tail (or anypony else’s for that matter), she now saw the tightly-puckered flesh of her tail-hole. They were both things she hadn’t even thought about, much less looked for when she was with Scootaloo, but they were impossible to miss now, with Sweetie Belle outright displaying herself like this. 
 
Sweetie Belle herself, meanwhile, squirmed in place. “A-Apple Bloom, you’re staring…”
 
Apple Bloom swallowed hard and wiped her mouth, but couldn’t quite tear her eyes away from the sight. “Sorry, Ah… Ah just never really looked at a filly down there before.”
 
“Really? Not even yourself?”
 
“Well Ah can’t exactly get a good look up mah own cooch, Ah ain’t that flexible…”
 
“You could’ve just used a little vanity mirror--”
 
“Do Ah look like Ah own a vanity mirror?”
 
“…Point taken.” Sweetie Belle gulped as well. “Is… is it really that fascinating?”
 
“Mah boy part sure thinks so,” Apple Bloom said, her dick twitching excitedly as if to prove the point. “It definitely wants to, uh… g-get started.”
 
“Oh, right…” Sweetie Belle gave a rapid nod. “Y-yes, please do… and hurry, the heat is starting to get really uncomfortable.”
 
“Yeah, yeah, gotcha,” Apple Bloom said, and took a few steps forward, until her body was halfway over Sweetie Belle’s. Her dick lined up with the other filly’s wet hole, the tip brushing and prodding at the outer lips and threatening to slide straight in. The two fillies shared one last glance of mutual understanding, and then Apple Bloom stepped forward and pumped her hips, spreading Sweetie Belle the rest of the way open and popping her tip inside. 

Warmth and wetness met her dick instantly, sending familiar ripples of pleasure up her shaft, and Apple Bloom heaved a happy sigh, already eager for more. Sweetie Belle let out a quiet squeak of shock, but didn’t resist or try to stop her, so Apple Bloom took another step forward, ready to push against the tight inner flesh. Both of them were so thoroughly lubricated by now, though, that her girth slid inside easily. So easily, in fact, that Apple Bloom stumbled on her next too-quick step and fell forward onto her knees, penetrating Sweetie Belle the rest of the way down almost all at once and making both fillies gasp in shock and pleasure, until Apple Bloom was lying fully atop Sweetie Belle’s prone form, her excited dick buried to the hilt in her friend’s equally-eager pussy.
 
“Guhh…” Apple Bloom groaned, “sorry, Ah slipped… you okay?”
 
“Haaaaaaaoooooohhhh my gooooossshhhh,” Sweetie Belle was moaning, long and loud and high-pitched. “What… what…”
 
“Heh… Ah know. It feels… pretty amazin’ on this end too,” Apple Bloom said between gasps.
 
“It’s like… ohhh, my gosh, it’s like every nerve in my body is screaming at me, ‘Yes, this is good and right and you should keep doing this foreverrrrrr…’”
 
“Haha, wow, that’s… awfully specific.”
 
Apple Bloom sat upright on her knees and took another glance down Sweetie Belle’s body as she caught her breath after the initial rush of pleasure. Her friend’s hind legs were spread shamelessly wide, giving Apple Bloom as much room as she could, and it certainly looked like she needed to; her soaking pink hole was stretched open so much farther than it had ever been before, squeezed snug around its welcome guest. Every tiny movement drew another moan out of her, and when Apple Bloom pulled back just a bit, she could see glistening wetness coating her dick, assaulting her senses and drawing out her desire in every way it was surely designed by instinct and biology to do. Apple Bloom actually had to bite her lip to hold herself back and remind herself which organ was in control here.
 
“So, uh…y’all ready fer me ta… start moving?”
 
Sweetie Belle gave her another frantic nod of consent, punctuated by a heavy and almost impatient moan. “Hooohhhmigosh yesssss…”
 
“Heh… well alright then,” Apple Bloom said with a smile, wrapped her forelegs around her friend’s thighs, and got to work.
 
Much like it had been with Scootaloo, instinct filled the gaps when it came to her inexperience, and without even really knowing that it was correct, or why, she began moving her hips gently back and forth, pulling herself maybe halfway out of Sweetie Belle and then pushing forward and filling her again. A rush of breath passed Sweetie Belle’s lips with every stroke in or out, gasping for air as the invader left and then heaving it right back out as she was again filled with Apple Bloom’s dick. Apple Bloom didn’t dare go much faster, or else Sweetie Belle was liable to start outright hyperventilating, but she didn’t mind. The slower, steadier pace helped Apple Bloom keep her head at least, instead of descending into frantic hip-slapping like she and Scootaloo had done, and she was still reasonably sure that Sweetie Belle would prefer it this way. And it wasn’t like it didn’t still feel good; on the contrary, sex with Sweetie Belle was plenty incredible. Fast and furious had been great, but taking her time and savoring every single stroke and thrust was just as nice. Different, yes, and maybe less intense, but if her energy levels so far were any indication, she’d be able to keep this pace up for quite a bit longer, and that was a deeply satisfying thought.
 
Unfortunately Sweetie Belle didn’t look like she’d make it even that far. Already her body was trembling, her entire face was bright pink through her marshmallow coat, and she was absolutely howling with pleasure, one fore-hoof stuffed in her mouth to muffle the ecstatic cries while the other had wandered much further south and started to--
 
Apple Bloom’s next breath caught in her throat and her thrusts slowed to a near-stop as she looked down between their bodies. Just above the flushed, gooey mess that was their joined genitals, Sweetie Belle’s hoof was drawing firm, steady figure-eights around the two rosy little buds of her teats, both of them firm and erect and making Sweetie Belle’s rapid breaths hitch every time her hoof looped around one. And despite the slowing in Apple Bloom’s thrusts, Sweetie Belle seemed no less wracked with pleasure, her hips and hind legs quivering briefly as her hoof stopped making loops around her nipples and rubbed directly over them.
 
Oh yeah, Apple Bloom recalled distantly after a hazy moment of wondering, Sweetie Belle likes her nipples touched…
 
Indeed, the memory of sharing masturbation techniques with her friends had run through her mind that morning once already, just one of the many logs that had fueled the fire of her first jerk-off session, but she hadn’t dwelled on it for any particular amount of time. Now she wished she had, though, because the sight of Sweetie Belle playing with her nipples and gasping at every touch was more thrilling than Apple Bloom could have imagined. Not that she wasn’t trying to imagine it now, picturing Sweetie Belle alone in her room just endlessly looping circles over and around her nipples, not even touching anything else and still somehow bringing herself to a long and fulfilling orgasm--
 
Apple Bloom trembled herself for a moment. Good goddess, maybe she could imagine how thrilling that was. This whole male brain thing was really something else.
 
“Hhmmmhh…”
 
A soft but squeaky moan caught Apple Bloom’s attention, drawing her eyes back up to Sweetie Belle’s face. “Why… why’d you stop?” she whined, catching her breath between words.
 
“Oh, uh… sorry,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah just, uh, got distracted watchin’ ya… play with yerself.”
 
Sweetie Belle squirmed embarrassedly. “O-oh, no, I’m sorry… I didn’t even realize I was doing it… it was just sort of--”
 
“Hey, ya don’t gotta explain yerself,” Apple Bloom assured her. “It’s cute… and pretty hot, actually?”

“I… it is?”
 
“Totally,” Apple Bloom insisted, nodding rapidly. “Keep doin’ it all ya want, Ah’d like it if ya enjoyed this… Ah’ll even help if ya like.”
 
Sweetie Belle shivered and squirmed again, but more excited than embarrassed this time. “Alright,” she agreed, “just start moving again, please, the heat’s unbearable…”
 
“Sure, sure, ‘course…”
 
Apple Bloom hastily got their hips rocking again, a little bit faster this time, and shifted her stance so her front hooves were braced on Sweetie Belle’s hips rather than her thighs. Gradually her hooves worked their way inward, curving down below her belly button, and then finally meeting Sweetie Belle’s hoof already down there. Apple Bloom gently batted the hoof away, making Sweetie Belle give a short whimper of protest, but it died the moment Apple Bloom’s hooves took over, each of them rubbing around a nipple in a firm circle.
 
“Aaahh! Guhh, not t-too hard…!” Sweetie Belle gasped through her moans. “They’re like your sack, it hurts if you’re too hard!”

“S-sorry, sorry!” Apple Bloom stammered and backed off. She didn’t think she’d been rubbing that hard, but apparently she didn’t know her own strength. She was an Earth Pony, after all, and a colt now besides. She’d have to be more careful; if Sweetie Belle’s teats were really as sensitive as Apple Bloom’s new testes, the whole experience could be ruined if she wasn’t careful, and that was the last thing either of them wanted. Slowly Apple Bloom brought her hooves back up to the little pink nubs again, this time letting most of her weight rest on her hind legs and knees instead, so that her front hooves could rub over and around the nipples with much less pressure and all the same pleasure.
 
“Ahhh…” Sweetie Belle sighed, deep and content, like she was floating. “Yeah… yeah, that’s so much better, Apple Bloom…”
 
Apple Bloom smiled at that, which abruptly turned into a grimace as Sweetie Belle’s nethers clenched almost painfully tight around her sensitive dick. Apple Bloom knew from experience that meant her friend was very close to a climax, and that meant slow and steady time was over; she needed to hurry. If Sweetie Belle finished before she did, without any male seed to soothe her… well, Apple Bloom knew all too well how maddening that feeling was.
 
Fortunately for her, male bits should be much quicker to finish off if she set her mind to it.
 
“Sweetie, we’re almost there,” she said out loud. “Ah need ta… ta go fast fer this part, okay?”
 
Sweetie Belle gave her a rapid nod of consent. “Do it,” she moaned. “Do it, whatever it takes, just do it…”
 
Apple Bloom nodded back, and shifted her weight again so she could refocus on her thrusting and speed it up, their hips starting to make audible slaps as they met over and over. Surely it wouldn’t take much at this point, she was already throbbing and flared, it was just a matter of beating Sweetie Belle to the finish, or at least getting there at the same time…
 
“Oh goddess, Apple Bloom… I-I’m almost… I’m gonna…!”
 
…Or maybe she wouldn’t make it after all. Shoot. For whatever reason, either their slower pace so far or the fact that she’d already blown off two loads earlier that day, her orgasm didn’t seem to be coming quite as fast as before. At this rate Sweetie Belle would finish maybe a minute or so sooner, and that was a minute or so longer than she would ever wish that unsatisfied agony on one of her best friends. She needed to change tactics.
 
“Hang on, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said through a groan, summoning every sexy thought she could to help hurry her climax along while she tried to buy just a bit more time. “T-try ta hold it… until Ah’m with ya…”
 
“W-what?! But--!”
 
“Jus’ trust me, please, ya don’t wanna finish ‘til Ah’m with ya… hold on fer jus’ a minute!”
 
Sweetie Belle huffed and bit her lip against a strangled groan, but seemed to do as she was told and hold back her much sought after climax. Apple Bloom swiftly took advantage, abandoning the nipple play and throwing her body forward until her front hooves were on either side of Sweetie Belle’s head, along with most of her weight, so her hips could piston back and forth free of burden and sink deep into Sweetie Belle’s warm depths with a wet, satisfying squelch every time.
 
“Apple Blooooooooommmm…” Sweetie Belle whined, looking straight up at her friend’s face now. “I can’t… I can’t…”
 
“Nnngggh, just… just a few… few more seconds,” Apple Bloom grunted, gasping harshly between words and breezing through every dirty, nasty thing her brain could think of to push her over the edge. How Fluttershy wanted a mate… how much hotter Cheerilee was all of a sudden… that magazine she found under Mac’s bed one time…
 
“Apple Blooooommmmmm!!!”
 
“C’mon, penis, Ah know ya want this…” she muttered to herself, ignoring her friend’s repeated whine and pumping her hips as hard as she could. She was almost there, if she could give herself just a couple more good and sexy thoughts. Sweetie Belle spreading. Sweetie Belle’s teats. Scootaloo’s pussy. Scootaloo licking cum off her face. Scootaloo gushing everywhere. Rumble. Rumble’s cock. Touching Rumble’s cock.
 
Spike.
 
Oh.
 
Spike with his cock out.
 
Oh goddess.
 
Shoving Spike’s cock to the hilt inside her own sopping wet pussy.
 
Oh fuck!
 
That one did it. That one did it good.
 
“Hnnnngggghhhh, NOW, Sweetieeeee!”
 
Sweetie Belle screamed and let herself go before Apple Bloom had even finished giving her permission, clamping down on the cock inside her so tightly that Apple Bloom saw stars, unable to budge her shaft even an inch in either direction. The unicorn twitched, shook, whimpered, grasped at the cushions beneath her, and generally lost all control of herself as the built-up, long-restrained tidal wave of orgasm finally hit her, and Apple Bloom was right there with her, clinging tightly to her friend’s body with her front hooves as her loins pulsed and quivered with the overload of pleasure. Feelings of relief and satisfaction flooded through her right behind the initial peak, and Apple Bloom heaved a happy sigh as her balls emptied themselves, sending a sticky torrent of semen up the length of her twitching cock and out into Sweetie Belle’s waiting pussy in slow, thick spurts.
 
The effect was as immediate as it had been with Scootaloo. Again Sweetie Belle screamed, the sound rising to such a high pitch that it broke off into a squeak and then fell silent, leaving her simply gasping in open-mouthed shock. Her face, already a brilliant pink, now blushed all the way to solid red, and if the repeated clenching was any clue, Apple Bloom was pretty sure her friend actually came again just from feeling jizz splatter inside her and calm the raging heat there. It was a little harder to tell for sure, Sweetie Belle didn’t gush filly-cum everywhere like Scootaloo did and remove all doubt, but the deeply satisfied look on her face and the rhythmic clenching of her channel around Apple Bloom’s dick was probably proof enough.
 
Speaking of which, Apple Bloom was actually feeling a little sore down there now. Her shaft was quickly shrinking down enough to pull out of her friend within seconds of expelling the last of its seed and receding back up into its sheath, and the throbbing she felt throughout the organ had gone from incredible pleasure to a dull ache. Three rounds in one day was probably starting to push its limits, Apple Bloom reasoned. Thankfully it would (probably) not be called on again for a while. Scootaloo had seemed fully satisfied after that morning, and so too did Sweetie Belle now. Her penis had earned a break.
 
“Well, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom said as she caught her breath. “How ya feelin’ now?”
 
Sweetie Belle heaved out a happy moan, still laying on the floor with her legs unglamorously splayed out and showing off her well-stretched hole leaking Apple Bloom’s load on the pillow under her butt. “Ohhh, Apple Bloom, I feel amazing… you guys were so totally right about this, sex is wonderful.”

“Uh, thanks, Sweetie, but Ah’m finished… you, uh… you can close yer legs now,” Apple Bloom pointed out with a soft blush.
 
Sweetie Belle took a quick glance down at herself at that, but shrugged unconcernedly and flopped her head back down to the cushions. “Mmhh, it’s fine, there’s nopony else here to see.”
 
Naturally, the clubhouse door creaked open the second the words were out of Sweetie Belle’s mouth.
 
“Um, guys?” said the pony walking blindly inside. “Listen, I’m sorry about earlier, I just--…”
 
Scootaloo froze in place, staring at the scene before her.

Sweetie Belle jumped, squeaked, and slammed her hind legs together with a sticky squelch of leaked jizz.
 
Apple Bloom simply groaned and facehoofed.
 
Silence and stillness held for about five solid seconds.
 
And then Scootaloo spoke.
 
“Oh come on!”
 
 
---
 
 
The clubhouse was once again immaculately clean and freshly scented after a quick ten minutes of work, thanks to the crusaders all chipping in. Apple Bloom scrubbed the cushion that had been underneath Sweetie Belle’s rump (and thus taken the vast majority of the abuse from their mixed fluids), and scoured the floor beneath that just for good measure. Sweetie Belle cleaned up… herself, mostly, wiping away the smears of semen between her thighs and the hot mess of fluids a little further up before the fur around the area could get sticky and clumped and gross. Even Scootaloo helped out, digging a can of air freshener spray out from the depths of the clubhouse’s junk trunk and liberally spritzing it all over, filling the air with the scent of a pine forest instead of ponies fucking.
 
That last part Scootaloo still hadn’t stopped grumbling about.
 
“I can’t believe you guys,” she said, her mutters once again turning coherent. “After all that crap you gave me for trying to set you up and shouting me down, I come back like twenty minutes later and you’d done it anyway. What the hay, seriously?”
 
“It wasn’t like we planned it that way,” Apple Bloom answered as she sat down on the remaining clean cushions and relaxed. “And nopony said it was a bad idea, y’all were just being--”
 
“A jerk,” Sweetie Belle interjected with a scowl.
 
“…a little forceful, is all,” Apple Bloom said instead.
 
Scootaloo scowled right back at Sweetie Belle from opposite corners of the clubhouse. “Hey, I said I was sorry. Besides, I was right, wasn’t I? You had sex, and now you’re feeling great, just like I said you would. You’d still be a shaky blushy mess if I hadn’t set you guys up. How about a little gratitude, huh?”
 
“Gratitude?!” Sweetie Belle laughed humorlessly. “For which part, the lying to me about the Moon Tea to get me to go back to the clubhouse with you? Or the constantly embarrassing me in front of other ponies talking about estrus?”
 
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “What, you mean at school? Come on, you know I was only trying to help you.”
 
“How exactly is teasing me about it nonstop ‘helping?’”
 
Apple Bloom groaned to herself. Celestia above, there they went again.
 
“I wasn’t teasing you, jeez!” Scootaloo said. “You’ve been a total ball of stress since the season started, I just thought poking fun at heat season stuff might make you relax a little. I wanted to help you to not make such a big life-ending deal about it.”
 
“You should have just left me alone about it, you were making it worse! It’s embarrassing enough that you needle me about it when it’s just us, but doing it in front of Spike too? It’s humiliating!”
 
“Oh, like Spike even cares, you heard what he said, he’s used to hearing about that stuff from Twilight!”
 
“I care, Scootaloo!”
 
“Argh, alright, that’s enough outta both of ya, Ah’m gettin’ sick o’ this!”
 
The two arguing fillies whipped their heads around to look at Apple Bloom at her interruption, each jabbing an accusatory hoof at the other. “But she--!”

“Ah said shush!” Apple Bloom stopped them both, stepping into the center of the clubhouse and glancing back and forth between them. She’d had all of this argument she could take, and it was ending right here. “Now look, y’all are supposed ta be friends! Some silly argument like this shouldn’t come between us!”
 
“But--”
 
“No buts!” Apple Bloom shouted over the interruption. “Y’all need ta stop an’ try ta understand each other or yer never gonna get past this.”
 
Apple Bloom turned toward Scootaloo, focusing completely on her. “Scootaloo, not everypony is as comfortable talkin’ about stuff like estrus as you are. Everypony has their own way of dealin’ with things through the season, an’ if Sweetie Belle’s way is different from how you do it, then you just gotta respect that, Ah don’t care how silly or unnecessary ya think it is.”
 
Apple Bloom let that settle in Scootaloo’s head for a moment, and then turned completely toward Sweetie Belle instead. “And Sweetie Belle, no matter how rude ya think Scootaloo is being, Ah think you know she didn’t mean anything cruel by it, and it’s hurtful ta accuse her of it. She really did wanna help, because she’s yer friend and she cares about you an’ didn’t wanna see ya suffering when ya didn’t have to.”
 
Both of the other fillies squirmed in uncomfortable silence for several long seconds, which Apple Bloom took as a good sign that she’d gotten through to them. “So?” she pressed on. “Can we put this behind us now?”
 
Sweetie Belle made the first move, nodding and stepping toward the middle of the room. “…A-Apple Bloom’s right,” she said. “I’m sorry… I… I guess you were trying to help.”
 
“Did help,” Scootaloo stubbornly insisted.

“…Yeah. Did help,” Sweetie Belle grudgingly admitted. “Even if you were a rude, deceitful jerk about it… you were right. I feel a lot better now that Apple Bloom and I… n-now that we’ve… you know.” A blush filled her cheeks once again. “I’m… I’m glad you talked me into it.”
 
“…You’re welcome,” Scootaloo said after a long pause, and made her way over to the center of the room as well, standing a few inches away from Sweetie Belle now. “…And yeah, I guess I coulda been a little nicer about it--”
 
“A lot nicer.”
 
“…Okay, fine, a lot nicer.” Her wings twitched a little as she reluctantly swallowed her pride. “…I’m sorry too, okay? I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or embarrass you or anything… and I shouldn’t have lied to you about the Moon Tea.”
 
“Thank you,” Sweetie Belle said, smiling a little and extending a hoof. “So… still friends?”
 
“…Yeah. Still friends,” Scootaloo agreed, clapping her own hoof against Sweetie Belle’s.
 
“Thank Celestia,” Apple Bloom said, heaving a relieved sigh.
 
“…So you really feel better now?” Scootaloo asked.
 
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle confirmed. “I feel great, the heat’s totally gone.”
 
Scootaloo grinned slowly. “And getting rid of it wasn’t too bad either, huh?”
 
Sweetie Belle immediately blushed, but let herself smile a little. “Yeah… that was pretty great too.”
 
“I’m still kinda mad I didn’t get to watch. We should do it again now that I’m here.”
 
Both of the other fillies gave her a sharp stare.
 
“Heh… oh come on, I’m just kidding… sort of…”
 
Apple Bloom snickered under her breath and shook her head. “No offense, Scoots, but Ah’ve had just about enough drama fer one day.”
 
Slam!
 
The clubhouse door flew open so hard it made a dent in the wall and nearly snapped off its hinges, making all three fillies jump and whirl around.
 
Applejack was standing in the doorway, glaring down at the three guilty-looking fillies. But most especially at the one in the middle who currently looked nothing like a filly at all.
 
Apple Bloom’s face went pale and her ears fell back flat against her head. “Uh-oh…”
 
“Damn right, ‘Uh-oh,’” Applejack growled. “You’ve got a lot of explainin’ ta do, little missy.”
 
Apple Bloom gulped down the sudden lump in her throat.
 
Ah am so screwed.
> Chapter Six: Old Enough to Know Better
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Six: Old Enough to Know Better

 
 
“I don’t believe this… turnin’ mah sister into a colt, of all the hair-brained, asinine pranks… gonna tan his hide if he ever shows his mismatched face around here again…”
 
The walk through the apple fields and back to the family homestead was an awkward and uncomfortable one. Applejack led the way at a brisk, stiff march as she muttered angrily to herself and occasionally looked back to make sure her younger sister was still following, as though she didn’t trust the filly to do so. Apple Bloom couldn’t blame her sister for that though, considering the secret she’d kept and the promise she’d broken over the last day, and so she kept her head down and her mouth shut, following behind Applejack at a light trot to keep up with the mare’s longer strides.
 
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had hightailed it home at the first sign of escape. They’d known from Applejack’s tone that their friend was in deep trouble, and interfering would only get them in trouble too. That was the last thing Apple Bloom would have wanted, even if it meant facing the music alone; her friends had done nothing wrong, there was no reason for them to get themselves in trouble for her. It wouldn’t spare her any punishment, that was for sure.
 
What confused her was how Applejack had known. She hadn’t seemed to notice anything strange that morning, and Apple Bloom had left so quickly besides. They hadn’t come straight home from school though, obviously, so it couldn’t have been hard to guess they were hanging out at the clubhouse. From there Applejack must have just passed by and overheard them talking. They sure hadn’t been doing so quietly, after all. It was probably more like yelling at a couple of points, it would have been easy for anypony listening to get the gist of what they were talking about. And of course she just had to open her mouth right at the end and invite more drama into her day. Apple Bloom would have groaned if her voice wasn’t frozen with dread. That’s what Ah get fer temptin’ fate, she scolded herself. She wondered what Granny Smith and Big Mac would say when they found out. If she was lucky, Granny would still be having her afternoon nap and Mac would still be busy in the fields, and she wouldn’t have to deal with either of their reactions until the dust had time to settle.
 
Something didn’t quite add up, though. Apple Bloom was pretty sure they hadn’t said anything about how she was a boy at the moment, and she was positive they hadn’t mentioned Discord by name. So how did Applejack know? Did she even dare ask?
 
