Marshall had heard a bit about Princess Luna from Rarity during their chat earlier, when he had asked whether Twilight Sparkle was a typical example of an Equestrian princess or not, since the ones in the human world — as far as he was aware — never seemed to be so personable or accessible. While she was not typical, he had been assured that all of the princesses were very nice when they weren't attending to some serious matter, or too busy performing their obligations to spend some casual time with others.
He wasn't all that surprised that Luna knew about him, since he assumed it was normal for leaders within the same nation to correspond with each other. While he didn't know if Princess Luna's "visit" was of a serious and/or official nature or not, he felt somewhat reassured that she was supposed to be a nice pony. However, it didn't do much about his nervousness, especially when he realized that he had been taking too long to reply.
"Uh, yeah, that's me..." He awkwardly replied. "Um... Hi?"
Princess Luna chuckled at his response. "I can understand why you might be nervous, but — please — be at ease: this intrusion had not been intentional."
"It hadn't?" Marshall asked, as he tried his best to follow her suggestion and relax. He eyed his cereal and wondered if it would be rude to eat it while he was talking with her. He usually ate while Rarity wasn't present, but she had never minded whenever that hadn't been the case. Princess Luna was royalty, though, so that could mean that she might be more inclined to having someone's undivided attention. So, just to be on the safe side, he decided to ignore his stomach's request for sustenance.
"It would seem," Princess Luna began to reply, "that your vehicle in our world is — for all intents and purposes — asleep and dreaming under these circumstances. As you may or may not know, it is one of my duties to watch over the dreams of my subjects. When I encountered yours, such as it is, I had not recognized it, and assumed it to be a foal's first dream."
"Wow..." Marshall breathed, still impressed despite everything that he had recently seen, experienced and learned about so far. "That's pretty cool."
"Cool?" Princess Luna repeated, sounding slightly confused. "In this context, I believe that I should take that as a compliment, correct? I'm afraid that I'm a bit behind when it comes to the expressions being used these days."
"Oh, definitely," Marshall quickly assured her. He idly wondered what she meant about being behind the times, but decided that it would probably be best to not pry, since he was still in the process of getting himself acquainted with her. "Being able to do what you're doing would be a, well... dream."
Perhaps due to noting the slight embarrassment over his word choice, Princess Luna ignored it and evenly said, "I imagine so, if the humans on your world are also bereft of magic."
"We are," Marshall confirmed, with a bit of a sigh, before admitting, "Once this thing with Rarity is over, I'm really going to miss it."
Princess Luna did not respond right away, which he assumed had been caused by the awkward direction that he had thoughtlessly — in his candidness — taken the conversation. Before he could think of a way to do something about it, the next randomly-chosen song began to play. That wouldn't have been worthy of getting his attention itself, ordinarily, except for the fact that the song in question was Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which — now that he thought about it — was the second song about the moon since Princess Luna's arrival. What were the odds of that happening?
Still, it seemed to be a good way of salvaging the conversation, because Princess Luna lightly remarked, "I approve of your choice in music."
"Well," Marshall began, who felt the need to enlighten the princess about his tastes in music, "as a fair warning, what you've heard so far doesn't even come close to covering all the kinds of music that I listen to."
"But, you like music about the moon, do you not?" Princess Luna inquired.
Marshall couldn't quite tell if there had been the slightest hint of a hopeful note in her voice, but he saw no reason to lie either way. "Not particularly. Right now I'm listening to a playlist with a bunch of odds and ends, for when I don't know what I'm in the mood for. I have it set so it picks the next song from a list that's been shuffled randomly, like this."
At "like this," he reached for his mouse and used it to skip to the next song on the shuffled list, without looking at what it was going to be. He found out soon enough, though, when the video for Fleetwood Mac's Sisters of the Moon took the last video's place. He couldn't help staring at the video's title for a few seconds, since he didn't have many songs with anything about the moon in their title, and it was highly unlikely that three of them, out of more than four hundred total videos, would happen to be shuffled together and end up playing during an unexpected meeting with Luna.
"At random, you say?" Princess Luna responded, perhaps rhetorically, because she sounded thoughtful instead of responding in a manner that he would have expected in such a situation. Of course, he reasoned that they weren't close enough to each other for her to tease him yet; that is, if she were even the type to do such a thing in the first place.
Before Marshall could offer something in reply, he once again felt a connection being made, followed by the familiar voice of Rarity. "I'm here, Marshall." She paused, probably to take in what she was seeing and hearing. "Oh; you haven't finished your breakfast, yet?"
Marshall opened his mouth to speak, but Princess Luna had decided to answer in his stead, before he could get anything intelligible out. "I'm afraid that I've been a bit of a distraction."
