The next morning I was up and about early again, but this time I had slept better. The night before, I’d managed to catch Shoeshine and Electric Sky before they knocked off work in the workshop behind Shoeshine’s house. They wanted a chance to clean up after working near Shoeshine’s forge all day, but this time Shoeshine insisted that I come over to her house. So I occupied myself with reading some more about the history of games in Equestria before it was time to head over to Shoeshine’s with my muffin payload.

Shoeshine’s house was much neater than I’d expected after hearing Electric Sky’s comments about unfinished projects on the kitchen table. I’d been ready for a pretty cluttered house, not necessarily dirty, but just bits of repair project and tools here and there. There was none of that, but I noticed that the kitchen table was clear. I felt a little bad about that, because back on Earth, I’d certainly been guilty of leaving a bit of this and that on the kitchen table instead of cleaning it. I mostly ate on the couch while watching television, so I never really needed the kitchen table for its intended purpose. Still, Shoeshine never made a comment about it, and neither did Sky, so I let it be, as well.

We’d had a great time, just sitting and talking into the evening. We’d had some tea with our muffins because Sky said that coffee would keep her up all night. It turned out that she lived just a few houses down. Pretty convenient for work. Of course, it’s not like a pony working anywhere in Ponyville would have that much of a commute, walking from one side of town to the other might take twenty whole minutes at a pretty leisurely pace. The pair of coworkers were obviously longtime friends, as well, as they tended to bicker like an old married couple, which I’d found hilarious.

Anyway, it was now morning, and I was scheduled to meet Rainbow later at that hill with the pond and the little woods a bit later. Electric Sky’s mention of coffee the night before had gotten me thinking that I wouldn’t mind some. I went nosing through my cabinets, but I didn’t see anything. I knew that at some point I’d have to go through everything in here just to see what Twilight and her friends had stocked me up with, but right now I just wanted coffee.

Then I had an idea. Closing my eyes, I stuck my nose in the first cabinet and sniffed. Nothing. Still nothing at the next cabinet, but on the third, my new and improved nose caught a little hint of coffee. I opened my eyes and poked my head in deeper. Going through a cabinet this way was actually way easier than as a human. My long neck made it pretty easy to get right in there. Reaching anything at the back might still be a challenge, but I could find something much faster. My nose led me to a lidded tin, and as I snaked a hoof in and pulled it out, I could see it was labeled with a coffee bean. Bingo.

I opened it up and was dismayed to see that it was whole bean. Hmm, there had to be a grinder somewhere around here, then. Suddenly I realized that I’d seen it without even noticing it. I looked over and sure enough, there was a grinder sitting beside the large jars holding flour and sugar a few feet over from the stove. When I’d seen it with it’s big hopper and crank handle, I’d put it down as a meat grinder. My aunt in Kentucky had always had one sitting out on the counter like that, since she and my uncle raised their own meat and tended to make sausage and hamburger and the like from their own meat. It just hadn’t clicked that ponies don’t eat meat, so there was no way that was a meat grinder. A little closer inspection showed that there was no grill on the front, just a chute for the ground whatever to pour out. So I filled the hopper, grabbed a mug to catch the grounds and dumped in enough beans for a pot. The little hand-crank turned out a decent medium grind, and I was on my way to coffee with my breakfast.

Now to find something to brew it in. There were a lot of cooking accoutrements both on hooks and tucked neatly into cabinet space, but it wasn’t too long before I located an old-fashioned percolator-style coffee maker. This couldn’t be too hard, I thought. I put the grounds in the top, water in the bottom, and set the whole thing over high heat on the stove. It didn’t take too long before I saw and heard the coffee start to perk, and then it was just a matter of watching the color. It turns out, though, that watching the color of coffee in the perk can be a little misleading if you’re not used to it. What I thought looked like a nice dark intensity turned out to be a really strong cup of coffee. Oh well, I was sure I’d get it with a little practice, and besides, I was used to the coffee at work back on Earth. It didn’t even come close to being worse than that, too strong or not.

