Doctor Stitch liked to think that she was a reasonable mare.After years of dealing with sick and injured ponies, listening to all of their panicked rambling, or their stupid excuses as to why they had their heads stuck in a bucket, the doctor had acquired the patience of a saint. But, unfortunately, when one was a royal physician to a very powerful, and something moronic, alicorns, Stitch would sometimes find that her patience wore thin.

This was one of those times.

The royal bedroom also looked like it had seen better days. The room was a mess, tables and chairs overturned, little knickknacks littering the floor, it looked like the door had been knocked off its hinges, the sheets were crumpled up and in some places ripped, and the pillows were scattered all over the floor.

None of that particular irked the doctor though; she could care less about what a pony did in the safety of their own bedroom. No, the main reason that she was ready to just throw her glasses off her face and go into a hissy fit, were the two laying in the bed, partially hiding themselves under the covers; them and the smell of sex and sweat that filled the air and refused to leave the room even when she had opened all of the windows.

The princess and Ares were sweaty, their hair was a mess, the princess had a pair of the man’s underwear hanging on her horn for some reason (she would have pointed it out to her but Stitch was still a little too upset at the moment), and Ares was in his birthday suit underneath the covers. There were also a pair of IV’s sticking out of the two’s arms; the result of their little escapade where Ares had managed to poison Cadence with magic flowers and Cadence had cast a love spell on him among other things.

It had been a nightmare for the doctor to get something to counteract the poison (a task that had been made a thousand times easier by Ares’s boss, Tulip, who had brought a dozen flowers that were perfect for counteracting love magic) and making sure that all of the magic passed through Ares’s body safely.

Dozens of ponies had come and gone in from the royal bedroom, leaving Ares and Cadence embarrassed, a little bit scared, but most of all ashamed; Ares especially. Both of them knew all too well that they had royally messed up, and the doctor was more than happy to bring home just how lucky the two were.

“I don’t think I need to tell you two how disappointed I am in the two of you,” she said coldly, glaring at the princess and the human.

The two flinched, looking away from the mare in shame. Cadence tried to hide under her comforter, but Stitch was having none of that, yanking the blanket down with a spell.

“With respect, Princess, I thought that you’d have enough sense not to use any type of saturation magic on your coltfriend after you saw what had happened after he was barely introduced to it, and after I strongly advised against it. If he would have had a bad reaction I don’t know if I would have been able to do anything to help him; you’re extremely lucky that all your spell did was sharpen his senses and make him a little hungry!”

Cadence tried to open her mouth but the doctor shushed her, turning her glare toward Ares.
“And you, Mr. Human,” she growled, taking an angry step forward. “You could have seriously injured the princess with off the lust flowers that you got her to eat. Though you don’t know this, even ponies can have bad magical reactions; this risk doubles when the magic pumping through them comes from a magical flower, and you probably made it even worse by feeding her a dozen! I can’t believe—“

Ares kept his gaze in his lap, anxiously pawing at the edges of the covers like a child that was trying to weather an angry lecture from a parent, which made the doctor pause mid sentence, a vein in her forehead beginning to pulse.

She was about to lay into him again but she stopped herself, taking a deep breath. You’re lucky that I like you, stallion, she thought. Or I swear to Faust I’d be doing more than just yelling at you for poisoning MY princess…

“You were lucky that that employer of yours barged in when she did. The princess would have kept rutting you until your pelvis broke with all of that lust magic pumping in her bloodstream,” Once again, Cadence and Ares flinched, blushes coming to their faces. “Or she could have become mentally unstable and things could have gotten much, much, much--“

“That is enough, Doctor,” Cadence interrupted. “Ares made a mistake—“ Ares sunk further down into the bed, looking as down and beaten as a man could until Cadence nuzzled his side assuringly. “—and I may have made a mistake in casting those spells on him, but neither of us meant it, and in the end everything turned out for the best.”

Taking a deep breath herself, Cadence forced herself to look up at her doctor, her face showing remorse. “I understand that you’re worried about us, and I appreciate it, but yelling at us isn’t going to help matters.”

The doctor nodded, the anger vanishing from her face and replaced with one of concern and regret. Bowing, she said, “My apologies, princess.” Trotting over toward them and checking their IV’s. “I may have gotten myself a little too worked up.”

