> Miscellaneous
>  by Mobius of the Moon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: They Arrive
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Agh...” The gray-blue pony groaned. “Why is this taking so long?”

“Don’t complain so much,” his royal blue companion sighed, slapping a hoof to his face, “It was your idea to move to here.”

“My idea?” The first pony snapped, turning to his companion. “You’re the one who agreed to it!”

The second pony was speechless for a moment. “... That makes so little sense I don’t even have a reply for it.” His hoof met his face once more.

The two were an odd looking duo. One was a gray-blue earth pony with mechanical wings added on, a dark green mane and tail with hints of a lighter hue of green, and a cutie mark of a quill dipped into an ink jar full of blood. What made this pony stand out were the two dark red horns just above his ears, resembling small tornadoes, and his strange light blue eyes.

The other pony was more normal-looking; a royal blue unicorn pony with yellow hair, streaked with brown, and a pair of black glasses resting in front of his hazel eyes. His cutie mark was that of a cobalt blue shield emblazoned with a golden R, overlapping a microphone.

“Oh no...” the first pony groaned yet again. “My comebacks are turning into yours, Filter. Very horrible.”

“Oh don’t start it!” Filter, or rather Pop Filter, snapped. “I have plenty to complain about you as well, Quill!”

“Like what?” Quill, or his full name Blood Quill, shouted back, face twisting into a familiar scowl.

Filter rolled his eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. The fact that you never shut up, never listen to me, and start pointless arguments? Pick any one of ‘em.”

“I rather like my ability to start pointless arguments, thank you very much!” Quill retorted. “It gives us something to talk about!”

“We talk about everything. Pointless arguments aren’t even a good conversation starter.” Filter continued walking on, thinking said pointless argument was over. Not willing to let him go so easily, Quill flew up in front of him. “Careful, Quill. I can stab you with my horn if you get that close.”

“I could easily get out of your reach, dumbass,” Quill snorted.

“How have we gone from arguing over moving ideas to the reach of my horn?” Filter suddenly questioned, anger leaving his face to be replaced by confusion.

Quill shrugged. “You brought it up.” To add insult to injury, Quill flapped his wings once and flew back an easy four feet, away from the blue unicorn.

Filter ignored this action and kept moving, walking past his flying friend. Quill sighed, unable to get much of a reaction out of him, landing to continue their trek.

“Just trying to make casual conversation.” Quill rolled his eyes. “Obviously something you don’t want to do.”

Filter shrugged. “Honestly, I just want to get to Ponytown or whatever it’s called. We’ve been walking for a couple hours now.”

“Wuss,” Quill muttered, then added, “And it’s Ponyville.”

“Whatever.”

“There is a difference!”

Filter groaned. “Of course the author is the one who’s super picky about grammar.”

“Because you’re innocent yourself in that department.”

“...Touché.”

The two continued in silence for a while. Gradually, the skyline of a small village rose in the distance. Filter hopped in joy and picked up speed, seeing his goal in sight.

“Hey! This isn’t a school field trip, this is to get our new house, idiot!” Quill shouted after him, though he himself was quite happy as well.

“So because we’re going to our new home, we have to go there at a turtle’s pace? I don’t think so!” Filter yelled back, not slowing down. Quill flared his wings and began gliding to catch up.

“Listen! If we enter Ponyville skipping around like ten-year-old fillies, we’re gonna get a reputation as the village idiots faster than we should. At least take time to earn that title, okay?“ Quill caught up and glared down at Filter, but smiling as well. Filter returned the look and slowed down slightly.

“Good point. I don’t want to take your job.”

The smile vanished from Quill’s face. “I’m not the idiot. I’m the killer.”

Filter shuddered. “Yeah, bring that up again...I still have nightmares from when you told me about that.”

Quill’s eyes slowly softened, and he glided down until he was next to his friend. “Hey, I don’t like it any more than you do... but the past is the past. Look at the future.” He indicated the slightly larger town with a hoof. “This is a new start for us.”

Filter squinted. “All I see is yellow roofs.” He took off his glasses and cleaned them with a cloth before sliding them back on. “...nope, still just roofs.”

Quill sighed. “Try contacts, maybe.” He shoved Filter with his shoulder, knocking the unicorn onto the ground. “Whoops, didn’t mean to do it that hard.”

“That’s what she said,” Filter replied as he stood up. Quill shoved him down again. “I had to!”

“Had to?” Quill shook his head. “You chose to. There’s a difference! Choosing to do something is entirely different from-”

Filter shoved a hoof in Quill’s mouth. “Shut up.” He removed his hoof and shook it dry, chuckling lightly.

Quill turned away and resumed walking. “Come on. No more wasting time.”

“You started it.”

“...are we five years old, now?”

“You know, sometimes I actually wonder if our brains are aging slower than our bodies,” Filter replied sincerely. “Especially with you.”

“Me? I’m the one who does all the talking for us. You just nod and stand five feet away.” Quill rolled his eyes. “Not only that, but who’s the author in this group?”

“And who’s the one who is actually known for something other than murder?” Filter sniped back.

“You’re known?”

“...I repeat: Touché.”

“But getting back on topic,” Quill continued. “We need to see this...” He pulled a sheet of paper out of nowhere and squinted at it for a moment. “Mayor Mare and get our house key.”

“Mayor Mare? Please tell me you made that up.”

“Nope.”

Filter, not for the first time, fell face first into the ground.





“You’re one to talk, you four-eyed wimp!” Quill shouted, flaring his wings.

“Oh yeah? Well, I’d rather be the one who uses a horn for magic rather than murder!” Filter shot back.

“We don’t discuss that in public!” Quill rose into the air, eyes gleaming. Filter cowered, but regained his composure quickly.

“Hey!” The two turned to see a brown stallion with an hourglass cutie mark approach. “Calm down, you two, before I call the Royal Guards over here!”

Filter blinked in confusion. “...Royal Guards? Over an argument?”

The stallion looked back and forth between the duo. “An...argument?”

“What, you think we’ll fight?” Quill raised an eyebrow. “No, this happens all the time.” He and Filter laughed at the misunderstanding.

The stallion looked perplexed, but at least he calmed down. “Well...that’s good, I guess.”

“Say, do you know where the town hall is?” Quill asked before the stallion could run off. “We just got to town.”

The stallion blinked, then started slightly, as if surprised by the sudden turn of events. “Oh. Town hall? It’s that way.” He pointed down the street to a three-story building with a sloped conical roof.

“Thanks.” Quill nodded, and he continued towards the building, Filter following behind him. The stallion stared after them before shaking his head and walking off.

Quill opened the doors and strode in confidently, head held high. Filter followed behind with a much different demeanor, looking around as if expecting something to jump out at him; a stark contrast to his personality from mere moments ago. When he was convinced it was safe, he picked up the pace, but never looked up from the floor.

“So, Mayor Mare! We’re here for our house key!” Quill shouted at the important looking pony in the room.

The mare at the receptionist’s desk looked up, startled. “Um...who are you?” she asked.

“I’m Blood Quill, a new resident of Ponyville,” the semi-pegasus declared. The receptionist looked at Filter, who interested himself with the wallpaper. “...and that’s Pop Filter.”

The receptionist stared a moment. “Alright then, let me check for your records.” She flipped through a few pages on a clipboard then handed it over with her magic. “Here you go! Just sign here.”

“Thanks.” Quill took the clipboard and pulled a quill out of nowhere. He wrote his name on a line and turned to Filter. “Hey. We need to sign this.”

Filter shot him a look that read I know that, dumbass before taking the quill in his magical hold. He signed his own name and passed the clipboard back to the receptionist. Quill took his writing utensil back and stored it away in wherever he kept his things.

“Alright then. Your house should be- oh...” The receptionist paused. Quill raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

“What?” He asked, leaning forwards. The mare stammered a reply.

“Th-th-the house is-”

“I don’t have time for this! Come on, Filter, we’ll check it for ourselves.” Quill turned and walked out quickly, not looking back.

Filter looked out after his friend leaving, then back at the receptionist. “Sorry about him,” he offered. “He gets like that...I better go make sure he doesn’t do anything worse.” He cantered out at a high speed; partially to find Quill and partially to avoid any more conversation. The receptionist simply sighed.

“They never listen...” she muttered to herself as she resumed her work.





Quill stood in shock and stared up at the house. It was two stories high, looking just recently built and freshly painted. It would have been a good house, except for the fact that...

“The roof is caved in...” Quill whispered, then turned to his friend. “The roof is caved in, Filter.”

“I can see that,” Filter said, having a little less of a reaction.

“The roof is caved in!” Quill shouted, grabbing Filter by the shoulders and shaking him. Filter pried him off and stared him in the eyes.

“I. Can. See. That,” he declared.

“Why did nopony warn us?” Quill asked.

“...Well, remember that receptionist who was trying to tell us something?” Filter said, remembering. Quill nodded slowly, then the realization struck.

What followed was only described by witnesses as the longest stream of cuss words ever spoken by a pony in town.
> Chapter 2: Their Lives
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quill was born into a wealthy family in Canterlot. For the first six years of his life, he had anything he wanted. His father was a captain in the Royal Guard, and his mother was the stay-at-home kind typical in that city.

But everything changed (as in all OC life stories) when his father died on the job. All their income was lost, and they went into a heavy debt almost immediately. Before long, they had to move. And until a certain time we know as the Days of Discord, he and his mother lived in a small apartment in Manehatten. His mother, having no previous job experience, worked in a poor paying mall, and he had his first taste of a hard, not-so-luxurious life as a “commoner.”

But he and his mother still lived happily together. She was still a good cook, and whenever she was able she made him one of the dishes she had when he was a child. And he promised to follow in his father’s footsteps (just as any protagonist does). But even though he said this, his interests were still in reading and writing. Every day, as long as he could, he spent time in the local library, just reading. Quickly he had become one of the most well learned young ponies in Manehattan.

Not long after that, he tried his hand at writing, and his mother, who was so proud of him, gave him a special quill. He set to work, writing fantastic stories of adventure, trials, and even tried his hand at philosophy. But, being so young, it didn’t work out for him.

At the age of eleven, he looked out his window and saw a pegasus pony flying; a rare sight in a city populated mostly by unicorns. Immediately he was fascinated. Heading to the library that had attracted him for so many years, he began researching. He learned of the magic used to control those wings, and then went back to his writing, thinking of a way to give wings to those who were not of the pegasi themselves. His studies lasted seven years, and he even left school for them.

His studies led him to create design after design, model after model. Ponies called him crazy as they watched him jump from rooftop to rooftop, trying to get his ideas to work. But the stubborn teenaged pony would not give up.

And then, yet again, everything changed when he was eighteen. It was in a time nicknamed the Days of Discord; or what we know as the time it took for the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord, after he escaped from his prison.

Of the ponies affected by Discord’s magic, Quill and his mother had the unfortunate luck to run into one. As they sheltered in their apartment room, Quill’s mother now an older mare, a stallion burst into the room. Though Quill doesn’t want to remember the moments, he does to their entirety.

