How to train your dragon....pony(WIP)

>Be Anon.
>After about a month in Equestria you realized one important thing about yourself. You can not live without meat.
>You miss everything about it, the sizzle, the smell, the feel of it when you chew.
>Even the huge lumps of fat you don't usually go for, you find yourself daydreaming of them.
>It wouldn't be so bad if meals on the hoof weren't parading themselves around you all day.
>Not the ponies, ...though if you have to go much longer that might change...

>Today, you passed three cows, four pigs, Fluttershy's whole fucking pen of chickens, and you can have none.
>NONE.
>The very mention of such gets you labeled as a murderer and basically ostracized to the smallest nastiest little shack the closest to the damned forest; and god ...or uh "Celestia"(who the fuck cares?)... help you if you aren't grateful for it.

>So that's where you're at.
>Luckily Princess Book and her lackeys took pity on you.
>Fluttershy in particular seems to have taken you under her wing, and was more than willing to point out the do's and dont's as far as how to act and what you should say.
>At least she did so after the first little "interview".
>The one where you immediately labeled yourself as a murderous bastard bent on killing innocent members of the populace.

>Yeah, first impressions went great....

>Speaking of Princess Book, you are now walking up the immense staircase of her little book palace.
>For reasons best left to herself(Because she wasn't at all forthcoming in the reason she sent for you.)
>You are to ascend this stair yet again, and yet again be subject to another of her little lectures.

>As you enter the main room (In this fucking cathedral. Seriously, CAN you read all these fucking books in just one lifetime?)
>You notice not only is Twilight waiting patiently, she also has a somewhat pleased expression on her face.
>Which is a VAST improvement over the last few times.
>"So, took your sweet time getting here I see." Twilight says walking closer.

"Well yeah. The last few times havn't really been all that enjoyable."

>"The last one was exactly a week ago, and she only accused you of going after her chicken that one time, and you gave up after you couldn't get it out of that tree."

"Oh, ...yeah, you never actually said what that one was about."
>(FUCK! Fluttershy fucking SAW you? no wonder she has been acting off this week..)

>"Well to be fair, it is rather hard to hold a conversation when you immediately storm off yelling at me about 'unfair accuasations'." She replied giving you a sidelong glace.

"Okay, yeah, i admit it, that one WAS actually true." You say looking at the ground. (Why do you feel ashamed of trying to get something to fucking eat that actually tastes good? This has to be some kind of blackmail.)

>"I know, and Flusttershy knows, and she forgives you."
>"Also, it made me realize, I have been thinking about this all wrong. You are not a pony, and we should not be treating you as a pony, and we have come to a decision." She begins as if this was a speech.

(Oh, ....fuck.)

>"As much as we like having you here." A hardened look came into her eyes.

(So this is how it is, huh?)

>"We think it would be best if you went out into the forest and try and get something out there rather than ...eventually eating our livestock."She finishes wincing like she is expecting a blow.

(Yeah, "Livestock")

>(...)

"O-Okay?..." You say thinking about everything you have heard about the Everfree forest.
>Nothing you have heard living in there seemed very edible.
>Manticores?
>Cockatrices?.......yeah, no.

>Wait.

"So what? Like deer?" You say.

>You think you could take out a deer.

>"Well, yes....BUT NO!" She finishes almost with a shriek.
>"Nothing that can understand what you are trying to do to it, unless it tries to hurt you first."
"Which leaves what, Manticores?"

>"Doubtful. While they are rather territorial, you are not nearly large or imposing enough to be considered a rival. And you are much too scrawny to be considered a food source." She finishes, looking pleased with herself.

(Too scrawny to be considered a food source? The fuck?)

"Okay than. What?" You ask again.

>"The crocodiles the live in the ponds and streams in there are very vicious.
>They kill and eat whatever is smaller than they are without hesitation. I think we could all do with less crocodiles."

(What the shit? I'm scrawny and am unable to catch a fucking chicken but im expected to hunt crocodiles now?!)
"Great....yeah thanks. I'll just go choke them out, why didn't i think of this sooner?" You say acidly turning to leave.
(Maybe you should just up and leave before they really DO banish you. But where the fuck would you go?)

>"Wait!" Twilight says. "Spike!" SPIIIIIKEE!"
>"Coming, I'm coming!" You hear the small dragon reply from a staircase above.
>As soon as he comes into view he trips and the box he was holding bounces 6 times down the stairs propelling something long and metallic blurring out of it to land quivering about an inch from your right foot.
>You reach down and yank what is obviously a sword up from the creaking floorboard giving it a test swing.

"Jesus this thing is light" You say swinging it around a few more times. "Almost feels like I'm holding nothing."

>Twilight looks at you questioningly for a few moments before replying. "Yes, they make them like that for the royal guards. Makes them much easier to swing, I'm sure you see what I mean."

"I do, I really do." (Maybe You might not be completely fucked after all.) "What happened to the handle for it?"

>"Well it was originally made for my brother, but the guards on it were much too long for him and he said the blade is too short."

"Nothings ever big enough right?"
>Spike laughs and continues down the stairs joining you.

"By the way spike, thank you for trying to kill me.... Again."

>"I-It was an accident I swear! Scootaloo said she could-" You put a hand on his head.

"It's fine dude, last weeks party was great, and it was actually pretty funny. I dont think Ms. Cake will be able to get all the frosting off the ceiling till winter."

>Spike laughs again.
>"Speaking of that." Twilight said. "Don't you have somewhere you should be heading?"

>"B-But Twilight. I'm sure the girls have-" Spike began.
>"That's enough mister, be on your way." Twilight directed at spike with a glare.
>As you watch Spike walk out of this immense place, you really consider what Twilight is telling you.
>The only real way that ponies will ever accept you is by only choosing to eat things they consider "bad" or whatever you want to call it.
>Most likely with just one transgression you will forever be at least cold shouldered if not outright banished.

"Okay Twilight I get it. Just do me one favor okay?"

>"Sure what do you need Anon?"
"Talk to the blacksmith, and get him to fashion this into a spear."You say holding it out to her.
>(Because you know there is no way in hell he would do ANYTHING you asked of him without some serious coin. Of which you are seriously lacking.)
>So that in essence is the short version of how you ended convincing yourself to go trudging through this damp murky ass forest until you can feel the blisters forming on your feet.
>Twilight was true to her word that nothing much would accost you once you got past the outskirts of the forest where the timberwolves lurk.
>Which curiously did not even show up.
>She might even have been fucking with you.
>While you have heard many stories about the Timberwolves you had yet to see anything supporting that claim.

>It's felt like hours since you entered the forest and you have yet to find any source of water, or really, any life whatsoever.
>You are honestly starting to wonder whether the ponies somehow tipped off the forest wildlife and are hoping you get lost trying to (at least in their eyes) murder someone.
>That seems like the sort of thing a group of intelligent herbivores might do to make a potential predator mysteriously dissapper.
>In fact, that would make more sense than Twilight actually going out of her way to help you considering the amount of times you had been confined to her little office for yet another lecture.
>Everything was just books, lessons and learning to her. And it was honestly starting to become the same with the other ponies.
>The few that you have been able to actually get to know are for the most part extremely boring and uninteresting.

>(Except Pinkie, but that's a whole nother trip.)

>Rainbow Dash is like the only pony that will (willingly)compete with you with anything that isn't mindnumbingly boring.
>Though, she really only ever wants to race, Which would be great if you could fly.
>But you can't.
>It was in this contemplative state that you realize you have wandered deep into a marshlike area when water slips over your boots to moisten your socks in a most unpleasant fashion.
>As you hear a twig or some shit snap behind you, your heart feels like it jumps up to somewhere in your upper sinus'.

>Whirling around and flailing your arms(you must look hilarious right now) you almost end up dropping your spear. Bringing the spear back under control you look over the area where you heard the twig or whateverthefuck snap. Seeing absofuckinglutely nothing.
>It's at this point that you realize just how stupid and suicidal you must be.
>Eating one of Fluttershy's chickens has GOT to have less potential consequences than this. Even if you find one,(a mutherfucking crocodile) what the fuck then? Stab it in the eye?

>It's probably too late to go find a book or something, that could give you some insight on at least how big they usually are.(Did you really just think that?)
>Regrets aside, you are pretty sure in the amazon there are relatively small crocodiles.....right? Or was that something else. You remember BIG fucking snakes from biology class....not much else.

>Okay. Think Anon. You arn't completly stupid.(Though current evidence may not suggest it.)
>Whatever it's going to be is going to be huge, hella scaled, have giant god damned teeth and take A LOT of force to kill.
>If you hit it in somewhere vital. Like....where? Unless you can sneak up beside it to stab it in the gut you are pretty sure organs are out. (and would probly take a long time to bleed to death) So what?
>Skull?
>That doesn't sound like such a good plan. Neck? That might work. Sever the fuckers spinal cord and it's done.
>But, even through working for the last couple weeks on the Apple Farm,(when they would actually let you) you haven't built up that much muscle, or any measurable skill to take off the head of something bigger than Winona.
(not that you had thought of that or anything..)
>So.... What? Wait, weight. Big ass guards on the spear you can put your feet on and use the weight of your body to your advantage.(For once.)

>So, you need to, find a tree, climb said tree. Drop off said tree onto (hopefully) the neck of a crocodile winning you some meat.
>Way too much meat.
>Without even a way to cook it, or move it from here other than just picking it up.....
>This has to have been a trap.... Or you are just fucking retarded.
(Why not both?)

>You pick a likely location and stake out a spot that looks high enough and is close to the water. You wait, and wait, and more of the same.

>Long enough to honestly sit back and consider your situation.
>You really weren't going back home. Twilight taking you to that "other world" pretty much guaranteed that.
>That place was NOT home, not in any way shape or form. If anything, the "people" over there were worse than their equestrian counterparts.
>But if you were just going to up and leave where would you go? If you really wanted to be hung you could try canterlot.

>Celestia might even do it herself, wouldn't that be considered some sort of honor?(Nice positive thinking there anon.)

>Everywhere you have heard of either has a buttload of ponies or other inhabitants that seem far more intimidating.
>You couldnt imagine living with the gryphons for instance.
>You can however imagine getting fucking eviscerated by one or more gryphons for saying or doing something stupid.(Which you seem to be doing plenty of lately.) Which doesn't really leave much.

>The forest honestly doesn't seem all that bad.(At least so far.) The more you think of that the better it starts to sound.
>Somehow you managed to fall asleep up in the tree (Guess it's more comfortable than it looks.)
>And wake with a start. Judging by the light its at the very least late afternoon if not evening.
>Sounds coming from below you near the base of the tree draw your attention.(No fucking way...)

>There's a damn crocodile down there. At this moment it is basically positioning itself so that it's perfectly set up for you to drop on it. (Okay back up a step here Anon. How is this not somehow a trap?)
>You look around thinking you will see a bunch of them or something worse. But you see nothing else.
>There isn't even much brush to hide behind and the water even seems far enough away that nothing would be able to get to you quick enough for there.(Hopefully...)

>So what? Do you just... drop on it? Should you say something first?(THIS IS SPARTA!) But no, it's not. Also you are pretty sure you have seen that movie. It's what the little fag yelled before getting mauled by a crocodile in horseland. Just dropping down it is.

>You move as quietly as you can, positioning yourself above the crocodile.(Which even from up here looks fucking HUGE.)
>Nothing else for it Anon.
>It's now or never.
>You don't think any of the ponies will sing your praises.(To be honest the way things have been going you are expecting them to be even more intimidated by you if you can manage to do this without dieing.)

>Enough stalling.
>You drop from the tree actually managing to get your feet in the right places during the short fall, as well as be heading to about where the neck area is.
>In the remaining seconds one thought came unbidden into your mind.(...I came in like a wrecking ball...)

>There was a huge jarring crunch, a very large sighing sound and your balance failing you as you fell to the left.
>You manage to ball yourself up and turn it into a kind of roll back to your feet as your hand still holding the spear, pulls it free and puts it between you and the croc.(That may have been the first thing you did right since ending up here.)
>But as lucky as that move may have been, you quickly see it was not needed. The huge body of the thing is motionless.
>You stand there almost motionless yourself for several minutes just trying to wrap your head around what you just did. Because you did do it, didn't you?

>A sudden need to know forces you to stab it again, but there is no reaction. Okay Anon, congrats.

>You did the thing. You fought the dragon.
>Now the princess you must rescue lies inside. Massive hard scales, the fuck must weigh at least 6-700 pounds.
>No knife, no rope. Nothing at all really that would help you lift the thing up.

>Just how crazy have you become just in search of meat? This was absolutely a trap.
>At the very least, it was a hope that I would just go off and never come back.(Get eaten.)
>Or perhaps this was just supposed to be another lesson. Twilight knows you arn't completly stupid.(You hope.)
>Logically when you saw the size of the fucking thing you should have just turned around and walked home. Probably to read up on them or to actually grab a rope or a knife to help skin it.

>Something, anything but walking out without even a water bottle or anything, spear in hand ready to face your enemy.
>Enough thinking Anon, you need rope. You have a big bladed thing that should do to cut into it for now.

>(So. Vines.)
>You think to yourself as you quickly turn and hear a larger branch or something crack and see brush move behind a large tree.
>Instantly you are alert, spear in front of you, at least acting like you can take just about anything on right now.(And with that big corpse behind you it would be hard to argue that fact.)
“Who's there?” You yell loudly.
>Hearing nothing move you yell out again.
“Come out and show yourself or i'll come hunting.”

(At this point it occurs to you that whatever it was can't understand you, Or worse, CAN understand you and is like a big ass hydra or something. and you begin rethinking actually following that one through.)

>“Okay.” You hear light female voice reply, and you hear rustling behind the tree.
>She sticks her head out from behind the tree.

>“That was actually pretty impressive.” She says only letting you see her head hiding her body behind a tree.
>You see a orange colored, red and yellow maned pony with lavender eyes looking back at you with a smile and far more interest than you have been shown by any of the other ponies.
“Oh, thanks.” You reply not really knowing what else to say.
(Wonder what her reaction would have been if you had fucked up and were currently inside that crocodile.)
“Sorry, I don't recognize you or your voice from Ponyville.”

