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A Princess' Steed

Chapter Three

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Chris Silverhoof

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Kevin was a pony on a mission - albeit one that he did not quite understand. Twilight Sparkle settled him down for the rest of the day in spacious quarters usually used for visiting dignitaries and, left to his own devices, learned the limits of his new body. The bed-chamber was large enough for him to do a full lap around the bed, pacing from window to door and back again. The door, of course, had been locked after him with Twilight reassuring Kevin that she would be back again later to speak more and ensure he had something to eat.

He tried to run and toppled head over tail onto the rug, only shakily clambering back to his hooves once he was sure he hadn't smashed in his kneecaps. The pony snorted at a clump of fluff clinging to his nose and shook his mane off his neck. He lifted his hoof, intending to scratch away an itch on his neck, and remembered a moment later that his arm didn't work that way anymore. Grumbling, he stretched out each leg in turn, trying to feel out how his muscles worked while aching as if he'd run a marathon.

"She was right," he said aloud, more to hear something other than the movements of his own body around a strange room. "That purple horse. Pony. Twilight? Whatever. This is draining. She said travelling through portals was exhausting and she was right about it too. She should know if she's done it before."

Saying it out loud to himself made him feel marginally better. He at least remembered things still; there was certainly nothing wrong with his memory. He yawned, stretching his mouth impossibly wide and shuddering. The bed suddenly looked very inviting.

"Maybe I should just rest for a while."

He continued chattering to himself as he moseyed over and nosed at the bed frame. Nonsense words, one after the other, streamed from unfamiliar lips, but it was good to hear that his voice, at the very least, sounded the same. Although the bed called him in, he could not settle and paused at one end of the four-poster, angling his head as something instinctual bid him to rub. Roughing up his mane against the post, he groaned as he finally caught the itch in just the right spot.

Satisfied, he shook himself and trotted to the window, looking down carefully to check just where he placed each of his hooves. His new body seemed to settle into itself a little more and he stood in front of the window, lower jaw slack at a world that he had not known even existed. Kevin swung his head back and forth, staring down at the castle courtyard below and the ponies bustling about their daily business. The violet-hued castle walls towered over the ponies, which were much smaller than his new form, and he watched as some of the guards trotted over the ramparts, the gold-tipped walls seeming to crown the city in glory. The streets alternated between being cobbled and paved, though he supposed that it had all been crafted with the pony magic that Twilight had spoken of.

It was in all ways different to his world, the colours more vibrant even in the clouds that hung in the sky, pegasi darting back and forth as they managed the weather of Canterlot. Something about the world was brighter too, though it wasn't that all the ponies were smiling or anything or even looking more animated than the people he was used to seeing day in and day out. No, there was an undercurrent of life to the world that thrummed just beneath the surface, calling a new edge into play.

But he was tired. So, so very tired. Kevin yawned, ears drooping. He missed the sound of other human voices. Something stuck in his throat. He only had his own.

"What am I to do here? There's no point in going home...and still no point in staying where I'm not wanted." He spoke to himself for lack of another to talk to. "I don't belong here. I don't belong anywhere. But how do I tell them that? It's all just...one big mess. And if I can't make sense of it, how can I expect anyone else to either?"

He laughed hollowly.

"Heck... This is probably all still a dream regardless. A good dream. I'll think it's crazy when I wake up, but it'll be something to think about in the morning."

Smiling more genuinely down at the pony world, Kevin stifled another yawn and flicked one ear back towards the bed. Sleep did sound appealing. Maybe that would bring about the end of his dream.

"Whatever. I'll get by. I always do. Why should this time be any different?"

What Kevin didn't know was that his dream was only just beginning.

*

True to her word, Twilight Sparkle put him to work in Canterlot castle, with mixed results. It turned out that he wasn't the most talented pony at washing dishes and the cook chased him out with a spatula after he'd broken the royal chalice. Luckily, unicorn magic made such a breakage a minor problem - a spell from Twilight and everything had been put to rights again, even if he was no longer welcome within the bounds of the kitchen.

