High above Ponyville, in the clouds, Rainbow Dash waited for her annoyed and boisterous crew to settle in. Down below in the town, the bright grass shined emerald in the sunlight and the golden tops of roofs simmered like sweet icing, giving the city a view to the cloud walking pegasi as if it was a unique toy, a tiny dolls’ village where the dolls moved on their own.

There were very few ponies in the streets below. It was a situation that would last for the next five days.

“Okay girls, listen up,” Rainbow Dash said. “I know this is really bad timing, but one of the tanks at the Cloudsdale cold front processor blew up, and we need to push the cold front into the Everfree Forest.”

“Where the stallions at?” Dizzy Twister said, hollering between her hoofs. Snickers erupted from the gathering, magnified by Dash’s humorously disapproving stare.

“What do you think, Dizzy? I’m not going to have our stallions up here having to put up with a bunch of heated mares. Look, I’m sorry this happened at the beginning of heat season, but we need to get this done, okay?”

“S-soon as possible,” Blossomforth said. “I feel awful, boss. My heat is terrible!”

Dash could tell at a glance that at least half of her crew had already started their heat. The eyes squinting as if trying to see through the desire, the tails jerking as if trying to swat away their lust– it was all there. This is going to be a bad one, she thought. She tried to cover her sly smile. But not for me!

“I’m sorry Blossomforth, but that’s why we have to do this without stallions.” Dash felt bad leaving them out of this. It wasn’t their fault, but the weather team was majority mare, and they couldn’t deal with the distraction. Then again, the stallions were probably happy enough not having to deal with an emergency. “Let’s break into our teams, and set up this counter-wind, okay? If we concentrate on it, we’ll get it done in an hour and then we can all go home.” She didn’t mean to be so pushy. Her own heat hadn’t started up yet, but she knew it was a matter of hours – maybe even minutes! – and she wanted to get this done.

The mares broke into teams, and Rainbow’s team concentrated on building a cloudwall. Rainbow, Cloudkicker, and Beck Dell, a yellow pegasus with a short black mane and a hay bale cutie mark (which caused some minor controversy in her family. “That’s an earth pony thing! What does it even mean?”) were rolling up mist, using their natural pegasus magic to form a line of clouds to barricade the incoming cold wind from passing over Ponyville. Dash did her work in silence, pushing fluffy clouds that were always slick and cool to the touch. It felt neat to squish the clouds going under and around the anklet she wore on her left hoof. They would have been forming the wall faster, but one pegasus seemed more interested in what was going on below.

“Flitter!” Dash said, causing the blue-grey pegasus to gasp. Dash followed Flitter’s line of sight to what caught her attention – an earth pony stallion walking the streets.

“Come on Flitter, don’t look down! Get your mind on the job.”

“Y-yes boss!” Flitter said. She flew back to the cloudwall her crew was creating. “I didn’t mean to get distracted, but Celestia I can’t stop thinking about… about…”

“I know,” Dash said. “Stallions.”

“That’s the whole thing about why I don’t like heat season,” Beck Dell said, flapping her wings to accelerate the mist. “It’s like we can’t talk about anything but stallions. Get two mares in heat together, and that’s all they’ll talk about. It’s like we don’t even have a personality no more.”

“Yeah, but, you only like mares,” Flitter said.

That was certainly true. Dash figured that Beck Dell was probably more bent toward mares than she herself was toward stallions, and that was saying something.

Beck Dell snorted. “That ain’t the point. It’s just that I got better things to talk about.” Beck Dell grinned and jabbed Cloudkicker with her hoof. “Ol’ Cloudkicker don’t have that problem, do ya? You don’t like mares, either.”

“Sex is gross,” Cloudkicker said, not taking her attention away from her work. She shuddered in disgust.

“Okay, can the heat talk,” Dash said. “It’s like you girls are just searching for a reason to get distracted. Come on, speed it up!”

Raising high the post-hole digger, Lero brought it down hard on the supple earth. It dug down into the ground, and, with a mighty pull, Lero forced it to give up its secret soil.

Fluttershy had found part of her fence ruined earlier that morning, when she went out to feed her livestock. The wooden poles had been uprooted and smashed, and the fencing snipped as if by fangs. She suspected timberwolves, but the tell-tale sign of whole twigs, as if grown fully independent of a tree, were not at the wreck.

