I woke with a yawn and stretched my limbs. As I did, I discovered two things. The first was that my mouth was so dry that I wouldn’t have been surprised if I started spitting sand if I tried to talk. The second was the warm, soft, fur-coated body that was lying next to me in my small one metre twenty bed. Which was king-size for ponies.

Celsius’ snout was resting a bit above my chest. His mane was in even a bigger mess than yesterday. He must have moved his right wing a few times while we slept since some feathers were spread over the mattress, and he was lying on his left one. I could imagine the whole thing being a bit uncomfortable, but like all men, he apparently could not get enough of my two girls, so he probably didn’t mind one bit.

I carefully placed a kiss on his muzzle as I sidled out of his grasp, replacing my body with one of the pillows strewn about the room. I badly needed a glass of water or the whole bottle. Yesterday had been a long day.

Silently, I stood up and regretted it immediately, for the remains of last night began to run down my thighs. I quickly changed my plan and ran with one hand between my legs to avoid any… leakage in the rest in the hallway and into my bathroom. It was the only room in the entire house that I would call well-equipped. I had no bathtub, but a very spacious shower that ran almost over the entire length of the wall. It was even built into the wall, with a thick glass divider separating it from the rest of the bathroom. The floor ran up to the middle of the shower, so I could shower with an open door

Hastily, I stepped inside the large shower cabin, turned on the water, and walked underneath the warm spurt, which was always the perfect temperature thanks to magic. Only then did I take my hand off my vulva. Slowly, a familiar opaque fluid began to flow out of me and was carried away by the warm water. I knew that this wasn’t going to be enough. I took the showerhead off the wall, spread myself apart with two fingers, and let the water inside me wash out the rest of what was in there. Thick, gooey clumps of sperm fell to my feet as the water did its job and gave me a tingling feeling to along with it. But I was exhausted; my muscles were begging me to not do it again, and I was more than willing to give them a break.

I finished the intimate cleaning and placed the shower head back on the retainer before I grabbed the various bottles of shampoos and began to wash the rest of my body. About twenty minutes later, I ran with a towel wrapped around my hair into the kitchen and stirred my old coffeemaker back to life. I let myself drop into one of the cushioned kitchen chairs and listened to the sound of the brown drink running through the filter. Nearly everything in Equestria that was designed to sit on was either cushioned or soft. After all, you would want the same if you sat everywhere on your naked butt. Many restaurants used hay bales since they were so easy to replace should the guests leave behind any fluids. Aside from the occasional clothing ponies wore, only the cushions really needed any cleaning.

As I finally prepared a cup and allowed the first sip of coffee to run down my throat, I was ready to start the day, beginning with cleaning the remains of last night’s escapades. Sex was dirty business, but if it wasn’t dirty, it wasn’t good. One of my own little nuggets of wisdom.

So there I stood, inside the door frame to my living room as I looked over the mess we had made. There wasn’t a door, by the way. Either Celsius or I must have stepped on the bag of cream as we switched from the couch to the floor. A large pile had found its way onto the red carpet and was well worked in. The couch itself had gotten a bit of the cream as well, but nothing that couldn’t get cleaned with a bit of warm water and scrubbing.

The carpet still had it worst. Where we had been lying, very distinctive stains were left and made the single fringes stick together like no other substance could. If I looked close enough, I could even see hints from previous… encounters. It was really getting to the point where I would have to get rid of it. The problem was that nothing but cold wooden floor would be left then. I calculated the work it required to clean it against the costs for a new one for a few seconds. That would mean another week of sprouts for me.

“Morning,” came the tired voice of Celsius, who had just staggered out of the bedroom. “Do I smell coffee?”

I smiled at him and pointed towards the kitchen. “Through that door. Cups are in the shelf.” He nodded sleepily at me and disappeared down the hallway. I turned back to my problem of figuring out what to do with my old carpet. Berry had all of her furniture from the bulk trash, and she would surely help me. But today was Sunday, and the bar was closed, so I wouldn’t meet her until the late afternoon. It was her day to sleep in.

The sound of butter hitting a hot pan ripped me out of my thoughts. With a few steps, I followed Celsius and found the stallion standing on a chair, with a spatula in his mouth, in front of the stove while spreading some butter. His ears were turned towards me, so I knew that he had noticed me. Just as the butter melted, he opened a package of eggs that he must have gotten out of the fridge and broke two of them open into the pan. “I thought I could make us some breakfast. How do you want your eggs?”

The gesture was small, but meant a lot of me. It showed me that it had been a special night for him as well and that he really wanted to get to know me better. I went over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll take mine over easy.”

The stallion grinned widely over both ears. “Two eggs over easy, coming right up,” he announced happily and began to turn the eggs on the other side with the spatula. Not very successfully, mind. I couldn’t let the opportunity to tease him a bit slip by. I stepped behind him, placed my cup aside, and leaned forward before I carefully took the spatula out of his mouth.

