Farmhand

by MLP-person

Rating: teen
Tags: Fluttershy, Mystery, Sweetie Belle, Sad, Main 6, Drama, Original Character, Apple Bloom, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance
Length: 45068

A colt who refuses to speak of his past finds way into Ponyville after a deadly encounter

After a deadly run-in with Timberwolves, a young colt named Quill, all alone, finds his way to Fluttershy's cottage, where the Pegasus solemnly swears to get him back on his hooves. However, he refuses to admit where he came from or why he's alone, and such quietness can arouse suspicion, in certain young minds. Will Quill be accepted in Ponyville and make a name for himself? Or will he simply flee into the night again, and never look back?

Published 2017-02-07 02:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-04-18 12:50:01 UTC

Timber Wolves

Quill collapsed in the mud, the sticky brown muck clinging to all his fur on his side, including the side of his face. Overhead, pale moonlight managed to find its way through the thin slivers and gaps in the leafy canopy that dominated the forest, casting pale shafts of white through the air and across the ground. One such sliver of light ran across his side, illuminating the threesome of angry gashes all to clearly that had been left by the wolves. Thick clots of blood surrounded the wounds, slimy and black in the low light, but they had stopped the blood itself, mostly. It didn't matter-he’d lost a lot, he would probably drift off soon anyway..

He'd been a fool to leave. A city was safer than a forest any day-he shouldn't have tried to run. How..stupid he'd been. How wrong. He should have stayed with his friends, but he'd become overwhelmed with the guilt and ran. But even then he could've run along the train tracks-why had he tried to run through the Everfree? It was just about the dumbest choice he could have made, but it was also the only way he knew for a fact he wouldn't be immediately followed. Although, now, being found didn't seem like such a bad thing. How close was he to the edge of the forest? Maybe somepony would find him, after all..

And then there it was. Like maybe Luna was keeping an eye on the forest on this night in particular, and she said to herself “I'm not going to let a colt die, no matter how terrible the deeds he has done.”. There was soft talking, he could hear it from somewhere nearby. There was a tight, crisp voice, like that of a mare who liked things done a certain way and in a timely fashion. The other was more rustic, maybe country. They were deep in conversation, though, he didn't know if he had the strength to get their attention. He had to try, though. No matter what he may have had running through his Mind the last few days, he wasn't ready to die. Not like this. Wrenching together the strength he could, he reached over to a thick stick and pressed his hoof down, snapping it in two with a resounding crack that echoed around the trees. Then he let his hoof stay there, groaning so softly he could feel it more than hear it.

“Wha’ was that?” Came the country voice.

“I don't know. Maybe a timber wolf? They have breeding grounds near the edges of Everfree.” The more efficient voice.

“Ah dunno. Ahm gonna check it out. Be right back, Twi.” And then hoof steps were approaching, coming from the right and in front of him, though he couldn't see anypony just yet. His focus seemed to be fading slowly, but he knew he wouldn't black out before the pony reached him. He had to see who was coming-maybe they could help. And if not…well, at least he wouldn't die alone.

If you ever met someone who’s been in a near death experience, they'll tell you that the most mundane things can run through your mind at any given moment. Quill found himself thinking about his sister’s sixth birthday party, just then. Had their parents cared? Remembered? Absolutely and probably not. Had she had friends to celebrate with? Absolutely not. But she'd had her older brother, and that was enough to make her seem like the happiest filly on the face of the earth.

“Im sorry, sis, I couldn’t get my hands on a present..but I managed to get this..” He opened a little box and handed her a cupcake with a plastic ornament reading ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’. Her face lit up with a smile bright enough to light the entire city, and she took a bite gratefully.

“Thank you, Quill. You're the best!” And at that moment he felt like it, too, in spite of what he'd been told. Making the filly in front of him smile was entirely worth it. He was snapped back to reality by an orange-coated mare with a blonde mane and tail stepping through the trees, her emerald eyes shining in the light of the moon. Her eyes widened at the sight of him and she turned around.

“Twilight! There's an injured colt!! Get over here!!!” There was the sounds of foliage being crushed and then a lavender mare with hair that was a deep blue rushed through beside the orange mare, her eyes as violet as the stripe alongside a rose stripe in her hair. Her eyes, too, widened, but the orange mare’s eyes had already lost their intensity.

“Look at that…its to late for ‘Im…he's to far gone..”

“N-No..” Was all he could manage to say, rather than a whole sentence. The purple mare-Twilight-shook her head intensely.

“No way, Applejack! Long as he’a still breathing he isn't dead! We have to get him to Fluttershy-that's his best bet right now.”

“Twilight-“ but this Twilight was all business now, and her horn was glowing a rosy pink. Somehow a bit of strength returned to him, and the darkness around the edges of his vision was chased away. He still couldn't hardly move, but he didn't feel in immediate danger of permanently losing consciousness.

“This'll only buy us a little time, Applejack. Now stop yammering-we aren't leaving him to die! Run ahead and warn Fluttershy I'm coming!” Applejack frowned and stamped her forehooves, but she ran off anyway in another direction as the rosy pink aura that belonged to twilight wrapped around him, gingerly lifting him up into the air. The small scrapes on his right flank dropped a few drops of scarlet to the forest floor through the thick smattering of mud. Most of it was stopped, though.

“Hey, there, I cast a stabilizing spell on you. You'll be okay for a while but you need serious medical help, and Fluttershy is a good friend of mine-knows how to Doctor even though she isn't a licensed one.” Quill moaned, trying to close his eyes.

“Hey! I mean..hey, come on, don't close your eyes. Talk to me.” He opened them again-eyelids burning with the effort-and fixed her with a stare. “Come on, what's your name?” He was tempted to just close his eyes and catch some sleep but he knew it wasn't a good idea. He needed more blood, he'd lost so much. He'd recover better asleep, wouldn't he? Or..was that the blood loss talking into his ear like a little shoulder satan…he swallowed, mustering the strength to form words.

“My name’s…” Goddesses his mouth was dry..his throat cracked a bit at the motions and he could taste the tiniest hint of coppery blood on his tongue. “Q-Qui…Quill..” She nodded, her eyes wandering to the flank that wasn't scraped.

“That's a wonderful name. I bet your special talent is writing with a cutie mark like that. Am I right?” He groaned again, the effort of focusing was bringing the pain into a focus much to clear for his tastes. This was worse than the aching bruises he was used to, by far. It burned and itched, he wished he was a gryphon for one absurd moment so that he had claws to scratch at it. He didn't care that that would make it bleed worse, it itches so terribly…

“Y-Ya..” He nodded to her, just a tiny, weak jerk of the head. It was enough. The trees were behind her behind him, now. They were on an open swath of grass and he could faintly hear many soft noises, chattering and chirruping and scratching and clucking. Animals? Not the kind he'd braved in that forest? Though how brave was it? It seemed more foolish, now, to think he would escape unscathed. As somepony had once told him;there is a very, very fine line between bravery and stupidity. He had to believe that now as a consequence of what he had gone and done.

“Oh? So..what do you write?” Twilight asked him quietly-the animal noises were growing louder and the grass was swathed in a pale yellow light, like lamplight.

“L-Lots..” Was all he could manage.

“Alright, now, I need you to stay awake. Wide, wide awake, okay?” She stepped up and leaned close to him. “I need you to be brave and not go to sleep yet, no matter how difficult it becomes. We're doing everything we can for you, and I pray it's enough. No way do I want a foal to die from blood loss in a peaceful place like Ponyville. And you're a tough guy, you can pull through this.” He was almost an adult!! He opened his mouth for some kind of indignant response and she smiled, the anger flushed through him giving him another jolt of energy. Frowning, he nodded his affirmation. He heard a door fly open and smack into something when it could open no further.

“Oh my!!!” There was a soft spoken voice, shy and scared yet bold and determined at the same time. “Bring him in, Twilight!! Hurry if you don't mind to much..” Twilight didn't say anything and he could no longer see her, but he was levitated into a small home of sorts-maybe a cottage, and the noises of animals increased exponentially. Growls and chirrups and scuffling and squeaking-the whole nine yards. The noise made his head throb-or was that something else..he was starting to feel sleepy again but he held his promise and stayed awake. He was held up as a buttery yellow mare with a pale pink mane quickly but gently bound his torso with bandages, using her teeth. When she was done she set him on a couch, his muddy but less injured side down in spite of the obvious danger to the cleanliness of her couch.

“Poor thing…just laying out in the forest..we need to stop the bleeding, s-so I used bandages, but when the bleeding stops we'll get all the blood and mud off, okay tough guy?” Goddesses damnit he was fourteen-he didn't need them to talk to him like he was a tiny foal. Fluttershy smiled then and any anger he felt melted away-she was so innocent and seemed to want so genuinely to get him on his hooves again that he just couldn't be mad, not in the least.

“I don't know why you were laying out there, but I'll make sure you're walking again by the end of the week, okay?” Was that true? She sounded nervous-but so confident at the same time that he believed her-he was going to walk again. No matter how close this hadn't been his end.

“Look, Fluttershy, ya can’ save everypony. Look’t how far gone he is..just let this one go, Flutters..” It was Applejack. Quill frowned deeply, but he couldn't bring himself to look around the room and find her. Fluttershy straightened up and glared behind he couch with a ferocity that shocked him, frankly. She'd been soft and gentle just seconds ago.

“Applejack!!! Please, please tell me you're joking!!” Her voice was high and shrill when angry. “There's a badly wounded colt, and you expect me to just leave him and not even tuh-RY to save him??? You're upsetting him, by the way, look at the guy frowning…listen, Applejack, I'll have him back up and walking. There will probably be scarring, but he is not! Not to far gone.” Her voice was rapidly returning to its soft spoken notion of before, anger seeming unable to last long with her. Applejack, wherever she was, stayed quiet, but he could picture her frowning severely.

“Fluttershy, can I stay here tonight? I want to ask him some questions once he has a bit of strength back.” Fluttershy nodded and returned her attention to Quill.

“Hanging in there?” Oh, yeah, that was Twilight who'd asked to stay the night, he realized. He shook his head-his whole body ached and his side still itched like it was crawling with a thousand and four insects trying to eat him alive from the inside out. Fluttershy nodded as though she'd expected nothing less.

“You've been strong, but the bandages aren't soaking through and I think that you're safe to get some sleep, big guy. You think you'll wake back up?” He wasn't sure, in all honesty. He felt like it could go either way but he nodded, knowing it would mean he could get some sleep. Fluttershy nodded-worried but satisfied-and looked down at something he couldn't see at the floor in front of the couch.

“Angel bunny, this poor pony is hurt. Our friends Twilight and Applejack found him out in the forest. He's going to stay here for a little bit until he's better, okay?” There were a few squeaks and then receding thumps-he imagined a little white bunny nodding and bounding off to another part of the cottage. Then, he closed his eyes.

“Please Celestia, wake back up..” Fluttershy’s voice was the last thing he heard before he feel deeply asleep. It was a deep, dreamless sleep, and it was one that he felt like he could just stay enveloped in for the rest of his life, never to wake up or worry about anything ever, ever again. Peace as he hadn't known in a long time-but as one of life’s many rules stated-this too shall pass, no matter hot good..no matter how bad.

“I think he's waking up, Twilight..” Fluttershy seemed calmer and much less urgent than when he last remembered. The animal noises were still there but he felt desensitized to them, no longer noticing them quite as strongly. He didn't open his eyes yet, however, he clung to the darkness as long as he could. It wasn't truly dark though-he could feel the warmth of sunlight falling upon his eyelids-he must be near a window. How long had he been asleep?

“Quill, wasn't it?” That was Twilight. “Come on, can you hear me?” What if he just played dead? Would she leave him alone? “Come on, you gotta get up. You don't like how Applejack wanted to leave you for dead, do you? You have to get back on your feet and prove her wrong, so come on…open your eyes and look at me.” Her words weren't particularly sensitive but she was right-he disliked how Applejack had just assumed him as good as dead. It worked, and he forced his eyes open, feeling like they were small weights over his eyes. Twilight and Fluttershy were looking at him, Fluttershy sitting on the edge of a coffee table-he assumed-that was beside the couch. Twilight was leaning over the back of the couch, though not to close to him.

“Do you need anything?” Fluttershy interjected. “How do you feel.” He still ached, but the itching had lessened considerably. His coat was being tugged in places by the dried mud and blood, but the bandages had done their job and, upon inspection, looked like they had been changed since he had fallen asleep. Some of the top layers of mud were off of his coat, but a lot of it was still caked in. All in all? Not dying.

“I feel g-good..” His mouth was a good ten times more dry than before and the words felt like they ripped his throat. “W-Water?” Fluttershy nodded and held a glass towards him in her wing, resting the rim on his lower lip. He opened his mouth and drank gratefully, frustrated that she would only let him down the glass in tiny sips.

“You haven't had anything to drink in a while big guy..you drink to fast right off the bat and you'll throw it up..please don't be mad at me I j-just want you to keep it down..” He nodded and sipped the last of it;the water was a welcome wave of relief over his tongue and down his throat. It was then that he realized his stomach was grumbling painfully-but that he could ignore for a while longer.

“Quill? Do you feel like you could answer a few questions?” Twilight raised her eyebrows.

“Twilight, he just woke up..”

“I know Fluttershy, but I need to know who he is. I'll take it easy on him, for now.” Fluttershy relented, nodding and sitting back on the assumed table. Quill looked up at Twilight, blinking slowly.

“Poor thing needs a manecut..” Fluttershy stated out of the blue.

“Alright, Quill. You said your name was Quill, can you tell me your surname?”

“It's..” Yeesh, was talking always this hard? “Fletch.”

“Fletch? Like the fletching on the back end of an arrow?”

“M-More or…less, yeah.” Twilight nodded and checked some kind of paper she had wrapped in her telekinetic sheath.

“It's weird..there's no Quill Fletch on this list. Are you lying to me? I just want to help, Quill..” He swallowed nervously but kept his face a perfect mask of calm confidence.

“Course I'm sure..parents didn't have me at the hospital..wasn't registered...” Twilight frowned-this wasn't the way things were supposed to go. Her list was supposed to tell her exactly who he was and he'd just undermined that with what he'd said. That's how she saw it, anyway. She cleared her throat.

“Alright, well, this..complicates things. I'll have to write to Princess Celestia. Where are you from, Quill?” He shook his head.

“Quill? What city or town are you from?” He shook his head again.

“Don't need to…worry ab-bout that, Twilight…past…the past..” Her frown deepened and her tone turned clipped, businesslike.

“Quill. I need to know where you're from.”

“Nah, you…you don't, Twilight...”

“And why is that, Quill?”

“Can't…can't make me go back, if…if you don't know where back, is…” Twilight tilted her head, her features softening a bit.

“And…why don't you want to go back?”

“Bad ponies.”

“Bad how, Quill?”

“Lots of ways Twi…light…” He tried to hold onto his calm mask but he could feel his features twisting around with anger. Twilight blinked, seeming to think twice about what she ought to say next.

“Okay. Why were you in the forest, though?” He rolled his eyes and did his best to make her feel stupid.

“Ran from home.” This was good. He was managing short sentences, at least. Fluttershy smiled down at him encouragingly and rubbed her hoof soothingly against a spot on his foreleg that bore no injuries whatsoever, only dried blood that had spilt. She ignored the blood like it wasn't even there. That simple touch-that small sign of care-made him feel a lot better in and of itself. Twilight was silent momentarily, thinking.

“How old are you, Quill? You look fifteen, sixteen?”

“I'm fourteen, Twilight..”

“You're big for your age.” Fluttershy commented indifferently.

“Is there..anything else you're willing to tell me now?” Twilight seemed to have given up but stayed hopeful that she could squeeze some more information out of him.

“Hmm…y-yeah. I wanna get clean.”

“I'll help.” Fluttershy said immediately.

“Alright, well…I suppose that's it for now, Quill. I'll come back to check in on you in a week or so.” Quill and Fluttershy both nodded, the former more slowly than the latter. “See you later, Fluttershy.” And with that Twilight headed for the door and opened it, somewhere out of Quill’s sight. He heard it close behind her.

“I'm…sorry about her, Quill. She can be a little pesky, especially when she feels like she doesn't know enough. B-But please don't tell her I said that..”

“Don't worry, I won't.”

“Thank you, Quill! Now..I said I'd help you get clean, didn't I…do you think you can stand?” He nodded and slowly made himself sit up, his joints aching with protest. The scabs under the bandages cracked but didn't break-pain still lanced through his side.

“Careful..” Fluttershy stepped forward off what was indeed a mahogany coffee table and wrapped a wing around him to take some of the weight. He tried to stand alone but he really did need the bit of support.

“This way..” She moves her wing down to his flank and tail and used it to gently guide him through a large living room towards a hallway. Now that he got a good look around, there were signs of animals everywhere. Food and water dishes lined the walls, and there were paw prints, litter and bedding all over the place. Bed cages both empty and full hung from the ceiling-and through some he could see a variety of brightly colored birds. In one corner was a cat’s massive scratching post. The hallway they went into ended in a lightly painted and heavily scratched green door that they went through into a luxury bathroom. The whole room spoke of a mare who enjoyed the spa greatly.

“Alright, let's get the bandages off, for starters…” Fluttershy took the end of the long trail in her teeth and pulled, walking around him again and again until the whole thing had come off. A few flecks of blackened and dried blood fell to the floor but the fresh blood stayed in and he managed to stay on his hooves-if he tried to take even a step he knew he'd fall very un gracefully.

“How's it look, Fluttershy…?” He looked over at her and raised an eyebrow-he probably looked pretty tired. Maybe high.

“Bad..but better than when you arrived last night. It's infected, though.” He frowned. “Don't worry,” she threw on, “I have ointment that will help.” He nodded gratefully and realized he had no idea what he ought to do now.

“Step into the tub, here, I'll help…” She stepped up to his shoulder and gently helped guide him towards the tub, letting him put some of his weight on her as he slowly lifted each hoof over into the tub.

“There you go~go ahead and settle down..” He nodded to her and heavily sank down, folding his legs under him. Fluttershy cast down a worried frown and started up the water, running a hoof under it to check the temperature. Which was a bit pointless seeing as he was already under the shower’s downpour. It was fine though and he could feel the topmost layers of mud coming off and sliding down the drain. It would be a while before he was clean unfortunately.

“Now, this might hurt just a little..” She had taken a washcloth and gotten it wet, a light foam of soap covered it. Now she used her teeth to gently work it against the congealed blood that coated the gashes along his side. There was a distinct tugging sensation and he immediately started to feel faint-he gritted his teeth and made himself focus. No way was he going to pass out here in a shower with a mare he had just met yesterday washing him. He probably wouldn't let her if he felt at all like he could do it himself.

“Ya Okeh?” She muttered around the rag as a glob of gooey dried blood fell off and broke into pieces, running down the drain. He groaned as the wound opened again and a tiny bit of blood started to flow out again. Not nearly so much as what had gushed out after the claws had gouged into it, but enough to worry him.

After that first section it became easier, and although some blood did spill forth onto the glossy white ceramic of the tub, the dried muck was eventually gone and he felt much, much better. Fluttershy spit the tag out into the trash-it was stained red and stank of blood-and grabbed another from a closet, walking around to his other side and working on the mud with soapy water.

“You're doin’ good…don’ lookit ‘a blood.” He nodded, keeping his eyes trained firmly away from the mild blood flow. He relaxed there as Fluttershy scrubbed him clean, removing layer after layer of dirt, mud, blood and other worrisome substances. She uncovered many small cuts, scrapes and bruises, but he bore no other bad injuries. Eventually she spit the rag out.

“I'll step out and let you get your belly and…under your body yourself. You did very well..now you call me when you're done and I'll bring you a towel, some fresh bandages. I'll…go get some food ready as well. I have to feed the animals, and that includes the ponies! Hehe!” She made a most adorable face that was a cross between a grin and a playful expression and, surprising himself, he laughed.

“Thanks, F-Fluttershy. I'll call you soon.” He wanted to say more. There was so much more to say…but she was gone, and the door was shut. Grabbing a cloth she’d left on the edge of the tub, he grunted and got to finishing up cleaning himself, pleased to see his unmarked fur back to its trademark blue, his mane back to chocolate brown-even if it was still in bad, bad need of a cut. And then it hit him that he didn't even really know where he was. He'd been aiming for Ponyville-but had he made it or had he been off? He'd have to ask Fluttershy a few questions…right after he'd gotten something to eat.

Ponyville

Quill groaned and sank to the floor, water all over the tiles around him. He'd tried to stand-tried to do it himself-but what had made him think that he was able to in any way? Again came the waves of aching pain that felt enough to cripple him immediately, and his head swam. No, he wouldn't black out...but sleep was so tempting;the cold tile so comfortable. Surely he could just close his eyes for a few moments...he was to exhausted to even call out for Fluttershy's return, so he closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off into the murky fog of sleep. Almost at once, dreams came for him.

He was sitting at a round table with two other colts, working his way through a plate of hashbrowns that were greasy and delicious. It felt so real-he could taste the fatty breakfast on his tongue. There were other tables around them with more colts sitting at them, and across the room was a cluster of tables with fillies sitting around them. This place sucked-he couldn't even talk to the fillies because the adults were worried that he would try to pull something with one of them. Near each of the two groups were a few adults, stallions with the colts and mares with the fillies. At least the food was good-he worried he might go crazier if there was nothing to enjoy about this place.

"She is cute, though." The colt across from him-a green colt with a mane of jet black and forest green, was looking across the room at a white filly with a pink mane and tail-a little pegasus. She and the colt had been playing eye hocky for a while now and both seemed to wish for some way to converse with the other. It was cute, Quill felt, but hopeless when part of the adult's job was to keep the fillies and colts far away from each other.

The cafeteria wasn't a sad room, though, that was for sure. The floor was tile and the place was chilly-but there were tall windows letting in the bright winter sunlight and offering a view of the drifts of snow outside. There were other touches to make the room not-quite-so-foreboding, as well;A grand piano in once corner, several plants around the room and paintings scattered around. Quill watched as a small filly with a purple coat and a black mane walked over to the piano and climbed onto the stool, laying down a few notes.

"I know this one!" the third colt-white with a scarlet mane and green eyes-whooped excitedly. The filly at the piano began to play a slow melody, humming to herself.

"He said will you, defeat them, your demons, and all the non-believers~" The colt sang quietly, unashamed. In this place you didn't have to be ashamed because, until you left, the other colts were your new family. You ate, slept, lived and breathed with them, almost with no exceptions. The forest colored colt laughed and watched the white colt sing.

"You two would get along great~" Green teased. "-why don't you go over there and give her a big, wet kiss~" The unicorn frowned deeply and shut up so that he could properly glare at the green earth pony.

"Because, you idiot, we aren't allowed to go anywhere near them-the adults think we'll try to rape them or something." Green just shrugged.

"Never know. I mean, some of them arrrrrrre pretty cute." The unicorn frowned in disgust-but he wasn't as bad off as the green colt. Quill supposed they each had a...personal, shall we call it, degree of insanity. Even the most well put together ponies-like Luna-had their freakouts and meltdowns.

"Cut him some slack-there's a little crazy in all of us when you think about it." The unicorn nodded and let his frown fade into a more manageable neutral expression.

"But some more so than others-and that's why some of us will get out before others." The jab went right over green's head while Quill understood perfectly well. And it was true, of course, but that didn't mean it was nice or friendly at all. Quill sighed and went back to eating the hash browns, watching the filly carry her melody out to a dramatic close.

He woke up with a groan of pain and looked around, turning his head first to one side and then the other. He was back on the couch-he could hear the cacophony of the animals again, and was weighted down by a heavy quilt. His torso and wings were bound under bandages, again, and Fluttershy was singing softly nearby, the same tune that the pianist filly had been playing, her cutie mark a music note even with how young she was. It was a huge coincidence, but at least now he understood why he had begun having the dream.

"Alright, angel bunny-our guest needs some food and now, I'm going to go wake him up." There were a few hard taps on the flood and then the bunny in question could be heard scurrying off. Then Fluttershy was there, and her eyes were full of compassion. He could have stayed there for a long time, but he was absolutely starving-so much so that even MEAT sounded appetizing. Not pony meat, but maybe a fish...

"There you go, Quill. Now, why oh why did you try to get up without my help? I told you to call me..." She sounded like a kind mother correcting her child when she said this.

"S-Sorry about that, Fluttershy. I just...hate being helpless." He still felt weak but was sure that he would have a deal of strength back after he got some food in him. His gullet ached with that gnawing hunger-he vaguely entertained the thought of snatching something from the animals-but no he couldn't do that, he wasn't cruel.

"I know that look, little pegasus. You need some food, don't you? Why, I can practically see your ribs. Come on, try and sit up..." She pressed her head to his shoulder and he, agonizingly slowly, managed to sit up and look around, properly. There were two green sofas with endtables beside them and a coffee table in the middle. Aside from that, though, there were signs of animals everywhere, more than he had thought before. Cat towers food and water dishes scattered birdseed feather toys laser pointers and more littered the wooden floor of the large-for a small cottage-living room.

"You okay? Don't feel faint?" Quill shook his head-he had a raging thirst headache but he wasn't faint or in any immediate danger of blacking out again. Fluttershy nodded, satisfied.

"Hm hm! That's good. Soooo what do you want to eat? I could get a salad, or I could get some oatmeal re-"

"That!!! I mean-oatmeal, please." Fluttershy nodded.

"You'll be okay for a moment while I leave the room?" He nodded, wishing he could stretch his wings rather than having them confined by the bandages. Unfortunately, he knew they were more than necessary. She talked to him while she was rattling around in the kitchen.

"So! Why were you in the forest, little guy?"

"I'm not little, I'm fourteen!" He protested defiantly.

"Okay, then." He heard a giggle. "Why were you in the forest, BIG guy?" He thought about how to answer that for a long moment before he deigned to actually do it.

"I was running from home." Fluttershy gasped softly like this was an absolute tragedy.

"But, I'm sure you knew the Everfree forest was dangerous, didn't you...?"

"Yeah, Yeah I did. It's a long story but when I left...a place, I didn't want to go back to what I knew. So I didn't, I ran. Tried to make it to Ponyville-where am I, anyway? I didn't really have a map.."

"You're at the edge of Everfree Forest, only a short walk away from Ponyville. You must have an excellent sense of direction to have gotten so close to your goal through Everfree, if you don't mind me saying." Of course he didn't mi-why would he ca-ugh. That was a little annoying, but he didn't say so.

"That's all I'm getting out of you?"

