“Wheeler! Sundew! Venus! It’s time to do your chores,” shouted my mother, who was in the kitchen. This was the start to an average summer’s day. Dad was at work and that meant that we had to do chores like cleaning the house. Venus and I were the first ones in the kitchen to get orders from mother but Wheeler was dragging his feet. Typical. “Wheeler, I need you to spruce up the house and take out the trash. Sundew, go with your sister and do the laundry. By the time you’re both don with that, I’ll have lunch made.”
“But I cleaned the house last time!” cried my older brother. I wasn’t sure what he hoped to achieve through this. If he didn’t clean the house, he’d have to wash dishes or laundry and he detested washing of any kind. Mother just rolled her eyes at him and excused Venus and me to go wash laundry. Wheeler probably received some sort of lecture along the lines of ‘don’t be disrespectful’ and ‘I give you easy jobs.’
Venus and I quickly gathered everypony’s laundry and took it outside to wash. Venus separated the clothes out while I filled the washing bucket with soap and water from the lake next to our home. Walking back to Venus, I could see her struggling with the clothes. She was such a small filly that some of father’s coats were far too heavy for her to lift. I set the bucket down and helped her out.
“Th-thank you, S-sundew,” she whispered to me. She always felt bad when she couldn’t help out like she wanted.
“It’s okay Vee. You’re still a little filly,” I said to comfort her, messing up her mane with my hoof. After the clothes were separated, we started washing all of father’s work jackets. Father was a business stallion and always wore expensive, heavy coats that had to be washed separately. “I heard there are some towns out there that don’t require everypony to wear clothes in town.”
“Really? S-so do they just trot around n-n-n-naked?” she asked, her eyes following me as I moved a coat from the bucket to the clothesline. She giggled as she awaited my response, finding the idea ludicrous.
“That’s what I heard from my teacher last year when she was complaining about our school uniforms. To them it must not be such a big deal, I guess,” I told her.
“Wooooow,” she said with intrigue. “Am I gonna have to w-wear a uniform too?”
“Everypony does. Don’t worry, I like mine,” I said confidentally as I pulled my school shirt from the pile and held it up. It was a blinding white, button-down shirt with two black stripes down the front of it.
“Why is y-your shirt d-different f-from Wheeler’s?” She may have been young, but she was always noticing everything around her. She’s going to be such a smart little filly. Wheeler’s shirt, in question, looked identical to mine, but it lacked the black stripes on it.
“Well, if you do your homework and study, you get to wear a different shirt like mine. It’s just one of the ways they can tell the difference between one another.” I submerged the shirt into the soapy water and hung it to dry while it explaining it to her. She looked at the shirt like it was a trophy; something to take pride in. The feeling vanished when she realized she didn’t have her uniform yet and school started in a week.
“I think mother said your outfit will be in tomorrow,” I assured her. “You’ll be fine.” I washed Wheeler’s shirt and hung it up, too. I started to wash one of mother’s dresses when I saw Wheeler sneak out of the house.
“Are you done already?” I asked him with amazement. I was hoping this was the case, as opposed to him slacking off. Again.
“Tch. No. I just took out the trash so I could get out of the house,” he said as he walked up to Venus and me. There was something about the way he always walked that made it looks like he had a chip on his shoulder.
“You sh-should get it d-done so father w-won’t be m-m-mad,” Venus said to him, looking away in case he yelled at her. I didn’t blame her though, it was hard to look Wheeler in the eye to tell him something; he was much older than us and was quick to anger.
“Easy for you to say. You always have Sundew to work with you, I have to do everything myself.”
“But you get such easy chores. And don’t pick on her, she’s still too young to do things by herself yet,” I told him.
“Whatever, I was doing chores by myself when I was her age.”
“Not everypony is the same.” In truth, Venus was small for her age. She just needed to be given more time to grow and she’d be where she should be in terms of growth. For now, though, she wasn’t fit for doing things alone. She didn’t let that stop her though; she always tries her best to do things independently. “Just go back inside.”
“I’ll get there when I get there,” he said yawning. “Until then, I’m going to just bother you two.”
“Then why don’t you make yourself useful and help us then? If you help us finish faster, we’ll help you pick up the house,” I offered to him, all the while washing clothes.
“Yeah right, I’m not falling for your little trick, egg head. I’m not stupid,” he arrogantly replied. Everything was about getting ahead in life to him. His personality wouldn’t allow him to recognize when a pony is trying to be nice to him.
