And just like that, I’ve been in this weird pony world for a week. To me though, it felt like it’s already been more than a month. With all this action in the past few days, I’ve been doing more, and thinking more than I was ever able to do while sick, maybe even before that too. There were just so many new and exciting things, which brought about something I’ve never experienced before.

Mental exhaustion.

I started feeling it back in the glade with Iphthime, but when we got back to town with Sir Manuscript, I didn’t even feel like moving. The trip back to the inn was a slogfest, like I was knee deep in mud the entire time. I never thought that there could be too many things to think about, or that fatigue could be more than just physical. It was safe to say that I went to bed super early, and slept in really late the next morning.

And then I was ready for the next week. Nothing like a good night’s rest to get you up and going again.

…Or not quite. Indigo informed me that there were actually eight days in a week, which meant technically I still had one more day left before being here for an entire week. This coincided with there being four hundred days in the year: there were fifty weeks in a year, and ten months, with each month getting five weeks, or fourty days.

Now I already knew I was probably on a different planet, and I had assumed that there might be some differences in timeframes, but I found it odd on how… even it was. Indigo was also quick to lecture me on that.

The ponies literally controlled the sun and moon, moving them across the sky with magic. Again, this was strangely familiar, which clued into the fact that I had seen this somewhere before, but it was still surprising to hear. That kind of control over the world could be monumental if used correctly, especially compared to just standardizing dates and times.

Though ‘control’ was used loosely. Apparently the ponies couldn’t do much more than move the celestial bodies, and it took a bunch of effort just to do that. Supposedly there was a time when they moved on their own, but something stopped them somehow.

Indigo didn’t know the answer, and I wasn’t really listening at that point. It was all just more weight upon my mind, so you’ll have to forgive me for not paying attention to all the details.

Thankfully, the next morning was calmer, and so were the next few days. The reason? Sir Manuscript literally told us to relax for a few days, because at the end of the calendar week, we would be going back out to drive off the dragons spotted at the deposit.

That’s right, the patrol wasn’t uneventful. Though they didn’t encounter any dragons directly while out there, there was plenty of evidence of them, recent evidence, and there was no reason to believe that they wouldn’t be back.

And so, we were tasked with driving them off, for good, which meant either killing them, or injuring them enough to the point where it was guaranteed that they wouldn’t come back. Either way there was going to be a fight.

First there was flower picking, and now there was dragon slaying. As fun as that sounded, I wasn’t too enthusiastic about the prospect. Even with my two days worth of training, I didn’t feel like I was quite ready enough to handle something like this.

Attendance was mandatory though, and this was made quite clear by both Sir Manuscript and Captain Morningstar. I guess they were getting fed up with my little escapades into the forest. At least the day we would be going out wasn’t on the same day I had to go back in.

So it wasn’t all bad, and of course, there were a few more developments in the meantime. We got the designs for boots back from the blacksmith. He presented me with three different configurations, each slightly different with how they were made and how they worked. I chose the one closest to regular boots, and I was then informed of the price.

Another hundred bits or so.

At least we could keep the designs. They were easy enough to follow, so we could get another blacksmith to make them. When I had the money of course.

Unfortunately, there was no way for me to scrounge up enough bits to buy anything worthwhile in town. Sir Manuscript did pay me a small amount for my work in the forest, but more than half of that was immediately snatched up by Indigo and Fletch. I had two bits to my name at that point, and I wasn’t going to have the opportunity to work any more jobs either, because Captain Morningstar was adamant that we leave town as soon as we finished our dealings with Sir Manuscript.

I can’t say I disagreed, and all of the other mercenaries seemed eager to leave as well.

Having managed to find another job escorting a merchant across the border, Captain Morningstar set it up so that we would be leaving the day after we dealt with the dragons. Unfortunately, that was the same day I had to go back into the forest. He was not happy when I told him that, but after telling him that I would actually be getting paid for the job now, he relented.