Rarity's response came belatedly, either because she hadn't expected to hear another voice, that's how long it had taken for her to figure out who the voice belonged to, or both. "Oh my! Princess Luna, what a pleasant surprise!" She proceeded to make some sounds that seemed to denote a small measure of distress before suddenly saying, "Marshall! Could you be a dear and bow for me?"
"...Huh?" Came Marshall's intelligent reply.
Princess Luna interjected with, "That won't be necessary, Rarity."
"But, I insist!" Rarity countered, which seemed to be at odds with her desire to be respectful, as far as Marshall was concerned. "Please, Marshall?"
Marshall could almost imagine the puppy dog eyes and pout that she might have employed against him, had she been in a position to do so, and managed to hold back a sigh as he said, "Okay, fine."
Despite it being kind of embarrassing, he stood up and bowed deeply from the waist. It wasn't so much the act itself that had been embarrassing, since he didn't mind paying his respects or displaying proper behavior when it was called for, but due to his bow being of the Japanese variety: because he couldn't quite remember how it was supposed to be done in accordance with his Western roots. Another source of embarrassment came from being aware of what his bowing would look like from an outsider's point of view, in addition to the fact that the act hadn't even been necessary.
"Well," Princess Luna said, with a hint of amusement in her voice, "as nice as this little diversion has been, there may be slumbering ponies who require my aid. Have a good night, Rarity, Marshall."
There was no telling whether or not Princess Luna had left immediately following those words, but Marshall and Rarity had offered their farewells anyway. Afterward, Rarity said, "I didn't know that Princess Luna could connect with you as well. Was there any particular reason for her visit?"
"Nah," Marshall casually replied, as he sat back down and prepared to eat his cereal. "She said that it was an accident, because she thought this had been a foal's first dream."
Sounding thoughtful, Rarity said, "You don't say..."
While something was obviously on her mind, Marshall didn't think anything of it as he ate his cereal. By the time that he had gotten his breakfast out of the way, he had a movie ready to play on his computer. While movies weren't the greatest resource for fashion, in terms of relevancy and instruction on how something was made, they did offer plenty of examples, and usually presented them within a context that provided other helpful information. As a bonus, they could be entertaining as well.
He had chosen The Court Jester for a couple of reasons. To begin with, Rarity had wanted to see bygone fashions from an earlier time period in human history, since most of her exposure had come from modern and traditional fashions, with occasional input from futuristic and technologically-advanced settings. While his choice of movie wasn't a particularly great example of the fashion that it had to offer, it was one of the few musicals that he cared for, thanks to his mother, and he was curious if Rarity would like it, since only a few of his selections had gotten a more-than-tepid reception from her thus far. Of course, with her need to focus on the exploits of a movie's costume department, as well as the department that handled the makeup and hair of the actors and actresses, rather than the plot and the source of the movie's entertainment, he wasn't all that surprised.
Fortunately, the movie had been enjoyable enough to put her in the mood for a second one, instead of following her original plan. He happily obliged her, of course, and — at his suggestion — she decided on a movie that had a fairly similar setting and range of genres: The Princess Bride. She enjoyed that movie even more than the last one, so much so that he was pretty sure that she hadn't gotten much of her work done. That hadn't gone unnoticed, of course, but she drowsily bade him a good night instead of accusing him of anything. However, that could very well change when he saw her tomorrow in person, when she was wide awake and her mood wasn't altered by a good movie.
A few minutes after Rarity had left, he was listening to music while browsing the Internet. Due to remembering one of his commitments, which he didn't want to forget, he found a site that had the rules for Quidditch and bookmarked it. That way he could go over it a few more times before "going to bed," in the hope that the information would be retained until he met up with Rainbow Dash again.
That commitment had also reminded him that Pinkie Pie would be on his schedule. While he knew what she would be interested in, he wasn't sure of what to do about it: there were so many desserts, sweets, candies and snacks out there, and he couldn't hope to remember many of them, much less their finer details. In the end, he decided to look up a few of the things that he was familiar with, if he couldn't remember seeing them at the party, and bookmarked them for future reference as well.
Finally, he decided to look up the meaning of his middle name: not only because he was curious, but — in retrospect — it was kind of embarrassing to be ignorant of it. As it turned out, "Noel" had its origins in French, and meant "Christmas." He hadn't known what to expect, but he certainly hadn't expected that. Since its meaning had been so unexpected, he decided to look up his last name as well, because it had come up earlier and he wasn't feeling so confident about its assumed meaning being accurate.
Although there were a couple of likely meanings and origins for "March," as a surname, he still had to pause when he came across its meaning in Welsh, since it meant "horse," despite his inability to find a strong connection to a surname making it an unlikely candidate. Considering his recent experience with becoming an equine creature, it would be a rather notable coincidence if that turned out to be the meaning of his last name. Of course, since it was more likely to mean "boundary," it was possible that it could be a reference to his crossing of the boundary that separated two universes instead.
