Duellum Telum

Friday already... Time’s never passed this quickly for me before. Moonfire sat in a booth inside Sugar Cube Corner, watching the room with his feeling-sense-thingy and eating a plain vanilla cupcake. Why must my morals conflict with my need for secrecy? I could have let them just pick on him, but no, I just had to help him. And now I’m sitting in the one place that I never wanted to be. Oh well, at least the cupcake’s good.

“Thank you, I made it myself,” a voice said from his left.

“Gah!” Moonfire jumped and landed on his hooves four pony lengths away from his seat, facing the booth and the pony sitting in it.

“Hi there! I haven’t seen you around here before,” a pink mare with cotton candy for her mane and an expression bright enough to light a cave greeted.

... That’s it, my life is over. “Um... hi?”

“Are you new in town, little guy, or are you just on a visit?” Pinkie asked with a tilt of her head. She hadn’t gone and jumped him just yet, thankfully. More than likely she was a little more careful with young children than she was with adults.

Maybe this can still be salvaged. “Um... You could say I’m new in town...”

At that, she squeaked and disappeared in a pink cloud, before returning with a gigantic contraption consisting of what looked like ovens.

“Then let me just get out the welcome wagon for you! What’s your name?”

“... Please don’t eat me,” He said with a horrified expression.

“Don’t be silly! I don’t eat little colts. This is just a little welcome wagon, it’s got pies in it and confetti and -- where are your parents if you’re new in town? There’s not a new couple that I didn’t know about, is there?” She gasped in an apparent panic, “Oh no, I missed your parents! And now-”

Panicking, Moonfire said the first thing that came to mind. “I’m an orphan! I’m living with Captain Squall’s half sister!”

The pink conglomerate of illogic blinked.

“Wait. You’re an orphan? I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Well, who are you living with, then? I know everypony in town and no one’s half the sister of any captain. Which half is it?”

Annoyed, Moonfire forgot his fear and face-hoofed. “I don’t mean half as in half a pony, I mean half as in his mom married another pony and had a foal with that pony.”

She leaned in closer.

“And that foal would be....”

“Um...” Quick, think! “I think he said her name was Fluttershy. But I wasn’t supposed to get here until tomorrow and I’m kinda waiting for somepony right now.”

“Wow, you just got here and you already have a marefriend? You must be a really nice guy. But what’s your name?”She persisted, kicking her welcome wagon away for a more appropriate time. Oddly, the thing just disappeared into the next room without crashing.

“... Moonfire, The Grey Ensis.”

“Ooh,” she fawned, “is that some sort of weird title?”

A weird title? Pinkie, this isn’t the weirdest title somepony can get. “It’s not ‘some weird title’, it’s a title that was given to me by Sensei Garuda.”

“Sensei Gawhoda?”

He gave Pinky a look. “You pronounce his name: Ga-hru-da.”

“Who is this Garuda anyways?” came a voice from behind Moonfire.

He sighed. “He’s an Arch Magus. He’ll teach anypony he deems worthy. If you can find him, you’ve already passed the first of his tests. But he has many more.”

“Wait.” He looked over his shoulder. “Oh, hey Diamond Tiara.”

He looked back at Pinkie, only to find her missing. “... Okay, I’ll just assume that she’s like Sensei.”

“You’ve seen way too many martial arts flicks,” the girl started as she sat down at the table.

“No, he was always disappearing whenever he felt like it.” Moonfire walked back over to the table and sat down across from the filly. “So if anypony’s seen too many martial arts movies, it’s Garuda. Want a cupcake?”

Reluctantly, the girl bit into one of the cupcakes, munching it as she thought long and hard. She looked almost like she was scheming, or sizing him up.

Silence fell as she stared at him.

“So... you’re living with Fluttershy, huh?”

“Yeah, I was supposed to arrive tomorrow.” Moonfire took a bite from his cupcake.

“Where’d you live before that?” she asked, just a hint of mistrust in her voice mixed with compassion.

“I’ve lived everywhere, Baltimare, Applewood, Manehattan; you name the place, I’ve lived there.”

She nodded.

“Okay. So: how do you plan to make up for taking my tiara?”

Okay, what’s with my brain jumping into the gutter all of a sudden? “Uh... I thought this would be enough?”

“So you annoy little girls to get them to go on a date with you? That’s pretty sad,” she tried with a smirk.

“Hey, you were the one to ask me out, remember? You’re the sad one.”

The girl flinched at that. She averted his gaze for a bit, pouting as she tried to think of a retort, no doubt.

“Look, I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t talk to ponies like that. You don’t look like a mean girl, so why do you act like one?”

The pink filly huffed.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

What does th- oh... “It’s something to do with your parents, isn’t it?”

“What would you know? You don’t even have parents. Why did I even ask you to do this? You’re a stupid colt who can’t mind his own business.”

