Everfree Village

Hours passed before either awoke and they found themselves lying on a bed of straw. The only light in the room was from the sun shining through the doorway, though it looked like they were moving into the evening. The man they had met earlier sat against the wooden walls opposite to their makeshift beds and appeared to be carving something out of wood using a small knife.

Granite was the first to wake up. She shifted slightly and opened her eyes. Then she immediately saw the human and his knife, which made her whimper and scurry back, against the wall, as far as she could.

The pony drew herself into as small a ball as she could and flattened her ears. She glanced around for a way to escape, but the doorway was too risky with the human in their way.

Her distressed sounds made Lodestone groan and stir, but his head still felt thick and it took a great effort just to crack open one eyelid. He saw Granite cowering in the corner and his muzzle twitched into a lopsided grin.

"Heh... COWering..."

“The shaman tells me you are horses, creatures favored by the gods.”

The human didn’t take his eyes off his little project, he even blew some of the dust off of it.

“She said your arrival was foretold. How came you by this village, horses?”

"We're not horse-" Granite began automatically, but then her eyes snapped to Lodestone.

"What did you just say?!" She demanded in tones of quiet menace. She unwrapped herself a little so she could tower over the prone pegasus. "Did you just call me a cow?!"

It looked like there would be steam coming from her nostrils momentarily as the mare glared. She put her hooves on the stallion and shook him a little. "Answer me!"

A sharp intake of breath and his ears folding back were the only outward signs of how much her jostling was hurting his wing. He lacked the will to do anything more.

“I would not move him so much if I were you. This village does not have much in the way of healing.”

He set the carving aside and stood upright. To them, he would be like a giant, though he only stood at six feet tall. Slowly, with his eyes locked on the pair, he walked forward.

“I ask again: how did you find us? There are large, dangerous beasts everywhere outside of these walls. What is it that brought you here, little horses?”

Her anger forgotten, Granite gently laid her pony friend down and faced the new creature. The calm tone was helping and she wasnt about to panic anymore.

"Um. We're not horses, actually," she pointed out, focusing on the one sure thing. "We're ponies."

She remembered the knife and shrank back a little. "We didn't m-mean to trespass!"

As the pain faded, Lodestone found he could focus a little more sharply. The dull murmur of noise clarified and he found he could finally understand what was being said... just in time to hear Granite's fearful cry.

His eyes flew open and he tried to bolt upright. The room spun crazily and the dark silhouette against the doorway blurred, then his stomach lurched and he vomited onto his hooves.

“As I warned. You will be safe within these walls till next light. I would suggest that you head back to wherever you came from when that time comes.”

His gaze shifted between the two for a moment before he plopped down beside them.

“If you intend to stay here longer, you will need to earn your keep.”

"We'll go!" Granite said quickly, almost before the human had finished talking. "You're letting us go?"

For a moment she seemed as if she didn't believe it and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What's the catch? You like hunting ponies or something?!"

At long last the mare remembered her poor friend and the mess he had made. She shifted away and scrunched up her muzzle in distaste. "Ew!"

Then she saw his face and her expression, as well as her voice, instantly softened. "Are you okay, Lodestone?"

He slowly lifted his head to look at the small mare with half-lidded eyes. After several seconds, he lowered his eyes and weakly tried to shake the vomit off one hoof.

"Bad headache... can't focus my eyes... what happened?" His voice was thick and muddy, as if his lips were numb or he was still half asleep.

“The shaman used her magic to numb the pain, but we dared not mess with your wing, lest we break it or worse.”

Looking out on the village, they would see it was a lot simpler than any pony village. The buildings were basically tossed together, the city built with little cohesiveness to it, and there were no light fixtures of any kind around.

Granite blinked and stared at the human, trying to imagine what a unicorn-human would look like. She shivered at the thought and looked back to the stallion instead. "You hurt your wing?! When?!"

She tried to remember, but all it did was make her blush at her own reckless, panicky actions.

He began to shake his head, then winced and just stared at the ground, "I'm not... it's all fuzzy. I tried to fly." He looked up at Granite, his expression softening, "And you? Are you hurt?"

It was unclear if Lodestone even realized the man was there. His body was turned away from the door and his attention wavered between his dirtied hooves and the mare he barely knew.

