> Summer (The Fence)
>  by 206-Ginge
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fucking pigeons.

I took account of my current situation. I was on my back, looking up at the underside of several large oaks. I could see where I had made my initial impact with them; the outline of my large eagle wings were distinct from the other holes obviously made by pegasi. My back throbbed in pain, letting me know which part of me hit the ground first. I had no clue where I was, but I knew my flight to Los Pegasus was going to be significantly delayed.

My head ached as I recalled the event that led me down here. I had been basically on autopilot, trying to keep warm by taking my mind off of the cold breezes pelting me from the east. Instead I thought of my family in Los Pegasus, my sister whom I hadn’t seen since moving out when she was seven. God, she must be nearly nineteen by now. I tried to imagine what she would look like. My mind kept putting her seven-year-old features on a nineteen-year-old body, which didn’t make sense, but it made me feel warm, and that was my ultimate goal at the time.

Suddenly, a flock of pigeons cut directly into my path. Being the clumsy flyer I am, my attempts at avoidance failed, and I soon found myself plummeting downwards at a frightening pace. Whether I hit one of the damned rats I’m not sure, but I certainly did hit something. My aching back wouldn’t let me forget that, not for a while. I turned my attention now to getting on my paws.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAW!”

Pain. Burning. The feeling of bone scraping flesh, nerves being pinched, muscles clenching rapidly. I shot back to my original position, still feeling the burning sensation in my wing. I was stuck. I couldn’t roll over without immediate pain, not to either side. I was fucking helpless. God damn pigeons.

As the pain began to pass from my attempts at moving, my mind began to race. What the hell was I supposed to do? Call for help? I could be anywhere right now! My stupidity in not taking along a map sure did pay the fuck off.

Speaking of which, where were my bags? They certainly weren’t around my waist now. I scanned the area, looking for a hint of black canvas. At least it was light enough down here to see. The gap I had created in the trees certainly helped, but in general the oaks didn’t block all that much light from reaching the soil underneath them. Usually that meant grass, but, lucky me, all that was around was compacted dirt.

Wait.

Compacted dirt?

“HEY! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?”

A small voice called from far away, but I had no idea how to respond. Would a caw scare the voice off? The voice almost certainly belonged to a pony, but I’ve never met many of them outside of flight team. I knew Jen had started working with them in Los Pegasus, but I also knew that the general pony population enjoyed living separately from us.

Well, what other choice did I have?

“SCREEEEEEAAAAAAW!”

I felt the ground beneath me vibrate with the impact of hooves running. Damn, too loud. I mulled over the situation, again: I was most certainly in an area populated by ponies, since the dirt beneath me was unnaturally flattened. I had just made contact with one, but my scream had most likely scared it off. My wings were almost certainly fractured, perhaps in multiple places, and to top it all off, I couldn’t move. So, my options were basically either try to roll over again and risk causing irreversible damage to my wings, or wait for somepony less afraid of a griffin call to come along.

Just then a purple smudge came out from behind an oak quite a significant distance away from me. I noticed the vibrations of the ground were getting stronger, not lighter. The purple smudge was actually coming towards me. So it wasn’t afraid of griffins, after all.

“YOU OKAY OVER THERE?”

I paused.

“Yeah, I’m just screeching out in pain because it’s too nice a day. NO, I’M NOT OKAY!”

Sarcasm. Great way to introduce yourself, Jack.

Thankfully the vibrations didn’t decrease in intensity. I began to make out some detail about the purple smudge. The first thing I noticed was that it was indeed a pony. The second thing I noticed was the horn on top of its head. The third thing I noticed was that there was a second part to this pony, a small creature riding along on its back, also purple, and with green spines down its back.

A dragon. Really? A unicorn carrying a dragon was going to save me from my helplessness?

The pony finally reached me, and stopped suddenly when it saw the blood that surrounded my outspread wings. Yeah, I certainly wasn’t pretty.

“Oh, my, you really are hurt.”

“Yeah, well, landing on your wings after a 200-foot drop will do that to you.”

I really couldn’t stop being my douchey self for more than five minutes.

The unicorn stared at my figure, a look of genuine concern on her face. “Can you move?” she asked.

“Oh, totally, I just thought lying on my back after giving myself a compound fracture was a great idea.”

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP.

The unicorn, completely unfazed by my jerkishness, entered a period of intense thought, interrupted by the baby dragon on her back.

“Uh, Twilight?”

“Oh, sorry. Do you mind if I try lifting you?”

“Um, knock yourself out, but I don’t think-“

Suddenly I was surrounded by a purple glow. Ah, yes, magic. The unicorn’s face was filled with concentration. I suddenly felt the ground move downwards. My conscious mind was briefly confused by the disorienting sensation, but only for a moment before the pain came back.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAW!”

The purple glow vanished and I dropped the short distance back to the ground.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the unicorn rushed to get the apology out of her mouth. “I guess I can’t lift your wings with the rest of you.”

Without anything supporting them, my wings had drooped ever so slightly as the unicorn pulled me upwards. This movement was enough to cause every nerve in both of my wings to protest loudly.

“Okay, let’s try not to make him make THAT sound again,” the dragon commented. Funny enough, I had screeched about three more times today than I had in the past year. It was a pleasant sound for no one, but it also was my natural reaction to extreme pain, which I was going through.

The unicorn stood perplexed for a few seconds, and then sighed. “I can’t think of a way to lift your wings without getting help from somepony else. Spike, could you run into town and fetch Doctor Stable? Tell him the details, too, or else we’ll wind up galloping back and forth from the hospital like we did last time.”

“Yes, sir!” With that, Spike was off.

“So, I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“I’m Jack. Sorry about being such a jerk there.”

“Oh, it’s really no problem. When my friend Rainbow Dash broke her wing, we couldn’t get her to stop talking about how she was ‘a victim of the wind’ and she ‘totally could’ve finished the loop if that wind didn’t keep blowing her off course’. I mean, seriously, have you heard of a pegasus so stub-“

She stopped when she looked back down at me and blushed slightly. She had talked too much. “So, uh, what brings you to Ponyville?”

“Pigeons,” I answered with a straight face. Now I knew where I was, at least.

She stared at me blankly for a few moments before realizing that I was joking, and laughed awkwardly. “I take it this is a detour then?”

“Yeah, it most certainly is.” It was awkward having a conversation with someone looking down at me while I was quite seriously stuck to the floor, but I appreciated the company.

An idea popped into my head. “Hey, would you mind looking around for my bags? They’re black canvas, waist-style.”

“Oh, sure,” Twilight responded cheerfully. She stepped carefully around my wings, moving around the trees as she looked. After a couple of minutes, she asked, “Where you headed?”

I hesitated for a moment. She certainly was friendly, and her cheerfulness had managed to keep my mind off of the pain, but she was slowly getting personal, I could tell. I didn’t exactly feel like opening up to her, but at the same time she’d asked me a question.

“Los Pegasus,” I responded.

“Oh, you’ve got quite a bit to go then, don’t you?”

“Yeah, well, I’m a little over halfway there now.” Oops. That would qualify as opening up.

“That’s good.” She didn’t take the bait. Or maybe she detected my reclusiveness somehow and didn’t want to press further. Either way, I appreciated it.

She looked in silence for the next few minutes, getting farther away from me with each circle she made. I thought about how glad I was she happened to be out here. Her simple presence was enough to keep me calm. I was lucky she wasn’t alone, too, or else she would be the one fetching the doctor right now and I’d be alone.

I felt vibrations again just as I heard Twilight yell “Found it!” She made her way back towards me through the trees, holding the bags out in front of her with her magic. I saw quite a few ponies galloping towards me from far away as well, a good sign. If they were able to find me so quickly we couldn’t be that far away from the edge of the woods or the hospital.

The ponies made their way to me fairly quickly. I saw that there were four of them in total. One of them obviously was a doctor, while the others seemed to be nurses. The doctor was a unicorn, while the three others were earth ponies.

“Oh, wow, these are some pretty bad fractures,” the doctor said with some concern on his face. “We’re definitely going to need to get you to the hospital.”

I noticed one of the nurses was carrying a large stretcher with her, which she proceeded to lay down next to me. The doctor used his magic to pull out two pieces from the bottom and attach them to the sides of the stretcher, presumably for my wings. “This might hurt a little, but it’ll be over quickly,” he promised.

With that, I was again surrounded in a purple glow as my body levitated slightly off the ground. More prepared for the pain this time, I managed to prevent myself from screeching, but I still felt the pinch of bone on nerve as they quickly slid the stretcher underneath me. Twilight gracefully dropped me onto the stretcher, and with my wings now fully supported by the solid wood, the five ponies all pitched in to lift me up and carry me swiftly to the hospital.


---


“Sorry to have to tell you this, but these x-rays don’t look good.”

I groaned. I knew that my wings were pretty busted up before coming to the hospital, but after arriving I realized just how bad they were. Not even the heavier painkillers could completely block out the discomfort of going from stretcher to bed, forcing my wings back to their natural position at my sides. I moaned all through the x-ray session as the well-intentioned nurses prodded my wings into different positions. The doctor now was with me, telling me the bad news.

“It looks like surgery will be necessary. And I don’t think you’ll be able to fly for at least six weeks.”

I felt my chest drop. There was no way I could shove my claustrophobic ass onto a train meant for ponies to Los Pegasus, and if I couldn’t fly there, I was stuck. Walking with talons was one of the least comfortable methods of locomotion evolution had come up with, and doing it for the 600 miles either way over any period of time would be torture.

“Based on what Twilight told me about your story, I’d assume you’ve got no place to stay here in Ponyville. You’re welcome to stay in the hospital for a few days, but I must insist you find other accommodations. Your insurance wouldn’t be too happy to pay bed fees for too long, and when they get unhappy they make you pay.”

Great. Stuck in a small town with no place to stay and basically enough cash to last me three days in Los Pegasus. I didn’t even have money to pay for a hotel, since I had planned to stay with my sister. Way to be prepared, Jack.

“Thanks, Doctor,” I moaned. “When will you operate?”

“As soon as possible,” the pony responded eagerly. “However, I’ve got quite a few patients to check up on before committing myself to the long operation yours will be. We’ll most likely begin getting you prepped in about half an hour. In the meantime, you have a visitor.”

I perked at the words. Who would visit me? My sister didn’t even know about my injury yet, and even if she did, it would take her three or four days to get here. The doctor left and I then noticed the purple unicorn standing in the doorway. Twilight Sparkle.

“Hey Jack,” she said, walking into the room. “I figured you’d be awfully lonely stuck in a hospital in a town you’ve never been in before, so I stopped by to say hello.”

“Well, thank you kindly,” I croaked. With all the painkillers flowing through me, I wasn’t in much of a mood for light conversation. I noticed she hadn’t brought along her dragon companion. I was slightly grateful; I didn’t really feel like making new friends at the moment, and while Twilight wasn’t exactly a friend yet, either, I preferred being alone with her rather than alone with the two of them.

She sat near the bed and pulled a book out of her waist bag. “You don’t mind if I read, do you?”

Wait, what? Read? “Uh, no problem,” I muttered. Why would she come to say hello and then just read? Who exactly was she?

She opened up the book with a smile and turned her eyes towards the page. “So, where are you from?”

Ah, manipulation. Maybe when she decided to not press further back in the forest, she was just trying to stop herself from coming on too strong. Now that she had me drugged, she must think she could get me to open up easier. Well, I wasn’t going to make myself vulnerable to the person that happened to be close to me in the woods this morning. I decided short answers were the way to go.

“Near Baltimare,” I replied in a huff.

“Interesting,” she commented earnestly, still reading the book. “Why are you headed to Los Pegasus, then?”

“Family,” I shot back.

“Oh, kay,” Twilight responded, obviously a bit thrown off by my quick answer. She wasn’t getting the best of me. “What kind of family do you have over there?”

“Sister,” I again replied in a flash. I looked at the blank TV and saw Twilight giving me an odd look in the reflection. She probably was a bit miffed by my sudden brusque personality. Hopefully she’d chalk it up to the painkillers and stop asking questions. Lo and behold, the next twenty minutes went by in silence as Twilight read her book and I shut my eyes for a quick doze.

I appreciated the company. I really did. It was just... too much. I didn’t really know the unicorn, anyway. I guess I was going to be stuck here for six weeks, so I should start making friends, but... I just felt separate from the ponies. I’d never really spent time with any of them before. Even when I was on flight team I stuck with the other griffins. This whole thing felt rather forced, anyway. I was pretty sure she was intentionally trying to get me to open up to her, and I had no idea why. I didn’t trust her, not yet.

