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Five Star Service – Crystal Cleared

By Five Stars of Manehattan
Special to the New York Life and Manehattan Post magazines
August 24 issues

New York Life Chief Editor’s Note:

Our presses back in business, we are again soliciting questions for Five Stars to answer in a future article. If you would like to participate, please either write a letter to the editor, or for human readers, simply leave a comment on the website—you will find an ‘Ask Five Stars’ link at the bottom of this page.

Same rules as before: only serious and thoughtful queries will be accepted. We will utilize a range of viewpoints, but any question deemed overly offensive or insulting will be ignored. We would also like to extend a warm New York welcome to Hot Topic, who arrived in the Big Apple this week looking for her lost Gentleman, a New York native. She came by to visit and we gave her the grand tour, offering any help she needed in her search.

Oh yes: the following article is explicit, yadda yadda yadda, if you don’t like it, tough shit. We won our court case. The articles stay. Deal.

(Actually, Hot Topic was right. That does feel good…)

—Kalido Tenna, Chief Editor, New York Life Magazine

Manehattan Post Editor’s Note:

As you know, Hot Topic has temporarily left the magazine she founded and runs, leaving me in charge for the duration while she attempts to track down her favorite Gentleman. She is keeping in constant contact with us from across the portal—no luck so far—but she’s nothing if not extremely stubborn, and I have no doubt she’ll find him eventually.

In the meantime, she has left me a huge set of horseshoes to fill, but I will do my best. I would like to say that she was a rock during the worst of the H.E.R.D. harassment, refusing to crack despite being under enormous pressure, even opening up her own saddlebags to give bits and legal assistance to any employees who needed it. We would also like to express our gratitude to Rising Star, whose presence was both steadying and reassuring in the week Platinum Corona was gone. She got us set up in the G4M basement when our own offices were no longer safe, and knowing she was there watching over us was no little thing.

We thank her for that, as well as the vouchers for a free four-night stay at the Mystique in Las Pegasus for all our staff. As badly as some of us need a vacation at this point, we will probably be taking her up on that offer sooner rather than later.

—Extra Edition, Vice-President and Executive Editor, Manehattan Post Magazine

Dear readers—

The better news continues this week, with the organized harassment campaign ended except for a few scattered incidents—just some petty vandalism and a couple small streetside protests that are minor annoyances at worst. Somewhat more irritating is the fact that Platinum has insisted that I now have bodyguards wherever I go, which I find a little intrusive and unnecessary. Earth ponies may not have wings or horns, but as compensation we’re very strong and tough, resistant to magic and quite hard to hurt. As long as I keep my hooves on Tellus Firma, I’m fine.

My bodyguards are a pair of griffins, surprisingly. Former Fortis Knights and veterans of the Cloven War, one of whom is missing an eye. He certainly cuts an intimidating figure, and so does his eagless partner, who bears scars of her own in the form of a mechanical foreleg—a gift from human surgeons, I’m told. They’re both professional but personable, and have some truly harrowing stories to tell. They’re by no means the first griffins I’ve known… but that’s a story I’m saving for later.

Things seem to be settling down both here and in Las Pegasus, where the G4M branch office there has started taking clients again… though for the time being they’re limited where they can go. They’re restricted to certain areas of The Street and trusted resorts like the Mystique, Strotosphere and Palisades, where they can be watched over by security teams just in case somepony else tries something. We’ve likewise taken some precautions regarding Gentlemen here in Manehattan as well, though I can’t detail them.

So far, so good—the arrests and royal decree seems to have taken care of things—but we’re taking no chances with our Gentlemen, as I guess Platinum Corona isn’t with me. It’s really a shame that it’s come to this, and I do hope these measures are only temporary. But for the sake our Gentlemen and their clients—it grieves me greatly to know that Hot Topic lost her favorite Gentleman—for now, this is the way it must be.

I know you find this a little stifling, Five Stars, but you’re too much the face of G4M now to leave unprotected. Take it from me, though—celebrity can be a very fickle thing, here one day and gone the next, so enjoy it while you have it. To be sure, I understand better than most that there are times you need to escape it, even if just for a day, so you can enjoy life on your own terms again and walk unrecognized amongst a crowd. To that end, I know a spell or two that can disguise you if you really want your anonymity back.

