I must have fallen asleep in Trixie's embrace, as I woke up anew inside the cart.
The pans and pots and items hanging off the walls were swaying to and fro as the wagon rolled down the road again.
I was confused for a moment as I couldn't place the angle I was seeing them from; I was somehow closer to the ceiling than I had expected myself to be.
More to the right of the cart than the left where my pillow pile was.
I tried to roll onto my side only to get my left forehoof stuck in the blanket draped over me.
With a shock I realised I was resting on Trixie's bed!
Not only that; but I had been tucked in on Trixie's bed, under Trixie's blanket, my head resting on Trixie's pillow!
I struggled to get my hoof free, then finally pushed up into a sitting position once I managed to do so.
Even in what little light made its way into the wagon through the skylight and cracks between the wooden panels, I could see my pillow pile still on the ground where I expected it to be.
My dream journal was clearly buried under the pillows, as I could spot a corner of the brown leather cover peeking out from between a set of them.
The swaying of the wagon as it was pulled down the road worked on my cupcake-filled stomach, and I started to feel a little queasy.
I used my magic to pull the blanket off myself, then rolled off the bed onto my four hooves so I at least wouldn't dirty Trixie's bed if I were to get sick.
Standing on my own four legs now, I started to counteract the swaying of the cart while using my magic to tidy up the bed as good as I could.
It was one thing to have called Trixie out on her bad behaviour and coax a promise to do better out of her, but she was well within her rights to chide me if I didn't clean up after myself.
I stumbled out the door once I had straightened the bed out, and somewhat fell down the steps onto the dirt road.
Picking myself up again, I quickly ran after the wagon to get to the front of it.
As before, Trixie was walking between the two wooden beams sticking out from the front of the cart, using her magic to pull it forward.
Other than previously, she was now wearing her large magician's hat which she had not been wearing before.
With Celestia's sun slowly lowering itself in the sky, the large rim of her hat cast Trixie's face in a dark shadow.
"Ah, you've woken up again," Trixie commented from out of the shadow. "There's a place up ahead where Trixie can park the wagon. Walk beside her until then, Fuu?"
I fell in line beside the wagon, but she shook her head and took a half-step to the right to make space for me between the wooden beams.
"No, Trixie asked for you to walk beside her, not beside the cart," she corrected me.
I ducked underneath the left beam and joined her in the slightly cramped space.
A full grown stallion would have probably taken up this room by himself, but Trixie only took up about two-thirds of it.
I barely fitted in the remaining third section beside her and had to choose between bumping my head into the wood or leaning slightly into her side.
It should be clear which option I chose.
Trixie continued to pull the cart, not remarking about me shirking up against her trying to not get my legs entangled in her own.
"Let Trixie know if she goes too fast; she is used to a trot, but you have shorter legs," she suggested instead.
Having just slept and with the fresh air hitting my nostrils, I felt like I was ready to take on the challenge, so I simply pushed myself to keep up with her.
"I'm fine for now, miss Trixie," I replied with an eager smile. "Have you been pulling the wagon all day?"
"Ever since the pink one and I put you to bed, yes," Trixie agreed. "Pinkie is... a lot; even with you resting in the bed she tried to get Trixie to appreciate her parlor tricks."
"You can't deny that those cupcakes of hers were delicious though," I remarked.
Trixie tilted her head to the right so the shadow from her hat pulled away from the left side of her face.
She looked sideways at me for a moment, then straightened her neck again and resumed looking directly ahead.
"Trixie supposes she can't, no. Apparently Trixie has to take baking lessons with her next we return to Ponyville," she grumbled. "She wouldn't let Trixie go until she had promised as much."
I felt my cheeks redden and fell a half-step behind.
Trixie slowed her pace until I could catch up to her again.
"Don't tell me you asked her to teach Trixie how to cook, Fuu? Was that what you two were whispering about?" Trixie wondered.
"Maybe I said you burnt our food a couple of times," I answered honestly. "I told her to keep it a secret, and she pinkie-promised to do so."
"Well, that's at least something Trixie won't have to worry about then," my guardian chuckled weakly. "She did lose time dealing with Pinkie Pie, so we are running behind on schedule for the rainstorm that's passing overhead tonight."
I looked up at the sky but it was entirely void of clouds.
"How do you know there's a rainstorm coming?" I wondered, confused at what the signs might be.
