#featuring: Stan and Angie's first meeting where they're both human! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

Uhhhhhhh here's more Horse Boy Stan. I've actually been sitting on this for a couple days lol. It takes place immediately following this.

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Stan, Lute, and Tuesday arrived at, according to Lute, who chattered the entire trip, the McGucket horse ranch. There was already somebody waiting for them when Lute led the two horses into the stable. A middle-aged man stood in the middle of the stable, his arms crossed. He looked very similar to Lute, with the same dark hair and large nose.

His dad, maybe?

“Howdy, Pa!” Lute chirped.

Yep.

“Lute, why did the auction house call me sayin’ I had to pay fer a new stallion?” Mr. McGucket asked. Lute gestured to Stan.

“I had to rescue Stan, here.”

“Stan?” Mr. McGucket looked at Stan. “Leo said the horse didn’t have a…name…” Mr. McGucket’s eyes narrowed, then widened. “Hoppin’ taters, he got the gift!”

“Ya see now why I had to get him,” Lute said. Mr. McGucket walked up to Stan. He circled the stallion, looking him over curiously. “He seems awful confused ‘bout his sit’ation.”

“Well, when the gift was new to the fam’ly, it was confusin’ to ‘em. Am I right that this is new to ya, Stan?” Stan nodded. Mr. McGucket stroked his chin. “Hmm. What’s Stan short fer?”

“Stanley. Stanley Pines,” Stan neighed. Mr. McGucket nodded.

“All right, Mr. Pines. I think we can get ya into somethin’ a bit smaller, but I ain’t sure how long it’ll last.”

“You- are you saying you can make me human again?” Stan asked eagerly.

“Until ya go back to bein’ a horse,” Mr. McGucket said. Suddenly anxious, Stan shied away from him. “Look, ya got the gift of switchin’ ‘tween horse ‘n human forms. Since ya got it recently, ya won’t be able to control it well just yet. It’ll take some practice, but ‘fore ya know it, you’ll be able to take either form as easy as breathin’.”

“What makes you say that?” Stan asked warily. He blinked. Suddenly, instead of a middle-aged man, a dappled gray stallion stood before him. Stan gaped.

“‘Cause that’s how it is fer everyone in my fam’ly,” the stallion neighed. Lute rolled his eyes. He walked Tuesday into a stall and began to remove his riding gear. The stallion, who was clearly somehow Mr. McGucket, cleared his throat, drawing Stan’s attention. “This is a very simple method to get ya to move ‘tween forms. It ain’t the best method ‘cause it don’t tend to last long, but I’d like to just get ya back to human to help yer mood, however brief it winds up bein’.” Stan nodded.

Even if it’s only five minutes, I’ll take it.

“Good! Okay, what ya do is ‘member how it feels to be human,” Mr. McGucket coached. “Standin’ on two feet, havin’ fingers ‘n toes, only really havin’ hair on top of yer head.” Stan closed his eyes. He visualized what it was like to be human, reliving the sensations that, after a week as a horse, he missed dearly.

A jolt of pain suddenly shot through him. Stan let out an agonized grunt. He fell to the floor, overcome by what felt like severe muscle cramps across his entire body. His skin prickled and burned, like he was being stabbed with needles all over. His chest ached as though he had been shot, his heart thundering like a champion racehorse. Then, it stopped.

“Excellent job!” Mr. McGucket’s voice said. Stan opened his eyes. He was on the floor, but instead of on four knees, he was on his hands and knees. Stan choked back a sob.

I’m never gonna take having hands for granted again, holy shit.

“Yer quite the quick study,” Mr. McGucket said, kneeling next to Stan. Stan felt himself begin to shake. “Lute, go fetch some clothes fer him.”

“He won’t stay human long, what’s the point?” Lute asked. Mr. McGucket frowned at him. Lute sighed. “Fine.” Lute left the stable.

“Oh. Right. I’m naked,” Stan mumbled to himself. The gentle evening air was chilly on his now fur-free bare skin. He looked at Mr. McGucket. “You are, too.” Instinctively, Stan averted his eyes.