“Jack?” Twilight’s quiet voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I opened my eyes and saw her at the foot of my bed, bags packed. “I’ve got to go. When you get out of surgery, you can tell one of the nurses to send word for me if you need company again.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled back, still half-dazed from a combination of fatigue and drugs. She was too nice. I didn’t think that I’d be sending word for her in any sort of hurry after the surgery. She turned to the door and left.

I fiddled with the small remote they gave me for the bed.  I’d been moving my feet up and down for a while when a nurse came in and told me the doctor was prepping for surgery and they’d be putting me under in a few minutes. I almost told her they might not need to bother with the drugs, but thought better of it. I’d been a little bit too sardonic throughout the day today, and it wasn’t winning me any points with anyone.

Things started happening in a blur, and the last thing I remember before going under was the doctor getting slightly confused about where to put the IV, since my front legs were talons with no large blood vessels in them. He decided my hind legs would do, and I fell asleep quickly, eager to get some real rest after the day’s ordeal.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke to daylight dripping in through the shuttered window in my private room. There wasn’t a clock for reference, but I figured I’d probably slept for a solid ten hours. How much of that rest was the result of the anesthetic, I couldn’t be sure, but I did know my wings were feeling a lot less irritated. I fumbled for the remote and raised the bed’s angle so I could see them.

The reality of the situation hit me. My wings were fully disabled. The plaster casts on both of them prevented me from moving them even if I wanted to. I was grounded. I was fucking grounded. By a pigeon. I shuddered as I recalled the event that somehow felt so distant, despite the fact that it literally happened yesterday.

Well, I wasn’t going to get anywhere in the world feeling sorry for myself. I flipped on the TV. Instant distraction.

A few hours and an uninspiring breakfast passed before I realized that I was bored out of my fucking head. No amount of over-rehearsed fake pony escapades could entertain my griffin mind. Or maybe daytime television just sucked. I couldn’t tell. I turned off the TV.

Sleeping was my main method of passing the time between the three meals that day. The painkillers made me tired all the time, so even after twelve hours of sleep in one day my body happily allowed me to rest once more after lunch. It wasn’t until later that day that I got the good news.

A nurse came in without knocking. I didn’t mind, since she came with dinner. “Hello, Jack. In addition to bringing food, I wanted to let you know that Doctor Stable thinks you should be all clear to walk around now. We’re going to put you on oral painkillers so you don’t have to have this IV drip hooked up to you, and we’re also going to have you switch rooms after dinner.”

So I could make use of my paws, great. I was certainly getting restless, because while drug-induced sleep is certainly one of the better pleasures you can experience, it was losing its appeal rapidly. I ate heartily, the dinner being much more enjoyable than the breakfast. The nurse unhooked me from the IV, removing the needle from my hind legs with such precision and carefulness that I didn’t feel a thing. I popped the two pills the nurse had given me. She helped me slowly sit upright, and after I got over the stiffness, I slid off the side of the bed and put my paws and talons down.

I was standing. I hadn’t done that in at least twenty-four hours. In that moment, I was glad I landed on my wings and not my legs. That moment did not last long.

“So, to the new room, then?” I asked. The nurse nodded, and led me out into the hallway. My mind briefly had to relearn how to walk, but it taught itself quickly, and I had little trouble after I exited the room.

I walked down the bleached white hallway, following the lavender earth pony whose name I didn’t know. I didn’t know any of the nurses’ names, actually. Doctor Stable was the only one who ever bothered to introduce himself. I couldn’t decide if they just enjoyed privacy or they didn’t think names were all that important. Either way, they certainly weren’t encouraging patient-nurse connection here.

We wound up walking out of the ICU where I had been and into a more dorm-like area of the hospital. The nurse took me to the third door on the right, and I entered the room to find three beds, all of which were empty.

“We haven’t been getting a lot of traffic lately,” the nurse explained, seeing my puzzled expression. “I guess that’s a good thing, but unfortunately it means you might not have company in here for a while.”

Continuing to inspect the room as the nurse led me to the bed to the far left, I noticed there was only one TV. I didn’t look forward to having a roommate.

I lied down and the nurse turned to leave. “Excuse me,” I called. The nurse turned on the spot and put on a smile that seemed just a tad forced. “Twilight Sparkle said to send word for her if I needed some company?”

“Oh. Of course,” the nurse turned and left. I needed to find some place to stay, and right now the purple unicorn, as prying as she might be, was my only connection to the town. All roads out went through her.

As my mind turned to long-term plans, I suddenly realized the plethora of action I would need to take soon. My sister had to know. My boss had to know. I needed to tell all my friends back in Baltimare not to expect me home for a while. I had been living in my own little hospital world for the last twenty-four hours, and I needed to start considering the bigger picture.

I turned the TV on and started channel surfing to pass the time. A replay of a Wonderbolts show I had seen at least three times. Desperate Housemares talking about something stupid. Some pony making a run at winning a million bits. Ponies ponies ponies. I turned off the TV.

As I tried to think of another way to pass some time, I heard a knock at the door. “Come in,” I answered, knowing who to expect. Sure enough, the door opened, revealing the smiling Twilight. She walked in, followed by Spike, who was carrying some parchment and a quill.

“Hey there, Jack,” she said airily. “I brought Spike with me because I figured you might need to send out some letters to your friends.”

“I brought my writing supplies and everything!” Spike eagerly added.

A mind reader. I never knew that unicorns were capable of that kind of magic. “As a matter of fact, I do. Thanks.”

“So how’d the surgery go?” she asked, eying my casts.

“It was fine, I guess. I kinda slept through it, so...” We both chuckled awkwardly. “Anyway, I would like to send a few letters out.” I cut off the conversation before it could even begin.

“Oh. Sure,” she said, taken aback by the awkward transition. “Spike’s good at taking diction, so just tell him what to write and who to send it to. We’ll send it out for you.”

“Errm...” I paused. I was kind of hoping to make these a bit more private. This unicorn was certainly determined to get to know me. Maybe it was time I let down my guard a bit. I did need her to help me find a place to stay, and I needed to start making connections to the locals if I wanted to enjoy my time here. “Okay,” I finally replied. Spike readied his quill.

“We’ll start with my sister. She’s in Los Pegasus, 1783 Apple Lane.” Spike jotted down the address and looked at me when he finished. “Dear Jen,” I continued, resigning myself to getting personal in front of the intruders. “I’ve suffered a...minor setback in my journey to visit you. I won’t be able to reach Los Pegasus for another six weeks. It’s nothing to worry about, but I broke both my wings. I’m not sure where you should send a reply-”

“Write in our address, Spike,” Twilight said. Great, she really was taking over my life.

I gave Spike some time to finish and continued, “Right, so, don’t worry too much about me. I’ll be fine. Keep working your job, and I’ll take care of myself. Love, Jack.”

I suddenly remembered that she wasn’t actually in the room with me and felt blood enter my cheeks over the last two lines. I had decided to let down my guard, but this was a bit much. My letter to my boss was a lot more formal, and I only sent one other letter, to Darren. I told him to tell everyone in our village about the accident so no one would be too concerned when I didn’t come home after my trip.

“So, will these letters get there quickly?” I asked. I was worried my sister would get anxious if I didn’t show up on schedule, and I didn’t want to cause her any pain.

“Oh, sure,” Twilight reassured me. “We’ve got the finest mail team in Equestria!”

I smiled at her petty civic pride. “Great,” I mumbled, feeling awkward after such a personal interaction. Spike walked out with the three rolls of parchment, but Twilight stayed behind.

“Six weeks, huh? You can’t possibly be planning on staying in the hospital for that long.”

How did...? Okay, so, in some ways this was great. I hadn’t brought up anything and I already was getting two topics off of the floor. At the same time, she was uncanny.

“Yeah, I definitely need a place to stay, but I don’t have any money for a hotel.”

“You’d be out of luck even if you did. We’ve only got one hotel here, and it’s packed full of ponies who wanted to go somewhere quiet on their summer vacations.”

“Oh,” I sighed. Just my luck.

“Don’t worry, though!” She seemed guilty, almost like she blamed herself for my predicament. “I’m sure we can find somepony for you to stay with!”

Fantastic. I would have to stay with somepony.

“I’ll ask around town to see if anypony has a vacant room you could stay in. I’d have you stay with me, but, the library only has the one bed, and I don’t think Doctor Stable would recommend you sleep on the floor in your condition.”

Well, at least I’d dodged that bullet. The unicorn seemed a bit obsessive, and I don’t think we’d have ever gotten along too well. I’d just have to rely on her to find me some decent ponies to stay with.

“I’ll come back tomorrow at around six. Hope you feel better!” Twilight exited the room, and I relaxed. I didn’t realize how tense I had gotten until my muscles just stopped contracting. I felt better with her out of the room, more comfortable.

I took stock of my room. To my right a nightstand sat covered in various pony-related magazines. I had put the TV remote on top of it as well. Above it was a light switch, which I discovered controlled a lamp directly above my head, presumably for reading. Another light switch next to it controlled the lights in the whole room, minus the various medical devices which gave off a green glow in the dark. My left toe was hooked up to a heart monitor, for some reason. I never knew bone damage as something particularly indicative of heart problems, so I don’t even know why they bothered.

Around me, the walls were painted a pastel green. A clock sat above the door out to the hallway, which was across from the middle bed in the room. The TV was slightly to the left of the clock.

My bed wasn’t one of the fancy ones like I had earlier. There was no remote-controlled elevation mechanics, and it was permanently propped up at about my neck level. It wasn’t the most comfortable slant, but I was definitely capable of sleeping on it.

Again I turned the TV on, and again I was reminded why I kept turning the damn thing off. I decided that, while I had slept nearly sixteen hours already, there was only one real way to pass the time. I turned off the lights and sat in expectation as my brain continued to think, despite my constant urgings to just shut up and go to sleep. The next thing I heard was the sound of the hall door opening and the lights turning on.

I kept my eyes shut in order to prevent any kind of interaction with what I assumed was my new roommate. I heard the sound of a curtain being dragged across a runner and knew that I had been given privacy by one of the nurses. Hushed voices and the sound of springs crunching to compensate for a weight placed on them let me know that somepony certainly was joining me. Judging by the volume, they were probably in the middle bed, just to my right. The lights were again turned off and the door closed, and the sound of breathing confirmed my suspicions: I was no longer alone.


---


The next morning I awoke to find that the curtain between myself and my roommate was still fully drawn. The glow of the electric instruments allowed me to read the clock, which told me that it was 8. Not wanting to disturb my new roommate, I turned on the reading light and gingerly stepped out of bed to make use of the restrooms.

My curiosity piqued, I tried to get a glimpse of my roommate, but the curtain wrapped all the way around the middle bed, not letting me see him. I noticed a seam where two curtains met to form the bubble surrounding the bed. I reached out with my talon and moved one of them slightly aside. An elderly green earth pony was lying there, sleeping. I dropped the curtain and headed out the door.

I walked down the hall until I reached the nurse’s desk. The active nurse looked up at me with one of those not-quite-genuine smiles. “Good morning, Jack.”

“Mornin’,” I replied groggily. “Would you mind telling me where the bathrooms are?”

“Of course, there’s one right back down the hall you came from just past your room on the left.”

“Thanks,” I replied, starting off down the hall.

“Breakfast is served at nine!” she called after me. I looked over my shoulder and gave a quick nod of acknowledgement as I went down the hall.

I took care of business and instinctively moved to preen my wings before I realized that I couldn’t move them, nor could I get to my feathers. Damn.

Breakfast came and went with a couple more pills. The pony next to me said a few words of thanks to the nurse when breakfast was brought in, and I was able to identify her as a mare. I wondered for a minute why they’d put a male griffin and a female pony in the same room, but I guess with the curtains it wasn’t that big of a deal.

I noticed the TV remote wasn’t on my nightstand anymore. I guess they decided the elderly pony would appreciate it a little more than I would, which was probably true. Still, I didn’t look forward to hearing whatever show she wanted to watch all day long.

I passed the time scanning some of the three-month-old magazines on my nightstand. I stumbled across a few interesting articles on the Wonderbolts, but other than that there wasn’t anything to really sink my talons into. Lo and behold, at eleven o’clock the TV turned on and flipped to a show about ponies finding houses in Canterlot. Figures.

