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As the girlfriend of an intelligent, amazing, adorably passionate aspiring scientist, Sunset was ready to be the guinea pig for all sorts of experiments.
She let Twilight pick her brain about magic, test whether or not her former pony anatomy had any credence on her current athletic ability (by way of a giant hamster wheel), and, finally, use her as a means of ‘going over’ the locations and names of each pulse point.
Thankfully, this little experiment of theirs didn’t require any set-up: all they needed was the comfort and privacy of Twilight’s room, cleared up of most dangerous things (and Spike-proof for now). Sunset sat on the foot of her girlfriend’s bed, idly twiddling her thumbs whilst the girl in question drew up a questionably inaccurate diagram of the human body - artistic liberties pushed to their absolute limit.
“So..” Sunset began, threading her fingers together to still the fidgeting. Instead, she put on her best, most charming smile and lowered her voice into something almost coy, “How are you going to use me today, Twilight?”
“Hm? Oh, right-“ she spun around, clipboard in hand, and talked as if the attempt at flirting had gone right over her head (it likely had), “-I think my best course of action would be to choose a method that’ll make your heart race the fastest. That way, the sound of your pulse can confirm my estimations.”
Withering in defeat, Sunset slumped a little and let her head fall into a small nod. “Y’know, I was trying to make your heart race.”
“You already tend to do that,” Twilight replied, gaze glued to the clipboard’s contents as she scribbled something down. She didn’t even seem to hear the undignified squeak that Sunset wasn’t quick enough to swallow. “But it isn’t my pulse that we’re looking for today.”
“Yes, yes, I’m the subject and you’re the scientist,” Sunset cooed, stretching out her arms. “Now, where do you want me?”
A pair of big, dark eyes swept across Sunset’s body, bringing a shiver down with them as they landed, quite acutely, on her feet. For some reason, she leant down a little to look at them too. “Seriously, Twilight? We’re starting here?”
“We’re getting the worst out of the way first, or maybe we’re starting off strong?” Her little scientist mused, the hint of a smirk at the corner of her lips. “It depends who you ask. As a scientist, I remain impartial.”
Snickering, Sunset wiggled her toes and watched as Twilight’s amusement dropped away with a grimace. “Sure you do,” she teased, then shrugged her shoulders. “I never thought you’d be able to hear my heart from my feet.”
Pony pulse points weren’t the same.. obviously.
Undeterred by Sunset’s teasing, Twilight moved to kneel at the bottom of the bed, patient and focused as always.
“They say you wear your heart on your sleeves, but it could also be said for your socks,” she quipped, nudging her glasses up the slope of her nose with a subdued, but certainly present, pride.
“I thought none of your human sayings were based in science.” Objectively, Twilight’s joke was horrible. Even so, Sunset couldn’t help but softly chuckle, swept up in the adorably dorky orbit of the girl below her. “Unless it really does rain cats and dogs here?”
Before her girlfriend could answer, Sunset adjusted her seating position. Leg now extended, bent gently at the knee, she dipped her foot off the side of the bed with a nervous hum.
“Oh, right-“ Twilight cleared her throat, brows furrowing. Her eyes seemed impossibly darker from this angle, but that also meant the glimmer in them shone that little bit brighter. “There’s actually two to find, barely inches apart from one another.”
The information was lost on Sunset, who was more concerned with the subtly ticklish sensation of Twilight’s hands taking ahold of her foot. One stayed firm below the sensitive sole, whilst the other splayed its fingers, careful and reverent, behind her ankle. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed, tone hard - very science-like, well done! - but just the slightest bit wavering. Her eyes flickered up, tentative and sheepish, then fell back down with a flutter of her eyelashes.
Sunset didn’t like how this alone was making her heart beat loud enough to burst from her chest.
Twilight, at least, didn’t seem to be doing any better. Cheeks dusted a faint, blossoming pink, she brought her lips to the very centre of Sunset’s foot.
“First,” she murmured, the kiss featherlight and wondering. “The Dorsalis Pedis.”
Yep. Was that the sound of her pulse, or the explosive clap of an atomic bomb that only now reached their ears? Sputtering, Sunset raised both her hands to her face, the heat from her palms melting into the burning of her cheeks to create a makeshift sauna out of her. “So that’s what you meant by ‘make your heart race’, huh?”
