Another Round of Dying On The Inside - Anon’s Perspective - Walking Home From Disappointment (Again?!)

No.

This wasn’t happening.

Anon couldn’t stomach it. Another rejection. Another one, from someone who he thought he was getting closer with. An acquaintance turned friend turned… whatever they had at that moment. The moment where he was with her, her in his arms, and they had leaned in to each other and were about to…

…and then she teleported out of his arms. He looked down, and there she was, looking up at him. It looked like she had tears in her eyes, but that could’ve been him seeing things. He didn’t know—he didn’t want to know. It hurt him enough already knowing it was happening to him again.

Although, something was different about this rejection.

She said she wanted to talk about it. And she wanted to go back to his place. A similar tune, but not quite the same. There was interest there, and that interest drew Anon from disappointment to a frustrated anxious ball of green mush. His mind wracked and battled in a fierce match of tug-o-war. He was currently losing to his competitor: himself. Meanwhile, he could feel Starlight's presence still hovering nearby, floating beside him like a ghost, yet clinging to him like a memory being pushed further and further into the void he called his headspace, where he walked alone on his lonesome, lonesome road.

Bile bore through his throat. He gulped to keep it at bay.

Starlight was quiet, walking slightly ahead of him. He observed her quietly, hoping that whatever stress that lodged itself in him would hopefully see an exact opposite signal to show that she’ll stay, that she cares, and that this was just a bump in the road. And yet, he wasn’t sure what to make of what he was seeing. Not yet, at least.

For starters, each hoofstep she took dispelled the dirt around her, but he noticed how each movement reverberated, her legs shaking. Anon didn’t know if this was due to nerves or if she was developing Parkinson’s right before his very eyes. He bet on the former, but the latter definitely made him wonder if turning around and having her go to the clinic real fast just to check would be a good idea.

But then, he saw her tail. It swished so rapidly, like she was suddenly a dog who got excited over seeing a tennis ball in her owner’s hand and wanted them to throw it to see if it went the distance. While the idea of her being so happy about him made him, by proxy, extremely happy, he realized that, well, what made her possibly happy made Anon rethink his life choices. The collar of his shirt he wore constricted around his neck, and he swore he wasn’t this hot a moment ago. She wasn’t excited in that way… was she?

That last thought made Anon zone back into his surroundings. On the way to his place, there was this little fork in the path. Some houses were nearby, and that little fork had a viewing plaza where ponies would sit and just watch the day go by. Anon turned on the fork and saw two ponies standing on said plaza. They were both mares with brighter colored manes giggling to each other. One pointed at Starlight, which he could tell bothered her if her ears pinning against her head was anything to go off of.

Anon strode up to Starlight’s side and glared daggers at the two mares.

They stopped laughing instantly, choosing to turn around and pretend like they weren’t just laughing at his company.

He looked down at Starlight and saw her ears perk up. She was looking at him with her muzzle slightly ajar, and her eyes wide.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded and looked elsewhere.

Anon felt a distinct heat set ablaze. It wasn’t a fire, thankfully, but it burned his cheeks all the same, just like how it burned hers too, he could only imagine it looked as crisp of a red color curve as it did on her cheeks.

He kept pace the remainder of the walk. The two hadn’t said a word since then, but whenever he looked over, she’d look back at him too, and the cycle of glancing continued until—

Anon sighed. The door to his humble abode greeted him. Now he wished he could just force-push the door off its hinges so he could walk in with no further awkward glances, but he had to fish his keys from his unending pockets. Carefully, he dug into one with his left hand and subsequently found no purchase.

Shoot, it was in his right pocket, wasn’t it? The one closest to Starlight.

He gulped down his nerves. It was just fishing for the keys to his house. It shouldn’t be this intense, yet his right hand slowly meandered toward his right pant pocket, being mindful of the distance between them being so not far, his hairs mingling almost with hers. His hand slipped gently into the pocket…

…

…and his hand grazed the texture of a keyring. His keyring.

“!!”

