Chapter 7, Barn adventures

*nudge* *nudge*

Gleaming Shield found herself wrapped in a comfortable blanket of warmth and darkness, as her mind slowly but surely left Lunas realm of joyful dreams and began the journey to return to the waking world. The process of waking up naturally took different amounts of time for anypony, but seeing as Gleaming was not a morning pony like her mother and sister, she usually tried to postpone the inevitable time of getting up for as long as she possibly could.

Squeezing out just a few sweet seconds here and there. Just like her dad.

Normally Gleaming would just pull the soft sheets or her flower scented, trusty pillow over her face and snuggle back into bed. At least until mom called for breakfast. But the relentless pushing and prodding of tiny hooves on her muzzle and face made it sheer impossible to find her way back to slumberland. Not to mention the lightbeam from her rooms window was hitting her right in the face. It seemed even Celestia conspired against the alabaster unicorn today.

´Mom must have snuck in and opened the curtains and left the door to my room open. Naturally Twily jumped in on the opportunity to wake me up. A genius and almost devious plan like always mother…´

*nudge* *nudge*

“…mhmm…mnot yet Dwily…”

Gleamings half-asleep mind figured it must be around Saturday, for that would explain her siblings antics to get her big sister out of bed early. Ever since she was old enough to be trusted with supervising her younger sister by their parents, Gleaming made it a habit to go out on trips through the neighborhood with her. They never went that far away, mostly to playgrounds or watch what new stuff the stores had to offer in the nearby Canterlot Park Avenue.

The Sparkle sisters almost always landed in or near a book store or comics shop.

For the adults it was an easy way to get both kids out of the house for a few hours and sometimes get said house to themselves on the weekends. For little Twilight it was most notably the very few moments in her foalhood, she did not spend with dried papers glued to a labeled spine. Much.

And for Gleaming, well… it served mostly as a method to take her mind off of things at first, but gradually it evolved into a cherished activity, regardless of what they ended up doing. Gleaming did not have many talents, like her parents did, but she gladly taught little Twilight anything she could.

For Twily, as smart as she was, always knew the most complex way to tackle a problem, but generally failed at the simple things in life. Mom and Dad usually were either busy with their own projects and hobbies or had something important to do at work. Therefore it fell to Gleaming to teach those little things to her younger sibling and be admired in return by the little filly.

That did not mean their parents neglected them, quite the opposite actually. But asking Mom and Dad for some advice or an open slot…well, it took some time, if it was not an outright emergency.

Gleaming however enjoyed being admired for a change. It was a rare occurrence for her. Wearing braces for a long time in school really messed with Gleamings self esteem. Not to mention that she never felt like she could compete with any of the other fillies in terms of appearance at all.

But this felt good. It felt right. And Twilight liked it too.

So it came as no surprise to anypony, that Twilight was eager to reach her big sister as early as she could by the start of each new day on the weekend. After all, the sooner they started, the more hours they had to burn in the day.

Gleaming was not totally opposed to the idea of getting up early for these occasions, since it was always fun to toy around with her little sister. Watching the purple filly explore her surroundings and try to get behind how the world was functioning, made little Twilight even more adorable than usual.
Especially when she looked up everything in a book she carried with her, comparing what she read with what was really in front of her on the spot.

´But why does it have to be this early?!´

*nudge* *nudge*

“…just five more minutes, mkay?...”

Gleamings unwillingness to move only seemed to encourage the foal, as Gleaming felt the little hooves increase the intensity of their movement all over her face, in response to her plea. The tiny appendages were not hurting Gleaming one bit. They never did. But it started to tickle her further out of her comfy, sleepy state.

For a moment Gleaming even thought that she may have forgotten an important date…or even worse, a BSBFF promise or something special!

But her mother would have never let her sleep in, if that was the case. She kept track of her daughters activities to much for that. Also Gleaming could not recall the previous day somehow. It was all…a blurr…

Usually Twilight Velvet would have been relentlessly hinting at something major happening the next day, all over the previous, so no one in their family could even try to forget. A habit her she developed over the years, with her husband having trouble at times to recall certain vital dates in their shared life.

But still…something about yesterday tingled in the back of Gleamings mind, like far away ghosts angrily rattling their chains in the fog…

*nudge* *nudge*

“Eeeeee!”

“…C´mon Twily, you get to have the bathroom first too, if-“

Suddenly Gleaming felt like she was just struck by a lightening bolt, as the memories of recent events came rushing back to her in a mighty flood of pictures in front of her minds eye. A show with entry free and for one customer only.

The portal, the changeling, Pokey, the weird carriage, the basement and the farmhouse with the Ling´s minions behind it.

Gleaming hastily opened her eyes to check on her surroundings and instantly regretted the instinctual move as she had not just imagined the aggressive lightbeam in her sleep.
Also she was correct on how it was aimed right in her face, almost blinding her. In response, Gleaming shut her eyes tighter than they had been before and tried in vain to provide some extra shielding to them by lifting a foreleg over her eyes as she cursed under her breath.

While unpleasant, Gleaming was sure of one detail now. The offending bright light came from somewhere up high in the opposing wall, far above her head. Quite sadly out of reach.

“…stupid sunlight in the stupid morning! There should be a law against light being shone in ponies faces. Especially so bright this early-“

The string of words escaping Gleaming mouth let her momentarily forget her fury against the Celestial fireball in the sky and she froze up. Words! Words had come from her mouth! She had spoken actual words again! She had to retry that immediately!

Dropping the leg she had raised prior as a means of protecting her eyesight Gleaming flawlessly recited the first thing she could come up with, “The itzy bitsy spider fell in the watercup. YES! One more, one more…uhm…”

Encouraged by her success a stray thought struck her and Gleaming tried to lower her voice as much as she could to replicate her old math teachers voice, Mr. Equal Numbers, and rightened herself up a little: “One cannot devide by zero, Ms. Shield.” And then burst out laughing.

“Eeeeee!”

Gleamings elated laughter was cut short as somepony voiced their presence in her immediate vicinity. Judging by her ears, said individual also happened to be fairly close by, right in front of her.

A cold chill went down Gleamings spine when her sleepy mind caught up with the ramifications. She had just spoken and did not know who was around to listen. She still had her eyes closed!

Gulping loudly, Gleaming used her leg to block out as much light as she could and slowly opened her eyes one after the other. She was mindful of both the direction of the light still shining on her face and dreading what would come to light in a few seconds.

But all that came into view was a harmless little foal and the inside of the barn she was being lead into by Pokey moments before.

´It could only have been moments, right?´ she figured, as evidenced by the lightbeam the sun had not set yet, despite Gleaming obviously nodding off sometime between then and here. The bright light from outside still retained the same intensity it had when Gleaming entered this barn after the avian.

Or at least that was the best she could come up without any other indicators.

The barn in itself was nothing spectacular to speak of. It looked just like any other barn back in Equestria proper. A wide free area dominated the middle of the building, creating a makeshift aisle between the rectangualr stalls for easy access. A high and somewhat pointy ended roof closed the structure up on top. The walls were mostly made up of some sort of reddish looking wood, as were the support beams holding the roof up and the individual semi-walls seperating the stalls from one another.

Gleaming found herself lying flat on her belly at the far end of the aisle in an empty stall in the barns far back. Well, empty apart from herself and a foal that is. Over the top of the semi-wall to her left Gleaming could barely spot the upper part of the large double doors she had entered the barn through. It was a tough angle to make out any details, but they appeared to have been closed at some point during her sleep.

A bit of stale, yellow hay was lying in piles around here and there, decorating the interior flooring somewhat. Most notably it was piled higher in the small spare area beween the barns backwall an the end of the stalls. The hay was unremarkable and looked unappetising, but it sure served to add familiar natural farm scent to the air.

As far as Gleaming could tell the only entrance to this place was the big double door, apart from a series of small open windows close to the ceiling, which only pegasis could have accessed. Upon closer inspection. one of the lightspending wall holes ultimately proved to be the culprit of Gleamings initial blindness, as the lightbeam still fell on her like a spotlight on stage.