My little coffee-making escapade had taken some time, so the sun was already up by the time I headed out to the backyard with my oats and coffee. This took a couple of trips, and as I was clomping awkwardly on three hooves with the fourth holding the coffee pot, I heard Shoeshine’s voice from the other side of the fence. “Why didn’t you just set it on your back?”

“It’s hot,” I replied, looking over towards my neighbor. She was out with her own mug, sitting in a chair behind her little shop.

“Well that’s why you use a tray,” she said.

That’d never occurred to me. “I’m not sure I could balance it,” I said.

“Of course you could balance it. I’ve never heard of a pony that couldn’t balance whatever they wanted on their back,” she said. “How did you carry a lot of stuff at once back in Kentucky?”

“Um, bags?” I said hesitantly.

“Well sure you can use a bag, but I meant stuff that you couldn’t stuff down a bag, like plates or your coffee pot there,” she said.

“Just like this,” I said, now really nervous that I’d really let something slip. It sounded like this was pretty fundamental, and now that I thought of it, I’d seen plenty of ponies carrying things on their backs. It just didn’t occur to me to try it that way this morning.

“You didn’t grow up around pony folk, did you?” Shoeshine asked.

A lifeline, and I could even tell the truth. I really didn’t like lying to anyone, but it probably wouldn’t do to have it be common knowledge that I hadn’t always been a pony. “Um, no. I didn’t grow up around ponies.”

“Orphan?” she asked simply.

“Not exactly,” I said. “It was…”

Then she cut me off. “Sorry, that’s personal and I’ve no right to ask. Just forget I said anything.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I know I’m kind of a weird pony, in a lot of ways. You could say I took an unusual path to get here, I guess.”

“The usual path can be boring,” Shoeshine said with a smile. “I didn’t mean to be nosy. Well, let’s be honest. I did mean to be nosy, but sometimes my mouth outruns my brain.”

“I think we all have that problem from time to time,” I said, seeing her smile a bit in response.

After a short silence, I said, “So do you come out here for a morning coffee often?”

“Yeah, nearly every morning about this time,” she replied.

“You must have just missed me yesterday morning. I was out to watch the sunrise, then I headed out for the day,” I said.

“Must have,” she said. “Some company’s always nice. Electric Sky’s here some mornings, too. When she can get her lazy flank out of bed,” she added with a smile. “I swear, most mornings that mare rolls out of bed just in time to make it to work.”

“I’ve been guilty of that in the past,” I said, thinking of all the mornings I’d gotten up just in time to roll out the door for work, with a can of Coke substituting for breakfast.

“She sort of makes a habit of it. Of course, when she does oversleep, she’s just down the way, so I can go an get her easy enough. She kind of quit oversleeping once I started waking her up with an oversized party horn,” said Shoeshine with a chuckle.

“I imagine that’d give someone incentive to get up on time,” I said.

“Oh yeah, I was intending to ask,” she started. “That trick of yours with the charcoal, can you hold anything like that?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s just how I usually hold things.”

“Not touching your hoof?” she asked.

“No, I usually hold things a bit away from my hoof,” I said.

“So can you pick up hot things like that? Without hurting yourself, I mean?” she asked.

I thought about it. I couldn’t really recall feeling any heat from the coffee pot this morning, but I was holding it by the handle, so that might not mean much. “I don’t know. I’ve never tried.”

“Well, it seems like you’re a lot more dexterous than your average earth pony. I know you’re working on your games and all, but if you’re looking for some part-time work, I could use someone to help with some small details on repairs. Sky usually handles that, but she’s also my heavy lifter, sometimes we get a little busy with the big jobs and the small ones have to wait. It’d be nice to have someone to help with that sort of stuff. It wouldn’t be all the time, mind you,” she said.

“That sounds good. I mean, I the games are a nice hobby, but I don’t really see myself doing that as a job. Ponyville’s probably not a big enough town to support a shop just dedicated to games,” I said.

