Ghost of the Everfree

by David Silver

22 - Harbor in a Storm

Scootaloo trotted along with Dry at her side. "You'll have a bed all of your own!" She waved excitedly forward at the place they hadn't yet reached. "With a door you can close. It'll be your room." She zipped in closer to Dry. "Not that we mind having you around, but it's really hard to do official Crusader business with you in there."

Dry had his camera dangling around his neck, and he filled his bags with his supplies. He was ready to move, at least physically. "And it's safe? She did not permit me to take the blanket of obscurity."

"You don't need that!" Scootaloo danced around him with no fear. Fear was not an emotion she seemed very familiar with. Was that normal? "My house is way safe. Besides, it has my aunties and me there."

"If you're sure." A house came into view and he sped towards it. "That is yours, right?"

"Nope!" Scootaloo came up alongside him and threw a leg over him. "It's ours."

He smiled awkwardly but didn't battle the change in terms. They went up together and entered the one story dwelling.

"Well, hello there!" There was Aunt Holiday with a big, welcoming smile. "I hear you're joining us."

"Nothing like a second foal." And Aunt Lofty with her sharper features. "I don't think we met." She offered a hoof towards Dry. "They call me Aunt Lofty, and you can call me that too. If you need something, we're here."

Dry met the hoof with a clop. "Dry Whisper. Nice to meet you, but I should unpack." He wiggled in place, making his saddlebags shake with their contents.

Aunt Lofty gestured at a room with a sweep of her hoof. "We just finished cleaning up in there. It isn't much, but..."

Dry scampered to the entrance and nosed it open just to gape. It wasn't a fancy room, but it had a bed and a window and a dresser and, perhaps most importantly, it was all his. "Wow..." His pace slowed as he stepped inside, looking around with wide eyes. "This is all mine?"

"All yours!" Scootaloo was right behind him. "Oh, and here." She slapped the door shut behind them and with a press came a loud click. "You can lock the door so nopony can come in if you don't want them to."

They could hear aunt Holiday laughing through the door from the outside. "We'll do our best to not need locking out."

"Let a colt have his space." Aunt Lofty was moving at a casual walk, unseen. "Didn't ex--" The increasing distance made the other words lost with the increasing distance as she kept on doing. Holiday could likely hear her, but they could not.

Scootaloo pointed at the working desk. "You can write and read there."

"Yeah..." Dry let his saddlebag slide to the ground and got to taking things from it. Soon he was stacking books in an orderly pile on that desk. He set the camera down carefully and put his other meager possessions about. He couldn't fill the room, not that he seemed displeased by it. "And this is all mine?"

"For as long as you want it." Scootaloo grabbed the door handle in her mouth and casually twisted it open. "Oh, from this side, you can always open it, for a quick escape." She winked more dramatically than technically required. "It'll unlock when you do."

"What magic." Dry came in close to sniff at it and grab the knob in his mouth. He pushed it closed and reached up as he pulled back. Click! He hit the button he saw hit earlier. "Is it locked?"

"Yep. Got it in one." Scootaloo bobbed her head. "You do that while we're outside to keep us out." She leaned in and grabbed it, twisting it open with a new click. "And now it's unlocked. Get it?"

"Wow..." He inclined his head left and right. "Neat. You trust me with this power?" He pawed at the door with a hoof gently, as if its great power could be too vast indeed.

"Of course." Scootaloo bounced in place. "This is your room. You get to do icky colt things in it." She tossed her head. "I have a room and so do my aunts, and we have locks too. So if you try to open a door and it won't open, stop trying!" Despite her words, she didn't seem to have a shred of animus towards Dry Whisper. "Make sense?"

"Right... Okay." He pointed at the locked door. "So we all have one of those?"

"Each and every one of us." Scootaloo pointed past the door. "Even some of the other rooms, so you can take a private bath or whatever. For now, if we're done here, we should get something to eat."

Food was a grand idea, and a fine distraction from things. Dry had a new home!

---

Diamond hefted up a glass that stuck to her hoof. "Here's to adventure."

"To adventure!" Silver met the glass with a tink. Both fillies looked over at Dry.

He had a glass in front of him, but had not moved to join them. "Adventures can be a little risky."

Diamond slapped the back of the ghost pony. "You got that right." The two fillies drank of their fruit juice without complaint. "Now, didn't Silver want to talk to you?"

"Oh!" Silver perked up as she leaned forward. "Dry! Did you make a choice about Luminace?" She clapped her hooves together with a big smile. "I'm here to help!"

Well, that was an invitation... "I actually wanted to, but I want this." He coiled and drew out his picture of the holy symbol. He set it between the two fillies. "What faithful doesn't have a holy symbol? There aren't any available... so I have to get one--" Silver grabbed him firmly. "Um..."

"That's a great idea!" She set one hoof on the abandoned photo. "I'll get two made, one for you and one for me." The photo got tucked away quickly, but she drew out a symbol, similar but different. "This is the one I got from Everglow. It'll be nice to have an Equestrian one. Besides, like, it's symbolic to have one Equestrian made. She's coming to Equestria!"

