Two figures lay sprawled on the Equestrian grass, talking and laughing merrily. One was human; a relatively young man with the unlikely name of Lero, (short for Bellerophon, for his parents had been odd folk) who’d ended up here through no mechanism he or anyone else had yet been able to discern, and who as yet was unable to return home. He was slightly stocky, with fairly wide shoulders and a barrel chest, and had shoulder-length, reddish-blonde hair and a neatly trimmed red mustache and goatee.

The other figure was much smaller. The sky-blue coat and rainbow-striped mane and tail of the pegasus aptly named Rainbow Dash stood out against the deep green of the grass. She’d flopped down half atop the human when they’d stopped to rest, and now lay with her head and one foreleg across his chest and one wing spread across his torso. The human idly stroked her mane with one hand while the two cheerfully revisited the pickup hoofball game they’d just finished in the village green.

Rainbow had been Lero’s closest friend since he’d wound up in Equestria. Though initially suspicious, she’d been quicker to accept the tall biped than her friends had been, and she’d almost immediately appointed herself as the alien’s guide to Ponyville. The two had gotten along like a house on fire almost from the very beginning. She’d led him around town, introducing him to everypony they came across, and they’d filled the time between introductions swapping stories of Earth and Equestria. The human had adapted to life in Ponyville much more quickly than he’d expected once the pegasus took him under her metaphorical wing (she’d started doing that literally after a few weeks, like she was doing now) and had made several good friends here, Rainbow first among them.

The two spent a great deal of their free time together. Oh, Rainbow had plenty of days where she went off to hang out with Pinkie Pie or Applejack, and Lero would generally use that time to talk comparative history with Twilight Sparkle or chat with Fluttershy or Lyra, or even just go off on his own for a while, but those were generally exceptions. They taught one another games from their respective home cultures; Rainbow proved surprisingly adept at some of Lero ’s word and board games once she’d learned the rules, and the human had actually put on a fair bit of extra muscle from the often punishingly physical sports the pegasus preferred. Rainbow was a consummate athlete, sleekly muscular with hardly a trace of fat, and even with his significantly greater size and recent muscle development she was still the stronger of the two by a substantial margin, though the human’s reach and more agile bipedal stance lent him an advantage in certain sports. Mostly the ones that disallowed flight; the pegasus’s wings largely negated his physical advantages. Lero had an endurance advantage against most ponies, too, though Rainbow, Applejack, or Big Macintosh could run him into the ground almost every time. The human and the pegasus had proven to be an absolute terror when they were on the same team, though, regardless of what game they were playing. (Rainbow still gloated occasionally over an absolutely crushing defeat they’d dealt to Twilight and Spike at a cooperative board game that Twilight was well known for being very good at)

There had been the odd awkward moment, of course. Like discussions of the human’s nudity taboo, which the pegasus still didn’t really understand. (She was far from alone in that regard; he’d had so many questions asked about it. The ponies all thought it was really strange.) He also still remembered how soft Dash’s feathers had felt the time he’d absently run his hand along her wing. She’d twitched slightly, and told him that was something generally not done in public. He’d taken the hint and refrained from stroking her wings thereafter, though it was sometimes hard to remember when she had them draped across him, like she did now. It had taken him some time to get used to how tactile the ponies of Equestria tended to be; they tended to like to nuzzle, rub shoulders, embrace, and sit snuggled together in a way that had initially discomfited the slightly touch-shy human, but he’d adapted. Some of them seemed more prone to such contact than others; Dash, Twilight, Pinkie, Lyra, and several of the younger colts and fillies had been doing it from the start, presumably because they hadn’t been as intimidated by the human’s size as some of the others. Most of the others in town had followed suit after a week or so, deciding he was safe to be around after all.

Rainbow was far and away the most affectionate of the bunch, though, constantly sitting where she could lean up against him or lying half-atop him like she was doing now. She even occasionally got him to carry her around with her forelegs looped over his shoulders and her rear hooves hooked into his belt. Lero had found the image of the horselike being riding on a human’s back to be humorously ironic, and Rainbow knew enough about his home world to appreciate the joke, too. (she hadn’t known quite enough to appreciate the “in Soviet Russia” joke, unfortunately.) No one in Ponyville had ever commented on how often she touched him, though, so either it was a normal way for the sapient equines to treat a close friend, or the sky-blue pegasus was considered so fearsome that nopony wanted to risk drawing her wrath by commenting on the habit.

