If there was ever a time where it felt like the whole world changed overnight, that was what I was feeling right now.
I had just parked in the parking lot at work only a moment ago and was approaching the front door to the building that I worked at. It might’ve looked small on the outside, but the work that we did inside the building was essentially important when it came to helping others. I worked at what my co-workers called a DPC, which was short for Document Processing Center, and it was one of the last remaining ones in the county of San Diego.
In the time that I had been working here, barely anything seemed to throw me off guard. At least… until today.
“Excuse m-me?”
I was just about to open the door using my keycard when I heard that. It didn’t sound like anyone that worked with me, so either they were someone new that the department brought on or they were a transfer from another division. Yet, when I looked around, I was thrown off guard immediately.
A griffon was standing behind me. An actual real life griffon. The feathers around most of her body were a dark brown while her talons were yellow and lion paws that matched most of her feathers on her body. The feathers around her head were a light grey and they had emerald colored eyes. She had a bag on her back, but it looked less like the shoulder bag that I had and more like the bags on a saddle.
“Is this the DPC?” she nervously asked.
In my mind, the only thing that I could honestly think of was doing what I was instructed to do anytime we had a visitor or a newfound employee. Although, I wasn’t sure if what I was seeing qualified as either of those things. “Y-yes, it is,” I told her, “Are you l-looking for someone or-?”
“A-actually, today’s my f-first day.”
In any other situation, I would know exactly what to do. But in this case, my mind froze. The DPC was no stranger to having new hires come in every month or so, but this I was unsure about. Nevertheless though, I just followed what I was trained to do, “Can you wait right there for a moment? I can’t let you in, but I can get someone who could come help you.”
The griffon nodded and sat down nearby as I scanned my keycard and walked into the lobby before having to scan it again to get inside the office. Upon entering inside, instead of walking towards my desk to the left in the prep area, I kept going straight and went to where the front desk was. Anytime we had someone new come that was just starting, you would have to inform whoever was at the front desk so they could let them in. This morning, it was my turn to do that before I could get my station set up for today.
After informing the front desk of our newfound visitor, I walked to my desk and set my bag down along with logging into the laptop that was at my station so I could clock in and record my hours. Though, this also gave me a bit of a chance to try and look up something too. It still was about ten minutes before my shift started, so hopefully I can at least answer some questions that I had.
I was expecting to find little about what I had just seen… turns out, that was not the case. In fact, this had been happening for some time. Creatures from another world called Equestria found a way to come to earth and with it, have begun living here and also working at different jobs across the country. Heck, there was even a government agency that was dedicated to helping Equestrians settle in and find work. It was a story that seemed rather important, but then again, I wasn’t one who made a daily habit of watching the six o’clock news. Hell, if my younger brother saw the story, he thought it would be a rather late april fools day joke.
Yet, the article I was reading only seemed to mention various species of ‘ponies’ such as Unicorns, Pegasus and Earth Ponies. However, there didn’t seem to be anything related to griffons like the one I saw a few moments ago. I even tried checking other articles, but they only seemed to mention them as secondary. Which was weird considering how important this was-.
“Good morning, Ryan.”
Immediately, I turned around to find myself looking directly at my supervisor, Lucas. Normally, he would come in an hour or so after me, yet the only times he would come in earlier would be if he was working overtime or if something important was going on. “G-Good morning, Lucas-”
“Would you happen to be free at the moment? There’s… something I would like to talk to you about.”
I blinked for a moment as I tried to think of what he could possibly be referring too. “Um, is it with the job opening I applied for last week? Because I made sure to do it the moment they were-”
“No no, nothing like that,” he shook his head, “It’s about something else. Did you see the email I sent you?”
He sent an email? Oh crap, if he did, then I am definitely out of the loop on something.
Immediately, I closed out the article I was reading and opened Microsoft Outlook to search for what he sent me. When I found it, the email was about him asking whether or not I could be able to help him with a task alongside my normal duties. “You needed help with something? What is it?”
He looked away for a moment, before facing me as he let out a small breath, “Well, we have a… new employee that’s starting out today, but the very nature of it is… hard to explain.”
Oh shit… is he talking about who I think he’s talking about?
