Recherche
Preface
While doing research for
A Pony by Any Other Name, my first foray with writing about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in fan-fiction, a couple of ideas came to me and wouldn't leave me alone. Taking the typical route of expressing these ideas in a story would have made it rather short, and canon would have made it difficult to make believable anyway — to me, at any rate. So, by handling it from an outside point of view, via an original character, I was able to take care of both of those issues.
...The only downside was that, to do it properly, it would require the story to be rather lengthy. I hadn't realized just how lengthy until well after I had started writing it, though. Here's hoping I can finish this thing before I leave this mortal coil.
Chapter 1
Hearing Voices is a Rarity? Ha!
Ramen, or ravioli?
That was the question that Marshall March was faced with as he stood in the kitchenette of his apartment, considering the two aforementioned items on the counter. One of them would become his dinner, if one could call either that, but he was having trouble deciding on which one to choose because he was in a mood for neither.
It wasn't so much his tight budget that had led to this situation, despite its own contribution, but because he worked the second shift. Since various places of importance and convenience were only accessible during the day, or before his shift ended, he'd chosen to forgo the lifestyle of a night owl. As such, he only ate enough to sate his hunger, to avoid indigestion while he tried to sleep. That, and he'd heard that it wasn't all that healthy to sleep while digesting food, and he could do without the extra calories sticking around.
While his weight wasn't a major issue at the moment, even though he
was — and had always been — overweight, he could easily gain weight if he wasn't careful, all thanks to the genes that he had inherited from his parents. Since he was a bit touchy about his weight, due to some of the mistreatment that he had received as a child by his peers, he made an effort to keep it down, lest anyone decided to call him "Marshmallow" again, or walking within sight of them an event called "The March of the Marshmallow." While highly unlikely to happen now, he had been "bitten" too often to not shy away from the mere possibility.
He was tempted to get something better to eat, because there were certainly better choices than ramen and ravioli available, but he'd made a habit of switching between the good stuff and the not-so-good stuff, in order to avoid eating the latter on consecutive days instead of every other day. Unfortunately, the healthier — and tastier, sometimes — foods tended to be more expensive, so he'd had to make this sort of compromise with his diet.
When he finally came to a decision and began to reach for the packet of ramen, in order to put it away, he was struck by a mild sense of vertigo, and a sensation in his head that could only be described as "fuzzy." The experience only lasted for an instant, but it was more than enough to make him pause and wonder about it, and wait to see if anything more would occur. When nothing further happened, he figured that it wasn't anything to worry about and resumed his prior course of action.
After returning the packet of ramen to the top of the refrigerator, with the others of its kind, he heard an unfamiliar — but distinctly feminine — voice enthusiastically say, "Oooo; now
this looks promising."
Startled, Marshall turned about and swept his gaze around the main room of his apartment, as he tried to ascertain the source of the voice, feeling nervous despite his attempts to stay calm. His living room was lightly furnished, mainly consisting of an entertainment center, a bookcase, and a matching loveseat and armchair that was set around a low table, so he only had to move around a little to be pretty sure that no one could be hiding in that portion of the room. With the front door secured, the bedroom and bathroom doors closed, and seeing no place for someone to hide in the kitchenette with him, his nervousness began to give way to confusion.
Not long after he had decided to write the whole thing off, thinking that the voice must have come from one of the other apartments despite its volume and clarity, the voice returned, sounding a bit awed as it said, "This is simply
amazing. I'm seeing so many familiar things, yet many are unfamiliar as well." The voice proceeded to sound more level as its train of thought changed. "This room is rather dull, though... Which isn't helped by all of the understated colors. I wonder: could that just be what's normal for this world?"
Not knowing what to think about this development, but desiring a rational explanation, Marshall did his best to quell his anxiety while he looked for something that could explain the voice that he had heard, since he didn't like the idea that the source could be his own mind. As unlikely as it was to be pranked in this way, especially considering the criminal element that would be involved, he was well aware that people could go to ridiculous lengths for the sake of posting a video of it on the Internet.
With that last thought in mind, and the voice wondering about his actions while he was checking around for something that could transmit sound, he began to look for a hidden camera, which would explain how someone could know what he was doing as he was doing it. However, after checking every place that would have a good view of the room, he didn't find anything resembling a device that could make a video recording.
More worrying, however, was that he had finally noticed the unchanging quality of the voice, as if it was unaffected by distance, or anything that would affect sound waves in some way. It was hardly his area of expertise, though, so he wasn't too sure if what he was hearing was truly strange for his environment, especially if someone knew what they were doing when it came to the science of acoustics.
Then, a possible explanation occurred to him, and he could have hit the side of his head with the heel of his palm for not thinking of it sooner, even though he was pretty confident that he would have noticed such a thing. Unfortunately, after inspecting his ears, and checking the areas beyond them when he found nothing unusual in or immediately around them, he finally began to seriously consider that the voice may have an internal origin.
He'd much rather believe that someone else wanted him to think that he was going crazy, and thus wanted more information and evidence before making any conclusions about his own sanity, so he maintained his cool and decided to go to his bedroom, where his computer was located. He hoped that he could find something helpful on the Internet, since it'd be awkward to bring up such a subject with his parents, which could cause them to worry unnecessarily if everything turned out to be fine. It was also preferable to seeing a doctor about it, since he didn't have a good impression regarding what could happen to people when the "experts" decided that they weren't capable of functioning independently.
Before heading into his bedroom, however, his stomach dictated that he put something into it before it got too late. So, he got himself a bowl from the cupboard, filled it with ravioli, then placed it in the microwave for a two-minute cooking session. Of course, while he was doing that, the voice was unrelenting with its presence, wondering about the filling of the ravioli that he was going to eat, and the contraption that made the bowl rotate within it.
Due to the voice's apparent ignorance concerning such well-known things, especially considering how articulate it was, he couldn't help being curious about it. If the voice was being done by another person, the character choice wasn't the sort that he would have expected, insofar as its purpose was concerned. On the other hand, in the case that it happened to be another personality in his head, it was kind of odd how it didn't know things that he knew, unless — for whatever reason — it was all pretend. The fact that the voice was of a feminine nature was also curious, but he didn't know what to think about that, or whether it would be beneficial to explore what it could mean.
When he entered his bedroom and turned on the overhead light, the voice's commentary made him aware that his actions could still be seen, so he spared his bedroom a cursory glance as he stood by his desk and woke his computer up, wanting to find something but doubtful that anything would be found even with greater scrutiny. Aside from a dresser, hamper, small trash bin, a full-size bed and the desk beside him, his room was rather spartan. It certainly didn't win any awards with the voice, if he was any judge of the verdicts that were being issued by it.
Once he settled into his swivel chair and rotated it to face his desk, he started his browser and entered his query into Google. Suddenly, right when the results of said query were displayed, the voice gasped in shock before deliberately saying, "It's... It's trying to confirm if it's hearing voices...?" There was a pause before the voice, in a mildly tremulous tone, apprehensively asked, "Um... Hello? Can you hear me?"
Unsure of what to do, Marshall didn't immediately respond to the voice's question. After all, if he was being pranked, he could very well fall into the prankster's trap, which would result in a "gotcha" scenario. While he could tolerate such a thing happening, he'd rather not have to deal with it at all. However, should the voice be of his own mind's making, would acknowledging it be a good idea?
After some rumination, by which time the voice had begun to express its doubts regarding his awareness of it, he decided that not knowing would be more bothersome than his other options, especially if the voice didn't abate any time soon. In addition to that, though, it occurred to him that it might be more interesting to learn what kind of character his mind had managed to fabricate all on its own, if that turned out to be the case.
In order to prepare himself for whatever might happen after addressing the voice, he leaned back in his chair and took a calming breath. Unfortunately, with his focus on that, he forgot to think of something more eloquent to say than, "Uh... Hi?"
The silence that followed was deafening, but it didn't last for long, which wasn't surprising considering the barely-contained excitement in the voice's, well, voice. "Oh my! Can you hear me, after all?"
"...I suppose so?" Marshall answered carefully.
That seemed to release the floodgates of the voice's tempered feelings, who squealed with glee before animatedly saying, "That is
wonderful news! I didn't even know that such a thing was possible." The voice's tone turned contemplative as it continued to speak. "Hmmmm... Well, Twilight hadn't
specifically mentioned that communication would be impossible." Then, the voice began to sound upbeat again as it went on to say, "Still, after
so many failures, being able to communicate with the host should more than make up for them."
"Host?" Marshall asked, not liking the sound of that, even though he wasn't ready to believe the reason behind his concern being possible. "You're not some kind of parasite, are you?"
"Heavens, no!" Came the voice's reply, sounding scandalized, before it settled down and calmly added, "By 'host,' I mean to say that I'm a
guest."
Unable to help himself, a corner of Marshall's mouth quirked up in response to an impromptu bout of mischievousness, which was inspired — in part — by a coping mechanism. "What am
I getting out of the deal, then?"
There was an awkward stretch of silence before the voice cleared its throat and airily said, "Why, the pleasure of my company, of course."
Marshall chuckled at that, which evoked some giggles from the voice. Feeling that the time was right to pursue the matter of what was happening directly, he asked, "So, if you're a guest, are you saying that this isn't some sort of prank, or a figment of my imagination?"
"That's
exactly what I'm saying," the voice affirmed. "My name is Rarity, and I am a unicorn who hails from the fair land of Equestria."
That's when the alarm on the microwave went off.
Chapter 2
Hopefully Insane
Marshall stood up from his chair and made his way to the microwave in silence, disappointed by the direction that his short conversation with "Rarity" had gone. He had been hoping to draw out a prankster, and end her prank so he could eat and relax in peace, but — if a prankster was what she was — she appeared to be keen on drawing things out longer. Of course, it could just be that he had gone crazy, but he wasn't ready to entertain the thought of that being possible just yet.
He considered confronting her about what he thought she was doing, but he really wasn't the type to do that. Besides which, she could simply be stubborn and have her fun until she got bored, regardless of what he said or did. It wasn't like he had anything to leverage against her, after all. Sure, he could call the police, but what if they didn't hear the voice, or find whatever means was being utilized so only he could hear it? For all that he knew, that kind of scenario might land him in a mental institution, lest he dropped his case instead of insisting on what he was hearing.
Unless it was a part of her act, Rarity seemed to realize why no response was forthcoming, because she thoughtfully muttered, "No, I don't suppose that what I said would be easy to accept if you're already worried about pranksters, much less the state of your mind..."
While Marshall found her words somewhat interesting, he was more intent on eating, now that his ravioli was ready for consumption. It wasn't like he knew what to say, anyway; that, or whether he
should continue to converse with her. He was really out of his depth on the matter, so it was easier to focus on something that he understood: sating his hunger with food.
Once he had his bowl of ravioli in hand, and procured a fork with which to eat it with, he opted to partake of his meal at his computer desk. It wasn't where he usually ate, because he preferred the comfort of the chairs in the living room, but sometimes something on the Internet demanded his attention. In this case, however, he didn't think that Rarity would be all that compatible with a full-length movie, or listening to music, so short and/or semi-interesting entertainment would have to suffice, and the Internet was rife with that.
After he was settled in his desk chair, with his bowl of ravioli set aside for the moment, he began to consider his list of Youtube bookmarks, trying to decide on what channel to look at for a video. He eventually decided on one of the Let's Play channels, the videos of which he often put on so he could listen to them while he did other things, since there was usually a disconnect between the topic of conversation and the action in the game that was being played. If anything interesting came up, that required visual input, he could easily go back and watch that part of the video properly whenever he could pull himself away from whatever else he had been doing.
With a video chosen, which featured
Kirby's Epic Yarn, he retrieved his ravioli, leaned against the back of his chair, and began to eat while he watched it. However, not long after he had begun, did Rarity venture to speak once more, who sounded distracted as she asked, "What are those dumplings filled with? I don't recall seeing it used with ravioli before."
Marshall mulled over whether he should reply to her or not, and began to chew more slowly so he could give himself more time to come to a decision. The question made him curious, though, since the contents of his ravioli was rather common knowledge. Plus, his situation could have been worse: he could have been dealing with someone obnoxious or malicious, rather than someone asking innocuous questions.
In the end, he decided that it might not hurt to see where things went, so — after he swallowed the last of what he had been chewing — he simply said, "It's beef."
"Beef?" Rarity echoed, the cluelessness tinging her voice sounding genuine. "What is that?"
Since it was too late not to, Marshall decided to humor her, and made an effort to not sound condescending while doing so. "It's meat from a cow."
Rarity's response was noticeably belated, and the unease obvious in her voice when she next spoke. "So... You're a carnivore, then? You don't... eat horses, do you?" As an afterthought, she quickly added, "If they exist there, I mean."
After finishing off another piece of ravioli, Marshall took a few seconds to consider how he should reply to that, since he recalled her claim of being a unicorn. "Humans are omnivores, actually," he both corrected her and temporized. "And while we
could eat horses, and it's likely that some of us probably do, I think most of us would rather not."
"Oh?" Rarity replied, who seemed to be caught between relief and — probably despite herself, by the sound of it — curiosity. "Why not?"
Marshall spared a moment to think about his response, since he didn't want to upset her, whether she was what she said she was or not. It could still happen if he was talking to a person who was taking their role seriously enough, and he really didn't want to deal with that. "Well, unlike humans... and unicorns, horses aren't a sapient species here — just so you know. They were really useful for things other than food, especially in regard to transportation and battle, so we're pretty fond of them."
By her tone, Rarity seemed to have mixed feelings about what he had said. "Battle? Do your horses... see battle often?"
At this point, Marshall was finding it a bit silly to be playing along, especially when the other party seemed so serious, but he was also beginning to find their exchange a little entertaining. There were worse ways to pass the time, particularly during the part of the day that he usually reserved for unwinding, so it really wasn't hurting anything, even though he still worried about the source of it. However, he also had the thought that — just maybe — he'd end up being thanked for being a good sport by the time that he was ready for bed, and that would be the end of his experience with "Rarity." It was something to hope for, at any rate.
"They used to," he replied, as he readied a piece of ravioli in front of his mouth. "I'd be really surprised if they did now, though." He took a few seconds to eat his ravioli, and continued speaking just as soon as he'd swallowed the last of it. "They've largely been replaced as a preferable means of transportation, too." He paused when a thought occurred to him, and decided to take the initiative, just to see what would happen. "Say, would you like to see what our horses look like? I mean, since you're a unicorn from another world and all that?"
Either due to being caught off guard by the question, or having something on her mind, if not both of those things, Rarity awkwardly replied with, "Oh, um... Sure."
Leaving his fork in the bowl, Marshall moved his now-free hand to the mouse and opened up a new tab in his browser. After setting Google to show images, he typed in "horse" and pressed the "enter" key to show the results. It was only then that it occurred to him to worry about what kind of images might appear, but — fortunately — the ones that could initially be seen were normal and tasteful. Well, aside from the one that showed a mask of a horse's head, which looked kind of weird.
"Hmmmm..." Rarity hummed analytically, once a picture of a horse in mid-gallop was selected for a better view. "While we don't look
exactly like your horses, the similarities are certainly there. However, I can't help feeling that I've seen this kind of horse before..." When the answer to her own query eluded her, she switched gears and asked, "Anyway, do you have unicorns or pegasi in your world? I didn't see any among the pictures that I saw."
Once his mouth was emptied of ravioli, Marshall said, "Nope. Well, not outside of myths and fiction, anyway."
"Really?" Came Rarity's rhetorical response, before inquiring, "How are they depicted?"
Marshall shrugged his shoulders out of reflex, assuming — hoping, really — that the gesture could be seen, even though he didn't care much about being observed. Still, it was better than being mental. "Without looking anything up, all I can say is that the pegasus is a flying horse, and I believe that it was the only one of its kind in the original mythology. Unicorns have a horn on their head, which — I think — was thought to be a cure-all, and they are a symbol of purity."
Instead of an immediate reply, he had enough time to eat two more portions of ravioli before Rarity spoke again, who sounded quite agitated as she said, "Oh, this is
so frustrating! I have so many questions, and I can barely contain myself from overwhelming you with them..."
Chuckling despite himself, Marshall quipped, "It's a bit late to worry about being imposing."
Rarity sighed before saying, "Yes, I know... And I apologize for that." Then, with a bit more vigor and determination, she continued. "Nevertheless, I'm going to try to make this work: you're the first host that's shown any promise since I began to look for one almost two months ago,
and I can communicate with you. In addition to that, you seem to be a human, and a friend of mine left a lot to be desired when she spoke about them." Her tone acquired a bit of a defensive quality as she swiftly added, for her own benefit, "Not that I blame her, of course, considering the circumstances at the time, but still..."
That was a lot of information for Marshall to take in, which also inspired a lot of questions to come to mind. It wasn't that he believed what he was hearing — either directly or by suggestion — and was curious to know more, but he was thinking that he might find some way to resolve the situation if he learned more about Rarity's character. That was, of course, assuming that he was dealing with a prankster, with a fabricated persona and accompanying background.
After eating a piece of ravioli at a sedate pace, which gained him some extra time to figure out what kind of inquiry to approach with, he said, "Okay, I think that owes me an explanation or two. First of all: when you say 'promise,' what do you mean?"
Apparently, Rarity had no problem filling him in on that, because she related her answer with a measure of enthusiasm. "Well, I've been in a bit of a rut as of late, inspiration-wise. I'm a fashion designer, you see, and in addition to accommodating the clientele who approach me with their ideas, I also use my own to supply my boutique. Trouble is," her voice began to lose some of its spirit, and was slightly tinged by worry, "aside from accounting for the seasons, following the current trends and such, I haven't had many new ideas for quite a while, and it has begun to affect my reputation and business."
"Now," she went on, sounding more lively, "to make a long story short, I eventually came to the conclusion that what I needed was a change of venue, and to see new things. Unfortunately, there are too many factors keeping me close to home, and there isn't much here, or anyplace within a reasonable distance, that I'm unfamiliar with. So, I approached a friend of mine with my dilemma, and despite my limited and specialized skills, and average magic capacity, she devised a spell that would allow me to see things from afar without having to go anywhere, which I could use in my spare time."
She paused, perhaps to consider what to tell him next. "She said that it was like a fishing rod. Since it would have taken me a greater amount of time to learn a spell that would have allowed me to view things remotely, which would have been taxing to control and sustain for too long, and could prove unhealthy if used too often, she opted for something passive in nature. Not only does that mean that the results rely on the visual and audial faculties of another, but I have no control over what I catch, or where and when I do."
"And that last part is one of the main reasons for why I find you promising," she concluded.
Marshall leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling, hardly registering the sound coming from his monitor's speakers as he absorbed everything that he'd been told. Rarity had not only answered the question that he had posed to her, but had provided plenty of information beyond that as well. More importantly, however, was the fact that he'd learned the method by which she supposedly knew what he was doing, and that was something that he could put to the test. The only problem lied in figuring out exactly how to go about testing her.
He decided to finish up his ravioli while he thought about it, although his silence — by that time — had eventually prompted Rarity to ask, "Are you alright? I'm aware that it might be difficult to believe me, but..."
Marshall had to admit that Rarity was a good actress, for her concern to sound so sincere. Still, he now had an idea to follow up on, so he picked up his bowl of ravioli before asking, "You basically said that you see and hear what I do, right?" Upon receiving confirmation, he added, "Then you won't mind if I check to see if that's true?"
"Oh, not at all!" Rarity readily acquiesced. "I wouldn't want you to believe yourself to be crazy, or — heaven forbid — that I'm doing this at your expense. The sooner that we get this issue sorted out, the better it will be for the both of us."
That last statement made Marshall pause, because it brought to mind something that he hadn't considered yet. It wasn't that the idea of Rarity
actually being a unicorn from another world hadn't ever crossed his mind, but it was just too unbelievable to treat it as if it were even remotely possible. However, if posed hypothetically, then he supposed that such a scenario
would be better than being pranked or having a mental issue.
Still, while preferable, another world with magic and unicorns couldn't possibly be real. At best, as a more realistic alternative, he hoped that Rarity was a prankster. At worst... Well, actually, he wasn't quite sure if Rarity would be all that bad as a voice in his head, aside from the fact that such a thing wouldn't be normal. She seemed nice enough so far, anyway, even though it would probably take some time to get accustomed to having a female persona in his head, if that's what she turned out to be.
There may be a way to know for sure, one way or another, so he ate the last of his ravioli while it was still warm, so he wouldn't have to worry about it getting cold while he performed his tests. Afterward, he rinsed his bowl and fork, then left them in the kitchen sink — for proper cleaning later — before returning to his bedroom. Upon sitting at his desk once more, he opened one of its drawers, so he could procure the item that he would need for his hearing test.
The item in question was a pair of headphones, of the type that cancelled ambient noise with destructive interference. He'd gotten them from his uncle the Christmas before last, back when he was still looking for an apartment. Since he had a habit of listening to music undisturbed, his uncle had figured that they would solve any problems that might arise in regard to living in an apartment, whether it came in the form of the neighbors complaining about the volume of his music, or their own racket intruding upon it.
If Rarity was communicating with him from an outside source, the headphones
should be able to silence her. If they had no effect at all, well... The more effort that was put into the prank, especially when applying that effort to — as he saw himself — a completely unremarkable person, then even the most reasonable possibility would be in jeopardy of taking a back seat to one that wasn't any more welcome.
Since the results remained to be seen, though, he put aside his worries and focused on the here and now; he could worry about crossing any metaphorical bridges if any of them ever became relevant. With that in mind, he turned his attention to Rarity and said, "Okay, this is what I want to do: while you're talking to yourself, or whatever you choose to do with your voice, I'm going to try to block it out."
"Understood," came Rarity's succinct reply. "Should I begin now?"
Upon being given the go-ahead, she cleared her throat and began to sing a wordless tune. This came as a mild surprise to Marshall, but he quickly reasoned that it was probably easier than stringing together a sensible series of words to oneself without prior preparation, so he managed to stop himself from being distracted by her singing for too long and focused his mind on the headphones that he held in his hands. After turning them on, it was without ceremony that he placed them upon his head.
Not only could he still hear Rarity's singing, but the volume and quality of her voice hadn't changed one bit. After checking to make sure that the power light was lit on the headphones, even though it hadn't been that long ago since he had changed the battery, he returned them to his head and applied and removed them from his ears a few times, all while adding the video's audio — which was still playing in the unselected tab — to his scrutiny. The result was unexpected, because the headphones had a significant effect on the audio from the video while leaving Rarity's voice unaffected at the same time.
There was a reasonable explanation for it, surely, but to pull it off must have required a lot more effort than he thought he would be worth. After all, he was hearing Rarity the same whether he wore his headphones or not, which meant that going through more than just the trouble of modifying his headphones must have been done. He couldn't really imagine how anything beyond that could have been accomplished, but hopefully it wasn't the sort of thing that one heard about in certain conspiracy theories and the like.
Either way, he couldn't trust his headphones, so he turned them off and put them away. However, while canceling Rarity's voice hadn't worked, he had yet to hear anything that could drown it out, so he decided to try one more experiment with sound before he tested the visual aspect of the matter. With that in mind, he decided to find something on Youtube — since it was already being used — that would provide an adequate and consistent amount of noise, so he closed the tab with the horse pictures and looked through his bookmarks for a song.
Going down the alphabetically-arranged list, the first song that met his requirements was
Blue Water Blue Sky, the version of May's stage theme from
Guilty Gear X2. After turning up the volume on the monitor a bit, he clicked the bookmark and leaned closer to the speakers, since he didn't want it so loud that it attracted the unwanted attention of one of his neighbors. When the music started, it was sudden and loud enough to disrupt Rarity's singing, who came to an awkward stop instead of working through it.
He found out why when she tactfully stated, "My, that music is certainly... energetic."
With an inward sigh, Marshall paused the video and turned the volume back to its original setting, since he'd learned that something louder than Rarity wasn't going to have the usual effect. That wasn't to say that it had no effect at all, but it was hardly enough to matter, and certainly much less than what he would have expected under normal circumstances. He began to wish that he was more knowledgeable about such things, so he'd have a better idea of what he was dealing with.
He was drawn out of his thoughts when Rarity continued to speak. "If I may inquire about that video..." When he hummed in question, to spur her onward, she went on to ask, "Are the colors being displayed normal for your world? I was wondering because that appearance is normal for ours, but I haven't seen anything like it in your home."
Marshall stared at the image of May for a few seconds, now frozen in mid-sway, as the underlying meaning of her question sunk in. "Wait," he said, as he went back to Google image search and typed in "cartoon" as his criteria, "are you saying that
this is normal for you?"
"Pretty much," Rarity replied, after some consideration of the search results that could be seen. Probably due to the disbelief that had been conveyed in his voice, she added, "Why? Is there a problem?"
Marshall stood up from his chair and said, "If you want me to believe that you are what you say you are? Then: yeah."
Regardless of there being yet another impossibility to contend with, though, that didn't mean that he could dismiss the other possibilities, especially after the results of his first test. Plus, he still had one more test to perform, which — in his mind — should give him an even better understanding of what he was dealing with. The idea that he was talking to a cartoon, on top of everything else, inspired him to not waste any more time, because he hoped to get to the bottom of things and put an end to whatever was going on. As much as he prided himself in his easygoing nature, his nerves were beginning to feel a bit frayed.
So, he went over to his closet, opened it up, and reached for the teddy bear that sat on the shelf. He'd had it since he was three years old, and it had somehow managed to stick around until it was the oldest thing that he owned; which was part of the reason for why he held on to it, aside from nostalgia. While he could have left it with his parents, back when he had first moved into his apartment, several years ago his teddy bear had become a bearer of an object that was of a similar nature to itself, and he couldn't bear separating the two.
On its bottom was a pocket that was sealed by a zipper, and at one time it had contained a device that would play back what was said around it. Now, it contained a keepsake of his late grandfather. Unless someone went through the trouble of rummaging through his apartment, to the extent that they would open the pocket of his teddy bear and stick their hand inside, in order to find out if something was in there or not, he didn't know what else he could use that a hidden camera — and its installers, potentially — wouldn't have already seen.
After his hand was enclosed around his keepsake, making sure that it stayed hidden from view in the process, he went to the living room to get the next item that he would need for his test. His destination was the table in front of the loveseat, where he had left his keys. On the keyring with said keys was a small, LED flashlight, which he picked up and studied thoughtfully for a moment, hardly believing that what he was about to do was going to happen.
Still, he wanted an understanding of what was going on, and a resolution, so he centered himself and addressed Rarity once more. "Alright, I'm going to cover one of my eyes with my hand, so only I can see what I'm holding in it. If you can see what I do, then you should be able to tell me what I'm looking at."
Rarity voiced her understanding and readiness, so he lowered his head, until his chin was touching his chest, and raised the hand that held his keepsake up to his eye. It was a bit tricky keeping the object in his hand hidden from view while he opened it up enough to cover his eye, but he was fairly confident that a camera wouldn't have been able to see it, especially as enshrouded by shadows as it was. Next, he turned on his LED flashlight and directed it into the space between his purlicue and thumb.
What was revealed was a penny, from nineteen fifty-seven, which was enclosed in aluminum. The enclosure was egg-shaped, except it was a bit concave at the narrow end of it, which conformed to the shape of the horseshoe being displayed on the face of the enclosure. Inscribed within the dimensions of the horseshoe, reading from bottom left to bottom right, were the words, "Keep me and never go broke." At the top of the horseshoe, on one side of the penny, was a four-leaf clover, along with a hole, and on the opposite side of the penny was another inscription, reading, "I bring good luck."
"What's this?" Rarity wondered aloud. "'Keep me and never go broke.' Is it some form of currency?"
Upon hearing that, Marshall lowered his arms and sat down on his loveseat, slouching against the back of it as he stared ahead, at nothing in particular. He still wasn't willing to believe Rarity's claims, so it was rather disturbing to think about the lengths that someone would have gone through to achieve what they did, and why they would be doing it. Suddenly, having a mental problem didn't sound so bad, even though he'd rather not have to deal with that either.
"Oh, dear..." Rarity eventually voiced, sounding concerned. "Are you alright?"
Marshall closed his eyes and released a sigh. "Not really."
There was a moment of silence before Rarity gently cajoled, "Would it really be so bad to believe me?"
Not for the first time did Marshall consider that line of thinking, only — on this occasion — he exercised more seriousness while he contemplated it. Of course, despite the impossibility of a magical, cartoon unicorn from another world being real, he would rather pretend and hope that it was true, instead of accepting the alternatives. It wasn't like he
had to tell anyone about it, after all, and he'd rather not worry about being crazy, or being involved with some mysterious entity that was working from the shadows.
Besides which, Rarity seemed nice enough. Even if she turned out to be someone who was involved in some kind of operation, one that included a meticulous cataloguing of his apartment's contents, the observation of his person, and/or the use of high-tech — or even secret — technology, perhaps playing along would make things work out for the best. It was all based on speculation, of course, and that was one of the main reasons for why he wanted to dismiss it, so he could maintain his peace of mind with more pleasant thoughts.
So, in the end, he opened his eyes and resigned himself to saying, "I suppose not. It's not like I have proof of anything else either, so..."
"Good," Rarity replied, sounding pleased. "Now, I just want to reassure you that I won't be in contact with you most of the time — a few hours a day, at most. Also, as I mentioned before, I'm simply looking for something that will inspire me. None of that will be a problem, will it?"
"So long as it doesn't interfere with my job," Marshall said, the most obvious problem occurring to him first. "Oh, and I
do like to set some time aside for myself every now and again, so I'd appreciate being left alone during those times as well."
"Easily done, darling," Rarity confidently avowed, before addressing a potential problem with one of his wishes. "At what hours do you work? It's just a little past noon where I live."
Marshall sat up, so he could look at the stove's digital clock. "Noon? It's nearly eleven at night, here; I work from two in the afternoon till ten at night."
Rarity made an agreeable sound in response to that. "I don't have much spare time most mornings, and I'll otherwise be asleep during that time, so that works for me. However," she began to sound a tad worried, "I'm assuming that you'll be going to bed soon, and it will be nighttime here when you wake up, so..."
Picking up on what she wanted to know, Marshall said, "Yeah, while that's generally my free time, it's also the best time for doing stuff that needs to get done. I try to pack as much of it together as I can in one day, though, so I have nothing but free time on other days."
"I suppose that will have to work," Rarity acknowledged, though nonetheless sounding relieved. Then, with mostly-checked enthusiasm, she added, "Oh, before I go, I was hoping that you could tell me more about that device that you were using — the one that you performed those searches with. What all is contained within it? Would you happen to have anything for human fashion, by any chance?"
Since he had decided to play along with this, even if only partway, Marshall couldn't help smiling impishly as he got to his feet and began to head back toward his computer. It might be amusing to see how Rarity reacted once he properly introduced her to everything that was the Internet. Well, the parts of it that one could unsee if they so desired, at any rate.
Chapter 3
Hook, Line and 'Net
Marshall pushed and pulled the carriage of the meat slicer over the blade at a practiced pace, along with the smoked turkey that was secured to it. At the end of each push he caught a new slice of meat in his Kevlar and vinyl-gloved hand, and during the process of pulling back he set it onto a pile of matching meat slices. It was a routine that could lull him into a zoned-out state, should he allow it, except he was too mindful of his job at the deli, being watched by patrons of the supermarket, his personal safety, and of his co-worker, Simon.
Nevertheless, it helped to take his mind off of what had happened last night. He didn't want to believe that it had happened at all, especially since he hadn't heard "Rarity" since then, but he'd left behind enough evidence of last night's events to know that
something had happened. He didn't want to believe that he was going mental, or that someone was messing with him for some unknown reason, so he could only hope that he had been communicating with a magical, cartoon unicorn from another world... However unbelievable that seemed.
After all, who wouldn't want to experience something as novel as that? Many people dreamed of the imaginary being real when they were young, although they tended to grow out of entertaining notions of that nature. By the time that people reached his own age of twenty-seven, they looked forward to more down-to-earth ideas, if one could — for example — call contact with extraterrestrial life, or the manned exploration of other celestial objects in the solar system, such.
