> The Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare
>  by Cheezy805
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare

‘Derpy, hahah! Look at her eyes!’ shouted the grey colt. 
‘Yeah, hahaha, she can’t see straight!’ slurred his tall friend. Sticks was a little bit slow. Sticks and Stones had gathered another crowd around Ditzy Doo and were making fun of her again. She was almost used to it, but no matter how hard she tried, she could never avoid the torment.
Ditzy had been born on the land to a Pegasus and an earth-pony. Because her father wasn’t a Pegasus, her parents both lived in Ponyville. She went to school like a normal filly, but the problem was that she wasn’t a normal filly. She had a problem that doctors called ‘lazy-eye’. Her left eye wouldn’t react as well to movement as her right, and so she would often be seen looking in two different directions at the same time. Ditzy was almost always made fun of for it.
‘Can’t you leave me alone?’ Ditzy asked, her mismatched eyes filling with tears.
‘Oh, look, we made her cry! With her eyes that messed up, I’m surprised she can! Hahaha,’ Stones said to the crowd. When nopony laughed, he and Sticks turns around and glared. The crowd immediately forced a laugh. They were scared of the two colts, not only because they were the bullies, but because their parents were just as bad. If they told anyone about Sticks and Stones, their parents would probably go and yell at the young children.
When nopony came forward against the laughter, Ditzy had had enough. She turned and ran as fast as her hooves would carry her away from the laughing bullies, and the laughter of the meaner ponies in the crowd. Before she came anywhere near the edge of the park, she ran flat into a sapling. It hit her right between the eyes, in her blind spot, and after bending forward, it launched her back a couple of feet in a comical fashion. 
She kept running away from the renewed laughter of the crowd, and ran right through Ponyville. She bumped into ponies here and there, much to their objection, but continued running. She crossed the town in a scant 10 minutes and ran straight into the forest on the other side. The grown-ups always told her not to go in there, but she knew her way around, and in another two minutes she found herself in a small clearing.
She sat down on a log that she had moved next to a tree for comfort and began to cry harder. 
Why can’t they just leave me alone? I never wanted to be this way! It’s not my fault my eyes are different, I can’t help it! Oh, why do they have to be so mean? She thought.
After a while of self-wallowing, she heard a stick break and suddenly went dead silent. Experience told her that the creatures of the forest liked to play with little fillies, but only before eating them. She had barely escaped once, and didn’t want to be found a second time. She quietly slipped down behind the log and began to back away, before tripping over a rock she hadn’t seen.
‘Ahh!’ she squealed. 
‘Hey, it’s alright, I won’t hurt you’ said a high, but obviously male voice. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, offering a hoof.
Ditzy looked up and saw the silhouette of a young unicorn colt. He appeared to have a dark brown coat, but it was hard to tell when he was standing in front of the setting sun.
She stared sceptically for a moment. She had been offered a hoof up before, only to be tripped and pushed over again. One look at the smile on his face said that he wouldn’t do anything like that, though. She took his hoof and lifted herself back up again.
With the light from the sun no longer being behind him, she noticed that his coat was actually a light brown, but his mane and tail were dark brown and sticking up in all directions in spikes.
‘You’re, uh… Ditzy, right?’ he asked
‘Y-yes… Most people don’t call me that, though…’ she mumbled, looking down.
‘I promise I won’t make fun of you. That was really mean of those bullies earlier. I know you can’t help being a little… well… different. I mean, we all are in little ways, but some people are just more different than others.’ He said. 
‘Yeah… well, what makes you different?’ she asked him
‘Me? I do all I can to help people. I really don’t like Sticks and Stones. They’re bullies, and big meany-heads! They always make fun of my mane. It’s not my fault it won’t sit flat.’ he said, pouting and trying in vain to pat it down..
Ditzy giggled, ‘Well, I like your mane. It looks nice. Thanks, by the way…’ 
‘Thanks? What for?’
‘For not saying anything about my eyes... it just makes me feel bad when people do, and almost everyone does. So what’s your name?’ she asked.
‘My name’s Zeddicus. Call me Zedd. Yeah, I get picked on a bit because it’s an unusual name.’ he said.
‘I think it’s a pretty name!’ she said, then immediately regretted it. Colts names weren’t “pretty”…
‘Haha, thanks’ he said, blushing a bit. ‘Come on, let’s go back to town. It’s nearly dark’.
Ditzy nodded to her new friend and began to walk close beside him. They made their way back to the trail and kept talking.
‘So, I’ve only been here for about a year. My mum’s a unicorn and my dad’s an earth pony. I have to admit; sometimes I wish I didn’t have this horn. I can’t use my magic yet, and it just gets in the way of hats, but I guess you have to put up with some things, whether or not you want to.’
Ditzy knew this all too well. Both her parents had eyes that faced in the right directions, but her dad always had to wear glasses. They worked hard to put her through school and provide school, but her dad always had trouble working with his own eye condition. His eyesight was terrible, no matter what the town optometrist tried. 
‘So where did you live before?’ asked Ditzy
‘I used to live in Fillydelphia, but I was born in Manehattan. What about you? Did you always live in Ponyville?’
‘I have for as long as I can remember. My mummy said that she lived in Cloudsdale until she met daddy, but I’ve never been there. I think I’ve seen you somewhere before… do you go to my school?’
‘There’s only one school in Ponyville, silly! Yes, I do, but I usually hide. I’ve always been picked on… that’s why I try to be nice to everyone. I know what it’s like when people are mean to you, and I don’t like it, so I’m nice to anyone who’s nice to me. Stop!’ he shouter suddenly
Ditzy flinched, and dropped to the ground. A moment later, when she looked around, she saw another sapling right in front of her. He had stopped her from walking into it.
‘Oh, thanks…’ she said, blushing. ‘It’s really hard to see things if they’re not a bit off to the side of my sight.’
‘It’s alright. That’s what friends are for, isn’t it?’
‘F-friends?’ she asked, her eyes lighting up, then she jumped on him. ‘Oh, I’ve never had a friend before!’ she basically shouted, then realised how embarrassing a thing to say that was. ‘I-I mean, um… oh, I’m so ditzy!’
‘Haha, it’s okay! I haven’t really had a friend before, either… come on; we’re nearly out of the forest.’ He said, returning to his hooves.
They continued to swap information about their lives and interests until Ditzy eventually completely stopped and looked around.
‘Huh? What’s up?’ asked Zedd
‘Nothing, I just lost track of where we are… my sense of direction is terrible’ she said, ‘my house is just around the corner.’
‘Well, I can lead us around, then! I live just over there’ he said, motioning with a hoof to a house across the other side of Mane Street.
‘Wait, you didn’t say that earlier. What if I lived all the way across the other side of Ponyville?’ she asked.
‘Oh, don’t worry. I like walking with you. You’re nice, and I know my around anyway; it’s not like anypony would care if I got home a little late,’ he said.
She thought about that last comment for a moment; then disregarded it. ‘Well, thanks for walking me home. I don’t know how long I would have stayed there if you hadn’t come along… I think I stayed there for two days once’ she said.
‘That’s okay. I’ll see you at school tomorrow, Ditzy! I can’t wait! We’ll be able to walk to school together, too, since we both live around here’ he said with a grin.
‘Hey, I didn’t think of that, yeah! See you tomorrow, Zedd’ she said, also grinning.
When he began to walk across the street to his house, she turned and walked down the side street to her house. When she reached the front door, she opened it and ran into the kitchen, where her mum was already cooking dinner. Her dad was sitting at the table, reading a newspaper.
‘Mummy, daddy, guess what!’ she said excitedly
‘What is it, dear?’ asked her mother in a sweet voice, turning to look at her daughter. She cared for Dinky more than anything in the world, and her husband felt the same.
‘Sounds like someone had big news,’ said her father from behind the newspaper. He lowered it, and winked at her from behind his glasses.
‘I made a friend! I made a real friend! His name is Zedd and he lives just across Mane Street and he goes to school with me and he’s brown and he’s a unicorn and he’s really nice!’ she said, pausing to take a breath.
‘That’s great!’ said her mother, glancing to her husband. They had only been discussing that problem a few minutes ago. They had been worried about Ditzy. The teachers had relayed reports of bullying to them, and that she would always try to hide from the other ponies because they would make fun of her eyes. Ditzy had been slowly becoming more and more sad as time progressed, and they were about ready to send her to a different school, or home school her, if it would make her happier.
‘We’re so glad to hear you made a friend. Maybe I can meet him while I walk you to school tomorrow, eh?’ said her father.
‘Now, that’s Ditzy’s choice if she wants to make it’ said her mother, fearing that he was an imaginary friend.
‘No, I’m sure he’d like to meet you. He said that we could walk to school together tomorrow!’ said Ditzy, excitedly. 
‘Well, that sounds great,’ he said. Ditzy seemed determined that he was real, and considering that she wanted to introduce Zedd to her father, he was convinced that she wasn’t imagining him. ‘I look forward to it’
‘Well how about you tell us more about him over dinner?’ said her mother, turning from the stove with several plates of food balanced on her back.
‘Give me a hoof, won’t you Pine?’ she said to her husband. He was named Pine Nettle, and had grown to become a logger. He was bigger than the average stallion, and below his dark brown fur and green mane, he had bulging muscles, and had a cutie mark shaped like an axe.
Ditzy’s mother was a skinny mare. She had golden eyes and mane, and a light blue-gray coat which seemed to run among the mares in the family. Her name was Spring Dew, and she had a fluffy cirrus cloud on her flank. She wasn’t the strongest flier on the Weather Patrol, but she had wings sensitive enough that she could sense weather changes seemingly before they even happened.
‘Sure thing, Spring’ he said with a chuckle at his rhyme, then folded his newspaper and stretched to place it on the bench behind him. When he’d dropped the newspaper down, he reached and took a plate in each hoof, placing one in front of himself and the other in front of Ditzy while Spring bumped her flank to the table and slid her own plate down.
As soon as they were all seated, Ditzy fanned her wings a few times to cool her dinner, and then began to talk all about Zedd.
---
‘Daddy, daddy, wake up! It’s time to go to school!’ shouted the overexcited filly, jumping on the foot of her parent’s bed. 
‘Really? You can’t give me five more minutes?’ he asked, sleepily.
‘No, you’ve already had ten!’ she said, frustrated.
He racked his brain trying to remember if she was telling the truth. I definitely remember her trying to wake me up more than once… Alright, fine. ‘Okay, I’m getting up’ he said, sitting up. Spring had already left to do the daily weather forecast for the town. I had to go to work today, anyway, he thought to himself.
After a quick breakfast of cereal and milk, they left the house; Pine bearing a toolbox on one flank, and a saddlebag balanced in weight with a thick résumé and cover letter, along with lunch in a box, and a sheathed hatchet; and Ditzy bearing saddlebags with lunch on one side, and simple English and maths homework on the other.
They barely made it four strides down Mane Street before Ditzy heard a familiar, friendly voice calling out to her. She looked across the street and saw Zedd weaving between early morning goers to get to Ditzy.
‘Hi, Zedd!’ she said, excited to see her new friend again. ‘This is my daddy’ she said, already by Zedd’s side, and turning to look to her father.
‘Nice to meet you, Zedd. My name’s Pine,’ he said, offering a hoof.
Unsure of how exactly to act while being treated like a stallion, he shook the adult’s hoof and muttered ‘I’m Zedd’ without thinking.
Ditzy giggled at the embarrassed look on Zedd’s face and turned to walk to school. After a moment, Zedd glanced to Pine, who beckoned forward with his hoof, and ran to catch up with Ditzy.
Well, I’m truly happy for her. I honestly thought we would have to send her to a different school… Spring will be over the moon with happiness, he thought to himself. He figured that he’d let them have their privacy, so he turned to take a walk before going to his job interview, before seeing Spring descending to him from the sky. Perfect, I can tell her now, he thought, sitting and watching her perfectly-shaped silhouette descending from the East in the early-morning glow.
---
‘Daddy seemed to like you’ said Ditzy when Zedd had slowed to walk next to her.
‘Yeah, I guess I didn’t make much of an impression’ he said, shyly rubbing his mane with a hoof, then missed a step and fell flat on his face.
Ditzy laughed loudly, drawing concerned looks from passers-by. After having her laugh, she offered him a hoof, which he took with one hoof, and used the other to cover his blushing red face.
‘Oh, come on, Zedd, it’s not that embarrassing. You look like that Apple kid… Macintosh, I think?’
He blushed a bit harder, but removed his other hoof from his face. ‘No way, I can’t be that red’ he said.
‘Sure, sure’ she said; then continued walking. She had noticed that her father had stopped following them and gone off on his own way. Even without looking around, she had a way of knowing things. Barely anything got past Ditzy, except the odd object in her path. But then again, they usually didn’t get past her, but ended up smacking her in the face.
---
One year later
---
The day had gone by quickly, but also slowly. She had a math test that she had been studying for. It was a huge test, too. It would determine who would go into the high class in high-school, and who would go down to the lower classes. She was looking forward for the day to end, so it was going slowly; but the test seemed to fly past, and it seemed to take less time to answer each question on the test than it did to read them. She had only just finished the last question when the bell rang for lunch.
After passing up her test, Ditzy skipped to her saddlebag in her locker and grabbed her lunch. She was in a good mood for the first time in months. The assignment she had handed up in the first lesson was marked before recess with an A, and she thought she should at least get a B on the math test. 
Zedd had agreed to meet her out at the canteen at lunch, so she took a bite of her sandwich and began to skip down the hall and towards the school yard.
Barely half a step out the door, her hoof caught on something and she pitched forward, tumbling down five solid steps, hitting every one of them on the way down. The first thing she registered after stopping was pain, and she began to cry. Her nose hurt badly. It was the first thing to hit the ground.
After a moment, she noticed laughter. She opened her eyes and saw Sticks and Stones at the top of the stairs through her tears.
‘You’re right, she is clumsy! She can’t even watch out for somepony else’s hoof in her path. Well, Derpy, I think someone owes someone else an apology.’ said Stones sardonically from the top of the stairs.
She continued to cry in relative silence, every so often with a sob escaping her lips. She wiped the tears from her muzzle and noticed a spot of blood. Her nose was bleeding! She had been injured, and everypony was staring at her. She had done this… Stones didn’t trip her, she had walked into his hoof, and everypony was judging her… but she was bleeding!
She tried to stand and keep going to the canteen. If she could get to Zedd, he would reassure her that she was in the right. When she stood, she promptly fell back down again and gave a small gasp of pain. Her ankle had twisted at some point on the way down, too.
‘Come on, you idiot! What are you waiting for?’ he said, expecting her to give in.
‘She’s obviously waiting for her apology’ called Zedd from the crowd. The ponies that had crowded the scene parted to let Zedd through. He trotted up to Ditzy’s side and upon seeing her blood; he turned to Sticks and Stones and shouted ‘Well, go on! Where’s her apology?’
They both fell over roaring with laughter. After their laughter subsided to chuckling, Sticks turned to Stones and said ‘You know, I think he’s serious’.
‘Yeah, I think he is, too. Well, you know what happens to ponies who demand things of us? They end up in the nurse’s office. Get it?’ he said, turning back to Zedd
‘The only reason I’ll be in the nurses office is because they’ll be removing my hoof from your rear-end!’ Zedd shouted up the stairs.
Stones suddenly scowled, and leapt. Before anyone could see what was going on, Sticks was holding Zedd down while Stones stood above, preparing to hit him.
‘Do you want to take that back before it’s too late, you blank-flank idiot?’
Zedd stared for a moment. They’re going to hurt me no matter what I do. Good. They’ll leave Ditzy alone…. he glanced to Ditzy, and she looked at him with something between fear and awe. He managed a weak smile in her direction, then turned back to Stones.
‘I’ll take it back the day you stop being such a bully. Look at this all! You’ve just hurt somepony, and when someone came to help, you try to hurt him, too! I think you’re nothing but a-‘
His next words were cut off by a hoof to the jaw.
‘Gah!’ muttered Zedd, stifling a shout. There were tears in his eyes, but he kept a determined expression. This was for Ditzy. If he could distract them, they would leave her alone.
Stones ended up hitting him twice more, once to the face and once to the gut, before being picked up in a grey glow.
‘What do you think you’re DOING’ bellowed a grey unicorn stallion. He wasn’t just anyone, he was the PE teacher; Stones’ father.
Sticks immediately dropped Zedd and bolted. It was to no avail, as the teacher caught him, too, in the grey glow.
‘Both of you are coming to the principal’s office directly. Stones, no dinner tonight and you’re grounded for a month. Sticks, I’ll speak to your father. Now you’ he said, turning to Zedd, ‘You don’t look too bad, but you should probably go to the nurse’s office. Take her with you.’ He said, motioning to Ditzy.
With that, he turned and marched back through the double doors, levitating two panicked-looking colts behind him.
Zedd moved over to Ditzy. The crowd continued to stare in awe as the colt showed no sign of pain after being hit. The hits weren’t hard, but he was still sporting a fat lip and bleeding.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked her quietly.
‘Your lip… you… thank you’ she said, tears of gratitude streaming down her face. ‘Oh, Zedd…’
‘Ditzy, seriously. We should get you looked at. You’re bleeding!’
‘So are you’
‘Well let’s go, then!’ he said, laughing a bit
‘Oh, right… my ankle is sore… I think it might be twisted…’ she said
She motioned her rear left hoof. Zedd lowered his neck for Ditzy to put a hoof over, and lifted her to her hooves. Together they climbed the stairs and limped down the hall to the nurses office.
When they reached the nurses office, Zedd opened the door and helped Ditzy through. It was only a small room with a bed on one side and a desk on the other. There were pictures all over the walls to try and make it look less dull, along with a clock and calendar.
The nurse turned in her chair to see who was entering and gasped when she saw them.
‘Ditzy! Oh, what happened this time? You didn’t run into something again did you? Take a seat on the bed. And, err, Zedd? What happened to you?’ she asked, moving to the cupboard.
‘Ditzy was tripped. She didn’t fall. She has a twisted ankle and I don’t know if it’s just a bloody nose or if it’s broken’ said Zedd quickly.
‘What about you?’
‘It’s just a sore lip. Help Ditzy first,’ he said.
She eyed him for a moment then moved to get a bandage and a splint for Ditzy’s ankle. 
The two friends left the nurse’s office. She had told them that they could both go home early. They headed to each other’s lockers, Ditzy no longer needing support to walk, and left with their saddlebags. Zedd insisted on taking Ditzy’s bag and, after a short argument, she allowed him to. She was secretly grateful, but that was beside the point.
As they walked along Mane Street, Ditzy suddenly spoke.
‘Thank you, Zedd. If you hadn’t been there then they would probably have done that to me…’ she said. ‘Even so, I wish it didn’t have to happen to you.’
‘Please, it’s nothing. If I hadn’t been there, and something else had happened, I would never have forgiven myself. You’re my best friend, and I’ll always be there for you,’ he said.
She looked at him for a moment then lightly kissed him. He was struck dumb. He’d known her for a year, but they were only friends! ‘Ditzy… what…?’ he muttered in a daze.
‘I’m kissing your lip better. What did you think I was doing?’ she said with a wink.
He stared into her eyes for a moment. Despite being misaligned, their gold colour made them the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen… how had it taken him a year to notice?
She kept walking, and he had to struggle a bit to catch up, despite her limp and slower-than-normal pace.
‘She told me to go home and rest, but I feel like something sweet. I got my pocket-money yesterday, so how about we go to the sweet shop?’ she asked.
‘Yeah… sure…’ Zedd responded, still somewhat dazed. 
They made their way to the local bakery. It was owned by a couple with the last name ‘Cake’. When they entered, Mrs. Cake immediately rushed over to greet them.
‘Well, hello Miss Doo! What are my favourite two customers doing out of school at this hour, and *gasp* what happened to your ankle! Oh, dearie, take a seat, right over here’ she said, ushering Ditzy over to a seat near the window. Zedd followed and sat next to her.
‘The school bullies decided to trip Ditzy and I decided to intervene. It ended better than I thought it would, Stones is grounded. I just wish I could have stopped them from hurting Ditzy’ he said, looking dejected. 
‘You should have seen him! He was so brave. I don’t want to think what would have happened if he hadn’t shown up! Well, anyway, we were let out early, so I thought of coming here. A good muffin always cheers me up, and who makes the best ones?’ she said, flattering Mrs. Cake.
‘Oh, thank you, dearie. You can have a free one for all the trouble you went to. No, I insist! You deserve more than that for being so brave, but I don’t think you’d let me give you anything more’ she said, turning and going to the counter.
‘Zedd, do you remember what they did? One of them held you down for the other. They’re scared of you! You aren’t exactly small for your age, and they think that if they hurt me, they’ll be too popular for you to go after them. They might actually leave me alone for a while, now, after what you did today.’
‘Yeah, but still… your ankle…’
‘It could have been worse. At least my nose isn’t broken! But it is still a bit sore…’ she said, crossing her eyes more than normal to look at it.
Zedd leant across and kissed her lightly on the nose. Ditzy was a little surprised, but something stirred inside her. Her chest tightened and she felt a slight shortness of breath. If there wasn’t a chair back behind her, her wings would be slowly extending.
‘Payback’ said Zedd, grinning, and Ditzy began to feel her cheeks burn.
Mrs Cake came back over with two plates, a blueberry muffin on each. She put them down on the table and pushed them to either pony. ‘Not a word from me, I promise’ she said with a wink, then returned to her counter and wiped it of any loose crumbs.
They both began to eat their muffins and talk about anything and everything, as they so often did. They both felt that the other was the only pony in their lives that they could tell anything to, but they put that down to being best friends.
After an hour, young ponies began to fill the shop, some with their parents.
A young pink pony came over to them and said ‘Nice work today, Zedd! You’re the only one who’s ever stood up to those big bully meanie-pants’s. But they don’t wear pants so maybe they’re big meanie-flanks? Meanie-‘
‘Thanks, Pinkie, we get it.’ Said Zedd. Pinkie was new to town, and after moving from a rock farm somewhere to the south, she moved in with the Cakes. They were happy to have her, as she made a nice friend for their daughter.
‘Oh, yeah, okay. But it was just so cool! I can’t believe you stood up to them’ she said, taking a seat. ‘Even Rainbow Dash would be impressed with that’.
‘Who’s Rainbow Dash?’ asked Ditzy
‘Oh, right, she still lives in Cloudsdale’ replied Pinkie.
‘Uhh… yeah… hey, isn’t that Rarity?’ said Ditzy, pointing out the window.
‘Oh my goodness, yes it is! I need to talk to her! Thank you for reminding me, I’ll be sure to talk to you later, okay?’ she said, then turned and ran out the door without waiting for a response.
Zedd laughed as Rarity noticed the pink pony and began to rush down a side street, quickly followed by the hyperactive pony.
They big good day to Mrs. Cake and left toward Ditzy’s house. Zedd insisted on walking her home, and she didn’t want to say no.
When they arrived at her door, she invited him in. the day was still young, so why not? He entered the house with her, and she called out to her parents.
‘Mom, dad, I’m home! Zedd’s here with me.’
‘Okay, honey’ came the reply from her father somewhere upstairs.
‘Do you want a drink?’ she asked him
‘No thanks. Take a seat, seriously. You need to rest.’ He said, leading her to the lounge chair. 
‘Okay, fine, Mr. Worry-wart’ she said. When she sat down, she subconsciously let out a breath of tension she hadn’t noticed was there.
‘Better?’ 
‘Much.’
Zedd sat down next to hear and leant up against her. He was happy enough to just sit there for all time and never move again. After a few minutes, Pine came in through the door to the lounge room.
‘Hey Zedd. Not interrupting anything; am I?’ he asked.
Zedd quickly leant up off Ditzy and said ‘Err, no, sir. Nothing. Hello. I, uh…’
‘At ease, soldier. I’ve told you before to call me Pine’ he said, then laughed.
‘Yes… Pine… sorry.’
‘Oh, Ditzy, what happened to your ankle? You didn’t fall down the stairs again, did you?’ he asked showing concern behind his glasses.
‘No… I didn’t trip…’ she said.
‘She was tripped.’ Zedd corrected.
‘What!’ shouted Pine. ‘Who did it? I’ll wring their neck!’
‘I think that’s taken care of,’ said Zedd, ‘it was Sticks and Stones again. When I stepped in to help, they held me down and stated hitting me, then Stones’s dad caught them. Maybe he’ll finally believe those stories he’s always gotten about them being bullies.’ He said.
‘Good. He might teach them some discipline. I have to thank you, Zedd, for stepping in. I think I might have something in the medicine cabinet for that split lip if you want it. Also remember that you’re always welcome here. Why don’t you stay for dinner tonight?’
‘Uh, sure,’ he said. ‘My lip’s fine, but I’d be happy to have dinner here. I’ll just tell my parents.’
‘You know where the phone is’ he said, moving back upstairs to tell Spring what had happened.
Zedd reluctantly got up and moved away from Ditzy to the hallway, where he picked up the phone. He pretended to dial a number, and spoke to himself as though he was talking to someone else on the other end of the phone.
He went back to join Ditzy on the lounge chair.
‘So everything’s fine?’ she asked sleepily.
‘Yeah, I can stay for dinner. I don’t think they’d care if I told them or not, anyway’ he said.
Ditzy had never met his parents, but from what he’d said about them, they didn’t seem to realise they had a son. He stayed over for dinner almost once a fortnight, and had even stayed over for the night a few times when he was younger. Spring had put a stop to that as soon as he had started to mature and, despite thinking this was unfair, he decided to go along with it and stay on their good side.
As he felt her familiar warmth on his side, he suddenly realised that at some point they had become more than friends. When, he didn’t know, but now that he thought back on it, it hadn’t simply been that day… whether or not they wanted to accept it, their relationship had changed, and they couldn’t simply remain friends for long.
Without voicing any of this, Zedd crawled up closer to Ditzy and noticed she was asleep. Her body healing must have taken a fair toll on her normal energy.
Ditzy stretched a wing out across Zedd, and within a few minutes he was asleep.
‘They look so cute’ whispered Spring from the doorway.
‘I must have missed it. She just seemed to become so mature one day… she couldn’t have chosen a better person to be with’ Pine whispered back.
The parents let them sleep for now. There was a time to wake them, but that didn’t have to come yet.
Ditzy cracked an eye open. Her parents quietly moved from the doorway and vanished from sight. She looked across to the young stallion lying against her and smiled. She gently nuzzled him and returned to lying comfortably, warmed by his body heat; comforted with her wing across his back. 
	
