Twilight sat in his study uncomfortably bent over stacks upon stacks of paperwork.

“Ugh, why does there have to be so much paperwork?” Twilight asked nopony in particular. Of course the question was rhetorical; Twilight knew exactly why.

Every form that anypony filled out ever had two little check-boxes M or F; regardless if it was a for bank account that contained several million bits or a year-long membership to the spa given as a gift by a certain white unicorn who wasn't half as subtle as she thought she was. And now they all had to be changed.

“Prince Sparkle, there is somepony to see you.” Umbra

“This isn't the most opportune time; I'm busy.”

“She's most insistent.”

“Of course I'm insistent, you half brain-dead waste of a horn, I'm his cousin of house.”

Twilight glared at the grey pegasus that strode in like she owned the place “Hello Storm, I didn't expect to see you in Ponyville.”

“'Onward Free Twilight' li'l Sparky.” the pegasus said with an unnerving smile.

Twilight sighed, the house words were never meant as a casual greeting. “Why are you here Storm?”

“Arcane Theory wanted to come to Ponyville, something about Lady Velvet messing with her mojo.”

“I wouldn't expect Theory to ever leave the artifacts behind.”

“Trust me she didn't.”

“You do realize that you outrank her; you're a lady of house Twilight and Theory is a knighted commoner.”

“I ... um ... uh ...”

“What she means to say is that I caught her doing something rather embarrassing and she would rather your mother not find out.” Theory said as she entered the room

“I don't even want to know, Theory. I don't even want to know.”

“Are you sure Sparkle? Your mother could write a trilogy with it.”

“Ugh, no.” Twilight shook his head in dismay “How did you even convince my mother to let you bring priceless artifacts to Ponyville anyways”

“I didn't.”

Twilight groaned and rolled his eyes. “Ugh, fine. I'll put my neck out for you once. But next time you do something stupid, you're on your own”

“I knew you couldn't resist the lure of ancient magic relics of centuries gone by.”

Twilight sighed again. Damn Theory knew him too damn well

---

Rainbow Dash was bored. She sat in a large lecture hall that sat hundreds, if not thousands, listening to an old crotchety professor ramble on about something she already knew.

In fact Rainbow even had her name on the paper that the professor had based her lecture. Twilight had decided, several weeks ago, to see how the salt content in the air of coastal areas affects the inherent magic of storm development (a measurable increase of power by approximately 20 percent) and Rainbow had been her first choice for assistance.

And now she had to endure some old mare talking about how this new discovery would affect her job (which it wouldn't, Ponyville was completely landlocked).

Rainbow Dash was also anxious. Not nervous – being nervous isn't cool – but anxious.

The Ponyville weather team was one of the least experienced teams. With the exception of Rainbow herself, not a single one of the team had gone through formal weather training. It wasn't that she didn't have faith in her team, but they worked in one of the most dangerous locations, with storms randomly blowing in from the Everfree forest. In fact it seemed that every time she left Ponyville something was screwed up, be it as small as a missed light shower or as large as an F4 tornado (luckily nopony was seriously hurt in that particular event).

After spending a week at the weather convention Rainbow was anxious Ponyville wouldn't be there when she returned.

And to top it all off Rainbow was very uncomfortable. Four days ago Rainbow had felt the first warning signs of heat, and since then it had only gotten worse. To make things worse, this may be the strongest heat cycle Rainbow had experienced since puberty.

It was frustrating; normally the pegasus would get Twilight to cast her heat suppression spell on her, but she hadn't been allowed to spare the half hour required to make a round trip to Ponyville.

Aero Hurricane, the current head weather coordinator, had said that the convention was much too important to miss even one event; although Rainbow knew well enough that such a decision was motivated by spite rather than any kind of goodwill. Aero had only gotten her job because she was the daughter of a very powerful noble house, and been butting heads with Rainbow since her placement two years ago. Aero seems to think that she can use the weather teams as a tool to gain influence, while mistreating the workers; and that is something that Rainbow could never stand for.

