1 of 2. Eruption Imminent
A temperate, quiet night fell upon the Pie Rock Farm, situated right in the center of the Equestrian Midlands.
But if truth were to be told, all nights on the aforementioned Rock Farm tended to be quiet, with a few notable exceptions. Such exceptions mainly included Pinkie Pie visiting, and the more recent events concerning a certain two individuals of the household… namely, the shyer one of the sister-trio and her newfound human coltfriend.
Since the latter two had departed through the portal to the human world to continue school, the status quo had returned to the farmhouse, and Maud Pie was more than okay with this… to an extent.
To her, nights like these were her absolute favorite: quiet, and just warm enough to leave the windows open and let the fresh night air flow in… all while being just cool enough to warrant a fire in the common room.
And for Maud, that last part was the best part of it all.
The contained, yet roaring fire produced most of the noise throughout the common room, disturbing the silence with an occasional crack of the firewood or a flare-up of its confined torrent. The flames projected dancing shadows along the wall with the natural light in a constant duel with the darkness and moonlight, both of which diffused inside from the nocturnal world.
A perfect balance. A natural equilibrium.
The powerful, yet ever gentle touch of the radiating heat kissed Maud’s face as she sat about eight feet in front of its source. Her cheeks warmed as if a lover cupped that knowing, seemingly unfeeling visage of hers, petting and stroking her in all the right places that dare she admit, made her tingle.
Her faded-blue, loose-fitting frock was as standard as it was practical in this… or any of her environments. The accompanying knee-length skirt also ensured some extra warmth, comfort, and airflow.
Not necessarily in that order.
Those stoic, deep pools of teal-blue she called irises meticulously scrutinized the paper illuminated in her grasp. She scanned each and every word, calling into question their individual purposes in forming the technical, proof-bidding assertions held therein. But of course, Maud was never one to leave her proclamations unsupported, especially when it came to the very foundation of the science behind rocks.
She loved rocks.
Dare she say, she had an unnatural obsession with them.
But more importantly, Maud knew that she loved the way she felt right now… in a perfect state of warmth and coolness, accompanied by a pervasive silence that echoed silently through the darkened home with her and her thoughts alone. This was her definition of ‘living it up,’ as it were.
And she knew for certain that the day she received her Doctorate in Geology (colloquially known as her ‘Rockterate’) in her hand from the dean of her school… she would feel just as she did now for many, many years to come.
That thought alone was more than enough motivation to continue reading through the innumerable sheets of parchment in her hands and lap. As much as she had memorized the words (they would likely haunt her dreams), and as much as her eyes hurt to look at another seismic chart, she knew she would continue… she must continue.
This was her dissertation.
This was everything she had ever worked for to better the lives of her and her family.
But this accomplishment in and of itself?
For nopony but Maud, herself.
After several minutes, the fire still burned as strong and brightly as it had when it was lit, but Maud’s natural proofreading cadence was halted at an odd combination of words.
Only the most trained eye could see that her brow furrowed a fraction of a millimeter… or that her nostrils flared.
Had she written these four words together in the same sentence? They broke her immersion, which meant they would decimate the immersion of somepony else. And this was ready to submit tomorrow?
Ridiculous.
Setting the papers down in a neat stack on her lapdesk with the care one would show an infant, Maud retrieved her quill delicately between her right thumb and index fingers. She rolled the loose-ish sleeve of her frock up her forearm and dipped the head of the quill into one of two sets of ink.
This particular magical ink, however, did well to erase any and all traces of the offending wordage after a few precise strokes. All that was left for her to do was replace the original phrase, and let it take up the mantle of ending her final paragraph.
Maud set her quill down for a brief moment and, without sparing a glance, she scooped a smoothened rock from just under her left leg: Boulder, her oldest friend.
Just the right size of her palm, she cradled the stone in her slender grip and mindlessly rolled him around. Her studious, apathetic eyes never left the paper in front of her all the while, even as the fireplace emitted a rather large crack.
And once again, Boulder came through for her as Maud had yet another stroke of brilliance. She promptly (yet beautifully) scribbled in her new ending, supplanting its original, inferior self.
Just like that, she set her quill aside and culminated the last portion of what she only dreamed of finishing years prior.
She had checked, and checked, and spot-checked an inordinate, borderline inappropriate amount of times this week alone. Each time, though Maud could never show it normally, she felt just as unsure as when the rough draft was completed.
But now, she had one-hundred percent confidence in her work.
It was done.
Placing that last paper back in order with the rest, Maud set her lap-desk aside with extreme gentleness, freeing her thighs from the wooden underside that had quickly become another friend of hers. The exposed portions of her quadriceps had a light sheen of moisture from the wood pressed against her coat and skin… and Maud would have been lying to herself if she said she would not rather have a stallion sitting there instead.
Maud drew her eyes up the wall in front of her, to just above the fireplace, where the light generated had obscured the pictures adorned above in shadow. However, she was able to see most of the familiar frames and their contents… pictures that reminded her what her end goal was.
