ORIGIN - frolicking, rollicking, capering, cavorting, romping, gamboling, larking, etc

Compared to other caves, Pegasus by far felt the best on her hooves.

The others were at best mossy and at worst completely dry and rocky. She liked the sound of her hooves clip-clopping on rock, sure, but it felt bad. Pegasus, on the other hand, was full of grass and rivers and was bright and sunny. There was a particular stretch of land, too, that had multi-coloured wildflowers stretching up towards the lights overhead.

There were herds of deer that were a little aggressive, sure, but if she kept away from them, they didn't much bother her. She could jump and prance and skip all she wanted, and it felt very good to pelt through the flowers at full speed. She also enjoyed plucking them from their stems, but she'd quickly found that they'd wilt after a while.

Not that that would stop her.

In fact, Venti Frappuccino® with Oat Milk, Strawberry Cream Cold Foam and Caramel Drizzle, with Vegan Whipped Topping and Hazelnut Syrup had a little idea. She wandered out into the meadow where the flowers yawned up to her shoulders and began carefully plucking them, making sure to leave some of their stem behind. With her tongue sticking out, the centaur began piercing the stalks and threading another through it, making a chain of flowers.

It was thin, and fragile, but she was slowly making a circlet of flowers.

@Coffee

As horses are inclined to. Once taken to pasture, Coffee immediately lived up to her namesake and couldn't help but zoom across the field, kicking her hind legs behind her as she bucked and readily tossed herself through the grass, acting very much as if a broken leg wouldn't be the end for her. It was simply fun, and all those other caves had felt so cramped in comparison, no place for a girl like her. She yearned for the wind in her fur, the roar of wind in her ears, the thrill of sturdy hooves, a hearty body and the sensation of living.

Naturally, the other herds got in the way, but it was still better than those awful, awful tunnels. By the second lap, she realised that she was alone in her frolicking. Panting and covered in a layer of sweat, she strode towards where Hazel had settled and looked to be fiddling with flowers. Why? She didn't know; they were good for eating. The yellow ones were particularly tasty, but she hardly seemed to be eating them at all!

With an almighty huff, Coffee slumped down in a heap on a good patch of grass nearby, splaying out before rolling onto her back. Scrubbing herself against the cool grass.

"What're you making? A salad?" She called, before resuming itching her back with a contented snort.

@Hazel

"No, they're not for eating," Hazel said. She could never get behind eating stuff like flowers and grass. Their texture was all wrong and they were so bitter, too. They got stuck in her teeth and the taste would linger until she managed to pick the bits back out and spit them out. She had no idea what the appeal in them was for Coffee, and at this point she wasn't going to question it. She lifted the thin circlet up high to look at it. "It's a hat."

Venti Frappuccino® with Oat Milk, Strawberry Cream Cold Foam and Caramel Drizzle, with Vegan Whipped Topping and Hazelnut Syrup pushed up, plodding to where Coffee was rolling around on the ground. Her cloven hoof gently nudged into the horse's shoulder. "You gotta sit up straight, though."

Once Coffee's head was in a mostly upright position, Hazel draped the circlet around her forehead where it perfectly conformed to the edge of the foal's bowlcut, like some kind of thin, flowery border.

"It's pretty!" Hazel insisted after. "You're pretty."

@Coffee

Coffee's eye whites flashed as she tried to look up at the flowery border of her haircut. If she really strained her eyes, she could see the little flashes of colour and greenery. It didn't feel very pretty wearing her lunch, but if Hazel said it was pretty, then she supposed it was.

"I'll make one for you too!" The foal exclaimed as she excitedly rose from her seat. However, that lasted all of a few moments, right until she leaned down to pluck a flower with her teeth before she realised how fruitless a task that would be. Instead, she chewed on the pink flowers, her ears swivelling as they pinned back in her irritation. "How come you got all the grabbers? Two of them!"

The foal snorted, leaning in close to brush her nose against the top of Hazel's arm. "That's just greedy." Yet, all it took was a short moment for Coffee to consider the problem before she suggested, "you should make yourself one, and I'll supervise!" A fine compromise for Hazel taking all the grabbers in their stone-egg-things!

@Hazel

Hazel shrugged a shoulder, not knowing. In honesty, she'd never really given it much thought. She didn't know why she was shaped differently from Coffee, or why Coffee's legs were nearly bald, or why she had a big spot on her nose and Hazel only had little tiny spots. Or why Hazel had grabbers.

