Nothing is sweeter than the absence of pain. Normal people have no idea what they have. People without constant agony. He breathed easy, and just lay there, coming back to himself. Of course the world was real, he remembered that now. "Sorry... huff... for the... dramatic display. So... that's your mother?" He bravely smiled. Oh don't cry like that, Angel. Don't be sad. The whole world ought to hang its head in shame for putting even the tiniest little tear on your face. Heh, Here it probably might somewhere, he thought. Somehow that cheered him up.
Angel quickly composed herself, as she'd long ago been taught to. Was that why she hardly ever became upset, ever showed emotion? Appearances? Angel offered a weak smile, raising to a sitting position. "My mother and I don't get along... not like we used to. She wants one thing, I want another."
"I'll probably be a master of this when its time to go home. Just like skiing... do you have that?" Sitting he took a deep breath as the last of the adrenaline left him. Angel had not informed him, so that meant she had expected this not to occur. Her mother had found out about a new pony spotted walking with her daughter. Angel had intervened, thought the matter was closed and gone shopping. He looked over at the spilled groceries. Looking back to her "Is it something you want to talk about?"
At the very least he now knew why she didn't want to go to Evodia. She turned and floated the groceries over to the table, beginning to unpack them. He had a feeling they'd be staying at the Inn for a while, Celestia knew she could afford it. Her ears pinned back, and she sounded sad. "Aww..." She pulled out a broken, shattered vase, which held an assortment of flowers. He had a heart melting feeling that they were meant for him. "Maybe you'll get your cutie mark in diplomatic intervention," she teased.
Angel had toiled over him from the first moment he'd met her, and she seemed to enjoy doing it. She was immenseful fun to have around, not to mention it kept his brain from imploding. She looked stunned. "You don't know about... oh gosh, of course you don't!" She turned, showing off the red cross on her flank, similar marks had been on every pony he'd met. "Cutie marks are earned for discovering your special talent, it's a rite of passage. Almost everypony gets them at a rather young age." She explained. Except him. Well that explained why everyone had been staring at him. "It's usually directly related to what your talent is."
He checked his flanks, she was right. Now that he thought back he had noticed little things like that. Some feathers on one, a pot with a stirring spoon on another. "You just get one? Or is it applied to you?" A common tattoo parlour? That seemed a bit far fetched, unless tattooing here didn't hurt. Somehow that didn't seem right. "When did you get yours?" It was a very interesting notion. He wondered what his 'cutie mark' could be.
She smiled a bit at that. "You just get one, it appears as part of you when the time is right." She said. "When I dropped out of Princess training and applied for medical school, I had no idea what I was doing, other than I knew I wasn't cut out for royalty. When I saved my first patient and she thanked me, I felt pride like I'd never felt before. There was a lot of excited whispering, and it was just there." She said proudly.
"Just/.. there?" It sounded almost too cool to be true. This world certainly had some fun surprises. The people... ponies, here didn't get to wonder for their whole life whether they had found what they can do best. He made himself a promise that he'd try to discover whatever it was that he was good at here. If he couldn't bring anything else home, he might be able to bring that with him.
Angel stepped closer, and began to nuzzle him, gently rubbing her nose against his neck. She smelled nice, although that wasn't surprising. "As long as you're in Equestria, no matter what, I'll help you however I can." She promised.
He'd never been nuzzled before, it was a strictly equine thing. It wasn't necessarily a loving gesture, but one of intense trust and affection. It filled him with a strange warmth and calm, a feeling that anyone would want to experience as many times as possible. She pulled in a little bit closer, just sitting right next to him, her head on his shoulder. "You'll find your mark, Silver. I know you will."
"I still haven't found a way to thank you, there's so much you keep showing me." His heart fluttered warmly deep inside his large chest. The novelty of it caught him so off guard that he had no choice but to savour it. He had never really felt like this before around anyone. He realized that even above finding his cutie mark, he'd find a way of showing how much all of this meant to him. What that was he couldn't say yet, but he'd try his best. It was all anyone anywhere could do.
