Honey, I'm home!
You are you, a pegasus stallion with light gray fur, a dark gray mane and tail, and neon green eyes. Your name is Night Pen. Today, you and your changeling marefriend, Skitters, share an afternoon of snuggles in your favorite chair.
You open the door into your little cottage, the autumn air nipping at your exposed flesh and carrying the scent of cold flora. Stepping inside, you close the door, nudging it gently with your rear hoof. You shake your barrel and wings furvently to remove the cold from your fur, like a dog stepping out of a lake. The smell of pine and hickory wafting through the house from the fireplace on a gentle heat.
"Love? Is that you?" You heard the voice of your marefriend from the back of the house. Your heart fluttered the tiniest bit from hearing her scratchy voice.
"Mmmm, yes, that's definitely you." She practically moaned. You thought you heard the faint sound of smacking lips.
You tossed your cap and scarf haphazardly onto the coat rack next to you and walked over to the rug between the couch and fireplace. She must have started the fire shortly after you left, a healthy amount of soot and ash surrounded the logs and grate.
Coming around the corner, the mare you so adored poked her head around the door frame of the kitchen. Always so quiet, you didn't hear her hooves moving across the floor most days. She looked at you, smiling. Her large blue eyes stared at you happily.
"How was your trip? Find anything?"
You shook your head dejectedly.
"That's okay," she giggled, "I'm sure you'll have enough drawing paper for the winter. If not, well the attic could do with some tlc."
Huh. Awfully sacrine today. You thought, noting her extra kindness. Not that she wasn't kind or thoughtful, but this change in mood from her being so energetic and sarcastic to so content has you suspicious.
"Oh, don't look at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like I grew another head."
Ah, there she is. "Well, you know, I half expected you to have three heads and tackle me as soon as I opened the door, so this is shocking." You briefly wonder if the aroma of the fire is calming her. Good to know, if that's the case.
"Do I have a reason to tackle you?" Her eyes brightened noticably.
You pulled a wrapped pouch out from under your wing and held it in your teeth for her. "Fow yoo."
She gasped and ran right up in your face. "Omigosh! What is it! What is it," she repeated, hopping up and down, her wings buzzing and butt waggling when she wasn't in the air. You passed her the little surprise with a hoof. She snatched it and all but tore the thing open.
"A box?" Sarcasm dripping from her slender fangs.
You rolled your eyes and waved a hoof at her to continue. Your own eager smile plastered to your face.
She opened the lid of the little carved box. Inside sat a jewel beset in a simple necklace. The silver chain and clasp sparkling with the light of the fireplace you both stood next to.
She looked up at you, "It's beautiful. But, you know I don't wear these kinds of things." She smiled a bit pitiably at you.
"Just, put it on." You smirked.
She slowly motioned to do so. "I swear, if this thing explodes in poison joke or turns my carapace pink, I'm going to shave you like a plucked turkey."
"Naw. That's your birthday gift." You chuckled.
Skitters only rolled her head, making a small circle in the air with her muzzle; an approximation of an eye-roll, she told you long ago. As soon as the clasp fastened behind her neck, however, she stood stock still, then looked to you, then back to the necklace, then back to you again. "Wha- What is this? I feel you. I feel your love! I feel your wings wrapped around me. Even the warmth of your feathers!" She began visibly shaking. A happy smile spreading across her face like the first time you'd told her you loved her.
"I had it made just for you. It'll only work for you. So on those days I'm gone at work and you just need a little love, I can give it to you. I had the enchantress fill it with weeks of my affections for you. It'll absorb more as we share time togeth-"
You were cut off by the most passionate kiss she'd given you to date. Her lips were soft and warm, the scent of her like trees in fall. Her long, forked tongue wrapped around your own like the stripe on a candy cane. She wrapped a hoof around your neck to hold you close and pull you closer, pressing your chests together.
She broke the kiss first, happy little tears streaking her face. "I love it. I love you! This is the best gift in all Equestria." She tried whiping away the tears, still smiling. You leaned forward and pulled her in for another embrace, nuzzling the side of her head and neck. She rested her head on your shoulder and you could feel her wings buzzing in short bursts under your hooves. You could almost hear that purring, chirping noise she made when she was really happy.
You pulled away from her to look into her eyes. "Feel like a snuggling?"
She nodded eagerly and the two of you trotted over to the couch. She hopped up first, laid down a bit on her side a wiggled her body to get comfortable. You leapt up, stepping over and around her then dropped between her and the couch. You wrapped her in your hooves and wings. She loved this position. She'd said once that it was like she was in her own little chrysalis of happiness. Sappy and saccharine as it was, you weren't going to stop.
She nuzzled into your embrace and pressed her head up under your chin. You rubbed the side of her body and neck with a hoof, enjoying the semi-soft smoothness and ply of her chitin. She hummed contentedly, chirping like a cricket in spring.
