Diamond Tiara didn’t talk to herself much during the long, long walk to that house. The light went out, but she didn’t care. She knew where it had been. They just went to sleep for the night. Diamond already slept so she was fine. Fine! But she didn’t talk to herself while plodding along. It was just so hard to concentrate with the hunger driving her forward. It dulled her mind even as it sharpened her senses. Diamond was so desperate for food. She could swear even this stupid grass was starting to look tasty. The glow of the moonlight was enough to save Diamond from losing her footing, tripping on a rock, slipping in a gopher hole, or anything like that. She came close once, almost walking right off an unexpected ridge. But then she stopped and carefully circumvented it, taking the gentler slower grade down, where grass was still growing, made silvery in the soft light. She walked and walked and, she fell down again and lay there for... a while. Then she got up and walked some more. It must have been all night, because the sky was beginning to glow with dawn as the stars faded out to make way for their brighter cousin. But finally she began passing tilled rows and those meant ponies and that meant food. She walked until she got to the house, until she got to... a house, she hoped it was the one she saw. She started up to the doorstep to hammer on it and wake anyone within but as she lifted her hoof she noticed it was shaking. She wasn’t nervous, she wasn’t. She was just, really tired and... and hungry and stuff. Everything was tired. Even her hair was tired. She wasn’t nervous she was just... cautious. There was no way she could defend herself against these ponies in a half awake state of perpetual exhaustion. Maybe she’d just... just lay down for a sec, and get a little bit of sleep. When she woke up she’d be thinking more clearly, and could hold her own when they try to take advantage of her weakness. She didn’t even think to walk away or hide, she was just so exhausted she just kind of laid down on the rickety porch wood, and felt herself sucked away into the darkness of sleep. “Golly gosh gee whillickers landsakes Suzy Lue!” was the exclamation that awoke Diamond, all too soon afterwards. It was a peculiar exclamation that made more sense in context, when you realized the pony who was saying it was a stallion currently in the process of tripping over Diamond Tiara on his way out the door and tumbling head over hooves into a heap at the bottom of the stairs to his porch. He was a blueberry blue, a tall stallion, on the young side of adulthood, with a scruffy, overgrown greenish mane and tail. His chin was... not exactly shaven. He had a bit of stubble here and there. His cutie mark was a flying kite, though he was an earth pony like Diamond was. Diamond scrambled to her hooves and—winced as her shoulder wrenched just moving it. She hobbled on three legs, which were themselves hurting over to the stallion who was picking himself up. He gave her a gob eyed stare and exclaimed, “Why the Sam Hay is a pretty little filly sleepin’ on mah doorstep?!” He exclaimed in surprise and shock though, not anger or derision, so Diamond took a risk saying, “I was just waiting to talk to you. I have a pr–propo...” she didn’t have a proposition for him. “I c-can help you, if um, I just need a li—I mean I sort of could maybe use some food, and I’d be ever so grateful if I could have some.” She fluttered her eyes at him, smooth as silk. “...could ya run that bah me again?” he asked skeptically. Diamond’s mind raced, but she’d just barely slept, and her stomach was just eating a hole in her concentration. She just sunk her shoulders and said in guilty admission. “I’m h-hungry. I just... need food.” He blinked at her with a puzzled look, and said, “Okay lil’ filly, maybe you oughta come in and tell me about this. Ah mean, that is, if’n you want to...” Diamond couldn’t hear him towards the end of his sentence, but she got the gist of it. She nodded and said, “Okay if that means I can have food, I promise I’ll pay you back.” He nodded, and led the way inside. Diamond walked into those dark confines, and stood in the entryway for a moment, looking herself over with dismay. She slipped off the pink dress with the white lace, and unceremoniously tossed it into a filthy, dirty, sweaty heap of ruined fabric. That left her naked as the day she was born, which she’d feel a lot better about if she had a tiara to go with it. But... Diamond sort of liked having nothing but her skin on, adornments and ornaments were fine, but she wanted nothing to cover up the inherent beauty of her body. If nothing else it made it easier to flash her ‘assets’ at a stallion, but it also let the sleek curve of her hindquarters be seen, and the subtle way her body swayed as her muscles flexed to move herself forward. And it sure was less sweaty. She couldn’t help but think that it’d be silly if her foal had clothing on. She’d be like, coming out of Diamond’s vagina all dressed up, or with a tiara on. Diamond visibly winced at this thought, and was really glad that the foal was going to be just as naked as she was. And it was kind of interesting because, without even her tiara... how she was now, was what Diamond had been like when she came out of her mother. All she had to do was be smaller, and more curled up, and she’d just be a noticeable swell in her mother’s belly, just like that mare at the garden party. Once Diamond had been situated