Tending Flowers
4. The Blooming
Previous ChapterNext Chapter[Several Weeks Later…]
Today had been one of those ‘odd’ days for Seth.
Firstly, he ended up sleeping through his alarm in the morning—unheard of considering he was one of the lightest sleepers imaginable. Secondly, while deciding to take himself to breakfast, he ended up accidentally bumping into (and spilling a drink all over) some batpony mare that sounded quite Scottish, who then proceeded to tear into him with the most Shakespearean-level of grotesque profanity he had ever heard in his entire life.
And thirdly, Schneeblume had requested his presence sometime after lunch for an unknown reason, other than the fact of it being a ‘surprise,’ and ‘something that’ll be good for you in the long run, I promise. Just make sure to bring any of your martial arts gear that you have.’
And in thinking back to even before the two were an item, his sentiment regarding girls ‘scheming’ was never bound to end well… or at least, go the way he anticipated at all.
But then again, that was likely the whole point of ‘surprise.’ Still, it didn’t stop him from speculating what she wanted to accomplish regarding his gear—of which consisted mainly of some gloves to hit a bag back at his place.
Either way, he figured it would be best to dress for the possible occasion as he made his way down the familiar path from his place to hers. A loose fitting, black shirt would do the trick, as he felt perhaps Schneeblume had some workout regimen in mind…
…which was also kinda weird now that he thought of it. Was she trying to say he was fat or something?
A quick glance downward confirmed that he, in fact, was not… and a due diligence running of both of his hands up his stomach confirmed that the modest outline of his abs was still present.
Thanks, Krav Maga and a decent gym!
Plain mesh, gray shorts would also suit him well assuming his assessment of Schneeblume’s out of the blue request was correct—and as he rounded the corner into the beautiful garden of the Herbtstlicht household that had become so familiar to him, he hoped he had made the right call.
Seth raised his right fist to her door, and despite his reservations, a bright complexion was slapped on his face—it was never a dull moment to see his marefriend.
Only one way to find out!
He knocked three times in rapid succession and fixed his hair, which was getting a little longer down the back of his neck. Within a few moments, the door flew open.
Seth—bright smile still adorning his face at the very presence of his marefriend—opened his mouth to greet her but instead was greeted by a porcelain-white, ball of velvety coat, jet black mane, and beaming smile lunging herself at his face.
“Hey ba—AAAABE!”
Schneeblume’s entire body slammed into Seth’s upper torso and he was barely able to catch and hold her under her butt… as well as nearly stumbling off the front steps and taking them both to the ground.
Clearly Schnee didn’t care, as all she did to alleviate the situation that she put the two of them in was to giggle whilst pecking his entire face with tiny, wet kisses. And since she showed no signs of stopping after several seconds (and since the ‘poor’ dude couldn’t see straight on account of something on his face) he decided to just let his ass fall to the soft grass beneath them and let Schneeblume have her way with this face.
Not exactly a bad situation to be in, if he was being completely honest with himself.
But good lord, she just wouldn’t let up smothering him.
“Hey… you doing okay hon’?” he dared to interrupt Schnee’s little reverie.
Now unabashedly sitting in his lap, the mare pulled back from assaulting his face and beamed at him. Seth could have sworn he saw a massive sparkle in her eyes when she looked at him, which made him feel light on the clouds.
“Quite,” she simply said before connecting her lips with his.
Seth’s eyes shuttered close by reflex of contact with her lips, and both of them instantly started deeply making out with one another with Schneeblume dictating the entire cadence of their little semi-public display of affection. Every brief second the two of them separated for air, the two would immediately smash back together… and what really got him going was that Schnee would hum out in pleasure every time she exhaled. Their tongues tentatively greeted each other at the forefront of their joined mouths as well, though only the tips thus far.
He could feel her front hooves wrapped tightly around his neck, though he did notice one thing that was different: the lack of a fair portion of mass and weight of her right hoof—which meant that she indeed did not have her prosthetic on. This was the first time she ‘stood before’ him without the remainder of her hoof.
Most curious… but I sure as shit ain’t gonna complain right now.
Damn right you’re not... cunt.
After an undetermined amount of time, the two separated for the final time and ended their long, protracted kissing session. Schneeblume, however, merely held herself up by Seth’s neck supporting her hooves, and she pressed her forehead to his so their eyes were squarely trained on nothing else but each other.
She finally spoke:
“Hallo!”
Then she giggled and blushed, which was still as contagious to Seth as it was on the first day they met.
Seth smiled warmly in return and kissed the brim of her forehead.
“Hello to you too!” he replied.
Schneeblume rubbed her nose against his and giggled yet again. Her smile almost seemed drawn on for how permanent it was on her face.
“Damn babe… you’re really affectionate today! Not that I’m complaining!” he mentioned with a sly, teasing smile.
Schneeblume lidded her eyes and chuckled through a wide smile in return.
“Don’t act like you’re making it easy not to be…” she quipped, then stroked her right hoof over Seth’s jawline. “Especially with this bit of stubble right here… you should keep this more often!”
Seth was not blind to the implicit ‘suggestion.’ He’d wait a day or two extra between shaves moving forward now.
He bit his lip and nipped at hers… then kissed her once.
“You’re right…” he said, and then kissed her again.
“I’m not making it easy.”
He kissed her again.
“And neither are you.”
And again.
And again…
…and again.
Seth had suddenly turned the tide on an assault that Schneeblume had full control over… and after peppering her face with indiscriminate kisses (because to him, she was just that kissable), Schnee emitted a combination of laughter, squee-ing, and lighthearted shrieks as Seth fought to ‘subdue’ her.
However, during their little bit of ‘roughhousing,’ Schnee suddenly jerked her head to the right to avoid another onslaught from Seth’s lips…
…and in turn, his mouth landed straight in the crook of her neck.
Seth finding his face buried in warm, velvety coat was one thing… but hearing Schneeblume emit a soft, yet pronounced moan was another.
Both froze immediately, and two sets of eyes shot open. Neither moved for what seemed like a small eternity, but by some planned synchronization, both pulled away and—while still holding each other—dared gaze each other down again.
No rose in the garden could compare to how burning red both their cheeks were… but for Seth, hearing Schnee emit such a sound had aroused him in more ways than he had thought imaginable. It would be by sheer force of divine intervention that the mare sitting on his lap, looking as stunned as he was, was not feeling the after-effects of a sudden exodus of blood southward.
She had to have noticed… and if she looked downward there would probably an awkward yet not-so awkward explanation to be given. Really, what was Seth even to say to that?
Silently, he awkwardly averted his gaze from her… at the exact same time she did from him.
And Schnee said what they were both thinking with about as much awkwardness as he would come to expect:
“L-Lets go inside… ja?”
Seth nodded emphatically.
“Yeah! Yeah, good idea,” he said.
He patted Schnee’s side twice and she promptly ‘dismounted’ him, and once he got to his feet, he was again reminded of the fact that she was not wearing her prosthetic. Indeed, this was the first time he had ever seen her without it and was greeted with what almost looked like—from a couple feet away—just a smaller version of her left hoof. Only when she held it level instead of letting it touch the ground did he see the final product of her war procedure: four skin flaps folded up at the tip to create a ‘nub’ of sorts of what remained.
He certainly wasn’t put off by it—their little makeout session that almost went too far was a clear indication of that. But it was an interesting development, at least in Seth’s eyes, that she would allow him to see her without it. Though… perhaps that could be reaching, considering that she might not be all that shy about it—maybe it was just coincidental that after a couple months together as an item, he never saw her without it.
Seth stretched out and picked up his fallen boxing gloves, then decided to call attention to her hoof as Schnee led the way back into her house… which was made even more apparent by she having the tiniest of limps in her walk—likely the result of perfecting life without a good chunk of her leg for the last several years. She either barely let it touch, or completely held it level off the ground.
“Huh, never seen you without your prosthetic. Where’s the rest of your hoof, hun?” he both seriously questioned, and jested at the same time.
