Gale stood before the enormous oak, confirming by the overhanging sign that this was indeed the town's library, and walked to the door. He knocked firmly, and after a few moments, he heard a muffled voice within say, "Come in."

He pushed through the heavy door, opening it to see a massive cavern absolutely filled with book shelves.

His eye caught a slight movement near the center of the room, and after confirming it was only a mare diligently reading a text from a seat on a couch, he went to inspect the shelves for himself.

Gale fluttered around the room, not wanting to walk due to his absence of a leg, and eventually figured out the organization of the books.

He selected several, each on a different subject, reading the imprinted script on their spines, and set down in a seat on the windowsill to read.

Gale looked back at the mare in the center of the room before losing himself in the first book; she was still reading, her lavender eyes glued to pages of the text.

He took a deep breath in, and opened the first of the books, The History of Ponyville.

It was a dull read, but was very informative, and it quenched his thirst for knowledge on his new home. Between the numerous maps, recollections and traditions compiled in the book, by the time he had read the work in its entirety, he felt as if he had lived in the town for all his life.

He set the book aside with a thud, its aged leather covers hitting the wooden floor a bit harder than he would have preferred.

He looked up out of fear of having disturbed the other pony in the room, but no such thing had occurred; she was still reading the same text.

With that, Gale pulled out the second of the books, comically titled Caring For Dogs For Dummies.

He had never owned a dog before; Lance was his first, and he needed to start somewhere. The dog, when he first saw it, just seemed too much like him to be a coincidence, and he couldn't pass up on making him his own.

True to its title, the book used a small vocabulary and a surplus of pictures, making it incredibly for dummies to use. However elementary, the book was educational, and at least gave him a starting point of partial knowledge about being a pet owner.

As he closed the book, the cover seemed to make a much louder thud than it should have. Gale was confused at first, and turned the text in his hooves, inspecting it, when he saw a movement near the door. Something else had come in, and the shutting door was the source of the sound.

It wasn't another pony; it was too small, and yet, its form was concealed behind a massive stack of groceries. The pitter patter of feet could not be attributed to hooves, and Gale directed his attention to the figure rather than continuing his studies.

Then, it spoke.

"Twilight, I'm home!"

It was male, and a young one at that by the sound of its soprano voice. It struggled under the weight of its burden, and as it yelled, the mare dropped her book and trotted towards the stack of groceries, seemingly concerned.

"Shh," she hissed, trying to be as quiet as possible, but not so quiet as to prevent Gale from hearing, "Be quiet. We have company."

"What do you mean? One of your friends?" asked the still concealed figure.

The mare, previously identified as Twilight, shook her head, and said, "Just put the groceries in the kitchen please."

The figure turned, exposing its backside to Gale, who was still watching curiously. It was a small, scaly, bipedal, purple and green reptilian, and its arrowhead tipped tail trailed on the floor behind it as it walked.

"A dragon?" thought Gale to himself, shocked that such a creature would even be in Equestria, let alone a public library.

The dragon disappeared through a door, and the mare gave a sheepish grin, most likely as an apology for the disturbance, back to Gale. She reverted to the sofa, and continued reading, and Gale's icy eyes reverted to his book.

Before he could even digest the cover, the silence was again interrupted as the door opened noisily again, and Gale's ears perked up as he looked back up to see the dragon had returned. The reptile was staring at him, his fiery green eyes inspecting him from the other side of the room.

The mare began blushing as her sheepish grin flashed to Gale, and then began hissing for the dragon to leave. However, the drake ignored her, and approached him.

The purple reptile sat cross legged on the floor beneath the window sill, staring up at him intently. Gale looked down at him, then back at the mare, still trying to get the dragon to leave him alone without creating a scene. Gale, at first, tried to ignore the dragon, but when he opened the third of his books, A Manuscript of Healing Spells, and began reading, the drake didn't leave.

He could practically feel the creature's verdant eyes moving up and down his body. He endured the awkwardness until he had finished the first page of the book, but couldn't take it any longer after that.

"Can I help you?" he asked, shutting the book and tossing it onto his lap.

"Who are you?" the drake asked, his high voice a bit painful on the ears.

"Spike, leave him alone," commanded the mare from the center of the room, leaning over the arm of the sofa, but unwilling to leave the cushions entirely.

Ignoring the comment, Gale decided to humor the dragon, and answered, "I'm Gale Force."

"I'm Spike," he said, his personality seeming not confident, but definitely not shy.