“You might be surprised. We have one shop down by the market that just sells quills and sofas, so anything’s possible. I just wanted to make the offer, at least,” said Shoeshine.

“Well, let me know the next time you need some help. I’m not an expert at fixing things, but I’ll give it a try,” I said.

“I wouldn’t worry about that. Electric Sky’s a great tinker, and I’ll have her help you out a bit at first. You’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly,” she said.

“I can help who out?” said Electric Sky as she rounded the corner of Shoeshine’s workshop.

Shoeshine and I both looked over, neither of us expecting her to just appear like that. “I was talking about Rain, here,” said Shoeshine. “I thought maybe she could help us out with some of the smaller repairs that we tend to get behind on. You might need to show her a few things at first, though.”

“Are you trying to replace me?” said Sky, her eyes going big and her bottom lip pouting out a bit.

“Of… of course not!” Shoeshine stammered.

“Gotcha,” said Sky with a mischievous grin. “Of course I’d love some help when we get behind. It sounds like a good idea. Hey Rain, if you want to start lessons, I have some little tinker-jobs that I take home. You could come over today after work and I could show you a few things.”

“Sure. You guys knock off around five, right? I’ll come find you then. You can just come get me if I miss you. I’ll be here,” I said, indicating my house.

“Alright,” said Electric Sky. “I’ll see you then.” She turned to Shoeshine with what my father would’ve called a shit-eating grin. “Now who’s ready to start work and who’s lazing around with a mug of coffee in their hoof chatting away with the neighbors?”

“I was just waiting on you, you little goose!” said Shoeshine with a grimace.

Electric Sky was already trotting into the workshop. “Ha ha ha ha ha!” she trilled as she disappeared inside.

Shoeshine blinked and shook her head, then turned to me. “I’m never going to hear the end of this if I don’t get in there. Nice talking to you, Rain,” she said as she got off of her chair, and headed into the workshop, leaving her coffee cup to sit.

I finished my oats and had another mug of coffee, before carrying everything back inside and washing it. I’d had to try that back-balancing thing, but I didn’t want to make a mess with the still half-full coffee pot if I got it wrong. Once things were cleaned up, I found the saddle bags that Rarity had given me, shrugged them on, and loaded a few bits into one side. It seemed like overkill, having a whole set of bags on for such a little load, but I didn’t want to head to the market with a jingling coin purse in my mouth, either.

I headed out, not bothering with my cloak. I felt better without it, less like I was trying to hide something, and now that ponies had all but stopped staring and making comments about my blank flank, the thought of going without it didn’t bother me so much. I made my way over to the market and found Sugar Cube Corner open for business.

I stepped inside, and there was Pinkie, behind the counter. “Hey Pinkie,” I called out, waving.

“Oh, hi Rain,” she said. “What’s pouring?”

“That might still need some work, Pinkie,” I said, smiling.

“Yeah, I didn’t think it was that great, but I didn’t have anything else ready to go,” said Pinkie with a giggle and a scrunch of her nose. “What brings you by?”

“I still owe you for yesterday’s muffins,” I said. “Twilight took me to the bank and got me all set up there, so I have real spendable bits now.”

“Oh, sounds good. It’ll be eight bits for yesterday’s muffins,” she said.

I nosed into my saddlebags and deposited eight bits on the counter. Pinkie scraped them up and dumped them into the till before asking, “So what else can I interest you in? We have donuts. They’re great for breakfast.”

“Oh, I already had some breakfast, I just wanted to pay you back for yesterday,” I said, shaking my head.

“You didn’t have to go out of your way, you silly. The next time you were here to buy something would’ve been fine,” she said.

“I’d hate to wander around thinking that I owed you something and hadn’t paid you back yet,” I said.

“You’ll drive yourself nuts like that if you try to keep track of every debt like that. Just say thanks and be ready to lend a hoof whenever you’re needed,” said Pinkie. Her expression hadn’t changed, same smile plastered on her face, but I knew she wasn’t talking about bits anymore.