Schnee called back over her shoulder as the two walked past the threshold of the front door:
“Honestly, probably somewhere in the Seele Plains.”
Seth blinked harshly at her response. Did he hear her correctly?
“Huh?” he dared to ask.
“Hmm?” she returned his question without a hitch, nor any acknowledgement of her previous words.
Roight.
He also thought he noticed her walking with an extra sashay in her hips—that, or he was becoming more of an ass-man… much more quickly than he expected.
She’s totally doing that on purpose, dude…
By habit once again, he kicked off his shoes and placed the pair neatly by the doorway, then shut the door properly behind the two of them.
“So!” Seth began the conversation anew and clapped both his hands together eagerly.
“Not that I’m never happy to come over or see you at all… but what’s the occasion? You seemed pretty insistent this time around!
“Again…” he held both his hands level. “Not complaining. Will never turn down an opportunity to look at a gorgeous work of art,” he finished with a wink.
Of course, Schneeblume blushed—he knew how to hit that switch at will, now. But this time she returned it with an eye-roll.
“Oh for… Seth you’re really too much sometime, I swear,” she giggled nonetheless.
She pointed her stubbier right hoof towards the kitchen.
“Can you do me a favor, Liebling, and fetch me the remainder of my leg?” she asked with a nigh undetectable joking inflection to her tone.
“Sure!” Seth nodded with a bright smile and started on his way.
Schnee made her way down the hallway towards her bedroom.
“I’ll tell you all in a moment, Seth! Just bring that back to my room please~,” she requested.
Seth answered with an exaggeratedly creepy, old-man voice:
“You got it, toots!”
And clearly his choice in vocabulary and tone was sound, since he heard Schneeblume snort from down the hall.
Her prosthetic wasn’t hard to find at all. A few steps into the kitchen and he found it resting—freshly cleaned and shined—on the dining room table waiting for him. Seth held his hand out and he hovered tentatively over the lifeless ceramic and metal appendage, feeling an odd sense about touching what was essentially a body part of Schneeblume… without her actually attached to it.
Still, he then picked it up and felt the sheer heft in his palm. He turned it to face him and watched it go limp around the hinge, then juggled it lightly.
Heavier than I thought it was… impressive.
Seth pivoted on his heel and hung a left at the front door so he could stride straight down the hall to Schneeblume’s bedroom. With the door wide open, he decided to waltz right in… though he had to halt mid-step, eyes brimming with a sudden sparkle of want as he found Schnee sitting in her own coat on the edge of her bed, placing her long, perfect mane into a ponytail.
The ‘focused’ expression on her face further added to the allure that had never once waned since Seth first laid eyes on her. His heart beat rapidly in his chest and he could feel that familiar heat rising within his core and face.
And still, he smiled brightly… gazing upon his mare with a certain longing. He knew damn well how good he had it.
Wouldn’t I just love to take a bite outta that snack…
It then appeared that Schneeblume felt his eyes upon her, as she blinked herself out of her stupor and turned to Seth once her ponytail was fresh and ready. It further topped off Seth to the max when she returned almost the same smile right back to him.
Once eye contact had been established, Seth didn’t even remember willing the next words out of his mouth:
“Schnee… You are so goddamn good looking… like… my god, babe—you’re hot!”
Her face colored profusely, and she shied away just a smidge… as Seth had come to expect every time he lavished her with compliments that were genuine from his heart. What he didn’t expect, however, was for her to lid her eyes and just barely tug at her bottom lip with her teeth.
She also exhaled greatly—apparently she was also holding that one in. Either way, Seth was in no way blind to that expression on her face, as dense as he might be to some social cues.
He had been around the block a couple of times. That was the periphery of a genuine ‘fuck me’ face.
“You really spoil me… you know that?” Schnee said in a much lower, more pronounced voice than Seth had heard her speak before. The teasing tone was most evident.
And Seth would gladly take part. He slyly smirked right back at her.
“Well is that why you called me over?” he asked innocently. “Because I’ll spoil you anytime you ask… and anytime you don’t ask, frankly,” he quipped right back.
Schneeblume ate it up… but her more sensual visage retreated behind a rather visible layer of insecurity, and instead manifested as a deep, girly giggle behind both of her front legs.
“I don’t know what to do with you sometimes. I say it all the time now, but you’re just too much… way too much, Liebling… and I love it!
“But for your information, why I called you over here—starting today, I’m going to preemptively advance your career a couple years,” she declared, bouncing back to a much more excitable demeanor.
Seth cocked his head almost ninety degrees from being so suddenly perplexed.
“Ummmm… sounds lovely? But, wanna fill me in?”
“Sure!” Schnee said, then smiled with her outstretched left hoof before saying with her own joking tone:
“Toss me the rest of my leg?”
“Ah, right! Here you go!” Seth replied and tossed her leg over to her. It landed next to her on the bed with a silent thud.
She reached for it but stopped suddenly when Seth could barely restrain the emission of a strained whine from his mouth… and hilarity was on the verge of boiling over the moment a terrible thought had lined the inside of his skull.
And now Schnee was staring back at him with an adorably curious smile.
“Okay, what’s so funny?” she asked.
Seth had folded his lips inward as the worst thing came to his mind about this whole situation, and he squeaked out his response:
“You…” he said, and nearly lost it.
“I’m glad I was able to help you by… lending you a hoof.”
Schneeblume deadpanned immediately and seeing her reaction crippled Seth with cackling laughter at such a terrible pun. Schnee pursed her lips and nodded. She was failing miserably, however, to hide her finding it just as hilarious as he was.
“Wow. So that’s what we’re doing now? Pfft! You’re lucky you’re so handsome...”
Seth finally settled down and made to reassure his mare:
“Don’t worry, babe. I may have terrible jokes, but you can always count on me to…
“...put you back on your hooves.”
And then he proceeded to lose it again.
What he didn’t count on this time, however, was Schneeblume’s detached, ceramic hoof sailing right into his cock and balls with missile-like precision. The ceramic, rogue prosthetic slammed into his meat and two-veg, then unceremoniously fell to the floor with a mighty thud of ceramic against wood.
Seth’s lungs were suddenly evacuated as his entire body scrunched up at a forty-five-degree angle. He doubled over onto the floor and held his family jewels in as tender of a grasp as he could.
Fuck she’s good… oh fuck that hurt…
The price of puns! Fuck…
And from the sound of Schnee’s sudden, sharp inhale from beyond the periphery of his ears, as well as her subsequent, urgency-laden cursing, his predicament was not her intention.
“Mein Gott! Scheiße!” Schneeblume exclaimed and immediately dashed to Seth’s side.
She tried to examine him as best as she could, and from what Seth could see through tearful eyes, she had genuine fear and remorse in her own as she looked him over.
“Seth! I’m so sorry, mein Schatz! I didn’t mean to hit you there! Do you need… ice? Etwas? Verdammt es…” she cursed herself.
The pain was unimaginable, as Seth had never once been love-tapped by ceramic before, let alone been nailed there for a hot minute. The pain was throbbing and felt like he grew a second heart down there, while the pain radiated upward into his lower abdomen.
Schnee tried to kiss his forehead and cuddle him awkwardly in any attempt to make up for her mistake of being accurate.
Seth, however, smirked slyly through his pain and decided to take another golden opportunity:
“Achhh… it’s okay babe…” he managed to squeak out, feeling as if his voice rose a couple octaves permanently.
“But… I think I’m…
“...I’m gonna need a hoof,” he finished his third pun in a row with a goofy smile.
He had never seen a mare—or a woman, for that matter—turn from concerned to adorably rage-filled within fractions of a second. Well, at least he figured this was the true case when Schneeblume proceeded to repeatedly slap his face with her stubby hoof, forcing Seth to go on a cackling defensive.
“FOTZE!” she seethed through her teeth.
