“So, how long I am going to be bed ridden?”
“Oh, um, I think two weeks at the least Mr River, sir. Your legs are fine, as you said, but moving around is simply too stressful on your chest. You might hurt yourself with all the running around you seem to want to do…”
“Eh, not happenin’. As much as I love to fuck around to do bugger aw, no’ fir a fortnight. A week -tops. I’ll be fine by then.
“Oh no, no. You simply must stay in bed for at least a fortnight. I already took it down from a month!”
“Don’t make me laugh Fluttershy: that would hurt me, ‘member? A month? I simply couldn’t be inactive for a month. People would assume the home was abandoned, and they’d have a go at looting it. Furthermore, my studies would suffer horribly. I cannot stay in bed for so long.”
“But if you don’t, you- you might hurt yourself more! And we can’t have you doing that, not with how hurt you already are. So if you just stay in bed, everything will be fine.”
“I disagree, everything will not be fine, but that is beside the point. Heck, I feel pretty-fucking-dandy right now. I think I’ll be good if I get out of bed now.”
“No, you mustn’t! You are in no condition to-“
“Yeah, yeah, let me up.”
After having making his way down the stairs, in his rush to bet to his schoolbag, River had promptly discovered that morphine does not last forever, and became incapacitated half way down the stairs. He was then levitated by Twilight back into his bed, despite his protest.
Fluttershy had spent the past two hours arguing with him, trying to make him stay in bed until he was better, but he wasn’t really having any of it. And arguing for two hours straight could even ware down on Fluttershy, so when he tried to get up, she lost it.
She jumped right up into his face, her wings spread out far behind her, and her eyes shrunk down as she stared him down. Catching on, River glared back at her, their unwavering, commanding glances not wearing down, both determined to stare the other into submission.
The intensity between their gaze could light a glowing splint
Over time they both began to sweat, Fluttershy’s soul piercing glare and River’s sheer defiance working against each other, both forces like titans clashing.
But, all fights must come to an end, and the one to fall, to both of their amazement, was River.
“Christ, alright, a gee in. I swear, that gaze o’ yours c’d make a grown man cry n’ fear.” He got himself settled in the bed once more as Fluttershy sighed in relief, herself close to the buckling point. “A week, no more lass, you hear?” Fluttershy nodded in agreement, not willing to spend another couple of hours arguing her point.
“Okay. Em, is there anything you need?” River nodded after frowning in thought.
“Aye actually, some info. Our talk was cut off short ‘fore Ah could get anything about your world. Please tell.”
He sat there, mouth slightly unhinged from its tight constraints from the description of her world; it was utopian, blissful, calm, warless, no suffering or corruption and rulers that cared for their people.
All he could do was laugh.
“Lies.” That was all he would say. No matter what Fluttershy said, no matter what image she presented of her world, he simply said, “Lies.” Telling him about the dangerous mythical creatures in her world – trying to make it sound a little less utopian – didn’t help her case at all. “Bull-shit. No, I don’t believe a thing of what you have said. Though, I have a felling from that insistent look that you ain’t gonna tell me anything else.” From there the conversation led into details about her world. Though River didn’t believe a word she was saying, he found the picture she painted fascinating.
‘So very different to reality. Quite the imagination she has. Her living in a house at a forests edge, surrounded by wildlife that she takes care of daily? Centuries of peace throughout the land? And rulers that are looking out for their subjects and take actions in their best interest, even when they do not profit themselves in anyway? Only in paradise.’
They conversed well into the night before Fluttershy began yawning.
“Off to bed now?”
“I think so, will you be okay? Are you sure you don’t want anything, a drink of water maybe?” River smiled at her, and she took that as a yes. River sighed as she left the room, glad for the peace it brought. ‘I forgot how much having company in the house changed things...’ His enjoyment of this peace however was cut short by the sound of door opening announcing Dash entering the room.
“Hey…”She looked a little uncomfortable.
“’Sup?” She scratched her head as she looked around the room, trying to find something to occupy her attention other than River, but saw nothing but the red speckles on the wall.
“Eh, why are there so many red bits on the walls?” The question came out feebly, but was answered.