—Platinum Corona

Understood, Platinum. I’ll decline a disguise, magical or otherwise on general principles. That smacks of having to hide who I am and what I do, which I refuse to do. The point of these articles was to bring G4M out of the shadows, and me hiding or disguising myself would send entirely the wrong message.

You’re right in that I’m starting to miss my anonymity, though. I can’t really recruit new Gentlemen any longer because everyone, both human and pony now knows what I look like. I’ve even had a couple instances where men have sought me out, approaching when I’ve been out for a walk or just having lunch down the street, asking me to ‘break them in’.

Flattering though it is to know I’m a mare in demand, I can’t oblige. I tend to vet potential candidates from a distance before approaching them, and part of the magic of a new man for me is choosing and seducing him myself, overcoming their internal blocks and showing them a whole new world. I guess that’s something that needs to be on my terms for whatever reason, and besides, if all I want is willing men, I have them in spades in the course of my training duties. So… sorry guys, but I’m not quite that easy.

I’ll address this a little more in the next Q&A chapter a few articles out. But for now… back to the story of my third herd—and for once, I have a happy herd story to tell, though there’s a decidedly unhappy part of the story to get through first. To recap, early September found me and my four friends officially forming our herd and all of us moving in together into our new cottage… which still really wasn’t fit for habitation.

Third Try the Charm

I’ve heard it said that some ponies make better friends than lovers, and that others make better lovers than herdmates. After our new herd’s first two months, the truth of both assertions had been demonstrated quite vividly.

Increasingly, I was coming to the conclusion that we’d been fools for trying to form a herd, and I’d been a fool for ever leaving Cruise Control, who I was missing more and more. Not only did I get no action during that time, I don’t even think Red Pepper and Sea Salt did; they were sleeping apart and very short with each other as our internal issues and ongoing cottage restoration took their toll.

We told ourselves things would get better once we finished the renovations, even promising that we’d finally celebrate our new herd properly with an actual honeymoon, but at the rate things were moving it was never going to happen. Half the house remained unlivable while the floors and walls were worked on—it seemed like every week brought a new issue and a fresh repair job—and the mess and cramped quarters it caused in the remainder was almost unbearable for five ponies.

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be, especially for me. My third herd was supposed to the proverbial charm; the sum of the lessons I’d learned from past herds and far better for it, but instead there was a brand new set of problems and yet more mistakes to make. It was now clear we should have given ourselves more time to resolve our internal issues and finished the house first before moving in, but it was too late to change that now. And worse, our issues were starting to spill over into our workplace, causing service to suffer and the hotel manager to more than once call us into her office to tell us to “get our bucking act together” or we’d be collectively out of a job.

It was a tall order for all of us. Despite her therapy sessions, Sweet Tea just wasn’t getting much better. Outside of work she kept almost entirely to herself, staying in her closed room—she even locked it—only coming out when she had to.

Even bartending at the Inn, she was very distant and often had this glassy, thousand-yard stare. Her drink-making talent just wasn’t there either—she worked mechanically, fulfilling drink orders but not putting any special twist (lemon or otherwise) on them as she normally did, nor did she engage guests like she used to. She avoided Juniper as much as possible and we helped her do it, scheduling their shifts apart so they were never at work or home together.

Juniper wasn’t the same either. Guilt-ridden over what she’d done to Sweet Tea, she had been anything but her usual outgoing, confident self. Normally the life of the party and center of attention, she attended her groundskeeping duties with less than her usual care and was hitting the local watering holes hard afterwards; more than once she got so soused on cheap cider we had to collect her and carry her home.

All of this was putting severe emotional strain on the rest of us as well. A herd can generally handle one member having issues without a problem, but when two or more get them at the same time, it strains everypony. More than once myself and Sea Salt begged Red Pepper to find some excuse to let Juniper go from both our herd and work, believing that Sweet Tea wasn’t going to get better as long as she was around and getting rid of her would go a long way towards relieving the tensions and cramped quarters we were all suffering under.