“I noticed the article you were reading, so I’m guessing that you’re already familiar with the subject,” Lucas assumed, before taking a chair from another desk and sitting next to me, “Well, the County has been tasked by the mayor to start including Equestrians among the employees that work here and the County wanted to start with the DPC. I wanted to ask if you were up for the task of training them.”
Internally, my mind was having trouble processing this. I only had been working here for nearly a year and now I’m being asked to train someone? I… was hesitant on that. Mainly because I was not sure if I could train someone on what we do here. Yet, I didn’t want to turn down a potential opportunity. “I… think I can give it a shot.”
“Great,” he smiled, before getting up and putting away the chair as he looked to the empty desk to my left. As I turned back to my computer and closed out my email, I wanted to open up my web browser to find the article I was reading again.
Yet, fate had other plans. “Good morning. You must be Gael, right?”
“Y-yeah, that’s me,” my heart skipped a beat when I heard that voice. I turned in my chair to see the same griffon that I had seen outside ten minutes ago now talking to the person that was my boss, before she happened to notice me.
“Welcome to the DPC, Gael,” Lucas told her, “I’m going to have you be next to Ryan. He’ll be walking you through what we do around here and show you the ropes. Usually, you’ll receive computer access in a couple of days, so we’ll worry about keeping track of your hours later. If either of you have any questions, come by to see me.”
“O-okay,” we both said almost simultaneously, before I looked back to her. Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, I can show her how things work around here.
At the DPC, a lot of the work that we did here involved a lot of the incoming mail that we receive from other parts of the County. Any applications for particular programs or benefits like food stamps, cash aid and medical insurance came through the DPC and it was our job to make sure that those applications got sorted, processed and added into our system. For the sooner that we got those sorted out, the sooner that those people could get the help they need.
Of course, despite that, it was never easy to keep track of what we were organizing and not everything was so black and white. That’s why every employee kept a paper prepping guide with them to make sure that we could organize everything properly. If we didn’t do that, our work from the scanning department would be sent back to us in order to fix and resubmit.
Since Gael was new to the office, I let her borrow mine over the course of the first week in the office while I taught her the basics. I had to teach her how to organize what comes in by the form type, what’s included with it and whether or not they were either processed or unprocessed. The first of which was the easiest and very straightforward. Yet, the latter was much more complex depending on how it came in.
For the weeks I was training her, Lucas had us take our breaks and lunch at the same time. Gael used this time to ask me about a lot of the things that we had in our world that didn’t exist in her world like YouTube, cell phones, computers and memes… the last one because she saw a co-worker tape a grumpy cat picture to the side of a filing cabinet under their desk and she did not understand what it meant. Hell, one day we ended up spending all of our breaks and our lunch talking about monster movies because one coworker had a Godzilla and Mothra figurine on their desk.
As for me, I had the chance to learn more about her world and some of the things in that. From two sisters who were somehow able to move the sun and moon with magic to a group of friends that had saved Equestria several times from villains and were recognized as national heroes. She even told me a bit about the kinds of spells that the creatures who had magic were capable of doing.
Though, at the end of the second week, I had a different question on the back of my mind that I wanted to ask. “Why did you come to earth?”
“Huh?” she asked, a bit puzzled as she was finished eating what looked to be a scone in her claw, “Could you repeat that?”
“I… was just a bit curious about why you decided to come to earth,” I explained further as I placed my lunch away and cracked open a can of Diet Coke, “Equestria sounds rather nice based on what you told me, so why would you come here?”
She looked away for a moment, before letting out a small breath, “It is… but my home isn’t so nice. Griffonstone, my home, is much different from Equestria. A lot of us live in poverty and don’t have a family to call our own. I came to Earth… for a chance to start over.”
“Oh,” I said, unsure about if asking her was really a good idea, “I’m sorry I-”
“Don’t apologize,” she interrupted me, “It’s not your fault for asking. Besides, I like being here. Everyone is a lot nicer than them back home. I'm rather lucky to be here,” Gael took a second to drink some water, before looking back to me, “Can I ask you something now?”
“Sure,” I told her. I mean, it’s only fair since I asked her a question to begin this whole conversation.
“Why did you want to work here?” that question was one that I was not prepared for, especially coming from someone I had only known for two weeks, “On our breaks and sometimes during lunch, I see you draw. You’re a good artist, but you don’t pursue it as a career?”