Glowering at the inanimate fiend, Gleaming shuffled a bit sideways to get out of its range.

´Seriously, if this place was meant to keep ponies in, should the windows not be locked or at least blocked by something? All any pegasus had to do was fly up a few levels and they would be out for good!´ Gleaming did not even feel any oppression one would be exposed to under a magic nulling field to prevent the use of high class magic, like teleportation. This was weird.

The only escape that would be even easier is walking out the front door!

´Hang on……NO ANTIMAGIC FIELD!´

Gleaming could hardly believe her stroke of luck. If magic recovered just as well as her speech did then she would have a much easier time in getting out of here and leave this place for good!

Plus saving the ponies on her way out of course.

Feeling for her horn and the power it witheld, Gleaming found it far more responsive than it used to be earlier today. It still felt somewhat strained and sluggy, like a leg that’s fallen asleep and now took some time to wake up ebfore working properly again, but she could work with that!

Going through the usual steps to channel power through the appendage Gleaming send a small pulse of magical energy out in all directions. And just like she predicted, the invisible waves travelled all the way through the barn and beyond without being blocked, which would have made them visible.

That was great news!

Elated at her success, Gleaming tried a light spell next. And even though she had to use up way more power than she was used to, a few seconds later a small pinkish lightbeam shot out towards the ceiling.

That was even better!

With little regards to her earlier concerns Gleaming proceeded her line of utility spells until she reached levitation, which worked almost flawlessly as well. Almost.

For every time she increased the complexity of the spell she wanted to use, she had to draw in way more power than before. She had to literally strain herself to the core just to get a single straw of hay floating at the end!

That was bad!
´Whats going on here? I never had this much trouble! Not even in magic kindergarden!´

*grumble*

It was at exactly that moment, that Gleaming body reminded her that she was running on empty for longer than she should have. And the all the magic energy she had just used, even if it was just minor spells, probably did not help the matter.

In essence, Gleaming felt weakened, despite being well rested.

Suddenly the stale, raw hay looked waaay more appetising than before…

´No, I´m sure I can find something better.´

*grumble*

Gleaming rubbed her belly to negiote a deal, ´Okay, okay, if I don´t find anything soon, i´ll try it. Until then no more experiments with magic!´

The subject of magic brought Gleaming mind back to the Ling. ´If Aiding planned to keep me in here, would it not be safer to at least try to subdue my magic?...´ Gleaming eyes travelled to the barn doors ´…or keep the place locked up?´

Sure she was no pegasus and definitely not an alicorn, but still. Any half decent captor would have had any such measures in place. It was extremely odd of him to say the least. But that was not the only thing that stood out to Gleaming as rather strange.

Gleamings stall, as well as the one right across the middle aisle, was entirely open on one side. Nothing was put in place to keep the individuals residing in them from leaving any of the stalls or freely venturing between them! No metal bars, no chains, no spikes…Nothing but hay and air!

“Eeeeee!”

Speaking of things standing out…

As she completed her assessment of the overall situation, Gleamings eyes had finally finished adjusting themselves to the light. The second, more dominant, source of her previous plight, that would not let her go back to sleep, also made itself known.

It was a small orange filly sitting on its rump, legs stretched out, half a step away from Gleaming. The little pony stared up at the taller unicorn with her big and curious eyes. She was gazing with wonderous intense at Gleaming and followed her movements with her little head.

Gleamings figured that her befuddled mind must have subconsciously registered the fillys presence, but confused her with little Twily in her sleep. To be fair on her brain, It was not even that far off, as the foal looked to be the same age, as Twilight was in her sleepy-memory.

“Eeeeee!”, the filly repeated in a high pitched voice, that almost sounded like squeaking, as she reached out to touch Gleamings muzzle with her tiny hooves. A perplexed Gleaming watched on with interest as the little pony started to chirp along happily, when she moved her tiny hooves all over Gleamings face.

It seemed to be the fillys goal to distort Gleaming facial features in order to get her to make a grimace of sorts. It might have been all she was doing since she got here. It would surely explain the relentless prodding Gleaming noticed even in her sleep.

And the fact it was not little Twilight explained, why Gleamings pleas fell on deaf ears…

Leaning back to admire her work, the filly chirped with glee at Gleamings new look. Even if it only lasted for a few precious seconds, it seemed to be more than enough to amuse the young pony.

Joy over her accomplishment lit up her face like a beacon and the filly stomped her fronthooves in approval. The filly kept her happy expression intact, until Gleamings fur, mane and skin naturally moved back into their original spots.

When the show was finally over, the filly was about to go to work again.

“Eeeeee!”

Somewhere deep down, a small part of Gleaming was utterly annoyed by the fillys “game”. It was probably the disturbed longsleeper within her, who strongly disliked getting up at all. But an even bigger part of her just found the foals behavior much to adorable to let that lazy fragment win the upper hoof. So instead of calling the filly out on her antics, Gleaming went ahead and decided to make a funny face of her own. With tongue pushed out and a goofy smile on her face, Gleaming stared back at the foal.

Seeing the bigger pony join in on her game and then beam back at her with a silly face, the filly threw her forehooves in the air and erupted in even more cheer, “Eeeeee!”

When the filly calmed down, Gleaming mumbled, “Aren´t you the cutest thing ever! … Next to Twily that is.”

The foal responded by cocking her tiny head. Then she lightly touched the tip of Gleamings muzzle with a orange hoof and chirped, before staring up at Gleaming from up close.

“You didn´t understand a word of what I just said, did you?”

Gleamings reward was another head tilt from the filly, this time the other way, accompanied by a rather questioning look and a swish from her tail, as the little pony leaned back.

“Nevermind then. Maybe your Mommy will.”

The filly chirped.

“Aha! You understood Mommy, didn´t you?”

Believing she had an angle now, Gleaming rolled her shoulders and crossed her forelegs over each other. Then she pushed her front up and shifted her weight in a manner that would allow for her rear legs to slip a bit forward and under her frame. Finally she uncrossed her forelegs again and pushed herself up into an upright position until she was sitting in the same manner the filly was before her. Minus the head tilt and clueless (but oh so cute!) look of course.

´Right. How do I go from here?´

While she thought about how to get the foal to call its mother, or get her to show the place where missing the parent may be, Gleaming rubbed the sand from her weary eyes by using her fetlocks. Her suspiciously clean white fetlocks with the blue strains mixed in were a trademark of her appearance. Shortly before the fur ended and her hoof began a small patch of blue hairs stood out. A trait she inherited from her father, she had always figured, for he was the only blue pony in the entire family lineage.

Wasn´t there some grime stuck there last time she had inspected them?

“Oh, right, there was that…”

The clean state of her fur was another cue to Gleamings brain to remind her even more recent events, promping it to fill the missing gap in her memory with a dia-show. Luckily in color.

After she had followed the avian girl into this barn, the bird moved through some hay piles and pulled out a metal tub from the far back corner. If Gleaming looked straight ahead, the bathtub was once again covered up with hay, as it sat in the stall across. Although it lacked any water now.

Filling it with clear water from a hose attached to a nearby faucet, Kel had asked Pokey to assist her in getting Gleaming to go inside. Gleaming herself did want nothing more than to jump straight in. The gunk all over her had dried in most places and was making her really itchy all over. But she knew she had to hold back in order to avoid suspicion by the feathered biped and report it back to the Ling.

So it was back to “Let´s pretend” with Gleaming in the main role and sole actor of the play.

The water was not as warm as Gleaming would have liked it to be, but it served its purpose to get her coat properly soaked. And in stark contrast to what Gleaming feared at first, Kel, as the bird was called, did a remarkebly good job of keeping her talons in check, as she smeared a soapy substance into the unicorns fur. Even as she added shampoo and foam had to have blocked her view partially, she did not scratch Gleaming once. With the utmost care, Kel´s claws glided effortlessly through the unicorns coat like sleds on snow. It almost like a spa-massage.

Gleaming felt the stress and anxiousness, that had accumulated over the day leave her body bit by bit, right then and there. Especially when Kel used warmer water to rinse Gleaming after the main program was done. Afterwards Gleaming had closed her eyes for just a second to relax and then…

Blackness.

