Rain poured down on the small town of Ponyville. It was a lazy sunday evening after a sunny day, and the weather team has scheduled rain for the evening. Almost nopony objected it: the plants needed water after the heatwave that lasted for the whole week, and tremendous rain attacking the town in the evening served to calm the residents down. It was also the perfect opportunity to hide in one's house and read a book or two while hiding under a soft blanket. Ponies were very sociable creatures, but even they needed some time alone once in a while.
So as the heavy drops of water fell on the streets and rooftops of Ponyville, nearly everypony hid. Families had time to bond, single ponies to relax, couples to engage in... other activities. Nopony liked when it rained too much, but once in a while it was more than a welcome break from the everyday routine. The residents of one of the many houses in town were no different except for one little detail: one of them was not a pony.
The man shifted a bit in order to accommodate better to the softness of the couch he lied on and cover himself with a soft and warm blanket produced by a local craftspony. There was something in those blankets made by ponies that wasn’t present in the ones brought from Earth. They were soft, yet adamant. Warm, yet one physically couldn’t get hot while under them. He suspected it was somehow connected with the quadruple creatures’ magical abilities. Or they just used high quality resources. Or both.
The room he was in was the biggest open space in the house. Placed on the highest, second floor, it was a peculiar location for a living room, but it fitted its application. It was more of a library, actually.
The big couch in the center was a perfect place to relax, placed near the crackling hot logs in the fireplace. He was separated from the fire by a small coffee table and a few feet of open space. On the wooden surface he could see a cup of steaming hot black tea he brought with himself a few minutes ago. It stared at him invitingly, even though he couldn’t bring himself to leave the warm shield protecting him from the whole world in form of a soft blanket.
On his left side there stood a brown, true leather armchair, imported with great cost from the Griffin Kingdoms. Ponies didn’t produce leather furniture for obvious reasons, but he couldn’t deny himself the pleasure of a perfectly crafted, comfortable chair. It was his favourite spot for reading books. Near the fireplace at just the right angle to provide sufficient lighting.
The dark wooden floor of the room also supported numerous bookshelves near the wall and a small dresser near the door to his bedroom. Books were wonderful things, allowing the reader to escape into an entirely different world. And who didn’t need to just quit reality and stop caring from time to time?
The peaceful hum of the rainfall hitting the roof combined with the crackling of the fire in the fireplace merge into a sound that served to relax and unwind everyone in the room.
For the man wasn’t alone in his process of loosening up after a hot day of physical activity. In fact, quite the opposite was true. The sole reason he didn’t spend all of his Sunday laying belly up has just lazily entered the room. The orange pegasus filly that managed to convince him to participate in physical activities with her for the better part of the day has brought a fresh waft of air with herself. He smelled a vague hint of soap. It was to be expected, though: he knew the filly had gone to take a shower a few moments before.
A soft clip-clop of orange hooves sounded on the wooden floor, accompanied by a silent creak of the door being closed behind the filly. The man raised his head and looked at the pegasus pony
Her mane was straighter than before, and her fur was more… well, fluffy, than usual. She had a white towel wrapped around half of her tail. Despite being clearly exhausted by their day’s activities, the pony wore a pleasant smile on her face.
“Hey, Scoots” her ears perked up, eyes finally managing to find the dark, big shape sprawling on the couch under a blanket.
“Hey, dude” the tomboy still had her moments of desperately trying not to act ‘girly’, or ‘cute’... thankfully, they were fewer and fewer as the time flew. Thankfully, because most of the times he had to stop himself from smiling at the simply charming view of the immensely cute filly doing her best to look serious. To put it simply - she was even more cute when annoyed or angry.
He gestured with his head for her to come to him. He would have used his hands… but they were way too comfortable lying along his body under the blanket for him to break this peaceful harmony and raise them above the pleasantly warm space. He watched the pegasus as she walked, her wings still hanging limply by her sides. It came to his mind that she should probably clean them after the shower… or preen, what he just then remembered as the proper term.
He opened his mouth in order to point that out, and maybe offer to help her with that… but something seemed wrong about that. He tried to pinpoint exactly what was his mind trying to tell him. After a while, he remembered one of the lessons given to him at the beginning of his stay in Equestria. Preening was a very specific thing for the pegasi. Private, intimate even. It was rarely done by another pony, and even then it was an activity that only couples engaged in. He didn’t question it, it was probably just a matter of tradition and customs. And so, he threw his proposition, along with the idea to remark the state of the filly’s wings, out of the figurative window in his mind.
By the time he was done with his thoughts, Scootaloo was standing right next to the couch. He laid his eyes on the pony’s soft fur. How exactly did ponies manage to dry themselves so fast with all the fur and hair on their bodies was a true mystery for the human. And if he started to explain every weird thing happening here with magic, he would just go mad. So he just plain refused to devote more thought into the matter.
The pony glanced at the cup of hot, black tea on the table, then to the burning logs in the fireplace, just to finally look at him with a smile on her face. Scootaloo reached back and took of the towel covering part of her tail. When it became apparent that her longest bunch of hair didn’t require more drying, she put the white piece of cloth on the armchair nearby. The filly, now being completely free of any sort of cover of clothing, looked at the man curiously.