“Because exactly what I done to Applejack has happened to several robbers who ended up in my room. There are a couple throughout the house, some that I missed in cleaning. I just leave the ones in here…they don’t matter to me, I am usually the only one who sees them…” This did creep Dash out a little. Why would he not bother to clean blood off his walls, just because it was only him who saw it? She asked this. “Well…I don’t see how it is any of your business, after all, it does not affect you now, does it?” She sighed, disappointed by the lack of an answer but it a point not to touch the walls.
“Twilight sent me through…she said I should apologise for offending you…I’m sorry.”
“The amount of sincerity is overwhelming, any more enthusiasm I might have been knocked out!” She scowled at him, just wanting him to drop it and forget everything, but he waved his hand at her, immune to her glares.
“Dash; there is no point in apologising when you mean nothing of what you say. A hollow and empty apology is as bad as the act which you must apologise for. You may apologise to me, when you mean what you are saying, and when you truly know what you are saying sorry for.” Bewilderment spread like a rash across Dash’s face.
“I know exactly what I’m supposed to be sorry about. I insulted you – nothing else to it.” River shook his head, looking slightly amused at the response he got.
“Oh Dashie, you know…not much about this sort of thing do you?” The question hung in the air for a moment before River continued. “You don’t know why I was offended. Granted, I told you something about me that gave you an idea as to why I was offended, and using that you have crafted the illusion that you know why. You haven’t seen it. For example, people know there is a lot of suffering in the world, but they do not see the true extent of it and don't know exactly why they should feel sorry for them Granted this was in the past, people don't care anymore, but the example works all the same. You don’t know why you should apologise, as much as we didn’t know exactly why we should help those less fortunate. Words are all well and good, but when they are coupled with meaning and context, then they become something that matters.” Dash felt frozen as she listened. She hadn’t expected this. She had hoped he would have dismissed her immediately; throw her out the room even, but not this. And as much as she disliked him, his words made sense to her, even though she didn’t entirely understand his meaning.
“I will say this to you now though – I am sorry. I’m sorry for acting so rashly to what you said. It was irresponsible of me and there was no real reason for it. I guess I was still getting used to the idea that there really are talking pastel coloured ponies somewhere out there, and I apologise for scaring you. Don’t give me that look, fear is a hard thing to hide from those trained to see it, especially if you aren’t used to hiding it. The eyes reveal all, remember that.” Dash stormed out the room.
‘Scared! I was not scared! Well…maybe a little, but come on! He had a knife to me. Anypony would…but it’s not cool to point it out…grr… But he’s right though, darn it! I was scarred! Well, I’ll fix that, I’ll not be afraid of him anymore, besides, it’s not like he would have actually used that knife. Yeah…’
Fluttershy nearly bumped into Dash as Dash marched out River’s room and into her own. She was forced to glance back by her concern to Rainbow’s room as she went into River’s room, intending to check up on her.
“Wow, that is impressive Fluttershy.”
“Huh?” River pointed at her head, where a large glass of water was perfectly perched.
“That. That takes skill. Shows you have a superb sense of balance too, I bet you could make a great acrobat if you wanted to.” Fluttershy blushed and he took the water from her head, letting her stretch her neck in relief.
“I was actually considering being an acrobat when I was a little filly, but I couldn’t fly well and was very shy. But I then discovered my love of animals, and I could never leave them after that.” River nodded as he sipped the water, unconsciously checking for anomalies.
“Trading one love for one you love even more. I can understand that.” She smiled again before yet again asking if he needed anything. “Just an answer to the one question: why do you all have tattoos on your flanks?” He figured it was one of the first questions he should have asked. They all had markings on their flanks, Dash had a multi coloured lightning bolt coming from a fluffy white cloud, Rarity had three light blue gems in a typical diamond shape and Pinkie had three balloons on her. Twilight had a large purple star with smaller stars around it, Applejack had…apples and Fluttershy herself had three butterflies.
“Well, they are our cutie marks.” River raised an eyebrow, ‘that sounds like a fancy name for-‘
“Everypony in equestrian gets their own when they discover their special talent. Mine shows my love for animals and desire to care for them. ‘Never mind that then.’
“So, everypony in the wor- I mean, “Equestria” goes to a tattoo parlour when they decide they know what makes them unique?”
“Oh no, not like that. It appears magically almost immediately after a pony finds what they are best at… Don’t humans have them?” River shook his head, not completely believing her, but finding it hard to dispute her after putting in a little thought. After all, Twilight could use magic; she had used it on him to get him to his bed after all, so he knew that is existed in her world. But the idea that every person in that land had their speciality marked permanently on them for everyone to see, didn’t sit right with him. There was no real mystery to a person that way, you didn’t need to get to know them to know anything about them, one glance at their ass and presto, he is a joiner. Uninteresting, next.
