Day 18
January 24
Amber woke me up because she was hungry and didn’t want to get out of bed, she was really tired from the day before and I guess I couldn’t blame her. I got up to start some coffee for us and was disoriented at first because I’d gotten used to our old house and now we had an apartment. It wasn’t too bad, though, because everything was on the same floor, now.
I started the coffee and to be a good husband, I started some hot water on the electric stove to cook some hay and oats. I had to do it quickly, though, or else my wife would have and she always overcooks it.
I had the whole families bowls ready with breakfast and a hard boiled egg each with a pitcher of fresh warm tea. A perfect way to start the day in the new apartment.
We noticed quickly that Blueberry wasn’t home so we figured he must have made a few new friends and went to their house. We weren’t too sure, because of what’d happened before, but we can’t live in fear or else we should just go home. And we didn’t want to.
I tried to use the computer, but I can’t use my hooves like Blueberry could, and talking to the computer didn’t work as well for me because I guess my voice isn’t as soft as his. We ate and talked about what we wanted to do today and we decided that a family trot would be a good start. Amber sighed, because she doesn’t really like to go so I said I’d go and bring my police pendant and be back soon so she could clean up with the foals.
I bundled up warmly and when I went out it wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been! I decided to leave my clothes on and walk at first, because the cement was hard and I could feel it in my ankles. It hurt to trot and cantering almost made me wince with every gait I took, so I moved into the snow and it was a lot better and the snow I kicked up in my run splashed against my belly and cooled me off.
I lost track of where I was and looked around to see I didn’t know where I was, but I just followed my tracks back and was very glad there weren’t any predators around, because I left perfect tracks to follow back to me.
When I got a little ways I had to undress a little and draped my coat over my back and cantered back to our building and then opened the first door and found my name and pushed a button and Amber asked who I was.
She teased me and told me she didn’t order Cinnamon and I should return it and have a nice day, but then the door buzzed and I opened it before it locked on me again. I went upstairs and into our apartment and told them how nice it was, compared to how it had been. We all decided to go to Hugo’s and get some junk food and fruit.
We got a lot of looks when we walked in, but this time they were warm smiles! It was so nice to see so many friendly faces and when we got a cart a nice woman helped us by offering to push our cart for a while and then helped us find the fruit. The fruit looked good, but it wasn’t super fresh, I could feel it. The foals don’t know how to root, yet, but when they do it’ll help them through their lives.
We got a nice variety of fruit and the woman helped us pick the best junk food that she thought we’d like. Some of the candy smelled really fake, like big city cheap stuff, so we passed on a lot of it. We found out that a lot of things are canned and bagged with metal and plastic so it’s hard to tell what’s in what without opening the bags, and we were told that wasn’t okay and had to buy a few bags of sweets we didn’t want.
We almost took the cart with us back home, but we had to leave it and Amber took the bags in her magic but we stopped her with some of it because we wanted to help, too. People were really awed, still, at Amber’s magic, and there were a lot of photographs taken of us as we left, but it felt better than it had yet.
We got back to our building and the police officer was standing outside his car and we looked back to see several people behind us talking. They dispersed when they saw the police officer but I really didn’t mind them following. After we’d put away the groceries we’d tried some of the fake smelling candies and they were better than we thought they’d be, but not good enough to eat them all at once.
Blueberry has a different taste in food, so he can try them and when he wants to. We spent some time playing and reading human books, and the box of bibles has been sitting in the corner since they got here and we haven’t read one yet. Amber started, but after receiving the first dozen she stopped and said they were way too pushy about reading it.
We trust the earth and nature itself more than anything, even Princess Celestia, to a point. Oh, and Princess Luna, she’s very important, too. I was having a lot of nightmares because of my dislike for my jobs and when she came back I started to have better dreams and I haven’t had a bad dream since.
I wonder if she’s helping my dreams, still. Through the portal and gate and distances? I don’t see why not, they have a lot of power and can do a lot of things that we can’t even understand.
Ha! Princess Celestia’s teats. That was a great night.
Okay, so, they came over and they put in our new TV and then when I got the soap and water out to clean the electricity pipes they shouted at me and I spilled the soap and from what I understood I could hurt myself really bad and Amber looked at me like I was stupid because I didn’t know electricity could kill me.
She cast a spell she used to help start campfires and touched her horn to my nose and when it sparked I yelped and it hurt, a lot. I couldn’t see through my tears, uh, strong stallions can cry! But, she apologized and hugged me and said that’s what it would be like, only I’d maybe die. Then I did feel stupid for doing it, trying to clean the electricity tubes. Plugs, because things plug into them.
I am not a smart pony.
We watched TV while I kept a cold towel on my nose and ate lunch of fruit and some hay and oats, but we knew we needed more, like cake! There was a bakery there, oh my gosh! We didn’t get any cake! Oh well, tomorrow, I hope.
We watched a lot of educational shows for human children and practiced some vowels, because those are hard for us and make us sound funny. Well, different. Our accent is really strong so we’re just going to keep practicing.
We decided to meet the farrier and have our hooves filed next week and our winter coats have started growing out so we need to go to Walmart and get more brushes. We have to go down the pet aisle and get more shampoo, too, because that’s where they keep the things we need.
Miss Bayliss, a nice lady from downstairs, said a store called Coal’s sells good stuff, but Gordman’s is better, so I think we’ll go there first. It’s on the same road as everything else, 32nd Avenue, so it’ll be easy.
