Blake groaned as he limped up a narrow double-flight of stairs to the roof access, each step putting a little more pressure on his bad foot. A heavy bottle of red wine was in one hand, and a pair of fancy wine-glasses in the other. Unfortunately, elevator-access stopped at the top floor, and roof access was by the rather-disused staircase.

Celestia was regally laid out on a large red cushion that had been place on the roof for her comfort some time previously. She had her forehooves crossed, one over the other, and her chin resting on it. Pink eyes reflected the lights of the city as she watched cars moving along the roads below. “Your world is so alien, but so pretty,” she said without turning her head towards him.

Blake paused, casting his gaze out over the city, before shrugging inwardly and limping over to place wine and glasses on a little table that has been provided. “I guess so. It’s very… pedestrian to me now. I’ve seen it so much.”

“Acclimatization. Though how you would acclimatize to this is beyond me,” Celestia said, sweeping a hoof in a broad gesture towards the city. “Everything is illuminated! Everything!”

“You should see it around Christmas,” Blake said with a slight chuckle, producing a wine-bottle opener from a pocket and beginning to work on the cork of the wine bottle. “We have this historical figure, Jesus, our ‘god’, who was born on a date like in the middle of the year but the old religions wanted to take away pagan worshippers so they moved his birthdate to the twenty-fifth of December and that’s when we celebrate it. But one of the ways they celebrate it is by stringing christmas lights up everywhere. They’re all different colours and whatnot, too.”

“That sounds amazing,” Celestia said, turning her head to watch the lights of a car moving along one of the roads far below. “Coloured lights glowing amidst the snowfall…”

Blake gave a slight laugh at that. “Snowfall, right. Uh, I don’t know if you realise this Princess, but we don’t get snow here. Not to mention Christmas is in summer.”

Celestia looked puzzled for a moment, before pursing her lips. “Ah, yes. The southern hemisphere.”

“Want some wine?” Blake offered, reaching for the glasses.

“Please,” Celestia responded, finally pulling her eyes away from the traffic.

Blake picked up the wine bottle, uncorking it and then carefully pouring a glass of wine for the princess, careful to observe proper pouring technique as he did. It had already been drilled in to him how to pour the wine properly: the correct distance it should fall, how high the glass should be filled, the twist at the end to prevent any spillage. “You know, it was customary back in the day for people to open their wine bottles with a sword.”

“That sounds barbaric and a good way to lose wine,” Celestia responded bluntly.

Blake chuckled. “You should see how they christen new ships.”

“Is it something barbaric?”

“Wasting perfectly good wine by smashing a bottle on the bow of the ship.”

“Barbaric.”

Blake chuckled again, and poured himself a measure of the wine, placing the bottle back in the bucket of ice to make sure it remained chilled while he picked up his glass and inhaled the scent of it.

“I have a confession, Blake,” Celestia said carefully.

“You stole more cake from the freezer?” Blake asked, arching an eyebrow and sipping his wine.

Celestia shook her head with a thin smile. “I resisted the urge.”

“Well, what then?”

Celestia lifted her glass with magic, and sipped at it slowly, carefully tasting the wine. She wrinkled her nose after a moment. “This tastes… dirty, somehow.”

“They do grow grapes in the dirt you know,” Blake quipped.

Celestia rolled her eyes.

Blake wanted to press Celestia for her confession, but sensed that she was stalling to collect her thoughts and thus just sipped his wine, staring out over the glowing streetlamps.

Celestia pursed her lips, obviously deep in thought.

“Wow, I’ve never seen you weigh your words so carefully. Did you kill someone?”

Celestia scoffed. “No! I just… I’m not sure how to… phrase this.”

“You are the most eloquent person I have ever met. You spoke circles around Steven,” Blake reminded.

“Yes, but that was Steven. He is very… simple. I know him and his kind. Conniving is easy to talk around, but you are an entirely different puzzle. You see through diplomatic bullshit with an ease of which I tried to instill in my own sister and which she could not grasp after a thousand years.”

“I… is that a compliment?” Blake asked uncertainly.

Celestia shrugged. “Perhaps. People are just different. If you had a cutie mark, it would be… something diplomatic.”

“Well, thanks, I guess,” Blake said with a soft laugh.

“What I’m trying to say is that… You pegged me wrong last night,” Celestia said carefully.

“So, not a compliment?” Blake queried, confused.

Celestia shook her head. “Somewhat. What I’m trying to say is… That ‘me’, the flirty Celestia that made lewd innuendo…”

“The fake you?” Blake asked.

