The school bell rang for the last time that day and the doors opened, young fillies and colts pouring out in their own little groups, each heading off with parents or by themselves. Through this colourful array of furs and manes, a small gap opened, out of which bounced a little black Pegasus.
Big Cat [the pegasus in question] hummed merrily to himself as he literally hopped out of school and out the playground, not really noticing how people moved out of the way of the little pitch black colt; nor how he received a few stares and tuts from students and parents alike. Even if he did notice, he didn’t care, he was on a mission!
The young pegasi hopped through town, smiling at whoever he passed. Now, Big Cat wasn’t the most normal of ponies. Not only did he have that black fur, which was unusual in itself, but his long vibrant purple mane was only focussed on his head and behind his ears, it refused to grow down his neck like a normal pony. To combat this he’d grown it long and tied it back with a red band, the same kind at the base of his long thin tail.
He didn’t really get bullied over it, some name-calling, but he just ignored it and got on with his life, he had no time for people who wouldn’t accept him, a lesson he’d learnt from his big brother. BC made good ace through the town, eventually reaching his destination where he had to slow down, that blissful smile on his face replaced by a lowly grimace. He’d reached the graveyard.
There was a service going on, so he walked around the edge, giving a polite nod to the vicar and making his way around the back of the church. This was an odd place for a young pony such as BC to be hanging about after school, but he had a surprise! And couldn’t wait until he got home to show it, so he’d meet him at work!
Big Cat slowly pushed open the door, getting a loud squeak from it, making the stallion on the other side turn to look at him before resuming his work, “Heya BC”
Said stallion was Final Destination. He was much taller than the colt, who was a bit smaller than your average mare, and of a lighter fur tone. His blood red hair was spiked backwards as usual, long tail brushing the floor. On his rump stood his cutie mark proudly, a grave with an ‘X’ on it, as it was his job to carve and engrave the headstones.
“Hiya Dee!”, called BC happily, bouncing over with a flutter of wings, “ Whatcha doin’?” he jumped around his adoptive big-brother’s workshop happily, whistling a little tune.
FD rolled his eyes and held out a fore-leg, stopping the Pegasus, “Will you quit it? You’re making me dizzy” He waited until the Pegasus was sitting then nod, “Better. Just another headstone, using that little poem you wrote. I must say, good idea you joining the business” He grinned, eyes rolling to the young one’s flank to eye his cutie mark, a capital ‘A’ then a lowercase ‘a’.
He coughed and continued chiselling away, “Anyhow, whatcha doing over here? I would have thought you’d wanna get home to finish this ‘secret project’ of yours?” The small pegasus jumped back to his feet and started jumping about one more,
“Well I can’t! That’s the thing! I finished it! I made it for you; can you guess what it is? Can ya? Can ya? Can ya?” He was interrupted by a hoof once more, hopping up and sitting on the edge of the work bench. Final’s curiosity was very much piqued.
“For me? Oh? I’m intrigued...well, come on, let’s see it?” The stallion sat back on the stall he perched on and watched the colt rummage through his saddle-pack, eventually pulling out a small carving of a pony's head. The pink rock was very poorly chiselled, but it was a fair attempt, and was definitely a pony head...maybe slightly dragonish...
“Wow...that’s...that’s not too bad actually....it’s a very high-quality sample of stone”, FD took the gift and turned it in his hooves, seeing a small marking that made a shiver go down his spine, “Um...BC...where did you find this stone from?” What he saw looked undeniably like a small headstone, well half of one.
The Pegasus jumped to his feet a prideful smile on his face, “I found a load of it on the side of the road! Just sitting there! There was his one really big rock that took me ages to get home; I made loads of little things from it! Chess pieces, a few little statues, snooker balls, and this!” He looked so happy, but when he saw the look on his brother’s face, the smile slipped, “Why? What’s wrong?”
Final Destination suddenly looked very pissed off, “Big Cat. That stone pile you saw on the side of the road. Did it by any chance have a sign next to it? Saying Derpy Delivery? Did each rock also happen to have a little note attached to it with a number? And my cutie mark!?” By now his voice had risen to a shout, getting a small meep out of the colt.
“That stone was for Manehatten!” He continued, “I’d ordered in a load of it raw! Refined it myself, carved and engraved each one into specially designed tombstones! And you took one, and made chess pieces out of it! Did you not wonder why they were sitting there!”