After putting those thoughts out of his mind, he decided to see what "Marshall" meant, since he figured that he might as well after going through the trouble of looking up his middle and last names. Much to his shock, his first name was strongly associated with horses, with every source that he could find referencing the occupation of someone who took care of them.
He leaned back in his chair and wondered if it was really just a coincidence. Not that long ago he wouldn't have seriously considered the notion of having a destiny, or being fated, but that was before traveling to another universe and discovering that magic was real, what with both having only previously been found in fictional mediums, such as the realms of science-fiction and fantasy. Now, he couldn't say — with any appreciable amount of certainty — that fate or destiny couldn't be within the realm of possibility as well.
That thought brought his mind back to his experience as a pony. He raised one of his hands and looked at it while superimposing the image of a white hoof with his mind's eye. As he turned his hand over and flexed his fingers, he found that he hadn't really minded having hooves. Having a horn had helped, of course, but they hadn't proved all that problematic, in part because he had opted to focus on what he had wanted to do instead of trying to work that out with his body first.
When he thought about his — technically Rarity's — pony body, he didn't have anything bad to say about it either, even though it had been female. It had taken some getting used to, but it had really helped to not think about it. While he was still troubled by the thought of finding himself in a situation where a male pony — or stallion — was showing interest in him, actually being female hadn't been so strange or horrible that he would wish to avoid being one. Sure, a male body would have been his preference, since that was what he was accustomed to, but he could live with using a female one per his current arrangement.
So, whether or not he was fated to end up in a situation where he could become a female pony on a temporary basis, he didn't really mind. So many things about it were so new and interesting, and he smiled at the thought that he could probably make some nice friends while he was at it. Heck, even though they were ponies, being friends with the fairer sex might allow him to gain some insight about them, which would be helpful once he felt ready to look for that special someone.
His smile faded, however, when he reminded himself that his current arrangement would only be temporary. It would suck to get close to someone before saying goodbye forever, but he didn't want that to sabotage the chance of getting close to people, just so he wouldn't be hurt by the loss of someone close to him. He had seen enough fictional examples of what people have done in those situations to prefer making the best of things and living with the loss, instead of being stupid and/or a headache to others — to distance oneself — and living with whatever was gained out of doing that. What others found interesting about that kind of drama and angst was beyond him.
When all was said and done, he was feeling slightly giddy and nervous about his return to Ponyville, because he had decided to not be so reserved and enjoy himself now that the overall shock of the strange and new had begun to wear off. While there were still some unknowns, and he worried about messing something up when he opened up more to his new friends, he was hopeful that things would work out.
...Then he remembered the promise of future flight, and his worries flew away for a little while as he fantasized about the experience.
Time at work had seemed to pass even more slowly than usual for Marshall, due to anticipating his return to Ponyville. Even Simon had noticed his distraction and had commented on it, although it had been easy to excuse his behavior, partly because Simon hadn't really cared to begin with. All his co-worker had cared about was whether he would be free to play some Street Fighter X Tekken during the weekend. Since Marshall usually agreed to such requests, Simon had only grumbled a little bit when he had declined.
Aside from one of his friends texting him, saying that they would be in the area on Sunday, which suggested that he would be dropping by, nothing else of note had happened by the time that he had prepared himself to switch bodies: once he had gotten home, all he had to do was find something to eat while he tried his best to memorize the things that he had bookmarked earlier in the day. After that, it was a simple matter of going to bed and moving his consciousness to "Recherché."
When he opened his eyes, he saw the room that Twilight Sparkle had given to him for the duration of his stay. He also noticed that he was hungry, which seemed strange — at first — because he had just had something to eat. It wasn't a surprise that he was hungry in his current body, however, because he remembered that he had just begun to feel the pangs of hunger before returning to his original body.
As he yawned and stretched on the bed, he wondered how he was going to find his way around — and possibly out — of Twilight Sparkle's castle. He mentally chided himself for the oversight, and began to contemplate whether he should try his luck on his own or wait within the room until someone came for him. When he caught sight of the over-stocked bookcase, he perked up, thinking that he could make good use of his time if he decided to wait around. Unfortunately, his stomach wasn't the only part of nature that was calling him, and waiting around indefinitely wasn't going to help either issue.
Before he could make up his mind on what to do, his ears perked up when he heard a familiar sound: that of a page being turned. Looking about the room, he didn't see anyone who could have produced the sound, or — as far as he could tell — anything, although he did notice that there was a book missing from the bookcase after he gave it more scrutiny, since books were a prime source of page-turning sounds. Did that mean that whoever had taken the book were still close enough to be heard when they turned its pages?
He decided to wait and listen for a moment. His patience was rewarded before long, when he heard a page being turned once again. Since he doubted that he would be able to hear it beyond the door, he examined the room more closely. When he failed to see anything indicative of another's presence, he decided to look over the sides and end of the bed, even going so far as to peer underneath it, but he didn't see anyone.
