//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 - Everyone Likes Sweets and Mints 
// Story: I'm gonna cuddle you. And you're gonna enjoy it! 
// by Shin Guyviroth 
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I could feel my lungs and my chest become ever so lighter, as I drew in the cool air around me. I'd never felt so good, so relaxed before. I guess getting all of that anxiety to the surface really helped a little bit. I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my chest and thrown sky high into the stratosphere.

But a tiny bit of it remained. Maybe it was because I fully understood why I was getting these pains. But now… how do I get rid of them entirely?

My thoughts wondered alongside my directionless steps. All I knew was that I was stepping foot after foot away from Ponyville, and heading towards a horizon of nothing but countryside. Didn't know where I was going, or what awaited for me at the other end, but I knew that it had to be better than those ponies.

Though what I instead found was more. Two more. I felt my head drop a little at the sight of them.

Though they were still off in the distance, I could make out their appearances. One was a light mint-green colour and with light blue-white hair, almost like Aquafresh toothpaste. The other was a very light and pale yellow, with bright pink and indigo hair that curled at the front. They were both talking to each other as they walked towards me, not even noticing my appearance.

That was until the green one turned her head. She stopped dead in her tracks and held out her foreleg in front of her friend, stopping a moderate distance away from me. 

Despite them being quite far, I could hear her as she tried to whisper to the other. "Look!" she said faintly, but audibly. "Look, Bon Bon! That… That's what I've been talking about before!"

"What are you--?"this Bon Bon spoke out, not trying to keep her voice quiet as she did. But she soon fell silent as she, too, gazed at me with glazed over eyes. And I was beginning to feel even more uncomfortable. "… Lyra? Are you saying that… that is one of those humans?"

Wait… They knew what I was?

"Yeah! Just look at it!" She pointed a hoof at me, and kept moving ever slightly as she began to annotate me like a biology diagram. "Look at those arms, and those legs, and how hairless it is! And it wears clothes like we do! It's… It's totally a human!"

I didn't know what to do. I mean, how did she know what I am? I thought humans didn't exist in Equestria? And yet she knew what I was, even pointing out what made me a human. Whoever she was, she had such extensive knowledge of me that I couldn't help but feel admiration for her. Perhaps she could get me home? I just had to talk to her.

"You know what we gotta do, right? We gotta catch it!"

… Actually, no. I had to run like hell away from her!

I didn't stick around for much longer to watch either one of them come to some sort of agreement or decision. Spinning on my heels, I sprinted as fast as I could away from them, kicking up pieces of dirt and grass under my feet as my legs carried me as quickly as they could.

"It's getting away!" I heard Lyra from behind me. "After it!"

"Wait! Lyra--!" Bon Bon's voice trailed off and was lost in the sounds of the winds the more I distanced myself from them. All I could hear now was the breeze rushing past my beating eardrums, and the trotting of hooves that galloped after me.

It wasn't like before, though. Before I could use my agility and my smarts to get away. But out in this field of grass and riverbanks, all I could do was run. And I knew a human couldn't just outrun a horse so easily, especially one that was so tired and so worn out from everything that had happened today.

My legs began to slow down. My pace lessened. My breaths were becoming heavier and frantic. But all of that soon sank into my subconscious as I heard those gallops become louder. The rhythm of four became a rhythm of eight as both of them began catching up to me. They became heavier. Louder. I could almost feel them breathing down my neck.

Lyra gave out a loud cry. Before I could turn around to see what was going on, or even how far they were behind me, I felt something crashing into the back of me. I stumbled forwards, landing on my front with a heavy thud into the earth. If it wasn't for the long grass, it would probably have felt like crashing onto concrete. It still hurt, though. And it didn't help having a pony on top of me.

"I've got it! I've got it!" chanted Lyra as she lay on my back, pinning me to the ground. I just couldn't move from under her weight. But at least her faintly minty scent was a bit soothing to my otherwise throbbing head.

