The drive home had become a boon to Anon lately; a fifteen-to-twenty-minute period of solace away from the simultaneous mundanity and chaos of adult life. He’d plug his phone into his stereo, select a tune from his playlist, and sing away the stress of another day. Today’s first song was a real cooker; I Don’t Wanna Hear It, by Minor Threat. He sang loudly to himself in his bubble of privacy, feeling only slightly self-conscious when he rolled down his window and lit a smoke. “People have forgotten what passionate music sounds like,” he thought as he caught a sideways glance from an older couple in the oversized SUV next to him at a traffic light. “They’d rather stick to conformity and safety than try something new and exciting.” Typical thoughts for a guy who didn’t have much going for him. He wasn’t particularly attractive, he was only slightly smarter than the average mouth-breather on the street, and his singing… left some to be desired. But none of that bothered him too much. He’d learned long ago that if people didn’t accept him as he was, then that’s their own damn fault.

At last, roughly nineteen minutes after departing his job, he arrived at home. He trudged up the stairs to the second floor and unlocked the door to his apartment. He was greeted immediately by his roommate, a lithe and vocal Russian Blue named Emma, who proceeded to verbally assault Anon with meows of pleasure at his arrival. The miniature walking bee factory was loud enough in her contentment to bring a tired smile to Anon’s face, and she didn’t let up a bit as she curled around each of his legs over and over again. “Hey there, girl. It’s nice to see you too.” Anon hung his keys on the ring next to the door and made his way to the rocking chair near the dining room. He flopped into it and attempted to remove his work boots, but Emma wasn’t about to make it easy for him. She continued to wrap herself skillfully around his legs until she noticed the boot laces dancing in the air behind her. Then, she struck out at them with the deftness that only a cat can muster, entwining her front paws in the laces and making quite a cute little mess of herself.

“Heh, if you keep that up, I’ll be stuck in my boots until work tomorrow, honey,” Anon said warmly to his furry friend. He helped her untangle herself and shooed her away so he could actually get undressed. After the boots came the leather jacket, followed by the faded blue jeans and socks. The clothes were tossed unceremoniously into the hamper to await laundry day, while the boots, socks, and jacket waited patiently at the front door for the next morning. Emma followed him, purring loudly, as he made his way into the kitchen.

“So, how was your day? Anything exciting happen while I was out?” he asked as he opened the cabinet wherein lay the haphazardly stacked cans of food for his little roomie. She was there in the blink of an eye, meowing even louder than before and rubbing against every part of his body she could reach. “Is that so? Wish I had some excitement to share with you, but it was just another day at the job site.” He spoke these words with another tired smile as he popped the easy-open lid off the can and dumped its contents into the little food bowl next to the refrigerator. She was upon it immediately, making adorable little nomming noises while she ate.

Anon stood up and smiled through his beleaguered sigh, opening the fridge and fishing out his dinner, as well as a beer. Anon was selective when it came to beer; no macro-brewed trash for this boy. Tonight’s pick was a nice vanilla porter. He pondered the thought of making this brew his dinner, but his stomach staunchly protested the idea. Conceding with a shrug, he pulled out leftovers from the previous night’s meal; mojo pork chops with yellow rice and sweet peas. He wasn’t a great cook by any means, but he was good enough to get by at the stove top. Pairing his drink with his meal wasn’t his specialty either, but it wasn’t about complimenting flavor for Anon; he cared only about how the food tasted and how the beer tasted.

With drink in one hand and reheated dinner in the other, Anon made his way into the living room and sat down on the worn sofa behind a TV dinner table. He turned on the TV and found his baseball team’s game. They were losing; what else was new? But he cheered them on anyways. He ate and drank, sometimes checking his phone, sometimes yelling in frustration at the people on the other side of the screen, until both his food and drink had vanished. He stood, burped, and made his way into the kitchen, stroking Emma’s head as she snoozed on the arm of the couch. The beautiful blue-grey feline squinted happily at him, then rolled onto her back and swished her tail lazily, falling immediately back into her dream world.

Dishes dealt with and brew replaced, Anon made his way to his bedroom where he would spend the rest of the night. He plopped into the mushroom chair near the foot of his bed and turned on both the TV and the PlayStation this time. He took a long pull of his brew as he tried to decide what he would do until bedtime; games or movies, games alone or with his online friends, shooter or role-playing, etc. Eventually he settled on just watching a movie, A Quiet Place to be specific. He’d heard good things about it and now was the time to dive in. As he settled into his chair, Emma trotted in and leapt into his lap, making herself quite comfortable and earning a loving back scratching from her papa. “Hmm, maybe life isn’t so bad after all,” he thought to himself.

About forty-five minutes later, Anon was losing the battle with the night. As interested in the movie as he was, he just couldn’t keep his damn eyes open. John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, and their idiot children could do nothing against the power of tasty beer, a full belly and a sleeping lap cat. He made peace with the fact that he wouldn’t be finishing this film tonight and steadily nodded off, his thoughts gathering at one end of his mind around a photo of himself and his parents when he was much younger and happier.

But just as he was about to pick up the photo and clutch it to his chest, a loud sound, something like a combination of popping and tearing, accompanied by a blinding flash of teal light right in front of him, broke him out of his fantasy. The ear-splitting sound sent Emma scurrying for her life out into the main room of the apartment, and the shock of the event startled Anon quite completely, snapping him awake in an adrenaline-fueled miasma. He awoke so suddenly that he leaned back much too far in his chair, which naturally toppled right over, and he hit his head right at the base of his skull. The impact wasn’t overly hard, but the sensitivity of that spot combined with the protruding corner of his bookshelf worked in tandem to both open a small, yet painful, gash at the base of his hairline and knock him unconscious.

As he drifted off into not-sleep, he once again found himself reaching out to the photo of his family to find comfort. He picked it up and held it high, as if it were a newborn or a kitten. He studied the faces of his parents in their younger years; his mother, a beautiful redhead with kind green eyes, looked back at him with the warmth and grace only a mother could convey. His father, much like him, was not overly attractive but was a well-built man with a stern gaze set into a solemn face. He set the picture down on nothing and floated through the void towards a small light in the distance. Where had that come from? He’d never seen that in his dream before. As he drew nearer the light, he thought he could hear a voice. Female, gentle, on the verge of panic.

“Huh. That’s odd. I don’t recognize that voice. It’s nice, though.”

Drawing nearer to the light, he reached out a hand towards it and was surprised to see his hand fading away the closer he got to it. He looked down at his body to see the same thing happening there, and the voice was now choking against tears. Little hiccups and sniffles interspersed with pleading; “Oh, please, don’t let this be what I take back to Twilight. She’ll never let me study magic on my own again!” Anon couldn’t help thinking that he was the cause of this woman’s trouble, despite having no evidence of what had happened and being fairly certain he was in the middle of an out-of-body experience. Finally, the light was within arm’s reach and he extended his no-longer-there arm to grasp it. When his incorporeal fist clenched around the light, everything exploded into a blinding white around him and he lost all sense of his surroundings, until…

“WOAH!” he exclaimed with a gasp and comically large gulp of air as he lurched into a seated position. Silly, right? He hadn’t been drowning in his dream world, but it somehow felt appropriate. “Arghh… damn, that hurts…” he hissed as he gingerly felt the gash in his neck and tried to think through the raging storm of pain in his head. Then he froze; he wasn’t alone.

Slowly raising his eyes, his gaze fell upon something almost out of a cartoon; a horse, or maybe a pony, but not like any horse or pony he’d ever seen before. This one was rather short, maybe four to four-and-a-half feet tall and was a brilliant pinkish lavender color in its coat. Contrasting rather nicely with the pastel coat was a mane and tail of royal purple with a light teal-green streak ribboning through it from root to tip. But that wasn’t even the strangest part of the intruder’s appearance. Her face, for it was most certainly a her, was not at all like a pony’s face; her muzzle was short and her head tall and round with eyes to match, and her mouth, which was agape, was lined with teeth much smaller than normal pony teeth. Protruding from her forehead was a horn about the length of his own hand, making her a bonafide unicorn. Her body was only slightly more horse-like in shape, with her neck running more vertical than horizontal, and her legs were much thicker than a normal pony, with no clear indication where foreleg ended and hoof began; it was a seamless transition from leg to foot. Even stranger still, on either side of her gorgeous tail, on both flanks, sat a strange symbol; it looked to be a small kite, purple in color, with an ivory kite behind it, and a tail that matched the teal ribbon in her own mane and tail. And finally, her torso itself was bean-shaped and cuddly-looking in its proportions, being neither too portly nor too thin. She was shaped in such a way that it seemed to Anon that someone had taken a doodle they’d made and brought it to life. And speaking of her eyes, they were a beautifully deep and swirling mix between a darkish blue and a proud indigo, and they were locked onto his in a way that screamed “shocked.” Her entire expression was one of shock, come to think of it.