While he normally counted himself among the rational adults, and the fantasy in question was more stereotypical of a young girl, his dilemma made it more preferable than the reasonable explanations that he could come up with. If it was more than a prank, for instance, he couldn't even begin to figure out what to do. He didn't know why they would be doing whatever it was that they were doing, or what kind of power and resources were backing them, which was — to be frank — scary. On the other hand, hearing voices could have a negative impact on his life if proven to be the case: people could assume that he was a liability, if not outright dangerous; he could lose his job, and with the condition being on record — and probably mandatory to divulge — it would likely affect his future prospects and livelihood; and, worst of all, people would probably look at him differently, treat him differently, as if he weren't like them.
Sure, it might be delusional to hope that Rarity's claims were real, but no one else had to know about it, and it was better than thinking about the other possibilities. As things were, though, he was wishing that he could put on some headphones and listen to
Peace of Mind, by Boston, right then. It was a song that had helped him get through a rough patch in his early teens, back when his family's financial situation had driven his parents to many a verbal spar. He'd sought an escape in music, and it just so happened that the phrase, "all I want is to have my peace of mind," had caught his attention, and he had latched on to for coping purposes.
A few years later, after having taken those words to heart, the rest had — in the meantime — impressed upon him the mental wherewithal to accept that he'd have to pass up college, unlike his older brother and sister. They'd had the financial backing of their parents, but between bad financial decisions, a terrible economic climate, and unplanned expenses, they ended up filing for chapter thirteen shortly after they had paid for his sister's tuition.
It wasn't like he'd had any particular plans for his life, anyway, and that was
still the case at present. Besides which, his brother was an example of why a college education didn't guarantee a decent job, or even the kind that had been prepared for. While he had a good-paying job at the moment, it had taken several years to obtain, and it wasn't even the kind that he particularly enjoyed.
While he didn't particularly care for his own job, he wasn't fond of stagnation either, so he had elected to find a job that paid well enough for him to move out of his parents' house. There had been the stigma of living with one's parents at his age, of course, and wanting one less strike against him for whenever he got around to seeking a relationship with someone, so — with all those things combined — he had simply move forward to see if he'd run into any interesting opportunities.
It was at that moment that his thoughts and work were interrupted by a familiar flash of vertigo and fuzzy-headedness, although it took him a second to realize why it felt familiar in the first place. Despite it being the second time, however, he pushed aside his concerns and continued with his work, since he didn't want to make a scene unless it couldn't be helped. If it happened again, he'd seriously consider consulting a doctor, since — for all that he knew — it could be a sign of a developing stroke.
Once he had a pound of the smoked turkey in slices, he shut off the meat slicer before wrapping it up and sealing it in a bag. The blade on the meat slicer had finished spinning by then, so he adjusted the slice thickness setting to zero, in order to close the blade. With that out of the way, he focused on the process of printing up a sticker — with various details on it, including the price — to put on the bag of smoked turkey, applied it, then delivered the product to the customer, who put it in the seat of their cart, alongside the white American cheese and potato salad that they had also gotten from the deli, and went about their business without a word.
Now that the demand of customer service had abated, and no one else had been waiting on his side of the deli for their turn, he spared Simon a glance, who was in the middle of putting a rotisserie chicken in a container for the customer that he was currently attending. There was another customer waiting on that side, but they had yet to notice that he was no longer being occupied.
Before he could move to return the smoked turkey to the refrigerated display case, and then getting the customer's attention, he was frozen in place by Rarity making her presence known to him, who tentatively asked, "Marshall? Can you spare a moment?"
The fact that she was speaking to him during his work hours, despite the arrangement that they had made, didn't immediately occur to him, due to the significance of her being able to do so. Not only that, but a quick check revealed that no one seemed to react to her voice even though he was pretty sure that she was loud enough to be heard, and her manner of speech — to him, at least — being rather unique when compared to how people normally spoke in the area.
While it was a bit of a struggle, he reined in his anxiety and forced himself to breathe normally again. While it was worrying that Rarity could do what she was doing at his job, he wasn't going to benefit from allowing that worry to control him. However, now he was
really beginning to hope that Rarity's claims were true.
When he turned to retrieve the smoked turkey from the meat slicer's carriage, after making sure that on one would see his face, he quietly muttered, "'Easily done,' huh?"
Rarity sounded fairly contrite with her response. "I
do apologize, but I was so tired last night that I don't even remember falling asleep. Otherwise, I would have contacted you sometime during the morning hours."
"Why couldn't you wait until tonight?" Marshall asked, before he slowly took the smoked turkey and moved it into the display case, where he would remain in a squatting position for as long as he thought it would conceal him — his mouth, in particular — without looking out of place.
"Ah, well," Rarity began, somewhat guiltily, "originally, I was just going to check in for a moment and watch, because you hadn't mentioned what your job was and I was curious." The guilt was cleared away, to be replaced by mild excitement. "However, I was just
so excited about our connection that I just
had to tell Twilight — the friend that I had mentioned to you before — about it right away. After talking for a bit, we eventually had an idea that I felt you should know about as soon as possible, so you can have some time to think about it before giving me an answer."
Marshall decided that he could let her off the hook, so long as what she had to say was truly worth the intrusion. "Okay, well, I need to get back to work, so go ahead and tell me about this idea of yours."
Putting words to action, he closed the display case, stood up, got the customer's attention, then asked them what they needed. Rarity waited until he was no longer interacting with the customer to start talking, at which point she cleared her throat and said, "Well, after I got the excitement out of my system, I told her how I wished there was a way to prove to you that what I've said is the truth, because I felt bad about the position I've put you in."
As Marshall secured some pastrami in the carriage of the meat slicer, and prepared to slice it, he tried to pay close attention to Rarity without it affecting his work, now that he knew what the subject was about.
"After some consideration," Rarity continued, "Twilight decided that she would figure out a way to bring you to our world. That way, in addition to putting your mind at ease, she can pursue her own interests with you personally." There was a brief pause before she — in apparent remembrance, in relation to what she had just been saying — added, "Oh! That's right: when I told her about the wonders of the Internet, she was
utterly captivated by it."
Marshall's forward motion with the carriage slowed to a stop, and he fumbled with the newest slice of meat being delivered to his hand, upon hearing that first sentence. He barely registered the rest of what Rarity had said, but her interjection was enough for him to pull himself together and continue cutting the pastrami. Much to his relief, after a quick, surreptitious look about himself, he discovered that his latest customer was preoccupied by the selection of salads for sale, and that Simon's attention was on his cell phone.
What Rarity had said had been unexpected, to say the very least — and just as unbelievable. As much as he'd like to believe it, though, it was also worrisome: now he had to worry about being abducted as well, if he wasn't crazy and the whole other world thing turned out to be a lie. Rather than putting his mind at ease with anticipation, now he was really beginning to dread what the outcome might be.
He was unsure if he should try speaking to Rarity while a customer was nearby, in order to tell her how he felt about her message, but he lost his opportunity when Rarity proceeded to say, "Well, I don't want to be any more of a bother, so I'll be on my way, now. Ta-ta!"
Marshall just barely stopped himself from saying something in reply, and thus avoided drawing unnecessary attention to himself. Instead, he released a sigh and continued with the familiar motions of his current activity. That didn't stop him from thinking about what to expect in the future, though; which he really wasn't looking forward to. Still, he kept it together, and the rest of his shift went by in the same manner as it usually did.
After clocking out, he decided to pick up a burrito on the way home, because he wasn't in the mood to make anything while his thoughts were as burdened by his current circumstances as they were. He decided to eat it on the way home, so he could get himself comfortable as soon as he got there, which would also help to prepare him mentally for whatever might happen with Rarity.
Twenty minutes later, after changing into a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt, and grabbing a bottle of iced tea, he was in his living room, reclining in the recliner, just staring up at a corner of the ceiling as Boston's debut album played quietly in the background. With the exception of the music being played, this was not an unusual activity for him, although it was probably the first time — as far as he could recall — that he had ever done it in preparation for something, rather than as a means of making a recovery after the fact.
However, his situation wasn't one that he knew how to handle, and the possible prospects that he could look forward to were mostly unwanted or scary. At any other time in the past, whenever he had some kind of problem that had an elusive solution, he'd had a few options that he could fall back on for support or aid, but now they were compromised in some form or another. That was partly because he couldn't be sure of just what — exactly — his problem was, but it was mainly because the bad ones could have negative repercussions if he sought help. Aside from not wanting anyone to think that he was crazy, and preferring to keep it to himself and live with it if that turned out to be the case, now he had to worry about endangering others if whoever was watching him had plans for him that involved more than just observation and remote communication.
Eventually, he had another one of those weird — yet very short — bouts of disorientation, although he was able to realize its cause when Rarity spoke right afterward. "Marshall?"
"Yeah?" Marshall absently replied, who was wondering if there was any use for what he had just learned, beyond the obvious.
"How do you feel about coming to my world?" Rarity queried, sounding a bit eager for an answer, before she evenly added, "Of course, if — for some reason — you don't feel comfortable with that, we can try to formulate some other way to prove that what I'm saying is true."
Marshall didn't even want to contemplate what "another way" might entail, so he stuck with the devil that he knew. "How can I even be sure that what you're proposing to do isn't going to lead to me being abducted?"
Rarity's belated reply was suffused with a mixture of guilt and sympathy. "Oh, darling, I'm
so sorry... I thought that you would have looked forward to having your fears allayed. I hadn't foreseen
this reaction at all..."
"I want to believe it," Marshall admitted despite himself, finding it difficult to believe that Rarity was being insincere, "but magic, unicorns... interdimensional travel, I guess? They only exist in fiction, as far as I'm aware. Y'know?"
Rarity was quiet for a time. Her tone of voice was difficult to decipher when she next spoke, though he could pick out the reluctance and resignation in it, which probably said more than enough about how she supposedly felt. "I..." She paused and sighed, as if she hadn't fully committed herself when she had started speaking, or had changed her mind regarding what she would say. "I understand. It was never my intention to cause you such grief, so if you would prefer that I sever our connection, then... So be it."
Marshall took a sip of his tea as he digested that, silently damning Rarity for being such a good actress, if that was — indeed — what she was. It wasn't only by the virtue of her sounding so convincingly genuine that made it hard for him to reject her, but that she hadn't resorted to guilt-tripping him. While it wasn't enough for him to feel sorry for her, it was sufficient to afford her a measure of respect and consideration.
Of course, whether she was telling the truth or not, it wouldn't matter if she was a voice in his head. He'd never heard of anyone making such an arrangement and the outcome reflect it, at any rate. In the case that she was a real person, and not a magical, cartoon unicorn from another world, then there was no guarantee that she would honor her word. At least, for the amount of effort put into communicating with him in the mysterious manner in which it was accomplished, he would find it odd if she were to simply drop whatever had been planned.
In the end, he felt that telling her to go away was unlikely to change anything. If — against all odds — she was actually telling the truth, however, then he'd have no chance to gain anything at all by parting ways with her. It was that sliver of hope that urged him to keep her around, in conjunction with how well-behaved and conscientious she had presented herself to be thus far.
After taking another sip of his tea, he pushed back the undercurrent of helplessness and uncertainty as he softly said, "I guess you can stay."
"You won't regret it," Rarity replied, in all seriousness, although with a note of the effort that she was exercising to hold back her joy and relief at the news. "You'll have the proof that you're hoping for before
too long, I assure you. Until then, in order to lessen the burden that I've placed upon you, I'll keep my requests to a minimum. How does that sound?"
Marshall mumbled a sound that could pass as one of approval, but he honestly didn't know what to think about the offer one way or the other.
Sure enough, Marshall didn't receive many requests from Rarity. However, it wasn't so much from the fact that she checked herself as it was from a lack of opportunity. Aside from never making a connection with him while he worked, she usually only reserved a half of an hour for him during her lunch break, which she only used about half of the time. While she could spare two or three hours of her night, it wasn't unusual for her to be tired from the very start of their connection, and a few times he was pretty sure that she had dozed off, since she usually had some parting words before she called it a night.
So, even though he didn't really care about fashion, he didn't have to deal with it so much that he couldn't bear it. It also helped that Rarity looked for inspiration outside of the traditional mediums, beyond the fashion shows, educational programs, documentaries and the like. In fact, once she got a taste of the fashion utilized in fictional works, from such things as film, cartoons and comics, she began to focus on those half of the time. Personally, he'd like to think that she did that — at least in part — for his own sake.
Although he hadn't asked for it initially, Rarity was happy to exchange information about herself, where she lived, and her world in general, which made for a nice break if it followed the more boring aspects of her pursuit. While he still wasn't convinced that any of it was real, that, along with his interactions with her in general, eased his fears about her, whether they were about her being a part of some mysterious conspiracy or a creation of his own mind: on the one hand, the former didn't seem to match his mental profile of her; on the other, the latter didn't seem so bad, since he'd certainly heard of worse when it came to voices.
He hadn't offered much information about himself without reason, so Rarity often had to fish for it. It wasn't that he had anything to hide: it was simply due to the fact that — as far as he was concerned — there wasn't much worth mentioning. He was just some guy who was going nowhere in life, had no prospects or dreams, and had a job that did little more than support his current — and admittedly lackluster — lifestyle. In addition to that, he had no immediate plans for companionship, and he'd fallen out of contact with most of his friends over the years, between them moving away to pursue a higher education and/or jobs, and him moving a few cities away from their hometown. As it turned out, he wasn't all that great at maintaining long-distance relationships, and most of his friends were only willing to put in the extra effort to stay in contact with him for so long.
Eventually, nearly two weeks after their first meeting, Rarity had something important to tell him in the morning: "Twilight has figured out a way to bring you to our world."
Twilight Sparkle, Marshall recalled, was one of Rarity's friends, among the number that she had informed him about with the expectation that he would meet them one day. Not only was Twilight Sparkle the one who made it possible for Rarity to come into contact with him in the first place, but she was also — of all things — a princess on top of that; as if he hadn't needed anything more to make him doubt her claims.
Regardless, it was a big deal that the moment of truth had actually arrived, where he would find out who or what Rarity was, so he entered the menu in the game that he was playing, put aside his Playstation 4 controller, and muted the TV, feeling that his undivided attention would be required for the conversation ahead. He could always get back to playing
Tales of Zestiria later, if he had the opportunity, or was still in the mood for it.
He was fairly nervous, since his future could be greatly impacted in the moments to come, but he did his best to suppress it as he calmly asked, "She has?"
About a week ago Rarity had informed him that Twilight Sparkle had given up on using a transdimensional portal to get him to their world, in favor of figuring out something that guaranteed both success and safety. While Twilight Sparkle had no real problem creating the portal itself, the problem lied in where to establish the one on his end. Apparently, calculating distance between universes was akin to working in terms of "further" instead of "farther": she could apply a unit of measurement to the spell that connected him to Rarity, but that had no bearing on the distance that separated their universes. So, there was no telling if the difference between one millionth of a degree and another would place the portal well out of his range, or so close that it would shear off a portion of his body. Without knowing the discrepancy in distances, getting the portal within reach of him, using small — and relatively safe — increments, could easily take
much longer than they would be alive.
That was the gist of what had been related to Rarity, at any rate. He couldn't even begin to imagine what the uncut version of Twilight Sparkle's explanation would have been like, since that sort of stuff was well beyond his understanding. Well, assuming that she was even real. Depending on what Rarity had in store for him, though, that uncertainty may resolve itself soon enough, one way or the other.
After confirming her statement with a hum, Rarity elaborated by saying, "There's this pond called the 'Mirror Pool,' whose magic can create a copy of those who peer into it when speaking a particular rhyme. Using the spell that connects us as a conduit, Twilight will pull your consciousness into the copy."
"...What?" Marshall deadpanned, who could hardly believe what he had heard. When Rarity asked if he wanted her to repeat herself, he said, "No, it's just..." He sighed, leaned forward, with his elbows digging into his legs, and rested his forehead upon the heels of his hands. "You're saying that I'll be a copy of... you?" After Rarity acknowledged that that would be the case, he continued in the most self-possessed manner that he could manage. "Assuming that all of this stuff is real, don't you... You know, think it's strange?"
"Well, of course," Rarity conceded. "But we
are doing this for your sake. It will only be temporary, and you will only need to visit our world once; you can handle that much, surely?"
"I guess..." Marshall mumbled, his mind awhirl.
Visiting another world had been one thing, and unbelievable all by itself, but making said visit
as one of its denizens, and female to boot? It was just beyond absurd. Personally, he had nothing against being a unicorn, and being female was more intimidating than anything else, but...
He glanced up at the screen of his television, unsure if he was looking for an answer or a distraction, and he was reminded that many of his games featured characters who got swept up in adventure, often going to places they never would have imagined going before, and doing things that they had previously been unable to conceive themselves of doing. He had never expected or hoped that he'd have such an experience one day, but hadn't he been looking for a certain something in his life, however passively he'd gone about it?
As much as he coasted along from day to day, and assured certain family members that he was happy with the way that things were, he knew that he wasn't being completely honest with himself. A stable, quiet and sedate life wasn't at all bad, but it lacked a certain, indefinable quality. He didn't know what it was, exactly, but he was pretty sure that the part of him that resonated with it was — at that very moment — urging him to cast aside logic and believe that there was another world awaiting him.
He was roused from his thoughts when Rarity sighed, who evenly said, "Marshall, I know that this might be too much for you to handle, and I would understand if that turned out to be the case, but if you're
truly willing to go through with this, then I
must ask that you sound more convincing than that."
Marshall gathered his resolve and sat up straight before sheepishly saying, "Yeah, sorry." After clearing his throat, he firmly added, "I'll do it. I might not like what could happen if this is a sham, but if I back out and nothing happens, I think I might regret it more not knowing if I missed out on everything that you've told me about your world."
"Then don't you worry one moment more, darling," Rarity confidently replied. "We can bring you here at your earliest convenience and clear up all of your concerns on the matter."
Marshall considered that for a moment before saying, "Well, it isn't long before your usual bedtime, and I'll have to go to work shortly after that, so... Tonight, I suppose?"
"That will be fine," Rarity gave her assent. "Just be sure that you're lying down when we do this, say... between ten-thirty and eleven?"
After Marshall agreed with that, Rarity opted to go to bed early, saying that she wanted to get some extra work done in the morning, since she didn't know how long she would be attending to him in the afternoon. That was just as well, because he found himself too distracted by the ever-nearing deadline to carry on his end of a conversation well; he ended up pacing and fidgeting a lot, as well as trying to fight down his restlessness and maintaining a firm grip on his optimism for what was to come. Not even one of the most soothing albums in his collection, Devin Townsend's
Ghost, could do much to settle his nerves.
He'd never felt so troubled in his life, so he even went so far as to call up his work and pretend that he was too sick to come in, since he'd have a rough time handling his job while in his current state of mind. Thankfully, since he had only taken two sick days off during his employment thus far, and had a good attendance record otherwise, his manager accepted his request with minimal resistance.
That left him with eight extra hours to occupy himself with, since he didn't want to go out and risk having that fact get around to his workplace. He made a valiant effort to divert his mind with video games, movies and the like, but was met with limited success. Still, he managed to pass the time despite how slowly it seemed to pass, until there was only an hour left before he was scheduled to lie down on his bed.
By then, he had become unhinged enough — from his usual behavior — to concern himself with how horses walked, and actually got down on his hands and knees to see how difficult it would be for him to get the motions right while crawling. Surprisingly, despite being halting and slow, his body already seemed to have a good idea of how to handle quadrupedal locomotion, at least in regard to a horse's walking gait; he had just never really thought about it before, since humans were strictly described as being bipedal.
While the act was a bit awkward and embarrassing, despite doing it in private, he
did get some amusement out of it, since he was taking his supposedly-impending transformation into a horse — or pony, as Rarity had referred to her kind — seriously enough to prepare for a potential problem. Of course, it was rather dubious whether his crawling skills would translate over to a true quadruped to any extent. There was also the fact that the structure of horse's hind leg was very different from the upper half of a human's leg.
Finally, after dinner, and a few minutes before the agreed-upon window of time, he found himself lying on his bed. Despite his repose, however, his heart was far from being at rest, and he began to feel hot and sweaty, because he would soon find out the reality of his situation. Was he crazy? Was it a prank taken to ridiculous lengths? Would he be abducted? Was he a part of some secret experiment? Could it even be extraterrestrials?
It was a few minutes after ten forty when he felt Rarity making a connection, whose tone was touched by concern as she asked, "How are you doing, Marshall?"
"About as well as could be expected," Marshall answered, who was only mildly successful at sounding nonchalant.
Rarity voiced her understanding before saying, "Well, I just wanted to tell you what to expect before we bring you over, so you can prepare yourself for the experience."
Not knowing what to say to that, but wanting her to continue, Marshall said, "Okay..."
"First," Rarity evenly began, "we don't know how the transfer will feel, but there shouldn't be any pain involved. Following that, you will find yourself submerged in the pond, but it is to my understanding that you'll be largely unaffected by the water. Still, be sure to raise one of your forelegs — both, if you can manage it — and Twilight and I will pull you out of the pond. After that, well... We'll just have to play it by ear. How does that sound?"
"Like a plan," came Marshall's Rorschach response, who was finding it difficult to communicate with more eloquence and wit.
Whether or not Rarity had picked up on how he was feeling, she hurriedly said, "I better not keep you in any more suspense, then."
Assuming that she had disconnected, Marshall tensed up even further as the seconds ticked onward, keeping his eyes open in case one of his fears turned out to be real. However, after a few minutes, things... changed, for lack of a better word: one second he was staring up at his nondescript ceiling, the next was an experience that was beyond the capability of his mind's faculties to comprehend, then he was seeing something
completely different and feeling rather discombobulated.
He reeled as his senses were bombarded with information both strange and new. He saw a pair of cartoon horses standing before him, looking down at him from their higher vantage point, but — to him — they appeared to be indistinct from one another, and he didn't really register their presence. He could hear something that could have been speech, at the same time as one of the horse's mouths were moving, but he couldn't understand what was being said, or even recognize its familiar qualities. The entirety of his body felt encapsulated by something that was pressing against him gently, and the map being drawn up by his mind, based on the collection of sensations being received, did not take the familiar form of a human.
Despite his confusion and general detachment, some part of his brain recalled that he was supposed to do something. He raised both of his "arms" without thinking, and absently noted that what came into view were not what he would have normally expected to see with such an action being performed. At the same time, the upper portion of his body began to drift forward slowly, and he was unable to realize that the actual direction was downward, since his body was now meant to be parallel with the ground with proper support, rather than perpendicular to it.
Fortunately, he was caught before he fell too far, with one stumpy-looking appendage per equally-stumpy "arm," and some part of him idly noted that they shouldn't have had any grip, much less enough to haul him out of whatever he was in. While he felt his legs being drug behind him, it didn't occur to him to put them underneath him and walk, so — after being moved a short distance — he soon found himself lying face-down on a cool, rocky surface, in a position that was less natural for his current body than it would have been for the one that he'd had just a moment or two ago.
He could still hear that indecipherable voice, along with another, as he stared blankly ahead, the limbs in front of him a stark contrast to the ground and dimly-lit environment in general. Had his arms always been that white? Sure, he hadn't gotten a lot of sunlight, but the color looked unnatural, pale or not. Also, where had his hands gone? He didn't recall having an accident at work, or anything else like that. His arms looked like the ones that he could see just beyond his reach, except they looked perfectly comfortable behaving like legs.
For the first time since his arrival, not that he had been aware that he had arrived anywhere, his eyelids remembered their autonomic duty and blinked. Bits and pieces of his faculties returned to him as he puzzled over the sight before him, which caused his face to scrunch up in confusion. However, realization eventually dawned on him, and his eyes widened as he finally began to see the situation for what it was.
After raising his head and whipping it this way and that, he saw that he was in a cave, which was mostly illuminated by a sizeable shaft of light that entered from a hole in the ceiling, with some familiar-looking flora making a small contribution with their glow. Without meaning to, he turned his head far enough to see the pond behind him, due to following the beam of light that shone upon it, and it occurred to him that he shouldn't have been able to turn his head that far. Immediately after realizing that, he registered the mass of white near the bottom of his peripheral vision, and the conscious part of his brain began to notice the signals that indicated that it was a part of his own body, not a foreign one. At the same time, he also became aware of the purple hair that sprouted from the top of his rump and covered much of what were now his legs, as well as the hair that draped over one shoulder and the opposite side of his face.
"Marshall?" A familiar voice entreated, sounding concerned.
Returning his attention to the fore, he once again saw a pair of cartoon horses, only this time he was fully cognizant of them. He quickly deduced that the one with the white coat and purple hair was Rarity, since he was supposed to be a copy of her, and that seemed to match what he had seen of himself so far. The other one, with the light purple coat and — as far as he could tell in the gloom of the cave — midnight blue hair that had a stripe of magenta and violet in it, he assumed to be Twilight Sparkle, since Rarity had mentioned her involvement before.
Despite the sight before him, in all of their big-eyed, horned, winged and cartoon-y glory, and the alien feelings coming from his own body, his hope-filled mind compelled him to seek further verification. "Is this... real?"
Rarity approached, and gazed down at him compassionately as she laid one of her forehooves upon his shoulder. "As real as it can be, dear."
Relief flooded Marshall's body and mind, washing away nearly two weeks of stress and suppressed feelings. His body went lax, and unshed tears came to the corners of his eyes when he closed them. He couldn't remember feeling so emotionally charged before, and while he felt like crying, he was able to hold back the tears and simply bask in the thought of being free from his fears.
Free, and right in the middle of something that he never would have imagined being possible.
Chapter 4
First a Rhyme, Now a Reason
For a second, Marshall was afraid of opening his eyes, fearing that the source of his relief would somehow turn out to be a lie, since it was also behind the excitement that was beginning to burble up from some long-forgotten corner of his being. Fortunately, he was able to draw strength from the hoof on his shoulder and opened his eyes.
When he gazed up at Rarity, she pulled her hoof back and softly asked, "How are you feeling?"
Marshall opened his mouth to reply, but paused because he was unaccustomed to feeling so many things at once, as well as so strongly, and wasn't sure where to start. Eventually, though, a simple solution occurred to him, at which point he smiled gratefully and said, "A lot better."
As Rarity returned his smile, Twilight Sparkle shuffled a little closer to him, appearing to have a concern of her own. "Does that include how you're acclimating to your new body? Are you having any physical or mental trouble, or otherwise notice anything strange?" She caught the poor phrasing of her last question and sheepishly added, "Beyond the obvious, I mean?"
As far as Marshall could tell, which wasn't saying much due to the unfamiliar body that he now inhabited, nothing immediately struck him as being wrong: weird, maybe; different, definitely; but not bad. His biggest issues were the change in species and sex, although he wasn't going to admit that to his present company. It wouldn't be
too bad of a trade-off for the rest of the experiences that he hoped to get out of exploring a new world in a completely different universe, especially if he didn't think about it too much.
Since he wasn't going to learn much more by lying around like a fish out of water, even though that was — figuratively speaking — exactly what he was, he began to work his new limbs by pulling them under himself, directing the bottom of his hooves so that they planted themselves upon the ground, then raised himself to a standing position. He hadn't been sure of what to expect, but the procedure had turned out to be trouble-free. While he could definitely feel the differences, especially in regard to his hind legs and neck, it wasn't difficult to adjust to them. However, he was still highly aware of those differences, which might prove distracting.
Once he was sure that keeping his balance wouldn't be an issue, he raised one of his new forehooves for a visual inspection. It would have been strange to see the kind of hoof that was attached to the horses from his own world, but he couldn't be sure if it was just as strange, or more or less so, to be unable to distinguish — by sight alone — between leg and hoof on a cartoon horse. It was a little ironic, though, that a part of his new body could be described as being like a marshmallow in appearance without it involving his weight.
Next, he lowered his hoof and proceeded to tap and paw at the ground with it a bit, to get a clearer impression of the scope of its tactile capacity. He had expected to feel little to nothing with hooves, aside from vibration and pressure, so he was surprised when he got some feedback on the texture and temperature of the ground. It wasn't strong, certainly nowhere near what he would have sensed with his hands, but it was enough to work with — especially once he had more frames of reference for the purpose of comparison. In truth, having hooves didn't feel all that strange to him in this one respect, because it wasn't that different from the effect of wearing gloves at work, and he'd had nearly two years to get accustomed to working with the dulled sensitivity of his hands.
With that inspection done, he opted to find out how well he could walk on four legs. Since Rarity and Twilight Sparkle stood in the direction that he was currently facing, his first order of business was to turn aside until he had an obstruction-free path. Upon doing so, he began to move forward at a sedate pace without really thinking about it, since walking wasn't supposed to be a conscious chore. Thankfully, despite how odd it felt to move his hind legs, he was able to walk just fine. He wasn't sure if it was due to his crawling abilities as a human, the instincts of the body, Rarity's muscle memory, or even cartoon mechanics, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
He wasn't the only one to see his achievement as being a notable one, because Twilight Sparkle commented on it while he was making his way back to where he had started. "It looks like the rate of your acclimation is better than I had projected, if you're already walking
this well."
"Maybe," Marshall replied, who stopped at his destination before sharing his opinion on the matter. "But it could just be that it's not so different from when a human crawls, or the instinct of this body. At least, if I'm remembering correctly, and it's the same for this world, then horses can walk shortly after birth."
Twilight Sparkle hummed thoughtfully at that and stroked the underside of her chin. "Now that you mention it, those explanations
do seem rather plausible. That first one
might even explain how I had no trouble crawling when I was a human."
Marshall was a bit surprised to hear that last statement, in part because it sounded familiar, somehow. "You've been a human before?"
As Twilight Sparkle nodded her head, Rarity spoke up and said, "Don't you remember? That's how I knew enough about humans to identify you as one, even though I hadn't seen a human before."
"Oh, right," Marshall replied, who ducked his head a bit in embarrassment. Not much of what Rarity had said had been committed to memory prior to the current situation, since he hadn't been able to take her seriously.
"That aside," Rarity went on, as she looked him over with a speculative eye, "I have to wonder why he isn't an
exact copy of me, unlike Pinkie Pie's copies. On top of looking so," she trailed off for effect, with a mild expression of distaste reserved for the next word that she would speak, "
plain, she lacks a cutie mark and doesn't sound like I do, either."
"I don't?" Marshall asked, who only then noticed that his voice sounded a little off from Rarity's. While he had taken note of the change to his voice, he hadn't worried about it enough to spare it some scrutiny, in light of all of the other things that had been vying for his attention.
Knowing that Rarity was directing the question in her words to her, Twilight Sparkle turned her attention to the pony in question and helpfully supplied her with an answer. "Actually, you both sound
exactly alike." Rarity looked at her questioningly, but she would have elaborated without such prompting. "You see, for the speaker, not only do they hear the voice that everypony else hears when they speak, but the vibrations that reach their ears through their head, which affects the pitch of what they hear."
Idly, as Marshall awaited further explanations, since they involved him, he recalled having learned something to that effect at some point.
"The lack of makeup and different hairstyle," Twilight Sparkle continued, "is because the Mirror Pool only captures the essence of a pony — it doesn't copy anything extraneous. At the time that Pinkie Pie had made copies of herself, her appearance had been completely natural."
While Rarity gave Twilight Sparkle a doubtful look regarding the naturalness of Pinkie Pie's appearance, Marshall spared his mane and tail a closer look, so he could compare them with Rarity's. Where the original's hair looked rather fancy, with its bountiful curls, the unnatural shape that it retained, and the gradient effect applied to its color, his was mostly straight and of a solid color, swayed easily enough, and only curled a little bit at the end. On an unrelated note, he also noticed that his vision was a little blurry while looking at his mane.
"As for the cutie mark..." This time Twilight Sparkle took some time to ponder and form her answer, partly for the benefit of Marshall. "My guess is that the Mirror Pool treats the body and mind as separate — but otherwise connected — entities. Although cutie marks manifest themselves on our bodies, they are ultimately a product of our mind and magic." Twilight glanced between Marshall and Rarity with an inquiring expression on her face. "Perhaps, if Marshall had met the requirements for a cutie mark, he might very well have one of his own right now...?"
