The ass and the zebra

Willie Maket never gave much thought into the work of looking for people. He never trotted any significant length or distance for any purpose concerning others. He always thought dough was the ultimate measurement of one’s success. Openly embracing one’s Aspie traits has never caused anyp-- anybody any real suffering. Or so he believed. He really needed to get these silly terms out of his head. It is not so easy with people around him using them everyday.

But his skills of observation were important in addition to those of the former policeman leading him around by his teeth. Besides, he had a sense of duty. He’d never shirk his duties as a good man and “philanthropist”, the latter term he never accepted. Mister Hadley did not promise this good man a heap of gold, and it would not have been of any remote use, as his own girlfriend had her own stack of gold, silver, and an extra heap of gems at her own disposal she’d be more than willing to share with her boyfriend. He knew he’d be at the end of a rope had he not found anypo- anybody early on, deny it as he will.

Only fitting he found himself with Alexandra “Hightower” Torrez, Monica “Dick Bannister” Hadley, and his own best friend Val De Lump in search of more people, even more in response to radio reception found in this area. He had no antenna on his head, but no horse had better expertise in radios than Monica Hadley, and Alex and Val both had the extra sense to detect that thaumic energy that surrounded them, and enabled their lives and the countless forms of life that surrounded them everyday. And no one could read ponies better than their chitin covered friend. It wasn’t their faults they possessed these intrinsic traits. And it wasn’t his fault he knew how to track things without meaning to. How would he know how useful his expertise would be? And right now, Val De Lump felt a presence in the house in front of them, one of two people undoubtedly enjoying themselves in some manner or another. He could feel the unbridled joy coming from the upstairs window, and told as such. He and Alex both confirmed this by adding they could sense the thaumic cluster that is only found in living beings in that same place.

Will could not help but take in the scent of what may be tea being brewed. Steam exited the open window. He had high senses when he had his old body. They were only heightened when he received his new one along with the rest. His senses seemed to be given a stronger boost than all the rest. Monica had no official duties at this point, but he had a sense of responsibility that could not be shrugged, and knocked on the door. Now wasn’t the first time Will fantasized about Monica having a pipe. He could see him standing there in possession of a nonexistant pipe and imagined giving him one as a gift. He had no extraordinary power or sense apart from the better vision hearing and sense of smell they all got, save his observation, but it went far and led them to this house.

A head poked out of the window and revealed a small head that looked like many of theirs: a long neck flexible as a swan’s poked out the window attached to a head that looked not unlike that of a horse, save the fact its eyes were more detailed and large, colorful, and its ears were just slightly longer in proportion to its head compared to the party on the ground.

“Hello down there,” came the voice from its mouth. “Where did you come from and reveal your possessions?”

“I am here to find everybody I possibly can, and won’t stop till I am no longer able. You signal led me here...”
“That was accidental. We sent no signal.”
“Then you are lucky. Are there any others?”
“One”.

The head vanished, then the door opened to reveal a horse like creature, but smaller, with thicker limbs, bigger eyes, and clearly intelligent, to say nothing of the fact it was oddly small, which was no longer weird to them. It had black and white stripes and seemed tranquil, and Val confirmed it.

“Can I help you?” It spoke, in a voice that sounded like a woman’s.

Alex spoke up this time. “Yes. We were wondering if you would come with us. We’ve got a house not far from here, and there’s plenty of vacant rooms. Any way we can fill them...”
“NO.”

Everyone on the scene froze in surprise. “We trust no one, and are self sufficient as can be. Maybe you can stay with us. This house has plenty of room for the all of us, and only two live here now.”

Val finally said something:”We have something else to offer: an explanation.”

The mare seemed intrigued, before turning her nose in disgust. “You look like an insect. Are you some kind of beetle?”

He had a bitter taste in his mouth, one of disgust. She didn't like him. He’s used to it. “No. I’m a new thing just like you both. We are all humans here, even if we took residence in new bodies. For your info I can read your feelings (but not your mind) like an opened book. And I even feel satiated by them depending on the emotion. You don’t like me, and that is fine. But we need all the ponies we can get. It’s so hard to find folks.”

The girl rolled her eyes and told the group to come in. Monica told them something must have happened to form such distrust of total strangers in a world where it’s damn lucky to find anybody.

When they entered the room, a donkey, or so it appeared stood there, and seemed to be burning through them with scrutinizing eyes. Will wanted to be anywhere but here, but Val told him to stay put. They meant no harm, if the lack of excitement meant anything. This did little to ease his tensions, even more than that of the two equines that inhabited this house.

Five years squandered, five years of wandering aimlessly looking for ponies and finding no horse in all of that time. He almost thought i wasn’t worth it until now, and even now is reconsidering it as not all will be peaceful.

Not one to talk much, he opened the book on his back and pointed to an image and paragraph of a creature on the page. A donkey and a zebra next to it were shown, and they were not too distinctly distinct from the two in front of them. Monica spoke.

“How long have you two been living here?”
“Two and a half years.”
“Have either of you photos of yourselves?”
“No, we can’t bear our images.”

Will began to think this lead a waste of time, but Val De Lump reminded him this is a rare chance to find and connect with some folks, which is ever so sparse. He hoped this would be worth it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He had had it. He knew where his life was going, and it wouldn’t be anything useful. A whole lot of endless searching for nobodies he cared nothing about. Only the possibility Eloise was among them kept him going, aside from the fact he was no sociopath. He’d been disapointed again today, and he and Vinnie both were ready to throw darts at the cerulean rag doll they had made, dressed in cerulean and clad in silver shoes. A reminder of someone they both detested with passion. With every passing day, their aim improved, and came closer to the center when aimed at. Ever so often they were aiming at the doll in general.

