"Pleaaaaase... Twilight! We have been at it for like two hours already, and you only needed my help once." Spike pleaded.
"But Spike, this... This was going to be OUR research, like the good old times. Your help it's always welcomed and necessary for improving my efficiency!" Twilight responded.
"Oh, darling, I don't want to be a nuisance. Don't worry if you're busy, I can do it myself. Spike's help was only needed to carry some extra accessories." Rarity added.
"Why doesn't Fluttershy bring the creature to the boutique?" Twilight asked.
"I told her to do that, but she said that the creature is not prepared to go out without protection. It seems to be from a really hot place, so autumn in Ponyville feels like a little too cold. Aaaand the poor thing is a little sick, that's part of why Fluttershy won't let it go outside just yet. She said it needs the clothes to go out. And that it needed being taken care of, and couldn't come to our usual hang out at the spa." Rarity explained.
"Pleeeeaaaaaseeee..." Spike pleaded in despair. "And... and... I will check the creature! Yes, that's part of the research! Maybe I can notice something you didn't... errr... not saying that you wouldn't notice something but... errrrrr... A second opinion? Four eyes see more than two?"
"Okay, okay! You can go!" Twilight groaned in frustration after the whole morning researching and not finding what she wanted. Not that she couldn't do the research without Spike, but this was just one more little setback after the frustrating investigation. If she didn't let Spike go with Rarity, he was going to be sore and grumpy all day, and that was going to be even worse.
Spike did a slightly contained celebratory gesture before running out of the library of the castle, opening and holding the door like a little gentleman for Rarity. They both went out of the castle and headed to the Carousel Boutique, a pile of baggage and cases way too big for the little dragon waiting for him to carry.
***
I woke up. It was still dark outside. The air was cold, but I was suspiciously warm and comfortable, way too nice for it to be...
Yes, she did it again.
I focused my eyes and looked around to regain my bearings. I was in Yellowings' bed, and she was curled at my side, a wing draped across my back, and I had involuntarily put an arm across her back, hugging her like a giant stuffed animal.
A pink and pastel yellow, really girly stuffed animal.
I shifted slightly, and she frowned at the movement and one of her ears twitched. I stopped. I didn't want to wake her up, so I relaxed again in the same position.
I started thinking about how everybody were handling that I was missing. I supposed that my boss was going to be mad at first, my family worried, then someone would call the police and they would start looking for me... They would probably find my car and then they would start searching the place, maybe someone would eventually come here and discover this weird place with little horse people and weird animals. Probably they could help me get back home... Or maybe someone could end up lost here in this place like I was...
The best plan was to wait for help, and follow those little horses, Yellowings was taking care of me just right, I thought I would survive here without a problem, but I needed winter clothes if I wanted to go somewhere. Maybe these equines could guide me back to civilization, but if they had built a town and remained unnoticed by humans... Were they scared about humans? I don't think so... Yellowings acted with ignorance and curiosity, trying to figure me out... not fear, like if she hadn't seen a human before. If that's the case... they wouldn't be able to guide me back home.
Yellowings opened one sleepy eye and looked at me.
"Oh, did I wake you up?" I asked in a low voice.
She whispered something and looked to the window, it was still dark outside, then she snuggled again, burrowing her muzzle under the covers and her extended wing, her ears going flat against her skull while she wriggled her head into position, ending with her forehead pressed against my chest. When she relaxed, her ears moved to the normal position again, like a cat.
One of my hands started to pet her hair without me noticing, such a sneaky hand! It was an automatic action. She flinched a little at the first contact, but when my hand started running (All by its own) through her hair, she relaxed gradually at the touch.
"Still too early in the morning, isn't it?" I whispered. She mumbled something, sounding muffled and undefined through the covers.
The hair looked a lot like human hair on her head, except that it was pink in color, but in the dark it was difficult to find the difference. It also ran down her neck, resembling a horse mane.
The moment my hand touched one of her ears, she ducked both of them flat again, but after a few seconds, she relaxed, then shivered and ruffled slightly her wings, mumbling content noises.
It then came to mind that I didn't know if what I was doing was right, because even though they looked like furry animals, they were obviously more intelligent, probably sapient like a human. Maybe it wasn't appropriate to pet one of them like that. But they didn't have hands to pet each other, and Yellowings didn't do anything against it, plus she seemed to enjoy it.
Slightly troubled by that line of thought, I stopped petting her. The reaction was immediate. She leaned into my hand, having her head tucked down the covers and pressed against me, nuzzling my shirt in the process and pressing her wing a little more against my back.