Cadence smiled at her weakly. “You’ were just worried about us, Doctor,” she said. “There’s no need to apologize for that.”

The doctor nodded, adjusting her glasses before looking back down at her clipboard. “Well, the two of you seem to be alright. Mr. Ares needs to get something in his belly immediately and you need to drink a few glasses of water, and the two of you need to stay off your hooves for a few hours, but other than that the two of you are perfectly healthy.”

She pointed at their IV’s with a pen. “I’ll make sure to get a nurse to come down here to get those out of you as soon as the bags are empty, and I’ll go to the kitchens to make sure that they’re making Mr. Ares something to eat,” looking up from her clipboard, the doctor nodded, turning toward the door. “Good night, Princess, Ares.”

Both the human and the princess waiting until the doctor had managed to close the door, slamming it a little harder than needed, before falling back into the bed and groaning in unison.

&~~()()~~&

Well, that couldn’t have gone any worse, I thought, closing my eyes.

For the past two hours, guards, nurses, and maids had come into mine and Are’s room, demanding to know what was going on, questioning us, making sure that neither of us died from what we did to each other, or just simply passing by and poking their heads through our door to see what all of the fuss was about. They didn’t give us a second to clean ourselves up, they didn’t let Ares get any clothes on. They just poked and prodded and harassed us until we were finally too jaded to care anymore, letting them do what they wanted so we could end this nightmare.

And, sitting here, covering myself with my blanket and reeking of sex, I couldn’t help but think that it’d be less than an hour before the whole city knew that me and my coltfriend had rutted each other’s brains out and accidently poisoned each other like dummies.

I swear to Faust, Ares and I may as well have just walked out in the middle of the market and just started to rut each other for all of the trouble that we had bucking had with it. The embarrassment, all of the trouble of making sure not to step on each other’s hooves or overstep boundaries, all of the distractions that had forcefully stopped us from making love had been bad enough but this; this?!

If I wasn’t so happy that I finally rutted Ares, I’d be screaming my head off right now!

“…Candy?”

My ears perked up, and I rolled onto my side and looked at Ares, who was lying on his back and had his eyes closed.

Scooting closer toward him, I said, “Yes, Ares?”

“I’m sorry for poisoning you.”

The way that he said it, in the exact same sorry tone as a filly or colt might have when they spilled a glass of milk and you had to clean it up, actually made me chuckle. After all of the nonsense that the two of us had just gone through, that cute little heartfelt sorry that I knew that he meant took a bit of the sting out of this whole mess.

Minding the IV in my arm (which was itching like crazy, by the way) I wrapped my hooves around my coltfriend and pulled him against me.

“I’m sorry for casting that spell on you without knowing what it’d do to you,” I said, nuzzling the back of his head. “And for almost rutting you to death.”

Ares reached back and scratched my ear. “I doubt you would’ve been able to do that,” he mumbled, sounding amused. “But if you did...well, there are worse ways to die…”

Rolling around to face me, my human kissed my nose, pulling me even closer. “And at least I finally got to have sex with you. Even with all of the bullshit that we’ve just gone through that more than makes up for it.”

I smirked, giggling. “Well, you could have been a little bit better, but…”

Ares groaned. “Oh fuck you! I fucked your brains out and you know it, Candy!”

Laughing, I playfully shoved him. “I think you mean I rutted your brains out, mister.You were practically holding onto the bed for dear life!”

It was my turn to kiss his nose. “But don’t worry, I’ll try to be a little more gentle next time you and I get a little more alone time.”

My human cracked an eye open to stare at me, and I stared back, both of us looking neutral until Ares smiled, making me smile, which made Ares grin, which made me chuckle, until the two of us started laughing so hard that I almost pulled out my IV by accident.

Sighing tiredly, I rubbed my cheek against Ares’s neck. “I can’t wait until we get these things out of our arms,” I said, poking my IV tube. “I want to go and take a shower and change these sheets.”

“And I want to get something to eat,” Ares said, lifting his head off the bed to stare at the door. “I swear to god I could eat a hor—er… a lot of something.” With a muffled plop, his head hit his pillow. “That magic of yours was a hell of a doozy.”