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare – Part 2

Zedd slowly awoke. The sweet smell of fresh steamed vegetables was coming from the kitchen. He suddenly noticed how warm he was… and whatever he was lying against was soft.
He took a moment to try to wake up and gather his thoughts and remembered it was Ditzy. He looked across to her leaning against him, her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open. Her breathing was soft and level.
She is… incredible, he thought to himself, still staring, eyes still half closed. Ditzy suddenly shifted and slid off of his shoulder to lean against the back of the lounge. Zedd suddenly felt another hoof on his other shoulder, and turned with a start to see Pine looking down at him with a hoof to his lips.
Pine beckoned for Zedd to get up and follow, so he did. Oh no… I shouldn’t have done this. Now I’m in trouble! But… it was just sleeping, nothing else! He thought to himself frantically wondering what Pine was going to do.
Pine pulled out a seat at the kitchen table; then took a seat for himself next to his wife, Spring. 
What’s going on? Why are they both here? Oh no, they’re going to tell me never to see Ditzy again… they’re going to tell me to leave the house and they never want to-
‘Zedd’ said Pine, cutting off Zedd’s thoughts.
‘Yes, sir?’ he asked ‘err, Pine, sorry’
‘I can see you still don’t like calling people by their first name. Well, I guess that just means you’re naturally respectful. I like that in a person,’ said Pine.
‘Um… to be honest, you’ve never given me a reason to be disrespectful… not-not that I’d ever be disrespectful to you!’ he stammered.
Pine laughed softly, trying to stay quiet so as to not wake his daughter. Right. Ditzy. 
‘So, Zedd. Ditzy’s already told us a lot about you, but we’d still prefer to hear it first-hoof from you. Where exactly did you come from before Ponyville?’ asked Pine.
‘Well, I was born in Manehattan, but I moved to Fillydelphia when I was only young. I lived there until a bit over a year ago when I moved here. I had a hard time fitting in with anyone until I met Ditzy’
‘And what do you like about her?’ asked Spring. He noticed that he hadn’t ever heard her say anything before, and noticed how her voice was somehow softer and kinder than Ditzy’s.
‘Well… she was kind to me after I moved here. People usually pick on the new kid, and I only ever wanted to be kind to people. I noticed that she was getting bullied a lot more than me, and when I saw her run away, I decided that she needed a friend. I did, too, but I went to help her for her sakes, not mine. She was nice to me, though… while other people made fun of my mane or my name, she didn’t’.
‘I notice you’re going out of your way to not mention her eye condition’ said Pine accusingly.
‘What? Oh, yeah. I forgot about that… I judge people on personality, not looks; and Ditzy? She has the best personality of anypony I’ve ever met’ he said, staring off into space. He suddenly felt a pair of forelegs on his shoulders and a head leaning against his neck.
‘Thank you’ whispered Ditzy, a tear forming in her eye, but not falling. ‘So, dad, can I keep him?’ she asked, raising her voice to a normal speaking level.
‘I suppose, but only if he cleans up after himself’ Pine said. Zedd just stared at him for a few seconds, wondering why he was being treated like a dog; then everyone else started laughing. Realising it was a joke, he joined in.
‘Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Go and wash up’ said Spring, returning to the stove.
Ditzy left the room first. When Zedd moved to follow, Pine gently put a hoof on his shoulder to stop him.
‘Zedd, you’re the first real friend she’s ever had. I don’t think you would anyway; you don’t seem like that kind of person, but just… don’t hurt her. You seem to be getting closer than just friends; and that’s none of my business, but this had to be said.’
‘Don’t worry. She’s actually the first real friend I’ve had and I have no intentions of hurting her. She’s-… she reminds me of me. I never thought there was another pony out there who was like me, but… she is.’
Pine smiled at him and removed his hoof from Zedds’ shoulder. Spring moved over close to him to say something quietly.
‘Look out for her. She’s going to need a friend when we aren’t around anymore. She’s smarter than most and one of the kindest ponies you’ll meet, but she will always be rejected because of her eyes.’ 
‘I’ll always be there for her. I promise. There wasn’t really much point in saying this quietly, though. Knowing how much like me she is, she’ll have a way of finding out. She probably already knows, I’d say. Isn’t that right, Ditzy?’ he called out to the doorway. They heard a small ‘eep’ and rushed hoof-movement and laughed as she slipped and fell in the doorway, exposing her eavesdropping.
Zedd immediately rushed over to help her up, but continued to chuckle softly as she blushed. ‘Come on, we still need to wash up for dinner’ he said, helping her up the stairs on her sore ankle.
---
It was finally time to head home. Zedd had stayed over at Ditzy’s house yesterday and walked with her to school today, but he still had to go home at some point so he didn’t arouse suspicion. He was somewhat amazed that Ditzy didn’t realise that she had never seen his house.
‘What’s up? You don’t look too happy there, Zedd,’ said Ditzy, waking him from his thoughts.
‘What? Oh, no, it’s nothing. I just, uhh… final exam pressure? Yeah, I’m nervous about the final exams coming up.’
‘You, Zedd, are the worst liar I’ve ever met. We both know you’re going to pass your exams with no less than a B on everything, so why the long face? Well, except for the obvious that you’re a horse.’
He smiled a bit at this. It was an old joke, but she had a way of making even the worst jokes seem funny.
‘Fine. I’m wondering what I’m going to do for dinner. The fridge is nearly empty and I haven’t been to the shop in a week.’
‘Well, doesn’t your mum do that for you? My mum does the shopping for my family…’
‘Oh yeah, uhh… my mum never leaves the house.’ Think, Zedd, think! ‘she injured her hoof a while ago and can’t walk. Mayor Mare gives her a pension, but I have to do the chores like shopping and cooking’ Please buy it… please!
Ditzy looked at him sceptically for a bit but eventually nodded and said ‘It must be tough’.
‘Well, I get to keep any bits that aren’t needed for the bills or food, so it’s not that bad. Being able to take care of my mum makes me happy, I guess’
‘Not that. Living alone’ she muttered, looking at the ground.
His jaw dropped. He knew she was smart and that she was nearly impossible to lie to, but even so; how did she find out? How did she guess it? His heart rate rose and he felt a small pit of fear rise from deep in his chest.
‘Ditzy…’
‘Why did you keep it a secret for so long?’
‘How long have you known?’
‘Does it matter? I’ve known you for three years now, did you think you could hide it from me?’
‘No, I just… I didn’t want to lose you. Being alone… it-‘
‘Do you think it would have changed anything if you told me? If I’d known, you could probably have come to live with me! You didn’t have to be alone!’ she said, voice rising with her temper. Tears were forming in her eyes. ‘I said I’d be here for you if you ever needed me, but it looks like you don’t! If being alone for years on end is something you don’t need me for, then you don’t need me for anything!’
‘That’s not true! I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t find the right time and-‘
Zedd couldn’t help but notice how incredible she looked. Her eyed, despite facing off-centre, were clear and golden. Her mane was smooth and silky, and her face itself was perfectly level. Symmetrical, almost.
‘No!’ she screamed, tears freely flowing down her face. ‘You’ve proven you don’t need me, and I don’t need you either!’
Before he could respond, she turned and flew as fast as she could through town. Zedd fell to his haunches staring after her. The most perfect pony he’d ever met, and he had just lost her because he was too stupid to tell her something. Spring Glow landed just behind him.
‘Zedd’ she said, softly. She never really raised her voice above a loud whisper. ‘Go after her. Quickly. It’s not too late to fix this if you hurry.’
He turned and looked into her eyes. Ditzy was the spitting image of her mother, less the few wrinkles lining her face. Looking around through the square, he saw many of his classmates watching him. They all knew that the two had been together for years, and never thought they’d have any troubles.
‘Go to her. You know where to find her’ she said. She looked deeply sorrowful, but not a tear was present.
He thought for a moment about where she would be, but nothing came to mind. He was about to ask where to find her when she took off again, flying back to the Weather Team HQ. 
I always go there when people pick on me. Mummy and Daddy don’t like me going in there, but it’s… peaceful. I can go in there and just enjoy the silence. Came the voice of Ditzy from the deep recesses of his mind. The forest. The Everfree Forest. Where they met for the first time.
He took off at full speed, ignoring the shouts from ponies he had nearly knocked over. He needed to find her, quickly. He noticed a pink blur beside him. Everything was a blur at the speed he was moving.
‘Hey, are you having a race? Can I join in? Pleeaaassee?? Come on, Zedd! One-two-three go! Wait, where are we going? Are you heading over to the forest? What’s happening in the forest? Fluttershy doesn’t live there yet and Zecora hasn’t moved from whatever land she comes from, so-’
‘Not now, Pinkie! Leave me alone!’ he shouted. He didn’t care if he hurt her feelings. He needed to do this alone, and her running along beside him speaking in riddles. She always spoke like that; talking about ponies no one had ever met, and he couldn’t handle it right now. he glanced back and saw that she had stopped completely and was sitting on her haunches with flattened hair. Now wasn’t the time to apologise; that would come later.
He reached the forest in record time. Normally a 15 minute walk, he made in three minutes flat. He barrelled straight between trees, cutting himself on bushes and shrubs, and scaring small woodland creatures. The brush thickened the further in he got and then suddenly stopped as he toppled into a clearing. He could hear sobbing coming from nearby. 
Looking around, he noticed how much the clearing had changed. It was still green and full of life, but the log Ditzy had hidden behind the first time he met her had been eaten away and replaced with blackberry bushes. He finally saw a moving golden mane. He had missed it because she was in tall grass and between yellow daffodils. 
Zedd began to silently walk over, but stopped when he reached the tall grass. He sat and stared silently at the ground. The sobbing stopped for a moment and he knew she was watching him.
‘I’m sorry’ was all he could say. He thought about all of the things he could have said better than that, and the many ways in which she could, and was about to, reject his apology when he was knocked over backwards and felt her muzzle pressed to his own. His eyes opened wide to see Ditzy’s own closed, and he closed his eyes, too, simply lying there; overwhelmingly glad that she didn’t hate him.
After what felt like an eternity, yet still not long enough, they broke apart and Ditzy buried her face in his mane. ‘I’m so sorry, too! Please don’t hate me!’ she sobbed.
‘I could never hate you, Ditzy. I’m sorrier than I have ever been… I was worried that you wouldn’t like me anymore if you found out that I lived by myself and that your parents would tell you not to see me and that-’ he was interrupted by another soft kiss; then the two lay in silence. 
The sun was inching closer to the horizon when Ditzy finally let him go. They’d been lying in that clearing watching the clouds and listening to the birds for hours, but it was time to return home.
They got up and began to walk back into town literally touching sides. Ditzy draped her left wing across Zedd’s back as they walked back into town, drawing stares from strangers which they ignored. They were happy to be as close to each other as possible and strangers staring at them wasn’t going to change a thing.
‘Come on, Zedd. You’re going to live at my house from now on. I swear my parents will be overjoyed about it. Let’s go and pack up your stuff,’ said Ditzy, breaking the silence. Zedd nodded and they turned the corner to his house.
Ditzy had never seen it before. It was completely dilapidated. The roof was crumbling, the paint on the outer walls were peeling, and in some places the walls had holes eaten through them by termites. 
Ditzy removed her wing from Zedd’s back and he walked to the door. He reached a hoof out and lightly pushed it. The door swung open for a few inches, then creaked, cracked, and fell over; breaking into a few pieces. Ditzy winced when it hit the floor with a crash, but Zedd just said ‘It’s been threatening to do that for a while. Good thing it happened today and not a week ago.’
They both entered the house and Ditzy’s first thought was where’s the rest of it? It was one single room with a stained mattress in a corner without sheets. There was a cooler in another corner of the room that was leaking. Zedd went and dropped his saddlebags next to it, taking out three carrots and four celery stalks, then dropping them into the left bag. His schoolwork was in the right bag.
He looked around the room for any other possessions he had. From the wall he retrieved a picture of an earth-stallion and unicorn-mare with a unicorn-foal between them. The foal was asleep and both parents were smiling with pure joy in their eyes. 
There were two more frames on the walls. One was of a young Zedd and a sad, brown mare, but his father was nowhere to be seen. The final frame held the deed to the house- if it could be called that- signed to Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander.  This was the first time Ditzy had seen his complete name and, under lighter circumstances, would have giggled at it. Zedd took it off the wall and placed it in his bag with the other two photos and his schoolwork, then lifted his bags and moved to the door.
‘That’s it. You’ve now seen my house. Come on, I don’t want to stay here longer than I have to.’
Ditzy wanted to ask what had happened to his parents. She stifled the thought as she didn’t want to offend him, and moved to the door by his side.
‘I’ll tell you another time. If you get three A’s on your final exams, then I’ll tell you.’ He said to her, somehow reading her mind yet again.
How does he do th-
‘I can do that because we think so similarly. You just wanted to know how I always guess what you’re thinking, right? Well, I put myself into the mindset of being told what I just said and what my reaction would be to it. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but whatever.’
‘Well, what am I thinking about now?’ she said, forcing herself to think about bubbles. She had always liked bubbles. They floated so lightly on the wind, freer than birds. They would reflect light into rainbows and-
‘Probably that spider on your back’ he said, reaching forward to brush at her. She felt something crawling on her back and immediately flapped her wings as hard as she could to get it off, then slammed into the roof not realising she had even taken off. She settled back down on the floor a little bit dazed, but glad that the crawling had stopped. She hated spiders.
‘Well, that’s one way to get rid of them.’ He said, looking up. His grin fell immediately and he dived forward, pushing her through the door and onto the ground outside, then dived after her. Not a moment later, the entire decrepit roof caved in, collapsing the floor, and the walls fell in after it.
Zedd got to his hooves coughing. When the dust settled he saw Ditzy lying still on the ground staring wide-eyed at nothing in shock. ‘Come on, get up. Let’s get to your house’ he said, offering her a hoof up. She didn’t take it and so he lifted her to her feet with magic. His magic was still weak, so this took a lot out of him. Her knees shook, but she still stood.
‘You… saved my life, Zedd…’
‘Yeah, and you killed about a hundred spiders. We’re even.’
She turned to look at him and noticed that despite acting cool-headed, there was fear and shock in his eyes, too. She nodded without saying anything and took a few tentative steps forward, then immediately retched. Zedd rushed over to hold her mane back and a few other ponies stepped around the corners of houses to see what had happened.
When she had finished being sick, half the town was already there. Rarity rushed over with a napkin and began to dust off Ditzy.
‘Oh, Miss Doo, are you alright? I hope you’re not injured. Please let me- oh, you can get that bit… and that one… here, take the napkin. Keep it’ she said, handing the napkin to Ditzy who began to wipe the corners of her mouth. Not trusting her voice anymore, she looked at Zedd and nodded. He took the message as her wanting to get home.
Zedd turned to the bulk of the crowd and called out ‘It’s alright, everyone! Nopony was injured. The house was collapsing anyway. You can all go and return to your business’, then lifted Ditzy’s left foreleg over his neck and helped her to walk back to her house. They barely made it to the front gate before Pine came rushing out the front door and said loudly ‘What happened! Is Ditzy alright? You’re not hurt are you, darling? Come on inside and lay down’
Pine came up quickly and lifted her onto his back. He beckoned Zedd inside and rushed in to lay her on the lounge. ‘Spring, get some tea going, quickly. That crashing earlier was something to do with Ditzy’
From the kitchen they heard a kettle being placed on a stove and Spring walked through the doorway to see what had happened.
‘What. Happened’ said Pine, a little more viciously than he should have.
‘My house kind of… collapsed, and I pushed her out the way. She’s just in shock from nearly being inside a collapsing house. Oh, and there was a spider on her back’ he said, scared by her father.
Pine immediately turned to face him and shouted ‘your house nearly fell on her?!’ then sat and thought for a moment. She isn’t injured… what else did he say? ‘You… you saved her. Zedd, thank you! Thank you so much’ he said.
‘Zedd’ mumbled Ditzy from the lounge. She had turned to face the colt and the stallion; Spring watching from the doorway. ‘You’re so brave’ she muttered, weakly smiling at him.
‘No, I just… reacted. I don’t like seeing ponies get hurt, and if you did; I’d never forgive myself. I would have saved you even if it meant sacrificing myself. Thankfully, it didn’t.’ he replied
Pine felt heartened by this. She was definitely in good hooves. ‘Well, since your house is… gone… perhaps we’ll need to clean out the guest room’ he said.
Zedd stared at him for a moment before realising what that meant. Suddenly, a huge grin broke across his face. He was going to live here! Live with Ditzy, and actually have a family!
‘Thank you so much! Oh my goodness, I… it’s…’ he trailed off unable to say anything further. Spring walked into the room with a tray on her rump holding a kettle and four cups. Grateful to have something to help with, Zedd lifted the tray off her back and settled it on the rug between the four, using magic to pour tea into the four cups and life them to each pony, one by one. He could use magic, but not well enough to lift the cups all at the same time.
As Ditzy sipped her tea, she felt strength returning to her and her heartbeat began to slow. She was releasing tension that she hadn’t realised was there, and Zedd came to sit next to her. She gladly leant against him as Pine said ‘That was a fair show of magic for a colt your age’.
Zedd nodded at the compliment. He knew that it was on the lower side of average magic ability for his age, but he wasn’t going to say anything against a direct compliment from Ditzy’s father.
Conversation eventually returned to normal and as the sun came close to the horizon, Spring quietly said ‘how about we all go out to dinner tonight? We have a new house member and he saved the life of our only daughter; I think that’s reason enough to celebrate. Besides, I could use a break from cooking’
‘I think that’s a great idea,’ agreed Pine, moving to take the tray of cups and a kettle back to the kitchen, then to leave.
They headed into town and many ponies waved and congratulated Zedd on his bravery that night. They had already forgotten about the shouting match in the street as word had spread of him diving into a collapsing house and dragging Ditzy from the wreckage. He would have a hard time quashing these rumours with the truth, but that could wait for a while. 
Ditzy draped her wing across his back and nuzzled his neck whispering ‘my hero’. He smiled and nuzzled her back as they walked to town. Zedd noticed Spring also had her wing draped across Pine’s back. They entered the restaurant as a family, Zedd happier than he’d been in years.
	
