Side Effects

After a few moments, the zebra rushed out. “Luster! Where are- Oh,” the zebra stopped himself, realising his volume to the actual proximity of the unicorn. He approached the sulking pony with a tilted expression. “Why are you hiding there?”

‘Hiding’ was a rather generous term to use for what Luster was doing. He was simply skulking under the shade of the Shaman’s roof away from any potential eyes, off to the left of the door. He was also prone to the ground, hiding his leviathan package. “I’m throbbing,” he admitted with a wince. The situation did little to justify his normally prudish self. “It must have been another surge or w-whatever.”

“Sure, the potion is purely to blame for why you’re sporting a fifth leg right now,” Malaa giggled, unconvinced.

Luster grumbled, not wanting to admit out loud that Malaa may have had something to do with it. He still couldn’t erase the image of the zebra’s plump bottom from his head. Thankfully he wasn’t assaulted by myriad fantasies and unwanted scenarios… yet. The potion didn’t discriminate thus far in who it made him imagine. “It was hard enough getting here soft. I don’t think I can make my way back unnoticed, not with my ‘thing’ smacking against my belly.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think you’d be depriving many zebras by hiding such a wonderful sight from them. You’re certainly depriving me,” he cooed.

“Could you please stop with the flirting,” Luster snapped weakly, his organ’s response to the zebra’s words preventing him from spending precious seconds more to scold the zebra. Before he felt sand, now, after a fierce throb provoked by the zebra’s words, he felt something distinctly damp. “I need to get back to the lodge, hide for a week until the effects wear off, and be on my way. Celestia knows I’ve embarrassed myself enough as it is.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“What?”

“Make it back to your room? You said it yourself -- you don’t want anyone seeing, and the day is only going to get busier,” Malaa pointed out.

“I’ll w-wait until nightfall. Sneak back then.”

“You’re going to lie in the dirt, your log hard as stone, the effects building and building, doing nothing, for hours?”

Luster sighed, expression bleak. “I see your point.”

Malaa gave a shrug. “Well, why do we have to go back to your room? I know of a quick, free, effective and most importantly: fun way to ease your... pain,” he ended with a sultry smile, waggling his brows.

“What is it?” Luster asked with a surprising lack of irritation despite Malaa’s innuendo.

Malaa almost recoiled with surprise. “You’re actually hearing me out?”

“The proposition is either sex or something actually worth hearing,” Luster replied with a straightforward tone of voice, hiding the fact his cock just squeezed out another dollop of pre beneath him. “So I’m going to take a chance.”

Malaa let out a chuckle. “Nothing flies over your head. You’re right. Upstream of the river, there’s the source. The waters are clean, cool, and refreshing but most importantly: private. No potion I make can match the effects that nature can bestow on you.”

“So you’re suggesting, what, that we should take a dip?” Luster probed, sceptical.

“It was a valid enough suggestion yesterday.”

“You weren’t serious yesterday,” Luster retorted.

“Wasn’t I?” Malaa countered, playfully sticking out his tongue.

“Will it help?” he sighed, standing.

“We’ll see,” Malaa answered vaguely.

“That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence,” Luster said, droll.

“I’m surprised you don’t have all the confidence in the world now,” Malaa quipped, glancing downwards; Luster’s fickle organ twitching beneath him, precum oozing from the tip, throbbing inconsistently with its owner’s heartbeat.

“Stop looking at it!” The unicorn scolded, cheeks ablaze, bringing his forelegs together.

“Why? He’s not exactly shy, is he?” Malaa asked playfully, skirting his head around the stallion’s side to keep looking at the vascular beast.

“Stop talking about ‘him’ like it’s a separate pony,” Luster complained, turning to hide the rigid pride between his legs.

“I can try, but he hasn’t spoken a word, and I already know who I would prefer for some company,” he teased, craning his neck to the adjacent side, trying to steal more glances at the unicorn’s musky grey python.

“Right, of course, you’d love the chance to befriend something that’s constantly horny yet hard to please. You’re practically kindred spirits!” Luster riposted, constantly turning and stepping backwards, the zebra advancing with his arsenal of coy looks.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. He might find me very fulfilling. I imagine you leave him quite unsatisfied.”