The question died in her throat though as the two sisters walked into the farmhouse, and her heart sank to the bottom of her hooves at the sight that greeted them. Twilight Sparkle sat on the couch in the center of the living room, eyeing Apple Bloom and clucking her tongue in disapproval, and squirming uncomfortably beside her was…
 
“I’m sorry, Apple Bloom…” Spike said, rubbing the back of his head and unable to look her in the eye. “She went straight to your sister, there was nothing I could do…”
 
“Nonsense, Spike, you did the right thing by telling me,” Twilight insisted, patting his head with one hoof. It didn’t seem to give him any comfort.
 
Well, that was that mystery solved, Apple Bloom thought with an internal groan. Applejack hadn’t even needed to overhear them at the clubhouse, Twilight had simply passed on everything to Applejack through Spike, and that was more than enough. Apple Bloom had known that asking Twilight for help was going to be a long-shot, but neither she, nor Spike apparently, had expected it to backfire quite this spectacularly.
 
Oh well. Keeping it a secret from Applejack had been a pipe dream at best from the moment Fluttershy told her that Discord had flown the coop. Considering how much she’d enjoyed herself with her friends earlier, it was no surprise that all her good karma for the day had been used up.
 
“Well?” Applejack said, closing the front door and turning to glare at her. “You got anything ta say for yerself?”
 
Apple Bloom gave a slow nod as her voice unfroze and she dodged her sister’s glare, facing Twilight and Spike instead. “Please don’ punish Spike fer nothin’. None o’ this was his fault. He jus’ wanted ta help.”
 
This time Spike relaxed, and actually met her gaze. “Huh? You… you’re not mad at me?”
 
“A’course not,” Apple Bloom insisted with an awkward smile. Damn those pink cheeks of hers, why now? “Ah meant what Ah said, y’all jus’ wanted ta help me. Ah really appreciate ya tryin’, even if it didn’t work out.”
 
“Eh-heh…” Spike actually blushed too. “Thanks…”
 
“Don’t worry, Apple Bloom, Spike’s not in trouble,” Twilight said.
 
“But you are.”
 
Apple Bloom sighed and grudgingly looked back at her sister. “Yeah, Ah know, Ah know.”
 
Applejack’s intense stare hadn’t softened at all. “Start talkin’, young lady.”
 
Apple Bloom swallowed hard, trying to overcome the lump in her throat. She took a deep breath, but found it all rushing back out in another helpless sigh as words failed her. Was there any way she could explain this that wouldn’t be utterly humiliating? Not just for her, but for her best friends, too? Not that she had much choice in the matter, she had to say something, but… maybe at the very least she could save her friends some embarrassment. A little creative censoring here and there, maybe exaggerate a couple of windows of time…
 
Thankfully somepony else saved her the trouble. Most of it, anyway.
 
“Ahem.”
 
The room turned as one toward Twilight, who cleared her throat into the silence. “Apple Bloom, we’ve already heard the basics from Spike. We know that Discord did this to you, and that he tricked you into agreeing to it somehow. And I don’t think we need to know the details of your… figuring out how a male body works. Do we Applejack?”
 
Applejack shuddered from head to hoof. “No, thank you.”
 
Twilight nodded her agreement, looking back down at Apple Bloom. “What we’re really concerned with is why. What could possibly make you want to make a deal like this with Discord?”
 
“You know he’s bad news, Apple Bloom!” Applejack said. “If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, don’t ever trust a single word outta that lyin’ snake’s mouth! Nothin’ good can come of it, he’ll say any darn fool thing he can think of ta trick somepony into doin’ whatever he wants!”
 
Twilight waited calmly for Applejack to finish, and then continued after a moment of silence. “I wouldn’t go quite that far, but… yes, even post-reformation, Discord has a habit of messing with ponies in uncomfortable ways just for the sake of amusing himself. I’m sure you knew that.”
 
“Yeah… Ah knew,” Apple Bloom admitted.
 
“Then what in the hay got into you ta make you think he was worth listenin’ to?!” Applejack demanded.
 
“Heat,” Apple Bloom said with a shudder of embarrassment. “Heat is what got inta me.”
 
Both mares in the room were silent for a moment, sharing a glance of mixed understanding and confusion. They surely knew how unpleasant heat could be for a girl, especially the first time around. But then they were both way smarter than her, they probably hadn’t been stupid enough to do what she did…
 
Spike, though, seemed to understand where she was going with this, and looked appropriately worried and sympathetic. “But you seemed okay when I saw you after school yesterday,” he recalled aloud. “Did your heat get worse?”
 
Applejack gave Spike a sharp, surprised look. “How do y’all know about--?”
 
Spike cut her off with a grunt. “Come on, AJ, I’m not a little kid anymore. I make Twi’s Moon Tea. She gave me tomes. And lessons.”
 
“Which we do not need to go into detail about right now,” Twilight added, with only the barest hint of pink in her cheeks.
 
“…Oh. R-right.” Applejack coughed into one hoof. “Sorry. I forget how much y’all been growin’ sometimes.”
 
“Anyhow, he’s right,” Apple Bloom went on. “It got way worse yesterday afternoon.”
 
Applejack shook her head. “That ain’t no excuse. C’mon now, Apple Bloom, you’d been handlin’ heat season just fine so far, you can’t just ask the god of chaos ta zap you outta yer body so you don’t hafta deal with a bad day! Every other mare in Equestria handles it just fine!”
 
“It wasn’t just a ‘bad day!’” Apple Bloom shouted defensively. “Ah just… messed up, alright? Ah messed up and made it like ten times worse. Diamond Tiara tricked me inta trying to, y'know… get rid o' the heat… by mahself. With just hooves.”
 
Both older mares again went silent and suddenly resembled a couple of wide-eyed tomatoes, making Apple Bloom raise an eyebrow herself. Did they actually know what she was talking about after all? Had they both made that mistake once as well? Suddenly Apple Bloom hoped so, maybe that way they’d understand a little better how unbearably awful that moment had been. Spike was stunned silent too, squirming in discomfort and trying to get his legs crossed over his lap. Probably trying not to pop erect from the thought of fillies in heat and rubbing themselves. In better circumstances she might have hoped for a glimpse of what he had down there, but at the moment she was just not in the mood to get excited about it.
 
Applejack finally smacked herself in the face with one hoof, groaning. “Apple Bloom, I thought we went over all this, you can’t get rid of heat by yerself--”
 
“Ah know, Ah know.” Apple Bloom let out a frustrated whine. “An’ Cheerilee taught the same thang in class after winter break, Ah shoulda known better, but Ah just thought it was worth a try! Ah thought the least that could happen was nothin’ would change, Ah didn’t know it would get worse!”
 
“I’ll… see if I can talk to Cheerilee about addressing that point in future sex education lessons,” Twilight said, her expression an awkward grimace, like somepony recalling a bad memory. “You wouldn’t be the first filly in estrus to accidentally do that to herself…”
 
“Nnnhh…” Applejack growled to herself again, starting to pace back and forth across the living room. “…So ya got yerself all worked up, okay, fair enough, I can understand that much… but that still don’t excuse asking Discord to come along and--”
 
“Ah didn’t ask him to show up, he just did!” Apple Bloom said through gritted teeth. “Ah was yellin’ and screamin’ and prayin’ to Celestia, anythang Ah could think of ta just try an’ deal with how awful it felt, an’ Ah guess he just… heard me. He came along an’ said he could make it so there was a new boy in class ta help make heat go away. He wasn’ even askin’ fer anythang in return! Ah didn’ see no harm in it! Ah didn’t know he was gonna make me the boy!”
 
“Why would he be near enough to hear you?” Twilight asked. “Even if you were yelling and screaming, that’s awfully convenient.”

“He said he was out havin’ a tea party with Fluttershy when it happened,” Apple Bloom said with a shrug.
 
Applejack huffed out her next breath in an insincere laugh. “Right, Discord havin’ a tea party, a likely story…”

“No, really, it’s true, Ah asked Fluttershy about it already!” Apple Bloom insisted. “When Ah noticed what he did ta me she was the first pony Ah went to, ‘cause she can get him under control. But then she said he took off ta Canterlot an’ might not be back fer days--”

“Days?! He’s leavin’ ya like this fer days?!” Applejack shouted, stamping her hooves and starting to pace around the room as her temper flared back up. “Why that half-cocked, two-bit, double-crossin’ crook! When I get mah hooves on him, I’ll… I’ll…!”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Twilight finished, probably more diplomatically than whatever Applejack would have said instead.
 
“We can’t jus’ let him do this, Twi! We gotta… we gotta go hunt him down or somethin’, make him fix this!”
 
“I’m sorry, Applejack, but our hooves are tied right now,” Twilight said. “We can’t force him to do anything. Certainly not without the Elements of Harmony, at least, and even if that were an option, it’d be… well, a little extreme.”
 
“Nnngghh…” Applejack growled unintelligibly, gnashing and grinding her teeth.
 
“I know this is strange and frustrating, Applejack, but there’s nothing more you can do about him. He’ll show his face again eventually, and when he does, I’m confident Fluttershy can reel him in. For now, we can only deal with Apple Bloom’s situation.”

“Oh, we’re dealin’ with that situation, alright,” Applejack said, rounding on Apple Bloom again. “Yer grounded, effective immediately. You come straight home after school fer the rest of the term, an’ there’s gonna be twice the chores waitin’ for ya when you get here.”
 
“What?!” Spike burst out, surprising the rest of the room. “But that’s almost two weeks still! And it wasn’t even her fault, Discord tricked her!”
 
“Yeah, Ah wasn’t right in the head! He took advantage o’ me!” Apple Bloom argued, emboldened by Spike’s support.

“Discord won’t get away with this either,” Twilight assured them, an especially curious eye on Spike as she spoke. “I’m sure Fluttershy will have a few choice words for him--”
 
A stamping of Apple Bloom’s hooves on the floorboards cut her off. “Oh come on! Discord just gets a talking-to from Fluttershy, but Ah get double chores and grounded fer the rest of the school year? How is that fair?!”
 
“I don’t care what ya think is fair,” Applejack answered curtly. “Discord is a liar an’ a cheat an’ he’ll get what’s comin’ to ‘im, but ya still broke the rules an’ ya broke yer promise. Maybe next time some god of lies and chaos comes danglin’ cheap answers in front o’ yer nose, you’ll remember this.”
 
“But--!”
 
“No buts,” Applejack said, in that very special tone that meant if Apple Bloom said another word her sentence would double. “You made yer bed, now you gotta lay in it. Now get yer backside out to the barn, there’s a dozen barrels of apples that need washing with yer name on ‘em, an’ I expect ‘em done by dinner.”
 
Apple Bloom seethed internally, cursing the injustice of such a severe punishment for such a relatively small transgression. She didn’t bother to voice any such frustration on the outside, though, she had no desire to be in the doghouse all summer. Instead she simply growled in defeat and walked stiffly back out the front door, pausing just off the front porch to pace in a tight circle and kick angrily at loose pebbles in a vain attempt to collect herself.
 
On one hoof, she wasn’t surprised, not really. Applejack had made her promise not to trust Discord and she’d gone against that promise. Punishment had been inevitable. And this was an especially weird and off-putting case; Applejack was obviously more wound-up than usual, seeing her younger sister abruptly become a younger brother, a magic that wasn’t really supposed to be possible. She was probably reacting more strongly than she might have if it were just a late homework assignment, or a broken dinner plate. But on the other hoof, those were at least legitimate reasons to get punished for. Was it really such a big deal that she was a boy? Did it really hurt anypony? Apple Bloom sure didn’t think so. If anything, she and her friends were probably better off than anypony in their whole class; with heat season in full swing, they were now free of its distractions, free to focus on more important things. Wasn’t that a good thing? So what if she’d made a deal with Discord to make it happen? Three ponies, counting herself, were better off than they were before because of it. She should be praised for that, not punished.
 
Or at least not this severely, she thought with an icy glare at the barn beside the family farmhouse. A dozen barrels of apples to wash by dinner? What a load of manure. She’d be lucky if she finished all that by midnight. And that was just the tip of the iceberg…
 
…Wait.
 
Apple Bloom stopped still in her tracks, her eyes glazing over in a moment of mild horror.
 
Did she just seriously think to herself that she was better off because of her deal with Discord?
 
Was she seriously better off being… being a--?
 
“Apple Bloom! Wait up!”
 
Apple Bloom jolted out of her thoughts and turned toward the voice to find Spike hurrying outside after her. Silently she praised Celestia for the timely distraction; that was not a train of thought she wanted to explore right now. “Oh, hey Spike,” she said aloud. “Ah probably can’t talk long, Ah gotta get started on--… well y’all heard what Applejack said in there, Ah got a lotta work ta do…”
 
“I know, um… it sounds like way too much for one pony. Uh, not that I’m implying you couldn’t do it!” Spike hastily added. “But, maybe you wouldn’t mind a little help?”
 
Apple Bloom gave him a surprised stare. “Help? Y’wanna help me? But y’all heard Twilight an’ Applejack, Ah’m the one in trouble, not you.”

“I don’t care about that. I just want to help. I still feel really bad about going to Twilight and getting you in trouble.”
 
Apple Bloom felt a guilty blush hit her cheeks. “Spike, Ah told ya not ta worry about it. They woulda found out eventually anyway. It ain’t your fault Twilight couldn’t do anythang. Ah know ya just wanted ta help.”
 
“And I wasn’t any help at all,” Spike said. “So lemme help for real now. Please?”

“…Ah dunno, Applejack might get mad. Ah’m supposed ta be gettin’ punished, if somepony helps me then it’s not really--”
 
“I asked already, she said it was okay!”
 
Apple Bloom raised a skeptical eyebrow. “…Really?”
 
“Yeah! Well, what she actually said was, ‘if yer conscience is really that guilty, then knock yerself out,’” Spike said, mocking her accent with a bit of a chuckle. “Come on, please? I know you keep saying it’s not my fault, but I still want to make it up to you. Besides, a dozen barrels of apples to wash is a ton of work for just one pony. I’ll save you two hours, at least.”
 
Apple Bloom cast a slow glance toward the barn. “Well… Ah would like ta be finished sometime before midnight…”

Spike broke into a hopeful smile. “So is that a yes?”
 
“Yeah… sure,” Apple Bloom agreed, smiling back. “Thanks, Spike, Ah really appreciate how much ya wanna help me…”
 
“Heh, aww, it’s the least I could do.” Spike offered her a hand. “C’mon, then, we better get started.”
 
“Sure thang,” she said, laying her hoof in his claws, and together the pair started walking toward the small mountain of apples that awaited them in the barn. But at least now it didn’t seem quite so daunting.
 
“…So did you really give yourself a heat overdrive?”
 
Apple Bloom blushed and slugged his shoulder. “Oh, shut up.”
 
 
---
 
 
Apple Bloom’s memory of the next few weeks were foggy at best. She had the summer heat to blame for that; it did things to a filly’s brain, not to mention her genitals. It had been a hot, horny, miserable summer for every filly in Ponyville unlucky enough to be single.
 
But she was one of the lucky ones.
 
She had a boy.
 
And what a boy he was.
 
Said boy currently had one clawed hand glued to her hindquarters as he straddled her from behind, while the other was pressed into her upper back and pinning her in the classic ‘face down, ass up’ position. Her tail was shamelessly flagged out of the way, and her boy was sliding something long and hot and hard into her intimate depths. Oh yes, her private parts were her own again, and oh, how she’d missed her vagina. Enduring heat season was a small price to pay when it meant she could have her nethers plundered and probed like this, fondled and filled and fucked by--
 
“Spike…”
 
Apple Bloom bit down on her pillow to muffle her throaty moan. At least, it was probably her pillow, on what was probably her bed, in what was probably her bedroom. She wasn’t really sure, to be honest, she’d stopped paying attention a long time ago. Everything that wasn’t her lover’s cock throbbing inside her was irrelevant, distracting, not worth worrying about. Her pussy was burning, it craved seed, craved every corner filled and flooded, craved the pulsing male meat inside her that was eager to provide, and all her attention was focused on satisfying that need.

Apple Bloom heaved another blissful moan and rolled over onto her back to gaze up at her lover. The motion didn’t seem to faze him in the slightest; his dick kept right on going like nothing had changed, pounding her needy pussy with seamless continuity. His face was somewhat obscured by the bright (wow, too bright) overhead lighting that almost made her close her eyes, but she could still make out his soft yellow chest and underbelly, his stubby but strong arms holding her legs splayed, his toothy yet gentle smile shining down at her… she couldn’t see what was between his legs, but she knew it had to be there, she could feel it inside her. It was probably bigger than Rumble’s. Maybe even bigger than her own had been. It certainly felt that way…
 
“Apple Bloom…” the figure above her whispered.

“Spike…” she whimpered back. “It feels so good…”
 
“You deserve it,” came his breathy, hushed reply. “You’ve been so good to your friends… you’ve earned your own relief…”
 
“Ah didn’t do that much,” she deflected as modestly as she could.
 
“But you did. Look how happy they are now…”

“Look…?” Apple Bloom echoed, her eyes shifting away from the towering vision of Spike and over to her right side. It turned out what she thought was her bedroom was actually the clubhouse, with her and Spike nestled in the big pile of cushions, and over in the corner was…
 
“Scootaloo?”
 
“Hey Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said through a thick moan of her own. She was squatting in Apple Bloom’s lap against the corner, bouncing like a trampoline on the big, hard cock bulging from Apple Bloom’s crotch. “This was the best day ever, you made me come so hard… ahh…”
 
“Ah’m glad ya liked it,” Apple Bloom said from the pile of cushions. She wished she could feel that moment again; watching herself pound Scootaloo until she squirted all over the floor was almost as exciting as actually living it.
 
“And she’s not the only one,” Spike whispered again.
 
“Mm, no, she wasn’t,” Apple Bloom agreed, rolling her head the other way and looking left. Strange, the pile of cushions was over there now, and Sweetie Belle was the one laying on them. She was writhing and moaning her little heart out as Apple Bloom thrust down into her too, her teats swollen and her nipples stiff.

“Thank you, Apple Bloom,” she whispered. “Thank you for making my heat go away… you’re a good friend… ohh…”
 
“Happy ta help,” Apple Bloom said. Again she watched herself turn her friend into a pile of orgasmic jelly, savoring the memory and wishing she could re-live it. It thrilled her merely to recall, left her tingling with enough excitement and desire to make her dick throb and drip a little on her chest.
 
“And now it’s your turn for some relief…”
 
“Oh gosh, yes… Ah can’t wait… relieve me, Spike…” Apple Bloom begged, and Spike went back to work, pounding into her pussy with greater and greater force until she could feel her dick swinging wildly and slapping against her belly--
 
Wait, her dick?
 
Apple Bloom looked forward again. Yes, there it was, her hard, twitching, flared cock, staring her in the face like it had never left, though she was positive it hadn’t been there a minute ago. It was there now, though, and it looked like it was ready to blow at any second.
 
“O-oh, goddess,” Apple Bloom whimpered embarrassedly, squeezing her eyes shut. “S-Spike, don’t look…”
 
Her lover, however, didn’t seem to care one way or the other. The pounding continued seamlessly, filling the pussy that she still somehow had, until the throbbing in her turgid cock became unbearable. She wanted to finish, she needed to finish so bad, her seed begged to be set free--
 
“It’s okay, Apple Bloom…I still like you… you’re still you inside…”
 
Something hard and firm curled around her cock - Spike’s claws? Her own hoof? She didn’t dare open her eyes to look - and Apple Bloom instantly began thrusting against it, into it, through it, she didn’t care what it was as long as she could fuck it. She teetered upon the point of no return, twitching and flared and winking and wet all at once, desperation and need wracking her body from head to hoof, until finally--

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIII--
 
 
---
 
 
--IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNN--

“Spiiiiiiiike…” Apple Bloom moaned, his name coming out like a shrill whine. Her eyes suddenly felt tired and crusty, her ears twitched and folded down to try to block out the blaring alarm right next to her head, and Spike and his thrusting erection were both abruptly, mysteriously absent. But Apple Bloom was long gone and over the edge to orgasm anyway. She blinked her tired eyes open and took in the hazy image of her sunlit bedroom and her sweaty coat and finally down to her twitching cock, just in time to see white exploding from the tip as it spat hot, sticky cum up her chest and hit her square in the muzzle.
 
“Guh… nnhhh… wha…?” she muttered sluggishly, wincing as another pulse of thick white slime splattered across the bridge of her nose and splashed way too close to her eyes, leaving a dull stinging sensation that forced her to close them again. “Oww…!”
 
Several more uncontrollable spurts of jizz followed the first two as the warm, pleasant fantasy faded into nothing and gave way to cold, unfriendly reality, until her face and chest were both decked in the stinging fluid and her room was filled with the pungent scent of semen and the shrill wailing of her bedside alarm clock.
 
--NNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!
 
Apple Bloom blindly smacked the thing on pure reflex and shut it off, groaning and wincing as she sat up and tried to wipe the offending substance far enough away from her eyes that she could actually open them again. By the time she succeeded, she saw that her bed’s covers were now a tangled, discarded mess on the floor, her expulsions were already cooling and drying across her fur, and the organ responsible for it all wobbled half-erect in front of her face, like it was mocking her.
 
“Uuuuggghh,” she grunted, flopping limply back on the bed again and just lying there miserably in her own filth for a while. “Ah shoulda known… stupid dream… stupid penis…”
 
It wasn’t the first time she’d woken up like this, sweaty and sticky and horny after an uncomfortably vivid sex dream, and that did wonders to keep her from freaking out right about now. It’d been an almost nightly occurrence as a filly since going into heat, and it usually ended with a cold shower in the morning and much more frequent washing of her bed-sheets. But at least that had been, for all intents and purposes, normal for a mare once estrus rolled around. Applejack took a liking to cold showers as well, and her sheets were in the wash just as often, and nopony made any comments about it. Although Big Macintosh almost certainly enjoyed having so much hot water to himself for a while.
 
Still, this was new territory. She’d certainly never dreamed herself to climax before. She hadn’t even been sure that was a thing that could happen. She’d heard of wet dreams before, yes, but the idea that they could be that vivid, that intense, that… messy, didn’t seem possible. But the proof was right there in front of her eyes… and across her chest, and between her legs.
 
And that was to say nothing of the subject of her orgasmic dream.
 
No, not the memories of fucking her best friends. The other thing. The guy fucking her.
 
Okay, she admitted it. Not out loud, obviously, but within her own head, she couldn’t realistically pretend otherwise at this point. She liked Spike. How could she not? He was kind, helpful, cute, generous, funny, understanding, cute, smart, charming, cute, mature, strong, hot, knew how to cook, had a nice smile, hot… probably some other intriguing qualities she was forgetting at the moment… and he’d just spent a whole evening with her, helping her for no reason other than he felt it was the right thing to do. It was only natural that she’d spend the night dreaming about him. Catching the eye of a boy like that sounded like the most satisfying thing in the world. In more ways than one. She wondered if he was as good a lover in real life as the imagined version of him. Hopefully she could turn back into a girl soon enough to find out. Maybe she’d even be his first. Wouldn’t that be special… being the very first filly to peek between those folding scales and feast her eyes upon… whatever it was exactly dragons had down there.
 
Boy, she really hated that even in her dreams she hadn’t seen his dick.
 
…Aaaaaand of course, thinking of Spike like that immediately made her own brainless phallus start propping itself up again.
 
Apple Bloom let out a low groan. She’d need a really cold shower this morning.
 
 
---
 
 
Breakfast was quiet, awkward, and to Apple Bloom’s relief, mercifully quick. Other than throwing a brief glare at her older sister upon sitting at the dining table, she kept her head down and stuffed her face in silence. Granny Smith busied herself at the stove most of the morning and didn’t even seem to notice anything was different at all, and although Big Macintosh was sitting right next to Apple Bloom, he apparently noticed nothing out of the ordinary either. Or at least, if he did, he had no comment on it. That would be just like him, actually. Almost nothing fazed him. Suddenly she wished it had been Macintosh that came after her yesterday instead, at least he wouldn’t have flipped out like Applejack had. He would just hand down her punishment for breaking the rules and that would be the end of it, no fighting and yelling involved. Heck, even one of Granny Smith’s spittle-laced, borderline-indecipherable lectures would have been more preferable than this.
 
The moment she finished eating Apple Bloom dumped her plate in the sink and grabbed her saddlebags, and with hardly a word said by anypony she was out the front door and on her way to school quite a bit earlier than usual. Applejack would surely have another laundry list of chores for her to do when she got home, on top of her homework that was going to start piling up at this rate, but for now at least, she was free from all that.
 
