Strange Currencies

One day Strange Mirror came home from work to find the courtyard of her apartment building full of workponies in orange vests. They had torn up a large patch of the garden. They were standing around looking very seriously at something under the ground.

“Gas leak, ma’am. Very dangerous,” said a thick-bodied earth pony eating a sandwich. “Can’t let you in.”

“But I live in there,” said Strange Mirror, standing next to her bicycle, trembling. Matthew spread his wings and squawked.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. But it’s against the law to let you in — it’s too dangerous!” said the workpony, eyeing the angry crow with concern. “And we’re going to be very loud. Do you have any friends you can stay with?”

“No,” said Strange Mirror. Her condition made any kind of real connection with another pony impossible. That fact had hurt like an open wound when she had first developed her condition. Nowadays the pain was the raw background ache of a scab under a fuzzy sock.

At least she had Matthew.

“Well, you’ll have to find a hotel room, I guess,” said the workpony, before stuffing the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and rushing off to find something to do as far from Matthew as possible.

Strange Mirror tried to remain calm. She walked her bicycle to a bench in a small park on a hill, sat, and ate her bread without tasting it. She looked down over the lower rings of Canterlot. The city was built on stone platforms anchored to the side of the mountain like mushrooms growing on the side of a tree. Basal district was the lowest, where working-class ponies lived. The Palace Ring, where the rich and powerful lived, was the highest, held up by four colossal buttresses. Its vastness brought premature evening to the city below. In between was the Saddle Buckle, home of artists, professionals, government officials, and Strange Mirror.

Street lights were beginning to come on, glittering as night closed in. It was a Friday evening in the summertime. All around the city, ponies would be looking for somepony. A new friend. A new lover. A fight. It was a very dangerous time for Mirror to be outside. Anything could happen. Strange Mirror looked up at the palace ring above and wished that it would fall on her.

“What am I going to do?” she said, clutching her new romance novel unread in her lap.

“Caw!” said Matthew.

“I’m sorry,” said Strange Mirror, stroking his head, “You’ll have to sleep on somepony’s roof tonight with the other birds.”

“Caaaw,” said Matthew, rubbing his head against her cheek as if to say that this was not his greatest concern.

“You’d better go,” she said, scratching Matthew under the chin with one hoof. “It’ll be too dark to fly soon. I’ll be fine. I promise,” She lied.

She sat pretending to read until it was too dark. Then she rose from the park bench, unlocked her bike, and walked downhill with slow, quiet deliberation.

Could she find a hotel? She only had the money in her little bag of bits right now — excellent pay for a day’s work, but not enough for a night in a fancy Canterlot Hotel. She couldn’t get to the safe in her room, and this wasn’t enough of an emergency to go into one of her secret stashes. She could get some money out of Mildred Do’s bank account if the bank was still open. But her bank was in Easy Glider Square, one of the biggest hubs of Canterlot nightlife.

She was doomed.

✭☆✭☆✭☆✭

Easy Glider Square thronged with happy ponies. They filled the streets, blocking thoroughfares and sidewalks alike. Getting through walking a bike was like swimming upstream during spawning season.

Many ponies watched Strange Mirror as she passed. She was the target of double takes, surprised glances, and longing looks by the dozen. She hunched down, hoping for the best, hoping no one would come after her. Three more blocks to the bank.

“Hey, lady!” shouted a filly’s voice from behind her. She hurried deeper into the crowd, ignoring the voice.

“Edelweiss! Edelweiss, is that you?” A gray pegasus stallion grabbed her by the shoulders, looking into her eyes with hope and excitement.

“No. No, it’s not,” said Strange Mirror, pushing him away.

A line of ponies in with piercings and spiky hair were standing in line outside of a club. The music inside was so loud that it vibrated the handle of Strange Mirror’s bike. She made the mistake of looking too long at a very tall white unicorn mare in a bridle and blinders.

“You like what you see, pretty?” she sneered, waving her hooves at her intimidatingly muscled body.

