Shifted

Luna woke with a start and calmed herself. She believed dreamwalking would be relaxing, it was anything but. What she saw was beyond her imagination in horrors and terrors that some creatures live with while others had learnt over the years to dream of nothing at all, their minds blank… Then there was Raul. The human that wasn’t a human. A dee-bee? A secret mage?

She didn’t know but the knowledge of such was beginning to drive her mad at some levels. Perhaps he could shape shift? Mayhaps into a… stallion?

She blushed and shook her head, clearing her thoughts of such drole ideas and moved a hoof to her mane, brushing it away from her face. She chuckled as she felt the strands of hair falling into their own places. With a thought she allowed her mane to return to its ethereal state again and looked at what she could see. It was as dark as the night sky with constellations, stars and nebulae.

But it felt empty.

She willed her mane back to a traditional dark blue and lay her head down on her pillow and dozed to sleep, her own sleep this time.

When she awoke the sun was above the horizon and shown through the window, warming her coat slightly. She yawned and stretched, then felt the all too familiar feeling all creatures have when waking from a restful sleep. She trotted to the door and opened it quickly, looking back at her bed and felt a knock on her horn.

She turned to see Raul, shirtless and mid yawn, yanking his hand back and trying to will the yawn away as he mumbled something.

“Tis well and good morrow to thee, Raul. I must make water, please excuse me!” she rushed past him and into the bathroom with a hurry. Raul could only smirk as he scratched his abs and turned to his room.

“Good mornin’ to ya too, Princess.”

Luna looked at the toilet in frustration. It wasn’t a squat toilet at all! How was she, a royal princess in another world, supposed to… she grimaced at the thought but relented and tried to mount the bowl. She slipped a hoof into the water to her chagrin. She tried to hover, she considered the bathtub. Finally she grumbled to herself and simply turned, backed onto it, and went.

She decided that it was as good a time as any for a bath. She hadn’t had one in two days and that was more of a river rinse than a good bath. And to clean her foreleg and tail from her mess trying to figure out the damnable toilet. She cursed it under her breath and considered just teleporting to the woods to relieve herself like a simple pony of her time would… but that would attract any number of creatures that would feast on her while she relieved herself. Best to learn to use what was nearby than to die in a form of comfort.

She stood in the porcelain tub and slipped, planting her chin on the rim and whinnying. She planted her hooves better and turned on the water, only to watch it run down the drain. She huffed and looked for anything to stop it. A towel should work fine. The water was icy cold but refreshing as she laid down and let it fill to cover her body before she turned it off.

“Ah, this is what mine bodice needed; A good soak.” A knock at the door pulled her from her reverie. “Whom is there?”

“It’s Ariel and I gotta pee! Open up!” Luna opened the door with her magic and grinned as the younger woman entered the room and stopped, looking at the pony in a bath. She looked to the toilet and then back to Luna. “So… are you gonna,” she motioned to the door.

“Oh, certainly,” Luna answered and closed the door, locking it with her magic as she turned and looked out the window, sighing as the cold water worked against her skin, “this is a lovely land you call home. What is its name? I have yet to ask that beyond ‘earth’.”

Ariel bounced twice before she unbuckled her pants and made for the toilet, sitting firmly on it. “Ahh, oh yeah, that’s way better…”

“Ah, so that is how it is used? I could have used your expertise a mileaway ago.”

“A what-now?”

“Ah, time is relative. Uhm, roughly half an hour? When I made water myself,” she looked at the floor and inhaled sharply, blushing and widening her eyes.

“Oh… that’s why it’s a little wet,” Ariel said looking between her legs at the floor. “Bah, i’ve stepped in worse.”

“No, I am truly sorry! I… have made a mess as a foal would and-”

“Look, drop it. You’re new here and it’s way better than what Doc Blue leaves,” she smiled as she reached to a small cubby and removed some toilet paper.

Luna gasped. “You have wiping materials here? If only I knew,” she huffed and sank below the surface of the water as Ariel stood and flushed.

Ariel waited until Luna resurfaced before talking. “Look, I know you’re on a new world but us gals gotta stick together, okay? So if you have any questions,” she reached to touch Luna’s neck and squeaked, “dang that’s cold! Why are you in an ice bath? Wait, let me guess, you didn’t know we have hot water?”

Luna looked at Ariel and lowered her muzzle into the tepid water and exhaled deeply.

…

Luna grunted in slight protest as Ariel dried her coat and mane with a new towel while hanging the wet one used to plug the drain out the window. “You know, I’m glad I don’t have fur or hair all over my body. This would suck.”

“Yes, well it is the way of my kind to not wear clothes, as those ‘suck’, as you say. But there are times we must in the same as you must wear more clothing to make up for your lack of a coat.”

“Haha, I think you just one-upped me, did you just one-up me?”

Luna let her ears flatten to her head as Ariel began to dry her head. “I do not know what that means, but if it is what I think, than yes, I have ribbed you.”

“Ha, ‘ribbed’. Pulled my leg?”

“...Do human women have tails that I may pull?”

Ariel snorted a laugh. “No, if we did… oh the guys’d die trying to get under them.”

It was Luna’s turn to laugh. “All males are indeed the same, then. I wouldst consider it a lucky week where I wasn’t courted by some dunce trying to mate with me. As though it were a contest to win my tail swipe on their hindquarters,” she mused.

“Yeah, I don’t know your people well enough to answer that, but I guess all guys are dogs, amiright?”

“I apologize, I don’t understand again. How is a male like a dog?”

Ariel snickered into her wrist as she stood and pointed to her crotch. “They all wanna bury their bones.”

Luna looked at Ariel and the spot she pointed to and her ears perked. “Oh! I get it! I understand,” she laughed heartily and clopped a hoof on the floor loudly, “indeed they are! May we be happy we can only become pregnant once a year, yes?” she grinned foolishly as Ariel laughed back.

“Oh, you’re in for a surprise in a week or so. Stick with me and I’ll teach you what you need to know about earth, humans and then some.”