He should have thought of the life he'd had back in the human world, but, as the days passed, that life seemed to grow ever more distant at a frighteningly rapid pace. Kevin threw himself into all work he was given, even if the majority of it was cleaning the palace from top to bottom. He'd never been someone to turn down hard work and glared at the suits of armour - pony sized, of course - until they displayed his own reflection.

No, that sorry life could wait. Simple work had its lure and gave him more pleasure than facing his final exams back in school with no rhyme or reward for all the work he'd done. Nothing tangible, anyway. And nobody cared about that either. He sighed and picked up a rag soaked with polish delicately between his lips, nose wrinkling. He'd had his fair sharing of cleaning work back as a human too, but at least, as a pony, any transgressions appeared easily forgotten. He smiled minutely, lips pulling up in an unfamiliar manner. Even the cooks had started smiling at him again, so they couldn't have been too angry about the burned dinner.

And so he polished, rubbing in small circles until his neck ached and sweat darkened patches down the line of muscle. His mane clung uncomfortably to the arch of his neck where the muscle was the thickest, but still he polished, devoted to his work until every last inch of the suit of armour had been covered. Only then did he step back and survey his work with a critical eye, absentmindedly resting a hind hoof as if he'd been doing it all his life.

He blinked down at the pony staring back at him, his reflection distorted by the curve of the helmet. As far as horses went, he thought he was moderately handsome, at least, and spent a moment playing with his reflection, turning his head from side to side to make his face bulge out in weird and wonderful ways. Chuckling at his own folly, he pawed at the rich, red rug streaking down the full length of the hallway and waggled his ears, amusement growing as the noonday sun shone brightly through the floor length windows.

"Hey...? Hey mister. Mister stallion?"

He jumped, hooves skittering from the rug onto stone, skin trembling. He hadn't known that horses could jump so far, but the foal that had suddenly appeared at his hooves as if she had always been there seemed completely unperturbed by his display. With a pink mane and tail and a body as white as a flurry of snow, she bobbed her muzzle and giggles, eyes wide and gleaming with the innocence of youth.

She tilted her head to the side and Kevin realised, with a shock, that she was waiting for him to say something. But what could he say? She was a pony! And he was a pony... But that didn't mean he knew anymore what he was supposed to say and not!

"Uh, hello," Kevin finally fumbled out, ears back. "Can I help you?"

A thought struck him and he eyed the foal with a worried rim to his eye.

"Are you lost? I'm sorry, I don't know my way around here very well, but I can find someone to help if you need me to."

She giggled and shook her head.

"Nooooo," she said, drawing out the word. "All the _other_ponies at school were saying there's a strange stallion in the castle."

Wincing, Kevin shook his mane off his neck, resisting the urge to itch. It would have felt so good to rub his neck on one of the suits of armour...

"I guess that would be me. I'm the strange stallion here."

"But why are you here?"

"Um... Well, that's kind of a long-short story."

Kevin cast about for words that would make sense to the filly. He could never tell quite how old other ponies were, except for in the case of the alicorns, that was. He'd been told quite promptly by Twilight just how many years they had lived. He scratched an itch on his chest with his chin, barely thinking about the motion as the filly impatiently shifted her weight from hoof to hoof. If she was in magic school, she surely understood more of the basics about magic and exactly what had happened than him anyway.

"A spell gone wrong," he eventually said. "I shouldn't have come here, but I did anyway. They're working on a way to send me back."

He couldn't have explained why stating that very simple and obvious fact - they were trying to find a way to send him home - sent a pang through his heart. Frowning, he pushed it away, returning his attention to the filly as she brushed her bubblegum pink mane from her withers.

"Weird..." She muttered, tail flicking. "My misfired spells have never brought other ponies here. Why should one bring you here? You don't look like a normal pony."

Kevin laughed and smiled kindly down at her. For all that she looked different to what he was used to - namely a pony youngster and not a human child - it was a relief to have her act just like any normal child. Though perhaps a little too intelligent and sharp for her own good, if he was honest with himself.

