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Loving a Unicorn

Chapter Three

Breeding a Future

Written by Arian Mabe

"Christian? Why are you frightened?"

The stallion's tail flicked as they walked through the gently curving hallways of their home - the castle on the edge of the unicorn village. It offered them enough privacy that unexpected guests were rare and one of the first places that Christian had been able to become used to and trial his new body after his transformation. He would forever be grateful for a place to retreat to, the quiet, sweeping hallways and secluded rooms. The entire structure held an air of peace.

"I'm not frightened," he snorted. "How would you know if I was scared?"

Celeste inclined her head, violet eyes darkening. There was no laughter behind them, only trouble.

"You have clamped your tail down. You are not moving a single human inch."

One of the curses of his new body. Christian licked his lips and brushed her muzzle lightly with his, reassuring her with the touch of his body. She pushed into him with a soft nicker, close to his side as they entered the reception room, which was airy and boasted a large opening through which they could look out over the elaborate, well tended gardens. A magical barrier took the place of a window, flickering and dancing in Christian's peripheral vision. If the unicorns wanted privacy, the 'window' could be coloured with magic to obscure the interior from view. He supposed it could also be made soundproof. Now that was magic he would like to learn.

The king and queen entered the room on soft hooves, eyes dark and serious. Celeste was their mirror image, the whole family graced with a pure white coat and pink skin. Their horns rose silver from the centres of their foreheads as their like-coloured hooves gleamed and Christian was glad, not for the first time, that Celeste had also chosen to make him in their image. It made him feel like one of the family - a notion that he was sure had been deliberate.

Moirin touched noses with her daughter, the unicorns breathing in each other's scents. The 'youngest' unicorn stood still, unsure of what to do in the instance of family affection and thought with a pang of his own mother. She still didn't understand his choice to become a unicorn - he wasn't sure she even believed that he had become one. But he would see her again soon: he would make it happen. Christian smiled sadly. At least he had an adopted family of sorts in the unicorn herd. Caderyn snorted and greeted Christian with a flick of his tail, ears pricked.

"Mother, father." Celeste bobbed her head. "Christian has called us here today, although I cannot claim to know intimately the reasoning behind it."

Christian scuffed a hoof across the floor.

"I meant to tell you Celeste."

"Time was short," she acknowledged. "Yet I am keen to hear what it is you have to say in such secrecy. You have ensured our privacy for a reason."

He nodded once, muscles shivering.

"There's no point hiding it - there's been more and more gryphon activity. Have you not seen it?" Christian paused and caught himself. "Of course you have, I'm sorry. I meant more what is being done about it? I fear that, if we ignore this approach, we will secure our fate within months, if not weeks."

He paused, eyes serious. Celeste gave a tiny toss of her head, nostrils flared.

"Are we to turn and fight them?" He asked honestly, voicing the question that had been running around his mind for weeks: it had had to come out sooner or later.

Moirin shook her head and looked at the floor, ears slanting to the sides of her head. Her husband stepped closer, supporting her with the warmth of his body pressed to hers, a presence that Christian understood as comforting for unicorns. In all honesty, for him, Celeste was a bit of a radiator when holding the length of her body to his side. He'd never be cold in winter, that much was sure.

Celeste stamped and snaked her head up, snorting and twitching her ears as if to listen out for a threat that may come at any time.

"When did you see gryphons last, Christian?" She demanded, ears back. "Why did you not inform me? Were you in my presence?"

He'd never seen her ears go back before, except when chasing off the gryphons that one time by the lake, and that little fact alone was enough to glue his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Should he have told her? Should he have interrupted the moment?

"I...er...well..." Christian blushed, ears turning pink. "It was earlier. In the garden."

Celeste blinked.

"Then we were together. Why did you not tell me?"

Christian groaned inwardly, staring at the wooden floor as if, with enough wishful thinking, it would gape open and swallow him up whole as the mare flicked her tail. The stallion gulped.

"We were a little preoccupied."

No, he couldn't quite get his tongue around the words but Celeste understood, eyes lighting up.

"Oh, Christian." She pushed her head into his chest, transgression forgotten. "You are a peculiar stallion. Why would you not say that we were mating?"

