Context

Day 2½

Without thinking, she jumped to the human, pushing the chair with her rear legs as hard as she could. Even with the sound of out of control boiling, steam and a crashing chair, the human managed to catch her... kinda. Only one of his arms grasped her, while the bottom part of her body slammed into him, causing them both to tumble to the floor.

“What the fuck is going on here?” the human, slightly dazed, tried to take stock of what was going on. Verde was internally surprised, NO PONY uses that kind of language. But, shaking it off, she pulled herself off and got directly to the point

“I need help shutting off the stove, but I can’t reach the knob without the steam burning my face and neck!” she exhaled.

The human wasted no time in shoving her off of him and getting up. He walked right ONTO the steaming water, worried that he would be burned, she noticed that he was… wearing... horseshoes that were made of fabric? Regardless of what they were, with a single reach of his hand, he twisted the knob and with a click, it confirmed that it was turned off. Looking around, he found a drawer with a bunch of fabric stuff in it. Opening and pulling one of the pieces of fabric out, he used it to grasp the pot, removing it from the stove and moving it to the sink.

“Verde, in the bathroom, under the sink is a drawer where there are a bunch of towels, go get them.” Jason spoke in a commanding manner as he balanced the pot on the edge of the two part sink. Verde lost little time galloping to the bathroom, and started tossing towels onto her back so she could carry more than one at a time.

When she felt that she had enough, she carefully walked back, balancing the towels, to the kitchen where her mate was fixing the problems she caused. He was there, cleaning up the counters with a bunch of paper towels absorbing the steaming water on the counter. Moving his chair out of the way, he started grabbing towels off of Verde’s back and spreading them on the floor. Soon, the floor was covered in damp towels. Verde was still taking stock of Jason’s hoofwear when he started talking.

“What did you think you were doing?” he muttered, exhausted from the sudden burst of energy he poured out from cleaning.

“I was trying to cook dinner for us...” Verde said, trailing away

“You know this place is designed for humans right?” Jason questioned.

“Yeah, but you baked me that cake and I wanted to help you out...” Verde said, tapping the ground with her left front hoof.

“Come on.” the human muttered, leaving the kitchen. Verde followed him into the living room, where he sat on the couch.

She moved herself to the shorter couch adjacent to it, wondering what was going to happen, he already needed to talk to her anyways, but she was worried that this was it. He was ejecting her. Rejecting her. She didn't even tear up this time. She didn't have the energy.

“Do you have any family nearby that can house you?” Jason finally asked. Verde thought, He wants me gone, oh no... but he is asking if I have anyone else... if I tell him no, he won’t kick me out, otherwise he would have done it already.

“Closest I have is in Manehatten, and there is no way I’ll make it there.” she lied out her teeth. She did not want to return to her mom’s herd, maybe this will give her a chance to try to prove herself to him again.

“Well.” the human signed dejectedly. “I am not going to kick you out, but what's the deal? Did I piss you off this morning or is this some part of pony culture I just don’t get?” he asked.

“No, I mean, I am not angry, I was... I was just surprised and...” Verde trailed off, she relaxed slightly, he wasn't going to kick her out.

“Then what's the problem with meat?” Jason inquired,

“Its disgusting... eating the flesh of others,” Verde suddenly changed the tone of her voice from that of unsure caution to righteous forcefulness. “Only predators and insane ponies like the taste of meat.”

“You don’t understand humans very well do you.” Jason raised one of his eyes at Verde. Taking one of his little pony feet, he bent it to hook his lip and pulled it up... revealing a fang... a short stubby fang, but it was a fang nonetheless.

Verde gasped. Meat was a part of his diet, no wonder he was furious this morning, she thought.

“How much do you know about humans?” asked Jason, lowering his lips and arms

“Not much, you guys only came a few years ago.” Verde looked at him. There were stories of Ponies herding with the more civil diamond dogs and griffins, all meat eaters. But there was a bit of shunning of those ponies, no foals came from their copulations. She knew that being in Jason’s herd would make others look at her differently, but compared to going back home and telling her mom that she could not cut it in a herd... to Verde, the latter was worse.

“Until you can get up on your own four legs, I won’t force you out, but you need to understand a few things about humans.” Jason reached out his micro-pony legs to Verde.

“Do you know what these are called?” Jason asked Verde. Verde looked and shook her head no. “Fingers. A Lot of the ponies in this town are suspicious of us, and I notice that they keep referring to these as claws. I am going to touch your face and show you that these are anything but.”

Jason reached out with his hand and lightly brushed his fingers against Verde’s snout. Verde wanted to pull back, but didn't move, she was curious and surprised at how nimble he was with them. She remembered how rough they could be from her cleaning and how fast they were from her own investigation this morning.

Jason ever so lightly grasped her jaw. He was holding her, but so lightly that she could break away easily. No pain, just a very light grip. He let go and put two fingers on her snout and started raising them and lowering them in a opposing order. He softly tapped her and she just watched. She was amazed, These were not claws at all, nor were they little pony legs. They were something new, something she could not define.

Finally, Jason took his claws and started running them through her mane. It wasn't a brush, but it felt so much more primal. His fingers, went from grasping item, to soft padding, to living brush. She closed her eyes and just felt the fingers moving from the top of her head to the bottom of her neck, over and over and over. She sighed, she was relaxed. He, with his fingers, in seconds, made her feel like he would take care of her.

“We can grip tighter than what you felt. If you had a scruff, I would show you, but it seems like just normal skin back there.” Jason remarked

“Excuse me? Did you just check to see if I had a scruff? Like a Dog?” Verde snorted.

“I don’t know too much about ponies, that and it was a side effect of combing your hair” Jason said.

“Mane, its a mane.” Verde retorted.

“I’m sorry, combining your mane.” Jason said, amending his previous sentence.