“None of my animal friends were hurt, thank goodness,” Fluttershy said when she asked Lero for emergency help. “The chickens decided to visit the Everfree Forest again, though.”

Fluttershy watched Lero plunge the post-hole digger into the ground, where he planned on making sturdier, deeper holes. Her menagerie of animals idled behind her as if she were a shield between them and Lero. They studiously avoided Lero, with one exception.

Lero moved to the next spot he had marked off, doing his best to ignore Angel’s stink-eye. Angel sat on Fluttershy’s back, watching Lero’s work with an overly critical expression, mostly a sneer. When Lero first tore through the ground, Angel made gagging sounds. When Lero sunk the first pole into the ground, Angel rolled his eyes and heaved sighs. When Lero accidentally made eye contact with the bunny, Angel made a slitting motion across his furry throat and pointed at Lero.

“You just try it,” Lero said under his breath.

“Pardon?” Fluttershy said.

Lero cleared his throat. “Is Angel alright, Fluttershy? He’s making some strange sounds.”

“No, Angel’s just a little cranky. Right Angel?”

With Fluttershy’s attention turned toward Angel, Lero mouthed, “Rabbit stew.”

With a gasp of anger, Angel leapt at Lero with the intention of sinking his buck teeth into any bit of flesh he could get a grip on.

“Angel!” Fluttershy said, catching him in mid-jump. She held the madly struggling bunny in her hooves as she flew to her cottage. “That is not proper hospitality! And after Mr. Lero was concerned about your health. How shameful!”

Angel squeaked out promises of physically impossible acts of violence, shaking a tiny fist at Lero. Lero tried to be an adult about it and focus solely on his work, but he could barely suppress his grin.

“I’m sorry about Angel,” Fluttershy said. Lero filled the hole with concrete, made with magically altered cement that would completely harden in thirty minutes after mixing with water. “He can be a little testy sometimes.”

“I don’t know any rabbit like him,” Lero said. “Most of the animals here are afraid of me anyway, so it’s strange to me that one little bunny is so antagonistic.”

“Oh, he’s a real delight once you get to know him,” Fluttershy said. Lero decided not to respond to that.

Lero pushed the poles into the cement, while Fluttershy held up braces to keep them straight. Lero checked the poles with a spirit lever, and found it good. Considering they had to wait for the cement to harden before he could began nailing on the planks, Fluttershy decided it was a good time to break for a snack.

She brought out a basket with apples, an orange for Lero, toast, and goat cheese. Lero tore the peel off the orange and bit into it, while Fluttershy manipulated her wings to spread cheese on her slices of a granny smith apple, taking bites in-between conversation.

“Fluttershy, how’s your paper going?”

“Oh, it’s finished,” Fluttershy said. “I named it ‘Survival Culture in Breezy Migrations’. It’s not a terribly exciting name, is it?”

“No, it’s good. It gets the point across.”

“Thank you. I wanted to mail it to the Zoological Academy today, but with heat season starting I may not get to send it off. Everything shuts down.”

“I noticed. You know, I’ve read about some of Professor Elite Key’s work,” Lero said, naming Fluttershy’s teacher. “You were actually mentioned by name in a science journal.”

“Oh, you must be talking about New Perspectives in Magical Evolutionary Metabiology.”

“Yes,” Lero said. He turned to Fluttershy and smiled. “I didn’t know you were referred to as one of ‘Elite Key’s Angels’.”

Fluttershy blushed and ducked her head, and Lero couldn’t help but smile at the adorableness.

“Oh, I wish they wouldn’t call us that,” Fluttershy said, referring to herself and two other colleagues who were also students of Elite Key. They all studied the animal species in the Everfree, though from different areas and different disciplines. Fluttershy specialized in behaviorism. “It’s embarrassing. I’m just another animal lover.”

“With a doctorate and articles published in professional journals.”

Fluttershy blushed again, and Lero chuckled. He bit into his toast.

“I studied a little biology when I was in college,” Lero said. “I’m able to pick up on some of the basic similarities between evolution on both of our worlds, but your field is so rarified that I have trouble wrapping my head around it. I need the layman’s version to even hope to understand.”

“I’m sorry Lero,” Fluttershy said, extending a wing to lightly pat him on the shoulder. “I guess I do write in a lot of technical jargon.”

“It’s fine. You’re a professional.”

