19.
The cafeteria was perpetually busy with ponies coming and going constantly through the place with their lunches. The constant shuffle made it easy for me to just to sit down and blend in with crowd for the last hour or so, nursing yet another cup of coffee. I was up to three already since I had left Twilight’s room. Some people had comfort foods; I had comfort drinks, and did I ever need it now.
Even after sitting and staring into that black brew for the last hour, I still wasn’t sure if I was told good news or bad news back there. Maybe it just balanced out to being news? It was a good thing that I wasn’t losing my mind actively, but I still might find out more that was missing or changed. They didn’t say changing me back to a human was impossible, but they simply lacked detailed information on what a human was, so that might have to wait until we could get more. And, apparently I was still close to home in terms of dimensions, so getting home didn’t sound far-fetched, but no pony jumped to offer any solutions on how to do it.
I sipped the bitter coffee. Ponies really didn’t know how to make a good cup of the stuff. I suppose I would have to teach them before long if I had any hope of a good cup of joe.
Anyways, I was still stuck. A lot of this hinged on a magic spell done by a mare that couldn’t do magic for the next few months, and even then, the solutions were all theoretical. I didn’t even understand magic well enough to actually help anypony solve the problems, so all I could do for the next three months is live the best I could. I didn’t have a real place here, even with a partial spell on me to mitigate that. I sighed and closed my eyes. “I hope they’ll remember me back home.”
I would have stayed there to ruminate on my plight more, when there was a tug on my tail, and I turned around to see a freshly bandaged up Sweetie Belle and two ponies that I assumed to be her parents with her. “Hey Mister Scriber! Why are you sitting alone in here?” she asked with a big smile on her face.
I glanced down to see that her hoof was well bandaged and she was keeping her weight off of it. “Hey there, how are you doing? Looks like the doctors have you all patched up, eh?” I said while I mentally pocketed my angst for later use.
“It’s still sore and the doctors said there’s going to be a really big scar, but it’s feeling a lot better,” she said, then she looked to the other two ponies. “These are my mom and dad. Mom, dad. This is Scriber. He got me here, after I got hurt.”
I looked between the two. Her mother was a pink unicorn mare with a truly impressive blue beehive-style mane, but more notably, she was dressed, right down to the tight spandex pants. She instantly reminded me a bit of Peggy from Married with Children thanks to her sense of style. The father was a white stallion with a straw hat over his grey-brown mane. The lack of colour was made up for by the loudness of his Hawaiian shirt.
“The name’s Magnum. Thank you for helping out our little filly, but you’d swear she’d be better just walking it off with how fast the emergency room is here,” he said with a loud and boisterous laugh as he gave me a solid hoofshake. I think. We more just touched hooves and pressed, but it seemed solid enough, now that I have done the gesture a few times.
The mare stepped up to my other side and gave me a hug. I swear I felt my ribs shift as she squeezed me. “Oh yeah, I don’t know what would’ve happened if you weren’t there. It could have been so much worse, don’t ya know?” she said. Both of them had familiar thick accents thick accents that made me ponder on the possibility of an Equestrian equivalent to Fargo.
Eventually they both fell back from me and let me have my space. “It was the least I could do. I’m glad that everything worked out and Sweetie is alright,” I replied with an embarrassed smirk on my face. I must admit that being the hero felt nice; I should’ve played it up earlier than this.
“So, Scriber, I’d like to invite you to dinner next Saturday. My wife is a wonderful cook and Sweetie can help out too. What do you say?” he offered. That was a few days from now, I think. To be honest, this day felt like it was months in the making and it would take a few days just to get my bearings again.
I was going to be around anyway, so why not. “Of course, I can show up. Just to warn you, I eat a lot,” I answered.
“Well, that’s good, because we can cook a lot too, eh?” the mother said, “But we should be getting home. Sweetie needs her rest. We are in the house by the bridge with the uprights in the back yard. You can’t miss us!”
He looked at the time and my eyes followed his to the clock. It was getting to the evening hours now, so getting going did sound like a good idea because I still had things to do today. “I’ll be there. I’ll bring some wine or something to go with dinner,” I said.
“Oh my, that sounds wonderful. I’ll make my speciality,” the mother said, and I realised that I missed her name, if they even mentioned it. “Come on Sweetie Belle. Let’s get going, and get you right in bed.”
“Bye Mister Scriber,” she said and she gave me a little squeeze around one of my legs, as that’s all she could reach. I swear my heart nearly melted from a cute overload.