I just sighed. This was going to take a bit, “At one point, I wanted to do that… but a lot of the jobs that I tried applying for required experience in fields I did not have. Art’s now more of a hobby. I had to go back to school to learn more in different programs I would use on the computer because that’s what most employers would ask for. I was lucky to get this position now… My father would want for me to go into I.T., but I’m not that kind of person who knows everything about computers like the back of my hand to pursue it.”
“I.T.?” she asked, a bit confused.
“Information Technology,” I told her, “Remember when we had that one guy come by with your login credentials for the laptop at our desk? He’s from the I.T. department.”
“Oh,” she responded, “Did you tell him that?”
“Numerous times, but he never gets the message,” I told her, “My father works for a company in San Francisco and comes down every other weekend. He’s always very… linear when it comes to thinking about what careers I should pursue. It annoys the hell out of me honestly.”
Honestly, there’s a lot about my father that I would say, but I didn’t want to deal with that at all. Family was one of those things that I don’t normally discuss at work, mainly because I wanted to stay professional. I had tried talking about things outside of work, but I always found it nerve-racking to take part in those conversations. Mainly because I didn’t know how to fit in.
Right now though, it was not the right time to fixate on that. I wanted to ask another question, but after looking at my watch, I learned that our lunch break was almost finished. “We should head back. Lunch is over and it’s almost time to get back to work.”
In the time after I had finished training Gael with sorting the mail, I had to show her a completely different task. That being the day to day operations in the mail room. From using the tracking system to manage incoming shipments to sorting the mail that we get by program and whether or not it was processed or unprocessed to opening up anything that happened to come in by envelope. Even though coming into the mail room at times was tedious and random, it was essential to the job. Because the work that happens in the mail room is essentially the same work that we would end up sorting, organizing and keeping track of back at our desks.
I also used the time on my breaks and lunch hours to talk with Gael more and help her with some things that she had going on. Whether it was learning how to use a cell phone or helping her understand sorting procedures with different periodic reports, I didn’t mind lending a hand to her every so often.
Yet, despite how serious our job was, it was not always too serious at the office. Heck, we had just as many strange office events as practically any other workplace. Like ‘sport jersey day’, khaki day… you probably get the picture. We even celebrated holidays by having us dress up in costumes for Halloween and having a giant Thanksgiving dinner on the bottom floor of the building. Even if they weren’t quite the holidays that Gael celebrated at home, she enjoyed them nonetheless.
One day though, I was finishing up something important on the laptop one morning as I was following through the steps on my screen. I wanted to make sure that I finished this before taking care of anything else for the day. Though, it was just as I was finishing up that I noticed Gael come in and sit down next to me.
“Good morning,” I heard her say, before she noticed the webpage I was finishing up on as she looked at me. “What were you were working on?”
At first, I was nervous… but I saw no point in trying to lie to her. “I… was applying for a job.”
“What?” she asked, sounding puzzled, “Why? I-i thought you like it here.”
“No no no, it’s not like that,” I tried to explain to her, “I do like it here. However… because of my contract right now, I can’t work here forever. It’s a temporary contract that expires after six months. It can be renewed, but the hope is that I can be able to get a permanent position here since temporary can only be extended so many times.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” I sighed, “It sucks, but… I’m doing everything I can to make sure that I can keep working here. I don’t want to give up just yet.”
Gael seemed to understand what I was saying… or at least, I think she did. All she did was chuckle, before looking at me, “You remind me of Gable.”
“Gable?” I asked, a bit confused.
“My older brother,” she told me, “He always had goals that he didn’t want to give up on. Dreams too.”
That… was new. Up until now, Gael had never really talked that much about family. I occasionally told her about mine, because it either came up or I was talking about something funny that happened while I was at home. Yet, there was never a time where I ever heard her tell me about her family.
“He sounds like someone I would like to meet,” I replied. Though, it was only a few seconds after saying that where I saw the usual happy demeanor on her face change. She looked… distraught. Something didn’t feel right, “Did I… say something wrong.”
“N-no,” she replied, “It’s just… you can’t see him… he’s gone.”
Oh shit. Did she mean-? Oh god, she did. I can see a tear running down her face, “I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t-”
“It’s okay… It happened a long time ago,” Gael said, letting out a deep breath as she brushed her claws around the side of her face, “But you remind me a lot of him. He stayed hopeful, even if things were bad. T-that’s why you remind me of him.”