Cutie marks were one of the things that Marshall remembered well enough, from among the things that Rarity had told him about, since he had needed some help to wrap his head around the concept. Rarity already knew the answer that he would give Twilight Sparkle, due to prior questioning, but she remained silent to give him the choice of sharing it, so he shook his head and said, "I'm pretty sure that I don't meet the requirements: I'm not particularly good at anything, or know what I want to do with myself."
The looks that he received from the natives conveyed the sentiment, "What a shame"; or, "That's
still a shame," in Rarity's case. Ordinarily, he wouldn't be bothered by such a thing, but
this was a magical experience that he was missing out on, and it kind of fit — in its own way — with how he currently lived. Getting a cutie mark, as he understood it, was akin to a coming of age ceremony, a part of life where one discovered themselves, their talent, and their individuality. He felt that it would be great to have that kind of innate self-assurance, instead of going through life without a rudder, much as he had been going about things so far.
"Well," Twilight Sparkle awkwardly began, in order to change the subject, "there's just
one more thing that I'd like to check before we leave." As if suddenly recalling something, she looked at Marshall expectantly and added, "That is, if you'd like to see more of our world before I send you back?"
Noticing that Rarity was looking at him in a similar manner, Marshall figured that they had both assumed the same thing: that he would have been interested in exploring outside of the cave. They weren't wrong, of course, so he didn't really mind. While an errant thought told him that he should be more cautious, he was tired of being haunted by unknown possibilities, and didn't want to spoil the mood and experience by worrying over nothing again.
So, he smiled slightly and simply said, "Sure."
"Great!" Twilight Sparkle enthused, before she began to look around herself for something. Upon finding it, her eyes lit up as she said, "Okay, here's what I'd like for you to try..."
Marshall watched with growing interest as Twilight Sparkle's horn began to emit a magenta-colored glow. A second later, a stone that was surrounded by a glow of a matching color floated into view, and his eyes widened in amazement as he made the connection and figured out what was going on.
When the stone was placed on the ground before him, Twilight Sparkle said, "See if you can levitate that stone."
Looking between the aforementioned stone and Twilight Sparkle a few times, in equal parts disbelief and excitement, Marshall asked, "How am I supposed to do that?"
"For now, simply try to will it," Twilight Sparkle advised. "Telekinesis is one of the most common of a unicorn's natural abilities, though it can require some extra training for some. You see—"
Rarity zipped over to Twilight Sparkle's side and laid a hoof upon her shoulder as she interjected, "Let's save that for later, darling. You wouldn't want to dilly-dally in this cave for
too long, would you?"
At first, Twilight Sparkle had looked a bit disgruntled by the interruption, but it wasn't long before she seemed to understand whatever it was that Rarity had been hinting at. While Marshall had no idea what the underlying message had been, their exchange had made it rather obvious that one existed. He idly wondered if noticing it was supposed to be strange or not, since it was common for characters to be oblivious toward what often passed for subtlety in cartoons — often for the audience's sake.
"Right," Twilight Sparkle said, more to herself than anyone else, before she returned her attention to Marshall. "Well, if you want to know more about unicorn magic, you can ask me about it later, okay?"
Marshall nodded his head in reply, which seemed to satisfy Twilight Sparkle, before he directed his attention to the stone and thought, "Just will it, huh?"
He stared the stone down as he prepared to move it with magic, but he was hesitant. Had he seen a fictional character in his current position, he would have wondered what the hold up was, thinking that there was nothing stopping them from doing it, since
he would have taken the opportunity to wield magic as soon as possible. However, his elevated heartbeat and giddiness, in anticipation for what he wanted to happen, and the nervous butterflies and cold sweat that beaded on his brow, in light of potential failure, proved to be a very distracting cocktail. Of course, it also didn't help that Twilight Sparkle and Rarity were watching him as intently as they were.
Finally, with a calming breath, he rose above the din of his nerves and focused on the task at hand. The result, a light blue glow around the stone, was so immediate that he lost his concentration, and the glow with it. Now, it was the positive emotions alone that threatened to distract him, but his eagerness was backed by those selfsame emotions, which made it possible to work through them.
As the stone rose into the air, without any of the usual, tangible means, so too did his heart soar. Had someone placed a mirror before him right then, while gifted with the range of expression that a cartoon face could muster, he would have seen an immensely radiant smile, and eyes that sparkled like the starry night sky. He had never
felt so happy in his life at that very moment, as far as he could recall. It wasn't that he had been particularly unhappy, or had lived a hard life, either: things had just become... dull.
Whereas many people could live with the mundane world, and even thrive in it, there were others — like himself — who didn't read books, watch movies or play video games simply for the entertainment value. Inside of them, whether hidden within the darkest recesses or erupting from the surface for all of the world to see, were unfulfilled dreams. How said unfulfilled dreams affected them was dependent on the individual; in his case, he'd grown a bit somber and detached. Perhaps, without the dreams that he would have preferred to chase, that was why he had lacked ambition for the pursuits that remained.
However, not only was magic proven to be real to him, even if on another world... He
had it! He was
using it! Sure, he never would have imagined that his ticket to magic would come in the form of a cartoon unicorn, and a female one at that, but still...
Magic!
"Well," Twilight Sparkle said, while smiling at Marshall's over-the-moon display, "if he can use telekinesis
that easily, I can safely assume that he has fully acclimated to his new body."
Rarity giggled when Marshall began to look for more stones to levitate, who had an obvious bounce in his step and seemed oblivious to the fact that he had an audience. "I'm just glad that he's feeling better. I hope he enjoys what we have planned for him even
half as much as he's enjoying that."
A few minutes later, after his head had been brought down from the clouds and reintroduced to reality, Marshall stood before Twilight Sparkle and Rarity once more, only now he was extremely embarrassed — so much so that he could actually feel a heat suffusing his face as he avoided eye contact. Today was a day of many firsts for him, and the newest among them was of him taking leave of his senses to indulge in a dream that he had once thought to be impossible.
He couldn't really blame himself for his behavior, but said behavior just wasn't
him. At least, that's what he would like to say. After all, the person that he had become had once believed that magic didn't exist, despite the feelings that he had harbored for the concept, so — within that context — had his growth actually been stunted? Did he now have an opportunity to reach the
true potential of his character?
The notion was both scary and enticing, but ultimately moot, since this was going to be his one and only opportunity to use magic. He would be returned to his magicless world and body before too long, and his time in Equestria would become a bittersweet memory. While some might say that it was better to have had and lost than never to have had at all, they were — in his opinion — crazy: because, like Tantalus, who knew the pleasures of sating thirst and hunger before being denied water and food, the thing that he desired would soon be taken out of his reach. The effect might not ever get close to reaching such a level of torment as it had with Tantalus, but he felt certain that he would be better off not knowing that magic was real.
Just as he was beginning to wonder if he should bother making the most out of his time in Equestria, which would surely provide him with more cause to miss it, Twilight Sparkle broke through his thoughts with, "So, are you ready to see more of our world?"
"You bet," Marshall couldn't help saying. Whatever his conscious thoughts might have been at present, he simply had too many thoughts from the past that had worn a groove of sorts into his mind, one that played a tune when the stylus of magic was introduced to it. His body nearly thrummed with eagerness, knowing that there was more of the magical world to see beyond the cave, and it was a bit of a chore just to contain himself.
Instead of being led up that long, winding ramp, which had seemed like an obvious path toward an exit, Twilight Sparkle's horn lit up as she jauntily said, "Alright, I'll have us out of here in a jiffy."
Before Marshall could ask how she planned to do that, the glow around her horn flashed, which caused him to squint his eyes out of reflex, and then... He wasn't looking at the inside of a cave anymore. As he opened his eyes fully, in order to take in his new environment, he also noticed that his vision hadn't been affected by that bright flash of light.
Looking this way and that, he saw that they now stood in a forest, one that looked rather foreboding. It was gloomy despite being midday, there was mist roiling along the ground, the trees looked twisted and sinister, and there appeared to be a lot of brambles in the vicinity. Beyond where the brambles were thickest, he could
just make out what seemed to be a boulder-filled hole.
Right when he was about to question the reason for being in such a place,
how they had gotten there finally caught up to him as he opened up his mouth to speak, which silenced him and made his jaw go slack from shock. It didn't help when he turned his attention to the one who had been responsible for their mode of transportation, since he was reminded that he also had a horn, and thus could — potentially — do the same thing.
Much to his chagrin, he spoke with a squeaky voice when he focused on Twilight Sparkle and said, "Did you just—" He cleared his throat and tried again, even as he tried to suppress a blush. "Did you just
teleport us out of that cave?"
"I sure did," Twilight Sparkle replied, with a hint of amusement at his level of interest.
As much as he wanted to pursue the subject of magic, Marshall felt that there was a more pertinent matter to address. "So, uh... Why did you teleport us to
this place?"
Twilight Sparkle spared her surroundings a glance, and — upon seeing what she had expected to see — realized that Marshall hadn't been the pony that she had traveled to the Mirror Pool with. "Oh, well, we're just outside the entrance to the cave."
After sweeping the forelock of her mane aside with a flourish, which was accompanied by a slight tossing of the head, Rarity pointed in the direction of the aforementioned cave entrance and explained, "It was easier than going through
that." When she lowered her foreleg, as an aside she added, "Well, that, and the dimensions of the tunnel leading into the cave are a bit... inconvenient."
Marshall's attention had automatically followed the direction that she had pointed in, so he almost missed the half-lidded stare that Twilight Sparkle had directed at her. Based on his impressions of Rarity thus far, he could only assume that she was the type to be protective of her appearance, which probably meant that
that had been inconvenient enough times in the past to garner such a response from Twilight Sparkle. Still, the expression seemed friendly enough, and he
had gotten an experience with teleportation out of the deal, so he wasn't going to worry about it.
"Anyway," Twilight Sparkle began, as she turned to face the direction that she planned to travel, "the Everfree Forest isn't very safe, so let's be on our way."
Seeing no reason to argue with that, Marshall began to follow her, with Rarity falling into step at his side. After only a few steps, his curiosity prompted him to ask, "So, where are we going?"
"We are going to Ponyville," Rarity responded in a mildly gladsome manner. "After all, if we're going to give you a view of our world, we can certainly do better than some
dark,
unsightly cave."
Marshall chuckled a bit at that, and his brief inattention earned him a stumble after a misstep on an exposed root. Fortunately, despite being so new to walking with four legs, he was able to recover his balance and save himself from a fall. When he returned his attention to Rarity, he saw that she was regarding him with some concern, so he offered a somewhat bashful smile to indicate that he was alright — and a little embarrassed.
Twilight Sparkle had turned her head aside when she had heard him stumble, so she could see what was going on and help if necessary. Seeing that he was alright, she smiled and picked up where Rarity had left off. "More specifically, we thought that you might like to have a taste of the best confections that Ponyville has to offer."
That certainly got Marshall's attention, and — for the first time — he was made aware of his equine ears when they perked up and homed in on the source of the good news. That wasn't enough to distract him from his current train of thought, though. He'd always had a bit of a sweet tooth, but he'd had to restrain himself so he didn't pack on the pounds, and that hadn't gotten any easier once he was in control of both a budget
and what food he chose to stock his home with. Now that he had a new, temporary body, however, he
should be able to enjoy himself without any worries.
It was just one amazing thing after another!
"Afterward," Twilight Sparkle continued, which interrupted his drool-inducing thoughts, "if you'd like, we can give you a tour of our town."
Marshall nodded his head. "That's fine by me. I might as well make the most out of this while I'm here."
He thought that there was something strange about Twilight Sparkle's expression, following his response, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. When she returned her attention to the fore, thus depriving him of further study, he decided that he had probably just imagined it. It wasn't like he was an expert on cartoon horse expressions, or anything; heck, he wasn't all that great at reading human expressions, either.
Eventually, he could see the edge of the forest ahead, and the inviting, open field beyond. He had to squint his eyes by the time he had left the canopy of the forest, as they adjusted to the full brunt of the noonday sun, but it didn't stop him from taking in the sights. While there wasn't much to see, aside from the odd tree, occasional shrub and assortment of wildflowers, it was still a pleasant view. There was also a faint smell in the air that was both aromatic and fresh, and the grass beneath his hooves felt a lot nicer than the rough, uneven and debris-covered ground of the forest.
One of the things that he had missed since moving into the city, from the somewhat out-of-the-way and underdeveloped subdivision, had been this. Not
exactly like what he was currently experiencing, since there had been plenty of neighbors within sight and earshot, but it had been a lot quieter and better-smelling, overall. The lot had been along the boundary of the subdivision, against the forest, so he'd gotten to enjoy the soothing sound of gently-rustling leaves when there was a breeze, and he had particularly enjoyed the smell of honeysuckle while they were in bloom, which had been allowed to grow over the side of the fence closest to the forest. Of course, he hadn't really learned to appreciate it as much as he currently did until he had gotten a taste of life in the heart of a city — its unimpressive size notwithstanding.
Before long they crested a hill, where they came to a stop. Twilight Sparkle had initiated it, and he'd had an idea as to why since he had begun to notice the taller structures of Ponyville rising above the hill from his vantage point, but it had still come as a pleasant surprise to see the town in its entirety, especially due to the first — and most obvious — structure that he had seen.
It was hard to tell exactly how technologically-advanced their civilization was, or if it even mattered with magic involved, but most of the buildings had thatch roofs and half-timbered frames. Then there were more "modern-looking" structures, like the clock tower, the old-fashioned schoolhouse, the farm, and whatever the second-largest building was used for. Finally, there were odder places, like the ones that looked like tents, the few that were of an elaborate style that he couldn't identify, or the one building that looked, well... edible.
Of course, then there was the largest structure, which looked
really out of place with the rest of the town and the area around it in general. It was like a tree house, except the tree portion was made out of various shades of purple and blue crystal, and it was cradling a purple castle that had golden accents reserved for its balconies and roofs. On top of that, quite literally, was a large, star-shaped crystal, like it was the top of a Christmas tree. He wasn't sure why, but he had the feeling that the star should remind him of something else, too.
Once Rarity thought that he had been given enough time to take it all in, she asked, "What do you think?"
"To be honest?" Marshall temporized, and took a few extra seconds to gather his thoughts. "I really don't know. It's not bad, but..." He struggled to find the right words for what he was trying to say, since he didn't want to upset the denizens of the town that he was commenting on. "Well, it's like an artist began by painting a quaint, medieval village. Then, when they were nearly finished with it, they were introduced to a psychotropic drug and abandoned all thought toward consistency. By and large, the town looks alright, but there are a few things that I can't make heads or tails of — that castle in the distance, for instance."
"You don't say..." Twilight Sparkle remarked as evenly as she could manage, who turned her head away to hide her face, due to being a little self-conscious about her castle.
Before Marshall could get a good read on her reaction, Rarity cleared her throat, in order to get his attention, and explained, "Well, it
is the newest addition to the town, truth be told; an unplanned incident with magic, in fact."
Marshall looked at her incredulously, despite all of the other unbelievable things that he had experienced thus far. "Something like
that can unintentionally appear with magic?"
Rarity, amused by the expression on his face, teasingly said, "Darling, you
do recall how you were able to see that castle in the first place, don't you?"
While Marshall was looking away and rubbing the back of his neck with embarrassment, Rarity remembered that she had something to do, so she abruptly said, "Anyway, I'll go on ahead and place our orders, so it will be ready when you arrive."
Marshall hadn't expected Rarity to say that, and then immediately suit actions to words, so he could only stare after her in silence as she headed toward the town at a good canter. Before he could really wonder about her behavior, Twilight Sparkle caught his undivided attention when she said, "Sorry; I kind of put her up to that."
Being no less enlightened by that bit of information, he looked at Twilight Sparkle with confusion and intelligently said, "Huh?"
Twilight Sparkle spared the retreating form of Rarity a glance, to make sure that she had reached a distance where neither party could see the other, before she sat on her haunches and refocused her attention on Marshall. "I wanted to talk to you alone... about Rarity."
Now that he understood what was going on, Marshall followed her example and sat on his haunches. He was a little nervous, though, because this was the first time that he had found himself in such a situation. "...Okay. What about?"
After a deep, calming breath, Twilight Sparkle began to speak. "I was hoping that you could help her with her workload until the two of you part."
"Why?" Marshall asked the obvious question, who cocked his head in puzzlement. "I mean, it's not
just that I don't care about fashion, tailoring and the like, but I don't have any of the skills, either."
Twilight Sparkle nodded her head in understanding. "Well, you wouldn't be helping out with any of that. You see, the spell that connects you two is a construct. What that means is that a portion of her magic — most of it, in this case — is indefinitely devoted to it. While it takes very little magic to use the construct itself, it doesn't leave much magic for anything else, and, well... The work that she does demands
a lot of magic to meet her standards in efficiency. Right now, she is
significantly limited in how many objects she can manipulate, both in weight and quantity."
As Marshall digested all of that, he wondered if that was the explanation for why Rarity seemed to be tired during most of the morning sessions. She had said that her work was the culprit, of course, but never had she said anything about the circumstances being abnormal, or that he was indirectly linked with it. He could understand not wanting to burden someone with their problems, since he tended to keep things to himself, but still...
Desiring to get a better feel for the situation, he inquired, "Well, since you've come to me with this, I'm guessing that she hasn't hired assistants, or accepted any help?" After receiving a nod of confirmation, he added, "Why?"
The question made Twilight Sparkle deflate, her sad visage joined by a slouching posture and flattened ears, and for the first time in his life he felt the urge to hug a cartoon creature. He didn't act on it, of course, although it had nonetheless made him aware of the aesthetic element that he had been overlooking, since his attention had been focused on more important things. Of course, now wasn't the time for his mind to stray, so he continued to focus his attention on Twilight Sparkle as she began to speak.
"I really wish that I knew the answer to that," Twilight Sparkle admitted. "Her behavior makes sense, but only up to a point. We all knew that she was driven, and why, but now I'm not so sure that we understand what it is that is driving her —
really driving her. I can understand why she wouldn't want any of us taking turns with assisting her
every day, yet she's bound and determined to stay the current course. I just..." She stopped and released a sigh, her gaze falling to the ground.
Marshall felt a pang in his chest, an ache, and wondered what was wrong. Well, not
wrong, per se, but... It was odd, since he had been a bit distant for a while, emotion-wise. He'd never felt sympathy quite like
that before. Was it the alien body? Was it just him, somehow? Would being so emotionally-charged, as he had been as of late, be the cause? Either way, should he even care? Well, this particular day seemed like one for firsts anyway, so why not tack on another one?
So, he got up and sat beside Twilight Sparkle, in order to console her with a one-legged hug, and said, "You know what? I feel like trying."
Twilight Sparkle's expression was a mix of gratitude and surprise, which quickly turned to worry. "Are you sure? I don't want you to feel pressured into doing it, or anything..."
Despite his own doubts on the matter, Marshall nodded his head resolutely before withdrawing from the hug. "It's not like I have anything better to do." Suddenly, it dawned on him what his volunteer work would entail, and his eyes went wide, filling to the brim with excitement. "Wait, does that mean that I get to make
return visits!?"
With an amused look on her face, Twilight Sparkle rose to her hooves and half-jokingly asked, "Are you
sure that you
just realized that?" Upon receiving a rapid series of brain-rattling nods, she chuckled and began to walk again, with Marshall quickly catching the hint and joining her. "Well, I'll teach you how to move your consciousness between bodies later. For now, let me tell you what I can about Rarity before we reach our destination."
While Twilight Sparkle told Marshall what she felt was appropriate for him to know without learning it from Rarity herself, he absently wondered about his act of generosity. It wasn't that he lacked altruistic tendencies, but he preferred thoughtful foresight and being anonymous. He could handle things well enough if they were at arm's length, but he was generally uncomfortable about handling things personally, in part because of a distinct lack of opportunity, thus practice and experience.
It was too late to take back what he had said, so he decided that he could give it a try and hope for the best. Either way, he now had indefinite access to a magical world, and he figured that that alone would be more than worth the trouble.
Chapter 5
Meet the Ponies
Despite how distracting the sights of Ponyville were, as Marshall was led through a dense portion of it by Twilight Sparkle, he thought that he'd done a good job of paying attention to his guide as she told him about Rarity. The only time that he had failed to do so was when he had stopped to marvel at the first pegasus that he had seen while in flight, but he hadn't missed anything because Twilight Sparkle had been patient enough to allow a brief change of topic, to answer questions pertaining to pegasi, before picking up where she had left off with Rarity.
Some of the town's denizens had greeted them along the way, although most of the time he couldn't be certain whether it was out of familiarity with his body's appearance or a disposition toward friendliness that he was greeted. Others, either without, before, right in the middle of, or after greeting him, would look at him oddly or with uncertainty. It was all understandable behavior, and he didn't see anything that looked like hostility or fear, so he didn't bother worrying about it.
Twilight Sparkle had finished telling him what she could about Rarity before reaching their destination, and while the silence that had ensued hadn't been awkward, he felt like it would be a good idea to fill the void with something. So, after a moment of thought, he said, "So, are there many, uh," he caught himself before he said "horses," because he had finally noticed the actual term being bandied about, "ponies with both wings and a horn? I don't recall Rarity mentioning them together, and you're the only one I've seen with more than one attribute, so far..."
He couldn't see it, but Twilight Sparkle looked a mite uncomfortable as she gave her response, since she didn't care for the special attention that her status tended to engender — although her expression could easily be confused with embarrassment or humility. "Ponies like myself are called alicorns." She turned her head so she could regard him while she continued to walk, and raised the wing that was below her gaze, which she spared a glance for the duration of the following sentence. "I wasn't born with these, though. As far as I know, alicorns aren't born naturally, so there have only been four — including myself — in recorded history."
When she had mentioned "alicorn," Marshall recalled that Rarity had mentioned the term before, but hadn't offered him a description of what it was. He hadn't asked about it because another detail about Twilight Sparkle had come up, which hadn't helped Rarity's case in regard to making some of her other claims any less unbelievable. It was that detail that made him stop in his tracks, as he finally realized what it was about his memory that had been teasing him, especially once he saw the connection between Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark and the star atop the nearby castle.
Seeing this, in addition to his uncertainty and nervousness, Twilight Sparkle stopped and turned around to face him with obvious concern. "What's wrong?"
"Well," Marshall began, his ears drooping slightly of their own accord when he ducked his head a bit, "I just remembered that you're a princess and, uh..."
Guessing what the issue was, Twilight Sparkle offered him a reassuring smile and said, "You don't have to worry about that, outside of formal occasions. I especially prefer my friends to be themselves around me."
Catching the hint, Marshall stared at her with a somewhat incredulous expression on his face. "You already consider me a friend?"
Twilight Sparkle nodded her head once and simply said, "Of course."
Marshall didn't really understand how that could be, but he allowed himself to relax and accept it. Just because he had never made a friend so quickly and easily in the past didn't mean that it wasn't possible. It was still fairly unbelievable, though, which wasn't helped by the fact that the only examples that he could draw from, about this kind of occurrence, were from fictional sources.
"Well, alright," he eventually said, with some of his doubt tingeing his voice.
After considering that response for a moment, Twilight Sparkle opted to ask questions about his relationships — and those of humans in general — later, once the time was more appropriate for it. There was a place that awaited their arrival, after all, and she was keen on bringing Marshall there before
too long. So, she about-faced and prompted him to continue onward.
It wasn't long before they arrived at their destination, which Marshall immediately recognized from his surveyance on the hill: it was the building that had looked edible. It was much easier to see why, because the roof tiles looked like a collection of cookies, the eaves and ridge of the roof, as well as the overhang over the front door, were decorated with white frosting, and the entire top floor looked like a cupcake, one with three lit candles sticking out of its pink frosting.
Beyond that, he noted that it had at least four stories, with the second being noticeable from the front, thanks to a dormer, and the third and fourth being exclusive to a relatively-short tower. Other notable features, that were worth mentioning, were the pink-tinted windows, protruding ridge beams, the sign that hung from a bracket on the side of the building, which displayed an image of a cupcake, and the Dutch — or stable — door that every house seemed to have. There was one more thing that had caught his attention, on the second floor roof, but he had no idea what it was. His best guess was that it was a chimney, even though a much smaller version of it would have looked right at home in a fish tank — well, sans the frosting.
"Here we are," Twilight Sparkle lightheartedly stated, before pausing at the doorstep and turning her head enough to spare Marshall a glance. "This is Sugarcube Corner."
She returned her attention to the aforementioned establishment and opened its door with her magic before proceeding forward. Marshall followed, and — at first — thought that it looked dark inside because the lighting within was dim, perhaps from relying on the very light that made his pupils constrict. However, as he was crossing over the threshold, he realized that it was pitch-dark inside, not dim; he couldn't even see Twilight Sparkle, and she had only been a few feet ahead of him.
Confused by this, he spoke up and asked, "Why is it—"
Suddenly, the room was bathed in light, and the host of ponies that had been revealed simultaneously set off some party poppers and shouted, "
Surprise!"
As some upbeat music began to play, his shock kept him rooted in place while he took in the sights around him. To his left was an alcove with a slightly-raised floor, which was accessed by a set of steps — ones with a finial-topped balustrade — that led one through a pair of candy cane-colored pillars. Straight ahead was what he guessed to be a service desk because of the dome-shaped call bell that was there, which doubled as a display case for the shop's goods, and beyond that was a staircase. To his right were larger display cases, and the wall behind the biggest one was full of shelves that held even more of the shop's produce, to the extent that rolling ladders were required to access some of it.
Aside from the more permanent features of the shop, there were a number of tables arranged about the room, of various sizes and shapes, with a selection of goodies and refreshments on them. There was also a small, square-shaped table that was
just big enough for the phonograph that was providing the room with music. Then, of course, there was the most prevalent items in the room, because the balloons, paper streamers and whatnot were literally
everywhere. They were also joined by the smaller streamers and confetti, from the party poppers, although most of it had fallen to the floor by the end of his examination.
Above the service desk hung a banner, which read, "Welcome to Ponyville, alien-from-another-universe!" Below that, in a much smaller script, was an additional message, which he had to squint his eyes to read. "Don't worry, everypony! I have it on good authority that your jobs will be safe!"
He would have thought more about that odd addition to the banner if he hadn't noticed Rarity's approach, along with the ponies that appeared to be tagging along with her. He had a feeling that Rarity had told him the names of the other ponies once, perhaps with an identifying feature or two, but no names were coming to mind, or details to match them with. With any luck, he wouldn't be put on the spot and have his memory tested during the introduction phase, which really wouldn't make for a good impression.
He had noticed Twilight Sparkle out of the corner of his eye when he had been looking around the place, who had been standing right beside him, so he wasn't caught off guard when he heard her question. "Surprised?"
Marshall nodded his head dumbly. He couldn't remember ever having a
surprise party before, let alone one of this nature; it was one of those things that one didn't think about because it got filed away in the "it'll never happen to you" section of the brain. He might have been surprised by a birthday party back when he was too young to remember it, but they were easy to anticipate once one had the capacity to remember the date and understand its significance.
He didn't consider himself to be
too introverted, nor particularly shy, but parties really weren't his cup of tea. It wasn't that he hated them, but the few that he had been invited to as an adult had invariably involved far more strangers and acquaintances than friends, and he just didn't feel comfortable putting his heart anywhere remotely near to his sleeve when he couldn't be sure that whatever he put out there would be safe.
Now, here he was, among another species, amid ponies that he knew next to nothing about, never mind anything regarding their culture. It was intimidating, to say the very least — as well as a mite overwhelming. Still, it wasn't something that he could just put off or leave to someone else, and he didn't want to make a bad impression, so he tried to steel himself for the trial that lay ahead of him.
Rarity had taken notice of his apprehension, so she regarded him with some concern and asked, "This wasn't too much, was it? I wanted to do something to show you my gratitude, as well as apologize, and," her concern gave way to tempered disapproval and criticism, "if you don't mind my saying so, I thought that your everyday milieu was rather... dreary."
It took Marshall a second to remember what "milieu" meant, with the aid of the context, and couldn't disagree with the assessment. He didn't care much for his lifestyle in general, where he only saw friends and family — in person —
very occasionally, and didn't do much for fun outside of his home, but he was accustomed to weathering things out. The problem was that he had become desensitized to his situation, so it had become something akin to the new norm. Intellectually, he knew that he shouldn't allow things to remain the same, but he had resigned himself to token efforts in light of there being no apparent solutions that would improve matters without taking too many steps back as a consequence.
In the end, it was the thought that counted, so he smiled somewhat weakly and said, "I'll be fine. It was just... unexpected."
"Well,
duh!" Voiced the all-pink pony beside Rarity, who — up until that point — had been bouncing up and down in place. "That's why it's called a
surprise party, silly!"
Marshall turned his full attention to the pony who had just spoken, whose prior activity had been difficult to ignore. As he had noticed already, both her coat and hair were pink, the latter being a much darker shade than the former, while the aforementioned hair was rather disheveled in appearance. Her eyes were a light blue, and he could easily tell that her smile reached them, even as they conveyed the excitement that was broiling underneath the surface. Due to his current vantage point, and not knowing if it would be a faux pas to request a look-see or not, he didn't know what her cutie mark looked like, though he was pretty sure that she had no wings in addition to being hornless.
Rarity frowned at the interruption, since she hadn't finished her conversation with Marshall, but she decided to take advantage of it, by using it as a segue to the introductions. After clearing her throat, she said, "Marshall, this is Pinkie Pie; she's the one who put this party together."
That seemed to open up the floodgates, because Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "Hi," before continuing at a breakneck pace, instead of allowing the rest of the introductions to be made first. "I hope you enjoy the party! I was gonna do something extra-special, since I've never thrown a party for anypony from another universe before," she suddenly zipped over to Marshall's side, leaned in close and whispered behind her hoof, "that I'm aware of," then proceeded to look about herself shiftily before returning from whence she had come, "but I was advised to not go overboard, even though I run such a tight ship. Of course, if you're not having a blast," she proceeded to reach for something outside of Marshall's peripheral vision, which revealed the three balloons on her flank, and came back with a light cerulean-colored cannon, "just say the word and I'll take this party beyond the canon's limits!"
When she was met with a collection of confused or half-lidded stares, she asked, "What?" Then, the reason for their expressions seemed to occur to her, which prompted her to lightly cuff the side of her head. "Oh, sorry! The word is 'bird.'"
To Rarity's credit, she made no comment and moved things along, by gesturing toward the pony on her other side. "This is Applejack."
"Howdy!" Applejack greeted, with a tip of her Stetson hat.
Aside from noting Applejack's Southern accent and choice of headgear, Marshall saw that her coat was orange and her hair a pale yellow, with both her mane and tail tied off near their ends. She had green eyes and white freckles on the sides of her face, and — like Pinkie Pie — didn't have wings or a horn. Since she wasn't facing him dead-on, he was able to see enough of her flank to view her cutie mark, which consisted of three red apples.
Next, Rarity indicated the pony that had been standing behind the rest of the group, between Pinkie Pie and herself. "This is Fluttershy."
Said pony ducked her head a bit, enough for the forelock of her mane to cover one of her eyes, and softly said, "It's nice to meet you."
Marshall had barely been able to hear Fluttershy over the developing din of the party, but the first impression that he got of her character was rather loud and clear: she was the shy and reserved type. Appearance-wise, she had cyan-colored eyes, a light yellow coat and pink hair, and he could see a closed wing on the side that her mane covered the least. While he could see her cutie mark, the angle was such that he could glimpse the colors but not discern the image.
"Now," Rarity said, as she began to look around, "where is Rainbo—"
Right when her eyes started to rise toward something that was above Marshall's head, and Pinkie Pie seemed to lock up in a conspicuous fashion, a balloon popped right behind his ear. His human reflexes kicked in upon being startled, both figuratively
and literally, and that resulted in the back half of his non-human body being launched into the air, which threatened to flip him over onto his back. While he made a valiant effort to stop his backside's momentum as he scrambled to maintain his balance on his forelegs, all that he succeeded in doing was moving forward a few steps and changing the angle of his fall...
...Which just happened to be where the head of the immobilized Pinkie Pie was located.
Between the unexpectedness of the event, and how quickly the end result was reached, no one had time to save Pinkie Pie from getting her head squashed between the floor and Marshall's posterior. At that moment, the pony who had scared Marshall began to laugh uproariously, to the extent that she was having trouble staying airborne. If not for the fact that he was the guest of honor, the other partygoers might have indulged themselves and joined the prankster; as things stood, however, some could only do so much to hold in their own mirth.
