CRISIS: Equestria - Divergence

by GanonFLCL

Chapter Ten: Compassion

Fluttershy normally lived all alone at home with nobody but her animal friends for company, most of all her precious Angel Bunny, so she wasn't used to waking up to the sounds of other ponies going about their morning routines. She'd been the last one to awake and felt more than a little odd waking up and finding the apartment in a flurry of activity as everypony set about their first "official" day here in this new world.

Applejack and Twilight had already left by the time Fluttershy was up, and Pinkie and Rainbow had left soon after. That left her with just Rarity for about an hour before Lockwood came to pick her up to head off into the city's ritzy Inner Districts.

Now she found herself all alone in an apartment she was still getting used to in a building filled with ponies she didn't know in a filthy city where she didn't feel safe for even a second. Lockwood was supposed to be coming back later after he'd dropped off Rarity, but that would be some time from now, and so she set about tidying up the apartment for real.

She briefly considered occupying some of her time with that "teevee" they had in the living room, but decided against it. They'd watched some of it the night before, and from what she'd seen there wasn't anything worth watching; the news seemed to be nothing but negativity, and other programs were either too violent, crude, or racy for her tastes.

Best to start working, then, she thought.

There weren't really any dishes for her to worry about, what with everypony's breakfast coming out of these little squeeze tubes. She wasn't fond of these odd fake foods anymore than the rest of them, but she'd make due with them for now.

Thus, she was left to organize a few things to make the place feel more like a home than a hotel. She arranged the kitchen so that the Dolor tubes were all sorted properly, with half of each of the six colors stored in cabinets, the other half of each stored in the refrigerator. The rest of the fridge was stocked with bottled water so that they didn't have to use the tap.

Lockwood had been very generous in getting them these things, and though they all hated asking for favor after favor, he was so amenable that nopony could really argue when he insisted on it. It wasn't often that Fluttershy met somepony so generous and kind outside of her own close circle of friends, and she had started to grow to enjoy his company, at least so far.

The apartment only had two bedrooms, one of which was being shared by Twilight and Applejack, the other by herself and Rarity; Pinkie and Rainbow took the living room's couch, which Fluttershy knew had to be uncomfortable. Even so, that meant that the living room area was essentially Pinkie and Rainbow's "room", and Fluttershy tidied that up first, which was rather easy.

Twilight and Applejack's room was also easy enough to tidy up. She noticed that they'd clearly come to some sort of arrangement on how to share the bed, which was really too small for more than one pony; a pillow on the floor told Fluttershy that one of them had slept there, but there was no telling who. She straightened the sheets, folded up the blanket that had been on the floor, and did her best to arrange the furniture so that whoever had been using the floor had more room.

Her and Rarity's room was easier to tidy up, as both she and Rarity were still sleepers that didn't toss or turn whatsoever; the bedsheets were barely wrinkled and took no time at all to straighten, and the pillows took no effort to fluff and position neatly. She didn't mind sharing the bed with Rarity; she'd never forgive herself if her best friend had to sleep on a hard floor while she got to sleep in a relatively cozy bed.

The apartment's singular bathroom was where Fluttershy spent the most time tidying up. Everypony had gotten their own toothbrushes—again, a favor from Lockwood—but apart from herself, Rarity, and Twilight, they'd forgotten to be even remotely neat about it. Not that it was messy, but it wasn't exactly presentable, as Rarity would put it.

Little strands of hair from everypony's mane hairs were in the sink, seeing as they'd all brushed their manes in here, so she gathered it up and tossed it in the trash. The soap dispenser wasn't where it was supposed to be, so she put it back in its proper place. The hoof towel was crumpled up, so she folded it and replaced it on its rack.

It was a little over an hour before a knock at the front door drew Fluttershy's attention. She glanced through the little peephole to see that Lockwood had returned, and so she opened up to let him inside.

"Welcome back," she said with a smile. "Did everything go okay with Rarity?"

"Wonderfully. I've got a feeling she'll do just fine," Lockwood said, removing his hat to fan himself briefly as he looked about the room. "So, I know this is obviously a little early to be asking, but how are you liking it here so far? I know it's not the same as where you're from and all, but hopefully things aren't too terrible."

"Oh, I think things will be just fine," she said with a small nod. "Um… I know that I'm still a little frightened by all this, especially… especially the times when I'm alone here. I miss my cottage. I miss my animal friends…"

Lockwood frowned. "I'm awfully sorry this happened to you all. None of you deserve to be in this situation. If there's anything I can do to help make your time here more pleasant, I'll be happy to do it. You only need to ask. Okay?"

