For the love of Anon

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.