Anon's Griffon Boyfriend

"But Anon, we need you for applebucking season! It's the busiest time of year!" Applejack protests.

"Sorry, Ma'am, but my decision is final; I don't feel like my life is going anywhere in Equestria helping move apples around," you say. You cross your arms. You expected some resistance, and maybe for her even to offer you a raise, but you have a plan, and you're sticking to it.

"Well... If that's the way ya feel, Anon, I s'pose it just wouldn't be right to stop you from movin' on," she says, taking off her hat and looking at you sincerely. "Good luck, Anon." With that, she turns and starts walking back to the barn. As you walk off Sweet Apple Acres, you can hear a faint yell of "MAC! GET THE HELP WANTED SIGN OUT!"

Ah, you're a free man. AJ was a shitty boss. Nice, but shitty. You feel completely liberated by quitting your job as a farmhand, and you feel like your big break is right around the corner.

"How did it go?" you hear before something large and feathery slams into you from behind. You stumble a few steps before that same something lifts you off your feet and into the air. You look up at your big griffon boyfriend.

"Stop doing that without warning me first!" you chide him indignantly, looking down at the ground shrinking beneath you.

"Oh, you don't like flying?" he says, a wicked smile appearing on his beak. "Tout a fait, how silly of me..." he says. He slackens his grip on you to the point where you feel yourself start to fall, but he tightens it again immediately after. The short jolt of falling sensation is enough to shut you up.

You feel a bit queasy, looking down at Ponyville from this high up, so you shut your eyes and try to just focus on Sammy's claws holding you up. They're as strong as steel clamps, and you're confident he's a good enough flier not to drop you, but you still feel nervous nonetheless.

"How did it go?" he asks, after a fashion. He seems excited about something, but you can't put your finger on what.

"Better than I thought, but she didn't even offer me a raise," you say over the wind.

"Applefuckers are stingy, huh?" he asks. You don't even dignify him with a response, partially fearing your breakfast about to repeat on you. After a few minutes, you feel Sammy glide down to ground level, and you open your eyes to see the ground rushing up to your feet. You dig your heels in, and Sammy holds his wings wide, flapping them a few times to slow himself down. A smooth landing, overall, but citizens of Ponyville are starting to stare.

You're used to this by now; only the top level of magical researchers (and the town loony) know what humans are, so seeing one is naturally interesting to them. More interesting, however, is his bedfellow; a griffons aren't exactly a common sight, either, coming from a land far across the sea. Together, you two might well be a circus act landing in the middle of town.

"Have you eaten yet?" Sammy asks.

"No," you answer. Normally the Apple family would cook you something to eat for lunch so you could get right back to work, but you left around the time they normally fed you.

"Anything you feel like?" the griffon asks, looking around the street for eateries, his eyes coming to rest on a little open-air cafe.

"Wherever that place is," you say. There weren't many restaurants in Equestria that could cook as well as you could, and Sammy knew it, but sometimes you had to take what you could get.

It doesn't take long to put in your orders. The restaurant doesn't have meat, but it does have what Sammy considered to be the next best thing: a deep fat dryer. Fully half of the cafe's menu is fried in some abyssal concoction of oils and greases. He orders a basket of fried okra and asparagus. You weren't too keen on the asparagus (for a number of reasons), and you stuck with a simple pasta dish. You both try to sit at a booth, but, finding the seats designed for ponies, you opt to sit on the cushions outside. It's hard living in a world designed for everyone else, and never for you.

"So where do you want to try first?" Sammy asks. "You're really good at a lot of things."

You can tell from the look in his eyes that he means it. But you can't really think of much that you're good at... You don't want to profit off of having hands, since that seems a bit cheap, and aside from that, nothing comes to mind.

"Like what," you ask. Sammy looks at you incredulously. gesturing around the cafe.

"Uh, cooking?" he quips sardonically.

"Hmm... Maybe you're right, but I'm not much good at cooking vegetarian dishes," you muse.

"Well..." he says. "There are more meat-eaters in Manehattan..."

"So we're going to move to Manehattan?" you ask sarcastically. "That seems like an awfully big deal just to cook for people..."

"Well, Anon, I sort of have something to tell you..." Sammy says, his voice trembling. "Horsefeathers is doing really well. Like, really well. Like celebrity endorsement well."

You don't know what to say. If his film about unrealistic beauty standards among pegasi is doing so well as to get celebrity endorsements... That means you two are now rolling in bits.

You scootch over to where he's sitting and give him a kiss on the cheek, and put your arm around his neck.

"I knew you're the best," you say. "I'm glad everyone else can see it now, too."

He returns your embrace, squeezing you tight.

"I've always wanted to live a big city," he said, sniffling, which was quite unlike him. "I've always dreamed of being there, and being part of it all... And now's our chance."

"Why Manehattan, though?" you ask, pulling back a bit.

"That's where all the directors and producers for Equestria's biggest movies live," he said. He'd been living in Equestria a little longer than you had, and he knew more about it than most ponies did, by virtue of always shooting indie documentaries and period pieces.

"So you could work for a studio?" you ask, getting a little giddy. He's always waxed poetically about being able to see his name under the Ponywood titles... And now might be his chance.

"Yeah, I actually have a few offers already," Sammy says excitedly, grabbing both your hands and shaking them giddily. "Some of the signing bonuses are even big enough to open a restaurant!"

"Sammy, you wouldn't..." you stammer.

"I would," he says seriously.

A though occurs to you, and you have to suppress a chuckle.

"Imagine that, a farmhand to a big city chef in just a few months!" you giggle. "In a few years, who knows, I might even become a princess!"

Sammy laughs along with you. He reaches pulls you into an embrace once again.

"You'll always be my princess."