Warrior Ponies

by My name is R

Chapter 7 Morning

The night of their arrival at the large horseden, they were shown to their dens. They had two on each side of the walkway. One for the apprentices, one for the warriors, one for Leafpool and Jaypaw, and one for Firestar. Sandstorm had slept with Firestar since they were mates.

Lionpaw and Breezepaw walked up to the den they had been assigned next to the warriors’ den. Lionpaw raised his paw high in the air and brought it down onto the wall opener like a downward strike at his opponent’s head. After it turned a quarter circle it resisted further movement and he shoved it inward with his shoulder and stepped into the room, Breezepaw following after a few paces.

Inside the den were two raised nests set against one of the walls. On the far side of the wall opposite the nests was another openwall.

“The front half of the den is mine,” Lionpaw announced.

“No it isn’t!” Breezepaw tried to tackle Lionpaw, but he was clouted and sent to the ground. Then Lionpaw placed a paw heavily down on his back.

“Yes, it is,” Lionpaw growled.

“Alright, alright, get off of me.” Breezepaw walked over to the openwall deeper in the den. He opened it and saw an empty space big enough to comfortably curl up in. I’ll make my nest here, he thought. He trotted over to the nest on his side of the den and grabbed its bedding, carrying it back to his nest-hole.

After Breezepaw had put the bedding into his nest he turned back and saw Lionpaw stealing his raised nest. “What do you think you’re doing?” he snarled.

“Well you’re clearly not using it.”

“But I might, and it’s on my half of the den!”

“Deal with it,” Lionpaw dismissed.

Breezepaw leapt at Lionpaw with a snarl, but was once again batted out of the air before he made contact. “Don’t try that again,” Lionpaw growled before turning back to the nest.

Breezepaw got to his paws and went to his nest-hole, wondering if his dreams would still find him in the Dark Forest here.

---

After breakfast Jaypaw slipped away from the others to explore the horseden. After he had been exploring for a while he decided to head back. After he had been making his way back for half again as long as he had been leaving he decided that the horseden was the most twisty thing he had ever seen.

He stomped a paw and mentaly cursed his useless eyes. Why couldn’t he see like everyone else! He hissed in frustration before he heard someone humming as they approached. He stood and looked at the approaching stranger.

“♪Hm hmhm hmmhmm, hm hmhm hm-agh! Dude, are you ok? You look… mad.” Jaypaw recognized the voice as the dragon Twilight had introduced last night.

“I’m… Fine.”

“I know that look, it means you’re stressed out over something. Are you lost?”

Jaypaw considered the question. On the one paw he was lost and wanted to find his way back, and Spike probably could tell him, but on the other paw he didn’t want to look weak in front of outsiders.

After a moment Spike continued. “You should have seen the places Starlight ended up in her first month here.”

Jaypaw decided that if he wasn’t the first to get lost here then Spike was unlikely to belittle him for it. “I’m lost.”

“Where are you heading?”

“Back to mine and Leafpool’s den,” Jaypay answered.

“Right this way!” Spike said, and then his pawsteps headed off at a quick pace, Jaypaw following closely behind.

“So, where are you guys from?” Spike asked.

“Far away.”

After they had walked for many heartbeats in silence Spike spoke again. “Are you… planning on staying in Ponyville long?”

“For a while.”

After another awkward pause Jaypaw heard an openwall moving and Spike’s pawsteps passed it, so Jaypaw followed him through.

“Here we are, the closest reading room to your guest rooms.”

Jawpaw nodded, trying to look lost, despite not knowing what a ‘readingroom’ was.

“Is there anything in particular you want to read?”

“No.”

“Well, if you want we have some Power Ponies comics.”

“That sounds good.”

“Alright! Just a sec… ah, here they are.” Jaypaw heard something fluttery hit a hard surface. “Have a nice morning. I’d join you, but somepony left a mess in the library. Again. See you ‘round.” And then the openwall made a closing boom.

Jaypaw stalked over to the place Spike had set the ‘Power Ponies comics’. He sat on his haunches and tried to read them. Despite his powers he couldn’t sense any emotions from them. He sniffed them, and they had a strange smell he hadn’t smelled before. They smelled a bit like plants. He prodded them with his paw and they felt like a very dense stack of leaves. Jaypaw was confused how he was supposed to read these things.

