For the love of Anon

Chapters

Chapter one
Chapter two
Chapter three
Chapter four
Chapter five
Chapter six

Chapter one

Author's Note

Revised chapter one. In the process of updating all chapters, so formatting is currently different to the others. Credit goes to TheBritishPony for proofreading and editing.

Chapter one

You are Anon, the only human in Equestria.

You’ve been in Equestria now for about 6 months, ever since the one day you got teleported here by some unknown means.

After stumbling upon the inhabitants of this new world, you were able to convince them you are friendly and not a threat. The pony who found you, Starlight Glimmer, took you back to some massive crystal castle that looked like a combination of a treehouse and a giant middle finger, where she showed you to the pony who lived there, one Princess Twilight Sparkle. After letting you stay in the castle for about a month, Princess Twilight decided to grant you a nice house on the outskirts of the village, called Ponyville, that you appeared next to.

That is where you are right now, in your “new” kitchen making breakfast, which is just a simple omelette. You put the omelette on a plate and get ready to sit down to eat at your table, when you get a knock at your door. You sigh and walk over to it, opening it up to reveal a slightly-nervous looking Starlight on the other side.

“Hey Starlight, how’s it going?” Starlight takes a second before replying, “Uhh, hey Anon, I’m okay I guess. Do you mind if I come in?”

“Sure, I was just about to eat breakfast; if you want I could whip you up something as well.”

“That sounds lovely; just make me whatever, I don’t want to intrude.”

“Oh, that’s not an issue; I wouldn’t mind some company anyway. Most of my breakfasts just consist of me sitting here in silence, contemplating.”

“OK then, if you’re sure.”

You step aside to allow her entrance into your humble abode, where she proceeds to take a seat in the only other chair at your table. You walk in behind her and move to grab another couple of eggs to make a second omelette.

“So, what did you come to me for? Usually you tend to spend most of your time at the castle, reading or doing magic with Twilight.”

“I, uh, wanted to ask you a favour. It’s not a simple favour that I could ask just anypony to do, though. This one’s a bit more…. personal. I thought, since we’ve been close after you arrived and started to live in the castle, you were the only one I could really trust with this and not judge me. Among other reasons…” Starlight started to trail off on those last three words.

“What is it? I’m sure I could help; I've been asked some weird things before. I’ve come to expect it, being the only one of my kind here. Although most of the weird questions come from Twilight.”

“Well, it’s kinda complicated… I don’t even know how I'm gonna put this. Actually, do you mind if we just hang out for a while, I need to think of a way to ask what I need to ask. Maybe after I've had something to eat. I haven’t exactly eaten this morning.”

You turn around and look at her with mild curiosity, before turning back and dishing up her now-finished omelette. “Sure, I guess. Just let me know when you’re ready to ask me. I don’t have much planned today other than getting some essentials and maybe going to see Rarity at some point to ask for a new suit.”

“Thanks. If you’d like, I could come with you and help you with your shopping and stuff today? I don’t exactly have much planned for the next few days because Twilight and Spike are out visiting Twilight's parents and the princesses in Canterlot this week, and I decided to stay here instead.”

"Uhh, sure, but it won’t be terribly interesting. Especially when I head to Rarity's for the suit. If I even bother going there today at all. It’s not that urgent; it's not like I've got any events to attend that require me dressing up fancily."

"Great, when are we gonna go then?"

"Right after we finish breakfast, I guess. Speaking of which, eat up; it'll get cold if you don’t eat it soon."
As an answer, she started eating her omelette, using the knife and fork provided to her, using her magic skillfully to manipulate the two culinary tools. Seeing her eat made you feel at ease, and you finally started on your portion. It was cold after leaving it so long, but it was still enjoyable. This would've tasted better if I had some ham. I miss having meat, you muse to yourself.

After about five minutes, you both finish your meals. Starlight seems somewhat less nervous as you take her plate off of her and dump it in the sink along with yours ready to be washed up later... or whenever you get round to it.

"Enjoy that?", you ask with a smile.

"It was great, thanks. It makes a change to get out of the castle for breakfast. Spike is a great cook and all, but eating the same thing over and over again can get dull."

"Understandable. I remember when Spike used to cook for me too when I was living there. It was unfortunate that half of what he cooked I couldn’t eat. It was even duller for me because of that."

"Well, free food is free food, right?" Starlight says with a smile.

"Yeah... I'm not complaining, really; I'm happy that Twilight and Spike were so kind to me and let me stay with them. Being what I am and all."

"I feel the exact same way about her letting me stay there as well. I'm even more glad she did, because if I didn’t find you when I did, somepony else could have and it could've gone much worse."

"I'm really glad you found me too, and that you decided to talk to me and trust me despite everything. We should probably get going, and continue this conversation on the road. The faster I get this shit done, the better."

"I'm following you, then."

You quickly grabbed your shoes and put them on, followed by your black overcoat; It wasn’t the warmest fall day today, but at least it was dry, albeit cloudy. It wasn’t forecast to rain today either, according to the weather pegasi, which was another plus. Fully prepared, you open your front door, letting all the heat out of your house as you waited for Starlight to get moving.

Once you shut the door, you start walking towards the market with Starlight at your side; you don’t lock the door, as it doesn’t have a lock, and even if there was a lock on there, there wasn’t much need for one; unless anypony was planning on stealing your clothes, there’s nothing valuable in the house.

"So Starlight... what made you not want to go with Twilight this week?" you ask, trying to bring back up the previous conversation.

"Well, I've met Twilight’s parents already, and while I think they're nice, I didn’t really feel like going to Canterlot for a week when I knew I'd be bored all the time. While yes, I could go out and explore the city, or go to the castle library, I just generally wanted to stay here, maybe do some quiet reading, hang out with you... things like that."

"Well it's nice to know someone wants to spend time with me; I don’t see many other ponies besides yourself and Twilight, and I've been seeing you very little recently. I guess you’ve just been busy with your magic studies and whatnot.", you say while reaching over and ruffling her mane a bit. You could have sworn you saw a slight blush on her face as you did that. Eh, whatever.

You wonder why she would willingly choose to stay here; surely seeing Canterlot would be a much better way to spend a week than just staying home, reading and hanging out with friends? Especially so when you're pretty sure Starlight has never been to Canterlot before. You would've thought she'd jump at the chance. Deciding not to think too much on the subject, you just decide to shrug it off as you continue walking to the market.

After that, you just continue idly talking about various things of little importance with Starlight as you both walk together to the market to get your groceries. It was a very boring experience, made slightly better by the pony that decided to accompany you. After completing your grocery shopping at the market, you both go to Sugarcube Corner to grab something sweet. It was then that Starlight decided to speak up.

"What are you planning on getting from Sugarcube Corner?"

"No idea, really. I guess I'll just see what they have. They normally have something that I like, and as long as it’s not too sweet, I’ll usually buy it."

"Could we get some cupcakes, too? For some reason I just really feel like having one after seeing all the savoury food at the market so soon after breakfast."

"I was kinda thinking something more along the lines of chocolate brownies or muffins. Their cupcakes are way too sweet for my taste. If you want, I could get one for you."

"Are you sure? You’ve already made me breakfast today."

"Starlight, it's one cupcake. It's not going to burn a hole in my pocket. Besides, I'm offering."

"Ok then. Thanks, again."

You ruffle her mane once more. Man, these ponies are too cute.

As you approach Sugarcube Corner, you hope in the back of your mind that Pinkie Pie isn't here, or that she doesn’t see you here at all. That pink menace is way too happy and invasive for your liking. She's probably the one reason you would want to get a lock on your front door; at least then she'll hopefully stop randomly appearing and pestering you to go make friends around Ponyville, or come to one of her stupid parties.

You open the doors to Sugarcube Corner; just as luck would have it, Pinkie Pie is at the counter serving with a massive smile on her face. As soon as she sees both you and Starlight enter, her smile gets even wider, if that’s even possible. Your heart sinks as soon as you see her, and within moments she is bouncing her way over to you.

"NONNY! AND STARLIGHT! What brings you two here? Wait don’t tell me... you want me to throw you a massive party to celebrate Nonny's birthday!"

You give Pinkie Pie a deadpan look. "Pinkie , you don’t even know when my birthday is. I've been here less than a year. It may have even already gone by for all you know."

"Don’t you worry Nonny, I'll know when your birthday is! My Pinkie Sense will tell me! On the day, that is. But, I'll have a big party ready for you on that day!"

You just groan and walk to the counter. Pinkie instantly appears behind it, still smiling widely at you. Before she has a chance to say anything more, you quickly say what you want. "Can I have a regular portion of chocolate brownies and a box of four chocolate chip muffins, please."

You turn to Starlight. "What cupcake do you want?" Starlight then begins to look at the cupcake display on her left.

"Can I have one of the cupcakes with the purple icing and sprinkles, please?"

You turn back to Pinkie."Did you get that?"

Pinkie Pie nods vigorously. "One portion of brownies, one box of muffins and one amazing cupcake coming right up!" The pink pony then turns around and heads to the kitchen. Mere seconds later, she comes bouncing out holding a box with a bag on top. She then opens the cupcake display and grabs one of the cupcakes Starlight wanted with a pair of tongs. She then puts the cupcake in its own separate box, and then puts all three items on the counter.

