• Published 11th Jan 2016
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A Penny for your thought - Damaged



A human finds himself yanked out of his own life and plunged, with no field guide, into Equestria!

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23 - A guiding hoof

You should stop and read this story first, another collab with David.

"So… a herd?" Stick looked at me as we walked back down the hall, it really had all happened so fast, like everything in this world seemed to.

"You think we are moving too fast with this? I mean everything, Stick?" I worried my lower lip a little. "I mean, it all just… fits. Luna's boon, Silver's dream, but-"

There was a nip, right on my flank. "My queen is Fast, remember? Silly pony, we all take life as it comes, you shouldn't worry about things you can't change. Now, we need to see Cadance again, there is something important to ask and report."

I wasn't quite sure what Stick meant by that, but she seemed to be as on the ball with these developments as I was, if not more so.

"So a foal. Bit sooner than you planned, right? You really trust Silver that much?"

Fears returned, worries, how would it all work… well, I knew HOW it worked, just not…

"Penny? You there? You stopped." Stick was in front of me, waving a hoof before my eyes.

"Sorry, yeah, I do trust him. I don't know about Night, but Silver seems to trust her and that is good enough for me, for now. If this all goes ahead, it will be once Night Watch has proven herself to the both of us." I reached up with my magic and ruffled the changeling's mane a little, the wasted magic easily gobbled up by her.

"Then I will treat them both in that regard." She held up a hoof to my trying to reply. "Not that I don't want to trust them, but Penny, I am your protector, remember?" She brought the hoof back to herself, gesturing to the marks on her carapace.

I sighed and nodded. "Yes miss Stick." She brightened at my silly gesture and moved around to my side.

"Good, now, come on, chin up, lift those hooves." Her little nips of encouragement lifted my mood and together we went looking for a guard.

It didn't take long and, best of all, it was Shining Armor. "Hey there, you two need any help with anything?"

The way the stallion spoke, his easy offers of help, made him very easy to like. "If there is a chance, could I speak to Cadance again?" Stick smiled, her chitter practically gone while addressing the second most important pony in the empire.

"Lets go ask." He turned and made his way not to the court room, but up some stairs and to what is obviously one of their more private sitting rooms. "You two been talking with Silver? Is Night Watch keeping him in his room?"

We both giggled and nodded. "He is railing a little, but I don't think it is that terrible a fate. There are surely worse mares to be locked up with." My easy tone got him to smile too.

"And how is my little sis doing? She still getting into all sorts of adventures with her friends?"

It struck me then, as odd, how Twilight and Shining had completely different accents. But then she had been quite the shut-in, while Shining would have seen much of the kingdom in his profession. "She had to leave a note, when we were leaving. Something that needed rainbows, I think it was. All of them were off somewhere." He smiled widely at my reply, lifting a hoof to knock once.

"Hey, Cadie, Stick and Penny here wanted to ask you a thing or two?"

The door opened and the princess had a curious expression. "I hate to impose, but are they quick ones? Skipping court was a bad idea it seems…"

Stick nodded. "Just one thing, really. About the mission, I will explain it to Penny in a moment, but can you bring Silver and Night in on what I will be doing, it seems they are working on this already from their own angle, sort of."

Cadance laughed at this. "He was the one who brought it to my attention. His dreams seem powerful, doubly so if aunt Luna had her hoof in them too. I will not treat them lightly."

I was startled by this. Cadance seemed to put this much weight into Silver's prophetic dreams as well? "He… he seems sure of them."

Cadance looked at me and then seemed to smile extra wide. "Prophecy is not my domain, but I will not hesitate to take heed of it. Did he tell you something about a dream?" If a princess put so much stock in his dreams, who was I to rail against it. Prophecy. Destiny. Magic ponies?

The question did kind of skip my thoughts at first, I nodded.

"Well, I trust it has nothing to do with the Crystal Empire, but yourself?" How did princesses seem to cut to the quick so fast? She was the princess of love, though, which meant that the personal situation we were in was firmly in her domain.

"He foresaw… in his dream, he was a lunar unicorn and he laid with a regular unicorn. They had a foal." Cadance nodded at this.

"His dream was quite extensive…" Stick's moment of levity helped me continue, her presence against me even more so.

"Apparently it happened here, in this very castle. Now he is a unicorn and he finds a lunar unicorn." I lifted my hoof to gesture to myself. "He grieves for his foal, for their chance at life." A sadness welled in me, too. Nopony should suffer the threat of never existing.