´Must have nodded off back there!´

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!”, Gleaming cursed while lightly knocking on her forehead with one of her hooves, who had previously served as eye cleaner. “She could have done all manner of things with me during that time!”

From the corner of her eye Gleaming saw that her display of selfharm seemed to greatly amuse the filly, who still observed Gleamings every move. The foal beamed up at her, stomped her tiny hooves in rythym with Gleamings knocking and chirped with glee, “Eeeeee!”

“Uuugh…that’s not a game, you know?”

The filly either did not hear or did care as she kept stomping and chirping away to get the adult to continue. Once Gleaming stopped, the filly calmed down and kept searching her face for more entertainment.

“Yes, yes, lets laugh at me for being stupid. What else is new?”

A sigh left Gleamings mouth. She could not be mad at a foal. The filly probably did not even understand her own situation, let alone Gleamings history of being the clumsy laughing stock at her former school. And it was not the kids fault that Gleaming found herself in this particular predicament either. The only one here to blame for anything, was herself for nodding off.

So, all she could do was to drop her hoof, take a breath and let the foal have its fun.

The filly flicked an ear, “Eeeeee!”

´How do I get her to introduce me to her mom? Or would it be smarter to pick her up and just look for her on my own? She can´t be that far off, right?´

As for usual in her life, Gleamings choice was taken from her by a sudden turn of events.

No sooner had she finished her thoughts, had a large pink mare with curly mane rushed around the corner of the stalls semi-wall. With flared nostrils and wide eyed, the young adult poked her head in every spare space available, clearly looking for something with haste. She even went so far to bust through the haypiles in the back corner, sticking her muzzle into them.

As the search yielded not the expected result, the mares shoulders slacked. Twising her head this and that way she seemed to be wondering where to go next.

It was at one of those moments, that she briefly halted in her scanning the area like a lighthouse. For as soon as she spotted the orange filly in front of Gleaming her vigor returned and the pink mare wasted no time to rush towards the filly with great steps. She almost seemed to fly over the ground seperating from the child and came to a grinding halt at the stalls border. When the little pony took note of the commotion behind her, the filly turned around and calmly chirped at the newcomer in very much the same way she had greeted Gleaming earlier.
Gleaming watched the filly jump up from where she sat and gallop towards the taller pony as fast as her little legs would carry her. And as the two met, the taller pony used a foreleg to pull the filly closer, her breathing slowed considerably and she bent down her much larger head to nuzzle at the foal.

The latter action was much to the foals apparent delight as she chirped with glee and rightfully leaned into the much taller equine affections. It was obvious they knew each other and whatever history they shared was a definite positive one. It was more than likely they were mother and child.

The new arrival had to be at least a close relative, Gleaming guessed. If the lovely greeting and shared curly mane were not indication enough, than the frantic searching the mare showed upon arrival would only be so, if the foal was hers to begin with. And even though she had had some moments to compose herself, it was obvious the fairly young mother would still need some more time to fully recover from the shock of almost losing her child. Or so Gleaming thought.

In an effort to console the mothers worries and gain some bonus points, Gleaming tried to explain the situation. Maybe it would help alleviate her fears?

“Am I right to assume you to be this fillys mother, Ma´am?”

Gleaming suddenly speaking up, caused the earth-pony mare to freeze in her actions. She all but stopped showing affection to her child and slowly raised her head to be at eye level with the speaker.

But unlike Gleaming had expected, the mares entire body tensed and her intense gaze firmly locked on Gleaming as the pink mare took the unicorn in her sights. Gleaming had a feeling, that she was being sized up from top to bottom, before a decision was reached.

The calculative look she gave Gleaming was not one to be desired however. It was a stare that basically drilled holes right into the unicorns body, all the way through and out the back. It was a very uncomfortable experience to be on the receiving end of this mare ire.

The more the young mother looked on, the more the mares eyes seemed to narrow. That was not speaking in Gleamings favor. Gleaming clearly had gotten onto her bad side in a matter of seconds, but how? Did she think, Gleaming had foalnapped her kid?

´Well, at least I got her attention… Maybe she is still worried about her kid? I know I would be, if I found my child with a complete stranger.´

“I´m sorry if I angered you somehow. If I had known you to be her mom, I would have taken her to you immediately. But as you can see she´s alright and had just been playing around here with me.”

Gleaming tried her best, but still received no answer.

“There is nothing to worry about, mam. Nothing happened! She just woke me up a little early, is all. No harm done.”, Gleaming finished while rubbing the back of head with a hoof. The unicorn gave her the most reassuring smile she could muster and hoped the message would come across the right way.

In spite of Gleamings efforts though, the pink mare did not respond kindly and instead her eyes narrowed to barely a slit to see through. That was not good! Gleaming watched the foals mother gently shove the energetic filly under her body with a swift motion from her forelegs hoof.

All the while she kept her gaze trained on Gleaming, almost daring the unicorn to make any move. The angry mother ended her posing with blowing some air through her nostrils and scraping a hoof losely on the ground, which kicked up some loose hay and dust behind her. That was even worse!

Gleaming knew she had to do something quick, before things escalated and tried the diplomatic route again. She really did not want to get into a scuffle over something that had to be a simple misunderstanding!

And also she did not want to explain why she got into a scuffle with the local civilian. It was not a good first impression, if she was the first guardspony they ever met.

It was clear to the alabaster unicorn now, that the mare absolutely had not understood her earlier messages (or ignored them entirely) and thought Gleaming to be a threat to her child. And it was also very obvious, that she about to act on her childs defense. Soon.

Gleamings training told her, that explaining things calmy was still the best option to diffuse the situation and deal with an angry civilian. After all the mother was just worried for the wellbeing of her kid and Gleaming simply lacked a means of communicating her that all was fine.

Extending a hoof, frog up, to point in the foals direction, Gleaming tried her best to look friendly and evade the young mothers deathglare. She used her second free hoof to mimic basic body language and stated, “I did nothing to her, she´s is fine! See for yourself! Look, she´s just smiling and having fun!”

The foal was indeed just as chipper as its ever been, in the short time Gleaming had known her. Even under her mother protective frame the filly kept its joyful nature, as evidenced by its gleeful chirping and hoof stomping.

But any movement from Gleaming, especially movement in the foals direction was exactly what the mare had waited for. And it was the one worng move to much as it turned out, as the mare went dead still.

In contast to the very happy filly, Gleaming would not have as much fun.

In a pink flash, the foals mother rushed forward and tackled Gleaming with her body. Granted the mare had not much ground to accelerate on, but the sheer force produced by the young mother, with what ground she had available, was still quite impressive. It was comparable to a frontal hit by a fully loaded fruit cart.

Or taking a freight train head on, for the malnourished unicorn.

Gleaming was very much lifted of her hooves and unceriminiously slammed into the backwall of her stall. The noise of the impact must have startled some residents in the stalls nearby, as Gleamings ears faintly picked up rustling through some hay and some “Eeeep!” calls going out, at the time of contact.

By using her shoulder as the tip of her attack the pink mare had effectively used her entire body as a battering ram. Backed by the full force of an earth-ponies might, Gleaming was helpless to oppose the assault.

Sandwiched between the aggravated mother and the wall behind herself, Gleaming was unable to defend. The sudden strike knocked the air out of Gleamings lungs and she was fairly sure, she even heard the wall crack and groan during the moment of collision.
Or it was the sound of her own bones cracking. Gleaming hoped it would not be that bad, but the pain Gleaming felt was certain to accompany her for a while after this.

“Ooof…” was all Gleaming managed to get out as the air was pressed out of her lungs.

Just as quickly as the mares attack had started, it luckily came to end. Gleaming barely registered it, but the pressure generated by the pink mare had let off after the point of impact was firmly crossed.
Gleaming had her eyes shut in pain, but she was certain she heard the pink pony back off a few steps to admire her work. Also GLeaming duly noted that the mares breathing was no longer right in her face.