"Pinkie said her pinkie sense told her that I should wear a hat if I were to keep going down the road," Trixie explained, nudging her head up a moment as if to draw attention to her hat.
"Right, pinkie sense," I remembered. "That's a thing she does."
I looked up at my yellow mane dangling barely in sight of my eyes.
"Shouldn't I be wearing a hat as well, then?" I wondered.
"You were asleep in the wagon," Trixie pointed out. "The wagon has a roof."
"But I'm walking out here beside you now," I reminded her.
Trixie turned her head slightly to look me over again.
"Yes, you are," she agreed. "If you go back into the wagon and pull out the box nearest to the headboard of the bed, there's an older box behind it with an old hat Trixie wore back when she still performed in Canterlot."
I turned my head to look in her direction now.
"It should be your size since you're barely shorter than Trixie was back in the day. Wear it and come show Trixie if she's right," Trixie ordered.
"Yes miss Trixie," I spoke obediently.
I ducked down under the wood beam to my left, then turned around and walked to the back of the cart again.
"Leave out the 'miss', darn it Fuu," Trixie called after me.
I jumped up on the steps and clambered my way back up to the door, then pushed into the wagon proper again.
"Box nearest to the headboard," I reminded myself.
I pulled the indicated box out of the way with my magic and peered down into the dark space under the bed.
"I can't see anything in this light," I shouted in an attempt to have Trixie overhear. "Where's the box?"
"Magic, Fuu! Use your magic already, you..." Trixie called back, but the rest of her words were spoken too soft for me to make out.
I shook my head at myself.
"Magic, right... why do I keep forgetting I have magic?" I chided myself.
Focusing on my horn, I considered what I needed; light. I needed light.
A small spark of energy formed around the tip of my horn, and the twilight of the wagon's living area lit up a little.
I put more focus on the ball of energy, making it larger and brighter, but stopped once it reached the output of an incandescent electric bulb.
It was enough for me to make out details if I brought my horn down to light up the space under the bed.
There were a number of boxes pushed to the very back under the bed, boxes I had not noticed even from my pillow pile on the ground since they were usually hidden by the ones in front of them.
One of them, which had been directly behind the box I had moved aside just now, was a round box I could very clearly identify as a stereotypical hat box.
I reached for it, pulled it out from under the bed, and pushed the other box back in its place.
With increasing nervousness I carefully undid the ribbon holding the lid in place, then pulled it off the box itself.
A large-rimmed magician's hat rested in the box, the tip of it folded over on top of it so it could flatten enough for the lid to close over it.
It was almost a perfect copy of the hat Trixie wore, albeit a smaller version of it and scuffed here or there to indicate it had seen frequent use in the past.
I carefully levitated it up out of its container, straightening the tip of it as I did.
This was Trixie's hat from when she worked at the Canterlot Theater as a young filly, this much was obvious to me.
Clearly a cherished part of her history, since she had kept it with her on the road for all these years even with the negative feelings she might have had about the same period of her life.
A hat which she had now ordered me to wear, at least for the moment.
I gingerly lifted the hat up over my head and carefully pulled it down so it slipped over my mane.
With only a little adjusting so my hairs wouldn't feel like they were being tugged at by the hat's old stitching on the inside of it, I soon had it secured in place and looked up at the wide rim.
Trixie's hat, which she had entrusted to me for the moment.
I made my way out of the wagon again, taking care to not bump the hat against the door or its frame as I did.
Instead of rolling down the steps like moments before, I carefully judged the speed at which the cart was going and then made a leap for the ground behind it once I thought I was sure of how I would land on it.
I almost lost my balance as I landed on my forehooves first, but a quick flick of my tail corrected my balance and I felt the dirt under all four of my hooves again.
I cantered up toward Trixie in front of the wagon again and opted to run beside her on the outside of the wooden beams again as I had before.
Trixie tilted her head slightly as I joined her again, giving me a sideways glance from under the shadow of her own hat.
"What do you think, Trixie? How does it look on me?" I asked, barely able to contain my excitement.
"Trixie thinks we should get you a proper hat of your own once we get to Los Pegasus," she decided after looking me over for a brief spell. "Purple doesn't suit you."
"Well, it is your hat, not mine," I defended myself. "It's not like it was specially made for me or anything."
"Trixie found it for two bits at a thrift store, if she recalls correctly," Trixie chuckled. "It's only after she gained some recognition as a performer that she had copies of it made for her."