“I’m serious, Wheeler. If you help us get done, we’ll help you. You complain about how you have to work alone all the time, so here’s your chance,” I restated.
“No way. I didn’t come out here to go right back to work.”
I sighed and Vee felt my frustration too. “Fine, then you can just sit there while we do our work,” I told him, my voice getting impatient.
Wheeler made sure to communicate to us how bored he was and how ‘stupid it was’ that we had to do chores. We were nearly done with our work, only one more of Wheeler’s school shirts to wash. Just then, mother’s voice poured out of one of the windows. “Sundew! Venus! Lunch will be done as soon as this water boils. Have you seen your brother?”
Right then, she leaned out of the window and you could see Wheeler freeze where he was. “Waterwheel! Get inside right now! No Excuses!” He glared at mother, but she shot him a cold gaze right back.
Mumbling to himself, he walked himself back to the house. Vee and I quickly washed his last shirt and trotted back up to the house. “Now, if you see Wheeler, don’t say anything Vee, you don’t want to do anything to set him off,” I warned her on the way back up.
“I’m already ‘set off,’” Wheeler said. He hadn’t gone inside yet; he must’ve been waiting for us to come back. “You think it’s funny I got in trouble?”
“Not at all-“ I said, but he cut me off by grabbing ahold of my shirt collar.
“Give me one reason I shouldn’t just pummel you right now,” he threatened me
“Because then you’d get in more trouble then you already have?” I questioned him.
“J-j-just let him g-go Wheeler!” Vee yelled at him.
He delivered a stinging look at Vee and looked back to me. “Go ahead, cry to mommy, but she can’t take away a black eye.”
He started to raise his hoof to hit me, but my wings started to flap and soon I was ten feet off the ground. He let go of my shirt and hit the ground hard. I picked up Vee and went back inside to hear the tea kettle whistling.
The rest of the week proceeded normally. Tomorrow was the first day of school and Vee was so excited. I was excited too. I couldn’t wait to see how many friends she would surely make. “Hey S-sundew. . . Can w-we go to my g-garden right n-n-now?”
The garden was her pride a joy. Vee has this fascination with all the plants in the forest behind our home. I don’t really care too much about them, but mother won’t let her go into the forest by herself, so I always take her out there. I helped her build her own garden out there and we visit it twice a week. This would be the third time, however.
“Of course Vee. Did you want to water them again?”
“No, th-that’s okay. I d-don’t want to over w-water them,” she gleefully said. She dashed to the back door of our house and I trotted happily over to her. The leaves in the trees were starting to turn and it finally started to get chilly out.
Vee jumped up onto my back, like she always would. She peeked above my head, eyes wide as she gazed at the wondrous hues of red, orange, and yellow in the sky.
It was just a few minutes’ walk and we were at the garden already. Many of the flowers had already bloomed and died, but there were still a few in bloom yet. The ones that were still flowering though were breath-taking. I was so happy for Vee that her garden was thriving. She usually picked out the most vibrant of flowers to add. There were bright yellows and pinks and deep reds and purples. Vee hopped off my back and examined her garden. She went from flower to flower, eyeing them all. “P-poor little f-flower,” she would often say, holding the limping stem in her hooves. I smiled watching her, and finally walked up to her and patted her shoulder. I reminded her that the flowers would come back; they always would as long as she took care of them. “Here Sundew,” she said while I was looking away. She climbed onto my back and stuck some daisies in my mane. I laughed with her and pulled her off my back, rustling her mane. She loved all flowers of all colors, but the on plant she loved most of all was the Venus fly-trap. I remember like it was yesterday; I took her into the forest for the first time… “Sundoo, what’s in the trees?” she had asked. “It’s called a forest, Vee. And there’s a lot of neat things in here. A lot of cute animals of all shapes and sizes.” “Oooh. What’s tat?” she asked, pointing to a small plant on the ground. I leand over at it, and she poked her head above mine. “That’s a Venus fly-trap,” I said to her. “It mine?” she asked, tugging on my mane, trying to get a better look. “No, no, no. You were named after this plant.” “I was named after a plant?” “I was too, and so was Wheeler. This is the one you were named after. It’s special to you.” “Wooooooow,” she exclaimed as she jumped off of me and sniffed the plant. She put her hoof on one of the trap’s mouths and it closed on her hoof. She giggled, “It t-t-tickles S-sundoo!”