“I do have parents, I just... had to get away from them, and it’s not like I can just go back.”

The girl’s face went grave at that.

“You had to get away from them? Why?”

Now it was Moonfire’s turn to look away. “It’s too personal to talk about.”

“I guess it would be,” she conceded, pouting a little. The filly seemed to finally open up, a little hint of genuine sadness in her tone.

“Anyways, what about you? Why are you being so rude to the other foals?”

She glared a little at that remark.

“I’m not rude all the time. I just think blank flanks are stupid,” she lied.

He looked back at the pink filly. “You know, for some reason everypony in this town is a bad liar.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. You want ponies to lie to you?”

“No, I don’t, I just expect lies to be more subtle than yours.”

“Why do you care how I act? It’s none of your business.”

“I care because I don’t like to see suffering. I don’t care for bullies.” He suddenly found his cupcake to be very interesting and said, “I find that things are more beautiful when there’s only happiness to be found.”

Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow.

“Wow. You talk weird.”

“Well, spend too much time around an old sensei and you kinda pick up their way of talking.” He looked up. “What I meant is, there’s not a lot of happiness in your life. So there’s not much to make you smile.”

“Yeah. Sometimes,” she admitted, “but how do you smile, then? If you think I’m so bad, how are you any better?”

“I’m not. I’m just optimistic... most of the time.”

“How?”

“Well, I look at my life when I was living with my parents, see how miserable I was, then look at my life now. I have to fend for myself, yes, but I’m not being forced to move on to something I don’t like, or being sent to my room for breaking something on accident. I’m my own pony and I need only myself to survive.”

She snorted as she finished another cupcake.

“Sure. You think you’re worse off with your parents. Bet that’s easy, huh?”

Moonfire snarled, “You don’t know what you’re talking about! You don’t have parents who don’t care what you think. My ‘father’ made me leave the monastery and my Sensei, he wouldn’t let me finish my law studies, and he chased me out!”

His eyes widened. Did I just-

Diamond Tiara smirked unpleasantly.

“So you’re not an orphan, but a runaway, huh? And you’re not staying with Fluttershy at all,” she whispered.

Moonfire looked at his cupcake. In a soft voice he said, “I didn’t run away, he drove me away.”

She huffed. As much as she tried, the filly couldn’t help but sympathise.

“Well... for what it’s worth, things aren’t all good with my daddie either.”

“You know, I’m seeing a pattern here....”

“What do you mean?”

“Almost all the rich stallions that I know are -- how do I put this nicely -- a pain in the flank.”

“Hey, just because your dad threw you out, doesn’t mean my dad’s a jerk, too. He does -- you know -- get me stuff. I’ve got everything I want.”

“Except you still feel like something is missing?”

“Like you’re not missing anything.”

“I know what I am missing, and most of it is too dangerous to have right now.”

“You really need to stop watching so many movies. What could possibly be so dangerous that you can’t get it? It’s not like your dad is out to kill you, is he?”

Great, my life is sounding like a movie now. “He is.”

This got the girl nearly choking.

“What? So call the Royal Guard, have him arrested or something!”

“He has most of them under his hoof. I tried to get in the palace to tell the princess but... it didn’t work out.”

The filly snorted.

“Wow. You really know to kill the mood, huh?”

He sighed. “I’m just stating the facts. Why don’t we get off this depressing topic?”

“Sure. I don’t even know what I’m doing here to begin with,” she offered with an annoyed groan, staring the boy in the eye.

“Well, it has something to do with the you-know-whats and me seeing them.”

“The what?”

Moonfire glanced at her and whispered, “... Your warts.”

“Oh yeah.” Suddenly she was in his face, glaring right into his soul. “Don’t tell anyone or you will be sorry.”

“... I don’t know if I should be frightened or ashamed that my mind has read too deeply into that.”

The filly’s gaze bored into his soul at that. A little twitch in her left eye spoke of restrained anger, as well as the reflex of going for the throat. Then again, with her family tree there was always the possibility that she had a bit of vulture in her.

Right, I can’t expect her to know an innuendo when one presents itself to her. “Okay, I won’t. On one condition.”

She grumbled. “Name it.”

“Please, don’t tell anypony what I have told you.”

“Not like anyone would believe me. But I won’t tell. If you don’t mind walking me home.”

Diamond Tiara jumped onto the floor and started walking away.

Why the buck not? “Okay.”

He gulped down the rest of his cupcake and, glancing around, dropped the disguise on his left forehoof and let some bits fall out of the holes before hiding it again.

=======================

Moonfire was pacing near the town side of the bridge to Fluttershy’s.

Why didn’t I set a time for us meeting here? They could’ve already left because I didn’t show. Pain lanced its way through his wing and, hissing, he sat down on the side of the road. Where are they? I said to meet... ON the bridge.