“I really enjoy talking to you about the similarities and differences, though,” Fluttershy said with a smile. “Besides, exobiology was a purely imaginary discipline before you showed up.”

“I’m glad I was of some service to science.” Lero said with a raised eyebrow.

“What was most interesting to me was how similar your species and my own are to each other. We used to think we were the only mammals that can cool down solely by sweating, but here you come along and prove that wrong. Also, like pony stallions, human stallions don’t have a baculum, which is completely different than other primates here. And then there’s the similarities in how our societies are set up. There are obvious differences, of course, but all of it is just so fascinating.”

Lero had to smile at Fluttershy’s enthusiasm. Here was a side to her she rarely showed even to her closest friends, but she was so easy and free with him. He was actually touched by it, and Lero made sure he’d do nothing to betray their friendship. After all, he thought, she’s the one that found me.

They finished their snack, and went back to putting up the fence.

Lero, dirty and sweaty, accepted Fluttershy’s offer of taking a bath. They were in her bathroom, Lero sitting on a cedar stool while he scrubbed shampoo into his hair. Fluttershy used a sponge, looped around her wing, to wash his back.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but admire Lero’s body. It was just so aesthetically pleasing. The way those muscles all worked together, joining and stretching, were a real sight to see. His body had this wonderful pleasing shape, like an arrow pointing down, from his broad shoulders narrowing into his hips. Even his penis was pointy, and it added to this sort of arrow effect. This all rested on those strong sturdy legs that carried him so effortlessly, so gracefully, with lines of bone and sinew intersecting like perfect geometry.

Legs his people used to run prey down to exhaustion, she thought. Persistence predators, his species. She could only imagine some little pony (did they eat ponies where he’s from? She couldn’t remember), crying, running as fast as it could, begging these tall bipeds to stop chasing it. Then, the collapse from exhaustion, pleading not to be eaten, only to die at the hands of these monstrous pursuers would never, ever stop running, and never, ever tire out.

Lero would die before he’d ever hurt a pony, Fluttershy thought, moving the soapy sponge to his armpits, smiling at his chuckle at the soft feeling. Yes, he certainly had an aesthetically pleasing body, but more important than that was their friendship. This body-shy human, who always wore clothes in public, loved and trusted her enough to be naked in front of her, to be at what he considered his most vulnerable, and not even show the slightest fear or hesitation. She couldn’t help but feel happy at this.

“N-now!” Bon Bon grunted. Lyra, thrusting away, bit into the pump and squirted the salt water mixture into Bon Bon. It hit, and she moaned, a moan more of desperation than joy.

Lyra held onto Bon Bon’s withers, her friend below her thrusting back into her cooler. Even though Lyra’s mouth was currently full of the air bladder she was rhythmically squeezing, she was still able to form a mischievous smile. She slowed down pumping the bladder as Bon Bon winded down.

“Okay Lyra, I’m about-”

With her horn lighting up, Lyra magically tugged Bon Bon’s mane. She gasped, and when Lyra squeezed the bladder again, no cooler mixture came out. Bon Bon launched into another orgasm.

It died down, and Bon Bon struggled to get out from Lyra’s hold. “Lyra, don’t you dare do anything, I can’t take any more.” Lyra hopped off as Bon Bon staggered away, collapsing on the tile floor of the kitchen. She was breathing heavily, mindlessly rolling on her back with her legs splayed in the air, trying to force some coolness out of the floor into her body. Salt water and her own fluids leaked out of her vagina, dribbling down her vulva and anus before hitting her dock and separating into two canals.

She raised her head to look through her legs, and angrily surveyed Lyra. “I need to be cooled down, not turned on. That mane pulling stunt made it worse.”

“I’m sorry Bonnie,” Lyra said. Her voice trembled with true apology, and it took Bon Bon by surprise.

“Hey, it happens,” Bon Bon said. She rolled onto her side and smiled at Lyra. “You’re in heat, too. Even you don’t think too clearly when in heat. And here I am having you bang away at me like a stallion. How are you dealing with yours?”

Lyra smiled. “It’s fine. I meditated this morning to clear my head. My heat is fortunately not very strong this time.”

A mischievous smile matching Lyra’s washed across Bon Bon’s muzzle. “Well, of course you’re fine. You have an ‘alien sex god’ at home.”

Lyra slowly closed her eyes, and let out a long, meditative sigh. “I was hoping everyone would forget about that.”