“That is really…I don’t know. That is weird to me, it seems that, once you have acquired this mark…that it dictates the rest of your life. People would judge you by it, employers would bias against it, and if you lost interest in that thing that your cutie mark represents,” the word tasted weird in his mouth, “wouldn’t it be kind of…annoying? Having this mark stuck to you showing publically something that you no longer want to have shown?” ‘At least someone who’s special talent were murder would be easy to spot.’ Fluttershy thought about it for a moment before shrugging it off, saying that to her knowledge, it had never happened before, ponies always remained in love with what their special talent was and often would seek out a job or living that suited that. It still didn’t settle him, but he felt better with a bit of an answer. “Alright, if you insist. So, if the tattoos are natural, are the coats too?”
“Um, what do you mean?”
“The colour of your coats and manes: those cannot be natural. They simply can’t.”
“Um, they are though. I’ve never dyed my mane, ever!” He stared at her as thought she had just fallen off a couch.
“You’re joshin’ me right? No, hawd it, you’re telling me that; a Pegasus with a yellow coat and pink mane, a unicorn with deep purple coat and mane – with a pink stripe in it and in the tail, an orange, yellow maned earth pony, a bubble gum pink one too, another unicorn, crystal white with blue eye shadow and a cyan Pegasus with a Rainbow mane!... Is normal? Oh, and not forgetting the wee filly with muddy orange coat and purple mane too.” Fluttershy hovered for a second, getting used to Rivers’ scrutiny of something which was so normal to her.
“Yes, it is natural. The eye shadow on Rarity isn’t, naturally, but everything else is completely natural. Even Rainbow Dash’s mane – though it is unique. Rarity thinks it is dyed, but Dash insists it is natural.” River found himself once again bewildered into silence, his face involuntarily betraying his normally set expression.
“Christ on a bike man, I’d fucking love tae huv a peek at your genetics. Must be some LSD shit going on in there for fucks sake… Tell me, this almighty ruler of yours, Celectria or something, wits she like, what has she done?” Fluttershy wondered what he meant briefly by their genetics, unfamiliar with the term, but smiled as she spoke, feeling a little wanting for home.
“It’s, um, Celestia by the way. She is really, really nice. She has a love for everypony and also loves animals. She has her own pet too, a phoenix called Philomena, a beautiful bird and really nice too…”
“You act as though you have met her, Celestia that is.”
“I have, but, it’s not that important. Not to say that she isn’t important, or that she isn’t a nice pony but it’s not something I like to brag about, or even mention…”
“Alright hen, I get where you are coming from, don’t stutter yourself in-tae a hole. I’ll let you get to your bed now lass, your lookin’ dark under the eyes now.”
“Oh, okay then, goodnight River.”
“G’night Fluttershy, enjoy your beauty sleep.” She left the room, being careful to close the door as quietly as possible.
River lay there, staring at his celling in the darkness, smiling for no real reason. But if the smile could be seen, it would be questioned. It looked melancholy, out of place with his thoughts. And memories.
‘Hope they aren’t here long…I just got used to living alone for fucks sake… Makes me wonder how Robert would react to them. Wait, who? The fuck am I on about…? Ack, never mind, probably just a slip of the…mind…?’ He rolled his eyes at his own slip, deciding to blame it on a lack of and his strange position. ‘I know I should be doing my job - I’ve been in worse shape than this…sorta. That bitch has one hell of a fucking kick - I’ll have to be wary of her. But…I want to learn all I can about them before that. When I go off to my job, things might not end well.’
He rolled over onto his side, being stunned momentarily by a strike of pain through his chest. “That was quite the potent sting…” It passed down into a dull ache, letting him sigh. He felt a little ashamed. Out of everything, this encounter was the one that had the longest lasting effect, the one where he felt he was the closest to death. He knew of course that he had been in worse shape, but adrenaline can let you ignore even the worst scrapes and bruises, and he wasn’t covering behind a crate, being shot at. Therefore – no adrenaline.
“I need music…in fact nah, it can wait. I need sleep. But what the hell am I going to do about them…ponies? Are they really the things that came through – fucking equines?” He rolled back onto his back, wedging himself right at the wall, enjoying the cool feeling it brought. He continued to think all through the night, mostly about what he was going to do, but found each conclusion to be unsound.
