"Lyra, are you sure its a good idea bringing Able along?" Bon-Bon asked nervously. She still was trying to accept that all the glances thrown her way were actually directed to their human companion who was haggling with a griffon over a couple kebabs.
"Nonsense, its not everyday you get to tell your cousin your taking the human for a walk after all." Lyra picked up an apple from the fruit stand and carefully inspected it.
"I cant image you tell Able you refer to him as the human, and insist that he needs walks." She looked over to her marefriend, wondering how she seemed to be acting so casual seeing as she had not only met one of the creatures from her childhood fantasies, but trusted him to not cause a riot.
"Hey guys," Able took a bit from his kebab, "I didn't realize that griffons could cook up some of the best chicken ever." Bon-Bon gagged as she watched Able take another bite of his food. "You want some Bon?"
"Able, remember..." Lyra trialed off as she took a bite from the apple.
"Oh right no meat, sorry Bon." Able reached into his pocket and tossed a few bits to the pony behind the counter.
"It's," Bon-Bon gagged once more. "Alright."
"So Lyra, what are we doing out here again? I mean all you told me was we were going to town." Able caught up to the two mares who seemed to be causally looking about.
"Oh you know just going out for a walk, nothing major." She nudged Bon-Bon. "Showing Bon here where I grew up."
"Seems like a nice place, Lyra." Bon-Bon for her part giggled nervously as a trio of minotaurs looked her way. "Everyone seems nice."
"No not really, mostly everyone is kind of a jerk." Lyra chuckled as she nudged Bon-Bon."Oh but the foods great and everyone you give money to is less of a jerk."
"Hey, Lyra whats that?" Able pointed over to a crowd of ponies who were watching as a few fireworks whistled out into the air and exploded into dazzling colors.
"Looks like somepony is putting on a show." She tried to see if she could see what was going on but there was just too many ponies in the way. "I wonder who it is actually?" Lyra felt a bit uneasy for some unknown reason.
"Lets go and check it out then." Bon-Bon started trotting towards the crowd. Both Able and Lyra looked at each other and shrugged before following the cream colored mare into the mass of ponies, which then parted up to the stage as Able got close. Able raised an eyebrow at the pony who looked more wizard out of a kids TV show then a street performer.
"Behold as I the Great and powerful Tr...." She paused as she noticed the crowd had parted slightly. She looked over and froze in stupefied surprise.
"What?" was all Able said as everyone's eyes started to settle once more on him.
**************
"So Stormy, it looks like your fit as a fiddle." The doctor adjusted her glasses as she looked up. "As a matter of fact, your doing surprisingly well considering your battle with the feather flu not too long ago."
"Thanks, I've been taking your advice. Only going out in the cold when I absolutely have to, eating more fruit." Stormy was trying to remember all that she had been doing after she got out last time.
"Yes, yes thats all fine and dandy," The doctor cut in. "I can't help but notice something though." She flipped a page on her clipboard.
"What is it?" Stormy felt her wings tense, she never liked going to the doctor because they always had good news and then something that would always make her lose sleep for a few days.
"Yes well, It's about your blood test, we couldn't help but notice that well..." The doctor flipped once more through the clipboard. "It would seem that... it might be that time for you this year."
Stormy let out a calm sigh, she knew that right now was probably not the time to make a fuss over it but instead of a calm rational acknowledgment of what she heard something very different happened.
*************
Harpers ears perked a bit when he thought he heard somepony shouting something that Able would say in one of his more colorful outbursts.
"Hey, Equestria to Harper." He snapped his attention back to his work, or more accurately his coworker Godfrey who was precariously holding two saplings in his talons. "I could use an assist over here."
"My bad," Harper used his magic to take one of the trees from the griffon. "Thought I heard something was all."
"You sure it wasn't just the wind or something?" Godfrey loudly dropped the sapling next to the stump it was about to replace. Harper put his sapling next to another stump. "It's kinda funny eh? Back home we wouldn't bother replacing the trees we cut down, but here they make an entire job out of it."
