//------------------------------//
// ...They Will Not Be Judged... 
// Story: Together And Equal…? 
// by Wolfe and WindSilver 
//------------------------------//

Mask

"Excuse me. Sorry! Coming through!" The clip-clopping of hooves heralded the arrival of Wolfe. "Hey, Mask," he said as he caught up, barely out of breath.

I shook my head in amazement. Giving a quick glance back to the crowded hallway behind us, I asked, "How do you do that? Are you secretly an alicorn?"

He started laughing. 

"Come on," I pleaded. "You can tell me. What's your secret?" Somehow this just caused him to laugh harder.

I was convinced that Wolfe had unicorn ancestors and some magical abilities. There was simply no way someone could move as fast as he did, through large crowds, or up walls, without bumping into anypony or thing. Not without using his wings, a teleportation spell, or at the very least some type of charm.

"I keep telling you, you come out training with me..."

"I think I'll stay on the sidelines. You're going to need someone to pick you up when you break a leg."

"Ha ha," he said sarcastically.

"Did I miss something?" I asked. "You caught up in a hurry, even for you."

"Well," he said. "Tempest, Click, and I thought it might be fun to grab a bite, since school lets out early today. We thought it would be a great way to end off the week. You wanna join us?"

I thought for a moment. I'd been a bit upset that my last class of the day would be cancelled. I'd started to really enjoy my drama lessons. But I definitely wouldn't mind leaving school nearly an hour earlier than normal.

"Sure," I said. "Not much else to do." Mom, as usual, would be working late. And Dad had started working overtime for the week.

"Any ideas where?" I asked.

He shook his head. "That's part of the fun. We usually get lost anyway, so it's more entertaining to just head in one direction until we find something."

"It has nothing to do with finding things for you to climb up or jump off of?" I asked, grinning.

"Complete coincidence." He turned his head away for a moment, poorly concealing a smirk, giving me enough time to roll my eyes.

"Anyway, we'll meet in the front of the school after flight class," he told me. We walked into the nearly full gymnasium just before the bell rung. "Just under the juniper,"

"I know the one," I responded as we started our pre-flight stretches. The two of us eventually drifting apart as Wolfe's competitive nature took over. Meanwhile, I did enough to push myself, but not enough to tire quickly. However, Coach Abs giving me the stink-eye was a great motivator to ramp it up. 








Wolfe

"I'll meet you guys after I run to my locker," Mask shouted.

"Cool," I yelled back, trying to make my voice heard over the ponies excited for the slightly shorter day.

The throng pushed me out the door, and almost down the steps, of the school. I split off and headed in the direction of our usual meeting place. I found Click waiting, curled up next to one of the large roots of the tree. Still typing away on his laptop, as usual. I tried to peek at some of his work, but he immediately snapped the device shut.

"Come on," I begged, reaching a hoof towards the computer. "Just a little read?"

He held it out of my reach, coating it in a field yellow magic. "You know my rules, Wolfe. No one reads—"

"Anything you write until you're absolutely 100% done," I finished, sitting on my haunches, disappointed. "I know the spiel."

When he was satisfied that I was done trying to read over his shoulder, he resumed typing.

"What if I became your editor?" I asked.

He looked at me over the monitor, his hooves never ceasing in their movements. "We both know how bad you are with deadlines, Wolfe."

"I'm not bad," I pouted. "I just like to work at my own pace," 

"Well an editor needs to be able to work at good pace. Not a snail's pace."

"Alright, alright. I'll just sit around for two years, waiting for the next chapter."

He didn't respond, so I busied myself with looking out for our mutual friends. "Is Brainy a definite no show?" I asked after a few minutes.

He nodded. "Says the test is too important to leave to chance. She's gonna spend the night studying. And Spot's out sick."

"Again,"  we said in unison.

I sighed. Spotting Tempest, I waved him over.

"Ah well, we can have fun with just the four of us."

"I take it that Mask is going to join us?" Tempest asked as he sat down.

I nodded. "Actually..." I looked back towards the doors, the few usual stragglers were leaving. "He said he was just going to his locker," I said worriedly. "He should have been here by now."

After another minute revealed no sign of the changeling, I decided to go check on him. 

"I'll just see what's keeping him," I said as I began walking back towards the school. "Stop giving me that look, Tempest," I threw over my shoulder. The muffled snicker that followed further proved my friends teasing. "I'm just checking on him. He said that he wouldn't be long, and we've been waiting for a good bit."

"I remember when I lied to myself."

Instead of defending myself, I simply shook my head and continued on my way into the school.








Mask

I all but lunged around another corner. My hooves scraping against the floor, heart pounding in my chest. They were close, really close. I kept running. Just barely able to stay out of reach of magic.

Unfortunately, I forgot about the Stormbringer.

He rammed into me from a side hallway, tossing me at the wall of lockers. For a moment the world spun, causing me to stumble in my steps as I tried to stand. I felt the back of my head slam against the metal again, a cold grip squeezing around my throat. I fought back, trying to use my own magic to pry his aura's grip from my throat. 