HAH! Oh god I have an idea what THAT means…
“YOU ASSHOLE! I THOUGHT I REALLY HURT YOU, DIPSHIT!”
Seth was on the verge of tears (mostly because of his own stupid puns, and the rest being a combination of the ridiculousness of the situation and him having been nailed in the dick). It was also an experience to be cussed out in essentially German—kinda scary actually. But through it all, he was able to wrangle Schneeblume and pull her against him for a hug… which she ultimately relaxed (or relented) into.
The both of them were now calmed down, and they lay in each other’s embrace on the floor for a few moments to catch their breath.
Seth kissed the top of Schnee’s head, burying his face in her mane and taking in the beautiful smell of her plumeria shampoo.
“So… what’s the occasion, Schnee?” He ventured to ask again.
Schnee lifted her head and leered down at Seth—gone was her hilariously peeved expression, instead supplanted with a more neutral smile that he was used to seeing.
“Well… before I was so rudely interrupted, I’m going to help advance your career preemptively,” she answered.
Seth nodded.
“Right, but that was all you told me before and that still doesn’t help me, heh… should I be worried about something?”
The flower mare shrugged above him and shook her head.
“I don’t think so… so long as you don’t mind getting to terribly roughed up, as they say…~” she further added with extra crypticism.
Seth blinked. Hard.
“Ummm… what exactly are you getting at?” He questioned further.
That’s when Schnee dislodged herself from him and got back to her hooves, as well as freeing up Seth to get back to his own feet.
She bade him to wait for a moment while she scanned around the floor, then perked up when she found her lifeless prosthetic. She scooped it up in her ‘good’ hoof and—with Seth watching very curiously—she inserted what remained of her right leg, then twisted the object just so until it ‘locked’ in place.
Schneeblume shook it a couple of times to seemingly calibrate it before placing her hoof back on the floor, exactly as Seth was used to seeing her.
Huh, so that’s how it works…
“That’s better…” she remarked, then added:
“Anyway, during Basic Training, you’re going to re-learn how to fight hoof-to-hoof… or in your case, hand-to-hoof.”
Seth, again, cocked his head. Schneeblume wasn’t necessarily wrong but seemed so out-of-the-blue that he wasn’t exactly sure what might’ve brought it on.
“Uhh… yeah, makes sense,” he replied vaguely, wanting to see exactly where she was going with this.
Schneeblume turned on her hooves and began to walk out of her room. She bade Seth to follow her, which he did. He was further enticed to fall in with her when he noticed that her hips had a very prominent sway to them with every step she took.
“The better you do, and the more aptitude you show, the better of a job you may land after the fact—the coveted enlistments are the Royal Guard positions under the Special Forces that they’re also opening up to humans. They’re the highest paying, but only the best of the best can be selected,” she continued to lecture.
Seth nodded, he was starting to maybe see where she was going with this.
“Got it… makes perfect sense,” he said.
“There’s two problems you’ll face as a result,” Schnee began anew. “One, your stature as a human gives you distinct advantages and disadvantages when facing an equine foe—you’ll need to learn to understand both ends.
“And secondly, what they’ll likely teach you in basic will be pure and utter horseshit, and I want to preemptively make you ‘unlearn’ it. You already have a hoof up with your own martial arts training, but it’ll still need expanding upon,” she punctuated with a sly smirk over her shoulder.
Seth chuckled out loud.
“Hah! Okay, fair enough… then how do you propose we go about that?”
Schneeblume chuckled as she led him through the kitchen and towards the lone door that separated them from the backyard. She stopped for dramatic effect as she reached out to grab the handle, then looked back at Seth with that determined smile that he was always so fond of.
“Well isn’t it obvious?” she said. “I’m going to lend you some training.”
She threw open the door, and Seth was greeted with some of the fluffiest, well-maintained grass he had ever seen beyond the fields outside of Ponyville. The entire backyard was lined with a fence, but even more impressive was that the perimeter was also lined with an assortment of mixed flowers that gave off sort of an ‘arena’ vibe to the human. Interspaced between large sections of grass were lines of dirt and soil that was where Seth assumed Schnee would place extra flowers.
He honestly didn’t know—he was more taken with how lovely this little back yard was.
“Ummm…” he finally spoke, and looked down and back towards Schneeblume, who was beaming up at him. “You really sure about this? I’d welcome anything you’d wanna show me but so long as it doesn’t, you know, stir up some… stuff?”
She dismissed that outright.
“Oh shush you, I’ll be fine, Seth, don’t you worry! Now…” she said and leveled a mischievous gaze at him that made Seth take a single step backward.
“Grab your equipment. Let’s get started.”
It was a simple matter of just grabbing his sparring gloves, as well as soft pads that were used for kicking. For extra, enigmatic ‘realism’ as well as protection, Schneeblume let him borrow an old helmet (which looked utterly ridiculous on him) while she used her own stahlhelm (which was surreal on its own). She herself also ended up putting on what looked like oversized loafers on her four hooves, but in actuality were exactly the analogous types of gloving and padding that Seth donned.
Seth stood in the middle of her back yard, bare feet being lightly tickled by the grass beneath him, while stretching out in his sparring gear. The helmet was also something he was getting used to, as metal with padding didn’t really seem to go well together. Schneeblume insisted on it, though.
The mare in question also stood before him and stretched out in her own way, as well as making sure that everything fit the way it was supposed to. Seth did make sure to place a single eye on her haunches every time she stretched out just right.
Seth spoke up:
“Alright! So, what’ve ya got for me?” he asked excitedly, though he’d be lying if he said that there wasn’t a small tinge of fear within him at what Schneeblume was possibly scheming in that head of hers.
Seemingly pumped up and trotting excitedly in place on each individual hoof, Schneeblume began anew:
“Pony technology has not advanced as much as human technology has, so firearms are not doled out to everypony in the ranks. The use of magic from unicorns also complicates things further… but one thing that remained the same is close quarters, hoof-to-hoof—or in your case, hand-to-hand or hand-to-hoof—combat.”
She placed one of her padding-clad hooves to her chest.
“I fought in the most destructive war our planet has ever seen—I’ve lived this combat for four years and had to relearn everything I was taught through a trial by inferno, realizing what worked and what got you killed.”
She began pacing ever so slightly.
“While the probability that you would be sent off to fight anywhere here is extraordinarily low, a human in your position would do well to be as much of a master in the ‘modern pony’ fighting arts as you are able. Complex maneuvers and technique often go to hell the moment close fighting is upon you.”
Seth shrugged, then nodded vehemently.
“Makes perfect sense to me! I’m sure you of all ponies know that war is probably not like movies or books…”
Schneeblume shut her eyes and shook her head slowly.
“It most certainly is not, mein Schatz… which is why I want to help get you ahead of the game!”
Seth watched with keen interest as Schnee cocked her head to the right, and then to the left, seemingly stretching out her neck before putting a few paces distance between the two of them.
“Now the ‘game…’ is for you,” she pointed directly at Seth, and then back at herself, smirking deviously.
“...to take me to the ground, and I, you. A winner of each round will be the one who pins the other. Oh also, only rule: no blows to the head~.”
Seth just stood there and stared, eyebrow cocked, and jaw lopsidedly slackened. This was escalating very quickly, and when he ran the scenarios in his head, he was neither blind nor stupid as to how things would likely end up—namely, with his ass handed to him on a silver platter.
Regardless, what gave him the most pause was him potentially getting lucky and actually hurting Schneeblume accidentally in the process… something he’d never forgive himself for, even if it was merely in play.
“Ummm…” he said awkwardly and gazed down at both of his glove-clad hands.
Apparently, Schneeblume read his mind loud and clear.
“You’re so sweet… But you’re not going to hurt me,” she flatly stated with a soft smile to boot, then added with no extra flair and the confidence of a seasoned soldier:
“You won’t be able to.”