“Um thanks, Pinkie,” I said, suddenly a little unsure of myself.

“No problem,” said Pinkie. “Now you have a nice day. Come back when you’re hungry for something sweet.”

“I will,” I said, nodding before I left.

I trotted down the street, back towards my house. There was a lot more going on behind Pinkie’s blue eyes than I usually gave her credit for. I sighed as I realized she was almost exactly right. I did tend to keep track of things, like ‘I owe that guy a favor’ or ‘he owes me a favor’. A little ledger in my head that I’d try to balance out. It seemed a rather mercenary as I thought about it. I could be better than that, I realized. I ought to be better than that. It seemed I’d fallen into just the right world to help me with that, though.

I’d shed my saddle bags once I got home. I still had some time before I had to meet Rainbow Dash, but I really wanted to try swimming in that pond by where she had me meet her. I used to swim pretty well as a kid, but I hardly ever went as an adult. I wondered how hard it’d be as a pony.

This time, as I left my back yard, headed for the pond, I tried to go a little faster. I felt the familiar trot double-cadence I’d gotten used to yesterday shift up into something that felt like a triple-beat with a rest. I just kept my eyes fixed on the hill that I was heading for and thought about going faster. That syncopated triple cadence evened out and a fourth beat appeared. I was dimly aware of all of this, because I was just marvelling at the feeling of the wind in my mane and the grass tickling my belly as the scenery sped past. I tried looking from side to side, and I didn’t immediately fall down. I realized I was going quite a lot faster than I’d ever been able to as a human.

My breath was coming in deep easy gulps now, definitely a little more strained than I’d been with my pace yesterday. Still, it didn’t seem like I was overdoing it, so I kept up the pace. The comfortable four-beat pace just ate up the miles, and before I knew it, I was topping the hill that hid the pond and the woods right beside it. I brought myself to a halt, amazed that I’d just done that without falling once.

If my secret to not falling was to just let my body go without thinking about it, though, that part had been easy. I’d been mesmerized by my own speed as I crossed the plain between here and Ponyville. When I’d followed Rainbow Dash a few days before, I’d really just been focused on keeping up with her. This time, though, I’d been able to enjoy it. The only thing I could liken it to on Earth was a drive through Kansas, where the interstate had been an arrow-straight deserted ribbon of road in between fields as far as the eye could see. I’d been doing ninety miles an hour, just enjoying seeing the scenery speed past before I realized I’d better back it off. This time, though, there was no car involved. This new body was more than okay.

“You’ve been practicing,” I heard Rainbow’s voice behind me as I stood looking back at Ponyville, marvelling at how small the houses had gotten in such a short time.

I looked around and saw the rainbow-maned pony hovering just over the hilltop behind me. “First time I’ve done that,” I said, and paused to breathe a little more. “But I did go out at a pretty slow pace for a good long while yesterday.”

“Well, its definitely helped,” said Rainbow, nodding her approval.

“Aren’t you a little early?” I asked, realizing I probably wasn’t going to get my swim now.

“Nah, I was already out practicing. Seems like you’re the early one,” she said.

“Actually, I wanted to try a swim in that pond,” I said, pointing.

“Do you know how to swim?” asked Rainbow, a concerned expression crossing her face.

“Well, I could swim pretty well as a human,” I said.

“But you’ve never been swimming as a pony?” asked Rainbow.

“Well… no,” I said, looking down.

“How could you try that on your own? You could really get hurt,” said Rainbow, frowning at me.

“I was going to be careful,” I said. I really had intended to be.

“Still, don’t do stuff like that without someone around. You’ve got the whole earth pony resilience thing going, but that wouldn’t stop you from drowning!” Rainbow said, rising a little higher off the ground as she got more agitated.

“Alright, Rainbow,” I said. “Calm down. I promise I won’t go in the water without you around.”