She sniffed back a brief sensation of tears, then smiled and nodded. "Thank you. I know we've said that a lot already, but… thank you. I appreciate everything you've done for me and my friends. We all do. We'd… we'd be in a lot of trouble if we didn't have ponies like you and Flathoof to help us."

"And you're very welcome, Fluttershy." He replaced his hat on his head. "Now, I was just coming up here to check up on you before I headed off to do my rounds through the complex, but… I was wondering, seeing as you're still feeling a bit uncomfortable being alone and all, would you like to come along?"

"Come along?"

"Yes, walk the complex with me while I'm on my rounds. I'll be visiting with a few of the other tenants who live here in order to address some issues and complaints. Nothing too difficult, luckily. It would at least give you a chance to meet some of your 'neighbors', so that maybe you don't feel entirely alone up here."

Fluttershy considered the offer for a moment. On one hoof, he had a good point: she didn't want to be here alone. Since there wasn't a lot to do in the apartment just yet, at least until they started having the bits to afford new decorations, furniture, and supplies, there wasn't much to occupy her time, either. She'd be alone pretty much the entire day unless somepony came home early.

On the other hoof, the thought of meeting even more ponies from this strange world made her feel a little anxious. Certainly not everypony here was like Lockwood, Flathoof, or Winter, and she'd been led to believe that those three were in the minority by far. Lockwood felt brave enough to interact with them, but could she do the same?

In the end, though, the former argument won out; spending more time in Lockwood's company definitely seemed like the more enjoyable idea. "Okay," she said with a nod. "I'll go along with you, if… if you're sure you want me along?"

Lockwood smiled. "I do, absolutely! I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think you'd enjoy yourself. Whenever you're ready, we can head out. I've got plenty of time, so don't feel rushed."

She took a deep breath. "I'm ready now, if that's okay with you?"

"Then off we go!" he said, bowing politely by the door and gesturing for her to exit the apartment. "After you."

She smiled and headed out the door, thinking to herself how nice it was to have a stallion with such a pleasant demeanor around. There was just something about him that she found fascinating, but she couldn't put her hoof on it. It didn't really matter what it was, though; all that mattered was that he was putting in a lot of effort to help those in need.

*****

The stops along Lockwood's rounds through the apartment were rather quick affairs for the most part, mostly just brief exchanges between him and whatever tenant he was meeting and usually over details that Fluttershy didn't really understand since she'd never dealt with any of those sorts of things before. She understood what the concept of "rent" was and what a landlord was supposed to do, but since she owned her cottage in Ponyville, she wasn't exactly an expert on the subject.

A few tenants had issues a bit more complicated than that, of course, and Fluttershy watched with rapt attention as Lockwood, who she was used to seeing as a friendly, generous, polite pony, continued to be friendly, generous, and polite even to tenants that were quite the opposite. Even when she could tell he was growing impatient or aggravated, he kept his cool, and even his most impolite tone was still more polite than what she expected from somepony in his horseshoes.

He has the patience of a saint, she thought.

One pair of tenants, who lived on floor ninety-seven, were complaining about their air conditioner not working. Fluttershy didn't know what an air conditioner was, exactly, but came to understand from the context of the conversation that it was like some kind of fan that kept the apartments cool.

"It's been out for weeks now!" shouted the husband of the pair, a burly earth pony stallion that, in Fluttershy's opinion, was in desperate need of a shave and a bath. "What're you gonna do to fix it, huh?"

Lockwood, a smile still plastered on his face, just removed his hat and placed it over his heart. "My good Mister Slate, I assure you, your first reported instance of your air conditioner not working was put in two days ago, and I told you yesterday when I dropped by that the technician will be arriving tomorrow to take a look at what's wrong. I don't understand why you're bringing this up again."

"Because it's ridiculous, that's why! So what, are we just supposed to suffocate to death in this heat? You heard the news about the fires; they told everypony to keep their AC on full blast."

"Yeah, this is a serious health hazard!" complained the wife, a scrawny thing that, in Fluttershy's opinion, was much too young for the other stallion, and given their similar facial features and colorations could probably pass for his daughter. "I think we deserve compensation for being put at risk!"

"Missus Sweet, that health warning was for the districts affected by the fires, which would be Mid-North and Mid-East," Lockwood patiently explained. "And Mid-North is supposedly contained as of today, last I heard of it. Southeast Point is quite far from the fires, so that health warning doesn't apply to us."