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare – Part 3

She opened her eyes then promptly shut them again. Sunlight was streaming in through the open curtains and flooding Ditzy’s room, pointing directly onto her bed.
She had intentionally left the curtains open so the sun would wake her up early, but she still didn’t want to get up. Why did I leave the curtain open… Oh, I don’t care, I want to sleep! She thought to herself. She rolled over and buried her face in her pillow, but it was too late, she was already awake. There was no going back to sleep from here.
She rolled out of bed and landed heavily on her hooves, then immediately remembered why she wanted to wake up early. She wanted to get up and cook breakfast for the rest of her family, and Zedd, before they woke up. She quietly crossed her room, avoiding creaky floorboards, and made her way into the hallway, then down to the kitchen.
Retrieving several items from both the fridge and the cupboards, she placed a pan on the stove and turned it on to begin cooking. When the food was most-way cooked she became aware of another presence. Risking a sideways glance (with one eye) toward the doorway, she saw a familiar brown coat and messy hair.
‘Good morning, sleepy-head’ she said, knowing it was Zedd.
He responded with a grunt and sat down at the table, immediately resting his head on his hooves. ‘I woke up because I smelled something good, but I am not a morning pony’.
‘How about I put on some coffee? Dad always drinks that to wake himself up in the mornings’
‘I’ve heard that apples wake you up more than coffee, but I don’t want to ruin breakfast. I don’t normally drink coffee, but I wouldn’t mind some, thanks,’ he said, still drowsy but waking up a bit.
Ditzy flicked a switch on the coffee maker and it began to hiss as it heated. After another couple of minutes, the toast and eggs were ready to be taken off the pan. Pine and Spring appeared in the doorway.
‘Well, this has to be a first. Cooking breakfast for us? What’s the occasion?’
‘Does she need an occasion? It gives me a break from cooking’ said Spring quietly from his side.
‘I just felt like doing something nice for the family! I hope I did a good job…’
The last time she had tried cooking for the family she had successfully burned everything from the toast to the juice. Pine looked over the food that was being put onto four plates and smiled. It looked and smelled good. ‘It looks fine. Can’t wait to try it’ he said.
Ditzy smiled broadly and finished piling food onto plates with renewed vigour. Pine took a seat at the table and noticed Zedd was already there, still half asleep.
‘Not a morning pony, eh? Don’t worry, I never was when I was your age, either.’
He immediately perked up again and said ‘Yes, si- um, uh… Pine…’ awkwardly. He still wasn’t used to calling him by his first name, and often let slip by saying ‘sir’. ‘Ditzy’s making coffee. It’s nearly done, right?’ he asked her.
‘Yeah, just a moment’ she said, dropping two of the plates down on the table in front of her parents. She turned and moved to the coffee maker, retrieving two mugs, and poured some coffee. After adding milk she placed the mugs in front of Pine and Zedd.
Pine took a sip and said ‘Ahh, just the way I like it. Strong!’
Zedd wasn’t so sure about it anymore. If a pony of Pine’s size wanted strong coffee, he would probably need to dull it a bit with sugar. He reached forward and added three teaspoons to his own coffee then took a sip. Still strong, but not bad.
‘Jeez, one or two?’ said Pine from across the table
‘Teaspoons?’ asked Zedd
‘No, bags! Hah!’ he slammed a hoof down on the table and laughed. Zedd chuckled nervously and put his coffee back down just as Ditzy dropped a plate in front of him and sat down at her own.
Spring poured two glasses of apple juice, courtesy of the Apple family, and asked ‘Do you have any plans today?’
Ditzy immediately spoke up. ‘We were going to go around town and ask how everypony got their cutie marks! Neither of us have ours and almost everypony else does… actually, the only pony left without hers is Applejack’
It was well known that the Apple mares were always the last to get their cutie marks in their year levels. ‘I think that sounds like a great idea’ said Spring. ‘Pine?’ she asked her husband.
‘Well, you’re not going to get them by sitting around every weekend, so I guess that’s alright. How about I tell you about how I got mine?’
‘That sounds interesting… how does a lumberjack get his mark?’ asked Zedd.
‘Well, it happened when I was only a little bit younger than you two are now. 
---
‘Get off your lazy rump, Pine! That is not how family members of mine act. You need to work! The real world is a lot harder than this!’ shouted the green colt. Pine’s father, while a passable role model, was very strict. There was no nepotism with him, he would treat everyone the same. 
‘Dad, I’m tired! I’ve been raking these leaves for seven hours!’
‘And you’ll rake them for seven more if you don’t get off your kiester and finish up the pile! There’s a wind coming, and you’ll need to start again if you don’t finish soon.’
‘What’s the point anyway? These trees are just going to drop more leaves and I’m going to have to rake them again…’
‘These trees aren’t going to drop any more leaves after today, Pine. Today I’m going to teach you to use a saw.’
Pine stared in disbelief. He had watched his father cutting down trees for years, but being unable to hold a saw properly due to his size, he was always given the rake to clean up. If he was lucky he’d be able to cut off loose branches with a small hacksaw, but never more than a few inches across.
‘Move it, son! If you want to get to cuttin’ we’re gonna need all these leaves out of here! If you slip while sawing, you’re in for a mite of trouble.’
His father was named Oak Bough. His coat was leaf-green, and his mane was auburn, just like leaves in autumn. He was a well-respected lumberjack in Ponyville. Ever since the Apple family had begun to sell their incredible Zap Apple Jam, he had moved his family in. They had a good business going. All the ponies' houses needed wood; some were entirely made of it.
Pine continued to rake with renewed vigour. Oak went back to his trailer and retrieved a well-worn saw and a brand new one, still sparkling in the sunlight coming between the forest canopy. 
Pine was done raking and he rushed over to the trailer to retrieve a net. This was something he had perfected. He tied the net to two trees and tied the other two corners to loose rocks and threw it over the pile of leaves. After the leaf pile was completely covered with the net, he and his father dragged the rock ends under the pile and tied all four ends together, making a large leaf sack.
With the leaves tied down, they moved back to the trailer and the two saws.
‘Pine, this was given to me the day my father taught me how to use it. This saw has been with me every day of my life since then. Now, I give you your own saw to use. Use it well, son.’
He moved a hoof from his slightly rusted saw to Pines new one and picked it up. After looking at his son with pride for a moment, he gave it to him.
‘So… are you going to show me how to use it?’
‘If you’re my son, you’ll know how to use it. You’ll know,’ he said, voice cracking a bit.
Pine had never seen his father get emotional over anything before. He knew that this was important not just for him, but for his father, too. He carefully put it on his back and picked up a small axe. He walked to a nearby tree and dropped the saw to the ground. He took his mark between a knot and a root and swung the axe. It struck dead-on where he wanted it to. 
Oak saw this. It was the worst tree in the vicinity for roots and knots, yet his son had chosen the perfect place to begin a mark. Pine removed the axe from the tree trunk and placed his new saw in the dent left by the axe. Slowly, he began to saw. It felt better than he could ever imagine. He had discovered something that matched his personality perfectly! The saw felt like an extension of his forelegs. He could almost feel the blade grinding through the wood.
After what felt like no time at all, the tree began to groan. Pine quickly yanked the saw from the tree and gave an almighty buck.
‘TIMBER!’ he yelled as it fell with a resounding crack. He didn’t need to, but in the euphoric state left by felling his first tree, he wanted to do something. Yelling just seemed fitting. A deafening boom filled the forest as the tree hit the ground, followed by the indignant screeching of hundreds of birds that were fleeing their homes.
Oak laughed and placed a hoof around Pine’s neck. ‘I have never been more proud of you, son,’ he said. Pine felt a light burning on his flank and craned his neck to see a mark. It was an axe. His father had a saw and he had an axe. He couldn’t help but laugh with glee at the whole situation. He had felled his first tree, he had received his cutie mark, and he had finally made his father proud. Oak laughed, too, and moved off to retrieve his own saw and axe. ‘Come on, son! There’s more where that one came from’.
---
‘Wow… that’s awesome!’ said Zedd after Pine had finished his story. 
Ditzy knew the basic story of how he had gotten his mark, but had forgotten most of it. He had told it to her one night when she had indigestion and couldn’t sleep when she was a little filly. She still didn’t know her mother’s story.
‘What about you, mum? How did you get your mark?’
‘Oh, well, when I was a little bit older than you are right now…’
---
She flapped her wings harder. School was over and she was out in the real world… she didn’t know what she was going to do, but trying out for the Weather Patrol was a good start. There was a strong headwind coming toward her practise team. It hadn’t hit yet, but she could sense it coming.
‘Brace yourselves!’ she called back.
‘What for? It’s perfectly clear ou- woah!’ shouted a Pegasus, pausing when the gust hit and he was knocked back a few feet.
All the other Pegasi immediately began to flap harder to overcome the headwind, but Spring stopped flapping completely. She held her wing joints taut to keep her wings extended, but let everything else go limp. She could feel small eddies in the wind and glided between them, wasting no energy. Sensing a backdraft a few feet away, Spring signalled for the group to go single-file behind her as she led them through it.
The task they were set was simple. A mock storm had been made somewhere in Ponyville and they had to find it and subdue it. Another pony, Highwind Stray, had spotted the gray cloud in the distance and Spring had immediately begun to lead them along. The cloud was small, but powerful. It was made of condensed Cumulous, and wouldn’t simply be able to be bucked away. 
When they reached the cloud another pony took the lead and sent Pegasi to strategic parts of the cloud, all to buck on his signal. He found every loose part of cloud, sometimes lightly kicking to loosen it, and placed a Pegasus there. When all 8 of the group were around it he shouted ‘Now!’ and they all bucked. The cloud roared as it blew apart and dispersed and the wind died down.
‘Good job, everypony. You showed great skill today. Spring, Highwind, and Breeze, would you please report to HQ? The rest of you can continue with the drills.’
Spring would have leapt for joy if she weren’t already airborne. Being told to report to HQ meant they were almost sure to be accepted! She could finally begin work!
When they arrived at the head office of the Weather Patrol, they landed on the cloud out the front and walked in. the building was only mid-sized considering it was located next to the Weather Factory. 
Spring looked over to the factory and noticed a grey van entering the Rainbow Factory directly. I wonder what they’re delivering… the Rainbow Factory is so mysterious… oh well she thought to herself as she walked through the front doors.
The pony at the front desk barely looked up before saying ‘Go straight through, the boss is expecting you’, and continuing to file her painted hoof.
The three moved into the next room and stood awkwardly. The boss was a great, black stallion with a grey mane. Black ponies were rare and to have a black coat showed power. ‘Take a seat’ he said to the three, indicating a few seats across from his desk.
After they were seated, he sat in his own seat and pulled out some files. ‘Now, Mr. Highwind, it says here that you have strong eyesight. That could come in helpful with us locating stray clouds. If you would report to Sector 12 tomorrow morning at sunrise you can begin training as a searcher immediately. Are you happy with this job?’
‘Yes, sir! Very happy, sir!’ he said, enthusiastically. 
‘Good. A happy worker is a hard worker. You may leave. Take the day off.’
‘Yes, sir’ he said again, giving a bow before leaving the room.
‘Mr. Breeze? The report says you showed leadership skills. We could train you as a Weather Patrol Captain, if this is true. Please give examples of your skill’
Breeze began to tell of several instances where he had seen what needed to be done and immediately given orders. Without a leader in these circumstances, something could have, and would have, gone wrong. The final example he gave was just a short while ago in the mock storm chase, where he had ordered the ponies to different spots around the cloud.
‘Without him we probably would have just stared at it until somepony turned up to fail us’ said Spring.
‘As untrue as I hope that is, I suppose you may be right. Very well, Breeze, if you would report to Sector 2 tomorrow, you can begin training immediately. You may also leave’ said the Boss.
‘Yes, sir’ he said, also bowing before leaving.
‘Now, Ms. Spring. It says here that although you have strong leadership skills, your voice is quieter than most. Am I right?’
‘Um… yes, sir’ she said.
‘I see… shouting over a gale would be exceedingly difficult for you. Your report tells me that you can somehow sense changes in weather patterns before they happen. Is this true?’
‘Well, I’m not sure about “before they happen”, but my wings are very sensitive. I can feel changes in wind speed and direction before the bulk of it hits, and I can also feel slight… pulling whenever there’s a backdraft or slipstream. That came in helpful today when we were rushing to the mock storm cloud. I led the group into a slipstream and we didn’t have to fight as hard against the wind.’
‘Very good. That’s a most unusual skill… You know, I don’t think we’ve had a meteorologist in a while.’
‘Excuse me for asking, but what’s a meteorologist, sir?’
‘A meteorologist is a pony who studies the weather and predicts it for the good of everyone. Most of the time the workers at the factory control the weather, but if something goes wrong and we need a few days to clean it up a meteorologist may come in helpful in cleanup and telling the public. You’ll also be able to deliver weather reports to the towns of Ponyville and Cloudsdale, should you accept.’
‘That sounds like a great job! I- I would be honoured to take it’
‘Very good. If you could report to Sector 1, Subsector 3 tomorrow morning, we can assess your skills and you can begin work the day after.’
‘Wait, no training?’
‘With this skill being so rare, there is no training to be given to you. If anything, you should be training other ponies. But, alas, it is not a skill that can be taught. You have a rare talent, my little Pegasus. Always remember that.’
‘Th-thank you, s-sir.’
‘You may leave’
She gave a small curtsy before turning and leaving. On her way back through the front door she noticed a small burning on her flank. She turned and looked at the glass door to see her reflection. There appeared to be a fluffy white cloud on her flank. Just to make sure it wasn’t a trick of the light, she craned her neck to see. There was definitely a mark on her flank.
She immediately gave out a loud ‘Woo-hoo!’ before taking to the skies and landing on the one cloud in the sky where she could see all of both Ponyville and Cloudsdale. The cloud she sat on was fluffy and white. She had become a weather pony, all because of a talent she was born with. This was the best day of her life to date.
---
‘The best day of your life? What about the day you met me? The day we got married? The day Ditzy was born?’
‘I said “to date”’ she said shyly, blushing.
‘That was incredible. So you were born with your special talent,’ he said to Spring, ‘and you simply knew your own skill all along, but couldn’t get a mark until you did something?’ he asked, looking to Pine.
‘That’s right, I guess… I never really looked at it that way’ he said.
Ditzy spoke up. ‘I think I know what I want to do,’ she said.
‘Well, come on, let’s go!’ said Zedd
‘You two have fun. I’ll take care of breakfast’ said Spring, moving to pick up the empty plates and cups.
They walked out the front, and Ditzy immediately began to fly a few feet from the ground. She was barely moving her wings at all… it was strange… almost as though she was being levitated. Nopony could fly like that without moving their wings a lot more.
‘How are you doing that?’ asked Zedd
‘I can feel an updraft. My body is light enough that I can float on it, I just need to keep my wings completely still or else- Eep!’ she said, then fell back to the ground. Luckily she hadn’t been flying any higher, but she had dropped a loose feather in her right wing and had lost balance.
Zedd made sure she was alright, then noticed the feather floating away. He chased it, Ditzy in tow. He ran all the way across town, the feather just out of reach, laughing all the while. Ditzy began to laugh, too, at how childish it seemed to chase a feather caught in the wind, but still refused to stop.
Ditzy took to the air and began to glide effortlessly to it. 
‘Hey, no fair!’ shouted Zedd from below.
‘Well, it did come from my wing!’ Ditzy called back.
Zedd began to run frantically toward it. They were approaching the marketplace. Zedd overtook Ditzy without her realising. She had closed her eyes and was relying on her wings to guide her.
Zedd ran straight into the marketplace. Somepony was blowing bubbles all over the place and one hit the feather. Instead of the bubble popping, it absorbed the feather and began to sink slowly to the ground. Zedd stopped in front of the bubble and stared in disbelief. The bubble was reflecting a rainbow and he could see the colours being refracted all over the grey-blue feather. It was entrancing as it hovered a foot from the ground, seeming to dance in the wind.
He looked back and saw Ditzy, eyes still closed, flying through the air.
She could feel an abnormality in the wind… several, in fact. She began to fly between the strangely spherical eddies of wind and felt something wet splash on her nose. She opened her eyes to see bubbles all around her. There were several ponies watching, but she paid no heed as she spread her wings wider and turned them up to stop her movement through the air.
She watched as the bubbles moved through the air in response to her flaring her wings… she had control over them. Dance, bubbles, she thought to herself as the lightly began to fluff singular feathers to make certain bubbles move. She led them into formations of snowflakes and flowers, then gave a huge flap of her wings to spread them. They fell into perfect harmony, even while floating away, and a rainbow reflected between them all and coalesced to Ditzy as she landed.
Zedd had never seen a more incredible sight. She seemed to glow under the spectrum-coloured light, and her flank flashed. He looked down to see seven bubbles on it.
He suddenly became aware that she was staring at him, and he glanced away, embarrassed. She wondered why he had been looking at her hip… No, he’s not that kind of pony… do I have dirt or something on- oh Celestia! She thought to herself, turning her neck to see the seven bubbles on her flank.
She rushed over to him and jumped on his shouders shouting ‘Zedd! Zedd, I got my cutie mark! I did it!’
He was surprised by how light Ditzy was… it almost seemed to defy physics how light she was versus her body size.
‘Good work, Ditzy! I saw. You looked amazing…’ he said.
‘Thanks, Zedd’ she said, leaning down close to kiss him on the cheek. His front knees buckled and he fell flat on his face, Ditzy landing on top of him.
‘Oh, sorry! I’m so sorry, Zedd!’ she said, jumping off of him to help him up. ‘I shouldn’t have jumped on you’
‘That’s not why I fell- oh, um, yeah, I guess I just lost my balance, heh-heh’ he said, taking her hoof to get up.
They became aware that everypony in the marketplace was staring at the two and Ditzy massively blushed and hid her face in Zedd’s mane.
‘Come on, Ditzy. Let’s go and tell someone. Hey, is that Pinkie over there? Oh, shoot, I still have to apologise to her for the other day. Come on’ he said, leading her over to the pink mare.
‘What do you want? I thought we weren’t friends anymore,’ she said, her hair still deflated.
‘Weren’t friends? Why would you think that, Pinkie?’
‘Only because you never want to see me again! The other day when I only wanted to be a help to you, you told me to go away.’
‘Look, Pinkie, I’m sorry about the other day. I was-‘
‘Oh, that’s okay then!’ she almost shouted, her hair puffing back to normal, ‘Ditzy, good work on getting your cutie mark! I got mine a few months ago when I realised that I like happiness and I like making other ponies happy and I threw a party for my family and they liked it and were all SO HAPPY and GASP, I should throw you a Congratulations-On-Getting-Your-Cutie-Mark party! I’ll be right back!’
‘Um… at least she accepted my apology?’ said Zedd, sheepishly.
‘What did you do?’
‘When you ran away the other day and I was running after you Pinkie started running with me. She thought it was a race or something and she started speaking gibberish. I told her that I didn’t have time for it and told her to leave me alone. I didn’t know it would affect her that badly’
‘Well, I suppose it didn’t do any damage…’ muttered Ditzy.
‘Well, should we go somewhere now? We could go to Sugarcube Corner, I guess. I mean, Pinkie would be done preparing the party by the time we got there’
They began to walk to Sugarcube Corner, wondering aloud what Pinkie would have in store for them. Every time she threw a party it was somehow even bigger than the last one she held, and the last party she had was pretty big…
Upon arriving at Sugarcube Corner, they noticed nothing out of the ordinary. They walked in and asked Mrs. Cake if she had seen Pinkie at all.
‘Oh, well I saw a pink blur a while ago, but I thought that was just a trick of the light. She must be really excited about something!’
‘Oh, okay… well, do you have any of those delicious blueberry muffins?’ asked Ditzy.
‘But, of course! Do you think I’d ever leave you without some? They just came out of the oven’
Mrs. Cake turned and put on a pair of oven mitts, then retrieved a tray from the windowsill. There were six muffins on it; half blueberry and half raspberry. She took off one of the mitts and touched the tray. Finding it warm, but not hot, she allowed the ponies to each take one and passed over four bits to pay for them.
‘Oh, and good work on getting your cutie mark, Miss Doo,’ she said, moving to place the remaining four muffins under the counter for everypony to see through the glass.
‘Thanks, Mrs. Cake! This is delicious, by the way’ said Ditzy as she pushed the front doors open for herself and Zedd.
‘’Eah! If rea-y ‘ood!’ said Zedd with a mouthful of muffin. Ditzy giggled as he walked through the door and then followed.
---
After a day of searching the town for Pinkie, fruitlessly, they decided to return home. How could I have forgotten to tell mum and dad? Oh, they’re going to be mad, thought Ditzy to herself. 
They walked through the front door and noticed all of the lights were off.
‘Hello? Mum? Dad? Is anypony home?’ she called to the empty house.
‘Maybe everypony has been invited to the party and they couldn’t find us’ said Zedd.
‘Well, that wouldn’t make sense,’ said Ditzy, moving to flick on the lights. ‘How could Pinkie, of all ponies, forg-‘
‘SURPRISE!’
As the lights turned on, they saw numerous ponies all in a crowd around them. How they hadn’t walked into one of them in the dark was beyond Ditzy, especially considering that they were blocking the exit.
‘You’re right that I didn’t forget about you! I was beginning to wonder when you were going to get here, silly filly! I got the whole class here and your parents and some other friends of ours and everypony is here!’
Pinkie rushed through the crowd and put on some music. ‘Now, let’s par-tay!’ she shouted to the crowd, who began to talk and dance a bit.
Ditzy and Zedd began to tell the story of what had happened again and again to eagerly awaiting ponies in the room. After telling the story for the fourth time, to the same ponies, Ditzy said she just wanted to talk to people. Others began to swap stories about what had happened to them, a surprising amount saying something about a rainbow, and they eventually began to dance.
As the night wore on, more ponies began to leave and the tempo of the music began to slow. Eventually, Pinkie announced the final song was coming up, and the remaining couples got up for a dance. The song began to play as Zedd took Ditzy’s right hoof in his left, and put his other hoof to her flank. They stood up and leaned together as the song began.

