//------------------------------// // Black Sheep // Story: Grief is the Price We Pay // by Scyphi //------------------------------// Their second day working at the little book and stationery store began smoothly enough, and once they had joined Fly Leaf for a simple breakfast of cold cereal (which Thorax joined in on, even though he naturally ate little of the offered breakfast) and had opened the store for business, proceeded much like how it had gone the day previous. Once she had assured that Thorax and Spike were set up at their respective jobs however, again with Thorax handling the cash register and Spike maintaining stock and assisting customers, Fly Leaf decided to take a do-it-yourself manual she owned and, ignoring Spike’s advice last night to hire a plumber to do it, went into the second floor bathroom to attempt to fix the sink’s faucet knob herself. She spent most of the morning working on the task, and by noon believed she had finally finished and opened the restroom for public use again, only to have a customer come down fifteen minutes later with the knob in question in their hoof, the knob having proved to still be broken. Fly Leaf then accepted the knob from the customer and quietly slipped into the back of the shop. According to Spike, who happened to be in back at the moment checking through the boxes of inventory that lined corridor running alongside the kitchen, Fly marched all the way into the back bathroom and locked herself inside long enough to let out a long and angry yell so to vent her frustrations, before returning to politely thank the customer for bringing the broken knob to her attention and promising to have it fixed at the soonest convenience. However, she in reality set the knob aside, not wanting to worry about it again today, and put up a notice that the sink was out of order in the bathroom in question, which remained in place the rest of the day. Instead, seeing that Spike and Thorax were still performing their respective jobs admirably, decided to swap their jobs, so that Spike was working on the cash register and Thorax worked on the floor assisting customers, insuring that the two were adequately trained that they could jump in and assist at multiple tasks in the shop if needed. They spent most of the afternoon with their jobs swapped like this. Thorax continued to perform well as he helped customers and maintained stock, while Spike managed on the cash register, but quickly revealed that he wasn’t as skilled at it as Thorax was. Spike also proved that he indeed not the best at mental math, as he discovered he struggled at counting back change to customers, but fortunately Fly Leaf readily and patiently assisted him when needed, and soon was satisfied that Spike could do the job decently enough if ever needed. Then as the afternoon started to turn to evening, the work day started nearing its end, and the number of customers fading to a faint trickle, Fly Leaf left Spike and Thorax running the major operations of the shop while she went in back to start working on what she would only say was “a surprise.” As it was unlikely neither of her new employees would need anything from the back this close to closing time now, she forbade them from coming in back so to maintain the surprise, and only came out from the back once when it came time to close up the shop for the day before promptly returning. Spike and Thorax only started to get some idea as to what their boss was up to as they were doing some final tidying up around the closed store and both began to notice the warm smell of food beginning to waft out from the back kitchen, deducing Fly Leaf was cooking something. At last, just as the disguised changeling and dragon were wrapping up and were wondering if they needed to stay downstairs still until Fly told them otherwise, Fly emerged out from in back again. “All right you two,” she told them cheerily, motioning for them to follow her into the kitchen. “Who’s hungry?” Curious, the two exchanged glances then followed her through the batwing doors into the kitchen to find the small dining table set in there had been set out for three and was adorned with a casserole dish at its center, hot, steaming, and fresh from the oven. “I decided to make a little celebratory dinner for my two newest employees,” Fly explained to the pair happily, and motioned for the two to sit at one side of the round table while she sat herself at the other end. “Now I’m not that great of a cook, but…” “No, no, it’s looks really good!” Spike declared, his mouth watering at the savory smell of the dish, eagerly taking the offered seat. “Thanks, Fly!” Thorax however, naturally, was a bit more hesitant as he sat down beside his dragon friend. “What is it?” he asked as neutrally as he could, not wanting to accidentally offend Fly while also tilting his head curiously at the dish, inwardly debating how much of it he could eat so to safely keep up appearances without also upsetting his changeling stomach. “Funeral potatoes,” Fly responded sunnily as she proceeded to dish up her two employees heaping servings of the dish. Thorax gave her a confused look, wrinkling his disguise’s brow. “…did somepony die?” he asked, not understanding. Fly laughed as she dished up some of the dish for herself. “No, no, no one’s died, Thornton. True, the dish gets its name because it’s often served at funerals, but it’s not exclusive to just funerals. My mother would make it for dinner all the time when I was a foal.” Seeing Thorax still regarding his plate of the dish hesitantly, she elaborated. “It’s just a casserole dish made with hash browns, cheese, onions, cream sauce, sour cream, and topped with some bread crumbs to make a kind of crust.” Seeing Thorax still appeared hesitant, she gave him a teasing smirk. “Unless you’re allergic to any of those things, I promise it’s not poisoned, Thornton.” “Thornton’s a bit of a…stingy eater, actually,” Spike provided as an explanation in-between his own bites of the meal, covering for the changeling’s hesitation to partake likewise. “Not really one to eat an awful lot at mealtimes.” “Oh, I’m not having that,” Fly said, waving the matter aside, and motioned to Thorax’s unicorn disguise. “A young stripling stallion like you? You need to keep your strength up, so eat up!” She nudged Thorax’s plate with one hoof. Thorax bit his lip, but he otherwise relented and proceeded to pick at the dish. Spike, meanwhile, had eagerly cleared his plate