He found them! Grunting, he pulled them out (damn rascals hitched on the inside of the pocket!) and... immediately dropped them on the ground.

“Oh, one sec,” Anon said, and bent down to pick them up.

As he grabbed them, he saw a friendly hoof snake its way to his hand. His eyes widened.

He looked up at her.

Her soft smile greeted him, her eyes full of affection. He could see her fur tuft on her chest, and the way her floppy ears perked up at seeing that her hoof had grazed his hand.

He coughed. “Uh… thanks, Starlight.”

She cleared her throat and scooted away for a moment. “Y-You’re welcome.”

She’s going to kill him with either her diabetes-inducing interactions, or her mixed signals. Clearing his throat of his emotions, Anon focused and unlocked his door, the key being practically shoved into the keyhole with a vengeance. He grunted, turning the door lock, and then swung the door open. At first, he was going to walk into his house, but then he paused, turned around, and looked down at Starlight.

“After you.”

She nodded, but stood there instead. She looked around briefly like she was spying for another pony who may be looking at them. Once she found no one in sight, she confidently walked in. Anon watched her as she moved, before walking over the threshold himself. He turned around and locked the door behind him, the swift click of it signaling to him that he was now alone with her.

In his house.

…

He flicked off his shoes and scurried to set them aside the door. Then, he walked into the living room. Starlight sat on her flanks beside the couch, her tail slightly swishing against the floor. He ignored that indicator momentarily, choosing to instead set a candlelight on a nearby nightstand aflame with a match. He waved it about before blowing it out. Once he knew it wasn’t going to re-ignite, he put it in the nearby trash can and settled its associated brethren inside a nearby drawer. He closed it shut and carefully shut the curtains nearby, tying them together with a rope that he had set aside.

Total privacy.

He turned to her. “Starlight, is this okay?”

She blinked confusedly at him. “The curtains?”

“Yep.”

“It’s… okay.”

He frowned. He was going to ask if he wanted them back open, but then he noticed the flicking of her ear, her gaze looking elsewhere again, and a slight blush on her face.

Those actions alone averted his question to one more focused on her.

“Have a seat on the couch, Starlight.”

“Hmm?” She tilted her head at him. “Are you sure?”

He smiled. “The rocker’s not a stranger to me, remember?”

She nodded, albeit slowly. Then, she turned and hopped onto it, laying down with her head on her folded forehooves. She laid her body against the pillows, and he sighed. At least she was getting somewhat comfortable.

Meanwhile, he sat on his rocking chair, leaning back. He shifted in it to get comfortable, but found the wooden surface to offer little comfort, especially for his nerves. He settled in as best as he could, choosing to not place his neck on his makeshift headrest (the goofy pillow slides around a bit), letting his head hover just over it.

He looked over at Starlight, who was glancing back over at him.

He cleared his throat. “So…”

“Mmhm…”

A brief blow exited Starlight, like she was forcing out whatever nerves she had too. Anon felt the tenseness of the room. If he had a knife, he could cut it, but that would be too cliche, and his pocket knife he had was sitting in the other room, and he was not getting his pathetic excuse of human skin up just to get a pocket knife.

So he picked his vocal chords up and started to use them, “Are we… good?”

She stayed silent for a moment, before letting out a growl, a low one, like a groan mixed with angst. He stayed still, waiting for her to speak up, to give her the time to say something. He was about to give in, to say something again, but he shut his mouth when she popped her head off her forehooves and leaned back.

“I… We are good.”

He tilted his head. “Then why are we…?”

She groaned, throwing her hooves against the back of the couch. “I don’t know. I don’t know…” She frowned. “I’m so anxious right now, but I want to be here with you, if that makes any sense.”

I want to be here with you—

His eyes widened. He wasn’t being rejected? Then what was this? He had to know.

“You want to be here with me?”

She breathed out a little bit of laughter, her voice cracking in the process. “Y-Yeah. I do.”

“Does that mean…”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, Anon. What we did out there… it was…” She squeaked. “I don’t know.”