A possibility that wasn’t too far-fetched, actually. She had a bit of a temper, and was almost freakishly strong.

All that was the past, though, and he’d dwelled less on the past since winding up in Equestria. The present was typically quite nice, so that was where his mind tended to stay. Like now, for example. His muscles burned pleasantly with the light fatigue earned from strenuous, though enjoyable, activity, a sensation that would have been alien to the previously quite sedentary human. A light sheen of sweat was quickly evaporating in the dry, temperate air the weather patrol maintained over Ponyville, and his nose picked up the slightly spicy scent that suggested Rainbow had been sweating a bit, too. He’d been surprised to learn that the different pony subtypes actually had different scents when they exerted themselves; pegasi had the spicy smell he was picking up now, earth ponies had an odd, sweet scent, and unicorns didn’t seem to smell at all. He’d been quite self-conscious about it at first; his body odor had never been particularly strong, but he thought he stank to high heaven compared to his new acquaintances, and had tended to go off on his own to cool down when he got sweaty. It wasn’t until Applejack had commented that his smell was similar to a brand of cologne her brother used (“when he got all fancy,” as the farm pony had put it) that he realize he’d actually smelled as pleasant to them as they did to him. (Big Mac himself had later made a slightly envious observation to that effect, too) Regardless, he was enjoying the feeling of lying on the grass, a cool breeze blowing by and a good friend lying stretched out next to him.

It was kind of funny, actually; holding the pegasus was in a lot of ways almost the opposite of holding a human woman. She didn’t care at all if he touched her chest, but the back and upper shoulders were considered off-limits. The area where a pegasus’s flight muscles extended, both on the back between the wings and around the upper shoulders, evidently formed an erogenous zone, and Rainbow’s were particularly sensitive. He’d drawn a startled gasp out of her the first time she’d snuggled up to him like this, when he’d idly trailed his fingers down her back in what he’d thought was a perfectly innocent gesture. He hadn’t expected her to catch her breath and slightly extend her wings, and he’d seen her blush when he looked at her with a slight frown.

She’d given him an abbreviated description of pegasus mating practices as an explanation, her blush deepening and her wings extending stiffly as she did so, and he’d realized he’d have to take great care to avoid certain gestures that would have been safe with another human, but would be considered quite erotic by Dash or another pegasus. Thankfully, they’d been alone at the time, saving both of them a fair bit of embarrassment. He’d been very careful thereafter.

Fortunately, there were plenty of ways Lero could avoid that kind of awkwardness. He currently had his arm half-embracing his friend, his elbow up against her lower shoulder, and his fingers idly running through the cooler colors of her mane as it spilled down her neck, a gesture he’d found Dash enjoyed. Twilight liked it too, as did Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Lyra, so he felt fairly safe in the assumption that he wasn’t doing anything he shouldn’t. (Fluttershy had actually commented that she suspected the gesture was a remnant of a convergent similarity in social grooming practices from their respective ancestral species, which might be why both species tended to find it soothing. The statement had come as kind of a surprise; he hadn’t realized Fluttershy was interested in evolutionary biology, though it made sense that she would be. The vocabulary she’d used had been almost as surprising; she was evidently more well-spoken and well-educated than most realized.) He was reasonably sure Rainbow would tell him if he was doing something inappropriate, but the confirmation was still nice to have.

They lay there for several minutes, enjoying the afternoon and each other’s company, cheerfully bickering over who’d done more to secure their victory in the game. They both enjoyed verbal fencing, as Rainbow had been delighted to discover. She could needle the human endlessly without him getting mad, and he tended to give back better than he got. He didn’t verbally squash her the way Twilight tended to, though, and he never got offended, taking every exchange in good humor, so she relished the opportunity to sharpen her skills.