Gale tried to go back to his book, but was stopped mid-movement by another question.

"What happened to your leg?"

"Spike!" yelled the mare, getting up from her seat and storming over to the windowsill, "That's enough. It's bed time."

She started to shepherd the dragon away from the windowsill, but Gale stopped her, saying, "Oh no Ms. Twilight, it's quite alright. It is Twilight?"

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle," she responded, extending a hoof.

Gale introduced himself formally, taking her hoof firmly in his grasp and lowering it once before releasing it.

"You're sure you don't mind him?"

"Not at all," Gale answered, prompting the unicorn to allow Spike to sit back down.

"You see," he explained, "I would tell you, but I can't."

"Why not?" asked the drake shamelessly.

"Would you tell a stranger everything about yourself?"

"I guess not."

"Well, there you have it. So, for now, let's just stick to the basics."

"But you only have three legs. That's a pretty obvious thing about you. I think that's pretty basic."

Twilight blushed, taking the blame for his innocent lack of boundaries.

"Ok," said Gale, nodding at the drake's point, but still unwilling to divulge everything at once, "If something happened to you that was so terrible, that thinking about it gave you nightmares, and everything that reminded you of it made you want to cry, would you tell anypony about what happened, or would you keep it to yourself, because you know that they won't understand? Because you know that nothing you can say can replicate what you felt, what you went through, or what it's like to have to live with what happened," Gale felt his tone rising, as well as a characteristic warmth in his face as he felt himself growing passionate, "What would you do? Would you talk about it, or would you keep it to yourself?"

Twilight seemed taken aback, but the drake hadn't even flinched.

"I would tell as many ponies as I could exactly what I went through," the reptilian responded, prompting surprise as well as frustration from Gale.

"Why?" he asked, irritated as to how this dragon, who had obviously never been through anything like what he had, could pretend like he knew what he was talking about.

"Well," started the dragon slowly, rising from the floor, "Because it would help."

Gale's eyes' fire was put out as he recoiled a bit, and leaned down to the dragon to hear fully what he had to say.

"If you keep everything inside, nopony can help you with it. I've never really had anything really bad happen to me before, but I've had a lot of little things happen, and no matter what I try, I always end up going to my friends for help, and they make it better. It's hard to solve anything alone, but when friends go through the same thing, it makes it a little easier."

"The only ponies that were there with me are all dead or still in Germaneigh."

"You're a soldier?" asked Twilight and Spike in unison.

Gale held out his dog tags, still suspended around his neck, for them to see, making their question all the more useless.

Twilight leaned in closer to look; something seemed amiss.

"I thought soldiers only wore two dog tags?" she asked, reading the three metal tablets.

She realized that two of them matched each other, but the third seemed as if it didn't belong, and she gasped slightly as the dots connected in her head. She knew what Spike hadn't figured out yet, and didn't want him to either.

"Ok, now, it really is bed time Spike," she said, and ushered him up the library's steps.

She came down the stairs after shutting the dragon's door behind him, and said quietly, "Tell me everything."

"I don't know you."

"Spike was right," she encouraged, sounding both persuasive and gentle.

"Look, even if I wanted to, there is no way I could do what happened justice."

"You don't even have to try to do that. Just talk."

"Why do you want to know so badly?"

"I don't. I want you to tell me because it's hurting you; I've only known you for a few minutes and even I can see that. You need to let it out."

"What if I don't want to talk about it?"

"But you should."

Gale rolled his eyes.

"Look, I've spent every day since it happened trying to forget. Now, every pony I meet wants me to just divulge everything about the worst day I've ever lived through. Nothing would make me happier than if you just drop the subject right now."

The mare looked disappointed, but her eyes lit up suddenly.

"You don't have to tell me," she said hopefully, and got up to retrieve the book she had been reading, "I've been studying this memory spell."

She came over to him with a diagram, a picture within the text displaying a unicorn and several other ponies oriented in a circle around an individual. A beam originating from the unicorn was centered on the individual in the center, but from him, it split into multiple beams to reach all in the circle.

Twilight explained while Gale read further.

"You don't have to say a word. If you let me, and if you're willing to relive a memory, you can show us what happened."

Gale finished reading the page, then rose, hovering above Twilight to avoid having to limp around. He made for the door silently and suddenly, a stern look on his face.

"I'll think about it," he said gruffly and uncaringly, "Goodbye, Ms. Twilight."

Then, the door shut abruptly, and Twilight feared she had offended him.