A family photo with all six of them: her three sisters and parents.
A portrait of each member of the family—Pinkie Pie was the only one to provide a face-spanning smile, let alone any semblance of one.
Recent additions included a formal photo of Marble and her newfound coltfriend at the time, Eric, in their formal dance outfits and holding each other lovingly. Their smiles told wonders.
Her nostalgia trip further warmed her face and her heart. It was pleasantly interrupted by some shuffling barely a fist’s width away, down to her left on the same couch.
Speaking of a wish for an aforementioned ‘stallion on her lap…’
Said movement having drawn her attention, Maud set her eyes on the newest resident of the Pie household: a good, fond friend of hers over the last twenty-five weeks or so… Andrew Kerwin.
And by extraordinarily laborious, hilarious happenings, her current coltfriend.
She was more proud of that fact than anypony would have been able to decipher.
Maud let her indifferent expression fall upon her beau whom had been living with her and her family for a fair majority of even their ‘friendship’ tenure. She silently eyed his form… sizing him up and eagerly (though it did not seem that way in the slightest) observing his actions and mannerisms as a predator would her unwitting prey.
Here was a human male approximately her age and also finishing up a geology doctorate. The two enjoyed the relative serenity that existed between the them when they were in studious moods or when exam-time rolled around… a small stroke of kindredness that was a breath of fresh air for both parties.
It was this little connection, in conjunction with their nigh-equal love for their subject, that ensured that their odd friendship blossomed on the most solid, yet seemingly uncommon bedrock imaginable.
She personally enjoyed the combination of his rather straight, dark-brown hair with his oddly light-brown eyes; they went well with his paler skin. The back of his aforementioned hair appeared to be groomed neatly and fell to the back of his neck… and the observing mare also had admitted to herself many times that his plastic reading glasses gave him a slight elegant edge when he wore them.
She always had a thing for the intellectual-looking type.
Maud crossed her legs and leaned her tired head against the backrest of the couch. She continued to watch Andrew run the tip of his quill over the last few of his own paragraphs, and she observed his unconscious mannerisms that she found so cute.
She almost pitied him in how blissfully unaware of the little… plan of sorts gestating in her head. It was better this way for now.
For him though, Andrew’s equally tired, sunken eyes graced his surroundings with a glance at the clock, and he actually recoiled in mild astonishment.
“Holy shit… Have we really been working at this for eight hours straight?!” he exclaimed softly, just enough where his voice could not travel to other parts of the house and disturb the undoubtedly sleeping occupants.
And yet, he honed his gaze right back onto his work and promptly continued.
Maud did well to shift her eyes over to the grandfather clock present on the far side of the room.
Indeed, it was almost midnight currently. They had begun finishing the final draft at around four in the afternoon.
She then stretched both her arms over her head as far as they would go without ripping them out of their sockets. A single pop in her back delivered an amazing, warm, looseness up her spine. Her relieved back and arm muscles screamed for joy and manifested themselves as a single, cute yawn with an accompanying little squeak.
Her fractions-of-a-second blissful expression elastically snapped back to indifference. She then casually followed up on Andrew’s rhetorical question with an ever-blunt:
“Yes.”
Though Maud was often a mare of few words, she did enjoy talking when there was someone who was there to listen. As such, she had few qualms with adding to her affirmation.
“Better to get it all done at once and edit later, than to be scrambling to get things done and, as you say, come up with ‘shit.’”
Andrew looked up from his work and blinked a couple of times, all before turning his head and meeting Maud’s emotionless eyes with bemusement in his own. His penchant for vulgarities had certainly rubbed off on her.
“Ummm… you do know we’re pretty much done with the final draft of our joint dissertation, right?” he asked, then added humorously:
“Guuuurl, this is the editing.”
Maud, in turn, blinked once before glancing back at the fire.
“Be quiet, Andrew.”
There was really no way for Andrew to come back to that, so he merely shrugged. A few extra strokes of his pen, and he punctuated that last paragraph like it was his purpose in life. As for Maud’s command, he paid it little mind—he knew well she was being facetious. It was just one of the many habits of hers he had picked up once she knocked some sense into his dense head.
Though to be fair, he needed some serious convincing to see that she liked him.
“And just like that, done!” he said, setting his quill down and victoriously flopping his back against the back of the couch, arms spread wide.
And he lazily drifted his gaze toward Maud, who stared back in kind. Losing himself in those gorgeous pools of hers reminded him just how lucky he felt, and the ensuing lightness in his diaphragm also reminded how unlikely the chain of events to make this happen were..
As a certain Eric Griffith was nearly eight months prior, Andrew was also the product of the Earth-Equestria Student Exchange Program. Such a program, as relations normalized between the human and pony worlds, allowed high school and college students to travel through the portal for incredibly cheap and continue their studies on their counterparts’ worlds.
Andrew was one who jumped at the opportunity, and found himself at Maud’s university, where their schedules converged.