“Good,” said Rainbow, dropping back toward the ground a bit and relaxing. “Tell you what. After we practice today, we’ll go for a dip and make sure you can swim while I’m still around to help if you need it.”

“Fair enough,” I said. “So what’s on for today’s practice?”

“Well, I was going to have you work out on flat ground, but seeing you tearing over her from town, I think we can move to part two of your hoofwork training.”

“Part two?” I asked. She’d said something about that before, but now I couldn’t remember.

“Yeah, uneven terrain. The woods over there will be great for this,” she said, pointing at the woods adjoining the pond.

“Okay, let’s give it a try,” I said, following as she started drifting that way.

Rainbow landed just outside the woods and turned to me, “Okay, at first, we’re just going to walk. Take it slow.” She started into the woods and I followed behind her. The dimness being out in the bright sunshine was nice. “Alright, now you have to keep an eye on the ground. You just have to see where you want to step, your hooves should automatically hit the right spots. In here you’ll have to look out for roots and logs and divots and that sort of thing. Just take it slow here at first. We can work on speeding up once you’re getting sure of your footing.”

I nodded and walked on. I tried to concentrate on the ground, looking for spots that were safe to step. Avoid a root there, over a log there, can’t see what I’d be putting my hoof in there, better not risk it. I was very comfortable walking by now, so I tried to follow Rainbow’s advice about just scanning the ground and looking for where I wanted to step. Still, it’s hard not to think about finding a spot to put your hoof and not thinking about the act of putting your hoof there. We were just going at a walk, so I never fell, but I did put a hoof down wrong pretty often. I was a little discouraged as we got to the other side of the woods.

“Hmm,” said Rainbow, “you might not be quite ready for that. Still, you didn’t fall, right? That’s totally progress.” She smiled at me, clearly trying to jolly me up.

“I’ll have to work on it,” I said.

“Exactly!” Rainbow said. “Nobody’s perfect their first time out. That’s why we practice, to get better.”

I nodded. She was right, it was a bit foolish of me to expect that I’d suddenly be able to navigate rough terrain. I’d only been walking as a pony for a short while, after all.

“Alright,” she continued, “let’s go for that flat ground work like I said originally. Follow me.” Rainbow headed back to the hilltop, skirting around the woods and pond at a trot. I followed. When we got to the top of the hill, Rainbow pointed off into the distance. “See that hill over there? It looks a little blue because there are wildflowers growing all over the side of it.”

I looked, and could see a hill in the distance with a blueish hue. “Yeah, I see the one you mean.”

“Cool,” she said. “I want you to make for that hill as fast as you can go, like you were running when you came out here from town, okay? When you get to the top of it, you’ll see an abandoned barn off in the distance, just a little farther from that hill than we are to it. You’re going to get to that barn, and then turn around and come back here. Then we can go for a swim. Sound good?”

I looked at the hill. It was well off in the distance, and this barn was even farther from that than it was from here? “Rainbow,” I said, “that’s going to take all day.”

She cast a sly glance my way, “You’re faster than you think you are. Besides, I’ll be up above, practicing some tricks and keeping an eye on you. If it looks like you’re taking too long, I’ll come down and have you turn around, but I’m pretty confident you can keep up a good pace.”

“Fair enough,” I said, turning toward the flower-covered hill off in the distance and setting off at a trot. I heard a whoosh behind me and looked over my shoulder to see the fading image of a rainbow as Dash took off. I shook my head. Amazing.

I kept up my trot on the way down the hill, and then as the ground levelled out I tried to find that three-beat pace I’d had earlier. I just thought about speeding up and I felt my legs coordinate themselves into that three-beat pattern. Just a little faster, I thought, and then suddenly that fourth beat was back and I was off. Once again, the wind was in my hair and I could feel the sun on my back and my breath was coming deep and easy.

