"No! NO NO NO! You're doing it all wrong again!" Gemini snarled as she came up behind me. Pressing herself against me, she adjusted my arms inward. "Keep yourself closed off and protected! Are you hoping to get your rear handed to you by Mica again?"
Three days had passed since we'd come back from Canterlot. I was halfway home before I realized I hadn't even talked to Celestia about the two trees and their spirits. However, I planned on telling her during a brunch at Sugarcube Corner on Saturday. I didn't want to tell her over the phone (assuming Canterlot was wired for landline), or through a letter. It had to be in person.
Zecora and I, having finally made love, had spent more time together than we had before during our free time. She was sitting underneath the apple tree, sipping on some juice and snickering at my expense.
Behind me, I heard the sounds of Ponies scrambling around in my house, preparing it for the upcoming Nightmare Night. Rainbow Dash and I had decided to use the entire first floor of the house as a haunted house themed escape room. Of course, I had to make it easy for the fillies and colts to escape, and I would strongly suggest an adult or two come in with them. If the fillies and colts wanted to be brave and try alone, I would use some magic to disguise my voice and give helpful hints in the voice of Nightmare Moon herself, unless Luna herself decided to come.
Twilight was eager to use some magic to create fake ghostly Ponies as well as a small dome around the house which would give the illusion of a blood red moon. Rainbow Dash was eager to create a small microclimate of thunderstorms and spooky mist around the house. Rarity had gotten on board and was going to craft some spooky clothes that Twilight would make walk on their own. Pinkie Pie was just all over the place, helping wherever she could whenever she wasn't busy at Sugarcube Corner. Applejack had actually managed to convince Granny Smith to have the maze in my yard, and she'd plotted out the layout with sticks and small different colored flags.
Fluttershy actively avoided my house, but I'd still paid her a couple visits just to check up on her and read manga or watch anime with her. I was showing her the first season of Komi-San Can't Communicate, which she instantly enjoyed.
"Closer together, got it," I said, mimicking her form as best as I could.
Gemini growled, and kicked at my knees, sending me sprawling. "You need to be in a proper stance or your opponent will kick you flat on your behind!"
I groaned as I slowly got back to my feet, only to be kicked in the back by Gemini. "What have I been telling you about recovery?! Do you think your enemy will give you time to get ready?"
I stood and faced her again, only for our wooden swords to collide as she aimed for my head. I was barely fast enough to deflect her. She pushed me backwards, then raised her sword above her head. Once more, I brought my own practice blade up to deflect it, but it was a feint. She kicked me in the chest, knocking the wind out of me as I landed heavily on the lawn.
I groaned as I looked up, only to find a wooden blade at my neck. "Dead again," she snarled, hitting my head none too gently. "You need to not just observe your opponent's sword," she added, "but keep an eye on their body movement, especially their eyes. If you'd been paying attention, you'd have seen me looking at your chest." She stabbed at my chest harshly. "My brother is better than you!"
"Well, duh," I scoffed as I stood up. "You've probably beaten him senseless more times than he can remember."
"That's the only way to learn to grow a fucking backbone," she said, storming up to me. She poked me in the chest as she glared at me. "You wanted to learn to fight. Well, you're learning from me, and this is how I teach, got it, scumbag?!"
I returned her glare with one of my own. "Yes, ma'am," I replied, before jabbing into her stomach with the hilt of my sword, then grabbing her shoulder and slamming her to the ground, pinning her. She gasped and coughed for a bit before looking up at me in shock. "Always expect the unexpected, eh?"
Her shock turned to a grin. "You're not projecting your motion as much. Maybe you've a teeny glimmer of potential." She suddenly kicked me in the stomach, sending me flying onto my back. I found myself pinned, Gemini sitting on my lap with her claws around my wrists, "but you let your guard down again, whelp!"
"Noted," I gasped out.
Gemini stood up and pulled me hard to my feet. "We're done for today. Same time tomorrow morning. Your little overnight stay with those palace Ponies fucked up the schedule!"
"I got it, I got it," I said, brushing myself clean.
"Mica, come in whenever," she said as she gathered up the practice swords. "I have less to do today thanks to my master's little childish remodeling."
"I'll be in soon, Gem," he called after her as he turned and approached me. He had an apologetic look on his face. "I know you might think she's being harsh," he said, "but believe me, she's being lenient on you. I think she's more impressed with you than she lets on."
"Mica, I'm not even impressed with me right now," I said, holding up my practice sword. "I don't think I'm learning anything."