He squealed and backed away, ears flat and eyes wide. Moirin and Caderyn laughed, their whinnies breaking the crackling tension hanging in the air.

"Celeste! How could you just say it like that? It sounds so...so crude! And in front of your parents!"

The mare snorted and flicked her tail, catching him a light yet stinging blow across his foreleg as she swung her hindquarters around. He jumped and shook himself as his mate's eyes sparkled, a smile dancing within the perfect, violet orbs.

"Unicorn mating is hardly a private affair, Christian. It is a natural part of life."

Celeste tilted her head, considering him.

"You are so strange sometimes, Christian. We had our first mating as stallion and mare before my parents. Do you not remember?"

How could he forget? The stallion held his breath and closed his eyes. It was a bad dream, nothing more. He would wake in the bed chamber with Celeste and not talking about mating in front of her parents. Just a dream. It would pass.

Unfortunately, when he opened his eyes again, he was presented with the faces of his love's sire and dam, both barely restraining their laughter, sides trembling.

"It was a wonderful ceremony," Caderyn added unhelpfully, unable to keep the grin off his whiskered muzzle, a tuft of hair curling from his chin. "I did not believe that a freshly transformed stallion could breed a mare so many times and only fall from his hooves on a mere three instances - a truly impressive feat!"

Christian rolled his eyes and shook his head, mane scratching a neck that darkened in crude patches of sweat. It was difficult to hide embarrassment as a unicorn but he still didn't understand how they could be so open about mating. He did it for Celeste's pleasure - she wouldn't allow him to say no, anyway, when his cock was dropping - and, true, that first time as a stallion he had gotten himself caught up in the moment. But it didn't come naturally to him. Surely he should be seducing his lady sweetly and softly to their bedchambers for a night of passionate lovemaking? And not being lovingly teased by her parents?

Unicorns did not yet make complete sense to the former human.

"Right, of course." His ears burned and, as the ground clearly was not going to swallow him up in the immediate future, he pressed on. "Back on topic then. I spoke to Vale and he said that we could be right in thinking that we need to bring more colts into the herd - but fillies too now. We think that breeding will strengthen the herd and be the first key to our survival."

He hesitated, a question in his eyes.

"I'm not sure I'm up to the task. Even if Celeste becomes pregnant, it will be several months before a foal is born. And then another nine months, at the very least, again. It will be the same for all unicorn pairs mating. How are we to prevail?"

"The answer is clear." Caderyn glanced at Moirin. "Breeding with Celeste is not going to foal the number of unicorns we require to save the herd, you are correct."

Christian's face fell and he looked at his hooves, heart sinking as quickly as his hopes had risen. Every lead brought him to another dead end! Was there nothing he could do to save the unicorns? To save Celeste?

"Then there is no hope? We must find another way?" He said numbly, forcing his lips to form the words.

The king shook his head reassuringly, expression soft enough to draw Christian back from the edge of despair. He lifted his head, whuffing quietly as Celeste's lips brushed his shoulder. The concern in her eyes was as deep as his.

"In a sense, we must venture down a different path, yes." Moirin was gentler in her approach, nudging her smirking husband to the side. "I fear I must be upfront with you, however, Christian." She gathered herself, sides expanding in a deep breath. "How would you feel about breeding other mares, Christian?"

The stallion blinked. Other mares? There was only Celeste.

"Oh!" Celeste danced on her hooves. "Then we could bring more foals into the herd more swiftly with more colts beside the stallions!"

Christian's jaw dropped but the unicorn family moved on without him, playing off each other's flow of thoughts with unerring accuracy and speed.

"You always were swift to dive to the heart of a matter, Celeste." Her mother nodded approvingly. "Yes, it is a conclusion we have already come to. Not only Christian but the other stallions of the herd must engage in as many mating sessions as possible to bring in more unicorns and more magic. There is no greater complication to it than that."

He swung his head towards Celeste, panic chasing his hooves to shift and scrape obnoxiously over the floor - he forgot to pick them up in his haste. Surely Celeste would be outraged? Why was she nodding? The unicorn mare snaked her neck back and forth, excitement flowing through her body.