Yeah. Free to go to school and be stared at by everypony again. Free to be the center of attention for another round of her classmates pointing and whispering behind her back. Free to struggle to keep her mind from wandering so her dick didn’t spring up in front of the whole class to humiliate her further.
 
Some freedom. Ugh.
 
Still, at least it wasn’t all bad. A dick with a mind of its own was still technically an improvement over the discomforts of estrus. And at least she’d been able to pull her friends out of it too, albeit with more conventional methods than chaotic gender-swapping. So in a way things really were better off now--
 
Celestia damnit, there was that thought again! She was not better off being a boy! Yeah, sure, her chores last night had been easier than expected, but… that was just because Spike was helping. Yeah, maybe dragging the apple barrels around had been a lot easier than usual, but that probably only saved her a few extra minutes, tops, big deal. And quelling her friends’ heat cycles was just… making the best of a bad situation. Just because she enjoyed it didn’t mean she liked being a boy. And savoring a break from her own estrus didn’t mean she wanted the vacation to be permanent. A few days, maybe. A week, tops.
 
Wait, no! No, she wanted to be normal again right now! Not in a week! Goddess, what was wrong with her brain?
 
“Uuuuuugh,” Apple Bloom groaned aloud at nopony. “Dang it, Discord, you an’ yer stupid pranks are messin’ with mah head…”
 
“Oh, I don’t know, I thought it was rather clever. But I admit I might be just a pinch biased.”
 
Apple Bloom froze in place, ears twitching at the familiar voice. Her eyes swept the road for signs of life, but although the schoolhouse was in view, she was alone. As early as she’d left, nopony else had arrived yet.
 
Not that it mattered. She’d recognize that voice anywhere now. It was burned into her brain.
 
“Discord…” she snarled.
 
“In the flesh!” Discord said, a pair of eyes and a toothy, cheshire grin opening up in thin air. “Well, figuratively speaking.”
 
Apple Bloom glared at the floating body parts. “Where’s the rest of ya?! Ah’ve got a flank-bucking with yer name on it!”
 
“Sorry, my dear, but doing things to my rear-end isn’t my bag.”
 
“…Augh, eewww! Just show yerself, ya big creepy scoundrel!”
 
“Scoundrel? Scoundrel? Ooooh, I like that name.” Discord’s disembodied mouth cackled wildly, but he eventually did as he was asked, the rest of his body pouring into existence from the ground up like a giant water bottle being filled. “So, how have you been enjoying the first twenty-four hours of your dream come true?”
 
“Dream?!” Apple Bloom shouted. “You call this a dream?! Ah call it a nightmare!”
 
Discord mock-gasped. “Oh dear, buyer’s remorse already? Well, you know what they say about impulse-buying. It’s really not fair that they keep all those tantalizing goodies right next to the checkout counter, actually. It’s like they’re preying on your lack of self-control! Sure, you don’t really need the box of king-size candy bars or the Daring Do edition of Marenopoly, but when it’s right there, well, darn it, you just can’t resist!”
 
Apple Bloom snorted and stamped her hooves like a bull ready to charge. “Rrrrrgggh, stop makin’ fun of me!”
 
“Don’t take it personally, kid, I make fun of everyone. How would it look to my respected colleagues if I gave you special treatment just because you blew smoke at me--”
 
Apple Bloom grabbed an apple-sized stone off the road in her hoof and chucked it full-force at the chaos god before she even realized it was happening. “Don’t call me a KID!”
 
The stone was right on target, striking Discord right between the eyes. Or it would have, if it hadn’t sailed right through his forehead and out the other side instead. Discord himself didn’t even flinch, except to raise an eyebrow. “Really? Throwing rocks? Come now, if you’ll remember our agreement from last time, a little mutual respect is required if I’m going to speak to you like an adult. So please, do try to curb that testosterone in your veins just a smidgen.”
 
Apple Bloom’s mouth set into another snarl. “Ah remember our ‘agreement’ just fine, and we never said anythang about turnin’ me into a boy!”
 
“We didn’t not say anything about it.”
 
“Don’t twist mah words around! Ah said Ah wished there was a new boy in class and instead ya did this to me, you… you big liar!”
 
“Liar?” Discord gasped, slowly clutching his heart. “Liar? Now that one really does hurt. I may be many things, young lady, but a liar is not one of them.”
 
“Oh, that’s a bunch of bullcrap!” Apple Bloom accused. “What about that time ya made everypony think you were sick an’ ran the princesses ragged? That was all one big lie!”

“Oh, that? Pfft, that was just an elaborate prank. Not the same thing at all.”
 
“It is so the same thing! It was all one big joke ta you!”
 
“Yes, exactly. Jokes are only temporary lies. That’s what makes them funny! But if the lie is never exposed, there’s no punch-line. If there’s no punch-line, the lie is sealed forever, regardless of humorous intent.” Discord’s face turned deathly serious for a moment. “Lies are not funny.”
 
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh. Then explain how me askin’ fer a new boy in class an’ then you turnin’ me into a boy ain’t lyin’!”
 
“Hmph. Well it’s not my fault you had such specific conditions. I couldn’t create a new pony out of thin air, I couldn’t bring in a substitute teacher or a guest speaker, he had to actually be part of the class…” Discord smiled innocently. “What else could I have done?”
 
“Ya coulda said all that in the first place!”
 
“But that wouldn’t have been nearly as funny!”
 
“Augh, that so counts as lying!” Apple Bloom nearly screamed.
 
“Does not.”
 
“Does too! Jus’ cause ya didn’t technically say nothin’ that wasn’t true, that ain’t the only kinda lie! Tellin’ a bunch a half-truths, whaddaya call that, huh?! That’s lies of… of… om… omis…”
 
“Lies of omission?” Discord finished for her, and then laughed in her face. “Lies of omission don’t exist.”
 
“Not according to mah sister!”
 
“Then you’re both wrong,” Discord said, waving his hand dismissively. “The concept is such a mortal one, as an old acquaintance of mine would say. You write these stories in your heads about ‘the truth,’ and then make all these big emotional demands of it. Particularly of those in possession of it, as though you think you’re entitled to the facts, which is so very childish. You can never know all the facts. Only I can. And since it’s impossible for me to reveal all the facts to you, it’s my discretion alone that decides which facts will be revealed in the short time we have together.”
 
A finger of Discord’s lion paw pressed against Apple Bloom’s muzzle. “So if I don’t happen to volunteer information that you deem critical to your fate… well, it possibly means I’m a scoundrel, yes, but it does not mean I am a liar. And it certainly means you didn’t ask the right questions.”

Apple Bloom growled and batted his paw away. “That’s such a huge load o’ manure.”
 
Discord pondered that for a moment, and then threw back his head with a hearty laugh. “Yes, well, the guy who said it was known for being a bit of a pretentious prick. But don’t worry, he’s dead now. Probably.”
 
Apple Bloom stamped her hooves again. “Rrrrrgh, Ah don’t care about any o’ this! You knew what Ah really meant when we made that deal, y’all just did this ta mess with me!”
 
Discord’s mouth curled into a coy grin. “Maybe a little.”
 
“So you admit it!”
 
“Oh come on, is this really so bad? So you’re of the male persuasion now, big deal. I could have turned you into a tap-dancing turnip, you know,” he said, briefly conjuring a chorus line of the vegetable in question to dance between them. “Or something far worse, if I was feeling vindictive. If anything I should be praised for my restraint.”
 
“S’cuse me if Ah hold mah applause!”
 
Discord waggled a talon in front of her face. “Tsk tsk, now you’re just being selfish again. I did this for the good of more ponies than just yourself, you know. You did say you wanted everypony else in your class to have a fair shot at the ‘new boy.’”
 
“But--…nnhh…” Apple Bloom trailed off and gritted her teeth, frustration bubbling up and over her anger. “That’s not exactly what…”
 
“They deserve the chance to relieve their seasonal hormones too, don’t they?” Discord reasoned, smiling and leaning closer to her. “And admit it, isn’t that what this was really all about? It wasn’t a boyfriend you actually wanted, or you would have just asked for one directly. What you really wanted was an escape from those urges crippling you and every other filly in town. And isn’t that exactly what I’ve given you?”
 
“Boys ain’t exactly free an’ clear either…” Apple Bloom argued half-heartedly.
 
“Yes, but it’s not the same, is it?” Discord said with a knowing smile. “An extra smattering of impure thoughts here and there and a bit more visually-obvious set of genitals, yes. But that ache, that burning, the overwhelming desire, that stifling, all-encompassing heat… all gone. Isn’t that what you really wanted?”
 
“W-well… yes, but…”
 
“But what? Please, I’m actually curious now. What is it that’s just so dreadfully terrible about being male, hm? Come on, tell me. ‘But’ what?”
 
“But Ah’m not male!” Apple Bloom shouted, finally finding her voice again. “Ah’m a girl! Ah don’t belong in this body! Ah don’t want to be a boy forever!”
 
“Well, if you’d rather go back to being a girl crippled by estrus--”
 
“NO!” Apple Bloom shouted, so loud that she surprised even herself. “Ah… Ah mean, no. Ah just… Ah wanted ta get away from estrus, but Ah wasn’t expectin’ this.”
 
“And what were you expecting, exactly? Some mysterious stranger to stroll right up to you and sweep you off your hooves? Or at least bend you over?”
 
Disgust filled her expression immediately. “Eeewwww, no!”
 
“I didn’t think so.” Discord smiled, far too widely for Apple Bloom’s liking. “Well, can’t say I didn’t at least ask, but if the answer’s really ‘no,’ then I guess there’s no problem after all! Whew, that’s such a load off my mind. So glad we had this talk, my dear.”
 
“H-hey, wait, Ah didn’t say--!”
 
“Well, I must be off, things to do, ponies to see,” Discord talked over her, dusting his hands off and climbing onto a bicycle that he’d spawned from somewhere beyond the edge of Apple Bloom’s vision. “I’m sure you know how it is, you’ve got to get off to school, after all! But do keep me posted!”

“Don’t you run away from me, Ah’m still a boy, damnit!” Apple Bloom shouted, starting swiftly toward him again.
 
“That you are.” Discord smirked at her behind a pair of driving goggles that had poofed into existence over his eyes. “And for all your blustering, you’re enjoying it. Or you would have told me to change you back the second you saw me. Instead, you haven’t asked at all.”

Apple Bloom froze, wide-eyed and gob-smacked. “…Th…th-that…”
 
Discord didn’t give her time to collect herself, his smirk growing as he waved to her. “I’ll check back again in a couple of days. Toodles!” He jingled the bell on the bike’s handlebars, and before Apple Bloom could form another coherent word he was gone, pedaling away into the sunrise.
 
“Y-you… you…!” Apple Bloom sputtered, far too late to be heard. “Get back here, you backstabbin’ lunatic! Ah’m not done with you yet, you hear me?! Get back here!”
 
There was nothing to be done about it, though. Discord was a speck on the horizon now, gone once again, and with him her only chance to put everything back to normal, thanks in no small part to her own stupidity. She’d been so busy getting angry and arguing with him about the exact wording of their deal the other day that it never even crossed her mind to actually demand that he return her to normal. If anything she’d done the exact opposite. Which was precisely his point, wasn’t it? When asked if she wanted to go back to being the way she was, estrus and all, she’d refused immediately and vehemently. Instead of making him turn her female again without estrus, or giving her the new colt she’d actually wanted, she simply said ‘no’ and left it at that. Now Apple Bloom would remain stuck in a colt body, for who knew how much longer until Discord showed his face again, and she had nopony to blame for it but herself.
 
“Rrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuggghhhh!!!”Apple Bloom bellowed at the top of her voice, kicking stones and grinding her teeth and doing just about anything else she could think of to vent the boiling fury that the god of chaos had left her with…
 
“What in the name of Celestia are you screaming at, blank flank?”
 
Apple Bloom’s ears twitched, and if it was possible, her frown grew even deeper.
 
Oh, no.
 
Not now.
 
Not her.
 
Apple Bloom turned toward the voice, and sadly her feeling of dread was confirmed. Diamond Tiara was walking up the road to the schoolhouse, flanked as usual by Silver Spoon. For some reason neither of them looked to be in much better of a mood than Apple Bloom; annoyance and frustration was written all over their faces, their coats looked like they needed a good pass with a brush, and the usual smug smiles that Apple Bloom longed to wipe off their faces every time she saw them were already missing. Silver Spoon in particular looked extra disgruntled; the usual neat braid in her off-white mane was coming apart, she was keeping a greater distance than usual between herself and Diamond Tiara, and the annoyed look on her bespectacled face seemed like it was directed at Diamond more than anypony else. Had the two of them been fighting? Apple Bloom wasn’t sure that was even possible. They were like Snips and Snails, virtually inseparable, like two halves of the same pony.
 
“I think turning into a colt must have scrambled your brains,” Diamond carried on, looking in the direction Apple Bloom had been raging. “There’s nothing over there.”
 
Apple Bloom bit her lip to hold back a snarl. “Back off, Diamond, Ah’m not in the mood.”
 
Diamond ignored her. “How in Equestria did you turn into a colt, anyway?” she said. “I mean, not that you needed any help being a complete freak, but even for you this is a bit much.”
 
“Ah said back off!” Apple Bloom shouted, raising herself up to her full height and looming over the other two fillies.
 
“Diamond…!” Silver Spoon hissed, glaring at her friend even more harshly.

Apple Bloom barely heard it; she was so mad at this point she was seeing red. Her sister’s punishment had been bad enough, making a mess of herself with that wet dream ruined her morning the moment it began, and after being played for a fool by Discord yet again, her patience was gone. She was not going to put up with Diamond Tiara’s garbage, not this time. She took a deep breath through her nose to tell the little brat off once and for all--
 
Wait. What was that smell?
 
Apple Bloom stopped and frowned in thought for a moment. She knew that scent. She’d smelled it before. Recently, too. And it smelled like it was coming from Diamond and Silver…
 
As Apple Bloom hesitated, Silver Spoon moved forward and tried to step between her and Diamond Tiara, tugging on one of her friend’s pale pink legs. “Di, knock it off, come on, we talked about this--”
 
“And I told you, no!” Diamond snapped and yanked her hoof free, abruptly turning a much deeper, hot pink. “I wouldn’t spend time with this blank flank if you paid me!”
 
“Stop callin’ me a blank flank!” Apple Bloom roared over her, shoving her forehead against Diamond’s so roughly her namesake jewelry was knocked clear out of her mane.
 
“Eww, don’t touch me, you freak!” Diamond shouted back, shoving Apple Bloom away.
 
That was the last straw. In the blink of an eye Apple Bloom tackled Diamond Tiara to the ground, the pair landing in a tangled heap of limbs just inside the outer fence of the schoolhouse property. Diamond immediately let out an incensed shriek, her hooves flailing randomly to try to smack Apple Bloom off her. At least one managed to strike Apple Bloom across the cheek, hard enough to leave a faint hoof-shaped imprint and sting something fierce, but Apple Bloom wouldn’t budge, instead snatching the offending hoof and twisting it around until it couldn’t move any further. Diamond shrieked again, out of pain this time, and kicked wildly with her hind legs in an attempt to buck her off, forcing Apple Bloom to twist and squirm to avoid getting bucked right in the boy-junk.
 
“Hey, get off her, that’s my best friend!”
 
Apple Bloom barely had time to register the battle-cry before Silver Spoon joined the fray with a head-butt to Apple Bloom’s flank. It didn’t break her grip on Diamond, but the momentum did knock her over, and so all three fillies went tumbling across the school’s front lawn, kicking and screaming and biting and yanking as they wound themselves up into an even bigger ball of jumbled legs. They were far more fierce brawlers than Apple Bloom would have expected from a couple of prissy rich kids, but she was still certain she could handle them both. If only she could just get a few seconds to--
 
“What in the world is going on here?!”
 
All three of them froze, the piercing voice of authority ending the scuffle in an instant. As one, they all turned their heads, and simultaneously gasped in horror as they saw the shocked face of Miss Cheerilee staring down at them.
 
“I don’t believe this, what has gotten into you three?!” Cheerilee said.
 
“She started it!” the fillies all said at once, each pointing an accusing hoof at one of the others.
 
“I don’t care who started it! We settle our differences with words, not violence!” Cheerilee scolded, glaring at each of them in turn, and particularly strongly at Apple Bloom. “I expected better of you. All of you.”
 
“But--!”
 
“She--!”
 
“I don’t want to hear it,” Cheerilee said, cutting them off with a firm wave of her hoof and pointing at the school’s front doors. “Get inside and clean up for class, right now. All three of you will be staying after school for detention.”
 
“But she knocked my tiara in the dirt!”

“She punched my best friend!”

“She tried ta kick me in the balls!”
 
Cheerilee wasn’t moved. “I don’t want to hear excuses. Inside. Now.”
 
Apple Bloom fell silent, and although she and Diamond Tiara continued to glare absolute venom at one another, she knew she was stuck. She couldn’t argue with Miss Cheerilee any more than she could argue with her sister.
 
“This isn’t over, blank flank,” Diamond growled under her breath as they untangled themselves.
 
“Just mah luck,” Apple Bloom grumbled back, before promptly ignoring her and marching stiffly inside.
 
Detention.
 
With Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
 
Great.
 
Could this day get any worse?

> Chapter Seven: Shut Up and Kiss Me
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Seven: Shut Up and Kiss Me

 
 
“Yeesh, grounded and detention, and Discord jerked you around again?”
 
“An’ don’t forget Diamond bein’ a nasty little thorn in mah side, too.” Apple Bloom said, and heaved a dramatic sigh. She sat and stared at the algebra worksheet she and her classmate were supposed to be completing together, and couldn’t absorb one bit of it. “Ah tell ya, Spike, if it weren’t fer you an’ the girls, Ah woulda plum gone crazy tryin’ ta deal with all this manure.”

Spike winced sympathetically and rubbed her shoulders as best he could from his own desk. It was side by side with hers at the moment, so his motions were plenty effective. “Yeah, talk about a bad stretch of luck,” he said. “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”
 
Apple Bloom sighed again, pleasantly this time. “Well, whatever yer doin’ there with yer claws sure feels nice.”
 
“Oh, this? It’s no big deal, really,” he said, shrugging and smiling. “Just a basic shoulder massage. I do it for Twilight a lot. She gets all stiff sometimes if she spends hours hunched over her desk. You’d be surprised how much tension you can relieve with a quick little rubdown.”
 
“Mmmhh, well, gettin’ rid o’ tension is nice, but it ain’t gonna get me nowhere on this worksheet,” Apple Bloom pointed out, glancing around the classroom at the other pairs. They sat just a few feet from Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s conjoined desks, and everypony else was scattered around the room, heads huddled together as they worked. In the opposite corner - thankfully - were the desks belonging to the rich brats she was about to be trapped in detention with. They were arguing rather heatedly with one another, even more so than their encounter before school, to Apple Bloom’s continued surprise. Maybe they really were fighting? Wouldn’t that be a nice break from the usual routine, she thought with a dark smile.
 
But regardless, they and everypony else looked much further along on the assignment than herself and Spike, making Apple Bloom groan. “At this rate we’ll have to take this home and finish it fer extra homework…” she muttered.
 
“Well, hey, look on the bright side,” Spike said. “At least if you have a bunch of homework to do, Applejack’ll have to let you do that instead of extra chores. Plus then I could come over and help you. I’ve got this algebra stuff down easy.”
 
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “Ya do?”
 
“Oh yeah, Twilight’s been home-schooling me practically since I hatched, remember? I learned all this last year.”
 
“…Then how come we’re so far behind we’ll hafta take it home?”
 
Spike grinned, at once devious and guilty. “Well… heh, like I said, if you have a lot of homework to do… I thought maybe it’d save you a few chores… and then we could, you know… hang out together even though you’re grounded…”
 
Apple Bloom slowly matched his expression. “Spike, you sneaky dragon… that’s genius.”
 
Spike shrugged and smiled. “Eh-heh… aww, I just wanted to help…”
 
“You will, trust me. That’ll be the one bright spot in this lousy day fer sure…”
 
BRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNGGGG!
 
“Alright everypony, that’s all for today,” Cheerilee called over the post-bell chatter. “Please put your desks back where they belong and pass in your worksheets before you leave. Remember, if you didn’t finish the worksheet, it’s extra homework tonight, and I expect you and your partner to complete it together. And Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon? Front row, please.”
 
Apple Bloom bit back a groan and looked at Spike with a grim smile. “Well, time ta face the music. Meet ya at the farmhouse ‘round sundown?”
 
Spike flashed her a thumbs-up. “Wouldn’t miss it. Seeya then, Apple Bloom!”
 
“Yeah, seeya.”
 
Apple Bloom was glad he’d already turned away before her blush became noticeable.
 
And more glad he couldn’t read her thoughts.
 
Stupid dreams.
 
Apple Bloom shook off the lurid train of thought and hauled her saddlebags with her to the front of the class, stopping only to smack Scootaloo’s shoulder as she made mocking kissy-faces on her way out. Totally worth it, no matter how dirty a look Sweetie Belle gave them both.
 
To her continued surprise, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had already occupied the left and right desks at the front of the class, as far away from each other as they could get. They were even looking in opposite directions. There was no doubt now, these two fillies definitely had some sort of issue between them. As pleasant as the tension was to savor, though, it left Apple Bloom sitting right between them. Perhaps even worse, it left her front and center under Miss Cheerilee’s stern, disappointed stare that sucked the schadenfreude out of her faster than vampire fruit bats in an apple tree.
 
“I don’t know what to do with you three,” she said once the last free student left. “I’ve spoken to all of you before about this. Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, this ‘blank flank’ nonsense has to stop--”
 
“I said no such thing,” Diamond insisted.
 
“You did so!” Apple Bloom snarled.

“You can’t prove it.”
 
“Enough,” Cheerilee calmly said over them. “Diamond, don’t lie to me unless you want detention tomorrow, too. I heard it with my own two ears. This is your last warning. If I hear either you or Silver giving anypony grief about cutie marks again, you’ll be sitting through a week’s worth of detentions.”
 
Apple Bloom snickered to herself as Diamond sulked. Yes! Sweet justice!
 
“And you’ll be joining them, Apple Bloom, if you can’t keep your temper under control.”
 
Apple Bloom’s smirk vanished. “Me? Ah was just defending myself!”
 
“I don’t care who started it or not. Fighting is not acceptable under any circumstances. I’ve spoken to both you and Diamond about this before, after the incident with the supply closet.”
 
“But they were callin’ me a freak because o’ my… problem!”
 
“Then you should have let me handle it. I’m sympathetic to your problem, Apple Bloom, I really am, but I’m not going to give you a free pass to let your temper get the better of you. There’s absolutely no excuse for brawling on the front lawn, no matter what anypony says to you. If I catch you fighting one more time, you’ll be spending a week in detention as well. And that goes for all three of you. Have I made myself clear?”
 
“Yes, Miss Cheerilee,” Apple Bloom droned along with the other two fillies, not bothering to keep the frustrated grumble out of her voice.
 
“Good.” Cheerilee turned her attention to her own desk, and the small stack of worksheets for her to grade. “Now I suggest the three of you make use of this hour to get a head-start on your homework. Quietly.”
 
Apple Bloom groaned again and dug her textbook back out of her bag, opening it to the chapter they’d been studying. Not that it would do any good; she’d been too distracted to grasp the day’s lecture again, and now she had no idea how to figure it out on her own. The formulas and equations on the page might as well have been ancient hieroglyphics, she probably wouldn’t have known the difference…
 
“Miss Cheerilee?”

Cheerilee glanced to Apple Bloom’s right. “Yes, Silver Spoon?”
 
“May I please open a window? It’s a little stuffy in here.”

Cheerilee considered her for a moment, and then nodded. “Alright, go ahead. Be sure to close it again before you leave.”
 
“I will. Thank you, Miss Cheerilee,” Silver said with a quick nod, slipping out of her desk and walking over to the near wall. She pushed open the window there, and in moments a comfortable afternoon breeze drifted through the room.
 
Well, at least Silver knows how to be polite when she has to, Apple Bloom thought. That alone put her miles ahead of Diamond Tiara. She was certain that filly had never said ‘please’ in her life. Not with any real sincerity behind it, at least.
 