Seth still wasn’t convinced… he knew exactly where he stood, but that protective instinct within him as a boyfriend just wouldn’t let up. Nevertheless, the two of them were supposed to have fun with this, so he (somewhat reluctantly) descended into his fighting stance. He stretched his fingers within his gloves and brought his hands to bear in front of his face.
Schneeblume beamed.
“Sehr gut! Now we’re getting somewhere!”
She dropped low into her own stance and raised her ceramic hoof somewhat outstretched in front of her face.
Apparently, Seth’s confusion was palpable, so she decided to pre-empt any questions:
“I fought with a spade, club, or a knife most of the time. It’s my natural stance. Now…”
She let herself become a little nimbler on her hooves and she smirked right at Seth… who suddenly felt his stomach become a little lighter in fear.
“Let’s begin lesson one: rules of close quarters warfare. To demonstrate, I want you to attack me. Subdue me to the ground as you were taught. Ja?
“LOS!”
Seth’s heart was raging in his chest as the time was now upon him. From how Schneeblume was approaching this, she clearly had an odd structure to everything, and seemed super into it all. It would be a shame if he disappointed her in any way, his reluctances to even lay an ‘aggressive’ hand on her aside.
And so, in his stance, he took a deep breath and began to circle the mare… who perfectly kept pace with him on the other end of the ‘diameter’ of the circle they were making. An unknown amount of time was spent with the two of them in an odd dance while Seth attempted to figure out how he would approach her defenses. Their eyes never broke contact with one another, and in his thoughts he could—for some reason—hear the Guile theme song playing in his head.
And apparently, Schneeblume already had an answer to that question of ‘how to approach this.’
“Let’s make this a little more structured…” she said and beckoned him forward with one of her hooves.
“I want you to try and tackle me—the faster and harsher you can subdue your enemy, the higher the chance of survival.”
Seth understood what she meant completely, but something deep down in him prevented him from moving forward, and kept his nimble feet anchored in place on the grass.
Schneeblume rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless.
“What do I need to do for you to practice with me?? This is for your career, silly! And you know I’ll be fine! Do you need me to like… insult you or something? Taunt and goad you into attacking?” she playfully suggested.
Seth giggled heartily, especially as an idea rushed to his head:
“That might work!” he played along. “Babe, can you say: ‘Yang Xiao Long is the worst girl in the series?”
Schneeblume cocked her head.
“Ummm… I have no idea what that means but, okay!”
She cleared her throat and reoriented herself in her fighting stance. In a harsh teasing tone, she taunted Seth:
“Hah! Dumb human! Don’t you know that Yang Xiao Long is the worst girl in the entire series??”
Seth was about to die on the inside of laughter but acted on that nonetheless. He charged forward, intent on taking his marefriend to the ground for her heresy and showing her what for.
“YOU TAKE THAT BACK YOU SONOVABITCH!”
Schneeblume never wavered, and right when Seth crossed an unseen threshold that the mare had seemingly set, she swept her hoof across the ground and launched clumps of dirt into the air...
...and right into Seth’s face.
The human was instantly stopped in his tracks by virtue of being blinded by earth.
“WHOA WHAT THE HELL?!” he exclaimed, and his hands went to his face out of reflex…
...but in the midst of his little ‘crisis’ he did not witness giving Schneeblume the best opening she could’ve asked for. Nor did he witness her rearing up on her front hooves. What he did feel, however, was two rear hooves slamming directly into his abdomen and the force behind such a buck sending him straight to the ground and onto his ass with a mighty ‘OOF!’.
While the strike itself didn’t hurt—likely because of the ‘gloves’ that Schnee was wearing on all of her hooves, the sheer kinetic force behind her attack stunned him immensely.
While on his ass, Seth took the time to wipe his face and his eyes clean of any dirt, and looked over to a victorious-looking Schnee with a look that could only convey ‘Why??’
And the now-excited mare appeared to read him like a book as she trot over to him.
“The first rule of close-quarters battle is that there really are no rules. In a matter of life and death, you will use whatever advantage you can get to come out on top—even the environment, my dear,” she explained, then kissed his dirty forehead and offered her hoof to her to him.
Seth processed her words for a moment, and they made perfect sense to him—the concept of ‘fairness’ didn’t seem to stick very well when your life was literally in the enemy’s hands, who happened to be right in front of you.
Seth smiled up at Schneeblume, who returned the face full-force. Now he was starting to understand what she had planned here.
He reached up and grasped her outstretched hoof, and she helped hoist him back onto his feet.
“Got it! And goddamn you hit hard…” he lamented, grabbing his stomach and feeling his abs for any engraving of her hoof. Thankfully there was none.
Schneeblume blushed but snickered and had some words about that.
“Stopping power is also important… especially if you find yourself against multiple opponents. It’s imperative to knock as many out of the fight—lethally or nonlethally—as possible. Your life literally depends on it.”
Seth giggled.
“Yeah… totally agree. You’re the expert, after all. But I think I’ll be pretty sore for a couple of days when we’re done here…” he mentioned whilst the two of them got back into position.
“Now…” Schneeblume began anew, wiping her face and whipping her mane out of her vision.
“Something very important to note when facing ponies: we have a much lower center of gravity by virtue of anatomy. This comes with its own set of advantages, namely much better balance on our four hooves. This better balance helps translate into greater agility during a fight.”
She continued to talk animatedly with her hoof, and while Seth listened with rapt attention, he couldn’t help but feel a giant wave of happiness wash over him at seeing his mare speak so emphatically. Just the way her expression carved a wide smile underneath her moving lips made Seth just want to practice with her as much as possible if it made her this happy and giddy.
He nodded.
“Right, right!” he agreed.
“We can run faster, jump farther, dash quicker, and so on…” she finished, but not before getting back into her fighting stance.
Seth reciprocated and retreated back into his own, knowing that shit was about to get real once more. In some odd manner, he honestly could not wait on how he was going to get his ass handed to him this time.
“That being said, I want you to experience this first-hoof… attempt to wrestle me to the floor, but at the same time, I don’t want you to lose sight of me. There will be dire consequences if you do…” she alluded with no small part mix of playfulness and crypticism.
Seth was definitely struck at that playful tone but nevertheless, his marefriend gave him an objective in a game he was already starting to find entertaining. He’d be damned if he didn’t give it his all and possibly walk away impressing her.
Pipedream, but alas, a dream nonetheless.
He nodded and smirked right back at her.
“You got it! Keep hitting me with some words if you wanna hammer home the point. You’re already a pretty good teacher!” he voiced, all while tentatively closing in on his ‘target.’
Schnee knelt low in anticipation of his arrival, and only chuckled fiercely.
“Oh don’t worry, Liebling… I had no intention of staying silent!”
Seth closed in completely, and was about to lunge on the attack towards Schneeblume but she stopped him with a raised hoof:
“A quick exercise. Keep your defensive posture like that… but make sure you’re facing me at all times. The drill starts… NOW!”
Schneeblume instantly dashed to the right at a speed that nearly lost Seth this little game from the onset by way of being stunned silly. Her lavender eyes pierced directly into his with a fire beneath them that was admittedly getting him a little hot under the collar. Nevertheless, he was able to keep up with that one move, and he pivoted on his front foot to face her.
She then dashed to the left…
...and then back again to the right… and again to the right.
And then attempted to quickly cross to his rear, and Seth barely was able to keep track of her and her scurrying hooves.
He synced his eyes down to his feet as he fought to maintain his body like a board, but goddamn he was already breathing hard from the sheer exertion he was exerting from his legs just trying to keep Schneeblume in his sights. She certainly wasn’t kidding about the agility of earth ponies… or ponies in general, really. Even more than that, Schneeblume was a trained assault tactician and she was probably not even putting a fraction of the effort she could be right now.
And that kinda scared him…
...and turned him on at the same time.
Scaroused…
Schneeblume began almost prancing on her hooves, bouncing her weight around from side to side, dashing in random directions along some imaginary circumference around Seth in an attempt to trip him up with increasing difficulty.