It's sad we're worlds apart.
There'll have to be a way for us to start.
You're in an alternate reality.

I know that you're not real, except for what I feel.
I want you buried in my heart.

Zedd held her closer to him and leaned his head against her neck as she responded in kind.

The way you look at me, with such ferocity, it's makin' me just fall apart.
Tell me, is this wrong?

There's nothing for me here, but solitude and fear.
Your bright colors make it clear.
If I were to leave what more could I be than just some passing stranger?

This is my life.
This is my dream.
This is my fantasy.
Wanting for more
Wanting your form
To be so near to me.

They leaned in even closer and began to hug each other tightly, still rocking side to side with the music. They were both hopeless dancers.

This is my life.
This is my dream.
This is my fantasy.
Wishing for more
Wishing your form
to be so near to me.

This is my life
This is my dream
This is my fantasy...

As the song ended, the two shared a passionate kiss. After what felt like an eternity, they broke apart.
‘I love you’ whispered Zedd
‘I love you, too’ she whispered back.
They were pulled out of their trance by cheering and stamping of hooves. They looked around and noticed that everyone in the room had stopped dancing and was watching the two in the middle.
Ditzy wished she could simply disappear. She began to blush hotly and hid a little bit behind Zedd. After standing in silence for a few long seconds, Pine came into the middle of the crowd.
‘Come on, party’s over. Unless you want to stay and help clean up, that is?’
There was a mad rush as everypony who didn’t live there ran to the door and tried to fit through it, four at a time. Someone even opened a window and dived out.
Spring glanced around the room. There wasn’t much mess at all; most of the empty drinking cups and packets of food were still on the tables. There was no food on the floor, nor where there any drink stains. There would be a time to clean up, but it could wait. Luna’s moon had long-since risen and they were all tired.
Pine followed Spring to their bedroom, flicking off lights as he went, and turned to say something before he closed the door.
‘Now I don’t want to hear any “bumping” in the night, got it? I don’t want to hear anything.’
Ditzy blushed and turned to enter her room. Zedd simply stared awkwardly.
‘Don’t worry, it’s just a joke. Jeez, do you understand the meaning of “humour”?’
‘Oh, err, right… well, good night, Pine, sir’
‘Night, Zedd,’ he said before turning and closing his door.
Zedd made his way to bed without turning on the light. When he got there, he found somepony already in it.
‘Don’t tell me I have the wrong room’ he muttered.
‘Right room, I just wanted some company. Come on, lie down’ whispered Ditzy.
Zedd awkwardly climbed in and lay down. She was warm and soft. He leant against her in the double bed and pulled the covers over himself. He hugged Ditzy to him and cleared his mind, trying to sleep.
Both comfortable in the company of each others, the two lovers slept.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare – Part 4

Zedd awoke slowly. He had slept better than normal and felt more awake than he had after waking up in years. He immediately became aware that he was still hugging Ditzy closely. He slowly moved back and slipped out of the bed to not wake her, then moved to the door. After opening it, he rubbed his eyes and turned toward the bathroom, then slammed into something solid. Stupid wall’ he muttered blearily, then glanced again to see it was Pine he had walked in to. ‘Oh, er, um, sorry, sir!’ he said quickly. Pine continued to frown.
Ohh no… thought Zedd to himself. He looked further down the hall to see Ditzy’s door was wide open. Looking back, he also noticed that Pine could see right into his room and could see a blonde mane in the bed.
Pine jerked his head for Zedd to follow and descended the stairs. Zedd was worried. He had offended Pine and broken his trust… he was going to be kicked out of the house and he’d have to find somewhere else to live. Pine beckoned for him to take a seat and moved to make coffee. After a few long minutes, Pine dropped down two mugs of it and took a seat.
‘Explain’ was all he said.
‘Well, I went to go to bed last night… and when I got into my room Ditzy was there… and…’
‘What happened?’
‘Nothing! Seriously, I climbed into bed and we fell asleep, I swear that’s all that happened!’
Pine squinted at him for a few long moments before taking a sip of coffee. ‘Ahh, much better,’ he said, opening his eyes fully. ‘Just wanted to make sure, y’know. What, surprised? I’m still not really a morning person until my morning coffee.’
Pine completely changed his tone. ‘Don’t worry, Zedd! I trust you completely. Besides, I didn’t hear any bumping,’ he said with a wink. ‘I’d know if anything happened. You can hear a pin drop from anywhere in this house, I crafted it with compressed balsa; it really reverberates. If they’re listening up there, the girls can probably hear us talking right now,’
His ears perked up at something and he downed the last of his coffee before quickly saying he had to get to work early to help train someone and rushing out the front door.
After a moment of sitting by himself Zedd began to hear hoofsteps. He turned to look into the doorway and saw Ditzy standing there, except her eyes were aligned. He then noticed that she was taller, too.
Oh, I’m an idiot, he thought to himself. ‘Good morning… Spring…’ he said, hesitating on her name. He still didn’t like calling any adults by their first names.
‘Good morning, Zedd. You slept well, I take it?’
‘Yeah. Better than I have in years, I think’
She gave him a small smirk and turned to begin cooking something. He immediately felt paranoid that she knew there was more than one body in his bed that night.
‘I take it Pine had to rush off early? He said something about having to start early,’ she said to him.
Feeling grateful for the change in subject, he said ‘yeah, he only left a moment ago.’
Spring turned and looked at him for a second before her gaze shifted to the second coffee mug on the table. Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as her mind worked hard on figuring something out.
‘Err… what’s new at the Weather Factory?’ asked Zedd to avoid an awkward silence.
‘I can feel a storm coming, even though there isn’t one forecasted. I should probably be leaving soon, just in case,’ she looked over at him. He seemed a bit disappointed. Maybe he wants to talk… the Weather Factory can wait, she thought. ‘Is something on your mind?’
Zedd’s thoughts immediately spun. He didn’t know what was right or wrong anymore. Ditzy has her cutie mark, so now I’m one of the only ones in our year level without theirs… every day that goes by Ditzy and I get closer together… I’m not sure how long it will be before- oh, I still need to answer her… Um…
Spring stood silently by the stove. She considered saying something, but she figured that he’d speak when he was ready to.
‘It’s… I dunno. I…’
‘It’s about your relationship with Ditzy, isn’t it.’
Zedd shouted ‘wait, what!’ before he saw her flinch and recoil a bit from him. ‘Oh, sorry. It’s not... no. no… not entirely.’
Spring turned back to the stove to cook breakfast while Zedd collected his thoughts and figured out what he was going to say. Before she knew it, he was pouring his soul out to her.
‘Everypony else in our class has their cutie marks except Applejack, and even though I’m not being picked on for not having one, it’s still awkward for me, but also… I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel about Ditzy. One day we were friends, and then everything just suddenly changed, and it’s not like I don’t like where we are in a relationship, but the problem is that I don’t know where we are. I’ve never been in a relationship, and I don’t even know if this is one,’
Zedd’s voice began to crack a bit and every so often he would punctuate a word with a sob.
‘I don’t know what to feel. I’ve never done this before. It’s weird. I don’t know if she likes me back the way I do, and I don’t even know how I like her, and I don’t want to just ask her because she’ll reject me and I don’t want to lose her because…’ his words trailed off and became incoherent before he fell silent, barely holding back tears. Suddenly Spring came over and gave him a tender hug. He felt warmth in it, and love. A mother’s love… something he had never received before.
He couldn’t help but lean against her and sob as he let out all of his pent-up feelings; feelings that he didn’t realise he had been holding in. After what felt like an eternity he finally pulled away. Spring looked him in the eyes and said ‘Trust your heart and you’ll know what’s true and right. You’re a smart colt. I know you know the answers to any questions you may have. Trust me.’
He felt much better. Better than he had in years. Zedd couldn’t remember what it felt like to be loved by parents, but he thought he remembered now. Ditzy came through the doorway and entered the room right as Spring dropped two plates of food on the table and turned to retrieve a third. 
‘’Morning, mum’ she said, taking a seat next to Zedd.
‘’Morning, Ditzy. Did you sleep well?’ she asked. Ditzy blushed and mumbled something incoherently. She knew that Spring knew. Spring laughed lightly before beginning her breakfast. 
‘Do you have any plans for today?’ she asked them both.
‘Same plan as yesterday, I’d guess. Keep looking for my mark… I don’t have the faintest idea what to do, though,’ said Zedd. 
‘We’ll think of something’ said Ditzy, spirit burning brightly.
‘Perhaps you could collect more stories? I’m sure the Cakes would be happy to talk to you. Maybe even your teacher, Math, could help,’ suggested Spring
‘Oh yeah, he did say something about being happy to help us with anything at one point,’ said Ditzy.
‘Then it’s settled. We’ll find Mr. Millien, and then go around finding others for help from them, too,’ said Zedd.
The conversation drifted to the weather and the forecast for the following fortnight, then Spring put the dishes on the side of the sink to be washed later. The three walked together toward the front door through the rumpus room, and Zedd suddenly realised why Pine had left in such a hurry. The room was still in complete disarray. Cups and empty food wrappers were littered all around the room, along with temporary tables being spread around the room and the sound equipment still being set up. 
Ditzy moved to set some music going while they cleaned up. Spring muttered that she had to clear off quickly, that the air was getting denser by the minute and that an unforecast storm was likely on its way and took off through the front door, promptly angling to some grey clouds spreading rapidly from the Weather Factory.
As the music picked up, Ditzy began to make dancing movements while jumping around a bit. Zedd laughed, to which she said ‘come on, get moving!’
‘Well… who’s Discord?’
‘He’s some mythical guy who apparently used to rule Equestria. I suppose the song fits here because, well, look around!’
Zedd looked at the state of the room and grinned. He began to bop up and down on the spot, and when he took a step it was more of a hop. They continued to dance around the room picking up the rubbish until Zedd heard a crash from behind him and turned to see Ditzy on the floor between two halves of a table.
‘I guess I kind of, ah, slipped?’ she said, holding her head to stop it from spinning.
‘Now that’s some discord, right there’ said Zedd, moving to help her up. He noticed a small bump beginning to appear on her head and immediately told her to take a seat while he got some ice. She thanked him and sat down, rubbing her head to test how much it hurt.
‘Stop doing that, it’ll make the bruise worse’ said Zedd, re-entering the room with some ice wrapped in cloth.
‘Sure thing, dad’ she replied, mockingly. Zedd blew air through his nostrils in response and continued picking up the last of the rubbish with much less dancing.
‘Pine can help me pick that up later. I guess he can scrap it in one of his little “projects” or something,’ said Zedd, returning to Ditzy. Pine had a small shed out in the backyard where he kept his tools and knives. He would spend a lot of his spare time in there, whittling on blocks of wood or making small objects from them. Zedd hadn’t been allowed in there for a while under the excuse that it would ‘ruin the surprise’.
Zedd followed Ditzy through the front door and closed it behind himself, hearing it click locked. They looked up into the sky and frowned. Clouds were covering most of the sky, ending abruptly at the Everfree Forest. Toward Cloudsdale the clouds were a dark grey, but above Ponyville the sky was being kept as clear as possible; every Pegasus available was up in the sky condensing clouds to be sent back to Celestia-knows-where.
The two shared a quick glance and Ditzy said ‘we’d better be quick in town. I think we might be in for a storm before long’.
As they walked into town Zedd noticed a huge amount of ponies that he’d never seen before. More than that, they were all Pegasi. Zedd saw a flash of brown, and not recognising it, followed. They came to a side-alley between a house and Sugarcube Corner and Zedd peered in. It was a dead end, nopony could have gone in after all. Zedd led Ditzy into the bakery and they settled to talking to Mrs. Cake.
‘What exactly is going on in town? I haven’t heard about any festivals’ said Zedd when they reached the counter.
‘Oh, it’s terrible! One of the main cloud generators blew last night and the Weather Forecolt had to evacuate the entire city of Cloudsdale. I heard that some of the ponies on night shift didn’t make it out of the explosion… oh, the poor dears’
‘Oh… wow. What’s being done? Where will all these ponies stay?’ asked Ditzy.
‘For now I think your mother is leading the group up in the sky, and more are getting ready to leave any minute now.’
They heard a series of dings from the back room.
‘Oh, could I get a hoof here?’ she asked, beckoning the two younger ponies to follow. ‘I’ve been baking as much bread as I can for the extra ponies in Ponyville. I also put a little something extra in for those brave ponies going in to the heart of the chaos for clean-up and repairs.’
Going out the back, they saw no less than twenty ovens.
‘I never knew you had this many ovens! When did you get them installed?’ asked Ditzy.
‘A pony with a spiky, brown mane came by in a truck full of them a few days ago. He said that I would need them. Well, I didn’t believe him at the time, but now… come, the bread,’ she said, throwing two pairs of oven-mitts to the two young ponies. Ditzy and Zedd continued to question her as they moved the bread to the counter, tables, and windowsills.
‘What did he look like besides spiky brown mane?’ asked Ditzy
‘He had a light brown coat and he wore a tie, I think’
‘What about his cutiemark? What did it look like?’ asked Zedd
‘It was an hourglass, I think… oh my, I haven’t ever seen a mark like that before.’
‘Did he say anything unusual? I mean, he knew this was going to happen. Could he have caused it?’
‘No, no, he was an earth pony. He said something about a leotard… no, that wasn’t it… I forget what he called it, but he said he was a “time lord”. Well, I thought he was raving, of course. I just let him be on his way and I haven’t seen him since.
‘Go on, you should get home as fast as you can. I don’t want you being caught out here in the storm, it could turn bad.’
Ditzy began to protest, but Zedd quickly hushed her and pointed outside. The rain was coming down harder than the sound let on. Ditzy gave a final glance to Mrs. Cake and thanked her, then left.
‘Oh, no, thank you for all your help, dearies! I always appreciate a helping hoof around here, especially in a time like this’
They moved quickly through town. Looking up, they saw innumerable Pegasi in the air, fighting the clouds, but it was a losing battle. Clouds were streaming above the forest, but dissipating in the distance. It’s unnatural… clouds don’t just go away on their own.
Zedd was snapped out of his thoughts by a deafening boom overhead. He saw a streak of lightning hit a house nearby, and flames immediately ignited it. Ditzy slipped and fell over and Zedd stopped to help her back up. The two stood, watching the flames slowly spread. Ditzy gasped as a Pegasus fell out of the sky and landed in a nearby hay bale. Possibly a victim of that lightning strike… everything’s going wrong… what do I do…. What do I do?!
Zedd’s thoughts were getting frantic. He noticed the hay had stopped moving entirely, and no Pegasi were descending from the sky to help. His thoughts went into overdrive.
Somepony’s injured, nopony’s helping, that house is burning, lightning, LIGHTNING!
He heard a scream from the house, followed by crying and wailing.
His mind cleared. Everything went blank.
‘Ditzy, go help whoever it is in the hay bale. I’m going in’
Ditzy took a few seconds to register what he had just said, but then moved toward the hay bale. She suddenly stopped and turned to see he was gone. He was charging full-speed to the house.
‘Zedd!’ she screamed, voice lost to the wind. Even if he had heard her, Zedd wouldn’t have reacted. Somepony was in that house, and he needed to get them out.
Four feet from the door he spun and bucked without losing pace. The door fell in and he saw just how far the flames had spread. The entire kitchen was on fire, along with most of the living room. The wood in the walls was burning quickly. He heard another squeal from upstairs, followed by the crash of a burning beam falling.
Zedd was up the stairs in a flash. They crumbled after him. He heard light thumping and scratching on one of the doors in the upper-corridor. He touched the doorknob and immediately recoiled, tears in his eyes, hoof burning. He turned and bucked this door, lightly, and heard it snap easily. He concentrated on his upper forehead as much as possible and watched the two halves of the splintered door glow and fly into the room. A gray streak noted a cat rushing from the room in a hurry.
The screaming had stopped. That was bad. His mind was still oddly blank. Zedd was acting on instinct.
He went through the hall and saw that all but one door were left open. Glancing into each room in turn, he settled on the last and bucked. The room inside was ablaze, along with the rest of the house, but a hole was blown in the roof and water was spraying in. This must have been where the lightning struck.
‘Hello? Is anypony there! Please answer me!’ Zedd called, vainly. Whoever it was screaming was either unconscious or dead. Zedd became aware of a voice in the back of his mind telling him to get out. The house was crumbling and he knew it, but if he could save someone, it would all be worth it.
He took a tentative step into the room and the floor gave way below him, showing the kitchen below. He stepped back and muttered ‘hop… skip… JUMP!’ and leapt the gap into the room. There he saw her. A little blue-green filly was trapped under a beam, unmoving. Zedd felt something like anger in his mind.
Even if she was dead, he would not let this fire consume her. He felt a sudden coolness on his cheeks and felt his eyes sting. He felt a sudden shortness of breath and noticed how smoky the house was becoming. He also suddenly became aware of how unbearably hot it was. Putting all of his strength into it, Zedd hooked his forelegs under the beam and heaved, then fell forward onto it in sudden pain, and rolled backwards, screaming.
BUCK THAT WAS DUMB! he screamed in his mind. He had just successfully burned most of the fur off his forelegs and could already feel the skin blistering, along with a few sore spots on his neck where he had fallen forward on the beam. 
He got to his hooves, tears streaming freely, and concentrated harder than he ever had before. He felt the magic flowing and saw the beam glow. Nothing happened. He strained harder, holding what little breath he had left and grunting. He felt like his eyes were about to burst and could feel his mind straining, then the beam disintegrated. The wood within reach of the filly blackened, then whitened and turned to ash. He picked her up tenderly and blew the dust from her before turning back to the door and running, completely forgetting about the hole.
The world flipped below him as Zedd tumbled into the kitchen. He curled up around the filly to protect her body from harm and felt himself make connection with the floor. Luckily he landed on his tailbone. Zedd picked the filly up again and ran through the doorway to the living room. The house was darkening by the second and the world seemed to be spinning. Trying his hardest to navigate the burning wood to the front door, Zedd almost fell over again. As soon as he was half a foot out the front door, the world spun and he looked up to the ground-turned-sky, briefly wondering why he was plastered to the ceiling of the world before everything blackened for a final time.
---
‘Hurry up; we need to get him to the hospital!’
‘Will he be okay?’
‘Hurry, guards. These three have top priority. Your new mission is to get them to a hospital, fast.’
‘Yes, Princess.’
‘Into the wagon! Gently, we don’t know how bad their conditions are.’
‘I’m taking this one and going alone. She needs help the most. Besides, she’s only small.’
‘Very well. Men, on me! To Ponyville clinic, double time!’
‘Wait! Zedd! Please, don’t leave me!’
Zedd opened his eyes in the rain. The sky was completely black and royal guards were all around. He immediately became aware that Ditzy was beside him.
‘Zedd…’ she said through tears.
‘Let’s meet again in the next life’. He didn’t know why he said this, it just felt right.
‘Yeah. I’ll be waiting’ she choked out.
Zedd faintly wheezed a chuckle. ‘Silly,’ he said, ‘just because you have a next life’. He looked into her eyes for what he knew would be the final time and blinked out a final tear before falling under again.
---
‘Clear’
Thump.
‘Clear’
Thump.
‘Come on, come on. One more! Clear!’
Thump.
Beep.
---
She left the two ponies in her wake, rushing to the Factory to help with whatever cleanup was necessary. 
The storm was bigger than she thought. Getting close to the factory, she was immediately redirected to help fight the clouds. She looked in and saw metal shrapnel everywhere, along with… red pigment? No, this was a cloud problem, not a rainbow problem. Wait… that was… blood.
‘Tell them to spread out wider then go to town and launch the backup workers. We need all hooves on deck; this is going to be a big job!’
‘Yes, ma’am’ replied Spring’s co-worker. He flew over, shouting over the howling wind for the Pegasi to spread out. When he saw them carrying out his command he saluted Spring and folded his wings in for a quick dive to town.
The troops had helped, but the clouds were getting thicker. They had no chance.
Highwind came to tell Spring to go home.
‘It’s too windy! You know you can’t brace these conditions!’
‘I can! I swear!’
‘Look, you’re the best at reading weather, but you’re not the strongest flier, and if you get in trouble nopony will hear you calling for help! Go home and be with your family! Tell the town to go home, too!’
Giving up hope on staying in the air, she saluted and dived to town. 
BANG. The air vibrated around her and she felt an intense burning all over her body, along with a sudden impact on her right shoulder.
She landed in a moderately soft patch of something. Without a spare thought for what had happened, she blacked out.
---
‘I think she’s coming to.’
‘Mum!’ 
Spring opened her eyes and saw her family there. Ditzy was standing at her left side, Pine at her right.
She mumbled something and winced.
‘Don’t speak, honey. The doctor says you’re lucky to be alive. You were hit by lightning and landed in a hay bale. If Ditzy hadn’t seen you land you might not have been found until the storm finished,’ said Pine.
Spring looked to her daughter and smiled. She mouthed the words ‘thank you’ and rested her head back down, already out of energy.
‘Miss Glow, your recovery is going to take a while. You have a third-degree burn on your right shoulder, but that seems to be the only problem. Hardly even a bruise besides that. You were one of the luckiest ponies in Ponyville the night this happened.
‘”The night”…’ she paused for breath. ‘How long…’
‘You’ve been asleep for four days. The Weather Factory is working on repairing whatever went wrong, but the storm is over.’
She blinked and smiled in thanks before falling asleep again, too exhausted to do anything else.
‘You may stay if you wish, but she does need rest. I’d recommend you don’t disturb her. Now, Miss Doo, I believe there’s another admitted here who you may wish to visit… Mister Zorander?’
If she wasn’t still heartbroken over his condition she would have giggled at his name. She nodded solemnly and followed him through a corridor to a room on the level above. When they entered a doorway, she saw him.
Zedd was in bed with an oxygen mask on, but he was conscious. The doctor rushed over with shock on his face. While he checked Zedd’s pulse and began to quickly ask him questions which Zedd didn’t answer, Ditzy had a look above his bed. There was a shelf with a simple hourglass on it that couldn’t have possibly been going for more than a minute. She thought back to the day of the storm and smiled to herself. It was the oven-stallion, whoever he was.
When the doctor finally left to retrieve some hospital apparatus Ditzy moved to his bedside.
‘Zedd?’
He continued to stare ahead silently.
‘Hello?’
‘My… head…’
His eye twitched and he slammed a hoof to his horn, moaning in agony.
Ditzy was scared. She didn’t know much about unicorn horns and didn’t know why he would be hurting. Frantically, she reached for the help button and pressed it three times to signal an emergency.
About 10 seconds later she heard hoofsteps and the doctor returned with two nurses. Ditzy began to blubber to him through tears of frantic fear ‘I don’t know what happened! I went to talk to him and he said something about his head and now-’
The doctor cut her off. ‘It’s okay. Zedd, please calm down.’
Zedd glanced out the corner of his eye at the doctor and held his breath tightly for a moment before blowing it back out and groaning. Every breath was a great shudder, followed by more groaning. It was taking all of his willpower not to scream. The doctor knew this and appreciated it for the sakes of the other patients resting nearby. 
‘Nurse Redheart, please prepare a sedative,’ said the doctor. He turned to Ditzy. ‘Your friend is in a lot of pain. I don’t know why he’s awake; I didn’t think he would be for another day at least. We need to put him under so we can hook him up to some morpheme; that will take the pain away for him.’
Ditzy had settled to just sitting by the foot of the bed and nodded silently. She moved up closer to Zedd’s head and gently put a hoof to his. He felt the touch and cracked an eye open. His lips closed over his gritted teeth.
Ditzy kissed him as the nurse injected the needle into his foreleg and Zedd closed his eyes again.
---
Zedd awoke to dead silence. No talking, no rain, no anything. It was strange. He became aware of a piece of plastic piping in his foreleg, but decided to leave it be. He could feel a small amount of throbbing coming from the base of his horn. The more he concentrated on it, the worse it got.
The room seemed to be pulsing. The entire world was throbbing with every beat of his heart.
He leaned over to the edge of the bed and saw a plastic bag. More than grateful, he took it and emptied his stomach. He faintly heard hoofsteps and looked up to see a nurse coming into the room.
Zedd felt another wave of nausea and leaned over the bag again. He felt a hoof on his shoulder and heard the nurse say ‘it’s alright, get it all out.’
When he was sure nothing else was coming he leaned back up again. The nurse took the bag from him and tied the top through a piece of solid plastic.
‘Now you need to know is that there was an incident. How much do you remember?’
Zedd strained his mind trying to recall previous events. The room began to pulse more solidly and he grunted in indignation at how the world could be so inconsiderate by interrupting his silent thoughts.
The nurse picked up a small remote and told him to press the button from time to time to keep the pain away. He pressed the button, but didn’t feel any different, so he groggily placed it on the bedside table.
‘I… storm… lightning… fire… filly… escape… darkness… Ditzy…’
She seemed to understand. ‘That’s right. You ran into a house that had been struck by fire to save a little filly. She’s already back in Ponyville, and has been treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation.
‘You escaped the house and fell unconscious, then were transported here by the Princess’s Royal Guard. Your friend, Ditzy, seems to think you thought you were going to die… you were almost right. You’re very lucky.
‘You overstrained yourself in the house. Your horn isn’t mature enough for magic of that level, and you’ve given yourself an aneurism. Do you know what that is?’
Zedd shook his head and felt the world pulse again, then noticed the pulsing had mostly stopped. Whatever that button was, it worked.
‘It’s when your brain… bleeds. By using your horn as much as you did, you actually overexerted the magic cortex leading into your brain and it split. This is normally much more serious, you’re very lucky it’s not worse. An MRI showed a small tear and internal bleeding, but it should be better within the next few days. You’ve also been transferred back to Ponyville.’
‘Back…?’ he asked
‘Oh, yes. You have been unconscious for six days. You awoke briefly two days ago, but had to be put back to sleep again. You were transferred to Manehattan hospital on the first day, and you’re now back in Ponyville. You were brought back yesterday,’ she said.
He leant back against his pillow and thought. He was close to Ditzy now. They were back in the same town, at least.
---
‘He’s right through here’.
Zedd looked up to see the nurse pointing through his doorway. In came Ditzy, followed by Spring, Pine, and a small, blue-green filly with an older mare. 
‘Zedd, you’re alright!’ Ditzy practically shouted before rushing over to hug him tightly. ‘Never scare me like that again’ she whispered to him.
Zedd was reduced to hugging her back as tightly as he could, tears forming in his eyes. ‘I’m so sorry’ he said back.
When they finally broke apart Ditzy stayed by his side. Spring said she was gladder than he could imagine that he was awake. Pine grunted that he was the toughest colt he’d ever met.
‘I don’t think I’d have been able to do what you did. That took more than guts.’
He felt something tugging in his chest, and realised that he’d never received a father’s pride before. He smiled back with more gratitude than he could express.
The older, unrecognised mare came toward him and began to explain how thankful she was that he had saved her little Heartstrings, and that if she could ever do anything to repay him she would.
He looked down at the blue-green filly, then back to the matching-coloured mother and smiled.
‘I didn’t even think about it. It just sort of… happened. I knew I needed to help, and so I did’
The little filly climbed up the side of the bed and hugged his foreleg.
‘Thank you, mister! Mummy said she was scared for me, but you made her happy again!’
He patted her back with his free hoof and noticed that the filly had missing patches of fur, along with a small burn on her back. He looked down at his own foreleg and saw small patches of fur in between what seemed to be a single, massive blister.
‘My name is Heartstrings, but you can call me Lyra! I like the lyre, and it’s a pretty name, I think. What’s your name?’
Zedd smiled at the innocence of the little filly. ‘My name is Zedd,’ he said. She suddenly looked confused. ‘That’s not a name, it’s a letter!’
‘Heartstrings’ hushed her mother.
‘What? Mr. Millien taught us the alphabet in English! Zed is the last letter of it!’
Zedd laughed lightly and grunted as his headache returned. Trying not to scare the little filly, he grimaced and pressed his anti-pain button. His mind reeled as he tried to think of something to say.
‘Well… I think the last letter of the Greek alphabet is Omega, so you can call me that if you want?’
‘Oh… May… I’ll call you Zedd’
Everyone in the room shared a laugh. Lyra’s mother brought her back down from the bed and left saying ‘if you ever need anything, I’ll be more than happy to help. I owe you more than I can ever repay’
‘Please. Just seeing such a beautiful little filly made this whole ordeal worth it. Trust me.’
She smiled and turned with tears brimming in her eyes. Zedd faintly heard ‘why are you sad again, mummy?’ from the hall as the two left.
Conversation quickly turned to what Zedd had missed and what had happened in the “incident”.
There had been a memorial service held in Ponyville three days ago in memory of the two ponies who passed away in the accident. Representatives came from the Rainbow Factory with specially designed scrapers to help with the last of the cleaning up, but after saying something about something being “unusable” to them, they had cremated the remains and turned them over to the families.
Pine had to work overtime to get enough wood for a new house. The family of three musicians would be staying with family friends of theirs, the Philharmonica’s, while their house was rebuilt. Pine laughed about how Lyra was more than happy to have a friend to play with by the name of Octavia.
Zedd was eventually allowed to walk around again. The shunt was removed from his foreleg and he no longer needed to rely on the painkillers. He went through withdrawl for a full day, but felt better than ever after that.
The first time he stood up Ditzy had gasped. She pointed a hoof to his flank and before he could turn and look at whatever she was pointing at, he felt her jump on top of him. Barely having enough strength for himself alone, he promptly toppled to the floor, only to be helped up again by Ditzy. He turned his head around and saw a red heart on his flank, the sensation of burning probably missed in the burning house.
It suited perfectly. It represented the love he felt for all ponies, and the length he would go to to help them.
A full week after he woke up on the sixth day he was allowed to leave. Eleven days had passed since the storm. The town was bustling with new life. Half a step through the front door of the hospital, Zedd was deafened by a cheer and lifted up onto the shoulders of a huge group of ponies.
They led him to the town centre and dumped him by the stage. Mayor Mare came out to give a speech, flaming red mane leading the way’
‘Fillies and gentlecolts! We’re here today to celebrate a true hero in the eyes of Ponyville! Ignoring all danger to himself, he risked his life to save that of a small foal, and came out alive. Zeddicus proved that it doesn’t take bulk or brawn to be a hero; it only takes a strong and determined heart. Three cheers for the hero!’
Zedd stood awkwardly in front of the whole town as they cheered for him. He, who had been the target of school bullies for years on end, was now a hero in Ponyville. All the same, he didn’t feel at all right until he saw Ditzy cheering for him, too. As soon as he did, he grinned more broadly than he had in weeks.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare – Part 5

