Paradise Inn

"What are you going to do, fucking whine about it?" Her father towered overhead, rage directed solely upon the battered griffoness. "You're worthless. Can't fucking do anything," Marr stumbled through the doorway, mind spinning as her father continued, voice raising higher and higher. "What, are you just going to fucking run away? Can't fucking face your problems? Can't fucking fix anything?!"

She ground her beak, eyes instead focusing on the door. She could make it to the door and then she would be ok. She could get out. It would be fine.

"You are a fucking waste of a griffon Marr! You can't hunt, you can hardly fly, you're not fucking good for anything! And then you act like you're the only thing that fucking matters and fucking screw up for attention! FUCKING GROW UP AND ACT LIKE A GRIFFON!"

"FUCK YOU!" The resounding sound of wood on wood slammed through the air, the rough-hewn door nearly shaking loose of its hinges, pulling at the worn door-frame roughly as Marr slammed it shut, trying to block out her fathers words. With a hasty beat of her wings, she flew from the small house, roughly careening through the air.

She couldn't go home.

Mind you, she supposed, it wasn't a 'home,' not a real one at least. A home was someplace you felt safe, warm and welcome. It was a place where you could be you and not have to worry about others.

It was a house, but never a home.

Instead she fixed her eyes on the horizon, shakily making for the forest before her wing shed a cluster of feathers. She spiraled towards the Everfree, it's gloomy canopy welcoming her as she crashed full force into the dark branches.

Marr woke screaming, wrapped in some terrible thing, clawing frantically as she struggled for her life. Suddenly the world inverted, dumping the ratty griffon onto the cold unforgiving floor with a loud thump. It took her a few moments to clue into where exactly she was. A little cabin that the edge of the Everfree had all but overtaken, a hole in the wall no-where.

Where she had run to.

Run being the literal sense. Her wings where useless, shredded to the point some feathers most likely where not coming back. So she had run, wings doing little more then letting her jump a little further, half gliding across creeks and ravines as she skirted the edge of the gloomy forest until, almost a day out, she had found this.

Shaking, Marr pulled herself to the barely functional end table and grabbed the bottle from atop it. It was one of the few things she had that she still owned, and she gratefully poured pain medication into her talon before slamming it back, collapsing onto the floor.

She looked over her room with dull eyes, only half seeing what there was in the murky light from the single window. Her ragged wings merged with the mess of soda bottles, trays from the "instant" dinners she'd been eating for the last week (Unicorn magic was never going to be as good as a proper stove; half the 'food' had been dumped outside) and crumpled notes, all of the detritus trying to fill in for the numerous missing feathers. All she could do was grimace at the sight.

She hadn't really made the best decision when she came here, and the trend had continued with what types of food she had brought. There was a distinct lack of planning, or perhaps the plan was that there was no plan. It didn't really matter. She'd been out here for month, and had no inclination of leaving.

Barely registering her actions, she lethargically reached over and smoothed a note back out, eyes glancing over the words, even though she already knew the contents by heart.

Dear Zephyr,

Hello, It's been a while, I was wondering how you've been? I'm sorry I haven't kept in touch, I meant to but I seem to not know what to really put in these.

I really miss you-

The rest of the letter was scratched over, ink smudged furiously over any words that could follow. With a groan she tossed the letter to the side, turning to look the other way with a scowl. She couldn't just go back without anything to show for it. She had to have something. What sort of useless creature left and then came back with nothing to show?

A red bordered letter caught her eye, sitting squarely in the ray of sunlight from the window. She already knew it's contents as she stared at it, mind formulating a plan, running through scenarios, trying to ascertain if it would be good enough.

Her mind raced as it went over what day it was. She wasn't perfect, she wasn't amazing, and what she had wasn't good enough, it would never be, but she had to give what she could.

Her mind was made up as her talon snatched the note, carefully flattening it before placing it in her notebook. With a flourish, she packed everything into her messenger bag and hurried for the door.

She had to move fast.

Every head in the damp marketplace turned at the sight of the Griffoness careening to ground, wings a calliope of colours on a ruddy brown background even as hastily imped feathers tore themselves apart under the extreme forces of Marrs rain hampered landing.

The end result was dramatic, the griffoness roughly skidding to a halt in a rainbow cloud of feathers as her backwinging caused a massive chunk of missmatched donor primaries to shatter their bond. The end result meant to keep her footing she found herself jogging a few paces forewards, shaking out her wings and dislodging the last few poorly patched feathers (most cobbled together from her spare writing quills,) random colours now dotting the landscape like a bizarre snowfall.

Ponies where staring openly at this point, what seemed like hundreds of pairs of eyes focused on the ragged-winged half bird.

Marr hissed, eyes narrowed. "What are ya lookin' at?" With that, half of the heads turned away, the rest lingering long enough to have the griffoness flip them off with a muddy talon, the insult not lost on them. What few eyes stayed on her quickly lost sight of the ragged creature as she careened through the crowd with reckless abandon. Speed was the game she was playing at, and it was a game she could win.

