The prince sat on a bench, one hoof gently rubbing at the bare stripe across his face. It still hurt. It was less of a hurt than when he had brushed his face against the angry plant, but it was still hurting.
He also looked silly. He had confirmed it in a mirror once the excitement had died down and he was allowed to escape. He had a big ole' band of missing fur, the skin underneath a bit red in places, angry at both the aggressive waxing and whatever horrible stuff the needles had been using to make him wish for it all to end.
With a soft thump, a pony joined him on the bench. It was the only pony that could have fit with all the space he was taking up.
Lyra was sitting in human-mode, flopped against the back of the bench. "Gah..." She reached up a hoof for the sky. "I can't get him out of my head... He has his own life. I can't pine for the human that got away forever." She was talking to herself, apparently not noticing, or caring, about the prince's presence.
The prince sat up on his haunches slowly, his eyes closing as he did it. Every motion seemed to bring some small new pain to his face. How long would that last? "Hello."
Lyra's ears turned to the prince instantly. "Hey! I didn't see you there." Her cheeks were going red swiftly. "You didn't hear any of that, right?"
"I like humans too" He cracked open one eye. "Missing yours?" He didn't take that human's place, he noticed, then again, he wasn't sure if he could take anyone's place, as miserable as he felt.
"Yeah, but he isn't even a human anymore." She shrugged softly. "He's a unicorn, small, brown, cute, but not nearly as cute as when he was a doughy human."
The description of a pony target was enough. The prince felt the color rushing over him, transforming him into a unicorn that was barely out of being a colt. His face tingled fiercely, but it wasn't a painful signal, for once. Fur swept in over the naked portion of his face and the agony faded away. He had to laugh in his new voice. He just had to take someone's place?!
"Silver!" Lyra hopped up onto the bench. "When did you get to Ponyville?! I mean, who cares?! Hi!" She fell to all fours, smiling brightly at the prince. "How are things?"
"I thought I'd visit," he spoke in the new voice, though he also felt a blush of awkwardness. Whoever he was assuming also had some social hangups. "I didn't come at a bad time, right?"
"No way." Lyra suddenly grabbed him in a fierce but brief hug before hopping to the ground. "I was just talking about you to some other pony and you have the best timing ever. Bonnie's at the shop, she'll want to say hi too."
The prince slipped down after her. With the pain abolished for the moment, nothing seemed like a bad idea. "Lead the way." As he walked with her though, he realized something was nudging him. A glance showed that he was wearing a saddlebag. Did this pony not realize they had pockets? All ponies have pockets...
With a glowing horn, he popped open the saddlebag curiously and reached inside mentally. The first, largest, thing was a book that he pulled free. "Hmm."
"Gonna cast a spell?" asked Lyra, watching him over her shoulder as she trotted forward, luckily not crashing into something as she did it. "I'm sorry I wasn't more help, you know, at college..."
College? "It's okay," he assured as he drew the book around to in front of himself and flipped it open. It was full of funny symbols. Magic symbols for magic ponies. He had never learned the unicorn dialect for magic...
"I bet you learned all kinds of crazy spells by now, and I see you still have your stone right where it needs to be." She suddenly swatted at him with her tail, lashing a dangling orb around his neck that glowed a faint purple color.
The prince frowned faintly. This was a complicated pony with too many accessories he didn't know about! Then again, the curse had always let him fit in, if he went with it, so he ignored the fact that he had no idea what the magic said and tried to just... cast it anyway.
A thin beam of magic emerged from his horn and struck Lyra right on the rump.
Lyra jumped with a squeak, coming down facing him. "Hey! You have... ponies, I know that. Don't tease me." Her face was a dark red as she raised a hoof to rub at one of her warmed cheeks. "Not cool, man..."
"I was trying to cast something," lamely defended the prince, his own face heating up. He stuffed the book away quickly, lest he make more of a mess of things.
"You still mess up sometimes? We all do." She snorted softly. "What were you trying to throw at me?"
Aw crud... "I... was trying to turn you into a human, so you could feel what it was like."
Lyra's eyes widened. "What? You have that spell?! You are too awesome! Wait, guess you don't, since it didn't work. Still, uh, thanks for trying, but I'll stick with the unicorn life." She booped him with the flat of her right hoof. "You don't make a bad unicorn either."
She resumed her march for the candy store, hopping up on the lip of a flowerbed to balance as she trotted along it. "Human Lyra, that'd be silly."
"I shouldn't have been, uh, hasty."
"That is you sometimes." She hopped down from the narrow walkway to the ground and moved to walk alongside the pony she thought was there. "How long are you in town?"
The prince realized he could, at that moment, decide how long he would be in that form. "Just a little bit." He wasn't confident in his ability to imitate the pony he didn't know and had too much... stuff... "I wanted to say hello though."