Zedd had had enough of the party. He wished he could stay longer, but he was far too tired to stay on his hooves for much longer. Zedd heard a high pitched voice call his name and he turned in the direction of the speakers. He couldn’t quite make out what the voice was saying as she was being drowned out by the bass-heavy music, but he immediately recognised the silhouette’s poofy hair. 

‘Before you ask, yes I really do need to go, Pinkie. I’m sorry, but I’m st-st-still recovering,’ he said, punctuating the sentence with a huge yawn.

‘Do you really have to go? I mean really, really have to go? The party won’t be any fun without the guest of honour!’ said Pinkie.

‘Pinkie, you can make anything fun, even school. I’ve been in hospital for two weeks, I think, but I’m still healing. If I stay here much longer I’m going to fall asleep on a park bench or something.’

The party was being held in town. Pinkie had gone all out once again to make it her best party yet, and with the whole town invited, that it was. Streamers and balloons were all around the courtyard and lights had been put up on the town hall to illuminate the area. Pinkie had brought out her best speakers, borrowed from a close friend of hers by the name Vinyl. 

‘Come on, Pinks. I would know best of anyone; when you need to sleep, you need to sleep,’ said a white mare with lightning blue mane. ‘Go on, Zedd. Dream about me, eh?’ she added with a wink behind her shaded goggles.

Vinyl was only young. She had dropped out of school two years before the last year of high school, mainly to pursue her dream of becoming a world-famous DJ. Her mark was in the form of a connected double note(♫), and she had a love of all music, but focused on electronic; the more bass the better. 

‘Ugh… fine… I’ll see you at school on Monday, Zeddie!’

‘Yeah. Night, Pinkie.’

He turned and began to walk back home, bass from the music still able to be heard long after the treble died away; cheers of happy party-goers still heard from half way across town.

Ditzy’s probably still out there having the time of her life. All the best to her, I don’t want to be a drag on her fun.

After only walking for a short while he began to feel his breath shortening. When he was no more than half way home, he had to stop and sit down, panting like a dog in summer. 

‘Do you need a hoof?’ came a friendly voice from behind.

Zedd turned and saw Ditzy standing behind him. She jumped up onto the back of the chair, hind legs remaining on the ground.

‘No, thanks. Please, I just need some sleep. Go. Have fun,’ he said, attempting to hide his shortness of breath.

‘It wouldn’t be any fun without you, Zedd,’ she said. Zedd immediately thought back to what Pinkie said and sighed.

‘Alright, thanks, I could probably use a hand,’ he said, giving in. ditzy flapped her wings once and jumped clear over the bench, then helped Zedd to his feet. She let go and he nearly fell over to the left, so she caught him and helped keep him steady as they continued home. 

Zedd didn’t really want to ruin Ditzy’s night, but if she wanted to help him he wasn’t going to say no. The house finally came into view and when they walked in, Zedd immediately dropped onto the lounge. Ditzy moved to go and make some tea in the kitchen, but Zedd faintly called her back.

‘What is it?’ she asked, leaning in close.

‘Don’t leave me, please. I…’ he didn’t even get another word out. He was already asleep. Ditzy couldn’t help but smile as she went to the hall cupboard and retrieved a blanket, lying down on the lounge, too, and draping the blanket over them both.

She felt his forelegs wrap around her and she snuggled up close against him, partially to be closer, and partially to minimise the chance of falling off the lounge. She fell asleep quickly, too; smiles upon both of their faces.

---

He glanced around the room. The daily routine was going as it always did. Math Millien was the advanced mathematics teacher at Ponyville High School. He was a Pegasus with a silky white coat and sky blue mane, and his cutie mark consisted of four mathematical symbols (x - + ÷) in varying colours. 

‘Ditzy?’ he called. He heard a voice from the back of the room respond and he ticked her name on the roll.

‘Pinkamena?’	

Wait for the response. Tick.

‘Vinyl? No… Erm, Rarity?’

Wait for the response. Tick.

‘Zedd?’

Wait for the response. Ti- wait, there was no response…

‘Zeddicus?’ he repeated. He waited, but still no response. I swear I saw Zedd somewhere today… I know he’s at school…

He gave a final look around the room and noticed Zedd slumped low over his table, head in his forehooves. Math stood up from behind his desk and walked between the rows to stand next to Zedd. Never had a student had the nerve to sleep through one of his lessons before- much less before the lesson had even begun!

‘Mister Zorander!’ he yelled, and Zedd woke with a start.

‘The answer is A: Somepony!’ said Zedd groggily. 

‘Zeddicus, this is not English, this is Mathematics. I may teach English as well, but from what I remember of your schedule, you haven’t been in my English class since foalschool.’

‘Yes, Mr. Millien. Sorry, sir,’ said Zedd.

Math looked down and saw the blisters still healing on Zedd’s forelegs. He remembered with a start how Zedd had only been discharged from the hospital a few days ago.

‘Oh. No, my apologies; you must still be recovering from your injuries. Please, if you see the need, go ahead and speak to the nurse. I’m sure she would be happy to give you a cup of coffee or something of the like for a pick-me-up, then you may return.’

Zedd was still too tired to even consider arguing, especially if it meant he could leave, so he got up and trotted to the door.

‘But sir! I don’t think I got enough sleep last night, do you think I could go out of class for a while, too?’ asked Sticks innocently, but mockingly.

‘Ah yes, young Sticks. Your friend was removed from this class because he could hardly count how many hooves he had, and if memory serves, the only reason you still remain is because your father is also a teacher here. I believe you need all the class time you can get,’ replied Math, and the class roared with laughter at Sticks’ expense.

Math raised his voice for the whole class to hear and the laughter died away almost immediately. The class respected him enough to fall silent before he asked it. ‘Now, if you would all open your textbooks to page three-ninety-four, we will continue our study of Pythagoras’ theorem and its application alongside quadratics.’

The door clicked behind him as Zedd closed it. The classroom wasn’t large, but he had intentionally walked slowly to hear Sticks getting paid out, passing it off as a limp.

He didn’t even bother to stifle a yawn as nopony else appeared to be in the hall.

‘Woah there, Zedd, I can see what you had for breakfast!’

Zedd suddenly closed his mouth mid-yawn and looked up. Before he could even see where the voice came from he had to yawn again anyway. Trying again, he saw a grey unicorn stallion walking down the hall toward him.

‘Didn’t get kicked out of class, did ya? I did that a fair few times when I was in school, but I didn’t think you would, eh?’

The unicorn was the advanced English teacher. He was larger than most stallions, and had an Australian accent. On his flank was the image of a quill wrapped in a treble clef, and around his neck was a pair of ever-present earphones.

Zedd smiled briefly before answering. ‘No, Mr. Quill. Mr. Millien sent me to see the nurse.’

‘Oh yeah, you just got discharged from the hospital, didn’t ya? Well, how’re you feeling? Tired, by the looks of it. And I’ve told you before, call me Bazz.’

‘Erm… yes, Bazz. I kind of got kicked out because I fell asleep.’

‘’You kiddin’ me? I swear I almost got more sleep at school than I did when I was at home. But, I suppose the principal wouldn’t want me telling you that, so let’s pretend it never happened, alright?’

Zedd nodded, grinning.

‘Anyway, go on, see the nurse. I think I might be late to class. As though anypony cares, though, right?’

Just as he said this the bell went.

‘Oh, well, whaddaya know? I guess old Mathie is just overly punctual. Alright, well, gotta go. Seeya, Zedd.’

‘Yeah, sure thing. See you.’ In all honesty Zedd hadn’t heard half of what Bazz Quill had said. His Australian accent was normally easy to understand, sometimes even sounding sophisticated, but with his mind running as slowly as it was he could only stare and nod. After a few moments he noticed a few stragglers running through the halls to their classes and he began to walk down to the nurse’s office.

When he arrived he noticed another pony was already in there. There was usually one or two in there for scrapes and bruises, sometimes even a stomach virus, but not usually the first thing in the morning. 

The nurse had a red cross on her flank, along with a white coat and red mane and tail. He name was Redheart, and her life goal was to work at the hospital.

When Zedd came in he saw her placing a small band-aid on a unicorn colt’s foreleg. ‘Now, I’d suggest using your scissors with your hooves until you have a little more practice in levitation, okay? That cut will heal itself by the end of the day. You can return to class now,’ she said.

The colt nodded with a sad frown and left. The high school shared a nurse’s office with the primary school, so young colts and fillies would often be seen in tears over minor cuts and bruises. She noticed Zedd walking in and smiled as though she had been given an early Hearth’s Warming gift.

‘Young Zeddicus, I was hoping I’d be able to speak with you. But I guess you haven’t come for no reason. What can I help with?’

Zedd pondered what she meant when she said she had hoped to speak with him, then eventually remembered the situation and blurted ‘Oh, yeah, I fell asleep in class. I mean, err, I, uh, Mr. Millien sent me here for… I’m not entirely sure. He said for me to get a “pick-me-up”.’

‘Oh, that’s easy. Tea or coffee?’

‘Erm, coffee, I guess… but I thought students weren’t allowed to have it?’

‘Oh, please, Zeddicus, you’re an exception. I can only imagine how tired you would be; having to heal all of those burns… and I even heard you had a minor aneurism?’

‘Erm, yeah…’ he said, not entirely sure where she was going.

‘Well… I can see your confusion. I’ll get straight to the point. I want to be a nurse at Ponyville hospital, as you may know, but I need more experience. Now, having you here would make the perfect opportunity. Would I be allowed to just… examine you? I just want to have a look at the damage, would that be alright?’

‘Yeah, I guess. What would you be doing?’

‘Just a bit of this and a bit of that,’ she said, eyeing a medical tool used to observe the retinas. ‘One lump or two?’

‘I’m sorry, what?’

‘Your coffee, dear.’

‘Oh yeah, two, I guess.’

She quickly poured him his coffee and went to her cupboard to retrieve a few select tools that would probably never even be needed in a school, but she had anyway. After a half hour of testing the coffee began to kick in and he was becoming restless.

‘Just one more minute and you can go, I swear,’ she said. True to her word, no more than a minute later she was placing the tools back in a box and reflecting on what she had seen. Zedd had no idea what she might have seen in his eyes, or listening to his pulse, but she seemed to be greatly interested.

‘I guess I’ll go back to class, then,’ he said. She mumbled something absentmindedly and retrieved a chart to start some sketches and record numbers.

On his way out Zedd saw a certain young colt with a band-aid on his foreleg, tears in his eyes and another small cut on his opposite leg. Zedd held the door open for him and immediately heard ‘Scissors? Right, sit on the table. I swear I’m going to have to tell your parents if you don’t stop this’

---

‘Have fun in the nurse’s office?’

‘Oh yes, oodles of it. I was poked and prodded and had lights flashed in my eyes, but I did win a prize! I got a free cup of coffee.’

Ditzy eyed him (with one eye) for a moment before she spoke about her math lesson. ‘Mr. Millien set some homework, but I guess you got out of it when you didn’t come back. He tried to get Rarity up the front at one point to write out the answer to a question on the blackboard, but ended up making her sit down again when she couldn’t get the 5 quite right and kept erasing it. We didn’t learn much.’

‘Right. Well, what do you have next? I have Music and History then double English. At least we’re going to end the day with a fun lesson.’

‘I have a flight lesson and home ec. I can’t wait for English.’

‘Why do you need flight lessons anyway? I’ve seen you fly, you’re incredible.’

Another glance from Ditzy.

‘I-I-Incredible at flying, that is, erm, ahah,’ he stammered, rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof.

‘They think that I need lessons because I don’t live in Cloudsdale.’

A voice rang out from behind them. ‘Yeah, maybe you should move to Cloudsdale, then. Not only would we not have to look at your face, but you’d probably fall off!’

They heard a stupid guffaw and turned to see Sticks and Stones approaching.

‘Not these two again,’ said Ditzy, face-hoofing.

‘Leave her alone, Sticks.’

‘You stay out of it. I don’t want to hurt you, Zedd. It wouldn’t look too good, beating up a “hero” now would it,’ he said, eliciting another guffaw from Stones.

‘Yeah, good luck doing that to begin with. Leave. Before I make you.’

Sticks stared in disbelief at why Zedd would defend her. Look at her eyes! Who wants anything to do with a freak like that?

‘Oh, you asked for it. You’re gonna be back in the hospital by the time I’m done with you,’

‘OI!’ a voice rang out across the yard. ‘The only reason he’ll be in the hospital is because he’ll be visiting you! Back off!’

‘Oh? Who’s going to make me?’ Stones turned to be face-to-face with the large English teacher, Bazz. His pupils dilated and he seemed to shrink in size.

Stones said in his slow voice ‘Did you all hear that? A teacher just swore!’

‘No, I said “back”, but you can feel free to “take it” any way you wish,’ he explained. The crowd that had gathered around them was roaring with laughter. Bazz had a way with words that often threatened to get him in trouble, but nopony could ever prove the double-meanings. Stones sat down hard with a confused look on his face; the gears could almost be seen clicking in his mind. 

‘Are you two going to leave any time soon? Recess is nearly over, and you wouldn’t want to be late to class, would you?’