“You guys take care of her, and see you soon,” I replied, giving the little filly a little pat behind the ears with my other hoof. They gave me a round of farewells, pried Sweetie Belle from my leg and were off for their home. It didn’t take long to vanish into the dinner crowd that had filled the cafeteria.
That encounter was much nicer than I expected. Maybe I could do something good here and really enjoy myself. Magnum actually seemed like a nice stallion, and I think I noticed he had footballs for a cutie mark. I should really start paying more attention to those things. Before now, it didn’t even occur to me to even look for them, but I now, I kind of hoped that he’d be a guy I could chat about sports with. Sure, I might be on a different plane from the CFL, but strangely enough, that didn’t impact my odds of seeing the Blue Bombers get to the Grey Cup this year. If I was to be around here for a while, maybe I should ask him if there’s a league to watch anywhere around here.
It was just barely an hour ago when I got the news that returning to my home wouldn’t be a simple issue of simple horn wave, and already I’m making plans of changing my team loyalties. The implications of that made me stare thoughtfully into my coffee, because it was more than a sports team to me. It was everyone I spent time watching the games with that I wasn’t going to have anymore. “Relax. It’ll be only for this season,” I muttered to give myself a little reassurance, “You’re going to find a way home.”
I gave the black brew one more swirl in its disposable paper cup before I slurped down the rest of it. I should really make one more stop on the way back to my truck to get my tools from the Apple family, but to be frank, my heart wasn’t really in it because I had to get my mind on other things, namely a discussion with the pair of deities about my former species. I didn’t really care what they said about their apparent divinity because, in my book, they still hit all the points needed to be a god in my book. The last thing I wanted to do is bungle this presentation, because that might mean them closing the door on my return home on a more permanent basis. I had to be honest, open, and yet, keep everything in the best sort of light for them.
I got up and made my way through the crowd of ponies in the cafeteria, and to the outside. So, for what seemed like the thousandth time today, I went for a walk across the town. It’s funny; I spent most of today just sitting on my flanks, and not doing anything, but I felt drained entirely. At least tomorrow should be better for me. I already had a plan to swing by the Sweet Apple Orchard early as possible in the morning, get my tools and go to Bon-Bon groveling for forgiveness for not getting back to her. I wasn’t going to make any excuses for myself, though I suppose I had a big list of them at this point. Last thing I wanted to do is to do work pro bono, but it might be the only way to save face at this point. How frustrating.
With that bit of planning done, I moved onto planing what I wanted to say to the Princesses. I already started to explain humanity to Princess Luna when I first arrived, and it didn’t exactly leave my former species in the best of lights. I think now that I had a clearer picture of the important differences between humans and ponies, I could speak to them, and explain better what they need to know, even with my muddled memories. Needless to say, the time that it took me to get between my hospital and the truck didn’t seem anywhere near long enough for me to feel ready.
When I made it back, the sisters were already waiting for me at the truck and Celestia was examining it carefully from bumper to bumper. There wasn’t a guard in sight.
“Your Highnesses, I didn’t expect to see either of you here already,” I called from the path leading to my truck. Over the last week of ponies going back and forth over it, it had moved from being nothing more from pushed over grass, to something that looked like it could be a little dirt track with a little work. That was going to be an issue if it rained. I’ll have look into fixing that.
“Twilight must have her rest, Scriber,” Princess Luna said, “So, We chose to come here, rather than inconvenience the hospital staff further. We hope that this isn’t an affront to you.”
I was pretty quick to shake my head at that, while I stepped up my pace to get to the truck. Once I was close enough, I gave a deep bow to the pair. “No, not at all. Just didn’t expect you. Nothing more or less, your Highnesses.”
“There’s no need for so much formality, Scriber. We’re visiting your home, after all,” Princess Celestia said after giving the crash-damaged front of my truck one last look.
I stood up slowly and looked between the two sisters, coming to terms with the fact that there were two beings that were totally above me in every way. At least they were willing to forgive some of my failings. “If you say so. I think I want to jump right in on what I want to say, or I’ll lose my nerve.”
“Then go ahead. We’re used to getting reports and speeches at the Royal Court,” Princess Celestia said. She came around to the back of my truck and sat with her sister, who was already waiting for me to begin. They looked interested in what I had to say, but that didn’t stop my mouth from going dry. This was worse than any presentation I had to give before, and I hadn’t done one of those since high school.
