Broken Shell walked into the town market making sure to keep his hood low to hide his stripes. His head bobbed slightly as he listened to music in his head phones. Looking around he saw a stand selling carrots with a medium sized yellow earth pony mare with orange hair and a matching orange tail sprouting from her lower back with three carrots on her flank for her cutie mark. He walked over to her keeping his hood low. “Hey I was wondering if you knew where I could find a place to stay?”

She looks up at him. “Oh… Umm I would check the billboard at the local library. Some people post things there if they are looking for a roommate.” She smiles softly.

Broken Shell nodded. “Okay thank you.” He started to turn. “Oh where is the library?” He looked around having no idea where to go.

“Oh yea just go down this street and you will see a large tree that is it.” She pointed down the road.

Broken nodded. “Okay thank you.” He started to walk down the road in the way that she had pointed looking around taking note of how many different people there were in the town. “Wow there are more people here then I thought there would be.” He muttered to himself as he saw a large tree by the road reading the sign he sighed. “Golden Oak Library home to the element of magic.” He walked into the library and to the billboard.

Broken Shell took out his headphones as he looked over the fliers. “Hmm it looks like most of the jobs here are for temporary farm workers. I am sure I could do that.” He took a flier for work on the local apple farm. “Now to find a room for rent.” He looked around and sighed. “Of course there isn’t any.”

He turned around and stopped almost running into the horn of a white unicorn mare with a cutie mark of two bridged eight notes. “Oh sorry.” He moved so she could get to the board.

She looked up at him her red eyes meeting his. “It’s okay, hey did you say you were looking for a room? My and my partner where looking to rent out our spare bedroom.”

Broken Shell nodded. “Okay that sounds good. I was just needing a place to stay for as long as I am here.” He watched as she started to walk and followed her. “I’m Broken Shell by the way.”

The unicorn looked at him. “I’m Vinyl Scratch, I will warn you right now both me and Octavia play music, so the house can get loud at times.”

Broken nodded. “Okay well it looks like I will be working non-stop for at least a few weeks so I will only be using it to sleep. So how much is rent for this room by the way?”

Vinyl shrugged. “I was thinking 300 bits a month but I have to talk to Octavia about it. But since it is the 20th we will give you the room free for the rest of this month and you can just pay us on the first for next month.”

Broken nodded. “Okay I have enough bits to cover the first months rent but it looks like I will be working at least this farming job.” He kept looking around and sighed as the small houses remended him of when he grew up.

Vinyl looked at him. “Oh you might need to take your hood off when we get there, Octavia has this weird thing about people in hoods.”

Broken looked at her and gulped softly. “Okay….” He stopped after she did and looked at the house. It was bigger than most of the houses in the town but the basic design was the same. “So this is it I guess?”

Vinyl nodded and opened the door. “Yes it is come on in.” She walked through the door.

Broken sighed and walked in after her pulling his hoodie down hoping that his long hair will cover his cheeks to hide the stripes. “Okay so where will I be staying?”

Vinyl looked at him almost in shock. “U-up stairs. You look a lot like a mare you know that right? I mean if I just saw you I would think you were one.”

Broken nodded. “Yea I get that a lot. Trust me I went to a public school I am quite aware of it.” He chuckled, happy she hadn't seen his stripes on his cheeks.

Vinyl chuckled and lead him up stairs. "Tavi won't be back for another hour at least." She opened a door for him and smiled. “It isn’t much but since me and Tavi have a bathroom attached to our room, the one across from you should be free most of the time.”

Broken nodded. “Okay. Wait you two are lesbians?” He looked at her with a curious look, but nothing in his look was judgemental.

Vinyl nodded. “Yes we are. That won’t be a problem will it?” She looked at him glaring slightly but not saying anything to show she was angry.

Broken chuckled. “Not at all. Trust me I wouldn’t be hitting on either of you even if you weren't.” He walked into the room and set his bag down on his bed. “No offence but mares aren’t really my type.”

Vinyl nodded. "Well okay then, I will leave you to get settled. I will call you when Tavi gets home and then we will talk about rent and all that." She turned and walked out of the door closing it behind her.

Broken sighed and started to unpack putting all of his clothes in the dresser and the trinkets on top of it before pulling the knife from his bag and slipping it under a pile of shirts in the dresser. "I guess this is my home for the next few months." He muttered to himself before sitting on the bed and playing a game on his phone.

About an hour later he heard the door open and shut then muffled voice one was clearly Vinyl. He sighed and stood up checking in the mirror to make sure his stripes were still hidden before walking down stairs. He saw a brown earth pony with a black mane and a violet treble clef on her cheek. “Hello, you must be Octavia. I am Broken Shell.”

Octavia looked at him. “Yes Vinyl was telling me that we had someone who was going to rent our room.” She looked him up and down before nodding. “You look like we can trust you. Okay well anything that Vinyl told you can be what is going on for your rent situation.” She smiled softly.

Broken Shell nodded. “Well, okay then. If you excuse me I had a long train ride and feel like getting some rest.” He walked up the stairs and into his new room closing and locking the door before changing into a pair of shorts and laying on the bed falling fast asleep.

Author's Note

Well here is chapter 2, I hope that you liked it and I am still looking for an editor.