Red Dead Revisited/Growing where You're Planted

Red Dead Revisited/Growing Where You’re Planted

Jack Marston in Equestria

Chapter 5: For the love of a Good Woman

“I felt something I’d only heard about in rumors and stories burning in my chest. Love, they always called it. I loved her. She had shown me that even a pony who thought they had seen it all could still have hope. And when there was love and hope, evil would never stand a chance. I made a mental note to give Ditzy a big squishy hug sometime for reminding me of that.” Littlepip - A Mare Worth Fighting For

Two things became apparent when Jack woke up. The first was that he wasn’t alone in his bed, and the second was that he wasn’t in his bed exactly. A quick look around the room allowed him to determine that at some point they had ended back up at the old mansion, but the room they ended up in wasn’t the one that he had claimed as his own. It was a larger room, and from what he could tell it looked like it had been the master bedroom.

He looked beside him and saw Cheerilee, curled up, and his memories of what happened were clear. To say that she had been direct would have been an understatement. She was direct in a way that was certainly different than he’d seen, but at the same time her frank and direct manner had been refreshing. In truth how she seemed willing to go after what she wanted reminded him quite a bit of how his ma had acted toward his pa. She had explained that she’d been with a few others, some of which apparently were passing flings from a less mature mind.

She had made no attempt at hiding what she wanted, and she explained that she honestly hoped there was more than just a fleeting night. He honestly felt the same. He wanted there to be more than just a passing night and a nice memory. He wanted to build a relationship with her. It was odd that she was a school mum, but at the same time he respected her intelligence. Given how his life was turning out to be like he had mostly given up on ending up with anyone. More to the point he’d given up on ending up with anyone who wasn’t in the kind of life that he had been in.

Instead this mare had somehow walked her way into his life, and seeing her sleeping so soundly beside him gave him the realization that there was a chance for more than he had believed what he would end up having in his life. There was a part of him, which he supposed came from his father, that wondered if he could do this. That part of him began to think of the hundreds of ways he could end up screwing up whatever relationship they had. But then he began to slowly consider every possibility, and in each one he rationalized how he could make it stronger.

“Jack, there’s going to be fools out there that tell you that having a marriage is easy. You best get that notion right out of your head. Having a marriage is hard work, everyday it’s hard work, and it only gets harder the longer it goes on. But sometimes you find a person that you believe is worth all of the hard work in the world, and you push through it,” his mother had said to him before she died.

One thing that Jack knew for sure was that he wasn’t afraid of hard work. His Pa and Man had taught him the value of hard work, and they had raised him to be someone that wouldn’t shy away from putting in long days when they were needed. It was learning how to do hard work, and how to not shy from it, that had made living the life he was living possible. He looked down at the nude mare in the bed beside him and realized that those same lessons would be used here.

He got up, quietly, and began to look at the room he was in. The master bedroom was easily in the best shape, but it had issues like the rest of the mansion. He’d been working on some of it from time to time, but often enough he’d be hunting game, or gathering herbs and flowers, in order to make some money. Of course since his savings had climbed up enough it could be time to consider putting some of those savings toward making this mansion a place fit to live.

He didn’t attempt to lie to himself about the reason for the change. Whatever was happening here between him and Cheerilee, and whatever would happen later between them was going to need a decent place for her to visit. The mansion had obviously been something in its history, and he wanted to bring that back. He wanted to bring it back because he felt that having a place she would feel comfortable visiting would be worth it.

He heard movement and looked over to see Cheerilee getting up. He could see her nude form as she slowly got up from the bed. She looked around at the room, and then smiled at him. She walked toward him, and he felt her hugging him. He returned the hug, holding her as she pressed against him. It felt a little odd, since she was easily a head shorter than he was, but at the same time it felt nice. He leaned down, and she caught the kiss he was giving to her.

She smiled once the kiss ended, and then she looked at the room again.

“It’s not a bad place you know,” she said.

He grinned, “It’s an old abandoned place, just like some of the other buildings out there are, but it could be worse,” he felt her hug tighten, “And besides I’m considering trying to fix it up.”

She smiled, “Well, I happen to know a teacher that might know a thing or two about woodworking projects and some light carpentry work,” she said, “Of course for the major stuff we might want to contact someone who’s a little more used to home repair.”

He grinned, “sounds good to me,” he said as they slowly let each other go, “So, what do we do now?”

She smiled, “Well, we take it one step at a time,” she stepped closer to him, “Which to be honest we did skip more than a few steps, but that was pretty much my fault.”

He felt the softness of her breasts as she leaned against him, “So, I guess we start going one step at a time from this point.”

He laughed, “Well, I’m not exactly where those steps would be, but I do know that I’m willin’ to see where they lead.”