Context

by KingofLazers

Rating: mature
Tags: Sex, Slice of Life, Human, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Romance
Length: 42423

In which the context of a moment of compassion on the part of a human plays out differently in the minds of the party committing the compassion, and the receiving party

Taking Place in the Gentlemenverse, a young mare who lives in Trottington, near the outskirts of the Equestrian nation, finds herself without a home when a wandering human makes the offer that she can stay at his home for a few days. However, when the human's wording and basic hospitality are perceived with pony eyes, he has made a offer that the mare can't refuse.

Please note: Side B chapters may be published far after the chapter their attached to publish date, and any updates you see might be within the hidden chapters that might show up.

Published 2013-06-25 18:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-07-23 17:46:10 UTC

Chapter One: Herds, Humans, and Hospitality

Chapter One: Herds, Humans, and Hospitality

Day 1

“What do you mean I've been kicked out!? I wasn't even in the herd yet!!” screeched Verde.

Verde stared in astonishment at Fiery Spirit, the Lead Mare of Ruffie’s herd, a unicorn whose coat was the color of an old red leather book and a mane like a wavy deep blue sea. Only a few weeks ago, had the Lead Mare and Ruffie agreed to welcome Verde as the newest member of their Herd. Ruffie was a middle aged stallion who got into a spat with one of his more spitfire herd members and she apparently took off, only for her to come back, no, welcomed back to Ruffie’s herd like nothing happened. Given a clean slate by virtue of Ruffie having a thing for Pegasi.

“You already know that this house can not house any more ponies in it, you need to just take your suitcases and go back to your mother’s herd.” Fiery ordered.

“But, I have so much stuff! And even then, I was promised a spot in this herd!” Verde wailed in the tone a brat uses when making demands.

“You know what, I don’t need to take that kind of lip from anypony, why don't you go join mud’s herd, I hear they are ripe for young ponies like yourself.” Fiery quipped as her horn started to glow like a transparent flame.

“Mud’s He-” Verde was interpreted by a POP. Suddenly there was a huge crash of clatter that would have spooked her, if not for the sudden sharp pain on her rear. Dazed, she could feel herself sliding on her back, swirling and flopping about. Soon, she was on her stomach, her legs splayed, unable to control the direction or speed of where she was going.

As soon as she stopped moving, Verde poked her head up and saw that she was outside.... in the rain.... covered in mud... along with her suitcases... the lead mare, teleported Verde outside in the rain and right into a thick, deep, dark muddy puddle next to the road. Her suitcases, also in the mud, still sliding about. Her box of art supplies however, had cracked open like an egg, spilling paint of sky blue and vermilion crimson into the mud. Her canvases, broken and battered, stained with the liquid dirt that the lead mare forced onto Verde.

At that moment, Verde decided that she would take her complaint to Ruffie himself. She deserved an answer, she waited too long to join a herd and a part of her was more worried than outraged. She galloped full speed toward the house... and into a unperceivable magic barrier.

Flying back yet again, the mundane green pony found herself back in the mud, both her rear sore and now her snout was too. That had been the final straw for her. What was left of her dignity had given way to salty tears of despair and shame. There she was... in the rain... all dirty... and alone... the tools of her art were oozing out and intermingling with the mud, thanks to the maliciousness of that unicorn.

Verde started to howl in despair. Home was a few miles into town and she really could only carry one of the three suitcases. Her mother and one of her herd mates helped move the suitcases from their home to Ruffie’s place, but left at Verde’s behest, as she was very confident that she would be welcome with open hooves, and to create the illusion of maturity. Glancing at the mudded paint, she wondered if it was even worth bringing all of her stuff back to her mom’s herd. However, her train of thought was interrupted by a voice that pierced her worried mind.

“Hey, are you okay?” said a figure hunched over, neary squatting down as he pulled back his hood.

Verde stared at the creature, it looked like a minotaur, but it wasn't, she had seen a few of what he was in her life. Skinnier, and less built, then a minotaur, but far more intelligent.

A Human.

“Hey...” the human spoke as he reached out and tried to touch Verde, only to have her back off in distrust.

Humans had become a unique species on Equestria, the Equestrian government had acknowledged them as sentient beings on par with ponies and there were even some ponies who claimed that humans were just ponies who mastered the arts of alchemy. There were even claims where ponies found happiness in finding their destiny, humans had the capacity to change it. Regardless, the humans had proved themselves a valuable ally, trained humans can detect a changeling transformed into a pony without any magic and their soldier class had begun escorting convoys from town to town to defend them against Diamond Dog raids, and they turned out to be more adept at fighting than even the Pegasi.

But many ponies were suspicious of these aliens, at least in the town that she lived in. However the humans brought with them something so valuable that even Trottington could not ignore it, instant communication. So powerful was this ‘internet’ that the Equestrian Government had commissioned a human company to begin connecting the country, and the humans recently set up an outpost near Trottington. They would have attempted to find space in the town, but the local council had decreed that no human company may own land within the city limits.

“Look, I know ponies out here don't trust humans, but your snout is bleeding and whatever happens, I am not going to hurt you...” the human spoke, holding out his blunt claws.

Verde looked at the wet, soft claws. She never got a good look at a human's hands before and it seemed anatomically incorrect for anything to have such precise control over it's claws... Thinking it over, she realized she didn't have much to lose. She glanced over to her paint kit, still mixing with the mud.

“I..I’m Verde.” Verde finally choked out, staring up at the human’s beady eyes.

“I’m Jason, do you need someplace to stay for the night, because,” Jason looked over Verde’s head and at her stuff, “it seems like you were just kicked out of your home.”

“Close.. I didn't even have time to make it my home...” Verde trailed off, looking back at the house. She could see the silhouette of ponies making dinner and the smell of bread baking.

Since she was a little filly, she was told that if she wanted to be a good grown mare, she needed to do whatever her cutie mark told her, join a herd and be a good herd mate, and a good mother. She had been so excited to join a herd, but never thought that another pony would do this to her.

“Well, do you need someplace to stay for the night?” asked Jason, pushing for an answer.

Verde finally got herself up, and looked behind her. She did not want to go back home, her mother might be cross with her because she was not able to stay with her herd for even one day... at least the human’s home would give her time to think.

“Yes... I would very much appreciate it if you could house me.” Verde said, trying to pick up her mudded saddlebag without touching any of the stained areas.

“Allright, I live about half a mile west of here, lemme get this stuff.” the human spoke, picking up her suitcases with no effort while disregarding the mud.

“Do we need to grab your painting stuff?” asked Jason.

“No, they can keep it.” Verde said with a huff, her anger overriding any desire to salvage her supplies.

“Well then, follow my lead.” the human said, his legs swinging forward, one leg, then the other, balancing as if were nothing to him.

===

The human unlocked the door and let Verde enter first. This place was HUGE compared to a pony’s home, everything was so tall. Verde knelt to let her saddlebag touch the floor and the human took her suitcases and put them next to his ice box. The entrance to the human’s hut lead directly to the kitchen first, a small but tall kitchen. The kitchen itself gave way to the living room almost immediately where the wooden floor ended and the carpeted floor began.

The colors in the lighted areas of the kitchen were a sad clash of whites and light wood brown, looking almost artificial in every way, save the fruit the human kept out in the open. There were no curves here, it was all right angles. Thats what unsettled her the most.

“Lets get you cleaned up, come with me.” Jason said, motioning the light brown maned mare to walk with him.

Verde followed the human into his bathroom and she kept noticing that everything was so tall, the sink would even force her get up on her rear legs just to look at the mirror. The tub was also pretty high and the color of this room was far more eggshell white then anywhere else she saw. The Human grabbed a misty clear bottle from beneath the sink and a huge roll of paper towels. Ripping a few of the paper towels off, Jason ran them under the tap water and sat down on the human toilet.

The human’s rubber coat slid off to reveal what seemed to be a tree with two trunks joining in the middle covered by cloth. It’s hair, brown in the dark rain outside seemed to be glistening a soft orange now, shorter than any mane cut she had seen. What would have been it’s bark, skin as white as a the old stained pages of a book lay, where branches, there were legs of flesh joined by angles of muscle and joints. He moved them, almost swaying in an impossible wind as he started preparing the supplies he had gathered to clean the green pony up.

“Please come here.” Jason beckoned Verde, “My fingers will allow me to clean you up quickly.”
Verde said nothing and moved forward, offering trust for the first time. With his fingers, he took a dry towel and started brushing the mud off of Verde’s coat. Jason was going for her tail when Verde backed up.
“No tail, got it.” he spoke, moving onto her front legs.
After Jason finished Verde’s chest, his fingers lightly gripped the bottom of Verde’s snout and started cleaning Verde’s face.

“You have a cut on the top of your snout, when we finish cleaning the mud off, I am going to use rubbing alcohol to disinfect the wound, but you need to understand, it will sting profusely” Jason said staring into Verde’s big purple eyes. For a moment, the stare made her really uncomfortable. But then she was able to relax. That was until he applied the alcohol.

“AGH!” Verde cried out, shaking her head violently, it felt like a bee stinging her face.

“I warned you.” Jason said trying to calm her down.

“And you think that would make it all right?” cried Verde, running into the living room and finding a pillow on his couch to shove her face into. It was enough to start the poor mare into tears again.

Jason approached Verde and placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Look, I know you're upset, but if its any help, I want you to sleep in my bed tonight.” Jason said rubbing Verde’s back.

The mare’s head suddenly popped up, she thought to herself, did he just say what I thought he said? It was kinda old, but did he just invite me into his herd? She remembered reading in her romance novels that stallions used to invite mares into their herd by offering their bed to sleep in.

But he is a human, well, not a bad human, but still... Verde turned around when the human got up.

“Look, I'll clean your luggage, you just get some rest, follow me.” Jason said.

Verde got up and followed Jason, still asking herself questions. Why would he invite me to be in his herd? Does he have other herd mates? Would I even like living with a human? She was still deep in thought when she entered into the human’s bed room.

Unlike everything else here, the bed looked like the average size for a herd’s bed. Some herds like sleeping together, and when you have three mares and a stallion, you need the sleeping space. He must have been sincere in his invitation. Verde then realized, like everything else, the bed was so high vertically... then she suddenly felt a the humans hands grasping her flank and chest. Before she could resist, she found that she was already on the bed.

Jason turned out the lights and started to close the door when Verde was able to choke out, “I accept!”.

Verde did not know why she accepted his invitation. Perhaps it was the stress of being abandoned by her first herd or the fact that the human had been kind, even when he had cleaned her wound, he had dabbed it to try and be as gentle as possible. He couldn’t be all that bad, Verde thought to herself.
Jason turned around and looked at her.

“Good, you need the rest, I’m sorry about the alcohol earlier, but I didn't want you to get sick... get some sleep.” Jason said, leaving the door a crack open.

Verde looked around the dark room, thinking to herself that so far, the human had been nice... maybe she would enjoy being a part of Jason’s herd. Pulling up the bed sheets, the mare found a comfortable spot, and went to sleep, wondering what tomorrow would bring now that she was in a herd.

Chapter Two: Trust me, Euthanasia is the Best Choice

Day 55

“Honestly, I think we should put him down, I mean, look at him, poor thing can barely breath.” The Vet spoke in a cracked, disinterested voice.

“Wait, what!?” Verde cried out, disbelieving what she had just heard.

“I’ve treated pet monkeys before and trust me, this one would be better off if we just put him to sleep.” the vet mellowly spoke.

“Get out.” Verde yelled.

“I ser-” the Vet tried to reply.

“GET OUT!!!” Verde screamed, trying to contain her rage and disgust.

“Allright, but know that I will have to report this as animal abuse to animal con-” the Vet said before being interrupted again by being bucked out the door.

Verde looked at her heardmate and sighed, she would need other humans to talk to, the local pony doctor knew nothing of humans and the vet, well she just saw how helpful he was.

Verde started digging around Jason’s stuff. She knew that he did not want her going through his things, even though she was his lead mare. It was going through his strangely shaped desk that she realized that he left every day from 8am to 6pm and he never said what he did or who he worked for, only that he was working.

She began rummaging through the desk more aggressively now, starting to just throw papers on the floor, even getting saliva stains on them from when she stopped caring about the state that they were in. Then she heard him gasp for air.
Running to her herd mate, she saw that he was finally up and again, gasping for air in tears. His face, twisted in agony as he tried to take deep breaths, his hands clenched as if trying to focus on them rather then his current physical state. It finally dawned on Verde, My love was suffocating and there is nothing I can do.

“Oh Celestia, the vet was useless, and I don’t know how to help you. I just don’t know what to do, please just, just try and tell me where I can find more humans... ” she suddenly realized that he was only the 10th or so human she had seen in her life, there were no humans this far from the center of Trottington, at least humans she had seen.

Jason looked at her, between his flinches of pain, she could have sworn that he knew that she was trying her hardest to help him. Lifting up his finger, he pointed at the bathroom where she had dragged him to the hot shower only hours ago.

“Wallet” he coughed out and arched his back in pain. Wallet? What's that?, she thought.

“I don’t understand Jason, what's a wallet?” she said lightly touching his arm with her hoof.

“Jeans....wallet....jea-” Jason interrupted by the pain. His eyes bulged so large for such tiny things as his back once again arched up. Verde turned from him and galloped to the bathroom. There it was, a single pair of jeans on the floor, damp thanks to where the water from the shower overflowed. She started hoofing at it, until she felt a strange hard bulge. Investigating it further, she saw that whatever it was, it was in one of his pockets. Without a second thought, she grabbed the jeans and started shaking it like a dog shaking a toy when it flew out.. and into the toilet...

“Oh my Celestia...” she stared at the toilet. But she knew that if she were to help the human she loved, she would need to retrieve the wallet. Then she saw what had flown out. It was just a piece of black leather... with cards in it? Verde ran to the kitchen and started trying to find a pair of tongs she used earlier. Rushing back into the bathroom, she started to try to fish the wallet out with the tongs. Pulling out the wallet, she ran back to the bedroom with the damp folded leather and dropped it onto Jason’s chest with a flop.

Jason gave out a surprised gasp, slowly feeling his chest, he felt the water logged wallet. Slowly picking it up, he pulled out a few of the cards humans always carried along with them. He started to look at each one carefully. Finally he found the one he was looking for. Pulling it out, he placed it on the side of his bed in front of Verde and closed his eyes, returning to his sleeping, wheezy state. She saw the card, a Zivragon Telecommunications Cooperation card. What what's she supposed to do with this? Maybe there was something on the back, slowly flipping the card to its back, the text got a lot smaller, skimming she finally found what she was looking for... ‘If this card is lost, please return it to 392 Maple RD, Trottington’. Where there was someone to take back a lost human card, there must be other humans there... but the place listed was across Trottington, and the home Jason and Verde lived in was the other side of town. Standing for a moment, she resolved to help her herd mate, by any means necessary. Putting the card in her saddlebag, she checked on Jason one last time before she left.

“Hey Jason, look, I know that I kinda forced myself onto you, I should have known that you had no idea of our customs and stuff... I'm just so sorry that I assumed you understood what verbally inviting me to sleep in the main bed for the night meant. But you took care of me, even when I was a poor companion, you still fed me and gave me shelter, I’m going to go try to get humans this time, humans who can hopefully help you, okay? I’ll be back, I just want you to know that.” she whispered quietly to him. She bumped her head into his arm to try and comfort him.

His eyes suddenly fluttered and he reached out with his hand to touch her face. This time she did not pull back or move away. His blunt limbs softly combed her mane, then, suddenly his hand dropped back onto the bed and he simply muttered out “no … worries”.

Staring at her human stallion, she backed off slowly and turned around. After picking up her saddlebag, she moved to the living room and out the front door. Looking east ward, she began to run with all her might, tears streaming down her face in hopes that other humans could save the man that she now knew loved her so much.

===

“Is that why Jason hasn't showed up to work the last few days?” Jerry said. This human was taller and darker than Jason, and while Jason had an air of reluctant compassion, this one had an air of authority. He had no mane, just the same tanned skin that covered his face and hands. The clothes he wore, while not seemingly fashionable, demanded submission in their sharp corners and mix of black and greys, with the only color on his persons, a belt, that was crimson red as dried blood on a bandage.

Verde found the Zivragon ‘Omnicron’ compound. She was surprised to see it cordoned off with a tall fence made of thin, wrapped metal with a bunch of houses inside the fenced area. She could see humans walking to and from the buildings and even a few ponies that she had never seen in the town before.

“Yes, he is very, very sick, he keeps gasping for air and he can barely speak at all.” Verde exclaimed, she was trying to skip the explaining and jump to the ‘getting help’ part of her mission.

“Thats all well and good, but how do you know this?” Jerry asked. Verde remembered that Jason hated being called her stallion or heardmate, and that he ranted that other humans would mock him for accepting a pony into his herd.

Thinking quickly, she finally came up with an answer. “Oh I am Jason’s house keeper, I go out to his little human house every three days and clean up after him.” she said with a fake smile.

“He can... afford housekeeping?” Jerry asked, with one part of his thin lips frowning to the side.

“Oh um, yeah he knows me from a long while ago and I offered my services at a steep discount, you know, he was so helpful in the past to me that I just felt this was the only way I could repay him!” she cheerfully cried.

“How do you know him? This is his first time in Equestria, how would he ha-” Jerry was interrupted by the lime green pony.

“Oh, my family took a vacation there a few years ago!” she stated with her ears folded back.

“You came to earth... on vacation? The parallel world that most, if not all other ponies in town fear, your family went there... on vacation?” Jerry looked as if he knew was being lied too now...

“Yes, you see, my father always wanted to take us to new places, what place is newer then Earth!” Verde spoke quickly

“....fine then, we know that this town is woefully under equipped to handle human needs, we have a onsite doctor that we can send immediately, let me page her.” Jerry said.

“Oh thank you, thank you very much Mr.Jerry!” Verde nearly screamed.

===

Verde was able to catch a ride back home with the doctor, she had seen human cars before but this was different. It was like an open air box, and it never used a road. It’s doors were much smaller and it had a strange framework in lieu of it being covered completely. She saw that it was named ‘Jeep’. Perhaps humans named their machines like ponies named pets, Verde thought. As they drove, the doctor was already asking her questions about Jason’s condition. Dr.Wayworth was a wrinkled female of Jason’s species who wasted no time in getting to work.

The doctor made no change in her face since Jerry introduced her to Verde. The curls of her white hair offset what seemed a controlled rage and impatience that the doctor herself spent years forging into weapons of dominance. Her white lab coat was even whiter than the pictures Verde saw of Celestia, having never seen the sun princess in person. Beneath it, a dark green with a tinge of blue shirt covered a nearly deathly thin figure, deathly thin for a human at least.

“So the major problem is he can not breath or move under his own power?” she asked Dr.Wayworth, her bleach white hair bouncing up and down with the car.

“Yes, he can still move his arms for the most part, but everything else he needs assistance with.” Verde barked back, trying to overcome the sound of the engine.

“Has he been coughing up blood or mucus?” she quickly replied, keeping her eyes forward.

“Yes he has, but he has no fever.” even Verde knew how to check for a fever.

"Yes he has been coughing up both?" Wayworth sternfully shouted.

"Oh, just the mucus." Verde stated, correcting herself.

“Well I will have to have a look at him, but assuming he has all his vaccinations, he might have Pneumonia.” Dr.Wayworth finished as they pulled up to the house, stopping so hard that Verde almost fell from her seat.

Only Humans bothered to lock the door, no other pony in the town of Trottington did unless the Diamond Dog sirens went off, which kind of spooked the doctor at seeing Verde simply pull down the door handle.

Once inside, Verde lead the Doctor to the master bedroom, and with that, the good doctor went to work immediately.

Verde moved herself to the corner as she watched the human doctor poke and prod Jason. Jason occasionally gargled and coughed but the Doctor seemed to pay no mind. Verde saw the Doctor take notes on one of those magic paper things, very much like what Jason had. Just as Verde just got lost in her thoughts, the Human Female spoke up.

“You said this started three days ago?” the Doctor asked.

“Yes, he was sleeping one moment and gasping for air the next.” Verde replied.

“...Why did you wait to get in contact with us?” the Doctor said, with a almost drone tone in her voice.

“I thought that the local Vet co-” Verde was stopped by the Doctor.

“Excuse me? Did you say Vet?” the doctor stated in an almost mocking tone while eyeing Verde.

“I...I don’t know many humans and” Verde tried to respond, only to have the Doctor interrupt her again.

“Apparently, so you put this man’s life at risk because you felt the local pony population, the ones this far out in the Equestrian boonies, had the knowledge to treat human ailments?” the Doctor raised her voice, staring directly at her with those predator eyes.

Verde was backing away, she could deal with Jason, she knew that he would not hurt her, but this Doctor? This Doctor kept staring at her.

“S..stop p..p.please...y..you’re s..scaring me...” Verde had huddled into the corner she had originally assigned herself at.

“Don’t think just because you ponies are ignorant of our biology that we are also ignorant of pony biology, do you know why you can't handle this stare? Herbivores; A herbivore that sees a predator about to chase after it and your flight response is screaming, demanding safely from the eyes that peer your way. In fact, a few of your brothers and sisters have even mastered this stare. But humans? Its natural to almost every... human.” the Doctor slowly approached Verde, whose voice was a cross of the rage of a thousand ages gone by and a predatory hiss.

“Don’t.” a muffled voice from the bed ariose. “She...tried...” and as quickly as the voice rose, it fell. Verde, peering from the corner of her eye, could see Jason’s hand lifted toward the Doctor.

The Doctor turned to Jason, breaking the stare. Verde suddenly made a dash, tumbling past the doctor and positioned herself on the opposite end of the bed as the doctor, thinking that Jason would be able to protect her. Almost instinctually, Verde buried her face underneath Jason’s arm, it took her a moment to realize what she had done.

“Why...scaring....her.” Jason mumbled as he moved his nearest hand and started stroking Verde’s mane.

The Doctor looked at Jason and with that, wrote on her device again.

“You have a viral strain of Pneumonia. I'll be back with some medication to abate the symptoms, but you will have to overcome it by yourself.” Dr.Wayworth finished.

“Pony, I would have words with you.” the doctor said, turning to Verde.

“W..why?” Verde said muffled between the arm and bed sheets.