"So?" asked the husband.

"So, there's nothing I can legally do to compensate you as far as rent is concerned. However, since you're saying that the issue has been ongoing and wasn't properly addressed, I can try to work out some kinks in the paperwork so that at least you won't be billed for the repairpony's rush visit."

The husband gave Lockwood a hard look for a moment, then grunted. "Alright. Fine. What do we do in the meantime? It's hotter than hell in here. Look at me!" he said, pulling on his sweat-drenched tank top. "You could drown a foal with the amount of sweat I've been giving off."

Lockwood hummed. "Might I suggest using the community pool at the rec center? It doesn't get a lot of crowds in the Winter Quarter, so you might get lucky and have it mostly to yourselves. I recommend the third floor pool, myself."

The wife pawed enthusiastically at her husband's chest. "Ooh, that sounds nice, honey. I can try out that new swimsuit I got."

"That the one with the uh… y'know?" the husband asked, his cheeks a little red.

She just nodded, waggling her eyebrows a little.

"Yeah, the rec center pool sounds nice," the husband said to Lockwood. "Is it still free for tenants here to use?"

"Yes it is, with identification."

"Well alright, guess we'll give it a shot, then."

"Good, good. Have fun, you two." Lockwood then replaced his hat, nodded, and left as the couple closed the door behind them. "Well, that could've gone a lot worse," he said to Fluttershy as he approached. "Luckily they mentioned the health warning from the news and such. I can cite that on the paperwork to ease this whole thing through; there are a few loopholes I can work out if health concerns are an issue."

"Lockwood, um… what exactly is your job here?" Fluttershy asked as they headed down the stairs towards the next apartment on his list.

"What do you mean? I'm the building's landlord," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"I know that, yes, but from what I understand, doesn't that mean you're only responsible for dealing with rent issues? I mean, at least that's what it's like where I'm from. This seems a bit, I don't know, above and beyond what's expected of somepony in your position?"

He smiled. "Ah. Well, I suppose you could say that it is, yes. The building does have a superintendent whose job it is to handle issues like repairs and such, but he and I have come to a sort of… agreement, let's say. I handle all of the face-to-face interactions with tenants and put in all of the paperwork, while he handles the actual allotment of labor and resources."

"Why would he make such an arrangement?"

"Oh, any number of reasons. Perhaps he thinks I'd just do a better job interacting with ponies? Before the building came under new ownership a few years ago, I used to assist the old superintendent with the same sorts of things, so it's not like it's strange to me. The old owner never had a problem with it."

"And the new owner doesn't, either?"

He shrugged. "If he does, he hasn't said anything to me about it yet, and since the building is still pulling in a profit I don't think he will. Something particularly drastic would need to happen to shake things up, I think."

"Like, say… six tenants didn't pay their first month's rent because they mysteriously vanished?" Fluttershy asked, eyes wide.

Lockwood paused, then cleared his throat and tugged his collar. "So anyway, this next tenant—"

"Lockwood, are you going to get in trouble when we leave?" she asked, stopping in the stairwell for a moment.

He just smiled and kept on walking. "I doubt it, but if I do, we'll just chalk that up to a first strike against me, hmm? Everypony makes mistakes, you know? What's one month's rent from a four-pony apartment compared to the continued responsibility of the rest of the complex?"

"But—"

"Come now, don't worry about little old me," he said, stopping in the stairwell to gently take her hoof and give it a reassuring pat. "If everypony I knew worried about every little crazy thing I do to help those in need, I daresay I could make a killing on anxiety medications. I deal with that enough from Flathoof, thank you very much."

"If you're sure—"

"I'm sure. Trust me, Fluttershy, I'll be just fine. I'm saving up money to make the big move south by this time next year, so even if something did happen, it wouldn't be that drastic. I'll make due."

Fluttershy paused, then nodded. "Okay… if you say you're going to be alright…"

"See? Now, let's not waste time in this stuffy stairwell talking about nothing important, hmm?" He gestured for her to follow. "We've got plenty more stops on today's tour, and we want to finish them all in time for lunch, don't we?"

Fluttershy followed, and they continued up and down the stairs, visiting apartment after apartment and dealing with more and more tenants, some of whom were again quick and easy to deal with—Lockwood was just reminding certain tenants about the rent payments being due soon—while others had more complicated issues beyond just broken air conditioners.

