Sifting through your feelings, they keep looping back on Nick, to your embarrassment. You weren't gay, dang it! "This is really off-putting."

And there was Nick, keeping up that friendly smile. "Don't worry about it. You're in an odd spot, being one and the other, and the age thing counts. Oh, by the way, you looked younger."

Sally nods quickly. "Harder to place with ponies, but you looked like you were 20s or 30s?"

Interesting, but... "Does that matter? I'm still the same age." You pat your front and can feel the same creases on your face. You earned those age lines!

Nick chuckles at your confusion. "Matters a lot. Your... human side is just an outfit, like Sally said before. The moment you dropped tail, your pony side was the side that matters. You're that old, in terms of how old you are for actually aging. Shoot, try running." He pointed to the front door. "Go for it."

Go for a jog? "Don't see how a run across two rooms is going to--" Still, you jogged and the difference becomes clear almost immediately. Joints that would have issued mild complaints were silent. Things moved just as you told them to. It's like you're... in your 20s or 30s, regardless of how old the outter skin was. It was only through two rooms, but that was all it took to feel the difference. "God damn..."

"By the way." Jacob folded his hands on the table. "Watch out for priests, the real ones. Being exorcised is really painful, I hear. Fortunately, we don't usually get their attention. Not like ponies are out there messing with people in any bad way as a rule."

That was a thing?! Priests, vampires, ponies... "What's next, wizards?" You don't like the way they're looking at you. "Shit..." Wizards too, why not?! "Shit!" A thought hits you suddenly. "Are unicorn horns valuable?"

Nick crosses his thick arms. "Anyone that tried wouldn't live to regret it." Stern, final, and strangely appealing...

"Damn it..." Hiding that is becoming difficult. "Nick."

"Yeah?"

"The one I'm thinking about is Nick, alright?"

Sally bursts into giggles. "Aw! You two have been friends forever! Is it a friendship thing?"

Tom chuckles in a single noise. "Or are you lookin' at him in a new way?"

Nick moves to put a hand on you, but aborts at the last inch. "Sorry. That question stands though, kinda important. Are we BFFs or something else?"

"Well, we are that... BFFs, I mean, right?" That much you were clear about. "Do people still use that term? Thought it'd get replaced by something strange these days."

"Still popular," Nick assures. "But you look like you have more on your mind?"

Not that you want to admit! But it was hard... When did Nick get so handsome? And since when did you care about if a man was handsome or not? Even as a horse, he had appealing qualities. Arguably more of them, which is even more confusing. A sharp whistle shakes you out of your thoughts.

Tom was raising a glass at you, and he's taller? No, you're shorter. You're on all fours. "What?"

Nick's right there. "You got so caught up in what you're fixed on. Stop thinking about your friends so hard."

"Were'nt a 'friend' thing," mocked Tom, who looks ready to laugh. "Or she wouldn't be winking at me."

Sally throws a remote control at him, even if it caused no harm but giving him an excuse to laugh properly. "Stop staring at her!"

What were they staring at? Why was Nick looking properly embarassed for the first time. "Sorry. Let me..." But before you can focus on getting on two legs, he drops down to four. That's too much. He looms over you, but he looks so friendly and wonderful and... built so well.

"Winking is a thing only lady ponies do, which you are now." Not that you have any animal husbandry background. "The part winking isn't your eye." He leans in, face dominating your view. "I want to make it clear that I didn't think this would happen. You're a friend, and one I hold dearly, as a friend. I want us to keep being friends."

Yes, friends! That sounded wonderful. "But..." That sound like there's a big addendum there, also... "If it wasn't my eye, then how is it a wink?"

Jacob elbows Tom. "Mares wink with their lady bits, to help make it clear to a stallion that they're interested."

Nick proves that, even with a furry face, he could still blush. "It's hard to fake that. It... uh, means you're turned on, to put it bluntly."

Tom slaps the table he's seated at. "It means more than that. It means--" He doesn't get to finish, being shoved by Jacob.

Nick snorts in a way only a horse can. "I'm not that pretty..."

"You aren't pretty at all." The words escape you before you can think of them. "Um... You're handsome. Guys are handsome." And you prove that lady-ponies can blush just as well as guy ponies.

Nick chuckles softly. "Am I hurting my chances by noting you, as a human, are neither?"

"Hey!" That stung!

"Truth is the truth." Nick closes in. Ugh, he even smells nice... "You have a lot of other things I like. You're fun to be around and have a good attitude. In fact, I was hoping you'd drop tail, but I didn't expect you to become a lady."

"So, about that magic?" Distraction! Besides, you did kinda want to know about that... "You had a friend?"

"I did promise." He touched you! Not with a hand or a hoof, but his cute pony nose against yours, sharing breath a moment. You could think of nothing but him for that frozen moment. He felt so good, touching like that... He draws back. "I never had a... kindness pony before."

"I am not a thing you 'have'." That much you were completely sure on. "So what are you? If I'm 'kindness'."