In the end, with Eric and Marble now back on Earth studying after twenty weeks of sexual tension and actual sex, the farm was once again in need of some extra hands around the house.
Maud offered Andrew the same deal of free room and board in exchange for labor. By this time, they had known each other for well over two quarters, so the question and requisite answer were merely formalities.
It then took Limestone’s—her sister—trademark sass and bluntness to get Andrew to actually believe that Maud wasn’t just teasing him. She actually adored him.
And the funny thing was, he adored her.
The rest was history.
And one of the first things Maud noticed and admired about him—which shone even in his following words—was his sheer pride in his work:
“This’ll be better than the last paper we turned in by miles,” he declared with a confidence that Maud wished she had at a younger age.
Still, she happened to agree with his sentiment, nodding once at his assertion and staring back into the fire as the theme of ‘relaxation’ slowly made itself realized.
Yet in that single moment’s silence, Andrew had something else to follow up with… especially if that shit-eating grin had anything to do with it.
He adjusted his glasses and let out a yawn.
“Especially since somepony finally formatted the axes of our charts correctly this time!” he jokingly admonished, nudging his shoulder into hers.
Though Maud never showed it for obvious reasons, she always enjoyed their light roughhousing and oft-physical displays of their friendship and now-relationship. If anything (despite she forgetting her own strength sometimes), it was reassurance to her that her self-proclaimed ‘drab’ personality was not off-putting.
After all, Andrew lived with her for what seemed like a small lifetime by this point. If he had not run away screaming by now, then she figured she was in safe waters.
That was... safe enough waters that she had absolutely no apprehension with her rebuttal to his friendly prod.
Having casually angled her head towards her coltfriend and continuing to trace her index finger around Boulder, Maud quipped:
“True… but at least I wasn’t the one who misspelled ‘yore’ as ‘your’ on our last paper… five times, as a matter of fact.”
Flopping his hands down against the couch cushions in defeat, Andrew rushed to his own defense.
“Hey, you ‘suggested’ it! Who the hell even writes ‘yore’ on a formal paper?” he demanded to know.
Maud kept her penetrating gaze locked onto his, blinking once in response to his rhetorical question… one she had every intention of answering in her own way.
“Those who care how their papers come across…”
She then graced Andrew with a smirk… the smallest, most minute upturn of the right corner of her lips that took a trained eye to notice.
“Though I wouldn’t expect you to understand that at all. We like our fluffy language here… and you have no sense of linguistic style…
“Honey.”
In mock offense, Andrew gripped his chest and let his jaw drop. In fact, he was actually slightly more ‘offended’ that she tacked on the pet name as a figurative show of force.
Huffing out with no proper rebuttal in place (he was not exactly the best at banter… he knew it and Maud knew it), all he had to contribute was a mere restatement of disbelief:
“Yeah,” he happened to agree. “...but ‘yore’ of all fucking things? What're you, gay?”
Maud blinked her two eyes individually, relieving them of some residual exhaustion.
“Only for you.”
Andrew chuckled, bobbing his head impressed and in consideration of the sheer simplicity of her response. He loved Maud’s personality, one that was so blunt it bordered on apathy and perpetual sarcasm… one that never failed to make his eyes sparkle every time he looked her way.
“Just how I like my woman… gay for me,” he halfheartedly agreed.
“You mean ‘mare?’” Maud questioned with her usual monotone.
Andrew brushed off the light annoyance from that constant correction with a blown raspberry.
“Yes, just how I like my mare,” he rectified.
Maud continued looking at him. There was that little tug at her lip corner.
“You mean ‘yore’ mare?”
“FUCK. RIGHT. OFF!” he exclaimed, then growled out in false anger. “GAH! You make me feel so goddamn inadequate, Maud!”
Maud draped her left arm around his back as he hunched forward, then patted his shoulder. With that same inflection of her voice (or rather, lack thereof), she never relented on her little banterous offensive.
“I just work with what I’m given. You did that yore-self.”
Andrew was not amused (he actually was quite amused), and hung his head limply as he gazed at his marefriend, unimpressed.
He was ill equipped to trade jabs with somepony who he admittedly still had trouble reading sometimes, though he could not really fault himself for obvious reasons… he just wasn’t prepared for a roastmaster to be hidden underneath the ‘emotionless,’ pretty Maud’s steely exterior.
Despite the relentless prodding, both knew now that it was time for a change in topic. Namely, to call to attention what they had just accomplished.
Maud lay her head, exhausted, in the crook of his neck. With words that held a mutual, profound meaning for the both of them, she simply said:
“We’re done.”
Andrew draped his right arm over her back, and in turn, Maud leaned into the gesture, keeping her arm draped over him in kind.
He lay his head atop hers, nodding almost nostalgically. Both felt this enormous weight off their shoulders; their paper would be just fine, as would the presentation. The hardest parts were over, in their minds, all that was left to do was just wait out the remainder of the storm.
As a final act of their connection and respect for one another, their free hands fused together, and remained interlocked and warm on their combined laps.