Rainbow’s voice trailed off, distracted, and Lero looked at her quizzically. She looked back at him for a few seconds, an odd look in her rose-colored eyes, before leaning in and kissing him.

This wasn’t a quick peck on the cheek or forehead. She’d done that before, quite a few times, as had several other ponies. This time, though, she kissed him full on the mouth, her lips soft, moving a bit as the kiss lingered. Neither of them used their tongues, and Dash didn’t try to force any serious intensity, but it was the most intimate moment they’d shared, by far.

It lasted for long, long seconds before Rainbow pulled back, looking at her friend to gauge his reaction. Her normal brash attitude was in abeyance, as she hesitantly searched for a mirror of her own feelings in his face. Her heart sank like a stone when she saw the confusion in his eyes. Oh no! Did I misread him? But… I was so sure! I… I really thought he was interested! Oh, Celestia, I blew it! I totally blew it! Rainbow felt sick to her stomach. I should have known better…

Meanwhile, Lero was trying to sort out his own feelings. What the… I had no idea she was interested in me like that! Am I misinterpreting? Kinda hard to misinterpret a kiss like that! It’s a possibility… but I don’t think so. So… am I interested? He saw her face fall and realized she was probably taking his hesitation as rejection. Damn, gotta work this out fast! So is it… wait, no, it’s not bestiality. She’s at least as smart as I am, smarter than a lot of humans I’ve known. Even thinking about it as bestiality is insulting her, and I respect her too much for that. Not just respect her, let’s be honest here, I love her too much for that. He knew Rainbow wasn’t actually a horse, though she superficially resembled one. There were plenty of differences, though, besides her obvious sapience. (And, well, the wings. No vertebrate on Earth had a third limb girdle) Her head and mouth were structured totally differently for one, with a shorter, narrower muzzle, larger eyes, stereoscopic vision, much larger brain cavity, and a more humanlike lip structure than any terrestrial equine. Even her hooves were different; softer and more flexible than a terran horse’s, (as he could feel right now with her forehoof resting on his chest) and boasting a limited grasping capability that no horse had ever had. So, she’s definitely not an animal, but she’s definitely not a human either. So… it would be xenophilia, right? Am I a xenophile? He hadn’t thought so, but… Wait, I’m looking at this the wrong way. I get along with her better than I’ve ever gotten along with anyone; if she was human, I’d totally be all over her right now. Am I gonna turn her down because of the way she looks? Put that way, hell no. I hate guys who do that. ‘Sides, she is kinda pretty, in her own way.

Unable to hear the thoughts shooting rapidly through the human’s mind, Rainbow Dash ducked her head and let out a small, broken-hearted noise. The human felt her muscles shift as she got ready to get up, and caught her forehoof gently with his free hand. “Dash, wait a sec.”

“N-nah, it’s okay. I’ve been turned down before, I’m used to it.” She said, thickly. Tears were welling in her eyes. Celestial Sisters, I was so hoping this time would be different. I even tried waiting as long as I could, a couple of months, not that it helped. I think that makes it hurt more, actually.

“Dash, I wasn’t turning you down. You surprised me; I had no idea you were, um, interested in me.” Lero tried to catch her eye, but she kept her head down, refusing to look at him. He rubbed the underside of her hoof with his thumb. “My brain got a little scrambled and it took me a bit to reassemble it, that’s all. Can I ask you something?”

“You… didn’t know?” Despite her attempts to the contrary, Dash felt a tiny spark of hope kindle in her heart. Aw, Rainbow, don’t do that. You know better. It’ll just hurt more when he gives you the “just friends” speech. She meant to get up, to put some space between them so the rejection would hurt a tiny bit less, but that gesture with his thumb stopped her. It was a small thing, but it felt curiously intimate, so she paused. “H- how could you not know? Rarity and Applejack have been teasing me for weeks over my crush.”

Well, crap. You asshole. You should have asked somebody, dumbass. “Uh… you know I still have trouble reading pony body language, right?” Wait, no, that’s the wrong thing to say, idiot. “Hold it, scratch that. Truth is, I’m kinda dumb. I’m really bad at noticing things like that, and I figured you were just treating me like a really close friend. I didn’t have very many back home, and I didn’t know how you folks treated close friends here besides.” He reached up with the arm he had wrapped around her shoulders and awkwardly wiped some of her tears away.

