A Kindred Spirit

***Unless I specify our friend here has flattened his accent, he's speaking normally (General Texas accent)***

I started down the hallway to the archives when I noticed Celestia hadn't told me where Pinkie could be found. All of a sudden, a guard hollered to me, "INCOMING!"

I tensed up and spread my stance... A bit strange, that; pony instincts have just suddenly gone and replaced all of my old human ones. Intricacies of body transformation, I suppose...

And a pink grenade exploded in my face. I performed the automatic Pegasus response; beat your wings and get back a bit.

"HI!"

After having sufficiently recovered from my near heart attack, I took a deep breath, dropped my head and sighed.

"Pinkie. Please don't ever do that again."

The peppy pink party pony seemed a little offset. "Okay then."

"Well, now that that's settled," I began, "how are you?"

"Good!"

As I started my slow, easy gait, Pinkie began her strange gravity-defying bounce motion in a circle around me. I thought Pinkie far more foreign and enigmatic than any other pony. How could she be so energetic? How does she move so fast? How does she float like that?

"Have you seen Twilight recently?"

"Yeah. She's in the library. Want me to take you there?" was the expected response.

"Sure."

Pinkie stopped her physics-defying bounds and widened her already large grin. "Hang on!"

Before I could ponder the meaning of these two words, Pinkie grabbed my hoof and I was yanked forward into a world of distorted color and materialized back into my own in Twilight's library. She looked up and waited for me to speak, barely suppressing a peal of laughter at my totally stunned, probably rather sickly appearance.

"Could someone kindly explain what just happened?"

Twilight broke loose into a fit of unrestrained laughter, Pinkie with her; the latter was probably laughing from the joy of the former. I found myself chuckling. I must've looked ridiculous. I just let it come, and my own laughter soon followed the high-pitched tones of the other two ponies around.

After recovering, I said, "Hey."

After a brief moment Twilight managed to stop laughing, leaving Pinkie to sober. "Hey."

"I came around to say "hi" and to see what's new."

Twilight's general smile was now directed at me. She began, "Well, you've been asleep for a day and a half and you're now a Pegasus pony."

"Noted," I said sarcastically and a with little smirk. She gave a short giggle and returned to speaking.

"Rarity's been trying to figure out what clothes she can make you--"

At this I was slightly uncomfortable; I gave a little glance off to someplace diagonal and away from the mare currently speaking, being rather unfond of being fussed over--"Fluttershy's been trying to gain the trust of all the Canterlot Gardens animals, Pinkie's been, well, being Pinkie,"--

said mare glanced at me and grinned widely--"and Applejack's been helping out around the palace."

The obvious hit me over the head like a brick. "Did you all wait for me?" I sighed. "I didn't want y'all to do that. Y'all got lives to live and jobs to do, and waiting for me here isn't helping that."

Twilight just smiled and rolled her eyes. "What exactly is my job again? Come on, I know you know all about us."

This last statement garnered a startled look from me. Word travels fast with magic.

"Studying friendship?" I supplied, in the question form even though I knew my answer was correct.

"Bingo. As your friend,"--I smiled softly at this--"I'm here to help you. As for the other five, Rarity can design her clothing here, Fluttershy is technically unemployed, and as for the rest," she paused, turned, and struck a grin, "being the student of a supreme co-ruler helps with money matters."

I decided to pop the question. "You never said what Dash's been doing."

The purple mare smirked in the "I know something you don't know" fashion, feigned forgetfulness, and spoke, "Oh, of course. I almost forgot."

The smirk widened into a very very large smirk. "She's been getting pumped about coaching a certain pegasus"--She glanced at me, the visual cue making it obvious who she was referring to-- "in the flight department."

A delighted grin adorned my face. Best flyer in all of Equestria as coach? This'll be great!

Twilight offered these words of warning. "I'll warn you; she's not the most kind, patient, or understanding coach, but she is arguably the best."

My expression set into a determined smirk. "Can't be much different from my dad when I played sports. A tough coach is a good coach."

Twilight gave a reassured grin. "Glad you feel that way. Applejack and Fluttershy are down in the gardens; you should probably go talk to them."

Pinkie decided to make herself known now. "I could take you down there!" she offered enthusiastically.

I chuckled a bit. "No thanks, Pinkie. I'll just walk this time."

With a brief laugh I set off from the library with a thank you and again started into my slow, thoughtful trot, thinking about anything and everything, as usual.