Catching some guy naked in the locker room is one thing. This- this is different.

“Yer a bit thrown off by that, huh?” Mr. McGucket said with a chuckle. He got to his feet and walked over to where his clothes were sitting, neatly folded. “If ya plan to stay here long enough to get yer shiftin’ under control, you’ll get used to seein’ folks as god made ‘em. We don’t tend to be as concerned about the propriety of that.” Mr. McGucket began to pull on his clothes. Stan frowned at him.

“How’d you fold your clothes before you turned into a horse?” he asked. Mr. McGucket chuckled again.

“I have my ways.” The barn door opened. Now fully dressed, Mr. McGucket looked past Stan, towards the door. “I thought I told Lute to grab the clothes fer our guest.”

“I wanted to see the feller m’ self,” a female voice said. Stan turned around. A short, very cute blonde young woman about Stan’s age stood in the doorway. She met Stan’s eyes. A gasp escaped from her. The folded clothes she was carrying tumbled to the ground. “It’s you!”

“What do you mean?” Stan asked. He coughed, trying to clear the taste of alfalfa from his mouth. The woman crossed her arms.

“Yer the feller what rode me!”

“Huh?” Stan squinted at her.

“Are ya sure, junebug?” Mr. McGucket asked. The woman walked up to Stan and glared down at him.

“I’d know that face anywhere,” she snarled. Stan’s eyes widened.

“You- you were that yellow horse?” he choked out. The woman’s eyes were the giveaway. Once she got close enough, he could see they were the same blue as the yellow horse he had ridden a week ago, in a desperate attempt to escape from the police. She scowled at him.

“I ain’t yellow. I’m palomino.” She kicked the clothes away from him. “And ya don’t deserve my fam’ly’s gift after what ya did.” She turned away and stormed out of the barn. Stan turned back to Mr. McGucket. He swallowed nervously. The man’s face, previously kind and warm, had turned stormy.

“Is she tellin’ the truth?” he asked in a dangerous voice. Stan held up his hands.

“Look, I didn’t have a choice! I needed to get away and my car broke down!”

“So ya decided to steal a horse?”

“I wasn’t gonna keep it! I mean, I let it- her-” Stan quickly corrected the pronoun at Mr. McGucket’s thunderous expression. “-go as soon as I was safe!”

“That’s still theft, even if it weren’t fer long.”

“I swear, if I knew she was a person, I wouldn’t have just jumped on her!” Stan said desperately. Mr. McGucket pursed his lips. “I thought she was a regular horse! I didn’t-”

“I believe you,” Mr. McGucket said softly, cutting off Stan. “And I’d like to know exactly what ya were runnin’ from, but that can wait.” He frowned. “Of course, no matter how innocent yer intentions were, yer actions weren’t good. My daughter was upset fer days that some feller rode her like a pony at a fair.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Stan muttered.

“I know. It don’t fix things, though. Not right now, at least.” To Stan’s relief, Mr. McGucket seemed to have calmed down somewhat from his earlier furor. Mr. McGucket stood and retrieved the clothes. He handed them to Stan. “At least it explains why ya got the gift.”

“What do you mean?” Stan asked. He began to put on the worn and stained, but clean work clothes.

“The very first McGucket what got the gift, he got it from survivin’ a ride on a kelpie.” Stan frowned, confused. “A kind of fae what takes the form of a horse. Kelpies, they do whatever they can to get a rider off ‘em. But my ancestor, he stayed on no matter what. So the kelpie gave our bloodline the gift to take a horse form, too.” Mr. McGucket met Stan’s eyes. “My daughter told me that no matter what she did, she couldn’t get ya off. You survived the ride. You were given the gift.”

“I- I don’t want it!” Stan burst out. Mr. McGucket sighed.

“There’s an awful lot we still have to talk about. But I think it can wait. We don’t know how long it’ll be ‘fore ya return to a horse, and I reckon ya want some human food.” Stan’s stomach rumbled. Mr. McGucket managed a small smile. “Come on in the house. We’ll get ya somethin’ to eat what ain’t alfalfa.”