"Unky Prowsy?" Props stammered. She licked her lips, sweating as she adjusted the dials of her communications array inside the engine room of the Noble Jury. "Unky Prowsy, if you're there, come in! This is your lil' Propsicle! Over and out!"
Nothing but static screeched out of the quivering speakers.
Props pouted.
"Mmmmmmmm-Prowssssssy! Talk to me! You've got the most powerful antenna in the world! Get it sparkling, old stallion!"
At last, a voice: "You're sure working up a sweat, blondie."
Props gasped, grinning. "It's working! I can hear you, Unky—wait." Her goggled brow furrowed. "How do you know that I'm still dying it?"
"Ahem."
Props swiveled around in her stool.
Zaid stood in the open doorway to the navigations room, waving with a bashful smile.
"Zaidddddddd..." Props stuck her tongue out. "You're not Unky Propsy!"
"Heh. 'Tis a shame. I'd kill for his beard."
"Well, considering the law of averages, you probably would have to do just that."
"Busy with stickening the wicket, I see." He closed the hatch behind him and trotted nonchalantly towards her work bench. "Any luck?"
"Phweeeeeeeeeee..." Props blew through her lips and slouched in her stool. "No." Another sigh. "It's this poopy-headed crater and its poopy-headed Sky Stabs breaking the unbreakable symbol."
"Fitting, consider the basin's pretty much nature's toilet, don't you think?"
"Ehhh..." Props shrugged. "The ponies here are nice." She swiveled about, smirking pleasantly. "I guess when love is free—heehee—you have very little to stress about!"
"I'm not sure how to feel about that, by the way."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Kind of takes the thrill out of boinking it when all you're ever doing is boinking it."
"Heeheehee... Well, so long as they all get along nicely with each other, I don't see what the problem is!"
"Not having a mom or a dad?" Zaid brushed his bangs back. "Seems a bit crazy to me." He grinned wide. "And I was part of a cult!"
"Still, a lot less baggage."
"Yeah. But then there'd be no smexy Uncles with bigass antennae to inherit."
"Oh... right..." Props made a sad face, her ears folding. "Wow, that sounds lonely."
"Hmmmm..." Zaid scratched his chin. "Ponies incapable of feeling lonesome... kinda makes you wonder if they ever truly get 'happiness' down pat."
"Pffft. It's not like us to judge!"
"Sure it is."
Silence.
Zaid cleared his throat. "You... uh... you're totally gonna see him again, y'know."
She turned towards him, blue eyes sparkling. "Chiii?"
"Prowse," Zaid said, sliding up a metal crate and sitting beside her. "You really think he'll fall back on his promise to meet us in Val Roa?" He winked. "For real, gurl. I've not seen an Uncle that protective over her niece since... since..." He grimaced slightly. "Yeesh, y'know, let's end it right there." He gulped. "It'd be a real buzz kill to talk about that one week that the Herald spent recruiting in Oakansas..."
Props giggled. After a sigh, she turned and looked forlornly at the communications array. "You have it the other way around."
"Huh?"
"He's not the one who's protective over me..."
Zaid stared at her. He smirked. "You know... for all of your clumsiness—"
"Clumsiness?!"
"—and fuzzyheadedness—"
"Fuzzyheadedness?!"
"—and the way you spit in other ponies faces when you get excited—"
"I do not spitttt!"
Zaid shielded his face, took a breath, and finished: "—you have an angelic charm about you. Like... golden harps friggin' kill themselves out of shame everytime you so much as talk. Not to mention you're bootyful with a capital 'booty.' It's hard to imagine anything that squeaky-clean coming out of the floating cesspool that was Gary Smokes."
"Gray Smoke."
"Whatever. Point is..." He smirked. "There are very few irresistible things in this world. I've no doubt that Prowse would drop everything he was doing—even Queen Lasairfion! Whewwwwwwww-KERSPLUNK!—just to come zipping back to find you and make sure you're just as cuteawesome as you were when he last hugged you."
By this point, Props was biting her lips while her cheeks puffed red at the bursting point. With an inward squeal, she teetered forward and flung her forelimbs around the stallion's neck, nuzzling his shoulder. "Ohhhhhh Zaidy Waidy. You're super adorbs when you're this thoughtful! I don't care what Josho says about you! Or Roarke or Ebon or Eagle or Handsome! You're cute as soot in my book!"
"Errr... th-thanks!" Zaid blinked crookedly. "I think."
"Heeheehee! Anypony ever tell you that you're fuzzy in all the right places?"
"Yes, well... heheh..." He gently scratched behind one of her ears. "To each their own."
"H-Hey!" She batted his hoof away and pouted. "I just scrubbed there this morning!"
"Erm..." He gulped and sat straight. "My bad."
"... ... ...I didn't tell you to stop." Her eyelashes batted.
"Oh... h-hey..." He shrugged and resumed scratching her ear with a smile. "L'chaim!"
"Heeeeeeeeee..." She leaned into him with a comforting exhale, her tail flicking pleasantly.