But every time we tried, Red Pepper deferred to Sweet Tea, who remained adamant that she did not want anypony, even somepony who had all but raped her, to lose their job or herd on her account. So we muddled on, our home a mess and our barely-begun herd already increasingly in crisis.

Not The End...

It finally all came to a head one day in early November, just two months after we moved in.

Our herd was at the breaking point, with half our house still unfinished and unavailable, the close quarters it caused exacerbated by Sweet Tea’s isolation and Juniper’s increasingly frequent cider binges (I shudder to think what would have happened if human alcohol had been available then). And the final straw, it seemed, would be a simple disagreement over paint color, with a three-way shouting match erupting over palate in the still-unfinished living space.

The scene that night was our herd in a nutshell. Half the room painted, the other half a mess. Red Pepper and Sea Salt arguing and on the verge of breaking up, telling me as one to ‘buck off’ when I tried to intervene. Juniper unhelpful, half-soused and attempting to uncork another cider bottle while I heard the muffled sounds of Sweet Tea sobbing in her bedroom, sounding she was trying to shut it all out by covering her head with a pillow. And then there was myself… seemingly the only sane one of the group, splattered in paint after I’d had a brush magically thrown at me, my efforts unappreciated and advice ignored.

My presence unwanted and my patience at an end, I’d had more than enough and was about two seconds away from storming out, if not outright moving out. We had no house, we had no harmony, we had no privacy... we’d had no honeymoon and hadn’t even rutted once since we moved in; our herd had been one cottage crisis or personal issue after another with no end in sight.

We were a Herd In Name Only, and very shortly, it seemed, even that would be gone… and I was all but ready to wish both it and all my soon-to-be-former friends good riddance.

And then… it happened.

Crystal Heart

All at once, the angry words and tears died off as an odd somethingness washed over us, something very calming and soothing. It felt magical, but not any like magic I’d ever experienced before; a song we could hear in our very hearts. We all blinked, staring at each other, then as one we turned towards the big window, where we could just see some lights in the deepening dusk.

Our arguments instantly forgotten, we went outside, staring out over the waters of Horseshoe Bay at the colorful auroras filling the sky in a display that we later learned marked the defeat of King Sombra and rebirth of the long-lost Crystal Empire, spreading love and light throughout the land.

Nopony could see it and not be affected, and as we stood out on our cottage porch overlooking the bay we felt all the conflict and anger recede from our hearts, replacing it with happiness and hope. Even Sweet Tea came out to watch, looking mesmerized. And then she did something she hadn’t had done since before what happened with Juniper; something I feared she’d never do again…

She smiled.

She wasn’t the only one. It’s hard to explain how it felt to non-ponies. The soft glowing ribbons of light, the inner warmth it produced, the feelings of oneness, or harmony… that somehow, a great corrupting evil, one we didn’t even know was influencing us, was gone…

That a great, longstanding wrong had finally been righted.

Suddenly all our arguments and issues seemed petty and trite (which they mostly were). Suddenly, all our personal conflicts and house repairs and all the strife they generated were meaningless; suddenly all that mattered was our herd and each other. We stood shoulder to shoulder, all of us, staring up into the starry, aurora-filled night sky, basking in its beauty and light.

I don’t know how long we stayed out there just soaking it all in. It could have been ten minutes, it could have been an hour, but regardless, it was time well spent. For it purged us of all our anger and bad blood...

For it would let us start over.

A Second Chance

It started with a simple gesture by Sea Salt, who laid her head on Red Pepper’s shoulder as they stared up into the sky. He responded by laying his head against hers and moving to grasp her hoof in his own, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead while to either side of me, Juniper and Sweet Tea pressed close as well.

I reciprocated, placing my hooves on top of theirs. My senses, both external and internal granted new clarity, I could see everything… even their very hearts. I saw the pain and fear that had defined Sweet Tea throughout her life, her desire to help others even when she could not help herself, as well as the longing for real intimacy she did not know how to accept or obtain. I likewise saw Juniper’s true self, a mare who loved life and lived to help others to do the same, now tempered by remorse and enormous guilt over what she’d done to her friend… how she desperately wanted to atone but seeing no way she could, praying to Celestia herself for the chance to make things right.

