>>157203"Okay..." He says
"Should I just go home, then?"
>>157204"Nuh-uh. Let's be together, for a little while at least." She lets him catch up and rubs her side against his. This time she's not wearing anything.
>>157206He smiles, and then rubs her back, first with her body, and then with his head and neck
"Hehehe"
He almost knocks her over.
>>157207The stout little filly is not easy knocked over. She giggles and pushes back into him.
>>157208squeakThe tall, lanky colt has a higher center of gravity, and has to move his moves to keep balance
"hehe"
He moves besides her, and slowly but firmly presses into her. Not quite like he's trying to make her move into a garbage can or lamp post (he walks along the streetside) but, well, he does seem to try to change her trajectory.
>>157209This time, Amber lets him steer her, if indeed he is trying to steer her.
>>157210But he backs off, because Amber is really the one who knows how to get home
>>157211Grinning back at him, she trots a little faster.
"We're really lucky, you know."
>>157212"What do you mean?" He asks, trotting along
>>157214"That was, heh heh, unexpected. To be honest with you, I am still worried we are going to get fired for it. I just hope she doesn't tell my mom..."
>>157215She looks worried for a moment, then laughs it off.
"No, you put in too much good work for her to want to do that, and she's the only pony who knows. Maybe she likes us, or she was like me at some point."
>>157216"I don't know how she feels about you. But I know that I get the bad assignments. If the seating plan has an exclave, I have to take it. The patio, I have to take it. Large parties, I have to take it. All of the easy tables and the good tippers, she sends to her friends. I do not think she likes me."
>>157218"That's been kind of my thought, but still. It feels like she doesn't like me, and whatever the reason, I'm being treated worse than the others. Also, you're newer than me, and she'll just let you have sex in the owner's office?"
>>157219"Well…you were also allowed into the owner's office," she says, trying to rationalize it.
>>157220"Maybe" He says
"I guess if she was trying to get the manager to fire us, I'll go work some place else."
>>157225He looks to her
“Perhaps. That would explain why the rags were there. I’ll I’m saying is that she isn’t normally nice to me and I wasn’t expecting her to let us do that.”
>>157227He walks alongside her silent for several moments, contemplating her words.
“Back at the pool. You were asking if I had a crush on Saky Mixer. I wanted to say ‘no. I don’t think she likes me’.”
>>157228Amber is confused by the sudden new tangent.
"Go on…"
>>157229"Well, there isn't really much more to say about that. You asked me if I had feelings for Salt Mixer, and I wanted to say to you not only 'no' but a strong 'no'. Of course I thought that you were trying to tell me that you had feelings for me and you wanted me to ask you out."
>>157230After thinking this over for a moment, she replies,
"Well, I was in a way, I do really like you. But I thought it was funny to tease you just a little about it. Even if you did have feelings for her, I wouldn't like you less."
>>157231"Well I can't say she isn't attractive, because she is. But I don't like being given the patio and diamond dog families, and I don't like being chastised for not knowing the menu. She does not make me feel good, and so I cannot have feelings for her."
He blinks
"Are you sure that wasn't you trying to get me to say I liked you? Because you said 'yes' when I asked you out."
>>157232"I may have been hinting at it," she says, with a small giggle.
>>157233Mustard Trim jumps up to pounce on Amber to ruffle her mane with both hooves
>>157234"Eep!" she cries out, then laughs as her mane is ruffled.
>>157235"Hehehe" he says. He looks around, and jumps off of Amber, seemingly because he is afraid of looking like he is assaulting her. But her turns to her and nuzzles her
"Oh Amber, you're so adorable."
>>157237“D’awww, thank Amber. I should make a pet name for you. How about teapot? You’re my little teapot, because you’re short and stout.”
>>157238Laughing openly, she says,
"Teapot? I can't even whistle well."
>>157239He laughs.
“Can you? Try it. I want to hear you whistle.”
>>157240>>157241She sucks her breath in and…
"Prsbrtspt!"It's much more of a raspberry than a whistle.
>>157242He laughs
“Oh Amber, that’s not a whistle.”
>>157243She sheepishly looks at him.
"I know."
>>157244“A whistle is more like this”
He makes a sound that is eerily reminiscent of the catcall the bay pony stallion gave to Amber earlier that day.