Marshall looked "up" at the pony who was responsible for his current predicament while he was too embarrassed and mortified to roll off of his back, in order to assume a more dignified posture. The pony in question was a pegasus with a sky blue coat, whose hair boasted six different bands of color, representing those found in a rainbow. Her eyes were cerise, although he had only seen them for a split second since she was laughing so hard that they were squeezed tight and lined with unshed tears more often than not. As for her cutie mark, he saw that it featured a cloud with a three-colored lightning bolt coming out of it.
While Rarity and Fluttershy extricated Pinkie Pie from underneath Marshall, who was getting to his hooves with Applejack's aid, Twilight Sparkle frowned at the laughing pegasus and — in a chiding tone — said, "Rainbow Dash. Was that really necessary?"
It took a moment for said pony to get a hold of herself, who wiped the tears from her eyes before she casually said, "Aw, come on, Twilight. You said that humans walked on two legs, and that this guy would only be here for a day. How could I
not pass that up?"
"Really, Rainbow Dash," Rarity said, sounding a bit exasperated. "I know that you didn't mean any harm by it, but you
could have given Marshall the chance to know you better before pulling such a stunt, so
he would know that as well."
Rainbow Dash deflated a bit upon hearing that, and had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Landing before Marshall, she rubbed the back of her neck and contritely said, "Sorry about that. No hard feelings?"
"It's fine," Marshall lied, avoiding eye contact.
Whether or not Rainbow Dash was being sincere, he just didn't want to make any more of a scene than there already was. In addition to that, he wanted to put the incident out of his mind and move things along, so he could mitigate the amount of attention that he was getting, despite the fact that he was the reason for the party.
Rarity and Applejack didn't appear to buy his response, although the latter — at the very least — might have understood his intentions, because she turned her attention to Pinkie Pie in order to address another subject. "So, Pinkie Pie, why'd ya freeze up like you did?"
"Oh, my Pinkie Sense was just confuzzled, is all," came Pinkie Pie's blithe response.
Out of curiosity, partly because it might be something of a magical nature, Marshall asked, "Pinkie Sense? What's that?"
Twilight Sparkle was the one who got to field the question, and she gave Marshall the impression that there was a story behind her answer. "
Somehow, Pinkie Pie gets these feelings, which manifest themselves as particular, involuntary actions, and they can predict future events." At Marshall's incredulous stare, she added, "I don't understand it either, but I've come to accept it."
"I've never heard of it being confused, though," Applejack stated, before once again addressing Pinkie Pie. "Any idea as to why?"
"Hmmmm," Pinkie Pie hummed thoughtfully, her brow furrowed as she stroked her chin. "It
could be that something was lost in translation, because it was a human reaction in a pony body. On the other hoof, perhaps there isn't an official name for the move, so it couldn't tell me. Or, mayyyybe, the applicable terms were insufficient to describe it. I mean, in a way, it's a reverse of a headbutt, but calling it a butthead would be mean, and referring to it as a buttbutt would just be silly, like you're trying to argue about something. Of course, a butt is performed with the head, so 'headbutt' already seems redundant anyway. Also—"
"Hey!" Rainbow Dash interrupted, who had taken to the air once more. She had her forelegs crossed, and looked impatient. "Are we gonna party, or what?"
Pinkie Pie gasped in shock and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! You're
totally right!"
Before Marshall knew it, he was picked up by Pinkie Pie, who declared, "I know how we can get this party started," and — in a rush — deposited him just off to the side of the shop's entrance, where a lot of ponies were already gathered. Then, before he could get his bearings on the situation, Pinkie Pie stuffed something between his lips and asked, "Do you know how to play 'pin the tail on the pony?'"
Figuring that it was their version of "pin the tail on the donkey," and that the thing in his mouth was the tail, Marshall gave a verbal response despite his lips being occupied. "Ah gesh?"
"Great!" Pinkie Pie said, before pulling out a blindfold from somewhere and tying it about Marshall's head. Then, without any warning, she proceeded to grasp Marshall and send him into an unbelievably-fast spin, which made him cry out in surprise.
Unfortunately, while Marshall had proved apt enough to walk, he was by no means an expert at maintaining a stable and upright position, and that was only compounded by the unexpectedness and speed of the spin. So, not only did he lose his footing and fall upon his belly, making him eject the pin — and attached tail — from his mouth at a notable velocity, which required a few ponies to scramble out of the way, but the centrifugal force made him splay his limbs and extend his neck while he spun around on his belly. Due to Pinkie Pie's proximity, she got tripped up and tumbled end over end, squealing gleefully the entire time, until she gained enough traction to roll away, which led to her bowling a few ponies over before crashing into the base of a display case.
While Rainbow Dash was incapacitated by laughter, who collapsed to the ground and began to pound it with a foreleg, Applejack went to attend to Pinkie Pie as Twilight Sparkle, Rarity and Fluttershy saw to Marshall. Between having a familiar appearance, being — technically speaking — a different species, and gaining her sympathy with this latest indignity, Fluttershy was the one to head the group as they approached him.
After Rarity used her magic to remove the blindfold from Marshall's dazed eyes, Fluttershy approached him and quietly said, "Oh, you poor thing. Are you alright?"
"...Not really," Marshall replied with a groan.
Aside from feeling a bit nauseous and sore, his pride — modest as it was — had taken quite a blow after enduring two highly-embarrassing incidents so closely together, and it didn't help that he could hear a fair amount of laughing. Unfortunately, he wasn't the type to find release through crying or getting angry, or by running away from the scene of the crime, so he was torn on how to handle the situation: because he preferred to find someplace private, where he could recover on his own. The problem with that was getting there without making it obvious that something was wrong, but that wasn't going to happen if he left the party right at that moment.
Before Fluttershy could decide on how to help Marshall, they heard Pinkie Pie yell, "Woo! That was
fun!"
A few seconds later, said pony was bounding over to them without a care in the world, with Applejack trailing behind her. Upon noticing Marshall's prone state, she regarded him with worry and asked, "Awwww; you're not too tired to continue, are you?"
"I don't think
that's the problem, Pinkie Pie," Twilight Sparkle dryly commented.
While Pinkie Pie was being told to be more careful, since Marshall's appearance belied his inexperience with being a pony, the subject of that conversation took things in for a moment before deciding to give the party another chance. If Pinkie Pie could laugh off her own experience, then why couldn't he? Of course, it helped to know that it wasn't out of meanness that he was being laughed at; at least, as far as his immediate company was concerned, who seemed to show enough consideration for him. It was especially apparent of Fluttershy, despite her awkwardness.
Besides which, if he was going to be making more visits in the future, then he didn't want to sour things with anyone, if it could be helped. So, he carefully got to his hooves and stood up, even though his vision still swam a little, and waited for Pinkie Pie to notice him before he said, "I think I'm up for another try."
"Are you sure, darling?" Rarity asked, as much out of worry as it was from an appraisal of his current condition.
"Yeah," Applejack seconded, with a slight frown. "You don't
have to do it, if'n you don't wanna."
Marshall nodded his head to them and said, "It's fine," before he returned his attention to Pinkie Pie, who already looked ready to resume the activity. "Just don't spin me so fast, okay?"
"Okie-dokie!" Pinkie Pie readily agreed. "I'll be super-duper-extra-special-with-a-grape-on-top careful!"
Despite some of their reservations, including Marshall's own, Rarity affixed the blindfold to his head once more, while Twilight Sparkle retrieved the tail, which had embedded itself in a banister. Once the pin was secured between his lips once more, Pinkie Pie eyed him critically before she helped him to stand on his hind legs, as she did the same, and proceeded to spin him around that way. While Marshall had rarely ever danced, if one could call what he had done "dancing," he could easily picture himself being twirled by a dancing partner, like he'd seen more adept dancers do.
He was mildly dizzy by the time that he was set down on all four hooves again and told that his target was straight ahead. Of course, as soon as he tried to move forward, he stumbled
way off course, but was otherwise relieved that he hadn't fallen over as well. Thinking that he had a good idea of where he had tried to go initially, he moved slowly and carefully, and adjusted his course as needed.
Before long, he had a good feeling that he was close, and could even imagine the wall being right in front of him. So, he extended a hoof in front of himself to try and find it, since he didn't want to discover the wall with his face and risk sticking the tail somewhere when he wasn't ready. As luck would have it, the wall was within reach, so he eased himself closer as he pictured where the image of the pony was, which seemed unusually vivid in his mind's eye. After lowering his head and leaning it a bit more to the right, he advanced with the intention to stick the pin where it was supposed to go on the image, and he felt resistance as he pushed the pin into something, until his lips got in the way and prevented him from pushing it in any farther.
"Whoa," Rainbow Dash voiced her surprise, which made Marshall realize how quiet it had been up until that point, before conversations began to spark up around him again, "I can't believe he got it right where it needed to go."
"It was almost like he could see it," Applejack opined, whose tone conveyed her confusion instead of an accusation because she'd had a good view of Marshall's face from her vantage point.
While Marshall was trying and failing to lift the blindfold from his face with a hoof, having forgotten — for the time being — that he could have done it with magic, Pinkie Pie did it for him so she could look him straight in the eye, as she narrowed her own, before saying, "Saaaaay... You wouldn't happened to have committed
foul play, in Sugarcube Corner, with a roll of
duct tape, have you?"
"Huh?" Marshall voiced his confusion, as well as showing his discomfort to Pinkie Pie's invasion of his personal space.
For whatever reason, Pinkie Pie seemed to be satisfied with his response, since she drew away from him, taking the blindfold away in the process, and enthusiastically began to ask around for the next player. Since "pin the tail on the pony" was Rarity's favorite game, she began to vie for a turn, to which Pinkie Pie jokingly said, "Didn't you already have a turn?"
Since it looked like he was going to be in the way soon, Marshall rejoined Twilight Sparkle and her friends, feeling nonplussed about what had just happened. Noticing his mood, Fluttershy tried to raise his spirits with a sincere yet really low-key, "I think you did great. Woo-hoo."
Marshall couldn't help smiling a bit in response. Now that Fluttershy appeared to have warmed up to him a bit, it seemed like she might be interesting to hang out with. The others were interesting, as well; even Rainbow Dash, since he'd had some experience with her type before. Pinkie Pie, however, might require being taken in much smaller dosages.
He had just managed to thank Fluttershy when Twilight Sparkle said, "Yeah; you must have a pretty good memory if you did that unaided."
Managing something of a shrug, with a slight raise of a shoulder and tilt of the head, Marshall said, "I dunno... I'm kind of surprised that I managed to do it, honestly."
"Oh?" Twilight Sparkle inquired, her interest clearly piqued.
As he turned to watch Rarity play "pin the tail on the pony," who had just begun to search blindly for her target, he absently said, "Yeah. I just had this feeling. And when I imagined where I thought I needed to go, it was almost like I was actually seeing it."
"Well, you
are a unicorn, you know," Rainbow Dash helpfully pointed out. "Maybe you used your magic without meaning to, or something."
"It's possible," Twilight Sparkle allowed, as she recalled how Marshall had more or less homed in on the location where the tail was supposed to be pinned.
She didn't permit the possibility simply because she had grown to accept that there were some things — whether they involved magic or not — that she didn't understand, but because she was familiar with how Rarity had gotten her cutie mark. If Rarity's magic could lead her to what she needed to find without any conscious input on her part, then why couldn't Marshall's help him find where he needed to pin the tail? While she didn't think that having a clone of Rarity's body would necessarily have anything to do with it, it would certainly be interesting enough to study if something of that nature happened to occur between them.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Rainbow Dash's distinct voice, along with the confusion being conveyed with it, caught her attention. She hadn't caught what had been said, but she didn't need to: because she noticed where everypony's attention was being focused, and she found Rarity removing her blindfold, standing right next to an appropriately-placed tail. Rarity showed surprise when she noticed her accomplishment, which made Twilight Sparkle wonder if what had happened wasn't just a coincidence.
After Rarity gave her an account that was similar to Marshall's, when she hadn't been present to hear his, it was with a good helping of excitement, as well as a bit of concern, that Twilight Sparkle arranged for them to get some testing done later, before Marshall had to leave.
Chapter 6
Eat, Drink, and be Mare-y
While Twilight Sparkle had some concerns regarding Rarity's and Marshall's display of "sight beyond sight," on top of her own interest in the matter, she didn't think that it warranted an immediate examination. So, she reassured them that there was likely nothing to worry about, and that they should enjoy the rest of the party. Of course, should anything new crop up, especially if it was worthy of concern, they should seek her out and apprise her of the situation.
Despite Marshall's misgivings about the party, he considered Twilight Sparkle's words to be good news for one very specific reason: the food. Now that the introductions to Rarity's other friends were over, and he was no longer at the mercy of Pinkie Pie's whims, he could investigate the array of treats being offered, whose tantalizing scents he had been too distracted to respond to until now. The only problem was that there were
so many things to choose from, many of which he couldn't even begin to put a name to, and he was willing to bet that his stomach wasn't big enough to sample everything that was available.
Fortunately, Applejack noticed his indecision and decided to help him get started. She led him over to a table from which an overpowering aroma of apples wafted, and that wasn't a surprise since the apple theme was also quite apparent visually. After proudly admitting that everything on the table had been made and provided by her, she recommended starting with the basics, whereupon he got to witness how an Earth Pony put a slice of apple pie on a plate with their mouth and hooves.
While he'd found the operation interesting, he wondered if he should be worried about where he put his mouth in the future, since he'd been taught at an early age to not put his mouth on anything where another's mouth had been, and that lesson had stuck with him quite firmly. There was also the matter of using one's hooves on anything that would also encounter the mouth afterward, but he could reason how that might not be a concern for a pony, and tried to dismiss thoughts of connecting hooves to what his feelings would have been if he had been using human feet instead.
After Applejack returned the pie server and hoisted the pie-laden plate on an upward-turned hoof, she stated, "Here ya go, sugarcube; try a bite an' tell me what ya think."
Noticing that there wasn't a utensil present on the plate, Marshall stared at the offered slice of apple pie
just long enough for it to become awkward before he raised his gaze to its bearer and — with some embarrassment — asked, "Um, how should I eat it?"
Applejack opened her mouth to reply, but she paused and blinked her eyes when the actual nature of the question sunk in. With a chuckle, she lightheartedly said, "I wouldn't worry too much about manners or etiquette, if that's what yer askin'."
As if to illustrate her point, Marshall spotted Pinkie Pie behind Applejack, where she began to raid a platter on another table, with her face up close and personal with its contents, until the platter was quite literally licked clean of said contents. In classic cartoon fashion, she proceeded to clean her face with her tongue before merrily bounding away without a care in the world.
His attention was brought back to Applejack when she gave him a half-lidded stare and wryly said, "I take it that Pinkie Pie just made a spectacle of herself?"
Marshall regarded her with some surprise and asked, "How could you tell?"
"I had a feelin'," Applejack replied, with an amused smile, before she made a slight gesture with the plate that was still set on her hoof, in order to draw attention back to it. "So, how's about it?"
After considering the slice of apple pie for another second, Marshall opted to eat it in a way that he was reasonably sure was pretty normal for a pony, by bringing his mouth to the food instead of the other way around. He figured that he could worry about exploring his choice of eating method later, once he had more time to observe how ponies ate their food, since he preferred to be inconspicuous as opposed to standing out or doing something that might otherwise garner unwanted attention.
He used his magic-borne telekinesis to move the plate closer before leaning in and taking a bite out of the apple pie. His eyes widened in astonishment: he hadn't expected it to taste
that good. He didn't know if it was his new taste buds, the quality of the apple pie, or a combination thereof, but he had never tasted such a delicious specimen before. The apple pie was so delicious, in fact, that he'd lost enough of his concentration to lose his hold on the plate.
Applejack caught it without any problem and facetiously said, "I'll accept that as a compliment."
Marshall was a bit embarrassed despite the positive reaction,
and because of it, so he quietly retrieved the plate so he could continue to enjoy the apple pie, only this time being more mindful of his hold on the aforementioned plate. Soon enough, however, Applejack engaged him in conversation, which he politely obliged. He wasn't normally so reserved, but he was really out of his element, surrounded by — and experiencing — so many new things, and he really wanted it all to work out well.
Applejack was easy to talk to, thankfully, so he eventually relaxed and opened up to her, between samplings of some of the other treats that were of the apple persuasion. For the most part, they talked about everyday things that they could both relate to, like what they did for a living, or what they liked to do when they weren't doing that. One of the more interesting topics concerned cutie marks, as well as how a pony acquired one: that led to Applejack sharing her own experience, which reminded him of Elton John's
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
Other ponies had gathered around and seemed eager to ask their own questions, so Applejack eventually excused herself. For a time, he ended up fielding questions instead of asking his own, but he could understand why and tolerated it. While some of the questions were innocuous, others were rather troublesome — particularly those that touched upon humanity as a whole. Most of the time it wasn't the questions themselves that were the problem, but the answers, since he needed time to construct a premise and background information in order to deliver the proper perspective to go along with a number of them.
Overall, he hadn't painted a flattering picture of humanity, but he hadn't seen any point in lying, or focusing too much on the good aspects. It was kind of strange, really, seeing as he'd never really thought about and established an opinion about his own species, yet something about it had crystallized over the course of his relatively-short life, just waiting to be dug up. While his opinion wasn't outright dislike, there was plenty to be embarrassed about when relating it to another race. In the end, it was probably a good thing that the questions usually didn't probe the more sensitive and/or damning topics, although learning how divided humanity was had seemed like a pretty terrible state of affairs to the ponies.
He hadn't known that Twilight Sparkle had been nearby, taking notes, until she had asked her first question. While she hoped to document information about his species in a more thorough, exacting and official capacity at some point, that didn't mean that she would pass up an opportunity to learn something at present, especially since the impromptu preliminary could aid in framing some of her future inquiries. That was fine with him, and it didn't hurt that her questions aimed to get a general sense of humanity's progress, since that afforded him enough room to save the more unsavory bits for a better time.
Eventually, and without warning, a pair of forelegs circled around his barrel, just behind his own forelegs, and he yelped with surprise when he was lifted into the air. "Come on," he heard the distinctive voice of Rainbow Dash declare, "we've got the
perfect dance for ya!"
Before he knew it, he was whisked over to what appeared to be a conga line and got deposited right behind Rarity, so close that he was partially on top of her, and it was mostly out of reflex that he set his forehooves upon her haunches. He immediately felt a pair of hooves settle onto his own haunches, and found Rainbow Dash in a similar position when he turned to look behind himself, albeit with a cheeky grin on her face. He opened his mouth to say something, without really knowing exactly what it was that he wanted to say, when Rarity moved forward, which prompted him to follow suit instead of getting stretched out awkwardly, or causing a scene by breaking the line.
"Sorry about that, darling," Rarity apologized, which helped to draw Marshall's attention back to the fore, in addition to the need to watch where he was going, "but it didn't appear as if you would be able to disentangle yourself from that situation."
"You can thank me later," Rainbow Dash jauntily interjected.
"I hope you don't mind," Rarity continued, as she turned her head to the side and regarded Marshall over her shoulder. "It's just that, if you're only going to be here for a few hours, I figured that your time might be better spent if you had a greater variety of experiences to take back with you when you return to your world, rather than spending most of it catering to the curiosities of others."
Ordinarily, Marshall might have appreciated such thoughtfulness, but said thoughtfulness had landed him — quite literally — in a rather awkward and uncomfortable situation. It wasn't the dancing part that was getting to him, even though it was certainly an awkward enough affair for him: it was how quickly and easily the ponies had invited him to an activity that involved the kind of touching that it did, and it was weird to also be on the receiving end of it as well. He had nothing against it in and of itself, but it went against the pace that he was comfortable with, and the conduct that his parents had instilled in him. Basically, he wasn't the type to place his hands anywhere around a lady's midsection on a first date, much less a platonic first meeting.
Those weren't the only strange things that his mind had to deal with, either. There was also the matter of him recognizing Rarity and Rainbow Dash as members of the opposite sex, even though he only had eyes for the human aesthetic. He wasn't sure if he should follow the adage, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," despite being a pony in Ponyville himself, but he certainly wasn't going to take advantage of the fact that he was in a female body, which he still didn't want to think too much about. It took an effort just to manage the change in body and setting, in addition to the fact that magic and transdimensional travel were real, and it wouldn't do him any good — for the time being, at least — to figure out what kind of allowances in behavior he could make as a female on top of that, in light of his self-image not being what one might consider to be feminine in nature.
"Actually," he heard Twilight Sparkle say, and a quick glance behind him revealed that she had followed him and Rainbow Dash to the conga line, having joined right behind the aforementioned pegasus, "Marshall is going to be visiting for an indefinite amount of time."
"Whoa, really?" Rainbow Dash voiced her interest in the matter.
Since Twilight Sparkle had been the pony with the plan, Marshall kept silent and let her handle what could have been a rhetorical question, since Rarity's cocked brow was what actually necessitated a response. Rarity's gaze must have unsettled Twilight Sparkle somewhat, because some of the nervousness that was sparked by it leaked into her voice as she said, "Yeah. We, uh, talked and made the arrangement along the way here."
Rarity responded to that with a slight frown and asked, "While I have no problem with Marshall returning, exactly how often will he be visiting?"
"Oh, you won't have to worry about going back to the cave," came Twilight Sparkle's reassuring reply, who had been able to read in between the lines of what Rarity had said. "Marshall will be able to move his consciousness between his body and this one. You see—"
"Aw, man..." Rainbow Dash groaned quite vocally, who turned her head enough to the side so Twilight Sparkle could see the displeased expression on her face. "Do you have to do
that here,
now?"
Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes and patiently said, "It's not going to kill you to hear the explanation, Rainbow Dash."
"That's because it's
not funny," Rainbow Dash slyly quipped.
"Which means she could get
bored to death," Pinkie Pie "helpfully" added while she happened to be prancing by, as if her timing hadn't been planned at all. "La, la-la, la-la..."
Marshall had to see Twilight Sparkle's reaction to the pair of jokes that had just been delivered, with Rainbow Dash interpreting "kill" in a way that hadn't been intended, then Pinkie Pie taking that to contradict Twilight Sparkle's assertion. He had to clamp his lips together tightly when he saw the put-out expression that was on her face, in an attempt to not show his amusement or make more noise than the snort that he had initially failed to contain. Twilight Sparkle seemed to take it all in stride, though, since she eventually smiled a little and shook her head.
After a reserved giggle, Rarity got things back on track when she brought up a relevant concern. "So, Twilight, have you already decided where Marshall will be staying?"
"Well," Twilight Sparkle began, "since I have plenty of room at the castle, I figured he could 'rest' there while he's in his own body."
"Your castle
does have an abundant amount of free space," Rarity conceded, before casually adding, "Still, should he desire to, he is welcome to stay at my home as well."
"Mine, too!" Rainbow Dash declared. Seeing the odd looks that she got from Rarity and Twilight Sparkle when she glanced from one to the other, she defensively asked, "What?"
"It was just unexpected, is all," Rarity tactfully replied.
Rainbow Dash frowned, and probably would have crossed her forelegs if she hadn't been participating in the dance. "Why
wouldn't I be interested? This
is an alien we're talking about, and
you two don't seem to have a problem with it."
"Fine, fine," Twilight Sparkle said appeasingly, since she didn't really have an issue with it.
The aforementioned alien, who had effectively dropped off of the others' radar, spoke up and modestly opined, "I don't think I'm all that interesting, though."
While Marshall didn't make a habit of selling himself short, his words had been laden with multiple meanings and purposes. Even though he thought they were true, when taken at face value, from his perspective the
ponies were the ones who were more interesting. On top of that, he wasn't so keen on having Rainbow Dash's attention, so he was hoping to put a wet blanket on her interest. It wasn't that he didn't like her, but she seemed to be the type of... pony that he would rather ease into a relationship with, to get accustomed to them and their pace, or to keep at arm's length — and that included Pinkie Pie, too.
Before Twilight Sparkle or Rarity could ask him a question regarding what he had said, or argue against it, Rainbow Dash bluntly said, "Yeah, you're probably right." At the piercing stares that she got from her friends, she hastily added, "compared to me, at least," before she got a chance to get to the point of what she wanted to say. "But, you probably
know something interesting, right? Like, maybe a
totally awesome game that I've never heard of?"
"I don't know," Marshall temporized, since Rainbow Dash hadn't specified the kind of game that she was interested in, which made his mind swim among the multitude of possibilities. "What are you interested in? We — humans, I mean — have
a lot of games, and we're making new ones all of the time. I couldn't even begin to tell you all of the types that there are, let alone the names of the games themselves."
Rainbow Dash's ears folded back as this obstacle presented itself, and her enthusiasm was curbed a bit. "Er..." Then, she perked back up, spread her wings and suggested, "Okay, how about something where I can put
these," she flapped her wings a few times for emphasis, "bad boys to use?"
"Well,
that certainly narrows it down," Marshall thought to himself. However, while it came as a relief, since he couldn't think of many activities that would rely on the ability to fly, now he was worried about disappointing Rainbow Dash. After all, the activities that he had been able to think of seemed like the kind that pegasi probably would have thought up to do themselves already; that, and he imagined that pegasi were more nimble than human aircraft as well, from what he had seen of their flying ability thus far, so they may not even find any of the human activities interesting either way.
He was about to tell Rainbow Dash that he couldn't think of anything, but he paused when an idea occurred to him. While it wasn't something that humans could do, save if technology ever made it possible in the future, he figured that something would be better than nothing. "Actually, I
might know a game that pegasi could play." Before Rainbow Dash could get too excited at the prospect, he added, "Unfortunately, I don't remember all of the details, so I'll look it up when I get home and tell you about it the next time I visit."
After a bit of grumbling from a disappointed Rainbow Dash, they continued to make light conversation as they danced. While Marshall put some effort toward getting into the spirit of things, like the other ponies in the conga line, dancing just wasn't his thing. It was by no means a terrible experience, of course: he just felt strange about it in general, and out of place. Still, he didn't want to disappoint or upset anyone, so he stuck with it until the dance ended.
When the conga line broke up, he found himself near a table with treats that he had yet to partake of, as well as a punch bowl, so he made a beeline for it without first seeing what his closest dance partners might be up to. It wasn't often that he could enjoy an appreciable amount of sweets, and it didn't help that his restraint was often tested by his sweet tooth, so he really wanted to indulge himself while he could, since his time in Equestria — for however long it lasted — would be the only opportunity to do so without consequence.
Some time later, while he was drinking some punch to wash down the chocolate truffles, chocolate chip muffin, checkerboard cookies and red velvet cupcake that he had recently enjoyed, he noticed Fluttershy when he looked over the rim of his cup. She was standing next to the same table as he was, near the opposite corner from where he stood, which was about two of his body lengths away, daintily eating a slice of cake from a plate that had been set near the table's edge. He noticed that she was already aware of his presence, because she spared him a furtive glance yet tried to not look in his direction otherwise.
He considered her for a moment, wondering if he should strike up a conversation with her or not, especially while the other ponies weren't interacting with him as much as they had at the beginning of the party. It wasn't just because she was a friend of Rarity's, but because he didn't like others being uncomfortable around him, since he could empathize with that. Also, his past experiences with broadcasting such feelings had made him good at hiding them, so he figured that a distraction wouldn't hurt, since how she felt was quite apparent.
"Fluttershy," he addressed her, in order to get her attention. "Would you feel more comfortable if I went somewhere else?" Which he would, if Fluttershy asked, but the nature of the question was actually an attempt to get around whatever barrier existed between them.
Fluttershy's eyes widened a bit, and she quickly — yet still softly — said, "Oh, no, that won't be necessary." She ducked her head a bit, and her gaze began to wander away from Marshall's, only making eye contact with him occasionally. "It's just, um... Well, you see, it's, uh..."
Marshall pointed one of his forelegs toward Fluttershy, as a gesture that was meant to convey a request for silence, since she was liable to continue with the false starts until she gave up, at which point she might be too discouraged and/or embarrassed to communicate with him any further. In as soothing of a voice as he could muster, since he wasn't accustomed to drawing people out of their shell, he said, "Relax, okay? Unless you intend to insult me, I'll be fine with whatever you have to say."
"...Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked, who looked up at him with her uncovered eye, in a rather coy manner, while fidgeting a bit against the floor with one of her forehooves.
Thinking that the problem was her confidence, rather than the subject matter, Marshall nodded his head and said, "Of course."
That reassurance seemed to do the trick, because Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief and visibly relaxed before saying, "Well, I hope this isn't
too personal, but some of my animal friends have had the same, um,
issue, so I was wondering how you felt about being the wrong gender." Her expression became one of concern. "It's not too upsetting, is it?"
Marshall stared at her blankly for a moment, since he hadn't expected that question, especially since it concerned a subject that he had purposefully been putting aside for later. However, on top of proving that he was "fine" with the question, he didn't want to dampen the timid pony's spirit, so he decided that he could — at the very least — touch upon the subject.
He began by being frank, saying, "Well, to be honest, I was trying to not think about that right now." Seeing Flutterfly's face fall, along with her ears, he quickly continued. "
But, it's not upsetting me, no. Aside from my you-know-what being gone, the only other difference I've noticed is my voice, which is strange but no big deal. So far, it's the change in species that I've been aware of the most."
Appearing to be emboldened by his receptivity, Fluttershy became more animated as she said, "Oh my, yes. Twilight said that humans stand upright and walk on two legs, and that they have wriggly phalanges on the extremities of their arms, which they depend on for interacting with and manipulating most things, so I can only imagine that being a pony must be very strange to you."
Marshall blinked his eyes a few times in mild surprise, in response to seeing Fluttershy open up like that, but he still managed to nod his head in a timely manner and say, "Yeah, but it hasn't been bad. It probably would have been a different story if I had more trouble walking, though; or, if I wasn't a unicorn, 'cause telekinesis is pretty handy."
From there he was able to ease them into casual conversation, away from the serious topics of before. Once Fluttershy had found her comfort zone, she was easy to talk to and pleasant company. When he got her to talk about herself, he learned that she took care of animals. While she wasn't a veterinarian, she wasn't that far off from being one, and did a number of things that they didn't do besides. He also learned that she could communicate with animals, which — he figured — would explain how she would know about the gender confusion that some of them had experienced.
Fluttershy became self-conscious and shied away a bit when he complimented her ability to communicate with animals, and expressed an interest in being able to do that himself. While he didn't press the issue, he didn't backpedal either, and made sure that she knew where he stood. Sure, the recent discovery of the existence of magic was
way more interesting, but he wasn't going to forget his non-magic roots, where having the ability to communicate with animals was probably among the most realistic things that one could hope to have, if technology ever advanced far enough to make it happen.
As nice as it was to talk with Fluttershy, though, there were other ponies vying for his time, other goodies to search out and devour, as well as other activities to be introduced to. The activities, like bobbing for apples and trying to guess what ponies could bring to a hypothetical party, were alright. He also got to talk to Applejack some more, as well as Pinkie Pie, and by the end of his encounter with the latter he may have deluded himself into thinking that he understood a bit of the method behind her madness. Then, of course, there was the food... Which was probably one of the better highlights of his life, with that being more a testament of how good the food was than however lackluster his life had been up until that point in time.
When all was said and done, he'd had a pretty decent time at the party; and, by "done," that referred to the moment when Twilight Sparkle had approached and informed him that Rarity had slipped out of the party, undoubtedly to get back to work. While she hadn't done more than give him the option to follow her and provide aid, he kind of felt obligated to do so, between the allowance of making return visits to her world — and all that entailed — and being fairly reliable about priorities, especially within a context where his actions and/or behavior would likely be judged by others.
So, after Twilight Sparkle gave Pinkie Pie a heads-up about the situation, who was disappointed but understanding, he spared a table of mostly-unsampled treats a look of longing before he followed Twilight Sparkle out of Sugarcube Corner, who began to lead him to where Rarity both worked and lived.
Chapter 7
Resident Cheval
As Marshall followed Twilight Sparkle to where Rarity could be found, he began to mentally review what he had learned about Rarity from the princess, along with the concerns that the aforementioned princess had expressed about her, which hadn't crossed his mind during the party because said party had been distracting on so many levels.
