Bug Wife

“So, you like how I look then?”

Anon could only stare at the woman standing in front of him with a smile. He could barely breathe, much less process what she had just asked him, but, even so, he somehow managed it. It had been a very strange few days. He had thought he’d be used to strange since coming to this horse-dominated world, but it seemed as though he couldn’t have been more wrong.

He had honestly thought that this whole transformation into a human woman wasn’t going to work out. The love horse would give up after a few days, and he’d be able to convince her to leave without making Princess Twilight or anyone else upset. Heck, the best thing would be her getting so upset that she’d leave on her own so he didn’t even have to do any work himself.

At first, it looked like things were going to go that way. After days combing through his computer to see as many women as possible--which might have been one of the most uncomfortable and awkward things he had ever been a part of--the love horse turned into some pretty horrific things. Green flames erupting all over her body had been scary enough, but the first few humanoids she became were straight out of a horror movie. Arms too long, faces too wide, eyes so huge that they took up the entire head; stuff if you saw running around your house at night you’d just burn it down and call yourself lucky. After the fifth or so transformation, he sort of got used to it, though that didn’t mean she couldn’t surprise him with something extra terrible.

He knew he would have given up after the second or third day, but the love horse was determined. She poured over the contents of his deepest, darkest folders, looked at his grandmother’s medical books, and grilled him with what must have been hundreds of questions.

As odd and pushy as she was, the mare was crazy smart and detail oriented. She wanted to make sure that she had the smallest detail perfect for everything. He did try his best to help her, but his limited knowledge of his own biology was quickly outpaced by her questions. She was a note taker, and a sketcher as well. He had given her some notebooks that he had lying around, and she had filled two of them in quick succession. It was like he was watching an artist getting ready for their masterpiece, and, while he was still iffy about the mare, he really was kind of touched that someone would go through so much effort to make him happy.

It was also nice to have someone around the house to just hang out with. Alongside the porn, he and love horse, whose name he learned was Chrysalis, had watched a lot of normal movies. In between adjusting eye size and skin they’d just talk as well; important things, mundane things, exciting things, boring things, nothing was off the table. He didn’t know why, but the mare was really easy to talk to. While Chrysalis preferred listening to him rather than talk about herself, he did manage to get some things out of her.

She had been pretty important amongst the love horse community. From the way she spoke, he was pretty sure that there had been a falling out. She also seemed to have some sort of history with Twilight and her friends. What exactly he wasn’t able to get out of her, positive or negative, but he didn’t want to pry. He had always been told no one liked a Nosey Ned. Whether or not Chrysalis wanted to tell him what had happened or anything about herself really was entirely on her. He was just happy with her making them both coffee every morning.

The days went by quickly. Chrysalis had started staying in a vaguely humanoid form. He almost didn’t notice she went from terrifying to vaguely human to just human with a few odd quirks. It made him oddly proud to see the slow but steady progress that he had helped with.

Today had been just another day. They had finished lunch, and Chrysalis had gotten her daily hug that somehow helped fuel her magic. The love mare had made her way into the living room so she could “work”. They had a body length mirror that he had found somewhere in the basement that she used to fully look upon her form. He had done the dishes and done a bit of sweeping, thinking that he should go and see Twilight just to let the princess know he was alright sometime later in the evening.

Maybe he’d have Chrysalis go as well to say hello? The two of them could do with some fresh air and exercise at the very least. He had walked into the living room, intent on speaking with her about it, but the second he laid eyes on her he froze like a deer in headlights.

A woman with the perfect body, the perfect face, the perfect everything stood examining herself in the mirror.

Anon had been with a gal or two, all of them pretty girls, pretty enough to all be out of his league in fact, but Chrysalis was now something else entirely. She was now a woman people would stop on the street and stare as she walked by like in the movies. The kind of lady people wrote stories about.

Chrysalis perked up as if hearing something. She turned, and he saw that she was even more beautiful than the reflection in the mirror had shown. He found himself swallowing.

Up until now, this had been pretty fun, like a game, but now the result of all of their work was right in front of him. A woman that was made literally for him. He had helped “make” her from the top of her head to the bottoms of her feet. What he’d want in a perfect, ideal world. Right in front of him. Very much naked. And real. He could reach out and touch her right now if he wanted.

He didn’t feel the satisfaction of a job well done, but he did find himself coming increasingly closer to a panic attack.

“I…” he began, struggling to force out words. “You are currently the most beautiful woman that I’ve ever seen.”

The love mare--or love woman now Anon guessed--beamed. “Wonderful!” she said, clapping her hands together.