"How's that?" You asked, brushing your face along hear head behind hear ear.
She pulled back to look you in the eye, "If I weren't female, very gay."
"Aw, come on!"
" I can't be all sweetness and gross. You'll think I'm a sugar cube and eat me."
You rolled your eyes. "Yeah, wouldn't want me getting fat on love, would we."
"Hey! I'm not fat at all. I can't even get fat!" She chided.
You booped her nose. "I'm only kidding. You know I like you in any form."
"You didn't say that when I tried to look like one of the changelings from Thorax's hive," she deadpanned.
You eyes went wide with fear. "Please don't ever turn into a gay moose. I'll vomit a painter's nightmare of colors and shove a heathswarming tree up my butt."
The threat wasn't idle. She and you both knew you'd do it. You lucked out, as she'd explained, her hive and others were very different from each other in bloodlines and hers had only minimal changes from reformation.
"Oh, I think you do. Want to see me as a gay moose so you can shove a tree up your butt. You know you like it~" she sing-songed under you.
"I will take back my gift."
She tucked her hooves to her chest, protecting the gift, "Nooo~" she whined, " I'll be good!"
"Good. No gay moose bugs in this house." You declared, sticking you snoot in the air.
Skitters flicked her tongue at your chin. You looked back at her. "You know you'd never really leave me for that," she giggled, but there was more than a little concern in her voice. A worry you both had when you'd heard about the reformed changelings. She was as terrified as you'd been, going so far as to say she'd burn her chitin black no matter how much it hurt.
You sighed, softening your gaze and posture. "No. No I wouldn't. I'm not that heartless and I love you too much."
"I know," her relieved expression speaking volumes. "But, please, buy several gallons of permanent ink if I do?"
You chuckled, "It's a promise, my little butt biter."
"That was one time!" She groaned, exasperatedly.
"Still have the marks," you snickered.
"You know, I was making a nest in the back. I think I'll go finish that." She moved to get up.
Holding your hoof over her barrel and putting your head against hers you stopped her. "Hey, look outside."
Skitters grumbled mildly, but gazed out the large window of your shared home. She calmed at the scene before her. A scene you both enjoyed for similar reasons, and had chosen this place to build your home.
The grass had just started to turn. The trees around the rolling field were all manner of colors from green to yellow, red, and purple in their leaves. The pines and aspens clashed beautifully in the patches of woods and forest surrounding the hills and the mountains beyond. The peaks of said mountains had the barest hints of snow even this early in the season. A few clouds were rolling in sparcely, and the longer the two of you watched, the more of the sky they covered. The warm sun replaced by a calming grey and a chill.
You don't know how long you'd been there, snuggling with Skitter, watching the scenery change. An hour or two, maybe.
She shivered in your grasp. You reached around the couch with a wing, exposing you both to the slight chill while you grabbed the edge of a blanket draped over the back of the couch, pulling it over the two of you. She smiled up at you gratefully.
You gave her little chaste kisses all over her face and she giggled cutely under your ministrations.
"Thank you." She said after you'd stopped.
"You're welcome."
"No, I mean it! Thanks. For everything. The gift, the snuggling, the-... love," her stuttered, "I feel like this is a dream. Like I'll wake up and this will all have been a hallucination from a fever dream."
"So you're saying I'm dreamy?" You teased. You squeezed her gently with your hooves.
"Ugh. Don't make this more disgusting than it is. Even I have have limits to how much sappy pony cuteness I can handle." If she'd had eyes like yours you'd swear she was rolling them, even without her head moving.
"Dreamy and cute? I must be dreaming too." You laughed.
Suddenly she hopped out of the embrace, leaving you slightly less warm and snuggled.
"I'm going to finish the nest. Come get me when you're ready for dinner, "deer.""
"I'm not starting that with you."
Skitters giggled, making her way back to the rear of the house to finish her nest.
"Hey," you called after her, "I'd greatly appreciate it if my favorite little kleptomaniac would return my ink pens before the solidify in that 'nest'."
"But I neeed them!" she whined, "they're holding up the grooming shelf so well!"
"I don't care! I can't draw or write without them."
She audibly sighed from the backroom door, "Fine, fine. I'll go find some sticks or something. "
You chuckled softly at her antics. If she weren't so cute, you'd probably never tolerate this particular eccentricity. That, and she always returned what she took. Hopefully that trait carried fully to any of your foals/grubs. Wouldn't want to have to make weekly, possibly daily, visits to the local stockade.
In all honesty, for as much as you cringed at displays of affection, like the one you just engaged in, you will admit to no one in particular that you really enjoy them. Today was a good day. You hope to have another like it soon. You know your marefriend will. She was practically glowing with love when you watched her leave the room. She wouldn't pass up another cuddle session this nice any time soon.
Today is a good day.
"Skitter? Can I help with anything?" You hopped down from the couch and trotted into the kitchen, grinning. Today would be a wonderful day soon.