“Well your magic flowers made me think I was going into heat,” I replied, laying a wing over him.
Ares let out a pleased hum, and the two fell into a comfortable silence, waiting for a maid or nurse to come in so we could do something other than sit in this bed and poke fun at each other.

Seeing that neither of us had any hard feeling about what had happened, in fact the two of us seemed happy that it had happened (I knew that I did, at least), I then went on to wonder if I was going to have to make some sort of statement after the news got out that I had finally rutted my alien coltfriend and half of my castle staff had gotten to see that aftermath.

Oh come on Cadence, your little ponies are adults. They know that you have needs and you have a coltfriend; I’m sure that they already thought that the two of you were rutting every other night, I thought, chiding myself. Noponies going to care…

“Ares? Do you want to take a shower with me after we get these IV’s out?”

Ares gently ran his fingers through my mane. “After the servant pony brings me something to eat then we can do whatever you want, my pretty pink princess.”

“Ares?”

“Hum?”

“I think the two of us should go say something to your boss; she did save the two of us.”
Ares flinched.

“Yeah… and I bet she’s not going to be happy that I took all of those magical flowers. Damnit, I really hope that this stunt didn’t get me fired…”

I leaned up and kissed him on the cheek before resting my head on his chest. “Well, look on the bright said, honey,” I said, smiling, “If she fires you I’m sure I can find something for you to do in the castle.”

Ares shrugged. “And if that doesn’t work I could always be a powerlifter,” he replied. “Just like my uncle wanted.”

I nodded encouragingly. “Of course you can be a powerlifter, Ares… Whatever the hay that is.”

&**&~~&**&

Like their name suggested, the Higher clan’s family mansion, which, though seemingly just a really, really big, nice house could have been mistaken for a castle in the wrong light with all of the security running around the compound, was as opulent and grand as could be.

The clan’s ancestral home had been built during the empire’s fledgling years, a simple wooden house in the beginning that had, over the course of hundreds of years, the rise and fall and rise again of the clan’s wealth and power and reach in the city, become one of the biggest, oldest, and most immaculate buildings that stood on any of the empire’s seven hills

The mansion had been built and expanded upon using only the best and strongest materials, magic or otherwise. The hallways were littered with the finest Saddle Arabian rugs, the walls were fitted with the biggest and finest grade jewels and gems and precious metals, and the best art that money could buy (there was even rumors that there were a few solid gold toilets in the building). And to protect all of this wealth there was a legion of highly trained and highly motivated soldiers ready to give their lives for the clan.

Yes, the Higher mansion might have been a little too extravagant for many ponies taste, and maybe the clan may have sunk a bit too much money on it, and it might have cost an arm and a leg to keep the mansion maintained around the clock, but keeping a building like this showed the enemies of the Higher’s that the clan had more than enough money to throw around. It showed that, all through the empire’s history, the clan had flourished, through thick and thin, remaining strong and powerful and wealthy, and that was just how they liked it.

But, in the midst of all of this art, all of these jewels and expensive tables and chairs and furniture, there was a simple little wooden room in the belly of the mansion that served the office for the head of the clan.

Windowless, soundproof, and no bigger than a big walk-in closet, with only a desk and a few tables to fill it, the little office had been used as a workplace for centuries. Everything from forms about the clan’s finances to signing off on assassination attempts had passed through that little room, though nowadays all the clan head usually did there was simply sign off on a few dozen documents about this and that (a fact that more than a few of the clan heads had been rather disappointed of, since more than a few had been expecting to be offing ponies left and right)

And that was just what High Rider was doing at the moment, sitting in an old wooden chair carefully looking over some documents that needed attending and humming to herself. Sure, reading paperwork might have not been the most exciting thing for her to do, but the older mare liked it all the same. Working like she was always gave her time to relax and think about this and that.

I wonder how Tulip did with her newest employee this morning, she thought, quickly signing a document before reaching for the next one. For a moment, she considered having somepony tail Ares to and from work, or maybe giving her niece another “employee”, but she decided against it.

