"She is going to learn to be a fighter," Tufts said.

I could only choke a sob and nod.

"Why was I cursed with a family full of brave women?" Tufts jumped onto my back and walked along my spine until he could put his nose into my mane. His paws pressed rhythmically into my shoulders and built a tempo that threatened to send me to sleep.

When his wings wrapped around my neck like a scarf, I felt as relaxed as I could under the circumstances. "You're using your wiles to distract me."

"Is it working?"

I nodded. "More than I could have hoped. Where are we going from here?"

"Here? I could move back further and—"

"Tufts, I mean chronologically and relationship wise. You're a guy that I like a lot, I'm a girl you like a lot. There's normal things that would happen, but we have something getting in the way." I wanted to roll over and look him in the eyes, but right now his paws were too good on my shoulders.

"Oh. Well, I am male, and you are female." Tufts sounded as coy as coy could be. "What would you like to do?"

I'd had enough of this bat. I reached up with my wing and caught him, then rolled as I pulled him around and looked up into his eyes. "Tufts, I'm going to tell you that although I appreciate being treated with tenderness and love, I also appreciate a stallion who will tell me what he wants."

Tufts' mouth pulled up at the corners of his long snout. "Will you let me explore?"

"Me?"

"Yes."

Leaning up, I brought our mouths together in a brief kiss. "As long as it isn't just another massage."

"Massaging may be involved, but I have other intents." Both his eyebrows waggled in what was both not and yet every bit a vulpine manner. "Things were simpler in my day. A man would approach a woman and ask if she wanted sex, she would say yes or no and things would proceed or not."

One thing about his statement confused me. "In your day? You mean when you were a bat back on Earth?" I set him down on my barrel and immediately his snout moved to my chest.

"Not quite yet. How about we play a game while we play a game? I'll keep talking, and if you can guess what I mean, you win a prize." Tufts licked the fur at my chest, which I have to admit felt nice.

Squirming my hips, I nodded. "I'm still confused, but now I'm intrigued as well. Go on."

"I have known many women, Joyce, but none is so intriguing as yourself. To woo you with mangoes would be simple and not very subtle of me—though I expect it would be effective."

I couldn't help a giggle at his words. Mangoes were tasty, it's true, and while they wouldn't hurt his courtship, they wouldn't guarantee it either. "That reminds me, we need more fruit."

"Such a practical mare. Practical, and wonderful." Tufts turned around to face the back end of me, nuzzling and licking as he went.

I tilted my head back and let him.

Laughs, giggles, and lots of squirming accompanied his explorations. Tufts used his nose, tongue, teeth, and paws to investigate everywhere—almost everywhere. Almost. When his snout started working along my belly with purpose, I tensed just a little.

"Are you sure you are ready for this?" Tufts asked, his nose having stopped half a hoof's width from my udder and teats.

"It's sensitive." I lashed my tail despite my words. "I'll tell you if I want you to stop."

"Alright." Tufts had the same tone he used when discussing proper ways to eat fruit. I tried not to tense, but when his tongue found one of my teats, I gasped. He paused again.

"Th-That was a good sound," I said.

"Really?" Tufts licked my teat again, nuzzled it, and very carefully took it into his mouth.

I tried to bite back my cry, but the feelings—particularly after the mother of all droughts—were too intense. Squirming, I moaned to express every deep need I had for what we were doing.

Then he swapped to the other teat, and it made me squirm in a different direction. I didn't care what he did anymore, so long as he kept going. Fighting my urge to just sit back, I leaned forward and looked down at him—watched his tail flick and twitch. "Tufts?"

"Your tone doesn't sound like slow down. What is it, my little mango flower?" He turned his head, leaving me to be plunged into the absence of his touch.

It was unbearable. I whined and threw myself back to the bed. "Please don't stop."

"Bats," Tufts said, "Spend many hours nuzzling and giving pleasure to their perspective mates. A male will bath his intended in pleasure until she gives in and begs him to take it another step."

I bit my lip at the description.

"Is this such a begging?" Tufts licked my left teat once more. "Very well, I will continue my ministrations."