He blinked twice and shook his head, forfeiting the unspoken staring contest between them. “Uhhh… heh. Hello.” he said calmly, hoping to show this near-alien being he meant no harm. She hadn’t changed her expression at all since he’d come to. “Wasn’t expecting guests this late at night,” he said with an air of mock surprise, doing his best to act normal and keep from spooking the strange equine. “I don’t have much in the way of food or drink, so forgive me for not offering. Unless you like porter.”

The visitor didn’t budge. She simply stood there, looking back over her left shoulder at him, eyes taking in his features.

“I’ll take that as a ‘maybe,’” he said as he rose to his feet and made his way into the kitchen. He opened the fridge door, squatted down to the beer shelf and paused; hoof steps. He leaned back to peer around the door and saw his new four-legged friend standing at the threshold to his kitchen, half of her visible around the corner of the cabinets. Her expression had changed from one of shock to one of clear concern, and she rubbed her left foreleg with her right hoof, her cute softly pointed ears flopping down against her head.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Are you alright?” she asked nervously. Taking another moment to study her face, he could see the tear streaks down her cheeks and the slight puffy redness in her eyes. His guest had clearly taken on the responsibility for his bumps and bruises, but he couldn’t see why; it was just an accident after all. She must not have been used to scaring folks like this.

“Pfft, I’ve taken harder falls at work. I’ll be fine after a drink. My name’s Anon,” he said cordially as he grabbed another beer from the bottom shelf. He stood up and walked to the counter around which his guest had partially hidden herself. He opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle opener, glancing over at the little pony and expecting a response. When he didn’t get one immediately, he took one more moment to watch her fidget, eyes darting between him and Emma, who had reappeared from under the couch.

“That’s Emma, my roommate-slash-pet-slash-boss,” Anon said with a chuckle as he popped off the bottle cap. Emma was already satisfying her curiosity with the exciting new guest by sniffing at her hooves. The pony must’ve smelled good or non-threatening (or both), because within seconds Emma was curling herself around her legs and purring much like she had when Anon came home from work. The affection seemed to lift the pony’s spirits, because she gave a small smile and un-flopped her ears a tiny bit.

“She’s so trusting. For all she knows, I could be a horrible monster here to gobble her up!” the pony joked with a nervous smirk as she rubbed the Russian Blue’s chin with the tip of her hoof.

“Heh. You’re not gonna do that, of course. Right?” Anon asked, not wary in the slightest. Odd, he thought. He should be apprehensive about this entire event, but he was unusually calm.

“N-no, of course not! I’m just trying to break the ice and work up the nerve to tell you my name!” the little pony exclaimed, her eyes widening.

“Good, ‘cause I really love that cat and I’d hate to have to break your legs. Or try to anyway. You’re obviously not from around here, and I’m not sure how I’d deal with a creature who can apparently materialize out of thin air at will.”

“Aw, you don’t have to worry. I won’t eat Emma. She’s too sweet to eat, isn’t that right?” she cooed at the cat as she rubbed up against her legs with unfaltering fervor. Seemed like Emma had found her new favorite person.

“Trust me, the thought of my cat being eaten is the least of my worries right now,” Anon said with a slight roll of his eyes. He leaned back against the counter and took a swig. “So, what’s your name anyway?”

“I’m Starlight. Starlight Glimmer,” the little pony said, her mood brightening a bit more.

“Well, it’s certainly a surprise to meet you, Starlight Glimmer.” Anon said, taking another pull from his beer.

“I’m… uhh… surprised to be here,” she said, her cheeks flushing.

“And how is it you came to be here in the first place?” Anon asked, swirling his bottle in his hand.

“I’m not sure. I was studying a spell in one of Twilight’s books and I thought I had it figured out. I guess not, huh?” Starlight said, a bit embarrassed as she rubbed the back of her head with a hoof.

“A spell? As in, a magic spell? Like ‘abra, cadabra, ala kazam’?” Anon asked incredulously.

“Uh, yeah. I am a unicorn after all,” Starlight replied with a perplexed look.

“Right, how silly of me to not expect a pastel talking miniature mythical creature to be able to perform actual magic,” Anon said back, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose. He could already tell tonight would be a long night. “So, let’s back up a bit. Your name is Starlight Glimmer and you’re a magical unicorn from… where exactly?”

“Equestria. That’s where I live,” she replied brightly.

“Uh-huh, and is everyone who lives there a magical talking pony?” Anon asked, finishing his porter and moving to the fridge for another.

“Mostly, yeah. There’s also dragons, gryphons, changelings, and all sorts of creatures in Equestria.”

“Woah, that’s pretty cool,” Anon pondered the possibilities of such a world as he fetched his third (or fifth) brew, as well as one for his guest. “Would you like one?” he asked, holding it out to her.

“What is it?” she asked, tilting her head and furrowing her brow.

“It’s a beer, a vanilla porter to be specific.”

“Oooh, I like vanilla,” she responded excitedly, prancing in place.

“Okay, lemme open it for you.” Anon went back to the counter to open both bottles but stopped as he lifted the bottle opener to pop the top off her drink. A strange teal aura had enveloped both beers, lifting them from the counter and levitating them in the air between him and her. Looking past the floating glass, he spied the same teal aura surrounding Starlight’s horn and a warm smile on her face. “That’s okay, I’ve got it,” she said sweetly. Her face scrunched up a bit, as though it were taking some effort to perform this feat. Anon theorized that after breaking through dimensions, even a trick as relatively mundane as telekinesis could take its toll. A second later, two pops were heard simultaneously, and Starlight’s face relaxed. She floated his bottle back over to him and he grabbed it from mid-air, the teal aura around it disappearing as he took hold of it. As he lifted it to his lips, he noticed she hadn’t done the same; she was holding it in the air expectantly, angling it towards him.

“To new friends,” she said warmly, her beautiful eyes closing and an inviting smile spreading across her lips.

Anon smirked despite himself and reached out his bottle, clinking its neck against the neck of hers. “To new friends.”

He took a long pull from his brew, interrupted by Starlight’s exclamation of “Oh wow, that’s delicious!”

“Pretty good, huh? I think so, too.”

And then she did something that made his jaw drop; she upended the bottle and slugged the rest of the malty liquid in one go! “Ahhhh… oh yeah, I could drink that all day!” She wiped the cream-colored foam from her mouth with her foreleg and floated her empty bottle over to the trash can, depositing it with a clink-clank.

“Uh… didn’t expect you to take to it like that. Most folks from this world don’t even like this stuff,” Anon said, eyes wide. He was impressed with her gusto in drinking a liquid she’d never encountered before.

“I don’t see why; that was tasty!” Starlight beamed at him; her mood having certainly been raised substantially, he decided to fish out some more information from this increasingly delightful little visitor.

“Heh heh, I’m glad you think so. So back to what we were talking about,” he said after another swig of his drink. “What’s this Equestria like?”

Starlight’s eyes were twinkling now as she smuggled another porter out the fridge, popping the cap and closing the door in one fluid magical motion with only the slightest of adorable grunts at the effort. “Well, it’s a beautiful place inhabited mainly by ponies. There’s three different kinds of ponies: Earth ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns.” She took a swig of her own beer, licking her lips in a way that Anon found oddly tantalizing. “You already know what a unicorn is; you’re talking to one. Pegasi have wings and help control Equestria’s weather. Earth ponies don’t have wings or horns but are usually pretty strong and can tend the land like no other pony can. Then there’s the Princesses; they’re a special fourth kind of pony called an Alicorn. Alicorns are a combination of Unicorn and Pegasus; they have both horns and wings. There’s only five of them, and nopony’s really sure how they come to be.”

Anon had to admit that this was truly fascinating; this place sounded like something out of a fairy tale. He suddenly became worried that he wasn’t actually awake anymore, that he’d somehow stayed asleep after his movie and all this was just his own imaginings. But he decided to roll with it since he didn’t really have much else going on in his boring life anyways.

“Princesses? Like rulers? And there’s five of them?” he asked, taking another drink.