Luckily this was the last day that Aero could legally hold the pegasi of the weather teams in Cloudsdale before the start of the mandatory spring holiday (or the “get yourself rutted” holiday as many mares put it). Rainbow had never been one to take part in the hedonistic nymphomaniacal culture that most pegasus mares seemed to be a part of. In fact her near asexuality had caused most pegasi to believe she was a filly-fooler, an unfortunate falsehood that had followed the chromatic mare through her entire life.

To put it simply, Rainbow was not in a good mood.

“Miss Rainbow Dash” said a small exited voice.

“What?!” Rainbow practically growled.

“Oh, I'm sorry, I'll just go now.”

Rainbow turned around “No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be angry with you; I've just had a bad day.”

“I just wanted to say how much I admire you” said the young pegasus mare.

'Well I am awesome” came the long conditioned response of the chromatic mare.

The younger pegasus slowly shook her head “Yes you are.”

“Well I have to be going, the weather team in Ponyville needs me.”

“Good bye, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow walked into the head weather coordinator's office with a small amount of well concealed dread. “Aero, there is nothing you can legally do to hold me here, so I am going back to Ponyville”

“Hope you had fun” the noblemare replied with a cruel smile “You know; I'm pretty sure one of my brothers would be willing to help you with 'your condition'.”

“I'm not sure any of your brothers could help anypony after their multiple nights with you.”

Aero's face paled with rage “Oh, sorry, I forgot. You want to go back to spend some 'special time' with the mares of your weather team. Maybe that blind grey retard or the tongueless yellow waste of wings.”

Rainbow drew extremely close to the other mare “Insult me as much as you want, but never insult my friends” Rainbow turned and walked towards the door. She turned her head back towards Aero “Commander Hurricane would have gelded himself in shame if he had known what his descendants would become.”

Rainbow took one more look at the look of rage and hatred that had consumed Aero's face before exiting.

“How DARE you, I will have you ...”

Rainbow slammed the door closed, silencing the mare's threats. I wonder why Aero's office has such good sound proofing, Rainbow's face twisted in disgust, It's probably better I don't know.

Rainbow was relieved when she saw that Ponyville intact and in good condition. Even better there was no apparent threat looming in the skies, waiting to thunder down on the town.

Rainbow spotted a couple of familiar pegasi resting on a cloud.

“Flitter, status report”

Unfortunately it was not Flitter, but rather her sister that was the first to answer “What's up, Boss?”

“Cloudchaser, shut up. Flitter, status report.”

“Boss, why can't I give you a status report?”

“Because, Cloudchaser, the last time I asked you for one, you gave me a painfully in depth description of the last five stallions you bedded, and some kind of alcohol fuelled rant about how you were 'winning'.”

“But you liked it. I know you did.”

Rainbow groaned in frustration “I, quite literally, couldn't care less about your sex life, Cloudchaser. I just don't want to hear about it.”

“Fine, but Princess Twilight spread word around town that she wanted to see you when you got back in town. Said it's pretty urgent.”

Flitter's eyes widened and she started to say something but was cut off by Cloudchaser putting a hoof in her mouth.

“Everything's fine with the weather, you go see your friend.” Cloudchaser put on an innocent smile that filled Rainbow's heart with dread.

“Uh, okay. But I expect a full report on the weather when I come back” Rainbow fell into a nose dive before recovering and flying off towards the Castle.

Flitter spit out her sister's offending hoof “You realize that you just sent a mare that is in the worst parts of heat into a castle with a recently mare-turned-stallion alicorn prince? Both of whom have shown signs of significant emotional instability.”

“I'm not stupid, of course I know that. And it will do some good and loosen them up.”

Flitter brought her hoof to her face. “Why do you seem to think that any problem can be solved with sex?”

“Because it always worked for me.” Cloudchaser said with a smile.

