Fourteen years ago

The silence was absolute.

Cemeteries were always quiet, Star had found. Some ponies called it peaceful, and prosed at one another about the truths that were spoken in silence, and how it was respectful to the departed to maintain this artificial lack of noise. It was a convenient lie to calm the abject horror of a place where the living could so casually stride amongst the ranks of the dead, but somehow, perhaps by sheer force of will, that lie had managed to summon a silence so profound, so absolute, that even the local wildlife had come to abide by it.

The only thing to break the unspoken rule was the wind. As she stood at the edge of a patch of freshly turned earth, Star could hear the endless whisper of leaves amongst the branches of a lonesome sycamore somewhere to her left, and the rustle of the long grass all around as it danced in the breeze.

It should have been raining. It should have been blazing sunlight. Anything, anything other than the oppressive grey sky that lay overcast and featureless above, stealing shadows and light, and turning everything around Star to the same monotonous, lifeless flat parody of the living world.

The grave before her was bare, unadorned but for a simple headstone. Two dates. A name. A single bunch of flowers lay on the freshly turned earth, their petals just starting to wilt. Who had placed them there Star could only guess, though they bore no card or label to confirm it. She knew who it hadn't been.

She had wanted to speak, but there weren't any words. She'd wanted to pour herself out on the dark, rich soil that lay over her friend, her mentor for so many more years than she could count. Instead she'd left a simple white card nestled on the flowers.

"Indy..."

Star bit her lip and turned her face from the grave. There was nothing she could say, and nobody to hear it. She lifted the card she had left and held it up to the dull light, staring at the pointless message she'd scrawled on it on her way to the cemetery that morning. Her eyes traced the words. A farewell, to innocent eyes. To her own it was a confession, perhaps, of feelings and truths neither had been willing to discuss even on those dark, humid nights in the midst of an empty wilderness when they'd shared so much.

Instead she sang, though her voice barely rose above a croaked whisper, and moved her body back and forth to a rhythm that had haunted her from the first beat. It was a song without words, without rhyme, but filled with longing and loss and the wish for a future that could never be seen.

No tears fell when she closed her eyes to the card, nor when the wave of heat and light fell against her face. When she opened them again the card was gone, reduced to ash and smoke that drifted away on the wind, to be lost amongst the swaying grass and restless trees.

Then there was only the oppressive silence, the 'respect' for those who could never know it. Star had to bite back on the urge to shout, to yell obscenities at the empty place and the lifeless husk that lay beneath her hooves. Instead she stood and stared at the grave, and thought about the colleagues that had abandoned Path at the last, pushing her very existence from their collective mind even as they had installed Star as her replacement.

How long she stood and watched, Star wasn't sure. It was only the rising sound of hooves on turf that let her know time had passed at all; the sun had fallen by nearly an hour when she looked toward it.

"I'm surprised to see you here," she said, turning her head toward Twilight Velvet, as the latter joined her at the side of the grave. "Or maybe I shouldn't be. You always did enjoy gloating over my misery."

The jibe seemed to hit home, if the tightening of Twilight's jaw was any indication. She closed her eyes and took a sharp breath through her nose.

"You can't go a single moment without some sort of insult, can you?"

"It was merely an observation."

"Even so." Twilight Velvet shook her head. When her eyes opened they seemed diminished, somehow. Dull. Empty. "I don't want to fight with you, Star. Not today."

"As if we ever have a choice."

In the silence, the respectful emptiness that followed, Star felt her eyes dragging back to the stone. She chewed at her lips and forced herself to look away.

"Why are you really here, Twilight? You barely knew her. They knew her better, as if that made all of a damned difference." Star's mouth felt thick and dry. She swallowed, trying to moisten it, and turned back to the grave. "Not one of them came, you know. None of them will ever admit it, but they shut her out when she retired. She showed them up for the lazy, good-for-nothing wafflers they were, so the moment her tenure ended she was shuffled out and left to rot. Yesterday's rubbish. It didn't matter how much she'd achieved in her career. Do you understand that? It didn't matter! One tiny little mistake and she's gone, wiped out. Ignored for the rest of her life. Left to be buried by her niece and her sister, who'll probably be lying next to her in a few months from the look of her."

Now the tears came, hot and fast, staining her cheeks like the rain that should rightly be falling to hide them. Star scrubbed at her face and tried to blink them away before they could become too obvious.

"She gave everything to that place."

"Star..."

"It would have been better if she'd died in that bloody rockslide. At least then she'd be remembered!"

"This isn't—"

"Why are you here!"

Star was breathing ragged and loud as she whirled on Twilight, eyes wide, no longer caring about her tears, nor the way Twilight flinched away from her glare.

"Tell me, for Celestia's sake, why you can't just let me be for once in my life?"

It was only a little sound that Twilight made in response, a tiny, indrawn breath, but it was enough to catch Star's attention. When she turned to look, she found Twilight trying and failing to hold her mouth still; the quiver of her lip and the tremble of her jaw was impossible to hide.

"I came for you, Star." Her head shook tightly, barely moving, and she looked away and swallowed once, twice, before speaking again. "I came to—"

"A graveside reconciliation, is that what you're after?" Star snorted. The heat that filled her face and chest seemed almost enough to dry her eyes. "You've spent too long in your fantasy stories."

"That's rich coming from a pony who spends so much time living in the past that she didn't even see her daughter find her mark!"

Star tore her eyes from the grave and rounded on Twilight, unable to halt the tremor across her withers. "I'm not the one who sent my daughter off to be one of Princess Celestia's perpetual virgin students! She'll either go crazy, or die childless, or disappear to Celestia herself knows where, and then what happens?"

"It's her own choice."

"She's still a foal!"

Twilight's snout rose just a fraction. She closed her eyes and took a shallow breath. "You gave up the right to choose how she was raised when you abandoned her to chase after your stupid fantasy of a lost city. I came here because I thought you might finally be ready to take some responsibility for your actions. Obviously I was wrong."

"For the love of... Twilight—"

"No, I've had enough," Twilight declared as she walked away. She didn't even look back at Star, or turn to make her voice clearer. She just raised it instead. "I'll be at home, looking after your child."

"Wait!"

To Star's surprise, Twilight actually stopped. She turned her head, one foreleg raised to her chest as she twisted to look over her shoulder, but if Star had expected any sort of welcome in her expression she was sorely disappointed. Twilight's eyes remained as cold as ever.

"The Princess wants to see you. Tomorrow. She has offered the courtesy of asking your personal permission to continue tutoring Twilight, though heavens know she doesn't need it." Twilight Velvet's ears had rolled back against her head. She made no effort to lift them again. Every muscle in her body stood stark and tense beneath her coat. "If you're as smart as you claim, you'll give it to her."

Then she turned and walked from the cemetery without another word.

Despite her family ties, her growing status and the demands of her work, Star had never visited the Royal palace. She knew Lucent spent a great deal of time at the Royal Court, part of the obligation of his title she presumed, but he never took any of the rest of their herd with him. Except for Crincile, who shared his title and also had the right to enter by her own family name.

Of course, the institution of government was far larger than the palace. The closest Star ever came to that particular building was an occasional visit to the Royal Archive, or to Martingale House just beyond the palace walls on the rare occasion when she had to deliver briefings to Foreign Ministry staff. Even that was unusual: normally they came to her, to sit in one of her lecture halls and listen attentively like any other student, and Celestia help them if they interrupted before she was finished.

Now she was in the palace itself, in a private garden that few other than Celestia's personal staff and closest advisors ever saw, all because of the events of a single day, and a filly with ambition and the power to match it. She hadn't been summoned anywhere for years. It was actually quite a novel experience.

Guards stood in silence around the garden, barely visible among the trees and hedges. In fact they might as well have been statues; they hadn't moved for the entire time Star had waited there, not even to look at her as she walked around. Once or twice she'd tried to catch one out, looking away and then peeking back to see if their eyes followed her. She'd not managed it yet.

After a few more minutes of waiting she gave up and hauled herself from the bench she'd been resting on, Star trotted to the nearest guard and looked up at his impassive face.