"Maybe you'll grow grabbers," she offered. They were growing all the time, so it seemed reasonable to assume that maybe there were hands somewhere under there waiting to pop out. Like teeth. She grasped at some pink flowers from the patch Coffee had picked from. "You can pick the colours. But you can't eat them all. I can't wear it if they're in your tummy."

She started piercing the stems of the flowers in her hands, too, while picking out the flowers that Coffee pointed out. She'd seen the top of Coffee's head much more than she had the top of her own, though, and she didn't really know how long she'd have to make it to make it fit-- so, she guessed. By the time she fit it on her head, it was drooping on the sides and only really held up by her stupid sideways ears.

"Is it pretty?" She asked.

@Coffee

Admittedly, Coffee had eaten some of the flowers she'd picked out, but she mostly picked pinks, whites, and a little orange. Colours she thought suited Hazel, especially her gemstone. She chewed thoughtfully as she peered at the newly made crown, the dandelion-adjacent flowers sticking out of her lips as she considered the question. "It's a little.."

Without further prompting, Coffee swallowed her mouthful before leaning up, adjusting the circlet of flowers until it looped loosely over her horn rather than hanging around her ears. "Mmmh. That's better. It fits your head better like that." Then she sat back to admire her hard work, which it was when you didn't have grabbers and had to use your mouth for everything.

"Oh! Maybe some pretty things for your hair too!" Coffee immediately rose back to her feet. It took some searching and combing through the grass where the rocky surface of the caves was closest to the surface, but eventually a little glitter caught her eye. A tiny shard of chrome tourmaline. It wasn't magic-infused, likely just a shard of old chrysalis that had never been cleaned up.

Plucking it between her lips, she trotted back to Hazel and spat it into her hand. "A glittery thing! I think you suit glittering things-- Oh, but it doesn't quite match your salad hat..."

@Hazel

Hazel let Coffee fix her flower crown, lifting her hands to adjust it again when a flower drooped over into her eye. "What about for your hair?" She asked when the foal turned and began snuffling around in the grass. She followed after her, inspecting Coffee's mane. She didn't have as much as she did. She didn't have as much hair anywhere, actually. "You should grow more hair," she said, like it were that simple. She has hair and she's attacking people who are bald etc.

She took the tourmaline shard, turning it over in her hand. "It matches your rock, though," the centaur pointed out, trotting around her. "Maybe we could put it in your tail." She tapped her chin thoughtfully as she moved back in front of the foal.

"We could smush it up with a rock and then there'd be lots of teeny-tiny shiny bits," Venti Frappuccino® with Oat Milk, Strawberry Cream Cold Foam and Caramel Drizzle, with Vegan Whipped Topping and Hazelnut Syrup suggested. "Then it'd stick to our hair and we could both wear it."

@Coffee

"Oh! I've been practising this one; I can break the rock. Watch!" And in true horse fashion had exactly zero regard for her surroundings or anyone else in the area before focusing intensely on the gem shard.

Outwardly, nothing happened. It just seemed Coffee was really intent on staring at the gemstone until it shattered on its own. Or perhaps she had some trapped gas with the way her face was screwed up in concentration; that was common for horses, wasn't it?

Then it passed. Maybe that trapped gas cleared itself. "Oh. It didn't work." Coffee huffed through her nostrils. "And my hair is growing! It's just not as quick as yours!" The foal protested, flicking her chimney brush tail.

"Maybe use your grabbers!"

@Hazel

Hazel just stared down in silence, too, holding the shard in her hands. She was patient-- it didn't occur to her that she could even use her mouth to ask Coffee what she was doing, or if she needed help, or to hurry up. It was kind of nice to slow down and stare at something together in silence.

Hazel had just noticed that her palms were paler than the rest of her skin when Coffee spoke. She blinked up. "Oh," she said, looking around. The flowers were thick and the grass was long. She couldn't see any rocks, even when she took a cursory little wander around, sticking her head down towards the ground to see.

"Do you see any rocks?" She asked Coffee over her shoulder.

@Coffee

Coffee tilted her head, then turned it downwards until she was practically nose-to-grass. She nosed through the grass, then remembered the spot she'd seen the gem shard. Trotting her way back, she pushed through the rockier ground before locating one that was roughly hand-sized. It was a little too big, a tad on the cumbersome side, but she brought it back to Hazel regardless. And spat it into her hand, like a good sibling.

"Maybe my eyes are further apart for rock spotting." She very intelligently observed. That was the reason, nothing else. "I think I like rock spotting, it's a shame this one isn't as pretty as the first one." She mused aloud, not really thinking about if Hazel was listening. Sometimes it was just nice to talk for no reason other than to simply do it.

@Hazel