The Life I Lead

A dark-pelted stallion shuffled down Mane Street looking more like a donkey than anything else, his head was merely inches above the ground, his eyes looking at the ground, flicking upwards to make sure his path was unobstructed, and his ears were flat against his head.  He looked horrible, his mane was filthy, and it was clear he had not had a proper place to live for a long time. Once he came to a sign pointing out the direction of certain landmarks around Ponyville, he stopped and pulled out a piece of paper from his saddlebag.  He held it in front of him, glancing from the paper to the sign.  After a minute of searching the sign for whatever his destination was, he sat down on his haunches and looked at the ground, defeated.  A passing lavender pony and her draconic assistant noticed him, and trotted up beside the stallion.  Looking down at him, she tapped him gently on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, are you alright?"  The pony looked up at her with an expressionless face and eyes that did not have any spark of life in them.  A jagged scar was present on his right eye, which ran from just above his eyebrow down over his eyelid and ended just below his eye.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you.  I just need to find-" he looked down at the paper again, "-Carousel Boutique.  Do you know where it is?"  His voice was thickly accented, indicating that he was from the northern region of Equestria, most likely Stalliongrad.

The lavender mare smiled down at the pegasus warmly.  "Why yes, I was actually heading there myself.  I'll show you the way."  The pathetic-looking pony nodded his understanding, but did not smile back.  He stood up on all fours and looked at the mare expectantly.  Puzzled at the stallions behavior, the mare looked back at him quizzically for a few seconds, then nodded in the direction of one of the streets.  "This way."  After trotting down the street for a while, she looked towards the stallion behind her.  "May I ask what you need from Carousel Boutique?"

The stallion shifted his gaze towards her.  "I'm a friend of the owner, and I need to ask her a favor."  He replied vaguely.

The mare's eyebrows shot up upon hearing this.  "You know Rarity?"  It was not only the mare who was surprised by this; her draconic companion suddenly seemed on guard, as if the stallion posed a threat.  He glared daggers at the stallion, who looked back at him with a quizzical look on his face, one eyebrow raised.

"Da, we met in Fillydelphia when she was in fashion school."  He shifted his gaze from the aggressive dragon to the mare.  "I figured I would give her a visit."

The mare looked pleasantly surprised to hear this, her ears perked up and she smiled warmly at the stallion.  "Well that's good to hear.  A friend of Rarity's is a friend of mine."  She stopped walking and raised her hoof towards the stallion.  "My name's Twilight Sparkle, the local librarian and a good friend of Rarity's."  She nodded towards the baby dragon on her back.  "And this would be Spike."  The dragon grunted his acknowledgement and avoided looking at the stallion.

The stallion stared blankly at the outstretched hoof for a full second before he reacted.  He raised his hoof to shake Twilight's outstretched one.  "Moonbeam Stygius."

Once they reached Carousel Boutique, the lavender mare knocked on the door.  "Come in!"  A sophisticated-sounding voice called out from inside.  Twilight opened the door and entered, followed closely by Moonbeam.

"Hay Rarity, I brought the book on sewing you wanted.  And I also found this gentlecolt out on Mane Street.  He says he knows you."  She gestured toward him, and Moonbeam walked out from behind Twilight, into full view.  Upon seeing the unkempt stallion, Rarity's eyes widened in surprise.

"Moonbeam?!"  She gasped,  "What are you doing here?"  The stallion's expression remained blank, in stark contrast to Rarity, who looked like she might faint.

"I would rather tell you in private, if you don't mind Rarity."  He shifted awkwardly.  This was not the kind of circumstance he had expected.

"Of course, dear."  She shifted her attention towards the librarian.  "Twilight, I'm so very sorry but this is a bit of an emergency.  I need to talk in private with an old friend of mine.  Leave the book over there and I will get back to you as soon as I can."  Spike's jaw dropped upon hearing Rarity's statement, and, noticing this, Rarity clarified.  "Spike, it's not what you think. I'll explain later."

Twilight, although puzzled by Rarity's reaction, obliged and left the Boutique with a curt nod.  Well that was strange.  She thought.  I figured Rarity would be overjoyed to see an old friend.  She seemed more... worried...

"Do you think this changes anything, 'Twi?"  Spike inquired, interrupted her train of thought.

Twilight craned her neck to look Spike in the eye.  "Changes what?"

"Well, y'know..."

