//------------------------------// // Gale's Hallow // Story: Farmhand // by MLP-person //------------------------------// Quill walked down the steps and away from the school more cheerful, more lighthearted, than he had felt in a long time. To either side of him were Button and Pipsqueak, while Rumble simply walked along behind. He knew he would have to part ways with them soon enough, and it wasn't the best thing in the world, but he would survive. It was a high-pitched, bratty voice that snapped him out of the reverie that the day's events had created for him, like his own little private universe. He was reminded of Discord's home clearly, somehow. He guessed, at least metaphorically, there were similarities. A pink filly and a gray filly had stepped into view, the former smirking and the latter looking distinctly uncomfortable. He wondered vaguely what was wrong with the gray filly, but didn't think to much about it. The pink filly was the one speaking, of course. "Hi, new guy." She said in a clipped tone, "You know who I am? Diamond Tia-well, of course you do. How could you not?" He looked at her askance, confused. "I was just stopping you and these...ponies, to invite you over!" At his side, Button gave a jerky shake of his head. "Erm...have we met?" "No, but still, I live in a mansion. And of course that's worth coming over to see. So, when can you? Now would be good." Quill's alien look deepened considerably. "You're a writer." Pipsqueak leaned up and hissed into his ear. "Thanks to Sweetie a few ponies know your name. Makes her interested." He nodded-the artificial way her mane was done up and the unrealistic smile told him all he needed to know. "Sorry, but I'm busy today. And not really all that interested." He sent an impolite message with a perfectly polite tone and choice of words. Diamond Tiara, if he remembered what Sweetie had told him correctly, looked angry for all of half a second before she recovered and looked at him with a blank look, then her fake smile returned. "Of course you want to! It's a mansion!" "Nope Nope." Rumble stepped up with a smirk. "Sorry Diamond Tiara, he's off to hang with Sweetie Belle." She looked at him in confusion, and so did Quill, really. "What? Rumble, I was just gonna go ho-" "Sweetie Belle?" Diamond Tiara looked back at Quill, confusion evident on her face. "Why would you want to hang out with her? She's such a little prat. And besides that, no one knows her. Nopony!" "But they will." Quill found himself saying. "Her cutie mark is a music note and she's gonna go on to do great things after school, I just know it. Her sister is very well known, so much that I heard about her back where I'm from, even saw her sho-" He froze up. If he wasn't mistaken, Rarity had only three shops, and one was here. That would leave two places he could be from, to them. Rumble seemed to think for a moment, and then something seemed to dawn on him. His eyes widened, and he mouthed to Quill; 'Manehattan?' Quill gave a jerky nod and mouthed back; 'shut it. That's nopony's business.' "What are you two saying??" Diamond Tiara asked irritably, glaring back and forth between them. "Nothing." They both said quickly. Diamond Tiara glared and stalked off, clearly defeated even though her head was held high, the little gray filly trailing along behind her. "Dude? Is that it? I know they don't have much poverty in Canterlot, my brother's been there before." Quill nodded-there was no point in lying, he'd already said more than he should have. Alas, that didn't matter, it was to late. "Yeah...yeah, that's it." "Sweetie'll wanna know~" "Rumble. You can't tell. Anypony. That was a careless mistake." Rumble sighed and nodded. "What about us? We can't know, I'm guessing?" Button asked carefully, Pipsqueak standing close to him. "No, sorry. If it becomes common knowledge, at least right now, I could be sent back by Twilight. She was all for it at first. The school thinks Fluttershy is my guardian but she isn't, not legally." Button and Pipsqueak nodded, understanding. "Alright, but, eventually, you'll tell us?" Quill nodded-eventually. Which could be a long damn time, if he decided that it was. "Okay." Pipsqueak spoke up. "Well, we're gonna get home. Probably tomorrow we're all gonna hang out after school, we talked about it at...lunch." Rumble and Button perked up curiously. "How come you never came back? You just left like you were gonna go to the bathroom but then we didn't see you until after school, now." "Oh, um, I'd left my notebook back at my science class. Anyway, I gotta go, so I'll see you guys later." He waved a wing and set off back in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage, his wings remaining half open, poised for flight. He thought-he did feel phenomenally better to have his wings freed, but was he ready to fly again? He looked upwards slowly, as though some great magnet was slowly pulling his eyes up into the blue and white expanse high above. He spread his wings-he had flown to the top of the gym, but to a cloud? No