Be an adventurous, and regretting it Floor Bored. When you had suggested doing something new, it sounded like a great idea, but as you now stand at the entrance of the arcade, staring at all the screaming and laughing foals and teens, you can't help but second guess yourself.

Anon, it seems, doesn't share your issues as he's smiling widely. "Wow, this really brings me back. I haven't been to an arcade in years. I used to love the one a few blocks from my place when I was a kid." Looking down at you, he adds, "Good choice, Floor."

"Well, you said you wanted to check it out on the bus ride, so it just seemed like a good idea," you reply bashfully. "Didn't think there would be so many ponies, though."

"Don't be nervous," Anon says, reaching down to place a comforting hand on your whithers. "They're here to have a good time, just like us. They won't bother you."

"Yeah, sure," is your meek response, taking a nervous step closer to the human's leg as a filly runs screaming passed you with a necklace of tickets wrapped around her head.

"Come on, let's go see what kinds of games they've got," Anon suggests, walking into the chaos. After a quick stop to buy tokens, the two of you head down the isles of games. You're right on his heels as he walks, eyes focused more on him than the various arcade machines around you.

It's because of this that you manage not to bump into him when he suddenly stops and points. "Hey, this looks like moonga art," he comments, pointing at a machine. The cabinet for a game called RazeRed is indeed covered in some of the most stunning and colorful moonga art you've ever seen. You're eyes go sparkly at the sight of the tough, battle-hardened mares and sexy stallions posed dramatically up and down the sides.

"Looks interesting. You want to give it a try?" Anon asks.

The idea of seeing such beautifully illustrated characters come to life on screen is enough for you to nod eagerly. Slipping some tokens into the machine, Anon and you both take up positions at the controls. After a quick rundown of the basic mechanics, you grab hold of the stick with your left hoof and place the other over the six buttons as Anon does the same at his station.

Cycling through the character roster, you take a moment to admire the idle animation of each one, drooling over a stallion named Bloodedge in particular. Mmm, that's one fine drawing.

"That who you're gonna pick?"

"Ah, yeah, he looks... tough," you answer, clicking the character.

"I'll be this one, then," he says, selecting a little lolita filly with blood-red eyes. "She's cute." You can't help but smile at his answer, feeling a little less silly for making your choice by how sexy you thought it was.

With that, the match starts, and you see first hoof the advantage fingers can give a player when Anon quickly takes the lead with a vicious combo. You put up a fight, tongue sticking out in concentration as you do what little damage you can, but you quickly lose the first match.

"Fear the loli," Anon states smugly.

"It's not over yet," you declare as the screen resets. It is, however, over in the next three minutes, "Player One, Wins!" popping up as you step back with a frown.

"Good match," Anon says with a smile.

"Yeah, well, you only won 'cause you have hands," you grumble back, getting the human to laugh.

"Can't argue there," he says, wiggling his digits. "They do come in handy for managing multiple buttons at once. Maybe I should check out the tournament scene to bring in some easy money. I could probably best the pony pros with some practice."

"Maybe," you say. "But you'd still have to beat the minotaurs and gryphons. They dominate the fighting game scene."

Anon's smile drops. "Oh, that makes sense. Darn, there goes that get-rich-quick scheme."

You huff a quick laugh and turn briefly back to RazeRed. Sigh, it's a wonderful work of art, but not one for your clumsy hooves to enjoy.

"What next?" Anon muses aloud, looking around. "Maybe something my fingers won't give me an edge in. That way when I beat you, it's purely because of my skills."

Despite yourself, you roll your eyes. "You only won one game," you say, joining the hunt for your next match as you scan the room. "I'm picking the next one."

Anon simply smiles and gestures for you to go ahead. With a gulp, you stand straight and walk into the crowd, Anon following you for once. As novel as the experience is, you try to stay on task, and soon spot the battleground for your first victory. With a smile, you point.

"That one," you declare, directing your companion's attention to the large rig.

"Boogie Woogie Insurrection...? Weird name."

