//------------------------------// // Chapter Seven: The Letter // Story: Brushed Away 3: Hearts Entwined // by TheVClaw //------------------------------// Clang! Canvas gasped and quickly shot up from under the covers.  The stallion looked around the darkened space, his ears twitching at the noise he just heard while Troy and Tenor still slept beside him. His eyes were barely adjusting to the darkness, but all that Canvas was concerned about was what he heard. Ping! Another noise could be heard, and Canvas realized it was coming from downstairs. His heart began to race, and he quickly got out of the nest as adrenaline began to pump through his system. He had no idea what was going on, but he was certain that it wasn’t going to be good. Canvas turned his head to Troy, but he knew that the Gryphon wasn’t going to get up at this hour. Unfortunately, neither he or Troy had any weapons in their home, so the pony had to settle with just a flashlight as he slowly crept down the stairs from the loft. His eyes widened when he saw a faint line of light coming from underneath the closed kitchen door. More noise came from the other side, and it sounded like somebody was rummaging around in there. Even though they didn’t have anything valuable, Canvas wasn’t going to risk anypony stumbling upon that hidden deep freezer and getting the couple in hot water. He bit his lip as he snuck up to the side of the doorway. While standing on his hindlegs, the stallion gripped his flashlight with both hooves before taking a deep breath. He closed his eyes and exhaled as calmly as he could. As his blood raced through his veins to pump his racing heart, Canvas gritted his teeth before bursting into the kitchen with a bloodthirsty cry. “GAAAAHHHHH!!!” “AAAAAHHHH!!!” Angela lost some feathers as she shot back to the corner of the kitchen with a terrified yelp. While she was leaned back with her back against the wall, and her feathers ruffled out like an enraged cockatoo, she was panting heavily when she saw the very confused stallion at the open doorway. Still holding his flashlight, Canvas blinked repeatedly as he looked around the kitchen, only noticing the feathers and clouds of flour floating around. “Wha… What the…” With the energy of his intrusion now long-gone, the stallion was starting to look groggy again while discerning what was going on. “A… Angela?! What are you doing here?!” The Gryphoness slowly raised a foreleg to point a talon to the counter, where several large balls of dough were sitting on a bed of flour. “I was making biscuit dough,” she said timidly. Canvas dropped his flashlight, but remained confused with his jaw half open. “Bis… biscuit… IT’S FIVE IN THE MORNING!!!” “Well you didn’t have any dough set up!” retorted Angela in a fussy tone. “Besides, I usually wake up this early. I figured I should help out before breakfast.” “You didn’t think to knock on the door first?!” “I didn’t want to wake you.” Canvas groaned and covered his face with both hooves. Meanwhile, Tenor slowly walked to the doorway with his eyes half-open, clearly having his sleep disturbed by all the commotion. When he realized the Saint Bernard was standing next to him with equal puzzlement, Canvas bent down to give him a comforting nuzzle. “Oh, I’m sorry, Tennie,” he said in a soft and apologetic tone. “It’s just a false alarm.” “Just go back to sleep,” assured Angela after taking a quick breath. She brushed down her feathers with a claw as she went back to her dough. “I’ll wake you boys up when I start cooking, alright?” “Yeah, yeah,” muttered Canvas as he picked up his puppy. As he and Tenor went back upstairs to the still-sleeping Gryphon, Canvas shouted down for Angela to hear, “Next time, knock!” “Will do!” shouted the Gryphoness back at him. A couple hours passed before Canvas woke up again, which was enough time to rejuvenate him and help with breakfast. By the time the rest of the family woke up and arrived at the house, breakfast was already fully prepared and on the table. Along with leftovers from last night, a massive array of eggs, toast, bacon, ham, and biscuits with sausage gravy (and a smaller bowl of mushroom gravy for the vegetarian) was ready to be devoured. Canvas was still slightly unwary of the smell of bacon, but he had to admire how quickly it got his fiancè out of bed in the morning. The alarm clock could've never gotten Troy awake in such a chipper mood! Plus, the stallion had to admit to himself that bacon had its advantages in the kitchen. After reading through that cookbook Angela got him for Hearth’s Warming, Canvas found that bacon grease was basically the culinary equivalent of liquid gold (especially as an addition to Tenor’s dog food). Because of that, Canvas was surprisingly comfortable among the sea of meat which was being eaten