“If you care for him at all as your herd mate, you will speak to me.” Dr.Wayworth coldly toned.
Verde lifted her head from the comfort of Jason’s arm

“How did you know that Jason was my herd mate?” Verde weakly asked

“Pony behavior deals with predators by running to the herd mate designated for fighting and waits for them to deal with the threat. If Jason was not your herd mate, you would have made a clean break for the living room when I broke my stare, instead, you clumsily fell to Jason’s side.” Dr.Wayworth said in a more soothing tone. “Tell me, how long have you two been herd mates? Are there any other members?”

“Its just Jason and I” Verde looked up to the Doctor. “I accepted his invite into his herd about two months ago.”

“Invite?” the Doctor tilted her head

“Human/Pony intimate companionship usually follow the human model of relationships, the two spend months learning about each other before moving further, And even then, few human males go on to make a herd of mates because of human stigma against polygamy. But even then, the courted ponies themselves only call themselves a herd when there are three members or more... tell me, what happened?” Dr.Wayworth questioned.

“...He verbally invited me to lay in the master bed for the night...” Verde looked at Jason, her ears flattening as if she was ashamed of her interpretation of his words.

“I see, did he know that he extended a very intimate invitation into his life?” the Doctor inquired

“Apparently not...I...I had no home, I just got kicked out of my first herd before I was even a member, I could not go back home, my Mother’s herd has high expectations for everyone but me, they were stunned that I got an invite at all, without a long courting. But the stallion at the last moment decided that a old member who came back had priority over me...” Verde sighed out.

“So I was in the mud, unsure as to what to do, the Lead Mare teleported my suitcases and painting supplies into into the mud as well... and Jason saw me and -” Verde was interrupted

“He offered you his home to stay for the night... oh you poor thing” the Doctor reached out and touched Verde’s cheek.

“He wasn't asking you to join his herd, he was showing compassion, and in an attempt to make you comfortable, he gave you the master bed didn't he? He was trying to give you a place to sleep comfortably.” the Doctor asked.

Verde nodded, “I thought he was inviting me to join his herd, I...I was desperate and accepted...”

“Have you gone into heat yet?” the Doctor asked
Verde once again nodded, “He didn't understand but, once I made him understand... he helped me get through it.”

“Verde, I want you to know that I am bound by my kind’s privacy laws, its obvious that Jason hasn't told anyone about this and I won’t tell anyone either, I do need to ask, when is your next heat?” the Doctor continued, trying to make Verde feel safe over the fact that she knew about Jason’s secret.

“About Two weeks, why?” Verde asked

“He won't be able to perform his duties to you, I am going to get you a heat kit, I know its not as natural, but since you two are herd mates, you will need to take care of him for the most part while the medication takes care of his symptoms. And if you're in constant heat, it will be difficult.” The Doctor now looked at Verde with far more empathetic eyes

“Once the medication is administered, he will be able to breath relatively normally because I'm giving him a powerful pain suppressant. Talking and the like will come later. I'm also going to prescribe a immune system booster to help his natural defense system overcome the virus. What I need you to do is make sure he is clean, drinks at least two glasses of water a day and you need to get food in him, I know you ponies are not fond of cooking meat, but can I assume you have no problem with cooking eggs?” Wayworth asked.

“I've tried cooking before, but Jason's kitchen isn't made for ponies...” replied Verde

“When I come back, I'll bring a cookbook, and see if I can get any pony cooking utensils at the compound, do you two need groceries?” asked the Doctor

“I don’t know....” Verde looked away

“Does Jason have any bits stashed away?” inquired Wayworth

“Yes, he does, I found some on his work desk” Verde remembered

“I'll help if you two need more money but most of the currency Jason and I are paid in is not legal tender here, normally he would go to our workplace and request a Credit to Bit exchange and that requires that he input his PIN, and since he can possibly contaminate others with his illness, there is no way I'm letting him into the corporation's outpost just yet.” the Doctor stated.

“Do you know how to use a human phone?” asked Wayworth.

“No, the ones that humans carry around, I can't press buttons, like that writing thing you have, my hooves make it do nothing” she said, remembering the time she tried to use Jason’s phone.

“Thats because your hooves are not an adequate conduct of electrical current, here.” the doctor said handing Verde the pen she was using.

“This is a stylus, you will need to use your mouth to complete the circuit. Its almost like writing, except more tapping. There should be an emergency call function on Jason’s phone you can use that is linked to the outpost’s emergency center, if something happens, activate the emergency call feature and make sure you tap speakerphone.” the Doctor finished, walking toward the front door

“Wait, can’t you help me? I don’t have any idea about humans a-” Verde cried before being interrupted.

“You knew enough to come find us when he was legitimately sick, yeah later then I would have liked but you know where to run if you need help.” the Doctor said opening the door.

“Look,” the doctor said turning around, “If you and Jason continue your relationship, I want you to come down to our office sometime. I just want to give you a medical exam so that I can clear you two for travel. Then we can register Jason and you as family members.” the Doctor kneeled down to Verde’s eye level.

“Travel?” Verde asked.

“Don't you know? When Jason’s work visa expires in two months, he has to return to Earth, if you get registered as a family member of his, you will be able to get a family relations visa to go to Earth easil-” Wayworth tried to explain before being interrupted.

“I don’t want to go to Earth!” Verde cried out, she had heard horror stories about that place, what a horrible word Earth must be if it the only sentient species is the top predator...

“...I'll leave that discussion between you and Jason... I’ll be back with a heat kit and the other stuff you need... for now, just take care of Jason.” and with that Wayworth turned and left, leaving Verde to her own thoughts, she didn't want to go to Earth, but Jason has to leave soon.

Verde Cringed when she realized that if she stayed with Jason, she would go to a world inhospitable for ponies, and if she relinquished her herd ship, she would have to go home to her mother’s herd.

Chapter Three: Meat vs. Cake

Day 2

Verde poked her head from out the cover of the human sized blankets that now covered her. Looking around, she saw that the human had one of those digital alarm clocks next to his bed. 5 am, well before sunrise. She had fallen asleep before Jason joined her in bed, but at that moment, she realized that Jason was not in the bed to begin with. Hoofing at the strange mosaic of sheets, she hoped to find him in the darkness, she relented when she finally figured that he was not there.

Thinking to herself, she wondered if he was already up, farm ponies got up awfully early, maybe he did too. Looking at the door that he had left slightly open, she carefully slid out of the bed and was able to open the door by shoving her snout where the crack was. Making sure to be as quiet as possible, the mare trotted down the hallway and into the living room. A sound suddenly thrust its way into the silence as the pony tensed up. It was the snore of something sleeping. Her eyes, after finally adjusting to the low light, saw Jason sleeping on the couch.

Why was he there?, the Mare asked herself. As quickly as the thought came, it was replaced by something else. The human’s hand was on the floor, open. Verde’s curiosity got the better of her and knelt down to get a closer look. She then realized that the human did not simply have dull claws, it was like he had five little pony legs attached to his arm! Looking up to see if Jason was waking, she saw that he was sound asleep and began to feel her herd mate’s micro appendages with her snout. She was surprised, soft, with some of the arms having a strange hoof like hardness at the side.

Suddenly the human snorted as his fingers suddenly starting moving to grab her. The mare jumped back before they could close in on her. Enough was enough, she thought, picking herself up. Taking a moment to compose herself, she started to move to his kitchen.

Her Mother’s herd mate taught her that every herd has members who specialize in helping out around the house, even if they were not very good at it. Some herd members exclusively cleaned the floors while others paid the bills, and whatnot. But the smaller the herd, the more responsibilities each member takes on. But when in doubt, the lead mare assigns the jobs. Verde was in doubt and realized the human who took her in might be hungry. Until I can talk to him about their what chores each of us will do, I’ll take on the role of cook, she thought to herself.

Celestia’s sun has finally started to rise, giving the mare just enough light to work with as she quietly opened the refrigerator. She asked herself, do humans like pancakes? I hope he does. She started looking for milk and eggs when her snout touched something that smelled dangerous. Peering into the area she poked, she saw something that horrified her. Meat. Cut, uncooked meat. Screaming in a mix of surprise and fear, the Mare fell back and rolled over, nearly hitting her head for the second time this week.

It was enough to wake the Human. The human let out a gasp and jumped up from the couch, seeing the fridge door open, he rushed over to see the Mare he let in staring in a mix of anger, fear, and disgust.

“YOU EAT MEAT!” she cried, staring straight up at him as if had just betrayed her.

“...yeah, a good portions of humans do.” he spoke drowsily.

“Well not in this household!” the mare punctuated.

“...Is this how you treat your Griffin buddies?” Jason replied, picking the stuff up off the floor that Verde dropped out of the fridge during her fall.

“THEY are savages!” Verde angry voiced, finally picking herself off the floor as the human put the fallen goods back into the fridge.

“I want that meat out of here no-” she was interrupted by a loud slam of the ice box door.

“No, I’m willing to let you stay here but I'm not changing my eating habits.” Jason spoke coldly.

“As Lea-” Verde said rearing up, trying to get on Jason's level even though her head only reached his mid chest.

“PLEASE!” Jason bellowed, “Do not test me this early in the morning, if you have a problem,”, Jason opened the front door, “here you go, you can send for your stuff later.”.

Verde immediately dropped on her rear. Getting the boot from two herds in two days? Her ears drooped to the side and looked down, realizing that the Human was prepared to force her out of her new home if she argued any more.

The human shuffled around the kitchen, making his own breakfast of some sort of cereal.

“Do you want something to eat?” Jason asked in a slightly agitated tone.

“No thanks...” Verde finally got up and slowly moved herself back to the bedroom.

As Verde walked, she thought, My first day in a real herd and I managed to anger my mate. Verde jumped into the tall bed, pulled up the sheets, and bit into the pillow as she started to cry.

===

Verde arose from the bed once more, she realized that she fell asleep crying. The tear stained pillow was still damp and the sun was fully out now. She did not want to move. This was not the life of being in a herd she was told about. Maybe accepting the human’s invitation was wrong. Rolling over, she realized she had heard nothing outside the door for the last few minutes. Looking around for a second, she noticed a letter on the nightstand addressed to her.

Verde,

I've gone to work. I'll be home at about 5ish. I left some breakfast and lunch for you on the coffee table, don’t worry, its not meat. We need to talk when I get home.

-Jason

P.S Don’t throw away my meat

Verde looked over at the clock, it was 3pm. She slowly slipped from the bed and back into the floor. She was getting kinda hungry and started to move to the living room. After a good meal, she would be able to think clearly about what's going on.

Verde saw the home in full light now. Dark Blue furniture dominate the room with lilly white walls. As she moved to the coffee table, she noticed that her luggage was next to the couch, all clean. Jason cleaned my luggage, Verde thought, which made her heart jump a little. She unzipped the biggest bag, which held mementos of her foalhood. She pulled out her first painting, a gaudy piece of art, her trying to paint a seal without a reference. But as bad as it looked, it gave her her cutie mark. She discovered that day she loved drawing and painting.

Digging further, she pulled out her Darling Doo adventure books. Opening it, she took a moment to skim. Moving to just behind the book’s cover, she saw the words “From Siena, with love”. Siena had been Verde’s second mother, as her real mom was a Unicorn and Father was a Pegasus. Both of them were disappointed when she came out an Earth Pony, but not Siena. Siena was able to teach her things about Earth Ponies her Father and Mother simply did not know or care to find out. While she loved her mom, she also loved Siena very much. Then the tears returned.

With no one to hear her, she did not bother to hold back. She dropped to the ground, using her front ankles to dry her eyes, and started to review the last few days in her head.

First, I get rejected from a herd, and then I join this predator’s herd. Siena moved to Manehatten to join a new herd and I can’t go back home to my mom or dad, they were always focused on my sister, a Unicorn who gets all of her mom’s adoration. And this Human, he may even eat me if I-

Then, from the corner of her eye, she looked at the coffee table. It was a fully chocolate frosted cake. The human... baked me a cake, she thought. She saw the note right next to it

Verde,

I don't know what you were doing out in the mud and why you were bleeding, but I can guess it was nothing good. I’m sorry I snapped this morning, I had enough time to jerry rig a cake before I headed into work. It should hold you until I get home.

-Jason

P.S I'm serious, don't throw out my meat

Verde let out a giggle at the post script. The human apparently knew how to cook. He had even already sliced it for her. Pulling a slice, she gave it a shot... and it was okay, a bit dry, not great, but at least it did not have meat.

It was enough to calm her nerves. Feeling better, she started to take a good look at the living room, and noticed the human had one of those moving picture frames. While she did not know much about humans, she knew that the form of magic they practiced was accessible to everypony. So much so that some of the more Unicorn dense towns outlawed human magic, but she didn't understand why. I wonder if I can make it work, she thought. Trotting up to it, she tapped the frame with her hoof and... nothing happened.

She began to look at the other sides of the flat rectangle. She saw a bunch of buttons on the left side, with one that says power. Better not mess with that one, it might just release raw magical energy, Verde thought. Looking at the back, she saw a bunch of tubes that lead to the box the picture frame was standing on. Shoot, looks like I'll have to get my human to show me how it works, Verde sighed dejectedly. Moving away, she started to explore other parts of the room, and found a desk with a miniature moving picture frame on it. Rearing up, she saw a typewriter keyboard by itself and something else that looked like a tiny elongated dome. Bracing herself at the ledge of the desk, she moved in closer to get a better look at the dome, touching it with her snout. The picture frame sprung to life, catching her by surprise. The picture wasn't very artistically pretty... in fact it wasn't even moving. It just had two white boxes with ‘Username’ and ‘Password’ next to them on top of a simple blue background. She, once again, thought that she should just let the human show her the ropes.

Letting herself down, she noticed that he had no books, which worried her. She was worried about how she was going to pass the time, waiting for her herd mate. Then she came up with a idea, looking at the cake he had cooked for her, she would cook something for HIM, now that she was not upset anymore. Remembering to herself that he did have meat, she trotted into the kitchen and noticed again, everything was so tall. She would not be able to cook for her herd without some sort of assistance. Then she remembered that the little picture frame she accidentally activated had a chair in front of the desk it sat on.
Moving the chair was easy, she was an Earth Pony after all, not as strong as most, but she could still push and pull with ease. Getting on the chair, she found that she would have to get on the counter to open up the cabinets to look inside them. She had to be careful though, she would be on the ledge, but she felt that as long as she took her time, she would be able to open them all and start cooking.

After about an hour of painstaking opening and closing of cabinet drawers, she found all the ingredients she needed for spaghetti, but was disappointed that she would have to use the sauce she found in a jar that was slightly too big for her mouth to fit around and too close to other goods that her front ankles could not get it. Worrying, she closed her eyes and thought to herself what she was going to do. Then she remembered that Jason had a bunch of pillows, if she could get enough of them, she could just pull the jar down and let the towels softness catch the jar without breaking it! Moving from the bedroom and to the kitchen, she started moving pillows one at a time on top of the counter. Soon, after a few trips back and forth, she was ready.

Hoofing at the jar, it took her a few tries before she could get it to drop. Finally, the jar was at the edge, one more hoofing and it would fall. Placing her hoof on the lid, she pressed down and moved her hoof toward herself, moving the jar just off the ledge enough so that it could fall. For the briefest of moments, she worried that the pillows would not hold and that she would have to explain why there was tomato sauce and shards of glass in their pillows when, with a thunk, it landed. Sighing with relief, she moved back to the chair... only to lightly tap the jar with her hoof just hard enough that it rolled off the pillow, and onto the floor.

Biting her lower lip and closing her eyes, she awaited the crash and sound of sauce spreading on the floor, only to hear a THUD. Slowly opening her eyes and looking down, she saw that...the jar was just fine... just... fine.

Moving to the floor, she was astounded that the glass did not shatter. She noticed that there was a white streak on the glass where it hit the floor... is this some kind of human magic? Hoofing it with a little more pressure. She felt something strange... the glass... bent? Yes, the glass was BENDING. Maybe the humans had some sort of magic that allowed glass to bend just enough so that it could take a fall like that without shattering! But a problem now remained, getting it back UP to the counter. She tried to grasp it with her hooves, but it was too wide. Looking at the various devices in the kitchen as she sat down to rest for a second, she saw that one of them had the time on it, just like that light clock that was in the bedroom...it said 4:30.

In thirty minutes, Jason would be home. Getting back up, Verde started moving the pillows back into the bedroom and resolved to at least get the noodles boiling. If she could do that, then he could pick up the sauce from the floor with his little pony legs and help her finish the meal.

After finishing the return of the pillows to their proper place, she was able to get a pot and fill it with water, thankfully, the handle to the faucet was far more Pony friendly than anything else in the kitchen. Moving a metal pot from the faucet to the stove, she hooved the heater to about the middle and began the waiting game for the boiling to begin. She decided to see what the weather was like outside to alleviate her boredom from waiting.

Moving back out to the living room, the only window there, was one that lead to the backyard and was this huge thing of sliding glass. Poking her head past the window shades, she saw that it was drizzling. She never kept up with the town’s weather schedule, but Pegasi liked to group days of raining together. She was startled to see that his back yard lead to the local water reservoir, dug out by Earth Ponies so that the town would not flood horribly when it did rain. But from this distance, it looked like a lake to her.

Remembering that she had water boiling, she moved back to the kitchen and saw that the pot was lightly boiling. Now was the time to get the dried spaghetti into the pot. Quickly getting it in there, she wanted to go back to the drizzling lake she saw in the distance and relax before Jason came home.

Climbing down, she began to trot back to the window, when she heard the boiling suddenly spike up, turning around, she saw that the boiling pot was suddenly boiling over. Horrified, she jumped up on the chair and reached for the knob to turn down the heat, but the steam from the pot prevented her. She tried again, wincing in pain each time that she reached, but she just could not do it. She then thought that maybe a towel would cover the steam up long enough for her to reach the knob. Then she looked down.

The hot, boiling water had spilled over onto the ground, surrounding her in a light steaming puddle. Oh no, she thought to herself. She kept repeating the thought over and over again. It’s over now, if she could not clean this up and stop the water, he would kick her out for sure this time. But she was scared of getting burned, and even if she left, she would have to deal with the hot water on the ground again to try and turn off the knob. She started breathing quickly, gasping for air.

"No no no!", she said out loud, when suddenly, the front door knob made a sound, and a second later, the Human had returned.

Chapter Three Side B: You all failed; Stalemate.

Fuuucckkk, Jason thought as he felt something messing with his right hand. He was still groggy and whatever it was that was poking at his hand was about to get slapped. Thankfully, it stopped, whatever it was. Jason snorted, trying to get back to sleep.

Jason, however, was unable to ignore the sharp pain in his back. He hated sleeping on couches because they were ill fit to any human sleeping position in his mind. However, he could not figure out if he had crashed on the couch because he was too tired to reach the bedroom or if there was some other reason.

Finally, Jason was starting to drift off again. That was until the sudden crash from wherever his head was pointing. Then from that crash arose a scream. A terrified scream that betrayed a hint of disgust and shock.

Rising from the couch at a unfathomable speed, he suddenly realized why he was on the couch.

The mare he permitted to spend the night here was messing with his fucking fridge.

The Fucking micro-horse is dicking around in my goddamn fridge?, Jason screamed in the back of his head. A sudden bolt of rage permeated from his own eye sockets as he got on his feet.

Moving to the kitchen, the mare he let in stared at him, furious as if she were going to rip his balls off for breakfast.

“YOU EAT MEAT!” she screamed, in a voice ill fit for demanding anything except a glass of water.

“...yeah, a good portions of humans do” Jason replied, he really wanted to verbally rip her to shreds, but chose not to, seeing as she might just be offended by ground beef.

“Well not in this household!” the mare yelled, trying to force a ultimatum that obviously she couldn't back up.

“...Is this how you treat your Griffin buddies?” Jason answered, picking the stuff up off the floor that Verde dropped out of the fridge during her fall. Honesty he was trying to give her ways out of this while saving face, he liked meat. He loved a lot of different kinds of meat.

“THEY are savages” Verde choked out, almost stuttering. And you're brothers and sisters are intolerant douchebags, but they don't pay me for pointing out the obvious, Jason thought, he really wanted to respond to her saying this.

“I want that meat out of here no-” she tried to finish, only for Jason to slam the ice box door, hoping that would shut her yap.

“No, I’m willing to let you stay here but I'm not changing my eating habits.” Jason stated as plainly as he could.

“As Lea-” Verde said rearing up, Oh god she is trying to get on eye level with me, I don't know if I should laugh at her or just tell her to get the fuck out. Jason mentally replied, though different words came out as he interrupted her.

“PLEASE!” Jason bellowed, “Do not test me this early in the morning, if you have a problem,”, Jason opened the front door, “here you go, you can send for your stuff later.”.

Verde immediately dropped on her rear. Oh thank fucking shit she finally backed the fuck down. Shall I pay homage to the pony queen of shutting other ponies the fuck up for this grandiose gift she has bestowed upon me?, Jason chuckled internally. Seeing as Verde backed the fuck down and that they were both up, Jason started to work on breakfast.

“Do you want something to eat?” Jason asked, still trying to calm himself down after this morning's surprise alarm clock.

“No thanks...”Verde sulked up and started moving to his bedroom. Fuck me, not this passive aggressive shit, Alas Poor Verde, hast I wounded thine ego? Dost thine desire above all things on Equestria Ferma, that thy would have I slay all eaters of meat?

Seeing that she turned the corner, he got to work on making some cereal. He could not, however, prevent himself from feeling bad, even though he was internally mocking her. Poor thing probably was hungry and was looking to eat before she started going into a craze about 'meat' Jason thought.

Seeing that he had to be at work soon, Jason checked his cabinets for some instant cake mix. Finding it right where he expected, he swiftly moved to the desk, looking for his phone.

Finding the entry for the compound's secretary, a mere tap on his screen connected them.

"Thank you for calling Zivragon Telecommunications Cooperation, Compound Omicron, how can I assist you?" the staticy voice spoke in a cherp.

"This is Jason, I'll be a few hours late" he replied, licking his lips of the sugar from the cereal that was still there.

"Are you sick?" the voice asked in response.

"No, I have a PC component that busted overnight and I need to make sure it's fixed before I come in." Jason blatantly lied. Honesty he did not want anyone knowing he was housing a pony, given the race problems in the local area and the fact that he wasn't sure how work would react to it.

"Anything else?" the voice asked one more time.

"Thats it, I'll call in two hours if I am still having issues." Jason answered. Hopefully that will have convinced them it was just a household problem.

"Allright understood, I'll pass it on.", the voice spoke as the line was cut. Jason had been on time or earlier since he arrived here. They would surely understand taking a few hours to fix a PC issue.