“Well, I always try to stay positive, even if things don’t look great,” I told her, handing over a tissue for her to use to clean up her face.
Of course, it was also then that we had a couple of co-workers arrive too, “Good morning, you two!”
For you see, a month or so after Gael was brought on, two more Equestrians were hired at the DPC. The first one was known as Coral Reef and she was a hippogriff. Now, from what I understand, griffons and hippogriffs are two completely different species and the latter of them could… I don’t remember the specifics, but it was enough to make me picture her as Ariel from The Little Mermaid the first day I met her. The fact that the fur on her body being sea-green and her mane and eyes being pinkish-orange didn't really help me when I first met her. The other was a changeling who called himself Honeycomb, mainly because the colors of his body looked like that of fresh honey. They were living together in their own apartment and even allowed Gael to stay where there lived.
Both Coral and Honeycomb were brought on because some of our other staff members were transferred to another department in the county as Open Enrollment was getting started. Open Enrollment was the term that we used for when everyone who lived in California was able to apply for Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program. Medi-cal provided free or low cost medical care to children and adults with limited income and resources.
Of course, that also meant that we had to process the influx of applications that came through our doors and it was our duty to make sure that we got it in the system. When this first started in the beginning of November, it was all hands on deck and everyone had their own part to play no matter what department they were in. Now though, since it was the first week of December, everything was beginning to wind down a bit now that it was closer to the end of the Open Enrollment period
“Good morning,” Gael spoke up now, “How was your weekend?”
“Well, Coral practically begged for me to take her to the beach yesterday,” Honeycomb responded.
“The beach?” I asked, “It’s the beginning of December, why would you go to the beach?”
“Well, originally, I asked if we could go to that ‘Belmont Park’ place and walk around, but when I saw the beach, I just HAD to go swimming,” Coral replied back with a smile on her face, which led to Honeycomb letting out a sigh, “Though, I’m still confused as to why I was cold afterwards. The water was rather warm.”
That got a chuckle out of Gael, “You two always seem to have fun trying doing stuff on the weekends,” the griffon now mentioned as she looked to me, “Maybe we should do something where we all can go out somewhere together?”
That… actually sounded like a great idea. Even if I knew them for some time, I had never really done anything like that before. Maybe it was a good time to try and branch out a bit. “That’s a good idea actually.”
“Well, where do you think we should go next weekend? We’ll let you guys come along with us,” Honeycomb asked. It was only a couple of weeks until christmas came around and I had a feeling that Gael and the others would go back to Equestria to celebrate their holiday equivalent back home, so this was the only chance to come up with something.
“Now that you mention it…”
I don’t know what exactly was going through my mind when I suggested it, but going to Legoland somehow actually was a success. When you first hear the name, you would think of a theme park that would be designated for children and not a twenty-four year old man like myself… but to the three Equestrians that were with me, this was something unlike anything they had seen before.
Even though we were there mostly for the attractions and to look around, it felt like we were the attractions because every few feet, some people would ask if their child could touch or pet any of the coworkers that were with me. Gael wasn’t quite comfortable with random strangers asking for this, but Coral didn’t mind at all. In fact, she was enjoying it. Though, some of the kids were kind of scared of Honeycomb since he was in his changeling form and I think one of the Lego sets that was out had something involving giants bugs as the bad guys.
Either way, we definitely enjoyed the visit. Especially since it allowed for them to get a taste of what riding a roller coaster was like. Granted, it was not like one of the ones that would be at Disneyland or Six Flags, but it didn’t really matter. I was just enjoying having fun with them.
When we came back to work, the four of us were still making sure that we got everything that we needed to take care of done before the holidays. The last thing we would want would be to leave a lot of work for everyone else in the department to work on because we slacked off. Especially around the time of New Year's eve.
However, as the new year started, I was getting nervous. Not because of work, but because of a different reason. One of the jobs I applied for told me I didn’t make on to the list of candidates that they were looking for and it was getting close to when my time at the DPC would be considered up. I talked with Lucas and Human Resources, but both of them told me that it wasn’t up for them to decide if my contract was still good or not.
The whole situation was stressful, even if I tried my best not to show it. I was in a good place right now with my colleagues. The last thing I wanted was to make them worried about me.