"Not true," he said. "And I'll prove it-" he added before quickly moving to swing his own practice sword at me. I brought mine up and deflected his, but barely. "See? When you first started, you wouldn't have been able to see that coming."
"That wasn't skill," I said, "that was just pure reflex."
"Yeah, but yours are faster now!" a familiar mare shouted from above. Looking up, I saw a smirking Scarlet sitting on a low hanging cloud, waving at me with her wing.
"You were watching up there for how long?" I asked with a roll of my eyes as I lowered my sword.
"Since the beginning!" she snickered.
"Bainrow Shad has been a terrible influence on you," I groaned as she flew down almost gracefully to land beside Mica.
"And you haven't, mister 'Show the Pony all the shows from Earth'?" she snarked, flying up and smacking my head with her hooves.
Mica chuckled as I reached for Scarlet, only to encounter empty air. I was just about to spread my wings and follow her when I heard the front gate opening. Turning, I saw a gorgeous burgundy mare with light pink mane and tail peeking in. She saw me and waved. "Pardon me," I said, flying quickly over to the front gate and landing in front of the mare. "Miss Cheerilee? I normally don't see you here. Is there something I can help you with?"
The teacher chuckled. "Well, I was hoping for you to come by our school soon and talk about yourself and your world," she said. "We've been learning about non-Pony cultures in class recently, and we have a unique opportunity to learn about one from a completely alien world! I've already gotten permission from the headmare to have an entire school day where you can talk with the entire student body for the day. Do you have any day you want to do it?"
Right, I forgot I promised Cheerilee about that, I thought. "Hmm…well, why not this coming Friday? I didn't have anything planned until the afternoon, and if we end early, the little foals can get an early start on the weekend."
Cheerilee beamed. "I'll let the staff know. Thank you, Mr. Bethridge! I can't thank you enough!"
"Please, call me Jethro," I said, holding out my hand. She extended her hoof and I shook it. "What time would you like me there?"
"We could start at eight," she said. "Does that sound good to you?"
"Of course. Where will it happen? Is there an assembly hall?" I asked.
"We do have an assembly hall, yes," she said. She shook my hand with both her hooves again, beaming happily. "Thank you so much once again! They're going to love this!" And with that, she turned and galloped away.
I closed the gate behind me and walked back over to where Scarlet and Zecora were both sitting. Mica had vanished, presumably back inside to help his sister as he usually did. The two mares were laughing about something as I sat down beside Zecora. "And what are you two ladies talking about behind my back?" I asked, putting an arm around Zecora.
Scarlet smirked. "She was just telling me how sexy you looked when you made Gemini take a fall," she laughed.
"Is that right?" I slowly turned to my marefriend, grinning.
Zecora blushed. "It…yes, it was," she admitted bashfully.
"She thought it was hot how you took control and pinned her to the ground like some ferocious animal," Scarlet said. "I bet she wanted to mount you right there and-"
"We get it!" I interrupted her. "Jesus, you're just insane, aren't you?"
The Pegasus laughed, spread her wings and flew off, faster than I'd seen her do before. I shook my head, pulling Zecora closer. "That mare is gonna drive me to drink," I sighed.
"She was right, though," Zecora said.
I turned to her. "What about?"
"Seeing you briefly defeat Gemini brought me some great deal of satisfaction, love," she said in a husky tone as she scooted closer, pressing her warm body against mine.
"Oh, hush you," I teased, leaning down and kissing her. "That was just me getting lucky, is all."
She giggled and closed her eyes, inhaling the late morning air. "What did that lovely mare want?" she asked.
"You mean Miss Cheerilee? Oh, she just wanted me to come down to the Ponyville school and talk about myself." I paused. "I should probably talk to Twilight about it. She wanted to come when I did this."
"I wish I could see this too, but I'll be busy most of the day," Zecora said sadly.
"I'll tell you all about it later," I said, putting an arm around her.
We sat there for a while before Zecora sniffed a bit. "Jethro, you reek."
I burst out laughing, and soon she joined me. "Yeah, I probably do," I said. "I'm gonna go take a shower." I stood and stretched. "After that, I'm off to Rarity's for one of our little tea get-togethers."
"I believe I will head home for a bit, then," Zecora said, standing and shaking the grass and dirt off of her fur. "I have a few brews to test and a few more to discard. I will see you for dinner tonight, right?"
"Six o'clock. The Prancing Pony. Our normal table," I said as I gave her a thumbs up.