The day went by with lunch and boredom. I found myself watching the show just because it was on, and I actually found it kind of interesting after a while. It was running on a marathon schedule, so I was able to watch it until dinner arrived at five.

Another meal of apples, peanut butter and celery, and milk. Lunch was just the same. I wondered if they just got lazy or something. I didn’t complain too much, since I was fairly hungry. I scarfed down the food and looked at the clock. Twilight was coming in forty-five minutes. I let out another sigh of boredom and turned to the nightstand, looking for a magazine I hadn’t skimmed through yet.

The earth pony had turned the TV off when dinner arrived, and the room felt strangely quiet. I hadn’t heard too much from the mare, other than the thanks she gave to the nurses when her meals were brought in. I was grateful for the curtain.

After a few minutes of unfruitful searching, I gave up and picked up a magazine I’d already looked at but didn’t read much from. That helped pass all of twenty minutes. Waiting sucked.

The worry started to set in, unfortunately. Without anything to distract my conscious mind, it suddenly turned to Jen. She had been expecting a visit forever, and I was ridiculously concerned that she wouldn’t take the news of a delay well. We hadn’t had much correspondence since I moved out of Mom and Dad’s, and I had no idea what kind of person she’d evolved into over those twelve years. I saw her waving goodbye on the front lawn, a bittersweet smile upon her face...

The door burst open and a turquoise unicorn pranced through, a big, goofy grin on her face. I assumed she was here for the earth pony, until I saw that she was staring directly at me. Twilight followed her in, giving her a concerned look. A third pony, a cream-colored earth pony with a pink and blue mane, followed in, also wearing a smile, but a more restrained one than the unicorn.

Twilight was the first to speak. “Hi again, Jack. I found you a place to stay.” The turquoise unicorn let out a small squee of excitement. I had a feeling that this was going to be a fun six weeks...

“TWAH-LIGHT? THAT YOU?” The pony behind curtain #1 interrupted the conversation.

“Oh, Granny Smith!” Twilight exclaimed, slightly startled. She pulled back the curtain and stepped inside, leaving me with my new roommates. The turquoise one just continued grinning, while the earth pony stepped closer.

“Hi, I’m Bon Bon,” the earth pony introduced herself, reaching out a hoof. I took it in my talon and we shook.

“I’m Jack,” I answered. I noticed her cutie mark matched her name, coincidentally enough. Do ponies change their names when they get their cutie marks or something? I looked at the turquoise pony, who had some sort of harp thing on her flank.

Noticing my glance, she immediately identified herself. “I’m Lyra!” she proclaimed eagerly. She seemed quite happy to have a griffin enter her home, for some reason...

“Twilight told us about your predicament,” Bon Bon explained, “and we told her we had an extra room now that Lyra and I share one. We would be willing to welcome you into our home if you want to stay with us.” Lyra’s grin got wider.

I smiled lightly. “I certainly do need a place to stay.” The low mumbling of Twilight talking with my roommate reminded me of all the reasons the hospital had lost its appeal.

Lyra squeed for a second time, but still kept her distance. Bon Bon stayed in her position right next to my bed. “Great,” she said, “Doctor Stable says you’re clear to leave any time you want, and since we haven’t had any guests in a long time, the room’s all set up for you back at our house.” Quick movement sounded great. I was eager to regain control of my life after being dependent on the hospital’s food schedule for two days now.

“Yeah, I’m definitely eager to get off of this bed.” Stiffness defined everything about me right now, and movement sounded great. I had no idea how ponies dealt with travelling on trains.

I slowly shifted into a sitting position and Lyra squeed a third time. She was hiding something. I hopped down off the bed onto my paws and talons and stretched a bit. The room was fairly crowded with two ponies, a griffin, and a curtain preventing me from getting much space. Fortunately, my wings were quite literally glued to my sides, so I didn’t have to make room for them. Still, my claustrophobia set in a bit. I decided against saying goodbye to Twilight. “Shall we get going?” I asked Bon Bon, obviously the only one capable of speaking normally to me.

“Yeah, sure,” she said, slightly confused, probably by the fact that I barely acknowledged Twilight. I followed her out of the room, Lyra close behind, as she led me away from the overly sanitary hospital into the town in which I would spend the next six weeks of my life.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The couch was comfortable enough, I guess.

Lyra sat next to me, still grinning her goofy grin, while Bon Bon sat on what griffins would call a love-seat but seeing as ponies sat in a way that took up twice as much space I guess it was just a regular chair for them. Various pictures were scattered about the room, some of Lyra and Bon Bon together, some of what I assumed were their families, all of which framed elegantly. Beat the hell out of my apartment, I’ll tell you.

“So...” Lyra said, once we were settled in and the standard pleasantries about entering a new home were exchanged. She pursed her lips slightly and looked down at the rug, obviously holding something back. Suddenly she burst, “How does it feel to have talons? They’ve got to be incredibly useful. I mean, look at them! It’s almost like you have-”

“LYRA!” Bon Bon cut her off. Lyra smiled sheepishly as I relaxed from the drawn-back position I had taken as a result of the sudden outburst.

“Hehe, sorry,” Lyra apologized. Bon Bon gave her a slightly disapproving glance as I gathered myself again.

“Um, well, to answer your question,” I began. I hesitated as I saw Bon Bon look at me as if to tell me not to encourage Lyra any further than I already had. Still, the unicorn had asked a simple enough question, and I certainly wasn’t going to encourage here with my response. “It kind of sucks to walk with them. Whenever I walk on a grass field I sometimes accidentally pull up a chunk of sod. Plus, I can’t really use them for much outside of just gripping things.”

“Oh,” Lyra sighed. Bon Bon continued to gaze at me, evaluating my behavior. She appeared to think I didn’t notice her judgemental stare, and I didn’t give her any hints that I did. Lyra, on the other hand, looked slightly dejected, but managed to continue the conversation. “Still, they’ve got to be much more convenient than hooves.”

I gave an amused chortle. “I’m sure of that,” I said. “I mean, I couldn’t imagine playing guitar with those-”

“YOU PLAY GUITAR?!?!?” The turquoise pony immediately returned to her wide grin, again filled with enthusiasm. “Ohmigosh, this is awesome! I play the lyre! We should totally have a jam session while you’re here!”

“Sounds fun,” I replied, though it really didn’t. So not only was her cutie mark related to what she did, HER FREAKING NAME WAS ONE LETTER AWAY FROM THE DAMN THING. I’d never actually heard of a lyre before, but I assumed it was the harp-like instrument emblazoned on her flank. It looked like it was designed more for classical music than my usual up-tempo modern style.

“I’m sure that would be a great time,” Bon Bon said, obviously trying to regain some control of the conversation. “But Jack’s on painkillers right now, Strings, he probably just wants to mellow out for a while.” Truer words have never made me so uncomfortable. “So,” she said, turning her gaze towards me, “Twilight told us you were from Baltimare.”

“Twilight told you the truth,” I replied, my own gaze turning towards their coffee table. A stack of magazines lay on one end of the table, while immediately in front of me was a simple-looking marble-based game that I guessed was designed to keep the more introverted house guests entertained. I was tempted to pick it up, but hesitated since I was currently the center of attention. Ignoring my manners, I grabbed the wooden device and started twisting and turning it with my talons, much to the silent delight of Lyra.

“I had a friend who came from Baltimare,” Bon Bon continued, ignoring the fact that my attention was now split between her and the game. “Strings, you remember Chrysanthemum?”

“What? Oh,” Lyra had been paying close attention to my maneuvers, studying the way I used my talons to grip the wooden object. At this point I had gotten one of the three marbles into the center chamber of the game, and I was working on the second. “Yeah, wasn’t she that florist?”

I saw Bon Bon roll her eyes, and she brought the conversation back to me. “What do you do, Jack?” A good question for a pony to ask a griffin, I guess. It’s not like we gave ourselves tattoos on our asscheeks when we got hired. I briefly wondered what my cutie mark would look like if I had one. What was the symbol for office worker? A padded chair? A cubicle? A gigantic “in” box?

“I work for a publishing company.”

“Ooh, so you’re a writer?” Bon Bon asked, either interested or simply trying to be polite.

“No, I just manage finances.” The second marble made its way into the center chamber.

“So you’re in management?”

“Not exactly, I just do what they tell me to do.” Managing finances wasn’t exactly the best description. I was basically the grunt guy of the business end of the company. If they needed something done and everyone else was busy, I did it. It was a 9 to 5 job, not a huge part of who I was. Mostly I just liked the payday.

“Do you ever write anything?” Lyra asked, still focused on my talons with an intensity that would’ve made me slightly uncomfortable if I cared.

“No,” I answered. I had fancied myself a writer in college, and I had written a few short stories on the side of my studies, but, critics being critics, no griffin at the office was too interested in my creative writing. I couldn’t exactly blame them. There were much better writers in the griffin world than myself, and they owned the rights to most of them.

I succeeded at getting the third marble into the center chamber and put the game down, straight-faced as I ever was. I was determined to make it through this question-and-answer session, and I knew I didn’t need to impress anyone. They’d already agreed to take me in, and I was sure in their minds they couldn’t toss a cripple out on the streets unless I did something actively awful, which I was not planning to do.

The three of us sat in silence, Lyra still staring at my talons, her hooves crossed across her chest. It occurred to me that I had never seen a pony sit the way she was sitting, like she was a griffin. Ponies I saw on television sat the way Bon Bon did, their legs relaxed underneath them, almost lying down. Lyra sat on her flank, her hind legs dangling over the side of the couch. It didn’t look particularly comfortable for her, the way she had to bend her neck to compensate for the back of the couch. Did she have an auxiliary reason for letting me stay here? Was she...

“You said you played guitar.” Bon Bon’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I replied, snapping my head back to the cream-colored pony. Actually, I just said I couldn’t imagine playing guitar with hooves, but the assumption wasn’t too risky on Bon Bon’s part.

“Are you in a band...?” Her voice trailed off, waiting for me to pick up the conversation.

“No, I just play on occasion.” A gross oversimplification.

“What kind of music do you play?” Bon Bon seemed to have given up on bringing Lyra into the conversation. She had used her magic to pick up the game I had put down.She held her hooves up to the game and was staring intensely at the marbles.

“I play whatever, really...” She was talking to me like I was an intense guitar player. I guess she had to extrapolate from what she knew about me. “Some modern stuff, some older stuff...”

“Do you write any songs?”

“Nah, I’m not into composing.” I was feeling myself getting slightly less comfortable with the turquoise pony to my right. She was tearing up as she placed her hooves on the side of the game, despite the fact that the wood was not easily manipulated by the flat surface. She wanted something, badly.

Bon Bon noticed this as well. “Strings, maybe you could show Jack some of your music?” she said. Lyra snapped suddenly out of her moment, returning the game back to its original position in a flourish.

“Yeah, I’d be happy to play a song for him. Lemme go get my lyre.”

Bon Bon sighed as Lyra exited the room down the hall. “Sorry about her, she-” Bon Bon cut herself off, not letting me in on whatever secret she held. I appreciated that; it’s not like I wasn’t doing the exact same thing with the questions she was asking me. I was answering like a student would answer a teacher, never giving more information than was required. After a few moments of silence, I made my move.

“Well, these painkillers are making me really drowsy. Maybe Lyra could pick out a lullaby and I could turn in?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” answered, a hint of exasperation in her voice. She obviously was not the driving force behind my stay. She gave hints of being hesitant ever since we left the hospital, from the stares she gave me when I was talking about my talons to the concerned looks she gave to Lyra as we stepped out of the room, both of which she thought I hadn’t noticed.

Lyra entered, smiling. I saw that her instrument was indeed the one emblazoned on her flank. “Strings, why don’t you play a nice, slow song? Jack’s thinking about turning in soon.”

“Oh, okay,” Lyra said, obviously disappointed that this was going to be a short concert, but still eager to share with me some of her music. Considering the mood she’d left the room in, this was a great turnaround.

Lyra began to play, using her magic to pluck the individual strings on the instrument. She plucked masterfully, obviously with the skill and precision of somepony with experience. The melody was soft, and I listened intently. Wasn’t my style, but I could appreciate the artistry. When she was finished, I asked her, “You wrote that?”

“Yep!” Lyra continued to smile. “That one was on my second album!” A recording artist. Neat.

“Strings, why don’t you show Jack to his room?”