"Yeah, sorry." For a moment Fluttershy said nothing at all.

"That's alright, big guy, I understand there's probably a reason you don't want to discuss all of it." He nodded even though she couldn't possible see him from the other room.

"Well, um, do you have any friends?"

"Yeah, I did have two, but I don't want them to know...just, please no." Fluttershy fell silent again.

"Alright, Quill. But do you have any idea what you'll do in Ponyville? Why'd you try to come here?"

"Well. I'm not from the nicest place and I heard that Ponyville was a friendly town where anypony could make a good life for themselves. You know, I'm not in the books, so Twilight doesn't exactly know where to send me, therefor she has no grounds to make me leave Ponyville. And I know exactly who she is since she said she'd write to Princess Celestia, which almost assuredly meant I'd made it to Ponyville, but I had to make sure. I was close, anyway." Fluttershy poked her head through the door, staring blankly. "What?"

"That's the most you've spoken since you got here, by far. I'll admit you looked grim, and you'll always have scars under your fur, but I really do believe that you'll be able to walk again before to long. Maybe in a few days, if you feel well enough, we could leave here and I'll show you around Ponyville, let you meet some ponies. Maybe even make a friend...if you're feeling well enough, of course. If not, there is no harm in waiting until you are, so don't attempt anythig you aren't ready for, okay?" He nodded, looking at her with a glint in his eye. The idea of exploring the town he'd tried so hard to reach appealed to him greatly.

"I see you're excited-oh, the oatmeal is over the fire-but like I said, wait until you're ready. We'll put fresh bandages on before we go but the last thing that either of us wants is for you to collapse or pass out in the middle of town, am I right?" He nodded in agreement that she was right and she smiled a little self-satisfied smile.

"I was worried, you know. I can say that now that I'm sure I was wrong."

"Worried for me?" He blinked.

"Yes, silly pony. I was worried that you were a goner, and that you wouldn't wake up. Especially when you fell on the bathroom flood-you were still somewhat bleeding and when I brought you out here I was worried that it was just a formality. But like I said-now I really believe you'll be okay." He sat there quietly, unsure what to say.

"I'm not expecting you to be ready for a five mile hike anytime soon-no offense!-so if I do take you into town, you'll just have to deal with sitting down to rest every so often. And I won't take no for an answer-it's lots of breaks or you just wait to go anywhere." He had opened his mouth to protest but now he shut it-she'd perfectly read what he was about to say as though his mind had been an open book.

"Alright, then, that's settled. After you get something to eat we'll see if you can manage walking around the cottage, okay? Your right side and left flank took most of the damage although luckily your cutie mark was spared. Point is that your legs were spared anything more than a few small scrapes and I think you'll be able to at least walk around the cottage." He smiled and nodded-that in and of itself sounded like he'd died early and gone to heaven. Again she giggled-it seemed like she did a lot of that-and disappeared back into the kitchen.

"Honnnnney?"

"Yes! I mean yes, please, it's just goddesses I'm hungry!!!!!!" Giggle giggle.

"Alright, no need to be sorry." A moment later she carried out a tray in her teeth with a bowl of steaming oatmeal, the sweet smells of honey and strawberries wafting to his nose. His mouth instantly started watering and he groaned-he wanted to eat it right NOW!!!

"Don't eat to fast, you won't keep it down." It would be a struggle but he nodded, noticing that there was a glass of some sort of pink juice on the tray as well.

"What? You never had watermelon juice? It's really good, but I can take it away if you'd like..."

"No no, this is perfect! Thank you soooooo much Fluttershy!" She smiled as he tried to let her know her ministrations were appreciated.

"It was no trouble. Now, I'm going to go feed the animals outside and collect the eggs, will you be okay here for a moment?" He nodded and glanced at the tray as she gave it over. "Alright," a giggle, "I'll let you eat." And she was gone out the door. Now he didn't want to eat like a piglet…but no one was watching except for a few birds in their cages who were looking at him sideways-they could think whatever they wished and he'd be fine. He hungrily took a bite bigger than he should have. Fluttershy had indeed added honey, and it mixed with the sudden splash of strawberry juices perfectly. He hastily swallowed and took another bite. His stomach protested and he remembered what Fluttershy had said-slowly. He almost whined aloud as he took a slow drought from the glass;it was watermelon as said but it tasted like it'd been mixed with strawberry juice. It was delicious!!

He ate the rest of the food quickly and finished the drink. When done, he set the tray carefully on the table-he was STUFFED. And sleepy…maybe it was a basic meal for Fluttershy but it was better than anything he'd gotten his hooves on in the forest, that was for sure. But he couldn't sleep. he took the tray in his teeth and went to the kitchen, making for the sink and washing the bowl and glass. He had to go slowly, and the steps made him ache, but he had to walk again. He hated feeling helpless in any way, shape or form. For a moment there was silence except for the water rushing down onto the dishes.

“Quill? Did you go to the kitchen?” He didn't want to answer-it was taking focus to both stand and wash these. Luckily his sore wasn't dry and torn anymore. The moisture from the drink was making it all much more manageable.

“Yeah, I d-did! I'm washing me stuff!!” Fluttershy walked in and shook her head, watching as he washed them and set them aside into an empty drying rack, leaning heavily on the counter.

“Come on, Quill, you need to sit down. You did well getting here but you aren't ready yet, not to stand for very long.” Her tone was kind and not at all offensive but the words stung. He could walk! He just needed to lean here a moment longer and he'd be fine. Apparently not. Fluttershy lightly pulled him onto her back and walked back to the living room, setting him on the couch.

“Now, I have to go into town. The animals badly need food, you know. Now I don't want to leave you here, so I want to take you with me.” He could've jumped for joy at those words. “But you'll have to use a wheelchair I have around somewhere, you understand?”

“Bu-!!”

“Do. You. Understand?” He sighed and nodded.

“Good. I've got it here.” She walked out into a hall and returned a moment later with a black and gray wheelchair. He sighed- it was clean and well kept-but he didn't want to use a wheelchair! Still, it was better than sitting here instead of going, as lovely as the little cottage was. She nodded satisfactorily and took him with a wing, helping him into the chair.

“This isn't for you to explore the town, you're just coming with me to the market for animal food, got it mister?” He nodded, anxious to be gone.

“Alright, we can go.” She opened the door and he pushed the chair forward, out onto a massive with a dirt path leading down a hill the cottage was perched on, across a bridge and into a town that he could see in the not so distant distance. Among the houses he could see in the outskirts, some kind of tower rose into the air, seemingly at the center of the town. Around the cottage itself were a number of wire fenced areas and doghouses, and yet more food and water dishes. The smell out here was like wet dog, but somehow he didn't mind the smell.

“I'll push for a while, then you can take over on the way back when I've got full bags.” She was wearing white saddlebags with butterfly clasps. Wait, how hadn’t he looked yet?? He looked back at her flank and saw that she had three pink butterflies identical to the one on her clasps on her. Must be for animals, he assumed. Caring for them? Nurturing them? Something animalistic, at any rate. Fluttershy straightened herself to her back legs and laid her front ones on the wheelchair, starting to steer him off the little cottage’s grounds.

Ponyville was a friendly place from the moment he was pushed into it. Ponies passing by on either side of the wide dirt lane looked at the bandaged colt worriedly as he and Fluttershy moved through the town. He still felt he didn't need the wheelchair and would do fine without it, but the restriction was worth it to see this town at last. There wasn't any fighting going on, and there were no colts and fillies starving in the alleys. Ponies flashed him, Fluttershy and each other smiles, more worried glances cast in his direction.

“FLUTTERSHYYYYY!!!!” A pink ball of pony barreled into Fluttershy and the chair skidded forward a few feet before stopping. He used his hooves to turn it around and look-a pink mare with a mane and tail of darker pink had pinned the nervous-looking Pegasus down.

“HI FLUTTERSHY!!! So this is the colt you helped save? He's cute! Maybe Rarity should give him a haircut though, do you agree? Anyway! Quill!! I'm Pinkie Pie!! But my friends call me Pinkie and you're my friend now so call me Pinkie!!! As soon as you're back on your hooves I'm gonna throw you the biggest welcome to Ponyville party you've ever been to!! And there's no way you'll have been to a bigger or more super-duper fun one!!! Fluttershy says you'll heal up okay, so you can handle it! I like parties ya know!! They're my special talent and everything!!! It's the best, really!!” She turned and showed him her flank-it bore a trio of blue and yellow balloons. He couldn't help but laugh at the mare’s silly and carefree attitude.

“I don't really need a party, Pinki-“

“OHMYGOSH!!!! Who doesn't need a party?? Trust me you'll have LOTS of fun, and it'll be a great way to meet some of the town's ponies!!! Everypony needs friends, that is, and parties are a great way to make them!! Who knows, maybe even you could get your hooves on a stiff drink!!”

“Pinkie!!” Fluttershy sounded indignant.

“Oh come onnnnn Fluttershy I was only teasing! Ponyville doesn't even usually have anything worse than weak wine or spiked punch. And vodka to spike the punch of course! The point is we aren't exactly the alcohol Capitol of the world!!!”

“Why is that your point Pinkie..?” Fluttershy sighed like she was used to this.

“Because! It's a fun fact! Anyway, see you later Flutters and Quilllllll!” And she zipped away so fast Quill wasn't even sure he'd seen her do it. Again they were alone there.

“That's my friend Pinkie, she's very nice but she does get hyper.” She giggled and wheeled him further into town.

Intro

Quill wheeled the chair along himself as Fluttershy walked beside him, heavily laden down with her bags of many foods. He had tried to insist that some of the weight be placed on the chair rather than her back, but she had gently informed him that he was going to Rarity's to get the hair out of his eyes and that she wouldn't hear of giving him any extra strain, in a voice that brooked no argument. He sighed and nodded, knowing that there was no way he would convince her-not the way she got whenever she was in her nurture mode. And, although he still didn't understand her drive to care for seemingly everything, it wasn't like he was going to complain about it either. It had, in and of itself, saved his life. Fluttershy had nodded, satisfied.

"Now, Rarity agreed to bring you back when she's done with you, okay? She's really good at this sort of thing, you're in good hooves." She told him kindly, and he couldn't help but believe it. The Carousel Boutique, it was called, and it was a tall, circular shop with an elaborate trim and a sense of fanciness and sophistication. Through the large display Windows, he could see a number of dresses and fine suits and tuxes sitting on mannequins, looking like they belonged on the ponies in the goddesses' court, not on anyone in a small town on this. But hey, no way was it a bad thing, even if it was surprising and fashion would never really be his thing.

Fluttershy knocked, leaving the chair at her side for a moment. A few moments passed and nopony answered, somehow.

"Well, it's a shop. We can just go in." Fluttershy pushed open the beautifully painted door and wheeled Quill inside the large, richly carpeted display room. He looked around curiously and saw two ponies inside-a beautiful white mare with a curled mane of deep, royal purple. She was lovingly adding scarlet accents to a black flared dress. Then there was a filly of about his age, with the same white coat but a mane of light purple and pink, even more curly than her sister's, with green eyes that matched his own rather than Rarity's blue eyes. Both were unicorns.At least, he assumed that the adult mare was the Rarity Fluttershy had mentioned, but how could she not be? She was just as described.

"Rarity! Look!" The filly cried out, waving a hoof excitedly. Rarity turned from the dress, wearing a small pair of Crimson glasses and holding a pincushion in her muzzle-this she leaned and set down on a small table by the mannequin she was building a dress around.

"Well, hello there young stallion. What is it Fluttershy? And who is this, I haven't seen him around Ponyville in recent memory.." Fluttershy messed up Quill's mane. He had an urge to swat the hoof but that just wasn't something he could do to the yellow mare. Repay her kindness with a slap? No, she could mess up his hair if she so wished. The filly giggled at the tangle of emotions and thoughts that must have flown across his face in those few seconds.

"This is Quill, and Twilight and Applejack brought him into my cottage a few nights ago. I agreed to bring him into town with me on the condition that he would stay in the wheelchair, and we were wondering if you could give him a manecut?"

"Well absolutely darlings!! I didn't want to say anything in case this was a fashion choice but this mane is a MESS!!! We'll have it taken care of at once."

"Thank you Rarity...How much do I owe you?" Fluttershy asked timidly, and Quill had the faint inkling that she had little or no bits left on her after the food shopping.

"Nothing of course dear, if this is for you. But, can I talk to you in the next room for a moment, dear?"

"Um, yes.." Fluttershy nodded and walked with Rarity through a door and into another room that he couldn't see past the slowly-shut door. Then he was left alone in the room with the young filly. He looked over at the wall, unsure if to say anything or what to say if he should. She chuckled to herself, rolling her eyes.

"Fine, I'll go first. I'm Sweetie Belle. And Fluttershy said that you're Quill. You're new to Ponyville, right?" Quill nodded to her, wishing that he wasn't in a wheelchair with bandages on. This was embarrassing...

"Relax, I'm not judging the chair. But if I may ask, what happen that landed you in it?" Her eyes had gone wide in sheer seconds with curiosity.

"Um. Ya know...wolves. Everfree."

"Wait. Wait a second." She held up a hoof for a moment before laying it back on the carpet. "You battled wolves??"

"No! No no not at all! I got attacked." He frowned, his cheeks tinted pink with embarrassment. "And I didn't come out on top. But I don't need this chair either, Fluttershy just didn't want me to break open the cuts."

"Oooh!! I bet my friends would love to hear about this. You should meet them! They're all about my age, so a little younger than you. I'm thirteen by the way."

"I'm fourteen." She blinked.

"You look older than that. Like sixteen-fifteen at the very youngest." Quill gave his own little chuckle now, staring to relax.

"I get that a lot. At least, when I get anything at all." At once he regretted those words and clamped his mouth shut. Sweetie Belle noticed and tilted her head, taking a step closer.

"What's that mean? Didn't your friends ever mistake your age? When you first met?"

"Yeah, well, I've never had a lot of friends."

"Oh no. You're not gonna be another twilight are you?"

"What do you mean?" He asked in confusion.

"Well, I don't remember all that well since I was only eight, but when Twilight first got here she had never really had much of a friend and it took her a long while to truly accept friends into her life and learn that she could rely on ponies, rather than just her wits and textbooks. My question was are you gonna be stubborn and not let any of us get close like she did?" She made it sound like the most basic, the most simple of questions. Yet he knew it carried weight.

"Tell me about Twilight. I've heard about her deeds since she became a princess, but what was she like before."

"I'm not stupid I know you're distracting me!! But I'll humor you." She pulls up a throw pillow and tossed it down beside his wheelchair, sitting on it and wrapping her tail neatly around her hooves. He was reminded of a house cat, on some level.

"This is the story as my sister tells it. Twilight was a quaint little bookworm who studied under Princess Celestia in Canterlot for years and years. She didn't make or keep friends, and the only pony she was truly close to was her brother, Shining Armor." Quill nodded, he'd known that the princess had once been Celestia's pupil.

"Shining Armor was made a captain of the royal guard one day, and they saw each other less and less. Meanwhile, the thousandth year of Luna-Nightmare Moon's-imprisonment on the moon had rolled around, which meant that she would be freed by the stars very, very soon. Twilight tried to warn Celestia but the goddess was seemingly indifferent. She told Twilight to stop worrying so much about dusty old books and sent Twilight here, to Ponyville, to oversee the preparations for the summer sun celebration. It was so awesome, I loved it!!! I got to stay up the entire night! And that was a bigger deal as an eight year old." He nodded, talking the sidetrack in stride.

"Well, anyway. Twilight wasn't wrong, Nightmare Moon broke free and she attacked here in Ponyville. She kidnapped Celestia, who was supposed to be making an appearance, and had slain two of the Royal guards by knocking them out of the air when they tried to seize her. Twilight fled the scene, terrified, and Rainbow Dash, who realized she seemed to know what was going on, followed her. So did Rarity-my sister-Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie." Quill listened-she wasn't a bad storyteller, and he could rightly judge that.

"Twilight told them that she knew what was going on, yes, and she knew how to take her down-the elements of harmony, which were in the Everfree Forest in the castle where the goddesses had once resided together. So off they went, young mares wanting to save the day!! And their town and princess." Quill sat there, listening intently.

"Well Nightmare Moon tried to stop them, but they braved each challenge and as they went, Twilight realized something. Not fully though until the stones in which the elements had been set did nothing, though. She realized, see, that the elements of harmony weren't just gems, for they needed a pony who embodied them, who could channel them."

"Yes?"

"Yes. And through dumb luck they were all assembled in that castle, and the elements manifested with them, their spirit managing to break down the evil, dark half of Luna into something so small and insignificant that Luna herself was fully back in control of herself. Celestia was freed, and as I'm sure you know this bit, the sisters were reunited. Twilight stayed in Ponyville and became friends with the five ponies and, in time, many more as well. But it took time, before she realized that she wasn't the only trustworthy pony on the planet." Quill absorbed that for a moment. It wasn't the most detailed account ever, but it was certainly more than he had ever expected to know.

"No...I don't know if I'll be like that. I haven't had the best experiences with ponies, but if there's any place for a fresh start then it's here, am I wrong?"

"Not at all, this is the friendliest place in Equestria!! So that leads us back to my thoughts from before. Where ya from Quill, if not here? Why were you attacked in the forest?"

"I don't know why I was attacked, but I think I wandered to close to a Timber Wolf family's den, or something. As for where I'm from...that doesn't matter. I'm not telling ANYpony that."

"Oh? And why not?"

"Because there's no way I'm going back. But I'm fourteen, so how can I stop it if somepony important like Twilight decided I'm going back? But if she doesn't even know where I'm from, then she can't exactly send me back there, see?" Sweetie nodded.

"But why don't you want to go back?" Goddesses she was a curious filly, wasn't she. It was alright though, she'd told him a story and treated him kindly-what could he complain about?

"Bad ponies, and that's all I'm saying." Sweetie groaned exasperatedly.

"But whyyyyyyyy???? You can tell meeeeee!!!"

"Becaaaaaaauseeeee I don't wannnnnnt toooooo!!!" They both broke down in a fit of giggles even though nothing was really funny-childish innocence. Quill recovered first and watched as Sweetie Belle composed herself more slowly than he had. Before she could open her mouth to speak again, Rarity cut her off.

"Sorry I took so long, dears! Quill, Fluttershy's left, I'll be taking you home after a manecut. So, how do you like it?"

"Just short enough that it's not in my eyes, please. I don't want anything fancy or anything to short." Rarity walked around to the front of him, beside Sweetie Belle on her pillow.

"Of course. Now, I'm gonna help you out of the chair, and we're going to take you to another room where I do the cuts. I'll let you walk but I want you to Lean on me darling-itd be a shame if you got blood on the carpet or broke open your wounds again." Quill nodded as a light blue sheath of magic wrapped around him-he was suddenly incredibly eager to get out of the chair and walk. Running or flying would be preferable, of course.

Being as gentle as possible when you weren't actually doing the touching, Rarity helped him up and out of the chair, down to the ridiculously thick and plush carpet underhoof. Sweetie Belle stood and moved out of the way, taking the pillow in her teeth and tossing it over onto a decorative sofa that was one of the many posh decorations of this display room. Aches seeped into Quill immediately, but it was bearable, and he could stand, at least for now.

Without taking her up on her offer to lean for support, he walked along beside her as she led the way to a room at the back of the building, shop, whatever;through a few plush hallways. Once out of the main room that was intended for the shop, many personal effects became obvious. The most obvious and most noticed during his short trek through the boutique were the pictures. Pictures of Rarity with two ponies who could be only her parents-though she definitely hadn't gotten her looks directly from either of them. Then there was a younger Rarity holding a baby Sweetie Belle, the whole family together, the sisters standing on a hill while Twilight and her friends looked through a telescope at a starshower. In this one Rarity looked just as young as she did now, as did Sweetie except for the fact that she was somewhat shorter.

The room Rarity was taking him to was tiled and walled with mirrors, it really did look like something directly from a barber shop. Just being in the room with its protected chairs and counters willed with mane care supplies made him self-consciously brush the hair back out of his eyes. Not that he cared, but he really was due for a cut, by now.

"Now now, no need to be self conscious. Everypony needs a cut now and then, yes?" Quill nodded and climbed into the chair that the adult mare gestured to, taking care not to aggravate his side. This was where the majority of the pain was emanating from, anyway. He'd probably need fresh bandages by the time he was taken back to Fluttershy's little cottage.

"Now, this will keep the loose mane from getting caught up in your fur." She told him as she drape a black fabric over him, some sort of cloak that covered the front rather than the back. It was a funny sort of thing, he thought to himeself, as Rarity set about getting some of the length off his hair. Sweetie Belle threw herself up into the next chair over like she was expecting a cut as well. Quill guessed she hadn't been done talking when Rarity had returned.

"Quill. When you're walking again-if you stay in Ponyville that is-you'll probably be enrolled in our school. When you're good to go around town, you should come meet my friends!!! Of course, Twilight already told us about you since you might be coming to our school but we're all excited to meet the new guy, even Rumble. And he normally doesn't care. I think he's just excited because Twilight said you had an accident in the forest and he's cuious. Oh-no offense."

"Um, okay. I guess that would be fun." Sweetie nodded confidently.

"It will be. There's Button. He and I dated but he's obsessed with video games so it kind of fell apart. Then there's Apple Bloom, she lives at Sweet Apple Acres a ways out of town. There's Rumble, whose a bit of a perv and a little obnoxious but still a good guy. Dinky, she's nice, if a tiny bit slow, bless her. There's Pipsqueak and he's an awesome colt but he is suuuuper short. Still awesome though. If there's anypony else you're gonne meet then you'll meet them when you get to the school."

"They all sound nice." Quill said truthfully. "Is there anypony I should be careful around?" Sweetie Belle nodded gravely.

"Two ponies named Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, they will do anything they can to get under your skin, if they don't like you. If they do like you, they'll try to make you do everything with them, their wau. And if you don't then they switch to not liking you. There's no real win-win situation in that one because they don't know when they aren't wanted. Or if they do, then they don't give a flying buck."

"Language, Sweetie." Rarity said as she spun the chair around and set to work on Quill's bangs. "You don't need to show off to your new friend."

"I'm not showing off! I just forgot not to say it!" Sweetie spluttered indignantly.

"Okay okay, darling don't fret. I believe you." Rarity's tone said anything but-she whispered into Quill's ear as she pretended to inspect the area just behind his ear. "She shows off to all her new friends, tries to act grown. Don't be fooled." Sweetie Belle was frowning deeply, knowing a fake when she saw one but unable to accuse for a lack of knowing what was said. Rarity gave a short little laugh and spun Quill back to face the mirror.

"Done!" He looked;His hair was still messy and a bit spiky in places but it was shorter now, with all of it's messiness intact. And it wasn't in his eyes, either. Quite frankly he loved it.

"Thanks, Rarity!! And especially for agreeing to do it for free."

"What do you think, Sweetie Belle?" Rarity adjusted the chair so he was facing her instead.

"Looks good." She shrugged indifferently.

"Oh come on sister, I need an opinion of my work! And you're right here!" Sweetie sucked in a breath and Quill raised an eyebrow.

"It's so good Rarity!!! I really really love it!!" Rarity gave a warning glare. "Okay, sorry. It looks good, it really does. Although not everypony can pull off the whole messy hair thing."

"That's better." Rarity said, sounding pleased with herself.

"Couldn't be better, you did so well. Thanks a ton, Rarity." Rarity blinked in slight surprise.

"My my, you're a smooth talker, are you? I'll have to be careful of that, though there's no such thing as to much praise for a lady. Now, I promised Fluttershy I'd bring you home, didn't I. Maybe that wasn't so wise-I'll have to close down the boutique for the day." Sweetie's ears perked up where she stood.

"I can do it! It's still early, I can introduce him to the girls and then take him back to Fluttershy!" Rarity paused, seeming to weigh the pros and cons long and hard before she answered.

"Alright Sweetie Belle, but you're to be home by dinnertime, understand?"

"Yeah yeah." Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and turned to Quill expectantly.

"Do you need help back to the wheelchair, Quill?" That was Rarity. Quill shook his head and gingerly stood up, wings starting to feel stiff and uncomfortable from being pinned down underneath the bandages. He really, really needed to fly again. Even before he'd been hurt he hadn't had the strength for a while, but at least then he had been able to stretch them, keep them loosened up. Now they were literally pinned.

"Alright, darling, if you're sure, I'll let you go yourself. I've got to get back to the dresses and the customers. Bye!" Rarity gave him a small grin and walked herself back out of the room. Without looking at Sweetie Belle he walked slowly through the halls again, remembering his way just fine, and back to the wheelchair. Even more the dull aches from each step had faded, now. Still he hurt but he was so much better he could say he was totally fine, relative to anything he had felt before.

"Come on, in the chair." Sweetie Belle said gently. Quill glared at the chair like it had killed his dog. If he'd had a dog-you get the point.

"Come on Quill. If it means this much to you then you can get up and walk around when we get to the clubhouse." Quill tilted his head.

"It's at the Sweet Apple Acres that I think I mentioned. My best friend Apple Bloom and I hang out there. We had another close friend, too, but she doesn't live in Ponyville anymore." Quill nodded.

"I'm sorry to hear that." He told her as he climbed into the damned chair.

"Don't worry about it. I mean, yes, I miss her and wish she were back. But it hurt a whole lot more when she first left, you know what I mean?" Quill nodded.

"Yeah, I guess time heals a broken heart, doesn't it."

"Funny way of putting it, but yeah it does. And like I said, I still miss her, but it's manageable." Quill nodded and he didn't say anything else about it. Before he could reach for the wheels, they lit up a pale green and he was rolling to the door. Past Rarity and outside with Sweetie Belle in tow. Fluttershy was nowhere in sight by now, and he didn't see her as Sweetie Belle steered him through the town and out, talking about little, offhanded things. At first she tried to talk about him and find out a bit more, but as time wore on she realized that she wasn't going to discern any more than Rarity had and changed topics, telling him about the town and the antics that went on at the boutique. He didn't listen very well but if she noticed then she didn't seem to care. She just talked to fill the silence, her magic wheeling him on. A couple times he muttered that he was capable of propelling himself along, but he was ignored.