Ares might have been the princesses new consort, but there was no way that he was a player in any power grab whatsoever. He was just some odd monkey-creature that had an affinity for hugs and pink alicorns, and besides… it wasn’t like she didn’t have at least a dozen agents watching over his every move up at the castle anyways, and she always loved to hear from her sweet little niece…

Oh, I’m sure that she’ll tell me all about it the next time she comes up here to say hello to her old aunt, she thought with a giggle, reaching over and grabbing the cup of tea that she had left on a stool that was at least ten times older than her. It’s nice to get a real surprise every once and a while and—

“Aunty, AUNTY!”

Higher almost dropped her tea cup in shock as her niece slid through the doorway and into a wall, a look of panic on her face. Before she could respond, or even put her tea cup down, Tulip was on her.

“Aunty, something horrible happened today!
IjustlookedawayforasecondandArestooktheseloveflower—“

High Rider watched impassively, taking another sip of her tea as her niece’s rant turned more and more illegible with each passing second, before, with a shake of her head, the mare stuck her hoof in Tulip’s mouth.

With her flat look still on her face, High Rider said, “Now dear, you know your old aunt can’t understand you when you talk like that.” For a second, her eyes hardened, gleaming with suspicion and even anger, before she once again looked at her niece with a warm and cheery smile. “Now why don’t you have a seat and tell me what the human’s done to get you so worked up.”

I swear to the gods, if that monkey did anything to hurt my niece not even the princess will be able to save that hide of his…

^&<~~><~~>&^

“Ares, could you please not eat with your mouth open?” I asked, taking a little bite of my cheese sandwich before wiping my mouth with a napkin. “You’re getting food everywhere.”

When Ares, who had still be a little loopy with all of my magic running inside him, had been asked what he wanted to eat. He simply looked up at the maid, smiled, and asked for fifty grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. Why he had wanted sandwiches, I had no idea, but I don’t think anypony had the heart to tell him no after everything he and I had been put through, so the cooks had been nice enough to give us a big plate stacked high with sandwiches and about two gallons of soup.

Though I had wanted to take a shower first, Ares had insisted that the two of us sit down and eat before he starved, so we were doing just that: sitting down, like a couple, the two of us as naked as the day we were born, also like a couple, enjoying our grill cheese sandwiches.

Well, I was enjoying my food; Ares looked like he was trying to inhale as much food as he could as quickly as he could. It had been less than ten minutes and already half of the sandwiches were gone and a third of the soup had been drunk by my hungry, hungry human.

Ares stopped his frantic chewing to look up at me, swallowing before saying, “Sorry, Candy…” Looking at the half-eaten sandwiches in both of his hands, then back at me, then back at the sandwiches, he put one of them down before calmly going back to eating.

Rolling my eyes, I levitated over a napkin and wiped off his face. “Sweet Faust are you adorable,” I said with a giggle, my smile only increasing when my human glared at me, “disgusting, but adorable.”

“I’m hungry!” Ares replied, taking another bite of his sandwich.

“I could tell,” I said, taking another bite of my sandwich before putting what was left of it down and scooting out of my chair. “Now why don’t the two of us share a nice shower together, hum? I really want to get myself cleaned up, and I’m sure that you do too.”

Ares just looked at me, grabbing and cradling the plateful of sandwiches in his arms like he was afraid that I was going to take them away. “But… I’m hungry.”

I pulled him to his feet with my magic, trying to yank the plate out of his hands. “Your foods not going to go anywhere,” I promised, getting the sandwiches out of his hands and putting them back onto the plate. “Now come on, you can help me wash my wings!” I spread one of said wings, waving him forward with it before trotting into the bathroom.

It was going to be nice finally getting all of this gunk and sweat and other stuff off my coat, and after I changed the sheets, Ares and I could snuggle up on our bed for the rest of the day, which would definitely be worth all of the nonsense I had put up with today.

Turning on the shower, I poked my head out of the bathroom and called, “Come on, Honey, we really do need to get cleaned up!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I heard Ares half grumble as he walked into the bathroom and hopped into the shower, before jumping out a half second later.

“COLD! COLD!!!”

“You should have waited until I changed the temperature,” I said with a giggle, giving Ares’s butt a playful slap, which made him jump again (to my delight). Humming to myself, I quickly turned the shower knob and hopped in.

“Come on, Ares,” I said, hoofing him a bottle of wing shampoo. “These wings aren’t going to wash themselves!”

