With the sun starting to set, Twilight gently pulled on Light's reins. "Whoa there..." she said quietly. At this point she barely had to say it, given she could feel him, and evidently, he could feel her. At first she was amazed that she could strike a friendship with a stallion in the human world, given what she'd read about them, but it was an exercise in friendship to have discovered that she could - and in many ways, Light provided a far calmer companionship than her friends, as much as she loved them too.

Yet out of all the horses at the stables, it seemed only Lighthoof would quiet when she approached, and stare at her, licking his lips whenever she'd come, and whinny whenever she'd go. He certainly wasn't the star of the bunch, with various wealthier humans having their own horses, rather than the one Twilight was merely paying to use to learn how to ride, though that was mainly due to his relative lack of agility.

If anything, he was big. Bigger than any other in the stable, and bulkier too. It was like had all those muscles in his thighs and barrel that he couldn't really put to good use, other than to gallop with a learner on his back.

This had all started back when her friends had told her to finally get a hobby that didn't involve sitting in the college lab until the late hours of the night. Try something 'sporty' they said, something to get some fresh air, away from the stuffy lab. And as an act of friendship, she obliged, not that she wouldn't sometimes lie.

Yet over the past two months, she'd come back to the stables every other day after her last class, and only two weeks ago she got her first certificate, permitting her to ride alone, so long as she kept to the stables, racecourse, and small meadow.

Her slender fingers ran through his mane from the base right to the top of his head, feeling along his sturdy skull, the horse was still quite anxious to get moving, kicking his hooves even as they both basked in the orange sun, Twilight shifted herself on the saddle so her feet pulled back, and she could lie on his neck, and slinging her arms around him. "I'm glad I started doing this. I didn't know I could feel so... alive." she said quietly, earning another nicker from the horse. With a small kick to his side and a bit of imagination, Twilight and the horse were headed back to the stables.

Though... just for kicks. Just because she wouldn't be seeing him tomorrow... she leaned right in to bury her whole face in his mane, with a drawn out smell of the hair she'd washed herself by hand, and the softest kiss right over his ear. "I don't know what I'd do without you." she said, receiving merely a long, drawn out rumbling neigh in response. She didn't care her glasses were half way down her face, or that she'd smell, well, like the stables. She just cared she could share their hours together when they could.

Every gallop, every time those hooves hit the ground, she felt a little bit closer to home. "Ya!" she shouted, her voice sputtering for a moment as she smiled, realizing she had one of his long, chestnut mane hairs stuck in her mouth, with the stallion accelerating under her, she felt far safer hugging him like this than in the saddle with proper form as she'd been taught. Looking up for a moment, she saw a pair of headlights on the road by the barn. Was that... Dash's car? Complete in blue with a cloud and rainbow on the bonnet.

The purple science student immediately straightened herself up, and Light understood to slow down a little as she thought out a game plan. Why the heck was she here! She'd never come to the stable before, aside from when all six of them had gone on a ride around town to find her a hobby so long ago now. "Celestia, why did she have to come here... and now... I.. grh." she paused, closing her eyes for a second.

"Calm down, Twilight." she said to herself, as her steed trotted closer to the stable, she waited until he came to a complete halt as she saw Rainbow practically sliding down the hill with her sneakers and a backpack slung over her shoulder, complete with her soccer uniform.

Carefully placing her foot back into a stirrup, Twilight lifted herself over, thankfully her jeans not catching on the saddle this time, until she managed to completely lower herself. She couldn't help but give Light a couple of solid pats on the side. 'Act natural' she thought, something he seemed to understand, given that he took a couple of steps back with a quiet nicker.

"Where ya been, Twi?!" Dash called over, as she jogged the rest of the way over. "I thought we were going to get burgers. Or, like that plant burger you're always raving about. For you. Not for me." Dash said, getting a little stuck in the details too, before shaking her head, as her rainbow hair blew about her face in the light breeze.
"Oh... Erm..." Twilight said, only just realizing her glasses were out of whack too, she corrected them and smoothed her hair back and quickly into a scrunchie, though it was clear it was a rough job, as even then she still looked dishevelled after her little ride.

"Sorry, I guess I forgot. Y'know how I am, f-forgetful!" she shrugged, laughing nervously. Dash was the last person she wanted to know about the fact that she'd been coming here almost every other day just to see Light and to spend time working on her hobby. Though the rational part of her mind told her that Dash wouldn't exactly suspect that she had feelings for a horse. 'These humans are so closed-minded.' she thought to herself, which resulted in a small, seemingly unrelated kick of Light's hoof into the dusty clay and hay of the stables.

"Well, it's not too late... I just thought I'd meet ya at the fountain. The girls are headed over now, so you can still come.... I mean, like if you still wanna." Dash pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow, with a hand on her side, she looked between Twilight and the stallion for a few long seconds.

"Oh right. Yeah. Sure. Donezo. Burger. Burger for me and burger foooor you." Twilight replied, taking a couple of steps back, keeping one eye on Dash, she guided her horse into the stable and gave the briefest of strokes along his muzzle, making sure it was locked up, she turned out the light and headed out of the barnyard door to accompany her friend, with one smirk back to Light.

Author's Note

Twilight and her friends are in college in this fic. Twilight stumbled into the 'human' world through a portal of her own design, in a Sunset sorta way canonically. This takes place in the EqG universe insofar as the character designs; the setting is mostly irrelevant.