Return to Equestria

by David Silver

53 - Xenophile

"It's so nice." Gerome walked with energetic steps with David. "Getting to go out to lunch. Oh! Oh... What do humans like for lunch?"

"Bonus of being a human." David chuckled, looking over the various options as they walked. "If we can get it in our mouth, we'll consider eating it. Omnivores by trade. Ponies prefer vegetables and fruits, right?"

"Yes." Gerome bobbed quickly at that. "Um... Sorry, what are you thinking besides fruits and vegetables? Grains? Grains are good."

"Grains are good," agreed David. "Maybe I shouldn't... Fish?"

"Fish is alright," agreed Gerome back. "We're a bay town. Gonna get some fish. Not where I go first, but fish is alright. What else? Oh! Mushrooms! Technically not any of the others."

"Some mushrooms are great." And some could kill a person fairly quickly... He'd have to hope those weren't the sort ponies liked. "Alright... So, you know fish. Fish were moving things, then you made them not live, and you ate them."

Gerome cringed. "Y-yeah... That's how that works. What are you getting at, David?"

"Humans can, and have, and probably still are without me, done that to almost anything they got their hands on. On land, in the sea, in the air. You can catch it, you can eat it." David pointed at Gerome. "Eating friends and most things that can ask you not to eat it is pretty damn rude. So no Geromes on my menu."

Gerome swallowed thickly. "B-but... If you saw... Um... Wow." He listed against a sign, boneless a moment. "You really are an alien."

"Can't argue that." He reached for Gerome and, to his credit, he didn't shy, so David got to gently muss the top of the pony. "Sorry. I can't help what I am. But, omnivore. If I eat a good varied diet, even of pony food, I can live pretty well."

Gerome stepped from hoof to hoof. "I feel like I should be terrified... Ever look at a pony and think about they... might taste like?"

"I am now. It's your fault. You can't just ask if I ever imagined a purple elephant and be shocked that, yes, I am now." He ran a hand under Gerome's chin, tickling gently. "Not even kinda curious enough to want to hurt a pony. I'll take an alive pony over ten cooked ones. So, where do you want to eat? Pick a spot. I'll eat whatever. Omnivore."

"You're proud of that." Gerome smiled, some of the tension ebbing away. "Sorry for being strange about it... Okay!" He pointed across the street. "Let's get some hoagies." He led the way, energy renewed. "They have some tasty options here for anypony, or human."

David ended up selecting a salad, after all that. "This looks good."

Gerome sat at a table with David on the other end of its small surface. "No fish at least? They have some."

"Wasn't in the mood." David shrugged lightly. "But this salad looks great."

Gerome chomped his big sub. "Alright," he got out muffedly, attacking his food. "Omnivore... That's a lot you can eat. What can't you eat then?"

"Rocks?" David tapped his fingers thoughtfully together. "But some rocks are exceptions. Salt's good in moderation."

"Salt is good..." Gerome reached for the salt shaker and sprinkled the top of his hoagie. "What else?"

"Metal?" He considered that. "I take that back... I could eat metal, and so could you. If it doesn't have sharp bits, it'll pass through without doing anything. Kinda pointless. But that's a lot of things if you get down to it. Oh! Milk. Ponies are alright with milk, right?"

"Sure. Milk's alright, in moderation. Too much give you... gas." Gerome colored at that line of thought. "But it's alright. You can use it as part of other things, um..." He took a bit of his hoagie as a convenient distraction. "Forget that... Let's be adults!"

"A good thing to be." David inclined his fork before taking a fresh chomp of his salad. "What do you want to be adults about?"

"You." Gerome set his mostly-eaten hoagie on his plate. "What you like to do, besides writing and imagining games. Um... Joy wasn't wrong. I don't know a lot about you, and I really should. So tell me more."

David considered that, rubbing the back of his fingers against this beard in an idle motion. "Well, shoot. I'm an extroverted introvert. I can be quite happy by myself, working on things, but company is also nice, in moderation. I don't get recharged from group activities."

"Okay! Okay. That's good to know." Gerome wriggled in place. "I'm an introvert too... I guess... Crowds take a lot out of me. I don't get ponies who just love parties... Especially the ones that go on forever! With company I know really well, it can be fun, like the imagining games, or my work." He leaned in, looking ready to flop over the table preciously. "Tell me more, please."

"No thanks, on the eternal parties that is." David mused on that idea a moment. "I like eclectic music, often without singing in it. Give me instruments with a good mood and I'm there, and that mood can vary a lot. Varying moods is great for writing."

"Huh... Never tried that..." Gerome pulled out his phone and tapped out something quickly, working his hoof on the screen. "If you had a million bits and too much time, what would you do for fun?"

David finished his salad, even the plate fairly well cleaned in thorough devouring. "I'd start it by inspecting the tax laws around here. Depending on what I saw, maybe get a comfortable house. I'd ask Joy if she wanted to be involved in that. That's a weight off the shoulders permanently. Then--"

"W-wait." Gerome sat up, confusion in his eyes. "I meant what you'd do for fun."

"That would be very fun. I know she works hard for her bits. I'd be taking pressure off that, and myself. Double win. Sounds fun to me."

