Anonymous in Nu-Questria

Izzy wanted to move to the balcony of her home to get some fresh air. The night was cool and humid. Frogs echoed in the distance with the chirps of insects scattered around. You were outside, yet Izzy assured you that no pony would be walking by at this time of night.

You were running your fingers gently through Izzy’s mane as you both sat side-by-side, looking out over the winding, darkened path.

“So... you never finished your story.” Izzy says.

You forgot about that. “Yeah...” You respond.

You run your fingers through Izzy’s mane one last time, then put your hands in your lap. Should you tell her? You figure that after rejecting her, she should at least know the truth. But then again...

“Are you sure you want to know what happened, Izzy?” You say, looking at her. “This story... doesn’t have a happy ending.”

Izzy turns her head a bit and looks at you slowly. She seems a little hesitant, but then she simply says, “Yes. I would.”

You nod, then look out again from the balcony to the peaceful woods.

“Well, like I said... she took a liking to me pretty quick.” You say.

“The day after we first talked at the cafe, she knocked on my door after I got home from work. She gave me chocolates with a little note inside. It was... adorable. She was crushing on me hard. I didn’t really know what to do... I wasn’t really attracted to mares at the time, and I thought that if she knew what humans are really like, she wouldn’t like me any more.”

Izzy doesn’t respond, but her ears are pointed at you.

“Still, she kept doing that pretty much every day. Knocking on my door and inviting me out to eat. Giving me little gifts. We would chat over tea and sandwiches. I would tell her about humans, and she would tell me about ponies. She was always so excited to hear me talk...”

“Then one day she knocked on my door and I told her that I wanted to talk to her alone for a bit. She came inside and I sat her down... and I just told her all the awful things about humans that I didn’t mention yet. Things like how there’s war and violence almost all the time. How awful people treat each other. How they can be greedy, malevolent and downright cruel. Lyra didn’t care though. She listened to every word, and hardly batted an eye.”

You sigh.

“Well, then she kissed me.” You say. Izzy flashes her eyes towards you.

“And... it felt nice. I liked it. She told me that she didn’t care about all the bad stuff humans did, because she knew I was a good person, even if my species has done bad things.”

You remember it vividly now. Those large golden eyes. That feeling rising in your chest.

“After that, I... started to see her a lot more like a woman and less like a pony. And... well to put it simply, I fell for her. I fell hard.”

You let your story rest a second as you take a remorseful breath.

“We got married the following spring. Everypony was there... and heh, her roommate, Bon Bon, tried to crash the whole thing. Said it was wrong for a human to marry a pony. That was a whole episode...”

You smile a bit. Izzy gives you a look like she knows you’re stalling. You look away before you continue.

“Things were good. Really good. It was sometimes hard to support us both on my meager wages, but I didn’t care. Every day I woke up holding her, and every night I went to bed holding her. Those were the best few years of my life.” You say.

You blink. The tears are forming. You ache deep in your core.

“Yet... at the same time I grew pretty distant from all the other ponies. Especially Twilight and her friends. They started going off on adventures without me. Sometimes I didn’t hear from them for weeks. Then things with Lyra started getting... weird.”

That’s putting it lightly.

“After the initial novelty of us being two different species wore off, Lyra leaned in to her obsession more. She kept trying to push the boundaries... she developed a spell that let her make floating ghost hands, she wore clothes constantly... hell, she even tried walking around exclusively on two legs for a week.”

You feel a bit of guilt even now. You could have stopped her. But no, you were young and idiotic. You encouraged her. You thought together you’d find a way to make both your dreams come true.

“And that’s not to mention what happened in our bedroom... I’ll spare you the details.”

Izzy looks like she probably wouldn’t mind the details. But it’s really for your sake.

“Then... Twilight became a princess. An alicorn. I took that really poorly. I basically stopped seeing Twilight after that point. Lyra and I had money problems shortly after, and one of masseuses quit his job at the day spa. So to make more money I applied, and they gave it to me. I started doing that job and we had more bits to spare.”

“Lyra got worse though, she got really depressed because she wanted a way to turn into a human desperately. She... she wanted babies. Not foals or... adopting. She wanted me to give her human children, and... there wasn’t a way to make that happen.”

You hang your head.

“I tried to help her in every way that I could. But... she just got more and more depressed. I tried to show her how much I liked her the way she is, and that she didn’t need to change for me. B-but...”

You take a shaky breath.

“Nothing worked. I felt lonely. And... trapped. The worst part is... Lyra’s stories about me had gotten around to the other mares.”

You sigh. You really fucking hate this part.

“They... started coming to see me for massages. Specifically asking for me...”

Izzy looks at you with disbelief.

“I was young, Izzy. Stupid. Scared. I felt really alone.” You say as you clench your fist.

You demand that your eyes suck in the tears. Stop fucking crying.

“None of that fucking excuses what I did. I made a terrible mistake by cheating on her. Possibly the biggest mistake of my life. I couldn’t live with myself. Eventually broke down and... I came clean. I told Lyra what happened.”

“By that point, she was pretty done. I was feeling done too. She asked me if I thought we could still make it work, and...”

You choke on your words. You grit your teeth. The image of her face burns in your mind. For some reason you hear the whirring of a watch.

“I said I didn’t know.” You say.

Izzy says nothing. Her stare is blank and cold.

“She walked out the door, and I never saw her again.” You say.

Izzy frowns slightly. You blink and finally wipe your eyes.

“Things... really started to go downhill after that.” You say.

You let your words float out into the stagnant air of the cloudy, moonless night. Your story hangs there like a spider’s web. Gossamer strands suspended in the moment, spelling out your deeds to the world. A story long buried, now resurrected as a ghost.

Slowly the breeze picks up, and the forest whispers with wordless chatter all around.

