Author's Note
A silly fluff I wrote, basically just to explain the cover image. 
The Brushie chase.
Dew Doe had seen many messy manes, but she could swear the one on Private Iceland was in a perpetual state of messiness. No matter how many times it was brushed, it would return to its pre-brushed state within a day or two.
The blue pegasus mare knew that Private was rather lax on personal hygiene, though he would shower occasionally, Dew and her sister Foxy sometimes had to give him several hints that he probably should hit the shower. Once or twice they even just pushed him into the bathroom, with Foxy declaring, “Take a shower or we ban pancakes from this house forever!”
That was next to nothing when it came to brushing. Dew had never seen him brush, or seen any indication that he did in the privacy of his room or in the bathroom. He had a dirty blonde mane and tail, while she had a white one with a red stripe running through it, Foxy’s mane and tail was navy blue, and Foxy’s daughter Coal had a silver gray mane and tail.
This was a frustrating mystery for the mare, she and her sister had grown up with how important the care of your mane was, knowing someone who was so completely indifferent to it just didn’t compute.
Thus was born a peculiar tradition in this small renting house in the suburbs of Fillydelphia. The neighbors would sometimes hear a yelp, then a loud “KEEP THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!” Sometimes there was a crash and followed by silence. If Private Iceland came outside his mane was neatly brushed and the dark gray unicorn was grumbling more than usual.
Dew Doe had started brushing Private. However, it was tricky. Private was, despite having two roommates and one with a child even, a recluse and was very true to his name. Dew knew that his general mood was that of “keep your distance away from me,” and it was tricky to know when he was in a tolerable enough mood to allow others too close.
It had taken her years to somewhat master reading the stallion, however she by now felt safe enough to make attempts. Because sometimes, Private would just sit quietly and let her brush him, other times he would bolt up and run. Dew couldn’t help it when that happened and started to chase him around the house.
When this first happened, she couldn’t even begin to imagine that he would allow her to actually brush him if she caught up with him. She was a small mare, he was a much bigger stallion. If he wanted to, he could easily chuck the pegasus into orbit. Amazingly, if caught, which happened often, he would just lie still and let the brushing happen.
Of course she would never admit it out loud, but this was also just one of her many attempts to garner the stallion’s attention. When successful she was both close to him and brushing his hair. This went often far better than many of her failed seduction attempts, which often resulted in Private suddenly going to take a shower.
Dew Doe had been in love with the stallion almost since they first met, way back when her sister and she were still in Fillydelphia University, taking various courses. They had decided to partake in the Fillydephia Running of the Leaves. Midway through the run a young stallion had suddenly walked onto the route the horde of running ponies were taking, blissfully unaware of them until too late and got trampled for his efforts.
Dew Doe and Foxy, however, noticed the pony lying groaning on the road, stopped their run and with sheepish looks on their faces took him to the hospital, where Dew worked as part-time nurse while in Uni.
Foxy would often joke about this first meeting with Private and how they had quite literally ran into him, often followed by a very unamused glare from the unicorn.
Dew took it upon herself to nurse him back to health and learn a little about him, which turned out to be very difficult when she got first introduced to Private’s infamous silence. She didn’t give up and slowly managed to get him to reveal that he had just arrived in Fillydelphia to take history courses in the university and was actually looking for a place to stay.
Still feeling bad about the whole stampeding him to the ground, Dew and Foxy offered him to rent at the same place they did. He accepted if only because he had not liked any of the other alternatives he had seen so far.
The sisters soon learned many of his peculiar habits - he liked to take a nap in front of the fireplace instead of using any of the couches, had a rather obsessive liking for pancakes, tended to speak in a low tone, if he ever spoke at all save for grunts and could sit still in total silence.
They also learned he was a twin when his brother Barricade came one day unexpectedly for a visit. Barricade was Private’s polar opposite, despite sharing mostly the same physical looks - gray coat, blonde mane, dark brown hooves. He was talkative, somewhat brash and joked.
Foxy actually got a bit enamored by the more outgoing twin and soon enough the two were in a relationship. Something she would later start to regret, Barricade turned out to be not the ideal coltfriend, though strangely enough was the only coltfriend Foxy has had who never made fun of her nor was just using her to get to her sister Dew. Barricade actually seemed to want to be with Foxy.
But, he was possessive and jealous and treated her like his personal property. Finally after a year of this, the sister witnessed another thing Private was capable off. Telling his brother off.
Foxy and Barricade entered the house arguing, Foxy was really getting tired of her coltfriend’s attitude with her and was trying to tell him to stop treating her like property. Barricade didn’t listen, told her she was his mare and she better get used to it. Things got so heated that Barricade actually seemed ready to strike her.
It never hit, as he raised his hoof, it was suddenly bathed in a blue aura. In the entrance of the living room stood Private and to Foxy’s astonishment, the usually neutral looking unicorn looked furious.
“I have just about had enough of this!” Private growled, enlarged the magic aura to envelope his entire brother, used his magic to open the front door and threw Barricade out. Then he went out after his twin, slamming the door behind him.
Dew Doe was coming home at that time and witnessed Private in the yard outside the house, roaring at his brother.
“I’ve been watching this for a year now and it has been a year too long! You treat Foxy like garbage! She’s had enough ponies treating her like garbage without you adding on top of the pile! Get lost! If you ever bother Foxy again, I won’t be held responsible for my actions!”
Although stunned to see her usually quiet, reclusive roommate acting like this, older sister instincts kicked in and Dew rushed into the house to see how her sister was doing. Foxy was in tears, told her sister how she and Barricade had been arguing and that he had almost hit her, but Private stopped him before tossing him out.
Dew Doe was infuriated, but having seen that Private was taking care of his brother, opted to just console her sister instead. When Private came back in, he actually looked embarrassed and shameful, apologizing for having introduced them to his idiot brother.
The sisters just thanked him in turn for taking care of him for them - if anything this just increased Dew’s attraction towards Private and Foxy had a new appreciation for the grumpy unicorn, claiming that at least one of the twins was decent.
That was of course years ago. Coal was born a few months after Barricade was ejected by Private and the father was at least decent enough to pay foal support when notified of it.
Now Dew Doe liked to think she knew Private well enough to get away with brushing him, even if it often ended up with a chase. There was one thing though she didn’t quite know but Foxy suspected.
Private was enjoying the chases. He liked Dew giving him attention like this. He was just too scared to openly admit it. He had been slowly growing attracted to the blue pegasus over the years and was often contemplating ways to confess his feelings.
The main obstacle in his mind was that he worried how it would affect their friendship. He had seen how Barricade and Foxy had ended up and he was really nervous that history would repeat itself just with him and Dew instead.
Sometimes he was annoyed she was interrupting him with that confounded brush and took off to get away from it, but most of the time he just ran because Private knew they expected him to run, so felt he might as well play hard to get.
Her seduction attempts didn’t necessarily misfire, they more often than not hit the target closer than the mare ever knew, but Private was just so scared how to respond that he would panic and hide. Every time he vowed that next time he would do it right. He never did.
So for now the two of them were in an eternal state of ‘we are not attracted to each other, we just like each other’s company.’ Foxy would sometimes snark about the two of them to Dew, to which Dew would respond. “I have no idea what’s your talking about.”
For Dew Doe, Private was well worth the wait, she would get him one day. Private is still trying to work on a better response than a panicked shriek and rush to the shower to cool down.
In the meantime the brushie chase is still on and the neighbors have gotten quite used to the regular shout of:
“KEEP THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!!!”
The end.