“Not on your life. You and Dash were so smashed that day.”

“That Applejack cider.”

“Sure, blame it on that,” Bon Bon said. “I mean, your herd is more secretive than normal about sex, not even jokes, you know. And then, a couple of drinks later, and we end up hearing about the most amazing sexual activity.”

“This is terrible.” Lyra shook her head. “I can’t even remember what we said.”

“It wasn’t a lot, but what we heard? Wooo,” Bon Bon said. “Dash mentioned that Lero was able to get her off ten times, after some of the pegasi were arguing that more than two wasn’t possible. You chimed in that he once got all three of you off at the same time-”

Lyra cringed.

“-using his hands, and that’s when you called him an alien sex god. Twilight swooped in at that moment and ushered you two out. Lyes, her face was so red.”

Lyra buried her face in her hooves, and Bon Bon giggled. “Sorry Lyes. I was getting back at you for pulling my mane. It’s not as bad as you feel it is, I promise.”

“It is bad,” Lyra said. “I betrayed his trust. I hope he never finds out what was said. I’d be so ashamed.” I’m ashamed now, Lyra thought. One moment of weakness…

“I thought it was great, frankly. I’m really happy for you, you know, that you’re, uh… serviced so well. At the very least, it shut up some gossipy mares.”

Lyra’s eyes looked soft and hazy, but Bon Bon could detect the steel. “Who?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just some dumb mares making up stories, showing mock pity for the herd that has this weird looking monkey – their words, not mine. Then they hear what this ‘weird looking monkey’ can do with a mare, and well,” Bon Bon zipped a hoof across her muzzle. “No more disrespect.”

“So the whole town knows. Great.”

“Oh, it’s just some pegasi talking about it. You know how they are. Hmm, that was tribalist, wasn’t it?”

“I’m married to a pegasus. Don’t worry, I know what you mean.”

“And don’t worry about Lero finding out. It would upset him, and upsetting him means dealing with an angry Rainbow Dash.”

“Thanks for the reassurance.” Lyra took a slow breath, and released, letting the negative feelings fly away. She felt better, though only a little. “How’re you feeling right now?”

Bon Bon sighed. “This is absolutely the worst heat I’ve ever had. I’m miserable right now. Hey, could you take your cooler off? It’s distracting.”

Lyra magically unhooked the straps that attached her cooler, and floated it to the kitchen sink. She levitated a rag out of her saddlebag, wetted it, and ran it down the length of the shaft. Bon Bon couldn’t help but watch, biting her lower lip and rubbing her rear hooves together. Her reaction didn’t go unnoticed by Lyra.

“I really did mess it up, didn’t I?”

Bon Bon shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I imagine you haven’t had to use a cooler in long while. We have all week, anyway.” She turned her head away as Lyra filled the chamber, located where the testicles would be on a stallion, with the salt water mixture.

“I could tell this was a bad heat,” Lyra said, putting the cooler into the saddlebag. “You were clenching pretty hard against my cooler. That’s couldn’t have been comfortable.”

“Yeah,” Bon Bon said. Her eyebrows shot up, and she shut her eyes, letting out a long groan of disgust. “College,” she spat out. “Remember?”

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “You’ve clearly dug up a repressed memory.”

Bon Bon looked up, her pain apparent. “Briny Mirth.”

Lyra’s face fell flat as she attempted to calm herself. She closed her eyes and launched into a mantra. “With balance I have origin, with balance I have affinity.”

“Remember her party tricks?”

Lyra sighed as her meditation was annihilated. “I was trying not to remember.”

Bon Bon let out a choked laugh. “It’s not good enough I have to suffer. You need to come down with me.”

Briny Mirth, an earth pony they knew from parties the two attended during their college years, her cutie mark being a red clam, its shell slightly parted. One time, during a particularly long, drunken, and raucous party, Briny Mirth demanded everyone’s attention, and, taking a meter long rope, instructed a nearby pony to place only the tip into her vagina.

Using only her vaginal muscles, Briny Mirth pulled the entire length of rope into into her canal. Shocked stares and a sarcastically clapping Berry Punch accompanied the trick.

“Wait,” Briny said, intense concentration on her face. A minute later and she birthed the rope, but this time, it was tied in knots.

“That was an interesting trick,” Lyra said. “I wonder if that was her special talent.”