I cleared my throat. “What I said on my first night here wasn’t a lie, but it hardly is the whole story, your Highnesses. As a whole, humans are an aggressive, that segregate themselves over anything and everything they can, and will fight over the lines that they draw, no matter how arbitrary the lines seem. Wars have been fought over nationalities, resources, politics, religions, and other beliefs. Fighting is just something they do.
“But, what I want to make clear right now, is that when I said they are aggressive, I mean that in a positive way too. They are aggressively charitable, inventive, explorative, creative, and protective. If it can be done, there’ll be a human that, not only does it, he’ll film it and start a fan magazine about it. Maybe, it’s because humans aren’t ever content with how things are? I don’t know, and that’s a little more speculative than where I want to go with this, but it’s that drive that makes them the best and worst species.”
“Do you still consider yourself ‘human’?” Celestia asked directly. My instincts screamed that she was trying to figure out how biased I was being.
That’s the sort of question that has been floating around in my head for a long while now, and I wasn’t anywhere close to an answer. “I don’t know. Part of me, I guess, but I’m always reminded that I’m not everytime I look at myself in a mirror.”
She nodded and motioned for me to continue.
“I guess, I’ll start with what you’re most likely worried about. Do humans actually pose a threat to Equestria?
“They could. If it came down to an outright armed conflict, I don’t think Equestria would stand a chance. You’re horribly, laughable out gunned in every sense of the word when it comes to military tech. Here, the lance seems to be the cutting edge, at home, that’s about half of millenium out of date. I’m not kidding when I say that humans can erase a city with the push of a button with some of the bigger weapons. Even the personal weapons of a single soldier is capable of reducing steel plate armour to swiss cheese in seconds at a distance.
“However, I doubt it would ever come down to an armed conflict between ponies and humans, but I could see humans taking massive advantage of you. I think it’s because there’s a fundamental difference between how ponies and humans think. Ponies seem to have a stronger herd instinct that binds them together; you trust fairly easily. I’ve seen it since I arrived here with how I’m generally seen. Sure, my first few days were rough, but already I’m finding myself accepted by the populace, with a couple exceptions. If there’s ever ongoing contact between humans and ponies, you’re going to have to sit down and figure out some tight rules to keep China and the US from buying your country out from under you.”
The looked at me as if they didn’t really understand how that was possible.
“I’m not joking. A good chunk of the North American continent were ‘bought’ for a pittance and I see no reason that humans wouldn’t do that again if they could.”
Both princesses stopped laughing. “Humans bought a continent?” Luna asked for clarification.
“With beads and blankets infected with disease with other humans that didn’t really understand what was happening. I’m not going to try and make humans sound like saints because that’s not fair to you guys. What I’m going to tell you is there’s a lot of bad and a lot of good and let you choose what you want to do.” I paused for a moment to think where I was going. I definitely wasn’t making humans sound that good right now. I had to fix that.
“Now, what’s good about humans, eh? I think they are more inventive than ponies. When I walk through Ponyville, it just feels entirely anachronistic. Thatched houses and hydrolines? The contradictions of tech levels barely gel in my head. No cars on the streets. No airplanes in the sky. Apparently, there’s vacuum tube computers and you think that its something special. I likely have more processing power in my laptop than the rest of Equestria put together. Heck, my truck likely can start an entire industrial revolution if you guys took it, and reverse engineered it.
“What I’m trying to say is that humans have overcome their lack of strength, magic and flight with invention and technology. With it, they’ve done things like instant, world-wide communications. I’ve got my cell phone in the truck, and I can talk to anyone else with a phone with that as long as I know the right number. It’s just something you don’t have here. And, with your magic on this side, you’ve got a lot you can trade with humans. Not to mention the natural resources you got. As long as you keep your heads up, you’ll do fine and have strong allies with many human nations.”
There was a moment of silence, before I added, “Sorry. I think I started rambling.”
“That’s more than alright, Scriber,” Princess Celestia said finally after she took the break to work through what I said, “But you seem fixated on what humans can do. Can you tell me what they are in their hearts?”
