//------------------------------// // Ch. 1-12: A New Conversation // Story: Seeking A Quiet Afternoon // by Tired Old Man //------------------------------// "Terrible? What do you mean, Mender?" Fluttershy asked. "I mean, I've met all those ponies before." "Oh, well, that should make things a lot easier then...but why do you think that's terrible?" "Well, I dunno about introducing so many ponies to him at once. I mean, look at how he reacted to just you, Fluttershy, and you're the nicest pony I know right now. How do you think he'll react to the others, and not just one at a time, but all at once? I'm telling you, it sounds like a recipe for disaster." "Hmm..." Fluttershy stood there, deep in thought. Mender had presented a valid problem. Crunch didn't take to her too nicely, not until Mender calmed him down. That changeling had perceived her as a threat...though that's most likely due to it being territorial in addition to having never met her before...maybe that's the problem, then? If so... "How about you take Crunch out of the house to meet my friends instead of having them come inside the house? We usually take time at least once a month to take our pets out with us at a tree that's close to a river near my cottage. It's the perfect gathering spot since it'll be outside of town, and if Crunch gets nervous around us, he can hang out with the other pets!" Mender was now the one in deep thought. That sounded like a lot of pets and ponies that Crunch was going to be around...but if the pets are nice, maybe he'll warm up to them. And he can warm up to the pets...he can warm up to the ponies. That's the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is every pet is scared of him...or he fears all the pets. The same goes for the ponies. And under all that pressure, he won't know what Crunch would do in that situation. He needed to ask. "Are the other pets nice towards each other?" "They're all comfortable around each other...but the only pet that could be a problem is Opalescence, Rarity's cat. She's usually fine around the other animals, but sometimes she can get aggressive." "Hrmm...and what about the pet you're bringing? I saw a lot of framed pictures in your house of all sorts of animals." He really hoped it was any other animal. She could even bring the bear, it looked less harmless than- "Yes, I'll bring Angel with me to the meeting." Celestia dammit, not that rabbit again. He stifled a groan and continued. "I'm still not so sure about this. I mean, I see it as a pretty large gamble. Either Crunch adjusts to the ponies and pets right there on the spot, or he doesn't and freaks out, causing a panic and giving me a headache...scratch that, I'm already getting a headache thinking about this." Fluttershy spoke calmly, "Mender, Crunch needs to adjust to the other ponies and pets. If you want to take him outside of your home, something like this needs to be done. How do you think he'll handle other ponies in Ponyville if he can't handle a small group outside of it?" Mender tried to find fault in that point, but failed. He realized that if Crunch couldn't handle a small group like that, what chance would he have of keeping calm in a town? "I...suppose you're right, Fluttershy. When will this gathering take place?" "Tomorrow. I'll go let the other ponies know about it in town, so can you tell Applejack about the gathering while I go off and let the other ponies know? It'll start at noon." "I guess it can't hurt now that it seems set in stone," Mender remarked. He waved Fluttershy off from his home, then told Crunch to stay inside as he left towards the apple acres nearby. ------------------------------------------ As he walked along the road to the acres, Mender's gaze wandered over to Fluttershy's cottage next to the dark woods that gave him bad vibes. He stopped for a moment and almost facehoofed, he wanted to ask Fluttershy how on earth she can live next to that forest! Aaaagh, he'll ask her later at the gathering tomorrow, he didn't want to try and catch her at her house again when she was done. This wasn't because of that forest, no, it was that damn bunny...even though he became totally unaware of Angel's presence while he spoke with Fluttershy. She was a curious pony to Mender. She had that odd effect where one can forget all the terrible things in the world just by being in close proximity to her, more so by talking with her. She reeked with the invisible stench of innocence...but something told Mender that being around so many animals means she's probably been around some of them dying as well. He had a feeling at that moment that he could relate to her more than anypony else, but his train of thought interrupted as he found himself walking past the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. The cloying stench of the namesake fruit hung in the air as he walked along the