//------------------------------// // Meadowlarking // Story: You're Here! // by Arn //------------------------------// Romeo and Juliet, Act 3,Scene 5, p.1-2(paraphrased) JULIET Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day. It was the nightingale, and not the lark, Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. ROMEO It was the lark, the herald of the morn, No nightingale. JULIET Yon light is not daylight. It is some meteor that the sun exhales. ROMEO I am content, so thou wilt have it so. Grey is not the morning’s eye. Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat. Juliet wills it so.— How is ’t, my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day. JULIET It is, it is.It is the lark that sings so out of tune, Hie hence! Be gone, away! Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps. Some say the lark makes sweet division. This doth not so, for she divideth us. Some say the lark and loathèd toad change eyes. Oh, now I would they had changed voices too, Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, Hunting thee hence with hunt’s-up to the day. O, now be gone. More light and light it grows. ROMEO More light and light, more dark and dark our woes! I say,"With daylight is the Lark!" She woke up to singing, his singing. It was still dark. It wasn't a Lark. " Morning has broken like the first morning Blackbird has spoken like the first bird..... He was singing something. somber, dignified serious. She heard parts as she stirred from sleep. " Born of the one light Eden saw play," "That's nice..."Marigold sighed. "Praise with elation, praise ev'ry morning God's recreation of the new day." Marigold smiled and stretched. "This has been the BBC world service!" grumbled the stallion. "Waaa....?"Marigold quietly said confused. "Like light in Narnia. Like he Ravin,sigh like the first joke..!"he said putting out a huff curt breath, through teeth. After looking at his reflection in the pool of water, he turned away, trudging past, hard heavy stomps, ignoring Marigold, occupied by his own circling thoughts, neck head up, tail in the air. All the wrong signals! "BBC! Oh, what would starting a broadcast day on shortwave sound like when I was a boy? Hmmm,dial it in...I know!~" He surprised her again by a long oratory.He sang hymns on that early morning. From memory he sang: Abide with Me " Hold now your Word before my closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee; in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me." was nice but only brightened at the last Stanza. "Oh dear.Somepony woke in a terrible mood! I can't talk to them when they get that way, all bongy bongy!" "Bongy bongy?"asked Marigold and the community of mares in her head, except the pink one. Taking a break from the list she was making put down her quill and said"Bongy bongy!" pointing up to the ceiling. "Oh bongy bongy!" That made sense and all agreed, including Marigold, who had no idea why that made sense! "Doesn't matter how well they sleep, how pleasant the dream, how good the food, how well they are treated,how gentle the road, how interesting the journey, how nice you are to them. That flaw! No reason at all! Between living victoriously, around Chapters seven through nine, no apparent reason, they start acting like that! Totally random!"She felt a sigh."The tragedy is they don't have to choose that way, especially when they believe the truth! Marigold,"He said." you say something.Try to make him look at things they way they really are, looking positively, feeding the good things. Practice! Marigold practice! Don't judge and be ready, for when you least expect....what did I tell you?" "The preditor, looking for souls to devour. "Very good. That fading shadow trying to ally with that darkness! Covering and hiding, deceiving. Only if you let it!" Smudgie continued to sing. "Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee In life, in death, o Lord, abide with me." "Again.Think on goods things." "Abide with me." "Not to feed the bad wolf." "abide with me"the stallion bellowed. Smudgie had a scowl on his face as he rubbed first one side then the other, wincing, receiving little comfort also increasing his discomfort by accidentally scraping the sensitive areas with the nail of his hoof. "Awfully serious, not the best way to start the day."The mare said to the stallion." Do you know anything else? You know, less a dirge?" He rolled his eyes and began to sing again. This is my Father's World! This is my Father's world, And to my listening ears All nature sings, and round me rings The music of the spheres. This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas-- His hand the wonders wrought. "Hmmm..."he said, finishing the third stanza."Interesting, apparently any word! I just, sing it..."crooked smile crossed his face like the crazing of plaster in a wall, a smile Marigold did not like at all. He took a deep breath about to belt his theory. "...Ha,ha..."She interrupted afraid."Interesting theme." What strange thing he might say! Who might be made angry?"Um hu..Have to learn a little more!" She had the strangest feeling she was standing between them, her pauper and a king. Smiling, she, now trying to keep majestic graces, regality glaring down at them both. Her in rags as bad as his! Wow! He was capable of getting angry! Speaking again she asked"...know anything else?" Come Ye Thankful Come. Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home; all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin. God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied; come to God's own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.  Visions of fields and gardens and growing plants came to her mind. "Oh I like that one."She said having forgotten all misgivings, Marigold sang. Though strange this song, also, she being a florist and an earth pony, felt more in common with that song. "Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring thy final harvest home; gather thou thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin, there, forever purified, in thy presence to abide; come, with all thine angels, come, raise the glorious harvest home." Harvest ! All the crops being safely gathered in. When they were done she felt the darkness, within him had withdrawn by him climbing out. "And singing keeps darkness and the devil away." Smudgie smiled in remembrance.Musing, he told to Marigold fairy tale from childhood home. The Magician's Nephew.(Note 1) Founding of a place called Narnia.Telling her of Frank, a Hansom driver from London, who sang a song in darkness before Narnia's beginning with his horse, Strawberry . Of Aslan singing, his song the tune of true beginning: his song of making, as the stars joined in fading, as light of that first day, of that new sun, revealing, Him. Great golden lion singing. "Good something positive."Thinking about what he said. "My lion,"she paused for effect, "the sun hasn't risen."She pointed. "On that horizon,"she slowly swept her leg,"embers, a fire, throwing. See? Just touching, smoky wisps, mountains framed in grey. Warm on the fireside over there,"she looked to the embers on the fire,"cold the other,here."Patting the ground beside her."Come."she locked eyes with him,"I am unevenly warmed"She looked down again, drawing her hoof along the ground."against your warm side, please, let me rest, be my lion, warm my other side, block both cold and dark! " It seemed good to him. Folding his legs again, he flopped down and rested beside her. Marigold snuggled into his warm rump and side. Looking atop his long neck at her, he straighten himself. There was a burning inside, familiar, with his girl by his side, he, male!(See note 2) Yes...the stereotype! Both napped till full sun above the mountains. Sometime during the nap, she groggily looked over his cutie mark in examination. She followed hairs to root to the skin, pale, exploring paths in that forest. Strange glittered, partial symbols danced and hid among the roots of that forest. Coming up to her eyes, and danced before her face, swirling about nose and muzzle. ....and they danced. They moved despite her breath, against the tide, in front of her nostrils being in almost as much wonder of her as she was of these glitters.A cloud. Laying her cheek completely against his side she was among the cloud, they were circling the center. The cloud shrouded light on his rump in twilight or a dusky cloud.A wandering nebula galaxy! These glitters. Marigold's eyes were golden watching them, twirl and spin and circle and dance...oh how they danced! To her the ones missing parts, her heart swelled for, were most beloved. "Wow!" she said breathlessly. "Ha,Ha. Marigold!"they sang."A riddle, a riddle! A riddle for Marigold! On the Mountains, they dance they dance as Gods! They do not dance alone, what will protect you? Knowledge or faith? What will protect you what will protect you? Oh, Marigold!" "Faith." Marigold replied.(Note 3) "Ha!Ha!"They sang. Through all your days and all your nights, through storm and tears the riders cackle, depths and heights! Gift! A gift, a gift! Given in love and never earned, but what rank shall our Marigold hold in the throng? We the unmade, our partial forms, specific only to our parents in the earth declare: Join the dance, Follow! Only one! The others? Not gods at all! Jealously guard the center. They sing, 'Holy,holy,holy!' under wing! For only one God, Only One Son, Only One Spirit! Are One! He! Watches! Watching, and sees all that is done! He did, once and for all. Look, see!" On her stallion's warm side,she dreamed of many ponies, dark forms :mothers, theirs the foundation of civilization, the throne, supporting behind, fathers, the guards the strength, the beaten earth, the vaulted sky paring couples, all the different marks, dancing, many in the light, some in the shadows others, dark. "He is waking!"Sang the glitters. "He is waking!"they cheerfully sang at the last chorus. She looked up to the brown, green, grey, copper tower of his neck leaning the head over her with its auburn locks scattering. Its two grey lights, glowing a little. "Do you like what you see?"he smirked seeing her intently watching his butt parting the hairs, pawing with her hooves over his flank. She lept up, to his surprise faces and mouths and noses to collide! No impact ,after he shut his eyes. Only a deep long kiss, better than the others! Surprise! Memories, though he had never kissed when human, helped him to participate. Such nostalgia helped disguising the tastes, making them merely exciting and exotic, pulling her back into the kiss, pleading for more to fill in the gaps of his cavernous loneliness. She did not resist.  