“You tried to fly and smashed into the wall, from what I saw.”

The man looked at the Pegasus with an almost annoyed expression, though it was hard to tell with how little he showed outwardly.

“There is a reason that I want you two to leave as soon as possible. You will die here. All manner of beast descends from the evil forest and we do our best to simply survive. You-“

His face nodded towards the mare as he fixed on her intently.

“-have lived a very soft life. I’ll bet you’ve never had to fear a monster just outside your home. And you-“

His focus shifted back to the Pegasus, though his expression softened somewhat.

“-you have potential, but I doubt any experience, if the wolf was an indicator.”

Now that the human was disparaging her abilities, Granite looked down with a slight blush. She couldn't refute the accusations, nor did she want to, not after the day they'd had. It would suit her just fine to get out of there as quickly as possible and back to civilized pony world.

She said none of this, but when the mare looked at her pegasus friend her resolve stiffened and she frowned a little. "I'm not going without you," she promised. At least that took some of her shame away.

Granite was still glaring when she finally faced the human again. "We'll stay until Lodestone feels better and then we'll go!" she said with determination.

Lodestone turned to the creature in the doorway and, after a brief pause, his eyes widened in recognition. His brain still felt sluggish but it was beginning to clear and the pain had faded to a dull throb. Lowering his gaze, he concentrated, trying to remember what had happened.

"No... not the wall. I tried to fly us away and..." He winced, glancing at the wing folded awkwardly at his side, "My wing broke and I fell. I must have hit it while galloping..."

He turned to Granite and sighed, "It'll be weeks before I can fly well enough to get us out of here."

“You’ll have to earn your keep then. I also doubt we can do much for your wing, as we don’t have any of our own to know how to fix them.”

With a sigh, he moved from the doorway and sat a few feet from the pair.

“What are your skills? Can you hunt, cook, build, or mine? Those are things we need the most here, after all. Once you start working we can give you your fair share of meat and what little we can grow here.”

Each word felt to Granite like a fresh slap on the muzzle. She shrank back from the human. A couple of times the mare even looked at the door longingly, as if she was considering just running for it, but then her gaze settled on the poor, injured, drugged Lodestone and she relaxed.

"Fine..." she said at last. "Get us some hot water. We have to wash up."

The pony saw the human's expression and flattened her ears. "I can mine. I can also farm, but I don't want to. I can cook."

Maybe she forgot about the meat, or just chose not to bring it up. She was bewildered enough as it was, without adding that on top.

At the word "meat," Lodestone sniffed the air and suddenly placed the scent: years ago, there had been a couple of griffons in his mining camp. Every night, they would go out into the forest and bring back lumps of flesh they cooked by a fire. Most ponies were openly sickened by the act, but he had found the smell strangely alluring. Fearing what other ponies would think, he never dared ask for some, but he had always wondered.

He snapped out of his reverie and realized the man was staring at him expectantly.

"Oh! Uh, sorry. Well I'm a very strong flyer, but..." He glanced back at his wing again, "I won't be lifting anything for a while I guess. I don't know about hunting but I can fight pretty well... I'm usually the de facto security guard." He hesitated, glancing at Granite before continuing, "I can also mine, but not as well as my coworkers... you know, hence the heavy lifting and guarding."

“The only “hot water” we have is boiled in a cauldron. I don’t see why you would want that. If it’s a bath you require, head to the river. You follow the inner wall heading west and you’ll find it.”

The man pointed out the path from the doorway and looked back to the stallion.

“As for you, if you can walk then come with me to the shaman. She may try to heal you if she knows you are okay with whatever consequences it may bring.”

Lodestone hesitated, uncertain about leaving Granite alone, but the thought of having his wing healed was too powerful a lure. An earth pony with an injured leg or a unicorn with an injured horn may be inconvenienced, but their lives don't change all that much, with the possible exception of very powerful unicorns like Princess Twilight. However, a pegasus with an injured wing is chained to the ground, robbed of the freedom he is accustomed to nearly from birth. It is stifling in a way no grounded creature can hope to understand.

