Fphant and I got to know each other as we walked. Nothing important, really, just little things like his favorite color, (it was blue, by the way,) and hobbies, apparently he's a world-class yo-yo-er, enjoys long walks through murky forests, and is a master prankster. Y'know, generic stuff like that.
"Hey Fphant, I was curious." My mirage companion looked up from the yo-yo he'd been playing with. "Why live in a cave?"
He shrugged. "I just like caves, you got a problem with that?"
"Nah, just seems weird, seeing as how most mirages live in deserts and such." Seriously, have you ever heard of a mirage that wasn't in a desert? It just doesn't happen.
"Well maybe I'm just weird, then," Fphant retorted. "Weird enough to agree to go on an adventure with a pony I don't even know. What about you? I checked my advertisement illusion on the way out; it was working fine. Why the hay would you be attracted to a giant cardboard box of all things?"
I shot him my patent-pending "look". The look that says, "have you met me?" It's a very specific look. Unfortunately for me, Fphant's attention had gone back to his yo-yo so the look was lost on him. Admittedly, it was a really cool yo-yo. Guess I'll have to go with the auditory response.
"I've told you I'm crazy, right?"
His response came as quickly as... you know what, I'm bad at similes. His response came very quickly. "Many times, bro, many times." He didn't even look up from his yo-yo.
Come to think of it, why did he keep looking at the yo-yo? Did my sexiness blind him? Yeah, that must be it. I should get him some sunglasses next chance I get.
After that we lapsed into a comfortable silence, him just playing with his yo-yo, - he was really good with it, I'm rather jealous of his skill - me just listening to our steps.
Listening to us walk was a lot more entertaining than it sounds. My own hoofsteps were, of course, a steady rhythm of four dull beats while Fphantom's steps were much more erratic. Being a creature of illusions his natural form shifted quite a bit; never staying the same for longer than a couple seconds. One moment he'd be tappin' out a four-beat rhythm along with me and the next he'd be padding softly along on two monkey-like feet.
It was rather fun trying to match the sounds to the steps, sort of like a giant game of jenga, but blindfolded...
I should really leave the similes to someone else.
Quite a while passed like this. We probably made it a whole two hours before something disturbed the near silence we'd been travelling in. That something happened to be my stomach. It was rumbling.
Of course, me being the crazy-yet-sexy pony that I was, I didn't notice it until a full ten minutes after the fact.
"Hey Fphant, you wouldn't happen to have any food on you, would you?" I asked.
"Nope." He still didn't look up from his yo-yo. "Why would I? I get all the sustenance I need from just being around you."
"Valid point." Didn't change the fact that I was still hungry, though... "You know where I could find something to eat, then?"
My yo-yo obsessed companion didn't even answer me verbally this time, he just jerked his head to the left. Following his direction with my gaze, I discovered we were walking past a roadside milkshake stand.
Huh. Fancy that.
I was mildly impressed by the retro feel of the milkshake stand. It looked just like one you'd expect from the fifties with shiny red booths surrounding a little bar in the center. It even had a jukebox.
We plopped down onto a couple of those spinny stools that surround the bar and took a moment to examine the menu. Of course, by examine the menu I mean that I spun around like a foal while Fphantom played with his yo-yo. We're such an intellectual pair, aren't we?
The clearing of a throat interrupted my fun, and I turned to face the waitress pony. "Can I help you?" she asked.
"Yeah," I quickly scanned the menu for a suitable option, "I'll have a chocolate shake and a side of hay fries. Hey Fphant, you want anything?"
"I'm good" he said, "just being near your crazy is feeding me more energy than I'll ever need."
I turned back to the waitress pony to see her giving me a weird look. The sort of look that says, "something's wrong with this pony." To be honest, she's absolutely right, but that's not the vibe I want to send out so I gave her my best "I'm not a crazy pony" smile. In retrospect, that probably wasn't the best idea, since it looks just like my "I'm a crazy pony" smile, and all my other smiles for that matter. I guess smiles are like similes for me, I'm just a one smile pony.
But that doesn't matter, not when the waitress pony just delivered my food to me. It looked amazing. The way the chocolate milkshake was all chocolate-ey and milk-shakey and stuff, and awesome. Did I mention it looked awesome? Because it - Hey! Where'd my food go?
I heard snickering to my side, and tracked the source down to my yo-yo wielding mirage companion. Ugh, stupid illusions... Ah well, can't deny the guy his fun now can I?
A few minutes later, my actual food arrived. I even poked it just to make sure. The actual food didn't look nearly as amazing as Fphant's illusory meal, but it was still really good and disappeared just as fast.
Fphantom, being the awesome guy that he is, even covered the bill. Guess that was his way of saying sorry for the prank or something? No matter, it was awful nice of him.
Before we left, I called out to our waitress, "Hey miss, could you tell us how far it is to the nearest town?"
"Sure thing," she said, pointing towards the way we were headed, "closest town to here's about three miles thataway."