It was not a one-way street. They, in turn, saw the triumphs and failures of my past, the friends and lovers, herds and herdmates I’d gained and lost, the coltfriend I’d so painfully sacrificed for the sake of this herd… and my fear that it would all be for naught. We could also see the deep affinity that Sea Salt and Red Pepper had for each other, a core of love and devotion, damaged but not destroyed, that could yet be the core of our group…

We hugged. We cried. And at that moment, we finally realized… it was within our power to save our herd and ourselves; all we had to do was to seize the moment…

All we had to do was reach out for and help each other.

The tears didn’t last long as Red Pepper and Sea Salt started making out right there in front of us, saying over and over how much they loved each other and how sorry they were. I’d never seen them go more than two days without rutting before we decided to form our herd, but now they’d been pent up for two months without so much as sleeping in the same bed, and it showed as simple nuzzles began to quickly turn to kisses, horns flared and auras began to work each other in the practiced manner of long-time lovers, Red Pepper’s magic reaching between Sea Salt’s legs while she returned the favor, rolling his apples while stroking and squeezing his sheath, encouraging his long-dormant stallionhood to come out and play…

Not just with her, but with all of us.

Myself, Juniper and Sweet Tea watched with a growing flush on our faces, not from embarrassment but from growing excitement as we all sensed what was happening… and perhaps what was to come. At first we made no move to join them or withdraw, just watching them, knowing in our hearts that before anything else could happen, these two had to reconcile and reseal their bonds. If they were the core of our group, their relationship was tantamount, and it had to be tended first.

Which was not to say the rest of us did nothing in the meantime. Juniper began rubbing her shoulder and cheek hard against me as we watched the scene unfold while Sweet Tea grasped my hoof more tightly with her own, seeking strength. I was surprised to hear her breathing quicken as well; I could smell her arousal as much as I could Juniper’s.

I had little time or inclination to consider the implications or consequences, and in truth they didn’t matter to me—under the light of that night and with the magic that filled it, I just knew that everything and everypony was going to be okay…

That what was about to happen was not only needed, but necessary.

Despite their long drought and as pent up as they’d been, Red Pepper and Sea Salt took their time to do things right, giving us quite a show. Red Pepper opened by using the same trick he’d used on me several months earlier, sitting back and stroking himself while he remotely rutted his mate and lead mare, thrusting in and out of her with an ethereal shaft-shaped construct he made out of his aura. It was a surreal experience watching it happen, and Sea Salt very graciously turned towards us to give us a better look, the translucent magical construct allowing us to see inside her by splitting her sex open and lighting her marehood up from within, letting us see all her inner folds and wetness...

I’d not been able to see that construct when it’d been done to me, and It also quickly became clear that Red Pepper had been holding out on me—he hadn’t used all his tricks! As we watched, he varied the size and shape of the virtual stallionhood, causing Sea Salt to give a shuddering gasp when he expanded its size inside her to that of a Saddle Arabian, twisting it back and forth, squeezing juices out of her, then just as suddenly turning it tapered and barbed...

I blinked, suddenly realizing what it was supposed to be—a griffin phallus!

Sea Salt’s eyes, which had been closed, snapped open as the backwards-pointing bristles found her folds and raked them, causing her to cry out. She fell to her knees, shivering and breathing quite raggedly as he worked her with it—apparently the idea of being tucked by a griffin was a HUGE turn on to her (turned out she had a bit of a predator fetish!)—and then indulged her fantasy further by making a second construct of a griffin head clamping down on the back of her neck with its beak, adding a raucous cry.

She climaxed on the spot at the illusion of being taken by a predator and I nearly did as well—I was so enrapt I didn’t even notice I was pleasuring myself!—her horn erupting in a familiar shower of magical, multicolored sparks that was double the intensity of anything I’d ever seen before, even from Rising Star several years earlier. Just like then, the sparkles drifted down like snow around us, bathing us all in them, causing warm tingles wherever they struck us, giving us the barest hint of her release and pleasure…

Stimulating our own appetites, leaving us each wanting a taste of our own.