>“Yeah, I'm not from there.” She says her expression hardening somewhat. There are several seconds of awkward silence.(What do you say to that?)
>“So, since I assume you won't be eating that right there you might want help moving it?” She continues, looking hopeful.(Huh? She wants to help?)

“Um, yeah sure.” Taken completely off guard you really aren't sure what to do, but she doesn't seem overtly aggressive.

>“Excellent.” She says stepping from behind the tree.
>The sight you are graced with is... slightly confusing. She has wings, but not pegasus wings.
>A tail, but a tail more at home on like....Spike.
>Now that you can see the whole picture as she walks up to you, her ears are different too, much longer that you are used to seeing and very pointed at the ends.
>Also, the way she is walking up to you is more the movement of, say a large cat rather than the usual oblivious cantering you have become accustomed to.

>Not that this is in any way a bad thing. But it does seem like she is noticeably drooling, and her eyes are sporting that wild glare that you had seen on yourself the past couple weeks.
>(Pretty sure this one doesn't eat grass.)

>She stops just out of range of your still held spear and gives you the look.(You know the look.)
“Oh, sorry.” Slightly lowering the spear(slightly) you say “Not really used to much freindlyness around here.”

>“I think i know what you mean.” She says walking past you to inspect the corpse.
>“Just so you know, in case you didn't.” Giving you a sidelong glance. “I've been tailing you pretty much since you entered the forest.”
>She stops as if to see if you have a reaction. When you don't(At least you think you don't.) she continues.
>“At first it really didn't look like you had any idea what you were doing. But results are hard to argue with.

>"So, what did you have planned?” When you don't respond she again continues.
>“Since you didn't start tearing into it immediately I imagine you prefer your meat cooked? Or were you just going to go somewhere else to eat? ” Her face is slowly falling due to your lack of response.

>(Earth to Anon. This is where normal people should like you know, respond.)
>(Think fast, what would actually make you sound like you did this actually knowing what you were doing.)

“Oh, well obviously I prefer my meat to be cooked. I just got so caught up in coming out here to hunt I forgot to bring any rope or anything to help me bring what I could back with me.”
>(There, that doesn't sound too retarded right?)

>“Were you planning on carrying the entire crocodile on your back?” She looks at you as if trying to asses your strength, and judging by the look on her face she isn't so stupid to think that you could.
“Well no.” Deadpan.
(Best to appear stong and confident right? At least until she sees through that and tries to take a bite out of you.)
>“What were you planning on doing with the rest then?” She says looking back at you with wide eyes, you swear they must be glowing or something for them to look so intense with the forest beginning to darken around you.
>She also doesn't sit still, every moment she is slinking and sliding around the corpse probably trying to smell out the best parts. Moving this way and that, kind of cute. Like a kid running to and fro in a candy store figuring out what they want.
>She's hardly making any noise at all either. Half creepy half very appealing.
>You just aren't sure which side is winning out at the moment, but you are slowly lowering your guard around her.
>She seems more like a child who wandered into a candy factory rather than someone trying to win your trust to take advantage of you.

>(But wouldn't that be a good way to do that too? Your brain hurts.)
“Well I was planning on stashing it up a tree or something and coming back for it tomorrow.”

>“Oh, alright.” Eyes downcast, ears lowered, finally stopped moving around nonstop. Like you took her favorite toy away.(How the hell can she look so fucking cute?)

>You have an idea.
>“Tell you what.”

>One of her ears lifts up and turns towards you, but she keeps her eyes and head down. No one with canines protruding out of her mouth should have a right to look so cute.

“I'll give you the whole kill if you help me take it back to wherever you are staying as long as I can take what I want from it.”

>Instead of the explosion of glee and happiness you expected, she gets the strangest, most complicated look you have ever seen on a face. She slowly walks up to you, with the same very confused, very disturbed expression on her face. About 3 inches or so she stops looking directly into her eyes.
>Her eyes are fucking spectacular by the way, at first you had thought her pupils were just slits like a reptile. In fact they are elongated diamonds almost like spears of black coming from a central pupil.
>She has said something but being momentarily lost in those eyes you didn't quite catch it.

“Sorry. What?”

>“Why?” She says again with slightly more force. Not entirely sure what she is getting at or why she looks so serious you stammer out an answer.

“Well, I guess I honestly can't hope to carry it all myself. And you are over there being all cute and everything...”(Did you just say that?)
“I just think I'd rather walk back with you rather than alone. And you probably have a better spot to keep the bulk of this anyway. Also I think if I walked into ponyville carrying any kind of dead thing I would be lynched.”

>“Oh you.. you LIVE there?”

“Well they havn't run me out of town yet, though to be honest I dont think that they will be waiting much longer before making their first attempt.”
>(Of course ignoring the fact that this was most likely, their first attempt.)
“So it's definitely not a long term thing.”

>“Good.” She replied nodding with a slightly less concerned look on her face.

>(Good?)

“Yeah I think I've seen that part of them.” She continues still way up close, at least she doesn't smell bad, kind of like a flowery leather smell.
>“Not in ponyville though."
>"After the first town I didn't bother to try with any others.” You give her a questioning look.

>“They ran me out of town. Pitchforks, torches the works. Accusing me of running off and eating one of their babies. Of course they found the baby later, well, I.”

>(extra mega emphasis on the “I” there)

>“Found the baby, and directed her back to her parents.” She finally backed away and started circling you, not in a threatening way, just looking you over.
>“I see I was right not to try the other towns.”
“Yeah I was just coming to that conclusion myself. If I leave here I can't really think of anywhere else to go really. The gryphons seem like the next logical place.”

>“I wouldn't, they are too prone to trying new kinds of meat, and you look ...very edible at first glance.” She says with a strage look in her eyes.

(At first glance? Is that why she was following you?)

>“I'm Garnet by the way. Might as well get that formality out of the way now that we are at this point.”

>(At this point? What?)
“Oh, yeah, well im Anonymous, usually just go by Anon though.” (Still though, at this point? Like is she in your debt now?)

>She circles one more time finishes her pacing right in front of you and gives you a winning smile accompanied by a nod.

>(This one is a strange one.)

>She then leaps straight over your head grabbing the crocodile and grabs onto it, with her teeth. She then lifts it with one beat of her wings to a nearby branch.

>(She's smaller than you, how the hell?)

>“If you would be so kind as to disembowel her for me?” She calls down to you.

>(At least you wont embarrass yourself with this task.)
>You do so without even managing to get a drop of blood on yourself earning you a smirk from Garnet.

“Now off with it's head.”

>“I think you have actually already done so.” She says with a smile. “At least the important part.”
>As she says that she snakes her tail down around the crocodiles neck.(Just how strong is her tail anyway?)
>A slight jerk of her tail followed by a popping sound causes another rain of blood to fall down and you again manage to deftly dodge it.(The answer, VERY.)

>The look she is giving you now suggests she might be guessing just how much of a fluke that this kill actually was.
"So bring it down here so I can cut it in half.”

>“Oh I don't believe that will be necessary.” She says lifting the entire carcass out of the tree with her strangely silent wingbeats.

>“I'll tell YOU what.” She says with a playful note in her voice.
>“If you manage to keep up with me. We can talk.”

>Without any more warning than that she begins to speed off.(“Speeds off” being a very relative turn when one is carrying such a weight. or so you thought at first losing sight of her almost immediately.)

>About ten to fifteen minutes(perhaps a few hours, or several sunlit days) you are definitely regretting your proposal.
>You are able to keep up with her, but honestly just barely. You can hardly believe it but there she goes, hardly even dipping between wing beats.
>At least not in the few short times you have seen her clearly.
>Mostly it's just a black shadow that you barely manage to stay in sight of.

>It had really gotten quite late and was quickly becoming dark. There was no way you were going to make it out of the forest by yourself carrying any part of that thing.
(Yeah wandering around in the forest with a bunch of freshly killed bloody meat on your back, no way that could go wrong...)

>After another 10 minutes of running trying to keep up, your body is reaching what it can do without you collapsing.
>And ashamed to admit it to yourself, you think you have lost track of her. Just about the time you are thinking of giving up and shouting for her.

>You see a sudden purplish glare in front of you stopping you in your tracks, panting and heaving.
>Her eyes do glow, and judging by how much light they are giving off, quite a lot.
>“Your eyes don't work well in the dark do they?” She asks, her eyes giving off a little bit more light.

“Not to well, no.” You manage to sputter out still trying to catch your breath.

“But you kept up fine, especially considering you must not run much given the way you are.”

>(Was that an insult?)

>“So my answer is yes.” She says while walking past you dragging the tip of her tail slowly across your face, flicking the tip of your nose as she does so.
>(The fuck?)

>“Let me get this thing into the cold room and I'll come back to show you where to go.” She jumped over the overgrown wall to attend to the carcass leaving you alone. The light from her eyes slowly giving way to darkness.

“The hell was that all about?” You say to yourself.

>Where is this anyway? It was pretty dark but it looked kind of like a ..castle?
>Twilight did say something about a castle in the middle of the forest but you didn't really believe her.

>Walking around you see light coming from an opening in a wall.
>As you enter the cracked opening in the wall the temperature rises considerably soaking into your muscles.
>You hadn't realized how cold you were until you walked into the warmth. Looking around this must have been a kitchen of some kind.

>Some of the pots and pans look freshly washed and recently used, while others have obviously been untouched and shoved into a few of the corners. A fire is already going in what appears to be a very large oven.

>(Well that was fast.)

>None of this looks very recent either. The pots and pans over in the corner are covered with a thick layer of dust. But everything else looks shiny and brand new. She must keep pretty clean house.
>(So did the ponies, you would find doing all that very difficult to do only using hooves.)
>“Oh there you are.” You turn to see Garnet poke her head in the doorway sideways causing one of her long ears to flop down pointing at the floor.

>(Admit it Anon, her accidental cuteness is winning you over.)

>“Bring your stick thingie with you and come with me. I'm starving.” She says running off.
>At least she isn't hard to follow. On the cold stone floors her hooves make plenty of noise to follow.
>When you finally make it to where she stops, you find the room is indeed very cold.
“I'm not sure what makes it so cold but its perfect for storing meat.”
>She looks around the room lighting it slightly with the light from her eyes.

“That is a really cool trick.”

>"Thanks, it is very useful at night or in caves." Again she is like inches away from you not quite touching. She stares at you for a long moment before somehow narrowing the light from her eyes to a particular location on the crocodile carcass.

>“Now just use your thing and cut it there. And there." She says moving her eyes in a quick line.
>"We should be able to fit that in the oven.”

“Okay.” You reply. But you have a slightly better idea in store for how to prepare the meat.

>After grabbing a sizable chunk you go back to the kitchen and try and look for some kind of spice cabinet.
>You eventually find something of the sort but you aren't really seeing much.
>You do find some salt. But the pepper, garlic and anything plant based is long gone.

>Luckily through your searching you find a couple decent knives that still look very sharp and usable.
>You cut the meat into quite a few sizable steak like things. Salt them up and put them on a pan that has a grease catch on it and slide it in the oven.
>Through all of this Garnet has just been watching you sitting in one position very statue like.
>As soon as you look over she immediately walks up to you, kind of slithered up to you if you would have called it anything.
>“So what was that you put on it?” She sniffs. “It didn't really smell like anything.”

“It's called salt, and I guarantee if you have never had it before you are going to be very happy.”

>“Most of the time anymore I don't even wait to cook it.” She says with her eyes lowered slightly. “I do prefer meat cooked though." She says almost defensively. “I just don't always want to make the effort of fire.”

“I can imagine with hooves it would be very difficult.”

>She gives you a strange look. “Well no, difficult isn't really the word I would use. It's more painful than anything else.”

“I'm not sure what you mean by that.” Looking at her for a bit more to go on.

>“Ask me tomorrow morning and I'll show you.” Her eyes are starting to do the bright glowing that you are still having trouble getting used to. For one thing it hurts your eyes.

“Okay, it's a date.” You reply hoping to lighten the mood.

>It doesn't have quite the effect as you had expected and its hard to tell in this light, but did she just blush?

>Acting like nothing had happened she jumped up onto one of the nearby tables, landing very silently on it hardly even disturbing the air around her.(How does she even do that?)
>“Follow me, I want to show you something.” She looks at you eyes very wide and bright making you wince slightly; and again, with no further warning than that, she was off.
>This time she went off in a completely different direction. You hear her hooves striking the stone floor rhythmically. Very easy to follow. Also the slight glow of light slowly fading in front of you tells you that you are keeping pace, though you didn't really want to strain yourself too much having just gotten your wind back.
>You were glad you were following her and not just wandering around by yourself. This place was a fucking maze. When you hear her start to slow down you slow yourself. (To more of a walk really.)
>When you finally round the last corner she is there waiting for you. Her eyes were much dimmer now, you could see some of the hallway but it wasn't almost blinding like before.

>“You stopped straining your eyes. Is that more comfortable?” She says head tilting slightly to the side.

“Actually, yes. Thank you.”

>“Great!” She says eyes flashing very brightly making you raise a hand to sheild your eyes. “Oops sorry, I haven't ever had need to control it really.”

“It's fine.” You look around wondering what part of the castle this is. “Where is this in the castle?”

>“Um, west area, ...I guess. The castle is basically a large cube with a courtyard in the middle of it. This is still in the lower area of the castle.
>“Anyway come on in here!” She almost squeaks blurring into the room. The speed at which she can move when she is excited is just about as unnerving as it is appealing.

>You enter the room to see her poking and prodding some large machine in the middle of the room. She uses her tail to pull several levers while at the same time punching two buttons on the center of a large device of some kind. It takes up almost the entire room, but the control panel (or whatever) to it is relatively small. The bulk of the machine was a large circular plateau slightly concave in the center of it looking like it might house a large sphere of some kind. The control panel is very different, full of different levers and knobs, along with a various assortment of metal arms with different lenses on the ends.
>You walk up to where she is .

“What is this thing?”

>“I actually have no idea.” She says looking over at you her eyes almost lighting up the entire room. “But I know what it does, watch.”

>Your next question is answered before it even reaches your lips as a strange glowing mist decends from a hole in the ceiling. It settles into different colors in a large orb hovering over the device. It doesn't take long for you to see what it is, a giant map of Equestria and the surrounding areas. Even in a world filled (arguably) with magic this one still seemed quite impressive.

