April 22nd, 3096 Imperial Calendar (1523 AD)
Outskirts of Ponyville
Flurry Heart ducked under a branch, heading along the small, barely visible path. The faint patch of bare dirt, running through the grass of the forest, marked the path to the small clearing where they had camped over the weekend. She finally pushed aside another bush with her wing, entering into the bare clearing. She scanned around the clearing, sighing as no sign of DJ was revealed.
Ever since DJ's outburst this morning, Flurry had been... on edge, for want of a better term. Something about what happened unnerved her, and she couldn't quite shake it. From what she had seen, High Society was in a similar state, though she frankly didn't care. Something was wrong, and it hurt her not knowing what.
She was so distracted by it that the subject was brought up at lunch with her friends. Depressi turned pale, and had asked a bunch of questions. All eyes were on him after she answered, but he refused to say anything. He said that it "Wasn't his place", and that he promised not to talk about... whatever it was without DJ's permission.
And so, here she was. She wanted answers, and not just for her own curiosity and concern. She figured that DJ was hurting something bad, and it didn't do anyone any good. Plus, those incidents had happened a lot, and she was at least somewhat concerned for his safety. She had no idea what was going on, and if what was happening to him was hurting him...
She sighed, spreading her wings and taking off. She weaved through the canopy, ducking under and around branches and clusters of leaves. Soon, she pierced the canopy, the lowering sun striking her face and sending a spike of warmth through her fur. She flew over the branches, knowing of one other potential spot where he could be.
+++++~+++++
She could hear him before she could see him. She had landed after a bit of skimming along the edge of the Whitetail Woods. She had found the small marker the two of them had set to indicate where their meeting spot was. While she made her way through the trees and bushes, she heard loud clacks and the whirling of a blade moving rapidly, splitting through and echoing off of the trees.
She finally enter their small clearing, eyes falling not on DJ, but on his shirt. The long-sleeve cotton garment was laid out a small sapling, folded neatly. DJ was never seen without it, or something else covering his back. And as her eyes shifted over to him, she realized why.
She took in a deep breath as she watched him. Not because he was running his practice sword back and forth, up and down, around and around while delivering strikes to the designated practice tree, moving so fast she could barely see the blade itself. No; while it was more than usual, she had seen him do similar drills. No, what caught her eyes was his back, and what was on it.
Instead of the same, light black as the rest of his coat, there were patches of exposed, pinkish flesh. They stood up, running along his back in seemingly random directions. It looked like someone had turned his back into a tic-tac-toe board, then made another board over it after they had lost the game. It looked faded, but was still visible enough from her distance.
Finally, the clattering of wood on wood stopped, and DJ slumped down on his flank. The bark of the tree where he was hitting was worn thin, being almost completely gone in some areas. He seemed to realize he was being watched, as he leaned his practice sword against the tree and stood back up, adjusting his suspenders while he did so. "Oh, hey. We didn't have a practice planned for today."
"I know. But, I figured you'd want to blow off some steam after this morning", Flurry said, using her magic to summon her own wooden blade.
DJ's beak clicked, and his good eye darted around. "Uh... Right. Well, um, sorry, but I'm a bit tired. Gonna... gonna head home."
"You sure?", Flurry asked.
DJ nodded. "Y-yeah, yeah." He went over to the tree, making sure to keep his back facing away from her. Flurry followed him with her eyes, narrowing slightly as he unslung the suspenders and put back on his shirt.
"You know I saw, right? You don't need to hide those", Flurry said.
DJ seemed to go rigid, before relaxing slightly. "Uh... Yeah. It's... It's from, uh..."
"Look, you don't have to tell me anything", Flurry said. "But I want to help you."
"It's fine", DJ said, almost too quickly. "I just... Uh..."
Flurry sighed. "Oh, come on. I want to help, ok?"
"Look, if, er- I mean, if this is about this morning, I just-"
"Oh, for all that you hold fucking holy!", Flurry yelled. "I don't care! I just want to help you, ok! Why can't you get that!?"
"Don't", DJ said, backing down. Flurry froze, watching him fall forward, his head held low and the sword falling free of his grip. "Just... stop, please. I don't want to hurt you."
"Hurt me?", Flurry said. She teleported her sword back and began to slowly move up to him. "What are you-"
"I'm fucking sick, ok?", DJ snapped, lifting up one of his paws. As she got closer, she saw that while it wasn't as bad as this morning, there was still a slight trembling to the paw.
Flurry asked, "Sick?"
"Yeah", DJ said, putting the paw back on the ground.
Flurry knelt down, folding a wing over his back. He flinched as it first made contact, but when she brought it back down, he didn't jerk away. Even with the limited contact of her wing on his back, she could feel his heart racing. As she looked down further, she saw the pommel of the sword, which had part of the leather wrap removed to expose an etched name.
"Hmm?", Flurry grunted, looking down a bit further. "What-"
"Dixie", DJ said. "Dixie. That's what it says."
"Wh-who's Dixie?", Flurry asked.
"My... my... my mom", DJ said. "My, my biological one, that is..."
Flurry just sat there, her wing draped over his back like a blanket. He slowed his hitched breathing, his heart rate slowing. Slowly, he stood up, shoving the wing off of him. He took a final deep breath, closing his eyes before opening them back up, looking at her. His good eye was soft and tired, but free of tears and firm. "Alright. I'll talk."