Author's Note

Hello everyone! sorry for the long wait since the last chapter, but working on a ranch takes up a lot of my time, especially now that we are in the middle of calving. Here is Chapter 9 hot off the press! Thanks!

Chapter 9

The Way of the Cowboy

Chapter 9

This ointment is some damn effective stuff! It kinda reminds me of that Icy Hot stuff, but if Icy Hot was about 110% more potent. I was feeling much better, the soreness was fading away quickly. I strolled around the room a bit and offered a handshake to all of the guests in the room, all of them returned the handshake in the same fashion as Rainbow. They would hold one of their forelegs out and I would closed my hand around their pastern and shake it up and down gently and firmly. As I was greeting them all, I couldn't help but notice all the weird angles they are putting their forelegs in. How the hell can they twist their entire leg around, much like how a human's arm can.

I sat down next to Apples, her green eyes shifted to my blue ones. I pointed at her right front leg then pointed at my right arm, “Apples, copy Ty Thomson?” I asked her. Then I lifted my arm up and straight in front of me, with my palm down. I looked at Apples, hoping that she understood and would make her move. I heard some nickering from Purple again. One of Apple's ears twitched in Purple's direction, then it honed in back to me. Apple lifted her front right leg up to the same position as my arm. I turned my hand so it was palm up, they waited for her. Apples in turn, rotated her hoof so the bottom of her hoof was facing up. How the hell is that possible, a horse's leg isn't supposed to bend that way. I brought my hand up to my nose, she did the same, I put my hand behind my head, she copied the same. I tried a few more positions, and she followed them exactly the same as me. I put my arm down and just sat there, glancing from my arm then to her leg. I took an Equine Science class in college, and I couldn't recall any hooved animal being able to move like that.

I held out my left hand, palm up, and pointed at her right front leg and pointed at my open left hand. She gave me this puzzled look, then slowly placed her leg in my palm. I took my right hand and placed it on top and conformed it around her pastern gently. Apples tensed up a bit and she took a quick intake of breath. I could feel her heartbeat through my hands, “It's OK, I ain’t going to hurt you Apples,” I spoke as gently as possible. She relaxed a bit, and I continued my examination. I slowly moved my right hand up her leg, feeling her skeletal structure beneath her hide, much like how I would on a normal horse, but much gentler. Nothing felt right, equine and pretty much every hooved animal that I know of, has an unguligrade leg structure. These ponies have a plantigrade leg structure, built more like a human's arm, or a bear's front leg. If that's the case, can these ponies walk on two legs at times? Instead of just one solid cannon bone, there were two. I went up and down her leg numerous times feeling over every surface. Another thing I noticed is that these ponies don’t have chestnut scabs above their knees, just smooth soft fur. That's another thing, The hair on these ponies is so incredibly soft and clean, that they obviously bathe quite often. Apples seemed to be liking what I was doing, because the tension was completely gone, her leg was like puddy in my hands. I looked up at her face and she had her eyes closed, and she was sporting a small smile and her ears were facing me and drooping to the sides a bit. I let her leg go and it slowly drifted back to the bench she was sitting on. Apples looked down at her leg and rotated it and stretched it a bit then placed it back down. She looked at me then slowly shifted a bit and held her other leg out to me and shook it a bit, then gave me a nod and a grin. I chuckled a bit then proceeded to give this leg the same treatment.

I heard some horse speech on the other side of Apples, it sounded like Diamonds. She was apparently talking to Apples, because soon after, Apples replied back with a few horse noises of her own. I heard Big White talking to Purple and the Doctor, then the Doctor and Purple left the room, and came back a few minutes later rolling in a complete pony skeleton display. They rolled it to the center of the room for me to look at. I let go of Apples leg, much to her dismay, then walked over to the display to get a closer look. The entire front leg from the shoulder blade to the hoof was completely different from what I am used to seeing. I was right! Their front leg was built more like the structure of a bear's front leg. It's like a combination of both unguligrade and plantigrade. Other than that, the rest of the skeleton looks like a regular horse. I nodded my head at Purple, Big White and the Doctor and walked over to Diamonds, to see if she was done studying my pants.

“May I please have my pants back now Diamonds?” I asked as I gestured to my pants. Nodding her head, she held them out to me. Taking back my pants I slid them on, then grabbed my belt and started slipping it through the belt loops. Apples had gotten up and off of the bench she was sitting on and walked up to me and lifted the belt buckle up with her hoof to get a better glance at it. She made a few nicker noises and that made a few other ponies come closer too. Rainbow, Balloons, Purple, and Big White gathered around Apples to get a look at my buckle. As I started to pull the slack of the belt into the loops the buckle was pulled from Apple's grasp.

