What Follows Hugs

by David Silver

20 - Venture North

Sombra nodded towards Toby as he emerged from the building. "Finally. I trust you will explain this?" He looked towards Moondancer who stood at the ready.

Quick Stroke let out a little snicker. "She claims she's with you."

"She is," readily confirmed Toby. "She is teacher, will show Toby how better use magic."

"Not precisely." Moondancer broke her stiff stance and came around to Toby's side. "We are still examining the exact nature of his race's ability, but I feel we're making excellent progress. Enough to warrant my accompaniment to continue."

Sombra raised a brow at her a quiet moment before turning away. "We will speak as we move. Celestia has given us leave to make use of this country's rail network. It will bring us close to home. The line that goes to the Crystal Empire is our target."

The group of four mobilized, walking together towards the train station. Toby was smiling. "Last time, I hop all way. Is train fun?"

Moondancer saw Sombra and his companion were not rushing to answer that question, so she took it on herself. "The train is comfortable, and reasonably rapid, allowing for easy transportation."

Toby tilted his head. "Faster than Toby?"

Moondancer was uncertain of this, clearly written on her face as she glanced about the busy street they walked through. "How long did it take you to go home?"

Toby thought back to it. "Sun go up, go down, go up again. After that, I is there."

Moondancer frowned softly. "That is very fast... And you don't get tired?"

"Toby sleep when sun is down." He bobbed his head. "Then get up, keep hopping. Not believe I? Best Princess! Ask her. I take her first time."

Moondancer's jaw hung free a moment. "You went that fast with a passenger?!"

"See, you not beleive I!" Toby pouted. "Oh!" The pout turned to a smile like a light switch. "I take you, prove it. Want to ride?"

Sombra looked over his shoulder. They were just arriving at the train station. "That is an excellent idea. Go ahead, Toby, and ensure things remain in proper order and is prepared for my arrival. I expect nothing to be out of place."

Toby raised a paw in a sharp salute before he went flat, as flat as a large creature as himself could go. "We go now."

Moondancer glanced left and right. "Of course..." She took a soft breath and with a twinkle of her horn, a band appeared and looped back around her head, securing her glasses in place. With that handled, she climbed up onto Toby and hugged him tightly around the neck, knowing what came next. "Alright."

Toby sprang, bounding forward just across the top of a train. His paws slammed down on the top of the train, making the ponies inside start as he propelled himself onwards. Instead of throwing himself off the edge of the city, which Best Princess had been scared of, he followed the very tracks that the train had come along. It was far less straight, but was easy enough to trail along. It went into dark tunnels. At first he worried he would crash into a wall, but then he remembered what he had learned.

He echoed Moondancer's magic out, creating some light to see by. It became dim far away from him, but it was more than enough to keep bouncing along the tracks and fear no walls or ceilings along the way. At least until a bright light turned the corner ahead of them. Moondancer shrieked as a train followed that light, coming straight for them.

With the next touch of the ground, he bounced to the side sharply, hitting a wall, bouncing off that to the opposing wall. He came down on the roof of the train and there was barely room enough for all of them, but he had avoided being squished. They were carried right back where they came from, suddenly emerging from the darkness, back towards Canterlot.

Moondancer pointed above the tracks they were flying across on the back of the train. "If you insist, maybe we should follow it above, on the mountain?"

Toby nodded. "Good idea." He bounced right off the train and sprang high with the next striking of the ground. He landed on top of the tunnel instead of trying to follow it and tried his best to follow it from above. That job became easier when he spotted the tracks further down the mountain and turned to head towards them.

"Do you have fear?" asked Moondancer as they went. "You don't seem to."

Toby twitched a floppy ear back before it fell. "I is scared sometimes, but what I do? If just scream, pow, we flat. I have to do something."

"Very pragmatic." She slid up along his back a little. "But it's alright to scream too. I... tried not showing how I felt, for a long time... It's not healthy."

Toby heard some emotion there. He felt her squeezing him and suddenly he wanted to stop and give her all the hugs she clearly deserved and needed, but they had a mission. "Is okay. You is very brave pony, good pony. Can scream, or cry. Toby cry earlier, feel silly, but cry is normal. Scream and cry and shout and stomp!" He bounced down from the mountain to the tracks and resumed following them without a tunnel in the way. "Promise not make I angry."

She bonked him on the head lightly, cuffing him with a hoof. "I'm fine. I was speaking of your mental well-being. You're too worried about what everypony in the world but you thinks. You are important enough to matter, you were for a long time."

Toby tilted his head, tongue poking free a little as he tried to process the thought given to him. "I is Tsuki. I be best Tsuki I can be."

That hoof came down again, but it wasn't a strike. She stroked the top of his head just as he had done with Twilight. "Be the best Toby you can be. You are more than your race." She let out a little laugh. "I think I might go insane if I tried to be the absolute pinnacle of all things unicorn. I'm pretty far from that, but I make a passable Moondancer, do I not?"

Toby looked over his shoulder. "You is best Moondancer, this I sure of. Best Moondancer."