The first I knew of his plans was he settled down on my tail. When each of his forepaws touched my rump—one to each side—my breath quickened at what I knew was coming. The gentle probing of his nose was a let down, but then his tongue touched me and I found myself flapping my wings uselessly on the bed. Another lick and another, and I couldn't breathe properly. More licks and I couldn't even think.

I don't know how long he spent there, nuzzling and licking away so that the years since the last time my body'd been sated meant nothing. He could have asked me anything and I would have happily agreed no matter the question. What surprised me was when his licks became deeper, more penetrating.

Memories of noisy bats back in Australia came to me while I squealed and squirmed, bucked and moaned on the bed. I tilted my head up and struggled against my body's desires, intending on demanding Tufts do something, anything else. Then I screamed.

The stallion with his tongue shoved into me was big. He would have stood several hooves taller than me, and just from that I knew his wingspan would be huge—his bat-wing span.

"Who are you?!" I asked.

"You know, Joyce—my mango blossom."

I froze. To go from so worked up from arousal, to so worked up in fear, and now—Curiosity burned within me. "Tufts?!"

"You're getting somewhere. Would you like me to continue?" Tufts waited a few moments. "Or would you like to ask more questions?"

Intellectualism be damned. This is a world of magic, and I'd been hoping magic would happen for so long. I gulped. Don't think about the how, just think about him. A stallion. Tufts was a stallion. It sounded better and better the more I thought about it. "Questions later."

He climbed back on the bed and crawled closer to me. My little panic had sent me further up the large bed than before, but Tufts didn't seem to object. When his head dipped down behind my body again, I felt my cares melt away. Then his tongue started again.

From one lick to the next I felt my worries shoved aside. My motor didn't take much to get back to the pinnacle Tufts had worked me to before. But it wasn't my pinnacle, it was just a plateau. I wanted more. I needed more. "Tufts?"

"Mmmm-yes?" The sound of lip-smacking did nothing to calm my racing heart.

"W-What sign does a female bat give that she is—that she wants a male?" I looked along myself at him—he looked very satisfied.

"She will turn herself and prepare for the male."

Turn. I looked to my left and judged how far it was to the side of the bed. Squirm, slide, roll, and I was on my hooves. I was on my hooves with my rump facing Tufts. My heart beat a million miles an hour, and I wouldn't deny myself the view over my shoulder as I lifted my tail to one side. "Like this?"

"Yes. Just like that." Tufts climbed off the bed and I could see him—see it. My breath caught in my throat at the size of him. His shaft was equine in nature, after all, and there was a saying about horses being hung for a reason.

Each step he took excited me more. When Tufts leaned down and pressed his nose under the dock of my tail, I almost squealed. A nuzzle and a lick was all I got before he literally leapt into action—and onto my back.

The change was palpable. One moment he was big and on my back, and the next moment he was big and inside me. Years melted away and I couldn't have cared less about all the time I'd spent without this—I had it now.

Tufts was forceful, something I appreciated when I was in the mood for it. He shoved forward, then again, and then he didn't stop. Big wings wrapped around my shoulders, and I felt Tufts clamp his mouth down on the back of my neck. It all felt right, good, and proper.

My pleasure soared to new heights as his body drove into me with all the force the word stallion implied. I shoved back into each thrust, pulling us both into a dance as old as creatures.

When my moment came, I was singly unprepared for it. With a squeal of bliss I felt my legs wobble, trembling from the force of the pleasure sparking like a lightning storm within me. Then one knee folded, not that I cared, and we both went tumbling to the floor.

Tufts finished within me moments later. His grip tightened, and even through the thundering of orgasmic drums in my ears I could hear him screech. The force of his climax within me seemed phenomenal. I could feel the jetting of his seed, and it scratched an itch I didn't even know I had.

Panting an making happy little screeches from time to time, we both measured out minutes (I think) on the floor. We were still joined, though with his screech Tufts had released my neck.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" His voice was rich, but concerned.

"N-No. Not hurt. What's the opposite of that?" I couldn't help but giggle at my own joke.