"See you then," Zecora said, walking away with an extra swish in her step. As she opened the gate, she turned then lifted her tail straight up before walking away.
"That damned woman, how I love her," I said as I headed towards my original house for a nice long hot shower…
"So, gonna wow them with some videos?" Scarlet asked over breakfast on Friday. We were eating a small stack of waffles I'd made with my waffle maker earlier that morning.
"Well, I was thinking about some entertaining but educational videos," I said. "Something like Schoolhouse Rock." In truth, I'd gotten that idea from an MLP fanfiction called Moving Day, a fanfiction that somehow made farming interesting.
"I've never seen those, yet," she said. "I'm just sorry I can't come and see."
"Shift at Applejack's farm today, right?" I asked.
She nodded. "Yeah. She's having me buck a field with her. Then I'll be helping to feed the animals."
"Sounds like loads of fun," I chuckled.
She yawned and said, "Applejack's a nice enough girl, but she's a slave driver."
"She's not that bad," I smirked as I took a bite of heavily buttered and syruped waffle.
"You're just saying it because you love watching her buck trees," Scarlet said with a grin. "Her supple, muscular rump flexing as she raises her backhooves-"
"Aaand we're switching topics," I glared at her.
"Bitch, please," Scarlet snarked, "I'm sure ever since you started finding our forms sexy, you can't help but stare at some mare ass." She jumped out of the chair and turned around, wiggling her rump at me while giving me an exaggerated seductive stare. "See anything you like?"
"It's too early for this shit," I growled as I looked away from her, taking a sip of local orange juice.
"I'm not hearing a nooo~" Scarlet giggled, moving forward still swishing her ass.
"You start twerking, and I'll throw you to Applejack's farm," I said.
She laughed harder as she returned to her seat. "You're way too easy to tease."
"Ugh…shut up." I took another bite of waffle.
"Whatcha gonna do, big boy?" Scarlet said in a husky voice, "tie me up to the bed with a ballgag and a whip?"
"OH MY GOD! HOW HORNY ARE YOU?!"
As I approached the school, the early morning sun illuminated the dew on the grass of a few of the lawns. Despite it being about half past seven, there were a good number of Ponies on the road, most of whom waved at me with a kind greeting, while the rest seemed too preoccupied in their morning to notice anyone else, no less an alien biped.
"Monkey-boy!" A familiar voice called out from my left as I passed the library. I turned and saw a tired but smiling Spike waving at me from the open doorway. I could hear Twilight inside rushing around.
I turned and made my way towards him. "Dragon-boy, sup? You're not usually up this early."
"Twilight woke me up," he said with a yawn.
"When'd she get up?" I asked.
"I don't think she even slept," he sighed.
"I slept fine!" Twilight said, teleporting beside me suddenly. "I'll be fine with a cup of coffee!" She did look tired enough for coffee.
"I'm sure the schoolhouse has done they'd be willing to give you," I said.
"Oh no, I get mine from Sugarcube Corner," Twilight said.
Just then, a familiar pink mare popped out of a nearby bush with a cup holder which held two cups of coffee, much like you'd see at a coffee shop. "Here we are! One Café Mocha Latte with extra caramel syrup and whipped cream, and a Dark Roast Cappuccino with a half shot of espresso and f our shots of vanilla syrup!"
I stared at Pinkie, stunned. The latter was my coffee of choice whenever I was extra tired and needed a fix. As Twilight floated one of the coffee cups over to her, I walked over and hesitantly grabbed it. "How'd you know?"
"My Pinkie Sense told me you two needed coffee, and you strike me as a cappuccino guy!" Pinkie replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Just take it in stride, Jethro. Just take until stride," I muttered as I took a sip of the steaming liquid. My eyes widened as the flavor exploded in my mouth. "Oh my God," I said, looking down at Pinkie who had an anticipatory look on her face, "This is amazing! Did you make this?"
"Nope! Mr. Cake did!" Pinkie grinned.
"Tell him he's an excellent barista."
I began pulling out my purse to pay but Pinkie stopped me. "On the house today!"
"I thought generosity was Rarity's schtick?" I teased as I took another sip.
"I can be generous, too!" Pinkie leaped onto my back and nuzzled my face from behind. "See?"
"Pinkie Pie, how is that generous?" Twilight asked.
Pinkie ignored Twilight and continued nuzzling me, like some kind of cat. I could hear her purring again, so instinctively I scratched behind her ears. "I think if I ever need to wake up early, a little dose of Pinkie Pie will do just as good as a cup of coffee."