“That just might be the most incorrect statement ever spoken by ponykind. If I remember correctly, nearly all your problems have been caused by sex and precisely zero have been solved by it.”

“That's not true, sex has always solved the 'I'm not currently having sex' problem, and that's my most common problem.”

“I much too often forget that you are a nymphomaniac with a clinical lack of shame and a depth that makes a puddle think it's a mighty ocean.”

“I think I understood half of the words in that sentence. Although I don't know what puddles have anything to do with sex.”

“Arrgh. It's a metaphor, and it doesn't have anything to do with sex.”

“A metal four? Do you take the numbers off the houses owned by the stallions that you have sex with too.”

“Dear, Celestia, Luna and Discord, my sister is an incompetent!”

“Hey, I wonder what a night with Discord would be like. Maybe I should ask Fluttershy?”

“And I tell you once again, just because Discord and Fluttershy are friends, that doesn't mean they're having sex.”

“I ... don't understand.”

Flitter sighed, “Of course you don't.”

The two sisters were quiet for a second.

“They're not actually going to have sex.”

“Hmm?” Flitter hummed.

“They're not going to have sex. Miss kissless virgin will shove her face into the Twilight's crotch and be disappointed when he doesn't rise to the occasion. Not even a sexy virgin can get a stallion up without chemical assistance.”

“I know, but that doesn't make it right.”

Twilight trotted down a narrow hallway, Shadow and Umbra had taken their leave to help Theory and Storm with the unloading of the numerous ancient artifacts that would now make their home at this castle.

As much as Twilight wanted to help catalogue the magical items, his next several hours were scheduled for his own research into cataloguing a number of spells crafted by Starswirl the Bearded.

Twilight turned a corner only to see a multicoloured blur flying on a collision course with himself ...

*Smash*

“Rainbow Dash, what did I say about flying around in my castle” Twilight said to the mare that was currently atop him.

“Cloudchaser said that you wanted to see me.” Rainbow had adopted an amateur version of a seductive voice before placing an inexperienced kiss on the top of Twilight's muzzle. “I can certainly see why.”

Twilight's mind was in turmoil. None of his other friends had reacted to his change like this; why would Rainbow, who was by all accounts the least interested in the other sex, be suddenly acting this way towards the former mare.

All of Twilight's questions were answered when he inhaled the frisky mare's scent. Her sweet, glorious musk. It all clicked, Rainbow must have entered her oestrus cycle a couple of weeks early. “By the Styx, Rainbow, you're in heat; get off of me”

“Don't want to.” Rainbow said as she shoved her muzzle into the larger stallion's crotch. His scent was powerful, masculine, beautiful, overwhelming, nothing like the rather anemic, slightly sour scent of a normal stallion. This is what a stallion should smell like Rainbow suddenly realized.

Twilight felt his member grow stiff as it peaked out of his sheathe.

“Wow...” Rainbow spoke with awe as she stared at the erection as it grew and grew and grew. It was far from the first erection Rainbow had seen – there was remarkably little privacy in Cloudsdale – but it was the first that she wanted. She stared intently at the beautiful pillar as it continued to grow. I wonder what it tastes like, Rainbow stuck out her tongue slowly leaning her head towards the tip of the monument of masculinity.

Twilight felt an alien surge of pride as he watched the mesmerized little mare inching towards his cock. Yes, this was what he was meant for, claiming cute little mares and making them his own. Wait, what? Twilight suddenly realized what he had been thinking, this was one of his closest friends. He pushed the small mare off of him, “Rainbow, please, I don't know how much longer I can control myself.”

“Then don't.”

Twilight picked up the smaller mare and stared into her beautiful rose eyes, “What? Rainbow, this isn't you, this is the heat speaking.”

Rainbow stared back into the larger stallion's violet pools, “No, Twilight. I am twenty-five years old, and not once in my life have I been even the slightest bit tempted to lay with a stallion during my heat. This is me, your friend Rainbow Dash, speaking, and I want you to stop holding back and rut me.” The rainbow mare pushed her muzzle into the alicorn stallion's, initiating a sloppy, inexperienced but nonetheless perfect kiss.