Aside from Rarity's aspirations as a fashion designer, she also had ambitions in the worlds of high society and royalty. When he had first heard about her dream to marry a prince, and — therefore — becoming a princess, he had thought it childish at first, something that a little girl would dream about until reality woke them up. However, much like Twilight Sparkle, he suspected that there was something else going on with Rarity, once he had been given more context on her actions and behavior.
For instance, when Twilight Sparkle had first met Rarity, she had said that it had been her dream to live in Canterlot. So, it was no surprise that it was also one of her dreams to open a boutique there as well. Perhaps, had Rarity not had certain obligations that kept her in her hometown, she might have closed her boutique in Ponyville to lighten her workload, since the location of the new boutique alone would have been more than enough of a justification, what with the old one being in a relatively small and remote place. Instead of doing that, she had stayed in Ponyville and branched out her business.
While that alone wasn't enough to worry about, it was once framed by what Twilight Sparkle had learned from Sassy Saddles, Rarity's manager at the Canterlot Boutique, when her concern for Rarity's well-being — and Rarity's dismissals of there being anything wrong — spurred her to seek more information on the situation elsewhere. Apparently, Rarity had once commented that she had always intended for her boutique in Ponyville to be her home base. That pretty much contradicted her desire to live in Canterlot, since it would have been a lot more convenient and sensible to work in a boutique there, had said move taken place.
It wasn't just Rarity's work situation that Twilight Sparkle had been worried about, either. She had also been concerned about the fact that Rarity was the only one — among the group of six — whose friendship
really got in the way of what she desired to do with her life, or forced her to make sacrifices. Twilight Sparkle had been upset that she hadn't noticed it before, and it was only upon reflection that she had caught a hint of it: such as when Rarity had admitted that she had made Twilight Sparkle's dress during said pony's birthday party, in front of a host of upper class ponies; which she wouldn't have realized if not for a prior event, when Rarity had held a fashion show with the dress designs that her friends had requested for the Grand Galloping Gala.
He had to admit that the situation had his interest piqued, in addition to making him worry a bit. While he didn't know Rarity all that well, he could get behind someone who was willing to sabotage their own future and/or livelihood for their friends — especially when the desires of said friends were rather frivolous by comparison. Well, he didn't recommend taking such a drastic action, but the character behind it was admirable enough.
Still: what was going on? What did Rarity really want, if she was willing to sacrifice what — they assumed, at least — was important to her? While friendship was certainly important enough, there had to be a limit to how much someone had to accommodate for it. The problem, at least for him, was that he hadn't known Rarity nearly long enough for him to have any kind of inkling to the way that her mind worked. The only consolation to that, if one could call it that, was that her friends weren't in much of a better position, despite knowing her much longer.
He supposed that he would just have to do some... hooves-on detective work, in order to get to the bottom of things. It wasn't the sort of thing that he would have imagined himself doing in his current situation, where he got to go to a magical world in another universe, but he figured that he owed a debt for being able to do that in the first place, at the very least. That wasn't to say that he wouldn't put any of his heart into it, of course: it's just that his relationship with Rarity was still in its infancy, never mind the stage of his relationship with her friends.
When they had reached a section of the town where there were no roads, in addition to an abundance of space between dwellings, which tended to not be of the more common half-timber frame and thatch roof variety, Twilight Sparkle suddenly said, "Oh, yeah," and proceeded to regard him over her shoulder with a somewhat sheepish expression while she continued to walk. "I should probably tell you how to get back to your own body."
"That would be nice to know, yeah," Marshall lightheartedly replied.
Twilight Sparkle smiled slightly at that and began to explain how it could be done. To summarize: he just had to relax his body, clear his mind, and imagine a representation of himself as it moved from one body to the other, through whatever connection he chose to visualize as an aid. That basically meant that he had to find a comfortable and quiet place to repose, so he wouldn't be distracted by his body or environment. Beyond that, he was assured that whichever body wasn't being used would be in such a state that it would have the same affect as sleeping, so that was one less thing to worry about.
By the time that Twilight Sparkle had finished her explanation, he noticed which building their current course was taking them to. He had noticed the building quite a ways back, because of its size and appearance, but he hadn't been sure that it was going to be their destination until Twilight Sparkle had taken a direct route to it, when he could not see any other place where they could be going.
The windows indicated that the establishment had at least two floors, but the amount of space above them suggested that there could be as many as three or four. The walls of the ground floor, aside from the muted pink and purple border at the bottom, and the helix-striped poles that were distributed at regular intervals, were mainly periwinkle in color, with bluish-white designs around the windows. The "second" floor's coloration was a reverse of the first, except the border at the bottom used the same colors and a different design, and the poles were thinner and unattached to the walls. The windows on the first floor were large and oval in shape, with awnings of various shades of yellow and orange, while the ones on the floor above were smaller and lacking awnings. Since the width of the round building drew inward with each successive floor, there were two sloping roofs, both of a pale pink and purple checkerboard design.
Well above the door was a sign of notable size, with its middle set upon the eave, which displayed a picture of a carousel horse. It wasn't until then that he realized what the "second" floor's overall design was trying to depict, which inspired a fair amount of confusion. After all, it seemed kind of strange — but not totally out of the question — for ponies to ride other ponies. Perhaps he was just looking at it the wrong way, since it would undoubtedly be strange to see a carousel where humans rode humans, even though it certainly wasn't unheard of for humans to have other humans ride on their back. Since it was more natural for ponies to carry things on their back, technically speaking, it might not be all that unusual for them to use their own likeness for a ride if it was common enough, instead of using another load-bearing creature.
Once they were standing before the door of the establishment, Twilight Sparkle turned around to face him and stated, "This is the Carousel Boutique." Then, with a somewhat apologetic expression on her face, she added, "I'd like to take you directly to her, but... Well, she
might get suspicious if I'm present."
Marshall nodded his head in understanding. "She won't be hard to find, will she?"
With a shake of her head, Twilight Sparkle said, "Not at all. If you don't see her in her 'inspiration room,' which is the second door on the left, down the corridor that's beside the first stairway that you will see, then you can find her in her bedroom, at the top of the second stairway that's at the end of the hallway."
Before Marshall had finished repeating that information to himself in his head, he was surprised by Twilight Sparkle when she gave him a quick, one-legged hug, who smiled and said, "Thanks for doing this."
"Uh, sure..." Marshall awkwardly replied, since he wasn't accustomed to receiving hugs from the opposite sex, aside from his mother and grandmother.
After he watched Twilight Sparkle fly away, in part because a flying horse was still a marvel to him, he released a sigh and turned his attention to the door. He was of the opinion that it was a bit premature to be thanked, especially since he had no expectations in regard to his performance. Not only did he not know how much — or well — he could help Rarity with her work, but his social skills were fairly lacking for his other task, however optional it may be. Still, despite his doubts, he was still being tickled by the flame that had been lit by his discovery of magic, so he was feeling adventurous enough to pursue a mystery.
With said pursuit in mind, he used his newfound magic to open the door, which took him a couple of seconds to figure out. Then, before he could fully cross the threshold, he had to stop and gape at the interior of the main room, with all of its varying shades of pink and purple assaulting his eyes, along with the sheer amount of curtains being employed, which mostly seemed to be used for decoration instead of having a more practical purpose. If what he was seeing wasn't something out of a little girl's princess fantasy, unless something sparkly was required for that image, then he didn't know what he was looking at.
With some trepidation, because it felt rather weird to be surrounded by so many things that were of a stereotypically-feminine nature, he took a few more steps forward and closed the door behind himself. As he looked for the stairs, since that was his best reference point with the directions that had been given to him, he also noted other details about the shop.
To his left were several stations that looked like vanities, though he couldn't be sure because of the wooden buckets set in front of each desk; that is, until he noticed that they weren't hollow, which made them look rather out of place as far as seating arrangements were concerned, since everything else looked so fancy and feminine. To his right was a round platform, beside which stood three mirrors, and a nearby stool suggested that Rarity did some of her tailoring while an outfit was being worn, in addition to customers being able to get a good look at themselves while wearing an item of interest. Beyond the platform was a swinging door, like the kind that he'd seen being used by a cafe before, and where it led to was a mystery to him.
He also noticed a couple of mannequins that were set aside here and there, although he supposed that they might be called "ponnequins" — or something — by the ponies. There was also a garment rack, of the variety that could be wheeled around, that had a couple articles of clothing hanging from it. Of course, since there were so many curtains, it was hard not to notice that many of the curtains had a pink, scalloped trim, while a few others simply had a pink stripe near the bottom edge, or were pulled aside in front of other curtains, with pink tie-backs that had tassels on the ends.
Since he didn't see any stairs from his current vantage point, he began to move further into the room, all while trying to ignore how out-of-place he felt within it. The notion was kind of funny, once he thought about it, since he was currently inhabiting a copy of Rarity's body, who
should feel right at home at the Carousel Boutique. Considering how often he would likely be visiting the place, he supposed that he better adjust to his surroundings quickly, regardless of what the culturally-engendered — pun intended — notions had to say about it. It wasn't like anyone that he knew from his homeworld was going to know anything about his activities, anyway.
Eventually, he spotted a stairway at the back of the room, right behind the area that the swinging doors led to. Once he was standing in front of one of the two poles located at its base, which had yellow and yellow-orange segments intertwined in a helix configuration, and could see the corridor that he was supposed to go down nearby, he paused to spare the hallway a glance. At the very back, and on the right, he could see the second stairway that Twilight Sparkle had mentioned, in case he had to seek Rarity in her bedroom. Beside it was a door that appeared to lead outside, and directly across from it was a cased opening leading into an unknown room.
After that brief distraction, he entered the corridor and made his way to the second door on the left. Along the way, he noticed two closed doors on the right side of the corridor, as well as the fact that the corridor turned right instead of coming to an end. Unlike the other rooms in that part of the corridor, the first one on the left had a cased opening instead of a doorway, so he was able to glance inside and find out that it was a laundry room in passing, although he may not have realized its function if he hadn't watched the cartoons that had been made
way before his time, since that's how he had learned about washboards.
Finally, he came to a stop outside of his destination. His ears involuntarily perked up and focused on the door when he heard the sound of a sewing machine in action on the other side, which he was slightly surprised to have recognized since he hadn't heard one since his freshman year in high school. Still, he was glad that he didn't have to look any further, since he would feel a lot better about exploring someone else's place if he were joined — and properly welcomed — by one of its residents.
After a few seconds of consideration, he decided to knock on the door with the underside of his hoof, rather than the front, and tried to do it without too much strength behind it, since he wasn't sure how loud it could get, or how much would damage the door. Fortunately, his first attempt seemed to be effective enough, because the sewing machine went quiet, followed by Rarity asking, "Who is it?"
"It's just me," Marshall replied, his voice raised.
"Marshall?" Came the incredulous reply. The door was opened, which revealed that Rarity was leaning over the table that the sewing machine was on, with her forehooves pressing down on the fabric that she had been guiding through the sewing machine. What really caught Marshall's attention, however, were the thick-framed glasses that she was wearing, which were orange and had no arms. "What are you doing here?" She looked up and to the side, as if to check something, before adding, "The party couldn't have ended already."
"It hasn't," Marshall answered, as he stepped into the room and looked around.
The room was rather... messy, for lack of a better term. He could see some organization to it, which indicated that Rarity wasn't simply being a slob, but there had to be a better way of making things as accessible as desired. Aside from the various hazards — for him, at any rate — on the floor, there were several tables with various items on them, including such things as bolts of cloth, a number of rolled-up parchments, spools of string and fabric, implements like scissors, writing utensils and measuring tape, and several other things that he couldn't readily identify. In addition to that, there were several mannequins in various stages of dress and undress, a tall, rectangular mirror, a small hutch with a couple of books on it, and a bulletin board hanging over a desk, which had several notes and concept sketches pinned to it. The only thing that seemed to be out of place, and inspired a longer look, was the canopy bed.
Rarity cocked an eyebrow and inquired, "Why did you come here, then?"
"Well," Marshall began, as he returned his full attention to Rarity, "when I heard that you had left the party early, I made the excuse that — as nice as it was — the party was too much, too soon," which was true enough, as far as his feelings were concerned, though not to the extent that it could have been the reason for his leavetaking, "and I said that I was curious about how a pony could do what you do." Which was also true, aside from the fact that he hadn't expressed anything of what he had just said to anyone until that moment: even after magic and cartoon ponies had been confirmed as being real, he had trouble envisioning how Rarity would go about doing what she did.
Rarity looked off to the side, where most of the tables were, with an unreadable expression on her face. "There isn't much to see, I'm afraid. I've had to compensate a lot because of how little of my magic is free to access, so all I can show you is a mere shadow of how I usually work."
Since he didn't know how to respond to that, Marshall decided to address it indirectly as nonchalantly as he could manage, via the opening that he had been given. "Can I help? I mean, it's obvious that this takes a lot out of you."
When Rarity's gaze returned to him, her expression was a little less unreadable, in that he could only guess that she was looking a bit tired. "Twilight put you up to this, didn't she?"
The brief look of puzzlement that had appeared on Marshall's face before he could suppress it, in addition to his silence, made her sigh and set her glasses upon the table as she stepped down from it. As she moved around the table, she answered the question that could be seen in his eyes. "Twilight is easy to read. When she had suggested that I give the others at the party a heads up on when to expect you, and — if necessary — to make any last-minute arrangements, I could tell that she had an ulterior motive." She came to a stop in front of him, and smiled wanely. "Of course, you wouldn't be the first one who has tried to help me; some of my friends didn't even bother with being subtle about it."
Not knowing what else to do, and not having much in the way of social adroitness, Marshall decided to abandon subtlety, since it appeared that some of his predecessors hadn't bothered with it anyway. "Why won't you accept their help?"
"Because it would be another matter if the time constraints or workload were out of my control," Rarity patiently replied. "But
this," she went on, who paused for effect as she swept her gaze across the room, "was my choice. Just because they're my friends that doesn't mean that they should feel obligated to help me on a part-time basis, for an indefinite amount of time, when I make this kind of commitment; they have their own lives and responsibilities, after all." Her expression softened, in order to convey that she didn't have any hard feelings toward her friends as she added, "In truth, it's not that uncommon for me to work this hard, but it usually goes unnoticed if it's only for a couple of days at a time."
After a moment of careful consideration, Marshall decided to ask one more question, hoping that it wouldn't put her off. In an attempt to avoid that, he included an additional question, one that was of an innocuous nature. "Why did you make this kind of commitment, then? Are you a workaholic, or something?"
Appearing to be amused by his method of inquiry, she swept her mane aside and breezily said, "I want to be remembered as one of the best in the business, of course; become a legend, if possible. There's no way that I would be able to achieve that if I spent too much time resting on my laurels."
While Marshall accepted that as a reasonable enough explanation, something about it didn't sit right with him. He didn't know if it was something about what she had said, and he was picking up on it unconsciously, or if it might have something to do with what had happened at the party earlier, but he had the impression that something had been missing from her response.
He couldn't be sure if the feeling was even related to Rarity's motives, but he reasoned that it wouldn't hurt to stick to the original plan by trying to help her out, for one day if any. At least, it was better than trying to figure out what else to do with his time, since he wouldn't feel like he deserved to do much of anything fun and/or interesting unless he believed that he had made enough of an effort with his current objective before accepting defeat.
So, in a rare display of stubbornness, he evenly asked, "Does that mean that I can help?"
"What?" The usually-eloquent Rarity replied, who was clearly confused by his yet-to-be-known reasoning.
Marshall was already racking his brain for something more than what he currently had to argue with, but chose to start with that before Rarity had the presence of mind to shoot him down. "Well, being more productive would help you with your goal, right?" He saw her mouth opening to speak, so he quickly continued before she could. "I know what you said about your friends, but you've allowed them to help you out before, right?" He knew that he needed something more to convince her, while he had her thinking, and was relieved when something finally came to mind: what Twilight Sparkle had told him only a few minutes ago. "Plus, what I do in one body won't affect the other, and I would usually be asleep at this time anyway, so I won't mind spending some of my free time helping you out."
Rarity stared at him critically for a time as she mulled his words over, which made him feel uncomfortable. When she came to a decision, she curtly said, "Please follow me, if you would," and began to walk past him.
She led him out of the room, to the nearest door on the other side of the corridor. When her horn was enveloped in a magical aura, the door opened and the darkness beyond was chased away by an overhead light, which revealed a sizeable storage room. There were bookcases, including those with slanted shelves and cubby-holes, marked bins within the aforementioned cubby-holes, chests, baskets, tables, wall shelves, and stacks of spools, all of which contained the materials and tools of Rarity's trade. Unlike the room that they had just left, the organization made browsing its contents on hoof a lot more convenient despite the overall clutter.
Once they walked far enough into the room, Rarity stopped and began to levitate rolls of fabric — no more than two at a time — out from where they were being stored and set them down on the floor, in front of Marshall, who noticed that all of the ones being chosen were some shade of blue. Once there were a total of fifteen rolls laying before his hooves, Rarity turned to him with a faint smile and asked, "Can you tell me which one is cornflower blue?"
Marshall stared at her, his eyes slightly wide, upon realizing that he was being tested. While he may have made a good argument regarding the offer of his services, Rarity could avoid suspicion — if that happened to be her intent — if she was given a good enough reason to reject him, even though she was within her right to reject him regardless. That meant: if he didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to learn more about her, by having a good reason to spend time with her, he had to pass her test.
Which was easier said than done, since he had no earthly idea what color cornflower blue was. "Corn" made him think of the color yellow, but that clearly wasn't the kind of color that Rarity wanted him to pick, out of the bunch that had been presented to him. Still, despite how hopeless the situation seemed, there was still a one-in-fifteen chance of picking the right color; it was just a matter of deciding which one to choose.
His heart began to race as his gaze continued to rove over the selection of colors, and it felt like perspiration was gathering upon his brow. However, after he scanned the fifteen rolls from one end to the other several times, he noticed that his gaze seemed to gravitate to the sixth one from the left. When he allowed his eyes to focus on it, he began to get the impression that it was the one that he should pick. Since he didn't have any better way of choosing the right one, and considering what he had experienced since being transported to a new body, world and universe, he decided to trust in what he was feeling and pointed to the roll in question.
When he looked up to see what Rarity would say, she had the look of someone who had seen something unexpected. However, it didn't take her long to collect herself, at which point she cleared her throat and said, "That's... correct. Now," she made a gesture toward the rolls, "can you tell me which one is velour?"
Marshall was a little irritated that there was more to the test, especially since he had gotten the impression that it hadn't been planned that far. However, he could already feel his attention being drawn to one of the rolls, so he decided to go along with it, in order to confirm that what he was feeling wasn't just his imagination. So, he moved closer to the roll that he was being drawn to, which was the second one from the right, and pointed at it.
This time, Rarity worried her bottom lip and took significantly longer to respond, which he assumed to mean that his choice had been correct, at the very least. Now that he was more sure that he had a broader connection to her than what had been demonstrated at the party, and — thus — more aware of it, he got the feeling that it wasn't worry that she was feeling, but a mixture of things that he couldn't readily identify. She was hesitant and resistant, for certain, but he was able to glean that much with the aid of his eyes.
Finally, with a resolute expression on her face, Rarity looked him straight in the eye and said, "Show me how many of these rolls you can manipulate, individually, at the same time."
Normally, Marshall would have been nervous about performing such a task, like he had at the beginning of the test, but now he had a reason to feel confident despite the fact that he only had experience with levitating one object at a time. So, he didn't waste any time thinking about it, which led to him willing his influence over all of the rolls and raising them into the air. Unlike with the stones in the cave and the plate of apple pie, their combined weight was such that he actually noticed it, although they didn't feel so heavy that he felt anything that translated into strain.
He didn't need to be told that holding all of the rolls with the same aura wasn't what Rarity was looking for, partly due to said pony's unconscious cues, so he began to isolate them into separate auras. The process started slowly, but once he had peeled the first one away from the group, and got a feeling for it, his pace increased dramatically. By the time that they were all separated, he began to marvel at how he was able to distinguish each individual roll, and how he managed to control them all and not drop a single one for any lack of attention.
Suddenly, he got the impression to set the rolls in a line and arrange them by shade. When he turned his questioning gaze toward Rarity, he saw that her expression had softened, and could feel that her hesitation and resistance had left her. She offered him a reserved smile and nodded her head, so he returned his attention to his latest task, relieved that the "battle" between them appeared to be over. With her non-verbal guidance, and actively keeping his awareness open to it, he was amazed at how easily he could direct all of their movements at the same time, until they were all lined up on the floor from lightest to darkest.
With that business out of the way, he relinquished his magical hold on the rolls and turned to face Rarity. "So, does this mean that you will let me help you?"
Rarity nodded her head. "If that's what you
really wish to do. I just wanted to be sure that you could actually do the work, you understand."
Marshall accepted that explanation for what it was, since he felt that what she had said was true, yet it made him wonder what the fuss had been about beyond that. He could understand why she wouldn't want to disrupt the lives of her friends, but not to the point of resisting outside help as an automatic response. Hopefully, now that he had secured a steady means of spending time with her, he could either get to know her well enough to figure out what she was hiding, or, well... get that information straight from the horse's mouth.
"Frankly," Rarity animatedly continued, "I'm amazed at what you're able to accomplish with this connection of ours. It's like I'm communicating with you, only it's without words."
While Marshall shared the sentiment, he believed that there was one problem about their connection, especially if he was the only one who experienced it: being able to pick up what Rarity was feeling, and sensing the veracity of her words. It was the sort of thing that could bite him in the rear if he didn't say anything about it and Rarity discovered it later, which was a scenario that he had seen in far too many works of fiction for him to dismiss out of hand. Of course, if he told her now, she might feel that it was too much of an invasion of privacy and decide that it would be better if they kept their distance.
Well, between definitely maybe, by telling her now, and maybe definitely, if she finds out later, he supposed that the former would be for the best: even if he lost his chance to help her out, at least she wouldn't think any worse of him — her opinion may even improve. So, it was with some reluctance, and the drooping ears that accompanied it, that he said, "Say, uh... Can you also pick up on what I'm feeling?"
"Yes, I can," Rarity replied, her expression and tone serious. "I was wondering if it was the same for you, and whether I should say anything or not." After a brief pause, she proceeded to smile, and Marshall could feel that he had made the right decision. "I'm glad that you didn't hide it from me."
Marshall nodded his head self-consciously. "Are you okay with it, or...?"
Rarity turned pensive for a moment before responding. "I'll admit that it's a bit disconcerting, but we don't seem to be able to read each other's mind, and we don't notice what we're feeling if we're suitably distracted. If we both promise to never take advantage of what we
do exchange, then I won't mind your company."
Finding that stipulation to be agreeable, partly because he felt that he had nothing to hide, Marshall smiled and stated, "I promise that I won't."
"Good," said a pleased Rarity. "I promise, as well."
With that settled, the rolls of fabric were returned to where they belonged, and they left the storage room in a good mood. Considering what he had been able to do with the aforementioned rolls, with Rarity's aid, Marshall was honestly looking forward to seeing how she worked, and whether or not it would be more enjoyable than the dreary job that he had back on Earth.
Chapter 8
Three's a Crowd
While Rarity put on her glasses and prepared to pick up where she had left off with her work, Marshall stood a bit behind her and to the side, mentally preparing himself for the task ahead of him. He wasn't
exactly sure what kind of demands to expect, regarding his ability to follow Rarity's unconscious input, and he didn't want to be a disappointment, so he kept his mind off of other things and tried to relax.
Before Rarity got started, she looked back at him with an expression that asked if he was sure and/or ready, and he replied with an affirmative nod of the head. Soon after, he began to sense what Rarity wanted to happen and willed it to occur with his magic. For the first several minutes his reaction time was a bit delayed and his movement of the objects often jerky, but within a half of an hour he was responding much faster and performing more smoothly, to the point of believing that they were synchronized.
By then he could tell that Rarity was in "the zone," although it was much different from the kind that he employed when it came to his own job at the deli: where he could go through the motions without much thought, which helped to keep his mind off of the agonizing passage of time. Instead, Rarity was smiling quite naturally while humming a tune that was unknown to him, looking full of energy as opposed to only putting in enough effort to get the job done and over with.
He could tell that she was genuinely happy, because he could feel it. Although he wouldn't admit it if asked, he was using that feeling to cope with what he was doing. It wasn't that helping Rarity was terrible, or even remotely comparable with his job, but it wasn't particularly interesting. What
really didn't help, however, was how separated he was from the work being done: he was just standing there, virtually doing nothing, because he could help Rarity and still have plenty of his attention left over to think about unrelated things. It was
boring.
Regardless, he couldn't help admiring what Rarity was doing. For many years he had entertained thoughts of being creative — in some way — himself, but they never amounted to anything worth mentioning. It wasn't that he didn't have the patience to learn, as far as he could tell, but there was a certain lack of... steam. That was especially apparent with anything that would require him to begin by learning the very basics, because starting from zero, or thereabouts, was both daunting and discouraging. That's how it had been when he had applied for a job at the deli, but necessity had been a strong motivator at the time, in addition to the fact that jobs often weren't readily available. As a result, he had ended up moving several counties away from home once he had gained employment, in order to be closer to his job, as opposed to finding a place to live that was closer to his family and friends.
On a positive note, he
did find Rarity's work to be inspiring. It was amazing how many things she had hovering in convenient positions, or the number that she could move in very deliberate ways, and despite all of that she could still focus on doing precision work with her own magic and hooves. It made him wonder if he would ever have anywhere near that much skill before he had to put his transdimensional traveling days behind him, because it would be rather useful on top of being cool. Really, it was a shame that he couldn't use telekinesis back on his own world.
Since he was thinking about telekinesis, and he was bored, he decided to occupy himself with it, since he had more than enough of his concentration to spare. It didn't take him long to see something of interest: a stack of books on a small hutch. Picking up the one that was on the top of the stack with his magic, he brought it over until it was floating in front of his face, with its cover showing.
"A book about pony anatomy?" He thought to himself, wondering what Rarity would need it for. While he could suppose that it had some relevance to her work, such as in the case of the orthopedic shoes that one of his uncles had to wear, he couldn't think of a reason for why she would need it at the moment. Perhaps it had been left with the other books after a prior project.
Either way, it wasn't what he would consider to be interesting reading material at that moment, so he swapped it with the next book on the stack. This one was a book with a collection of picturesque scenery, with some details on their location and — if it applied — history. It piqued his interest a bit, so he paged through the first couple of pages without really thinking about the action, but he eventually caught what he was doing and was delighted that he could already use his magic with such finesse. After seeing a number of nice pictures, without figuring out the reason for the book's presence, he decided to move on and get back to it later if he didn't find anything more interesting.
The next book was one that covered astronomy. He wasn't sure if he would find anything interesting betwixt its covers, but it did bring to mind a part of his early childhood, when his father had picked up amateur astronomy as a hobby, which made him curious about the constellations that the ponies had developed. Since they were listed in alphabetical order, and he had no expectations to find any constellations that he would recognize, he decided to start with the first one that was listed.
Immediately, he had to pause and consider the significance of the name "Andromeda." While he wasn't familiar with most of the constellations from his own world, he knew that Andromeda was a notable enough character from Greek mythology, although he couldn't recall what story they had been featured in. He also knew the name from a galaxy and television series. Still, he didn't recall if there had been an Andromeda constellation, so he moved on, more distracted by the name choice than anything else.
He came across another familiar name a couple of constellations later, "Aquarius," only this time it was a constellation whose existence he was sure about, since it was one of the twelve from the zodiac. However, since he didn't know about its stars or their arrangement, he figured that a constellation bearing that name could just be a coincidence. Despite that, he was spurred to skip ahead a bit, to check for a constellation that he was more familiar with: his zodiac sign.
When he found "Cancer," saw that the constellation was Y-shaped, and that it was associated with the crab, he could only stare at it in disbelief. What were the odds that another world, in a different universe, would have the
exact same constellation? Without a second thought, he began to look for other constellations that he would recognize. Not only did he find the rest of the zodiac, which he mostly knew by name only, but other notable constellations that he was more knowledgeable about, like Cygnus and Ursa Minor, which were nearby and connected to the pole star, Polaris, respectively. There was Ursa Major, of course, as well as Orion and his famous belt.
Before he could really begin to wonder what it all might mean, he heard Rarity say, "Marshall? Are you alright?"
Marshall turned his head in order to regard Rarity, who was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and concern. He also noticed that there wasn't anything being levitated or moved by his magic, and that told him that he had become too distracted by his discovery to maintain what he had been doing for Rarity — which was probably how he had garnered her attention.
"I don't know," he replied honestly, unable to shake his unease. "It's just... I
think all of these constellations are the same as the ones from my world."
Rarity considered that for a moment, to divine what the issue was, before realizing what Marshall could be worried about, based on prior experience. "Oh, I wouldn't be too worried about such similarities. Twilight has been to a universe where many of us — myself included — also exist, and I wouldn't be surprised if the constellations there were the same as well." Seeing that she hadn't put all of his worries to rest, she sympathetically added, "If you need more reassurances that you're not imagining all of this, though, you can talk to Twilight about it later: she knows a lot more about the subject than I do."
Marshall nodded his head in agreement and tried to put his doubts out of his mind for the time being, since he didn't want them to spoil his experience whether said experience was real or not. While he was fairly certain that he wasn't dreaming, he knew enough about the brain's capabilities, in addition to knowing so little about it in general, to be unsure of the reality of his condition. For instance, if the brain was capable of producing phantom sensations for missing body parts, could that explain the convincing feelings that were coming from his tail, despite it being foreign to his human body? He just didn't know. He also didn't know much about multiple universes, beyond what little he could recall about the theory and what he had seen in fiction, so he couldn't be sure if any of the coincidences were normal or something that his brain had fabricated.
Upon noticing that he had lost interest in reading books, Rarity decided to engage him in conversation while she worked, to help keep his mind from being preoccupied with unwelcome thoughts. At first, the subjects stayed within the working relationship that they had, regarding some of the recent fashions that Rarity had been shown, and making plans for what to explore in the near future. Once that had been exhausted, though, Rarity began to ask him questions about his time on her world.
All things new, strange and overwhelming notwithstanding, his responses were unequivocally positive. However, one comment had stood out to Rarity, because of the feelings that she had felt from him while it was being said, so she made a show out of pausing in her work and asked, "Would you like to give flying a try?"
Marshall's eyes widened at the idea that was being suggested. "That can be done?"
"Certainly, darling," Rarity confirmed with a smile. "I had the distinct pleasure of having a pair of wings myself, you know."
"Really?" Marshall couldn't help blurting out in his excitement, before reining in his emotions and sheepishly adding, "How was it? Did it take long to learn how to fly?"
"Oh, it was simply divine!" Came Rarity's enthusiastic reply, as she recalled the experience. Of course, she couldn't help thinking about her shameful behavior at the time, as connected as it was to the overall experience, and a feeling of embarrassment tempered her enthusiasm. Knowing that her change in mood had been obvious, she cleared her throat before she continued to speak. "I didn't find it all that difficult to learn how to use my wings, all said. Which was a good thing, since finding out about Rainbow Dash's participation in the Best Young Flyer competition was so last-minute." A thought occurred to her, which prompted her to add, "Of course, it probably depends on the pony, because it took
weeks for Twilight to become a competent flyer."
Although Marshall had caught that flash of embarrassment, he thought that it would be best to pursue a more relevant matter instead of prying. "Twilight didn't always have wings?"
"Oh, no," Rarity answered, realizing that she had yet to mention that detail about her friend. "It was only very recently that she earned her wings."
She opted to continue her work as she proceeded to tell the story of how Twilight Sparkle earned her wings and became both an alicorn and a princess, since she didn't want to be idle for too long if she could help it. That eventually led to the tale of how Twilight Sparkle's castle came into being, which had been particularly riveting to Marshall; so much so that he hadn't realized what Rarity had been in the process of creating, when it reached its current state of development, until she had finished recounting the incident with Tirek.
