Spring settled onto a provided chair. Pony chairs were typically wider than they needed to be, so ponies could lay down on them instead of sitting, like the beasts they were. Spring smiled a little at that, watching the owner of the apartment she was in fuss around her kitchen. As animals went, she thought ponies were adorable things. Adorable and ignorant to the virility some of them had.

It just made all the more sense to her that she got a human to play the part. They were elevated enough to at least understand their parts for what they were. Tabitha-- Her thoughts were dashed. Coco had said something. "Pardon?"

"I asked if you had a preference for tea." Coco held two different boxes of tea up for view. "You must really be upset."

Spring frowned faintly. She was... but that was her business. She pointed at the one on the left. "That will do."

Coco turned away and got back to work preparing the drink. "You must be so confused."

"Why?"

Coco glanced over a shoulder. "You're in a strange land, by yourself. What happened to your parents?"

Spring reddened a touch. She was being treated as a child! "I'm likely old enough to have watched you be born and grow old."

Coco sat down facing Spring, ears erect. "Be that as it may, you are still young. This isn't about me." She placed a hoof on her chest as she spoke. "Now I'm not saying you can't take care of yourself. I mean, you are..." A brow raised. "But is everything alright?"

Spring considered that. Some things were going quite well. Other things... She owed nothing to that horse! Why would she--

Coco pressed a mug gently against one of Spring's hands. "Here you are."

Spring started. Her focus kept slipping. She took the mug and curled her fingers around it, feeling the warmth coming from it. "Do you know that other horse, the one that threatened me?"

"She works for Princess Luna, but I don't know much else about her." Coco shook her head. "For now, drink. It may help." She smiled like a hopeful mother.

Maybe that was what she would become. Spring raised a brow, imagining her virile beast climbing on this other animal and doing as animals do. "Beast."

Coco blinked at her. "My name is Coco. Coco Pommel. You are?"

Spring raised a brow. She was fairly certain the animal, Coco, knew that. A gesture of familiarity? She wasn't sure if she should take part, but she saw few other options. "Spring Breeze."

"That's a lovely name." Coco smiled as she returned to the kitchen and returned with a second mug that she kept for herself. Hers had a more potent smell. Coffee. "Now, I'd like to ask a very personal question. If you don't want to answer it, that's alright, but I think you should."

"Yes?" Spring kept her cards close to her chest. She softly sipped at the tea. It was no elven brew, but it wasn't awful as those things went.

"Do you like Tabitha?"

The innocent nature of the query only made Spring more aggravated, but she couldn't lash out. Or, at least, she shouldn't. She took a slow breath. "I admire her bestial nature. I believe she's clever enough, just enough, to keep her interesting. She sees what she wants and she takes it."

Coco tilted her head a little. "Like you?"

Spring couldn't believe a horse had just spoken to her like that! As if she was anything like that beast!

Coco could see the emotions in the frazzled elf. "I don't mean anything bad by it. I like her too."

Spring startled out of her dark place. "And you see similarities?"

"Of course." Coco dipped her head and sipped from her drink. "We're both business owners that appreciate creativity. We know how to be practical, and we both want a comfortable place to crash after a long day's labor, to be told how good our efforts were and supported by a genuine pony."

That wasn't an angle Spring had thought much on.

"T-tell me, honestly..."

"I never lie."

Coco nodded. "I'm not trying to say you do, but a 'not lie' is far from honesty." She set her mug aside. "I promise to not laugh."

"As if you would dare..."

Coco raised a brow. "Let's be friends, not enemies." She smiled in that gentle way. "I know you're upset right now."

Spring was about to lash out, to attack that animal and her quiet little face, but she calmed herself just in the nick of time. She needed Coco to be on her side. Coco seemed to want to be on her side. She had to control herself. She took a slow breath. "Perhaps you are... right. I am upset." She could vent a little. The beast would know little of it. "Do you understand what a true name entails?"

Coco looked confused, which Spring expected. "Didn't you just give me that?"

Spring smiled. Of course the horse didn't know. She would show her magnanimity in revealing the situation. "That is a rough translation of my given name to the language of this land. A true name calls to your very essence." She rolled a hand. "I should imagine you don't even know what your true name is."

"I..." Coco shook her head. "I suppose not. Do you?"

"Of course." Spring nodded. "And that's fine. I won't abuse my own name. Now if someone else were to get one's true name..."