"So why did you keep it for all these years, if it's just a thrift store find?" I prodded. "Clearly you have some emotional attachment to it?"
"It was Trixie's first hat. Of course she is emotionally attached to it," the blue unicorn pointed out. "Wouldn't you have a soft spot for... whatever you humans need for your first job?"
"My first job was as a paperboy," I told her. "It's not like there was any clothing associated with that."
There was a soft 'thud' on the rim of my hat.
I turned my eyes up to look at the fabric hanging over my forehead.
Another 'thud', followed by another almost directly after.
A cold something fell onto my back a moment after, making me jump from the shock.
"Ah, there's the rain," my guardian remarked dryly. "Trixie doesn't think we're going to make it to the rest stop if we don't pick up our pace. Do you think you can keep up with Trixie, Fuu?"
I jolted from another wet drop landing just right so it slipped between the hairs on my back and hit my skin underneath again.
"Only one way to tell?" I returned to her. "I'll call out if I can't keep up?"
"Yes, good. It isn't too far ahead of us; just around the bend over there," Trixie suggested.
I peered forward as the rain slowly increased in intensity, the wind starting to pick up as it did.
Through the falling raindrops and the increasing darkness caused by the clouds from which they fell, I could see a mountain range to our right which was encroaching upon the road we were on.
The road bent just around the foot of the last of these mountains, turning away from the river which would otherwise have bordered the road to the left.
"Just around the bend?" I asked for clarification, but Trixie was already picking up pace.
"Just follow, Fuu," Trixie demanded as she increased her trot to a canter, and soon fell into a gallop.
I pushed myself to follow, but my shorter legs meant I could see her slowly outpacing me.
The gusts of wind which were getting stronger by the minute didn't help me keep to a straight line either.
The road up ahead was clear enough for me to know where to go up to the bend, but I still called out to her.
"Wait for me after the bend, please? I'll catch up," I shouted.
As I ran, my fur started to clump together from the water raining down upon me.
I was feeling heavier by the minute while I tried to push forward as fast as my little legs could take me.
My tail was especially heavy as it dragged behind me.
I usually didn't pay attention to what it was doing; it just sort of stuck out of my rear. I just had to keep it in mind when closing doors behind myself.
But with the weight of the water dragging my tail hairs down, I could really sense the muscles around the base of it trying to counter the downward drag even as I ran forward.
My hooves hit the wet dirt and I started to notice I was losing grip on it, so I focused on hammering them down a bit harder into the road as I continued on.
Just that little extra oomph to my step made sure I could propel myself forward without slipping.
The large rim of the hat I was wearing kept the rain out of my eyes, but the gusts of wind made the droplets go sideways, if even for a brief moment, so I still ran right into them.
I made sure to blink more often than normally so I could see whether there was anything like a branch or such in my way, hopefully allowing me enough time to evade something like that.
A bright flash illuminated the world around me, and I had to blink a few times in quick succession to get the afterimage to disappear.
My ears were assaulted by a loud thunderclap not twelve seconds after, the sound rolling down over the landscape for almost just as long.
The distance between Trixie and the wagon, and me trailing behind was constantly increasing, and as the next flash of lightning lit up the world I tried to do a quick distance calculation.
Just a rough six pony lengths, but it was fast increasing.
My ears folded down in preparation for the thunderclap to follow, and it hit almost nine seconds after the flash.
If I had been taught anything back on Earth, it was to calculate the number of seconds by five to get the distance in miles.
It had been twelve seconds before, so almost two-and-a-half miles. But now, with nine seconds between the lightning and thunder, it was just under two miles away from me.
This storm was moving fast. A lot faster than I could run.
Trixie disappeared around the bend at the foot of the mountain up ahead, just as another flash lit up the area.
I folded my ears down again and started to count, but I already knew I wouldn't make it to the bend before the storm caught up to me proper.
The thunderclap was so loud it took the wind out of me. It hadn't even been five seconds since the flash; a single mile.
I looked around for something to use as cover in case I needed to avoid a lightning strike.
A tree was no good; it would be a prime target for lightning to hit.
There was a decently sized boulder coming up to the left of the road, between it and the river which was coming near enough that I could see the rough waters flowing through it at speed.
I jumped at the boulder, grabbing hold of the hat I was wearing with my forelegs so the wind could not pull it off my head.
I curled into a ball as I hit the ground, rolled once, and then flattened myself beside the larger stone, hoping it would be enough of a shelter.