Thus, when he glanced at the mare and didn't see any immediate problem, he quickly succumbed to the temptation and attempted to stand. He was a little wobbly, and moving too fast exacerbated his headache, but he could walk.

He nodded to the man, "Alright, let's go."

People were already in and around their own homes by this time of day, meaning many curious eyes were on the stallion. The humans all seemed to wear some manner of fur or makeshift piece of clothing, all of it looking very modest. At the corners of each “road” were a set of guards that had their own weapons. They were closer to the spears Canterlot guards had, if more clumsily made. Rather than watching the streets, they had their eyes on the skies, though when they noticed the man they would give him a salute where they made a fist over their chests.

“Keep your eyes open, I haven’t liked the look of the skies the last few days. They may be coming.”

With a nod, the guards went back to their watch of the skies. At the far end of what seemed to be the “district” they were in they found a larger building standing alone. All around it were various charm-like objects and the bones of different animals.

“This is where she lives. A word of warning: She can be a little... eccentric.”

The size of the village surprised him. From the simplicity of the clothes and buildings, Lodestone had been expecting no more than a handful of huts and a small tribe of a dozen people. Instead it was nearly the size of a full mining colony or a district of Ponyville.

He turned his attention back to the man beside him, "I can handle a little oddness if it means healing my wing faster." There was a short pause, then Lodestone asked, "Everypony seems to show respect for you... are you the leader here, then?"

He gave the stallion a little grin, finding that question very amusing but ultimately shaking his head at it.

"No, I am well-respected due to circumstance only. I-"

An old lady burst through the door and grabbed the man by the ear. With a quick tug, she pulled his ear, forcing him into an awkward position.

"Da will of de gods is not mere circumstance! You were chosen for a reason, who be you to question the mightiest of all beings?!"

While he squirmed to loose her grip from his ear, something caught her attention. When she turned, she also lowered her body so her face was mere inches from the stallion. One eye was kept wide open and looked around independently of the other eye, which was focused on him with a squint. She sported several tribal piercings like some of the zebra's were said to have. One was at the bottom middle of her lip and looked like a wolf's fang, another through the bottom of her eyebrow and stopping just above it, and finally she had something like a minotaur's nose ring.

"Ah yes, the winged one. I suspect ya be here for some healing magic! Be warned, da spirits and gods are not always kind to those who seek dey're aid."

To his credit, Lodestone did not flinch or shy away at the sudden inspection. His fear of these strange creatures was quickly fading, replaced by a bemused fascination. They had guards, language, a simple society, and now apparently even religion! He needed to get back to Ponyville and make sure the Mayor or Princess Twilight knew about this new species... this was getting way above his pay grade.

He returned her gaze steadily, trying to keep his good wing from rustling nervously, "I would like some healing, yes. What kind of... side effects should I be worried about?"

"Da spirits answer to those who really be needing da help, but dey hate being asked to do minor tings."

The man nodded in quiet agreement as he pictured some of what had happened before.

"Cuts have been healed, only to turn black and green, like rot. What could have been healed naturally in time ended up doing more harm, or even killing them. Worse yet, when they rot, we can't bury them, their bodies must be burned so this new disease doesn't spread."

If nothing else, it went to show how little these people knew about the body and natural processes. It definitely meant vaccines or antibiotics were out of the questions.

"But you should be fine. You are one of the chosen races of the gods, born into favor and gifted with their protection."

Lodestone wasn't overly worried. So long as he was healed well enough to fly, any disease or infection could be easily cured back in civilization.

He nodded to the old lady, "Alright, I'll do it."

She led him inside the hut and it turned out to be everything he had heard about a zebra's hut. It was filled to the brim with odd artifacts, bones of various creatures, voodoo items, totems, you name it. For as interesting, or odd, as those items may have been,any chance of admiring anything was ruined by an overwhelming stench. It was as if something had died inside of his own nose, but the lady seemed to be used to it. The man, however, stayed outside, probably for the reason the stallion may now be struggling with. Strange symbols were carved into the ground in the middle of a hut and had several sets of circles around them.

"Step in, step in! Dis be the where da spirits flow through ya!"