time like the present, ...someone always said. He beat his wings down hard and rose off the ground, then higher, and higher, and higher, and higher, his school bags held in place by his wings. He rose a bit faster, nearing the clouds, and then straight into one. It was cold and damp, but it only lasted a moment before he emerged into the brilliance of the sunlight, in all of it's glory. He looked around as he tucked them in and landed lightly on the cloud, wings halfway folded downwards. He arched his back and closed his eyes, enjoying the sheer pleasure of the sun's warmth on his back, wings, mane, and every other part of him, for there was nothing between him and that sun. He looked around, and blinked. Cloudsdale, the place that he had viewed sometimes from the clouds above Manehattan so far away, was right here. Right, bucking here. It was literally roughly a hundred meters off, he could just fly right to it, should he please. And he did-he snapped his wings open and took off, flying slowly towards the great expanse of white, splashes of rainbow colors here and there. He landed on the absolute very edge, probably a good mile and a half above Ponyville, and looked around. The buildings seemed to be made from clouds, and some sort of pale blue brick. There were mostly just shops, here, and as he walked down the street that was solid only for pegasi he wished he had some bits. He'd get a job over the summer, if he was still here, then he would have pocket bits. The shops were selling a variety of things, and the scents of the goods wafted invitingly to his nose;fresh-baked fudge, candy floss, and the delicious aromas of flowers growing in window boxes. He walked on happily, lost in the scents, until he found himself in a markletplace absolutely teeming with pegasi like himself. It was fantastic, to be somewhere that he fit in in every sense of the word. Or...was it? He was no different than anypony else. Looking around, he thought about it, and he saw something-or someONE, that made his heart fall straight through his chest and down to his hooves. There across the square, clean but looking haggard, was a little crimson filly, munching on an apple with her wings hanging limply at her sides. Her feathers were messy and in bad need of preening, and her eyes, a deep, dark blue, looked dull with fatigue and something else that he recognized all to clearly from his days in Manehattan. Depression. Cold, unfettered depression. Quill stood there in dull silence, unsure whether or not he should call out. In the end, he slowly walked around the outer edge of the market, until he stood behind the sitting filly. Carefully, he wrapped a wing over her eyes and spoke; "Guess who, Ruby?" She froze up, sitting in absolute silence. She just stared into the blue feathers, finished chewing up the bite of apple that she had in her mouth and then swallowing. "If you don't move your wing, s-stranger, it's going to get ripped off and fed to you." Somehow Quill wasn't afraid in the least. "Come now, Ruby, you wouldn't hurt me, would you?" And he took the wing off, still standing behind her. She took another bite, and he got the impression that her eyes were screwed tightly closed, and she was telling herself that it wasn't real. She would turn around and see somepony she'd never seen in her life, or maybe nopony at all. But what if she was wrong? On cue, she turned, and stared at him for all of ten seconds. The ponies around them-a few, anyway, watched curiously. Quill gave Rubyshade a soft smile, and she glared at him with a look that could start a war with Yakyakistan. His smile faltered-this hadn't been a good idea, he hadn't thought this through at all. He should have turned and walked off... And suddenly he was on the ground, the little filly having tackled him to the soft and firm ground of clouds. She kissed him-a kiss full of all the emotions she had let build up-of anger and sadness and longing and loneliness and more that he couldn't identify-and then she had sat up and slapped him hard across the face, leaving his cheek stinging. He grunted and looked up at her, trying to push her off, but, strong for her age, she stayed strong. "WHAT THE HELL????" She blurted out, seemingly before she could stop herself. "What the hell Quill??" And she slapped him again, hard enough to sting but not so much as to bruise him. She weakly beat her hooves against his chest and, to his horror, he realized that she was crying. Silent sobs shaking her whole figure, she wiped her eyes in vain, tears falling down onto his chest. He blinked up at her, letting her sort out whatever emotions were battling inside her, mind dwelling on the kiss that she'd given him. It had been...warm, there really was no other word. Had she missed him, much? "What the hell..." She muttered, looking more subdued now. They were attracting some funny looks and she caught wind, sliding sideways so that she sat behind him instead of on him. She kept rubbing her eyes, which didn't turn puffy, oddly. The indifferent pegasi