The question isn’t an easy one to answer. Philosophers and doctors have been trying to answer that for as long as there have been humans to ask it, and here it was, up to me to try. “A mixed bag for sure. I think the easiest way to explain how I see it is to say, empathy isn’t inborn to a human. It has to be taught. But, it’s taught and learned because it’s the right way to be, and they know it. Humans might of been scavengers at one point, but they want to be noble now, and that means being good. At least, that’s how I always seen it while I was there. And, there are the best and most generous of souls back home, with tireless efforts to improve the lot of others. But, I’m really not the best one to be answering that. Most of us just want a fair shake, a good life with friends and family and the right to work for it all.”
“That is not unlike most ponies, Scriber, and to hear that make me thing that we have more in common than you might think,” the elder sister commented, then offered me a smile to reassure me. “I didn’t expect you were a risk to Equestria before, and now, I’m convinced of that now, though, I suspect we will have to approach the situation cautiously.”
“Huh. Just like that, eh?” I said, not expecting them to be so easily convinced.
“If we can make peace with the gryphons, who, for the longest time, saw a pony as a menu item rather than an individual, then I think we can manage to do it again with another species,” she said, then giggled. “Oh, it was terrible at the time, but time has a way of changing things.”
“I do recall sending ambassadors, and never hearing from them again. We only realised what was happening when the ponies in the High Court started to use the post as a way to rid themselves of political enemies,” added Luna, and she laughed too. “We were quite stupid back then.”
“Then, you’re lucky in one way, your Highnesses. The country that I’m from and I suspect we’d reconnect with if it’s possible to send me back, is called Canada. As far as human geopolitics go, you couldn’t ask for a better starting point. There’s little to no chance of your ambassadors being eaten. The joke is that you can step on a Canadian’s toes and he’d apologize to you for being in the way,” I said with a chuckle. “I’m sure there’d be issues, but they will be less so if you connected to somewhere like the US or China. Even so, China’s liable to even try and claim Equestria as their own through some sort of bizarre logic. That’s if it’s even possible to get the connection open again.”
“We will have the best researchers in Canterlot on it, but I suspect the trouble will not be in the spell itself as much as finding your home again,” Celestia said, and her sister gave a quick and affirming nod.
“My power will be available to help the efforts,” Princess Luna added, “If it is possible, we will get you home.”
I took a breath and fought the tears coming to my eyes with a series of rapid blinks, though I doubt I was hiding it from the two. Just hearing that they were all in to get me home took a load off of my mind and gave me more hope than I’ve had since arriving here.
“You mentioned one thing that I’m curious about though,” Celestia said, as she turned towards my truck and gave it a look. “You said, you have more processing power in your truck than the rest of the land. I would like to see some of it.”
“Oh, I got a few things I think you can have in there,” I replied, followed by me moving around to the truck’s door. The two followed me around to peer inside of it.
“You know, Sister, for an alien vessel, I expected something more alien,” Luna whispered behind my back and both Celestia and myself chuckled.
I crawled inside the cab while they looked over everything, and only after I was behind the seats to get my laptop and iPod did it occurred to me what sort of view I would’ve given the royalty. Maybe, they didn’t notice.
Luna whistled appreciatively. “Look at that, Celestia. It’s so large!”
“It is!” replied the other.
That’s it. My life is over. You can write the obituary right now; here lies Scriber Von Cassel; died of extreme embarrassment. May the angels stop snickering soon. Even so, I fought off my paralyzation and glanced back to the pair. Luna and Celestia were both peering at a map of Canada that they found in the door’s pockets. I forgot entirely about those maps I kept.
“Is this but one human nation?” Luna asked as she turned the book towards me.
“Yeah. It’s just one of many,” I replied, right before I scooped together my ‘toys’ and dragged them out, “Wait? Do you understand what’s being said on that?”
“It’s a simple translation spell. We put one on the books you left for Twilight too. I hope you don’t mind,” Princess Celestia said as she showed me the book that was now written in flawless Equestrian.
“I don’t mind at all. Why don’t you keep that book? I’m sure you’ll get more milage out of it than I ever will now. If nothing else, it makes for an interesting memento, eh?” I said as I did my best to sit up in my seat so I could unfold my laptop.
They both watched me working on, making me all the more self-conscious of how I was sitting. Neither of them paid any attention to my posture, and focused more on the electronic device on my lap. Celestia asked, “Indeed. Thank you, Scriber. Now, what is that you have there?”