“Ryan, do you have a moment?”
I turned around to see Lucas standing behind me. It was a little bit of time before my second break as I got up from my chair.
“Sure, does the mail room need help or-”
“Actually… It’s about something else,” he said. His facial expression looked… different from how I normally would see it as I looked back to him, “Could you follow me please? I want to talk about this somewhere private.”
That afternoon, I got some rather bad news.
One Week Later
As I walked over to the door at the DPC, I could still hear Coral and Honeycomb talking to themselves about what they wanted to do tonight. They had practically been to almost every place imaginable in this city and somehow, both of them ended up finding new things to do. Some things we included asking if Ryan wanted to come with us.
When I first started working here, I was unsure if Ryan was someone I could really be friends with and tell him about everything. My life back in Equestria wasn’t easy and I had to use all my savings to make the trip. I was scared about how the… humans would treat me when I came here. Yet, he was kind, and has been there for me. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have been friends with Coral and Honeycomb.
“Hey Gael,” I heard Coral call my name now as she looked to me, “What do you think of taking some time for a movie night?”
“A movie night?” I asked.
“Yeah. Coral and I were hearing some of the humans in the clearing department talking about a few good movies that were nominated for awards. So, I thought maybe we could take some time to watch a few,” Honeycomb now told me as I unlocked the front door using my keycard, before flying up to grip the bar on the door and open it for them, “I heard that there was one nominated for eleven awards.”
“Eleven?” I told him, “Dang, it must be rather good if it got that many.”
“I heard it was on a comic book character,” Coral added as Honeycomb used his magic to open the second door by scanning the keycard using his magic, “Maybe we should ask Ryan about it when we see him.”
I nodded my head in agreement as we walked towards our desk. “Yeah, we should-”
The moment we arrived… something was wrong. Very wrong. All of Ryan’s belongings that he decorated his desk with, including the name tag he had that showed when he would go on his breaks, his coffee cup and a couple of the figures that he had were gone. His paper guides that he taped on the table were removed and the table was cleaned off. Even the small sketchpad that he kept in one of the filing spaces was nowhere to be found.
“W-what’s going on?” I asked, looking back at Coral and Honey, “Where are his things?”
“Do you think he moved upstairs?” Coral asked, “Lucas told us that some of the girls that helped us in the mail room when open enrollment was going on started working upstairs.”
“No, that wouldn’t be right,” Honeycomb added, “If he were moved upstairs, he would be happy since it would be a promotion. Yet, I hadn’t felt any joy from him in the last few days.”
“Felt… any joy?” I asked.
“Changelings feel more than love from any creature. We can also feel joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear,” Honeycomb explained, “For a while, he looked happy… but internally, he felt sad and afraid. Like he got bad news and didn’t want to share it. I wanted to ask him today if something was wrong, though.”
Right… everything going on right now. Dammit, just what the beak is happening? It’s not like Ryan to just not tell us if he’s going to be coming late to the office. The only times where he did come late were when he had a doctors appointment. So why would-
“Oh… hello guys.”
All of us turned around to look towards Lily, another coworker that sat next to Ryan. She was rather nice and always helped us out if he had to go somewhere or was assigned to help somewhere else in the DPC. This morning though, she looked concerned as she looked at the three of us. “Is everything okay? Did something happen?”
“Lily… where’s Ryan?”
Coral’s question led to Lily’s eyes widening as she stared at the three of us. “You mean he d-didn’t-” she stuttered, before looking around as if she’s trying to process something in her head. Even though we could hear her speak in a whisper to herself, “Why didn’t he say anything? They’ve been working with him for months, why didn’t-?”
“Why didn’t what?” Honeycomb now asked. Lily, upon hearing that, turned around and let out a small sigh as she looked at us.
“I… hate to be the bearer of bad news,” she said, her expression not being the cheerful one that she usually had and looked more like the one that guests at a funeral would have, “But Ryan no longer works here. The County decided not to extend his temporary contract and his last day was yesterday.”
That shocked all three of us, but it hit me the most. Ryan was the first human I ever met here and trained me. He’s the reason for everything I know and why I’m doing well here. Who in their right mind would think that’s a good idea?!
“W-Why would they not keep him? He’s the best!!”
