Chapter 49
August 23rd, 11 A.B.
“No it’s okay, Drax, we understand,” I say over the phone, frowning as I look at Mallogory. “Yeah, you too, bud.”
Hanging up, she looked at me expectantly, “So? What was that about?”
I let out a sigh and shook my head, “Apparently, it’s going to take a little longer than he thought to finish our Dojo. This asshole ‘Vicar Belletor’ apparently saw a picture of what his mansion was becoming, and wants half of it torn down and rebuilt up. So Drax is pulling the ponies from our building to finish it.”
“Fucking rich assholes,” she muttered as she sat on the couch, playing one of her video games.
“Yep, no matter where I go, there’s always at least one mucking shit up,” I muttered, going back to cooking our dinner.
“I bet this ‘Vicar Belletor’ prick is some old guy with a chip on his shoulder,” she commented, getting a giggle out of me.
“Isn’t that always the stereotype?”
“Stereotypes exist for a reason!” she yelled back, shoving a handful of chips into her mouth.
“Hey!” I yell over the kitchen counter at her, “I’m making food over here, stop snacking!”
“You’re not my mom!” she teases, sticking her tongue out at me.
I started to go after her, but the pot of food made a popping sound, pulling me back, “you’re so lucky this requires my full attention, or I’d be all over you for that comment!”
“That’s exactly what a mom would say,” she retorted, laughing like an immature child as I frowned at her.
“So lucky I’m stuck here…” I muttered, a little smile on my face.
ooo000<^>000ooo
The next day
“It’s at least coming along, right?” Mallogory asked as we stood in front of the half finished building that will one day be our Dojo.
“I mean, yes? It technically was supposed to be finished already, but you know the story. Rich assholes,” I say as I step through the hole that will be a doorway at some point.
“Rich assholes,” she repeated back as she followed me in.
We stepped into the middle of the construction, looking at the half finished walls around us.
“So what, another month or so?” she asked, frowning.
“Drax said at this point, late October. They’re putting this on hold till they finish the redesign on that fucking mansion,” I roll my eyes, spitting onto the ground in frustration.
“Don’t do that when there’s actually floors in here,” she said, giving me a little shove.
“I’ll do as I please,” I say, slapping my chest. “I will be Sensei! You will be but a student!”
“Student and part owner,” she corrected, smirking at me.
“But student first!” I countered, returning her smirk. I lowered myself into a fighting stance, wiggling my eyebrows at her. “Unless you want to challenge me right here, right now!”
She laughed as she began to get into a fighting stance, but then she stopped herself, looking at the small bump under me. “Actually, I conceded! You are the Sensei and I am but a student!”
I frowned at her, knowing exactly why she stopped herself, “I’m not fragile, love.”
“Just.. being safe,” she says, looking a bit sheepish as she looks around. “But look at this wall! I like this wall! This is a very nice wall!”
I just roll my eye at her as I walk towards the unfinished office area. Stepping through the doorway, I found myself in a decently large room. Plenty of room for a desk and couch that pulls out into a bed. Perfect for any late nights.
“Hey,” she said from behind me, leaning in the doorway. “I don’t think you’re fragile. I’m just worried about the baby.”
“I know,” I say over my shoulder, still looking the room over. “I’m just not used to being treated so… delicately.”
“Get used to it,” she chuckles. “Got at least six more months to go.”
“Don’t remind me,” I groan, shaking my head. “But it’s actually closer to five months. Due date is around January tenth, remember?”
“I do, trust me,” she says, walking out of the room. “And believe me, once we get this place up and running, I’m going to decorate these walls with some bad ass art!”
Just rolling my eyes in response, I pull out my flip phone, checking to see if I had any missed calls or messages from Drax. I did not, just a single text from Greg asking if I was down to clown. Whatever that meant.
I shot back a quick ‘Sure?’ and put my phone away.
“Who the fuck are you?” I heard from behind me, causing me to quickly make my way to the main room where Mallogory and a lone pony stood.