on his plain looking living room table, whose warped wood wouldn’t hold a plate straight if he had one, she gave him a wary look and said, “So, uh, tell me about yourself?” “Well,” he said jovially. “Ah’m an Apple!” “You’re a fruit?” Diamond asked, before she could even think to hold back. “That’s right!” he said ...equally jovially. Did he not notice the insult? “Ah was planted way out here in the saddle hills along with mah momma. We didn’t grow apples though, we grew strawberries!” “Strawberries?” Diamond said, her eyes getting really big. “Just about, yep,” he said, indicating a barrel behind him, just about full of cartons of the plump red fruits. “Ah grow them for the ponies in town t’enjoy. This timea year’s when they’re real plentiful!” “Um, um,” Diamond fought with her hunger to think, and not just run at them. “My daddy is rich,” Diamond Tiara explained bluntly. “You may have heard of him, the entrepeneur Filthy Rich? He can reward you handsomely, but only if you give me what I tell you to.” “Isat so?” he said in a heavy country accent. His words were hopeful, but tinged with an odd bitterness to them. “Yur daddy is a big time pony now?” he said cheerfully, “That’d be just swell! You think he could find out what’s been keepin’ mah momma so long?” “...what? No, I mean like money. You know, bits?” “Ah ain’t got mucha need for bits, really,” the stallion admitted shaking his head. “Ah got simple needs here on the farm. Just wanna get some word, of when they’re gonna be done with mah momma, an’ she can come around these parts again.” “...what happened to your mother?” Diamond felt that she shouldn’t have asked that. Maybe it would give her leverage with him, and that was sensible, but there was just something so curious in her, what he was even talking about. Diamond didn’t like asking questions she genuinely wanted to hear answered, because that meant she’d be disappointed when daddy, or some other pony, wouldn’t tell her unless she paid them. She only asked questions she didn’t care about, that she could use. But this was... something happened to his momma? It was too close to home for her. “Oh she’s fine,” he said, much to Diamond Tiara’s relief, as surprised as she was to feel relieved to hear that. “She just got in a bit of trouble you know,” he admitted glumly, “Wasn’t bein’ nice, accused of stealin’ stuff maybe. They just wanted to ask her a couple questions, but ah jus’ don’t know.” “Oh, so she’s just at the guard’s office?” Diamond said. “I’m sure if she didn’t steal anything she’ll be fine.” Or at least if she didn’t get caught for it. Diamond didn’t say that last part out loud. “Yeah, ah... reckon,” he said, very noncommitally. Diamond’s stomach growled loudly, and it actually hurt when it growled it was so empty. She forced herself to stop wincing and laughed nervously, “Heh heh, you know my daddy can reward you if you have anything I don’t know to eat or something? What about those strawberries? I could have—” “Ohh, no. None doin’. We ain’t eatin’ one single strawberry,” he said with a grumpy firmness. Diamond frowned, anger bubbling up in her when she said, “Why not? They’re perfectly edible! Why do you even grow them then?” “These are set aside for the guard to collect,” he explained. “They take ‘em to like, town an’ stuff, an’ make a pastry outta ‘em. Lots of ponies love mah strawberries! It’s real nice of me to be makin’ them for ‘em all.” “Well yeah it’s nice,” Diamond said dismissively, “But we could just eat a few. You have a ton of them! Why can’t I just have a few, I’m so hungry!” He looked at her longways, and said, “Because it wouldn’t be nice? Ah gotta be a good pony, an’ help out mah neighbors off in the township.” “You could be nice with the rest of your strawberries. But I just need a few,” Diamond insisted. “Just a plate of them! Just one! Wouldn’t it be nice to give them to me too?” She adopted a coy pout, looking at him across from the table. “Sure seems as it would to me,” he said with a half smile to her, “Y’came all the way out here just to see lil’ old me, even if y’didn’t mean to. Ah’d love to be nice to ya, an’ give ya all sorts of tasty strawberry things.” Diamond started to smile eagerly, but hesitated, and looked at his pensive expression, and said, “But....?” “The guard wouldn’t take kindly to it,” he said looking down at the table again. “Ah gotta be nice the way they can see it, or they won’t be able to tell that ah’m a good pony. You can just go to the township an’ get strawberries there, if’n you got money that is, ah suppose.” “How... far?” Diamond said weakly. “Well it’s a day’s trot,” he said. “Somewhere around 30 miles ah reckon.” Diamond... didn’t even have a tiara. Money was something she lost back in Manehatten. She had to get his strawberries here and now, and had to use every trick she knew to cajole him to give them to her. She couldn’t even walk a whole 30 miles. She was so hungry, her insides were... her insides and her foal were begging her to eat something! So she looked at him with really big eyes and whined, “Come on, pleeease? I’ll never tell. It just has to be a little bit.” She’d eat all of them if she could help it. And... even that didn’t move him. No instead he laughed as if despite himself, and said, “Boy howdy, you sure do remind me of my momma. Ain’t nothin’ doing though. They count real good, an’ they always know just how many ah can pick. That’s why my momma got in trouble, y’know?” Diamond blinked at him. “She... got