“I know he is, Coral,” Lily told us, “But when I asked Lucas after Ryan clocked out yesterday, he told me everything. Even though he vouched for him, that was the only thing that he could really do. He even tried contacting Human Resources, but it was something that was out of their hands. I-I just don’t know why Ryan wouldn’t tell you guys. You seemed like very close friends to him.”
“He’s scared.”
All of us turned to Honeycomb now as he looked back at us. He looked at us as if he had discovered the answer to the most important question. “What did you just say, Honeycomb?”
“He’s scared,” he repeated, “Scared of saying goodbye. I think… he sees saying goodbye as if it’s the last time he’ll ever see us-”
Oh Tartarus no. If that idiot thinks that he could get away with such a stupid excuse to not forget about us, then he’s got another thing coming. “We need to find him… After we’re done today, we need to find where he is and talk to him. Because this is not okay.”
“But where would we even start looking? He didn’t even tell us where he lived,” I heard Coral tell me. If it wasn’t one problem that we had to face, it was another. But she was right. Ryan never really told us anything about where he lived, so looking for him was going to be a pain in the tail.
“Actually… I might have something to help you there,” we heard Lily tell us as she pulled out something that was in the top drawer of her filing cabinet, “I remembered that one day, he asked me if I could help him prepare for an interview and… well, he left me one of the business cards he was using.”
As she gave the small card to me, I felt a glimmer of hope. On the card was Ryan’s name, phone number and address as I turned to look back to my friends. “Thanks Lily… this will help a lot,” I said, before looking to Honeycomb, “I hope you can find this place Honeycomb, because we need you to get us there once we’re done with our shift.”
Later that evening
“Ryan, did you feed the cats yet?”
“I already did, Alex,” I called downstairs as I was trying to focus. It had only been a day after my last day at the DPC and I spent almost the whole time trying to find work somewhere. I had updated my resume with the skills I gained from my time working at the county, updated my profile on Indeed and other job sites, but nothing really seemed to come around. I know that the dilemma was not going to solve itself overnight, but… I really hoped that there was something I could find.
Dad was back in San Francisco this weekend and this time, Mom was with him. My brother and I were asked to hold down the fort while they’re gone, so it was all on us to get things done. Yet, as I took a break from my job hunt, I looked back over to a picture on my desk. It was one that we had taken when I was at Legoland with Gael, Coral and Honeycomb. All of us were so happy back then. I just wished that I could still be able to be with them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t.
Part of me was torn on whether or not I should’ve told them I was going. I really hated goodbyes and I did not want for this to be the last time I saw them. But by not telling them, I would’ve made them worry. They looked up to me as an example and I wanted to be able to stay… yet, some things were never meant to be.
“Hey, Ryan… are you doing okay?”
I turned around to see the brother to the door to my room, standing there with a look of concern on his face. It was weird, since normally, he would not always look so concerned for me. If anything, it was the other way around where I would be concerned for him. He had a habit of going forward with plans with his friends at college and around home without always thinking ahead.
“I’m fine I guess…” I told him, even if I knew that was a lie.
“Still down about how things didn’t work out?” he asked me.
“Sort of.”
“I know the feeling…” he said, before he noticed me put the picture away, “Say… I never asked you about this, but Mom told me that you made some good friends at that job. Did you… ever tell them that you were leaving?”
Now I was beginning to feel bitter. “No… I didn’t.”
“Why not?” he asked, “If you were such good friends with them, you should’ve at least let them know that you weren’t going to be there anymore.”
“I-”
“If this is a whole ‘I don’t want to forget about them’ thing like with your position before this one, then stop it,” he interrupted, “That’s not a good reason… so why didn’t you tell them?”
It took me a moment in order to compose myself, before letting out a deep sigh. It was hard for me to talk about this, especially with everything that happened recently. “Remember Gran and Grandad? When they were… still here?”
“Yeah,” my brother answered. Gran and Grandad were the parents on our mother's side of the family that lived in Ireland, but in the last couple of years, they passed away due to health complications. “Why-?”
“They remind me of them,” I told him, “We never got the chance to say goodbye to them before they passed away. So, if I said goodbye to them…”
“It would be like saying goodbye to Gran and Grandad,” he said, before letting out a sigh as he looked back to me, “Listen… I understand what you’re saying, but did you ever consider how they would feel about all of this?”