A lone tenant in a single-pony apartment, for example, was complaining about a smell coming from somewhere in the apartment, and despite Lockwood having apparently sent somepony to look at it and take care of it multiple times, the smell kept coming back, worse every time. Fluttershy could just barely detect the smell herself, but she recognized the pungent, musky odor as—

"Rat poop?" asked Lockwood when she made the suggestion.

She nodded. "I deal with all kinds of animals back at home. The rats I usually take care of are cute and cuddly critters, but… but sometimes, I'd see less friendly ones come out of the nearby Everfree Forest. They had a very distinct odor to them because they don't bathe properly and aren't very, um… sanitary. Lots of ponies think they carry disease."

"Well, we don't have any animals up here in the north, so I know it's not an actual rat infestation," Lockwood said, stroking his chin. "But that means that something is causing that smell, and it's not a problem with the plumbing." He turned to the tenant. "I'll have to put in a request for pest control. They most likely decide to fumigate the place."

The tenant, a scruffy, older pegasus stallion with a thick, bushy mustache, gave a terse nod. "If that's what you gotta do, sure. What's that mean for me, though? I can't be here if they're gonna fumigate my place."

"If you don't have any friends or family that can take you in, I can put in some kind of workaround to get you a hotel while the fumigation is ongoing," Lockwood replied. "I can't promise anything fancy, but I can at least make sure you've got a safe place to sleep."

"Hmm…" The tenant bristled his mustache. "Sounds good to me. Keep me posted, Lockwood."

"Will do, Scruffy."

With that, the tenant closed the door and left Lockwood and Fluttershy alone in the hall.

"If it's not rats, what is it?" Fluttershy asked. "It can't be some other sort of critter. You said yourself there aren't any animals up north."

"Animals, no; insects, yes." Lockwood sighed. "Nothing as bad as those Gargantuans outside the city walls, but we still get plenty of nasty pests in the city sometimes. Supposedly, anyway. We shouldn't be getting them in the Mid-Districts. It's more of a problem in the Outer District slums."

Fluttershy frowned as she tried to think of what kinds of insects could even remotely cause the same sort of odor as the Everfree rats. Cockroaches, maybe? She usually loved all sorts of animals and insects, but even Fluttershy could acknowledge that some were definitely not considered the cute-and-cuddly sort that anypony could learn to love if given a chance; there was a big difference between a cockroach and a bear.

And another thing, if they dealt with cockroach infestations out in the Outer Districts, just what did that say about the living conditions out there? Fluttershy had come to understand that the city's outermost residential areas weren't exactly the best quality—she'd heard them referred to as slums and ghettos—but just how bad were they?

After dealing with a few more problem tenants, Lockwood showed Fluttershy into his actual office on the complex's main floor. She was surprised that the office was so cramped considering that his apartment was allegedly rather spacious, but then she supposed he wasn't in here much anyway aside from dealing with paperwork. Apart from a desk and a pair of chairs for him to do his work and maybe meet with a tenant, there was just a big filing cabinet that apparently kept track of every tenant in the building.

Lockwood was quick with the paperwork, too, filing through form after form with the sort of speed that she expected of a unicorn with magic, not a pegasus. He didn't ask her for any help, but she did offer, and at her insistence—she felt that was basically his assistant for the day at this point—he allowed her to lend a hoof in putting stamps on a few forms once he was done filling them out.

It felt nice, being useful for something, even if it was something that he was more than capable of doing himself. That had been her concern when she'd learned that she and her friends would be stuck here for a while: that she'd be worthless. Her other friends all had talents and skills and interests that could help them occupy themselves and even make money doing; what did Fluttershy have?

She never wanted to be in the public eye again, not after the fiasco with Photo Finish; without any animals, she didn't have her special talent to lend to anything; she liked to sing, but even if Lockwood could help her do something with that, the last thing she wanted was for millions of ponies to listen to her singing; maybe she could foalsit but she preferred to know the ponies she was foalsitting for, and the ponies she was foalsitting.

So yes, being Lockwood's assistant for a few weeks and taking care of the apartment for her friends just felt… nice. She could live with that.

Once the last form was filled out, stamped, and placed into the outgoing receptacle by the office door, Lockwood took a breath, fanned himself with his hat, and allowed himself a moment to rest. "Thanks for the help, Fluttershy," he said with a grin. "You know, I might just hire you on as my official assistant if you keep this up."

Fluttershy blushed and shook her head. "Oh, you don't have to do that. I'm just happy to help for its own sake. Your job seems very stressful, and you're doing so much for me and my friends. It's the least I could do to repay you for your kindness and generosity."

