//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Summer (The Fence) // by 206-Ginge //------------------------------// “Are you serious?” “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re booked. We’ve had ponies lining up months in advance for this hotel. We won’t have a room open for the next three weeks at the least.” So Ponyville wasn’t as small a town as I thought. I gave the grey earth pony a long stare before exiting the hotel lobby, out of things to do. The red “NO” over my head reminded me of the vibe I had gotten from the town. The banker who denied my attempts at casual conversation as I took out a withdrawal. The cold efficiency with which the barista made my coffee. The silence that filled the room as I drank, other ponies too busy with their own newspapers and magazines to look up and talk to the crippled griffin in the corner of the room. Bon Bon and Lyra had been forced to leave me to my own devices for the day. Ponyville’s shift in the summer vacation cycle had come before mine, and they were all back to work. Lyra was off working on her record label’s new album. She had a local DJ named Vinyl Scratch coming in to help her remaster some tracks. Bon Bon had a long day ahead of her at her candy shop. All of this had been told to me by a note lying on the kitchen counter. I walked around the town, not sure of what exactly to do with myself. I had spending money now, but I’d just eaten breakfast. Plus, eating when bored usually led to a bit of weight gain, something I was weary of since my main physical activity was now no longer available. I walked. And walked. The town was pretty empty. Most ponies were off working. There was the occasional couple walking down the street, a few families, not a lot of individuals. After about an hour I found my way to a library. At least, it had a sign with a book and the word “Library” on it. My body was tired from the painkillers, and reading had its appeal. Hopefully I could find a good book and settle down for a bit. Maybe I could find a nice, long book that I could read over the course of my stay. Heck, maybe I could find three or four. The library looked rather large, despite the fact that it was made out of hollowed-out tree. I opened the door to a gasp and the sound of a book closing rapidly. Spike was sitting on the floor, a book in front of him. “Hey, Spike,” I began. Shit. I forgot. Twilight said she lived in a library, and this was the only one I had found in my whole day of wandering around Ponyville. “Uh, hey Jack,” Spike replied nervously. He was up to something, but I didn’t know or care what. I took a quick look about the room before turning back to the small dragon. “So, you live here with Twilight?” “Yeah, we sleep upstairs.” “Is it a bit weird to live in a library?” Hey, look at me, taking control of a conversation. “Well, the other ponies around here don’t come by all that often. Really, Twilight is the only one who uses these books.” “Really? So the other ponies around here aren’t big readers?” “Not these books. These are all reference.” Spike spoke with a hint of remorse in his voice, as if he was as disappointed as I was at the lack of fiction. I guess that wasn’t all that surprising. Spike picked up his book and started walking towards a staircase. “So, is Twilight out?” I asked. If nothing else came out of this day, at least I could try to make amends with the unicorn. I felt bad about being such a jerk to her after she’d literally done everything for me. “No, she’s just upstairs studying,” Spike said as he made his way up the staircase. Again, Spike had a tone of bitterness in his voice. I turned to my own thoughts. Studying? Twilight was obviously old enough to be well out of college at this point. What exactly did she do? Was she making money learning? I wish I could get paid to go to class. My debt-burdened post-college self probably would’ve appreciated knowing that was a possibility. I walked over to the shelves of the library. Old, tattered books sat in neatly organized rows. Despite their obvious age, not a single one was dusty. The spines were mostly faded, but I could make out a few titles here and there. An entire wall was dedicated to encyclopedias from various years. Another held books dealing with ancient civilizations. “Equestrian History”. “Pegasi and Their Politics”. “Unicorns Over Time”. “The History of Griffins”. I paused. So she was multi-cultural, after all. The book was actually one of the less dusty on the shelf. Perhaps she had looked at it the first night I arrived? I grabbed it in my talons and skimmed through the pages. Pristine. Not the slightest hint of tears or wrinkles. No one could possibly read a book at leave the pages that perfect. Especially if they had hooves. She must’ve just moved it