Grabbing the eggs and milk from the fridge, he saw that he had an unopened can of chocolate cake frosting. Perfect. He knew ponies loved their baked goods and this might be enough to at least show that he felt a little sorry.

===

With the cake done and the cleaning of her suitcases finished, he started scribbling notes. Midway though making the cake, he started to worry that she would throw his bacon and other meats out if he did not explicitly tell her to leave them alone. Though they did need to talk, he felt that two letters should do it, one for her to wake up to and the other apologizing to her. Both contained post scripts demanding that she does not touch his 'flesh' as she called it.

Finishing placing the cake on the coffee table, he moved to the bedroom, where he saw the pillow she was using stained with wet spots. Even her eyes still glistened with what seemed to be morning dew that slid off her face. But with her massive eyes, he could see that she was in REM sleep, darting left and right, and her body was shaking, as if a cold storm prevented her from resting.

Putting the last letter on the nightstand, he noticed most of the bed sheets had been pushed off her. Pulling his favorite one over her, her eyes were still darting, but the shivering stopped.

"I wonder what you're dreaming? Perhaps of a true loved one saving you from a snow storm? Better yet, I should hope that whoever it is, is coming to take you away from here so I can live in peace" he whispered, leaving the room.

"Also don't throw away my fucking meat." he finished, closing the door so that only the edge still remained opened.

Chapter Four: Behind the Ear

Day 58

“Come On, eat up.” Verde said after she dropped the bowel on Jason’s lap as carefully as she could. Jason let out the mildest of yelps as the bowel hit his abdomen and slid down a bit to a resting position.

“I’ll be right back, I’m going to get the toast.” Verde walked away, leaving Jason to start on the eggs by himself.

Jason had recovered quite nicely, it had been three days since the doctor’s visit and Jason was immediately able to breath almost normally when he took his pain medication. Verde was actually quite happy that he was able to sleep normally for the first time in days.

As she entered the kitchen, the pop of toasted bread made itself known. Using the pony step stool and for-pony tongs, it was easy for her to manipulate the stuff in the kitchen now. Boiling water was no problem like it was her first days and she could even reach Jason’s freezer.

Slapping the toast on a plate, she made her way back to the bedroom, to find Jason slowly, but surely, eating his eggs. He looked up at her and she felt that it was the first time in almost a week that her mate was mostly all there. Putting aside the eggs, he motioned for her to come to him.

Moving to him briskly, she placed the plate on his lap and smiled, only for him to move the toast to the nightstand along with the eggs and motion to her again.

“Come up here, I want to hold you for a while.” he carefully huffed out.

This was new for Verde, he had only accepted her fully right before he got sick, but he never really sought out to make much physical contact before or after. While he did touch her the first few days of her stay, it was purely a display of what he could do then it was a an attempt at intimate contact.

Not wanting to disappoint him, she jumped up onto the bed and as carefully as she could, laid down on top of him, resting her head on his chest, while he brought his arms down around her once more. This time however, he rubbed and stroked her gently and even brought his own head down to nuzzle her ear.

“Thank you for taking care of me, I know it must have been hard on you.” Jason whispered quietly into her ear.

“You took care of me and even after we found out that we had a huge miscommunication, you decided to give me a shot, I’m not going to leave you just because you’re helpless.” Verde replied, enjoying the hand combing through her mane. It reminded her of the first time he had done it, but this time it was a lot slower and more natural.

“But Wayworth did tell you, in two months or so, I have to go back to Earth, right?” Jason said adjusting himself so that he could pay more attention to Verde’s front legs.

Verde lost her self in this cuddling, she only recently got a book from the good doctor on humans, and read about how humans touch to bond with each other like most other mammals, but this was something no pony could replicate. Perhaps that was part of the Gentlemen for Mare’s success stemmed from the kind of bonding a human could engage in with anything that enjoyed being touched. Trying to pay attention to what Jason was saying, she snapped herself back to what he said.

“Yes she did.” Verde replied in a smooth, content voice.

“Are you okay? You seem to be zoning out.” Jason asked, again, adjusting himself so that he could better move his hands around Verde.

“You never touched me like this... it’s...oh Jason, why didn't you tell me that you could do this.” sighed Verde. Verde absolutely adored this, it was like he was a living blanket, conforming itself to her needs. This wasn't nuzzling or foreplay, or even anything like rutting. This was, to her, Jason accommodating every nook and cranny of Verde’s being with comforting strokes.

“I didn't know I could. That and when I thought you were just a long term guest, I would have never gone out of my way to rub you like this, touch like this is considered intimate for humans.” Jason spoke, moving his hand too Verde’s flank.

“Is your tail taboo or overly sensitive?” he asked

“Just don’t pull hard or pull on individual hairs and you'll be fine sweetie.” she huffed, losing herself to the strokes and scratches of his hands.

“Sweetie”? Jason coughed out.

“Oh.” Verde spoke, just realizing she called him by a pet name. She forced herself to look up at him and stare into his eyes. The doctor scared her with her stare, but Jason... she saw no malice or predatory intent. Just caring hazle eyes meeting hers.

Jason had finally reached her tail, her brown, plain jane tail and started stroking it as he did her mane, only her flank was at the receiving end of his fingers instead of her neck.

“Not too much... you might get me galloping and you c...can’t perform.” Verde exhaled, while she enjoyed this, she didn't want to go to far right now.

Jason stopped and returned to her mane, even scratching behind her ears. Verde had discovered that his hands were unusually adept at scratching anywhere, and instead of having to difficulty try to get her hooves to scratch an itch, she just asked Jason to take care of it. Behind the ears however... oh humans were celestial beings in regards to taking care of itches behind the ears.

“Verde, do... you want to come to Earth with me?” Jason asked when he realized that she dropped the subject in lieu of him relaxing her with his touch.

Verde snapped back once more and looked up at Jason.

“Jason, I need to tell you something.... I lied to you.” Verde said without a hint of worry. She felt that she could explain her family situation with him as he would not over react now that he understood what he meant to her.

“My father is in Las Pegasus now, but my mom is nearby. The reason I so readily accepted what to me seemed like a invitation to join your herd was because I don’t want to go home. I don't hate my mom, but I want freedom from her.” Verde finished.

“Well, I understand, but why would you not want to go home to her? Is your freedom really at stake?” asked Jason with a small gag, still dealing with some of the gunk from the illness.

“I’m...a late bloomer, most other ponies my age have been courting or been courted by a herd since we finish schooling. I’m about two years late leaving home for my first herd, the one you found me at.” Verde looked away in shame.

“Verde, is that why you jumped at me, even though I’m completely alien to you?” the human questioned sympathetically.

“You're not completely alien to me... you offered me shelter, carried my stuff, you even cleaned me... any other good pony who found me like that would have done what you did.” she said looking back up.

“I just didn't understand humans... you guys are rather recent. I mean, they taught us how to talk to Diamond Dogs, well the more civil ones, Griffins, and Minotaurs in school. But humans? I bet they are now just adding it into the curriculum.” she trailed off.

“Do you really find the ponies in this town unbearable?” she quickly asked, remembering Jason and Napel’s conversation from a few months ago.

“I would be lying if I said no. Ponies in the center regions, near the neo equinox and the major cities welcomed humans with open hooves. But they had to deal with other sentient species frequently. Here? I can't even buy food here. Not without either the locals refusing to sell to me outright or inflating the prices beyond what's reasonable. I have to order it and get it shipped to the outpost because everyone here is so paranoid. It’s been a pain trying to work with the local government when they won't let you buy land, we actually had to get the Equestrian Government to force the locals here to give us zoning permission to begin laying the cables we need to give you guys internet.” Jason ranted, nearly to a weeze.

“It’s gotten so bad, that we had to hire pony liaisons to represent our company just for this town. And even the liaisons are getting tired of the town's stubborn attitude. And it’s not just here, some of the more isolated Unicorn communities have outlawed our tech and other Earth Pony towns actively resist any kind of integration.” Jason finished.

“Well, I could at least get food for us.” Verde looked up at Jason empathetically.

“What about meat?” Jason quipped.

“Actually... I think that there is a Griffon trading post that I can have ship meat..” Verde looked to the side, seriously asking herself how to get Jason meat.

“Well this is a first, you not freaking out over me eating meat.” Jason laughed, only to cough and find his lungs were ill prepared for his sudden moment of amusement.

Verde was stunned too. She had dropped the meat issue, and merely asked how she could help Jason get some. She didn't know if she should feel uneasy or content that she was finally adapting to her alien companion.

“How about this, I'll give you bits every week to get fresh groceries, but I’ll keep shipping the meat in. Not to hate on griffins, but I am not sure I feel comfortable eating meat shipped from them without any kind of health standards.” Jason spoke with a slight pep in his voice.

“I won’t ask you to touch it, and I'll keep it in parts of the fridge that you can’t accidentally poke your snout in it.” Jason smiled.

“I could work with that.” Verde smiled back.

“But... about Earth, you still haven’t answered.” Jason dropped his smile.

“Earth... I don’t know... I was told that it was dangerous.” Verde stated

“There are... different dangers, don’t get me wrong. In fact, what we have, between us, where I live on Earth, other humans will have a problem with it.” Jason snorted out.

“Like how the town has a problem with humans?” asked Verde.

“Well, your town simply doesn't trust humans. Let me help you understand something before I continue. Every human that comes to Equestria is carefully screened. Background check, months of waiting, we have made first contact with sentient life and the U.N only wants our best foot forward when it comes to humans crossing over to Equestria. In fact, when ponies come from Equestria to Earth, they are given a week’s briefing on the dangers of the local human populations. They have to sign a waver stating that they understand that there are sections of humanity who would lynch Ponies because they are perceived to be the work of some great deceiver. And that’s ignoring the paranoid, sociopathic sections of our population...” Jason sighed out.

“There are a list of cities friendly to Ponies, I could even find if there are cities friendly to pony/human couples... but not where I live. Texas is a mostly conservative state in the United States and we both would be at risk if I had you simply move home with me. So, if you choose to stay with me, I am going to have to move my residence somewhere else.” Jason finished.

“I didn't know humans saw us that way...” Verde said, her ears folded back

“Some, most of the well educated humans will give you a fair chance to prove yourself on an individual basis.”Jason responded

“But thats why I need you to make a decision soon if you’re going to come with me. If so, we're going to need to start finding a place to live now.” Jason combed Verde’s mane.

“I don’t know.” Verde looked at the window in the bedroom.

“Well, if you don’t, leaving a herd is very easy right? I mean, from what I read, you just tell your herd mates, find a new herd or home, pack up and leave, correct?” Jason pryed.

“Yeah, but... why would I want to leave?” Verde asked,

“Long distance relationships don’t bode well... and with that biological clock of yours...”Jason sounded worried.

“It’s...I just never left Trottington, and now, if I don’t make this gigantic leap of a move with you, I don’t know what to do...” Verde choked out.

“Look, how about this, take a few days to think about it. I won’t bring it up anymore unless you bring it up. But I need a answer by next Monday.” Jason closed his eyes, and started kneading Verde’s fur again.

“...I could ask my mom what she thinks, maybe my sister will be down from school at this time.” Verde openly thought.

“Does your mom know you have herded with a human?” Jason asked.

“No, honesty I haven't talked to her since well, I started living with you.” Verde huffed out. Oh gosh, I should just go to Earth with him just for the rubbing and touching, Verde thought.

“Would she have a problem?” inquired Jason.

“I don’t know, she is a Unicorn, so she might be more concerned with my sister’s schooling then my choice of mates.”Verde purred out,

“Is this really that good?” Jason asked, shifting attention to the touching he was giving Verde.

“It’s divine...” Verde said when she suddenly let out a tiny moan

“Hey, can you try massaging m-” Verde was interrupted by a loud knocking at the front door.

Looking up at Jason, he nodded. She slid from his arms to the floor with ease. Even she noticed her swagger as she swayed herself out the door, still enthralled by the fingers her mate had exposed her too. Smiling to herself, she wondered how she was going to pay him back for all his cuddling.

Reaching the door, she pulled down the handle to reveal a local Police Pony.

“Excuse me Ma’am, we got a report of animal abuse coming from this house.” said the Police Pony.

Chapter Five: Into the Beast it Goes

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.

Chapter Six: Just Watch

Day 58½

“What are you talking about? What animal? We don’t have any pets.” Verde answered the officer, whose sharply kept blonde mane and narrowly sharp golden eyes kept their bearings on Verde. He wore armor like a sentry, but the blue insignia right over his heart in the shape of a badge displayed that he was on official duty for the local precinct for the world to see.

“We got a report from the local Vet that he came here to treat a monkey. He determined would be more humane to put it down rather than to let it continue on.” the police pony stated.

“OH...the vet, well we don’t have any monkeys here, I had a sick human you see and-” Verde was immediately interrupted.

“A human?” the Police pony said, eyeing Verde. Realizing that there were absolutely no human/pony couples in Trottington, she would have to explain it to him.

“Yes see, I’ve decided to herd with a human, he got sick and I got a vet to come here and examine him, but he’s an old coot and wrote him off as a unusually large monkey.” Verde reported.

“Are you allright ma’am? We can take the talking ape in if he is bothering you.” the officer remaked

“Um, you know I did say he was my herdmate right?” Verde was starting to get uncomfortable. Maybe there was some truth to Jason’s displeasure with how the ponies in Trottington treated humans.

“Ma’am, do you need assistance?” The police pony emphasized. Verde was getting worried. The officer peered into the house to see if he could catch anything important

Realizing that he might be trying to find an excuse to enter, Verde knew that she needed to end this conversation right here and now.

“No I don’t need help officer, everything is fine, we don’t have a monkey.” Verde maintained.

“Do you mind if I come in and have a look around?” the officer asked. Verde was now sure he was trying to arrest the human, it frankly frightened her that this was even going on.

“No, this home is not rented in my name, so I am going to ask you to stay out and leave.” Verde dictated, quickly remembering that she could not give permission for the officer to enter the house anyways. “I’m closing the door now.”

Verde slowly closed the door. To her surprise, the police pony didn’t try to stop her or tell her to stop. Worried that he would be sticking around to see what was going on, Verde locked the door and ran to Jason.

“Hey, who was that?” Jason asked as she entered the room. Verde ignored him as she ran to the window to pull the blinds closed.

“Shh...” she whispered. After closing the blinds, she slowly approached Jason.

“Be quiet for now, I think that police officer was trying to arrest you, I’ll explain when I am sure he is gone.” she quietly spoke in his ear.

Jason nodded and closed his eyes. Good, take a nap. Verde thought. She continued to close the blinds around the house in a rushed manner.

When she finished, she moved the pony-step stool from the kitchen to the front door and looked through the peephole.

To her surprise, he really was still there, writing notes it seemed. Verde was just as curious as she was afraid. Why was he acting this way? This should have been a simple thing, did telling him I herded with a human really make him that paranoid?, Verde asked herself.

Realizing he was taking an awfully long time to write his notes, she moved down from the stool and returned to Jason. He was still napping, her plan was to wake him up and inform him of what had just happened incase there was something he knew. Nuzzling him from the side of the bed, his eyes fluttered open.

“Jason, the officer still hasn’t left, is there somthing wrong?” Verde asked.

“Not surprising Verde, like I said, this town has been giving us humans difficulty for the most part. Are there any other human/pony herds in the town?” Jason asked, being as quiet as he could.

“N..no, why, is that a problem?” Verde inquired. Then she started slowly realizing that it was not the fact that she said that she had a human here, it was that she said she was herding with one that made the officer act like he did.

“Wait Jason, I told him you were my herdmate, no pony that I know of in town has openly said that they were herding with a human... he could be confused or-”Verde trailed off

“Or he might think that you’re being held against your will.” Jason spoke, moving his hand to Verde’s mane.

“Are you okay?” he asked her, stroking her head.

“Yeah, I just, well I just never realized that telling anypony that I was with a human would be a problem.” Verde worried out loud.

“Interesting, In the big cities and cities near the Neo equinox, I doubt you could get anyone to care, but here, they seem to be very protective of members of the pony community...” Jason spoke, closing his eyes.

“Humans herd with ponies in other places?” Verde asked him. She was honestly surprised, she thought that he and she were doing something completely new. She then remembered what Wayworth said. Humans and ponies did have intimate relationships.

“You must have heard Lyra’s story.” Jason said. How could she not, Trottington was in a uproar about it, a Human and a Pony doing those kind of things when the two races had only met, and the fact that human could relive a mare’s heat just as well as a stallion without chance of pregnancy. Oh, is that why I knew that Jason could help me thought my heat?, Verde asked herself. The story came out two years ago or so, maybe she just remembered the fact, and not where it came from.

“You know its not just mares and human males, stallions and human females have been at it also.” Jason spoke.

“Do human girls herd with stallions or...?” Verde asked Jason.

“I don’t know, I think that would be up to the couple you’re asking, but”, Jason coughed, “I’ve heard stories of some guys trying their own herds in the more accepting cities, with varying levels of success. But most of the time, from what I can tell, most humans are comfortable with a one to one match up, more in line with what we humans deal with as the norm.”

“Human’s don't have multiple females to a male?” Verde inquired.

“No, Ponies have about a three or four mares to one stallion ratio. Humans, just one to one. While we do and can have multiple partners, even polygamy marriage, we generally meet one person, and they become our mates, for however short or long a time. That and human females don’t go through such a rough period of fertility like mares do.” Jason remarked.

Verde took a moment to think about this, when she wondered if the officer was still at the door.

“Hey, I’ll be right back, I want to see if the officer is still at the door.” Verde spoke already nearly out the door.

Checking the peephole, he was gone. Worried that he simply moved to a window to try to see in, she started checking under the blinds on the windows throughout the house. After checking the bedroom, the last window, she realized he had really left. Verde sighed in relief. Perhaps there was something about this town that did not mix well with humans, or any other sentient species. While you would see a griffon here and there trading, you saw none of the civil diamond dogs nor any minotaurs, and the minotaurs were actually their closest neighbor...

Verde returned to Jason, with him finishing his half eaten eggs from before, he still had yet to touch his toast

“You know I could have reheated that for you in that heatless oven of yours.” Verde commented, getting on the bed to be next to Jason.

“True, but I was the one who started massaging you in lieu of the fact that eggs over time, get cold.” Jason chirped.

Verde pecked Jason’s cheek, to remind him of the obvious fact that she cared. His response was to cup her chin and kiss her on the lips. What was at first, an awkward part of their relationship when she was in her first heat with him, now became common place, assuming he had his wits about him. His lips were thinner than her first stallion, a pony by the name of Thunder Growth, but more assertive, giving of, and demanding of her, passion. Verde realized that, after the initial clumsy, awkward week or so of their courtship, Jason had adjusted just nicely to her, just as she adjusted to the idea of rearing up every time she wanted to be kissed and he was standing. What really astounded her, was his flexibility. Ignoring the congress that they both partook in during her fertile period, he was quite dexterous and agile. In seconds, he could get on all fours and be at about half her height, sit to be at her height, or squat and be a head over her.

But something came to mind. For the most part, Jason and her skipped the courtship phase of herding, where they would talk and get to know each other. She liked to think that the first few weeks of him housing her was essentially that time, only that they had to skip the sampling and rush straight into the fact that he could relieve her of her heat. The sampling, when two non-herding members, become physically intimate to see if it was a desired sexual union, always happens at least once before a new member of the herd was added. She had done it with both Ruffie and Fiery Spirit when she courted that herd. But for Jason and her, he had not known her intimately outside of when she needed him.

She remembered the first time for her and Jason as an awkward affair, he had just agreed to the prospect of a herd the night before and the next morning, an unusually strong moment of heat initiated carnal desire flooded her to the point of immobility. She had to plead with him to help her. At first, she thought that he was permitting the torture of her own body to go on, but soon found out that it was the awkwardness of his own perception of himself and the prospect of transspecies intimacy that held him back. But after breaking him in, he was able to perform most of the time, though clumsy and awkward. When she explained that he need merely give his seed and not be a sex god, he was able relax and do the important task as the stallion of the herd well. Except for the moments after where she would involuntary spasm as tight as she could that he had to shove her off to get himself out, complaining about the pain.

Remembering her promise to help with the groceries broke her out of the reminiscing of Jason and her’s physical intimacy. She remembered that she still had a few of her paintings at the Art Boutique in town and thought that she could help get some bits for fresh food.

“Hey, I need to go into town in a week or so, I haven't checked in a few months with my art dealer and I might have some bits to help with food...” Verde trailed off, nuzzling Jason’s neck.

“If you can get some more bits for food, we can deal until I can return to work. But are we already out of bits that I had in the desk?” asked Jason, chewing on a piece of toast.

“I can’t find anymore. Unless you got some hidden away in a place I didn’t find...” Verde spoke, snuggling against Jason

“Thats all I remember getting.” Jason said, pulling Verde close to him.

“Hey, I know that you have been busy helping me get better Verde, but you told me you love to paint, I want you to take some time out and just paint today all right? I’ll even watch you if you permit it.” Jason asked.

“Just... watch me?” Verde inquired.

“Just watch.” Jason finished.

Chapter Seven: Messed Up Face

Day 5

Verde tossed and turned in the bed. Again. Another whole night, asleep in the bed, alone. Jason was, yet again, on the couch. Five days had passed since her first night watching television and Verde was getting tired of the human’s choice to isolate himself from her every night. Snorting into one of the pillows, Verde looked at the clock; it was nearly 7am. The human probably already left for work, whatever it is he did.

As she rolled around, she wondered if she had inadvertently offended him, maybe his culture does not permit him to sleep with someone who screws up something as simple as spaghetti. Maybe it was the fact that they had yet to sample each other yet. To Verde’s surprise, she did not cringe at the prospect of congress with the human. He looked like he could take care of her, but he had no tail and no hooves. She then wondered how he would use his hands, curious as to their role in sex.

Sliding off the bed, she was feeling peckish. Jason always left her something on the coffee table for lunch and breakfast each day and she was already feeling the pangs of hunger. Moving on to the living room, Verde crept to the coffee table, feeling the post wakeup feeling of what she could only describe as ‘ughh’. Finally reaching the coffee table, she noticed two things. One: Breakfast was not made, in fact no food had been set out. Two: Jason was still sleeping.

What surprised Verde the most of the two, was that Jason was still sleeping this late in the morning. Coming to the front of the couch, Verde poked the hairless ape’s back with her hoof, only to see him fidget around and return to his previously scheduled sleep.