It would be close, but I could probably squeeze in a quick visit to the forest in the morning before we left.

And so that was the plan for the next few days, with all the free time in between being taken up by training, reading and writing, and some sewing lessons from Indigo, fully paid of course, by my last two bits no less.

The first thing I made from that sheet of burlap?

A pair of pants.

They were the simplest things you could imagine, just two sheets of fabric cut into the general shape and sewn together around the edges. It was rough, too tight in some places, and too baggy in others. I only had one hand to work with, so my stitching was large and uneven. It kind of had to be, with the way the burlap was, but it definitely could be better.

Indigo then introduced me to the wonderful technique of turning the garment inside out once it was completed. That way the seams were inverted, creating a much smoother exterior, not that the burlap was very smooth to begin with. Still, that meant there weren’t these awkward ridges of fabric along the sides, and I could at least look somewhat presentable with them on.

My plant disguise still did a much better job, but with the pants done, I only managed to use about a third of the sheet Indigo got me. There was enough remaining for a shirt, and maybe something else, I don’t know what. I didn’t really know what else I could even make with burlap, the material wasn’t exactly easy to work with.

It was too tough to make anything fine with it, so gloves were off the table. Yet it was too floppy to make anything that could stand up. I thought a hat might look nice, but unless it was just a cap, it was just going to get in the way. That led to a more encapsulating approach, where I tried to make a mask out of burlap, mainly by just draping the sheet over my head and seeing what it would look like with eye and mouth holes.

Indigo said it looked horrid, and I had to agree. It was stupid looking, and I really didn’t want to be running around looking like a scarecrow, not if I didn’t have a straw hat and some overalls to go along with it. Surprise, surprise, denim didn’t exist in this world, and a straw hat was… well… I would have to make it myself, that’s all.

That led to us looking for other materials to mask my face, and where I finally found a use for the bark I had gotten at the sanctuary. My knife also finally got to see some use outside of training, and with a few lessons on general care from Rusty, it was sharpened and cutting through the wood without too much difficulty.

How was I able to do this with only one hand you might ask? Simple, I held the piece of bark between my knees while I whittled away at it. I didn’t actually know what I wanted for a design yet, so I just stuck to cleaning up the edges and adding the eye holes. With that done, it already worked as a mask, and with a couple strips of burlap scraps, it would stay on my face unless I started moving erratically.

i.e. dodging.

I couldn’t keep my mask on while training, though I didn’t really want it on anyway, even if I wasn’t getting hit. My training had been stripped down to its bare bones; Captain Morningstar didn’t want me getting shattered again this close to a big job.

Since I wasn’t going toe to toe with the ruthless or the reckless anymore, it was so much easier. Rusty had even been restricted to basic attacks, so unless I was being careless, I wouldn’t even get hit. Of course, Rusty questioned the validity of this type of training, to which Captain Morningstar told him that we couldn’t take any more risks, and that we could pick it back up again once we were in the clear.

At least I was learning to parry more effectively. This time with only minor cracks to show for it.

Speaking of learning, I reached another milestone with writing the unicorn alphabet. That being the ability to sound out words and write them down. It really helped that it was the same spoken language, but there were still some differences. I was only able to spell things syllable by syllable at the moment, meaning every one of my words was the long version. You could still read it, but it would only really make sense if you read it out loud.

The shorter versions of words were harder because they each had a different set of rules on how they were spelled. Sounding out the symbols one by one would give you a jumbled mess, rather, when in a certain order, they magically became a different word through some intrinsic knowledge. That was really the main difficulty of the unicorn alphabet, but if done correctly then you could really shorten your writing, to the point where it was laughable how much space the other systems took.

At least that’s what Indigo said.

Apparently most, if not all academic works were done in the unicorn alphabet for this very reason. When you could pack that much information onto a single page, it wasn’t just cost effective, it was easier to analyze data, or to cross reference topics.

Supposedly. I was kind of just taking Indigo for her word at that point, just waiting for her to finish her tangent before moving onto the next set of rules for contracting words.

