We cleaned the table together after the princesses had left. I put aside the extra invitation Celestia had given me for the Grand Galloping Gala, which would happen in a few days.
"That was... strange.", Twilight said. "I don't think I can ever look at Luna again without seeing what she told us about."
"Well, she was very graphic in her stories. Someone of us should have stopped her, but it was fascinating in a very strange way, and she seemed so happy finally to be able to talk about such things. But this all is more than 1000 years in the past and was during her puberty, I did a lot of strange stuff during mine as well, haven't you?"
Her cheeks got a beautiful crimson color.
"I guess you're right, but could you just hold me for a moment?", she asked, and I wrapped my arms around her.
I looked at the bandages. "Do you think I can take off the bandages soon? It draws the attention towards that thing."
"Well, the healing accelerator should have done enough to seal the cut. We could carefully try to take them off."
She got out of my embrace and inspected the bandages in detail. "I will try to take them off, but you have to tell me immediately when you feel pain." I nodded, and she carefully used her magic to remove them.
Everything went well and pretty soon I could see the stump with some bloody medical tissue stuck to its end. "The only way to remove this is to soak it in warm water until it comes off by itself.", she told me. "Let's hope it hasn't connected to your skin."
She brought a clean bucket with warm water, and I carefully submerged my arm into it. She continued to clean the table while I waited and the water turned red. After a few minutes, I moved my arm back and forth to loosen the fabric. There was no noticeable pain. Twilight had finished cleaning and sat next to me when the fabric suddenly appeared on the surface of the water. I stared into the red liquid, but I couldn't see anything.
"It's time to see it for real.", I said and slowly lifted my arm. I was surprised when I finally was able to look at it. It had a smooth skin and was just a tiny bit curved. It looked pretty much like one of Twilight's legs but without the fur. "I never would have expected such a clean heal after the damage I had done to it.", I mumbled.
"Without the healing accelerator, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't look like this.", Twilight added. "How do you feel about it?"
"It looks better than I had expected.", I carefully admitted. "But of course I would prefer to have my hand back."
Twilight used her hoof to stroke softly over its surface. "How does it feel?", she asked.
"There is no pain, it just tickles a bit."
"That's a good sign. Your nerves seem to work fine. But you have to be careful about it for a few more days, so no tree punching."
"I promise.", I said smiling. "How about cuddling in bed instead?"
"I like this idea."
We went upstairs and had a nice quiet evening only kissing and cuddling before we drifted into sleep together.
...
I started the next day with a nice stack of Spike's pancakes with syrup.
"Today I will visit Applejack. I tell her we can start with the construction of the lab whenever she has some free time.", I addressed Twilight who sat next to me and was enjoying pancakes as well. "I guess I visit Fluttershy too, she was so worried about my health. I should show her how much better I feel."
"Sounds like a good plan.", she said. "But remember you want to explain some of the stuff in the 'Basics of chemistry' book to me."
"I will be back for lunch with Dashie anyway. I can explain it to you afterwards. Wow, I never had such a full schedule back on earth."
"This happens when you have friends, I have to schedule a lot too. But the time you spent with them is always worth it."
"Have you written something like this to the princess yet, if not..."
"... it would be a good friendship lesson.", she completed my sentence. "Spike, take a letter."
I left the library while Twilight started to dictate her letter.
It was a beautiful day, like always. Rainbow had told me the next rain was scheduled tomorrow morning for two hours. I was looking forward to that rain because it still was a strange concept to me that the pegasi were making the weather and I wanted to see how they did it.
I noticed fewer ponies kept staring at me. They seemed to get used to my sight. I walked by Sugarcube Corner.
'There is another pony I should talk with.'
I wasn't sure if I was ready for Pinkie Pie today, her total randomness made her the hardest to be around of my group of friends.
'Maybe I should leave her be for another day... but she had been miserable about the whole situation, I should apologize.' I sighed and entered the shop.
Pinkie was behind the counter, jumping in place and serving customers. The shop was well visited. Several tables were taken by ponies eating their sweets. As Pinkie saw me entering the shop she lost her bounce and just stood there. It was kind of painful to see some of her happiness leaving her. "Hey, Pinkie Pie.", I started.
"Hello, Stella. What can I do for you?" Some customers already noticed her strange behavior and looked over to us.
"Would it be possible to talk to you for a moment? ", I asked her. She looked over to a slim yellow/orange pony who I believed was the shop owner, he nodded and took her place. She led me to one of the open tables, and we both sat down.
"Pinkie, I'm so sorry about how things went between us, it was awful timing and not your fault. I want to become friends again, and I don't want you to be miserable around me. Can we do this?"
She showed a small but growing smile. "I want to be friends too. We could be cuddle buddies again."
I opened my arms. "Okay, come here." I said smiling, she jumped at me and nearly pushed me out of my seat. She wrapped herself around me and I had trouble breathing, but it felt surprisingly good to hold this pink ball of energy and smiles.
"But there is one thing you shouldn't do anymore.", I told her once she released me and I could breathe again. "Don't go around telling everypony about my udders."
"I just wanted everypony to know how great they are." I noticed she had no idea what she had done wrong.
"It's very flattering, but that's not something we do in my world, and I believe in your world too."
"Is it another personal space thingy?", she asked.
"You could say that.", I replied.
She took a moment to think about it. "I'm sorry if that was wrong, but I know how we can fix that."
I was curious and a bit scared. From what I had heard, it was a feeling a lot of ponies shared when Pinkie had an idea.
"You will touch my udders and tell anypony how they feel too.", she continued. "Then we will be even." She lifted one of her hind legs to give me better access.
Of course, we were the center of attention now, and all eyes were glued on us.
"That's really not necessary, Pinkie, I consider us even.", I told her and was pretty sure my head looked like a tomato right now.
"Are you sure?", she asked, her leg still raised. "I don't mind you touching them."
"Please lower your leg and sit with me again.", I urged her.
She did as I asked and I heard a bit of disappointed mumbling around me.
I leaned over to her and whispered: "Pinkie, how can you not know that touching someone's udders is something you only do as a couple."
"Oh... you mean like you and Twily? Are you touching each other's udders?", she asked in normal volume.
"Yes.", I whispered as silent as possible.
"Okay... I think I finally understand why Mooriella got mad when I tried to drink the milk directly from her udder."
I hurt my forehead as it hit the table harder than I had intended.