“Just looking,” the very tired looking pony said as he stood in the doorway, giving off a weird vibe.
“Look at another time,” I say, frowning at him. Something about him seemed… off.
The stallion looked around slowly, his eyes, which had dark bags under them, trailed to me. An eyebrow raised as he looked at me. “Pregnant?”
Mallogory stepped between us, flashing her claws. “Hey, buddy, I don’t know what your problem is. But get the fuck out of here!”
The pony frowned as he looked around some more. “Hm…” he took a step back and turned, about to leave.
“Hey!” I snapped, stepping around Mallogory and stomping towards him. “Tell me right now, what are you really doing here?!”
He turned to me, a bored look on his face. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I will worry about it!” I huffed, glaring at him.
We stared at each other, me glaring and him just blinking at me with tired eyes.
“Hester!” I heard Drax call out as he came running our way. “You left before I gave you the full report!”
Hester sighed and turned to look at the approaching Drax.
Drax came to a stop, blinking in confusion as he saw my furious face. “What’s going on here?”
“You know this guy?!” I snapped, causing him to just become more confused.
“Uh, yes? He’s one of Vicar Belletor’s guys,” he replied as the pony named Hester began to trot away.
“Drax, I do not need a full report. I have exactly what Mr. Belletor asked for,” he said in a tired and creepy voice, walking away.
“The more I hear of this guy, the more I want to just punch him in the face!” Mallogory said from behind me as I huffed heavily as I watched Hester walk away.
“I’m sorry, they’re usually pretty straight forward with what they want…” Drax said, looking a bit upset.
“It’s not your fault,” I finally said, turning to him. “Just tell this asshole next time you talk to him that one of his guys was harassing us.”
“He was harassing you?!” Drax said, eyes wide as he looked after the pony.
“Well, he made a comment about me being pregnant, but it was the way he presented himself,” I said, not wanting to justify why I felt the way I did.
“I’ll mention it,” he assured me, turning to us and looking nervous. “I’m really sorry about that though, I really am!”
“It’s really okay, Drax, no harm done,” Mallogory said as she stepped up beside me
As he left as well, I turned back to Mallogory, both of us frowning.
“What the fuck was that about?” I asked, getting a shrug from her.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“So I have some weird news,” Drax suddenly said as he sat down with us while we ate our dinner.
I looked up at him with a confused look as I moved over, letting him sit down. “What?”
“I spoke with Vicar Belletor about the incident earlier today, and he revealed something to me,” Drax said, looking a bit unsure.
“Okay? What’d he say?” Mallogory asked, putting her food down to listen.
“Well,” he began, scratching his head. “He told me you are the reason he’s moving here.”
“What?” I asked flatly, raising an eyebrow.
“Apparently when Celestia gave her speech to Equestria about what happened to the giant rock floating above the planet and gave that brief overview of what transpired, Vicar grew interested in the whole story. So he said he’s moving here to be closer to those who experienced it.”
“Creepy old fuck,” I muttered, going back to my food.
“Well, he’s actually about your age I think. Forties at the oldest, from what I can tell,” he said, causing me to frown more.
“Great, just what I wanted,” I groaned.
“I don’t care if he thinks we’re cool or what,” Mallogory said as she picked her food back up. “I’ll fucking rip his rich head off if he does any weird shit around us.”
Drax looked nervous as he got up, “Oh, I don’t think he’ll be a weird guy… like that at least. Sure, he’s a real piece of work and demanding a lot of very specific and strange things, but I think he’s harmless.”
“I’ll judge him myself, if you don’t mind,” I say, flashing him a smile.
He just smiles awkwardly and steps away.
“I swear, if this guy becomes a wannabe lover, I’ll kill him,” Mallogory said, shaking her fist at an unseen threat.
I reached over and patted her hand, “I feel so much safer with my knight in shining armor around.”
She rolled her eyes and put her fist down.
“Don’t worry about it too much, how much trouble could this guy be anyways?”
ooo000<^>000ooo
Two days later
“How are the night terrors?” Calypso asked as I got comfortable on the little couch in her home.