There was some more grumbling, though I could see a smile on his face, as my human grabbed the bottle and put some of the soap in his hands. “Slave driver,” he muttered.

I nudged his leg with my flank. “Oh hush; you love it,” I chirped, sighing happily when I felt those wonderful hands of his grab and spread my wing, starting to gently scrub it.

“It looks like you're due for a preening, Candy,” Ares said, making quick work of one wing and moving onto the other.

I just shrugged, closing my eyes and just enjoying the sensation of my coltfriend running his hands up and down my back. “I’ve been meaning to do that for a couple of days anyway.”

“You mean you’ve been meaning to get me to clean them for a couple of days.”

With a laugh, I spun around and gently shoved Ares up against the wall, nuzzling his face with my nose, I leaned up and gave him a kiss. “You love it,” I said again, kissing him again as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close.

“You’re lucky I love you,” he said with a happy smile, giving my rump a little squeeze before kissing the top of my nose. “Otherwise I wouldn’t put up with being this whipped.”

I purred, giving Ares a saucy look, my eyes half-lidded. “Oh, so you like whips, my little human? Well, I’ll have to remember that next time we have a little private time together~.”

“As long as you actually buy a door that ponies aren’t going to be able to just kick down then you can bring all the whips you want,” Ares replied, giving my rump another squeeze. “That’s it though; I don’t want to walk in here one day and see you in some rubber sex suit with a strap-on on.”

We both chuckled, just standing with big, stupid smiles on our faces, holding each other close. At that moment, ponies, politics, my aunt, Shining, all of my worries just seemed to flow down the drain with the water, because I knew that I had a stallion that I loved more than anything in the world, and , taking a good look at him, I could tell that he loved me just as much.

We were out of the awkward first steps of a relationship, so now we could relax and really have fun with each other. Now that the two of us bucked each other’s brains out, you’d be sure that there’d be a lot more teasing, a lot more fun, and a lot more rutting in the future.

“Don’t you worry, Ares,” I said, nosing his cheek and closing my eyes. “I’ll make sure to save the heavy stuff for my birthday.”

@@~~##~~@@

Ares walked through the castle hallways, a pep in his step, a song in his heart, and one hell of a hunger in the pit of his stomach. Even after eating all of those sandwiches, he still had a hankering for something bready and cheesy, and even promises of snuggles and sexual favors could not dissuade him from getting dressed and scurrying to the kitchen for a late night snack.

His stomach had spoken and there was no way he was going to tell it no; and besides, the night was still young, he could have all of the “fun” with Cadence he wanted after he filled his belly.

At least no one’s looking at me funny, he thought, his hands in his pockets. And I’m sure s that mare over there was staring at my junk when the doctor was examining me… yeah that was he—

“Excuse me, sir; I have a letter for you.”

Ares almost jumped out of his skin as a pair of ponies seemingly appeared out of thin air in front of him, the two looking up at him with the most blank yet business-like expression that he had ever seen.

“Hey guys… how’s it going,” Ares said, noticing that just him and the two stallions were now alone in the hallway

.
Weren’t there like fifty ponies running around just a second ago? He thought, looking down at the piece of paper that the mystery pony had in his hoof. For a moment, he was tempted to turn around and leave, but he shook that thought off like a dog.

Aw come on, they’re just ponies, what the heck are they going to do?

“Well, thanks for the letter guys, but who’s it from?” He asked.

The stallions just continued to look at him blankly. “Sir, please just read the letter. My associate and I are very busy ponies,” one of them said, shoving the piece of paper in in his hands.

“Alright, alright,” Ares muttered with a frown bringing the paper up to his face. “No need to get fucking pissy…”

Dear Ares,

As you read this letter, the two stallion’s that I send to you are making their way behind you with the intent of knocking you out and bring you to me so the two of us can have a talk. Please don’t try to cause a scene, dear, I just want to have a talk and it was rather difficult paying off enough of the guard on such short notice. You don’t need to worry, its not about anything serious, but me and a few… associates need to tie up some loose ends with you.

I’m also sorry if the colts get a little rough, they just want to bring you in as soon as possible.

Looking forward to having another conversation with you,

High Rider.

“The fuck it this shi—“

CONK!!