“That’s one of your flaws. You’re too eager to please,” Luster retorted, his hooves continuing to scuffle backwards, a small trail of pre being left behind with every step.

“And he is flawless,” he said, continuing to tease the unicorn, looking him directly in his blue, “we might make a great couple.”

“I- uh- you...” the unicorn’s voice was caught in his throat, the zebra’s comment provoking a wet smack against his belly, his cock giving a powerful throb to the zebra’s remark. Who was he referring to actually with that statement? Was it a deft change of target or was he still referring to the grey patterned cock beneath him?

After a pregnant pause, the zebra smiled, triumphant. “Hmph!” he scoffed, proudly raising his chin as he skirted past the stallion with a strut, flicking his tail in the pony’s face as he did. “Follow. If we’re quick enough, we might be able to reach the spring without being spotted.”

“You, um… ugh! Fine,” Luster exclaimed, pivoted on his hind legs and following the other stallion. “And you didn’t win!”

At the opposite end of the hut, there wasn’t that much between them both and the jungle’s edge, just the faint sign of a trodden down path. Malaa trotted eagerly as he followed the familiar route, likely taking joy in the fact Luster struggled to keep up with his dick slapping against his belly. When Luster accompanied the zebra past the border of the jungle, he experienced a momentary lapse in his horniness, for it was traded for the wonderment of stepping into another world, a natural and beautiful form of chaos far removed from his own experiences in Equestria. The shade from the canopy cooled him down somewhat – thank Celestia! - and the fauna was striking, with large bright colours and leaves longer and wider than his entire body. His ears pricked at the sound of insects and faraway beasties. He also came to notice quickly that under his hooves was a mixture of dirt and sand, and for a fleeting moment, he wondered which came first – verdant growth, or the spreading wastes. However, this train of thought quickly became a shrivelled up wisp when the unicorn became conscious of something...

He was behind the sultry zebra.

“I-I think we should walk side by side,” Luster proposed almost immediately after realising, barely able to tear his eyes from Malaa’s swaying tush. The movement of his stripes was almost hypnotic.

“Why? Who would lead the way then?” Malaa inquired with the most blatantly obtuse tone the unicorn had ever heard.

“Don’t be difficult. It would make this walk easier for me if I...” Luster trailed off.

“Exactly!” Malaa scoffed, looking right back to punctuate the fact he saw right through him. “You don’t want to admit anything.”

“What won’t I admit?”

“Oh, you know, that you’re attracted to me,” Malaa sang, hopping forwards on his next step. “You can barely tear your eyes away.”

“I am not attracted to you! I’m not attracted to anyone,” Luster’s snap became a fizzle, mumbling his last remark.

Malaa laughed, not believing him for a second. “Fine by me. Deny it all you want. It’s more fun this way,” he chirped, looking forward again.

Luster grumbled some more, unsure of how to respond to Malaa’s teasing, clenching his jaw as he tried to look away. Try as he might, his eyes eventually found their way back to the monochrome booty. After a few moments, he looked back to the stallion ahead of him, releasing an exhale. “Talk to me at the very least. Distract me.”

“About what?” Malaa asked, looking back with a raised brow, clearly interested.

“Anything.”

“Okay,” he said, chipper, looking ahead again. “That night, when I kissed you, why didn’t you return it?”

“Nuh-uh,” Luster shook his head adamantly. “Not that.”

“Alright,” Malaa replied, voice now neutral.

After a moment of silence, Luster’s brows furrowed. “Is that it?”

“You had quite a bad reaction. I suspected you wouldn’t elaborate”

“Bad? I… I thought I handled it the best I could.”

After a while, Malaa gave him an answer. “You did nothing,” he replied, looking back at the unicorn, revealing a sad smile. “I thought it was just a surprise at first, but it was something far worse.”

The subdued sadness on the zebra’s face hit him like a spear. “What?”

“Apathy,” the zebra replied, directing his eyes to the path ahead. “No smile, no frown, no leer, or disgust, or hatred. It was like I hadn’t kissed you at all. My feelings, declaration of my attraction, our time spent together culminating in… nothing. Nothing at all.”

“I…” Luster’s words became lost in his throat. What could he say, if he could say anything at all? “I didn't know how to feel. I still don't. It just made everything awkward. After that... I avoided you, intentionally, but you always seemed happy to see me. I thought you were just toying with me. The flirting, the coy smiles… you didn’t seem to be hurt.”