Moving around the couch to get a better view of Jason, she saw that Jason was facing the back of the couch as he lay. And in between his body and the couch, there was a crevasse that she could easily fit in. Being as quiet as she could, she pulled herself up the arm of the couch and used the top of the back of the couch as a railing to position herself right above the canyon. She wanted to know what it was like sleeping with him. I bet its like any other pony, only that their colder without fur. Verde thought to herself.

Slowly as she could, she lowered herself, having to put a hoof on her mate’s shoulder, he only snorted as she put more weight on it. To her surprise, she was able to slide down the back of the couch in a quite, consistent manner. Now occupying the crevasse, she noticed that her own face was extraordinary close to Jason’s. Taking a moment to just look at him, she noticed that his eyelashes were much thinner than any pony’s. His small eyes, pale as the moon almost with the eye lids closed. But the most interesting feature was his nose. The humans never had a snout, it was just like his nose and mouth just slightly branched off from each other on some tree limb.

Looking closer, she saw that he had what looked like little bits of fur growing from his face, unable to help herself, she grazed his upper lip with the tip of her snout to feel a strange rough prickling. It WAS fur. Perhaps humans were not as hairless as she once thought.

Then, Jason’s lip started twitching, and Verde could feel his somthing trying to rise from beneath where she lay. Looking over her shoulder, she realized that she was laying directly on his arm. Not understanding what was going on, she started to panic. She tried to get up instinctually only for one of her hind legs to step on something squishy and loose. With that, the human screamed. In a blur, Verde was on the floor, her back facing the carpet, with the human adjacent to her, grasping the region she just stepped on with his hands.

“JESUS FUCKING HELL...” The human screeched, continuing to curse at the ceiling, tears rolling down his angrily scrunched face.

“JASON ARE YOU OKAY?” Verde exclaimed, popping back on all fours, but Jason did not respond, he just kept rolling and rolling around, he even started banging his head against the carpet.

“uhgggggggg” he moaned. Verde caught a glimpse of his eyes, they looked like they kept staring upwards, but not looking at anything. It was like Jason could not differentiate between whatever she had done and the rest of reality.

Scooching towards him, she was going to try and console him when the rolling stopped and she could hear him gasping for air. His eyes returned to normal, still watering however, and looked at her. Just stared at her.

As slowly as he could, be began to try to get up, Verde made an effort to help, but his shakiness and growing prevented her from getting any closer. Then, step by step he started walking.

“Jason, what’s wrong, let me help you!” Verde spoke, getting to her hooves. She was genuinely concerned over what just happend.

Jason ignored her completely. As he moved towards the bedroom, Verde wondered what was in there that could help him. After watching him, step by step, he reached the bedroom.

“Jason, please tell me what’s going o-” Verde tried to ask him, only to be stopped with the loud slam of the bedroom door. The slam was enough to make her take a step back, but then she reared up, and placed her front hooves on the door, hoofing it.

“JASON, TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG! PLEASE!” Verde cried

===

Two hours had passed since Jason sealed himself off from the rest of the house. Verde had taken to the couch, not understanding what happened. I was just trying to get off of him she thought to herself, when she heard the bedroom door open.

Getting on her flank, she waited for Jason to show himself. As if on cue, there he was, walking... relativity normally again.

“Jason what happened?” Verde asked

“Oh I’ll tell you what happened. You fucking stepped on my balls!” Jason shouted, moving to the kitchen. “Only now, when my hunger finally supersedes the pain in my groin, can I move to get fucking breakfast.”

Oh no, did I really step on him there? I always thought it would be lower or in between his legs, Verde winced at her own thought. Even colts could be immobilized when hurt there. She remembered a particular day in school where she saw a classmate on fall his side from an inadvertent buck from a playmate. Verde realized that she did not think though the entire ‘laying right on top of him’ plan.

Dumping a box of cereal and milk, Jason didn’t even bother moving to sit, he ate at the countertop, staring at the living room. Verde moved forward to him and wanted to try and comfort him. Rearing up, her front ankles only reached his ribs as she fell a little onto his side. It wasn’t a hug that was designed well, but it worked for the tall standing human.

Jason put down his bowel and moved his hand and patted her on the back.

“Tell me what you were thinking...” he asked.

“I was um..I just wanted to ugh, get a good look at your face, its so messed up, not having a snout and all...” she blurted out. Even she realized that she just mocked him for not being anything like a pony when he was just a human.

Jason sighed in a depressed tone and lightly pulled away with a bit more agility than before. Verde, for the most part, slide down from Jason as he walked to the fridge.

“You want some cereal?” he questioned, grabbing the milk from the fridge. Verde noticed he jug of milk was not glass, but some of that weird ‘plastic’ that save her from having spaghetti sauce all over the floor a few days ago.

“Yeah, sure... hey are you angry with me?” she asked Jason, who was pouring the milk into a bowl along with the cereal.

“Immensely, but there is nothing to do about it now.” he spoke, finishing the milk pouring.

“I’m taking the bed today for a nap later. You can have it back tonight.” he dictated, moving with Verde’s breakfast from the kitchen to the living room.

===

Verde was shifting around on Jason’s desk. Earlier, before he went to go take a nap, she saw that he had paper and pens and was trying to find some blank paper to draw on. The stress of the last few days had overshadowed her desire to create. Perhaps, this will relax me.Verde thought.

Soon she found some blank paper, being careful not to touch it with her tongue, she dumped the sheets on the coffee table as she went back to the desk to continue her search for a pen or pencil. She had already finished exploring the bottom drawers, but she had yet to reach the top ones. Using the chair, she balanced herself carefully and began pulling open the drawers one by one.

After finishing pulling all the drawers, she examined the first one only to find junk. However, moving left, she found the second drawer, she found something much different. Bits. A whole bunch of Bits. Her eyes widened, it was quite a lot. Shifting around the bits, she saw that most of them were shiny new, minted recently. Thinking about getting art supplies, she realized that Jason might consider it his bits and his alone. She knew that in some herds, while they shared everything, kept their own personal finances to themselves, except for what everyone needed to chip in for, while others just shared a giant pot where they put all their bits in.

Not wanting to risk Jason’s ire, she closed the drawer immediately. She had put him through the ringer the last few days and did not feel like being accused of stealing. Moving to the next drawer, she found what she was looking for. Pens. Grabbing one, she saw that it was one of those ‘clicky’ ones that Jason had. The ones where he pressed on the top for the pen to reveal itself at the bottom. Holding the pen firmly sideways in her mouth, use used the wall as something sturdy and pressed the pen into it. With a ‘click’, it was ready for her to use.

Moving to the coffee table, she positioned a piece of paper in the corner so it would not wobble as she drew, only to come up with a new problem. What to draw. Sitting for a few moments, she came up with an idea and began to draw the face she saw this morning, pleasantly sleeping before she stepped on the wrong place.

Chapter Eight: No Good Filthy Human Scum

Day 62

Verde trotted into the circular boutique where she usually sold her art to see if anything sold. The arranged deal was that she would leave her art with Radiant Pastal, the art dealer, who tried her best to sell the arts and crafts the other artisans in Trottington off, and she would keep a portion of the profits. Due to how small the town was, she regularly had to travel to other towns and cities with a sample book of the paintings and sculptures in order to make ends meet.

Due to this, humans to her were no different from ponies, in that they were potential customers. The recent trend among human clients was to bring a piece of the natural artwork of the ponies back home as a centerpiece, to either show how refined their tastes were or to simply keep up with the current trend. Verde did not mind this one bit, she felt her art was for everyone to enjoy. That and humans paid very generously when they did buy an art piece.
The boutique had changed since she last came here, there were all new pictures from local artists and it seemed the exterior had a new paint job: green like seaweed, with a deep ocean blue roof. Inside however, was the mess it usually was. Golden frames embroidered some of what Radiant was expecting to be her highest priced pieces of art. Others of lesser quality got dark or light wood borders. The walls were as vanilla as ice cream and the lighting was at different luminosities in each room, hoping to pair the perfecting lighting to the perfect picture.

Radiance was one of those rare ponies that wore clothes every day. Today she chose a strange blue layering, with the innermost layer being blue as the sky, with each successive layer adding a darker and darker blue, reaching deep ocean blue at the top. Her own nearly white, blond mane was cut short, and her coat, as vanilla as the walls, and had not one hint of fluff or ruffling.

“Good Morning Radiance!” Verde greeted her friend.

“Ah, good morning, checking up to see if you made a sale?” Radiance asked, she was taking photographs of the art that had recently come in in order to update her sales book.

“Yep! I was in town to get some groceries, and felt like checking up on you.” Verde spoke with a wide smile. Jason had mostly recovered from his injury and she just finished her month’s heat. Jason was even healthy enough to assist on the last day, though he had to stop part way through one session because his breathing could not keep up.

“I am sorry Verde, but you need to get me some new paintings, other than the few that never sale, and let me tell you, they will probably never sell, you need to bring me something new, something exciting!” Radiance huffed. Radiance did care for all her clients, but the newer the painting, the more she tries to push it.

“You know the paintings from over a year ago? I should start charging you storage space.” Pastel spoke when a flash from the camera went off. Part of the problem with being a local art dealer is that a few artist with good work ethics can fill up her store in a matter of months. Verde knew that she recently switched to a new paradigm that the more of a artists paintings that left the store at faster speeds, the more room she would provide since she was fairly confident that the art would not be under her care for long. Verde’s work did make sales, just not as much as she liked.

“Thats a shame.” Verde sighed. She really hoped that she would have made a sale. She hadn’t been able to paint since Jason got sick, and she wanted to start pulling her weight at the house, so far, he had paid for everything.

Radiance wrote down some notes in her notebook when her ears suddenly swiveled towards Verde, picking up her head and looking directly at her.

“Wait Verde? Oh I’m so sorry, busy this morning.” Radiance sputtered. Dropping her quill, Radiance walked over to Verde and poked her in the chest.

“Where have you been!?” Radiance demanded, looking slightly agitated.

“W..what do you mean?” Verde responded, she was concerned that something had happened or she had inadvertently angered Radiance.

“You disappear for a month and don’t expect me to ask around? What happened? Fiery Spirit told me she kicked you out of that herd you were supposed to join!” Radiance elastically exposited.
Verde suddenly saw the problem. Verde had practically dropped off the face of Equestria, only coming into town once before now. Her time with Jason had consumed most of her life, to the point that she only came into town once before and that was to get painting supplies and meet with her friend. A friend she NEVER met for dinner, Verde suddenly thought, gasping out loud. She remembered that she asked a friend to have dinner at a restaurant during the night she bit Jason’s hand and literally slept in. I need to go talk to Tan right after this, maybe I’ll need to take her out to lunch, Verde continued.

“So, what happened to you?” asked Radiance, her head tilted, making her white hair flop over to the side.

“Oh nothing, I found a new home just outside of town an-” Verde tried to speak, but Radiance’s voice jumped over hers.

“Did you find a new herd? You look like you did, you look so refreshed!” Radiance spoke with an elastic smile. I look refreshed?, Verde asked herself. Maybe Jason had a positive effect on her, he had interacted so much with him, even before the illness.

“Well? Is he handsome?” Radiance begged Verde.

“Oh, he is quite uh, handsome, in his own way.” Verde answered, looking to the side. She honestly did not know if Jason was handsome or not, she enjoyed being around him, but that face of his was so strange.

“Oh, I see... any other mares with you two?” Radiance continued to ask.

“No, I’m the only o-” Verde again, was interrupted by the prominent white haired mare.

“You mean you’re lead mare? At such a young age? Oh my, and he has yet to get another filly into the herd, he must like you!” Radiance exclaimed, hugging Verde.

“Yeah...he must...” Verde trailed off. Her mate only recently understood the importance of the lead mare role and had been relinquishing aspects of his life that he would take care of by himself. He even let her decide what they cooked together. That was the one activity they always did now that he could walk around, they cooked together. She got used to the odor of meat and he started eating more vegetables. She even got him to eat a apple flower yesterday, only for him to gag on it.

Radiance, staring at Verde, trotted away for a moment into her back room. Verde wondered where she went. Staring outside the showroom window, she saw the pony sized buildings and the carts selling their goods. Everything was alive and bustling. Sitting on her flank, Verde realized that there were no humans. An entire population living right next door to the town and they felt so alienated that they did not even come to town. Sighing out loud, she asked herself, Maybe going to Earth with Jason is a good idea, I mean, he doesn't feel welcome at all here. What really surprised the mare was that there were a lot of good ponies here. She never felt disliked or alienated in the town.

Trotting back in, Radiance held a bitbag that rattled as she presented it to Verde. Dropping it on the floor, she could finally speak.

“Hey, I know you just joined a herd and it must be difficult with a new place, so I’m going to buy that picture of the porcelain white cat sitting on a roof from you.” smiled Radiance. Verde was shocked, that picture had been here the longest and no one touched it. Even the humans, who she was told were fascinated by cat pictures, didn’t buy it.

“Radiance, I couldn’t...” Verde said, her lip twitching in a swath of joy and the feeling of being cared for.

“Oh Verde, you’re so young, you might be late getting a herd, but getting lead mare on your second try, after that fiasco with Firey’s herd? I want you to be successful. Promise me, when your stallion comes to town, that you will bring him by, who knows, I might want to see if he has any potential.” Radiance giggled, winking at Verde.

Verde bowed her head and moved to give Radiance a hug. Say what you want about Radiance, but she cared for those who trusted her with their work. Realizing that she might be out a artist if she chose to go to earth, Verde suddenly had a question.

“Hey, there is talk between my stallion and I that we might leave Trottington to um... Fillydelphia, and I wanted to know that if I could ship you my paintings, if we could still conduct business?” Verde asked, she could not stand the thought of not doing business with her friend.

“But of course, if you could just send me a photo of it, I’ll write you back if I will take it off your hooves, but leaving so soon? You just got a herd!” Radiance both asked and lightly roared.

“He is having trouble staying here, says that um...the weather here bothers him...” Verde gulped out.

“Oh, I see. Thats too bad, our Pegasi Weather team won the Most Harmonious Weather Award three years in a row last week.” Radiance replied.

“Yeah well, he just doesn't fit in well with harmony too well.” Verde chucked out, realizing she had lied so much in this conversation already. She would be more forthcoming with the fact that Jason was a human if not for the police ponie a few days ago scaring her.

“Well, take your bits and go get some food, and don’t forget to bring him on by when you can.” Radiance smiled, turning around and going back to work.

“Will do!” Verde announced, picking up the bits and putting it in her saddle bag.

Leaving the store, she needed to go talk to Tanned Scribbler, the friend she forgot to go out to dinner with. Thankfully, her herd lived together on top of a bakery the lead mare ran. Tan was in charge of the book keeping and inventory, while the lead mare and stallion baked various goods. It was a bit of a walk from here, but she felt that she needed to take care of this today, and now that she had the extra bits, buying lunch for the both of them would be no problem.

The blue sky was dotted with wispy clouds as she started staring up, hoping to catch a glimpse of the weather pegasi as she walked to the bakery. Nothing. Must have already done the weather positioning for the day. Her dad had been on the weather team, but was relieved of duty when he got into a spat with the team lead over the planning of the weather for the next few months. That was three years ago...

Arriving at the bakery, the deep red door was deep inside the front wall of the complex. The roof, green like conifers at winter, lay atop of foundation of peeling, nasally yellow. The windows were clean, except for the upstairs ones.

Opening the bakery door, she already saw Tan’s Herd’s lead mare, Vibrant Crimson at the register, having just finished selling a bunch of cupcakes to a pale blue unicorn whose name she did not know. As the unicorn turned around, Vibrant saw Verde.

“Where in Cerberus's three heads have you been? Tan was worried about you since the night you stood her up! Now it’s been nothing but ‘what happened to Verde’ this and ‘why won't Verde at least write’ that? You had her worried!” Vibrant grunted at Verde. Vibrant was actually a good lead mare compared to others, she looked out for the good of everyone in the herd and was level headed. She was a rare pony in that her mane and tail were of different colors, a deep red tail, contrasting against a pale green mane. Her own coat did not help this thrashing of colors, being the child of some light tan color and a deep orange.

“I’m so sorry Crim, I had a bit of a crisis and then another crisis, I wanted to apologize to Tan if she has a moment.” Verde implored to Vibrant. The red coated mare lifted her eye at Verde, only for Verde to assume a more submissive stance.

“TAN! You’re good for nothing friend is here!” Vibrant shouted, turning away from the registrar as she walked into the back kitchen. Verde could already hear the patter of hooves rushing down the stairs of the house.

Tan had not changed from when Verde last remembered seeing her, a short, copper mane complemented her tan coat. Verde also noticed that Tan was a bit taller, thought this could just be because of posture.

“VERDE! THERE YOU ARE!” shouted the light brown mare. Jumping over the counter, she embraced Verde, still with quill in her mouth. Verde must have caught her while she was working.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? I WAITED ALL NIGHT!” Tan exclaimed, looking sullen. Tan was Verde’s friend from foalhood and had gotten her cutie mark much earlier, a quill in an ink bottle, very early compared to all their peers.

“Well, if you have the time, I can tell you over lunch, my treat.” smiled Verde, she really wanted to make amends for what she put her friend though.

“Sure sure! Let me go finish a order for more flour and we can head out!” Tan excitedly huffed out, already moving her way back up the stairs. It did not take long for her to finish, because as Verde took a seat in the waiting area, Tan was already back down.

“So where to?” Tan asked.

“I was thinking The Bread Basket, if thats okay.” Verde responded.

“But isn't that a bit expensive?” Tan inquired, moving for the door.

“I just got some bits, so I can cover it.” smiled Verde, opening the door for Tan.

Walking at a slow pace, the two started to catch up.

“Where were you? I was so worried... you were going to tell me what happend with you and Ruffie’s herd.” Tan inquired, nudging Verde in a reassuring manner.

“Oh, I found a new herd, Ruffie’s Lead Mare gave me the boot and this ugh, stallion took me in.” Verde spoke, stumbling for a second before she remembered that she needed to refer to Jason as a fellow pony for now.

“So you found another herd? Who’s the led mare, can I meet the stallion? Is h-” This time it was Verde who interrupted someone else, cutting off Tan.

“Actually I’m Lead” Verde spoke with a tone of pride.

“You are? Oh, any other mares?” Tan asked.

“No, just him and me.” Verde smiled to Tan.

“Thats no fair, you have him all to yourself!” Tan joked, but Verde could sense a kernel of jealousy.

“Well, he certainly is unusual...” Verde trailed off

“What is it? Is he a misborn?” Tan bluntly asked. While Verde wondered if humans even had a concept of misborn, she shook her head no.

“Well, what is he?” Tan inquired. They just arrived at the restaurant and entered the front door.

The Bread Basket was a strange mix of high class eloquence and down to earth food. The entrance looked as elegant as all the photos of Canterlot’s castle that Verde saw in her youth, but with nicks and scratches where the flimsy paint job had already started to fall apart. The interior however, smelled of freshly cut flowers, its walls had a bold purple nuzzling black diamond shapes thought the place. The floor hay used for sitting was obviously freshly brought in today, and the decor had pictures of town events, most she did not recognize, like the opening of the local water mill.

“Lets get seated first, okay?” Verde asked, she wondered if she should tell Tan that she was herding with a human. She knew Tan wouldn't tell anyone, but did not know if she would approve.

After being seated, they both ordered the same thing, Day Lily on Rye.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone?” Verde whispered, gaining her wits.

“Oh no, you herded with a really old stallion didn't you...” Tan trailed off. Verde thought that was a logical jump for Tan, older stallions lost their libido and their herds tended to start getting thinner and thinner because of their inability to take care of several mares.

“Um..no you see he’s-” Verde tried to explain, only for Tan to cut her off this time.

“Oh no, he’s a griffion, Verde, you know that Griffons are rather bestial...” Tan sighed out in depression, as if Verde lost a game.

“Close, um he” Verde tried to speak.

“He is a diamond dog?” Tilted Tan’s head inquisitively with a look of disgust on her face.

“He’’s human” Verde spat out quietly.

“What!? A Human!?” Tan exclaimed, spitting her drink as if she was just about to gag on it..

“Not so loud Tan, comeon” Verde put her hooves on Tan’s shoulders.

“But why a human?? You know they desecrate everything that Celestia is, they even have leverage in our kingdom!” cried Tan.

“What are you talking about, desecrate?” Verde was legitimately curious.

“They have devices that can turn Celestia’s divine radiance into their dirty, forsaken ‘power’” Tan coughed out in disgust.

“And thats not the end of it, they can instantly talk to each other without mail or magic? They have books held prisoner in windows, and rumor has it that they built giant flying machines that killed the winged humans of their world!” Tan angrily scowled.

“Winged humans? Even our youngest foals know humans don’t have a winged population at all!” Verde cried,

“Are you sure? How do they control their weather huh?” Tan aggressively asked.

“The griffons have wings but can’t control the weather!” Verde rebutted.

“Well it doesn't matter, the only reason they are here is because they forced themselves here! We don’t need their dirty communication! We don’t need their ‘technology’! It’s just fake magic thats dirty and corrodes real magic!” Tan yelled, starting to get furious.

“And what’s worse, you’re herding with one! Do they even understand what it means to be in a herd? Does this human with even feel? I bet he is just fattening you up to eat you, or worse!” Tan zealously screamed.

“Tan, I don’t understand, what did the humans do?” Verde was genuinely concerned now, she had never seen Tan this upset at all.

“What did they do? I told you! Their very existence mocks all the hard work we put into our town! Did you not watch them build that compound!? They used their ‘machines’ to do almost all the work! Their disgusting hairless bodies are trying to seduce us and they got you!” Tan finished, looking intensely at Verde.

Verde could not believe that her oldest friend was so anti-human, she didn’t even move for a few seconds. Taking some bits from her saddlebag, she dropped more than enough to cover both their meals on the table and got up.

“Where are you going!?” Tan hissed, getting up as well.

“Back to my hairless disgusting stallion.” Verde said with a calm dispassion.

“No no no, we are getting you out of his home tonight, I’m sure you can stay with us, we’ll get the authorities to arrest him so th-” Tan spoke, trying to stop Verde, only for Verde to respond in anger.

“ARREST HIM FOR WHAT? GIVING ME A PLACE I CAN CALL HOME! Just, just leave me alone!” cried Verde, rushing out the door.

Ignoring the fact that she forgot the groceries, Verde ran at full speed to get home, only for her to stop to gasp for air just outside her home.

They hate humans.. they, they hate them, and oh Jason I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry, Verde collapsed on the ground, overcome with the knowledge that he was right.