He face-hoofed and went up to the middle of the bridge. He climbed up onto the railing and sat down. Thanks to my stupidity they might not’ve seen me and left. Why ca-

“Good morning!” Scootaloo yelled. Right behind her, the two other fillies were smirking.

He tensed and glanced behind him. “And here I was worried I was late.”

The disguised changeling jumped down off of the railing and started for Fluttershy’s cottage. “You coming?”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom flanked him while Sweetie Belle covered the rear.

“Okay, just let me do the talking first. Fluttershy might be a little scared, but she’ll understand if I explain it.”

Moonfire nodded and picked up his pace to a trot. I just want to get there and get this over with as soon as possible.

“Just relax, will ya?” the Earth pony started. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”

Before he could even take a breath to answer, they’d closed the distance and Scootaloo was knocking on the door.

“Hey, girls. Who’s this?” said a soft voice from their right.

The girls turned to see the yellow pegasus mare with a pink mane.

“This is Moonfire,” Sweetie Belle replied. “He’s a... a friend. But we kind of need your help.”

“Are you busy with anypony’s animals right now?” Scootaloo inquired.

“Oh, no I just fed the chickens. Nice to meet you, Moonfire,” Fluttershy said as she walked inside, beckoning them to follow.

“What’s wrong?”

Once the four were in, Scootaloo took a deep breath to steady herself.

“Um, do you know how to fix a broken wing? I mean, one that’s healed bad.”

“Well, yes, I do.” The mare looked worried. “Did something happen to your wing, Scootaloo?”

“No, my wings are fine, thanks. It’s Moonfire’s wing that’s kind of messed up.”

The mare looked at the unicorn colt intently, then to Scootaloo.

“Um, Scootaloo? Your friend doesn’t have wings.”

“Yes, he does. They’re just not showing. The same way I’ve got a horn that’s not showing.”

The mare’s eyes widened, a tiny gulp escaped her throat.

“He’s like me,” Scootaloo explained. “Go on, show her.”

Moonfire dropped his disguise and felt fear rolling off of the pink-maned mare. “Please, don’t be afraid.”

He watched as her eyes locked onto his wing and felt the fear lessen a bit.

“W-what happened?”

“I took a dare back in Manehattan. A stupid dare for pears of all things!” He rolled his eyes.

“Wow. Are pears bad for us, too, maybe?”

“No, I just don’t like pears. Never have liked them.”

“Oh. Guess it was one of those dares, then.”

“If you mean it was to see if I could survive a twenty foot drop, then yes, it was one of those dares. But why don’t we get back on track?” Moonfire looked back at Fluttershy, her fear almost non-existent now.

“Right, anyway,” Sweetie Belle started, “could you please help him? He can’t really go to a normal doctor.” She leaned in to whisper. “He’s really scared of other ponies.”

“Yeah, he’s kinda paranoid,” Apple Bloom observed with a smirk.

“First, like I said Wednesday, the paranoid are only called that until they are proven right. Second, I’m not afraid of ponies, I’m just being careful about who I interact with,” the male changeling said with an indignant expression.

“I-I’ll just go get my first aid kit,” Fluttershy said as she got up.

Once the mare was out of the room, Moonfire hissed, “Are you trying to make me angry?!”

“Are you trying to look angry?” Scootaloo replied calmly. “Relax, Fluttershy knows you’re safe now. Lighten up: you’re with good ponies now, remember?”

Moonfire sighed, “I know, I’m just always on edge. It’s been a long time since I’ve been messed with like that.”

“Well, if you’re that sensitive, we could stop,” Sweetie Belle tried.

“Won’t matter soon if she has what I think she does. Wouldn’t make much sense if she didn’t have it.”

Scootaloo tilted her head.

“Twilight said it’s called ‘ling-nip’. It’s a tranquiliser that won’t poison you. It’s the only medicine we’re sure won’t be bad for you. Or me.”

‘Ling nip? Nice to know we’re considered cat-like. “Sounds kinda like honey thistle.”

“It’s made from honey thistle.” Fluttershy said as she stepped into the room.

“Well, then we know it’s powerful stuff right?” Scootaloo tried. “I mean: it’s not like there’s a lot of options.”

Moonfire sighed, “Yeah...”

He looked at his wing. It was partly bent at the tip, with a needle-like outgrowth where it had broken. A little callus marked the point of the injury, swollen around to try and patch it up. Like reed that got bent in a storm, only made of hardened flesh with its own pulse and breath. He winced as the dull pain sharpened a bit.

“Let’s just get this over with,” he looked around. “Where do you want me to lay?”

“Um... H-how about on the couch?” Fluttershy asked.

Moonfire jumped up onto the couch and laid down with his right wing facing away from the couch.