"That's really sweet." She threw an arm over his withers, drawing him close. "I missed you too." She released him a moment later, rushing ahead. "C'mon!" She led the way speedily through the town, ignoring everyone else in favor of getting to the candy shop. She burst through the door triumphantly. "Bonnie! Look who I found!"
Bon Bon looked up from a customer. "One moment, Lyra. Did you want strawberry or would you like to try lime? It's extra good today."
Apple Bloom's face lit up. "Ah never tried lime before. Can ya toss in one lime, rest strawberry?"
"You got it!" Bon Bon grabbed a scoop in her mouth and got to filling a small paper bag with candies. "Some sweets for a sweet customer."
"Aw, thanks Bon Bon." Apple Bloom tossed up a bit into the air that Bon Bon caught in her scoop before it could hit the counter or the floor. The two earth ponies seemed to be in sync about moving things around. Bon Bon dropped the bag from her mouth for Apple Bloom to catch in hers. "See ya later!"
The little filly fled with her delicious goal.
The prince had to duck to the side to let Apple Bloom depart in a blur of youthful joy. "She looks excited." Even he could tell that easily enough.
Lyra snorted softly. "Of course she is. She just got a bag of sweets at least half as sweet as the mare that made them." She trotted up and touched noses with Bon Bon even as the other mare rolled her eyes at the over-sweet words.
"Who are you leading along there?" Bon Bon's eyes turned to the prince in his brown-furred disguise. "Hello."
"Heya." The prince trotted into the shop, his nose filling with an assortment of sweet scents. "Sorry things went so awkwardly last time." He wasn't even sure what he was talking about. It had just sort of... come out.
Lyra put a hoof behind her head, rubbing over her own mane. "Uh, yeah, this is, er, was David, now Silver. You know, the human?"
Bon Bon blinked before it turned into a scowl. "It's hard to forget the human who you got tangled up in and ended up basically banished for."
Banished?! The prince took half a step back.
Bon Bon saw him looking nervous. "You know I'm exaggerating... She was forced to do community service, in Canterlot, remember?"
"She was my teacher," he spouted without comprehension. "For a little while."
"Very little while." Lyra held up her hooves close together in front of herself. "Anyway, he stopped by to visit. You know, say hi and stuff."
"Do you like sour things?" Bon Bon was looking at him with an expression he struggled to place.
"Yes." No! Unfortunately, the pony he was wearing did. Maybe that would make it more bearable? "I shouldn't though. I didn't come for free stuff," he demurred, trying to escape testing it.
"Nonsense!" She scooped up a single blue candy ball and flicked the scoop at him, sending it flying with alarming speed.
The prince squeaked, which was enough. The candy flew right into the opening provided, suddenly crashing into his tongue.
Blueberry. "This isn't--" Oh there it as. The sweet blueberry gave way to an avalanche of sour, slapping his tongue. It wasn't as... immediately awful, perhaps mitigated by his disguise's like for sour things, but it was powerful and he could do little but pucker up and hope it would pass.
"My extra strength sweet and sour blast," reported Bon Bon, smiling so smugly as she watched the prince struggle with it. "I know it wasn't your fault, exactly, but that also won't hurt you, exactly. I just needed to... do that."
"Bonnie!" complained Lyra in a loud whiny pout. "Don't be mean to a friend! C'mon... he swung by just to be friendly."
"He's fine." Bon Bon waved it off. "But he also took you out of my life for... what felt like forever. Don't you ever do something so stupid again." She kissed Lyra suddenly on the nose. "Or I'll kill you myself."
"Bonnie!" Lyra was a deep dark red, backing away from her amorous and yet deadly marefriend. "Hey, uh... well... I'm glad to see you again. You have fun, wherever you're going, right?"
The prince really had no idea what had occured between the three ponies, except that Lyra and Bon Bon seemed close. "I should go."
"Take it easy."
With departures given, he felt the colors draining out of him. He no longer needed to be that other pony. The pain returned to his face and he reached up. His fur was back, but the skin underneath still had idle complaints about what had happened to it recently.
Still, it was nice not having that bald stripe. He slipped from the store, the two mares there already having stopped paying attention to him.
That had been a reminder that though Equestria was certainly Equestria, it was more than was shown on his computer. These ponies had wickedly complicated lives that went beyond that, and he was but a small part of that greater picture. At least he hadn't made a complete fool of himself, he decided.
A new thought tickled at him. Had that sour candy been what little payment he had earned? That figured. He laughed at himself as he walked down the road. Nothing like being given bad candy to make a work worth doing! It was at that point he realized he still had the candy in his mouth. He had gotten used to it, and it wasn't as awful as he had originally placed it.
It was... actually kind of nice, now that he was over the shock of it.
Maybe sour candies were alright sometimes.