Twilight felt his own lips parting and giving the cerulean mare passage as the treacherous armies of animal lust conquered the fortress of his mind. The few loyal neurons in his cortex had lost all hope of adverting the imminent catastrophe and instead rallied their efforts towards damage control. And as such, the last conscious act of Twilight Sparkle on that day was to cast two spells.

The first was a powerful contraceptive.

The second teleported them both to Twilight's bedchambers.

Twilight lay in bed, curled around the smaller body of his little mare, Rainbow Dash. “So that's what sex is like.”

Rainbow nuzzled into the warm lavender coat of the powerful stallion. “Yeah, I can totally understand why so many ponies are so obsessed with it.”

Twilight sat up, “You, know, this is the first time that I've been happy to have been turned into a stallion. I've been dealing with the change, but it took my little Dashie to make me happy about it.”

Rainbow smirked, “I'm happy you're a stallion now, too.”

Twilight chuckled, a powerful burst of pride filling up his chest. “I know, I heard you scream my name; many, many times.”

Rainbow made a soft happy sound in her throat, content to silently bask in her post-orgasmic glow.

Twilight adopted a serious expression and broke the silence, “Rainbow, there's something I have to tell you.”

Oh, Rainbow's eyes widened in horror and grief before she averted her gaze from the stallion of her desires. Oh, no. She curled up into a miserable fetal position trying to hide her tears. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Twilight looked in confusion and sorrow as his one sentence turned his mare from her happy, confident self into a miserable weeping mess. He wondered what could possibly be wrong. No, now was not the time to be wondering, his little mare was hurting, and he needed to fix it. He grabbed Rainbow's chin and brought her eyes to his, “Rainbow, what's wrong?”

“It's, not, bucking, fair.” Rainbow choked out between sobs “I finally find you. The stallion I have dreamed about since I was a filly. And now we can't be together.”

Twilight couldn't help but growl – actually growl – in rage, “Who told you that we we couldn't be together?! You are mine.”

Rainbow's face took an expression of confusion, “But, that's what you were going to say. You are a lord of a major house, prince of Equestria and a duke, and you need to marry a noblemare, not some worthless commoner like me.”

“What?! Never call yourself 'worthless' again, you are the most important mare in Equestria as far as I am concerned. And do not put words into my mouth, that was not what I was going to say, House Twilight has never cared about noble titles in such a way. Anyways even if they did, I don't. And woe befall any who tries to take my mare from me.”

Rainbow started to laugh in-between sobs.

“What?”

“You were so offended for my sake, and so serious, and so possessive. I didn't think that stallions were supposed to be possessive about mares, but I think it's kind of hot.” Rainbow was reminded of the 'advice' her mother gave her as a filly – before the mare abandoned her husband and daughter – about how a mare should never surrender their authority to a stallion, that such submission was nothing but weakness. Her mother had told her 'horror stories' of empowered stallions murdering their mare in a jealous rage after finding her in bed with another stallion.

In truth, it had always rubbed Rainbow the wrong way how self righteous some pegasus mares – especially her mother – got about their promiscuity; like they thought it was their Celestia given right to buck whoever they wanted. She still remembered the despair in her father's face when he told her that 'Mother is over at a friend's', something she only understood much later.

“Well, you are mine.” Twilight said matter-of-factly.

Rainbow shuddered in excitement at her friend-turned-lover's self-assured possessiveness. She imagined her mother looking down at her in disapproval, and smiled, go buck yourself mother, I want this. She nuzzled into the large stallion.

“You are mine, and you are a strong, beautiful, powerful mare.” He wrapped his foreleg around the smaller mare.

Rainbow's face fell, “But, Twilight. What will other ponies think? you might not think status is important, but I know how the nobility operates, there will be an uproar if you don't choose a 'suitable' mate.”