“Sure thing, Sweets!” Lyra picked up my bags for me and started walking down the hallway as I hopped off of the couch and followed. I looked into the various doors on either side of the wide hallway. There were only four doors, one of which led to a set of stairs going downward, the other to a medium-sized bathroom, the third to a large bedroom featuring a double bed with a crimson bedspread, and finally one leading into a medium room with a single bed and a desk. My room.

Lyra entered first and set my bags down. She’d carried them in her mouth, probably for convenience's sake. I’d heard that a unicorn’s magic actually took quite a bit of concentration, and most only used theirs when necessary.

“This used to be my room, but Bon Bon and I decided to share a bed a few months after we moved in together.”

I nodded slightly. “Thanks for letting me stay here, then. Mind if I just go ahead and get some shut-eye?”

“Yeah, sure, go ahead,” she said as she stepped out of the room. When the door closed, I pulled back the green sheets and carefully lowered myself into the bed, trying to avoid bumping my casts. I somehow managed to get in without touching them, a feat that I made no effort to repeat in the subsequent nights after I found out just how stiff plaster was. I closed my eyes but didn’t go to sleep quite then. Instead, I heard the voices of my hosts in the living room.

“Twilight said he was a bit short but I wasn’t really expecting that little from him.”

“He’s just tired and drugged, don’t worry.”

“But I am worried, Strings, especially because you seem so excited. I just don’t want you to be let down if he isn’t exactly what you wanted.”

“He already isn’t exactly what I wanted, Sweets. And you say that like I’m looking for a boyfriend.”

“And that’s another thing. How do you think he feels about... us?”

“Whaddya mean?”

“You must have seen his face at the hospital when I said we shared a room.”

A pause. “Yeah, he actually just did the same thing when I mentioned it.”

“I’m not sure he’s supportive of our lifestyle, Strings.”

“Well, if he was one of those people I think he would’ve just said no.”

“True... just... don’t be too disappointed if he doesn’t stay around long once the hotels start to open up again.”

“I won’t, sweets.” The sound of lips smacking, hoofsteps down the hallway, a door shutting, and the rumble of a pony going downstairs. The house was quiet as I drifted off to sleep, paying no mind to the opinions of the couple. They had to let me stay. I was a cripple. They wouldn’t say no. I was sure of that.


---


That was the night “it” started.

I found myself in the backyard of my parent’s old house, the one I grew up in with Jen. I was fourteen. I had always been fourteen. Jen was with me, and she was five. This had always been true.

I looked down and saw that we’d been playing together, or at least as together as an older brother and a younger sister could play. She had out her shovel set, and I was holding a magnifying glass in my talons, looking for ants. Jen gave me a sad look whenever I found one, but she didn’t ever say a word of complaint. She wasn’t even angry. She had no power to be angry. She was younger and I was older. That was the way the world worked.

My search led me to the edge of the yard. A fence stood there. I didn’t remember a fence being at the edge of our yard. It was gapless, and if it wasn’t for a small hole at about my height you couldn’t see through it to the neighbor’s house. The fence was about three times as tall as I was when I stood on my paws. Without any holes to grip, there was no way I could climb over it, and my wings were too badly sprained from my injury at flight team practice to fly over it.

I peeked through the hole, curious as to what was on the other side. Three fillies, one turquoise, one cream, and one purple, played together in the next yard over. I had never heard of ponies living in our village before. I felt the urge to find some lumber, to build up the fence even taller than it already was. And thicker. I bet they could kick it over if they wanted to. I felt the fence grow taller and taller as I thought about it. Jen came over and watched as the fence grew. The hole through which I viewed the fillies disappeared. We were fully separated.

I woke up. It was still dark, and my wings were still in casts. I went back to sleep.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you serious?”

“I’m sorry, sir, but we’re booked. We’ve had ponies lining up months in advance for this hotel. We won’t have a room open for the next three weeks at the least.”

So Ponyville wasn’t as small a town as I thought. I gave the grey earth pony a long stare before exiting the hotel lobby, out of things to do. The red “NO” over my head reminded me of the vibe I had gotten from the town. The banker who denied my attempts at casual conversation as I took out a withdrawal. The cold efficiency with which the barista made my coffee. The silence that filled the room as I drank, other ponies too busy with their own newspapers and magazines to look up and talk to the crippled griffin in the corner of the room.

Bon Bon and Lyra had been forced to leave me to my own devices for the day. Ponyville’s shift in the summer vacation cycle had come before mine, and they were all back to work. Lyra was off working on her record label’s new album. She had a local DJ named Vinyl Scratch coming in to help her remaster some tracks. Bon Bon had a long day ahead of her at her candy shop. All of this had been told to me by a note lying on the kitchen counter.

I walked around the town, not sure of what exactly to do with myself. I had spending money now, but I’d just eaten breakfast. Plus, eating when bored usually led to a bit of weight gain, something I was weary of since my main physical activity was now no longer available.

I walked. And walked. The town was pretty empty. Most ponies were off working. There was the occasional couple walking down the street, a few families, not a lot of individuals.

After about an hour I found my way to a library. At least, it had a sign with a book and the word “Library” on it. My body was tired from the painkillers, and reading had its appeal. Hopefully I could find a good book and settle down for a bit. Maybe I could find a nice, long book that I could read over the course of my stay. Heck, maybe I could find three or four. The library looked rather large, despite the fact that it was made out of hollowed-out tree.

I opened the door to a gasp and the sound of a book closing rapidly. Spike was sitting on the floor, a book in front of him. “Hey, Spike,” I began. Shit. I forgot. Twilight said she lived in a library, and this was the only one I had found in my whole day of wandering around Ponyville.

“Uh, hey Jack,” Spike replied nervously. He was up to something, but I didn’t know or care what.

I took a quick look about the room before turning back to the small dragon. “So, you live here with Twilight?”

“Yeah, we sleep upstairs.”

“Is it a bit weird to live in a library?” Hey, look at me, taking control of a conversation.

“Well, the other ponies around here don’t come by all that often. Really, Twilight is the only one who uses these books.”

“Really? So the other ponies around here aren’t big readers?”

“Not these books. These are all reference.” Spike spoke with a hint of remorse in his voice, as if he was as disappointed as I was at the lack of fiction. I guess that wasn’t all that surprising. Spike picked up his book and started walking towards a staircase.

“So, is Twilight out?” I asked. If nothing else came out of this day, at least I could try to make amends with the unicorn. I felt bad about being such a jerk to her after she’d literally done everything for me.

“No, she’s just upstairs studying,” Spike said as he made his way up the staircase. Again, Spike had a tone of bitterness in his voice. I turned to my own thoughts. Studying? Twilight was obviously old enough to be well out of college at this point. What exactly did she do? Was she making money learning? I wish I could get paid to go to class. My debt-burdened post-college self probably would’ve appreciated knowing that was a possibility.

I walked over to the shelves of the library. Old, tattered books sat in neatly organized rows. Despite their obvious age, not a single one was dusty. The spines were mostly faded, but I could make out a few titles here and there. An entire wall was dedicated to encyclopedias from various years. Another held books dealing with ancient civilizations. “Equestrian History”. “Pegasi and Their Politics”. “Unicorns Over Time”. “The History of Griffins”.

I paused. So she was multi-cultural, after all. The book was actually one of the less dusty on the shelf. Perhaps she had looked at it the first night I arrived? I grabbed it in my talons and skimmed through the pages. Pristine. Not the slightest hint of tears or wrinkles. No one could possibly read a book at leave the pages that perfect. Especially if they had hooves. She must’ve just moved it around. I put the book down.

I turned at the sound of hoofsteps coming from the staircase. Twilight appeared, a book in front of her, surrounded by that purple glow. “Oh, hey there, Jack,” Twilight said, a smile on her face. Not a fake smile, like the nurses at the hospital, but a real, genuine, nice-to-see-you-again smile.

I didn’t get it. I had been an indisputable jerk towards her, and yet here she stood, greeting me like an old friend. I’d been in town for four days, and seen her all of four times. Not to mention, the last time I saw her I left without even saying goodbye, or thanks for finding me a place to stay, or thanks for not leaving me alone when I was flat on my back with blood in my fur and no way of helping myself.

“Hey, Twilight. Nice library you got here.”

“You like it? I moved in two summers ago and it’s become a great home for Spike and I.”

“Yeah, it’s nice. You’ve got books on everything, it seems.”

“Well, no, there’s only so much shelf space, unfortunately. Celestia’s got a much better library in Canterlot but I can’t do my studies back there.”

“Why not?” Again, taking control. Apparently I was the only one hesitant about opening up in front of strangers.

“All my friends are in Ponyville, and I’m supposed to be studying friendship. I couldn’t study friendship away from my friends.”

Studying friendship? Sign me up for whatever school she was in. Not only did being a student appear to be her full-time job, she was studying friendship. What was this world in which I was now living?

“Do you do anything else besides study?”

“Well, the mayor gives me some money for running the library, but Celestia’s got me on a big scholarship studying as her personal protegé, so that’s where most of my income comes from if that’s what you’re wondering.” Ah. So it wasn’t all flowers and friends for her. Considering what Spike had told me earlier, I imagined running the library wasn’t too difficult a job, but it was a job nonetheless.

“Does this mean you wouldn’t object to getting some lunch together? Since I’m new and all, I need somepony to show me where the good food’s at.” Twilight intrigued me. I wanted to know more about her, and I also was hungry with cash to burn. “Not as a date or anything,” I added, when I saw Twilight’s awkward hesitation.

“Yeah, sure, let me just go tell Spike I’ll be heading out for a while.”

She headed back upstairs. Second thoughts came on like a bitch. Uggh, was I really doing this? Would Twilight take this the wrong way? Would I take this the wrong way? Why the hell was she still going along with this, anyway? Was she another pony with a griffin complex like Lyra?

Twilight came back down, a smile on her face, this one a bit more forced and awkward than the last. She was out of her comfort zone a tad. Was she taking this the wrong way, but just didn’t want to say no and make me feel bad? Gaah, so many questions. I guess now I had a lunch to find the answers.


---


After an awkwardly quiet walk we found ourselves at some small sidewalk sandwich shop near the center of town. Twilight had told me she’d come here during her first month in Ponyville and hadn’t found time to come back since. We sat down outside under the summer sun. Both of us stared at the ponies walking by before finally Twilight kicked off the conversation.

“How was your first night?”

“Oh, you know, the bed was nice but it sucks to not be able to roll over.”

“I’d imagine,” she chuckled awkwardly. “Are Lyra and Bon Bon good hosts?”

I paused. “Yeah, I guess...”

“That’s good,” Twilight said, quickly moving on. “Have you enjoyed Ponyville so far?”

“Well, I haven’t seen much of it, but I like what I see.”

The staring started up again, each of us picking a point in the clear blue sky to concentrate on, neither of us willing to look the other in the eye. It reminded me of the awkward first hour of the middle-school dances. The part where everyone stood around, talking only with the friends they had come with. No dancing, just staring at the walls, listening to the music, waiting for something to happen.

Well, I made something happen.

“Listen, I’m sorry for being such a jerk to you the last few days,” I began. Twilight snapped her head back towards me from the spot she’d picked, a blank look on her face. “It’s just, this is a new experience for me. I’ve never really been around ponies before.”

The blank look suddenly became a laugh, as Twilight figured it out. This wasn’t a date lunch, it was an apology lunch. “Oh, yeah, no problem. To be honest, this is only the second time since I’ve been living here that I’ve seen a griffin, and the first time didn’t really go so well.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, she took herself a bit too seriously.” Twilight smiled fleetingly.

“Well, I’ll try to be better than that.” Twilight’s smile widened a bit. The mood of the lunch immediately brightened, the awkward barrier between us melted away.

The waiter came over to take our orders. I took the special of the day without even asking what it was or if they had one. Twilight picked out a daisy sandwich.

“So, what do you do?” Twilight looked at me as I replied, telling my stories.

They say that there’s a measurable amount of energy that passes between two beings when they make eye contact with each other. I’d always found that to be true with my griffin friends, but I never imagined I could get the kind of energy I was getting off of Twilight from a pony. It was an odd feeling. We were connecting, not in a way I ever thought possible with another species. I was opening up, and she was rewarding me for it. It was a sudden and strange shift, but from that moment on I didn’t feel alienated around her, nor the waiter when he came with our food, nor anypony else I met that day. Ponyville began to feel small, and it started with simple eye contact from someone who rapidly became my friend.

As lunch continued, and after I had told her about my job and guitar-playing skills and she told me about her studies and how Princess Celestia was in person, the conversation turned to my village.

