Humans Can Be Pet Too
You clutch the doorknob and pull on it in relief that you've finally made it home, but with the fast emotional panting not having stopped at all. Stepping inside and looking over at your comfy couch, absolutely in reeling; there's no puffing in and staying on your feet. You flop onto the couch back-down and cover your eyes with your palms.
"Hi there! How it's goi--- oh.", you hear your roommate say, with her sweet, flowery voice tumbling into lowness.
"Friend, are you alright? You don't look so good.", Roseluck continues, her voice becoming louder to your ear as she walks closer.
It doesn't matter to you if this is embarrassing or difficult to do. You need to talk all of this out to somepony. All of your inner tears are bulging the walls, pushing and battling at them; they just have to go free.
"I'm not good, Rose.", you say. "This day has been awful. So awful. Like, I can't even describe it..." You begin to cry into your hands.
"...--Oh. Oh no.", Rose says with an empathetic sigh, concerned for you. "I'm sorry to hear."
Silence ensues, save for the crying noises from you.
"Don't worry, my friend. Let it all out.", she continues, offering you a tissue to rub your eyes dry with.
You didn't feel the need to cry a whole lot, but she definitely made the right call. After you run through all the tears needed and put the tissue to use, you can feel a slight sense of relaxation as you exhale a deep breath.
It's okay. I'm safe now. With my best pony friend. I can leave today's horrors behind now and recover from them.
You don't say anything further after running that thought through; all you do is idly look at the front door, for no real reason. Giving Rose room to help.
"Would you like to tell me about what happened?", Roseluck asks, smiling at you with her caring eyes as she sits on the floor beneath, to your right side.
Yes, you shout in your head. These events are burning inside you at a million degrees; there's almost nothing you want more than to release them.
"Yes, I'll tell you.", you respond. You begin the story without any kind of delay or pause.
"So, when I first walked out the door this morning, I accidentally stepped right in the path of a bee, and while going frantic in fear of a sting, I bumped into a pony, upsetting their load of groceries."
You already feel yourself needing to swallow and take deep breaths as you recall these distressing events in detail. No doubt that it was hard to divulge.
"And then, and by the way, there was physical pain from that too, I then snapped at a pony, after I didn't see her wing-landing in my path to talk to me."
"She had such a warm smile, all she wanted to do was engage in some friendly talk, and out of anger from the bee-and-bump event just a few seconds ago, I told her 'Get out of my way' and walked right past her." You begin to shed tears again.
"I regretted that action so quickly and badly, that I went back and apologized to her, which she was very accepting about, but not before I made a terrible mistake at work." The tissue comes into use for a second time.
"I had mixed up the apple boxes labeled 'good' and 'bad', and filled them up the wrong way without realizing.", you admit. "Nopony noticed the error until they had already dumped a big chunk of perfectly healthy, extremely fresh, well-and-hard-prepared apples into the trash." You lightly punch the couch in frustration with yourself.
"I still had many hours of my shift left, so I tried to go back to work, after we did ensure the boxes were in the right places this time... but I felt like total garbage the rest of the way. I shamed myself in front of my coworkers."
"Then, on my way home, after I apologized to Raindrops, the pony I snapped at, I tripped and face-planted into the grass. Pieces of it all over my clothes. It didn't hurt much physically, but emotionally... it was a perfect summary of everything."
Upon finishing the story, you try to restore steady breathing as you pant, in a mixture of relief and pain, as you give Rose time to respond; no guessing she's chuck-full of sadness and concern.
"Oh... you poor thing... I'm so sorry.", Rose lets out, sadness on her face.
"Thank you.", you say. "Anything helps right now." You wipe more tears away.
As rainy as you still felt, and anticipated still feeling for a while, you could feel a heap of tension having dissipated. It sure did feel good to get that off your chest.
And here's Rose with something more to offer.
"Best friend, I've got an idea to help.", Roseluck says, her voice regaining brightness. "You know what's that special thing you do to me all the time? The one that ponies mostly know our friendship by?"
Special thing... that I do to you... "You mean, how I pet and scratch you a lot?", you say.
"That's right.", Rose nods.
Well, she's correct to the max. You do pet and scritch Rose a lot; like, a lot. You two currently being roommates (living in Rose, Daisy, and Lily's house), physical affection was a big staple. Every day, you'd sit down and happily give her a scratch behind the ears, a gentle stroke of her mane, a tender hug... whatever it was.
In fact, it was at the level of being overall associated with one time of day. After dinner, during the transition from evening to night, like during the sunset, was called out by the two of you as "affection time" when it arrived.
And you absolutely love the routine. Possibly your favorite part of your schedule since moving to Equestria. The way Roseluck absolutely melts under your hands; dreamily closing her eyes in a wide smile and lowering her head, flopping onto her back for a belly rub, droning out 'This feels sooo good...'; you could easily have difficulty warding off a cuteness overload.
But... all of that affection only ever goes one way. A statistic you gain attention towards while you think about it. Yep, it's always you performing it on her. And, per what she just said, you think you might know what she's getting at.
"So you're saying... you're thinking I could be pet?", you ask Rose, pointing to yourself in curiosity and confusion.
"Sure! Why not?", she smiles. "I may have never heard of a human being pet, but I've also never found anything to say humans can't be pet..."
Neither had you ever heard of it. Even in human society, the concept of your species receiving such treatment, in the way that you would do it to a dog or cat, or (more relevant to this case) a pony, never seemed to crop up as a thing.