Not for the first time, Apple Bloom wondered how those two had even become friends. Silver Spoon wasn’t exactly pure and innocent, but Diamond Tiara was clearly the dominant, driving force to their nastiness. Silver probably could have been a half-decent filly if she weren’t so committed to being Diamond’s sidekick.
 
Which, if Apple Bloom thought about it, might be part of the problem. Diamond, as awful as she could be, was obviously a natural leader, and Silver clearly a follower. If they met at an early enough age - and being from high-society family circles, they most certainly did - they’d gravitate toward each other like magnets. It was a shame, really, with a better driving influence for her to follow, Silver might not have been such a brat.
 
Although…
 
Apple Bloom glanced between the other two fillies again. Both had their heads down, still refusing to even acknowledge each other. Apple Bloom could hardly believe it. She had no idea what they could be fighting about, but it didn’t matter. The more they fought, the less they’d bother anypony else. And if by some miracle it drove the two of them apart for good, then Diamond’s awfulness wouldn’t have nearly the same bite to it as a solo act, and Silver… well, heck, maybe there would be hope for her yet…
 
Drive them apart for good? Really? Are you really that vindictive?
 
A sharp pang of guilt swooped through her chest at that thought. No, of course she wasn’t. Sure, maybe they were jerks, but she wasn’t really going to wish for a friendship to be destroyed, was she? Something about that just sounded wrong, even if it was Diamond and Silver. Maybe all that ‘Magic of Friendship’ stuff her sister was always going on about was rubbing off on her…
 
Besides, friends tended to forgive each other no matter what, and surely Diamond and Silver were no exception. They’d be over it eventually and right back to their usual awful selves. It probably wasn’t even that big of a deal, whatever they were fighting about. Some small thing, most likely, that blew up much bigger than it would have if they weren’t suffering from seasonal hormones. And Apple Bloom was certain that was a factor, because there was no doubt that they were both wracked with estrus. It was painfully obvious, and had been the moment she recognized the scent on them when they’d approached her that morning. It was the same scent that permeated the clubhouse during her encounters with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, a scent that her male body was even better at recognizing than her natural female form. No doubt their heat cycles were making them much more irritable, enough to let a simple disagreement turn into… whatever this was.
 
The strange thing, though, was that this was the first time they’d shown any such signs of heat, at least in public. They’d hid it perfectly, even more so than Sweetie Belle. Why were they breaking that streak now? Maybe something made them forget their Moon Teas and ice packs today? Whatever they were fighting about, perhaps? Or something else?

Somepony else?
 
Apple Bloom shuddered and felt a wave of sympathy for whatever poor soul those two might be interested in, for they were surely doomed to misery. Although she had no idea who it could even be; it wasn’t like anything had changed recently as far as dateable boys were concerned. Other than her own bothersome transformation, anyway--
 
Apple Bloom’s eye twitched and a horrible sinking feeling shot through her gut.
 
Oh, HAY no.
 
Apple Bloom smacked herself in the forehead, damning that train of thought to the fiery pits of Tartarus. There was no way in Equestria she was going consider the idea of--…no, she wasn’t even going to give it the dignity of putting it into words. Absolutely not, no way no how.
 
…And yet, there was that now-familiar throbbing between her legs now, making her blush and grind her teeth in horrified frustration.
 
Stupid penis.
 
Apple Bloom grumbled under her breath and forced herself to look back at her textbook, because literally anything was a better thing to think about than… that. Unfortunately, the jumble of letters and numbers on the page made no more sense now than they did at the start of detention. Thank Celestia she had the evening with Spike to look forward to, he’d be able to make heads and tails of this gibberish for her. She just had to endure detention for a bit longer, get her afternoon chores out of the way, and then she’d have another whole evening of Spike’s company all to herself. Doing math homework, unfortunately, but still, time spent together nonetheless. Although, maybe if she was lucky there’d be a sex-ed refresher course before the year was over, and next time he came over he could hide in the barn with her, unfold his scales and teach her all about--
 
Damnit, penis, knock it off!
 
Apple Bloom winced and crossed her hind legs as tight as she could. Goddess, she hoped she could get out of there without popping another erection today…
 
Like an answered prayer, Cheerilee glanced up at the clock and cleared her throat. “Alright girls, I think that’s long enough,” she said, standing up and stacking the papers on her desk in a neat pile. “I hope you were able to make good use of this time and think carefully about your behavior in the future.”
 
“Yes, Miss Cheerilee,” the three fillies said.

“Good. Silver, don’t forget to lock the--”

“Got it, Miss Cheerilee,” Silver assured her, already trotting toward the open window to tug it closed again.

“Alright then, you’re all dismissed.”
 
Not a minute too soon, Apple Bloom thought, stuffing her books back in her saddlebag again and making her way outside.
 
Unfortunately Diamond and Silver moved first, leaving her to walk behind them, and the scent of their estrus was annoyingly strong while downwind of them. Again Apple Bloom had to bite down on that unmentionable train of thought before it could run away and completely break her brain, not to mention prompt another unwelcome erection. Thankfully Diamond Tiara at least had the sense to keep her tail tight between her legs and contain it as best she could. Silver Spoon on the other hoof seemed to have developed a nervous twitch in her tail, swishing it back and forth and fanning Apple Bloom’s muzzle with hormonal musk. A scant few seconds of that had her loins stirring and her mouth halfway open to say something in protest, but her voice froze when she saw Silver looking straight back at her as they walked, and their eyes met. It was just for the briefest of moments, and Silver’s expression was utterly neutral, and she faced forward again almost immediately.
 
But it was enough so that when a second later Silver’s tail flagged completely and exposed a whole three unbroken seconds worth of her wet, winking filly parts, Apple Bloom’s flabbergasted brain was a hundred percent certain she’d done it intentionally.
 
What. The Crap. Was That.
 
Cheerilee, oblivious to Silver’s actions or the fact that Apple Bloom’s eye was twitching again, stepped out to close the school’s front doors and lock them for the night. “Have a good day, girls. I trust things will be more civil tomorrow,” she said, and with one last smile she was gone, trotting down the road toward her home.
 
“Well. Not that this hasn’t been riveting,” Diamond announced to nopony in particular, “but I’m out of here, the sooner I get home, the better.”
 
Neither of the other fillies responded, though privately Apple Bloom agreed. This afternoon was taking a weird turn, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to see where it was going. Besides, she had plans waiting for her at home still, she couldn’t be distracted by one of her sworn enemies lifting her tail and flashing her… bits.
 
Diamond trotted toward the road, stopping at the corner to look back at her cohort. “Well? Are you coming or not?” she barked, cold and irritable.
 
Apple Bloom frowned. “Is that how ya always talk ta yer friends?”
 
“You stay out of it,” Diamond snapped right back.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Ah’m goin’ home,” she said, starting toward the road back to Sweet Apple Acres.
 
“Apple Bloom, wait.”
 
Silver Spoon’s hoof touched her flank, and Apple Bloom stopped and hesitantly glanced backward. “Uh… yeah?”

Silver was blushing and biting her lip when Apple Bloom looked at her, but she took a long, calming breath, and when she spoke again her voice was steady, and shockingly pleasant. “Could I… talk to you? In private?”
 
Apple Bloom felt her nethers twitch again. “Uhh…”
 
“Silver, what do you think you’re doing?” Diamond demanded, starting back toward them.
 
Silver ignored her friend. “Please, Apple Bloom. I need to talk to you, alone.”
 
Alone.
 
She wants to talk to you. Alone.
 
Apple Bloom gulped as she struggled to keep her own voice level. “Uh… about what?”
 
“Something private. But it’s important, I swear. Please?” she almost begged.
 
Some part of Apple Bloom’s brain screamed at her that this was a terrible idea, that Silver had to be pulling some kind of prank again, that she should just turn around right now and sprint home and go about her day. But that image of Silver swishing her tail and exposing her glistening slit wouldn’t leave her thoughts, clouding her judgment and making her own undercarriage quite sure of what Silver actually wanted.
 
“Uhm… sure, Ah guess,” Apple Bloom heard herself say.
 
Silver smiled, relieved, and gripped her hoof, gently tugging her back toward the schoolhouse. “Great… come with me, hurry.”
 
“Silver!” Diamond Tiara shrieked, incensed. “I thought I made myself clear that we are not doing this!”

“Fine. We’re not,” Silver shot back, abruptly cold. “I am.”
 
Diamond recoiled like she’d been punched. “Wh--! You--! You can’t do that!”
 
“You’re not the boss of me, Diamond,” Silver said. “I’m sick of arguing with you. If you’re going to keep being stubborn, then I’ll do it by myself.”
 
Silver huffed and dragged a stunned Apple Bloom around to the side wall of the schoolhouse before Diamond could respond, leaving the two of them alone, if only momentarily.
 
“Uh… Silver? What the hay is goin’ on here?” Apple Bloom wondered aloud.

“I’ll explain everything once we’re inside,” Silver said, stopping in front of one of the windows. “Nopony will bother us in here.”
 
“In here?” Apple Bloom echoed, glancing through the window. The main classroom was right inside, where the three of them had just served detention. In fact, she was pretty sure this was the same window Silver Spoon had opened earlier…
 
Apple Bloom’s jaw dropped. “Are we breaking into school?!”
 
Silver rolled her eyes. “Of course not. We’re sneaking in, there’s a huge difference. I left this window unlocked on purpose earlier. Come on, help me up.”

Apple Bloom grimaced. “This is a bad idea…” she muttered, crouching underneath the windowsill despite herself.
 
Silver gently stepped up onto Apple Bloom’s shoulders, who then stood up straight again, hoisting Silver up more than high enough to reach the window. “Perfect,” she said. “Now just give me a second to wiggle this open…”
 
Apple Bloom glanced upward, intent on watching her work, but instead blushed all the way through to her ears as she got a close, prolonged look under Silver’s tail. She could see everything, from the tiny pink nubs of Silver’s nipples poking through the grey fur to her engorged clitoris and puffy vaginal lips which were so juicy already that--
 
“Guh!” Apple Bloom gasped, spitting and sputtering in shock at the sudden tangy taste on her tongue. “S-Silver, you’re… dripping on me…!”
 
“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Silver said, not sounding very sorry at all. “Estrus season, you know how it is. Don’t worry, I’ve almost got this open.”
 
Apple Bloom doubted now that Silver had really needed her help reaching the window at all. Everything about this view of Silver’s intimate areas was as intentional as the first glance. And it was working, too; Apple Bloom was rapidly losing the fight against her boner the longer she stared (somehow looking away just didn’t sound like something she wanted to do at the moment), and by the time Silver actually got the window open, Apple Bloom was at full mast.
 
Thankfully Silver climbed through the window and the view of her crotch finally vanished, replaced by her face poking out from inside the classroom a second later. “Okay, come on up,” she said, reaching her hooves out to help Apple Bloom climb up.
 
She did so awkwardly, wanting very much not to drag her stiff boy parts across the splintery wooden walls, but she eventually made it inside, hopping off the windowsill and back into the classroom that had been her prison just a few minutes ago. “Why did we hafta come back in here, exactly?” Apple Bloom asked.
 
“Like I said, everypony’s gone for the day, nopony will bother us here,” Silver answered. “We can… talk, in privacy.”
 
“Uh-huh… an’ dare Ah ask what it is we need ta talk about?” Apple Bloom said, though she was sure she already knew the answer.
 
Silver took another deep breath and met Apple Bloom’s gaze again. “Well, you see… it’s just that, you’re a colt now, and--”
 
“Silver, don’t you dare stoop to this!” Diamond Tiara yelled.
 
Apple Bloom and Silver looked around in surprise and saw the third filly struggling through the window alone. She wiggled her way up the wall and forward inch by inch until she flopped forward head over heels, and landed unglamorously on her back across the classroom floor with a loud “Ooof!”
 
“You can object all you want, Diamond, I’ve made up my mind,” Silver said coolly.
 
Diamond scrambled to her hooves and fixed her tiara, glaring at the other two fillies. “Damn it, we talked about this, Silver, and I said it’s not happening! I’d rather have estrus all year round, there’s no way in Tartarus I’m going to go along with this! Not with him!” she shouted, jabbing an emphatic hoof at Apple Bloom.
 
“You didn’t have to follow us in here, you know,” Silver argued. “You only have yourself to blame now.”
 
“Ah knew it,” Apple Bloom groaned, glaring at Silver Spoon. “Ah knew y’all were flashin’ yerself at me on purpose!”
 
“Yes,” Silver admitted. “We were hoping--”
 
“No we weren’t!” Diamond insisted, blushing furiously.
 
“…I was hoping,” Silver amended, “that maybe you would be willing to… n-now that you’re a colt and all…”
 
“You want me to get rid of yer heat,” Apple Bloom finished for her.
 
Silver nodded. “It’s just, you are a colt now, and most of the other colts in class, well, they aren’t exactly…”
 
“Yeah, Ah’m aware.”
 
Silver nodded her agreement. “And then you came back to class yesterday and Scootaloo was practically glowing… and today Sweetie Belle suddenly stopped being a nervous wreck too. You did it for them, didn’t you?”
 
Apple Bloom’s cheeks went bright red. “H-how did you--?!”

“It was painfully obvious,” Diamond said acidly. “You don’t go from a twitchy tea-guzzling mess and popping the world’s tiniest wing-boners to all of a sudden being completely fine, unless you got a real cure for heat. Not that anypony’s surprised that you three stooges are screwing each other…”
 
Apple Bloom glared and snarled. “Oh, shut up! So they asked fer help with their heat cycles, big deal! A’course Ah was happy to help ‘em out, they’re my friends! Which is more’n Ah can say fer either of you!” she added, turning her glare from Diamond to Silver. “What makes ya think Ah’d agree to doin’ anythang fer a brat like you after all the crap you’ve pulled over the years? Just today even, ya body-slammed me an’ tried to kick me in the junk!”
 
Silver bit her lip and sighed. “Look, I… I’m sorry about today, alright?”
 
Apple Bloom snorted. “Oh really.”
 
“Yes,” Silver said. “And… about… you know… all the other stuff, too. With you and your friends.”
 
“‘Other stuff?’ Oh, ya mean like the months of callin’ us blank flanks? An makin’ fun o’ Scootaloo for her flyin’ troubles? An’ lyin’ to us about damn near everythang under the sun, includin’ this here estrus yer pleadin’ fer me to cure now?”
 
Silver squirmed uncomfortably. “Y-yeah. I’m sorry. About all that.”
 
Apple Bloom gave her a deadpan stare. “S’cuse me if Ah’m not in a hurry to believe ya.”
 
“No, I mean it, Apple Bloom, I’m really sorry…”
 
“Silver, stop apologizing to the blank flank!”
 
“Damnit, mah name is Apple Bloom, not blank flank!”
 
“I don’t care!” Diamond screeched, grabbing Silver’s shoulders. “Silver, you can’t do this, think of what other ponies would say--!”
 
“What other ponies?” Silver cut her off. “It’s mating season, Diamond! Everypony else does it, and I’m sick of sitting around with my crotch burning day in and day out!”
 
“But it’s Apple Bloom! Weird lame freaky boy Apple Bloom! Don’t you have any standards?!”
 
“Better him than nothing! Unless you’d rather go lifting your tail for Snips and Snails!”
 
“Good grief, this is what y’all have been fighting about all day?” Apple Bloom said in disbelief, frowning at them both. “Don’t ya got better thangs to worry about than who y’all are willin’ to mate with or not? An’ ya know, Ah’m still a girl, by the way!”
 
“You have a penis, you freak, I can see it!” Diamond shouted.
 
“It’s just a stupid Discord prank!” Apple Bloom shot back, reflexively crossing her legs in front of the offending organ. “He put me in a boy body as a joke!”
 
“Whatever, I don’t care! We are not lowering ourselves to this, Silver--”
 
“You! Are not! The boss of me!”
 
“I refuse to sit here and--”
 
“Then go! Leave!” Silver snapped, shoving her muzzle against Diamond’s. “If you hate the idea so much then get out of here and leave us alone!”
 
Diamond jerked away, sputtering wordlessly into the sudden silence. Silver ignored her, turning away and walking back toward Apple Bloom, who was similarly stunned. She’d guessed some kind of proposition was coming as soon as Silver started presenting herself, but she never expected it to play out like this. It was like watching a repeat of yesterday, with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle devolving into a shouting match over nearly the same thing. Except this time Apple Bloom didn’t have the luxury of knowing the pair well enough to defuse the situation.
 
“Anyway, where were we?” Silver broke the silence.
 
“U-uh…” Apple Bloom stammered. “You were askin’ me to, um…”
 
“Right, yes. So, what do you think?”
 
Apple Bloom blushed. “Erm… I, uh…”
 
“S-so that’s it, huh?” Diamond found her voice again before Apple Bloom could answer, though it was now shaky and emotional. “After we made it this far together, you’re going to break your promise, just like that?”
 
Silver winced, refusing to turn around. “Diamond, come on, don’t do this…”
 
“Promise?” Apple Bloom echoed. “What promise?”
 
“We promised that we’d get through this stupid season, one way or another, together…” Diamond said, staring at the back of Silver’s head. “And now you’re throwing that away for… for what? A little sex? We promised, Silvy…”
 
Apple Bloom’s eyebrow shot all the way up into her mane. “‘Silvy?’”
 
“I know what we promised, Di,” Silver answered. “It’s not like I want to do this without you. And I’m not doing this just because I want sex, either…”
 
“Then… why?”

“Because you’re being completely unreasonable!” Silver said, finally turning to face her again. “You hate dealing with this as much as I do, as much as any filly does, but you’ve said no to every single boy in class--”

“Not every boy…” Diamond countered rather lamely. “Rumble--”

“Rumble said no to you, so close enough!”
 
“He could still change his mind--”
 
“He won’t! He’s got his eyes on another filly and you know it!”
 
Whoa whoa, wait, what? Apple Bloom thought, blinking in dazed surprise. Rumble had eyes for a filly? Who? And how did those two know about it?
 
And wasn’t he supposed to be gay?
 
“Look,” Silver carried on, “I’ve stuck with you so far, because as much as estrus sucks, I’ve agreed with you on most of your calls, and I was willing to just suffer together if we couldn’t settle on a colt that met our standards. And you know what, because we promised, I even stuck with you when you vetoed Button Mash, too, and he’s actually really nice when he’s not staring at a game screen--”
 
If Apple Bloom’s eyebrow could rise any higher it would have left her face entirely. Good gravy, these two had been interested in both Rumble and Button? Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle would go into jealous fits if they heard that…
 
“--But enough is enough! I’m sick of estrus, I’m sick of Moon Tea, and most of all I’m sick of waiting for you to get over yourself!”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Diamond demanded.
 
“Oh please, Di, you might have everypony else convinced, but you can’t fool me. Your crotch was soaked from the second Boy-Bloom first walked into class yesterday.”

Apple Bloom’s eye twitched again.
 
So did her cock.
 
WHAT.
 
Diamond meanwhile went full-on bug-eyed and made a sound so incomprehensible that Apple Bloom didn’t think it was possible to express it in words. “W-whu… kuh! Tch! Pff!” she tried to scoff, even as she turned tomato-red. “T-that is so completely not true. I wouldn’t be caught dead get… g-getting wet over a blank flank!”
 
“Ugh.” Silver rolled her eyes again. “Whatever, you can keep pretending that you’re more concerned with her flank than her undercarriage if you really want to, but I’m not waiting any longer. Apple Bloom? Get over here.”
 
Apple Bloom snapped out of her horrified-yet-aroused daze. “W-what? H-hey now, wait a second, Ah never actually agreed to anythang!”

“Well, you’re still here, aren’t you? So you must be at least considering it.”

Apple Bloom had no response for that but to bite her lip and try to control the throbbing in her cock that was actually starting to hurt now. Goddess, Silver was right; as much as she hated to admit it, especially about these fillies in particular, she was horny enough to turn a blind eye to the past and consider their request. Or Silver’s, anyway. She was actually asking nicely and trying to apologize, at least. Diamond could go suck eggs if she was going to keep acting like this.
 
Still…
 
“I-I dunno know about this, Silver, Ah got a lot to do at home,” she murmured.
 
“It won’t take long, I swear,” Silver insisted. “Please, Apple Bloom, I’m begging you, I can’t take this anymore… please?”
 
Apple Bloom still wavered. “Well…”

Silver seemed to sense her hesitation, and changed tack. “At least give me… five minutes to try to convince you. After that, if you still say no, I’ll stop asking.”
 
“Mmhh… oh, alright, fine, five minutes. But if yer just gonna try to bribe me with bits--”
 
“No, not at all. I have a much better idea,” Silver assured her, swiftly moving to close the window properly this time. “Sit down for a second.”
 
Apple Bloom obeyed, sitting down at one of the desks at the front of the class and tucking her hind legs underneath the desktop to at least try to make the pulsing rod down there a little less obvious. “So, ya got five minutes… explain to me why Ah aughta do anythang at all fer either one o’ ya.”
 
“No,” Silver said, walking back to her. “I’m going to show you why you’ll want to.”
 
“What’s that supposed t--whoa-aaahh!”

Silver grabbed Apple Bloom’s shoulders and spun her a full one-eighty in her stool, pushing her back up against the desktop. Her happily-erect shaft flopped into view with the motion, and before Apple Bloom could try to cover it, Silver dropped to the floor on her haunches, right between Apple Bloom’s hind legs, and grasped the cock between her hooves.
 
“Guhh?! Huuuu… holy…!” she managed, eyes wide and body frozen. Pleasurable nerves fired immediately, shooting through Apple Bloom’s body from the points where Silver’s hooves were touching her dick, making her gasp and groan in shocked pleasure. Silver ignored it, her attention focused on the cock in her grip. The whole thing pulsed and twitched as she started exploring it, her dainty and well-pedicured hooves much softer and more pleasant to the touch than Apple Bloom’s own, gliding smoothly and painlessly over the hard, sensitive flesh.

“Silvy?!” Diamond screeched. “W-what are you doing?!”
 
Silver turned her bespectacled gaze up to Apple Bloom’s eyes, which clearly held the same question, and smiled. “Convincing her,” she said simply, and then opened her mouth, stuck out her tongue, and licked Apple Bloom’s cock.

“Hnnnggggh!” Apple Bloom gasped, her hooves gripping the edges of her seat as Silver’s tongue made its way from the base of her shaft, nearly at her testes, all the way up its length until the tip of her tongue flicked the tip of the cock. “W-what… that… what are you--?!”
 
“Ugh, you’re so uneducated… it’s called fellatio,” Silver said with that snobbish disdain of somepony trying to sound fancy. “I read it in one of my mother’s magazines, for mature mares. It said this drives stallions wild.”
 
“B-but I’m--!”
 
“Somepony with a penis,” Silver finished for her, “which is the part that matters. Now shush, I still have four minutes left.” Silver returned to the cock in her hooves, holding it steady at the base and giving the rest of it a long, slow tongue-bath, despite the obviously forced sounds of retching from Diamond a few feet away.
 
Apple Bloom ignored it too, and everything else that wasn’t Silver Spoon’s tongue right now, because it was a wonderful sensation: soft and warm and wet like the inside of a vagina, but not all the way around her at once. Which was actually okay, because unlike a vagina she didn’t even have to do anything; Silver’s tongue pleased her penis all on its own, stroking over every pleasurable spot it had while Apple Bloom just laid back against the desk and let it happen. She could see why stallions enjoyed this.
 
“Ohh, gosh, Silver,” Apple Bloom moaned. “T-that feels awful nice…”
 
Silver finished another long lick and smiled. “Thank you, but this isn’t even the half of it.”
 
“W-what?”
 
“I’ve got three more minutes, and I intend to use them.” Silver’s lips parted and reached for Apple Bloom’s tip.
 
Diamond Tiara went as wide-eyed as Apple Bloom. “S-Silvy, d-don’t you dare put that in your--!”
 
Too late. Silver’s mouth closed around the thick head of the cock, and now Apple Bloom wondered if perhaps she was inside a filly’s vagina, because the inside of Silver’s mouth felt much the same. Not as tight and constricting, but just as warm and wet, with the added bonus of the girl’s tongue remaining in play, lapping daintily at the beads of slick fluids that formed at the tip. She didn’t take any more into her mouth, but she didn’t need to; it gave her tongue plenty of space to swirl all the way around the head, and her lips were sealed so snugly around it that it felt like she was literally sucking on it.
 