Momentarily sated, Sea Salt collapsed and lay there a shivering puddle of sex while Red Pepper moved to snuggle with her. How surprised he was when she suddenly sprung up and pinned him down, going belly-to-belly with him, magically pulling his shaft upright so she could lower herself on it. I had barely enough time to acknowledge the incredible kinkiness of the act before feeling a muzzle nosing under my tail…

Juniper’s!

Not an hour earlier I would have greeted that with a double-barreled buck, but under the influence of that night and having seen her wounded heart, seen her remorse and repentance firsthoof, I not only allowed her to do it…

I welcomed it!

And by Celestia she was good. Easily the equal of Willow and Snow Lily, who had always been my gold standard for oral. My knees buckled under her onslaught and I collapsed to the ground, my eyes still riveted on Sea Salt and Red Pepper, who were now doing the swirl, pleasuring each other with tongue and aura with everything they were worth… first time I’d ever seen a mare other than me pleasure a stallion orally, and it brought a huge blush to Sweet Tea’s cheeks!

Seeing it herself, Juniper suddenly pushed me on my side and then laid out beside me, flicking her tail aside and putting her flank in my face in open invitation. She briefly tried to roll on top of me before my own more dominant inclinations reasserted themselves. I flipped her on her back and put myself on top, showing off my own skill by licking and lapping hungrily at her dripping, winking marehood, causing her to cry out, her voice muffled by my own.

I heard her gasping and crying as she asked for and received my forgiveness in the most intimate manner possible. Through it all, Sweet Tea was watching us wide-eyed, her cheeks flushing and breathing quickening. There was an open door to the house behind her but she made no effort to leave or retreat to her own room; instead she leaned back against the outside wall and her hoof snaked down between her legs, licking her lips as she watched the twin scenes unfold, two pairs of ponies pleasuring each other with everything they were worth. Juniper and I came in time with Sea Salt and Red Pepper, who unleashed a second orgasmic explosion of magical sparks, even stronger than the first.

While they rested, Juniper and I continued to go at it—hard. Coming once did not sate us, nor did a second time as we ate each other out with as much abandon as I could ever remember. Finally, we rolled off of each other, our muzzles dripping as we lay on her backs for a moment before turning back to each other, this time to kiss. Sea Salt and Red Pepper looked at each other and then, as one, flared their horns to build virtual stallionhoods—apparently, Red Pepper had shared that trick with Sea Salt!—and began rutting us with them.

We were both surprised at that but hardly fought it, going belly to belly like they did, spreading our legs wide to allow full access. They experimented on us a bit with different sizes and shapes of phallus to see what we liked most—Juniper, to little surprise went for the Saddle Arabian size (she later said she’d actually done a couple for real before!) while I… learned I liked the facsimile of a dragon shaft, its rough ridges raking my insides in a way no pony organ could, causing delicious little sparks of pain/pleasure.

Eventually, for our own ecstasy and the entertainment of our unicorn herdmates, they picked us up in their auras and positioned us nethers-to-nethers, our legs scissored and marehoods connected by a single double-ended ethereal organ, a combined magical construct which they throbbed and pulsed inside of us like no cooler ever could! We were helpless and we didn’t care; a captive to our unicorn herdmates, who appeared to be immensely enjoying themselves. I spared the barest glance over at Sweet Tea, who hadn’t moved, watching us intently herself, eyes wide and licking her muzzle and she continued to work herself with a hoof… but my view was blocked when Red Pepper suddenly stepped over me, his shaft dangling in my face.

Sea Salt likewise stepped over Juniper and lowered herself on top, their invitation and intention only too eagerly accepted, lost as we were in the heat of the night and the Crystal Heart’s harmony. I could imagine the sight we presented Sweet Tea with at that point, Juniper and I marehood-to-marehood and filled with a magical double-ended dildo, Red Pepper’s shaft being eagerly suckled by me as Juniper gave the same treatment to Sea Salt’s marehood, and the pair making out with each other overhead, a slight rasping sound marking the horns gently rubbing against each other, adding to their own stimulation...