Pinkie made her signature squealing sound as she slid off of me, bouncing the moment she hit the ground. "Have fun at school, Jethy!" she called out as she bounced away back towards Sugarcube Corner.
"That girl is so…unique," I chuckled as I took another sip of the coffee.
"That's one way of putting it," a still tired sounding Spike said. With a yawn, he looked at the two of us. "I'm heading back to bed now."
"Alright, Spike," Twilight said. "You're in charge of the library for today until I get back. Open it at the normal time."
"Got it…" he said. "Night." And with that, he shut the door. A lock was thrown and the tired shuffling faded away up the stairs.
"So what's in the bag?" Twilight asked eagerly as we began walking towards the school.
"I guess you'll have to see now, won't you, you nosey mare."
"Mr. Bethridge! Glad you're here!" Cheerilee said happily as we approached the school a few minutes later. Twilight and I had talked about my magical progress. When I asked her about a theory as to why I was a quick study, she said she had a few hypotheses, but she wanted to perform a few more tests to be sure. I promised that after Nightmare Night, we could do just that.
"My pleasure to be here," I said as I walked up towards the cherry red school. It looked much bigger in person than I remembered from the show. From inside, I could hear the chit-chat of little fillies and colts. "So how many are here today?"
"Oh, there are about forty little foals ready to ask you all sorts of questions!" Cheerilee said with a broad smile. "I really do appreciate this favor, Mr. Bethridge."
"Call me Jethro," I chuckled. "I'm not much for being addressed like that, Ms. Cheerilee."
"Well, you can call me Cheerilee, then," she replied. "And if there's anything I can do for you to repay the favor, please don't hesitate to ask!"
Hey Cheerilee, Cheerilee! Hey Cheerilee, Cheerilee! Hey Cheerilee, Cheerilee! I think I'm in looove with yooouuu! I inwardly sang as I nodded. "I like children, what can I say? They have that innocence about life that hasn't diminished yet by the cares of the adult world. That, and they're so gosh-darned adorable. And by the way, I brought some human entertainment meant for children that's also educational."
Cheerilee's eyes widened. "I can't wait to see it!"
I could almost sense the excitement pouring off of Twilight. I put a hand on the Unicorn's head. "Hope you don't mind if Twilight joins. Since I'm busy a lot of the time, she doesn't have the chance to pick my brain as often as she'd like."
Cheerilee nodded. "Of course! Come along, Ms. Sparkle!"
Cheerilee led us into the front of the building where I saw a small hallway, each wall having four doors on each side. Some doors were open and I saw they led to empty classrooms. When we reached the end of the hallway, I saw that there was a large set of doors at the end, with a perpendicular hallway heading to both my left and right.
Cheerilee pushed the double doors open, and I saw that we were in a large assembly hall. Plenty of little Ponies sat in the chairs now facing the front of the hall, with a few older Ponies sitting near the back. At the front of the hall, a raised platform stood. There was a large table sitting on the platform along with an empty glass and a pitcher of ice water. There was also a podium standing right next to it.
"Do you need to set anything up before we being?" Cheerilee asked.
"Yeah, a few things," I said.
"Well, let's get you set up!" she said as we walked over to the platform.
It took me only a handful of minutes, but I managed to set up my laptop, opened up my Firefox browser with the tabs I selected opening up. Twilight had taught me the spell that allowed for my screen to be projected, so I minimized Firefox and cast the spell. My desktop appeared behind me, displaying the image of an O'Neill Cylinder from the inside, something Twilight had absolutely gone nuts over when she learned about the idea.
When I was finished setting up, I gave Cheerilee a thumbs up. She immediately made her way to the podium and tapped on it loudly with her hoof. "Good morning, everypony," she called out, and the room began to go quiet. "Today, we have a very special guest who's generously agreed to speak to all of us today. I ask that you all be respectful when he's speaking. When it's time to ask questions, bring out the ones you were assigned yesterday." She turned to me and waved me over. "Now, may I present, Jethro Bethridge, Ponyville's resident human being!"
I chuckled and approached the podium, which Cheerilee quickly vacated. I took a sip from my water and straightened my tie. "Good morning, everybody," I said with a wide smile. "I'm Jethro Bethridge. I'm thirty years old, and I'm from another world. Now, your teacher here has asked me to talk about myself and my world. After I go over that, I'll answer your questions."