"That’ll be five bits please Nonny, and one for you, Starlight!"

You pull out six bits and drop them on the counter "I'm actually paying for hers.", you say. Pinkie’s smile gets even wider still.

"Okie dokie lokie! You two enjoy them! Don’t forget Nonny, I've got a massive party planned for your birthday!"

You pass on your thanks at the first part, and just ignore the second as you turn around, carrying even more groceries now. Starlight says goodbye to Pinkie Pie before turning around, and following you out the door.

"You know, she's not that bad once you get to know her… and attend a few of her parties... and get over the whole “insanely immature and invasive” thing." Starlight says, as you walk towards Carousel Boutique.

"She probably isn't, but I'm just not the kind of guy that likes parties or over-invasive people. For the last five months, since I moved out of the castle, she's been pestering me for my birthday. I haven't told her, and I don’t plan on telling her."

"Hey, that’s a good point, you haven't even told me your birthday. When actually is it?"

You contemplate telling her, weighing up the risk of her telling Pinkie herself, or Pinkie finding out anyway without Starlight mentioning it.

"Do you promise not to tell Pinkie? Or anyone else for that matter?"

Starlight smiles and does that stupid 'Pinkie promise' thing with one hoof while walking on the other three. If that’s their way of showing they keep a promise, then whatever.

You glance around to make sure that there are no signs of a Pinkie trailing you or hiding in a bush somewhere. There aren’t. You lean in slightly closer and say quietly, "It's in exactly two weeks."

Starlight just nods. You figure that it's not like she should be surprised by it at all, it's not some really surprising secret, like if you go up to someone and tell them you're a thousand years old. Unless you're Princess Celestia or Princess Luna. After that exchange, you just walk in silence for another minute, randomly making sure that Pinkie Pie doesn’t appear out of nowhere with an ear-splitting grin and an “I've got you now” look.

…

Clear.

You decide to grab one of the muffins to eat while on the way to Rarity's, and you offer Starlight her cupcake, which she snared gratefully with her magic. You both happily enjoy your snacks as Carousel Boutique comes into view.

You and Starlight finish off your respective snacks just before you open the door to the boutique, making the bell ring. A few moments later, Rarity comes down the stairs.

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique. How can I help you today, Anon?" she welcomed with a smile.

"Hey, Rarity. I'm here to request a formal suit for any… formal occasions."

Rarity continued to smile. "I'd be glad to help you, Anon. Is there any special reason why you’d like a suit now?” Her smile got a bit wider as she glanced between you and Starlight, who was now sporting a slight blush that you could see out of the corner of your eye.

"Not really; it’s just for any special occasions that might crop up at some point. It's no rush, so feel free to have it ready whenever."

"Of course dear. What kind of style would you like?"

"Just a regular black suit consisting of black suede shoes, black suit trousers, a white shirt with long sleeves and buttons, a black bow tie, and a black blazer."

Rarity proceeded to jot all of the information down on a notepad she magic'ed up from somewhere. "That can be easily done, darling. I already have your measurements, so that shouldn’t be a problem."

Wait, no questions about what the hell suede shoes are or what a blazer is? Well, there must be similar suits here in Equestria, so she either knows what they look like, or she’s going to make an attempt based on what is already is on the market. After all, Rarity has made all the other clothes you own, other than those which you brought here with you, and despite wanting to “spruce” them up a bit, they still turned out fine, so you trust her with making something decent.

"How much would that be, Rarity?"

“I'll decide on a price once I've got it designed and ready to be made. I should have it done by next week. Unfortunately, I've got quite a lot on my plate, what with Sapphire Shores wanting me to design yet another set of outfits for her next show, so I'll be mainly focussed on that for the next week."

"Sure thing, take all the time you need. Thanks a lot, Rarity."

You turn around to Starlight, ready to walk out. She's just standing there with a slight blush, and a slightly vacant look on her face. You wave a hand in front of her and she blinks back to reality.

"We're finished here, Starlight, I'm ready to go. Are you okay?"

She shakes her head and starts to follow you out. "Yeah, I’m fine. I just had an… odd thought come to mind, is all."

"Well, I'm done with what I needed to do today so I'm gonna head home. You're free to join me if you want, or you can head back to the castle, or do whatever you do when I'm not around."

Somehow that light blush intensified quite a bit, and she just nodded, "I think I'll head back to the castle now. Do some more reading… or whatever. I'll see you tomorrow, Anon."

You boop her on the nose, because that blush makes her look absolutely adorable. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, then. Have fun." With that, she turns around and starts quickly trotting back to the castle.

You continue your walk home in silence, contemplating the events of today. Starlight was definitely acting quite weird, especially after you came out of Carousel Boutique. Normally, she's quite a confident mare. Today, she seemed quite… passive. You’re reminded about that thing she was going to ask you this morning, and your curious mind leads you to wonder.what it could be. Meh. I’ll probably find out tomorrow. If she decides to come to your house in the morning like she did today, you decide to just straight up make two portions of breakfast. If she doesn’t come, you'll just eat them yourself.

Eh, whatever. You figure that you'll just clean the house or read or do whatever for the rest of the day, as there’s not much else to be done. You hope that you don’t get a surprise visit from Pinkie today.

The memory of your earlier encounter triggers a thought in you. Actually, that’s not a bad idea. You decide to get a lock for your front door after all. With a new goal in mind, you set off for home to drop your stuff off, and then go find somewhere that will sell you a lock, or a padlock.

Chapter two

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter three

Man, this castle has too many fucking stairways. When you arrive at the kitchen, your legs are really starting to hurt. You walk over to the table and collapse into one of the chairs closer to the door. Starlight seems better off, as she just walks to the fridge with seemingly no issues. Probably because she has four legs to distribute less weight onto. You wonder how she would fare trying to walk on just her two back legs.

After a minute or two of her rummaging around the fridge with her magic, she levitates a reasonably sized bowl of salad out.

"I can provide you with lunch this time. I made this myself last night but saved some for today. There's enough here for both of us I think."

"Yea it should be fine. It'll be nice to see what you're cooking's like, and even if it isn't enough for both of us we could cook dinner together for us later anyway."

"Before I dish this up then, could you, um… put the collar on me? I wanna see how well it fits and it's not like anypony's gonna see us in here anyway."

You pick the collar up off the table, which you dumped there as you sat down, along with the leash, and motioned for Starlight to come over. She put the salad bowl on the side and walked over to you, sitting down at your feet and lifting her head up for access. Adorable.

You first off wrap the collar around her neck, then grab the strap round the back and loop it through the buckle. You put a finger between the collar and her neck, and tighten the strap till it becomes tight around your finger, after which you remove it.

"Comfy?"

She nods an affirmative. The whole time her cheeks have been getting redder and redder, as you just pull the collar round so the blank metal panel is at the front. You sit back a bit to admire your work.

"It suits you. We'll need to thank Fluttershy for it later."

Her eyes go wide and she adopts a scared look on her face. You boop her, laughing.

"I'm just joking, Glimmy. I wouldn’t do that."

She looked somewhat confused when you called her by that nickname. Her ears started going as well, indecisive about where they want to stay. They settled on down after her blush got even more intense. So much for her managing to hold back the blushing more. You'd rather it this way though. In fact, you're surprised she didn't squeak at all of that. Most ponies would. Especially Fluttershy.

Hell, she wouldn’t just squeak, she would have literally melted through the floor.

You decide to get up and walk over to the salad bowl after about half a minute of Starlight just sitting there. As soon as she realises you got up, she rushes over to the salad and grabs it with magic.

"it's okay, I said I was gonna make us lunch. In fact I could make all your meals for you… master."

Well then. You weren't expecting her to be quite that forward with you. It's like the instant you put the collar on her a switch flicked in her brain that turned on 'pet mode'. You ruffled her mane a bit and you went to sit back down.

It didn't take you two long to finish the salad. It wasn’t very big, at least for you. It was very nice though.

"That was actually really nice, Glimmy. Are you sure you're not secretly a chef?"

Yet again the blush comes on. At this rate you may as well say her face was permanently red when you were around. It was cute.

"T-thanks… master."

You move to pick up both of your plates, but as you go to grab them they are covered in a magical aura.

"let me do the cleaning up. I said I was going to be the one to feed you now, and that involves washing up."

Her version of washing up wasn’t filling up a sink and using a sponge to wipe the dishes down with; it was simply her magic aura getting slightly brighter around them, then dimming again. When she put them on the side, they were spotless.

"Simple cleaning spell. Makes chores like washing up ten times easier." She answers your silent question with a slightly proud smile.

"Impressive. It would be useful if I had you around the house when I did my washing up. The time I could save…"

After you said that, Starlight mumbled something that you couldn’t quite make out, but sounded something like:

"I would love to live with you and do that for you."

You're starting to get suspicions about Starlight. You decide not to voice anything yet though, and so you just stand up and move to the door. Of course Starlight follows you.

"So, how would you like to practice magic and I help you? I doubt there's much else to do here that doesn’t involve either reading or petting you."

Her eyes lit up a bit when you said that, but went back down a bit when you said that last part.