"My son wants to be one of you one day," she said. The guard didn't reply. He didn't even twitch. "Frankly I can't imagine he'd be able to stand still long enough. Or keep his mouth shut for that matter."

She leaned closer to the guard, examining his face and coat. There were persistent rumours that Celestia's guard wore enchanted armour to disguise their forms and make them all look the same, but any pony with an ounce of magic in their bones would be able to feel an enchantment of that sort as soon as they were close enough. As she stood close to this particular stallion, all Star could sense was the warmth of his skin, and the smell of polish and wax and musky sweat.

"You've been out in the sun too long," she said with a sniff, and then turned away. Before she was even a few steps away she heard a discreet snuffling. Star smiled to herself. Apparently they were ponies after all.

Another guard was standing by the bench, though Star hadn't heard his arrival. He waited impassively for her to approach before bowing his head in greeting.

"Oh, so you can move as well," she grunted. The guard – a captain by the colour of his uniform – responded with a tight, humourless smile.

"And speak too, ma'am." His voice was quiet, but firm and impossible to ignore. He held a hoof toward a grand porch a little further along the garden. "Her majesty wished to express her deepest apologies for the delay. She shall accept you presently in the Celestial Court."

After another bow, the Captain turned smartly on his hind legs and marched away. Star had little choice but to follow.

From the sun-soaked garden, Star was guided through a dim atrium and along a corridor. It was only a short walk to the Court, which surprised Star; the circuitous route she had taken to the garden had made her believe she was a great distance from the core of the palace. She wondered if the deception was deliberate.

The doors were open when they arrived, though the guards at either side formed as impenetrable a barrier as any lump of wood and iron. The crowd milling in the reception watched Star with envy and curiosity as she and her escort strolled past and into the room beyond.

The Celestial Court was light and airy, and pleasantly cool despite the overheated summer. Vents around the edges of the court's vaulted roof were open wide, drawing a slight, yet steady flow of air from grilles set in the floor around the walls. Most of the denizens milling the court had clustered over the vents to enjoy the cooling breeze as they conversed on matters far beyond the interest of the common pony. Few paid attention to Star. Many kept their eyes on the throne and its occupant, who conversed quietly with a young mare in the livery of the palace staff.

A mare to her right mumbled inanities to her companions as Star passed by, a nattering courtesan worth little attention at first. Though when Star caught the words 'adorable' and 'filly' her interest grew. She slowed, staring at the trio who had muttered the words, before following the line of their sight back to the throne.

Star's heart froze in her chest. At the foot of the throne, close to Princess Celestia's golden shoes, lay the form of a sleeping filly. It was Twilight. A stuffed toy was clutched in her hooves, the same ratty little thing that had arrived from heavens only knew where, but which over the years had become her firm favourite.

Celestia finally looked up as Star approached the foot of the dais. She smiled warmly and stepped from her throne, careful to avoid the pillow that lay close to Twilight's head, and descended toward Star with her wings raised.

"Professor Sparkle. I am pleased that you could come at such short notice," she said, bowing her head just a fraction. "Given your recent loss I would have understood had you chosen to postpone our meeting."

"Anything to get a day off work." Star paused and then allowed her head to bow in return. "Your Highness."

"Of course," Celestia replied. She raised her head to look over the room. With the smile never leaving her face, Celestia nodded to the mare she had been conversing with, then returned to her throne.

A moment passed in which nothing seemed to change, but then the sound of conversation began to grow and twist. Star watched as servants quietly visited the knots and clusters of ponies standing around the court, breaking them up with whispered exhortations and encouragements and ushering them toward the doors.

Celestia watched the crowd as they left, and Star watched Celestia. The serene expression the Princess wore never once wavered, not even when the last of the groups had left. The doors closed, leaving Star, Celestia and young Twilight alone in the echoing emptiness of the throne room.

Finally, Celestia let out a sigh and lowered her wings. "These are wonderful ponies, but their constant presence can be sometimes grating. Leadership is a never-ending trial, is it not?"

"I wouldn't know," Star replied, edging toward the throne. She halted when Celestia's gaze turned to her. "Is this the most appropriate place for a child, ma'am?"

"I believe children are wont to explore as they may. If it will placate your concerns, I didn't bring Twilight here deliberately." Celestia reached a hoof out toward Twilight's head, but then halted a short distance from it. She turned it away to fuss with the discarded pillow instead. "Twilight managed to find her own way in while I was holding an audience. I wasn't even aware of her until certain visitors of the court began to pay an inordinate amount of attention to my hooves."

Celestia turned from the throne, and Twilight, and held up a hoof toward the far door, where the same mare from before stood waiting. The mare trotted to Celestia's side and bowed.

"See that young lady Twilight is brought safely to her chambers," the Princess said, returning her attention to Star. The mare bowed again and set to retrieving Twilight from beneath the throne. "Your daughter displays a remarkable talent, Professor Sparkle. She managed to virtually silence my entire court for almost an hour without speaking a word, something I have never achieved over the course of more than a thousand years."

Star didn't reply, preferring to watch as the servant loaded Twilight onto her back like so much luggage. Her gaze followed Twilight until the pair were out of earshot.

"She's staying at the palace."

"By agreement with your herd," Celestia replied. "Lucent in particularly seemed to feel it would be beneficial. I shall personally tend to her training in the use of magic, whilst the rest of her education shall take place at the School or on placement to suitable institutions. She shall remain here at the palace for three days of every week in order to facilitate that, at least to begin with, but as her education progresses I expect she'll spend the majority of her time either here or at the School."

Star sat herself down at the foot of the throne. Taking a breath, she shook her head. "Sounds like you and Luci have this all planned out quite nicely between you. I'm not sure where I come in."

"As her mother—"

Star's abrupt laughter echoed around the throne room,loud and hard enough to momentarily knock the composure from even Celestia's face. "Her mother! As if anypony gave a damn about that before!"

"As her mother," Celestia persisted, "it is your privilege to be fully informed of Twilight's state. I would hope for your approval in the matter as well. To learn at my school and receive my personal tuition is an opportunity that few ponies are granted. Given your family history it would surprise me greatly to find that you would deny Twilight this chance."

"I'm not going to deny her anything," Star replied. "But she's too young to make that sort of decision."

"At which point it becomes the responsibility of her family. And you," Celestia said, with another irritatingly congenial smile.

"And yet if I decide it's not right I'm sure you'll argue that I'm standing against the best interests of the filly and to hell with my status as her mother. I know a fait accompli when I see one, Princess. The only question is how long you've been planning this particular one."

Celestia tilted her head to one side, just a little, like a mother humouring a recalcitrant child. "An interesting statement," she said, and turned away.

Her long legs took only a few strides to bring her to the throne again, but Celestia didn't seat herself just yet. She looked up at the stained glass windows along the hall, her eyes bouncing from one to the next, until they came to rest on an abstract depiction of the moon surrounded by a half-dozen stars.

"I have observed your career since you chose to assist our efforts to promote harmony with our neighbours," she said, before turning her gaze back to Star. "You have a habit of making interesting statements, one that apparently stretches back to your first appearance at Canterlot University if my sources are to be believed. Occasionally they carry some justification, though I wonder what prompted this one in particular."

"The sitter," Star said. Celestia's response was a mere flicker of interest and a slight narrowing of her eyes. "The pink one with the big hair and too much interest in my son."

"Princess Cadance."

"That's what I said isn't it?"

"If you're insinuating that I sent Cadance to spy on your family—"

"There's no if."

Star turned to glare at the windows. Historical scenes, each one encapsulating some important event in Equestria's history, no doubt chosen after very careful consideration by her Highness. She let her eyes linger on the window depicting Cadance's ascension before turning away.

"You know my family history, Princess," she continued. "You've probably been itching to get your hooves on one of us for centuries, one way or another."

"While it is true that the Sparkle name has always been associated with great power and skill with magic, I did not choose your daughter merely to get my 'itchy hooves' on a powerful apprentice. The first surge she experienced was immense. Without the benefit of my experience she might lose herself to that power and become a danger to others." Celestia tilted her head to one side. "Or to herself. It would be a tragedy to lose yet another of her potential so soon."