Up and over and around, she darted through the crowd, green eyes searching. Seeing a familiar mane, she vaulted over a moving wagon, almost crashing headlong into Rapoza.

"Marr?" The mango coloured stallion blinked at the panting griffon, not quite sure what to say as the half cats ragged furr smoothed back down under the steady early morning drizzle.

Catching her breath, Marr hastily put on that not caring face. "Hey. Know where Zeph is?"

The stallion blinked, brow furrowing. "I think she's out with that coltfriend of hers, Hearts and Hooves Day and all."

She felt like she had been stabbed. The breath ran out of her and her limbs felt shakey. Of course Zeph had a very special somepony. Her mind tore at itself, berating her for being so stupid. What was she even thinking?

"Why? Where have you even been?"

"Doesn't matter. Never mind."

With that, Marr turned about face, lept to fly off - and barely managed to catch herself as her torn up wings declined to provide enough lift. Her jump was perhaps a bit further then without wings, but flight was out of the question. Swearing filled the sky, taking flight for her as she instead took off down the street, leaving a very confused stallion behind her.

Blood dripped down Marrs side as she chewed on her wings joint, more feathers floating to the ground as the griffoness mauled herself. She was half ways up a tree in the park, and even though the cloud cover had lifted, her spirits had not.

She had feathered this up. She hadn't even done what she set out to accomplish and she had fucked up. She flopped over into the crotch of the wide branch she was perched on, letting the wound dry as she stared up at the leafy canopy, one talon digging furrows into the trees limb.

This was how it would always be, wasn't it? She'd just fuck everything up time and time again. Now she had a crush on somepony who was already taken. That just made her worse, because she couldn't help who she liked. She was like a curse, a bad plague. Like Night said, she was the bad thing that happened to good ponies.

"Marr?"

The soft question made the Griffoness start, squawking as she fell gracelessly from her perch, slamming in a crumpled heap in front of byzantium hooves. The startled pegasus jumped back, eyes wide. "Marr! Are you ok?"

The ruddy and ragged creature groaned, flopping off her head and landing on her back, blinking groggily up at the pegasus. Fate had to be laughing at her.

"What are you doing here? Where did you go? I missed you."

Marr looked to the side, wincing as she could barely stand looking at Zephs hurt expression. Fate wasn't laughing, it was guffawing as it poured salt in her wounds.

"I left to deal with... Things."

That apparently wasn't good enough. "You never wrote or told anypony where you where going. And then you show up out of no where and the only reason I know is because Rapo told me."

The griffon squirmed, fighting back the urge to shred her wings out of shame as she refused to look at the pegasus. The trees trunk looked lovely.

Suddenly, all attempts to ignore the pegasus where put on hold as the byzantium mare laid down beside her, soft fur touching Marrs roughly cut coat. The griffoness slowly turned her beak to face the pony, meeting a very small smile. "Rapoza said you where looking for me.

Marr looked to the side, rolling over and into a sitting position, carefully dragging a red bordered note out of her messenger bag. "I... Was going to ask you to be my very special somepony for Hearts and Hooves day, but then I found out you where already... With somepony," The wince that she made was like someone expecting to get hit

Zeph made a face. "He's a bit of a dick, to be honest. Kinda mean, always wants me in the kitchen," She grinned slightly as she continued. "Turns out I'm a better writer then a cook."

"Then why are you..?"

Blue eyes looked up towards the trees green canopy. "He's attractive. Dunno, he has a crush on me, I have a crush on him..." She trailed off, white mane fluttering a bit in the breeze.

"That's kinda dumb."

"Heh. I know, right?"

They sat in silence for a long while, Marr looking back to the pegasus every so often before fidgeting and looking away, nervous talons kneading the ground. She felt like she was going to explode with the worry was creeping into her; It was bizarre, draining her and making her lethargic as much as it made her want to scream and shout and just do something, anything, so long as it was dramatic.

She looked back at Zephyr, only to meet those sky blue eyes as they looked over at her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry."

The purple pegasus frowned just a bit. "Why are you sorry? You didn't do anything wrong."

"I did and I still feel fetting horrible because I have a crush on you and you already said it's not anything you really want and I'm pretty sure you don't like girls like that and I'm kinda ugly anyways and I'm a s-selfish jerk who is fettin' attracted to someone she really doesn't know that well and I'm fucking this up and I'm sorry." Zephyr blinked as Marr panted, having spewed out one colossal spiel of words with no breath taken between. The griffoness looked away, body tense as if expecting violence before half choking out another "I'm sorry" and kneading the ground violently with her talons.

"Silly bird..." Zeph leaned against Marr, the movement making the larger creature jump. eyes widening in brief panic. The pegasus ignored it, gently nuzzling the battered griffoness as her wing plucked the note from Marrs talons and tucked the rumpled paper into her saddle bag. "Happy belated Hearts and Hooves day."