"Sure, I always enjoy practicing magic, and it'll be ten times better with you there. I can even show you some of my new spells that I've created. Or rather, combined old ones to do things better."

"Neat. Throne room then? I believe that’s the biggest room. Unless you want to do it in the main hallway."

"Throne room is fine. I'll, uh, try not to cause the map table to vanish this time. Even though that was Trixie, not me."

You laugh as you remember when Starlight and Trixie came hammering on your door about a month ago now, asking if the table had randomly appeared in your house. If that thing was there, you would've fucking known about it. It would've probably torn a hole through the side of your house.

You can't remember where, but they found it in the end. You just hope Trixie doesn’t decide to start randomly teleporting things willy nilly again: you don’t want to risk it.

You get up again and head to the throne room, with Starlight tailing you. At least your legs are feeling a bit better now.

The next few hours consisted of you and Starlight practicing magic. Or rather, her casting it and you being the training dummy. At least she didn't hurt you. Although you did get slightly knocked around, and each time you did she would come rushing over to see if you were alright. But soon you were sat down in one of the thrones around the table with your feet up on it, and Starlight perched on your lap with you idly stroking her mane with one hand.

"So now my legs are well and truly dead, what now? It should be close to dinnertime I'd imagine though."

At least the throne room was one room that did have a clock in. you gazed over to it above the doorway. It was around half five.

"Yea we probably should get some dinner started soon. All that spell casting made me hungry. But first lets just lay here for a while longer." Or more specifically, you sitting down with legs that refuse to obey commands and her laying on top of them. At least she's cute like this, even if it is at the expense of your legs. Legs are overrated anyway.

"What should we have for dinner then? I have an idea but I don’t know if you'd have all the ingredients for it."

"What's your idea? If you give me a list of ingredients I can tell you if we have them or not."

You sit there for a minute, trying to think of everything you'd need.

"When I was back on earth, my mother used to make and cook the most amazing macaroni and cheese for me every other Sunday. I know that’s not saying much seeing as you guys probably have to make it from scratch if you wanted it at all, but my mother's was amazing. Would you want to try making that? I think I remember how she made it but haven't tried it."

"Ponies don’t usually have that, partially because it's too complicated to make the sauce, and because pasta is relatively hard to come by as it needs to be imported, but I'll make a guess and say Twilight's got some in the kitchen somewhere. She'll have access to all kinds of imported stuff as a princess. As for cheese, that’s easy to come by. I know we have a decent amount of it in the fridge."

"Ok, well I'm gonna need to have a look to see if you guys have the other ingredients for the sauce. The only other ingredients are mustard and flour, and of course milk, but you guys'll have that anyway."

"We should have flour, but I have no clue about mustard. I guess we'll just have to look."

"Well, it's not too big of a deal if you don’t have it, it's just there to give it a bit more flavour and bring out the taste of the cheese."

For another few minutes you just sit there, stroking Starlight.

Once it gets to six, you decide to finally get up and head to the kitchen to start on dinner, much to Starlight's dismay. You ended up carrying her to the kitchen though because when you picked her up to get her off you she asked you to. So when you get to the kitchen again you just sit her on one of the seats, then she immediately gets off to go find the ingredients you mentioned. As it turns out they did have mustard, by the looks of it never opened either.

Starlight insisted on doing as much as she could to help you. The only thing you really did without her asking to take over was measuring out the amount of each ingredient to put in the sauce.

It was at least somewhat fun, but boring at the same time. It takes you both around an hour to have the dinner ready to dish up after cooking the pasta, then making the sauce, mixing them and then cooking the whole thing again. You get half each, of course.

You take the plates over to the table and set them down next to eachother, along with a knife and fork beside each. You take a seat in the same place as before, and Starlight takes her seat next to you.

"This smells delicious. Lets hope it'll be as nice as my mother used to make…"

You pick your fork up and stab some pasta then put it in your mouth. It's certainly good, but not quite as good as your mother used to make. You're not really surprised. It's probably the cheese, or the milk, or something. She did used to use soya milk. Eh, it's definitely something you could make for yourself for dinner sometimes though, and was better than most you cooked.

"Wow Anon, this is lovely." Starlight said after she swallowed her first bite. "Makes me wish I'd tried this before today."

You smile, happy you're able to make a good dinner and please Starlight.

"Maybe we can make dinner together again at some point. I promise I wont beg to help you so much next time." She smiles sheepishly at that. Boop time.

'Boop'

"Eat your dinner." You say with a grin.

She decides to stay silent and just continues eating her dinner with a smile on her face. And a blush. No surprise there.

By the time you were done and had the dishes cleaned up again (thanks to Starlight's magic), it was around half eight. Although getting up quite late, you were still getting tired. You'd done a lot more exercise than normal today, even though most of that was walking around a castle and up and down countless flights of stairs.

You took a glance out one of the kitchen windows. Still raining.

"Fuck, I'm gonna have to walk back in that." You mutter to yourself. Of course Starlight hears you though, seeing as you're currently sitting there petting her again. Ever since she came and asked you today about the whole 'pet' thing, you haven't been able to help yourself. She's just too adorable.

"You don’t need to walk back. You could stay here tonight. It's not like there's anyone here other than us, and it could be like a sleepover."

She's right. You don’t exactly have any real responsibilities back at your house; you don’t have a pet to look after or anything. Heh. You could take back over your old room in the castle. You're willing to bet it's stayed how you left it. Even if not, you can easily make the bed again.

"Yea, I think I will. I don’t particularly want to go back out in that weather."

To emphasize your point, you hear a crack of thunder from outside. Yea it's getting even worse out there now. It just makes you wonder even more about how the hell pegasi can control the weather. And even unicorns for that matter. This fucking world of pastel horses, man. Shits crazy weird.

Starlight claps her hooves together in happiness when you agree to her offer.

"I guess I'll have to set up my old room again, unless you guys left it how it was."

She visibly deflated when you said that. And her ears went back. her eyes also started darting around the room for a few seconds, before she started talking:

"Your old room, is, uhh, currently in use. Yea… we had to use it for, um, extra storage space, seeing as we had nowhere else."

Suspicious horse is suspicious. And adorable with her flushed face as she looks at you hopefully.

"Uhh… huh." You decide not to question the obvious lie, just to see where she was gonna go with it.

"Well then, where should I sleep tonight? There are plenty of other spare rooms I could take, aren't there? Or are they all in use as well?" You had a suspicion where she was going anyway, what with her questions and behaviour these last two days.

"You could… um, sleep in …my room?" that last part was a lot quieter and higher pitched. And she gives you an even more powerful hopeful glance, with half puppy-dog eyes.

'Hnnnging' intensifies.

"Do you have a spare mattress or bed I could use then?" You continue playing dumb, although at this point you don’t know why, cos you know exactly where she's going with this now.

"N-no. I was more thinking along the lines of… in my bed." Yet again she says the last part insanely quietly. And then she brings on the semi-half lidded look. Man your feels. It does feel good having a cute girl shyly asking you to sleep in their bed though, even if they are a multi-colored miniature horse. Besides, at this point it's not like you'll be going back to earth. Twilight confirmed that much.

You also couldn’t deny that look and that cuteness. You might die of heart attack if you do. You quite like being alive.

"Ok then, I'll sleep with you tonight."

She actually 'squees' somehow, even though you thought that was Fluttershy-exclusive. Yep, definitely can't deny her now. And you'll admit that it does kinda excite you. And little Anon, who decides to make an unwanted appearance. "Bad time, dude." You think at your dick.

Starlight proceeds to get up and starts trotting towards the staircase that leads to her bedroom, thankfully not noticing your semi-boner. Crisis averted.

You also get up, adjusting your pants to accommodate your new 'development'. You follow her towards the stairs, which she nearly ran up. You still need a shower before you go to bed, though. You’ve been sweating a lot today from all the exercise after all.

"Wait up Starlight!" You say as you go up the stairs, taking two at a time. She stands at the top waiting for you. When you get to the top, you say: "I need a shower first, and to generally get ready for bed. Which bathroom should I use?"

"You can use the one off my bedroom. It's got a bath in it, and is big enough for you. You can use it once I finish up myself, if you don’t mind waiting that is."

You internally sigh of relief. At least she wasn’t going to ask to shower or bathe with you as well. It surprises you that she's being this forward with her requests today as it is, especially the whole 'sleeping in her bed with her' thing. You guess these kind of things happen when you request to 'be someone's pet'. And it's not completely unwanted either: You have been lonely in this respect since you arrived here after all, pony or not.

"Great. I don’t mind waiting. How long do you think you'll be?"

"Not long. About ten minutes I'd think."

"Cool. I'll just chill in your room till your done then I guess."

By that point you'd made it to her bedroom door, which she opened using magic of course. You’ve seen Starlight's room before, so it's nothing new, apart from a couple new decorations, including quite a large mirror that’s lined with images of Starlight with each of her pony friends. There's also one of you and her there. You walk up to the mirror to get a closer look. The image is one of you and her standing next to eachother in front of the crystal castle in the crystal empire. She took you up there not long after you moved out of the castle. You were always fascinated by a whole kingdom made entirely out of crystals. According to Starlight, so was the empires old ruler. Some unicorn called 'Sombra', who apparently enslaved the ponies who lived there. The guy striked you as a dick, so it somewhat pleased you when Starlight mentioned he was beaten and practically 'killed' by Twilight and her friends. Although the how was kinda sketchy. Eh, whatever. Shits weird here, as you said before.