“So I’m asumming based on what you said earlier about this being your first time around ponies you don’t actually live in Baltimare?” Twilight asked, taking a bite out of her sandwich.

“No, I actually live in a village called Densmore.”

“Is it small?”

“No, not at all. It’s much bigger than Ponyville, actually. There’s about 100,000 griffins living there.”

“Really? Why haven’t I heard of it?”

“Well, it is inhabited almost exclusively by griffins.”

“Yeah...” Twilight trailed off, sipping her water. Racism wasn’t a comfortable topic

I eyed the plate that my salad formerly had resided on. I glanced over at Twilight’s plate, which still contained half a sandwich.

“So you guys had a bad experience with griffins before?” I asked.

“Oh. Yes. Gilda. Well,” Twilight began, “I didn’t really talk to her. It was mostly something I heard about from Rainbow Dash. Apparently she was being a bit of a jerk, and she stormed out of a party after being pranked and we never saw her again.”

“Huh.” I didn’t know any Gildas. I guess there’s a lot of griffins in Equestria, and just because we’re the same species doesn’t mean we know each other. “Rainbow Dash is that pegasus you were talking about the other day? The one who broke her wing?”

“Yes. She’s our local weather pegasus. She also has a not-so-secret desire to be a Wonderbolt.” Another mutual chuckle.

“I’m a pretty big fan of the Wonderbolts, actually.”

“Oh, really? Maybe you can talk about them when you meet her.”

“Maybe I can.” I started thinking about the length of my stay. Six weeks was a long-ass time. I guess if Twilight wanted to introduce me to every member of her social circle I was a captive audience. Our lunch together had warmed me to the idea of meeting new ponies, but I still was hesitant to fully immerse myself in the Ponyvillian life. I was going to leave at some point, after all.

Twilight finally finished up and I let out a yawn. Drugs were still taking their toll on my energy levels. It was actually surprising that I’d managed to walk about town for as long as I had that morning. The bill came and we split it.

“Well, it was nice seeing you, Jack,” Twilight said, a small smile on her face again.

“Likewise,” I responded, trying to return the smile but ultimately giving off a grimace. I was tired. I needed rest. We went our separate ways.

I headed back to Lyra and Bon Bon’s, a short walk from where I was. My body complained at the use, but ultimately the journey went by without a hitch. I took a few steps inside before collapsing on the couch, the drowsiness finally getting the best of me.


---


The dream came again.

This time, I didn’t have a magnifying glass. Instead, I was helping Jen learn to walk on grass without chunking up the sod, a feat that took her many tries to accomplish.

Again the fence came into my field of vision. I walked up to it and stuck my eye in the hole, the same one I had looked through last night. All of this at the time seemed familiar, but in that deja vu sense, not so much in the “Hey this happened to me in a dream the other day” sense.

The purple filly was gone, and the two other fillies were grown into mares. They were kissing, passionately. I yanked my eye away from the hole and prevented Jen from looking through it, amidst cries of “I wanna see it! Lemme see it!”

The fence grew again, climbing up higher and higher. Suddenly, it started to lean over. It was falling. I was right underneath it. I pushed Jen out of the way just as it fully collapsed, crushing my ribcage, forcing the bone to puncture my heart.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke with a start for the third morning in a row. The dream wouldn’t go away. It haunted me every night, refusing to let me get anything resembling a pleasant rest.

I rolled up onto my haunches and stepped out of bed, rubbing my eyes with my talons. I glanced over at the clock next to the window. 8:30. Lyra and Bon Bon probably were off to work again. I hadn’t really seen much of them since the first night when they welcomed me in. They didn’t knock on my door after I had shut myself up in my room on my first full day out of the hospital, and they ignored me all of yesterday. After Lyra’s behavior the first night, I found it bizarre that they weren’t even trying to make contact with me.

I opened the door and began what had become my morning routine. I waltzed into the bathroom, took care of business, trudged out in a tired haze, made my way to the kitchen, looked at the note written on the counter, and grabbed a box of cereal.

It was only after I finished in the bathroom that I noticed something was different today. I heard voices coming from across the hall, in the kitchen. When I stepped out of the bathroom and walked out of the hallway into the room that served as both a living room and a kitchen, I saw them. Both of them.

I glanced at the clock. It was definitely later than they usually went to work.

“Hey, Jack!” Lyra greeted me warmly. “Happy Saturday!”

Oh. Right. Weekends.

“Good morning,” I replied groggily. Coffee would’ve been nice right about then.

“Lyra and I figured that since we’re off work today we’d show you around town,” Bon Bon said.

“Your candy shop isn’t open on weekends?”

“Caramel works weekends.”

“Ah.” I had no idea who Caramel was, but that wasn’t all that important right then.

“It’s gonna be super-fun!” Lyra interjected. “We’ll take you to the museum, and Sugarcube Corner, and Town Hall, and we’ll stop for lunch at Hoagie’s restaurant...”

“Yes, we’ll do all those things, Lyra,” Bon Bon cut her off, again. Lyra smiled sheepishly.

“Sounds great,” I sighed. “Can I have some breakfast before we head out?”

“Of course,” Bon Bon said, opening up their pantry. She grabbed a box of grass flakes and proceeded to serve me a bowl. I ate it slowly, not talking to either of the ponies as I did. Lyra just read the paper, while Bon Bon tidied up the kitchen and moved into the living room, turning on the morning news.

I finished up just as Lyra folded up the section of the paper she was reading. Lyra told Bon Bon that I was done and just like that we were out the door.

We walked out of the residential area and into the heart of the town. Lyra and Bon Bon stayed close together, and I often found myself falling in line behind them at certain narrower points when we passed other ponies on their way about. They didn’t really try to make much conversation with me as we traveled that day, limiting their attention mostly to each other. At times I felt as if they’d forgotten they had a guest, and they were just out on a romantic day alone.

After a brief walk we arrived at the first stop on the day’s agenda, the Ponyville Art Gallery. The lobby was crowded with various ponies, some looking more confused than others. I played a game of picking out the tourists and the locals as Bon Bon went over to grab our tickets.

“This is a good museum,” Lyra said, trying to get some sort of conversation started. “The curator here has a real eye for the art that slips through the cracks of other galleries.”

“Yeah...” I was never an art lover. The old idiom of a picture being worth a thousand words never held true for me. I felt that writing had much more power than a single image could ever hope to have. Maybe that’s why I found my way to a publishing company in the end.

“It sure is nice that we’ve got such a great art gallery in our little town.”

“I bet it is.”

“This is our only real tourist trap, too, so sometimes you’ll see local ponies trying to promote their work outside.” We had seen some posters up outside advertising the local businesses.

“Whatever works, I guess.”

Bon Bon came back with our tickets and we went into the gallery. It wasn’t anything particularly impressive. The pieces all were pleasant enough, but nothing particularly stood out to me as excellent. Then again, to the untrained eye the Mare Lisa just looks like an earth pony smiling.

Bon Bon led the way through most of the museum. Lyra stayed glued to her side nearly the whole time. I followed behind them, glancing at the pieces as we walked by. Neither of my guides made any attempt to give any context to the paintings. We were kind of just on a scenic walk, really, more than a visit to an art gallery.

As we entered the third wing of the gallery, Lyra stopped in front of a painting. Bon Bon quickly realized that she was suddenly walking alone and went back to stand with the unicorn. I stopped behind them. It was a painting of a red rose, nothing particularly special. Lyra nuzzled closer to Bon Bon, who responded by kissing the top of her head. I turned away.

We passed through the rest of the gallery without much event. My favorite painting was a depiction of a rolling grassland. I could tell by looking at it the emotion the artist was putting into it. It wasn’t just another drawing that tried its best to emulate the object it was supposed to be. Rather, the artist used the hill as a medium to express the frustration he was feeling. The thick, pressed brush strokes were evidence of this.

Bon Bon led us out of the gallery, which had gotten busier as the day had progressed. There weren’t a ton of ponies, and it was still obvious that Ponyville wasn’t the biggest town, but this certainly seemed to be the main attraction.

With the increased crowd came more booths outside. A busker played a cello, several vendors used the smell of cinnamon and grease to attract hungry customers, an earth pony was selling cheap souvenir-like items to various passers-by. Overall, it seemed like standard tourist fare. Not something I’d expect in a town this small, but, as I’ve said, the hotel had to be filled somehow.

“Well, did you like the gallery?” Bon Bon asked, turning her head to look at me. I nodded.

“It’s always so relaxing in there,” Lyra said. “That was a good way to detox from this week.”

“Oh? What happened?” Bon Bon looked with concern to her partner.

“Work problems, you know, the usual.” Lyra sighed. “Anyway, this is supposed to be a break from all that.”

“Right. Well, next up on the agenda is getting lunch. You hungry, Jack?”

“Yeah, I’m a bit peckish.” We’d spent about three hours in the gallery, and grass flakes weren’t exactly designed to fill you up for that long.

“There’s a great sandwich shop shop just a short walk from here,” Bon Bon explained.

“OOH! Yeah! Hoagie’s is the best!”

Hoagie’s. Now I remembered the name. She’d said it before when I woke up but I was tired and it didn’t register. It was the same restaurant Twilight had taken me to on Thursday. I didn’t mind all that much, the place seemed nice enough. I just played along as if it was my first time so as to not make Bon Bon feel bad about taking me somewhere I’d already been. Plus, Lyra seemed excited, and with what she said earlier about work I figured the least I could do was give her something to be cheerful about.

Bon Bon didn’t lie when she said it was a short walk from the gallery. I hadn’t really registered where we were back when I was with Twilight. The painkillers kind of messed with my concentration. I’d started easing off of them, as my wings had started to hurt less, so I was better equipped to remember things now.

Again we wound up sitting outside. The pegasi in the town had given us another clear day, and most everypony was outside enjoying the sunshine.

“So, Jack, what’ve you been doing with your days?” Bon Bon got the conversation rolling.

“Well, on my first day I just kinda wandered around. Yesterday I just read in the bedroom.” I decided against specifics. I wasn’t too interested in opening up to a pony with an unhealthy interest in griffins and her lesbian partner.

“What’cha been readin’?” Lyra said, glancing up from her menu.

“A book I found on the bookshelf in that room.” I felt weird calling it my room in front of them.

“Where’d you go when you wandered around, exactly?” Bon Bon asked.

“Oh, you know, I went to the bank, grabbed some coffee, just walked around for a bit…” I didn’t tell them about the hotel. Or Twilight. I didn’t want them to get too suspicious that I was holding out on them, though, so I added, “I went to a park and pony-watched for a while.”

“Which park?” Bon Bon gave me a suspicious stare. “I wouldn’t think many of them would’ve had much traffic on a Thursday.”

“I don’t know the name of it,” I said confidently. “And there weren’t too many ponies, but there were a few playing with some dogs.”

The key to successful lying is to rapidly change the lie as new information comes in. Fortunately for me, Bon Bon was easy to read, and I was able to gauge her reaction well as I made my fabrication. I’d gotten good at lying thanks to my boss, who always questioned the stories I told when I was late to work. Half the time the real reason was that I had been out late at Cameron’s the previous night, but Ron the Suspicious often bought my explanations.

Lyra hadn’t contributed much to the conversation. Instead she occupied herself by sipping her glass of water and staring off into space. I looked up at the sky and noticed a few pegasi flying around, presumably for recreational purposes. It was a great day for flying. I looked back down at my casts and cursed the entire pigeon population in my head.

We sat in silence for a while, looking at the menus. Bon Bon and Lyra quietly discussed the entrees that stood out to them. I was indecisive, myself, but after a brief thought I decided on the romaine mix over the daisy sandwich.

“What are you getting, Jack?” Lyra glanced over her menu, her amber eyes looking inquisitive. She’d gotten happier since the gallery visit.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I responded. “I might just get a salad.”

“You should try one of their soups!” Lyra said. “The chef does a really good job with them.”

“Maybe I will.” I took another glance at the section of soups. I did have a salad last time I was here; maybe I should try something else. I picked out a lentil soup, and decided on getting half a daisy sandwich with it. I wasn’t too sure if that was going to be a great combination, but I was too hungry to care too much, anyway.

Soon after the waiter showed up, floating a notepad and pencil in front of him.

“Welcome to Hoagie’s, how are you all doing?”

“We’re fine,” Bon Bon answered. “We’re ready to order now, I think?” She glanced at me. I nodded.

“I’m going to have the cheese sandwich with a cup of tomato soup,” Bon Bon said.