We gathered our saddlebags and coats and left as a family to the main street and began our walk there. It was only a couple miles, but the cement was covered with ice and snow, so it didn’t hurt this time and I wondered about rescheduling our meeting with the farrier, but I think it’s best to meet them anyway, because we’ll need their help a few times and it’d be nice to make friends with them now, rather than when it’s busier.
Walking down the sidewalk we got a lot of cars beeping at us and we were scared at first so we stayed close together and were ready to press our pendants for help but none of them stopped or turned to run us over so we guessed they were saying hello and after a few blocks we saw Walmart and thought about just going there to get our shopping done but we wanted to see more of the city so we kept walking.
We talked a little about the city as we passed and the different cars and we did see some Fords as we went along and we knew to stop at the red lights and instead of a pony there was a person that told us when it was safe to cross. The cars all waited for us to pass before any of them moved, which was nice of them.
It took us a while to get halfway there and we saw a lot of small shopping centers that had all kinds of stuff like food to human beds to… stuff. Like, house and stall stuff that any person might need, just incase.
We made it to the right place because the letters spelled Gordman’s and we were getting good at human letters from all our practicing, but not perfect. The round ones are difficult sometimes, and they have different ways to write the same words. It’s confusing, really bad sometimes. It’s like going into a shop and having to read unicorn on one shelf and pegasi on another then earth pony on the product itself.
Why shops in Manehattan do that is annoying but why humans do that with their own one language is beyond me.
We went to the door and Lilli pushed the blue icon beside the door and it opened the door then we went in and it smelled really nice, like the breeze from a forest, only a little stronger of patchouli. It was full of people that stopped to watch us and smiled back to our smiles and waves and finally we had to ask where the brushes were.
We had to mock brush our coats and mane for a salesperson to know what we needed and she led us to the brushes and then waited as we looked through the options. There were also some nice beds and toys that were technically for dogs, but ponies can play with stuff like ropes and I like squeaky toys in my baths.
I asked if they had portable bathtubs and why, but Amber hushed me and said that we wouldn’t be allowed to make our own bathtub in the living room because it’s an apartment and it was a silly idea. We looked around for a long time and asked a lot of questions and learned about what they sold and it was a lot!
We asked if we could see their tailor but they didn’t know what a tailor was, so I asked a manager and she said that they bought all their clothes and resold them. She didn’t know any tailors or seamstresses but was willing to look for one for us and that was very kind of her so we waited and she let us look around while she asked her friends on the internet and probably facebook, too.
She found us by the pictures and there were so many that had so many meanings and words that it was a fun game to try to read them and we’d forgotten about the tailor. The manager told us that there were a few in town, but only dealt with people but would help us because we were special and she gave us a paper that had a bunch of addresses and number on it. I put it in my saddlebag and thanked her, then we left and bought our brushes and a nice bed to relax in, and a length of rope for a tug of war, or maybe knot tying practice. Ropes are good for a lot of things, so we’ll find use for it.
We went left instead of right, because Amber was carrying the bags and I had the bed on my back and the people like to see Amber carry stuff in her magic so we went to Target, a shop like Walmart, but a lot cleaner and it felt nicer. We went in and it was much spacier even though I could tell it might have been a bit smaller and we stayed together and went around the outside of the sales floor and came across a lot of fun human things and even some toys! The foals were happy playing with some cars before we were told that we weren’t allowed to open the packages or we’d have to buy them.
Amber apologized and put the toys back and resealed the packages and the salesperson had to sit down and play with the packaging. I guess people don’t put stuff away when they’re done playing. We chose to look at some toys that were more for teenagers in the next isle and it was very pink and full of cars and human girls and boys toys.
Barbie was a national hero, it seemed. She was everywhere here, just like in Walmart, so she must be an important person. We picked out a car and a Barbie Doll set and then decided we were done shopping for stuff and toys so we followed our noses to the bakery and selected a variety of treats before leaving to pay.
As we were leaving we stopped by the exit door and ate a treat like a muffin and a donut and a cookie for the foals each. We left and went back to our apartment and waved at a lot of people that were driving. We got back and didn’t see Blueberry when we came home so we put our stuff away and took his yellow doggie toy and placed it by the window, so he’d know we missed him and wished him the best.
I guess he got his cutie mark and is following his destiny on earth, and wherever he goes I hope he finds us before we leave and we can have a proper cutecenera party for him.
We set our stuff up around the apartment where we needed them and then watched TV until supper and during supper we did talk about what Blueberry might be doing right now, because a pony that was gone for a day was usually out exploring the world, if we were in Equestria, and the same thing would apply here, right?
I’m certain humans have a ceremony, though, for when a child becomes an adult and begins their life on their own. I heard they call it ‘graduation’, which could be like our parties but the humans have a chance to say goodbye before they leave their homes and families.
Human’s don’t get cutie marks, so it makes sense they’d do something before they parted. Maybe they’re like gryphons and find a mate before they leave their homes… only they don’t fight their mate to near death for the right to fly alone.
The rest of the night was kind of somber and we looked forward to the next day because it was supposed to be nice and we weren’t going to use our coats or scarves because we wouldn’t need them.
We all went to bed in the foals bed because they felt lonely without Blueberry and we felt a little sad he’d gone away so suddenly, but if he was in trouble he’d call the police with his pendant so he’s safe, wherever he is.