Something on the picture of you and Starlight grabs your attention, though. You take another look, and, wait, is that a… heart? Next to your head? Actually, there's more than one. There's quite a few small pink hearts drawn on around your head. After a few seconds, something dawns on you. And you mentally kick yourself for being so dense about it and not realising, especially in these last couple of days: Starlight has a crush on you. For how long, you can't be certain, but it must be quite a while. She's always been so nice to you since you came here. You were quite a dick when you first arrived as well, mainly due to depression from realising you could never go back home to see your friends and family again… but she put up with you and helped you. You shrugged it off a lot near the start, too. You put it down to Starlight trying to 'better herself', and because this land of magical talking horses is hella weird with it's overused 'friendship and peace' ideals. Although they're still better than the segregated nations and groups of people on earth in some ways. You'd like to think you’ve become a better person thanks to being here at least.

"Man you fucking dense retard, Anon. Great fucking job being completely oblivious to a girl's feelings…" you say aloud to yourself. Not loud enough for Starlight to hear from the bathroom though.

You step away from the mirror, and just move to sit on the bed. At least the bed is a double bed, so it wont be too awkward. Speaking of awkward, something else dawns on you.

"Shit. What am I gonna sleep in? all my clothes are back at my place. And I can't sleep in what I'm wearing, for obvious reasons. And going nude is definitely not an option, especially after learning what I just did."

Your only real option is to go in your boxers and your undershirt. Unless you’ve got any clothes left here at the castle. Very doubtful. You took everything with you when you moved out.

After your both internal and external contemplating and kicking yourself, the bathroom door finally opens, revealing Starlight. Just with her mane wrapped in a towel.

"Bathrooms yours, Anon." she says with a smile. She walks past you to the bed as you walk to the door. She brushes her side and tail against your side as she passes, causing your hair to stand on end, as well as little Anon. calm the fuck down.

You close the bathroom door, then proceed to strip. You leave your clothes on the floor as usual, then step into the bath. As you do, you realise something. You're gonna need a towel. Man fuck aren't you thinking straight today. Fucking cute-ass Starlight messing with your brain.

You look around for a clean towel, and notice a relatively small blue towel sitting on the wash-basket. Why she has a wash-basket in here you don’t even know. It's not like they wear clothes most of the time. Whatever.

You just leave the towel there and proceed to close the curtains and turn the shower on. After getting it to the right temperature you begin. Seeing as you don’t have a sponge and you don’t want to use one of Starlight's without asking, you just use your hands. Yea, you could pop your head out the door to ask, but meh. You did have a shower this morning anyway, so it don’t matter too much.

The shower was boring, as usual, and you got yourself relatively clean without a sponge. Drying yourself was a bit of a pain, though, seeing as you had to use the pretty small pony-sized towel. At least it was more manoeuvrable.

You grab your boxers and pull them up, followed by your undershirt. You're kinda glad you wore it under your regular shirt now. You wouldn't've done if it wasn’t late fall and quite cold outside. Not that you expected Starlight would mind if you didn't. hell, she would probably not be bothered if you went to bed completely nude. No, dick. Down. Bad.

After your slight boner went away, you picked up the rest of your clothes and opened the door. When you walked out, Starlight was laying on the bed in what was probably the sexiest pose a pony could do. Well, waiting for your boner to die was pointless, then, because now it's back in full force.

"Umm, w-where should I put these?" you ask, unable to keep a slight stammer out of your voice.

"Just leave them on the floor. It doesn’t matter." You just dropped them at your feet. Your eyes were glued to the pony laying in the bed. Fuck she's sexy.

NO! BAD BRAIN! SHE'S A HORSE, YOU'RE NOT MEANT TO FIND THEM SEXY!

Your dick is certainly telling you otherwise. You’ve been here for over half a year now. You're not going back. You may as well accept that the only love your going to find is a pony. And after your discovery earlier, it doesn’t help your brain's case.

You’ve only been doing this stuff with Starlight for a day, though. ONE DAY! Not even! You can't just straight up have sex with her like this after that tiny amount of time. Hell, despite what your dick is telling you, you're still not 100% sure whether you'd feel comfortable doing that with a pony. Maybe after a while to think on it, you might be able to. Also this will be your first time since you got here. You want it to be special, not a lust-filled mess. And as it seems, that’s exactly what this'll be. You're not even sure you feel the same way about Starlight as she does for you. You definitely care for her, but do you really… love her?

…

No. At least, not yet. You'd be willing to give her a decent chance though. You're not gonna do this, though, not yet. You're not gonna waste your first time here like this.

With that in mind, you walk over to the bed and sit down on the side. Starlight crawls up to your, side, and starts nuzzling against your arm. You know what she's trying to do.

"listen, Starlight. I know what you're trying to do." She stops, and looks up at you with a questioning glance.

"I saw your mirror of pictures, I saw the one of us at the crystal empire. I know now why you came to me earlier with the request to 'become my pet'." You turn to look at her fully.

"I figured you would've seen it. I kind of wanted you to. That’s why I didn't hide it." She nuzzles against your arm again.

Fuck that’s so cute. No, you need to tell her. Tell her you'd be willing to give her a chance, but you don’t want this yet.

"Well, I'm not sure how I'm gonna put this. I find you a very cute and attractive pony, Starlight. Certainly one of, if not the cutest and most attractive I've met since I arrived here. You’ve been my best friend since I first got here, and have helped me fit in, despite my dick-like attitude near the beginning."

Her smile drops a bit. "I knew you were like that because you were depressed. You had no way back home, you couldn’t see your loved ones again. I know how that feels, and I didn't want you to go through the same thing I did alone."

You ruffle her mane a bit. "And I'm very grateful for that. Even though this is the first time I've ever said it."

Her smile comes back again, wider this time. "I'm happy to have been able to help you." She says while reaching forward and drawing you into a hug, which you return. But you pull back after a couple of seconds.

"With that in mind, I realised I've been completely oblivious to your feelings at times. It wasn’t until I saw that picture that I truly realised. I'm really sorry for that. I have changed, a lot, since I first arrived. I feel like I'm a better person, not as much of a dick anymore. That is very much thanks to you, as well as the others that have helped me integrate, like twilight."

She pulls you back into a hug. "It's ok, Anon. I forgive you. I'm just glad you're happy now, and become a better pon -er person thanks to me."

Ok, now to address the elephant in the room.

"How long have you felt this way towards me?" She was slightly taken aback by your now forward question, but still smiled as she pulled out of the hug.

"Quite a long time. I'd say about two to three weeks after your arrival."

Holy shit, she's had a crush on you for that long?! That’s over five months! Man you really are dense. And an asshole.

"Wow, that’s a long time. I'm so sorry I didn't realise your feelings before. I promise to try to be a lot less dense from now on…" It's the least you could do, really. Considering this pony's probably had so many sleepless nights and worries over you, and whether you would return her feelings one day.

"Well, I will definitely say this:" you put a finger under her chin, making her look up at your face. "I'll definitely give this a shot. I owe you that, and much more. I don’t mind doing this whole 'pet' thing, I wouldn’t have agreed to it if I wasn’t, but in terms of the more, uh, intimate stuff, I'd rather take some more time. You would be my first pony girlfriend, after all. I'd rather not rush into these things." After saying all of that, you feel a slight weight on your chest, worrying whether she's going to accept it or not. At first, her expression dims. A lot. And her ears fold right back. But as you continue talking, they perk back up, and a hopeful smile appears on her face.

"You're willing to give me a chance?" You nod, smiling. She just adopts a massive smile on her face, and she lunges forward to wrap you in a very tight hug. "Oh, thank you so much, Anon. you have no idea how much I've wanted you to say that! I've always been worried about whether you would reject me, stop being my friend or think I'm weird. That’s kind of why I never mentioned it before. I didn't want to lose you as a friend, like I lost Sunburst back when I was a filly…"

You pat her head to soothe her, assuring her you're not going anywhere. "I wouldn’t do that to you, Starlight. Even though right at this minute I don’t feel the same way, I might grow to, and I'm certainly willing to try it. Besides, you’ve been so nice to me, It wouldn’t feel right to just stop being friends with you because of this."

You feel a slight wet patch on your undershirt. Is she crying? Man, she must've been torn up about this. Well, she just had a massive weight lifted from her heart that’s been there over five months.

"Well, it's alright now, Starlight. I'm here, and I'm not going to leave you. We'll see where this leads."

Little Anon went into hiding a long time ago by this point, thankfully. And you don’t think Starlight still wants to do that anyway. She seems too busy crying into your chest anyway. So you just stand up and cradle her against you, as you turn around and lay back in her bed, with her laying on top of you. Using one hand, you pull the covers over the both of you.

"Night, Starlight. Sleep well."

"Night, Anon. you too. And… I love you…" she mumbles into your chest, hugging you tighter. You just caught that end bit. It brings a smile to your lips. As you start to drift off to sleep, all you can think is, you feel you could definitely come to love this pony.