Her puffed up cheeks contrasted the red that pierced through well. “Was it too much?”

She harrumphed, folding her forehooves close to her chest, disrupting the tuft of fluff. “Definitely.”

“I see…” He pursed his lips. “Was it carrying you or?”

“It was… partially it.” She licked her lips. “The rest was… elsewhere.”

Anon raised a brow. “Elsewhere?”

“Anywhere but here.”

Oh.

He knew what that meant. He felt that before, with Twilight, and—

“I get you. You were full of stuff up there, huh?”

“Stuff,” she began, before giggling a bit, although weakly. “That would be something you’d say.”

“Best way to explain it. It’s just stuff. Stuff that bothers you, distracts you, makes you wonder if things are okay or if they’re too much.”

She let out a whinny in response. “And then you look at somepony weirdly and they think you were staring at them and—”

“—then it gets tense, and you have to tell them that wasn’t what you meant, and you were thinking about why the pole behind them looked like a ladder—”

“—a ladder?”

In the midst of their little ramble, Anon stopped. He had leaned forward a bit, now more upright than before. His chair was positioned more to face her, and meanwhile, she was closer to the edge of her seat. And they were staunchly aware of the differences.

So much so that Starlight slinked back into the couch’s cushions.

“Yeah, a ladder…” Anon muttered. He leaned back too.

The chair creaked as it rocked him back and forth.

…

“Anon?”

“Hmm?”

Starlight twiddled with her forehooves. “You… want to know what I was thinking?”

“When you…”

“Yeah.”

She looked up at Anon with glossy eyes, her bottom lip beginning to tremble.

He nodded. “I do. Did it have to do anything with me?”

“P-Partially,” Starlight began, her voice tuning higher in volume as she spoke, “I’ve been distracted at work. About you, about Twilight, about everything.”

“What about me, for starters?”

Her eyes widened. “I… uh, can we save that for later?”

“Sure,” Anon said lamely. He didn’t want to skirt the line with her. At the very least, he wanted her to continue talking, to see what was bothering her so much. Maybe he could possibly fix it? It was that innate instinct that drove him.

He turned his attention back to her, her lips moving—focus, she was talking!

“...was sitting in my office, just thinking about what you’d say about how messy it looked.” She paused to look at him, only to shake her head. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything negative. I just thought about how you would criticize it, thinking I lived in a cave or something.”

“Do you live in a cave?”

That earned him a giggle. “N-No, Anon. I live in the castle.”

“With Twilight?”

“Mmhm,” she hummed accompanied with a bobbing of her head. “Somewhat near her room to be exact.”

Anon’s eyes widened. He, for some reason, never connected the dots that they lived together. Not that it was an important detail, but now he knew why she didn’t want him to walk her home. A crossing with someone that rejected him… yeah…

“So, you were thinking about me…”

“Yeah, and then I thought about Twilight.”

“An intersection made in heaven, huh?”

“Pfft, don’t make me laugh, Anon. This is serious!”

Her waving of her hooves and her slight smile made it look totally serious, but he was really wanting to know what was going on with her, so he kept his ripostes to a minimum. “Okay, okay. Sorry, I’ll stop interrupting.”

“It’s not the interrupting, it’s the…”

He knew what she was referencing. A smirk wormed onto his face. “I know. Just… continue.”

She smiled. “Thank you.” She cleared her throat. “So, I was thinking about her and how she rejected you. I was bothered by how she did it, even after it being so long after the whole thing happened.” She snorted. “I always found myself circling around this train of thought. First, I thought she was stressed. After all, who cites biology that quickly? There are other options to get pregnant, especially for interspecies couples.”

“Wait, really?”

Starlight nodded. “They are risky, though. One wrong move and you could have scrambled the foal into being part foal, part gizzard and claws.”

The eldritch abomination Anon pictured made him nearly puke on the spot, but he found himself gaining the willpower to not lose it. Instead, he dreamt of the Rolling Turd, and how… not so great of an image that was either. At least it didn’t want to make him vomit. If he had, he would’ve definitely excused himself from the room just to brush his teeth and the rest of his mouth.

