The Reluctant Diplomat

Looking at the crazed blue mane of the pony frantically pounding on and old looking Victrola record player with a rubber hammer. The sight before her didn't exactly fill Corrie with confidence. Old fashioned gears, clear glass bulb looking things, glowing with what was hopefully magic rocks, and old tech parts scattered haphazardly throughout their room.

Her bed included. The one thing of her dreams. The only thing of her dreams. Two really good classes and a horrible third class made her only want one thing. Her bed. And it laid covered in the debrie of her roommates newest ADHD fixation.

A polite female voice with a pleasant Elven female accent in her mind's ear warned that her blood pressure and heart rate were elevating quickly, and did she want to turn her targeting software on? Staring eye to eye with her roommate she intoned to the voice to fuck off. 'Silent mode engaged!' the voice chimed back cheerfully.

Vinyl knew she bucked this up. Her heart was in the right place, she was sure that Corrie new that, right? She worried for a moment. That look in her eyes. It was so easy to forget she was from a predator species sometimes. This was not one of those times. She was also the Diplomat. No, not by a bucking long shot.

The intel they had on her was correct, in her humble scared opinion. Celestia help anyone not fast enough to get out of her way if they were in her path to her goal. Maybe friend and foe alike. The thought crept into her mind. She could feel her legs staring to back away on their own.

That's it, she's been compromised. She'll have to be replaced. So much for spy school. 'And I was so close!' Vinyl thinks angrily to herself. She did mention to her that she though her idea might be possible, didn't she? Maybe she should have mentioned she had today off and decided to pick up some parts and actually work on the thing. Trying to squeeze herself smaller and backing way the flight mode neurons in her brain starts to ignite.

Lowering her head and trying to stammer out an apology before running out of the room, a new sound fills her ears. Corrie is laughing. It's high, like a clear bell. Just an unusual tone. Not unpleasant to her ears though. She dares to peek up at her five foot six 'towering' frame to the nearly fear crazed mare. There is a smile on her face. 'That's good, right?' Thinks the ex-spy soon to be DJ cowering to herself in a corner. It's just a little lopsided. And now that I think about it, she muses, it looks kind of sad too.

Okay, fine. Corrie thinks to herself. If this is how the universe wants to play it. So be it. Whatever malicious forces residing in the exhausted woman's soul screamed in triumph as she opened the gates. Oh little pony I've got almost every human language *(not that many but her anger brought on the exaggeration) loaded up in my Linguasoft and your about to hear every. Gods. Damn. One. Of worst words and usages in either world.

'Silence override' she hears in her mind's ear. 'Happy Birthday!' she hears. Fanfare with a note with wings flying across her retina. Two new messages!

The first one she kinda expected but it still hit her. The reminder for her nanotattoo design was now done and locked in it's current pattern until unlocked and changed. Deleted.

There were two simsense videos attached to the next message. What stopped her anger was the name on the sender line.It wasn't her that stopped her. She couldn't have even if she wanted to. She was a tool of Cats dispassionate state. Just those three words could stop her. And they did.

The inhale made Corries chest heave with indignant fury. By the time she exhaled it passes like a pleasant breeze on a hot day. Gone without the memory of it even remaining. All she felt now was tired and alone. On a strange world surrounded by beings that just wanted to help her.

And here she was about to make her only real friend she's made here piss herself crying in the corner. She starts to laugh a little. Then stops. Looking down again into her friends eyes she tries to give her a smile. It comes out sad and tired, and they both know it.

She drops to her knees and opens her arms and gestures for her friend to come to her. "I'm so sorry Vinyl. So so sorry". Corrie says in a low tone, choking back tears. Vinyl gallops into her arms, raising herself up to return her human friends hug. They spend a few moments consoling each other as friends do when drawn back from the precipice of disaster. And the universe leaves them alone and untouched for a little while, to do so.

The two friends, human and mare lay on the floor, very little space between them. Red eyes to red eyes. Most of the crying was out of the way it seemed. But Corrie new it was just the beginning for her. This wasn't over yet.

"So. Why the waterworks?" Vinyl asks, her voice just a hint lower then usual. She makes sure that the earnestness of her question belies the lightness of her words.

On impulse Corrie rolls to her side and places her metal fingers on the tear stained trails just below Vinyls's left eye. She can fill the mare flinch a moment, then relax. A nervous gaze turns to confusion as she can see her process that her fingers feel warm. Corrie loses herself in the moment just following the trails down idly with her fingers. It was oddly soothing, in a way. A physical apology for the emotional trauma she just caused, Corrie supposed.

Vinyl just laid still and enjoyed the sensation of Corries fingers on her face. 'Maybe if I stay still longer, she'll keep doing it' she hopes to herself. With a silent prayer to Celestia, she tries to will it to be so. Oh please, oh please, oh please! Regaining her composure momentarily, she tries to redirect the conversation.