“No. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” Mirror turned away at a right angle, forcing her way across the street. She saw that she was in front of a crowded bar, nearly as loud as the club across the street. A glowing magic sign proclaimed that it was called “Buckowski’s”. It smelled like sawdust, spilled beer, sweat, and companionship. Strange Mirror realized that she was very thirsty.

An earth pony mare in a slinky black dress strutted over to her. Strange Mirror’s heart began to pound. She sighed with relief when all the mare did was press a menu into her hooves. “You look like you could use a drink, friend,” she said.

“I could, actually,” said Strange Mirror.

“We’ve got the best beer list in the lower rings,” said the hostess.

The bank, the hotel, it could wait. She needed someplace to hide. Strange Mirror tried to lock up her bike on the railings by the door, but her hooves were shaking too hard, so she just left it there. She pushed her way inside. It was so hot and loud and packed with ponies that she felt like she’d crawled inside of a live animal. Miraculously, she was able to find an unoccupied booth at the back of the bar. She slid as deeply into it as she could, closed her eyes, and laid her head back on the cushion. She lost herself in the ambient roar of the place. Deep breaths. She’d made it this far. Maybe when things cleared out after midnight she could find a youth hostel or something.

“Get you something to drink?” said the waitress.

Strange Mirror’s eyes fluttered open. “Oh. Yes.” She looked at the drink list and immediately became lost. She didn’t drink much anymore. “Just some kind of wheat beer, I guess?”

“Hefeweizen?”

“That sounds nice.”

The beer the waitress brought was lovely — cloudy and golden, with a thin white head. She tasted it. It was cool and dry and tart. Before she knew it she’d finished half the glass. Well. It wasn’t like she didn’t have money for a few drinks, even at Canterlot prices. She finished off the beer and ordered another.

She took this one more slowly, savoring its flavor and its coldness. She let her mind wander — this was a beer that brought back memories. There was a menu in the center of the table. All the excitement had made her a bit peckish. She flipped it open and had a look.

“Excuse me. Do you mind if I sit?”

Oh no.

Strange Mirror looked up. It was that pegasus stallion from earlier! He was wearing a brown suit jacket with elbow patches. It clashed with his fur. He looked nervous. He looked like he was willing to go away if she told him to.

He was cute, though, and in fairly good shape. Maybe sitting with someone would be enough to deter the interest caused by her condition? She didn't get into much trouble on the rare occasions her co-workers talked her into going out with them.

And if he got to be trouble she knew more self-defense magic than the average unicorn. Strange Mirror took a deep breath. “All right.”

He sat down across from her, setting his beer neatly on a coaster. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about earlier. You look like somepony I used to know. Or I thought you did. Now that I look at you again, you don’t look like her at all. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“So who was she?” asked Strange Mirror. Was she trying to scare him off by asking painful questions? Maybe.

He shook his head. “We were friends when we were foals. And more than that for a little while. But she wanted to see the world, and I wanted to stay in Canterlot. I’m not sad I stayed, but… well, I miss her.”

“You’re a Canterlingian, then?”

He nodded. “Born half a mile from here. Lived here my whole life. Where are you from?”

Strange Mirror took a sip of her beer. “A small town. Long ago and far away. It doesn’t matter. They had a brewery there, though. It made a lot of things, but the wheat beers were my favorites. Like this one.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “You were old enough to drink, long ago and far away?”

“You should know better than to ask a lady about her age. Anyway. I got an early start. I overdid it. Then I stopped.” She wrinkled up her nose. “I probably stunted my growth.” Her condition had made it easy to get whatever she’d wanted when she was young — it was more power than a teenage filly could handle responsibly.

“But you’re drinking now,” said the pegasus.

“Its been a rough day.” She glanced at his glass. It was half full of dark amber liquid. “What are you drinking?”

“Hop Punishment IPA.”

Strange Mirror stuck out her tongue. “Ugh, how can you drink that stuff? It’s like choking on a sweat sock.”

He shrugged. “I just like it.”

Strange Mirror clucked. “You Canterlingians. Such jaded palates. What’s your name, anyway?”

“Exchange Rate. My friends just call me X.”

“I bet I can guess what your cutie mark is,” she said, eyes flicking down as if she could look at his hips through the table. “Coins and arrows, and I right?”