“Yeah, but only three of them are rulers. At least, for the time being.” She chuckled a bit at that last sentence and sipped her own drink. “There’s Princess Celestia, who raises and lowers the Sun each day. She’s also kinda the face of the royalty, making public appearances and all that boring stuff. Her younger sister, Princess Luna, raises and lowers the Moon each day and protects ponies in their sleep. She can visit the dreams of anypony in Equestria with her magic. The Two Sisters live in Canterlot, the capital of Equestria. Then you’ve got Princess Cadance, who rules the Crystal Empire in the north. She’s the Princess of Love and Family and has the ability to spread love wherever she goes. Her daughter is Princess Flurry Heart, who is still just a foal and doesn’t rule anything yet.”

She paused and tapped her hoof to her chin before finishing off her beer. Anon was rapidly being won over by this creature and he was pretty sure it was only partly because of her charm.

“Lastly, there’s Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Starlight said with a wistful look as she pulled a third porter from the fridge. At this rate, Anon would have to buy more before payday! He was willing to let it slide though, given the circumstances. Starlight popped the cap and took a drink before continuing. “She’s the Princess of Friendship. She didn’t start life as an Alicorn; she was just a unicorn until a few years ago when she finished a spell written by one of Equestria’s most legendary figures, Starswirl the Bearded. When she did that, Princess Celestia granted Twilight her wings and dubbed her the Princess of Friendship. She has a castle in Ponyville, where she lives with me and Spike, her young dragon friend.”

“You live with a Princess?” Anon asked, his eyebrow raising. He finished off his own brew and fetched another.

“Yep! She’s one of my best friends. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.” Her expression turned downcast at that last statement.

“What do you mean?” Anon asked, his own expression turning inquisitive.

“W-well… I kinda sorta ruled a town with a tyrannical hoof at one point. Came from fillyhood trauma.” She blushed furiously and glanced down to where Emma lay as if seeking comfort in the innocence of the whiskered one. Her eyes watered a bit and her ears drooped once more; clearly her life up until recently had been a painful one. “Twilight and her friends came to my town and overthrew me, forcing me out on my own and leaving me to my own schemes. I wanted revenge against Twilight, and I searched and spied for the better part of a year to put my plan together.”

“Well, this is taking a turn for the dark,” Anon thought to himself.

“What did you do,” he asked with clear concern, taking a swig.

“I… I stole another of Starswirl’s spells from the Royal Archives and modified it,” the little pony said quietly, rubbing one foreleg with the other in a small show of shame. “It was a time-travel spell, and I used it to go back in time to stop a certain event; the event that led to Twilight and her friends being brought together.” She was on the verge of tears again; maybe it was the alcohol gaining traction, but either way this was something that had stuck with her long after the fact.

“Why would you do that? Seems extreme,” Anon asked. He wasn’t sure it was the best idea to keep pushing the subject, but he was sincerely interested in this young pony and the land she came from, not to mention the circumstances that brought her to his home.

Starlight was silent for a moment, save for the sniffles and small sobs escaping from her muzzle. She turned her head away from him in a vain attempt to hide her vulnerability, but she couldn’t conceal her emotions no matter how she tried. Emma looked up at her and mewed softly, imparting her sympathies in the only way a cat can. Starlight opened her eyes, the tears flowing freely now, and gave a weak smile to Emma as she scratched the cat behind her ears, again with the tip of her hoof. Then she sat down for the first time that Anon had noticed since he regained consciousness, her rump on the floor and her upper body supported by her front legs much like a cat or dog.

She took another gulp from her bottle, this one noticeably deeper than before, and continued her story through her sobbing. “When I was a filly, I had a friend named Sunburst. He and I were always together; learning magic, getting into trouble, and generally being kids. But when he got his cutie mark…” She looked back at the symbol on her flank at these words, and her expression became even sadder if you could believe it. “… he was taken away from me, whisked away to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. I was left alone, and I refused to make more friends because I was convinced the thing that would ruin all my friendships was the marks they earned when they discovered who they were meant to be.”

She paused to take another drink, an even bigger one this time, and wiped her eyes with her foreleg. Anon stood there silently and patiently, pulling from his own drink and feeling an overwhelming urge to hug Starlight with all his might. He decided to hold off for now; he was sure another opportunity to comfort this hurting young mare would present itself.

“So, I grew up and I left home. I wandered Equestria until I found my village, the one where I met Twilight and her friends. I convinced the ponies living there that they should give up their cutie marks to find true happiness and friendship. Equality was my motivator; nopony would feel special if they were all the same, right?” She looked up at Anon, eyes red and glistening, nose running. “But Twilight and crew found my village and overturned everything I had built there. They and the townsponies drove me out, and I was all alone again until my plan came together. One day, Twilight was returning from Canterlot after giving a speech to a class of magic students. I was waiting for her at her castle with my time travel spell, ready to take everything from her the same way she had taken everything from me. When she arrived, I cast my spell and went into the past, leaving the spell scroll behind to trick her into trying to follow me. She did, of course, because that’s just the kind of pony she is, but she couldn’t and still can’t match me in magical ability even though she’s an Alicorn.”

Anon drank from his bottle again, bringing it to near-empty, then asked, “So what happened next?”

Starlight took one last mighty swig of her drink and magically tossed the empty bottle into the trash can. She sniffled one last time and stood up, walking over to the fridge for yet another porter. As she popped the cap off, this time with no grunting (probably due to the beers), she looked up at Anon and smiled so sweetly that he thought he’d catch diabetes just from seeing her like this. “She gave me the chance to redeem myself. She showed me what the future would be like if I didn’t stop and it brought me to my senses. In the end, she offered me her hoof in friendship, and I accepted it.”

Starlight sighed heavily, closing her eyes, and took a big swig of her beer, but she nearly dropped it when Anon suddenly and without warning bent down and wrapped her in a deep and sincere embrace. She cried out with a gasp and struggled to keep her telekinetic hold on her drink, squirming only slightly against Anon’s grip. “What you’ve been through, how you handled yourself after something like that…” He hugged her tighter and closed his own eyes. “I totally get it. It was the wrong answer, but everyone deals with trauma in different ways, and the fact that you saw the error of yours and are working to better yourself proves that you’re a good person.”

And then she melted into him, wrapping her forelegs around him in complete surrender to her emotions. She pressed her head against his shoulder and whimpered softly, “I-I-I’m sorry; I show up out of nowhere in your home and knock you out cold by accident and I drop my life’s story on you, and you respond with kindness I never would have expected.” She sniffled again and smiled. “Maybe it was a good thing I screwed the spell up. I may never have met you otherwise.”

Anon’s heart thumped in his ears and his eyes shot open. “That sounds an awful lot like flirting,” he thought to himself. He slowly unwrapped himself from Starlight and looked her in the eye. She still wore that sweet smile and her eyes were still red and shiny, but he had to admit she was beautiful in her own way. She hadn’t let go of him yet, but that was fine. Her hooves were surprisingly soft on the bottom, almost as soft as the rest of her body. It was then that he noticed how truly wonderful she smelled; like lilac on a spring day. He caught a whiff of his own scent and wretched internally; he needed a shower. Perhaps it was time to see about getting Starlight home.

“I’m glad to have met you too, Starlight,” Anon said as he stood up again. Starlight remained seated but closed her eyes and grinned up at him expectantly. “So, how do we get you back home? Your friends are probably worried and I’m betting Princess Twilight can’t wait to scold you.”

“Oh, I’m sure. She would pester me for every little detail about my journey and then make me do all Spike’s chores for a week for screwing up like this, heh heh,” she replied with a playful roll of her eyes. “But unfortunately, I can’t go back right away. I pretty much burnt myself out with that teleportation spell. You saw me struggling with the bottles.”

“Hmm… yeah, I did.” Anon furrowed his brow. “How long do you think it’ll take you to… recharge?”

“I’d say at least twelve hours,” she answered with a tap of her hoof to her chin. “A good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast and I should be ready to go.”

Twelve hours. That was manageable, right? Nothing insidiously awful could happen in twelve hours. He hoped.

“Okay. A good night’s sleep it is then. I’ll take the couch and you can have my bed,” Anon offered. He got the feeling that wouldn’t satisfy the mare in the slightest.

So, when she responded with, “No, I couldn’t do that to you! Not after you’ve already been so kind to me!” he wasn’t surprised at all. He gulped, knowing that he couldn’t in good faith offer her the couch. That meant they’d be sharing their sleeping arrangements, much to delight of the strangely growing warmth in his loins. And with the combination of the pleading look she was giving him and the still-visible tear streaks, there was no way he’d be able to refuse.