Fortunately, before his confusion could give way to frustration, he recalled the fact that he was in a universe that had magic and flying ponies, and gave himself a mental smack upside the head. Sure enough, when he turned his gaze upward, he saw a sizeable indent in the canopy's fabric, but more noticeable — and telling — was the bit of rainbow-colored tail that was dangling over the side of the aforementioned canopy.
He opened his mouth to call out to Rainbow Dash, but paused when a devious idea suddenly occurred to him. While it probably wasn't the best of ideas, he figured that it would help him to learn more about the kind of pony that Rainbow Dash was, and how to interact with her in the future. So, after taking a few seconds to figure out what kind of sound to make with his new voice box, he yowled like a cat whose tail had been stepped upon while simultaneously giving Rainbow Dash's tail a sharp tug with his telekinesis.
The indent and tail disappeared as Rainbow Dash yelped in surprise, all of which told him that he had been successful in his endeavor. A second later, a book came into view as it fell toward the floor. Fortunately for said book, Rainbow Dash had recovered from her scare quickly enough to zip down and catch it before it could land, which elicited a sigh of relief from her.
With the book held protectively to her chest with one hoof, she set the others on the floor and rounded on him with an angry expression on her face. "What in the hay was that for!?"
Marshall hopped down from the bed and casually said, "Now we're even."
"Even?" Rainbow Dash echoed in confusion, before realization struck her. A host of faint expressions passed in quick succession before her face settled upon something that couldn't quite decide what it wanted to be. "Yeah, sure. I guess it's only fair."
While Marshall was glad that Rainbow Dash could take a prank as well as give it, something about her reaction had been strange. Had he been back on his own world with another human being, he wouldn't have caught it, but the cartoon-like physics allowed a more obvious conveyance of thoughts and feelings, and for the first time he understood what it meant when someone's eyes were described as smiling or twinkling, even when the rest of their visage wasn't so animated.
Between that, how her lips were currently being pressed together instead of resting naturally, and the way in which she had accepted being pranked, he had an idea of what might be going on. He decided to find out if he was right or not by getting a glimpse of himself in the vanity mirror, which he had once thought would never see any real use by him.
When it became obvious to Rainbow Dash as to what he was about to do, she groaned with disappointment and said, "Aw, man. I was hoping you wouldn't notice."
By that, she meant the monocle and mustache that had been doodled on Marshall's face while his current body had been out of commission. When he got a look of his face in the mirror, he couldn't help thinking that it looked a bit silly, since the monocle had to accommodate such a large eye and the mustache had to fit on a rather small nose. While it was kind of annoying that he was on the receiving end of a prank so soon, and by the same pony no less, he figured that he could work with it.
So, rather than address it, he turned about to regard Rainbow Dash and genially asked, "So, why are you here?"
Rainbow Dash's reply came belatedly, since she had no doubt been expecting a different response after he had seen her handiwork. "Oh, uh... Twilight asked me to show you the sights."
Marshall nodded his head at that before lowering his gaze to the book in Rainbow Dash's possession, and his curiosity compelled him to ask, "What were you reading while you were waiting for me?"
Rainbow Dash followed his gaze and seemed to be reminded that she had been holding a book to her chest, at which point she became very animated, hopped across the distance that separated them, shoved the book in his face and proclaimed, "Only the best series ever!"
Taking the book with his telekinesis and moving it to a more comfortable distance from his face, Marshall was able to read the title, Daring Do, before catching sight of a familiar pony on the cover. He regarded the still-excited pegasus with a half-lidded stare and asked, "Would that have anything to do with you being on the cover?"
"No way!" Rainbow Dash fervently denied, who appeared to be affronted. "I liked Daring Do long before I had that adventure with her. That," she pointed at the book, "is just a bonus!"
Intrigued by that, Marshall inquired, "Really? This," he spared the book a glance, "is based on actual events?" When he got a positive response, he said, "Sounds interesting. I'll try to squeeze it in while I learn more about your world from the other books."
While Rainbow Dash was happily informing him that the Daring Do series was already arranged in the proper order on the bookshelf, further scrutiny of the book's cover revealed the author's name, which made him pause. If he hadn't looked up Quidditch no more than a half of an hour ago, A.K. Yearling probably wouldn't have reminded him of J.K. Rowling, due to the scant similarities between them.
Probably as a result of noticing the expression on his face, Rainbow Dash curiously asked, "What's up?"
"Nothing much," Marshall replied, as he looked up from the book. "It's just that the name of the author of this book reminded me of the author who wrote the series that I got that game idea from."
Rainbow Dash perked up upon being reminded of the game that she'd had to wait on. "Oh, yeah! Can you tell me about that game, now?"