He was interrupted by a chap at his door. He blinked suddenly, realising that the wall was warm and soft streetlight light was being blocked by his blinds, the old fabric paling but still going strong.
“Come in.” He croaked, making him aware of his thirst as he tried to physically shake away the odd loss of time. Fluttershy poked her head through the door, quickly followed by Twilight.
“Hey there River, how are you today?”
“I’m…knida shitty, but I can’t complain – felt a hell-of-a lot worse in recent days. What time is it anyway?” He replied while lazily rubbing his shoulder, willing blood into it after having squashed it all night.
“It’s night again, nine o’clock –at night- and considering that you still haven’t slept yet, that’s not surprising. I have had my fair share of ‘staying up all night’, reading of course, and it isn’t a very pretty feeling. I’m surprised you haven’t fallen asleep.”
“You really should sleep River; it will help you to recover much quicker.”
“Believe me; I do not need lectured about sleep.” His tone made it clear that he had dealings with the subject before. “Besides, as a teenager, sleep is one of my favourite activities. I just couldn’t do much of it last night. Unlike you girls?”
“Oh yes. The bed was wonderful – one of the most comfortable I’ve ever slept on.” Twilight nodded, agreeing whole heartedly.
“I am curious; why do you have so many spare rooms?”
“Well, I happened to come into a bit of money a wee while back and was able to purchase a house, and since I sometimes have to cater to more people than just myself, I decided that it would be best to acquire a house that could just that. It isn’t often mind you, but it happens.” Twilight looked at him as he smiled a little, happy with his explanation but still felt it wasn’t the whole story, like he had just made that up on the spot to satisfy her. But he sounded very sincere and there was no reason to disbelieve him, remembering he was still a stranger, she brushed it off as trying to kindle her doubts of him.
“Um Twilight, you said you could check him?” She looked over to her with a questioning look but blinked, embarrassed for forgetting why they were there.
“Oh yeah. Hold still for a moment please.” She walked up to him with her horn glowing and began hovering it over the length of him.
He scanned his eyes over them both, hoping to get an answer, but after getting nothing but a smile he asked what she was doing, just to be ‘shh’d. He promptly huffed and slouched.
Twilight pulled back after a few minutes, smiling with pride.
“It’s working a treat! I must share that spell with Celestia when I get home...” River could see that sombre look beginning to come on, so he cut it off by asking what the spell was (the fact it was being used on him having nothing to do with it at all). “Well, it is an advanced healing spell. See, you were in very rough shape. We all knew Applejack could kick, but she accidently –accidently! Done a lot of damage. And that table of yours had some really weird glass in it. It was very tough and managed to hurt you a lot as well.” Both ponies were cringing at the memories, and River could get why.
“Yeah, she hus a kick an’ a half that woman does. I’m never goin’ tae piss her off. And the glass, it’s bullet proof: Designed to take high intensity impacts from things moving at over three hundred meters a second, so the fact that she was able to kick me through it – just damn. But anyway, the spell?”
“Wow…” She briefly considered asking why he had such glass in a table, but decided against it. “Yes, erm. The medical spells I could remember just weren’t potent enough, so I took aspects from some of them, blended them together, made a few tweaks, and made a new spell.”
“And what does it do exactly?”
“Oh it does a lot of different things. It can help mend the bones of an injured animal, positioning them correctly for the animal – I hope – while fusing it back together, it can cure infection that…” She continued to explain to River exactly what the spell did to River for nearly half an hour. Fluttershy eventually realised that it would take a while and left, but River kept on listening, fascinated at all he was hearing, asking questions that eventually lead to the roots of magic and what it was. He found out, as best he could understand, it was basically a different type of energy that only unicorns could channel directly and manipulate correctly.
“Fascinating. Oh, by the way. You said that the heall-y spell was working – how well?”
“Oh very well. You should be able to walk, but don’t exert yourself too much. Your chest was badly hurt after all, and the only problem with the spell is that it cannot be localised to a specific area so I can’t make it heal any quicker. And the spell takes a while to work anyway, though I’m surprised it has only taken about three days to produce such good results. But still, I’m just sorry I couldn’t make it work any quicker…” She sounded genuinely disappointed, which made River scoff a little as he got up.