"H-Hey! Lyra," called out Bon Bon as she came racing up to the two of us, and quickly moving around to the front. "I think you're hurting it!" 

"Oh! Yeah, I might have been a bit too rough…"

Not at all. There's nothing rough about having a whole pony get flung at you and getting crushed beneath its weight. Not rough at all. 

But at least she finally moved herself off of me. 

"You okay there?" she asked. I guess despite her obsession with me like I was a mythological animal, she still had some form of manners. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I just… Oh, wow, you really are a human, right?"

I groaned, trying to roll over to my front without throwing my back out. "Last time I checked, I was," I replied through my heavy breaths. But at least I didn't need to run anymore. Finally, I could relax and lay down.

"Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh--" a high pitch squeal erupted from her grinning lips "--I finally get to talk to a real human!"

"Uh, Lyra?" Bon Bon directed a concerned gaze at her friend with a raised eyebrow. "Don't you think you're taking this a little bit too… Uh… Extreme?"

"Oh, c'mon, Bon Bon; how many ponies could say that they got to talk to a creature from another world?" 

So she knew about where I came from? Maybe she really did know how to get me back?

"Well… I guess if you put it like that…" I could hear the uprising excitement in Bon Bon's voice as she spoke.

Lyra stumbled over me, looking down at me with a huge, toothy smile. "Hey! Could ya tell us all about yourself? I'd love to hear all about… Uh, human stuff!"

I couldn't help but chuckle. She really did seem inquisitive about me, and wasn't just asking out of polite conversation. "Sure thing," I agreed, making her smile even more so. I think if she smiled any more, her mouth was gonna split in half. "But, can we talk somewhere where there's more shade?"





I told the both of them of myself as we sat beneath the canopy of a large fruit tree, sheltered in its shade from the baking sun -- or at least to me it was, having been running pretty much all day. I recited everything I has said the many times before; my name, who I was, where I came from, how I came here.

"Wow," exhaled Lyra in amazement of my tale, "so you really do come from another world! So, uh, what're you doing out here?"

Way to put me on the spot straight away, Lyra.

I hesitated to speak, despite their eyes goggling at me in wait of an answer. "I just… thought I'd take a walk by the river, that's all," I finally replied.

"Hmmm… Okay." I gave an inward sigh of relief as Lyra bought my excuse. "You're gonna come back to Ponyville, right? There's so many ponies who I'd think would absolutely  love to inspect--" Bon Bon gave her a jab with her elbow "--I mean, would love to meet you. There's Applejack, and Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy--"

I felt me brain freeze more and more as she began to recite the names of the ponies I had met before. 

"--And especially Princess Twilight! I think you two would get along really well, what with you being a social creature and her being the Princess of Friendship!"

Huh. So Twilight governed over a domain? I guess it wasn't that much as a surprise to me, harkening back to when she tried to cuddle me to death. 

"Actually, Jamie---Uh, Summers?" Lyra looked at me with inquisitive eyes, but I could hear hesitation in her voice. And I could see embarrassment in her cheeks. "Would it be okay if I could… Um, examine you?"

I felt a lump in my throat. "Um… What do you mean by "examine"?" I asked. I don't think I wanted to know, though.

"Y'know, like…  a doctor's examination. Look at your body and stuff."

"Oh! I guess that's okay," I replied. It wasn't the first time I stripped in front of a pony, though that didn't meant I was going to make an exhibitionist of myself. 

But before I could even so much as grasp the bottom of my shirt, Lyra already gripped the toes of my shoe with her teeth and pulled it off with one yank. "Huh? Why're you wearing socks in this weather? Do you get cold easily?"

"No, they're just… comfortable to wear." I guess I never really thought of something like that before. 

Lyra let out a gentle hum before gripping the tip of my sock, pulling it away as she stared down at my bare foot. "No paw pads," she pointed out. She gently poked at the sole of my foot, causing me to jerk it away a bit, her fine fur tickling it. And then she gave it a gentle nudge with her snout before recoiling back and scrunching her face a little. "Ugh. A bit smelly, too."

