//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three: Practice Makes Pony 
// Story: A Tail of Two Ponies 
// by Lilyheart 
//------------------------------//

🎂
I watched Robinwind lift himself up all the way for the first time. His legs were shaky, just like a newborn foal. But I could also see the strength there, too. Even though he was the same size as me, there was a solidness to how he was built. His front leg trembled even more as he took a slow step forward. Was that sweat on his face? Goodness, he’s having a hard time.
“I think…” I chirped. “Wait, nevermind.” Before I gave him advice, I better experiment myself to see if I’m right, shouldn’t I?
I pushed myself up. Same shaky legs. No, no. Not like that. I closed my eyes and took a breath. Rather than thinking about my legs, I instead just thought about getting up. It worked. I opened my eyes. Okay, now for the next step. Go over there!
My head bent forward a little. Okay, not too helpful. Hoof, move! I lifted it, and felt it shake a little. No, that’s not right. Instinct! Instinct! Let your instinct take over!
“Huh, before I could move by not even thinking about it. So then…” I muttered. I want to go over there, and I’m happy! I bounded towards a tree. Okay, that’s fast. Stop, please. And there I was, four feet–no, four hooves on the ground. And I’m next to the tree!
“Ha! It works!” I backed up to turn around and trotted back over to Robin. Whoa, super close. Ponies are fast. “You just have to let your instincts take over! Don’t think about your hooves, just let them do their thing.” I gave a little hop as I chattered.
Robinwind stood quiet and still for a moment. He blinked. “Okay, nothing happening.”
I giggled and gave another hop. “For me, it's just because of how happy I am. I just think, ‘Oh, I’m happy,’ and pounce over to wherever I want! See?” I hopped around him, circling him. I hope that isn’t annoying. Okay, let’s try something new. I marched forward, like a little army pony. One hoof, two hoof! Ha, it works!
“Horses start walking almost immediately after they’re born. So I guess it being instinct makes sense,” Robin mused. “Okay…” I watched as he glared at the closest tree… and then shot forth like a bullet! …and faceplanted straight into the tree.
Robin peeled off the trunk and plopped back to the ground. Wait, are those actual birds? “What the h-h-hay? What the hay? Hay?” Whatever. I bounded over to him. Yep, actual tiny yellow birds were flapping in a circle around his head, and his eyes were spinning out of sync for each other. Not the only derp, am I? I waved a hoof around his head and watched the birds give annoyed chirps before dispersing and recollecting on a tree branch.
“Are you okay?” I asked Robin.
“I want to go home,” He grumbled.
“That’s probably a yes.” I put a hoof on his back. “You actually did really good! I haven’t even moved that fast yet! You just have to get used to… getting to things faster than you’d think you’d get there.”
Robin made a deep rumbling sound.

***

It took us several minutes of practicing walking (is walking even the right word?) Well, we practiced trotting, too.
With my back turned to Robin I tried bending my legs to see what they were capable of. My ‘wrists,’ ‘elbows,’ and shoulders could all swing 360 degrees. So cool. Just watching it, along with the sensation; I could feel the joints moving about. It was like watching a Claymation film for the first time, or messing with play-Doh snakes.
But eventually I realized I could curve my entire leg to make an arc. The joints and bones interlocked like a ripple up a chain. Except I could feel it. I wanted to show Robin, but definitely not right now; he wasn’t ready. I would also wait before mentioning that he had been bending his legs the wrong way without even realizing it. Of course, that reminded me of the other things I wanted to try.
“Let’s see here, how does this work…”
I turned my head to my left. Dang. I could swing it further than before without feeling strained. I was now facing solidly to my left side. There was just the slightest feeling of stiffness. But it still felt like…
I I turned my head further. Further. A little more. A little more. I was now facing directly behind myself. I watched Robin practice walking slowly, methodical in each step he took. There was a tension building in my neck, but no pain. I felt like a solid piece of rubber being twisted. But let's go a little more.
Twist, twist… Does this mean I’m still going on my left, or am I now turning on my right? I guess it’s the left side of my body because that’s the direction–no, that doesn’t make sense, because there’s my right shoulder. I guess humans don’t have to deal with this question because we’re always facing forward.
And I was facing forward again. I just turned my neck 360 degrees, and I’m still alive. Ha! I smiled. A warmth built up in my chest… barrel? Is it the barrel on the inside, too? Whatever. I felt… is this what accomplishment feels like? And with that, I lost my focus.
The tension in my neck was released, and my head quickly spun around, and with a SNAP my neck was back to normal.
“Oh, that felt weird.” I blinked and simply sat still to process what had happened. It reminded me of when I, of all things, went horseback riding at summer camp. The horse I rode decided to buck another horse behind us. I went from perpendicular to the ground, parallel, then back to perpendicular so fast I didn’t even understand what had happened until the kid behind me told me so. Candy was that horse’s name. I loved her, but oh did she ever challenge me at every point she could. But I liked that. I think we had mutual respect by the time camp was over.
I twisted my neck left, and then right again, and then shook my head to get out the stiff feeling. The curls bounced back and forth. My curls! Such a divine sensation! Eeeee! Goosebumps down my neck!
I leaned backwards to plop on my back, though I had to adjust for my tail. My tail! I had a tail! That beautiful sky! I sighed and lifted up a hoof into the air. Different shades, both… pretty. Everything gave me euphoria. I should have tried harder to appreciate life back home. There’s nothing about being a human that keeps you from laying down in the grass and soaking up the sun. Nor about being a boy. Why couldn’t I simply be happy with what I had? Because… because… I searched my memories and searched my past. A web and tangled threads of action and reaction, choices and consequences. I tried, didn’t I, God?
I shouldn’t be happy now, should I? I don’t deserve it. I didn’t do anything to be happy. I swallowed, and felt tears forming in my eyes. Really? I used to never cry! Even when I wanted to. It must be this body. I let the tears flow freely down the sides of my cheeks. After everything I did, how can I be happy? After what I’ve done?
But happiness isn’t about what you deserve. No one would deserve happiness in that case. You know this.
Am I allowed to be happy? Am I allowed to move on? Oh, how I hate those words. The tears started coming down even faster. I sniffled. The waves of emotion were overwhelming. I whimpered. No, keep it inside. I whimpered again. No, no, Robinwind will hear. Stop. The next thing I knew, I was sobbing. Loudly.
“A-Lilyheart, what happened?”
I put my hooves over my face. “Ah kamf stah. Mmmp kwuu!” Great. This happened the last time I cried, too. When I was ten. “Ahfff fffiph!”
“Did you hurt something?” Robinwind looked completely at a loss. Like after you’ve tricked a dog and it doesn’t know what happened to the ball you just hid in a pocket.
“No!” I managed between sobs. “F-f-fffffine!”
“You’re… fine?” Robin asked, his head cocked to the side, his ears pointed to the ground.
I spluttered a giggle. “I’m fine,” I said with a massive breath, before sobbing again. Oh gosh, I’m a mess. What is happening? Can I go back to hopping up and down again?
“Oh gosh, I need a tissue!” I whined. Wait, I whined? I rolled over back onto my legs, in what was basically the loaf position. Ooooh, I get to loaf, now!
“I don’t have one,” said Robin.
I looked at him in confusion.
“A tissue. I don’t have one.”
I spat in laughter. “Really? You don’t have one? I wasn’t asking!” I cackled.
“Well, you just said…” Robin pursed his lips and pawed the ground. “What happened, anyway?”
“N-nothing. I think this body has some getting used to.”
“Did you hurt something?”
“No, I mean,” I wanted to tap my forehead, but stopped myself. “Mentally. Emotionally. I… I think I… hormones. I don’t even know if estrogen is what mares have. Or even if that’s the same thing for ponies. Cartoon ponies. But the emotion just… overwhelmed me. I’m not used to that.” I smiled. “Actually, I feel better now! Come on, let’s get to Ponyville!”
Robin looked at me strangely as I bounced up. “This way, right?”
“Yeah…” he muttered.