>“Watch what it can do.” She says so close to you that you feel her breath in your ear. You see her tail gently wrap around another of the levers and pull it down forcefully to the floor. After doing so the image became a map of equestria. Another lever pulled and you could make out the cities and larger towns. With yet another lever pulled along with a few buttons pressed you think you can make out Canterlot and Cloudsdale fairly clearly.

>With no less than 5 other lever pulls and a scattering of random button pressing.(to you) You are looking at a overhead view of ponyville. Lights flickering and everything. You even see a few ponies walking around.

“Is that Pinkie Pie?” You say aloud.

>Garnet pulls on another lever and you see one of the arms with a lens moves to another position. You hear something in the large mechanism click and you get a clear view of Pinkie Pie bounding along, no doubt in search of something fun to do. You are amazed that whatever this is keeps pace with her the image even bounding up and down itself to keep Pinkie Pie in the center of the orb of mist, which seems to serve as the display device to whatever the hell this is. You are momentarily confused when Pinkie Pie turns towards the forest, but it became less, when she stopped at your little shack. She was obviously doing her pinkie thing but no sound came from the device.
“It doesn't have sound huh?”

>“No, ..at least if it does, I haven't been able to figure it out.” You turn to her and are actually able to not jump that the tip of her nose is almost touching hers. Trying to act like this close contact doesn't bother you, you . Really, it doesn't bother you that much other than the normal awkwardness of it.

“How did you find this thing?” You say very impressed.
>As you watch Pinkie knock on your door repeatedly and (obviously) to no avail trying to get you to go and do something.

>“Oh, you know, I look around, I find things.” She shrugs. “This thing though.” She said sliding her tail along the edge of it. “It's worth it's weight in garnets.”

“Garnets?”

>“Oh, well,” She says looking down quickly. (That one is unmistakably a blush.) “To me anyway.” Her eyes dart to you a couple times.

“You like garnets?”

>“More than anything.” She says with the glint of greed in her eyes.

“I'll get some for you then. Rarity has got to have at least a few of those somewhere she will part with.” You say thinking you may even be able to get them for free.
>That is if you finally break down and let her get your measurements so she can use you as a manikin..

>“Really?!” She says jumping up about 5 feet in the air. When she lands though there is a different expression on her face. “Who is Rarity?”

“Oh, she's the uh, town dressmaker. Well i guess normal clothes too, she's been wanting to make me something for ages. So like, a tailor i guess.”

>She definitely has a serious look on her face.
>“What does she look like?”

“Um, white with a purple mane, curled mane. Why?”

>She doesn't answer you as she pulls a few of the levers muttering to herself inaudibly, and moves a couple of lenses from one area of the machine to another. Going through several different ponies before eventually landing on Rarity.
>“Her?” She says the look in her eyes slightly disturbing. Much more harsh, and somehow her canines seemed to stand out more.

>Slightly confused(not to mention immensely intimidated) you reply.
“Yeah but i still havn't done it, she's a real pain to be around for the most part. Far too stuck up for me to tolerate for long periods.(Like maybe 5 mins...tops) And honestly, other than using me as a new manikin she doesn't seem to want to be around me that much either.”

>She looks at you for a few moments before replying.
>“Oh okay, yeah,” looking down to the ground again. Curious, you pay careful attention to her mouth and notice that her canine teeth(as well as the slightly smaller canine teeth right next to them...) do in fact retract.

“That is also pretty cool.” You say with a smile, hopefully diverting the conversation somewhat.

>“Huh?” Looking at you uncertainly.

“You can retract your teeth.”

>“Yeah?...”

“I've just never met anyone that could do that before.”

>“Oh, well do you want to see it again?”

>After you say yes, she positions her head so that you are looking directly at her teeth. When she extended her teeth “all the way” they were halfway to the bottom of her mouth with it wide open.
>(Anon, set an internal reminder never to piss her off.)
>When she then retracts them they are hardly longer than the rest of her teeth.

“That is amazing.” You say trying to sound more impressed than concerned for your personal safety.

>She gives you a coy little smile and continues as if Rarity was never brought up.(Kind of starting to see which way the wind is blowing here...)
>When she goes back to the controls of the machine you stop her.

“How did you figure out how to make it work?” You ask, honestly curious.

>She shrugs. “I just like finding out how things work. It only takes a few times of pulling the same lever or pushing the same button to figure out what it does.” She flicks a small switch unnoticed to you until it was flipped. Which light up the levers and buttons into different colors causing the light traveling through the lenses to change.

>“That's why I turned that off. It messes with the colors of everything, and as good as i am at messing with stuff ill never figure out how to make more of these lenses. Which is why I have to keep switching the lenses, without some of them, some colors wont show up which makes part of the picture disappear.” She says with mild concern. “But it is necessary to make the colors come through the levers.”

>She looks at you hopefully. "Want to see how it works?

>You simply nod, and without waiting for any instruction you start pulling levers and pushing buttons systematically.
>That's how you start a new video game, why shouldn't the same theory apply? As you are doing so Garnet is watching you intently every now and then looking as though she is about to say something but stops herself letting you figure it out. After several minutes of tinkering with it you are pretty sure what each of them do.

>As you go over the function of each color coded button and lever Garnets smile gets bigger and bigger.

>“Yes! Yes exactly.” Her tail shoots out and wraps around your arm.
>“Here pull this one, then that one.” She says pulling your arm from area to area.
>“Push this, pull that, there.”

>The machine now shows a dark castle. “Hold on, watch that, I'll be right back.” She gestures at the dark castle with a hoof and then goes running off.
>Watching the “screen” you eventually see a black flying shape with very brilliant glowing lavender eyes. It then disappears after a few trips around the castle and a few moments later you see her run back into the room skidding to a halt directly in front of you.

>“Did you see me?” She asks panting, her eyes wide and (again) inches away from you, her eyes smoldering slightly.

“Yes i did.”

>Her jump and squeal was unbelievably cute.
>“I knew it, I could never see myself in it so i figured it must show what is happening right now. It's good to know for sure though."
>"Let me show you something.” She says going back to messing with the machine. That turned into her showing you everything about the thing she could.
>From the squeaky left middle lever to the unusual fluctuation of the effects of the machine if things were done in a specific order.

>The more she showed you, the closer she got to you eventually also draping one of her wings over you as well as making you “use” the device by holding your arm with her tail again directing you to what to do. Beginning to show you a few of her favorite places.

>It was kind of nice not to be treated like a leper for once. Even Twilight and Fluttershy, who both really seemed to approve of you at first ,have become very distant.
>Granted, going after Fluttershy's chicken wasn't exactly the best way to repay her.
>Nor was reacting to Twilight like you hadn't ever done anything wrong (when you clearly had) the right thing to do.

>As Garnet changes the viewpoint showing you different areas of the forest(Or so you suspect, it's too dark to actually see anything.) , telling you of her favorite spots. You think over your actions the past couple weeks, and what you find there is not pretty. You really HAD been losing your shit recently. The more you thought about it, the more surprised they didn't try to oust you in a more direct fashion.

>“..and we can do that tomorrow. Okay Anon?”

“Sorry, what?” You say turning to her.

>“Do you want to go there with me tomorrow?”
>She gives you a huge (very toothy) smile and just about the largest puppy dog eyes you have ever seen. You look at the screen of the thing and see what looks like a waterfall. But really no matter what it was, how could you possibly say no to that look?

“Yeah, sure. That sounds great."

>“YAY!” She jumps up again this time catching you hard on the chin with one of her hooves. “Oh no!” She almost squeaks as your hands dart up to check your teeth after they click together painfully.

“I think I'm alright.” You say after making sure none of your teeth were broken.

>“Are-are you sure?” She says now standing several feet away from you, her head almost touching the ground. She flinches slightly and closes her eyes when you start to walk forward to her. And when you reach out and touch her head she flinches again and you feel she is shaking.

>(She is very soft.)

“Hey.” You say putting a finger beneath her chin and raise it up to look her in the eyes which are bloodshot and very moist.
“It's fine. No harm done. Okay.”

>She nods at you causing welled up tears to fall. Not knowing what else to stay you stare into her brilliant eyes, as she stares into yours. Even when she isn't making them give off light, they still glow slightly. They also appear to either rotate or shift around, you are unsure which. The effect is very mesmerizing.

>You half consciously begin to pet her, caressing first just the underside of her head, then slowly moving upward. After awhile it is very apparent that she is in no way bothered by it.
>(Nuzzling into your hand is a pretty clear indication right?)
>She maintains eye contact right up to the point you reach the area around her ears. At that point her eyes basically roll back into her head and she more or less collapses on top of you. As your hands explore further you also notice her mane is even softer than her coat. You find a few spots hidden in her mane that literally cause one of her feet to start randomly kicking.(luckily fairly softly) Though at the moment she refuses to acknowledge you, unless you stop petting her; then you get a death glare.

>It's not until your stomach growls that you remember about the meat that you put into the oven, which should be done by now.

“The food is probably about done, don't you think?” You say breaking the silence.

>“Wha-oh yeah. Should be.” She says almost as if she isn't really there at all. She shakes her head slightly rolls forward on her feet and motions with her head to follow you.
>As you both leave the room you notice the viewing device that you had been using fall dim and silent.

>This time she doesn't run ahead, but nor does she lag behind. She stays with you step for step the entire way, simply lighting the direction you are supposed to go with her eyes, a very calm and relaxed look on her face. About halfway back you realize that she hasn't yet taken her wing off of her shoulder, you hadn't even noticed.

>You decide her wing was more than comfortable enough even if it did feel bit strange.

>As hungry as you both were petty things such as table manners went out the window. You had found a single fork. (Which was bent.) As you were contemplating how best to tackle the steaming beast in front of you, Garnet swished her tail out and cut a sizable chunk from one of the steaks. She then stabbed her tail like a shovel underneath the chunk and tossed it straight into her mouth. As she was chewing her eyes slowly lit up, bathing you in the bright purple glare again.

>“Wow, that does really make a difference.” She says in the middle of chewing. In what seemed like seconds she has well over half of the meat was gone. You quickly spear a steak and hold it away from the rest as she gobbles the rest of the meat with gusto.

>You eat your steak slowly savoring the flavor, all the while watching garnet pick every last little crisp off of the pan methodically. The steak wasn't the best thing you have ever eaten. But under current circumstances it was beyond all praise. Your fear that you would end up wanting more meat than that, proved found-less as you were plenty full.
>Eventually she finishes going over the pan and slides up to you about the usual distance (3 inches max) and looks you directly in the eyes.

>“That was amazing.” She says breathlessly. “So it's called salt?”

“Yes, it is, and if you liked that I should really introduce you to garlic and onion.”

>She just looks at you quizzically.

“I'll show you don't worry.” You say, earning a small smile in response.

>After the meal Garnet showed you where she had been washing her dishes. No soap, but obviously plenty of water(provided by a hand pump) and a large copper kettle that was full of boiling water.(When did she do that?) She then picked up the kettle(her tail touching the bare metal handle directly) and poured it into one of the sinks.

“How does that not burn you?”

>She shrugs, “My hooves arnt like that, just my tail and my wings.” (So just the scaled areas then.)

>“Put the dishes in there,” she gestures with a hoof turning away. “....please.” She adds after a couple moments.

>After you deposit all of the dishes into the sink with the steaming water,(making sure to poke them under the surface) you walk out of the kitchen to see Garnet standing in the middle of the hallway lit brightly by moonlight. With the moonlight behind her, her expression is hard to read as she slowly walks up to you.

>In this light Garnet looks very striking. You notice that she isn't really built like the other ponies. The lines of her body are much more curvaceous and muscular. But rather than looking odd, she looks much better than any of the other ponies you have ever seen. The light behind her making a strange contrast to her eyes making them look like back lit gems.
>As she got closer and closer you began to feel slightly nervous in spite of yourself.(What if this was all to make you let your guard down?) But that feeling vanishes entirely when she wraps her front legs around you followed by her wings, and you are pretty sure you feel her tail wrap around your leg.

>As she rests her head on your shoulder you hear her whisper softly. “Thank you.”

You don't know what to say to that other than “Your welcome.” as your arms wrap tightly around her of their own accord.

>You stand there for several minutes in the moonlight thinking about how crazy this day has been. It started with you raging for meat, and ended....well, with a very warm comforting hug. You feel her nuzzle into your shoulder before breaking contact, and standing back looking at you intently.

>“Well,” she looks at you coyly. “Time for bed.”

>As she leaves she flicks the tip of your nose gently with her tail before breaking into a run.(Or uh, gallop.)

“Maybe I will like it here after all.” You say to yourself, breaking into a run yourself to catch up to her.

>You finally catch up to her in a familiar looking hallway. Though now that you think of it, most of all of this looks pretty much the same, in different states of shabbiness. But as she enters the room you notice a familiar soft glow. Walking into the room you see why. It is the room with the viewing device. But at the moment it is simply depicting a spattering of stars, only illuminating the room very slightly.

>You follow her to a closet like thing in one of the far corners and help her pull a large mattress like object out of it. Followed by several blankets.
After setting everything up, curiously, directly in the concave surface of the device.(The obvious implication, that you would be sleeping together.)

>As she got down into the bedding area she looks back up at you slightly confused.
“Oh, did you not want to?” She said, face falling somewhat.

“I do want to, I just, don't ....uh don't have pajamas.”

>She gives you a long look before saying. “You sleep in clothes too?”

“Oh, well yeah usually.” In actuality no, you did sleep naked, but you weren't sure you were quite ready for what that might entail quite yet.

>“That's weird.” Looking at you with her head cocked to the side again.

“Well i guess i can just strip down to my boxers.”

>“Your what?” She said raising an eyebrow.

“Nevermind, you will see.”

>As you begin to take off your clothes. She watches you very intently. Not enough to really make you feel comfortable. But enough that you are very aware of it and feel slightly awkward. When you get down to your boxers she has a very strange look on her face. You glance at her questioningly.

>“It's just, you wear clothes on top of other clothes. That is so strange.” Huge smile on her face, obviously fucking with you.

“Yeah, yeah i'm a freak.” You say as you joined her grabbing one of the large blankets.
“Budge up you are taking up like the whole thing.”

>When she doesn't move you look at her face to see a very faraway and sad look on her face. She leans over and looks directly into your eyes.

>“No, i don't think that. I would never say that about you.” (This chick's mood has more swings than your average pendulum.)

“Oh i didn't mean anything by that Garnet.” You say trying to think of something to lighten the mood.
“And being a freak isn't necessarily a bad thing either. In fact i think some of the best people are considered freaks.”

>She cocks her head again at the word “people” but she seems to get the gist.

>“What do you mean...like who?” (Oh shit Anon, think of something quick.)

“Well, when i was a kid i always wanted to be a mutant.” Her ears quickly lower at the word “mutant” so you assume she knows what that means. “There was a story about a group of different mutants back where i come from, they called themselves the X-men....”


>An hour or so later you were both sprawled out on the bedding staring at the stars on the display. She had requested a complete rundown on the entire story. (What you could remember of it anyway.) And detailed descriptions about the different mutants and their abilities. You had pointed out that rather than just one ability she had several really unique ones, which seemed to improve her mood immensely.

“So basically you have like every cliche ability my people say dragons have.” You say voicing your thoughts aloud.

>Garnet rolls closer to you and gets up slightly. “Well, yeah that makes sense right?” Looking at you curiously.

>(oh..OH! She's part dragon? Well obviously she's part something you moron.)

“Oh, well yeah. I just uh, didn't think they'ed all transfer.” You say as casually as possible.

>(Not casual enough Anon.)

>She leans back a bit. “So you didn't know i was half dragon?”

“Well i knew you had to be part something because...”
Her voice rises considerably, cutting you off.

>“So when you, ..you offered me your kill..? You didn't..?” She seems unable to finish.

>(You didn't...? You didn't what?)

>As tears well in her eyes Garnet jumps up momentarily dispersing the colored mist and runs out the nearest door nearly close lining you with her tail on the way by. (Gotta love them accidental ninja skills.) You stand suddenly caught slightly off balance due to the shape of the machine.

>Your vision becomes obscured when your head goes inside the colored mist. That's it, use the machine. You dart over to the control panel, still in your boxers. After the pressing of several buttons along with the pulling of even more levers you are seeing a zoomed out view of the castle and just notice brightly glowing purple streaking across the mist. It's not long before it is gone.

>As you put back on your clothes you stop and think about the situation before making any hasty decisions. (Like rashly running into the forest with naught but a spear, for instance.) It was obvious which way this was going and you had two options.

>Option one, you can wash your hands of this place and strike back out towards Ponyville this very second. You could even go full fucking piece of shit and not only tell them about Garnet. But to also lead the mob there yourself to drive her out. But not only is that a pretty terrible thing to do period, Garnet doesn't deserve that.

>Option two is less pleasant. Strike out in some random hairbrained direction and hope for the best. Which given your current luck, may turn out just fine. This option also has a secondary clause. Going this route would in no uncertain terms say that while you did not realize giving her the kill meant... what exactly.
>The way she has been acting has been confusing at best but you think you might have asked her (in whatever custom the dragons have )to “date” you. It's really the only thing that makes sense.

>You suppose option two also has another way about it, to sit here. Wating for her to return after she has calmed down and returns to tell you off, and get you out of her castle. There will come a day when you will choose such a boring, lackluster and (for want of a better term) “faggy” option. But it is not this day. This day we fight...Actually, hopefully we don't.)

>You have a few ideas of where she could be. It's not like shes going to run off to another town or something. You start going through the places she has shown you looking for her eyes to glow on the display.

>You find nothing until you remember her favorite spot. She was not hard to spot at all sitting on the bank of the river in a very slow spot looking at her reflection. Ears laying flat against her head, with a look of pain on her face. Every now and then you see small ripples appear in the water below her head.

>(Seriously Anon, that's like the saddest thing you have ever seen. How can you not be heading out the door right now?)

>After going through several different combinations on the control panel you have it down to a science which way you need to go. Because it is a surprisingly short distance from here, and in the opposite direction of where she originally flew.

>(Which was back in the direction of ponyville.)

>You run through it one last time on the machine just to make sure, trying to burn the images of where to go into your brain. You leave the machine and make it to the door before turning back to look at Garnet staring at herself before the mist disappears and the image with it. As the device powers down you notice what you thought was just a design on the control panel flash briefly revealing them as the letters they are. OC-CU-LUS.

“The things name is Occulus?” You say, thinking that this was as good of an ice breaker as any as you headed out the door.

>Making triply sure you remembered to grab your spear you seem to have forgotten to take anything else with you.(Starting to see a trend here.) As you got farther and farther into the forest doubt began to eat at you. What if she didn't want you around anymore?
>Or (possibly) worse, what if she did? Did you actually feel the same way, or are you out here just trying to make yourself feel better, not her? You think back to the previous five hours or so. It was certainly the most fun you have had since ending up here. No matter what Pinkie Pie said, she did not know fun, not all of it anyway.

>She wasn't unattractive, quite the contrary really. The extra muscling gives her wonderful curves and lines that the normal ponies just can't reach.
>She was immensely cuddly when she wanted to be. What you you complaining about really? Sure she looks like she could take your hand off. But what is life without adventure?
>Also she's fucking adorable. ...Again, when she wants to be. You did promise her garnets after all, that may even go a small way to regaining her favor.

>Being the studious Anon that you are you think you are around halfway there looking at the moonlight coming through the trees and their larger branches. It was a lot easier for you to remember shapes in the upper branches than trying to memorize all those little plants and fungi leading up to there.

>Being the completely fucking oblivious Anon that you are you fail to notice a dark shape barring the way of the current path you are on before you almost walk right into it. You would have walked into if but for the fact whatever it was let out a large rasping sigh blowing your hair back a bit. You instantly jump back and put your spear in between it and you.

“Who, or what are you?” You ask the silent figure.

>It steps forward into a beam of moonlight reveling itself to be a very large lion. With wings, and a scropion tail. (Too small to be considered a foodsource my ass...) As the moments lengthen and it doesn't come any closer. In fact, it sits down just looking at you.

“What?”

>The manticore just looks at you as answer. As the minutes tick by you begin to feel more and more anxious. What if Garnet gets up and flys off to anther spot while you are stuck here with this fucking thing? You take a deep breath, exhale, and begin to walk around the manticore.(Much bigger up close.)
>The manticore shifts it's body slightly barring your way again. You jump to the side and try and dash past it. In answer the manticore darts over (It's faster than Garnet...oh fuck) rears up and roars swiping the air right in front of you.

>You stop dead, spear held back ready to strike and the manticore sits down again, and calmly barrs your way.

“Look, i need to get by, i have a ...a friend that i need to get to, and she is by the waterfall in this direction.” You say hoping the thing can understand you.

>The manticore looks at you sternly,(can it even do that?) as it forcefully shakes its head from side to side. (So first a crodile and now a manticore huh Anon?) Does she really mean that much to you? That tail is looking unfriendlier by the second.

“Yes. She does mean that much to me.” You state loudly.

The manticore looks confused for a second but its face slowly darkens and it begins to growl deeply. You feint to the left and dart around its other side when it lunges in the wrong direction. You start sprinting as fast as your legs can carry you hearing the large beast close on your heels.

>Hoping you chose the right direction, hoping your legs don't give out on you. What do you think Garnet would think of you bursting through the underbrush wide eyed a very large and pissed off manticore close on your heels. (Stupid Anon.) The thing is catching up quickly, you keep having to dodge left or right to avoid trees and other such impediments.

>Feeling something brush your leg you use the spear to spin around a tree unexpectedly planting your feet right in the manticores gut sending it flying several feet away with a large grunt of pain. (The accidental ninja strikes again.)

>You stop and face the manticore as it pulls itself up on its feet obviously angrier than ever. By now you have completely forgotten which direction you were facing. Frustration and anger begin to win over your better judgment causing you to advance on the thing. The manticore actually looks slightly concerned as you advance forward spear in hand with a hateful glare in your eyes. It attacks back almost halfheartedly, until you manage to nick one of its paws with the blade on your spear drawing a small amount of blood.

>The roar that the manticore produced seemed to slice right through your skull momentarily dazing you. In those few seconds it's tail shoots out and knocks the spear from your hand, followed by a swipe from a paw that sends you flying backwards smacking your head against a tree. (Well Anon, you tried.) You close your eyes and wait for the inevitable.
When you hear a very loud grating growl you wince but you don't feel anything around you. Still hearing growling and struggling you open your eyes to Garnet pinning down the massive manticore.

>“You LEAVE HIM ALONE!!” She snarls eyes almost blindingly bright. “He is MINE!”

>You see the manticore do a sort of restrained nod. Garnet quickly leaps off of the manticore and stands directly in front of you wrapping her tail around one of your thighs. After the manticore slowly got up licking his wound and departed Garnet quickly turned on you.

>“And YOU!” She shrieked. “What in the name of tartarus were you thinking taking on something like that?!” She said squeezing your thigh very tightly with her tail.

“I just ...I just needed to find you.” You aren't sure what else to say.

>She continues to hold you tightly the brightness of her eyes eventually fading to something that was more comfortable. “Do you even know what you asked me back at the swamp?”

>(Okay Anon, truth or outrageous lies?)

“Honestly, ...no. I had no idea at the time what that meant.”

>“But you do now?” Her expression softened somewhat.

“Yes.”

>“Than tell me.” Eyes extremely serious.

“Basically, i asked if you would be mine if i would be yours.” (That seemed the best way to put it anyway. If however you are wrong, you predict this not turning out so well.)

>She calmed down significantly at that. “And? I've been parading my answer around to you all day making a fool of myself. What about you?”

“I really do want to.” You reply.

>She looks at you incredulously. “Do you really? Or do you just feel sorry for me?”

“I really do.” You say as earnestly as possible.

>“Prove it.” Her face inches away from you.

>You reply by moving your face forward and pressing your lips against hers. Her lips were amazingly soft. Instead of pulling away, at first she just froze. After awhile(when you were beginning to lose hope) she responded by opening her mouth and playing with your tongue. You found out that her tongue was actually forked when she pinched your tongue with hers. She pulled back and gave you a blazing look.

>“Well since we are out here, would you like to see the waterfall?” Garnet asks beginning to look her usual self again. You go to and pick up your spear before turning to follow garnet as the first light of day breaks around you.

>Feeling the events of the (now) previous day and night you follow Garnet stumbling every now and then on a stray root or vine. Nothing is said, even after you hear the waterfall getting nearer. What do you say after something like that? When you finally see the waterfall in the early morning daylight you see why she likes this place so much. Due to the position of the light there is a large rainbow at the bottom of the falls.

>She walks right up the the bank of the river close to the falls before stopping and staring at the waterfall. You walk up next to her hands at your sides and stare into it as well. A few moments pass before you feel her tail slowly wrap itself around your hand. Rather than it being rough like you had thought, it was extremely soft and smooth. You give her tail a slight squeeze and look over at her.

>When she turns her head it's not the look you were used to, but a much more serious deadpan glare. But when you smile at her she sharply turns her head to the side trying to act like shes upset. She ruined the look slightly with the small smile in the corners of her mouth and the slight blush that crept into her cheeks.

>(At least you are relatively sure being with her isn't going to be boring.)

>Speaking of, how are you going to go about “being” with her? You glance back to her hindquarters checking them out. Nice, round, curvaceous all very good adjectives, all applicable. It seems at least in that area she is built like a pony so you don't foresee any problem there.
>But what do you know? Dragons could be built like that too. Her weight shifts slightly and you watch her muscles shift, it's kind of mesmerizing actually.

>You hear Garnet clear her throat and look up to see the color of her cheeks matching her hair. She has a very difficult expression on her face. Is she pissed off, embarrassed or amused? You see a bit of all of those in there.

>She then sticks her nose up into the air and starts to walk away doing a very good “high and mighty” impression. But rather than trying to get away from you, she tightens the grip on your hand with her tail and pulls her along with you.

>Lets face facts here Anon, you must be cute. (To something that can pin down and make a manticore it's bitch, you better hope your cuteness doesn't wear off.)

>With that disturbing revelation you find she has taken you into a sort of, lean-to/hut thing made by large logs all leaning against a tree covered in vines and overgrowth, right next to the river.

>She sits down on a semi comfortable looking bed of tall grass and pulls you down next to her. She puts her back into your chest, after moving her wings to a comfortable position, and lets out a large sigh. Not able to see her face you are not sure exactly what her mood was at the moment you remained silent.

>“Do you know how stupid i felt when i realized you didn't understand what that meant to me?” She says breaking the silence after several long minutes.

“Probably about as stupid as i felt after telling the ponies that i was basically a carnivore.” You said without really thinking.

>She leans over and turns her head to look at you. (How can she have all those expressions on her face at the same time?)
>“Yeah i did too.” She said her face settling on looking sad. “You are right, pretty much the same feeling.”

>She leans back into you again. “I get it, ponies probably give stuff to each other all the time. But dragons, well, they don't. They hoard and collect and compete and stockpile for status. Anything at all given away is a very big deal.”

>Silence resumes between the two of you as birds chip and squabble during their normal morning chatter.

“Tell me about it. What was it like, living with dragons?” You ask unable to think of anything else to say to break the silence.

>Her body stiffens slightly. “Well ..it, it wasn't very nice.” She finishes lamely.
>You put your hands between her neck and shoulders and try and massage out some of the tension in her that has built up.

“Just tell me what a normal day was like.” You urge her continuing to massage her; she really is very soft.

>For the next few hours Garnet talked about how she was always hungry. Food was generally distributed on rank, and she didn't have one. So she was left to scavenge what she could and eat what plants she found tolerable.(None of them.) To dragons possessions are everything. So for the first several years of her life Garnet was passed around like a poker chip simply something to have as a pet to boost the dragons personal wealth.
>That went on until her last “master” turned out to be of a decent sort. He kept her fed and protected for a few years until she could take care of herself. It was at that point he wanted her to be able to compete in the various games and competitions the dragons have with themselves. But he was not considered and elder, so his request went unnoticed. Eventually the other dragons turned on and killed him for thinking she could be one of them.