Celestia nodded. “The ‘fake’ me,” she trailed off, pausing and sipping her wine again, carefully taking her time. “Was not.... Entirely fake.”

“Semi-fake?”

“Semi-fake,” Celestia agreed, nodding once to herself. “Of a kind. It was not… as I usually am. But it felt… right.”

“So, what you’re trying to confess to me, Princess,” Blake said, turning to face her properly. “Is that you are a harlot?”

Celestia gave a tinkling giggle, and then carefully nodded. “Yes, Blake. I am a harlot. Or… I want to be. It was liberating, to watch you fluster and flummox without any thought of the diplomatic fallout, without needing to think ahead twelve steps and divine your attentions.”

“Well, that’s nice to know,” Blake said with a faint smile, swirling his wine in his glass and then taking another sip.

“The main reason I wanted you to know that was… well… I wish to seek your permission to do so again,” Celestia said candidly.

Blake arched an eyebrow. “You hardly need my permission.”

“But by asking you, I have also stated my intentions and in doing so have reassured you that my frisky affections are not… fake,” Celestia added, looking Blake up and down carefully. “I feel as though you know this but you are deliberately acting dumb so that I am forced to voice it.”

Blake gave a weak laugh, taking another sip of his wine. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You are a very shrewd man,” Celestia said calmly. “And even though I know I’m being played… I’ll go along with it. Blake,” she asked, turning to face him properly.

Blake turned his head to regard her, arching an eyebrow.

“Would you allow me to suggest lewd, inappropriate actions with you?” Celestia asked carefully.

“Like I said, I can hardly stop you,” Blake responded, just as carefully. “But if it makes you feel better… I think it’s cute. Adorable, even.”

Celestia paused at that, working her next sentence over in her mouth before giving voice to it. “I cannot say that those are descriptors often applied to myself.”

Blake nodded thoughtfully, sipping his wine again. “When you were trying to be all flirty with me. I knew it was at least mostly affected. Like… uhh…” he trailed off, searching for the right word. “You were pretending to be a frisky young pony when really you’re an older, calculating gal, and rather shrewd yourself. But I also got the sense that you enjoyed it. And that’s cute.”

Celestia scoffed. “Did you just call me ‘old’?”

“You are positively ancient,” Blake responded bluntly. “Hell, every meeting we ever had must be like the blink of an eye to someone as old as you are.”

Celestia paused, weighing her words. “At the moment, no. They are a new experience. New experiences always take up more… ‘spatial memory’. It’s the day-in, day-out drudgery that makes the days blur and blend together.” Celestia sipped her wine, looking at him sideways, and then sighing faintly. “In a thousand years time, the entirety of our meeting will be nothing more in my memory than a lazy afternoon spent basking in the sunlight. But,” she lifted a hoof to halt anything he might have started to say. “That does not mean I remember it any less fondly, or long less for that lazy afternoon.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Blake said, nodding to himself. “Like eating really good food. Just because it’s gone in fifteen minutes doesn’t make it any less special.”

“Exactly so,” Celestia responded with a gentle nod. “So, I have your blessing?”
Blake snuffed a laugh. “Continuing to ask me that over and over again kind of ruins the charm of it. It’s just flirting. It’s not like a BDSM session or something. We don’t need to pick a safeword and discuss which hours of which day.”

Celestia edged closer to him, and almost laid her chin on his shoulder so she could heatedly whisper in his ear: “With some of the things I intend to do to you, a safeword might be prudent.”

A shiver passed down Blake’s form, and he covered it by sipping at his wine once more. “That’s… uh… probably a little more ominous than you intended.”

Celestia giggle, and then crossed behind him, to rest her chin on his other shoulder, murmuring softly. “In my people’s culture, older ponies are revered for their… sexual knowledge.”

Blake tilted his head slightly, trying his best to appear nonchalant. “S-same over here, really,” he responded, his voice wavering just slightly.

Celestia giggle again. “Can you imagine the things I know?”

Blake swallowed thickly for a moment, and then straightened up slightly. “I dunno. I think you might be too prudish to know too much about all of that. You are a princess, after all.”

Celestia’s expression darkened for just a moment, and pink eyes narrowed at him intently before that sly little giggle returned. “You’re right. Of course. I’ve hardly taken any lessons or anything like that…”

Blake sighed inwardly in relief, and raised his glass to his lips again, before pausing as Celestia tugged at his wrist with a hoof. With a slightly bemused expression, he allowed his hand to be led towards her muzzle, before the princess caught his index and middle fingers in her surprisingly soft lips and drew them into her mouth.