Anon sighed heavily and crossed his arms, his heart racing. “Alright, we’ll share my bed. I need a shower before I hit the sack, but feel free to make yourself comfortable.”

“Well that’ll be easy, since I only brought me, myself, and I,” she giggled. What a cute laugh!

Anon forced a smile back and made his way to the bathroom. He paused in the doorway and looked back over his shoulder at her as she trotted into his bedroom. He gulped again, and asked, “You want a shower after I’m done?”

“Sure! I feel like I need one. Don’t wanna get my salty tears and snot on your pillows after all,” she chimed back. She was looking around his bedroom with obvious curiosity, her eyes twinkling and her tail swishing back and forth gently. He caught a glimpse of what lay beneath her tail and flushed, turning away immediately and nearly stumbling into his bathtub. “This is nuts. She’s a fucking horse woman from another dimension! Why am I getting all worked up over her?” he thought as he regained a semblance of composure and turned the faucet in the tub. The rushing of the water wasn’t quite loud enough to drown out the clamoring of his heartbeat in his ears, but it was another sound building over the ruckus that drew his attention. He turned on the shower to lessen the noise a bit while not making it obvious that he was eavesdropping on his guest while she sang in the most calming voice he’d ever heard. Her song had no words, but her tone was perfect, and she was able to hold a note effortlessly. He almost forgot what he’d come into the bathroom for.

After another minute of listening to her beautiful, and sensual, singing, he stripped and climbed into the shower. He cleaned himself unceremoniously and stood under the delightfully warm water for a good ten minutes. His heartrate hadn’t slowed much, but he knew he couldn’t stay in there forever and waste all the hot water. He turned the faucet off and grabbed his towel, drying his hair first and then the rest of his body, finishing by wrapping the towel around his waist. He climbed out of the shower and froze up; where were his pajamas? In his panicked state, he’d forgotten them on the bed. Well, there was nothing for it; one way or another, he would be seen in this compromising position by his decidedly female guest, a guest who has already expressed subtle interest in being more than just friends. So, he worked up the gumption to walk to his bedroom and let Starlight have her turn in the shower.

Cautiously, he began making his way across the short distance to his bedroom. He peeked inside before entering to see what Starlight was up to. She was leaning against his bed in a seated position, humming her hauntingly beautiful tune and levitating one of his stuffed animals in front of her, making it dance. She was so serene now that it was hard to believe this was the same person who had been a blubbering mess not half an hour ago.

He cleared his throat to announce his presence, at which Starlight opened her eyes and looked his way. When she saw that he wasn’t dressed, she flushed, but not as much as he expected her to. “Oh, is it my turn?” she asked cheerfully. She set the toy down on the bookshelf and stood up, pausing a moment to look over the rest of the knick-knacks on the shelf before chuckling. “It’s a cute little collection. I hope you don’t mind, but I couldn’t help myself,” she said as she turned towards Anon.

“No, no, it’s fine. I play with them myself from time to time,” he responded with a wave of a hand, making sure he kept a firm grip on the towel with the other.

“I figured as much,” she said back with a small giggle. Gods above but that laugh was the cutest! “Well, I guess I’ll go freshen up a bit. I feel like I look like a mess,” she said with a little toss of her mane.

“Help yourself,” Anon replied with a smile, moving from the doorway to let her pass and extending his arm towards the bathroom like a maître d’, bowing a bit, even.

Starlight trotted to the door, bringing her lovely lilac scent with her, causing him to relax a bit despite everything else about her driving his libido insane.

“Hey, Starlight?” he said as she was passing him.

“Hmm?” she asked, turning her head.

Turning her head and getting her horn caught in the fold of the towel. She let out a yelp of surprise and whipped her head back in the opposite direction to free herself, but that only made the situation worse. The force of the motion ripped the towel from Anon’s relaxed grip and sent it careening across the floor of his bedroom, leaving him standing there in his birthday suit in front of a flirty female from another dimension.

Anon couldn’t move even though every fiber of his being was screaming at him to do so, and Starlight just stared, her face beet red and her mouth hanging open, foreleg held up to her muzzle, rump on the floor. Slowly, she closed her mouth and raised her eyes from his groin to look him in the eye. “I-I… I… I-I…” she stammered, her ears flopping down to her head again.

Before she could finish her fumbling speech, Anon snapped out of his stasis and grabbed his pajamas, shoving them on as quickly as his arms and legs would allow. His face was as red as hers and his heartbeat was like the launching of a rocket now. “I-I’m gonna climb into b-bed now,” he half-mumbled, not turning to face her.

“O-o-okay, I-I’ll go take a-a shower then,” she half-mumbled back, standing and backing away from him towards the door, but instead backing into his standing lamp, knocking it to the floor. She yipped out loud and hastily stood the lamp back up with her telekinesis, giving a mightily embarrassed smile to Anon’s back as she trotted backwards out the door this time.

Anon waited until he heard the door to the bathroom close and the faucet turn before lighting a smoke and sitting in his chair again. He leaned forward, staring at the floor as he pulled on the cigarette. “This is turning into an absolute shitshow. What did I do to deserve that humiliation?” he thought to himself as the smoke curled around his face. This was when Emma chose to reveal herself, appearing in the doorway and mewing at him plaintively.

“Well, what do YOU think I should do, honey? I’m stuck; she can’t go home until tomorrow and I wouldn’t dare send her somewhere else, not that she would agree to that anyway. She feels indebted to me, and I can’t take that away from her,” he said to his furry roommate as she plodded over to receive his loving ear scratches.

“Meow” and purring were the only response given in return as he pulled again.

He sighed heavily. “Yeah, that’s about what I expected. Y’ know, I’m not sure this night could get any crazier than it already has even if I wanted it to.” He patted her butt lovingly as she turned from him and leapt onto the bed, kneading at his blankets in preparation for him to join her. He took one last drag and extinguished the cherry in an ashtray, then stood and rubbed his temples, eyes shut tight in frustration. “She’s been in there for quite a while, huh? Guess she needs some time to calm down, too,” he thought aloud as he walked to the light switch and flipped it off, enwreathing the bedroom in the cool embrace of darkness. Climbing into bed, he only slightly disturbed Emma before finding his comfy spot. He pulled the covers up under his armpit and closed his eyes, trying desperately to placate his racing mind.

A few minutes later the water was silenced, and after a few more the door to the bathroom opened. Although his eyes were closed, Anon could see a faint teal light through his eyelids and he opened an eye to have a peep. Starlight was trotting slowly into the bedroom, her ears at a half flop as if being cautious, her eyes darting between him and her path to the other side of his bed. The tip of her horn was illuminated in a small beacon of light which lit her surroundings in a manner not unlike a nightlight. The light given off was just enough for him to make out that she was still blushing, the red tint on her cheeks turned more purple by her teal-colored spell. He could also see the slight glistening of her still-damp mane and tail, reflecting the tiny amount of light and sending his thoughts racing again. She reached her side of the bed and carefully climbed in, facing away from him and doing her best to keep from annoying Emma, who was positioned between them. Despite having ostensibly just washed, her lilac scent was just as strong now as it had been before she’d headed to the bathroom and it fueled the fires of lust being stoked in his mind. He was glad to keep an extra blanket on hand in case the heater crapped out; it meant he wouldn’t have to make things any more awkward by adding blanket sharing to the mental list of crazy happenings he’d created this evening. She snuggled up underneath it, confounding all logical thought by pulling the blanket up to her muzzle with her hooves. She put out her little light and sighed peacefully as she laid her head against the pillow.

“G-good night, Anon,” she said quietly.

“Good night,” Anon replied, his heart settling a bit, though not as much as he would have liked.

Emma meowed in protest. “Good night to you too, Emma,” they said together, and the Blue laid her head down. Starlight chuckled at that before quieting down. Anon smiled too, but it faded fast; he just wanted sleep to come quickly. The sooner he was asleep, the sooner tomorrow would come, and the sooner he could see her on her way. He shifted slightly and sighed, focusing once again on quieting his mind, the night stillness broken only by Emma’s slowly quieting purring and Starlight’s breathing. A lot of things required quieting on this night, apparently.