Once he was situated in the middle of the circle, she grabbed an almost hourglass-shaped object and held it from the middle point. The top and bottom of it were rounded and as she started to shake it, he would hear something hard rattling inside. She chanted and moved around him in circles, occasionally tossing some red powder into the air. The light within the room started to fade, as if the sun were being blocked out, though nothing was covering the windows. If he were to look, he would see something INSIDE his wing squirming, like his very bones and muscle were being moved by a cold, invisible hand. Within mere minutes, his wing was back to its proper shape and typical look, though it still felt sore and swollen.

"Dere, da spirits have done what ya wanted."

A deeply unsettling feeling had filled his wing throughout the incantation and he had refused to look, deciding he was better off not knowing. When the lady spoke again, he was almost afraid to see, as if he half expected his wing to have mutated into something wholly unrecognizable. He slowly turned his head and was relieved to find his wing almost entirely healed. He marveled at the recovery, slowly opening the wing. It was incredible! Where before it had been limp and dead, with even the slightest movement sending sharp jolts of pain through his side, now there was only a dull soreness, as if the muscles had been overused.

He flapped the wing experimentally... and promptly gagged as the moving air intensified the stench. Backing away to stand closer to the door where the air was a bit clearer, he turned to the old lady, "Sweet Celestia, thank you! I wasn't expecting anything so fast or as... well, effective, I suppose."

“Sometimes it isn’t so fast, it’s fairly random.”

The man looked in from a window as the light started to break through the “darkness” that had filled the room.

“Da spirits do as dey please, always. Now leave, I be needing ta prepare for da journey.”

The lady practically shoved the pony out of the building so she could do whatever she was going to do. The man, however, stared off at the rock formation the village was built partially into.

“I pray that your arrival was a good omen. We could use some blessing to help us through this year, especially if we are to see it through winter again.”

"Is winter tough for a simple village like this?" While he spoke, he tested his wings to find out just how well they healed. They spread wide and began flapping very gently, then slowly accelerated until he lifted just slightly off the ground. He found his wing was fairly sore, but whole and strong. All he needed now was a bit of rest.

“We can hardly feed the village as it is, due to these damnable monsters outside the walls. Some hunting parties go out and never return, others come back with no food or half dead. We would grow our food, but we only control a small part of the river.”

Heaving a great big sigh, he rubbed his forehead out of frustration.

“The worst of it comes in the shape of Thunder Rocs. Great, big hulking birds that bring storms with them. We’ve had to make disposable wooden spears just to deal with them. Like the one I threw at that wolf you were being chased by. The wood gets reinforced and can penetrate their think hides when thrown, but it only drives them off. We’ve yet to kill one during their assaults.”

Lodestone landed again, not wanting to strain his wings too much.

"Thunder rocs? I've never heard of them." His voice lowered as he mumbled to himself, "Maybe that's why pegasi can't control the weather here..."

He looked up at the man again, "Well anyway, why don't you just leave? The Everfree Forest is the most dangerous corner of Equestria short of Tartarus itself."

“How many would you have us risk to leave this place? This wall is all that stands between us and a sure death! No, we will stay and try our best to survive. At least here we know we will have the god’s protection.”

The man’s eyes wandered through the village with sad eyes. It was almost like he was saying goodbye to people even before winter was close to setting in.

“Tomorrow I will meet with our leader and head to our most sacred place to pray. If all goes well, we may be blessed with a plentiful bounty, enough to help us last."

Well, it had been worth a shot. Maybe the Mayor or Princess Twilight will know what to do to help them. There was a brief pause as the two simply stood in front of the shaman's house, then Lodestone cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I, uh... guess I should go check on Granite, make sure she's okay."

The mare in question was sitting on the bed, almost exactly where they had left her. A bit of calm and some time to think have done wonders and now she was no longer on the verge of panic. She had shuffled away from where Lodestone had puked on the primitive bed and very pointedly wasn't looking at it. She had also wrapped her tail tightly around her legs to keep it from getting dirty.

The pony seemed okay, if a little more alert than usual. Her ears kept turning this way and that as she intently listened to the noises on the village and she kept her gaze on the door.

When Lodestone came back, she smiled and heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia..." she murmured.

A surprising feeling of relief flooded Lodestone's body when he saw the small mare again, though whether he had been worried about her or she was simply a familiar sight among all the strangeness around, he couldn't tell.