"Okay, okay... Want more?" I whispered. I could feel her nodding.
I wished I could take one of these as a pet when I got back home, but that felt kind of wrong, and probably unfair to them.
Anyways, I would rather enjoy the moment and leave the moral thinking for later, so, I continued petting her until she fell asleep, and then I drifted asleep too.
***
Breakfast.
This time, the assortment that was on the tray was a fish, some pancakes, milk, orange juice and different pieces of fruit. It was a weird breakfast, but an edible one. As usual, we both ate together.
Putting again the thermometer on me, she smiled at the results and didn't gave me any more medicine. I felt a lot better too, so I got out of the bed and decided that I should take a shower. Or a bath because her bathtub wasn't prepared for a shower for something as tall as me... or probably not a shower at all because there was only a low tap slightly above the wooden tub.
I went through the process of turning on the water heater while Yellowings was distracted feeding her other critters. That gave me enough time to do the same process as the last time without being noticed until I was finishing.
When she realized I was missing and found out I was taking a bath, she knocked on the door, slightly worried, but I told her to relax, that I was just fine. When I came out, she frowned and said something in a slight angry tone, but I repeated that I needed my space, at least for that.
With my only clothes slightly damp, Yellowings gave me a blanket to cover myself, it was slightly cold even indoors.
Having nothing to do, I went downstairs. The little animals were finishing their food and some of them were already leaving. I decided to sat on the couch and observe.
It was a green couch and a green armchair... The couch had a funny shape. It was like those French recliners (I had no real idea why I thought it was French, but it felt like that) but instead of being a fancy one, it was simple and relatively handmade... (hoofmade?)
The ceiling was sturdier than the ones in the kitchen and the bedroom because it needed to support the rooms upstairs and it was simple, with wooden beams but feeling slightly heavier, without the climbing plants and the bird houses hanging on... oh wait, she just managed to put two of them near the walls...
There was a big round blue carpet covering most of the wood floor, some shelves on the walls with a few books and some pet baskets on the floor of the irregular shaped room.
I had had to remove the bandages from my ankle for the bath, and Yellowings noticed it and went downstairs carrying her little red crossed bags. I let her work, knowing that she knew what she was doing. The wound didn't look so bad, and in a few minutes and some winces from the disinfectant stinging, I was ready again.
Two rapid knocks on the door followed by a sing song, exaggeratedly expressive voice I recognized. The white unicorn.
Yellowings went to the door and greeted her guests. As I had anticipated, it was the pristine unicorn, followed by... a pet lizard? Wow, the lizard was pulling an oversized cart full of stuff. It was panting and sweating, but seemed determined to accomplish the task. The unicorn waved at me with a smile that sent a chill down my spine. I didn't know what they were up to, but this had something to do with me, I knew it.
Fabric, measuring tape, needles, string, various objects and a flipping SEWING MACHINE. The poor lizard had pulled all of that all the way here, and he was now collapsed on the floor, recovering its breath. The room has been turned into a tailor shop that had all the stuff that had been carried by the little guy.
Out of curiosity, I watched carefully the whole process. The little lizard seemed to talk to the unicorn, and the unicorn gave him back orders in her sing song horse noises. The lizard replied in sing song weird noises that weren't anything near a horse noise, but both seemed to be understanding each other. How peculiar.
I felt a pull on my shorts, but I grabbed them in time. They were glowing in a blue aura, the same as the unicorn horn. I glared at her.
No.
Bad unicorn.
After a few seconds of fighting against a ghost force created by the white, squiggle tailed, horned little horse, she finally gave in. If you ask me, I would say that she gave up because she was starting to sweat and that could ruin her make-up or something.
Yellowings had been trying to calm us down the whole time, but that winged pony had the capacity of going unnoticed even when she was trying to say something. Yellowings and Miss Squiggle had a short conversation. The lizard only had eyes for the unicorn.
Miss Squiggle produced a few measuring tapes and she started to use all of them at the same time on me while taking notes on a folder with a pencil. I hesitantly let her do her job while grabbing my shorts with one hand just in case.
The following hour or so, Yellowings and Miss Squiggle talked over a clipboard while Miss Squiggle was drawing something. Yellowings was pointing out things and giving the unicorn her opinion about something.
Suddenly, they both looked at me, looked at each other and giggled. Not the cute and nice giggle, but the kind of girly giggle that makes you know they are plotting something EVIL. Yellowings went to the kitchen and started to cook something while the unicorn started unpacking a few fabric rolls, a box of ribbons, a small box of gems and other stuff.