The door opened and interrupted them, the vicar looking a little cross, “Could you keep the noise down please. This is a place of mourning and rest” He vanished and BC started making excuses, but FD just held a hoof up, “Go home...dinner is in the oven...I’ll be home late....now!”
With that the colt yelped and fled through the door, beating his little wings as hard as he could to get away quickly. FD sighed deeply and closed his eyes for a second, “Hmm...maybe I was a little harsh on him....Gah, it’s gonna be mayhem getting some more rose quartz in time for the commission deadline”
The earth pony worked on for the rest of the day, eventually calming down, and feeling a little sorry for how he treated the pegasus, but he couldn’t change that now. It was dark when he finally left the workshop, making quick work through the streets to their house not too far away.
He opened the door and dropped his saddle-bag, flicking a light and admiring the very male-dominated living room, in other words, it was a mess, “BC? You here?”, he called, getting his reply when he heard a door upstairs slam. The earth pony grumbled softly, “Fine, I won’t ask you if you’re ok. Stupid kids.”
Even though it was dark, he still had work to do. He grabbed something to eat from the fridge and settled down in the main room, taking out a file and covering the table with papers. There were headstones to plan, tools to fix, stone to order, stock checks, schedules and all manner of receipts and forms he needed to sign. Yup, this was gonna be a long night.
Final Destination was usually quite stubborn in his work, once he’s gotten going, it’s takes quite a distraction to get his attention. To be fair, he’d been a little tired lately, so he’d let his quality slip a little, something he’d need to work on. He needed to order some more quartz, and while at it, fill in the forms for a new shipment of marble and granite. And there’s that incident report form he has to do because of the accident the other day, better to that first....
His train of thought was suddenly revoked by a sudden loud yelp, from a voice he’d grown very accustomed to. FD rubbed his temples and stood up, heading up stairs with a candle [since he preferred them over lighting], “BC? You ok?” He pushed open the door to his brother’s room and poked his head in, instantly seeing the quivering ball at the foot of the bed, “BC? What’s wrong? What happened?”
He rushed in and placed the candle on the headboard, settling at the head of the bed as the colt’s emerald green eyes appeared from below the duvet, followed by a slight sobbing voice, “I...I....I had a nightmare. I was being chased by this big mean old dragon, but I could run faster, so I ran and ran and ran but it managed to catch up, so I ran home where it was safe but he followed me and broke the door so I had to run and I ran to the workshop and you were there and I asked for help and you shouted at me and you said you hated me and the dragon ate you so I had to live alone again like I did before and I don’t want to live alone I don’t like being alone I...”
There was a whimper and the eyes vanished. FD took a moment to catch up with what he said then smiled softly. When he’d adopted Big Cat he’d found him in an orphanage, well, outside it. There was no room for him. The pegasus had no memory of his past life besides the fact he came from somewhere that there were dragons and they drove him away. Since he had a knack for writing, and the whole fur and mane issue, FD had taken him in.
The earth pony reached over and gently pulled the quaking colt towards him, pulling off the duvet and running a hoof down his back, “Shh now, it’s all ok. It’s just a nightmare. See? I’m here? I’ve not been gobbled by a dragon. Heh, if a dragon picked a fight on me, I’d buck him in the face and run faster than the wind” He looked at the Pegasus with his own large orange eyes, the candle light making them glow warmly.
Big cat looked up with a watery smile and nuzzled into his brother’s chest, throwing his arms around him tightly, “I’m sorry I took the stone...I’ll pay you back...I promise I will” This made the elder chuckle a little, “No. Don’t worry about it. It’s just some stone, I can get more. Worse comes to worse I’ll use normal stone and paint it pink, heh, see how that does”
Big Cat smiled weakly and yawned.
“You sleep now kiddo. You’ve got school tomorrow. Tell you what, after school, I’ll leave early and meet you and what say you and I go to sugarcube corner, buy us a big batch of cupcakes, and come up with new phrases for these headstones? Eh? How’s that sound?”
The colt squee'd quietly and redoubled the nuzzling efforts, letting out a soft giggle and another yawn. Not another word was said, Big Cat eventually drifted off to sleep in his brother's arms, who waited until he was completely out of it before moving away, covering the pegasus and going him his little phoenix plushy he loved so much. With a smile he departed taking the candle and getting himself for sleep, paperwork could wait for the weekend, no matter how moody and distant he tried to act, he was never above giving the colt a little brotherly love.