“Twilight, please. This spell of yours puts medical science to shame.” They were interrupted by Applejack as she hollered from downstairs.
“Soups on everypony!” River looked to Twilight as he got out of bed, and pulled on his dressing gown over his bandaged form.
“Shall we?”
“She didn’t know you’d be up, you weren’t cooked for.”
“That’s fine, I prefer to cook for myself, and others to be honest, but I have to ask a few things while down there, so.” He motioned to the door. “Shall we?”
The first thing that struck River was how odd the kitchen looked when filled with pastel coloured equines. The room itself was no different from how he had left it – clean, functioning and cool. It may have even been a little cleaner, but he wasn’t sure, he wasn’t paying attention. But the room did feel odd. Used, occupied, useful once again. It made the room seem a little brighter.
“Howday there Twilight, hop on a seat and…oh, hello there River.” The (almost) carefree smiles and conversations ceased when they all noticed him. They were all sitting on the chairs around the table, the thought that they had to jump onto the chairs somehow amused him. He didn’t show it of course, instead he sighed. Knowing he wasn’t welcome or wanted, coupled by the almost fearful expressions held by most but Dash and Twilight, who were just glaring at him and not minding him respectably.
A familiar buzz began at the back of tongue, one that needed satisfied before he could do anything. He hung a quick right and opened the fridge. He reached to the very top of the fridge, and took out a large label-less black bottle and brought it over to the right hand counter, letting the fridge door close with an elegant tap. Opening the cupboard in front of him revealed to him cups and glasses. Including shot glasses. He reached for his largest shot glass and in a much practiced motion, had the glass filled with a dark liquid before it touched down on the counter.
“Eh, ‘scuse me River, Ah know it isn’t mah place to be askin’ but are you drinking the, eh, heavy stuff?” He took a deep sniff of the intoxicating liquid before replying with a satisfied sigh.
“Yeah…this is a blend of liquor and a gin. Hard to do right, but I know just how to do it – and it is fucking delicious.” And with that it was gone with the flick of his wrist, showing off his familiarity with the technique. “Delightful. Now.” He punctuated with the glass being placed. “The main reason that I’m down here: food and answers. Talk amongst yourself until I’m done.” He took his time making his sandwich so he could listen in a bit. It wasn’t exactly light hearted banter, but it was casual enough, with a lot of the energy coming from Pinkie, who was almost throwing herself around the table as everyone talked and laughed. But Dash kept on giving him the evil eye, hoping he wouldn’t see with his back turned; she was completely forgetting about her reflection in the window. River couldn’t help but laugh to himself.
‘Wow, another person that doesn’t like me. Take your place at the end of the line kid, you got a lot of much more dangerous people than you ahead of ya.’
He jumped up onto the table top and sat, taking a content bite from his cheese sandwich before clearing his throat, getting all of their attention immediately.
“Now…eh, where’s the wee one by the way?”
“Oh, the poor dear was tired and went to bed early. She doesn’t need to be here, does she?” Rarity asked. River shook his head.
“Naw, just wonderin’ is all. Can-nay have em’body missing.”
“Why do you care anyway?” Applejack looked at Dash sharply, telling her to pipe down, but River cut her off.
“Naw, it’s ‘k… The reason is that you are all currently freeloading from me. As well as this, you are all lodging here too. I have nothing against this, but I have a sense of responsibility to you lot now – even if it is unwanted, I am now looking after all of you. Even the little one.” The group of ponies looked to each other, not sure how to feel about what was said, but Dash was trying to supress a mocking laugh.
“You, look after us? I’ll give you this, you are quick and kinda intimidating. But, come on, we took you out easy! I think we can handle anyone else.” Despite the looks the rest of the group were giving her, there was a general feeling around the table that she had a point – he had gone down without much problem and hadn’t done much in the way of proving he was capable of much of anything. Furthermore, the six of them did in fact know how to fight, a little.
However, Dash’s smug grin and firmly folded forelegs loosened when River just sat there, shaking his head, munching his sandwich and smiling the smile of someone who knew someone was saying something very stupid.
“Hey, what’s so funny?”
“Nothing what-so-ever. I’ll just demonstrate something after I get an answer for this question: How long are you lot going to be staying here for?” All eyes turned to Twilight as the air in the room seemed to solidify.
“Well…that is a difficult question…”
“How so?”
