Joe sat on his porch and tried to not brood, he failed but he tried. The night had been a bad one to follow the bad day and this morning he felt like doing nothing. He remembered the daze he’d been in when he arrived in Ponyville and how everything had seemed fuzzy. A spark of humour fizzled out as part of his mind tried to cheer up the rest with the thought that had been because all the Ponies were fuzzy. Joe sighed and let the memories return, as they had for weeks afterwards, though he wondered now if he owed Princess Luna gratitude for preventing them returning every night as nightmares.
“Thank you,” said Joe with a vague smile and nod of his head to the stallholder.
He turned away and towards the path out of Ponyville towards the Everfree and Zecora. It was good to be kind to her. So bring her things from shop. With his placid faintly bucolic smile still on his face Joe kept walking and walking and finally relaxed as he got away from all the Pony eyes. He gave a little chuckle to himself as he wondered if he should spill something on himself next time or do some painting and wear trousers or shirt with flecks of paint. It seemed unlikely he could blame the looks on that but be nice to have an excuse to cling to. At least he could soon go back to his hut, sit and watch the sky, read and pretend the fiction books were extra-fictitious that they featured Ponies.
Around Joe things started to darken as he entered the Everfree and continued to think. Zecora and Twilight Sparkle had warned him this path was dangerous if not careful but everything else was so cute. Well, he admitted to himself, aside from the Griffons and Minotaurs he’d seen being given the same lecture as him on local customs. They were only visiting but it made more sense to combine the courses. Joe took a breath and began looking around and trying to be more paranoid, pretend it was the town centre after the pubs let out, but the dark and calm began to relax him again. A pretty yellow bird flew across the path and Joe looked towards where it had disappeared.
Suddenly the world spun and Joe found himself twisting and flying through the air, agony along the left side of his ribs and hitting the ground hard enough that if he’d any breath left in him it would have been driven from him. A tingle ran up the back of his neck and around to his temples as pain woke anger and he squirmed to see what had attacked him. Something slammed almost into him, paws missing by half a hand’s breadth, and desperately he raised his left arm to protect his face against the flash of teeth he saw. Jaws closed and a broad cat like head wrenched to one side, but the teeth just slid and tore through flesh rather than gripping to break and dislocate bones and joints.
With a mew of frustration the head pulled back and what little breath Joe had been able to regain after the impacts and his gasp of agony was once more driven from him as a paw came down, claws extended, onto the left side of his abdomen to pin him down. The world dimmed as he struggled to breathe and the claws sank in and cut deep gouges. But Joe liked cats, he appreciated cats, and he knew when a cat was looking annoyingly smug. The head descended again and this time Joe deliberately shoved his left arm into the jaws, he could live without one arm, he couldn’t live without a throat. There was another mew of frustration but this one was muffled as Joe tried to keep his arm far enough back into the jaws they couldn’t easily close, though he could feel his strength failing.
So he jabbed the two forefingers of his right hand into the beast’s left eye. A muffled roar of pain from the predator and a shriek from its prey as the predator tossed and twisted its head in pain and Joe’s abused left arm gave way. It sagged nervelessly down, but time seemed to slow as he belatedly remembered his knife and that it would be useful for more than cutting samples or scraping bark. It slid from its scabbard and Joe slashed at the paw still pinning him, a yowl of pain and that withdrew, and then he began flailing his arm in the general direction of the slightly glowing eyes. The blade was sharp and slid in and out of whatever Joe was hitting so easily he was not even sure he was hitting anything. But he kept going until the eyes vanished, hoping as he passed out that they had vanished with the cat’s departure rather than simply with everything else in the dark creeping in from the edges of his vision.
To Joe’s surprise he woke up, and not because something had decided to scavenge him before he was completely dead. He could feel pressure on his left arm and chest and looking down he saw this was because they were tightly wrapped. Strapping holding thicker pads of bandages across his left side and bandages all up the arm. An incautious movement drew a gasp of pain and a lecture from the owner of the hut he’d recognised. Zecora told him how she and Twilight Sparkle had followed the noise and found him, and told him that a fraction lower and the claws would have disembowelled him rather than slicing across the protection of his ribs. That cheery news shared she also informed him he’d been unconscious for almost two days and once he was sufficiently recovered to travel they would take him to the Ponyville Hospital.