Again, she, pulling away to breath gasping for air, she tried to return. Only to be avoided. Eyes wide open met hers, stirred with great confusion and fear. Fear as before..only...Yes! Less than before! Progress was slow in building. He closed his eyes made a sigh, hers were open. Muzzle crinkly, his lips stiff, gently placed upon her lips and softly kissed. Leaping back, coughing! Not wanting to make eye contact, look at her, face flustered in confusion, but not as much as before! He was trying... Yes very trying. Oh so trying! Realizing he lost his saddlebag the same nonsense almost started from the night before. Marigold held it out for him stopping the rant mid sentence. He, placated. Overeager! Almost lunged to it to tear it away, but stopped himself taking a deep breath, put a hoof to his barrel. Such a bad impression. He deliberately took the bag and then gently pulled out a book out He held it tight and hugged it, again to barrel. "That must be important..."she said a little jealous."Do you two want to be left alone?"she thought. Marigold had seen it before, cracked it open, looked inside, its strange thin pages in a odd runic type text with badly scribble calligraphy sideways in the margins top and bottom of the pages, strange square orange and yellow( sometime blue or green) ran along so of the words; as if applied by a fine brush. Some thick pages awkwardly, yet, skillfully stuck in the front before the book began with titles. Under those, the first three words of the chapter in that strange tongue dutifully reproduced on the front. Pony make. "It is not good to be alone...."someone replied. "Oh it is.."he said. "Still a work in progress!" He let the book go, embarrassed clearing his throat."It was regifted to me by a dear friend..." "What is it about?" "About..."that he had never truly thought, but here in this world it was now the time to think."Its about.. a father, his son, their spirit...."he thought, then it struck him. "Its about friendship!" He then began to explain to her as best he could, a theology, she had no reference, grasping at straws himself. Not a good orator it came across as stilted contrived, but still she listened. She could tell that he knew enough of the philosophy, enough to go into error, to be puffed up. To get hurt! One substance, one being, three persons:a father, a spirit, a Son and sacrifice once for all. "There was never a time they were not creating, never alone. And if I could be so bold, their talk and thought made movement. Moments came and went at their will, before space and time...I was not there so I do not know."(see note 4) This elicited a laugh from Marigold."You couldn't have been!"she said."Your here, now!" "Oh!"said the rider in the form of a little girl."So you think you have it all figured out?"she said folding her hands, arms on the top of the stallion's head."A mystery scholars and angles have been puzzling for over three thousand years?"ugliest way possible, especially looking like a little girl. Smudgie flopped his ears and rocked his head, in response the creature slid down his neck and gouged him in the sides, laughing like a puck! Marigold scratched the top of her head, unnoticing the stallion bite his lip. It was confusing. Yes, obviously he knew a little more than her, just enough to be dangerous. The rider made a mocking sound. "I will understand!"her spirit said glaring at the monster so that it hid itself. To apprehend the truth: as a conquistador or a plunderer! He had not one will to do such in a long,long time. He withdrew as to not be part of the good quest he was against. "What does the front of this book say?"she led off on a different tack. He turned it over looked at it."'In the Beginning...'Its a quote, the printer was very lucky, deciding to use it..." "Or led.."Marigold said quietly. "...from the first chapter Genesis 1:1. " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." "This spirit..."Marigold asked she felt an excitement inside. "He labored with God together, the 'dynamos', the power of the Spirit...." "Is this the one you spoke before?" "Yes..." "So where is the Son?" He, the father with Him, created everything for the Son and the Son worked with Him in creation.From time immemorial the father only ever had one Son. He, the Son, is