The air seemed to chill, as if a cloud had moved across the face of the sun, but the light shone through the windows as bright as ever. Star clenched and unclenched her jaw as she sought a reply that wasn't an incoherent screech. "What would you know about loss?"

Celestia paused. For a moment her eyes lost their focus; but only a moment, over almost before Star saw it. She leaned back and nodded slowly. "Perhaps no more than I appear to know," she replied. "Yet appearance is an odd thing, is it not? When I first met your herd, I would have had no difficulty believing that Twilight Velvet was Twilight Sparkle's birth mother. One could even be forgiven for thinking you and she are sisters."

Star frowned at the Princess, trying to read her expression. Perhaps it was the size and shape of her body that was making it so difficult: she'd never tried to match wits with an alicorn before. Cadance didn't count.

"One crazy relative is enough, thank you," she replied, before turning up her snout. "Besides, what sort of pervert do you think I am to herd with my own sister?"

"What sort indeed," Celestia said. She smiled and stood, raising her wings behind her head. "As for Princess Cadance, I merely advised that she spend more time beyond the palace in order to socialise and integrate into society as a normal pony. She chose to foalsit of her own accord, and I believe it was your stallion who chose to retain her services at the prompting of your son."

"That boy," Star muttered, staring at the carpet as she shook her head.

When she looked up again, Celestia had descended from the dais once more and stood before Star, smiling the same warm, inviting smile she always wore for the public. Hoofsteps echoed in the throne room behind Star; she looked over her shoulder to see a squad of guards trooping through the door along with a trio of ponies in the formal livery of Celestia's personal servants.

"It appears our audience has reached a conclusion, Professor." Celestia nodded to the servants as they passed by; the three bobbed their heads in response, but otherwise barely acknowledged the Princess. "Twilight will learn a great deal here. You can be assured she shall have the best education possible in this age."

Another smile accompanied the statement, and a subtle wave of warmth shortly after. Star leaned back and stared up at Celestia, but the Princess seemed oblivious to the renewed attention. "Just like that? So I really don't have any choice at all, do I?"

"There is always a choice, Professor Sparkle, however little we might wish to make it," Celestia replied. She raised her head and turned away, moving with sedate grace toward the assembled servants by the throne.

Star felt the warmth of another pony at her side. She looked up at the stoic face of her previous escort. He didn't look back. Fighting the tension in her shoulders, Star looked up at Celestia again, now safely ensconced on the throne in the midst of attentive servants.

"You're taking my daughter away from me."

Celestia looked down on Star, no longer smiling. "I can assure you, professor, that your daughter will be as close to you as she has ever been," she said, then lifted her gaze to the far wall, wearing the same stiff-skinned face Star used to dismiss her more easily cowed students.

Star could have tried to argue, but even she was not so suicidally obtuse as to provoke the ire of a creature so close to godhood as to make no difference. Instead, with her head held high, Star turned from the throne and marched away.

Considering the season, the house had been unusually quiet when Star woke that morning. Normally she would have been treated to the ritual screaming match that always evolved between Scintilla and Crystal before they settled down to business, or the tramping of servants as they scurried back and forth with fresh bedding and carpet cleaners and tried not to laugh. Perhaps the sound of quiet, desperate sighs as Twilight Velvet made yet another attempt at 'kindling new life' as she had so poetically put it the last time the pair had been on speaking terms. Or maybe the thudding hooves of Glint as he barrelled along the corridors in an exhausted stupor, crying out for the vile concoction of eggs and sugar and coffee that he swore by to keep his strength up and then swore at when it inevitably failed to work.

For a while Star lay still and waited for the silence to break. There was only the creak of wood and stone as some part of the ancient building settled against the late summer warmth, a piccolo symphony of birdsong in the garden and the slow, steady clunk of the clock over her mantel. Sheets rustled as she rolled to her side, ignoring the persistent itch twixt her nethers – something she knew she would have to see to sooner or later. She peered up at the clock, taking a moment to parse the meaning of its hands against its blurry face.

It was before five in the morning. Of course she would wake up early on a day like this, of course she would. A quiet groan eased out of her mouth as she rolled away from the clock and then twice more to the edge of the bed, which almost as wide as an Ngulube winter hut. The air was warm and still when she flung the sheets back and slid gracelessly to the floor; rather than risk overheating herself, Star forwent donning her morning gown and trotted out into the empty corridors of her stately home. For a while she wandered aimlessly, pondering the silence and its purpose, until her hooves brought her to the terrace at the rear of the house.

Doors and windows along the entire inner wall of the terrace were open wide, perhaps an effort to keep the building cool. In between them, white sheer curtains drifted in a lazy breeze that carried the scent of myrtle and jasmine, while in the garden beyond, the early light of the sun glittered on the dewy grass and deep green of hedges and well-trimmed trees. It was all so rich and verdant. So well-tended. So neat. To the tribal Zebra it would have appeared as nothing less than paradise, but none of it felt true, not even the gently waving clumps of Zebra Grass scattered around the lawns.

Star heard a grumbling voice from beyond her door. After a moment's hesitation she stepped out to look around and was confronted with the sight of the family gardener, Slowpoke, propped up on a bench and reading what looked like yesterday's newspaper. The old donkey was puffing away at the same dirty old pipe he'd carried as long as Star had known him.

His ears swivelled toward Star and he glanced up at her. "G'mornin' your ladyship," he rumbled. "Felt like a stroll?"

"I couldn't sleep," Star replied. She took a breath as a subtle tension made itself felt between her legs. Slowpoke snuffled at the air and then his eyebrows rose a fraction, but a few puffs of his pipe soon masked any other scents that might have been floating about.

"Beggin' your pardon," he said quietly, before setting his newspaper down. "I shall leave you to your business, ma'am."

"Wait, no, it's all right," Star replied. She smiled awkwardly at him. Hesitating a little, watching Star with wary eyes, Slowpoke slowly lifted up the paper again.

For want of something to do in response, Star sat down on the deck and stared out over the garden. They sat together in silence, both waiting for something, though Star was sure neither of them knew what that might be. The newspaper crackled as Slowpoke turned a page; she heard him muttering again, perhaps reacting to a story, or perhaps just merely talking to himself. He tended to do it a lot, she remembered.

After a while, Star cleared her throat. "How is, uh, how's your little one?"

"Dal's doing well, your ladyship, and my thanks to you for askin'," Slowpoke replied. Star cast a sly glance toward him, but he hadn't lifted his gaze from his newspaper. "Already talkin' about a university, so he is."

"That's good," she said. Slowpoke grunted and turned another page.

"Told him he's too young for that talk yet, but the lad's keen, ain't right to discourage him. He'll get plenty of that later. Reckon his mother'd probably want it too, aye. Oh drat it..."

Slowpoke dropped the newspaper and tugged his pipe from his mouth. For a moment he stared into the bowl, then with another grunt he set about it with his hoof, knocking the tobacco this way and that. Star left him to it, preferring the sight of the garden – sterile and artificial as it was. She found herself staring at the Zebra Grass again; its slender stalks, bedecked in slashes of grey-green and brilliant white, stood proud of everything else in the garden and cast their shadows on the rocks at the roots, just as they had across Twilight Velvet's back as she had stretched her body toward Star against the moist, rich soil of the Ngulube tribelands.

"Slowpoke?"

Star turned from the garden to look at the old donkey who tended it. He had the pipe in his mouth, unlit despite his best efforts. A smoking match hung from his hoof; he threw it away and tugged the pipe from his mouth to set it aside for the moment.

"Yes'm?"

"Do you ever..." Star's voice trailed away. She bit her lip as she tried to frame what she wanted to say. "Have you ever wished you could have chosen a different path?"

Slowpoke frowned. "If you're wantin' to redesign the garden—"

"No, no the garden is—no. I mean..." Star lifted her forehooves in a half shrug. "I mean you live here, you've lived in this house for what, twenty-five, thirty years?"

"Something of that order, ma'am," Slowpoke replied.

Star nodded and turned back to look at the garden. "Is that what you wanted? Don't you ever feel like you could have done something different with your life?"