around. I put the book down. I turned at the sound of hoofsteps coming from the staircase. Twilight appeared, a book in front of her, surrounded by that purple glow. “Oh, hey there, Jack,” Twilight said, a smile on her face. Not a fake smile, like the nurses at the hospital, but a real, genuine, nice-to-see-you-again smile. I didn’t get it. I had been an indisputable jerk towards her, and yet here she stood, greeting me like an old friend. I’d been in town for four days, and seen her all of four times. Not to mention, the last time I saw her I left without even saying goodbye, or thanks for finding me a place to stay, or thanks for not leaving me alone when I was flat on my back with blood in my fur and no way of helping myself. “Hey, Twilight. Nice library you got here.” “You like it? I moved in two summers ago and it’s become a great home for Spike and I.” “Yeah, it’s nice. You’ve got books on everything, it seems.” “Well, no, there’s only so much shelf space, unfortunately. Celestia’s got a much better library in Canterlot but I can’t do my studies back there.” “Why not?” Again, taking control. Apparently I was the only one hesitant about opening up in front of strangers. “All my friends are in Ponyville, and I’m supposed to be studying friendship. I couldn’t study friendship away from my friends.” Studying friendship? Sign me up for whatever school she was in. Not only did being a student appear to be her full-time job, she was studying friendship. What was this world in which I was now living? “Do you do anything else besides study?” “Well, the mayor gives me some money for running the library, but Celestia’s got me on a big scholarship studying as her personal protegé, so that’s where most of my income comes from if that’s what you’re wondering.” Ah. So it wasn’t all flowers and friends for her. Considering what Spike had told me earlier, I imagined running the library wasn’t too difficult a job, but it was a job nonetheless. “Does this mean you wouldn’t object to getting some lunch together? Since I’m new and all, I need somepony to show me where the good food’s at.” Twilight intrigued me. I wanted to know more about her, and I also was hungry with cash to burn. “Not as a date or anything,” I added, when I saw Twilight’s awkward hesitation. “Yeah, sure, let me just go tell Spike I’ll be heading out for a while.” She headed back upstairs. Second thoughts came on like a bitch. Uggh, was I really doing this? Would Twilight take this the wrong way? Would I take this the wrong way? Why the hell was she still going along with this, anyway? Was she another pony with a griffin complex like Lyra? Twilight came back down, a smile on her face, this one a bit more forced and awkward than the last. She was out of her comfort zone a tad. Was she taking this the wrong way, but just didn’t want to say no and make me feel bad? Gaah, so many questions. I guess now I had a lunch to find the answers. --- After an awkwardly quiet walk we found ourselves at some small sidewalk sandwich shop near the center of town. Twilight had told me she’d come here during her first month in Ponyville and hadn’t found time to come back since. We sat down outside under the summer sun. Both of us stared at the ponies walking by before finally Twilight kicked off the conversation. “How was your first night?” “Oh, you know, the bed was nice but it sucks to not be able to roll over.” “I’d imagine,” she chuckled awkwardly. “Are Lyra and Bon Bon good hosts?” I paused. “Yeah, I guess...” “That’s good,” Twilight said, quickly moving on. “Have you enjoyed Ponyville so far?” “Well, I haven’t seen much of it, but I like what I see.” The staring started up again, each of us picking a point in the clear blue sky to concentrate on, neither of us willing to look the other in the eye. It reminded me of the awkward first hour of the middle-school dances. The part where everyone stood around, talking only with the friends they had come with. No dancing, just staring at the walls, listening to the music, waiting for something to happen. Well, I made something happen. “Listen, I’m sorry for being such a jerk to you the last few days,” I began. Twilight snapped her head back towards me from the spot she’d picked, a blank look on her face. “It’s just, this is a new experience for me. I’ve never really been around ponies before.” The blank look suddenly became a laugh, as Twilight figured it out. This wasn’t a date lunch, it was an apology lunch. “Oh, yeah, no problem. To be honest, this is only the second time since I’ve been living here that I’ve seen a griffin, and the first time didn’t really go so well.” “Oh really?” “Yeah, she took herself a bit too seriously.” Twilight smiled fleetingly. “Well, I’ll try to be better than that.” Twilight’s smile widened