Author's Notes:

This chapter almost didn't happen. Originally, it this scene was only going to be about 500 words and left to very bare details. But in writing that, I realised that there was a story to tell here. Many rewrites later, the 500 word scene became a full chapter. I don't know how I feel about it, and I am positive that some people will be upset about it.

It probably also needs a bit of editing, so it might be a little rough around the edges.

I do apologise. This chapter can be skipped, but in doing so, you will miss out on a number of important story details.

“What’s going on?” Moonbow woke up, groggy, confused, and only somewhat aware of the soft voices around her. She rolled over and found herself next to a warm, fuzzy, squirming pink pony. In her half awake state, she gave the pink pony next to her a quick snuggle, which made the pink pony squirm.

“Sentinel is having colt troubles,” Boadicea said in a low whisper, not a trace of laughter in her voice. “To be fair he is in bed with three females.”

“So, somepony take care of him… why is this even a big deal?” Moonbow grumbled.

“Take care of me?” Sentinel’s confused voice was muffled from beneath the pillow where he was hiding his head. “I don’t even know how to respond to something like that. I’m not a chore.”

Sniffing, Moonbow’s body woke up a little more. Her senses sampled the world around her. Blankets and a bed that smelled of sweat. The sound of four hearts beating, including her own. Diamond Tiara’s heart was racing inside of her barrel. The scent of female arousal was just strong enough to be detected, strange arousal, and Moonbow assumed it was the griffoness. The scent of fear, carried by sweat, was mouth watering and put Moonbow in a hunting mood—but that was a desire that would have to be dealt with later. Perhaps Diamond Tiara would indulge her in a bit of good natured sport. Prey only had to be nibbled, or maybe licked, after a good pouncing of course.

“It’s just a boner… a biological need… it is something that can be dealt with,” Moonbow said to the others as she sat up in the bed and looked around. “Why all this fear?”

“Sentinel is afraid that he’ll hurt us… that he’ll be rough… that he will lose control and become some horrible beast,” Diamond Tiara replied, her whole body tingling after the full body snuggle she had just experienced with Moonbow.

Sniggering, then snorting, Moonbow, unable to help herself, began laughing. Moonbow tried to compose herself, she tried to be serious, but then she made the mistake of looking at Sentinel, who was belly down on the bed and had his head stuffed under a pillow to hide himself. Moonbow, who had gone through the effort of sitting up, fell over onto her side as she collapsed into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

“I don’t think this is funny.” Boadicea placed one of her talons upon Sentinel to comfort him. “Stop laughing, will you?” The griffoness let out an annoyed squawk and her eyes narrowed as she stared at the laughing lunar pegasus filly.

Moonbow sucked in a deep breath and tried to hold back her laughter, but a few chortles escaped her. She took another deep breath, snorted a few times, and then, after much effort, she composed herself. She wiped her eye, scrubbing away a tear, then reached out and patted Diamond Tiara.

“What’s so funny?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“Both of you,” Moonbow replied, another chuckle escaping her, “the two of you are in love with something you don’t understand.” The lunar pegasus cleared her throat and sat up once more. “The males of our kind, while they can be rough, they are subservient to females. It is something deeply ingrained within them. We are different than the solar ponies, where the male dominates the female. This is why solar pony females take lunar pegasus males as mates… they are attentive, good at minding the nest, and more importantly, they are gentle.”

“What?” Sentinel blinked, his head now out from beneath the pillow.

“Sentinel, your mother and your father had you… you come from mixed parentage. Your mother was a solar pony… if your father was some rough, mindless, brutal beast, how do you think you came along? If your father was a savage, don’t you think he would have ripped such a small, helpless female right in half?”

“Well… I… uh…” Sentinel, stammering, was unable to make a reply.

Moonbow, who moved with a swiftness unmatched by the others, pinned Diamond Tiara down to the mattress in a fluid movement, then grabbed Sentinel by the nape of his neck with her teeth. Moonbow dragged the startled colt over Diamond Tiara’s kicking, wiggling, face down form, and Moonbow ignored the surprised squawk from Boadicea.

As Sentinel thrashed around on top of Diamond Tiara, moving on top of her, his arousal was all too evident as it slapped around between the pinned filly’s hind legs and trailed over her soft, silky, pleasant feeling tail. Moonbow extended her wing, grabbed a bit of skin between her thumb and central knuckle, and gave a hard squeeze, causing Diamond Tiara to squeal in pain.

The response to the squeal was immediate and sudden. Sentinel flew from Diamond Tiara’s back, slid over the bed, then fell over the edge and landed upon the floor with a thump.