That is, until now?
"Why don't we try it out?", she asks, straight-to-the-point. "It's perfect for your situation, too."
...Well, that is true...
Yeah, if I've been able to calm down Rose and make her days better by petting...
You switch to smiling. "Sure. I'll try it out.", you announce, laying flat on your back, still on the couch.
"Great!", Rose beams. She hops on the couch near your feet and lowers her stomach down on top of yours, giving herself an easy reach, and providing you extra comfort in the process.
"No worries, friend. I'm going to make it all better.", she says.
You nod in approval, feeling your emotions already brightening up a bit from the soft pressure. As well as Rose's plan for comforting affection towards you. Here it was, about to come. Let's take what you and her do and flip it around! You get to be the pet this time!
It does feel awkward, yes. But you're perfectly willing to give it a try. What's a reason not to? You can observe by living in Ponyville that petting has always helped ponies feel better, and on top of that, there's a near-complete absence of even trying it on humans! And why, exactly? Who's to say you can't be pet like a pony?
In essence, you're going to do it.
Rose kicks things off, reaching over and softly touching the top of your head with her flat, fluffy hoof. She then presses down a bit and strokes forward, to flicking off from your front bangs. She repeats that process, shifting slightly to the right this time.
You already feel yourself cracking a smile, a far cry from what this day had been doing to you. Wow, this feels kinda good..., you think.
Rose makes you think that even further, by speeding up her top-to-front petting and adding interludes of light ruffling on the top of your head, making you release all tension and close your eyes in bliss.
"Whoa. This feels good, Rose.", you say. "Now I know how you ponies feel when when you get your heads pet."
"Aww! It does feel good, doesn't it?", Rose says, giggling. She's heartwarmed that you're experiencing what she and her pony peers experience, and discovering what you've been missing.
This doesn't have to be embarrassing., you think. The ponies like it, and they're not shameful about it... plus, don't blame me! It feels good!
Rose continues to treat you all around, to your amazing, peaceful pleasure. She goes top to front several times over, moving her location to the right each time, lightly tousling your front bangs, and ruffling in circles, over and over again. The petting causes a tingling sensation, like you have fairies shooting magic in your head. You can't erase your big, wide smile.
"I think someone likes it.", Rose playfully teases.
You nod in response. The bliss caused by the tender stroking erases a comeback to the tease before it can emerge. You just acknowledge her statement, right then and there.
"I do love it, Rose. No sugarcoating.", you say.
"Aww. Great to hear!", she responds.
You continue to relax under her treatment; it's a level 100-amazing experience. You struggled to think of a recent event where you felt better than this. As expected, all of your troubling emotions just absolutely melt away. Not at all can you think of that bee-and-bump incident, or how you mixed up the boxes, or whatever.
Rose's touch got you doing nothing except smiling dreamily and closing your eyes, without a single bad thing to be thought of.
For as long as it was needed, she was happy to do this for you.
You let out a soft hum, feel like you can't open your eyes, and overall just lay there and love it all.
...
After a while, Rose releases her hoof, and you shift back to lean upwards. "Feeling better now?", she asks.
You unequivocally nod fast, smiling. How could you not feel better? That petting was so tender, so slick, so loving; you were unable to think of anything else besides it! There was no room to think about your troubles from this day to be found.
It's definitely not just for ponies.
"Aww! Great to hear it helped!", Rose says, high-hoofing you. A comfort job well done!
"Well, I have to go make dinner now.", she notes. "Stay there if you want, friend! You deserve all the treatment."
You were going to remain on the couch. In fact, Rose had relaxed you so much that as you lay flat again, you can feel your eyes getting heavy. You go in the bliss' direction and relax as much as possible, which puts you to sleep.
Rose takes a big whiff of the completed-process pot. "Oh yes. It's done." She excitedly pours two servings into two big bowls, one for each of you. It was more than in her best interest to make dinner for you, especially tonight.
"Hey buddy! It's ready!", she calls out, walking into the livingroom.
No response. She can also hear slow, peaceful breathing, as well as seeing closed eyes.
She steps up closer to your sleeping body and increases her voice volume. "Hey! Dinner is ready!"
No luck.
Rose puts a smirk on her face, and, believe it, she was trying not to resort to this method, but that shout was pretty darn loud, she reasons. If that didn't work...
"Guess I have to do it!", she says. She hops onto the end of the couch beside your feet, picks up a large feather, and waves the pointed tip up, down, and in circles across your right sole.
"Eh-eh-hehe-", you wake up, "Hahahaha! Hehe-- that tickles!", you burst out loud.
Rose leans in close to your face. "I was trying to tell you that dinner was ready, but you didn't wake up!", she says lightheartedly.
"Heehee! I guess you did have to go that route there.", you say.
"That's what I thought! And from the looks of it, I didn't make a bad decision by any means.", Rose says, skipping back to the kitchen.
You noticed you were still smiling. "You didn't. I don't hate being tickled.", you say with a slight blush.
"Heehee.", Rose responds. "Well anyway, I made chili. Come and get it!"
"Ooh!", you think to yourself. You, at last, stand up off the couch, for a hot, spicy, hearty, full meal with your best pal. After you were treated to the head petting you look back on incredibly fondly.
Looks like this day is being salvaged.
Also,
Humans can be pet too, you think to yourself.