So despite the immense pain she was in, Gleaming thought it to be wiser to stay still. If the overprotective mare attacked her again, she might really break something or even worse!

So, when the mother let go and surely checked on her fallen opponent, Gleaming remained stuck to a wall, completely unmoving.

With the mare no longer pushing the attack and supporting Gleamings weight from one side, the unicorns flattened body slowly sagged down the backwall of the stall. Gleaming was sure to find a sizeable crack in the wooden texture later on. When she finally hit rock bottom, Gleamings body collapsed against the wall in a heap. She felt herself leaning with her back on the cracked wall to stay semi upright.

`Owww…´

The overall pain Gleaming felt was actually fairly bearable, she had had worse in the past. But that did not mean she liked it any more than the next pony. Even during to her training, Gleaming had often brawled with other earth-ponies and drawn the short end. Like the one time that ended with her in the infimary.

At least her decision to remain still seemed to be right course of action here, as Gleaming opened her bleary eyes and stared back at the fuming pink mare towering before her. The unicorn did not know what the mare thought she did to her child, but Gleaming had no intention to give this crazy mother any more excuses to vent her anger.

Also even if she wanted to move somehow right now, Gleaming doubted her body would follow up as usual and comply, as she felt the aftermath of a small shock course through her system.

Gladly for the beaten guardspony, the mare considered her immediate foe dealt with and was content with huffing loudly in Gleamings face once. Uttering an angry sounding version of “Oowou!” after her display of physical dominance, Gleaming go the message: “Stay away from my child in the future!”

Gleaming could not be entirely certain, but she was sure she detected a bit of pride mixed in there as well. Pink mommy was apparantly very satisfied with herself about her achievement in defending her child from this threat. Gleamings hunch was confirmed with the way “Mommy” carried her head a tad higher now.

Not about to spare any more attention on her former adversary than she already had, the pink mare eventually turned on the spot and cantered back over to her child. But not before she used a rear hoof to kick some dust at Gleamings fallen form. Just to add insult to injury.

Retreating to where she had left her offspring by itself, she carried herself with an aura of authority she did not have before.

Gleaming could only watch in stupor, and no small amount of pain, as the cheerful filly was hoisted up by its mother, who gently bit on her neck and placed the foal on her back. Harrumphing in Gleaming direction the mare raised her head higher, if that was even possible, flicked her tail and finally pranced out of view to the left. The filly bounced on her mothers back with glee, completely unaware of what exactly just accured…or enjoying the entertainment.

The direction “mommy” disappeared into, probably was another stall, neighboring Gleamings own. If she focussed a bit, Gleaming could even make out the shuffling noises from earlier during the attack fight very close by. That noises slowly died down as things were settled, but could only mean other ponies were nearby, Gleaming figured.

Waiting a few moments before picking herself up, Gleaming began the slow process of untangling herself. Gleaming hissed along the way whenever she found a new bruise had formed in a previously unharmed part of her body.

At this rate she would be more blue than white!

She started by slowly roating her shoulders and winced when she hit a very sore spot on the primary side that hit the accursed wall. Looking back over shoulder, she glared at the Gleaming sized imprint in the buildings structure.

Only a single question ran through her head at that point: ´Why had it come to this?`

Ponies only resorted to violence when provoked or having no other option. They were generally speaking a very peaceful kind.

So, what had gone wrong here?

It was obvious the mother attacked her, as she perceived Gleaming as a threat to her foal. But why did she not react to Gleamings attempts at explaining the situation? In hindsight it seemed, Gleaming was doomed to be smacked into the wall the moment the crazy mare had spotted her. Gleaming made a mental note to avoid her in the foreseeable future. At least until she found a safe way to talk to these ponies.

´Hopefully that nut case was the exception and not the rule around here. I really don´t know how many of these encounters I can take…, Gleaming looked at the wall behind her for a second, or survive.´

Gleaming rubbed her sore shoulder. One way or another she would have to find out more about these ponies. And find a way to understand any of them.

If achieving this goal meant getting into a few brawls would finally see her somepony to speak to, she would have to bear with it and be ready next time!

The only alternative would be, that all these ponies are just acted on instinct…

Gleaming shook her head. ´No, it couldn´t be. Its still to early to assume that. Maybe I had a bad start!´

So with a new vigor and dusting herself off, Gleaming cautiously trotted to the border of her stall. Taking a peek around the corner, she made sure the mother was truly gone before venturing into the wide aisle connecting all stalls to the large doubledoor, which marked the only visible entrance to this barn.

Short of flying out the top windows that is. But alas Gleaming possed no wings and hence was stuck to walking.

With no better option present at the moment, Gleaming decided that this would be her goal and made her way over towards it. Or rather she hobbled a little, as she seemed to have developed a nasty bruise on her right shoulder, thanks to a certain encounter.

While she walked, Gleaming carefully cast her gaze into the stalls she passed by. All of them had the exact same layout, and were decorated with different amounts of hay strewn about. Some, however had a metallic plate on the ground with a hose closely hovering above it and a small bowl sitting beneath it.

´A makeshit faucet maybe?´ Gleaming could not be sure, as testing it out would mean getting closer, but that could prove to be a problem for her…again.

For Gleaming discovered, that the stalls were all but empty. Ponies of different sizes, colors and ages were either lying or sitting in them. Most of them lay on a flat pile of hay, but some simply had draped their heads over somepony else in order to have a pillow of sorts to sleep on. They all seemed to be in a rather relaxed state, either fully or half way dozed off.

All except for one.

Each little group had one randomly selected pony wide awake, sitting at the entrance to their little box. They looked largely indifferent about the general state of things and maybe a little bored, but whenever Gleaming passed by them, they would instantly tense up. Gleaming saw them remain in that state until she had passed their line of sight, before they relaxed again.

Owed to the fact that Gleaming was looking back over her shoulder, observing their reaction, instead of where she was headed, that her legs carried her a little to close to one of them. Stumbling forward and pondering over the behavior of these ponies, Gleaming had not realized the pony to the left of her tensed up.

“Eeeeep!”

The high pitched cry the pony emitted dragged Gleaming out of her thoughts and made her aware of where exactly she was heading. She recalled the exact same cry ring out back when Pokey had dissolved the large gathering outside and instantly knew what it it was…

A warning.

But was it to warn her or the others? Gleaming had to test this out, even if it meant another fight. She needed answers. So instead of marching on or moving out of the way, Gleaming simply halted in her steps and gauged the ponys reaction.

The pony in front, who had made the noise kept deadly still. But unlike the mother from before his eyes had not yet narrowed. That was a good sign, Gleaming figured.

However the outcry woke up all the peacefully slumbering ponies behind the sitting one. And once awake, all eyes and ears would quickly turn to the source of the disturbence, namely Gleaming. The whole stall then went eerily silent and stare at her, for as long as Gleaming stayed were she was. A few ear flicks were all that could be observed from the group.

´Are they waiting for something?´

After a while of this Gleaming gulped and dared to move a hoof in their direction. A dozen eyes followed her hoof as it slowly rose and glided closer to them. This provoked another response.

The initial cry of alarm was repeated by the pony at the entrance, but this time the others in the back chimed in as well, until a they almost sounded like a chorus. The ponies closest to Gleaming tensed up and completely froze, except for the occasional “Eeep!” coming from them. It looked rather chaotic at first, but finally, two of them joined the lone pony in front and the rest retreated behind the three pony shield.

The two aides announced their arrival with a defiant sounding “Ouwou!” before closing shoulders with the one, who was there from the beginning. Together they stared Gleaming down and pretty much dared her to move. When Gleaming did not react, the three were about to assume the same stance “mommy” did prior to them.

Realizing what was about to happen, Gleaming hoped she had not gone too far and ended her experiment. She hastily withdrew her hoof and stepped back quite a bit, while being careful not to reverse into another stall with her rear and anger its inhabitants as well.

The ponies did not leave their positions and at first Gleaming thought she might have overdone it, but eventually the cries stopped and the formerly tense ponies relaxed. Looking more annoyed than angry, all but the one pony, who originally sat by the entrance, eventually retreated back into their cozy spots from the start. After a while the scene looked vastly the same as before Gleamings test.