>“As soon as I found out what had happened i left immediately and haven't ever gone back.” She said rolling to your side and looking you in the eyes again. Obviously you can't blame her. That makes your childhood look like bright sunshine and rainbows comparatively.

“They never came out looking for you?”

>“That's why i went to live in a pony settlement first, they absolutely despise the ponies.”

“Why.”

>“Actually i don't know.” She finished looking out into the river with a very off and far away expression on her face.

“Um, Garnet?” You ask breaking her out of whatever she was thinking about.

>“Hmm?” Turning back to you.

“Could you let go of my hand now? Really, I'm not going anywhere, promise.”

>She still hadn't released your hand and you really had some business to attend to.

>"Oh yeah, sorry." She replied blushing slightly again.

>Finishing up watering a distant tree you yawn hugely. “I really need to get some sleep.” You say to yourself. Walking back to where Garnet was took very little time but she was still very much asleep when you got back. (Did she pass out the second you got up?)
>But the grass there was actually very comfortable so you decide to lay back down again next to Garnet. As you lay down you bump her slightly causing her to wake up a bit. Her initial harsh expression softens when she sees you and reaches out with both her hooves and wings to pull you in for an immense snuggle.

>She closes her eyes and sighs into you. “Anon... ”

>She almost immediately falls back asleep but you now have trouble doing so. Was this going to be your life now? Was there really a problem with that? What did you have in mind exactly after finding yourself smack in the middle of horseland without a return ticket. Most ponies walked out of places you walked into on a regular basis, not even bothering to hide it. Did you think you really had a place there?

>This one, while slightly irregularly shaped not only accepts you, she accepts you enough to say “okay i'll date you” to you, simply by you giving her a dead animal. Which actually speaks to some sort of malfunction with her mental stability ..at the VERY least, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

>You awake many hours later, judging by the light it is either early morning or late evening but the lack of dew on the grass suggests evening. The spot immediately next to you was still warm so she left recently.
>Rather than get up and look for her, you stay put looking out into the river. The water was very deep and slow at this point. Almost completely surrounded by trees and shade you had trouble seeing how deep the river was. When you began to get up to go closer to the river you see a large shape leap out of the water right in front of you knocking you back to the ground struggling around to grab your spear.

>As you quickly stand up you see garnet standing there shaking herself off carriying a large fish in her mouth.

>“Ey Emom.” She says slightly muffled by fish. “Deaw wiff diff.” She spits the fish on the ground and kicks it towards you. “Please.” She adds smiling, her teeth showing a bit more than usual.

>She fly's into the sky and does a sort of quick spinning thing and you feel water droplets fall all around you. She then lands right next to you hitting the ground with a lot of force. “Hurry up, I want to get back.”

>You take the spear, gut and clean it as well as scewer the fish on the spear so you can transport it.

“What about you?” You ask curiously.

>“Oh, well, I already ate.” She smiles sheepishly. I just didn't want to have to wait, you know. “I only do it with fish.” She says defensively.

“It's okay, there are plenty of people back where i come from who love to eat raw fish.” You explain.

>“How about you?” Her eyes lighting up slightly.

“I've actually never tried it, but it never really sounded that appealing to me.” Her smile became slightly less at that but you still got a laugh from her out of
“well, more for you right”?

>“You keep saying 'back where you come from', where DO you come from?” She says as she grabs your hand with her tail and slightly pulls you along.

“Oh, well that's a bit more complicated...” You struggle to find where to begin.

>You begin by telling her the major differences between Equestria and earth before mentioning that where you come from also happens to be an alternate dimension. You had a hard time just trying to explain that one to yourself to be honest. Judging by the looks you are getting, you aren't sure if she believes you, or what. When you get to how many people were on the planet she stops you.

>“How many people are on earth?” She says stopping for a few seconds.

“Well its hard to measure accurately but probably about 7 billion.”

>“What is billion? How many is that?”

>You draw in the dirt with the but of the spear.
“So, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000, 1000000.” You stop after one million Garnet's eyes as wide as saucers. “Billion is three more zeros at the end.”

>“How is that even possible? How are you not walking over each other?”

“It's a big place.”

>You continued by listing things that you had back home that they didn't have here. Garnet became ecstatic when you told her about cars and jets and anything to do with large machines. But what she was most impressed with was how people in larger cities (for the most part) seem to get along.

>“If you had that many dragons anywhere, there would be huge amounts of fighting. They definitely need their space.” She says as you both walk up to a wall of the castle. She continues pulling you inside the same hole in the wall you entered yesterday straight into the kitchen area.

“I'll just go ahead and put this in the oven again.” You say before noticing that there is no fire.

>You attend to that situation by clearing out the ashes from before locating the area where fresh wood is kept and stocked the fireplace with wood.
>After doing so Garnet approaches you. “Don't you have something to ask me?”

>(Oh yeah)

“Garnet, could you please show me how you started the fire yesterday?”

>“Gladly.” She says trotting up to the fireplace sticking her head down next to the wood. You hear a loud “hawking” sound like she was clearing phlegm from her throat and a small amount of fire appeared flickering in front of her. Garnet leaned back coughing harshly, she rushed to the water pump and began pumping water for herself. You nudged her aside indicating you were willing to do it for her. After getting a very sizable drink, Garnet turns to you.

>“Thank you.” She says kissing you lightly on the cheek. “It always really hurts when i do that. When i was younger i would try and do that as much as possible to toughen up my throat so i could handle it.” There was a long pause before she continued.
>“It didn't work at all. In fact it made it much worse. I can only do it once or twice before i start bleeding seriously now.” Again you find nothing to say to that so you start salting and getting your fish ready for the over that now has a decent fire going under it.

>“I'll be right back okay?” Garnet says heading deeper into the castle.

>Rather than standing idle, you decide to take care of yesterdays dishes and try and get them set aside and try and clean off some of the clutter and stuff that really shouldn't be in a kitchen. You lose track of time in cleaning the kitchen and you have the whole place about spotless before Garnet comes sauntering back in.

>“Oh wow.” She says looking around the now clean room.

“I know right? Looks pretty good.” You say satisfied with yourself.

>You realize your fish is probably more than done so you go and pull it out of the oven. As you are standing there waiting for it to cool Garnet is also just standing there looking awkward.

“Would you like half of it Garnet?” You ask looking at her. It is a pretty big fish after all.

>“Really?” She says a slight high pitched squeal in her voice. “Thanks!” In seconds half of the fish basically disappears. She waits obviously impatient at how long you are taking to finish your portion. Just to mess with her a bit you slow down and actually make yourself take longer earning you a super frustrated glare before she stomps off. Made less dramatic because you can still see the tip of her tail at the edge of the door.

>When you finish, take care of the dishes and start walking towards the door Garnet walks through it like she hadn't been just been standing there the whole time. “Come on Anon.” She says cantering away.
She leads you back to the Occulus room.(Oh you forgot to tell her about that.)

>But before you are given a chance she darts forward and presses her lips against yours. The kiss begins closemouthed but slowly opens like a flower. You find yourself running your hands up and down her slender figure reveling in how soft and yet firm she is. But as your hands begin to explore further and ventures down the path less traveled she jumps slightly and pulls away. You pull her back in slightly but not in a forceful way.

“It's okay we don't have to do that if you aren't ready to.” You whisper to her reassuringly pulling her head closer to you and continuing to kiss her.


>You both eventually find yourselves on a large pile of an assortment of mattresses and blankets next to the Occulus machine, and not on top of it this time. Somehow most of your clothes got removed from the door to the bed area.
>You end up kissing and fondling just about every part of Garnets delicious body except the one spot you are now most anxious to get at. But every time you get close you feel her either start to pull away or stiffen up and you resign yourself to just being able to enjoy heavy petting this evening. She is much more giggly and squealy than you gave her credit for at first, if you poke and prod and tickle the right areas.

>About half an hour later you both are so wrapped up in each other you have trouble telling which part belongs to whom. No longer doing anything other than cuddling you are pretty sure she is asleep again and quickly going in that direction yourself. You have one more thought before falling off into dreamland yourself.

>One thing is for certain. Life is going to be very interesting here.

>You roll over to the side as sunlight brightly pierces your eyes. Or you would have had Garnet given you any room to do so. You were both as wrapped around each other as it was possible to be. As it was you had only enough room to wriggle an arm free to pull what you originally thought was a blanket over you to block the sun. It turned out to be one of Garnets wings. You still marvel at the wonderfully smooth texture of her skin. Whether scaled or fur covered she was amazingly soft.

>But no amount of softness can completely mask the sheer power that she has lurking beneath her velvety skin. Which was kind of sexy in a way. You know that if you really did piss her off, it wouldn't take much for her to turn on you and snap you in half. The way she pinned down that manticore was really the thing that stuck with you the most. She is so much smaller than it, but still it was over in like a second.

>You nuzzle your head slightly tighter to hers causing her to smile and purr slightly re positioning herself to hold you tighter. You lay there listening to her take deep breaths. No snoring to speak of, in fact you seriously doubt either of you moved at all last night. The light was shining through her wing lightly illuminating her the both of you. You catch yourself staring at her as she sleeps. She doesn't just have scales on her tail and her wings you find. All over her there is a spattering of scales, but they blend in so well into her fur that you really have to look to notice.

>You watch your hand slowly reach out and drag your fingers across her chin and down her neck. She does another little purr along with a small shiver and you stroke her a few more times. You take your hand up by her ear again and start methodically scratching those spots you found the previous day.(Or has it been two now?) You have her squirming on her back in no time at all vigorously scratching and petting her.

>You have her squirming on her back in no time at all vigorously scratching and petting her. Keeping your hands away from the more sensitive areas you are all over her until you swear you see a line of drool form at the corner of her mouth.

>You pull away and stand up, still a bit unsure of how pure your motives on the heavy petting were. True you didn't touch anywhere she didn't want you too. It's not like she was subtle about it. But she obviously enjoyed being pet like that in more ways than just the obvious aspect of it. For instance at the moment she was on her back showing off everything and she had obviously seriously enjoyed that. (She was almost dripping wet. It's good to know she is built more like a pony than a... what would that even be like?)
>So how much longer do you hold out before trying again. Was it just simple nervousness why she turned you down, or was it something more? She didn't elaborate much on her childhood, and what she did reveal was fairly ..awful. If she decided you were taking advantage of her... well, decapitation would be better than some deaths right? But she did say you smelled “good” would she... would she eat you? (You may not want that one answered Anon.)

>You stand there for a few minutes staring Garnet as the sun lazily cascades over her striking figure. You keep on expecting her to get up. Could she still be asleep? You clear your throat softly, then slightly louder, nothing. She must still be asleep. Thinking more and more that her waking up to you looming over her would be a bad idea, you decide to go find a tree to water.

>After doing so you realize you are very hungry. You hadn't eaten much the last couple days, ironic considering the circumstances. While walking back towards the castle a large area of blue catches your attention.

>Turns out it is blueberries. Or, so you assume. You pull one off of the bush and experimentally put one in your mouth and bite down softly. Yep, blueberries. After pulling (and eating) all of the blueberries off that bush, you find another.
>You repeat that process a few times before starting to feel full. Thinking that Garnet may not be wholly a carnivore (She never actually said.) you head back to the castle to get some sort of container to hold them in. You locate a large two handled pot that would do nicely and head back out into the forest humming to yourself softly.

>Once the pot was about half full you began looking around the forest for other plants or berries, anything that would be useful. Not finding much you turn to leave to find yourself face to face with another manticore. (Like a boss, you left your spear back in the castle.) But rather than acting aggressive the large catlike thing sticks out a paw waiting for something.
(Holy shit.)

>You hold out your hand and place it like a sacrificial lamb in the giant fuckers paw. Instead of ripping your hand, your arm, upper torso, or you in half, it lightly shakes your hand up and down one time. Nods to you and turns off to leave. Before it fully leaves your view you speak up.

“Thanks for not killing me...dude.”

>The manticore stops and turns back to you eyebrow raised. It's amazing how much expression is in that things face. You see it lift a paw, point it at the castle and then draw it slowly across its neck. When you give it a quizzical glance it responds by raising its eyebrows, points at the castle again and very clearly twirls a claw next to its head in the universal “crazy” gesture before finally walking off. (A very clear rendition of “she will kill me, that bitch is crazy”)

>For some reason this tickles your funny bone in a most powerful fashion. You find yourself unable to stop chuckling to yourself about it several minutes later as you walk into the kitchen area with the half pot of blueberries, along with a sampling of various nuts you don't recognize, hopefully nothing is poisonous.
>In fact you think to yourself, you actually got very lucky that those actually were blueberries. This was magical horseland, not the backwoods of whereverthefuck. You had to be more careful about that sort of thing.

>Really though, the implications were quite real. This was likely to be your last relationship Anon. For better or worse. Make a good first impression, make her smile, don't piss her off. Can't be too hard right? Honestly she is better than almost everyone else. If you remove the fear of impending dismemberment and death you like her quite a great deal.
>She is sleek, adorable, very smart, very sexy. So far other than the severe mood swings almost exactly how you invisioned your perfect girl to be. A bit differently shaped perhaps, but that was really starting to matter to you less and less, especially these last few days.

>The light darkens around you slightly and you hear Garnets voice from behind you. “There you are!” She says running up to you almost knocking you over planting her lips on yours giving a very long deep kiss.
“Wow, well good morning sleepyhead.”
>You say pulling back to admire her disheveled appearance, with the sun shining through behind her she looks radiant. (Yeah, you can probably get used to this.)

>“Morning.” She replies laughing a little. “What do you have in there?” She leans over sniffing obviously interested.

>Figuring it would be better to show than simply explain you tip the pot slightly so she could see. “I found a bunch of blueberries.”
>“Awesome.” She says dipping her mouth into the pot and taking a mouthful of berries. (Good call there Anon.) She finishes another 3 large bites before turning to you giving you a glowing look. “I never really go for those because i hate sticking my face in a bush. You are amazing.” She says circling you and nuzzling her head into your chest.

“What's got you in such a good mood?”