Dry dared a smile. That attempt had gone well. "If you get one, I will wear it. Oh!" He reached his snout back into his backpack and found a book dangling from his mouth awkwardly, refusing to come loose. "Mmmf!" It was also blocking conversation with its bulk.

Silver reached out a hoof and casually took the book from Dry. "What's wrong?"

Diamond cocked a brow. "You went sticky on us."

"Sticky?" Dry batted at his lips, back to cooperating. "What do you mean?"

"Equestrian ponies are stickier than Everglow ponies." Diamond set a hoof on a snack and just casually lifted the cake towards her mouth. "Like this." With a great chomp, she bit it in half. "Everglow ponies can't do that naturally."

Dry looked between Diamond and Silver a moment before he reached out and set his hoof on the glass he hadn't drained. He tried to pick it up and got it a few inches before it fell and broke, spilling juice and bits of glass everywhere.

Diamond shook her head. "You're not very good at it, but that's still better than most. Guess you're going sticky."

Silver raised her hooves to let Diamond's butler in to clean things. "Huh, welcome to, like, Equestrian life." She offered a hoof towards Dry, which was met with a loud clop. A pity they became stuck together. "Hey..." She wriggled it left and right and dragged Dry along with her. "Um..."

"Don't panic." Diamond was watching it all with a little too much amusement. "Just calm down and pull apart. He isn't that strong, so..."

The two foals pulled and tugged until a loud stretching pop announced the two hooves coming apart. Diamond clapped lightly. "That's proof that you're going Equestrian sticky. Better get used to that even if it is pretty useful, if you ask me. Especially if you aren't a unicorn, which you are not."

Dry worried his hooves together, which were not clinging to each other for the moment. "You're not worried that I'll stick to you?"

Silver giggled at the question as she waved the entire idea away. "Annoying, but what's the, like, worst that could happen? You want to stick to me and drag me away?" She giggled with fresh energy. "You're cute, but not very strong. If you stuck to me, I could walk away with you and there isn't much you could do about it."

Diamond grinned at her friends. "Call me if that happens. I'd like to see it. Go on, Dry, try to take Silver away."

Dry shrank in place. "I wouldn't want to do that!"

Silver patted him carefully, his fur a bit sticky at that moment. "It's alright. Huh, wonder what you'll look like all Equestrian." She leaned in with a grin. "Bet you'll be cute. You'd make a great little colt!"

Diamond snorted softly. "Stop looking with your heart. He'll still be a ghost pony, just an Equestrian one. That's alright though." She waved it off, eyes on Dry. "I say you should relax and lean into it. Not like any of us are sad to have you. Welcome to Equestria!"

Silver bobbed her head quickly. "Totally! You're fine as you, Equestrian or Everglow. You're still Dry Whisper."

"Am I?" He rubbed at his cheek to discover that his hoof could stick to the fur there. He flailed, at least his free hoof. It was only with the filly's help that he managed to unstuck himself. "I really don't like this... Am... Am I a coward?"

Silver set a hoof on his cheek, only for the other to join it in cradling his face. "I didn't go through the whole Everglow thing, but I hear some Equestrian ponies did, and it scared them too. It's, like, way okay to feel really weird right now. That's why I'm saying you can be sad near me if you want. You're still Dry, and he's a pretty nice pony."

Diamond snickered softly. "He's also the only pony on the planet that likes the same god as you, which has no effect on it at all."

Dry pulled away from Silver to look at Diamond pointedly. "We don't share a god. What do you think of me? Please be honest."

"Hm, well, you are a bit strange, but not a bad strange or anything like that." Her eyes wandered over the desperate colt. "You're alright, really. That's why we hang out. I don't hang out with total losers." Her eyes rolled dramatically. "Look, you're from Everglow, which makes you a cut above the others by default even if you're kinda a coward."

"You're not a coward." Silver stomped a hoof down. "You're scared of real things that can really hurt real ponies... really! That isn't being a coward. Besides, when it was time to act, you did it. You saved that mare when there was nopony else around and you coulda stayed nice and safe." She mimed a bush with her hooves. "All hidden away." She fell to her haunches. "You coulda taken pictures as that demon tore her apart... That would have shown who you were just as well, but, like, awfully! You didn't do that... You didn't." Tears welled up in her eyes. "When it was time to make a choice, you rushed out there, even if you were sure it was gonna hurt. You thought you might die, but you had to... You just, like, had to..."

Diamond put a hoof around her sniffling friend. "What she's saying is that you're alright, Dry. You'll still be alright if you go all Equestrian, or don't. We think you're pretty cool already, and you can only get cooler from here. How's that?" Diamond rose to her hooves. "We should get back to class."

Author's Note:

Growing! Dry is doing it, and he has good friends, I say.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Dry better be careful. If he got any more full of Real, he would become a Realtaur?

[howard035]

Loving the Dry x Silver!
I wonder if he will get levels in a divine class?