The stallion, as per the population of Manehattan, was a unicorn. He was lime green and had a black mane and tail. But the most noticeable thing of that moment were his eyes, which gleamed with an insane light, which could only be described as reflecting Discord’s own insanity.

Without a blink, the stallion charged at Quill’s mother, head down. There was no time to react. The horn had pierced her chest before either of the them could blink. And Quill watched in horror as his mother fell to the ground and writhed, gasping for air hopelessly. Then she was still.

His vision reddened and he stamped a hoof on the ground. In Manehattan, things like this were a constant happening, yet Quill had never expected it to happen to him. Just as everypony does.

He watched as the stallion crouched next to his mother and began lapping at the blood, laughing maniacally. He then heard a different laughter, a deep, insane chuckling. Then, two eyes of drastically different sizes, both with red pupils and yellow irises, seemed to open directly in his mind.

He felt a searing pain right in front of both his ears. Two horns sprouted from either side, then slowly twisted around each other, forming the tornado look mentioned before. They were a pure white.

The unicorn stallion had no time to react, just as Quill’s mother, and felt two sharp points enter one side and exit the other. Quill screamed furiously and flung the body away. It smashed through a window and fell into the street below. Quill then just stood there, panting and crying. He stared at his mother’s body for a few seconds and realized the blood dripping from his newly grown horns.

He went to the one sink and grabbed a towel, then rubbed furiously for an unknown length of time. When he looked at his reflection, he went through the process again. Then he realized with a small cry of shock that his horns were permanently stained a dark, brownish red. No matter how much he scrubbed at it, it stayed the same colour; a permanent memento of this day.

And to add to this, his eyes, which were once a deep, dark purple, were now a pure white, with only a hint of extremely pale violet in them.

And then there was his cutie mark. He had wanted to be an author, good at writing. So it appeared he had gotten his wish. His cutie mark, a quill, his quill, old but still in perfect condition, resting in a pot of blood, and a few strange letters written in that blood.

Then, even throughout all this chaos, a neighbor had chanced a look out the window and seen the stallion fall to the streets. And somehow, the Royal Guards had been collected to go see what was the matter.

Quill heard the knock, then the threat to break the door down. He quickly glanced around. There was his mother, dead. The stallion, probably also dead, killed by himself. Then there was him, alive and with permanently bloodstained horns. It wouldn’t look good to any pony.

Quickly, he raced to his small room and searched frantically. Finally he pulled his latest design out from under a pile of papers.

He ran out of his room and into the living room. Then he heard the last warning from the guardsponies.

The only thing the guards saw was a green and black tail disappearing out the window.

So there Quill stood, on top of his apartment building that had  been his home for the past twelve years. Quick as he could, he situated his makeshift wings onto his back. His latest design had actually included some magic. To operate the wings, you had to have them where they were situated on a pegasus pony: the shoulder blades. They then fused themselves to the wearer’s skin, and were permanently there.

This was his last chance. He had done it this way because he was sure that this design would work. But as he looked down into the street, he realized that if his wings failed now, they failed permanently. He took a deep breath. One...two...

And again, the only thing the guards saw was a dark gray-blue pegasus jumping off the roof, and plummeting. Quill was presumed dead over the next few days, even though no body was found. “Good riddance,” ponies said.

But he wasn’t. As he fell, his wings flapping uselessly, he suddenly remembered a way of flying he had noticed among pegasi. He straightened his wings, and then glided into an alley. Using this as a cover, he ducked into the back streets and made his way out of the city. Not long after, he tested out his wings again, getting used to them. And his greatest joy was his greatest loss. He had achieved his goal that had existed for the past seven years, and even got his cutie mark, but with it came the bitter memory of his mother’s death, and his first murder.





Like Quill, Filter was born in Canterlot, but stayed around for quite a bit longer. His father mysteriously vanished a month before his birth, but his mother remained. Nopony, not even Filter’s mother, knew where his father had gone or why he had left. Needless to say, it became a frequent source of bullying for the young unicorn, as well as his carelessness about physical appearances.

Naturally, Filter didn’t like Canterlot. When he was nine, he and his mother moved to Fillydelphia when a job opportunity appeared for the latter. Filter appreciated the change in scenery, but that’s all that seemed to be different; the ponies at school still found ways to mock and irritate him. For over a year, he was all alone, unable to seek help even in the teachers. He very quickly became extremely shy and quiet; not to mention depressed.

One day at school, just a few weeks after Filter turned eleven, he saw some colts picking on a lone filly new to the school. Most other ponies would have just walked on by, but Filter found himself unable to leave. He stepped up and stood in front of the filly protectively, not even bothering to speak; he just glared at the colts until they backed away. However, they wouldn’t be gotten rid of that easily.

The leader of the group of bullies, Hoof Burns, decided to have some fun with Filter. He had heard of “the nerdy colt who never talks”, but never really met him. Now was his chance to look good in front of his friends by taking this colt down a few notches. So he tried to see if the younger colt would shake or not with a few insults.

Much to his own surprise, Filter erupted with a stream of profanities that actually made the bully back up a few steps. Humiliated, Burns vowed to Filter that he would get his revenge, and stormed off. Once everypony was gone, Filter checked on the filly to make sure she was okay. Thankfully, she wasn’t hurt physically, and introduced herself as Et Cetera, or Cetty for short.

That afternoon, when Filter got home, his mother pointed out the cutie mark that had appeared on his flank: a shield emblazoned with an R, resting atop a microphone. Filter deduced that this meant his talent was sticking up for others, something he had never tried to do in the past.

For several months after this event, Filter had obtained a new reputation at school. Instead of being bullied, he was respected; at least by the ponies who had witnessed the scene. Cetty especially seemed to like him, and the two of them grew rather close. However, Filter, being as dense as he was, never realized just how close Cetty wanted to be.

After the excitement from Filter’s victory died down, he resumed his previous role as a quiet nerd. However, he wasn’t picked on nearly as much now; only Hoof Burns and a few newcomers really belittled him, and they were quickly put in their place each attempt. He and Cetty stayed as friends, and for a while, everything seemed normal.

But this wouldn’t be a proper flashback if something bad didn’t happen, right?

A short time after graduating Fillydelphia High, Filter was struck by Discord’s magic, as was the entire city. While some ponies became insane individuals and others became victims of circumstance, Filter became both. He could never recall the entire series of events; nopony who was corrupted by Discord could. He knew he was walking around the streets with Cetty, when he blacked out.

He woke up drenched in blood...and without sight. The reign of chaos had ended, but it left its scars; sometime during the past few days, he had gotten into a fight, and while most of his body suffered only a few bruises, his eyes were much worse off. They had both been cut up quite a bit, rendering him almost completely blind. He called out for help, but everypony was too busy with their own problems to stop and take him to a hospital.

Finally, after about an hour, he felt himself being picked up and carried away by somepony. He was brought to the hospital, where the doctors just barely managed to save his eyes; the only way to retain his sight was to wear a set of enchanted glasses, which would allow him to see perfectly. Without them, however, he was literally unable to see a thing.

Since that day, Filter had been trying to figure out exactly what happened. He hadn’t seen Cetty since then, and eventually moved on. He knew he had his own life to live and couldn’t keep dwelling on the past...but still, it was a lesson he could never learn completely.





“What is wrong with our luck?” Quill groaned, slamming a hoof into his face repeatedly.

“We’ll work something out,” Filter said, trying to calm his friend. He knew that things happened when Quill was angry.

“We spend hours walking here, only to find we’re gonna have to wait a few days at least for them to fix that damn hole!” Quill continued his rant, drawing the attention of a few ponies. Filter tried to ignore them.

“Surely it won’t be that long,” Filter replied hopefully, eyes darting around warily. “It’ll probably only be a day or two...”

“Still, we came to this town looking for a house, and we get... well... that.” He jerked his head back in the direction of their ‘freaking destroyed house’ down the road. Filter rolled his eyes.

“‘That’ is still a house, you know. Just one we have to wait a bit longer for. Besides, complaining won’t help, unless we’re doing it at the town hall.”

Quill raised an eyebrow. “When did you get so snarky?”

“As soon as you wouldn’t shut up about the house.”

Quill glared, eyes glowing. “And you’re not even a little angry about it?”

“I never said that. I’m just not being vocal about it. Kind of trying to avoid attracting a crowd.” Filter gestured to the ponies staring at them, and Quill finally realized how much attention he was gathering with his ranting.

He cleared his throat. “Excuse me, I’m sorry for the interruption. We just, uh... had some problems when moving in... you may continue your earlier activities.” He turned back towards the town hall and quickly walked away, leaving Filter behind. The unicorn shuffled awkwardly under the stares of the ponies and quickly ran off. Unbeknownst to him, a pair of blue eyes belonging to a pink earth pony were watching him with intense curiosity.

Filter trotted quickly to catch up to his friend, then cocked his head to one side. “Hey Quill?”

Quill glanced over at him for a moment, then said quietly, “Yes?”

“Remember the first house?”

Quill snorted, “You mean your four-room apartment? Yes.”

“Yeah...” Filter looked at the ground, then back up. “And you remember why we left?”

Quill paused for a moment. “Yeah, I remember that too. After...”

Filter nodded. “Yeah... and that had happened just a month after we had met...”

Quill cocked his head to the side, then resumed walking. “How long has it been now?”

Filter stayed in pace with him. “Almost a year now.”

Quill nodded slowly. “Yes...  a year since that day...”





Quill had been running for almost seven months from his home in Manehatten. While his common sense told him that he was safe now, his fight or flight instinct told him he would never be safe.

As the light of Celestia’s sun faded over the horizon and began to be replaced by Luna’s much dimmer moonlight, Quill had to squint his eyes to see. A few lights reached his vision, and he paused briefly in surprise at what appeared to be a city appeared in front of him. Seeing a chance for a few nights’ rest, his pace quickened and he turned directly towards the skyline of towers.

About an hour of walking was rewarded with entry into what the semi-pegasus recognized as Fillydelphia. He began looking around for a place to sleep, paying less attention to the road directly in front of him.

Quill raised his head at a distant shout. He looked up to see a pegasus soaring down from the sky at an alarming rate. This time the shout was clearer. “Stop right there, criminal scum!”

Quill looked up sharply. “Did I violate the law?”

“I’m not sure, but I need to check you just in case!”

“Stupid asshole,” Quill muttered.

“What is this?” The guard snagged one of his wings and tanked harshly, pulling him sideways.

“It’s my wing! Have you not seen yourself in the mirror?” Quill snapped, tired and in a bad mood. He just wanted to sleep, but the jackass wasn’t letting him go.

“I... uh...” The guard’s eyes darted around for a second. “Well...”

“By the way, what’s your name, jackass?” Quill glared at him.

“Um...” He mumbled something inaudible.

“Speak up!” Quill snapped.

“It’s... Jack Ass. My parents weren’t very kind...” He shook his head.

I still can’t believe I let you talk me into using that.

Eh.

“That’s not the point here! These wings are very clearly a weapon!”

“A weapon?” Quill laughed uproariously. “It’s a wing, smartass.”