ravenously by the huge Gryphons around him. The stallion would’ve been absolutely appalled by this sort of scenario less than a year ago, but now it felt perfectly normal. Not even the sight of Lyle wrapping sausage links with strips of bacon caused any queesiness for the pony. “So,” asked Lyle as he spread some butter on top of his meat abomination, “what kind of wedding plans were you and Troy needing to do today?” Canvas shrugged while chewing on his biscuit and fried egg. “Well, we already got a lot of the big things sorted out. All we were really needing to get settled were the seating arrangements, the plans for the rehearsal dinner, and finalizing our suits.” “Oh, that reminds me,” added Troy before looking over to his parents, “I need to introduce you to that tailor for your measurements. And Mom, Rarity said she’d be more than happy to make your dress herself.” “Oh, really?” asked Angela with a tone of obvious surprise. Her eyes widened as she made a noise that resembled the mix of a quick gasp or a light laugh. “Wow, I… I wouldn’t have expected her to do that! I figured a designer like her would just stick with royalty.” “Believe me, she’s pretty humble about her work.” Troy then chuckled and added, “Heck, she’ll probably go nuts when she finds out about the baby!” While Angela blushed with a smile, Jonas quickly tried to intervene. “Now wait a minute! Why would they need my measurements for?! I already have my uniform!” “Well, it does need some touching up,” pried his wife with a raised brow. “Remember when I told you those seams around your shoulders were coming apart?” “Yeah, but I,” Jonas’s words trailed off momentarily, and his eyes became half-lidded as he thought back to that discussion. After looking down at the table for a couple seconds, his eyes widened before saying, “Ohhhh… That’s right. I never got that looked at.” “Don’t worry,” assured Troy while covering his already full plate with more of the sausage gravy. “Canvas and I both went to the guy for alterations, and he’s really good at his work.” “Yeah, no doubt.” Canvas swallowed a muzzle full of fried potatoes and onions before adding, “I mean, the guy is an Earth Pony, but he even surprised me when I saw how good his hoof-stitching was!” Blane, who was too preoccupied with his own plate to add to the conversation before, pulled his head up and asked, “Wait, yer hooths? Ah fou--” “Blane, swallow your damn food!” said Jonas in a deadpan tone. “You’re not an animal.” Blane made a heavy sigh with a roll of his eyes. After making a huge gulp, the massive Gryphon wiped some excess grease off his beak with his foreleg and repeated his question. “What I was trying to say was, why your hooves? I thought ponies who did those small things used their mouths and stuff.” Canvas tilted his head as his eyes narrowed on Blane in confusion. “Well, most of the time that’s true. But I don’t know many ponies who would put sewing needles in their mouth.” Blane paused for a second, quickly seeing the pony’s point as he nodded. “Ah, right.” “Oh, come on!” jeered Blaze as he pointed a smirk right at Canvas. “I really doubt that’s the worst thing you’ve put in your mouth!” While Troy shot a venomous glare at his brother, Canvas groaned and looked away from the three who were now cracking up at Blaze’s joke. Fortunately, Angela spoke loudly enough to catch their attention. “Come on, guys, stop that! Not during breakfast!” “Eh, that’s nothing, Mum!” Blade tried to lighten the situation as he flicked back the braid of feathers that came down over his face. “It’s not like we’re sayin’ anything specific!” “It’s still inappropriate! I’d rather not get any mental images while I’m eating!” Lyle was focused on his food as he muttered in agreement, “I don’t wanna get any images either. I still hear Troy’s voice in my head from last time. ‘Just touch it, Canvas.’ ‘Lyle won’t wake up.’” Jonas almost choked on his chorizo. Angela gaped at Troy in absolute shock. Tenor, who was busy with his bowl of breakfast so far, finally lifted his head up when he heard the triplets nearly screaming in hysterics. Meanwhile, Troy’s eyes were sunken within his sockets as he sat in a stunned and frozen state. Canvas wanted to be just as mortified as his fiancè, but he certainly didn’t look like it as he covered his blushed face with both hooves and struggled to muffle his snickers. But despite the noise that erupted around the table, the sound of the door knocking still overpowered it. Tenor barked and quickly ran to the door in excitement. “Troy? Canvas?” asked Derpy from the other side. “It’s me!” “I’LLGETIT!!!” If Troy pulled out of his seat any faster, his chair would’ve caught fire. Desperate to get out of that disastrously awkward situation, the Gryphon shot to the door to avoid seeing his Mom’s