"This is a very deep matter and one that should never be rushed. Do you love him?" Cadance's question seemed odd, there was something about the way she said it that made me think, for her, it was rhetorical.

"I…"

"She does." Stick cut in, getting a sigh from Cadance.

The alicorn looked back to me. "That she does, but I wanted her to say it. Will you? In what ways?"

This startled me a little, making me reflect more on Silver than on the foal. "I love him, more like a friend. When I knew him before, we were both men… stallions, he didn't bend that way and I didn't seem to bend any ways."

"But now?"

"Now I am a mare, my feelings still aren't for what a pony has between their legs, but it will matter to him and, well, somepony has shown me I am capable of that kind of love." I leaned in and nuzzled Stick's cheek. "So I think, there is a chance."

"And of the foal?"

My eyes caught tears at that. Cadance was asking the big ones. "Everypony deserves a chance at life."

Stick returned my reassurance now, making me smile through the tears.

"Then I think you have your path laid out, at your own hooves." Cadance reached out a hoof and tilted my head up to look right in my eyes. "Will you walk it?"

I was stuck as for what to say but she didn't seem to need an answer and I knew my answer would be to Silver and Night, not to Cadance. The princess turned and entered the room again, tugging her stallion along too, closing the door behind her.

"Princesses are clever." Stick's words made me giggle and get my hooves under me.

Turning and following at Stick's side, I was surprised when she led me down and out of the castle. Words weren't needed, I trusted my marefriend implicitly. We seemed headed to one of the inns in the city, one of the rather rich-looking inns.

"Okay, hold up. What is going on?" I had stopped and turned to look at Stick.

The changeling gave a chitter, but it wasn't nerves. "Why, Penny Farthing, we are wealthy merchants from Canterlot, we were called in by the princesses to help negotiate and steer the Crystal Empire onto a path of economic growth. This," she gestured around at the city with a hoof, "is begging to be brought to order and what better way to do it than bring in such a successful and neutral business pair as ourselves?"

I blinked, then a few more times. "Who came up with this?" I started walking again.

"Oh, I did, but it works, right? Who would anypony go to if they wished to check our credentials? Cadance? Celestia's ambassador?"

I sighed now, any hope I had of this being anything other than what my marefriend had planned going out the window. "Alright Stick. And I assume we are progressive ponies? Since we are not quite fitting to the high-society types." She nodded again. "And we are going to need to lean on Silver for a stipend, or even Cadance. Maybe both." More nods.

Opening the inn's door, Stick walked in and looked around. Her haughty look of both disinterest and superiority was amazing to see. Where did she learn this?

"Innkeep?" She stepped close to the little bench in the common room where a crystal pony sat, watching the pair of us with interest. Not being answered immediately, Stick continued. "Penny, take note, accept nothing over ninety percent cost for a room here." I rushed, pulling out what I hoped looked like a credible notepaper, my magic grabbing a quill as well, although not inking it. I began to scratch on the page.

"Sorry ma'am." The pony who clearly was meant to be managing things quickly moved. "Welcome to the Soft Bed inn. Was there something I could help you with?"

Stick played her part well. "Two rooms for sleeping and I need an office."

The crystal pony looked a little startled but nodded. "Three bits per night per room, five for an office."

Stick turned her head to me. "Pay them eighteen bits for a the three days."

I nodded and was lifting out the coins, getting the most expensive denominations I could.

"I said-" The innkeep had no grasp on this conversation, Stick rode roughshod all over them.

"Then we are leaving, come on Penny." With that Stick turned to leave and, with a shiny fifteen bit piece out, I turned too and started to tuck it back.

"I am sorry ma'am, of course eighteen is fine!"

Stick paused and grinned, fangs showing. "Acceptable."

I had the bits out again, setting them on the little bench. The earth pony pulled three chits from somewhere and offered them up. Stick ignored it all completely and left me to complete the transaction. "Our luggage will follow. We have much to do, so far as I have seen."

She started for the hall that would lead to our rooms, not even waiting to find out what ones we had. Well, she was right of one thing, our spectacle in court earlier would make us the talk of the town, the fact we had ended up on our hooves spoke that there was indeed support by Cadance. Damn her but she might just pull this off. "Come along Penny, don't lollygag." I trotted along quickly.

Author's Note:

Oh Stick, how did you learn so many tricks? What was that, you learned them during a collab? Well darn.

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