Soon they came to what could only be Sweet Apple Acres. Atop a hill sat a huge-no massive-farmhouse, and all around two edges of it was a wide, yawning apple orchard, while the yard around the farm itself was grassy and well kept. From somewhere a dog could be heard barking excitedly. The farmhouse was huge-two floors and a wrap around porch-and on another hill very nearby he could see what appeared to be a small carrot crop. He looked around curiously and there at the very edge of the orchard was a treehouse with a ramp leading up to it, fairly large for such a treehouse. Sweetie rolled him right up the ramp and inside, shutting the door behind them. It was sparsely furnished but warm and cozy, sunlight streaming in through the windows. On the couch asleep was a yellow filly with a messy red mane and a pink ribbon hanging limply from her mane, snoring softly.

"That's Apple Bloom. You can get out of the chair now, by the way. I'm gonna wake her up." Quill grinned and got up from the chair, wheeling it against the wall and standing a few feet back from it, like it was a disease he was afraid to catch. Sweetie, meanwhile, walked over and tapped on her friend's stomach with a hoof. Apple Bloom grunted and stayed fast asleep, swatting at the hoof on a reflex. Sweetie didn't give up, she kept pushing and prodding until the filly had opened one eye to fix her friend with a glare that could kill by the dozens. Probably the most unfriendly face he had seen so far, and it was still shared between friends.

"Get up, Apple Bloom. I wanna introduce you to the town's resident new guy." Apple Bloom sighed and slowly sat up against the back of the couch.

"It's been a hard day, Sweetie. Ya had to wake me up?" Quill looked down apologetically-he hadn't intended to cause a problem.

"Sorry girl, but there's a new guy who's potentially gonna go to school with us. Wanted to introduce him and I was sort of hoping that one or two more of our friends would be here with you." Apple Bloom nodded, her grumpy act starting to fade. She looked Quill over with interest.

"What happened to ya sides?" She had the rustic, country voice that he had heard in Applejack, but Applejack had looked a bit to young to have a daughter. Sister, perhaps, then?

"Nothing realy." But Sweetie felt like interjecting, apparently.

"He had a battle with Timber Wolves! Ravenous, starving-"

"No. I'd be dead if they had been ravenous at all. But I wandered into Timber Wolf territory and paid a heavy price." He said gravely. Apple Bloom nodded, looking back and forth between her friend and the newcomer.

"Gotcha. So, where ya from?" Sighing, he repeated the information he was willing to give out, which was no more than Rarity, Fluttershy or Sweetie Belle had managed to gather. Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow suspiciously, catching onto his secretiveness. Then again how could anypony not? He wasn't trying to hide the fact that he was avoiding talking, he'd even given a reason for why he was saying so little. Twilight was very, very well connected, and she could have him sent back at a moment's notice. She knew the goddesses, half the townsfolk and many more important and influential ponies around Equestria. And if she knew where a kid like himself should be but wasn't, then how long would it really take before he was back? Exactly.

"So. Muh sister found ya, out near the forest? What you say...that doesn't sound like how she'd act."

"Well, maybe she doesn't like me."

"That's ridiculous, why wouldn't muh sister like ya right off the bat?"

"Don't know." Except he did. She knew where he had been, and maybe she didn't want somepony like that getting into the town and rubbing off on her sister, who was his age. And maybe he'd gotten on her bad side in a purposeful way, as well. But he wasn't going to tell Apple Bloonm any of that, not now. If she were going to know, then Applejack would be the one to tell her.

"You're right." He pretended to relent. "Maybe I just caught her at a bad moment. Not like I could help it, but that's nopony's fault." Apple Bloom nodded.

"Well, welcome to Ponyville. If you've been here a few days then I'm surprised Pinkie hasn't thrown ya some huge party yet." But he was suddenly very tired from all this standing, and he sat down in the wheelchair. Both the fillies frowned in concern.

"Well, I'll meet ya proper some time with the rest of our friends." He nodded to Apple Bloom, yawning. The wheelchair wasn't so bad, now.

"Don't worry, I'll get you back to the cottage. Get some sleep if you need it." But Quill had fallen asleep even before Sweetie had finished talking.

Dream

He woke up back at the cottage, again. He didn't register any pain right away, or even think about it. It might have been a sweet, beautiful relief had he noticed it right then. Fluttershy was asleep on the other couch, her overly-long tail wrapped around to rest against her muzzle.

He sighed softly, then. He liked the cottage, with the animals and sense of homeliness, but at the same time he woke up here in this spot every single time he blacked out. Like in those stories where no matter what you did you didn't move on with your life;you always started the next day exactly where you had the day before. Mumbling something unintelligible, he drifted off back to sleep.

He was back in that sunny, winter cafeteria, with green and red. He watched as the adults over on the filly's side of the room got up, herded the fillies together, and herded them out of the eatery into a chilly white hallway, leaving the boys and the staff in charge of them alone, for the moment. Then the adults in charge of them got up, too.

"Come on, kids, we're going back to the day room." Red smiled happily at this and got up, seemingly eager to be away from the green colt's weird talks. Quill couldn't say he disagreed terribly, either. He got up, grabbed his garbage in his teeth, and followed green and red with the other colts and stallions towards the double doors, dumping their garbage in the bins as they walked through the doors. This brought them into a wide, wood-floored hallway with stark white walls, fluorescent lights shining down brightly from the ceiling, giving the whole hallway a sanitary shine.

"Sheesh, the wood looks decent with the walls, don't ya think?" Green said to them. "White and brown...guess it isn't really hard to pair white up with other colors, is it?" Red and Quill rolled their eyes;Green was at it again. Trying to act like he knew something about everything.

"Yep, totally." Red sighed, and if the building wasn't inside a magic dampening field he might have gone ahead and shut green up. Not much of a point behind it now, though, when it was a struggle to even light his horn for more than a moment or two. Green knew it, too;that there was nothing red could do, and he gave a wide smirk, playful green eyes to burning red ones Quill cast his own to the walls they were walking past-there were many doors. These led to meeting rooms for the families of ponies who weren't allowed out of the base unit yet, doctor's and therapist's offices, and a seemingly endless supply of more long hallways.

Through a door they went and into a wide reception area, a counter in the dead center of it. There were two options, a door to the colt's wing, and a wide hallway that led down to the filly's wing. Quill walked with the other guys, but a tall brown stallion with a gray beard stopped him.

"You've been transferred to B group, kiddo."

"I'm not a kid, I'm thirteen." The stallion just laughed and waved him away towards the girl's wing. Why was he being transferred to the group full of girls, though? Sniffing, he walked his way slowly to the hallway, looking down it. The doors to the bedrooms were shut firmly on either side, and at the end the hallway twisted left. Nopony was in sight anywhere now that the boys had returned to their own area, except for the pink mare behind the reception desk. Quill, sighing, walked down the hallway, never having been here before. It was chilly, still-took a lot of money to heat such a massive building-and he ruffled his wings uncomfortably as he reached the end of the hall and turned left. Here, a much narrower hallway led to a wooden door framed with black metal. There was a window on the left of the frame, framed with it's own metal, but Quill could only see wall past it. He wished they were allowed to fly in here so he could look through the window, but if they caught him doing that he ran the risk of having his wings clipped:something that would never heal. So he just rapped his hoof on the door, and waited.

It opened after only a few seconds and a blonde mare wearing glasses stood there, her brown eyes looking him over critically.

"Can I help you? Why are you out here alone?"

"Um..Mr. Shade said I was being transferred to B group. And...this is B group's room, right?"

"Yes, but, this is supposed to be an all fillies group."

"Mr. Shade sai-"

"Yeah I heard you. Come in while I go verify that with them, but don't sit near any of the fillies or you'll be in trouble."

"Whatever." He growled in the hall but then composed himself before entering the room, the door clicking shut behind him.It retained the tall windows The boy's had, if not as many. At once the fillies in the room stopped the various things they were doing and turned to stare at the newcomer. Ignoring them gathered around a central table on a rug, he made his way to a table and sat down, looking down at his lap without a word. He could hear a few words muttered among the fillies:"...colt?...what...here...crazy...cute..." He assumed he had heard that last one completely wrong as he looked back up-they aged from around seven to fourteen, it seemed. Only two of them didn't have cutie marks, but they looked right at home with the other fillies. So, no judging went on here-at least not based on age or maturity. Then again age didn't really matter since once you had your cutie mark you were eligible for some work and to participate in the heat weeks, although no foals were allowed and you couldn't live alone yet. He shivered at the thought of heat weeks, it was probably painful sitting in here unable to touch anyone during that time-he thanked Celestia that he had narrowly avoided being here for it.

"So. You're part of our group?" It was a small charcoal filly with a curly brown mane, blonde hightlights, and reflective blue eyes. She was a unicorn with a cutie mark similar to his own-hers was a small blue quill scratching words onto a sheet of paper, while his was a regal, stately black quill doing the same.Another writer, he guessed, although it had been ages since he'd written anything.

"Yeah, that's what the adults say." Now spoke one of the fillies with no cutie mark. She was a deep red, with dark blue eyes and a mane of black and gray. It was messy and looked like it had been done this way, rather than just being messy. It suited her, he supposed. She looked maybe ten, the charcoal filly looked eleven or twelve.

"Well, that's good. We haven't had a single guy and I was kind of hating it."

"Yeah, much more of this and we'll all become filly foolers." Most of the fillies giggled, while the charcoal filly frowned. Even the ruby filly seemed to understand, despite not being supposed to know such things yet.

"Well anyway, my name's Diamond. But for reasons you can call me Tainted. My friends call me Taints." said the charcoal filly.

"I'm Rubyshade! And I go by Rubyshade!" The red filly told him. There were a few other introductions from fillies around the room, but the two that had introduced themselves first did the most talking-not necessarily all to him. He sat and watched them-a few glances were still occasionally thrown his way and he got the distinct feeling that a conversation about him was taking place somewhere around that table. Finally, Tainted and Ruby walked over to him after a few minutes and sat on chairs on either side of his own.

"So, why are you in?" Ruby asked. Quill felt his face twist at once into a deep frown.

"Reasons."

"Okay okay, you can be secretive. But what was it?? I heard there's a colt who's in here for going totally nuts and raping a filly. And one of the fillies in here actually KILLED somepony..you didn't kill anypony did you?" Quill shook his head.

"No, I didn't kill anypony. I shouldn't be here."

"But don't we all think that?" Tainted tossed out. "I mean, I know Ruby and I belong here. Doesn't mean I like it, but it's true." Ruby shrugged and nodded.

"What are you two sisters, or something?" Quill asked to neither one of them in particular.

"No, but we stick together in here. I reckon that once we get out we won't ever see each other again."

"And we're both okay with that." Ruby spoke after Tainted.

"Well, I guess it works, hm?" Quill said, proud of himself for expertly finding a way to turn the topic away from himself but not showing it. If they knew he was proud they might figure out why. And then they might remember why.

"Yeah, it works." Tainted nodded, looking up as the door slid open. There stood the blonde mare with the glasses, looking extremely cross.

"Well, colt, I don't like it but for now I'm stuck with you. Just don't sit to close to any of the fillies and we'll be good, got it?" Quill nodded, acutely aware or the two fillies on either side of him. The blonde mare sat down behind a desk and yelled:"Free play!!" Tainted and Ruby turned back to Quill curiously.

"So why are you in here?" Ruby asked.

"Why are you?" Quill shot back calmly. Ruby shrugged.

"They'll make you tell us tonight, every night we talk about ourselves and why we're here. For any new ponies who were brought in that day, so they can get an idea of who they'll be spending their time here with. Of course ponies get discharged and new ones get brought in, but it helps."

"I just won't."

"But then they'll make you stay in longer, guy. Say, what's your name?" Hadn't he said? No?

"I'm Quill," he said, "-and apparently I hallucinate. That's why I'm here, they say."

Author's Note

Sorry for the short chapter, I just wanted to post. :pinkiesmile:

Party

Quill woke up from the dream back on the couch and frowned to himself. He was tired of going through his time in Manehattan during his nighttime wanderings. He was also tired of waking up on this damned couch! Grunting in preparation for pain, he sat up quickly and pushed himself down to the floor. Much to his surprise, he didn't feel the ache he had almost grown used to by now. Confusing, but very welcome. Now if he could just get the bandages off...

He slowly walked to the door and pulled it open with his teeth-it was dark still-a pale orange light was slowly flooding across the yard. It was embarassing to have fallen asleep in the clubhouse like that, but he supposed he didn't have any kind of stamina built up yet. That was alright, though.

"Tut tut, out of bed? I said you're supposed to be resting!" Fluttershy had walked around the side of the cottage, toting a large bag of what appeared to be birdseed. She was a bit of a mess and smelled like she'd been hugging a grizzly, but she was still graceful in her own sort of way. Quill was reminded of those old stories he had gotten his hooves on, of the princesses who lived with animals in the forest-dirty and busy but still graceful, retaining their own beauty.

"Sorry, Fluttershy. I'm tired.."

"I don't think you mean exhausted, do you?" She giggled;it wasn't a question.

"No, I don't. I'm tired of passing out whenever I think I'm doing well. But-it's weird-my side doesn't even hurt, now."

"Well, yes, I drugged you." Quill blinked. Surely he hadn't heard that right?

"I mean, not in a bad way! D-Don't be mad.." Suddenly she was nervous and wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Um...what did you do? Exactly?" He filled his voice with as much calmness and tranquility as he could, trying to put her at ease. Why was he doing that?? Hadn't she just confessed to drugging him somehow.

"I'm sorry...that was a really, reeeeally, bad choice of words.."

"Mhm, it was, but that's alright, just tell me what you did. It wasn't a steroid, was it? Is that why I'm not in pain?"

"No, no. See I have this friend, Zecora. She's a zebra, very nice..."

"Okay, Fluttershy? You just told me you gave me some sort of drug, I need you to get with it and tell me." His voice wavered on the fine line between calm and anger. "Now." Fluttershy squeaked and obeyed at once, in spite of the age gap that would have made any other adult angry at his nerve.

"My friend Zecora is a great alchemist-potions and brews, all that-and I had her concoct a healing remedy. I...I'm sorry...I thought it would help..s-so I slipped it into the watermelon juice, the other day. The potion itself tasted like strawberry, she said, I was worried you would guess something was up..but I held my b-breath and it turned out okay...I'm so sorry! Please don't hate me for lying!" He looked at her-she had sunken into a concillatory gesture, bringing herself down to his height. It was astonishing, really, how scared she looked. Even if he'd wanted to be mad he didn't know if he'd have been able to manage it..

"Side effects?" Fluttershy blinked up at him.

"W-What?"

"Are there any side effects?"

"Well...it will act like a steroid of sorts, she says, but no negative effect-ts. She says that it'll be a lot harder to break bones and such, but don't expect anything bad to happen."

"Alright. So...this happened..it'll take a minute or two to absorb." Fluttershy nodded.

"Sooooo....you're not mad at me?" He shook his head.

"I did taste the strawberry, yes, but I didn't expect-no, I'm not mad. You promised me you'd get me back on my hooves and you did exactly that, with unorthodox methods or not." Fluttershy nodded happily like this was wonderful news, perking up at once.

"Wait!" Quill blurted out, "If the pain is gone, does that mean I don't need the bandages??!" Fluttershy nodded slowly as she draped a wing around him protectively.

"Come on inside, we'll get them off of you..now, there will still probably be some scarring..." He nodded-he didn't care in the least. Not if it meant he could stretch his wings again!

"Just as long as I can fly!"

"Quill," She sat him on the couch and took a pair of medical scissors;to cut the bandages. He could feel the air hitting the fur just under the edges of the bandages-the most beautiful thing he'd felt in a while. "You can't go nuts. You've been weak for a while, and I expect you need more food." It was true, he was starving, but he could wait until after he had flapped a bit!

"Yeah, but I can wait. I need to fly, Fluttershy! You should understand, you're a pegasus too!" Fluttershy sighed.

"I don't...rely on my wings very much." He tilted his head-he'd have to ask her about that later. "But I can imagine. You can fly for a bit-but stay in sight of the cottage, then you're coming inside for breakfast." Somehow her voice brooked absolutely no argument, having been scared and shy only moments before. Now that it came to the well being of someone she was all business.

"Thank you! I won't go far. As much as I hate to admit it I probably can't go very far yet." All at once the bandages fell away to the couch, blood-up. He anxiously turned to look down at his side as Fluttershy left the room. There was no visible scars, but he could feel a small-no tiny-bulge when he pressed his wing down. A light fuzz of coat had grown over the wound, already. Grinning, his wings snapped up straight to either side, sore from being pinned for so long. He was still underweight, but he was clean, he was safe, and he wasn't going to die. It was a huge step forward from a week ago.

"I'm supposed to slip you the rest of this, but since you know about it I'll just have you drink it." She was holding a pink bottle and a chewed cork in her teeth, the former of which she passed to Quill. He nodded and drank, the taste of strawberry exploding through his mouth and turning his throat to ice-it tasted a lot different when undiluted by the watermelon juices. Hecould feel the edge come off the hunger, and the last of any wariness chased out of his mind. The more he drank, he felt like he could have flown a marathon. Fluttershy watched his side, his wings still up. She then walked over and felt.

"Scar isn't gonna go away, but it's hardly noticable. How do you feel, Quill?" He chugged every last drop from the bottle and set it on the table, feeling bigger and stronger than some fourteen year old. He wasn't bigger, that was his imagination. But he was sure as hell stronger!"

"I feel incredible!! Can I get more of that stuff??"

"No." was the simple response. "To much of a good thing, you know? And that stuff is very, very hard to make, but without it you might have been bound to a wheelchair for a long, long time.." He nodded-he had expected as much but it had been worth asking.

"Now can I go outside??"

"Of course! Have fun, but come back soon-don't overwork yourself." Quill nodded and trotted to the door, tugging it open and darting outside into the yard, the scents of the animals hitting him like a speeding bullet. He shook his head and gave a few experimental flaps-his wings felt like they were those of an highly-trained athlete. Why had such a wonderful thing been used for him, he had to wonder...

Shrugging this off-it didn't matter at the moment if it meant he wasn't going to be crippled for life-or did that mean it made all the difference in the world? Eh, he shrugged these thoughts off, too. Beating his wings down hard, he lifted off the emerald grass, a delicious breeze ruffling his feathers and blowing through his fur. The best kind of freedom, better than any magical cantrip the unicorns could come up with, was to be able to go through the air. There were entire compounds built solely for flight purposes, and it was no wonder.

He couldn't manage it for long, though, potion or no. He really did need food, and he wasn't anywhere near full strenth, though. He sighed and alighted back down in front of the cottage, looking around. Fluttershy was either inside or working somewhere in the back, but he couldn't see her. He shrugged and grabbed the doorknob in his teeth, pulling the wooden door open and walking into the cottage's main room. Fluttershy was there, talking to Twilight.

"-nd nothing came up. We can't find a Quill Fletch anywhere, and there's no criminal that matches his profile anywhere in the books. In effect, he doesn't exist." Twilight looked deeply trouble and Quill was only amused. Had her books failed her? Poor mare. Not really, of course. Both of the mares were sitting on a couch, but Fluttershy was the one facing the door. While Twilight was distracted with her string of words she raised a hoof for him to be quiet and listen. He nodded and silently shut the door behind him, listening to Twilight. And Fluttershy, now.

"But, Twilight, what foal would come up a match with the criminal files?"

"You'd be surprised Fluttershy. A lot of adults know that ponies think that, then they recruit kids to help them through empty promises or force, because it furthers themself from the crime that they sent the foal to do for them. It's sick, really, but...it happens." Fluttershy was about to get sidetracked, unless he was mistaken.

"But Twilight! What happens to the foals who are caught doing those things??"

"They're usually taken to a corrective facility-or an institution if they need it-and are eventually released back to parents if they can be found. If not then an orphanage." Fluttershy frowned deeply at this news.

"Well, that's not healthy for any foal that I can imagine. There's no way Quill's going into one."

"That's the thing, Fluttershy. You're not his mother, you can't decide that. He doesn't have parents in the system, and that means that he belongs in an orphanage."

"You can't make him!" Fluttershy blurted out.

"Well then you better try and get him to talk, Fluttershy."

"You're a princess Twilight! Surely...surely there's some strings you could pull?"

"I could, Fluttershy...but how do we know he didn't escape from a psych ward somewhere? How do we know we really want to help him? don't get me wrong Fluttershy, I don't want to see a colt put through that any more than you do." Her face softened and she sighed, looking down. "Fine, Flutters, but only for you. But you're going to be his caretaker, until we get something else figured out." Fluttershy nodded.

"He's been such a sweetheart...and I did get him to drink all of the potion. I know I owe Zecors hugely for letting him take that...maybe it's a debt that I won't be able to repay for a few years, but I just c-couldn't let him die. I know there are others like him, others who have been injured and who died, some of them alone and scared." She stated this cold fact with the most tender of tones, "but Quill is the one who was brought into my cottage, and Quill's the one I had a chance to save. Do you get it, Twilight?" Twilight nodded.

"Of course I do, Fluttershy...it's just that...nothing, really. I'm only being paranoid, that's all. Quill can stay with you, I'll write to Celestia and Luna." Fluttershy and he both let out a huge sigh of relief and Twilight whipped around with surprise.

"Sh-Sheesh Quill! You came in quietly!!" She laughed awkwardly, looking like she was praying he had only just stepped in. Quill didn't know whether to glare at her or thank her. He decided on neither, and just stood there looking at her.

"So, um...you're going to be staying with Fluttershy, Quill, but you'll have to start attending the school-it's against the law in the Ponyville Law book edition one point seventeen, (There weren't enough laws to call it edition 2, this really is a friendly place) for a minor to reside in Ponyville between the ages of five and seventeen, without attending school."

"School." Quill repeated. Twilight nodded. Quill blinked. Twilight tilted her head as they shared a long, intense stare.

"Alright!" He grinned, wings fluffing up with excitement. Twilight looked down at him with surprise.

"Well, I'm going to take you to the school and get you registered so they don't question your parentage, okay?" He nodded. "I didn't expect you to be excited about school, honestly."

"Well, see, I've never been to one. But don't get me wrong, I can read and write and do plenty. I used to sneak into a school and steal the textbooks so that I wouldn't be some teenager at a tiny foal's level. You'll see! I'll do well! And, Fluttershy, thank you for letting me stay here!" He thought;for arguing on my behalf.

"Of course, Quill."

"Alright Quill, if you get tired you can hop up on my back"

"I don't know...I'm almost the size of an adult."

"Right. That was dumb. Dumb me. Nothing a good read wouldn't have solved, though. Anyway, do you think you can walk that far?" He nodded excitedly. Fluttershy walked up and held out some kind of bar in her teeth."

"Eat dis, it'll hlp wth enrgee." She mumbled, and Quill took it, biting half of it off at once. It tasted bitter but sweet, like oats mixed with chocolate and some kind of berry-maybe a blueberry. It was a bit bitter still, though, but it dropped into his stomach after he chewed and swallowed like a small stone and he immediately felt a bit more full as he slowly worked his way through the second half of the bar. It wasn't a meal, but it helped, and he felt like he could definitely do some walking. Apparently satisfied, Fluttershy said her goodbyes-which Quill happily returned-and watched as Twilight walked off with Quill. He felt so happy to have the bandages off and his wings freed that he held them half-open as they walked, as though he might take flight at a moment's notice. Twilight looked at his side curiously.

"There's virtually no scarring...Fluttershy was right-you're a lucky colt." This was her only comment for some time as they walked through the town, passing the boutique and a large shop that looked suspiciously like a gingerbread house. Out of this bounced a pink ball of something or other that smacked into him and pinned him down to the ground. Out of instinct he bucked up and twisted, throwing the pony off and pinning her down tightly with a hoof on her throat before beating his wings and lifting off, his pulse thudding in his neck. There lay a very startled looking Pinkie Pie.

"I-I'm sorry! Sheesh..." Quill's breath had gone off, his heart beating in overdrive. Twilight was standing there in surprise, her horn pointed in his direction in case he did anything like that again.

"Sorry, Pinkie...sorry...reflex...sorry..." She blinked and stood up, not looking phased in the least anymore.

"It's fine! I just saw you walking and wondered if you were ready for your welcome to Ponyville party!!"

"Well, like I said, I'm not really the party type..." Pinkie looked down.

"What if I threw a small party? Just my friends and I, and some of the teens around your age?" He thought about that.

"A small party?"

"A small party." He shrugged and nodded, folding his wings down. The bandages might be off but the feathers were ruffled and messy-he was in bad need of preening.

"Yay!!! I'll warn you before it happens maybe!" And she zipped away back into her gingerbread house.

"That's Sugarcube Corner-" Twilight told him, "but what was that about? That was...sudden."

"Reflex." He laughed nervously. "So how about that school, huh?" She frowned and walked off again, her wings shuffling awkwardly. He followed along behind her.

"Now, we have a schoolHOUSE for little little foals, but at age twelve they move on to the mixed middle and high school. It's probably one of the biggest buildings in Ponyville and only so because it has to house so many ponies." He nodded as they walked, looking around at the various shops and houses, the occassional gated off garden. Eventually they arrived at a large, two story building of brick and mortar that could only be the school-he could see the fillies and colts-older, younger and about his age but all teenagers-in classrooms through the windows, and he could see a plaque mounted on the side of the stairs up to the doors that read; "Ponyville High". Twilight walked up the steps and pulled the doors open in that rosy pink aura he doubted he would forget in years to come, and walked inside. He slipped inside as the doors were released and slowly closed behind him. They stood, then, in a long hallway of tiled flooring and tiled ceiling, though the tiles were made of different materials. In the ceiling fluorescent lights were set, casting a white gleam down on the tiles below. On the right side was a very slim hallway with the word POOL stamped on the wall beside it. To the right were three evenly spaced sets of double doors that led into a cafeteria of sorts, from the outside. A fourth set very near the entrance he could not imagine the purpose for.

"Been a while since I came here, but I still remember the layout. I read the blueprint." She told him and walked out of this hallway and into a broad room walled with trophy cases that were chalk-full of gleaming plaques and trophies. He followed her through a door at the end of this room and into a broad room with a few counters and it's own little waiting area. The fluorescent lights and the tall windows both made the room bright and sunny, and he was reminded of days past by the windows and lighting. Twilight walked right up to the counter-and he followed-to talk to a white mare with a raven mane and brown eyes, a set of black glasses perched on the tip of her muzzle.

"Hello? Princess! What brings you here?" she gave a nervous little titter, probably younger than the young purple alicorn.

"Hello, there, I'd like to register a new student."

"O-Okay!" She yanked a huge book over telekinitecally and jerked it open to a fresh page, pulling a quill out as well and dipping it into a small pot of ink. Quill let them do the talking.

"Name?"

"Fletch, Quill."