"Sure," Marshall readily agreed, before receiving another call from nature, which caused him to duck his head a bit and look away in embarrassment as he added, "But, um... Can I tell you on the way to the bathroom?"
"Oh, uh, sure," Rainbow Dash awkwardly replied.
Once Marshall had returned the book to the bookshelf, he followed Rainbow Dash as she led him to the bathroom. Along the way, he told her about Quidditch in as organized of a manner as he could muster. For the most part, Rainbow Dash seemed to take in what he said and thought about it, perhaps putting mental images to words, and generally seemed interested. However, when he got to the last part, regarding the seeker's role, since they were the ones who usually determined when a game ended, Rainbow Dash's interest skyrocketed.
"Hold on," Rainbow Dash said as she came to a stop, who seemed to be having trouble holding back her excitement. "Are you telling me that it's up to the quickest player to get the most points and finish the game?" When she got confirmation, she looked off into the distance, probably to imagine herself playing the role of a seeker, and absently mumbled, "That would be so cool."
Eventually, Rainbow Dash returned to the present, whereupon she performed a wing-assisted hop and remained airborne as an expression of her enthusiasm. "Whoever came up with Kid Ditch is a genius. Man, I can't wait to get a game set up!"
Marshall was amused by her behavior, so — instead of correcting her about the name — he wryly remarked, "Well, before you do, could you help me ditch something in the bathroom so I don't end up looking like a kid before I can get there?"
It took a second for Rainbow Dash to grasp the meaning of his words. When she did, she landed and had the decency to look sheepish as she said, "Oh. Right."
The rest of the trip passed by in silence, mostly due to the fact that they hadn't been all that far from their destination. When Marshall finished his business there, Rainbow Dash was quick to notice that his face was still marred by doodles. "You're not going to wash your face?"
Glad for the distraction, since his new plumbing was going to take some time to get accustomed to, Marshall said, "I didn't want it to go to waste."
"What do you mean?" Rainbow Dash replied, with a confused look on her face.
Smiling slightly, Marshall implied his intention by saying, "Take me to Twilight and find out."
Rainbow Dash blinked her eyes once before smiling conspiratorially and agreeing to go along with whatever he had planned.
While Marshall followed her to their target, he briefly wondered if he should be pranking Twilight Sparkle. Pranking wasn't beneath him, but he was worried that he was going too far just to get along with Rainbow Dash, since it would be at another's expense even though it wasn't going to be done out of meanness. Then again, if Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were friends, he reasoned that Twilight Sparkle was probably no stranger to being pranked. That was assuming that Rainbow Dash had a penchant for pulling said pranks, of course, but it seemed possible, given his own experiences and observations in the last twenty-four hours.
Still, he couldn't help feeling optimistic about the whole thing. His excitement over the situation, and overall desire for things to turn out well and/or fun, was probably bleeding into his perceptions, but he figured that it was better than being too worried and uptight to do anything worth mentioning. Frankly, if he had to be honest with himself, it was a relief: because the last two years as a single, independent, working adult had been far from being a bed of roses.
Eventually, Rainbow Dash opened a door that led into a room, and he took a moment to take in its appearance as he followed her in. The first thing that caught his attention was that the room was decorated, and the magenta drapes that hung across the shorter pilasters, as well as the magenta linen and pink ribbons on the window sills, made him suspect that Rarity had been behind it. Aside from those, the "windows" were framed by purple curtains, which hung from the bottom of the lunettes above them, and there were flower-filled baskets on top of the shorter pilasters and a couple of free-standing pillars that were of a more traditional design. In the middle of all of that was a gold-colored table that was lined in pink linen, which was surrounded by chairs that had pink cushions, and above them was what he could only assume was some kind of chandelier.
Sitting at the far side of the table was Twilight Sparkle, who was using a quill to write something on a piece of parchment. Unlike yesterday, when she had been too engrossed to notice someone's entry into the library, she looked up with a smile and said, "Good afternoon, Recher—" Having taken notice of the doodles on his face, she proceeded to level an accusatory stare at the suspected culprit. "Rainbow Dash..."
Before said pony could respond, Marshall quickly interjected, "Didn't do it!"
While Rainbow Dash looked back at him with curiosity, wondering what he was going to do, Twilight Sparkle appeared to be both surprised and incredulous by his claim. "She didn't?"
"Nope," Marshall replied, who tried to keep a straight face when he thought about the ridiculous story that he was about to tell. "You see, fake monocles and mustaches are a fad right now."
"Really?" Twilight Sparkle voiced her disbelief, her brow furrowed and one eyebrow slightly cocked.