“Jack Ass.”

“I know. Look, how can you justify wings being a weapon? And if you say it’s because they both start with the letter ‘w’, I will end you.”

“They’re... made of metal.”

Crickets chirped awkwardly.

“And... they’re... really scary.”

“Made of metal... and scary... they’re not giant robots of doom and destruction, Jack Ass! They. Are. Bucking. Wings.”

“I see... but what are they really?” Jack Ass raised his eyebrows.

“I don’t have time for this,” Quill grumbled, pushing past him.

“Hey! Get back here!” Jack Ass grabbed Quill’s shoulder. “I’m not done with you yet!”

Suddenly another pony walked up, confused and curious. He had seen the events from the past couple minutes unfold from his apartment window, and while he didn’t like getting involved, he had a feeling it was the lesser of two evils compared to letting this escalate.

“Ohai there,” Pop Filter greeted in an annoyed tone. “Care to explain what’s going on?”

“And who are you?” Jack Ass demanded.

“I’m Discord come back as a unicorn pony who travelled the seven seas looking for a fire ruby to shove up my nose so I could find Princess Celestia’s secret stash of gold. Nobody cares.”

Quill smirked. He liked this kid already.

“Don’t get smart with me, punk,” Jack Ass retorted through gritted teeth. “Nothing to see here. You can be on your way.”

Filter looked at Quill. “Yeah, a pony with mechanical wings getting harassed by a jackass is nothing to see.”

“How does everypony know my name?!” Jack Ass bemoaned.

“Wild guess. I assume you’re one of those fake town guards who tries to extort money out of ponies?”

Quill’s eyes widened. “So you are one of them!”

“Uh... what are you two babbling about?” Jack Ass struggled to regain a sense of authority.

“You know, those phony guards! We hear about all the time, don’t we?” He eyed Filter meaningfully.

Filter blinked cluelessly, not understanding what Quill was getting at. “Uh...sure?”

The illusion died instantly, and Quill facehoofed repeatedly. Jack Ass raised an eyebrow. Filter shrugged.

“You’re not gonna leave until we bribe you, are you?” Filter asked. Jack Ass nodded eagerly. “Fine. How much? I don’t need this tonight.”

“Two hundred bits,” Jack Ass said triumphantly.

“Two hundred? Dude, my eye surgery cost less than that.” Filter pulled his glasses off to show a previously hidden scar, causing Jack Ass to wince. “Try twenty.”

Quill nodded approvingly. “You know, these could be weapons if I wanted them to be.”

Jack Ass began to sweat. “Uh...how about one fifty? Considering I could at least put you under citizen’s arrest and all...”

“Try something that we wouldn’t have to pull around a sack to hold,” Filter snorted. “Fifty.”

“One hundred.”

“I said fifty, and I’m not going higher.”

“Seventy?”

“Deal.” Filter and Jack Ass shook, and Filter handed over a small pouch of bits. Jack Ass trotted away, whistling happily.

Quill sighed. “You’re kidding. Seventy? I could have lowered it to five, easy. Just give an example of what I’ll do to his family if he refuses, and bam.”

Filter raised an eyebrow, but ignored the remark and slid his glasses back on. “Seventy bits isn’t as much to me as I acted. I don’t use money much anyway.”

Quill closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “It is to me.”

Filter chuckled. “What are you, a homeless fugitive?”

The semi-pegasus turned away and began walking down the road. “I might as well be.”

The unicorn’s smile vanished and he ran to catch up. “Did I say something wrong? Sorry...”

“My mom’s dead and ponies think I killed her. My life is just peachy,” came the sharp reply. “I’m just trying to find somewhere safe for a while, so tomorrow I can run around again away from the guards and keep the cycle going for Celestia knows how long.”

“Discord affected you too?” Filter deadpanned; an unexpected reaction to Quill’s bitterness. Surprised, Quill nodded. “Yeah, you’re not the only one who got hit. Remember when I mentioned my eye?”

“I lost more than a body part,” Quill growled. “I lost my life, my home, but in exchange I achieved my dream. A wonderful trade. But I guess somepony else’s freaking sap story isn’t important to the one rich pony in Fillydelphia.”

“I never said I was rich!” Filter yelled back. “Pretty much the opposite, in fact! And that’s not the point. Even if I was rich, you think that’d make me turn my back on somepony who needed help?”

Quill opened his mouth to answer, but Filter kept going.

“I’ve needed help too,” Filter continued. “Remember when I brought up my eye? After whatever happened, I was left bleeding in the middle of the street. Everypony around me could’ve just left me to bleed out. Instead, somepony brought me to the hospital. This isn’t any different.”

Quill snorted. “I don’t exactly need to go to the hospital.”

“I’m trying, okay? Work with me here.”

“Work with you? You need glasses to see. You see these?” He indicated his wings. “This is what I have to live with! Fake wings that will remind me every day of what I could have done to change things! If you think-”

“For the love of Luna, just SHUT UP!” Quill nearly fell over. Filter glared at him, somehow making the semi-pegasus feel smaller, despite being a few inches taller than the unicorn. “You’re complaining about being able to fly? What’s next, gonna complain about being able to breathe?! And don’t pull that ‘past’ crap on me! Angsting over that kind of thing isn’t going to fix it!”

“I can’t just forget it, though!” Quill protested feebly.

“Then don’t! But don’t let it run your life either!” Filter walked up closer to Quill. “I lost my sight, my only friend, my sense of mind, and long before any of that, my father. And my mother is close to being next. But I don’t show it, because if I did, I’d have jumped off a cliff not long after Discord’s reign.” He poked Quill in the chest. “When life pushes you down, you get up, stand tall, and show it what you’re made of. And you’re showing me that you’re made of pillows and weak support beams.

“But you’re not. I can tell.“ Filter smacked one of Quill’s wings. “You’ve got a pair of mechanical wings. You talk about death threats like it’s casual conversation. You watched your mother die and didn’t go eternally insane. You’re made of more than pillows and weak support beams, but that’s all I can see. So tell me: what are you made of?”

Quill looked away, then back. “What am I made of? What am I made of?” His voice rose, anger evident in his glaring eyes, and his wings flared out to the sides. Filter remained stoic. “I’m made of adamantium, the strongest metal known to any pony! I’m made of dragon’s scales! I’m made of the flight of a pegasus and the strength of an earth pony!” He trotted up to Filter, getting right in the face of the unflinching unicorn. “I’m made of more pain than you could ever know, and more ways to dish it out than you could ever handle.”

There was a brief silence. Neither Quill nor Filter spoke. Finally, a smile broke out across Filter’s face.

“That’s what I wanted to hear.”

Quill backed up a bit, surprised. He had just targeted all of his rage at this random pedestrian, and they didn’t even get scared. What happened?

“I’m Pop Filter.” Filter stuck his hoof out. “What’s your name?”

Quill looked at the outstretched hoof before tentatively shaking it. “Blood Quill.”

Filter smiled. “Want me to take you back to my place? It’s probably a lot better than wherever you’ve been sleeping.”

The semi-pegasus didn’t know how to really respond. “Well... I...”

“Come on, it’s better than sleeping outside. You don’t need to run anymore. Even if the guards were still on your case, they’d probably let you off pretty easily considering it all happened during Discord’s reign of terror.”

Quill rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess, but-”

“Let’s go, Quill. I’m not letting you stay on the run from something you didn’t do.”

A pause followed before the gray-blue pony finally nodded, a smile finally working its way onto his face. He and Filter began heading towards the latter’s home.

“We should probably get inside before another one of those jackasses comes by,” Filter chuckled. He shivered. “And before we freeze. It’s cold out here.”
> Chapter 3: They're Greeted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trotting into the town hall for the second time in under an hour, Filter and Quill went straight up to the receptionist’s desk and the mare sitting behind it.

Quill went up to the desk first, anger flashing, while Filter followed meekly behind. The mare stared at him, looking bored. Quill slammed a hoof down on the desk, startling her, and glared.

“What are you-” the receptionist began, but was cut off.

“OBJECTION! You need to tell us why our house is destroyed,” Quill snorted, “and why you neglected to inform us of this beforehoof!”

“We thought you knew...” was all she could reply.

“We hadn’t even been in town for an hour. Unless we were psychic, I don’t think we’d know,” Quill responded angrily. The mare regained her composure and finally worked up an answer.

“I tried to tell you, but you just walked away.”

Quill paused. “... oh... yes... I did do that, didn’t I?”

Filter stepped up. “Objection overruled, bud.”

The semi-pegasus glared, then sighed. “I will murder you all.”

The receptionist huffed and looked down her nose at the two ponies haughtily. “I could take you to the mayor and see if there’s anything she could do about your current living situation.”

“Or lack thereof,” Filter added. Two glaring ponies were enough to shut him up with a whimper.

Quill sighed again and turned to leave. “Come on, Filter. Let’s get out of here. We’ll find a place to live until these idiots get our house fixed.” Feeling better after ranting, he glared at the mare at the desk over his shoulder and promptly left. Filter followed, shoulders hunched, head down.





It had been only a week or two since Filter and Quill had met.

So far, things had been going smoothly since the event with Jack Ass. Quill now lived with Filter and his mother. Though Quill still felt out of place, he enjoyed having the company of other ponies for the first time in a week. Having lived deep in the city, he was used to the hustle and bustle of many ponies trying to get to work. Though Fillydelphia was a little rowdier than what he was used to, he managed. He ended up spending most of his time wandering the streets with Filter, or helping around the house. It didn’t take long for him to grow close to the family.

Finally, it all came to a point in which there was no hope of avoiding: the end.

It was early in the morning, and Filter was still fast asleep when Quill woke up. The semi-pegasus considered shaking his friend awake, but decided against it. The unicorn always had trouble sleeping, so whenever he finally managed to catch some shut-eye, Quill made sure not to disturb him.

Trotting out of the room he shared with Filter, Quill started for the kitchen to get something to eat. Before he got there, a series of knocks at the apartment’s front door distracted him, and he went off to see who was there.

Filter’s mother was already at the door, looking confused and slightly worried. She opened the door slowly to reveal the pony knocking on the door: a dark blue unicorn pony with a brown mane and tail, both cut short. His green eyes seemed bloodshot, his mane was a mess, and he was breathing heavily.

Despite this, Quill recognized him from photos as Filter’s father.

Before a word could be uttered, Filter’s dad’s horn began to glow, and he pulled a knife out from behind himself. Quill’s defensive instincts kicked in and he quickly assumed a protective stance, expecting to be attacked.

Instead, Filter’s father just turned the knife and drove it straight into his wife’s chest.

The scream that Filter’s mother let out must have only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt like forever. Growling, Quill ran up and tackled Filter’s father away, but it was too late - the damage had already been done. Filter’s mother fell to the floor, a pool of blood forming around her.

Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, Quill turned his head and saw Filter standing in the doorway, having been woken up by his mother’s scream. He stared at the scene, slack-jawed and voiceless. His father turned to him with a glare, but Quill stepped in front of him.

“Don’t even think about hurting him,” Quill ordered in a low voice.