She even tossed in a roll over her back after a particularly complex move-set that tested Seth’s ability to keep track of her…
...and after nearly slipping on his own feet in the grass in an attempt to match her, she dashed behind him, and that’s when he knew that he fucked up.
Especially when he felt Schneeblume’s gloved, rear hooves smash darectly into his mid back and slam his entire front against the ground with a rather pronounced cry from Seth.
And barely a millisecond later, he felt a mass of pony climbing over him, and a hoof grip him by the forehead to lift his face up off the ground.
He then felt Schnee draw her right hoof in a straight line across his neck with the cool, ceramic tip.
“Your throat has now been cut and you’re dead on the battlefield,” she mentioned so matter-of-factly, laying her weight atop him victoriously.
And there he lay, ‘dead,’ cradled by the grass and dirt beneath likely mucking up his shirt, but it was comfortable, especially after taking two hits from the mare of his dreams. Whatever improvised routine she had come up with, though, was working marvelously as a workout because Seth was already sweating bullets just from that one exercise. His breath entered and left his lungs rapidly, and he had half a desire to just lay in the grass and catch his breath.
And to Schnee’s words, all he had to say to that was:
“Well, shit.”
He wouldn’t exactly mind her sitting on top of him like she claimed him… actually that was kind of a nice thought, now that he thought about it a little more.
Seth heard Schneeblume chuckle above him, but then that familiar warmness returned when she wrapped her hooves snuggly around his neck and lay herself upon him. He could sense her tail was swishing like mad, since her hips were shimmying from side to side on him—hell, he could practically feel her smile. Further, both her hind legs were draped over his sides, so she effectively had him pinned to the ground on his frontside…
...and all that glorious, giddy movements perfectly flushed with his backside weren’t exactly doing wonders for a sudden-onset-boner, which made him shift his lower torso awkwardly to avoid crushing his member.
Suddenly, Seth heard Schnee giggle mischievously girly-like, and he froze in place.
Is… Is she doing this on purpose?
After an undetermined amount of time, Seth felt Schneeblume plant a wet kiss on the back of his neck, and then she patted him twice on the shoulder before dismounting him.
“That’s enough rest for now—time to get back to it!” she declared excitedly.
Seth rolled over onto his back and saw his marefriend leering down upon him with that same determination he loved to see from her. At the very least, she was getting something out of this. To tell the truth, he himself had already learned a couple of things so far despite getting sent to the ground twice. He’d say this would be a win-win for him!
“Right!” he said and got himself back onto his feet. His hands migrated to his lower back in a move that he felt categorized pregnant women.
“Goddamn, man…” he lamented out loud. “Two hits in and I’m starting to feel sorry for the enemies of Alemaneia,” he joked, if only partially.
Schneeblume did chuckle on that, but Seth’s words were instead rewarded with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.
“Oh hush up you big baby—you’ll never make it anywhere if you moan about little hits like that! I’ll help make you a Royal Guard yet!” she declared, and promptly descended into her fighting stance with driven gaze.
Seth matched her in his stance, ready for the next ‘lesson’ as it were, and it definitely seemed that Schneeblume was ready to deliver.
“Now you know the price of losing track of your opponent in close quarters. Let’s expand a little bit on that…”
The lessons continued in earnest, and Seth approached them as he would a formal instruction—with utmost, keen interest and participation. In some sense, for the briefest of times, Schneeblume stopped being his marefriend, and Seth started seeing her as a mentor of sorts. After all, she had been through the worst that this pony world had to offer—she was the best of the best of Alemaneia. If there was any definition of ‘warrior’ in any self-respecting Equestrian dictionary, her picture would be right next to it.
But in taking to heart Schneeblume’s lessons and advice through her rather hands-on instruction, it all came with Seth getting sent to the ground over… and over… and over… and over again.
Each and every time he was treated to another piece of pony anatomy, or pony physical capability that he hadn’t the slightest clue about. He learned quite quickly that being in the path of hind legs, especially if they happened to be earth ponies, was almost a guaranteed to rearrange your insides lethally if you caught the strike just right.
Seth was also privy to the sheer stability presented with four hooves, as with another exercise where Schnee had him wrap his arms around her barrel and attempt to pull her to the ground—he simply couldn’t do it, even leaning his entire weight onto her. It was actually really impressive that she was able to withstand that much extra weight on her, let alone dispersed over what seemed such an awkward position.
Though it certainly didn’t help that the incessant grunts of exertion from both of them painted a rather lewd picture in his mind. And in some awkward positioning, he had to put an inordinate amount of effort into making sure he didn’t pop a stiffy at the worst possible time.
This was kind of the problem with the current lesson he found himself in. Schneeblume had found it well-and good enough for him to start learning how to truly ‘wrestle’ a pony. The previous advantages and disadvantages of pony anatomy were something he still had to bear in mind, so this lesson built upon this natural progression quite well in his opinion.
However, what didn’t really go well for him was the fact that he was wrestling a mare who was used to wrestling other ponies who were trying to kill her at all times—he was trying his damndest nonetheless…
…but what was even worse for him was the fact that this mare happened to be his marefriend—one he found rather gorgeous and one whom he was undeniably attracted to in a sexual manner. Being in such an intimate embrace even for training purposes, coupled with all their flushness and squirming around together in any attempt to get an advantage was not doing him any favors for his Johnson.
So that’s where Seth found himself—forced onto his side and on the verge of being forced onto his face with Schneeblume above him while he fought with every fiber of strength in his body to counter her. His left hand was screaming for mercy and begging him to just release himself to the confines of the grass beneath him and let Schneeblume win…
…but where was the fun in that?
Seth cast a sweaty, side-gaze up at Schneeblume and smirked.
“HNNH… I’m… not gonna make this… ach… easy for you now that you’ve taught me all the secrets,” he strained out through a gritted smile.
Schneeblume, who had more than her fair share of moisture forming on her brow and rosy cheeks gladly returned the gesture as she put more of her strength into making him submit—Seth felt that immediately.
“Getting cocky now… are we?” she teased. “I’m not even putting part of my strength into this! I could squash you like a bug right now, Liebling,” she playfully rebuked.
Seth felt her up her strength even more, and his left arm and hand were clinging on for dear life. He was only partially worried that he’d have to amputate it when this was all done. But in the end, Schneeblume was one-hundred percent right—she could end this (and end him) in the blink of an eye. If the whole point of this was to just teach him a lesson, then what was this all about?
Seth decided to have a little fun, and he shot his sly smirk right up to his marefriend.
“Oh yeah? You can… hng… end this, huh?” he reiterated sarcastically. “Then why not? You… hmph… enjoying the view and position?” he teased.
Even through Schneeblume’s red face from exertion, he could see the slightest hint of blushing that further added to the fact.
She swiftly replied:
“Oh you’re so very funny, aren’t you? GAH!... This how you’re gonna joke when you get into a… MMPH!... real fight?” she shot right back and pressed him further towards the ground.
Seth’s only supporting arm couldn’t hold out much longer, and with how Schnee’s hooves were oriented in bracing his thighs and other arm, he was in no position to reach for anything else… but above all this he formulated a plan, and it involved him pressing his teasing, much like Schnee jokingly goaded him earlier into ‘attacking.’
He shook his head and chuckled.
“Deflecting the question, aren’t you? Well… I think you… love being in this position with me. HAH… I bet you’ve wanted to ‘pin me down’ in more ways than one, and you just needed an… HEH… excuse, didn’t ya?” he challenged, gambling on a ‘good’ response from those words.
He could see Schneeblume subtly flinch under that and go as red as she did this afternoon before their sudden makeout session at the front of her house. Even more hilarious for his end (and that sustained him just enough), Schnee adopted her cute, angry face.
“Why you little…” she spoke in her native language, but then immediately shifted back. “You absolutely wish that was the case, my dear!”
And with those words, Seth found an opening that he was staking everything on:
“Well… maybe I do!”