>“Good dreams.” She replys, pausing slightly. As she pulled her head back you saw a light blush on her cheeks. “Anyway I'm going to go out and uh, wash up. Ill be back in awhile.” She said, leaning forward giving you another passionate kiss. As you run your hand down her back you feel her shudder slightly.

>“O-oh,” She purrs, head cocked slightly to the side. “Don't wander off again okay? Or if you do, at least take your stick thingie with you. ...Please?” She added looking at your earnestly. (Obviously she noticed...) Her eyes, always stunning were particularly so in bright of day. Their normal glow simply causing them to stand out more. She widens her eyes slightly indicating she is looking for an answer.

“Okay.”

>She continues to look at you.

“I promise.”

>With a winning smile she swiftly reaches up to peck a kiss on your cheek.
>“Thank you.” Putting much more feeling behind her words than before. You see her take another large bite of blueberries out of the pot before heading out of the kitchen and swiftly flying away. You go back over to the pot of blueberries.
>Or it WAS a pot of blueberries, now its just an empty pot. You clean the pot smiling to yourself thinking it would probably score you some more points to go and get more. So that's just what you do.

>The return trip to the blueberry patch was uneventful, except for getting a full pot of blueberries this time. You were pretty sure you were going to need a bigger pot if Garnets previous consumption said anything. It was sort of comforting knowing that she wasn't wholly a carnivore, but you were unable to determine exactly why. You wondered what else she did eat on a regular basis. You remind yourself to ask her sometime.

>You think of ponyville for the first time in quite awhile. They have to be wondering where you have gone these past few days. You wonder if they have sent out a search party, perhaps they have sent out more. (Who are you kidding? They most likely just shrugged their shoulders and went about their business.) Pinkie Pie may not have, but it was always hard to tell with her. Twilight probably was done studying you by now, and you seemed to have FUB'ed it up with Fluttershy, so the most likely scenario is no. The others you never really got to know you very well and kept you at arms length.

>Rather than depress you, for the first time since you got here that actually made you happy. You were pretty sure Garnet was going to like that too, she certainly didn't seem at all interested in going into town. There was still all your stuff to go and get out of the little shack. Luckily that will only take one or two trips tops.

>Luckily that will only take one or two trips tops. Certainly one if you manage to get Garnet to come with you. It wasn't really very much stuff. But judging by her previous experience with ponies that may not be as likely as you were hoping. Grabbing her a garnet or two from Rarity might change her mind about ponies as a whole. You decide tomorrow might be a good day to try that

>After cleaning up everything in the kitchen, including restocking the stove/oven with fresh wood, you set out to carve off more crocodile for tonight's dinner. You cut off a larger portion than you had previously, smelling the large carcass hoping not to detect anything that smelled ...off. You are pleased to find nothing that smelled overly unpleasant.

>Back in the kitchen you cut all of the skin, bone and other non-edible portions away leaving far more meat than you had done previously. You salt it, which uses the rest of the salt. Another reason to make the ponyville return trip tomorrow. Before you put it in the oven you check the light of day. Not exactly having a clock it's hard for you to tell what time it is. But looking around it seems more mid day than anything, so you decide not to try and start the fire for dinner quite yet. It would also be immensely easier just to wait for Garnet to do her thing with it again.

>After all that Garnet still hasn't returned. You begin to become curious, an idle Anon, is a curious Anon after all. You decide to go and use the Occulus thing to figure out where she is. (You really need to remember to tell her about that.)

>After re-learning how to use it a bit, you manage to pull up the waterfall area on the device. You see Garnet standing there tossing her wings and legs around cascading droplets of water all around her. The sun catching them all at one she looks like she is momentarily surrounded by diamonds.
>She does this a few more times before walking onto the shore to shake off. She then goes to a large rock to sun herself stretching herself out several times before laying out flat. You couldn't tell what it was, but something was wrong here.

>After watching Garnet sun herself (placing herself in some excellent positions) for a few more minutes you finally realize what it was, the sun was wrong. It was much lower in the sky, more like early morning, or late evening.
As you turn around to head outside you see Garnet right behind you with a somewhat dissapointed look on her face.
>“Aww, you must have noticed the time difference. I really thought you would have come up here to spy on me sooner.” She says slowly curling herself(mostly the tail) around you. “Look you are missing the best part.” She tells you pushing your face back to the image.

>There you see Garnet doing all manner of things to herself, mostly with the end of her tail. You are almost unable to take your eyes from the mist screen as Garnet slowly rubs herself with one hoof while biting the other, fluid noticeably moistening the rock beneath her.

>You feel your pants become less and less comfortable by the second as the Garnet on the display arches her back more and more until she is almost standing upside down. Her wings begin flapping around wildly as she shudders uncontrollably, eventually falling back down on the rock covered in her own fluids and panting.

>“Now its time to try the real thing.” You hear in your ear making you jump slightly. Garnet whips you around with her hooves and pushes you back into the large bed area. (And you were worried about taking advantage of her?) She then Falls on top of you doing her best to remove your clothes. You quickly move to assist her in any way that you can.

>“You were so cute last night, I couldn't ruin that.” She said between kisses. “And.. I knew that...”

You put a hand up and gently cover her mouth. “Shhh.”

>She only nods in response and you both manage to get your clothes off without too much fuss. As you wonder how best to go about this Garnet solves the problem by jumping up dragging you with her with her tail and positioning herself in front of you. “I just need it. However you want to do it. I just need it.” Looking back at you with a pleading look in her eyes.

>You gently rub yourself against her amazingly tight pussy. You press your hips slightly forward and feel her lips spread slightly letting you in just a bit before forcing closed when she winced slightly.

>“Do it again. Harder.” She says eyes held tightly shut sweat dripping off her forehead. This time you drive yourself foreward with more force than before. You feel yourself begin to sink into her about an inch before she tightens down again, but this time she shoved herself back violently almost knocking you over forcing you even deeper inside of her. She is so tight it almost hurts. She forces herself back once more making you hilt inside of her causing her to scream loudly.

>It's hard to tell whether she is enjoying this or if she is in pain.

>As you begin thrusting her scream turned to squeals of pleasure each time you rammed yourself inside of her, her pussy squeezing you so tightly you feel about to burst already.

>You reach out and grab her wings to attempt to steady yourself. You quickly found out that you could use her wings to help fuck her even harder. As her screams get louder and louder she begins to flap her wings very quickly almost picking you both up off the ground. The extra motion stimulates you beyond the breaking point and you cum shortly after she does.

>You both collapse on top of each other snuggling up together pulling a(slightly soiled) blanket over the both of you.

“Shouldn't we clean up?” You ask.

>She takes a moment to figure out what you mean. “No i don't want to move, also i kind of like it.” She says kissing you again her eyes softly glowing with a loving look.

>“I didn't want to ruin how cute you were acting yesterday, but i also wanted to make sure you would stop if I said no.” She said cuddling you closer. “That was a mean trick though getting me all riled up like that this morning and then disappearing.”

“I thought you were asleep.”

>“I kinda was, I was just too comfortable to want to wake up much this morning.” She said with a coy look in her eye. Not knowing what else to say you simply pull her slightly closer to you.

>You begin to feel more than just slightly drowsy. You should tell her about the name of the machine. You should tell her that you got dinner ready for the oven. You should tell her a few other more intimate things. But what you do. Is fall asleep.

>Something keeps nudging you and rolling you over.

“Stop.” You say weakly.

>Whatever it is certainly does not stop. In fact it becomes more forceful. Eventually you sit up rubbing your eyes.

“Okay, okay, I'm up.”

>“Its about time. I was about to get a bucket of water, but then i realized it would kind of ruin the bed.” Garnet said flopping next to you. “This was option number two.”

“What would option three have been?” You ask, not really certain you want the answer.

>“Well,” she began looking quite evil. “Have you ever had dreams about falling?”

“Ouch.” You reply looking over at the Occulus machine. (Speaking of..) “The machines name is Occulus by the way.”

>She sits bolt upright. “How did you figure that out?” She jumps up going over to the machine looking it over methodically causing it to turn on. You smile to yourself as you watch her go over the control panel inch by inch discovering nothing. As she walks back to you the machine begins its usual “no one is around better power down” thing. When she reaches you, you grab her head lightly and turn her around just as the word “Occulus” flashed across the control panel again.

>Her face lights up like you have never seen before. “Oh my gosh!” She nearly screamed running to it tracing her hoof across the elaborate disign. “How did I not see that before?” She says softly to herself.

“Sometimes it's better to look at the big picture, than all of the components up close and individually.” You reply, earning you the look. (You know the look.)

>Somewhat mollified she turned to you looking at you seriously. “I want you to know that you were my first.” You rethink the previous exploits of the day and nod to her smiling. Not really sure whether or not to tell her of the others you had been with. “Also, I guess today I just got really riled up. But don't be expecting that all the time.”

“So don't expect that you will record you fondling yourself and just let me happen to find it?”

>She blushed furiously at that. “No, and I didn't 'let you find it' I placed it in that thing over there.” She gestured with her tail at a small panel on the opposite wall. Walking up to it, you see a small cylindrical glass with fluid in it, kind of like a sideways hour glass. “That's what stores the image, it doesn't record for very long though. I haven't been able to figure out how to make it longer or really change it in any way.”

“Long enough though.” You say trying to turn the thing on again.

>You are forced to stop when she smacks the back of your hand sharply with her tail, glaring at you.

“Hey, you look good.” You say with a shrug.

>“Pfft.” She says rolling her eyes but you see a small smile in the corner of her mouth as she turns away. “Anyway,” she says voice unchanged walking out of the room. “I put the meat you set out in the oven awhile ago. It should be done about now.”

>Chuckling softly to yourself you follow her out of the room and down the long hallways. It was obviously very dark outside but that didn't really help you with a time. You catch up to Garnet and turn to her.

“How long did we sleep?”

>She shrugs. “I woke up and it was dark, its really hard to tell time in the dark.”

“I usually call that time of night 'dark:thirty' because you just can't know.”

>She cocks her head slightly to the side smiling at you.
>As you walk into the kitchen the smell is very promising. Garnet walks over to the stove and removes the pan with her tail, setting it on the counter. “It really does look good in here.” She says looking around.

“Yeah I always prefer a clean kitchen.” You reply feeling somewhat pleased with yourself.

>After waiting for the food to cool(slightly) you both do the usual thing of eating directly from the pan. Rather than the excellent tasting delicacy you were expecting, the meat tasted.... off. A single glance at Garnet proves that she feels the same her face suggesting either that, or an unpleasant smell. Quickly losing both of your appetites most of the meat remains uneaten.

>“I guess the cold room may not really be all that cold after all.” Garnet says after awhile, staring into the pan eyes glowing brightly. She looks up quickly. “In that case I'll be right back. Can't have that sitting there rotting.” She dashes out of the crack in the wall to the outside taking flight immediately.

>You decide to take care of the rest of the food you didn't eat and dispose of it outside, taking care to fling it well clear of the entrance. When you re-enter the kitchen Garnet is standing there with a slightly worried expression on her face, ...and the spear in her tail. With a quick flick of her tail Garnet pegs you with the long shaft of the spear right across the chest making you drop the pan and clumsily catch it.

>“Hey, moron.” She says walking up to you, a furious look in her eye. “The next time i catch you in the forest without this, I'm going to stick it in one of your feet so you wont wander around.”

>(Oh shit she looks serious.)

“I'm sorry Garnet, I just needed to go throw that stuff outside.”
>Why do you feel bad about this? You shake your head slightly setting the spear on the wall. When you turn around Garnet buries her face in your chest.

>“I just, ...there are things in this forest that are even bigger than that manticore. I don't want to go around saving you all the time okay? She says slightly muffled. Pulling her head back away from your chest she yawns hugely her teeth stretching out to their fullest extent. “Anyway, while i don't know what time it is, my body says sleep. You?”

“Yeah, i think sleep sounds good.” You reply, you were still very tired.

>Making it back to the Occulus room Garnet walks up to it and sets it to the night sky setting it was on the first night. You strip to your boxers again realizing your clothes are very dirty. The trip to ponyville has to be tomorrow, you really can't wait any longer.
Joining Garnet in the bed you both curl together, this already feeling like much more of a home that that dreadful little shack ever did. Laying here with Garnet cuddled up to you makes you finally appreciate what you had been missing ever since you had landed in this godawful place. When you snuggle her closer she lets out a sleepy sigh that sounds curiously like "I love you".

>It was not long after that sleep dragged you beneath it's silky surface as well.

>You awake the next morning to a soft clinking sound. It was unpleasant as it was relentless. Eventually having no other choice you sit up and look to the source of the noise. Before you the entire center portion of the Occulus machine is open displaying the most complicated network of wires, lenses and various styles of gems and mirrors you could possibly imagine. Garnet was standing quite precariously over all of this, adjusting various things with her tail muttering to herself constantly.
>“...and if I can get these to line up it will only take another two or three hours tops.” You hear her whisper through her teeth harshly. “Shouldn't have tried to mess with it... …stupid, stupid Garnet, why can you never leave well enough alone?” After she said the word "alone" she obviously did something wrong hissing loudly.

>“DAMN IT!” She screams loudly voice echoing off the walls. She immediately lowers her ears and turns her head to where you are sitting. Seeing you sitting up(obviously listening in) her face first loses color, and then becomes very flushed.

“Good morning.” You say with a small smile.

>“Mornin.” She replies still splayed out in a very awkward position standing over the machine. She jumps, also flapping her wings to gain more height landing right beside you. “I'm uh, making improvements to the Occulus.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” You reply smiling. “What were you trying to do?”

>“I was. I was...” She glares at you. “Trying to remove the recording from this stupid thing.” She kicks the machine with her hoof. A slight tinkling sound tells you that she must have damaged something else in there somewhere. The look on Garnets face suggests there may be some sort of nuclear blast in the near future but again, instead of the explosion you expect she just collapses into you. The look on her face saying she would rip her hair out if she had hands to do so.

>Immediately after that thought you see her tail appear over her head and pulled her hair very hard making her hair stand on end.

>(Well Anon, this will be as good of an opening as you are going to get.)

“How about I take your mind off of things?” You say nonchalantly.

>“How?” She asks giving you a dangerous look.

“Well I was thinking about heading to Ponyville and getting some stuff to bring here.”