taken by the guard, for eating strawberries?” “They were jus’ gonna ask her a few questions!” he protested, “An’ it wasn’t supposed to be no big deal. Just work things out, make sure she knows how to be nice, you know how it is.” Diamond actually... started to wonder how much she did “know how it is.” “Momma was real nice,” he continued, in full on storytelling mode now. “She always did me right, and raised me to be a good pony, and she always made the sweetest tastiest strawberries, but she just couldn’t be nice about it. She kept on eatin’ em, saying like you said, that a couple wouldn’t hurt, or you could be nice with all the rest of the crop. So the guard said there weren’t enough strawberries there, and she got real mad at that, an’ said she ain’t a thief, an’ she wasn’t just gonna give ‘em all away without enjoying them none. She... she sorta lied about me eatin’ ‘em too, said she was the only one. So uh, they said there weren’t nothing wrong, just they had to ask her a few questions down at the minstry.” He sighed, and a tear hit the table. He was actually crying now. “Ah ain’t never eaten not one strawberry since,” he said. “Well, when’s she getting back?” Diamond said in something between desperation and disgust. “She can’t have been gone that long.” He just sat there silently, not giving Diamond any strawberries, like he couldn’t even talk or something, like he was made out of wood. He didn’t stay that way though. It was like wood melting or something, when he looked up at her and said with difficulty through his tears that he couldn’t seem to hold back, “If’n you could get your daddy to have a looksee where she is ah’d real appreciate it. Ah really do miss her. Ah’m all grown up now... she’d think ah was so big if’n ah could see her again. Ah dunno it’s been like four years ah dunno it’s just so easy to lose track of time when you’re all alone an’ ah just miss her so much!” Diamond had to back up in terror at his words, and how he started climbing across the table after her, saying “Please miss! Ah gotta see her ah just gotta! You don’t know how it is! Ah jus’ gotta pick all these strawberries an’ ah hate it an’ ah just wanna hear from her or somethin’ please ah’m so lonely miss ah—” He seemed to realize he’d backed Diamond Tiara against the wall at that point, staring her right in the eyes. He lurched back like a drunken stallion, just staring at her like he was terrified and said, “Ah-a-ah...” but couldn’t get a single word out before he just ran for another room in the house, gallopping inside and slamming the door behind him. That was all the prompting Diamond needed to bolt in the other direction, out the front door down that rickety rotting porch and just, away. She didn’t stop running until she couldn’t see the house anymore. She didn’t even know what she was running from, he didn’t even follow her. Diamond just couldn’t stand it. He was... he was so rude! Was he messing with her? He was just trying to scare her, wasn’t he! He said that he had... for four years? The guard doesn’t do that! It was just some stupid strawberries! How could he have faked a reaction like that though? And why? Diamond wouldn’t have been sad if she never saw another pony again. But it wasn’t half a day before she was crawling back, sneaking through the tall grass to peer at that house. With those barrels full of strawberries in it. She could go there and eat them, and he’d never know and she’d be so full and not hurting anymore. She just had to... “Ah’m sorry, miss,” his voice came about 2 inches from her left ear. Diamond leapt in the air with a panicked yelp that echoed on the hills, backing up from him again and just staring down the stallion who’d just walked up on her like that. “Ah didn’t mean ter scare you before,” he said sorrowfully, “Ah just... ain’t used to visitorin’ ponies. Ah ain’t seen nopony since the last fruit pickup, an’ they ain’t never gonna go talk to me, except tellin’ me when ah gotta join. But ah’m not gonna, ah gotta wait here for... ah’m sorry, ah just... sorry this is too weird.” His rambling speech in the grassy field had the odd effect of calming Diamond Tiara down. He didn’t come at her this time, or even slightly look like he was going to mount her or anything. She... wasn’t sure how she felt about that. “Just don’t do it again,” she ordered. “And maybe just one plate of strawberries and I’ll forgive you.” “Ah caint” he emphasized painfully. “Why you gotta eat nothin’ but strawberries anyways?” “Well, what else is there to eat?” Diamond said feeling really stupid for not thinking of that. Of course he didn’t eat just strawberries. He probably had a big pot of stew, or made his own cakes, or something else to eat. Why did she only think about strawberries the second she saw them? Her... her stomach was so empty... And he looked at her like she was even stupider, which was terrible coming from a stupid looking pony like that. And she glared at him for looking at her like that, and he looked at her right back. Their staring match ended when he said, “Uh, you’re standin’ in it?” Diamond looked down but her hooves were only on dirt, and horribly chafed at that, with that stupid grass tickling her belly. “Is that a joke?” she asked in angry incredulity, looking at him. “What am I supposed to eat, dirt?” “Dirt?” he said in a tone of total confusion. “Why would anypony eat dirt?” “I don’t know!” Diamond argued. “It was you who suggested it!” “Ah didn’t mean the dirt!” he