//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: A Vicious Triangle // by EternalShadow54 //------------------------------// A few days passed since my encounter with Lane. Rex was slightly disappointed with my expected tardiness that day, but all reasonable doubt about my work ethic was diminished through my hard and persistent labor. It really wouldn't seem like it from glance, but I'm actually a rather amazing worker when determined. Rex had set me up as the janitor, or a 'hygienic professional' as he would put it. After that first day, I don't think a spot could have even hoped to have a smudge. I'll be honest, it isn't that much pay, but it's better than sitting at home all day doing nothing. All through that time I never saw Rezzly or Lane. It was quite odd really, but maybe they had decided to leave me be and go on with their lives. I was sorely mistaken however. It was a Saturday evening. The day had been rather slow for business and Rex was about to close up shop when Rezzly decided to make a rather sudden entry. I was off on the side, right beside a rack of old, dusty books. They were numerous considering how little anypony around here actually read. She made a direct course straight for me. She seemed upset. It appeared to be more of a mixture actually, one of anger and sadness all at once. When she reached me, the mare slapped me across the face with her left hoof, and drew me close for an embrace with the other. I stood as she spoke. She was just from sobbing. "Why didn't you visit me?" she began. "Why didn't you pay me a visit this week? I waited for you to come." "I..." I wasn't completely sure what to say. "I've been busy." "Busy?" Rezzly flipped her hair out of her eye, tears barely forming. "What? Working here as a... a..." "A janitor?" I finished. She looked disgusted with the uniform I was doomed to wear with the job, glaring at the name tag with distaste. "Why would you do such a thing to yourself? You're better than this." Comforting words I didn't care to hear. "Heh, well... what can ya do? I don't have anywhere else to work." Rex spoke from out of sight. He must not have heard Rezzly come in. "Leafy! Have you finished up over there?" "You know," she began. "You could come and work for me. Be my landscaper or my cook. I'd pay you handsomely." The way she finished that sentence chilled my spine. "I... I'll be done in a minute!" I called back to Rex. I turned back to the mare and took a deep breath. "Look, Rezzly. You're nice and all to offer, but I can't just leave Rex. He says I'm the best custodian he's ever had." "Making up excuses eh?" She chuckled. "Eh, I knew it was too much to hope for." Rezzly spun herself around and waltzed over toward the exit. "But I meant what I said. I've been waiting, and I still am. Come over sometime, please?" "Maybe..." I replied, continuing my work as though nothing had happened. "I'll see you Monday," Rex said, closing the shop behind him. "Sure," I said back. "Not like I have anything better to do." It was getting dark, about five in the afternoon to be exact. I had come to know this town a little better, heard gossip about ponies and their lives as they came into the store for their everyday needs. All down Mainstreet sat four houses, each with their own strange and unique characters. On the left side facing South was Grainly and Frixon. Right side Hentson and Klindra. All four lives seperately, all unmarried and shut away from the town. They would come occasionally to parties that were held by Dranny or Vlank to boost their reputations in town as some of the more wealthy, but they usually left early. Why? Nopony really knows. Toward the market, to your left sat the more wealthy ponies, mini mansions of pony families that have lived here for generations, building a reputation. Other than the two stated, who were also single, lived the Flake's family, a group of stuck-up aristocratic know-it-alls who never had anything to do with somepony without at least three hundred bits on hoof. Another family were the Yenville's, a charitable bunch who thrived on attention. They went to the parties and donated large portions to the school, mostly for their own childrens benifit rather than anypony elses. And last we have the Thriblin's, your average, run-of-the-mill hard working ponies who actually worked for their wealth in this world. The street down the front of the store contained the rest of the residence, an accumulation of about thirteen houses, each with another family with foals whom of which would one day grow up and leave or stay and take over whatever family job they had and live in the same house for the remained of their lives. The town was actually rather boring, save the parties I never attended, nor was ever invited to. It truly is amazing what you can learn in about a week, especially through just listening to others speak. I decided to make my usual trip back home on a different path, thinking some change from Main Street would do me a little good. I mean, I never really liked change, but we all need it now and then for our own sake if nopony else. I figured that I would head back toward the market and stroll through to the lake, maybe pay Lane a visit. I've seen Rezzly, might as well be fair about it. It wasn't until I was half-way from the lake, about a few hundred hooves from the town, that I saw the mare, drunk and confused, staggering toward the city. "Lane!" I yelled, running toward her. She had a fire in her eyes, a burning while I approached. "Stay away from me!" Lane warned. "You don't care about me!" She growled as I stopped. "What?" Although she wasn't entirely wrong, I couldn't just let her go into town like that. I remembered what Rex had said, but I never really believed it until now. "You heard me you low life scum! You don't care about me and you know it as will as I do!" I didn't know why, but a pain hit my chest, like a knife cutting my heart every time it thumped. "Lane, calm down. You're just drunk. You don't know what you're saying." I thought that maybe I could calm her down and take her home. She wasn't in any condition to be out and about, much less I knew what would happen to her daughter if she had to come looking for her. "Don't tell me to calm down!" She started toward me. "I know your type, walking around in a state of melancholy acting like the world simply sucks and there's nothing you can do about it. Am I right so far?" Her statement was a little too close to home. "Lane, just relax and-" "And you know that there is a cure, but you avoid it." Lane was only a few hooves from me. "You know that there is a way to stop the pain, the cruelty of the world." She was to my face. "And that way is..." She closed her eyes and looked to the ground. "Lane..." I placed my hoof on her shoulder. My voice was collected, sure of itself. "Come on, let's get you home. You shouldn't be out like this." Lane was near crying when she looked from the ground up. With a faint smile, she nodded. Walking her back wasn't as hard as I would have thought. It required only one thing, and that was patience. Every few seconds she would stumble over herself, and every other second after that she would fall. It was really quite a wonder how she was able to walk earlier. I guessed all of her energy was worn from that ramble. It took a while, about three hours to get her all the way back home. The lake was perhaps the hardest part, Lane dunking her head in and swimming around. The trees posed an even harder obstacle as she kept plastering into them. Opening the door, I saw Clary over at her bed, writing in her journal. I was hoping she'd be asleep, but I had no such luck. The young one looked over as I entered, setting her mother to the side. "Hey mister!" she smiled. "You brought her home?" I threw her off gently onto her bed. "Yea. She's pretty far gone." I hate to say, but then, I actually felt a little bad for her. "It's like this all the time. She'll be alright in a few hours." Clary stood up and walked over to me, wrapping her forehooves around one of mine. "Thank you for bringing her though. It was real nice of you." I wanted to puke. "Yea... no problem." I turned and headed for the door. "Please come back mister," she said as I started out. "She really misses you." I laughed a bit. "I was actually on my way today." I turned and waved to the little pony. "Tell her I said hi, and she knows where to find me." Clary grinned and nodded, heading back to her journal. I stepped out and looked to the sky. Night time, the time of day when all the stars were out. It was beautiful. I came to realize something that day. No matter how hard a shell you have, somepony else can crack it. It's a hard thing to admit, and living so long like it was, you don't really think of something ever hitting so close to home. Walking back home, I began to think real hard about Rezzly and Lane. I knew what it was Lane was going to say back at the lake. It truly is the only thing, but I hold it for nopony. As far as I was concerned, I could consider them both friends, at the most...