Another flash, and an almost immediate thundering clap which shook the ground I had thrown myself against.
I was now in the danger zone; any bolt of lightning could decide to hit me where I lay panting and praying.
I counted the time between the next flash and its accompanying thunder clap.
The next was immediate; no time to count. The one following took three seconds between the flash and its thunder.
Another flash; seven seconds before I heard the clap. Eleven seconds for the next pairing. Then fifteen, now twenty, and finally twenty three seconds after that.
The rain continued unabated, but the wind slowly started to calm down again as the storm passed overhead, and I finally dared to get up from the ground again.
I could see the lightning going farther and farther away, but as the clouds followed suit and the sky above cleared up, the daylight barely made a difference.
Celestia's sun was dipping lower and lower in the sky, and Luna's moon would soon rise as the night was near; I now found myself in the twilight between them.
I looked around myself for any sign of the road, but the darkness cast shadows in places where they had not been before the storm hit.
Not having known the area I was in while it was still light, I now had even less of a chance of figuring out where I was, and where I might be going.
I knew the river had been to our left, and the mountains to my right, so I started in the direction which kept the river on my left side and tried to find my way back to the road.
The darkness of night settled on the land, and I found my eyes having difficulty adjusting to the deep darkness from before the moon would rise.
"Magic, Fuu," I told myself, as Trixie was not near enough to me to chide me herself.
I focused on my horn again and made another ball of energy around the tip of it to serve as a light.
With my horn sticking out through a hole in the fabric above the large rim, the hat kept it from shining directly into my eyes, and I increased the intensity of my magic until I could see almost four feet in front of me.
I walked forward until I realised the sound of the river was coming too close for comfort.
I looked to my left and saw a faint shimmer in the darkness; my light reflecting against the water in the river.
Water which was flowing at such an intense speed that I would not survive falling in.
I turned away from the river as best I could, and continued on through the wet grass in the hopes of finding the road again.
I knew there should be a mountain somewhere, but I couldn't see it against the black sky.
I had trouble making out anything worth while since my light only spread around me for such a short distance.
I started to feel scared as I couldn't find the road, and instead of taking it slow and steady, increased my pace as I was desperate to catch up with Trixie again.
Trixie was safer than the quickly flowing waters of the river I was trying to leave behind me.
A different light emerged in the distance up ahead, swaying this way and that as if it was a lantern being moved around for its owner to see where they were going, and I turned for it.
As it drew nearer, I thought I could identify the light as being similar to my own; a horn sticking out of a wide-rimmed magician's hat.
"Trixie!" I called out in desperation, quickening my pace even more to make it toward her as fast I could.
Trixie clearly increased her pace as well as she made her way for me, and I somewhat awkwardly collided into her larger form once we met up with one another.
I just buried my face into her wet fur, desperate for the safety she signified.
Trixie wrapped her left foreleg around my withers and nuzzled down against the wet hat resting on top of my head.
"Well, Fuu," Trixie started, "Trixie is happy to see you're starting to use your magic when it counts."
I could only breathe in the smell of her as we both stood wet and cold in the darkness, both of our horns glowing with our magic.
"I couldn't find my way back to the road," I told her. "I'm so glad you came back for me."
"Allow Trixie to save you the trouble of trying to find your way in the darkness," my guardian suggested. "The homing stone should have charged up enough from the lightning for us to use it."
"Yes please," I begged of her.
Another flash of light filled my eyes as Trixie initiated the teleport spell.
We both reappeared in the middle of our wagon's living space, but Trixie didn't immediately break away from me.
She instead nudged the top of my head with her chin.
"Douse your magic. Trixie will light up the lantern," she ordered.
I stopped the flow of magic into my horn and the light surrounding the tip faltered and died out as a result.
Trixie's horn still lit up the space by itself until she used her own magic to turn the lantern on, but once it was lit she let her own light fade out as well.
"We need to hang these hats or they will grow musty before the morning," Trixie spoke, still not taking a step away from me.
I felt a tug at the hat I was wearing, but only when Trixie moved her head and finally took a step aside did I realize she had taken the fabric between her teeth and was pulling it off my head manually instead of with her magic.
"Collect your pillows from the floor and move that journal of yours under our bed, Fuu," Trixie spoke past the sliver of fabric from the hat.