“Oh, I absolutely hope not,” Bon Bon said. “Could you imagine that being your special ability? Idiotically strong vaginal muscles? What’s the point?”

Lyra grinned. “I’ll never forget the stallions’ reactions. It was like synchronized erections.”

“Ha!” Bon Bon let out. “What really got them was when she crushed that steel rod immediately after. Every single penis went straight back into their sheaths. I couldn’t stop laughing.”

They both shared a laugh, and shortly became serious.

“They never found out who set the house on fire, did they?”

“I don’t think so,” Bon Bon said. She sighed, shakily standing up. “Blast it Lyra, I need to go again. We don’t need to talk about penises and clenching vaginas for the rest of the week.”

Lyra smiled. “I’m afraid we’re not going to be able to stop it. I can help you meditate through it, though.”

“Afterwards,” Bon Bon said, pointing her rump at Lyra and lifting her tail. Lyra used her magic to lift the cooler out of the saddlebag, and strapped it on.

Lero walked home through the deserted streets of Ponyville, feeling refreshed and clean and ready to take on whatever Lyra and Rainbow threw at him. It was easier now with just those two, since Twilight, being an alicorn, didn’t go into heat anymore. In the past, when he knew heat season was coming up, he’d start running every morning to build up his stamina, since cooling down three mares all week took every last bit of energy he could spare. That was no longer needed.

He passed through the Ponyville bazaar, the stands shuttered, and the absences of wheeling and dealing allowing him to hear the wind blow through the empty alleyways. He liked Ponyville like this, like it was deserted and he was the last man on earth – well, he technically was, but that wasn’t the point.

He turned a corner and was surprised to see a pony out. Berry Punch, lying on the bench in front of the fountain, a splotch of royal purple breaking up the pale yellow of the pine bench. He counted at least five whiskey bottles sitting up-right on the ground. Is she really drinking in public? Lero thought.

“Ms. Punch,” Lero said, smiling in greeting.

Berry Punch waved. “Hi there, Mr. Lero. Looking for stalls to rob?”

“Not today. I just got back from helping out Fluttershy. With a fence.” He stood in front of the immodestly reposed Berry. “What are you doing out here?”

“Taking advantage of heat season,” Berry said. “Everypony’s inside, so I can go out and drink in public and no one is around to yell at me or fine me or whatever. I get a thrill out of it. Don’t judge me.”

“I’m not,” Lero said with a laugh. “So, the um… the heat doesn’t bother you?”

Berry Punch scoffed and airily waved his question away with a swirl of her hoof. “I don’t go into estrus. Only weak-minded mares do that.” Like prophecy, as if it was foreordained after such an absurd boast, Lero’s sight was blasted with shy pink hiding behind purple, and like a hand closing, the pink disappeared. Berry Punch’s vulva had winked at him.

“You didn’t see that,” Berry said. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Mine aren’t, apparently,” Berry said. Her vulva winked again. “Whoops. Let’s pretend I never said anything about weak-willed mares.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

Lero had been winked at before by mares in heat, and not just the mares in his own herd. Most of the time, the mare that winked had been apologetic that it happened, giving him their ‘I’m sorry’ with bowed head and blushing face. Only one mare actually meant it, and expected him to respond in the affirmative, some unicorn mare in Canterlot. However, she wasn’t actually in heat. Dash was utterly furious with the disrespect shown toward Lero, and it took Lyra and Twilight to stop her from pounding the mare into paste. Berry, though, was the first mare to wink at him that didn’t seem to care that she was doing it, or that her body was betraying her urges in this way. She wasn’t even blushing.

Lero, of course, had been embarrassed the first time a strange mare winked at him. He couldn’t stop blushing, and even felt ashamed that it had happened. There was so much to get used to in this new world, and a mare’s vulvar winking was something he never thought he’d see. Rainbow Dash, and Twilight especially, had helped him come to an understanding and even tolerance of it.

“A mare in heat can’t really help it, Lero,” Twilight had told him. “The second most mortifying experience of my life was during my third heat, when I winked at my dad. I was so embarrassed. So totally ashamed. I didn’t come out of my room for a week.”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Did you-know-who give you grief over it?”

“Oh no, dad didn’t tell anyone. They had no idea why I wouldn’t come out of my room. But, I leaned that it was actually a fairly normal experience for a filly. I mean, the herd fathers are the stallions she’s around the most. Fortunately, it never happened again.”