protested. “What then, the grass?” Diamond said. “I don’t see any food anywhere at all except those strawberries!” He stared at her again, and looked at his own grass enwreathed feet, and then back to her. “You know you cain eat the grass, right?” he asked. Diamond’s pupils narrowed even as she said, “No you ca—” but she couldn’t finish her sentence, because it was just so ridiculous. There was no way you could eat grass. “Are you stupid?” she asked him furiously. “You eat stew, and strawberries, and ice cream, and pastries, and cheese and crackers, but not grass! It’s just lying on the ground!” “Pastries is hay though!” he shot back. “An’ there’s a hay in crackers too ah think? Ain’t crackers those flat breads? Ain’t you ever put hay in your stew?” “Yes,” Diamond said, “But what does that have to do with eating... grass?!” He looked at her askance again, and said, “Hay is grass.” Diamond couldn’t believe his stupidity. “Is hay green?” she asked. “Is it growing out of the ground?” “It turns brown when it dries,” he said in protest. “Here, y’don’t want it on the ground?” and he wrapped his hoof around a thick tuft, yanking it up into the air. “There, now y’got hay!” he said angrily. Then he took a big bite out of it. The grassy end, not the end with roots and dirt. He... he actually ate the grass! “You’re lying!” Diamond said beside herself with shame and denial. “You have got to be kidding me! You mean I’ve been walking all this time and had something to eat the whole time? This isn’t hay, it’s grass!” “Suit yerself,” he said in a bemused tone. “Ah’m out fer lunch anyways. You seemed real hungry though. Ah ain’t got nothin’ else to offer you though.” With that, he just craned his neck down and started biting off pieces of grass, pointedly ignoring the agrifused filly before him. Diamond glared at him and she... she glanced at his house. He was right there so she couldn’t run in and... she could wait until he was gone, or asleep to get the food but it would take so long and there was grass right here. What if he wasn’t lying to her? What if she could? Diamond knew hay was grass, she’d just never thought about it before! Didn’t you have to cook it first? Was it only one kind of special grass that wouldn’t grow except on special plantations? She hated how little she knew, and she hated how easily he just went and ate it right in front of her. Like he was mocking her. He was mocking her! He... He was mocking her. He was mocking Diamond Tiara’s inability to eat... grass. She... she stuck her nose down to the grass. She didn’t have far to go. She looked at it and smelled its delicious grassy... it did smell like hay sort of. She looked at it with trepidation, then looked at him, and she would not be humiliated just because she couldn’t eat a bunch of grass. It didn’t even count as food on the ground, since it grew way high above the ground. That’s how it worked... right? She had... she had blades of grass tickling her tongue, just like a field in her mouth. It was so dirty, it was so weird, but she was so hungry she bit down—and her teeth, they just went right through the grass fibers. Just like she was biting off a piece from a hay stick, except a lot wetter and without the sugar all over it. If hay crackled when you bit it, grass crunched sort of like a vegetable. Like... celery? Celery! Diamond took another bite of ...grass... and she added that to her mouth. The juice tasted odd and made her feel queasy but... what didn’t these days? Other than that it wasn’t so different from tiny little celery stalks, just growing out of the ground. She took another bite, and then another. She couldn’t believe she was doing this! She couldn’t believe she was doing this! She chewed the grass, just any old grass that grew out of the ground like it was food. She swallowed, she... she felt good about swallowing. She took another bite, and gathered another mouthful. Soon she didn’t care that he finished eating and was just watching her bemusedly. Diamond had to eat and eat and eat. She couldn’t eat this grass stuff fast enough. It tasted weird and tickled her tongue and was kind of abrasive but it felt good and she was eating food. How come nopony told her you could do this? She ended up meandering in a small circle, following the fresh blades after the ones she was at were truncated, left behind her. That awful, awful hunger dulled and eased as her belly contracted and there was something to digest. At last she felt satiated. She lifted her head from the grass and looked at him, her unknowing savior. Diamond realized, she was going to be okay! She looked up at him and she said, “Thank—” she stopped herself though. That was not something you ever said to anypony. “It’s okay,” she lied disinterestedly, “I really thought there for a minute I was going to die.” Darn, why did she say that! “I–I mean, just it’s a nice convience to uh, make me live better.” “Still caint believe nopony ever told you ya could eat grass,” he said incredulously. “Didn’t your momma ever make you eat your grass?” Diamond cast her eyes to the ground. The delicious ground. “My mom wasn’t around,” she muttered reservedly. “A-and daddy always had the servants prepare our meals.” “Servants, really?” he said in surprise, “Y’all really are high class!” “Told you,” she said smugly, crossing a hoof. “Ah don’t know how much service ah cain offer ya,” he said. “Ah gotta go pickin’ this afternoon. But you’re welcome to come’n chat. Ah really could