look of disappointment. Because of what was on the kitchen table, Troy flared his wings out for cover before opening the door. Tenor was still able to crawl underneath Troy’s wing to greet Derpy with his tongue lolling out of his muzzle. “Awwwww!” The mailpony couldn’t resist petting the Saint Bernard for a couple seconds before bringing her attention back to Troy. “Morning, Troy!” “Hey, Derpy,” said Troy with a shaky smile. Even though it was clear the way his wings stuck out wasn’t natural, the grey-coated mare was too preoccupied with grabbing the envelopes out of her bag to notice. With a smile on her face, Derpy looked up at Troy with the mail in her muzzle. “Here you go!” After Troy took the envelopes, Derpy tried to look past the Gryphon and asked, “Oh, is Canvas here too? I kinda need him to sign for something.” “Hm?” Canvas got out of his chair as well, and scootched his way around Troy’s open wings so he was in Derpy’s line of crooked vision. “What is it? I don’t remember getting any packages.” “Actually, it’s this.” Derpy then took out one last envelope with her hoof. She then reached for her clipboard, not noticing how the stallion’s face soured up at the sight of that familiar hoofwriting and address on the letter. “I guess they wanted to make sure you got it if it’s that important,” she said while pulling the clipboard from its straps on the bag. Troy looked down at Canvas worriedly, seeing just how bitter the stallion looked as he struggled not to crumple that envelope in his hoof. Even Tenor noticed as he looked up at the pony with a cautious whimper. Fortunately, Canvas was able to restrain his building anger long enough to sign the clipboard and stay chipper for Derpy.  He said after giving her the board back. “Well, thanks for letting me know.” “No problem!” Before she could turn around and continue her route, the mare paused as her nostrils flared out. “Oooh, what is that?” she asked as she tried to look past Troy to the source of that smell. “Whatever it is, it smells good!” Troy immediately scooted his way in front of Derpy before she could catch sight of anything unpleasant. “Uh, we were just having breakfast! M-Mom and Dad are here too, so we cooked up a bunch of stuff.” By now, the front half of Derpy’ body was leaned into the house. Luckily, the mare was able to realize what she was doing and pulled back sheepishly. “Heh heh, sorry. I kinda skipped breakfast this morning.” While rubbing the back of her head, she glanced up at Troy as she she began to ask, “I mean, I don’t want to get in the way or anything, but you think that maybe I could--” Before the mailpony could finish her question, a claw popped out from underneath Troy’s wing holding a sandwich. “Here you go,” called out Lyle from behind Troy’s wing. Fortunately the sandwich was up high enough to keep Tenor from jumping up to snag it for himself. “Oh! Well, thank you.” Derpy smiled thankfully as she grabbed the offering from Lyle’s claw. Meanwhile, both Troy and Canvas tried not to look nervous as she took a bite, hoping to Celestia that no meat has hastily placed between those two pieces of toast. Derpy’s crossed eyes rolled back as she groaned in satisfaction. “Mmmmmm! Man, it’s been a while since I had a good fried egg!” She then waved the two goodbye and began to leave. “See you later, guys! Thanks for the sandwich!” Canvas and Troy waved back, and waited until she disappeared in the distance before they both sighed in relief. “Whoo!” said Troy in a heavy exhale while Canvas walked back inside the house. “That was way too close!” Troy made sure to turn around before Lyle went back to his table, and gave him a strong hug from behind. “Look at you, Mister Quick-Thinker!” “Oh, come on!” said Lyle with a giggle before finally getting his brother off of him. “It was nothing! I just put some egg and potatoes in toast, for crying out loud! I just hope bacon grease isn't something ponies--” The sound of paper ripping stopped Lyle’s words, and he turned his head to see Canvas shredding the envelope he received. After throwing all the pieces in the trash bin with a bitter scowl still on his face, Canvas groaned deeply as he walked back to the table. “Oooohhh.” Blane winced a little at how Canvas was acting, and decided to ask, “Was it the IRS?” “What? No!” As Canvas sat back down in his chair. Tenor instinctively walked over and rested his head on top of the stallion’s lap for support. Canvas sighed with a brief smile as he looked down and began to scratch the dog behind his ears. “It’s nothing. Just… just some stupid letter the ponies back in Gallop Creek keep sending me.” Troy’s shoulders slumped down when he got back in his seat as well, already knowing what the letter was about. Lyle’s brows raised as he asked towards Canvas, “Wait, Gallop Creek? You