The Marine

The hangover had passed and I had put away the rest of the alcohol for a rainy day, Rainbow was still hanging out with me as she felt that she owed it to both me and Fluttershy for spilling the beans about us and well. I wasn't in the mood to stop her groveling, though I wasn't as upset I still was pretty pissed. There were a few things I wanted to look into, mainly to see if Twilight or someone could enchant me a necklace so that I would be a bit bigger, I knew that the health risks were that I could suffer from a compressed spine but I'll be fucked if I'm gonna sit in a children's seat ever again.

Rainbow was trailing behind me as I walked to Twilight's place, I knew she would be there and Rainbow was holding some books of mine because I needed to return them anyways. Rainbow looked at me and asked, "Hey Mickey, where are we headed?"

"The library." I answered, "I know you're allergic to reading so I wanted to torture you."

"Har-Har." Rainbow replied equally sarcastically, "Actually, I told Twilight about what you said I probably had. She recommended to go to the doctor and you were right...again."

"You'd be hard pressed to find a moment when I'm wrong." I said.

"What if you are wrong?" Rainbow asked.

"Then I accept it, learn from it, and move on." I said, "Comparatively to your lives, mine is much too short."

"How long do humans usually live?" Rainbow asked.

"80 to 90 years, 100 if I'm lucky." I stated, "So enjoy the days we have together, cause they're going to fly by in a heartbeat."

"Okay." Rainbow said as we got to Twilight's place.

I opened the door, and nodded at Spike, Spike looked up from his comic book and smiled, "Hey Mickey, come to return the books?"

"Yeah, you guys need to get some new books. I think I've read everything in this place." I commented.

"I don't doubt it, you read books very fast." Spike commented as he checked the books back in.

"Is Twilight around?" I asked him.

"She's in the basement, something wrong?" Spike answered and asked.

"You of all people should understand why I'm getting a little tired of living in a world too big for me." I said, I then looked at Rainbow. "Rainbow, stay here." She nodded and I walked towards the basement.

I opened the door and heard Twilight humming to herself, she was in the zone. I put my fingers up to my mouth and whistled to get her attention, she looked up at the top of the stairs that I stood on and smiled. "Oh, hey Mickey. I'm just finishing up taking notes on this experiment, I'll be with you in a second. Come in, please."

I walked down the stairs at an even pace, looking around. I could still see that medical table that I had laid upon. I shuttered a bit, shook my head and looked at Twilight. I loved it when Twilight was feeling like a scientist. She was dressed in a lab coat and had her mane up in a bun, she was adorkable. She wrapped up what she was doing and looked down at me, "So, what's up?"

I took a deep breath and started to explain what I wanted, "Well, I think that everyone knows that when it comes to my stature, I'm not the greatest. To put in the simplest terms, the world is too big for me and I'm tired of sitting in the kiddy seats at restaurants. I want a necklace that increases my height."

Twilight looked at me and put her hand on my cheek, "You know we don't think any less of you because of how tall you are."

"I know, but I'm tired of climbing over everything just to get to my bags on the train, or sitting in a highchair or a bar stool because I'm not tall enough, or having you girls lean down so much to kiss me." I said while putting my hand on yours, "I'm not asking for this because I'm emasculated, I'm asking because I want to be comfortable in a world that doesn't tailor to my every need. I don't like to ask you girls for much and you know that, and I'm not happy being selfish, but when I have a child. I want to be able to hold him without him crushing me."

"Child? Him? You've never told us that you wanted to be a father." Twilight looked shocked.

"I was afraid, that if I had said something. You girls would have pushed me into something I wasn't ready for just yet, but now I know that you girls wouldn't betray my trust like that." I said and looked away, "At least most of you girls."

"Mickey, what Rainbow did was unacceptable. I was so close to kicking her out of the herd but then I thought of the things you said about us forgiving and reforming ponies so I didn't, but I didn't immediately forgive her either."

"Things take time, I didn't immediately forgive her either." I said, "I'm going to hold onto the anger however."

"You're improving." Twilight said, "Well, first things first. The enlargement spell would be enchanted to the necklace, however. There's the problem with your anti-magic, since it cancels out any magic when stressed or angry. It should be fine for when you're not, however we don't know the exact specifications, we may need to run some tests before we can confirm it. Nothing too invasive I assure you, but it's going to require you to be under a lot of stress, but Spike and I will be here for you."

"That's, reassuring." I said, "I'm not being sarcastic, I really mean it."

Twilight brushed my long hair aside, "Your mane is really long."

"Humans call it hair, but yeah it is. I was thinking of cutting it, way back when I was in the marines." I said, "You have a pair of clippers I could use?"

"I don't know how I feel about you cutting your own hair, how about I do it for you?" Twilight asked.

"Do you have a lot of experience cutting hair?" I asked her.

"Not really, but I know who does! If you don't mind staying here for a bit." Twilight said.

"I'm not going to get a haircut in your science lab." I said, while headed towards the stairs. God I hate stairs, I wish all stairs were escalators, I also wish I had a remote to turn the escalators in reverse. That'd be funny to me, but I got to the top of the stairs with Twilight following me and closed the door behind her.

Twilight coughed to get Spike and Rainbow to stop talking to each other, "Spike, could you please go get Rarity?"

Spike smiled and walked out the library as I sat down in one of the lounge chairs. Rainbow sat next to me, she tried to reach over to hold my hand but I slapped it away. "You're still on probation, girlfriend or not."

"What do I have to do to get off probation?" Rainbow asked.

"Apologize-" I started but she cut me off.

"I have though! I apologized to you multiple times and that's also the reason I'm here instead of at home!" Dash said.