"Let's see how good you can do when it's four legs against two," you say cheekily, stepping towards the twin platforms, the floor of each labeled with arrows. Sure, you might not know how to dance for real, but the base is basically one big gamepad and the advantage of limbs is on your side this time. Anon is going down.

With a chuckle and shake of his head, Anon steps forward and places the tokens in. "Kind of unfair, but I guess I do owe you for the last match. Let's do this."

With that, the two of you begin, eyes focused on the screen as lively piano music starts to play. You're a bit overwhelmed when the arrows come rushing down the screen, but after missing the first few, you start to get the hang of it. Judging by the curses under his breath, Anon isn't having as much luck.

You don't do well by any stretch of the imagination, but you still eke out a few compliments from the game while Anon only manages insults. "Jesus Christ, is that how ponies dance?" Anon huffs as the song comes to the end and you're declared the winner. "That's insane!"

Through your own labored breathing, you grin. "I... win!"

Catching his breath, he smiles. "Yeah, you did. What do you want to play next?"

You look back at the game you've just won, tempted to rack up another victory, but doubt your heart could handle it. "Hmm, how about... that one!" you suggest, pointing at a rig featuring proud gryphons on the side. If the gameplay is anything like the art, it should be pretty good.

Anon hums and steps down from the dance pad. As you follow behind, you watch as he pulls what looks like a crossbow from the machine, the toy-like weapon attached by a cord. "Huh, a hunting game. Didn't think I'd find one of these around here." You look from the crossbow to the title as Anon does. "'Flock Feeder, eh?" he reads. "Motivation must be bringing home dinner."

"That's... cool," you say unconvincingly, getting Anon to look back at you.

"What? Are you not okay with this? I mean, you ponies are vegetarians."

"No," you answer. "I mean, okay, it's a little weird, but it's just a game, right? It's not like we're actually hurting cute little animals."

"We don't have to play if you don't want to," he tries, but you shake your head.

"No, I chose it, so we should play it. Besides, this one looks like it'll be fair to both of us."

"I guess your right, there. Fingers or extra legs don't really help aim." He reaches into his pocket for tokens. "Okay, let's give it a try."

With that, you take your crossbow and he readies his. When the first rabbit hops out of a bush on screen and starts running, you line up a shot, and hesitate. The fluffy fella makes it three more steps before Anon sticks him and there's a burst of red before he flickered off screen, leaving behind two-hundred points.

"Keep up, Floor, you don't want the flock to go hungry, do you?" Anon teases, shooting a bird out of the air.

Reminding yourself it's just a game, you take aim once more and fire. Thank you, squirrel, for the hundred points. "Your sacrifice won't be in vain."

"What?"

"Keep up, Anon, we've got chicks to feed," you says, taking out several more critters.

Anon smirks. "Alright then."

Be a tired, but content Anon, carrying a sleeping pony in your arms. She'll probably be mortified and apologize later for being a burden, but until then, you are happy to help out your best friend. After the hunting game, and a few others, the two of you had gone through your tokens and spent quite a bit of time at the arcade.

The dancing one is probably what led Floor to falling asleep on the bus ride home, but you didn't want to wake her. And so now you enter your building with her cradled in your arms. You stop at the staircase, somewhat dreading the climb with the extra weight when you come up with the perfect detour to delay the inevitable. You still have mail in the box that you need to pick up.

You had stopped by on your way out to grab your and Floor's pay, but had decide to pick up the rest when you got back in. With a quick trip to the small side room, and shifting Floor to lay her head on your shoulder to free up a hand, you have a thin stack of letters as you finally turn in for the night. Surprisingly, Floor manages to sleep through all of this, even as you enter her room, slip the hoodie over her head to hang it on the chair, and tuck her in. Who knew that no caffeine, fresh air, and some physical exercise could take so much out of a pony?

With a final glance at the sleeping mare, you turn off the light and move to the couch, picking up the container of quiche you'd been carrying all day. It was a bit of an inconvenience, but you're glad you kept a hold of it as your stomach growls loudly. Forgoing reheating it, you simply peel back the plastic wrap and retrieve a fork, scarfing it down at room temperature.