Schneeblume blinked. Hard. And her mouth went ever so slightly slack in that way that Seth found adorable. However, now was not the time to dwell on that, because he could feel the pressure Schnee was applying to his back suddenly soften.
He smirked.
Jackpot!
And with the last vestiges of reserves of energy he could call from his aching body, Seth explosively forced Schnee off of his back via an outward roll and sent her flying off of him with a startled shriek. He was quick to roll over and pin her to the ground once she landed flat on her back. Seth used both of his hands to stretch both her front hooves up and out, while applying just enough pressure with his knees against Schnee’s hind legs (just as she had taught him not even half an hour prior).
And there, Seth was face-to-face with Schneeblume, having reversed his position on her entirely. Sweat was pouring off of both of their faces, and Seth’s face mirrored that of Schnee’s—eyes completely wide and jaw slackened—mainly because he wasn’t even sure how he was able to pull this off almost flawlessly.
Schneeblume seemed to be in as much shock as he was. Even more than that though, her face was burning red. And Seth figured that it was likely because of their sudden positioning with he as the dominant one now as opposed to her… he was sure his earlier prodding had something to do with it, but he didn’t really want to push his luck in his head.
Silence reigned supreme between the both of them, and their eyes never broke lock from one another, especially as they both breathed heavily in sync.
Then, Schneeblume blinked and gazed downward, almost as if something caught her eye… and Seth became even more concerned when her eyes widened considerably more than they already were.
He then decided to venture downward—his eyes scanning over and enjoying Schnee’s lithe and fit body all the while—and his face paled when he saw a massive tent in his mesh shorts being pitched, leaving very little to the imagination.
Seth’s stomach sank into his bowels, and he had half a mind to not look back up at Schnee’s face as he mentally scolded his member.
YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE, PENIS!
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STAND BY UNTIL READY! NOT GO IN GUNS BLAZING!
YOU WERE MY BROTHER!
I LOVED YOU!
Seth pursed his lips, and with no words coming from Schneeblume (as well as no resistance from her part from their positioning) he figured it was time to address this, and he angled his face back up. He still averted his eyes while he jogged his brain for how he could get out of this without seeming like as much of a pervert as he really was on the inside.
“Well then…” he said, deadpanned. “I am so sorry about all of…” he began and flicked his eyes to meet Schnee’s all the while. His words died on his mouth, however, when her gaze was lidded, her cheeks and ears were blushed a deep hue of red, and—while breathing very heavily—she was prominently snagging her lower lip with her teeth.
“…that…” Seth’s words tapered off a cliff.
Schnee started wiggling her front legs, and at that instant, Seth released all of her limbs from his hold…
…only for Schnee to throw her front legs around Seth’s neck, and then yank his face downward so his lips could smash against hers.
OH SHIT OKAY!
From the moment Seth’s lips touched Schnee’s, he could slowly feel all of the background to their little training session just fading away. All of his feeling and emotions were focused solely on how his lips molded to Schnee’s, how even as a human and she a pony, they just fit so well together… how they broke apart at the perfect times and reconnected not even a moment later…
…indescribable. Especially as Schneeblume began to moan through her lips every time she deeply exhaled.
Seth felt up Schnee’s coat beneath him and reveled in how its softness seemed to envelop his now-hypersensitive hands as he explored her body. He could feel how fiercely her heart beat behind her own ribs when he lovingly caressed the apex of her chest… he could feel her torso writhing against his expeditionary hand, and she arched her back and twitched every time his wandering fingers touched her somewhere she enjoyed.
And as Seth circled her cute little navel with his thumb, the two opened their mouth to one another simultaneously… and he instantly noticed Schneeblume dart her tongue forward and take a swipe at his upper lip.
Mouths held their position together, and their hot breath broke upon face and muzzle like the lapping waves of the Equestrian shorelines. Both got the message as clear as the day around them. Both tongues met half-way and took little haste in acquainting their tongues with one another in an intimate embrace… one that bore more than striking resemblance to their more recent wrestling exercise.
After what seemed like a small eternity but was only a couple of seconds, the two separated their faces with a rather wet, detaching sound. Several miniscule strands of saliva connected their tongues, and then their lips, and their eyes opened to the world once again…
…admittedly though, the world was much less interesting than the individual before either of their visions.
Their eyes spoke purer emotion than any words could have conveyed through speech. Their eyes reflected each other’s light—radiated each other’s excitement that was boiled to near-explosive power by the heat from their cores.
And for Seth, this was made unimaginably better by virtue of Schneeblume batting her lashes at him. She was learning well and good as to what prodded him in just the right ways. Even further, Schnee’s teeth snagged her lower lip once more, and those once fluttering, gorgeous lashes of hers veiled half her lavender pools. Her complete expression confirmed everything he had hoped their dancing-around and building sexual tension would lead do:
She wanted him.
And he hoped his own visage—a nigh mirror image of hers—conveyed the exact same thing to this mare that was coming to mean so much to him, so quickly: he wanted her.
And Seth staked his first, figurative claim to her body by burying his face in the crook of Schnee’s neck, which elicited a soft moan that was equally so profound, he could feel his dick throb painfully between his legs as a result. His body took the reins over from rational thought, and as Seth began kissing and nipping his way down Schneeblume’s neck, he vowed to coax out even more of those pleasureful sounds.
“Seth…” Schnee groaned.
“Hmm?” he asked in return, taking full liberty with his tongue to trace circles and squiggles through her coat as he traced his way down her with kisses.
“You’re making me insane…” she squeaked out.
Seth didn’t understand a word of that, but from how she said it, and how she kept a firm hold in guiding his path down her little body, he could infer pretty well, and thus felt confident enough to respond:
“Yeah?” he asked. “And do you know I love when you break into Germa—Alemaneian…” he added while nipping particularly harshly around her collar bone, which elicited a feminine moan that further fueled his raging boner.
It was almost like a feedback loop that made him want to put his dick in this pony more and more—something that Seth noted would probably get him arrested back on Earth.
At Schneeblume’s vocal, yet wordless urging, Seth continued to kiss a trail down her torso, and calling upon his more playful side, he circled his tongue once around her cute little navel before continuing his trek downward.
“Nyuhh… w-where’re you going?” Schneeblume moaned out.
Seth already had the perfect answer once he was face to face—for the first time—with her pert teats, which sat just above his real prize.
“Making you feel good,” he simply replied, but shot his gaze upward nonetheless. “Stop me if I’m going too far,” he noted, wanting to wait for the final okay from her.
Still, in looking back up at her, he found a completely flustered, beat-red-in-the-face Schnee who’s lidded gaze, heaving chest, and slackened mouth screamed ‘sex’ at him, and further did not help the sudden constriction of his normally loose, mesh shorts. She was supporting herself as best as she could with her hooves to look down on him, but pony anatomy was proving problematic in that regard.
“Don’t tease me anymore, Seth, please…~”
Seth felt almost impressed at that.
Well, that was a lot more direct than I expected.
He smiled up at her, and then after planting a couple more kisses on her that barely grazed her nipples, he was finally lined up with what he wanted in the first place: her little crescent. What was surprising to him was that it looked a lot more humanoid than he expected, at least, from just her outer lips which were incredibly soaked to the point that her coat was a whole shade darker around it.
Laying fully on his stomach in front of her, Seth indulged his curiosity and coaxed her legs apart with his hands—and his thumbs pressing into her inner thighs elicited a gentle sigh and shudder from her. Even more than that, making use of his thumbs, he spread her lips apart, revealing Schnee’s red-hot tunnel to him in all of its glory. From his experience, everything appeared to be where it was supposed to, but there were subtle differences between hers and a woman’s.
Not that it mattered, really—considering how horny he was. And from how much she was leaking at the moment, it didn’t seem to matter to her, either.
Seth dove in without an ounce of hesitation, and he placed his first kiss onto Schnee’s lower lips, which brought forth a shudder from the mare he was already enjoying servicing so much… then he took his first, tentative lick from her base right up to her clit. This now exhorted an angelic groan from her that Seth had immediately made up his mind in wanting—no, demanding—to hear more of.