Filter’s father ignored him, but didn’t move. “Son...Filter...” he gasped, breathing becoming heavier. “This is all your fault, you know that? You little failure. I hope you’re happy about this, because nopony else is. Nor are they happy about you. And they never will be.”

He then lit his horn again, pulling the knife out of Filter’s mother’s chest and turning it around. With one last glare at his now crying son, he drove the knife into his own chest.





After this, they had left for better lives, having decided that staying in Fillydephia would be too hard on both of them. Eventually, they had set their sights for Ponyville, and that is where they were now: walking through town, complaining.

“...I mean, seriously, can no one even write in this place!?” Quill shouted angrily, earning a few stares.

“If you’re quite done, I think we should go look for someplace to stay until our house is fixed,” Filter sighed. He then did a double-take. “...and how did the conversation turn to writing again?”

Quill facehoofed. “You’re talking to an author, man. Things turn to writing and grammar a lot.”

“You’re talking to a musician, but things don’t always turn to music with me, so shut up. Besides, you can’t even spell ‘grammar’.”

“What?!” The semi-pegasus glared. “That’s absurd!”

“Spell it!”

“... G-R-A-M-E-R.” Quill huffed. He turned back to Filter to find him gone. Looking around, he soon saw the unicorn smashing his head into a nearby house’s brick wall. “What? Did I spell it wrong?”

“No, that’s the best I’ve heard it spelled in years,” Filter replied sarcastically as he walked back. “Of course it was spelled wrong!”

“Oh, shut up. I’m better at writing words anyway.”

“Let’s just keep walking and find somewhere to stay before I punch you in the face.”

They took a few more steps before a rainbow blur shot out of nowhere and tackled them to the ground in a heap.

“You!” The rainbow blur yelled. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”

As Quill and Filter’s visions cleared up, they looked towards the source of the voice. A light blue pegasus mare with a rainbow-streaked mane and tail was standing over them, glaring down at them.

“M-Me?” Filter stammered.

“No, not you. The guy with the weird wings.” The mare gave Filter an odd look. “Who are you, anyway?”

Filter didn’t answer, so Quill jumped in. “What do you want? And why did you body check us?”

The pegasus mare rolled her eyes. “Duh. Isn’t it obvious? Your wings!” She indicated Quill’s mechanical wings.

“Yeah, laugh it up. I’m used to it,” the author grumbled as his eyes narrowed.

“No, I’ve been hearing a lot about them!” The mare’s scowl turned to a grin. “I’m Rainbow Dash, by the way.” She held out a hoof.

Quill shook uncertainly. “What kinds of things have you been hearing?” Suddenly he remembered his unlucky unicorn friend, forgotten on the ground. “Oh, wait. Filter, get up!” He unceremoniously kicked him in the ribs.

Rainbow Dash ignored this. “I just wanted to see how well you fly, considering you aren’t really a pegasus.”

Filter winced. “I wouldn’t recommend saying that to his face...” His words went unheard by the others.

Quill glared. “I worked on these for three years! I’ve learned to fly well enough, and I don’t need some hotshot telling me how it’s done!”

Rainbow chuckled. “Chill out. I’m not insulting you. Just making an observation, or whatever Twilight calls it.”

Twilight? Filter thought, still watching the conversation. That name sounds familiar...

Quill flared his wings and said, “If you really want to see how well I fly, maybe we could have a race later.”

Filter stared at him. As haughty as his friend was, this was a little over the top. He facehoofed, which - like everything else he had said and done since Rainbow arrived - went unnoticed.

Rainbow laughed yet again. “You’re pretty confident.”

Quill grinned. “Seems you are too.”

“So, how did you get your... wings?” Rainbow asked, seeming a little nervous about that topic.

Now it was Quill’s turn to chuckle. “Well, I’ve always been a little bit of a bookworm, and-”

“So you’re an egghead?” The light blue mare held back a laugh.

The semi-pegasus sighed. “If that’s what you call it, yes. Anyway, I’d always been fascinated by pegasi, so I did my research on how their wings worked, and...” He began a long, rambling story about his research which Rainbow paid no attention to.

By the time he finished, Rainbow had almost fallen asleep. Seeing this, he gave her a shove and rose into the air, grinning. “So, tell me your story now.”

Right before the pegasus mare began her own tale, Quill looked behind himself to check on Filter. What he saw surprised him.

“Filter?” He looked around a bit, interrupting Rainbow. “He’s not here anymore...where’d he go?”





Filter, bored of listening to his friend argue with Rainbow, had absentmindedly wandered off and now found himself lost in Ponyville. Looking around for landmarks, his eyes eventually fell upon a rather tall, pink, frilly building.

His instincts told him this was not a place he should be at if he wanted to avoid the taunting he endured in Canterlot and Fillydelphia, but his curiosity told him to check it out anyway. Eventually, he decided he didn’t want to be lost anymore, so he walked up to it and looked over the building.

Seems like some kind of a clothing shop...yeah, not really my type of place.

He turned to leave and look for other landmarks, but as he did, a white unicorn with a purple mane and tail poked her head out of the building. Acting on instinct, Filter attempted to hide himself. Bad idea. Instead it made the unicorn take notice of him.

“Oh, darling, I didn’t see you there! Oh, do come in!” Without missing a beat, she walked back into the store, leaving the door open. Filter remained rooted to the spot, wishing he could melt into the background. The unicorn, having noticed she wasn’t followed inside, turned back, calling, “Excuse me? Will you be coming in or staying out there, for I am surely not taking any of my merchandise out in that dirt!”

Filter, having been basically told an order, obeyed reluctantly. The minute he stepped inside the door closed behind him, and he gulped. He had a bad feeling about this.

“So, if I may ask, what is your name?” the mare asked as she began levitating pieces of cloth around herself.

Filter nervously scuffed the ground. “Uh...Pop Filter,” he answered quietly. How the mare heard him was beyond his understanding.

“Mm, interesting name. I am Rarity; proprietor of Carousel Boutique, the fanciest clothing shop in all of Ponyville!” She gave a sweep of her mane as she introduced herself.

Probably the only one as well...I haven’t exactly seen a lot of clothing stores since I’ve arrived. Filter kept his comment to himself, however, and simply nodded as he watched Rarity work.

“So...um...why did you pull me in here?” he finally asked.

“Why, to fix you up, of course!” She levitated a mirror over in front of Filter. “Look at yourself! You’re absolutely covered in dirt! Why, it’s as though you’ve been on the road for days!”

“I have been,” Filter responded. “I just got here from Fillydelphia.” He paused for a moment. “But...how are clothes supposed to help with that?”

“Well, I figured I might as well make you an outfit since you’re here,” Rarity stated as though it was obvious.

“I don’t need an outfit, though...” Filter tried to protest, but either the fashion designer was ignoring him, or she didn’t hear him. “Besides, I wouldn’t be able to afford it-”

“Oh, nonsense, darling; consider it a gift! You’ve traveled so far to get here!” She seemed to be getting into this a little too much for FIlter’s liking. He began to back away, but bumped into a rack of clothing. It promptly tumbled down onto the nervous unicorn.

Rarity immediately ran over and looked down with concern. “Are you alright?” she asked worriedly. Filter gave a weak ‘yes’, to which Rarity seemed satisfied by. She then turned away from him and began inspecting the clothes nervously, muttering about how they better not be ruined.

Her horn glowed and she lifted the rack up, setting it up correctly. As she did so a certain piece fell off onto the floor. Her eyes immediately found it, and she grinned. “Ah, this is perfect, absolutely perfect!” Rarity lifted the piece with her magic and held it up, eyes sparkling. “Oh, you must try this!”

Filter found himself trapped between the fashionista unicorn and the wall. What he saw was something he never thought of wearing. A suit.

“N-no, I don’t think I could-” he began, but was cut off.

“No, like I said, you must try it on!” She pushed the suit towards him, and he had no choice but to take it. Getting some directions from Rarity, he found a dressing room and dumped the clothes unceremoniously on the ground, staring uncertainly. Should he try them on? Eventually, he decided it would be better to just go with it.

After a few minutes of fumbling with the article of clothing, he finally managed to get it on and step outside the room. Rarity gave something of a girlish squeal and trotted around him in circles, giggling to herself.

“Oh, you look absolutely fabulous!” she exclaimed, giving another inspection before coming to a stop in front of him. He froze again, face reddening as his gaze turned downwards. He mumbled something incoherently. The unicorn mare cocked her head. “What was that, dear?”

Filter began taking off the suit. “Thanks, but I’ve really got to go...” He kept his eyes locked on the ground, shuffling towards the doors.

Rarity gave him a puzzled look. “But you just got here, there’s no need to leave now.”

Filter opened the door and stepped out, taking the suit off and giving it back to the white unicorn. “No, I really should get going, but thank you for letting me try it on.” Thoroughly embarrassed now, he turned and ran, much to Rarity’s confusion.

“Was it something I said?” she asked herself as she trotted back inside with the suit. Looking down at it, she levitated it over to put it aside in case he came back.





Quill and Rainbow had been searching for Filter from the air for quite a time. In this time, the semi-pegasus listened to the rainbow-maned mare’s life story, asking questions when he felt they needed to be asked. Rainbow payed attention to how his wings worked, and he gave answers when she asked questions, as well.

Finally, Quill noticed the familiar blue unicorn that was his friend, and pointed him out to his companion. They both banked downwards and landed next to him.

“There you are!” Quill yelled, grinning. “I lost you there for a while. Where did you go?”

Filter gave his friend an incredulous stare. “You actually noticed? Hell, to me it seemed you forgot I existed!”

Quill sighed. “We’re not going to argue like some old married couple, okay? How about I apologize for getting sidetracked-” he put some emphasis on the last two words. “-and move on with our lives?”

“Do you know what I went through while away from you?” Filter muttered.

Quill sighed again, heavier than before. “What?” he grumbled.

“I got forced to put on a suit by some crazy fashion-obsessed unicorn!” His eyes darted around, as if expecting somepony to come racing out of the shadows and kidnap him.

“Who, Rarity?” Rainbow decided to put in. “Oh, it’s fine. She does that all the time.” She laughed, gripping her side with a hoof.

Quill shrugged. “Besides, what’s so bad about suits?”

Filter groaned. “You should know me well enough to know that I don’t like being the center of attention. Looking all dressed up and fancy just draws the spotlight to me.” He threw a hoof in the air in exasperation. “Heck, she even said I looked ‘fabulous’ in it! I don’t even know if that was a compliment or an insult!”

“Usually when someone tells you that you look fabulous, it’s a compliment, dumbass.” Quill rolled his eyes.

“You didn’t go to my school.”

“Yeah, well I didn’t go to any school. At least, not a high school. Not even really a middle school.”

Rainbow stepped in between the two. “Okay, okay, that’s enough guys. Before I forget to ask, are you guys new to town?”

They both looked at her. “What tipped you off?” Quill asked.

“Well, you don’t see Pinkie setting up a huge banner that says ‘Welcome New Ponies’ for anything but that.”

“Wait, a banner?” Quill cocked his head.