My eyes were on the hill, and I could see the landscape streaming past me. Time seemed to pass at high speed, because that hill was getting closer and closer. I felt my mind begin to wander over and over, but I pulled it back, keeping focussed on the hill in front of me. Everything seemed to be clicking along now, just working without me having to think too hard about it. I was pointed at my goal, well, my first goal. I still couldn’t see the barn, and just letting the world slide by.

As I hit the slope up the hill, I felt myself breathing harder. I eased back a bit into that three-beat gait, and quickly felt my breathing catch back up. It was a little more work, going uphill, but as the slope increased, I had to fall back into a trot. Just keep it moving easy. No need to wear myself out charging up the hill. As I crested the hill, I came to a stop and looked around. It took me a moment to spot the little barn Rainbow had mentioned, it was quite a bit farther out than I expected, barely more than a dot on the landscape.

With my new target in mind, I was off again. This time it was easier to transition up to my faster gaits. It really was sort of like having gears. I liked listening to the beat of my hooves. It was soothing. The miles between me and that barn just seemed to evaporate. Every time I felt my mind begin to wander, I pulled it back. Stare at the barn, watch it come closer. It wasn’t like tunnel vision. I could still see everything around me, but all that was incidental.

I pulled up at the barn and came to a stop. It was an old two-story barn. Just standing out here in the middle of nowhere. The paint had been red at some point, but it was weathered into a deep rusty hue now. It looked just like a barn out of a storybook, except for being all weathered. I walked a little closer to it. Actually, the wood all still looked alright, it just hadn’t been painted in a while. I wondered why it was standing out here all by itself, though. I walked on around it, and noticed a section of ground that looked a little off. Flatter than everything else around it. The grass was grown up here, just as it was all around, but it seemed to be a slightly lighter shade than everywhere else. Ah, there used to be a house here, I realized. The size of that patch was about right for a little farmhouse. That’s why the barn was here. Kind of surprising that someone had taken the house down and left the barn, though.

Well, enough of a break. I turned around and was rounding the barn again, when I heard Rainbow call my name from inside the barn. I walked around to the open front and saw her standing inside, looking up at the hay loft. “Rainbow?” I called.

She spun around, “Oh there you are. I saw you make it here, but then I lost sight of you. Thought you might be checking out the barn.”

“I was just looking around. Just about to get started back,” I said.

“You’ll probably want a drink before you do,” said Rainbow, and she trotted out the front door and around the other side of the barn where I saw a water pump tucked in beside the barn. It wasn’t very big, and it was almost covered in the overgrown grass. “There’s an underground stream here. This pump still works. I use it all the time as a quick spot to rest and get a drink while I’m out practicing. Here, I’ll pump and you can get a drink, then you can pump while I have some.”

“Okay,” I said, stepping in beside the spigot as Rainbow worked the pump handle. Water came pouring out, and I stuck my muzzle in and slurped up a long drink. After the first few pumps, the water cooled down and felt wonderfully refreshing.

I nodded to Rainbow that I was done and we switched places. I pumped the long handle and she got a drink, even ducking her head under the cool running water. “Thanks,” she said. “That’s a lot more difficult when you’re by yourself. You can still do it though. Anyway, now that you’ve had a drink, time to head back to the pond. You still feel like a swim?”

“After I get back there, I probably will, yeah,” I said.

“Cool,” she said. “See you there.” With that, she took off again and I was by myself in the shadow of the barn. I looked around, thinking just how idyllic this was. I hadn’t seen anything like it since I was little. So I took off back to the pond with a smile on my face.

The run back felt just as good as the run over. I was kind of amazed that this sort of pace didn’t seem to be tiring me out, except when I tried to hold it going uphill. I definitely had to slow down for the uphills. Still, the idea of all that wide-open land around Ponyville seemed less daunting now. It wasn’t just someplace surrounding where I lived. I could actually go there, and I didn’t even need roads. It was as simple as seeing something interesting off in the distance and going over to take a look. Okay, maybe it’d take a little while, but it seemed like if you could see it, you could reach it in a reasonable amount of time. Well, reasonable for someone like me who didn’t have a job to get to. I realized that it was probably just as true back on Earth, but that you always seemed to have responsibilities: a job to get to, groceries to buy, something. Trying to fit all that into a day seemed to take it all up and leave you no time to just go see things. Here in Equestria, I’d broken out of all of that, or been broken out of it, and I was currently enjoying the hell out of it.