“Egh, thanks for the gross mental picture.”

“You’re not welcome!” she chirped, which made him nearly choke on his own spit. She must’ve sensed this, as she tilted her head at him, and scooted a bit closer to the edge of the couch. “Are you okay, Anon?”

“I’m going to need—ack!—you to not do that again.”

Her ears splayed against her head. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make you sick to your stomach.”

“It wasn’t exactly that, but between your lovely description and me almost dying to my own saliva, you definitely set off something there.”

She took a deep breath. “Well, let’s change subjects then.”

“Good,” Anon replied, leaning back in his chair. “So, interspecies couples have an increased likelihood to spawn a malformed Cthulhu. How does this relate to Twilight’s outburst?”

Starlight giggle-snorted. “Well, I had to come up with another reason. It just so happened to spring into stress.”

“Stress?”

“I know, it doesn’t excuse her. I used it before as a reason to explain her behavior, remember?” He nodded toward her, which spurred her to continue, “But it’s true, Anon. Life for Twilight isn’t a bunch of sunshine and rainbows. I mean, Celestia still can control the sun when she’s not busy relaxing with her sister, and Twilight is friends with Rainbow Dash, but that’s besides the point! She’s busy. Really, really busy. It’s like the entirety of Equestria relies on her to just be in the vicinity of Canterlot in order to function.”

Anon rubbed his chin. “So she’s royalty stuck in place. Does that really explain everything?”

To his surprise, Starlight shook her head. “Nope. While it’s part of it, it doesn’t explain everything. No matter how much responsibility she has on her, she doesn’t normally act like that.”

He tilted his head. “Then what would—”

“It’s you, Anon.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you,” she stated as a matter-of-fact. “See, you’re the only one that has ever made her lash out in this way.”

He leaned forward, making his chair creak loudly. “So, I’m the problem?”

“No, not exactly.”

He frowned. Mixed signals again! “Then what is it, Starlight?”

“That… that she didn’t like you at all.”

Anon’s eyes widened. “Like, before my confession?”

“As a friend, yes.”

That… didn’t cross his mind at all. He couldn’t imagine all that time he spent with her in the castle was all an act. If that was the case, she was the best performer in all of Equestria, and Trixie better move her wagon, because she was getting evicted by a horse with an agenda stacked with more than a few problems.

“And what did you come up with?”

“Nothing concrete,” Starlight admitted. She licked her lips again. “It just didn’t sound like her. She’s honest with everyone, so I couldn’t even make a way for the stars to align with that reason. She’s not like that.”

Anon shrugged. “Maybe I’m the first one to discover her inner discriminatory actions.”

“Or she just decided to unload everything onto you because you decided to also unload onto her.” Her muzzle scrunched up as she finished her thought. “And that just made my blood boil. I’m not happy with that reasoning either.”

“So…?”

“So, I went to see Spike.”

“You two are best friends?”

She nodded. “Yeah, practically. He’s been a bright spot just like you and—” She paused and clamped her mouth shut. “Uhh, pretend you didn’t hear that.”

“Me, a bright spot?”

She hid behind her hooves. “Don’t say it!”

He laughed. “Alright, alright.” He saved that for later, in his back pocket. “So you went to see him. What happened?”

“Spike and I talked about a lot of things. Mostly about you again, and trust me, I’ll tell you about it after all this, but…” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Anon started to count, but when he hit five, she immediately opened her eyes and exhaled softly. “He told me about what’s been happening. Apparently, Twilight hasn’t been stuck in Canterlot.”

“She hasn’t?”

“She’s… been going to the castle in Ponyville every night to sleep. She tried to sneak by everypony, but Spike’s not deaf. He’s heard her and she’s been crying every night since the incident with you and her happened.”

Anon couldn't help but feel his jaw disconnect from the rest of him. He picked it up slowly, trying to feel for the place that latched them together. He ended up smacking it back in place, which gave him a slight pain in his lower jaw. But who cared? Only he did, and he was needing to say something here.