If I wasn’t so lost in the moment I’d’ve been amazed. Or perhaps appalled at what we were doing, but I didn’t care at all. All that mattered, all that was needed… was for us to bond, and this was how it would happen.

And bond we did. We came as a group as Sweet Tea looked on, our pleasure quadrupled for as many ponies as it was shared with. It was an experience I’ve never felt before or since, a connection we all made in the most intimate manner imaginable…

One that at long last made us a herd.

Sweetness and Light

We stayed in that pile of ponies for a few minutes before we finally separated, holding each other, crying and laughing all at once—it was all so beautiful and wonderful, how could we not? It was only then I remembered Sweet Tea, who was still over by the door. She was still leaned back against the wall, and looked very badly like she wanted to join in with us, but was afraid to. Her hoof was still between her hind legs, if unmoving; I couldn’t tell if she’d actually come herself or not.

The conversation died off for a moment as the others remembered her as well. At first, nopony moved or spoke. Then, as I watched, Juniper got up, walked over to Sweet Tea, looked down at her…

And instead of diving right in or taking advantage of her state, she kissed her once on the forehead, gently grasping her hoof to pull her to her feet… and then to my great shock led her over to me! “It should have been you, Five Stars,” she told me in the sincerest, most heartfelt apology I think I’ve ever heard. “Please help her now,” she begged me, bowing her head and stepping back.

I didn’t know what to say or do for a moment, as Sweet Tea awaited my response, looking adorably vulnerable and needy, not sure how to articulate what she wanted. Actually, looking back I’m not even sure she necessarily knew what she wanted except that she didn’t want to be left out of life any longer. But somehow I did know, instinctively sensing that it wasn’t me she wanted, and it wasn’t a mare. Nor did she need a group scene like we just did; she needed to be tended one-on-one. And all that left, then...

I walked her over to Red Pepper, who along with Sea Salt was watching us carefully. I looked at him, then back at Sweet Tea, presenting her as she tried so hard to be brave—even under the influence of that night as we all were, some traumas were not so easily set aside.

Knowing that, Red Pepper stood and drew himself up straight, presenting himself as a herd stallion for what was truly the first time. “Sweet Tea?” he asked gently. “Do you want me to…?” the rest went unsaid.

She nodded jerkily. “P-please…” was all she could say. I could feel her shaking as I held her hoof, promising I’d be right here and she could stop at any time—a sentiment promptly echoed by everypony else. “It’s all right. Ssshhh…” I added, kissing her gently on the cheek. “We’re here for you. This won’t be like before,” I promised her. Under any other circumstances that would have been a promise I couldn’t make, but here… I could say it and know it was true. Under the influence of this night, under the light of the powered-up Crystal Heart… there could be no strife or doubt. Only healing and harmony, love and tenderness…

And the healing part was about to take center stage.

Red Pepper was no amateur in the realm of rutting, and he’d already broken in a mare or two along the way. All we’d seen and done aside, he’d never actually been much for foreplay (which was later a point of contention with me), but here he spared no expense for Sweet Tea, laying little nips and nibbles along her face and ears, carefully gauging her reactions, not pushing, just gradually drawing her in, getting her used to the little intimacies that make the bigger ones so much better. It was utterly endearing seeing her try to reciprocate, inexperienced though she was. Red Pepper was a good sport about it and gave her endless encouragement, asking her what she wanted to try, doing only what she asked and nothing she did not.

The three of us watching offered to leave them alone, but she asked us—asked me—to stay. I was flattered that she took comfort from my presence, so I alone kept close by while the other two withdrew.

Once she was comfortable enough, Red Pepper utilized his magic to begin gentle stimulation of her nether regions, though with none of the gusto or depth that had marked his earlier efforts with the rest of us. He kept it vanilla and just very gently probed and caressed her with tendrils of his aura, causing Sweet Tea to squeeze her eyes shut and bit her lip. It was hard to tell for a moment if she was in pain or enjoying it, so Red Pepper eased off and asked her again if she was okay.