"Let me finish before you go off on tangents." I sternly said, I was considering doing a Drill Instructor's tone if she didn't let me speak. I then continued, "Apologize to Fluttershy. Because that's the person that you most affected, do you think that she likes that her closest and oldest friend went off and told other people about what she got up to in the bedroom?" I asked her.

"Oh...shit..." Rainbow looked down.

"This is one of the reasons why I said that common sense needs to be taught, it should've told you that you shouldn't go blabbing about your best friends escapades in the bedroom especially given that her name literally had the name SHY in it." I explained.

"I'm going to go apologize to Fluttershy..." Rainbow got up and walked out the door.

Twilight looked at me, thinking about what I had said. "Do you think that Fluttershy gets her shy nature from her name?"

"It could be, if it's not it doesn't specifically help. Your destinies are tied to your names, I mean come on Applejack? She was going to be a farmer, and Sweetie Belle? Something to do with singing. It's one of those things that so glaringly obvious yet you people elect to ignore it." I said, "Humans don't really get that liberty, or get a magical tattoo on our asses saying what we should do for the rest of our lives."

"Hmm, that's true." Twilight said, "Do you ever really miss Earth? You talk about it a lot."

"At this point, I don't know. I do miss life on Earth yeah, that's true. However, I've gotten used to life here in Equestria. I'm...in a state of limbo right now. I can't explain it, but I can't do anything about it." I said, "Besides, there are a few consolations in Equestria. I don't have to worry about an idiot in charge blowing us all to hell with nukes because of what he said on the internet to piss off another government. I still worry about people in charge though, but I think anyone in their right mind is somewhat concerned about what their government is doing for their citizens."

"Fair enough." Twilight nodded, "I got a question, why do you say anyone and people?"

"It's all inclusive, nothing wrong with what you're saying but saying anypony when in the company of say a griffon? That kinda says that I don't mean you, I just mean the ponies and anything pony related." I pointed out.

"Would you mind if I used what you say?" Twilight asked.

"That's up to you, I was raised with it for 25 years of my life, day after day. It's ingrained into my brain." I stated.

"I'm back." Spike announced and Rarity ran by her boyfriend hugging Twilight.

"So who is it that needs my help darling?" Rarity asked.

Twilight pointed to me, "Mickey wants a haircut, and maybe trim the beard before it gets too bushy."

I ran my hand through my beard, and Twilight had a point. Rarity summoned her hair care items and quickly set up a chair in the kitchen, with plastic trash bags under the chair. Rarity spoke up, "Okay so what I was thinking was."

"I'm going to have to cut you off right there, I want what's close to a buzz cut, leave a little on top, fade the back and sides. Can you do that?" I asked.

"Yes...but why?"

"It's the haircut I had when I was serving in Iraq and Afghanistan." I stated, "It's practical."

"How much do you want on top?" Rarity asked.

"Take almost all of it off, leave only a few centimeters." I said.

Rarity soon got to work, cutting off all my hair. In all honesty, I was tired of the long hair getting into my eyes. Besides, it grows back so what do I have to complain about? "Please hold still sweetie." Rarity said.

"Apologies." I apologized, "I tend to move my head when I'm thinking."

Rarity smiled and nodded, "Just try not to do it as much, I don't want to cut you."

"No problem." I smirked as more of my hair fell off my head, my dark brown locks becoming nothing more than short nubs of hair.

Twilight and Spike went back to doing their library duties. Which left Rarity and I alone, "So I heard what Rainbow had said. Utterly awful thing to do."

"Coming from someone who gossips at any piece of thinly veiled evidence she can get on, I don't think you have much room to talk." I commented.

"You have a fair point, I have been trying to stop." Rarity then started to cut the top of my hair and brushing off my shoulders, "You're going to have to take a shower after this."

"Duly noted." I said as she got finished up my hair and moved to my beard. "I don't want to get rid of the whole thing, but try not to make me look like a hobo."

"This isn't the first time that I've had to work on facial hair darling and I've told you so." Rarity said.

"I've got a question, how do ponies shave their faces without lopping off their fur?" I asked.

"Enchanted razors, somehow the company that makes them put a lasting enchantment within the strip to make sure that you don't cut into your fur while shaving, but once the strip is gone, so is the enchantment." Rarity said, "It makes a killing on the market, before then we just had to either go without, or try not to cut all of our fur off."

"Interesting." I said.

"Would you like to style your beard any?" Rarity asked.

"No thanks, I'm good." I said, she then handed me a mirror. I looked good, I then got up and brushed off all the hair on me. "Thanks." I pulled out my bag of bits and paid her.

"I couldn't take these from you!" Rarity tried to hand them back but I stopped her.

"You took time out of your day, to come and give me a service, the best thing for me to do is pay you for your time." I told her, "If you don't take the money I'm going to go out and dig up some gems and give them to you to pay you back."

"I-" Rarity stopped and realized the futility of arguing with me. "Alright."

I started to walk towards the stairs and shouted out to Twilight. "Hey Twinight! I'm gonna use your shower! If you want to join me you're more than welcome!"

I chuckled to myself but then I was stopped when a flash of pink light and my alpha girlfriend appeared in front of me. "Are you 100% deadly serious?"

"I was half joking but sure, I don't mind. Just no sex though, I could never perform my best when in the shower. It's sexy, yes but I'm not good at it." I said as I walked past her.

"Okay fair enough." Twilight said.

"No experiments or taking notes either!" I said as I started to run off to the shower with a huge grin on my face with Twilight following me.

"That's not fair Mickey! Besides, how can I take notes in the shower!?"

"I meant in your head, you literal minded egghead!" I started to sprint all while cackling at the top of my lungs.

Spike soon appeared next to Rarity helping her clean up, "I think they're gonna be fine."

"I wholeheartedly agree with you." Rarity smiled at her drake.