"I wouldn't say so. I have to do my duty by the gardens and I have to do as your ladyships ask, long as they don't ask somethin' daft," said Slowpoke, with something that might have been a chuckle. He lifted his hoof toward his face but then paused, chewing slowly at nothing.

"Duty..."

"Aye. It ain't a bad life really. I get paid, I get fed, I even get my own little vegetable patch. Then there's Dal." Slowpoke paused to scratch his chin. He smiled. "Some as say I might have given up things to get that, but I don't reckon I miss what I never knew. Why d'you ask?"

"Just a stray thought," Star murmured.

Again the silence fell between them, until Slowpoke set to fiddling with his pipe again. He seemed incapable of doing anything to it without a constant, muttered monologue just beyond the threshold of Star's hearing.

Star stood, but as she turned she heard Slowpoke's monologue end. A cloud of cloying sweet smoke drifted around her head. Slowpoke was leaning back on his bench, puffing away at his pipe with a contented smile when Star turned back to him.

"I hear young miss Twilight will be stayin' up at the palace all week this time, to make things more comfortable on your ladyships," he said, tugging at the pipe.

"She is," Star replied, unable to muster much in the way of feeling to the words.

Slowpoke pulled his pipe from his mouth and peered into the bowl for a moment, before clamping his teeth on the stem with a determined sense of finality. "Be a shame when she's gone up there for good. Been a real ray of sunshine around these parts, she has. Now if your ladyship will excuse me—" he stood and adjusted his cap "—there's a few things that'll need seein' to hereabouts."

With practised carelessness, Slowpoke raised a hoof to his forelock before turning to amble away toward the greenhouses at the head of a trail of white smoke. Star took a deep breath of the stuff, letting it fill her lungs, but it wasn't like the camp fires she had gathered around on the veldt, or the eye-stinging cooking pits the Ngulube insisted on digging everywhere they stopped for more than a few minutes. She coughed, and felt foolish for it, and then turned herself back to the dim interior of her home.

Somehow, on the way back to her chambers, Star found herself standing at the door to the Lucent's suite. She knew she must have passed her own rooms to get here; and Scintilla's and Crystal's rooms as well, although it wasn't as if they'd have the time to attend to her when they were so busy with one another. Neither did she wish to endure the near-constant arguments the pair engaged in when they weren't rutting like hormonal teenagers.

She could hear the quiet, rumbling sighs of Lucent as he slept. She had no idea who else might be in there with him, though if she were to guess... Star carefully pushed the door open and stepped through.

The sitting room was naturally deserted. A pair of gowns – both sized for stallions – had been flung over the back of a couch near the window, which meant that Glint was lurking somewhere nearby. The window itself was open, as was the door to the bedroom. Again Star felt a gentle breeze as she moved through, though rather than the scent of garden flowers this one carried the musky stink of sweat and sex. She felt her body respond entirely by itself and shuddered as she tried – and failed – to suppress a frustrated groan.

It took a moment for her eyes to accustom to the dark-shrouded bedroom. Star paused half way from the door to where she knew their enormous communal bed lay and listened carefully for the ponies sleeping on it. They were still asleep. In what little light shone through the curtains Star could see three bodies lying in a tangled heap close to the middle of the bed; Glint and Lucent, with Twilight Velvet sandwiched between them. Star shuffled across the carpet and hopped up onto the mattress without a sound, save for the gentle creak of springs.

The bed's motion wasn't much, but it was enough to rouse Lucent. He twisted his head to peer up at Star with confused eyes, blinking blearily until recognition dawned.

"Oh good morning, Star," he said, keeping his voice low. Twilight Velvet squirmed between his limbs but remained blissfully unaware. "To what do I owe and all that?"

Star's hoof pawed at the sheets. She closed her eyes and pressed her foreleg down to keep it still. "Lucent, I..."

Lucent didn't answer, not right away. He raised his nose, sniffing carefully at the air, and then shook his head. "Star, it's been ten years since you last came to me like this."

"I know."

Star opened her eyes. She found herself looking right into Lucent's face. He was watching her intently, those heart-meltingly beautiful eyes never straying from her own, as if he was trying to stare right into her soul. A prompting somewhere in her belly pushed Star forward until their noses met. She twisted her head to meet his lips, and was rewarded with a quiet sigh as Lucent responded in kind.

But just as she opened her mouth a little wider, Lucent broke the kiss drew his head back. Star nickered as she chased forward after his lips, but Lucent refused to be met. He turned away.

"Lucent!" She nipped at his neck and the roots of his mane, but Lucent refused to look back.

"Star, you don't want this."

Ignoring the cold ball that settled in her gut, Star lay her chin across Lucent's neck and teased at his ear with her lips. "I do," she whispered. "Please."

"Last time you spent a year complaining and then ran off to the other side of the planet."

"It's different this time," Star whispered. She huddled closer to his back, pressing her whole body against his, and swatted her tail against his flank. "Please, Lucent, I need this."

Again she nibbled at his ear. Lucent grunted and rolled over, dislodging Glint and Velvet from his grasp and sending Star careening across the bed. His forelimbs slid across Star's shoulder and his erection fell against the mattress with a resounding thud. "I need, I want," he muttered. "Star, I love you, but I'm not willing to deal with all of that again."

Star shuddered as her mind and body fought one another. She tore her eyes from the sight of Lucent's penis and tried to focus on his face, but the smell of it... she swallowed hard. "Luci, you don't understand—"

"Maybe I don't." He shifted a leg, covering himself, and it was all Star could do not to groan at the sight of taut muscles moving beneath Lucent's shining coat. "Go and see Crincile. She should be awake by now."

Lucent lifted his forelegs from her and shuffled away, leaving Star isolated on the bed. She took a breath, snorting her frustration at his unwillingness. Her gaze fell back along his stomach and hip, then up over to the others. Velvet was blinking owlishly at Star over Lucent's back. Behind her Glint snuffled around, confused as a newborn.

"Luci—"

"No," Lucent said, punctuating the word with a tap of his hoof against the mattress. "I don't know what's changed after all this time, Star. You can't just spring something like this on me, on us, not without discussing it first." He closed his eyes. "We'll talk about it when the season ends."

Star tried to reply, but the words caught in her throat. She found herself looking at Velvet again, looking for sympathy maybe, or even anger. It would have been preferable to the pity she saw there. Well let her feel pity. Star sniffed and rolled out of the bed without a word. She was almost back at the door when she heard a murmured sigh and the familiar creak of mattress springs. If she waited and snuck back she might be able to catch them out, but—

But then she remembered Lucent's face, and his eyes, and imagined the betrayal she'd see there if she tried. Even if she could explain, he'd never understand. The cold pit was back in her stomach. Disgust drove Star from the room. She didn't stop until she reached Crincile's door, nor did she bother knocking before barging through.

Compared to her own suite, which was more akin to a seldom-used office with a bedroom than any sort of living space, Crincile's rooms were open, airy and aside from a neat bookshelf and a few small paintings, almost entirely devoid of anything remotely decorative. It was uncanny how few possessions Crincile kept there, and yet it made a strange sort of sense. For most of the year she split her time between Lucent and Twilight Velvet, retreating to her privacy only when the herd was in season.

She was lounging on a couch when Star entered, reading a book and humming quietly to herself. In fact 'lounging' was probably too polite a way to put it; Crincile lay on her back, with her legs kicked out and spread to the air, while the book hovered over her head. A half-eaten pastry, dripping with honey and chocolate and still steaming slightly as it cooled, lay on a plate close to Crincile's head; the other half was presumably filling her mouth as she chewed away like a contented heifer.

"Oh, it's you," she said, and then swallowed. A page turned in her book, but she wasn't really looking at it any more. "I take it nature's call has made itself felt again? Must be the first time you've matched up with us in years."

"Something like that." Star sidled toward the couch opposite Crincile. As she sat, she tipped her head over to read the title of Crincile's book. A harsh laugh forced its way out of her. "J A Burro's Middle Equestrian? Only you would get yourself soaked reading about pre-classical earth pony dialects."