He nuzzled at my neck, but rather than bite me again Tufts licked where he'd bitten. The lapping calmed me down more, let me think back over what had just happened.

"What just happened?" It was the first and most obvious question I could think to ask.

"Joyce, if you need me to answer that, maybe a demonstration would be better?" Tufts returned to licking the moment he stopped speaking.

"Okay. The most amazing sex of my life." It wasn't a lie, not even close. "But, I mean, how did you get big?"

"Magic." More licking.

"And you became a pony? Were you always a pony?"

"I became a pony because you wanted yourself a stallion, not a little flying fox. I was not always a pony. You're getting closer." Yet more licking.

I almost didn't want to ask him more questions—the licking was that nice—but I had to know. "You were never just a bat."

"That wasn't a question."

"The only other creature in Australia when you were around that had magic was—" My brain tripped a circuit. There are some thoughts that just don't work, and this was one of them.

"Keep going, Joyce."

The licking helped. It pushed me forward. "The only other creature there that could do magic was the Rainbow Serpent."

"I am no snake."

"Is there a—?" I couldn't get my head around what I was about to ask.

"Go on, Joyce. I will answer any question you ask."

Deep breath, Joyce. You need to ask this. "Is there another god, one for—for bats?"

"In the myths of the people, there was another. Tjinimin."

"Tjinimin?"

"Yes?" His tone was that used by someone upon hearing their name.

The world went fuzzy around the edges, then darkness pushed the fuzz closer and closer to the middle of my vision. I had just one thought left in me as the darkness pulled around me like a blanket: Tjinimin?

My dreams that night were not hard to figure out. I'd had the best sex of my life with someone I loved and my subconscious was onboard to play it back over and over like a sports replay. Far from be upset at my mind's more salacious side, I reveled in the scenarios it created while I slept.

When the dreams faded, and the light of Celestia's sun started coming through the window of our bedroom, I yawned and stretched. With my wing I felt around the bed, but couldn't locate the lover my dreams promised me should be there. Opening my eyes, I looked for him.

"Just in time."

Tufts' voice made my head snap around to the stallion in the doorway. It had seemed like a dream that he had become a bat pony, but though the stallion walking into the room might be dreamy, he was no dream. Tufts looked solid, a strong build—my mind helpfully brought back memories of the previous night and what his strong build had done with me.

"In time for what?" I asked.

Lifting one of his wings, Tufts revealed four bananas tucked under it. A deft flick of his thumbclaw and the hand of fruit was split in two. He passed two of the bananas into my waiting wing. "Breakfast in bed."

It wasn't hard to get a bat pony breakfast in bed. We had a fridge full of fruit, so acquiring said breakfast was easy too. I used one thumb to hold the fruit while the other sliced down the length of a banana skin.

"How much do you remember of last night?" Tufts asked.

"If you're asking if it was fun, it was. You had a lot of moves on you, but how did this happen?" I gestured at him with one wing while nibbling the banana.

Tufts looked a little confused for a moment, then shrugged his wings. "This is a little trick I have learned. Do you think I could spend so much time with Robin and Dream—teaching them how to bat—without learning a little pony?"

It didn't seem to add up, but I wasn't going to argue—at least not while I still had banana to eat.

Tufts climbed onto the bed with me and started eating his own fruit. Normally he'd maul the skin to get at the fruit within, but I watched him carefully peel his first banana before he started eating it. "You have a lot less skepticism now, Joyce."

I gulped down my current mouthful of banana. "Well, when my personal friend raises and lowers the sun each day with her magic, I started looking at things a different way."

"A fun way, I'd say." Tufts grinned at me while he took another bite of his fruit. He waited until he was done before continuing. "You remember the wall of magic back on Earth that stopped people seeing ponies?"

I remembered that "wall" pretty well, given it had taken the efforts of my daughters—of my son and my daughters—to get rid of it. Was he implying there was something like that blocking the reality of things now? "What do you mean? Is it still doing something?"

"No, but this is like that. I shared with you a secret about myself. It harms nobody, but you seem to be having a similar problem understanding it." Tufts reached under my chin with a hoof and stroked my throat slowly. "I don't think revealing it to you again will help. You need to discover it yourself to understand it."