“I’m having the same thing,” Lyra said, smiling her overly-wide smile. The waiter turned to me.

“Can I get half a daisy sandwich and the lentil soup, please?”

“Yep. Anything to drink for any of you?”

“I’m fine with water,” Bon Bon said.

“Yeah, so am I,” Lyra added.

“I’ll have a cup of apple juice,” I said.

“Okay, we’ll be out with your order as soon as we can.”

And just like that my menu barrier was gone. I now stared directly across the table at my hosts. Lyra was still smiling eagerly, and Bon Bon wore a smaller version or the grin. Both of them looked at me expectantly. Did they want me to start the conversation? What was I supposed to say?

“So…?” Lyra began. I stared blankly back at her.

“Are you gonna answer?” Lyra asked. They’d asked me something?

“Sorry, I must’ve missed your question.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Lyra said. Bon Bon gave her an “I told you so” look. “I asked which book you picked out to read. You know that bookshelf is my personal collection.”

“Oh, I’m reading A Thousand Paces to Trottingham.” It was a good enough book so far, despite having a recycled plot. It told the story of a mare who had to walk all the way from her home in Canterlot to Trottingham in order to meet with her dying mother.

“That’s a pretty good one,” Lyra replied. “When you finish that, though, you should check out The Forgotten Ones. It’s my favorite.”

“I’ll give it a shot, I guess.” I was already halfway through Thousand Paces, so I was going to need some more to read if I kept up my current pace.

Bon Bon gave Lyra a disapproving look after she made her recommendation. “Strings, I thought you grew out of your love of those fantasy stories.”

“Really? What gave you that impression?”

Bon Bon glanced at me. I reached for my water glass and took a sip, not wanting to interfere with their little domestic dispute.  “I don’t know, I guess you just weren’t reading them as often.”

“Well, the sequels weren’t nearly as good,” Lyra replied. “They kept talking about wars that happened between the humans, but why would they fight against each other? It didn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

Her eyes met mine and she instantly looked down. “Oops, sorry, spoilers.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but I guess I would find out if I read the book. I made a note to put The Forgotten Ones at the bottom of my “to read” list.

“Anyway…” Bon Bon was outwardly discomforted by the behavior of her roommate. “How’s the bed treating you, Jack?”

“Good enough, I guess.” I returned to my one-sentence answers, waiting on the food to arrive. Bon Bon asked me a few more pointless questions before the waiter returned, a platter of food floating alongside him.

I managed to eat in silence. I didn’t bother looking up at my hosts, and they made no effort to intrude. They probably just assumed I was lost in the good food, which in a way I was. The soup was absolutely superb, much better than the salad I had before. The daisies in the sandwich went well with the lentils. Bon Bon and Lyra both dug in to their respective dishes, and only occasionally commented on the fact that the chef was obviously at the top of his game today.

After a short while we were all finished. The waiter came over quickly with the check, since we were mostly alone at the restaurant. I insisted on paying my share of the check, and we were up and off to the next activity of the day.

Little did I know I’d managed to make it through the most social part of the day. Our next stop was a dessert shop that was only a short walk away. Lyra and Bon Bon resumed their walking pattern, leaving me to trail a short length behind. We didn’t talk much after lunch.

We walked in to the dessert shop and immediately were assaulted by an incredibly eager voice. “Hey Lyra! Hey Bon Bon! Hey…” The voice stopped as I walked in, and I noticed the source. A pink earth pony looked at me, a quizzical expression on her face.

“Hi, I’m J-” I was cut off by a loud gasp.

“YOU MUST BE NEW!” the pink pony exclaimed, a smile even wider than Lyra’s on her face. “My name is Pinkemina Diane Pie! Everypony calls me Pinkie Pie for short! Nice to meet you!”

“I’m Jack,” I replied. I gave a weak smile in response to her mile-wide grin. I noticed her cutie mark was neither pink nor a pie. Instead, it was three differently colored balloons. So her name had nothing to do with her talents, unlike everypony else. She was quite pink, however, but that made more sense. At the same time, though, I was glad my parents didn’t name me Grey Cheesecake or something like that.

“He’s staying with us for a few weeks while his wings heal up,” Bon Bon said, motioning with her head to my casts.

“Oh, I’m sorry you’re hurt. HEY! Wanna cupcake?” She motioned to a rack of baked goods with her hoof. “First one’s on the house, courtesy of your local pastry chef!” She glanced at Bon Bon, who gave her a half-hearted smile in return. Were they competitors? No, Bon Bon made candies, not baked goods. What was with the weird chemistry, then?

Lyra, Bon Bon, and I walked over to the desserts. They all looked absolutely delectable, and I still had plenty of room after lunch. Since she had said the first cupcake would be on the house, I decided two couldn’t hurt. I picked up one and carried it over to a table where Lyra and Bon Bon already were sitting with their selections before going back and grabbing another.

Pinkie came over to our table immediately after I sat down. “Ooh, great choice, or should I say choices!” She giggled. “You know I always say, two cupcakes are better than one!”

We all chuckled a bit. “Is this going to it for you guys?” Pinkie asked.

“Yeah,” Lyra said. “Thanks, Pinkie.”

“No problem! That’ll be twelve bits!”

I tossed in four while Bon Bon dug in her saddle bag for her wallet. Pinkie collected the money and headed back towards her station at the counter just as another group of ponies walked in.

The cupcakes were both delicious. I ate mine slowly, savoring each bite. Lyra and Bon Bon both ate theirs quickly, taking only four bites to get through the whole thing. I wondered how anyone could rush through something so rich, so tantalizing. I wanted to make the flavor last, they wanted to consume as much of it as possible. Then again, I was the one with two cupcakes in front of me, so I guess I shouldn’t be talking.

“They’re good, aren’t they?” Lyra asked, smiling, an empty plate in front of her. “Pinkie’s one of the best bakers in all of Equestria!”

Well, I didn’t know about that, but she certainly held her own. My taste buds delighted as I finished up the second cupcake. I looked forward to returning to Sugarcube Corner often during my stay.

As it stood, though, I was done being escorted around town. My legs were aching, and I was tired. While I had reduced my dose of painkillers, I still didn’t have the amount of energy I used to. I knew Lyra had mentioned some other things she wanted to do today, but I needed to go back to their house and rest.

I told this to my hosts and they agreed that I should go back to the house. “If you don’t mind, though,” Bon Bon said, “Lyra and I are going to wander around town by ourselves.” They looked at each other, a small smile on each of their faces. I looked down at the green plate my second cupcake had come on and picked it up, taking it to Pinkie at the counter.

“Come back soon!” she yelled as I left the bakery, Lyra and Bon Bon still inside.

Ponyville wasn’t really the type of town you could get lost in. It wasn’t quite big enough. In a way I was surprised there would even be a hotel in this town, let alone a full one. It was quite relaxing, but that was about all it had going for it. I quickly found myself back at Lyra and Bon Bon’s, and I pulled out the key they had given me and stepped inside.

In all honesty I wasn’t nearly as tired as I had been when I had met with Twilight that first day. I had kind of used the painkillers as an excuse to get away from spending time with my hosts. They were nice and all, but I just didn’t want to spend time with them.

I went into my room, crawled into bed, and opened up Thousand Paces to where I’d left off. The mare, Ruby Red, was stuck in a small town halfway between her hometown and her mother. She was trying to get a train ticket out of the town, but the next train didn’t come for another two days. She had nowhere to stay, and no idea what to do. I kind of empathized with her, my own situation being so similar. Still, she was complaining about two fucking days, whereas I was stuck here for six weeks. She could get over it, her mom wasn’t going to die until she got there.

I read for a while before I got hungry and grabbed some dinner. I went back in my room when that was finished. It was 6:00, and Lyra and Bon Bon were still out.

I had nearly finished the book when I heard the sound of the front door opening.

“What a fantastic day!” I recognized the voice as Lyra’s.

“It was nice spending time together, Strings.”

I put the book down and pulled the green sheets over my head, trying to isolate myself from the voices.

“You know we should go out together on weekends more often, Sweets.”

“Maybe we should.”

I closed my eyes, begging for sleep.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

Why couldn’t they stay on their own side of the goddamn fence?
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday came and went without a whole lot of activity. Lyra smiled at me eagerly the entire time I ate breakfast, but I mostly avoided her gaze and retreated to my room as soon as possible. I was getting a little bit restless sitting in my room, but ultimately any excursion outside just left me exhausted. I may have lowered the dose on my pain pills, but they still had enough of an effect on me that I couldn’t really do anything all that interesting. Not that there was much to do in this town, anyway.

I finished up Thousand Steps. Spoiler alert: The mom dies with Ruby Red crying. It was a terribly pathetic ending, one that I saw coming ever since I opened the book, but the author still managed to force a tear or two down my beak. I’m the kind of griffin that likes to give the author the benefit of the doubt, connecting with characters that otherwise would be unlikable for no other reason than to increase my own interest in the story. Even if the character is completely unbelievable, I explain away the story-writing flaws in my own head for the sake of gaining enjoyment out of even the most ridiculous stories. It was a technique I picked up back in college when I was forced to read book after boring book, each one more cliché than the last.

I went back to the bookshelf in the room, looking over the titles. I eyed the tan book in the center of the top shelf. It was the one Lyra had talked about the previous day, The Forgotten Ones. At the time, I had received her recommendation reluctantly. It seemed like Bon Bon was concerned with Lyra’s mental health after she read the book, and I didn’t exactly want to turn into an obsessive fan of something while I was staying with two ponies I would likely never see again. Still, the various sequels took up half of the top shelf, and I was going to be here for six weeks, after all. Why not get into a series? I grabbed the book in my talon and rolled back onto the bed, careful not to agitate my wings. I groaned slightly as I felt the weight on them. I might have to go back to a higher dosage of painkillers, the lower dose was not doing it for me.

I read for most of the day, and neither Lyra nor Bon Bon bothered me. I heard hoofsteps quite a few times throughout the day, most of which were from the staircase to the basement I had yet to visit. I was kind of curious as to what was down there. Knowing Lyra’s musical hobby, I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a home studio or a music room of some sort. Maybe Bon Bon had a business office for the finances of her confectionary. I made a mental note to check it out on Monday when they were both out.

I woke up from a sleep I didn’t remember falling into when Bon Bon knocked on my door for dinner. I grabbed the book from between the mattress and the wall and placed it on the bedstand. Walking into the kitchen, I was greeted by the smell of fried vegetables and rice. A stir fry.

“Hey there, Jack!” Lyra greeted me, that stupid huge grin on her face. “How’re those books going?”

“Well, they’re going,” I replied groggily. “I just finished Thousand Steps. I started that book you were telling me about. I’m not sure I completely understand it, though.”

“What’s there to misunderstand?” Lyra asked energetically. “The basic premise is that a species called humans were the only sentient species in Equestria at the beginning of time.”

“Yeah, but I don’t get how that’s possible. Who controlled the weather? How did they get across Equestria? They didn’t have wings or anything.”

“How far in are you, exactly?”

“Uhhh, I think I just started Chapter Two.”

Lyra suppressed a laugh. “You have to keep reading! It all gets explained eventually.”

“Okay, whatever.” I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to keep reading if it meant I would be pestered every time I came out in public by Lyra, but I had already been sucked in. I couldn’t exactly back out now.

“Anypony hungry?” Bon Bon mumbled through her clenched teeth, carrying over a large bowl full of celery, broccoli, red bell pepper, onion, and shredded carrot. It looked delicious.

Lyra grabbed the dish of rice with her telekinesis and brought it over to the table. “You know, I could’ve done this for the stir fry, too,” Lyra pointed out.

“Well, I just thought I’d bring it over myself, since I’m the chef tonight and all.”

“It’s fine, just want to make your life a bit easier.”

I served up and dug in, repeating my usual dinner routine of eating as quickly as possible to avoid conversation. Lyra and Bon Bon also ate in silence, the former stealing a few glances at my fork-gripping technique. The usual.

I excused myself and went into the bathroom to take my pills. I took two again, since my wings had started to throb again. I was still pretty out of it, so I just went into my room and lied down. I was just about near sleep when I heard another knock at the door.

I got up and opened the door to find Bon Bon staring at me, a letter in her mouth. She motioned for me to grab it, and I did so. “Twilight just swung by and dropped this off,” she explained, “She said it’s from your sister.”