"Parent or guardian(s)?"

"He stays with Fluttershy."

"That's his mother?"

"No, but he has the princess's permission to stay with her and attend school with her registered as his caretaker." The raven-maned mare didn't look like she liked it, but she nodded and wrote Fluttershy's name in the books.

"Age?" Twilight looked at him and he spoke.

"Fourteen."

"Grade?" At this Twilight and both froze-he did some quick counting in his head and answered.

"Ninth."

"Freshman, huh? There's a lot of good kids in you're grade-we tend to get the least trouble from them." Quill stifled a yawn and sat down in one of the many chairs. Twilight looked at him with concern, leaning on the counter.

"Okay, then. In an emergency, who should we contact?"

"Add me as his emergency contact."

"Has he had his vaccines?"

"No. We'll take him for that after this." The mare nodded behind the counter, satisfied.

"Gotcha, Princess. I mean, okay. That's all. I'll have a student take him for a tour, if you don't object?"

"Of course. I'll wait outside." Twilight said and retreated from the office. "Come out the way we came in when you're done, Quill!" And she was gone. Glasses pressed a button and spoke into a speaker mounted to her desk.

"Excuse me! Pardon the interruption, please. Can I get Pipsqueak to the office, to give a tour? I repeat, can I get Pipsqueak to the office for a tour? Thank you." She released the button and sat back. Where had he heard that nam-right. A few minutes later-well after he had his energy back and breath caught-a small white colt with brown spots all over walked in, looking around.

"Ah! You're the new guy, then? I'm Pipsqueak!" His voice was high-pitched and squeaky-he truthfully didn't look like he could be any older than eleven or twelve. Maybe he was a lower classpony...?

"This is Pipsqueak!" glasses told him. "He's a freshman like yourself and he'll be showing you around school." Quill blinked, Pipsqueak laughed.

"I know I look young, I do. But I'm fourteen, so about your age. Anyway, let's get going then!" He turned and walked off through the door. Quill followed-Pipsqueak barely stood at chest height to him.

"So! Where ya from, new guy? And I'm assuming you're the Quill Sweetie Belle an' Apple Bloom told us about-you match the description."

"I match what description?"

"Blue colt, looks older than his age, pale green eyes and 'chocolate mane'? That's you, no mistaking it. Sweetie said ya were tired all the time, though."

"Well I only talked to her for like an hour, and I was reecovering at the time."

"Recovering from what, mate?"

"A...run-in with Timber Wolves."

"Whoa! I mean-no, really, wow! You were attacked by the timber wolves and lived??" Quill sighed.

"I guess, yeah." Pipsqueak started the tour, showing off the highlights of the school. There was a large water room that Pipsqueak said was used for exercise and recreation, an enormous gym, countless classrooms and a cafeteria that was the size of a few buckball fields. And that was nothing to the grounds, which contained to buckball fields and a half mile track all to themselves. By the time they were done with the tour the bell had rung for the next class and ponies were flooding the halls. He'd only seen schools at night-he'd never seen such a huge tide of fillies and colts of so many colors, so many heights and weights. It was...a bit overwhelming.

"What, have you never been to school before?" Pipsqueak looked at him curiously.

"I've always been...ummmmm..." He swallowed. "H-Home schooled."

"Ah! Well that explains it, then." And he stretched his back legs. "Well, that's all for the tour. When will you be starting?"

"Starting? Oh, um...I'm not sure."

"Well, if you're registered, then you can start up anytime. But can I ask you something, Quill?" He nodded hesitantly.

"Yeah, sure...what's up?"

"You came in here with Princess Twilight, yes?"

"Yes."

"Okay, well I was just wondering how come a...-bucking royal!-is getting you registered for school instead of..."

"Instead of...?"

"Well, you know, a parent or grandparent." Quill didn't know if he wanted to answer that, really. He looked down, thoroughly hesitating, trying to state the obvious without actually being forced to say it. Pipsqueak nodded solemnly.

"And somehow you've gotten in good graces with a princess...I'd beg to know how but I assume our friends will want to know as well. So prepare to be hounded at your first lunch with us."

"Our friends? I don't really-"

"Oh can it buddy. I'm your friend. And you certainly seem to be in Sweetie Belle's good graces, while Apple Bloom is more than willing to see how a friendship would work out. The others haven't even seen you but they're willing to give you a chance, see what you're like. So, um, yes. Our friends." Quill blinked at the tiny pony with more than a little surprise. He sounded deadly certain, and Quill nodded-why shouldn't he believe Pipsqueak?

"Well, I've got to get to my next class, then. I'll see you, Quill, hopefully soon." He gave a little bow of the head and left the area, quiclly disappearing into the huge throng of ponies going this way and that. Quill was left, there, to find his way back to the exit. Which he did, and when he had left the building it hit him just how tired he was from the excessive walk. Or anyway, excessive compared to his usual strain of late. But he wasn't about to collapse as he might have a few days prior-or without the help of a certain potion.

"There you are." Twilight had sat on one of several benches on either side of the broad concrete walkway leading up to the school. "I was wondering how much longer...should have brought a book."

"Sorry, it's a big school."

"No no, I didn't mean-blegh. So, you're all set to come back tomorrow? Fluttershy agreed to pick you up some school things. Was I wrong? Have you had shots?"

"Yeah, I have."

"Okay, then. Wait-how'd you talk to Fluttershy?"

"She was passing on her way to the market-said something about picking up a cherry for Angel."

"Ah. Well...thank you, princess, for getting me registered for school."

"Oh don't bother starting with the formalities now. But it's no problem," She added fondly, "I'm happy to help. Now, let's get you back to Fluttershy's, then I really have to go back to the castle." He nodded and fell into place beside her as they walked back through the town the way they had come.

"So. Were you really going to have me put in an orphanage?" Twilight looked away for a long moment, suddenly very interested in the house they happened to be passing at that moment. He hadn't meant to blurt it out-but the thought disturbed him so deeply that he couldn't help but to ask her.

"Well...technically that's where you should be. And while she hasn't adopted you or anything of the sort Fluttershy stuck her neck out for you-and so she's in charge of you. I know that doesn't sound pleasant but she's really very easy to get along with. Anyway, just remember that since she's responsible for you if you do something you shouldn't...it'll reflect on her." Quill nodded. He really, honestly and truly, didn't understand Fluttershy's drive to keep him safe and happy. He could see the animas-they were cute and fluffy and helpless. But he wasn't any of those thin-well, he was helpless. But that was it. And if he couldn't keep himself safe then why should she? He couldn't wrap his head around it no matter how hard he tried..."But. Since she has, you can stay with her. Not to sound full of myself but you're lucky that I have the authority to make those sorts of calls." He nodded-while irritated with her, he was still grateful-and kept walking in silence.

"You're not mad, are you Quill?"

"No."

"How much did you hear, anyway?" She looked over at him.

"I walked in when you were saying that I didn't match any criminal files. Is that really something to worry about, often?"

"Yeah, it is. Like I told her, adults recruit, bribe or bully kids into doing their dirty work with threats or bribes to remove themselves from the action. Nopony used to suspect a kid, but now there are kids who've killed just the same as adults have. My only worry was that you were one of these kids and had showed up in Ponyville for some dark reason that I wasn't aware of. But if you're trying to get settled into school and stay, then it isn't very likely that you're going to commit a crime and then vanish. Can you see why I worried, from what I said?" He nodded at once.

"Sick, but it makes sense." Twilight nodded happily.

"I'm glad you understand." They walked on, hooves cruncing the dirt underhoof and crunching the dead leaves. Most of the snow from Winter had melted, but trace amounts still lay around. The air was chilly but crisp and refreshing-he couldn't complain. His fur kept off the worst of the cold, and his wings were warm enough that they weren't bothered. He fluffed them up-it still felt so good to have them uncovered, now-and folded them back down.

"Messy wings. You need to preen, Quill." She stated it like a simple fact-neither as an insult or a praise.(obviously) He nodded as they left the town-Fluttershy's cottage was visible in the not-so-distance.

"Well, I'm gonna leave you here, Quill. The cottage is just there-will you be okay walking the last little bit?" He nodded.

"Thank you again, Twilight." She smiled and nodded.

"Of course!" And she turned and walked off, her tail swaying. He looked away from her and her swaying tail and walked back up to the cottage, rapping on the door. It was only a few moments before Fluttershy pulled open the door and let him in. At once he knew:Pinkie had kept her promise of a small party. On the coffee table were platters of sweets-small cakes and literal sweets-and there were ponies scattered around the room. At once he spotted Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, and Pipsqueak-there were also two colts-brown and gray-and a light purple filly who looked to be a tad younger than him. There was Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity, as well as Applejack and a cyan mare with a rainbow-hued mane and brilliant magenta eyes. She was sleek and well built, and he was curious. Was she an athlete? But other than these ponies there was no one-far from the whole-town party he had worried Pinkie might throw.

"Twilight couldn't make it, dear, I'm sorry. Pinkie did say you wanted to keep the party small, though, so I suppose the world won't end, hm?" Quill nodded-most of the ponies in the room had turned to look at him. He was suddenly very aware that he was still a bit underweight and probably scrawny looking.

"Relax darling, you're fine. You're a strong little colt, you don't need to be worried." He relaxed some even as the words annoyed him. It was the little things in life that really helped-and kind words from a beautiful mare were one of these things.

"Quill! Ah was wonderin' if ya were okay!" Apple Bloom walked over, grinning. He smiled back as Pinkie started stuffing her face with cupcakes off of the table.

"I am, thanks. Just was...very tired." Apple Bloom laughed.

"You're alrigh' Quill. So anyway, Pipsqueak said you killed some timber wolves? That's not the way I heard it from Fluttershy and Sweetie."

"Apple Bloom! Don't hound him so soon." Applejack scolded from across the room, and her sister's ears folded down with embarrassment.

"Anyway, ah suppose introductions are in order eh? That's Rumble," she pointed to the gray colt with deep violet eyes. "-and that's Button. He's Sweetie's ex but the two of them seem to get along even better since that ended. You probably know how it is-" she told him, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "-, and that over there is Rainbow Dash, jus' about the fastest flier in the town, maybe in all Equestria! I hear ya already know the rest of the ponies, here?" He nodded in affirmation.

"Alrigh', then. Again, glad you're okay. Oh yeah! And thas' Dinky Hooves." She pointed at the light purple filly with the blonde mane and yellow eyes. With that, she walked back over to where the other teens were, while Sweetie Belle and the gray colt whom Apple Bloom had introduced as Rumble walked up. Hadn't someone said something about him being a pervert? Or was he remembering wrong?

"Quill! I was worried when you passed out in the clubhouse!" Sweetie said in a voice chalk-full of emotion. She was sweet, he mused. "But I see you're okay, so I won't hound you to much." He appreciated that. But still, he was touched by the worry. Again, why was she worried? She wasnt going to start to acting like Fluttershy, was she?

"And I'm Rumble! And I hear you had some bonding time with Sweetie~" Yep. He was a pervert.

"Shut it Rumble!" Sweetie's voice went high pitched and embarrassed, her cheeks a certain shade of rose. Rumble just laughed like ths was the answer he'd been looking for. Quill could feel his cheeks burning but held his tongue.

"Anyway, welcome to Ponyville Quill." Rumble said jovially-Button had wandered over, now.

"Yeah!" The brown colt tossed in as Dinky joined them.

"Yeah!" Pipsqueak walked over-Quill was starting to feel claustrophobic but he dealt with it silently. Dinky had spoken. "And Pipsqueak told us you're signed up to come to our school. And he said Princess Twilight signed you up herself! Explain that!"

"It's nothing really-she was only doing it as a favor to Fluttershy."

"Oh. Well still-" Apple Bloom.

"She's a princess-" spoke Sweetie.

"And you were just talking to her like a buddy." Pipsqueak.

"It's really no big deal, although it is interesting." Sweetie seemed to sense his discomfort and stepped in.

"Yeah," Apple Bloom added, "-the princess is friendly with everypony. It's no big shock that she was willing to help Quill."

"Especially if it was as a favor to Fluttershy." Sweetie Belle rounded off their thoughts. Quill was mollified, and the other foals seemed to see truth within this.

"Well, we'll let you enjoy the party man." Rumble waved his wing and retreated with Button and Dinky to the table, where they promptly took a hoof full of sweets each. Pipsqueak, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stayed.

"Sorry about Rumble, Quill. He's always making jokes like that.." Sweetie's cheeks were still pink-his face still felt uncomfortably warm. He knew all to well what Rumble had been implying. After she had stated this though they both wordlessly decided to pretend that nothing had been said by the guy.

"So...I don't really know what to say now." Pipsqueak said in his squeaky little voice.

"Me neither." Quill admitted, the fire in his face finally dying down.

"Well, we'll see you at the school tomorrow-go eat some food. You're thin as a stick.." Sweetie said worriedly, eliciting a snicker from her yellow-coated friend. "What?"

"Nothin' Sweetie. I'm sure he'll be back ta a healthy weight soon enough." Sweetie shrugged and gave him a little telekinetic push towards the food. He relented and walked over, admitting to himself that he really was ravenous. He tossed a handful of some kind of sandwich cookie into his mouth, thoroughly chewing it up and swallowing, then reaching for another. For a few moments Sweetie stood there with him, but when neither of them could think of or wanted anything to say, she shuffled off to rejoin the other school foals. Now Rarity and Fluttershy walked over.

"Pinkie really, really wanted to throw you a huge party." Fluttershy told him. "But I made her keep it simple, somehow...I'm just so glad to see you've already made some friends Quill!" Her voice rose in pitch but not volume towards the end.

"Yes, well, don't get toooo dreadfully close with my sister or anything.." Rarity mumbled in her graceful voice, making it sound like a request rather than a command. But what did she mean?

"To close? What do you mean?"

"Well, you know, Quill, just...don't get to close." He didn't get it.

"Anyway, Quill, we kept it small. Now, I'll go, you enjoy the party." And as Fluttershy walked off with Rarity, he got it.

Flashbacks

The small, busy party lasted long into the night, and Quill was quite sure that he had never enjoyed himself quite as much as he did then;watching the adults giggle and hiccup with breath heavily tainted by the hard cider, the other teens being playful teenagers. Once, just before Button could sit down, Rumble jerked the chair away and Button fell hard on his flank. Fluttershy rushed over at once, but she slipped and fell, seemingly more heavily affected by the cider than anyone else. Quill hurriedly tossed a pillow under her before she hit the floor, and the adults clopped their hooves at the reflex.

Aside from that, things were mostly uneventful. When the cider ran dry someone had a way of refilling it, and he had to wonder, just a little, what sane adults allowed every single one of themselves to get drunk in a room that was half kids. But he didn't mind-they weren't trying to get away with anything. He noticed that a lot of flirting started to go on between the people his age-he even caught himself saying a few things that he might regret in the morning. It was all explained to him when he saw Pinkie tipping the contents of a vodka bottle into the punch that they had been drinking from. How had none of the other adults noticed and put a stop to this? Driven by a childish urge to do wrong, he went forward and got himself a large cup. The taste wasn't very noticeable among the strong-tasting punch, but now he understood the effects it was having on him. Someone stepped up and bumped into his shoulder.

"Hi!" Dinky had somehow popped up next to him without his noticing. Damn the punch! Damn it to hell!

"Ay, Quill." Pipsqueak had stepped up to his other side. Colors swam before his eyes-maybe this was why you weren't supposed to have alcohol before fully grown? He didn't care, it was fun~

"So, how you enjoying your party?" Dinky swayed and leaned against him to stay up, then Pip unnecesarilly put a bracing shoulder to Quill even though he could more than handle the filly's weight. The weight was actually comfortable...

"I'm enjoying it but," he gave a tiny hiccough, "-you all d-didn't have to do this for me."

"Oh, don't take it to heart.." Pipsqueak told him..

"I'm surprised I didn't..." Dinky spoke but then broke off, looking faintly depressed. It didn't last long, though, and suddenly a wide, toothy grin flashed across her face. He couldn't help but return it, it was...cute. Why was his brain working so slowly? It wasn't the best part of having punch, spiked or not.

"This party's a little crowded, don't you think?" She asked him calmly, still giving that adorable grin. He shrugged. There weren't very many ponies here but, at the same time, the room was relatively small.

"Yeah, guess so. But what's your point?"

"Careful, Quill, when she's tipsy she likes to-" But his voice faded into the background, replaced by a dull buzzing in his ears. He didn't hear whatever the rest of the warning was, at any rate.

"Sooooo let's grab some punch and go to a different room. Where it won't be as crowded, ya know?" Sounded...perfectly rational to him. Right? Yeah, she just didn't want to be crowded...he didn't like that either...

"Alright, sounds good." She grinned and turned, walking past and carefully sliding her tail under his muzzle. His cheeks went the sameshade of red as a cherry, the simple trick making his wings threaten to snap up. She must've done it by accident, the alcohol whispered seductively to him, there was no reason to be suspicious of her. She giggled and left the room-Quill followed, hearing Pipsqueak mutter;"No adults gonna stop this..?" He followed her out into the hallway, looking around. Dinky had stopped, waiting for him beside a door. Out here it was empty, the noises of the party floating to him from what seemed like a mile away.

"I'm surprised ya followed me out. Buuuut I'm definitely not complaining." She stepped forward and lightly pressed her lips to his-he could still taste the cherry and orange, tangy flavor on her lips. He blinked slowly and, finally, his wings snapped straight up.

"Hang in there big guy!" She giggled again, still with her cute little smile, and walked off. Swallowing, he followed her until she pushed open the door to a small, unused room that was devoid of furniture.

"C'mere." She told him, beckoning him over. He nodded and walked over, only to be pushed into the room itself. She stepped in after him and shut the door.

"See, isn't this better~? No crowding, and no other ponies~" He gulped, even with the alcohol something deep inside of him was screaming at him that something was amiss. She laughed, looking away abashedly, her cheeks stained pink.

"If you don't wanna stay here with me you don't have to..." Her face fell a bit and, instincts given, he stepped forward.

"Hey hey! Don't be sad, of course I'll stay." There was a shove and suddenly he found himself on his back, Dinky pinning him down.

"Yay! I promise you won't regret it~" She placed a tiny, feather-light kiss on his chest. Then a little lower. Then a little lower, until his wings throbbed painfully, and he knew all-to-well why he'd been brought to this room.

After a while, Quill came to in a linoleum-floored hallway, seeing all the fillies gathered around, ahead and behind him. They were headed for the room where he had first met this group, and he fell into step along with them immediately. Ruby and Diamond had fallen into place on either side of him, but there were other fillies everywhere. At the front and back of the group, two mares walked, keeping a sharp eye on the group. The events of the party seemed a mile away, and all he remembered right at that moment was that he had fallen asleep with Dinky after...things he shouldn't have done. What had Twilight said? Something like.."your actions will reflect on Fluttershy as much as you." At least, that was how he remembered it in his dopey, sleepy state.

"I'm soooo sick and tired of this place." Diamond-Tainted-whatever-complained. "We get herded around like sheep all day every day, and the only time we're free to do what we please is..." she drifted off into thought.

"Never." Ruby said. "The only time we're free to do as we please is never. They even tell us not to THINK about stuff. Like the colts, and suicide, and..." She to drifted off to thought.

"Yeah, well, I don't mind them telling us not to think about doing ourselves in." Quill told them reasonably, thoughtfully, calmly. "But telling me not to think about the girls here, then sticking me in a group chock full of them? That's the height od idiocy." Tainted nodded like this made more sense than anything she had been told in her entire life, and she was taking it sincerely to heart.

"Makes sense." was all Ruby said, looking back at her blank flank based on a long-standing habit.

"Girl, chill about your flank. You might not have your cutie mark yet but you've still got guys staring at lunches." Tainted said with an air of haughtiness. Ruby blushed and Tainted gave a tiny, self satisfied smirk, her words having the desired effect.

"I don't get it. Why do fillies-or mares-care about who stares at them? Isn't it awkward?"

"First off," Ruby said, "-don't say that, because you know you've stared too." Ruby didn't have a second, but Tainted did.

"And secondly," Tainted began, "It's not about who stares, it's about how much attention we're getting." She winked playfully and Quill looked ahead as they walked into the wood reception area. It made sense, he supposed-it was all about vanity. Like guy's bragging about other assets. Not that he himself did that, but he'd heard the other colts going on about it when he was with them. They walked down the hallway, the sound of a hundred little hooves tapping on the wood as they went. The mares in the lead and rear never spoke, but Quill just knew that they were listening to each and ever word that they spoke. There was the blonde mare, the other was white coated with a mane of the emerald green dragons drooled for.

"Well, I'm glad that they put you in the group with us. It gets boring, with only fillies to look at." A filly with a coat that matched his own and a rust-colored tail winked flirtatiously. The emerald-maned mare turned around with a harsh look on her face as they walked into the room with the tables, rug and chairs.

"Keep talking like that, and I'll make sure that he's out of here as soon as possible." The blonde mare spoke before emerald even had a chance to. The filly who had spoken shut up at once. When they had all entered and the other fillies were blocking the adult's view she hissed out of the corner of her mouth; "Wouldn't want that, now would we?" He smirked-he didn't mean it in a haughty way-but to a thirteen year old, those kinds of words make you feel good.

"Now, everypony, we're going to be doing art therapy again," There was a collective groan from all over the room, "-and I don't want to hear any complaining."

"But-!" The rust-maned filly tried to burst out.

"No! Art therapy is every Tuesday and Thursday. You know that. It's today. We're doing it. Now shush." Rust sighed, crossing her arms in her chair. Her wings probably would have fluffed up with irritation had she not been an earth filly. Not more than a few moments later emerald left, to return moments later rolling along a cart laden down with paper, colored pencils, paletts and more things that could be used to put some sort of picture together. He sighed-he hated this no matter which group he was in-and grabbed a sheet of paper and a stick of charcoal.

"We can't let you have sharpeners!" Emerald made it known, "Because, (before you ask) someone on the colt's side broke it for the blade."

"Is he okay?" Quill asked.

"Yeah, but he's got bandaged forelegs."

"Glad you aren't as stupid as the rest of those colts.." Ruby muttered to him, softly enough that it wasn't heard.

"So," Emerald continued, "-if you need something sharpened, just bring it on up to us." She sat, finished addressing the foals and teens, then pulled out a book with her horn and flipped it open to a page most of the way through. Quill watched boredly for all of ten seconds before he looked away, out the window. The view wasn't spectacular-it was just the mostly-thawed parking lot. Winter was about over, but there were still patches of snow clinging to the ground in places. Beyond that, there was a stretch of trees that, while not going on forever, blocked the view of anything beyond them and gave the illusion that they stretched all the way to the horizon.

"So now what. We just draw?" Ruby asked boredly.

"Haven't you been here for this before?" Quill asked in confusion.

"Stubborn kid wouldn't participate the last two times that she's been here for them. Yes, Ruby, just use the stuff to make something. Anything, just fillllllll the paper." Ruby nodded and reached for the wooden handle of a wide-bristled paintbrush.

Quill woke up in a bed, covered in a heavy quilt. 'Wow,' he thought, '-I don't have to be watched on the couch anymore?' He was in a guest room of sorts, it seemed, colored with a plain, generic white, floor a dark paneled wood. He grunted quietly and pushed himself up, getting out of the bed. Already the foggy remnants of whatever dream he had had were slipping away from him. He frowned, then-it was a terrible feeling to him whenever you had a dream-possibly a good one-only to forget it the moment you woke up. Shrugging it off, he left the room, finding his way through the hallway into the main room.

"There you are Quill!" It was Fluttershy, sitting on the couch. "I've decided you'll start fresh at school next week. Now come, sit down." She said seriously, gesturing to the couch across from her. He tilted his head with confusion but obeyed, going and sitting across from her. She regarded him with a sort of face like a friend who had caught her friend doing something illegal and was torn between silence and turning them in. The memory of how the party ended came flooding back to him in an instant.

"Well, I've yelled at Pinkie for being so foolish as to give you teens a drink like that." -was how she began. Quill nodded. Though, yelling for her was probably equal to his normal voice. If that. "She's a crazy mare right down to the core, and that was seriously irresponsible."

"She was drunk herself-" Quill interjected, "she wasn't in any sort of right mind."

"But still, you don't spike a bowl of punch minors are drinking from." Fluttershy's voice was still soft spoken-but stern and disapproving. "Since you haven't asked, I take it you know exactly what she did to the punch?" Quill nodded.

"Yeah, I found out after I had drank a few cups of it. And I admit I had one more after as well." Fluttershy nodded, her eyes full of disappointment.

"And, Quill, do you remember what happened after you had the punch?"

"I...um.." Quill's mouth felt very dry all of a sudden. "I remember that Dinky said the party was crowded.." He looked away.

"Quill, look at me." He looked back at her. "What happened after that?"

"Well, um..she pushed me into a room and..." He broke off, unable to complete the sentence.

"Yes, well, luckily, you didn't get her pregnant. Honestly, giving teens vodka...what was she thinking?" Quill's eyes had widened.

"I didn't BUCK her!!!!!"

"I know, Quill, but you didn't do nothing, either. And you're only fourteen! I convinced the others that you just fell asleep together, tired out from the party-I wasn't going to let you be in trouble. But, still..." She sighed, wings flapping irritably. "Well, it could've been worse, I suppose. You were being a kid...who was under the influence. But, Quill, don't go around doing things like that, okay?" Quill nodded, heart thudding with embarrassment. "Alright, go ahead and find something to do." He nodded and left the room quickly, stepping outside without a word. His face burned and his ears were ringing. Had he really...had he really done that? THAT?? He was surprised at himself, but the memories of what he'd done...well, he didn't regret it. But still, it was probably wrong to have a stand like that. Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he set off away from the cottage. It was embarrassing, deeply, to have been caught. And at one point had Fluttershy discovered? Had she seen, fainted, and moved him to a bed later when she woke? Or had she just found them asleep late in the night and known from the scent.

The town seemed quiet and and cheerful, only a few ponies were walking through the town. He walked on quickly, freshly-preened wings folded down at his sides. Preening was torture for a pegasus, same as horn-filing for a unicorn. The earth ponies were lucky to not have such a weakness, but at the same time, they lacked the capabilities of cloud walking or a telekinetic spell. Not to say that they were inferior-

'Damn,' he thought, 'don't think like that!' And then, 'you're not your dad. Never will be.' And this calmed him down, and he walked on, and he enjoyed the heat from the sun and started to relax. The winter's chill was being chased away rapidly by the springtime sun, and before long there would be ponies sunbathing, he just knew. It was fun, though the only times he had been able to do it were on hard concrete or tile. It was a warmth that slowly soaked in through your fur, right down to your bones, and chased the darkness away. Made you pure, he felt, and that was a feeling he could never get enough of. It made him forget about the negative things he'd seen, things he'd been through-all to be replaced by nirvana, tranquility.