called the word or promise.Oh...you need more...right..right... John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome. "He was light?" "He put on a cover a...veil. He came to his own to save..." Marigold stirred the soil, "Well I'm not one of his own...." "I would despair too except. John 1:10-14 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. "The Word" became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." He seized a moment. "Like this , like my book!"he exclaimed. "A tattered world...original cover torn off."A unicorn saved it from the fire? Smudgie shook his head."Brought to the binder! All the pages, put together into a single volume!" He then eyed a recipe, a rusted stain where a paper clip had once been, for Christmas cookies, from a magazine neatly orderly added. How did they get there?Turning it slowly, behind, on a scrap of brown, now, squared paper, there was a recipe for pecan pie, written in a familiar elegant cursive scrip, no longer stilted. "Brought together, gathered from different places, a single unit"he talk slowly now."A family....." This was too much. Adopted?Absurdity! That a thing like him? A monster? Walking ..crawling on fours...him them? Saved like that? Smudgie was about to burst out laughing, when Marigold spoke. "One substance, three persons."she said thoughtfully."His will that everything, acknowledge, placed under, the only Son."she nodded."I have heard Him.I believe Him."She looked over to her husband. "Why didn't you start with the book first?" Why was he looking at her like that? "Saved...just like that?"he thought. "U...usually..."he stuttered,fumbling, wandering crazy seas in his mind looking for bearings, excited, confused, dizzy." This guide," turning to the page, "gets me through most parts of the book in a year, nice of the binder to have made it part of the book! We can find out more, I can teach you my language you can teach me yours!" "Sounds good to me." She listened as they turned to his book, inside he read the story of Jethro and Moses starting from Exodus 18, asking many questions. "What God is this? He told them everything He would do?" Misinterpreting, he thought she would mock, he nodded and hung his head. Too good to be true.... Howevever: She remembered all the contracts and when she bought her shop all the paperwork entailed. "He had them write down everything, repeat everything, a binding legal contract! It was written down in stone. He subject to such laws?A God?" What she then offered next: a thoughtful commentary, as elegant as a sociology professor lecturing on peer dependency their social interaction and the negatives of group think resulting from cults. "After giving laws the cult leader usually stays and ensures the laws are obeyed as we read when Jethro was talking to Moses before he left. But none of these norms were followed! Instead Moses leaves, representatives placed in charge and goes up the mountain, of course his representatives are unable to make the people obey! But that's what happens in mob rule, democracy pure!" She was not dumb. "Moses, left them and came back. He rallied the priests who became a "guard to enforce the law... it must have been quite a riot..." She disseminated how Moses, then, had the strength to make the people eat the idol, "... the power of God! You said Moses would come down having a veil hiding the glory that his face radiated? If God could do that then he could give him strength? This seems more true than anything I've heard so far! Were they able to fulfill the law? No...that's why he became mortal, as you said before, truly, so as to be subject as they were, to the law. Is this an illustration showing the Son became mortal...to...?" No one had ever thoughtfully talked with him over this. He had wanted, desperately, all his life, someone to talk about this seriously. To sit with him, read with him, and truly thoughtfully talk it out. To.... "To intercede....I love you."He said, it just came out, she was the one...maybe? There was a heavy pause. "Intercede sounds serious....make us part of the book, part of the family, working together as a whole, each page its own!"Excitedly exclaimed. "Really I want to continue, I really do!"She kissed him,just a quick peck.He didn't shudder. "But we have a lot to do today and need to reach the city sometime." Books into saddlebags, then put aside, time for exercises. "Walk around in circles." she said."I wanted to watch you walk then run ." Disturbed by what she saw she bit her lip hard and urged him continue, he strutted around proudly.She was watching him! Unnoticed, seeing her pull something out of her saddle bag and work it with her hooves. "Ok..."She said calmly"Come sit down beside me." she said patting the ground. He sat down stupidly, like a puppy expecting a treat or compliment as before that early morning, and turned to look at her. Was something around her head and muzzle? In an instant she threw it. Something fell about his head and ears, with a