Sky Dancer got up after one heck of a night with her new best friend Martin feeling very relaxed, a little sore, and a teensy bit dirty – especially behind her. Still slightly groggy, she unceremoniously let herself fall out of Martin’s bed, scrambled up on all four legs again, and wobbled over to the drawn curtains.

“Aaah,” she sighed as she pulled away the curtains and drank in the magnificent view of the biggest city in North Carolina.

“It’s another bright day in the city of Charlotte
I just got a new human friend
He’s okay with all the things that I ask him
And to top it off he’s kinda hot~”

Martin stirred, awoken by his new girl—no, marefriend and a suspicious feeling in the back of his head.

“Why do you have to sing so early
Though I will admit it’s nice
I know the city’s skyline inspires
But you sound like a Disney rej-wait, what?”

“Pegasus teams work the sky once more
Earthies are off to the farms
That’s not to say that every pony’s such a cliché
And I don’t mean to say that I don’t want to stay
But adventure waits behind that door~”

“No seriously,” Martin interjected. “Why the flying fuck are you singing?”

“Why not?” Sky teased, one hoof already on the handle of Martin’s bedroom door.

“More importantly, why was I singing?”

“Dunno. I’m gonna make breakfast. You want eggs?”

Martin was silently confused for a few seconds. “Sure.”

“It’s odd,” he thought to himself. “I can barely even remember the lines. Something about inspiration and Disney?”

Martin helped himself out of bed and put his pants back on, figuring he’d slip back and get clean clothes after breakfast. When he finally made his way to the kitchen, he found Sky somehow handling a skillet, frying eggs. Martin was, if he was honest to himself, glad to have missed what’d come before as he expected the mess to be at least a hundred times bigger.

“Looking good, darling,” Martin joked. “And the eggs, too. Where’s Steve at?”

“Nursing a hangover on the couch,” Sky answered as she put a dash of pepper on one half of the fried eggs.

Martin grabbed two plates and set them on the smallish kitchen table, then took a seat himself. “So... you wanna tell me what the deal was with the song earlier?” he insisted.

“Not really? It’s just something, y’know? It just happens sometimes,” Sky attempted to explain as she shared her culinary work between the two of them. “You get this beat in your mind and the words just… flow.”

“Some sort of pony magic?” Martin guessed. “Cos I certainly didn’t expect to sing along like that.”

“Maybe it is. I never really considered it myself. Then again, this is only my… fifth song, I think? And I’m already thirteen years old!” Sky paused in thought for a moment. “Well, that’s excluding the songs I participated in. If I counted those, I’d be closer to… about twenty, I think?”

Martin froze in shock. “Wait. How old did you say you are?”

“Thirteen. My birthday’s next month. Don’t forget it,” Sky responded with a wink.

“But… last night, we… oh my god!”

“Oh, relax and eat your breakfast, Mart,” Sky shrugged. “I’m totally legal. Got my bootie badge and such, can bear foals…”

“Right, so ponies are legally adult at that age? Good to know,” Martin acknowledged as he finished his breakfast. “That was a great egg, Sky. Thanks. I’ll be right back, then we’re off to school, okay?”

“Okay honey!”

“You want to borrow a shirt?”

“Thanks honey, but I think I’ll go au natural today,” Sky declined with a smile. It’s not like just a shirt covers up anything important, she thought as she put the dishes in the sink and got a glass of water for Steve.

------=======------

On the way to Providence, Steve, Martin, and Sky Dancer passed a group of construction workers that just finished setting up shop for the day. Most of them were human, but three were burly earth ponies in various shades of dirty brown. As the youngsters passed, the ponies got their tools out and noisily began their work while the humans climbed further up their scaffolding. To Martin’s surprise (and Steve’s cranial agony), there was a noticeable beat to the noise, as if they did it on purpose.

Halfway past, the first one started to sing, with the other two joining in a scant two lines later. It reminded Martin of a movie he’d seen, and he racked his brain trying to remember the title. He was specifically thinking of a musical number that was obviously rehearsed, yet passed off as spontaneous.

“One, two, one two three four
If you want to renovate
A storefront of this size
It helps to have a steady beat
It makes the work go faster”

Martin kept his jaws tightly shut as he continued on his increasingly worried way. He noticed that Sky was bobbing and humming along, thankfully not singing, only to find a woman – most empathically a human woman – washing the windows of her house fully entranced by the almost-infectious melody, a cream-coated stallion running on the road towards their current position.

“One two, one two three four
Cleaning dirty windows
It’s usually a chore
But if you keep a steady beat
It makes the time seem faster”

“One two, one two three four
Got to keep in shape
The ladies here don’t dig the flab
Gallop to a steady beat
They’ll notice you much faster”

“Dude, what are you even worried about? I’m no expert on pony flanks,” Martin interrupted. The stallion hopped in place, ready to take off as he smiled and listened. “But I can’t really find much flab here.”

“Thanks kid,” the stallion replied. “I just really like a good gallop, y’dig?”

“Yeah okay. Sorry for bothering you, dude,” Martin excused. The stallion held his position for a moment, then ran off exactly on the measure. That was uncanny, Martin thought.

“Heheh, ‘no expert on pony flanks’, he says,” a voice whispered behind him. Martin turned around with an expression of mock outrage.

“Which one of you motherfuckers said that!?”

Both options grinned, Steve a little more pained than Sky. Martin shrugged and smiled, turned back around, and resumed leading the way to Providence. His concentration, however, was well and truly broken, and he soon found himself caught.

“One two, one two three four
Acting on a rhythm
When everybody’s doing it
To not join in would be insane—”

“They got. The mustard. Out!”

Martin and Sky turned to Steve in surprise, who was lazily posing as if he was holding a piece of fabric. “What was that?” Sky asked.

“Song’s over, we’re here,” Steve curtly explained as he shook off the last of his alcohol-induced ailment. Behind the group, mostly unnoticed by the guys and blatantly ignored by every last pony, the humans who had joined into the song stopped to wonder what they were doing.

Author's Note

I am so in need of lyrical assistance.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RoQ9iJjJbaNfZvV-TriZI5Go2Fb2GI10gkiiZRD8RbY/edit
If this gets anywhere, I'll adjust the chapter accordingly, maybe extend it. *shrug*