“Because…” She looked around the room, not wanting to have to admit this to her friends, but sighing when she realised there was no help for this. “Because I have no idea what is wrong with the spell. Ab-solute-ly none.” She looked down in shame at this admission, feeling all eyes on her. Then forelegs. She opened her eyes to see all of her friends giving her a supportive hug, understanding in their eyes.
“It’s all right.” They said as one. She returned the hug.
River had the slightest of frowns on his face, completely flabbergasted by the over the top show of affection, only able to mutter,
“Woman; weird creatures, even when they are horses.” All eyes immediately turned to River. Afraid he had been heard, he started to cough, only for them to frown at him. He just sighed, trying to get back on track. “Alright, since you lot have no idea how long you’ll al be here... Okay, you all seem like decent enough folk –‘cept you Dash, you just want to kick my ass for whatever shallow reason – and because I somewhat like the lot of ya, you can all stay for as long as you need tae.” Faces right across the kitchen light up in delight, the whole area around them almost glowing.
“Oh thank you, thank you, and thank you!” Pinkie said in a mix between prancing and hopping in front of River. “That is soooooooo nice of you, I never would have thought that you’d be so nice! If I’m honest, I honestly thought you would say something like ‘I hate you all and I’m a stick in the mud, get off my property’ but no! You’re so nice! Isn’t he nice!? Oh! I need to throw a party to celebrate!”
“Pinkie!” Rivers voice was finally heard over the insulating sounds of Pinkie Pie.
“Yes?” Pinkie asked with blinking eyes.
“Ground rules. First: you will do as I say. I don’t want to hear objections – if I tell you to throw yourself out the fucking window? You throw yourself out the window. There is never no reason to anything I say, so if I ask something of you, there is a reason. You do not question the reason either.
Rule two: you do not go outside under any circumstance. If you do you will be placing yourself in a lot of danger. The kind of danger you have not dreamed about yet.”
“Oh yeah? Even more dangerous than a hydra?” He raised an eyebrow to the group, expecting them to shake their heads or smile, something to show Dash was kidding. Just a dead audience is what he got.
“Hmm, fascinating, but yes. You can get away from a Hydra, not this danger though – far too many methods of getting to you. Third: No snooping in my room. You may only go in there if I am there, and I have my methods of knowing you were there or not, so: don’t even try. Five: Do not, for the love of God, do not be loud. The last thing I need is inquisitive neighbours or the police chapping at my door.” He got off the counter and poured another shot of his custom drink and downed it. “Oh, and six. Break a damn thing, I break you.” He poured another to take up stairs with him and was about to leave the room when he turned and added, “Oh yeah, fourth rule: waken me fae my sleep and you will rue the day you did. Oh and don’t worry yourselves about cooking your dinners, I’ll handle those. All vegetarian yeah? No vegans? Thought so. Anyway, goodnight my little ponies, I will see you all…tomorrow at some point. Tell…Scootaloo, that’s it, tell Scootaloo I said hello.” And then he was gone, imeditly upstairs and sipping happily on his drink, laptop pulled out and chilling.
They all converged their attention back to each other.
“Well,” Applejack started, “Ah reckon that is reasonable.”
“There was no need to call us freeloaders though.” Rarity complained. “It’s such a crude term, so rude.”
“It is true though Rarity, we aren’t actually contributing to him in anyway. I think that he is being very nice letting us stay here given the circumstances. Remember, if it weren’t for us jumping to conclusions, he wouldn’t have nearly died. Added to that Rainbow’s less than stellar behaviour,” She said with a hard glare “and the knowledge that we may be here for months taking his resources… I am honestly surprised that he just turned around and basically said, ‘Yup, you can stay so long as you obey a few standard household and safety rules’. It’s remarkably generous and kind of him, so I think we can tolerate his language and habits.”
“I, eh really, really don’t think he should be drinking like that though…especially in his condition.” Fluttershy added.
“Yeah, a bit of social drinking can be good at a party, but not like that! Wait, do you think he might be an…alcoholic?” Pinkie gasped a little too loud at her own suspicion.
“Ah really don’t recon it is our place to judge even if he is. Though I think we should put his bottle past.” Twilight did just that before re-joining her friends.
“You okay Dash, you’ve been a bit quiet.”
“I’m fine Twilight, just fine.”
“You’re not thinking of doing something foolish are ya?”