Chapter Nine: Drain

Day 6

Verde woke up to yet another wonderful morning... alone in the giant bed. She thought that it was unseasonably warm for just this morning and decided to shower early. This was going to be a fun activity, he had a deep tub, but since he was never there for communal bathing, she taken to just dumping his shampoo into the tub in grandiose quantities and just giving herself some sort of hybrid bath/bubble bath. But the worst part was getting out. It was high enough that she had to use the human’s toilet that she could barely use to jump into the tub and had to push herself out, landing on the floor in various positions over the last few days.

At least I get to nearly swim in it... Verde thought to herself, popping herself into the tub. Dumping the shampoo, she started the bathtub, always rushing near the end of the tub until the initial cold water had finished pouring out.

After the initial chill, she hooved the drain so it would shut and the tub started to fill. Adding more shampoo, she sat on her flank, waiting for the tub to fill. Sighing, she wondered how it would be like for him to bath her and for her to bath him. His fingers might really work well for the purpose. She remembered the time he combed her mane and sighed, imagining his hands with soap suds on them, pressing hard on her coat, scratching around to be through. Starting to lick her lips, she raised her snout in the air, she closed her eyes, ignoring everything else except her own imagination.

She imagined the human she lived with roughly scrubbing her side, moving upwards to her neck, being more and more gentle the more and more he ascended. She imagined the feel of his ten fingers, softly massaging her neck, as he slowly stopped and moved to her frank, starting with her cutie mark. That was until the sound of water pouring over the tub pulled her from her fantasy and back to reality.

Looking around, she saw that the tub was overflowing. Moving carefully, as to not splash any more water, she got to the faucet and turned it off. Trying to move the little drain down at the bottom of the tub with her hooves, she found that it was too heavy, and it kept slipping of where she could grip onto with her hooves.

Seeing little recourse, she dunked her head into the water, eyes closed and started prodding the bottom of the tub with her snout, trying to find the contraption. She was going to have to bite it.

Coming back up for air, she dove again, this time, finding it in a few seconds. Biting and pulling hard, she used her hooves to twist the contraption to lock open, and heard the rush of water going down the drain. Popping her head back up, she let the tub lose a quarter of it’s water before hooving the drain to stop it again.

Now began the least pleasant part of the bath, she violently moved about in the tub, rolling over and over again, trying to get the shampoo/bubbles worked into her coat and mane. Occasionally, she uncontrollable slid around, but without her mate assisting her, this was always an endeavor to finish.

Finishing, snouted around for the drain again and pulled it, once more draining the water, only she let it drain all the way this time. Next, she started the water and pulled the top button on the faucet. The shower started up, spraying her at an awkward angle. Simply sitting in the artificial rain, she let the water rinse her off, as she slowly breathed in and out. After what felt like enough time had passed, she turned off the water and began the worst part of the entire affair, getting out.

She could just jump out, but her hooves were always slippery and made landing somthing that she could not control. Instead, she grab onto the ledge of the tub with her front legs and tried to lift her own rear legs. This time it worked. Reaching for the bottom, she could see the huge puddle where she accidentally left the bath go on for too long. Carefully walking through the water, she reached the towels, and got two. One for her, one for the floor.

After placing the first towle on the floor, she laid the other towle on a dry spot and started rolling around it. Frankly, if anyone was watching, Verde would have been embarrassed by this. Communal bathing was an almost universal custom among ponies. We help each other stay clean because to ignore the hygiene of a fellow pony is tantamount to disrespecting their right to have harmony in their lives , Verde remembering what her mother used to say.

Finishing up, she took the towel over to the remnants of the puddle and placed it on the floor to take care of it. Letting herself out of the bathroom, she saw Jason sitting relaxed on the couch, holding something.

“Good morning!” Verde greeted Jason, hoping that she would not get on his disinterested side. Looking closer at what Jason was holding, she saw a crumpled piece of paper.

“Morning, I’ve got to say, for having no hands, you’re pretty good at this.” Jason remarked.

“Good at what?” inquired Verde when she saw it. It wasn't just a crumpled sheet of paper, it was several, a few on the coffee table, and one on his hand. It was the stuff she drew yesterday.

Mortified, she threw them out because she did not want him knowing that she was drawing him, mere moments before yesterday’s unfortunate... accident.

“You draw well from memory, too bad you threw these out. Didn't think I wouldn't notice a waste bin full of crumpled up paper?” Jason smiled, putting the drawing down.

Verde didn't know what to say. Was he going to be upset that she snooped around his desk, or was he upset that she drew that, the moment before her hoof forcefully introduced themselves to his family’s gems? She did not need angry Jason this early in the morning. Verde’s face started to cringe.

“You look upset, You know I like these right?” Jason quietly spoke, smiling as sincerely as he could. Verde was surprised.

“You’re not upset?” she asked.

“No, not at the drawing, at the ball stomping, yeah, gonna be upset, but this is pretty good.” Jason remarked, laying the drawing on the table.

“Oh, I was kinda depressed yesterday and I needed to do something to get my mind off of um... yeah” she trailed off.

“I don’t know ponies too well, but do you have a need to do what your bumper sticker tells you to do?” Jason asked with a slight laugh.

“Bumper sticker?” Verde asked, genuinely confused.

“Your cutie mark” he answered, pointing at her flank.

“Not really, but most of the time, it symbolizes what we most enjoy doing, what we were meant to do...” Verde trailed off.

She remembered that she wanted a cutie mark that was going to tell her she was going to be a flyer like her dad when she was very young, she remembered her mom having to drop the bomb on her. Yeah there were hot air balloons, but she felt unsafe being somewhere she could not freely move around.

“Meant? So you guys don’t get to choose what you want to be or what you like?” Jason inquired

“There are plenty of ponies who do jobs thats outside of their marks. But most of us strive to do what we enjoy the most, which mostly is what our cutie mark says. A lot of us work really hard at making what we love our jobs, though there are a few marks you can’t really make a income with...” Verde explained, taking a moment to think.

“Do humans have cutie marks? I've never seen yours...” Verde asked, trailing off incase he had shown it to her or its against human culture to show his.

“No, just like most every other sentient life for here, we don’t get assigned a job from birth” Jason said.

Verde looked away, cutie marks were always a way to break the ice with another pony, and she had difficulty even talking to Jason, except for today.

“Do you miss painting?” Jason asked her, Verde shook her head yes.

“I miss it very much.” Verde whispered, glancing downwards towards the dark grey carpet.

Getting up, Jason moved to the desk and opened one of the drawers.

“How many bits would you need to pick up where you left off?” he asked her.

“Oh no, you don’t have to Jason” Verde tried to assure Jason.

“We have been both stressed the last few days, here, take what, 38 bits and get yourself some supplies.” he said, grabbing the bits and walking back to the couch, dropping the bits on the coffee table.

This was incredible, a full 38 bits to start over. Verde’s eyes widened, looking at Jason, and back at the bits on the table.

“Are you sure? Couldn't you use them for something else?” she asked

“Yeah, I’m sure, though in about 8 days, I would like you to leave the house between 6pm to midnight, I have a friend coming over and I’d like to just do shit with him alone.” Jason requested.

“Oh yeah, I can do that. I have a friend in town who I can grab a bite with.” Verde said, still thinking of all the supplies she was going to get.

“Alright, its a deal.” Jason finished.

Chapter Ten: The Sampling

Day 52½

“So, she went off on how humans defile everything they touch and went on to say that you were less than animals...” Verde finished telling Jason what just happend.

Verde’s time with Tan had shocked her into realizing the town might actually dislike humans. Maybe she spent too much time painting over the years to notice or she just never bothered to listen, but she was stunned that her oldest friend found the prospect of Jason by himself offencive.

“Not going to lie Verde, thats kinda what I have come to expect...” Jason trailed off, pouring her another glass of water.

“Can you explain it to me? Maybe I am missing somthing...” Verde asked Jason, taking a sip of the water.

"Wait, you never noticed the lack of humans in town or the rather blatant hate?" Jason inquisitively looked at Verde.

Verde did notice it, but she really never cared OR thought it was as bad as Tan had laid it out to her. In between working on her art and her hunt for a herd the last two years since she left school, she thought it was more just an abstract concept that she never stared in the face. Now it was staring at her in the face. She never asked herself why humans and ponies never tried to pair off here, unlike the stories she read about star crossed lovers taking on griffin and minotaur mates, then she realized all the authors came from the middle regions of Equestria, Canterlot, Las Pegasus, and Fillydelphia. She started to go over the times her friend Tan would make off color jokes about humans. Then she started remembering even her own mother had made a joke about how many humans it took to replace a candle.

“Well for one thing, we are pretty far from the core of Equestrian civilization. It’s going to have different perspective on a few things at least.” Jason spoke, seeing that she was silent, just looking straight into a wall.

“When we first came here, the company I work for tried to get us a office in the middle of Trottington, but your city council passed a law banning any human owned cooperation from buying land. Then we tried to implement a system of solar powered wireless broadband stations, but yet again, the city banned their use because of the ‘solar powered’ part, apparently, we were mocking the sun goddess by using her light for anything other than illuminating the world. So, we moved to getting the standard system of wires being run from here to a local town that was connected, and they stopped us yet again by making it illegal for any human company to rent the right to run datalines underneath the town. Thats when we got the Equestrian Government involved. They came in and now, we can run our wires though unincorporated Trottington. Right at the edge, we were given permission from the national government to set up our compound and right now, we are using line of sight lasers to communicate with the essential government buildings that we were commissioned to get internet to. But the locals lost, and have been raw about it ever since.” Jason finished explaining.

“But, I don’t understand, why they would not want you guys here in the first place?” Verde questioned.

“It might just be the local customs, notice there isn't any other race here besides ponies? Even Appleloosa has Bison and Diamond Dog traders. Not here...” Jason trailed off.

“So, the humans did nothing wrong?” Verde asked

“If we did, I am unaware of it. Though, we were really the first humans this far out in Equestria, we might be the first these ponies have ever seen of a bipedal hairless ape.” Jason said, scratching his chin.

“Trust me, everywhere else I’ve seen, ponies and humans work together like there isn't a problem, shit we got ponies from Canterlot at the compound to serve as advisors and representatives to the city, and they don’t seem to have a problem with it. If anything, they get more stressed working with the locals then us... now do you see why I want to leave? I made the distinct error of renting this human house far away from the compound assuming that a walk through town each day might be fucking awesome since I get to see an entire culture I didn't know existed until a few years ago...” Jason mellowly finished

“You were that surprised?” Verde inquired

“The Land of Friendship and Magic is what the brochure said” Jason replied.

Verde laid next to Jason and put her head on his lap.

“I think she hates me now...” Verde whimpered. Jason, catching the tone, started stroking her to try and comfort her.

“I think I’ve made my decision... I’m coming with you...”She crunched out of her own lungs.

“To Earth?” Jason inquired.

“Yeah.” Verde spoke, nuzzling Jason’s hand.

“Alright, well you still have Monday if you change your mind. No reason to lock us in before you had a few nights to sleep it over.” Jason said, comforting Verde

“I don’t want you to make this decision based on a nasty friend.” he finished

“Jason, I knew, even during the period of time that we were confused at where we were, that our relationship was going to have problems. I just never thought that the town I grew up in was going to be a bigger problem than say, a pony accessible oven.” Verde confessed.

“Verde, have I done anything that you can’t stand? That disgusts you?” Jason honesty asked.

“Meat, I know that its your culture’s thing but, really its just the meat.” Verde spoke plainly.

“And yet, you’re still here.” Jason scratched Verde’s side.

“But, for a first time stallion? You’re okay” Verde smiled.

Verde and Jason, didn't move for a very long time. For Verde, this was more of what she was really expecting in a herd, just that she was getting a lot of attention. More than any other point in her mom’s herd that she can remember. Looking up at Jason, she could feel the flame stroke within her.

“Jason, do you know what the sampling is?” she asked her mate.

“No, is it a pony thing?” he replied.

“Yes, when a mare courts a herd, the sampling is when the mare and at least the stallion rut during her infertile times of the month so that they can gauge each other... No mare wants a stallion that can't give his seed and no stallion wants a mare that is a bad lover. And their congress is the only real required ones... through the more mare leaning mares will sometimes join in or sample the courted mares themselves on their own time. We call it the sampling because its a sample of both parties and how they respond and how good they are in the long run for rutting. A herd that is awkward with it might have a problem with an obsessive herd member, a courting mare who has a problem with it, depending on their age, may be too young or might have a problem that she isn't telling the herd” Verde told Jason, getting up on her forelegs.

“You and I never got to sample each other... rutting in heat isn't sampling...” Verde willowy whispered, kissing Jason on the lips.

“Let me show you what it’s like to rut a mare who isn't flooded with carnal desire and who only wants to get closer to the mate that has chosen her...” she continued, kissing Jason.

“Come, show me that you humans are more like ponies then I dared even imagine...” Verde said, getting up, moving towards the bedroom, swaying her hips at Jason.

Chapter Eleven: Bite

Day 15

Verde pulled up to the small house, having completed her trip to the town for art supplies with a rented wheelbarrow. Finaly, I can start painting again, Verde thought to herself. The TV that Jason had fascinated her at first, but she realized that she might be fascinated because she herself hasn't done any painting in nearly a week. I’ll will start with the reservoir and see where that leads, she thought.

She decided that, while she loved painting, she would wait 8 days to go into town so she could plan her shopping trip and get out of the house. Up until today, she had just used any pens and paper she found and doodled, Jason had even started keeping some of them on his desk, saying that 'They're pretty unique, a damn good memento of coming to Equestria'.

Lowering herself, she saw that she got home extraordinary early and still had a few hours until she would head back to town to meet her friend for dinner. Apparently Tan had to do the month's take and bills, so she would need time to finish her role before she could talk to Verde, otherwise she would go ahead and just chat with her all day.

Jason wanted her gone for the afternoon, he said he was inviting a friend from work over and didn't want her to be around. She hated being told that he didn't want her around, but she guessed that the herd thing was as much new to him as it was to her.

Moving the paint and canvas to the living room, she realized that she was really tired from the long walk from town. After moving her last canvas in, she checked the time. Still way too early. So early, she felt that a nap before she headed back into town to drop off the wheelbarrow would be good. Jason wanted her to come back late, and her friend would entertain her until it was time for her to come home. She reasoned that, if anything, the nap would make sure she could keep her wits about when it came time to come home.

Jumping onto the bed, she realized that she had begun to despise the color of the sheets and pillows. It gets so cold and lonely... when will he stop sleeping on the couch and join me?, she asked herself. This was getting depressing. If this is what it means to be in a herd, she had no clue why her friends and family kept pushing her.

Laying her head on her favorite pillow, she smelled it, and noticed that the scent was starting to fade. She liked Jason’s scent, it was a strange mix of soft spice and a primal urge that could be best described as a sentient warmness. I could move this pillow to the couch, if he sleeps on it, it might get his scent back, Verde thought as the mellow shadows consumed her and she fell asleep.

===

Verde woke up to the loud laughter of what she could only describe as a cross between giggling and cackling. Looking over to the clock, Verde’s eyes widened when she saw the time. 8pm. She overslept profusely and Jason and his guest were laughing. As her ears moved toward the direction of the laughter, she was able to make out Jason’s voice.

“So, then I finish telling the mare ‘Hooves off me, I might be a damn dirty ape, but back home, you guys are the ones who shit on the ground without a second thought as to who could step in it!’” Jason chuckled.

“Gaw, did that really happen to you?” Jason’s friend asked, coughing what seemed to be gasps of laughter in between breaths.

“No, not to me personally Naple, Jerry told me about that incident when he went to Caballo Ridge.” Jason said, dropping the giggling.

“Hey, at least she was far more well-mannered then the cretans in this town.” Naple chided.

Verde thought, What? What does he mean cretrans? He can’t mean the ponies in Trottington...

Verde carefully slid off the bed and silently walked into the hallway to get a better listen.

“My fucking god, working with the ponies here is the worst, we get a government contract, and they keep adding restrictions and laws preventing us from doing our job.” Jason spoke, frustrated.

“Well, it was already bad when we couldn't lay a cable though the Zap Apple Orchaird the local Apple family ha-”Naple tried to quip before Jason stopped him

“We already knew we couldn't lay the lines on their property, They might be dirt poor Earth Ponies, but one if their relatives has a huge amount of political sway. We asked, but we got told no, and that’s as far as we’re pushing it.” Jason coughed out.

“Feeling okay?” Naple asked.

“Yeah... but I’m getting tired of being in Equestria. We get offered the chance to come to a brand new world, and build a network that revolutionized our own civilization, and we get dropped off at Equestria’s asshole, constantly getting shit on by the locals.” Jason grunted in frustration.

“And then there is this guest that won’t leave! I’m sure she is moving herself in, see that wheelbarrow outside? See how she just dropped off everything in the living room like she owns the place?” Jason sighed.

“One of the locals?” Naple asked.

“Yes, I found her in the mud and offered her to stay here for a few days, come to find out, she has no home to go back to” Jason uttered. “Only, a few days has turned into two weeks and I haven’t even slept on my own bed.”

What? I’m the reason he won’t sleep on the bed? But how are we supposed to sleep together?, Verde thought in a panic

“Well, it is creepy to sleep besides someone you don’t know... perhaps pony hospitality customs are different then ours...” Naple trailed off.

Hospitality? No, no no no, I’m Jason’s lead mare, I’m not a guest, I’m not a gu-, Verde’s own thoughts were cut off by her own run into the bedroom. While the carpet kept her quiet, her gasping for air was loud and frightening to her.
I’m not in a herd? I’ve just been here for two weeks because he thinks I’m a guest that won’t leave, how could he not notice that I was trying to be his mate? Did he really just rationalize it as me being a bad guest? I..I.., she kept thinking to herself.

The humans still were not aware of her presence. She didn't move. She sat in the darkness, thinking about how a horrible he was for not meaning what he meant when he asked her to lay in his bed. The more and more she thought about it, the more and more she blamed him for making her feel inadequate and ignored.

“Well Naple, thanks for coming over, its been a rough few weeks, even without the mare living in my bedroom.” Jason coughed again

“Hey, you have been coughing alot recently, maybe you need to see the doc about this...” Naple spoke concerned for Jason.

“Naw, It’s just a cold, see you at work tomorrow.” Jason finished, closing the door so loud that Verde could hear it well.

“Now to get this paint stuff of hers into the bedroom, I need a place to sleep tonight...” Jason muttered out loud.

He was coming, and she wanted him to come. She was ready to put him in his place, for making her feel this bad and heartbroken. She stood up straight, looked straight at the bedroom door, and saw Jason walk in with a paint bucket, hitting the light switch.

Startled, Jason nearly dropped the bucket. Verde could see that he was surprised that she was waiting for him in the dark. Then he noticed a hateful glare emanating from her as he tried to approach her.

“Hey, what are you doing here Ver-” Jason tried to speak when Verde started.

“YOU TRICKED ME, YOU OFFERED ME YOUR BED YOU HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HUMAN.” Verde screamed, she was in tears, but she didn't care. He needed to know that she hated him for building her hopes up.

“Tricked? Offered you the bed? What are you talking abo-” Jason tried, but failed to rebuttal completely.

“YOU TOLD ME YOU WANTED ME TO SLEEP ON YOUR BED! YOUR BED, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT MEANT TO ME?!” Verde moved toward Jason, with Jason pulling back.

“Okay, stop, calm down, I don-” Jason was interrupted a third time in a row.

“YOU INVITED ME TO JOIN YOUR HERD, DONT YOU REMEMBER? I ACCEPTED!! I SAID I ACCEPT! DON’T TELL ME YOU DON’T REMEMBER” Verde bellowed with her young, feminine voice.

Jason didn't say anything, he just stood there staring at her.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST GO AROUND, INVITING MARES INTO HERDS AND NOT GET AN ACCEPTANCE ONCE IN AWHILE? DO YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE? I TRIED TO HELP AROUND THE HOUSE, BUT YOU... YOU NEVER HELPED ME! I TRY TO COOK, AND YOU JUST TAKE OVER THE COOKING, I TRY TO CLEAN AND YOU TAKE OVER THE CLEANING! YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE BOOKS HERE YOU HORRIBLE HORRIBLE MONSTER. I TRUSTED YOU WITH MY HEART, I TRUSTED YOU!!!” she yelled.

“Verde...” Jason reached out with his hand to try and comfort her.

Verde didn't know why she did it. She was not even fully there in her fury. All she really remembered was a strange new taste. It was like licking a metal pole. She blinked and saw that she had bitten Jason’s hand.

Letting go, Verde backed off and saw Jason cradling the hand she bit. He winced in pain and looked at her. Leaving the bedroom, he stopped by the bathroom, only to grab a towel, and moved toward the kitchen.

“J..Jason” Verde tried to call to him.

He didn't flinch, didn't even acknowledge that she was there, wrapping the poor hand she bit, he opend the front door and walked outside.

Verde followed him out and saw that he was walking away from the house.

“JASON!!” Verde was swept with heartbreak, not at Jason now, but herself...

“Jason, I … love you...I...oh no..I love you...” Verde whispered, watching the human that she, for all her anger and anguish, had come to love, walk away.

Just, walking.

===

Day 16

Verde could not sleep that night. The human that she grew to love, walked out the door. She bit him, and without another word, without a glance, he just left her alone in his home. She stayed in the living room, hoping to be there and awake when he came back, but it was already sunrise.

Beyond that, she was grasping the fact that she, indeed, loved him. It had caught her completely by surprise. Herds don’t require that every member love every other member. With the mare population so high, and the stallion population so low, while one could find love in a herd, it wasn't the point. The point was to ensure that a stallion could service several mares when they go into heat, initially. A long while ago, some smart pony created the device that simulated the feel of a stallion, even a liquid that could proxy for a stallion’s own seed. But the herd system never changed.

What it did permit, was for stallions and Lead mares to accept more mares into herd, with such a device, the stallion alone would not be the sole dependent being required to take care of mares in heat. In addition, one could more strategically seek out mares that were strong simply for the sake of the herd. The stallion did not have to deal with mares he saw unfitting of his seed. Herd members could take care of each other, especially when the stallion was sick or injured.
It also created a class of mare who lived with just other mares or by themselves. This device permitted them the freedom from both a herd and a stallion, by essentially self medicating themselves.

So in essence, love was becoming less and less the point of a herd, and it was more and more becoming the basis of power building and foal factories. Mind you, the mothers always loved their foals, but to be a mare without a herd and pregnant would be stigmatizing, both mare and foal, for the rest of their lives would be labeled unfit to be proper ponies.