The only thing being different now, was that the guard kept a close eye on her.

Gleaming was elated about her success (and the probably fact that she was not beaten into mush at this point), ´So it was a warning sound!´

But that posed another problem.

´But why are they so defensive about me getting closer? Can´t they see I´m a pony too?´

Gleaming had an idea of why and briefly scanned over the group she had just disturbed.

´Nope, not a single foal among them either…so why?´

Despite her success, the progress Gleaming made was rather shortlived, as she saw herself roughly being at the same spot she started in. Gleaming was not about to test her luck any further therefore had no desire of a repeat performance. So she went back to making her way over to the barndoors.

As she walked, Gleaming mulled over what she learned, this time careful not to step into anyponys personal space. Most interesting to her was the fact that it was the one sitting the closest to the stalls exit, who first Eeep-ed and alerted the others that way. It had to be some sort of guard!

Her experiment had shown Gleaming, that she could not approach closer to a group of these ponies without invoking a hostile reaction. Gleaming instead forged a plan to try to talk to the next “guard” pony from a distance instead. Maybe that would get her new intel on them.

But considering the wary looks she was still given by the members of this group now, she was probably better off to find a new one instead, Gleaming figured.

So Gleaming returned to walking along the only path not claimed by these ponies and made her way over to a stall closer to the barndoors. This way, if things went south again, she would have a way to retreat into a direction that, hopefully, would not set off another group right away.

Along the way Gleaming also spotted the aggravated mother and her foal in a stall between the group she had just left, and her destination. The mother was sitting upright on her haunches and upon spotting Gleaming in return, threw her another death glare, which made Gleaming subconsciously hasten her step quite a bit.

The filly on the other hoof was trying its hardest to escape its mothers reach by constantly going around or climbing over mommys forelegs. But every time she succeeded, the foal was nuzzled into submission by its mother and gently pushed back, resetting her progress.

Leaving the pair behind, and passing two more inhabited stalls, Gleaming eventually reached the barn entrance. The big double door was shut tight and rested on metallic hinges, which bore clear signs of recent usage. Gleaming saw no markings on the ground near the doors, which told her that they most likely swung outward.

Pushing against these doors resulted in no movement at all from the sturdy wooden contraption. Increasing the force she used to push Gleaming achieved a slight rattling from the hinges and somewhere outside. The hinges making a noise where obvious, but the noise from outside could only mean one thing.

´Its bolted down. We´re locked in!´

Out of frustration, Gleaming gave the door a kick with her rearhooves.

A chorus of “Eeeep!” erupted from the stalls closest to Gleamings position.

In her sudden burst of anger Gleaming had not considered how the barns inhabitants would react to some sudden rampage in their vicinity and flinched when the ponies nearby were startled by her actions.

“Sorry!” she yelled in their general direction.

After some time the commotion in the barn died down. Likely due to nothing else happening, which let Gleaming exhale a sigh of relief. In hindsight, it might not have been a very rationable response, but it did make her feel a little better, despite the fact that she disturbed the locals.

It did however unexpectedly provide a new angle of insight. When the door responded to its abuse by Gleaming with more rattling a some wooden groaning, Gleaming not only heard the bolt outside and the hinges shift a little, but also something smaller to the far right produced a squeaky sound.

Surprised and more than a little curious Gleaming cantered over to the source of the sound and found a small hatch installed on the bottom of the right barndoor. Still affected by the force of Gleamings kick it was swinging horizontally on it hinges, in and out, in and out. And ech time the hatch passed its turning point, the squeaking returned. Walking over, Gleaming inspected her find and pushed a hoof through the hatch, checking to see if it went all the way or would stop at some random angle.

To her surprise, it did not.

The hatch went all the way open both ways and was roughly pony-sized. When pushed open light from outside filtered into the barns inside and lush green grass from outside was visible.

Elated at having found a way out, but slightly confused Gleaming could not help but wonder, “Why would anypony lock the doors and leave this hatch open? It doesn´t make sense! That’s like locking somepony in a dungeon cell that’s open to one side!”

´Also, if the hatch is open, why wasn´t anypony leaving? Why do all of them stay in here? They could all just walk out and be free!´

Gleaming did not undertand the logic behind the construction of this barn, or the reasoning these ponies had for staying. But she was more determined than ever now to get some answers. And she knew where to start!

With the escape route clear, Gleamings mind rested easy and she felt more confident to firmly approach a group of these ponies. She now knew roughly what to expect and if things went sour, she could always retreat out of harms way and return to try again. SO with the promised safety of the hatch behind her, Gleaming started to make her way over to one of the nearby groups.

Her group of choice was, not only out of convinience, located in a stall to the left of the barndoors. The group consisted of six ponies alltogether and just like before the majority of them was lying around in the hay, half awake and half dozed off.

Only the one at the stalls border was wide awake, and therefore logically the first to notice the strangers arrival. Gleaming guessed from her previous attempt how far she could invade into his personal space, before he would inevitably sound the alarm.

Gleaming carefully observed his body language and sat down right when she saw him lean back and take a sharp breath. In response the pony stopped briefly and fixed Gleaming in his sights. Both his ears swiveled around and started pointing her way.

She had avoided the alarm and had his attention.

Gleaming cleared her throat. “Hi, I´m Private Gleaming Shield of the Royal Equestrian Guard serving under the command of Princess Celestia. Who are you?”

The pony sitting at the edge of the stall, a light blue colored earth pony stallion with a pale yellow mane, perked up at her words and flicked his ears. He had definitely heard her. That was a start!

But the only real response she got from him was to blink his rosy red eyes and tilt his head at Gleaming. As Gleaming waited some more, his tail changed sides, swishing from left to right, opposing the movement from his head. Aaaand he flicked an ear…but that was it.

´Erm…did he not hear me? No, that can´t be it. I definitely got his attention from the way his ears moved… Okay, so maybe he did not understand me?´

So, Gleaming repeated her earlier phrase, albeit in a much slower speed and she made sure to ennouciate every syllable more precisely this time. “Hi, I´m Private Gleaming Shield of the Royal Equestrian Guard serving under the command of Princess Celestia. Who are you?”

The second attempt at communicating with the stallion ended very much like the first had. The only difference was that his head ended up tilted the other way this time. Oh, and his tail swished to its original spot back again.

Seeking help, Gleaming leaned to the side, to peek around the stallion into the stall behind him. The ponies there however seemingly paid the interaction between Gleaming and their guard no mind though, as none of them had moved from their spots in any meaningful way.

Gleaming let out a frustrated sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose with her hoof. She had to try a different approach. She had to get through to them somehow!

“Do-You-Understand-Me?” Gleaming pronounced every single word of her question loud and for itself. There was still a chance she had just picked the slowest one of the bunch.

When another head tilt was her only answer this time, Gleaming threw her hooves up and then covered her eyes with them, before slowly dragging them down over her face. Her frustration knew no bounds at this point and she kept her eyes closed tight after her hooves had travelled across them and returned to the floor.

At the end Gleaming vented her frustration with a long drawn out whine, “…Uuuuuugh…”

But then after a long drawn out period of silence the unexpected happened.

“Oowou?”

Gleamings eyes shot open and she stared in disbelief at the pony in front of her. His head was still at an angle to the side and he was still looking rather clueless about what was going on. For a moment Gleaming even thought she had imagined him saying anything, that she simply must have misheard who the speaker was…

But then Gleaming saw him repeat his “Oowou!” right in her view.

Gleaming was excited. Had her earlier words reached him? Had she finally made contact with these ponies? Finally found a way to communicate?

´Only one way to find out.´

Pointing towards herself with a free hoof, Gleaming tried the most simplistic to start, that she could think of, “Me. Gleaming.” Then she pointed with the same hoof at stallion, slowly as not to antogonize him enough to call an alarm or worse. “You?”

A few seconds passed before she saw any reaction from him, but eventually the stallion began to move. Gleaming watched with growing interest, when the stallion slowly repeated her gesture of pointing between himself and then her. He paused here and there, as if unsure on how to proceed, but the endresult was the same.