“Oh no, not at all Applejack. Don’t worry about me; I’m just going off to bed: It being half past nine and all.” With that she was off, up the stairs and in bed in seconds.
“What are the odds that she is planning on doing somethin’ very reckless tomorrow?” Everypony nodded, agreeing with Applejack. However, the time announcement jarred the rest of the ponies into going to bed as well. Applejack turned at the doorway to see Twilight still sitting there.
“Y’all alright Twi?” Twilight turned to her with a weak smile.
“Yeah, I’m alright, it’s just, whenever something happens like this, like we end up somewhere, it never ends in a simple way. Honestly, can you remember that last time we had a truly uneventful trip? This one has already put lives in danger and it is entirely my fault…” Applejack pulled her face down so they were looking into each other’s eyes.
“Now you listen here: this is not your fault. Yes, the spell mucked up, big deal! You can get us home – don’t doubt this. There is no other unicorn in Equestria that can do what you can with magic. Setbacks happen. This is just a setback. Besides, I’m sure that this gives you the opportunity to learn a lot of new things. That River fellow seems smart, and these humans don’t have magic. I’m sure it will be interestin’ for ya to learn how they coped without magic, and about the times before all this violence. Would you have been able to do that if this didn’t happen?” Twilight shook her head, already feeling a bit better. “Exactly. Now you get off that chair and head off to bed, a new day brings new adventure and you will want to be well rested for it.” Twilight pulled herself out of the chair, but quickly remembered something.
“Didn’t River say that he wanted to show off something…?
“Eh, I reckon that he’s forgotten or he’ll do it at a later time. But right now – to bed with us all!”

“Why were they having a meal at nine at night? Never mind - not important.” River sat at the spare desk he had pulled out from the room where Twilight was now spending the night, the library area of the house. He was sitting on his swivel chair, leaning as far back as it allowed him tossing a small blue rubber ball up and down, deliberately catching it with the same hand each time. He reached out to the drink he had poured himself but stopped himself with a sigh and went for a green ball on the desk instead, adding it into the mix, still only using the one hand.
‘Rainbow Dash will definitely break the rules at some point. I know her type, hell I wouldn’t be surprised if she broke them tomorrow.Though I wonder how she'll do it...’ He reached for a red ball from the table and added it to his one-handed juggling. ‘I should just hand them in already. What the hell do I have to lose, company? Please, as though I need it. But…I’m curios. I really want to know what everything I can about them. And they don’t seem like they are that bad to be honest…they had just better not pry into my business or life will become very suddenly oh so very difficult for them.’ He sat there, not thinking for some time before he heard something at his door.
“Come on in.” There was some scraping at the door for a few seconds before the handle was pulled down and the door swung inward, a little filly hanging from the handle. “Well hello there. What brings you in here?” She dropped from the handle and turned to him with small, tired looking eyes.
“I just wanted to say sorry. If I hadn’t been so careless and fallen on you, you might not have gotten hurt. It was my fault…” She dipped her head as her resolve to face him began to weaken. It had taken her this long to try and apologise, having herself convinced that it was all her fault.
She turned to leave and had taken only a step when an arm hooked around her and pulled her back, much to her surprise and up on to River’s lap. She turned her head away from River, but he pulled her face gently to face him. Happy he had her attention, he pointed to his other arm, which was still busy juggling the three balls.
“You see that?”
“Yes… That’s actually quite cool. Isn’t that hard?”
“To master yeah, but you get the hang of it. Point is though, do you think I would be doing this if I wasn’t alright?” Scootaloo looked from the balls to River and back, trying to figure out where he was coming from. “Well?”
“Emm, no?”
“Exactly. And that means that…?”
“That you’re…fine?”
“Exactly. I am perfectly fine. I am not hurt. You have no reason to be sorry what-so-ever. If you hadn’t landed on me, I would have had a very boring day, and things might not have worked out too good for you or your friends either.” The image of Scootaloo lying broken in the snow nearly made his smile waver.
“I suppose… I still wish there was a better way that we could have met.”
“Likewise. But the past is the past. We can’t change it. No matter how much we might want to…” River got a melancholy look in his eyes as he looked past the walls of his room…
“Are you alright?” He caught himself before his mind drifted too far and continued to smile at Scootaloo.
“I’m fine, just remembering a few things I wish I could have done differently too.”