She poked one of the open traps with her hoof and the trap closed around her. She giggled, “It t-t-tickles Sundew! You sh-should try it,” she invited me, voice muffled by fits of giggling. Truth is, I didn’t want to be near the things.
“You know how I feel about those things,” I told her as I walked over to the bleeding hearts. I loved those, they were the only thing I liked seeing out here besides Vee having fun. She continued to giggle until the trap let go of her hoof. “Do you th-think we can f-find more plants?” Vee asked, shaking me out of my daydream.
“We can try,” I smiled to her. She gave a cheery ‘yay’ and jumped up onto my back. “Let’s go… this way!” I said and trotted into the forest, randomly wandering around.
We wandered around for about an hour until Vee finally shouted, “There! Sundew, I s-s-see one!”
I stopped, looked around, and saw a small white vine with white flowers and trotted over to it. The flowers themselves seemed almost pearlescent; their color glistening in the few strands of light that hit the forest floor. Vee jumped off and looked down at the little vine and smelled its flowers. “I-i-i-i-i-i-i-“
“Slow down, Vee,” I reminded her, sitting down next to her.
“It s-smells good, Sundew!” she kept smelling the flowers for a few minutes, and I happily watched her. She decided to try one of the flowers. Her giant grin assured me that it tasted as good as it smelled. The sky’s blue was quickly giving way to the evening’s orange. I had to break her heart and tell her it was time to go. “Aww, o-okay.”
“We’ll come back here tomorrow, I promise.” She climbed onto my back again and we trotted back home. “Tomorrow is your first day of school, are you excited?”
“Uh-huh. Kinda. I-I’m a little s-scared t-t-though,” she admitted, I could feel her slinking down.
“Like I said, you have nothing to worry about! You’ll make a lot of friends, I’m sure.”
“Do you h-have friends t-too Sundew?”
“Not really, but that’s okay because I have the best sister a colt could hope for,” I told her.
“And you’re the best b-b-brother,” she said, hugging my neck.
“Here Vee, let’s watch the sunset,” I said to her as we approached our cottage. I trotted over to the lake and laid down in the grass to watch the sunset. Vee jumped off and laid down too.
“S-sundew, I’m s-scared about s-s-school tomorrow,” Vee admitted to me.
“I know, I don’t expect you to be excited, just trust me.”
Several moments passed as we watched the bronze sun hide behind the lake. Eventually, I turned to Vee. “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“I w-want to be a g-gardener!” she replied happily. “I’d h-have all the p-pretty flowers in my g-garden too.”
“And what about your fly-traps?”
“They get th-their own garden,” she said adamantly. She hopped up on her hooves, gazing at the sunset. “Th-they’ll be r-right in m-my house s-so I d-don’t have t-t-to go out to s-s-see them.”
I smiled to her, it sounds like you have a dream, Vee,” I told her, ruffling her mane. “Don’t ever lose it.”
“W-what about you, b-brother?” She asked but I was in a daze. “What do you want to be?”
I stared blankly into the distance. “I. . . I want to be a good person.”
“Are you kids all ready for school?” mother asked us. We had just finished breakfast and it was time to start walking to school. I noticed that Vee was squirming in her chair during breakfast. She must be so nervous. I know I was my first day of school.
“I am!” I replied back, but she was busy attending to Wheeler’s inability to button his own shirt. I went over to Vee and helped fix her dress. It was big on her, but we hoped she would grow into it during this year. ‘We’ being my mother and me.
“I-I’m not f-f-feeling well, Sundew,” she said, looking down at the floor while I fixed her sleeves.
“Cheer up, Vee. You’re just nervous, but you’ll feel better when you get to meet a bunch of fillies and colts your age,” I assured her. I finished fixing her dress and put her saddle bag onto her back for her. She smiled up at me and I did the same.
“Now you kids have a good first day of school,” mother said cheerily as she gave both Wheeler and I hugs and kissed Venus on the cheek. Wheeler and I got our saddle bags and we were off on the road. It wasn’t a long walk to Baltimare from our cottage. Besides, we went to a school right on the edge of town. As we walked I noticed Vee was still looking distraught, so I thought of a way to at least get her talking. “You’ve never been to the schoolhouse, have you?” “N-no…” she said, face still pointing straight to the ground.
“It’s really nice looking,” I assured her. We went to a private school, since our father was a rich man.
“Th-that’s n-nice,” still not engaged in conversation.
I knew I was losing her attention fast, so I had to try and keep her spirits high. “Well, just remember that when you get home, you can go back to your garden.”
