Name: Brick Layer

Sex: Male

Age: 23

Occupation: Brick layer

Appearance: Mahogany-red coat, short off-grey mane, brown eyes, typical earth male build

Session Number: 5

“How’s it going, Brick?” I asked the stallion trotting through my door.

“Not too great, Doc,” he answered less than cheerfully as he looked up at me with sad eyes.

“Why don’t you have a seat?” I offered as I led him to my sitting room. He quickly took up my offer and laid down on my custom made chaise longue as I sat in my chair directly behind him. Picking up a piece of parchment and quill to look like I’m writing something down, I waited for him to start talking once he got comfortable.

“It’s Violet Rain,” he started with a sigh.

“What’d she do this time?” I asked as I started drawing a picture of what I thought his marefriend looked like.

“She… she cheated on me.” My drawing hand froze for a second before starting back up.

“…Really?”

“Yeah…”

“Tell me about it.”

“*Sigh* I got off of work early the other day since we finished repairing the part of the castle that got destroyed by Discord last week, and instead of going to the bar with the rest of the guys like usual, I headed home-”

“Thinking you’d surprise her.”

“Yeah… but I was the one in for a surprise… Three of them to be precise.”

“Damn. What’d you do?”

“I-I froze… I guess I was so shocked I couldn’t even finish stepping through the door or even say anything… W-when she noticed me, she didn’t even bother stopping, none of them did. S-she just pointed to a chair and looked at me threateningly.”

“Did you sit down?”

“…I did…”

“And she made you watch?”

“...She did…” he sniffled.

“…What happened next?”

“…H-half-an-hour later, t-they stopped… The stallions left with worried looks on their faces as she licked up their-their-”

“I get it.”

“…A-after she got cleaned up, she told me not to tell anypony… she said nopony would believe me anyway and if they did, s-she would just accuse me of domestic violence and have me thrown in the dungeons… she said she only kept me around for the bits I brought home.”

“…”

“…Two years ago… she said she loved me, and didn’t want a herd-”

“Herd?” I questioned as I stopped scribbling and pulled out a piece of paper I was using for new terms and phrases I’d hear.

“*Sniff* Yeah, it’s when a stallion belongs to a few mares or very rarely, a few stallions to one mare.”

“I see,” I commented as I wrote that down, “please, continue.”

“…I’ve got no way out, Doc. No matter what I do, she’ll keep cheating on me and I’ll have no choice but to go along with it.”

“That’s sounds rough,” I said as I continued my drawing, “but not uncommon.”

“…Yeah, I guess I’m not the first one this has happened to-”

“Fourth in the last three weeks.”

“-but… I still love her.” My hand froze again.

“…You do?”

“Heh, I-I know that sounds strange-crazy even, but… I just can’t bring myself to hate her. I-I don’t know if it’s just in my nature but, she’s still my special somepony…” The grip on my quill tightened for a second before I relaxed and kept drawing.

“…Want to know what I think?” I offered.

“To be honest Doc, not really… I-I appreciate you listening, I really do… but I think this is something Violet Rain and I need to work out.”

“Of course. Anything else?”

“N-no, that’s about it,” he sniffled.

“Well, this was a pretty short session since you got right to the point this time, so I won’t charge you the usual.”

“T-thanks, Doc.”

“No problem. Why don’t you use those extra bits to get a drink?”

“I… I just might do that,” he mumbled as he slid off the longue before giving me the money, “I-I would invite you, but-”

“Don’t worry about it. Your alcohol doesn’t do anything for me anyway,” I interrupted as I opened the door for him, “same time next week?”

“M-maybe,” he answered solemnly, “see ya, Doc.”

Observations: It seems the full weight of his situation hasn’t quite hit him yet; possibly still in denial. That would explain why he doesn’t have any negative feelings towards her. That, or I still have a lot to learn about these ponies. The look in his eyes made me think he may do something he’ll regret, but I’ll have to wait and see. He mentioned the stallions had worried looks on their faces; they possibly didn’t know ~~Violent Rein~~ Violet Rain had a special somepony and may feel bad. If he does do something, I hope it doesn’t involve them.

Author's Note

We'll start this off simple and ease our way into more dramatic stuff as this goes along. If this situation sounds familiar to anyone, I'm sorry. This happened to a friend of mine, but it's all good now. Lesson of the day: don't settle for abusive relationships.