road in between two groves of apple trees. He briefly wondered how Applejack even harvests this many app- Before his thought finished, he saw Applejack bucking a tree, knocking every apple off. The apples fell neatly into buckets scattered around underneath the tree. He then remembered she was an earth pony, and considered smacking his head at asking such a silly question to himself. Applejack noticed him walking down the road, and stopped to greet him. "Well hiya Mender! What brings ya down to the acres?" "I came to pass along some information from Fluttershy. Something about a gathering tomorrow with pets?" Applejack's eyes blinked, then came to realize what he asked her. "Oh! You mean our monthly pet gatherin! Well shoot, I was wonderin when that was going to happen this month. I'll be sure to make time then." "Perfect, it'll happen at noon tomorrow. I'll be coming along too." She seemed shocked, Applejack didn't peg Mender as the type to own a pet. "Really? What kind of animal do ye have?" Aaaaand there's the million bit question. "It's...a surprise? Yeah, totally a surprise!" He felt her eyes narrow. "Mender, the last time I got treated to a surprise involving a pet, Gummy was bitin my tail thanks to Pinkie." "Gummy?" What an odd name, Mender thought. "Pinkie's pet baby alligator." The buck? An alligator?! His shock was plain, and Applejack giggled. "Oh, forgot to mention he's got no teeth." This just confused him further. How does it even eat? When it bites, does it drool all the time? What does it even feel like to be gummed by an alligator? He cleared his head of this storm of thoughts momentarily as he remembered her original question about his pet. "Well, I don't know if it'll be THAT surprising, but I wouldn't worry about it." Applejack remained unconvinced, so he changed the subject. "Oh, thanks for the welcoming apples, by the way. Turns out my pet really enjoys them." "Aw, don't mention it, Mender." She had a nice smile on her face. "...I suppose you wouldn't mind givin a few more? My pet sorta got to all of em before I did...considering I've been out of the house for two weeks and all." "I was about to ask ye where you've been, actually, but you seem busy, so I'll ask later." She flung a few more apples at Mender before she smirked. "Oh, and this is the last time I'm givin ye apples for free, ya hear? Next time you gotta pay with bits or hard labor...and you don't exactly look the type to do the work we do here on the acres." "Hah, I'm tougher than I look, you know, but I'll consider the offer." He took the apples in his mouth and waved to Applejack. As he left, she resumed bucking more apple trees, the sounds of rustling leaves following Mender's ears as he left the acres. ----------------------------------------- "Crunch, I'm ho-" Another tackle to the floor. Mender dropped the apples as Crunch licked his face in excitement. He sighed. He pushed Crunch off and got up off the floor before looking at that empty front doorway. Dammit, he really needed that fixed...or not. It was one less thing for him to open to get in his home, and considering the open door policy everypony seems to have, it started to bother him less and less the more he thought about it. Instead, his thoughts took him to the other door sitting in his basement. Despite his short nap earlier, he learned how to make the most of his sleeping in his time in the army, and he figured he had maybe two hours left before needing to rest again. He tossed an apple to Crunch and gathered the rest off the floor, then set them all on the counter before grabbing one for himself. The sweet juices danced on his tongue when he took a bite. These were different from the apples in the hospital. They were fresh, crisp, and refreshing. He looked to Crunch, who seemed to savor it as much as Mender did. He chuckled a bit before going down to the basement. There sat the door against the wall, just where it was left before. This was it. If Twilight was right and his suspicions were correct, this was an enchanted door with a pony on the other side of it. He felt a bit nervous as he stepped up to the door and knocked on it. Dèja vu struck as he heard something crashing, and some grumbling on the other side. Then all turned silent. "Uh...hello?" Mender asked. The silence broke with a yell so loud it sent Mender to his back in an instant. "NO SOLICITORS!" Mender was stunned, and still on his back as he responded loudly in return. "What?!" "I told you, no solicitors!" The voice creaked and groaned with as much noise as the shack did. It was raspy, probably from the outburst from earlier. It sounded like it belonged to a very old stallion. "I'm not a solicitor!" Mender shouted in defense. "That's what all the solicitors say." Mender facehoofed. Dear Celestia, he was stubborn. "What kind of solicitor visits you in a basement?" "The same kind