“So… what do you want to do?” she asked, the filly barely able to stifle a yawn that tried to replace the last two words of her statement.
The human wriggled under the cover of his warm blanket. He really didn’t want to get up from the couch. In fact, the only thing he wanted was to read a good book and then go to sleep early.
As the rain tapped on the roof, creating one steady rhythm, the man had an idea. A great one. They were in his private library, after all.
“How about a book?” he asked the little pony. Scootaloo blinked, her wings giving a quick flicker.
“Hm… yeah, why not?” she finally said. The man gestured for her to find something she wanted to read.
The orange quadruped went straight to the bookshelves containing adventure books. He watched the filly as she scanned the shelves in search of something they would hopefully both enjoy. His eyes were suspended on the filly, the muscles under the little pony’s skin clearly visible after a whole day of working out, despite the fur covering them. The cerise tail flicked from side to side as the little pony stood up on her hind legs, wanting to see what books were hidden out of her normal line of sight.
The man felt his heart skip as the pony found the shelf that he knew contained novels with some… adult material in them. He definitely didn’t want to read those in presence of a little filly. Though what if she liked them… the man shook his head, waking up a bit from his relaxed state. Letting his thoughts wander really wasn’t that good of an idea. He sat up, reaching for the hot tea. His eyes still watching Scootaloo attentively, he almost burned his fingers when his hand failed to find the handle of the hot mug. As the man finally raised the tea and took a small sip, the pony thankfully moved away from that one shelf he didn’t want her snooping around.
He tasted the hot liquid flowing down his throat as he temporarily glanced to the window, seeing the heavy drops of rain race each other on the transparent surface. It was then when he heard a sound he did not expect to hear again this day. His eyes immediately turned back to the orange pony as she did her best to enter a steady hover. Her hooves lifted from the floor as Scootaloo did her best to rise into the air. Her rigorous training routine was visibly paying off - soon she was a few feet above the floor, which allowed her to reach even higher placed books. She glanced from shelf to shelf, finally choosing a book that she liked. The filly grabbed it in her teeth and landed in a maneuver that was only barely distinguishable from falling down and crashing.
None the less, she was obviously proud of herself as she trotted back to the sitting human and put the book down next to him. The man put down the hot tea and inspected the hardcover novel. It was one of the older Daring Doo adventure books that Rainbow Dash loved. Obviously, he thought as he smiled to himself.
“Come on up here” he told the filly, still smiling. She hopped on the couch without hesitation
The man lifted the blanket, allowing her to come to him. He felt a warm presence pressing against his side. He glanced down, seeing the filly curled up on the soft couch, not unlike a cat. He couldn’t help but smile at the cute ball of orange fur and cerise hair laying next to him, a head with large, purple eyes protruding from it.
With one smooth move the human covered them both with a warm blanket, leaving the upper half of his body and the filly’s head above it. After taking one more sip of his wonderfully hot tea, he reached for the book and send them both to the land of adventure and risk, where danger lied behind every corner and the fate of the world’s most courageous archeologist was never certain.
He read every sentence with emotion, acting with the flow of the action. He even tried to read dialogues ‘in character’, though it quickly became apparent he wasn’t that much of a voice actor. Minutes and hours passed as if they were seconds, the afternoon turning into an evening, the heavy rain still refusing to stop pouring on the poor roof. The wood in the fireplace was long burned, now transfigured into hot, black lumps still providing heat in the room. Not that the residents were somehow opposed to that. No, they were way too immersed in the story, living every moment of the brave mare’s life just as if they were there. They gasped and relaxes along with the action, some parts being read in a fast and quickened manner, and some in a relaxed, slow one that required contemplation of the riddles and puzzles the archeologist faced.
The book depicted one of Daring’s many adventures in the heart of the jungle, with Ahuizotl always on her tail. She spent just as much time racing, jumping and fighting as she spent trying to figure out the secret of the artifact her nemesis wanted so bad.
“The stone door closed behind her as she heard a hiss somewhere below her. ‘Why did it have to be snakes?’, Daring muttered with resignation as she prepared for yet another chamber full of traps and…” the man glanced to the side in order to see Scootaloos expression. Was she scared, pensive, or grinning wide in anticipation of Daring Do’s another brilliant trick?
As he sound found out, none of the above. The orange ball of soft fur had her eyes closed and was snoring softly. The man smiled to himself, all thoughts of athletic, adventurous archaeologists disappearing from his mind. He closed the book after making sure he knew where they left off and took a sip of now lukewarm tea. Its inadequate temperature didn’t matter - it served to relax him, as always. If he got up, Scootaloo would surely wake up. And how could he do such a cruel thing? His only choice was to follow suit into the land of Luna. Not that he wanted to oppose in any way...
The rain still hummed above the roof as both the pony and the human fell asleep.
Author's Note
Well, there it is. I sometimes write non-M rated stories.
Thank you for reading, don't forget to rate the story according to your reading experience.
Critique is appreciated.