A giggle drifted up from below, both suffocatingly smug and irritatingly cute; she was most definitely grinning down there, turning Sunset’s foot in her hands until her breath brushed at the heel. “It’s certainly effective,” she said, then leaned in once more to kiss the skin there, eyes drooping closed with lazy affection. “The Posterior Tibial. It’s kind of like the wrist of your foot rather than your hand.”
“Mhm.” Sunset parted her fingers just enough to glare at the wall, then let her hands drop and find the hair of her girlfriend’s head. Firm but not rough, she ruffled her bangs and delighted in the weepy complaints it earned her. “Only two down there, right? Stop torturing me.”
“Ugh!” She grumbled. “I still need your legs!”
“Oho?” Sunset let her eyebrows raise, trying to pretend that bluntness didn’t make her feel anything at all: embarrassed, flustered, a little stupid. She pulled her hands back. “Fine.. but shouldn’t I stand up for this?”
Blinking up at her cluelessly, it took Twilight a good few seconds before she nodded. “Actually, yeah. That makes sense. You’d have to lie on your back otherwise, and-“
Sunset watched in real time as her face practically lit up red.
“.. Can you stand up?”
Rather endeared to that little stammer, Sunset obliged with minimal jest. She stood up, a little more aware of her foot than she should be, and then turned around so that she was facing away from her beloved scientist. Hopefully that allowed the steam to blow off of her before she continued.
“So, a pulse point on the leg..” she started, brushing back some of her hair from over her eyes. “How, uhm, high up is it?”
Rather than answering verbally, the girl behind her sent a sudden, sharp jolt racing right up to her heart - the poor thing - with a poke to the back of her knee. She squealed, glancing back with a look that was more sizzling than smoldering. “Careful. I felt my knees begin to buckle.”
“I have that effect,” Twilight said, flashing a toothy smile that wobbled with the last word. She sucked in a breath. “That was awful, wasn’t it?”
“It’s honestly far worse that it worked on me,” Sunset grumbled, a new swathe of affection threatening to swallow up her ability to cringe. “Now, can you get on with it, smooth talker?”
For her credit, she gave a dutiful nod and then, unceremoniously, let her hands hover just a few centimetres above her calf. “Do you wax?” She asked.
“Huh?”
“Your skin is.. unfathomably smooth,” the girl continued, randomly deciding now was the time to touch. Her hands, a little rough and calloused from a life of hands-on science, roamed up and down the length of her calf; they drew Sunset’s breath down with them into a sharp, instinctive hitch. “An effect of the mirror, maybe?”
She didn’t even have it in her to respond.
Twilight, ever generous and merciful, took that as a sign to move on. Hands bracing themselves, she leaned in and, with a tiny bump of her glasses, left a kiss on, “The Popliteal. It’s quite sensitive here, right?”
“…. Yes….” She wheezed.
“That’s it for your lower half.” A pause. “Kind of.”
Sunset turned around weakly, helping the girl up properly. For some reason, she had developed a habit, just now, of being absolutely unable to meet her eyes. “Kind of?” She echoed.
“Uhm, well-“ her eyes darted everywhere but at her: up, down, left, right, cross-eyed. “There’s another, but, it’s, uh-“
Once her gaze found a place to settle on, Sunset followed it.. to the diagram. There was one specific section with a red box surrounding it.
She was sure her face turned the same colour as the marker.
“The Femoral. Uhm.” Twilight tapped her fingers together bashfully, hair still ruffled up from Sunset’s earlier ‘ministrations’ - she just had to look vividly alluring whilst at it. “We’re not quite there yet, right?”
Was that the thought process here? Sunset froze up.
“That’s data for a future time!” She agreed, sticking her hands out with fervor. “Haha, hooves now.”
A beat.
A smile bloomed on Twilight’s face, bright and amused and daringly delighted, and Sunset all but melted below it. “Hooves?” The scientist repeated, tone almost coddling.
“Nerves,” she retorted, although there was no sharpness in her voice - she did try to keep some in there, but failed miserably. “Come on. I’m dying for another kiss here.”