>>157246She purses her lips together and blows, but only the sound of the wind itself can be heard.
>>157246>>157247You'll get 'em next time, little pony
"Oh Amber, maybe you're just not destined to be a whistler"
>>157248"I guess I'm not much of a teapot, then," she says with a wry smile.
>>157137Mint Marine cautiously enters the house, looking around.
"Wow.... it's so fancy."
He looks to Jubilosa
"A griffin!"
He looks to Paper Clipping
"Another unicorn"
For what it's worth, Paper Clipping is young enough that he could be the older brother of Mint Marine.
White Orchid asks Jubilosa questions that seem to make her a little uncomfortable
"So when you move across the floor, do you ever scratch them? Can you retract your claws? Is that a thing? So like, can you just grab things? Like a Unicorn? Well, not like a unicorn, but you know, you can grab things"
>>157249"Awww. Well you're still little and you're still mine, I think." He smiles
>>157251She nuzzles his chin as she presses her body against his.
>>157252"Hehe" He nuzzles her back, and presses his body against hers. He wants to place a leg over her, but they must keep moving. The two arrive at Amber's place after some minutes
>>157253Amber nickers softly as she walks beside him up the stairs, swatting his backside with her tail. When they reach her apartment, she lets him in and locks the door behind them.
The details of the last nights dream are recalled by Amber
Amber ends up in an open hall of marble floors - the other details are not clear - that pretty well follows the stylistic standard for large public and commercial buildings in Baltimare, at least for designs of the last half century. Amber is there with the orange stallion, but also two other stallions aged 25 and 40 or so, who are dressed in formal business suits. One wears his hat, while the other has it on his back, showing off a well combed black mane. What was Mustard so afraid of? He really ought to be here. But he didn’t want to go with the stallion, and the stallion did not want him to come along.
The stallion tells Amber that some years before, he lost the mare he loved. She was a lover he never married, though it seems he wish he did, or could have. He wants to reclaim her, to be with her again. He speaks of her as if she were dead, but the dead cannot be reclaimed. Perhaps she went and married another. Perhaps she moved away. He says that he has waited many years, and has travelled very far to come here for her. He says that over the years, he has tried to replace her. But there is no replacement, only her. He explains that some how, a specific tablet is the key to reclaiming her. Perhaps it is the link to her memory, perhaps it is the key to whereabouts, or perhaps it will remind her of her love for him. In all of these details, there is vagueness, and any answers the dream may have provided have since been lost in waking life.
What is not vague is Amber's memory of the tablet itself. He shows it to her. The tablet is rather large, a foot and a half wide, two feet tall, and three inches thick. Perhaps it is stone, but it looks more like Iron Pyrite, and more than half of its surface is gilded in gold, silver, and electra, with three red gemstones that appear to be rubies recessed into its surface. The stallion actually does have an explanation for what it is. It's a prayer tablet, with a number of common prayers written on it for the religious ceremonies typical to the civilization that constructed it. It was made by one of those ancient civilizations of the north and west of Zebrica, to a culture that ceased to exist and was ancient long before Celestia took the throne.
The tablet is remarkably well preserved, though Amber cannot read it. Each ruby has rays emanating from it, and equines around it. At the top, it is something like the sun. It is rain and new life to the left, and death and the underworld on the right. At least that's the best guess of what each set must mean. In a ring that wraps around the tablet, there are a number of monsters, or animals. If they correspond to any beasts that exist in modern times, they must surely be stylized depictions. One resembles a hydra, another a dragon, another an octopus, and another an equine. Yet each is uncanny, deviating from its inspiration enough to call the the interpretation into question. Maybe this was made back when the creatures of today did not exist in the form they are today. Indeed, perhaps this was made back in the time before horses and ponies - and donkeys and zebras - were so different.
The stallion looks Amber in the eyes with his own, dark brown eyes, and tells her that this tablet is the key to a past forever gone. His past. And he tells her that Amber is a part of that reclamation. He needs her.
But that is what is remembered
>>157254"He he" he giggles. He immediately goes to the bed, and lays down on it. He lays on his belly, places his forehooves out in front, and smiles towards Amber.
>>157250"Have look around while I get your things. My home is open to you."
Silver heads for the front door of the house, intent on getting to the car, getting the colts' items, and bringing the stuff inside.