He let his magic waver for a moment, letting me fall to the floor. Before I could think of retaliation, I was lifted up and slammed painfully against the ground. In desperation, I charged up a quick magical burst, hoping that it would knock my attackers back and give me an opening to escape. When they stumbled from the force of the blast I turned to run, crying out when I felt the vice-grip that clamped around my leg.

I twisted and fired a quick shot at the offending horn, breaking the unicorn's hold on me. By now, Stormbringer's and his other accomplice had caught up to me. Stormbringer blocked my exit, forcing me to stop and face him. Which left the perfect opening for the earth pony to tackle me. He tried to pin me, but I forced him to back off with a swift kick to the gut. 

Stormbringer took that moment to ram me into the lockers again, holding me up with one foreleg. Through the spots that danced in my vision, I could just make out his silhouette. His hoof poised to meet my muzzle. My body was too exhausted, both my magic reserves and my stamina were at zero. I pushed feebly at his arms, my head still swimming.

An instant before his hoof would have smashed against my face, a blur came from nowhere, picked up Sormbringer, and took him down the corridor.

"Back off!" was the only thing I heard. Followed by a very loud thud.

"What the hell!" The unicorn shouted.

I didn't waste a second. I launched myself from the wall and rammed into him, shoulder first. As he fell, I turned towards the earth colt and let loose another quick shockwave, knocking him off of his hooves. 

I had to duck as the two pegasi came back down the hallway. Fighting like hawks, wings flailing, each trying land as many blows as they could on the other.

"Wolfe?" I called in shock.

Unfortunately, my confused shout distracted him long enough to take a solid hit to the muzzle. The blow sent him reeling backwards, but he righted himself mid-fall and glided back down to the ground. I supported him with my shoulder, just long enough for him to clear the dizziness from his head. When we looked up again, Stormbringer and his two cronies had fled.

Wolfe stomped the ground in angrily. He spread his wings, ready to give chase, but I held out a hoof and shook my head. "It's not worth it."

"The hell it isn't!" he yelled. He pointed a hoof down the hallway. "That was assault, on school property. More than enough to get those—"

"And who do you think a court would believe?" I interrupted irritably. "Who would the guards believe? A group of three ponies or one changeling? I'll give you three guesses."

He opened his mouth to retort, but I cut him off again. "It would be our word against theirs. And the word of a changeling means next to nothing around here."

"But you couldn't have instigated a fight," He reasoned. "The guards know about the charms." He indicated the necklace I wore.

"These things?" I laughed bitterly, flicking the medallion that had stayed around my neck despite the fight.. "As far as the guard is concerned, changelings know every possible way to get around these charms. Sure they can tell when and if we remove them. But no one cares about that. All anypony cares about is making sure that the 'changeling threat' is kept completely underhoof."

I laughed. "You know what's funny? I keep hearing ponies call us bugs, insects, and even parasites. Well that's what it feels like. We're small bugs next to the pony giants. We need to watch our step every second of the day or else, SPLAT!" I ground my hoof into the tiled floor for emphasis. I hadn't even realized that I'd been shouting until I'd opened my eyes and saw Wolfe's shocked face.

I felt like apologizing. But I knew I couldn't take back what i’d just said. And I realized that I didn't want too. "Just..." I turned away, feeling too empty to keep arguing. "Just let it go, Wolfe," I said as I began to walk away.





He followed me until we got to the exit. Before I could leave, he stepped in front of me. His muzzle an inch away from mine. Had I not been completely drained of emotion, I might have been afraid, or even confrontational. Instead I settled for an stoic stare.

"Alright," he said. "I get that you don't want the royal guard involved or anypony else getting involved. So I won't say anything, this time."

I felt some weight relieve itself of my chest. I was glad I didn't have to try to convince him.

"But I want you to do something for me."

I blinked. "What?"

"I know you're upset. I'm furious right now. You want to go home and sulk. Lay in bed and yell at the ceiling. But what's that going to accomplish? Nothing. Shove it in their face by having a good time despite them. Carpe Diem!"

He put a hoof on my shoulder. "This is supposed to be a really inspiring way of saying that I want to make sure you're okay. And I'd rather not leave you alone to get jumped again."

It finally clicked what he was yammering about. "You still want me to come with you guys?"

"Well it's either that or I follow you home. And I know that you'd hate to make me miss lunch with Tempest and Click."

"Are you guilt-tripping me?" I asked incredulously.

He shrugged. "Maybe a little."

I opened my mouth, ready to give him every argument that I could think of. Then I deflated, my brain spent. "Fine," I sighed. "A few hours, then I'm heading home. Deal?"








Wolfe

I looked around. Searching for a good spot to begin. It couldn't be too high, and it needed to be somewhat close to something comfortable for my friends to rest on.

By now, my friends were used to our misadventures. And we would start them as randomly as possible. Back in our first year, we would plant to go out to restaurants or cafes, but we never made it. Most of us had a horrible sense of direction, or bad memory, and we'd find ourselves nowhere near where we meant to end up. It got to the point that we would just decide to go on adventures through the city until we got hungry. Adventures that I sometimes led them on. I smiled back at the others as we walked. Click and Tempest were having a conversation about classes. With Tempest griping about the teaching method used in the technology course being too much explanation and not enough hooves-on work. Mask trailed along more slowly, making it easy to tell that his mind was hardly on the bag of food he held in his mouth.