Coco reached for her mug and took a draw of the strong black liquid there. "I'm afraid I don't know what that would mean, save that it could be bad."

"Bad is a start." Spring let out a slow breath. "She could command me, as a servant. She could weave powerful magics against me and there would be precious little I could do to defend against it. Imagine..." She paused a moment. "Imagine I wore a very finely crafted piece of armor. It protected and served me quite well, but that name is like a gaping hole. If you have the name, I may as well be naked. Vulnerable and defenseless." And not even the good kind. She wouldn't mind being a little vulnerable in front of an eager Tabitha.

Coco's eyes widened at the news. "That's awful! And not right at all." She clopped down a hoof. "No pony should be threatened that way. Especially not..." She trailed off.

Spring could guess Coco was about to speak of her childhood again. It annoyed her. "I am an adult."

Coco put a hoof at her chest. "That must be true, to a degree. You do have... Are you sure you have a foal?"

"You doubt me?!" Rage seethed through her a moment, blinding in its intensity. She considered half a dozen terrible things to do to that horse, but it was pushed down. Coco was harmless, and her ally. Her... friend... "Forgive me."

Coco smiled with some unease. She could tell Spring was on edge. "That's alright. Please, I'm on your side. If I say something bothering, just say so." She offered a hoof out. "Do you love Tabitha?"

Did she? Could a captive love their tormentor? Spring smiled a little at the thought. "That word." She leaned forward. "It occurs to me that 'love' is one of those terms that your kind holds differently than mine. We love things that we respect and often those we monitor, study, revere, or more. An elf that 'loves' another elf is usually one that aspires to be that other elf. Often they become students of that same elf."

Coco wrinkled her snout a little. "Well, I love Tabitha. I like being near her, and I'm a little sadder when I'm not. I respect many aspects of her, but not all of them, nopony is perfect." She gestured to the door leading out of her apartment. "I want her to be happy, and I get happy doing things with her. I don't know everything there is to know about her, but I want to fix that. It... may be part of the scent, um... You gave her that, right?"

Spring was a little surprised at the gushing. "Yes? I crafted her a form to be proud of." She puffed herself up a bit. "Every part of it was made to be exemplary. Her muscles, strong and fast to react to her wishes. Her organs, supportive and healthy. Even she doesn't realize just how perfect she is." Spring let out a little sigh before she continued rambling about each little touch she laid down.

Coco was overwhelmed by it all. "W-wait. Alright, I understand... that. You gave her a very nice body." She certainly admired the pony parts of it, and she was learning to admire the human parts, as curious as those were. "But..." Then it struck her. Spring gave Tabitha her form. Their relationship couldn't be entirely that of a victimized youth. Spring sounded far too excited about the work she'd made. "Do you... admire Tabitha?"

"No! Yes..." Spring's hands ended up in her lap, cradling her mug and looking miserable. "I..." She glanced up at the concerned-looking Coco. "Alright, horse."

"Coco."

"Coco. I will... divulge a secret. This is a favor, do you understand that?"

Coco knew it meant she'd have to return the favor. "If it means getting to the bottom of this." She smiled gently. "I hope you understand I mean you no harm."

Spring felt a thrill tingle along her spine. She would own Coco, in part. She could have what she wanted. That was a naughty part. She wouldn't feed that darkness. It was time to be bright. She let out a breath. "Then so may it be. Coco, I... have a fantasy." She shook her head. "It's... hard to explain. You're alive."

Coco blinked. "I certainly hope so, is that the secret?"

"No! No... You're alive You were born, wet and squealing. You'll become a mother, also wet and squealing, and you will die, quite possibly also wet and squealing. Through it all, through that basic mortality, you will scrabble and fight. Short or long, it will be yours, embraced passionately. That... That's life."

Coco gave an uncertain nod. "Alright?"

"You don't get it." Spring huffed. Of course a horse wouldn't. She'd explain. "Elves are not alive, not that way. We are born to stately quiet and approving nods. We marry to the orderly applause of our fellows, and we die in silence, often alone and with strict order and ritual. We 'live' longer than most mortals even consider the world to exist in their short, frantic, spans, but we waste the whole thing not being alive!" She threw her hands wide, sending her tea mug clattering off to the side in the grand motion. "Do you see?!"

Author's Notes:

Let it all out, Spring. Don't you feel better? Honesty is the first step to facing the typos of our lives.