The moment the stem snapped, Neiko expected the world’s most mundane reward, maybe a gentle thud, the soft roll of a pumpkin in dead grass. Instead, it detonated like a booby-trapped melon from hell. Wet seeds and stringy orange innards slapped across his chest, neck, and face; sticky pulp oozed down his forelock and clung to the shimmer of his navy-sabino pattern like nature had tried and failed at modern art. For a second he just stood there, staring at the steaming ruin where a perfectly innocent pumpkin once sat. Twilight frost glittered around him; the meadow was whisper-quiet except for his own stunned breathing and the slow, humiliating drip… drip… drip of pumpkin gore sliding off his muzzle. Big wet eyes wide, ego cracked clean down the middle, the stalluion felt betrayal settle in his bones. Nature had personally assaulted him.
Then disgust caught up with shock and pride tried to salvage whatever dignity he had left. He flung his head, bad move, strands of pumpkin slime flapped right back into his cheek and chest and neck, with a snort that sounded entirely too close to a wounded whimper, he bolted. Long legs churned over frosted earth, thick onyx tail streaming, the cold air biting the embarrassment clinging to his skin. He looked like a warhorse fleeing from produce, and he knew it. His ears pinned, more in shame than anger as he made a beeline for the river…praying to every god and spirit in every realm that no one had seen that. The humiliating squelch of pumpkin guts flopping with each stride only made him run faster, like a big, powerful, baroque stallion trying very hard not to have a breakdown. He wasn’t yelping, thank the stars, but the energy was there — panicked, offended, thoroughly betrayed by gourds everywhere; as he hit the bank at full speed, aiming straight for salvation in freezing water.
FOOL.
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OMG NOOO im so sorry!!!! i am so dumb, i absolutely misunderstood!
i deserve this D: on a happy note, this is the kind of ptsd he needed TRULY
Then disgust caught up with shock and pride tried to salvage whatever dignity he had left. He flung his head, bad move, strands of pumpkin slime flapped right back into his cheek and chest and neck, with a snort that sounded entirely too close to a wounded whimper, he bolted. Long legs churned over frosted earth, thick onyx tail streaming, the cold air biting the embarrassment clinging to his skin. He looked like a warhorse fleeing from produce, and he knew it. His ears pinned, more in shame than anger as he made a beeline for the river…praying to every god and spirit in every realm that no one had seen that. The humiliating squelch of pumpkin guts flopping with each stride only made him run faster, like a big, powerful, baroque stallion trying very hard not to have a breakdown. He wasn’t yelping, thank the stars, but the energy was there — panicked, offended, thoroughly betrayed by gourds everywhere; as he hit the bank at full speed, aiming straight for salvation in freezing water.
FOOL.
------------------------------
OMG NOOO im so sorry!!!! i am so dumb, i absolutely misunderstood!
i deserve this D: on a happy note, this is the kind of ptsd he needed TRULY