Finding Your Place With the Outcasts

by TikiBat

Chapter 7: The Price of Forgiveness

Flickers of a fragmented dream ran through Sine’s mind as she slowly started to near the point of returning to the waking world. In contrast to most dream walkers, Sine Wave would often split time between exploring the dreams around her and letting her own play out. While this might have been strange for most other ponies that could use dream magic, Sine preferred to channel her dream magic in different ways that could better suit her creative endeavors. Today that meant going to bed with a clear problem to solve in her mind, and with any luck, her dream would reveal the answers she so desperately sought. In most cases, it gave her an idea to work through in the afternoon when she awoke. Today, however, it was disjointed memories of friends and peers replaying in her mind. One moment she witnessed Zipper crashing through her garden, the next, she was back in the first Dreamwarden trial. In another, she was back with Ink Rose in the aftermath of their first tattoo session. The memories playing back to her seldom ever lined up chronologically but rather were chained together with loose threads comprised of anger, fear, and regret.

Those fragmented memories would soon come to an end, however, for the afternoon sun had just started to dip in the sky, and with it came the irritating blare of Sine Wave’s usual alarm clock. The mare stirred in her admittedly small (for a pony), yet more than a comfortable bed, and disabled the alarm. A few lingering memories danced in the peripherals of her sleepy eyes, but the moment she opened her eyes, they quickly faded. She let out a loud groan and rolled over, glancing at the time again before letting out a small sigh. Usually she might sleep in for a while longer, but today was a special day. With Zipper’s promise to make things right, she knew that the day would likely be more entertaining than usual. Not wanting to waste a moment, she hopped out of bed and began to run through her morning routine.

First was the nice hot shower, one of the few luxuries she had in her home, the one that she arguably cherished most. As a human, she didn’t care either way what her showers were like. They could be cold, hot, or even just lukewarm. It was never more than just a momentary part of her daily routine. However, being a pony almost seemed to exaggerate her creative side, and considering the level of thinking involved with the hobbies that she would frequent, the shower was the perfect place for some creative brainstorming for her various homebrew projects. The hot water running down her back and the loud noise it brought with it gave her the perfect environment cut off from all distractions. With how connected the Oasis was and how social ponies were, this was one of the few places where she was truly and utterly alone in the world. As cliche and corny as it probably sounded, her afternoon showers were one of the only places where she was completely alone in the world, and in there, it was easy to lose track of time and drift off to her mind’s world. Today, however, proved slightly different. As the hot water ran down her neck and back, her ears twitched as the loud ringing that came from her doorbell.

Ughhh, Sine let out a long sigh and flipped off the shower.

Stepping out, she grabbed a large towel with her wings and draped it over herself, taking a moment to dry her mane off before heading to her room’s computer. In any normal circumstance, she’d take the time to carefully style her mane before even starting her day proper, but the sudden interruption forced her to leave her long mane down for the time being. There were worse problems to have though, and plus she personally thought she could rock the style just as well as her usual getup so what was the harm in leaving it natural for a day?

Tapping a couple of keys on her keyboard, Sine let out a small snicker as the unmistakable form of Zipper greeted her on screen. Guess the bird brain is keeping his end of the bargain after all, she thought to herself.

“Give me just a sec, Bird Brain,” she called out through the intercom. While she didn’t normally like to leave her guests waiting, she still had to dry off, and wasting Zipper’s time was the least of her concerns today. She might have already given her own conditional forgiveness to the wild pegasus, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t give him a hard time. While she didn’t like to be outright mean if she didn’t have a reason to be, Zipper had still done little to actually make things right, so a haste response was simply something he hadn’t earned yet.

A few quick passes with the towel were more than enough to dry her off in the dry climate, and with a spring in her step, she cheerfully trotted towards the door. A mischievous smirk spread across her face as the rumblings of a plan started to form in her mind. With Zipper (begrudgingly) offering to help her out today, she knew that he likely wouldn’t be up to putting in a full effort, but that didn’t necessarily mean much to her either way. She could easily tend to her garden— and oftentimes that was one of her favorite hobbies, so the quality of Zipper’s work wasn’t what was most important to her. As long as the pegasus was forced to confront his mistakes then she’d be happy, as shoddy as his work would likely be.

Without so much as a warning, she swung her front door inward and inadvertently startled the young pegasus with her unceremonious greeting.

“Hey bird brain. Ready to work?” She asked rhetorically.

Zipper composed himself and nodded. “Uh huh… so uhh, what do you want me to start with?”

“Come in first, we’ll get to that in due time,” she invited him in with an extended wing.

The pegasus followed her beckoning wing in, and stood in the dimly lit space, eyes squinted so he might see better. The room itself was as dark as it could possibly be save for some black light posters and a few blinking lights from Sine’s currently idle workspace. Under normal circumstances, a day long visiting would necessitate the lighting of a few candles or even flipping the lights on, but neither of them would stay in this room long enough for that to be much of a concern.