He shook his head and smiled. "Well, if you insist on helping me out pro bono, fine, I won't refuse the offer. I've never had an assistant before, let alone a nice mare like you. I think you're spoiling me."

She hid her face behind her mane. "Th-thanks…"

He replaced his hat on his head. "Well, I have one more stop to do, and then I was going to take a lunch break. Care to join me?"

Her eyes widened. "F-for lunch?"

"Well, I was asking more about joining me on my last stop for the day, and was going to save the lunch invitation for later," he said with a grin.

"I… s-sure, I'll go. To both, I mean. What's this other stop we're making?"

Lockwood pulled a file out of the cabinet and gave it a once-over. "We had some new tenants move in this morning, apparently before I even woke up. Usually I like to greet new tenants before they move in to get a feel for the kinds of ponies they are, but I guess this was an unusual circumstance."

"Like ours?"

"Well, not exact—" He started to say. Then, he paused, scratched his chin, and nodded. "Actually, it is a little similar. They lived in an apartment out in the Mid-East District that got hit by the fires. Half the city is likely getting all sorts of requests for residence transfers and such just like this one. Luckily we had an opening."

"So… these ponies are living here because something happened to their home," Fluttershy said, putting the connection together. "How awful. I mean, I know my friends and I are a long way from home right now, but… but we still have a home to return to. These ponies might have lost everything in the fire."

"Regardless of the circumstances, I do need to meet with all the new tenants that move in so that I can at the very least put names to faces and introduce myself. They've got to pay rent, same as everypony else, y'know?" He replaced his hat on his head and stood from his chair. "Shall we?"

"Yes, let's," she replied.

While she'd been hesitant to meet many other tenants in the building so far, she found herself somewhat eager to meet these new ones, mostly because she felt immense sympathy for their situation. She couldn't imagine what she'd do if something terrible happened to her cottage back home; it hurt just to think about what all of her animal friends would do without all the little habitats she built around it.

She and Lockwood climbed the stairs up to the seventy-fourth floor and came to the door labeled 12:00, right in front of the stairwell. Lockwood adjusted his hat and jacket so that he looked as professional as possible, then gave the door a brisk knock.

There was no response.

So he knocked again.

This time, the sound of hoofsteps came from the other side, and soon after, the door opened.

On the other side was an absolute giant of a pegasus mare, taller than any mare Fluttershy had ever seen before apart from the Princesses back home, and even taller than most stallions; she could probably be eye-level with Big Macintosh, and he was taller than even Applejack. Her coat was gray, and her mane and tail were colored slate and stone gray on either half with a magenta streak down the middle. She wore a thick hooded sweater, colored a darker gray than her coat.

The mare didn't say a word, just looked at Lockwood first, then turned her attention to Fluttershy, then back to Lockwood.

Since she didn't say anything for several seconds, Lockwood cleared his throat. "Um, hello. I'm Lockwood, your new landlord here at Southeast Point. I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting yet. You must be… let's see…" He glanced at the paperwork he'd brought with him. "Ah, Gray Skies, the pegasus."

The mare nodded. "That's me."

"Wonderful. Let's see here, there are… three of you living at this apartment: you and your sisters Insipid and Red Velvet. Are either of them here at the moment?"

Gray shook her head, but didn't say anything; that was good enough, though.

"Oh well, another time then. Welcome to Southeast Point," Lockwood with a tip of his hat. "I see from your file here that you already filled out all of the necessary paperwork—good show on getting that done so quickly—so all I really need is this formal meeting; one down, two to go. Any idea when we can expect your sisters home?"

Gray shrugged. "Red's out exploring the neighborhood, and Insipid's looking for a new job. They left me behind to deal with this stuff." She turned briefly towards Fluttershy, then lifted her head briefly. "Who's that?" she asked Lockwood, though her gaze was still on Fluttershy.

Fluttershy, in turn, hid her face behind her mane a little bit; this other mare was certainly soft-spoken and seemed polite and calm enough, but she was so big that it was a little scary looking at her, or rather having her looking at Fluttershy. She could see, even with the sweatshirt in the way, that Gray absolutely bulged with muscle. Even Applejack would be impressed.

"Oh, this is my new assistant, Fluttershy. I'm just showing her around so she can get used to the place," Lockwood said with a grin. He gestured at Fluttershy gently with a tilt of his head, the universal sign for "go on, say something".