Apple Bloom moaned and gripped the edges of her seat tighter, doing her best not to let these wondrous feelings overwhelm her, but she wasn’t doing a great job of it. Already she was seeing stars in the corners of her eyes, and Silver was merely teasing the tip with her tongue. If she started doing anything else - stroking with her hooves, swallowing more of her cock, or Celestia forbid, anything that resembled thrusting - the remaining two minutes would be too long. Apple Bloom would come, fast.
 
Silver Spoon immediately started doing all three.
 
“Hnngghh!” Apple Bloom gasped and grunted, watching in fascination as Silver’s lips slid downward, filling her mouth with as much cock as she could hold. She reached her limit at the medial ring, and so her hooves took over from there, stroking the rest of Apple Bloom’s shaft from ring to base in her soft, gentle grip. And as if that was somehow not enough, as if Apple Bloom wasn’t already shaking and throbbing and flared at the tip, Silver started bobbing her head back and forth on the upper half of her cock, drawing all the way up to the tip before swallowing it all the way back down to the ring. It was downright unfair, Apple Bloom couldn’t possibly hold back under this kind of pleasure. It was all-encompassing, relentless, and all kinds of incredible.
 
“S-Silvy… h-holy ponyfeathers,” Diamond muttered from somewhere beside them. “You… that… w-wow…”
 
Her words were ignored, as Apple Bloom was enthralled by Silver’s ministrations. The indignant anger seemed to be gone from Diamond’s voice, though, replaced instead with curious awe. Maybe she was finally coming around to Silver’s plan. Assuming Apple Bloom could be convinced to go along with it, which wasn’t a sure thing just yet. She still had another minute left of… of…
 
Oh, who was she kidding? She’d caved the second Silver’s lips touched her cock.
 
That didn’t mean Apple Bloom wanted her to stop though. Stopping any of this felt blasphemous to even think. She wanted nothing more than to let Silver’s mouth take her to the finish line.

Still, a deal was a deal, and she wasn’t going to help Silver at all by blowing a load in her mouth.
 
“Silverrrrrr…” Apple Bloom reluctantly whined. “O-okay, okay, ya convinced me… y-y’all can stop now, Ah’m real close ta blowin’…”
 
Silver hummed and nodded at that, but didn’t stop. Her mouth and hooves kept right on working, if anything faster than before, sucking tighter and tighter on the fully-flared tip of her cock.
 
Apple Bloom gasped and bit her lip, shuddering as Silver continued sucking, and now the situation was desperate. She was hurtling toward the point of no return, and struggled to offer one last warning. “S-Silver…! Silver, you’re gonna… Ah’m gonna…!”
 
“Silvy, what are you--?!”
 
Either the warnings were too late, or Silver didn’t care enough to listen. Even as her mouth released the drool-covered tip, her hooves kept jerking off the rest of the twitching cock, and that was the last the poor girl could stand.
 
Apple Bloom let out a guttural groan and threw her head back as orgasm took her over, an electric shock that ripped through every pleasurable nerve in her body. Her cock throbbed mightily in Silver’s hooves, and then she was coming, hot, thick globs of semen that rocketed out of her flared tip and decked Silver Spoon square in the face. Absolutely everywhere it went, firing wild and random and indiscriminate: two bolts on her lips, three across her cheeks, one over her muzzle, at least four up in her mane (there was another strangled gasp of horror from Diamond at that), and the rest streaking her glasses so badly she probably couldn’t even see out of them anymore. Silver did little more than flinch slightly at the very first pulse, but otherwise did nothing to stop her or even move out of the way, simply letting the steady blasts of cum paint her blushing face white.
 
Apple Bloom couldn’t even begin to imagine why Silver would allow such a thing, but at the same time, she couldn’t be bothered to care. Her orgasm was too overwhelmingly satisfying to do anything but lay back and enjoy it. Her cock kept twitching and spitting, and didn’t stop until Silver’s hooves finally stopped stroking and fell away, so completely plastered with cum from the neck up that if Apple Bloom didn’t know any better, she would have guessed Silver had taken a cream pie to the face.
 
A very warm and gooey cream pie.
 
“Blegh…” Silver muttered, licking her lips and scrunching her muzzle at the taste of Apple Bloom’s semen. “Stallions really like doing this to mares?”

“Mmnnhh… A-Ah dunno about normal stallions, but… Silver, that was… wow…” Apple Bloom said between deep breaths. “Ah dunno what kinda magazine ya learned that from, but it felt real good…”
 
“Oh, heh… w-well, thank you…”
 
“‘Thank you?!’” Diamond yelped. “Silver Spoon, have you gone completely insane?!”

“Huh?” Silver murmured distractedly, looking toward the sound of her voice. “Diamond? Are you… still here? I can’t see you--”
 
“Well of course you can’t, he freaking blinded you with jizz! You should be kicking his stupid blank flank, not thanking him…!”

Apple Bloom glared tiredly at Diamond Tiara. “Hey, it wasn’t mah fault, Ah wasn’t the one aimin’ the darn thing…”
 
“Tch, excuses!” Diamond scoffed as she walked right up to the other two and peered down at her best friend to inspect the damage. “Ugh, just as I thought, you little cretin, you got a bunch in her mane! That’s really hard to wash out, you know! Almost as bad as gum!” Her muzzle scrunched, and her cheeks reddened further. “Blegh, and this stuff reeks, too… she’s gonna have to scrub for hours to get the hick smell off, and wash it all out of her pores… so disgusting…”

“Hey, Ah warned her,” Apple Bloom grunted. “Ah said Ah was close, like three times, she jus’ kept on goin’ like she didn’t hear me.”
 
“And that’s another thing!” Diamond added, rounding back on Silver Spoon, who was struggling to wipe enough cum off her glasses to see again. “How can you be s-so stupid, huh?!”
 
Silver blinked up at her friend, though Apple Bloom doubted the poor filly could see any more than a pink blob, her glasses were still so smeared with semen. “W-what? What do you mean?”
 
“Y-you know perfectly well what I mean!” Diamond insisted, her voice strangely shaky and emotional again. “A-after all this effort you went through to get a stupid boy to m-mount you, you got so caught up in getting him off that… t-that instead of sticking him in your dumb p-pussy like you’re supposed to, you make him come in your face and waste his whole load?! What if he c-can’t do it again, huh? You’ll have done all this crap for nothing, Silvy! Y-you’ll still… still be…”

Silver stared back at Diamond in shock for a moment, and then slowly broke out into a guilty smile. “Heh, yeah… you’re right, Di… I guess I messed that up pretty bad, huh?”
 
“Damn right you did…” Diamond grumbled, absently fussing with loose strands of Silver’s mane. “Letting him come in your hair… on your glasses… nowhere close to actually relieving your stupid hormones… y-you’re so horny you’re not even thinking straight, are you?”
 
“Heh… y-yeah… maybe I’m not…”
 
“Hey, come on, ain’t no need to rub it in her face like that,” Apple Bloom said.
 
“You shut up,” Diamond snapped. “I think she’s got plenty in her face already, thanks to you.”
 
“Ah told you it wasn’t mah fault, she--!”
 
“Oh no, you don’t get to weasel out of responsibility now!” Diamond interrupted. “You agreed to help Silvy with her heat, blank flank! W-well, news flash, you missed! So… s-so you better have another round in that stupid freak cock of yours to help her properly!”
 
Apple Bloom gave her a vacant stare and a raised eyebrow. “Wait, so… now ya want me to…?”
 
Diamond huffed again and turned her nose up at Apple Bloom. “Well it’s not exactly ideal… but it’s apparently what Silvy really wants… and after what she’s already done for you to get it, as far as I’m concerned you owe her now! S-so get started already!”

“Okay, okay, jeez!” Apple Bloom grumbled, standing up again on shaky legs. “Jus’… jus’ gimme a minute to recharge.”

“Ugh… fine. It’ll give me a chance to salvage at least some of the damage you caused… sit down, Silvy, let me take a closer look at you.”

Silver silently obeyed, taking the seat Apple Bloom vacated and laying her head back, allowing Diamond to hover over her with a critical stare. “So… wait, what is this, Di? Are you… going along with this now?”

“I never said that!” she snapped. “…But apparently you just can’t restrain yourself, and the last thing I’m going to do is let you throw yourself at some boy’s mercy alone. We promised, after all…”
 
Silver smiled hopefully. “So… you’ll do it?”
 
“…I’ll watch.” Diamond blushed sharply after a brief pause. “Just to make sure no funny-business happens!”
 
“…Hehe… good enough,” Silver agreed. “…I’d hug you, but you’re still just kind of a pink and purple blob…”
 
“Ugh, give me those,” Diamond said, her tone a mix of disgust and pity, and grabbed Silver’s glasses. “So stupid… can’t believe you let him come all over your face like that… look at all this nasty… slimy… grossness.” Her nose curled and she blushed again as she sniffed at the dirtied glasses and got a blast of the pungent scent of male essence. “Holy ponyfeathers, it stinks… it smells like…”

“Boys?” Silver offered.
 
“Gross, sweaty, smelly boys…” Diamond countered. “This is gonna be so disgusting…”
 
“What is?” Apple Bloom asked.

Diamond either didn’t hear or ignored her, instead focusing on the glasses in her hooves, her lip curled in a slight grimace. Before the other two could question her any further, though, she scrunched her eyes shut, brought the eyewear up to her mouth, and slowly ran her tongue across the lenses. She picked up every trace of semen smearing them in two short, slow licks, and then after only a brief hesitation, swallowed the whole mouthful.

Apple Bloom let out a strangled gasp of shock and arousal, staring at Diamond. “Holy…!”
 
“What, what’s happening?” Silver said. “I can’t see anything!”

“Blegh, good,” Diamond answered, shuddering and squirming but now holding a much cleaner pair of glasses. She buffed off the saliva with her fur and placed them gingerly back on Silver Spoon’s face. “You probably didn’t want to see it anyway…”
 
“Speak for yourself…” Apple Bloom muttered.
 
Diamond  rolled her eyes. “What, did you think that was hot or something, you pervert?”
 
Apple Bloom jolted and looked guilty, mostly because her dick was ready and raring to go again after seeing that. “Hey, Ah can’t help it if this thing gets stiff so eas--”
 
“Well too bad, I didn’t do it for you to get off to, I did it because I’m not going to let my best friend sit here blinded because you can’t control your jizz.” Diamond scoffed and turned her nose up. “And I don’t exactly carry washrags around with me, so, I licked it off, whatever…”
 
Silver glowed in embarrassment. “S-seriously? Di, you didn’t have to do that--”
 
“I said ‘whatever,’ okay? It’s just a little cum, jeez… you’re my best friend, I’d do way grosser stuff for you than that…”
 
“What about lick the rest of her face clean?” Apple Bloom said with a smirk.
 
“Aren’t you supposed to be recharging?” Diamond shot back.
 
“Eh-heh… actually Ah think Ah’m pretty well ready now,” Apple Bloom admitted, stepping forward again.
 
“…Is… is there really some in my mane?” Silver asked.
 
“Blegh… yeah,” Diamond confirmed. “Jeez, weren’t you even looking where you were pointing that thing? We both read that fellatio article, you know what it said about getting cum in your mane. Just because the mares were letting their faces get covered in the pictures doesn’t mean you had to risk it. Now it’s gonna sit there and dry in your mane and get all crusty and gross and… and…”
 
Silver responded only with a guilty pout and a pleading stare.
 
Diamond stared back for a beat, but eventually heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes again. She leaned closer, hovering near her cum-dripping face. “Fine. But you owe me big time for this.”
 
“Holy ponyfeathers, Ah was just jokin’!” Apple Bloom gasped.
 
“Why don’t you mind your own business and get to work?!”
 
Apple Bloom had intended to, but it was hard to focus, even on Silver’s wet and waiting nethers, when faced with Diamond Tiara voluntarily pressing her muzzle to Silver Spoon’s forehead and licking up a second small helping of Apple Bloom’s plentiful seed.
 
And then another.
 
And another.
 
And another, until she’d sucked clean every cum-stained strand of Silver’s mane and still continued downward, leaving her forehead just as spotless. And she wasn’t stopping there. For a moment Apple Bloom flashed back to her romp with Scootaloo yesterday, and the memory of getting her face licked clean of cum-stains by one of her best friends. Except this time she was a third party, watching the scene play out in all its glory before her as Diamond paid all the same tender attention to own her best friend, and she sincerely couldn’t decide if it was hotter watching it, or living it. Or if it even mattered, really; her penis could only get so erect, and she was pretty sure she’d reached that limit. She wanted - needed - to put it to work soon.  Just… one or two more minutes of watching, and she’d get right on it…
 
“Di, y-you really didn’t have to get it all,” Silver said in awe as Diamond licked across her cheeks and muzzle. “Just my mane was fine…”

“L-like I’m going to let you walk out of here with c-cum all over your face…” Diamond answered. Her voice was quivering again, her breaths heavy between words and her cheeks a deep shade of pink as she swallowed her final mouthful. “I-I just don’t want it drying all over your face, that’s all…”
 
“Or maybe somepony likes it more’n she’s lettin’ on,” Apple Bloom chimed in.

Diamond leveled a death glare at her, made less threatening by her cheeks soaring past pink and into a bright red. “Okay, you know what, you’re not allowed to talk anymore until you’re fucking Silver!”
 
Apple Bloom snickered, but nodded and moved forward as Diamond backed away. Silver was very much ready for her; her back was draped across her desk and her butt comfortably planted in her chair, her legs splayed fully apart and showing off the entrance to her soaked channel in obvious invitation. Apple Bloom took it, rearing her front hooves up onto the desk on either side of Silver’s head and shoulders, and prodded the tip of her dick at Silver’s outer lips.
 
Silver let out a pleasant squeak, biting her lip in a mix of both nervous and excited anticipation as she met Apple Bloom’s eyes. Apple Bloom was nicely lined up and firm against Silver’s well-lubricated hole, ready and waiting. An unspoken question passed between them, and Silver gave a swift, affirmative nod. “Go ahead… do it.”

Apple Bloom nodded back, and got to work. All it took now was a little gentle pressure for Silver’s lower lips to part and let Apple Bloom sink her cock deep into Silver’s slick, velvety insides. She did so slowly, savoring the initial penetration; she hadn’t gotten to do so her first two times, so this time she wanted to enjoy every individual inch of her cock being enveloped in pussy, to watch those soft, puffy lips open wide and hungrily devour the sizable girth of her stallion meat one little bit at a time. Silver didn’t seem to mind, her moans more content than insistent for now, and so Apple Bloom didn’t hurry, spending what felt like a full minute on simply penetrating her for the first time before their hips finally met and she let herself drink in the full pleasure of the experience.
 
Like her other partners so far, Silver Spoon’s pussy also had a unique feel to it. It wasn’t as wet as Scootaloo’s, or as tight as Sweetie Belle’s; instead it felt like a happy medium between the two, comfortably snug around her cock but wet and yielding enough that when Apple Bloom gave a slow, experimental thrust, she could do so nice and smoothly, making Silver gasp and moan decidedly louder. Her inner walls hugged and squeezed her cock as Silver’s pleasure spiked, but it was a soft pressure, comforting rather than constricting, like being back in Silver’s mouth again with her lips sealed around her cock and the wet warmth of her tongue bathing it with lavish attention, except the feeling engulfed her entire length.
 
“Ahh… horseapples, that’s nice…” Apple Bloom murmured. “You okay down there, Silver?”

Silver mumbled something that barely qualified as speech but sounded vaguely affirmative, her eyes tightly closed.
 
Apple Bloom raised her eyebrow uncertainly. “Er…?”
 
“S-she said she’s fine,” Diamond answered in her friend’s place.
 
Apple Bloom flinched, the sound of Diamond’s voice startling her into glancing at the other filly. “Cripes, Diamond, Ah practically forgot y’all were still here… uh…” She trailed off as she really looked over the third filly in the room.
 
Diamond Tiara was currently sitting on her haunches to Apple Bloom’s left, close enough to hold Silver’s right foreleg in one of her own… but the other was between her hind legs, her hips wiggling and fidgeting and almost thrusting against it in a string of subtle, jerking motions, and there was a tiny puddle of filly juices forming beneath her rump.
 
Apple Bloom’s jaw dropped in awe. Was she… masturbating?
 
Diamond threw her a dirty look at the momentary pause in the action, apparently oblivious to her gawking. “W-well, d-don’t just stand there…!” she barked. “S-she’s ready for you, get moving!”
 
Apple Bloom flinched again and nodded, trying to banish the frighteningly sexy image of Diamond touching herself, and refocused on Silver Spoon. Thankfully it didn’t take much effort, her pussy still felt wonderful around Apple Bloom’s cock, and soon enough she was planting her hooves on the desk on either side of Silver’s body and rutting her in earnest.
 
Her pace was modest, only slightly faster than she’d started out when screwing Sweetie Belle, but Silver kept moaning for more, which to Apple Bloom meant full steam ahead, and so she kept her steady, mostly-gentle pace, drilling into Silver with an almost eerie level of calm and control. She wasn’t sure if it was just because Silver had helped her spend a load already, or if she was just getting enough experience that the sensations of sex weren’t quite so overwhelming, but for the most part Apple Bloom was able to keep her head this time, even as her pleasure swiftly built to a crescendo.
 
“A-and don’t you even think about quitting before Silvy gets off!” Diamond piped up again.
 
“Ah’ve got it under control, jeez,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah don’t think that’ll be a problem anyhow, from the way she’s squeezin’ me.”
 
It was true; in no time Silver’s pleasured cries were reaching a fever pitch. Her front hooves tightened around Apple Bloom’s neck and Diamond’s one free foreleg, and her inner walls were flexing faster and tighter around the invader, desperate to squeeze tight enough to hold Apple Bloom inside and force her pulsing cock to expel its seed. She was ready to come, and Apple Bloom had to speed herself up to make sure she wasn’t far behind. She didn’t want the poor, needy filly to suffer the agony of a climax without being seeded.
 
Not fer long, at least, she thought with a vindictive smirk.
 
Silver came just seconds later, wailing at the top of her lungs and clenching down on Apple Bloom’s cock tight enough to stop her thrusts entirely, if only for a few moments. She yanked Diamond as close as possible to the desk and crushed her hoof in her trembling grip, and now the pink filly was treated to a very close-up view of her best friend writhing in ecstasy, her cheeks red and her mane braid completely undone and her glasses askew once again.

“H-holy crap, Silver, are you… c-coming?” Diamond stammered, fidgeting as she ground her crotch against her free hoof.
 
“She sure is,” Apple Bloom answered for her, saving her the trouble of trying to form a coherent sentence mid-climax. “Told ya Ah had it under control… mmmff…”

“F-fine, then, good,” Diamond said, apparently satisfied as she closed her eyes and let a lazy smile cross her face. “N-now hurry up and do your part…”
 
“Almost there,” Apple Bloom said, leaning more fully over Silver’s body and gathering strength for the home stretch. Silver’s peak was winding down, releasing the vice grip on her cock, but Apple Bloom didn’t start again just yet…
 
“Mmhh… wh… wha… huh…?” Silver finally found her voice again, looking up at Apple Bloom’s face that was now inches from her own. Her cheeks grew hotter and hotter, and her heavy breaths grew thicker and fogged up her glasses, though not enough to totally hide the growing shock in her eyes. The estrus hormones now surged through her at full strength, Apple Bloom guessed, riding the coat-tails of her orgasm and wiping out any sense of satisfaction it might have given her. Her body squirmed and twitched uncomfortably, her nethers grew noticeably hotter as her body temperature rose dramatically, her eyes clenched closed in a wince that resembled pain, and when they opened again there was near-panic in them, searching Apple Bloom’s knowing gaze and pleading with her for an explanation.

“Yeah, Ah know what yer feelin’ right now,” Apple Bloom whispered to her. “That heat, ballin’ up deep in yer core, drivin’ ya crazy, right?”
 
Silver clutched her own chest and gave a frantic nod.
 
“Ah just wanted ya to know… that’s what it feels like. That’s what ya did ta me the other day, lyin’ ta me an’ telling me ta try gettin’ off without a stallion like that.”
 
Silver whimpered in desperation, shame and regret filling her expression. “Oh goddess, Apple Bloom, I’m so sorry… w-we heard it was bad but we didn’t… n-nopony ever said… oh goddess, Apple Bloom, this is horrible, I can’t stand it, please, please don’t leave me like this, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know, honest, please, please get rid of it…!”
 
Apple Bloom smiled, satisfied, and gently bumped her muzzle with her own as she resumed thrusting. “Apology accepted… don’t worry, Ah’ll take care o’ ya.”

“Th-thank you… Apple Bloom--aaahhh!” Silver yelped.
 
Apple Bloom didn’t keep her waiting long, her own orgasm was close. Another minute or so and she’d be there, maybe less if there was just a little extra stimulation…
 
“Mmmhh… mmff… hnnhh…!”
 
Apple Bloom glanced at Diamond, the source of the new moans, and found her stimulation. The pink filly had apparently checked out of the conversation completely, because her eyes were closed and her focus was entirely upon her own nethers, frantically rubbing a hoof up and down her puffy pink pussy lips and dripping shamelessly all over the floor. She was lost in her fantasy, whatever it was, masturbating full-force and oblivious to the fact that Apple Bloom was staring at her and screaming toward her own climax at triple speed now.
 
Holy Luna, Diamond Tiara masturbating should not be nearly this hot.
 
But it was, it so was, and Apple Bloom went over the edge again, rolling her eyes back and hilting roughly inside Silver’s pussy as orgasm took her. Silver too, she guessed, from the way her inner walls were suffocating her cock again, but that was fine, she was cumming now, in short, rapid bursts of white, gooey warmth. It wasn’t as copious a load as the first round, only half as many spurts this time around, but still plentiful enough, every shot as thick and generous as before as it painted the depths of Silver’s pussy this time instead of her face. Apple Bloom grunted in deep satisfaction, thrusting a few more times and really hammering her load in deep, just for good measure. Silver clearly appreciated it, too; her moans took on a much more satisfied tone, and when she finally relaxed she was smiling from ear to ear like the happiest filly in the world.
 
“Ahhh, jus’ what the doctor ordered,” Apple Bloom said, heaving a tired breath and pulling out of Silver with a loud, obscene pop.

“T-thank you… oh my goddess, thank you…” Silver whispered. She tumbled limply down to the floor and closed her legs before any of the cum could escape. “I feel a million times better already…”
 
“Y-yeah, heh, I hear it’s a good feelin,” Apple Bloom muttered, dropping to her butt to rest her hind legs for a minute as her cock started going limp again. “Uh, sorry about… ya know, makin’ ya wait like that.”
 
“It’s okay, I deserved it,” Silver said. “I’m sorry too…”

“Forget it,” Apple Bloom waved her off. “Ah’m willin’ ta bet it was mostly Diamond’s doing anyhow, am Ah right?”

“…Well… er… um…”
 
“Ah’ll take that as a yes,” Apple Bloom said, looking over at the other filly. “Speakin’ of which, Diamond… uh…”
 
“Mmmfff… hnnnh… Come on… fuck, come on…!”
 
Whatever she’d been about to say was forgotten as she realized that Diamond Tiara was still going to town on herself, her face flushed and her hoof a blur as she both rubbed herself with it and humped against it. The puddle of filly juice under her hips was much bigger now, and her tail was holding itself neatly off to one side, inviting inside anypony who might find their way back there.
 
Silver caught Apple Bloom’s gaze and sat up to look for herself, going beet red all over again. “D-Di?”
 
“Aaahhh, fuck, yes!” Diamond shrieked, shaking from head to hoof as she brought herself to orgasm, releasing a fresh torrent of juices to join those already pooled beneath her. She came in spurts, drenching herself and the floor two, three, four, five times, broken up only by Diamond humping the air in front of her and pressing her hoof into her folds until she gushed again. Apparently she was as much of a squirter as Scootaloo, Apple Bloom observed, if not more so, and goddess help her, that was an incredibly hot thing to even realize, let alone watch live. More than hot enough to make her dick hard yet again, despite two rounds already in the last twenty minutes.
 
“D-Diamond, holy crap, w-we’re right here…!” Silver stammered.
 