While he had some questions about what he had just learned, which had sounded like something that he would have only encountered in a fictional story back on his own world, he was a tad too overwhelmed to do so. It boggled his mind that, on top of all of the other amazing things that he had experienced already, he might actually be associating with honest-to-goodness heroines —
superheroines, potentially. So, for the time being, he decided to pursue a subject that he was more comfortable with, in order to avoid doing anything embarrassing or awkward.
"Will a pony be able to wear something like that?" He inquired, with a gesture toward the kimono that Rarity was in the process of embroidering. While he didn't know much about fashion, his eyes were good enough to spot how restrictive the outfit would be, especially if it was meant to fit over the hindquarters and legs of a pony.
Rarity spared him a glance before she said, "Probably not in the way that you would expect. This outfit will require a pony to stand as a human does."
"Ponies can do that?" Marshall questioned, his brow slightly furrowed.
"For a time," Rarity answered, without pausing in her work. "It's not natural, of course, so this attire should only be worn for special occasions, rather than all day. Even so, I've worked some extra support into the design, in order to reduce the chances of soreness and injury."
Marshall deferred to her expertise on the matter, so he didn't voice his doubts. Pretty much all of his frame of reference was for humans, anyway: he had no idea how pony society would react to the kimono, whether it was new to them or not. Rarity certainly knew what she was doing better than he did, so he figured that it would be best to just support her endeavor and hope that things turned out well, rather than risk doing anything that might discourage her or instill self-doubt.
Since Rarity was rather approachable, much like her friends, as if they were neither royalty nor heroines, and his feelings of awe had faded, he eventually followed up on what they had been talking about before. Not only did he learn about the purpose of Twilight Sparkle's castle, but that Rarity and the others were the "elements of friendship," and what that entailed. What really got his attention was when he found out that Rarity was the element of generosity, which showcased her in a new light.
Before he could really begin to see her in that new light, however, his ears flinched when he heard a disturbance somewhere else in the building, as if two solid-enough objects had banged into each other. He looked over at Rarity and saw that she hadn't reacted to the noise, so he was unsure if she was aware of it and didn't care, or was too focused on what she was working on to notice. A new, sustained sound, which grew louder as its source drew closer to their location, made him focus on the door and forget about mentioning what he was hearing to Rarity, which he could only guess were the sound of hooves — likely more than one set, if he was right — beating upon the floor in haste.
Seconds later, the door slammed open and a trio of young ponies — fillies, he belatedly recalled — rushed in, only to immediately skid to a halt upon catching sight of him. While they were bouncing their wide-eyed gazes between him and the pony whose body his own was a copy of, which looked rather comical to him, Rarity released something of an irritated sigh, stared at the fillies with a disapproving frown, and said, "Really, Sweetie Belle, girls; where are your manners?"
Rather than showing any signs of apology or embarrassment, the unicorn filly with the white coat and light green eyes, who had pale pink and purple hair, responded with mild indignation, which seemed to emphasize her squeaky voice. "But, you
know how much we wanted to see the alien!"
Whether or not it was due to the first filly's initiative to speak back to the adult, because Marshall couldn't be sure, the pegasus filly with the light orange coat, purple eyes and purplish pink hair boldly added, "Yeah! The
whole class went to the party after school, just like we planned!"
"Really?" Marshall found himself voicing aloud, who wasn't sure if he was up to entertaining children. He had no personal experience with tending or rearing children, which hadn't been helped by being the youngest sibling, and he had gotten mixed opinions about them from the friends who had become parents, so he was leery of handling a large group of them for any length of time — even with assistance. It wasn't that he disliked children, of course: it was just due to a general lack of confidence when it came to being able to to handle them adequately, since he knew enough to know that they could be tricky, while their parents could be over-protective.
The three fillies perked up and became excited once they focused their attention on him, and the one that had yet to speak did so before Rarity could try to absolve herself of the blame being levied against her. She had a pale yellow coat, light orange eyes, and reddish pink hair. In addition to that, her mane was accessorized by a large, pink bow, and she spoke with the same accent as Applejack.
"Wow!" The filly in question exclaimed, before declaring, "She even
sounds like your sister!"
"I know!" The unicorn filly replied in agreement, whom Marshall assumed was Rarity's sister, based less on her appearance than the fact that she had been the one to respond to the other filly's statement. "I'd almost forgotten what she looked like without her makeup on and her hair styled."
Apparently, Rarity didn't care much for being spoken about as if she weren't present, on top of the fillies' shenanigans in general, because she interjected with a very deliberate clearing of her throat and spoke in an admonishing tone. "Now, girls, you're being rude. Come; give our guest a proper greeting and introduce yourselves."
The fillies had the good grace to look sheepish, but only for an instant: because it was with much enthusiasm that they approached Marshall, greeted him, and gave him their names. In response, he said, "Well... My
full name is Marshall Noel March, but you can just call me Marshall."
"March?" Apple Bloom inquired, who began to march in place. "Like this?"
Marshall had barely finished nodding his head once in confirmation, since the answer had seemed too obvious for him to have bothered researching the actual meaning of his surname, when Scootaloo followed Apple Bloom's inquiry up with, "What's a Noel?"
That brought Marshall up short, who felt embarrassed as he admitted, "I never bothered to find out."
"A knoll is a kind of small hill, isn't it?" Rarity helpfully offered.
Marshall shook his head. "That has a different spelling. I suppose I'll have to look it up when I get the chance."
"Speaking of learning..." Sweetie Belle began, as she regarded him intently. "Twilight told us that you'll be visiting for a while, so everyone was hoping that you could come to our school tomorrow. Could you?"
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo leaned over and sandwiched Sweetie Belle's head with their own, at which point they stared up at him imploringly and simultaneously pleaded, "Pleeeeeease?"
Marshall unconsciously took a step back and curled one of his forelegs up to his chest at the assault, as unexpected and bewildering as it was. Not knowing how to handle it, and not wanting to give in to such a ploy on principle, his beseeching gaze sought the only aid that he had access to. Unfortunately, Rarity merely smiled with amusement and said, "It's up to you, darling."
When Marshall returned his attention to the three fillies, they added really big smiles to their attack. He spared Rarity one more glance before he sighed with defeat and said, "Alright, fine; I guess I'll go."
His answer evoked a cheer from the fillies, which made him shake his head at the ridiculous display. Still, he took it all in stride, as the good-natured effort that it was, and asked, "When should I drop by? The earliest that I can get there is some time around noon."
Rarity chose to answer in the fillies' stead, since they were liable to take their unreasonable demands too far without realizing it. "The school day ends at three in the afternoon, so an hour before that should be fine."
Marshall chuckled inwardly at the look of disappointment that was clearly displayed on the faces before him, since he could remember a time when he also would have liked a half day off of school. Well, it was usually the
whole day that he had wanted to skip, but still: he could relate. Hopefully, though, he wouldn't have any problems answering questions from a group of young ponies.
Now that the most immediate issue was out of the way, Apple Bloom decided to follow it up with a relevant question. "So, why'd ya leave the party, anyway?"
After gesturing toward Rarity with a tilt of his head, Marshall said, "She left the party early so she could get back to work. Since the reason for why I'll be sticking around is to help her with her workload, I didn't want to make any excuses not to, you know?"
While Scootaloo and Apple Bloom perked up with interest, Marshall noticed that Sweetie Belle's ears had drooped instead, and he found her expression hard to read. He only noticed it for a second, however, because that was all the time that it took for Scootaloo to distract him with, "What are you working on? Is it something that you aliens wear?"
"Marshall is a human, Scootaloo," Rarity reminded, in an attempt to improve the filly's choice of words in the future. "And, hmmmm..." She paused as she considered Scootaloo's first question. "I suppose I've made enough progress to model it, so..." While regarding Marshall, she pointed toward the mirror that was set against the wall and requested, "Marshall, would you be a dear and stand over there, and model the kimono for me?"
This time, while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other questioningly and mouthed the unfamiliar name of the outfit, Marshall had enough time to see Sweetie Belle's expression before he began to move toward the location that Rarity had indicated, and was able to determine that the filly definitely found something troubling. He didn't know what could be troubling her, though, so he focused on his current task and reminded himself to keep an eye on her.
Before he reached the mirror, Rarity levitated over a pair of shoes and set them down in front of it. The shoes in question appeared to be zori, only they were shaped for hooves and their soles were much thicker than he would have expected them to be. Since he was aware of how the kimono would be worn, he worked his rear hooves into the zori before raising himself onto his hind legs. It was then that he experienced the reason for why the soles of the shoes were so thick: the extra cushion made standing on two hooves comfortable, since ponies normally distributed their weight on four.
"What's he doin'?" He heard Apple Bloom whisper to her friends.
Since Rarity wasn't going to dress him in the entire ensemble, she didn't need his help to dress him in the kimono and obi. The tightening of the obi made him gasp a little, but it didn't interfere with his breathing, and its position and snugness seemed to make it a bit more comfortable to maintain his current posture. When she was finished, he looked at his young audience and saw that they didn't know what to think of what they were seeing. Well, except for Sweetie Belle, who seemed to have something else on her mind.
"With this piece," Rarity broke the silence, before it could become awkward, "the focus is on the scope of the panoramic image being displayed around the bottom half, which is a design that is difficult to successfully incorporate into what we traditionally wear, when standing on all four legs. However, the simple, cylindrical shape of the kimono accommodates such a seemingly-endless image quite naturally, as well as the ability to showcase it to others."
Rarity made a circular gesture with a hoof, with the underside generally facing the floor, so Marshall carefully began to turn himself about. While he was accustomed to operating with two legs, and such an action should have been simple, it didn't change the fact that his hind legs were configured differently at present, which would require some time and practice to adjust to. For the time being, he decided to settle for playing it safe, since he didn't want to fall and embarrass himself, or — even worse — damage what he was wearing.
He was reminded of the mirror when it came into view while he rotated his body, so he peered into it so he could get a better look at what he was wearing while he was showing it off. As far as he could tell, the base color of the kimono was black, in part because the scene took place at night, although much of it had been replaced with the dyes that composed the panoramic image. The image in question was of a coast, at the bottom of the kimono, mainly consisting of a beach and surf, a few objects that one was likely to find on said beach, and a lighthouse whose lamp shone like the sun. Opposite of the lighthouse, at the front of the kimono, was a softly-glowing full moon. Its light shimmered on the water below it, with the shimmering effect being aided by an array of gemstones that had enough facets to catch the light at virtually every angle. There were stars in the sky as well, and they also had gemstones set on top of them. A number of clouds graced the starry sky, partly illuminated by moonlight, although these were given more depth to their shape with stitching, which Rarity had yet to finish. Finally, there was the obi set above the scene, and he could only describe it as being wrapped up by an aurora borealis.
If not for catching sight of the figure that was wearing the outfit in the mirror, he would have spent some time to really digest what he was seeing of it, but his eyes were drawn to his alien appearance instead. When he didn't see his human visage, with its babyish appearance, hazel eyes and short, brown hair, he was struck by a strange feeling, but managed to continue moving in place instead of being caught staring at his reflection. It had helped that he had known what to expect, and had seen plenty of Rarity in the past few hours, but actually seeing himself — beyond his mind's eye — hadn't prepared him for the disconcerting effect that it would evoke from him.
Once he was facing his audience again, he could tell that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had a better understanding of the kimono's appeal, although they weren't so interested in fashion to offer more of a reaction than that. Sweetie Belle seemed to be scrutinizing the kimono critically, but he couldn't help getting the feeling that she was actually staring at him unhappily. It may have just been his imagination, but...
"Will ponies
actually want to stand like that to wear it?" Scootaloo voiced her incredulity.
"Oh, most certainly," Rarity confidently replied. "The kimono has many appealing characteristics. I have no doubt that it will trend with the upper class, at the very least, and I also expect an element or two to have an impact on the fashion scene for a time."
Seeing as she wasn't going to get much in the way of feedback from the fillies, who seemed to be either uninterested or ignorant of what she was referring to, she turned her attention to Marshall and asked, "What do
you think? And are the shoes and sash providing enough support?"
Marshall decided to address the second question first, since he could see what the first question likely was for a person like himself, who had next to no knowledge and interest in fashion: a minefield. "Well, uh, the shoes are comfy, and the sash allows me to relax my back and put some of my weight on it." He paused, and struggled to think of a good answer to the first question, before giving up and tentatively admitting, "And, um, I like the sash...?"
Rarity gave him a flat stare before snorting with amusement, since she had been well aware of the position that she had put him in. With that, she began to undress him and return the kimono to the table that she had been working at, while the obi and shoes joined the others of their type on another table, in addition to the other kimonos-in-progress, since she didn't have any mannequins that could accommodate them.
Once she was finished with that task, she announced, "Well, I need to get back to work." Turning to address the fillies directly, she said, "Girls, why don't you go and inform your teacher to expect Marshall tomorrow?"
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were eager to relay the news, and quickly turned about to leave, but Sweetie Belle hesitated, appearing as if she wanted to say something. Before she could make up her mind, one of her friends noticed her absence and asked whether or not she was coming, which spurred her to take her own leave. While she did so, she looked over her shoulder for a few seconds, with her gaze switching between Marshall and Rarity, as if she were unsure of whom she should be upset with, or upset with more.
When Marshall was fairly sure that the three fillies were out of earshot, he turned to face Rarity and asked, "So, is Sweetie Belle your sister?" After Rarity confirmed that she was, he casually added, "I don't think she likes me."
Rather than the dismissal that he had been expecting, like being told, "You're just imagining things," which was a common enough occurrence in fiction for him to expect such a response in reality, Rarity had no trouble giving her answer while she began to continue her embroidery work on the kimono that he had just worn. "Oh, she's probably just upset that I'm allowing you — a virtual stranger — to help me, since I don't allow her the same privilege most of the time."
"Oh..." Marshall voiced, who didn't know how to respond to that.
While Rarity refocused on her work, he ended up preoccupying his mind with his latest experience, and felt a little guilty regarding what had happened with Sweetie Belle. It reminded him of the time, not long after he had been old enough to attend school, when his father had been helping his older brother put a puzzle together, and he'd had a temper tantrum when they wouldn't let him help. Sure, intellectually, he knew that he wasn't at fault for how Sweetie Belle had reacted to him, but he still felt a bit responsible, like he could have done something. He didn't feel that way because he could relate to her to any degree, though: rather, the source of his feelings could be traced back to his days in junior high.
Back then he'd only had a few friends, so it had been easy for their class schedules to keep them separated from him throughout most of the school day, and only one of them had lived close enough to him that it would not have required any of their parents to drive them to the other's house. Between that, his situation at home, and some mild bullying, he had become a bit of a copycat and class clown to fit in and endear himself to his peers. It just seemed to happen, rather than it being a product of a consciously-made plan. Fortunately, it had worked out pretty well, and he had entered high school with more than enough friends to help him feel secure in that social environment.
At some point, he wasn't sure when, he had developed a bit of a habit of getting on good terms with people that he encountered regularly, especially if they were ill-tempered early on or he was pretty sure that he had rubbed them the wrong way. As a more recent example of this behavior, his co-worker, Simon, had been rather uninterested in interacting with him — for whatever reason — upon being hired at the deli. One day, during their break, Simon had complained aloud while he was reading a text message on his cell phone, so Marshall had decided to take a chance and ask him what the matter was. Simon had been upset enough to say exactly what the matter was, regarding a friend that wouldn't be able to play
Star Wars: Battlefront that night, rather than blowing him off, and offering to fill in for that friend had opened the door to a better working relationship.
So, since he preferred it when people got along with him anyway, he began to think of some way to resolve the situation with Sweetie Belle before it had a chance to get any worse. After a couple minutes of contemplation, he decided to share the idea that he had thought of with Rarity. Once he had her attention, he said, "I was wondering how often you make things that an inexperienced person — er, pony — could make with instructions or a demonstration."
Rarity blinked her eyes and regarded him with some confusion. "Now, why would you—" She seemed to realize what he had been referring to, considering the subject of their prior exchange, because she began to stroke her chin thoughtfully and mumble to herself as she cast her gaze askance. Eventually, her face lit up and she exclaimed, "What a
marvelous idea!" With a beaming smile, she returned her full attention to Marshall and said, "Yes, I'm sure that I could entrust some of my more menial tasks to Sweetie Belle."
Marshall responded with a reserved smile, since he wasn't quite sure what a "menial task" meant to Rarity in relation to her trade, and thus how that might come to affect Sweetie Belle. "Well, I hope it works out, then."
When Rarity continued to regard him with a warm smile, which was the kind of attention that made him feel a touch uncomfortable, he self-consciously asked, "What?"
"Oh, nothing," Rarity casually replied, before she went back to working on the kimono. "I was just appreciating your thoughtfulness."
Marshall didn't really believe that what he had done was an act of thoughtfulness, but he didn't want to contradict her and deal with what could follow.
Rarity had declared her workday over by mid-evening, happy that she had gotten a lot more accomplished in that time than what had become normal for her as of late. By then, Marshall had decided that his stint as her assistant hadn't been all that bad. It really made a difference when your co-worker was willing to chat, and was good at keeping a conversation going, which Rarity had been keen on doing after he had made that suggestion earlier, concerning her sister.
They had talked about a lot of things, which mostly resulted in getting to know the other better, but two of the topics — in particular — stood out in Marshall's mind as Rarity escorted him to Twilight Sparkle's castle. The first topic was Rarity's dinner invitation at her parents' house, which would be scheduled for tomorrow night, Equestria time. She had figured that he would eventually meet them by chance anyway, so she had reasoned that he might as well do so in a proper fashion. He was kind of nervous about seeing her parents, even though he wasn't in
that kind of a relationship with their daughter.
The second topic was one that he had brought up himself: using a more pony-like name while he was a pony, instead of his human name. While Rarity had assured him that "Marshall" would be fine, he didn't like to stand out or seem too distant, so he felt that it would be a good idea to have a more relatable name. Once he had her on board with him, he had suggested that she pick out the name for him, since she should have a better idea of what would make a good pony name — that, and he considered himself to be rather bad at coming up with names in general.
His thoughts were interrupted when Rarity suddenly stated, "Recherché."
"What?" Marshall replied, who hadn't been paying enough attention to catch what had been said.
"Recherché," Rarity repeated, as she glanced over at him with a self-satisfied expression on her face. "How does that sound for new name?"
Marshall wasn't familiar with that name, and it sounded like it wasn't an English word, so he asked, "What does it mean?"
"Rare, and/or carefully-selected," Rarity informed him. "I thought that it would be a fitting name, since we're practically twins."
"Recherché, huh..." Marshall mumbled to himself, as he considered the name. It sounded more feminine than androgynous, but, well... his current body
was female, after all. There was also a certain appeal to how it sounded, and he was pretty sure that he wouldn't have a hard time remembering that it was his name when being addressed by it, so he turned to regard Rarity and said, "Sounds good enough to me."
Rarity smiled happily and replied, "I'm glad to hear that, because I was already growing attached to it."
"It isn't
that good," Marshall teased.
In response, Rarity expelled a playful harrumph and turned her nose up at him. "
Well, see if I ever provide you with any of my services, out of the goodness of my heart, ever again."
They continued to banter like that for a time, until they neared the doorstep of Twilight Sparkle's castle. It was hard for Marshall to speak when his proximity to the castle made him realize just how immense it was, and he couldn't help gazing upon it as the light from the setting sun played on its crystal surfaces, as well as taking in the features that he hadn't noticed from a distance. Rarity didn't seem to mind him being distracted, so the silence that prevailed until they reached the castle was of a companionable nature.
Once they had ascended the stairs at the base of the castle, which Marshall had climbed at a pace that he could handle without incident, Rarity opened the double doors with her magic and — out of simple curiosity — asked, "Have you ever been to a castle before?"
Marshall shook his head, even as he got a glimpse of what the inside of the aforementioned castle looked like. "Nope. And I've probably seen more fictitious ones than I have real ones."
As they stepped into the castle, and entered the main hall, Rarity allowed him some time to stop and take in the sights. If he had known how, or whether or not it was even possible, he might have whistled in appreciation. Instead, he drank in the view silently and saw several things of note, beyond the height of the ceiling and open space in general.
The floor appeared to be made out of large, crystal tiles, and their surface was perfectly smooth in addition to being fairly reflective. Much of the floor was covered by a carpet, which was a faded red color aside from its borders, which were maroon. Among the faded red were light orange patterns in the form of swirls, which reminded him of plant tendrils. The carpet went through a large, fancy-looking entryway, to a stairway at the far end of the hall, which — he could just make out — branched off into two more stairways at its upper landing, but not before splitting at an intersection, where he could see several doors lining the wall that he could see on either side of the entryway.
The doors in question came in pairs, and were slightly convex at the top. Above them were lunettes, and both they and the doors were set within golden, arched frames. The walls around them, as well as the other walls within sight, were a muted purple, with images on their surfaces that were composed of other shades of purple. The images themselves were predominately those of trees, though there was at least one that was of a waterfall, which reminded him of the one behind the castle. On at least one side of the intersection, the walls extended only as far up as the balcony; from there, the walls beyond had more of a brick and mortar appearance, with a color scheme that he supposed was slate, or something thereabouts, because their gleaming quality made it hard for him to judge what color they were.
Another notable feature were the crystal pilasters, especially since two of them made up a part of the large entryway. Then there were the swallowtail banners that hung on the wall via rod and bracket, displaying varying colors and imagery, although all of their vertical borders were gold, which was the same color as the two tassels that dangled from the two points at their bottoms. Finally, there were the light sources, although the only kind that he recognized were the few sconces that he could see. Aside from them, however, were glowing gems, of a variety of colors, which seemed to be threaded through thin cords that hung from practically everywhere: the ceiling, the pilasters, and even the sconces.
Once he felt that he had seen enough, he turned to regard Rarity and asked, "So, where to?"
"If I know Twilight," Rarity replied, as she began to walk ahead, "she's probably in the library. So, let's start there."
The library, Marshall discovered, was in the "house" portion of the "tree house," which meant that he had a great many more stairs to tackle. While that turned out to be a pain, it had given him enough practice to climb them just as well as Rarity, so he was glad that he wouldn't have to worry about such a problem in the future. He was also glad that he had Rarity for a guide, because the corridors of Twilight Sparkle's castle were a maze: the ceilings and floors were the same, as well as the doors and pilasters, which were arranged in a similar, repeating pattern. There was the occasional blank space between pilasters, instead of a door, but it wasn't enough of an indicator of where one was. Considering the lack of flesh-based security, he had to wonder if that was why Twilight Sparkle hadn't bothered with helpful signs and/or plaques.
When they reached their destination, Rarity simply opened the door and entered, so he followed her example and did the same. The library wasn't of the kind that he was more accustomed to seeing, with ranges of bookshelves that made books accessible on both sides, whether they were divided by a panel or not, a clearly-defined system of organization, and a catalogue of the library's contents. Instead, perhaps because the library contained a private collection, there was none of that: only floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that covered the vast majority of the walls, and only a few tables to take up a small fraction of the space that was left over.
At one of those tables stood Twilight Sparkle, poring over one of the open books on the table, alongside a short stack of unopened ones. She hadn't noticed their entrance, or — if she had — didn't seem interested in having her current activity interrupted. Marshall decided to stand by and watch while the princess was approached by Rarity, who cleared her throat upon arriving at the table and clearly said, "Twilight?"
Twilight Sparkle looked up with some surprise. "Oh, Rarity." Upon noticing Marshall near the open door, she acknowledged, "Marshall," before apologetically adding, "Sorry. I just wanted to see if I could learn more about magic-based sympathetic resonance."
"Sympathetic resonance" sounded familiar to Marshall, but he couldn't place where he had heard the term before. Rarity seemed to know what Twilight Sparkle was referring to, though, because she asked, "Such a thing is possible?"
"In theory," Twilight Sparkle granted, with a nod of her head, before sparing her books a look of disappointment. "Unfortunately, there are a number of factors that have prevented any substantial — or credible — study and documentation of the phenomenon. All I've been able to find are hypotheses and anecdotal evidence, at best."
"I can imagine why," Rarity replied, before a thought made her pause. "Wait... You think that's what Marshall and I are experiencing?"
Before Twilight Sparkle could answer her, Marshall decided to interject himself so he wouldn't be completely left out of the loop, since he could read enough into the conversation to know what her answer would have been. "Um, what's sympathetic resonance?"
Rarity turned her body aside and regarded him with a somewhat guilty expression. "Oh, I'm sorry, dear. Do you know anything about harmonics?"
"Not much," Marshall admitted, before he could give the subject some more thought. He had a general idea of what harmonics pertained to, and he understood well enough what resonance was, so he was able recall the last time that those things had been relevant in his life, which had been during his early years of primary school. "But, if I had to guess, are you talking about something like: making a tuning fork vibrate because another is vibrating?"
Twilight Sparkle brightened upon hearing that. "Yes! I mean, it's not
exactly the same with magic, but you've got the right idea."
"Well," Rarity voiced, who regarded Twilight Sparkle with a half-lidded stare, "while we
did agree to an examination, to assure that we're healthy and sound, you haven't been thinking about turning us into a research project, have you?"
Twilight Sparkle's eyes widened and her wings extended a bit from her body at the insinuation. "Oh, no! Of course not!" She denied, before turning her head away in an evasive manner. "I mean, sure, it would be a
shame to miss out on something that is probably a once-in-a-millennium opportunity, and the scientific community at large will be deprived of
valuable knowledge, but," she turned to smile at the other occupants of the room, who easily noticed that it was too unnatural for it to be a sincere one, "you're my friends, and friends come first, right?"
Rarity let Twilight Sparkle hang in the ensuing silence for a few seconds before she giggled and said, "Twilight, darling, I was only teasing you. You don't have to hide how you really feel about it for our sakes." While Twilight Sparkle flushed with embarrassment, she added, "So long as I'm treated with dignity, and it doesn't interfere with my work, I would be willing to submit myself to your tests."
Unexpectedly, Marshall found Rarity giving him an expectant look, so it was with an absence of finesse that he followed her up with, "Oh, uh, sure: what she said." He didn't really know what he might be getting himself into, but he felt that he had gotten to know Rarity well enough to give his trust in her a chance.
Twilight Sparkle didn't seem to notice anything wrong with his reply, since she was smiling happily. "Well, as tempted as I am to make that request right now, I think it would be more prudent to make sure that you two aren't having any issues with this arrangement."
With that said, Twilight Sparkle began to lead them to her lab, where she had the equipment that could detect both physical and magical maladies. Along the way, not long after they had left the library, Marshall's curiosity inspired him to ask, "Is that magic resonance thing really that rare?"
"Sympathetic resonance," Twilight Sparkle corrected without thinking, before addressing the question. "And, yes: it's really,
really rare."
Marshall wanted to know some specifics, so he followed his last question up with what came naturally. "Why?"
"It's mainly due to biology, dear," Rarity joined in, even though she was sure that Twilight Sparkle could have handled his inquiry on her own. "You see, our wombs are only meant to accommodate one foal."
Twilight Sparkle nodded her head in confirmation. "In addition to that, it's rare for us to have multizygotic births, and even rarer to have monozygotic twins." She paused, as if to consider what to say next, or how to say it, and became more somber. "Until fairly recently, relatively speaking, bearing multiple foals carried a very high risk of death. Not only could one or both foals perish, but the mother was liable to as well."
"Not only that," Rarity spoke softly, "but even if one or both foals lived, it was very likely that at least one of them would not be... whole. It was common for them to have trouble enjoying life as other ponies do; that is, if they did not die young."
"Oh..." Marshall voiced quietly, who felt bad for asking. His head was level with his body, as if he were weighed down by what he had just learned, and he could feel his ears tilted to the lowest point that they've ever been.
Rarity walked up beside him and gave him a gentle nudge of encouragement and smiled, to show that she wasn't upset about his question. "Don't feel bad about it, darling. All of that is mostly history, now."
As Marshall's spirits were lifted, Twilight Sparkle addressed the final limiting factors that were relevant to his question. "Now, even under the best of circumstances, there are still issues that mitigate the ability of identical twins to experience sympathetic resonance. The first issue is the likelihood of being born with different dimensions, since they had to contend for the same source of nutrition in the womb, and there's also the possibility of there being at least one mild deformity. The second issue is that they will deviate even further apart as they grow older, due to their diet and lifestyle, as well as whatever maladies or injuries they happen to come by. The third — and possibly the most important — issue, is how their magic functions. This aspect affects unicorns more than the other pony tribes, although the passive and largely-innate nature of Earth and Pegasi Pony magic may greatly limit how sympathetic resonance is expressed, if it's exhibited at all."
That had given Marshall plenty to think about, so he remained silent for the remainder of the trip. Once in the lab, however, the technology awaiting within gave him plenty to talk about, since a lot of what he could see appeared to be far more advanced than what he had seen anywhere else in Ponyville, up to that point. Of course, as he was already beginning to tell, Twilight Sparkle was perfectly willing to talk about things that were of an intellectual or scientific nature.
Fortunately, the examination revealed that both Rarity and himself were problem-free. With that out of the way, he was shown to the room that he would be using during his stay, since it was nearly time for him to return to his human body anyway. Along the way there, Twilight Sparkle learned about the name that he was going to go by as a pony, since Rarity had used it with that intention in mind. It had been a pleasant surprise for Twilight Sparkle, who had been supportive and complimented Rarity on the name, since she had been familiar with its meaning.
The room that he was shown to was fully furnished and seemed fairly ordinary to him, aside from the canopy bed. He didn't know if he would ever need to use the nightstand, footlocker or dresser, or the vanity mirror on said dresser, but a fully-stocked bookcase looked like it would be a good distraction, since he could make out a few titles that were clearly aimed at educating him about the world that he was visiting. However, whoever had stocked it hadn't accepted any sacrifices when they had encountered insufficient room on the shelves, because there were a couple stacks of books on top of the bookcase.
Once Twilight Sparkle was standing in the middle of the room, on a large, round, blue carpet, she turned around to face Marshall and asked, "So, what do you think?"
"It's probably more than I'll need," Marshall honestly replied, "but it'll work. Thanks for putting this together for me."
"Think nothing of it," Twilight Sparkle graciously replied, waving it off with a gesture before the look in her eyes became more focused in purpose. "Now, before you return to your body, I'd like to organize a schedule for you."
Marshall couldn't fathom from where she had gotten her quill, inkwell and parchment, which was a cause for some distraction as he replied, "I need a schedule?"
"Not really," Rarity remarked, as she spared Twilight Sparkle a cocked eyebrow. "However, we probably
should discuss our immediate plans, until we settle into a routine." Turning her attention away from Twilight Sparkle, who was slightly disappointed that her services wouldn't be needed, she looked toward Marshall and queried, "On weekdays, for instance, I assume that you'll normally be acting as my assistant?"
Marshall nodded his head before adding, "Except tomorrow, because I have that thing at the school."
Once Twilight Sparkle had been properly apprised of that particular situation, they decided to work out what Marshall would be doing the following day. Since a proper tour of Ponyville had been in the "welcoming committee's" original plans, which had been discarded because Marshall had opted to leave the party early and help Rarity, he agreed to be taken on the tour before going to the school. When Rarity mentioned his desire to fly, Twilight Sparkle was happy to accommodate him, much to his delight and gratitude.
Aside from stopping by Sugarcube Corner during the tour, because Pinkie Pie had expressed interest in the kinds of treats that humans made for themselves while Marshall had been gone from the party, he would spend some time with Twilight Sparkle after he had dinner with Rarity's family, so she could teach him a spell that would make it a lot easier for him to convey information. Beyond that, the only other plan was for Marshall and Rarity to be studied by Twilight Sparkle for a few hours during the weekend, for the sake of her sympathetic resonance research, which they had decided to agree to.
Before Marshall got ready to leave, Rarity recalled his earlier concern, regarding the reality of his experiences, and mentioned it to Twilight Sparkle. While he hadn't been able to completely wrap his head around the explanation that had followed, regarding multiple universes, he had understood enough for it to allay his concerns. Plus, he highly doubted that he had the knowledge and imagination for his mind to relate everything that Twilight Sparkle had, so there was that as well.
A few minutes later, after Twilight Sparkle and Rarity had left, Marshall got comfortable on the bed and followed the former's earlier instructions on how to move his consciousness back to his own body. He hadn't expected to be successful on his first try, or so quickly, so he was a bit surprised when he was suddenly reintroduced to his body and its familiar sensations, and saw a familiar — if nondescript — ceiling above him.