"It keeps my mind off things," Crincile replied, turning another page. "I did consider the ice-house as well, but I rather think the maids would object. They're still complaining about what you and Twilight did in there."

"That was years ago!"

"And it has entered staff legend." Crincile looked away from her book and smiled at Star. Then she tugged off her reading glasses – and since when had she needed those anyway? – and set the book down at her side. It hit the table with a loud thump. "Still! Now you're here, I don't need to worry about becoming part of that, at least."

The sentence wound around Star's head as she stared at the book. She looked up at Crincile and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Crincile replied airily, before rolling from the couch. She turned away, not bothering to control the thrashing of her tail as she sauntered toward the bedroom. She paused to throw a sultry glance over her shoulder. "Or are you going to tell me that you've suddenly lost your appetite for sex?"

"Crinkle, you already know how I feel about sex in heat," Star moaned. "I'm only here because Lucent kicked me out!"

"Kicked you out?" The idea seemed to confuse Crincile. She waited for Star to hop from the couch and trot to her side. "Whatever were you doing? Unless you were trying to foal again—oh Star you aren't, are you? After last time?"

"I don't want to." Star gently swung her hoof against the plain carpet. "You wouldn't understand."

"No, I suppose I wouldn't. I never have before." With a shake of her head, Crincile pushed open the bedroom door and walked in ahead of Star. She wasn't making any effort at all to hide her arousal now, walking awkwardly and low-hipped, with her tail almost pointing at the ceiling.

"I'm surprised you aren't locked in there with Lucent and Glint as well," Star said. "Not turning skipper on us are you?"

"Oh it wouldn't be fair for me to take that time from Twilight, considering..." Crincile half-shrugged as she trotted toward a chest at the end of the bed. "Sometimes I like to prove to myself that my relationship with them isn't just a hormonal frenzy."

"And what about with me?"

Crincile rolled her eyes. Her magic tossed back the lid of the chest, but rather than retrieve its contents the same way, Crincile dipped her head and rummaged around with her snout.

"You don't want the honest answer to that," she said, before biting down on something within the chest. With a wordless cry of triumph she lifted a cooler from the chest and held it up for Star's approval. Bright pink and glass-slick, it flopped around between Crincile's lips in the most obscene manner. Star could only shake her head and try not to laugh.

"That's the most disgusting thing I've seen all week," she said as Crincile deposited the cooler on her bed. "You've no idea where that's been."

"Oh, I know exactly where," Crincile breathed, briefly trapping her tongue between her teeth as she glanced over her shoulder at Star. She probably thought it was seductive. Star sighed and dropped her head.

"Fine. Lets get this over with."

She hadn't meant to sound quite so harsh, but—oh who was she kidding. Not herself, that was for sure. Not that it mattered anyway. Star crawled onto the bed and flopped down on her belly with a heavy sigh. While she waited for Crincile to join her, she wriggled her hips into a more comfortable – and exposed – position, completing the act by hiking up her tail. She even gave a wink for good measure.

It was all so very perfunctory. Times past had been that exposing herself like this was... exciting. The chill of the air against heated, moistened flesh, the knowledge of a pony behind her waiting to... to laugh, apparently. Star rolled her ears back to better hear Crincile's coquettish giggles.

She rolled to her side to glare at Crincile. "What's so funny?"

"You! Lying there like a—" Crincile broke out in another fit of giggles. "Like a bloody pillow wrapped around a rubber tube! It's no wonder you hate this so much if you treat it like such a chore."

"Maybe I treat it like a chore because I despise it, ever thought of that?"

"I considered it," Crincile sniffed. She crawled up onto the bed next to Star and cuddled up against her side. The cooler floated over Star's head a moment after, twisting and writhing in Crincile's magic like a tormented snake. "Anyway it doesn't matter. You're taking care of me first."

Star raised her eyebrow at the cooler as it flopped down in front of her face.

"Oh don't be such a sour grape." Crincile sighed. "Your problem is that you're too used to having ponies just jam it in and squirt without having to do anything in return."

"Maybe I like it that way."

"No, I'm pretty sure you don't," Crincile replied. She held up the cooler and waved it in front of Star's nose. "Put this on. Try enjoying yourself for a change."

At first Star refused, turning her nose up at the ugly thing until a withering glare from Crincile shamed her into relenting. "Fine," she grunted and plucked the cooler from Crincile's magic.

"I wonder how Crystal gets hers on," Crincile mused once Star had cinched the straps right around her thighs. "Perhaps that's why she's always arguing with Scintilla."

"Earth ponies are very adept with their tongues. Those two just like the sound of their own voices that much." Star stood up, balancing against the new weight between her legs. "Rather girthy isn't it?" She swung her hips from side to side and frowned as the cooler slapped heavily against her legs.

"It would be, it's modeled after Glint." Crincile looked at Star, as if daring her to respond. "He decided if he couldn't get work for his face then he might as well get work for some other part of his body."

"You mean to tell me there are other mares out there fucking a copy of Glint's cock?" Star peered down between her legs. It did look familiar now she gave it more than a cursory look. "That's perverse!"

"You should see him wearing it," Crincile said, her voice low and husky, right next to Star's ear. Hot moist breath ruffled at the roots of Star's mane and she shivered in spite of herself.

"Perverse," Star repeated, looking up. Crincile giggled and nipped at Star's ear before flopping over on the bed. She took a moment to compose herself on the sheets and turned to peer at Star with sultry, lidded eyes. The frantic twitching of her tail rather ruined the effect.

"Well?"

Star nodded and shuffled forward, trying to ignore the bite of the straps on her hips. Just then Crincile rolled onto her side; her back leg rose up across Star's chest chest, accompanied by the cloyingly thick scent of her arousal.

"Aren't you going to help me get ready, Star darling?"

"You seem ready enough to me," Star grunted. She tried to push Crincile's limb aside, but the mare had to have been working out, for her leg proved impossible to move.

"There's ready, Star, and then there's ready."

Crincile slid her leg across Star's chest until her hoof was ticking at Star's jawline. She was rolling on her back exposing her belly to Star; a pink flush shone beneath Crincile's coat from her teats to her buttocks and across her inner thighs. Star could feel the warmth radiating from her. A musky stench tickled at Star's nostrils. She sniffed at it, her snout moving unprompted toward Crincile's sex. The younger mare was breathing sharp, noisy breaths. She gasped as Star pushed her nose down against moist flesh.

After a few moments Star let a short breath out through her nose. She closed her eyes. "I've not done this to a mare in heat for a long time, you know."

Her voice was muffled by Crincile's flesh, but clear enough given the younger mare's giggled response. Crincile wiggled her hips against Star's face. "Mm, you're missing out," she said. "Anyway, it's like pulling a cart. You never forget how."

"You've never pulled a cart in your life."

Star lifted her head, letting her lips and tongue drag across Crincile's vulva and watching how the younger mare twitched and squirmed at the attention. A salty dribble ran into the corner of Star's mouth; she licked it away and swallowed.

Crincile was staring, glassy-eyed when Star next looked up. She twitched a hoof and her head shook in a tight nod, then bit her lip. Star replied with a nip at Crincile's left teat. She ran her tongue around it, drawing another gasp from Crincile.

"Well I think you're ready," Star grunted, hauling herself bodily across Crincile.

"W-wait, I've not—" Crincile's eyes popped wide as the cooler pressed up against her. She shivered and smiled nervously. "I never did it like this before."

"Neither have I." Star grunted as she tried to position herself.

"Then you'd better be—ow!"

Star drew herself back. She peered down between their bodies and sighed. "Aggie almost had me convinced it was easier this way."

"Maybe if you waited until—ow!" Crincile twisted as the cooler poked her once again. "Star!"

"What?"

"That's—" Crincile shivered again as Star thrust against her. Her hips bucked and the cooler abruptly slid deep inside her body. "Fuck!"

"Such language from such innocent lips," Star murmured. She could almost feel Crincile gripping the cooler. Straps bit into her flesh again as she drew back for another thrust.

"When I said have fun I meant we should take more time about—" Crincile's eyes crossed as Star thrust into her again "—it," she gasped. "Not j-just pound away like a rutting bull!"