He sat upright and chirped.

Gleamings hope soared to a new height and she hung at his lips to hear his answer.
The ponys chest rose, as it filled with air, in order to release it with the intent of speaking.

“Oowou!”, he declared cheerfully.

Aaand Gleamings hopes came crashing down again.

Before Gleaming could even fathom what was going on, the stallion was already in the process of doing the entire gesture she showed to him once more… with a total look of glee on his face!

´Does he think I´m playing here!?´

The childish joy which sparkled in his eyes all but confirmed her guess. Gleaming felt a vein of annoyance starting to throbb somewhere on her forehead. This was not some sort of game! This was serious!

But getting angry at each would get nopony nowhere.

Gleaming let out a sigh and held a hoof to her forehead to feel for the pulsing vein and get it to calm down. But as she was doing this, she spotted the stallion from the very edge of her vision. He had stopped with the greeting gesture and was eying her curiously.

Gleaming did not move.

And sure enough, after a few seconds, the stallion started to mimic her again. It was kind of amusing to see him feel for something on his head, that was not even there to begin with.

Gleaming however, was less than amused. Was he actually mocking her at this point?

Before things went any further, she had to test something here, just to be sure. Gleaming halted her hoof momentarily and instead began waving it through the air in front of her face.

Seeing this, the stallion stopped doing what he did again, and his eyes hungrily followed her every move. Gleaming observed him closely for any change in his posture and behavior, as she focussed on keeping her movement as simple and evenly paced as possible.

Sure enough, after a about five seconds of watching her actions the stallion started doing the same.
He chirped and beamed at Gleaming, seemingly proud of copying her actions perfectly again.

Then the stallion surprised her by replicating all “moves” she taught him in the correct but short order, one after another. The pointing, the feeling for a vein on her forehead and last but not least the wave. When he was done, the stallion chirped again and beamed at her with a big smile.

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, Gleaming took things one step further. She got up, looked left and right, turned on her spot, tapped her hoof on the floor three times and trotted in a small circle before sitting down once more. All through her latest act, Gleaming tried to keep her sight at all times on the stallion, carefully gauging his reactions. She had to figure out what was going on in this ponys head. Even if it was all in vain to get behind his obscure thinking.

The stallion gave her entire act his full attention. His ears were at full mast, and his eyes blinked shortly at the end, as if asking if she was done. Then after a short wait, he moved his head left and right, turned around, tapped his hoof and trotted a small lap in his own spot too. When the act was completed, he sat down in front of Gleaming and chirped. Somehow he seemed even more proud of himself over this accomplishment.

Gleaming could not believe it. “Are you kidding me?!”

“Oowou!”, came the instant chipper reply.

Both of the stallion rosy orbs were aimed in Gleaming direction. His eyes sparkled with the joy of a child, who had just opened a heartswarming present and was very eager to start playing with it.

Over and over and over again.

A few of the other ponies, who were previously just lying around in the stall behind him, also starting to get interested in what rosy eyes was doing. More and more heads started peeking around their guard in Gleamings direction, their looks full of curiosity.

The stallion going active must have woken them from their light slumber, Gleaming reasoned. Their interest apparantly grew the longer the exchange between Gleaming and the guard continued and was now at an all time high. It made Gleaming somewhat angry that she was not making progress with these ponies the way she had intended. But progress was progress, right?

Gleamings anger, about being potentially mocked and copied, evaporated, as a thought struck her.

´Okay, its not ideal but I am getting somewhere with this, right?´

Before Gleaming could build upon her miniscule progress with the locals in this box however, the creaking sound of metal hinges attached to a wooden door alerted her to something that happened behind her. She knew from memory that the big double door was locked tight, but the hatch on its bottom was left open. Ruling out the big one, could only mean the smaller entry was being used by somepony right now.

Seeing as the eyes of every pony in the stall went from Gleaming over to somewhere behind her, only confirmed it. Even from the various other stalls, along the aisle, a few curious individual heads poked out. They were all eager to gain a glimpse of what had caused the squealing metallic sound it seemed.

A natural response really, Gleaming guessed, when literally nothing else of real interest went on in this barn.

Whirling around on her spot, Gleaming saw that the bottom hatch of the big double doors was bend inwards at a slight angle. Then after a few moments of nothing major changing the hatch closed and was promtly pushed inwards again, this time a little further. Then again at a deeper angle. And again.
The hinges the hatch relied on for operation, squeaked in protest on each individual push and on the way back to its original position.

Gleaming could not be certain, but she thought she heard the swinging hatchdoor collide with something outside each time it swung outwards on its return trip. Whoever was trying to get in had clear trouble in doing so.

Turning back swiftly, Gleaming hoped to get a clue on what was happening from her new “friends”, but they just watched on without much in the way of intending to investigate. While Gleaming could see they were just as eager to know who was coming, something told her, that none of these ponies would move an inch from their spots without an emergency.

Even more creaking from the door and some shuffling drew Gleamings attention away from her test group and back to the moving hatch. She observed as the door swung inwards at the greatest angle thus far, almost parallel to the ground, and all of a sudden a pony rushed through it, just before the squeaky door had the chance to swing back into position. The necomer halted just short behind the door and took an eager look around the inside.

Unfortunately for him, the hatch still carried enough momentum to swing back outside once and return shortly to slap him on his hindquarters. Startled by this sudden “attack” on him, the pony yelped a loud “Meep!” and scrambled to get out of this fiends reach. Once he was a safe distance away, the pony took a cautious glance backwards to determine if the door was still a threat to him or not.

Deciding it was safe enough the newcomer sat down and perked up before he began looking around the barns interior once more.

Gleaming blinked, rubbed her eyes and checked again.

Yes, her eyesight was not getting worse, nor was her mind playing tricks on her. That pony right there had just mistaken the hatch for a threat to its wellbeing. The sound of the unintended slapping even caused the ponies in the stall next to the barn entrance to “Eeeeep” in alarm at the sound of impact. The group must have been scared quite a bit, as the female “guard” peered around the walls corner to check on what had just happened.

Upon seeing the cause of the sudden interuption of blissful calm silence in the barn, the pony guard snorted and instantly went back into her stall. Gleaming heard a few “Ouwous” coming from the box, but shortly after that the pony group went quiet and apparantly settled down again. To them it seemed everything was fine.

To Gleaming it was not.

For the poor clumsy pony who had just arrived, had something wrong with it. Something terribly wrong..

For the young pony was lacking its left foreleg. Only a stump remained of what was once an entire limb to carry its weight.

Gleaming was at a loss of words for it and the fear of being turned into food, deep inside her, rose again.

Tearing her horrified gaze away from the pony and its moving stump, Gleaming glanced at the individuals in her field of view, but none of them seemed particularly bothered by the ponies missing limb. Did they not realize that they could be next? Could they not realize it?

´How can you all be so calm about this!?´

“Meep!”

The small happy chirps the stuck pony sent out, stood out in contrast to Gleamings assessment. The pony who should be worried the most, did not seem bothered at all by the loss of it leg. Instead he had an air of childish curiousity about him and everything his eyes travelled across was inspected thoroughly before moving on.

Despite this ponies friendly attidude, Gleaming felt the general atmossphere in the barn changing.
After scanning just a few faces, Gleaming knew, that something was definitely off. Even the rosy eyed, blue coated stallion, who had semi-communicated with her earlier, now wore a rather sour expression on his face.

Gleaming could tell fairly certain that the annoyance was not aimed at her this time however. For when she turned and looked at him, the stallions expression mellowed out. But when she followed his gaze to the new pony, the happy face fell as quick as it came.

It was to obvious Gleaming now, that the others inside here knew, who the unlucky pony was. And judging by their overall reactions, it was not an individual their liked very much.

But still, this was not right!

“Meep!”

While Gleaming had been pondering on what to make of this, the three-legged pony had gone to box, whos guard went to check on him briefly. With a smile on its face and a cheerful greeting, it appeared the newcomer wanted to introduce himself to the group.