>“O-Oh.” She says completely nonplussed. (Obviously not what she was expecting.) “Um, that would be... okay... I guess.”

“Would you like to come with me?”

>There were several long moments of silence as Garnet stood there not moving a muscle. “I ...guess?” She says looking up at the ceiling before glancing back behind her to the mess she would be leaving behind.

“Was that a question?” You say unable to determine exactly what she is thinking her expression very closed.

>“I don't know.” She shrugs looking back at you getting a (very small) smile in the corner of her mouth. “Yes. ...I guess.” Her face looks very calm and serene but her eyes boil with anger and frustration. (Probably not going to be a good day to push anything Anon.)

>Having both left the castle about half an hour ago. You are making small headway through the forest having to clear vines and other growing crap out of the way at regular intervals. Weird, you don't remember it being this built up before, it's been like what? Three days?

>Garnet stop and huffs in frustration. “This is ridiculous, get on my back.” She said raising her wings up.

“Uh, what?” You say not sure you heard her right.

>“Anon.” She points her tail at you. “Back.” She points her tail at her back. When you delay further her eyes flash brightly as she says. “NOW.”
>You wonder how well this is going to work with her being that much smaller than you are as you awkwardly position yourself on her back. “Just stay out of the way of my wings and you should be fine.”

>As you take off you realize two things.
>One, when riding a dragon pony one must be sure to wear an athletic cup. For obvious reasons.
>Two, said dragon pony does not account for you whatsoever in her flight path. Thusly, your face is greeted by several lashing limbs and one very large branch. You were lucky you leaned back at the last second but were still left with quite a pain and a large knot on your forehead.
>The sun combined with a cold breeze made you forget all of your discomforts for awhile. Not to mention the view, which just keeps getting wider as she flies upwards nearly grazing the clouds before leveling off. She looks back to you and gives you a very evil little smile. “Hold on tight.” She says, beginning to dive. You wrap your arms tightly around her neck and dig in with your knees.

>You both fall faster and faster to the ground picking up lots of speed. She drops almost all the way back down to the treetops before leveling off. The tops of the trees and branches whizzing by quickly. Not the most comfortable ride with her wings cuffing you in the sides with every beat, but you really wish you could do this alongside her rather than on her back. In what seems like no time at all you can see the smokes rising from various chimneys and workshops around Ponyville.

>Garnet sets down well outside Ponyville landing very gracefully and slowly. She then proceeds to buck you off launching you several feet into the air. Luckily you manage to land without looking too stupid.

>“You have fun?” She says grinning savagely.

“Yeah but next time you should go faster.”

>“Oh really?” She says stepping closer. Looking deep into your eyes. “You actually mean that don't you?”

“Yeah, that was actually pretty cool except for smacking my head on that branch.”

>Her ears lower slightly as she looks up at your forehead. “Ouch.” She says with a grimace. “Sorry about that. I've just never...”

“Never had anyone ride on you before.” You finish for her. “It's okay really, I don't even feel it anymore.” Rubbing your head.

>“So uh, what can I expect? You know when we head into town.” She asks starting to walk towards town.

>“Well you know, ponies. A lot of talk, not much action.” Not entirely sure what she was after.

>You walk alongside her until you get into the outskirts of town. Curiously you see no one in sight. She falls behind and you pull ahead poking your head in a few windows as you pass houses. You decide that just heading straight to your little shack may be the best option after all. You mention this to Garnet who agrees looking understandably concerned about the lack of inhabitants.

>Well before you reach your shack you see where all of the ponies are. There is a large crowd of them completely surrounding it all singing something or another. (Why must they always sing?) As you get closer and closer the ponies nearest the back see you and fall silent nudging those next to them. A wall of silence permeates the crowd eventually reaching everyone. The ponies give you a very wide berth as you approach the center of the group where your shack is.

>Right outside your door is the larger part of the main 6 huddled around a small shrine.(applejack and rainbow dash conspicuously absent) When they see you their jaws about hit the floor, and were struck completely speechless. Except for Pinkie Pie who launched herself at you bowling you over screaming

>“ANOOOOOOON!”.

>Having had the wind completely knocked out of you you manage to whisper softly.
“Hey Pinkie.”

>“Oh Anon I was so worried, they told me not to be so worried but I just couldn't help myself and I thought you might be lost so I tried to find you but then they found me and brought me back and I've been coming here again and again to check on you and..” At this point Pinkie took a gigantic breath.

“Pinkie....” You say weakly, finally starting to be able to breath once again.

>“I just knew you would come back I just knew if but they said you gone and wouldn't be coming back ever but I just knew it I had to see you again and now you are here and they were wrong and..” Pinkie took another large breath while doing her best to squeeze the life out of you.

“Pinkie....” You say very muffled by her squishing you so tightly.

>(Where the hell was all this coming from?)

>You glance up to Garnet and she has a remarkably blank expression on her face, but the fire behind her eyes is unmistakable while she stares directly at Pinkie. You try to catch Garnets eye to try and tell her everything is cool but Pinkie forced your head down when she grabbed on to you even tighter.

>“Now we can do all that fun stuff you promised that we could do like bake and rake and ..”

“PINKIE!” You shout very loudly causing everyone but Pinkie and Garnet to flinch.

>Pinkie finally stops and just looks at you the edges of her eyes really wet. (Seriously, what the hell? Sure she hung around you a lot but you didn't think she cared that much.)

>Garnet standing over all this clears her throat loudly. Calling attention to herself. Everyone looks at her as you pull yourself up and start trying to get the dirt and grass off of you.

“Everyone, this is Garnet. Garnet, everyone." You say gesturing your arm outwards. "Garnet, ...kind of saved my life. Well, whats left of it anyway.”

>Some of the ponies now being somewhat used to your sense of humor simply smile at this while the others look offended. Like you are going to introduce her to them all individually, you don't even know half their names.

>A lazy smile pops up on Garnet's mouth like it had always been there. “It's nice to meet you all.” She says bowing slightly with her greeting, tail twitching back and forth nervously. “It's a nice place you got here.” Garnet continued glancing around the part of town that you were in.

>The ponies all still looking very confused, begin to break up and wander off, of course saying nothing. They don't seem overly impressed. (Well at least one pony seemed to have really missed you, speaking of..)

“Pinkie,” you ask. Noticing a pillow and blanket next to the door. “You haven't been ...sleeping outside my door, have you?”

>When she doesn't answer, but looks down at the ground sheepishly and shuffles her hooves around you have your answer.

>Twilight finally recovering her composure manages to sputter out. “A-anon! I thought for sure that I had accidentally sent you off to die.” Doing a kind of little dance with her hooves. Before running up and giving you the pony equivalent of a hug.(A sort of nuzzle into your chest.) “What happened?”

>“And my goodness Anon, what ever happened to your forehead darling? You are a mess.” Rarity added coming forward with a cloth held with magic and starts to wipe off your face. The large knot on your forehead starting to hurt again.

>Fluttershy of course hung back and said nothing, but supported a worried expression, mostly directed at you, the entire time.

>As you told the story of how you ended up meeting Garnet they payed close attention. There were gasps when the story called for it, there were derisive looks when you reveled how stupid you can be. However after you got past the meeting Garnet part you were (obviously) very vague in what you talked about up until the eventual decision to come back to Ponyville. Judging by the look Garnet gave you when you reached that point in the story. Discretion is indeed the better approach here.

>“I'm just surprised you were able to kill a crocodile so easily.” Twilight said scratching her chin with her hoof. She looks you up and down again, scrunches her face slightly and then continues on. What happened to the sword I lent you? (Lent, very key verbage there.)

“Oh I think I left it back at the castle.” You say automatically looking at Garnet who was simply ignoring this exchange as if it wasn't happening.

>“Castle?” Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity all say at once.

“Oh, yeah. Didn't I say that? We were taking shelter in the castle.”

>“No, you didn't.” Said Twilight giving you a serious look. “Did you find anything there?”

“A working stove and water pump. Also a shit ton of dust covered furniture.” You say shrugging. “Why?”

>“Oh no, reason really. Just that is the princess' old castle and some ponies have found ...strange things.” Twilight says with a slight frown. “As long as you try to keep the library exactly as it is I don't have a problem with you staying there at least.” Her eyes flashing to Garnet once, very slight, but very there.

>Which means a great many things really. Twilight totally expects you not to be living here anymore the most prominent of them. She is generally pretty open with her expressions, no surprise, a small sense of relief. Definitely a desired outcome if not the initial plan.

>Was that it? Was she trying to push you towards the castle in the forest? She did mention it fairly early on, but after what you had heard. The forest wasn't friendly enough to just walk around unarmed. And as the manticore proved, even armed it was kind of pointless. Without Garnet there to save you, he would have used you as dental floss.

>You see a hoof in front of your face wiggling fiercely.
>“Hello? Anon?” Pinkie Pie said getting way too close. (Again.)

“Yeah, sorry. Thinking is all.” You say scratching the back of your head.

>“Don't hurt yourself.” Garnet said giving you a playful glare. The others seem to have taken it differently, acting nervous.

“Oh that reminds me, Rarity, what would it take to get about 10 large-ish garnets from you?” You ask changing the subject hoping to lighten the mood somewhat.

>“Oh I suppose if you would finally consent to let me make you that suit I promised you...” Rarity began. “But I would have to move my other appointments around to make it work. You know how much trouble that can be Anon. It just would not do to disappoint my other customers.” She continued, feeding you an obvious line of bullshit. You doubted she even had one appointment to reschedule.

“Sure beg me for weeks, but if I want something in return suddenly you are busy? I see how it is.” You say beginning to turn away.

>“But I suppose if your lady friend would also consent to be a mannequin for a short time, I could check in the shop and see what I have lying around.” Rarity says looking Garnet up and down.
>Garnet looks to you for a split second to which you shrug. “I guess, that would be ...okay.” Garnet says cheeks slightly puffed out and flushed.

>“Excellent darling,” Rarity says beginning to walk away. “If you will just come with me please.” She looks Garnet up and down again. “Yes I think about a six will do nicely.” Rarity looks back at you. “I trust you will be along shortly Anon?”

“Of course.” You call back after her.

>Garnet gives you one last pleading look (A very "What are you doing to me?" look.) before following Rarity down the road, presumably to her boutique.

>You turn to the other three ponies assuming your little meeting wasn't quite done yet. Fluttershy walks up to you looking at the ground somewhere around your feet.

>“A-Anon, I'm so sorry. If didn't tell Twilight you went after Beaky none of this ever would have happened.” She is apologizing for telling someone you were trying to murder and eat her pet. Congratulations Anon, you have reached a new low.

“Fluttershy, don't apologize for that. I was way out of line, and I'm surprised you aren't angry with me.” You say feeling worse about it now than ever. How do you make up for that one?

>All through this Pinkie has been sitting there with an EXTREMELY Pinkie'ish look about her. The longer she sits still the more you begin to worry. A still Pinkie is a dangerous Pinkie.

>Usually this is when she leaps into the air screaming “PARTY”. Running off to whatever diabolical party lair she has established for herself. The speed at which she can dish those things out is insane. There has been no less than fifteen different parties all having something to do with you, forcing you into the front of everything. Most of them actually turn out to be pretty entertaining if not exactly fun. So there is that.

>Pinkie Pie looked at you very seriously. “So you,” she said. “And her...” Pinkie began to tremble. You take several steps back. (When Pinkie's a tremblin....you can't figure out anything to rhyme with that, but fucking run dude.) She then jumped about eight or nine feet in the air screaming “NEW FRIEND PARTY!” Instantly rocketing off while still in midair disappearing in seconds. (You will never understand how she can do that.)

>(Garnet probably won't be too pleased about that one.)

>Fluttershy, mumbled something about needing to be somewhere and quickly removed herself leaving you alone with Twilight.

>Turning to Twilight you ask the question that has been most on your mind.
“Tell me honestly, Twilight. I'm a big boy. Were you trying to get rid of me?”

>She looked to the ground before answering. (Though that was answer enough.) “Well I couldn't have you stay here.” She said with a strange note in her voice. Much sharper and heavier than you had ever heard her speak. “I don't know what was going on in your head Anon, but I was one incident away from calling the guard to knock some sense into you.” The look she gives you suggesting it would be a very physical knocking.

“I honestly don't know what came over me.” You try and explain. “I just wasn't thinking about anything right. I came to my senses somewhere out in that swamp.”

>“But you still killed the crocodile?” She asked eyebrow raised.

“By that point I was in the point of no return anyway. Hard to pack up and go back home without bagging the beast.”
>You would mention the manticore but getting knocked on your ass and being saved doesn't sound very heroic.

>“You must be much tougher than we gave you credit for.” Twilight says looking at you very differently. You just shrug in response.

“Well,” you say “I should be getting to Rarity's.” Turning and heading that direction.

>Twilight quickly catches up with you. “So you and ...Garnet? Was it?” She says trying to get a bit ahead of you to look at your face.

“Yes.” You say simply, still walking, not sure where this is going.

>“She seems... nice.” Twilight says. Something about the way she said that was off.

“What?” You say stopping.

>“Well, …what, what is she?” Twilight says voice lowered. “I know she isn't a bat pony, her body and tail are different.” She says softly almost as if to herself. “Do you know?” Eyes bright with the light of discovery, or quite possibly insanity.

“She says she is half dragon.” (Did she ever actually say half? You forget.)

>Twilight just sits there for several seconds before finally saying. “How would that even work.?” She holds her hooves up positions them in weird angles. “No...what?” She looks at you again. “How would that even work?”

“I don't know, you are the brainiac.” You say shrugging starting to walk towards the boutique again.
>Apparently that information was enough for Twilight to occupy herself with for now, as she did not continue to follow you.

>Opening the door to Rarity's shop you are graced with a most wonderful sight. Somehow Rarity got Garnet into a very frilly wedding dress covered in what seemed like thousands of glittering jewels. With the sun shining on her from a skylight the reflecting prisms made her look quite radiant, rainbows dancing along every surface of the shop.

>“Just hold still one minute longer dear and let me get that last seam. After that it should be ready to ship out.” She says while making minute alterations on the dress with magic. “Ah, Anon”, she says looking up from her work. “Be a dear and grab me the spool of the diamond thread, would you please?”