So, Verde, while waiting, hoping for Jason to come home, asked herself when did she start to love him? Was it the first time he touched her mane? Was it the fact that he provided for her, regardless of what either of them thought of their relationship at the time? Perhaps it was the bits he gave her so she could paint again or the time he carried most of her luggage back home and invited her to stay with him.

Whatever it was, she had to deal with something else. She bit him, enough to draw blood. Ponies don’t bite other ponies, more or less anything else unless they felt threatened. Bucking him would have been appropriate, but biting him? She called him a meat eating savage, and yet, here she was, casually chomping down on HIS flesh, not even giving him the courtesy to die before she did.

She laid her head on the pillow where he usually slept and there it was. His scent. The scent she had grown accustom to. Nuzzling the pillow, she imagined it was him, that they got over everything and that he was letting her kiss his nec-

Noo, no no no not now, not THIS early!, Verde thought wide eyed, but she could feel it.

It was coming.

Heat.

She rose her head and sat on her flank, realizing that she was in a very bad position. She had no one to take care of her during her heat, she attacked the one thing that might have been able to help her cope with it, and she didn't have one of those heater kits.

Getting up, she started pacing across the floor. She didn't know how to deal with this. She then decided that if anything, she needed to take her mind off of anything heat related, normally, a stallion would start servicing her now or soon, and continue every day a few times a day so that she would be able to be relatively her normal self.

Then she asked herself, What if he comes back and I’m this mess of tangled desire and can’t even talk to him properly? She could see it now, Jason coming home, her there, flank high in the air, winking at him, begging him to rut her, and him just walking away again, not even wanting to help her. She even imagined him saying “Why should I help you, so you could bite me in the -”.

No, no gotta stop thinking about this at all, I mean, he would understand right? Verde hoped.

===

Verde had fallen asleep where Jason slept. She realized that his scent actually helped her sleep, maybe it was because she felt safe around him, or maybe it was just such a particular odor. Whatever the case, she was waking up, when the front door opened.
Verde’s ears swiviled at the door, followed by her head. Jason had come home.

“JASON, I’M SO SORRY, I-” in Verde’s attempt at greeting him, she fell out of the couch and hit her chest against the floor. Getting her wits back, she got up and rushed to him, only to stop at his bellow.

“DO NOT COME ANY CLOSER” Jason uttered in a deep roar, holding his good arm at her.

Verde did exactly as she was told. She held her position. She tried to speak again

“Jason, please, I’m so sorry” Verde choked out.

Jason said nothing and just stared at her. How could she respond? She was just hoping that she could talk to him. She needed a chance to explain everything.

“You don’t get to speak, so shut the fuck up.” Jason growled.

Verde didn't move, she just stared.

Jason went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Verde scootched herself to see what he was doing. Peering around the corner, she had a package... full of meat.

Violently, Jason grabbed a pan and spatula from the cupboard and slammed it on the stove, as he threw the meat onto it and started to what seemed like stiring the meat into the pan as it started to sizzle.

“This... is Bacon. Since you have arrived here, I have refrained from cooking meat, more or less eating it.” Jason spoke, paying more attention to the pan.

“It comes from the belly muscle from a Earthen Pig. No, not any of your magic fucking talking animals were harmed in the making of this slab of fucking delicious bacon.” Jason continued.

“Have to ship it in from Earth, really expensive because any food slipped from Earth has to be examined and contained in such a condition that minimized the chance and/or spread of disease. The nation I call home, and a few others to boot, find fried bacon the paradigm of breakfast foods.” Jason talked as he stirred the now sizzling meat.

Verde noticed the smell.. it was bad, not disgusting, just icky, for lack of a better word. But even with the smell of cooking flesh and her own heat, she sat quietly.

“Now, as I recall, you accused me of inviting you to a non-existent herd. Explain to me, as plainly as you can, without changing the subject, why you assumed my invitation to lay in my bed was apparently the segway into what you consider marriage?” Jason sternly asked.

Even with the instruction not to change the subject, the mare, bombarded by so many signals, shouted “Jason, Herding and Marriage are completely different, you have to underst-”

“DID I SAY CHANGE THE SUBJECT?” Jason turned with an enraged look.

“...the invitation to lay in a stallion’s bed is a old tradition that is used to-” Verde quietly tried to answer Jason’s question before he started up again

“WELL NO FUCKING WONDER IT WASN'T IN THE HUMAN’S GUIDE TO PONY SOCIAL AND CULTURAL NORMS!” Jason screeched, while still paying attention to the bacon on the pan.

“You didn't know?” Verde softly asked.

“Of course I didn’t. Otherwise, I would have made you sleep on the couch.” Jason retorted... his voice had softened but the implication that he would have never asked her hurt.

“Jason, I over reacted... please understand, I’m sorry for-” Verde could not catch a break with full sentences.

“FOR THIS!?” Jason held. in the air, the hand she had bitten, on it, there were stiches. Verde didn't realize that she bit him so hard. She gulped when she realized she hurt this human she loved so much.

“Can...can I have a look?” she said, hoping to nuzzle the wound, in an attempt to offer a more solid apology and to try and at least comfort him.

“You think I am sticking my hands near you again? Fuck no.” Jason spoke, while he moved to grab a plate and throw paper towels on it.

“Do you want me gone?” Verde whispered, her head hung low. This is it, I really messed up this time, she thought, trying to hold back her tears. She did not want him to see her ashamed and upset.

Jason moved the bacon from the pan, into the plate with paper towels on it. Placing it to the side, he slid down on the floor, covering his face with his good hand and sighing.

“You put me in a difficult position, you assume signals I have no idea i'm sending, you then start wrecking things and asking for money because you ‘assumed’ we were a herd, and you know, I would have still given you shelter here, but...” Jason titered off as he raised his stitched hand.

“I’m going to ask you this once, and only once. Verde, if I came into your home, wrecked your crap, and then bit you, what would you have done to me?” Jason said, looking to the side.

Verde raised her head. For the first time since she came here, their heads were level with each other. The look of anger was gone, just exhausted frustration remained.

“I don’t have an answer Jason, but before you ask me to leave, I need to tell you something, will you promise to stop interrupting me?” Verde’s head instinctively held slightly lower as she said this, as to try to admit he was in charge.

“ehhh...what” he said, covering his eyes with his good hand.

“I love you...” Verde told him meekly.

“Excuse me? I think I heard you incorrectly.” Jason said, not believing what he had just heard to the point of not even changing his facial expression.

“I love you...” Verde said again.
Jason dropped two of his fingers so he could see the mare. She looked at him, hoping for something other than casual dismissal.

“Is this another one of those pony things where, by saying ‘I love you’ you mean ‘lets go sign a lease on a car with you as the one who has to make the payments’?” Jason mocked Verde, but Verde, looked at him, said it again

“I love you...” once more from Verde’s lips, no change in tone or volume or body stance.

“This is cute” Jason got up, picking up the plate and began to walk to the living room.

Verde, got up and followed him, and once more said, “I love you...”

“Do you even realize the magnitude of the words you’re saying you naive, arrogant quadruped?” Jason lashed out, but Verde, desperate to make him understand that this was not some ploy or joke or attempt at using old pony traditions to make him do something, ran to get in his way.

“I love you” she said with more dignity and boldness. Jason tried to move out of the way, only for the mare to keep getting in his way, demanding that he acknowledge her. Putting down the plate, he began to bellow.

“DO NOT SAY THOSE WORDS TO ME, THOSE WORDS ARE FOR PEOPLE WHO FIGHT AND DIE FOR EACH OTHER, FOR BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO SACRIFICE TO HELP EACH OTHER, FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE EACH OTHER TO WAIT YEARS FOR THEIR LOVED ONE, AND ARE REWARDED. SUCH WORDS ARE NOT FOR LITTLE PONIES WHO FEEL GUILTY AT BITING THE HAND OF SOMEONE WHO HELPED THEM GET SHELTER AND FOOD” Jason screamed with such force that Verde was stunned for but a moment.
Seeing no choice, Verde reared up on her hind legs, and with what little grip her front legs provided, she grasped the human by the ribs, holding herself against him as she scrunched her face, waiting for him to push her off or possibly swing his hands to be free of her.

“Jason, I love you” she said one more time.

Jason didn't hit her or forced her off. He stood simply still. Looking down at the pony head forced beneath his chest. Verde would offer herself, put herself at his mercy, until her words finally rang down his ears.

“Verde...” Jason whispered.

“Jason, I know what I’m saying. I don’t know about humans, but a pony taking in another pony as a guest for two weeks without batting an eye, you can’t tell me there isn't something there, not after all the trouble I’ve caused.” Verde spoke, changing her tune.

Jason took his injured hand, and presented it to Verde.

“This is where you bit me, you asked to see it earlier, show me what you would have done.” Jason asked of Verde.
Verde relaxed, letting go of Jason, “Come to the couch, and while I can’t heal it, I’ll show you that I am sorry.”
Jason and Verde sat adjacent to each other, Verde then turned toward Jason, laid down, and softly nuzzled the bandages on the arm she bit.

“Jason, I am being sincere when I say this. But you have to make a choice. First, I want you to know, that as long as you let me stay here, I will clean where I hurt you and change the bandages every day. It’s your choice, but I am going to also give you another choice I took from you two weeks ago.” Verde spoke comfortingly, as if this was the first breath of fresh air both the pony and the human had in weeks

“Jason, please, let me join your herd. I’m not asking you to marry me, I am asking that, with your consent, that you participate in something almost every pony will experience at least once in their life.” Verde mellowly spoke.

Jason stared off, thinking, while Verde kept nuzzling the wound, being careful not to hurt him.

“Verde, why are you asking me now?” Jason finally asked, sounding worried.

“I love you. I am asking you not just to let me join your herd, but to give me another chance. You also said that you came here to experience a new world, and you have been nothing but disappointed. Give me a chance to change your opinion on the matter...” Verde almost purred out, still rubbing the bandages covering the wound.

“Verde, I don’t know about having such a relationship with a pony, I mean, don’t you have a problem with being with a human?” Jason sighed out.

“I had two weeks to answer that question Jason, trust me, I’m perfectly fine with the idea of being with you.” Verde said, stopping her nuzzling and looking up at Jason with a smile.

Jason glanced at Verde, holding his grimace.

Verde pushed up on her front legs and kissed Jason on the cheek. For the first time during her stay here, Jason’s small eyes started tearing up.

“All right, what do we need to do to make this official?” Jason asked, surprising Verde a little.

“Nothing, herds don’t do anything ‘offical’ Jason, all herds really start with two or three ponies agree to live under one roof.” Verde stated, controlling her desire to squeal ecstatically.

“Am I required to do anything?” Jason asked Verde. Verde’s lightly winced, she didn’t want to bring this part up.

“There is a major responsibility you have to me Jason.” Verde turned away, she wasn’t going to lie, he needed to know, but she didn’t know how to word it.

“Once every month, I will go into heat, and, as the stallion, you will have to give me your seed over the course over a few days to help me... cope with it.” Verde dictated, trying to pry the words out of her own mouth.

“Wait, you’re telling me I have to have sex with you!?” Jason gaged out

“Yes Jason, I will need you to rut with me every month when I go into heat.” Verde finished.

Chapter Eleven Side B: Fresh Meat

“So, you’re going to be taking over Jerry’s job of orienting the new meat to the compound.” Wendy, the secretary said to Jason.

“Why? I have other shit to do, I need to make sure that our line of sight system will work in the rain, which thankfully, the local weather team has scheduled for today.” Jason rebutted.

Standing in the carbon graphene waiting room, Jason held himself awkwardly, he hated talking to any kind of large groups. His aggressive style of getting stuff done did not mesh well with anyone except his superiors, and only because it frequently got results.

“Listen, you have a human and two ponies from Las Pegasus in that meeting room who need to be brought up to speed. And frankly, Steve, the human in there, is thinking this is all a game. You need to go in there and let them know about how we deal with public relations because Jerry, unlike you, is sick with some conjunctivitis and Steve, Fluff Weed, and Diving Horizon don’t have a clue that we have a town that would like nothing better then to see us all exiled, just like Marco, remember Marco?” Wendy sternly held her tanned face at Jason, locking her eyes with his.

“Yeah, I know... fuck fine, get me the next time the Weather Team is going to have it rain. I’ll go take care of the new guys.” Jason reluctantly muttered, taking the dossier from Wendy.

“They’re in Room 105 W” Wendy finished, sitting down, and returning back to sorting out inventory orders.

Walking to the room, he grabbed the long metallic handle, down farther than any earth door in order to accommodate the on compound population of ponies. Walking in, he saw a very tall man in a chair, whose hair was darker than coal, leaning towards a light blue unicorn mare with a podium on her flank. She was obviously trying to ignore the human as she telekinetically wrote somthing on a piece of paper. Towards the corner of the room, a dust grey stallion pegasi slept, having fallen asleep while waiting for Jason.

Speaking with an agitated, yet soft bellow, Jason did what he usually did when he had to talk to a group of people. He started hating them for whatever tiny reasons he could stir up. He had no fear of talking to people he loathed.

“Alright, Jerry is not here today, so I will be taking over his duty of orienting you three to the local operating area. I’m Jason, I do geographic coordination and equipment planning and testing here, but today, I will be the one to break you in - any questions?” Jason spoke quickly, moving from one topic to the next with a slight growl in his voice.

The pegasi sprung awake, his wings popping out in surprise. The unicorn had a look of relief, while Steve just stared at Jason as if he had ruined his plan for the night.

“Can I assume our winged compatron is Diving Horizon, and our horned acquaintance is Fluff Weed?” Jason snorted.

Both ponies nodded up and down, seeming surprised that Jason hadn’t tried to do the usual pony song and dance of friend making with each one of them individually.

“Well if you know who they are, do you know who I am?” the man who was obviously Steve spoke up.

Jason grunted in displeasure.

“I was informed that there would be a human and two ponies in this room, and I was given their names. Did you leave your critical thinking skills on terra firma STEVE?” Jason shot at Steve.

Steve looked away, trying to laugh it off.

laugh it up chucklenuts... Jason thought to himself

“Alright lets start, Steve, did you go over your VIP book we gave to you before being shipped to this side of the river?” Jason spoke out loud, taking a tangent from where he left off.

“Yes sir I did.” Steve spoke with a borderline grin.

Jason let the projector warm up as he got on the presentation computer and pulled up a picture. After a few moments, the projector flickered on.

“Steve, by yourself with no help, name the pony on the screen and tell me how we handle her on sight.” Jason growled. The screen had a pink pony with both wings, and a horn. Her hair was a tri colored light purple, vanilla white, and the same pink as her own coat. A diamond heart decorated her ass as the pony held herself in a posture of pride.

“I..um....” Steve trailed off. He should have known her immediately if he cared to read the VIP book.

“THIS” Jason nearly yelled, “Is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, better known by her condensed name Princess Cadence. She rules a principality to the north with her husband, Prince Shining Armor, who is a member of the Equestrian military force. IF you read your book, you would have known that if you saw her in the area, company protocol dictates that you inform a supervisor, who will then put out a “Code Green”, at which you return to your compound home for the duration of the visit, while our public relations team comes out to meet her. IF she addresses you, you will stay for the full duration, leaving our PR team to politely get you out of there. Until then, you greet yourself with a bow, NOT a noble greeting, ponies are expected to but not humans as recent trends in the intermingling of our species means that a noble greeting is much more than just a greeting, and you shut the fuck up Steve. If she asks you questions, you either say ‘its not my department’ or if it is ‘we are still researching on the matter’. Any personal questions, keep it dull and neutral. Also Steve, we are not Gentlemen for Mares here, so if I catch you hitting on ANY of the staff, male, female, or pony on company time again so help me god you will be back on earth with an exile order so fast the gigantic phallus that you will claim to have regardless of it’s actual size will still be in customs. Do I make that clear?”

“Dude, I’m sorry, I just..”Steve was lowering himself, trying to shrink himself to a size much smaller than he was.

“No, you know who is sorry? Marc, our programming lead? Got arrested in the nearby town of Trottington for public drunkenness. He was pissing on the goddamn local bakery doorstep when he was brought in. And you know what happened to him? The company we work for annulled his work visa, and after his Trottington court date, while he was to be exiled from just Trottington, we permanently exiled him from this realm. We can do that you know, right? We revoked his visa, sending him out of here, then on our side, we submitted him to a blacklist. You can pull that shit off in Fillydelphia, but you pull that here and its into the neo equinox you go.” Jason finished his loud rant with a cough.

Even the ponies in the room were startled. Realizing he just went a bit too far, Jason had to reel back from his sudden outburst.

“All right, look, it might not make much sense, but let me catch you up to speed. The Equestrian Government commissioned us to establish a rudimentary high speed communications network. One of the towns we were contracted to work on is the nearby town of Trottington. As some of the ponies here know, while we are in the equestrian frontier, this town’s primary export is salt, a mineral that all ponies need to manually add to their food to keep them healthy. So, while small, Trottington is important as it’s the last major salt mines discovered in the last 100 years. So the Government wants to keep real time tabs on all pony bureaus and local governments within Trottington.” Jason spoke in a much more calmer voice then what he started out with.

“Well, why were we ordered to stay in the compound and not talk to any of the locals?” Diving asked.

“To answer your question, you need to know that, for whatever reason, the locals in this town hate humans, Fluff, you’re part of the PR department, did they bring you up to speed?” Jason said, pointing at Fluff

“Um, yeah, I read the report. It stated that the locals have a ‘disproportionate disgust and fear’ at any humans that come through the town.” Fluff weakly announced, trying to be sure that she was heard.

“Did they also tell you what happens to ponies found associating with humans?” Jason asked, hoping that she could fill in the gaps for the other two members of the meeting.

“Um... they said that any ponies who act friendly with humans inside the town, that are seen by one or two other town members are treated as if they were humans themselves...” Fuff teetered off. Her face twisted around, showing that she was very disturbed by this fact.

“In short,” Jason continued for Fluff, “Any human and any pony employed by us is considered less than other townsfolk there. Any other town, and Marc would have been fined and maybe jailed for the weekend. Here, they are not afraid of issuing exile orders. And it’s not just humans. We are on the main salt trail to San Caballero and we have seen, no griffons, nor diamond dog traders moving from or to Trottington with wears. This might not just be a human problem, but regardless, Trottington has fought us every step of the way, to the point we had to get a royal mandate to get land in unincorporated trottington. We have to use a line of sight laser for internet connectivity because they banned the running of cables and the use of a solar high speed broadband wireless system from being used in the city...” Jason started to heave.

“...All employees except for the few who rented out human converted houses by a overly eager renter from out of town before this rule was put in place are required to live on the compound. This is for your safety.” Jason finished.

Steve had a blank look, trying to take everything in. Dive was noticeably worried, he probably came here to try and start a herd from how young he was. Fluff however, seemed indifferent. She was part of the PR team, she knew what she was getting into.

“Dive, go ahead and go to room 308 E, thats where our geographic data group works in. Fluff, PR is just down the hall. Tell Stacy that you three are good to go. Steve, stay here.” Jason snuffed, sitting down.

The two ponies started for the door, Dive already in the air. Steve was rubbing his face, as if from a bad nights sleep.

As the door closed, Jason faced Steve, giving him his full attention.

“Do you still want to stay here?” Jason asked Steve, sounding sincere because his thrashing of the new guy was a bit much, even by his own standards. Steve looked at Jason, his eyes rolling up to his forehead.

“You came here hoping to be one of those human guys who can convince multiple mares to herd with him aren’t you?” Jason sighed.

“Kinda...yeah...”Steve sputtered, looking away and towards the white board.

“You got assigned a shit detail. While you can request a transfer, you won’t get it. You might get sent to a new location when your work visa expires and if you reapply for Equestrian work, but I will tell you right now, this is not the side of the ponies any of us ever knew, not even the ponies from everywhere else expected this kind of behavior from their own kind...” Jason trailed off.

“Do we know why they act like that?” Steve mumbled, hoping to find some reason for being lost on his left turn to Albuquerque.

“No, and that’s what is worrying to our company. No rhyme or reason. Just disgust...” Jason trailed off, at the eggshell white wall.

“Look, I know this isn't a great compromise, and this is not a recommendation for you to quit because you’re not good enough at this job. But if you’re out here to see the Equestria as most of us wanted AND bang mares, every two weeks, we get the Pegasi Express to major cities. The company is doing this so that our residence here don’t get stir crazy. I know for a fact that Manehatten has a company called Gentlemen for Mares, if you get work with them, your work visa will be moved over to their dominion and you will be free of this...” Jason looked up, sighing out loud, “Equine Hell.”

“What is Gentlemen for Mares?” Steve asked, folding his arms.

“To put it plainly, if hired you will provide sexual service to mares who desire to rut with humans.” Jason coughed out.

“What? That’s an actual job?” Steve raised his eyebrow.

“Yeah, and before you ask how I know, they send Gentlemen to our compound almost every week to satisfy a few of the mare staff members. Like you should know, physical intimacy with employees here is a fireable offence.” Jason spoke.

“Ah I see....um...when is the next Pegasi Express headed out?” Steve trailed off.

“This weekend, talk to Wendy at the front desk and she will arrange for you to ride with other employees to Manehatten. And don’t just stop coming to work, let us know so we can forward the visa papers to the Gentlemen. Also they don’t just take anyone, they have specific qualities they hunt for in individuals. That’s why we still retain... most of our male staff.” Jason started to trail off. It wasn’t that he did not want Steve here, it was that Steve obviously came here to get laid, not to focus on any kind of work.

Steve started to get up and move for the door.

“You know where you’re headed?” Jason asked Steve.

“Yeah, 203 N” Steve spoke, opening the door.

“Hey Jason...” Steve stopped, and closed the door before he fully opened it. “What do you think of humans trying to get with mares?”

“I honestly think its their dick and they can do whatever they want, though personally, I wouldn’t be caught dead fucking a micro-horse”

Steve laughed beneath his breath before leaving the room. Out of habit, Jason pulled his phone from his pocket to find an instant message waiting for him.

“We still on for tonight?”-Naple

Chapter Twelve: Tails and Holes

Day 53

Verde started waking up at the behest of a strong spicy scent. Moving her head just a bit to get her pinned ear to pop out, she realized that whatever she was laying on top of, it was not a pillow. She could hear breathing that was not her own and the soft drumming of a faintly familiar beat.