The response he got was probably the opposite of what he hoped to achieve however.

Because the mare installed as guard to the group, stomped her hoof once and narrowed her eyes before uttering an angry, “Ouwou!” at him.

Not about to be deterred so easily or reading the room wrong, Threelegs tried again with a chipper “Meep!” as he moved in a little closer.

Without even looking Gleaming could tell what would happen now. With Threelegs still on approach, despite her warning, the guard lowered herself into an aggressive stance. She stomped her hoof another time and was shortly after joined by two other ponies who copied her posture.

With widening eyes the young pony finally seemed to understand, that he was not welcome here and scrambled to get back, but due to him lacking a vital part of his propulsion, fell. Because he could not move fast enough out of their domain, the three ponies then rushed to tackle the intruder together.

Luck was in his side however and he barely managed to get back up in time to avoid collision with them and get to a safe distance. From there he watched wide eyed, with a hanging head and droopy ears, as the mare and her companions snorted his way and returned to their box…without him.

“How can you do this to him!?”, Gleaming called after the three. “Can´t you see he just wanted to say hello?”

But the three ponies just ignored her and went back into their place. Instead her blue coated friend piped up to her. “Ouwou!”, he exclaimed in a tone, as if that would explain everything.

Gleaming shot him an angry look to silence him up, and quite surprisingly, it worked. The stallion visibly yielded under her furious gaze and shrunk together with sunken shoulders and a head tucked in.

This time he got the intended message Gleaming sent him.

Without wasting any more thoughts on the matter and disregarding the voice in the back of her head, that this may have some repercussions, Gleaming got up and marched to where the pony had decided to take refuge in an empty stall. Along her way she cast a glance over her shoulder to see if anypony would stop her from reaching him, attack her or anything else in the line.

But all she could see was the light blue stallion sadly looking behind himself and back at his own spot. The more the distance between himself and Gleaming grew, the more his head sunk and his ears drooped. The longing gaze he threw after Gleamings departing form looked almost… apologetic.

He appeared conflicted about his new playmate suddenly leaving him in the dust and the fact, that he was still assigned at his guard post, which he could not leave for some reason. His sulking expression tugged at Gleamings heart, as she witnessed his growing sadness, but she steeled her resolve in the matter.

´He had his chance to be nice.´

When Gleaming turned around again she had arrived where the young colt had retreated towards to seek shelter. Noticing her approach, Threelegs had perked up and was now sitting only a few hooflengths in front of her, awaiting what Gleaming planned to do. This gap of activity gave Gleaming a small window to properly check him over, before moving on.

He turned out to be a fairly young stallion, who had left behind the annoying teenager time, but not quite reached adulthood yet. His stubby face still lacked some of the defining corners and edges, which a stallions face usually sported. The pale yellow coat covering him, clashed wildly with the vibrant green mane sprouting from his head like a freshly cut salad.

´Not the most thrilling color combination. Is that why they don´t like him?´, Gleaming briefly considered the option, but discarded it quickly, for there were also some neon colors in here.
Somewhere in the midst of the sea of greenery on the colts forehead a small yellowish horn poked out. The spiraling lines on it were a little dirty, but nothing mayor, which could prevent the colt from using it. As far as horn go, this one was good to go.

´Why didn´t he use it to hold the hatch open when he entered? Why didn´t he defend himself earlier?´

Questions which greatly puzzled Gleaming. But as thing were right now, she had very little means to answer them…and also more important things to do!

In stark contrast to how the rest of the ponies behaved in here, the young stallions eyes lit up like stars in the night upon spotting Gleaming approaching him. The colt looked up at her with curiousity and eagerness in his eyes, instead of the apprehension, and hostility Gleaming saw when she tried to move into one of the occupied stalls.

Was it because he was by himself and the others were not? Gleaming did not know, but seemed it likely to be the case.

Disregarding the horn issue and seeing the youngster in his entirety made Gleaming also realize very quickly, why he struggled so much with getting through the door. Not only was he missing a leg but he was also a fair tad smaller than the rest. Not to mention that he was a little on the slim side of things in terms of food.

Therefore, logically, he had to use up more strength to push the door open and keep it that way for him to enter through it.

Gleaming steeled her resolve, gulped and inspected a little horrified the leftovers of his right foreleg. A stump that the pony aimlessly moved about as if the limb was still attached to it. How could it have come to this? Why was nopony doing anything about it?

Images of the hidden basement, where the brutish lizards hacked and slashed away at slobs of meat still patially fitted to the skeletons of former living beings flooded Gleamings mind anew. Now even fresher and more gruesome, as she was probably looking at a possible survivor of these crimes against ponykind. She could almost smell the smell the scent of blood in the air, taste iron on her tongue…

Shaking her head to push these dark thoughts away, Gleaming had a hoof hovering in the air and was about to close the remaining gap to console with the young stallion. Realistically, she could not do much here, except for some moral support. Gleaming knew that much. But maybe once they all escaped, back at Canterlot, some doctors or zebra shamans could regrow his lost leg.

Or at the very least fit him with a proper prosthesis.

Before Gleaming could make the final step towards him however, Threelegs met her hovering hoof midair with his remaining good leg and hoofbumped it with a resounding “Meeeep!”.

A little perplexed at his openess Gleaming stared at the colt and the still connected hoof they shared with confusion. She had not expected this. Not in here. Not from any of these ponies.

But Threelegs was all smiles.

An innocent smile that should not be possible on the face of such a troubled pony. But there it was and there it remained. It was such a simple act and yet, it made Gleaming hopes soar and she felt a smile grace her face soon after.

If this little bonding exercise meant anything then, unlike the other ponies, he did not seem to mind personal space or physical contact as much as the rest did. That was good. It made things easier then.

“Meeeep!, Meeeep!”

Seeing that Gleaming did not shy away from the contact either or made any attempts at chasing him off seemed to please the young stallion greatly. The smile on his face grew and threatened to split it in half.

He even removed his hoof from the contact shortly, and re-hoofbumped Gleaming multiple times. Each time they reconnected his joy seemed to grow and he moved a tad bit closer to Gleaming.

When he was barely half a ponylength away he suddenly stopped himself however and withdrew his hoof without a warning. The happy look on his face was washed away and replaced with a new look of…contemplation? Gleaming was not sure. But even a short glance at his face showed that he was in the process of thinking about something.

Dropping her hoof as well and returning to an upright sitting position, Gleamng realized something was about to happen. She expected nothing bad, but still would have liked to be prepared somehow. She hated being left in the dark…

´What now?´

*nuzzle*

Without any warning, the youngsters muzzle shot forward and he nuzzled at the upper part of Gleamings foreleg, whilst emitting a small humming sound.

Caught offguard by the action Gleaming instinctively drew her shoulder backwards and got her leg out of his reach. That was a little to close for comfort for her!

Nuzzling in ponykind was a very intimite affair. A personal gesture that was usually only shared between lovers or family members and was always returned in kind. Did he not know that? Or was he thinking that she…?

“Meeep…”

The sad eyes on his retreating head, almost crushed Gleaming heart as Threelegs withdrew from Gleaming personal bubble. His ears were laid backwards flat on his head, whilst his widened eyes fearfully looked up at Gleaming. But that was not all, once he had reached his own spot, a small almost silent whining started to erupt from him.

His sad whine only made Gleaming realize that she probably overreacted and had to think fast to salvage the situation. If she did not do something quick, she might loose him and be seen as mean as the others around her.

The one thing she actually came here to avoid.

With her limited knowledge about these ponies she had not much to go on in terms of solutions. That left her with only one thing she could do right now to remedy the situation, but did not look forward to doing.

Not to mention she was rather uncomfortable with nuzzling a stranger…

´Lets hope nopony in Canterlot ever find out.´

In the end Gleaming settled on a (very!) brief nuzzle back, in the same spot the colt had nuzzled her.

…

On his shoulder… and nothing more!

When Gleaming hesitantly neared, his breath hitched and Threelegs shrunk a little in on himself. Appearing to fear reprisal he huddled closer together by himself and waited for the inevitable to happen.