Sticks and Stones quickly glanced at each other before scampering back to the main building of the school.

‘Thanks, sir,’ said Zedd quickly, ‘but… what are you doing out here? Why aren’t you with the other teachers?’

‘Oh, I was, but then Math told me about what happened in his lesson this morning. I knew that Sticks would want to get someone back for it. Besides, can’t a teacher come and enjoy nature from time to time?’

He took a deep breath and stared off toward the forest, listening to the birds chirping. Zedd and Ditzy stopped to listen, too. They had never noticed how they could hear the birds from the school; they could only ever hear little colts and fillies playing on the playground. Ditzy moved and sat next to Zedd, linking her tail in his own, and Bazz plugged his headphones into a small device and began to walk back to the staff room, his head bobbing slightly with whatever beat he was listening to.

‘Hey, good work standing up to those bullies, Zedd!’ said an orange earth pony with a curly orange mane.

Zedd looked up and noticed that while most of the crowd had departed, a few still remained.

‘It was totally awesome! Man, you looked ready to fight it out!’ said a yellow earth pony he didn’t recognise.

‘I must admit that it makes me feel a little safer knowing there are brave stallions like you out there,’ said Rarity with a sigh. Ditzy shot a warning glare at Rarity. She was holding a book with hearts all over the cover, no doubt another of her love stories. At the look she received from Ditzy, she immediately picked herself up and hurried across the yard.

A bell began to toll across the yard and they stood up to move off to their next lessons.

‘See you at lunch, Ditzy.’

‘Yeah’

---

‘Okay, so we’re supposed to be reading something by Wingian Hoofspeare. Here’s the short version: death, death, incest, death, exit stage left,’ said Bazz. He paused to wait for the laughter to die down (caused by him saying “incest” in class) before going on to say ‘It’s worth a read, but that can wait until later. For now, let’s just go over a review of something else. Have any of you read any good books lately?’

Leaning back in his chair, he was staring up at the far wall. Without even looking to face the students, he said ‘Nope, didn’t think so. So let’s review some stories. Has anyone heard any good stories lately?’

Still no response.

‘Well, I suppose I could share a good one with you all. It’s about a heroic colt. No, not Superstallion, this guy saved another person from certain death, but nearly caused his own in the doing.’

He finally looked down from the far wall and saw the class all leaning forward with rapt attention.

‘There ya’ go. I could tell you this story, but I don’t know it that well. Zedd, you probably know the story better than anyone else, would you tell it?’

Zedd’s jaw dropped. ‘I-I-I have no idea what story you mean! I’ve never heard of anything like that, sir.’

‘Ugh, mate, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me “sir”?

‘Anyway, of course you do. This story was new about three weeks ago, you know.’

Zedd finally began to catch on.

‘Now, I don’t think the colt’s name was ever brought up. Let’s just hear the story of this nameless hero.’

Zedd walked up to the front of the class and began to speak in the third person, retelling the story of how the brave colt had saved the little filly from the pyre of the burning house despite huge personal danger. The class listened with great attention, but only three ponies in the room knew who he was talking about. Zedd ended the story at the point that the colt had passed out. The class applauded lightly and he returned to his seat next to Ditzy.

Bazz shot Zedd a small questioning look and Zedd nodded. Conversation without words had been something Bazz mastered with some of his favourite students. When the class’s attention returned to the teacher, he stood up from his chair and walked to the front of the classroom.

‘Now, what do you think the moral of the story was?’ he asked. Zedd knew he was playing them, so he sat silently. Ditzy followed suit.

The orange pony from the school yard raised a hoof.

‘Yes, Carrot Top?’

‘Was it that no matter what danger you may be in, you should always try to help others?’

‘It might have been. You’re looking a little bit too literally at this; while that may have been close, it wasn’t exactly the “moral”.’

He saw a purple hoof raised at the back of the room.

‘Yes, Berry?’

‘Is it that no matter what the outcome might be, you should always do what you think is right?’

‘Once again, it might have been. Now, I’m going to tell you something. This colt still lives. You may respect him, or you may not. Whatever you think of him shouldn’t matter; just know that he did what he believed was right, and he saved a life because of it.’

‘Sir?’ came the voice of Berry Punch again.

‘Bazz. Not “sir”. Erm, yes, Berry?’

‘You’re saying all of this as though we know him, but it was just a story, wasn’t it? Heroes like that don’t really exist, do they?’

‘You tell me. Have any of you asked Zedd how he got his cutie mark?’

The class collectively gasped and spun to face Zedd as fast as they could.

The voice of Allie Way was heard from across the room. ‘I knew you were in one of the fires, but it was you who saved Heartstrings?!’

Zedd stared in disbelief. He was wondering why none of them were reacting to his recount except interest in a good story, but this would explain it. They all lived under a class-sized rock.

‘Come on, sorry to do this to you all, but Zedd doesn’t exactly need more attention than he currently has. Everyone take out your copies of Lamblet and we’ll begin. Yeah, yeah, I don’t know why he wrote this about goats, but just go with it. Not everypony is a pony. Err, wait…’ he said. The class roared with laughter. That was part of his humour- he would say something intentionally wrong, but in such a way that it seemed like he was serious at the time.

‘Come on, page one, does anyone want to read it? No? Fine,’ he said, opening his own copy of the book to the first page and beginning to read. Whenever he came to a character he would put on a high or a low voice depending on who it was. Two of the witches had high, croaky voices, while the third bore a striking similarity to a bear snoring.

Zedd laughed with everypony else until his ribs hurt. These were truly the best times of his life.

---

The day of their final examination was drawing closer by the second. Zedd was feeling the strain more than anypony else as he had missed a whole three weeks of work, and hadn’t been able to concentrate properly for almost a fortnight after that. He and Ditzy had begun to forfeit almost all of their spare time to study. At least together they managed to get something done.

They worked their hardest, Zedd helping Ditzy with whatever mathematics she didn’t understand, and also helping her a lot with her essay on Lamblet as she couldn’t read the book anywhere near fast enough to write about. They studied their other lessons hard and finally considered themselves ready for testing, then studied some more. Once, Pine had kicked them both out of the house for a few hours to make them get some sunlight.

Finally the week of their exams was upon them.

‘Are you ready?’ asked Zedd.

‘Can you give me a week or two to answer?’

‘I could, but then you’d be stuck herding clouds for the rest of your life.’

‘Alright, yes. I think I am.’

‘That’s what I want to hear from my girl’ said Pine, entering the kitchen while they weren’t paying attention. ‘What about you?’ he asked to Zedd.

Zedd nodded and grunted in affirmation.

‘Then it’s time to go. Your first exam will always seem the worst, but they get easier,’ said Spring, placing lunches on the table for the two young ponies.

‘Mum, you didn’t need to make us lunch, we aren’t foals anymore’

‘I’m not complaining,’ interjected Zedd.

‘You’ll be able to concentrate better if you don’t need to worry about lunch. Now go, walk slowly so you don’t wear yourself out before you get there!’

Pine laughed a little bit at how overprotective his wife was getting. Zedd and Ditzy both thanked her for their lunch and turned to leave, tails intertwining as they walked.

‘They’re all grown up. I must have missed it,’ said Spring from the doorway, tears enveloping her eyes. Pine put a hoof around her neck and gently nuzzled her.

‘They’ll be fine.’

‘I know, it’s just… I… I’m so happy for them.’

They continued watching their daughter and foster-son walking to school at a slow pace, both laughing at something Zedd had just said. Pine turned back into the house with his wife and closed the door behind him. Their sides didn’t stop touching until they both had to go to their workplaces.

---

The English exam came and went, Bazz being more serious than they had ever seen him. He left the room at one point and Sticks immediately asked what the answer was to one of the questions. Bazz came back in before anypony could respond and warned him that if he spoke again his test would be confiscated and he would have to leave. Sticks figured he had just been hiding around the corner. Bazz left the room again after a short while and Sticks got up to see where he had gone. Nowhere to be found, he asked again what the answer was. By the time he had finished writing the answer, the paper glowed and disintegrated right below his hooves.

‘Hey! What the?’

‘I gave you fair warning. You spoke twice, and stole an answer to a question. You have failed English. You may leave.’

‘But-’

‘You may leave,’ he said again in his deep, commanding voice. Everypony watched as Sticks left in dismay. Bazz immediately levitated his headphones. ‘There is more than one way to hear people speaking in a test. I’d strongly recommend not doing it when a unicorn may be listening.’ He was looking over to the small earth pony who had given the answer. He sat back down at the front of the room, bobbing his head to whatever sounds were coming through his headphones.

Not a word was uttered after that.

Mathematics passed in much the same way, but Math didn’t leave the room at all while watching over his class along with the lower mathematics class. Only one warning was given, but no tests were taken. The days went by slowly. By the end of the second day, Zedd felt like he had aged five years. On the fourth day, Spring took Ditzy to Cloudsdale for her flight test. On the way out the door, her mother was urgently muttering to Ditzy.

‘Clear, fly, fall, complete, clear, fly, fall, complete. Please tell me you’re getting this!’

‘Relax, mum, it’s not like I’m going to die if anything goes wrong.’

‘Please don’t make me think of that! No, no, please, clear, fly, fall, complete!’

She had said the wrong thing. Her mum got jumpy sometimes over the smallest things, and that joke had been a bit too much. She grimaced to Zedd (he had the day off, there were no tests to be done) and took off beside her mother.

Hours later, Ditzy returned. Zedd had tried to study, but he couldn’t get his mind to work. Instead, he had just borrowed the newspaper from Pine and begun to read. Zedd had long-since passed the point where he stopped finding newspapers boring, and had begun to read them almost every day.

Spring looked shaken up about something and Ditzy looked a little uneasy.

‘What’s up?’

‘They… somepony failed. I’ve been told that whoever fails is taken far away and they’re never seen again… I didn’t know the person, but still. I’m glad I passed,’ Ditzy said.

Spring moved off to the bedroom and wasn’t heard from for the rest of the night.

After the final exams on the Friday, they were told to attend an assembly. The principal of Ponyville High was there to speak to them all. First up was Bazz for the introduction.

‘Congratulations, fillies and gentlecolts! You somehow beat the odds and managed to make it through the week. I wish all the best for all of you, and I also realise how you want to get out of here as fast as you can and grab an ice-cream from the local store.’

He watched as several ponies licked their lips.

‘Enjoy that thought, and suffer knowing you can’t leave until this is over!-’ pause for laughter- ‘and here is Principal Lily to give you a final speech.’

She shot a livid glance at Bazz who smiled sweetly as he took his seat again.

‘Well, has it really been that long? You’ve already finished high school. Where do the years go?-’ pause for crickets to chirp- ‘Well, you’ve all become grown mares and stallions, and you’re ready to pursue your own dreams in the world. I wish all of you the best, and… well, I would say more, but I suppose that Mr. Quill has already sidetracked you all.

‘Your test results will be mailed out within the month, and you may speak with me or any of the other teachers at any time to clarify anything. Please, enjoy your lives. I look forward to seeing how far you’ve gone in ten years time!’

Everypony in the room cheered and began to swarm the exits. Zedd fought his way through the crowd to speak one final time to Bazz Quill. When he finally came into view, Bazz seemed completely oblivious to the stampede going on in front of him. He was leaning back in his chair, earphones in both ears, and his head was bobbing lightly to his music.

‘Mr Quill?’ asked Zedd.

‘Mate, I don’t know how long it’s gonna take you to realise my name is Bazz. It’s an Austallion name, you know, Bazz.’

Zedd had never known where his teacher came from. He never took geography either, so he had no idea where Austalliona was.

‘It’s an island, mate. The biggest island in the world. Far from here, at any rate.’

Bazz finally looked down from the roof and removed the earphones from his ears.

‘Walk with me,’ he said.

‘Sir, I just wanted to ask how you could hear Sticks talking in the exam?’

‘Oh that’s easy, can’t you give me a harder question?’ he asked. After a moment, he let out a huge sigh and said ‘Alright, I guess I’ll just settle for full marks and no difficulty.

‘It’s a spell that only I and a few others can do. Y’know my mark back there?’ he asked, gesturing his flank. Zedd looked again at the quill wrapped in a treble clef. He had always wondered why he had two significant points to his mark when most only had one.

Seeming to read his mind, Bazz went on to say ‘the quill represents my talent in English. The reason I slept in school so much was because it was too easy- it was boring for me. I took up writing as a hobby, and only became better. The quill didn’t appear for a while yet, though. It was about the time I took up my writing that I discovered my love of music. I’ll listen to pretty much anything so long as it’s well made.’ He took out his little metal device. ‘On this little device here, I have everything from the Canterlot Orchestra to one of DJ PON-3’s new remixes.

If Zedd was surprised that his English teacher knew about PON-3, he didn’t show it. Vinyl was already becoming well known at a fast rate.

‘Anyway, when I was writing once, I had my music going on full, and I felt a small burning. I looked back, and my mark was just there. I call it my “treble quill”.’

‘And the spell?’

‘It just came naturally to me. I leave this device in a room and take my headphones with me and I can hear anything that goes on where the receiver is. I made it myself, but I completely forget how it works. Let’s hope it never breaks, eh?’

Zedd laughed a little at this. He was interested in knowing a bit more about magic, but he mainly just wanted to talk to Bazz. He had a feeling that they would drop out of contact after school finished, and they had become as close to friends as teacher and student could be.

‘I know something else you’ll want to hear, Zedd.’

‘What’s that?’ he asked, happy that the conversation could keep going.

‘I know your father’
	
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare – Part 6

Zedd froze for a moment then frowned. ‘Not funny,’ he said vehemently, casting his eyes to the ground. That was a bad joke from someone he considered a friend. 

‘No, Zedd, it’s true. I… admit that I haven’t seen him in a year or so, but at last check he was alive and… well,’ said Bazz, imploringly. 

‘Fine. Let’s assume you aren’t lying. What does he look like?’

Bazz glanced up to the sky and his eyes glazed over. After a few seconds of silence he said ‘he’s an earth-pony. Unusual since you’re a unicorn,’ he began, only to be cut off by Zedd.

‘My mum’s- was- the unicorn,’

‘That would explain it, but it’s still rare. You have his mane. And his eyes. I swear the only difference between you two is in the shape of your muzzle and your height,’ he said.

Zedd frowned and muttered ‘we don’t look the same.’

‘Zedd, I saw him not too long ago. He wouldn’t stop asking about you, he wanted to know you were alive and well. He cares about you.’

‘That wasn’t my father!’ Zedd shouted. He refused to accept that someone that supposedly loved and cared about him would leave him on his own.

‘Appearances can change, Zedd! How do you know what he looks like?’ Bazz was raising his voice to match Zedd’s.

‘I have a picture of him and my mother.’

‘Taken how long ago?’ Bazz pressed. This struck hard and Zedd’s face fell. 

‘…When I was a foal…’

‘Now, what did I just say, mate? That picture is probably seventeen years old. I hate to kick you while you’re down, but you need to accept the truth before you can do anything about it.’

Zedd fell silent and sat watching young Pegasi flying to town to celebrate school being over. Bazz sighed and sat next to him, casually placing an earphone back in.

The sun had moved noticeably. All of the ponies had finally settled down either at their favourite places in town or back home, barely anypony was still in the streets or the sky. Zedd finally looked down and spoke.

‘Can I see him?’

‘If you have eyes, yeah, I guess,’ Bazz said nonchalantly. 

Zedd shot him a violent glance and Bazz seemed to realise he’d said the wrong thing.

‘You can do one better than that, Zedd. I’ll help you find him. School’s going to be kinda sucky without my favourite students in it, so why not, eh?’

‘When can we leave?’

‘What, you don’t want to say goodbyes? This could take a while, mate. It’s harder to track people than books make it seem. I’d know.’ Seeing Zedd’s sceptical expression, he quickly noted ‘I’m a writer!’

‘Well, when can we leave?’

‘Zedd, think about this… it could take years. Years, mate! Ponies say that time flies and you’ll be old before you know it, but they never left their normal lives for years. At any rate, this’ll probably take a week at least to plan. I need to tell the school if I’m leaving, and you probably need to say goodbyes to certain ponies. Besides, it’s a three-day trot to Manehattan. That’s the last place I saw him.’

Zedd felt his guts lurch. He had found a note under a loose floorboard once. All he could read from it was ‘life is nought but a story. Who will read yours?’ The paper disintegrated almost immediately after he picked it up. This was one of the most important decisions of his life, and if he went through on the plan a huge hole would be left in his story, not to mention Bazz’s. Wait, why would Bazz be willing to go this far for… me?

‘Bazz… why-’

‘Your father is the best friend I ever had. Sure, I talk to people here and there, and most of the students here like me, but nothing can compare to the friendship I had with your father. We were brothers in all but blood.’

Zedd looked back down at the ground. How could I have ever considered just leaving like that? All of his friends… Pine and Spring… Ditzy…

‘Don’t… you have anypony here that you’d be leaving?’

‘As I said, mate, I don’t have anyone here. My parents haven’t been around for years, so it’s not like I’m leaving them, and, well, I don’t have a Special Somepony, so whatever.’ He looked at Zedd staring downcast at the ground for a moment. His ears suddenly perked up and he glanced to a spot beyond Zedd. ‘Come and talk to me if you want to go through with this. If you’re serious, we’ll leave in a week. Seeya later, Zedd.’

Almost immediately after Bazz left, Ditzy appeared around a nearby corner and trotted over to Zedd with watery eyes. Zedd immediately felt worse as she said ‘please don’t go…’

Zedd looked properly at her for a moment and saw how she looked so isolated. She was sitting away from him with her shoulders slumped and she was fighting back tears. She looked almost as though if he went, it would be the end of her world.

‘Ditzy, I…’

He trailed off, thinking harder than he had about anything ever before. This would be the most important decision of his life. Love, or closure? Fate plays a cruel game, he thought bitterly.

He moved to sit next to her and she pulled back slightly. Zedd felt horrible at this. She saw the look in his eyes and knew this was causing him just as much pain as it was her. She buried her face in his shoulder and hugged him tightly with both forelegs and wings, tears finally overflowing. They sat and hugged together for the longest time, neither willing to relinquish the other for even a moment. Zedd closed his eyes and leaned against her neck as her tears finally stopped and the sobbing slowed. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that the sun was inching closer to the horizon. 

The moon began to rise. Zedd looked to the familiar collective of craters on the moon face making the shape of the Mare in the Moon. 

An idea suddenly struck him. ‘Ditzy… let’s go to the forest.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know, it just feels… right.’

After a sceptical look from Ditzy, they stood and began to canter towards the edge of Ponyville. Zedd was only taking in the small town’s beauty and appeal for the first time now that he was considering leaving it. 

Sugarcube corner stood above most other buildings, only out shadowed by the hospital and the town hall. Numerous small houses were lining Mane Street with their quaint appeal. The tree near the centre of town was being excavated by Pine and his men; it was to become a library. Zedd wished he could see it complete.

The further through town they progressed, the sparser the houses became until finally the town ended and a thick wall of trees and scrub began. The sky was beginning to redden as the sun set, but Ditzy didn’t wish to say anything about going home. She followed Zedd into the forest, walking behind him to avoid walking into trees and bushes.

They reached their special clearing and saw something they never expected. A small shack had been erected, and there were several animals sleeping under a small makeshift marquee nearby. Curious, the couple moved to investigate. 

‘Hello? Anypony there?’ Zedd called to no response. A squirrel dashed over to Ditzy and climbed over her face to rest in her mane. Ditzy let out a small scream. Zedd fell to his knees laughing, then when he saw her blushing face he laughed even harder and fell over, rolling on the ground.

‘Be quiet! He just startled me, that’s all!’

Ditzy suddenly felt a small squirrel hair on her nose and violently sneezed, knocking the squirrel to the ground. They both heard a high pitch gasp and a young yellow mare flew over to pick the squirrel up and embrace it. As soon as she realised that two other ponies were watching her she retreated to her house and found the door jammed shut. Glancing back at the two ponies (who still hadn’t moved) she squealed and began to pound lightly on the door, quietly begging for it to open.

‘Hey, it’s alright, we won’t hurt you,’ said Zedd softly, leaning towards her and stretching out a hoof.

The small Pegasus squealed again and curled up in a ball, the squirrel quickly running to the nearest tree.

‘Please, it’s okay. My name is Zedd, and this is Ditzy. What’s your name?’

The mare lifted her face just high enough that a watery blue eye was visible past her foreleg. 

‘Flutt-rm-mm,’ she said quietly.

‘I’m sorry, we didn’t get that,’ said Ditzy a bit too loudly. The mare recoiled a bit behind her hoof.

‘Flu-hmm-mm.’ She hid behind her hoof and her mane now.

‘One more time?’ asked Zedd, a bit quieter than Ditzy.

The mare let out a small squeak and hid completely behind her hoof, shaking in fear. Zedd looked to Ditzy who gave him a look that said “I have no idea.” He began to move towards the mare and, when she didn’t run away, he gently turned the doorknob and let the door creak open. Ditzy moved over to stand next to Zedd and the mare chanced another look. Seeing the two much closer than before, she almost hid behind her hoof again, but then noticed the Pegasus and she was filled with hope.

‘Oh! You’re a Pegasus, too! You see, my friend Rainbow Dash was racing, and she knocked me off the cloud I was on- accidentally, I’m sure- and I fell down here, and-’ She suddenly caught sight of Zedd again and fell silent.

Ditzy looked to him and back to the Pegasus before slowly saying ‘do you want to talk to me… without him?’

The mare nodded slightly, then looked at Zedd again and eeped. Ditzy stepped in front of Zedd to shield him from view and she steered the small mare into her own makeshift home, nearly pushing her flat into the doorframe because of her depth-perception problems, and gestured for Zedd to sit outside.

After the door had closed, the yellow Pegasus lightly sang a few notes and a swarm of fireflies lit up the ceiling, flooding the room with light. The entire house seemed to be made of some form of wood or another; save for a small pile of blankets in the corner that Ditzy assumed was a bed. 

‘I… still don’t think I got your name….’ Ditzy thought hard trying to discern whatever it was she was trying to squeak out earlier.