The night rolled along without a hitch and Anon was right at the threshold of dreaming. He’d managed to still his mind enough to get reasonably comfortable and he’d nearly forgotten that he had a strange creature in his bed; a female one who’d been flirting with him and seen his genitals at that. His breathing had become regular and shallow, his body relaxed, and he found himself once again looking at the photo of his family on the desk made of nothing. But this time, he didn’t even get the chance to bend down to pick it up

He was roused from his slumber by Emma scurrying over the top of him and a rustling from Starlight’s side of the bed. “She’s such an asshole sometimes. Probably gonna go take a shit, then come back and lay on me with her ass in my face,” he thought to himself. He was immediately proven wrong when he felt a tugging sensation on his upper body rolling him onto his back. He opened his eyes groggily, his eyes having just barely had the time to adjust to the darkness. When he did, they popped open and his heart skipped a beat while it leapt into his throat. Starlight was hovering over him (non-telekinetically), looking down at him, eyes half-lidded, the faint rosy tint of her cheeks barely visible in the darkness. She was breathing heavily, and her horn was aglow with its aura once again. The telekinetic grip on his torso lifted and migrated to his waist, raising him off the bed just enough for a second magical grip to find the waistband of his pajama pants and begin pulling them towards his feet. Her eyes broke from his and she looked down to see his cock flop out, biting her bottom lip as she did so. Her lilac scent was overpowering now, filling him with the strange sensation of calming him yet alarming him simultaneously. She didn’t speak a word as she pulled Anon’s pants over his feet and flung them across the room, landing neatly folded on the chair.

“S-S-Starlight?!? Wh-what the hell are you doing!?” Anon nearly shrieked.

“I-I… I dunno. I think I drank too many of those porter things,” she replied, panting now with the strain of forcing herself to use more magic than she had any right to. “They were sooo tasty…” She licked her lips as she stared down at Anon’s cock, which had been hardening during their exchange.

“Starlight, wait. I’m not sure this is a good ideaAAAH!” Anon was unable to finish his thought. Another teal aura had surrounded his member and had begun stroking it. The sensation was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. He wasn’t sure he could describe it even if he tried. Imagine, perhaps, a handjob from a ghost, but warmer. Or maybe, from a numb arm. Starlight took immense delight in his reaction and she moaned audibly, still biting her lip. She had shifted onto her left side and was supporting herself with her left foreleg. Her tail was draped over her hindlegs, still barely damp and glistening in the darkness. It twitched every now and then, typically in response to Anon’s groaning.

Anon’s mind was a jumbled alphabet soup of conflicting thoughts; “What the FUCK? Why’s she doing this? Why aren’t I stopping her? We can’t have sex! She’s a horse alien from another dimension! But Gods above this feels incredible… She’s so beautiful… There’d be nothing wrong with it, right? We’re both adults. We’re both sapient beings. What’s the harm? BUT HOLD ON! She’s still an animal, isn’t she? I’m not into that kinda shit! But… where’d she learn to do this? She doesn’t strike me as the kind of girl who does this sort of thing… FUCK!”

Starlight’s magic was moving at a faster pace now, her mouth hanging open, eyes barely open. She leaned in and locked her lips with his, her tongue racing into his mouth and rummaging about like an eel reaching out to grab its meal. “She’s kissing me! SHE’S KISSING ME!” He could taste the porter on her tongue and breath, but her saliva was sweet like molasses. They stayed locked together like that, moaning into each other, for what seemed both like an eternity and only a couple seconds, all the while the telekinetic grip on his cock working away like a piston. Anon finally gave up the fight and reached his arms up to her encircle her head, his fingers threading their way through her silky mane.

She pulled away from him suddenly, an open smile on her face, eyes nearly glowing in the dim light from her aura. She was panting even more heavily now, not at all from the strain of keeping her magic going. Then Anon noticed a second teal glow coming from her backside, under her tail. Starlight was pleasuring herself with a magical phallus born from her intense sexual desire. He could just barely see the exposed end each time it retreated from inside her. She moaned long and loud, making Anon’s toes curl with delight.

Then the magical grip around him faded, and Starlight moved down to rest her haunches on his legs. Anon made a snap judgment and instead grabbed her behind her forward shoulder blades, earning a look of wide-eyed surprise and a loud “Ah!” from the pony. He spun her around so that her head was facing his feet and set her down on top of him. She giggled low and sensually, then dispersed the magical dildo inside her. As she lowered her mouth to his cock, Anon pushed her equally silky tail up and over her right flank. “If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do it right.” He grabbed ahold of either flank, fingers facing toward her pussy, and pulled outward, spreading her open before him. She twitched in anticipation as she wrapped her mouth around his cock, running her tongue over and around in circles with increasing speed. He took only a moment to study what he was looking at; an anus and vagina of slightly darker tone than her coat, bright pink vaginal walls, with her tail fading into her rump in a mix of purple and pink; her dock, which rested right above her anus. He tilted his head forward and kissed it gently a few times, earning a soft moan for his efforts.

Starlight released his cock for a moment to look back at him, a single strand of drool hanging from the corner of her mouth. “Ahh… you’re such a tease…” she half-sighed at him.

He answered her by bringing his tongue to meet her pussy, lapping up her secretions with lustful fervor. “She even TASTES sweet!” She moaned louder than she had before and set back to work pleasuring him with her own mouth and tongue. He mimicked her actions by circling his tongue around her insides, but he one distinct advantage over her: the ability to take advantage of depth. He switched periodically between circling his tongue and forcing it as deeply inside her as he could. His reward was the increasingly intense moaning and groaning coming from his crotch. She wouldn’t be outdone, though. She wrapped her forelegs under his thighs and abandoned her circle method, opting instead to pump her head back and forth as quickly and deeply as she could, tongue running across the topside of his cock, and he responded by slapping both of her flanks in tandem repeatedly. Having visibly reddened the skin beneath her coat, Anon removed his hands from her flanks and, with the right hand pulling on her tail, placed his left hand on the curve of her rump so as to allow him to pleasure her asshole with his thumb. A higher-pitched-yet-muffled moan escaped from around his cock and her hindlegs now crisscrossed under his head, pulling him back into her. He happily obliged and double-teamed her, his thumb in one spot and his mouth in another, tongue working away and helping to moisten her at an incredible speed. He only stopped to come up for air and lick his lips, panting nearly as hard as she, before diving back into that forbidden well of pleasure.

Before long, he felt the building pressure in his loins. He was determined to bring her to climax first though, so he began to sit up, causing her to release him and look back at him once again.

“Ahn… now what?’ she moaned. “Are you ready to – AHH!” He had forced her into a sort of bowing position, with the forward half of her body against the bed between his legs and her rear half standing. Her pussy was right at face level, but he was finished with his tongue. He kept his grip on her tail, but his other hand had taken an almost fingergun form. Before beginning his own piston routine, a teal aura enwreathed his cock once again, which began its amazing-feeling invisible handjob action once again. It was remarkable that she could control herself like that while not being able to see what she was focusing on, as well as being on the verge of climax herself. The best feeling part for Anon was the underside of his tip brushing against Starlight’s belly with every stroke. He had no time to lose; he plunged his fingers into her repeatedly, drawing moans and squeals at a volume that surely had woken the neighbors.

In no time flat, he felt an intense sudden wetness inside her, which coupled with a long and drawn-out moan signaled her climax. She tightened around his fingers and poured her juices onto him, panting and moaning all the while. He didn’t let up, even as he drew closer to his own ending. When he felt it at the precipice, he stopped fingering her and flopped onto his back, pulling her by the fronts of her hindlegs to bring her mouth back to his quivering cock. She immediately put it back in her mouth, moaning softly in anticipation and licking him gently. Finally, he released his seed into her mouth, gripping her flanks hard as he did so, a small muffled yelp rising from her throat. He groaned gutturally, throwing his head back into his pillow. The feeling was so wonderful that he nearly fainted from the pleasure.

After his contractions had subsided, Starlight pushed herself up onto her forelegs, turning her head to face him. He opened his eyes and titled his head forward to look into hers. When their eyes met, she swallowed, licked her lips and smiled.

“Haa… haa… wow. I’m really glad I screwed that spell up,” she panted. Her cheeks were as red as they were when she first saw him naked and her half-lidded eyes twinkled in delight.

Anon kissed her rump tenderly before lifting her off his chest. He expected her to protest, but she just smiled at him while she breathed heavily through her mouth. “Yeah… I’d be lying if I didn’t say the same,” he said as he sat up.

