A little find

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Chapter 1

The pony came to, the eyelid of her left eye slowly fluttering open. She felt something coarse, wound tightly around her head and covering her other eye. She heard the soft, rhythmic beeping noise pulsing somewhere nearby. She saw a tall, odd-looking creature in white looming over her body.

“Huh,” she muttered quietly, her voice dazed and weak. “And here I thought angels were supposed to be stunningly beautiful.”

The creature paused, before bringing out a piece of white cloth and dabbing gently at the pony’s forehead. It felt damp and soothingly cool.

“What do you mean?” it spoke softly, sliding the cloth lower to clean around her eye.

“You’re ugly, that’s what,” grumbled the pony, wincing from the touch.

“That’s not a very nice thing to say,” calmly replied the creature, pulling away.

“Well and I’m not a very nice pony, so what of it?”

The question remained unanswered. The pony blinked her eye open once more, and, with the world slowly coming into focus, took a first look around.

She found herself tucked in a bed, a large and soft one, with a puffy pillow under her head and a light blanket covering her up to the neck. The bedding, pristine white in color and without any pattern, felt starched and stiff against her body, clashing with the otherwise comfortable bed. Her left forehoof was resting atop the blanket, half-encased in a plaster cast, with several tubes connecting the thin needles stuck under her skin with the bags of clear liquid hanging from the stand above. Another tube was fixed against her nostrils, and a bundle of wires coming from under the blanket connected her body to some humming and beeping machine nearby.

The pony paused, swallowing against the sour dryness in her mouth and tasting the air that carried a vague chemical scent.

“Well,” she said then, raising her hoof slightly and tracing the tubes back to the dripping bags. “I guess that means I’m not dead yet.”

“You’re not,” confirmed the creature in the same soft tone of voice, eyeing the humming apparatus. It seemed as if it was taking notes. “And you won’t be, not anywhere soon. The worst is over, and now you will only be getting better.” It looked back at her with a smile, and carefully brought an oversized cup to her lips.

“Yaaay…” quietly drawled the pony, before taking a tiny sip from the cup. The fresh and cold water felt nice, and she took another sip, longer this time. Then her eyelid drooped.

“I feel kinda sleepy though...” she muttered drowsily. “You mind if I nod off for a bit?”

“Of course not. Rest.”

She didn't quite hear that, however. Closing her eye, the pony slipped back into the lulling darkness.

***

It was that very same featureless ceiling and a dimmed white light that greeted her next time she woke up.

She felt different though. There was no more tube at her nostrils, no more bandages around her head or cast around her hoof, and she could breathe easy and think clearly for the first time in longer than she could remember.

Not that she could remember much, anyway. For example, she certainly didn’t remember the room around her being so large and spacious, with everything from the bed to the chairs to the cup on the bedside table looking at least several sizes bigger than it should've.

Naturally, the creature from the last time - now quietly sitting in the chair by the bed - was also much bigger than she was, now that she paid attention to it. He didn't seem to notice her coming awake, yet, seemingly busy filling out something on the clipboard he was holding. There were quite a few papers in it.

The pony took her time inspecting the creature, peering through the slits of her eyelids. Tall, relatively slender body, mostly hidden under the long white labcoat. Limbs ending with slender claw-like extremities, firmly holding the clipboard. Flat, unimaginative face with tiny eyes and tiny mouth. Bare, hairless pinkish skin with only a short mane atop of the head. Thin-rimmed glasses perched upon his nose, which he seemed to adjust every now and then.

“Would you look at that,” she spoke up quietly, a crooked smirk across her lips. “You are ugly.”

“And good morning to you as well,” he replied with a small polite smile, looking up from the clipboard and setting it aside face down. “How are you feeling?”

“Eh,” she groaned weakly. “I’ve been better. But then again, I’ve been worse, too, so let's chalk it up as okayish.”

“Good.” His reserved smile grew just a little wider. “You are recovering very well so far. Sort of amazing, to be honest, given how you were.”

“Yeah, right, about that..." she said, a flicker of interest showing in her eyes. "How was I, actually? My head’s kinda fuzzy, and I don’t really remember anything after--” She faltered. “...Anything after.”

He hesitated, before tilting his head forward.

“Then, maybe, it’s better off if you don’t know?” he asked in a softer tone, looking at her over the top of his glasses. “It’s not pretty, you see.”

“I think I can handle a bit of not pretty, okay?” She replied harshly, although still in a weak voice. “Just lay it out.”

He paused for another moment, looking down on his forelimbs. Then, in a quiet, flat tone, he started to recount:

“…Aside from a number of wounds and bruises across the whole body, and a massive blood loss, your body sustained a depressed skull fracture, a mild concussion, multiple fractured ribs, punctured lung, broken jaw and leg, dislocated hip...” He adjusted his glasses, pushing them further up his nose. “...As well as severe damage to genital and rectal tissues.”

She listened to that, lying very still, her expressionless gaze fixed on the needles in her hoof. Steadily, the liquids dripped into her veins, meting out the silence that fell after his words.

“...It makes sense you don’t remember,“ he continued softly after a pause. “You've been mostly unconscious, and it’s been more than a month now. To be honest, if you hadn't woken up by the end of this week, I’d--”

He was cut short - by the sound of her quiet, bitter laughter.

“Wow,” she voiced, shaking her head. “Like, wow!” She threw her head up, staring at the faraway ceiling with a sort of distant amazement on her face.

“...How the heck I am still alive?” she muttered with a genuine wonder in her voice.

“Well...” he started, but she didn't seem to listen.

“I was sure I was going to die back there,” she muttered on, staring into the distance. “I… I was ready to die back there." Her eyes slowly moved downward, wandering over the form of her own body under the blankets. "I mean, that would finally be the end to it.” Her voice faded away. "Would be the end to it...."

She fell silent, lost deep in her own thoughts.

“Well,” he coughed, breaking the silence. “You may say what you want, but you should know that your body had its own say in this matter. Because you see, none of my efforts would succeed, were it not for your remarkable will to live.”

“My will to life…” she echoed quietly, with the same bitter and mirthless chuckle under her nose. “Right…”

There was another pause, as he just looked at the pony with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

“Well!” This time she broke the silence herself, wriggling around a bit and propping her head up against the pillow. Her face livened up just a little, with another crooked smirk taking place of the empty expression she had just a moment ago.

“What's done is done, I guess. Now, I take it you’re the one to thank for the miraculous saving of my life, aren't you?” she asked, looking him straight in the eye.

He nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah. Thanks." She took a deep breath and looked away before turning back to him. "So, care to explain me anything? Like, what you are, where am I, what do you want, all this stuff?”

“No,” he replied at once, in a voice calm and firm. Then, seeing as her face fell, he continued with a softer expression. “Sorry, but the explanations will have to wait. Now that you have come to your senses, I need you to make a decision.”

“A decision?” She raised her eyebrow.

He nodded.

“You need to choose what will happen of you next, and you need to do it now.”

“Great.” Her smirk went wider. “Great! Sounds fun. My favorite thing to do after being dead for a month. No, really. Though - just so you know - I kinda suck at decisions when it comes to my life, even when I do know what's going on. So don't expect much, okay?”

He stared back at her, his stern expression unchanging.

“This is not a laughing matter. Please do listen carefully to what I have to say.”

She shrugged.

“Oh sure, since you ask so nicely." She lay back down. "I'm all ears.”

He nodded, straightening up in his chair and adopting an even more serious expression.

“I'll be to the point. First of all, you are not at home anymore. Right now, you’re in completely different world altogether.”

The pony didn't react, keeping still and quiet with her gaze down and that little smirk glued to her face. Maybe, somehow she already knew that much. Maybe she didn't care.

“As an active member of a certain organization,” he went on, “I was entrusted with one of the interdimensional gateways connecting your world to ours. The rules are so that under no circumstances we are allowed to take anything from either side to another, or get seen by the locals, or otherwise intervene with their lives in any way.”

“However,” he continued after a small pause. “We are allowed to look through and observe. And few weeks ago, when I found your bleeding body during one of my inspections, I broke all of the aforementioned rules at once.”

He lowered his head, pulling his glasses off and starting to wipe at them absently with the hem of his labcoat. His voice went lower, now barely above a whisper.