Silence erupted between them. Verde laid herself down on the couch and looked away. After a few moments, she finally spoke up.

“I’m sorry about everything.” she mumbled. “I’ve never really gotten to know a human and I just wanted to help out both times in the kitchen.”

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

Verde thought to herself, Its a bit late to ask that. But shook her head no.

“Listen, you can have the bed again tonight, but we really need to figure out what we are going to do with you.” he spoke.

“What do you mean? Why don’t you just sleep with me? Plenty of room on our humungous bed.” Verde said, turning her head his way

“Our?” the Human asked. Verde realized that humans might have different ideas on what ownership is, maybe in his culture, herds own individual items, even something as communal as a bed.

“Your bed, sorry” Verde said, not to push her herd mate away any further.

“It’s okay, humans don’t generally sleep together unless they ar-” the human was interrupted by the sound of Thunder in the distance.

“How bad are Pegasi made storms?” Jason quickly switched the subject

“Not bad at all, but they have to have lighting storms occasionally, something about controlling the release of lighting instead of letting it go off all on its own.” Verde spoke out loud, remembering the few talks she had with her father.

“Well, lets check on that spaghetti shall we? You must be as hungry as I am, guess the cake wasn't too good if you only took a slice.” he said. She had forgotten that the cake was still on the coffee table.

“Oh it wasn't bad at all.” Verde said, defending her mate from the impression she had inadvertently made. “It could use improvement, but thats with anything” she smiled at him. She realized that she was still touched by his kindness this morning by baking her a cake.

“Well, lets check on the spaghetti regardless, we can fridge the cake for later.” he said, picking up the cake and walking to the kitchen. Verde followed him, incase she could help with anything.

The towels looked like they had done their job, the floor was covered with heavy, damp towels. The human stood over the pot of spaghetti and sighed.

“Its overcooked, did you use all the spaghetti?” asked the human.

Even Verde could see the mush that used to be noodles being poured down the drain. Jason, with the flip of a switch, seemingly made the sink roar, scaring Verde into running into the bedroom, tumbling against the walls of the hallway just to get away from whatever it was.

“You don’t have garbage disposals?” yelled Jason.

Verde didn't know what a garbage disposal was, if that was one, then he must have some sort of creature underneath the sink just ripping the noodles to shreds with that kind of sound. Oh god he has a creature underneath his sink, she thought. Thats gotta be some kind of animal abuse, she finished her thought.

When the sound died, she slowly moved from the bedroom to the living room, worrying that the sound would go off again. Moving slowly back to the kitchen, there was Jason, cooking.

“I’m making cheese pizza, I would put pepperoni on half of it, but I have a feeling you won’t be too keen on that.” Jason spoke, as the clopping of her hooves gave away where she was. He was kneading bread on a the counter, over and over again.

Verde sat down on the floor and looked at him. He looked a little angry. She understood, he came home to a mess of a kitchen and a mate who just seemed to be fumbling over her own hooves. I’m not a good Lead Mare, he is doing everything and I’ve just sat around, slept, or showing I can’t help, Verde thought.

“Hey, do you see that small black brick on the coffee table with the rubber bumps on it? Can you get it for me?” Jason asked, seemingly sensing that she was worried about being unable to help.

Verde, wanting the chance to help a little, lept up and walked briskly to the living room to find what he was talking about.

She found it almost immediately. She noticed that it said Power on it, just like the moving picture frame. However, she had no time to think about it, carefully biting it, she returned back to the kitchen with the remote.

“Heere ouu ho” Verde mumbled with the brick in her mouth.

“Thanks” Jason said, taking the remote from her carefully. And with that, the sound of music started playing from the living room.

Glancing to the side, whatever the human did to that brick, it turned on the moving picture frame. The words ‘Omicron Compound’s nightly movie: Amadeus in 27 minutes’ showed up, with what seemed to be a lot of people in large cloths and white hair talking and yelling and moving, but no dialogue in a small box in the corner.

“Aww shit, fucking Amadeus. Looks like my night is set.” Jason said, moving the dough from the countertop to a large circular pan.

“What is it with you and, those words...” Verde said, wanting to glare at him, but was in thralled with the movement on the picture frame.

“I don’t feel I should have to censor myself in my own home.” he said.

“That and Amadeus is fucking awesome.” he finished as he started rolling the dough around and around the pan.

Verde just ignored Jason’s use of profanity as she watched the moving picture frame.

“Do you want to watch with me?” Jason asked, finishing the molding of dough and moving onto the pizza sauce.

“Yeah...yeah if I could...” Verde said off to the side. Finally realizing what was so fascinating, she turned around and asked, “What kind of painter can make a picture look so lifelike, and move!?”

“I thought you ponies had cinematography here as well.” Jason said, spreading the sauce.

“Yeah, but, its so colorful and lifelike...” Verde went back to looking at the pictures moving.

“It’s the same as your movies, but we have tech that permits us to get near realistic footage to the point that, that some of our own people can’t tell the difference between a Television Ultra High Definition display, though in the TV that you are watching, its just HD.” Jason explained as he was spreading the cheese.

“So you don’t even need to paint to make art anymore?” Verde asked.

“Do you not consider cinematography art?” Jason replied with a question of his own.

“I...I don’t know, I’ve only seen one pony movie, and it was a film reel on the pony Estr-” when the sound of a loud slam interrupted her.

“Sorry about that, what were you saying?” Jason asked, he had slammed the oven door closed by accident.

“Only that I saw one film...” Verde moved towards the couch as Jason stayed in the kitchen, cleaning

“Interesting, the pony with a canvas on her ass has a rigid definition of art.” the human chuckled.

Verde, moving to the couch, sat and could only wait until the countdown hit zero to see what humans consider art.