She leaned into him again, wrapping her hooves around his neck and kissing him passionately. When she pulled back, he noticed her incredible smell once again, unfettered by the scent of sex and sweat. Her chest heaved rapidly for a good time after they finished, and she laid her head on his lap as he lit a victory smoke. He pulled her body close to his legs while he puffed, completely content in his decision to grant this pony’s wish for interspecies canoodling. His phallus was still throbbing while he smoked, and it was all he could do to keep from giggling like an idiot from it being tickled by her mane. He hadn’t stayed hard this long for some time, and he’d forgotten how sensitive he could be.

Starlight was beside herself with happiness; she was tracing little circles into his thigh with her hoof and humming to herself. She hadn’t noticed that he was still hard, even when she turned her head to watch him as he smoked.

“I wonder what Twilight would say…” she pondered wistfully.

“She’d probably be jealous, knowing what little I do about her. I don’t imagine you guys get to do stuff like this very often,” he posited.

“Heh, she gets hers. Trust me,” Starlight chuckled with a wink.

“Oh, it’s like that, is it? How very interesting,” Anon responded with a raise of his brow.

“It’s kinda odd, honestly. We all do it, of course, and we’re pretty open-minded about partners, but it’s a very hush-hush and behind-closed-doors sorta thing,” she said, a tinge of annoyance in her voice.

“So, who does the Princess like to get frisky with?” Anon grinned sheepishly, anticipating the answer. He took another drag and blew it straight into air above him.

“Well, ahh…” she blushed and averted her eyes. “I did tell you I owe her, didn’t I?” Her eyes moved back to meet his, a strangely sultry look upon them.

“That you did, that you did. Friendship takes many forms, I guess.”

“We’re normal friends, too. The sex is just a once-in-a-while thing. I’m also her student in Friendship,” she quickly amended.

“You get to bang your teacher? Fuckin’ nice,” Anon said, putting on a terrible Australian accent and giving her a thumbs up.

She thumped him in the ribs with a hoof playfully. “It’s not like that, you barbarian!” she protested, her giggling removing any potential tension from the situation. That giggling would be the death of him, he would swear by it.

“Well, we’ve established that your gate swings both ways as well as up and down now,” Anon chuckled, proud of his interdimensional joke.

“Yep, I’m a mare of many tastes,” she mused as she closed her eyes and cuddled his thigh with her hooves.

“And speaking of tastes…” he said, “how do I taste in comparison to what you’re used to?

Instead of answering verbally, Starlight sat up and looked at him completely straight-faced. Then a smirk crossed her lips, her eyebrow raised, and her horn lit up ever so slightly. What followed was a strangely salty and meaty taste crossing his tongue, which cause him to wretch visibly. He shrieked and stuck his tongue out, scraping at it with his free hand in a desperate attempt to remove that taste from his tongue’s memory.

Starlight laughed heartily at the sight, her hoof raised to her mouth in joy. “Like that, heh heh,” she chimed happily.

“Oh, you’re sooo gonna pay for that,” Anon spat, taking a final drag from his cigarette and putting it out in the ashtray.

“Yeah? What’re you gonna do about it?” Starlight teased, her face scrunching into a mock sneer.

Anon answered by leaping onto her, a happy yelp and giggle greeting him as he forced her onto her back. She was biting her lip again, eyes half-lidded with lust, her face aglow with desire. Anon’s hands were on her front shoulders, pinning her beneath him. He leaned in and kissed her, their tongues entwining and searching each other’s mouths. As they kissed, one hand left her shoulder and started tracing its way down her torso, retracing its path every once in a while to rub her chest and belly, to which she responded with soft moans and giggles. She must have been ticklish in a couple spots because she broke the kiss to giggle in his face more than a couple times, which given how adorable her giggle was only strengthened his lecherous resolve. But his hand’s goal was not her belly. When it found its goal, she giggled again, and she pulled away from his lips to bite her own. What a giggly pony she was! The fingergun formation worked its magic again, aided by her still-wet pussy, but his pace was moderate. The fiery adrenaline had mostly faded and was replaced now by the desire to please his quadrupedal partner above all.

Starlight was vocal in her pleasure, moaning and groaning in sync with his finger thrusts, her gaze frequently switching from his eyes to her genitalia to glimpse the action, as well as his cock which had stayed hard through their entire rest period. She smiled often in an oddly comforting way given the circumstances, which Anon chalked up to just being her personality; she’d had a painful life and her sense of security had been compromised at an early age. Knowing that she now had people who genuinely cared about her, even if they’d just met, likely brought more joy to her heart than sex ever could. And Anon had to admit that he cared, as ridiculous as the idea was.

His fingers continued their track, sometimes stopping to spread her open, sometimes to trace circles inside her, and every movement brought forth a bevy of enraptured sounds from the mare’s mouth. He leaned in to kiss her neck from top to bottom, his reward being a soft moan and her hooves wrapping under his arms and around his back. She leaned her head back until her horn met the mattress and smiled, allowing him to kiss the underside of her chin as well. Her tail reached up to tickle his cock with its silken softness, startling him quite a bit and garnering another giggle from its owner.

“You may think you’re punishing me for that little trick,” she cooed, “but I’m not gonna just lie here and take it.”

“I beg to differ,” he replied, pulling his fingers out of her and sticking them in her mouth. She ran her tongue over them enthusiastically, sucking her own fluids off of him with delight. He made a quick judgment call and teased her head forward with his fingers, to which she opened her eyes to look at him demurely. Giving her a soft smile, he leaned in and gave her horn a soft kiss. She replied with a surprisingly pleased moan, and she nodded to him in confirmation that his call was correct. “Well, guess I’ll commit to it then,” he thought as he leaned back in and gave her horn a slow lick from base to tip. She shivered with delight both when his tongue met her horn and when it left.

“Mmm… maybe you’re right,” she almost purred, “I don’t think I could escape now even if I wanted to.” She ran her hooves along his back as he gave her horn another lick, shivering all the while.

After a couple more rounds of horn pleasuring, and her requisite moaning, Anon pulled back to look her in her beautiful eyes. They twinkled with satisfaction and her brow was furrowed in a pleased way. He kissed her on the mouth again, the taste of her juices faint on her tongue, and reached his hands up to her ears to give them a good rubbing. “I wonder if she’d like this as much as Emma does. She’s still an animal, right?” he thought; a thought which was immediately answered by a sensual sigh and visible relaxation of her entire body. Her eyes had closed and she’d leaned her head into his right hand, nuzzling his forearm and smiling.

Now was the time. He pulled his left hand away from her ears and grasped his cock. Starlight latched on to his plan and opened her eyes, watching him as he slowly guided his way into her. There was virtually no resistance; even with their difference in species, and therefore proportions, he entered her with ease. That isn’t to say that she wasn’t quite tight, and he winced slightly at the sensation. She brought her hindlegs together around his waist and gave a slight push to his butt, but he didn’t respond immediately.

“G-give me just a moment,” he sputtered.

“I thought you were punishing me,” Starlight chided.

“I never said I was gonna punish you,” Anon replied as he gingerly began to move inside her. His loins were at war with their own feelings; should they be screaming out for him to stop and let them rest, or should they cheer him on in his quest to make this lovely pony cum?

“Mmm… that’s not… ahh…” She tried to correct his statement, but her preoccupation was winning the argument.

His pace was slow for a long time, since he wanted to give his cock time to adjust to its new multiple-encounter reality. Besides that, he was taking a lot of pleasure in watching her facial expressions run the gamut from ecstatic joy to what seemed like wincing. She kept trying to force him to thrust faster by pushing against his backside with her legs, but he had promised to make her pay and if that meant teasing her with slower lovemaking then that would be his goal.

“No no, I’m in charge of this payback exercise,” he scolded as he ran his right hand through her wondrously soft mane.

She sighed with pleasure in response; not a hint of annoyance in her tone. Her eyes had closed and she once again laid her head back against the mattress, content to ride the gentle waves like a raft on the sea. Her mane was splayed out across the bed, amazingly still gleaming from her shower a couple hours or so earlier.

After a few more minutes of slow thrusting, ear rubbing and horn licking, Anon stopped. Starlight looked up at him, a mixture of confusion and concern written on her face. “Haa... What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing. I’d just like to see a little better,” he said as he pulled out of her. She moaned and propped herself on her forelegs, still lying on her back and spread-legged. Anon sat back on his haunches and reached up to the desk lamp on his bookshelf, clicking it on and illuminating the bedroom. Contrary to what he’d intended, the sudden brightness temporarily blinded both him and Starlight.

“Geez! Are you sure about that?” Starlight accosted as she shielded her eyes. Her giggly undertone kept his own sarcasm in check for the moment and he rubbed his own eyes.