>>157255>>157256Amber pauses for a minute in her room and closes her eyes, fixating on the sudden memory of that dream as intensely as a connoisseur would on a glass of wine. Is this stallion real? Is this tablet real? Impossible–no, not impossible, for messages often come in dreams. In any case, nothing she has experienced or even read could explain the details of his dress or his tablet.
The stallion left no direction to help her; was something else forgotten? She can only stay alert, ready to one day find that tablet. And she must do so before she settles down.
She opens her eyes, chagrined that her mystical experience distracted her from the moment. She places her dress off to the side, then trots up to Mustard and kisses him on the lips.
>>157257Mint Marine looks around, and moves off into the right into the dining area. Silver moves through the living room, past White Orchid, Jubilosa, and Clip, and towards the front door. He is alone when he goes outside to the car, and retrieves any desired items.
>>157258Mustard moves his head up, and returns her kiss. His ears go down, and his eyelid move down in part.
Amber does remember one more detail. The orange stallion said that Amber looked "fine," and reminded him of his lost lover in several ways. It was those words, spoken at the hotel ballroom's bar, that made Mustard Trim uncomfortable... for whatever that is worth.
>>157259Strange…is it normal for stallions to compliment me so much? I don't think I deserve it.She closes her eyes and continues kissing Mustard. She turns her head a little to the side to get a better angle and softly moans as she continues.
>>157260At least she thinks that's what he said. Who knows. It wasn't very clear in context then, and it isn't clear now.
He moves his head up to make better contact with her, and gently starts to move his tongue in. He extends a hoof, and tries to place it over her.
>>157261Amber lets him hold her. A blush returns to her cheeks as she feels pleasant tingles from the kiss.
>>157262He moves for the filly to lay down next to him, holding a leg up, so that she sees there is space next to him for her.
>>157259Silver brings the stuff inside, and sets the large, fairly heavy bags down by a living room wall.
"Whew! You forget how much I bought for you two until you have to carry it all."
>>157263She climbs up next to him, snuggling her warm body next to his. She giggles softly as she nuzzles his cheek.
>>157264Paper Clipping:
"Woah! What is that?"
Jubilosa extends her wings, and raises a foreleg in surprise at the bags of... stuff.
White Orchid and then seconds later, Mint Marine approach
White Orchid:
"Oh good, you got it"
>>157265He opens his leg, and then places her under him, so that she is held in his embrace. He giggles, closes his eyes, and starts nuzzling her in turn.
>>157268He moves his leg further out, and tries to rub her back and shoulder. He tries to place his other foreleg under her neck, and to rub her cheek with it. He extends his hind left leg over her flank. Most of all, he nuzzles her aggressively along her head and neck.
"Now how do you figure that?" he asks
>>157267Silver answers Clip.
"This is what I bought for them on our first day out."
>>157269Amber lets him place his legs around her and nuzzle her. One of her forelegs rubs his side while her hind leg brushes along and feels his plot. She looks at him with a warm smile under half-lidded eyes.
"Because you're the best. You're so kind and generous and handsome…ain't nothin' I'd rather do than just be smommickin' with you."
>>157270“All of this.” He says
“… who are they, exactly?”
He had something like an awkward smile.
>>157276His thighs are rather large as he has a considerable amount of leg. No muscle stands out, but simply to cover so much in an even layer proves he has a lot of it.
The way he places his legs around her almost buries her, like he doesn’t want her to get up. Hdd we moved his muzzle around, and repeatedly presses into her and rubs her.
“Thank you…” he says, not pausing the nuzzling.
“‘Smommicin’’?”
>>157277She is perfectly content being snugly and warmly embraced, sighing as he nuzzles her in different places.
"Mmm…you know, fooling around, like we did on the hill, or here, or at the restaurant."
>>157278“Oh. Heh heh.”
He continues the nuzzling. It seems this is what he really wanted to do when the two arrived at work, snd it’s what he chooses to do now. He rubs her with both hind legs and forelegs, reaching around to rub behind her ears.
He asks,
“You think they really wanted to use that room with random customers?”
>>157279It is indeed very cozy. She wouldn't mind staying like this forever, feeling rubbed and caressed all over. She can't reciprocate as much, though her foreleg is on his side and her hind leg is on his plot.
"Maybe? Who can say? But they did really want to keep it clean."