This was more words than I think I'd ever heard Tufts use to describe something. "So what you're saying is, my mind rejects it. I need repeated exposure in a safe environment to reinforce the knowledge until it sticks." It was now impossible to move my wings enough to get food into my mouth, but not because of any restraint.

Tufts, however, realized the problems his gentle touches were creating and held a piece of his own banana up to my mouth. When a took a little bite, he kissed my cheek. "Something like that."

The more he stroked at my throat the harder it was to do anything but relax. "Do you have any ideas on how I can be in as safe and relaxed manner as possible?" All the ideas my subconscious had come up with while I slept floated to the surface, and I wondered idly if we could manage them all in one day.

"One or two, my little mango. One or two." He kept up stroking my chin while one wing occasionally fed me more banana (mostly to keep me from talking, I think), but another hoof roamed back along my body.

I wanted to ask him what he planned, suggest something of my own, but every time I opened my mouth, Tufts pressed some banana into it. It was infuriating and adorable. When his hoof stroked far enough to pass my belly, I began making a soft whine between mouthfuls.

"When we run out of banana, and we can both talk, then we will talk some more. Until then, Joyce, I don't want you to say anything coherent." His voice was deeper than usual, sounding like pure honey in my ears.

His hoof worked between my back legs with little resistance on my part. Each slow stroke there only made me relax further into his attention. After what seemed like an eternity of slow pleasure at his hooves, Tufts ran out of banana. "You believe in a lot of work-up, don't you?"

"It's the bat way, my sweet little mango. In a colony, a male doesn't just get to mate with a female, he has to woo her, then he has to show commitment. He has to prove to his intended that he is worth her time, and worth suffering his attentions further." Tufts paused in his stroking of both ends of me. "Am I?"

I rolled my eyes and moved before he could anticipate. "And what if a female wants to show a male she's interested in him?" I pushed Tufts over to his side. "What then? Does bat society break down and crumble?" I licked and nuzzled at Tufts' chest.

"Ah, but we're not in bat society. I may have my roots as a bat, but I like to think a certain mare has helped me grow into more than that." He had the sense to hold still and let me continue to explore as he had explored me last night.

I nuzzled between his forelegs and into the joint between shoulder and leg—it was musky, but it made Tufts squirm nicely when I did it, so I did it a few more times until I heard him laugh. I looked up at his and saw he looked astonished. "Something wrong?"

"My dear, I have never laughed like that before."

Of course this meant I should nuzzle more, so I did. I licked, poked, and wiggled my snout around in the ticklish joints until Tufts was a giggling—squirming—mess. Only when he seemed to have laughed himself out did I start moving lower.

Tufts' barrel and belly seemed to be devoid of any ticklish spots, or maybe he really was tickled out. Either way, I dipped my snout down further.

Unlike on a mare, all the fun bits of a stallion are at the bottom of his belly. I carefully nuzzled around—avoiding his sheath—until I found another musky place. Tufts was silent now except for slow, deep breaths. When I opened my mouth and took his ballsack in my mouth, he let out a low groan.

That groan meant everything to me. It meant he trusted me with such exploration, but it also meant he was enjoying what I was doing. Careful of my teeth, I pursed my lips and let one of his balls fall back into his sack, then I sucked on it.

"Joyce!"

I paused.

"Joyce, what are you doing? That feels—please don't stop."

In reply, I simply hummed. I could feel Tufts squirm properly now—squirm like a man should when his wife is showing him how much she loves him. I hummed again before I realized my thoughts had slipped wife into my head without me realizing it. Tufts' renewed cries simply spurred me on.

I let go of his scrotum and licked over his sack a few times. Both his heavy balls were now down again, and both jumped at the touch of my tongue. The last stroke I gave his balls continued along the underside of his sheath and all the way to the tip—where he began pushing free.

Completely wrapped up in the act of lovemaking, my mind tried to tease at the big thing Tufts had revealed yesterday that I couldn't quite remember. It seemed right at the edge of my mind, but nothing I could do would trick it into revealing its secret. I licked again, this time tracing a new length of flesh that was very near and dear to both of us.