Chapter four

You wake up to a beam of sunlight hitting your eyes. You try to turn over, but realise you don’t have full control over your body. You go to move your right arm, but find it is completely dead. Your left arm moves, however. You put your hand over your eyes to try to block the sunlight, and at least wait for your eyes to adjust.

Once they do, you then take notice of the beautiful pink pony that’s laying on your chest and right arm, fast asleep. You smile, after remembering what happened last night. You then take a glance around, trying to find the culprit of waking you up. On your right is a window with curtains nearly fully closed, bar a tiny gap which is allowing sunlight through: right onto your face. You just groan as you try to shift up as slowly as possible to escape it. It doesn’t work too well.

The pony on your chest starts to stir. After a minute, she opens those massive orbs, and they're staring straight at you. A smile forms on her lips as she snuggles slightly more into you.

"Morning, beautiful." You say as you reach your left hand up and press the forefinger onto her nose, leaving it there for a couple of seconds before pulling it away, leaving her a bit cross-eyed. Ok, boops now need to last longer. That was beyond adorable.

"Morning." She mumbles into your shirt, making your chest vibrate slightly. That would've probably tickled if you hadn't become immune to it a long time ago.

"Can I please have my arm back? I kinda need it."

She decides to move off your torso and lays down to your right, wrapping her forehooves solely around your right arm. "Just a few more minutes…" She proceeds to rub her face into your torso, breaking eye contact, then sighs outwardly in utter contentment. Welp, looks like you wont be getting that arm back for a while longer.

At least now she's off your torso, you can move yourself to a more comfortable position out of the sunlight. Actually, you may have enough manoeuvrability to pull your right arm out. You start pulling back using your shoulder and pushing with your left arm. It starts to come free a bit, not that you can feel it.

After about five seconds of that, and a whole two inches, Starlight shifts herself up, now hugging you up to your shoulder, and adopts a death-grip on it, completely halting any other movements you tried. Well, it was worth a shot.

You just accept your fate now and relax again, shutting your eyes and seeing if you can't get some more sleep. There wasn’t much point, though. Cos at this point, your heart is now racing from the cuteness of Starlight, and you are still somewhat reeling from the events of yesterday, keeping you wide awake.

You want to take this slow. No rushing things. You may be technically dating this pony now, but you refuse to rush into anything. With that in mind, and thoroughly ingrained, how should you proceed with this, then? You’ve not had a massive amount of experience with relationships, and you don’t want this getting out. At least not yet.

In fact, what time is? You glance at the wall clock to answer your question. Pretty much bang on nine. Well, at least you didn't waste nearly the whole morning like you did yesterday. Maybe you should go out for breakfast? You know of a nice little place right round the corner from the castle. And, at least, judging by the sunlight that woke you up, the storm from yesterday has been 'cleared up'. Man, you don’t think you'll ever get used to that…

You give your arm another tug, trying to pull it loose. Still no luck. You decide you’ve had enough of having one less arm, and decide to take action. You bring your left hand over, and push it between your arm and Starlight's belly, palm-side towards the latter. You then bend your fingers into her belly a bit, then start moving them frantically, effectively tickling her. The effect is nearly instant.

"AHAHAHA!!! NO, PLEASE, STO-HO-HOOOP! AHAHA!!!" She releases your poor arm, resorting to just moving away, trying to get away from your hand. You let her go, of course, since you achieved your goal.

You roll over to sit on the side of the bed, your right arm hanging limply at your side. Starlight lays there, still giggling slightly. You then notice something: she's still wearing the collar you found yesterday. Did she even shower with that thing on last night? Eh, you guess it doesn’t really matter. But it brings an idea to mind.

"Now, that wasn’t very nice, was it, pet? Look what you did to masters poor arm." You say as you move your right shoulder around a bit, causing the limp arm to move slightly. At least you're now regaining feeling in it, but it's cramping up slightly still.

She glances over at you, a slight pout on her face. "I'm sorry, m-master. I won't do it again… Would you like me to come over and kiss it better?"

You can tell she's faking it, because 'A' she stuttered on 'master', and 'B' she had that kind of smile you have on when you're joking with someone. So you just give her a slightly flat stare for a second, then smile slightly and shake your head.

"Silly pony." You mutter. "Well, personally I would like to get up and get ready for the day, whatever we're gonna do today. In fact, when I come out of the bathroom, I've got a suggestion. Do you mind if I use it? Oh, and also a sponge?"

"Sure, there's a spare sponge in the cupboard under the sink. I'll just wait here, I guess. Awake, seeing as somepony disturbed me." She looked directly at you as she said that last part. You simply smiled at the cute display, then nodded and turned to go into the bathroom.

Seeing as you only had one pair of clothes while here (you should go back home to change before you do anything else today), you decided having a shower this morning would be kind of pointless, seeing as you'd just be putting dirty clothes back on. You just had a simple wash instead. It took you all of five minutes.

"So what was your suggestion, then?" Starlight asks as you step out of the bathroom, wearing exactly what you went in with.

"I was gonna ask if you wanted to go to that one café just around the corner for breakfast, then spend the rest of the day out and about doing stuff? We can decide what in due course." You say while putting on your clothes from yesterday, which were just laying on the floor where you dropped them last night.

"That sounds nice, I'd like that. Saves either one of us preparing something as well. I guess I'll go get ready now you're done in there." She just gets up off the bed and walks into the bathroom. Not without brushing against your leg as you're in the middle of balancing on one leg trying to put your trousers on, making you wobble. She giggles at that.

Fifteen minutes later finds you two walking down towards the castle's main doors.

"Oh, uh, hold up." You say as you reach for the door handle. "Two things. First, can we stop by my place first so I can change my clothes? I'd rather do it sooner than later." Smile and nod as reply. "Secondly, this." You reach a hand out and poke at her collar which she was still wearing.

Blush returns. Adorable.

"O-oh, yea. I forgot about that. I'd rather not be seen around with it on yet. Do you mind?" She turns her head, presenting the strap of the collar. You reach out to undo it, taking it and putting it in your pocket.

"Wait, yet? What do you mean, yet?" you ask curiously.

Blushing intensifies. "Uhh… don’t worry, lets just go have breakfast." She turns around and uses magic to open the doors and just walks out, her ears laid back against her head.

"Ooook then." You follow her out, shutting the doors behind you, then jogging a bit to catch up with her as she walks towards your place.

For about a minute there's an awkward silence, and you just walk along fiddling with the key in your pocket. You wonder whether you’ve had any visitors whole you were gone. Or, rather, one specific visitor.

"When's Twilight due back? In fact, what day even is it today?" you say out of both genuine curiosity and to make conversation.

"She's due back tomorrow, around lunchtime. And it's Thursday today… I think."

Ever since you arrived in horseland you haven't been very good at keeping track of the days. Especially seeing as you don’t do anything routine on a day to day basis. You should probably look into finding a job, instead on relying on doing things for Twilight and her 'paying' you, even though she does give you enough money for essentials and the like. It still doesn’t sit right with you. It would be a lot easier if you actually went out and made friends with other ponies in this town.

"Kay." Is all you decide to say. The attempt a conversation failed. Oh well, you'll try again when you think of something. Well after you come out of your house, which is right in front of you now. As you approach the door, you whip out your key to unlock it. When you turn the key, nothing happens. Your frown a bit, then push the door in. It swings right open.

"Fucking Pinkie…" You sigh. Starlight just stands there, giggling slightly.

"I told you not to underestimate her, Anon. if she wants in, she WILL get in, no matter what."

You rub the bridge of your nose with a forefinger and thumb. You then proceed to chuck the now useless key through the open door, and it lands with a slight clatter on the floor. This isn't gonna be fun when I next see her…

"Although I kinda suspected this would happen anyway, it still annoys me that all that work I put into this door was wasted. I think I would rather she broke through the window." You now walk in through the doorway, kicking the door a bit to open it fully, and walk up the stairs to your bedroom. At least the rest of your house seems fine. You want to know how she managed to break through the lock on your door… without even leaving a dent, or any sign of forced entry. Could she have a key too?

As you strip and get re-dressed into another set of clothes, underwear and socks an all, something dawns on you. You kick yourself internally for not realising

"Fuck! How could I be so stupid! I bought that lock from the blacksmith. The only blacksmith in town! That’s the only place that sells them, seeing as there's like no need for locks in this place! She probably went there and got the blacksmith to make her a duplicate key, or something to that effect. She's friends with like everyone in this town. And it's not like they'd suspect her to break into my house with it. Even if so, they'd just assume she was throwing a party or whatever. Fuck!"

You slam your feet into your shoes, bending the back in slightly as you do. It was at that moment you glance onto your bed, and notice a note sitting on it. Well, at least you found out what she did here while you were gone. You walk over and snatch the note up, unfolding it. It reads as follows:

"Nonny! It's you're bestest friend Pinkie! Seeing as you wouldn’t answer your door when I knocked earlier I took the liberty of unlocking your door for you, and wrote this note out for you. I don’t know why someone was so silly as to put a lock on your door! I'm still trying to figure it out myself. But anyway, I have a special party planned for your birthday! It starts at two tomorrow afternoon at sugarcube corner. I've also taken the liberty of inviting everypony myself, and I know you're just gonna love it! I look forward to seeing you there, and don’t be late!