He blinked. He had stopped in the middle of the street, eyes closed as memories of sunbathing wrestled with memories of the very thoughts that they chased away. Good and bad, light and dark, whatever you wanted to call it. A couple passerby had stopped and were watching him cautiously-bad memories were resurfacing and his face was screwed up in an expression of agony. Shakily he tried to calm down. Only, he could hear so clearly..

"Q-Quill! Just g-g-go! K-Keep...don't ever s-stop, Quill..." She was delirious..."But g-get out of here...write it off..." Her last few words came with deadly clarity, and he ran. Ran off into the night, the image of the little white filly with her face smeared in blood burned forever into his mind. Eyes dull, half-dead, but full to the brim of love for him, full of caring and understanding. She hadn't wanted to drift off forever by herself, lying covered in blood on the wood. But, at the same time...there was no way she wanted the same thing to happen to him. She wanted to carry on, and...he knew he needed to. For her. But, the memories felt like they were just to much to bear..." His face was screwed up again and he turned into an alley, trying to escape the caring eyes that annoyed him more than anything at the moment. His breathing was uneven, eyes shut tightly.

"Quill...I l-love you, ya big...idiot...now g-go. And one day, i-if you think i-it'll help...let them k-know our story. Your s-story...more important...than you k-know.." He sank down to the ground, burying his face in his hooves. 'Don't scream, don't cry.' He scolded himself as a tiny whine broke past his lips. 'Shut the buck up and get back up. You're FINE, damnit!' He told himself, and told himself, and told himself, alone in that shady alley. Nopony there, utterly alone. The darkness was pressing in on all sides, his head swam and his mind was threatening to black out. That wouldn't be good..."

"Hey!" He was suddenly being held like a cat by something soft and something rough. Still panting ever-so-quietly, he looked down, seeing a paw under his chest. The rough something under his back legs felt like a talon. Twisting around, he fought down the urge to buck whatever it was as hard as he could, as many times as he could. "Shh, calm down little stallion." He growled, vision stained with black, and struggled, only to be held firm. He finally gave up, pulse pounding, and twisted around to see what had him. It was the weirdest thing, seemingly a mix of pony, bat, dragon, lion and eagle. The eyes were yellow lamps with spots of red like paint-or blood, he thought-for pupils. It was really an unnerving sight.

"Kid, kid...calm down, okay?" He didn't struggle. He tried to steady his breathing-it didn't come easily at all. The creature-whatever it was-held him close, standing in the alley and holding him off the ground. Gradually the black faded away, but the image of the little filly with blood all over her, her green eyes dull, her usually glossy brown mane hanging dull and soaked through with her own blood. That stayed in his head and he knew it would be a long time before he managed to forget it, and even then it would only be for a few moments.

"Why are you in an alley? You look like you're about to lose it..."

"N-Not anymore I'm not..."

"What is it, though? I don't want you wandering around upset, little dude." Quill turned a questioning eye up to him.

"Oh, right. I'm Discord. And Fluttershy told me that you were Quill, am I correct?"

"Y-Yeah, that's me." He suddenly felt small, weak and insignificant. Embarrassing, it was.

"Alright, well, Quill, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am." He swallowed. He could see the blood so clearly, remember the irony scent...the way she had given him one final smile, full of all the love and affection that she could muster. He tried to shake it off but...things like that aren't just to be forgotten.

"You sure? You feel a bit shaky..."

"Yeah, I'm s-sure." He paused for a moment to steady his voice. "I'm sure. I just realized I don't even know-what day is it?"

"It's Saturday, Quill. You'll be starting at school the day after tomorrow, I do believe, no? I remember my time in school, learning chaos and the dark arts...with trial and error on the teachers-herm well that's not the point. And you don't cause trouble when you go, mister!" Quill rolled his eyes, actually managing to crack a short, rugged laugh.

"That's the spirit!" He grinned, showing off many dagger-sharp fangs. Quill wasn't unnerved anymore somehow, they weren't directed at him. "So, now seriously, do you wanna tell me what's up?" Little bloody Pegasus...

"Nah. I'm good now, so it hardly matters." Discord nodded, snapped-suddenly Quill felt himself standing solidly back on the ground. Discord was weird, he stood on two legs. Draconaquis, he thought the term was.

"It does matter, but I won't force you to tell me anything, mister."

"How'd you know where to find me anyway?" Quill asked.

"Well, SOME ponies have to keep their secrets, yes?" He gave the Pegasus a conspiring wink and again Quill laughed, feeling a little burst of energy like he'd just downed some coffee.

"Let's get you home, huh?" He asked, and walked off with Quill when he received a nod. Quill sighed, the noonday breeze carrying the very faint scent of copper. Or was that just his imagination?

Whitetrot's Vengeance

It was very late in the day, almost sundown in fact, when the image of the little girl soaked in her own blood, damaged beyond a chance of survival, was forced from his mind. Discord had taken him around town instead of back home, showing him the places in town that were less known but no less fun to know of. He particularly liked an old, colonial-style ice cream parlor that carried so many flavors it had been nigh impossible to choose just one. Discord's genius solution was to let him pick three, saying that he could do with putting some weight on. It was true that he was very, very thin, but he had grown used to the trace amounts of food and no longer felt like he needed much. He enjoyed the frozen treat very much anyway.

But, when Discord snapped and warped them back to Fluttershy's cottage, she was nowhere to be found.

"Alright, well, I think you'll be coming to stay at my place for a night! Can't leave you here alone, at any rate. Not that I don't thin you capable-" he added, for Quill had cast him a reproachful look, "-but since you're not an adult I can't do that."

"Where do you stay?" Quill asked, thinking he should have seen a creature such as this walking around town before now. And he meant that in the best of ways, Discord had been nothing but friendly and helpful ever since finding him in that alley. It was uncannily like Discord could read minds, and was doing his best to move Quill's mind off of less pleasant things.

"I stay in the chaos dimension, don't you know?" He said it like it was the absolute most obvious thing in the world and grinned toothily, one especially wicked fang glinting eerily. "Ready to go? I promise you, it is perfectly safe, as long as you don't stray where you shouldn't and watch out for the giant vultures." Quill blinked. Discord held his grin without faltering, waiting for a response.

"Alright. Let's go!" Quill was intrigued, and he could fly just the same as a vulture could. Discord's grin widened, somehow.

"I knew you were up for it!!" He snapped his claw again and suddenly Quill found himself with Discord in a cozy kitchen, standing between a fridge and a sink full of dishes. Discord's smile dulled a bit as he set his eyes on the dirty plate.

"Yes, well, I thought I washed those...but no matter!" His voice sort of faded off after that-Quill was looking through the window above the sink. He wasn't as tall as Discord, so he could see up far better than down, and instead of blue sky he saw a swirling mass of deepest purple, looking alive, veins of a lighter shade webbing around. All of it weaved and shimmered and writhed, like the most insubstantial smoke he'd ever seen. But also, it did seem to be a sky, with nothing but empty space between it and the window.

"Wha..." He didn't even know what to say.

"Yes, that's how it is here, little guy. It's home, though, and I find it much more appealing than that blue sky you ponies seem to favor so much.." His face bore a neutral expression now.

"It's awesome!" Quill grinned. "Tell me more about thi-wait, you can get us back as easily, right?"

"Yes yes, Quill, how could you doubt me!? I'll take us back tomorrow. Although I admit it's hard to keep track of time, here." Quill nodded-he would bet on that.

"Okay, so tell me more about this place?"

"Well, I don't mean to brag.." Discord responded in a voice that said he had every intention of bragging and milking the question for all it was worth, "-but I'm the LORD of chaos. And this is the di-men-sion of chaos. Therefor my dear little pegasus, I control what happens here. Each and every thing that you see-it's there because I thought of it, I designed it, and I don't deign to change it. Following me?"

"Yeah! That's just awesome! But what is it that you've done with this place?"

"Yes, well, lots of things. Most of them are safe of course. There's a bottomless pit because REALLY who doesn't need a bottomless pit??" Quill nodded. "There's the vultures and TalRocs, birds of my creation. There's a whole sub level of this place that's dangerous-zombies, monsters and such. I spend much of my time there as an awesome survivor and hero! You know, for when I want even MORE love and admiration than I get in Ponyville...and there's other realities I can visit, but they're a story for another time." Quill nodded and asked something that felt like it had been bothering him for ages.

"Can I explore!!???!!!??"

"Yeahhhhhhh no. At least, not without me. I can create anything here, maybe we can find something to do in the morning."

"Aw, Discord, there's no way I can sleep after all that! Show me some of the stuff you can do?"

"Alright, but just a few." Discord chortled, clearly enjoying the young pony's admiration. He snapped, but nothing visible happened.

"What did you do?" Quill tilted his head.

"Look at your sides, Quill." Quill, confused, turned and looked at his sides each in turn. They looked normal, wha-

"My wings!"

"Now look up!"

"But my wings are go-"

"Look up Quill!"

"Trotting in spot nervously, he looked up. Just there, at the top of his vision, was a little blue protrusion. He froze up, understanding suddenly perfectly well what this meant.

"You made me a uni-" He stopped talking, eager to try and work the horn. He focused on the dishes in the sink and as though light as air they lifted up, starting to wash themselves.

"Excellent work Quill! But I must insist I do my own dishes." He laughed and snapped-the dishes returned to the sink, and Quill was a pegasus again. "I mean, I'd let you, but if Fluttershy found out I'd been letting you she'd probably think I told you to and I just don't want the drama, no sir not in my life!" Quill nodded, glad to have his wings back but missing the horn. Only alicorns really won, he guessed.

"Well, that's a basic cantrip. I can also..." He snapped, and a table full of items appeared between them. A sword, a shield, a bow with arrows, a number of gems, a mace, and a book with an arch on it, a small circular vortex the book. All of this disappeared in a moment though."

"Quill, these showpony tricks are enough for tonight. I want you to go to sleep. Rest up, and I can show you around this place tomorrow. Just get some rest." He laid a paw on Quill's back and led him to a posh living room, where Quill beat his wings and set himself on a plush green couch. Though bigger and fancier, he could see traces of Fluttershy's cottage in this room. He rolled his eyes, thinking that Discord and Flutters must be close.

Well, he didn't want to, but sleep never hurt anyone. And he, admittedly, was tired from the day of walking around town. He felt sure that he must know everywhere in the town now. Of course right after he had he had been introduced to this insane place. He couldn't wait to explore it...but for now, sleep...

He was jolted awake by the sharp cry of a rooster, piercing through his ears and shocking him awake. He jumped up with a small exclamation of surprise and looked around the room. There was a small brown rooster standing in the center of the room, and Discord was nowhere to be seen. But then, with magic such as his, maybe Discord WAS the rooster?

"Erm..good morning, Discord." He knew he was going to feel damn stupid if it turned out that he was wrong. Luckily he didn't need to worry about it;the rooster disappeared and Discord materialized in one bright flash of white. Quill blinked, seeing spots.

"Well, sorry about that! But how'd you know it was me? Ugh, did I forget to change the tail again?" Quill shook his head.

"It was kind of obvious after you showed the type of stuff you could do. You, nowhere in sight. Some seemingly-random rooster waking me up, standing in your living room?"

"Alright alright, I see your point. What do you want for breakfast?" Quill shook his head.

"None! I want to go see more of this place!" Discord gave that little chortle again and swirled his talon through the air, a glass of something thick and red appearing in his talon. This he handed down to Quill.

"Here you go. Drink up and we can go." He sighed and took a long drought. It was thick like syrup and way to sticky, but he choked it down and gave the glass back (which was promptly made to disappear), watching as Discord crossed the lavish room to the door and pulling open. Outside the crazed purple was everywhere in the distance, like the house was surrounded with a massive bubble that spanned hundreds of miles.

"That, sir, is the edge of this dimension." And he walked off, singing to himself; 'Winter wrap up Winter wrap up!'

"Discord, what's that you're singing?" He stepped outside with Discord-while Discord simply walked on the empty air, a patch of grass appeared under him, disappearing behind and expanding before as he walked so that he was always on a private circle of dirt and grass. Around was a space so empty and clear that out here it seemed as though the purple was pressing in from all sides, above, to the sides and below the dirt underhoof.

"So where are we going?" Quill asked Discord, tilting his head. Discord shrugged.

"Hush, just wait and see. I can't show you anything tooo bad, or Fluttershy will have my cloven hoof!"

"I won't tell her! Show me something awesome!" Discord just laughed with amusement.

Later Quill stood on the main street of Ponyville, feeling happy and refreshed. Apparently Discord had slipped off to let Fluttershy know where he was in the night, and the only requirement was that he be home by sundown. So he wandered through the town, looking around curiously at the shops and homes he passed. He had seen them before, by now, but they were still fun to look at it. Even though he had misjudged and ended up closer to the cottage than the town, he had made it the rest of the way, albeit with the help of Twilight and Applejack. He was here. He didn't remember the exact words but when spying on a class, he'd heard something along the lines of; "If you're going to try, go all the way. It will mean" many bad things followed, "and lastly isolation. Isolation is the true gift, all the rest are tests of your determinedness-how much you really want to do it. When you're isolated you'll be alone with the goddesses, and it will be the sweetest thing you've ever achieved." Well, yeah. He'd had hardships aplenty, and it had ended with him all alone in Everfree forest, bleeding out like the filly whose dying body he'd left behind. But now he'd made it, and looking around at what he had reached was the sweetest thing he had felt in a long time.

He was just passing the giant gingerbread house that he had been told was called Sugarcube Corner when he heard a sharp tapping. He looked around, and after a moment he spotted Apple Bloom, Button and Dinky in a window of Sugarcube. Button waved him in while all three of them flashed smiles. Apprehensive, he walked towards it and inside.

Inside it was welcoming, and his apprehensiveness faded away at once. With white walls and many windows, and a mint green floor, it really did remind him of a giant sort of candy house. The three foals were waiting at a booth, and Button patted the spot next to him-Apple Bloom and Dinky were sitting next to each other.

"Hey, Quill." Button said and yawned, his eyes half closed. Quill cast a questioning look at Apple Bloom, who explained; "He stayed up all night with his video games, he's tired as a raccoon in the day." He nodded, carefully avoiding Dinky's eye.

"Hey! You're not embarrassed are you?' Dinky asked innocently.

"Well, maybe a little? Is that bad?" Dinky shrugged.

"I mean, that kind of stuff happens at parties. Apple Bloom and Sweetie don't really do those things, but the rest of us do. Even the school bullies get in on it sometimes." Quill nodded, calming down. It was just embarrassing, but he could get over it.

"Yeah, dude...happens to all of us, and you aren't the first one."

"Fluttershy really chewed Pinkie out for spiking the punch, that's the kind of stuff you would expect from Vinyl, not her." Apple Bloom informed him.

"Yeah, but it was worth it. I had a bit to much but I don't really regret anything." Dinky said calmly.

"Me neither." Quill said honestly, he didn't regret anything any more than she did.

"You moa-"

"ANYWAY!" Apple Bloom laughed, seeming to pick on something that he himself didn't. What had she been about to say?

"Hey, you guys!" They all turned- Sweetie Belle and Rumble had walked in through the door. Rumble had spoken. Sweetie looked like she thoroughly would rather be at home. Quill and Dinky both scooted over-Sweetie hopped up next to Quill but overshot and ended up a bit to close. She didn't seem to mind so he let her lean against him, enjoying the warmth. Rumble hopped up next to Dinky. Struck by a sudden thought, Quill whispered to Sweetie 'is Dinky a slut?'

'No,' she whispered softly into his ear, 'but when she's tipsy beware.' She giggled and pulled her lips away from his ear-as she did he noticed that the whole table had gone quiet, watching them.

"What?" Quill tilted his head. Button and Dinky shrugged. Had Sweetie done something odd? He looked over-her cheeks were flushed pink-probably from the attention on her, he assumed-but otherwise she seemed fine.

"Well you can stop staring, guys!" She looked down at the table and for a moment they all sat there in silence, no one very sure what to say. Sensing an awkward silence forming, Quill blurted the first thing that came to mind.

"Discord showed me the chaos dimension! It was weird, there were zombies and weapons and monsters and these weird things made of plastic that shot these little metal bullet-things, and then there were swords and shields and such, and gems and bits and everything you could imagine!"

"Ugh!!" Button blurted out. "I wanna go there so badly, but I don't really know him!"

"Why'd he show you, anyway?" Rumble asked curiously.

"Because when he led me back to Fluttershy's she had gone out, so he took me back to his house. He just brought me back to the town at around noon.

"Lucky." Apple Bloom giggled. He glanced over-Sweetie was still sitting right up against him, soft and warm..but she hadn't spoken since telling everyone to stop staring. Curiously, he looked down at the tri-colored shield that adorned her flank, with the little star and music note inside it, before looking back up. The three who had already been here were nursing shakes.

"Okay, Quill, if you're gonna be that obvious then we're gonna have to say something." Button mumbled, then put his head on his hooves. Seconds later, soft snores began to emanate from the gap between his cheek and hoof. Apple Bloom and Rumble rolled their eyes while the other two didn't seem to particularly care.

"What? I wondered what her cutie mark was, that was all."

"Mhm." Apple Bloom smirked.

"I did!"

"Her cutie mark? On her flank?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, nothin' Quill. It's just that you didn' wonder what any of our cutie marks were, did you?" He shrugged. He hadn't, truthfully.

"But you DID," She continued, "wonder about what was on Sweetie's butt." Quill blushed at what she was saying.

"Yeah, I wondered what her cutie mark was! That's all!" He glanced over, worried she'd be mad if she looked at it Apple Bloom's way, but apart from a much-darkened blush she was still comfortably sitting up to him. His face felt as warm as hers felt. Turning back, he saw Dinky whispering something to Rumble. Rumble nodded but said nothing, a satisfied smirk upturning his lips.

"What?" Quill asked nervously, sensing something was wrong. "What??"

"Nothing, man, calm down!" Rumble exclaimed-Button snored on peacefully. Quill frowned,but what could he do? He looked down and laid his hooves on the table. STILL Sweetie said nothing, content to listen.

"You okay?" He frowned, "you've been really quiet."

"She's just embarrassed." Apple Bloom said.

"Of?"

"Ah have absolutely no idea." Apple Bloom said innocently. Then, "She just gets like that when she is, thas all." Quill shrugged, believing it. Still, though, he couldn't see what she had done to embarrass herself, since she hadn't spilt anything, and she most certainly hadn't said something to embarrass herself.

"Drinks?" Pinkie had appeared at the booth's opening, looking rather subdued.

"Milkshake, chocolate. One for Quill too. And vanilla for Sweetie." Pinkie nodded and trotted off behind the counter, and they sat there quietly until she had returned with the deserts. Quill stabbed a straw into it and took a sip-it was delicious! More than the terrible things he had been reduced to eating in the forest, anyway. Sweetie silently took a sip of hers, careful not to let the white ice cream cling to her lip. Rumble quickly started chugging his, having it gone in moments. Rumble passed Pinkie a few bits and she walked off to another table, leaving them to their own devices.

"So, Quill. You have any new friends? A fillyfriend, maybe~?" Rumble asked playfully.

"No, just you guys, and Discord."

"What about Fluttershy?"

"Does she count? Yeah, I guess."

"So what about a fillyfriend?" Rumble sounded innocent this time.

"It's been what, a week?!"

"So?"

"So, I've never dated, and I'm not rushing into anything in two days!" Rumble shrugged, smiling.

"You just said it's been a week."

"Or a week! Why are you asking this stuff??" Quill, thoroughly embarrassed, looked out the window at the random ponies passing by.

"Just ignore him." Sweetie finally spoke, nudging him. "He's always like this with new members of the group. Asking awkward questions and such."

"Yeah, but the reason's different every time." Rumble had donned a straight-up smirk, and said nothing more.

"Yeah, really, just ignore him. Don't think about it to much." Sweetie told him, looking evenly down at her shake, which was half drained now.

"So, Quill. Feel like telling us where you're from?" Apple Bloom asked him. Quill shrugged his head.

"Not particularly, no."

"Come on, Apple Bloom!" Rumble said boisterously, "Let him be the mysterious stranger!"

"That's not why I'm not tel-" but Rumble erupted with a laugh, waving a hoof at Quill.

"D-Doesn't matter whether ya want to or not." He managed through his fit of mirth, "You are!" Dinky nodded in agreement.

"Like something out of a book. Mysterious teenage colt shows up in town. Looks like he's been through hell with bruises, and cuts-although your scarring is hardly noticeable, it's there-but then recovers and joins the town but refuses to say anything about who he is or why it is that he's come. Like something out of those books Sweetie reads!"

"My sister reads those books, that doesn't mean I do!" Sweetie burst out indignantly.

"So ya never read a steamy book, full of hot, sweaty se-" rumble started,

"No I have not! Read those ones. But fine, I've read a few romances." Sweetie hurriedly cut him off.

"Speakin of, what do ya write Quill? Noticed yer cutie mark was a Quill'n paper at the party, before ya snuck off with Dinky." Apple Bloom said interestedly, tilting her head. Her bow was falling back into a plain ribbon, but she didn't seem to have noticed yet.

"Well, I write different stuff." He said offhandedly, not particularly caring to explain.

"No no, Sweetie and I love to read, maybe we've heard of you. What's your last name? I swear I've heard of a Quill somewhere, come to think of it..." Dinky trailed off thoughtfully.

"Oh, I've only had one thing actually published, and it's only on shelves in one city."

"And what city is that?" dinky asked him.

"It's a city, though, so that rules out here and Appleoosa."

"Here was already ruled out, or we would've seen him." Rumble rolled his eyes.

"Jus' answer the question Quill. What do ya write?" Apple Bloom tried to get the conversation going where she wanted it to again.

"Eh. Fantasy, mostly."

"Tell me a little about the book you wrote? What was it about?" Sweetie asked curiously.

"It was about..." He had to think about how to word this. "Two best friends. Who left a city that they lived in, returning to find it in ruins, taken over by an opposing force than their own country's. The main character sets out for revenge with the help of his best friend and a city guard, making more friends along the way. There's a couple suggestive moments, and a huge betrayal later on. It's nothing special, but it helped pass the time and I figured 'why shouldn't anyone ever read this?'. But it's just in one place and I'm not famous or anything like that, far from it."

"But you're still a published author. Could I read this?" Sweetie asked him.

"I don't carry copies around sorry, and you won't find it in this town."

"Twilight might have it in her library. I'm interested too." Dinky shot across to sweetie, who's eye brightened.

"I'm actually interested too. You wanna come with us to look, Apple Bloom?" Rumble.

"Nah, I'll stay here and wake Button up." Rumble nodded, and he and Dinky got out of the booth.

"Come on, Quill! She had so many books-I bet we can find yours!"Sweetie grinned excitedly and got down, turning with the other three to wait for him. Sighing, he got down and followed them out of Sugarcube corner. The sun was still bright and warm on his back as they all walked to the castle-Rumble and Dinky both knocked loudly, and the four of them waited. It wasn't long before a little purple dragon with a green crest answered it.

"This is Spike, Quill." Rumble called back and said to Spike, "We were wondering if we could get a book out of the library?"

"Sure, just don't mess anything up in there-I just fixed it." Spike said neutrally and walked away, disappearing through a door.

"Wait, where's the-" Dinky sighed-he was already gone.

"I know! Follow me!" Sweetie glanced at Quill and walked off into the castle, showing them through several long hallways and into an enormous library, where bookshelves rose from floor to ceiling, hundreds of hooves up.

"Sheesh, we're never gonna find your book in this place..." Dinky muttered. Quill looked around.

"Well, I've organized this place a hundred or so times." Came a voice from behind them-Quill wheeled to see a very, extremely light purple mare with darker purple coloring in her mane, a real strips accenting a little curl in the front, just below her horn.

"Hey, Starlight." Rumble grinned, but Quill was pretty sure he was the only one who saw his wings rustle, and he rolled his eyes.

"Heyo. So what were you guys looking for? Something for school?"

"Have you ever come across a book by any author named Quill?" Sweetie and Dinky asked eagerly.

"So you're Quill, huh?" Starlight turned and sized him up. He could see what Rumble had rustled for, she was cute. But thankfully he wasn't a pervert like Rumble and didn't run the risk of a wing boner.

"Yeah, that'd be me. I don't really approve of this though."

"Why? Nopony would have published you if it was bad." Dinky said reasonable. Sweetie and Rumble nodded quickly. He supposed it was true, but if they thought about it, they would realize that they could trace the publisher back to where he had come from. Hopefully that would never come up, though. Yeah, it wouldn't matter to them that much, if at all.

"Yeah, I'm sure the book is worth a good read." Sweetie smiled.

"Come on man even Im interested in reading it, and I hate books." Rumble said it shyly like it was the highest compliment he knew how to pay, and Quill took it as such, smiling at the three of them.

"It's called Whitetrot's Vengeance. And yeah, I saw it somewhere a few weeks ago. Give me a few and I'll find it." Starlight walked off, disappearing in the shelves. Rumble wandered after her, fixated on her flank.

"That pervert." Dinky laughed and turned to Quill. "So, why's it called that?"

"Whitetrot's the city that was ransacked. And the main character set out to get vengeance on those who did it, for the city he called home."

"Just the one book? Not a series?" Sweetie asked him interestedly.

"Well, I left off where it could be a series, but it was just the one book." Quill told her patiently.

"Do you think you'll write more?" She put one hoof forward but didn't take a step.

"I don't know. I haven't written anything in a while..."

"You should!" She giggled. "Wait, where'd Dinky go?" Quill looked around-the lavender filly had indeed disappeared to somewhere.

"Don't know. Guess we'll just wait for them to all get back?" He went and sat down on one of a few couches in the initial area of the library. Sweetie nodded and hopped up next to him.

"So. Is that all you write? Is there anything else that you haven't published?"

"Nothing, except some old notebooks that I lost ages ago."

"And what was in them?"

"They were stories about the worse parts of life. Some ponies don't realize that isn't all happy go lucky friendship everywhere, you know."

"And was it bad like that where you're from?" Sweetie asked him, looking like she was practically itching with curiosity. It was cute, and before he could stop it a short, carefree giggle slipped from him.