“I still have them, just not every night like when we first started all this.
“Excellent,” she said, making a note. “So, are you ready to talk about either of the two memories we’ve touched on, but you keep pushing away?”
“Nope, not today,” I responded, kicking my back leg as I stared at the ceiling.
She frowned at me, “you say ‘not today’ everyday. When will it be the day?”
I let out a deep sigh, crossing my legs, “If I talk about one, will that be enough?”
“We’ll see,” she said as she made a note. “Your choice. Talk or relieve.”
“Talk,” I say quickly, not wanting to see either one of those memories again.
“Which one will we be talking about?”
“POW camp,” I replied, the other one… yeah, not the other one.
“Begin where you feel comfortable,” she said as she sat back, letting me set the pace.
I didn’t speak right away, just stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t know what there is to say; I was held captive by sadistic Griffins. They…” I suddenly found myself unable to speak as I sat up, feeling very sick suddenly.
“Scamp?” she asked in concern as she leaned forward.
“Oh fuck,” I grumbled as I leaned over the couch and threw up on the ground and down the backside of the couch.
I sit back down, letting out a sigh of relief as she frowned at me. “Sorry, pregnancy and all that junk.”
“Do you want to continue?” she asked, getting up to clean the mess I made.
The thought of continuing made me feel even sicker. “No.”
“We’ll pick up next week,” she said as she walked around the couch. “Oh sweet Celestia! What did you eat?!”
“Food!” I yelled as I jumped off the couch and flew out the door, leaving her behind.
Once outside, I decided to continue flying and took to the air, flying high above the clouds. With a twist, I landed on top of a large cloud, letting out a content sigh as I let the fluffiness take me.
I laid there for I don’t know how long till I heard the sound of someone landing near me.
“Hiding from your problems too?” Rainbow Dash asked as she to plopped down and made a nest in the cloud.
“Could say that,” I responded, staring up at the sky.
“Are these problems pregnancy related? Or marriage?” she asked.
“Neither,” I chuckled, turning over to face her as she sat a few feet away. “Kinda trauma related problems.”
“Ah, therapy problems,” she said with a grimace. “Yeah, I’ve been having those when I talk to Cally down there.”
“Isn’t mental problems super fun?”
“The best,” she replied, causing both of us to laugh a bit.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what’s got you up here hiding?” she asked, seeming unsure if she should ask that.
I started to say something, but stopped as I looked at her face that held genuine concern.
“I’ve… made a lot of progress in therapy,” I suddenly said, getting a nod from her. “But I have two subjects I can’t talk about without feeling like I’m about to experience them all over again. One worse than the other.”
“Like?” she pressed, looking both concerned and interested.
“I-” I started to tell her about the POW camp, but something strange fell over me as I slumped a bit and laid back. “When I was just out of highschool and traveling the world, I had a one night stand with some random dude.”
“Hell yeah,” she chuckled.
“But I got pregnant,” I continued, causing her ears to fall.
“I didn’t know you had a kid,” she started, but then her eyes went wide at the look I gave her.
“It’s weird, ya know? I didn’t know the guy, and never saw him again, but I got attached to the idea of being a mom.” I laid back and stared up at the sky. “Then I lost the pregnancy. Three months in. Doctors said miscarriage, I say fuck that. It was my fault it happened, I got into a fight over something stupid.”
I grabbed my bump with both hoof and paw, tearing up a bit. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drop that on you.”
She sniffed as she stared up at the sky as well, “It’s alright, we all gotta talk about our past at some point. Just…” she leaned up and looked at me, “I’m sorry, Scamp. I’m not the best at emotional support.”
“It’s okay,” I say to her, a little smile on my face. “I just needed to tell someone out loud about it. I don’t need any support.”
“Oh good,” she muttered, then went wide eyed, “I mean! I’m here for you, Scamp! Anytime you want to talk!”
“Thanks, Dash,” I chuckled, actually feeling better after getting that off my chest. Not even my mom knew about that one…