“Yeah… we fuckin’ did it. Almost eight years of school for both of us, but we did it. We’re ready.”
The thought made Maud’s eyes shutter in relief.
“Now we just submit it...” Maud followed up.
“...then present it,” Andrew finished.
And simultaneously, the two sighed out, expelling the mental fatigue from their bodies as one:
“Then we collect our degrees.”
The two seamlessly crossed that invisible threshold from leaning against one another to a full-on hug. They both deserved it, after all that work and slaving they put into this final paper about rock generation and seismic offsets. A combined thesis would sound like an easier time on the surface, but it turned out to be much more complicated, as they had to tie their findings in with each other’s areas of expertise.
In short, there was much blood, copious amounts of sweat, and plenty of tears poured into this.
Especially the latter… Andrew was privy to Maud crying from stress once.
It was… weird, to say the least, but he was just glad to be there for her when she was at her lowest. It made the human feel that much more significant in Maud’s life. And as he got better and better at reading her subtle mannerisms and body language as opposed to her tone of voice, he was just happy how much stronger this whole ordeal had made them not just as friends, but as a couple.
Through the crucible of rocks, they forged a relationship.
The two laughed at their finishing each other’s sentences, though Andrew’s was a tired giggle and Maud’s was merely two huffs, indistinguishable from lightly clearing one’s nose.
“I don’t know ‘bout you, babe...” Andrew spoke after a small while, scratching the top of Maud’s head.
Both pet name and gesture brought no small measure of color to Maud’s already-warm cheeks.
“...but I’m friggin’ beat, and it’s getting hard to keep my eyes open right now.”
As tired as she was, on normal circumstances, Maud would be inclined to agree. From there, per always since they became an item, the two would retire to the same bed to sleep. The stoic mare silently thanked Marble, wherever she might be over on Earth, that she (shockingly) made the first foray with a stallion at home. Her father was infinitely more accepting to intimate relationships in the house now.
But as for sleep, Maud did not wish them in the cards tonight. She had a plan that had already been set in motion, and she’d be damned if they went to bed right now.
And just like when lacking material for a paper with a length-requirement, she used the age-old method of fluffing it up with jargon and garbage by way of stalling:
“We just finished the most important work of our lives to date. You wanna just go to sleep?” she monotonically questioned.
In an obliviousness that reeked of Andrew’s personality, he replied:
“Yeah, actually.”
Maud tsked.
This wouldn’t do at all.
So, she separated from their embrace and turned to him, folding up her legs in lotus style and resting her left knee on the couch cushion next to her.
She then suggested as sultrily she could muster:
“Stay up with me just a little longer. Let’s just relax and… celebrate.”
‘Sultry’ for Maud was not really saying much at all. Andrew was none the wiser, and he only mustered a lone, cocked eyebrow.
Then again, she wasn’t actually surprised at her early failures to get more intimate with Andrew. As a victim of her stoicism, Andrew had no idea how her cues to ‘aggressively’ get into his pants manifested themselves. And since neither of them had gone beyond heavy making out with some sensual touching, her tonal cues were quite limited.
Andrew responded:
“I think your definition of ‘celebrating’ is a little different than mine right now,” he countered. “I’m all for just staying up and talking to you like we’ve done a fuckton of times… and that I always love doing, mind you.
“But tonight, I’m really, really sorry, gorgeous... I don’t think I have the mental clarity for any of that,” he added, running his palm up his forehead.
Andrew removed his glasses and massaged his eyes free of any immediate fatigue that threatened to put him to sleep. He then enveloped Maud’s hand in both of his whilst looking directly into her eyes that reflected every bit of the roaring fire.
“I’d rather just snuggle up with you in bed right now,” he admitted.
As for Maud, she was unfazed, even if she relished in all the lovely little names and sappiness he had for her—she was a hopeless romantic. Knowing that, to him, she was beautiful was certainly a confidence booster… a tick of hers that Andrew exploited to his amusement and her benefit.
Having known Andrew for as long as she did also made her privy to what made him tick. In the end, she knew he would never miss an opportunity to have a drink, or two.
Or six.
The corners of her lips barely measured a curl upward once again.
“We can raid the liquor cabinet.”
The human perked up immediately and his eyes sparkled.
“You know… suddenly I’ve got some extra energy to stay up! I just… don’t know but suddenly. Here I am!” came Andrew’s aboutfaced reply.
Maud beamed evilly on the inside. She knew Andrew better than he knew himself sometimes.
And with the ‘crisis’ averted, it was time to action her next part of the plan… Operation ‘How Goddamn Dense Are You, Andrew? I’m Not Getting Limestone To Tell You To Do Me Into The Rock Bed Foundation.’
Maud reached forward with both hands to cup Andrew’s face. Though her face did not express it per usual, the human could feel the warmth she felt for him radiating through her soft hands, and he relished in the gesture with a soft sigh.
She then brought his face to hers and—after pausing briefly with their mouths a millimeter apart—they took in one another’s affectionate gazes, and then sealed their lips together.