He watched as she walked toward him. Even though she had been getting practice walking around on two legs, she was still somewhat unsteady on her new feet. He would have reached out so she could use him as support, but found all he could do was just stand there like a moron.

There was a sway in her hips as she moved, her beautiful emerald green eyes half-lidded. Manners and raw, animalistic desire warred within him as she drew closer. He wanted to watch the woman bounce and jiggle as she moved, see muscles tense and flex under flawless skin, but this horse was now a person. She wasn’t some cute little mare that he could boop on the muzzle but a person. A girl. A woman. A lady. He couldn’t just gawk or stare with his mouth hung open. Anon knew that it was a ridiculous thought, but he couldn’t make himself shake it.

Two small, slender hands found themselves on his shoulders, making him jump. He tried to say something, but Chrysalis planted a kiss on his cheek, and his heart leapt to his throat.

“I’m glad you like, sweetie,” she whispered, right in his ear, her voice sweeter than honey.

Those words stirred something deep in Anon that he had never felt before. This had worked. It was real. The mare that insisted she was his wife had turned herself into a human woman like out of some storybook.

A wave of nausea crashed over him. Chrysalis took a deep back, her smile disappearing when she saw his expression.

“Anonymous?” she said, though Anon could barely hear her over the ringing in his ears.

He might have fallen over, if not for the love horse grabbing him by the arm. She helped him backwards and eventually into a chair, hurrying into the kitchen as his head spun. A minute or two later she appeared with a wet rag and a glass of ice water. She handed him the water, and placed the rag on his head.

“Are you alright?” she asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Anon drained the glass in two big gulps. He closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths as he counted to ten in his head. When he was finished, he gave the woman a thumbs up.

“I’m fine. I’m fine. It just… sort of hit me all at once I guess.”

Chrysalis cocked her head to the side. He looked up at her, then looked away.

“Have you ever asked for something, but when you got it it was too much?”

“I cannot say that I have.”

Anon cracked a smile. “You know, up until now I hadn’t either,” he said. “I… you’re just really beautiful now, and you’re here and you being a human makes this whole thing real.” He made a vague gesture with a hand. “Does that make sense?”

“Not at all,” Chrysalis told him, shaking her head.

She placed a hand overtop of his, giving it a squeeze. He looked down at their hands. It had been months since he had seen another person, and a lot longer since another hand had squeezed his. Anon felt his stomach tighten.

He knew he should have been happy. This was exactly what Chrysalis said she was going to do, and what he had been helping her with. So why was he freaking out?

“...You really want to look like this and not like you were?” he asked.

“Of course,” Chrysalis replied. “This is the form most appeals to you, correct?”

“But what about you though? This whole wanting to be my wife thing. Is that what you really want?”

He watched as a flash of irritation crossed Chrysalis’s new face. She leaned toward him, staring him right in the eye.

“Do you think I’d go through all this effort otherwise? If I wished for another partner I could have turned into a pony in ten minutes and gone about my way. I could have not undergone my journey, or asked the Princess for her help, or went through the trouble of casting my mighty love spell to find you.” She poked his chest with a finger. “You are mine, Anonymous. I told you that the first time I met you and I’ll tell you as many times as needed to get it through your thick alien skull. I am going to be the best, most beautiful, most powerful wife your kind have ever and will ever know, and you, in turn, will shower me with love and affection for the rest of your days!”

She punctuated each point with a hard jab of her finger, her brow furrowed. Anon tried to look away, but found that he couldn’t.

“What If I’m a shitty husband though?” he squeaked.

Chrysalis growled. Her lips drew back, and he saw that her canines were much longer and sharper than a humans should have been.

“Then I will happily whip you into shape. Now. You like this form, yes?”

“I--”

“Yes or no, Anonymous. If I hear anything other than one of those two words I shall transform into something far less easy in your eyes.”

“...Yes.”

“You see that my efforts show my serenity, correct?”

“Yes.”

“You are single, and in need of a significant other?”

That question gave him pause. He had honestly never thought about it. His grandmother had always talked about having him find some sweet girl so they’d have grand babies to spoil while his pap told him not to be in any hurry. Love would come, and real love would come to him like a raging storm or an ornery bull.

“Yes,” he said quietly.

She smiled, and all the anger left her face. “Then I will keep it,” she said, standing up. “And we’ll live together in this big, lonely house of yours as husband and wife.”

Anon’s mouth twitched as she placed her hands on her hips, clearly daring him to say otherwise. His gram would really love this love horse. She always loved girls with a lot of zest.

“Well, if that’s the case--”

“It is.”