“Nah, I’m the dumb one.” She choked out, “We were really close friends, I was just… kinda hoping we could be a little more.” She let out a strangled laugh. “Wrecked that, didn’t I?” She was trying not to cry. She was trying really hard. Lero started to say something, but Rainbow cut him off. “Ask what you wanted to know, then I’ll leave you alone.”

Lero was silent for a second, holding her close. Finally, he spoke. “Oh, Dash, I didn’t mean to hurt you. Honestly. You didn’t wreck anything.” Another strangled laugh. “You didn’t. I was just going to ask, why me? Why would you be, er, romantically interested in a big, odd-looking alien?”

Yeah, he apparently still wanted to be friends. She’d try, but she didn’t know if she could stick by him after being rejected. “Why you? Oh, I dunno, maybe ‘cause your personality clicked with mine like no one else’s ever has?” She said bitterly, “Maybe because I’ve never had a closer friend in my whole life? Maybe even because we had so much fun together that I wanted to keep you around some more? And yeah, I’m not supposed to say it, but you’ve got pretty eyes and nice flanks, even with you, ya know, not being a pony. I know it’s sexist and stuff and I’m not supposed to say stuff like that, and I know it’s hypocritical ‘cause I’m not much to look at, but…” She trailed off, unable to speak past the knot in her throat. Tears welled out again, despite her best efforts. His embrace tightened, and she swallowed, forcing her voice to work again before he could answer back. “And yeah, I know I’m kind of a freak. I’ve always gotten along pretty well with non-ponies, like Gilda and the buffalos, so I guess it’s kind of a natural progression to f-fall in l-love with…” Her voice failed again, and she choked on sobs. She buried her face in his chest, hating herself for doing it.

“Oh, Dash,” Lero said again, stroking her mane gently. “Who ever told you that you weren’t much to look at?”

The question, and the tone he asked it in, fanned that tiny ember of hope, but she worked to douse it. “’M a skinny, garish, over-muscled freak…” she mumbled into his chest.

He looked her over carefully, trying to see with another species’ eyes. Yeah, she was really muscular, but she had the lean, toned muscles of a serious athlete, and she’d somehow managed to avoid overworking any one part of her body too much, so the muscles were all pretty evenly developed. He’d always found her build to be striking and impressive, actually. And yeah, she was a little on the slender side compared to the other mares he’d seen in Ponyville, especially in the haunches, mostly because she had very little body fat thanks to her active lifestyle. Oh, wait, is that what she’s talking about? Maybe they judge flanks like we’d judge breasts, and she’s kind of flat?

“I take issue with that statement.” Lero stated calmly. Rainbow looked up, eyes red-rimmed. He hated seeing his normally brash, cocky friend looking heartsick like this, and he cursed himself again for causing it. Dumbass. Maybe you can still fix it, though. “Let’s start with ‘skinny,’ shall we? I don’t think that label is accurate.” Dash started to choke out a reply, but the human put one finger on her lips to silence her. “Hold on, now, I’ve got a fair bit to say, so just let me talk, okay?” The pegasus blinked and gave a slightly jerky nod. “That’s a very negative-sounding word, and it implies that the one it’s applied to is just skin over bone.” He trailed his finger along a line of muscle in her foreleg, following the gesture up by poking her in the lower shoulder where her foreleg attached. “Looks to me like you’ve got plenty between skin and bone, so I don’t think ‘skinny’ applies. Let’s go with ‘slender’ instead. It doesn’t sound quite so negative, and I personally prefer slender over chunky.”

Rainbow laughed. “Chunky?”

“Sure.” Lero raised an eyebrow. “If they’re gonna be jerks and call you skinny, I don’t think it would be out of line for us to be jerks and call them chunky in return.” She laughed again. Her laughter still had a slightly strangled edge to it, but he liked that sound a lot better than sobs. “So let’s call you ‘slender’ instead, and avoid being jerks. That okay?”