“R-Really? Like, every night?”

“Every. Single. Night, Anon.”

“God…” he muttered. “So she’s been just as down about this as me?”

“Most likely,” Starlight said. “And I’m part of the reason too.”

“Why?” He tilted his head. “Why would you be—”

“Because she saw us, Anon. She saw me walk into your place that day.”

That day. The day that Starlight cuddled with him on the couch, the night when they stayed together until late and she walked back home, with him watching her leave. That one.

Anon felt the room rise in temperature. “I-I guess that could star-startle anyone.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I don’t blame her. She probably thought that she lost me as a friend too.”

“Hmm…”

“What do you think, Anon?”

He licked his lips this time. They felt dry, cracked, and he really needed some chapstick, but he had none. So, he sat on this question instead, choosing to meander from thought to thought. While this didn’t excuse her from anything, all it did was give some reasoning to the aftermath and why Starlight hadn’t seen Twilight at all. So, he ultimately didn’t have much to say. Just that… Twilight was getting what she deserved, really. A harsh reality to think about, but when you play with someone’s feelings like that, you’re bound to get burned.

“I guess it doesn’t change much. She didn’t really consider me when everything went down.”

“Yeah…” Starlight said, her voice trailing off while her ears splayed against her head again. “I’m sorry that this has all happened to you. If it didn’t—”

Anon stopped her right there. “If it didn’t, I wouldn’t have gotten closer to you, Starlight.”

Starlight’s eyes widened. “You…”

“And I wouldn’t be here, sitting in my rocking chair while you are on my couch. We wouldn’t have had that moment outside, and we would just be strangers again.”

She sighed. “Yeah…”

…

Silence pervaded the room. Anon looked away from her, and thought about all the moments that led to this one: the hiding from the truth in his house, Starlight bringing him out of his shell, his return to work, and the budding friendship with her. He could feel his stomach churn in a good way, like butterflies in a park on a gentle Spring day, where he ran through a field, happily running through it imagining Starlight by his side through it all.

And that last part is what terrified him.

He gulped down his emotions. He needed to focus. He needed to say it again, even if it hurt him again. After all, if what Twilight said was true, and he was shit out of luck when it came to mares, he still wanted to test this, even with Starlight, because a good life was a risk worth taking.

With a smile, he got out of his chair.

Starlight noticed this immediately. “A-Anon?”

He let out a big groan as he stretched his back. “Phew, I needed that.” He then stretched his arms, putting them high to the ceiling. He also stretched his feet, stepping on his tiptoes to get that blood flowing.

“Anon?”

He looked down at her. She was still on the couch, but now scooted closer to him by the armrest. Her forehooves were over the edge of it, and her body now laying the opposite as it was before, facing toward him too. All he could focus on after that was her eyes, glistening in the candlelight. How beautiful they were, a pool of color and of care.

He made his move.

“I need you here, Starlight.”

“You… need me?”

He nodded and crept down to her level. “I need you in my life.”

Her eyes widened. Whatever blush that wasn’t there before now blossomed to life on her cheeks. “Y-You…”

“I’m sorry if this is too forward. I’d rather just get this off my chest, if you don’t mind?”

She shook her head and watched him with a soft smile on her face.

“I… I remember coming here and feeling like I was all alone.” He held his hands together, his thumb gently grazing below the other as he continued, “I woke up here with no idea what happened. All I knew was Twilight, who had found me all alone near the castle grounds.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “It was not the greatest of entries, I admit. But I’m not good at those. Most people avoid me like the plague. It’s the… mark that bothers them the most. It’s been there since birth, but I can’t help it. It’s just part of who I am, I guess.

“And then Twilight found me, and she took me in wholeheartedly. Granted, we had the typical movie-like alien interaction. But once we got past that and she ran her little experiments, we started to get to know each other. She interviewed me about my life on Earth, I got to know how she got hooked up with such a large castle of her own, and then some time passed and she showed me around town. Then she had me meet all of you, her friends. And then her friends made me meet the rest of the town, and then…”

“The rest is history?”