“Now, I have taken considerable risks to bring you here. I continue taking those risks every day that you stay here. So I do hope you understand my urgency, and make your choice out of the two options I can offer you."

"The first is for you to return back to your world. I would allow you to recover for a little while longer, but as soon as you're able to move, you will be returned to the exact same place you were taken from, and as long as you take nothing from our side, it will be impossible for my colleagues to detect the whole ordeal afterwards. Naturally, you will never meet me again. You will be on your own.”

The pony let out an unintelligible sound, midway between a chuckle and whimper. He paid her no mind, staring down and fiddling with his glasses.

“I can imagine, however, how that would be not the best choice for someone in your situation. So for my second option, I want to offer you to stay here, with me. You will have a place to sleep and food to eat. You will never have to worry again about making a living for yourself. You will be safe.”

“However,” he continued after a small pause, suddenly sounding strained and stiff. “There are further conditions to that offer. One is that you would never be allowed to leave this house. We’re keeping our work a secret from the rest of our race, and a sentient alien lifeform simply strolling around is not something that would help that.”

“And another condition… Well, there is a certain something I would expect in return.” He worked his jaw silently for a moment, as if having trouble getting the words out, before seemingly going off a tangent. “The organization that I belong to, one supervising the portal between our worlds, has always been going to great lengths in its continued effort to uphold absolute secrecy. People like me, we get vanished off the face of the earth, and are never allowed to have ties with outside world again. That means no guests, no friends... No family. It is a justified decision, all things considered, but...”

He finally raised his head, locking eyes with the pony. Without the glasses, his face looked younger, softer, and much more sincere - but still just as stern and serious.

“I’m lonely, you see,” he concluded simply. “In more ways than one.”

For the longest time, there was silence. He kept his gaze firmly on her face, she, in turn, stared down, her expression lost and eyes dim.

“...Now, I can understand it may seem unreasonable,” he continued after a while, his voice quiet but certain. “But that is my wish, and that is the only offer I’m making. And well, after all, I'm not asking for anything that is out of your… line of expertise.”

That's when she started to laugh. The same quiet, bitter, mirthless laughter filled the silent room, steadily gaining in volume.

“I can’t… I can’t freaking believe it...” she forced through her laugh, shaking her head. “I mean, come on!” She threw her head up, staring at him with a wide twisted grin. “I get raped, killed, revived in another world… and all that just to end up as a fucking fuckslave for an ugly ass alien?”

She went into another convulsing fit, laughing hard enough for tears to appear. He didn't budge, silently, patiently watching.

“Fucking… Ridiculous…” she breathed out as the last of her laughter died out, still smiling that crooked grin. Then she looked up.

“Well, you know what?” she said with some sort of wicked glee in her voice. “I don’t even fucking mind!”

With the quick sweep of her hoof, she threw the blanket away, revealing her body to the view. His eyes traveled downward as if with a will of their own.

There she was, half-sitting against the oversized pillow, posing tensely with her left foreleg high aside, her breath ragged and her shimmering eyes wide open. In a place where her right foreleg should have been, there was only a small, accurate stump on her shoulder, pointing aside as if she was trying to throw her hooves wide. Behind her, her wings were spread out rigid - but only the left one was fully feathered, with the right one being an unsightly fan of thin, barely skin-covered protruding bones. Below, both of her hindhooves were missing just like her right forehoof, and the short stumps that were there she was spreading wide open, boldly presenting herself. Below still, her long and tangled tail was flicking around nervously, betraying her unease.

“I don’t mind at all, really,” she repeated bitterly, her body as stiff as her smile. “After all, that’s all I’m good for. I know that. I’m used to that.” She grimaced, struggling to keep that twisted smirk on. “I mean, It’s not even that bad. Your offer is, like, way better than anything I've ever got before for that stub of a body. It honestly is.” She gave yet another shaky chuckle, glaring straight into his eyes. “So come on. Go ahead. Knock yourself out. You've totally earned that.”

He didn't move and he didn't make a noise, his expressionless gaze fixed at her body. For a brief time, there was silence, filled only by her shallow, uneven breathing.

Slowly, he moved his eyes back up to her face. Slowly, he rose up, leaning closer to the sprawled out pony. Slowly, he reached out with his limb.

Her breath caught and she froze, ears flattened back and eyes fixed straight forward.

He reached past and went to pick up the blanket.

“First off,” he said calmly and evenly, covering her up to the neck with it once again. “With me being the one who performed the surgery on you not that long ago, together with the aftercare, there isn't much left of you that I haven’t already seen.”

“Second,” he continued, taking her only hoof in his hand and gently laying it down, making sure all the needles were still properly in place. “There is no need to be that harsh or that bold, nor there is a need to hurry. Above all, you hadn't even fully recovered, yet.” He withdrew, seating himself back into the chair. “You need to rest, and not to worry about anything. So for now, try to concentrate on just that. Okay?”

For some time, she just stared back, her expression unreadable. Then her lips formed into another little smirk.

“Yeah,” she said, a little hoarsely. “Sure. You’re the boss. Rest now, worry later. Can do that. Anything else?”

He didn't answer, staring back with a strange, thoughtful expression on his face. Then, even slower - as if to not scare her away - he reached out again, gently touching her ear. It flinched, shying away as he gave it a light rub, but the pony herself didn't move, staring sideways and tensing up.

“I’ll be sincere, though,” he uttered quietly, his eyes wandering across her face. “I do want you to understand the situation as it is.” His limb moved downwards, sliding down her short silky mane and coming to a rest against her flushed cheek. ”You see, even if you were somewhat harsh with your choosing of words…” He put a bit more force behind his touch, grazing across her lips and parting them just a little. “...You did caught the essence of my conditions quite well.”

With that, he withdrew and stood up, taking the last glance at the medical apparatus before leaving the room. Left to herself, the pony silently stared at the door he disappeared behind, before lying back on the pillows and starting to sob.

Chapter 2

Lying on her side, she felt his big and strong hooves wrap around her chest as he entered, one sure and firm thrust at once filling her being with oh-so-awaited spreading warmth. Soft, nearly inaudible half-moan, half-breath left her lips, but he heard, and he started moving, ever so slowly, ever so gently, as if she was sleeping and he didn’t want to wake her up, and she could only answer in kind, with the softest of motions rocking her hips to the soothing waves of pleasure. Neither of them were in any hurry; neither of them ever wanted for this to end; and the moments turned into seconds, and the seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes turned into eternity of warm and tender bliss, of sweet nothings breathed into her ear, of hindhooves and tails intertwined in a sensual dance of passion, of her wings quivering in the air half-spread, of little gasps and silent whimpers...

And only when she had reached her utmost limit, only when she absolutely couldn’t bear any more of that sweet, delicious torture, only when she had felt her whole body filled up to the brim with the tingling warmth, only then did he sharply pick up the pace, pumping in and out of her in a heated frenzy all the way up until she let out the single last high-pitched whimper and burst. Her back arched, and her breath caught, and she rode the pulsing waves of pleasure for a moment that lasted forever.

Little by little, the waves started to ebb. For a while, she lay unmoving, breathing deep, and heavy, and without a single thought in her head.

And then she opened her eyes, coming back to reality. To the reality in where she was alone, covered in cold drying sweat, with the damp mess of sheets under her body, and with her only hoof achingly sore and sticky with her own shame.

She let out a shaky sigh.

Slowly, she rolled onto her back, dully staring into the ceiling. The quiet sound of her breathing, along with the soft ticking of the wall clock, were the only sounds punctuating the otherwise empty silence of the room.

It changed a lot since she first got here, this room. One by one, the machines and the monitors were going away, and it steadily went from looking like a hospital ward to being more like a normal bedroom it originally was. With simple warm interior, heavy furniture of dark wood, and a lot of empty space, it was how she always imagined some expensive hotel room to be - spacious, fancy, and impersonal. Not that bad, all in all.

Though, an actual hotel room would probably have a window in one of its walls. Or a couple of books on a shelf to pass the time. Maybe a newspaper under the door, or a little bell to call for service, or a mural on the far wall to stare at for hours, or a noisy neighbor to bicker with, or something, something, anything....