"What?" She asked defensively, her cheeks pink.

"Nothin, really." He shrugged. "Anyway, yeah, I'm not from the prettiest place. There's a bad half to a few cities, mainly Canterlot and Manehattan, but also a few other places like Neighvarro and Las Pegasus."

"And one of those is where you're from." She said certainly.

"Well, yeah, but we aren't getting any more specific than that, or I run the risk of going back."

"I wouldn't tell, you know." She assured him earnestly. "You could tell me, at any rate."

"Yeah, well, I'm not telling anyone, but thanks." They sat there in silence, neither of them really feeling the need to speak.

"Are we ever gonna find out what's with all the quiet?" She asked at last. Goddesses this was getting old-suddenly she seemed less cute and far more annoying.

"That's enough. Tell me a little about yourself, see how you like it." He said warily, anxious to steer the conversation away from himself.

"Me?" She blinked, Quill nodded. "Um. Not much out of the ordinary. Mom and dad are pretty busy, so most of the time I'm staying with my sister Rarity. What else is there?"

"That's what I asked you. Um, what do you all do for fun in Ponyville?"

"Lots of things! We can always just walk around. The very edge of the Everfree forest is usually safe-"

"That's where I was attacked."

"Sorry sorry..." She trailed off, looking at a bookshelf nearby and busying herself with reading the titles.

"Nah, it's fine." He forced a smile. "What else?"

"Well, there's Sugarcube corner and a couple other places with good food. Sometimes Rumble tries to sneak into Vinyl's club-which you could probably get away with-but that's not for all of us. Sometimes we dink around with games at Button's, or help out on the farm-Ab lives there remember-and other than that school takes up most of our time."

"What about when summer rolls around?"

"Well, a big chunk of summer is spent at the watering hole. A lot of heat is spent there too..."

"And how do you spend that?" He rolled his eyes, not expecting an answer.

"Well, Rarity always keeps me at home so, doing boring stuff around the house. She says she's worried I'll get 'serviced', whatever that means." Quill swallowed in a valiant attempt to keep a blank expression-he had, really, not expected an answer.

"Wow, you guys. Talking about heat?" Dinky was leaning on the back of an opposite couch from behind-Quill almost facehooved. "Why would you ask that Quill?"

"I wasn't expecting an answer." He shrugged.

"That doesn't answer my-"

"Got it!" Starlight had reappeared, pretending not to notice Rumble still watching her flank appreciatively. I'm her magic she was gripping a very thick book, bound in leather and with gold tooling, the words "Whitetrot's Vengeance" stamped on the cover with scarlet ink. "Who's this for?" Sweetie raised her hoof-she had gone quiet again for whatever reason.

"Here you go, and sorry I took so long." She floated the book over and onto Sweetie's lap, letting it drop from the turquoise aura she possessed. Sweetie produced a pair of saddlebags from somewhere and deposited the book into one, shimmying under the strap.

"Alright, thanks Starlight." Dinky said with a genial smile. "That was all we needed." Star smiled, nodded, and left the library.

"Come on Quill, Rumble." Dinky said, the latter of whom looked like he had just come to from a long slumber. Quill walked forward, falling into step between Rumble and a very amused-looking Dinky. Looking distracted, Sweetie stepped up on Dinky's other side and together, they left the castle.

"Quill. Sweetie and I are gonna check out the book. Ya wanna come, while Rumble fantasizes flank?" Rumble, who seemed to be doing exactly that, kept walking without them and looking as though he wouldn't soon realize that he was walking completely alone.

"Yeah, sure. You'll probably get bored of it soon enoug up, though."

"Doubt it!" Sweetie burst out sincerely, earning a few funny looks (that she ignored) from passerby. She just kept walking like she hadn't said a thing, Dinky behind her, and Quill behind her. Up ahead, Rumble wandered down a side street and disappeared from view.

"Where we headed?" Dinky asked Sweetie. "The clubhouse is kinda far, wanna just go back to the boutique?"

"Yeah, lets." Sweetie nodded and kept walking, bags weighed down with the big book. It wasn't long before they reached the shop and Sweetie Belle, without hesitating, walked inside.

"Sweetie Belle, lets go to your room. You know Rarity won't like it if we try to set up shop in the shop area."

"Yeah yeah, come on." Sweetie levitated the book into the air and walked down a hall-quill and dinky followed along without hesitating. Well, Quill did, just a little. He felt weird, strolling through somepony's house without their even knowing he was there.

"You okay Quill?" Dinky asked and Sweetie looked back worriedly. He nodded quickly.

"Just, would Rarity be okay with my being here?"

"Yeah, don't worry about that Quill. I promise, I probably wouldn't bring you here if I wasn't allowed to bring friends." He nodded, but he wasn't exactly reassured.

Her room was large, circular, and mostly white, with little traces of an extremely light purple all over the place.

"Never get tired of this room. It's so big!" Dinky breathed. Quill nodded-it was definitely a large room. Sweetie tossed the book on her bed and hurried over to the desk, tucking several sheets of paper away into her drawers, along with some kind of incredibly thick spiral bound notebook-maybe a sketchbook?

"Do you draw? And what's with the desk?"

"I write sheet music." She shrugged non chalantly, "And yeah, I draw. But I'm not really any good."

"Mind if I see?" Quill raised an eyebrow and took a step towards her. She shook her head adamantly.

"I do mind, actually." He nodded and backed off-he wasn't going to force her.

"Hello? I'm still here, don't forget about me." Dinky waved a hoof and they both glanced across at her, then turned to fully face her. They were a bit closer than he seemed to remember. "Weren't we gonna check out that book?"

"Um...yeah we were, weren't we?" Sweetie walked away from the desk and set the book on the carpet, popping the cover back. Inside was a two page illustration of five ponies, all looking dirty and emotional. There in the middle was a young white unicorn stallion, with a jet black mane and tail, looking pained, like he'd just been stabbed in the back by his best friend. He wore black robes like some sort of wizard. Two stallions stood to his right, a black stallion with a white mane in thin armor, and a tall stallion in thick, metal armor, levitating a massive black war hammer. To his left were two mares;a white unicorn with a ginger mane and thick armor, looking as though she'd done something terrible, and a second white mare with a mane that shone in a multitude of blues, her wings spread for flight, wearing armor that was a peculiar shade of purple-somewhere near burgundy.

"Who are they?" Dinky, Quill and Sweetie settled down in front of the book, while Dinky voiced her thought. Quill answered readily.

"Shadowcast with the white hair, Stone with the hammer, Ravencast with the robes, Dawnbreak with the ginger mane and Robyn with the blue."

"Ravencast's cute. We can't see Stone through the armor!" Dinky whined, flicking her tail. Sweetie chuckled and turned the page, reading a small paragraph.

"Written for Feather, who helped Ravencast find his way-Who's Feather?"

"Nopony." Was the immediate answer.

"Fine, be that way." Sweetie shot back and turned the page again-there was the title in big letters, then turned the page once more. She read aloud, now, down from the large number 1, speaking of a soft, sad story. The story of a colt named Ravencast, who was orphaned at a young age (that's terrible!) but was adopted by the court wizard of a fine, old city called Whitetrot, eventually to become his apprentice. He made friends with the fiery-maned mercenary named Dawnbreak, and was generally happy with his simple life. Why shouldn't he be? The background information spanned one enormous chapter, and after a half of an hour, Sweetie used her horn to shut the book.

"You're definitely a unique writer." She said, yawning sleepily. "And I'm definitely going to read more." She stood up, looking down at the prone figure of a sleeping Dinky. She looked drunk, but he knew she was just tired. Though, it was near to but not quite sundown. "Ya should stay the night." Sweetie Belle giggled and wandered for her bed, flopping onto it and promptly starting to snore quietly. Laughing a tiny little laugh under his breath, he walked over and gently pulled her blanket over her, watching as she grabbed the pillow that her head wasn't on and cuddling up to it. Had he just thought she was annoying earlier? In what world...leaving both the fillies to peacefully sleep on, he left the room, only to find himself face to face with Rarity.

"She tucked in okay?" Rarity asked quietly, her tone devoid of any one emotion in particular.

"Yeah, she's out colt. Night, Rarity."

"Good night, Quill. See you sometime soon?"

"I dunno where I'll be. But maybe so, yeah." She smiled and waved, watching as he walked off and left the boutique, heading back for the cottage against a backdrop of orange and pink sunset.

First Day

You're a little late, Quill." Fluttershy said disapprovingly, looking at him reproachfully.

"Sorry, Fluttershy. I was hanging out with Dinky and Sweetie." Fluttershy looked at him like she was wavering between anger and acceptance. Apparently she went with the latter, because a small smile turned up the corners of her mouth and she nodded.

"It's alright Quill, it was only a few minutes, but, if I ask you to be home at a certain time, I would really appreciate it if you did. Now, you ready to eat a little?" He nodded, more than ready for that. She smiled and spoke softly as she walked away into the kitchen, Quill curiously following. He was tired, though he hadn't necessarily walked very far, but he definitely wanted to eat before he had to go to sleep.

"Soooo, what did you, Dinky and Sweetie do?"

"Well." He thought before he answered, but there was nothing he really felt the need to lie about. "Us, Button Mash, Rumble and Apple Bloom got shakes at Sugarcube Corner, then I accidentally let is slip that I have a book published, so one of them-I can't remember which-had the bright idea to search for it in Twilight's library. Rumble, Sweetie and Dinky were interested in that. So we went and Star helped them find the book. Rumble just followed her around and stared at her flank, the whole time. Then for some reason Dinky disappeared so I just talked to Sweetie for a while, about what kind of stuff there is to do for fun around here and heats and stuff until they got back with the book. After that we just went to the boutique and we read the first chapter-although Rumble wandered off fantasizing flank and so it was just Dinky, Sweetie and I then. She read us the first chapter, actually, although I obviously knew what was in it already. Dinky fell asleep, and Sweetie was seriously tired for some reason, so I tucked her in and left. Rarity was acting a little off on my way out, come to think of it." He trailed off thoughtfully. Fluttershy's eyebrows were in high arcs, but she said nothing for the first few moments after he stopped speaking.

"Well, that sounds like...a good day?" He could tell from something in the layers of her voice that she had changed the sentence's ending last second, and now he felt his own eyebrows arc. She shrugged innocently, looking away at the wall. TO innocent, but what could he prove? Not much of anything, not right there.

"It was, actually. I'm tired, though. Gonna sleep well tonight for sure." He laughed shortly, not particularly amused, though.

"Well, I'm glad you had a good day, Quill. So, sorry, you are hungry?"

"Yeah, I'm ravenous. S'weird, I wasn't even hungry an hour ago.."

"You were probably caught up in everything that was going on and didn't notice." She bucked out a chair at a small table that he gratefully hopped into.

"So what do you think of your friends?" Quill blinked. Were they? But then, they really were, weren't they?

"Um. They're all...different. Rumble's a big pervert, made dirty jokes about Sweetie and I from the second that I met him. Dinky's sweet, but you obviously know how she is when she's tipsy. I wonder what would happen if I got her drunk-Kidding!" Fluttershy had fixed him with a furious glare that instantly melted away into a calm, patient look again. "Anyway, I don't really know about Button-he slept most of the time I was around him today, but he seems alright. Sweetie's cool, she likes to read and she likes to draw, though she claims she's no good at it. And she writes her own sheet music, so she seems the creative type. Anyway, Apple Bloom's a country filly, which is cute in and of itself. Seems honest and earnest, so she's cool too. Pipsqueak's tiny, TINY, but ya know that. He seems cool too."

"Oh?" Fluttershy was rummaging around in the cupboards at the moment. "And, who's your best friend? Sounds like Sweetie?" Quill thought about it.

"No, I never said that."

"Well, then, do you like her?" Quill froze, taking a moment or two to process what she'd just asked.

"Why do you ask that?"

"No reason, really." He looked at her skeptically. "Well, alright. For one, you're blushing now that I've asked that question. Darkly." She added. "But other than that, you just talked about her more than the others, and earlier you said that you tucked her in. But, if Dinky was asleep too, and you didn't do the same for her, I just thought...plus, one possible reason for Rarity acting off was if she thought you were trying to butter up her sister." She fell silent, looking nervous, like he was a bomb that might be disabled, or might be about to go off and take out her cottage.

"She wasn't acting mean or suspicious, she just asked if Sweetie was tucked in okay and if she'd see me soon." He was, indeed, sporting a very hot face.

"So she saw you tuck her in. Soooooo do you like her?" Quill opened his mouth, closed it. Did he? She was comfortable around him, sitting right up against him and not shying away. It was such a change from what he was used to back at his old home...maybe, just maybe, he did.

"I don't know Fluttershy. I mean, I only met her recently. But...maybe I do. Maybe I don't? I don't know..." Fluttershy laughed at this quietly, her eyes closing happily for all of five seconds.

"Alright, Quill. Let's get you some food, then. Try and figure it out, though, because I don't think there are any couples in your group."

"So?"

"So I don't think she's taken." Quill groaned softly in embarrassment.

He was sitting on a couch in the boutique and Sweetie Belle, smiling contentedly with her eyes closed, was leaning comfortably against him, a book propped open on her flank that her eyes were scanning curiously. For a long moment they sat there, and Rarity was nowhere to be seen. Through the open curtains, bright sunlight streamed down into the room, one stripe of it falling across her cutie mark, another over his wing. Eventually she shut the book, stretching, and he saw with some measure of happiness his own name etched onto the bottom, along with the number six.

"You've written so many of these, it's getting hard to keep up." Her voice was just dripping with affection, and he laughed. A loud, clear noise, that made him feel whole and happy. He looked down at the filly leaning against him, and he was happy. There were no thoughts of the blood, or his parents, or the city he'd left. It was happy and simple-he thought instead of the milkshakes and treats he'd shared with his friends the other day, of Sweetie Belle, and of helping Fluttershy with the animals that morning before he'd come to the boutique. He was a bit older, and so was she. From how warm it was, he guessed it was somewhere in summer.

"Well, it's my hobby, you know." He said softly, to relaxed to make much noise. Sweetie leaned harder, pushing him onto his back, and nuzzled her head against his chest.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." The book, forgotten, fell to the carpet safely. "You're my writer, eh?"

"My little songbird." he answered, looking into those pools of green with all the love he could muster. In a flash she had her lips pressed gently to his, and he happily returned the kiss, wrapping his wings tightly around her. She arched her back to get closer-he shivered and pressed his tongue to her lip.

"Not having TO much fun, are we?" They broke apart hurriedly at the sound of Rarity, who was looking at them over the back of the couch. Sweetie didn't get off of him, though, and that made it hard to look apologetic to the white mare. She laughed and leaned on the back of the couch, tossing her mane out of her eyes.

"I really need to get this cut. But, honestly now you two, what have I said about getting carried away?"

"Not to do it, sorry." Quill said up to her. Sweetie, under the pretense of nuzzling him again, whispered in his ear; "Not to do it in front of her."

"What was that?" Rarity asked, an edge of warning in her voice now.

"Nothing sis...you said don't do it..."

"That's right. But goddesses you two are cute!" Rarity laughed, "It's almost a shame to break the kisses up. Almost." She added on at Quill's smirk. The scene faded away, then, and suddenly Sweetie Belle, Rarity, and the boutique were all gone, and he was standing alone in a murky darkness. Then it cleared and he was sitting in the colt's day room, again.

"Glad they switched you back to our side, buddy!" Green said boisterously, to a few mumbles of assent from around the enormous room, and a grin from scarlet.

"Yeah! We missed ya!" That was Scarlet.

"Well, thanks, guys."

"So what was it like over there??" Green blurted suddenly. "Did you get lucky??"

"Ohhhhhhh yeah." Quill said sarcastically, "-bucked all of them, every singggllle one." Green gawked, not picking up on the tone of voice, and Scarlet laughed.

"He's joking, dude." Green shook his head.

"I knew that!" There were a few collective laughs from around the room;Quill hadn't been aware that they were even listening. He stretched his wings out, yawning. It was late, but they hadn't done showers yet, so they couldn't go to sleep yet. There was music playing from somewhere-a fast, happy song that if played to loud would fry your nerves and make you want to dance. It was all they played here and while they meant well, it got annoying as hell.

"Showers!" called one of the staff members, waving for the doors. "Who's first?"

"Me." Quill said firmly. Nopony said anything, though a few cast him reproachful looks. Three other voices spoke out for the remaining three shower rooms. The staff rounded them up and marched them out of the day room, depositing them each at a shower room. Quill stepped inside gratefully and bucked the button, turning the water on and rustling his feathers. He needed to preen, but the effects it had on a pegasus were not desirable effects for a place like this. So he didn't, he wouldn't, he would wait. Hurriedly, he got clean, and dried, walking back out, letting the door click shut behind him. He sighed, hair hanging limply-he really needed a cut but those cost money that he didn't have. If he did it himself he ran the risk of screwing something up. So he was sort of stuck. The girls were grouped in their hallway, sitting against the walls, and most of them waved as he walked past. Tainted and Ruby urgently waved him over to join them. He wasn't supposed to...but the lady behind the reception desk wasn't there at the moment, and nopony was looking...nodding, he trotted over to them.

"Yeah?"

"They're switching you back to our side, in a few days." Tainted whispered urgently.

"I don't know why, neither does she," Ruby whispered, "but they seem to want you to mix with both groups for whatever reason. You'll be back with us soon enough, anyway." She said it warmly, like she missed him-not something he was used to at all.

"Alright, go, before you get caught!" Tainted used magic to push him backwards, and he knocked on the door to the colt's side, stretching his wings. He heard a few of the fillies whispering behind him, though about what he didn't know.

He woke with a start, sitting straight up in bed. He vaguely remembered a dream, he did. And Sweetie Belle had been there, leaning on him...she'd been reading...then she'd nuzzled him and then-he blushed terribly, thankful for the dark and lack of other ponies to hide it from anypony. He sighed, but it wasn't sad. It was a faint, dreamy sort of sigh, like he was still lost in the dream. He blinked suddenly and shook his head-he had to snap himself out of it. There was no way he liked her, he was just being a hormonal teen. Right? Right?? Right??? Yeah, that had to be it, he assured himself. He didn't like her...he didn't like ponies in general. He didn't even talk to Taints or Ruby anymore, though he HAD made a few new friends, he wasn't going to get to attached, and he certainly wasn't going to go and start crushing on one of them! He sighed again, more dejected this time, without even realizing it. It was still completely dark out, not even moonlight was shining through the dim curtains. He had passed out at the table after eating, hadn't he? And Fluttershy had said something about him being supposed to be taking it easy for a while. When did he do that? And then she had tutted, and-no, he hadn't fallen asleep at the table-she had brought him to this spare room, and he had gratefully sunken off to sleep on the bed. She must have pulled the covers over him, though, for now he was nestled comfortably under a thick white blanket. Stretching out, he pushed it off of him, then got up and straightened up the blanket and pillows both. The dream-the one that he remembered-hung heavily on his consciousness. He had felt like he didn't have a care in the world-like anything that came up wouldn't stand a chance of downing him. Reckless and carefree, he had felt. Trying to put it out of his mind, he left the room and walked into the hall, then out to the living room, which was dark but alive with the twitters and chirrups of the birds. He sat down on a couch, his eyes adjusting to the dimness, and let his wings hang open loosely, utterly relaxed. There was a purring noise and he felt something rubbing against his side-he reached out and pet what was unmistakably a small cat. Maybe a kitten? It purred louder and pulled away, scampering off, announced only by the receding pawsteps.

"Up already?" He heard Fluttershy ask from somewhere nearby as the lights flicked on-there she was in the doorway,a tiny white cat with white paws walking around her legs, purring up a storm and nuzzling her. She was holding a pair of saddlebags in her teeth, which she walked over carefully and set down at his side. He nosed one open, seeing notebooks, and the other containing basic school supplies. He grinned back at her, he'd quite forgotten that he was going to start at the high school today.

"Thanks, Fluttershy!"

"No problem Quilly." She said, nuzzling the top of his head. He didn't notice the nickname somehow. "Now I know it's dark but you're going to want to leave soon, school is starting before to long. Do you remember where it is? I can spare a few to walk you, if you need me to?"

"Thanks, but I remember where it is. Sucks it has to start so early, though."

"Oh, I know, but on the bright side, they'll give you breakfast."

"Well, that's something." He reluctantly agreed with her. She smiled, satisfied.

"Alright, Quill, well, I'll see you when you get home, okay? Wait, breakfast wasn't what I meant to say. You get out right after two, that's the bright side. But the food is a plus too...see you later Quill." She opened the door for him, draping the bags over his back. Realizing at the last second that they would be pinned he snapped his wings up and folded them back down against the bags, swallowing. Did he remember the way to the school? He was pretty sure that he did, anyway, so he set off down the path and away from the cottage, yawning. It was TO DAMN EARLY!! The town was filled with a sleepy twilight, but he did see a few colts and fillies headed in the general direction of the school, here and there. After what seemed like a hundred unfamiliar faces he spotted Apple Bloom wandering down a side alley and flapped hard, hovering over to her.

"Hey, Apple Bloom."

"Hey, Quill." came two voices-he hadn't even realized that Pipsqueak was there too-the brown of his coat fit in with the darkness very well. Apple Bloom bumped his shoulder sleepily, her bow not even tied properly. She looked like she had gotten up in nothing short of a rush. Pipsqueak didn't fare much better, but he had a shorter mane. Quill's own was probably still far more than messy, but at least it wasn't in his eyes anymore. He'd thought it gone but NOPE NOT TODAY the dream came smashing back into his mind and he fell quite silent, walking along with them as they emerged onto another street. If he wasn't mistaken, they were almost at the school, now.

"Watcha thinkin' about, Quill?" She asked him, flicking her tail like she had an itch.

"Nothing. Um...dream I had." He told her evasively, rustling his wings. Apple Bloom's smirk was visible in the pale gray light that preceded dawn, which had settled over the town.

"A filly, huh?"

"No, what makes you think that??"

"Defensive much?" Her smirk widened into a grin.

"No! I'm not, it's just why would I dream about a filly?"

"I mean, if yer inta colts then-"

"No. Ugh, fine, it was a filly. Happy?"

"I am, yeah. Soooo who is it? I know it isn' me, we've barely talked or anythin', but you and Dinky have..so have you and Sweetie..so one of them?"

"I'm not saying anything else. Seriously." Apple Bloom rolled her amber eyes, laughing quiety, and he looked away.

"So it IS one of them." Suddenly he remembered Pipsqueak, who hadn't yet spoken a word and didn't seem to feel the need to now, either. "Alright alright, ya don' gotta tell me. We'll all find out sooner or later."

"What do you mean?" He glanced sideways at her, the three of them now mounting the steps that led up to the school.

"I just mean that ya seem the type who'll eventually let it slip. And it seems like one of them likes ya, so if ya like her...just sayin'." She said this in a voice of pure innocence.

"Wha-who-huh?" Apple Bloom just shrugged.

"I'm sworn to secrecy. Anyway, seeya Quill. Jus' stop by the office to pick up your schedule." He nodded.

"Thanks, Apple Bloom." And he walked off through the trophy room, into the office.

"Hello, there." The secretary from before called out, "Looking for your schedule? I remember you from the other day." He nodded and watched her disappear under the desk, returning a moment later with a yellow sheet of paper, eight classes printed on it.

"You know how it works?" He shook his head. "The top four classes are A classes, the bottom four are B classes. Other than that it's simple-lunch is after the second class. And today's a B day, so yeah. Anyway, if you need anything, feel free to ask me or some of your new classmen." He nodded.

"Thanks, miss." And he left the office, looking down at his schedule. Careers was first-that one was bound to be interesting, wasn't it? He just had to find his way...the school wasn't very confusing, and 42-careers was in a hallway clearly marked 40-45. He walked into the class and thankfully saw a familiar face at once-Button Mash was sitting in the dead center of the class, hiding something under the table. Walking over, he sat down beside him, seeing a joyboy hidden under the table, Button furiously working at the buttons and joystick.He laughed-he really was addicted to his games. After a few minutes the battery seemed to die, because Button tossed it in his bags with an exasperated groan.

"Oh, hey Quill! I charged that thing all night but it's already dead, stupid junk...well, not stupid junk. I love it! But the battery life sucks a little bit." Quill nodded, laughing at the animated way in which he talked, his eyes darting all over the room as though he was worried the most horrible monster from the scariest game was going to jump out and rip him to shreds, and he was determined to be absolutely ready when this happened. "Sorry for passing out at Sugarcube, but I've never been a bookworm so it's all good." He grinned happily as the door slammed closed-ponies were seated all around them and the teacher, a white stallion with short black hair and a matching beard, was seated behind the desk.

"Class!" He called out. "We have a new student!" Heads turned his way and he looked down awkwardly, wings rustling uneasily. The teacher, whatever his name was, gave everypony a moment to digest the news of a new arrival. "Registered by Princess Twilight, so don't get in his way." There was a cruel bite to his words and Quill sighed. So this was one of THOSE teachers, was it? There was a collective chuckle around the class, and Button was almost the only kid who didn't laugh. Quill noticed in looking around that Sweetie was sitting at the back of the room now, engrossed in the leather-bound book that was his own. She looked like she'd finished at least a few chapters, and her notebook and pencil lay forgotten on the desk before her. Quill grinned, happy to see that someone was enjoying the book. Since he'd left the place he was from, he had no idea whether people were enjoying the book. How it had come to be Twilight's library, he didn't know. But then again how did the other hundreds of thousands of books get there? She probably got shipments from all of the major cities in Equestria. For a brief moment he considered beckoning her over, but then thought better of it. Let the girl read in peace, the little voice in his mind whispered to him. The teacher was talking, wasn't he? He looked up to the front, listening.

"Yes, and we don't really do much in this class, but I do give you random assignments here and there. This isn't really a careers class, but we have done things relating to jobs. Any questions?" He didn't want to admit he hadn't listened, even though it was obvious, so he just shook his head no and remained listening. There was a soft snap from behind that he assumed was the book shutting, but he didn't dare look back at her again while all the foals were watching. The class passed on uneventfully and the next class-which he had with the same teacher-was equally uneventful, though he had this class with Apple Bloom, Dinky and Rumble. After that he wandered off to where he thought he remembered the lunchroom to be, was correct, and walked inside, not grabbing any food for lack of hunger. Immediately he spotted the others that had so quickly become his friends. 'No...I don't know if I'll be like that...I mean, I've had some bad experiences with ponies. But if there's any place for a fresh start it's here, am I wrong?' He had said to Sweetie. Well, he wasn't like Twilight. Just because he had HAD to stand nigh alone didn't mean in any way that he had WANTED to, and he accepted the possibility of being accepted into the...group of sorts, with open wings. With just a moment's hesitation, he slid into an empty space beside Pipsqueak, Apple Bloom falling to his other side. Across from him sat Dinky, and on either side of her sat Sweetie and now Rumble. Sweetie had one bag filled with school things but the imprint of the book was clearly visible in the other. Curious, he asked,

"What part are you at in there Sweetie?" She looked over as inklings of the dream started trickling to the forefront of his mind-he hoped he wouldn't blush as he waited for an answer.