I walked over to the table again and tapped at the Firefox icon. The screen came back, displaying a full map of Google Earth. "This is what my entire world looks like," I said, turning and taking a laser pointer out of my pocket. "We call our planet Earth, Terra, Sol 3, and more. I lived in a large and powerful country called the United States of America, or the U.S.A. or simply America" I zoomed in towards my town until we were just above where my house had used to be. "This is where I once lived, on the northwestern coast of my nation."
I looked back at the crowd. "Now, I'm not entirely sure how big the kingdom is when compared to the U.S., but when I left, my nation had over three hundred million human citizens. As of the day when I left, our planet had almost eight billions humans living on it."
I received shocked stares from the adults, and a mixed reaction from the children. Some seemed confused, while others looked equally as shocked and disbelieving of my words. Even Twilight still looked shocked despite knowing that little tidbit of information. Clearing my throat, I zoomed back out. "In many ways, Earth and Equestria aren't all that different. The air is the same, there are animals there that exist here too, like cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits, bears, and more. But, there are a lot of differences. For one, magic doesn't exist there, not like it does here." I pulled out a card, placed it in my hand and with a flick made it vanish. "What I just showed you wasn't real magic. It's called sleight of hand, which means we use tricks to make it appear as if we've done magic. It's used for entertainment."
I heard a young filly mutter, "Like Trixie…"
I pointed down to the filly, who happened to be Scootaloo. "That's correct, Scootaloo. But humans can't do this." I reached out and made my hand glow. A small piece of discarded paper nearby floated over to me and I caught it. "No normal human can do magic. And before you ask, I'll explain how I can later."
I turned back to my laptop and switched to another tab. This one had a picture of a pegasus on it. "Another difference is that Unicorns and Pegasi are mythical beings on my world," I said. "This is an artist's interpretation on a pegasus. Other creatures are mythical too, such as dragons, griffons, even Lycans."
I switched to another image, this one of a dark sky with a lightning bolt hitting the ground. "Now, this one might be a bit of a shock to you, but since we don't have magic, our world acts like you'd expect the Everfree Forest to." This got a shocked gasp from everyone. "Now hold on, let me explain," I said. "Humans can't control our weather, so weather just happens. Animals act on their own, too. From what I've seen, our animals aren't as smart as yours. And, here's the biggest difference I've seen," I said, lowering my voice. The Ponies all leaned forward, eager to hear. "Humans are the only ones on Earth who can talk."
This got a bunch of murmurs among the little Ponies. I chuckled and stood up straighter. "Now, let me show you just what humans look like." I pulled up a picture of a human family I'd found online earlier. "In general, humans look like this. We walk on two legs, we have hands, don't have fur on our bodies, and can't use magic. But just because we humans have no magic doesn't mean we're powerless. Humans have done some amazing things."
I pulled up another tab, showing the famous image of Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon. "This human is standing on Earth's own moon. Fifty years ago, we launched ourselves into space and landed several people on our moon. And even before that, humans developed these." I switched to an image of a commercial airliner. "This is an airplane. Humans use this to fly from place to place. And we also made these." I opened another tab to the image of a four-door sedan. "This is called an automobile. It's like a carriage, but you don't need to pull it. Even back when they were first being built, humans would often refer to them as a horseless carriage."
I looked over the crowd again. "Now, I know I haven't talked much about humans too much, but I think you'll enjoy some of these little videos. They're about my home country and how certain things work." I switched to another tab where Schoolhouse Rock was open. Turning on No More Kings, I stood back and watched the seated crowd with curiosity.
I beamed when the kids seemed to actually start enjoying the music and the videos. After the entirety of America Rock was finished, I stopped the videos. "That was just a brief glimpse into my nation and how it was founded and operates. I know a few of the things in the videos were unusual, but we don't have a princess in America. Instead, we choose our leaders. Now, I've thrown a lot of information at you, so why don't you ask some questions."
Dozens of hands went up, but the first ones who did belonged to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I pointed to Apple Bloom. "Do humans get cutie marks?" she asked eagerly.
I chuckled. "No, humans don't get cutie marks. We have to look for our special calling on our own."
"Did you find yours?" Sweetie Belle asked.
I considered. "Hmm…well, back on Earth, I worked at a bank. I was good at it, but was it my calling? That's hard to say. Sometimes, humans don't find their special calling and work at a place where they're not happy. I think I'll have to look for something to do in this world." I looked around, and chose a really small colt. "How about you?"
"I saw somethin' in that video that looked like a green statue from Manehatten," he said in an accent that resembled something British. "What was it?"