When Zecora left Joe took a few deep breaths to see how much that would hurt and then began some somewhat incautious prodding. Though he was sure they’d have dealt with it far better he detested the idea that the pair of them had needed to endanger themselves as whatever had attacked him could have attacked them. As he prodded he wondered what he had been drugged with as everything seemed brighter and clearer despite how dimly lit the hut was. Then his fingers paused and he let his right arm fall back to his side as he realised it was just they didn’t seem as fuzzy.
He might have decided in Canterlot that he wasn’t imaginative enough to be having a dream like this, especially when he was given an entire thick book of history to read, but it seemed he’d needed to be ‘pinched’ to wake up. Or maybe it was just the painkillers, which didn’t seem to be working very well, though with the amount of bandages he’d be approaching an overdose if he wasn’t in pain. Joe lay awake staring at the ceiling for hours and assessing his mistakes and decided this stopped now…
Joe shook his head to dismiss the memories. He had long since decided that whether he’d pulled himself together from the ‘subtle’ lesson of nearly getting eaten or whether it was a by-product of the healing was irrelevant. It was like his improved fitness, whatever the effects of the magic he needed to make the effort as well and he had. He’d even taken some pride, later punctured by Twilight Sparkle, that once he’d realised his ill-preparedness was preventing him from properly repaying the kindness shown to him and, more important, could put others at risk he had worked to correct this.
However he couldn’t help but think that if he’d not corrected this then he’d have put less people at risk. If he’d sunk back into what he had been until the attack then the Cutie Mark Crusaders would not have recruited him or, at least, he’d have not been so prideful as to think he could protect them. So he’d have not put them at risk and would not have then endangered Spike and Pinkie Pie when the former had thought him capable of keeping him safe. These had been bad enough but now he’d had it confirmed that he’d endangered the whole of Equestria. Were it not for the last fortnight, exactly, then he doubted he’d have been able to persuade any Pony to abandon what they thought was their job and Discord’s plan would have failed.
Last night Princess Celestia had looked at Discord until he shrugged and teleported away and then she had taken off and, as before, dwindled faster than her speed. Having been left by the deities Joe had continued back to his hut where he’d gone to bed. However knowing that Princess Luna could see and enter his dreams to influence them had not given him much enthusiasm for sleep and despite how tired he’d been this had taken a long time coming. Instead he’d been lying awake staring at his own ceiling and, unlike in Zecora’s hut, with no pain to distract him from his thoughts.
He was not sure of Discord’s motives in the intervention, it seemed the Chaos God would have drawn more amusement from allowing Princess Celestia to pass judgement and only then argued her into realising that might have been hasty. But Joe was grateful for this timing as he did want to help solve this, and hoped that Discord was right, or not lying, when he said this was the chaos Joe had been brought here for. Because if it was then perhaps nothing else he’d done would cause problems…
With a sigh Joe decided that was a false hope. Even if that were true, and it had been to spoil the cure that he’d been brought here, that did not mean his mistakes would be free of consequence. Either those he had already made or those he was sure to make. Right now it seemed Equestria was better served by him sitting here while he tried to get the motivation to do more than wash and dress and make a cup of tea, even breakfast had seemed too much effort, and by him not getting the motivation to do much more than that. The sun over the hills was a lovely sight but even that just reminded him that it rose through the direct divine intervention of a being who was angry with him so, just as he metaphorically had to other things for months, Joe closed his eyes to it. Time passed with reassuringly normal birdsong and he began to vaguely consider porridge or going for a walk.
“Joe?”
Or maybe doing some drawing or painting. His skills were not great but maybe he could sell them on the same basis as the ones done by Elephants or Chimps?
“Joe!”
Though perhaps all three? Porridge and then a walk to where he could draw or paint?
“Joe!” Rainbow Dash repeated for the third time, leaning forward on three hooves and prodding him with a forehoof.
To her surprise Joe barely reacted to this, she remembered when he’d been distracted by his thoughts on the road and had shoved Twilight Sparkle aside from what he’d thought was an Eagle or something. Rather than jump or grab for his knife, which she noticed he wasn’t wearing, he just rocked slightly with the prod, opened his eyes, and nodded to her. Rather than jump or grab for her either, or offer her his lap, or smile in welcome.