around them just walked past, quickly losing interest. Quill sat up in front of her and looked forward at her, unsure whether he ought to do anything. After what seemed like a long time, she folded her wings back down and let her arms drop. "What the hell Quill.." She spoke yet again, but this time she continued, "Where have you been..? I mean, we left the place like a year ago, and we never see you again...and then suddenly you just...show up behind me one day? I've got to be dreaming..." Quill shook his head. "No, Rubyshade, I'm really here. I just wanted to see Cloudsdale, I had no idea that I was about to bump into an old friend." She stared at him dumbfounded, appearing to be at a complete loss as to what to say. He looked at her steadily, remembering things come and past more clearly than he would have liked to. Seemed like hours they sat there, but he knew it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. Still, time dragged on, the both of them caught up in the last time that they'd seen each other. It wasn't a beautiful memory, but it was immediately before this, and... He looked up, suddenly feeling the weight of his schoolbags almost uncomfortably against his back and wings. He opened his wings and let them slide down his back to the ground just behind him. Rubyshade, eventually, scooted over and wrapped her wings around him in a tight hug, burying her face in his chest. He adjusted to let her comfortable, feeling somehow that he shouldn't deny her this. She still remained silent-neither crying nor smiling, as best as he could tell. He didn't know which would be better, really. "It's been way to long...feels like a whole lot more than a year when you're by yourself..." He sighed and nodded-it had felt like years in that forest, though it had really only been one. Mind, he had paused in his journey at Gale's Hallow, for months perhaps...it had felt so good to make a friend, a little bat by the name of Mosina, but eventually he had known it was time to continue on his way to Ponyville. And he'd made it, with no easy path. But what had happened to her, during that time? Sure, he might have had a story that was a little out of the ordinary, but that wasn't to say that she didn't as well, if not more than himself. "It's alright, Ruby..." He slowly rubbed her back with a hoof, listening to her slow breathing. She didn't answer right away and he almost started to think that she had fallen asleep before she did, at last, speak. "We never should have split up...we should have waited for Tainted...right there outside, ditched our parents and found a place to wait for her...then all left together. But no, we had to be scared..." "What happened, when I left?" "You're going to have to answer the same question...long story short, though? I went back to my parents and the same stuff continued, so I freaked out and left. Don't really want to say much more than that here..." "It's terrible...I didn't give them a chance to do it to me, I just left. Soon as we were out of sight of that damned institute, I took off as far and as fast as I could. But as you know they don't really sell perishable food there, so I had to make do with what I could find in the forest..." "But you did make it?" She looked up at him with watery eyes. "I did. Made a few friends, and even got registered with the school...I didn't expect to find you when I came up here, honestly." She nodded, sighing, and laid her cheek to his chest, looking off to the side. "Sorry for being to close, I know you hate it...just so happy to see a familiar face again...it was stick alone, or go to an orphanage, and there was no way I was going to do that..." Quill blinked slowly, still rubbing her back between the joints of her wings. "I don't mind the touch as much, now, I haven't had to worry about it as much...and I understand," at this point a wide grin split his face, "-I'm hell of a lot more happy than I was ten minutes ago. I don't suppose you have any idea where Tainted is?" "No," Ruby said, "I only know she makes trips up to Quillcon to try and get herself published. But I don't even know where that takes place, really." "Quillcon?" He tilted his head. "The convention for writers, Quill. You either use pencil or quill, and ninety nine percent of writers seem to prefer ink." "Right, sorry Ruby." He nodded slowly-his mind briefly entertained the idea of finding Tainted and getting the group back together. "I know what you're thinking," She murmured quietly, "It could work, but for now...I'm just glad to have one of my friends back..." "Ruby, you should come back with me!" "No." She said bluntly. "You come back to visit me, but unless I can get a steady place to stay, I'm staying here. I don't want to be shipped off to some orphanage or another, you know." He nodded and stood, making her slide off of his lap and land softly on the cloud below. "I'll see what I can do, and I'll be back in a couple days, tops. Okay?" "Already? You just got here..." "I promise. I'm not disappearing like I did last