Fluttershy gulped, took half a step forward, and nodded politely. "H-hi. Nice to meet you, Miss Skies."

"Gray."

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Call me Gray. Nopony calls me 'Miss Skies'. Too formal."

"Oh. Okay, Gray," Fluttershy said with another polite nod. "It's nice to meet you."

"Indeed, it's a pleasure," Lockwood added. He looked between the two briefly, a little grin on his face. "You know, Fluttershy is also a relatively new tenant here at Southeast Point."

Gray turned her attention back to him. "Hmm?"

"Yes, she just moved in two days ago, actually. Isn't that right, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy gave Lockwood a nervous look, trying to nonverbally communicate with him as best she could, "what are you doing?" When he either didn't pick up on it, or just flat-out ignored it, Fluttershy realized that Gray was looking expectantly at her for an answer.

"Oh… um… y-yes, that's right, I just moved in. I'm… s-sort of new to the big city…"

Gray hummed, eyebrow up. "You're not from around here?"

"Oh, n-no, I'm from a little town called Ponyville. It's… down south," she said, maintaining the cover story that she and her friends were instructed to keep to.

"Ah. So I guess we're both strangers around here," Gray said. She paused, then shook her head. "I mean, I've never been here to the Mid-South District. I'm from New Pandemonium, obviously."

"Oh. I… guess that's true, yes. We're both strangers here then, in a sense," Fluttershy replied.

"You live alone?"

"No, I'm living with some of my friends. They're just all off doing… their own things, at the moment. Looking for work and things like that, I mean."

"Why aren't you?"

"Oh, um… I… I just…" Fluttershy murmured. "I'm… not really good at anything that would be useful up here. I mean, I guess I'm Lockwood's assistant now, but—"

"So they just left you here, huh?" Gray said with an understanding nod. "Hey, my sisters are like that, too." She paused, then tilted her head slightly. "So, y'know, I'm always home, in case you ever needed somepony to talk to or something."

Fluttershy blinked, blindsided by the offer. "Oh? Oh! Um… thank you. That's… that's very nice of you."

Gray shrugged. "Eh, not so much nice as it's boring being around the place by myself. Might be nice to have somepony to talk to. Somepony not so loud."

"Well, still, I appreciate the offer," Fluttershy said with a smile. "I… I might take you up on that."

"Cool." Gray turned to Lockwood. "So, are we done here?"

Lockwood smiled and nodded. "I think we are, for now. I'll still need to meet with your sisters eventually so that I can make this all official. When they return from their errands, I'd appreciate it if you could let them know to come see me ASAP."

"Sure, whatever." She tilted her head up at Fluttershy briefly. "See you around."

"Um… bye," Fluttershy said, waving.

The door closed, and Fluttershy and Lockwood were left alone in the hall again.

"She seems nice," Lockwood said with a grin.

Fluttershy smiled. "She… she does, yes. Um, sorry if I was… awkward about all that. I don't usually jump right into introductions so quickly…"

"It's alright," Lockwood said, taking her hoof and giving it a gentle pat. "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable by doing that. I just sensed a potential connection there and, well, I couldn't stop myself. That's kind of my thing, in case you haven't noticed: helping ponies make connections?"

She nodded. "I've noticed. And you're very good at it, I can see that now."

"Well, I'm glad I could help get the ball rolling on this for the two of you. I have the feeling this will be the start of a wonderful friendship, mark my words."

Fluttershy smiled and nodded again. She wasn't sure if Lockwood was right, but she was hoping he was.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Huh...Gray being the point of contact for Flutters? That's different.

He has the patience of a saint, she thought.

And you don't want to find out what happens when he completely fucking loses it I can tell ya that much.

[My name is R]

She understood what the concept of "rent" was and what a landlord was supposed to do, but since she owned her cottage in Ponyville, she wasn't exactly an expert on the subject.

My family had a landlord once. I don't really remember that house, but I've been told that he didn't really do his job. At all. As long as tha tenants paid rent he left them to their own devices. Ever since then we've bought our houses, though the bank owned part of 'em.

"Like, say… six tenants didn't pay their first month's rent because they mysteriously vanished?" Fluttershy asked, eyes wide.

Hmm... I hadn't thought about that. What if ya just hand him tha bits ya have when ya leave? It may not be a full month's rent, but it'll be somethin'.

I wonder if they placed Gray in Fluttershy’s path on purpose, or if it just happened. I wouldn't be surprised either way, but I'd guess it was an accident. Not like they coulda known Lock-would bring her with 'em.