She brushed her horn against his, sharing thoughts through their mental, magical link, and he squealed. Backing away, he put his ears flat to his skull. How could she have so many thoughts going through her head? She saw him breeding mare after mare, evermore the stallion of her dreams, the saviour of the herd, her partner for life. He shook away the transferred thoughts of him with his cock bouncing, spinning up on to his hind hooves to take mare after mare, the very essence of stallion virility.

"I can't do that!" He blurted out, hooves splayed. "I'm with Celeste! It wouldn't be right! I'm not even any good at magic! There's nothing in me that would benefit a foal and the magic of the herd especially."

He threw the last bit in as his last hope but it caught Moirin's attention. The mare's horn lit up with a pink glow and she reached out a tendril of magic to caress his dished cheek.

"But Christian..." She turned her smoky gaze on him. "You have exceptionally promising magical potential. Vale has spoken with me. It is locked inside, even though you are struggling to unleash it. It will come, in time. Yet it is there, waiting to be used."

Christian snorted and shook his head. That was laughable. Moirin was kind - too kind. She was only trying to make him feel better.

"I speak only the truth, Christian," she insisted, pressing on.

"Then what has Vale said?"

His ears fell obnoxiously back to his skull and he flicked his tail, shifting his weight as the family of unicorns exchanged looks. The tip of Celeste's horn glowed violet to match her eyes and Caderyn nodded, somehow managing to put a grave edge into the motion. Christian lowered his head, ears drooping, and hid behind his forelock. Sometimes he could not help but feel like an outsider in their midst when they conferred amongst themselves, glances and subtle shifts of their bodies more than enough to convey their thoughts to one another. Yet he wanted to be one of them. Doubt flashed through his mind, pushing away brighter thoughts of his time spent living with the unicorns. Was he one of them?

Of course he was. Christian shook himself, white hairs floating to the floor as they were dislodged from his coat. Celeste nickered and stretched out her head towards him, long lashes drawing his attention as she blinked slowly. Magic emanated from her horn in a sinuous tendril and she brushed his lips with the tip. He shuddered from the flash of warmth, which left a tingling sensation in its wake. She'd never quite used her magic in that way before but the warmth dropped down to his stomach where it spread, soothing tension from muscles he had not realised where stiff.

"Vale has not spoken of you in anything besides a positive light, Christian," Celeste said at last, her gentle tone soothing to his ringing ears. "He has only said that you have an incredible aptitude for magic, lurking beneath the surface. It only needs to be unleashed."

She nuzzled his cheek, lips tickling over the short hair.

"How we may release your magic, I do not know. Yet I trust Vale. He has an innate knowledge of these matters and, if I may be perfectly honest with you, my love, he has never been wrong as yet."

Putting her head alongside Christian's, she held his gaze with one eye. Smiling, she bopped him gently on the side of his muzzle, between the dish of his cheek and chin, and he felt himself smile in return.

"I trust him," she said simply, needing no more words to convey her point.

Christian pondered this and pushed the thoughts that told him he wasn't good enough to perform adequate magic for the herd right to the back of his mind. It took a colossal effort but he succeeded in squashing them down - at least for the time being. No doubt they would return to haunt him when sleep claimed him, dreams playing scripts of foals that would never be. But he could not focus on that. He had to be positive - he couldn't spend his time dwelling on whether or not he would be sufficient for the herd. He could only try. Christian snorted and shook himself.

The unicorn took a deep breath.

"Tell me more about what you would have me do. Would this be okay with you, Celeste? It seems awfully..." He cast about for the right words. "Callous. It's callous for me to be with another unicorn. It's unfaithful. It feels wrong."

The word was childish and simplistic but it was all that it boiled down to really. Wrong. It was wrong. How could he mate with another unicorn? Guilt nudged the back of his mind and he remembered the filly - well, mare - from his magic lessons, flirting and flicking her tail as if she wanted him to mount her right there and then. And little Karin with the sweet, kind eyes and pink nose, so like Celeste. He couldn't say that they didn't stir a need in him. Yet he didn't feel it was something he could voice aloud.

Caderyn stepped forward, taking the floor.