There was nothing. A foreign, soulless room, a bare minimum of furnishing, a featureless white above, and a constant, never-ending tickling of the clock that seemed to get louder and louder and louder with every single passing second.

She closed her eyes shut.

She could take it. Bedridden and alone, with nothing to do and nopony to care - she should’ve been used to all that. No, no, she was used to all that. Just had to… Just had to stop thinking. Just had to keep her mind off where she was; or what she was; or that she was to spend in this room the rest of her life...

Just had to take the one way out that she have always had.

Rolling back to her side, she drew a deep breath and bit her lip as her hoof slid down the familiar path.

***

Once again, she was staring into the dimly lit ceiling, her chest rising and falling with deep heavy breaths as she thoughtlessly listened to the distant ticking. With the weak pulses of dull pleasure quickly subsiding, the throbbing ache in her hoof was becoming more apparent by the second.

These last few days, it was at work nearly constantly, after all, and it was starting to take its toll.

Wincing from the pain, she rolled over, weakly reaching for an apple from the bowl on the bedside table and taking a bite of its juicy crispness. For a brief moment, the sweet, rich taste filling her mouth washed away the pain and the worries. A warm bed and an actual food whenever she wanted… She definitely could get used to it.

If it weren’t for the human.

The apple mush left a sour aftertaste in her mouth as she gulped down, glancing up at the wall clock. Only a few hours until he returns. It could be today, she thought, with a familiar pang of dread clutching her gut. Probably not, of course, today wasn’t any different from yesterday, or the day before that, or any other day she’ve spent there so far, for that matter, but well, still… It could be today.

She shifted, burying herself deeper into the blanket and tearing her eyes away from the clock.

There was a routine. Every day, the human would leave early in the morning, after leaving her some food for the day, and come back deep in the night, before going straight to sleep. Sometimes, he’d come up to her and ask how is she feeling today; sometimes, he’d bring a little needle to take a drop of her blood for a sample; and sometimes, when he was sure she was deep asleep, he’d pause and stay very still for a moment or two, silently watching her with those tiny expressionless eyes as she fought to ignore the cold shivers creeping up her spine.

That was it, though. Aside from these little things here and there, never once did he as much as look at her or talk with her, let alone touch her. It was more than two weeks now, maybe tthree - she couldn’t keep track of the time very well since she got there.

But she knew it wasn't going to last forever. They had a talk, back after the first day she woke up, a thorough talk about this world and his kind and her place and what she had to do if she didn’t want to go back to the thin and ragged cardboard. He wasn’t actually very chatty, no, nor was she particularly curious, but either way she did end up learning a few new things for herself.

One of these things - one that he made especially sure to convey - was that ponies and ‘humans’ were very, very similar to each other in their general anatomy. Similar enough for compatibility, as he put it.

So, yeah. It could be today.

She took another bite of the apple and thoroughly chewed on it, swallowing past the lump in her throat. The growing sickness in her stomach was making it harder to finish the meal.

No, no, it wasn’t that bad, really. After all, nothing have really changed for her - well, except that she’d probably never see the light of the day or another pony again in her life. But hey, she could take it. It was still that much better than the alternative, anyway. And the human? Well, at the end of the day he was just another male. Just another client. No big deal. She could take him too, if it meant staying alive and well fed on top of it.

During the day, when the human was only a memory pushed into the far corner of her mind, she could get herself to believe that. Mostly.

Then, there were the nights.

Her eyes fell on the spread of blankets on the floor beside the bed - just a few feet away - where the human slept. He was always restless in his sleep, tossing and turning and mumbling something under his breath for hours on end, keeping her awake and aware throughout the night. There, in the darkness filled by the frantic breathing and incoherent rambling of another, as minute after sleepless minute ticked by, she couldn’t help but dread, dread for the future, dread for the nights yet to come, the nights she will eventually have to share with this creature... And then she couldn’t help but look - and the vague shape of his large form stirring about in the dark was all she needed for her imagination to run wild. This pale, hairless body, huge enough to crush her with one careless move, would be on top of hers, pressing her down, pinning her; this flat, mismatched face would be above her, panting, grunting, wheezing into her ear; these hands, with long, insect-like fingers, would touch her, squeeze her, crawl over her; and then, then the worst of all would be his, his, his--!

She clenched her teeth and screwed her eyes shut, curling up and clutching her tail to her chest.

He was not justanother.

No matter how many times she would tell herself that, he was not just another client; he was alien, he was hideous, he was creepy and, and, and, he was huge. Goddesses was he huge. If his proportions were anything like a stallion’s, he would just kill her; tear her; split her in half on the spot for hoof’ sake…

A muffled whimper escaped her throat.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t... fair, that nothing, nothing could ever change even as unimaginable happened and she actually did woke up in another world like she always dreamed. That no matter what she was through in the end she was there for just the one damned thing over and over and over and over again.

She squeezed her eyes tighter as the tears started to fall. In the empty silent room she shook and sobbed quietly, noiselessly, as if afraid to draw too much attention to her pitiful, useless self.

...And as the frantic burning swirling inside her mind edged on unbearable, her trembling hoof, as if on its own, crept its way a well-known route down her belly.

The sobbing stopped. Not right away, no, not that easy, never that easy, but little by little, as she lay here frozen stiff, with her hoof clenched hard between the stumps of her hindlegs, little by little she cleared her mind of thoughts, of fears, of everything save for the vast, colorful, boundless flower meadow...

And her breathing calmed down. She stood there, among the fragrant blossoms of the sunlit field, with the soft ground right beneath all of her four strong, healthy hooves, and she felt the wind ruffling her outspread feathers, and she tasted the flowers in the air, and she was no longer alone. A stallion was right behind her, tenderly nuzzling her neck and her mane; he had no face, never the face, but it didn’t matter, because he was strong, and big, and gentle, and he was there for her, he was there to take her away from this prison of a body, away from her own thoughts, her useless, helpless thoughts that never could change anything and only made everything worse. She shuddered as she felt him lowering himself onto her back, puffing hot breaths into her mane and letting his stallionhood touch her behind…

…While softly, but firmly framing her sides with his hands.

She couldn’t tell when. It’s simply happened - the image changed, and now it was the human who stood behind her, lowering his strange elongated body onto hers and breathing into the back of her neck. There, in her mind, he wasn’t all that scary - sure, he was still different, still alien, but then his frame was only a little bigger than hers, and his caress felt warm and soothing and kind, and she knew he was just the right fit even before he thrusted in.

Then, of course, none of that mattered.

***

She woke up at the feeling of touch.

A moment of weightlessness, gone before she could really come to, and she felt herself lowered onto something soft, cold, and lumpy. The unfamiliar scent, weak, but sharp, hit her nostrils as she snuggled deeper into the softness. She wrinkled her nose, cracking open an eye.

Before her, the human stood, facing away and looming above the empty bed. His long arms moved about, back and forth and around, as if in some bizarre form of dance.

Then her mind sprang to awareness as the realization hit. She must’ve dozed off after she was done self-pleasuring - and then the human got back, and found her as she was, and had to move her away to change the bedsheets very distinctly stained with the results of said pleasuring.

Well.

At this point, it would be silly to pretend she had enough dignity left to worry about such things, anyway.

She lay back down, resting her chin on her hoof and letting out a quiet sigh. Her nose wrinkled up again, as she realized it was a pile of his bedding on the floor she was lying atop of, and it wasn’t exactly fresh, either. That, too, was another thing that didn’t really bother her at all.

The human didn’t say anything about the mess, of course, he never did. Quiet and impassive as usual, he went about his task without as much as a glance in her direction. She responded in kind, closing her eyes and trying not to think much of anything. Having him act like she wasn’t even there was somewhat hard to get used to at first, but then she figured she could just as well do the same with him. Nothing good could come out of drawing attention, anyway.

Out of nowhere, it crossed her mind that the scent she felt wasn’t as horrible and repulsive as she feared. Sure, it was weird, alien, unlike anything she ever smelled, but it wasn’t… It wasn’t exactly bad. She found herself burying her nose deeper into the sheets and taking another breath before pulling away and recomposing herself.