a bit. The mood of the lunch immediately brightened, the awkward barrier between us melted away. The waiter came over to take our orders. I took the special of the day without even asking what it was or if they had one. Twilight picked out a daisy sandwich. “So, what do you do?” Twilight looked at me as I replied, telling my stories. They say that there’s a measurable amount of energy that passes between two beings when they make eye contact with each other. I’d always found that to be true with my griffin friends, but I never imagined I could get the kind of energy I was getting off of Twilight from a pony. It was an odd feeling. We were connecting, not in a way I ever thought possible with another species. I was opening up, and she was rewarding me for it. It was a sudden and strange shift, but from that moment on I didn’t feel alienated around her, nor the waiter when he came with our food, nor anypony else I met that day. Ponyville began to feel small, and it started with simple eye contact from someone who rapidly became my friend. As lunch continued, and after I had told her about my job and guitar-playing skills and she told me about her studies and how Princess Celestia was in person, the conversation turned to my village. “So I’m asumming based on what you said earlier about this being your first time around ponies you don’t actually live in Baltimare?” Twilight asked, taking a bite out of her sandwich. “No, I actually live in a village called Densmore.” “Is it small?” “No, not at all. It’s much bigger than Ponyville, actually. There’s about 100,000 griffins living there.” “Really? Why haven’t I heard of it?” “Well, it is inhabited almost exclusively by griffins.” “Yeah...” Twilight trailed off, sipping her water. Racism wasn’t a comfortable topic I eyed the plate that my salad formerly had resided on. I glanced over at Twilight’s plate, which still contained half a sandwich. “So you guys had a bad experience with griffins before?” I asked. “Oh. Yes. Gilda. Well,” Twilight began, “I didn’t really talk to her. It was mostly something I heard about from Rainbow Dash. Apparently she was being a bit of a jerk, and she stormed out of a party after being pranked and we never saw her again.” “Huh.” I didn’t know any Gildas. I guess there’s a lot of griffins in Equestria, and just because we’re the same species doesn’t mean we know each other. “Rainbow Dash is that pegasus you were talking about the other day? The one who broke her wing?” “Yes. She’s our local weather pegasus. She also has a not-so-secret desire to be a Wonderbolt.” Another mutual chuckle. “I’m a pretty big fan of the Wonderbolts, actually.” “Oh, really? Maybe you can talk about them when you meet her.” “Maybe I can.” I started thinking about the length of my stay. Six weeks was a long-ass time. I guess if Twilight wanted to introduce me to every member of her social circle I was a captive audience. Our lunch together had warmed me to the idea of meeting new ponies, but I still was hesitant to fully immerse myself in the Ponyvillian life. I was going to leave at some point, after all. Twilight finally finished up and I let out a yawn. Drugs were still taking their toll on my energy levels. It was actually surprising that I’d managed to walk about town for as long as I had that morning. The bill came and we split it. “Well, it was nice seeing you, Jack,” Twilight said, a small smile on her face again. “Likewise,” I responded, trying to return the smile but ultimately giving off a grimace. I was tired. I needed rest. We went our separate ways. I headed back to Lyra and Bon Bon’s, a short walk from where I was. My body complained at the use, but ultimately the journey went by without a hitch. I took a few steps inside before collapsing on the couch, the drowsiness finally getting the best of me. --- The dream came again. This time, I didn’t have a magnifying glass. Instead, I was helping Jen learn to walk on grass without chunking up the sod, a feat that took her many tries to accomplish. Again the fence came into my field of vision. I walked up to it and stuck my eye in the hole, the same one I had looked through last night. All of this at the time seemed familiar, but in that deja vu sense, not so much in the “Hey this happened to me in a dream the other day” sense. The purple filly was gone, and the two other fillies were grown into mares. They were kissing, passionately. I yanked my eye away from the hole and prevented Jen from looking through it, amidst cries of “I wanna see it! Lemme see it!” The fence grew again, climbing up higher and higher. Suddenly, it started to lean over. It was falling. I was right underneath it. I pushed Jen out of the way just as it fully collapsed, crushing my ribcage, forcing the bone to puncture my heart.