“Thanks,” I said with a perfect poker face. It wasn’t too difficult to restrain my joy when I was this inexplicably tired. That being said, as soon as I closed the door I immediately set myself to gingerly opening the envelope. Sure enough, my sister’s name was above the return address. I managed to get the envelope open without shredding it, a small miracle with how much my talons were trembling. How earth ponies ever managed to get envelopes open, I had no clue. At least pegasi could hold a letter opener in their wings.

Wings. Right. Those.

Ignoring my self-pitying train of thought, I unfolded the piece of paper and began to read.

Dear Jack,
        That’s terrible about your wings! I hope you’re resting up somewhere. Not to sound too selfish or anything ,but I want my big bro back! I’d come to see you myself, but I’m pretty tied up at work. I couldn’t afford to take a week-long vacation for just one day with you. Also, then you wouldn’t be able to see my awesome bachelorette pad! We wouldn’t want that, now, would we?
        I couldn’t help but notice the address you’re writing from. Specifically, how you’re writing from “Ponyville”. I can only assume you’re not exactly surrounded by griffins, and I know how you felt around those pegasi on your flight team. I just wanted to say, if I could speak as your little sis, most ponies are nice. You ran into a lot of jerks who were clique-y and didn’t want anything to do with the griffins on flight team. You also were twelve. I hope you can open up to the ponies around you. Otherwise, I don’t think you’ll have the greatest time.
        Anyway, I hope you heal up quick. I’ve got a few friends who were looking forward to meeting you after all I’ve said. Won’t go into too much detail about that, though.

Love you lots,


Jen

Great. So now I was getting lectured by my little sister about being racist. Not exactly what I was hoping for when I opened up the envelope, but if I would’ve gotten this when I first landed maybe I wouldn’t have been such a jackass with Twilight. I mean, I wasn’t exactly racist, but I was just assuming they’d enjoy being separate from griffins just like the pegasi on flight team did.

My sister’s letter on my mind, I shut off the lights and crawled back into bed. The dark curtain descended on my first week in Ponyville, and I only had a recurring dream and two plaster casts to show for it. Whatever.


---


It wasn’t until that Friday that anything interesting happened.

 I spent the week the same as the last, enjoying my drug-induced sleep and occasionally reading when I got bored. Lyra and Bon Bon didn't bother me much, surprisingly enough. Bon Bon had always seemed fairly indifferent to my presence since I started to stay with them, but Lyra had seemed so eager when I first came here from the hospital. She would occasionally flash a hint of glee, but for the most part at the dinner table she was rather reserved.

I found out why on Friday night.

I had just finished reading The Forgotten Ones. The book ended on a massive cliffhanger, the human protagonist confessing his long-held crush on the female love interest. In order to find out her reaction, I would need to read the sequel. I didn't think I would.

I got out of bed and headed into the living room. I had heard Bon Bon enter earlier, and I was curious if she needed help making dinner. I may have been a bit of a loner, but I didn't need to be a rude houseguest.

"Oh, hi there, Jack," Bon Bon said as she looked up from the TV, surprised at my entrance. "I'm making asparagus and rice tonight, it should be ready by the time Lyra gets home."

"Sounds good, do you need help with anything?"

"Help?" She gave me a look like she had never even heard the phrase. I guess she hadn't heard it from my mouth before. "Um. Well. Everything is already cooking, but if you wanted to help it would be nice if you could set the table. Lyra's running a bit late, and I can only do so much with my mouth and my hooves."

"Sure thing." I started to head back down the hall just as the front door opened. I turned to see Lyra, panting and sweating. She must've had to hustle home. I was about to resume my walk when Bon Bon's voice broke the silence.

"S-Strings? What's wrong, honey?"

I gave the unicorn a second look. Her sweat dripped down her face, only it wasn't sweat. I listened to the rhythm of her breath. It wasn't a steady pant, like the kind I get when I am near top flying speed. No, rather, it was irregular, and punctuated by a heavy intake.

Lyra was crying.

She lowered her head and stumbled towards her partner, wrapping her front legs around her neck. Bon Bon was startled at first, but eventually she allowed her snout to weave its way into Lyra's mane. They both closed their eyes. I averted mine.

"We're toast. Vinyl said she wouldn't do any more work without a payment, and the landlord wants his lease, and I don't have any money for either of them. Sweet Strings Records is gone. Finito. Lost."

With each syllable Lyra sank deeper into Bon Bon's cream fur. Bon Bon patted Lyra on the back of the head, encouraging her to let it all out. The waterworks had indeed started to flow more freely, and now the mistake of my observation was even more evident.

I stood at the entrance to the hallway, a silent observer to what otherwise would've been a private display of romantic affection.

"Listen, Strings, this isn't going to be the end of the world. You can go back to playing events, maybe record an album, make some more money, and go back at your dream next year. In the meantime, I'll always be here."

Lyra sniffed. "I don't think there is a next year this time, sweets. I don't know if there ever will be."

"Don't you dare say that, Lyra. As long as you want to do something, you can do it. If you want to have your own record label, I'm positive you'll find some way to pull it off."

"I wish I had your optimism, sweets."

"You do. You have every part of me. You know that. You always have, you always will."

Bon Bon held Lyra’s face in her hooves. Lyra sniffed again. Bon Bon wiped the tears from under her eyes and leaned in, mouth slightly open. They kissed.

"Excuse me, I just remembered," Bon Bon turned to face me without letting go of Lyra’s snout. "I told Twilight I'd meet her at the library tonight. I should probably go."

And just like that I was out the door.


---




My mind reeled.

I was completely out of my comfort zone, that much was certain. I’ve never considered myself intolerant, I’ve never considered myself homophobic, but... I guess I was learning new thing about myself all the time.

I started walking with no particular direction in mind. My talons moved one in front of the other. I wasn’t paying attention. My conscious mind was too busy dealing with the pictures that were still freshly processed, as if they were still in front of me, sucking the life out of each other, like two teenagers alone in a hotel room, escaping from their problems by attacking each other in a disgusting display of lust.

Except...

It hadn’t been like that. Every single part of my mind was confused. They were actually connecting with each other. There was more going on then just a sexual attraction. They made eye contact in a way that most of us can only dream of. They completed each other. And that kiss...

They shared that kiss as if they’d share the rest of their lives.

I made my way onto a bridge and looked down at the stream below. The water reflected the oranges and reds of the sunset, making for quite a lovely picture. Unfortunately, I was too distracted by my own mind to enjoy nature. I wasn’t even thinking thoughts. I just sat there, trying to get back into my own head.

“What’re you doing out this time of night, Jack?”

I looked up. Twilight had managed to trot up next to me without me hearing her hoofsteps. I was pretty out of it.

“Just taking a walk.”

“Really? ‘Cause your face says otherwise. You look like you just saw a ghost.”

“Well, maybe I did.” I wasn’t in much of a mood for conversation, but at the same time it took quite a bit of stress off of my conscious mind, talking with Twilight. It was a distraction, which was what I needed at the time.

“You didn’t go wandering in the Everfree Forest, did you?” She motioned to the east, towards a large clump of trees in the distance.

“No, actually, I didn’t.”

“What’s wrong, then?”

I sighed. I didn’t know how to approach this. On the one hand, it would be good for me to bounce my feelings off of somepony else. On the other, Twilight’s only other experience with a griffin had gone sour already, and I didn’t want to contribute to a negative stereotype by telling her about my... little problem with my living situation.

In the spur of the moment, though, I just went for it.

“How do you feel about Lyra and Bon Bon?” I turned to face her, looking directly into her lavender eyes.

“They’re perfectly nice ponies, although Lyra has some odd tendencies. Why do you-”

“No, I mean, how do you feel about Lyra AND Bon Bon?”

“Oh.” She looked more than slightly taken aback by the question. “Is this why you were acting so weird in the hospital when they came in?”

“I’m starting to think so, yeah.”

“Uggh. Great.” She put her hoof to her forehead. “Leave it to Twilight to ask the lesbian couple to put up the homophobe for the summer...”

“No, no, I mean, I’m not homophobic, I don’t think.”

“Well then why the heck are you outside at 7:30 looking like you’re about to throw up?”

“They kissed in front of me.”

“And you’re not homophobic?”

“Well, I mean, gay people kiss all the time. I don’t have any right to tell them not to. But do they have to do it in front of me?”

“Do you or do you not get disgusted at the sight of them kissing?”

This was an interesting question, one that I think was the source of my troubles. “No, actually, I didn’t. Which is... weird. Ever since the first night I moved into their house I’ve been having this dream where I’m playing with my sister in our parents’ backyard, and there’s this fence there that wasn’t there before, and I go up to it and look through this hole and there they are on the other side, making out like there’s no tomorrow. That I get disgusted by. But they...”

“They’re not like that, Jack.” Twilight didn’t even have a disapproving look on her face. “They’re actually quite cute together, in my opinion.”

“I don’t disagree with you, but it’s still really fuckin’ weird to see- oops, sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. We can’t always keep our emotions in check, and I’d much rather you curse than do something violent.”

“Anyway, it’s just weird to see them get that intimate. It doesn’t seem right, for some reason.”

“You just need to give them a chance, Jack,” she said soothingly. “They’re not the same ponies as the ones in your dreams. You’ve been judging their relationship entirely off of a preconception. It might take some time for you to see past that, but you need to.”

“Yeah...” Twilight was probably right, but I still was having issues coming around to it.

Well, I had four weeks to get familiar with the couple. Might as well.

“Thanks, Twilight.”

“For what?”

“For being here.” With that, I turned back towards the direction I had come from, and began to wander back to Lyra and Bon Bon’s.

My mind finally freed, I looked around at the sky above. The sun had gone down enough that the deep blue of the night sky was clearly visible to the east. Some stars had begun to peek out, and the air got that kind of cool that I loved so much, where the entire world is in the shade but the ground beneath had soaked up enough heat from the sun that it was still radiating. It was a great night for a walk. I could see why Twilight would’ve been out.

I rounded the corner on Lyra and Bon Bon’s block and saw a pink pony standing right outside the door of their house. It was that same earth pony from the bakery. Pinkie Pie.

I lurked in the shadows and got closer, not wanting to interrupt the conversation I assumed she was having with whoever was on the other side of the doorframe. Eventually I got close enough to overhear what they were saying.

“...Pinkie, but this really isn’t the greatest time. Lyra just lost her record label, and Jack left earlier...”

“OOH! Let’s make it a surprise party, then!”

“Pinkie...”

“Well, come on, Bon Bon! Tee hee, that rhymes! Anyway, it needs to happen this weekend! He’s been in town a whole two weeks without one of my trademark ‘Welcome to Ponyville!’ parties!”

“I see your point, but Lyra...”

“Just make sure he comes by Sugarcube Corner tomorrow at 5. We’ll show him how to party pony-style!”

“Okay, but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to make it.”

“That’s fine, he’s already met you! I’m sure he doesn’t need to get any closer with you guys!”

“Well, now that you mention it...”

“See you later, Bon Bon!” The pink pony hopped down the street in the opposite direction from me. I waited five minutes before walking up to their door and knocking.

Bon Bon opened the door. “Oh, Jack, welcome back. How was the library?”

“What? Oh, right. It was fine.”

“Well, come in, dinner’s still fairly warm if you want any. You might have to heat up the asparagus, though.”

I walked through the living room. Lyra still sat on the couch, looking fairly distraught. Tonight was not going to be the night to try and bond, apparently. I ate slowly. The meal was fairly good, but I had never been a big fan of asparagus. Bon Bon had done a bit to flavor it, but for the most part it was too bland for my tastes.

I went through my usual night rituals, rolling into bed feeling more than a little tired. So I was getting a “surprise” party tomorrow. I wondered how many ponies would actually show up to such a thing. I know I could hardly be bothered to go to our office parties when a new employee was hired. I saw no reason a “Welcome to Ponyville” party would garner any more attention. At least I should be able to get some good food out of it, since it was being hosted at that bakery.

The last image that flashed through my head before I drifted off to sleep was of the deep blue of the night sky, dotted by so many specks of white.

> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up that second Saturday morning with the taste of morning breath in my mouth. It occurred to me that having smell and taste so closely intertwined was more often than not a bad thing. I mean, when I smell garlic, I taste garlic, and it’s not always a pleasant flavor to have in your mouth. I certainly don’t enjoy the many unintentional flavor combinations the bond between the two senses has produced. Mint and apple pie is pretty high on that list.

