He is bold and unafraid of her retaliation, not bothering to shy away from the snap of her teeth or the warning kick she tosses in his direction. Far from scaring her, his ferocity gives her permission to unfurl the wild cat that had always lived inside of her breast, the she-devil that bit and kicked and punched to show both affection and disdain. Still nameless, he snaked closer to her again, ignoring the lift of her hinds to trail his lips over her hip (fangs still sheathed, she noted) and she laughed - a deep, throaty sound - and sped up.

---

The cold stole her breath away as she danced ashore, her dark tail wringing side to side, spraying seawater over them both. A mountain loomed in the distance, but it was the open expanse of the Inlet that held her gaze - the low-lying heather and open sky similar but fundamentally different from the scrublands of the Hills. Here, unlike Atlantis and the Lagoon, no trees loomed threateningly overhead to make her feel trapped and small. Here, she had no memories to strangle her at night.

Here, she could start fresh.

"This is yours, el matón?bully?" She asked, her voice still heavily accented despite the common tongue she graciously gave him. Even the name she had called him was tinged with a light sort of amusement, rather than censure. He was pushy, but that suited her just fine. It was easier to push back against something with a spine of its own, something that would meet her fire with fire, rather than an extinguisher.

Switch had scented another mare heavily upon arrival, as if the very territory was bathed in her perfume and it gave her some doubt as to how much the sturdy stallion at her hip had meant his possessive claim. It wouldn't be the first time she'd encountered a mare leader, but her experiences had been heavily tainted by Marceline's delusional belief that she'd held any claim over Fiero's heart just because they had bumped uglies. Even now, oceans away and a gulf of anger separating them, Fiero was hers. Switch did not play well with others, had never learned to share her toys nor possessed any real desire to learn.

Especially now.

The sleek black mare did not love her dun companion, and could not claim anything beyond amused tolerance and a tightly leashed hope for something more, but that did not stop her from making the rash decision to circle back toward the painted brute. She sidled alongside him if he'd allow it, her slender shoulder meeting his as she sought to ply her lips tauntingly at the point of his shoulder, pressing teeth to skin without pinching and then withdrawing, a deliberately taunting smirk on her lips. "Show me."