“Hey, I said you’d pay right? I just haven’t thought it all the way through yet.” His tone betrayed only the slightest vexation, but at her or his own stupidity was anyone’s guess.

As his vision returned to normal he turned his eyes to his lover, who had rolled onto her right side, legs still spread. Her nethers were glistening from their exercise and twitched visibly in anticipation. She swished her tail back and forth, blocking his view with every return swing. Her own vision had seemed to clear up rapidly and she wore the sultriest of come-hither looks on her face. “Maybe don’t think so much,” she purred. “Just do.”

At those words, the fire in Anon’s chest that had been coaxed to life by both her undeniable charm and his own libido erupted into a raging maelstrom. There would be nothing slow about what came next.

“I intend to,” he replied as he lay down behind her and entered her once more. She chuckled and bit her lip, conceding to him completely. With one hand keeping her leg aloft and the other snaking its way through her mane to support and caress her head, he plunged into Starlight Glimmer with a ferocity that clearly surprised her judging by the high-pitched “Ahn!” that escaped her muzzle. Her eyes had clenched closed and her tail was laid across his bed-side thigh, its softness tantalizing. She had pressed her entire body against his, and his own head rested on top of hers. His hips worked at ludicrous speeds to bring her to climax and he relished the thought that his own climax was quite far off. He slowed his pace periodically, though only a bit, as he turned his focus to going as deep as he could. Every change in pace brought a symphony of delightful sounds from his companion. His efforts were rewarded sooner than even he expected; a great shiver ran through her entire body, coupled with a long and drawn out moan. With every quake, her body tensed up again, her legs trying to recede up to her torso and her chin turning to her chest, but as soon as the tremors passed she relaxed again, if only for a moment.

He slowed his pace once more and held it as he turned her head towards his and locked his lips with hers. She was still cumming as their tongues entwined and traced the insides of each other’s mouths, but her shudders had slackened quite a bit. After a minute or so of kissing, she pulled away and said “Haa… S-see? Isn’t… hnng… isn’t that easier th-than… mmn… than thinking?”

“Is this an acceptable answer?” he asked as he rolled her onto her stomach and began turning her perpendicular to the bed. As their legs slid off the bed, his feet on the floor and her hindlegs dangling a bit, she turned her head to look back at him. “Mmhmm,” she cooed with a demure smile, her eyes half-lidded. She lifted her tail so it wouldn’t be in the way (and to give him a better view) and wiggled her rump a bit. The feeling was starting to return to his cock now, as evidenced by how delightful her wiggling felt. That wasn’t the best sign for him; he wouldn’t be able to have as long of a doggy-style session as he would’ve liked, but he’d cross that bridge when he reached it.

But silly him; he’d already forgotten Starlight’s words. Instead of pondering his endurance any further, he gripped either side of her rump and began thrusting again. She immediately clenched her nethers to enhance her pleasure, not content to let her previous climax completely run its course. Her moans were irregular now, not keeping tempo with him at all, but they were long and pure. Her eyes were clenched shut and she had bitten down on a bit of the bedsheet. It did nothing to muffle her, though. Anon was beginning to sweat with the exertion. He was quite out of practice when it came to sex, but he still remembered all his old tricks. One of his favorites had already been implemented earlier, but he hadn’t really been able to gauge its effectiveness on his new partner. So, he gave it another go now that his cock wasn’t deep in her muzzle. His left hand stayed on her rump, though his grip tightened a bit, and his right moved to her asshole. He teased his thumb into it a couple of times and was immediately rewarded with one of the longest moans from his equine lover yet. Starlight turned her head against the bed and looked back at him around her right shoulder. She was once again biting her bottom lip, but something else had captured Anon’s attention. At the tip of Starlight’s horn, a single point of teal light had formed. It was quite bright, even with the light from the desk lamp brightening the whole room, and every so often a little shooting star of magic would fly from the beacon and disperse in the air.

“What’s that? Are you okay?” he asked with concern, slowing his pace a bit.

“Hnng… Y-yeah, I’m fine… it’s j-just a bit of… mmm… magical discharge…” she panted back. “Ha-happens sometimes… hah… during s-sex…”

“Hmm… like a…” He paused for a bit of drama, as well as to bask in his own clever pun, “horngasm?”

Starlight just smiled and nodded, sideways against the mattress. She had clutched a bit of sheet with each hoof, though Anon couldn’t figure out how. Ponies from Equestria seemed to have all sorts of powers aside from the ones she described to him earlier.

His question answered, Anon picked up the pace and re-centered his focus on his lover’s posterior. Where there would normally be slapping sounds from his hips hitting cheeks, there was instead a softer “pap pap pap” due to Starlight’s fuzzy rump. He had to admit that her coat felt amazing against his skin, and he wondered if all her kin had a coat this soft. He continued his lovemaking, moving his thumb in and out of her anus on opposite strokes to his cock; as his cock entered her, his thumb would retreat and vice versa. He watched and listened to his handiwork with satisfaction for a good while until he once again felt the telltale signs of climax begin to build in his loins. “Not yet, dammit. I’m not ready to be done,” he thought with dismay as he slowed his pace considerably.

Starlight seemed to catch on to his plight. “I h-have an… ahh… idea,” she cooed as she began trying to turn onto her back again. When she released the sheets from her anatomically confusing grip, Anon spied a small pool of drool beneath where her head had lain. He stopped thrusting to assist her in rolling over, but was surprised when, after laying her on her back again, she chose to reach up for him with her forelegs, much like a child asking to be picked up. She was still panting, mouth hanging open, as she said “Hah… I know a way… hah… to make a memorable finish…”

His interest was certainly piqued, though he was afraid that whatever she had in mind would be spoiled by him ejaculating as soon as her idea was acted upon. The thought of making her pay had flown right out the window now and his only goal was to give her a night she wouldn’t forget. It would be shameful to let something like a fast finish ruin that for her. But once again, Starlight’s words echoed in his mind: “Maybe don’t think so much. Just do.”

“I’m all ears,” he said as he reached a hand down to hers for a good rubbing, to which she nearly melted in response. She pulled her hooves back down close to her chest and closed her eyes, sighing with unfiltered contentment.

“Mmm… stop distracting me,” she purred. She shook her head gently to coax him to remove his hand from her ear, raising her forelegs to encircle him. He reluctantly abided her request and mimicked her actions, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. She kissed him as soon as she was within reach, her sweet saliva coating his tongue. He then climbed back onto the bed and laid his head against his pillow, marveling at how surprisingly light she was. He hadn’t really noticed her weight during their sixty-nine session earlier, so his relative shock was genuine. After another minute or so of making out, Starlight pulled back and sat upright on her haunches, giving Anon a glorious view of her underside, as well as her purplish genitals wrapped around him. Her pussy lips shimmered in the light from their sweat and juices, and a bit of her coat nearby was soaked through and matted to her skin. Having allowed him a glimpse, she wriggled her hips a bit and smiled, after which she leaned forward again and rested her front hooves on the mattress near his head. Her gaze was riveted to his as she began to grind against him slowly. Starlight kept her pace slow for a long time, courteously allowing him some respite from his near climax. Her panting and moaning hadn’t let up, but it quieted greatly. Everything about her taking control had Anon in mind.

“So much for payback, huh?” she teased, tapping him on the nose with a hoof.

“Yeah, no point when the goal is to make you happy instead,” Anon replied.

“Hmm, silly. I’d have been happy either way,” she soothed as she ran a hoof down through his hair and across his cheek.

And with that, Starlight leaned back on her haunches again, stretching her forelegs back behind her to rest on either of his thighs. Anon didn’t bother contemplating how unnaturally flexible she was for a pony, though, because the change in position gave him an even more spectacular view than before. She also quickened her pace drastically, her hips rocking back and forth at a double-time. Anon put his hands on her flanks to aid her, pulling her into him with every stroke. She looked down at him with a coy expression, mouth hanging open, panting heavily with exertion. Every so often, Anon ran his hands up her body to where her waist or breasts would be if she were human, and she would moan in response. He’d gathered that nearly any touch he gave her was pleasing at this point. After a while, Starlight’s moans became louder, signaling that she was about to cum once again. Conveniently, Anon also felt his own climax approaching. As he was running his hands up her chest once more, she grabbed them with her hooves, confounding him even further, and tugged on him in an effort to have him sit up. As he did so, she let go of him and wrapped her hooves around his neck while he dropped his hands to her lower back. He crossed his legs beneath her as she wrapped her hindlegs around his hips, bringing them chest to chest. Her grinding kept picking up speed until he felt her tightening around him once more and her moans became a single long and lustful note. Her contractions quickly took their toll on his remaining endurance and his climax rushed to meet hers. Just as he felt his cum escape, he reached a hand up to the back of her head and pulled it forward until they were forehead to forehead. They gazed deeply into each other as their contractions and moans harmonized, their grips on each other tightening along with their loins.

