"One two three.One two three.One two three...."marigold said leading."Come on Smudgie turn with me.
Much better!"
Yes, it was a dance of sorts.Something easy, something a little fillish, something traditional....something that could be done on three legs!
"Dip with me...no.."they almost fell over again."Trunk to trunk, you told me last night. Remember, the 'Elephant Dance.'"See note 1
They rose up again."How do you remember that?"He asked."Is this going to a verbal thing..?"he grinned."I know more about writer Ruybee Kip than you!"
"I remember prayers..."and oh how she earnestly need to do that after what she had seen."Was he a teacher or prophet from your book?"
"Oh..."he said."Just a freind from a lessor book....you can always mine out some truth."he said with a sigh."Just a guide, when your lost in the jungle, something to remember, sometimes a reminder, where lie the sighnposts..."he clicked his teeth.
"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be ....... son!See note 1
He quoted, strugling at the last.
"Sounds a good earth pony proverb."Marigold said pleasantly.
Here is another.
"NOW this is thelaw of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, thelawrunneth forward and back; For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack."See note 1
"Herd..."
"What?"
"The strength of a pony is the herd...friends..."she blinked."Why wolves again?"
"Not all wolves are bad."
A thought struck the stallion, an image of Pernas dancing with his wife, before he met Marigold.A perfect ballet! Centered, under the music bubble made by a unicorn,all eyes on them, ...before...before Pernas broke down, fell, eyes fixated on his front hooves. His wife gently shushing him, hurriedly leading him through those doors. Smudgie shuddered shaking his head changed his mind.
"Wolves...."she said sarcasticly streching it out the sun making her eyes glow.
"Some say they exist on the borders of time and the universe."
"Shh!None of that!"she said anoyed." No more talk of wolves!You almost syepped on my tail, again."
His wife had said/agreed:
"What thing are true,noble,virtuous, of good report....on good things taught you. Think on these things..."He thought somemore."First submit to the Lord, resit/resisting the devil/darkness/wrong thing aka bad wolf and it will flee/run away/ retreat."a big goofy grin came on his face."Doing everything to stand, stand anway."
They turned again.
Smudgie asked,"So..."he clicked his tongue."is this our wedding dance?"
"I should hope not!"Marigold said.
Right now, Marigold was not even sure she wanted to keep her promises after what she had seen!
...........
"Its my body too...and it's very ruddy and handsome." she said touching his side.
"That's right!"he nodded vigorously snorting."My book says a husband's body belongs to his wife!"
"Really?"she said her expression lighting up sitting beside the bound pony becoming now sideways to his view.
Smudgie's eyes suddenly became the size of dinner plates.
"What else does it say, aside from why you needed laws written down because your hearts had been so callous,hmmm?"
Smudge sighed in resignation."That a male leaves his parents house to find her. They become one."
"I have heard of the metaphysical joining, the older dames talk about it once in a while. What else?"
"In the new testament it says, one married, the husband, is concerned of the things of this world because he wants to please his wife..."he stopped talking, the connotations! Was he only here to please Marigold?
The more.
"Your holding something back..."the mare said squinting her eyes.
"Dating: as far as I'm concerned, and courting; is a long and diplomatic process."He struggled on his back against the coils round his hooves. "Compromises made, understandings agreed upon...."he grunted.
"Well Celestia gave you to me, so I have to take what comes....."
He hit his head on the ground willfully in frustration, daring not to say out loud what he thought.
"I have been conquered and taken as spoils of war!"
"What was that?"
"Nothing!!"
"So out with it..."
"No student is above his teacher...can be like his teacher....can be equal! Like...like...two, pulling a cart...yes."
"You're off point..."Margold sing song said gently pushing his redened checks making his head rock.
"The point is...I need you."He said closing his eyes." If what I say you don't like...maybe I'm wrong!"
"Out with it."
"Please don't leave me tied up!
That a wife is to submit to her husband, respect and obey him."
The look she gave him.
"...and a husband is to love his wife, better than his own body...to protect and shield her..."she was looking at him."But we are equal! Yoke fellows to the same cart!"he tapped the harness on his face with his hooves."You believe the same as I! We can't possibly be unevenly yoked!"he swallowed.
"I won't leave you tied up...promise."
Thus assured.
" Marigold," he spoke gently."I will never tell you to do anything that is wrong!"he struggled with the bonds."Have I even ask you to stop this game or untie me? I know you are only doing it because its necessary."He looked her in the face."It is necessary isn't it?"
"It is." she said quietly.
She answered this way because she saw something.
A couple of things.
His tail?Good! Covering up! He was learning she was pleased with this.
"What's this?" she noticed a bruising on either of his sides"What happened there?"