yank, secured. He bolted stretching the rope between them, as a struggling fish on a line! Halters!They both had halters on made from the cords tied round their faces! "Smudgie!" Smudgie tore at the cord on his face."Ow.."Marigold tried not to fall over" your hurfing me!"the halter twisting her face from the tension. His voice, despair lamenting. She listened, but it was that nonsense again from the night before continuing from last night. What must have done wrong? Of course she would forgive him, she would make it up! "Tasty! I have lashes of this one feast! Feast!!!"cried the rider like a maniac on Smudgies back spurring him on. Whispering in his ear.Delighting in the confusion of the couple. His mouth opened eyes wide and there were tears streaming looking everywhere for escape. "Not an animal!" He screamed and something about studs,turkeys and chandeliers followed by Hern something and Pro something else. "Small shouldered males, hipless females," creatures big eyed and featureless all difference cut away!Covered in "ugly drawing swirling! Needles piercing!Not even peace in the factory of our making! Burning, cutting, slashing!" Something unrelated about looking "new cures among primitives". Babel, corset predating, and total ignorance the rest..He was relapsing. Oh but that wasn't the worst of it! "I thought you loved" him!Wild eyed darting about, as fish on the end of a line. "This hell?An illusion? Am I real? Am I dead? None of this could possibly be real!!!!!!" With branding? "Am I slave a marked," cattle, to traded"...worse! Political capital: das capital, destroying eternal truth, the past nations, family and self?" Unnatural and dirty and repulsive! "Branding??!!"It bit right in when he had said back at the pens."Branding??!!!!" When he had said."You are not a saint!" Idiotic! "Yes! Yes! Yes!"said the monster on the stallion's back jumping up and down, doing backflips like an acrobat at a circus. Now Marigold was infuriated more than she had ever been. "SMUDGIE PIE!!!!"she roared. That got his attention! "SIT DOWN!" He fell on his hanches face cracked deep with a frown, ears laid back eyes wide staring at her. "MY MOTHER ANd father did this with me when I was a foal!"She shook some loops of lose cord at him. Her voice became quieter as she calmed."I had to run around circling while ponies gawked at me! Father had to do it when he was a foal too!!!"She took breaths."We were pigeon toed, walked with a little too much exposure: leading to colds and sickness. Surely there is something in your book written on this?" Smudgie looked down hunched over his eyes closed. "What about feeding the good or bad wolf?"she fumed."Do you believe what it says in your book or not??!!"she snorted pointing at the saddle bags. "I don't believe it was half as bad as you say!"she glared at him."From the root to the trunk the tree is made good!"She snorted. "Did it ever occur to you to pray for them?" She remembered old tactics told in Filly Delphi. His ears went back and his eyes opened wide as he bit his lip. "They may have face you, and hit you from the front. But your God is above everything...couldn't you have prayed for them a tendering of the heart, a leading of the conscience, to open their eyes from blindness, for His conversation? Eyes once open they look around drop their weapons against the helpless and say.'My God! What have I done?"Smudgie looked away. "I know that I'm different from talking to Him!" "Awww....but I'm still hungry..."pouted, picking at stallion as one would with crumbs, the monster, as he faded into a less corporeal form. Now Smudgie was angry and growled at it, embarrassed that he had allowed the tempter to overwhelm him, attempting to swat at it. But even magical ponies don't bend that way! "Quit fidgeting."Marigold scolded."Stay there!"as she began to gather the long cord in loose loops. Saffron from the airship came to mind and the teachings of her mother. This maybe the way her stallion would always be! "like this?" she bit her lip considering."Was this his best or his worst? Could she take this, like this? Day after day?" "oh.Oh. Marigold...I'm very sorry but you have yet to see his worst!" She ignored her stallion for a bit as she mulled this, picking up cord, chewing her lips. He was bent over eyes closed, head to the ground looking very similar to a drenched to the bone man, who had lost his shirt, his mind going to darker places still, over the edge thinking about all the good will he had just squandered how his hypocrisy and what a bad example he had been, imago dei, whose image had been made. He had again been called out by forefingers, and a pony no less! She was right. "I am like Bree...no worse! Like Andrew Kirke."he heaved."Up to my dress rag collar buried in mud!"(See notes)"What had done?"