"Cute," Star replied, dipping her head toward the cooler's bulbous reservoir. She gripped it in her teeth and bit down hard. Nothing happened. She bit it again, but heard only a quiet hiss of air moving inside.

Star's eyes rolled toward Crincile, who was grinning at her. Leering almost. She seemed very pleased with herself.

"If you'd taken a little time to pay attention instead of just rushing to get it over with," she said, running a hoof along the back of Star's neck, "you might have noticed that I hadn't filled it yet."

Star rolled away, the motion pulling the cooler out of Crincile. It left a slithering trail over Crincile's coat before falling against Star's belly. "Fine. Where do you keep it?"

"Maybe I don't want to tell you," said Crincile. The two rolled to face one another. Crincile's hooves slid around either side of Star's neck, hooking it and trapping a lock of her mane.

Star rolled her head, trying and failing to ignore the gentle but persistent tug at the base of her skull. "I suppose this is your idea of a joke, is it?"

"I don't see why it should be a joke, Star. I just like to take my time about these things."

"I see." Star shuffled out of Crincile's tender embrace and rolled away across the bed. "In other words you'll send me chasing around the room to look for the stuff while you sit there and masturbate yourself into a frenzy."

"Better than hiding in the dark and then getting an intern to cool you off at the last moment," said Crincile. She fixed Star with a steady gaze. "Or the Griffon ambassador's sister."

Star flopped from the bed, only to stumble over the cooler as it flopped beneath her rear legs. Letting out a frustrated snarl, she tore at the straps with her teeth and magic until the cooler fell to the floor with a liquid slap.

"That's what I heard at court, at least," Crincile continued, seemingly oblivious to Star's frantic escape. She sighed and rolled away, and for a moment Star wondered if she might say something more, but the mare remained silent.

"Well—well, fine! So what? They were more than willing, and frankly that's better than I get in this place!"

Star turned just in time to see a pastry floating past her head. She watched its slow arc toward the bed until it disappeared behind Crincile. Rolling her eyes, Star turned and stumbled from the bedroom, back out through the spartan sitting room and into the corridors.

Crincile must have had some sort of sound-proofing installed, for the very moment Star opened the door her ears were assaulted by a succession of hoarsely screamed insults echoing down the corridor. Scintilla and Crystal were awake, and from the sound of things she'd be unlikely to find any help from that quarter.

Once again she paused at the door to Lucent's rooms, but didn't enter. He'd only refuse her. And Twilight would be of no help either, that much was for certain.

A movement at the end of the corridor caught Star's eye. As she turned, a maid froze in the process of loading sheets into a laundry chute. She was young, no more than twenty. Star could see the nervous look in the young maid's big brown eyes and the way her ears fell back the moment Star's gaze fell on her, which meant she was still new enough to the house staff that she hadn't quite abandoned her belief in the horror stories of wanton debauchery that were supposed to take place in such a large herd.

The stories weren't entirely fiction. Star knew more than a few of the so-called nobility who had resorted to using their servants when no member of their herd was available, but the practice had always been viewed with suspicion, as if the mare in question might have somehow lost the trust of her herd.

Star realised she was still staring at the maid. She turned away with a snort, ignoring the now persistent itch in her hindquarters and the accompanying whisper that maybe it wouldn't be so bad, just this once. Call her a faceless intern offering her boss a favour, her treacherous libido said. Pretend it was just another fling in a distant land. A shiver ran down Star's spine; she lengthened her pace to a staggering lope.

The corridor had ended again, though she wasn't sure quite when. Star turned and kicked open the door to her rooms; the frame split, but she didn't pay it any attention as she stumbled through. Lucent's denial and Crincile's incessant teasing had combined somewhere in her body to form a pit of white hot desire, and now it was provoked by images of the poor maid and her slender legs and tight grey rump flitting through Star's mind. She could feel a trail of drool leaking from her mouth and tried her best to suck it back. Her backside and the insides of her thighs were soaked as well, but there was nothing she could do about that just yet.

The room was dim, wrapped in shadow, but she didn't care; she knew her way around it by heart. Panting quietly, she moved to a desk on the far wall, stepping around an abandoned pile of books and giving the curtained window barely a glance as she passed by. A stout cardboard case stood on the desk, grubby and grey. Star tugged it to the floor, not daring to risk the use of her magic lest she blow a hole in the wall. She fumbled with the latch, twisting at it with her hoof and then her teeth, until it flew back with a loud snap.

The case opened easily. Star nosed around its interior until her lips found the webbing of a cooler, tangled around a half-empty bottle of Velvet Petals' Summer Dew. The liquid within moved sluggishly, rolling from one end of the bottle to the other when she tugged it free of the straps. She held the bottle up to the light, and then the cooler, and shook her head.

"Reduced to this," she muttered as she looked around the room. Her gaze narrowed to the bedpost, standing proud and tall and—Star grit her teeth and turned away from it before the lurid metaphors could get started.

With her eyes planted firmly on the carpet, Star flung the cooler over the post. It was the work of moments to tighten the straps and fill the thing. She dropped the bottle to the floor and turned reluctantly to face her contrived lover. The cooler hung slack, and inconveniently high for her purposes, but it would have to do. Again Star sighed as she turned and manouvered her hindquarters against the bedpost.

It was higher than she'd expected. Star stretched up her legs, the stretched up on just one, lifting her hips as far as they would reach. She grasped the cooler bulb in her magic and pressed herself against the cooler shaft, chasing it around until it slid into her with a wet slap. Her legs were both swinging free of the ground now. Star walked her forelegs backward, grunting at the effort of holding her body aloft, until she felt a little more secure. She took a breath and tried to squeeze the bulb with her magic, only to find her energy draining rapidly.

With a wordless cry Star twisted her neck to bite at the bulb. At the same time as her teeth found it, her body twisted and slid from the cooler; she fell to the floor with a muffled screech, landing on her back, while the cooler emptied itself over her legs and belly. Its task complete, the cooler unwound its straps and fell on Star in an unceremonious heap of rubber and webbing.

Panting at the unexpected exertion, Star kicked a frustrated hoof out at the bed, but only managed to catch her hock on the unyielding frame. "Fuck!"

She drew the leg back and cradled it in her forelegs, hissing at the pain as if that would somehow make it leave her alone. It was little wonder she didn't hear the door open.

"Such language..."

Star's jaw wound so tight she could almost hear her teeth creak. She forced her teeth apart enough for the spittle-soaked bulb fall to the ground and twisted her head back to glare at the open door. Crincile's smug face smiled back at her.

"Come to gloat at my misery?" Star scrambled to her hooves and turned to face the door.

As she stepped into the room, Crincile smiled and shook her head. A maid bearing a pitcher of wine and a plate of snacks on her back trotted in right after, whilst keeping her eyes carefully away from the tangled mess of webbing and black rubber and the slimy puddle at Star's hooves. After depositing her burden on a table close to the bed, the maid dropped a perfunctory curtsey and scampered from the room, not quite managing to hide her giggles as the door closed behind her.

Crincile set to pouring them both a glass of wine. Somehow she'd managed to chew her way through one of the pastries already; she washed the remainder down with a gulp of wine from one glass and held the other out to Star. At first Star only glared at it, hoping the drink would evaporate by sheer force of her will, but eventually she relented and seized the glass from Crincile's magic.

Wine splashed across the carpet as Star downed most of the glass in a single swallow. Tanin and sour age caught at her throat, and she couldn't hide the neck-twisting grimace they provoked.

"You know, I sometimes wonder why some entrepreneurial pony hasn't invented some sort of solo cooler for ponies like you," Crincile said, watching as Star carefully sniffed at the remains of her wine.

"What do you mean by that?"

Crincile held out the pastries to Star, who refused the offer with a tight shake of her head. She shrugged and took one for herself. "Maybe I don't mean anything. Maybe it's just a convenience for a pony on the move."

"But now I suppose you'll try and turn that around to tell me how I'm denying the pure spirituality of the act or something similarly overemotional," Star grumbled. She peered into her wine. A tired pony stared back at her, tired and old. She tipped her head back and swallowed the rest, then tossed her glass aside. "Sentimental rubbish."