"Oh, Granite." His voice came out softer than he had intended, almost tender.

His ears folded back and he cleared his throat awkwardly before turning to the man standing nearby, "So are you leaving us here for tonight, uh..." His voice faltered, "Well, what should I call you? Got a name or a title or something?"

"My name is Rohan, and yes, I will be leaving you to yourselves after a while. There are yet more things I wish to discuss, if at all possible."

Rohan took his spot at the wall opposite to the straw bedding he had left the ponies in before. Once he was nice and comfortable, he found his gaze wandering to the window and the small sliver of sunlight that passed through it.

"I believe you said this forest is one of the most dangerous areas in the land, so it seems unlikely that you knew about this place before coming here. Did you not encounter any manner of beast up until stumbling upon our walls?"

"Nuh-uh," Granite shook her head first. "Just you..."

Her voice trailed off and the mare looked away in embarrassment. "Um, I didn't mean- Sorry."

She focused instead on the stallion and lowered her voice. "Is your wing better? Can we get out of here?!"

At least she was careful to say it in the quietest whisper she could manage. "I don't like the look of this place..."

While his face was turned away from the man as he entered the hut, he muttered, "Later," as softly as he could manage.

He approached the 'bed' and tried to cover his vomit from earlier with some excess hay, hoping to at least mask the smell a bit. As he messed with it, he looked up at Rohan and shook his head, "The dire wolf you killed was the first beast we encountered..." He trailed off thoughtfully, "Wait, aren't we still near the edge of the forest? I didn't think we'd walked that far when we found your wall."

"I wish I could say. None of my people have wings to fly out and see, which limits our scouting. Worse yet, certain areas are worse than others. No hunter will venture southward for any reason, only one has ever returned and the tales he had..."

It made Rohan shiver to think about and he almost instinctively put a hand on the knife he had secured to his waist.

"That aside, there are marshes to the north with hulking monstrosities. We've taken to calling one of them a "Hydra," it's a three-headed beast with a foul temper. The western side is where you came from and tends to be the... safest side, though it takes its share of lives as well. East... well, we don't have a way to travel beyond our sacred mountain to see what lies that way."

Granite was staring, wide-eyed at the story. She gulped several times as the human was explaining. By the end, she was trembling a little.

"I w-went into all that al-alone!" she whispered, aghast.

It looked like she was about to start crying again, but the pony pulled herself together and turned adoring eyes on the stallion instead.

"Thank you!" she breathed out, grasping the poor pegasus and giving him that signature earth-pony, bone crushing hug. It was a piece of luck that she didn't grab his wings, too. "Thank you so much for finding me!!"

Granite still didn't speak directly to the human, that was how much she was intimidated by what she had seen in their 'fight' with the wolf. In fact, even if she didn't fully realize it, Granite was trying to hide behind Lodestone.

As her hooves clasped around him, Lodestone looked down almost in shock, but he forced himself to calm down and slowly stretched a wing out over her shoulders. She seemed to relax under the cover and her grip around him loosened slightly.

He turned back to the man and spoke very cautiously, unsure if this was a sensitive subject, "You keep mentioning this sacred mountain... If possible, I would very much like to see it, if that's okay."

"I do not have the authority to permit you entrance, even despite my role in this village. You would require the permission of the chief, our shaman, and our priest, if you wanted to see the sacred site. I can take you before our trip in the morn, I doubt they will refuse a blessed one."

The light of the sun had finally disappeared from view and the human walked over to the window to look straight up at the sky. Luna's moon, bright and full, seemed to have him somewhat worried. Not a moment later, the sound of howling rang out from the distance.

The awful noise made the mare shudder and cling even more tightly to the poor stallion. It would start to feel like a vice at this point and, what was worse, Granite wasn't even fully aware she was doing it. The canopy of feathers was just making her feel safer.

"W-We're s-s-safe here, right?" she stuttered in fright. "They can't c-come in here?"

She tried to calm herself with a big gulp of air, which seemed to work. Gradually, her grip lessened. "I shouldn't have left home," the pony said remorsefully.