(see note 5) As for as he knew he was the only example of humanity there was. Failing that, he was the only good example of a christian there was!Such horrid stewardship...such a terrible witness good things. Opportunity, squandered. He became afraid. "Like Bree of Narnia...then he met a lion....so did Andrew." He could hear the inhabitants of Narnia making sport of uncle Andrew, a tree they thought he was! "A tree, a tree!"he imagined them cry. There was a voice....he imagined. A voice that would not let him tumble off into darkness, not that far, it wouldn't let him go that far. A barely discernible voice....was he imagining him /them? "So what do you see?" Voices... "Will you look at that.Growing like a weed.just needed a little fertilizer." "Oh my." "What is it?" "Ooooo.Something new!Not bongy, bongy!" "It has a long way to go, though, darling!" "The spark...words read, spoken now up from the hard,hard crust!" As he looked up. "You need to go." They scattered and scurried away. Before him was a the vision of a little light it caught his eye, it was a little sprouting scrufling light/plant? He couldn't tell. "The gold and silver sovereigns fell from the magicians pockets and became small trees." he remembered. "What was used to crown King Frank and Queen wife Helen!"(see note) A crown to lay at the feet of a king. Flickering light, barely an ember of a campfire, it kept the darkness away...but as he said before,"the darkness understood/overcame it not." He did not ask where it had come..he knew. All Wishes had shown as example, the intercessor. From that little kindness, he understood he accept the real intercessor. The one who spoke from this light, it gently whispered and groaned, to petition for the present situation, this new part of him. He would not let him tumble over the edge. "The burning bush."Thought Smudgie. "No! The future is mine!" Watching, the rider took form rose above, an ominous shadow."So small!" Wearing the garments armor and mask: farce medieval samurai, truly making him look the devil he was. "One blow!" A shuffling sound heard as he took a stance, one foot on the stallions rump the shoulder, raised an awful battle club from that era."One blow to utterly crush the pony, spirit, soul and sanity!"the riders voice a whispered hiss through the mask. He swung. At the height, the top of the arch, there was a whistle flying past, it made the rider halt comically. "Just because ye be out and about, outside, what makes you think the rules do none still apply?" said a cheerful voice. The rider jerked, spurs in, causing pain to the stallion."You will be paid in full all thems jib you give, but even try to crush him again..."there was the sound of stretching bowstrings."Next arrows nay shall miss!" The rider looked above. Like arrow slits high above him encircled, each with the tip point sticking out. Again the rider swore and threw the club away,and shook his fists and beat his cheastplate. "I will crush his heart!" "Aye the real, but not in spirit...that is told and "yer right" by prophecy as your kin to do, from the beginning!"The shutters closed. " I do na have to like your choices!" The rider hunched over and pouted...where there was the army...there was the commander, nothing against him he could do...bide his time till the opportune..yessss... "My grace is sufficient.Even in discipline." "Is this really discipline?" "Feel the halter on your face?" Smudgie looked up sighed, then calmed. "Thank you for the example of All Wishes."He said. "The one who saved you and my book from the fire? You're welcome."There was a slight smile in the voice before becoming serious."Yes...about my book,she's right?Actually there is something written." "Uh Uh."stallion stubbornity coming back"Nope. Nothing."he said. "You know there is."He said. "No."Smuggie shook his head vehemitly. "You need to say it." "No!"smuggie pouted. "If you don't say it, I will and I will say something else!" "OH GOD!" Smudgie cried exasperated. "Reins for the horse, halter for the donkey and rod for the back of fools!"smudgie remebered. "Fools despise discpline."he said gently. Smudgie wept. "Neather hieghth nor depth can seperate you from that love above." Marigild softly alighted beside."No pony likes discpline...but it makes you stronger..so you can endure!" Maybe if she told him the leasons in the dreams...how to start. She lifted his head to look into the eyes, rembering the strange words. "I had to discipline with cords. Cheating, overturning, tables, markets, right in the middle of meet and greet with strangers. A place I designated especially for them, so we could be met well. A cattle market! I was so angry, but I reasoned: anger, remember, only, for the right reasons.Do not do wrong in anger, do not attack, do not be hasty." "This is not hell..."she said."For you are not alone. Remeber how you saw the stars? Remember how we laughed about the elephant dance?"she smiled he eyed her. Then Smudgie saw something strange darting swipes of vission as if he were seeing through others eyes. A blue mare, with orange hair seen bound tight with cords! There was laughter of a charab and deep chuckles of a stallion. "Ha. HA."she said through bound lips. "Laugh