She was about to say something.
She was startled, a face!
A horrid face!
Darting around the stallions neck! She was about to ask him, however, it wasn't time.
Something remarkable came to her attention!
Two things.
Two little things that should not be on a male stallion!
Why had she not seen them before?
Small circular, like moles, like buttons....
"Smudgie..."she asked causiously."You were talking crazy about surgeries earlier."she asked chewing her lip."Have you always been a stallion?"
"Have I always been a...." his head shot up fro his reclining posittion where he had been hitting the ground."What kind of question is that?!!"
He began to grumble again."Off all the.....I...I..I."
She gently pet him, over one of those buttons. He was cut off and just stared up to the sky quietly.Then closed his eyes. Memories, memories of being human came back to him, when his heart beat, when he was excited, or scared, eating or sleeping, good things.
He was quiet, he was stilled. Marigold had never seen him so calmed.
"Shhh...shhh..."she said."Quiet now."
Smudgie almost feel asleep.
"See the power you have!"spoke another voice coming from where Marigold had seen the face earlier.
"Never!"she thought"I'm doing it because its something the married would do, something nice, he seems to like it..."
Maybe now he would calm down, be grounded, reasonable...Sensible pony!
Nope.
He stared again, the world, the form before him!
Ears laid back, pupils shrink, and he began to pant and sputter.
"What?"Marigold remember their talk, Imago Dei.
Quickly Marigold brought her face between him and the rest, blocking the view. After blinking, the stallion calmed.
"Is this going to happen every time you open your eyes?"she asked.
His eye slowly accepted the reality around him as he spoke.
"Umm please...would...would you stop that?Maybe you like doing that and the guys here may get a kick out of it...hrummm....."he said rolling his eyes."But, uh where I'm from...we,uh, need to get to know each other just a liiiittle better OK Marigold? Hmm....hmmmmnu!"
"What?!!"she said forgetting all about the face the bruising as he stared at here.
"...all the guy...they're all like this? But stallions don't have...what creature has been brought, what will happen if we...?"
"Some stallions do."
Marigold head was full of doubt.
She saw a vision.
High above snowy trees, pines, she was flying. A river of lights in the night traveling in two's, lit up in a band below her. One broke off, a crariot with beams ahead alone on the road. Something glinted in the woods, a flash! Through the flash she went.
"Those that have them, keep."
Before a portal stat Celestia, beside her a Pegisus stallion, his face obscured by the portal's light but he was familiar. He took his wings and embrace another stallion, his son she knew!
"If only I were so lucky, to be called...but I'm too old! Too old to go a youthful case with Mordred at my back again!"
That voice! She couldn't place it, so calm in the face of losing what he cared most deeply about. There was a very, very light slur in his speech giving Marigold a pang of deep guilt when he spoke.
Why should that be?
There was a cackle, a monster on the back of a creature-puzzled. She knew them! Where?
In a confused land the puzzled beast, on a throne, grabbed a golden pony by the necklace in his magic and brought her to his face!
"Oh this again!"snarled a monster."The foolish things come make sport the wise!" Rolling it eyes.
"You! That face! I know that face!"said the monster on the beasts back!"Apples taught this on to lie!"It laughed.
"Help me!"cried the puzzle-thing, chains for a halter the monster gouging its legs into his sides.Other ponies joined the one floating, nearby in the air.
A purple unicorn, with a crown, grabbed them into a bubble and brought them back. The bubble settled, the checkered land land became grass benighth their hooves again.
Helix of rainbow flew from them and blasted the puzzled thing. The rider was pulled away by the chains, flying away in bits. A crust washed away under a high stream, and the beast turned to stone as he looked in fear to a towering figure over all.
"Now Marigold..."said the figure."You need to finish what is started."gently filling the necklaces with rainbow again, patting each pony on the head.
Those that don't, don't have to worry.
Back to the vision.
The youth joined three others, taking a mare by the hoof."She's lovely...marigold thought looking at her formed silhouette together they passed through the portal. Marigold followed.
"If they go over to that world though...for protection," Bipedal forms, four, two male, two female, hairless dark against the snow. The males, took to their knees, cried out, clutched their sides, looking at one another, with little time to comprehend as one of the females curled up with a scream.
"What's wrong?!!"raced one of the males to her side as she clutched the claw appendage of the other female.
The other, with familiar grey eyes, took charge."Its the baby. She's coming."
"Its only been nine months! Not even a year!"
"I'm a doctor."said the other stallion.
"He's a doctor!"said Marigold proudly with a smile.Why?
"Quiet!"said grey eyes.He listened...the sound of medium wining and swishing could be heard.
"Follow that sound!"he commanded."Bring help!"he look again to them with jaundice jaw."Don't get run over!!!