“So what’s up then?” He asked again.

“Eager to work eh?” Sine laughed as she looked at Zipper absentmindedly glance around the dark room.

“I’d just rather get this over with as soon as possible,” he answered.

“Right,” She took a second to slide her sunglasses on and then gently nudged him towards her home’s back door. “Alright bird brain, here’s the deal. We’re gonna start nice and easy, you’re going to go till the soil and clear out the dead flowers. After that we’re gonna go on a little shopping trip so you can buy replacements for me. Then you’re going to plant those for me and you can be on your merry way as if nothing ever happened.”

“It’s really going to be that easy?” He asked.

“More or less,” Sine replied. “This isn’t going to be as easy as you think though, but I’ll help you out if you absolutely need it. I don’t want to torture you after all. Diving through a bed of roses was probably painful enough.”

Zipper winced as he clearly replayed the whole ordeal in his mind. “It’s not my brand of fun but a deal’s a deal. If it means you won’t rip my throat out and that you’ll help out with the whole arcade thing… then this is more than fair.”

“Of course it is. You’re fixing a big mistake by doing it after all,” she reminded him. Sine paused for a second and opened the door, trotting out onto the patio and grabbing a few items from the nearby shed. “Here’s some basic tools, they aren’t super fancy but they’ll get the job done. I’m going to sit back and relax but if you need anything feel free to ask.”

Zipper slowly nodded. “Okay, I guess I’ll get started then. Anywhere in particular you want me to start first?”

Sine gestured towards a patch of completely crushed and wilted roses. “Go sort those out first, then we can take a look at the others and go from there.”

Zipper nodded and grabbed a small shovel from the collection of provided tools. “Mmmkay, I guess just give me a holler if you need anything.”

“Likewise,” Sine replied.

With a small leap, Zipper hopped up onto the damaged flowerbed and began to dig away at the crumpled and ruined flowers. Pausing for a moment, he looked back over to Sine. “Hey do you have a bin or bag for these? Or do you just want me to trash ‘em?”

Sine pointed towards a compost bin near the side of the garden. “Just toss them over there, that should be fine for now.”

Zipper nodded and started to organize the dug-up flowers into neat little piles that he could easily carry over to the compost bin. Minutes seemed to fly by as he worked through the first task, and before long he was standing in a rough bed of soil. It took a bit longer than Sine would have normally taken to clear the wilted flowers out, but he had done his job so she couldn’t complain. Perhaps it was his own interest to get the job done as soon as possible, or some inflated sense of duty that was driving him to act so differently, but whatever it was, she hoped he’d keep it up. If it wasn’t for the fact that he evidently had his own personal explanations for the sudden attitude change, she would have assumed that he had been replaced by some alien doppelgänger. For all things considered though, if this was a small taste of what the new Zipper was like then Sine was almost eager to work with him and Blue Spring on their arcade project.

“I have to hand it to you, bird brain. You’re off to a pretty good start.”

“Mhmm. So what’s next then?” We go get some flowers or something?”

“Well before we can do that, I think you need to clean up the flowerbed. That means leveling the dirt out and maybe tilling it into some neat rows so you can plant the new flowers when we get them.”

The pegasus let out a small sigh and shrugged. “Gotcha. Any particular way you want me to do that?”

Sine shook her head. “Just focus on making the dirt level, we can figure out the finer details after that.”

“Alrighty,” came the pegasi’s indifferent response.

---

“How’s this look, Sine?” Zipper asked as he took a step back from the newly leveled out soil.

“Hmmm,” Sine stepped forward and inspected his work. “It’ll do.”

“Is that good?” Zipper raised an eyebrow.

“It’s as good as packed down dirt can be,” Sine nodded. “So how about we move onto the next task, unless you think you need a break?”

Zipper considered this for a moment, but in a move that surprised her more than anything, he simply shook his head. “Let’s go get the flowers first. I can rest for lunch or something.”

His reply surprised her more than anything, but she wasn’t going to turn down a swift job. “Alright, if you insist. You wanna walk there or fly?”

“Up to you, I’m good either way. The sooner I get this done though, the sooner you don’t have to deal with me.”

“Who says I don’t want to deal with you?” Sine asked, raising an eyebrow.

The pegasus looked away. “I just uhh… guessed you probably wanted me out of your hair as soon as possible.”

Something about the way he said that just struck something in her. “Hey, you apologized, and while it might not have been the best apology in the world, you’re here helping me now and that’s what’s important. The second you showed up to help, whatever hatchet we needed to bury was buried. So don’t feel like I hate you or anything, because I don’t.”

“You don’t?” he looked back at her. “I mean, everything’s fine just like that?”

Sine shrugged. “You’re evidently not the bird brain I thought you were originally, and from what I’ve heard around, people are noticing that too.”