of solicitor that's intruding in my home!" The stallion barked. "Wait, your home? Sorry to break the news to you, but it's my home now." "Impossible! I never sold my home!" "Well, I bought it from somepony that was selling it for a hundred bits." "100?! Son of a-this house is at least 20 times as much as that!" 2000? That price baffled Mender. How in Equestria was this place worth that much? "Yeah, well, I don't know if you've seen the state of this place, but it was old and practically abandoned when I got here." "Old and abandoned?" The stallion's voice was a mixture of shock and sadness at this statement. "...tell me, when you came down to the basement, was there a rocking chair?" "Yeah, there was. Was maybe over fifty years old and covered in dust. I took it out to the porch and cleaned it, though." Silence followed for a brief moment, then... "...that chair is mine...well, more specifically, it was my father's, and before him it was his father's, and his father's and so forth. Also, fifty years is a bit off. Try 500." 500?! That number shocked him even more! That's a damn old chair, and by extension, this was a damn old house! Mender was surprised the wood didn't break down on contact. "...wow. So, uh, how old does that make you?" "Keeping track of age is difficult and boring past one hundred, so I stopped counting around then." Well, that was blunt, but Mender thought it made sense. Heck, he doesn't even know Celestia's exact age, but it caused another question to creep to his head. "Wait, how long have you even been in that room?" The tone was neutral, but the answer vague. "I wish I knew the answer to that myself. Time loses meaning in a place like this." "...wait. If you don't even know how long you were in this room, how have you not gone crazy? I mean, you sound normal to me." A brief silence came before an uproar of laughter as the stallion beyond the door laughed until he was in a fit of coughing. "Haaaaaahahahaha, ME, the crazy one? Coming from a pony who's talking to a door that's not even mounted into a wall?!" "Hey, YOU are on the other side of the door, you know!" The stallion in the door chuckled. "Am I? What if I went silent, but you kept trying to talk to me? Doesn't that sound crazy? Oh! Even better! How crazy would you be if you tried to prove to somepony that I existed?" Mender said nothing, so the stallion continued. "Furthermore, you and I both know that this door is illegal. As far as the law is concerned, this is YOUR enchanted door, not mine. I also know you don't have the key either, or else you would have opened the door by now. That would just make you all the more incriminating to anypony who found out, hmm?" Mender bit his lip in frustration. He knew the stallion was right in every way. There was no way to prove that the door wasn't his, nor could he prove that it belonged to somepony else...and if he tried, he couldn't exactly make a convincing case. That didn't mean he lacked a counter. "Well, I'll just have to find a key then, won't I?" "What do you mean?" "I mean that you didn't deny that a key is somewhere outside this door." "Hah! You can't prove that! I have the key to this door, you know." "Keys," Mender corrected. "Excuse me?" "I know you know about these doors. There's no reason you wouldn't have a second key to this door. The experiment done with these doors mentioned two keys being made, one on the outside, and one inside." "Ah, you're aware of the experiment done by my grandfather then." The stallion paused, realizing he let a detail about his life slip out, but continued. "Yes, I've made a second key, but what if I told you that I took the outside key inside this room with me?" Mender could sense self-doubt in the stallion's words, and pounced. "If that's the case, why do you sound so concerned that I can open this door?" "I-I'm not worried! Not at all!" Mender caught that stammer. "AHA! There is a key out here!" "............bah, fine! I...made a third key. However, I have no idea where it is." "What? You lost it?" "I...may or may not have been experimenting with teleportation and sent that third key out of my space in here. The other two keys ARE with me in here, however, and I don't plan on losing those either. Nor do I plan on opening the door from my side for you. Not now, not ever." Mender wanted to feel baffled at the stallion, but the gears started to turn in his head with this new information. "...but if I found this third key..." "I suppose you WOULD be able to open this door, yes. Good luck with that errand, though. It could be anywhere within a thousand meters of this door...above or below ground, even. And don't even get me started on how screwed you are if someone found this key already. It wouldn't open anything to them, so it could be sitting in a trash can for all you know!" Damn, when the stallion put it that way, he really did