Twilight chuckled, “No, there won't. House Twilight has been almost exclusively marrying commoners for our entire history as a noble house, and there's never been and uproar about it. Admittedly, it's probably because no significant noble house actually wants to marry a Twilight, but I'm not complaining”

Rainbow was incredibly confused, “If you don't marry other houses, how did your house become a major house so quickly. You're a new house right?”

Twilight laughed, “House Twilight isn't a major house because we have a tangled web of alliances with other houses. We are a major house because we're over two thousand strong between house members and sworn knights, more than half of whom are fully capable battlemages.”

“One thousand battlemages?”

“More that one thousand battlemages.” Twilight corrected. “How did you know that we are a major house. I know for certain that I never even mentioned my house.”

“Uh, your two guardmares. One of them let slip several weeks ago that they were formerly members of a 'Twilight House Guard'. There are only thirteen houses in Cloudsdale significant enough to have a house guard, and while I don't know much about Canterlot, there can't that many more such houses there.”

Twilight smirked, “There are nine Canterlot houses that have a house guard, but House Twilight is not one of them. Our manor isn't actually in the city, it's on the other side of the mountain, and of the forty something unicorn houses who do not call Canterlot home, nearly two thirds maintain a house guard, even if it's just twenty ponies with spears. Now how do you figure we're a new house?”

“I've never heard of a House Twilight, so you can't be an old or ancient house. Well unless your house changed your name, but that seems unlikely.”

What!? How could she be so confident in her knowledge of old and ancient houses? Twilight thought, Wait, she probably guessed, new houses do outnumber old and ancient houses combined nearly four to one, so it would be a pretty safe guess. The part about knowing the old and ancient houses was probably a joke. Twilight laughed, “Rainbow, always such a joker. Well, House Twilight is the rightful heir to the Ancient House Clover – along with a half dozen other, more minor, houses – but to say we are actually the same house would be a lie. Especially as the house was declared extinct before we even knew Equestria was a thing again. But we're not actually a new house, we're actually a Dark Age house.”

“A 'Dark Age house'?”

“Ah, yes, you wouldn't know about the Dark Age. Most ponies don't, because for some reason it isn't mentioned in any standardized education. Well it's a bit of a long story. So unicorns, and by extension alicorns, have something known as 'magical affinity' sometimes called 'alignment', it is a measure of what type of unicorn magic a given unicorn good at. A fire aligned unicorn would find that fire spells would be stronger for her, but might be completely unable to cast ice spells.” Twilight paused.

“Sorry if I'm prying, but you're pure arcane aligned correct?”

“Uh, Yes. You know about alignment?” That was odd, but not too odd, alignment was something that was taught in Magic 101. Admittedly it was unicorn Magic 101, but it wasn't unheard of for a young pony to be interested enough in the magic of a different tribe to learn such a thing.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, sorry, I just assumed. Well back in ancient times a group of hundreds of unicorns raised and lowered the sun and moon, but it wasn't one group that was responsible for both but two different groups. The Solar houses, composed of unicorns with a solar alignment, moved the sun, while the Lunar houses, composed of unicorns with a lunar alignment, moved the moon.”

“I know, but what does this have with this 'Dark Age'.”

“Well, the sun can only be moved by ponies with a solar alignment and likewise the moon requires a lunar alignment. Two alignments that are diametrically opposed. And that didn't change when the unicorn courts were replaced by two young alicorns. Celestia with an incredibly pure solar alignment raised and lowered the sun while Luna with a similarly pure lunar alignment raised and lowered the moon.”

“Yeah, I know.” Rainbow said before her eyes widened in horror and surprise. “Oh wait, but Celestia raised and lowered the moon for a thousand years. Oh Celestia, what did you do?”