time." She steeled herself and nodded, looking resigned. He grinned at her, got his bag's strap over his back, and jammed his hooves down, dropping below the cloud. Above it had been late afternoon, but down here it was practically sundown. Sighing, he flew for the cottage, planning to talk to Fluttershy in the morning. That night, when at last he curled up in bed to sleep, he did so. He fell into a deep sleep that was interrupted with dreams quickly, but slept comfortably all the same. This time, he wasn't in the institute. He blinked, looking around at what was around him and seeing trees. Trees everywhere, even in the center of whatever sort of makeshift path it was that he was standing on. At first it seemed like nothing but a dense forest with trees growing out of the path itself from being untended. And, though he wasn't weak or clawed by wolves, he felt hungry and filthy, both. Something was up, something was different about this stretch of the woods than the rest of what he had ambled through...he no longer had any idea if he was on the right track for Ponyville, now where in the hell it was that he had stumbled upon now, during his seemingly endless hike. Then he started to see it-grooves and dips in the land, concealed perches high in the trees. Some kind of little village was carefully concealed, here, but in spite of the fact that it was broad daylight, nopony seemed up and about. He looked down slowly-did he have the strength to fly up and check it out? He supposed he'd just have to... Flapping weakly, he slowly propelled himself upwards until he could land on a light branch, but there was nopony there. Frowning, he walked along it lightly, wings half open, his hoofsteps lightly thudding against the sturdy oak. There were perches, and the marks that came from wear and tear of hooves, but there wasn't a pony in sight. Frowning, he flapped and lifted himself higher into the air than he already was. Up into the leafy canopy, where the sunlight didn't reach he went, and suddenly there was the voice of a filly. "Well, well, well. What's a pegasus doing here?" He landed on the thickest branch he could find and looked around wildly, confused as to who would be up this high. But then, he must have expected it on some level if he'd come up here in the first place. There was a little gray filly sitting neatly on the very end of the branch neatly, the thin limb not even bending under her weight. Her mane was two hues of blue, darker and lighter intermingled. Her eyes, bright yellow, were peering at him through wire-framed glasses, and he was at a loss for words. Her pupils were horizontal slits, and a pair of leathery bat wings were folded down to her sides. His initial reaction was nervousness, but then she didn't look threatening at all. Instead he just walked a bit closer, tilting his head. "Um...I'm a bit lost, actually." She nodded quickly, making a peculiar expression that he couldn't read. "Well of course you are, it wasn't likely that you were looking for this place." "But, what is this place, exactly?" "This is Gale's Hallow, and it's home to almost all of Equestria's bat hybrids." Bat hybrids? Hadn't he once heard something about Luna's private guard being half bat? That seemed like it would be common knowledge to anyone who had ever seen her, though, for undoubtedly the guard would have been close on her heels no matter where she went, wouldn't they have? "But, I thought that the bats always slept in the day. Why How come you're up right now? And...where's everyone else? Can't be just you, can it?" "No, of course not. They're even higher up, in the adult's nests. And there aren't really that many foals, right now." He nodded, looking warily up into the leafage overhead. "Relax, they won't hurt you, unless I yelled for help or something like that." She smirked playfully. "Which I should, I assume, have no reason to?" "What do you think I could possib-" "Rape me? Try to rip my wing and push me off the tree? Or just attack me some other way?" Now her eyes showed the barest trace of fear. "But you could just...the fangs..." He eyed her teeth with apprehension, fangs that could rip through coat and flesh and splatter the ground with blood at a moment's notice...he blinked, snapping himself out of it. If she had meant to kill him, wouldn't she have already? Or did she just view him as beneath her, not worth the effort? That would fit in with the tales of bat ponies that he had heard-maybe he was just the amusing, stupid pegasus who had wandered into her home. "Oh, really?" She raised an eyebrow. "What, do you think I'm going to pin you down and rip your throat out?" She correctly interpreted his silence. "No, I'd only do that if you tried to hurt me." There was a playful smirk on her lips, but it quickly went away. "Sorry. The adults might if you posed a threat, but I wouldn't. I'm barely eleven, you know, I'm not evil." Quill tilted his head, his wings feeling peculiarly heavy;he folded them down, drinking in the sight of this half-bat. "I've heard nasty