---

Starlight had just finished taking a shower and decided to check on how their guests were doing before she left for the school. She found three of them in the dining room hallway talking to each other and looking at her map she had given them.

“Hello there. Can I help you find something?”

“We were having a little trouble deciphering the map,” the bright orange said with a friendly smile.

“No problem… Firestar, was it?”

“Yes. And these are Sandstorm and Brambleclaw,” he said, nodding to each of his companions in turn.

“Alright let’s see here.” Starlight stepped next to Firestar. “Here’s the dining room,” she said, pointing with her hoof. “We’re here.” She slid her hoof slightly, held it for a moment, and then set it back down. “Were you looking for anywhere specific?”

“No. Thank you for your help,” Firestar replied.

“If you need anything, feel free to ask one of us and we’ll help point you in the right direction.”

“Thank you.”

“Bye,” Starlight said, starting to walk away. After she got to the next hallway she saw the black colt muttering and glaring at the ground as he walked opposite her path. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” the colt growled.

“It’s just that you seem a bit upset,” Starlight probed.

“It’s that stupid Lionpaw’s fault,” he growled again, coming to a stop.

“What happened?”

“Jerk thinks he can push me around just because he’s bigger.”

“Hmm. I see…” Starlight decided she should talk to Lionpaw and get his story before she did anything about this. She set off toward the guest rooms, hoping he would be there. She got to one and knocked, but after a few moments she decided it was empty. Before long she had checked all of them without any luck. She looked back, but the black colt was gone. Then she heard somepony shouting from a nearby room.

“Reveal your secrets to me, Power Ponies comics!”

She walked over to the door the noise had come from and opened it, revealing the changeling colt glaring at some of Spike’s comics. “Jaypaw, are you alright?”

“Yes,” he said, in a tone that clearly spoke otherwise.

“You’re shouting at comic books,” Starlight deadpanned.

“Yes?”

Starlight simply stared at the odd colt. He continued staring at the books, though his ears here tilted toward her. A moment of silence passed. “Can you read?” Starlight finally asked.

“Of course I can!” he responded indignantly. “Can you?”

Starlight took a deep breath. She considered just leaving and letting this colt figure himself out on his own. He didn’t seem to want her help and she did have other plans for today.

“Though I’m not sure how to read these,” he conceded, making Starlight raise an eyebrow. “They’re not alive.”

Starlight opened her mouth, and then closed it. She took another deep breath, and slowly let it out. “Have you been talking to Pinkie Pie?”

“Who?”

“Nevermind. What do you mean, the books aren’t alive. Of course they’re not alive.”

“Then how, would you expect me, to read them?” he asked.

“With your eyes?” He stared at her now, with his unreadable changeling eyes. Even after talking with Ocellus now and then for months Starlight could never read a changeling’s eyes, and the rest of his face showed nothing but intensity.

“You… really haven’t figured it out?”

“Well I’m starting to think you can’t read, but I already asked you that. If you lied, that’s on you.”

“I CAN READ,” he started, speaking slowly and clearly. “EMOTIONS. I’M BLIND.”

“That doesn’t explain why you would pretend to know how to read. If-”

“I can read,” he interrupted. “I can read. People. I didn’t realize that word had another meaning.”

“You’ve never heard of reading a book?”

“No, I haven’t.”

Starlight started to ask where he was from before she stopped herself. She thought back to some of the things Ocellus had said about her hive. And when she had visited the hive there hadn’t been any books… “I’m sorry. I guess I need to work on keeping other cultures in mind. Would you like to learn how to read?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm. Well, I can think of two ways you could go about this. Either we should find out if Twilight has any books in ridged type, or we could try to help you see. Can you do that now?”

“Of course I can’t see. I just told you I’m blind.”

“Well, I didn’t know if you’d already mastered any transformation tricks that let you see. If you haven’t then we should talk to Ocellus. Lucky for you, she's staying here over winter break.”

“Transforming?”

Starlight shrugged. “I don’t know for sure if it will let you see. If your eyes are the problem then it should be as simple as transforming into something with different eyes, but if the problem is in your head… I don’t think we can fix that. Still, it’s worth a try, right?”

“Ok.”

“I was just on my way to the School of Friendship, that’s where she’s staying. So follow me and let’s see what we can do.”

Comments

[Melody Song]

Poor Jaypaw...