Seth circled his tongue around her tunnel, but also had to fight to keep Schnee in place as her immediate reaction was to begin writhing. Her moans were muffled by way of pressing her hooves to her mouth, which made sense to him, considering that they were in her backyard and anypony could peek over the fences to check out the commotion.
And that’s when Seth drew himself a little closer and began worming his tongue into her tunnel, lapping as best as he could at her upper wall—and then agonizingly slowly drew the entire flat of his tongue outward. To him, she had almost a floral taste… not really that sweet but definitely not off-putting… he could definitely get used to this!
“AHHHN, SETH!”
Schneeblume arched her back and almost screamed into her hooves as Seth continued to pleasure her little tunnel, and though this was already turning into his favorite choir to listen to, he was not done exploring her just yet.
He decided to move a little north and promptly attached himself to her clit—then, he sucked as if it were one of her teats. Schneeblume emitted a long, drawn out, almost strained-sounding moan of pleasure along with something else from her mouth:
“Ja… JA! There! Seth please mein Schatz right there!” she pleaded.
“Mhmmm!” Seth hummed directly into her swollen pussy, and sent his vocal vibrations straight into her, which continued to feed the endless streams of sighs, encouragement, and pleasureful sounds dripping from Schnee’s eager mouth.
Unfortunately, as much as Seth was over the moon in making Schnee quiver and writhe beneath, him, his two nostrils just weren’t enough, and he needed to pull back for a proper breath of fresh air.
…but something hard slammed into the back of his head in an attempt to keep him here.
“OWW! Fuck! What was that?” he questioned.
“Scheiße! I’m so sorry, handsome—wrong hoof!” Schnee quickly apologized and retracted the culprit back to her chest: her ceramic hoof.
And once he saw that Seth’s core and mouth exploded in uncontrollable laughter—the situation they found themselves in: him eating her out in the middle of their garden after a training session laden with sexual tension… only to be brought down from cloud sixty-nine down and back to earth with her weapon of a prosthetic slapping some measure of rationality back into them.
Schneeblume was clearly next, and she let her own helmeted head fall flat backward on the ground and began laughing her head off all the same.
Once they settled down, though, it was time to address the question of ‘what now?’
Seth cleared his throat first, sitting back on his butt as his erection hissed and slithered back into its flaccid state. Schnee shakily got to her haunches and faced him. Both faces could match each other blush for blush.
“Ummm… soo… that happened. Is… babe is everything okay b-between us?” he asked, and his emotions could be read like a book on his face.
His heart beat incredibly fast, not because of arousal, but due to apprehension. Did they go too far? They never really had a serious discussion about their eventual intimacy as a couple, and all parties were literally begging for it after their hard training session.
Schneeblume only giggled as she shook her head, placing her face against one of her hooves.
“In my backyard… what is even going on now,” she jokingly lamented.
She then placed both her front hooves into the grass and smiled brightly at Seth.
“Nothing’s wrong, Liebling… but as amazing as you were making me feel between my legs…” she began anew and blushed deeply again after recalling the details of a minute ago.
“…I’d… I’d like to wait just a little bit longer before we uhm… get to that point,” she said.
And then she angled her face away slightly while keeping her apprehensive eyes glued to Seth’s.
“Is… is that okay?” she asked.
Without a single moment of hesitation from Seth, he nodded vehemently and scooted closer to his mare.
“Yeah! Yeah, hon’, absolutely! We should both be ready for that… guess we just got a little carried away with teasing each other and the wrestling lesson…” he admitted sheepishly.
Schneeblume snorted into her hooves, laughing all the while which served to calm Seth’s raging heart.
“I’ll say! Though…” her expression morphed into a mischievous one “…I have to admit that you were very clever on that last part. You still pinned me fair and square. Most impressive, Seth!” she complimented.
Seth brought his right hand to the back of his neck and averted his gaze bashfully.
“Heh, well… thanks babe. I had an excellent teacher though, so I credit her for the ingenuity,” he shot right back at her, which seemingly transferred his same emotion right back into her.
Schnee got to her hooves and stretched out like a cat—Seth took no issue in tracing her backside curvature.
“Well… this doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun~,” she alluded, and began trotting past a sitting Seth, heading back for the kitchen door.
Seth cocked an eyebrow, and his core suddenly lightened with anticipation.
“Oh? What’s that mean?” he took the bait and got to his feet to fall into step with her.
Schneeblume glanced slyly and lasciviously over her shoulder while swaying her hips (the space between her legs was soaked to hell) as she walked.
“Wanna stay the night?” she suddenly offered, then promptly followed up knowingly with:
“We can feel each other up on my bed if you like?”
Seth recoiled with a wide grin on his face, pleasantly surprised. He subtly moved both of his hands to his front to prevent any necromancy on his boner.
Damn this mare…
“I’d be totally down for that… though something tells me you might want this even more than I do, which is impressive,” he quipped right back.
Schneeblume led him into the kitchen and watched him walk by before shutting the door. Her lidded gaze had returned full force.
“Well, you did give me a taste of what was to… come. I wouldn’t mind surveying the stock.”
[Just After Midnight…]
Seth felt himself stirring into the land of the woken, and unwillingly so. His eyelids were still as heavy as steel, and his entire body ached like nothing he had ever experienced in his life—ever single muscle in his body felt like it had been lit on fire at some point during the day, either from the intense training session, or the slight burst of sexual tension come to life that was his first sample of going down on Schnee…
Seth creaked his eyes open and found no trace of daylight to be seen, and in fact, moonlight crept in from the window through the drawn curtains, bathing part of the exposed bed in Luna’s majesty. Since the last thing he remembered was laying down next to Schnee for a nap, they must’ve really tuckered themselves out for it to be this late already.
Not that he was complaining, of course.
Schnee’s bed was super warm, and since she had already wanted him to stay, there was little shame in going right back to sleep, in his mind. And in shutting his eyes, he resolved to do just that.
However, Seth couldn’t shake a sinking feeling in his head that he was being watched—he felt mildly uncomfortable in a way he couldn’t rightly place, but the hairs on the back of his neck were standing straight in such a way that biology dictated something was wrong.
He opened his eyes and turned his head over to Schnee, and nearly suffered a heart attack from pure fear-induced adrenaline shooting through his veins when he found Schnee staring right back at him. Her pupils were unnaturally wide. Even weirder was the fact that, on her pillow, she didn’t seem to be even looking at Seth, but through him.
“JESUS CHRIST!” Seth hissed out through a whisper, jumping in his skin and nearly falling off the bed.
He was definitely not about scenes reminiscent of two wide-eyed children asking him to come play with him. And Schneeblume staring straight through him in the darkness of night, barely visible through what little moonlight shone through the curtains was ranking pretty damn far up in that territory.
His mare’s reaction, however, was even more unexpected—she thrust her hoof forward and covered his mouth while shuffling flush against him with utmost urgency in her still unsettlingly-wide eyes.
“SHHH! SHHH! SHHH…” she shushed him, and Seth’s head suddenly being enveloped in her hooves stunned him silly.
“Ummm… babe what’s going on?” he dared to ask, his words muffled by way of nearly being forced to deepthroat Schnee’s ceramic hoof.
Her response was harsh, and hissed through her gritted teeth:
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” she ordered… or, Seth felt like it was an order from how forcefully he receded into his fetal position under her.
He was getting more uncomfortable by the minute, but he figured she meant ‘be quiet’ as she continued to hold his mouth. What made things even more interesting was when she pointed towards (and seemingly past) the wall on the far side of the room. He followed her hoof to find nothing in particular to look at.
“Do you see ‘em, Red? There… past the barbed wire. Prench officer.”
Seth understood the word for ‘Prench,’ and immediately began putting two-and-two together. And a sudden pang of pity washed over his features as he stared at a rigid, wide-pupiled Schneeblume that did not seem to have any bearing of reality at the moment.