“Hello, Dash.”
“Joe, what are you doing here?”
“Sitting,” Joe replied, finally managing a slight smile. “What are you doing here?”
“Er, Zecora? This is the day you should be visiting her isn’t it? And I did say I’d come with you.” Joe blinked a few times. It was and she had, but despite mentioning it to Applejack yesterday he’d quite forgotten. Seeing this reaction Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed. “Wait, I agreed to keep you company into the Everfree forest and you forget?”
“Yesterday I…” Joe decided to heed Princess Celestia’s warning and not say ‘thought I was going to witness a battle between the Goddess of the Sun and the God of Chaos’ or ‘thought I was going to be exiled or turned to stone’.
“You twitched,” observed Rainbow Dash.
“After yesterday I feel twitchy, but there had been some shocks the day before and the night before that. Which is reason rather than excuse.” With an effort Joe stood and bowed to Rainbow Dash. “My apologies for your very welcome offer and company having slipped my mind.”
Rainbow Dash looked at Joe for a moment and wondered what he wasn’t telling her. She was the one who’d had her Cutie Mark swapped and still felt like she was letting Fluttershy do her job and that, as good as she was at it, that she had just done Rarity’s. So if anyone was entitled to look disorientated it was her, but she was trying to get on with things rather than just sitting. Before Joe could sit again she took off and hovered and prodded him again.
“Hey,” Joe said vaguely, looking at where he’d just been prodded.
“You should already be in armour, I was expecting to have to catch up with you…”
“Not difficult for you.”
“So get dressed, we have a Zebra to visit.”
“I…er,” Joe began, and then nodded. Seemed more effort to argue than obey.
His door was unlocked as he’d been sitting nearby on his porch and Rainbow Dash landed again and followed him inside. Partially to keep him moving and partially because she’d not seen inside Joe’s hut. It showed some signs of bachelor occupation as there were a few messes waiting to become large enough to be worth dealing with but generally it was neat and tidy and reminded her worryingly of the rooms at the Wonderbolts Academy. Rooms intended for temporary occupation rather than having personal touches and knickknacks and things to make them a home.
Rainbow Dash hopped up on the end of the bed, folding her legs under her, and waited. Joe looked at her, blinked a few more times, and after looking rather vague shook his head and tried another smile.
“Ah,” Joe said, trying for a tone of lechery, “a lovely lady, alone and unchaperoned, sitting on my bed…”
“While you get properly dressed for the Everfree,” interrupted Rainbow Dash.
“Yes Ma’am.”
Joe slid the flat wide chest out from under the bed and began sorting his armour out, glad that he put it away organised, and once that was done he took off his shirt to replace it with an undervest. Rainbow Dash watched this for a while as Joe went mechanically through his routine and noted that he was right that he’d more colour in his arms and chest now. The scratch was less visible but the scars seemed to have remained as white and stood out a little more, to her disappointment there was no Pegasus outline, and eventually she decided she’d rather talk than simply watch.
“Joe, you sympathised with me about how hard I took things in the Crystal Empire…”
“I suppose it’s similar,” Joe admitted, buckling a strap, “one mistake by Twilight and then us making things worse. But I know I made things worse while you telling everypony the strange antics were a test probably didn’t make much difference.”
“Which doesn’t really explain why you are taking this that hard?”
Joe stopped and looked at her. “I think you were right when you said I didn’t understand how important it had been to you that the Crystal Empire got the Equestria Games.”
“No!” Rainbow Dash snapped. “I’m not saying that would have mattered as much as this,” she added, nodding to her rear, “but this was Twi’s mistake and I’ve forgiven you and her.”
“Dash, it was her mistake at first but I should have known I was in over my head when Pinkie glowed. She was right I should have stopped trying to help.”
“Well, why didn’t you?” asked Rainbow Dash, hoping to let him work things through. “Why didn’t you know and why didn’t you stop?”
“It’s…” Joe stopped and sighed. “Before the pleasant afternoon and evening at the Lake I’d had that talk at the school and realised a lot of the way things work here are different from my world.” He gave her a rueful smile. “Thanks for not mentioning the Cloudsdale Rainbow Works though.”