Another minute later, he was done. She let him pick her up without protest, and, before he laid her down on the newly made bed, she opened her eyes. Up close, he looked distant and worn, with darkened bags under his eyes and a deep wrinkle between his brows. It was so unlike the calm and reserved mask of an expression he usually wore, she found herself wondering - was something wrong today? Or was he always like that by the end of the day? She never really paid attention before; then again, he never carried her like that before either.

She thought, maybe it was a good moment to say something. To… To show concern, maybe, make some small talk, try and learn a bit more about the one who was going to own her for the rest of her life...

Then he sat by the bed, bringing out a pack of body wipes, and the words stuck in her throat as she suddenly remembered what was next on the schedule.

She tensed up a moment before the damp cloth first touched her skin. A reflex, nothing more - she knew well she had nothing to fear. The human cleaned her quickly and methodically, scrubbing at her body with firm motions and clinical impassion, and there wasn’t much else for her to do but to lie there and wait for him to finish.

“How are you feeling today?” he asked the usual, as he held her hoof up and rubbed it clean. It was the first she heard from him in days.

“Fine,” she replied the usual, blankly staring straight up. Normally, the questions would end here.

“Fine or ‘fine’?” he continued to her surprise, glancing up from his task. “If there are any aches or pains, no matter how small, or any unusual feeling anywhere, you should tell me.”

“No, I’m…” she winced as he moved over to the more sensitive parts of her body. “It’s fine, really. I’m fine.”

“Good,” he concluded with a nod. "Your recovery went very well."

The rest of the procedure went in silence. She had to roll over once he was done with the front, letting him scrub at her back, and once that was over as well, he stood up, putting away the washcloth and moving to pick up the sheets and blankets from the floor. One by one he proceeded to fold them up and stash them away into the drawer, and once done with that, he turned off the lights and finally left the room.

Her body went limp at once as she let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. It’s okay, she said to herself. Another uneventful evening went by, and there was nothing to be nervous about. Sure, a few things happened today that have never happened before, what’s with him talking three times the usual, but for the most part, nothing was really new. It’s okay.

Today still wasn’t the day.

From somewhere not very far, came the sound of a running shower. Having calmed down, she thought back at the time she’ve spent there, and wondered - maybe it was never going to be the day. Maybe she simply got it wrong back then. Maybe all he wanted was to just kind of... own her here.

To watch her sleep in his bed as he goes to work in the morning, snoring quietly into the pillow. To carry her around, making her seem like a tiny brittle toy in his large, shovel-like hands. To feed her, and tend for her, and keep her well and clean and tidy like she was nothing more but some sort of an exotic pet.

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that was his thing, what could she know. Maybe he never meant anything more than that. Like, like, sure, he did tell her that she was to obey his every word, and, and that he was lonely, and then about that whole ‘compatibility’ thing, but then that doesn’t exactly mean... that doesn’t exactly mean…

She found herself staring into the darkness, at the empty space on the floor where the human usually slept. Where he had his bedding laid out for him, every single day. The one that he just folded up and put away for the very first time since he started sleeping down there.

It was today.

She felt her throat dry up as she broke out in a cold sweat. No. Her heart raced together with a thousand of panicked thoughts in her head. No. The tears welled up in her eyes. No. She squeezed her eyes closed and grit her teeth.

She won't cry in front of no one.

She sucked in a shaky breath. She couldn't cry before him. It'd never, ever help, and would only make everything worse. So she'll keep it together. She won't cry.

She wiped the tears away. She knew it'd be like that, after all. Knew since the first day, and agreed to it herself, too. Now, now she simply will do what she has to, and come what may.

At the very least, she won’t have to spend her days dreading the unknown anymore.

Somewhere, not very far, the sound of the running water has stopped. For a moment, it was quiet, very, very quiet - and then the door of the room squeaked open, and his hushed breathing filled the air. The floorboards creaked gently as his steps slowly drew closer in the dark, stopping as he reached the bed. It dipped ever so slightly, when he sank down on the other side with a long quiet sigh. A moment later, he shifted closer under the blankets, without a word wrapping his arms around her rigid form and pressing her in a tight embrace against his chest. Then, with another little sigh, he relaxed his grip and went limp.

She lay there, stiff as a statue, afraid to budge and barely breathing, with the heat and the smell of his freshly showered body enveloping her from head to tail. He didn’t move either; it was so quiet and still that she could feel his heartbeat, pulsing through her being in slow heavy waves and mingling with her own, fluttering in her chest like crazy. She was prepared for anything - anything but another suspense.

“Well.” Her voice sounded loudly through the silent room, so low and strained she could barely recognize it. “Are we doing it or what?”

He shifted slightly, drawing a deep breath.

“Wha...?” he drawled after a pause, already sounded hazy and half-asleep. “Oh... No, no... Not today… Maybe tomorrow.” He shifted again, pulling her closer. She could feel his arms coiling tighter, under, above, and around her body, fingers stroking through the short fur. “I had a long day… I’m tired…” One of his hands ended up under her head, cupping it in his palm with her ear between his fingers. ”For now... for now I just want to hold you…” His voice faded as he started to snore.

Somehow, she found it in herself to force out a little wry chuckle.

“Wow,” she said with a sneer. “You are lonely, aren’t you?”

He didn’t answer at first, softly breathing into her mane and seemingly asleep. Then, barely audible, he mumbled:

“...Aren’t you?”

She didn’t have an answer to that. Soon enough, the human was sound asleep, with her tiny form cradled firmly in his arms.

This night, his sleep was quiet, deep and peaceful.

Chapter 3

The human woke up with a start. It was pitch-dark around, save for a faint green light emanating from the alarm clock on the bedside table, and for a moment, he lay frozen still, silently staring into the invisible ceiling.

There was something heavy, fuzzy, and very, very hot squirming under the blankets on top of his stomach.

“H-hey,” came the familiar voice, slightly muffled. “Good morning, I guess.”

There was something very distinctly off about her tone; too strained; too shaky; too stiff; as if the pony behind it was dangerously close to breaking down.

“Don’t worry,” she continued, breathing heavily. “I-I got this.”

Her breath caught, and before he could say anything, the human felt something wet and soft squishing against the head of his member, already erect and angled towards his belly. Where and when did he lose his briefs, he didn’t know - and, frankly, didn’t care.

With a muted grunt, he flinched, hips jerking upward against the touch. The little thrust was enough to make the tiny pony yelp and fall face forward onto his body, breaking the intimate contact.

For a few very quiet moments, neither of them moved. He stared into the darkness, feeling her warm breath fall heavily onto his skin in short, irregular gasps. Barely noticeable, her tense little body shook against his.

“Al-alright.” She propped herself up under the covers. “Alright. Let me… Let me try this again.”

“Wait…” He put his hand on the pony over the fabric, voice hoarse with sleep. “I don’t… You don’t have to do this right now.”

“But I’ll have to!” she snapped, throwing her head up from under the blanket. In the greenish dark, he could barely make out the outline of her face and a ruffled mane.

“If not right now, then later, but I’ll have to do it, right? Because that’s what I’m here for, aren’t I?” Her voice broke off.

“...Yes,” after a short pause, came the answer.

“Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Because that was the deal.” She shook her mane back, huffing a strand of hair out of her face. “You did your part - I’m alive and fed, thank you very much - and now I have to do mine, and I’d rather get it over with as soon as possible than wait for you to deign to decide that for me. That is, if you don’t exactly mind.” Her tail swished agitatedly, brushing against his erection. “And I’m pretty sure that right now, you don’t.”

After a pause, he silently took his hand away. She glared at him for another moment, before taking a deep breath and disappearing back under the blanket.

Damn it. She bit into her foreleg and screwed her eyes shut, pushing back tears. Had to get a hold of yourself. Had to keep it together, before provoking the human any further, before making it any worse. Because it wasn’t all that bad right now, no, no, not at all. After all, the human was nice to her, sort of, and, and she was in control, kind of... Yeah. Right now was okay. Right now was fine. And if she can just, if she can just calm down, and do her job...

Everything will be fine.