mean that town where you used to live?” “Yeah,” muttered Canvas as he slouched into his table. He didn’t seem to notice how Jonas was leaning back to reach for something behind him, so Canvas just huffed and continued. “They sent me six letters in this past month alone! You’d think that after a while they’d realize they’re wasting their damn time.” “Well, what are they writing about?” asked Angela curiously. “Or who, specifically?” Her question was answered when the sound of rustling paper caught everyone’s attention. Jonas, who was now holding the discarded scraps of the envelope in his claw, had enough of them pieced together to read through the gist of the letter. While Canvas just stared in bafflement between Jonas and the trash bin, wondering how the buck he did that so quickly, the General scanned the contents of the letter as his eyes widened. “Wait, they’re wanting to name the school after you?!” Canvas just groaned and sunk his face into his hooves. The triplets looked over at the pony with impressed smiles. “Holy crap, dude!” said Blaze with a prideful grin. “That’s awesome!” “Yeah, mate!” added Blade with an enthusiastic tone in his accent. “Why would you be upset about that?” “Oh, I dunno,” growled Canvas before putting his hoof back down. His face showed nothing pure anger and malice as he looked down at the table with gritted teeth. “Maybe because they never gave me any damn respect before that?! Maybe because I was treated like shit EVERY single day, and the teachers did nothing?! Or how sometimes some of the teachers treated me just as bad as the other students did?!” Tenor pulled back from Canvas as he whimpered with his ears pulled back in slight fear. While most of the Gryphons just sat frozen while staring at the stallion in surprise (except for Troy, who just took a drink from his milk silently), Canvas rubbed his temple with a hoof and reached for his orange juice. “I’m sorry, it just… I’d rather not have my name plastered on a place that felt like the final circle of Tartarus in the four years I went there.” Jonas just scoffed as his expression turned to a relaxed look of apathy towards the pony. “Oh, so you got pushed against a couple of lockers, so what? I don’t think that should keep you fro--” SMASH!! The sound of shattering glass shut up Jonas in an instant. Canvas held onto his hoof as he winced in pain, not seeming to notice the shattered glass and spilled juice that was now all over his plate. Troy quickly got up to help his fiancè. “Shit, let me see!” “It’s alright,” said the stallion as he looked down at his hoof and wiped his fur carefully. “I don’t think I cut myself.” After making sure his statement was correct, Canvas looked down at the worried puppy before reaching out for him. “It’s okay, Tenor," he cooed softly, "I’m not mad.” Despite the fact that the pony’s strained tone could’ve claimed otherwise, Canvas still had a light smile as he focused his attention on Tenor. Meanwhile, Jonas scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Ummm… Okay, I guess I shouldn’t have said that.” Lyle turned to his Father with a sarcastic, “No, really?” Jonas paused briefly to shoot back an angry pout at Lyle, but sighed as he returned towards Canvas and added, “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to bring up anything.” Troy didn’t look up at his Dad while inspecting Canvas’ hoof. Fortunately, Canvas was able to nod his head and reply towards him, “It’s alright, Jonas. I’m not mad at you.” While Jonas settled in his seat with a cautious glance back at his wife, Blaze peered his head in to see how thick that glass was before Canvas crushed it with one hoof. “Damn,” he muttered in disbelief, “I hope your grip isn’t like that in the bedroom.” “BLAZE!” shouted Troy with a sharp glare up at him. “Are you serious right now?!” Blaze raised both his claws in innocence. “I’m just saying!” Even though Blade and Blane both snickered a little, they both managed to stop before Blane decided to ask, “So… I take it high school was that bad for you?” As Canvas dusted off his hooves lightly, he huffed strongly with a nod of his head. “Yeah. It was…” “WHAT?!?” The silver-coated mare’s cold expression didn’t move an inch, despite how loud the stallion’s outburst in her small office was. She used a hoof to pull back her relatively short salt-and-pepper mane as she replied bluntly. “You were the one who caused a disruption in class, Mister Canvas. I can’t excuse that kind of behavior after you called Mister Stroma a ‘You-Know-What’!” Canvas was panting rapidly, and his enraged snarl made it look like he was about to burst over the desk to beat Principal Edelweiss’ face. But instead, the stallion tried to maintain his composure as best as he could through his tightly clenched jaw. He used a hoof to