Upon realizing what he meant, Twilight slapped a hoof to her forehead.  "No, Spike.  I highly doubt Moonbeam is any kind of competition for you.  He's a friend of Rarity's, that's all."

"But what if-"

"Spike. Drop it."  The little dragon obliged, and Twilight continued the walk to the library.

~~

"Well, now that you're all cleaned up, we can talk."  Rarity sat down across the kitchen table from Moonbeam, who had just gotten out of the shower.  He knew he was dirty, of course, but was still surprised by the amount of dirt and Celestia knows what else came off of him along with the water.  "What brings you to Ponyville?"

"Well..."  Moonbeam shifted awkwardly in his chair, avoiding Rarity's eyes.  "I lost my job, couldn't pay the rent, and I'm back to square one. Again."

Rarity was taken aback by this.  Not by surprise, but by the point the stallion in front of her was trying to get across without actually saying it.  "So that means-"

The stallion finally met her gaze, looking back at her with an intense look on his face.  "Da."

That one word, so short and concise, was exactly what Rarity didn't want to hear.  It confirmed that Moonbeam was in the same state of mind as when she first met him; depressed, a borderline alcoholic, suicidal, and the light at the end of the tunnel was nowhere in sight.  Rarity thought back to their first encounter, something she did not want to re-live.

~~

The park was on the outskirts of Fillydelphia, away from the noise and chaos of the big city.  Rarity trotted towards a bench located in a part of the park that was rarely visited, giving the white mare a perfect spot to clear her mind.  She sat down, relaxing and taking in the sounds of nature that she missed so much in the city.  The wind rustling the leaves on the trees, birds chirping their last songs of the day as the sun began to set, and the scent of freshly-cut grass.

It was good to get away from the constant stress of Fillydelphia and the fashion school.  Rarity looked around, taking in everything around her in great detail.  The marshmallow mare let out a satisfied sigh and leaned her head back, looking at the last of the sun's rays reflecting off of the clouds.  She always marveled at the wondrous colors and warmth that Celestia's sun made as it faded over the horizon, ushering in the moon.  As she stared upwards at the clouds, she thought she glimpsed the grey head of a pony peek over the far edge of a small cloud, but it disappeared before she could get her eyes to focus.

She shrugged it off as an optical illusion from the sunset, and once again let herself get lost in thought.  About ten minutes later, she saw something fall from the same cloud as before, and in the dying light made it out to be a pony.  Her heart skipped a beat, and, without thinking, bolted from the bench to where the pony was falling, about fifty yards to her right.  It was a long fall, and by the time Rarity got there she could make out the pony in more detail.

It was a pegasus with his wings tied down, and he looked strangely calm, considering he was falling to certain death.  He wasn't flailing about, his head was pointed down towards the ground, his eyes narrowed and his face scrunched into a look of intense determination.

Rarity reached where she thought the pegasus would land, but she quickly realized that there was little she could do for the pony.  She couldn't catch him and expect to survive, and he was falling so fast that it would take an enormous amount of concentration and willpower to even slow him down, let alone stop him.  She feared that this was beyond her capability, and she looked up at the stallion and realized he was no older than her; barely out of his teens.

A sense of sheer helplessness washed over her, and she looked as the stallion grew closer to the ground with startling speed.  This stallion, with an entire life ahead of him, was falling to his death and she couldn't do anything about it.  The sorrow and weakness she felt was replaced with a fierce determination, and a flame of rage at whatever force caused such a young stallion to be in this situation appeared in her stomach.

Whatever happened, she wouldn't stand by while the stallion plunged headlong into the ground.  She reached out with her magic, surrounding the pony with an amount of energy that even Celestia herself would be impressed with.  As she felt the cocoon of aether completely envelop the stallion, she began to apply force on the pony, slowing him down, but not nearly enough to save him.  An idea popped into her head, and she turned the pony so that his broad side was facing down, increasing the air resistance and giving Rarity a chance at saving him.  She felt her energy draining, and quickly doubled her efforts, trying to beat not only gravity, but her own limitations as well.  Sweat poured down her face, something which she would usually not allow, but the circumstances called for certain sacrifices to be made.  As she slowed the descent of the pony, she realized that he was only a few hundred feet from the earth, and she let out an unrestrained pulse of magic towards the stallion, causing her vision to blur from the effort.  He slowed down considerably, but not enough to stop him from hitting the ground with a sickening thwack. Rarity could only get a brief look of the mangled but still alive pony before she succumbed to her exertion, and passed out.