"All the mercenaries are leaving for another city for some kind of huge job offer, and Ravencast, Dawnbreak and Robyn are going with. Is something up though? Seems like it with a few guards on break and the city's mercenaries leaving." Quill shrugged.

"You'll just have to wait and see." Sweetie groaned.

"Don't wanna wait!" So, what did she do? She opened the book again and disappeared behind it.

"Someone really likes ya book." Apple Bloom laughed and, unbidden, he joined in.

"Well, I'm glad that somepony is! You'd be surprised by how few people have read that, plus of course all funds go to my bullshit parents, so..."

"Who are they?" Apple Bloom asked him in a casually interested tone. He shook his head, going quiet.

"Oh come on! Tell me, Quill?"

"They're ponies who live in a place." Apple Bloom rolled her eyes but seemed to understand that this was the best she was going to get. For a few moments he ate in silence, lost in thought. At some point Button must have come and sat down with them, because he could eventually hear him talking animatedly about some game or other that he had gotten his hooves on. Quill wasn't listening carefully. Nor, for that matter, was he really thinking about anything. He'd zoned out looking out the window behind Dinky, the emerald lawn spilling away into the distance, the few trees spotting the lawn standing high and proud.

'This place isn't so bad.' He thought, while the talking resumed around him. 'No worries, so far, no trouble. Friends, and a safe place to sleep each night.' Then his dreamy look slowly turned to a frown. 'And I know when my next meal is coming without a shadow of doubt...why couldn't Feather have been here to enjoy it?' Quill sighed, resting his head on his hooves. It wasn't fair...it just wasn't...she should be here, not buried in a coffin. Or some back yard, if that was what had been done for her by his parents. Why why why...he blinked-he wasn't in danger of blacking out,he was entering a whole different type of emotion. He swallowed thickly, eyes suddenly burning. No no, he had to stop that. He blinked rapidly but the burning sensation didn't go away, and he hid his face, breathing deeply in an attempt to feign sleep. She should be here...she shouldn't have bled out...and he'd left her. Though she had told him to, he shouldn't have...should have done something-anything. But no, he'd fled like she'd said instead of giving her her last respects. Damn himself for not giving her what she deserved...if he could see her, just one last time...he would...he didn't know, but he'd convey all the love he had ever left her without, somehow. He might not have felt so bad if her last sight in life hadn't been him turning his back. At last the burning sensation grew overwhelming, and a fat tear slipped down to the table. He hurriedly moved his foreleg down, fur soaking up the tear, and stood, casually walking from the cafeteria with his wing rubbing his eyes, trying to look like he simply had something stuck in it. He stepped out into the hallway and took a right immediately, wandering further into the school, tear tracks being driven down his cheeks. He didn't bump into anyone, and he didn't know where he was going, either. Eventually he found himself in the entrance to the library, where a pink mare with a darker mane was sitting behind the counter. He said nothing to her and, still walking at a regular pace, walked to the back of the library, sitting down between two tall bookshelves and wrapping his tail around his hooves, the few tears that were still falling colliding with his tail. He needed to stop...Unsurprisingly, a hard, silent sob ripped free of him, and he couldn't even take a calming breath.

"Hellllooo?" He didn't answer, they probably weren't talking to him. Then he saw the pink hooves belonging to the librarian standing in front of him. He clamped his mouth shut and screwed up his eyes, stopping the noise and tears for a moment, though the wet spots were still on his tail.

"Hey...what's going on?" She sat down with him, in front of him, and he saw that her cutie mark was three smiling flowers with pure white petals. He said nothing, just blinked warily. At least the tears had stopped, he reckoned.

"Come on, talk to me. What's wrong? You're knew, right." Not a question. "You're not getting picked on, are you?"

"If I g-got picked on, I'd beat the hell out of them and get kicked out with no regrets." He said softly, trying to stop thinking about his sister. Maybe if she scolded him, it would distract him..

"Now now, don't talk like that. I can see something's troubling you, do you want to tell me about it?"

"N-Not really." Of course he didn't-but it wouldn't make sense to her unless he explained the whole thing, would it? And that was the last thing he was going to do, it'd proved to be a terrible idea once before and who was to say that it wouldn't all over again? She didn't push, but she scooted closer and laid a hoof around him in a hug, resting her muzzle on his head like a mother comforting her foal. He hated to think he wanted it, but the simple touch was more than reassuring. She didn't talk, didn't question him. She just sat there, listening as his breathing gradually returned to normal.

"Just...thinking about my sister." That much couldn't hurt, could it?

"Oh? Does she go here? Is she being picked on?"

"N-No." He gestured vaguely upward and could imagine the look of understanding dawning on the librarian's face.

"Oh...oh, I'm so sorry...I can't even imagine..." And for a few moments she was silent again, her tail wrapped around him as he now realized. It was all comforting, relaxing...but still, that was his sister..

"You know. I shouldn't talk, because I didn't know her, and I understand that, so please don't get mad at me for saying this." Quill tensed up nervously.

"I don't think she'd want you to cry. I'm sure she was a brave filly, and I'm also sure that you'll see her again one day. But for now, until that day, I think she would want you to carry on." Quill listened and thought about what she was saying. "Your sister, I'm sure, loved you, and I think she'd want you to make friends, and go on to great things. You'll never forget her, and she's with you, always." He nodded slowly, sighing a great shuddering sigh.

"What's your special talent?" She asked him seemingly out of the blue.

"Writing. But I haven't done it in a long time..."

"Well, that's something. With all these books around me all day every day, I can appreciate that. Why don't you write about it?"

"I don't do journals..."

"Well, it can be therapeutic. But if you can think of a way...get it out there. Get it all off your chest, and regret nothing." She said this boldly and confidently, and he couldn't help but feel reassured. What if it all was just one giant story? It would be one hell of a story, that was for sure...she was standing, now.

"The bell rang, kid. You'd better get back to class. Just remember-perk up. For her, keep your head held high." And she walked off, humming a slow, sad melody. He sighed and stood, rustling his wings, and walked slowly off for his next class, which was gym at the back of the school. She was right, wasn't she...He brightened up, just a fraction, when he saw that he had gym with Sweetie Belle. Unfortunately though, none of his other friends seemed to be in this class. Gym, whatever. He was only to glad that the tear tracks had dried, and hoped that he looked fine, now. He hadn't even caught the librarian's name, had he?

"Hey, Quill." She seemed distracted as he ambled up, and he frowned.

"You alright?" The frown stuck-he didn't feel exactly one hundred percent at the top of his game, really, definitely not yet.

"Just thinking. Cheerilee said there was such a thing as to much reading when I walked right into her counter with my muzzle buried in the book." Quill almost might have laughed. Almost.

"Cheerilee? That wouldn't be the librarian, would it?"

"Yeah, that she would. Why, already made a trip to the library?" She tutted and added playfully, "writers..." Quill laughed quietly, looking at her. Indeed she did seem to have her nose in that book a lot.

"Haven't gotten to read as much as you might think, what with the work from first and second hour. But I'll probably be through it in a week or so." She said all this in a tone like she had said'Wonderful weather we're having, no?'. She smiled up at him, then faked an irritated look, like he'd just yanked her tail.

"Ugh, why are you taller than me? You're supposed to be shorter! Same height, at least." She hopped up on her back and propped her hooves on his back, her head now level with his.

"Yay! I'm tall, see??" He laughed and tried to walk away, but she clung on determinedly, walking on her back legs even as he backed away.

"Stahhhhhhhhp!!!" She whined, "I'm trying to stand up here!" Playfully, he jolted forward instead of backward, and she fell forward onto his back instead of down to the ground as she would have had he gone back. She squeaked like a rubber toy and squirmed as he took off at a trot down the length of the gym, weaving between other ponies waiting for the class to start. He got a few funny looks, but not to much attention. Her squirming finally bore some fruit and she managed to sit up, only to wrap her hooves around his neck and press her back legs to his sides.

"Don't make me fall! Stop!"

"Nuh uh filly." He playfully stretched his wings, eyeing the observation platform near the top of the room.

"Quill, I mean it, don-ah!" He had suddenly given a powerful beat of his wings and lifted several feet off the ground-a something that might have been about impossible if not for the potion and the recovery he had managed to this point. Mostly the potion, though. Sweetie had frozen up, but as he beat his wings, creating a downdraft below him, she gradually relaxed, and he gave a minute increase to his wing's speed, rising slowly more and more. Sweetie still hugged around his neck tightly and though he couldn't see it cast worried looks down at the ground.

"You alright up there Sweetie? Don't worry about falling, okay? I got you, I promise." She nodded, then realized he couldn't see it and answered.

"Alright, Quill, you got me." He nodded, satisfied, and slowly flew over to the observation platform, landing lightly in the dead center of it. Here, sunlight from the windows that were high in the walls to avoid being broken by the balls that probably flew around streamed brightly onto them, making her fur almost glow and turning his so light that it could almost be called white.

"This is high up..." She whispered, walking to the edge and peering down at the ground a couple hundred feet below. There was no safety rail, this was meant only for pegasi. Probably the teacher was one himself, or this wouldn't have been put up in the first place.

"You want to go back down?"

"Not at all...you can barely hear them from up here. It's peaceful." She turned to face him, back to the edge now. "Is this what it's like in the pegasi cities? Forgot you could be from Cloudsdale, somehow."

"I wouldn't know, but I'll tell you that that isn't where I'm from. Sometimes, though, I would hide on a cloud for hours, and just relax. It was silent, and the sunlight was always on you even if it was cloudy, because you were closer than the clouds. It really is wonderful to have these wings.." He spread them and looked at them appreciatively. "That's our magic. Just like alicorns can teleport and unicorns levitate in a cinch. Ours is control over the things in the sky. Besides the sun and moon, but those are in space, not the sky."

"It must really be something, to fly whenever you want.." Sweetie took a step closer, thinking. "How'd you get to be in such a strong flier if you were as beat up as Fluttershy said?" Quill hesitated. Should he tell her? Why not.

"Fluttershy got some kind of potion from a zebra alchemist. Said the ingredients were really rare, and she would take a long time to find a way to repay the favor. Why for me...she just said there was no way she was going to let me die as long as she had any kind of say in it." Sweetie smiled like he was being stupid but it was endearing.

"That's just the way Fluttershy is, Quill. Apple Bloom mentioned that she was helping Zecora with something important...but at the time she didn't know what it was for. Guess it was to help you get back on your hooves, huh? Well, glad it did. It would be a shame if I had found this book one day and the author was dead, now wouldn't it."

"Oh? And why is that?" He cracked a smile without quite knowing why.

"Because, then I wouldn't be able to talk you into writing more." He blinked, smile faltering.

"You want me to? You haven't even finished the one."

"But I can tell you're good, and I'm interested, it's got all the aspects of life, not just the steel and blood." His smile was starting to come back-he could feel it quirking his lip.

"But that's old hat for me, I don't really want to continue it."

"Well, you should. But if you don't want to, how about a fresh series? One that you'll continue and finish?"

"Oh, Sweetie, I don't have any ideas for a fresh series. I haven't written in so long, I'm probably pretty rusty."

"Mhm sure. It's your cutie mark, your talent, and it's what you will absolutely never, no matter what, be bad at. Now are you gonna wallow in that doubt you've got, or are you gonna consider what I said, and start writing again?" He hesitated, but her words had a definite effect that he could not, in fact, deny the existence of. "Just try it, Quill," She stepped ever closer. "-Try it, and if you hate it than you can stop and I'll never ask again. But if you like it, then you write a book. Write it for me, and for anyone else who ever told you to go for it." He looked at her with the most tender of looks, though he didn't realize it. She was standing very close now, looking up at him with those wide green eyes. Her words cinched it, he would write again. Write again for Feather, who had never stopped believing in him no matter what. Write again for Sweetie, his first fan in a long time. Write again for himself, because she was right. The quill and sheet of paper on his flank, with the words 'Once upon a time' written on it in his own minuscule script, was what made him stand out.

"Fine, Sweetie. I'll write..." Suddenly the little voice in his head whispered to him that he should lean down and kiss the glowing filly. A bright blush flaring up, he backpedaled and looked away.

"What's wrong?" She frowned, looking hurt-he had just wheeled away from her as fast as he could hadn't he. He stepped forward again and stood beside her, wrapping a wing around her.

"Nothing, just remembered something that it wasn't a good time to remember."

"Oh. Well, that's fine isn't it?" She closed her eyes and nuzzled into his shoulder, looking utterly relaxed. Her tail flicked, brushing against his own.

"Yeah, you know what, that's absolutely fine." And he meant it, he really did.

"Hey! No students up on the platform!" A sharp voice rang out from far below. Quill turned, feeling like he was in a trance of sorts, Sweetie still held to his side. There was a pegasus stallion hovering a hundred or so feet below them, wearing a sweat jacket. Maybe he was an assistant coach? If he'd been the big cheese then he probably would have come and yelled at them in earnest.

"C'mon Quill, fly me down?" Sweetie slowly walked out from under his wing and then walked back, climbing up onto Quill's back.

"Of course, Sweetie." He took a gentle hop off and snapped his wings open, slowly gliding for the ground.

"Hurry it up!" Jacket pony hollered at him. He rolled his eyes and touched down on the polished wooden floor, bending one wing at an angle and letting Sweetie slide down, her tail leaving him after her body had. He blushed and folded his wings tightly to his sides.

"New student?" A third pony, an adult pegasus, had appeared behind him. Quill turned and faced him, nodding alowly.

"Alright then. Quill?" He nodded again.

"Alright. Sweetie, you'll show your coltfriend the ropes, right?"

"Yeah, but he's not my coltfriend!!" She told him hotly. The coach raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"You two seem awfully close. No? Okay, your...close friend then. Run him through the exercises." And he walked off, taking stock of the other students on the little clipboard he was carrying around. Blushing furiously, Sweetie turned away from Quill and beckoned with her tail for him to follow. He nodded, no less embarrassed from the coach's claim, and followed her.

The rest of the class passed quickly after that, for neither of them did just about any talking. She showed him through the long string of required excercises that they had to do with as little speech as possible, maintaining a rosy shade of pink the entire time. Quill, honestly, was just and embarrassed, and his mind refused to dwell on anything else, somehow. As the end of the class approached, though, he realized that he did not, in fact, want to leave the class with her feeling total awkwardness towards him. So when he'd walked out of the showers, dried off, and seen her sitting on the bleachers, still a little wet, he walked over.

"Didn't feel like drying off?" He shot out casually, not really bothered by it.

"Keeping the water helps to stay cooled down...it'll all be dried off within ten minutes, though, it's hot in here." He nodded-that much was true. He had had a harder time with breathing after about fifteen minutes than he had with the exercises themselves;due to the combined heat of physical exertion and the already heated room. Tell me, wouldn't it be more sensible to air condition a gym, rather than heat it?

"You alright, though, after what he said?"

"Yeah, of course. It just gave me some thoughts that were embarrassing?" Quill found it very hard not to think of that in a dirty way. She hadn't meant it like that. NO DAMNIT BRAIN SHE DIDN'T!!!!

'But wouldn't you just love it if she did~' said the little voice in his head. He ignored it, though.

"Alright, Sweetie, I'll see you later?"

"Nu! Walk me to class?"

"What have you got?"

"I've got stupid algebra. You?"

"Um. ELA. I think they're close by each other, so yeah, I can walk you." She smiled and flounced off, checking at the doors to see if he was still behind her. He stepped ahead, then let her step back ahead when he realized he might take to long to navigate the large school.

"That's right, let the lady go first." She grinned and flicked her tail against him, taking the lead and walking ahead of him, but still glancing back frequently to make sure he was following. She cut through a hallway that was just outside of the gym, first, taking them into a mostly empty back hallway.

"I didn't mind what he said." she admitted, "I mean, I know we aren't, but I didn't really mind him thinking it, you know? I know it's wrong, does it matter what he thinks?" Quill walked quietly to her left and behind her, a row of lockers to the right. 'Which would be perfect to push her into and then-' He told that voice to shut the hell up and walked along behind her, blushing again faintly. Next time she glanced back she commented.

"You always blush like that, or is it just when I'm around?" She commented playfully. It struck a little to close to home, though.

"Hush ya face, Sweetie." He chose not to answer either way.

"Alright alright! Ya don't gotta be mean!" She looked at him like she was absolutely crushed, but the second his face showed worry it melted into a happy expression again.

"Oh come on Sweetie! Don't dink around like that!" She shrugged innocently.

"Ima good girl, dunno watcha talkin about." Quill just...couldn't help but smile.

'Ya got it bad, buddy~' The little voice whispered. This time he didn't tell it to shut up. Had today started out as a bad day? That all seemed miles away, now... Down this long hallway they walked, and all the way at the other side of the school it turned sharply right. Their classes were across from each other just before that turn. They stood awkwardly between the classes, neither wanting to split up. It had been such a good class! He remembered that moment on the observation platform, the sunlight making her fur seem to glow, and he just...well, he wished he'd listened to the voice in his head. She wasn't making it easy anyway.

"I'll see you, Sweetie."

"Yeah, you will. Sometime this week all of us were gonna go out for some fun, I'll make sure that we come and get you." She grinned sheepishly and turned, walking into her algebra class. Quill grinned at her back happily and turned his back as well, walking into his last class. Of course no luck was meant to last forever. There was nopony he knew here. But that was okay, he had had his fill on the last class.

Gale's Hallow

Quill walked down the steps and away from the school more cheerful, more lighthearted, than he had felt in a long time. To either side of him were Button and Pipsqueak, while Rumble simply walked along behind. He knew he would have to part ways with them soon enough, and it wasn't the best thing in the world, but he would survive. It was a high-pitched, bratty voice that snapped him out of the reverie that the day's events had created for him, like his own little private universe. He was reminded of Discord's home clearly, somehow. He guessed, at least metaphorically, there were similarities. A pink filly and a gray filly had stepped into view, the former smirking and the latter looking distinctly uncomfortable. He wondered vaguely what was wrong with the gray filly, but didn't think to much about it. The pink filly was the one speaking, of course.

"Hi, new guy." She said in a clipped tone, "You know who I am? Diamond Tia-well, of course you do. How could you not?" He looked at her askance, confused. "I was just stopping you and these...ponies, to invite you over!" At his side, Button gave a jerky shake of his head.

"Erm...have we met?"

"No, but still, I live in a mansion. And of course that's worth coming over to see. So, when can you? Now would be good." Quill's alien look deepened considerably.

"You're a writer." Pipsqueak leaned up and hissed into his ear. "Thanks to Sweetie a few ponies know your name. Makes her interested." He nodded-the artificial way her mane was done up and the unrealistic smile told him all he needed to know.

"Sorry, but I'm busy today. And not really all that interested." He sent an impolite message with a perfectly polite tone and choice of words. Diamond Tiara, if he remembered what Sweetie had told him correctly, looked angry for all of half a second before she recovered and looked at him with a blank look, then her fake smile returned.

"Of course you want to! It's a mansion!"

"Nope Nope." Rumble stepped up with a smirk. "Sorry Diamond Tiara, he's off to hang with Sweetie Belle." She looked at him in confusion, and so did Quill, really.

"What? Rumble, I was just gonna go ho-"

"Sweetie Belle?" Diamond Tiara looked back at Quill, confusion evident on her face. "Why would you want to hang out with her? She's such a little prat. And besides that, no one knows her. Nopony!"

"But they will." Quill found himself saying. "Her cutie mark is a music note and she's gonna go on to do great things after school, I just know it. Her sister is very well known, so much that I heard about her back where I'm from, even saw her sho-" He froze up. If he wasn't mistaken, Rarity had only three shops, and one was here. That would leave two places he could be from, to them. Rumble seemed to think for a moment, and then something seemed to dawn on him. His eyes widened, and he mouthed to Quill; 'Manehattan?' Quill gave a jerky nod and mouthed back; 'shut it. That's nopony's business.'

"What are you two saying??" Diamond Tiara asked irritably, glaring back and forth between them.

"Nothing." They both said quickly. Diamond Tiara glared and stalked off, clearly defeated even though her head was held high, the little gray filly trailing along behind her.

"Dude? Is that it? I know they don't have much poverty in Canterlot, my brother's been there before." Quill nodded-there was no point in lying, he'd already said more than he should have. Alas, that didn't matter, it was to late.

"Yeah...yeah, that's it."

"Sweetie'll wanna know~"

"Rumble. You can't tell. Anypony. That was a careless mistake." Rumble sighed and nodded.

"What about us? We can't know, I'm guessing?" Button asked carefully, Pipsqueak standing close to him.

"No, sorry. If it becomes common knowledge, at least right now, I could be sent back by Twilight. She was all for it at first. The school thinks Fluttershy is my guardian but she isn't, not legally." Button and Pipsqueak nodded, understanding.

"Alright, but, eventually, you'll tell us?" Quill nodded-eventually. Which could be a long damn time, if he decided that it was.

"Okay." Pipsqueak spoke up. "Well, we're gonna get home. Probably tomorrow we're all gonna hang out after school, we talked about it at...lunch." Rumble and Button perked up curiously.

"How come you never came back? You just left like you were gonna go to the bathroom but then we didn't see you until after school, now."

"Oh, um, I'd left my notebook back at my science class. Anyway, I gotta go, so I'll see you guys later." He waved a wing and set off back in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage, his wings remaining half open, poised for flight. He thought-he did feel phenomenally better to have his wings freed, but was he ready to fly again? He looked upwards slowly, as though some great magnet was slowly pulling his eyes up into the blue and white expanse high above. He spread his wings-he had flown to the top of the gym, but to a cloud? No time like the present, ...someone always said. He beat his wings down hard and rose off the ground, then higher, and higher, and higher, and higher, his school bags held in place by his wings. He rose a bit faster, nearing the clouds, and then straight into one. It was cold and damp, but it only lasted a moment before he emerged into the brilliance of the sunlight, in all of it's glory. He looked around as he tucked them in and landed lightly on the cloud, wings halfway folded downwards. He arched his back and closed his eyes, enjoying the sheer pleasure of the sun's warmth on his back, wings, mane, and every other part of him, for there was nothing between him and that sun. He looked around, and blinked.

Cloudsdale, the place that he had viewed sometimes from the clouds above Manehattan so far away, was right here. Right, bucking here. It was literally roughly a hundred meters off, he could just fly right to it, should he please. And he did-he snapped his wings open and took off, flying slowly towards the great expanse of white, splashes of rainbow colors here and there. He landed on the absolute very edge, probably a good mile and a half above Ponyville, and looked around. The buildings seemed to be made from clouds, and some sort of pale blue brick. There were mostly just shops, here, and as he walked down the street that was solid only for pegasi he wished he had some bits. He'd get a job over the summer, if he was still here, then he would have pocket bits. The shops were selling a variety of things, and the scents of the goods wafted invitingly to his nose;fresh-baked fudge, candy floss, and the delicious aromas of flowers growing in window boxes. He walked on happily, lost in the scents, until he found himself in a markletplace absolutely teeming with pegasi like himself. It was fantastic, to be somewhere that he fit in in every sense of the word.

Or...was it? He was no different than anypony else. Looking around, he thought about it, and he saw something-or someONE, that made his heart fall straight through his chest and down to his hooves. There across the square, clean but looking haggard, was a little crimson filly, munching on an apple with her wings hanging limply at her sides. Her feathers were messy and in bad need of preening, and her eyes, a deep, dark blue, looked dull with fatigue and something else that he recognized all to clearly from his days in Manehattan. Depression. Cold, unfettered depression. Quill stood there in dull silence, unsure whether or not he should call out. In the end, he slowly walked around the outer edge of the market, until he stood behind the sitting filly. Carefully, he wrapped a wing over her eyes and spoke; "Guess who, Ruby?" She froze up, sitting in absolute silence. She just stared into the blue feathers, finished chewing up the bite of apple that she had in her mouth and then swallowing.

"If you don't move your wing, s-stranger, it's going to get ripped off and fed to you." Somehow Quill wasn't afraid in the least.

"Come now, Ruby, you wouldn't hurt me, would you?" And he took the wing off, still standing behind her. She took another bite, and he got the impression that her eyes were screwed tightly closed, and she was telling herself that it wasn't real. She would turn around and see somepony she'd never seen in her life, or maybe nopony at all. But what if she was wrong? On cue, she turned, and stared at him for all of ten seconds. The ponies around them-a few, anyway, watched curiously. Quill gave Rubyshade a soft smile, and she glared at him with a look that could start a war with Yakyakistan. His smile faltered-this hadn't been a good idea, he hadn't thought this through at all. He should have turned and walked off...

And suddenly he was on the ground, the little filly having tackled him to the soft and firm ground of clouds. She kissed him-a kiss full of all the emotions she had let build up-of anger and sadness and longing and loneliness and more that he couldn't identify-and then she had sat up and slapped him hard across the face, leaving his cheek stinging. He grunted and looked up at her, trying to push her off, but, strong for her age, she stayed strong.

"WHAT THE HELL????" She blurted out, seemingly before she could stop herself. "What the hell Quill??" And she slapped him again, hard enough to sting but not so much as to bruise him. She weakly beat her hooves against his chest and, to his horror, he realized that she was crying. Silent sobs shaking her whole figure, she wiped her eyes in vain, tears falling down onto his chest. He blinked up at her, letting her sort out whatever emotions were battling inside her, mind dwelling on the kiss that she'd given him. It had been...warm, there really was no other word. Had she missed him, much?

"What the hell..." She muttered, looking more subdued now. They were attracting some funny looks and she caught wind, sliding sideways so that she sat behind him instead of on him. She kept rubbing her eyes, which didn't turn puffy, oddly. The indifferent pegasi around them just walked past, quickly losing interest. Quill sat up in front of her and looked forward at her, unsure whether he ought to do anything. After what seemed like a long time, she folded her wings back down and let her arms drop.