Diamond’s eyes were hazy as they opened, but soon focused on the other fillies in the room, realizing they were both staring at her. “O-oh… you’re done already?”

“Uh… yeah, we finished a couple o’ minutes ago,” Apple Bloom answered. “What, uh… what were you doing?”

Diamond looked down at the mess she’d made as the afterglow of her orgasm swiftly wore off, her pleased expression replaced with one of mild horror for the barest of seconds before it was masked in haughty indifference. “N-never mind that!” she snapped, standing up on shaky legs. “W-well, if you two are done, then I guess we can get… get out of… of here…”

Diamond stumbled as she tried to take a step, barely catching herself but slumping back to the floor anyway, her chest heaving with deeper and deeper breaths and her eyes starting to bug out. Her hips twitched and shook back and forth, her tail strained to hold itself away from her backside, and as her eyes fell on Apple Bloom’s newly-hard cock, her deep breaths became full-on, tongue-out panting.
 
Oh right, Apple Bloom realized. Diamond was in heat too. And she’d just gotten herself off solo. Which meant…
 
“A-actually, I’ve changed my mind,” Diamond said shakily. She straightened up and approached Apple Bloom, doing a poor job of feigning boredom when she was looking at her with the most obvious bedroom eyes any of them had ever seen. “Y-you still look, like, stupid horny… and you did my best friend a big favor and all, so… if you really need to get your brainless little cock off again, I guess I’ll let you fuck me too… just this once.”
 
And with surprisingly little fanfare, Diamond turned around and presented her winking, sopping-wet cunt to Apple Bloom. “So… hurry up and get it over with, blank flank.”
 
Apple Bloom stared vacantly at Diamond’s so-called ‘offering,’ a blatant attempt to save at least a little face, and somehow, for once… Apple Bloom resisted. It’s not that she wasn’t tempted. Oh, by the goddesses, she was tempted. But there was that line again.
 
‘Blank flank.’
 
Blank flank blank flank blank flank.
 
No matter how many times she heard it and told herself to let it roll off her fur, it gnawed at her. She was almost numb to it on one level, but on another level, nothing pissed her off more. Days, months, years on end she’d endured the insult, hating the line and the filly spouting it a little more each time. And now here Diamond was again, shameless and transparent in her attempt to hide her burning need for seed that only Apple Bloom had shown any willingness to provide, and even now, at her most desperate, she couldn’t bother to hold her tongue, taunting Apple Bloom with the thing that had eluded her for years and caused her more than a few sleepless nights. It was almost enough to make Apple Bloom actually lose her erection.
 
…Almost.
 
Still, she wasn’t about to let it go. Not this time.
 
“Well?” Diamond demanded. “Hurry up, blank flank, are we doing this or not?”
 
Apple Bloom waited until Diamond looked back and met her eyes, and then, very slowly and intentionally, smirked at her. “…No.”
 
Diamond’s ears twitched and her eyes bulged. “…What?”
 
“You heard me. Ah said, ‘No.’”
 
Diamond stared at her in silence, thrown for a long moment. She looked at Silver Spoon for help, but the other filly was just as stunned, shrugging her shoulders helplessly. Her hips began to fidget impatiently, and her breath came out so heavy she nearly choked on it. “W-what do you mean, ‘no?’ Didn’t you hear me? I said--”
 
“Ah heard what ya said, an’ the answer is no.”
 
Diamond gawked, slack-jawed, and turned back around to face her properly. She was incapable of sitting still now; her jaw worked wordlessly for something to say, her hooves shook as she rocked back and forth in place and stamped her hooves, her eyes and ears twitched back and forth… it was like watching the Pinkie Sense go off. It was kind of funny.
 
“You… you seriously don’t want to--?” Diamond said once she found her voice again. “B-bullshit, I’m the hottest filly in town, how could you possibly not want to fuck me?!”
 
“Well,” Apple Bloom said in a deliberately slow drawl, “if Ah’m bein’ real honest, Di, yer kind of a mean, nasty, arrogant li’l bitch, an’ I don’t much like ya at all.”
 
Diamond gasped, incensed. “How dare you!” she hissed, her face twisted in fury.
 
Apple Bloom didn’t care. It felt good to finally say that to her face. “Are we done here?” She turned toward the door. “Ah got stuff ta do at home.”
 
She hadn’t taken two steps before Diamond grabbed her tail. “W-wait!”
 
Apple Bloom stopped. “Now what?”
 
Diamond was outright struggling to breathe now, trying desperately to stay composed. “O-okay, so, fine, I’m a bitch, whatever. B-but don’t act like that fucking hard-on isn’t because of me, I know it is.”
 
Damn. She had her there. “Might be,” Apple Bloom said aloud, playing coy. “So?”
 
“So, don’t you want to do something about it?!”
 
“Well, that depends.”
 
“On what?!”
 
“On whether yer gonna apologize or not.”
 
Diamond scoffed, predictably enough. “Apologize? To a blank flank? For what?!”
 
Apple Bloom gave her a droll stare.
 
Even Silver Spoon face-hoofed.
 
Diamond eyed them both one by one, landing on Silver last. “…What? Don’t tell me you’re taking her side? Forget it, why should I apologize for doing her the favor of letting her mount me?”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes when Silver didn’t answer. “Yeah, Ah thought so. Later, Di.”
 
This time she took three steps before Diamond yanked her tail again. “W-wait! Wait, damnit! You can’t leave me like this!” she shrieked, her voice cracking.
 
Finally.
 
Apple Bloom smirked and turned back again. “Like what?”
 
“Like… like…” Diamond stammered, quivering in place. “Nnnggh, fine, you dumb hick, I’m in heat and I need a fucking colt to rut me, okay?!”
 
“Gee, Diamond, I thought ya said y’all could take care of yerself with just yer hooves,” Apple Bloom drawled her words back at her, her smirk growing. “Isn’t that what you were doin’ in that puddle over there?”
 
“Fuck you!”
 
Apple Bloom snickered at her. “Well sorry, Diamond, but that’s karma for ya. Maybe next time ya won’t trick unsuspectin’ fillies into doin’ this ta themselves.”
 
Diamond laughed coldly even as her hips quivered and a whimper slipped out. “Oh my goddess, d-did you actually f-fall for that crap? How f-fucking dumb can you be?”
 
“No dumber’n you right now.”
 
“W-well I didn’t think it would be this bad! My whole ass feels like it’s on fucking fire!”
 
“That’s a real foul mouth ya found all of a sudden,” Apple Bloom teased. “Somepony aughta wash it out with soap.”
 
“Damnit, Apple Bloom, I’m serious, you can’t leave me like this!”
 
“If y’all apologize, maybe Ah won’t.”

“Nnnggh, fine, I’m sorry, now do something!”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes again. “Ya know, if yer gonna fake an apology, th’ least you could do is try a little harder.”
 
“Damnit, listen to me, you stupid blank flank--”
 
“No, you listen!” Apple Bloom talked over her. “Ah’m sick o’ you runnin’ yer mouth at me all the time, especially this blank flank nonsense! If Ah said or did even a tenth o’ the crap you have, Ah’d get mah rear-end switched so hard Ah wouldn’t be able ta sit fer a week! But you just keep on gettin’ away with it scot-free! Well not anymore! Far as Ah’m concerned y’all can sit there an’ be miserable, ‘cause you deserve it!”
 
Diamond recoiled, stunned into silence again as the words sunk in, and Apple Bloom turned around one more time to make for the exit. Diamond didn’t grab her tail at all this time, and when she actually got all the way to the front door she almost thought that Diamond was going to let her go. But just as her hoof reached for the latch…
 
“W-wait…”
 
Apple Bloom stopped and looked back one last time. “What now?”
 
Diamond’s lower lip quivered as Apple Bloom looked back, and her eyes fell to the floor. “…I’m sorry, okay? T-there, I said it. S-so… help me. Please. I-I’ll do anything you want, just… just don’t leave me like this… please…”
 
Apple Bloom looked back at her in sincere surprise. Wow, she marveled. Diamond actually said “please” and meant it. Even Silver was stunned.
 
Guess there really was a first time for everything.
 
Still, was it enough to make Apple Bloom willing to help her mortal enemy?
 
She almost wanted to say ‘no’ still, and leave her with her heat overdrive. The thought of Diamond in utter misery was more appealing than her conscience wanted to admit, and it wasn’t as though the bully didn’t deserve it. Detention today was probably the closest thing to  a real punishment that she’d ever gotten for any of the nastiness she’d committed over the years. Leaving her like this would go a long way toward making up for it all.
 
On the other hoof, her cock was so hard it hurt, and it really wanted to rut Diamond.
 
Apple Bloom shuddered, excited and aroused and a little embarrassed. It was kind of scary how tempting the lure of sex could be.
 
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t make the little brat work for it.
 
And oh did she ever have an idea for that.

Apple Bloom turned away from the door and walked back over to Diamond until she was standing right over the prone filly. “…Anythang Ah want, huh?”
 
Diamond stiffened, as though she already regretted the words, but didn’t take them back, instead gritting her teeth and nodding. “Yes…”
 
“You’ll stop callin’ me an’ my friends blank flanks?”
 
Diamond’s face was nearly a grimace. “…Yes.”
 
“And you’ll apologize fer all the bad stuff ya did to us?”
 
“I already said I was sorry…!”
 
“Yeah, well, Ah still don’t think ya mean it,” Apple Bloom said. She walked past her toward the teacher’s desk, her eyes lighting up as she quickly found the item she was looking for. “You ain’t never been punished fer nothin,’ not really. All the bad stuff ya do, nopony ever gave ya any consequences fer it all. Y’all don’t know what it means ta really be sorry.”
 
Diamond couldn’t hold back a derisive snort. “What’re you gonna do, spank me?”

Apple Bloom’s only answer was a mischievous grin as she grabbed her prize off Cheerilee’s desk and pulled it into view.
 
Diamond’s sneer vanished.
 
Silver gasped and covered her mouth with her hooves.
 
Cheerilee’s meter stick was loosely draped over Apple Bloom’s shoulder as she held it in one hoof, thick enough to be firm but thin enough to bend just a bit, and at least half as wide as a filly’s hoof. The end Apple Bloom was holding was covered by a rubber grip, designed for an Earth Pony to comfortably hold it in either their hoof or their mouth, and the whole length of it was polished and sanded smooth against splinters, even the corners and edges. Apple Bloom couldn’t have fashioned a better switch herself.

Which was precisely what she was intent on using it as.
 
“No. N-no way. Y-you’ve lost your fucking mind if you think I’m letting you anywhere n-near my backside with that thing!” Diamond stammered, curling her tail back under herself at last.
 
“We’ll see about that,” Apple Bloom answered coolly, examining the meter stick to make sure it wasn’t chipped or frayed anywhere.
 
“Y-you can’t! You can’t make me!”
 
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Well duh, ‘course Ah can’t make ya.”
 
Diamond hesitated, her eyes darting in every direction in search of the other hoof dropping. “…Y-yeah. That’s right, you can’t.”
 
“Right,” Apple Bloom said, and grinned. “You’re gonna ask me to.”
 
Diamond’s jaw dropped. “…Now I know you’ve lost it. Why the hay would I do that?!”
 
“That’s mah price. Take a lickin’ fer once in yer spoiled li’l life, an’ Ah’ll relieve yer heat.”
 
Diamond sputtered wordlessly, stamping her hooves in indignation. “Y-you… you dare… t-this is… this is cruel and unusual, you… you can’t do this to me, you stupid little blank flank hillbilly…!”
 
“Ah ain’t doin’ anythang to ya,” Apple Bloom reminded her. “Not unless ya ask.”
 
Diamond snarled and gnashed her teeth, trying her best to look indignant, but her body gave her away as it quaked with need, her rump wiggling and her tail slowly rising back up from between her legs, significantly more damp than it was before. She cast a glance sideways at Silver Spoon in search of support, but if anything Silver actually looked like she agreed with Apple Bloom, and was more than interested in seeing the offer put in motion.
 
“So what’s it gonna be?” Apple Bloom said.
 
“…How much?” Diamond eventually asked.
 
“Oh, lessee here…” Apple Bloom rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Ah think one fer every time ya called me a blank flank aughta do it.”
 
“What?!”
 
“T-that must be… like… a-a couple dozen times, at least…” Silver stammered.
 
“Hmm, yeah, that sounds about right, at least,” Apple Bloom agreed. “Let’s call it twenty-five.”
 
“Twenty-five hits with… with that?!” Diamond echoed, shaking all over now as she eyed the meter stick. “I-I didn’t say it that much!”
 
“Well, if ya want, we could think back an’ count ‘em up fer the real number--”
 
“No!” Diamond yelped. “N-no, that… I-I mean, don’t bother, t-twenty-five is… t-that’s probably fine…”
 
Apple Bloom grinned. “So is that a yes?”
 
Diamond hesitated again. “…If… if you breathe even a word of this to… to anypony, I swear to Celestia, you--”
 
“Won’t leave this room, Ah promise.”
 
“…Fine, then…” Diamond said, barely above a whisper. “L-let’s get this over with, bla--… I mean… whatever, hurry up…”
 
“Ya made the right choice,” Apple Bloom said, her grin growing. She pulled out the stool she and Silver had each already sat in that afternoon, and placed it in the middle of the aisle. “Lie across this on yer stomach and pick up yer tail.”
 
Diamond seethed, her face burning with embarrassment, but did as she was told, laying across the stool on her chest and stomach so that her front hooves and muzzle dangled over the floor and her backside stuck upright on the other side. Then, with one last grunt of indignation, she lifted her tail fully up and out of the way.
 
For a while Apple Bloom just stared, a lazy smile wandering across her face. She’d never really paid attention to it before, but Diamond Tiara really was an attractive filly, and her butt was one of her best features. A life of luxury had treated her well, and in no place was it more apparent than that ass. Particularly the fact that there was a lot of it. It wasn’t fat, exactly, but it was definitely plump, with little more than the bare minimum muscle one got from simply walking around. The rest was thick, squishable flesh, round enough that it could almost obscure her nether regions unless you spread her cheeks. She was still soaked from her first orgasm, steady droplets of fresh filly fluids leaking from her lower lips even now. Must’ve been a real good one, Apple Bloom thought.  That, or Diamond was as turned on by this as Apple Bloom herself was.
 
And that was quite a lot.

Two days ago she never would have believed it, that she could possibly be this aroused by Diamond Tiara’s ass, but here she was, sporting an outright painful boner as she stared at the succulent pink curves, her cock throbbing as she imagined what that ass would look like bright red and jiggling as she spanked it. She hadn’t even started yet, but Apple Bloom already knew she was going to enjoy every second of this.
 
“W-well?” Diamond finally demanded after a minute of silence. “What are you waiting for? I’m dying over here…!”
 
Apple Bloom finally paced closer, walking awkwardly on three legs with her fourth holding the ruler. “We both know that ain’t how this works. Ah pick the ‘when,’ it’s yer job to just wait and take it. Or have ya never been spanked at home?”
 
“Of course not! Unlike some ponies, I come from a civilized family, my parents would nev--AH!”
 
Whatever Diamond Tiara had been saying was lost in the sharp crack as the first swing of the ruler came down hard across the center of her cheeks, sending a ripple through the flesh. To her credit, she didn’t try to run away immediately, but she clearly regretted this, from the way she was already fidgeting her ass to try and avoid another hit. Apple Bloom heard the sympathetic wince from Silver, but ignored it.
 
“One.”
 
“You don’t have to ke--eep!” Another strike came down, faster this time, a little lighter, and only on one side. It caught Diamond by surprise, her dock twitching and sending her tail flicking around for a moment.
 
“Oh yes Ah do. Two. And if ya make me lose track? That’s ‘zero,’ got it?”
 
The other filly probably wanted to object violently at that, but thought better of it; she was at Apple Bloom’s mercy now, although mercy had very little to do with it. After just two hits, the faint red marks were already showing up under her pale fur, and Apple Bloom would be lying if she didn’t admit the color mixed with the natural pink there so well.
 
And speaking of pink…
 
Diamond and Silver both gasped as the ruler started to trace across the prone filly’s slit, catching juices on its edge and sliding its way between her lips, just below her winking clit. It would have been easy to just keep smacking, but that didn’t do anypony any good. A spanking was about punishment, and making a pony truly aware of what they did wrong. At home, she’d get talked to about what got her in trouble in the first place between every hit. In this case, Apple Bloom figured there were two things that got Diamond Tiara in this position. One was right here, between her flanks. And the other was on them.
 
“Three.”
 
A heavy smack across the cutie mark, opposite the side that had just gotten hit. This drew a different sort of sound out of her, somewhere between a shriek and a groan, and she lifted her rump higher in the air for a moment after. Silver Spoon started trotting over, and Apple Bloom didn’t stop her. They had agreed this was what Diamond needed, after all, so as long as she didn’t try to stop it, there were no problems. But a steady pace would just let the filly get complacent, so…
 
“Four, five.”
 
Two hits went down as fast as she could, one across the thickest part of the rump, and another lower and much softer, barely catching Diamond’s clit. The filly’s hiss of pain from the first hit was instantly cut off by a whine of protest as her legs shook, tail whipping furiously. Apple Bloom could finally see Silver trotting into view on the other side of the stool now, and… she was smiling?
 
After her friend calmed down for a moment, she leaned in close to the other filly, whispering. Not so quietly that Apple Bloom couldn’t hear, but still.
 
“Hey there Di. How’s it feel?”
 
“W-what? Silvy, I--”
 
Silver’s hoof traced along the side of her friend’s face as she spoke. “Shhh. Come on. It’s just for a little longer, and then she’s going to make it feel all better. You really did get yourself into this, you know.”
 
There wasn’t a response to that, so Apple Bloom decided to continue. This one was a big hit, with her mouth instead of her leg gripping the ruler, just at the bottom of her ass and the top of her hind legs. The pink filly nearly shot off of the stool, but just ended up burying her muzzle in Silver’s shoulder with a whimper. Apple Bloom followed up with a pair of strong hits, one on each cutie mark, switching the ruler back to her hoof afterwards.
 
“Six, an’ seven an’ eight.”
 
Diamond was shivering now, her whole body quaking as she held her hindquarters even higher in the air, clear juices flowing down her thighs and soaking into her fur as she panted and groaned in her friend’s grasp. In fact, Apple Bloom could swear Diamond was a lot wetter than when she started. And she wasn’t the only one; when Apple Bloom next glanced down, she saw her dick was oozing its own fluids, clear as well but not nearly so copious, and far thicker. It would have to wait for its satisfaction though, she wasn’t done yet. Not by half.
 
On the other end of her, Silver Spoon gently curled a hoof against Diamond’s, comforting her and keeping her in place at the same time. “It’s okay, let it out. It’s why we came here.”
 
No sense in giving her too much time to rest, Apple Bloom thought. Three more steady hits came, one high, one low, and then high again just to catch her off guard. After each one, Apple Bloom let the ruler linger and trace across her cheeks and her puffy lips, gathering a little more juice. The temptation to lick it off was strong, real strong, but Apple Bloom resisted. This was a business-first sort of thing.
 
Probably.
 
The line was getting kinda blurry.
 
“Nine, ten, ‘leven.”
 
“I c... I’m c...”
 
Apple Bloom paused. Was Diamond trying to throw in the towel? Well, if she was gonna stop, that was up to her. It wouldn’t be fair of Apple Bloom to cut it off herself. So she waited politely for Diamond to beg out, watching as her ass continued its hypnotic path through her vision, swaying and… sort of humping, trying to find purchase on open air while she struggled for words. Silver seemed to know what Diamond was trying to say, though, and it wasn’t about quitting; rather, she gestured for Apple Bloom to continue.
 
So, with a bit of a shrug, she did.
 
“Twelve.”
 
This one was barely a tap, just a gentle press-and-push down on Diamond’s pussy, putting pressure onto her clit and forcing a really cute little squeak out of the filly.
 
“Thirteen.”
 
Another one without too much bite to it, at a sharp angle just under her dock. Any higher was probably a little risky, but it was good to catch ‘em by surprise sometimes.
 
“Fourteen-fifteen-sixteen!”
 
Back to the taps, three quick sharp hits directly onto her clit, right in time with each little wink. There was a small gush of fluids from the filly with the last one, and a long drawn-out moan. Was she…?
 
“I’m close, Silver, pleeeease!”
 
Her friend didn’t reply for a second, but when she did, she was smirking. Maybe Apple Bloom wasn’t the only one with some tension to work out against the spoiled brat with the bright-red bottom. “I bet you are, huh? Right on the edge of cumming again, even though you’re in heat, even though you’re getting spanked and beaten by a filly you make fun of for being a blank flank all the time.” She paused, as if thinking, but it was obvious she already knew what she was going to say. “Sorry, I didn’t say that right. Because you’re in heat, and because you’re getting beaten up by that blank flank, right Diamond?”
 
She didn’t deny it. If anything she only shook harder, her tail flagging up in the air, presenting herself completely to Apple Bloom. Her lips were flushed and soaked, faint sticky trails connecting them where her lips had come together and pulled apart in her movements. Her clit was heavy, jutting out, begging for attention. After another moment, Apple Bloom was only a little surprised to see Diamond Tiara nod. So she actually liked this, even if she hadn’t expected to. That… was pretty dang hot, honestly. Although it wasn’t as much of a punishment that way. Still, given how bad her heat already must have been from the first orgasm… okay, yeah, still pretty much a punishment.
 
Even so, she’d have to make sure.
 
“So, y’all wanna cum again, right?” No verbal response, just a furious nod, and so Apple Bloom let the ruler trace its way between Diamond’s lips, drawing out more little sticky trails of fluids between it and her pussy. It ain’t hittin’, so it ain’t spankin’. That was the rule. It meant she could tease the filly to her heart’s content without running out of shots. “Well then, you gotta promise me: Never again. Ya don’t call us blank flanks, ya apologize, and ya start shapin’ up your act. Stop bullyin’ ponies, stop actin’ superior, stop lordin’ yer cutie mark over everypony else.”
 
At this point Diamond was actively panting, bucking her hips back onto the instrument of her punishment, head nodding at every word out of Apple Bloom’s mouth. It would be kind of pitiful if it didn’t make her dick so hard.
 
“Well then… seventeen, eighteen…” She brought the ruler down in two swift strokes, making a heavy X pattern across the filly’s ass, leaving her gasping and showering the stool with her fluids. Only a second later did a third hit come in, a big one, echoing through the whole classroom as she just slammed it right across the thickest part of Diamond’s ass, leaving her quaking and screaming and coming. The stool was soaked, her tail was doused, Apple Bloom got a fair bit of the spray in her face, and drips and drops and rivulets began to flow in rivers down her thighs all the way to the floor. Diamond’s orgasmic screams were quickly muffled by Silver’s body, or maybe her mouth; Apple Bloom couldn’t really see at the moment, but she thought she heard a sort of make-out kind of sound on the other side of the shaking filly. Still, the display was real impressive.
 
“Nineteen.” Apple Bloom wiped her face and absently licked her lips clean, and immediately had to try not to cum on the spot herself from the intoxicating taste of Diamond’s secretions. “Whew… g-guess that was yer limit, huh?”

Finally Diamond spoke up, voice hoarse with exertion and lust, her words clear despite it all. “Okay! I get it, I… I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I just can’t take it anymore! Please, you can keep hitting me later as much as you want, but I don’t care if it’s breaking the rules, I need you to rut me right now!”
 
Apple Bloom looked at the ruler, as drenched in Diamond’s cum as everything else in the vicinity, and finally took a lick, eager for another taste. It didn’t disappoint; her flavor was sweet and salty and tangy all at once, and the scent so powerful this close to her muzzle that it made her eyes glaze over with lust and her dick give a mighty throb of instinctual need. She couldn’t wait any longer, any more than Diamond could. She wanted that filly’s plush rump, and she wanted it now.
 
Besides, it wasn’t like she had to stop her punishment for that, right?
 
Apple Bloom tossed the ruler aside and did what came naturally to her male brain. She climbed up onto Diamond’s back, hooking her forelegs over her shoulders. Diamond let out an oomph of surprise as her breath left her before she adjusted to the weight, and then went right back to humping the air behind her. This time though Apple Bloom’s dick was there waiting for her. After two or three near-misses, her dripping tip met Diamond’s soaking cunt and pushed, penetrating her all at once until their hips came together with a loud, wet slap.
 
