Yet another week had passed, I didn’t mind the waiting for Celestia. In fact the longer I stayed, the more I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t seem to be growing homesick, if anything I seemed to be growing fonder of Equestria. I had finally recovered completely from my illness now. And I was finally able to explore Ponyville yet again. It felt kind of lonely however, while I had been ill the girl’s had received tickets to the Wonderbolt’s derby in Canterlotte. And seeing as I was ill, Celestia had only sent tickets for the ponies. (Or at least I hoped that was the reason, and that she hadn’t just forgotten me completely!) Even Spike had been sent a ticket, meaning that for the few days they were in the capital I was living in the library alone. But it wasn’t all bad, yes I kind of missed the smiling faces of the ponies I had come to call my friends, but they weren’t going for weeks, only a few days. However, if at any point I felt particularly lonely I would simply wear their gift.
It was a red and black coat, it fit me perfectly, Rarity’s measurements and stitching had made so the coat hugged my entire body, and stretched enough to fasten it without being at all baggy on me. The outside was the darkest shade of black I had ever found, but the interior was smooth silk died red with the berries that Fluttershy had found which also made the coat smell sweet whenever I moved with it unfastened. I headed for the Sweet Apple Acres for my shift, still engrossed in my thoughts. I flashed back to the memory of me staring at the coat in disbelief. Under which had been, a blue T-shirt, a purple one, a yellow one And a white coloured long sleeve button shirt. They all obviously represented each of the gang. At that point I had reached out and hugged each of them with joy in my heart. Leaving Rainbow Dash until the very last. She had paid for all of this and I was truly grateful. I held onto the rainbow pony and squeezed tightly, and like every other pony, she put her foreleg over my shoulder and pulled me in close. “Thank you” I had whispered to her. I heard her chuckle at that point.
“No problem, you’re pretty cool really so I guess you’re worth it.”
Afterwards I had turned to Twilight, “Well everypony here has had some little part in this. So I think I know just what to do to make it so there’s a bit of every one of you with me whenever I wear it!” I leant close to Twilight and whispered something into her ear. She frowned for a moment as she listened intently, her ears twitching with each change of tone as I spoke. Her mouth gaped open with sudden realisation and joy at my idea! With bewildered gazes from each of the other mares in the room, she rushed out of the room, quickly returning with one of her many books. After she found the page she was looking for, she scrunched up her nose in concentration as she levitated the coat out of its box and brought it towards her. Her horn slowly began to pulsate with magic light a slight lighter shade than her usual purple kind. As we all watched, the coat shimmered and sparkled for a moment before disappearing behind an explosion of bright white light. When site returned to everypony, they saw me wearing the coat with pride.
“Well” I laughed as they all looked on all with approving gaze, “It’s now fireproof!” We all laughed hard at that! And from that moment i never took the thing off when outside the library.
My thoughts returned to what Rainbow had said “you’re pretty cool really so I guess you’re worth it.” Those words now rang in my head wherever I went, filling me with joy no matter what I was doing. I felt as though I was filled with helium, light on my feet and giddy. Maybe this is how Pinkie felt all the time. I would give anything to stay like this forever. I almost glided through the town, and as I reached the entrance to the farm I saw almost through rose tinted glasses, the tree Rainbow had hidden in on the night of the storm. I smiled to myself, id never been good at picking up signals from females. But this seemed promising even for me. I saw Big Mac headed towards the barn, I called out to him as I ran to catch up. The stallion turned and saw me at the gate, he smiled and yelled at me to “Hurry it up.” I quickly stopped at the farm house to take off my treasured jacket and place it on one of the hooks just inside by the front door. Then running back out to help my fellow worker with today’s chores in the fields.
Today I was pulling the apple karts under the tree’s while Big Mac bucked them. This moved us along quickly meaning we could do twice the work it would take Macintosh to do when he was bucking then moving the carts then bucking again and repeating the whole process. We spent a good two hours working without a word. But once we had pulled in our 10th kart of apples into the barn we took a quick break. I felt a nudge in my shoulder, I turned around to see Macintosh holding out an apple to me. Balancing it on his back so he didn’t hand it me with his mouth. I blinked stupidly for a moment then took it gratefully, I was still surprised by the kindness of everypony in Equestria, even though we had barely said a word to each other while working over the past few weeks, here Macintosh was simply giving me food for no reason but help me recuperate.
“Yah know sum’in?” he asked me as I took a bite into the delicious green fruit. “I wasn’ too sure ‘bout you when you first got here.” That was all he said for a while, I was worried that the stallion was threatening me for a moment. I knew I wouldn’t win in a fight! I may be JUST taller than him, but he had strength far beyond my own. The stallion chewed on his stem of wheat for a while longer, obviously thinking. “But” and with that word every muscle in my body relaxed. “You help us round here, you keep things interestin’ and most of all make a lotta ponies happy round here.” He turned and looked into my eyes with his large green ones. “Some more than you realise... but just keep doing what you’re doing, and no one will fault yah fer that.” And with that mysterious comment he moved back into the field, break time was obviously over, following the stallion slightly confusedly I continued working. My shift ended and I left without a word except for one of thanks as Big Mac tossed me ten bits in another small pouch as my payment. Lost in thought on the wise words Mac had told me, I went home. Yes, home. To the library, if anything had decided it it was today. Knowing how much i meant to ponies around here made me sure. I was going to stay in Equestria.