I got back to the pond to see Rainbow laying out next to the water. She looked completely relaxed, and she’d even managed to get a pair of sunglasses from somewhere. “Hey Rain,” she called as she saw me. “Great job today. I told you that you could keep up that pace. Feel alright?”

“Yeah,” I said, “but I felt like I was getting close to my limit there. I was starting to breathe harder. I probably would’ve had to slow up if I’d been going much farther.”

“Still, you did great. You held a full gallop on and off for more than an hour. That’s pretty darned good,” she said. “And I didn’t see you fall once.”

“Nope, no falls, oddly enough,” I said, walking past here and setting my front hooves in the water. The water felt warm through my hooves, sort of distant, like I was feeling through an oven mitt. I stood there for a little while, feeling wonderfully calm.

“Hey Rainbow,” I asked. “Do you ever meditate?”

“Meditate? Me? Nah, that’s more Twilight’s speed,” said Rainbow. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I didn’t realize it at the time, but that run was a little like meditating,” I said.

“Really?” asked Rainbow.

“Yeah, meditation doesn’t have to be just sitting with your legs all folded up and going ‘Ommm’,” I said, drawing out the ‘ommm’.

“Huh?” said Rainbow, looking confused.

I shook my head. “Human thing, don’t worry about it.” I looked out over the pond again, still and peaceful. “I just mean that meditation isn’t just about sitting still. Even sitting meditation isn’t just turning your mind off. It’s about being present. In the moment. Not letting your mind drift off to wonder what you’re going to have for supper, or all the other little concerns you have. There’s even moving meditation. There’s a thing called kinhin, where you walk, slowly and purposefully. It’s still meditation, but you’re moving as you do it. That run was a lot faster than kinhin, well, it was faster than the kinhin that I used to do, but there are some sects where you do kinhin almost at a run.” I shook my head again. “Sorry, I’m getting sidetracked. All I mean is that I’ve never really worked out like that before. There was something about just feeling the wind, seeing everything around me, and just running. Just the activity. I wasn’t anywhere except right there. It was nice.”

"Nice speech," Rainbow snorted, "but if you're all about being present, you're not really there, are you?" She walked up to the water's edge beside me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, suddenly a bit angry.

"Were you feeling each hoof hit the ground, consciously directing it where to go?" she asked.

"Well, no," I admitted. "It only seems to work if I kind of keep my mind off of it."

"Then if I understand what you mean with your 'presence' thing, you're not really there. You're ignoring what your body is doing and just letting it run on autopilot," she said.

I opened my mouth, and then shut it again. She was right, and my little epiphany about being in the moment was just me feeding myself a line of manure. I hung my head. "You're right, aren't you? Well, crap."

"Hey," she said, leaning over and bumping into my shoulder, "don't feel bad. You're just maybe not as far along as you thought you were. You'll get it."

“I’ll keep at it,” I said. “Now, how about that swim?”

“Okay, it slopes down fairly gradually here. Don’t go too far out. I’ll be here in case you need me,” said Rainbow.

I nodded and started out into the water. The warmth I’d felt as I just had my hoofs in gave way to a slight chill as I passed through the warm layer that usually sits on top of standing water. Not too bad, and really, I had been sweating pretty hard, especially at the end. The cool water felt good, especially as it started to take up more of my weight. I soon found myself in water up to my shoulders, with just my head sticking out above the surface. “I’m gonna try floating, okay Rainbow? I can still touch bottom here,” I called out.

“Okay,” Rainbow called back.