She let her breath out, laying down on top of his body. Right. Her job. The size difference was still a problem, and all she accomplished earlier with her blind poking was getting herself unnecessary excited, as well as waking the human up - neither of which seemed to help. It wasn’t going in, and she was already winded trying to maneuver herself around with a single hoof.

So instead she propped herself up one more time, and slid all the way down along his frame until she was between his legs facing her target.

The smell was the strongest there. The heat, too, radiating off of his body and filling what little space there was under the covers, but it was the smell that hit her in a wave powerful enough to make her head spin and body tingle. Not exactly nice or pleasant, it was so much sharper and so much richer compared to the scent of stallions she was used to, that she just couldn’t seem to get enough of it. Without thinking, she wrapped her hoof around the shaft’s base and brought it closer, pressing her muzzle against the skin and inhaling the strong musk.

It took a strong throb from the length in her hoof and a groan from the human himself to snap her back to her senses. She jerked away with her face burning red, panting heavily. That… That wasn’t what she was here for, she had to remind herself. It wasn’t about her or her own pleasure; it never was.

She closed her eyes for a moment, collecting herself.

Then she got her mouth full of saliva before sticking out her tongue and giving his member a long, wide, wet lick all the way up from the base to the very top.

Quiet or not, he shuddered all over at the touch, once again throbbing in her grasp. A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth - yeah, they were pretty similar after all, humans and stallions. And if so… She could work with it.

Holding onto the shaft she brought herself up, planting a serie of soft little licks and kisses to the tip before circling her head around, properly bathing the sensitive flesh with her tongue. The taste, with a hint of her own flavor, was every bit just as strong and rich and sharp, sending waves of rolling heat from her tastebuds all the way to her nethers, and she couldn’t stop herself from collecting a few more of the savory drops appearing from her efforts - before wrapping her lips around the head and pressing down, hard.

Even thoroughly drenched, it wasn’t getting in any easier. She squeezed her eyes shut as the tears came; at the thickest part it was wider than her muzzle, and she could feel her teeth scraping against the flesh. Slowly, painfully, it pried her mouth open inch by agonizing inch, before finally with a last pang of pain through her jaw the bulb popped past the teeth, resting on her pinned down tongue.

She allowed herself another pause, breathing heavily through her nose and feeling the tears streaming down her face. It was fine. Big, yes, alien, yes… But it was fine. She could take it.

Reaching just a little bit further down, her lips formed a snug seal around his girth, trapping the very tip in the warm wetness of her mouth. The tight fit didn’t allow much room for movement, but she did her best, slipping and sliding her slick tongue against the sensitive underside while slowly stroking the shaft with her hoof. The human rocked his hips softly in rhythm with her, his hand again on her head over the cloth, gently guiding her closer. She took the hint, pressing her body in and shifting up and down against the burning hot skin, hugging his pulsing member tighter for support. Soon it would be over - already she could feel his sack twitching, buried in the fine fur of her belly, and each further stroke and lick and caress pushed him closer and closer to the edge, closer and closer, and closer, and closer, and… closer, and…

Something wasn’t right. She was running out of breath, and her hoof was getting sore, and her jaw hurt more and more with each passing second, and yet she still, still couldn’t get him to come. As she felt her lungs burning up with pain, she started to panic. Why was it taking so long? It never took more than a minute before. Was she doing something wrong? Was there something she didn’t know? Do humans even-- She wasn’t-- She couldn’t--

With the last of her strength she pulled up, forcefully yanking his member out of her mouth and drawing a deep breath. She could feel her head spinning, blood pumping feverishly in her ears. Okay. Okay. It was fine. She just, needed to ask him. In a moment. As soon as the ringing stops, she’d ask him everything, and it’ll all be f--

She didn’t get to finish that thought as the grip on her head tightened and with the sudden force she was pushed violently back down. The shaft hit her, pressing onto her lips for a moment before forcing her jaw wide open and slamming into the back of her throat. She made a quiet choking sound, her eyes popping out of her head, and threw her hoof forward against the human. He paid no mind to the barely noticeable push as he picked the pace, steadily pumping his hips up and down with her head held firmly in place and the rest of her body shaking with every powerful thrust. She batted at him until her hoof gave out, and then went limp in his grasp, tears running down her cheeks and falling in cold drops onto the human.

He abruptly stopped. As the pressure was gone from her head the pony weakly pulled away, trying to dislodge herself from him - but the moment later his hand was there again, this time firmly grabbing her mane under the covers and once again ruthlessly shoving her down. His other hand pressed between her wings, pushing her whole frame against his crotch, and he resumed his thrusting with renewed vigor, stroking the underside of his length across her fur while ramming the tip against the roof of her mouth time and time and time again.

He never said a word. Only his low, guttural grunts and growls were filling the room, along with the pony’s choking, strangling noises muffled by the heavy fabric. She wasn’t struggling anymore, only sucking in precious breaths of thick air between the thrusts. Strings of saliva mixed with pre escaped from the corners of her mouth, dribbling down his shaft and leaving dark stains on her fur.

He sped up his movements, pressing the pony harder still into his groin, stroking himself feverishly with her body as if it was a soft fuzzy rag. His thrusts became erratic, rapid jerks, as his breath quickened and he hunched forward over her form, nearly threatening to crush her. Then, finally, with a quiet moan and the last forceful thrust of his hips he shoved her head as far down as he could and peaked.

Her bloodshot eyes shot open when the throbbing head buried in her mouth swelled up, stretching her jaw beyond reason, and the first load hit the back of her throat instantly bulging her cheeks out. She jerked reflexively, only for the hand on the back of her head to firmly keep her down, making sure she takes the next one in full, and the third, and the fourth, and she gagged and coughed around his flesh as his sticky seed poured down her throat and shot out of her nose and leaked from her lips.

Then it was over. With a satisfied sigh he lay back, letting go of the pony, who slowly slid off his softening member, slick with spit and semen. A few moments passed before she moved, weakly gasping for air and coughing up white. Grasping at the sheets with her good hoof and trembling all over, she crawled out from under the covers to the edge of the bed, and went quiet.

A minute later the human was up, humming a lively little tune while rummaging in the dark for his clothes. He found his underwear, lying on the floor nearby. He grabbed his pants from the chair and put them on, buckling the belt around his waist. He picked up his glasses and breathed on the lenses, carefully rubbing them with a handkerchief before placing them on his nose. He threw on his shirt and buttoned it up. He tucked the shirt into his pants.

Then he looked over at the pony.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” he said. “Do you need to clean yourself up?”

She winced at the sound of his voice.

“I… Wha…?” She raised her head and stared blankly at the dark silhouette, jaw hanging limp.

“Do you need to clean yourself up?” he repeated the question.

“Y-yeah.” The pony nodded shakily, struggling to get the words out. “Yeah, I do. Pwe-- Please.”

He carefully picked up her little form, soaked through with sweat and still shivering, and stepped out of the room into the unlit corridor. They walked in silence. It was perfectly dark; the pony couldn’t see the human’s face hovering mere inches above her, and the distant ringing in her ears concealed the quiet sound of his steps. His tender embrace, as he held her close to his chest, felt like a strange, cruel joke. Maybe if he’d hit her instead, she thought. Maybe if he’d hit her and yelled at her and insulted her then it would’ve made sense. It would’ve been miserable, and scary, but it would’ve made sense, and instead he was polite and quiet and gentle and cold and she just felt wronged so profoundly inside that she couldn’t even tell what was real and what wasn’t anymore. How long have they been walking? She felt a dull stupor settle over her, numbing the senses; it was like they weren’t even walking anymore; like she was merely floating through the endless darkness, surrounded by a fantasy of a creature never existent; like it was all, after all, just a bad dream. Maybe she was still there in that alley, her brain hallucinating as her body bled out onto the cold ground. Or maybe, she was already dead, and that was the inexplicable and unfathomable afterlife, and she would swim like that through the void forever and ever and ever...

Then there was light. She shielded her eyes against the sharp brightness as the human carried her into the bathroom. When she blinked the pain away she found herself sitting in the oversized sink, with the thin stream from the faucet splashing against the enamel nearby. Without second thought she pulled closer, getting under the tepid water. Washing the smell and dirt off her body. The taste out of her mouth. The soreness out of her muscles.

Some of it, anyway.