Nick thumped his chest with a dull thud. "Loyalty. I'll never let a friend down if there's another option, and if there isn't... I'll try to make one."

Nick was pretty true in all the time you've known him... It's one of the reasons you liked him! "Ah... So... the tribes had specific tricks. Earth ponies, tough. Pegasus, fly. Unicorns, magic. Do these other things do that, or not?" You wave over yourself. "Does being kindness mean anything other than awkward feelings?"

"That, to start. Sorry."

He kept apologizing! "Why do you keep saying that? You didn't do this." He looked more guilty. "Did you?" It's your turn to move in on him. "What aren't you telling me?" You feel your tail lashing behind you, broadcasting your annoyance. "Truth, out with it."

"Promise you won't be mad." Despite being significantly larger than you, he was shrinking back as if scared of you, or what you'd say. But being angry at him didn't come easily. You didn't want to be angry at him...

"Truth." That much you were sure you wanted.

"Right..." He shook himself out. "We've been friends a while... I had a good feeling from you. I thought... the odds were good... so I tried to shake your tail loose."

What? "What?" You repeat your thought out loud, echoing as it was. "I don't remember anything like that."

"We were at that water park a while back." He waved a hoof at yesterday long ago. "I booped you."

"Boop?" Ah ha. You were sure some new words were going to come out of it!

He pressed his right hoof to your nose. "Boop."

Your face lit up. Being 'booped' by him was stupidly nice, and embarassing.

"But you didn't, and I thought, oh well, guess I was wrong. Nothing lost... Until today."

"Until today." You duck back away from that alarmingly nice hoof. "If you can 'boop' people, why not boop everyone? Ponies everywhere!"

"Because it doesn't always work, like yours didn't." He circles around you slowly. "And not everyone is a good match for being one in the first place. The point isn't to foist pony'ness onto random people."

Sally raised a hand. "Foist away."

"You know I tried before." Nick huffed, tail lashing once. "You know I'd try again, if I thought it'd work."

"Right, fine... Just means I get to pet the ponies." And she has no hesitation in ruffling Nick's head, fingers playing with his ears. "Almost as fun."

"About your question." Nick stops circling and accepts the petting he's getting. "Yes. Loyalty has perks, and so does Kindness, and the others. Kindness is, as the name implies, about kindness. Healers of mind and body, they are the safe place you can withdraw to, knowing they will take care of you."

That wasn't what you were just the day before! "Uh... Right... I don't feel any... heal-e-er. How do I cast a cure spell?" So you'd played a few JRPGs in your time. Sue you. "That sounds super soft..." You weren't a grizzled man, but you weren't that for sure!

"It is, and it isn't. If you didn't notice, we get into scraps sometimes... Someone who can take care of it afterwards is... worth a lot." Nick directed a hoof to his bandaged middle. "The most basic trick I can show you. I can't do it, but I can show it. See this?"

"Where that jerk cut you?" It was hard not to see that. "What about it?"

"Touch it and fix it. Imagine you... How did he put it... Imagine you're warm, which you are, and you're melting the hurt, which is ice. Melt it away and leave no pain behind. The worse someone's hurt, the colder it is, and the more warmth you need. A vampire's claws are really cold, so bring your warm game." He backed a step, turning while he did it to make the bandaged side in easy reach.

You reached out, placing both forehooves on his side. It was only after you did so that you realize how quickly you had jumped at the chance to touch him. Why was he so attractive?! "Warmth..." Focus! You had a job. You were warm, be the warmth. Chase away the cold... Feeling him, you could.. Yeah, he wasn't warm enough there, where the bandages were. It was like he was just coming in on a really cold day. You press your hoof more firmly. "Warm..."

That cold, it felt so deep and hidden. Without really thinking about it, you nuzzle the spot, as if pressing your snout against it would help the heat penetrate deeper. You didn't want him hurt. You didn't want him to be in pain. Warmth... You kissed the spot, nestling in against the injury. A little warmth. He was responding to your attempts, not in any obvious way, but you could feel the spot become just a little less chilly.

Something touches one of your ears and you recoil in surprise. Sally is petting you. Seeing it's her makes the surprise die down quickly. "It's alright," she whispers. "You're doing good."

But did she have to touch you? You were in the middle of something! You press back in, redoubling the contact. You're soon side to side with him, rubbing the whole of your torso against him. Warm... Warm! You spot that he is growing warm in a whole new way. Like any stallion with a mare he knew winked at him, he was becoming quite warm indeed, and your face is close to the action, to your blushing realization. It was alien. Inhuman!

Of course it was, he was a horse, and so were you, at least at that moment. You were two ponies, doing what ponies do. Warmth! You close your eyes, trying to not think about that, instead just the heat you were putting out. You'd chase away the cold from Nick. "Feel better?"

"So much so... Please, keep going." Nick sounded happy, and tense.

Author's Note

The trend of one option just being shunned continues. But what do we do now?! We're a healer, yay!

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