You're best friend Pinkie Pie!"

Your face goes pale. She's throwing you a party. Tomorrow afternoon. And she's invited a metric fuckton of ponies. You start going dizzy.

"Are you alright up here Anon? I heard you cursing and talking really loudly, and thought something was wrong." Starlight approaches your doorway, and then notices you standing there holding the note to your side, stock still. She probably doesn’t understand why your face is paler though.

"Anon? are you alright?" she moves to your side, and reaches a hoof up and touches the hand not holding the note. You hold the other hand with the note out, essentially telling her to take it. She does, with magic.

She looks over it, with a seemingly neutral expression on her face. When she gets to the end, she smiles a bit. "it's alright, Anon. Pinkie's parties are usually fun, and you'd have a great time there. At least she didn't guess when your actual birthday is, right?"

You blink a few times, clearing your head a bit to stop it spinning.

"Yea, I guess you're right there. But really? Tomorrow? And that’s when Twilight gets back too. I'd much rather spend my afternoon with her, helping out and talking at stuff, than go to a party, regardless of what it's for. Also, I'm allergic to parties. Unless they involve heavy drinking."

"Well, from what you told me of this 'alcohol' on earth, that could seriously harm you. This party will be really light hearted, and Pinkie always makes them super fun. I doubt she'd do anything too brash that would hurt your feelings or anything like that."

"I also think I'm I'll tomorrow. I have an appointment with the front-end of the train Twilight's returning on. Look, Starlight. I absolutely hate parties. I'm not the kind of guy that enjoys anything of that nature. Maybe when I was a kid, but certainly not now."

"I didn't really like the thought of parties either when Twilight gave me a chance to make friends, and I met Pinkie Pie. I grew to enjoy them for what they are: harmless fun, and a chance to meet other ponies. Although it took me quite a long time to do the latter well. Either way, I'll be there with you, so you don’t need to worry."

"Thanks, Starlight. I appreciate the thought." You pause for a second "Out of interest, what would happen if we don’t turn up?"

You see Starlight shudder. That’s not good. "You, uh, don’t want to know. It's… not pleasant. I know from experience." A shudder runs through you as well. Just the thought of what that crazy pony could is capable of makes you nervous.

"Alright then." You sigh in defeat. "I'll go, but on one condition." Starlight looks up at you expectantly. "No more than ten ponies. I'm not gonna be the centre of attention for the whole town. It'll be bad enough with only ten."

She smiles warmly up at you. "I'll request that Pinkie only invite ponies you know and are comfortable around."

"Thanks. It means a lot to me." You crouch down and wrap her in a hug. You still weren't happy about needing to go a stupid party that was almost literally made for five year-olds, but at least Starlight was there to help you. And you were trying to better yourself, after all. This could help at least a bit. Or it'll just piss you off and you'll sit in a corner for the entire party, contemplating where you went wrong in life or petting Starlight if she's with you, contemplating where you went right in life to have a friend like her. Or rather, 'girlfriend' like her, as it is now. Your heart still quickens a bit when you think of her as that.

You break the hug, then dump the note on your bedside table, and walk out the door. Starlight obviously right behind you. You walk out your front door, wait for Starlight, then close the door, without locking it behind you. Maybe you should look into getting a reinforced vault door with a ten-digit passcode. Then you think there'd be no point as Pinkie would just break through the window to get in. Or guess the code first time.

You then set off for the café that’s just round the corner, looking forward to your breakfast with your new girlfriend.

Chapter five

When you arrived at the café, it was relatively empty. You weren't really surprised, because it was a Thursday, or it was quite late. It didn't really matter, but you were glad there weren't many ponies there.

You and Starlight walk over to a table located quite far out of the way. Outside, of course. You each take a seat on either side of it. You sit there in silence just looking at the menus which were on the table for about a minute before a waiter comes over.

"What can I get for you two this morning?"

At least he didn't have that stupid French accent like a lot of waiters did. It also brakes you two out of your reading. You motion to Starlight for her to go first.

"I'll have a daisy sandwich and a side of salad, please." You forgot that these ponies eat flowers. And hay, of course. Seriously, how they can substitute a proper burger and fries with hay is beyond you.

The waiter then nodded at you after writing the order down. With his mouth, because he's an earth pony.

"I'll just have 3 slices of cheese on toast." There wasn’t much on the menu that you either wanted or could eat, so you just chose the simplest thing.

"Of course. Your orders should be out in around five to ten minutes." He said, then turned around and walked inside the café to the kitchen. You put the menu down, then look at Starlight, who had already done the same and was staring at you with a distant look on her face. So of course, you did the only thing to be done.

'Boop'.

You hold your finger on her nose for a few seconds with her just staring at it, cross eyed. Just as you're about to pull it away, she pokes her tongue out and licks the tip. She then leans back with a blush on her face. You also pull your finger away, staring at it. Surprisingly it doesn’t disgust you as you would've expected it to.

"That’s what's gonna happen every time you do that now." Starlight says with a bit of a cheeky grin. You smile and shake your head a bit, wiping your finger on your trousers.

"Silly pony. And that happens every time you act adorable; I can't control my finger when it does. So I guess they're just two things neither of us can help doing."

The blush intensifies, but the smile widens to a more natural one. A bit of a silence ensues with just the two of you staring at eachother. You break the silence.

"We should go see Pinkie as soon as we finish here. We can only hope she hasn’t sent invitations out yet."

Starlight doesn’t stop looking at you. "Yea, we should. It shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes to convince her."

More silence. "So what do you want to do after, then? We should make the most of today, as it's the last one we got before Twilight and Spike come back, and we have that stupid party to go to tomorrow." She started mumbling something, but it was too quiet to hear. "I didn't quite catch that." She blushes more.

"N-never mind. We could, um… Go bowling?"

"Really, bowling? How do you guys even know what that is?"

"Yea, there's a bowling alley in town somewhere. I've seen it a few times but never been there. And what do you mean by 'how do we know what it is'?"

"Huh. I wonder why I never knew about that or even saw that. I enjoy bowling; used to be quite good at it. What I mean by that is in my world we had bowling as well. We pick the ball up with one hand, and throw it down a long lane towards ten pins. How the hell do you guys pick the ball up with hooves and bowl it down a lane? That is, assuming it's even relatively the same as the bowling back on my world."

"I… can't really explain that, but the concept sounds exactly the same. Pick up a ball and throw it down a lane at ten pins. Only we use hooves."

You decide not to continue thinking about how that works, and just accept it. Conveniently, at that moment your food arrives as well.

"Convenient. Thanks." You say as the waiter puts your plates down in front of the two of you. You glance down at your plate. Three very small slices of toast sit on it.

"Ugh… there's barely enough here to keep a sparrow alive." You groan. You still pick up the first slice though, and take a big bite out of it. Starlight looks at you in confusion as she picks up her sandwich with magic and takes a bite. "Figure of speech. Means that there isn't much food here and it wont keep me going for long." The look of confusion vanishes and is replaced by one of contentment as she eats her food.

It takes you about three minutes to finish your toast. It was nice, albeit very unsatisfying. Oh well, you'll just have to get a decent lunch. Maybe they have a café in the bowling alley that serves take-away like food like there was in your old local bowling alley. One can only hope.

"Is that good?" you ask Starlight as she finishes her sandwich. She nods her head, then starts on the bowl of salad. She magics the bowl over to you, and gives you a 'would you like some' look. You smile and pick up a piece of lettuce out of the bowl. "Thanks. I need my strength to deal with Pinkie soon.

Another five minutes and you're both finished, ready to leave. You paid the bill, despite Starlight's protests. You swiftly shut her up with another boop to the nose. Of course, this was in front of the waiter, so when she licked your finger this time, his face was a mixture of disgust, confusion and knowing. He didn't say anything though, and just took the money and left, along with the empty plates.

"Thanks again, Anon. you keep doing all this stuff for me, I just want to do something for you for a change."

"You are: convincing Pinkie not to invite the whole town to this stupid ass party tomorrow." You reply with a grin.

"that’s not really what I meant, but I guess."

"hey, it's the job of the guy to buy his girlfriend meals when we go out" you say ruffling her mane and pulling her into a bit of a hug as you walk towards Sugarcube Corner. You look down and see a big blush on her face, and she buries her muzzle into your waist as you walk. Most irritatingly, little Anon decides that now's a good time to make an appearance, making you have to walk a bit funny to hide it.

"What's the matter?" Asks Starlight as you let go of her, adjusting your trousers to better accommodate yourself.

"Nothing, don’t worry. Lets just get this over with." You tried to sound nonchalant but you think you sounded more annoyed than anything. It only took you about five minutes to walk to Sugarcube Corner, which you walked in relative silence after that. Of course, the instant you set foot in the bakery, you hear the usual shout.

"NONNY!" Followed by a pink blur heading towards you. This time the blur decided to attach itself to your chest. "Where were you this morning Nonny? You weren't anywhere to be found, I searched your entire house for you to ask if you were exited about the party I was gonna throw for you tomorrow but when I couldn’t find you I assumed you were just so excited that you went out early and ate breakfast out, so I just decided to write you a note and leave it on your bed." You finally put a finger over her mouth to stop the verbal faeces coming out of her mouth. Man, why do you even put up with this horse… at least you have Starlight, who is as normal as you compared to every other pony you’ve met.