“This is for Eloise”, will threw a dart at the head, and hit it in the eye. He took a swig of rum from his bottle.

“And this is for humans,” the girl with hands cast a dart at the other, and hit it squarely. She took a sip of beer, unable to hold rum. She missed hard liquors. But her new body could not take them without endangering herself and any ponies around her. She looked down at her clawed hands, and thought about the ones she had before.

Willie thought about his own, and more importantly the small flask he now had around his neck. In it were still the contents that cerulean Equestrian witch gave him, and had only been opened once, but not extracted from. He had half a mind to offer them to the two equines he had recently met. But his conscience could not bear doing something like that to a random ass and a zebra. He had thought of the full consequences, and unseen side effects that may unfold, and the fact there’s no way to test it without causing irreversible pain should it have more costs he could not predict. If he ever used it, much less took it, it would require a blind leap of faith.

“I’m getting tired, Willie. Let’s go to bed.”

He nodded. After seven hours of throwing darts at a doll in the image of that crescent moon marked lady, both of their aims were starting to falter. He stood there for several minutes before he went into the house and crawled onto the mattress he had scavenged from a vacant warehouse.

*click, click* As he stepped in, a clattering sound could be heard, a result of the floor being solid stone. Will and Vinnie both briefly lived in a warehouse, and moved out due to the excess space they did not need, only to keep her accumulated wealth. They found this house without a carpet, and a stone floor at that. There were no draperies, though they would remedy that with synthetic ones that would not burn easily. they got only one mattress, and several metal tables and stools and made sure there was a chimney when they moved in. All of the wall paper had been stripped away, and metal plates had been used to cover the bare walls and even small parts of the ceiling.

It wasn’t a hard undertaking with Will’s hardware background, and frequent usage of it. And having a girl with hands at his disposal who was no stranger to handymares herself. He fixed up the place to her liking since she said she would never again live in another wooden house without accommodations to prevent burning the place down. He had agreed, and added they’d find a good shopping mall or the like sooner or later.

That was put on hold as she lay down flat herself, and he hooped upon her belly, causing her to reflexively throw her arms around his back and hug him tightly to her chest. On a cold night, nothing was nicer than a woman with a body temperature that averaged at around 104F. Her rough and tough skin agreed with him far more than the soft and smooth ones his other friends had, and it kept him up when he needed to be up, and let him rest when he merely toughed her, but didn’t rub up against her. Several tools, namely files had been used to routinely smooth out her hide when they were ready to get to bed and snuggle up.

He took a wooden handle in his teeth and “Handed” the tool over to her, then watched as she rubbed her most rough portions. He could not help but admire a hot scaly lady when he had access to one, and a sexy lizard girl who was kind and generous to a fault was extra icing on a luscious, delicious cake. Gathering rusted ironwares fit for scrap and a few gemstones when he found them was his greatest joy in this world of sparse population, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. No one else he met thus far was closer to his lovely neighbor nor mum.

He took a minute to tell his best friend a good night of pre-sleep activities was imminent, and his eyes lit up at this. “I’ll be under thee window, dear beloved friend.” This beetle like horse shaped creature never missed out on a chance to adsorb the nightly vibrations these two made, even less so when he was invited or it was otherwise announced. The others still thought the three of them, especially Val creepy for some reason.

Once back inside, Will’s sensitive ears could hear straw being gathered outside and accumulated out the window, no doubt to be out of sight both ways, but still benefit from the aura. Thank the HPI men. They might not like the dried grass, nor desire to eat it even if they could, but it had its uses. Not that they’d understand. Sometimes he wished they’d been forced to inhabit horse bodies like he and six or seven others had. See what its like.

Alas, this is not so, and he wished them well. Not even the threat of being locked up in a cavern without thaumic access could make him truly hate his own kind. He was still just as much a human now as he was five years ago. Twenty Twenty wasn’t his best year, but it made him richer than he ever thought he’d be.

He could feel the warmth of his beloved clenching his back, her longing for his affection. He reciprocated it by putting his lips into her warm
lizard muzzle, and lock his tongue with hers. She did the same, and ran hers down his throat.

After a full hour of this, he opened the window and cast a bottle of water out the window which was caught on reflex by his insect friend. He gave a cheese-grate like hoof up and told him he hadn’t had a good fulfillment like that in three years.

The man inside rolled his eyes and pulled his head back inside. He may now have had a neck long and flexible as a swan’s, thick forelimbs ending in cylindrical stubs, and a body half the size of his old one, to say nothing of the fact his head and face were like that of a horse, only with bigger more detailed eyes in proportion to his head than a real horse would have, indicating an intelligent lifeform, but it could have been much worse. He stuck out his tongue. ‘I could have lost this’. Then he used his very long, flexible neck to look at another part of himself. ‘or that’. He shuddered to think what would happen if he lost either his tongue or his penis, as he could not have Vinnie if they took them away.

He went back to her and told her he’d brew some tea and they could rest till they fell asleep. After an hour, they all fell asleep, and for the first time in two years, Val De Lump was allowed to share the mattress. None of them were very large, so there was plenty of room. Perhaps tomorrow they could find out more about the two they found, and Val could befriend two more people who might not take an instant dislike to him. They never saw any creature that seemed a horselike insect before, nor had they encountered anyone who claimed to know their feelings, and was truthful about it. One day things would change. Tomorrow, there could be the first step to a small one, and Will could be brought further out of his shell.