About that time, my stomach decided to make itself known. All ears in the room were aimed in my direction, then we all heard about four other stomachs doing the same as mine. Balloons bounced outta the room and was gone for about five seconds returned with four small boxes on her back. She then bounced over to my side and gave me one box. I took it and slowly opened the top, and inside were six different types of muffins. There was a blueberry, chocolate chip, banana, cinnamon bran, lemon poppyseed, and one with cherries in it. They all looked delicious, so I picked the lemon poppyseed first, and bit into it…then I took another bite, then another, and then another. That muffin didn't last too long. That was easily the best muffin I have ever had. Balloons had passed out the remaining boxes and the majority of the ponies in the room were consuming a muffin. All except the guards, the paramedics and the Doctor. I thanked Balloons for the muffins and gave her a smile and a thumbs up, and she smiled in return.

I put the rest of my clothes on and stuffed my phone and wallet in my pocket and put my Leatherman back on my belt, slipped my boots and revolver back on and set my hat back on my head, the doctor gave me a nod and held out his hoof, we shook, and nodded at each other. I also shook each of the paramedics' hooves and gave them my thanks. Big White was waiting by the door, along with her two guards. “Ty Thomson, wHinNy niCkeR NickEr,” Big White said while looking at me and gesturing with one of her golden clad hooves in a “follow me” kind of way. I nodded my head, and grabbed my damp crayon “Ew” and my notepad. Our ontourage stepped out of the room and headed to the door we came in a few hours ago. As we approached the front desk, Big White spoke to the mare behind the counter, her horn flashed and a couple of gold coins appeared and dropped onto the desk. I picked one up and tried to guess the weight. It was about the same size as the Kennedy Half Dollar, but about the weight of three put together. As I marveled at the coin, I heard Big White give a quiet chuckle and proceeded to walk out the door with her guards on either side. I dropped the coin back on to the desk and followed her. Shay and Lyra, followed on either side of me and we were followed by the rest of the group that consisted of Purple, Butterfly, Rainbow, Balloons, and Diamonds and Apples were trailing in the back.

We walked out into the warm sunshine, if I were to guess it, judging by the location of the sun, I would have guessed it was around 11:00am. We strolled down the pathway, and as we started to pass the hot air balloon, I heard Apples talking to the others and then she started heading to the balloon. Rainbow spoke up too and flew over to the balloon as well. Purple then shouted out to them. Both Apples and Rainbow gave a whinny back. Apples hopped into the balloon and had it floating up in the air in no time. Rainbow was on the outside hovering next to the basket and started to push and guide the balloon towards the center of town. My eyes followed them until they floated out of sight.

Our group started heading to the center of town, and I became aware of more and more ponies. Ponies of every color, literally. Heck the only ones i've seen that even slightly resemble the coat color of a normal horse would be all the white ones, like Big White and her guards, and Diamonds. Apples kinda resembled a palomino. As I was walking, my head was on a swivel, taking in the beautiful scenery, and the charming thatched roof buildings. The flying ponies criss-crossed the sky, busy with their own tasks, unicorns were placed here and there, every once and a while I'd catch a glimpse of their horns glowing, and some random object floating next to them. There were regular ponies also, walking here and there, some were pulling small carts filled with a wide variety of produce. I could see a section of the village that had a farmers market of some sort, there were various stands selling their goods. There were a few restaurants with outside seating, with a few patrons at a few tables enjoying the food they ordered. Getting to a more centralized part of the town, there was a multi story high circular building, it looked like a town hall of some sort.

We must've been quite the attraction, as soon as ponies caught sight of Big White, they were immediately bowing, and once they caught sight of me, their curious stares lingered on me. The next building that came into view was a…tree house? A giant of a tree, complete with windows, and an observation deck, and a bee hive hanging on a limb. This was apparently where we were headed, because the next thing I knew, we were all filing through the front door. Once inside, my vision was filled with books, lots of books, the air itself had that bookish smell. “This must be the town's Library.” I thought.

“WHINNNNYYY!!!” shouted Purple, loud enough for me to wince.

“What the hell was that all about?” I said while turning my neck far enough to look at her, while also rubbing an ear. Purple gave me a sheepish smile, and her face started to blush.

“KniCkerr Ty Thompson, knIck KnickEr wHinNY niCker.” Purple spoke directly to me. I nodded my head and gave her a thumbs up. She walked around me and headed for a set of stairs, and shouted up at it, and then I heard a voice that sounded masculine yet childish. At the top of the stairs a creature came into view, waddling in on two legs, its body had green and purple scales, and it had large green reptilian eyes. Green phin-like things that started on its head and then traced down its back to its tail. It kinda reminded me of a certain green and purple dinosaur from a TV show from when I was a kid.