"We're here to talk about that, actually." Her eyes light up. You pry her off your chest, and put her down.

"Pinkie, Anon doesn’t want to have a load of ponies at the party. He wants a maximum of ten, and ones that he knows and gets on with. So, we'd very much appreciate it if you could not invite everyone and just invite, say, Twilight and her friends. And spike, of course."

You look down at Starlight in quite a bit of surprise. You really didn't expect her to just come out with it, but man are you glad she did. You hate beating around the bush, especially with Pinkie Pie.

Another glance at Pinkie shows her mane has gone somewhat flat, and she has a sad expression on her face. She actually looks quite cute like that, and kinda makes you feel bad for Starlight just straight up telling her not to go crazy with the party. Then her mane went straight back out, she got a smile on her face, and just said "Okie dokie lokie! I'll make this the bestest, most fun party yet, even with only ten guests! Just you wait Nonny!" Then you instantly remembered why you were doing this, and any kind of sympathy evaporated instantly.

"Anything I can get you two? Maybe a box of cupcakes to share? Or our special lover's cupcake to share?" She asks as she gets behind the counter again, back with her massive grin and poofy mane.

Warning: spaghetti leak! Abort! Abort!

"Umm, uh, n-no thanks, we're, uh, fine. And we aren't, uh, lovers. Just two friends hanging out." You glance round at Starlight, and she just has a small smile and a huge blush on her face, and she has a distant gaze again. Looking at you. Fuck. No help from her. "We'll just, um, be going now. Got a busy day of friend stuff ahead! Bye!"

You turn around and just bend down to pick Starlight up, carrying her out at mach ten with her over your back like you would a cat, which in hindsight was probably not the best course of action. But it was certainly one way to get away from Pinkie. How the fuck did she already know you were now dating Starlight? In fact, did she actually know, or did she just guess? Shit, now she's gonna spread that about like the plague. You'd've been better off having the entire town at the party, then at least you could hide away in a corner and pretend your not there.

When you're a significant distance from the shop, you slow down to a more normal walking pace. You have no idea where you're heading to, but you going there. A voice interrupts your thoughts: "Hey, Anon, as much as I enjoy being carried like this, could you please put me down? Ponies are starting to stare." You gaze around and sure enough, there's quite a lot of ponies that now have their eyes on the both of you. Your face goes red, and you put her down on a nearby bench. "Thanks." You sit down on the bench next to her.

Damage control: lets see, you just got found out by Pinkie that your dating Starlight, or she just guessed. Either way, it's now gonna spread and soon everyone will know. A bunch of ponies just witnessed you hurriedly carrying Starlight out of Sugarcube Corner, and now probably think your even weirder than they already think you are, plus they probably suspect something going on between you two as well now. On the bright side, Pinkie agreed to only invite ponies that you know to the party. You still have to go to it though. Overall analysis: you're fucked.

"Are you ok? Your face seems a bit pale. Again." Starlight asks, as she puts a hoof on your right hand.

"Uh, yea. Just doing damage control. Well, I guess it's gonna get out a lot faster than we wanted. Us, I mean."

"Yea, seems that way. But it's alright, ponies were bound to find out eventually." She nuzzles a bit into your arm. Man, this pony is just too adorable for her own good. You move your left hand over to boop her. She takes likes she has the last two: by licking your finger. You put you right arm around her, and she leans into you more. At least a lot of the ponies have moved on, apart from a couple still looking at you with either a disgusted or an 'awww' expression. You pay them little mind now, though. All that matters is the pony sitting next to you.

You sit there like that for a few minutes before you break the silence. "So, where is this bowling alley then?"

"Over by the spa, I think. I know roughly where it is. I'll lead us there."

"Kay. If necessary I guess we can ask for directions." So you both get up off the bench and start making you general way towards the bowling alley. You can't help but think that a spa trip might be a good idea at some point, now that Starlight brings it up. Hell, you could've done that today. Although, that might lead places. Places you don’t really want to go yet. Actually, at the rate you two are going with making scenes in public (despite only being technically one, maybe two), you could even put the collar on Starlight and walk her around like a dog. She may even like it. And to hell with the ponies who judge you: there's not much more you can do anyway, especially in a day or two.

Chapter six

It takes you about fifteen minutes to find the bowling alley, and asking one pony for directions. And to be honest, you didn't really need to. the place is obvious enough, what with it having giant bowling balls and pins around the whole building. Oh well, you're here now. You make your way inside, with Starlight at your side. The place is a lot smaller than your old local alley, this one only having ten lanes and all, but they probably didn't all get used anyway. This town is small, after all, and you still don’t know how ponies play with hooves as it is.

The alley did actually have a little café, which sat pretty much straight ahead of you as you walked in. You walk up to the reception, which was just on the right as you walked in. the receptionist was just sitting there filing her hooves. How cliché. As soon as you approach, she looks over, then up. You smile a bit and start: "Hey. You got any offers for games on at the minute? Maybe include lunch as well?"

"We have a couples offer on at the minute for fifteen bits. It includes five games, and free lunch or dinner with a couple of exceptions. Alternatively, you could sign up and join the bowling club, which would allow you to get a twenty percent discount on everything, but you'd need to come a minimum of once a week." You give her a deadpan look when she said 'couples offer'. She didn't change what she was saying though. You just sigh when she finished.

"Well, I guess we'll take the couples offer then." She nods and taps a few keys on the till. Fuck knows how she does so with hooves, as the till looks like it's made for fingers, but whatever. Fucking horseland. You reach into your pocket and pull out fifteen bits. Man it sucks not having paper notes, and needing to constantly carry around loose change with you. It's actually kind of a relief to be fifteen less.

"Here's your ticket, sir. Just show it to the pony at the cafeteria and they will serve you what you want. With a could of exception. Ask them what they are. Have a nice time." Man she didn't even smile once. Why do receptionists always seem so depressed, Even in the pony world? You put that to the back of your mind as you glance down at your ticket. Lane ten. Great, right next to the wall, and the café. Convenient, and out of the way.

"We're on lane ten, Starlight." You say as you start walking towards the lane. Something occurs to you at that moment: you always used to need to change your shoes to ones that don’t slip on the lanes. They obviously don’t have that here seeing as ponies have hooves. You'll just have to make do with your current shoes, in that case. You just hope it wont cause a problem. And knowing your luck, now you’ve said that, it will.

You both move to the end lane, and you dump your coat onto the bench there. "We need to get our balls, Anon. I'll get them for us. What weight do you want?"

"The heaviest one. And even then that’s probably too light for my liking. Also, do these balls have finger holes in? if so, who the fuck invented these things?"

"No, they don’t. They're just plain balls with stripes on them." She said as she moves over to the nearest ball rack. She rummages around in it for a while with magic before she picks out two balls of different colours. One red, and one green. She floats the red one over to you. "This one's ten pounds. It's the heaviest one I saw. Is it alright?" She looks genuinely worried that you wont be happy with it. You grab it out of the air with one hand and move over to her, ruffling her mane a bit, and leaving your hand there after.

"It's fine. Not as heavy as ones I'm used to back home, but without finger holes it'd probably be awkward anyway. Man, it's gonna be like learning to play again." She relaxes a bit as you leave your hand resting on her head, using the other one to judge the weight of the ball.

"Should we start then? Actually, how are we gonna have our scores recorded?" Starlight uses magic to levitate a notebook and quill over. "Oh, right. We're gonna need to do it the old fashioned way. Whatever, I don’t mind writing the scores down."

You take your hand off her head, then move over to the ready rack where the balls come back ready to be used again.

“Sure. I got my ball right here. You want to go first? I don’t mind.” She replies as she floats her ball to sit on the rack as you put yours down there as well.

“Alright then, I guess time to see whether I'm any good bowling like this.” You approach the lane after grabbing your ball back up nearly as soon as you placed it. You wrap your hand around one side, then take your time to try to line your shot up. Starlight is sitting there watching you with a smile on her face. You bring your arm back, take two strides up to the line and swing your arm forward, releasing the ball. As expected, it was far from a perfect shot. It went well off course, only getting two pins on the right side. “Yep, expected as much.” You comment as you go to stand next to the rack while you wait for your ball to return.

After about ten seconds, the ball returns, and you make the exact same movements as last time. This time, you try to aim slightly further left than you did on your last throw. It somewhat paid off, because the ball went straighter, but still missed the king pin and the one to it's left. “Ah well, eight’s not bad for trying a new technique I guess.” You sit down next to Starlight on the bench, and watch her record your first go under your name. “Your go. I'm interested to see how you bowl as well.” You say as she finishes writing and gets up to bowl.

“It’s nothing too special, but I suppose it’s odd for you seeing as you’ve never seen a pony bowl before.” She picks up her ball, by the looks of it a much lighter one than yours, with magic. She then walks up to the lane, and stands a bit away the line. She lifts her right hoof up, with the underside facing up, then puts the bowling ball on it. She judges the distance and lines up the shot, then pulls her hoof towards her body somewhat as she walks forward on three hooves, and pushes forwards with the one holding the ball, while tilting it so the ball releases with the underside of her hoof pointing towards the pins. The ball actually manages to stay straight to a degree, and knocks down seven pins. Decent.