Maud held him there as they smooched, and let their lips re-acquaint themselves with one another for the umpteenth time… so much more meaning was packed into this one simple kiss as another culmination of all their work.
Only once the sides of their faces became unbearably warm from the fire did they separate. The tiniest strand of saliva continued to connect their lips, only visible by shimmering from said fire.
“I figured you’d see it my way,” she finally said. She nuzzled his nose with her muzzle, then got to her hooves, stretching her arms over her head.
She was not blind to Andrew’s eyes tracing once over her outstretched form. He had always saved a fond eye for her slim, fit, unexpectedly busty form under her clothes.
“I’m gonna put some pajamas on. Pour me something good,” she added as she sauntered out of the common room and up the stairs.
“You got it!” Andrew replied, watching Maud leave with an extra sway of her rear that she often saved for him.
He always appreciated it.
The way she always carried herself with an unspoken confidence was something he admired. It certainly was one beacon of light in what he sometimes felt was a project that refused to end.
Yet, here they were.
Andrew got to his feet, did some stretching of his own to realign his muscles and get blood flowing back to his lame limbs, then trudged into the dining room.
He sighed as he turned on the dial of the crystal lights to the dimmest setting, just so he could locate the armoire… wasn’t really that hard, considering it was the largest wooden structure with double doors and vast quantities of alcohol inside.
It was just a matter of flinging the two doors open and finding something suitable in the literal sea of drink.
For a more ‘traditional’ family, as Maud liked to call it, Andrew was always stricken by how much they enjoyed their alcohol.
Not that he was complaining. Far from it.
“Hmmm…” he pondered, chin in the web of his thumb and index finger as he gazed at the choices available. “How about…”
Andrew reached in with his left hand and, after hovering over a few different bottles, he made his selection.
“Tectonic Whiskey it is,” he spoke aloud whilst gingerly removing the particular, stubby bottle.
Naming convention were weird at best, dumb at worst.
He then cradled the bottle of amber-brown elixir and examined the label as the contents sloshed around within. Personally, he felt the drink was ‘okay;’ he much preferred traditional whiskey with its more wooden flavor as opposed to a more mineral-wood flavor hybrid that the Equestrian rendition sported.
But that wasn’t important. What was important was that it was one of Maud’s favorite drinks after a hard day’s studying.
She deserved that much. She was worth at least a bottle of subjectively ‘meh’ liquor.
Andrew shut the armoire doors and beelined straight for a single cabinet which held all the necessary glassware, and he fetched two scotch glasses for the both of them. Ice was kept in the rudimentary freezer where a few trays lay undisturbed and ripe for the picking.
Four cubes each would do, and once he set the drinkware on one of the counters with a soft ‘clink,’ he uncorked the top of the whiskey bottle and poured exact amounts in both… perhaps a bit more than what would be considered proper.
Who gave a shit? They were unofficial PhD recipients at this point. Neither of those letters stood for ‘responsible.’
“Alright~...” he said to himself, approving wholeheartedly of his decision to be convinced to stay up a little longer.
Few things were better than a drink to unwind… especially so when it was a temperate evening with a fire and a pretty mare.
And once again, the light-brown-eyed human was drawn back to that sentiment: the pretty mare. The pretty mare that was his.
He pursed his lips, sighing out as he recorked the bottle and placed it back in its cradle within the armoire. While taking both their to-be-consumed alcohol back to the common room, Andrew was left alone with his thoughts while Maud slipped into something more comfy… and said thoughts drifted to the mare herself as they were oft to do.
“Tectonic Whiskey,” a dry, calmer voice broke up Andrew’s muddled thoughts. “Aw. You shouldn’t have.”
A knowing grin broke upon his face, and he felt now would be a good time to get back to their usual modes of conversation instead of letting his mind meander to dangerous places.
He barely paid Maud any mind, hearing her hoof-falls as she approached and crossed in front of his field of vision to reclaim her seat next to him.
Though in that brief moment, something felt and… looked off about her. He could have sworn he saw a bit more skin and coat on her than before.
No matter. A trick of the light.
He pondered her words with an exaggerated thinkers pose.
“Y’know, you’re right. I really shouldn’t have!”
Maud delivered unto the back of his head a firm swat, connecting the back of her palm to just above his neck.
“GAH! Hey!”
Rubbing the afflicted spot, Andrew turned to Maud with a stern, questioning gaze…
…but instead, met another sight altogether. His breath hitched in his throat, and suddenly any rebuke that he was to cast on his friend for striking him playfully were torn to shreds. His brain needed the extra processing power for what he was witnessing; if his admittedly loose-ish polo becoming as tight as a wet shirt was any indication, then he most definitely did not have enough.
Leaning casually against the other armrest while keeping her body orientation directed at him, Andrew found Maud in what was her usual frock and skirt… but about three sizes too small.
Gone was her loose fitting, usual attire for her daily routine, replaced by what was undoubtedly the same outfit from when she was about seven years younger.