“Let me do that,” I said while my breasts pressed against the back of his head. I felt his wings flinching a bit, and if I could have seen his face right now, it would surely have been red through his blue coat. So I was right that he had found interest in them. I was just like an earworm. Once you had that Melody in your head, you couldn’t let it go. Oh God, that was so bad.

I had an easier time flipping the eggs than him and placed the spatula aside before I rested my head on his. “You smell good,” he said and took in a deep breath.

“You smell too,” I returned with a giggle. “Like sweat and sex.” I felt his eyes widened. “Don’t worry, nothing bad.” He looked up at me with those large eyes that just made me want to hug him tight. Instead, I leaned down and gave him an upside-down kiss. He was different than other stallions, but I had already noticed that in the bar. I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was different, but his behaviour, paired with his smaller form, really attracted me. He was also a creative spirit like me, and we were in tune with a lot of things. To put it simply, I had decided that I wanted to see him again.

With the eggs, a bit of bread, cheese, and marmalade, we sat down at my kitchen table and began to fill our empty stomachs for the day. The only thing I had planned for today was visiting Berry so far. Maybe I should ask Celsius if he wanted to do something. But before that, there was another subject I had to talk about first. It wouldn’t be fair to him if we went further and he didn’t know it.

I gulped down the rest of my second slice of bread with strawberry marmalade and coughed slightly. “Last night was nice,” I said. He nodded. “Maybe we could repeat that sometime?”

“Of course!” he replied quickly. “I mean, I’d love to, Melody. I would really like to spend more time with you.” And there was the moment. After six years on Equis, I had my second coltfriend. And now the clock began to tick. I set an inner countdown on three months, the approximate time before a relationship turned into marriage. I didn’t know if that was the case for me as well. Caramel had broken up with me after one. Maybe I was just jumping to conclusions.

“But there is another thing you should know.” Here comes the large but. “I am pregnant.” Celsius stopped what he was doing, frozen in place. I snorted a bit. “Don’t worry, you aren’t the father. It happened a month ago during…” I waved around with my hand a bit.

“During the estrus?” he asked carefully, and I nodded.

“Exactly.” I had to explain again why I thought I couldn’t get pregnant, how I thought it would be impossible. I also told him how I had been searching for a coltfriend for a few years now but had just never found the right one. I also had to explain how I had wanted to have a bit of fun and had ended up going outside during that time. With every time I told the story, I felt more stupid.

“Well, that is… wow,” he said, seemingly in thought. “I mean, I don’t know.” Those seconds where he processed what I had told him were unbearable. I liked him, a lot actually. “I have nothing against foals. Nor that it isn’t mine, you know.” Of course that wouldn’t be the problem. In the olden times, when the ponies were nomads that travelled the lands… But I had already mused about history already. Anyhow, if a mare gave birth to a foal, it was a foal of the herd. It said papa to every stallion and mama to every mare. If it was hungry, any mare who could feed it did so. That sort of mentality was still stuck deep in the ponies’ minds even today. Never would a stallion reject a foal because it wasn’t his once he loved the mare that it belonged to. “It’s just a lot at once, you know. But that changes nothing about the fact that I want to get to know you better. I think you are a very interesting mare, beautiful in her own way and—” He ended his hastily spoken explanation. “I just don’t know if I’m ready to be a father, should this thing we have turn out to be something good.”

I laughed loudly, which seemed to confuse Celsius. “That makes two of us. I mean, I’m twenty four. Humans don’t usually become parents until they are at least thirty and married. You see how well that worked.” He giggled slightly. “Look, I think you are a really cute guy that I really would like to meet again. So let’s do it. See what happens.” Ponies loved their order, those little rules of their society. Apparently, I had found the rebel.

“Deal!” He grinned and reached out his hoof over the table.

I just rolled my eyes. “You stupid stallion.” And with that, I stood up and gave him another kiss. This time, he returned it and put his hoof on my shoulder. As we parted, he quickly licked over my chin.

“You had some marmalade there.”

Before I could respond, there was a knock at the door. Slightly confused, I stood up. “One moment,” I said to Celsius and rushed to the door. Before I opened it, however, I remembered that I had wrapped my hair in the towel. Quickly, I took it off, threw it over the chair in my kitchen, and ruffled through my hair a bit. Whoever was there knocked again. “One second!”

I opened the door and found the last pony I had expected to stand there. Twilight Sparkle looked like the night hadn’t been as pleasant to her as it was to me, or she just hadn’t taken a shower yet. “Umm, good morning, Melody,” she greeted me. “I just came by to ask… err… if could I study you?”

Flabbergasted, I blinked a few times. “Come again?” It had to be one of those days again. I just couldn’t give them a name, nor did I want to. Like I said, ponies loved their order, but from time to time they had to release all their stored up craziness, weirdness, and oddness. It only needed one pony to set them off. I could remember well the muffin that somepony gave me once on the street. It had been a strange green colour with living worms that poked out of it. Then there was this beige-coloured earth pony who always disappeared somewhere with the postmare. Whenever they returned, they wore the strangest clothes and kept babbling about planets, stars, and aliens. Then there was the time the entire town had been deserted for a while until everypony had come back slightly depressed. The strange thing was that they all had bruises, grazes, and other small injuries all over their bodies while mumbling something about a stupid doll. But to top it all off, there was the spontaneous singing out of the blue. And I’m not talking about a few lines that one might sing or hum while walking down the street. No, they would spontaneously perform a small musical that looked like they had trained for months and were only waiting for the right moment to sing it.