It took her a moment to realize that she was laying right on top of Jason. They had finally sampled each other last night. Jason was still pretty nervous, especially since she was the only partner that he had ever slept with, but while their congress was not bad, both of them fumbled and he had an especially difficult time making the mare feel the rush of an orgasem.

Not that it upset her, she was just happy that, unlike the heat before her last one, she had to literally fight him just to embrace her, speaking nothing of physical copulation. However, this was what she had been striving for since she came here to live with him, to simply sleep next to him, to feel his warmth keep her from freezing at night. It felt like she was finally accepted as his mate after so much time trying to get him just to try her out and see how it felt to him.

Verde sighed when she felt a strange sensation at her tail. A strange object, like a stick, was trying to wrap itself at her tail’s base, moving it, playing with it as if it were a fellow sleeping companion. That was, until the stick started rubbing underneath the base of the tail.

A shock ran up Verde’s spine, forged from an alloy of surprise and pleasure, the mare could not help herself as she tensed up through her entire body and released, shaking the bed and her lover.

A laugh rose up from beneath her as her eyes were fully open now. She was suddenly aware, the stick was Jason’s finger. Verde started to lick his open chest as Jason’s eyes slowly opened.

“Did you have fun at my expense?” Verde said in between laps.

“Oh, it looked like you were having fun too.” Jason replied with a grin, closing his eyes.

“Do you guys enjoy licking each other like this?” Jason asked, stroking Verde’s hips as she continued to give his chest primal kisses.

“Not all, it depends on the mare you meet.” Verde finished, lifting her head. The feel of Jason stroking her cutie mark made her shudder.

“Jason....” Verde swallowed, bearing her neck to him. Jason moved his hands from her hips to her neck and began to rub lightly, while using the hard parts of his fingers to lightly scratch. She remembered how his hands made her felt while he was recovering. He might not be much to rut, but his hands dominated her tense muscles, forcing them into a relaxed submission that few mares probably ever felt. She never expected so much attention from a herd mate, human or otherwise.

“I have today off Verde, so-” Jason was interrupted by Verde, who started nuzzling his face, pressing her snout into his cheek and exhaling. Rubbing where she could, she started to kiss Jason. Slowly but surely, if Verde felt that Jason owed her an experience in being part of a herd, he was slowly making up for it after his first few weeks of ignorance and isolation.

“So what?” Verde ended her kiss, smiling at Jason.

“So, I’m feeling better, and this is the first weekend we really had together... ”Jason said, biting his lip in a asymmetrical edge, tapping Verde’s nose with his finger.

“Well... we could make start by making breakfast...” Verde trailed off, licking her lips.

===

“Is this seriously all you ponies know how to make?” Jason playfully nudged Verde’s neck with his hips after throwing the cake pan into the oven.

“Well, it was either that or cereal AGAIN!” Verde jested back, blowing a raspberry.

Verde turned around to the ice box to see if Jason had anymore of that soda from earth that she enjoyed so much.

“At least I don’t over cook spaghetti.” Jason cackled, sharpening his voice to let her know that he was trying to play with her.

“Well, I can tell you, the noodle inciden-” Verde stopped speaking, feeling a light tug on her tail, followed by the patterning of footsteps away from her.

Turning away from the fridge, she saw Jason peering from behind the tiny wall separating the living area and the kitchen. The moment they made eye contact, he sprinted to the couch, jumping to the other side and rolling onto the floor.

“HEY! YOU DON’T HAVE A TAIL FOR ME TO PULL!” Verde yelled chasing after him. Leaping onto the couch, she could see Jason laying in wait.

“I’m going to g-HEY!” Verde yelped, her tail being tugged again. She turned around to find this time by Jason’s using his two biggest toes to yank her tail. He was obviously trying to pull just hard enough to get her attention, but light enough not to cause her any pain.

Jason started to roll away from Verde and being unable to resist, she just had to give chase. He was still close enough away that she could just leap onto him. Pushing from the couch, she landed straight on Jason’s abdomen, forcing him to convulse slightly before a huff of the air she just knocked out of him erupted from his mouth.

“No fair! I don’t jump on ponies!” cried Jason inbetween his giggles and catching his breath.

“Well you don't have a tail of I can to pull!” smiled Verde, biting his jeans and started pulling back.

Jason hadn’t expected the Earth Pony’s strength, finding himself being dragged on the floor he tried rolling until he was able to wrap his arms around her and put her on her back.

“Agh!” Verde screamed, her back facing Jason’s chest, she bucked and shook, trying to get Jason to let go, but to no avail. Then the worst thing of all happend. He started tickling her.

“Hey! Don’t!! Stop!!” Verde squealed as she bucked harder, still amazed Jason was able to keep a hold of her regardless of her strength.

“Don’t stop? Kay.” Jason taunted with a smile. He did loosen up, in order to try to give her enough room to get free so they could continue their impromptu game.

“OH WHEN I GET LOOSE I’L-” and with her next buck, the wall shook and Verde could feel something wrong with her rear legs.

“JASON, JASON STOP I'M SERIOUS!” Verde cried, worried that she hurt him or had broken something.

Jason immediately stopped, he saw what Verde could only feel. Both her rear hooves had broken the drywall, and were still in imbedded in it.

“Okay Verde, pull your hooves out slowly...” he said in a calm voice.

Listening to instructions, she carefully pulled her hooves out, coming free with ease. Jason sat Verde down on her rear and she finally saw it. Two circular holes right where Verde bucked into. And suddenly... laughter?

Verde turned around to see Jason giggling.

“Jason, I’m so sor-” Verde tried to speak before Jason grabbed her, pulling her in for a hug.

“Ha, its nothing a bit of plaster of paris can’t fix, I can order some in.” Jason was genuinely... calm.

“Jason, is there somthing wrong? You're so playful and you’re kinda letting two big holes in your wall slide...” Verde turned to look at Jason.

“Verde, when we started this entire herd thing, I wasn’t a fan. No date, no slowly getting to know you while maintaining arms length distance... just... ’hey, tomorrow, need ya to bone me’... but you helped me recover, you were there for me when I was out of comission, can’t help but be fond and open up to that...” Jason calmly spoke, rubbing Verde’s neck.

“So, you didn’t feel safe opening up to me?” Verde asked, already knowing the answer.

“No, but not because you weren't trying. I mean, what you think might just be some free sex, was my first time with anyone and I was possibly throwing it away to this mare I barely knew...” Jason said, folding his arms.

“For what it’s worth, you helped me get past a rough time Jason, it’s not exactly easy to be in heat, especially the longer a mare goes without any help...” Verde mellowly spoke with her head low.

“But Jason, I like being with you, a lot, especially when you're this playful.” Verde picked up her head, smiling.

Jason held out his arms, Verde already knew what he wanted. Pulling herself closer to him, she let herself be wrapped in his embrace. She tried to give him an embrace in return, but her front legs were not really made for holding anything. Jason started to nuzzle the top of her head with his short nose as she pressed into his chest. She could smell it, the scent she loved so much. The scent that covered the pillows and blankets he slept in, the scent that she fell asleep with every night for the last few months, the scent that was with her love.

Chapter Thirteen: Stuffing

Day 17

Verde’s face pressed hard into the pillow she had in front of her, feeling Jason trying to pull himself out of her as hard as he could. Her eyes closed, feeling her body release her from the carnal desire that imprisoned her. The heat drained itself from her as Jason finally freed himself. Turning her head and barely opening her eyes, she saw him stumbling about before falling to one of his knees.

“What the fuck is up with you? Are you trying to fucking eat my dick off?” Jason coughed, his face lowered as if trying to recover from a blow to the head.

Verde wanted to tell him to shut up, but could barely keep her focus. Jason’s seed had done the job. With the waves of pleasure dissipating, she finally came to her senses for the first time this morning.

Jason looked a lot different without his clothes he had constantly on, and the piece that he used to copulate with her was much different than any stallion’s in that it was more a spade then a cylinder. Verde also discovered that he wasn’t completely hairless. He had a rather sparse, but noticeable amount of fur around his groin. It was also higher than she expected, thinking it was hidden between his legs.

Jason kept staring at Verde, making her a little uncomfortable. This was obviously his first time rutting a mare and it took way too long this morning for her to convince him to do the deed. He kept bouncing in between about to get inside her and backing off. It was infuriating to her at first, but what finally convinced the man to join her was tears.

She initially tried to be very lax and come onto him, trying to make it easy for him. Apparently, she could bring the water to him and he wouldn’t drink. So the attempt at being slightly romantic moved on to straight begging until she could not help but start crying.

Right now however, she wish that he would get on the bed and lay with her.

After both parties just sat, breathing for a few minutes, Jason finally got up and headed towards the main living area. Lifting herself up, Verde let herself down from the bed and stumbled a bit.

Frankly the entire affair for her was awkward. Jason was being awkward. The sex was awkward. The aftermath was just awkward. Looking back at the bed, the pillows and blankets looked awkward as well.

At least she felt right as rain now, but knew that Jason would have to perform again tonight. And tomorrow morning. And tomorrow night, and so on for the next few days. She was going to have to try to break him in tonight. Get him used to this, though now that she had her wits about her, she was a bit amazed she let him get near her, more or less even touch her.

Navigating to the kitchen, Jason was pouring two bowls of the same cereal he alway ate. She noticed that Jason was never much for cooking breakfast stuffs outside of ‘bacon’ apparently, which he showed her last night. Jason glanced down, over at Verde.

“I’m guessing mares in heat get just as hungry as anyone else.” Jason moaned.

“Yeah...” Verde spoke, sniffing a bit.

“I’ll meet you at the couch.” Jason spoke, pouring milk into each bowl.

Verde started for the couch, inadvertently swaying her rear a bit even though Jason wasn’t watching. She couldn’t help it, at times she felt that her flank had a mind of it’s own. Reaching her destination, she pulled herself onto the couch and laid on top of it. She glanced over at her own hips, her tail twitch every so often.

The thud of footsteps broke her gaze as Jason started making for the couch. Placing one cereal bowl down in front of Verde, he moved back to the kitchen to get the other one, in lieu that he had to deal with an injured hand. Using the softs of her hooves, she grasped the spoon and started to eat.

“When did you want to change the bandages?” Jason cried out from the kitchen, holding Verde to her promise that she made last night.

“When is it fine for you? And where are the supplies?” she replied as she finished swallowing her food.

“In the bathroom, and about noon will be fine for me.” Jason exhaled, leaving the kitchen with his bowl and making for the couch. As he turned the corner, Verde saw that Jason was planning on sitting next to her. A light flutter inside her made her adjust herself to try and give him more room.

Jason put the bowl down on the coffee table and looked at Verde. Turning away, he huffed, like he was trying to ask a question, but looking for the right words.

“So... how does the herd thing work?” Jason asked.

“Oh, well there are a lot of ways I suppose...” Verde said, looking up at Jason.

“What's the ‘classic’ view?” Jason replied.

“Well... in general, most herds have a single stallion to um... two mares, maybe three... there are cases of it going to four and five, and other cases of herds with two stallions and 6 mares, but I’ve never heard of a herd with three stallions or just one stallion and 6 mares...” Verde teetered off.

“What about one stallion to one mare?” Jason inquired.

“Well, there are those too, but that’s generally reserved for older ponies and very introverted ponies... it’s also seen as being kinda selfish for a mare to keep an able stallion all to herself...” Verde looked away.

“I don’t feel comfortable adding another member to be frank.” Jason dictated.

“Well, it’s okay, we both have to welcome a new member into the fold, neither of us can just bring someone home and expect the other to just accept them...” Verde trailed off.

“In my culture... polygamy is not unheard of, but generally frowned upon. And what we are trying to make of us right now... at least the way I see it, I would like to just keep it between us.” Jason spoke, adding his own perspective into the mix.

“I’m okay with that.” Verde replied. She was unsure how other mares would see Jason anyways.

“So, what is a lead mare?” Jason asked, eating a spoonful of cereal.

“Oh, a lead mare, down here at least, is the mare in charge of major herd decisions, right along side the stallion. She is supposed to be a unified voice for all the mares in a herd. Some of the less... mature stallions can be very demanding and forceful. It’s the lead mare’s job to... balance them out. So that he doesn't run amok. I mean frankly, two mares could do what they want to a stallion, but mare abuse of a stallion is seen as just as bad as stallion abusing his mares...” Verde answered.

“Right now, I’m lead mare, by virtue of well... being the only mare... but normally, either the most senior mare takes the spot or the other mares will come to a consensus. Rarely, if there is a bunch of infighting in the herd, the stallion will choose one to be lead mare, but since everyone can leave a herd whenever they want... if he has to choose one, the other members tend to not stay long...” Verde finish, looking about, she wondered how Jason would take it.

“Define ‘major herd decisions’.” Jason posed.

“Well, lead mare’s are also kinda the face of the herd. You might hear someone say Speedy’s herd, but everyone knows that if you have business with Speedy’s heard, you talk to Magenta first.” Verde spoke, when Jason interjected.

“Is ‘Speedy’s herd’ a hypothetical herd?” he asked.

“No, they were a herd that was next door to my birth herd, last I checked, they’re still a together.” she answered.

“Ah... so if I have buissness with a member of the herd, I would have to talk to Magenta first?” Jason quetioned.

“Depends on how well you know the herd and that particular herd member, if its formal or you have been introduced to no one, Magenta will be the first you have to interact with. If you know the herd already, you can just skip the formalites and go straight to whoever you want to talk too...” Verde answered.

“Well does that include us? I meet new people monthy at my work a-” Jason was about to ask

“Thats... work Jason, as lead mare, I would trust and submit to you on how you approach that...” she said

“So what about here?” he followed up

“Here I would be the one to answer the door and make formal introductions.” Verde teetered off.

“Thank god I don’t have much a social life anyways...” Jason mumbled.

“You don’t?” Verde inquired.

“Not since I came here...” Jason finished

===

Jason moaned in pain as Verde poured the alcohol bottle over the stitches of the wound she had made. He flinched as he tried not to make a move, biting his own lip and gripping table. Verde moved quickly to get a chunk of paper towel so she could dab off the excess liquid in order to start rewrapping the bite.

It was disconcerting to look at, it was like Jason was a doll that some poor filly busted, letting all the stuffing out, and having their mother sew it up to prevent it from being ruined. Well, almost, the bits of exposed flesh and dried blood betrayed the cloth like stitches to the violence that forged it.

Trying to ignore the picture of her handy work presented to her, she grabbed some cotton squared and applied them to the top wound first.

“Allright, flip it.” Verde requested.

With a moan, Jason turned his hand to the other side. She had already cleaned this side and needed to apply the cotton square. Placing it with care, she moved for the gauze and started to wrap Jason’s hand, with him moving it up and down as she wrapped from one side to the next.

“There... all better...” she said, affixing a metal latch to ensure the gauze would not slip. Jason’s eyes were still closed, twitching still from the pain of the disinfectant. It was reminiscent of the night Jason cleaned her snout, only he didn’t run off and shove his face into the couch.

Moving herself closer, she laid her head on Jason’s shoulder, trying to comfort him. He did not so much as even acknowledge the contact, he sat in silence as his shaking slowed and slowed down. It had gotten so silent that his heavy breathing was audible. She could hear the air pass out his two close nostrils.

“So um... what do you do at your job?” the mare asked the human she sat with. He just sat here, unresponsive. She really just wanted him to make a move, anything to prove he wasn’t an inanimate object. Please, just talk to me, Verde thought to herself. Since she started to change the bandage, he said nothing, passively letting the mare do what she desired to his arm.

“Can we talk about this latter? Antibiotic is still hurting.” asked Jason, twitching his lips a bit, with his eyes still closed.

“Yeah... sure, whatever you want.” she replied she said while pulling herself closer to him. Frankly she was worried. He didn’t look like he cared for the idea of herding. Infact, it seemed as if he was disconnected from the whole thing. Letting her do with him as she wish, without letting her truly interact with him at all.

Chapter Fourteen: Roles

Day 55

“Stop fidgeting.” Dr. Wayworth said to Verde. The mare came in to get herself checked out for her physical in order to get the proper documentation to go to Earth. The doctor needed to draw blood from Verde to test it, however, the cold steel table she was on did not help her attempts to stay still.

“Look, if you do not stop moving, I’ll have to draw blood from your neck.” The doctor spoke, pulling back the needle from Verde. Verde honestly expected a quick check up, check for heartbeat, check the ears, ect. But they wanted samples of everything... everything.

“Alright, there you go...” Wayworth said as she saw Verde’s leg stop moving. With a pinprick and a slight flinch, the procedure was underway. Verde looked away from the doctor, preferring not to see the sight of her own blood in a vial.

“Good, we’re done. Now we need to talk about what you should be expecting the day of your journey. You need to understand that this is just a preliminary, you will be given one more medical evaluation on the day of your trip at the neo equinox. It’s just to check to see if you are currently sick and to make sure that you’re healthy enough to travel” the doctor spoke while extracting the needle.

“Also I’ll need you to come back next week so I can tell you how your blood work looks.” Wayworth finished while putting the vial down on the counter of the examination room.

“So do you have any questions for me?” she asked Verde.

“Um, not really...” Verde said getting up from her prone position.

“Send in Jason when you’re out there, I have some things I need to talk to him about.” Wayworth stated offhandedly as she filled out some papers.

“Sure...” Verde replied, feeling a little woozy. Opening the door, she walked down the strangely narrow hallway, turning at the door to the waiting room. Pushing the door open, she saw Jason sitting there by himself, reading his glass tablet thing.

“Doc wants you love.” Verde spoke aloud, hoping to get Jason’s attention.

“She does?” he asked, looking up.

“Yeah, she didn’t say why though.” Verde finished, pulling up to him.

“Also, don’t call me love in public, no pet names...” Jason whispered, nearing a hiss to Verde.

“Sorry...” Verde trailed off with a huff. She hadn’t seen anyone in the waiting room who would pick up on their relationship. Infact, Jason had her agreed on a story: that she was simply an old friend who needed a second opinion from a different doctor about her current health, and he pulled some strings to get Wayworth to see her.

Getting up, Jason left his tablet with Verde and moved to the door she just came from. Opening the door, he looked back at the mare, who smiled at him. He gave what seemed an strange smile, as if trying to reply he was happy too, but something seemed off with his eyes. Turning to the door, he disappeared and Verde began the waiting game.

=

Verde got bored quickly. it seemed like hours had passed and there was no sign of Jason. Curious, she trotted over to the door between the waiting room and the rest of the compound and poked her head out. It was a much larger hallway, the one that her mate lead her down to see Wayworth. She had seen very little of the compound besides the gate and lobby.

Well he is taking his sweet time, maybe a little exploration is in order... Verde thought to herself. Trotting out the door, she moved away from the lobby that they had passed. Alot of the rooms had glass walls at her right, with a bunch of covered walls, wooden with the color of brown eggs to her left. Moving quickly, she saw a glass room with a azul unicorn standing at the head of a oblong circular table with a few humans and other ponies, seemingly listening to her. Deciding to take a chance, she perked one of her green ears against the glass and tried to listen in.

“And with that, we have determined that all on site pegasi not flying on survey missions will not be permitted to fly outside the immediate airzone of the base as long as we are in Trottington county lines. In addition, the local Apple family residence has recently made allegations that our presence here, 14 miles away from their property, has adversely affected their Zap Apple harvest. I would like our botany and equestrian earths studies team to work together to prepare a document outlining how our press...” was all Verde tuned in to listen to , growing bored of the pony’s monotone voice and subject.

Moving on, she took a right at the next possible turn to find some stairs. Walking up them, she ascended to the second level of the building. The hallways had not changed one bit, but she noticed that the office doors were gone, with a bunch of labs and large rooms replacing them. She saw a sign pointing to a ‘computer lab’ and another sign pointing towards ‘Landscape Survey Department’. Having little interest in computers, she moved towards the Landscape Survey’s direction, finding more signs like ‘Laser testing’ and ‘Server room’.

Perhaps server room meant that there was servants to serve food, and I’m getting a bit peckish... Verde thought to herself as she pushed the door open. She was greeted with loud humming, almost overwhelming her ears. Folding her ears to try and cease the loud ambiance, she left the room as quickly as she could, rolling out the door. Whatever was in that room, it wasn’t food.

“VERDE!” a familiar voice cried out. Popping her head up, she saw Jason moving towards her, her ears still ringing from the overtly loud hum of the room. She said nothing, while she was still dazed, she wanted to give the impression that she was just fine. And she would be fine, she just needed a few moments to get her bearings.

Standing up, she wobbled a bit while trying to walk to Jason, her ears still ringing. She could feel his hands grasp the sides of her shoulders as he pulled himself in close.

“Verde, you don’t look so well, come on, lets get you back to Doc-” Jason was interrupted.

“I’m fine sweetie, just give me a few moments...” Verde spoke with a slight wobble. Jason didn’t let go.

“Do you mind if I pick you up? I’ll take you to the break room and ge-” Jason tried to help again.

“I’M fine...” Verde proudly spoke. “I’ll follow you.”

Nodding, Jason let go and motioned her to follow. After a few steps, the dazed pony got her bearings and followed her mate. She followed him back down stairs, almost tripping as she descended. Jason always made it a point to point which direction they were about to turn to, as if thinking she needed time to shift her weight.

They entered a small slice of the building, somewhere she missed and tried to help her sit down on the pony/human stool.

“Don’t patronize me!” she yelled as Jason tried to help her sit down. This was embarrassing, needing help from her stallion to do anything. Lowering her head, she realized her hearing was getting better as she could hear a faucet pour water in front of the soft hum of a freezer and scratching of Jason getting her some ice.

Putting the cup of water down in front of Verde, she grabbed it and took a sip. He took a seat in front of Verde and remained silent, letting her control the pace of the non existent conversation they were having.

Verde could feel her own ear’s unfolding, exhausted from protecting her hearing for so long. She was calmer now, the cool water sliding down relaxed her.It took her a few moments but she realized that she yelled at Jason a few times during his attempts at... rescuing her.

“Coming to my rescue again huh... I thought it was the mare that was supposed to save the stallion...” Verde chuckled, trying to show Jason she was more at ease. Looking up, he looked worried.

“Where I come from, its the guy who is supposed to save the girl, but frankly you just looked stunned, nothing that needed actual saving...” Jason teetered off.

Verde took another sip of water, letting it all sink in. In between the blood tests, the Doctor poking her everywhere, and a surprise of the Server Room, her attempts at asserting her marehood constantly fell short of her expectation.

“New hire?” A new voice surprised both Jason and Verde. “See you just found out about the bigoted dicks next door to us, don’t worry it took us all by surprise, I’m Steve.”

