Hybrid

The night had came and went like the flashing spark of a flame ignited by a flint struck by metal. Soft Steel had returned home, unnoticed by anyone, and had passed out on his makeshift bed. As he drifted off to sleep he held close the doll of his mother. The warm feeling that emitted from said doll had put a soft smile on his muzzle.

He had no dreams that night, but no nightmares either. Just an empty sleep that left him with energy for the next day.

Soft Steel had awoken and gotten off the sleeping bag he had lain on and fixed the fabric to make it look presentable. He then walked into his kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal. The colt didn't bother trying to pour in any milk for he didn't have any, nor did he have a refrigerator or cooler to store it in. So Soft took his dry bowl of munchies and wandered around his house; eventually, he found the box he had been looking for yesterday. He placed the plastic bowl in his mouth and carefully cut open the box with a claw and revealed its contents.

Removing handfuls upon handfuls of packing peanuts and letting them fall to the floor to be cleaned later, Soft Steel pulled out a preassembled folding table. He stood on his hind legs and unfolded the table, listening for the wooden bar to latch into place with the metal clip. He took the bowl out of his mouth, placed it down on the new surface, and began to casually snack on the dry cereal like popcorn in a movie theater.

The tired expression he wore was well acceptable, as he only woke up 10 minutes ago. Or what felt like 10 minutes ago as he didn't know exactly what time it was. He paused his snacking at the midway point in his bowl to walk around his new living space. A large main room which conjoined the kitchen in the north end, the one master bedroom in the east wing where he would put his real bed once it arrived later that day, and a smaller study or guest room in the west part of the house.

He rummaged through one of his many unpacked boxes and found his lucky bronze pocket watch. The exact current time was 11:22. He sighed tiredly and went to open his pitch black curtains. Behind them were folded over blinds that only let in a bit of light, but obscured any prying eyes from looking in. Soft let his eyes adjust to the new level of light and went back to his breakfast.

Another 20 minutes went by and Soft Steel had dawned his black cloak and stepped outside into his backyard, the wooden fence being a good eight feet tall. A pile of seed bags lay next to the door and he got to organizing them. It took him a good 15 minutes to get all of them in the order he felt was good. "Okay, so here's my vegetable aisle, my fruit trees will grow over there, and I'll plant the flowers along the side of the house. I've got about another hour until my oven and other appliances arrive-" *ding dong* went the doorbell to his house, "or it could get here now."

Soft Steel re-entered his home and made his way to the front door. He pulled over his hood and opened the passageway, but didn't expect Vinyl of all ponies be standing there with her purple tinted glasses on. "Hey Steel! Me and Octy missed you last night. Why'd you leave?"

"Oh, hey Vinyl. Um, well, large groups of ponies don't really do good for me. Makes me really uncomfortable." he stated.

"Oh! Right. Not many great experiences, I remember." Vinyl said with melancholy.

"So, what brings you to my house? How did you find out where I live anyway?" Soft Steel was curious. He motioned for her to come inside.

"I asked around town. 'Hey, do you know where the new pony is staying?' I got results pretty fast considering Ponyville doesn't get many new residents these days." she stated as she looked around Soft's new home. "Nice spacing you got in here."

"Thank you." Soft smiled, accepting the compliment on his home.

Vinyl looked around some more and was slightly disgruntled. She then seemed to remember something important, "Shit! What time is it?" she was quick in her words.

"Umm," Soft took out his pocket watch, "It is exactly noon. Why, what's wrong?"

"Sorry to cut my visit short but I gotta go now!" she bolted out the door, "I'll come back later see you!!" she yelled over her shoulder as she sprinted full gallop down the road. She almost hit a wooden coach in her mad dash.

Soft Steel was slightly shocked at how fast she was out of sight. "Okay, see you later." he said almost faintly, sad that his new friend left in such a hurry.

A couple hours had passed and he was getting ready to leave. His cloak was latched shut, hood up once more, and his eyes were hidden. Soft picked up a small bouquet of various flowers and tucked them in a small strap along the inside of his coat. He left the house and locked the door behind him, and made his way to the Northeast part of town.

After a short 15 minute trek he was starting to get close to the hospital.