That definitely was very odd, Rainbow apparently knew all about alignment and the Solar and Lunar Courts, but had apparently never connected it to Princess Celestia's seemingly impossible abilities. Every explanation of alignment Twilight had ever seen sited Princess Celestia as 'the exception that proves the rule'; some even claimed – falsely and without evidence – that alicorns were simply not beholden to alignment. “Nopony but Princess Celestia herself knows what she did. But whatever it was, it took somewhere between six and eight hundred years to do. Those six to eight hundred years are what are known as the Dark Age.”

“So Equestria went hundreds of years without anyone to move the moon? What about the Lunar Court, couldn't they move the moon?”

“It's more than that. Princess Celestia disappeared, presumably to do whatever allowed her control over the moon, so there was nopony to control the sun either, it wasn't uncommon to have an entire month of night followed by an entire month of day. And from what we were able to figure out, the Lunar Court at least attempted to wrest control of the moon several times. But every attempt was a failure, sometimes catastrophically so. There is some debate as to why they were unable to control the moon, with reasons ranging from Nightmare Moon's lingering influence, to a lack of spellpower, to simply a lack of experience or impurity of alignment.”

“And with the erratic heating from the sun, and cooling from the moon. The weather and seasons must have been impossible to control.”

“Yeah, there weren't terribly many crops that could survive a month without sunlight, and even less that could survive that, five years of constant snowfall, and seven years without rain. It took a many years to create crops that grew in such conditions. But it gets even worse: ponies turned to banditry due to starvation, gryphon cannibal cults started moving into pony lands, the caribou invaded and countless species of monster – many never seen before – spread throughout the land.”

“The caribou?” Rainbow shuddered. “It seems like this dark age was really, really bad. Almost unnecessarily so.”

Twilight chuckled darkly, “You could say that. And because it was so bad most of the powerful noble houses disappeared, not to return until the Dark Age was over. I don't even blame them for leaving, some of them even brought their vassals.”

“They 'disappeared'? To where?”

“We aren't sure where. At the time, ponies had just assumed they went extinct. Our best guess is they hid in terrestrial demiplanes, but we have never found any of these demiplanes, so they could have dug holes and put themselves into stasis for all we know.”

“That seems like a pretty reasonable guess, as the fact you haven't found any demiplanes isn't terribly surprising since demiplanes can only be entered from very specific locations.”

Wait what? Where did you learn planar dynamics Rainbow. No, no Twilight, let her have her secrets, she'll tell you when she's ready. Anyways it's not like I've been forthcoming about my secrets anyways. I didn't even tell my friends about Shiny until he invited us to his wedding, and Rainbow is the first one I've even told about House Twilight. “Yes. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. The remaining noble houses, mage guilds, weatherpony companies, Equestrian guard regiments, citizen's militias and assorted other military, paramilitary and civilian organizations came together to create the Orders Stalwart, we were the first line of defence against the many threats to ponykind.”

“So House Twilight was one of these Orders Stalwart?”

“Yes, before we were House Twilight we were the 'Order Stalwart of the Pillar of Twilight'.”

“Seems like quite the mouthful.”

“Yeah it's fairly verbose, we usually just shorten it to 'Stalwart of Twilight'. And, well, the Dark Age was a very different time...” Twilight shyly averted his eyes.

“It was a very different time...?”

“Well, we were fighting for survival, we did things differently than most modern ponies.” Twilight was looking away from the smaller mare.

“You did things differently?”

“We do things differently.” Twilight blushed in shame.

“Twilight you don't need to feel ashamed, I swear I won't judge you.”

“Um, well we don't marry for status, we marry for power.”

“I don't understand the difference.”

“Sorry, let me rephrase that, we marry for magical power. We Twilights look for magically capable individuals to seduce and bring into the family. Something I have managed to exceed all expectations with you.” Twilight blushed, “If you'll have me at least.”

Rainbow blushed at the compliment, “That doesn't seem that odd.”

“And we subsume the families that marry into our house.”

“You subsume families?”