"If you accept this, you will have your pick of mares in the herd - usually ones without life mates already, unless there are some that put themselves forward. Some see it as their duty, although we have never requested it of those already with partners. You will be asked to mate with them as many times as you are physically able and they are willing to take you. The herd is willing to provide magical supplements to increase your virility and stamina for this feat."

He grimaced.

"With so few stallions, it became necessary to develop these potions simply to keep the herd alive. It is not our proudest magical creation."

Christian swallowed and glanced at Celeste as if for reassurance - could he do this? Was it right? - but the mare's eyes were glassy as she imagined. Noticing his look, she tipped her horn to his and shared her thoughts. Images of Christian - viewed as if through Celeste's eyes - flooded his mind and his skin prickled to see himself mounting a palomino mare, arousal drooling from her marehood. Another winked ahead of him, tail held high as her cunny clenched, two pairs of udders swinging beneath her barrel.

In Celeste's mind's eye, he mounted a bay mare next, catching her mane between his teeth, a masculine grunt rumbling from his chest. He pounded her like a stallion possessed until she cried out in climax and he dismounted, cock hardly softening as a stream of cum poured from her marehood, which held itself open in a slight, alluring gape. The brown coated unicorn looked back at him and stamped, nickering a demand for more even as her legs trembled.

And then there was the quiet little Karin, head coyly lowered as she raised her tail and begged me sweetly to mount her, to take her, to breed her. She claimed she would have my foal and danced from hoof to hoof until the stallion in Celeste's imaginings reared up to let her bear his weight and pushed into her winking, needy marehood. He didn't know why Celeste had chosen that filly in particular to bring into the fantasy but his cheeks and ears burned to have her placed before him so sexually. The filly was sexually mature, of course, and couldn't really be called a filly. But she was so young and innocent in comparison to Celeste...

His thoughts wandered and he dragged his horn away from Celeste's with difficulty, embarrassed at the needy grunt that groaned up from the back of his throat.

It was difficult to press himself back into the mould of the situation at hand as the unicorn king and queen coughed quietly, reminding them of their presence. Caderyn's eyes brimmed with questions but his partner pushed his shoulder, eyes flashing a warning. Christian bit back a laugh. There could be a whole comedy show about those two, truly, ever the typical husband and wife in unicorn terms. Yet there was no question where their hearts lay.

"Will you be able to complete this task, Christian?" Caderyn asked seriously, muzzle wrinkling as he took a more serious measure of the stallion. "It is a high task to ask of any stallion and not one we have requested so formally in the past. All stallions in the herd are asked to mate with as many mares as possible to keep the herd as strong as it may be."

"Even you?"

The words escaped him before he could call them back and his jaw fell slack. Caderyn had bred unicorns other than Moirin? Was he unfaithful? Why would any stallion not be as faithful to their mate as they could be? There was the need for foals, yes, of course, but surely that could be achieved with their life partner too?

Panic fluttered in his chest and he backed away, tail pinned to his rump. Regardless of what Caderyn had or had not done, he could not betray Celeste like that. It simple was not going to happen, no way, no how. But Caderyn was nodding and Celeste giggled, lips quivering as she whinnied and followed Christian, butting her head into his shoulder. He winched as her horn clipped his withers and she murmured an apology.

"Yes, even myself," Caderyn acknowledged. "I perform my duty, although it is difficult for most stallions to sire foals - our seed does not often take - as you are aware. But this magical potential Vale has sensed within you..." He mulled over his words. "You may be the key to this, Christian. We can but try. You may be the hope we were searching for all these decades."

Christian couldn't disagree with that as the stallion echoed his own thoughts intimately. Celeste pranced, tail held high as she whipped around Christian in a tight circle, nipping at his tail like a foal at play.

"It will be wonderful! I am sure this is what we must do!" She cried, rearing and pawing at the air. "Christian, it will be delightful to watch you! Though do not think that you will be able to shirk your 'duties' with me."

She cast him a flirty smile and winked her marehood at him, facing her parents so they could not quite see her openness, even if it was inferred. Swallowing, Christian struggled out to look as the mare burbled on in a stream of conversation, tail flicking back and forth so his eye was constantly drawn to her winking cunny. He could have cursed her in that moment, as much as he loved her, as his cock swelled within his sheath, plumping out obviously.