make it sound like Mender was searchin for a needle in a very large haystack. "...wow, you're a real optimist, you know." "Thanks, I need to be when dealing with a potential intruder." "I told you, I'm not an intruder...well, not yet. I will open this door though, just you wait!" "Hah, if so then I'll await the day when that happens. In the meantime, can't we at least be cordial to each other until then? After all, you do hold my life in your hooves, as I'm sure you've also been made aware. I don't plan on leaving, so that choice is yours." Mender forgot he had that ability as well. He could just do away with the stallion by destroying the door, or he could keep it until he found the key. Either way, the stallion did say he wouldn't leave, and Mender believed he was telling the truth on that. "Hmm...well, can't I get a name from you at least?" "...I suppose I owe you that much, what with my life in your hands now. You may call me...Young." The irony in that name hit Mender like a sack of bricks. "If you stayed in there as long as you say you have, that's so contradictory I can't put it into words." "It's better than my grandfather's first name. I can't figure out how he dealt with being called Old all the time." Young had lied, for he shared his grandfather's name. "Well, I'm Able Mender...Young. A pleasure talking with you, ever under odd circumstances like these." "No problem, Mender. Hope you don't mind me being like this, haven't talked to anyone in over a hundred years at least, you know...oh!" Mender heard shuffling past the door, then for the briefest of moments he saw the door crack open, a brilliant white light coming from inside, blinding him in the basement. Before he could react, a small ring slid out through the crack and the door closed immediately. He looked at the ring. It was a thin, black band. It certainly didn't look like a weddif or engagement ring he had seen some ponies wear before...but that gave him a mean idea. "You're a unicorn, aren't you? Go ahead and slip that ring on your horn," Young said. "...you know, I didn't expect us to take our relationship so fast like this." "What th-oh shut up, it's not like that! Just put the damn thing on!" "Seriously, ponies are going to think I'll be taken if you wear this." "SHUT UP! It is NOT a wedding band! It's a communication device I made in here!" Mender was laughing up until he heard it was a communcation device. "....wait, why did you make this? I thought you wanted to be alone and all." "Well, I did, but since we've gotten to know each other a bit, I want to learn about how the world has changed outside of here...without actually leaving this space." "Lazy," Mender quipped. "...Just work with me on this, please. I need to get adjusted slowly. Can you do this for me without being an ass...so to speak?" "Fine fine, I suppose I can manage that." Mender put the ring on his horn. "How does this thing work, anyway?" "Oh! Well, it transmits any sound it picks up outside of it to my mind. Your horn acts as a signal amplifier, and it also lets me talk to your mind as well as read your thoughts!" Mender realized this thing was crossing all sorts of lines of privacy with him. "Read my thoughts? That seems a little...intrusive." "I didn't mean it like that! I mean, I'll only be able to read thoughts that you direct to me personally. I can't read thoughts you don't want me to read." This put Mender at ease somewhat, but he had one interesting concern. "...so if I sent unpleasant thoughts to you, you wouldn't be able to block those?" "I trust that you won't do that, since I can send thoughts like that to you, too...and when you've been in here as long as I have, you get used to having a very...vivid imagination." Ew ew ew ew, he did NOT want thoughts like that going to his head. "Okay okay, you made your point. No real nasty thoughts between us, deal?" "Deal." "...How about suggestive thoughts?" "I'm fine with those if you are." "Good, I could use more things to chuckle to." Mender smirked, suddenly not caring if anyone was seeing it. As paranoid as Young was, it was refreshing to meet a pony who would put his life in Mender's hooves so willingly. This was different than when he was a medic. There he was in charge of saving lives...yet here he stood with the option to save a life over time or end it at will...and he had plenty of time. "Hah, you and me both, Mender. Now then, I've got other things to do in here that require my attention, but if you need to talk to me, you don't have to come to this door anymore...not unless you have to, which I doubt now." "Yeah yeah, I'll leave you and your door in peace, Young," Mender said, ending the conversation as he ascended the stairs. "Testing, testing, one two. Ooh, this'll be so much fun!" Suddenly Mender realized this may be a more annoying arrangement than he originally believed it to be.