“If you and I married, your siblings and possibly your parents would be inducted as vassals of House Twilight. Take my two guardmares for example, they are my father's nieces and are knights of House Twilight because my father married my mother.”

“Okay, interesting.”

“And every child of a Twilight is a Twilight, we don't follow the matrilinear conventions of most of the nobility.”

“I'm starting to understand why the rest of the nobility don't want to marry your family. But I don't even have a family name so it wouldn't be a problem.” Rainbow paused for a second, “Wait, if 'every child of a Twilight is a Twilight' what about your brother?”

“Who? Shiny? Oh, he's not a Twilight, he's technically my half-brother.” Twilight paused, “And we're omnivorous.”

“Omnivorous ? As in..”

“..we eat the flesh of dead animals? Yes”

“Okay that does seem weird. I didn't even think ponies could eat meat.”

“We have to cook it first, but the only thing really stopping ponies from doing it is the taboo.”

“Huh, I guess the meat Gilda dared me to eat was raw.”

“And we regularly practice dangerous and restricted magics.”

“Wow, I never would have guessed.” Rainbow quipped sarcastically.

Twilight blushed, “Is it that obvious?”

Rainbow deadpanned.

“Okay,” Twilight sighed, “And madness is endemic to our bloodline.”

“What?”

“We're all insane in some way. It varies from one Twilight to the next. For example I am cripplingly neurotic.”

“Wow, that's quite a doozy. I can see how you wouldn't want that spread around, it can't be fun.”

“Fun, it isn't. Can you imagine being unable to stop panicking about something despite knowing you are being irrational and there is nothing to panic about.”

“Oh, that sounds horrible.”

Twilight sighed “It is.” He said in a small voice.

Both ponies were silent for a second.

Twilight sighed. “And we're polygamous.”

“You're polygamous!?”

“Yes, every stallion in House Twilight is expected to marry multiple mares.”

“Huh, isn't that illegal?”

“No, it's taboo but one hundred percent legal.” Twilight looked down in shame. “I know you probably think I'm just making this up in a perverse effort to satisfy my base urges on multiple mares.”

“No, Twilight, I know you didn't.” Rainbow looked into the larger stallion's eyes.

“I ...” Twilight sighed and nuzzled the mare, “Thank you for trusting me. I really wish I could promise monogamy like you deserve but...”

“Your family wouldn't be happy?”

“No, they wouldn't be happy at all. There all already factions within House Twilight that think that I have been turned against the house by Princess Celestia. Even worse, the traditionalists are still angry with Shiny for eloping to Canterlot with Cadence. And he's only a knight from a half-sibling line, I'm the heir apparent of the house and an alicorn Prince of Equestria.”

“Well, monogamy is just a joke anyways, you viciously fight other mares for the attention of some stallion, and then stud him out to the many, many mares who loose that fight.”

Twilight snorted. “I hope you weren't planning to get rich off studding me out, we Twilights don't do that, ever.”

“'Every child of a Twilight is a Twilight', right?”

“Yeah, no Twilight would ever think of selling our children. In fact we view the entire institution as an abomination.”

“I can't really blame you for that, it's always made me pretty uncomfortable. Even more uncomfortable when you put it like that.”

Twilight nodded.

Rainbow paused for a few seconds, “So ... polygamy.”

“Yes, I'm really sorry. I understand if you don't want to be with me now.”

Rainbow laughed and rolled her eyes, “Yeah, that's not going to happen,” The mare adopted a pensive look, “Twilight, I going to be honest here, and say something that goes against everything my mother ever told me about relationships – not that she has any authority after she abandoned us – you are the only stallion for me.”

“Wow,” Twilight blushed intensely, “That's uncharacteristically romantic of you Rainbow.”

“No!” Rainbow said curtly before taking a deep breath “It's desperate.”

“What?” Twilight looked confused.

“Twilight, you are the only stallion – no, the only pony – that I have ever felt any amount of sexual or romantic attraction to. You are literally the only stallion that I can even imagine being with and I would do anything to be with you. I'm yours.”