She comes back to with a start. A sharp "Ahem" from her roommate. Vinyl makes her eyes even larger and gives her the universal 'well, get on with it' look. Complete with head nod.

Indifferently the human woman responds "Yesterday was my birthday. In the midst of all this, I was reminded" she taps her right temple a few times to indicate the hardware in her skull. "I turned 20. Or 19. Or 21" Frowning for a moment to herself. "Not really sure." Shrugging she looks back at the mortified face of the mare across from her.

"How. What? How in Equestria do you not know your age?" Vinyl blurts out quickly. Too quickly to catch herself.

Corrie just smiles a small grin and leans closer to whisper in her, now adorably looking furry, ear. "Most everyone is mad here".

She breathes lightly into it. She can see the hairs inside her ear start to stand up. She knows where that trail of electricity starts in the tip of the ear and goes down to the foot. Leaving a delicious trail of sensation along it's blessed path.

Then she blinks and slowly sits up, realizing to herself she just tried to turn on a horse.

--

It took every ounce of willpower Vinyl had not to let her left leg buck and spasm with that weird sensation that went down her ear, all the way to her hoof. Not to mention other places she wasn't even thinking about before. Doubling her resolve she turns on her side and places her hoof on the humans chest, just above where she thinks the humans heart would be. Her hoof is met with a small amount of spongy resistance. Firm, but malleable under the pressure of her hoof. Something small was poking her frog though.

For a moment she really wasn't sure what she was going to do about Vinyl's hoof. Face it, Corrie shrugs to herself. It's been a while. She decided to wait a moment more, enjoying the sensation and the dawning of understanding that was now lighting Vinyl's eyes. Teasing her could be fun she thinks.

"Eeep" -Vinyl's brain

"So that's where the human's mammaries are. Very good Vinyl. Any other questions?" Corrie keeps her tone light, hoping to diffuse any nervousness her roommate might be feeling about groping her roommate while gently removing the offending hoof.

Now that her hoof was removed from the humans chest, it seemed that Vinyl could think again. If she didn't look at the now prominent nipple demanding attention sticking out in Corries blue blouse. She tried stutteringly to speak. Taking a deep breath to calm herself. "What was that about, that thing you said?" Looking into the humans eyes she could see that hit a nerve. She looked sad again, but tried to cover it up. Vinyl could read her a bit better now, it seems.

"It's from my favorite book. I actually learned to read from it. I've got it in storage, I'll have to read it it you sometime, if you like?" Corrie finds herself saying, and offering in surprise of equal measure. 'I guess we all are mad, indeed' she thinks and sighs.

Vinyl nods to her slowly. "I'd like that." Sitting up Vinyl has an idea of thunderous magnitude. Corrie sees trouble brewing in the mares eyes

A few minutes later her suspicions were justified. Sitting on the floor with a strange contraption strapped to her head. She wasn't overly worried, it wasn't connected to her Datajack so all should be well. Should. Redrawing up her living will might help her feel better. Not like anyone here could read it, she admonishes to herself and sighs.

It wasn't that Corrie was worried about the electricity. Nothing here could power enough juice to fry her headware, or even give her much of a headache. Her seizures did more than this could ever do. It was the magic. That always brought a level of chaos and uncertainty. But then again, she concluded, so did Vinyl.

"So yeah maybe the music in your head isn't the music they had on their worlds." Vinyl agrees with herself muttering. "But it's human music, all the same. Maybe it will provide some of the other humans comfort to hear it." Shrugging she continues. "Don't you think it's working hooking up your noggin' to possibly see if we can get a listen to it?" She's now standing on the tips of her two back hooves, somehow bouncing up and down still excitedly. If she had breasts, she'd be blackening her eyes. Wait...Where are their breasts.. Corrie's train of thought is disrupted by Vinyl's next mad-mare outburst.

"Besides it might give us a bridge to understand you humans in another way. You could say" , she goes back down to all four hooves and moves closer towards the human sitting crossed legged as she called it, on the floor "That we're looking" she inches closer towards the strange little humans face. "To maybe strike a note with your people". She stops, her muzzle barely an inch from the humans eyes. Vinyl tries to keep her poker face up but it's slipping. She can feel her eyebrows start to wiggle. Turning her flank a little to the side, she jiggles her cutie mark a little bit for emphasis.

Her human roommates' mouth just opens slightly, jaws working but no sound coming out, her eyes rolling. She brings that odd metal hand to her face and closes her eyes while pinching the bridge of her nose. She exhales deeply. "Oh Gods, Vinyl, how long have you waited to say that? That was..." Something like her Momma Cat Mojo would have continued before the mare rudely inturrupted her talking, by moving her hand away from her face with her cool, smooth hoof and kissed her.