In stark contrast, the sound of a potential threat almost seemed to electrify the stout pegasus. All traces of exhaustion vanished and minor worries about his wing and the vomit were instantly forgotten. He straightened, his ears perked and swiveled, and though his voice remained soft, it became strong and steady as he spoke briskly.

"Was that a thunder roc? Can I help in any way or should we just stay out of your way? I can fly now but not very well until I rest."

His tail twitched and he half rose from his sitting position before he seemed to notice the mare's weight and sat down again.

"The howling? No, it's just more wolves. No doubt they are looking for their fallen friend. A thunder roc is a bird as big as any of our buildings and wherever they fly, a storm follows. I don't know why, but many of the dangerous creatures become restless during the nights. One or two only appear in the presence of a full moon."

Tonight was not a full moon, but it never hurt to check such things. Even outside of the Everfree forest, there were certain creatures that responded to Luna's moon, though none were like those within the forest.

"The walls are protected well enough, so I doubt we will have troubles tonight, but if something happens I would like you two to stay out of it. Without any combat experience, it's likely that people would die trying to protect you."

Granite was only too happy to agree to those terms. She nodded enthusiastically, acknowledging the human for the first time with a big, relieved smile. "Okay! We promise! Thank you, um... sir?"

She didn't know how exactly to call the human.

There had been no more strange noises, so the mare gradually relaxed. She let her pegasus friend go and settled herself down on the hay. "So - we just sleep here?"

She didn't mind in the slightest - at home Granite had spent more than one night on a pile of hay in the barn, especially when it was too hot in her attic room.

As soon as the pony made herself comfortable, there was a strange, growling, rumbling noise, which made her blush. It was strange - the blush was quite visible on the lighter patches of her fur and almost imperceptible on the darker ones.

"That was m-me," Granite admitted. "I, uh, skipped breakfast. Um, and lunch."

Lodestone relaxed visibly at Rohan's reassuring words, but continued to be alert, his sleepiness forgotten.

Before the man could respond to Granite, he quickly interjected, "If you can bring us food, please bring mostly fruits and vegetables... if possible, of course. I know you said you cannot grow much food yourself, but..." He hesitated, unsure how she might react, "well you see, most ponies don't take to the idea of meat very well, much less eat it themselves." He opened his mouth as if he might continue, then closed it again, seeming uncertain.

“No meats? Your kind must live in luxury to be able to grow enough food to satisfy yourselves then. I will see what I can do.”

As he passed, his eyes lingered on them for a moment, though it was hard to tell what he might be thinking that’s to the darkness shrouding his expression.

Being left alone really helped Granite relax. She even began smiling a little. "So - stuck in the middle of Everfree with some weird creatures, uh?" she asked tentatively.

It didn't seem as funny out loud as in her head, so the pony sighed. "Sorry about dragging you into this..."

She heaved a sigh, which sounded almost like a little moo there at the end. It was undoubtedly yet another reason for her friends to make jokes about her looks.

One part of the pegasus itched to be up in the sky, as the visibility from the ground is nothing compared to a bird's eye view and being indoors when danger was around only intensifies that feeling. Another part was intensely focused on the mare wrapped around his chest, soft and warm, her tiny movements as she talked brushing the sensitive primaries of his wing across her back.

Seeing her gloomy expression helped to make up his mind. He reached around with his other wing and gently lifted her chin, smiling gently, "Don't be. I could have flown us away a dozen times since we met yesterday."

He looked away and wiggled his rump, trying to get more comfortable, then muttered to himself, "Gonna be chilly tonight..."

"Um," said Granite, now very definitively red in the muzzle. "I guess we better huddle... y'know... for warmth?"

She couldn't quite meet Lodestone's eye, but the pony shuffled a bit closer. "IF y-you don't mind, that is!" she added hastily.

"Or we could ask for some blankets..."

The pony seemed really unsure which alternative she preferred. "I don't mind roughing it for a night. We're getting out of here tomorrow, right? We need to tell somepony about these... creatures."

"Yeah... tomorrow, definitely," he mumbled, sounding distracted.

Now that her head was turned away shyly, he looked more closely at the mare, studying the curve of her neck and the side of her muzzle. He needed to decide how he felt about her in a hurry.... she just seemed so young. He couldn't have been more than a couple of years older... gosh, was he really not even twenty? He had been so busy the last few years, it felt like at least a decade.