"I guess that's why they're all calling me the strange stallion out there."

She giggled with him, ears flicking.

"Hey, mister, you're tall, aren't you?"

"Not as tall as Celestia, but, yes, I guess I am taller than most ponies here."

Her eyes brightened and she squealed, bouncing up and down on the spot.

"Oh! Can you get our ball out of the tree? Can you, can you, can you, pleeeeease?"

She whined, weaving back and forth as she pawed at his front hooves, eyes wide and begging. He swallowed and licked his lips, coat shivering nervously atop muscle.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Kevin stumbled over his words, although his hooves were already in motion, following the filly from the corridor, cleaning cloth discarded. "Can't you just get it down with your magic?"

She pouted.

"No, my magic's not good enough yet. But I will be able levitate something like that one day! Then I'll be the one getting the balls out of allllll the trees!"

He laughed, for the first time paying attention to the short horn poking out of the tuft of her mane. A unicorn. He could recognise one of those, at least.

"I'm sure you will be. I'll certainly never be able to levitate balls out of trees like that!"

Following the filly through a short maze of hallways, they emerged into bright sunlight, blinking rapidly as their eyes adjusted. The filly bounded forward as if her hooves were attached to springs, darting across the grass of the flower garden surrounding the castle and through a bush. Kevin stumbled over his own hooves, trying and failing to keep up as he called out to her to slow down to no avail.

Pushing his way through a rose bush after the filly, Kevin sneezed, a cloud of pollen framing his muzzle. A high-pitched squeak told him where the filly had gone and he pricked his ears, stepping around the carefully maintained flower beds as he followed the sound of her voice, one word flowing into the next so that no single one was distinguishable.

When he emerged from the shrubbery, a group of four young unicorns greeted him, with his new little friend springing off her hooves at the front of their cluster. Above them stretched the arms of a deciduous tree, the leaves offering welcome shade from the warmth of the sun while their bright yellow ball nestled in the crook of its branches, hopelessly out of reach.

"Here he is, here he is!" She chirped in a singsong voice. "And he's not that strange! He's nice! He's going to get our ball out of the tree!"

"I told you I almost had it," a cream-coloured colt with a silvery mane and tail grumbled, sitting down hard on his haunches. "Mabs, you've got to give me a chance."

The pink filly's jaw dropped.

"You had, like, ages to get it down! I _had_to get help!"

The colt sulked, ears drooping. Kevin's heart went out to him and, without thinking, he dropped his head to the younger pony's level and gave him a gentle nudge in the side.

"Come on, I can't do this without you."

The colt looked up, one ear quirked; Kevin had his attention. The grey stallion suppressed a smile, a mock serious expression encompassing his long muzzle. Pushing his head down as close to the ground as possible without taking a mouthful of grass and dirt, he wiggled his ears and inclined his head towards the colt. Hopping up onto all four hooves, the colt eyed the much larger head suspiciously.

"Hop up," Kevin encouraged, a twinkle in his eye that had not been seen in many years. "You'll be able to reach the ball better than I will."

The unicorn's eyes lit up and Kevin grunted as a much heavier weight than expected landed atop his skull. Groaning, he spread his front hooves for balance and slowly heaved his head upright with the little pony clinging to his ears. Giggling, the colt waved his hooves at the ball, horn shooting off sparks that dropped harmlessly over Kevin's mane as he struggled to reach the ball from his new vantage point.

"Hang on," Kevin half-laughed half-gasped, sides heaving. "Wait for me to get closer!"

Scrabbling for purchase, the colt's tongue stuck out the corner of his mouth as Kevin tentatively stepped up to the tree, neck dipping and swaying with the strain of balancing an unfamiliar weight. Luckily, the young pony's eager hooves swung out and, neat as he could've liked, knocked the ball out from between the crook of the branches. It dropped to the grass for the other ponies to crowd around with cheers and Kevin sighed as he gently lowered the colt back down to the ground.

Once he was on solid ground once again, the colt turned about, silvery tail flying as he whipped around.