She didn’t reply. “S-s-s-sundew… I j-j-just r-reeeaaally don’t f-f-feel g-good,” she finally cried out as the school house finally appeared around the corner. She was in tears and I could tell she was hurting. It may have been nerves, but it was hurting her more than normal.
“Do… do you need to go home, Venus?” I asked her, still walking towards the school. Wheeler stayed quiet and in the lead as always. He seemed unfazed by our sister’s feelings and behavior.
“P-please S-s-sundew…” she whined, tears still rolling down her cheeks. Her legs were shaking and she could barely walk.
“Wheeler! Hey! Wheeler!” I shouted to him, who now had a considerable gain on us. He finally stopped and looked back at me.
“What do you want?”
“I, I have to take Venus home. She’s not feeling well right now. Can you tell the teacher I had to take her home and that I’ll be back shortly?”
“Ugh. Fine, but she’s just wussing out. She’ll be fine when she’s stuck in class like the rest of us.” Venus looked up at me with a concerned face. “Just tell her to deal with it.”
“I can’t do that. I’ll let mother decide if I made a good decision when I get home,” I told him. I knew she had to go home whether Wheeler agreed or not. “Come on Vee, I’ll take you home,” I said, scooping her up and taking flight.
“What hurts Vee?” I asked her, nuzzling her cheek to comfort her.
“M-m-my b-b-body just h-hurts!” she cried out.
“Shh, shh. It’ll be alright. Sundew’s here.” I held her close to my body an she buried her face in my shirt.
“Th-thanks for t-taking me h-home S-sundew,” she said, her voice muffled through my shirt.
“I’ll always be here beside you, Venus,” I assured her, now I’m tearing up too. “We’re almost back.” The autumn leaves fall dead on the ground as I breezed past the trees. Vee continued digging her face into my shirt, holding on like her life depended on it even though I had a firm hold of her.
I finally arrived back home and I quickly burst through the doors to find my mother washing dishes. “Sundew?! What are you doing back so soon, is something wrong?” Mother always knew best. Say, if Wheeler came back home early from school, she wouldn’t give two thoughts about it and would most likely expect he was skipping out. However she knew something was the matter when I came home, especially with a filly crying in my arms. “Is everything all right?”
“Venus isn’t feeling well. It might be nerves, but- but she could hardly walk,” I explained to her as I went to Vee’s bedroom and set her down on her bed. She curled up quickly on her bed, shaking.
“Venus?” she asked tenderly as she kneeled at her bedside. “Tell mother what’s going on.”
“E-everyt-thing j-j-just hurts mother,” she cried out, her voice was higher in pitch, as if in extreme pain.
“Little filly, everything will be alright, you’re safe here,” she said and motioned for me to bring some tissues to clear the filly’s face. She wiped the tears tenderly from her cheeks as if picking up each individual tear. “Show me your face, clean as the morning.’ I know things were bad, but now they’re okay~” she sang to her, like a lullaby.
“What can I do?” I asked, watching my sister twist and turn in pain. I felt helpless. I was left in a cold sweat with my eyes slowly tearing.
“Well. It’s only the first day, so you may stay here with your sister and keep her company while I run and get a doctor,” she suggested. If not, she would just simply fly her to the hospital.
“I’ll stay with her and make sure she’s okay, mother,” I told her as I moved closer to Venus. Mother kissed Venus on the forehead and left quickly to fetch a doctor.
She lay there, writhing in silent pain. I started petting her mane with my hoof. “The doctor will be here soon and make everything all better. You’ll be okay; you’re just having a bad anxiety attack.”
She grabbed hold of my hoof and hugged it close to her. She was squeezing harder than she ever had. “S-s-s-sund-dew...? C-c-can y-you h-help m-m-me get th-this d-dress o-o-off?” she asked quietly, as if losing the voice to speak. I could see that the dress was constricting her and probably made the whole ordeal more uncomfortable.
With much difficult, I finally was able to get her school uniform off of her. She kept having muscle spasms that made the whole process much longer than usual. “Did that help?”
She didn’t say a word, only nodded. She soon fell asleep, but I stayed with her all the while. Even in her sleep, she would have random spasms. I could see she started sweating profusely at one point. I didn’t dare leave her alone though. Not for a second. Luckily the doctor was a pegasus like mother and was able to quickly come to our house.