As a result, the once baggy chest and midsections of the fabric were now pulled tight and taut against her full bosom and slender torso. The outline of her bra could be easily made out where once one would struggle to note her true figure. The slim, firm definition of her core was proudly on display, and a slight dip placed her navel directly below. A hefty portion of her lower midriff was on full display for his viewing pleasure.
Proportionally, her skirt had been hiked up to just above the initial curvature of her rear. As a result, every last bit of her legs were on perfect, proud display… and Maud herself knew it.
She folded her right leg over her left, and slid them both down the couch as she unabashedly stretched herself out. For extra emphasis on her trademark ‘stoic smugness,’ Maud folded both her arms behind her head and stared directly into Andrew’s eyes.
“Ummm… Wow. Uh, okay then…”
The human—having regained some semblance of his awareness after undressing her with his own eyes—noted no change at all in her face.
But yet, he felt as if he was squarely in the scope of a figurative sniper.
And true to the nature of a markspony, she said nothing, and left Andrew on the spot to ponder his very existence at the moment.
Though he was doing exactly that, Andrew was now less overcome with shock at the sudden, promiscuous dress of his oft-conservatively clothed marefriend… and instead was more overcome with the question of ‘why?’
He gulped, then righted his posture as he put forth his attempt to speak to Maud normally.
“Well. This… begs more than a few questions.”
Her eyes bored into his with an intensity he had yet to feel.
“Oh?” she asked, as always without that prominent inflection that identified an inquiry. “See something you like?”
She dipped her hand from her jawline and allowed her finger to delicately fall like a feather to her bosom. Maud traced said finger along her sternum, forcing the fabric of her frock to stretch further to the limits against her breasts.
Punctuating it all, she uncrossed her legs and recrossed them with opposite orientation, granting Andrew the briefest, most fleeting view of her dark-colored panties.
“M-Maybe…”
She huffed once.
“Good. But on that note,” she followed up, immediately shifting topics. “You gonna hand me my drink?”
Oh yeah, Andrew had poured them alcohol not even a couple minutes ago.
With perhaps a little too much zeal, he embraced the new subject.
“Right!” he exclaimed, then quickly reined in his eagerness as he handed over a single glass to Maud.
“Here,” he said, and once the skimpier Maud had a hold on her glass, Andrew did his best to ignore the elephant in the room, and culminate their evening with one more formality… that was, if an elephant had really nice tits.
Andrew offered his glass to her with a knowing smile, and Maud clinked hers against his.
“To a successful paper and an awesome end to our education slaving,” he toasted.
Maud drably repeated his words with as much pride as she could muster.
“To a successful paper and an awesome end to our education slaving.”
The two then brought the rims of their glasses to their lips and simultaneously took large gulps, not sparing a single shit towards silly notions of ‘propriety’ when it came to ‘sipping’ whiskey.
Maud may have loved the flavor while Andrew merely tolerated it when it was available… but, both happened to silently agree through gentle groans—as that cool elixir slid down their gullets—that this was the greatest tasting drink in the entire world at the moment.
The to finished half their glasses on that first sip, and separated from the rims with their own ‘ahhhs.’
But now, Andrew figured he would call attention to Maud’s attire with a tilt of his head and a somewhat awkward chuckle.
“So…” he began.
Maud turned fully toward him at his initial word, but in so doing, she cupped her glass in the middle of her lotus-folded legs, which naturally squeezed her chest much more invitingly.
She cocked her head left.
“Yes?” she asked so innocently, for her at least.
Andrew drew his gaze up and down her sitting form once.
“That can’t be comfortable, is all I’m sayin’.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Andrew was not convinced at all, but he was thankful that he didn’t sperg out earlier once she pulled this. This had to be a prank of some sort… Maud being her usual self in trying to get a rise out of him somehow and get the reaction she was looking for. It was the same type of game each time they so much as hung out for more than five minutes. It was a hallmark of their close relationship.
And he friggin’ loved it.
But still, this answered absolutely none of his burning questions.
“But… why?” he ventured to ask with an open palm.
Maud glared at him, blinking her eyes a couple of times as she let the increasingly uncomfortable silence (for Andrew) stew.
“Quite simple, really,” she uttered.
“Oh?”
“You’re so respectful… and so caring to my feelings and just being there. I’ve been trying to get you to pin me to my bed for the past month just so I can break you out of your shell. Because I know what you want to do to me just by the way you look at me,” she elaborated more in one breath than Andrew had heard her do before.
But by her assertions, it appears her sneaky looks and lustful daydreams were not as subtle as he would’ve liked them to have been.
“And quite frankly… I love it. Because I like you. And I want you.”
Andrew’s mouth was becoming drier by the second, and while his nervousness died down knowing that he was most certainly not being reprimanded for his less-than-subtle gawking at his marefriend, his inward hopes were amplifying his anxiousness… his wonder and hope at where the enigmatic mare was taking this.
So he said naught a word as she continued:
“So we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The choice is yours…”
Andrew was silent for a couple of moments as he processed this… was he given an open invitation to essentially jump Maud?