"Thank you, mister! I'm Silver Rush. Mabs calls me 'Silly', but I don't like that. What's your name?"

Kevin smiled and glanced at the three ponies tumbling over the ball that was not much smaller than they were.

"Kevin. My name's Kevin."

From a distance, Twilight and Celestia stood beneath a tree with pink blossoms, cloaked with magic so that nopony else would know they were there. Well, not unless they walked right into them, which had been known to happen from time to time if the princess' were attempting to trot around the castle and its grounds unnoticed.

"He is kind too..." Twilight murmured, a scroll levitated before her as a quill took note of her words. "He's just what I expected from a person of that world. They are quite like us, except in appearance."

"He seems young," Celestia said in an equally low tone, cautious to not allow her voice to rise. "His dam and sire are probably sick with worry about him."

Twilight raised her wings in a half-shrug.

"You'd have to ask him about that," she said, neatly evading the unspoken question. "But his birthday was last week. He's not that young. Studying, like I was, but it's different in the human world. That's why Pinkie Pie was up in Canterlot - she just had to have a party for him and you know how saying no to Pinkie Pie goes."

Celestia looked at her, wings flared out.

"And you didn't think to tell me?" She thrust her muzzle into Twilight's, eyes panicked. "What if he was waiting on gifts from his parents and didn't get any? And he didn't get anything from anypony here either?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow and pushed Celestia away with a hoof.

"Wow, okay. Well, we did have a party for him and he seemed happy enough with it, though his expressions are a little hard to read with that longer muzzle. No offence intended. He seems very closed off to other ponies, though he tries, he really does. I just didn't think you were that interested in him after you had me set up to take notes on how he was acclimating."

The princess shook her head.

"Of course I'm interested. It's my duty as a princess of Equestria to ensure he is returned safely to his home. His wellbeing is of my utmost concern."

"Well, that makes sense, though I'm sure a belated present would still be alright, you know. Eighteen, by the way. That's how old he is." Twilight winked and nudged her old mentor in her side. "So not that much younger than me and my friends, though you already know about all the _crazy_stuff we get up to." Twilight laughed. "Saving Equestria is no easy task, you know."

Celestia gave her a look, eyes narrowed.

"You may well say."

"Aw, come on - lighten up, Tia!"

Celestia winced at the use of her nickname and pressed her lips firmly together.

"What do you think of him, Twilight? Really now? You've spent the most time talking with him and observing from a distance."

Twilight took a moment to consider the question, tapping the quill against the underside of her jaw.

"He's diligent about his work and curious about everything he encounters. Strangely, he doesn't seem all that worried about going home or not. I don't know what's up with that, but I'm going to find out."

Musing over her words, Celestia watched as Kevin played with the foals, bouncing the ball clumsily off his hooves as they squealed and darted about, chasing it. Without thinking, the alicorn smiled wider than she had done in a very long time, the tension leaving her wings.

"I think he is something special indeed."

What Celestia didn't say was how she wanted to spend more time with the grey pony. Even if his coming to her world had been an accident, perhaps there was something fateful about their meeting.

Or at least, she hoped so.

*

The town hall meeting, photographs for the Canterlot paper, the Canterlot Garden Party - everywhere Celestia went, the thought of Kevin followed her. She misspoke from her carefully written notes at meetings, cheeks colouring with a blush most unbecoming of her, and every single conversation with Twilight included the pony that had come into her life so suddenly. He walked through her dreams with such frequency that even Luna noticed, raising an eyebrow, but not yet making comment on the subject of her sister's dreams. She could not escape him. And so, she followed him.

Of course, as a princess, she could orchestrate their meetings a little more discreetly than other ponies in a similar situation. She was expected to be around the castle, around him; he, after all, was working in the castle, under her guidance. His running into her on an increasingly frequent basis was far from pure chance as Celestia ensured he was given tasks that kept him around her frequent routes of travel. Particularly convenient were the tasks that called him in close to her private abode and evening haunts.