"Well I have been running all day," I tried to explain, grinning at her. I found her lack of understanding to be pretty cute.

I felt Bon Bon nuzzle around the back and top of my head, with her sniffing at it every now and then. "Are you sure, Lyra?" she asked. "His hair smells pretty good. Like cranberries."

I didn't know what to think or feel anymore. I felt uncomfortable, even threatened, when ponies tried to hug me, but as these two kept poking and nuzzling and smelling part of my body and stripping me of pieces of clothing, I felt… Well, nothing. Maybe it was because I was like an anomaly to them. Or maybe I just felt good having this kind of attention… Whatever attention that was.

"His body isn't that hairy, either," I heard Bon Bon mutter as she peered over my shoulder and down my shirt.

"But his legs are pretty hairy," replied Lyra as she rolled up one of my trouser legs. "Humans can be so… confusing and weird."

"Gee, thanks," I muttered aloud. I was meant to keep that in my head. 

The both of them blushed and giggled, apologizing in unison. But they soon finished, returning to their places while I rolled down my trouser leg and put my sock and shoe back on. 

"So, did you have fun examining me?" I teased with a smirk.

"Well, you're a bit weird," jabbed Lyra. Kinda felt like she stuck a pin through my stomach. "But I had fun! Now I get to tell everypony how I got to look at a human up close!"

Bon Bon didn't seem to be as excited. "They probably won't believe us, anyway," she rebutted.

"Sure they will, when we take him back to Ponyville with us."

Just the thought of that happening made me want to be sick. I certainly couldn't go back there now -- not after everything I had done. On top of being hunted by a group of fanatic skittle-coloured ponies, I've broken two windows, buried someone alive in hay, unintentionally flirted with a store clerk, and tied up another with her own tablecloth. I was probably public enemy number one, two, and three at this point.

"U-uh, not at the moment," I interjected. "I still… Y'know. Still need to finish my walk. Yeah…"

Lyra just sighed at me. "Trust us to get one of those humans who are fitness freaks," she grumbled, probably in reference to my mention of running all day. "You'll come by Ponyville on your way back, right?"

"… Sure thing." I guess maybe after everything blows over after a while, it would be okay for me to come back. Though I had the feeling that "a while" was probably in a few years.

Both of them let out a tiny smile. They turned to one another, and then their expression soothed a little. They again looked at me, but with looks of uncertainty. "Hey, um… Summers? Could we, like…"

I think I knew where this was going. "Could you what, Lyra?"

"Could we… Could we give you a hug?"

"You know, so we could tell everypony that we hugged a real life human!" explained Bon Bon. 

I didn't reply at first. I glanced over at the two of them, watching as they stared back at me with anticipating, wanting eyes. I know I wasn't one for being hugged or anything like that, but… how could I turn them down and disappoint them? I nodded.

"Sure you can," I replied. I held my arms out in welcome of them. "Now come and give this fitness freak a hug!"

And then did. Pretty hard, too. Both of them pretty much leapt from their seats at me, pinning me against the trunk of the tree with their soft, furry bodies, and wrapping their arms around me like I was a huge teddy bear. And it felt pretty good, too.

After a brief moment, they let go of me and stepped back. "Haha! Now we get to brag about it to everypony!" exclaimed Lyra. Even Bon Bon was now going with the flow of excitement. "You're totally gonna come back later, right?"

"Uh… Sure I will," I replied, though the thought of it was in contrast of the certainty I displayed.

"That's great! We'll see you later then, Jay-Jay!" she cried as the two of them trotted away.

Hah. Jay-Jay. That's something I could probably get used to. Lyra, Bon Bon, and Jay-Jay. It had a pretty cool ring to it.

Oh. And I completely forgot to ask how she knew about me. Damnit...