I waited for my friends to sit down in the nearby grass. Taking the time to size up the spot I'd chosen. A couple of walls, stairs, guardrails, a ramp, and a nice abstract build to top it all off. I nodded in satisfaction. It was perfect.

After a quick stretch, I set my eyes on my starting point; the lowest and narrowest of walls. I took a breath, and lifted my hooves. The stress of a few hours ago slipped away. All that existed was the present and immediate future. I leaped, my hooves clicking against the stone wall as I landed. My wings flared, aiding me in keeping my balance before I tucked them away again. I ran forward, my head bobbing with each step.

I leaped, front legs out, back legs trailing behind me. I landed smoothly on the next wall, this one being much wider than the other, and began galloping again. I aimed my sights at the ledge of a higher wall. I leaped at it, landing on the vertical surface hooves first, and kicked downwards, my hooves propelling me up the surface and allowing me to grab the top. I pulled myself up, spreading my wings again for balance.

I flashed a confident smirk down to my friends. Tempest merely waved, a somewhat cheeky grin on his face. Click raised a nacho in acknowledgement. And I could see Mask’s jaw dangling just above the ground. I grinned wider.

If he likes that... I looked over the drop, setting my sights on the narrow guard rail a few feet beneath me.

He’s gonna love this, I decided, taking a few steps back to allow myself a running start. I could see the bar in my mind’s eye, and kept it’s location fixed in my head. I took a breath, steeling my nerves, and took off at a quick trot. I waited until I was a few inches from the ledge before leaping. Mid-air, I twisted my body, moving my back legs in front of me. I landed hooves first, and used my forelegs to steady myself on the bar as it rattled from the force of my drop.

“Geez,” Tempest exclaimed, startling me for a moment. “That’s the most intense you've ever been.”

I chuckled, only then realizing how hard my heart was beating. “I've got energy to burn.” I explained.

“You alright?” he asked. “I know how you get when you’re ‘in the moment’ or whatever you call it.”

I rolled my eyes but gave my body a quick check anyway. Everything was still attached, nothing was broken, and there were minimal scrapes on my four legs.

“Hey, Wolfe?” Click called. “I think you broke Mask.”








Mask

“You do know that he likes you right?”

That question still burned in my head. When Temporal told me that, I’d thought it was a joke. But what he said next erased most of my doubts.

“I've known Wolfe for a long time. Long enough to know when he’s crazy about someone. Just look.” He had indicated Wolfe just after he had finished stretching. (A sight that I will admit was nice to see.)

“In all the time Wolfe’s done these stunts, I've rarely seen him so utterly focused. And only when he’s got something to prove.”

I was captivated from the start. I didn't even know how to describe what or how he did what he did. All I knew was that it was amazing.

When I tried to ask Temporal what he was talking about, he clammed up. He said that it was close to dark territory. Territory that he couldn't talk about right now. I accepted that answer without complaint. I had enough to think about already.

Of course I knew he was attracted to me. I’m a changeling, even with this stupid charm on, I could taste it. But I didn't realize that the attraction was more than physical. I guess I’d become so used to it, that I didn't even notice a shift. Thinking about it though, it would make sense. I could have died earlier. Wolfe could have walked the other way. No one knew he was there. I wouldn't have even thought about blaming him. But he chose to put himself in danger to make sure I was safe. He was ready to finish the fight for me. 

Do I feel the same?

I stopped at the door of my apartment. Seriously pondering the question. 

What was Wolfe to me?

At the very least, a friend, I affirmed as I opened the door. That much was obvious. He’d been one of the few ponies to give me a chance when I’d first arrived. And he’d gone out of his way to make me feel welcome. And he continued to extend the invitation whenever he could. if that wasn't a friend then I didn't know the first thing about friendship.

Best Friend? I wondered as I hooked my saddlebag on a chair. Well, we insulted each other, argued about the stupidest and most mundane things. I’d been over to his place so often I was considered a second son, with food privileges. And he’d come over to my home enough times for me to feel a bit jealous of how my parents treated him. And a bit annoyed; he and Dad would sit for hours discussing enough technical jargon to spin my head a hundred different ways.

Do I like him?

The question caused me to pause momentarily. I had never really thought about it before. 

He made me feel happy. And safe. He’d been there for me since the beginning. I wasn't saying I wanted to marry the guy, but I definitely wanted to give it a shot. 

Tomorrow then, I decided. We'll test the waters tomorrow.

Feeling pleased with my decision, I made myself a celebratory glass of apple juice. I took a quick glance at the calendar as I closed the fridge's door, and facehooved.

"The one time," I muttered. "The one time I want to go to school and it's a weekend?"

I raised my head to the ceiling. "Thanks, Universe!" I shouted, taking another sip of juice. "Thanks a lot!"