Out of curiosity, I peeked at the unicorn's clipboard and saw it. It was a crude drawing of a human figure with a lot of annotations in a weird script, probably all the measures she had taken. But the worst part was the dress. The human figure was wearing some kind of classy suit, but it had ribbons and gemstones giving it a feeling of something cutesy. That dress was something a normal person wouldn't wear.
I looked back at the unicorn, who saw me looking at her drawing, and she smiled. I looked back and forth between the drawing and the assortment of fabrics and complements she was preparing and something clicked together.
The ribbons were similar to those in the drawing. The fabric, though it was drawn by pencil, looked similar in texture and shade than the one the unicorn was preparing. The assortment of gems in the bowtie looked similar to those that the unicorn was selecting from her little gem box and putting on a little piece of fabric... They were planning on making that damned dress and making ME wear it.
Yellowings came out of the kitchen with a few bowls of different snacks.
"Sorry, but I'm not going to wear THIS." I told her, holding the clipboard and pointing at the offending dress.
Yellowings cocked her head and asked me something, confused.
"I need utilitarian clothes to wear every day, not some sort of wedding crazy fantasy suit." I pointed out.
Realization dawned on her face and she went to talk with the unicorn. After some time of horse noises between the two equines, a very sad looking Miss Squiggle put the drawing away and took a fresh sheet of paper.
This time, I fetched another piece of paper, made a crude drawing of a human figure and made it wear a simple, extra plain sweater and a pair of loose trousers made out of a thick looking fabric in the hopes that Miss Squiggle would understand that I wanted them to actually protect me from the cold weather, and a coat made out from that same fabric that even I didn't know what was it, but wanted to make clear that they should be made out of something thick.
I showed them to the unicorn, interrupting her in her job. She was making another draw. It was simpler, but still looked like a suit for a really formal occasion. She looked at me unimpressed.
"I would like to order at least two of this and this" I pointed at the sweater and the trousers. "And one of this." I pointed at the coat then.
Miss Squiggle looked at me confused and said a word or two in those sing song horse noises.
"I need at least two sets, just in case one of them gets dirty. Also, I would like them made out of a thick, resistant fabric, easily washable if possible. I want to be able to have always one ready to use while I'm washing the other set." I tried to explain, but the unicorn scrunched her muzzle in confusion. She was wearing a pair of red glasses that clashed with everything. They were probably an accessory that she wore only when she was working.
"This one, two of them. This one, one of them. Errr... please." I tried to explain in the simplest possible way while gesturing in the hopes that she would get my body language when I showed her two and one fingers while pointing at the drawing. She bit her lower lip and looked for the yellow equine.
Yellowings came closer and asked something to the unicorn, a little concern on her face. Miss Squiggle told her something and the yellow equine turned to me with a questioning look. I told her the same things I had already told to the unicorn. She nodded and translated it to the white equine.
Needles, string, fabric and scissors flew around the white unicorn, and in half an hour she had already finished the whole commission. She looked at her creations with a plain and slightly scornful look. I had to risk my life a few times to stop her, in the middle of that tornado of tailoring utensils, from doing the clothes from a pink or pastel blue fabric. Of course, I needed Yellowings to translate, which is funny because she doesn’t even speak my own language.
I ended up with a set made out of a dark blue thick cotton fabric and another one in grey. The coat was black. But I couldn't dissuade the unicorn from adding some details like some gems here and there and other ornaments. She also added a hood to the coat trimmed with some pastel blue fluffy border and blue bunny ears, which amused Yellowings for some reason.
I tried them on. They fit comfortably loose and felt warm enough, the light blue trim fitting with some details of the dark blue sweater which had also some light blue ornaments.
Miss Squiggle looked deep in thought, contemplating her creation and my original clothes. Yellowings interrupted her reverie offering her a little bag of golden coins, but the unicorn looked dramatically horrified and rejected the payment. Yellowings thanked her, looking embarrassed.
After Miss Squiggletail rejecting to be paid for her services, Yellowings insisted in inviting her to eat lunch with us. The pet lizard had spent the whole time looking at the unicorn and eating all the treats that Yellowings had brought, and now it was looking sick at the mere sight of more food. We ate lunch together, the two equines talking merrily. I just ate, trying to ignore the fact that most of their conversation was probably, by the look of Yellowings' reactions, about me and the dresses.
I sneakily peeked at my phone, trying to distract myself from the awkward situation of a couple of girls talking about girl stuff like you weren’t even there, in the hopes that I could make it work somehow, but of course, still no signal.