“Mhmm.” Cheeks round and satisfied, she dipped her head a little and gently lifted Sunset’s hand further up by the wrist.
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
The silence stretched on for a moment, long enough that Sunset caught the bob of Twilight’s throat as she swallowed. Oh, man. She let the other girl do as she wished with her, only watching, quietly, as she pressed her face ever closer.
The urge to cradle her face in her hands was overwhelming, especially when she was looking at her with such trusting, gentle veneration. She bumped her nose against the curve of her thumb, a ‘Radial’ below her breath following - fuck - and ghosting the crest of her wrist.
“Here. The Ulnar,” she said finally, kissing the pulse point there with a yielding, docile softness. Sunset didn’t know why that made her feel so fuzzy inside, but she couldn’t stop herself from cupping Twilight’s cheek, guiding her head up. “Sunset?”
“You look cute like this,” she whispered, voice thick.
“Come on..,” Twilight tried, but only ended up sinking, with the slip of a content sigh, into her touch. “We’re not done yet.”
They stayed like that, though.
Unmoving.
“Usually, this is the part where you push me down onto the bed and-“
Sunset didn’t get to finish her words before she was, quite literally, pushed down onto the bed. She flopped onto her back, bounced once, and braced herself on her elbows with an incredulous laugh. “Damn! Didn’t have to go so rough with it, Twi.”
The girl in question was, just about, holding herself up above her; Sunset could smell the fresh mint of her clean clothes, clearly recently ironed too, and a subtle smoky scent that lingered on her collar - probably from an experiment. “I’m sorry..!” She rushed to say, but didn’t move at all. “Arm up!”
Caught off guard, she tilted her head and let her teeth pull at her bottom lip. “I might need to, err, adjust my posture real quick.”
“It’s fine,” Twilight insisted, leaning in to wrap her arm around the, now extremely lightheaded, Sunset’s waist. Her hand found the small of her back, surprisingly firm for such a gentle, fluttering touch. “The next few are bedbound anyway. You should get comfortable.”
With a groan, Sunset nodded. Of course she had to say it like that— ridiculous dork. Eventually, she lifted her arm as ordered, holding it out for Twilight to hold, as delicately as with every other part of her so far. This time, however, the girl did seem a little more red in the face than usual; maybe being atop of Sunset added an extra layer to all of this touching.
Unable to look her gorgeous, dazzling, extremely close girlfriend in the eye, Sunset turned her head just the teeniest bit to the side, hoping her shoulder could swallow up the tension in her jaw. Unfazed by this (or maybe she just wasn’t looking), Twilight shifted impossibly nearer and found the crook of Sunset’s elbow. “This one is the brachial. I.. don’t really have anything clever to say about it.”
That was a first.
Before she could voice that smug comment, Twilight scrunched up her nose in the corner of her eye and then swiftly pressed in to kiss the skin there. “But this one feels, uhh, weirdly intimate.”
“Only this one?” Sunset jabbed half-heartedly.
“Well..”
“Well?”
The burning sensation of Twilight’s hand at her back slipped down to pull, almost petulantly, at her shirt. Moved by this goading, Sunset wiggled until she was sat upright, leaving a flushed, focused girl staring intently at her.. chest. “See something you like?”
Eyes shooting wide, Twilight straightened up, spine ramrod and perfect in posture, and somehow managed to give her glasses their own gravity in which they didn’t manage to get all of the way up with her - not perfectly, anyway. Instead, they sat slanted across her nose and framed the sweet scarlet of her cheeks instead. “That’s not- it’s just- Sunset!”
Unable to hold back her amusement, Sunset threw up her hands with a cocky grin. This only lasted all of a moment - an innocent, truly naive moment - before a flicker of something sinister sparked behind Twilight’s eyes. She didn’t let go of her shirt. In fact, she clutched tighter. Her knees locked against either side of her thighs. Her expression became deadset.
.. and then she slammed her face into Sunset’s chest, slowing down just before contact; there, she nuzzled against her with a mix of both nervous giddiness and what was probably impending shame. From this perspective, arms up and hands splayed in surrender, she could see the stoplight red of her ears peeking out from below.