"I wouldn't dream of it, darling." Crincile's horn glowed as she retrieved Star's glass for a refill.

"Well then what? I know you're trying to draw something out of this, otherwise you'd be back in your room, seducing books and stuffing your face with sweets."

The glass flew back to Star, but this time, rather than letting Star grasp and potentially spill it, Crincile placed it carefully on the bedside cabinet.

"I've never really understood this dislike you have towards all this. I'm given to believe you used to enjoy it enough that you and Twilight would spend the better part of the week doing nothing else." Crincile sauntered around the bed, examining the haphazard arrangement of books in the shelves that lined nearly every open space. She paused to peer at one, running her hoof down the spine, before moving on. "And yet now here we are, with you so desperate to avoid any sort of sex in heat that you'd rather get drunk and stuff your nethers with ice."

"I'm not a skipper."

"I never said you were."

Crincile's slow circuit of the room brought her back to the window. She placed her glass down on the sill and turned to look at Star again. Her eyes fell to the puddle at Star's hooves and she smiled sadly.

"Besides, it's quite obvious you aren't. Skippers enjoy it, in their own way. You've turned your heat into some sort of terrible ordeal."

Star kicked the cooler away and stepped out of the sticky puddle. She stared at the wine Crincile had poured for her and then carefully picked it up with a hoof. She swirled the wine around until her reflection was lost in the eddying sparks of light dancing on the wine's black skin.

Crincile shuffled up to her side and nuzzled at Star's cheek. "It doesn't have to be that way."

"You just keep telling yourself that," Star muttered, before taking a swallow of her wine. Her throat burned at its bitter touch; she shuddered, her head twisting involuntarily. Star set her glass down. There was no pleasure in the wine and little more in the company, not with that dull, shivering insistence burning in the crook of her thighs.

Crincile didn't respond except to move away, leaving a chill of air where her body had warmed Star's side. It was so easy, she thought, to drive ponies away. Star suppressed her instinctive response to lean after Crincile and chase the comforting closeness she had lost. Instead she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable sound of the bedroom door as Crincile left.

Rather than any sound, however, instead she felt the warmth of a pony's breath on her leg, just above her cutie mark, where the sweat she had worked up trying to get off had soaked into her coat and left her skin sensitive to the air. Star tipped her head a little, rolling her ears back to focus on Crincile's quiet breathing.

"What are you—" Star's body jerked and she let out a yelp as Crincile's teeth pinched her buttock.

"Proving a point," Crincile murmured. She laid a kiss on Star's left thigh, then the right, before drawing her lips in tiny little nibbles to the crease between Star's thigh and her teats.

Star squeezed her eyes shut. She could feel Crincile's tongue sliding back and forth just shy of her right nipple; her face, pressed up beneath Star's labia, had to be drenched. "I don't know what point it is you think you're p-proving."

Even had Crincile wanted to answer, it would have been difficult to make herself heard over Star's laboured breathing. Instead she brought her mouth up around Star's other buttock, alternately kissing and tugging with her teeth at the short coat there. Moist breath tickled beneath Star's dock as Crincile moved her head away, before resting her chin on Star's hips.

She turned her head just enough to spy Crincile's smug face out of the corner of her eye. A warm patch was forming on Star's back, where the fruits of her own arousal dripped steadily from Crincile's snout.

"So you've made your point, whatever it is. Are you going to fuck me or not?"

Crincile's smile faded a little, but then returned wider than before. "No. At least not yet."

"Twilight never said no."

Crincile moved forward, sliding her chin along Star's spine to the withers, where she lifted her head to nuzzle at Star's ear. "Now, why do you think that is?"

"Because she's a doormat!"

"What an interesting statement."

"Oh don't you start." Star's lip curled and she jerked her head away from Crincile's ministrations.

Wordlessly Crincile laid her head across Star's back. Her horn, already casting fitfully by itself, surged bright and golden as she lifted the cooler from the floor at Star's hooves. She gave it an experimental shake until a gobbet of sluggish liquid oozed out of the tip.

"I think that should be enough," she murmured.

"What are you—" Star let out an undignified squeak as the cooler's straps snaked around her lower body. She looked back at Crincile in time to see the mare fastening the last clasp on a strap below Star's tail, holding it uncomfortably high in the air.

"Perfect," Crincile said, with a lingering kiss on Star's rump. She scrambled onto the bed in front of Star and lay down on her belly.

Whatever protest Star had been about to make faded from her mind. Perhaps it was the familiarity of their surroundings, the books strewn everywhere. The smell of herself on the bedclothes. Perhaps the scent of Crincile's arousal, or the way Star's tail was held aloft and her snatch exposed to the chilling air. Or perhaps Crincile's lust-filled eyes, now cold and imperious and accepting of no dissent as they focused on Star's face.

Her body moved by itself. Star crawled onto the bed, nosing briefly around Crincile's thighs before crawling atop of her. Crincile rolled her head around to nip playfully at Star's shoulder.

Star eased the cooler against Crincile. "What's to stop me cooling you off the moment it's inside you?"

Wordlessly Crincile flopped her head against the pillow; sideways, so her uncovered eye still held Star in its gaze. She twisted beneath Star, bucking her hips insistently against Star's belly while her tail thrashed at Star's leg. The mix of desperation and innocence was actually quite endearing, though Star could only roll her eyes at the display.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," she said, drawing herself forward. The cooler slid easily into Crincile. She sighed; or perhaps it was a moan. Star couldn't tell. It didn't matter anyway, she'd be moaning soon enough. Smirking, Star turned again to the little bulb at her side, but just as she opened her mouth to catch it, the bulb was enveloped in a shimmering golden glow. She watched as it snaked into the air, then turned to look at Crincile.

The mare was grinning at her again, with her tongue just sticking out between her teeth. Mischief danced in her eyes as she ducked her head down low, never taking her gaze from Star.

"My my, you certainly are full of surprises today," said Star.

"Aren't I though?"

Crincile slid her body backward beneath Star, drawing more of the cooler into herself. She waited. When Star didn't reciprocate she bucked her hips and Star, taking the hint, drew back and thrust against her.

"You can't deny that it's more pleasurable this way," she sighed.

"Pleasurable for you maybe," Star shot back, though without much conviction. She wasn't about to let on about the rather interesting way the cooler's straps were tugging at her hindquarters. Wherever Crincile had picked up the idea to strap it under her tail...

A tightening tremor gripped at her abdomen. Not quite an orgasm. Star grunted and shifted against Crincile's suddenly overwarm rump, pressing her thighs and hips as close as she could while she waited for the sensation to pass. Crincile's body shifted beneath her, dragging the cooler and its harness around Star's hips with unrelenting force. Star grit her teeth and pressed her face into Crincile's mane as she sought to escape the tension drawing at her whole body.

How long she remained like that, Star wasn't sure. It couldn't have been more than a moment. Then she heard Crincile's magic surge and the squeak of her cooler emptying itself. It was a very annoying sound she thought, while Crincile's body tensed and shuddered beneath her. Perhaps she ought to get herself a new one.

Crincile let out a quiet little moan, barely more than a squeak itself, before collapsing in a shapeless, gasping huddle on the sheets. The cooler bulb bounced on the back of Star's head and rolled down the side of her neck, and Crincile gave a final, languorous sigh, before curling to nose lethargically at Star's left hoof.

"You see?" she murmured, and smiled. "I could fall asleep now."

Star's ears sprang upright. "Don't you dare! You haven't finished me yet!"

"Don't worry your silly head, Star. I just need a moment."

"It would have only taken a moment if you hadn't—" Star's eyes crossed at an abrupt bloom of heat in her abdomen. Crincile had twitched her hips, tightening the cooler's grip around Star's nethers and leaving her gasping for breath.

Crincile nibbled at Star's leg. "What was that, darling? Oh would you mind pulling it out? I'm feeling a little stuffed."

