Ponyville Library:
Spike watched suspiciously as Church arrived at the bottom of the stairs.
“Well.” The cobalt Stallion spoke to himself. “When I woke up today, I didn’t think I would be spending my day doing… this.”
Spike wormed himself further under the table until he could only see church between the edge of the table and the floor.
Church himself slowly walked over to the Library Index, before awkwardly grasping the top and bottom of the cover and flipping it open.
Spike squinted as he watched church fumble with the index for a good five minutes, taking at least three tries to turn each page.
‘He can’t even use magic?’
Eventually, Church turned and walked across the room, peering intensely at a row of books.
“H… H… H…” He muttered, running his hoof along the spines of the books. “And… Of course. Nothing.”
Spike raised an eyebrow. What was church searching for?
Instead, Church moved slightly to the left, once again scanning the shelf.
“Okay then… so what about Hist- Oh.” Church took a step back, looking the shelf up and down. “That’s a lot.”
‘Ah!’ Spike gave a curious frown. So Church had decided to learn about history.
He watched – still suspicious – as Church trapped close ten books between his front hooves, and started carrying the over the stairs, balancing on his hind legs.
But that was as far as he got.
Church stopped at the foot of the stairs, half-placing half-dumping the books on the ground as he realised that he needed to carry them up two sets of stairs.
“Ugh.” Church placed one hoof to his head. “Fuck me.”
After about half a minute of pondering, Church finally lent down, picked up the topmost book in his mouth and started carrying it up the stairs.
“Wow.” Spike muttered to himself as he watched Church start what would be a long process of going up and down the stairs. “No magic at all.”
He waited until Church was nearly at the top, before sliding out of his hiding place and running to the door, slipping outside.
Spike couldn’t stay under that table for much longer – definitely not for how long it would take for Church to be finished – So he decided to go find Twilight and report Church’s odd behaviour.
***
Near Sweet Apple Acres:
Twilight sighed as she plodded along the road. What was she going to do? Church was already being antisocial – showing a high chance of being a complete pain – and none of her friends had any good advice.
“So how’s your coltfriend?”
Twilight looked to the left, to see Rainbow Dash floating lazily alongside her.
“Difficult.” She retorted. “Come on Dash. He’s just trying to adjust.”
“Adjust to what?” Rainbow frowned. “The guy’s a wacko!”
“No he isn’t.” Twilight sighed, dropping her head. “He’s just got amnesia.”
“You heard Doctor Stables. We all know he hasn’t.”
Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but had no actual comeback
Instead, she changed the subject. “You know, you could actually be helping, instead of just making trouble.”
“I’m not making trouble!” Rainbow defended herself. “Making trouble would be-”
Twilight shot her a sharp glare, cutting her off.
“Okay, fine. What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know.” Twilight sighed. “You could try talking to him. You did save his life, after all.”
“Why?”
“I don’t think he’s comfortable talking to me.”
Rainbow shrugged. “It sounds to me he doesn’t talk much anyway.”
“He doesn’t.” Twilight confirmed. “But he’s probably still at the Library. I don’t think he’s been planning to leave any time soon.”
Rainbow shrugged again. “I’ll give it a shot. No promises.”
Twilight watched as the blue Pegasus turned slightly and started flying away, even as Spike was approaching up the road.
“Spike!” She exclaimed. “Shouldn’t you be watching Church at the Library?”
“I was.” He replied, panting slightly as he came to a stop. “But I can’t just lie under a table all day.”
“He came out of his room?”
“Yeah.” Spike took a deep breath.
“You need to get out more.” Twilight smiled sheepishly at how tired Spike looked.
Ignoring the jab, Spike started talking. “He came downstairs and looked at the Index, and then started looking for something under ‘H’, but he couldn’t find it. So then he just got some books on history and took them back up to his room.”
“History books?”
“Yeah.”
Twilight put a hoof to her chin, wondering what else Church could be looking up under ‘H’. “Huh. Well, Rainbow’s on her way to talk to him right now. Maybe she’ll find out what he’s up to.”
Spike shrugged, as they started walking back towards Ponyville. “So I guess we need to stay out on the town for a while.”
“I guess.”
Spike’s face lit up.
“Oh! Can we go see Pinkie? I want to see if she’s finished those ruby cupcakes!”
Twilight looked down at Spike, and then smiled.
“Sure Spike. Let’s go.”
***
Ponyville Library:
Church turned a page, continuing to read.
He was irritated. Three of the books he had brought up were trash. ‘A Brief History of Manehattan/Trottingham/Cloudsdale,’ All of which had made their uselessness obvious on the first page.
On the other hand, he had six other books. One was ‘A Brief History of Ponyville’, while the other five were five volumes on the history of a country named ‘Equestria’ – which Ponyville and the three cities seemed to be a part of.
He was skimming through the first volume of the equestrian history, feeling very confused by the odd syntax and word substitutions. So far, Church had glossed over something involving chaos and discord, two princesses and a lot of filler about cities cropping up. Aside from the mention of war at the beginning, he was finding the volume drier then longest message he had ever received from command.
‘It was at this point, while the cities were developed, that new troubles started to arise from the east, as the Griffon Empire started to fortify it’s borders against the changelings.’
“Huh.” Church started to pay more attention. Here was something interest-
Tap-Tap-Tap.
Church stopped, putting the book down.
Tap-Tap.
He rolled off the bed, and walked over to the window, where the blue Pegasus from earlier was floating outside the glass, tapping on it.
“Uh… Hey?” He raised one eyebrow.
“Hey!” The Pegasus said with forced cheerfulness, her voice muffled by the window. “Do you remember me?”
Church paused. “…Yeah. I don’t normally forget things.”
The Pegasus – who he recalled to be named ‘Rainbow Dash’ - pointed one hoof at the telescope taking up most of the window. “Uh… Can I come in?”
Church hesitated. “Uh…” He looked at the Pegasus. “Eh.”
With a slight sigh, he placed one hoof against the telescope, and pushed, swivelling it So that the lens no longer blocked the window.
“Thanks.” Rainbow muttered as she flew in through the opening, setting down on the floor. “It’s Church, right?”
“Yes.” Church sat down on his bed, flipping over the book he had been reading. “What do you want?”
“I just want to talk.”
Church frowned. If remembering the vague outline of some guy going through high school and university had taught him anything, it had taught him that ‘I want to talk’ wasn’t a good sign.
“Really.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Uhh… Yeah!” Rainbow smiled uneasily. “You know, I kinda thought you’d be okay with talking to me… you know, because I saved your life and all.”
Church’s ear twitched in annoyance. He hated people having leverage over him.
“What?” His tone dropped to a venomous hiss almost instantly.
Slightly surprised but undaunted, Dash pressed on.
“I was just wondering what you were doing so high in the sky.”
“Falling.”
Dash’s face lit up in a smirk for a quick second, before returning to normal. “I mean, how did you get there?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Church retorted, turning slightly away. “Why do you care?”
“I’m just curious.” Rainbow took a half step back, almost cringing away from the bitter aura Church was emanating.
“I’m sure.”
“So, how do you like Ponyville?”
“It’s fine.”
“What are you reading?”
“Nothing.”
“Do you have any friends?”
“No.”
Rainbow flared, her short fuse lit by the brick-wall responses, even as Church turned to her, wondering what the next question could-
“Do you have any family?” She asked hot headedly, determined to drag some sort of answer out of the colt.
Church stopped dead, staring at Rainbow, a seething rage bubbling up inside him.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow, not sure what was happening.
His lips parted, revealing his teeth, which had been forced together so tight that Rainbow could barely make out what came next.
“What?”