“Yeah, Pinkie throws parties for new ponies all the time. She invites the entire town.”

“Let me guess, the new ponies are the center of attention?” Quill raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Why?”

Quill slowly turned to look at Filter, who was now staring straight ahead, a stunned and horrified look on his face. Curious, Rainbow waved her hoof in front of Filter’s face, earning no reaction. He was practically dead to the world.

“That’s why,” Quill said with a shake of his head.





After finally getting the unicorn moving again, Quill and Rainbow started talking again, leaving Filter to think about the inevitable party and run several dozen scenarios through his head - all of which ended badly.

“Hey, I think the party’s gonna start soon,” Rainbow realized, looking up at the sun’s position in the sky. “C’mon, I gotta take you two down to Sugarcube Corner. That’s where Pinkie’s holding the party. She said something about not being able to hold it in your house.”

“Blame poor construction for that,” Quill grumbled, still not entirely over the whole roof incident.

Filter had been mumbling to himself for a few minutes now, much to the concern of Rainbow Dash. Quill had just decided to ignore him after the first few attempts at stopping him had failed.

“He really doesn’t like crowds,” Quill explained to the pegasus mare. “He has enough trouble talking to just one or two ponies, but when there’s a room full of them...” He trailed off, making a motion with his hoof to indicate that the rest should be obvious.

Rainbow chuckled. “Sounds a lot like Fluttershy.”

“Who?”

“She’s a friend of mine. You’ll meet her there.”

“Alright then...” Quill turned back to Filter and shouted. “Hey, you’re falling behind again!”

Filter looked up, the horror on his face still showing despite the time that had passed. “Huh?” He looked down to his hooves, which had paused in their progress, and began shuffling forwards again. “Sorry...” Quill rolled his eyes.

“If you move at that pace, we won’t get there until Winter Wrap-Up.”

“Fine by me,” Filter mumbled.

“Yeah, well it’s not fine by me.” Quill rose into the air. “Now come on! Man up and move!”

Filter glared, but quickened his pace somewhat. “I feel like a criminal being taken in for execution.”

“Well, you being you, that’s what it is.”

They again resumed walking, Sugarcube Corner - essentially a giant gingerbread house - now in sight. Filter began shaking and his eyes darted around. Quill, having noticed, positioned himself a few paces behind his friend, making sure he wouldn’t bolt and run.

Rainbow kept walking, ignoring the scene behind her. Being who she was, she didn’t exactly understand Filter’s terror, even though she wasn’t unfamiliar with his type of personality.

They came to the front door paused in front of it. Rainbow turned to them and said, “Let me go in real quick, make sure we won’t be catching them by surprise.” She opened the door and walked in. Quill caught a glimpse of black before the door shut.

Surprise... he inwardly chuckled, wanting to see his friend’s reaction.

Rainbow opened the door again. “Alright, c’mon in.” The door closed yet again.

Quill motioned to the door, staring at Filter. “You first.”

Filter stared uneasily at the door, then shuffled forward awkwardly. He slowly opened the door with a slight creak, and then almost stepped back when he saw nothing but darkness. But then he was shoved from behind and landed with a thud in the floor.

“SURPRISE!”

The lights turned on and Quill walked in, laughing. “Oh sweet Celestia, the look on your face!” He fell to the ground and rolled around laughing, gasping for breath. It was only once his laughing fit ended that he noticed something. “Filter?”

Filter had passed out from shock and terror and now lay prone on the ground.





SPLASH

Filter began coughing and sputtering as he woke up, water dripping down his face. As his vision cleared, he looked up to see Quill standing over him with a now-empty cup. Along with him were several dozen other ponies, all staring down at him.

“Get up, man,” Quill ordered with a laugh. “You had me scared for a moment there.”

“You were scared?” Filter grunted. “I don’t recall you being the one who passed out.”

Quill shrugged. “Eh. Just get up before I get more water.”

Filter stumbled to his hooves, trying to avoid eye contact with anypony aside from Quill. Rainbow flew over to them from over the heads of all the other ponies. “Come on guys! I want you to meet my friends.” She dropped to the ground and led them through the crowd. Filter pretty much cowered as Quill politely said ‘hello’ to ponies he met, and then left, hearing them mutter ‘those horns’ and ‘who’s the shy one?’ It infuriated him, but he held his tongue, for fear of losing the reputation he and Filter could ever want to have.

Rainbow had stopped in front of five other mares, one of whom apparently couldn’t sit still. She kept bouncing about, giggling. Quill could tell that this was the Pinkie Pie mare Rainbow talked about.

“So you threw this party?” the author laughed, turning to her.

“Yep! Isn’t it super-duper-teeriffic?” The pink pony grinned. Her mane was ecstatic and poofy, and she had a set of three balloons for a cutie mark. “I’m Pinkie Pie! I love throwing parties, especially for new ponies in Ponyville!”

“I’m Blood Quill, and this is Pop Filter,” Quill replied, introducing himself and his friend.

“Pop Filter?” a white unicorn mare asked, stepping forward. Filter instantly recognized her. “Oh, I thought you looked familiar! So good to see you again!”

Oh buck, Filter thought as he began looking for an escape.

“You two know each other?” Quill asked.

“Yes, we met earlier when he came by my boutique. My name is Rarity. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Quill.” The mare bowed slightly.

Quill chuckled. “Just call me Quill. Neither of us are huge fans of fancy name-calling.”

Rarity nodded before turning back to the blue unicorn. “Filter, I would like to apologize for earlier. I got a bit...overzealous, as I tend to do sometimes. I didn’t realize I was making you uncomfortable.”

“It’s fine...” Filter mumbled as he scuffed the floor, avoiding eye contact.

“Here, I’d like you to have this.” Rarity levitated a box out and passed it to Filter. “It’s the suit you tried on earlier. After seeing how well it fits you, I just couldn’t dream of giving it to anypony else, so I’d like you to keep it.”

Filter hesitantly took the box, but then tried to pass it back. “Thanks, but I’m not really big on suits...”

“Oh, but you looked amazing in it!” Rarity squealed, not noticing the blush rising to Filter’s face as she practically shoved the box at him. “I insist you keep it. Who knows? Perhaps it may help you impress that special somepony of yours.” She winked, and Filter’s blush deepened. Quill snorted.

“Rarity, look at him. Do you seriously think a guy like him would actually be in a relationship?” He laughed, failing to realize nopony else was. “If he tried to ask somepony out, they’d probably never hear him!” As his laughter died down, he realized the six mares were all staring at him with somewhat annoyed looks. “What?”

“Don’tcha think that was a little harsh?” an orange earth pony wearing a Stetson hat asked. “Look at him!”

Quill turned to Filter, who wasn’t just avoiding eye contact now. Instead, he was staring directly down at the floor, pawing the ground slowly. He didn’t look just nervous. He actually looked hurt.

“Ah, he knows I don’t mean it. Besides, it’s true.” He gave Filter a playful shove. Filter didn’t react.

“Ugh...Ah swear, yer worse than Rainbow Dash,” the orange mare groaned.

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Rainbow demanded.

The earth pony just shook her head, then turned back to Quill. “Ah’m Applejack, by the way.” She extended her hoof, and Quill shook it. “Nice to meetcha...though it’d be nicer if ya were a tad kinder to yer friends.”

“Oh, we do this kind of thing all the time. Don’t worry about it,” Quill chuckled.

“If yer sure...” Applejack herself didn’t seem too sure, but she let the subject drop for now. The next mare to approach Quill and Filter was a purple unicorn. She smiled brightly at them.

“Hello there,” she greeted. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”

Quill nodded at her. “Likewise.” He turned to Filter, who seemed less upset, but was still staying quiet. “Hey, I don’t care if you’re shy, I’m not doing all the talking for us.”

Realizing he now had eyes on him, Filter fumbled for words. “Oh... uh... hi?” He managed an obviously forced grin. Twilight, hoping to help make him more comfortable, smiled softly at him and extended her hoof.

“How are you doing, Filter?” she asked. Filter tentatively shook her outstretched hoof.

“I feel like I’m about to throw up, faint, do something stupid, or get killed...or all of the above,” he replied.

“That’s about normal for him with new ponies,” Quill broke in.

Twilight kept her smile up. “Well, no need to be nervous, Filter. We’re all friendly around here, so don’t worry. I run the town library, so if you ever want to talk or check out a book, just head over there and I’ll see what I can do.”

For the first time since his first trip to town hall, Filter genuinely smiled. Maybe this won’t be as bad as I thought...everypony so far seems pretty friendly, even if they don’t come off as such right away.

“And this here is Fluttershy,” Rainbow piped up, gesturing to a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail. True to her name, Fluttershy was staying quiet and attempting to hide, very much like Filter. Quill noticed the similarity right away and groaned.

“Oh Celestia, it’s a female Filter. Just kill me now.” He started trotting away. “I’m gonna find some cider.”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack, both apparently either worried about Quill or also interested in some drinking, followed the semi-pegasus. This left Filter with Fluttershy, Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie. He nervously looked from one mare to the next.

“Um...so...now what?” he asked hesitantly.

“Now, we party!” Pinkie cheered, bouncing into the air and hovering there momentarily before dashing away. Filter watched her go with a combination of interest and confusion.

“Is she always like that?” he asked the three remaining mares. They nodded simultaneously. “This town is absolutely insane.” They nodded again.
> Chapter 4: Look! There!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh, Mother of Celestia, my head hurts!” Quill groaned as he slowly sat up, rubbing his head. He looked down and made out the forms of Rainbow Dash and Applejack on the floor next to him, snoring. Mugs that had once been filled with cider lay next to them. A lot of mugs. Quill looked around through bleary eyes. The room was dim, and not many ponies were around. He didn’t see FIlter either. He poked the two mares next to him with his hooves. “Hey, wake up.”

It took a few moments for them to become fully awake, groaning with the same pains he had. “Hey, look at me.” They did, and he stared them in the eye. “... Did we have sex last night?”

The pegasus and earth pony shared a glance, then smiled at him. “Oh yeah. It was great,” Rainbow said sultrily, slitting her eyes.

“You better believe it. Ah don’t remember having so much fun in mah life!” Applejack winked at him.

Quill’s eye twitched. “Please tell me you’re kidding.” Then he paused. “Not that I wouldn’t want to have sex with you! It’s just... uh...” He rubbed his face. “Just tell me we didn’t really.”

The mares burst out laughing. “Of course we didn’t!” Rainbow fell to the ground, clutching at her sides. “But I do remember we had a drinking contest. I don’t know who won though.”

Applejack grinned. “Ah believe it was me.” Rainbow glared at her, but offered no comment.

Quill sighed. “Just... leave it. By the way, have either of you seen Filter?”

They shook their heads. Quill sighed again. It would take a while to find him.





The six mares Quill met the night before joined him in staring up at the roof of Sugarcube Corner, wearing varied expressions of confusion, shock, and amusement. Quill gestured up to the gingerbread building’s roof and the figure on top with a hoof.

“Anypony want to tell me how the hay he got up there?” he asked the mares alongside him. He was met with shrugs.