The first response that came to Star's mind might well have resulted in a black eye. She bit down on it and carefully extricated herself from around Crincile's body. The cooler fell against Star's leg as she slipped to the side, spreading a warm slick against her coat that mingled with the foaming sweat of her thigh and belly.

Star tried to extract herself from the straps, but the best her magic could manage was to spit and fizz from the tip of her horn in a fairly lacklustre display of colourful sparks. Cursing under her breath, she turned to gnaw at the most visible clasp.

A restraining hoof settled on her neck. The strap slipped from Star's teeth and she fell back against Crincile's belly with a heartfelt groan.

"You're always so tense," Crincile said, as her magic went to work on the straps.

"You'd be tense too if you had to face the prospect of losing your mind every time you had sex," Star shot back.

"Not every time. I've heard you and Lucent in the wee hours, giggling away like two teenagers who just figured out where all the bits go. Just because your orgasms are more intense in heat—" She paused as Star snorted, and then shook her head. "I know you enjoy it when you want to. I've been there, remember?"

Star didn't answer right away. Instead she watched the cooler swinging around in the air while Crincile carefully refilled it, and wondered just when the innocent and timid filly Lucent married had grown into this wanton mare.

Crincile rolled away. The now full cooler gurgled menacingly as she laid it between her legs and set about threading the straps around her – to Star's eyes – delightfully perky rear.

"And not just with ponies," Crincile added, before rolling over again to gaze at Star. "What was it like?"

Star looked up. "What was what like?"

"The griffon ambassador's daughter."

"You're still stuck on that?" Star frowned and scratched at her side. "Violent. They don't see much difference between mating and fighting, or at least she didn't. Spent most of the evening wrestling to see who would be on top. I was worried she was going to gut me toward the end. In fact I've still got a rather pretty scar on my belly."

"Really?" Crincile's magic gave one last tug at the straps around her body while she leaned over Star with a curious expression. "I've never seen it."

"You never get that far up, dear," Star replied. She hiked up her leg and rolled onto her back, exposing the full length of her abdomen. For a moment she stared at it, wondering when she'd become so pudgy and out of shape. Then she traced a hoof from just below her navel and up to her chest. Crincile crawled up until her snout was almost touching Star's coat. "Around there somewhere. It's hard to see it now."

"I certainly can't," Crincile replied, looking up at Star. Then, abruptly, she snaked her tongue along the line Star had traced and shifted her weight forward until she was hanging over Star's barrel. "Perhaps I'll feel it instead," she cooed, and planted her hooves firmly on either side of Star's head.

"What are you—"

Star's exclamation was cut off by a forceful, tongue-filled kiss, one that she found she was annoyingly eager to return. Yet just as she leaned into it, Crincile pulled away, leaving Star gasping and reaching for her lips.

"Turnabout," said Crincile, "is fair play."

She lowered her head again, but not for another kiss. Instead Crincile's snout brushed past Star's cheek and along her neck, while her lips and teeth tugged and teased at Star's coat. The cooler twitched rhythmically against Star with each shift of Crincile's head, tormenting her with vague insinuations of a pleasure just beyond her reach.

Crincile's tongue snaked toward Star's ear. With a frustrated grunt, Star twitched her head away. "Are you going to stick it in or what?"

"Eventually." Crincile slid down to rest her head on Star's barrel. "I think I might try this with Lucent," she continued, with a vacant sort of smile and a distant look in her eyes.

As she spoke the room was filled by a fresh wave of bitter musk, and not all of it from Crincile either. Star twitched her legs, unable to ignore the sticky wetness binding her coat to Crincile's as their bodies pressed closer together. Another hot shiver coursed through Star's body. She tried to roll, kick her hips in the air, slide herself across the sheets, anything to sate the incessant demands of her body as it sought the release denied it. But Crincile kept moving, teasing with every nip and bite until she reached Star's chin and then her lips. Star wrapped her forelegs around Crincile's neck and hauled her close, muffling a lustful moan against Crincile's mouth.

They broke the kiss. Crincile giggled, snuffling hot breath against Star's jaw. "See what I mean?"

Star gasped. She closed her eyes and took a breath, but couldn't steady her pounding heart.

"So exposed," Crincile murmured, before running a hoof along Star's side and up across her belly. "You were probably on your back when she did it too."

"Crinkle..."

"And she was clawing at your belly," Crincile continued, her voice barely a whisper. She lifted her body; the cooler pressed against Star's labia as if it had a mind of its own. "With another claw deep inside you. Or her beak perhaps."

"I don't think—"

Crincile's hips twitched. The cooler thrust deep into Star, drowning her demands beneath a wave of urgent lust. She gasped and groaned at the sudden pressure within her, while her hips bucked spasmodically against Crincile's body. Crincile thrust once, twice, while her legs awkwardly sought purchase against she sheets. Then Star heard the flare of magic and felt its warm glow at her side.

Star lifted her head enough to see Crincile's magic lifting the cooler bulb. Her own magic was useless already. She reached out with her hoof, but the bulb moved away before she could touch it. When she looked up, Crincile was smiling at her.

"If you haven't figured it out yet, Star, you aren't in charge right now."

Star's head flopped against the pillows. "Really. And what brought on this sudden attack of will?"

"There's nothing sudden about it," Crincile replied, swinging her hips and driving the cooler just that little deeper. She nuzzled at Star's neck and jaw. "You've just not been paying attention."

Star fought feebly against the mind-numbing pulses of frustrated pleasure as her whole body wrapped around the shaft, anticipating its release. She tried to match her motion to Crincile, the better to avoid any stimulation, but that only prompted cooing approval from her mate.

"You might think I march in step with the rest of this herd. Be a good mare, do as I'm told—" Crincile drew back and thrust into star again "—and I get to fuck the prize stallion. That might work for the others, but not for me. Not more than once at any rate."

Star laughed, but her mirth was soon reduced to a panting moan. She gasped against Crincile's neck and licked her lips. "So your mother gets what she wanted after all, is that it?"

"Certainly not! I rather like having you here, and unlike you I was paying attention. You want to know what I learned?" Smiling, Crincile leaned down to Star's ear and whispered. "I don't need to control this herd. I just need to control you."

She raised herself over Star and gave the cooler one last thrust. The bulb had fallen between them, lying on Star's belly and looking or all the world like a seed pod about to burst. Crincile's magic lifted it into the air. She smiled again.

"And it doesn't even have to hurt. After all, there are far more effective means to ensure your cooperation."

The bulb collapsed in Crincile's magic, and then Star's mind exploded.

Some time later, when the stars had faded and the echoes had ceased to bounce from the walls, Star and Crincile lay quietly atop the sheets, neither quite willing to let go of the other. It felt like a memory or a dream, one filled with the stench of earth and sweat and the heat of sated lust. And love, if she had to admit it. But it wasn't the memory of Twilight that lay in Star's grasp, or the lover who had last broken her body's grip on her mind so thoroughly.

Star grumbled a voiceless protest as Crincile shifted beneath her.

"It's really not fair, is it," she said.

Star grunted and tried to open her eyes. Outside her window, the sun was little more than an orange glow on the distant towers of Canterlot. She swallowed and wet her lips. "What isn't?"

"Biology," Crincile sighed. "We spend almost a quarter of the year ravening after orgasms that we can only get with a stallion or a dildo and a bucket of seawater. Donkeys barely even notice when they're in heat. I bet Zebra don't either—"

"They don't. They invented those insane cyclic calendars just so they could keep track of it all."

"See? Out of all our cousins we're the only ones it happens to. Not fair at all."

"And you wonder why I hate it."

Crincile huffed and then laughed quietly. "You hate everything, Star. Besides, it might not be fair, but that doesn't mean we can't make the best of it."

They lay still. Star didn't answer. Instead she closed her eyes and sighed into Crincile's neck. With the warmth and the distant rustle of the trees, she could almost believe she wasn't in the house, but far away and safe from the world. It was comfortable. Slowly, with the drumming of Crincile's heart in her ears, Star let herself drift to sleep.

Author's Notes:

I'm not going to try and explain anything.

Thanks to Alamais, Biker and CinnamonSwirlTheBreaded for being my sounding board and pointing out all the really dumb mistakes.