	***

Walking as a pony was fun. There was something just neat about it. Clop, clop, clop. Though, it’s not like we were actually making that noise, since we were walking on grass and dirt. I’d make the sound myself, like the guy who followed around Arthur in the Holy Grail, but it would probably annoy Robin. He was at my left, scrutinizing the scenery. Or maybe he was frowning because walking was still hard for him?
A shot of blue and yellow caught my eye. “Hey, a butterfly! First sign of life we’ve seen! Well, besides the birds.”
“There’s been a few of those,” Robin muttered as the birdsong continued overhead.
“There were also yellow ones. I’m not really sure how that worked,” I mumbled as I approached the butterfly. It hovered for a moment, and then settled on my nose (snout?). I slowly looked back over to Robin with a smile.
“You match,” he said with a smile back.
I suppressed a laugh, but it was too much. The butterfly fluttered off. “Aw.” We watched as it flew up into the branches of the tree above us. “It’s looking more and more like we’re in an Equestria we know. Wildlife… even a bug, would never be so friendly like that. And… how we can bend our limbs, and what we look like…”
Robin nodded. “I wonder why only we ended up here, though. No one else from the Con is here.”
“I mean, it had to do something with the comic we opened,” I responded as we continued on.
“Yeah, but, we went the only one looking at those. Even if it was only the very single one we looked at, any-b-b-b-pony else could…” Robin blinked. “Really?”
“Anyb-b-b-pony,” I tried. “Me too.”
“Dang it!” Robin rolled his eyes. “Why did I have to lose my words? And my name? Wasn’t turning me into a pony enough?”
“Sorry.”
“Well, it’s not your fault. It was my idea to go to the Con. And anyway, I think I dropped the comic on the floor right before I blacked out and ended up here. So any… pony could have picked it up after us. But, no ponies appearing after us.”
I scrunched my face while I considered what Robin said. “In Narnia, the wardrobe was originally from Narnia itself. The only reason they could get to Narnia was because magic from that world has already been brought into ours…”
“But the wardrobe was made from a tree that grew over the rings, and the rings were an invention,” Robin interjected. “But I don’t think fiction is the best way to figure out reality. I mean, CS Lewis just invented that. But this, this is real.”
“Fiction is the only way to speculate on these sort of things, though. Science-fiction started out with authors really trying to understand how technology would affect p-p-p-p-ponies,” I blinked and Robin side-eyed me. “And fantasy was about trying to figure out the h-h-h-h-horse heart.” I blinked again. “Okay, this might get old. But all we can do is speculate! And that’s what fantasy and science-fiction is about, at the heart: speculation. Exploration. Those quest–”
“Lilyheart, stop!”
I froze and followed his eyes. “Oh.”
“This is a problem,” he said.
Before us was a tangle of thick, black, thorny trees. We were on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest.