It seemed to be a growing habit to be disrupted during morning rituals by a clopping knock on the door. This one sounded excited and rapid. It wasn't Derpy. Noah was certain of that at least.

He strode for the door and opened it to reveal a bright pink pony. She was the most classically girly of the shades, but she was far from the girliest of the ponies he had met in the village.

"Hiya!" chirped Pinkie as she shook a card free from the basket on her head and caught it with a hoof easily. "This is for you! You'll come, right?"

Noah accepted the card curiously. Pinkie had never minded him looking at what she'd offered before, so he flipped it open and a small spray of confetti exploded free of it. Underneath the glitter (he'd have to clean that up), was an invitation to some pony's birthday party, and it wasn't one of the ones he knew.

Did he have any chance of making it through that social event without exploding?

"Yes," replied Pinkie to the question that had never been said out loud. "Come on! It'll be fun and you can meet more ponies and we want to meet you more, honest."

Noah didn't doubt that was true, for Pinkie. The pink pony had nothing but unending friendliness, even when you didn't want it. Especially then. "I don't know."

Pinkie pulled out a sheet of paper that showed the schedule for his mane cutting gig. "You're off that day! See, nothing stopping you. Come on come on come on!"

He could capitulate with what little dignity was left, or let Pinkie hound him all day until he was crushed beneath her well-meaning hooves.

"Alright, Pinkie, but no promises. If things get too odd, I'll bow out."

"They won't, promise." She bobbed her head quickly. "We'll get you a friend, or two, or three, or fifteen. It'll be fun!" She began pronking away, leaving the door open behind her.

She would count as a friend, if she wasn't so busy trying to get him more friends. 'Just' her wasn't good enough in her book, so it was her constant goal in life to 'fix' that problem.

At least she didn't mind the whole ponyism and humanism 'thing'. Every time it came up, it just made her giggle. He swore she could get along with anything that wasn't trying to physically harm her or made it a point to shut her out.

He shut the door and got to finishing his morning routine.

It was a bright and sunny day. There were ponies everywhere. They were chatting animatedly with one another. There was cake and soda (how did they make that?) And candy, lots of that. He could tell it was a Pinkie party.

It felt like the entire town was there, but he couldn't really make an educated guess on that. He didn't know the birthday boy, so he just went over to give the usual 'congratulations', and got a 'thanks' for it. One social requirement at least was unchanged between the societies.

"So, found a friend?" It was Pinkie again. "You try him? I bet you two would hit it off." She thrust a hoof at a brown pony, but it wasn't Rose. It was a stallion with a bowtie. He couldn't place it quite right, but the pony somehow... Ah, there it was. When he spoke, it had a British accent, despite there being no Britain in Equestria that he knew of. "His name's Doctor Hooves."

Noah could see he, uh, had an hourglass on his butt, er, flank. Looking at ponies' rumps never stopped feeling just a little odd, but knowing their 'cutie marks' was just a part of the basic social contract. If you met a pony, you really ought to pay attention to it, or you weren't paying attention. It was a snub. Not a huge one, but still, one. Another little hurdle. "He looks... alright?" It wasn't like he had a huge list of things to say about a random stallion.

"Hello there." That was Rose. She emerged from the crowd with a little smile. "I didn't think I'd see you here."

Pinkie tilted her head left and right before she took a dramatic inhalation, her ribs swelling with the force of the air. "Oh wow! You..." She pointed at Rose, then Noah. "Friends?"

Rose raised a hoof to her chest. "I hope so?"

That was answer enough. Pinkie vanished in a pink cloud of giggles to leave Noah and Rose alone.

Noah shook his head, just a little glad for the reprieve. "Hey, Rose was it?"

"Blood Rose. Rose works." She nodded as she closed the distance. "How are you?" She reached a hoof but stopped shy of touching Noah. "You look a little flushed."

He hadn't thought about it before then, but he was sweating a bit. Trying to fit in was harder than it should have been. He wasn't a pony, and he sucked at pretending. "It's alright," he lied.

"No it isn't." She held up that hoof. "Wait here a moment." She trotted off and came back with a tall glass of water, hovering beside her in her greenish magic. "Here you are. Relax."

He accepted the glass from her grip. Contact with a unicorn's magic was a curious little thing. It was like they could feel it, just a little, so it was like touching them. Like touching someone's hand while you were taking something from them. He supposed ponies didn't mind that fraction of a second of closeness. A human would hold the object so that it thrust free of their hand and the other party could just grasp the item without touching the other person.

It was small, but it was a thing.

Rose didn't seem to mind. "You look worse, what's wrong?"

He didn't want to crash her evening. "Nothing, really. I'm just being silly."

"Well, go ahead." She sat beside him. "Tell me your silly thing. I won't laugh, promise."

Part of him wondered again if he was being studied. Unicorns seemed to like that. "You really want to know?"

"As... If we're friends, then yes. I do. Tell me. I can't promise I can make it better, but I'll try." She looked up at him. "That is what you'd want from a friend, isn't it?"

That phrasing. That tone. It was like she was gently feeling out exactly what he did want from a friend, and she was willing to deliver. "Are we?"

She smiled, a flash of white teeth, brilliant and clean. "Do you want to be? I do, but friendship is a two-way road, as they say. I can't be without your participation."

That much was true. Well, pushing her away seemed... counter-productive. If she really wanted to be his friend, was that so bad? "Alright, so... You know how you just handed me that glass?"

"Sure?" Her eyes drifted to the glass a moment.

"When I took it, I could feel 'you' on it. When humans, that's what I am, pass things, we usually don't touch when passing things unless it's a mark of affection or intimacy."

Her eyes widened a little as she took in those words. "Oh! I had no idea. Would you... prefer I left some room to take things, or..." She rolled a hoof slowly. "You can accept it."

That phrasing! The way Rose said things was dangerous. "A little room would be nice. You seem alright, Rose. I'm still getting used to... things." He wobbled a hand lamely. "I'm guessing ponies don't much care about that."

Rose's eyes half-lidded. "Two earth ponies practically kiss when they pass things between each other."

Noah had to laugh at that mental image, but it was true enough. Hygienic, not so much, but very intimate.

Rose was smiling a little. "It's alright if you want to avoid that. I'm not here to push that on you." She looked around the party. "They appear to be having a good time, hm?"

Was she inviting him to join in? "Does it look fun to you?" he asked cautiously. He didn't want to be an anchor at her side.

She shook her head. "I'm quite fine beside my friend."

That was sweet. Noah couldn't help but be touched by the corny line, even if it seemed a bit overdone. "Do you know the birthday boy?"

"I've seen him before." She nodded a little. "But we don't know one another much. You live on the south side of town, right?"

He did. "Yeah?"

"Would you like to retire from this for now? You look like you could take a breather. You did your part."

It was an escape route. He shouldn't have... but he took it. "Sure." He turned from the party and began to walk with Rose towards his house. It was like a great pressure was lifted from his shoulders. He didn't have to pretend to get along anymore. There was just Rose, and she seemed accepting. "Hey, so..."

"Do you have a favorite book?" she asked, cutting off his question. "I was thinking we could exchange."

A book exchange? He'd heard of stranger things. It was rare a friend of his wanted to swap books, just borrow something they specifically wanted to get a hand on. It was cute. It also seemed pretty harmless. "Um, sure. If you see one you like, you can borrow that."

She smiled, clearly pleased. "I'll do that. And what book would you like?"

"Surprise me." He didn't really know what pony authors did what, besides AK Yearling's adventure stories. He preferred a good sci-fi, but he had no idea which pony did that, and what exactly pony sci-fi would entail that wouldn't be science past for a human.

"You have to promise to read it," she challenged. "It's no fun if you don't."

That was, in part, the first firm position Rose had shown. It was, by and large, mostly harmless. A book wouldn't hurt him. It might be boring though, but telling someone that... "I'll do my best, but I don't expect you to finish if it just doesn't grab you."

"That's fair enough."

They arrived at Noah's house and he opened the door for her. She dipped her head at him and trotted past inside. Her eyes were wandering curiously over the human artifacts of her new human friend. Her nose flared, obviously taking a scent of the place. "I've never seen the inside before."

"Yeah..." He had tried to keep things clean, but he was sure a lady could spot a thousand things out of place. Women could do that, horse or not. "Don't mind the mess."

"It looks reasonable to me." She lashed out a hoof, kicking the door shut behind them before she trotted further into the building. Following something, be it scent or something else, she made curving trails through the place, ending up in his bedroom. "It's close..."

What was close? Noah followed her, unsure of what she was doing or what she was hunting, but he wanted to know. Watching her seemed the easiest way about it.

She wound her way to his bed and circled it once before she dropped to her belly. "Here it is!" She reached out a hoof and pulled out his one and only girly magazine!

Noah went red with a mix of intense shame and blinding rage. How dare she touch that! Oh god, she saw that! Oh man! Oh god! "That's not for you!" He reached to snatch it from her, but her magic flicked it across the room before he could get it. "Give it back!"

"You said I could borrow any one book." She held up an empty hoof. "I swear I'll take good care of it and return it in pristine condition."

"But..." On one hand, sure, he did say that. On the other, that?! Seriously, that?! "Why do you even want it?"

She curled the magazine in her magic carefully and tucked it in one of those pockets ponies seemed to have. "You try so hard to reach out to ponies, isn't it about time we reached back? I want to read this. It's from your home, isn't it?"

It was. "Sure, I mean... That?!"

"Is it offensive?"

He went a bright red. Sure, he was already pretty red to start. Anger and shame still warred in him. "Every... It's not unusual for a..."

She waved a hoof. "Stop being so embarrassed. Human or stallion, they like to have their... reading material. I understand, and it's alright."

It was anything but alright!

Author's Note

Well, nice party, right? Shame about the typo at the end there.