“--then would you like to go into town with me? I just wanna check in with Twilight so she knows I’m alright.” Anon scratched his chin. “If she knows you already I’d imagine that she’d like to check up with you as well.”

Chrysalis said nothing for a good long while. She stared off into the distance, her lips pursed into a thin line as if she were thinking hard. Then, out of the blue, she smiled.

“Yes, I believe we should go into town and greet the ponies,” she said. “But we might wish to go about it in a particular way.”

Anon raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Tradition amongst love horses states that when we transform into the ideal mate for our partners our old lives are erased. Who I was before is meaningless. The Princess and everypony that had any knowledge of love horses knows this. I’m sure you would have too, if you had been in this world a little longer.”

Chrysalis spread out her arms, her smile widening. It wasn’t quite reaching up to her ears, but he was really going to have to tell her that mouths didn’t work like that sometime in the future.

“So… does that mean you can’t talk to your family, or what?”

“It means, as of this point, I am Chryssi, your hyoo-man wife,” Chrysalis replied. “My past is gone, but that simply means that I can now make it whatever I so wish. Meaning that when we get to town I’d like you to go along with what I say and do.”

Anon narrowed his eyes at Chrysalis. “You’re just going to make up a backstory about yourself to ponies that know you’re not a human?”

“Yes,” Chrysalis said with a confident nod of her head. “It is the way of my people. It is theatrics for the ponies you understand.”

He really didn’t. He understood that he might not know a whole lot about this world, but this seemed just a little too out there. That being said, he had seen a group of ponies break out into a choreographed song and dance number that went on for five minutes with no warning. Maybe this was an actual thing that love horses did?

Anon stared at the woman in front of him. He still had a feeling that something fishy was going on. Still, it was hard to deny that he didn’t like the idea of having someone staying with him. She was also stupid pretty, and she wanted to be his wife, and possibly do all the things that entailed.

What would really be the harm in humoring her? If she was serious, he had a smoking hot wife. If she was up to something shady he’d just let Twilight know and she’d sort it out.

He found himself slowly nodding. “Alright,” he said. “Before we go anywhere though, we need to get you some clothes.”

~_~_~_~_~_~

Their walk toward Ponyville proper was a quiet one. Chrysalis was pressing herself against him, using his arm for support so she didn’t fall over. He had given her one of his shirts and a pair of shorts. He had also managed to find a pair of slip-on sandals. Everything was much too large for her, and every few steps she had to adjust something.

In the comfortable silence, Anon had time to consider his situation. With another person in the house he was really going to need to clean up. Did Chrysalis have stuff she needed to move in? Were they going to use the same bathroom, or was he actually going to have to get the one in the basement working?

If Chrysalis was going to be a human, she was going to need clothing. There would be another town hall meeting where ponies would be freaking out no doubt. They’d probably need to go to the mayor to sign a bunch of documents. Did she have a visa already, or was a new one going to need to be made for her because of this love horse history erasing thing?

When she settled in the house would she want stuff moved around or thrown out? He hadn’t really changed anything since his grandparents had passed. He had bought a few things, but there was a lot of stuff that was outdated. If furniture was anything like it was back home it wouldn’t be cheap either.

Good lord, he was going to have to get a job here, wasn’t he? He already felt bad for relying on the crown for everything they had done, he couldn’t ask them to refurbish his home, or cloth and feed Chrysalis.

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice as the two of them reached the outskirts of Ponyville. Two mares hauling carts of foodstuff were chatting with each other. That chatter immediately stopped the moment they saw them, both mares staring at the two with wide eyes and open mouths.Chrysalis ignored them, her grip on Anon’s arm tightening as she picked up her pace.

The further into town they got the more ponies that they came across, and each pony reacted with shock and surprise. Some pointed, others talking amongst themselves. Anon just awkwardly waved as they made their way toward Twilight’s castle.

A bolt of rainbow raced above them. Anon had seen that bolt of rainbow enough times to know that it was Rainbow Dash. She no doubt saw them and was letting Twilight know.

Chrysalis jumped with a sharp inhalation. She pressed herself against him while she watched as Dash stopped at one of the windows at the castle. With his free hand, He gave her shoulder a squeeze. If he didn’t know any better, he’d have said that the love horse turned woman was actually fearful. In fact, ever since they had started seeing ponies, she had seemed on edge.

This was probably her leaning into her new persona. Even so, he stood a little taller, hoping the ponies would give them a little more space. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to notice his manly intimidation act or simply didn’t care, moving a little closer to stare at Chrysalis.

They both nearly made it to the castle’s front door when there was a pop. Twilight appeared a few feet away. She looked around before her eyes settled on them, and she froze, her mouth falling open.