He laughed. “Yes, actually. Even the universe knows I’m a nerd.”

Strange Mirror laughed. Was she flirting with this stallion? She guessed she was. So what? He was handsome in an old-fashioned way, with his messy brown forelock, square, masculine muzzle, and serious golden eyes. And he had that deep, powerful chest a lot of pegasus males had. Nice strong flight muscles. It had been a long time since she’d been with stallion. So, so long. “Are you a banker, then?”

“An accountant. I work in currency markets,” he said.

Strange Mirror pursed her lips. “How’s the Dapplemark doing against the Bit?”

“Pretty well. Why, are you thinking of traveling?”

“Maybe,” said Strange Mirror, afraid she was giving away too much. She took a sip of her beer and tried to change the subject. “This is very good beer.”

"What’s your name?” said X, not distracted.

“Mildred. Mildred Do,” she said without hesitation. No need to make up a new lie when she already had one ready to use, and it would do Mildred good to have a little backstory.

“Mildred. That’s a beautiful name.”

Mirror giggled. “No, it’s not, you shameless flatterer!”

“No, it is! Have you ever said it out loud? Mildred. Mildred. Mill dread.”

Strange Mirror rolled her eyes and polished off her beer. “You’re beyond help. And I need to see a horse about a dog.”

“Can I buy you another drink?” said X.

“You can,” said Strange Mirror. “When I get back.”

She sat in the bathroom stall longer than she needed to, thinking. It wasn’t too late to escape out the bathroom window — it was small, but Mirror was skinny. It looked like she’d fit. But she was actually having a good time! A better time than she’d had in ages. She liked to think of herself as a pony who loved to be alone, but it did get old. This was like something in one of her romances novels. A mistaken identity. A meet cute. It could go places. Wonderful, exciting, dangerous places.

Oh, Harmony this was such a bad idea.

A hoof banged on the stall door. “Are you almost done in there?”

“I’ll be out in a minute!” Strange Mirror sighed. She was going to do it anyway, wasn’t she? She was. She was probably going to do him if he wanted it. Which, being a stallion, he probably did.

Her glass was still empty when she came back. She smiled. A gentlepony. “So. More of the Hefeweizen, please.”

And they talked. He asked her questions. Which was thoughtful, but inconvenient. She deflected his questions by asking him some of her own. It was good to ask ponies questions — it distracted them and makes them like you. The two of them talked for what seemed like no time at all, but suddenly Strange Mirror looked away from his golden eyes and realized the staff were putting chairs on tables and giving them dirty looks.

“Oh my gosh,” she said.

“We shut the place down,” said X, smiling and taking at the bill.

Strange Mirror took a deep breath. “So. This is going to sound… very forward. But there’s a gas leak at my place, and I don’t have a place to sleep tonight.”

“You can sleep on my couch,” he offered.

“I can sleep anywhere, really.” Mirror batted her eyelashes, trying to make her point clear.

“Oh.” He said, blushing and making himself absolutely beautiful. “Oh.”

✭☆✭☆✭☆✭

They walked, side by side, through the warm summer night. He had stammered and blushed when she took him into a drugstore to get over-the-counter birth control spells — it had been so long that Strange Mirror had forgotten the ones they’d taught her in magic high school — but he insisted on paying even when she had explained that money wasn’t an issue for her.

They stopped to kiss at the door of his apartment building, and then on the stairs, and then in his living room.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” X said between kisses. “We just met a few hours ago.”

Strange Mirror ran her tongue over his lips, then slid it inside when he opened it up. She caressed his tongue with hers, exploring him gently. He had good teeth.

“I want to. I’m lonely,” she said a few minutes later. “And horny. And you seem good. You seem like a good pony. But not too good.”

“I’m not too good,” he agreed with a wry half-smile. “I should be strong.”

Mirror sighed, and began taking off her clothes. “I, an adult mare, of my own free and extremely enthusiastic will, more-or-less sober and of sound mind, offer you my body with no strings attached. You want me, and have no other commitments.” She balled up her clothes and tossed them into his face. “The choice is yours. I’ll be in your bed if you need me.”