“This is my laptop. It’s not exactly a beast of a machine, but it’s good enough for what I did with it. Which is watching movies, YouTube and playing the odd game while I was on the road,” I replied while I waited for windows to boot up, then I realised they didn’t get what I was saying in the least. “One thing you’ll have to know about human technology if you ever see it is that its very interconnected. Literally. There’s a thing called the ‘internet’, and what it is is a massive series of personal, government and corporate computers that all communicate with each other. With it, we can communicate, share and collaborate across the planet with pictures, videos, audio and text nearly instantly as long as you have a connection.”
“That would be of great use, Celestia. Would We be able to see this, ‘internet’?” Luna said. While she was the quieter of the two, she seemed much more interested in the random pokes of my hooves on the keys. It’s tough to hit only one at a time, but if I was careful, I could do that.
I shook my head. “No dice there. There’s simply no network to connect to, but what I can do is show you some of the things that this thing is capable of,” I said as I tapped my volume up and turned the screen to them so they could see the beginnings of an episode of Reboot. Yes, I’m a big nerd at my core. “Now, this is a show that I used to watch as a kid and still enjoy. I’ve got about thirty, twenty minute episodes on this machine, plus several other series.
“I come from the Net. Through Systems, peoples and cities, to this place; Mainframe,” played over the speakers in perfect english. Like my music, it was refreshing to hear the language, though it seemed very alien to me now.
“Human is somewhat reminiscent of gryphon, isn’t it? It’s a shame that translating spoken language magically isn’t easily done,” commented Celestia as she watched the screen with her sister.
Now, magic had another limit. “The language is called “english”. It’s as close to a universal language that humans have as anything else. Why can’t you translate it like the book? I’m not sure of all the rules of magic, you know?”
“There is no quick way to explain that without getting in depth about magical theory, Scriber, but to use a spell on a book allows you to work with the initial intentions of the words that the writer had, but for a something spoken, you must work with those that hear it. I simply don’t speak english, and so I can’t impart the knowledge onto somepony else.”
They both watched the glowing screen for another few moments, but the show failed to capture their interest because of the language barrier.
“It’s amazingly clear. I’ve not seen an equal since my return,” added Princess Luna then she looked to me. “Do you have more examples of technology?”
I closed the laptop up and lifted the iPod, and with touch of my nose to the pad, I turned on a blast of blaring guitars playing quickly and intensely. “This is an MP3 player. It’s a portable storage device designed for music. I know you’ve got records around here, but this little thing holds days and days worth of music. What we are listening to now is something like I was when I first got here. It’s by a group called Battlecross.”
Like many other times where I tried to introduce metal to another, they didn’t like it. “It’s definitely loud,” one sister said.
“Is he screaming?” asked the other, while she looked at me as if I were crazy for enjoying this style of music.
This was the sort of music that I relaxed too, and was trying not to mouth the words. That aside, I could see that the pair weren’t enjoying the song as much as I was, and I clicked it off.
“Why did you turn that off? It sounded neat,” came a new voice and the three of us looked from the glowing screens in the truck cab to Berry, who was making her way up the little path. Only after the two Princesses lifted their heads did she realise that I wasn’t alone. The face of utter shock that came with the realisation that the guests were the rulers of the nation was priceless. She couldn’t bow fast or deep enough to the pair.
“Please rise, my little pony. What is your name?” Princess Celestia said soothingly and calmly, though Berry really didn’t seem ready to be casual amongst the royalty.
“Thank you, your Highness,” she said with all the confidence that she could muster, before turning to Luna and bowing again. It was clear from how her knees shook that she was still in a state of shell shock. “I’m Berry. If I might ask, what are you two doing here?”
Luna and Celestia gave each other a glance, and seemed unsure how to answer that question. The elder took the lead again, if hesitantly, “Well, you see, we needed to speak with Scriber about, uh...”
I stepped in at that point, though I did fear how admitting my mistake will go. They seemed reasonable so far, so I spoke up. “Actually, she knows who I am, and where I’m from.”
“What? I did command thee not to speak of it,” Princess Luna snapped in surprise, making both myself and Berry cringe back. I really thought I’d would have been smited by Celestia earlier in the day, “Why does she know of thy origins?”
“Calm, Luna. I’m sure there’s an explanation for it,” Princess Celestia said with her wing extending in front of Luna as if to hold her back. “Is there?”
I must of looked rather sheepish with my hoof rubbing along the other forelimb and my head somewhat turned down. “Kind of. I told her everything while I was in my cell the night before. So much had happened to me, I just had to offload, and she was in the neighboring cell. I’m sorry. To all of you. I made this more complicated.”