"Still on about that Godfrey?" Harper chuckled as he reached for a shovel to start dig. "I mean, it just makes sense from a longevity standpoint. We replant the trees that the mill cuts down and the mill keeps running year around because we just change what parts of the forest we alternate between." He huffed as the shovel pinged off a rock.
"And the mill is barely able to sustain itself each year. It just makes more sense to.." He trailed off as he struggled with the stump for a moment. "Cut down the whole of the claim and replant it later."
"Your talking to the wrong pony about that, they just pay me to plant trees." Harper smiled as he placed his last tree of the day into the hole he dug.
"Tiller keeps telling me some mess about how they have a environmental impact to think of, and that's why we don't cut down more." Godfrey shook the dirt out of his fur as he casually tossed the stump to the side, and picked up his shovel and started digging.
*************
Trixie couldn't believe what she was seeing. Here in the middle of this podunk border town, standing right there as if nothing was wrong was a human.
"What?"
She felt here muscles tense in horrified surprise some part of her mind told her to run, but she was frozen there. She looked at the crowd though they were a bit on edge they were no where near as panicked as she was.
"Oh, come on," A vaguely familiar mare trotted out behind the human and looked at the crowd. "You all can't still be afraid of him." She looked around the crowd judgmentally. "He has been here for almost a month and a half now."
Trixie couldn't take her eyes of the human. So many questions were now buzzing around in her head. She relaxed a bit, still keeping a weary eye on the mythical being, and the mint green mare who it was with. She wanted to learn more about this human, but there was something about that mare, something in her eyes that she couldn't put her hoof on.
"Lets just go Lyra." the human, looked around the crowd, knowing that if they stayed any longer somepony might cause a scene. He turned and walked away leaving the crowd to stare at his back as he the mare and another pony walked away from them all.
***************
Stormy, let out a calm sigh as she settled into the bubble bath, her little episode at the doctors office was still echoing in her mind. Admitedly she probably overreacted, seeing as she cursed at just about everypony in the hospital. She looked over to the bar of soap sitting next to the tub, her mother would have made her eat the entire thing if she heard even a second of her fit.
"Able, I knew you'd get me in trouble later." she said as the bubbles started to tickle her nose. A sour look crossed her face as she realized what she just said. "Now that's not fair Stormy, he wasn't the one who flipped out in the hospital."
She still had to think up an excuse to not be around Harper all of a sudden, she didn't want a repeat of what happened last year when she got the feather flu and was bedridden for a month and a half. Harper wouldn't just let her go for a whole week on the drop of the dime.
"He'd probably insist on having somepony check on me every couple hours." she chuckled remembering how he managed to convince one of his coworkers to swing by during his lunch break so he could hopefully get off early and back by to her.
"So what should I say so he won't do that?" She had to think of something Harper would belive. "No I cant say I'm in another house." Stormy shotdown the first idea thinking that it just seem to lazy. She could fake being sick again.
Stormy smiled it was brilliant she would just have to fake being really sick, her thoughts paused again last time she was sick Harper tried nursing her back to health.
"Harper..." She said in an annoyed whisper. "Why do you care so much?" she felt her heart flutter as memories form when she was in the hospital. The days when she had to call the nurse for an extra blanket because he had fallen asleep, him showing up like he had gone ten rounds with a pack of timberwolves and just smiling when he came in like nothing happened.
She was so entranced my her memories that when she cracked her eyes open the bubbles that surronded her in thier suddzy embrace had all disappearedand her bath water was now lukewarm. Letting out a tired sigh as she pulled herself out of the tub and started to get ready for bed.
~~~
Stormy fell back onto her bed, it had been so long since she had been able to curl up and sleep on a cloud bed. As she wrapped herself in the covers she couldn't help but peak over her shoulder, she knew that Harper wasn't there but she couldn't help but feel like he was right there.
"Goodnight, Harper." She said as she closed her eyes.
**********
Harper closed the book he was skimming through, his ear twicthed making him snap his head where Stormy had been sleeping for the last couple of weeks. He let out a tired sigh as he turned off the lamp and wraped himself in his sheets.
He smiled before looking over his shouder where Stormy would have already been fast asleep.
"Goodnight Stormy."