Last night he'd spent all the work of bringing me to arousal, today it was his turn to receive. Pursing my lips, I kissed the flared head of his shaft and pushed down. To my shock his hips bucked, shoving him deep into my mouth, and Tufts spilled himself into me.

The shock of his hitting his wall so quick was caught between wanting to giggle, having a mouthful of his issue, and being so damn happy I'd worked him up so much.

"Joyce!" Tufts sounded shocked, though his hips moved again and pushed him deeper into my mouth. "I-I didn't—I couldn't—You were just so—" He stopped talking when I sucked.

While it was tempting to pull myself free of him and give him the satisfaction of a porn moneyshot, subconscious me had already come up with the idea to do that later—there would definitely be a later.

Only when he was done did I pull back and give him a lick for good measure.

Tufts let out a worried sigh. "Joyce. I'm so sorry. I just couldn't stop—"

"Oh shush. That was meant for you to enjoy yourself, and I think you did." I licked him one more time and then slid along the bed until we could face each other. "How many times have you had sex as a pony?"

"Does this count?" he asked. When I nodded, Tufts said, "Two."

"Last night was your first time like this?" I spread a wing around his shoulders and pulled myself closer to him. Much closer.

Tufts sighed the sigh of somepony caught having to tell the absolute truth. I liked that he thought that much of me to do so. "That was my first time ever."

I was taken aback. "So the talk of bats and mating and—"

"I may have enhanced the truth a little."

Nuzzling along his throat, I pressed my belly more firmly against him. "So the best sex of my life was your first time?"

Tufts jerked his head back and looked into my eyes—deep into my eyes. "That was the best sex of your life?" One of his fuzzy eyebrows lifted.

"Since we are here to be completely truthful, yes. I warn you, however, that the bar wasn't exactly super high. You were still pretty amazing." It would have been an easy lie to give to earn the huge smile and excited expression Tufts now bestowed upon me, but it was the simple truth. "But did you enjoy it?"

"More than anything in either of the worlds I know of. Joyce, you are more than just a mare to me, you are the completion of my heart." He kissed my cheek softly, but insistently, making me eager for more such kisses. "Could you ever forgive me for my—excitement?"

"Well, the only proper thing to do is help you," I said. "You need coaching, you need practice, and you need a lot of tests to check for improvement."

As I spoke, I watched Tufts' smile get wider and wider. When I got to the end, he tilted his head back and let out an excited screech.

"I'll take that as your agreement with my training methods."

My holidays settled into routine. Mornings and evenings were spent with Tufts—going out for dinner or just spending the whole night in—while my days were spent at the castle. Princess Celestia was in the early processes of defining a treaty with Australia that included a somewhat open border, and she needed little pieces of information that I was uniquely suited to provide.

The puzzle Tufts had given me was always nibbling at the edges of my thoughts. That first night together had been magical, and though I frequently dreamt of it, I felt I didn't get any closer to understanding what it was he'd told me.

A full month had gone by before I woke up—with Tufts in his diminutive form—and remembered. For several minutes I couldn't process it fully. Tufts. Tjinimin. I had to breathe slowly for fear of hyperventilating.

I let an hour pass as the concept circled within my head. A god. Maybe not completely a literal god, but he was effectively one. There was a moment when I was still trying to couch that in a manner that would fit in my head when I realized I was effectively working for one: Princess Celestia.

Okay. My boss is almost certainly a goddess by most Earth definitions, and my boyfriend—husband?—is too. Where does that leave me? "Why me?"

"Because you're all that's good. You are amazing, caring, and wonderful. You save every creature you see and lift them up to be what they should be." Tufts' eyes were closed as he spoke. I wondered how long he'd been awake. "Because you can accept the fantastic and you don't break when presented with something hard." He waited a moment before continuing. "And you're beautiful."

"Flattery will get you everywhe—Wait. You did this, didn't you?" I asked.

"Did what?"

"Made it so magic turned everyone into bat ponies."

"Of course. If I didn't do that, it would have gone wild and done all sorts of odd things." Tufts sounded so proud of his work.