"Ah, you must mean this statue," I said, Googling the Statue of Liberty and showing a picture. "This is the Statue of Liberty. A country named France built it out of copper. It's located on a small island off of the coast of New York City, one of America's biggest cities." I looked around. "You, there."
Diamond Tiara stood up and, with a sneer, asked, "Mom told me that humans are savages who eat Ponies. Is that true?" Beside her, Silver Spoon snickered.
I looked back at Twilight and Cheerilee. Both looked a bit unsure, but nodded at me. I turned back to Diamond. "Humans do eat meat. It's one of the easier ways for us to stay healthy. But we don't have to eat meat as long as we keep a proper diet. As for me, I won't be eating any meat that can talk back to me. So no, I won't be eating any Ponies." I pointed to another colt. "Now, how about you there, young colt."
No matter how much I love kids, they're exhausting, I thought to myself as I packed up all my belongings. We'd gone to just past one in the afternoon, with a forty-minute break for lunch. The questions from the children ranged from stuff about me personally (favorite color, what I like doing during my free time) to things about my world (they found it hard to believe that the sun and moon didn't rise without magic) I threw my satchel over my shoulder and stretched, bones popping audibly.
When I opened my eyes again, Cheerilee and Twilight were both standing in front of me. Cheerilee was smiling and Twilight, who'd gotten a few questions of her own in, had a grin of her own on her face. "I can't thank you enough," Cheerilee said, taking a step forward and extending her hoof. "I can tell everypony had fun!"
I shook her hoof. "Like I said, I love children. It was my pleasure. And I'm glad they all had fun."
"That meat question was a bit mean spirited, though," Twilight said.
"I glossed over a lot of things," I admitted, "but I hope the students learned something from that, even if it's my favorite color."
"Green!" Twilight said instantly.
"I'm almost afraid to ask how big the file you have on me is," I chuckled.
"It's not that big," she said sheepishly. "I haven't needed to buy a second cabinet yet-"
"Aaand I think it's time to head home," I grinned, turning and walking away. "Thanks for having me, Cheerilee!" I called back.
"Waaait! I still have so many questions!" Twilight shouted, galloping after me.
I ran towards the exit, laughing. Teasing Twilight was always fun. As we both ran down the street, I laughed harder. Maybe it was seeing all those little fillies and colts, or maybe it was the early afternoon air, but at that moment, I felt younger. Twilight continued chasing me until we reached my home. We both burst through the door, tossing our bags aside (me making mine land gently on my front porch with my magic and her doing the same), and continuing the childish chase.
"Just a few more questiooons!" Twilight whined as she sped up.
"Gotta catch me first!" I said, spreading my wings and flying up out of reach.
"Hey! No fair!" she shouted, her horn lighting up.
I felt something tie around my leg and pull me down. Since I was still not quite a decent flier, I fell to the ground.
"All's fair in love and war, little Twily!" I replied as I lifted her into the air and passed me, giving me time to get up and run off again.
"Hey! Don't call me that!" she sputtered, sounding embarrassed as she began charging me.
I launched myself into the air, but this time Twilight anticipated me. She leaped up, and I had no time to evade. She pinned me to the ground, sitting on my lap with a few strands of her mane a bit disheveled. We were both panting heavily, but soon we were both laughing hard.
"Ara, ara," a familiar voice said from my right. "I didn't realize you were into nerds there, Jethro." We both turned and saw a smirking Scarlet, standing on her hind legs and crossing her front legs in a very human pose. She was leaning against the open front door. "In public, eh? You've got balls."
Twilight and I looked down at the position we were in. The purple Unicorn quickly removed herself from my lap, face beet red. "Ah, um…I'm sorry, Jethro, I-"
"Don't be sorry," I said. "We just got a bit carried away. Why don't we go inside? I can answer some more questions for a while. Stay for dinner, if you like. It was only going to be me, Scarlet and Zecora this evening, but I think we can add one more."
Twilight smiled a bit, digging nervously at the ground. "Well…I've got to go check on Spike, but dinner sounds nice."
"Bring Spike along, too!" I said. "I think I've got some gems in that pile of treasure sitting in my old yard. Dinner starts at six."
She smiled and nodded. "I will. Thanks for today. I'll see you later!" And with that, she dashed out, grabbing her bag and bolting through the front gate.
As I watched her go, someone nudged me. Looking down, I was greeted by Scarlet, grinning with a knowing look in her eyes. "You know what they say about nerdy mares, don't you?"
"OH MY GOD! HOW HORNY ARE YOU?!"