Five nights passed before Fluttershy gave Villhiem's health her seal of approval. During that time, we started calling her “Joy”. Once Pinkie Pie heard about that, she made sure Fluttershy got stuck with the moniker Nurse Joy. We weren’t too sure how much of that was a coincidence…
The final morning we awoke at Fluttershy’s, I walked back into town with Villhiem to help keep an eye on him, the others rushing ahead to their respective jobs. Conner stayed behind to help around the cottage.
“Ya know,” I asked at length, “you never told us what it felt like to evolve for you?”
He chuckled. “I don’t know how to describe it, but I guess it would feel like I was a part of the Everfree. Not just existing in it, but as it. And the trees, and the poison joke, and the…” He trailed off, his footfalls slowing to a stop. Looking back at him, I could see him staring at something miles away.
I hopped up and down in front of him, waving my paws in his face. It took a moment for him to return from wherever he was. “Ya know what, it doesn’t matter. Let’s go into town. I hear Pinkie’s trying a new recipe…” I waggled my eyebrows.
He shook his head. “No thanks, I’d rather just root myself down at the pond for a little while. Soak up some sun.”
I stopped and stared at him. “Do my ears deceive me? Did Villhiem, The Glutton himself, say he wasn’t hungry?”
“I didn’t say that!” Villhiem laughed. “I am a plant now. I wanna see if I can feed off sunlight.”
“Heh, don’t dig your roots in too deep.” I trotted to catch up with him. “Who knows when you’ll need to save the Crusaders again!”
We eventually reached my favourite napping spot. Turning, I used Quick Attack to scale my way up my napping tree, aiming for the base of a thick branch. I curled up, glancing down at Villhiem. “Wake me before you leave, or Twilight abducts you.”
“Yeah, she might need another sample from you.” He lay down in a patch of sun, ears flattened and tail stretched out. Soon, we were both asleep.
The afternoon came far too quickly for us. Or rather, Twilight found us too soon. She had that maddened glint in her eyes that screamed at us to run. If only we had seen it before she had Villhiem in her aura…
His surprised shout woke me from my dreaming. Sighing, I made my way down from the tree, then followed the lavender menace back to the library. I had to detour through the basement when Twilight slammed the door in my face. I made it in shortly after Twilight, and somehow, she still missed me coming in.
We let Twilight do her poking on us, and…
…. And there isn’t many ways one can describe someone running tests. I honestly stuck around just to see what madness she would uncover about our evolved forms. Turns out, Villhiem doesn’t need to eat, he gets energy from sunlight. Doesn’t mean he can’t supplement his diet with actual food.
After Twilight had finished running her tests, I decided to move out. I wasn’t the first to make this choice. Conner had moved in with Fluttershy, while the reckless duo decided to stay on the farm. Those first few nights I slept outside the weather office, waiting for Rainbow Dash to get in.
We spent our days together. I would follow her on the ground as she worked and did her tricks. When she decided to rest or nap, I slept on her or beside her, depending on the amount of room on the branch. After the third day, she bought a dog bed, which she took to Twilight. I didn’t find out why until that night, when Rainbow carried me up into her cloud house. The bed rested on the floor in her room. Rainbow placed me inside it, and I felt a tingling feeling pass through me.
Turns out, Twilight had enchanted my new bed to not fall through the clouds, and to place a charm on me to do the same.
Rainbow and I spent the next week developing a routine. Wake up, go to work, do work (boring), she trains for the Wonderbolts while I watch, nap, maybe do more work or training, hang out with friends, go home. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Eventually, Rainbow got an idea. We had finished up work for the day, and I was settling in to watch her latest workout when she blew a whistle next to my ear. I jumped and covered my now ringing ears, shooting a glare at Rainbow. She gave me a nervous smile, tucking her track whistle into her personal hammerspace.
She started mouthing words at me. I cocked my head to the side before pawing at my ears. Soon the ringing died down enough for me to hear what she was saying.
“-rry about that. Didn’t think it would be that loud to you.” She lay down beside me. “I just wanted to start something with you today. I noticed you seem to have some trouble keeping up with me, so I wanted to train ya to get faster.” She looked at me. “What do ya say?”
I leaned into her side. <<Sounds go to me!>>
Odd, that tingle from my bed is back…
I rushed around another set of trees, keeping up with the pony running ahead of me. She turned sharply around a barrel and jumped over me. I sped around the barrel and tore my way down the road back to Ponyville. Soon, I was running beside the cyan pony’s rear hooves.
Damnit! I’m going to lose again! I saw our finish line coming up, but I could feel that I was running out of steam.
Again, Rainbow beat me. Both of us slowed to a trot, then a walk, before staggering over to the corner post of Sweet Apple Acres’ fence where Applejack was waiting. She hooved Rainbow a large water bottle and then poured another out into a bowl for me.
“Ah guess ya finally got some competition other than me now.” Applejack chuckled out. “How’d ya get her ta get so fast?”
“It’s secret.” Rainbow gasped out. What she really meant was that she had found out that I got faster if I eat a high carb diet. I got fish for dinner alongside my berries. It was only as effective as it was only because we would run races like this last one daily.
“Ya think tha’ this is what Twi meant with her runnin’ around th’ lab?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Spike told ya about that to, huh? No, I don’t think it’s the same. Spike mentioned that she’ll glow when doing that.”
I could’ve been using Quick Attack?!
“Was wondering when you’d catch on.”
I slumped to my stomach, resting until we would have to leave. Oh, stuff it.