//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: One's Bark is Worse 
// by Speven Dillberg 
//------------------------------//

Wolfsbane decided to just go to sleep shortly after Budget left him in his new home, partly for lack of anything better to do, partly because it was close to seven in the evening and moving had taken a lot out of him. It took some time for sleep to claim him, though. One of the reasons was because his new bed was lumpy and smelled of old sweat. He wouldn’t have minded if it was his sweat, but no. He eventually decided that Budget simply had not had the time to get it cleaned or replaced. 
The other reason he couldn’t get to sleep was because of where he was. This wasn’t the first time he had had to sleep away from Ponyville, but this time he knew he wasn’t going back. It made him feel like a little colt again, going to his first day of school. He felt... weak. Okay, maybe not weak, he thought to himself. Vulnerable, he decided, was a better word. All he knew about Canterlot was what he had been told or read about it in book. He had no idea what the other ponies were like or where anything was. Budget had been right. He was just a country boy in a big city.





Wolfsbane stumbled into the bathroom, nearly tripping over his own hooves. It was close to four AM, he sleep had been restless and his dreams had been filled with so much strange, cryptic imagery he couldn’t make heads or tails of. Getting back to sleep was an impossibility, as he would have to get up in a few hours anyway for his first day of work. In retrospect, he realised that moving to Canterlot earlier would have been a better decision.
As he turned on the shower head and stepped under it, he fought the urge to slap himself in the face. He hadn’t bought any food, or brought any with him. Not even half a carton of lumpy milk or a head of moldy lettuce. He would likely have to get something along the way, it was too much to hope that there would be something he could grab there.
He toweled himself off and clip-clopped into the small kitchen, where he opened the fridge. It looked small, and he had wanted to know just how much food he could store . He hadn’t expected to find a small basket filled with fruit. Apples, oranges, bananas and mangoes, and those were just the ones he could see at first glance. There was also a small card.
“Welcome to your new home. We hope you find everything to your satisfaction. Management. Hmm.” It seemed a little strange to him, but he wasn’t going to complain. After all, free food. Who was going to argue with that!?
As he chewed slowly on an apple, he looked out the sole window. He hadn’t realised this the day before, but he had a perfect view of... buildings. Lots and lots of buildings. Just beyond them he could make out the horizon. He frowned as he gazed at the many white buildings, shrouded in gloom and shadow from the lack of light. What he would give for a view of the Everfree Forest, or Whitetail Woods. 
He stood there, staring out for some time. It was only when the horizon began to turn orange and yellow that he realised he’d been there for hours, lost in thought. He shook his legs to get some feeling back in them before going to retrieve his saddlebags. “Where did I...” He rummaged around in them for a few seconds before pulling out a slip of paper, held in his mouth. “Mh-hmm!” he exclaimed triumphantly. 
This piece of paper was very important, for on it was the address of the Canterlot Medical Research Center. It wasn’t officially affiliated with Canterlot University, but a lot of students made use of the resources it provided. It was also where he was going to be helping with development of new medicines, mainly antidotes and antivenoms, but also painkillers and anesthetics. 
He cast his mind back briefly to the circumstances that had landed him this job. He had gotten his toxicology degree externally, having his materials sent to and from the university. It had taken a bit longer than it would have had he actually gone there physically, but he was just too attached to Ponyville at the time to even think of leaving town. He’d gotten his degree, and started work part-time at the local clinic. Even if his talents weren’t directly related to healing, he could mix up something when stock ran low, which at the time was surprisingly often. 
Then he’s gotten a full-time job at one of the flower shops in Ponyville. That was mainly due to him being an earth pony, though, as every earth pony had some talent with tending plants. When things were slow, he would read through books on alchemy. While the practise had fallen into disuse, a lot of the actual science was still valid, if haphazard. He’d accidentally poisoned himself once with a poorly-made painkiller. 
Then, several weeks ago, a letter came, out of the blue. Behind all the legalese and confusing wording, it boiled down to one simple question; Would you like to work for us? After a back-and-forth regarding pay, hours and other details, he had made up his mind.
Stowing the address paper into his mane and grabbing another apple, he briefly returned to his bedroom and grabbed his coin pouch. He would need it to buy some proper groceries with, after all.