Another female grabbed the second male's shoulder."We're not doing any good here, we need to hurry! We need help."the male looked at the female glaring."He's the best choice to leave behind!"Looked as if the male were to throw punches."We trusted him in the testing, the leg breaking, the isolation, the cruel town, can't we trust him here?"
They, together, raced through the trees, they didn't have to go far, came to a road and waved down it solitary chariot.
Brakes ground, seeing the plucked forms before him in the beams. He grabbed a medical bag and followed them.
They brought the girl to the car and Marigold watched atop the back seat as the grey eyed youth took instruction from older man and helped in delivery.
The baby girl cried as she was handed to her mother.
I had them, they've have them too and forever keep them...that's the way it is."
All wrapped up in blankets and put on the back seat as the car drove away.
They drove into town.
Slowly pacing by a building, cars pulled back and forth with flashing blue and red white lights. The older man parked the car, turned it off, and turned looking at its occupants. They, from looked back making contact with their large eyes. The driver turned back, started the car.
He had everything medical a baby would need and these people, yes, little people, hadn't done anything wrong...they need a place to stay, sleep....get some clothes...
"See? This stallion can empathize!"
The man picked up a newspaper and sighed.
"Fear tactics. Same game, over and over!"he rolled up the newspaper."How they hate Reagan so!"
Up a long driveway to a comfortable mance, with figures of dancing fawns carved in wood and wrought in iron. He opened the door for the little poeple, the inside old warm and inviting. "Welcome to Verdi Green!" he anounce as the little of the house caught his shadow making look like a noble stag.
Then marigold saw a mirror.
Through this portal marigold saw another stallion, he had grey eyes like the others. Marigold wanted to comfort the shaking form as he pounded with his hooves against the mirror. He was so far away.
A small and very young Luna gently put a wing around the colt as he cried.
The vision fled away.
Marigold chewed her lip.What had she just seen?
"Uhhum!"said Smudgie.
She was still petting him.
"Oh sorry!"She began to unbind his legs to get her mind off the whole odditality,"If something is wrong, I can always let him go...""She sighed"He's right, does need me, things he doesn't know, he won't survive not knowing them".she sighed again"He speaks of things I don't fully know."
..........
"I mean," she though,"I have ever good reason not to be involve with him. It was a fling of emotion from a quickened mare! Allponies get it at this time of year! "she just"Maybe ...no..."she did not imagine Him! "Making a promise..."should she really keep it? She was tempted in her thinking.
"Why not?"said the stallion.
"Why not what?"asked his wife startled as if he had read her mind.
"Why not this!"
Immediately he caught his wife up with him and the rose from the ground. Liker a spiral. There was a music that came from the air.He twirled her many times. She did not resist. Maybe she heard the music too.
Lyrics
Why do birds suddenly appear(see note 2)
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you
She gasped as the diped and turned.
Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time you walk by?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you
"Believe me it was long time coming down in the sky! Or so I'm told...."
On the day that you were born the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue.
Marigold"Oh that isn't true!"
"It must be I was told so!"Smudgie.
That is why all the girls in town
Follow you all around
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you
They both pivoted on two hind legs, each, spinning together like two spheres on a steam engine's governor.
"Physics is a little strange here!"
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you
She laughed joyfully, till at last he brought her back close, her checks were pink as she looked into his eyes.
Wa, close to you
Wa, close to you
Ha, close to you
La, close to youSee note 1
This! This was what she wanted! To be in a relationship, to be swept away...to have fun!
The cord loosely surrounded them, not binding, but surrounded.
"Don't think this will save you! I'm still mad."spoke her through sly eyes.
"You need it."he said."I needed it, blue eyes!"
"True..."her eyes softened."What I really need now"she said. Pain was coming up through her rear, up her legs and back.
"I need, down."
"Is this love?I don't know!I've never been there or can't I remember?!"He thought."What else have I forgotten, destined to history repeat???"The rider snickered gleeful of the stallions doubt.
"I don't want to forget" He said his voice starting to crack" who I am,what I'am"gritted teeth"...where I'm from."
"Oh....sweetheart."she said as a dove. "You won't forget!
What do I say to that?"
Say this:
"When we get to my city, others will be along the way, together,all, you will remember.
Again we will rise, in air,we too, on two, I will lead the way. You, follow( touch the skies!) and, like me, others follow you."
Touched, he turn his cheek to her."Please,please.Do come back down to me."
It was enogh he gently brought her down again.
"You and He! Always spoiling it for me!!"said the rider as marigolds ear twisted as if hearing...something.
"Ok....so you can dance."she said with a deep sigh."Now....watch me run...watch all of me!"