Twilight was struck dumb with an uncomprehending wide eyed stare. What?

Rainbow tilted her head as she watched the stallion. Huh, maybe I came on a little strong.

Did, did she just say that?

Rainbow waved a hoof in front of the stallion's face.

Yes, she is mylittle mare after all.

“Twilight?”

What, where did that come from, she's a friend, not my mare.

“Twilight, are you in there?”

That's not what what she said.

Rainbow rolled her eyes before grabbing the unresponsive stallion's muzzle in both hooves. She barely managed to budge the Twilight's muzzle as she stared into his vacant eyes, he's so strong. Rainbow slammed her muzzle desperately into the alicorn stallion's as she initiated the most intense kiss yet.

What, no that's not... *Clack*

Or at least she tried to initiate an intense kiss, what actually happened is their front teeth slammed together in a jarring uncomfortable collision.

Twilight pulled his head back chuckling, “Rainbow, did you just hit me in the face with your face?”

Rainbow averted her eyes and blushed heavily, “I was trying to kiss you.”

“Not very well apparently.”

“Well you were the one sitting there ignoring me, serves you right”

“You did drop a pretty major surprise on me Rainbow.”

Rainbow looked sheepish wincing slightly as her front teeth started to ache, “Well yeah.”

“It feels weird, we just had coitus for the first time and you are already declaring undying fidelity to me.”

Rainbow chuckled awkwardly, “Yeah, we're moving really fast. Probably too fast.”

Twilight growled, “I wouldn't say 'too fast', more like 'just fast enough'”

Rainbow laughed. “By the Styx, Twilight. You really are a stallion unlike any other.”

By the Styx? Most modern ponies swear by Celestia. “What do you mean?”

Rainbow tilted her head, “Where do I start? You're confident, in control, possessive, tall, strong, virile, unreasonably handsome, wickedly smart, incredibly powerful, heir to a mysterious, powerful house, an actual alicorn stallion – you do realize there's only one of those – need I go on?”

“Oh,”

“Honestly you could have ten thousand mares and each and every one would be incredibly lucky to be yours.”

Twilight's eyes widened with terror, “Ten thousand mare's?!”

Rainbow smirked, “Ten thousand lucky mares.”

“How would that even work?”

Rainbow burst into laughter, “I'm just messing with you Twilight. Ten thousand is a bit much.”

“A bit much.” Twilight narrowed his eyes before widening them in surprise “Does this mean you're okay with ...”

“...with your harem building?”

Twilight pouted, “Uh, it's not a harem, it's a normal marriage, just with more than two ponies.”

“Doesn't sound very normal to me.” Rainbow smirked, “But didn't I say I would do anything for you.”

“Um, but do you want this, or is it just a begrudging acceptance?”

“I don't know, but it is growing on me. Anyways, ponies' obsession with monogamy is irresponsible and horribly unfair for most mares who end up having to buy affection and children.”

Twilight tilted his head, “That is a very Twilight point of view on the subject.”

Rainbow yawned, “Great minds, Twilight, great minds.”

Twilight chuckled before yawning in sympathy, “It's pretty late isn't it.”

“Yeah.”

“Hm.” Twilight stretched out and wrapped his larger body protectively around the smaller mare. “Goodnight, Rainbow.”

“Goodnight.”

Rainbow Dash looked in Twilight's eyes before stretching her neck out and presenting her unprotected throat to the large stallion.

...

Sigh, stupid Rainbow, it's a griffon gesture, why would Twilight even know how to... Rainbow felt strong powerful jaws encircle her vulnerable throat, sharp fangs softly biting into her flesh. She shuddered as her stallion literally held her life in his jaws. Wait, sharp fangs?

Here's chapter 10 redone, over 3 times the length of the old one. A lot of exposition too, maybe too much.

This also marks the point where I change the rating to M, but that should be obvious.