“Nice.” You say as she walks back towards the rack.

“Thanks. I’m not sure how I managed to knock down so many though; I've never really played bowling before.” She blushes slightly at your compliment. The ball returns, and she yet again carries it to the lane using her magic. She does the same movements again, just like you did. Unfortunately for her, though, she misses the pins.

“Unlucky.” You say as you pick up the notepad and quill, writing down her score as she sits down next to you. You also notice that your name has a little heart next to it. Wow, she must really like you to randomly put a heart next to your name on a bowling score sheet. You can’t help but think how cute she is at the thought of that. Then you remember you were going to ask her something before you take your next go. “How come you don’t use your magic to bowl? Surely it would be much simpler and you could aim properly.”

“In all bowling alleys, at least that I've seen, using magic isn’t permitted when bowling because of those exact reasons. It would be unfair to the other ponies that don’t have magic, as they would still have to use their hooves. Pegasus wings are also banned, although most pegasi wouldn’t want to use their wings anyway because holing a relatively heavy ball with a delicate wing normally doesn’t work out too well.”

“I can see why. And yeah I guess that makes sense. Although for me, that’d be like telling me I'm not allowed to use my hands for bowling and I need to use my feet.” You laugh a bit at the thought of trying to bowl with a foot. Without simply kicking it down the lane, that is. You get up after putting the notepad and quill down, and move to take your go. You manage to get eight pins with two on the left. "That’s a bit better. Lets see if my old tactic works like this." You say to yourself as you re-approach the lane with your ball, moving over to the right-hand side. You actually succeed in getting the pins.

"Nice job. That was awesome." Starlight says when you walk back with a bit of a smug smile. She jots down your score again.

"Thanks. At least I'm not completely shit still." You take a seat, and lay a hand on her back. She doesn’t get up immediately, just sits there and leans back a bit into your hand. "Your go, remember. You gotta beat me." You say with a wink, while slightly pushing her forward with the hand on her back. She blushes and gets up, magicing you the notepad while blushing a bit.

"You're not bad. Probably better than me."

"I'm sure you're just as good if not better than me. You're good at a lot of things, I'm sure you'll be good at bowling." You say with a smile as she turns around. She got nine pins with her shot. "See, that was a good shot. Get that one and you're in the lead." You stroke her mane, earning yourself a grateful sigh.

You two have three games before you finally decide to break for lunch. Starlight won the first and third games, while you won the second. It was very fun, but also tiring, and you're now eager to get some food.

"You did really well, Starlight. With a shot like that last one, you deserved to win." You say while patting her head, walking towards the café bar. "I really struggle to get killer shots like that, even if I still had a ball with finger holes."

"Thanks. I guess I am good at bowling, even without magic." She says with a smile, using magic to move your hand from her head to her back. You took the hint and started rubbing, causing her to let out a contented sigh.

"Told you that you would be. Anyway, what do you fancy for lunch? Menu's up there." You say, pointing to the menu which was above the counter with your other hand. She followed your finger to the menu, then sat down next to you, making it easier to see. For you, the menu was not much taller than you, so you didn't need to look up like she did. The counter was of course short as well, obviously made for ponies instead of six foot tall humans.

"I think I'll have a hay burger and fries with water. What about you?" She replies after a minute of staring up at the menu, rubbing the side of her face against your side. 'Hnnnnng'. You can't eat hay, and of course they don’t have meat, so there goes the thought of having either a regular beef burger or hot dog.

"I think I'll just have an extra large portion of regular fries. At least they have an option for them instead of hay fries." You walk up to the counter, where a mare was sitting with a smile waiting for you to order. "Hey, can I have a hay burger with fries, and an extra large portion of regular fries? Oh, and a jug of water, please." The pony nods and taps a few keys on the till. "Oh, and I also have this." You pull out the ticket the pony at the main counter gave you and handed it over.

She takes a glance at it, then passes it back. "Of course, sir. Would you perhaps like a large cup and two straws for your water?" she says giving you and Starlight a bit of a sly smile and a wink. You glance down at Starlight who blushes at her words.

"No thanks, just two regular cups will do. No straw in one." The pony at the counter just nods, and then turns around to get your order.

"You know… We could've gotten the large cup. I would've been fine with it." Starlight speaks up while looking up at you. Oh god that face is so adorable. She's not even trying to give you puppy dog eyes and you can help but 'awww' at her.

"Uhh, actually, we'll take the large cup." You shout over at the counter pony, who turns back from preparing your order to look at you with another sly smile. Fuck, you're getting soft. These ponies are really starting to rub off on you.

"You can go back to your lane, sir, and we'll bring it all over to you." The pony who served you called out as she turned her head back towards you again. Well, saves standing up here and waiting. You turn around and head back to your lane, taking a seat next to the notepad on the bench. You glance at the scores. You got a meagre eight six on the first game, while Starlight got one hundred and twenty four. The second game you got one hundred and thirty seven, and Starlight got one hundred and six. The third game you only got ninety eight, and Starlight got one hundred and fourteen. You're disturbed from your reading by Starlight sitting next to you and laying her head down onto your lap, also glancing at the scores.

"At least you got over one hundred each game. I did terrible on the first game. Despite getting a double strike." One hand found it's way to Starlight's head, and started massaging her ears. She relaxed into your touch, and let her head fully rest in your lap. "Oh well, I can't say I'm all too surprised, seeing as I've been having to try out a new method of bowling." The only response you got was a 'hmmm', which vibrated on your legs and crotch. It felt heavenly against you, but of course you fought down any urges. Way too early for any of that stuff, plus you were in a public place.

After a few minutes of you fussing Starlight's head and ears, making her coo in delight, your food finally arrived. Along with the pony who served you. As soon as she noticed what you were doing, she started blushing but gave you yet another sly smile, and another wink. She put the tray with everything on it down on the table adjacent to your lane, which was up against the wall. You say a simple thank you, then poke Starlight a few times on the nose, leaving your finger there on the last one. Her eyes were closed, and you booping her like that cause her to open them. She had a somewhat dopey grin on her face. How adorable can this pony get?

Of course, as she does now, she opened her mouth a little bit and stuck her tongue out, licking all over the underside of your finger. "Foods here. I need my lap back. And my hand." You say as you pull your finger away, wiping it on your trousers. She got up after a few more moments, and walked over to the table, hopping up to sit in one of the chairs. You follow behind her, taking the opposite one.

"You need to do that more often. It's so relaxing. In fact, why don’t I do that to you later and you can see how nice it feels?" She asks, while magicing her food over to her. You shake your head, while grabbing your massive portion of fries as well.

"I don’t think it'll do much to me, my body works differently from you ponies. You seem to have the same kinds of erogenous zones as a typical cat would. Humans are nothing like that. There are some parts that work similarly, and massages do us wonders, but also with hooves that probably wont work too well."

"Aloe and Lotus in the Ponyville spa give amazing massages of all sorts. They do it fine with hooves. But massages feel a bit different to what you were just doing. I can't really explain it, it just feels, 'better'."

"We may have to pay the spa a visit at some point then, I can see for myself whether they compare to what human hands can do." You say while lifting your hands up and waggling your fingers at her, causing her to blush. "But anyway, eat your food. We can talk about this stuff when we're not trying to eat or play an intense game of bowling." To punctuate your point, you grab a few fries and put them in your mouth. "Shit, I forgot the ketchup. Can't have fries without ketchup, or salt and vinegar. Not together, of course, though. I'll be back" you get up and run to the cafeteria to grab a bottle of the amazing sugary red sauce.

Ten minutes later, you sat there with an empty bowl and a significantly decreased bottle of ketchup, with a satisfied smile on your face. Starlight was very much the same. "At least they still have some great things from earth here in terms of food that’s not dessert-based and sweet."

"There's a lot of great things in Equestria, although for some of them you need to travel quite a bit. Ponyville only has so much. Such as if you ever want the best donuts ever, Twilight told me of this one place in Canterlot called 'Donut Joe's' that do the widest range of the most delicious donuts ever. I would've liked to have tried it if I went to Canterlot with her this week. Maybe we could go there together at some point?" She gives you an innocent smile, as if trying to bribe you into saying yes.

You didn't need bribing, however. Not with a face among other things as cute as that. "Sure, we can do. I haven't been to Canterlot yet. I've been wanting to find an excuse to go at some point, besides Twilight's ramblings of 'Oh, I have to take you to Canterlot so you can meet the princesses!'" You try to put on your best Twilight impersonation as you said that, which made Starlight giggle. "Although, I still wouldn’t mind meeting the princesses, despite my doubt of them being the ones to move both the sun and the moon as Twilight says." Surprisingly, Starlight didn't overreact when you said that as Twilight always did when you said that. Instead she just nodded, smiling.

"Should we get back to our games then?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"Yep. I guess it's my go first, so lets see if I can do better this game than the last." Lets suffice it to say you didn't really do well. You got at least one hundred on the last two games, but Starlight beat you by quite a bit on both games. Smug pony was smug. You took that with as much dignity as someone who'd just been beaten by their girlfriend could: a very long and hard nose boop.