Half watching her beside him, half lost in his own thoughts, he continued to stare at the side of her head.

For her part, Granite flicked an ear as sounds from the village drifted in, but didn't turn to look. She was apparently getting used to the surroundings enough so that she'd sleep.

"You know what made me do it?" Granite asked suddenly, without any prompting from the pegasus. "You wanna know why I... left?" she very carefully didn't say 'ran away', since the mare didn't know if Lodestone would try and send her back.

The question snapped him out of his reverie and he sucked in a breath, hurriedly turning his head away. How long had he been staring?

By her tone, this was important to her, so he spoke gently, trying to reassure and calm her, "I'm not one to pry into anypony's past, but if you need to talk about it, I'm here."

The mare hadn't noticed anything inappropriate, nor was she looking. She was staring at her foreleg, where a patch of brown mixed with white. She heaved a sigh. "It was my birthday a few weeks ago. My brothers got me a bell. Everypony laughed, even mom."

It was obviously a very bitter memory, because Granite was glaring at the world in general. "As if it wasn't enough ponies in school make fun of me!"

She dared the pegasus to comment, just with her stare. "I just... knew I didn't wanna stay there."

Despite her bold words, Granite was homesick, even if she'd never admit it, not even to herself. After all, it was her family and she missed them, bad jokes or no.

He honestly tried to be open and compassionate, but confusion got the better of him, "Sorry... a bell? I don't get it. What were they making fun of?" His prior delirious comment aside, he had never really thought about how unusual her coat might be. She was cute as a button and the years on the farm, willing or no, had toned her body nicely.

Granite blinked a few times, then narrowed her eyes as she tried to decide if Lodestone was poking fun at her or not.

Her voice came out measured and calm, but there was a definite thread of explosion if the stallion didn't respond just right.

"They got a bell for me to wear around my neck. You know?" the mare patted her chest. "A cow bell. Do you want me to draw you a picture?"

His ears flattened at her expression, "I... what?" He looked bewildered for a moment, then his eyes widened with realization, "Wait, you mean they teased you for your adorable coat?" Realizing what he just said, he blushed and clamped his muzzle firmly shut.

Granite gasped and her eyes widened in shock. "Adorable?!" she asked rather loudly.

She opened her mouth to yell at the poor pegasus, but then didn't find appropriate words and shut it again. As if unable to believe Lodestone, she stood up and inspected as much of herself as she could see by craning her neck.

"Well, that's a first..." she managed, still somewhat in shock. "Usually ponies just call me... uh, never mind."

She blushed heavily just from the memory of the name, luckily she hadn't said it out loud, or else her cheeks would set their makeshift bed on fire.

"Well," He shuffled his wings uncomfortably, "yeah, I mean..." he seemed to struggle to find the right words, then sighed, "Alright look, I'm no good with this sort of thing and I'm really buckin' tired, so I'm just gonna be blunt and Luna blast the consequences."

Leveling his gaze at her, his tone was crisp and matter-of-fact, "Not once have I thought of a cow when I saw you. When I landed in front of you yesterday, first thing I thought was your coat was cute and it was nice to see somepony look unique for once." He rolled his eyes a bit, "All the mares in Ponyville go to the same spa, the same boutique, the same florist... If they aren't copying Rarity, they're copying one of the other Elements or sometimes even Celestia herself."

There was a short pause, "It just gets a little old, y'know?" he finished lamely.

Now there really was danger of fire. Granite couldn't meet his gaze, so she focused instead on her forelegs again. "Oh," she said flatly. It was painfully obvious she wasn't used to taking compliments.

"Aha!" she exclaimed suddenly at a recollection. "What about that 'cowering' thing earlier?!"

At least jabs she knew how to deal with - with compliments, the pony was completely lost.

"Uh..." He seemed genuinely taken aback, "what? Cowering? What, when you froze up outside the wall and I tried to fly you away?"

"No," Granite said sharply, relieved to be on a firmer hoof, "when these - uh, hoo-mans dragged us in here. You looked at me and said 'cowering'!"