With a full belly, you finally go about reading the letters. Two are junk mail for the garbage while another is the internet bill. The last, you are surprised to see, is a letter from your job signed by Ms. Index. You waste no time in tearing it open and reading what's inside.

Huh, it seems your boss wants you to meet with her and fill her in on how things have been going with your ward. While the letter lists several dates and times that you can show up, you decide on tomorrow in the afternoon. lying back, you place an arm behind you head and think of what you'll tell her.

It's odd thinking of the last two weeks as a job, and you can't deny the thought makes you somewhat uneasy. Floor's a friend more than an assignment by now, and you don't know how comfortable you are talking about her to a pony she hardly knows. Still, how you feel is largely irrelevant when you've been accepting the pay the NEET Agency has been sending you.

With a sigh, you get up to shut the light off before returning to couch. There's nothing to be done other than sleep on it and hope for the best.

The next morning comes quickly and it's Floor that wakes you up as she steps out of her room with a yawn. "Anon," she mumbles, wiping her eyes to look at you.

"Hmm," you start, lifting your head to look blearily at the mare. "What's up?"

She looks around, muzzle scrunching. "How early is it?"

Propping yourself up on your elbows, you look out the window. "Very. You're gonna start making a habit of waking up before noon at this rate."

"Blegh," she responds. "It's your fault for not waking me up last night. I don't even remember how we got home."

"Don't worry about," you tell her, standing with a stretch. "Besides, going to bed early and getting up at a decent time just means we can make a proper breakfast instead of brunch. I'm thinking sunny-side up eggs, buttered toast, and some of those tofu sausage links we have in the freezer."

The little mare perks up. "Can I help?"

You nod. "Of course, I can't run the kitchen without my sous chef, can I?"

You both share a grin and get to work. Much like yesterday, you let her crack the eggs with notable improvement. You handle the heat this time and have her observe though, since sunny-side up eggs take some practice. She does, however, do a wonderful job of buttering the toast and frying the sausages in the pan. The links are a bit crisp, but you prefer the char. In lieu of actual meat, it provides some much needed depth of flavor in the way of bitterness.

"So what're we gonna do today?" Floor asks as the two of you eat on the couch.

"Actually, I've got some business to take care of around one," you answer after swallowing a bite of tofu and eggs. "I got a letter from my job yesterday asking me to come in."

Floor stops mid-bite to stare. "You... you did?" she asks hesitantly. "What do they want?"

You shrug. "They just want to know how things have been going as far as I can tell, whether they're good or bad. If there's anything else, the letter didn't say."

"And... if you tell them they're good, what then?"

"What do you mean?"

You look from your plate to see the mare has set hers down on the armrest of the couch and is now twiddling her hooves. "Um, Y-you're just supposed to make sure I wasn't going to... you know, try it again, so if you say I'm not, you're job will be done, right?"

"Oh..." you respond dumbly. "Uh, maybe?" Her heard jerks up to stare at you fearfully, and you quickly try to calm her down. "But probably not," you add. "I'm sure you won't try to hurt yourself again, that's the truth, but they'll probably want me to be doubly sure, so I'll stick around a while yet."

The mare breathes a sigh and returns to staring at her lap. At first you think it's crisis averted, but then you here a weak chuckle. "I'm really pathetic, aren't I?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're stuck here making sure I don't hang myself because I'm so weak, and then when I find out you might actually be able to leave and get on with your life, all I can think about is how it affects me." Her shoulders hunch and begin to shake. "I'm sorry I'm such a bad friend, Anon."

"Hold up, now, you are not a bad friend," you say sternly.

"Of course I am," she whimpers. "You do so much for me and I all I can do is cry and be taken care of like a foal."

"You've been teaching me how to draw," you argue. "That's something."