Marshall managed to maintain his facade as he nodded his head and prepared to give a convincing explanation. "Yeah. You know how it is, right? Someone popular does something notable, and then others copy them?" After he received an acknowledgement that seemed to be delivered a little weakly, he continued. "Well, it began with a real monocle and mustache, but the guy that had inspired that fad had gotten tired of it and changed his image. He had a bunch of female fans around the world who had liked his former look, and some of them had put together a public petition for the return of the monocle and mustache, which was covered by the news and uploaded on the Internet. A number of them had drawn a monocle and mustache on their faces as a part of representing their cause, but all that they had accomplished was catching the attention of those who would doodle them on their own faces, whether it was to join the cause, make fun of it, or to make their own statement." He shrugged his shoulders. "And that's how the fad got started."
Since Rainbow Dash knew that he had made it up, she was now the one who was looking at him incredulously, probably wondering if such a thing was even possible. Fortunately, because she was between him and Twilight Sparkle, the princess could only see the back of her head. The aforementioned princess wasn't looking at Rainbow Dash, though: instead, she seemed to be both interested and intrigued. Which wasn't all that surprising, since she wanted to learn more about his race.
"Wow," Twilight Sparkle summed up her overall response, who wasn't all that sure of what to think about it beyond its academic relevance. "I knew that humans could relay information both quickly and globally, but I hadn't imagined that kind of impact on society." Her expression turned curious as she asked, "So, why do you have a monocle and mustache drawn on your face?"
Marshall smiled and innocently stated, "So I could play a trick on you."
Twilight Sparkle stared with incomprehension for a second. "A trick?" She frowned when she realized what he had meant. "Wait... You made that fad up?"
Rainbow Dash snickered and said, "And I can't believe you bought it!"
Despite the fact that Twilight Sparkle was weathering Rainbow Dash's mirth well, with a half-lidded stare that bespoke of a tolerance that came from experience, Marshall decided to soften the blow. "To be fair, though, I wouldn't be surprised if something like that did happen someday: we've probably done stranger and dumber things."
With a mixture of disbelief and interest, Rainbow Dash queried, "No kidding?"
Marshall gave Twilight Sparkle a significant look and said, "I can tell you about an actual fad, if you'd like." When they both accepted his offer, he took a moment to think of a good example. "Okay, this one was kind of recent: it was a game called 'planking.' Basically, people would lie face-down and imitate a wooden plank. While it could be done in fairly normal locations, a lot of people made a challenge out of it and found strange and difficult places to do it."
Rainbow Dash regarded him as if he had done such a thing. "Yeah, that's..."
"...Kind of weird," Twilight Sparkle admitted.
With a shrug of his shoulders, Marshall said, "I'm human and even I don't understand why people do stuff like that."
Before a lull in the conversation could form, Rainbow Dash focused her attention on Twilight Sparkle and asked, "So, are you ready to cast that flight spell?"
While Marshall perked up upon hearing that, and what it likely implied, Twilight Sparkle made a motion with her quill and said, "Just as soon as I finish writing this letter to Princess Luna. We're discussing the possibility of sharing a dream with Recherché." Turning to the human-turned-pony in question, she added, "That is, if you don't mind having more company?"
With that kind of revelation, Marshall was able to rein in his excitement — for the time being — and give a tentative answer. "Uh, I guess not?"
"Cool!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, who seemed to be eager to act upon the idea. "Now I can finally get a chance to see what another world looks like!"
Twilight Sparkle showed her gratitude with a smile and said, "Okay, let me include that in my message," before she continued to compose said message.
By the time that she was finished, Marshall could tell that Rainbow Dash was getting antsy. He could kind of understand how she felt, even if for a different reason, because being so close to having the ability to fly had put butterflies in his stomach. Fortunately, that had the benefit of distracting him from his hunger somewhat.
"There," Twilight Sparkle declared, once she had the parchment rolled up and sealed with a ribbon. After setting it aside, she caught Marshall's gaze and cheerfully asked, "Now, are you ready to try out a pair of wings?"
Marshall was so keyed up that he couldn't trust himself to speak, so he ended up nodding his head rapidly instead. Before Twilight Sparkle cast the spell that would give him wings, she was thoughtful enough to take care of his facial decorations while she was putting her magic to use. With that dealt with, she closed her eyes, focused, and a second later her horn lit up with a magical aura. From that aura two streamers of magic came forth and detached from it by the time that they had each arrived at their destination: Marshall's sides.
After looking back and forth a few times, he decided to focus on just one side. Regardless, he felt — more than saw — the ends of the streamers attach to him, because it felt weird and tingly as new flesh and nerves developed in the area where the streamers had met with his body. The rest of the streamers' lengths began to coil and compress, appearing to wrap around an invisible shape — one that was reminiscent of an extended wing. Then, once both streamers had closed together so tightly that one could no longer see the space within them, they flashed brightly with a release of magic, which caught him by surprise.
While he was waiting for the afterimage of the flash to stop obscuring his vision, hoping that the act of blinking and rubbing his eyes would expedite the process, he heard Rainbow Dash ask, "How come she doesn't have the same wings that Rarity had?"