The doctor was a very old stallion, but seemed very knowledgeable. He adjusted his glasses and took a quick top-down look at Venus while she was still sleeping. I’m guessing he was looking for obvious signs of some sort of sickness. He adjusted his glasses, which had fallen down his snout again. He put a thoughtful hoof on her shoulder. “Venus. Venus, I need you to wake up for me.”
Vee woke quickly but was scared of the doctor at first until she realized that mother and I were there too. “Huh?” she asked a little dazed and confused. I don’t blame her; we were all a little confused.
“What ails you, Venus?” the doctor inquired.
Venus looked at me with worried eyes and I just nodded at her. “M-m-my wh-whole b-b-b-body h-hurts,” she finally told him.
“Hmm,” he said thoughtfully as he took out his stethoscope and held it to Vee’s chest. She winced under the cold metal of it. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Ah! Irregular, but I’m willing to believe she’s just scared of the stethoscope. I’ll have to take a blood sample an examine it.”
“B-b-b-blood s-s-sample?” Venus asked her eyes wide and her voice shaky.
“It is an elementary way to find what is making you sick, foal. Do not fret, it only stings momentarily. Just a quick prick,” he said as he pulled out a needle. Venus’ eyes grew three sizes as soon as the needle was in view. “Sera, you may wish to hold her for this.”
Mother moved quickly into the usual position. She kneeled down next to Venus to tell her all the usual ‘it’ll be fine’ and ‘you’ll be okay.’ Venus wasn’t going to have any of it though and she protested every step of the way. She held down Venus while the doctor sunk the needle into Vee’s foreleg. She screamed, but I was expecting it.
“There foal, we’re finished for now. If you’ll excuse me Sera, I’ll need some time to analyze this back in my office. I shall make haste to find what afflicts your daughter.” The doctor seemed like an honest stallion that truly cared for the wellbeing of his patients. He put the syringe with the blood into a special case in his doctor bag. He slung the bag of his shoulder and trotted out of the house and took off into the sky.
Venus stayed in a state of shock as she looked at the pin-size hole in her foreleg that a small amount of blood trickled from. She rubbed her leg with her other hoof, still in pain. “Are you alright, Vee?” I finally approached her.
She didn’t need to say anything. The look in her eyes told me that she was enduring the worst pain a filly could at her age. I slumped down and gave her a hug. “It’s only for now, Vee.”
The doctor finally came back. He was gone for several hours. Long enough that Wheeler and father were home. We all waited with Venus to see what the doctor had to say. During his long absence… I-I witnessed her condition worsening. She started throwing up not too long ago.
“What’s wrong with my daughter?” father hastily questioned the practitioner.
He pulled out a clipboard and laid it on Vee’s dresser. He adjusted his glasses so he could read it. “I ran several, several tests on the blood sample. I did not find any pathogenic bacteria. Likewise, I did not find any harmful virus. I continued the tests but I did not find prions nor invasive fungi in her blood.”
“So there’s no cause for this?” mother asked, confused. I noticed Wheeler had already left the room. Perhaps he didn’t care, or maybe he had some sort of emotional side and couldn’t bear to hear the news. Either way, I remained the closest one to Venus.
“I didn’t say that. There was one possibility I had not considered until I remembered you telling me that she kept a garden in the forest,” the doctor explained, now playing the part of some detective-doctor hybrid. “I ran a toxicity test on her blood and found something rather strange. She has been poisoned by a rare plant known as Cicuta douglasii. The common water hemlock. It has a beautiful aroma but releases a powerful toxin while ingested.”
“So what’s the damage? How much will the medicine cost?” my father asked gruffly.
The doctor took a deep breath. He just looked into father’s eyes with concern. Father stared back at him with a mixture of anger and confusion. Then it hit him. Father looked disdainfully to the ground. The doctor walked up to my father and put a hoof on his shoulder. “I’m sorry Oleander.” The doctor left a note on the dresser and walked out.
Father turned to mother and shook his head. We all knew what it meant. Venus lay asleep on her bed; oblivious to the news we were just given. She did not have long. I looked back at my sleeping sister. I walked to my room while my parents hugged each other and cried.
I curled up on my bed; tears rolling down my face. Vee was my only friend, and now she was leaving. I couldn’t grasp that idea in my head at the time. I was very detached from the situation. “Why didn’t I protect her? Why did I let her go deeper in the forest? It’s my fault my only friend is dying now,” I would say over and over in my mind.