If not for his need to empty his bladder, he probably would have laid in bed for a while and contemplated his experience as a female unicorn in a magical world. It was just as well that he got such business out of the way, though, since Rarity would be connecting with him before too long. Plus, he was famished, so he figured that he should take care of that as well, while he was up.
It was while he was eating a bowl of bran flakes at his computer desk, as one of his playlists on Youtube was playing King Harvest's
Dancing in the Moonlight, that he felt Rarity connect with him. Since he was beyond caring whether or not Rarity was aware of his ability to notice her connection to him, he preemptively asked, "So, what do you want to do first?"
"...Perhaps I should introduce myself," responded an unfamiliar — yet undeniably feminine — voice. "I am Princess Luna. Marshall, I presume?"
Chapter 9
Spread Your Wings
Marshall had heard a bit about Princess Luna from Rarity during their chat earlier, when he had asked whether Twilight Sparkle was a typical example of an Equestrian princess or not, since the ones in the human world — as far as he was aware — never seemed to be so personable or accessible. While she was not typical, he had been assured that all of the princesses were very nice when they weren't attending to some serious matter, or too busy performing their obligations to spend some casual time with others.
He wasn't all that surprised that she knew about him, since he assumed it was normal for leaders within the same nation to correspond with each other. While he didn't know if Princess Luna's "visit" was of a serious and/or official nature or not, he felt somewhat reassured that she was supposed to be a nice pony. However, it didn't do much about his nervousness, especially when he realized that he had been taking too long to reply.
"Uh, yeah, that's me..." He awkwardly replied. "Um... Hi?"
Princess Luna chuckled at his response. "I can understand why you might be nervous, but — please — be at ease: this intrusion had not been intentional."
"It hadn't?" Marshall asked, as he tried his best to follow her suggestion and relax. He eyed his cereal and wondered if it would be rude to eat it while he was talking with her. He usually ate while Rarity wasn't present, but she had never minded whenever that hadn't been the case. Princess Luna was royalty, though, so that could mean that she might be more inclined to having someone's undivided attention. So, just to be on the safe side, he decided to ignore his stomach's request for sustenance.
"It would seem," Princess Luna began to reply, "that your vehicle in our world is — for all intents and purposes — asleep and dreaming under these circumstances. As you may or may not know, it is one of my duties to watch over the dreams of my subjects. When I encountered yours, such as it is, I had not recognized it, and assumed it to be a foal's first dream."
"Wow..." Marshall breathed, still impressed despite everything that he had recently seen, experienced and learned about so far. "That's pretty cool."
"Cool?" Princess Luna repeated, sounding slightly confused. "In this context, I believe that I should take that as a compliment, correct? I'm afraid that I'm a bit behind when it comes to the expressions being used these days."
"Oh, definitely," Marshall quickly assured her. He idly wondered what she meant about being behind the times, but decided that it would probably be best to not pry, since he was still in the process of getting himself acquainted with her. "Being able to do what you're doing would be a, well... dream."
Perhaps due to noting the slight embarrassment over his word choice, Princess Luna ignored it and evenly said, "I imagine so, if the humans on your world are also bereft of magic."
"We are," Marshall confirmed, with a bit of a sigh, before admitting, "Once this thing with Rarity is over, I'm really going to miss it."
Princess Luna did not respond right away, which he assumed had been caused by the awkward direction that he had thoughtlessly — in his candidness — taken the conversation. Before he could think of a way to do something about it, the next randomly-chosen song began to play. That wouldn't have been worthy of getting his attention itself, ordinarily, except for the fact that the song in question was Beethoven's
Moonlight Sonata, which — now that he thought about it — was the second song about the moon since Princess
Luna's arrival. What were the odds of that happening?
Still, it seemed to be a good way of salvaging the conversation, because Princess Luna lightly remarked, "I approve of your choice in music."
"Well," Marshall began, who felt the need to enlighten the princess about his tastes in music, "as a fair warning, what you've heard so far doesn't even come close to covering all the kinds of music that I listen to."
"But, you like music about the moon, do you not?" Princess Luna inquired.
Marshall couldn't quite tell if there had been the slightest hint of a hopeful note in her voice, but he saw no reason to lie either way. "Not particularly. Right now I'm listening to a playlist with a bunch of odds and ends, for when I don't know what I'm in the mood for. I have it set so it picks the next song from a list that's been shuffled randomly, like this."
At "like this," he reached for his mouse and used it to skip to the next song on the shuffled list, without looking at what it was going to be. He found out soon enough, though, when the video for Fleetwood Mac's
Sisters of the Moon took the last video's place. He couldn't help staring at the video's title for a few seconds, since he didn't have many songs with anything about the moon in their title, and it was highly unlikely that three of them, out of more than four hundred total videos, would happen to be shuffled together and end up playing during an unexpected meeting with Luna.
"At random, you say?" Princess Luna responded, perhaps rhetorically, because she sounded thoughtful instead of responding in a manner that he would have expected in such a situation. Of course, he reasoned that they weren't close enough to each other for her to tease him yet; that is, if she were even the type to do such a thing in the first place.
Before Marshall could offer something in reply, he once again felt a connection being made, followed by the familiar voice of Rarity. "I'm here, Marshall." She paused, probably to take in what she was seeing and hearing. "Oh; you haven't finished your breakfast, yet?"
Marshall opened his mouth to speak, but Princess Luna had decided to answer in his stead, before he could get anything intelligible out. "I'm afraid that I've been a bit of a distraction."
Rarity's response came belatedly, either because she hadn't expected to hear another voice, that's how long it had taken for her to figure out who the voice belonged to, or both. "Oh my! Princess Luna, what a pleasant surprise!" She proceeded to make some sounds that seemed to denote a small measure of distress before suddenly saying, "Marshall! Could you be a dear and bow for me?"
"...Huh?" Came Marshall's intelligent reply.
Princess Luna interjected with, "That won't be necessary, Rarity."
"But, I insist!" Rarity countered, which seemed to be at odds with her desire to be respectful, as far as Marshall was concerned. "
Please, Marshall?"
Marshall could almost imagine the puppy dog eyes and pout that she might have employed against him, had she been in a position to do so, and managed to hold back a sigh as he said, "Okay, fine."
Despite it being kind of embarrassing, he stood up and bowed deeply from the waist. It wasn't so much the act itself that had been embarrassing, since he didn't mind paying his respects or displaying proper behavior when it was called for, but due to his bow being of the Japanese variety: because he couldn't quite remember how it was supposed to be done in accordance with his Western roots. Another source of embarrassment came from being aware of what his bowing would look like from an outsider's point of view, in addition to the fact that the act hadn't even been necessary.
"Well," Princess Luna said, with a hint of amusement in her voice, "as nice as this little diversion has been, there may be slumbering ponies who require my aid. Have a good night, Rarity, Marshall."
There was no telling whether or not Princess Luna had left immediately following those words, but Marshall and Rarity had offered their farewells anyway. Afterward, Rarity said, "I didn't know that Princess Luna could connect with you as well. Was there any particular reason for her visit?"
"Nah," Marshall casually replied, as he sat back down and prepared to eat his cereal. "She said that it was an accident, because she thought this had been a foal's first dream."
Sounding thoughtful, Rarity said, "You don't say..."
While something was obviously on her mind, Marshall didn't think anything of it as he ate his cereal. By the time that he had gotten his breakfast out of the way, he had a movie ready to play on his computer. While movies weren't the greatest resource for fashion, in terms of relevancy and instruction on how something was made, they
did offer plenty of examples, and usually presented them within a context that provided other helpful information. As a bonus, they could be entertaining as well.
He had chosen
The Court Jester for a couple of reasons. To begin with, Rarity had wanted to see bygone fashions from an earlier time period in human history, since most of her exposure had come from modern and traditional fashions, with occasional input from futuristic and technologically-advanced settings. While his choice of movie wasn't a particularly great example of the fashion that it had to offer, it was one of the few musicals that he cared for, thanks to his mother, and he was curious if Rarity would like it, since only a few of his selections had gotten a more-than-tepid reception from her thus far. Of course, with her need to focus on the exploits of a movie's costume department, as well as the department that handled the makeup and hair of the actors and actresses, rather than the plot and the source of the movie's entertainment, he wasn't all that surprised.
Fortunately, the movie had been enjoyable enough to put her in the mood for a second one, instead of following her original plan. He happily obliged her, of course, and — at his suggestion — she decided on a movie that had a fairly similar setting and range of genres:
The Princess Bride. She enjoyed that movie even more than the last one, so much so that he was pretty sure that she hadn't gotten much of her work done. That hadn't gone unnoticed, of course, but she drowsily bade him a good night instead of accusing him of anything. However, that could very well change when he saw her tomorrow in person, when she was wide awake and her mood wasn't altered by a good movie.
A few minutes after Rarity had left, he was listening to music while browsing the Internet. Due to remembering one of his commitments, which he didn't want to forget, he found a site that had the rules for Quidditch and bookmarked it. That way he could go over it a few more times before "going to bed," in the hope that the information would be retained until he met up with Rainbow Dash again.
That commitment had also reminded him that Pinkie Pie would be on his schedule. While he knew what she would be interested in, he wasn't sure of what to do about it: there were
so many desserts, sweets, candies and snacks out there, and he couldn't hope to remember many of them, much less their finer details. In the end, he decided to look up a few of the things that he was familiar with, if he couldn't remember seeing them at the party, and bookmarked them for future reference as well.
Finally, he decided to look up the meaning of his middle name: not only because he was curious, but — in retrospect — it was kind of embarrassing to be ignorant of it. As it turned out, "Noel" had its origins in French, and meant "Christmas." He hadn't known what to expect, but he certainly hadn't expected
that. Since its meaning had been so unexpected, he decided to look up his last name as well, because it had come up earlier and he wasn't feeling so confident about its assumed meaning being accurate.
Although there were a couple of likely meanings and origins for "March," as a surname, he still had to pause when he came across its meaning in Welsh, since it meant "horse," despite his inability to find a strong connection to a surname making it an unlikely candidate. Considering his recent experience with becoming an equine creature, it would be a rather notable coincidence if that turned out to be the meaning of his last name. Of course, since it was more likely to mean "boundary," it was possible that it could be a reference to his crossing of the boundary that separated two universes instead.
After putting those thoughts out of his mind, he decided to see what "Marshall" meant, since he figured that he might as well after going through the trouble of looking up his middle and last names. Much to his shock, his first name was strongly associated with horses, with every source that he could find referencing the occupation of someone who took care of them.
He leaned back in his chair and wondered if it was really just a coincidence. Not that long ago he wouldn't have seriously considered the notion of having a destiny, or being fated, but that was before traveling to another universe and discovering that magic was real, what with both having only previously been found in fictional mediums, such as the realms of science-fiction and fantasy. Now, he couldn't say — with any appreciable amount of certainty — that fate or destiny couldn't be within the realm of possibility as well.
That thought brought his mind back to his experience as a pony. He raised one of his hands and looked at it while superimposing the image of a white hoof with his mind's eye. As he turned his hand over and flexed his fingers, he found that he hadn't really minded having hooves. Having a horn had helped, of course, but they hadn't proved all that problematic, in part because he had opted to focus on what he had wanted to do instead of trying to work that out with his body first.
When he thought about his — technically Rarity's — pony body, he didn't have anything bad to say about it either, even though it had been female. It had taken some getting used to, but it had really helped to not think about it. While he was still troubled by the thought of finding himself in a situation where a male pony — or stallion — was showing interest in him, actually being female hadn't been so strange or horrible that he would wish to avoid being one. Sure, a male body would have been his preference, since that was what he was accustomed to, but he could live with using a female one per his current arrangement.
So, whether or not he was fated to end up in a situation where he could become a female pony on a temporary basis, he didn't really mind. So many things about it were so new and interesting, and he smiled at the thought that he could probably make some nice friends while he was at it. Heck, even though they were ponies, being friends with the fairer sex might allow him to gain some insight about them, which would be helpful once he felt ready to look for that special someone.
His smile faded, however, when he reminded himself that his current arrangement would only be temporary. It would suck to get close to someone before saying goodbye forever, but he didn't want that to sabotage the chance of getting close to people, just so he wouldn't be hurt by the loss of someone close to him. He had seen enough fictional examples of what people have done in those situations to prefer making the best of things and living with the loss, instead of being stupid and/or a headache to others — to distance oneself — and living with whatever was gained out of doing
that. What others found interesting about that kind of drama and angst was beyond him.
When all was said and done, he was feeling slightly giddy and nervous about his return to Ponyville, because he had decided to not be so reserved and enjoy himself now that the overall shock of the strange and new had begun to wear off. While there were still some unknowns, and he worried about messing something up when he opened up more to his new friends, he was hopeful that things would work out.
...Then he remembered the promise of future flight, and his worries flew away for a little while as he fantasized about the experience.
Time at work had seemed to pass even more slowly than usual for Marshall, due to anticipating his return to Ponyville. Even Simon had noticed his distraction and had commented on it, although it had been easy to excuse his behavior, partly because Simon hadn't really cared to begin with. All his co-worker had cared about was whether he would be free to play some
Street Fighter X Tekken during the weekend. Since Marshall usually agreed to such requests, Simon had only grumbled a little bit when he had declined.
Aside from one of his friends texting him, saying that they would be in the area on Sunday, nothing else of note had happened by the time that he had prepared himself to switch bodies: once he had gotten home, all he had to do was find something to eat while he tried his best to memorize the things that he had bookmarked earlier in the day. After that, it was a simple matter of going to bed and moving his consciousness to "Recherché."
When he opened his eyes, he saw the room that Twilight Sparkle had given to him for the duration of his stay. He also noticed that he was hungry, which seemed strange — at first — because he had just had something to eat. It wasn't a surprise that he was hungry in his current body, however, because he remembered that he had just begun to feel the pangs of hunger before returning to his original body.
As he yawned and stretched on the bed, he wondered how he was going to find his way around — and possibly out — of Twilight Sparkle's castle. He mentally chided himself for the oversight, and began to contemplate whether he should try his luck on his own or wait within the room until someone came for him. When he caught sight of the over-stocked bookcase, he perked up, thinking that he could make good use of his time if he decided to wait around. Unfortunately, his stomach wasn't the only part of nature that was calling him, and waiting around indefinitely wasn't going to help either issue.
Before he could make up his mind on what to do, his ears perked up when he heard a familiar sound: that of a page being turned. Looking about the room, he didn't see anyone who could have produced the sound, or — as far as he could tell — anything, although he
did notice that there was a book missing from the bookcase after he gave it more scrutiny, since books were a prime source of page-turning sounds. Did that mean that whoever had taken the book were still close enough to be heard when they turned its pages?
He decided to wait and listen for a moment. His patience was rewarded before long, when he heard a page being turned once again. Since he doubted that he would be able to hear it beyond the door, he examined the room more closely. When he failed to see anything indicative of another's presence, he decided to look over the sides and end of the bed, even going so far as to peer underneath it, but he didn't see anyone.
Fortunately, before his confusion could give way to frustration, he recalled the fact that he was in a universe that had
magic and
flying ponies, and gave himself a mental smack upside the head. Sure enough, when he turned his gaze upward, he saw a sizeable indent in the canopy's fabric, but more noticeable — and telling — was the rainbow-colored tail that was dangling over the side of the aforementioned canopy.
He opened his mouth to call out to Rainbow Dash, but paused when a devious idea suddenly occurred to him. While it probably wasn't the best of ideas, he figured that it would help him to learn more about the kind of pony that Rainbow Dash was, and how to interact with her in the future. So, after taking a few seconds to figure out what kind of sound to make with his new voice box, he yowled like a cat whose tail had been stepped upon while simultaneously giving Rainbow Dash's tail a sharp tug with his telekinesis.
The indent and tail disappeared as Rainbow Dash yelped in surprise, all of which told him that he had been successful in his endeavor. A second later, a book came into view as it fell toward the floor. Fortunately for said book, Rainbow Dash had recovered from her scare quickly enough to zip down and catch it before it could land, which elicited a sigh of relief from her.
With the book held protectively to her chest with one hoof, she set the others on the floor and rounded on him with an angry expression on her face. "What in the hay was
that for!?"
Marshall hopped down from the bed and casually said, "Now we're even."
"Even?" Rainbow Dash echoed in confusion, before realization struck her. A host of faint expressions passed in quick succession before her face settled upon something that couldn't quite decide what it wanted to be. "Yeah, sure. I guess it's only fair."
While Marshall was glad that Rainbow Dash could take a prank as well as give it, something about her reaction had been strange. Had he been back on his own world with another human being, he wouldn't have caught it, but the cartoon-like physics allowed a more obvious conveyance of thoughts and feelings, and for the first time he understood what it meant when someone's eyes were described as smiling or twinkling, even when the rest of their visage wasn't so animated.
Between that, how her lips were currently being pressed together instead of resting naturally, and the way in which she had accepted being pranked, he had an idea of what might be going on. He decided to find out if he was right or not by getting a glimpse of himself in the vanity mirror, which he had once thought would never see any real use by him.
When it became obvious to Rainbow Dash as to what he was about to do, she groaned with disappointment and said, "Aw, man. I was hoping you wouldn't notice."
By that, she meant the monocle and mustache that had been doodled on Marshall's face while his current body had been out of commission. When he got a look of his face in the mirror, he couldn't help thinking that it looked a bit silly, since the monocle had to accommodate such a large eye and the mustache had to fit on a rather small nose. While it was kind of annoying that he was on the receiving end of a prank so soon, and by the same pony no less, he figured that he could work with it.
So, rather than address it, he turned about to regard Rainbow Dash and genially asked, "So, why are you here?"
Rainbow Dash's reply came belatedly, since she had no doubt been expecting a different response after he had seen her handiwork. "Oh, uh... Twilight asked me to show you the sights."
Marshall nodded his head at that before lowering his gaze to the book in Rainbow Dash's possession, and his curiosity compelled him to ask, "What were you reading while you were waiting for me?"
Rainbow Dash followed his gaze and seemed to be reminded that she had been holding a book to her chest, at which point she became very animated, hopped across the distance that separated them, shoved the book in his face and proclaimed, "Only the
best series
ever!"
Taking the book with his telekinesis and moving it to a more comfortable distance from his face, Marshall was able to read the title,
Daring Do, before catching sight of a familiar pony on the cover. He regarded the still-excited pegasus with a half-lidded stare and asked, "Would that have anything to do with you being on the cover?"
"No way!" Rainbow Dash fervently denied, who appeared to be affronted. "I liked Daring Do
long before I had that adventure with her.
That," she pointed at the book, "is just a bonus!"
Intrigued by that, Marshall inquired, "Really? This," he spared the book a glance, "is based on actual events?" When he got a positive response, he said, "Sounds interesting. I'll try to squeeze it in while I learn more about your world from the other books."
While Rainbow Dash was happily informing him that the Daring Do series was already arranged in the proper order on the bookshelf, further scrutiny of the book's cover revealed the author's name, which made him pause. If he hadn't looked up Quidditch no more than a half of an hour ago, A.K. Yearling probably wouldn't have reminded him of J.K. Rowling, due to the scant similarities between them.
Probably as a result of noticing the expression on his face, Rainbow Dash curiously asked, "What's up?"
"Nothing much," Marshall replied, as he looked up from the book. "It's just that the name of the author of this book reminded me of the author who wrote the series that I got that game idea from."
Rainbow Dash perked up upon being reminded of the game that she'd had to wait on. "Oh, yeah! Can you tell me about that game, now?"
"Sure," Marshall readily agreed, before receiving another call from nature, which caused him to duck his head a bit and look away in embarrassment as he added, "But, um... Can I tell you on the way to the bathroom?"
"Oh, uh, sure," Rainbow Dash awkwardly replied.
Once Marshall had returned the book to the bookshelf, he followed Rainbow Dash as she led him to the bathroom. Along the way, he told her about Quidditch in as organized of a manner as he could muster. For the most part, Rainbow Dash seemed to take in what he said and thought about it, perhaps putting mental images to words, and generally seemed interested. However, when he got to the last part, regarding the seeker's role, since they were the ones who usually determined when a game ended, Rainbow Dash's interest skyrocketed.
"Hold on," Rainbow Dash said as she came to a stop, who seemed to be having trouble holding back her excitement. "Are you telling me that it's up to the
quickest player to get the
most points
and finish the game?" When she got confirmation, she looked off into the distance, probably to imagine herself playing the role of a seeker, and absently mumbled, "That would be
so cool."
Eventually, Rainbow Dash returned to the present, whereupon she performed a wing-assisted hop and remained airborne as an expression of her enthusiasm. "Whoever came up with Kid Ditch is a
genius. Man, I
can't wait to get a game set up!"
Marshall was amused by her behavior, so — instead of correcting her about the name — he wryly remarked, "Well, before you do, could you help me ditch something in the bathroom so I don't end up looking like a kid before I can get there?"
It took a second for Rainbow Dash to grasp the meaning of his words. When she did, she landed and had the decency to look sheepish as she said, "Oh. Right."
The rest of the trip passed by in silence, mostly due to the fact that they hadn't been all that far from their destination. When Marshall finished his business there, Rainbow Dash was quick to notice that his face was still marred by doodles. "You're not going to wash your face?"
Glad for the distraction, since his new plumbing was going to take some time to get accustomed to, Marshall said, "I didn't want it to go to waste."
"What do you mean?" Rainbow Dash replied, with a confused look on her face.
Smiling slightly, Marshall implied his intention by saying, "Take me to Twilight and find out."
Rainbow Dash blinked her eyes once before smiling conspiratorially and agreeing to go along with whatever he had planned.
While Marshall followed her to their target, he briefly wondered if he should be pranking Twilight Sparkle. Pranking wasn't beneath him, but he was worried that he was going too far just to get along with Rainbow Dash, since it would be at another's expense even though it wasn't going to be done out of meanness. Then again, if Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were friends, he reasoned that Twilight Sparkle was probably no stranger to being pranked. Of course, that was assuming that Rainbow Dash had a penchant for pulling said pranks, but it seemed possible, given his own experiences in the last twenty-four hours.
Still, he couldn't help feeling optimistic about the whole thing. His excitement over the situation, and overall desire for things to turn out well and/or fun, was probably bleeding into his perceptions, but he figured that it was better than being too worried and uptight to do anything worth mentioning. Frankly, if he had to be honest with himself, it was a relief: because the last two years as a single, independent, working adult had been far from being a bed of roses.
Eventually, Rainbow Dash opened a door that led into a room, and he took a moment to take in its appearance as he followed her in. The first thing that caught his attention was that the room was decorated, and the magenta drapes that hung across the shorter pilasters, as well as the magenta linen and pink ribbons on the window sills, made him suspect that Rarity had been behind it. Aside from those, the "windows" were framed by purple curtains, which hung from the bottom of the lunettes above them, and there were flower-filled baskets on top of the shorter pilasters and a couple of free-standing pillars that were of a more traditional design. In the middle of all of that was a gold-colored table that was lined in pink linen, which was surrounded by chairs that had pink cushions, and above them was what he could only assume was some kind of chandelier.
Sitting at the far side of the table was Twilight Sparkle, who was using a quill to write something on a piece of parchment. Unlike yesterday, when she had been too engrossed to notice someone's entry into the library, she looked up with a smile and said, "Good afternoon, Recher—" Having taken notice of the doodles on his face, she proceeded to level an accusatory stare at the suspected culprit. "Rainbow Dash..."
Before said pony could respond, Marshall quickly interjected, "Didn't do it!"
While Rainbow Dash looked back at him with curiosity, wondering what he was going to do, Twilight Sparkle appeared to be both surprised and incredulous by his claim. "She didn't?"
"Nope," Marshall replied, who tried to keep a straight face when he thought about the ridiculous story that he was about to tell. "You see, fake monocles and mustaches are a fad right now."
"Really?" Twilight Sparkle voiced her disbelief, her brow furrowed and one eyebrow slightly cocked.
Marshall managed to maintain his facade as he nodded his head and prepared to give a convincing explanation. "Yeah. You know how it is, right? Someone popular does something notable, and then others copy them?" After he received an acknowledgement that seemed to be delivered a little weakly, he continued. "Well, it began with a real monocle and mustache, but the guy that had inspired
that fad had gotten tired of it and changed his image. He had a bunch of female fans around the world who had liked his former look, and some of them had put together a public petition for the return of the monocle and mustache, which was covered by the news and uploaded on the Internet. A number of them had drawn a monocle and mustache on their faces as a part of representing their cause, but all that they had accomplished was catching the attention of those who would doodle them on their own faces, whether it was to join the cause, make fun of it, or to make their own statement." He shrugged his shoulders. "And that's how the fad got started."
Since Rainbow Dash knew that he had made it up, she was now the one who was looking at him incredulously, probably wondering if such a thing was even possible. Fortunately, because she was between him and Twilight Sparkle, the princess could only see the back of her head. The aforementioned princess wasn't looking at Rainbow Dash, though: instead, she seemed to be both interested and intrigued. Which wasn't all that surprising, since she wanted to learn more about his race.
"Wow," Twilight Sparkle summed up her overall response, who wasn't all that sure of what to think about it beyond its academic relevance. "I knew that humans could relay information both quickly and globally, but I hadn't imagined that kind of impact on society." Her expression turned curious as she asked, "So, why do you have a monocle and mustache drawn on your face?"
Marshall smiled and innocently stated, "So I could play a trick on you."
Twilight Sparkle stared with incomprehension for a second. "A trick?" She frowned when she realized what he had meant. "Wait... You made that fad up?"
Rainbow Dash snickered and said, "And I can't believe you bought it!"
Despite the fact that Twilight Sparkle was weathering Rainbow Dash's mirth well, with a half-lidded stare that bespoke of a tolerance that came from experience, Marshall decided to soften the blow. "To be fair, though, I wouldn't be surprised if something like that
did happen someday: we've probably done stranger and dumber things."
With a mixture of disbelief and interest, Rainbow Dash queried, "No kidding?"
Marshall gave Twilight Sparkle a significant look and said, "I can tell you about an
actual fad, if you'd like." When they both accepted his offer, he took a moment to think of a good example. "Okay, this one was kind of recent: it was a game called 'planking.' Basically, people would lie face-down and imitate a wooden plank. While it could be done in fairly normal locations, a lot of people made a challenge out of it and found strange and difficult places to do it."
Rainbow Dash regarded him as if he had done such a thing. "Yeah, that's..."
"...Kind of weird," Twilight Sparkle admitted.
With a shrug of his shoulders, Marshall said, "I'm human and even
I don't understand why people do stuff like that."
Before a lull in the conversation could form, Rainbow Dash focused her attention on Twilight Sparkle and asked, "So, are you ready to cast that flight spell?"
While Marshall perked up upon hearing that, and what it likely implied, Twilight Sparkle made a motion with her quill and said, "Just as soon as I finish writing this letter to Princess Luna. We're discussing the possibility of sharing a dream with Recherché." Turning to the human-turned-pony in question, she added, "That is, if you don't mind having more company?"
With that kind of revelation, Marshall was able to rein in his excitement — for the time being — and give a tentative answer. "Uh, I guess not?"
"Cool!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, who seemed to be eager to act upon the idea. "Now I can
finally get a chance to see what another world looks like!"
Twilight Sparkle showed her gratitude with a smile and said, "Okay, let me include that in my message," before she continued to compose said message.
By the time that she was finished, Marshall could tell that Rainbow Dash was getting antsy. He could kind of understand how she felt, even if for a different reason, because being so close to having the ability to fly had put butterflies in his stomach. Fortunately, that had the benefit of distracting him from his hunger somewhat.
"There," Twilight Sparkle declared, once she had the parchment rolled up and sealed with a ribbon. After setting it aside, she caught Marshall's gaze and cheerfully asked, "Now, are you ready to try out a pair of wings?"
Marshall was so keyed up that he couldn't trust himself to speak, so he ended up nodding his head rapidly instead. Before Twilight Sparkle cast the spell that would give him wings, she was thoughtful enough to take care of his facial decorations while she was putting her magic to use. With that dealt with, she closed her eyes and focused, and a second later her horn lit up with a magical aura. From that aura two streamers of magic came forth and detached from it by the time that they had each arrived at their destination: Marshall's sides.
After looking back and forth a few times, he decided to focus on just one side. Regardless, he felt — more than saw — the ends of the streamers attach to him, because it felt weird and tingly as new flesh and nerves developed in the area where the streamers had met with his body. The rest of the streamers' lengths began to coil and compress, appearing to wrap around an invisible shape — one that was reminiscent of an extended wing. Then, once both streamers had closed together so tightly that one could no longer see the space within them, they flashed brightly with a release of magic, which caught him by surprise.
While he was waiting for the afterimage of the flash to stop obscuring his vision, hoping that the act of blinking and rubbing his eyes would expedite the process, he heard Rainbow Dash ask, "How come she doesn't have the same wings that Rarity had?"
To which Twilight Sparkle replied, "That's because I used a different spell."
"Why?" Rainbow Dash queried, who sounded equal parts confused and curious.
"Because the wizard who had developed that other flight spell was vain and trying to make the spell last indefinitely," Twilight Sparkle began to explain. "That led to the wings being impractical, regarding the amount of skill and magic required to make them, and in how susceptible their function was to being compromised. While this spell will only last for two hours, approximately, it's much easier to cast, and the wings will be as durable as an average pegasus'."
Wanting to see what they were talking about, even though his world was still tinged with an unnatural coloration, Marshall looked over his shoulder to inspect one of his new wings, whose existence had been felt since their creation. Said wing was still in the same position as the streamers of magic had been in, just prior to blinding him, so he tried to fold it against his body, in the same way that Rainbow Dash's and Twilight Sparkle's wings currently were. He succeeded after a moment of trial and error, then did the same for the other wing.
By then Twilight Sparkle had approached him and began to inspect his wings critically, who began to ask him to move his wings in various ways. After several requests of that nature, she inquired, "Have you noticed any issues? Any trouble moving a certain way, or any discomfort or pain?"
Marshall shook his head in response, surprised that his new wings were as dexterous as they were. "Not that I'm aware of. I didn't even know that wings could do some of the things that you told me to do with them."
Rainbow Dash crouched a bit, spread her wings and grinned. "Oh, yeah? Well, check
this out!"
While Twilight Sparkle watched on with mild amusement and disinterest, Marshall gaped at the pegasus' ensuing aerial performance. The room may have been spacious, which was kind of an understatement, but not nearly spacious enough for something that was traveling at the speeds that Rainbow Dash was able to achieve. That's what common sense told him, at any rate, but that way of thinking obviously wasn't going to fly in the universe that he was currently in. He couldn't even begin to imagine how it was possible for a flyer of any sort to make ninety degree changes in their heading instantly without coming to a stop, or decelerating enough to counter their current velocity, except by magic.
Eventually, a self-satisfied Rainbow Dash reacquainted her hooves with the floor and stated, "When you're as good as I am, doing stuff like that is
easy."
Before Marshall could find his voice, due to being shocked and awed by Rainbow Dash's display, he heard an unfamiliar, boyish-sounding voice ask, "What stuff? What'd I miss?"
As out of it as he was, the strange voice had been enough of a surprise to startle him, especially since it had come from behind. Unlike yesterday, however, he jumped with both pairs of legs instead of one, and he had enough presence of mind to do so in a way that would turn him about in midair, so he could face the source of the voice. At the same time, his new, temporary wings had involuntarily spread themselves fully in reaction to being startled, although he failed to notice it.
What he found a few feet away was some kind of scaly, bipedal creature that came up to his chin in height, if one discounted the row of rounded, green plates on its head. Most of its hide was a light purple, while the scales between its chin and the underside of its tail was a greenish-white. However, what really caught his attention were the slit-pupils of its green eyes, which had widened substantially in the short span of time that he had been looking at it.
Unbeknownst to him was the fact that the creature in question had a crush on Rarity, and that the dilation of its pupils had been in response to the image that he was inadvertently presenting to it. With his wings spread, natural complexion, a hairstyle that was similar to Fluttershy's, and the chandelier located directly behind his head from the creature's point of view, his appearance was quite striking.