Up on Sugarcube Corner’s roof, a familiar blue unicorn lay fast asleep, covered only by an orange blanket that somehow didn’t get blown off by the wind. Quill groaned, knowing he’d probably never know how Filter got up there, considering there were no ways to the roof that he could see.

“So...who wants to go get him down?” he sighed, turning to the six behind him. They all gave him deadpan stares - aside from Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, who were looking away or bouncing around respectively. “...right, wings. Forgot about them.” He coughed lightly and then flew up.

Reaching his friend, Quill began to shake him, trying to wake him up. For as long as he had known him, the semi-pegasus knew Filter was a pretty big insomniac, going several nights in a row with little to no sleep. But then when he actually managed to get a full night’s sleep, he was next to impossible to wake up. And judging by how the unicorn wasn’t stirring at all, he had just had a full night’s sleep.

“Seriously guys, how did he gets up here?” the author yelled down at the mares watching him. “He’s afraid of heights, so it’s not like he’d come up here willingly!”

They offered no answer, so with a silent cuss, Quill picked Filter up and began flying him down to the ground below. Shaking his friend around more, he finally felt the unicorn begin to stir. He began slowly descending to the ground, he heard Filter mumble something. “What was that?”

Filter said in slurred speech, “Where’m I...?”

Quill sighed and rose higher into the air. “Open your eyes. It’s a surprise.”

Filter did. And screamed. He struggled in Quill’s hooves and Quill lost his grip, dropping him. The semi-pegasus laughed and almost fell from the air himself when he heard the thud of his friend hitting the ground. The unicorn glared up at him. “If I’ve broken anything I’m making you pay my medical bills.”

The author waved off the accusation with a hoof. “I’ve seen you fall from higher and not get hurt before.”

“I wasn’t asleep before.”

“True enough, but I can tell you’re fine anyways. C’mon, get up and-”

At that moment, an earth pony colt ran up to the group. “Excuse me, is there a... Blood Quill here?”

“That’s me.” Quill waved a hoof.

“The Mayor would like to see you.”

“Really? What for?” Quill cocked his head.

“She didn’t say, just ‘get him.’”

“... Does anypony have as bad a feeling as I do about this?” Quill looked around at the mares, then to Filter.

“Karma, man. Gotta live with it.” The unicorn grinned up at him.

Quill hesitated a moment longer, then shrugged, flying away. Celestia help me, if I’m about to get murdered...





He reached Town Hall in no time, gliding through the doors and landing inside. The receptionist didn’t even bother with him, just waved a hoof and said, “Go ahead.”

He walked ahead into what he assumed was the Mayor’s office. The walls were lined with shelves, each lined with books. Everything was titled, and some shelves had evolved into bookcases, filled with books. One was titled “History”; another, “Population”. There was one shelf with only one book in it, though. When Quill looked up at the title, he saw “Economy”. He raised an eyebrow at this, but had his attention drawn away by a slight cough. He looked over to see the Mayor, giving him a deadpanned look.

She was a mare, with gray hair, gray eyes, and glasses hovering on her nose. She sat at a large desk, with papers stacked on one end, everything neat and exact. A lamp sat on the edge, and... Why am I taking note of this?

“You wanted to see me, Mayor...” he paused, unsure of her name.

“Mayor Mare.” She held out a hoof. “I am in need of your services.”

“Services?” He echoed. I’m not a hooker, lady.

“Yes. I got word of you claiming to be a... mercenary?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Mercenary?” Quill stared incredulously. “When did I say that?”

“I believe last night, at that party you attended, welcoming you to Ponyville.”

“Oh.” In that case, I was probably drunk. But he said nothing, wanting to hear more. “And what do you need me to do?”

“Well, we have a problem...”

“Problem?” The semi-pegasus grinned. “I have them too. Should we compare?”

“No, this is serious. Ponies’ lives are at stake.” Mayor Mare stared him directly in the eyes. “We have a manticore problem.”

Quill’s grin fell. “Oh. That kind of problem.” He sighed. “And what makes you think I could help?”

“Well you said you were a mercenary, were you not?”

“I was-”

“Drunk? Yes, I guessed that. But those party guests didn’t. You want to keep your reputation, don’t you?”

Quill chuckled grimly. “You play a dirty game, Mayor.”

She smiled. “We do have to have somepony deal with it. And you, well, you volunteered.”

“So... what’ll I get paid?” Quill asked, cocking his head. “I’m a mercenary, you know. Apparently. I don’t do jobs if I don’t get paid.”

The Mayor considered for another moment. “If you so demand it, I can pay you in any way you wish. Within reason, of course.”

“How about fixing my house at a faster pace? Say... one more day? Long enough for me to deal with your... problem, I’d guess.” Quill was playing a risky game, and he had to win it.

“You really are mad about that, aren’t you?”

“You wouldn’t be?”

“Well, I live here. If Town Hall were to be damaged, the repairs would be done in five hours at the most.”

“That’s... great to know.”

“But that’s beside the point. So you’ll do this job if we can fix your house within a day?”

“Throw in a few bits. Then we’ll see.”

The Mayor took a moment to think. “How about three hundred?”

“Seven hundred.”

“Five hundred.”

“Six hundred.”

“Five-fifty.”

“Deal.” Quill grinned.

“Alright then. I’ll have my secretary give you a map with a marked location. You will go there. You can take anyone you like, as well.”

The semi-pegasus nodded, then left the room. The secretary, as he had been told, gave him a saddlebag, containing a map, a short sword, and instructions. “Go.”

“Gladly.” Quill left the large building, still irritated at the sudden job forced upon him. And I know just who I’m taking with me.





Filter stood inside Sugarcube Corner, chatting nonchalantly, or at least trying to, to Pinkie. He was trying to remember what he had done to get stuck on the roof, but he was having trouble. Pinkie wasn’t exactly helping either, constantly changing the topic or bouncing away randomly to talk to somepony else. He eventually gave up and tried to talk to somepony else, but his typical nervousness was enough of an obstacle.

Everypony had already gone home from last night’s party, with the exception of Filter and the six mares he and Quill had met. That made him feel better, but he still felt a bit awkward talking to these mares. Aside from his mother, he hadn’t had a regular conversation with a mare since Cetty, and it showed.

Twilight, seeing that the blue unicorn was currently trying (and failing) to strike up a conversation with Fluttershy, decided to go get a drink. As she walked to the other side of the room, she found herself being followed by Pinkie and Rainbow Dash.

“So... what do you think of Filter?” Twilight asked them.

“Him? I think that Quill guy is cooler.” Rainbow shrugged. “He’s more competitive and less shy.”

“Filter’s just new. So is Quill. We shouldn’t expect either of them to open up just like that.”

“You did,” the pegasus pointed out.

“Yes, well, that was different.”

“How?”

The two didn’t realize that with their bickering Pinkie had fallen behind, and was currently lost in thought, something uncommon for the pink party pony. Soon, Twilight and Rainbow noticed her silence, and stopped their arguing in favour of turning to her.

“Maybe...” the earth pony mumbled.

“What is it, Pinkie?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Maybe...maybe the party is what made Poppy so nervous!” She gasped upon reaching this conclusion, while Rainbow just raised an eyebrow.

“...‘Poppy’?”

Pinkie paused. “I... um... haven’t I given you all nicknames?”

The pegasus sighed. “Yeah. But you know us.”

“So? I know him too!”

“...you’ve known him for half a day.”

“Still!” Pinkie seemed to be trying to act serious, but given how she kept up her usual demeanor, it wasn’t working perfectly. “I set up the party that startled him, and now he’s all nervous around us because of it!”

“I’m sure that’s not the reason...” Twilight tried to protest, but the hyper pink pony ignored her.

“I can’t just let somepony be upset like that,” she declared. “We have to find some way to make it up to him!”

Rainbow glared. “‘We’? Who’s ‘we’?”

“I need your help, Dashie! Come on! We need to make him feel better!” She grabbed the pegasus’ hoof and began walking away.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Pinkie! I never agreed to any of this! I mean, I don’t give a hay about how he feels! I couldn’t care less!”

Pinkie took a step back, stunned. “B-b-but... I want to make Poppy feel better...” She looked down. Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“Well, you’ll have to do it without me.” With a huff, Rainbow flew out the window ands into the sky.

“B... but... okay...” Pinkie hung her head and plodded away sadly, Twilight watching her with concern.

Filter, meanwhile, had just gotten the courage to go start talking to Pinkie again. But just as he began to walk towards her, he saw a motion from the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw Quill frantically motioning for him to come outside. Confused, he began going in that direction, casting a nervous glance behind him back at the bakery.

But when he turned back, Quill was gone. Confused, he stepped outside the bakery and cast a cautious glance around. That’s when he felt something slam into him, knocking the breath out of him. With a slight “Oof” he felt the sensation of being carried into the air.





Filter was dumped unceremoniously on the ground. He shot to his hooves, looking around for his assailant. His eyes soon fell on Quill.

“... what did you do now?” Filter asked with a sigh as he sat down.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Quill responded innocently. He put on his best poker face...which was also his worst. Filter’s eyes narrowed.

“Whenever you actually come looking for me and drag me somewhere, it’s never for casual conversation. What did you do?”

Quill groaned. “Fine. I got us jobs as mercenaries.”

A silence fell.

“...you’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

Filter facehoofed. “Can you be my first target?”

“Nope. Our first target is a manticore, somewhere in the Everfree Forest.” Quill gestured towards a nearby forest. “That way.”

Filter began looking around once more, this time at his surroundings. He was on the outskirts of Ponyville; he could barely see any houses. In one direction was the town, but it seemed to be a distance away. In the other direction was the forest Quill was gesturing to. It was dark, scary, and not at all inviting. Filter swore he felt colder just looking at the entrance.

“You are bucking insane and should be banished to the moon,” the unicorn snapped.

Quill nodded. “This is not news to me. You coming or not?”

“Obviously not!”

The semi-pegasus shrugged his metal wings. “Okay.” Turning, he trotted into the forest casually like he was just going for a walk.

Filter watched him go for a few seconds. Just before his friend disappeared from sight, he sighed, got up, and gave chase. Why am I doing this...

“Knew it.” Quill grinned smugly. “Can’t leave you alone for long.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“Just that I can’t leave you in front of a dark, scary forest for longer than five seconds, or else you’d die of fright.”

“Yeah, right.”

“There, look. We made it.”

Filter suddenly realized that Quill had lured him into the trees with the argument. There was no turning back now. He just shook his head silently and continued following his insane partner.

“So...what did you say we were doing?” the unicorn asked.

“We’re mercenaries, looking for a manticore that’s been terrorizing the town.”

“Manticore mercenaries...” Filter stopped walking to think for a moment. “You know, as opposed as I am to the idea, I do like the sound of that as a title. Could impress ponies.”

Quill chuckled. “That’s what I like to hear.”

“But how are we gonna get rid of it?”

Now Quill stopped as well. “...ah. I...didn’t think of that.”

“You never think!”