At the sight of her, Chrysalis stopped in her tracks. Her grip on his arm tightened until he hissed in pain. He gave her shoulder a tap, but she didn’t react. She said nothing, she didn’t move, didn’t do anything, she just stared at Twilight. Silence settled amongst the crowd. Some ponies shuffled in place, unsure what to do. Anon nudged Chrysalis again, this time with a little more force. This was supposed to be her show; the least she could do was say something to start it off.

The woman twitched. Her grip on his arm, thankfully, loosened and she looked up at him with her stunning green eyes. Anon was no mind reader, but her expression said more than enough. He stepped away from her and turned toward the crowd, clearing his throat.

“Ponies and ponettes, I’d like you all to meet my wife, Chryssi.”

Almost immediately, all hell broke loose.

Twilight attempted to say something, but it was drowned out by dozens of other voices. Ponies yelling out questions, talking to each other, trying to get answers from Twilight. The flower sisters passed right out, and a random stallion began running in circles, clearly panicked.

The same thing had happened when he first came to Ponyville, and, honestly, it was just as funny to watch the second time.

“What the hay--!”

“They’re multiplying--!”

“What’s with her teats--?!”

“I told you! You let the aliens in and they think it’s all well and good to bring more of ‘em--!”

Oddly enough, the ruckus seemed to calm Chrysalis down. She looked terrified, running over to him, but as she pressed herself against him once more all he felt no tension in her body.

The next few hours were a blur of activity. Once the ponies had calmed down somewhat, Chrysalis began speaking. She wove a tale of a woman that had lost her husband, whom she desperately missed. How she felt so lost without him, how she wanted more than anything to be with him again. How, one lonely night, she had wished upon a shooting star and disappeared from her world to this one right in front of her home to be reunited with her beloved.

The ponies hung on her every word, and Anon understood why. The love horse had such a way with words that if he didn’t know she was making this all up he would have believed her too. She spoke with such conviction, such emotion. She would pause to wipe a tear from her eye or her voice would crack at just the right time. By the end of it, ponies had handkerchiefs out. A group of teary-eyed foals even ran over to hug her legs, which she really didn’t seem to appreciate. Twilight moved forward after the tale for some brief questions, and they were both sent home after promising to return early the next day.

Anon felt bone tired as he walked through his front door. Chrysalis was right behind him, locking it with a happy sigh. She was smiling ear-to-ear, looking as if she had won herself a gold medal. The woman practically skipped into the living room, kicking off her shoes.

“I told you that ponies enjoy their theatrics,” she said. “I had them eating out of the palm of my hand!”

Anon grunted. “Now you’ll get the Twilight treatment,” he said.

Chrysalis’ expression soured somewhat. “I… suppose so,” she said.

“Well, if this is all theatrical, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right?”

“Yes, you are correct,” she replied, slowly nodding. “It’s just to keep everypony happy.”

As much as Anon would have liked to start poking holes in… whatever was going on, he decided to let sleeping dogs lie for now. Whatever this was, he wasn’t going to worry about it until he had to. Until that day came he’d just try to enjoy himself.

“Well, since we’re gonna have a long day tomorrow I think I’ll hit the hay,” he said with a yawn.

Chrysalis perked up. “Then I shall join you,” she said, grabbing his hand.

“Join me? What do you mean?”

“What do you think I mean? I’m your wife, you simple man,” Chrysalis asked with a smile. “Can I not sleep with my husband?”

Before he could reply, she began to lead him up the stairs and into the bathroom. He had given her toiletries days ago, and she had been using the downstairs bathroom, but somehow all of her stuff had already been moved up here.

“When did this all get here?” he asked as Chrysalis walked in as if she owned the place.

“When you had me change into your clothing,” she replied matter-of-factly.

“Huh, alrighty then…”

Anon considered taking a shower, but thought against it. He didn’t know what he’d do if Chrysalis insisted on joining him.

Teeth brushed, the two went into the bedroom. He laid down, making sure to give his “wife” plenty of room, resting on his side. He heard a huff, then soft hoofsteps on the carpeted floor. The bed creaked as Chrysalis climbed into the bed on the side he was facing. Before he could move, she pressed herself against him, an arm slung over him, her face pressed lightly against his chest, and her hair tickling his nose.

“Good night,” she murmured.

Anon laid very still as the woman made herself comfortable by rubbing herself against him over and over. He had a feeling that he wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight. Lying there, stiff as a board, he hoped Chrysalis couldn’t hear the pounding of his heart.

Though he didn’t see it, the small smile on her face showed that she indeed could.