Skies uncrossed

Sleipnir tapped his chin pondering what type of house to build. Within several moments of pondering and planing, He came down to a simple long house partially below ground with a dirt roof to help retain heat in the colder months. Sleipnir smiled as he figured his course of action. He turned to his companions and said:

"Do any of you have extra fence posts I can borrow?"

"Ah've got 'bout four. Why?" Applejack inquired.

"To mark the actual building area." Sleipnir answered.

"Ah'll be back" Applejack said as she turned to go get the required four posts. Sleipnir walked over to the tree and laid down under it to stare off into space. The girls waited with him under the tree, occasionally trying to spark a conversation. About an hour had passed when Applejack returned with the four fence posts Sleipnir asked for.

"Well, here ya are." Applejack said.

"Thanks. I'll be sure to return them once I've begun working on my house at the end of the week." Sleipnir said as he took the posts and walked about his lot placing them in a rectangle forty feet long and ten and a half feet wide. He smiled and walked to the bridge. Pinkie pop up right in front of Sleipnir. He seemed surprised solely by suddenness of the action rather than the action itself. Given his mother, not much can.

"Can I help you?" Sleipnir asked.

"You never said if you'd like a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party!" Pinkie said.

"That's probably because I don't." Sleipnir said. Pinkie's mane flattened and he coat dulled.

"But... But, Why?" She asked.

"I can barely stand you. What makes you think I can stand the other sops in this town?" Sleipnir asked.

"Oh." Pinkie said, disheartened. Twilight was startled by the decisiveness of Sleipnir's words. Was it possible one of the scars of his past caused him to be a loner?

"Are you sure you don't wanna pinkie party? They're really fun ya know." Rainbow said, not wanting Pinkie to have a... moment.

"Positive." Sleipnir clearly didn't have any clue what he was doing with his words.

"It's all right Pinkie. Maybe It's just because he doesn't have a place yet. I'm sure you can throw him a party once he's done building his house." Twilight said hoping to avoid another 'one mare party' moment. While the elements tried to comfort Pinkie, Sleipnir walked away to check out the bridge.

Later on that day, Sleipnir was passed out in the makeshift camp under the bridge. The sun was beginning to set, and a certain orange filly was heading to her secret hideout under the bridge. She hid her scooter in the bushes. She was somewhat scared once she saw the familiar grey stallion sound asleep. She remained still for a few minutes. After She decided he wasn't waking up any time soon she decided to sleep behind a few boxes of cans she had. The following morning, much to Scootaloo's relief, Sleipnir was still asleep. He didn't plan on waking up for the duration of the week.

The next night, Luna decided to visit Sleipnir's dreams and perhaps undermine him in this manner. Luna's 'phantom' approached a white dream cloud hovering above Sleipnir. She entered his dream expecting some kind of war zone. Instead, she saw him as a colt enjoying his youth running around and eating butterflies. He was in a small pasture built for him. Two strange entities were discussing something just outside. A large gathering hall sat obscuring his view of it's far side. It was his childhood memories. Luna could only wonder what horrible events led to him being so bitter. She watched the scene. The younger looking entity looked over to the colt. It said:

"Sleipnir, don't eat those. You'll give yourself a tummy-ache."

"Okay mom." Sleipnir replied. This caught Luna off guard. This thing was neither his own kind, nor female. She would have to ask about that. She left the dream deciding to bring it up at a later point.

Later at the end of the week, Sleipnir woke to the sound of rustling bushes. He looked at the source and saw the orange filly trying to remove her scooter. He walked up to her.

"Need some help, Child?" He asked. She responded with an eep.

"Uh... Nope! Just... Uh... Fell off the bridge!" She lied. Sleipnir slowly blinked.

"You're a terrible liar."

"Please don't tell anyone." She begged. Sleipnir said nothing and yanked the scooter out of the bush.

"Be lucky it was me that found you." He said as he handed her the scooter. He walk to his lot. He sat around till high noon before the girls arrived.

Pinkie had recovered from her near incident and Spike brought a shovel.

"Hey Sleps. Brought a shovel you can borrow." Spike said.

"It's Sleipnir. I don't like nicknames. I thank you for the shovel, though." Sleipnir responded as he took the shovel and began to dig.

The digging part took about four hours on account of his need to keep all the dirt in a massive pile for ease of access. To speed the slow process, Sleipnir began to hum a tune he heard once. Rarity didn't like the pile of dirt still growing.

"Not to be rude, darling, but why are you keeping all the dirt in one large pile?" She asked.

"I'm going to use it for roofing. It's a great heat trap. Speaking of roofs; Applejack? Do you have a logging ax I may borrow?" Sleipnir asked still digging.

"Shoot. Ah've got some scrap-wood and a saw you can use." She said as Sleipnir finished digging.

"I will need to level the floor. If you could get the wood while I do that, I would be grateful." Sleipnir said. He began the meticulous and tedious task of leveling the floor using a glass jar as a makeshift bubble level. Apparently, ponies never invented the bubble level so twilight was going nuts over the idea of it.

"This completely revolutionizes the building industry! You have to tell me where you got this brilliant idea!" Twilight rambled.

"Bubble levels." Sleipnir said not even removing himself from his work.

"What?"

"Bubble levels. The idea's from a long dead race called humans." Silence reigned.

Applejack returned with the wood. She had to respect Sleipnir's work ethics if nothing else.

"Ah brought wood." Applejack announced as she returned. At least she trusted Sleipnir more than Rainbow Dash did.

"Thank you." Sleipnir then moved on to the actual building of his home as the sun finally began to set. He continued driving the wall posts and the main roof posts into the ground all through the night. Once done and with midnight still approaching he began to nail the boards in. He filled the wall gaps with dirt to close them. Once finished with the walls, he made the roof itself and covered it in thick layers of dirt. He had left a doorway a ramp to the halfway below ground door. Once finished with his house, He installed stairs. He looked at the building in the early morning twilight. He had enough wood to install a floor, but he would need hinges for a door. That was a task for later, seeing his lack of local business knowledge.