“The pendant is lovely,” said Rainbow Dash reassuringly, “but go on.”
“Well, I’d found so much was different so although I’d had that time at the lake and overnight to settle I was still…” Joe waved a hand vaguely. “Still feeling as if nothing would surprise me, that everything was just something to accept.”
“Like Pinkie glowing?”
“And her mane and tail going from straight to puffed like an airbag…”
“Airbag?”
“Crash protection in human vehicles, stored folded and then inflates in an instant to form a cushion.”
“Right. Go on.”
Joe shrugged, and then grabbed as that made a plate slide since he’d not fastened a second strap. “Nopony seemed to take much notice, it was ‘oh, interesting’ rather than ‘what the f... heck’.” Rainbow Dash suppressed a giggle as Joe blushed and dealt with the strap. “And Pinkie and the others had looked so sad that the glowing just didn’t seem as important as getting everypony happier again. A few days ago maybe, but…”
“But you were thinking ‘oh, interesting’ rather than ‘what the f… heck’ because you were surprise-numbed?”
“Trying to not overreact,” Joe corrected, wondering if Rainbow Dash knew the rest of that word, and feeling cheerier for the teasing.
“Surprise-numbed,” said Rainbow Dash, remembering the tactic had worked for Rarity.
“Completely,” Joe admitted, conceding at once and starting to rant a little. “I have a marefriend, which is a surprise in itself, who is a supersonic blue Pegasus with control over the weather. I was looking for a purple Unicorn with vast magical power while in the company of another Pegasus and Unicorn. I had just helped a Pink Pony entertain a crowd and might be about to go help an Orange Pony make dresses… Pink not being a colour ponies come in on my world and hooves not being magical and being able to manipulate cloth. So if I am accepting all that then why not the glowing? Even if I’d not spent half the day before studying and feeling dazed at the differences in cosmology and climatology.”
“You’ll have to tell me about those sometime,” smiled Rainbow Dash encouragingly.
“Maybe, though it boils down to me thinking things worked the same here but with you Ponies, and the Goddesses, helping and steering them. As I said to Twilight, when she was looking almost as baffled as I was, the modern version of Thor can control and shape the weather, but he doesn’t have to for it to continue to work…”
“Are you saying things on your world work like in the Everfree? Work by themselves rather than you humans having to deal with them?”
“There are a lot of humans who say they worked better without us,” Joe admitted, buckling on his belt after attaching his knife to it. “I’m just glad for the local dam and the very extensive Apple family orchards…”
“Pardon?” Rainbow Dash frowned.
“Hydroelectric schemes, with flooding valleys and restricting rivers, can come in for criticism of their environmental impact. So can cutting down swathes of forest or even just replacing the plants that were there with a monoculture… with a lot of the same plant rather than a mixture.”
It was Rainbow Dash’s turn to blink. “So your whole world works like the Everfree, and humans worry about making it stop working?”
“There are… quite a lot of us,” Joe said with understatement, buckling his helmet to his belt with its chinstrap.
The way in which he’d said that made Rainbow Dash wonder how many and whether humans not having a season meant they also bred faster. The first seemed something Joe was trying to avoid admitting but the second… A wicked grin came to her face, this might break him out of his funk.
“I suppose if humans can breed any time they must have a lot of foals?”
“They can do,” Joe replied, disappointingly calmly, “but there are means to prevent conception…” Then his thoughts seemed to catch up with him. “Er, I mean yes, though family sizes vary…”
“Have you ever thought about having foals?” asked Rainbow Dash, shifting position while working on the principle of ‘what would Rarity do’. Rather than looking at Joe directly she tilted her head to look up at him through her eyelashes and give a coquettish smile. Rather than keep her legs folded neatly under her she sprawled slightly, turning a little on her side and extending one rear leg to show off the line of it.
“Gek… I…” Joe replied, taking the shift in topic about as well as could be expected.
