My Life with Nanaimo

by Mike the Red

[AU]An Unusual Train Ride

A few days passed and I was eventually able to walk as normally as could be expected, which seemed to be enough to satisfy Maple that I could go out and find gainful employment. Vanhoover was a fairly large town, one which should have been cosmopolitan enough to accommodate the needs of any race or species, even one as unusual as humans. But every place I went to that had a "help wanted" sign refused to even acknowledge my presence, let alone allow me to work for them. Three days had come and gone, and I had exhausted just about every location within easy walking distance. All this walking each day had improved my stamina, endurance, and strength that I now felt capable enough to expand my territory. Despite that, though, Maple was adamant about my finding employment. After the sixth day of looking and coming up empty, Maple told me I had to leave -- and he also told Brann, Cookie, and Nanaimo that they all had to go too.

The following morning had us all going to the train station, though the walk was pretty long. We met up with a good friend of Brann's, a yellow earth pony mare by the name of Milky Way. This mare was something special because she had sizeable crotch boobs, something that set her apart from every other mare I had seen up until that point. Cookie had purchased the tickets for us, but we had to wait a fair amount of time before the train would arrive to take us all to Trottingham.

"So, Cookie, who or what is this -- whatever he is?" asked the yellow earth pony mare. She flashed me a look of annoyance when she caught me staring at her teats. "I dunno who you are, but would you mind not staring at me? It makes me feel uncomfortable," she stated firmly, her gaze hardening at me.

"Sorry, Milky Way, but I can't help it, I've never seen anything like you before, at least, not in person," I replied softly. "Um, my name's Mike, in case you were wondering," I added sheepishly. The mare gasped in astonishment upon hearing me call her by name, but Cookie had already told me about her. I was tempted to tell her about the internet in my home world, but I decided to keep my mouth shut about that for fear of causing even more trouble.

"How do you know my name? Cookie, where did he come from?"

"Um, uhh, I'd like to tell you, but..." I offered sheepishly, my cheeks turning red from embarrassment. Her gaze hardened further still.

"Milky, he was staying with us since he showed up with Nanaimo last week," the tan pegasus replied, smiling softly. "He's pretty nice, so give him a chance please."

I absentmindedly scratched the milkmare behind her ears, catching her off guard, and shocking just about everypony who was watching this spectacle unfold. We were still on the platform waiting for the train to arrive and quite a few ponies had gathered to watch, given that they'd never seen a human before. All of these ponies when on all fours barely came eye-level to my waist, let alone my eyes. I didn't recognize any of them, despite every one of them possessing a cutie mark of some kind or other, and the myriad colors of their coats rivaled that of a professional paint store. Said milkmare cooed softly and her eyes lidded at my touch.

"Mike, stop that," Nanaimo chided sharply. "You told me I'm your one true love, you shouldn't touch other ponies like that, that's what lovers do!"

I grinned sheepishly, reluctantly removing my hand from behind the milkmare's ear. She flashed a hurt look, then smiled at me.

"So, Mike, was it? How are you so talented at that? You could make some real money doing that," she stated, flashing me a smile. "Mmmh, you can do that any time you like!"

Nanaimo growled at me, surprising me with her jealousy. "You'd better not, Mike!" she added menacingly. I had never seen her angry, but the look she gave me sent shivers down my spine. Her look of fury was quite disconcerting, to say the least. I've heard about ponies having herds, but right now's not a good time to bring that up, I thought to myself, noticing just how angry she was with me.

"Jeez, I'm sorry, I didn't know!" I mewled, my voice much weaker than I'd ever heard it before. Almost out of desperation I reached behind Nanaimo's left ear and started scratching with my fingers. She whinnied in surprise, glaring daggers at me, but I continued to scratch her behind her ears. Her resolve melted quickly as she started cooing softly, relishing my touch, and smiling at me. This must be something really special -- I wonder what if would feel like if our roles were reversed, I thought to myself as I continued my ministrations upon the mare I professed my deep and abiding love for.

"I wonder if I could have persuaded your dad to let us stay with him a bit longer if I had done this for him," I mused facetiously, tacking a light chuckle to the end of my hypothesis. I continued to scratch Nanaimo behind her ears and watched in amazement as she crumpled to the train platform, her legs giving out on supporting her any further. "Sorry about that, Nanaimo," I offered softly and stopped my attention to her.

"It's too late to worry about that now, we have a train to catch!" Cookie shouted as the train approached the station. The train engineer sounded the whistle, rousting the awaiting ponies to full attention, Nanaimo included. She rose to her hooves quickly, meeting my eyes with hers. Her expression seemed neutral, so whether or not I was in trouble with her would be determined later. I silently hoped she wouldn't be too angry with me. At that point, the train reached a full stop, allowing for departures and embarkments aboard the train, the conductor ushering everypony quickly. He caught sight of me, gave me a twice-over, and let me board.

I was amazed by how quickly this process of ponies leaving and boarding the train went and I had to hurry just to make it aboard the train before the engineer blew the whistle again in two short bursts to announce the departure of the train from the station. I was also amazed by the response of the ponies to seeing me -- I was just another passenger to them, no different from any other pony despite my ungainly appearance. They paid little mind to me, moving aside politely when I excused myself to squeeze past them. It took a little bit to find my group, but seeing Nanaimo made me hasten my pace to meet them. I was shocked by just how crowded the train was -- it reminded me of rush-hour subway traffic ridership. Nanaimo smiled at me as I met up with her.

"Took you long enough, y'know?" she chuckled. "And thanks for what you did, it helped a lot -- and one other thing, please don't do that for other ponies -- unless they're paying you," she added a bit more sternly. For a second, I thought her eyes looked like dollar symbols and heard what sounded like a cash register sounding its bell chiming. I narrowed my gaze ever so slightly at this, frowning a little at my marefriend.

"Okay, smartass, how much should I charge for my services?" I asked, causing Nanaimo to giggle uncontrollably.