“He was almost inside of me!” Diamond Tiara gasped, curling up on the bed and tucking her tail between her hind legs. “He was humping me… Moonbow… I don’t even…”

“Sentinel is a creature of instincts.” Moonbow looked down where Sentinel was crouched on the floor, looking the colt in the eye. “His need to be subservient and protect is stronger than his need for sex, just like any other male from our tribe. I grew up watching the sex play between the males and females of our tribe. We don’t hide our rutting like you solar ponies do. Why hide something that others can learn from?”

“Moonbow, he mounted me… he could have… done things to me,” Diamond Tiara said, looking up at Moonbow as she spoke.

“So what?” Moonbow shrugged. “It’s bound to happen sooner or later. It is what ponies are supposed to do, after all, make more ponies.” Moonbow sighed and looked at Sentinel, who was still sitting on the floor, looking spooked and a little confused. “If something ever does happen and it isn’t to your liking, just squeal or make a sound like you are in pain. Trust me, Sentinel will stop. Doesn’t matter how involved he is or how good it feels, just squeal and buck him off.”

“I… I don’t know about this…” Diamond Tiara, shaken, looked at Moonbow and then at Sentinel. “I mean, I want to believe it, but he’s strong… he is so strong. Boadicea and I have had a lot of conversations about what to do with him when the time comes.”

“Sentinel is not going to hurt you. He’s a nest protector. That is what he is. That is what males are good for. Males are to bring food, to hunt, and to provide. Sentinel and I have a different arrangement though… we are to trade fishes and work together in equality—”

“Moonbow, you remembered?” Sentinel lept up on the bed, looking surprised.

“Of course I do,” Moonbow replied as she looked at Sentinel. “Sentinel is like the other males of my tribe. Have you ever once seen or heard of Sentinel hurting his smaller siblings, even by accident? I have every confidence that no matter how worked up Sentinel is, his need to protect is still stronger by far than his need to rut.”

Moonbow flopped down on the bed, sighed, kicked out her hind legs, spread them, and hiked her tail up. “Sentinel, come here and take me.” Moonbow looked back over her shoulder at Sentinel and gave her hips an inviting wiggle.

Sentinel shook his head “I’m not—”

“Old enough?” Moonbow finished. She shook her head. “I disagree. Part of you is old enough and it is as hard as an oak tree right now. Come here, Sentinel, and let us show the others how gentle you can be. You can’t hurt me.” Moonbow’s voice was soft and inviting. “This is a chance to prove to yourself that you are not a mindless animal.”

“This feels wrong.” Sentinel let out a little whimper, looked at Diamond Tiara, and then at Boadicea as he tried to figure out what to do. His eyes fell upon Moonbow and he could see everything.

“Sentinel, if we were living on Crescent Moon Isle, our home, you and I would already be engaging in sex play. We might already be bonded… maybe not when we met the first time, but with the spring coming around, you and I would have already been bound. It is only here, with these mainlanders that we are considered foals. You and I are old enough to hunt, to kill, to provide, I am old enough to breed, we are old enough to contribute, and once a foal is old enough to contribute something, anything, they are no longer a foal. They become something else. A hunter. A fisher. A protector. A breeder… you and I are long past foalhood.”

“Moonbow… I…”

Hearing Sentinel’s voice, Moonbow, raised her hips up into the air a little and shook them from side to side, her tail flagged up high and off to the left. She felt her dock flexing and a strange new feeling crept through her guts, causing her to clench on the inside.

“Moonbow…” Sentinel was almost whining as he spoke. His whole body trembled. Try as he might, he could not turn away. He saw a bead of slick looking moisture on Moonbow’s exposed secret places and he was overcome with a strange thirst. He licked his lips and wished that he was licking something else. He looked at Diamond Tiara—he licked her sometimes, usually her face and her ears, grooming her. It left her slick and wet, even slimy, and oh how she complained, usually she complained a whole lot, but that didn’t stop her from turning her head to present new places for him to lick while she was complaining. He realised that she loved him—she loved him enough to endure his strange need to groom her and she tolerated being covered in slick, slimy drool.

“Show them that you are more than an animal, Sentinel,” Moonbow said, waggling her hips from side to side. “Show them that you are more than a rough brute. You can’t hurt me… you won’t hurt me… and if we show them, they can stop living in fear of you.”