Still, the shower actually made her feel a little better, clearing up some of the confusion and hurt fogging her mind. She tried to remember when was the last time she had an opportunity to properly wash herself with her own hoof. It was all the way back then, in the previous life, before the human got to save her from it. She recalled the human giving her the choice to return when they first talked. Could she still go back there now? Could she go back to her world?

Did she want to?

The fact that she couldn’t give an immediate answer even now left her with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She poked her head out of the sink, leaning onto its edge. Clean walls with a simple pattern. Empty shelves, save for a glass with a toothbrush and a piece of soap. A single beige towel on a holder. Another dull, soulless, and so very, very real room.

The human was there, standing by the toilet and relieving himself without a care in the world.
Something about this scratched at her mind. Oh, right. He never really cared if she was here or not, didn’t he.

“It’s smaller than I thought,” she blurted out without thinking, unsure if to hurt him or get his attention.

“Hmm?” he looked up at her, then down again. “Oh. It’s about average for humans, actually,” he said. “Though I can see how it’s much smaller proportionally when you compare it to an animal’s.”

Her ear twitched. Animal’s.

Finished with his business, he stepped closer, running the water into the tub. Up close, he looked brighter and more lively than she'd ever seen him before, even wearing a slight smile and humming another little tune. She felt like throwing up.

“So, that’s… That’s it, isn’t it?” she asked as he washed his face under the stream. “You... Use me like, like a cumrag, and then… Then you just…”

“Sorry?” he turned the water off to look at the pony. “Did you say something?”

“No.” She looked away. “It’s nothing.”

He nodded, as if it was all the answer he needed. Then, after drying himself with a towel, he picked the unresisting pony up from the sink and stepped towards the exit.

“Wait,” she said, without looking up.

He stopped and raised a brow at her.

“I… I need to go.” She glanced at the toilet. “Put me down? Please?”

“Of course.”

Getting down on one knee, he carefully sat her down at the far edge of the seat, against the raised lid. Then he got up, brushed some nonexistent dust from his pants, and seated himself on the bathtub edge, leaning forward and settling his gaze on the pony.

For a moment, she stared back in confusion. Then her expression fell.

“Is that…” she helplessly looked around, the stumps of her hindlegs pressed tightly together. “Is that another thing you want? To watch me... do that? Really...?” Her voice cracked with despair.

“Yes,” he said calmly.

“But I can’t go like this,” she stared into the water below. “I… I can’t, I… can’t, please, you’ve already… Please…” Her voice trailed off.

“That’s odd,” he said. “I was under the impression you had fully recovered, and was ready to use the facilities normally. Are you telling me I was wrong? Do you want to go back on catheter, then?”

“No,” she said hollowly after a pause, her wet mane hanging down to hide her face. “I’ll do it. I’ll do it, alright.”

Slowly, she spread her legs open and grabbed her tail over her back, getting it out of the way. The human glanced down, his expression unreadable, before returning his eyes to her pale, vacant face.

There were silence. Droplets of water from her mane slowly dripped into the bowl.

“I can’t,” she finally breathed out, cuddling her tail to her chest. “I just… can’t, okay? S-Shy bladder. It’s not going to work unless you stop staring.”

“Oh.” He looked thoughtful for a second. “That’s unfortunate.”

He lowered himself to the floor, sitting on his heels before the toilet. The pony glanced up to meet his stare, his face mere inches away from hers, and quickly looked away.

“You see, I don't want you to misunderstand. I'm not particularly into... something like that. But..." He reached out with his hand as the pony shrank back. “I can't really have you say no to me, no matter what it is. I do hope you understand.”

She flinched at the touch as he firmly placed the palm of his hand onto her belly.

“So let's fix that, shall we? Start by driving a deep breath,” he instructed. The pony didn't react, wide eyes staring helplselly at his hand and panting quietly.

“I said, draw a deep breath.” He raised his voice ever so slightly. The pony winced and inhaled sharply.

“Good. Now exhale - and hold your breath, until I allow otherwise.”

She sat there, hiding her face in her tail and not breathing, while the human gently massaged her stomach just above the pubic bone without ever looking away. Her chest and the tips of her ears burned bright red under her fur as her nipples painfully stood out, grazing against his palm with every stroke. She trembled and squirmed as he pressed harder, kneading the soft flesh, and she could feel the nearly bursting fullness shift rhythmically inside her, sparking tingles of agonizing pleasure all over her nethers. And yet she still couldn’t find release - even as the aching pressure grew absolutely unbearable, even as her lungs screamed for air, even as her mind was going blank with pain and shame and an overwhelming need to let it all out, she still couldn’t--

The human stuck his finger deep into her sex and sharply pressed up.

A jolt of lightning pierced her core and the pony exploded, sucking in a sharp gasping breath as her back arched in a mind-numbing spasm. Every muscle in her body clenched as she shook and gulped for air, convulsing around the digit still firmly lodged inside her. With every contraction, a jet after jet of sexual fluids shot out of her along with a warm yellowish stream, both mixing and flooding the human’s hand before trickling over into the bowl. He never let go, caressing a little ribbed bump on her inner wall and pressing down onto her tensed belly for all the while she was riding her orgasm.

When it was over, she lay limp against the lid, shivering and sobbing quietly into her tail. Dark matted fur of her rump glistened with moisture, occasional heavy drops trickling down her thigh.

The human stood above her, wiping his hands with a towel. He seemed unfazed by the pony’s crying, silent and expressionless as usual.

For some reason, he avoided looking down, instead thoroughly examining the tiled wall before him until his hands were dry.

The pony never let go of her tail, hugging it to her chest and hiding her face inside even as the human picked her up, dried her with a towel, and carried her back to the bed. He laid her down and went back to the door, flipping a switch to turn on the lamps. Under the sharp white light, a little quivering ball of disheveled fur on his sheets looked especially alien in the otherwise clean, orderly room.

Eventually, the pony stopped sobbing. Even though it took her a few minutes to quiet down, she knew the human was still there, in the room, standing still like a statue and staring at her, as usual. She didn’t mind. As long as she didn’t have to talk, or think, or feel anymore, she didn’t mind. She lay there and waited for him to go away.

Instead she heard his steps getting close.

“Say,” he said. She could tell he was towering over her, casting a shadow over her whole body. “Say, what happened back there, in the bathroom…”

Her ear twitched. His voice sounded… weird. Almost unsure.

“Does it… Does it upset you?”

After a pause, she moved, propping herself up with a hoof and sitting upright to look at the human. Behind the thin strands of mane falling on her face, her eyes held more disbelief than anything else.

“‘Upset me’?” she echoed hoarsely. “‘Upset ’ me? Are you even… Do you even…” A hiccup of laugh burst out of her chest mixed with another sob as she looked away, shaking her head. “Goddesses help me, he must be serious…” she muttered under her nose before turning to look back up at him, eyes glowing with hatred. “What the everloving hell is so damn wrong with you, you heartless monster? I mean-- I mean, have you ever freaking seen yourself? You’re like, you're like what, five, ten times my size and-and-and you still force me to be your… your…” She threw up her hoof. “What the fuck even I am to you? A teddy bear with a hole? A pet you can fuck? Both?! I KNOW I DON’T LOOK LIKE MUCH, BUT I’M A PERSON, GODDESSES DAMN YOU!” she screamed out, slamming her hoof down on the bed. “Even the fuckers who screwed me back in that dumpster of an alleyway at least treated me as some kind of a pony, not just a thing, while you, you-- You nearly fucked my head off as if it was nothing, for fuck’s sake!”

She paused to catch her breath, before continuing in a quieter tone, her voice shaking:

“And as if that wasn’t enough… As if toying with my feelings to the point where I never know just what the fuck to expect of you anymore wasn’t enough, wasn’t fucked up enough, you decide to trample on what little bit of privacy I had left and shove it into my face just how much you own me together with all my bodily functions? What will you want next? A sneeze down your throat? A spit on your limp dick? Would that turn you on? Ah? Would it, you sick, fucking, freak!?”

There was no answer. She pulled back, deflating visibly and once again just looking so very tired.

“So yeah,” she nodded. “Yeah, it does ‘upset’ me. It disgusts me. You disgust me.” She spit out the last words, glaring straight into the human’s lifeless little eyes.