Leaving aside the fact she was a Pony, which was getting easier to do, and talking about foals rather than babies there was the fact they’d been on only one date and it had only been a couple of days since they’d made it official they were in a relationship. And if he didn’t leave aside she was a Pony there was the origin of the Minotaur of legend, that Poseidon had lent King Minos a white bull and when the King refused to give this back to the God of the Ocean and Earthquakes the deity had chosen a subtler, and very sexist, revenge. Rather than destroy Crete he had instilled a lust in King Minos’ queen for the bull and when that was satiated she had given birth to the half-man half-bull child. So what the hell would they look like, if it was even possible…
Rainbow Dash dissolved into giggles that turned into full-blown laughter as she saw the stunned look on Joe’s face and the seductive pose broke as she curled her leg back towards her and started pounding Joe’s bed with one forehoof in amusement. Joe sighed and shook his head and took the time to put on his canvas armguards, and the metal guard over his right forearm, and fill his water bottle, and fill a second since he was going to have company, and decide on backpack and spade rather than quiver and bow… and finally Rainbow Dash stopped laughing.
“Your! Face!”
Joe smiled to her, a proper genuine one though it faltered slightly as he caught sight of the butterflies still on her rear. “All right, I’ll stop moping about what is adorning your delectable rump,” he said, “if…”
“Delectable? I like that.”
“If,” Joe continued, “you don’t talk about foals. Or babies.”
“Never?” asked Rainbow Dash, taking the chance to flutter her eyelashes and tease Joe some more.
“Maybe not never,” Joe said, rather surprising her with how serious he sounded, “but one step at a time.”
“Oh, er… well you seem to have everything, so your one steps should be out that door.”
“Yes Ma’am,” Joe replied, giving her a nod and taking the time to strap his backpack and shield on over his shoulders and arm and to pick up his spear before he actually started to move.
Whether it was Princess Celestia’s movement of the Sun or the company the day did seem brighter outside and with a lighter heart Joe began to walk towards the Everfree. Rainbow Dash walked a few strides before taking off to fly where she could look more easily into Joe’s face. After a minute or two of enjoying the company, and giving her the occasional smile, he decided he’d better break the comfortable silence.
“Not moping, I promise.”
“Still hiding something though,” Rainbow Dash frowned.
“Yes,” Joe sighed.
“But it’s not something you can share?”
Joe thought for a moment and realised a possible loophole. “Technically…”
“Technically?”
“I think I need to go and see Spike,” Joe replied, turning around.
“Er, Joe…”
“What?”
“Armour?”
Joe looked down at himself and blinked. “Ah, right.”
“It’s not any problem watching you dress or undress,” teased Rainbow Dash, hiding her concern that Joe could forget what he was wearing, “but if you like I could go and fetch Spike. Him I can carry.”
“That would be most kind,” Joe replied, dropping his spear and turning to take one of the hovering Rainbow Dash’s forehooves in his hand to kiss it. “Ask him to bring some scrolls and pen and ink, I need to send a letter.”
“A… letter?” asked Rainbow Dash, blinking. “To… er, on it.”
She withdrew her forehoof and arced away, vanishing with her impressive speed and rainbow trail. Joe sighed again and sat down, getting out a pad and pencil to begin roughing out what he needed to say in the few minutes, at most, he expected this would take if Spike wasn’t busy. He’d promised his help to Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia had said she’d not deny her that help or Joe his chance to atone. However it seemed certain that providing that help would lead to Twilight Sparkle also asking what it was he was hiding. Maybe not as instantly now, thanks to Rainbow Dash, he was back more on balance but within minutes rather than hours. So…
The day brightened as if it was suddenly noon and Joe scrambled to his feet and then back down to one knee as Princess Celestia landed. He held the bow for a while until she spoke and ordered him to rise. As Joe stood she looked at him, to his relief not seeming as wrathful as the night before.
“I understand you were going to write to me, Joe?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, though…”
“Though you do not doubt I could be observing you that closely, and I could, you wonder how I knew? The answer is that your marefriend is insightful and sent me a letter of her own.”
With a flicker of Princess Celestia’s horn, and a flash of light in mid air, an unrolled scroll appeared near Joe, staying in a glow of magic, protected against blowing away on the light breeze, until he reached and took it. He smiled as he read the hurried script informing Princess Celestia of his plan to send his own letter, confessing this was because she had already accused him of hiding something, and asking Princess Celestia to not be too upset with him as he was trying to help.