“And I’m still alive, aren’t I? Yet others, such as Discord and Nightmare Moon, did think, and they’re pretty much dead. Therefore, simple deduction indicates that thinking kills you, and not thinking is how you survive!”

The insane train of logic that Quill just spouted ended up leaving Filter completely speechless. All he could do was walk over to a nearby tree and slam his head into it.

“There, you tried to think, now you’re killing yourself!” Quill pulled his friend away from the tree. “Now c’mon. We have a manticore to defeat.”

“Yeah... manticore...” Filter stumbled ahead, unable to see clearly.





A few minutes of walking brought the two to a clearing. Quill looked at his map, and sure enough, the clearing they were in was marked as the spot. They were here.

“Alright, where’s that manticore?” he wondered out loud. The sound of bushes rustling drew his attention, and he turned. “Come out, come out...”

“Uh, Quill?” Filter called, worried.

“Not now. Alright you little manticore, we have you now...” Quill began approaching the rustling bushes.

“Quill...”

“Filter, keep quiet! I’ve got him!” With a pounce, the semi-pegasus jumped into the bushes...revealing a bunny. “...huh?”

The bunny, annoyed at having his shelter removed, slapped Quill in the muzzle before hopping away.

“Quill. Over. Here.”

Finally turning around, Quill faced Filter...and saw what the unicorn had been freaking out about for the past while. Sitting on a branch in a nearby tree, was the manticore. And it was staring down at them.

“Filter...something seems off,” the author stated, rubbing his chin. “Can’t tell what, though...”

“It’s staring at me.”

“Yes, yes, of course it is. It’s hungry. Manticores eat ponies, you know...well, sometimes. They’re omnivores. They’ll take plants, but they won’t exactly pass up some fresh meat either. And stop shaking like that, you’ll cause an earthquake.”

With a loud roar, the manticore dove down from the tree branch, aiming for the two ponies. Filter instinctively shut his eyes and lit his horn, while Quill ducked and covered his head with his front legs. Crap crap crap crap cra-

THUD

The odd noise made Quill look up, one eyebrow raised. The manticore, rather than landing right on one of them and beginning to tear them apart, had slammed into a translucent blue dome that had materialized around himself and Filter.

“And they said shield spells would never be useful,” said unicorn proclaimed proudly. Quill gave his friend a grin, and it was returned.

“So...now what?” the semi-pegasus asked.

“You’re the mercenary. What do mercenaries do?”

“Hey, you’re in this with me!”

“I did the shield. My work here is done.” Filter suddenly winced, and his horn flickered, as did the shield. “Speaking of which, we might want to move fast. I’m not used to keeping these things up for longer than a few seconds.”

Quill grabbed Filter and dove to the side. The manticore rose unsteadily and growled at them menacingly. The author rose into the air and pulled something out of his saddlebags. “... Seriously? Apples?” He could see Mayor Mare laughing in her office, awaiting their demise.

“Wait, what?” Filter, still hanging in Quill’s grasp, looked up. “Okay, it’s better than nothing. Put me down.”

Quill looked down at his friend in surprise. “What?”

“I said put me down.”

Obeying, Quill swooped low to the ground and dropped Filter off. The manticore saw its chance for a bite, but the semi-pegasus made a second stop to kick it in the face, drawing its attention away.

“Whatever idea you have, it better work!” Quill shouted down.

“Throw one of the apples!” Filter yelled back.

“At the manticore?”

“No, just in general! Throw one anywhere!”

Quill paused. “...that’s sarcasm, isn’t it.”

“No it isn’t! Just throw one!”

Shrugging, Quill threw an apple ahead of himself, not really aiming at anything. He was surprised when a shield popped into existence, surrounding the apple. He was even more surprised when it began bouncing around inside the dome, gaining speed with each bounce.

“Three...two...one...” Filter counted down before dropping the shield at the right moment, launching the apple from its containment. His aim was true, and the flying fruit struck the manticore in the face just as it was about to go after the unicorn again. At the speed it was travelling, it literally knocked the winged beast over, dazing it.

“How’d you do that?” Quill asked, landing.

“A shield made of, basically, magic rubber. Normally, it’s a spell used to enchant something and turn it into a trampoline - one of the first things you learn in magic kindergarten - but by combining it with my shield spell, I...well, did what you just saw.”

“...you weaponized fruit.”

“Yep.”

“...whoever said shield spells were useless can suck it.”

A growl alerted them back to the current situation, and they faced the manticore as it began to rise.

“And of course our victory is short-lived.” Quill sighed and pulled out another apple. “Tell me when.”

Filter watched the manticore closely, but then he paused slightly when he thought he saw something strange. He could have sworn the manticore seemed afraid.

“Filter, now?” Filter snapped out of his surprised trance to see the manticore moving towards him once more. He looked up to see Quill winding up to throw again.

“Yes, now!” The apple was tossed, and again a shield was produced. The apple bounced, and then was released. Either through a stroke of bad luck, or the manticore was ready this time, but the apple missed it by a hair, smashing into a tree on the edge of the clearing. The manticore took a glance behind, and it was only a second, but in that moment both ponies reacted. Quill dived down and Filter leaped forwards. The moment the manticore turned around, both slammed into it, knocking it back into the same tree. It slumped back down onto the ground and was still.

The two friends stood there, panting heavily, and then both warily approached the figure. It was then that Filter realized something. “Quill?”

“Yes?”

“Shouldn’t manticores be bigger?”

“... yes, I think they should.” What Quill and Filter were looking at was a manticore indeed. Claws, teeth, wings, and a scorpion-like tail. But this manticore was pony-sized. And yes, we mean pony-sized. It was just smaller than Quill, and its body was more proportional than a normal manticores, adding to the odd appearance. The two suddenly became afraid that they were just looking at an... incorrect pony.

“Did we kill it?” Filter asked, backing away quickly.

Quill hovered closer, tense. “In all honesty, I hope not. No matter what it is, I don’t want to kill unless there’s no other choice.” I’ve killed too many already. He cautiously poked the beast’s head with a hoof. It lolled to the side. He leaned the body forward and examined the back of its head. The fur was sticky with blood, but to his relief not much. He leaned down and placed his head on its chest. Again he was relieved to hear a heartbeat. “No, we didn’t kill it. But we need to patch its wound. Or wounds. Let’s hope the Mayor packed bandages.”

She had. Soon they the manticore’s head cleaned and wrapped, and it was currently resting on its side, snoring.

“What do we do?” Filter asked worriedly, looking at Quill.

“Well, I’m not going to leave it here,” the semi-pegasus replied. “That would be a death sentence in itself.”

“So we’re staying in the forest, aren’t we?” Filter deadpanned.

“Yes, we are. Now find some firewood!” Quill turned back to the manticore worriedly. Filter rolled his eyes and began collecting sticks and wood.





That night the two took turns watching the woods, trying to catch sleep when the shifts changed. Neither of them actually slept, but it was early the next morning when the manticore awoke.

Quill and Filter had been awake from nervousness, so they both tensed and watched as it slowly rose, then turned to them and said, “You didn’t kill me. Why?”

Two things surprised them. One: This manticore knew Equestrian. Two: It was not an it. It was a she.

“Well, at least we can communicate.” Quill said, sticking out a hoof. “I’m Blood Quill, and this is Pop Filter.” He motioned to the unicorn, who stood gaping at the manticore girl, stunned. “Ignore him.”

She glanced at his proffered hoof, but did not shake. “I’m... I’m Ratchet. And it’s fine. Most wouldn’t stay around long enough to hear me speak, much less wonder why I’m so small.”

“Yeah, we noticed that.”

“I wish I weren’t so small, but that’s how I was born.” Ratchet shrugged, which to the ponies looked oddly... pony-like.

“Alright then... Filter, why don’t you talk to our new friend?” Quill turned back to the unicorn, who stared at him in surprise.

“Friend? This manticore is not a friend! How do we know she won’t eat us once we’ve dropped our guard?” Filter shouted, eyes darting around.

“Because we’ve dropped our guard already,” Quill pointed out smugly.

“She’s injured.”

“So? That doesn’t-”

“If you two remember, I can speak.” Ratchet sighed.

The two friends glanced at her. “Yes, that’s very important. So what do you have to say about yourself?” Quill asked.

“Well, for one thing, if you didn’t want to get attacked you shouldn’t have come here in the first place. It’s the Everfree Forest for crying out loud.”

Filter shoved Quill. “See?!”

“That doesn’t explain why you attacked us,” Quill replied to the manticore, ignoring his friend. “Yesterday you seemed set on killing us, and now we’re having civil conversation. What’s wrong with this picture?”

Ratchet shrugged again. “Everypony who comes looking for me attacks me. Something about the mayor of your town trying to get rid of me. I thought you were like them.”

Quill looked uncomfortable. “Well...we kinda were...though she sort of forced us into it.”

“Correction: she forced you into it, and you just dragged me along,” Filter piped up. A glare from his friend silenced him.

“Wait...” Quill looked back at Ratchet suspiciously. “You said others have come looking for you...?”

“I didn’t kill them,” the manticore sighed. “Didn’t even hurt them. I just scared them off. A warning. You’re the first ponies to actually stay behind and fight.”

Quill rubbed his chin with a hoof. “Interesting...so, how do you speak Equestrian anyway?”

“It’s a long story.”

“...okay then. So now, the question is: what do we do with you? We can’t just leave you here, and we obviously aren’t going to kill you.”

The three of them thought for a while. Finally, Filter spoke up. “Why don’t we just take her back to Ponyville?”

He received two deadpanned stares in response.

“No, humor me here,” the unicorn continued. “Ratchet - it’s Ratchet, right? - isn’t hostile. She’s not particularly dangerous or threatening, and considering how we’re still alive, she doesn’t eat ponies. I don’t think.” He turned to Ratchet. “Do you eat ponies?”

“I’m a vegetarian.”

“Problem solved!”

Quill shook his head. “Your logic never fails, Filter. Now we can only hope the mayor finished our house already.”

“You got her to fix our house?”

“Yep. And throw in five-hundred and fifty bits.”

“Well that’s a nice start.”

“Compared to the ten we had after buying the house.” Quill chuckled, then jerked his head back in the direction they had come from. “Now come on. You too, Ratchet. We’ll smuggle you in.” With that, he rose into the air and flew away.

With a glance and a shared shrug, the unicorn and manticore followed, although Filter made sure he could see Ratchet the entire way.





Back in Ponyville, Quill was in the Mayor’s office, reporting his “success.”

“And then I leaped up onto its back and broke its neck in a single move!” Quill exaggerated his movements. The Mayor was unimpressed. She stared at him through bemused eyes and cut him off.

“Yes, yes, very well. I assume you want your pay now?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

The Mayor unceremoniously took a pouch from inside her desk and tossed it to the floor. “There. Now leave.”

“Wait! Is my house fixed?”

“Yes. I made sure it was myself. Leave. Now!”

Quill picked up the bag, tested its weight, grinned, and left, glad to have the mare out of his sight. He didn’t like her. He waved the bag tauntingly in front of the secretary’s face for good measure and trotted out, laughing. Feeling accomplished, he made his way back to the Everfree, where he had left Ratchet waiting with Filter.