>>157280“Yuck” he says, pulling away his muzzle to make a disgusted expression. “I hope not. I would like to think that stuff doesn’t happen near us.”
>>157281She considers the hypocrisy of his statement, considering they did make it happen in that private office which other ponies must frequent.
"No need to think about it," she says, rubbing his back.
"We've got each other."
>>157282“I guess” he says. He moves his muzzle back and lays it on the bed, and then tries to move the pillow so it is under his head. Amber can see that his cheeks are pressed in and an ear folds down in contact with the bedsheet.
>>157283Amber snuggles in next to him, petting his mane.
>>157277"Just two orphaned colts I have grown attached to, after...particular job we were all involved in in one way or another. They have been through much, but despite this I have found they have strong wills, and kind hearts."
>>157285"D'awwww! That's sweet of you to help them like this. I think it's really good they have you to help them."
He looks down at the set of toys
"How long are they going to be staying?" he asks
>>157284mane is petHe opens his eyes and looks into hers. He continues
"Okay, so I really don't know what she does or did or is going to do, and I don't know if we actually are the first to use that room, and she is trying to blackmail us or something. I don't know. But I want to know what you would think if she or the other waiters, or any mare, really, were using the backroom to have relations with stallions they didn't know except at the bar."
>>157287“You’re missing the point. Just… imagine a hypothetical mare. It could be Salt Mixer. It could be my sister. It could be you when I’m not looking for all I know. Just… imagine a hypothetical mare. Don’t think of any specific mare at all, just a blank, nameless, hypothetical mare that looks like one of those things they pose clothes on in stores. Now, imagine that there’s a stallion she knows only from the bar. Maybe she’s seen him before and maybe she hasn’t. To me it does not matter. But they go back and have sex in the back room, or back at his place or wherever. And then that is the end of the relationship. They never intended on getting married or anything. Tell me. What do you think of that?”
>>157286"I do not know, but at least until danger they are in has been sorted out."
>>157290“Because it’s fun I guess? If they did, what would you think?”
>>157289“Danger? What danger? Is the danger going to follow them here?”
>>157291Silver shakes his head.
"It should not. It is just unintended consequence of previous job which made them unsafe where they were staying, one which I am going to sort out here soon. I wanted to let them get acquinted with house, first."
>>157292"What would you think of that pony?" He asks
>>157293"Uh, okay then. Wheeeeeeeerrrrreee in the house are they staying?" He asks, obviously curious about that detail.
>>157295He lays there and contemplates her response. Well, maybe he's doing that, maybe he isn't. He's silent for a number of seconds.
"Okay..." He says
>>157296"I hope I didn't upset you," she says with a concerned tone. With one foreleg she hugs him around the withers.
>>157297pony is hugged"I just want to know how you think. What you think." He says, emotionlessly while laying down on the pillow. He's a bit further away now, so Amber has to move closer to him to hug him.
>>157298She scoots in closer, letting their bodies touch.
"I'd like to know what you think, too."
>>157294"That...is something I have not entirely figured out."
>>157299"I think that sex is serious and sacred and it isn't a play thing. I think that it should be one stallion with one mare for life. If you have to break with that because of your spouses death or infidelity or something, you should deviate as little as possible. I think it is immoral and also very dangerous to have relations with strangers or multiple partners, and I do think lesser of mares who do that." He answers
>>157300"Well you made me sleep on the couch" he says
>>157301"Maybe you're right, I don't know. But I don't think there's any point to it if you're not with your special somepony," she says, stroking his mane.
>>157302He moves a little closer to her, and starts nuzzling her nose.
>>157301Silver nods, with a sheepish look on his face.
"I really need to get more room for household once I get enough money."
>>157304"More room for household? Say what now?"
>>157303She giggles as she nosekisses him, putting her hindleg up on his thigh.
"We'll always be true to each other, won't we?"
>>157305"You know, like proper room for you, if you wish to stay."
>>157306"I can be to you." He says. He gives her another nuzzle
>>157307"But... How?" He asks
>>157308"Well, there is space underneath house that can be turned into well-insulated, well-protected bedroom or even entire flat. We could also look into if expansion of house is possible."
>>157309He blinks
“It’s a three bedroom house on oceanfront property in a good neighborhood next to the city.”
But after a moment.
“That sounds great, like making a community home.”