“Dash is insightful, Your Majesty,” Joe replied, “but so are her friends, including your student…”
“And I said you would be allowed to help her,” interrupted Princess Celestia, not seeing any point in wasting time or words. “But she would realise you are hiding something and I also said you could not share our conversation. So you seek to resolve that contradiction.”
“Er, yes, Your Majesty.”
“Then let us resolve it.”
There was another flicker of Princess Celestia’s horn and Joe saw a bright light and then the Golden Oaks Library. He glanced by his foot and realised his spear was still beside the road where he’d dropped it, then turned around to see Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Spike looking at him. Joe looked around, shrugged, and gave them a smile.
“I suppose when you’re an Immortal Goddess of the Sun you don’t really need the help of dragon fire, and I’m no heavier than a scroll.”
“Indeed,” Princess Celestia agreed, speaking from somewhere Joe had just looked and with no sound or light of teleportation to announce her arrival.
The two Ponies and Spike bowed and Joe knelt and bowed again.
“Rise,” Princess Celestia ordered. Once they had she continued. “What Joe was failing to hide from you, Rainbow Dash, and would have failed to hide from you, Twilight, was that last night we spoke. I chided him for his interference, informed him that Twilight’s plan would have worked…”
Rainbow Dash winced. No wonder he’d been so certain that he’d made things worse.
“We learned that disrupting that plan, leaving the Elements of Harmony unusable, was why Discord had brought Joe here…”
This time Rainbow Dash’s wince was joined by that of the others.
“And finally,” Princess Celestia said, for the sake of honesty and seeing a chance to test him, “last night was nearly the last anypony saw of Joe as my patience is not infinite.”
“What?” squeaked Rainbow Dash.
“Technically, as occurred to him he could have shared this with you Rainbow Dash as I only forbade him to share the conversation with Twilight Sparkle. But Joe was bright enough to anticipate how I would react to use of such a technicality.”
“Dash,” Joe said, risking the disrespect of turning slightly away from Princess Celestia, “I’d have deserved to be exiled. If nothing else I was being rude.”
Rainbow Dash sniffed and nodded. “Once you are out of that armour I am going to need a hug.”
“Easily solved,” Princess Celestia said with a slight smile and glow of her horn.
Joe suddenly wobbled as he lost the weight of his shield from his left arm and of his backpack, which he’d been compensating for, along with every piece of his armour down to and including his padded vest. He’d just an instant to be glad his spear might still be beside the road before he had to catch Rainbow Dash, and that instant was not enough to let him regain his balance. The few steps he staggered to thump into a bookcase was enough though to let him realise that even if he’d been on balance that impact would have done this. Rainbow Dash wrapped her forelegs around his neck and unfurled her wings over his arms as she buried her face in his chest.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay,” Joe reassured her as she began hugging hard and he began realising just how strong her forelimbs were. He shifted position slightly and managed to support her with one hand and get his other arm past her wing to begin patting and rubbing her back while he ignored the pain in his neck.
“Good,” said Princess Celestia after silently watching for a minute or so. “Joe, you have earned a small measure more patience.”
“What?” Joe asked, too startled to add the usual honorific.
“What?” echoed Rainbow Dash, glancing over her shoulder.
“This measure is not because I do not wish to upset Rainbow Dash, or your other friends, though I do not.”
“With respect, Your Majesty, I don’t…”
“Where is your armour Joe?”
Joe looked at her for a several seconds while he continued patting Rainbow Dash’s back. “I’ve no idea, hope I get it back but…”
“But you needed to be reminded of it before you began to wonder.”
“I still don’t understand, Your Majesty,” Joe admitted after a moment.
Princess Celestia sighed and smiled at the utter lack of comprehension. Even if he was a Man rather than a Pony she had doubted he was the sort of Man to be considering the loss of his material possessions rather than his more important task. But she needed reason to think well of Joe after all the trouble he had caused and this meagre test had given her some.
“Never mind. I have told you of what Joe was hiding…”
Rainbow Dash quickly turned to look at Joe’s face from the close range the hug gave her. “No eye twitch, and I didn’t feel the shoulder twitch,” she muttered.
“Are you suggesting I might be hiding something, Rainbow Dash?” asked Princess Celestia.