Outside, it was raining, just as Angel had promised. It'd been raining all night. They'd stayed and watched the pegsasi do their thing, and headed inside when the first drops of rain fell. This was shortly before Novara had intervened. In apology for her mothers intrustion, Angel had invited him to see a movie with her, a Western Comedy called Blazing Saddles. It was entirely done by ponies, and he was only just beginning to fully realize that this was an entire civilization, an entire culture, very real, and very different from his. Towards the end of the film, she had looked over at him, and cast him a reassuring smile. He knew she wouldn't let anything happen to him. Not here.
Very different yet strangely familiar. He was trying to soak it all in. No industrial revolution seemed to have taken place, there many small independent enterprises, and not so much mass production. They had the ability to do it, but for some reason it wasn't catching on. It made things a bit expensive, though he hadn't gotten a feel for how much five bits really was. He relied on Angel to navigate, but he wasn't stumbling anymore. Though sitting in a seat was a new strange experience, from the way this body worked. Somehow the upright position worked just fine. "Not a bad western." Just different, similar style. Spaghetti western, but with earth ponies. A fair unicorn maiden, lost gold, showdowns. Bar fights where bucking substituted for fist punches half the times. Ever since Angel had revealed that she was a princess he had felt a little awkward being in the presence of royalty... but you couldn't see it unless you noticed her wings. Leaving the theater he had to ask her. "Are they just for show, or can you fly?"
She looked amused by his question. "Of course I can fly." She assured him. "I just... well, I don't like to fly all that much. It's very impersonal, I like to stay on the ground where I can talk with everyone. Trying to talk to friends while flying is very rude." She said cautiously. She had left his side only a few times since coming here, but was never gone more than a few hours. She enjoyed her role as a nurse, and she was damn good at it.
"I think I've put two and two together that only royal ponies have them." Based on seeing her with them, her mother, and finding out about Celestia and Luna. Newspapers had talked about a coronation event for another princess, and he had noticed wings and a horn on her as well. It made sense in a way that the ruling cast could represent both unicorns and pegasi. Though when he thought about it "The earth ponies, are different too aren't they? Are you like them too... strong?"
She led him towards a small building, behind which was a lovely field. It was full of plants, flowers, and all sorts of things. She placed down a few bits to an earth pony by the door. "Two please." She said, and the earth pony waved them in. "Come, Silver. I'll answer your questions in here."
He wondered what she had just bought two of. The field was beautiful. He had to admit that things seemed to lack detail. It was like living in an oil painting, or something like a cartoon, though with more consistent lines. Somehow the lack of detail seemed to enhance the appearance of things, simplified but didn't steal from the essential. Was that an artist side of him speaking? No, finding his cutie mark wouldn't be that easy. He walked with her, watching her graceful movements.
As they walked through the door into the back field, he noticed two things. The first was that the field was fenced in. The second was that there were several other ponies all milling around, keeping to themselves. Angel smiled playfully. "Welcome to Canterlot's only outdoor restaurant." She said with amusement. "Take your pick, everything's edible." She winked at him, and resumed answering his question. "The earth ponies are known for their strength, the pegasi for flight, the unicorns for magic. I'm best at magic, the other two are more... diluted." She admitted. "Pegasi could fly circles around me, and I wouldn't stand a chance against an earth pony in a hoof wrestling match."
He nodded, and sampled the edibles on the ground. Plants of all kinds, herbs he thought he knew. Grass, just regular grass. It tasted like regular grass, though he had an easier time chewing than he used to. Didn't know what to make of the taste, so he continued with occasional samplings. "Who's the queen?" It was a fairly innocent question. He'd often wondered about it. Though of course he often wondered about a lot of things. At the moment he was trying to make those wonderings about Angel and focus about her. Though there was enough things here in this world that it could make his mind wander.
Angels face fell. "There is only one queen, but she hasn't been seen since an attack on Canterlot last year. We don't talk about her. There are just a small number of Princesses. My mother, for Evodia. Celestia and Luna, for Canterlot. Cadence, for the Crystal Empire. I've never met any of the others." She admitted. "Would you like me to try and teach you some magic?" She asked.