use th’ company.” “Just... follow you while you’re picking strawberries?” Diamond said uncertainly. “Yeah!” he answered. “Y’don’t hafta pick any yaself, but y’cain jus like, talk about whatever an’ ah dunno. Ah ain’t had much chance to learn how ponies make friends.” “You want to be my friend?” Diamond said snidely. “No, ah want us t’be friends!” he protested. Then he blushed and looked aside saying, “Ah mean, t’be friendlylike, you know what ah mean?” Wow, was he really trying to hurt her, after all this? He was setting Diamond up for a trick? “I’m not looking for friends,” she said resolutely. She... saw the horizon, not a pony besides him in sight, and remembered what her alternative was. “I suppose I could follow you though,” she said trying to sound like she didn’t care about it. “Just a little, to see if we can reach a mutual... mutual partnership.” And for some reason he blushed even more at that. “Shucks miss, ah ain’t gonna do that! You’re just a lil’ filly! Ah ain’t even thought about gettin’ married yet!” Wait partner... mutual... darn it! “I mean like a business partner,” Diamond sneered embarassedly. “Not like special someponies.” “Oh uh... ah guess that works, then?” he answered uncertainly. Really the two couldn’t possibly be a worse pair to try to form a friendship. One living in terrible isolation, the other with the social skills of a bully. But, after an awkward silence, he just started walking away, and after another pause, Diamond started to follow him. It was the best they could do. And... he just went along the rows picking strawberries, craning down and flipping them in his lips right into the little baskets on his sides. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even protest no matter what Diamond said, so again she got to talk about herself. This time there was somepony to listen. It was a lot different than when she was talking to herself. “And the apple filly she hates me because I make a lot of money and I couldn’t let her friends into my pool, and I got daddy to buy me a treehouse once because they had one but I never used it because it was too like, empty, and he took it down and turned it into a storage shed, but I like...” Diamond’s wandering thoughts as she followed him down the rows started taking a dark turn as she came to think about what happened to her today. “My daddy got like, ambushed or something. And they foalnapped me, they totally did. That’s how I got like, out in the middle of nowhere. But it didn’t make any sense, because they just left me out there, and like, nopony was around. They didn’t even open the bag I like, had to chew it open?” Her thoughts kind of wandered from that subject to the kids at school. She found herself surprised by an inexplicable urge to talk about the stallions she’d been with, even though daddy had strongly cautioned her never to do that. The urge was a lot more explicable after Diamond got a good look of this stallion’s undertail. He had a nice set of balls on him. She wished he would be her customer. He was so—he wasn’t... terrible. His stupid accent kind of reminded her of ...her favorite... It wasn’t until Diamond trailed off into distant silence at what she shouldn’t talk about that he finished flipping strawberries. “That’ll be alla them!” he declared. “An’ so early too.” Diamond glanced over, and saw that the sun was low in the sky, but not yet setting. “How long does it usually take you?” she asked curiously. “Doesn’t matter,” he shrugged. “Usually just give up by sundown. Ah cain still pick enough to satisfy the guard an’ get mah quota completed.” “Quota?” Diamond repeated in puzzlement. “Yeah, it’s a measurelike thing that says how nice an’ good a pony you’ve been,” he says. “They’re hard put with a need for strawberries, so they say how much they needs, and ah try to get it for them.” “Yet you won’t get any strawberries for me,” Diamond said with a disappointed pout. “Ah jus’ don’t wanna end up like momma,” he said simply. “M-maybe it wouldn’t hurt if you ate somea your own that you picked. They don’t know about you, so ah only have to pick mah count of strawberries.” Diamond tapped her chin, and that was actually kind of clever. “But just a few!” he said nervously, “An’ ah gotta watch, because if you go like that grass ah ain’t gonna have no strawberries left!” “Okay,” she said with concern, then leaned down to the strawberry scented vines, saying “Th—” before she realized she needed to clam up. She... it was just like grass, right? Just more food growing out of the ground. She found a strawberry that was red and lipped it up. It... clung to the vine a surprising amount but then popped off. The taste was a little explosion of flavor, not nearly as sweet as the strawberry ice cream Diamond liked, but with a wilder flavor to it. She ate it, and she ate... three more, before he told her to stop. He was about as nervous as a bee over his honey about these strawberries. Which was sensible really. Diamond didn’t want... She didn’t want him to end up like that ragged stallion in the alleyway. It was a weird feeling to have. He seemed... he was too stupid to trick her though! Or was that just acting too? Why was she feeling so darned... friendly to this stallion? It didn’t help he just kept giving her things. First the advice on grass, and then he ate it with her in the late afternoon, for their ‘dinner’. Then he led her where he drank, his “watering hole” actually being a diversion in a meadow creek. And