My head was down, and my hat’s brim hid both the princesses from my eyes, so I had no clue what was happening. I was motionless, and waiting for the decision from the pair. “Is she trustworthy?” Luna sounded much more restrained and calm now.
“I think so. I really do think so, but if there’s any heat over this, I’ll take it. She doesn’t deserve any of it.,” I answered, and looked out from under my hat. Berry flashed me a quick smile for the compliment, though it was short lived.
“Well, I suppose what was said cannot be taken back, though I’d appreciate you keeping your origins to yourself for now. It will be simpler that way,” Princess Celestia stated with authority.
“Of course, Princess Celestia,” I said. “No more ponies are going to find out about me.”
“Same goes for me. My lips are sealed,” Berry added.
“We thank you,” Princess Celestia said to the both of us, and that seemed to diffuse the tension again. Then, there was a pause as all of us seemed to be out of things to say. It was Berry that ventured into it first.
“Can we turn that music back on? I like how human music sounds,” she said as she walked closer to us, “That is, if there’s no more official business, your Highnesses?”
“Well, I think everything that needed to be said has been said already, so go ahead and turn your music back on. We do have to speak with each other, so maybe something with less screaming, please, if that’s an option?”
My attention went to my iPod again, and I scrolled through the options. “Well, I could find something lower key,” I said as I worked. Then the inspiration hit me and I quickly rubbed my nose along the screen to pull up a band called Apocalyptica. The soft sounds of the cellos started to play over the speakers, playing a cover of Nothing Else Matters.
“This would be a melody that We would have played in the Castle,” the darker princess said. I guess that was approval.
“So, you just listen to this music?” Berry asked as she sat just off to the side of the two Princesses who already were close enough to whisper between each other.
“What else are you supposed to do with music?” I asked as I set down the iPod on the seat beside me.
“You can dance to it. Humans do dance, right?” she asked, and even I could see the suggestion being made by the mare, and it made me quirk an eyebrow.
“Well, yeah. A lot of humans dance. I never really did though,” I replied, and instantly I could see the mare deflate. My heart fell too. I had only really known her for the last few days, but she had stepped up like Merlot to be one of my confidants here. The last thing I wanted to see was her feeling bad. “I guess I could try though.”
Now, anyone that has seen me at a reception or a social would know I was a typical wallflower that would need to be pulled onto the floor by friends and family before I’d so much as tap my feet to a song. That said, I did know the basics. I slid from my seat and to the ground, and the royal pair let me by. Nopony could miss the smirks they had on. “Excuse me.”
“So, how would a human dance to this? It sounds like a slow dance,” Berry asked, looking more and more excited at the prospect. She was nearly bouncing from hoof to hoof.
I had to consider that, and with a bit of effort, I pushed myself up onto my rear hooves and stood. It wasn’t natural, but now that I been a pony for a week, I had a feel for my new body. With that, I found my balance. “First off, up onto two hooves. If you want to see how it’d go, you’ll have to be on two hooves,” I instructed to Berry.
“I don’t think I’ll be that ,” she murmured as she struggled up to rear back, and immediately fell into me as soon as she got there. I let out a grunt as I caught her against my body.
“It’s alright. This was pretty much the next step anyways,” I reassured her, though she was blushing. She was simply adorable and well, her coat was so soft against mine, not to mention the warmth of her body. Aaaaaand, I’m overthinking this. Just relax, Scriber. I nudged her hooves up, and set them around my shoulders, then reached down to her sides. Just putting the slightest of pressure there was enough to make her knicker, and I drew my hooves back.
“It’s alright,” she said with that red blush in her cheeks making her purple even darker, “I just wasn’t expecting that. How are you so solid on two hooves though?”
“It’s almost like I’ve got a lifetime on two feet behind me, eh?” I answered teasingly as I began swaying in time to the music, and with the position of my hooves, I was able to guide her in the slow, turning step.
“It’s still hard to believe that,” she said to me as she leaned heavily on my body to stay upright. To be honest, moving about on two hooves didn’t feel natural at all, but if it bothered Berry at all, I’d never know it from how blissfully she looked.
“I can see why human mares like this,” she whispered and then laid her head against my chest. I was so distracted by the contact, I nearly missed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna giving a wave adieu, and vanishing in a flash of magic. I didn’t miss the knowing grins they had before they left. They simply didn’t want to interrupt us.
I’d have to find a way to thank them later.