“Oh, Dusk? Wow, what a coincidence. My name’s Twilight.” They shook hooves.

“Hey, and even our coats match. That is odd. Twilight? So we’re both named for parts of the night sky after sunset. Twilight always was my favorite part of the evening.”

Twlight blushed. “Really? Mine’s dusk. That’s when the first stars come out, except for Venus, of course. Ha ha. When you see them, that’s when you know it’s going to be a great night for star gazing.”

“Oh,” said Dusk. “So you’re visiting from out of town?”

“How did you know?”
“You like to star gaze. None of that around here. There’s too much light pollution.”

“Oh, that sounds awful!”

“Yeah, well, it isn’t all bad. There’s a good planetarium.” He smiled at her. She smiled back. There was a long, awkward pause when neither could think of anything to say. “So, um,” he finally spoke up, “where are you from?”

“Oh, it’s just a tiny little farming town. I’m sure you’ve never even heard of it or seen it on a map. It’s called Ponyville.”

“Ponyville? Sure, I’ve never been, but I know where it is.”

“Really? But it’s barely a tiny little dot on the map.”

“Well, OK. But the little dots are what make maps interesting. At least to me anyway. I minored in cartography back before I got into library science.”

“Ooo, library science was my second choice after magic.”

“No kidding? Hey, is that why you’re here? You wanted to see the world famous Manehattan Public Library?”

“Uh huh!”

“Great! Hey, want me to take you on a tour?”

“That would be lovely,” Twilight agreed. They walked side by side as Dusk led her through the aisles back towards the lobby.

“The usual tour is a little less than an hour. But the special tour is more like two hours. Do you have time for that?”

“Oh, I have all day, actually.”

“Really? How long are you in town?”

“Just for the day. I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

“You came all the way just to see the library? I’m impressed.”

“Actually,” Twilight blushed. “That’s not why I’m in town. Technically. You see, my girlfriends and I, we all came to Manehattan to...”
“Yes?”

“Boy, this is much more embarrassing to explain than I thought it would be.”

“Listen, you don’t have to...”

“No, no. A pony should always be open and honest. It’s just... there’s a big gender imbalance in Ponyville... and... it’s... estrus cycle.”

“Pardon?”

Twilight shut her eyes and forced the words out. “I’m going through the estrus cycle. We all are. There aren’t many males in Ponyville, so we thought we’d all come to Manehattan because there are more males and it might... improve... our odds.”

“Oh,” said Dusk. “OH! Oh. Well, hey, that’s nothing you should be embarrassed about. It’s just basic biology.”

“I was telling my friend Fluttershy the exact same thing. You know, all of my friends are out there now, getting... their business taken care of. And that’s fine, I’m not holding it against them. But I thought I’d try to put mind over temptation, and see the library instead.

“When in doubt, go to a library. That’s what I always say.”

“I don’t even know why I’m doing it. I guess I just don’t like my body being in charge, you know? It’s not easy.”

“You know what I like to do whenever I have a problem?”

“What’s that?”

“Read about it in books!”

Half an hour later, they had both gathered all their material. They found a little table down in the basement. The basement still had many shelves of books, just like all the other floors, but it got far fewer visitors, so they would be able to discuss their subject aloud. They were both giddy; it felt like an old-fashioned study session from their days at college. Each of them had collected as much written material on pony sexuality as they could grab.

They had encyclopedias. Medical texts. Sociological studies. Trashy novels. Famous banned books. Psychological studies. Compilations of essays. Classical epic poems. Romances from the middle ages. Anything they could find. They started to open them and read randomly.

“‘Estrus cycle’,” Twilight read allowed. “‘When mares become sexually receptive. Regulated by gonadotropic hormones...’ gonadotropic? That means originating in the gonads, right? Ovaries? ‘...estrogen secretions exert their most significant influence. Profound physiological and psychological changes occur within the mare.’”

Dusk opened a different book. It was an old English translation of an ancient Sanksrit erotic prose piece, the Kama Trotra. “‘In the beginning of coition the passion of the mare is middling, and she cannot bear the vigorous thrusts of her lover, but by degrees her passion increases until she ceases to think about her body, and then finally she wishes to stop from further coition.’ Huh, I’m not exactly sure what that’s supposed to mean.”

Twilight took over. “‘A signal of estrus may be lordosis, in which the mare spontaneously elevates her hind quarters.’ Oh, yeah. That’s real sexy,” Twilight sneered.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Dusk said, picking up on her sarcasm. “I’ve heard there are some guys who are really into butts. Not me though. This friend I know...” He skipped ahead a few chapters in his book. “‘When she lowers her head and raises her middle parts, it is called the 'widely opened position'. At such a time the man should apply some unguent, so as to make the entrance easy. When she raises her thighs and keeps her yuni wide apart and engages in congress, it is called the 'yawning position'.’ Huh.”

“‘A mare’,” Twilight continued, “‘may also signal her reception towards a stallion by the raising of her tail, revealing her vulva, and, occasionally, expressing urine.’ Ugh! This is disgusting!”

“Well,” said Dusk. “It’s biology. You should always remain clinically detached when it comes to biology. Um. ‘When, in the same way, she puts the half of his lingam into her mouth, and forcibly kisses and sucks it, this is called 'sucking a mango fruit'.’ Goodness.” Neither of them noticed, but he was starting to sweat.

“‘Winking’,” said Twilight. “The controlled or uncontrolled flexing of the muscles of a vulva in a mare in heat, accompanied by the dramatic protrusion of the engorged clitoris.’”

“What?” said Dusk, looking up. “Really? I... I... I... I... I... I didn’t know. Really?”

“Sometimes I do it in the shower,” Twilight said, staring into Dusk’s big purple eyes.

“Oh,” said Dusk, looking back down at the text. “‘'Such passionate actions and amorous gesticulations or movements, which arise on the spur of the moment, and during sexual intercourse, cannot be defined, and are as irregular as dreams. A horse having once attained the fifth degree of motion goes on with blind speed, regardless of pits, ditches, and posts in his way; and in the same manner a loving pair become blind with passion in the heat of congress, and go on with great impetuosity, paying not the least regard to excess.’” He looked back up at her, unable to go on. Her nose was still buried in her book. Her little spiral horn was pointing up towards him, just barely parting her beautiful blue mane. He swallowed hard.

“‘When not erect’,” Twilight read out loud. “‘The penis is housed in the prepuse, or sheath. But when erect, can nearly double in length, to over three and a half feet. The glans, or head of the penis, swells to over three or four times its size.’” Twilight looked up. She was sweating too. Heavily. Their eyes met. They peered into each other’s souls. Twilight went on, now from memory. “The spongy tissue of the glans, during the male orgasm, will ‘flare’, dramatically increasing in volume. This will ensure the semen remains inside the mare during ejaculation. During ejaculation, a virile stallion may ejaculate up to...,” Twilight quickly glanced down at the text and then back up at Dusk, “... a full liter of semen into a mare’s receptive vagina.” Dusk leaned in close to Twilight. “A full liter of hot, gooey, rich semen.”

Dusk jumped over the little table. He pressed his lips into Twilight’s, and she went falling over backwards. Books went flying everywhere.

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