next to it he had a... well it was really gross but he had just this giant block of salt. Diamond thought it was just a white rock until he started licking it. “What are you doing?” she said flabbergastedly, at the rock licking stallion. “Uh, jus’ some salt?” he said, pausing in his licking. She peered at it curiously. “That’s salt?” she asked unbelievingly. “It’s cheaper if y’get it in a big block,” he said. “Ah ain’t got no fancy shakers or nothin’. Just caint get enough salt in the grass, so ah got this thing here.” “A-and you just lick it?” Diamond added uncertainly, and maybe a teeny bit curiously. He looked at her, and kicked his hoof in the direction of the salt block saying, “Y’wanna try it?” “No, I—” Diamond glanced at it. “I um... maybe a little yeah, th—that’d be interesting.” Creeping up to it, Diamond leaned her head forward and took a teeny lick, swiping her tongue across the rock looking thing. She immediately spluttered and stepped back saying, “Ackthpth... it’s so salty!” She spent the next minute or so calmly and repeatedly explaining why it’s completely unreasonable to collapse in laughter at a filly just because she was surprised that a block of salt tasted salty. And he gave her... more than a burlap sack. He... she would have hated his house, just a ramshackle shack really. Practically falling apart in its aging timbers and knotholed boards. But... she remembered last night, and the night before. That terrified night she spent with nothing to protect her besides a flimsy sack of cloth. All alone... so when he said, “Y’all cain stay the night if’n you like. Gonna be a long walk whereever you’re gettin’ off to,” Diamond Tiara didn’t tell him off. Just gave him a thoughtful look, and turned her ears down at the fading evening light, and fought not to show the smile in her as she neutrally just had no other words to say other than, “Okay.” Diamond just slept down by the fireplace. His house had two bedrooms, but... one was his mother’s. She really didn’t want to sleep there, because it made her think about... what might possibly have happened to her. So she just lay by the fire, not for the heat so much as the warmth in her heart, of safety and unexpected kindness. She was filthy from toe to eartip, more toe than eartip, and he didn’t even think about them taking a bath. He only had cold water to bathe in too. Diamond didn’t have to worry though since she was just on the floor by the fireplace. The only stone structure in the house. She could be as dirty as she wanted without messing up any covers. She had given up her dress for lost, and she didn’t have a tiara to lose, just herself and her own body. And apparantly a foal in there somewhere. Diamond remembered the foal who was kicking and like... not freaking out from being in there or something. Maybe her foal would feel it like a nice hug all over? Diamond sort of wished she could remember how she’d felt in her mother. It’d make her feel a lot better about a foal inside herself. It was sort of comforting to think about curling up inside her mother’s belly. She hoped a foal could do that with her. Oh wow, and if that foal was a filly, then she could have a foal inside her too. Diamond tried to imagine that. All she got was like, a full sized clone of herself sort of squeezing out, and then presenting for a stallion, with a pleased look on her face as the stallion stuff started making her daughter pregnant. Didn’t even mind that Diamond was there, just took that penis like a champ. And like, maybe they’d both be pregnant, and she could tell her daughter just what to expect. That was how Diamond reached orgasm that night. By a cheerfully bright dying fire, with her hoof pressed between her legs, imagining the foal coming out of there, and growing into a beautiful young mare, and getting impregnated right in front of her eyes. There was something so deliciously wicked about that, that Diamond’s own cunt might produce somepony who could take a stallion inside. She started feeling really weird when she imagined if her foal was going to be a colt. Then he’d be doing the stallionning. Diamond could never impregnate a filly herself, but something could come out of there, who could! Like... not like Diamond had a penis, but like something that came out of her that squirted goo into fillies. She... she imagined her foal, her colt in there, with his legs pressing on her belly, and his weight pulling down her hips, and his p-penis. It’d be like having a penis in there all the time. But a whole pony, and it’d probably be really tiny. She wondered if newborn colts could ejaculate though? What if Diamond gave birth, and he already ejaculated in her, so she would be pregnant again? Just the thought of that teeny little harmless penis twitching rhythmically inside her, squirting goo in there compulsively, even as she pushed and squeezed the colt right out of her vagina. He would be all wet because of her juices, and he wouldn’t even be all the way out of her before she was pregnant again. He... He—! Suffice to say, Diamond had some really weird notions about sexuality, and some really weird fantasies. But she moaned as she crested over the tipping point, and her bottom was contracting compulsively and regularly. She felt like those ripples were her giving birth already. She didn’t want to wait a whole 11 months. But, the foal was so tiny he had to stay safe inside her until he was ready. So Diamond’s ripples got to be impotent and