A realization began to dawn on me as he said that. I never did think about that. Over these last few days, I had been too focused on my last few days at work and what I would do afterwards that I forgot about what mattered. Those that helped get me there. Even if I was the one who taught Gael, Coral and Honeycomb about everything at the DPC, the three of them helped me become a better person.
“Listen… I might not know your colleagues, but you clearly screwed up here,” he told me, “You need to take a break-”
Just as he said that, we both heard the doorbell ring. Alex looked to me and let out a sigh as he walked downstairs. “I’ll get the door.”
I only nodded as I got out of my chair, closing down the web browser as I let out a sigh and looked outside. Night had already fallen and everything around our neighborhood looked rather quiet-
“Hey, Ryan… We got some visitors at the door.”
Visitors? That… never happens. Like at all. “Who are they?”
“I… think you might want to see this yourself.”
The ominous response wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear. If I asked him or… well, anyone a question, hearing details help me process it better. Answers that are vague don’t really help me-
“Gael, are you sure this is the right place?”
When I heard that, it felt as if my heart stopped for a moment before I hurried downstairs. At the door were my… former coworkers. All three of them were standing at the door as they looked back to me.
I… couldn’t find the courage to say anything at first as I looked back at them. Numerous thoughts bouncing off the walls of my brain as I tried to process what was happening, “G-Gael? Coral? H-Honeycomb?”
“Wait a second… you know them?” I heard Alex ask now.
“T-They… were my colleagues,” I said, before I look down. Finding it hard to stay in control of my emotions as I sat down at the bottom of the stairs. Alex was thrown off guard a bit when he heard me say that, but then let Gael and the others inside as he closed the front door. “Guys, this is Alex. Alex, this is Gael, Coral Reef and Honeycomb.”
“Nice to meet you,” Coral was the first to respond, before immediately proceeding to shake Alex’s hand… even though he didn’t extend it himself.
“Coral, boundaries,” Honeycomb interjected, before looking to my brother, “I apologize, but my friends prone to acting on impulse instead of thinking things through first.”
“She wouldn’t be the only one then. Ryan’s known to do that too,” I heard my brother remark as he glanced at me, “If anything, I think that’s what led to this whole mess.”
Gael now decided to speak as she looked to him. “You know?”
“Earlier today, he told me… Yet, I had to point out that he forgot to consider how you would react to this,” he sighed.
“Thanks for the reminder,” I groaned, before looking back at all three of them, “Guys… I screwed up. I should’ve told you guys about this, but I was afraid and… I did not realize that not saying anything is actually-”
Out of nowhere, Gael hugged me. I felt her forelegs wrap around me as she briefly rested her head against my chest, “Just… don’t scare us like that again. Even if we can’t work together, we can still be friends.”
Hearing that made all the emotions and everything I was experiencing earlier evaporate. Fear no longer had a hold on me. Instead, I was overjoyed. I no longer had to be scared about leaving my friends behind. For they were still here with me.
“Thank you,” I told her, “I would like tha-”
“Now kiss.”
Immediately, Gael and I glared directly at my brother as we released the hug, “Alex, really?”
“What? I thought it would help brighten things up a bit,” he sighed, scratching the back of his head.
“I thought it was funny!” Coral was next to speak up. Which only got a facehoof from Honeycomb as I finally got up on my feet. “What?”
“I like her already,” my brother chuckled, “Well, since you’re already here, how about I go make some coffee and get some snacks? I wouldn’t mind getting to know your friends a bit better.”
I let out a smile as I looked back to him. “Yeah… Some coffee would be nice.”
My friends ended up staying over almost until midnight that night as all of us had the chance to talk about numerous subjects. Mainly, it was my brother asking different questions about Gael and Coral since he had almost mistaken them for being the same species. That and some of our cats fur got stuck to Honeycomb’s legs when he tried petting them.
For me though, even if I would usually be down in the dumps about not being able to find any work, I didn’t care about that. If anything, I was happy. Gael and the others were the best friends I could ever ask for… and they taught me a valuable lesson that night.
Many things in this world are Temporary… homes, jobs, opportunities… But Friendship? Well, friendship is one of those few things in life that lasts forever… and I’m lucky to be with the friends that I made.
Author's Note
Story notes can be found here.