it up you two..you may be my number one...rebrow."she said."But I will have to be a parent!" Still heartily laughing, becoming breathless. "Why don't you take a picture..."she closed here eyes as if relisting what a dumb thing to say. There was the flash of a camera bulb."Brewlhurf!" she creid as the vision faded away...as well as the laughter. "I saw you happy."she said."I just saw you smile again!" She lifted up a hoof took his and put it on his chest."This is not pergitory.."whatever that was."You're alive! You're here! " An epethany, had she had all these dreams of him. Had they been for his benifit to? "You must be loved,"she said." being given a chance to grow bigger than the seed you are." Taking his hoof and placing it on her chest."Can..can you feel my heart beating? do you understand?" she said as his eyes raised and looked into hers. Those grey eyes."I'm alive.."she said. "So I must be loved too!" "It is said, 'Any who come to the father, will never be turned away...'"Smudgie said slowly. The rider gigged him again. They sat there looking into eachothers eyes for a long time. After the shuddering in the stallion lessened Smudgie spoke. "So discipline we must,"he spoke slowly."Persaver for endurance so our character may be..."he spoke slowly"fulfilled?" "I suppose."she never left his eyes. She reached up and adjusted the halter on the stallions face. "Smudgie."she said, my bag is beside you."Could reach in? There is a little silver box with a twist lid." While he did this, she adjusted the halter on her face with a wince. He found it and gave it to her. She opened it and dabbed the salve on her face where the harness had chaffed. "Think I this," she said."Mr. Pie...I think...you really need to consider your ways..." she taked carefully now."I think...that what you did was wrong..." "Yes. It was called sin."he swallowed."It is a terrible thing." After this Smudgie was told she really didn't feeling like sharing here salve after his outburst," I really wanted you to think about what has been said...." "I don't blame you, such deliberate willfulness causes cautious of the heart, dividing close friends, I will try not to do that again." "I love you so very much."she said almost pleadingly."I know I do..."she said again for emphasis."and I promised to help you....but I can't have that behavior again!"she sighed looking over her eyes at him."If it does happen again..."she closed the small jar with a click. "I'll need to evaluate options." "Understandable."Smudgie swallowed."Even in my world." "Good!Good!"the rider chuckled, wearing a lab coat and holding a clipboard, opening a flip cap on the back of Smudgie's head."Cut the line. Shut down communication!Perfect!Build pressure! Pressure build,pop! Can't wait. How long"he did some figuring on an abacus then a slide-rule."over twenty years!!!"He slapped the lid shut with the clipboard tossed it,bring down his heels gigging the pony in the sides again. "Now..."she said smiling."What do you look at when you see a girl walking. Tell me everything!" Smudgie turned red. "What is she up to now?"grumbled the rider turning over on Smuggies back crossing his arms. He started and pulled a tag under him conected to the ponys back. "Reserved exclusively for Marigold, friends and relatives of the bride!" "Mush!" the rider said brushing it aside knowing it could never be removed."How dare my reputation slandered so!" All Smudgie could think of was when he was human what he looked at,what he looked at that he wasn't supposed to. He told her. So after an awkward conversation, telling her everything, turning a bright shade of red while she was a the very lightest shade of pink, she spoke. "Well." She said. "Maybe I need to talk to the older mares...." "You wanted me to walk?" Smudgie asked ask trying desperately to change the conversation. "No! Heavens No. Stand up!"she said. Hoofing over to his one lifted hoof a coil of cord."I'll go first!I'm going to walk around you...watch me." "Marigold I..." She put her hoof on his mouth. "Shhhh! No more talking!"she said."I'll start off with a walk, then a trot, then a run! All around in a circle. you just turn and watch!" He looked at his hoof at the cord then at Marigold."Marigold... I don't think." "I don't want you to think!"she said slightly raising her voice."I want you to watch! Look at me!" She began to walk around him. "First the walk."She said string straight ahead. "Marigold...." "Quiet!" then after a bit."I go faster! Let out the cord." "MArigold...." "Let out some line,make a bigger circle! Now a trot!" "MAre..mari..gold..." "Now a canter..." "Marigold!" "Next a Galope!" "Marigold!"she ignored him. "At last a run!"she ran as fast as she could, the cord was becoming taunter."Let out more cord my husband."she said rolling her eyes. "MAR...MARR...MArIGOLD!!!WAAA!" hthud."Ack*" She came to a stop. and slowly turned and looked at him. He had gotten tied up in the cord legs in the air. She walked over to him turning her head sideways. They