He listened to her entire tirade without moving a muscle. He barely even blinked, as he stared blankly back at the pony. Even as she finished, he didn’t say anything at first, motionlessly watching as she struggled to stay upright.

When he finally started to speak, there was a hard, cold glint in his eyes that the pony had never seen before.

“Well,” he said slowly and clearly, accentuating every word. “That’s too bad, then. Because, for as long as you live here, it’s not as if you have any choice.”

Having uttered the last word, he turned around and walked out of the room, with a loud click shutting off the lights.

Chapter 4

The pony lay curled up in the corner of her bed, staring at the little black bulb under her hoof.

She couldn’t see it very well in the dark, with only a little bit of light from the hallway reflecting off its glossy surface. It looked kind of like a chew toy, an innocent little trinket you leave with your pet to keep them happy while you’re gone… Only it was anything but.

She remembered the days when she was still treated kind of like a pet, back before she made a mistake of disappointing the human. When she was fed, and bathed, and cared for... Occasionally even talked to. She didn’t like it back then, did she. She thought, it just wasn’t good enough for her. She thought, she deserved more than that for some reason. She thought it just couldn’t get any worse than that...

What an idiot. A naive, hopeless idiot. It always could get worse.

Now she’s got to learn what it’s like to be less than a pet. What it’s like to have your life reduced to a silent dark room and a dimly lit hallway, to an opened door that meant “day” and a closed door that meant “night”. What it’s like to be completely, utterly, truly alone.

The human slept elsewhere now. He used to come by every morning, if only to leave her some minimal food and water, but then she was dumb enough to try and talk to him, to tell him she’s sorry, to beg to at least leave the lights on… She’s never seen him since; the food and water appeared overnight.

Until five days ago, when the pony woke up in the middle of the night with a weight on her back and a probing pressure under her tail. “Be quiet,” she heard the first words in weeks. A short, barking order, so unlike the human, and a hand between her wings made the just woken pony freeze - until something hard and cold and slick entered her tailhole in a single thrust and she flinched, yelping in pain and confusion.

The weight on her back was gone as suddenly as it appeared. She scampered up, wincing at the burning sensation and reaching for the invading thing, only to be stopped by another command. “Don’t touch it!” said the dark silhouette in front of her. “Do not. Touch it,” the human said again, backing away from the bed. She watched him in stunned silence as he left the room without another word, slamming the door shut behind him.

She never dared to disobey. She kept quiet and still as the human started to visit her twice a day, each time leaving her a meal before bluntly probing under her tail to make sure the plug was still in place. She never made a noise as he silently squeezed the softly hissing bulb, every day inflating the rubber toy a little bit bigger than the last. She didn’t think of touching it even as it grew painfully large, distending the flesh and forcing her to constantly keep her tail raised high.

Because after all, none of it really mattered. No, no, none of it mattered at all. What mattered is that he was clearly preparing her. Slowly and methodically, changing her to accommodate him, to better suit her new purpose in life. Which meant she had only a few days, maybe a week left at most before she is stretched enough and he comes to claim her. To take her, and grope her, and use her, and humiliate her...

...And maybe talk to her sometimes too, like he did once before. And maybe to hold her close in his arms once again, a-and maybe spend a night with her again, and maybe, and maybe… And maybe she won’t have to be trapped in the dark alone with her thoughts anymore.

The pony lay curled up in the corner of her bed, staring at the little black bulb under her hoof.

***

The human stepped into the silent room, his form obscuring the light pouring in from the hallway. He walked to the nightstand, set down a small bowl of fruit and a tall glass of water, turned to the bed, and froze.

Something was not right.

From the trembling ball of blankets on the other side of the bed he could hear the pony’s labored, pained breathing, with long pauses here and there as if she was trying to hold it in. As he listened, one of the longer pauses ended with a sharp strangled sob and a muted whimper.

In three large steps the human circled the bed and crouched down before the pony.

“H-Hey,” she blurted out, her wide unfocused eyes meeting his. Her face was pale as a chalk and dotted with beads of sweat, ears plastered flat under the matted mane. “You-you-you’re back, h-huh?” She gasped for air and tried to smile. “I just… I just...” Another sob burst out of her chest and her smile turned into a grimace of pain as tears poured down her face. “Oh goddesses, please take it out…”

His eyes widened and he rushed to throw away the blanket. Under it, the quivering pony lay curled up in a ball, cradling the black pump to her chest. The base of the enormously enlarged rubber plug, so thick her stretched flesh couldn’t completely close around it, stuck out from under her raised tail, gleaming in the dim light.

“I wanted to… I tried to…” She hid her face in her hoof, sobs wracking her body. “I-I-I overdid it and I couldn’t let it out with a ho-o-of...” Her voice broke as she fell into uncontrollable crying.

Without a word, the human picked up the black bulb and unscrewed the tiny valve, that was locked to only allow air flow in one direction. There was a loud hiss and a long groan of pain as the plug deflated slowly, until it was small enough to freely slide out. Without a word, he took the toy and left the room, leaving the quietly whimpering pony alone. Without a word, he came back with a small white tube in hand, and sat beside her on the bed.

She had quieted down a little, lying still on her side and breathing heavily, face still contorted in pain. As the bed creaked under the human’s weight, she met his eyes and swallowed.

“Why would you…” He started after a pause, and looked away. Clearing his throat, he continued in a colder tone: “From now on, you are not allowed to cause yourself any harm, for any reason whatsoever. Understood?” He glared at her until she gave a tiny nod. “Good. Now, turn over.”

Visibly tensing up, the pony obediently rolled onto her stomach, tucking a pillow under her chin. She winced and let out a pained hiss when his fingers touched her sore backside, rubbing into her skin some kind of slick, oily cream. It quickly numbed the pain and soothed the burning wherever it touched.

“Wait.” All of a sudden, the pony perked up, looking back at the human. He was just squeezing out another glob from the tube onto his fingers. “Wait-wait-wait-wait, what are you doing, what are you doing?” She drew back with a start as he reached out, an uncertain smile glued to her lips. “Are you… Are you treating me?”

The human raised a brow. “Yes, actually. And now if you would just lie still…” He reached out again.

“No-no-no-no-no-NO!” The pony scrambled away, panic and disbelief spreading over her face. “Are you, are you out of your mind? Do you think I went through all that just-- just for you to--” A shaky chuckle burst out of her chest. “I mean, come on! Isn’t that what it was all about?”

She raised her hindquarters up as best as she could, flagging her tail to the side and presenting to the human her still gaping, twitching orifice framed in a fat ring of supple flesh.

“There.” She looked at him wide-eyed over the shoulder, half-feathered wings outstretched, and wiggled her hips. “Isn’t that what you wanted all along?” Crazed smile tugged at her lips. “Come on.”

The human stared, transfixed, as the pony reached back with her hoof and pulled at her cheek, spreading herself all the more.

“Come on, what’s the hold-up?” she urged, dropping to a feverish whisper. “Do it. Take me. Please? It’ll-- It’ll feel good, I promise! You know it will, r-right?” Her body trembled as she struggled to keep the pose and the smile, eyes turning from asking to pleading to begging. “P-Please, just don’t make me wait, please, I can’t take waiting, goddesses, please, just fuck me already, just-- Ah!”

Her chanting was cut short as the human jumped onto the bed and grabbed her by the waist, raising her rump into the air while hastily undoing his belt with one hand. “Here you go, here you go, that’s it, that’s it,” the pony babbled under her breath, fumbling around to get a hoofhold on the bed as the human stood on his knees and slathered his shaft in the same slippery lotion he was just using on her. She looked back once again just in time to see his freed erection, and, for a moment, all the pretend excitement and boldness and fervor were washed away leaving only the simple, genuine, fear.

Then the human grabbed her by the tail and rammed it in, in one forceful thrust driving his shaft all the way to the base into her colon.