I walked into the kitchen in a haze, only partially present in the moment. This time I remembered it was a Saturday, and therefore I was unsurprised when I saw Lyra sitting at the table, reading the latest Equestria Daily issue while eating a bowl of corn flakes. I pretended not to notice her as I poured myself a cup of coffee and retreated back into my room, unwilling to make any sort of social contact until I knew I was capable of responding with something other than “Uuuuguuuugnhgng”.

I made my way down the hall, but was interrupted halfway by Bon Bon stepping out of the bathroom.

“Oh,” she squeaked when she turned to see me, a little bit shocked. “Good morning, Jack. Had anything to eat yet?”

“Uunh-uunh.” The words of a true poet. Caffeine, while incredibly useful, is a slow-acting drug.

“Well, come to the kitchen when you get hungry. You’ve got a long day ahead of you.”

“Huunh?” I usually was at least slightly better in the mornings than this. Maybe it’s because I skipped my morning pit stop. My body was out of kilter.

“Yeah, Lyra and I were thinking we’d show you to the beach since the weather schedule was for sun. It’d be a good time to show you how we keep cool here in Ponyville. Then maybe in the afternoon we’ll head to the park. You ever tried hoofball before?”

Seeing as I lacked the titular hooves, I figured her question was either rhetorical or stupid. Either way, I shook my head no and started to move past her. She headed into the kitchen and I headed into my room.

Slowly, my mind grew more alert as I drank my coffee in silence, reading the first few pages of the new book I picked out called The Approximate Cost of Leaving the Stable, a pleasant return to my preferred genre after reading about the fantasy world of Earth. Which reminded me, I had some questions for Lyra later.

We took off from the house after I finished eating breakfast and Lyra and Bon Bon finished gathering various supplies. They were planning on having a small picnic at the beach. I had no idea where this beach was, since Ponyville had no oceans or seas near it, but I figured if it was nice enough to picnic at it couldn’t be bad. At least, not awful.

It turned out the “beach” was actually the shore of a small lake just on the outskirts of Ponyville. The whole thing was probably about the size of a grocery store, but it still was big enough for our group and about four or five families and two teenage couples to share without being awkwardly close to each other.

“It’s a fantastic day today!” Bon Bon said as she lied down on the striped blanket she had just laid out. She pulled a book out of her saddlebag and placed it in front of her.

“Yeah, Rainbow Dash must’ve gotten up earlier than normal to clear all the clouds for this one,” Lyra remarked as she sank into a folding beach chair, eyes closed beneath her sunglasses. She was sitting that awkward way again, although to be fair I saw no other possible way to sit in the chair she had brought with her. It didn’t look like it was designed for ponies. She must’ve gotten it from a griffin designer. I had no idea why she would do such a thing.

“You know, for a self-important pegasus, Rainbow Dash isn’t all that bad most of the time.”

“Yeah, I mean, she did kind of help save all of Equestria,” Lyra said, giving a sly smile to her partner. “I wonder if she’ll come to-“

“I’m sure she’ll be at the Wonderbolts exhibition in Cloudsdale next month,” Bon Bon replied quickly, cutting off Lyra’s sentence. “Which reminds me, we’ll need to talk to Twilight about performing that spell again so we can go.”

“Oh! Right,” Lyra said, slipping me a quick glance from beneath her sunglasses. “It’s great that she’s able to do that for us. Cloudsdale’s too great a city for the pegasi to keep it all to themselves.”

I sighed as I adjusted my talons beneath my torso. Pretending to be surprised by this party was going to be a difficult task. I mean, for one, I noticed that Bon Bon had talked up playing hoofball in the park and then proceeded to not pack any sort of ball, and now here Lyra was almost explicitly talking about the guest list. Even if I hadn’t overheard the conversation last night, I would hope I would’ve been able to figure out something wasn’t exactly correct right about now.

Since I had forgotten to bring my book, I was forced to find entertainment by pony-watching. One of the two teenage couples were lost in each other’s eyes, and I could tell that they were speaking to each other but I bet even if I was right next to them I wouldn’t be able to understand a single word. Couples have this odd way of speaking to each other through inside jokes, muttered compliments, and giggles. I was guilty of something similar back when I was in high school. Very little of the communication was through speech; most of it was in subtle touches and soft eye contact.

The other teenage couple was tossing a Frisbee back and forth together. I took a moment to admire pony ingenuity. Despite the fact that they had no talons, they still managed to find things to do with their mouths. In some ways, I almost envied the fact that they had such strong teeth. I know I couldn’t dream of ever catching a Frisbee in my beak.

A small colt who was at the beach with his family trotted up near the couple and asked to play with them. The mare smiled, while the stallion tossed him the Frisbee as slowly as he could. The colt still managed to find a way to stub the front of his muzzle on the disc in an attempt to catch it, but he didn’t seem all that phased. He grabbed it straight off the sand and proceeded to toss it perfectly to the mare. It was actually quite impressive for such a little pony. The pony couple that I assumed was his parents looked at him, beaming. The father wrapped his front hoof around the mother as they nuzzled closer together.

I thought for a brief moment of the time before Jen was born. I didn’t remember much of it, but I did remember how much joy every single thing I did brought my parents. Even the messes were only minor annoyances, and my parents often would blame themselves long before they would ever blame me. I was so important, so loved. I suddenly became jealous of the colt. Maybe he’d be an only child forever, never learning what it was like to have to compete for his parents’ attention. I mean, I loved Jen, but it was really damn annoying having her around.

I continued having various nostalgic thoughts for what must’ve been one or two hours until, finally, Lyra took off her sunglasses and looked over to Bon Bon. “Sweets, what time is it?”

Bon Bon pulled a pocketwatch out of her saddlebag just as my stomach gave an audible growl. She sighed and put the watch back in her bag, saying, “I guess it’s time for lunch.”

Lyra got out of her chair with a rather dramatic stretch. She opened the bag she had brought with her and pulled out three saran-wrapped sandwiches. “Hey Jack,” she asked, “you want the sandwich with alfalfa and mustard or one of the PB&J’s? I’ll have the one you don’t want.”

“I’ll take the alfalfa, if you don’t mind,” I replied. I’d had one too many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my bag-lunch days at school. Lyra levitated one of the sandwiches over to me and I unwrapped it, eager to get something in my stomach, and took a significant sized bite. Bon Bon giggled slightly before motioning to Lyra to unwrap her sandwich for her.

“So Lyra,” I began, hoping to get something resembling conversation going after what had been a very boring morning for me, “I finished up The Forgotten Ones. I have to say, although I’m not the biggest fan of fantasy, the humans did intrigue me.”

Immediately there was a noticeable change in Lyra’s temperament. Whereas most of the morning she’d been low-energy, probably harnessing some residual depression from yesterday’s activity, now she immediately sat fully upright, her front hooves extended as she leaned on her haunches. Her eyes opened wide. A smile broke out on her face, a grin that threatened to force the corners of her mouth into her ear canals. “I know, right? I mean, they really are the perfect species! They have those fingers, which are like talons but COOLER! And there’s the cars, and the computers, and they walk! On two hooves! Except they’re not even hooves, they’re called feet!”

Bon Bon buried her face in her hooves, and I recoiled slightly at the sudden burst of pure excited energy. “Uh, yeah, the author certainly has a good imagination,” I said, trying to contain the anxiety I felt from the assault.

“Good? GOOD?!?” Bon Bon winced at the raised volume and looked over at the family nearest to us, who didn’t seem to notice anything. “I’m convinced Quillfeather is one of the greatest authors of all time! Except for those stupid sequels. Don’t read the sequels. They’re not worth your time.” I had already more or less decided the same thing. “So, what was your favorite part?”

“I, errm,” I tried to regain some control over my facial expression, attempting to give a smile back, but probably just wound up halfway between a grimace and a frightened frown. “I dunno, it was all so good I don’t think I can pick a single part.” I was too intimidated by the mile-wide smile immediately in front of me to offer my true criticisms. Bon Bon looked up from her hooves and gave me a small smile.

“Ooh, good point,” Lyra said, her grin returning to a contemplative frown as she thought about what I assumed was her own favorite. “I mean, I always liked the part where they fly in those little mechanical birds, but there’s also the motorized cart races, those are pretty fascinating too. And, I mean, who could forget about David’s crush on Rose? They’re so perfect together!”

I suppressed a giggle. The relationship was actually one of the worst parts of the book. Neither of the two received much characterization, since the author was too busy explaining the various pieces of human society. They were just kind of forced together because it was convenient. “Yeah, I’m glad David got around to telling Rose about his crush.”

“Aaaaaanyway,” Bon Bon suddenly raised her face from her hooves, looking down at the watch she had pulled back out of her pocket. “It’s nearly one. We should finish up eating and head to the park.”

Had time really gone by that fast? We’d come out here at ten. That was three hours of pony-watching I did? I was suddenly rather impressed at my own ability to keep myself entertained.

We did, in fact, finish up our food. I was curious how Bon Bon planned to kill four whole hours at a park, but so far life in Ponyville had been full of surprises.

On our way to the park, Bon Bon broke pace with Lyra and dropped back to talk to me. “Hey Jack, enjoy the beach?”

“Yeah, sure,” I replied brusquely. I was perplexed at the odd behavior, since Lyra and Bon Bon almost never separated during our walks together. As a result, I kind of became a bit of brush-off.

“It’s not exactly Palm Springs, but, y’know, we try.” She gave a small giggle.

“Yeah, well, Baltimare doesn’t have anything particularly impressive itself.” Which was true enough. I mean, we had shoreline, but it was all occupied by ports.

We walked a bit more in silence. It wasn’t awkward silence, just, settled silence. We spent some time in our own heads.

Eventually, Bon Bon spoke what was on her mind. “Listen, I know it might not have been intentional, but thanks for what you did back there.”

“Huh?”

“Lyra’s going through tons of stress right now, and somepony else to talk with about her little obsession is exactly what I think she needs.”

“Um, yeah, about that...”

“I know she’s not exactly the easiest pony to talk with, but... could you... humor... her? Just for another week or two? Talk about The Forgotten Ones, maybe ask her about her music, be... nice?”

“This is basically about my talons, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes, but-”

“Look, I’m staying with you guys because I quite seriously have no other options. And I’m incredibly grateful for the hospitality, I really am. But, is there any way you guys could just let me keep to myself?”

Bon Bon gave me a look. She was really good at looks. This one contained entire paragraphs. It contained concern, mild offense, disappointment, shame, and pleading. “Jack, she’s vulnerable right now. I’m worried about her. She spent all of last night after you left crying on the couch. I’d only just gotten her to calm down when you showed up.”

“I don’t want to be used like that, Bon Bon. I’m sorry.”

Another beat passed.

“Are you not doing this because you don’t approve of... us?” Bon Bon gave me a serious look.

I sighed. “I don’t disapprove, exactly. I just-”

“You want us to keep our lifestyle behind closed doors, right?”

“Maybe not so brusquely, but-”

“You know, you came to our house, right? Well, not exactly. Twilight came to us, and we said yes. We said yes because Lyra wanted to talk to a griffin, and because I thought hosting a sick person was just the right thing to do. We didn’t say yes because we wanted our lifestyle questioned by some intolerant ass.”

“I’m not intolerant, I just want to be tolerant from a distance. Is that so bad?”

“Yes.”

Another beat. I looked down at the ground, slightly ashamed. Bon Bon gave Lyra a long look, before continuing, “Look, Jack, don’t do it for me. Don’t do it because I told you to. Do it because she needs help, and I think you’re the only person who can give it to her. You’re a griffin who plays guitar. Really, if your personality were different, I’d be jealous of you. You’re set up to have a monopoly on her attention, and she needs attention. She needs someone to help her pull through this.”

I thought for a moment. Bon Bon had a point. I was telling myself that I was saying no because I didn’t want to be used because I was a griffin, but at the same time Lyra hadn’t seemed right except for the first time I met her and just now at the beach. Then, she’d been eager, happy, full of energy. Every other time, she’d looked stressed, sad, and discontent. It was the least I could do for the mare to offer some small comfort.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll talk to her. I’ll be nice. I’ll try to be her friend.”

Bon Bon gave me a gentle smile. “Thank you so much, Jack. I’m sure you’ll find it rewarding.”

“I hope so.”

Bon Bon caught back up with Lyra, who had been walking with her head dangerously low to the ground. She was not well. I sighed. I knew what I was inevitably going to do. Despite the fact that I could put on the asshole act, I knew that I couldn’t let someone else wallow in that much depression when I knew I could help. I braced myself for what was to come, as I would get closer to this pony who, to this point, had pushed me away with her energy.