"Christian, I already have several mares in mind for you," she gushed, more life in the fluid dance of her body than he had seen in days, if not weeks. "Aisling has inferred that she would like to spend time with Christian and we are all understand what she means, do we not?"

She didn't wait for an answer and ploughed on.

"There is also Nandag, Madisyn, Innis, Marsaili, Alina and, of course, Karin. None of these mares have taken life partners as yet."

Christian tried not to react when the filly's name was mentioned, something tightening within his chest.

"They will all, I am confident, be interested in this proposition, this endeavour to bring magic and life back to our herd."

Moirin chuckled at her daughter, exhaling softly as the younger mare pranced and flicked up her hooves, showing off for her partner.

"Oh, Christian!" Celeste dropped a kiss on his cheek. "It will be the most amazing event - a celebration! I shall count the minutes!"

"We will have to secure potions ahead of time," Caderyn interjected. "Do not forget that we must ensure Christian has everything he requires to complete the task. It is, however, a very pleasurable task."

He caught Christian's eye and winked, his gaze portraying nothing but innocence even as Moirin squealed and poked her horn into his side. Caderyn and Celeste chuckled, the mare lifting her front hooves from the floor as she bobbed her muzzle.

"Of course, I am confident we shall..."

Celeste trailed off, head drooping as she swayed on her hooves, eyes glazed and unfocused. Christian rushed to her side, supporting her with the bulk of her body as her hooves splayed, tail lax over her hindquarters. Her father snorted and jumped, muscles shuddering as his daughter struggled for balance.

"Celeste! What's wrong?" Christian nudged her neck, trying to glean a response. "Are you sick? Did you eat something funny? Should I call a doctor?"

"What's a doctor?" She said, eyes bleary. "I am not unwell, Christian, I am sorry to frighten you. I only felt faint for a moment. I am quite well now, I did not mean to cause such a disturbance."

Celeste and her mother exchanged a look that Christian could not fathom as the older mare started forward, eyeing her daughter all over as if she was going to turn into a snake before her very eyes.

Caderyn, on the other hand, was not quite so composed. The stallion danced and jumped from side to side, pushing himself off his hind hooves with the strength of a younger stallion.

"Celeste, are you confident you are quite well?" Her father stretched out his nose to her, reaching for her with tendrils of magic. "This is most unlike you. Has something happened? Are you taken ill?"

"Leave the poor mare alone, Caderyn." Moirin gently supported Celeste on the other side, keeping her between Christian and herself. "She needs to rest a while. It has been a long day, has it not, Celeste? Were you not up at first light?"

The mare nodded sheepishly.

"Yes, mother. I left the castle early this morning. I did not think anyone would have noticed. I tried to be as quiet as possible."

Christian started.

"Celeste, why did you leave the castle without me?"

The mare licked her lips and looked up at him, abashed.

"I wanted to think. The gryphon threat has been...how do you say it? It has also been preying on my mind. I needed to think and sleep deserted me too early this morning."

He nodded. He could understand that, though he certainly didn't want her to worry. Caderyn snorted and, as if he didn't quite believe the mares, looked them over from head to hoof until Moirin chased him off with a snap and flick of her tail.

"We are quite well, thank you, you old nag. Please, let Celeste rest. This is nothing that a good night of sleep will not cure."

Caderyn hoisted his head up high and shook his mane off his neck.

"If that is what you claim..." He trailed off doubtfully. "Then please rest, Celeste. This conversation and the detail entailed may be undertaken at a later time when you are less fatigued."

Celeste exhaled slowly, a smile returning to her muzzle. She suddenly struck Christian as much older than her years, although they were technically close in age.

"Thank you, father, I will make sure that I rest for the remainder of the day."

Despite her condition, she shot Christian a cheeky look, her tongue poking out from the corner of his mouth so only he could see.

"And Christian shall take further steps towards saving the herd. He will have much to tell me of your plans and which mares will step forward by the next morning, if my instinct speaks correctly of this."