He laughed. “And now we’re here. It’s been one hell of a run. From being super popular with the mares after they found out I was a guy, to then actually seeing me…”

Starlight’s eyes widened. “Wait, they hadn’t seen you but knew about you?”

“Yeah,” Anon replied, nodding curtly. “Somepony spilled that Twilight found me. And then, mares started to line up near the castle. Guards had to actually tell them that they weren’t able to sell their firstborns to meet me. Weird time being every mare’s exotic wet dream for a while.”

Starlight kept that blush on her face. She wore it well. “Y-You… so Spike wasn’t lying.”

“Yeah. He saw it all happen and told me about it. And then when they saw me outside, they all left.”

“I’m…”

“Sorry? Don’t be. I didn’t need them to accept me, especially like that. I’d rather want to be with people who want me, and not the whole exotic aspect.”

For some reason, she smiled at that. She also scooted even closer, only to sit up instead. What was she—

“Anon?”

“Hmm?”

“Come sit down beside me.”

Anon gulped as he walked to the other side of the couch. He sat down gently onto it, sinking into the plush the couch had to offer. He looked over at her, and gasped.

Her face was close to his. Her everything was close to him.

“S-Starlight?”

She nuzzled his cheek. “You’re quite the tease, you know that?”

His eyes widened. “I’m a what?”

Her smirk was something he hadn’t seen before, and her half-lidded eyes made something brew inside of him. She flipped her hair a bit and combed a hoof through it. “It’s later, Anon. You want to know what else Spike and I talked about?”

He nodded, trying to not make it obvious that his heart was racing at a mile a second. Was he about to pass out?

Starlight’s nuzzling brought him back to reality, her hum felt more like a raspy purr. “He and I talked about how popular you were with those mares. And how he knew relatively soon after I met you that I had a little secret I was holding onto.”

“And that was?”

She gave him a bright smile. “I like you, Anon.”

“Y-You do?”

“Mmhmm.”

Anon’s nerves were on fire. His mind was racing with his heart, and he was losing badly in the thought department. He gripped at his chest, choosing to lay down against the pillow.

Then, he felt some pressure on his leg.

“S-Starlight?”

She fumbled over his legs, before towering over him, her gaze peering down at him.

That look she gave him, one of concern and… love, a foreign one that was, it made him want to do something spontaneous. Something that would definitely keep her there forever. He wanted it to be so, even if it hurt. The risk—would she like him more or less?

He didn’t care at the moment. He needed to live in the moment, not out of it.

He captured her in his grasp, bringing her close to him.

“Are you okay—mmph?!”

His lips captured hers. And they danced. They danced and danced in the dark, as the flame that once grew bright fizzled out by the nightstand. Only their tussle, the rustling of his clothes against her natural coat, kept timbre and a fire that continued to grow. He held her there, their lips parting this way and that. He licked the tips of her teeth, while he could feel her tongue brush against his canines, if her shivering in his arms told him enough. He cupped her cheek and petted it gently, which earned him a muffled yet needy moan.

That alone made him both happy and keen on ending it right there before it got a little too much to bear.

So, he did. He cut their connection, pulling away with a string of saliva holding the moment together. The two were grinning in the fading light.

“A-Anon…”

“That was something else.”

She purred in his ear and nuzzled him gently. He reciprocated while he petted her mane with his other hand. He wanted to hear her a bit more, so he went down a bit further past her neck and—

“Keep that up and I’ll make sure you won’t walk tomorrow,” Starlight emphatically said, before gasping and magically charging something around her muzzle, which looked like some comically big zipper that zipped it shut.

He laughed hard at her antics. “I-I’m so sorry! That… wow, that was just so out of n-nowhere!”

She huffed and puffed her cheeks. She unmagicked her muzzle and sighed. “Sorry, you petting me there just felt so good.”

He threw his hands up. “You won’t hear me complain.”