Moonbow’s words made too much sense. Sentinel felt his will fading and his desire growing. He sniffed, smelling arousal. He wanted to dive onto Moonbow’s back, hook his forelegs onto her wing joints, press his face into her mane, and then bury himself inside of her. He couldn’t think of a worthwhile argument, he couldn’t think of a logical reason to say no. He found himself looking at Diamond Tiara, staring into her blue eyes. It was like staring into a pool of reflective water on a sunny day and seeing the sky above reflected in the water below. As he looked at Diamond Tiara, he felt his shallow breathing quicken.

She was nodding—she was telling him that it was okay—she was telling him that she wanted to know the outcome of this as well. This was her future too. At some point, she was going to be beneath him, or even above him, and he was going to be doing a whole lot more than licking her, grooming her, other things were going to be happening and Diamond Tiara wanted to know that she would be safe.

Sentinel turned and looked at Boadicea; her tail was swishing from side to side and her black eyes glittered with curiousity. Her talon fingers twitched with nervous energy. Her crest was high on her head and her beak was open. She was panting. He watched her nod as well. Sentinel could hear Boadicea’s heart pounding in her ribcage. She had offered herself to him, believing herself tough enough, but right now, the griffoness cub was filled with the fear of the unknown.

Sentinel scooted forward on the bed, moving towards Moonbow. He was cautious and slow. He sniffed, breathing in deep the scent of her arousal. The smell made him drool and a long ribbon of slobber dribbled down from the corner of his mouth. He stepped over her back and then dropped down on top of her. He felt her back arch as he touched her, her hips rolling up and bucking up against him. Her dock tickled against his stomach. His movements were clumsy, awkward, he had no idea what he was doing. He braced himself against Moonbow’s back, hooking his front fetlocks over her wing joints.

Moonbow, feeling Sentinel on top of her, could feel his heavy breathing into her neck, which caused all of the hairs along her neck to stand up. She felt his wet, slobbery muzzle move against her ear, leaving her damp and slick feeling. His rough tongue trailed over the base of her ear and then moved upwards, causing little electric tingles all throughout her body. He licked again, and again, and Moonbow had a hard time concentrating upon the fact that something hard was stabbing her just below her tail, trying to find its way in.

And then, almost as if by accident, she felt Sentinel snag against her. Her hips bucked, trying to draw him in, and her whole body tensed. She felt Sentinel brace himself against her wing joints. Moonbow growled, prompting the colt into action, and then, with a sudden thrust, he was inside of her. There was no real pain, at least no serious pain, there had been a brief moment of tight friction where everything tugged and felt too tight, but then everything relaxed.

He was inside of her now, Moonbow could feel it, and he was making tender little thrusts as he worked his way in deeper. A growing wetness welcomed him, and a fire was kindled in Moonbow’s belly. She could hear Sentinel squeaking, and she answered with little clicks, pops, and happy sounding squeals of her echolocation, encouraging him to continue.

Alas, the experience would not last long. Moonbow felt his thrusts quicken, he was only getting about halfway in, but that changed when he gave her a few vigorous, quick humps, getting most of his length inside of her. She felt him stay inside, she heard his breathing quicken, he was panting now, he was squeezing her, she felt something happening inside of her, some rush of liquid heat filling her.

Then it was over. Sentinel collapsed on top of her, his breathing heavy, and then he began to lick her ear again, it was loving, and something about it almost seemed apologetic. Moonbow allowed her body to collapse to the bed and she rolled her hips around with Sentinel still inside of her. She felt him going soft, so she squeezed him, clenching around him, not willing to let him go, wanting to hold him inside of her for as long as possible, and not even knowing the reason why.

Moonbow heard a little whimper in her ear as she clenched his length, and then felt him twitch inside of her. His heavy, hot breathing blew over her wet ear, making it feel both cold and hot at the same time. She felt sticky down there and she felt something dribbling out.

Sighing, Moonbow turned her head and looked at Diamond Tiara, who was sitting right beside her in the bed. The filly’s mouth was open, her breathing was shallow, and her eyes were wide. She was sweating and her mane clung to her face and neck.

“You have nothing to be afraid of,” Moonbow said to the earth pony filly.

Sighing once more, Moonbow lowered her head down to the mattress, closed her eyes, and focused on the feeling of Sentinel shrinking inside of her. He was grooming her other ear now, licking and nibbling, and it was just what she needed to complete the moment. She felt her body grow drowsy, she felt heavy, she felt warm and good from Sentinel’s attentive ministrations.

Only one thought lingered at the edge of her mind, and she wondered what Mistress would have to say about all of this. There would be no way of hiding it, Mistress had a way of knowing, but Moonbow realised that she could worry about any possible consequences at another time.