I smiled at his confidence and nuzzled against the back of his neck. "You made me beautiful."

"Mmm," Tufts said as he nuzzled my chin. "Yes."

It was supremely hard to be angry at him for either saving everyone or taking pride in it. "You changed everyone." I kissed him on the nose.

"Actually, I've only ever changed myself. I gave the change that was going to happen a pattern. You remember now?" Tufts waited for me to nod before going on. "I'm not what I once was. I invested a lot of power into Dream Thunder."

"But you've still got enough to transform?" Familiarity had slowly forced out my shame in his smaller body. I nuzzled my way between his forelegs and licked along his barrel.

"And a few other tricks. Have you ever noticed any of our fruit being a little sour?"

I nuzzled down to his belly. "Do you mean to tell me that you keep all our fruit perfectly ripe?" I waited for him to draw breath to respond before licking over the vulpine sheath his smaller body had.

The result of my attention was evident by the startled screech Tufts made. Tjinimin.

"Which name would you prefer I use?" I asked, and licked him again. When he didn't reply, I licked a third time.

"It's hard to think when you do that," Tufts said.

"At least one part of you is thinking." I licked the little red tip of his penis, earning myself another screech—though this one had an urgent edge to it. "More?"

"You are an evil temptress, you know that?" Tufts squirmed in place, but my snout kept him pinned to his back. "Let me up." His words had a little chuckle behind them, I knew them for the challenge they were.

"Or what?" I asked, and licked him again.

"Joyce, I'm going to change both of us." His words were strained. I had barely a moment to think before what he said became what he was doing.

The first change I noticed was my wings. The leathery membrane pulled up and into my limb before feathers started sprouting. "What are you—Ack!" My mouth changed, as my whole body was. My teeth seemed to merge together and push forward, while my snout pulled back. I coughed a few times as my face adjusted to having a beak.

My forelegs changed next. Hooves unclenched, releasing fingers that had been trapped into the equine shape, but now they had claws growing on them. Colorful feathers danced down my chest, while vivid green ones coated my shoulders, neck, and poured up over my head.

I glared at Tufts, but realized he too was changing. He was alive with bright colored feathers, stretching into a larger form that likewise had a beak and, about midway, became more feline in appearance. My brain caught up with the sensations coming from all over me. Toes were a unique thing to have back, but I could have done without the beak.

"This the best I could do," Tufts said.

He looked like no creature that had ever existed on Earth, but I recognized it all the same. "You're a griffon. A parrot griffon." How my mouth worked I had no idea. It just worked.

"So are you." Tufts rolled over on the bed so that he was practically on top of me. "I got in a lot of trouble for chasing parrot girls once." He stepped closer. "This seemed more appropriate given the world we're in."

"Hold on a second." I lifted up one talon (or is it a hand?) and pressed firmly against his chest to keep him from advancing further. "You made us into parrot griffons, but why do I have bright colors? Female parrots are just green."

"What did I say earlier about my creations, hrmm?" Tufts leaned his head down and nuzzled at my foreleg. "I couldn't stand by and just make you pretty, I had to make you beautiful." He worked his beak in little chewing motions up my leg, the gentle pinching of it on my feathered limb made me coo without realizing what I was doing.

Different body, different sensations.

"Our back-ends are cats," I said while trying my best to hold off just letting him do what he wanted. "I'm going to say a big no to cat back ends, Tufts."

He worked all the way up to my shoulder, circled around to my chest, and nibbled his way up the ruff of my neck. "Mmm. Why?"

"Just one word: barbs. Something non cat. Hippogriff?" I almost gasped as he nuzzled up my jaw and to my beak. For being a hard beak, they were remarkably sensitive, and just him nuzzling his beak against mine had all the intimacy of a kiss.

"Hippogriff?"

"Bird horse. Swap the cat out for horse or you don't ride this parrot." I went back to rubbing our beaks together.

The feeling of my body changing should have been more focused this time, but rather than just changing our back ends, Tufts changed all of us in little ways. My feathering became more subdued, and I felt a plume of mane spring from my head and neck again. What surprised me was how good it was to have a pony tail back—I gave it a good swish to explore that feeling.