He just needed to make sure there were—despite all the clues and outright words given to him—absolutely no misunderstandings. He wasn't about those misunderstandings.
“Y-You… you wanna have sex, right? That’s what I’m reading out of this and I just wanna make sure—”
Maud blinked once, and Andrew knew that she might as well have rolled her eyes.
“Okay I see you’re choosing the hard way…” she mulled.
“Oh for fuck’s sake…” Andrew giggled. “No… Maud you’re super hot, why the hell would I not wanna bang you? But it’s kinda hard to gauge how well my own ‘advances’ are when your face is literally the same for everything.”
And as expected, Maud’s expression never changed, only she uncrossed and re-crossed her legs whilsts cocking her head.
“That’s a gross exaggeration.”
“Is it?” Andrew countered.
“You sure know how to flatter your mare,” Maud deadpanned, then quickly followed up, done with games:
“Now,” she began her resolute finish. “Are you gonna climb on top of me and make out with me by the fire or do I have to take… alternative measures?”
Her ultimatum was concise. Her implication was irrefutable.
Andrew was now at least marginally more sure that was the ‘all clear’ he had been searching for for a while.
And having it smack him in the face so clearly, on top of most blood flow to his brain being diverted southward, he was a little dumbstruck as to how to immediately follow up. As Maud lay there patiently with her arms dutifully folded behind her head, too-small frock pulled taut around her slender, toned midsection and breasts… Andrew knew he would have to make some form of move.
Before, it was desired of him. Now, it was expected.
It appeared the fire was becoming that much hotter over the course of these few seconds, as Andrew’s breath became shaky and his forehead began to lightly glisten.
Nevertheless, with Maud ‘encouraging’ him by pressing her hoof firmly yet purposefully on the bulge in his shorts, he pressed forward.
Flush against the armrest, he glanced around at his predicament a bit awkwardly, attempting to find the best handhold and approach to Maud’s request. Such a solution came by cautiously climbing over her with his right hand supported by the back of the sofa and his left on any available space that wasn’t the mare’s body.
The cushions depressed at odd angles under his weight as Andrew struggled to not lose his balance and ruin the mood by plummeting to the floor…
...or slamming himself down on Maud’s chest.
Thankfully though, his precautions ensured that didn’t happen… though he owed the final bit of that effort to Maud who so graciously received him.
She gripped the still unsure human by the triceps and guided him on top of her, allowing his body weight through his torso to rest on her own. Their chests were pressed flush together now, and Maud’s breasts cushioned him even more. While Andrew still felt the need to avert his eyes in some attempt to save face from how awkward that entire process was, Maud would not have it.
She diligently kept that perpetually lidded, temperate gaze on his own. No force of nature would get her to look away now that she had her kill right where she wanted him.
But, there was still the matter of calming Andrew’s nerves. While he was by no means inexperienced, as he had noted, his combination of eagerness apprehensiveness had shone through like the moonlight through the common room window. This was likely because of his ‘emotional predicament,’ or lack thereof, making him not exactly know how to always proceed.
Maud placed her right palm against Andrew’s cheek, cupping it in her surprisingly soft, tender touch and angled his head to face her.
Now, their eyes peered into one another, and their noses were negligibly apart.
Maud and Andrew could feel each other’s warm, heavy, shaky breaths break upon each other’s faces like a tropical current in a rising ocean of desire… one that had only been tangentially considered wading into by Andrew.
Maud, however, had been ready to dive into it for a good while.
A torrent of emotions passed between them by some odd lovestruck osmosis… and both their forms were heated up well beyond what the fire would have provided them by itself. Their hearts beat synchronously, powerfully in their chests as they drummed on each other’s sternums.
Andrew spoke softly.
“You know how much you mean to me… right?”
Maud didn’t smile, but there was the tiniest curve upward of the right side of her lips. Her eyes told him the best answer to that question, but the mare followed it up with words all the same:
“Yes. I do,” she so plainly stated, then ran the fingers of her right hand in rivulets through Andrew’s hair, tracing down to his neck affectionately. “And you don’t know how much I love how you treat me.”
A dopey smile appeared on his face.
“Good. That’s what I love to hear,” he said, and planted a kiss on the tip of her nose, which caused Maud to cutely (in her emotionless way) scrunch up her muzzle.
“Which is why I’ve been wanting you to pounce on me for a long while,” she noted. “Apparently I’ve never been good at communicating that, I guess…”
That’s when the human remembered something rather amusing, and his attempt to control that shit-eating grin failed miserably.
“Yeah, didn’t you have the same problem when you tried to hit on Marble’s coltfriend before he was her coltfriend? Like, literally the day he came here?”
Maud stared back at him unflinchingly.
“We don’t talk about that.”
Andrew snickered whilst he shifted his hands to Maud’s face and stroked her cheeks with his thumbs… before migrating further and holding both of her velvety ears between the grasp of his thumbs and forefingers. He then massaged them firmly, and Maud shuttered her eyes in the feeling that Andrew knew was probably her favorite thing.