pull back strands of his long mane from his sweating forehead before saying in almost a growl, “I did not say that to Coach Stroma. I was poi--” “Don’t you try lyin’ ta her!” barked the red stallion who was standing by the office doorway. He carried a nasty-looking pout on his muzzle as he narrowed his eyes on the student. Despite the top of his head being devoid of the orange mane which now came out at his sides, Stroma’s massive size was still intimidating enough to silence Canvas in an instant. “Did you or did you not say the word ‘Gelding’ during class?!” Canvas looked up at Stroma with a glare that obviously read ‘murder’ across his enraged and welling blue eyes. “That was what Pig Skin called ME! And YOU didn’t say a damn thing!” “Watch your mouth!” shouted Edelweiss with a hoof pointed at him warningly. “I’m not going to tell you again!” “Typical,” added Stroma with a scoff and a roll of his eyes. “He just won’t know when to shut his muzzle.” Canvas’ teeth almost broke in his mouth due to how hard he was clenching them shut. He knew that Stroma had it out for him since starting gym class, but this was too far even for him. Even though the vein on his forehead was throbbing hard enough to burst, Canvas tried to speak in a suitable level while his face turned red. “You… were there. You heard him call me that in front of everypony. They all laughed. And you laughed too!” Stroma shrugged nonchalantly and said, “I didn’t hear anything.” “YOU BUCKING LIAR!!!” “THAT’S IT!” yelled Edelweiss loudly enough to made Canvas turn back to her. She simply pointed a hood to the door and stated, “Your suspension starts NOW! You won’t come back to class until Monday!” “MONDAY?!” Canvas’ eyes were wide in shock. His jaw moved around as his mouth hung open, clearly struggling to blurt out the words he wanted to say. “Y-you just said it was only three days suspension!” “And now it’s five! GET OUT!” Now with his face at a deep red, Canvas was shaking in pure, unbridled rage. He couldn’t lose that much school in order to keep his credits up, even though they were already near the highest in his class. He wanted to yell. He wanted to attack. He wanted to do something, anything to give him the slightest semblance of justice among these two. But instead. The stallion just grabbed his bag from the floor, and rushed out of the office before either of them could see him cry. He kept his face away from the receptionist while storming out of the waiting room, but his ears twitched when he heard Stroma’s voice from the open doorway: “Bucking pansy. He needs to grow a pair already.” Canvas froze, but his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. He could barely breathe, and he could feel his throat convulsing in need to let something out. As tears began to run down his face, the pony ran out as fast as he could. His nearly broke the front door to the school from pushing it open so hard, but he didn’t care. If that entire school burnt down, he would’ve been happy. All that he wanted to do was run until he couldn’t run any more. As his tears hit the cold, unforgiving Earth underneath him, Canvas tried as hard as he could to stop recalling those throes of laughter and names. Unfortunately, as he ran to the cemetery, the only words going through his mind were the ones that bastard Stroma said: “I didn’t hear anything.” “... I swear, I heard that statement from teachers almost as much as I did ‘colt-cuddler’ from all those guys.” By now, Canvas was hunched low in his chair, his eyes clenched tightly shut. Troy’s wing was draped over his back in support, but the stallion still felt horrible after recalling that day. While everyone else just sat in silence, Canvas quickly wiped his face with a hoof to make sure he wasn’t crying. “I’m sorry, I just… I keep thinking about that stuff every time I get one of those damn letters. Each one keeps saying how ‘proud’ they were about my accomplishments, but all I think about is how often those same teachers completely ignored me back then! Or how every time I got pushed around, I still got in trouble too!” Not wanting to think about it anymore, Canvas pulled himself out of his seat and picked up his plate. He made sure all the broken glass was on it as well before walking into the kitchen. “I swear,” muttered the pony with a venom that Troy only heard a few times since being with him, “I’d rather put my name on a sewage plant than on that bucking school.” The stallion then disappeared into the kitchen, leaving the family of Gryphons to sit in uncomfortable silence around the dining table. Troy sighed and got out of his seat to follow his fiancè into the kitchen. While the triplets went back to their food like nothing happened, Lyle was the first to break the silence as he said only one word to himself: “Yikes”