To which Twilight Sparkle replied, "That's because I used a different spell."
"Why?" Rainbow Dash queried, who sounded equal parts confused and curious.
"Because the wizard who had developed that other flight spell was vain and trying to make the spell last indefinitely," Twilight Sparkle began to explain. "That led to the wings being impractical, regarding the amount of skill and magic required to make them, and in how susceptible their function was to being compromised. While this spell will only last for two hours, approximately, it's much easier to cast, and the wings will be as durable as an average pegasus'."
Wanting to see what they were talking about, even though his world was still tinged with an unnatural coloration, Marshall looked over his shoulder to inspect one of his new wings, whose existence had been felt since their creation. Said wing was still in the same position as the streamers of magic had been in, just prior to blinding him, so he tried to fold it against his body, in the same way that Rainbow Dash's and Twilight Sparkle's wings currently were. He succeeded after a moment of trial and error, then did the same for the other wing.
By then Twilight Sparkle had approached him and began to inspect his wings critically, who began to ask him to move his wings in various ways. After several requests of that nature, she inquired, "Have you noticed any issues? Any trouble moving a certain way, or any discomfort or pain?"
Marshall shook his head in response, surprised that his new wings were as dexterous as they were. "Not that I'm aware of. I didn't even know that wings could do some of the things that you told me to do with them."
Rainbow Dash crouched a bit, spread her wings and grinned. "Oh, yeah? Well, check this out!"
While Twilight Sparkle watched on with mild amusement and disinterest, Marshall gaped at the pegasus' ensuing aerial performance. The room may have been spacious, which was kind of an understatement, but not nearly spacious enough for something that was traveling at the speeds that Rainbow Dash was able to achieve. That's what common sense told him, at any rate, but that way of thinking obviously wasn't going to fly in the universe that he was currently in. He couldn't even begin to imagine how it was possible for a flyer of any sort to make ninety degree changes in their heading instantly without coming to a stop, or decelerating enough to counter their current velocity, except by magic.
Eventually, a self-satisfied Rainbow Dash reacquainted her hooves with the floor and stated, "When you're as good as I am, doing stuff like that is easy."
Before Marshall could find his voice, due to being shocked and awed by Rainbow Dash's display, he heard an unfamiliar, boyish-sounding voice ask, "What stuff? What'd I miss?"
As out of it as he was, the strange voice had been enough of a surprise to startle him, especially since it had come from behind. Unlike yesterday, however, he jumped with both pairs of legs instead of one, and he had enough presence of mind to do so in a way that would turn him about in midair, so he could face the source of the voice. At the same time, his new, temporary wings had involuntarily spread themselves fully in reaction to being startled, although he failed to notice it.
What he found a few feet away was some kind of scaly, bipedal creature that came up to his chin in height, if one discounted the row of rounded, green plates on its head. Most of its hide was a light purple, while the scales between its chin and the underside of its tail was a greenish-white. However, what really caught his attention were the slit-pupils of its green eyes, which had widened substantially in the short span of time that he had been looking at it.
Unbeknownst to him was the fact that the creature in question had a crush on Rarity, and that the dilation of its pupils had been in response to the image that he was inadvertently presenting to it. With his wings spread, natural complexion, a hairstyle that was similar to Fluttershy's, and the chandelier located directly behind his head from the creature's point of view, his appearance was quite striking.
Since the creature didn't seem to be out of place, aside from not being a pony, he relaxed. It also helped that it was carrying a plate that had a couple of sandwiches on it, which he finally noticed and found somewhat distracting. "Um... Hi?"
That seemed to snap the creature out of whatever state it had been in, which Rainbow Dash had found funny enough to chuckle about for some reason. The creature proceeded to take a few seconds to sort itself out, which had included some mumbling to itself that he could only discern bits and pieces of. From what he had been able to gather, though, the creature had reminded itself that he was actually a dude; beyond that, he couldn't be sure of whatever else had been said.
Finally, the creature extended its free claw and returned his greeting. "Uh, hey! I'm Spike!"
Marshall offered his hoof to Spike and experienced a... limbshake? "Marshall." Realizing his mistake immediately, he mentally kicked himself. "Recherché, I mean."
"I thought you'd look more like Rarity," Spike commented, which seemed more like an effort to convince himself of that notion.
Twilight Sparkle chose that time to step into view, looking slightly amused, although it was mostly masked by her smile as she addressed Spike. "Good timing, Spike." The letter that she had recently finished writing, bathed in the purple aura of her magic, floated over to the aforementioned creature. "Could you send this to the princess?"
Marshall watched as Spike accepted the letter without preamble, held it up to his face, took a deep breath, and then... vaporized the letter with the green flame that he had expelled from his mouth. He idly watched as the smoke and flame rose into the air and whirlpooled into a nebulous ball before disappearing with a little flash, wondering if he would ever get used to seeing stuff like that happen.