The huge human towered over the sitting couple, his hand outstretched.

“Put your hoof in his hand, handshakes are standard human greeting.” Jason softly hissed at Verde. Following his instruction, she felt the tall, dark man’s rough hand with her hoof, to which he grasped it and shook it up and down a few times.

Steve let go and moved towards the ice box. Grabbing a soft glass bottle, he came to the table that Jason and her were sitting at and joined them.

“So, stuck at orientation again? Don’t tell me, Jerry is out again.” Steve chuckled, twisting the top of the bottle off before chugging the brownish substance.

“Steve, this is Verde.” Jason spoke, introducing Verde.

“Ah, good to meet you, let me guess, PR department? With that cutie mark, I can’t see what else you could do around here.” Steve burped.

“Guess Gentlemen for Mares didn’t take you...” Jason muttered.

“Fuck them, they said that I don’t ‘pay attention to the customer’” Steve bemoaned.

“I told you that it wasn’t JUST a fuck service...” Jason responded.

Verde just stood there, realizing she was listening to Jason and Steve discuss this in any kind of formal setting.

“Oh shit, I forgot to finish signing off on the GUZ reports, I’ll be back.” Steve rose up, jogging quickly from the room.

Jason and Verde just sat there, taking a few moments for the entire affair to sink in.

“He’s really...” Verde began.

“Sloppy.” Jason finished.

“Is he the kind of people you work with all day?” Verde asked Jason, looking at him.

“No, he is the exception. Most of everyone here is professional... he is just young and pissed he won’t get paid to rut.” Jason coughed out.

“So... how are you doing?” Verde asked, moving her hoof to Jason’s hand.

“Your earlier outburst was... surreal, but other then Surprise Steve, I’m doing well...” Jason answered.

“Hey, you and I, tonight we need to have a look at where we are going to live.” Jason said.

“Oh, really? I thought you were going to handle it.” Verde replied, while she trusted Jason on choosing where she lived, it was generally the Lead Mare’s job to dictate where a herd nests.

“I got some advice... that I should let you participate more in any major decisions...” Jason snorted, looking away.

“Apparently, the contents of what a man would do and what a mare does in a relationship... intersect... frequently...” he finished.

“Well... you’re very mareish for a stallion.” Verde giggled. Jason started to crack up a little too. The stress of the day started leaking away from the statement that Verde spoke.

Verde leaned over to give Jason a kiss. Taking a moment, he kissed back, reassuring her that they were going to be fine.

“Oh the things I’m going to do to you when we get home love-” Verde spoke sultry, licking her lips as a familiar voice interrupted her.

“Over your dead body, huh?”

Chapter Fourteen Side B: Sharing the Lead

Walking down the narrow hallway, Jason was curious as to why the doctor wanted to see him at all.

“You wanted to see me doc?” Jason asked as he entered the examination room door. It was the same room that he was examined in on his first day in Equestria, a final check by the company itself to make sure he made the transition to Equestria just fine.

“How’s the lungs?” Wayworth responded to Jason with a question of her own. She was bent over, filling out paperwork, and had only acknowledged Jason’s presence verbally.

“Much better, as you already know, I can breath without wanting to die every time I inhale.” Jason jested, taking a seat on the corner chair, while Wayworth continued to fill out papers. A long period of silence filled the air as the doctor seemed to ignore Jason.

“Sooo... anything else?” Jason questioned, he had expected there to be more than just a quick check up on his lungs.

“Oh, I am not signing off on Verde’s travel visa.” Wayworth offhandedly said, as if ordering a drink at a restaurant.

“What the fuck?” Jason exclaimed, getting up. His jaw dropped as he flew upwards, sincerely startled at the sudden quiet quality of the doctor’s verbal sadism.

“Verde will need to find new a housing situation, she is unfit to come to earth.” Wayworth dictated again, not changing her tone.

“Why? Is she sick? Is she carrying anything?” Jason nearly yelled at the doctor. Jason was worried, he had grown attached to Verde, and while the free sex was nice, just bonding with her over the weekend had made him more at ease about the entire idea of being with Verde. He liked her, he wanted to spend more time with her.

“Drop the outrage two notches and I’ll tell you why.” she spoke, shuffling some papers, and promptly began filling the documents again.

“Why... is... Verde... not... permitted... to... come... to... earth?” Jason spoke, lowing his volume and trying to remain calm. He was legitimately enraged by the whole thing.

“She is showing common signs of stress. Imagine her just, popping into Earth, the culture shock alone would eventually cause her to undergo a break down. No family or friends to let her confined in and -” Wayworth said before Jason interrupted her.

“What about me?” he demanded, feeling that he was just as important as any friend or family.

“What ABOUT you?” she answered furiously.

“Well... we are ‘herd mates’ right?” he replied, not realizing the wrath of the doctor would overwhelm his own anger.

“You sure? She isn’t acting like she is in a herd, and where were you during her examination?” she answered, turning back to her papers.

“I was giving her space, I mean, what her health is, IS her own personal business right?” Jason countered, trying to show that he was merely respecting Verde’s privacy.

“No, you two are herd mates, it might not be marriage, but if that gives you family status under an Earth travel visa, how do you think ponies feel about it?” Wayworth answered.

“So you’re saying that my desire to give her privacy is the reason you’re not going to sign off on her visa?” Jason asked, crooking his head slightly, while frowning.

“Well, its not the only reason, first of all, it took 10 minutes to stick her for blood and she couldn’t stay still, then there's the part where she walked in all by herself, apprehensive about the entire examination. Then there was the fact that you were not here to support her, oh and she is showing classic signs of human herding syndrome.” Wayworth stated.

“Human Herding what?” Jason inquired, sincerely not knowing what she was talking about.

“Human Herding Syndrome is when a pony or a human, who decide to mate on a long term basis, usually in a herding or courtship situation, start becoming stressed because traditional gender roles in both parties are clashing.” the doctor spoke, snorting the entire definition out.

“What does that have to do with her?” Jason asked.

“You know how some humans define themselves by what relationships they’re in? It’s even more so with mares. Ignoring some of the royalty and blue bloods, the perception of a community on a mare is usually dictated by what relationships and her position in them. Being lead mare is seen as a prestigious sign of maturity and giftedness at her age, regardless of having no ‘in herd competition’.” Wayworth explained. “The mare I saw weeks ago who was a take charge leader came in today as a muttering, reluctant filly. I’m not signing off on anything putting anymore unnecessary stress on her.”

“Won't separating us possibly put more stress then NOT letting her come to Earth with me?” Jason questioned, finding a hole in her logic.

“Better she stay here and get support from other ponies in a culture she grew up in then throwing her to our home and hoping she won’t drown in a sea of stress.” Wayworth offhandedly replied.

“Fucking Jesus doc, how am I going to explain this to her?” Jason muttered, realizing that he got to drop a wonderful bomb on Verde the next time he saw her.

“Figure somthing out, not my problem.” she finished, seemingly not caring anymore.

“Look, is there something I can do? Something to abate this ‘human herding syndrome’?” Jason asked, trying to find some way out of this entire fiasco.

“Well, there is one thing you can do.” Wayworth stopped filling out papers and looked at Jason. “Try involving her in decisions.”

“Well she never expressed any desire to-” Jason started speaking, only for Wayworth to stop him.

“Thats because she EXPECTS to be involved numbnuts. Infact she is expecting to be making the decisions herself and, by not letting her at least be involved, she feels less of what her culture states a lead mare should be.” Wayworth explained. Jason just sat, rubbing his face, taking it all in.

“Every employee that crosses the neo equinox is required to have a psych profile, and, while you were obviously cleared, when I found out about you herding with a mare, I opened up your file. Do you want to know what it says?” she spoke, staring at Jason. “‘Must be in control’, ‘problems adapting to sudden change’, ‘possible violent tendencies in high stress environments’, ‘problems reciprocating emotions’.”

“So? She chose to herd with me.” Jason replied, not enjoying being called a control freak.

“No, she was desperate, she felt her choices were limited and you offered her your bed, a huge thing for the much more conservative ponies here.” Wayworth stated.

“She seems happy, I mean, she was giggling all of yesterday and the day before...” Jason offhandedly spoke, remembering how happy she was when they play wrestled a few days ago.

“She is enjoying the attention you can give her on the weekends. Mares rarely get the full attention of a single male to themselves. It doesn't mean that it will last in the long run. Listen, Jason, you NEED to forfeit some control to her, and you NEED to let her participate in the major decisions that you can’t just let her handle alone. I need her to come back in a week, and if she is still acting like she was earlier, I won’t sign shit.” Wayworth said, leaning to Jason.

“Alright I get you... so what am I supposed to do in a herd anyways?” Jason asked, realizing that the way he was raised to act in a committed relationship would not work with Verde at all.

“Well... depends on the mare... most modern mares in the core of Equestria have no issue with a stallion that has his own profession and helping make major decisions. Here, in Trottington, stallions are still seen as brute labor and sperm factories, while the Mares do most of the work in regards to bringing the bacon home.” the doctor answered.

“Well what if I don’t want to do manual labor and be a living fuck toy?” Jason inquired on instinct, reacting more against the idea of being manual labor then being a fuck toy.

“Try TALKING to her for fucks sake Jason, she is more intelligent than you realize. She adapted well to realizing no nearby pony would be able to help you to the point she walked up to alien strangers and begged for help. She might have the values and morals of a classic country mare, but she is willing to work around them for the ponies, and in your case, people she loves. Now get out, she is probably waiting uncomfortably in that lonesome waiting room you left her in. If she doesn't show signs of improvement in a week, you will be the one to tell her why she can’t join you on Earth.” Wayworth finished, slightly slamming the file closed.

“All right.” Jason said, realizing what he needed to do, picking himself off the chair and opening the door.

“One more thing, if you find you’re unable to sexually provide for her proper... in a decade or so, hit up the doctors again, we have medication that can help you keep pace with her. There is no shame in asking for help in trying to help her cope with her heat...” The Doctor shot at Jason. Nodding, Jason shut the door.

Moving towards the waiting room door, Jason remembered that Verde did say that the lead mare is the one who chooses where everyone lives. Guess I’ll need to get her involved, though I'm not sure how she could really help, Jason sighed to himself internally.

Opening the door, he was greeted with an empty waiting room. She left, she left the fucking waiting room.

Chapter Fifteen: Sorry

Day 22

Living with a ghost is how she could best describe Jason. While he did appear every day for her to change his bandages, he kept himself aloof, excluding her searching for him to sate her ancient desires. And once he pulled himself off of her, he would clean himself up and go back to whatever it was he did when he came home for the evening. It was humiliating to have a mate who wanted nothing more from her then to get himself of her out as quickly as he could.

Every morning the last few days, she started waking up her mate to ask him to help her get over her morning heat. And every morning he reluctantly obliged her. And she was starting to hate it. She hated being treated as an obligation he was reluctantly caring for. She was sure other stallions didn’t treat their mares like he treated her. He almost stopped talking to her entirely. She kept trying to communicate, but he would ask her to not push further or simply remain silent.

The worst part was that despite everything, he still chose to sleep on the couch. Even knowing what he knows now, every night, he still choose to keep himself far away from her. Every time she asked herself why, her heart dropped at the worst answer she could think of: She disgusted him. Maybe she was ugly where he came from, or worse, she was considered a poor lover.

But regardless, he had not asked her to leave and she still loved him... for whatever reason she could not decipher yet. That’s what got her to the most, she knew she loved him, but she did not know why. While he did care for her and provided shelter for her, those were not the reasons. She was fairly sure that if he took those away, she would still have something in her heart for him.

A paradox, forged from love and hate. She hated how he kept himself from her, but could not help but love him at the same time. The stallion who showed her flashes of kindness and compassion, and she could not be his knight in shining armor.

And that was how Verde thought to herself the last morning of her heat. He had just finished taking care of her, but had left her alone in the bedroom, as he always did. She didn’t even follow him for breakfast this time. She was getting exhausted of trying to win his approval. It was like pulling a wheelbarrow of heavy stones without the wheels, she was not getting to her destination at all.

Thinking hard, she recalled stories of romance in the books she read in her youth. Unlike other mares, who were adventurous and bold, she was either drawing or reading, not caring for the outside world. She remembered her first book was a child’s story about a Pegasi hero going on an adventure to restore the lost colors of the rainbow for her fair prince, whom they married at the end.

The next story that came to mind was a story about a Unicorn rescuing a stallion who was locked away by an evil changeling empire.

But the next story she remembered was a poor stallion taking in a hurt fictional duchess at war with another nation and nursing her back to health. One morning he found her gone and in a few days, she came back and asked him to marry her. She remembered this the most because though the entire time, the princess was acting snobby and rude, but the stallion kept taking care of her, breaking through to the real pony on the inside.

Maybe I’m the duchess, acting rude and snobby to him... Verde sighed. Maybe I’m expecting too much too quickly... I mean I did bite him. Verde laid to her side, still not moving. This was probably the last time her heat would flare up. If not, she would go get Jason... as usual.

Closing her eyes, a sound from the kitchen caught her attention. He was cooking. He wasn’t using that box that makes stuff and he wasn’t making cereal or just making some Dandelions on Rye for her... which for some reason always came out of the fridge.

Curiosity got the better of Verde, sliding off the bed, she realized that, while everything else was going south for her, she enjoyed how tall his bed was, because she could always slide off of it. For the brief few moments her front hooves were in the air, she imagined it was like a pegasi trying to land.

Moving from the bedroom to the kitchen, she saw Jason, using both his hands, to make something in a skillet.

“Whatcha makin?” Verde asked, finding it the perfect subject to start a conversation on.

“Eggs, want some?” Jason replied, using his bad hand to hold the skillet while working the eggs with his good one.

“Yeah, that actually sounds nice.” Verde said, eggs had never been her thing, but if it would continue the conversation, she was more than willing to have some. “So, your bad hand, you can use it now?”

“Still hurts for the most part, but I feel comfortable grabbing stuff with it.” Jason responded. “Do you mind scrambled?”

“No, not at all.” she said, sitting down on the floor. “So, um... what foods do you like?”

“Hate to break it to you, but mostly meats.” Jason answered.

“Well I’d still like to know.” Verde said, hoping to push Jason into answering.

“You remember bacon? Thats one of them.” he spoke, still facing the stove top. “Then there’s steak, though I personally am partial to New York Strip, and there's also various pizzas with meats on them.”

Verde did not know what steak was, but refrained from asking in hopes that he would not give details.

“Do you like flowers?” she asked. She was surprised when he started laughing.

“Humans generally don’t eat flowers.” he replied. “Though some cultures do I believe, the one I was raised in is... meat and bread heavy.”

“Oh, do you like baked goods?” Verde asked.

“Yeah, did you think that cake I made you was because I knew you were coming over?” he replied, sounding like he was trying to joke. Verde had completely forgot about the cake he made her on the second day in this home.

“So... you were going to eat the cake by yourself? Or were you saving it?” Verde questioned.

“My self, though it would take a few days to finish it.” Jason answered.

“Thats... kinda lonely, before I joined you, did you ever bring friends over like that one human?” she asked.

“That... that was a bit of a going away party for him. He and I worked on a few things where I work at and we generally don’t throw going away parties at the compound.” Jason replied.

“So, you and he were not friends?” Verde questioned, her ears falling a little to the side.

“More like casual acquaintances.” Jason responded, rotating his head around and around, on his... very short neck. Pulling some bowls down, he put some eggs into each one and grabbed some silverware. “Meet me in the living room.”

“Sure.” Verde responded, heading to the living room’s small couch. Jason soon followed, using his bad and good hands to grasp the bowls. With his good hand, he gave Verde her bowl of eggs and sat down. Jason sat on the large couch and dug right in, with Verde following suit.

“I thought humans had friends...” Verde replied after the long silence. She remembered that Jason and the other human were very chummy the night of the bite.

“We do, but not all of us have a huge emphasis on making them... I thought some ponies were like that also...” Jason stated.

“Well, its rare, but very few ponies prefer isolation.” Verde answered, remembering an old hermit who lived near Trottington years ago.

“Then how are they treated?” Jason asked, scratching his cheek with his fingers.

“Isolated ponies are weird...” Verde said, bringing up memories of the hermit. She never showed her face, just occasionally you would see her cloaked and in the nearby woods.

“... I love you Jason, I know you don’t like me, but I still love you.” Verde spoke, having a sudden urge to tell Jason this, perhaps due to wanting him to know that he wasn’t alone... or maybe to remind her that she had someone to love.

“Why do you say that? Do you even comprehend how powerful that word is? You just seem to throw it around like it’s confetti.” Jason scoffed, his face pouting in a strange disgust.

“I’m not throwing it around.. I really do mean that I love you.” Verde honestly answered.

“Why?” Jason questioned.

“W..why?” Verde said, worrying that she might have offended him

“Yes, why do you love the monkey who comes from beyond the moon?” Jason snorted, almost mocking Verde

“Thats unfair, I don’t think you're a monkey.” Verde replied honestly.

“Because less than a month of living together doesn't amount to love.” he finished,

“I never said it was because we were living together...” Verde responded, trying to tell him that her love was not based on his accusation.

“But you sure as hell are implying it.” Jason said.

“WELL I DON’T KNOW WHY I LOVE YOU!” she yelled, dropping her spoon. “YOU HAPPY? DID I MAKE YOUR DAY ANY BETTER?”

Jason said nothing. He just sat there and didn’t move.

“OH, THIS AGAIN, THE SILENT TREATMENT? IS THAT HOW YOU TREAT EVERYONE WHO YOU DECIDE TO END A CONVERSATION WITH? LUNA, FUCK YOU!” she screamed at Jason, realizing she just told Jason to fuck off.

Even Jason’s eyes widened at the pony's use of vulgar language. Feeling strung out, Verde got off the small couch and back into the bedroom that she had grown attached to. Slaming the door, she laid on the floor and huffed, realizing that for a stallion, Jason was a fucking asshole.

Oh Celestia, what have I gotten myself into? Verde asked herself. Before she could continue her thought, her ears swiveled behind her, because there was a tapping at the door.

“I’m sorry.” she heard Jason speak in a muffled voice.

Taking a moment to let that sink, in her spite, she replied, “Do you even know what sorry means?”

The sound of a thud outside the door kept her ears aimed in their previous direction. She then heard Jason say, “Open the door. Lets talk.”

Getting on all fours, she lightly reared up to get the door and turned it’s ball handle, revealing Jason sitting on the carpet opposite of the door and against the wall.

“I’m sorry.” he said once more, looking at her in the eye.

“You sure? You seem to be the prince of words, wouldn’t a more appropriate set of words be ‘I’m a big meanie, so I'm going to reject you so I can feel better?’” Verde snapped at Jason.

“Verde... I...” Jason sighed out loud, looking to his side. “You win.”

“What?” Verde spoke, twisting her head.

“You win. I was being a jerk.” he said, not moving his head.

Verde moved closer to Jason and sat her rear down, mirroring Jason.

“Jason... I just... I mean, oh I don’t know what to say...” she said, lowering her head and looking upwards at her mate sitting across from her.

“Well... not much to say. I mean, you could say ‘apology accepted’, but if thats not how you feel, don’t say it...” Jason told her. Verde got up from her sitting position and moved her self right next to Jason.

“Well, I guess I did spring the whole herding and begging you to rut me thing on you rather suddenly... though I’m curious, if you didn’t like the idea of rutting me, why did you accept?” Verde asked.

“Verde... oh god... when you explained it to me the first time, I thought I’d have a few days to think this though... I mean, you would have been my first time having sex with anyone a-” Jason spoke as Verde interrupted him.

“Wait, you never had sex?” her eyes widened. Due to the scarcity of colts, most had their first times fairly young, but Jason, she never expected him to be inexperienced. But it made sense to her, his skittishness, his poor performances, and his aloofness. “Jason... I didn’t know, I’m so sor-”

“Don’t apologize... you needed help, and I don’t like watching you in tears. If you need something that I can give away freely... I have no reason to withhold it from you.” Jason interrupted Verde. Verde moved closer, feeling the need to comfort Jason. Resting her head on his shoulder, she started nuzzling him.

“So... were you saving yourself for someone else?” Verde asked, wondering if there was another mate in his life.

“No, more like I never had the time and sex never really interested me. Ether I was knee deep in studying or working.” he answered.

“Oh... so um, how many years have you studied?” Verde said, curious as to what amount of education Jason had.

“If you count public school, about Eighteen Years.” Jason replied

“Eighteen years!?” Verde exclaimed.

Prologue

The human hit the bathtub floor with a thunk, still gasping for air. Verde pulled herself into the tub and pulled the shower curtain closed, carefully stepping on the human gently in order to turn up the heat. The human could barely tell her that he needed to be in hot water. The soft patter of the shower hit them both and in mere moments the human’s breathing eased and returned to normal.

As the pony looked at her human’s face, she saw a twitch of pain. Looking over, she saw one of his long limbs pinned behind him. Using her snout, she pressed against the elbow, hoping to gain leverage and lift the arm up. After a few moments of trying, she succeeded.

The human, whom she had come to adore, was sick. Whatever ailed him, he could not breath and talk easily. She pressed her head against the beast’s chest and took a moment to just feel him. Up until this point, they had never bathed together, and she was kinda surprised that the water and his skin together were very smooth, it made her think of squishy porcelain. Taking a moment, she reminded herself that she had forced herself into his life. He only meant to house her for a day or two, but she had taken advantage of his hospitality and had overstayed her initial welcome by two months.

What's worse, this home was made exclusively for humans, human door knobs, human oven, human windows, human toilets, human showers... she was taking care of the human in a home ill equipped for her to do anything with ease. Ether they would make something pony usable or she just had to get him to do it.

Suddenly, without provocation, the human moved both his arms and grasped Verde tightly....he was hugging her, even though he was ill. Though this one was much less tighter than their first one. Human hugs had the feel of someone being held down against their will, but she had adapted and he had always kept a loose grip after their first fiasco of a hug.

Getting up and shaking off the arms so she could move, she started the task that brought them both in the human’s shower, he had been very sick the last three days and Verde needed to make sure that his personal hygiene was taken care of. She carefully grabbed the bar of soap, the one NOT meant for ponies to hold. While she could grasp some of the things in his house, she would need to use her mouth to simply hold this bar of soap still. She started cleaning the human everyplace she saw skin. It was a sickening taste, it was like old, moldy bread, but smooth and it was bitterly trying to shove itself down her throat. Midway through the cleaning, she realized something.

She realized that she was going to have to get him out of the tub also....