"What the hell Quill.." She spoke yet again, but this time she continued, "Where have you been..? I mean, we left the place like a year ago, and we never see you again...and then suddenly you just...show up behind me one day? I've got to be dreaming..." Quill shook his head.

"No, Rubyshade, I'm really here. I just wanted to see Cloudsdale, I had no idea that I was about to bump into an old friend." She stared at him dumbfounded, appearing to be at a complete loss as to what to say. He looked at her steadily, remembering things come and past more clearly than he would have liked to. Seemed like hours they sat there, but he knew it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. Still, time dragged on, the both of them caught up in the last time that they'd seen each other. It wasn't a beautiful memory, but it was immediately before this, and...

He looked up, suddenly feeling the weight of his schoolbags almost uncomfortably against his back and wings. He opened his wings and let them slide down his back to the ground just behind him. Rubyshade, eventually, scooted over and wrapped her wings around him in a tight hug, burying her face in his chest. He adjusted to let her comfortable, feeling somehow that he shouldn't deny her this. She still remained silent-neither crying nor smiling, as best as he could tell. He didn't know which would be better, really.

"It's been way to long...feels like a whole lot more than a year when you're by yourself..." He sighed and nodded-it had felt like years in that forest, though it had really only been one. Mind, he had paused in his journey at Gale's Hallow, for months perhaps...it had felt so good to make a friend, a little bat by the name of Mosina, but eventually he had known it was time to continue on his way to Ponyville. And he'd made it, with no easy path. But what had happened to her, during that time? Sure, he might have had a story that was a little out of the ordinary, but that wasn't to say that she didn't as well, if not more than himself.

"It's alright, Ruby..." He slowly rubbed her back with a hoof, listening to her slow breathing. She didn't answer right away and he almost started to think that she had fallen asleep before she did, at last, speak.

"We never should have split up...we should have waited for Tainted...right there outside, ditched our parents and found a place to wait for her...then all left together. But no, we had to be scared..."

"What happened, when I left?"

"You're going to have to answer the same question...long story short, though? I went back to my parents and the same stuff continued, so I freaked out and left. Don't really want to say much more than that here..."

"It's terrible...I didn't give them a chance to do it to me, I just left. Soon as we were out of sight of that damned institute, I took off as far and as fast as I could. But as you know they don't really sell perishable food there, so I had to make do with what I could find in the forest..."

"But you did make it?" She looked up at him with watery eyes.

"I did. Made a few friends, and even got registered with the school...I didn't expect to find you when I came up here, honestly." She nodded, sighing, and laid her cheek to his chest, looking off to the side.

"Sorry for being to close, I know you hate it...just so happy to see a familiar face again...it was stick alone, or go to an orphanage, and there was no way I was going to do that..." Quill blinked slowly, still rubbing her back between the joints of her wings.

"I don't mind the touch as much, now, I haven't had to worry about it as much...and I understand," at this point a wide grin split his face, "-I'm hell of a lot more happy than I was ten minutes ago. I don't suppose you have any idea where Tainted is?"

"No," Ruby said, "I only know she makes trips up to Quillcon to try and get herself published. But I don't even know where that takes place, really."

"Quillcon?" He tilted his head.

"The convention for writers, Quill. You either use pencil or quill, and ninety nine percent of writers seem to prefer ink."

"Right, sorry Ruby." He nodded slowly-his mind briefly entertained the idea of finding Tainted and getting the group back together.

"I know what you're thinking," She murmured quietly, "It could work, but for now...I'm just glad to have one of my friends back..."

"Ruby, you should come back with me!"

"No." She said bluntly. "You come back to visit me, but unless I can get a steady place to stay, I'm staying here. I don't want to be shipped off to some orphanage or another, you know." He nodded and stood, making her slide off of his lap and land softly on the cloud below.

"I'll see what I can do, and I'll be back in a couple days, tops. Okay?"

"Already? You just got here..."

"I promise. I'm not disappearing like I did last time." She steeled herself and nodded, looking resigned. He grinned at her, got his bag's strap over his back, and jammed his hooves down, dropping below the cloud. Above it had been late afternoon, but down here it was practically sundown. Sighing, he flew for the cottage, planning to talk to Fluttershy in the morning. That night, when at last he curled up in bed to sleep, he did so. He fell into a deep sleep that was interrupted with dreams quickly, but slept comfortably all the same.

This time, he wasn't in the institute. He blinked, looking around at what was around him and seeing trees. Trees everywhere, even in the center of whatever sort of makeshift path it was that he was standing on. At first it seemed like nothing but a dense forest with trees growing out of the path itself from being untended. And, though he wasn't weak or clawed by wolves, he felt hungry and filthy, both. Something was up, something was different about this stretch of the woods than the rest of what he had ambled through...he no longer had any idea if he was on the right track for Ponyville, now where in the hell it was that he had stumbled upon now, during his seemingly endless hike. Then he started to see it-grooves and dips in the land, concealed perches high in the trees. Some kind of little village was carefully concealed, here, but in spite of the fact that it was broad daylight, nopony seemed up and about. He looked down slowly-did he have the strength to fly up and check it out? He supposed he'd just have to...

Flapping weakly, he slowly propelled himself upwards until he could land on a light branch, but there was nopony there. Frowning, he walked along it lightly, wings half open, his hoofsteps lightly thudding against the sturdy oak. There were perches, and the marks that came from wear and tear of hooves, but there wasn't a pony in sight. Frowning, he flapped and lifted himself higher into the air than he already was. Up into the leafy canopy, where the sunlight didn't reach he went, and suddenly there was the voice of a filly.

"Well, well, well. What's a pegasus doing here?" He landed on the thickest branch he could find and looked around wildly, confused as to who would be up this high. But then, he must have expected it on some level if he'd come up here in the first place. There was a little gray filly sitting neatly on the very end of the branch neatly, the thin limb not even bending under her weight. Her mane was two hues of blue, darker and lighter intermingled. Her eyes, bright yellow, were peering at him through wire-framed glasses, and he was at a loss for words. Her pupils were horizontal slits, and a pair of leathery bat wings were folded down to her sides. His initial reaction was nervousness, but then she didn't look threatening at all. Instead he just walked a bit closer, tilting his head.

"Um...I'm a bit lost, actually." She nodded quickly, making a peculiar expression that he couldn't read.

"Well of course you are, it wasn't likely that you were looking for this place."

"But, what is this place, exactly?"

"This is Gale's Hallow, and it's home to almost all of Equestria's bat hybrids." Bat hybrids? Hadn't he once heard something about Luna's private guard being half bat? That seemed like it would be common knowledge to anyone who had ever seen her, though, for undoubtedly the guard would have been close on her heels no matter where she went, wouldn't they have?

"But, I thought that the bats always slept in the day. Why How come you're up right now? And...where's everyone else? Can't be just you, can it?"

"No, of course not. They're even higher up, in the adult's nests. And there aren't really that many foals, right now." He nodded, looking warily up into the leafage overhead.

"Relax, they won't hurt you, unless I yelled for help or something like that." She smirked playfully. "Which I should, I assume, have no reason to?"

"What do you think I could possib-"

"Rape me? Try to rip my wing and push me off the tree? Or just attack me some other way?" Now her eyes showed the barest trace of fear.

"But you could just...the fangs..." He eyed her teeth with apprehension, fangs that could rip through coat and flesh and splatter the ground with blood at a moment's notice...he blinked, snapping himself out of it. If she had meant to kill him, wouldn't she have already? Or did she just view him as beneath her, not worth the effort? That would fit in with the tales of bat ponies that he had heard-maybe he was just the amusing, stupid pegasus who had wandered into her home.

"Oh, really?" She raised an eyebrow. "What, do you think I'm going to pin you down and rip your throat out?" She correctly interpreted his silence. "No, I'd only do that if you tried to hurt me." There was a playful smirk on her lips, but it quickly went away. "Sorry. The adults might if you posed a threat, but I wouldn't. I'm barely eleven, you know, I'm not evil." Quill tilted his head, his wings feeling peculiarly heavy;he folded them down, drinking in the sight of this half-bat.

"I've heard nasty rumors..." He said this uncertainly, though. Mosina took a step closer, having stood from the branch.

"So have I, about the terrible full-ponies who would drive us back into the forest where we 'belong', or whatever. It's not like that can be true for all of you, can it? After all, you seem alright."

"So do you...I guess..." She laughed musically.

"I am alright, I promise. What're you doing here, though?"

"I've been wandering a few weeks through the forest...I have no idea where I am anymore. I'm just...lost." He sighed, saying this softly.

"Like I said, Gale's Hallow. Pretty midwestern, the nearest town is probably Appleoosa."

"Well I passed by Canterlot, but never came across Ponyville...just thought it was through this forest and haven't been able to find my way out..."

"You hungry?" And then she laughed at his worried look. "Don't worry, we're fruit bats, we don't eat ponies." That, admittedly, relaxed him somewhat, and he nodded-he wasn't hungry; he was ravenous. She nodded to him simply.

"Wait here, I'll grab some apples. Also, I'm Mosina."

"Oh, I'm Quill. Not to be rude but please hurry, I feel like my stomach's gonna tear apart!!" Mosina gave a light little laugh that made her fangs uncomfortably visible and flew higher up into the tree. True to his request, she came back less than a minute later and dropped a wing full of apples down at his hooves. Nodding gratefully, he bit into the first gratefully, possibly like a slob for lack of recent meals. She laughed again, watching him. It was only seconds before he had finished it and grabbed the second of four.

"Hungry, much?" She let her wings hang open, soaking up the cool air up in that spot.

"V-Very." He said before he had swallowed the bite he was on. She rolled her eyes.

"So, really, how'd you come to be here?"

"Like I said, I'm lost."

"But-ugh, I know that, but what I mean is where did you come from? Why did you end up in this forest in the first place?"

"I'm running from Manehattan." He told her faintly. "See, there are a lot of bad memories there..." and he raised his wing, showing her the dark and mottled bruises down his side, not the least of which were from his parents. "I'd have to scrabble for food, and our own parents were terrible."

"Our? Who else?"

"Oh, uh..." his face fell. He hadn't meant to say that. But he explained, because more than anything he needed to let someone know. And if she was willing to listen...

This time it didn't stop. He and Mosina sat there talking for hours and hours, both of them watching with very little interest as the sun began to sink to their level, and then lower, until the twilight was upon them, and Quill began to hear scuffling and yawns from higher in the tree. He didn't notice that the darkness was thickening, he was to busy talking to Mosina to notice anything else. It wasn't until she raised a hoof for him to be quiet that he noticed anything was wrong.

"I gotta go, and you should hide, before they get down here. Come back tomorrow in the day, but wait until at least noon so that they'll all be asleep." And he woke up.

He was on the scratchy blue mattress of the institute, and he could hear the quiet snores of his roommate sleeping against the other wall. He yawned and looked out the window at the forest-it was still dark but he couldn't see the moon, so it was either midnight or very near dawn, when the moon would be hidden behind the trees.

One of the staff walked past the door in the wooden hallway outside, making the rounds. His roommate, the little black-haired pianist filly, was a light sleeper and started to stir at the sound of the hoof steps. He hated constantly switching back and forth between the guy's and the girl's side, but he was growing used to the constant change. She sat up and looked at him blearily, rubbing her eyes, and whispered to him.

"What time is it?" He shrugged-watches weren't allowed because they could be used as a weapon.

"I don't know." And even if they were allowed, he didn't own one.

"I hope morning comes soon, I don't think I can go back to sleep..." she give a little sniff.

"Something the matter?" He asked concernedly, sliding to the edge of his mattress. She didn't answer.

"Bad dream?" He tried again. She nodded faintly, sighing a tiny, quivering sigh that was barely audible.

"Come on, tell me about it?" She shook her head.

"It'll help, I know it will, but I won't make you." For a long moment there was silence in the little bedroom. The open door to the hallway cast it's lamplight, soft and warm, flood halfway into the room. The filly' coat glowed faintly in said light.

"I-I was back at school. And everypony, e-ver-y-pony was h-hurting me..it was terrible...I know it doesn't sound to bad, but-"

"I understand what you mean. I know that ponies have different ideas of horrible, and if that's it for you, then I'm sorry..."

She didn't answer, she just stared forlornly down at her lap. He wanted to help, somehow, to go and comfort her, but if he so much as touched one of the fillies and was seen he'd be thrown into solitary.

Rubyshade

Author's Note

If I'm not mistaken, this clears up a thing or two. Not enough, maybe.

Rubyshade

"Fluttershy, can I talk to you, please?" Quill was sitting at the table with the buttery yellow mare, looking apprehensively down at the salad she had put before him. He had helped her with the animals, and now she had time to sit down for a meal. Still, though, he was nervous about what he had to ask her. It wasn't the sort of thing that you just asked, really.

"Oh of course, Quill!" She said in her usual soft-spoken tone, smiling across the table at him.

"What you did for me, you can't do for everypony." Fluttershy nodded, narrowing her eyes curiously.

"That's true, this place is crowded with all the animals, so we don't even usually hold my birthday parties here." Quill felt his heart sink a little bit when she said that, but he had to at least try, he knew.

"I have a friend, possibly two, who are from similar backgrounds as me. And...and I was wondering if you'd be willing to let her stay here. Possibly them." Fluttershy went deathly quiet for all of a moment, her face a mask of pure neutrality.

"What do you mean by it might be them, instead of her?" She asked at last.

"We have a third friend who's on her own, and we think we might know where to find her. If we can, we want her to stick with us. It...used to be the three of us, but we got all split up and...well, yeah." He said lamely, laughing at how stupid he sounded. Fluttershy, still, was silent. This time it was a few minutes before she spoke again.

"Quill...what you're asking...there isn't room in the house, and..."

"I can share the guest room with them. They take the bed, I take the floor with a pillow. I...I know this is a lot to ask, Fluttershy, but they're just like I was in every way except for bleeding on the floor. The first I know for sure, the second might be..." He didn't even realize it until he had started to say it. "-might even be dead by now. But let's hope not, right?"

"Tell me about them, Quill." Fluttershy spoke sternly. "I'm not running a foster home, so tell me why I should let them share your room and live here with me."

"Well, for one, we can get jobs. Weekends, after school, summers. Pay for our own food, and stuff, so you won't have to worry about paying for us to stay." Fluttershy nodded and asked him; "Who are they?"

"The first, who I know is okay? Her name is Rubyshade. Ruby filly, black and gray mane, and dark blue eyes." He told her quickly. "She um...pretty nice, I think she'd be twelve now, she was two years younger than me."

"Okay, Quill. So tell me, why did you two know each other? And who's the third?"

"She's...Tainted."

"She's tainted?"

"Her name. Tainted Diamond. Really it's just diamond, but she always says it's Tainted Diamond, it's a dark story as to why." Fluttershy nodded. "She's charcoal, mane's brown with blonde streaks, and her eyes are a strangely light blue."

"What do they do? Special talents, I mean?"

"I'm not really clear on Rubyshade's, her cutie mark is a diamond with a heart in it that's been cracked down the center. Tainted writes, like me, her mark's a little blue quill." He looked down at his own stately black quill that adorned each flank. Fluttershy took this in for only a moment.

"I asked how you two met?" Though it came out as a question, Quill knew he had no chance unless he were to explain, just from the tone of her voice and the look in her aquamarine eyes when she repeated it. He sighed, then sucked in a breath and let it out in a long puff of air.

"Fine."

"Fine?"

"To tell you that, I have to tell you where I came from, so...here goes." Fluttershy nodded and settled down to listen impassively, her head resting on her hooves, her empty salad plate forgotten.

"I was in the mental hospital, Fluttershy." She blinked but remained silent. "I met Rubyshade and Tainted in there, as it turns out. They were too. I still don't know why they were there, but I know I didn't need to be there." She listened, her eyes gleaming curiously and her muzzle twisted into a sympathetic frown. "We were very, very close. We were in there for months, and we spent as much time as possible together."

"I thought they kept the fillies and colts separated?" He nodded.

"They did, but for some reason I kept getting switched between the colt's and filly's sides. Rubyshade said she overheard the doctors saying that they wanted to see how I responded to both sides, or something like that. Anyway, we were super close, but I was so...so disgusted by everything that had happened in that city, that I just ran and never looked back, as soon as I got out." Contrary to what he might have expected, he felt an enormous relief at saying all of this.

"What city was that, Quill?"

"Manehattan." She nodded again and stayed silent so that he could continue.

"I regret it, Fluttershy. I should have waited for them...then we could have stuck together all this time, and two more ponies would have made it to safety. Now, I know Ruby's doing alright, but I have no idea about Tainted or whether we'll be able to find her."

"Why were you in, Quill? Can you tell me that? You said you shouldn't have been there." Anger surged through Quill so suddenly, so strongly, that his wings snapped up to an impressive wingspan for his age, and his eyes narrowed with a look of hate so pure and unfettered that Fluttershy actually winced.

"The official story is that I was hallucinating like a psychopath." Fluttershy seemed to sense, on some level, that he needed to go ahead and spit this out, but for the moment he stopped talking, so she prodded at him.

"Quill? Were you hallucinating?"

"Remember how I told Twilight that she wouldn't find me in the books, because I hadn't been birthed at a hospital?" Fluttershy nodded, and her eyes widened.

"Do you have a brother, then, or a sister, or...?"

"I had a sister, but she was never in the records either." Fluttershy nodded, her gut wrenching as she started to gather where this was going.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't just cut. You may recall I had a lot of bruises. A l-lot." He swallowed, his wings slowly folding back down. Most are faded by now, but there's still a few. Remember?" Fluttershy nodded, trying to keep her face blank.

"Mhm. That, Fluttershy, was my parents. And they did it to her, too." Though obviously upset, he kept his voice even and steady. "We were close, though, and we had each other for years. She was eight, and I was twelve. One day...one day, they went to far." Fluttershy's heart felt like it was twisting around.

"She was laying there, her face smeared in her own blood." Actually, the deathly calm that had stolen over him was worrying her. "Blood all over the floor, too, looked like that had beaten her until she couldn't even stand. And, she lay there...and I flopped down next to her, and pressed my muzzle to her shoulder, it came away bloody. She...I told her to stand up, said we'd go get help, but she said that it was to late for that. She told me that I had to go, to run." He could feel a tear cut it's way through the fur on his cheek at that.

"I didn't want to, I wanted to stay with her, to do something. Anything. But it really was to late, and my little sister was dying bloodstained. And...what did I do? I didn't take her outside, I didn't bury her, like I should have. I left, just before she died-why didn't I wait until she was dead? Why didn't I stay with her until the end??" His calm demeanor was faltering.

"Couldn't answer that, I was a stupid twelve year old. Anyway, I ran to the police, because that's what foals were supposed to do, right? Friendly neighborhood police? But when I got an officer to come back with me, they'd...t-they'd..." He swallowed, struggling to compose himself. "They had done something with her body, and cleaned the blood, and it was like nothing had ever happened. They acted concerned for me, and they said that I didn't even have a sister, that she was just my...imaginary friend, or something like that. When the police looked into it, there was no record of either of us in any documents, especially since we hadn't been allowed to attend school by our parents...

"I would sneak into the school with her, we'd fly in and get our way into the air ducts, listen, learn what we could. Stole books and smuggled them home, taught ourselves. It wasn't easy, but we were smart for our age." He sucked in another huge breath and let it out slowly in a long puff. "Anyway...

"When they couldn't find proof of anything, they deemed me crazy-who would believe a terrified colt over the calm and collected adults? They threw me into that mental hospital without a second thought, and that was the end of it. When I met Tainted and Ruby, they listened and they believed every word I said, even if they weren't ready to tell their own stories to me, yet. Now...I want those two friends back, but neither of them has an exactly healthy relationship with adults either, and certainly not a happy family. I just...I want them to be able to have somewhere safe, and their next meal guaranteed, like I do, now. Please, Fluttershy?" Fluttershy's eyes were welled up with tears at the story, and yet she still found herself sure that there were details he had left out. He could see it in the way he was trying to stay calm, the way his wings hung limp and defeated at his sides, the way that he was sitting there like a pathetic rag doll...she believed his story.

"T-That's a lot to take in, Quill. You can bring your Rubyshade friend here, but let's wait on Tainted until we know whether you can actually get her here..." Quill nodded, not feeling the particular need to say thank you out of the feelings of regret coursing through him. Of course, he wasn't going to follow that feeling.

"Thank you a ton, Fluttershy, means a lot to me."

"I...think I can understand what it's like to want your closest friends back, Quill. I won't pretend to understand it all, but I can imagine that. You can bring her back after school tomorrow...are you okay?"

"Just...tired." He gave her an excuse to leave the table and got off his chair. "Good night, Fluttershy?"

"Good night, Quill." She sighed. He turned and walked to his room, while Fluttershy looked down at the untouched salad he had left behind.

~

"So she actually agreed to that?" Rubyshade asked him, walking beside him and trying to look as presentable as possible in spite of the dirt in her coat and her messy mane.

"Yeah, surprisingly." Quill felt none of the anger from the day before, now, he had pushed it as far to the back of his mind as he could. He was so overjoyed to have Rubyshade back, and a genuine plan as to how and get Tainted back, that it dominated his mind for the moment. They both understood that Tainted had wanted to attend the Quillcon that happened yearly, and this year it would be in Ponyville. That didn't mean that she would be there, but maybe some of the ponies who attended yearly could point them in the right direction. plus, if they did get lucky, then they would see her and explain everything to her.

"I'm surprised, but if you're sure..."

"I've told you a million and three times," Quill quipped, "she's that kind of pony. I'm not saying I'd take advantage of her, but if anypony was going to help you and or tainted, it was her." Rubyshade nodded thoughtfully in answer to this.

"I'm glad. Don't suppose I could use a shower? Usually I just clean in the stream and that's clean but it's freezing cold."

"Of course you can use the shower." He rolled his eyes. "If you're staying there, you can have a warm place to sleep and a shower first and foremost."

"Hm, just be careful, I might pull you in with me." She shot back playfully. His cheeks turned red and he walked on quietly without answering her. She was thirteen, so a few years above the age where ponies usually started thinking about things like that, but it still made him quiet, embarrassed and usually red.

"You don't wanna make a mess, do you?" He finally shot back.

"I can get dirtier before I get cleaner." She winked at him and then gave an innocent smile, cluing him in to the double meaning. He felt his face go a thousand shades darker and walked a tad faster.

"Well, we'll see." was all he could manage to say. Rubyshade smirked and walked after him, watching as they came into sight of the small cottage. Fluttershy was out front, tossing tiny kernels of corn down to the chickens in their pen. She looked up, though, at the sound of the approaching footsteps.

"Quill? Is this Rubyshade?" Fluttershy's eyes roamed the small red filly, took in her scraped but not seriously injured figure. Quill, coming to know the buttery mare, could see the signs of worry already showing on her face, and in the depths of her eyes.

"Yes, this is Rubyshade." Rubyshade nodded, her wings half open in a nervous stance, as though worried she would have to take flight in but a moment. Her eyes, the would-be-brilliant sapphire, were dull and almost lifeless, only alight with the fire of fear. Somehow, though, she held her composure and spoke steadily.

"If this isn't a trap." She spit on the grass, rather than swallow the saliva that was building on her tongue. "Or a trick." She scuffed the ground with her right hoof, looking at Fluttershy from behind a curtain of her raven locks. "Then...then thank you, Fluttershy."

"Why would this be a trick or a trap?" Fluttershy spoke in that voice that one usually reserved for the sick-but then, Ruby was sick, in a sense, and so was he, if they weren't really 'cured'.

"Let's just say that I'm not used to ponies doing something out of the kindness of their hearts for me. It's always been that they wanted something in return."

"That's how it is in the cities Fluttershy. All you and your friends know about is the class, the money, the fancy and the wonderful. You don't know about the-" but he stopped himself, knowing that it wasn't the time nor the place.

"Well, this isn't the cities." Fluttershy said firmly. "This is my cottage, and I don't want anything in return, not at all. What I want is to help." That was all she said before she turned and walked back to the cottage, having previously decided that it would be better for her to be shown around by Quill, whom she was comfortable with.

Aware of this decision, Quill wrapped a wing around her and led her up the path and into the cottage. He had gone to get her after school, and now it was probably nearing dinnertime. Rubyshade let him lead her, though had it been almost anyone else she would have had them pinned do the ground and, depending on her mood, stamped between their hind legs or ripped their throat with her teeth. Not that anyone else needed to know that.

For just a second, she wasn't in that cottage. For just a second, she was standing in the filthy alley behind the Manehattan bowling alley, blood around her mouth, the taste of blood and sinew on her tongue, staring down at the stallion who no longer had a throat, or rather, who's throat was on the ground at her hooves and who's blood would stain her teeth if she didn't clean them. He had tried to rape her, and she hadn't been in the mood to fuck around. Literally. The rain that was falling had her fur plastered to her sides, her mane hanging in wet strands. She probably looked like a scene from a horror novel, the body below only tying it all together.

Then she was back, and she was in a bathroom with Quill. Why was she in a bathroom with Quill? He was talking. Maybe she should listen.

"-r. I'll be in the next room."

"Sorry, could you repeat that?" Damn, she would swear she could still taste the coppery blood on her tongue. She glanced in the mirror, but her teeth were clean and white. The advantage of living on clouds.

"-ext room."

"One more time, sorry. I'm um...distracted."

"Listen, Rubyshade." She nodded and focused her attention undivided unto him.

"I said, I know you probably want a hot shower. I'll go find something to do, and let you enjoy the shower. I'll be in the next room."

"Yeah, o-okay. Thanks." She nodded and pulled back the curtain, getting in the shower. "I was serious though, one of these days I'm going to get you in here with me." He blushed and turned to go, and she blurted; "Wait!"

"Yes?" He looked back, watching as she turned the water on, jumping at the shock of warmth. In the sky, surrounded by clouds, and wind, warmth probably wasn't a creature comfort. She relaxed quickly, though, and let her wings fall open.

"Where am I going to sleep? I'm so tired Quill..."

"We're gonna get some food in you, then you can take the bed in the last room. I'll take a sleeping bag."

"Don't be stupid, we can share the bed. We always used to sleep together in the day room, the only difference is Tainted won't be there and we'll be on something soft." She spat that out casually, looking like her mind was other places. "When Quillcon rolls around, we'll hopefully be able to get a clue of Tainted." Quill nodded-that was, obviously, desirable. She was washing her chest and shoulders, and she gave off a tiny little moan from the warm water that she hadn't known in so long.

"Seeya soon." He left, understanding that she had forgotten he was there. Vaguely, he wondered what she was thinking about.