“Like what?” his mind flashed back to what he had just thought to himself before the young filly had chapped on his door, but sighed when he realised that even if he had the heart to hurt them, the look he was getting then and there, would stop even bullets and make them cry for trying.
“I prefer not to talk about things like that wee one. Very personal you see.” Scootaloo nodded in understanding.
“I know what you mean. I don’t like talking about some things too…” There was a gentle silence in the room as River stopped tossing the balls up and down, using both of his arms to place them on the table which was now behind him.
“River, why doesn’t Rainbow Dash like you?” River lay back in the seat and frowned at the ceiling.
“That is a good question. The thing is, she doesn’t like my species. I guess that she has been out scouting around hasn’t she?”
“Yeah, like every day she fly’s around for like an hour and comes back in a really bad mood. She tries to hide, but it is so obvious.”
“Yeah, figured. She doesn’t like what my species do to each other, and has chosen to direct that hate to me, since as I am the only one of my kind that she can have safe contact with.”
“Why? What do you all do to each other?”
“…My kind…we don’t like each other, so we often fight.”
“Why?”
“Well…there is no real good reason. People are just angry constantly, to the point where they have forgotten why.”
“But don’t they realise they are hurting others?”
“Can’t they see the suffering they cause? No. Sometimes Scootaloo, people are blind to what they see the most. They have forgotten what the consequences of their actions are, they have forgotten that they are all people, that we have to help each other, that we can live without taking what each other has. We have forgotten a great deal of things…”
“But if everyone else is like that, why aren’t you?”
“Sheer willpower and nothing else. It is exhausting being the way I am. It would be much easier to be like the others, I would get noticed much less, I could stop the mental fight that goes on every day - the urge to conform is almost overwhelming – but I can’t do that. It would be my worst defeat. And besides, I would be too dangerous. Much too dangerous…but that will never happen. Once someone has realised what I have, it is difficult to ignore it.”
“Then…why haven’t they?”
“Because they are blind to what they see most, remember? They are too used to their way of thinking, that they cannot see the reality of the situation. And a lot of them are far too stubborn to care for any other way of thinking. It is quite frustrating, but it will not be that way forever, I assure you…” An all too cunning smile slipped onto his, making Scootaloo think that he knew what he was talking about, so she smiled too.
“Is it true that we are going to be staying here for a while?”
“Well, while you are here you will be staying in my home yes.”
“Alright! That’s awesome!” She threw her forelegs around his neck, taking him by surprise with her enthused hug. He looked awkward, but slowly placed a hand on her back too.
“You like me?”
“You sound surprised, of course I like you.”
“I am surprised, we barely know each other.”
“Well, do you like me?” She pulled back and looked at him in the eye, her fore-hooves on his chest so she could do so.
“Yeah…I suppose I do.”
“There you have it. Just because we only met recently, doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends.”
‘Yeah, try that in this world kiddo, you have to be suspicious of someone ‘till they prove they can be trusted. But then again, the wisdom of a kid is still wisdom. It just doesn’t always work.’ But then he looked at the overly happy face on Scootaloo. It was the kind of look only achieved easily upon waking up on a Christmas morning to three feet of snow and presents pilled even higher. He shook his head at how cute even he found the sight and clapped her head, ruffling her mane.
“Aye, you’re quite something. An’ you’ve got a point. I’ll try to remember that. Now, ya wee scamp… off to bed.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes, you have to. You’ll find that you actually are pretty friggin' tired right now, you just don’t feel it. Now off tae bed with you, I’ll see you in the morning. Or not, I might just sleep right the way through the morning too. “
“Okay River. See you tomorrow.” With those parting words she hopped off River and scampered off to her bed.
River got out his chair and closed the door with a sigh, feeling somewhat better at having talked with the only one of them that really didn’t seem to mind him that much, but at the same time, it made his position much more difficult.
“What the fuck am I meant to do…? I can’t keep them here forever…I can’t hide them anywhere…but I can’t just…” He sighed as he was back again to the same position as before, except with that little face smiling back at him.
He slumped into the light switch, turning it off and casting the room into complete darkness. He sat down on his chair once and grabbed the three rubber balls from his desk and started tossing them into the air once again as he thought, staring off into the darkness of his mind.

Author's Note

Edit (28/8/13): Oddly enough, not my least favorite chapter. It has a few mistakes that could be combed out, but as a whole there is nothing bone brakingly bad here...I think.