“The house is fixed. C’mon.” He turned and trotted away, but was stopped by a hoof.

“Wait. We haven’t thought about how to smuggle her in yet,” Filter reminded him, sighing.

Quill paused. “That is true.” He looked to the manticore girl, tapping his hoof on the ground thoughtfully. “Maybe she’d fit in a bag.”

For this he earned a smack and a glare, but Ratchet nodded all the same.





“Ow! Watch what you’re doing!” came the annoyed voice from the cloth bag. “I’m still in here!”

“Shhh!” Filter hissed. “If we get caught, we’ll all be in trouble!”

“And if I come out of this bag with too many cuts and bruises, you’ll be in even bigger trouble!”

Filter groaned. “What do you want me to do, magically levitate you? Because that totally wouldn’t draw even more attention to us.”

“... speaking of magic, aren’t you a unicorn? Can’t you just teleport us?”

“I’m not really skilled in magic. I can teleport small stuff, but I can’t even teleport myself, let alone myself and a bag containing a manticore.” The unicorn shifted his grip on the bag and turned to Quill, who was flying alongside him, about a foot off the ground. “And you’re not helping carry her because...?”

The semi-pegasus shrugged. “I’m tired.”

“You’re a freaking earth pony! I’m a unicorn. Unicorns are physically the weakest of all three pony types.” Filter stopped when he realized the perplexed stare his friend was giving him. “Hey, I went to high school. Pegasi have light yet tough bones to aid their flying and protect them from crashes. Earth ponies have stronger muscles overall. Unicorns? All of our strength is in here.” The blue pony tapped his horn. “Not that it does me any good.”

Quill sighed. “Fine, smarty pants. If it annoys you that much, I’ll carry it.” He landed and picked up the neck of the bag, rising into the air again and flying forwards, lifting it off the ground. “Also, if you want to get better at magic, there’s such a thing as practice. Or witch doctors. Or zebras.”

“Okay, one, practice doesn’t help if you don’t know where to begin. Two, witch doctors don’t exist, and even if they did, I wouldn’t touch one with a fifty-foot pole. Three, don’t be racist towards zebras.”

“Racist? I’m just pointing out a fact, my friend.” Quill raised an eyebrow, mouth twitching upwards into a smile. “You’ve never met one, have you?”

Filter rolled his eyes. “I’ve lived in giant cities my whole life, and zebras live in quiet, peaceful places. Draw your own conclusion.”

“If it’s this shocking to you, I hear a zebra lives right in the Everfree.”

“Given how we met a talking, pony-sized manticore in there...I don’t doubt that.” The unicorn paused to suppress a yawn. “I’m still not going back in there to talk to them, though.”

Quill shrugged. “Your funeral.”

“If you two hadn’t realized. I’m still alive.” came the angry voice from the burlap bag.

“We know,” Filter sighed. “It’s just talking to each other is less suspicious than talking to a bag.”

“Now be quiet until we get to- oh look, our house.” Quill cut himself off when the structure rose into view. There it was, fixed and everything. “Huh...looks a lot nicer without the hole in the roof.”

Filter gave his friend a deadpanned stare. “I wonder why.”

Quill shrugged and glided to the door. “Filter, open the door.”

The door opened in a blue aura, and the two ponies trotted in, the bag containing their new friend still being dragged along.

Quill set the bag down and said, “You can come out now.”

The manticore slowly crawled out, standing up and giving the two stallions a death glare. “You two will pay.”

“Maybe, but not until you’re healed,” Quill laughed, nudging one of her injuries.

“So...are we done?” Filter asked, yawning again.

“Yes, we’re done. Filter, you’re giving up your bed for Ratchet.”

“What? Why me?”

“Because I want a bed.”

“Who’s the insomniac here?”

“... Touché. Well, whatever the case, one of us isn’t sleeping in the bed.” Quill shrugged. “Maybe I’ll try the clouds.”

“When you get lost from sleeping on a cloud, I’ll laugh at you.”

“Whatever.”

And so it was. Ratchet and Filter got a comfortable bed, while Quill decided to sleep on a cloud. He wasn’t sure if it would work, as he had never tried it before, but he hoped everything would be alright. He landed on one of the puffy white things...

And fell straight through.

Grumbling and cursing, he made his way back to the house and collapsed on the couch, exhausted.

It had been one hell of a day. Or past few days.
> Chapter 5: Mistakes Have Been Made
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a few days since the “manticore mercenaries” incident. Quill and FIlter were walking through town to get food for the next few days, and to get some things for Ratchet, when they saw the pink pony that was Pinkie Pie bouncing up to them jovially.

Quill debated running, then decided to greet the mare, since he saw Filter obviously wasn’t going to.

“Hello, Pinkie!” he called.

“Hiya! I wanted to ask Poppy a question,” Pinkie responded.

Both stallions looked at her in confusion. “...‘Poppy’?” Quill finally asked.

“Yeah! Poppy! Pop, Poppy!” The pink pony giggled at the nickname. “I like it! Don’t you?”

Quill snickered and looked at Filter, who had decided to occupy himself with studying the structure of a nearby house. “So, ‘Poppy’, going to say hi?”

Filter turned to his friend with a glare. “Don’t. Call. Me. Poppy.”

“What about her?” Quill gestured to the mare. “Your girlfriend?”

“That’s it, I am out of here.” The unicorn promptly turned and walked away, blushing furiously. Pinkie and Quill shared a confused look.

“Dude, just listen to her question,” the semi-pegasus said, flying in front of his friend. “I’m not letting you wuss out of this.”

“There’s a pretty big difference between wussing out of something, and getting ticked off and walking away.” Nonetheless, Filter obeyed and walked back to where Pinkie was standing, now looking at a ball she had procured from Celestia knows where. “...where did you get that?”

Pinkie looked up at the unicorn and smiled. “Oh, I always keep balls stashed around Ponyville in case of a ball emergency!” She tossed the ball over her shoulder.

“So...anyway, what did you want to ask me?” Filter had decided to ignore the ball and just change the topic.

“Welllllllllll...first, are you busy tonight?”

The blue stallion’s eyes widened immensely. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He turned to Quill, silently begging for help.

“He’s not, Pinkie.” The semi-pegasus grinned wolfishly. “In fact, he can do whatever you want him to, well into the late hours.”

The look in Filter’s eyes very plainly said I am going to murder you in your sleep. Assuming I plan to wait even that long.

“Awesome!” Pinkie declared. “Think he could drop by Sugarcube Corner at, ohhh...seven tonight?”

“Of course he can!” Quill declared before the unicorn could say otherwise. “Right Filter?”

“Of…course…Quill...” the unicorn practically growled.

“See? There, done! He’ll see you then, Pinkie.” The semi-pegasus departed with another grin, his friend following.

The message in Filter’s eyes had changed to I will stab you with my horn as soon as you turn away from me. He proceeded to vocalize this message once Pinkie was out of earshot.

“Right, right, and you’ve told me that how many times now?” And, as was the ritual, he rose into the air, too high for his friend to reach him.

“I can’t wait for the chance to start shipping you with somepony,” Filter grumbled as he continued walking.

“Who’s to say I’ll even fall for a pony? For all we know, I might be in a relationship with a manticore, and then-” The semi-pegasus stopped in his tracks when he saw the growing grin on Filter’s face. “Don’t. You. Dare.”

The unicorn said nothing. He simply began to whistle to himself and gained a spring in his step.





The door opened as Quill trotted in, a mask of calm on his face, then went into the kitchen where he found Ratchet, eating a salad.

“Hey,” she waved a paw at him and continued eating for a moment, then asked, “Where’s FIlter?”

“Filter...” the semi-pegasus’ eyes narrowed. “That four-eyed, double-crossing asshole! I hate him.”

An amused grin passed over the manticore’s face. “And how many times do you two say that to each other in a day?” The grin grew as Quill conceded to her point. “So, what did he do to get you so riled up this time?”

Quill looked away, then down, then at the clock, but never directly at the manticore girl. “... Nothing… Anyways, I’m just gonna… nap. That’s it, nap.”





Filter glanced around nervously as he trotted through Ponyville, as if everything was preparing to jump out at him. It was a few minutes until seven; he had just enough time to get to Sugarcube Corner.

Even though part of him was nervous, the rest of him was excited. Is there a word for that? Nervouscited? ...no, that’s just dumb.

The confectionary shop appeared in his vision, and he swallowed nervously. With less than two minutes before he was asked to arrive, he lifted a hoof and knocked on the door.

He waited for somepony to answer, then jumped in surprise when the door quickly opened, almost cowering on instinct before realizing that it was just an enthusiastic Pinkie. “Um… hi, Pinkie.”

“Hiya!” The pink earth pony beamed. 

“So… it’s seven. What did you want me here for?” He couldn’t shake the feeling that he already knew, but was still unsure.

“Oh, I just wanted you to taste my cupcake.”

“...wait, what?” Filter blinked, his brain momentarily shutting down.

“Yeah, my new cupcake recipe!” the bubbly pony grinned in delight, then pouted softly. “You want to, don’t you?”

The stallion blinked again, then nodded with a sigh of relief. “Y-Yeah...that sounds good...”

“Great!” She dragged him inside without any further ado.





Quill looked up from a book as his unicorn friend trotted through the door, grinning. “And what took you so long, young man?”

Filter looked at him. “Huh? Oh, sorry. Pinkie was really insistent on me tasting her cupcake.”

There was a long silence in which the semi-pegasus’s jaw dropped and Ratchet stuck her head out from the kitchen, as both said at the same time. “YOU DID WHAT?!”

The unicorn just nodded. “Yeah. That’s why she wanted to invite me over. Nopony else had tasted it before, and really, I’m kind of glad I was the first.” He shrugged. “A little too moist for my liking, but it definitely had a nice aftertaste. Could’ve done without the sticky white mess all over my face, but that can’t really be helped.”

Again, the long silence followed, but this time was broken by the thud of a book hitting a unicorn’s face.

“Ow!” Said unicorn rubbed his nose. “What the hell?!”

“You aren’t even in an official relationship yet and you go and… do that?!” Quill was in shock, but Ratchet was a different story. The manticore was on the warpath.

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A POOR MARE LIKE THAT?! OR ANY FEMALE CREATURE IN GENERAL? I OUGHT TO-”

“...I have some rephrasing to do, don’t I?” Despite the screaming, all Filter did was raise an eyebrow.

“... You what?” Quill separated the furious manticore from Filter and sat her on the couch with him, and both stared at the unicorn, waiting for an explanation.

“What is there to explain? She wanted me to taste test a new cupcake recipe. Really not that big a deal.” Filter was appearing rather irked now. “What did you think I meant?”

“... Filter, you know what sex is, right?” The semi-pegasus went for the straightforward approach.

“Are you even more stupid than me?” Filter retorted. “Of course I do!”

“Then how about oral sex?” the manticore chimed in.

“...Oh.” The unicorn’s eyes widened. “Oh…oh.”

Needless to say, everyone promptly decided it was time for bed.