I let my legs fold up a bit and found that I could float, as long as I maneuvered my body down under me a bit so that my head stayed poking up out of the water. It actually seemed easier than as a human. Probably the long neck. “Okay, I’m floating,” I called. “Gonna paddle around a little. I’m doing fine.”

“Sure,” said Rainbow, still watching me closely.

I started a little paddle motion with my front legs, and felt my back legs kick in as well. Seemed like this was fairly instinctual for a pony, too. It was a little harder to hold my head above water, as my body wanted to slide back to a more horizontal inclination while I was paddling. It still wasn’t bad, though.

After a few minutes, I found I could do this pretty easily. I wasn’t going very fast, and probably looked pretty silly, paddling in little circles where the water wasn’t too deep. I even found I could do something similar to a breast stroke. These pony front legs had a lot more range of motion than an Earth pony’s. So I started to pull myself through the water with bigger sweeping strokes to my sides, and headed for deeper water, feeling more confident.

“Hey,” I heard Rainbow call from the shore. “You’re pretty good at that.” She sounded amazed.

“Dunno why, but this just seems easier. Might be because you use all four limbs to swim as a human, same as here. I don’t have to think about coordinating extra legs to do this,” I said between strokes. “Anyway, the water’s fine. Are you coming in?”

“Sure,” she said, before launching herself up about twenty feet with her wings, then curling up and tucking them back in. “Cannonball!” she cried as she plummeted into the water.

She splashed down well ahead of me, so I didn’t get sprayed, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I’d never thought of that. You didn’t need a diving board when you were a pegasus. Just stop flapping.

“Oh, that feels good,” Rainbow called as she bobbed to the surface, doing the pony version of the doggy paddle up ahead of me. She looked around and oriented on me, before heading my way with the doggy paddle, making better time than I had with it. “Hey, you wanna race?” she asked as she drew close.

“Sure,” I said, looking at her doggy paddle. I couldn’t paddle as fast as her, but I was way faster than that doing the breast stroke, even without much practice in this body. “Here to the shore?” We were maybe a hundred feet out now, not super far, but long enough that it shouldn’t be all that close.

“Deal,” said Rainbow with a grin. “Three, two, one… go!” she called.

I took one big stroke, and shot forwards a couple feet, when I saw Rainbow suddenly breach the water beside me like a dolphin, arcing forward, her belly not quite all the way out of the water, as she dove down with her front hooves pointed in front of her. She went all the way under, and I saw her blue form rocket ahead. She only touched the surface twice in the hundred feet to the shore. It’d taken her like twenty seconds. I don’t think human athletes could swim that fast. I felt like I’d barely moved.

I continued on to the shore, dragging myself up onto dry ground, where Rainbow was waiting with a hugely self-satisfied smirk. “How in the world did you do that?” I asked.

Rainbow just kept grinning at me and shrugged. I kept looking at her, then my eyes narrowed. “You used your wings!” I hissed. She could fly underwater. Amazing, but still annoying.

“Yuh huh,” said Rainbow, her grin now even bigger.

“I don’t have wings,” I said. She’d just totally cheated.

“You don’t?” she said innocently, making a show of looking at my back. “Hadn’t noticed.”

“Next time, no wings,” I said. Rainbow was still doing this angelic little wide-eyed face, like she had no idea that she’d just completely suckered me. I stared at her. She stared at me. It wasn’t very long before we both broke down laughing.

“The look on your face was so worth it,” Rainbow said as we got our breath back.

“I hope you realize this means that I’m going to get you back, right?” I said.

“Counting on it,” said Rainbow with a grin. “I think that’s enough for today. See you back here in two days?”

“Yeah, I’ll be here,” I said.

“See you then,” said Rainbow, as she took off with a whoosh.

I trotted up to the top of the hill, and I could see my house, small in the distance. I shook my head again. I was going to have to plan something devious for Rainbow, but it didn’t have to be right away. I’d think about it.

I made good time on the way back to town, too.

Author's Notes:

And that breaks 40,000 words. We're into short novel territory. Scary.