say most comedy is genius. This? Pure comedy, yes. Any genius no..... Seeing her upside down as she slowly aproached he spoke."I'm not very good on three legs, let alone turning on them."he said quietly. She closed her eyes and sighed. "Can I take this damn thing off ?"he said looking to the sky. She glared at him and growled. "My face?The halter?"he said."Did I say that out loud?No...no...I..I..ment...um...um....the body!!!!!"He struggle exasperated against the cords."This stumpy thing!!!" She wasn't buying it with expressionless face speaking through half lidded eyes. "Its my body too...and it's very ruddy and handsome." she said touching his side. "That's right!"he nodded vigorously snorting."My book says a husband's body belongs to his wife!" "Really?"she said her expression lighting up sitting beside the bound pony. "I said that out loud?Oh no.No no No NOOO!"thought the stallion. What followed was an uncomfortable discussion on biblical marriage, where marigold came tho understand. She didn't have to obey or respect him, but he had to love her! "In the New Testament it says, one married, the husband, is concerned of the things of this world because he wants to please his wife..."he stopped talking, the connotations! Was he only here to please Marigold? There had to be more than that! "...and a husband is to love his wife, better than his own body...to protect and shield her..."she was looking at him."But we are equal! Yoke fellows to the same cart!"he tapped the harness on his face with his hooves."You believe the same as I we can't possibly be unevenly yoked!"he swallowed. " Marigold," he spoke gently."I will never tell you to do anything that is wrong!"he struggled with the bonds."Have I even ask you to stop this game or untie me? I know you are only doing it because its necessary."He looked her in the face."It is necessary isn't it?" "It is." she said quietly. She saw something. A couple of things. His tail?Good! Covering up! He was learning she was pleased with this. "What's this?" she noticed a bruising on either of his sides"What happened there?" She was about to say something. She was startled, a face! A horrid face! Darting around the stallions neck! She was about to ask him, however, it wasn't the time for something remarkable came to her attention! Two things. Two things that should not be on a male stallion! Why had she not seen them before? Small and circular, like moles, like buttons.... "Smudgie..."she asked causiously."You were talking crazy about surgeries earlier."she asked chewing her lip."Have you always been a stallion?" "Have I always been a...." his head shot up fro his reclining posittion where he had been hitting the ground."What kind of question is that?!!" He began to grumble again."Off all the.....I...I..I." She gently pet him, over one of those buttons. He was cut off and just stared up to the sky quietly.Then closed his eyes. Memories, memories of being human came back to him, when his heart beat, when he was excited, or scared, eating or sleeping, good things. He was quiet, he was stilled. Marigold had never seen him so calmed. "Shhh...shhh..."she said. Smudgie almost feel asleep. "My heart!"he realized."There is nothing different about my heart!Same heart! I can still feel my heart, just where its always been!Beating just as she said."He thought under that that late morning sun in the sky. He starterd to feel the way he did when Marigold was by his side at the morning fire. " Maybe I'm dreaming...yay...I'll open my eyes and be sitting with some drop dead red head! Surely!" His eyes snapped open. Nope. He stared again, the world, the form before him! Ears laid back, pupils shrink, and he began to pant and sputter. "What?"Marigold remember their talk, Imago Dei. Quickly Marigold brought her face between him and the rest, blocking the view. After blinking, the stallion calmed. "Is this going to happen every time you open your eyes?"she asked. It was real all of it, including.... "Umm please...would...would you stop that?Maybe you like doing that and the guys here may get a kick out of it...hrummm....."he said rolling his eyes."But, uh where I'm from...we need to get to know each other just a liiiittle better OK Marigold? Hmm....hmmmmnu!" "What?!!"she said forgetting all about the face the bruising as he stared at here. "...all the guy...their all like this? But stallions don't have...what creature has been brought, what will happen if we...?" "Living Souls!"He laughed."Now its your turn Marigold!" "Understand his perspective!" "Uhhum!"said Smudgie. She was still petting him. "Oh sorry!"She began to unbind his legs to get her mind off the whole odditality,"If something is wrong, I can always let him go...""She sighed"He's right, does need me, things he doesn't know, he won't survive not knowing them".she sighed again"He speaks of things I don't full know." He stood up. "Shall we go again?"He asked After Marigold had taken a breath...."First, we're going to learn how to walk on three legs."