hungry for a penis, and within her the concept of a foal remained, doing mysterious things to her body every day. She fell asleep then, so relaxed now that she did the orgasm thing. It always made her feel better. Her own scent was pleasant in the air, and she didn’t even wipe off, just licked herself indulgently until her fur was smooth and slick again. Diamond knew from experience that that wouldn’t dry sticky, so she happily drifted off to sleep. Go figure, despite taking care of herself, Diamond still felt horny on awakening. There was a fierce hunger in her belly, but not a hollow hunger like the last two days. She’d got a good meal before the afternoon was over, even though it was of all things grass. No, it was a recovering hunger, one from a stomach that was confident of being filled again. And for once, Diamond didn’t have to worry about servants, or daddies, or money, or anything, because she could just go outside and get herself a meal right then and there. So, her hunger sated let her other hunger take prominence, but she didn’t really feel like going through the effort of orgasming again. She just woke lazily, stretching like a cat before standing up. She looked over and— The stallion was outside, with a... big cast iron frying pan above some sort of fire pit apparatus. Diamond walked outside, peering at the red hot wood heating up the heavy metal pan balanced on top of it. And in the pan was... grass? “Yer ‘wake!” he said gladly. It was probably the nicest thing anypony had ever said to Diamond Tiara. Except her stallion... but this guy was so not her stallion. Still, that didn’t mean... he continued to speak, saying, “Ah know you fancy fillies like all them fancy food and all, so ah though ah’d take a try at cookin’ up some. Have a looksee!” Diamond blinked, and looked at the pan again, suddenly realizing that he was cooking something. That something being... grass. Sizzling grass. “Mah momma made these,” he explained, “Never showed me how but it weren’t hard. You just put a little oil in an’ shew it up a bit, an’ fry it on a griddle.” He grabbed a spatula, and flipped the fried grass cake over his head to land on a plate. “They’re like haycakes,” he said, “Except grass!” Diamond looked at it with confusion and said, “Um... so like, what do you eat in the winter?” “Hay ‘course,” he said. “Ah jus’ don’t need t’eat it in the summer, since ah got plenty of fresh stuff t’eat.” “That’s...” Diamond paused, unable to really criticize what actually sounded like a pretty good idea. “Huh,” she said lost in thought. So Diamond got to eat haycakes that were green, and they were really bland, and needed more sugar, but she really wasn’t complaining. No, she was saying, “These are really good,” while rubbing up against him flirtatiously. He didn’t hardly respond to that oddly enough, just was stiff on his hooves saying, “Aww shucks, it weren’t nothin’ miss.” Diamond shouldn’t do this. He wasn’t a paying customer, and Diamond cost a lot of money. But, he did help her out, and she really wanted him inside her. Besides, now that she was with foal, no stallion could make her any more pregnant. And also semen was like, healthy for... foals or... something. Diamond didn’t care she’d just been like almost a week without a stallion, and this one here was really catching her interest for some reason. So she improvised. “Hey, you helped me so much,” she said cagily. “You showed me about grass, and listened to me, and let me sleep by your fire.” Diamond presented for him then, lifting her tail and turning it aside. “So how about I do something for you!” she said with a practiced wink in her vulva. It certainly caught his attention! “H-hey miss, uh, filly, you’re kinda showing uh...” “Duh,” Diamond rolled her eyes. “That’s what I’m going to do for you! You can thank me later.” “Y-you’re gonna...” “You know,” Diamond said insecurely, half turning to face him. He did know, right? Stallions knew about this sort of thing, right? “The place I have,” she explained. “You can put your penis in it, it’s okay.” She added a bit impulsively, “It feels good for me too.” Though depending on how big he was... but she hoped he wasn’t too big. Either way it’d feel good. Because Diamond just felt so... into this stallion. Like, she felt good about him instead of just a chore. Like the stallion of her foal, this stallion was like, super rad to be squirting in there. “H-how old are you?” he whispered in utter loss of what was happening. “I’m 12?” Diamond said. “I turned 12 last Wrapup. What’s wrong?” “Y’caint be twelve!” he exclaimed. “Yer all like... 12 year olds are just little fillies, they don’t like... you ain’t ready yet!” “Maybe I’m just special that way,” Diamond smirked. She felt really nervous inside though. Why’s he so alarmed with how old she is? Is it the size? “Don’t worry,” she said with a bit of a huff, presenting for him again. “I can totally take it. I can even take big ones, so if you have a big one don’t worry.” “Why’re you doing this?” he said in a sort of tortured squawk. “This ain’t... ah mean, it’s special like... not normal like... fillies don’t just up an’ do this, do they?” “It’s because you helped me,” Diamond snapped nervously. “I don’t see how this is so hard. You gave me food and a place to sleep, so I can give you my vagina. It’s only fair.” “How d’ya even know?” he accused. “You’re just a filly! You even d-done it before?” Diamond looked at him cluelessly. “Done what...?” she asked. “You