I somehow managed to make it through the first week of school. Depression hung in my inner thoughts and outward actions. I felt helpless, almost more helpless than Venus did. She still hung on though, and it was her fighting spirit that let me keep fighting too. She didn’t show signs of improvements though. According to the doctor’s letter, the toxin was going to affect her nervous system first, then her respiratory system. She’s been having seizures the last three days, and in the last day she’s been having difficulty breathing. She must not have long left. I finally got back from school in time for the weekend. I went straight into my after-school ritual of running straight to Vee’s room to keep her company. It was hard seeing her like this and I always fought back tears when I talked to her.
“S-s-sundew… c-c-can w-we… g-g-go t-to… th-the… g-g-garden?” she asked with long breaths in between every couple of syllables. She looked up to me with sunken eyes.
“Yeah Vee. We can go, do you want to fly there?” I offered.
“N-no… I w-w-want t-to…” and I stopped her there.
“I understand,” I said and I bent my knees next to the bed and she carefully climbed into my back. I could feel her pain through her hoofsteps. I trotted slower than usual to the garden. The trees still retained most of their leaves, but the path was still covered in their debris. The leaves crunched after each step.
The trail seemed to stretch on forever this time. I cried freely now. I hoped Vee couldn’t hear my crying because I needed to be the strong brother for her. I know Wheeler felt as bad as I did, but he didn’t know what to do. I didn’t either, but I hoped I was doing the right thing. Finally we reached the end of the trail. The garden was dying, but the remaining flowers stayed lovely all the while.
I helped Venus down off my back. I kept my wing around her to help her walk to her creations. She took her time smelling each flower. She had a coughing fit in between each flower. Her lungs could barely take it. “S-s-sundew?”
“Uh-huh?” I responded.
“W-w-when I-I’m…. I’m… I’m g-gone,” she said, droplets of tears gathering in her eyes. “W-w-will y-you… t-t-take c-c-c-c-“
“Of course I will. Don’t worry. I’ll look after them for you. I’ll make sure they get everything they need.” The tears came again. They wouldn’t stop flowing and I have been fighting them for so long.
“E-e-even m-m-m-my… V-v-venus f-f-“
“How could I forget them? I’ll treat them with the same care and love I have for you, sis,” I assured her, hugging her.
“I l-l-love y-you, b-b-brother,” she wheezed out. Her grip loosened and she walked to a huge pile of leaves and sat down. I followed suit. She leaned back to look up at the trees and their wondrous, changing leaves.
“I’m so sorry Venus,” I finally told her. “It’s my fault you’re dying. It’s my fault have to say goodbye to you for the rest of my life.” My eyes stung from the constant tears.
“D-d-don’t b-b-be. I-it’s n-n-not…. g-g-goodb-bye. I-I’ll j-j-just… s-s-s-s-see y-y-you… l-later. Okay?” she finally said to me, smiling through a body beaten by poison. She reclined in the brittle, but comfortable leaves and closed her eyes. I stayed quiet for a long moment. Everything was racing in my head. I leaned over to Vee and said it was time to go.
Vee died that day. We decided to lay her to rest in the garden she loved so much. I visit her twice a week. Every time I go to water her plants, I’ll sit and talk to her. She never answers back, obviously, but I can feel her presence. After a week of taking care of her plants, I finally got my cutie mark. A Venus fly-trap. It seemed fitting. I never cared much for these plants; I only cared for my sister’s happiness. But now this seems to be a growing hobby of mine. It’s been a few years since that now. Life’s a weird thing. It comes and goes and you have no control of it. You just have to accept it and no one will sit there and sugar coat it for you. The problem is that death comes so suddenly that we don’t have time to properly say good-bye. I don’t think any amount of time is an acceptable amount to say good-bye. So I guess I’m not really too sure about life and death. Sometimes I think that I should stop coming back out here. Some days I’ll look at the open trail through the forest and ask, “Is it hurting you more than helping you?” And… honestly I don’t know! I-I-I mean, I promised her that I would take care of her garden, but visiting her reminds me how much I miss her. It’s like that one joke I heard on a trip to Ponyville… This, uh, this stallion goes to a psychiatrist and says, “Doc, my, uh,my brother’s crazy; he thinks he’s a chicken.” The doctor, well, he just looks in disbelief. “Why don’t you just turn him in then?” the doc would reply. “I would, but I need the eggs!” cries the client. I guess that’s how I feel about visiting Venus and gardening. It’s completely irrational and absurd to put myself through the pain and tribulations, but I keep doing it because I need the eggs!