“And how are you supposed to act around someone after what I did? Behave as though nothing happened, or wear your emotions openly? We both did the latter, don’t even lie. I wore joy and lust, you wore annoyance and ignorance,” Malaa’s voice betrayed sadness and anger. “Yours was a veil of course, or so I hoped. I expected one day for you to remove the mask. Flash me a sincere smile, grab me by surprise to repay the debt to my lips tenfold,” he spoke with a hopeful tone, “but that never came.”

Luster frowned. “If you saw that I was mad at you for the kiss, why did you never apologise?”

“Because that would be as good as taking it back. It would mean I felt regret over kissing you. But I never wanted to leave that moment behind, my lips against yours.”

“But things could have gone back to the way they were!”

“I didn’t want them to!” Malaa snapped, breaking a twig under his step as he came to a halt. He didn’t look back at Luster, but the unicorn could read the zebra’s emotions. He trembled, even standing perfectly still.

“How can I make it right?”

“Then how about you give me an answer to my question?” Malaa’s inquired, voice loud and face hidden from Luster’s mournful eyes. “Was I wrong then, am I still wrong now? Did you feel nothing then, and do you feel nothing now? Or am I just hoping that the potion unearthed something that was never truly there…?”

“No...” Luster admitted. In the dense jungle, there was silence. Malaa still kept his eyes forward, although the trembling ceased. “You’ve never been wrong, not about anything,” he continued, too afraid to move even an inch. “The same reason I never kissed you back is the same reason I kept silent until now. I was terrified of you.”

“Terrified?” the zebra sounded almost disbelieving.

“I’m a travelling writer. The first day I set out on this road, I gave up the idea of a home, of ever being in a place long enough to know every face,” as he spoke, Malaa’s head began slowly to turn, giving the unicorn the faintest of looks. “I don’t have friends. Not any real ones anyway. I grow familiar with faces, remember names. I may show interest in someone, but it’s only because of what they do, not who they are. It’s a barrier I keep around myself. If I became too attached, I don’t think I could get myself to leave… you got past that barrier.”

“How?” Malaa asked, voice so quiet the unicorn barely heard it.

A smile pulled on his lips, answers to that question coming to his head immediately. “You’re clever, funny, curious and kind – and that isn’t just flattery. You never failed to help me learn, to understand this place, but after a while, the only thing I wanted to understand was you. I saw you as a friend but… a part of me desired something more, and I didn’t realise it,” he continued. “I was getting close to you, closer than I had been to anyone before. It wasn’t as though I didn’t see the signs, but I kept going anyway. It was only when you kissed me that I realised what I was doing. It was too late to stop it.”

“So, what? You’re afraid of commitment, going any further with me than what we had-”

“No!” he interrupted, taking a step towards the apprentice. “No. If that was true, I would have left after that night, but I stayed. I had to convince myself most days that there was more here to discover and write about, but it was a lie, it was a lie I told myself because there was only one thing keeping me here longer, and it was you!” he continued, his voice rising as he became impassioned. “Do you see my choices? I could stay, and give up who I am, or leave, and hurt you. And I couldn't bear to hurt you….”

“And that happened anyway...” the zebra said glumly.

“Yes...”Luster’s head fell, eyes slamming shut as he winced, a sharp pain pierced his chest. Nothing he could say would matter. “It happened anyway, you’re right. I’m sorry...”

After a short while, he finally parted his eyes, his head rising back up when he felt a hoof brush down the side of his cheek. He did not expect to see two scarlet hues looking back into his own. Malaa was so close to him so suddenly that he was frozen in surprise… he knew what came next. Much like that night, he felt a pair of lips press against his own, watching as Malaa’s eyes disappeared behind his eyelids; passion consuming him. Not one to repeat his mistakes, Luster leaned into Malaa, opening his mouth to welcome in the striped pony’s tongue. Luster intended to repay the debt he owed Malaa in more than full...