The next thing he knew was the plate of sandwiches being shoved under his nose and Spike helpfully informing him, "Here! I made you lunch!"
"This is mine?" Marshall found himself asking, even as his stomach began to make more demands. He took a closer look at the sandwiches on the plate, mostly because it couldn't be helped, and noticed that much of the sandwiches' contents appeared to be hay and flowers.
"I figured you would be hungry," Twilight Sparkle answered, before glancing at Marshall's closest wing and wryly adding, "It should also give you some time to get a better feel for your wings before you try to fly with them."
Following her gaze, Marshall blushed when he discovered that he had been too distracted to notice that his wing hadn't been in the position that he had left it in, which turned out to be the case for the other wing as well. Rather than wanting to dwell on that, though, he returned his attention to what would be his current body's first meal of the day once he had pulled his wings back against his body. He was already keen on giving the sandwiches a try, and wondered what to expect in terms of flavor.
He didn't like the idea of being a sponge, though, so he asked, "Is there anything I can do to pay for it?"
"Aren't you already helping out Rarity?" Spike questioned, with a slight hint of jealousy in his voice, which Marshall mistook for the kind of tone that one used when pointing out something obvious.
Twilight Sparkle prudently added, "And don't forget that you're allowing me to study the sympathetic resonance of magic, in addition to helping me document a plethora of information regarding your race, world and universe."
"Oh," Marshall voiced, as he considered what he was being told. "Well, if you're alright with that..."
"Great!" Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed, with a mixture of eagerness and impatience, who proceeded to hover in the air and point toward the table. "Now, go and eat so we can get some flying in before the spell wears off."
While Marshall sheepishly moved to comply, by accepting the plate from Spike and heading toward the indicated table, Twilight Sparkle regarded Rainbow Dash with a cocked eyebrow and asked, "Why the rush?"
Rainbow Dash tried and failed to put up an innocent front. "What, flying for a few hours isn't reason enough?"
Twilight Sparkle's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "You're up to something, aren't you?"
"Relax," Rainbow Dash replied, with a roll of her eyes. "It's nothing like what you're thinking — honest!"
Before Twilight Sparkle could respond to that, Rainbow Dash flew over to the table and sat opposite of Marshall, so she could demonstrate simple wing exercises that he could do while he ate. With a sigh, Twilight Sparkle decided to drop the issue and join them, since she didn't have anything that required her immediate attention while she waited for Princess Luna's response to her latest letter.
The sandwiches, Marshall soon discovered, were agreeable to his new taste buds. However, while his hunger was being attended to, most of his attention was on Rainbow Dash and copying what she was doing with her wings. Eating flowers and hay may have been new, but flying was a lot more interesting and Rainbow Dash's enthusiasm only stoked his own further.
Despite never having anything remotely like wings to draw some semblance of experience from, like he had when it had come to walking like a quadruped, it hadn't taken him long to learn how to move his wings well enough to match Rainbow Dash's form and pace. He figured that he had Rarity to thank for that, since she had once had the opportunity to fly with her own wings, even though it had sounded like she had gotten a pair that had been different in some way.
It never crossed his mind to ask about her wings, though. In fact, between his own anxious anticipation and Rainbow Dash's eagerness to help him learn how to fly, he didn't even think to ask what kind of creature Spike was. Instead, he eagerly followed Rainbow Dash as soon as he was done eating, not even realizing that he was running at a gallop to keep up with the flying pegasus.
Fortunately, before he was out of earshot, he heard Twilight Sparkle yell, "Oh! Recherché! Please tell Sweetie Belle to see her sister after school!"
When he made it outside, he found Rainbow Dash waiting for him, standing near the base of the stairs. Upon reaching her, she readily asked, "So, are you ready?"
With his nervousness over one important fact finally driving a wedge into his enthusiasm, now that flight was about to become a reality, Marshall tentatively responded with, "Um, I know I'll be fine if this body dies, but, uh... That won't happen, right?"
"Nah," Rainbow Dash casually replied, waving his concern away with a hoof. "If it looks that bad, I'll come in and save ya, alright?"
Reassured by that, since he didn't want to experience any death-related injuries, Marshall's enthusiasm made a comeback as he asked, "Okay, so what do I do?"
"First," Rainbow Dash began, who assumed a more serious demeanor, "you'll need to find your equilibrium in the air. Before you can go anywhere, you need to learn how to go nowhere. Got it?"
"I think so..." Came Marshall's uncertain reply.
Rainbow Dash smirked slightly with amusement. "Just flap your wings hard enough to get yourself off the ground — even a few inches will do — and try your best to stay where you are, okay?"
Since that sounded simple enough to do, Marshall nodded his head with determination before spreading his wings, ready to give it a try.