Once his cock stopped quivering inside her, Starlight lifted herself off of him. He felt his semen drip onto him in a few places as she sat back down on his thighs. Without missing a beat, she leaned into him hard enough to knock him onto his back, her muzzle locked to his mouth, her tongue running across every surface it could find and he reciprocated in kind. Normally he would’ve insisted on grabbing a towel to clean up with, but she was impossible to resist. He embraced her tightly and rolled onto his side, a giggle rising from her and getting caught in his throat as he did so. They lay like that for a good two minutes before he broke from her, their kissing slowly extinguishing the fire of lust that had raged for a good hour.

“Starlight, that… was incredible,” he huffed as he pulled away from her lips.

“I was about to say the same,” she panted back, her face still aflush.

Anon blushed a tad and gave her a peck on the nose, to which she giggled again. “I’m gonna say something crazy now, so prepare yourself,” he said as he rested his chin on the top of her head, being sure not to poke himself in the throat with her horn.

“After the night we’ve had, I’m pretty sure we both have new metrics for crazy,” she replied. She closed her eyes and nuzzled his shoulder, sighing with contentment.

“Heh heh, yeah, I think you may be right,” he chuckled as he reached his right hand up to stroke her silken mane. Her lilac scent had stayed with him through their entire romp and it was as intoxicating now as it had been when he first noticed it. “I wish you didn’t have to leave tomorrow,” he bemoaned.

“Y’know, me neither, but Twilight will notice if I’m gone for too long,” she replied sullenly. Her response warmed his heart a bit, which should’ve struck him as odd along with everything else he’d done this night.

“Yeah, teachers tend to notice when their students are absent. I know mine did,” he joked.

She giggled at that, nuzzling him again. “I wouldn’t worry so much if I were you,” she said quietly, and she closed her eyes and sighed peacefully, signaling her desire to rest.

“If you say so,” he said with a yawn. Their copulation had really taken it out of him; his eyes drooped shut and his entire body relaxed. He pulled his blanket up and over them, returned his hands to her back and settled in for what would only end up being a half-night’s sleep but that short sleep proved to be the most restful he’d had for as long as he could remember.

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“BING BONG! BING BONG!”

Anon’s alarm woke him at 7:05 the next morning. He reached over and slapped his phone to silence the incessant noise, wiping the sand from his eyes and groaning. He had awoken lying on his back and he looked to his left to see an empty bed, which puzzled him because he was certain there had been a reason for him to sleep naked.

“Huh. Must’ve been a dream,” he thought glumly as he sat up and stretched his arms and back. Then he noticed that his legs and genitals were sticky. “A good one, by the feel of things.” Even as he thought this, he became annoyed that such an outstanding experience had turned out to just be his imagination running wild. But something wasn’t right; as the fog of sleep lifted, he started piecing together the alleged events of the night prior. If it were in fact a dream, why would he have dreamed of a sapient female unicorn and not a normal woman? He decided that he’d try to sort it all out after his morning coffee. He climbed out of bed and made his way groggily to the bathroom for a quick shower, after which he combed his hair and fetched his clothes for the day’s work; white t-shirt, faded blue jeans, work boots, and leather jacket. As he walked out into the kitchen, he stopped; someone else was in the kitchen already.

“Good morning!” the someone else chimed happily.

Anon stood dumbfounded, his only response a stuttering “Uhh… umm… huh?” There in front of him stood the same unicorn from his dream, pinkish lavender in color with a royal purple mane and tail streaked through with a teal-green stripe. Her proportions were cartoonish and cuddly-looking and her eyes were big and bright, her irises a beautiful dark blue and indigo swirl. On either flank, she wore a strange purple kite-like symbol with a tail that matched the stripe in her hair. She stood at the stove top where a frying pan sizzled away as she cooked up some eggs over-easy. Beside her on the countertop sat two mugs of steaming hot coffee and two plates of buttered toast. Her horn lit up with a teal glow as she trotted to the refrigerator, the same teal glow being seen on the handle, and fetched some liquid coffee creamer from the door, as well as a jug of orange juice. Telekinetically setting these on the counter next to the plates, she then moved to the cabinet and pulled out two tumblers for their juice. As she set them with the rest of the tableware, a spatula wrapped in teal floated to the frying pan and expertly flipped two eggs onto each plate. As he watched, Emma plodded into the kitchen and gave the unicorn’s legs a loving nuzzle, and she gave a warm and loving smile to her in return. All these things happened within the space of a minute, and that only added to Anon’s fascination with the scene playing out before him.

“I know, right? I told you all I would need to recharge is a good night’s sleep and a good meal!” the unicorn said brightly.

“S-so… I’m not imagining things. You’re really here, in my apartment, flesh and blood?” Anon asked.

“Well of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?” she replied with a confused tilt of her head, the spatula angling itself in the air like a shoulder shrugging. Emma also looked back at him and meowed in a tone that said “Yeah, man. What, are you still asleep?”

With that, Anon’s trepidation lifted and he walked into the kitchen. He stopped in front of the unicorn and reached out to touch her face with both hands. She was as soft as he remembered, and she blushed and smiled at the gesture.

“I promise, it wasn’t a dream,” Starlight cooed as she took one of his hands between her hooves, giving it a small kiss. Afterwards, she turned her attention back to breakfast. “How do you take your coffee?” she asked.

Anon stood there for a moment, hands still outstretched, before sighing with genuine relief. He smiled at her and told her his preference. She added sugar and cream and stirred it all together with a spoon with one fluid telekinetic motion, then fixed up her own cup. Then she poured two glasses of orange juice and moved everything to his dining room table, a teal aura wrapped around it all. She set it down expertly and neatly, silverware in the correct spot, juice and coffee at the two o’clock position. They sat across from each other, making jokes and telling stories as they ate, taking the little time they had left together to build a friendship that felt only natural. When they were finished eating, Anon cleared the table and rinsed the dishes, putting them in the dishwasher. He checked the time on the microwave and was dismayed to see that he was running late for work.

Starlight, with her ever-present intuitiveness, trotted over and put a hoof on his arm. He looked down at her to find that her eyes were aglow with reassurance. “Don’t be sad,” she said. “Come see me off.” He smiled back and walked with her into the living room.

She stopped in between the TV and the couch, turning back to him. Anon bent down and wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace that he hoped communicated just how much he wanted to see her again. She of course responded in equal measure, reaching her hooves around his neck and giving him a soft kiss on the lips. When he begrudgingly let go of her, he stood up and retreated about five feet. He didn’t remember there being a shock wave associated with her teleportation, but then again he was knocked out immediately by her arrival thanks to being startled awake and falling onto his bookcase. Once he took his place, Starlight closed her eyes. Her brow furrowed as her horn lit up brightly with its teal aura. He watched as a second layer of aura extended around the first, with the one closest to her horn intensifying in color and brightness. Then, a sort of bubble the same color as her aura formed around her and she lifted from the ground. A wind had picked up inside his home, not strong enough to knock anything down, but it whipped the ends of his jacket into the air behind him and sent her mane and tail flapping wildly around her.

After a moment of hovering in her bubble, Starlight opened her eyes and looked into Anon’s. He spied the faint hint of tears as she smiled and said, “See you soon.”

Then the double aura expanded outward rapidly, its brightness growing exponentially in less than a second. Anon shielded his eyes but didn’t dare close them. A loud popping sound escaped from the bubble and it disappeared in a teal flash, a few magical star shapes floating down to the floor and disappearing into the carpet.

Anon lowered his arm from his forehead and wiped his eyes. He smiled despite himself and said, “Yeah, see you soon.” He grabbed his keys, petted Emma, and walked out the door of his apartment. He trudged downstairs and climbed into his car, plugging his phone into his stereo before even putting the keys in the ignition. He started his car up and selected a song from his playlist, lighting a smoke and rolling down the window. He smiled as Billie Holiday’s soothing voice pumped through his speakers while he made his way to the job site. This morning's song choice was "I'll Be Seeing You", and it made his smile widen as he drove through town and pulled into work. “Heh heh, yeah. See you soon.”