“I… I guess so…”

“Great!” He gave her a hammy grin and a thumbs-up, and despite herself, she laughed again, more easily this time. “Okay, I’m gonna skip ‘garish’ for now, but I’ll get back to it, so let’s hit ‘over-muscled.’” The human trailed a finger down the pegasus’s side and flank, making her shiver slightly. “No offense meant, but I don’t really think you ponies know what ‘over-muscled’ actually looks like. I’ve seen humans that were over-muscled.” He lifted his free arm, releasing her hoof and flexing to show a modest bicep. “See this?”

“What? Your arm?” Dash was a bit confused.

“The muscle in my upper arm.” She nodded a bit slowly, still confused. The human’s chest and arms were pretty muscular by pony standards, though not excessively so for a stallion. His chest and shoulders were very broad, though, even more so than Big Macintosh. She found it appealing, and it certainly made a nice place to rest her head. At her nod, he lowered his arm and took her hoof in his hand again. Once again, she found the odd gesture to be curiously comforting.

“Picture that, except four, five times as thick.” Rainbow made a disbelieving noise. The human took that as a huge relief; that was closer to her normal self than she’d been since he’d had his ‘too dumb to breathe’ moment and hurt her feelings so badly. She was recovering slowly, but at least she was recovering. Now if only she’d listen… “I’m serious. When humans bulk up, we can get really ridiculously huge. Someone like that who’s my height would weigh half again what I do, easy. The neck disappears in cords of muscle, and the arms, chest and legs get so thick with it that it can actually impair their movement. It’s called ‘muscle-bound,’ and it takes a dedicated effort to achieve.”

“Gross. Uh… you’re not gonna get like that, are you?” She blinked at him. “N- not that it matters…”

Whoops, head that thought off at the pass. Lero scoffed. “No way. Not only does that require a specialized diet that I can’t really get here,” Let’s just skate on by what that diet consists of. Dash isn’t bothered by me eating meat, but still… “most humans require particular drugs to achieve that effect. Not to mention I’m way too lazy.” Rainbow tilted her head at him, then ostentatiously turned to look back at the village green where they’d spent most of the last hour running full-tilt in a game of hoofball. He caught the look, as he was sure he was supposed to. “The occasional ball game is nothing compared to the kind of lifetime effort a bodybuilder requires. Don’t worry, I’m not going to turn into a hideous muscular hulk; I may put on a little bit more than this, but not much. But we aren’t talking about me here, are we?” Dash blinked, then glanced down at her body with a slightly ashamed look. “Ah-ah!” the human scolded, “Now it’s time for me to make the point I was building up to! Didn’t we already agree that you were slender?” She looked at him suspiciously, already suspecting where he was heading. “ ‘slender’ is sorta mutually exclusive with ‘over-muscled,’ isn’t it? You certainly aren’t bulging with so much muscle you have trouble moving; on the contrary, you’re generally quite graceful. So let’s use ‘athletic,’ instead. Now for ‘garish.’ You certainly do boast quite a striking color scheme,” he ran his fingers through her mane again, “but it’s not really clashing, and I for one think it’s quite pretty. I really think whoever called you ‘garish’ was just monochrome and jealous. So, to again avoid being jerks by calling someone else ‘monochrome,’” He gave her an exaggerated wink, and she giggled despite herself. “Let’s call you ‘colorful’ instead. And finally, there’s ‘freak.’ I really don’t like that word. It’s just a nasty way of saying ‘unusual.’ Which you certainly are!” She started to look crestfallen, but he continued fiercely. “All of your friends are! And that’s a good thing! You stand out from the crowd! It’s one of the things I’ve always liked and admired about you. So!” He said with a dramatic flourish, “Instead of a ‘skinny, garish, over-muscled freak,’ we’ve got someone who’s ‘slender, athletic, colorful and unusual.’ I like that a lot better, don’t you?”

Dash smiled at him with real warmth. “Yeah, I do. Thanks, Lero.” Her chest felt a little less hollow, though it still ached and her eyes still stung. Shoot, now I’m never gonna get rid of that crush. If I’d just waited a little longer, or maybe talked to him about it some… at least we really can still be friends. “I think that’s probably the nicest way anyone’s ever turned me down. You’re a good guy.”