Marrs heart jumped to her throat as fresh tears gathered at her eyes. In a moment her mangled wings where thrown over the byzantium pegasus in an embrace. "T-t-thank you." She was crying again as she nuzzled the mare happily, not caring that even more imped feathers fell out as she did so.

Zephyr gave a small smile. "Don't worry, chill."

The griffoness half collapsed against the pegasai, as she sobbed. "I-I was just so worried you'd hate me."

Byzantium fur filled Marrs vision as the pegasus gave her a small kiss on the beak, then those sky blue eyes locked with hers, framed by white clouds of mane. "You're my friend, why would I hate you?" The raggedy griffoness broke eye contact, staring at her talons as her wings twitched.

"B-b-becasue I have a huge crush on you and I'm weird and-" The griffoness was cut off by Zeph's hoof.

The pegasus was still smiling as she shushed the hybrid creature, running a hoof over Marrs ragged feather crest soothingly. "You're fine, 'kay?" Zeph glanced over the griffons feather bare wings, one hoof gently lifting so she could inspect one better. She grimaced. "Or you will be once I'm done with you," Marr stiffened for a moment before the pegasus, apparently noticing, brushed the griffoness's wings with her own. "Come on, I'm gonna patch you up."

Zeph stood over Marr as the griffoness laid sprawled out on the bed.

"Why do you even have all of these?"

Zephyr laughed as she applied adhesive to the shaft pin of the feather to be grafted. "It's a talent of mine," At Marrs inquisitive look she continued. "When I was younger I was really interested in wings. I learned everything I could about how they work and how to make them look their best," the purple pegasus paused for a moment, tongue sticking out of the corner of her muzzle as she delecately fixed the donor feather to the Griffons mangled primary, pinning and gluing the shafts together. "Imping is almost second nature, I used to do it all the time for this one mare - always crashing into things. Ditzy little thing." Marr smirked, twitching a touch as the byzantium mare continued. "Anyways, I've kept every feather I could so I can keep others wings working properly. Now hold still."

The Griffoness held herself, resisting the urge to flip her wings about. Zeph had been working on her wings for hours. "What the heck did you do to get this roughed up? Feathers are just missing," The pegasus frowned, parting the feathers on Marrs wing to get a better look. "Fetlocks, who the heck did this to you?"

Marrs response was to bury her beak into the pillows. "I'm a bad creature."

"No. You're not. Who did this to you?" Zeph fixed her with a firm look. The griffoness looked anywhere but at the pony, already keenly aware of how this conversation was going to go if she let it. "Did you..?" Zephyr went quiet, starring at Marr for a long while before, the Griffon refusing to meet her eyes. With a heavy sigh, the purple pegasus turned back to the wings. Feather tips traced the scars and new scabs on it as the pegasus spent even more time inspecting then before. "I think I can fix this..."

It took hours more; Dinner came and went, candles where lit and placed on the curved vanity and still Zeph labored away at the griffons plumage, What once seemed like a vast mountain of spare feathers little more then a sparse spattering of trimmed bits and bites, some of the ruddy brown of Marrs wings interspersed with the byzantium donors. Zephyr stood back, looking over the griffoness with a critical eye before nodding. "There. Done. Now give a good flap."

Marr churred excitedly as she spread her wings again, twisting this way and that, as she gleefully inspected the mottled ruddy brown and striking byzantium patterns that now emerged. A few hard flaps sent some parchment from her desk fluttering about, but a distinct lack of feathers meant that Zeph's work had stuck, as it were. Zephyr suddenly found herself pinned under a purring half bird as Marr thanked her profusely.

The byzantium mare grinned, gently nuzzling into her companion before yawning wide, blinking as the sheer amount of time she had spent putting the griffoness back together hit home. Yawning again and mumbling something about being exhausted, she nuzzled into the griffon's soft chest. "You're welcome silly. Just don't rip these ones out, okay?"

Time seemed meaningless as they just lay together, not talking about much of anything, the recently put together griffoness expressing her gratitude repeatedly, a silly grin plastered over her beak. The moon peered in through the window as a silent witness, a graceful light filling the room as the candles finally burned down and out and the white maned pegasus fell asleep.

It was a simple moment, the type of love that she needed; someone who could be there and help, ever so gently, hold her together. Marr softly purred, gently petting the small pony's mane, talons combing through it carefully. This, she decided, was all she really needed; the pony there to keep her spirits up, her little byzantium angel. This was home.

That thought echoed through her skull. This was home. A place she felt safe. With Zephyr was home. It wasn't a building, it wasn't a town, it wasn't any fixed location; with her friend, the dear pegasus she loved so much, that was when she was home.

Carefully, mindful of all her repaired feathers, the griffoness wrapped the mare up in her wings. She was warm, and Marr found herself cuddling Zephyr as she slept, the mares breathing calming her usually anxious mind, leading her imagination from dark thoughts. It was startling how much of a difference Zephyr made. Everything was going to be okay.

For just a moment, just one fraction of eternity, Marr let herself relax.

She slept soundly.