I felt like I was doing alright with everything, though Fletch was starting to lag behind a bit. I already had a basis on how to learn how to read and write, but Fletch had nothing. This was all new to her, and when it started to get complicated, she started to falter.

Shinsha on the other hand…

Well…

In my infinite wisdom, I had forgotten Shinsha at the glade. I only found this out when they came buzzing up to me on our way back in the middle of the forest. Thankfully I wasn’t in the carriage with Sir Manuscript that time, but they were not happy with me. At least they understood that I couldn’t exactly come back once I reunited with the rest of the group.

So after a tense reunion, and a few days to settle after the week, we got to talking.

“So…” I began,

“So, so…” Shinsha echoed,

We both glanced around the room for a bit. Now that I had something to actually hold things, I was given my own key, which meant I could enter the room whenever I pleased, without the help of Fletch or Indigo: they weren’t here right now.

We were alone together.

“...How did things turn out back at the glade?” I asked slowly,

“Good, good.”

“Are you still in trouble with the other Breezies?”

“No, no.”

I let out a sigh of relief, and nodded slightly.

“...Look…” I began again. “I uh… I didn’t know what it meant to uh… name you. I didn’t know how much it uh… meant to you.”

“Oh, oh…”

“Not that I want to take it back or anything!” I quickly added, “But… Now that I know what it means… I realize that it wasn’t just my decision.”

“Mm, mm.” Shinsha chirped a bit.

“I’m not a Breezie.” I shook my head, “You have to know that I can’t give you what a Breezie could.”

“Know, know.”

“This isn’t normal, you could’ve lived a regular life. You deserved at least that much, and I took that away.” I muttered, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t, be. Sorry, sorry.”

I looked up, Shinsha was floating right in front of my face.

“Want, want.” They reached forward and landed on my nose.

I gave a small smile, but ended up sighing. “It’s just… I can’t be with you forever. I can’t stay in the forest, and I can’t stick around for much longer either.

Shinsha let out a much louder chirp. “Why, why?”

“I’ve already offered myself to the mercenaries first.” I explained with another sigh. “And they don’t want to stay any longer. I can’t really stay either, it’s dangerous for me to be around… well… dragons and ponies.” I counted on my fingers.

“Ponies, ponies?” Shinsha repeated,

“Well, not all ponies,” I corrected, “Just a couple of specific ones.”

“Manushit.”

I chuckled lightly, but still couldn’t keep my smile. “I’m sorry that I have to leave so soon after naming you…”

“It’s, it’s. Okay, okay.”

“Will you be okay without me?” I asked,

“Without, without. Phos, Phos?” Shinsha wondered,

They paused to think about it, and didn’t speak up for a while afterwards. Which did little to alleviate my worries.

To Be Continued…

Author's Note

When you control the sun and moon, why not make dates and times mathematically easy? Just to make Equestrian time similar to Earth time, I only rounded out things a little bit, and of course removed the two worst months, you know which ones. There's also an extra day in the week, what's it called? I don't know, but Sunday and Moonday are here to stay.

Another interesting fact, the rest of the days of the week are named after the Norse gods, Tyr for Tuesday, Odin for Wednesday(Trust me, it makes sense), Thor for Thursday, and Frigg for Friday. Saturday is based off of Saturn though, and going off of that, the next planet would be Uranus. Uraday anyone? None of that applies to Equestria though, and I'm not going to come up with a whole calendar week if I'm not even going to use it.

This shift in time frames does change a few things, for one, years are a bit longer. Phos, who is allegedly 26, would be closer to 24 in Equestrian years.

I'm not messing with the lengths of days. 24 hours is enough, and it already breaks down into hours, minutes, and seconds easily.

I really didn’t want to be running around looking like a scarecrow

This is a reference to another story: The Tale of Lord Barleycorn by Blue Cultist

Check it out, I think it's really good, even if it's on a semi-hiatus right now.