Twilight had told him that years ago, and Lero had since learned to control his reactions. No need to further upset a mare by getting embarrassed by her natural bodily reactions. He’d just nod and smile and say, “That’s fine, you didn’t offend me.” Yet, here was Berry Punch, completely indifferent to what had just happened.

Berry proffered a half-empty bottle. “Want a drink?”

“No thanks,” he said. He smiled and nodded his head. “I’m going now. Be good.”

Berry saluted. “Thanks, but I have other plans,” she said to his retreating form. “Hey Lero!”

Lero turned around.

“Guess what I use the empty bottles for?” She put on a lascivious smile, licked her lips, and once again, winked her vulva.

This time, Lero couldn’t help but let his jaw drop. His face reddened.

“I turn them in for a refund,” Berry said. “Why, what were you thinking? You’re a pervert, Lero.”

Lero shook his head. “Bye, Berry.”

“I’m telling everypony,” Berry shouted, and Lero sighed. Years ago, barely a month after he arrived in Equestria, Rainbow Dash pointed out Berry Punch, from a distance, as the “town troublemaker.” Berry had yet to betray that label.

Well, he’s still Lero, Berry thought. She sighed, and rolled over on her back. She stretched a hoof and grabbed a bottle, biting out the cork and spitting it on the ground. She held the bottle straight up and took a long swig, thinking about Ponyville.

Something has to be done.

Rainbow Dash pushed against the rapidly growing cloudwall, ready to redirect the errant cold blast to the Everfree. Her crew, despite dealing with the opening of Ponyville’s heat season and its distractions, worked steadily to build up the system that would redirect the cold.

With a flap of her wings and a push of her hooves, Rainbow folded the mist into the cloud. Her eyes were closed as she concentrated on pushing until there was no more give. A shoddily made cloudwall would just fall apart under a cold front, and that wasn’t going to happen on her watch. The cloud was sufficiently hard, so she opened her eyes. Down below, in the deserted streets of Ponyville, walked Lero.

My Lero, Dash thought, with a surprising amount of possessiveness. That wonderful way he walked, with those beautiful muscles working under his clothes. She could imagine those muscles now, holding her, his fresh skin pressed against her coat, his closely trimmed body hair, how it felt roughly against her own fur as his silken naked flesh rubbed between her hips, how that delicious contrast drove her to ecstasy. Those wonderful marathon sessions, so long and so hard oh that the ceiling in that tight little room would swirl with mist. Her tail twitched.

Oh great, she thought.

Behind her, Flitter snickered like a dying wind-up toy. “I’d say our boss just got hit.”

Beck Dell laughed. “I’d love to make you whinny, Dash, but I’m pretty sure that wink wasn’t meant for me.”

“Of course it wasn’t!” Dash said, reeling behind her. She took a breath to calm herself. “Sorry Dell, I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Beck Dell said with a grin. “Just how it goes. I was pushing it, anyway.”

“Alright, let’s get this… stupid thing finished so we can all go home. Move!”

“You can take off if you want, boss,” Flitter said.

“No way. I’m not going to have you mares work while I get cooled down. We’re in this together.”

Dash, her end goal so close in mind, kept a tight grip on her mares as they bogged down into heated distraction. Despite the problems, they got it done.

Dash did a final inspection, forcing herself to slow down to make sure everything was set up right. The mares stood off to the side, a mass of rear hooves rubbing together, hips quivering, and tails twitching. Poor Dizzy Twister actually moaned, and it looked like Cloudchaser was going into a pant.

“It’s good! Everyone can go now!”

The mares burst from the gathering, shouting “good bye” and “see you next week.” Several flew into the town below, flying into their houses without even touching the ground. Others went to their cloud homes, where their respective herds were waiting.

Flitter and Beck Dell flew down to Ponyville. Beck Dell pointed out Dash rushing through Lero’s door, and grinned.

“Ten times,” she said.

Flitter could only shake her head, mixing amazement with disagreement. Two times, frankly, was more than enough, she thought. Ten times was terrifying to contemplate, and only a total freak would want that many, anyway. She respected her boss, sure, but Dash was definitely that freak.

“I sort of wish that herd would let Lero out as a cooler,” Beck Dell said. “Considering he can’t make kids. I’d love to try him for a ride.”