She was probably having a very vivid night terror, or she’s hallucinating.
He sighed out.
Oh babe…
“Can you take the shot? Make sure they don’t see your horn. They see the light of magic and we’re fucked.”
Seth gingerly removed Schnee’s hoof from his lips and—to try and not make things worse, since he had no idea how to deal with someone in an episode like this—whispered to her:
“Babe? It’s not real… come on honey, snap out of it,” he softly willed, patting her hoof that remained outstretched.
He kissed her ceramic hoof and tried to plant kisses as best as he could on her face—anything to snap her out of this stupor… and when it seemed like she was relaxing into him, he kissed his way up to her ear and continued to whisper his little nothings:
“Schnee… beautiful… I’m here, okay? I know you can hear me, and I’ll be here for you… okay? Know that I’ll always—”
Schneeblume sat straight up in bed and emitted a hellish, blood curdling, guttural scream of pure fear—one that probably took five years off Seth’s life just from how much his skin chilled to the bone from hearing it. He shielded his ears from just the sheer intensity that it hit him, and he was hoping in the back of his mind that nopony would think he was murdering her.
“INCOMING!” she screamed.
…and Seth watched her dive off the bed and hit the floor like her life depended on it. Whimpering and mumbling incomprehensible garble to his ears, he watched her with no small measure of sadness as she crawled under the bed and hid there.
Seth sat up in pure shock, praying that he didn’t accidentally make anything worse for her. But what hurt him the most was hearing her under the bed. She was crying… whimpering and talking to herself like a legitimately insane person in Alemaneian, of which barely any snippets he was able to understand.
“It’s okay… you’ll survive… please…
“…only artillery. You’ve done this before. You’ll survive… You always survive…
“God help me… please… don’t let me die… not now…”
Seth shut his eyes tightly and shook his head—he knew there was a small possibility that he’d bear witness to one of her trauma episodes. But he didn’t realize—as her boyfriend—how hard it would actually be to see and hear in reality.
I can’t see her like this. I need to snap her out of it… somehow.
Seth swept the covers aside and dropped his feet to the ice-cold wooden floor. He then stooped low, but realized that Schnee was way under there, so he had to fall to all fours.
What he saw made him feel like his heart was getting ripped into a million pieces: Schneeblume, coat and mane matted to hell from their earlier activities plus sleep, was curled tightly into a ball of shivering fluff. Her front hooves were covering her head and she continued to whimper for her life.
Seth, determined as ever, did his absolute best to squeeze himself under her bed until his arms could comfortably reach her.
“Schneeblume! Come one baby, snap out of it!” he commanded, softly massaging one of her ears and tapping her face all the while.
Her incomprehensible, foreign word salad of speech suddenly sounded a little clearer, though her eyes were shut tightly. Perhaps he was getting somewhere…
But in continuing his approach, it appeared to be waning.
“The attack’s coming! They’re coming!”
Seth—heart rattling his ribcage—looked regretfully to his open, right palm. He had firmly decided on a Hail Mary. He never thought he would ever decide to lay a hand on a woman (or mare) like this, but it was hopefully for her own good to prevent her from hurting him or even worse, herself, in her sudden episode.
Come on, gorgeous… WAKE. UP!
Seth slapped Schneeblume across the face, and the sharp sound of his palm connecting with her cheek in conjunction with the mare’s reactionary, shrill shriek would be seared into his brain.
But there was suddenly silence.
Seth watched intently as Schneeblume blinked her eyes, and then opened them widely to take in what little light and context were around her.
“Ech… huh? Seth?” she asked, and then bumped her head into the bottom of her bed when she tried to raise it.
Seth watched as she glanced around her, and then back at him, and then back at her position. An aura of knowing struck her face…
…and the human could see her visage morph from outright confusion, to pure, unadulterated shame.
Her mouth curled downward, and her tears freely flowed, unabashedly dripping onto the hardwood floor beneath her. Her whimpers and gentle cries were hard for Seth to take in, but he was just happy that she wasn’t in a position to hurt herself anymore.
“Hey… Schnee, you okay honey?” Seth softly called out and reached his hand towards her, implicitly asking for her hoof.
Schneeblume tearfully regarded his open hand, and then Seth’s eyes…
And then retreated further into her little ball and faced away from him.
Seth sighed out, almost feeling offended that she would pull away from him like that… but he had to remind himself that she was at her most vulnerable right now—likely some of her worst state of mind since the war itself. Hell, now that he thought about it, even if it may be liberating, he wouldn’t want to thrust this on anyone either.
He tried to coax her out:
“Oh baby… please don’t be like that… let’s go back to bed, hmmm?”
He heard her voice finally—alert and in the moment, though thick and slurred through her quiet sobbing.
“I never wanted you to see me like this…”
Seth pursed his lips and nodded. He kept his arm outstretched regardless.
“I know, Schnee. I know. But you know I’d never look at you differently, right? And I don’t.”
Schnee didn’t respond, but her ear perked up ever so slightly and she angled her head more towards him. She continued to sniffle all the while, though.
Seth curled his fingers in his open hand in a come-hither motion.
“Please babe… come on out. Let’s go back to sleep,” he said.
He heard Schneeblume sigh out, but to his delight, she uncurled herself and crawled back towards him. Though she somewhat averted her gaze from him, she still accepted his hand and held it tightly against her chest. That was all Seth needed and he gently slid her out from under the bed.
Once they were both out from their previously cramped surroundings, Seth got to his feet and promptly scooped up Schneeblume into his arms. He saw her front legs (cutely) curl into her chest, and only then did she finally look him in the eyes. Her tear-filled lavender pools gazed up into his and seemed to soak up all of Luna’s moonlight.
Seth couldn’t help but smile back down at her, and he damn-near almost felt like shedding a tear himself from how much emotion was being shared silently between them.
He sat on the edge of the bed and then lay the both of them back so they could snuggle under the covers.
Schneeblume, however, instantly gravitated to his front and locked eyes with him pleadingly.
“I’m sorry…” she said forlornly.
Seth wouldn’t tolerate that one bit, and as the two of them lay on the same pillow facing one another, the covers fallen atop them, he placed his right hand on Schnee’s cheek… the same gesture she always loved to melt herself into.
This seemed to be no different, and Schneeblume let out any breath she was holding. She shuttered her eyes and let Seth stroke her cheek.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for, beautiful…” he said resolutely. “You can’t control these things.”
Schneeblume still shook her head nonetheless.
“I just… I haven’t had an episode like that in over six months. I thought I was done with it… I was doing so well…” she lamented.
Seth quieted her down with a soft, long kiss to her forehead, which gave the mare an excuse to press her nose into his neck—Seth could feel her still-shaky breath breaking against his neck, and it felt comforting if he was being honest with himself.
“It’s okay… you know more than all of us that these things take time. We’ll just take things one step at a time—just like our relationship… or a few steps at a time if we’re going by earlier today,” he joked.
And to his relief, Seth heard Schnee giggling through her tears.
Schneeblume then brought his face down to meet hers and planted a wet kiss on his lips… but as his eyes fluttered shut and he held her face in place, he knew this was so much more than just a simple kiss. He could practically feel Schnee putting every ounce of gratitude that she had in her, into her affection.
Then they separated—a single strand of saliva keeping them connected until it broke on the pillow. Schnee only had one thing to say about all of this:
“Hold me…?”
Seth flashed his pearly whites at her.
“Always,” he said, and wrapped his arms as best as he could around her.
Schnee smiled brightly, and seemingly took complete solace being wrapped up by the combination of the blankets and Seth’s arms. Their warmth, their ethereal connection, and the soft sounds of the night from outside did well to escort both Seth and Schnee back into Luna’s domain without nary a further interruption.
Author's Note
Part 4 down! Hope you enjoyed! Let me know your thoughts below!
Some good things definitely... coming next chapter