He smiled softly down at her.
“But about you not being good at communicating? Maybe a little bit… but I’m still learning. I’m sorry if I don’t always get it right.”
“You’re too sweet for your own good… and this has gone from busy, to proud, to sexual tension, to heartfelt in the span of a few minutes,” Maud noted…
...then promptly noted:
“And you still haven’t kissed me properly yet.”
The realization nearly made Andrew lose it completely, and he had to stop himself from laughing his ass off and waking up the entire house. For a pony that had microscopic inflection of her voice, Maud could make any situation sound utterly hilarious.
That, and it was probably the eight hours of work plus the alcohol involved that made it so damn funny.
Funny how nature works like that.
“So…” Maud cut in again, and booped Andrew on his nose with her index finger. “How about we save the cuddly stuff for later, and we fuck the grad student stress away?”
Andrew had to add one last bit of snark with an appropriately lopsided smirk:
“This gonna be the appendix to our paper?”
Maud came back immediately:
“Whatever turns you on, Andrew… so long as we don’t have to cite it.”
Andrew emitted a deep, guttural laugh that petered out once he pressed his nose to Maud’s. He shut his eyes as he felt Maud’s anxious, deep breaths break upon his face again. He felt the raging fire that served as the perfect conduit for his feelings for the mare beneath him, and that same fire reflected off of her own eyes as they stared deeply into his.
She silently implored him forward… exhorted those pleasures within him that were so pent up from what seemed like a lifetime of studying between them.
And so he gave into the siren’s call, and met Maud’s lips beneath him with a forcefulness that brought out the deepest of breaths from the mare’s lungs.
Their wet lips stuck together thanks in part to the fire helping to form a little moisture sheen over them, and the ‘hotness’ of their makeout long-overdue was further amplified by their saliva mixing with the saltiness of each other’s sweat.
Especially when Maud darted her tongue forward, flicked the tip of Andrew’s lips, and then retreated inside her ajar mouth, daring her human coltfriend to chase after her.
Not one to back down from a challenge, Andrew gave chase, and fused their lips together once more. They opened their mouths against one another and Andrew pressed his tongue into Maud’s mouth, who met him with equal vigor.
Maud’s arms wrapped tightly around Andrew’s back and likewise, her legs did well to ensnare him in her lustful hold.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
And Andrew was completely fine with that.
He cupped Maud’s face and continued to assault her mouth with all the pent up sexual tension that befit a graduate student in geology… ergo, one could say he was rock hard.
He was already looking forward to the seismic drilling he’d give the mare beneath him...
...with the force of two tectonic plates smashing against one another.
He would pulverize her K-T boundary into dust.
Andrew mentally stopped himself as that was starting to get weird, and he was beginning to wonder if the throbbing erection he had between his legs and bound tightly by his pants was because of the hot mare beneath him, or those shitty puns.
He didn’t want to know the true answer, and opted to just assume the former.
Terrible scientific work on his part, unbefitting of a graduate student about to get his doctorate.
Fuck it.
Maud’s and Andrew’s tongues continued to vie for dominance of their joined mouth-space. The salty taste of their sweat had whittled away under their attacks and counter attacks within each other’s gobs, perfectly accentuated by their soft, yet heavy breathing that was borderline moaning, at least for Andrew.
Things seemed to change a bit though, when he suddenly separated from her lips and nuzzled his face into her neck. Once he kissed her right at her crook, a breath hitched in Maud’s throat with what seemed like a gasp.
Andrew continued to place gentle, teasing kisses up Maud’s neck, and the mare craned her head upward to allow the human better access to do what he pleased… and what she pleased as well, if her gripping onto Andrew’s hair on the back of his head was anything to go by.
And with further encouragement, and a mighty need within his loins and core, Andrew ran his thumb over a particular part of Maud’s soft neck and bit down.
He wasn’t so sure what it was about her… but Maud tasted amazing when he ran his tongue over the ‘captured’ area he bit down on.
As for Maud, though she obviously had trouble expressing this visually, her insides were awash in a new pleasure that she had longed to experience for some time. She hadn’t the faintest idea that she was this sensitive on her neck (nopony else she had been with ever really tried), but she was the happiest pony that Andrew helped her figure this out.
She emitted a gentle whine that required some effort to hear… but hear Andrew did.
It was essentially a moan that he had longed to hear from Maud, and though it may not have been much indication of pleasure for a normal pony, the human knew that this must’ve felt amazing for Maud if she was able to do that. To him it was perfect. To him, it was angelic.
And he wanted to hear it again.
And again, and again.
He pressed his nose into her neck and sniffed that smell that had quickly become intoxicating to him. Maud quickly took issue with that, and nudged him away despite the puppy-dog eyes of Andrew's chagrin.
“No. I'm serious about what I said earlier. Lovey-dovey lovemaking next time,” she asserted, and ever so slightly curled the right side of her lip up
“For now, tear off my clothes and fuck me… please?”