He nodded, he'd love that. "I've tried to feel it out, but I don't have any sense of it, not much is happening" How did eldritch powers work? Another puzzle. Magic. It was just natural here, but no less magical. In-explicit powers of the world.
Angel began to nudge him with her hoof and nose, little modifications. "Posture is important. Front legs apart, back legs together. Back straight, head up. Good, there you go." She said kindly. "Now, relax your mind, try and let go of your thoughts, and only focus on one thing." She looked around, bringing over a small rock. "Focus on this."
Easier said than done of course. Puzzle solving required a particular kind of mind, both concentration, but also the ability to stop trying to solve a puzzle in a particular way and change it around. Focusing on an object which wasn't an abstract problem was similar enough. However that's what he attempted. Focusing on the rock, trying to forget the utterly distracting world around him. Which could only be compared to finding a still center, while in a screaming kindergarten. Back to the rock, focus.
"Now, if you think you have a handle on your target, tell it what you want it to do. Send a mental assault of commands at it. Magic is usually a bit more complicated, but levitation is something that foals can do. It shouldn't give you any problems. Just command the rock to lift." She sat next to him, her tail brushed against his. "Rock, lift."
He lost his focus and smirked. "Making it more challenging?" That wasn't something he minded. The rock. Almost everyone in his world had done this at one point. Looked at something and just tried to will it to do something. That was impossible of course. Your thoughts were contained in your head, they didn't extend and they had no influence beyond your mind, and by extension your body. Everything he had learned told him that the only way to make the rock rise was to walk over and lift up with his hands. However, he had no hands here, he had hooves. Things were different, and perhaps he could persuade his intuition that this was true. Rock, rise.
He expected a good deal of trouble, but Angel had not been lying. Levitation was something even the most basic of foals could perform, and it took only a minute or so before his horn sparked to life. A heavy warmth shot through him, as if he'd just stepped into a sauna. Astonishingly, the rock wobbled, and seemingly reluctantly lifted off the ground. It was nowhere near as impressive as Angels healing power, but it was magic.
Childhood joy. The simplest thing in the world, and there it was. A rock, levitating and moving, at his will. Careful now, don't over extend it, just bring it over nice and slowly. He couldn't contain it and guffawed. "Amazing!" If ponies looked at his astonishment he didn't care, he looked to Angel. "I've always wanted to do that!"
As soon as his surprise broke his concentration, the rock fell to the ground. His focus was lost, but it didn't matter. He had performed magic. "Always?" She seemed confused. "But you've only been a pony for a few days." She asked curiously.
"We can't do that in our world." He said, not quite sure what she was getting at. "I've always wanted to do something like that. Levitating things, lightning from my finger tips.." He had forgotten and raised a hoof, looking at it. "Hehe, we have stories with people who could do magic. Lightning shoots from the fingers, or from wooden staffs... I guess here its all in the horn?"
"Magic is channeled through the horn, yes. If your horn was to break, you'd lose the ability." She said. "I'm really proud of you, Silver." She said, and nuzzled his cheek warmly.
He returned the gesture, feeling all manners of clumsy and inept. And he still hadn't found a way to express the gratitude for Angel who had been living up to her name the whole time. Giving and never expecting anything. Perhaps that's just the kind of pony you are, Angel, perhaps you just like giving yourself all the time. That's not all there is to you though. There's so much you don't tell me. A puzzle to be solved? No clues, just a mystery. Spittle between her and her mother wasn't the only thing she was hiding. If she was hiding it, she had reasons. Though she was very friendly towards, he was probably not one she could confide everything to. Why had she befriended him? A human from another world, and gone to great lengths in getting him.. here? Just a good kind gesture? Just for fun? Somehow he didn't buy that entire. You help so many ponies here, is it that hard for you to tell them what you feel? Is that why you brought be me here? Headache again, thankfully never rising above a painful level, as long as she was around.
She had not lied to him before, kept things from him yes, but never lied. He could likely ask her anything, and she would tell him. The thought occurred to him that eventually she would take him home, and she would leave again, leaving him alone and in constant pain. Her focus on him had temporarily left, as she was concentrated now on eating a large patch of clovers growing beneath her hooves.