Diamond’s shriek of ecstasy was muffled once again by the wet smacking of lips, and now that Apple Bloom had a better vantage point she could confirm that that was exactly the sound she’d heard earlier. Diamond and Silver were furiously making out, all decorum and decency gone and given way to pure animalistic lust as they licked and groped at one another. Were they secretly lovers? Or just very close friends? Apple Bloom could certainly relate to that these days.
 
Whichever it was, though, she’d figure it out later. Right now the scene was little more than fetish fuel to her, adding a saucy flare to the fire raging in her loins thanks to being engulfed by Diamond’s desperate, drooling cunt. Apple Bloom groaned long and low as she tightened her hooves around Diamond’s shoulders and started thrusting, and already she saw stars. Fucking Diamond felt incredible. She’d long surpassed Scootaloo in sheer wetness, her constant twitching and flexing rivaled Sweetie Belle in tightness, and after two unrequited orgasms in a row she felt even warmer than Silver Spoon. And when Apple Bloom glanced down she could see Diamond’s ass ripple every time their hips met, making her mouth water and her hooves itch to give it a good, hard--
 
Smack!
 
“Mmmmppphhh!!!”
 
“T-twenty!”
 
A bright pink hoof mark joined the criss-crossing welts on Diamond’s rump, making the filly yelp into her maybe-friend-maybe-lover’s mouth. Another loud smack followed in time with the next thrust, and now Diamond had a matching hoof print on the other cheek that made her whole body convulse in what must have surely been another gut-wrenching orgasm.
 
“Twenty-one!” Apple Bloom hissed, and now instinct overwhelmed rational thought. Apple Bloom was loathe to admit it… but Diamond Tiara of all ponies was by far the best sex she’d ever had. Every sound, every sensation, every glimpse of the other two girls moaning and sucking face made her thrust harder, faster, deeper. She moved like a filly possessed now, slapping their hips together with all the force and speed she could muster, and the only clear thought left in her head was seeding Diamond’s cunt as harsh and roughly as possible. Maybe it was years of bottled up aggression toward the bully finally bursting, maybe it was the sheer hotness of it all, or maybe it was a combination of both, but whatever the reason all Apple Bloom knew now was that she had to absolutely wreck this filly.
 
“Twenty-two! Twenty-three!” Apple Bloom bellowed, laying a powerful smack on each cutie mark. Diamond was incomprehensible now, shaking and blubbering and screaming as her hooves clung for dear life around Silver’s neck. Her ruined makeup ran in long black streaks down her cheeks, her mane was a sweaty, ragged mess, and the next time she thrashed her head around her tiara fell off and clattered to the floor, forgotten.

“A-Apple Bloom, I don’t know how much more she can take!” Silver announced, a hint of worry finally lacing her words, but Apple Bloom ignored it. She was on the edge, and nothing was going to stop her from diving straight over. Apple Bloom drew almost completely out of Diamond’s pussy, gathered her strength, and slammed back in with enough force to qualify as her penultimate strike.
 
“Twenty…FOUR!”
 
Diamond’s scream was earsplitting, a primal mix of pleasure and pain, and Apple Bloom howled right alongside her, finally joining her in orgasmic bliss. Her vision went white, and her body froze up on top of Diamond, save for her cock twitching and flexing like crazy. She’d already spent two loads that afternoon, but she still came harder than she thought was possible for a first climax, dumping what felt like gallons of semen into the depths of Diamond’s pussy. Diamond trembled under her weight, gasping and whimpering as she buried her face in Silver’s shoulder and just took it, every thick gush of semen hitting her cervix making her shudder again. By the time it was over even Apple Bloom was struggling to breathe, and when she pried herself off Diamond’s back and pulled her cock out, at least a quarter of the massive load of semen came pouring out of Diamond’s ravished pussy too, dripping obscenely down her limp hind legs.
 
“Guh…” Apple Bloom groaned, collapsing back on her own rump as her cock retreated to its sheath. “Wow, that… wow… Ah never thought… it could be that good…”
 
Diamond’s only response was another shaky whimper. Apple Bloom looked past her bruised backside, and caught sight of her face; Diamond was fighting back tears and wiping her face as best she could, with a little help from Silver Spoon as they cleaned off the sweat and tears and makeup streaks.
 
“…Uh-oh…” Apple Bloom muttered, a pang of guilt growing in her chest. Had she gone too far? She hadn’t thought much of it once she realized Diamond was enjoying herself, but… maybe that last bit of roughness had been a little much? “Er… Diamond?” she ventured, standing up on shaky legs and creeping closer. “Y-you, uh… you alright there…?”
 
Diamond looked back at Apple Bloom, her cheeks red and her eyes puffy, and Apple Bloom almost feared she was about to get chewed out…until she saw the same old sneer on her face. “Of course I’m alright, Goddess, w-what are you, my mom?”
 
Apple Bloom heaved a sigh of relief. “Jeez, Diamond, ya had me worried fer a second there…”
 
“Don’t be stupid, we had a deal, it’s not my fault you wussed out.”
 
Apple Bloom’s eye twitched. “…Excuse me? ‘Wussed out?’”
 
Diamond huffed and turned away, but not before Apple Bloom caught one last flush of red in her cheeks. “…Next time, don’t go making it so easy, you stupid hillbilly.”
 
Apple Bloom stared at her for a long moment, but Diamond ignored her now, picking herself off the stool at last. “A-anyway… I guess that settles all tha-AAAH!!”
 
Diamond yelped one last time, whipping around to glare at Apple Bloom and gingerly rub the fresh hoof print on her ass. “What the hay was that for?!”
 
Apple Bloom smiled coolly back. “Twenty-five, ya dumb brat.”
 
 
---
 
 
The trio took a few minutes to clean up the classroom - and themselves - as best they could, spending half the bathroom’s stock of paper towels and most of a bottle of sanitizer just on fixing the mess Diamond made of the floor. The meter stick was tossed in the bottom of the dumpster and buried; no matter how clean they got it, the thought of letting Miss Cheerilee put her mouth anywhere near the thing again sent shudders down Apple Bloom’s spine. Privately she promised herself she’d replace it one day.
 
By the time they snuck back outside it was late in the afternoon, and the sun was on its way toward the far horizon. Their detour had taken a bit longer than Apple Bloom had expected. She hoped Spike wasn’t already sitting around the farm waiting for her…
 
“Well, we should head home,” Silver said into the silence. “We’re probably stretching the ‘detention’ excuse as it is.”
 
“Yeah, same here,” Apple Bloom agreed, glancing at the other two. “So are you, uh…?”
 
“We’re fine,” Diamond said. “Heat’s taken care of, at least.”
 
“Yes, thank you Apple Bloom, I think we both feel a whole lot better,” Silver said, smiling and squeezing Diamond’s hoof.
 
“Ah bet ya do,” Apple Bloom said, eyeing their joined hooves curiously. “…Didn’t know the two of you were, uh… ya know… like that.”
 
Diamond and Silver both went red, glancing at each other. “W-we aren’t,” Diamond said hastily. “I-I mean, we weren’t… I… I mean…”
 
Silver smiled embarrassedly, but didn’t let go of Diamond’s hoof. “I think she means… she and I have a lot to talk about now.”
 
“Huh.” Apple Bloom blinked slowly, and shrugged. “Well… good luck, Ah guess.”
 
“Yeah, thanks…”
 
“Apple Bloom?”
 
Apple Bloom’s ears twitched toward the new voice, deep and male and familiar. She looked behind her, and there at the front gate, massive and apple-red and chewing on a long stalk of wheat…
 
“O-oh… uh, heh, h-hey big brother,” Apple Bloom stammered.
 
Big Macintosh looked slowly back and forth between the three fillies, and though they’d cleaned up as best they could, Apple Bloom was painfully aware that without a proper bath, all three of them still probably looked and smelled like sex. Macintosh said nothing, but his stoic gaze landed on Apple Bloom again and seemed to ask for an explanation anyway.
 
“…We, uh… we had detention,” Apple Bloom said. “…Sorry if Ah worried ya?”
 
Macintosh eyed them all thoughtfully again, and Apple Bloom waited with bated breath, fearing the worst…
 
“…Eeeyup,” he finally said, as calm as ever. He offered no further comment, shrugging his shoulders and beckoning for Apple Bloom to follow as he turned back down the road to Sweet Apple Acres.
 
“…Whew,” Apple Bloom sighed, wiping her brow and glancing at the other girls. “Think Ah’m in the clear, but Ah better go anyway. Seeya later.”

“Yeah, seeya… and thanks again!” Silver said, waving goodbye, and after a firm nudge, Diamond begrudgingly joined her.
 
Apple Bloom waved back, and the two walked off  in the other direction, Diamond in particular walking with a pronounced limp. A moment of guilt hit her again at the sight, and she hoped very much that her family didn’t notice it, or the marks on her rump. Or at least didn’t question it in too much depth. Their families were old friends and long-time business partners, it would be a shame for all that to end over a little rough sex.
 
A little really good rough sex.
 
Like, just exceptionally satisfying--
 
Ow!
 
Okay, yeah, she had to stop thinking like that, her dick was so exhausted that getting hard hurt, and not in the good way.
 
“Yeesh… what a day,” Apple Bloom said to herself, jogging to catch up to her brother for the long walk home.
> Chapter Eight: Love is Thicker than Blood
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Eight: Love is Thicker than Blood


 

 
Halfway through the walk home, Apple Bloom’s hindquarters already burned and threatened to drop off from exhaustion. Satisfying Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had taken a lot out of her, and as the adrenaline rush wound down completely, Apple Bloom finally realized just how worn out she was. Big Macintosh thankfully seemed aware of this; his pace was ambling at best, in no apparent hurry to get home, and so Apple Bloom had minimal trouble keeping up with him. As usual he didn’t say much of anything as they walked, and on one level Apple Bloom was grateful to not be grilled about her day, or why her hind end shuddered with each step, or why she reeked of sweat and sex; but the oppressive silence had a way of compelling her to break it regardless.
 
“…So uh, about back there…”
 
Predictably, Big Mac didn’t respond, or even break his stride, but he did turn his head just enough to meet her eyes. Macintosh was a stallion of few words, but that didn’t mean he was bad at expressing himself, and with that gesture alone, Apple Bloom knew he was listening.
 
“See, erm, me an’ Diamond an’ Silver, we got in this fight before school, so Miss Cheerilee gave us all detention. An’ Ah know you an’ AJ an’ Granny always tell me fightin’ ain’t right, but they were bein’ extra awful today an’ Ah just plum lost mah temper… so, um, yeah, that’s why we were in detention.”
 
“Eeeyup,” Macintosh replied, nodding his head and looking up the path again. Silence settled back in for another spell, and he seemed to be in no hurry to break it.
 
Apple Bloom on the other hoof couldn’t let it sit for very long at all. She knew it was just his way, and she didn’t begrudge him for it, but all the same she hated sitting in silence. It always reminded her of the most unpleasant moments in her life; detentions, lonely days, sleepless nights, funerals, none of it was time she wanted to be reminded of. Frankly she didn’t know how Big Mac could stand it. Although it did make him a lot easier to talk to than Applejack or Granny Smith.
 
“So, erm…” she finally started again. “Ya probably noticed we were kinda, um… not exactly lookin’ our best… weren’t smellin’ too great either, fer that matter.”
 
“Nnnope,” Mac agreed.
 
“Well, um, y’see, what happened was…”
 
Apple Bloom pondered for a brief moment what kind of story her brother might actually believe to explain her and the girls’ appearance that afternoon, but one look at Mac’s expression told her it would be pointless. His eyes were closed and he was shaking his head, but his lips were curled upward in a deeply amused smile, and a barely audible chuckle rose up from his belly.
 
Apple Bloom bit her lip and broke out into a guilty smile. “…Well shoot. Ah guess Ah’d be insultin’ yer intelligence if Ah tried spinnin’ up some tall tale, huh?”

“Eeeyup.”
 
Apple Bloom blushed and scuffed a hoof through the dirt mid-stride. “Okay, okay, so it wasn’t just detention… Diamond an’ Silver were sorta in heat, too, an’ well… all this business of me gettin’ turned into a colt, they asked if… if they could… if we could… w-well, yer a boy, y’all’ve been there, right? Ah probably don’t need ta explain it to ya…”
 
Mac’s smile got just a bit wider. “Nnnope.”
 
“Right, see, you understand,” Apple Bloom said, and sighed in relief. “Ah mean, sure they ain’t exactly mah friends, but it was still… t-they were still offerin’ ta… ya know… ya know?”
 
“Eeeyup.”
 
“Right!” Apple Bloom said, relaxing a little bit with every word. “An’ they were safe on Moon Tea, a’course, an’ it’s that time o’ year anyhow, so everypony else is doin’ it too, it ain’t weird or anythang.”
 
“Nnnope.”
 
“No, not at all. Well, other’n the part where Ah’m not really a colt, obviously, but… ya know, as long as Ah’m gonna be stuck like this fer a while, an’ there’s fillies lookin’ fer relief, it couldn’t hurt ta help ‘em out. An’ as long as Ah’m doin’ that, Ah might as well enjoy it, right?”
 
“Eeeyup.”
 
“Yeah, exactly!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, breaking out into a deeply relieved smile and feeling significantly less burdened now. “Thank you, Ah’m glad you get it. Ah wish you’d been the one ta find out about this mess first. Applejack ain’t been no help at all.”

Mac’s smile faded some at that, and his chuckle dwindled away into a sigh. “…Nnnope.”
 
Apple Bloom hung her head a bit and stared at the road, her own grin fading too. “…Ah mean, Ah know Ah did wrong. Listenin’ ta Discord was real dumb an’ Ah know Ah shoulda just told him to buzz off. Even if he was promisin’ me a way ta get outta havin’ heat myself, he was just temptin’ me with snake oil an’ Ah shoulda seen it…”
 
Mac gently nodded again. “Eeeyup.”
 
“But ain’t gettin’ stuck like this punishment enough?” Apple Bloom demanded of nopony in particular. “Ah’m trapped in this weird body that ain’t really mine, everypony at school’s been starin’ at me an’ whisperin’ about me behind mah back, Ah can’t even have half a thought about anythang sexy without this dang penis poppin’ out in front of everypony… an’ then Applejack piles on a whole heap o’ extra punishment on top of all that?” Apple Bloom kicked at the dirt road again angrily. “It ain’t fair!”
 
“Nnnope.”
 
“Yeah, it--… wait…” Apple Bloom glanced up at Macintosh in mild shock. “You… y’all agree with me?”
 
“Eeeyup.”
 
Apple Bloom stared for a long moment before breaking out into another relieved smile. “Well shoot, Ah’m glad somepony does.”
 
Macintosh smiled back, thought it was more distant now, his eyes ahead of them on the farmhouse slowly growing nearer.
 
“…Ah don’t get it, why can’t Applejack be more like you? Yer so much more calm about this. About everythang, really. Ah ain’t ever seen ya get real mad about anythang.”
 
Mac didn’t answer right away, his gaze still distant and thoughtful. They trotted along for another full minute in silence, that deafening quiet that Apple Bloom hated so much, and she very nearly prodded him again before he finally spoke.

“Ah got real mad, once.”
 
Apple Bloom tilted her head toward him, immediately intrigued. Any time he stretched his vocabulary beyond two words it was for something of real significance. “Really? When?”
 
“When ma and pop passed on.” Mac closed his eyes and heaved a long, heavy sigh. “…It weren’t fair, Ah said. An’ it wasn’t. Everypony knew it wasn’t. But there weren’t nothin’ anypony could do about it either, an’ that just made me madder. Ah musta snapped a dozen apple trees right in half lookin’ for somethin’ to take it out on. Probably mighta hurt somepony if Ah’d been anywhere but here.”
 
Apple Bloom gulped slightly, her ears folding back against her head. “Y-yeah… Ah guess that’s a fair reason ta be mad…”

Macintosh shook his head and sighed again. “It passed eventually, and afterward, well… compared ta that, nothin’ else seemed worth gettin’ mad over. Been as mad as mad could be fer a real damn good reason, an’ it didn’t fix nothin’. Didn’t change nothin’. The world was just the way it was before. Minus a few apple trees. An’ if gettin’ angry didn’t help then, of all times… it weren’t ever gonna help anythang.”
 
Mac turned slightly and met Apple Bloom’s curious gaze. “Ah could get mad at ya fer listenin’ ta Discord, sure. But that wouldn’t teach ya nothin’. It wouldn’t change what happened. So… far as Ah’m concerned, ain’t no point in yellin’ or screamin’ about it. Important thang is that ya know what ya did was wrong, an’ ya learned yer lesson.”
 
“Oh, Ah did, y’all don’t hafta worry about that,” Apple Bloom said with a grumpy sigh. “…So how come Applejack got so mad, then?”
 
“…Everypony deals with thangs differently,” Mac answered eventually. “Applejack… she’s always worn her heart on the outside. She lets ya know how she honestly feels, even if it hurts sometimes. An’ after what we already lost, she don’t take kindly ta anypony who messes with her family, an’ she ain’t shy about sayin’ so. S’not you she’s mad at, not really. It’s him.”
 
“Him? Ya mean Discord?”
 
Mac nodded again. “We talked about it while ya were at school.”
 
Apple Bloom stared at the ground again. “Then why…?”

“…Think Ah’ll let her speak fer herself.”
 
“…Huh?”
 
Apple Bloom looked up again and realized they were home. The farmhouse was a few paces away, and her sister was sitting out on the front porch to meet them. Her eyes were downcast slightly, and her hat was off, crumpled between fidgeting hooves… but nevertheless she smiled wide as their eyes met, not a hint of anger or reprimand visible on her face.

“Applejack?” the younger sister said, cautious optimism filling her words. “Is everythang alright? Ya look--ooof!” Apple Bloom abruptly found herself cut off as the elder sister closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye and lifted her clear off the ground, wrapping her up in a tight, powerful hug. “Guh! A-Applejack, what gives?!”
 
“Figured I owed ya more than a few of these that I ain’t been delivering lately,” Applejack answered. “An’ I think I owe ya an apology, too.”
 
Apple Bloom squirmed around in her sister’s hooves just enough to look up at her in honest surprise. “Really? Ya do?”
 
“Mmhmm. Had a long talk with the family while you were at school. Made me see a whole lot that I was too angry ta notice before.” Applejack heaved a long sigh. “I’m real sorry about yesterday, sugarcube. I was so upset about Discord screwing with mah family that when I couldn’t tan his hide over it, y’all got the worst of mah temper instead.”
 
“…Oh.” Apple Bloom blushed briefly. “So…ya weren’t really mad at me?”
 
Applejack hesitated just briefly. “Well, if I’m bein’ completely honest, I was still mad at ya for not listening to me. But I was a whole heck of a lot madder at him, an’ you didn’t deserve ta be mah verbal whippin’ post in his place.”
 
Apple Bloom squirmed again, out of discomfort this time. Suddenly all of her angry, spiteful thoughts about her sister since last night brought more guilt than catharsis. “Sis, Ah--”
 
“No, no, ya don’t need ta say anythang,” Applejack insisted, letting her go and setting her back down on the ground. “I was wrong, an’ that’s all there is to it. Broken rules or not, y’all needed support from yer family an’ I wasn’t givin’ it to ya. I shoulda stopped ta think about how hard this all must be on ya, gettin’ trapped in some strange new body like that.”
 
Apple Bloom smiled awkwardly, memories of the last two days whipping through her mind once again. “Aw, sis, it… it ain’t been so bad…”
 
“Well, still, the last thing ya needed was me jumpin’ down yer throat about it. So… yeah. I just wanted ta tell ya all that, an’ that I’m sorry.”
 
Applejack opened her forelegs for another hug, and this time Apple Bloom gladly leapt into it and hugged back, warm, happy relief flooding through her. “Apology accepted,” she said. “Ah hate it when we fight…”
 
“Yeah, it sure don’t feel good, does it?” Applejack lamented. “Anyhow, don’t you worry none about bein’ trapped like this, Twilight an’ Fluttershy are already workin’ on finding Discord, they’ll make sure he puts ya right again. An’ I promise I’ll try ta be more understandin’ if he manages ta bamboozle ya again.”
 
“Bleh, Ah doubt that’ll ever happen,” Apple Bloom insisted. “Ah swear Ah won’t believe another word he says until Ah see the proof with mah own two eyes.”
 
“Atta girl,” Applejack said, smiling and ruffling her mane. “…A’course, now we gotta talk about why yer home so late.”

Apple Bloom groaned and hung her head, sulking suddenly. “Ugh, Ah know, Ah know, Ah’m sorry… Diamond Tiara an’ Silver Spoon were givin’ me crap about bein’ a boy an’ we got in a fight, so Miss Cheerilee gave us detention…”
 
“Figured it was somethin’ like that,” Applejack said with a slow nod, eyeing her for a long, tense moment before cracking a smile. “…Well, between detention an’ this whole ‘trapped as a colt’ thang, I think that’s probably punishment enough fer one day.”

“…Really?” Apple Bloom brightened again. “So… does that mean the extra chores are off too?”
 
Applejack chuckled softly and nodded. “Yes, the extra chores are off… but ya still got yer regular chores ta do!”
 
Apple Bloom let out a loud whoop of celebration, and went darting off to the barn. “Woohoo! You got it sis! Oh!” She stopped abruptly and looked back again. “And, uh, Spike’s comin’ over later fer some partner homework, if that’s okay…?”

Applejack’s amused smile grew larger, for some reason. “Sure, sugarcube, that’s fine.”
 
“Yes! Thanks AJ!” Apple Bloom whooped again, and took off for the barn again at full speed. If she hurried, her regular chores would be done in no time, and she’d have all evening with Spike, after some incredible sex and making up with her sister. Her day had really turned around, she realized, despite how exhausted it had left her. At this rate, she might even find the courage to say something to Spike about her feelings.
 
Well, okay, maybe that was wishing for miracles. But she felt lucky today.
 
With a heavy breath and a determined gleam in her eye, Apple Bloom dug deep for a second wind and got to work.
 
 
---
 
 
“--so we’re on our way to the train home, and while we’re walking we pass by this plaza that used to have this empty statue base, right? Probably used to have a statue of Sombra there or something. But we’re passing by there the day after the games, and I swear, on my honor, they’ve built an actual, factual statue of me.”
 
Apple Bloom burst into a fit of giggles so strong she nearly fell off the bale of hay she was sitting on. “No way! For real?!”
 
Spike nodded vigorously and put on a strangely proud grin, standing as tall as he could atop the same hay bale. “For real! It sprung up practically overnight! I dunno how they did it!”
 
“Aww, shoot, Ah can’t believe Ah missed that!”
 
“I told you guys you shoulda stayed an extra day!” Spike insisted. “There was tons of room in the castle!”
 
“Ah wanted to!” Apple Bloom groaned. “But AJ said we had ta get back home. ‘The farm don’t run itself, ya know!’” she added in an artificially deep voice.
 
“Pfft, come on, really, AJ? It’s the Equestria Games, live a little!”
 
Apple Bloom sighed dramatically. “Yeah, Ah know. But she’d already let me stay up super late as it was ta watch all the fireworks, Ah was too tuckered out ta argue very much.”
 
“Heh, yeah, it was a pretty long day, wasn’t it?” Spike gave her a hopeful smile. “Well, maybe you can go back and see it some time. I’d love to show it to you.”
 
“Ah’d love ta see it!” Apple Bloom said. “Ah bet it’s huge, too! Hehe, a statue befittin’ a genuine national hero!”
 
“Aww, I didn’t do that much…” Spike said with a humble blush. “I mean, yeah, I kind of saved everypony from icy doom and all, but I’m sure anypony else would’ve done the same.”
 
“Well then Ah guess you were just lucky ta be in the right place at the right time.”
 
“Yeah, I guess so,” Spike agreed, sitting down on their shared hay bale again and leaning back against the barn wall with a content sigh. Apple Bloom did the same a moment later, and took no small amount of glee from the fact that Spike didn’t insist on a separate seat.
 
A comfortable silence fell over them now, and Apple Bloom took the opportunity to look around the barn and survey her work with a satisfied smile. The barn was immaculately clean (or as much as a barn ever got, at least), the day’s apple haul was washed and barreled, and with her chores out of the way she’d been able to focus on her homework assignment with Spike and get it done in no time, and now it sat tucked away in her saddlebag, which she was all too happy to forget about again a second later. Because now she had the rest of the evening to spend with Spike, just the two of them. Granted the sun was nearly down, so that was probably only another half hour or so, tops, and she was utterly drained from such a long, trying day, but it was still something.
 
“So, I’ve been wondering…” Spike spoke up. “What’s it like being a boy now? If you don’t mind me asking.”
 
Apple Bloom gave Spike an odd look. “Shouldn’t ya know that pretty well already?”
 
Spike chuckled at her. “No no, I mean compared to being a girl. Is it pretty different?”
 
“Oh.” Apple Bloom blushed slightly. “Yeah, it’s… real different.”
 
“Yeah? Like how?”
 
“Well, Ah think about sex a lot more now, fer one.”
 
Spike snickered again. “Oh come on… more than being in estrus? No way.”
 
“Yes way,” Apple Bloom insisted. “It ain’t nearly as strong, no, but it’s like… all the time.”
 
“Isn’t that what heat is like anyway?”
 
“Well, yeah, but Ah’m not in heat as a boy.”
 
“No, but you’re around a bunch of fillies who are right now,” Spike pointed out. “That’s like, biologically designed to affect you. You probably wouldn’t be thinking about sex so much if you weren’t getting bombarded with estrus scents just as often, or else every stallion in town would have boners, like, constantly.”
 
Apple Bloom giggled. “Ya think so?”
 
“Oh yeah. Dragons don’t have estrus, it’s a ‘mammal’ thing, so I don’t pick up on it like you do, and I’m not thinking about sex all the time.”
 
Apple Bloom smirked slightly. “Just some of the time?”
 
Spike laughed and blushed. “Yeah, pretty much. Once mating season passes it’ll probably stop popping into your head so often.”
 
“Ugh, Ah really hope Ah ain’t stuck as a boy fer that long.”
 
“Ooof, good point,” Spike agreed. “It’d suck being trapped in the wrong body for a long time.”
 
“It ain’t been so bad,” Apple Bloom admitted, “but yeah, Ah can’t wait ta get back ta bein’ me.”
 
“Heh, well, hey, even if you were stuck for a while… you’re still ‘you’ no matter what body you’re in, Apple Bloom…”
 
Apple Bloom felt a deep warmth fill her face. “Heh… t-thanks, Spike…”
 
“No problem.”
 
Apple Bloom squirmed in her seat, taking a deep breath. Was this it? Was this the moment she could say something about her feelings? It certainly felt like an opportune time. She might be able to get through it, if her boy bits cooperated. Fortunately her penis still seemed satisfied from that afternoon, and wasn’t even twitching yet. Now was probably as good a time as she was going to get.
 
Still, it couldn’t hurt to feel him out a little first.
 
“So…” Apple Bloom began hesitantly, “if estrus don’t affect ya… what does make ya think about sex?”
 
Spike predictably blushed again, a nervous chuckle escaping his throat. “Oh, you know… p-probably the same kinds of things as anypony else, under normal circumstances… like, y’know, dirty dreams, or… thinking about ponies you think are attractive.”

“Like Rarity?”
 
She regretted them the instant the words passed her lips, covering her mouth with both front hooves in mild horror. Holy Luna, why the heck did she say that?! Where had that thought even come from?!
 
She knew there was an interest there on Spike’s part, of course, pretty much everypony who knew him was aware of it, probably up to and including Rarity herself. But Apple Bloom hadn’t even thought about it as a potential issue for days. Why in the world would she suddenly bring that up now, when this was her chance to make a move? Now her opportunity was almost certainly lost, and she’d barely gotten two sentences into her attempt.
 
Ugh. So much for that idea.
 
Spike meanwhile was apparently oblivious to her moment of internal panic. He was turning an even deeper red now, squirming in his seat a bit and crossing his legs, and his gaze grew distant and unfocused, almost certainly picturing the mare in question now. “Y-yeah, uh… heh, I guess… I guess that’s a good example…”
 
“Aw jeez, Ah’m sorry, Spike, that was outta line, Ah shouldn’t have--”
 
“No, no, it’s fine, really,” he insisted, smiling through his blush. “I mean, it’s true. I thought she was gorgeous from the moment I met her. Then puberty starts happening and… w-well… w-whenever I thought about Rarity, it… I mean… that was the first time I… erm, t-they taught you about masturbation in sex-ed, right?”
 
“Y-yeah,” Apple Bloom muttered, and now she kind of wished she could just shrivel up and die right then and there. Of course he thought about Rarity when he touched himself. She was the most attractive mare in town, a lot of ponies probably had her in mind when their hooves were on their genitals. There was no way Apple Bloom could compete with that. Sweet Celestia, why did she have to go and open her big mouth?
 
“U-um, but you probably don’t wanna hear about that,” Spike swiftly (and thankfully) changed tack. “A-anyway, that was the first time I thought about anything to do with sex. But t-there’s, y’know, a few other girls that get me thinking like that lately…”
 
Apple Bloom perked back up again. Hope! Sweet, glimmering hope! “Other girls?”
 
Spike nodded. “Yeah… especially now that I’m in school with you girls. It feels nice being around ponies my age a little more…”

The hope in her heart fluttered and blossomed and grew brighter. “S-so yer likin’ girls like the ones in our class lately? Not so much Rarity?”
 
“W-well, I…” Spike stammered awkwardly. “I-I dunno… I think I would probably just freak Rarity out, even if she did like me back… I mean, I guess anypony would get freaked out, really, when I think about it, but just the way Rarity is, I think it’d weird her out even more…”
 
This actually gave Apple Bloom pause. “Freaked out? By what? Don’ tell me ya think girls won’t like ya just ‘cause yer a dragon?”
 
“…I dunno, maybe? Sort of?”
 
“Spike, that’s crazy talk!” Apple Bloom insisted. “So what if yer a dragon? Ah don’ care about that, an’ neither does anypony who knows ya. Yer the same kind, generous fella you’d be whether y’all were a pony or a griffin or a… marmoset, even!”
 
“…A marmoset?” Spike echoed, snickering.
 
“Shut up, it was all Ah could think of on the spot.”
 
Spike smiled thankfully. “Well… yeah, I mean, you’re right, they wouldn’t care as my friend, but… when it comes to sex and stuff, you can’t help what you’re attracted to, and I don’t think ponies are generally attracted to dragons. We’re pretty… different.”
 
“Aw, come on, ya can’t be that different, can ya?”
 
“You’d be surprised.” Spike laughed again. “Funny story, actually… in one of my sex-ed lessons, Twilight was going on about, you know, anatomy. And she’s going over this diagram of a stallion’s penis, right? And I’m getting really confused, so I finally stop her and tell her, ‘Twilight, that’s not a penis.’”
 
Apple Bloom snorted a bit, but held back the rest of her laughter. “Say what?”
 
“Yeah, that’s about what her reaction was, too. ‘Spike, of course this is a penis,’ she says. And I tell her, ‘Not like any penis I’ve ever seen.’ So she gets this weird look in her eyes and goes, ‘How many penises have you seen, exactly?’ And I’m just like, ‘Uh… mine?’”
 
What.
 
“Heh, w-what…?” Apple Bloom’s mouth echoed her brain.
 
Spike turned red again despite his laughter. “Yeah… turns out dragons are pretty different down there, too. I think figuring that out with Twilight is probably the single most embarrassing moment of my life…”
 
Apple Bloom was seized by the urge to investigate Spike’s crotch more powerfully than she’d ever felt before, but she kept a lid on it. Barely. Sort of. “H-how different are we talkin’ here?”
 
Spike was sweating now, gulping down a heavy breath. “W-well, uh…it’s kind of… hard to describe. L-let’s just say Twilight started by asking pretty much the same thing, and my answer was ‘where’s the other one?’”
 
Apple Bloom’s jaw fell slack, and now, finally, her loins were twitching to life again. “…the other one? …You mean you have two?!”

“S-sort of? Not exactly, it…” Spike blushed worse than ever, and now he was actively covering his crotch with both hands.
 
Apple Bloom didn’t fail to notice. He had to be getting aroused beneath those claws, she was sure of it. “C-can Ah see?”
 
“W-what? No, you’ll just think I’m weird…”
 
“Will not!”
 
“Apple Bloom…”
 
“Ah won’t, really, Ah promise! Cross mah heart an’ hope to fly--”
 
“Okay, okay!” Spike stopped her. “Don’t…you don’t need to do the whole thing…”
 
“Sorry… but Ah swear, Ah won’t laugh or make fun or nothin’ like that… Ah’m jus’ curious, honest…”
 
Spike hesitated, and for a moment Apple Bloom dreaded that he’d say ‘no’ after all, but then ever so slowly he nodded, and let his claws relax and fall away.
 
Apple Bloom’s jaw dropped again, and this time she was drooling a little, too. “Guh…”
 
“I-I know, I know, it’s weird,” Spike stammered, and went on babbling for another few moments, but Apple Bloom had stopped listening. All her focus was on savoring the moment of a dream come true. Spike’s member was out on full display for her, hard and ready for action, and all Apple Bloom could wonder about at the moment was what he could possibly have been so worried about.
 
She could immediately see what Spike had been talking about; he didn’t exactly have two penises, but it sure as heck didn’t qualify as one, either. There was a split in the oddly thick base, and from that split, two complete, separate shafts stood up at attention to greet Apple Bloom, who had to try very hard not to reach out and ‘shake hooves.’
 
Restraining that urge, Apple Bloom leaned in just a bit for a closer inspection. The shape was quite different from that of a stallion’s penis, Spike hadn’t exaggerated that part. He had no sheath or visible testicles, instead sticking straight out from within a fold of the softer scales down his front. The whole thing was a uniform fleshy pink color instead of her own mottled two-tone shaft. And when she looked at the tips she saw they were rounded instead of flat, more like mushroom caps. But they were still clearly genitals, very much designed to fill those of a mare.
 
Dragoness.
 
Whatever.
 
Either way Apple Bloom was already imagining them inside hers.
 
That, and cursing the fact that hers were still absent.
 
“Crimeny, Spike… t-that’s really… really amazin’…” Apple Bloom vaguely heard herself mutter.
 
“…Really? A-amazing?” Spike stammered back. “You’re not… freaked out?”

Apple Bloom shook her head swiftly. “No, no way… Ah think it’s cool…”
 
“Oh… heh, awesome…” he said, smiling at her for a moment before his eyes slid down her body, and then were hastily and awkwardly averted. “Um… Apple Bloom, you’re, uh…”
 
Another deep heat filled her cheeks as she realized what he must have seen, and as she looked down, she was indeed sporting yet another boner. “Ugh, Ah’m sorry, this thang has such a mind of its own…”
 
“It’s okay, really,” Spike said. “I know what you mean.”

“H-heh, yeah, Ah guess ya probably do… sorry, it must be grossin’ ya out somethin’ fierce…”
 
“Hey, come on, you don’t gross me out,” Spike stopped her. “It’s just a penis, it doesn’t make you any different. Like I said, you’re still you no matter what body you’re in, that’s what’s important.”
 
Apple Bloom laughed breathlessly and nodded. “R-right…”
 
“Apple Bloom, it’s about bedtime, come on inside!”
 
Apple Bloom looked up at the sound of her sister’s voice, and thanked Celestia that she called from outside rather than coming in. “Okay, Ah’ll be right there!” she shouted back, and smiled apologetically at her guest. “Sorry, Spike, guess that’s all the time we got tonight.”
 
“No worries, it was time well spent,” he said, hopping off the hay bale.

Apple Bloom’s eyes followed him to the barn door, particularly his erection (erections?) wobbling with each step. “Are you gonna be able to, uh… hide that?”

“Oh, y-yeah, it’ll go away on its own in a couple of minutes,” he said, covering himself up again reflexively.

“Lucky you,” Apple Bloom said as she did the same. “This thang feels like it won’t ever go away until Ah… ya know…”
 
“Eh-heh…y-yeah, I know. You get used to it.” He paused. “Ooops, I mean, hopefully you don’t have to, right?”
 
“Hehe, right…”
 
“Well, seeya at school tomorrow, then.”
 
“Yeah, seeya tomorrow…”
 
Spike smiled and waved, and as he stepped outside, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment. She didn’t want him to leave. Or at least not without doing something to express her feelings. They’d just checked out each other’s dicks, for Celestia’s sake, and come out of it on the other end fine! If there was ever a time to say something, it was now. But they were out of time, there wasn’t much left she could do.
 
Except--
 
“Wait!” she called out, leaping off the hay bale.
 
Spike turned back toward her. “Yeah?”
 
She didn’t let herself stop and think about it, because if she did, she probably wouldn’t do it. Instead she trotted right up to Spike, and without another word she leaned in and gave him a big, wet kiss, smack on the lips.

“Mmmmpphh?!”
 
It was over almost as quickly as it had started, a few seconds at most before she broke away, but it was the most gloriously blissful few seconds of her life. And when she finally did break away and saw the shocked blush on Spike’s face, and the renewed twitching of his dick, Apple Bloom knew it had been a good move.
 
“Thanks fer everythang Spike seeya tomorrow!” she said in a swift rush, and sprinted for the farmhouse before he could say another word, grinning like a fool.
 
Ah did it, Ah did it, Ah kissed Spike! Ah got ta see his dick! Ah even made ‘im hard!

And made herself hard again in the process, she admitted, but that part at least was easily remedied. She had a lot of fresh fuel in her mind.
 
Apple Bloom sped through the house, going straight to her room with a firm slam of the door, and threw herself into bed. She was masturbating before she even hit the covers.
 
 
---
 
 
Apple Bloom still hadn’t stopped grinning by lunchtime at school the next day. She tried to pay attention to the morning lessons, and for once lately she wasn’t completely lost, but every once in a while she and Spike would catch each other’s eyes and Apple Bloom was blissfully ignorant of everything else for a few minutes. It probably wasn’t the best way to go through class, but at least it made lunchtime arrive faster than usual.
 
She’d been hoping to sit with Spike at lunch, but the boys in class had invited him to join them first, so instead Apple Bloom went in search of her usual friends. She found them gathered at a picnic table outside the schoolhouse, along with several other fillies from their class: Dinky Doo, the mailmare’s daughter, blonde and pale-violet and infectiously cheerful; Ruby Pinch, the other pink-on-pink pony in town and heir to a beverage company whose products Applejack never let her drink; and her old friend Twist, whose bright red mane somehow seemed thicker and frizzier than ever. Currently the whole table was staring at something under a nearby tree.
 
“Maybe it’s some new fashion thing?” Dinky Doo was saying, magically floating celery bites into her mouth as Apple Bloom approached.
 
“It’s a bit early for the summer line, isn’t it?” Sweetie Belle answered.
 
“Doesn’t your sister usually put that stuff out a bit early anyway?” Ruby Pinch asked, the only one at the table with a mug full of Moon Tea grasped in her magic.
 
“Yeah, but I don’t remember her making anything like that.”
 
“I thought thummer fathion wath thuppothed to be light,” Twist added, one hoof adjusting her glasses. “Filly mutht be thweating like a pig.”
 
“Maybe she’s just finally gone crazy,” Scootaloo said.
 
“Hey girls, whatcha talkin’ about?” Apple Bloom asked, following their gaze as she reached the table.
 
“Oh, hey Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said. “We’re just wondering what’s up with Diamond Tiara.”
 
Sure enough, Diamond was sitting under the tree they were all staring at. Silver Spoon was there as well, of course, sitting right beside her like she always was, perhaps even a bit closer than usual today. But it was Diamond they were all eyeing, because she was wearing a long, massively poofy pink dress that covered almost her whole body, despite the fact that it was the kind of warm, sunny day where almost nopony wore clothes at all. They were chatting inaudibly, looking much more friendly toward one another than they’d been yesterday, and while somepony else might have dismissed the slight flush of their cheeks as the usual summer warmth, Apple Bloom had a feeling she knew better.
 
“I don’t know how she can stand wearing that thing in this heat,” Dinky said.
 
“Theriouthly, and on top of heat heat?” Twist added.
 
“Ugh,” Ruby muttered, faceplanting on the table and covering her head with both front hooves.
 
“You think she hasn’t gotten relief?” Sweetie Belle asked.
 
Scootaloo let out a snort of laughter. “Pfft, her? What boy in his right mind would wanna do anything with a brat like that? I bet she has the worst heat in town.”
 
Apple Bloom held back a snicker of her own. “Heh, Ah dunno about that…”
 
“Yeah, Diamond’s prissy and all, but she wouldn’t wear a big stuffy dress like that in double-heat. Nopony’s that dumb,” Dinky said.
 
“Well then what’s she wearing it for?”
 
Apple Bloom just barely caught a wince from Diamond as she shifted her hindquarters, and bit back a knowing smirk. “Maybe she’s coverin’ up a sore bottom.”
 
“A sore--? Whoa, you think she got a spanking?!” Scootaloo said almost gleefully.
 
“Oh yeah. A real good’un…”
 
“She did bring that pillow to sit on in class,” Sweetie Belle observed.
 
“Awesome, she totally deserves a few smacks with a spoon,” Scootaloo snickered.
 
“Or a ruler…”
 
“…What?”
 
“N-nothin’, heh…”
 
“Gosh, she must’ve gotten it pretty bad to wear a dress like that in this heat,” Sweetie Belle said.
 
“Augh, stop saying ‘heat,’” Ruby moaned miserably under her hooves. “I’m dying over here.”
 
“Oh no, you haven’t found a boy yet?” Dinky cooed.

“No. It’s not as easy as you’d think.”
 
“Ah know what ya mean,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah was stumped about that fer a while too. Ah mean, Featherweight’s so creepy with that camera--”

“No he’s not!” Dinky burst out, followed immediately by a deep blush. “… I-I mean… they’re nice pictures… and he’s nice too…”
 
“Oh really? Heh, did you let him take some special pictures of you?” Scootaloo teased.

“S-shut up!”
 
Apple Bloom blinked slowly in surprise. “You an’… an’ Featherweight?”
 
Dinky bit her lip embarrassedly, but still smiled. “…Maybe… it was nice taking pictures with him, he made me feel pretty… and sexy…”
 
“Aww!” Sweetie Belle cooed. “That’s so cute!”
 
“Yeah, lucky you,” Ruby grumbled. “Doesn’t really help me.”
 
“Oh, Ruby, I’m sure there’s other boys available…” Dinky assured her.
 
“Are there really?” Apple Bloom asked. “Ah mean, okay, maybe Featherweight’s fine, but Snips and Snails are as gross as ever, nopony would wanna get with them--”
 
Twist snorted and interrupted her this time. “Thpeak for yourthelf!”
 
Apple Bloom goggled at her in shock. “…Yer kiddin’ me.”
 
“No, she’s not,” Ruby growled a little more darkly. “She’s a total colt hoarder.”
 
“Hey, it’th not my fault they like me!”
 
Apple Bloom’s jaw dropped. “You were with Snips and Snails? Both of ‘em?!”
 
Twist blushed a little, but grinned and nodded. “I thure wath!”

“…Why?!”
 
“Theriouthly? Have you theen their cockth?!”
 
“…N… no?”
 
“Oh my Thelethtia, Apple Bloom, they’re tho big!” Twist exclaimed, head held in her hooves and stars in her eyes. “I almotht didn’t think they could fit inthide me!”
 
“Big dicks? On those blockheads?” Scootaloo said, looking as shocked as Apple Bloom.
 
“Thut up, they’re really thweet onthe you get to know ‘em!”
 
“Wait, wait,” Apple Bloom interrupted, confused. “There’s no way two boys can fit down there at once, can they?”
 
“Nah, jutht the one. I mean, I gueth you could put one in your butt, if you felt like it, but we didn’t do that.” Twist’s eyes sparkled dreamily behind her glasses. “I uthed my mouth on the other one inthtead--”
 
“Ewww…” Sweetie Belle groaned.
 
“--and then after a while they thwithed--”
 
“Ewww!”
 
“--and at the end they both put their cockths in my mouth together!”
 
“Ewww!” Sweetie Belle shuddered and hid her face under the table.
 
“Don’t mind her, she’s squeamish,” Scootaloo mumbled, blushing. “Wow, Twist, that’s… wow. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
 
“Ah didn’t know you could use yer butt fer sex…” Apple Bloom marveled.
 
“Well, yeah, of courthe you can. I mean, how elthe would two boyth do it?”
 
“Uh…” Apple Bloom hesitated as she thought embarrassingly hard about that question. “W-well, Ah mean, that one time Ah saw Rumble and Featherweight, they were just sorta rubbin’ by hoof… y-you sayin’ one colt can… put himself in… in the other colt’s butt?”

“And you can do that to fillies too?” Scootaloo added, sounding far too interested herself.
 
“Oh, abtholutely,” Twist confirmed. “But like I thaid, we didn’t do that…”
 
“No, you just hoarded them both to yourself…” Ruby grumbled.
 
Twist rolled her eyes. “Okay, look, I’m thorry! Would it make you feel better if I thaid you could have a turn too?”
 
“…Maybe.”
 
Twist got up from the table and started walking toward the boys’ table. “Alright then, come on, I’ll athk ‘em right now.”

“W-what?! H-hey, wait, wait, hang on, I didn’t say right now! I-I’m not ready yet! Twiiiist!” Ruby shouted, and when it didn’t stop the other filly she leapt from her seat and sprinted away herself, with Dinky following close behind and giggling, eager to listen in.
 
Apple Bloom stared after them, still thoroughly shocked. “…Wow… somepony actually likes Snips and Snails. Who woulda guessed…?”
 
“Not me,” Sweetie Belle muttered.

“Different ponies like different stuff,” Scootaloo said, blushing and sporting stiff, open wings. “Including butt stuff, apparently…”
 
“Y-yeah,” Apple Bloom echoed. She wasn’t sure why that particular idea hadn’t occurred to her before, but it made sense. Colts didn’t have vaginas, obviously, so that was probably the closest substitute. And Diamond Tiara might not have put anything in her butt, but she’d sure squirted her guts out from having it spanked.
 
Still, she wasn’t sure she could imagine putting things in her own butt. Under normal circumstances at least, she’d have a perfectly functional vagina for that, and she was reasonably sure a dick would feel a lot better in there than in her rear. Twist’s situation was one thing, she’d had two dicks to work with. She might have used her mouth for the other one instead - and briefly Apple Bloom wondered how Twist’s mouth compared to Silver Spoon’s and shuddered at the thought - but her rear would’ve been an equally reasonable option when working with a second colt. But it wasn’t like Apple Bloom was planning to have sex with two colts and two dicks at once…
 
And what about ONE with a TWO-HEADED dick?
 
Her eye twitched.
 
He’d have to stick the other half SOMEwhere, right?
 
Apple Bloom sucked a breath in through her teeth and groaned immediately, clenching her hind legs together. Great, she was hard in public again, and in record time. Stupid sexy Spike…
 
“Gah! Gotta run, Apple Bloom, seeya later!” Scootaloo suddenly blurted out, and without waiting for a reply she leapt away from the table and behind the nearest bush.

“Huh? What the--?” Apple Bloom turned around in surprise. “Scootaloo, what the heck is--?”
 
“Hey, uh, Apple Bloom?”
 
Apple Bloom whipped around to face forward again, and Scootaloo’s behavior suddenly made sense. Rumble was walking up to her now, the boys’ table behind him having broken up and scattered within seconds of Twist’s arrival. “Oh, hey Rumble,” she said, swiftly sitting on her erection before Rumble could catch sight of it.

“Hey,” he said back, waving with one hoof before running it through his storm-grey mane. “Uh, listen, are you doing anything after school?”

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “Um… just mah usual chores at home. Why?”
 
“Do you think we could… hang out this afternoon, and… talk about some stuff? Privately?”
 
“Talk? Erm… Ah guess so.” Apple Bloom shrugged. “Ah’ve got a clubhouse on the farm, if ya wanna walk over there with me.”

Rumble nodded swiftly. “Yeah, sure, perfect. Meet you at the front gate after class.”
 
“Yeah, alright, seeya then,” Apple Bloom agreed. A second later Rumble was gone just as quickly as he’d arrived, trotting back over to the remaining boys.
 
“Huh…” Apple Bloom said to herself, scratching her head curiously. “Rumble wants ta hang out with me after school. Alone.”
 
A second later she froze.
 
“Uh-oh.”
 
And then Scootaloo burst back out of the bush.

“He wants to WHAT?!”