I blinked at the order, but then quickly gathered up my pillows by a combination of my magic, my teeth, and some shoving around with my forehooves, putting them all on the footend of the bed.
I then turned around and very carefully moved my dreamjournal to an empty space under the bed as instructed.
"Like this?" I asked, turning back to face Trixie.
Instead of answering me directly, Trixie first focused on hanging up both of our hats on little pins in the wall directly above where my pillow pile had been before.
I knew they were there, and had expected them to be coathangers or such, but I had not seen them used before now.
Once both hats were hung side-by-side to dry, she turned to face me and looked me over.
"Didn't Trixie say to call out if you could not keep up with her?" she admonished me, but the tone of voice she was using was so far removed from the bitter and snide tone she had used to berate me in the past that it was almost honey-sweet in comparison.
I just blinked at her, then crossed my right foreleg in front of my left in an embarrassed pose.
"Well, I mean, I thought we had more time. That storm went a lot faster than I have ever experienced on Earth; it was like those clouds were in a hurry to get somewhere else," I explained my reasoning. "There was no outrunning that, but I noticed too late; you were too far ahead of me by then."
"Of course the clouds had to go somewhere else," Trixie stated as if I should have known this somehow. "Trixie would imagine the weather ponies were told to keep the storms at bay for the princess' visit to Ponyville last night. They are catching up to the planned weather schedule."
I hadn't thought of it that way; Luna was one of Equestria's princesses, so of course her visit to Ponyville would be planned to the last detail.
In Equestria, this planning included the weather, since the pegasi from Cloudsdale were in charge of it.
"It is just something to remember about life in Equestria, Fuu. Ponyville is a calm little town, but you are going to be faced with a lot more things you might find strange which Trixie is not going to be able to prepare you for now that we are on the road," Trixie warned.
She turned to the cupboards which contained some towels and pulled a pair out of it with her magic, unfolded one of them, and draped it over my shoulders.
"Dry yourself off as good as possible and try to get those clumps of dirt out of your fur," she told me.
I just did as she instructed, drying myself off with the towel she had given me while she did the same with the other one.
"We will both need a bath at the first possible opportunity, but it is likely that will have to wait until we're through the White Tail Woods," Trixie mumbled more to herself than to me.
"You will find that both wetness and cold are a thing to keep in mind now we are getting closer to winter, Fuu," she pressed onto me, speaking up a little louder again. "Make sure that you dry yourself thoroughly each time you come back home, even if you're only a little damp."
I paused drying myself and tilted my head slightly to the right.
"What is going on, Trixie?" I asked of her, trying to figure out why she was suddenly listing a whole slew of new house rules.
Trixie looked me straight in the eyes, even if she kept moving the towel through her fur coat while she did.
"You asked to be treated with respect, as a member of Trixie's household, so she is informing you of what is needed for us to continue to live together as such," she explained. "There is no easy way to get the moisture out of the wagon once it is inside, so we will have to make sure to keep it from coming in as much as we can."
"You may notice we don't have a heater in here," Trixie pointed out something I had been wondering at since I had arrived here.
"We will keep ourselves warm during cold weather by resting under the blankets, but our bodies don't produce enough heat to keep the wood from rotting away around us if we leave water resting on it," Trixie continued.
"Once we are both dry, Trixie will use our towels to dry out the hats as much as possible, then the wall and the floor, and then she will hang these towels outside on the hooks on the porch beside the door," she explained further.
As she continued to dry herself off with her own towel throughout her explanation, I made an effort to do the same.
"Towels are easy to replace, but the hats are not. Trixie will have to see about getting you one of your own after we arrive in Los Pegasus," Trixie chuckled. "Something which fits with those orange eyes of yours."
I stopped drying myself off again.
"My eyes are orange?" I repeated.
"Yes," Trixie agreed. "Have you not looked in a mirror since your arrival? Trixie's hat clashes with them. You need a hat which brings those eyes of yours out like Trixie's hat does her own."
"Orange," I repeated again, trying to get a more complete picture in my head of what I actually looked like.
"Keep drying yourself off, Fuu," Trixie commanded. "We'll have sandwiches for dinner once you're done, and then lay down for the night. We still have two days of travel ahead of us, so Trixie wants to make it an early morning if possible."
I continued to dab and rub and squeeze the towel around myself until I thought I had dried up every little spot that the rain had moistened, then handed my towel off to Trixie who used it to dry her old hat with.