She stretched up toward the ceiling too before flinging her hair back again, probably to make sure her mane didn’t migrate right in front of her and strangled Anon in a sea of hair. She smiled, looking down at him. “Neither will I, but… we should probably not go that far.”

“Yeah… it’s way too soon.”

She let out a blow. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

“Neither can I,” Anon whispered, his nerves still on end. He could feel each individual hair on his neck standing up. “I mean, I didn’t expect this. I thought you were going to push me away after all that and—”

“N-No. I wouldn’t do that!” She kissed him on his nose just to make the point clear, which he now understood three times over. “It’s just, with everything going on still, I…”

“You felt wrong to be like this?”

She nodded. “That and with you doing that in public…”

“Two plus two didn’t equal four,” Anon said with an exhale of air, probably born from the remaining stress he had built up. He took another deep breath and smiled.

Starlight rolled her eyes. “You and your sayings!”

“Hey, my brain is still trying to keep up with all this. You think this was planned?”

“With how you were saying you needed me in your life… uh, yes!” Starlight exclaimed. “It sounded like you practiced.” She giggled when she noticed Anon’s face, which was burning up at her ribbing. “Good to see I can make you blush too.”

“Can’t help it,” he replied. “You’re too cute.”

It was her turn to blush and hide away from him, choosing to collapse on his chest and giggle behind her forehooves. “Ugh. This is totally the opposite of how stallions normally act!”

“Good thing I’m not a stallion, then.” He smirked and poked her in the muzzle. “For humans, it takes two to tango. And for us, it’s the men that usually make the first move.”

Her ears perked up at that and she slid up to his face again, her breath mingling with his. “Usually?”

“Yep. And from what you ponies seem to be like, it’s the mare that makes the first move here.”

She licked the side of his cheek. “You’re right. And I’m more than happy to see how you humans make your relationships work, if it means we’re like this again.”

He chuckled. “Want to make out now instead?”

She laughed. “Not yet. We have one more thing to talk about.”

“And what might that be?”

“Boundaries. Nothing in public,” she said, prodding his chest. “Let’s keep this under wraps until we talk to Twilight.”

Anon raised his brow. “We?”

Starlight’s brow furrowed. “Yes, we.”

He groaned as he attempted to shift to get a better position. Unfortunately for him, Starlight was a great paperweight. “Why?”

“I’m not going to do more of this,” Starlight began, pointing a hoof between the two of them. “Until we get to the bottom of why Twilight treated you so poorly. We need answers, don’t we?”

As much as he hated to say it, he was curious. And if Starlight were there to help reel Twilight in, then maybe some closure could be had. Not that he needed it, he had her to thank for that. “I guess. I mean, I have you now and—”

“You have me?” Starlight grinned. “Not entirely. As I said, we need to talk to her first. I want to make sure there’s nothing else going on here. And besides, I have to make amends with her too now, and it does involve you.”

He sighed. “Okay… and—”

“And hey,” Starlight interrupted. “Once this all blows over, maybe you can confess to me in public…” She prodded him further, tapping lightly down his chest. “And maybe we can come back here after we tell our friends and maybe I could stay the night…”

He was on fire. Yes. On actual fire. Kerosene burning. “And you said I was the tease?”

She giggle-snorted. “I have to make sure you know what’s at stake here.”

He kissed her on the tip of her muzzle. “I know. And I’ll do that if it makes you happy.”

“Already whipped into shape?”

He snorted before he brought his arms around her form. “No, that requires a ring and a lot of time.”

She gasped. “A-Anon…?”

“Stay for a bit longer.”

“But—”

“Please?”

She sighed and nuzzled into his chest. “Okay… only a little longer.”

That little longer was all Anon needed to drift off into sleep with his mare in his arms.

Author's Note

Well, that shit just happened.

Written in four hours, edited in a hour-ish. Songs for this chapter (listen to the first one at 1.25x speed for the exact speed I was listening to while brainstorming this one):

Edits completed on January 3rd, 2025.