Sensing the contact to be non-hostile and Gleamings withdrawal, Threelegs dared to glance her way with a doubtful expression. After scanning her face for a bit and deeming the result satisfactory, he left his self induced shell and went back to beaming up at the taller unicorn.

Luckily for Gleaming the action had had the desired effect and slowly Threelegs perked up again, as chipper and smiling as he was when he first arrived in here. Gleaming breathed a big sigh of relief.

´Dodged a bolt on that one.´

With a smug expression Gleaming turned back to look at rosy eyes and the other ponies peering out of their stalls, “See? This is how you should treat each other! There is no reason to fight. There are greater things to worry about here.”

Gleamings response was a series of “Ouwou!´s” from various faces staring back at her.

´This might take a lot longer than I thought…´

*grumble*

It was at that very moment that Gleamings body took the relative calm situation to remind her that she was still behind on her promise to find nurishment. And the tone her stomach voiced its anger with her, left little room for argument.

Ignoring all ponies in the barn for a second, Gleaming put her head on a swivel in the vain hopes of finding a quick something to snack on, if only to calm her belly for a few more minutes. But her search came up empty, except for the pale yellow hay strewn about the barns interior.

´Am I really that deperate yet?´

*grumble*

“Alright, alright!”, holding a hoof to her belly and starting to rub it gently in a circle, Gleaming reached for some hay with her magic. Not knowing who had walked over it, and how clean their hooves were Gleaming opted for the top of a nearby stack.

Surprisingly for her it was way harder to levitate the hay than it should be. But she could not really be certain if this was caused by a mgic dampening field or simply her lack of energy. After all the horn required a steady supply of power…derived from plenty of food!

Hovering the hay in front of her face, Gleaming spotted Threelegs look at her with a weird look on his face. Something she had not yet seen on a pony since she came here.

Was that…pity?

*grumble*

Overriding all her concerns, her stomach demanded food and Gleaming steeled her tongue for what was about to come. She opened her mouth and hesitantly chomped down on the straws of hay she had picked from the pile.

It tasted as bad as it looked. The hay was at least dry, Gleaming had to give it that. But sadly that were the good news ended.

Gleaming could not tell how long the hay had been lying here, but all taste it ever had was gone a long time ago. Also the more she chewed the more fibers of it texture broke loose making the chewing ever more difficult to complete.

In essence, it tasted like a cheap old bubblegum, scraped from a parkbench or table somewhere.

`No wonder no other pony in here ate anything from it.´

Gleaming briefly considered spitting it out, but another grumble from her stomach, convinced her otherwise. It took a lot of self control, but she eventually forced it down her throat and the continued rubbing on her belly made sure it stayed inside.

*grumble*

And judging by what little it did to quench her hunger, Gleaming knew she would have to repeat this for a while if she did not find anything better soon.

Preparing for the worst, Gleaming was about to select and levitate the most tasty looking straws from the pile, but halted when she spotted Threelegs giving first her face and then her belly a weird look now.

“Meep!”

“What? Got anything better?”, Gleaming asked him with a sad smile.

Tilting his head at her response, Threelegs flicked an ear and looked behind himself. Then with one more look towards Gleamings belly, accompanied with another rumble, he sudenly darted off.

Running faster than Gleaming had expected him to with a missing leg, the colt made a beeline for the barns exit. Shortly after, Gleaming heard the familiar sound of the hatch being moved.

´What was that all about?´

As Gleaming chewed on yet another portion of her “meal” she turned around and watched what the others were making of this.

Not much it seemed.

Now that the commotion which Threelegs had caused was over most ponies had either retreated back inside their stalls, or laid down next to their border guards. In both cases the ponies looked more than ready to got to sleep again rather than doing anything useful.

It took a while, but after a few moments, which Gleaming could only guess were minutes, due to a lack of time measuring, she heard the hatch moving once more. And sure enough Threelegs bolted around the corner into the aisle, where he steered right towards Geaming as fast as his legs would carry him.

When he grinded to a halt in front Gleaming, the alabaster unicorn duly noted the ponies nearby were less than enthusiastic about his return. Some of them stood up again and joined their guards, apparantly intend of stopping Threelegs from intruding into their places from the get go.

But as he sat down and recovered from his sprint, Gleaming slowly took note that he had no intention to do so this time around. All his attention was solely focussed on her and her alone.
His eyes stared up at the taller unicorn and his ears stood straight in expectation of anything being said to him.

But the smile on his face was suddenly gone.

“Why are you…?”

It did not take long for Gleaming to figure out why though. His mouth was blocked by something.
By something he carried within it.

And he was attempting to smile around it.

Realising he was observed by Gleaming and that she had spotted the carried item, Threelegs lowered his head and unclenched his jaw. When he raised his head again, a small green orb sat on the ground, barely as large as half ponies hoof and speckled with purple dots. It was shaped like a tomato and despite the bits of saliva still attached to it, looked very freshly picked.

Gleaming was very surprised to see the strange new fruit. And while she thought about how and were Threelegs had procured this object, her mouth started to water.

She could hardly believe it. She had no idea where this thing had even come from and it was as far away from anything hygienic as possible…but the waterworks in her mouth were running.

Gleamings body wanted the fruit, that was certain. Gleaming herself did not. But she really di not have much of choice. So in order to avoid confusion Gleaming hesitantly asked, “oh, uhm…for me?” while pointing at herself.

Her answer came in the form of a firm “Meep!” and Threelegs using the top of his muzzle to push the fruit further Gleaming way. Gleaming watched the green ball roll for a bit and come to an eventual stop at her left hoof. When she looked back up Threelegs beamed at her.

“Meep!”

Unsure of what to say, Gleaming stuttered a rushed “Thank you.” and dropped to hay she was holding in her magic. Picking up the fruit, Gleaming inspected it for any flaws and brushed of some of the grime and saliva on it. Gleaming had no clue on what it was or how it would taste, or if it even agreed with her diet.

From the corner of her view though she got an unexpected clue. For when she picked the fruit up and hovered it in front of her, she drew almost all of the other ponies looks towards herself.
Some were even licking their lips!

But should she eat? Could she eat it?

Not eating it would very likely upset her new friend, as he seemed to have gone outdie just to get it for her. An admireable feat in itself, for he seemingly understood Gleaming was hungry and went to get her something. Which further proved to Gleaming that she simply had to just fin a way to speak with these ponies, for they were clearly capable of complex thinking.

“Meep?”

Peering around the floating orb in her magic hold, Gleaming spotted Threelegs shoot her a questioning look and his ears slowly started to drop.

´Oh no, he thinks I don´t like it!´

Gleaming heaved a heavy sigh, “Can´t be worse than the hay right?”

Taking a deep breath, Gleaming popped the fruit in her mouth and rolled it around, much to the joy of her new three-legged friend, who stomped his remaining hoof in approval of her decision. Disregarding the lack of sanitation for the moment, Gleaming tried to gauge the taste of the exterior.

´So far, so good. Nothing out of the ordinary.´

Encouraged by both, Threelegs and her own experience, Gleaming felt it safe to advance and chomped down on the green tomato in her mouth. She found the fruits shell to be a tad more sturdy than the average tomato. But eventually it yielded under the pressure of her jaws and released its juices and flesh onto her tongue. Swirling the mix around in her mouth, Gleaming pushed through the juices with her tongue to get abetter taste of the inside of her snack.

The instant her tongue touched the juice though, she wished she had not been so eager.

For the very moment the liquid made contact with her tastebuds, her entire mouth went up in flames.

Author's Note

No I´m not dead. Told you I´m not the fastest :P
But anyhow, this much of a delay is too much even for me. Next one will be faster.
PinkyPromise.
As an apology a bit more wall of text for you to enjoy, maybe on a vacation on a beach somewhere. I have heard its warm during summer and reading doesn´t cause much heat builing up :D

As usual, if you find typos or grammar issues, let me know. I´m not a native english speaker and would like to have this as error free as possi-

"Pokey stop that! If you push that button I can´t fini-"

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