‘I’m sorry, I just get a little bit scared around ponies I don’t know. My name is Fluttershy.’ She moved over to her “bed” and spread a few blankets around the floor; shielding their backsides from the cold wood.

‘So why are you out here in the forest?’

‘Well, my friend Rainbow Dash- she’s another Pegasus- she was standing up to some bullies for me and they challenged her to a race. I didn’t want to, but Rainbow convinced me to wave the flag to start the race. I’m not good at being the centre of attention, and I could barely stand there, but when they flew towards me I lost my balance and fell. I’ve been living down here for nearly a year now. My wings just aren’t strong enough to carry me all the way back up to Cloudsdale.’ She fluffed her feathers and extended a skinny wing to show Ditzy what she meant. A collective of fireflies landed on her extended wing.

‘Even if I could make it back to Cloudsdale, I don’t think I’d want to. I like taking care of the animals down here! They’re all so cute and nice,’ she said as a firefly landed on her nose.

‘I don’t think I’ve seen you before, though. I came in here with Zedd less than a year ago, why didn’t I see you then?’

‘Oh, I only found this clearing a few weeks ago. I used to live further into the forest, but I was very scared at night… this part of the forest is filled with cute little critters and it’s not scary at all during the day.’

Ditzy thought about this for a moment before realising something. ‘I think Zedd would be getting cold outside. Should I let him in? Do you think you could handle meeting another pony?’

Fluttershy gasped and rushed to the door to let Zedd in, but then stopped and blushed lightly.

‘What’s… the problem?’

Fluttershy glanced back at Ditzy then opened the door. Zedd looked up from where he was lying on the ground. ‘Hello,’ he said, showing an honest smile.

Okay, Fluttershy, you can do this. Please come in. Please come in. Just say please come in!

‘Pleeeaa….’ She trailed off and finished the sentence in a squeak. She ducked behind her hooves and blushed even more.

Ditzy appeared next to her and called out ‘come on in, Zedd.’ As Zedd approached, Fluttershy felt her wings moving behind her and rushed over the lean against the wall and flatten them.

Zedd walked into the house and glanced around, taking in what little she had in her house. Ditzy led him to sit down opposite Fluttershy.

‘So, do you want to tell me your name yet?’

Her hooves were covering her face to hide her blush and she let out a muffled sound from behind them. Zedd glanced to Ditzy and back again. Fluttershy began to lower her hooves from her face and suddenly shouted ‘You’re cute!’ She looked absolutely shocked at what she had just said and she finally fainted, wings springing open and blush appearing bright on her face. Zedd blushed a bit and looked away.

‘Maybe we should… go…’ he suggested slowly. Ditzy nodded, refusing to make eye contact, and took a spare blanket to drape across the unconscious Pegasus before leaving.

As soon as they were out of the clearing Ditzy spoke up. ‘Let’s go to the forest, it feels right!’ she said mockingly.

‘Well, we met someone new. You did, anyway.’

Ditzy grinned at him and tripped over a root. Zedd sighed as he helped her back to her hooves. ‘What are you going to do without me?’ he asked. They both stopped walking. A cricket chirped and an owl hooted in the silence. Zedd regretted opening his mouth at all. He didn’t know what to do. If he kept walking it would be inconsiderate. If he stood silently they would be there all night. He could try talking, but he didn’t know what to say. Ditzy spoke for him.

‘So you’re definitely leaving?’

He spoke without thinking. ‘I have to, Ditzy. This could be one of the most important things to ever happen to me.’

Ditzy looked shocked at this statement. ‘You mean I’m not important?!’

‘No! I mean, you’re the most important thing in the world to me!’

‘Then why do you need to leave everyone? Why do you need to go? Why are you leaving me?’

Zedd was struck dumb. Either he had just told a lie or he was being selfish.

He opened his mouth to answer, though nothing but a croaky ‘Aaa…’ came out.

Ditzy grimaced and turned to dash through the forest. Zedd tried to follow, but was blocked by a thick patch of thorns. She must have been using her wings. He helplessly watched as she turned to a silhouette and disappeared. He was snapped back to his senses by an owl hooting nearby and he continued out of the forest alone.

---

‘Zedd! You’re back. You’re either really early or really late. Don’t the end-of-school parties usually last all night?’ Pine asked as he trotted through the door, head held almost low enough to touch the carpet. Zedd offered a small sad glance and Pine’s smile faltered.

‘What’s happened?’ he asked, realising Ditzy wasn’t with him. Pine glanced at a small burn scar on Zedd’s foreleg and assumed the worst.

Zedd couldn’t answer properly. His throat was constricting of its own accord. He tried harder to speak and only succeeded in forcing out a sob. Pine called out to the kitchen ‘Honey, can you put on some coffee? I think we’re going to need it strong.’ He beckoned for Zedd to take a seat on the lounge as he put down his ever-present newspaper. The front page was showing several ecstatic ponies rushing from Ponyville High.

‘Take your time, son,’ he said, despite being worried for his daughter. If he even knew where Ditzy was the information wouldn’t be able to be forced out of him.

‘I’m an idiot. I’m a dumb, selfish, foal! I… I drove away one of the only ponies who matters at all to me in the world. I’m so stupid!’ He collapsed to the floor sobbing. Pine moved over and helped him to his hooves. 

‘Zedd, you’re not stupid, that much I’m sure of. Now What. Happened.’

Zedd sat down on the lounge and took a great, shuddering breath before beginning. He thought about everything that had happened since school ended, and while Pine looked saddened that Zedd would possibly be leaving, he knew that Ditzy would be safe. She’s a smart mare, he convinced himself. If she gets into any trouble she’ll come home immediately. I hope she comes back soon, though…

‘I’m such a selfish foal,’ Zedd repeated. 

‘No, Zedd. You’re the most selfless stallion I know. As much as I hate to admit it, Ditzy’s in the wrong here. She’s probably just sad that she knows you need to do this, and she’s covering it up with anger. Believe me, her words are lies. She isn’t angry with you, Zedd.’ He took to his hooves and moved out the door, heading Celestia knows where.

Zedd was- as far as he knew- alone in the house, so he went to bed and cried himself to sleep.

---

She rushed off into the brush. Ditzy knew the Forest better than anyone. She flapped her wings to vault over a patch of thorny vines and continued on into the darkness.

Refusing to slow, she continued barrelling through the forest, breaking branches, yet still refusing to slow down. The pain of numerous cuts and scrapes was helping to distract her from internal pain. She finally hit a branch too big to snap through and collapsed, lying across it, sobbing.

She looked up through the forest canopy and saw the moon directly above; the face of the Mare in the Moon staring sadly down upon her. The Mare almost seemed to be crying, herself. Ditzy lay there long enough that the moon passed out of her sight under the tree and she decided to get up and move. Some of the cuts were beginning to sting, and the temperature was lowering drastically.

She thought for a moment about going back home and seeing Zedd and grimaced. She couldn’t handle that right now. She decided instead upon going back and seeing Fluttershy. Maybe she could spare a bed.

As she tried to take off, Ditzy realised her wings wouldn’t move. Her joints had stiffened from overuse. She pushed a bit harder to get them to open and tried to glide to the forest floor and walk. Immediately after jumping from the branch, she realised how high up she was, and how weak her wings really were. Ditzy strained her hardest to keep her wings open and straight, but it was a useless effort. Her right wing gave in, followed by her left, and she dropped. Ten yards. Twenty yards. Thirty. How high was that tree, she thought frantically, still falling. Eventually she hit a patch of vines and snapped through a few before landing in a muddy puddle.

She would have lain there catching her breath after the near-death experience, but she could feel herself sinking in the mud. Give me a break, her mind shouted as she grabbed onto one of the recently-broken vines with her teeth and slowly began to pull herself out of the puddle. She looked up and saw that the trees here stretched up a full hundred feet and must have been a yard thick. I must be pretty far into the forest.

Drained of energy- physically and emotionally-, and covered with mud, she began to trudge along through the forest hoping to come across one of the paths she knew. Eventually she found a path, and looking both ways, decided which way would lead her back to her- or Fluttershy’s- clearing.

She began to pant from the menial task of walking. The mud was weighing her down drastically, and she racked her mind trying to think of where a stream would be so she could wash it off. Before she could complete the thought, she heard flowing water and moved toward it. At least something’s going right tonight.

---

‘You’re bleeding! Oh no, oh no, oh no, what happened? Please, come in! I’ll get some bandages!’ Fluttershy began to move around frantically searching outside. A baby bunny hopped across from the small marquee outside to pass Fluttershy a roll of gauze and another of tape.

‘Thank you so much, Angel Bunny,’ said Fluttershy to the small rabbit who grinned with glee. She passed him a small carrot from under a wing and he scampered back across to the animal shelter.

‘Fluttershy, please, I’m- nngh- I’m fine,’ protested Ditzy as she plucked a thorn from her lower foreleg. Her good luck had run out at finding the stream. There were leeches in it and vines all around, some of which she had stepped on.

‘No, please, you’re my guest. I need to help you. You must be in a lot of pain.’ Fluttershy tore off a piece of the gauze and strapped it down across one of her larger cuts. ‘I’m sorry about earlier. I guess I must have looked like a foal.’

Ditzy remembered what happened and blushed. No, you looked like a completely mature mare, she thought, but only answered with a small nod.

‘I hope he’s not mad with me,’ she said timidly.

‘No, he could never be mad with anypony. He’s just too forgiving. And I… I must have hurt him a lot,’ she finished with a whisper. Fluttershy uttered a small ‘oh,’ and continued dressing Ditzy’s wounds.

‘Do you want to stay here for the night? It’s awfully cold out tonight. Oh no, the animals!’ she said, gathering a spare blanket and rushing out to the marquee. From the house, Ditzy could see nothing more than Fluttershy leaning over outside. She picked up the blanket and walked back to the house, carrying a blanket full of woodland creatures. After placing them in the corner, she moved to assemble her own bedding.

‘So… where do I sleep?’ asked Ditzy.

‘You can sleep right here.’ Fluttershy gestured to the bedding she had just prepared.

‘But then where do you sleep?’

‘Don’t worry about me, I can sleep with the animals. Isn’t that right?’ she asked in a higher voice. The animals simultaneously climbed out of the blanket and rushed to climb on Fluttershy, with the exception of a young tortoise that made it three steps out before Fluttershy sat down on the blanket.

‘They like it when I sleep with them, and they’re so warm! Come here, Mr. Tortoise,’ she said, scooping up the shelled amphibian and placing him next to her. He turned his head and smiled widely at Fluttershy.

Ditzy smiled and nodded, moving to her own bed. The glowing fireflies dimmed and she fell asleep quickly. She dreamt of a brown colt with a messy mane and a smile that could melt even the toughest of hearts.

---

Ditzy didn’t return for the rest of the day. The first day of the holidays was spent alone, and despite Pine’s words, Zedd was slipping back into depression. Spring said a few kind words to him before heading out to work for the day, but they didn’t have much effect.

After wandering completely around the house for the twelfth time that morning, he decided to go out and plan. He had to leave, no matter how much anypony didn’t want him to. 

Mental checklist. Find Ditzy. Find Bazz and tell him I’m going with. Find Pinkie to plan a going away party. Find Ditzy. Invite people to the going away party. Find Ditzy. I need to stop thinking like this, it’s going to tear me apart. Maybe I deserve to be torn apart… Sugarcube Corner, come on, Zedd! Just stop thinking. I’m no longer thinking about anything. Nothing at all. Hmmmm…

Unable to force his mind to go blank, he had resorted to making the voice hum. After a few moments of extreme concentration he walked into another pony. He stumbled back, torn out of his thoughts, and apologised.

‘Sorry about that. Hey, you’re Big Macintosh, right?’

‘Eeeyup.’

‘I don’t see you much. I guess the farm keeps you busy?’

‘Eeeyup.’

‘Don’t you ever get sick of it?’

‘Nnnope.’

The conversation was going nowhere slowly. Zedd changed tactics. ‘What brings you to town today? You’re not here very often.’

The large, red stallion nodded to the trailer he was pulling. There were a few bushels of apples and a compacted stand. ‘Sellin’.’

‘Well… good luck with that, I guess.’

‘Eeeyup.’

Zedd walked away from the other stallion. Even the people he didn’t know well were nice… he could only hope that ponies of other towns and cities would be as nice as those in Ponyville.

Zedd was looking all around for Pinkie. As he walked, he continued to glance behind him repeatedly hoping to catch a flash of pink somewhere. Eventually he gave up and moved to Sugarcube Corner to wait for her.

The door was half way open before he saw a flash of streamers and heard a crowd shout ‘Surprise!!’

He wondered what was going on, but then Pinkie’s voice called out ‘wrong pony! Get back into place! Zedd, over here!’

He had half a second to take in the banner saying “Happy Birthday, Mrs. Cake!” before a pink hoof appeared around his neck and yanked him behind the lounge.

He was awkwardly lying directly underneath her on his back.

‘Pinkie, I-’

‘Shhh! You don’t want to ruin the surprise, do you?’ she whispered frantically. Zedd put up with his discomfort for another full four minutes before the door opened again. Pinkie suddenly vaulted over the lounge and shouted “Surprise!” with the rest of the room. Zedd slowly got to his feet, back leg having massively cramped against the lounge back.

The crowd laughed at the shocked look on Mrs. Cake’s face.

‘Thank you, dearies! I can’t believe I forgot my own birthday! I guess I’ve just been so busy lately and all-’

‘Talk later, Missus Cake, it’s time to party!’ shouted Pinkie, leaping over to set the music going. Zedd quickly wished Mrs. Cake a happy birthday and tried to get Pinkie’s attention. The sooner he asked for some help, the sooner he could leave. Zedd wasn’t in the mood for a party. This place is way too happy.

Minutes passed and several ponies tried to engage him in conversation, only to be rebuffed and apologised to.

‘Come on, Zedd, have some punch.’

‘Sorry, but no. I need to do something.’

‘But we’re at a party!’

Zedd sighed and turned to see who he was telling off only to see it was Pinkie herself. Well, that makes things easier, I guess. ‘Pinkie, I need to talk to you.’

‘What about?’ she asked, drinking a whole cup of punch in one go and refilling it.

‘Something’s happened and I think I need to leave, so… I was wondering if you’d throw a going away party.’ He was expecting her to look sad, but was surprised by her reaction.

Her jaw fell open for half a second before she said, ‘two parties in one week?! This is going to be the best week ever! When do you want the party? Ooh, we could do it tomorrow! Or the day after, if you like! Maybe the day after that?’

‘I’m planning on leaving in six days. Maybe make the party five days from now.’

‘Okie dokie lokie!’

Zedd was glad to finally be able to leave this place and continue his search for Ditzy and Bazz. Closing the door behind himself, he took a deep breath of the cool air.

‘Boo,’ came a quiet, deep voice. Zedd turned to see Bazz sitting by the door, wearing a pair of blue-shaded sunglasses.

‘Why are you out here?’

‘I could ask the same to you. I’m out here because things like that just… get to me. I’m fine with loud noises, but if there’s a huge crowd and loads of stuff going on, I just get overly stressed. So now I will ask the same to you.’

‘I’m out here looking for you.’

‘Oh? You have an answer, then?’

‘I do. I’m going. This could be one of the most important things I ever do.’ Zedd sat down away from the door to avoid being flattened if it opened.

‘Alright, I’ll send a letter to the school tomorrow. When do you want to go?’

‘A week from now. I’m having Pinkie organise a going-away party in five days, and the day after that we’ll leave.’

‘And that’s it. No more Ponyville.’

Zedd didn’t answer. He continued to think hard.

‘I reckon it’s about time for me to go back in. ‘You coming?’

‘No. I need to find Ditzy, too.’

‘Your loss, mate.’ He opened the door and closed it again, leaving Zedd alone in the street. Ponyville seemed emptier than normal. He sighed and began to walk back to the forest. If she was still there, maybe he’d be able to find her with the added sunlight.

---

Ditzy woke up slowly. For a blanket on the floor, her bedding was surprisingly comfortable. She could feel several weights on and around her. Looking down, she saw several small animals sleeping against her for warmth. She closed her eyes and smiled.

Looking across the room, Ditzy noticed that Fluttershy was missing. She probably hadn’t been for too long, because the tortoise was still making his way across the room to lie next to Ditzy.

‘Come on, Mr. Tortoise. Do you know where Fluttershy has gone?’

The tortoise seemed to smile a bit and pointed his head to the door. As soon as he did, Ditzy heard a few notes being sung and the animals sleeping on her woke up and scurried out the open door.

Ditzy stood, stretched, and received several cramps in her legs and wings. She had far overexerted herself yesterday, and sleeping on the floor probably didn’t help. The tortoise followed her movements, and she picked him up on her back to walk out the door.

‘Oh, you’re awake! Thank you for bringing Mr. Tortoise out with you, he sometimes misses out on breakfast because he can’t get out fast enough,’ said Fluttershy. She was standing near a small pile of cut up fruit and nuts with animals eating from it. Ditzy placed the tortoise next to the pile where the other animals made some room for him to eat.

‘Thank you so much for going to the trouble of helping me, Fluttershy. Is there anything I can do to repay you?’

‘No, no, it was no trouble at all! But, um, if you wouldn’t mind, do you think you could pick up some apples for the animals? I found a poor little injured birdie this morning and I don’t think I’ll be able to get them like I normally do… Big Macintosh should be in town today selling some, and I can give you a bag of bits, but if you don’t want to that’s fine.’

‘No, I will! I’d be happy to, in fact. You’re so kind, it’s the least I can do. You helped me, so I’ll help you, too.’

‘Oh, thank you, thank you! I think the bits are inside-’ She was interrupted by Angel stomping on her hoof. He held up a purse almost as big as himself. ‘Thank you, Angel. Mummy’s very proud. Um, here, there should be enough bits for a bushel of apples.’

‘I’ll get them back to you later today. Thanks again, Fluttershy!’ She trotted through the forest and away from Fluttershy’s clearing, smiling. She came upon the spot where she had run away from Zedd and crushingly remembered why she had gone back to Fluttershy to begin with. She stopped and looked down through the makeshift path of broken vines and brambles. Eventually she forced herself to move on, but not before she heard herself utter the words ‘oh Zedd, please forgive me…’



‘’Re you okay there, Ditzy? Yeh’re lookin’ pretty glum.’

Ditzy was snapped out of her trance by the farmer Applejack in the market. She had been dwelling on her sad thoughts, only succeeding in making herself feel even worse. ‘No, I’m fine, Applejack. I’m just here to pick up some apples for Fluttershy.’

‘What? But she never misses her Saturday bushel! She’s alright, ain’t she?’

‘Yeah, she’s fine; she just found an injured bird. Besides, I owe her for the bandages,’ she said, lifting a foreleg to show several small bandages on it.

‘Well, alright then. That’ll be twelve bits.’ Applejack retrieved a bucket of apples from the ground next to her stand and put it down on her counter. Ditzy passed the bits and thanked her.

‘Now if Big Macintosh don’t get here soon Ah’ll be all outta apples before long. If yeh see him, c’n yeh tell him t’ kick his flank in t’ high gear? Ah’d appreciate it.’ Applejack dropped the bits into a rectangular tin to the left side of her stand.

Ditzy resumed her thoughts about how terrible a pony she was as she trotted back through town to the clearing. Zedd would probably be looking for her, so waiting at Fluttershy’s would be better than looking for him. That’s if he ever wants to see me again, she thought bitterly. I’m such a foal… 

Half way back across town she saw the familiar large, red stallion pulling a wagon full of apples.

‘Big Macintosh?’

‘Eeeyup?’

She thought about what to say. Tell him to hurry up, or ask if he knew where Zedd was. She decided almost immediately. ‘You haven’t seen Zedd, have you?’

‘Eeeyup.’

She was suddenly filled with hope. ‘Do you know where he’s gone?’

He pointed a hoof over the opposite shoulder, saying ‘That-a-way.’

She looked down to the forest and smiled broadly. ‘Thanks Big Macintosh! Oh, also, Applejack says she wants you to hurry to the stand, okay?’

The stallion let out a huge sigh before saying ‘eeeyup’ one final time and pulling the trailer a bit faster. Still in a good mood, Ditzy went to take off, but remembered her wing was still sore and she would probably fall, crushing the apples. She began to canter happily towards the forest instead.

---

‘Hello? Is anypony here? Gah, what was her name…’ Zedd racked his brain, attempting to think of what the mare’s name had been. After a few moments he gave up and moved to the far side of the clearing where a group of animals were sleeping in a patch of sunlight. Only the tortoise paid him any attention, standing and beginning to walk (slowly) toward Zedd.

‘Hello there, Mr. Tortoise. You haven’t seen… whoever it is that takes care of you, have you?’

Zedd started laughing at how he had been driven to talking to animals. After he stopped and looked back, the tortoise had changed direction and was walking to a nearby tree. Zedd followed behind the tortoise, who stopped and looked up. Zedd heard frantic whispering from above. ‘No, Mr. Tortoise! Go somewhere else, he’ll find me! Go! Eep!’

Zedd looked up to see the yellow mare up in the tree. ‘Why… are you up there…?’

‘UM! I’m, uh… looking after this little birdie! You see? Um… cheep cheep… see? Bird!’

He gave her an unamused expression, but she continued the show. ‘Sorry, little birdie, but mummy has to go now, a-heh.’ She flew down from the tree and stood in front of Zedd, hiding behind her pink mane.

She’s so shy… oh, that’s her name! ‘So, Fluttershy, how’s the bird?’

She gasped before muttering something about how he remembered her name before her gaze was drawn back to the entrance of the clearing. ‘You’re back! And you brought the apples!’

---

She was nearing the clearing now. Not even the site of broken vines was able to dampen her mood on the way back. Ditzy continued to happily canter directly into the clearing, where she was met with Fluttershy attempting to make herself as small as possible in front of Zedd.

‘You’re back! And you brought the apples!’

‘Well, of course I did! I owe you, remember?’ Her thoughts stopped again as she looked at Zedd. His face wasn’t betraying it, but she could see the hurt look in his eyes. Her good mood suddenly hit the ground and dissipated right below her. She dropped the apples to the ground in front of Fluttershy and began to walk toward Zedd. 