"Better? Tufts asked.

I looked up at him. He had so much more tail now, and at the base of it was a fine web of feathers. His body was both more equine and more streamlined. He was, of course, still a green-parrot in coloration—as I assumed I was too.

Rather than answer immediately, I pushed him sideways with my hands and pounced on top of him. Rolling Tufts to his back I nuzzled down his belly to the much more familiar equipment just below his belly button. "Now, let me make sure you haven't slipped in any surprises."

There was little embarrassment left. I could nuzzle around him and explore both our bodies with practically nothing to hold me back. It was just us—Tufts and me—no one else was here to get outraged at what we might do. It took me a moment to work out how to get my tongue out, but eventually I ran it over his sheath a few times—enough that he started to push free. "Mmmm."

"That sounds—sounds positive," Tufts said, his voice having trouble keeping even whenever I licked.

I licked him a few more times as he grew out into the open air. "Mmm—yes." I thought of giving him a blowjob, but remembered a problem with that. "Beaks aren't really made for this." But looking down at him, wanting to do something special, I noticed something that would work. "But on the other hand…"

When I closed my talon around his shaft, Tufts jerked his head to look at what I was doing. "Hands?"

"Hand-job. Now this I know how to do." The moment I said it I realized what I'd implied. "Not that I gave—You know what, bugger it." I leaned down again and nuzzled behind his shaft while my hand slid carefully along him. A little spray of liquid from his tip was perfect to lubricate my fingers enough to speed up.

The odd little coo Tufts let out was the most adorable thing I'd heard from him yet. When I shifted around to put my head between his back legs and reach around to stroke him, Tufts shimmied his hips a little on the bed. "I don't care who you've been with, Joyce. It only matters that we're together now."

Angling my eyes up from the two testicles I was nuzzling, I looked past Tufts' hard shaft, taut belly, and powerful barrel to his twinkling eyes. "That kind of truth is dangerous, Tufts." I stroked a little slower, my hand catching on his medial ring as it slid down, then back up again. "Telling a girl what she wants to hear can lead to her thinking things." Another stroke.

Tufts lost the impromptu staring contest and started to shiver. I knew what this particular sign meant, and crawled up him a little further to position my beak at the end of his shaft. I was about to pump, but got a better idea and let go.

"W-What are you doing?! Joyce, please, I'm so close—"

Rolling sideways, I landed back on all fours and lifted my rump in the air. "Tufts?"

"What?!"

"Open your eyes and look at me."

"What are you—Oh. OH!" He wasted no time. Tufts launched himself onto my back and, thanks to weeks spent in repeated carnal training, he should have hit his mark perfectly, but neither of us were exactly ponies right now.

My own squawk of surprise met Tufts as he adjusted and shoved forward. I didn't care that I wouldn't get anywhere near a climax of my own, sometimes just hearing a lover enjoy themselves was enough, and feeling him—so solid and real—inside me gave me happy tingles all up and down my spine.

Tufts stretched himself out on my back, his hips giving a few last ditch thrusts before he stalled and stopped. The heat pouring from him into me made all kinds of happy sparks explode in my brain, but I'd learned to lock my knees and elbows when I was supporting a stallion.

The weight of a stallion on my back—of my stallion on my back—was its own reward. The feel of his barrel expanding and contracting with each breath, the slow thudding of his heart, the mass of his shaft inside me… "Tufts?"

"Mmm. Joyce?"

"I love you, Tufts." The words were easy to say and flowed freely from me. Even though I knew everything—because I knew everything—I had to say them.

"There is nothing I want to say more than I love you too."

Sergeant Bluebelle, does the EUP allow non-ponish elements to enlist, such as donkeys or griffons? If so, do they have their own particular talents like the three tribes do?

"At this point in time—" Bluebelle sounded like it was something she had opinions on, "—the E.U.P. Guard is just that: Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi. Our commander has declared that as a requirement of admittance. That said, I've heard talk about a different type of winged pony—with bat wings—and I'd be more than happy to take their signature on an application form."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
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