“No, Your Majesty,” Rainbow Dash assured her, disengaging, to the relief of Joe’s neck, and descending to bow.
Princess Celestia smiled broadly, making Joe realise why she was beloved. He’d met her first when dazed, second when being warned, and third when she was very angry. It had been hard to see the silk glove rather than the iron fist.
“I think Twilight wants to say ‘Yes, Your Majesty’,” Princess Celestia teased her student.
“Oh… er…” blushed Twilight Sparkle. “No, Your Majesty.”
“The conversation was lengthier than what I have said,” Princess Celestia continued, “but the rest was private, and you can trust me… and the lack of twitching… that it is nothing that needs to be shared.”
Joe nodded, getting the message. “It was mostly reassuring me that she knew I had acted through friendship and knew I regretted how things had gone.”
He really wasn’t sure how he avoided a twitch at not mentioning the tone of the conversation surrounding those reassurances. That Discord had been there, what his attitude had been, and that it had been from him they’d learned disrupting the cure had been his plan. Nor that it had appeared a fight might have broken out and that he’d found his dreams had been examined. Princess Celestia was sure how he’d avoided it though and was glad she’d watched the party at the lake and learned what human reactions she’d need to suppress to make Joe a better liar.
“Then may your research go well,” Princess Celestia said, swelling into a sphere of light, that dwindled to nothing again.
The three friends looked at that spot for a moment before looking to each other. Spike looked Joe up and down and then grinned.
“I can see why you say humans change colour in the sun.”
“Eh? Oh yes,” Joe replied, “and you can see why I normally wear a shirt.”
“No Pegasus imprint,” stage-whispered Rainbow Dash to Twilight Sparkle.
“Though now Spike’s reminded me of my state of dress,” Joe continued, looking and plucking at his rather well worn vest, “and after Princess Celestia reminded me, but left without telling me where it is or returning it, I do wonder where my armour is. Or my backpack and shovel. Or my belt with my knife…”
“At least she left you your actual clothes,” interrupted Spike.
“But not my shield,” Joe smiled. “Still, I’d better check back at my hut.”
“I can do that if you like Joe,” offered Rainbow Dash. “I mean, no offence, but even if you ran you’d be a lot slower…”
“Dash,” Joe interrupted, “I know it’s no trouble, and with your speed it wouldn’t take long, but I still don’t want to keep sending you back and forth. You did me a favour coming here for Spike and a bigger one with your own letter to Princess Celestia…”
“And that is what friends are for,” interrupted Rainbow Dash back, “even if you don’t get a Cutie Mark you still have your own talents, but speed is much more mine than yours. Despite the butterflies.”
Twilight Sparkle blinked. Something about what Rainbow Dash had said had given her an idea. Joe not getting a Cutie Mark felt important somehow but why would that matter?
“That’s true,” Joe admitted, “and if I tried running at top speed I’d be a lot more out of breath than I’ve ever seen you. Was a challenge keeping pace with Twilight at a Canter from Sugarcube Corner to Sweet Apple Acres.”
“You found it a challenge keeping pace with Twi?” Rainbow Dash asked. Then she blinked and looked at her unamused friend and gave a little smile to her.
“No offence taken,” said Twilight Sparkle reassuringly, her train of thought derailed. “Though as I’m going to Zecora’s as well we could stay together?”
Joe wasn’t sure about that. As much as he liked Twilight Sparkle he’d have liked a chance to talk privately with Rainbow Dash. Last night he’d been tired, guilty, and scared, but it had still felt that losing Rainbow Dash to the distance of exile, or the passing of time while he was a statue, would have been by far the greatest part of the punishment. From her reaction it seemed Rainbow Dash felt the same way so if she needed further reassurance Joe would like to try to provide it.
He glanced at his sweetheart and got a smile that looked strong enough he risked the polite response to Twilight Sparkle. “That would make sense, you’ve warned me to not underestimate that path so three might be better than two.”
“And he was going to go alone,” commented Rainbow Dash.
“I still have a qualm though,” Joe continued, looking down at his bare arms and not completely covered chest.
As he explained the Ponies gave a few giggles and Spike a few snorts, until Rainbow Dash had mercy. “Back soon,” she winked.