Flitter gasped in astonishment. That a herd would let their stallion be used as a cooler for other mares was something only done in the old days, when castration was considered a viable form of punishment for disobedient stallions, or in very isolated communities – it was frowned upon now. Flitter also thought Lero unattractive, and so would never consider him for mating, cooler or otherwise. More astonishing to Flitter, though, was who was making the suggestion.

“But you don’t even like stallions!”

“Yeah, but ten times? No mare’s that bent.”

Lero entered his house after having dropped off his tools at the shed. He scraped off his work boots before entering the living room, and made his way to the lavoratory – a literal lavoratory, since the bath was separate from the toilet in pony houses.

(“Why do you have the toilet inside the house?” Dash asked him, when looking at the remodeling plans.

“It’s convenient,” Lero said.

“But what about the smell?”

“Unlike a pony, human waste doesn’t stink, but actually smells like apple pie.”

Dash knew better than to believe that, and gave him a good poke in the ribs.)

He stood at the toilet, leaving the door open out of habit, because he knew Lyra liked watching him pee.

(“He pees standing up,” Lyra said. “Mares have to squat, and stallions have to move their body in line with their aim, but he can actually control the angle and trajectory with just one hand. It could go anywhere he pleases. Urination isn’t in charge of him; he’s in charge of it. His stream is like an arc of transcendence.”

“You’re a weird pony,” Dash said.)

He finished washing his hands, and stepped out of the room just in time to catch Spike walking by with a glass pitcher of tea.

“I’m stealing your tea,” Spike said, his reptile eyes blinking.

“Enjoy,” Lero said. “Going back to the library?”

“Of course,” Spike said. “I don’t want to be here when Dash or Lyra show up.” He cringed. “Mammals.”

Lero laughed.

Twilight came in shortly afterwards, putting her cooler case in the closet after helping out Cheerilee and Pinkie Pie that morning. Lero rested on his bed, a little mellow from that relaxing bath with Fluttershy. Twilight lay on top of him, giving happy hums as he stroked her mane and back.

“You smell nice,” Twilight remarked, giving him a sniff. “Like Fluttershy.”

“Violets,” Lero said. “The soap she uses.”

“It’s cute that you let her bathe you.”

“I’m just another one of her animals,” Lero said with a chuckle. “How goes your new ‘Ponyville Estrus Season Cooling Initiative’?”

“It’s a bust,” Twilight said. “I’m afraid most of the mares are too intimidated by the whole princess thing. I mean, everyone here already knows me from before my ascension, so why would the title matter? Am I really so different?”

“Well, I’m proud of you for trying to help out,” Lero said. His hand wandered from the back of her neck down to between her wings, and they were semi-stiff. Unlike Dash, who decided that any hint of sexual arousal meant building up to sex, Twilight was able to enjoy the feeling on its own. “You ever miss heat?”

“Heavens no,” Twilight said. “It was always such a pain. I’d have to deal with biological imperatives when I’m trying to study or do research. I tried developing a spell to get rid of it, but no such luck. It’s like its own force that refuses to be stopped, one of those rare transmagical forms that resist attempts to interfere with it. I don’t miss having it.”

“Would Anti-Broad have enough power to destroy it?” Anti-Broad was a powerful unicorn mystic that the Elements of Harmony had to best in combat. His mad quest was to destroy universal forms, and he had started off by annihilating the form of doomaflatchie.

(“What’s a doomaflatchie?” Lero asked, after the battle was over.

“We don’t know,” Twilight said, sadly. “When he destroyed its form, the destruction was apparently retroactive. No one remembers what it was. He was about to destroy the form of doorknobs before we stopped him.”

“I guess his dictionary only started with ‘D’,” Lero said, and Twilight had a well-deserved laugh.)

“I’m not sure,” Twilight said, squinting in thought. “His was such a weird power, nothing like it.”

“Just as well,” Lero said. “Dash loooves heat.”

Twilight snorted. “Probably the only mare in history that does.”

“I always had to be very, very gentle with you.”

“Yes, especially after that scare,” Twilight said. She pecked him on the lips. “That magic climax I had that made me a closed circuit for orgone feedback. Gosh, I slept for a week after that. At least I learned that too much pleasure can be just as bad as pain.”