How.. endearing. Was this a hug, or another pulse point? Sunset guessed it was close to the heart, and hard to really get to without looking like, uh, this- fuck, why was she skirting around it?! Twilight was basically motorboating her, nose in the valley of her breasts and face submerged between them.
“Twilight?” She tried.
She heard her take a sharp, shallow huff, and whilst she would like to think it was to inhale her scent, it was probably to keep her grounded in reality and stop a potential hyperventilation threat. Finally, she felt something warm touch a point, a shuddering quiver of breath following. “Apical..”
Mission complete. Sunset gently patted the top of her freshly ripened tomato’s head and waited for her to part ways with her front. And waited. And—
“Twilight?”
“I don’t think I can look you in the eyes,” came her muffled reply, sending a shiver down Sunset’s spine.
“Well, duh,” she said anyway, guiding her girlfriend’s head up with a soothing kiss to her roots. “You were smooshed right in there.”
What Sunset had expected to see upon making eye contact with Twilight was the usual, anxious, but incredibly cute pout she wore whenever her embarrassment reached an all time high. What she saw instead was a heady, downright hungry glare that spared no time in honing in on her neck.
“This one seems like the natural progression of things,” she began to say, teeth tugging at her bottom lip with a needy, jittery desire that had Sunset doing loopedy loops in her mind. Not at all helping her to regulate herself, Twilight’s hand found the nape of her neck, pulling her close. “Can I?”
What was she even agreeing to right now? Celestia knows, but she was nodding her head with a ferocity and fire she’d never felt before! “Yeah! Duh. Haha.”
Twilight went and giggled against the sensitive skin of Sunset’s collarbone, head knocking gently against hers, and did so with a bubble of anxiety that melted her completely. She was sure her pulse wouldn’t even be heard at the next stop; her heart had been stolen, whisked away by the very same, blushing girl that was currently trying to map its clumsy rhythm.
Even so, the inevitable brush of breath up the slope of her neck set it racing once more. Her eyes drooped shut in anticipation and longing, and she felt her own fingers itch with impatience as she guided Twilight’s jaw to the side with a free hand. “The Carotid,” she whispered, tenderly kissing her girlfriend where she was most vulnerable, the slender slip of skin still alight with the vibration of sound: of Sunset’s soft, content whimper, rising with the quick pace of her heart.
For a few seconds, they stayed like that. Twilight was warm in Sunset’s lap, and she slotted against her just right - there was no need to move when the moment was so perfect.
Right?
“You really saved the best for last, huh?” Sunset joked, rubbing her nose against Twilight’s shoulder with a satisfied hum.
“.. Actually..”
No way. Sunset was sure Twilight had planned this all out to get progressively more and more charged- she was always one for strict, strategic scheduling, after all. That being said, the girl really was looking at her with an expectant tilt to her head.
“I’m kind of scared,” Sunset admitted. The femoral was out last she checked. “Twi?”
With all the grace of a newborn, fuzzy foal, Twilight’s hands found her shoulders and her lips found her temple. She kissed her with an adoring, puppy-love nuzzle into her hair, “The Temporal! Did you forget about the head?”
“I.. really wasn’t thinking much at all,” Sunset admitted, bashful but oh so very, very in love. “But you did remind me of something, Twi..”
Her girlfriend blinked at her curiously, pulling back just enough for Sunset to make her move.
“You forgot one, silly,” she said, leaning in to press a chaste, easy kiss to the top of her cheek. “External maxillary.”
Very proud about her smoothness, Sunset had already fixed a smirk on her face when Twilight, instead of swooning, grumbled. “That’s.. not really-“ she swallowed, pinched her nose, and then shook her head. “You said you needed me to teach you this! Why do you know such a specific—“
Twilight was a smart (incredibly so) girl. She figured it out before even finishing the question.
“You didn’t need my help at all, did you?” She asked, glaring.
“.. I really did need the reminder.”
Time elapsed with a tense, fraught silence. Then, bursting with giggles, Twilight pressed into Sunset’s arms, inviting a hug that she gladly offered up. “You’re so needy! You just wanted some kisses, didn’t you?”
And Sunset, who had really made it seem like she was doing this for Twilight’s benefit above her own, grinned a little mischievously.
“Maybe.”