She went into his closet-like bedroom, wriggled under his sheets. He came in and closed the door behind him. The light from the room’s widows lit only the edges of his body. She closed her eyes as he climbed into bed and lay against his back. He kissed his way along her spine. He lost his way as he reached her croup, nipping and licking. She brushed her tail against his face, then lifted it aside. He pulled her cheeks aside with his hooves. She heard him inhale.

“Do you like the way I smell?”

“Yes. You smell like summer.”

Mirror spread her hind legs. He was quite skilled with his mouth. And an intolerable tease — she was begging by the time she came, sweating and twitching and melting across the sheets. He didn’t want to stop after the first time. He was obsessed with her little nub. He sucked on it and ground in circles with his tongue until a second orgasm burst through her body, so intense it was almost painful.

He seemed to want to go for a third. She kicked him in the head. “Stop it and fuck me already,” she moaned.

X climbed up on top of her just as she was, on her side with her leg in the air. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but feeling his belly rubbing against her cutie mark was an odd thrill. He slid inside of her all at once, rough and insistent — his manner in life was polite, but in taking his pleasure he was thoroughly demanding. Mirror didn’t mind at all. She pushed the edge of her forehoof down on her clit, jilling off as he fucked her. Pleasure started to build in her lower belly again.

“Don’t come yet,” she moaned.

“What?” said X.

“Oh! Don’t come yet!”

X shouted with pleasure. His wings spread wide, gray feathers floating down around them. She felt him spray inside of her, a very pent-up load filling every available bit of her insides. Oh well. She kept fiddling with herself until she came a third time — a violent spike of joy right up her spine. She clamped down on him, making him groan and thrust again. Then he pulled out, flopped down against her back, panting like a black dog on a hot day.

✭☆✭☆✭☆✭

He wanted to cuddle. He wanted to cuddle for a long time. She needed to clean up! Every time she tried to wriggle away from him, he pulled her closer, like she was some kind of giant soft toy.
He was a mare. She’d hooked up with a mare in a stallion’s body.
Anyway, she was very sleepy. She could wash up in the morning. She lay small spoon against him, feeling that wonderful broad pegasus chest rising and falling against her back.

“I thought you said you were a scribe,” mumbled X.

“What?” said Strange Mirror, her eyes fluttering closed.

“Your cutie mark. It’s a hand mirror. What does that have to do with being a scribe?”

Her cutie mark. Crap. That was the one thing her condition didn’t effect, which was why she wore a skirt all the time. She’d made up a lie for this. What was it? Oh yes.

“I have such good penmanship that I can write backward as easily as forwards. It's a long story. I’ll tell you some other time.”

“Oh. Okay,” said X.

“X?”

“Yes, Mildred?”

“What do you see when you look at me?”

X sat up a little. “What do you mean?”

“Everything. The way I look, but intangible stuff is okay too. I know its strange, but humor me. Am I really that much like Edelweiss?” Strange Mirror had no idea what she looked like. Or what other ponies saw when they looked at her. It was rare to get a chance to ask.

“You really aren’t anything like her. She was an earth pony, and you’re a unicorn. She was sturdy and you’re slim. She was yellow with a short white curly mane and you’re purple with a long straight red mane. Her eyes were green and yours are amber. She was shy, and you’re confident.”

“I have my shy side,” said Strange Mirror dreamily.

“Well, I don’t know you that well. She was a little prim, and you’re… earthy, I guess.”

“Ironic.”

“What?”

“That of the two of us the earth pony was less earthy,” said Mirror. “Sorry. It seemed funny when I said it.”

X kissed her ear. She flicked it against his nose. He lay down against her again. They were silent for a while.

“I know what it is,” he said as she was beginning to fall asleep.

“Brave. You’re both very brave. Not at all afraid to ask for want you want. Not afraid to just… go.” He was starting to sound sad.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked,” she mumbled. “It got weird.”

“No, it’s all right. I started things weird, and it’s hard to move past that,” said X.

Strange Mirror yawned. “Wanna go to sleep?”

X rested his head on her neck. “Sounds good to me.”