Her hooves moved in unison and turned his head forward where another train was coming, though it was some distance away. "Oh, I see. Not worry." They were close enough to the bottom of the mountain that he abandoned the track entirely and started bounding down from platform to platform, descending rapidly to the ground and racing northwards. "There, no more big scary."

"Thank Celestia," breathed out Moondancer, relaxing as they came to smooth land. "You are fast, but maybe not quite as comfortable as a locomotive."

"A what?"

"Train."

"Oh, why not say in first place?" He pondered the thought of not being as comfortable as a train. "Maybe if have seat on back?"

Moondancer's mind danced with the vision of an opulent chair with curtains on Toby's back, with some important pony riding it, bouncing around the compartment, pillows flying wildly everywhere. At least their discomfort would be hidden by those curtains, so no shame would come from it. She burst out laughing at the absurdity of the image.

Toby did not get the joke, but he wanted to. "What funny?"

Moondancer swallowed her laughter, fighting against the giggles that fought back against her. "N-nothing, just... I must recommend against that particular notion. Maybe a saddle?" She nodded firmly. "A saddle might help, with straps for hooves."

Toby mused over it as they traveled swiftly across Equestria, bearing roughly northward. He knew where 'home' was... mostly. "Have friends, Tsuki friends. Maybe one can make saddle for giving rides. I not want ponies on I to be not comfy." He came down from his latest jump and landed just in front of a cart. The cart was being pulled by a blue pony with a silver mane. The mare let out a startled shriek.

"B-back away, foul beast. The Great and Powerful Trixie knows how to defend herself!"

Moondancer looked around Toby's head. "Trixie?"

Trixie blinked at seeing a pony on Toby's back. "Moondancer?" Her eyes darted to Toby. "Oh, is he not a terrible beast?"

Toby offered a paw towards Trixie. "I is Toby, nice meetings."

She met the paw with a hoof slowly. "We are the Great and Powerful Trixie, and you are in her way."

"Oh, sorry." He stepped aside.

She nodded as if the world had been set right again and resumed pulling her cart. "Trixie knows not what you are doing, but good luck."

Toby tilted his head a little. "Going to Tsuki homeland."

Trixie paused. "What is 'Tsuki?"

Toby pointed at himself. "I is Toby. Toby the Tsuki. We go where many Tsuki."

Moondancer nodded in agreement. "I'm working on developing a new method of magic inherent to alien physiology."

Trixie blinked at Moondancer's strange words. "She does not know what you said, but what you said--" She looked at Toby directly. "--interests her. A new nation? They need to be entertained! Trixie will come and bedazzle them all and they will rain praises upon her for her magnificence." She smiled with confidence. "Where is this place?"

Toby pointed north where he had been going. "I is going there now. Near.... Crystal Empire." He had remembered that. "Is cold above, but warm in tunnels. If come, we welcome!" We was another word he had learned, but he rarely got to use it. Putting it to work made him very happy, smiling brightly at Trixie.

Trixie raised a brow, her eyes moving between Toby and his passenger. "You do not have enough room for Trixie, let alone her cart. She will have to do it the hard way, as usual. That is alright. Trixie is a tough mare, Great and Powerful. She will make her way." She was pulling her cart around right around to face north.

"I." spoke Toby with assurance.

"What?"

"When speaking of self, use I. I make same mistake long time, but nice ponies teach I." He pointed at himself each time he said I to emphasize the lesson. "'You do not have enough room for I'"

Moondancer was laughing, though why eluded Toby entirely.

Trixie, on the other paw, was glaring at Toby. She looked angry, again, he didn't know why. "Trixie will speak how she pleases, thank you. It is not a mistake on her part." She turned up her nose. "She will also make her own way. She will arrive before you even realize it, then the show can truly begin!"

Toby nodded his head. "Okay! Will tell other Tsuki to be ready for more company." He saw nothing else to discuss, so he gave a parting wave and propelled off the ground, the curious blue pony left far behind quickly.

Moondancer's laughter died as they resumed movement. "Sorry, I shouldn't have laughed like that. Trixie speaks like that, it's part of her 'thing'. She knows it isn't right, but that's just how she is. It doesn't hurt anyone, and she knows what she is doing."

"I not understand. Why not speak better if can speak better?" He wondered about that pony, Trixie, and what other strange habits she might have. Her visit was sure to be interesting, one way or the other. "We home soon." He got to use that word again! "You is good at reading, yes?"

"Very," agreed Moondancer. "Do your people have books?"

"Not exactly..." Toby frowned a little. "Big pictures, on walls. I thinking maybe you make to small books? Can make again?"

"Copy?"

"Yes! You copy! Please? Old pictures. Toby is scared they go away if not copy."

Moondancer's ears perked up. "That's a very mature outlook. Yes, we should work to preserve the culture of your people. I would be honored to transcribe them as best I can."

Toby had no idea what half the words said were, but it sounded like a 'Yes,' so he was happy.

Author's Note:

Toby has a Great and Powerful meeting. Surely that won't come up later. The travel! They are off to Tsuki land!

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Only 24 hours to Tsukis?

Wonder if Toby will get there about 5 oclock.

I bet Moondancer will feel like it.

[tsaukpaetra]

Hmmm, until the advent of telecommunications Tsuki could be excellent couriers! Keep going! ;)