‘I’m sorry-’ he began, only to be cut off by Ditzy.

‘No, Zedd. I know you need to do this, I was just sad, and I didn’t want to lose you…’

‘Ditzy, you’ll never lose me. My heart has grown with each new experience, and it’s found a home with all you. I’ve become a part of your heart, just as you’ve become a part of mine. And if you think of me now and then… if you don’t forget me… then our hearts will be one.’

‘I’ll never forget you,’ she whispered. ‘I’m always with you.’ He smiled broadly at her and embraced her as she began to cry. She pulled her head back to look into his eyes. ‘How can you just forgive me like that? Why aren’t you angry with me for all I’ve done?’

‘I was never angry. I was sad because I thought you’d lost your way, but I could never be angry with you.’

She looked in disbelief. He was so trusting. In her bitter, sad state she had feared he didn’t love her anymore. Her mind had told her that he was leaving to get away from her… and she had believed it.

Fluttershy picked up her bushel of apples and moved to her house as quietly as possible. She had a tear of happiness in the corner of her eye, jealous of what Ditzy had, but happy for their relationship at the same time.

The couple was snapped out of their blissful trance by a tortoise stepping in between them. Zedd looked down and laughed before picking him up and giving him a hug, too. Ditzy couldn’t help but smile at the scene in front of her.

‘Zedd… do you think Fluttershy would let up adopt a pet?’

He looked between her and the tortoise a couple of times before realising that it was actually a good sounding idea. ‘I don’t know… maybe. We should probably clear it with Pine and Spring first, though.’

Ditzy hummed a flat note. She watched as he put the tortoise back down and patted his shell gently, still grinning like a mad sheep.

‘Well, come on, let’s go back to town! I mean… my party’s going to need guests.’ Ditzy, finally accepting that which she couldn’t change, followed. She didn’t walk as closely to Zedd as she normally did; she was still mad with herself.

---

The next three days had passed quickly. The town hired a new weather mare who, despite her extreme laziness, did an exceptional job keeping the skies clear. Fluttershy was being seen more and more in town, talking with a few other ponies, even, and Rarity was preparing to fix up a run-down carousel and turn it into a boutique. Pinkie Pie was working full-time at Sugarcube Corner, attempting to make enough treats to last a decade after Zedd’s party, he thought.

Ditzy was reluctant to forgive herself for her selfish behaviour, but she was putting on a bright smile for Zedd’s sake. She didn’t want his last memories of her to be sad ones. All too soon were all of the invited handed out and the party was looming.

Pinkie had invited Vinyl (who was clubbing in Manehattan) back to Ponyville, but she had declined, saying she had a business opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

Tell Zedd that if he’s ever in the big city he should come see me! I’m gonna be mixing alongside DJ Pwn-E for a few months before moving on to Canterlot. Sorry to miss your party, Pinks, but the club’s just calling louder. About 2,000 watts louder, actually. ~Vinyl

Zedd looked forward to seeing her again. Bazz had mentioned that Manehattan was where they were headed first. He decided to help Pinkie finish setting up her own sound system. It wasn’t as good as Vinyl’s, but it got the job done. The party was being held in the town square again.

‘Pinkie, what can I help with?’

‘If you think you can, could you help me move this speaker up to that ledge? It’ll sound so much louder with the speaker up there!’ She gestured to a ledge just under the town hall’s roof overhang. The speaker was enveloped in a light brown glow and floated up to sit on the ledge, where Pinkie appeared to secure it. She grinned and held up her hoof to show he could let go, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because he dropped it in shock.

Zedd swung his head around to face where Pinkie had just been and back to the ledge. She was gone again. He was getting a little bit worried now. He turned around quickly and almost collided with her.

‘How did you do that?!’ he shouted.

‘Do what?’ Pinkie began to chew on a muffin.

‘Get from here to there and… where did you get that from?’

‘Right over there, silly! Weren’t you watching?’

He looked back up to where the speaker was secured. There was no way she could have made it up there and back. As he turned to continue his questioning, he noticed that she had disappeared again.

‘Wh… no. I don’t even want to know.’ Zedd left the area a little bit faster than socially acceptable and almost ran into Bazz coming around a corner.

‘Whoa there! What’s up? The party’s starting in about half an hour, you know…’

‘Yeah, I know that, it’s just… never mind.’ Bazz laughed as he realised what was going on. Pinkie had been pranking again, surely. He had to bail her out of detentions so many times at school that he almost had an extra sense of ‘Pinkie-Pranking’.

Sure enough, as soon as he rounded the corner he saw Pinkie standing next to… Pinkie. Zedd almost screamed with frustration at how he had no idea what was going on, but everyone else did.

‘Pinkie, come on, you’re scaring Zedd,’ Bazz said, mockingly, making a face.

‘Oh no, I didn’t mean to scare anyone! Pinkie, you said nothing bad would happen!’ Zedd recognised the voice. It definitely sounded like Fluttershy. Looking closer, he saw that there were odd lumps to either side of the second Pinkie’s side, and her mane and tail looked like they were forced to be springy.

‘Don’t worry, Fluttershy, he’s not really scared, but we did get him good!’ She broke down into a fit of the giggles while Fluttershy continued to look shocked at what she had been a part of.

‘Go on, you should probably wash up before the party, erm, Fluttershy, was it? I think one Pinkie is more than enough for Ponyville.’

‘Come on, Fluttershy, you can use the bath at my house,’ said Pinkie, leading Fluttershy away from the park.

Zedd and Bazz looked around at all Pinkie had achieved in the two hours she had been setting up for. Streamers were strung between every pole in the park, most of them attaching somewhere to the hall. Several tables were spread around the park, piled high with baked goods and balloons. Bazz finally located a small platform to the side of the town’s stage and remarked ‘Dibs’.

Zedd followed his gaze and chuckled. Even Bazz was just a little colt when it came to electronics. Plugging in his electronic device, the speakers kicked to life with music. Bazz grinned and moved to centre stage as ponies began to flood the area, whether for the music or because they were invited; only Celestia knew. Zedd could swear Pinkie had invited the whole town, so it was possible.

Bazz beckoned for him to come up onto the stage and he complied. He suddenly noticed that most of the crowd was looking up there, almost as though they were expecting something. He tried to make himself as small as possible next to the large, grey stallion.

The crowd began to go quiet of their own accord, so Bazz took this as his moment to act. His horn glowed and the music turned down nearly all the way. Bazz didn’t even need to use magic to magnify his voice, instead simply raising it loud enough to reverberate through the park.

‘Good evening, fillies and gentle colts! Alright, stuff the formalities. How is everyone tonight? Hungry, by the looks of it,’ he said, pointing to Stones already raiding a snack table. It took Stones nearly five full seconds to realise the crowd was silently watching him and they started laughing.

‘I’d ask you to just stave off your hunger for a few minutes while I get the notes out of the way, alright? Anyway, we’ve got a party, organised by the Ponyville-famous Pinkie Pie,’ he paused for cheering. ‘Unfortunately, this party is in recognition of two ponies leaving the town.’ The crowd gave an audible ‘aww’ of disappointment. Bazz intentionally stayed quiet for a few seconds until somepony shouted ‘Well, who are they?’

‘I was wondering when you’d ask! Well, I’m pretty sure you can already guess. One of them, as you probably already know, is going to be Zedd. He’s leaving to find his father, and I’m going with him.’

He voiced it in such a way that he got almost no recognition. Zedd thought back to Mrs. Cake’s party and remembered their conversation. If there’s a huge crowd and loads of stuff going on, I just get overly stressed. 

He’s probably just trying to minimise the amount of attention he gets, Zedd thought to himself.

‘Despite the fact that he’s leaving, this is a happy occasion! No sad faces tonight, okay? Oh, bugger, where’s that donkey gone?’ He raised a hoof to his glasses and scanned the group of ponies.

The crowd murmured a small chuckle at the reference to their resident donkey, Matilda, who was rarely seen smiling, despite being a generally cheery character.

‘Alright, well… Zedd, any words?’

‘I… uh… um…’ Any other words were lost as his voice broke off, leaving him- literally- speechless.

He looked through the crowd nervously. He was never good at public speaking; why would Bazz do this to him?

He looked into the eyes of his closest friends and felt a sudden, overwhelming sadness. Pinkie had returned with Fluttershy, but she had left her smile behind. One of her friends was leaving town. This was no occasion to be happy.

His gaze moved on to Spring and Pine standing near the stage, tails intertwined. Spring’s face was inscrutable, but Pine seemed… proud of him. Pine gave a small nod and a smile before Zedd moved his gaze again.

Rarity was holding a handkerchief to her eyes. When she saw him watching her she gave a small sob and looked away. Zedd moved on.

Sticks and Stones were standing over near a snack table, presumably to be first in when the speeches were over, but they were watching with appropriate attention. Stones’ eyes were glazed over- probably thinking about donuts- and he didn’t react. Sticks, however, gave a small nod; almost as though accepting their rivalry to be over and them to be equals.

His eyes drifted to Carrot Top and Applejack. He didn’t know either of these ponies very well, but they were kind to him, too. They seemed sad to see him leave. He couldn’t see a single happy face in the crowd. He could, however, see Ditzy.

She was wearing the most beautiful dress he had ever seen her wear. It was a simple grey to match her coat, along with a gold trimming to match her mane and tail. There was a bubble pattern around the edges complemented by a pearl necklace and complimenting her cutie mark.

She had a teary look in her eyes, but she was smiling brightly. Zedd’s mind cleared and the words just fell from his mouth.

‘Hello, everypony. I’ll try to keep this short. I’ve known you all for years, and some of us have become close friends; some closer still. I’m going on this journey because it could be one of the most important things I ever do. This could change my life forever, and even if it doesn’t, I’ll learn a lot about life on the way.

‘Look at me getting all philosophical… Believe me when I say that I’ll miss every single one of you every day that I’m gone. We may have had our hardships, but I think that the good here really does outweigh the bad. Once again, thank you all for being such great friends.’ Zedd took a half step back and Bazz took the lead again.

‘Truer words were never spoken. He’ll be here all night if you want to talk to him, but for now, on with the music.’ He turned the music back up to the level it was on and used magic to make himself heard over it. ‘You can go back to your food now, Stones!’

Zedd gratefully thanked Bazz for calling the crowd off before moving to where Ditzy had met her parents. 

‘No problem, mate,’ he said, moving back to where the music stand was in order to set up a playlist.

On his way through the crowd he was greeted with a few ‘hello’s and ‘hey’s, but nopony tried to stop him for a conversation. When Zedd eventually reached the family of three, Pine spoke up first.

‘Zedd, I’ve known you for years now, and I still don’t completely understand your motives. But I know that whatever you’re going to do on your trip, it’s important. I just hope it’s going to be important enough to give up all of this…’

‘So do I,’ Zedd replied, giving Ditzy another glance in her incredible dress.

Spring spoke, barely audible over the next track playing. ‘I’ve told you before: you’re a smart colt. Whatever you choose to do is the right choice. If something bad happens, you’ll learn from it.’

Zedd nodded to her, smiling, and turned to Ditzy. She didn’t need to say anything, instead choosing to press her head against his neck in a hug. Zedd felt his heart lift and he returned the gesture as Spring lightly nudged Pine and the two moved on to speak with Bazz.

Ditzy and Zedd spent their time becoming better acquainted with ponies they didn’t know very well before speaking to their closer friends. Rarity was the first close friend they found.

‘Good to see you, Rarity!’ began Ditzy.

‘Oh no, see me? I look garish compared to you, darling. I’d go as far as to say that that dress is my finest work yet! I do hope you like it?’

‘Yes, Rarity, I love it. But… can’t you please let me pay you for it somehow? I feel bad having it for free!’

‘Nonsense, I won’t take a single bit. It’s a gift for a friend, nothing more, nothing less. Now Zedd, I wish I could have made something for you, but I couldn’t think of anything to match your mark, nor your coat...’

‘Don’t worry, Rarity, I don’t need gifts. I’m just happy to have you for a friend.’

‘Ah, but it doesn’t end there! Just because I couldn’t get anything to match your mark doesn’t mean I didn’t get you anything! It’s a little informal, but I made this for you.’ She produced a small box concealed within her tail and passed it to him. Upon opening the box, Zedd found a grey tie with a white collar attached.

‘Thank you, Rarity.’ He levitated it out of the box, only to see it enveloped in a light blue glow.

‘Allow me, dear!’ She moved it to his neck and secured it tightly, unnecessarily double-checking by running a hoof along his neck. A little bit uncomfortable, Zedd took a half step back and looked down unsuccessfully trying to see it.

‘No, no, no, here, try this,’ she said, magically freezing a plate of punch into a reflective makeshift mirror.

‘That looks really nice,’ said Ditzy.

‘Yeah, it does… simple but elegant?’

‘Precisely! I’m glad you like it, Zeddicus.’ Zedd shuddered at the use of his full name, but didn’t press the matter; Rarity was far more formal than most ponies, and if he ever went to Canterlot he’d have to get used to it.

‘Why don’t you come with us? We were just about to go and have a snack.’

‘Well… it’ll go straight to my flanks, but Pinkie Pie did bake a special batch of blueberry muffins for this party…’ She bit her lip as she considered for a moment before saying ‘Very well, but I’ll only have one!’

Zedd couldn’t help but smile to himself about how self-conscious she was, despite being the fairest mare in Ponyville.

They went to the emptiest looking table and found Applejack talking to a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane, along with Pinkie Pie.

‘Hey everypony,’ said Zedd to the group. ‘Hey, you’re that new weather mare, aren’t you?’

‘Yeah, I am! The name’s Rainbow Dash,’ she said, extending a hoof. He shook it, saying ‘I’m Zedd.’

‘Well, duhh! You were just on stage, remember? Awesome party, by the way, Pinkie. I can tell we’re gonna get along great!’

‘Yes, absolutely swimmingly,’ muttered Rarity, lifting a muffin with magic.

‘How y’all doin’, Zedd?’

‘I’m great,’ he said, taking a small bite of an apple fritter. ‘Woah!’ he suddenly said, barely restraining himself from scoffing the whole thing in one bite. ‘Did you make this yourself?’

‘Darn tootin’!’

‘It’s really good! Ditzy, give it a tr-’ He cut himself off when he saw her with a muffin in each hoof and a huge bite missing from one, and he started laughing.

‘An elegant dress does not make an elegant mare, I’m afraid,’ noted Rarity from the sidelines.

‘Don’t worry, Ditzy, was it? Yeah, I’ve been in worse situations. Besides, those muffins are pretty good after all.’

‘Good? They’re great! I stayed up half the night preparing the batter and I only got a few hours sleep to make sure they were fresh for the party.’

‘I’m indifferent as to how they were made; I only care about the final product. Though in this case, yes, they are, erm, “great.”’

Ditzy shrugged and went back to eating her muffins.

‘Have any of you seen Fluttershy around? She just sort of disappeared,’ remarked Zedd.

‘Ah haven’t seen her.’

Rarity shrugged. Rainbow didn’t seem to know who Fluttershy was. Pinkie was grinning broadly and pointing at the table, much to everyone’s confusion. 

Zedd faintly heard somepony say ‘down here,’ and bent down to look under the table where, sure enough, Fluttershy was cowering.

‘Why are you down there?’

‘I don’t like crowds or loud noises, and… I…’ She looked up at Rainbow Dash before whispering to Zedd ‘I’m not good with meeting new ponies.’

Zedd smiled and shook his head slightly. ‘Come on up, Fluttershy. Look, there’s no crowd around here, and I can always tell Bazz to turn the music down a bit. Besides, Rainbow seems to be a nice pony.’

‘Are you kidding me? I’m the nicest pony you’ve ever seen!’

‘And a bit competitive.’

‘The most compet- hey, wait a second!’

They shared a laugh before Zedd turned to ditzy and nodded to the stage for them to leave. Ditzy finished her first muffin and began to walk alongside him to the stage.

‘Have I ever mentioned how classy a mare you are?’

‘You coulb menfion i’ more,’ she spoke through a mouth full of muffin.

Zedd couldn’t help but laugh at this comment before nuzzling her on the cheek. ‘And that’s why I love you,’ he said softly, barely perceptible over the music. Ditzy blushed and swallowed, returning the nuzzle.

‘Well, isn’t this sweet? How’re ya finding the party, Zedd?’

Zedd snapped his attention back in front of him where Bazz was standing.

‘Oh, uh, it’s good. Y’know, you’re really good at making awkward situations.’

‘It’s an acquired skill; an art, almost. It comes in handy sometimes, but most of the time it’s just funny.’

‘Right… anyway, Fluttershy wants the music to be turned down a bit.’

‘Sure thing. I was just beginning to wonder how long it’d last before somepony told me to turn it down. Ah well, nothing lasts forever.’

He didn’t bother to walk to the stairs, instead just climbing onto the stage from where he was. They continued on through the party talking to friends here and there until the guests began to leave and the music’s tempo slowed. Zedd bade his final goodnights to the guests before walking home with Ditzy. Half way home, Ditzy broke their silence.

‘Zedd… how long do you think you’ll be gone?’

‘I… I don’t know. I could be gone for a month, or a year, or three… I have honestly got no idea. Bazz couldn’t give a definite answer, and he explained everything… it all depends on how much my dad has moved in the last year.’

‘But…’

‘I’ll come home as soon as I can.’

‘Zedd... I’m going to miss you so much…’

‘And I’m going to miss you, too. Every night when I fall asleep, there’s only going to be one mare in my mind. She’s the most beautiful mare in Equestria,’ he stopped walking and looked deeply into her eyes, ‘and she’s perfect because she’s imperfect.’

They slowly leaned in together, not breaking eye contact until their lips touched end their eyes closed. They came closer together still, Ditzy wrapping her wings around Zedd’s back and each putting their hooves around the other in embrace. When they finally broke apart, panting, they noticed how silent it was outside and dropped back to their hooves to hurry home.

Pine and Spring couldn’t be found anywhere in the house, Zedd assumed they were still out. They went straight upstairs and Ditzy said she was going to get changed. Zedd moved off into his room and lay down on the bed thinking about everything that had happened that night, but focusing on his and Ditzy’s kiss on the way home.

Her lips were so soft and warm. He loved her so much, and she loved him back… the feeling of her wings lightly tickling on his back… the feeling of her smooth coat under his hooves… he could almost feel her against him. He closed his eyes against the light and continued to fantasise until he actually did feel something.

His eyes show open and he saw Ditzy climbing on top of him, kissing him deeply. He closed his eyes again, turning off the light and closing the door with magic.

---

Ditzy awoke slowly, feeling more drained of energy than ever before, yet she still felt better than ever before. She smiled to herself and snuggled deeper into Zedd’s embracing hooves, enjoying the warmth.

‘You’re finally awake,’ he whispered. She was slightly startled to find him awake, but got over it quickly, turning around in his hooves to face him and hug back.

‘Yes. How long have you been awake for?’

‘Probably half an hour now.’

‘And you didn’t want to get up at all?’

‘Ditzy, I never want to let go of you again… I love you. Today is our last day together… I want to make it last.’ Satisfied with his answer, she kissed him lightly on the lips and returned to leaning her head against his foreleg.

‘I love you too, Zedd.’

---

After another half hour of enjoying each other’s warmth, they decided it was time to get out of bed. After quick showers, they descended the stairs together and moved to the kitchen. Pine had left for work an hour prior to them awaking and Spring had rushed out as soon as she heard them walking down the stairs to avoid an awkward conversation.

After coffee and a quick breakfast, Zedd took his pre-packed saddlebags and the couple walked through the front door together, tails intertwined all the way to the centre of town.

They saw Bazz waiting by Sugarcube Corner, saying his final goodbyes to the Cakes and Pinkie.

‘I’m going to miss you, Mr. Quill. You were the best teacher at Ponyville High!’

‘Well, look at it this way, Pinkie. You don’t have to go back next year, so you won’t be missing me as much.’

‘Oh yeah! So that’ll be good! But oh no, if I don’t go back next year I won’t be able to help out in the pre-school and see all of the little fillies and colts playing and happy…’

‘I’m sure they’ll let you if you ask. Maybe you could even get a job in the school, eh, Pinkie?’

Her jaw dropped as she thought about it for a moment. ‘That… would… be… so much fun! But I suppose I should just stick with baking. Maybe I can go and visit the school every week!’

‘Sounds like a plan, Pinkie. Well, look who it is, little Zeddicus ready to leave on an adventure.’

‘Yeah, yeah.’ Zedd just brushed off the mocking tone. Bazz never really meant it. ‘Are you ready to leave?’

‘I wouldn’t have my saddlebags on if I wasn’t!’

‘No, and you wouldn’t have your glasses on either.’

Bazz reached up to his face and blinked. He moved to get his glasses from his bag, but Zedd stopped him.

‘Don’t. I like your eyes.’

‘Mate, I never go out in public without my glasses. School was the only place I wouldn’t wear them because the principal told me not to.’ After seeing the “Trust Me on This” look he was getting from Zedd, he put his hoof back down. ‘Fine. For you, mate.’

Bazz turned to face the cakes. ‘You’re great ponies. I’ll be sure to recommend your shop to anypony considering coming to town.’

‘Now, now, you don’t need to do that, Bazz,’ said Mr. Cake.

‘No, but I want to. Thanks for being such nice ponies. I’ll be sure to remember you. You too, Pinkie,’ he said, grinning at the pink pony, then turning, ready to leave.

Zedd turned and faced Ditzy again and the couple lifted their hooves to each other.

‘Ditzy, do you remember what you said before? I’m always with you, too. I’ll come back to you, I promise!’

‘I know you will.’ His hoof left hers and he turned around with Bazz to walk out of Ponyville. He didn’t dare look back for fear that his morale would break and he’d run back to her immediately. Tears began to spill over and without even looking back he knew the same was happening for Ditzy. 

Zedd felt a reassuring hoof on his back and looked up to see Bazz smiling at him with a sad look in his eyes. Zedd nodded and steeled himself, trotting out of Ponyville with his head held high.