She answered with a single word, barely audible. “More.”

He obliged her. He brought her close to climax, then backed off, only to repeat it twice more. I could sense his intention—we all could. He was going to give her the very best experience he knew how, saving actually taking her for last, when she was finally able to accept him fully. Each time, he got a little bolder, each time he pushed a little deeper with his aura until finally, her eyes glazed and cheeks flushed, she took a deep, if slightly shuddering breath and turned around.

“Be gentle…” she pleaded with Red Pepper in a very soft but adorably husky voice as she knelt before him and flagged her tail, showing her winking, glistening marehood. Showing us all that she was—at long last—ready.

“I promise,” he told her, moving to mount her in the traditional manner even if she was taking a decidedly untraditional pose—ponies usually stand when they mate, not crouch—straddling her and lowering himself to position his stallionhood at her entrance, using his magic to guide himself in. And with one final confirmation and a single short thrust, her virginity was claimed properly.

“Oh!” she cried out in her adorably demure voice, her eyes snapping open at the intrusion, and perhaps a brief moment of pain. “That’s… so…” she managed between gasps as Sea Salt and I sat back and watched, staying close by in case we were needed.

We weren’t. Once she got the hang of it, Sweet Tea was fine, pushing back in time with his thrusts, urging more from him. To his credit, Red Pepper continually asked her at each stage if she was okay and what she wanted; whether it was okay to go deeper, harder. At first, she answered with her voice, but later, she answered only with actions, pushing back against him and giving increasingly needy cries... as she finally understood what sex was supposed to be about and decided she wanted more.

The rest of us watched, tears in our eyes as the scene unfolded, none more so than Juniper, who cried openly. Sea Salt held her as the moment of truth arrived; the most important moment in our friend’s life.

We saw Sweet Tea tense, heard her final intake of breath as Red Pepper thrust his hips forward for the final time, taking her properly, his horn releasing a shower of sparks for the fourth time that night as Sweet Tea gave a cry of her own. She wasn’t a screamer, though…

She whinnied!

Night’s End

The remainder of that night was spent out on our back deck under the beautiful night sky, basking in the light of the Crystal Heart and our rekindled friendships.

Red Pepper stayed with Sweet Tea after that, holding and cuddling her, never forcing her but only servicing her when she wanted to be. By the end of the night, she was even starting to get bolder herself; I woke up at one point to see her giving Red Pepper a horn job! Oddly, I never actually did get to rut Red Pepper myself that night, but I didn’t care. That wasn’t what mattered. What mattered was Sweet Tea and our herd...

What mattered was each other.

As Red Pepper tended Sweet Tea, I spent the rest of the night with Juniper and Sea Salt, and all I’ll say about that is we did some things that would even make Willow and Snow Lily blush. As we fell asleep on our deck in a tangle of entwined limbs and sweaty bodies, all I could think was that nothing was ever going to be the same.

For on that night, we became a family…

For on that night, we finally became a herd.

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The Crystal Empire remains a beacon of light in Equestria to this day, used for everything from political summits to the Equestria Games. I’ve never been there but I’m told the crystal ponies themselves are quite powerful (to say nothing of quite glittery!), their bond with the Crystal Heart forming a bulwark against the Windigos and ice creatures to the North; their power and magic a unifying force throughout the land.

A bond we now all share. We wouldn’t know the details of the Kingdom’s history or rebirth until much later, when we learned the story of King Sombra and his thousand-year curse on the land. And the hero? Not the Elements of Harmony, or even the saviors of the Changeling invasion, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor. The savior of the day was a young dragon scribe named Spike, assistant to our future Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle. At fifteen years old, he was just a baby dragon but brave beyond his young years, risking his life to deliver the Crystal Heart to its rightful place, allowing the long-imprisoned Crystal Ponies to unite their powers to expel the Dark King who cursed them.

It was cause for celebration throughout Equestria, and the scene that played out on our back deck that night was repeated in many places, we later learned, though it did take different forms—with us, what we needed was to bond, but for others, it was anything from estranged lovers reuniting to friendships rekindled (which, now that I think about it, pretty much summed up us as well!). Nor would it be a one-time thing—its effects lingered long, and gave us a desperately second chance to make our herd work.