Since the creature didn't seem to be out of place, aside from not being a pony, he relaxed. It also helped that it was carrying a plate that had a couple of sandwiches on it, which he finally noticed and found somewhat distracting. "Um... Hi?"
That seemed to snap the creature out of whatever state it had been in, which Rainbow Dash had found funny enough to chuckle about for some reason. The creature proceeded to take a few seconds to sort itself out, which had included some mumbling to itself that he could only discern bits and pieces of. From what he had been able to gather, though, the creature had reminded itself that he was actually a dude; beyond that, he couldn't be sure of whatever else had been said.
Finally, the creature extended its free claw and returned your greeting. "Uh, hey! I'm Spike!"
Marshall offered his hoof to Spike and experienced a... limbshake? "Marshall." Realizing his mistake immediately, he mentally kicked himself. "Recherché, I mean."
"I thought you'd look more like Rarity," Spike commented, which seemed more like an effort to convince himself of that notion.
Twilight Sparkle chose that time to step into view, looking slightly amused, although it was mostly masked by her smile as she addressed Spike. "Good timing, Spike." The letter that she had recently finished writing, bathed in the purple aura of her magic, floated over to the aforementioned creature. "Could you send this to the princess?"
Marshall watched as Spike accepted the letter without preamble, held it up to his face, took a deep breath, and then... vaporized the letter with the green flame that he had expelled from his mouth. He idly watched as the smoke and flame rose into the air and whirlpooled into a nebulous ball before disappearing with a little flash, wondering if he would ever get used to seeing stuff like that happen.
The next thing he knew, the plate of sandwiches was shoved under his nose, and Spike was helpfully informing him, "Here! I made you lunch!"
"This is mine?" Marshall found himself asking, even as his stomach began to make more demands. He took a closer look at the sandwiches on the plate, mostly because it couldn't be helped, and noticed that much of the sandwiches' contents appeared to be hay and flowers.
"I figured you would be hungry," Twilight Sparkle answered, before glancing at Marshall's closest wing and wryly adding, "It should also give you some time to get a better feel for your wings before you try to fly with them."
Following her gaze, Marshall blushed when he discovered that he had been too distracted to notice that his wing hadn't been in the position that he had left it in, which turned out to be the case for the other wing as well. Rather than wanting to dwell on that, though, he returned his attention to what would be his current body's breakfast/lunch once he had pulled his wings back against his body. He was already keen on giving the sandwiches a try, and wondered what to expect in terms of flavor.
He didn't like the idea of being a sponge, though, so he asked, "Is there anything I can do to pay for it?"
"Aren't you already helping out Rarity?" Spike questioned, with a slight hint of jealousy in his voice, which Marshall mistook for the kind of tone that one used when pointing out something obvious.
Twilight Sparkle prudently added, "And don't forget that you're allowing me to study the sympathetic resonance of magic, in addition to helping me document a plethora of information regarding your race, world and universe."
"Oh," Marshall voiced, as he considered what he was being told. "Well, if you're alright with that..."
"Great!" Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed, with a mixture of eagerness and impatience, who proceeded to hover in the air and point toward the table. "Now, go and eat so we can get some flying in before the spell wears off."
While Marshall sheepishly moved to comply, by accepting the plate from Spike and heading toward the indicated table, Twilight Sparkle regarded Rainbow Dash with a cocked eyebrow and asked, "Why the rush?"
Rainbow Dash tried and failed to put up an innocent front. "What, flying for a few hours isn't reason enough?"
Twilight Sparkle's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "You're up to something, aren't you?"
"
Relax," Rainbow Dash replied, with a roll of her eyes. "It's nothing like what you're thinking — honest!"
Before Twilight Sparkle could respond to that, Rainbow Dash flew over to the table and sat opposite of Marshall, so she could demonstrate simple wing exercises that he could do while he ate. With a sigh, Twilight Sparkle decided to drop the issue and join them, since she didn't have anything that required her immediate attention while she waited for Princess Luna's response to her latest letter.
The sandwiches, Marshall soon discovered, were agreeable to his new taste buds. However, while his hunger was being attended to, most of his attention was on Rainbow Dash and copying what she was doing with her wings. Eating flowers and hay may have been new, but flying was
a lot more interesting on top of that, and Rainbow Dash's enthusiasm only stoked his own further.
Despite never having anything remotely like wings to draw some semblance of experience from, like he had when it had come to walking like a quadruped, it hadn't taken him long to learn how to move his wings well enough to match Rainbow Dash's form and pace. He figured that he had Rarity to thank for that, since she had once had the opportunity to fly with her own wings, even though it had sounded like she had gotten a pair that had been different in some way.
It never crossed his mind to ask about her wings, though. In fact, between his own anxious anticipation and Rainbow Dash's eagerness to help him learn how to fly, he didn't even think to ask what kind of creature Spike was. Instead, he eagerly followed Rainbow Dash as soon as he was done eating, not even realizing that he was running at a gallop to keep up with the flying pegasus.
Fortunately, before he was out of earshot, he heard Twilight Sparkle yell, "Oh! Recherché! Please tell Sweetie Belle to see her sister after school!"
When he made it outside, he found Rainbow Dash waiting for him, standing near the base of the stairs. Upon reaching her, she readily asked, "So, are you ready?"
With his nervousness over one important fact finally driving a wedge into his enthusiasm, now that flight was about to become a reality, Marshall tentatively responded with, "Um, I know I'll be fine if this body dies, but, uh... That won't happen, right?"
"Nah," Rainbow Dash casually replied, waving his concern away with a hoof. "If it looks that bad, I'll come in and save ya, alright?"
Reassured by that, since he didn't want to experience any death-related injuries, Marshall's enthusiasm made a comeback as he asked, "Okay, so what do I do?"
"First," Rainbow Dash began, who assumed a more serious demeanor, "you'll need to find your equilibrium in the air. Before you can go anywhere, you need to learn how to go nowhere. Got it?"
"I think so..." Came Marshall's uncertain reply.
Rainbow Dash smirked slightly with amusement. "Just flap your wings hard enough to get yourself off the ground — even a few inches will do — and try your best to stay where you are, okay?"
Since that sounded simple enough to do, Marshall nodded his head with determination before spreading his wings, ready to give it a try.
Chapter 10
A Dash of Rainbow
Marshall could hear Rainbow Dash's laughter as he struggled to swim toward the surface. His emotional state had distracted him so much that he had fallen back on what little he knew of the mechanics of flight from his own universe, rather than what he had been able to guess and ascertain from seeing other ponies fly in the universe he was currently in. As a result, he had flapped his wings hard enough to take off like a rocket, due to the disparity between his weight and the size of his wings. To make matters more complicated, not knowing the intricacies of how to direct his movement had sent him flying at a backward angle, and his attempts to correct it had only made things worse because they immediately sent him into disorienting spins and rolls. Eventually, he had bounced off of Twilight Sparkle's castle, which had stunned him long enough for him to plummet into the lake before he could try using his wings again.
When he finally broke the surface, he tried to orient himself so he could face Rainbow Dash and properly express his discontent. It took a bit of doing, but moving his legs in a way that was reminiscent of walking seemed to be adequate enough to keep his head above the water, so it didn't take him long to figure out how to move forward and turn. As he slowly swam toward the bank, he directed a glare at the pegasus that found his situation so amusing, although he suspected that the hair that was plastered over most of his face was ruining the effect, partly because it seemed to have inspired another round of laughter from the aforementioned pegasus.
Once he was on dry land, and could devote a foreleg to clearing the hair from his face, he muttered, "It wasn't
that funny."
"Not from where I was standing," Rainbow Dash cheekily replied, who allowed herself a few more chuckles before addressing the matter at hand. "Anyway, lemme take care of that for ya."
Before Marshall could find out what "that" was, exactly, Rainbow Dash was already in motion. He soon found himself in the middle of a rainbow-colored tornado, which Rainbow Dash managed to achieve by flying around him very, very quickly. He stood there, amazed, as he was buffeted by winds from every direction, and felt the moisture from his coat and hair being sucked away without his hooves being lifted from terra firma in the process.
When Rainbow Dash finished, he looked himself over and observed that there was no evidence that he had just left the lake. However, the hair of his mane and tail were a complete and utter mess. He could only imagine how Rarity might react upon seeing a copy of herself in such a state. While it didn't bother him too much, he didn't much like the idea of how others might react to it. Fortunately, Rainbow Dash only snickered when she saw the state that his hair was in, either because she knew when to draw a line, or due to having a desire to move forward with something that she considered to be more interesting and/or important.
"Okay," Rainbow Dash began, as she assumed a semblance of the demeanor that was stereotypically associated with drill instructors, "while I liked the energy, you
really need to work on your control. So, here's what you need to do..."
Rainbow Dash proceeded to instruct Marshall on how to use his wings properly, regarding their intended purpose, which included a couple of performance tips. It was both informative and interesting, for the most part: mostly because he hadn't known much about wings to begin with; that, and he was pretty sure that some of the things that his new wings were capable of wouldn't be possible back in his own universe. However, there had been a few instances where Rainbow Dash had said something that had reminded him of a certain scene from
Better Off Dead, when Charles had told Lane, "I'll tell you what to do. Go
that way...
really fast. If something gets in your way... Turn."
Once they were both sure that he knew enough about the hows and whys of flight, which involved a healthy dose of passive magic, he was encouraged to put his new knowledge to use. While he didn't repeat the mistake of using too much power, his second attempt at flight saw him tumble uncontrollably into the canopy of a tree, where he awkwardly waved to an old-looking pony who had noticed him from the second-story window of a nearby house. Fortunately, with each successive attempt, his control got better, and by the dozenth — or so — time he was proudly maintaining his position just a few feet off of the ground.
Rainbow Dash, who was in the process of flying a complete circuit around him, in order to judge his competence from multiple angles, eventually came to a stop in front of him, looking mildly impressed. "Huh. Twilight had said that you'd probably be a quick learner," left unsaid was the fact that the possibility of having some fun, instead of doing nothing but training, had been the main selling point when Twilight had requested both the training and the tour, "but I'd say you're a natural, all things considered."
Marshall shook his head. "If I am, then it's only because Rarity is."
"...Huh?" Rainbow Dash voiced her confusion.
That reaction had been unexpected to Marshall, who took a few seconds to respond because he had to wonder why she wasn't in the know. "You haven't heard about the sympathetic resonance thing that's going on between myself and Rarity?"
Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed. "The symphony
what, now?"
Since she appeared to be clueless about the matter, Marshall took a moment to think of an example that Rainbow Dash could relate to, so he could build his explanation on it. "Remember what happened when we were playing 'pin the tail on the pony' yesterday?" When Rainbow Dash confirmed that she did, he continued. "Well, I have some kind of magical connection with Rarity, because this body is a perfect duplicate of hers. Among other things, it allows me to learn certain skills faster than normal, so long as it's a skill that Rarity has."
"Really?" Came Rainbow Dash's rhetorical response, as she bemusedly looked askance while stroking her chin. "I guess that
would mean that she's a natural flyer..." Apparently, whatever thoughts she may have been having hadn't led her anywhere, because it wasn't long before she perked up and returned her focus to Marshall, with another subject on her mind. "Anyway! How's about a game of tag?"
Being as unexpected as that suggestion was, since Marshall had only been looking forward to a tour of Ponyville and stopping by Sugarcube Corner after learning how to fly, he asked, "Tag? Why?"
Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and cocked an eyebrow. "Why not?"
Marshall opened his mouth to reply, but closed it when he couldn't think of a good enough reason not to, in part because he figured that he had plenty of time to take that tour and see Pinkie Pie before he had to be at the school.
Whirling around, so that she was facing away from him, Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder and smirked. "Come on! Let's see whatcha got!"
With her looking ready to go at a moment's notice, the substance of the idea finally wormed its way into Marshall's conscious awareness, and his heart rate began to increase alongside his excitement. He couldn't remember the last time that he had received such an invitation, let alone for something as awesome as this, even though playing tag in the air was probably considered to be a rather ordinary activity for pegasi. For him, though, it was a realization of a dream: not of flight, specifically, but of experiencing something wonderful that had once seemed impossible. It was the kind of thing that one would have to be lucky to experience for an instant within a dream, and as an unsatisfactory version of it no less.
He couldn't help himself: before he knew it, and without any attention given to his wings, he was chasing after Rainbow Dash. He wasn't sure how long he had been chasing after her before becoming more aware of what he was doing, but he eventually became more cognizant of the world around him, and how it felt both bigger and smaller now that he was no longer earthbound. He couldn't tell how fast he was going, partially due to the fact that he didn't want to lose sight of Rainbow Dash, but he didn't care: the drifting environment in the distance, the blur of his immediate surroundings, the wind in his face, and the pumping of his wings and heart made him feel more alive than ever before. As he followed Rainbow Dash around the clock tower, performing several revolutions from bottom to top before moving on, he idly concluded that his first time on a roller coaster paled in comparison.
On occasion, Rainbow Dash would playfully tease and challenge him, both with words and by slowing down enough to become tantalizingly close to being within tagging range, but he didn't mind, nor need any motivation. As she took the chase into a cluster of clouds, without any hope of ever catching her, his inner child, which had taken hold over him, found enjoyment in the journey itself, rather than the abstract concept of victory. It was fun to simply fly among the clouds, darting around, over and under them, trying to keep Rainbow Dash within sight — which wasn't hard, since she had a rather loud and distinctive appearance.
Before long, Rainbow Dash put in an extra burst of speed and disappeared from sight, behind the cloud that he had just begun to chase her around. A split second later, the cloud was pushed right into his flight path, and he plowed into it headfirst. However, instead of passing through the cloud unimpeded, as he had expected, he felt his head force its way into it, as if it were made of some kind of semi-solid material, and got lodged there. It was more than surprising and perplexing enough for him to forget about flying, in part because it had arrested his forward motion as well, and he would have ended up hanging from the cloud by his head if he hadn't braced his hooves against it out of reflex, which he didn't notice right away.
His surprise and confusion were interrupted when he heard Rainbow Dash's chuckling coming from somewhere above him, so he collected his bearings and focused on resolving his current predicament. Realizing that his wings weren't doing their job, he got them moving again and began to push against the cloud while he tried to pull his head out of it. A few seconds later he succeeded in pulling his head free, at which point he began to prod and rub the cloud, as he tried to mentally grasp yet another new, strange and interesting aspect of the world that he had come to.
Amused by that behavior, Rainbow Dash inquired, "Having fun with that?"
Marshall looked up and saw Rainbow Dash lying on top of the cloud, just out of reach, but what really caught his attention was that her wings were resting at her sides instead of working to keep her airborne. Despite realizing the nature of her question, he couldn't help indulging how he felt about what he had found instead of being embarrassed by it. So, he rushed over to a neighboring cloud and slowly alighted upon it, half-expecting it to not hold his weight. When it did, his inner child rose up once again, inspiring him to hop up and down in place a few times. Then, he pulled his wings in, which he had left extended as a precaution, and laid down, which led to the discovery that clouds were as comfy as they looked.
His excitement wouldn't allow him to sit still for too long, so he hopped back onto his hooves a few seconds later, which was about the time that Rainbow Dash had flown over to his cloud, whose amusement had been tempered out of consideration for the moment that he seemed to be having. With what little tact she had, she observed, "You look pretty happy."
When Marshall regarded her, he couldn't help smiling. "I'd have to be crazy not to. All of this is just so, so...
awesome!"
With a grin, Rainbow Dash rhetorically asked, "Then what are you standing around for," before performing a loop and flying through the cloud following its completion, dispersing it.
Marshall yelped in surprise when gravity suddenly came back into play, but he quickly engaged his wings and gave chase, mirroring Rainbow Dash's grin when he decided to be more ambitious and
really try to catch her.
They remained among the clouds for a bit longer, darting this way and that, only now the clouds became more relevant to their game, as Rainbow Dash pushed, spun and reshaped them for various purposes, since simply using her speed to stay out of reach could only keep her entertained for so long. She also used the clouds as a means of changing her direction, which Marshall copied with moderate success, once he had gotten enough practice in — his initial attempts had been hilarious failures, to say the least.
Eventually, Rainbow Dash left the clouds behind and headed back toward Twilight Sparkle's castle. Marshall followed her to the highest structure of the castle, which resembled Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark, and proceeded to chase her around the building, only absently noticing that they were progressively reaching the lower portions of it in the process. Once they had reached the rhombus crystal-bearing lines that hung from some of the lower sections of the castle, which Marshall had some trouble weaving around as he tried to keep up with Rainbow Dash, said pony decided to head toward the lake.
As Marshall followed Rainbow Dash to the waterfall, which appeared to be the actual destination for the next leg of their game, he enjoyed the light spray of water that was being kicked up by Rainbow Dash's passing, who had chosen to fly close to the lake's surface. It was while he was basking in the cool spray that he got an idea, which he decided to implement immediately since they were close to the waterfall and his idea wouldn't be employable once they left their current proximity to the lake.
So, before turning around and flying away as fast as he could manage, he stopped, raised his hooves to either side of his mouth, and yelled, "This isn't fun anymore! I'm leaving!"
"Huh!?" He could hear Rainbow Dash's bewildered response.
He knew that Rainbow Dash wouldn't have any trouble catching up with him, and that things could get complicated and/or awkward if she forced him into a conversation, so he was prepared to execute his plan as soon as possible, knowing that he would only get one shot at it. Hearing her call after him, he spared a look over his shoulder and saw that she had already closed most of the distance between them, and that the expression on her face was a mixture of confusion and determination, with — perhaps — a tinge of worry. Since she was already maneuvering to fly parallel with him, he quickly lined up with her and lowered his hind legs into the water, which caused a decent-sized stream to shoot upward, in front of his approaching target.
As he had hoped, Rainbow Dash's first reaction had been to protect her face, which obscured him from her. Hoping to take advantage of that, and accomplish what he had set out to do, he turned about and prepared to tag her as he proclaimed, "Gotch—
oof!"
Unfortunately, as with many plans, not everything had been accounted for: he had acted before getting a clear idea of how fast Rainbow Dash had been going, and it hadn't helped that he had decelerated from dragging his legs in the water and turning around. As a result, Rainbow Dash had crashed into him, sending them both skipping and tumbling over the surface of the lake for a bit before coming to a stop with a big splash.
A few seconds later, Rainbow Dash's head emerged from the water with a gasp. Shortly thereafter, Marshall, who had none of the experience that Rainbow Dash had when it came to such high-speed incidents, came up hacking and coughing, struggling to keep his head above the water as he did so.
Rainbow Dash allowed Marshall enough time to recover before frowning at him and stating, "
That... was dirty."
Marshall was still riding on the high from his flying experience, along with the adrenaline rush that had been induced by the accident, so he brazenly — yet playfully — responded with, "
This?" He struck the water in front of himself, which splashed water toward Rainbow Dash, who'd had enough time to turn her head away and avoid a direct hit. "Looks like you're
washed up, to me."
With an evil smile and a dangerous glint in her eye, which caused Marshall to gulp involuntarily, Rainbow Dash said, "Oh, yeah? I'll show
you who's washed up!"
The splash fight that followed was a one-sided massacre. Marshall was overwhelmed by Rainbow Dash's prowess in the water, which was mostly due to the utilization of her wings. While he tried to do the same and give as good as he got, he just didn't have the experience or skill, and it wasn't made any easier by the fact that he had to deal with being splashed so often and thoroughly on top of that. Before long he was calling out his surrender and trying to swim away from the other pony's merciless assault.
Much to his relief, Rainbow Dash eventually heeded his calls and stopped harassing him while they swam to the bank. While she walked out of the lake only slightly winded, and gave her body a vigorous shake to expel the water from her body, he collapsed onto the ground after a few steps, trying to catch his breath. His attempt at doing so was interrupted briefly, however, when their eyes met and they shared a good-natured chuckle together.
"That was pretty fun," Rainbow Dash commented, for lack of anything better to do while she waited for Marshall to recover.
Marshall closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "It's been a long time since I've been able to let go and have fun like that."
"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash replied, her curiosity piqued. "How come?"
"Life, mostly," was Marshall's vague and somewhat evasive response. He didn't want to bother someone that he hardly knew with his problems, or ruin the mood, so he opened his eyes and glanced up at Rainbow Dash as he asked, "So, what about that tour?"
Rainbow Dash perked up when the new subject was suddenly introduced, seemingly unconcerned that the subject had been changed, which probably had something to do with the fact that the thought of acting as a tour guide seemed to be making her excited... for some reason. Marshall wasn't sure what to make of it, but hoped that whatever Rainbow Dash had planned was more along the lines of their game of tag, in terms of them both enjoying it, rather than just her.
"Are you up to it?" Rainbow Dash asked, with a look in her eyes that clearly conveyed that she hoped for that to be the case.
His legs were a little shaky when he stood up, but Marshall felt that he had recovered sufficiently enough from his recent exertions and could handle the after-effects of his adrenaline rush. So, he regarded Rainbow Dash and nodded his head with a measure of confidence as he said, "Lead the way."
Rainbow Dash was happy to oblige, and before long he was following her into the sky, but not before he had done his best to shake the water from his body, much like she had done. Although he had seen much of Ponyville already, it was nice to learn the names of places and what each of their functions were. Admittedly, Rainbow Dash didn't go into many details or tarry at any one place for long, but it wasn't like he did much in the way to elicit more information out of her either. Overall, though, he did enjoy it: he got to see more of the river valley where Ponyville made its home, which included a visit to the dam that functioned as the town's main source of power, as well as a glimpse of the Everfree Forest. Beyond that, Equestria's capital had also been pointed out to him, which could barely be seen in the distance.
The dam had been rather interesting, since he had been wondering how things were powered in a world that had magic and no obvious use — as far as he had seen so far — of electricity. It had actually been rather surprising to learn that the electricity being generated was distributed with magic, as opposed to using power lines. While he would have liked to learn more about that, Rainbow Dash hadn't volunteered anything beyond the questions that he had asked, and he had been too dumbstruck to ask any more questions about it in the short time that it had taken the pegasus to move on. In the end, he figured that he could ask Rarity or Twilight Sparkle about it later, who were probably more informed on the subject anyway, if his impressions of Rainbow Dash — so far — were correct.
Rainbow Dash had more to say about the Everfree Forest, in part because it seemed to be of greater interest to her, perhaps due to past experience. In addition to that, though, she had appeared to be weirded out by the fact that the weather, fauna and flora sorted themselves out on their own, which he had found amusing... until, a second later, he had learned that ponies typically took care of those things. Controlling the flora and fauna was not a new concept to him, to some degree, because humanity certainly did that to one extent or another. Controlling the weather, on the other hand, was largely in the realm of science-fiction, at least from his own universe: for the ponies, it was simply a fact of life that was made possible with magic. When asked, Rainbow Dash had readily provided some examples of how the weather could be controlled, such as making clouds rain or produce lightning, which still managed to amaze him despite the amount of amazing things that he had been exposed to already.
Then there had been "Canterlot," which could have been an allusion to the mythical Camelot. It hadn't been a difficult connection to make, since the castle looked like something out of a fairy tale. At the same time, that had been the moment where he had taken a closer look at the pony's naming conventions, since both Ponyville and Canterlot had something about their species in the name. It had made him wonder if other places were named in the same way, and made a note to look at a map of Equestria when the chance presented itself. He had also learned that Canterlot was where the princesses, Celestia and Luna, ruled Equestria. Although he'd had some questions about the princesses and the government, he hadn't been sure if Rainbow Dash would have been the best pony to ask, partly because she had seemed distracted by something.
It seemed that he was going to find out what had Rainbow Dash so distracted, though, because she could barely contain herself as she said, "Okay, I saved
the best for last."
Marshall hadn't known what to expect when Rainbow Dash had pointed at one of the snow-capped mountaintops that had been outside of his periphery, which he realized — now that he was looking at it — was a place that the tour had never directed his eyesight toward, but a cylindrical tower on a cloud base, floating above the aforementioned mountaintop, had not been it. The tower was several stories tall, with a domed roof, and was of a style that suggested Greco-Roman to his untrained eyes. For the most part, the tower was white and a very pale cyan that bordered on being white, and that was accented by some of the surrounding clouds, which were various shades of purple. What really caught his eye, though, were what appeared to be rainbows in liquid form, running off of the clouds, and the rainbow that was projecting from the dome, if not over it, whose shape suggested that it was also of a liquid form, rather than coming into being via a combination of water droplets, sunlight, and his position relative to theirs.
Simply put: the sight was amazing. The rest of Ponyville had been relatable and mundane, aside from Twilight Sparkle's castle, but even a giant tree "house," on a tree that appeared to be made of crystal, was within the realm of possibility where he had come from. There was simply no way that the clouds on his world could support the mass of a pony, let alone a building. All things considered, it probably wasn't anything special to the ponies, but the idea of living in a house that was located on a cloud was just
so cool to him.
Rainbow Dash must have gotten a good read of his thoughts through the expression on his face, because she looked rather pleased with herself as she said, "I know, right? I figured humans don't live on clouds where you come from, so I thought I'd show you my house."
"This is where you live?" Marshall couldn't help asking, even though he already had the answer to that question.
Idly, he supposed that he also knew the reason for why Rainbow Dash had been so enthusiastic about taking him on a tour, since she seemed to be a mite egotistical. Well, so long as she was friendly and meant well, he didn't really mind. In fact, her straightforward, exuberant and fun-seeking behavior was a real breath of fresh air, in a way that wasn't like the whole magical cartoon pony universe thing, so he really appreciated the opportunity that he had been given to spend time with her.
"Yup!" Rainbow Dash proudly confirmed, before looking away, rubbing the back of her neck and continuing in a slightly reserved manner. "And, uh... Now that you've told me about that game, I was
kinda hoping that you could, y'know, write it down." She suddenly pointed both of her forehooves at Marshall, as if to stop him from something that he had been on the verge of doing, but hadn't, and hastily explained, "Not for me, of course! It's just so I won't have to repeat myself when I share it with others. It'll be
really convenient!"
Rainbow Dash's smile looked notably disingenuous, which Marshall yet again attributed to the cartoon physics making such expressions easy enough for him to read. Still, since he didn't see any harm in humoring her, because he wouldn't be surprised if he had already forgotten one or two of the more finer details of Quidditch himself, he released a brief snort of amusement and said, "I suppose I could. We should probably go over the details anyway, to see if any changes need to be made."
"Why would we need to make changes?" Rainbow Dash queried.
"Well," Marshall temporized, before being inspired by a nearby cloud and pointing at it, "for example, we could consider adding those to the game, since the players are pegasi instead of humans using brooms."
Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up with understanding and an injection of enthusiasm. "Hey, yeah! We should definitely add clouds."
Now with something more to look forward to, she made a beeline to her house, but not before pausing long enough to properly invite Marshall into her home, which she had almost forgotten in her excitement. He followed her at a more leisurely pace, which allowed him to notice the image above her front door as he drew near: it was Rainbow Dash's cutie mark, except it had been rotated ninety degrees clockwise, and the end of the lightning bolt kind of dipped and curled onto itself, as if it had melted and reshaped itself on a whim.
Once he was beyond the double doors, which he had closed behind himself because he hadn't been raised in a barn, he landed and took in the sights. His first impression was of Rainbow Dash being wealthy, at least by the standards that he was accustomed to. It was hard to say whether or not those standards were applicable, though, in part because he wouldn't have expected Rainbow Dash to have a wealthy background, based solely on what little he knew about her. For all that he knew, she had earned her current living arrangements herself, which would be pretty impressive if she was as young as she seemed to be. Not that he had any real idea of how to judge a cartoon pony's age...
At any rate, the entrance hall was fairly spacious and rather spartan. Directly across from the front door was a stairway that led up to a balcony, which probably allowed access to other parts of the house, and also provided lighting for the "ground" floor from its underside. Right next to the front door was a pedestal, where a statue of a flying pegasus was on display. Aside from a few vases, there were a couple of shields that were widely separated on the wall, which may or may not have been family crests.
To the right was an entryway to another room, although he couldn't tell if it was meant to be of the living or waiting variety. In there, he could see a couple of chairs that were made out of clouds, unless they were only made to
look that way. Several glass top tables were arranged within the room as well, and while most of them seemed to have metal bases, at least one glass top — for whatever reason — was being raised by what appeared to be a clump of cloud. Aside from a small lamp and flower vase, the only other notable feature of the room was the window: it was larger than the ones in the entrance hall, and was accompanied by purple curtains that had yellow lightning bolts printed on them, which were drawn open at the moment.
As he began to poke the stone floor beneath him, wondering if it was the cloud that was supporting it, or some other magical application, Rainbow Dash reappeared with a clipboard and a pencil. After he accepted them, his host asked, "Would you like something to drink?"
"Sure," Marshall replied, who realized that he was feeling a bit parched. "Water will be fine."
Rainbow Dash nodded her head in acknowledgement and swept a forehoof toward the living/waiting room as she said, "Go ahead and make yourself at home; I'll be back in just a sec."
After she left, Marshall entered the indicated room and hopped onto the loveseat. He hadn't chosen the armchair out of habit, since the recliner had been his father's designated seat for as long as he could remember, so he always assumed that there was a chair reserved for the master — or mistress — of the home. The loveseat was more comfortable than he had expected anyway, so it wasn't like he could complain even if he had wanted to.
He had just gotten his body settled on his chosen cushion, and began writing down the default rules of Quidditch, when Rainbow Dash returned, carrying two glasses. When she offered the only glass that contained a clear liquid, he accepted it with gratitude; she kept the one with the dark liquid, which he guessed was grape juice, based on the faint aroma that he had picked up. He didn't dwell on her beverage, though, since she had decided to join him on the loveseat, which — considering how they were alone in her house — made him feel a touch uncomfortable, since she was a member of the fairer sex regardless of her species.
Fortunately, Rainbow Dash was clearly focused on creating a Quidditch-based game, so he adjusted his attention accordingly and explained what he planned to do. First, he would write down a list of the original rules. Once those were on paper, they would start a new list on a separate sheet of paper and work out which rules from the original would survive or be changed, and what kind of rules would be added to them. Rainbow Dash didn't have any problems with doing it that way, so he got to work.
He was halfway through with writing down the original rules when an unexpected sound reached his ears. When he looked up to find the source, which was growing louder by the second, he noticed that his host was hearing it as well. Before he could ask her about it, to see if it was normal or not, he saw — of all things — a tortoise flying into the room via a propeller-driven cap that was strapped to its body. He wasn't sure how that worked, although the yellow glow surrounding the spindly shaft probably had something to do with it.
The tortoise made to approach Rainbow Dash, but she caught it and behaved kind of awkwardly as she spared Marshall a glance and said, "Sorry, Tank. Maybe later."
If not for that glance, Marshall wouldn't have picked up that Tank had been denied whatever he had wanted because of his presence. It took him a few seconds to figure out what was going on, as he regarded Tank's look of disappointment and how Rainbow Dash kept the aforementioned tortoise well away from herself, but he supposed that it made enough sense. At least, he wouldn't be surprised if Rainbow Dash had a certain image that she wanted to uphold, considering the kind of personality that she seemed to have.
Apparently, he had been staring at the pair for too long, because Rainbow Dash responded to his attention with an odd mixture of nervousness and defensiveness as she challengingly said, "What?"
Marshall considered them for a second longer before he decided to envelop Tank in his magic and move him closer to Rainbow Dash's face, where he took advantage of the opportunity to nuzzle her face, much to her surprise and embarrassment. With that accomplished, he simply returned his attention to writing down the rules for Quidditch, since what he had done had said enough by itself, and probably better than what he could have come up with verbally. And that wasn't even including whether or not he
should have said anything, since it probably would have been a bit hypocritical of him to do so. Not in the sense of openly showing affection to a pet, though: he had an abundance of memories where he had allowed a certain Pekingese to lick his face with abandon while among both family and friends, for example.
With his eyes focused on what he was writing, he didn't see Rainbow Dash open her mouth to speak, then close it a few seconds later without saying anything. Her brow furrowed in thought, but it wasn't long before her expression softened, when her attention was drawn back to Tank. Eventually, she succumbed to her desires and removed the flying apparatus from him, so she could hold him close while she worked with Marshall to create an Equestrian version of Quidditch.