For one mind-shattering moment the time slowed to a still. Tears welled up in her eyes, pinprick pupils staring into nothingness. The toy - only just barely - had prepared her for the bulk, for the girth, for the feeling of her insides stretching to its utmost limit in a pulsing ring of fiery pain around the intruder - but not for the length. As the human froze from the overwhelming sensation of her crushing warmth, the pony could feel him throbbing powerfully in what felt was her throat, robbing her of her breath and rocking her whole being in rhythm with his racing heartbeat. Her hoof stumbled aimlessly against the bed, wingtips trembling, and just as she got hold of the linens, he grit his teeth and started to pull out, and her voice burst out of her chest in a cascade of shattered gasps as her insides clung and followed his withdrawing member leaving behind only the horrifyingly cold emptiness.

Until he was finally out, popping free of her slackened opening as she collapsed in his grasp, quivering and gasping for air - only to let it out in a desperate wail as without much of a pause he went to slam it back in, slapping his sack against her crotch. Getting a better grip with both hands he started to pump in and out at a steady pace, pulling back until only the head was still trapped in before forcing his way back as deep as he could until their hips met with a smack. The pony could only whine and mewl breathlessly, wings flapping uselessly and tears striking her cheeks as she dug her teeth into the pillow.

Every thrust, she prayed for it to be the last. Every thrust, she thought she just couldn’t take any more, that she’d burst, she’d die, she’d get ground down to nothing, but then there was another, and another, and another, and it just went on and on and on long past the point where she could endure it or think or breathe. The human only grunted with effort as he kept humping relentlessly, the medication he had hastily used on his member numbing the sensations and making the orgasm agonisingly slow to reach.

“P-p-pul-pul-please…” he heard the tiny figure blubbing under him then. “E-en-en-en-enough…” With all the reasons and convictions stripped from her mind, the barely conscious pony pleaded for him to stop.

And with a desperate groan the human did the exact opposite, arching forward over the pony and doubling, tripling the pace, pistoning in and out of her tailhole and thrusting his hips just as much as smacking the helpless little body in his hands against his crotch. The pony hung limp, gurgling something unintelligible as her eyes rolled up her head.

...It was long after she stopped making noises that he managed to near the peak, launching into a frenzy of feverish strokes before pressing her hard into the bed and finally erupting, pent up for weeks seed shooting out of his member and flowing freely into the warm depths of the motionless pony. Buried under his body, she shook violently together with the convulsing member inside her, until with a choking burble a torrent of thick white gushed out of her throat and through her lips and nose.

For a while, the human stayed like that, almost lying on top of the pony with his head in the pillows. His heavy breathing filled the room, together will the smell of sex and sweat. There was no other noise.

Then he got up with a start, with a wet noise pulling his softening member out of the lifeless pony. She slid off in a heap into the large whitish puddle on the sheets, hindquarters raised up and wings spread flat. Her eyes were closed.

The human dropped down with his ear to her chest and held his breath, his fingers flying up to the side of her neck. She coughed weakly under him, and he got back up with a quiet sigh of relief, before turning her over on her side and letting her cough out the fluids. Once she quieted down, he picked up the still unconscious pony and carried her over to the bathroom, carefully placing her into the sink as the aftermath of their act started to ooze out.

She opened her eyes as he was bathing her under the weak warm stream, holding her head up with one hand and washing the sweat and semen off her with another. She was silent for a while, mouth agape slightly as she watched his hand gently working out the filth out of her matted fur and untangling the mess that was her tail. Then tears started to roll softly down her cheeks, mixing with water in the sink. In a quiet and weak voice, without looking up, she told him she was so very sorry for calling him all these bad words back then. She told him it was just because she couldn’t understand him, but it didn’t really matter, because in the end he was still the only one who ever cared for her in a long, long time. And even if it did hurt sometimes, she told him, it was alright, she could be his toy, and she could make him feel good, and she could do whatever else he wanted, just as long as he’d stay with her, and not leave her in the dark anymore, not leave her alone anymore, because it hurt, it hurt in her head and her chest and it hurt so much more than anything that could ever happen to her body. Her voice got quieter and quieter as she turned her head and held onto his hand with a hoof, in the end just babbling “please” over and over until it was incoherent whimpering.

The human kept silent through her monologue, cleaning her without a word until the tired pony drifted back to sleep.

***

Once again, the pony woke up in the dark, in the familiar oversized bed. She blinked slowly, staring into the familiar ceiling with a rectangle of dim light from the half-open door stretching across it. In its middle, black against the light, there was a familiar oversized silhouette.

Her body felt weak and sore as she tried to sit up. Fragmented memories from yesterday - or was it still today? - tumbled about in her mind, making her heart race with uncertainty. She didn’t know what to expect anymore, or what to say anymore, and as she looked up at the human sitting on the edge of the bed, her mind frantically scrambled to find what she could be prepared for, what was the worst, the most unexpected, the--

“I’m sorry,” he said to her, loud and clear in the silent room.

The pony froze in her tracks and stared at the human, feeling a sudden cold chill running down her neck. He never, ever, apologized for anything to her before.

“W-What, what for?” she smiled nervously, eyes shifting around as she pulled the blanket higher over herself. “I-I told you it’s okay, you don’t have to be sorry for anything, alright?”

“You’re young.” With his back to the light, she couldn’t see his expression in the shadow. “You don’t know how these things work very well. I do what I have to do.”

“What are you… You’re not going to leave again, are you?” she gasped quietly. “Please, I told you I’ll do anything, just don’t--”

“Be silent,” he cut her off. “Please,” he added in a softer tone. “For a minute. Let me explain.”

She pulled the blanket up to her eyes. The human sighed, leaning forward and pinching at the bridge of his nose.

“As I’ve mentioned once before,” he started in his usual quiet and even tone. ”I've been alone for the longest while. The majority of that time I’ve spent observing your world. It was what the large part of my job consisted of, and it was also about the only entertainment I’ve ever had here as well. During that time, I’ve seen many various specimen of your kind, and a lot of different things you do. Good things, bad things, normal things... Mostly normal things. The everyday life. Your species as a whole differs from ours, considerably so, but not enough to be completely alien. Many of these differences... I would welcome it if we humans had learned some of your better traits.”

He paused for a moment, as if thinking or something, before shaking his head.

“Regardless. What matters here and now is that at some point I’ve realized I’m physically attracted to your kind. Hopelessly, powerfully, with the deepest of my carnal desires threatening to overtake my reasoning whenever there was a chance. But then again, there never was a chance, and even though the fact itself nagged me at first, eventually I decided it simply doesn’t matter. I never expected any kind of actual contact after all, not in my lifetime.”

He paused again, taking off his glasses and rubbing his face tiredly before looking at the pony.

“Then, I’ve got you.”

“You must understand,” - he put his glasses back with a sigh - “that the circumstances under which you crossed the line between the worlds were very, very rare, allowing me to get you here alive and undetected, something I never thought before would be possible. And once you were here, well... I knew that it was, realistically, my one and only chance. One that I didn’t want to risk missing by letting you have any word in that.”

“So,” - he clasped his hands together - “I’ve told myself you didn’t matter.”

“Once I’ve set my mind, since deep inside I knew what I was going to do was wrong, I tried very hard to convince myself that you were something less than a person.” He explained flatly. ”Merely a lifeform from another world, just another test subject, not an equal... Someone-- Something I could do as I please with, without remorse or second thoughts.”

“It was simple at first.” He shrugged slightly. “You look nothing like a human, and I guess I tried to avoid talking with you that much as to not break that impression. Then, arousal made the whole thing even easier, and so did your visible eagerness to follow your role, no matter how forced... And at the point I was starting to think I went too far, you ended up provoking me, which, again, made it yet easier for a while more.”

“But, you see....” He spread his hands apologetically. “After today, I can’t do that anymore.”

“So,” He looked her in the eye, calm and collected as usual. “I’m telling you I’m sorry. I figured I owed you an explanation, so I gave you one. And if I’m to be honest, I’m not sure what else can be said, other that I will understand if you won’t be able to forgive me. Either way…”

He frowned for a moment, looking unusually thoughtful. Then, carefully choosing his words, he continued:

“I guess, what I’m trying to say is…” He looked up at the pony, and his lips curled into a small labored smile. “Would you like to start over?”

The pony, wide shimmering eyes staring back at him over the blanket, didn’t move for the longest while - before finally giving him a tiny, timid, nod.