"Very adult." Gerome sipped from his straw, cradling the cup between his hooves. "But what about fun fun. Nothing that lasts past the day you do it in."

"Hm..." David pondered that for perhaps too long. "Hm..."

"Nothing?" Gerome set his cup down. "You don't like having fun?"

"Oh, no." David waved that off. "Fun is... fun... But I tend to not be the one in the front of fun. If you do something fun, drag me along."

"Well, hmmph..." Gerome considered it in kind. "What if... I wanted to take you to a water park?"

David perked. "Wow... It's been quite a while since I was at one of those. That sounds fun. Just don't be surprised when I need a break at times, but that sounds fun. Do they have waterparks here in town?"

"Sure! And even more outside the city." Gerome waved off to the wider world. "So you like water? Great! What about..." He tapped his hooves slowly. "Oh, games! You live in a game store. You like playing games?"

"I do like that," easily agreed David. "I used to have the patience to play a roleplaying game for weeks until I finished it. That's worn down a little, but I do like games."

"Ah huh, mmm..." He tapped at his phone busily. "I see..."

"What about you?" David made a twirling motion, redirecting the conversation back at Gerome. "A million bits, what do you do?"

"Oh, wow, that's a lot of bits isn't it?" He frowned, but it brightened quickly. "Wanna go on a cruise? I heard of this nice island resort that looks all kinds of fun. We can relax in the sun, play in some water, drink fancy drinks, play some games..."

David pushed back his plate and took a sip of his own drink, water. "That sounds like fun, with good company. What game would you want to play first?"

Gerome colored a brief moment. "Oh! Um... You don't want to get too physical, I guess?"

"Give me a chance for a break here and there," cautioned David. "But I'm willing to try things. Won't know if I hate it until I give it that much of a go."

David dug out his phone and soon had music issuing from it, videogame music. Pony videogame music. It was energetic and bouncing in tone. "What do you think of this?"

Gerome inclined an ear at the sounds. "Huh... I feel like I know that song... Chipper, whatever it is."

"I hear it's a classic around here." David casually went on to the next one, which was an epic ballad of some grand event. "And this one?"

"What a change!" Gerome clapped his hooves. "This is what you meant. Your music is a mood box, neat."

"Exactly." David flicked it off and away. "Want to talk about something awkward?"

"No?" Gerome inclined his head. "But I would, if you asked."

"Fair..." He reached across and gently ruffled Gerome's mane. "You can tell me to cut that out whenever." But no such request came, so the pets didn't stop. "The Big S word. That thing adult ponies do when nobody's looking and they feel like it."

Gerome attempted to show how red he could get. "Yeah?"

"I never did it." David crossed his arms. "And I have complicated feelings on the whole thing."

"Oh... Oh." Gerome rubbed his cheek softly. "Well... I'm a stallion who prefers other stallions, though I'm not against a mare that I really like, I guess?"

"Bi, homosexual preferred," countered David, distilling the idea with the skill of a modern human. "Or homosexual, bicurious? About the same thing, depending on if you ever were... Were you ever with a mare?"

Gerome sagged in place, deflating. "Once..."

"Did you like it?"

Gerome swatted at David, batting gently. "Stop! Y-yeah, it was alright... But we fell apart. You know her."

David pondered the female ponies he knew. Sunny? Unlikely. Joy? She hadn't mentioned it and it felt like she would... "Oh... Her?!"

"Her." He sank to the table in defeat. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was way out of my league. She's almost half my age! What was I thinking?! But we kept hanging out and I liked being with her, so it came up and we tried dating and... We figured out that doesn't work so good. So we broke it off."

David imagined that playful mare that attended their games. "Glad you two kept it civil afterwards. You two seem like real friends."

"We are! Um... I just stopped trying to romance her, and she did the same..." He flopped back in his seat. "I still wasn't sure... But I am now, I think... I..."

"Am a xenophile," completed David. "And, turns out, here's an alien to phile."

"Lewd." Gerome slide to his hooves. "Well, I barely started 'phile'ing. I want to know more about the xeno I'm thinking about. You sound like you don't know you all that much... Are you up to finding out? I'll help, if you're up for it. Maybe we'll both like it, or not... We won't know until we try."

"I just said that." David stood to join the motion. "So I'd be kinda full of it if I turned around and said no now. You're a nice pony, and I don't hate you so far... so we can see how it goes."

"Great!" Gerome looked left and right and back at David. "You're... so tall. Can you come closer?" David sank to a knee in front of him. "Great... I'm going to get closer." He reared up a little and went in to touch nose to nose, pony nose to human nose. "This is how ponies show they care for somepony. It doesn't have to be romantic, but our noses are sensitive, so letting somepony this close is a... trust thing, and it feels nice." He rubbed carefully. "Get it?"

Human noses were not quite as sensitive as a pony's, but the closeness and obvious intimacy didn't escape him. "I get it." He reached up to tickle Gerome under his snout, a thing ponies couldn't normally do. "Looking forward to learning more."

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Its a Boop, boy, I say its a Boop.

[Numinos]

There is some spectrum of possibilities between boops and nuzzles... Like duration? Or direction?.. *goes off into sunset mumbling something about linguistics and semantics*

[David Silver]

11608542
That was pretty clearly a nose to nose little nuzzle.