>You walk over to where she keeps all that crap, glad what you are looking for is easy to find and right on top. Seeing Garnet at a different angle just improves the way she looks. As you hold out the spool for Rarity to take it with her magic you turn to Garnet.

“You look amazing.” You tell Garnet.

>She blushes slightly looking to the ground but you can tell that she is grinding her teeth. Before you can say anything else Rarity says
>“Done!” and the dress is magically lifted off of Garnet in a flash. “Here, I'll go pack this up tight and then I'll be back tout de suite. Don't go anywhere Anon, you are next.”

>As soon as she leaves the room Garnet is right in your face hissing softly with her teeth clenched together. “How could you do that to me? Was that on purpose? Do you know how embarrassing that was?” She could give Pinkie a run for her money when she is upset.

“Hey it was the only thing I could think of.” Wrapping your arms around her, you find she is shaking slightly wound up like an over tight guitar string. You tighten your embrace. “I don't have really any money at all, certainly not enough for gems. I honestly didn't expect her to ask you at all.”

>“Well you shouldn't try and extort favors from ponies.” She says significantly muffled by your chest.

“I'm not extorting anything, she has literally begged for me to do this, I'm going to get something out of it, and if it's for you, all the better, right?”
>She looks slightly calmer having heard that.
“Anyway, you did your fair share too right?” You feel her nod her head into your chest. “Then we are good, right?”

>She pulls back from you enough to look into your eyes. Most of the pent up frustration and anger that she had seemed spent. That, or she was hiding it much better than earlier.
>“You know Anon, sometimes you make me want to drive your head through the nearest wall.”

>(Oh goody. This sounds promising...)

“What do you want to do to me the rest of the time?” You ask, not really sure you want that answered.

>In answer she gives you the first genuine smile you have seen from her all day followed by the most amazing, passionate, sense erasing kiss you have ever experienced. The experience was short lived however, as almost immediately you hear Rarity clear her throat loudly. “Am I interrupting anything darlings?” Giving you both a very knowing look.

“No not ..really”, you say looking to the side slightly stepping back from Garnet. (She could have waited a couple minutes... You think to yourself very irritated.)

>“Now, now Anon”, Rarity says. There will be plenty of time for that later I'm sure.” Smiling coyly at you both, causing Garnets cheeks to flush.
>“Stand up here Anon.” She gestures to the large pedestal Garnet was standing on previously. “Stretch out your arms, there. Now just hold still.”
>As Rarity took her sweet time measuring and fitting and cutting and whatever other things she was doing to you; all the while she was also talking to Garnet.

>It turned out Garnet knew even more about gems than Rarity. Rarity all but demanded help for finding a few of the rarer kind. To her credit Garnet did not quite refuse the requests, but neither did she agree to them.

>“Speaking of, darling, the gems should be in the back storage room upstairs. Just walk down the hall til you get to the end. Last door on the right.” Rarity said gesturing with a hoof in the direction of the stairs.

>Garnet smiles looking slightly less unsure of herself as she ascends the stairs. Once she got past the top of the stairs out of sight Rarity leaned in and whispered to you. “So you and Garnet huh?” Huge smile much smugness. “And I was beginning to think you didn't like ponies.” She said flicking your face with her tail as she turned away to grab something else.

“Well I, ...I do.” You finish lamely.

>“Joking aside. I'm glad you found someone more your speed Anonymous.” She says turning back to you her expression very hard to read. “Honestly I'm surprised you even returned to us after what twilight had said...” She pauses slightly not sure how to go on.

“I was really losing it there for awhile wasn't I?” You ask feeling ashamed of yourself.

>“Oh, no, not at all.”She says laughing nervously looking away from you. You give her a look. “Okay, yes. But we understand now darling, and we won't force you into that position ever again. Twilight truly felt simply awful after all that, blaming mostly herself but also about half of the town into basically running you out...” She seems unable to figure out what to say next. Simply fiddling with different seams and strings.

>“Just because you are different, does not make you bad.” You hear Garnet say from the top of the stairs before descending.

>“Rarity, I could only find one garnet.” Garnet says getting closer, bringing her tail forward holding one of the most massive gems you have ever seen in your life.

>“Oh how could I have forgot, I used the last of the small ones for the Cherry account dress.” Rarity said as if to herself. “I suppose you can have that one for now.” Rarity said pushing a pin in your suit in a distracted fashion.

“Ouch!” You jump back feeling the pin break deep into your skin.
>You begin to flail your arms losing your balance. Garnet drops the large gem clunking loudly on the floor as her tail shoots out stopping you from falling by grabbing onto your wrist.

>“Oh sorry about that...” Rarity says contritely as Garnet glares daggers at her, you swear you hear her teeth grinding together. “Well I suppose that is enough to go on for now anyway. Here just let me get this, and that. This part here, oh do be careful that seam isn't set yet.” Finally getting the suit off of you Rarity puts it up on a new mannequin you hadn't ever noticed before. Seemed to have been styled from your torso....When did she do that?

>“Thank you ever so much for your help darlings. If you ever need anything just let me know.” She said pulling out another elaborate dress, obviously expecting the both of you to get out of here asap.

>Garnet picks up her large garnet looking at it mesmerized. “Thank you Rarity.” She says turning to her eyes doing their super-bright glow thing.

>“It was no problem at all darling.” Rarity says wincing slightly holding a hoof up to block the light somewhat.

>“Sorry.” Garnet darkens her eyes again. “Excited.” Smiling sheepishly as she exited the shop. Rarity looks at you mouth slightly open obviously finding herself with nothing to say. (For once.)

“Yeah, she is pretty cool.” You say not knowing how much you should or shouldn't be saying about Garnets parentage.

“See ya Rarity. I'll expect about 5 more little ones for her okay?” As you walk out the door.

>“Sure okay.” Rarity replies kind of breathlessly still obviously bothered.

>As you exit the boutique you manage to barely walk around Garnet who is just standing immediately outside the door looking at her gem in the sunlight. It really was quite impressive. As she stands on her hind hooves holding the gem between her hooves it strikes you just how different she really was from the other ponies. Maybe that's all you were looking for, someone different, like you.

>Now that you are thinking about it, what do the ponies think of her lack of cutie mark? None of them seemed like they even noticed. But maybe calling attention to that was some sort of faux pas in Equestria. You hadn't seen any full grown ponies without one so far other than Garnet. Maybe that meant she wasn't actually full grown yet?

>“Rarity was pretty nice. Considering.” Garnet growled breaking you away from your thoughts.

“Yeah, thank you for not completely freaking out on me by the way. Even though I didn't see that coming, I shouldn't have left you alone with her like that.” You reply putting a hand on her head.

>Garnet gives you a sadistic little smile. “Oh, I'm sure I can figure out some way to pay you back.” She said snapping you sharply on the ass with her tail, sadistic smile still well in place. “Now lets get to your little house so we can get back home.” She trotted off holding the large garnet in her tail again.

>She doesn't miss a beat, heading straight to your little shack. She either has a great memory, or has been doing some Occulus stalking before meeting you...

>After you are inside you realize most of this stuff you won't even want to take with you. Crappy pots and pans? Dirty straw filled mattress? Huge patchy blankets? Basically nothing you own here other than a small collection of useful tools, clothes, and cleaning supplies passes the test to come back to the castle with you. (Speaking of you quickly change out of your nasty clothes when given a chance.)
>You both decide to eat the last of your stock of food. Garnet doesn't seem to have much problem with eating grain and stale vegetables, but you can definitely tell she doesn't like them.

>You also grab the few Bits you have been able to scrounge up by working, mostly for the apples. Giving you an idea for where to go before you both head back for the castle.

“Before we leave I want to get you something as long as you don't mind.” You say over to Garnet breaking her away from staring at her gem again.

>“Huh?”

“Before we leave I want to get you something.”

>“Okay, what?” She asked head cocking slightly to the side.

“I'd prefer it to be sort of a surprise, but I'll tell you if you really want to know.”

>Garnet gives you a long stare before finally smiling . “Sure, are you about done grabbing things?” Looking around the shabby little shack.

“Yeah just need to pack everything up into something.” You say looking around for a bag large enough.

>You had to settle for a blanket with a rope tied around it several times. Once you finish and double check the place to make sure you didn't forget anything you strap everything to your back. It's much heavier than you had anticipated, but you soldier on through.

>Garnet has been standing at the window, you had assumed looking at her gem in better light. “Whats going on out there?” She said curiously.
>Walking up to and opening up the door you see a large line of ponies walking by with everything for a party from streamers on down.

“Oh shit.” You say hand flying up to your head, making it hurt again. “I completely forgot, Pinkie was going to have a party for you.”

>“Oh.” Garnet replied. “Wait, WHAT?! Why?” Her eyes very wide staring at you.

You shrug. “It's just what Pinkie does. Something new? Throw a party.” (Someone died? Throw a party....not really but it's starting to feel that way.)

“Hurry lets get over to the clock shop and we might be able to get out of here without being noticed.” You say starting to jog in the direction of the clock shop. You hear Garnet following you close behind.

>Luckily the owner is there. What was his name? Time.....something. “Ah, hello Anonymous.” He says from behind the counter as you cross the threshold of the door. “How can I help you today?”

“Hello, I'm looking for a cheap but interesting clock.” You say unsure if the small amount of Bits that you do have will cover even the cheapest clock he has.

>“Cheap and interesting huh?” He says while slowly scratching his chin. “If you are looking for interesting there is always this.” He says gesturing towards a large metal box with a clock face on it. “All of the gear works are on the outside, and surprisingly fragile. As I can't seem to sell it to anyone else I'll let it go for a very modest price.”

“How about... seven Bits?” You say pulling all of your money out.

>His ears initially fall back but he eventually nods. “Yes I suppose I could let it go for that. Will you require it to be gift wrapped?”

“Actually yes, that would be amazing.” You reply.

>“Okay.” He said taking the money. “Just give me about 10 minutes or so to find a suitable container to put this in and wrap it up for you.

“Ten minutes. Sure.” You say looking behind you wondering where Garnet was.
>As he mutters something turning away you walk out of the shop looking for Garnet. She was right behind you, where could she have gotten to.

“Garnet?” You say loudly.

>Looking around you realize it is getting well on to evening. (How long were you both in Rarities dress shop?)
>Hearing nothing in response you decide to set out for Sugarcube corner. The most likely place for a Pinkie party to be. They must have somehow accosted her and led her to the party. Maybe it would have been easier to come by yourself after all...

>When you arrive you see a very uncomfortable looking Garnet surrounded by tons of ponies all talking at once.
>No one but you seems to think she looks uncomfortable though the way they all crowd around her. You hear a few of the male pegasi boasting loudly about this or that, even though she seems the opposite of interested it still pisses you off slightly. Can't they see how uncomfortable they are all making her?

>You decide to take the initiative and walk right up through the middle of all of them a few give you friendly glances but for the most part they pay you little mind. As soon as you reach garnet she immediately slides over to you. Giving you a very thankful look with a peck on the cheek. “Anon you said you had a surprise for me?” She said, obviously looking for any excuse to get away.

“Yes.” You say taking the hint immediately. “We will be right back everyone.” You call out turning away from the large group. (Not.)

>Garnet leaned into you as you both walked away. “They grabbed me right after you went in, and then dragged me over to there.” She explained.

“I think you did fine, you were there, no one can say you weren't. And after we grab your gift we can just get out of here. Pinkies parties are generally so crazy no one will remember whether or not we were actually here the rest of the time.” You say looking around the sky slowly beginning to darken. “In which case we should probably hurry up.”

>“There you are Anon”, the clock shop keeper says as you re-enter his shop. “Got it all wrapped up right here.” He pushed an elaborately wrapped package to the edge of the counter. You pick it up Garnet, having followed you inside this time watching you intently.

“You will see when we get back, okay?” Holding up the package.

>“Okay.” Garnet responds looking at you very interested. She then glanced around the shop her eyes growing wide.
>“Wow.” She says under her breath as she walks up to the nearest clock inspecting it closely. This clock was very elaborate and very high quality ticking away softly. She brings a hoof up and traces some of the designs on the clock face without actually touching it. Her eyes dart to you, and then to the package you are holding. You see a certain glint in her eye reserved for special occasions.

“Coming Garnet?” You say heading out the door. “Thanks man, er uh. Dude.” You say waving to the shop keeper. You hear him make some generic goodbye comment and wave back in response.

>You think that Garnet may wish to look at things a bit more in there before following you out, but she is on your heals the second you get outside.
>“Ready to get on and go?” She asked right outside the shops door, eyes not leaving the package.

>You reach out and tilt her chin up so she is looking into your eyes.
“Thanks for coming Garnet. This place seems a lot better with you here.”

>“Thanks for asking me to come, I guess.” Her voice not sounding entirely genuine. (Probably mostly the thing with Rarity.) “As long as next time we don't spend so much time with Rarity.” She says echoing your thought.
>You get on her back making sure the pack thing is sufficiently attached to you, as well as having everything else you are taking off with secured in some way. You having stored Garnet's garnet in the pack(blanket with rope), along with everything else.

“We definitely don't have to spend that much time with her next time.” You say not entirely sure when next time will be. You have a strong suspicion that Garnet is thinking along the same line. “I wasn't intending on spending nearly that much time there today, trust me.”

>Garnet has her head turned almost 180 degrees looking at you still, you didn't realize her neck was quite that flexible. “Good.” She says a very serious expression on her face, before turning back and lowering her body slightly preparing to take off. “Ready?”

“Good to go. Just try and be a bit slower on the takeoff this time.”

>Nodding she jumps up while flapping her wings each wing beat sending you slightly higher and slowly start to move forward. You find it kind of cool that she has a slow mode as well as the breakneck balls to the wall journey that was your trip to Ponyville. Having completely forgotten about the knot on your forehead you reach up again and feel it. Still very painful. You let out a large sigh, when you do, you see one of garnets ears tilt back.

“Thanks for offering to fly me back Garnet.” You raise your voice slightly to make sure she hears you. “The sunset from up here is amazing."

>She doesn't reply verbally, but her tail reaching up and wrapping around your hand squeezing firmly seems answer enough.