“Turned you… wow, you’re stubborn.” The pegasus blinked, that tiny, tiny ember of hope flaring again. “Well, actions speak louder than words, especially to you,” he winked, “so I guess it’s time for the contingency plan.”

Rainbow felt the arm looped around her shoulders move, and she thought for a second that he was letting her up, though at this point she kinda wanted to stay where she was for the moment. She was surprised to feel his hand against the back of her neck, gently pulling her head toward his. “What contingency pla-” she managed to say, before Lero interrupted her by leaning in and returning her earlier kiss.

Now it was her turn to stiffen with surprise, rose-colored eyes going wide and wings twitching as she felt the brush of his lips against her own. What the… She cast back over the conversation they’d just had, and realization finally dawned. I really did just surprise him! He wasn’t just saying that! The tiny embers she’d been trying to crush caught fire, roaring to life in a glorious blaze and filling the hollow space to bursting. He wasn’t just saying that!

Dash’s heart sped up as she felt the tip of Lero’s tongue brushing against her lips. She opened them, meeting the tip of his tongue with her own, sliding them lightly over one another. She’d only ever kissed one stallion like this before, an experience that had been ruined when she found out he’d only been doing it because he’d lost a bet. This time was so, so different, though, and she felt tears welling in her eyes that had nothing whatsoever to do with sadness.

Her wings extended as she sank into the kiss, sliding her tongue past his and into his mouth. This was different, too; his tongue was shorter and broader than hers, and he wasn’t really able to follow suit, settling instead for caressing her tongue while she ran it along his teeth. More difference here, his front teeth were a bit smaller than the last ones she’d felt, and she could feel tiny serrations, like a miniature bread knife, that hadn’t been present on the colt’s. Past those was a set of delicately pointed sharp teeth, and she could tell he was carefully keeping them apart so as not to accidentally bite her. Past those, there were jaggedly sharp shapes that she could tell would mesh together when his jaws closed. She knew he had flat grinding teeth like she did, but she couldn’t find them; they must be farther back in his mouth. They’d talked about how his different diet meant that he had different teeth, but this feeling drove it home in a far more real manner. He was very different, and she found that exciting.

Instead of trying to get further back, she lingered on the delicate points of his canines. The sharp feeling leant the kiss a delicious hint of slight danger, though she knew full well it was an illusion. Illusion or not, the feeling was exhilarating, and she felt her wings stiffening further as she pressed herself closer to his body in a way she wouldn’t normally have been able to with a stallion. That extra closeness only added to the exciting strangeness of the experience. Her breathing had sped up, as had the human’s, and she felt a wonderful tingling sensation as their breath mixed in their mouths.

It couldn’t last forever, though it felt for a moment like it could. They finally broke contact, leaning back from one another and breathing hard. Rainbow’s rosy eyes were bright with happiness and shining with unshed tears, while Lero’s hazel irises were slightly glazed.

“Uh…” he finally said, blinking, “Wow. That was intense.”

Dash laughed breathlessly, a huge smile on her face. “That was awesome.”

“Yeah,” he answered, a grin spreading across his own countenance. “Not gonna argue there. I gotta ask, was the thing with the teeth a normal deal for you folks?”

The pegasus felt about half a heartbeat worth of worry before Lero’s expression wiped it away. Since her heart still hadn’t slowed down much, this was a blessedly short period of time. “Yeah, it’s pretty normal for a kiss like that.”

“Ah. Not that I’m complaining.” He said quickly, “Because I’m totally not. Complaining, that is.”

She laughed again, merrily. “Pff. You sound like a mare worried she’s made her stallion mad.”

He looked confused for a moment, then brushed it aside. “Regardless, we’ve got to do that more often.”

Rainbow nodded vigorously. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this happy; she was a little surprised her heart hadn’t burst or something. “Uh… we could do it again right now. You know, if you feel like it.”

“That sounds like a good plan to me.” The two grinned, looking each other in the eye.

It turned out to be a pretty good day.