“I was scared out of my wits,” Lero said. “I was afraid you had a stroke.” Twilight could feel a slight tremble in his body. She spread her wings around him protectively and nuzzled his neck.

“Everything’s okay, Lero,” She said gently. “That’s was very quick thinking, contacting Cadance.”

“Well... I figured if anyone knew what to do in that, um, sort of situation, it would be her.” Twilight felt his body shift, as if trying to hide under her. “It was... well, I was very embarrassed to have to get her to help with that.”

Twilight lifted her head to look into his hazel eyes, and gently touched his face with her hooves. “Oh Lero, I promise you Cadance was in no way embarrassed or ashamed.”

“I know,” Lero said. “There’s a lot of things I know that I tell myself, but, for some reason, my body doesn’t really pay attention.”

“That was heat for me,” Twilight said. Lero’s hands drifted down the length of her body, and Twilight wiggled her rump a little as he kneaded her soft, tight flanks. She hummed happily, and his hands traveled back up to her neck.

“How do you put up with heat?” Twilight asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Putting up with three bossy, needy, aroused mares for a week. You never complained about it.”

“I was gladly performing my duty,” Lero said with a smile. “I love you guys more than I could ever explain. I was happy to help.”

“Thank you, Lero,” Twi said, planting a tiny, lingering kiss on his lips. “I mean, I know you aren’t naturally attracted to us mares. It’s something I noticed when you first got here. I was wondering about your sexual needs, but you never showed any sign of wanting to mate with a pony. Don’t deny it.” She placed the tip of her hoof on his lips. “You avoided looking at our back parts, and there was more than just modesty there. You didn’t like what you saw.”

“I’m not sure what to say here,” Lero said. “Sure, I don’t go around looking at pony butts, but you three are the sexiest females of any species I know.”

Twilight giggled. “That’s love blinding you. What do you think, anyway? I mean, the first time you saw mare bits.”

Lero coughed. “Well, the anus sort of looked like someone stuck their finger in a burnt marshmallow.”

Twi gasped and swatted him. “Oh please! There’s only one po—person I know that actually has fingers to go around sticking them in butts!”

“Spike?”

“You! Don’t drag the innocent into this.”

“Yes, it was me,” Lero said, grinning. “It was always me. A long time ago I was camping in a forest, trying to make s’mores. A herd of ponies came by, attracted by the smell of chocolaty goodness.

“‘Would you little ponies like some s’mores?’ I asked.

“‘We would, mister, but we can’t eat. We just get tummy aches, because we can’t poop!’ and with that, they turned around and lifted their tails. Sure enough, they didn’t have any buttholes!

"‘Don’t worry,’ the kind genius – that’s me – said to them. ‘I’ll take care of that.’ And so Lero burned marshmallows and stuck them to their backsides, making sure to poke in a little hole with his finger. And with that, the little ponies were able to eat and not get tummy aches, because now they could poop. And that’s how Equestria was made.”

Twilight couldn't hold back her laughter, her body vibrating with loud joy. Lero smiled and chuckled with her.

“That’s so ridiculous!” Twilight said. “It’s like those Because I Said So stories, like how a zebra got its stripes. Where on Equestria did you come up with that?”

“Oh, it actually happened,” Lero said. “How did a zebra get its stripes?”

Twilight’s laughing face turned to a frown as she tried to dredge up the story. “You know what? That story’s kind of racist.”

Lero’s front door slammed open so hard it shook the house. Not even a microsecond later did the bedroom door fling open, exposing a wild-eyed Dash viewing the scene with disbelief.

“Twi, get your princessy purple butt off my stallion. I got needs, sister.”

Twilight snickered, kissed Lero, and hopped off. “Have at it.”

“Alright!” Dash hopped on his bed, bit the waistband of his jeans, and started tugging.

And so it begins, Lero thought, sitting up to take off his shirt. He wasn't really in the mood, still feeling mellow and relaxed from the bath, and wanting to keep playing with Twilight, but like hell he was going to let Dash down in her time of need.

Lyra trotted in, and deflated. “Looks like I’m late.”

“Give me a minute,” Dash said. “Two minutes. That’s all I need. Then he’s all yours.”

“And once again, I’m just a piece of meat to be traded between mares,” Lero said.

“Ha!” Dash said, after tossing his pants on the floor. “You know it. And don’t act like you don’t like it, because I know you do.”

Lero smiled. He couldn’t deny it.