She was doubly upset - first for the cow pun and second for calling her a coward, even if it was true.

"Although, you were a bit... delirious," Granite admitted.

His ears folded down and he looked away, made anxious by her sudden anger. Had he said something wrong? He did say 'Luna blast the consequences' but this wasn't at all what he expected.

"I, uh..." His muzzle scrunched up in thought, "When I woke up here, first thing I remember was... well," He glanced meaningfully at the pile of hay he had lumped over his former lunch.

"Oh," Granite said after she realized where he was looking. "Well, maybe you did hit your head kinda hard..."

She magnanimously extended an olive branch. "You probably didn't know what you were saying."

Now there was fresh tension in the air, which mingled with the awkward from before. The mare took a deep breath. "Look, let's just forget about it, okay? It's been a crazy day."

She stretched out again, but this time didn't press against the stallion, even if it was starting to get quite chilly.

His muzzle dipped a bit, feeling oddly disappointed.

Silence filled the hut and Lodestone quickly grew uncomfortable with it, "I'm sorry... uh, for what it's worth." He looked up at her again, "I don't remember much of anything after my wing broke, but whatever I did, I'm sorry."

A slight breeze flowed through the gaps in the crude wall, rustling the hay and tousling her mane. Lodestone suppressed a shiver at the chill that was rapidly settling in.

"Uh," Granite said, a bit stiffly. "Okay, apology accepted.*

Her teeth chattered for a moment before she got herself under control. "I know this isn't the best moment to ask, but could I borrow some of those feathers?"

She gave Lodestone a completely serious look. "Just until morning, okay?"

Unreasonably pleased at her acceptance, he felt suddenly jovial. He feigned indignance, "Certainly not, my feathers stay with me!" Before she could properly react, he broke into a wide, warm smile and his wing curved into smooth arch at his side, "But if you come a little closer I'll happily share them with you."

Granite just rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said curtly, but couldn't quite hide the flash of a smile as she scooched closer. In moments her back was pressed against Lodestone's belly, keeping both of them a bit warmer.

"Um - this doesn't mean we're dating, okay?" she phrased it as a statement, but it was definitely a question. The mare didn't want to reveal her ignorance. "It's just cold."

"Nah, you don't seem the type to sleep with a colt on the first date." He smiled nervously, his earlier blush returning, "Sooo, this can't be a first date, right?" He yawned and lowered his head to his forehooves, "Anyways, I'm sure we'll be terribly awkward in the morning and just pretend it never happened..."

"Smooth," Granite commented on his technique. "Such a charmer."

She didn't know how 'charming' would look, but she knew this wasn't quite it, which made her feel a bit better about her own lack of practice. It had just been too hard to see any of her friends in that way, mainly because they all remembered her running around and moo-ing, back when she had been enamored with the 'cow' idea, rather than loathing it.

"Do you think these creatures are some kind of minotaur?" Granite asked, suddenly changing the topic. "They look kind of like minotaurs..."

One eye opened and looked up at her, "Don't know, tell the truth." He turned his head a bit to get a better look at her, "You ever seen a minotaur? They're bucking huge. These things, these... hoo-mans, they're tall but they seem kinda scrawny to be part minotaur."

"Huh. Okay," Granite said, taking his word for it. Of course she had never seen a minotaur.

Curiosity sated for a while, she snuggled a bit closer against the source of warmth.

"Mmm, 's nice..."

Within minutes, the mare was gone, off to slumberland. Occasionally she shifted a little, or feebly kicked a hoof, but for the most part she slept quietly.

The mare's warm, wiggling body forced Lodestone to reposition himself before he made things far too awkward for not-a-first-date.

Even as tired as he was, he couldn't shake a deep sense of unease and he lay awake for a long time. He had decided to trust Rohan but didn't trust - or even know - anypony else here, which made it hard to feel safe. Fighting habits built up over long years of being the night guard, his subconscious kept insisting he sit up and stand watch.

He fidgeted restlessly without even realizing it, and at one point found himself curled tightly against Granite, his face almost smothered by her mane. She smelled like earth and home. He inhaled deeply, his belly pressing against her warm back, and her scent eased the tension out of him. Finally, almost reluctantly, he began to doze.