“Okay.” Izzy says.

You gradually look over at her.

“That’s it? Just okay?” You say.

Suddenly Izzy’s back fur bristles and she shakes her head with a shiver.

“Bing bong.” She says quietly. Her tails flips up for a moment and flops to the ground.

You feel confused.

“Sorry... old habit.” Izzy explains. “Unicorns do that to shake off bad vibes.”

“Oh.” You say. “Does it work?”

Izzy frowns a bit. “Not really.”

You try it any way. You shake your head and whisper “Bing bong.”

Izzy smiles a bit. “Anon... If I had known all that, I wouldn’t have-”

“I know.” You say. “Don’t worry about it.”

There’s a comfortable silence.

You and Izzy both decide to go to bed. Her in her hammock bed, and you in the basement den.

The next morning you wake up, and this time you make breakfast. Fried eggs for yourself, and syrupy oatmeal for Izzy. She enjoys every bite.

Izzy needed to go into town to pick up groceries and try and hawk her artistic wares. She loaded up her cart with gizmos, paintings and sculptures and trotted off down the path.

You found a cozy alcove with a pillow for reading on. You passed the time reading books and occasionally wandering around the house, looking at her things.

Your thoughts eventually turned to Lyra again, like you knew they would.

You told a half-truth to Izzy. You did see Lyra again after that. Once, years later. That train you were riding on in Manehattan. You saw her on the train car opposite yours, didn’t you? She was sitting like all the other ponies, her hoof clutching the railing.

Her eyes were staring straight through you. Completely expressionless, like you weren’t even there. She didn’t blink or glance away. You saw her, but she didn’t see you.

Then the train started moving again. And that was it.

You pray to God that she found peace. You hope she died happily and loved. She deserved it.

Thank you, Lyra.

I’m sorry I fucked up your life.

But that was the thing wasn’t it? You never belonged in this world. The more connections you formed, the more it hurt when they inevitably cracked and fell to ruin.

You remind yourself of your curse. How else could one describe it? You were cursed. A fucked up ape man from a harsh, turbulent planet thrown into a world of cartoon ponies made from sunshine and magic. That only ends one way. The ponies trying to heal something that’s broken fundamentally, and they fail. That magic crystal won’t fit into this heart. Sorry, sister.

Best to keep things simple as much as possible. Don’t get tangled up in mares, or stallions for that matter. That way it would hurt less when you eventually went home.

Home.

Izzy’s place was comfortable, but transitory. You wondered where Sunny would try to send you next. Fuck. Are you her Spike now? Nah, you should be able to find a way to distance yourself... eventually.

The evening rolled around before Izzy came back. She was hauling groceries in her cart as well now. It didn’t seem like she sold too much, but she was happy nonetheless.

You helped her unload things and make dinner. Bread soup bowls filled with a hearty stew.

Izzy seemed a bit exhausted from the travel, so she decided to just stretch out in the atrium on a big pillow.

You sat next to her and leaned up against the wall, trying to finish up reading one of the books. Occasionally you would run your fingers through her mane and she would flick her ear casually.

“Hey, Anon...” She says, lifting her head up a bit and looking at you.

“Yes?” You ask.

“We’re still friends, right...?” She asks.

“Yeah.” You say.

“Okay... I um... have a request.” Izzy says.

You put down the book, keeping a thumb it in to save your place. “And what would that be?”

“Uh... well.” Izzy says. “This is weird, but... I just... uhm.”

You feel the temptation rise. You lift a finger and snake it gently through the air towards her muzzle.

“Boop.” You say as you tap her muzzle.

Izzy scrunches her face and blinks. She looks at you, a bit surprised.

“Just tell me.” You say. You shake your head and smile warmly.

Izzy sits up and brushes her mane back over her shoulder.

“I really... would like it if you could maybe, um, hold me for a bit?” Izzy says. She immediately droops her head as she says it.

“Hmm...” You say, rubbing your chin. “Just as friends?”

Izzy looks at you with round, watery eyes and nods once.

You let out a long sigh. “Alright. Not the first time I’ve been a cuddle prostitute.” You say and smirk cheekily.

Izzy smiles wide and immediately springs up.

“I suppose I owe you for being so cool to me. You get thirty minutes, max. And no funny stuff.” You say.

“Deal!” Izzy says, raising a hoof in the air.

She leads you to her hammock. After a bit of awkward tightening on the straps to support your weight, you lay down on it and she climbs into your waiting arms. She lays on her side and presses her back up to your chest.

You put your arms around her and pull her close. Your legs curl to support her butt. Your head rests comfortably on top of her wild, curly mane. Her horn is close to your head, but not too close for comfort.

Izzy lets out a prolonged sigh as she lets the sensation wash over her.

“T-thank you.” Izzy says quietly.

“Shh... it’s fine.” You say.

Izzy lays like that for a while, and you hold her. Her body is very warm under her thick coat of fur. Occasionally, she flicks her ear and adjusts her head slightly under your chin.

You see the delicate lines on her horn channel a thin magic aura. Then the hammock alights with a gentle pink hue, and she gives it a slight rocking sway.

She curls up more and then says, “I hope I find a stallion as kind as you one day, Anon.”

You let the statement fill the small space between you for a bit.

“I know you will one day, Izzy.” You say. “It’ll be great.”

The time passes. You realize you don’t have a way to keep track. Izzy doesn’t seem to have a clock up on the second floor. You lay with her for more than half an hour before you finally stretch yourself out a bit.

Izzy lifts her head and yawns quietly.

“Okay, Anon...” She says as she slips off the hammock.

She rubs her eyes and you stand up off the thing.

“Goodnight...” She says sleepily.

“Goodnight, Izzy.” You say.

You part and sleep in separate rooms. Tomorrow will be a big day.