Peering around the corner of the hallway as Kevin exchanged the dried out lavender bunches for fresh ones around the princess' sleeping chambers, Celestia ran her eyes over his body, taking in every detail that she'd drank in many times before. How was it that a pony could look so similar and yet so different at the same time? Should it have been possible? Kevin chewed thoughtfully, ears flicking as he replaced the lavender, tail swishing back and forth to a rhythm only he could hear.

She shouldn't have stared so, yet the alicorn could not bring herself to look away as he busied himself with his task. Twilight was certainly right when she said he was diligent about his work as he attacked his chores with a work ethic that surprised even her.

Celestia leaned further around the corner as Kevin turned his back on her, completely oblivious to the fact that he was being watched.

"You cannot be serious, sister."

Celestia jumped, shuffling her wings guiltily back over her back and hindquarters. Trust the princess of the night to walk with all the stealth of a ghost.

"What?" She affected an air of innocence - as innocent as an alicorn ducking back around a corner of her own castle hallway could have been, at least. "What's wrong, Luna?"

Rolling her eyes, Luna pointed her hoof at Celestia's chest.

"You, dear sister, were leering at that young pony."

Celestia's head shot up.

"Luna! Your tongue! I certainly was not _leering_at anypony, I was merely watching him go about his duties. And he's not that young. Don't you know that he had a birthday a few weeks back?"

Sighing and shaking her head, Luna dropped her hoof, though her ears remained pricked to attention, ready to catch the smallest crack in Celestia's mental armour. The white mare blinked impassively, staring her down with the sweetest, most sickly smile she could plaster across her muzzle.

"Why, are you interested in him?" She shot back mischievously, head close to her sister's, even though there was no one else there to overhear them. "Are you jealous that I'm pausing in my duties to see what he's doing around here?"

Lips pursed, Celestia lifted her head and tapped her jaw speculatively with a hoof, musing over her ploy. Her heart beat quicker, sweat dampening a faint patch along the side of her flank.

"Come to think of it..." She eyed Luna up and down. "Shouldn't you be asleep right now? Are you following me or the new pony?"

Gulping down her reservations, Celestia tried to pretend that the thought of Luna liking Kevin did not bring a lump to her throat. No, Luna and Kevin could like whoever they pleased. She certainly had no say in that, no, of course she didn't.

Luna, however, only rolled her eyes and fluffed up her wings, a lone blue feather drifting solitarily to the floor.

"Please, sister. I rose early. As if I would have my eyes on a pony that you are openly coveting and batting your eyelashes at."

Celestia clamped her mouth shut and looked studiously away.

"I was merely watching. You cannot take any more from it than that."

"He's too young for you anyway."

Celestia laughed aloud, the sound of her mirth echoing and bouncing off the walls.

"Sister, since when does age come into it?"

"Aha - so you do like him."

The elder princess closed her mouth and shook her head. There was little she could say in response to that, but, thankfully or not, she did not have to.

"I thought I heard voices... Ah, I'm sorry..."

Two heads whipped around to see Kevin poking his head around the corner, pawing at the carpet. His ears drooped, eyes wide to see the princess' in such intent conversation. Instantly, Celestia's cheeks coloured and Luna hid a smirk behind her hoof: busted.

"I didn't mean to interrupt," Kevin added hurriedly with a smile, already backing modestly off. "I just wondered who would be around here at this time."

"Oh, that is no problem at all, Kevin," Celestia rushed to reassure him, following him back around the corner. "We were just having a little, ah, discussion."

"Yes, I suppose you could call it that."

Luna rolled her eyes as the alicorn walked off with the strange pony, his tail a relaxed swish to his rear. It was not that he'd never learned to respect the princess', only that he didn't treat them with the traditional deference of ponies in Equestria. But her sister seemed to like that and who was she to really judge? She could only do what sisters did and watch out for her sister the best she could.

Although Celestia could not hear her as she walked away, drawing Kevin into gentle conversation with skill only a princess could acquire, Luna whispered after her. Though the words perhaps were only for her own ears, if she needed to hear them.

"Watch your back, sister. Not for me, but for yourself."