She snorts derisively. "We just draw together-"

"And you give me pointers," you argue. "I've gotten way better because of you. And hey, you said you're going to start letting me use the computer, right? That sounds like something a friend would do."

"I couldn't even use it at all in the first place if you didn't buy me a mouse with your bits."

Damn, why does this mare have to be so good at tearing herself down. "You are my friend, Floor," you try again.

"You'd be better off without me."

"That's not true," you say, scooting closer to put a hand on her mane. "Floor, you do give me something important. You give me a purpose."

Wh-what do you mean?" she asks, looking up with wet eyes.

It's your turn to look away. "You think your selfish, but me being here, watching out for you, it's the only thing I can do. Before I got my job as an inspector, I had already been let go at a bunch of other places."

"But why? You're so great!" she says. "Why would anypony not want you working for them?"

"Because I don't have a special talent," you answer. "No cutie mark or destiny. I'm just... me."

"You don't have a mark?" Her voice is disbelieving, and you sigh.

"I don't go around saying it, and most ponies don't guess since I wear clothes, but I don't. No human does, and it's not a problem back on Earth. Here though? Here all I can hope to be is second best to a pony with a cutie mark, so that's why I became a inspector. Someone thought checking on ponies without cutie marks was the only thing somebody without a cutie mark of their own could do."

"But you said... said that I gave you a purpose."

"And you do. I felt worthless before, like I was just a burden on the ponies trying to help me find my place, and then I met you, and I thought maybe I could finally help someone else for the first time since I came to Equestria. It's only after being here with you that I've felt any kind of fulfillment, any joy, and that's why I consider you a better friend to me than I am to you."

When you look at her again, her lip is quivering and her eyes are brimming with tears. "Anon!" she wails suddenly, wrapping her surprisingly strong hooves around your middle and pressing her face into your side. "Y-your the most wonderful being in E-equestria! And the greatest friend! You should never feel worthless!"

"Then neither should you. You're a wonderful person, Floor," you tell her honestly, returning the hug as she looks up at you. "Not having a cutie mark doesn't change that. I think you contribute enough to the world just by being part of it."

She sniffles, letting go to place her front hooves back on the couch. "I... I don't believe you," she begins, but continues before you can argue. "But I want to, and maybe someday, I will... I hope I will."

"I... hope so, too," you respond, giving her shoulders a squeeze. "Small steps are just fine."

She huffs a small, cracked laugh and wipes at her eyes. "Heh, wow, I... I really made this morning weird, huh?"

"It's fine," you assure. "A lot of stuff's been changing in your life, hopefully for the better, so it's perfectly understandable to get a little overwhelmed from time to time. You should have seen me when I first arrived in Equestria; I was a nervous wreck."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah," you say with a nod, grabbing your nearly finished plate of food. "I mean, I was an alien on a new planet, but even after I was sure you ponies weren't going to dissect me and were actually really nice, I still had a few episodes. Heck, the first time I was served hay-bacon, I broke down in tears out of nowhere. Even I was confused after."

"But why?" Floor asks with a giggle, grabbing her own plate. "Hay bacon's great. Was it because you couldn't eat it?"

"Could've been," you speculate. "Maybe the realization that I was going to have to check all my food for hay from then on. You ponies can sneak that stuff into anything." She lets out another laugh and the two of you enjoy the rest of your meals.

Despite having cooled considerably, you think it might actually taste better now.

Author's Notes:

Not incredibly large, but I hope you can still enjoy this little heart to heart. Reading over the story so far, I am confident that Floor did not know Anon was a blank flank and that he's never told her this or about how he got his NEET Inspector job, so this felt like a natural place for him to bring it up.
The way I see it, Floor has thus far pretty much put Anonymous on a pedestal and has always viewed his being nice to her as some sort of divine kindness. Now, though, she's going to start to be able to see him less like some higher being, and instead more like an actual equal, and later, real friend.
Figured it was unhealthy for a relationship to be built on such a perceived unbalanced dynamic between the two.

Oh, and the RazeRed characters:

By Cennybunz.

By CheeseDork.