Zipper nodded. “I uhh… I guess I’ve had a few days to do some soul searching and decide to do things a little differently.”

“A little? You’re doing things a lot differently. I mean you just did an hour’s worth of manual labor and you didn’t argue about it, half-ass it, or try to get out of the work. That’s a lot different from the way you acted when you ruined everything the first time around.”

“I guess figuring out what I was meant to do gave me a wake-up call?” he offered.

“It sure sounds like it,” Sine commented. “So tell you what, let’s go get the rest of this done and we can get something to eat after, I’ll treat you because you’re being so generous and buying new flowers for me.”

“Yeah… generous,” Zipper replied. “I just hope this won’t run me dry, you know?”

“Oh it’ll be expensive, but that’s a part of owning up to your mistakes.”

He closed his eyes and nodded. “You’re right. Let’s get it over with so it won’t sting as much.”

“Sounds like a plan bird brain. Just follow me, it’s not too far.”

The market in question was about a minute’s flight from her home, and to Sine’s own relief, the establishment was fairly empty save for the lone proprietor and a couple of earth pony mares who were browsing the selection. Sine Wave wasn’t one to openly share this, and in fact only her closest friends really had an understanding of it, but she was the kind of pony that preferred to keep to herself and avoid large gatherings. It wasn’t a crippling fear or anything too abnormal, but she just simply felt most comfortable when she could be relatively alone. Petals and Thorns was one of the few places Sine could be considered a regular at, and if you weren’t in the know, then you probably wouldn’t even expect a mare like her to enjoy gardening on the side. Something about the hobby was just so relaxing to her, and as much as she didn’t like the outdoors, she loved her little slice of the world that she (and now Zipper) had built for herself.

“So what are we getting?” Zipper cut in as they passed a few brightly colored displays.

“SINE WAVE!” A jolly voice boomed from behind them before Sine could give a response. “It’s always great to see you ‘round here!”

“Afternoon, Purline, how’re you today?” Sine warmly greeted the earth pony stallion before them.

“Just as good as always! And yourself?”

“I’m good, maybe a little sleepy but otherwise okay.”

The green stallion smiled. “That’s better than bad, and it looks like you brought a friend along too eh? What’s the occasion?”

“Glad you asked!” She smirked. “Bird Brain here damaged some of my flowers, and graciously offered to replace them for me.”

“Did he now?” The stallion grinned. “So what’ll it be then?”

“Uhh…” Zipper stammered as he looked towards Sine, who just grinned back. “What’s on sale?”

“Flowers that’ll probably be out of season soon. So I can’t recommend those,” Purline looked over at Sine, “So what did he trample anyways?”

“Just some damask roses that my mother gifted me the last time she visited. Nothing special.”

Zipper seemed to catch onto something, but before he could reply, Purline’s loud booming voice cut in with a hearty chuckle, catching him by surprise yet again.

“Oh no, those are pretty pricey… hope you brought your wallet along,” he teased. “You’re in luck though, I special ordered some not too long ago and had a customer flake on me, so I just so happen to have some coming in for you.”

“You do?” Sine cheerfully replied. “This is why you’re the best Grapevine.”

“Grapevine?” Zipper asked.

“Yeah, bird brain,” Sine replied. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Right…” he started, “So uhh… what’s the price for them?”

Purline leaned close and whispered something into Zipper’s ear, and his immediate reaction almost made Sine feel sorry for him… almost.

“Wait, they’re that much?!” Zipper choked out. “That’s more than any other flower I’ve ever bought.”

Sine shrugged. “I said those flowers were special, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but who’s mom just gifts them something like that?”

“Mine does,” Sine retorted. “We don’t get to see each other often, and she was the one that got me back into gardening so those were a special gift from her.”

Zipper sighed and nodded. “I can see why you were so mad at me now.”

“It’s alright though like I said, we’re all good now,” Sine reassured him. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t get to have a little fun with this.”

“Uh huh,” Zipper begrudgingly held up his gauntlet, “Just go ahead and charge it on this.”

Purline nodded and held up his own gauntlet to Zipper’s and a few moments later the transaction was marked with a cheerful ding.

“Thank you very much for the generous purchase today, I hope to see you again soon!” The stallion cheered back.

Zipper let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. “Anytime…”

“Thank you bird brain,” Sine lightened the mood with an unexpected hug. “I really do appreciate your help.”

“I’ll go ahead and get everything noted down, I should have those in a day or two. If you’d like I can drop them over at Sine’s place once they get here.”

Zipper looked up at the stallion and gave as sincere of a smile as he could muster. “Thanks, that would be lovely.”

---

_{Art by:} https://twitter.com/ProfessionalPup

Comments

[ProgAltRocker]

A pleasure to see that piece of art Puppy did. And poor Zipper being left out of the loop. The initial cost of buying plants, especially perennials and bushes, is quickly regained since they only need to be purchased once. Unless you have a black thumb/hoof