His own tongue met the zebra’s immediately for the first bout, locking them both in a playful wrestle wrought with pent up emotion. Luster felt his legs bear a greater burden as the zebra threw his hooves suddenly around his neck; losing himself in the moment and passion as he pushed himself closer to the eagerly respondent unicorn; trying to lodge his tongue even further down the pony’s throat. Malaa moaned into his gullet, trading spittle and tracing his teeth. Luster didn’t deny the zebra, only savouring Malaa’s oral affection and the… minty taste of his mouth? Luster didn’t keep track of how long it lasted for, only that it was Malaa who pulled away first. He saw tears in those scarlet eyes, he almost felt worried until he saw the junior alchemist’s large, trembling smile.

“I’m sorry,” the zebra tearfully apologised, smiling uncontrollably, arms wrapped around the unicorn’s neck.

“For what?” he asked, only partially concerned.

“Crying,” he started, sniffling, “and for the first kiss.”

“I thought you didn’t want to take back the first one?” Luster said softly, unable to stop the flowering of a grin on his face.

“This one was much better,” the zebra chuckled, wiping the tears away as he relied on himself to stand again.

“Much better...” Luster echoed, although he wasn’t referring to the quality of his kisser. The happiness he wore on his face right at that moment he hadn’t seen since his chats with the stallion so long ago, sincere and genuine. It was heartwarming… It was only a shame the pleasantry of the moment wasn’t without a smirch. Below him, twitching, not at all forgotten, his cock felt primed to burst. Each vein that ran down the mottled length swelled pronounced with hot fiery blood as pre drizzled from the tip to the jungle floor. “You were leading me to the spring?”

“Oh, right!” Malaa remembered, now dry-eyed and recuperated, already back to his normal cheery self – although the smile he wore was distinctly brighter than usual. He immediately turned from Luster, taking a few steps of progress on the path. “C’mon lover. Stay close now. It isn’t too far from here.”

Luster scoffed, although not in a derogatory sense, closely following. “’Lover’? Are we already at that stage?”

“You’re right,” he agreed, stopping in his tracks to look at the stallion over his shoulder, giving a sly grin. “We can make it official later.”

Luster blinked. Even though he didn’t understand completely, his cock did, pulsating eagerly. “What do you mean by that?!”

“You’re an intelligent stallion,” Malaa rolled his eyes, continuing to saunter ahead with a somehow cocky walk. “You’ll figure it out...”

“Okay, whilst I toll over that,” he started with a confused look to the forest floor, then once again, his eyes snapped to Malaa’s expansive ass. “How about we walk together now?” Luster proposed, wearing a hopeful smile.

“And deprive your eyes of such a magnificent view?” he teased, running a hoof down his plump rump mid-step, smacking it on the adjacent side with the next. Luster swallowed, the slight jiggle enough to make his grey meaty column flex. “You can’t deny a thing now. You’re hard because of me. I was right!”

Luster tightened his jaw. His patterned ass certainly was a thing of beauty, although he wasn’t about to admit such a thing so readily. “Don’t make me regret that kiss, Malaa!”

The zebra cackled at the unicorn’s peevishness, picking up his pace somewhat. “Okay then, we can cut your torture in half, just try to keep up!”

With barely a warning, Malaa’s pace quickened to a gallop. Luster was a little slow to react – likely due to a particular organ diverting most of his blood – but he gave chase as soon as he was able to. He trod up crushed foliage, only catching glimpses of the zebra before he disappeared behind another tree. He briefly worried about getting lost, yet he was enjoying the chase, his heart racing.

“Malaa!” he called, rushing into a glade, stopping just short of running into the large pool that took up most of it. The crystal clear waters glistened with the rays of sunlight from above, surrounded by myriad flowers and fauna unknown to him. The beautiful blossoms combined with the water’s glittering surface made the glade a treasure to the eyes, something he already desired to keep secret. Although, if he had one critique, it was missing a certain something. Something around his height and... stripy. “Malaa?” he probed again, more quietly as he approached the waters.

He couldn’t gauge how deep it was from a glance. At the edge, he leaned towards the water, looking at his reflection. His eyes were almost indistinguishable from the water around them. His mane looked surprisingly ragged, his coat wet with sweat. He had just chased a zebra through a jungle in the sizzling heat. It was a miracle he still found the strength to stand.

The pristine image was broken by ripples on the water’s surface. Luster scanned the rest of the source, but it was already too late. A striped predator broke the surface just beneath him, his hooves hooking around Luster’s neck and shoulders, their lips connecting as he pulled the unicorn down into the pool with him...