rumors..." He said this uncertainly, though. Mosina took a step closer, having stood from the branch. "So have I, about the terrible full-ponies who would drive us back into the forest where we 'belong', or whatever. It's not like that can be true for all of you, can it? After all, you seem alright." "So do you...I guess..." She laughed musically. "I am alright, I promise. What're you doing here, though?" "I've been wandering a few weeks through the forest...I have no idea where I am anymore. I'm just...lost." He sighed, saying this softly. "Like I said, Gale's Hallow. Pretty midwestern, the nearest town is probably Appleoosa." "Well I passed by Canterlot, but never came across Ponyville...just thought it was through this forest and haven't been able to find my way out..." "You hungry?" And then she laughed at his worried look. "Don't worry, we're fruit bats, we don't eat ponies." That, admittedly, relaxed him somewhat, and he nodded-he wasn't hungry; he was ravenous. She nodded to him simply. "Wait here, I'll grab some apples. Also, I'm Mosina." "Oh, I'm Quill. Not to be rude but please hurry, I feel like my stomach's gonna tear apart!!" Mosina gave a light little laugh that made her fangs uncomfortably visible and flew higher up into the tree. True to his request, she came back less than a minute later and dropped a wing full of apples down at his hooves. Nodding gratefully, he bit into the first gratefully, possibly like a slob for lack of recent meals. She laughed again, watching him. It was only seconds before he had finished it and grabbed the second of four. "Hungry, much?" She let her wings hang open, soaking up the cool air up in that spot. "V-Very." He said before he had swallowed the bite he was on. She rolled her eyes. "So, really, how'd you come to be here?" "Like I said, I'm lost." "But-ugh, I know that, but what I mean is where did you come from? Why did you end up in this forest in the first place?" "I'm running from Manehattan." He told her faintly. "See, there are a lot of bad memories there..." and he raised his wing, showing her the dark and mottled bruises down his side, not the least of which were from his parents. "I'd have to scrabble for food, and our own parents were terrible." "Our? Who else?" "Oh, uh..." his face fell. He hadn't meant to say that. But he explained, because more than anything he needed to let someone know. And if she was willing to listen... This time it didn't stop. He and Mosina sat there talking for hours and hours, both of them watching with very little interest as the sun began to sink to their level, and then lower, until the twilight was upon them, and Quill began to hear scuffling and yawns from higher in the tree. He didn't notice that the darkness was thickening, he was to busy talking to Mosina to notice anything else. It wasn't until she raised a hoof for him to be quiet that he noticed anything was wrong. "I gotta go, and you should hide, before they get down here. Come back tomorrow in the day, but wait until at least noon so that they'll all be asleep." And he woke up. He was on the scratchy blue mattress of the institute, and he could hear the quiet snores of his roommate sleeping against the other wall. He yawned and looked out the window at the forest-it was still dark but he couldn't see the moon, so it was either midnight or very near dawn, when the moon would be hidden behind the trees. One of the staff walked past the door in the wooden hallway outside, making the rounds. His roommate, the little black-haired pianist filly, was a light sleeper and started to stir at the sound of the hoof steps. He hated constantly switching back and forth between the guy's and the girl's side, but he was growing used to the constant change. She sat up and looked at him blearily, rubbing her eyes, and whispered to him. "What time is it?" He shrugged-watches weren't allowed because they could be used as a weapon. "I don't know." And even if they were allowed, he didn't own one. "I hope morning comes soon, I don't think I can go back to sleep..." she give a little sniff. "Something the matter?" He asked concernedly, sliding to the edge of his mattress. She didn't answer. "Bad dream?" He tried again. She nodded faintly, sighing a tiny, quivering sigh that was barely audible. "Come on, tell me about it?" She shook her head. "It'll help, I know it will, but I won't make you." For a long moment there was silence in the little bedroom. The open door to the hallway cast it's lamplight, soft and warm, flood halfway into the room. The filly' coat glowed faintly in said light. "I-I was back at school. And everypony, e-ver-y-pony was h-hurting me..it was terrible...I know it doesn't sound to bad, but-" "I understand what you mean. I know that ponies have different ideas of horrible, and if that's it for you, then I'm sorry..." She didn't answer, she just stared forlornly down at her lap. He wanted to help, somehow, to go and comfort her, but if he so much as touched one of the fillies and was seen he'd be thrown into solitary.