Not having the slightest interest in ruining the good mood I had just achieved from getting a new coltfriend, I did my best to not be infected by the insanity. “Why don’t you come inside first? We can talk about it then.” Nodding quickly and with a wide grin on her face, Twilight Sparkle entered my house. I led her into the kitchen.

Celsius had meanwhile eaten the rest of his cheese sandwich and placed our plates in the sink. He looked over at us as we entered the kitchen, and his eyes widened and fixated on Twilight. “Celsius, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle, Celsius,” I introduced them, grabbed my almost empty cup, and removed the ‘almost’.

“It’s an honour, Ma’am!” He saluted. I mean, he actually saluted. His right forehoof almost slammed against his forehead while his hind legs slammed together, making me worry about his two little friends down there for a moment. If I still had coffee in my mouth, it would now be spilled over the table.

Twilight at least didn’t seem less surprised than me. “Umm… thanks? A pleasure to meet you, Celsius.” That ended her interest in my other guest, and she turned towards me again. “So, again why I came here. I would like to study you.”

I took in a deep breath and sighed. Honestly, I didn’t really have an idea on how to react to that, so a polite decline was my response. “Not that I don’t feel honoured and all that, but why the sudden interest? I mean, I’ve lived here for six years, and none of the doctors ever bothered to study me further until now. Why the sudden interest?” That sounded a bit differently in my head a few seconds ago.

“Are you kidding? You are a unique life form on this planet, and inside of you is the beginning of a new race, at least after what we know. And you said that it would be impossible for you to become pregnant without another…”

“Human,” I added.

“Exactly! This would change everything! We would get a completely new insight on how magic mixes with our daily lives. What if it’s the reason that was possible? That would be huge breakthrough if magic can affect our reproduction. We could heal inherent diseases or at least alleviate them. We could help mares and stallions who can’t get foals. So please!” the mare pleaded as she supported herself against my legs, her face almost touching mine. “Please let me study you.”

I looked over to Celsius without saying a word. The stallion just stood there with an open mouth, surely thinking about what she just said. I mean, the way she said it made it sound like I was the cure to cancer or something like that. This was all a bit too much for me. “I don’t know, Twilight. I have to handle my own life. I’m pregnant, I have two jobs, I’m starting a new relationship and—”

“I could pay you!” she blurted. “I mean, I could pay you if you let me study you. I could pay you twice what Applejack pays you.” Now I really had to think about it. I mean, with that, I would have enough money to get some nicer furniture, buy some drawing materials, and eat better.

“Are you sure? I mean, can you afford that?”

She nodded. “No problem! I just have to present the project to the princess, and she will surely agree that this project is worth the investment. So it wouldn’t really be me who pays you, but the crown. Or I would get more funds that I already receive as the pupil of the princess and would pay you with that. Please, please say yes!” It was a really tempting offer. Earning money by just letting someone take samples off you and maybe ask you some questions for a couple of hours a day didn’t sound that bad.

“Let me think about it, Twilight. I would have to talk with Berry and AJ about it first. I mean, if I do work for you,” I said and formed quotations marks with my hands, “then I would have to quit my job there. And how long is this project supposed to go? A few months? I would need my jobs back afterwards.”

“Oh, that shouldn’t be a problem. As the creator of a new branch of science, the crown would provide your share in all financial profits that will follow. After all, it was you who advanced this theory about chromo-thingies.”

“Chromosomes.”

“Exactly!” She pushed her hoof against my nose and finally stepped off my lap. “So, what do you say? For science!?” She grinned over both ears.

I grabbed my cup and moved it to my mouth before I realized it was empty. Slightly frustrated, I placed it down on the kitchen table again. “Look, Twilight, it’s too early, I’m barely awake, and you look like you just fell out of your bed as well.

She giggled. “Silly, I was up all night creating a plan and method of experimentation.” At least I couldn’t say that she wasn’t optimistic.

“I’ll talk with AJ and Berry later. Let’s see what they have to say about that. But I can’t promise you anything.” That brought her down from her high a bit, and she hung her head. “I just have to make sure. I need the money, especially now.” I held my stomach, conscious of the new life that was growing inside me. “But I will definitely come back to you.”

Twilight said goodbye to us after that and left me alone with Celsius. We talked for a while about what Twilight had said and then he made his way back to his apartment. His roommates were surely already getting worried since he hadn’t returned last night. We said goodbye with a kiss and set up a date for Tuesday evening so that I would have time to care about a few other things first. So much for spending a peaceful Sunday with my new heartthrob. And I still had a lot of cleaning to do.

So, now I should really start writing chapter 5...
There is not much to say much else at this point.

Thanks to Gron for translating this chapter.
Thanks to JBL for co-authoring, proofreading and editing.