already and was helping himself to seconds, while Fly also enjoyed the dish she had made. Upon tasting his first bite of the dish, Thorax found that it did in fact taste very good, but also found upon swallowing that the bite weighed heavily in the lower chamber of his changeling stomach, already sated for the day with several helpings of positive emotions while working, and was really reluctant to eat too much more. Nonetheless, not wanting to offend Fly or rouse her suspicions, he continued to nibble at the dish. “So,” Fly said about halfway into the meal, looking to make conversation. “I know you two are friends and normally travelers, but I don’t really know much else about either of you. So tell me about yourselves.” When both of them looked at her blankly and didn’t immediately respond, she prompted them on a topic. “Either of you have family?” “Oh, well,” Thorax began and thought to himself as he wondered how to respond. “I suppose so, but…we’re not really that close anymore. In fact, I haven’t spoken to most of them since we were nym—I mean, foals.” “Really?” Fly was surprised by this. “Why not?” Thorax tried to shrug off the matter. “I guess you could say we had…differing opinions about…things.” “Thornton’s something of the black sheep in his family,” Spike offered, trying to be helpful. Thorax looked at the dragon in puzzlement. “Black sheep?” he repeated, not understanding the idiom, which caused Spike to grin a little, amused by the fact that someone claiming to be as fluent in language as Thorax had such a selective understanding of some it’s common phrases. Fly, however, understood and chuckled a little herself. “There’s always one in every family, isn’t there?” she remarked aloud. She then turned her attention to Spike. “How about you, Spark? You have any family?” Spike’s grin immediately vanished and was replaced with a frown as he no doubt thought about the ponies that had made him an outcast. “Let’s just say we had a falling out and leave it at that,” he said bitterly. Fly frowned herself, put off by the fact that neither of the two seemed to have good relations with their family members at present. “Well, that’s not very heartwarming,” she mulled to herself as she cleared her plate with one final bite. “I, on the other hoof, am on very good terms with my family, and proud of it.” She grinned. “I’d hate to be on bad terms with any of them, especially my own siblings.” Spike looked up as he cleared his own plate yet again. “You have siblings?” he asked partly because he was genuinely curious, and partly because he saw it as a chance to pull the conversation off him and Thorax. “Mm-hmm, an elder brother named First Edition, and a younger sister named Chapbook.” “What do they do then?” Thorax asked, who had only managed to clear a third of his plate and really didn’t want to push himself to clear anymore of it at this point. “Do they have their own shops they run?” “No—well, not selling books and stationery like me, at least. First Edition works as an editor for a hoity-toity publishing company over in Manehatten, while Chapbook stayed home down in Tall Tale, where she owns a small private printing press, printing off booklets and pamphlets for businesses and such.” “You grew up in Tall Tale?” Spike asked, who, much like Vanhoover itself before he and Thorax had arrived, knew of the humble city by reputation but hadn’t yet visited it himself. When Fly nodded in confirmation, he continued. “What brought you up to Vanhoover, then?” “It was the first city I found that had a place available I could make a shop out of,” Fly responded, motioning to the building they sat in. She grinned as she gazed up at the ceiling of the kitchen, reflecting back on her memories of the event. “The moment I saw this place, I knew it was perfect, so I just had to buy it and move up to turn it into a store.” She returned her gaze onto her coworkers. “But of course we all go and visit our parents’ home in Tall Tale as often as we can. We in fact just got together for a family reunion two moons ago.” “Well it’s good to hear that one of us has family they can rely on,” Spike remarked with a small grin. Fly returned it faintly, inwardly wishing she really wasn’t the only one at the table that could claim that before glancing back at Thorax. “Sheesh Thornton,” she said, noticing his plate was still largely full. “Not a fan of funeral potatoes, huh?” Thorax, relieved to be called out on it finally, shook his head and set down his fork. “No, I guess not,” then added, “Sorry, Miss Fly.” “Ah, don’t worry about it,” Fly said, waving the matter aside. A kitchen timer behind them suddenly dinged and Fly promptly rose to open the oven. “It just means you’ll have plenty of room for dessert.” Thorax froze for a split second, before turning to watch the pumpkin-orange earth pony pull not one but two pans of the dessert in question from the oven, setting one on the stovetop while bringing the other to the table. “…dessert?” he repeated hesitantly, who wasn’t sure he could safely down much more solid food. “Yep!” Fly Leaf declared as she set a hot pie on the table before them, “My grandmother’s favorite recipe for cherry pie, using only garden fresh ingredients and made with love, as she used to say.” This caused Thorax to perk up immediately, his past hesitation suddenly forgotten. “Love?” he repeated. “Really?” “She didn’t mean it literally, Thornton,” Spike pointed out with a teasing grin. “You never know,” Thorax argued back. Fly took this to mean he was much more interested in the pie and eager to insure he was properly fed, took the liberty of serving him first with an extra-large slice of pie. The largeness of the slice briefly intimidated the disguised changeling, but after taking his first bite, he then proceeded to eagerly eat the rest of the slice with a gusto that surprised both Spike and Fly as they worked at their own slices. “Mmmmm,” he hummed to himself afterwards, savoring the lingering sweet flavor in his mouth. “I take it you liked the pie, then,” Fly Leaf remarked with a grin. “Yes,” Thorax agreed with a nod. He then gazed at the pie still left in the pan, and held up his plate. “Could I have another slice?” Fly was happy to oblige, but Spike, knowing Thorax had limits to the amount of solid food he could eat, was more hesitant. “Now don’t overdo it, Thornton,” he warned. Thorax waved him off, digging into the second slice. “Aw, one more slice isn’t going to hurt,” he promised.