She used her own towel to dry her current, bigger hat in a similar fashion, cleaned the wall and the floor directly underneath the hooks she suspended them on, and then floated the wet things out onto the small porch.
I turned my head to look at what she was doing with them, and found her wringing the towels out just beyond the wood landing, then unfolded them again and floated them to the hooks mounted on the outside of the wagon, beside the door.
I tried to make a mental note of how thorough she was about it; she clearly expected me to do the same if I were to return home without her.
Trixie started rummaging in the kitchenette, picking out the necessities for making us sandwiches.
"You didn't even eat breakfast this morning; you were impossible to wake up. Trixie was able to undress you, bandage you, and make sandwiches for herself and you for breakfast all without you being the wiser," Trixie explained how her morning had been.
"If Trixie remembers, you woke up around noon and then told her what she's done wrong for these past weeks," she sighed. "She's had a lot of time to think today, as you slept and slept again."
I stood a bit awkwardly beside the bed while she talked and prepared food for us at the same time.
Trixie was suddenly more talkative than she had been before, and I wasn't sure what this was leading up to.
"A lot of time to think," Trixie repeated.
She cast a glance back at me.
"Perhaps Trixie should serve as a surrogate parent while you grow up. It would be too much trouble to convince everypony you belong with Trixie without establishing such a relationship," the blue unicorn dropped on me. "Trixie still doesn't think she would be a good parent, but there really is no way around this if we are to visit some of the bigger cities."
I just stared at her, feeling my ears do a weird little wriggle. Were they standing up on my head? Drooping down? I couldn't honestly tell.
"Why is that, Trixie?" I wondered at her suggesting the bigger cities would be the problem.
"Truancy police," Trixie simply stated. "A young foal like yourself needs to be studying somewhere, and as much as Trixie would love to start her own school of magic one day, this wagon is not going to pass inspection for that purpose."
Okay, fair, that was a lot like back on Earth then.
"That makes sense," I agreed with her estimation of the problems ahead of us. "So you'd have to be my legal guardian somehow?"
"That's what Trixie just said," she huffed. "Trixie is sure she could get the paperwork sorted in Los Pegasus; the city is not as strict as Manehattan or Canterlot. Getting a parental license there is more of a matter of knowing which pony to pay than establishing a family relationship. And it will be valid all through Equestria just the same."
I didn't honestly know what to think here. Trixie was obviously trying to figure out what roadblocks would be on our path now she had all but given up on being able to send me back home.
But having her basically adopt me was still a big step, and somewhere in my addled little brain I considered it might be a step too far somehow.
It wasn't like I had any family here in Equestria to return to or anything, but it somehow felt like a betrayal nonetheless.
But who was I betraying? Myself? My family from Earth?
How much had they cared about me anyway? Were they even aware I was missing?
Trixie had done more for me in this short period of time than either of my parents for most of my life.
"Would that mean I have to take your last name?" I asked out loud, right as Trixie bent forward to pick something up.
I could see her freeze in place, but a tremble ran down from her ears down her neck and spine to her tail.
"Fuu Lulamoon?" I queried.
"Trixie thinks we first need to figure out your first name. Fuu must be short for something or everypony is going to get on Trixie's hide over that," Trixie mumbled.
She finished up what she was doing and finally floated a plate with two sandwiches over to me.
"Take it," she demanded, and barely gave me time to grab hold of it with my own magic before releasing it.
"That was mean," I whined, doing my best to control the plate in mid air so I could put it somewhere safe.
"That was training," Trixie corrected me. "Notice how you didn't even hesitate that time before grabbing hold?"
She clambered onto the bed and sat up with her back against the far wall, then patted the space beside her.
"Pull up a few of your pillows and sit with Trixie. She is considering names now, and if you don't help her with it you'll end up with one you don't like," she warned.
I made my way onto the bed as well, pulled a few pillows out of the pile at the footend, stacked them around next to Trixie, and then sat down beside her.
We both used our magic to float our respective plates in front of ourselves so we could eat our dinner from them, with Trixie starting off the brainstorming.
"Fuchsia Lulamoon," she suggested before taking a bite out of her sandwich.
"I'm not purple; that's why you want to get me a different hat," I reminded her, then tried to come up with a name myself. "Fuu... Fuu... Fiorentina?"
"Trixie is not going to call you Fiorentina. Where did you get that name from?" she complained. "It doesn't sound like a name from around here."
