Taming Strange. Or: How I learned to stop worrying and make love in public

Picturesque looked around at the dilapidated hovel. The evening sun was visible through holes in the roof. Every single pane of glass was broken, the only thing that looked new in the entire house were the piles of books scattered about the filthy mattress.

"Here? You lived here?" She lifted Haycartes' head to look him in the face, tears standing in her eyes. "Why in Equestria would you want to live in a place like this?"

Haycartes took a deep breath for the first time since the attack. He looked back towards the door. "This is my home. This is where I grew up."

Picturesque stroked his mane with growing horror at what she was hearing. "Why would your parents allow you to live like this?"

"They left." Silence hung heavily in the air. He felt tears hitting the side of his face. He looked at the mare he loved. She had tears streaming down her muzzle. He limply raised a hoof to her face and said, "Don't worry. It's okay."

Picturesque snapped to her hooves outraged at what she'd just heard. "ROANÉ HAYCARTES, NEVER SAY THAT AGAIN! IT IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT OKAY! It's not okay for parents to abandon their foals! It's not okay to live in squalor! You shouldn't have to live like this, my love! Don't you know that? Don't you understand that?"

It was probably the beating he had just received, but for the first time since he had met Picturesque, Haycartes found himself annoyed with her. "Of course I understand that, but being upset about it isn't going to help anything. It would be the same situation but I'd also be angry."

Picturesque was indignant. "Do you just feel nothing? When something makes you happy don't you laugh? When something pains you don't you cry? How can you say you love me if you feel nothing at all?"

He looked hard at her and slowly, painfully got to his hooves. He ground his teeth as he whispered. "What. Good. Would. It. Do?" He shouted as loud as his injuries would allow. ''I am a RATIONAL BEING!" He struck the worm eaten door frame with his hoof. "I have choice!" He struck the doorframe again harder this time. He began to punctuate every sentence by chipping away at the rotting wood. Picturesque could see his hoof begin to bleed, and she cried out for him to stop. "And holding a grudge. DOESN'T. FUCKING. SOLVE. ANYTHING. When I had no food did being hungry feed me? NO! I just stopped feeling hunger." Haycartes spoke faster now. No longer giving an explanation or even arguing. It was as if he had never processed this train of thought to its logical conclusion, and was just realizing for the first time how he had been living his whole life. "When the street thugs beat me, did crying out in pain stop them? No, I just stopped feeling pain. When I cried for three days straight waiting for my parents to come back, did being sad bring them home? No. . . I just stopped. . ."

She sprang towards him, and pulled him around to look at her. A small blot of blood stuck to the corner of his mouth, but she for the first time, saw his eyes clearly. They were as gray as his mane and tail, and tired, tired beyond belief. Instead of the snarling rage she expected, or the violent dismissal, his hoof reached up softly and caressed her cheek.

"That's why you're such a problem for me. When I see you I can't help but love you. It's an involuntary reaction like I've never felt before. That's why it sends my mind out of focus. With you I can't help but feel.

She wrapped her front legs and wings around him and held him tight. "Mon amour, je suis vraiment désolé. Je ne peux pas changer toutes les choses terribles qui vous sont arrivées mais je vous promets que vous ne devrez plus jamais être seul. Je promets. Je t'aime." She kissed him deeply.

Haycartes looked intently at her, and something inside of him broke. He did something that he hadn't done in thirteen years. He cried. He placed his head against her chest, and he wept bitterly for the first time since the day his parents hadn't come back. A lifetime of pain came flooding back. Finally he had someone who would care if he cried. Finally it actually mattered what he felt.

She held him as he wept and eventually he managed to stand without pain again. He led her slowly out of the hovel and towards her father's penthouse. Luckily they weren't interrupted the whole way and finally arrived at her door. "And you're sure you're alright?" She asked, still unconvinced.

"Oh, I've got Sawbones to patch me up. I'll be fine." He said looking her straight in the eyes. "I love you." Picturesque was so happy about his new ability to look at her she decided to believe him. They kissed goodnight and she gently shut the door behind her.

Without the healing effect the mare had over him he immediately coughed up a few drops of blood. All the pain of the beating he received came crashing back down. His hind brain was cursing a blue streak, and his fore brain was scrambling to find a solution. "Oh, shit. Need help. Actually dying. Need help. Should've gone to the hospital. Need help. This was a mistake. Need help. Hospital too far. Need help. Sawbones. Need help. College closer." He limped towards RCU.

Inside, Picturesque was shaken to her core. The things her lover had been through. She couldn't even imagine something so horrible from her dear parents. She flew to her father's study, suddenly feeling the need to thank him for all he'd done for her. She flew into his office and draped her mane over him as was her habit.

"Mon pére, Merci pour tout ce que vous avez fait. Tu es un père merveilleux et je t'aime." She kissed his cheek.

"Well thank you my dear. And I couldn't ask for a better daughter. In fact I've got a surprise for you!"

Picturesque didn't raise her head still hugging her dear father. "oh et c'est quoi?" She asked unconcernedly.

"I've just sent off your admission forms. I've decided your mother is right, and you're to be educated in Prançe. It's been wrong of me to keep you from your home. So, day after tomorrow, you'll be moving to Mareseilles with your mother. Isn't that wonderful?"

Picturesque's head popped off of her father's shoulder, and heart sank in her chest. She'd never been so distraught in her life. The thought of being away from the pony she loved was simply too horrible. She backed away from the desk in horror. "Non. Non! NON NON NON!” She flew out of the room. Her father called after her, but she didn't answer. She flew straight to her bedroom and cried all that night, unable to bear the thought of being separated from the pony she loved.

The Dean was honestly hurt at seeing his daughter so unhappy, but a painful victory is still a victory. He could visit her in Mareseilles anytime he wanted. That Demon couldn't, and he knew it. But it wasn't enough. No, that Demon needed to KNOW he'd lost, and at whose hooves. He summoned a runner, and quickly gave him a copy of Picturesque's acceptance letter to the Académie de Marseille to be clipped to his door.

By tomorrow, he'd won.