Despite that, we woke up the next day with… well, not what I’d call a hangover, but we were more than a little embarrassed and at least mildly mortified over what had happened to us. With new clarity and insights on each other, we had a very long and frank talk about things that morning, about ourselves and our direction as a herd. Several decisions were made that morning, but the main one was a simple promise to each other that we would not squander our second chance. Upon learning of the Crystal Heart, we agreed to basically treat that night as a one-time magically-influenced event, though I think we were all surprised to find that there were no real regrets associated with it—speaking for myself, that was the only time I’ve ever done a group scene with my entire herd, and any other time might have felt a little ashamed and degraded for it. But the afterglow still in effect, I felt too good to care. That was—hooves down—the best herd sex I’ve ever had.

The good feelings weren’t limited to just me. Sea Salt and Red Pepper were acting lovey-dovey again; they spent a lot of time together over the next few weeks rebuilding their relationship. For her part, Sweet Tea was feeling overwhelmed again, but this time it was for a good reason—she’d just been shown what sex and rutting could be, and it would take her some time to fully assimilate it. It would be another eight months before she asked for intimacy again, but much like me after Luna’s dream intervention, it did mark an important turning point; her therapy became much more productive and she made slow but steady progress afterwards.

Juniper as well. Thanks in large part to that night, she dropped her cider habit and rediscovered her confidence, over time resuming her designated role as Class Clown and Life of the Party™... though her sexual impulses were more restrained, forever tempered by the memory and guilt of what she’d done to Sweet Tea. Not that she lost her wild side, but she got a lot more selective about when she let it loose. She later told me that the biggest lessons she’d learned from the whole ordeal were simply to listen, and not to rut ponies who were emotionally compromised or otherwise couldn’t offer their full consent...

I’m sad to say, it was a lesson I would have to learn myself in due time.

We’d been granted a second chance and we seized it, quitting our jobs at the Inn so we could work full-time on fixing up the house... and our friendships. It drained our collective savings but it was worth it as we finally finished the former in time for Hearth’s Warming, which we marked by putting up a tree in our newly refurbished living space and exchanging some token gifts for the first time. That night, our hearts and bellies full, we slept out in the living room in front of the fireplace and under the magical lights of the tree, a pile of cuddling ponies, believing that all was well and we were finally set… resolving that for the New Year, we would go into business for ourselves.

We never did have a formal honeymoon, but there was no need. For nothing we could do would ever beat that one night… and in the end, nothing did.

And for the record? We painted the living room hues of orange, chocolate, and pink.

---

Looking back, the next few months to follow would be the best herd experience I ever had. We rediscovered our friendships, turned our refurbished cottage into a successful bed-and-breakfast, slept together and worked together, and above all else helped each other whenever we needed. Fault lines would eventually form again in our group, but for the time being we were a family and herd in every sense of the word.

It’s an experience I’m grateful to have, even if it still didn’t work out in the end. You’ll learn why in the next article, but for now I’ll at least note that we parted on good terms and I’m still friends with most of them. I’m even running these articles past them before I publish to get their approval and make sure I don’t give their identities away. In fact, I made several changes to the initial draft based on their feedback.

I already have letters from them to share, but I’ll save them for next time. Until then… I dedicate this article to my former herdmates, to the B&B we founded, to a night we’ll never forget... and to the Crystal Empire itself, which I’ve never actually visited. Perhaps it’s high time I do and see the Crystal Heart for myself.

Thank you for another provocative and titillating article, Five Stars, one that hits far closer to home than you know—you might say that the question of the Crystal Heart is something I got thrown at once. I’m gratified to know it did so much for you and other ponies.

And as for a visit to the Crystal Kingdom… that can be arranged quite easily! Just let me know when you’d like to go...

—Platinum Corona

Thank you as always, Platinum. I believe I will take you up on that offer sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter: Part 15: Bed, Breakfast and Blessed Events Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 28 Minutes