Vibrant pink eyes stared into his own unflinchingly as a velvety-soft tongue curled over his fingers and drew them deeper into the damp warmth of her muzzle, giving a slow, grinding undulation around them and gentle swirling as a soft, intoxicating suction tugged at the very end of his fingertips. Celestia swallowed softly, and the back of her tongue rose to gently caress his fingertips with the motion.

THINK CLEAN THOUGHTS! THINK CLEAN THOUGHTS!

Blake’s mind screamed at him as she stared wide-eyed at what Celestia was doing, his breath catching in his throat and mouth hanging open just slightly. There was a faint noise of moisture on the roof and he belated realised he had let his wine glass tilt so far that wine was dribbling out of it.

Celestia giggle, pressing down, soft lips consuming his fingertips until they bumped up against his knuckles, completely encasing his digits in warm, wet tightness. She paused that, and then gripped his wrist gently in a hoof before giving a slow bob of her muzzle on him, tilting her head slightly to one side as she pressed down, letting her tongue grind and undulate along the entire length of his fingers.

“F-fuuuuck…” Blake breathed, swallowing with a suddenly dry throat, feeling his heart racing and his breathing picking up in speed while a certain insistent ache in his lions demanded to take the place of his fingers.

Rumbling heatedly, Celestia drew back, gently, carefully, almost reverently flicking her tongue over his fingertips as she slipped back far enough to disengage. “I think I have the basics of it down…”

Blake tried to respond, but all that escaped was a strangle squeak.

“Although, I think I’m forgetting something…” Celestia trailed off, looking thoughtful for a moment, before giving an ‘aha!’ of realisation. “I forgot the end…” she murmured heatedly, catching his eye again and holding his gaze as she leaned forwards, tilted her head up and gently parted her lips. That soft pink tongue extended, giving him a perfect view into that presented mouth. She looked like she was waiting for her favorite treat.

Blake just about fainted.

Celestia giggled wickedly, closing her mouth and licking her lips, rising back to her full, regal height. “Why, Blake, you seem a little pale. Is everything okay?”

Blake lifted a shaking hand to try and casually brush his hair back, realising that his fingers were slick with her saliva. “I-I’m f-fine,” he managed to stammer, trying not to stand side-on to the princess so that she wouldn’t notice his raging erection just about breaking the seams of his pants.

Pink eyes narrowed at him, and Celestia giggled darkly. “Are you thinking dirty thoughts about your princess?”

“Yes… fucking yes,” Blake managed to respond, his tone strangled.

Giggling even more at that, Celestia turned back and held up her wine glass. “Refill, please, Blake.”

Nodding woodenly, Blake took the glass from her, shuffling back towards the wine bucket, trying his best not to let her see the effect she had on him.

Celestia watched him knowingly, giggling softly to herself. “If you’re a good boy, your princess might let you judge the exam.”

Blake gave her a confused stare. “Exam?”

Arching an eyebrow, Celestia looked him up and down, her gaze lingering on the bulge in his pants as she licked her lips lasciviously. “You doubted my prowess… Clearly the only way to allay your doubts is… a test.”

A strangled laugh left Blake, and he gentle handed the wine glass to the princess with a shaking hand. “Y-you’re coming on a little strong.”

Celestia picked up her wine glass, and sipped at it carefully, even as her ethereal tail came around and brushed over the front of his pants, almost making him yelp, his entire form stiffening. “And when you finally work up the courage to reciprocate, I’ll let you find out whether I’m serious or not.”

Blake stared at Celestia sideways for a long moment, trying to read her expression. But that sly smile on her muzzle offered him no concrete answer either way.

Was she just teasing him? Was she being serious?

“I uh… I need to go use the toilet,” Blake muttered, not meeting the princess’s gaze.

Celestia nodded generously. “I understand. You need a few minutes to gather yourself.”

“Y-you can say that again!” Blake said with a strangled chuckle, placing his wine glass on the little table. “I’ll be back in a few minutes!” he said hurriedly, turning to walk away.

“Oh Blake…” Celestia said softly.

Blake paused, looking back over his shoulder attentively. “Yes, princess?”

“I know you’re running off to masturbate furiously,” Celestia stated simply.

Swallowing thickly, Blake shook his head, throat even dryer. “O-oh no, not at all, I just… I uh…”

Celestia held up a hoof for silence, and her serene expression morphed into a wicked smirk. “When you orgasm, I do hope you’re fantasizing about my muzzle being open in front of you.”

Blake tried to stammer a response, before he whirled and limped away as fast as his bad foot could carry him, his cheeks burning.

Celestia giggled to herself and turned to look back over the lights of the city, taking another sip of her wine.