"From back on Earth, I guess. I think it's sports related... I always thought it had a nice ring to it," I protested, but took a bite out of my own sandwich.
"How about Fuirena?" Trixie considered.
"I mean, it's close to Fiorentina," I recognized. "What's it mean?"
"It's a plant with spiky flowers which grows near bodies of water," she recited as if from a textbook. "Trixie once had one stuck in a... compromising spot after sitting down on it after bathing."
"What, so I'm a plant that gets stuck to you after you bathe?" I protested.
Trixie stared sideways at me. "Trixie can't seem to get rid of you, can she?"
I rolled my eyes at her.
"That's nice, thanks. Fuirena is obviously not it," I grumbled.
"How about Futz? You did pelt Trixie with items when you first learned how to use your magic," the mare beside me chuckled, a grin spreading on her lips.
"How about I walk as soon as daylight breaks?" I half-threatened. "Come on now."
"Trixie retracts her suggestion," she decided.
"I'm not purple, or Fuchsia could have worked," I sighed.
I dared to lean sideways into Trixie's larger form, half expecting to be pushed away immediately.
Trixie startled a moment, but then settled again and simply continued eating from her sandwich.
I also took another bite from mine, considering what other names I knew which I could shorten to Fuu.
Trixie shifted her weight a little so she could move her left foreleg around me, and I could briefly sense her breath passing through my mane as she exhaled in my direction.
Without looking up at her, I could tell she was looking down at me for some reason.
"It really is a bother you don't have a single purple hue to you, Fuu," she decided.
"So now what?" I wondered. "I'm all out of ideas already. I don't know what the popular names are here in Equestria, and how many of them contain 'fu'?"
Trixie moved her left hind leg slightly to tap against my right.
"Trixie has an idea. You know Trixie doesn't call herself by her given name on stage," she started. "She is not Trixie Lulamoon on stage, but The Great and Powerful Trixie."
I gave a slow nod to that. "Yes, I... kind of figured?"
"Trixie could buy you a couple of thigh high patterned socks to go with your hat, and you could call yourself Fuu Hockshoe as a stagename?" she posited.
I turned my head to look at her, wondering if she'd gone mad.
"A shoe and a sock are two different things. What is a hock anyway?" I queried.
Trixie stared down at me and then tapped my lower leg again with her own.
"Your hock," she repeated. "The part of your hind leg which bends back. It is just about the most important joint in our hind legs. Trixie has to wonder what you call that on your world if not your hock?"
I looked down at my little pony legs next to her larger ones and tensed my muscles in them a moment to visualise which one did what exactly again.
I then focused on the part of my hind leg which she was bumping into with her own; the part which 'bent back' and was mostly responsible for bending my legs underneath me if I lay down.
It was basically an inverted knee joint.
"The part which bends back? Like that joint right here?" I wondered as I did.
Trixie let out a sound of exasperation. "Don't tell Trixie she has to teach you about basic biology as well..."
I felt my ears droop down as I moved my leg a little to figure out which of the human joints I could most compare it to.
"I guess, going by the feeling as I move it now rather than when I walk on it, this is the second joint from our hip down?" I pondered as I felt out the individual muscle groups.
"In a human, that would probably be the ankle," I reasoned. "We'd go hip, knee, ankle. But they're in different positions in human legs since we ponies walk on our toes."
Trixie shook her head at hearing me list the human terms for the joints in our legs.
"As long as you're a pony they're your hip, stifle, hock, fetlock, pastern, and coffin joints," she recited.
"Oh, well, I guess the hip is the same for both humans and ponies then," I considered. "So then it's a knee for a human and a... stifle for us ponies?"
"That's what Trixie just said, Fuu," Trixie pointed out.
"Okay, so then our hock is a human ankle," I considered. "Do they even sell shoes that reach up to our hock?"
"No, those would be boots," Trixie answered. "Or socks if they don't have a hard sole."
"And there goes that idea for a stagename," I groaned. "Fuu Hockboots just doesn't sound the same, does it?"
Trixie just snorted at the idea, but then shook her head.
"No, it appears Trixie will have to think longer on this name of yours," she decided for now. "We still have two days to Los Pegasus. Trixie is sure something will spring to mind before then, or her name is not the Great and Powerful Trixie!"
"You just said it wasn't; it's your stagename," I corrected her.
"Ah, so you do listen when Trixie speaks," Trixie remarked with a grin.