know,” he blushed, “The whole, penis, hoo ha thing. Since y’ain’t done it, you caint say it’s a good idear.” “What?” Diamond said confusedly. “No I’ve done it before. I’m really good at it!” She turned her back again and told him, “I even know how to squeeze on you in there, and I know penises really like that. And I know that it feels better to do the squirting inside, and you totally can do that too. I’m really stretchy, don’t worry. You can just push me right open and do your thing.” “Y... y’been done it before?” he asked unbelievingly. “Yes,” Diamond said impatiently, “And even with really big stallions, so it’s okay. Come on. I really wanna do it! You’ve been so nice to me, and I know you would enjoy it. Please? I want you in there too, not just outside me. I’m all empty and stuff!” “Ah, uh...” he gulped. Diamond sighed with exasperation at his inexplicable nervousness. This was obviously why he wasn’t ever her customer. “Ah suppose ah c-could just a lil’ an’ uh... it’s alright if’n I never... y’know?” Diamond’s tail drooped and she looked at him again, asking in confusion, “I know what?” “Ah—ah ain’t never been with a filly. Ah mean, a mare,” he said sitting there fiddling with his front hooves. And boy oh boy did he have a boner down there. Diamond just wanted to dive on it. But that wouldn’t satisfy her bottom. He—wait, what? “You mean you... never did this before?” she asked though the answer seemed a foregone conclusion. Living here all by himself, of course he never did it. “You don’t know what your penis feels like in there?” she clarified. “Ah... uhm... ah reckon... good?” he pleaded desperately. One of his hooves was just holding his boner, not even stroking it. Diamond had a thought, that maybe if she played with him a little, then he would satisfy her craving for dick down there. She sighed dramatically trotting over to him. “Look,” she said, just taking that penis in her hooves, “It feels kind of like this,” she explained, stroking her hooves up and down, and pressing her nose against the pink of his tip. “My vagina is better, of course,” she whispered on his dick, “But you have to put it in there yourself.” Then she took her tongue and licked right across his urethra. His compulsive thrust just about threw her off his lap, but Diamond was ready for that, and held on. She drove the voice right out of him, tonguing and licking that sensitive head, while stroking the shaft with one hoof. Diamond knew the tip was the important part, and the shaft didn’t feel as much, so she could just tease her hoof deeper down, while driving him nuts with her mouth at the end. Her other hoof was shoved between her legs, tugging at her vulva and spreading herself, quickly getting soaked as her reaction to tonguing a penis set in. She stopped licking then and got an evil grin. Removing her hoof from her folds, Diamond held it up saying, “Oh look, my juices are all over my hoof. From between my legs where I get all wet,” She stroked his penis with her wet hoof, as he just gave a desperate whine. “This is what it feels like,” she purred, slicking down his penis with her own juices. Her other hoof went down there, and she made sure both were sliding on him slickly. “All my juices are on you,” she said cheerfully, “Just like you were already in there!” “A-ah r-r-really wanna be in a mare...” he said tensely. “Mah penis jus’ gets... y’don’t know what y’r doin’ to me! Ah w-want to be in... ya...” Diamond was pretty sure she had him right where she wanted him, but just to be sure, she gave the flat head of his penis a nice soft, long kiss. “Oh do you now?” she teased, swishing her tail in the air and winking, and r-r-really winking. “Please,” she begged hotly. “I want to feel you I... c’mon you can, please I need like... you...” She gasped in satisfaction as his belly came down on her rump. Diamond’s hind legs piked, ready to get that penis inside her. It was going to be so awesome, because he could squirt and squirt, and she wouldn’t even care. “S-so ah jus’ like... put it in?” came his voice nervously. “What?” Diamond said in distracted surprise. He wasn’t just... shoving it in? “Y-yes you put your penis right where I go inside,” she said. “It’s called a vagina. You can squirt in there.” “Okay,” he said reluctantly. “Just tell me if ah’m doin’ it right.” Wait, she gets to tell him? Diamond never had a customer say that. Maybe she could get him to—her breath sucked in as the tip of his penis came home on her vulva. “Oh m’gosh you’re so soft down there,” he huffed, just, inexpertly bumping her bottom and swirling his penis around. “H-how could just a lil’ filly be so... an’... y’feel so good!” “I’m... special,” Diamond said, distracted with the urge to drive him inside. She bet he was feeling the same urge as she was, just stallion not filly. Like, shove it inside this little filly, and fill her up good, so your penis can be in there and like... something. She twisted her tail around, and used it to buoy his penis down until he was pressed right against her entrance, all nicely lined up. And he... still didn’t shove in. “That’s where I go in,” she said breathlessly. “Just push, come on you’ll go in I promise.” She—he— He pushed. Diamond couldn’t hold back an eager whinny as she felt the entrance to her vagina pushed open by his penis. He was—he was big! N-not the biggest but she couldn’t stretch and adjust and he was pushing so hard and wait he said, he said she could. “Wait!” she yelped out. He stopped.