‘Sup?

No.

What’s up?

No.

Hey, buddy!

Ew, no. Too weird. I need something…

Hi, how are ya?

Eh… better. More normal, anyway. But what next? Uh.

Wonderful weather we’re having.

What? No. It’s cloudy all the time, the weather is always the same. Which, actually, now that I thought about it, who taught me that word? Weather. Why do we still have a word for weather if the weather is always the same? Well, then again, sometimes it’s rainy, sometimes it’s not. Hot, cold, humid, dry. That all still changed. So I guess we do still have weather.

That greeting was still awful, though.

Hi, how are y- Oh! Hey, how was th’ flight?

Yeah… now we’re getting somewhere. Then he’ll say it went fine, to which I’ll say…

How did you get my best friend to feel more comfortable with you than she does with me?

Gah. No. That part of my brain needed to go back over somewhere else. Besides, I already knew how that happened. He was tall. Had big muscles. A well taken care of coat. That gruff but still friendly attitude. Bigger, more stable body she could lay on. Or cuddle up against.

I groaned and let my head drop down to the mattress. A few moments later I felt a hoof poking the side of my face.

“You okay, Tri?”

I sighed and looked over at Sunny without picking my head out. “Yeah. … No. This is useless. I can’t make Inky jealous unless I like go t’ her directly. Er, I mean, I can’t get her t’ pay attention t’ me instead’a him unless I go t’ her directly. Like, there’s just no way. Stand me and Kari next t’ each other, he’s better than me in every way.”

Sunny looked shocked at the very idea. “What? Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh.”

“Nuh uh! What if she don’t like griffins and just likes ponies?”

I rolled my eyes. “Clearly she likes griffins, Sunny. That ain’t th’ ticket.”

“Well… what if… oh, oh, we know she likes kisses!”

“They already did way more than kiss.”

Sunny made a ‘pfft’ noise. “So? Kissin’s way more important. I bet she didn’t even kiss him! He’s got that weird… uh… weird… … that mouth thingy, totally horrible for kissing! So what you gotta do… what you gotta do is um… um…”

“Kiss her?”

She shook her head. “Nope! Kiss him!”

I lifted my head up this time. “What?!”

She started to smile wide. “Yeah! Kissing her will get her attention, but it won’t get his attention. If you kiss him, he’ll definitely be looking at you, and well, she’ll be thinking about what she’s missing out on!”

I worked my mouth a couple of times before shaking my head. “No, Sunny. I’m not going to go kiss Kari. Just. No.”

“Awwww…”

I lifted my wing up and draped it over Sunny’s face. “I’m not even gonna let ya get t’ th’ part ya do after makin’ that noise.”

There was a moment of silence followed by another, sadder, “Awwwwwww.”

“Nope.” I left my wing over her face for half a minute before taking it off and folding it back up against my side. “I’d ask ya t’, like, pretend yer Kari so I could try stuff out on ya, but ya’d just try t’ kiss me, so that ain’t gonna work.”

Sunny huffed then asked, “Is me trying to kiss you really all that bad, though?”

I gave Sunny a look. “Yes.”

“Oh fine.” She blinked and then her eyes darted past me. A second later she lifted her hoof and pointed up into the sky. “You don’t have time to practice, anyway. They’re back.”

“What?” I turned quickly and looked where she was pointing. Sure enough, there they were. Descending back down out of the sky and heading for the middle of town, just out in front of Inkblot’s building. “Crap.”

Sunny nuzzled at my neck before I felt her start pushing on me, trying to get me up. “I believe in you, Tri! You can do it!”

I grunted, but after a moment used her help to get up to my hooves. “Sure… thanks. Alright… here goes nothing.”

I looked back off of the roof and watched as they landed on the ground. I’d have to make an impressive entrance… probably… Yeah, just a nice, smooth glide and land without making a sound. He had muscle, but I had grace. Yeah.

I spread my wings and stepped off the roof of the General Store and started to glide in their direction, only to hear a call from behind me.

“Wait! Tri! Tripod!”

I looked back over my shoulder and saw Sunny waving a hoof at me from the roof. What did she wa- oh. Oh. She had no way off the roof. Oops. I flapped my wings and spun around, flying back quickly to pick her up and then drop her off on the ground.

Well so much for that grand entrance. I darted off in Inky and Kari’s direction, flying most of the way, but then fluttering down and hitting the ground at a trot just before reaching them.

Kari had just finished helping Inkblot off of his back. She looked a little rattled, but she had a big smile on her face when she hit the ground. Lovely. I cleared my throat as I came to a stop near them. “Hey! How’d th’ flight go?”

The griffin looked up at me and grinned, “Great! Had to cut it short, though. Starting to get dark.” I glanced upwards and, well, he was right about that, at least.

Inky seemed surprised at hearing me. “Oh hey, Bucky. Yeah it uh, it went.”

I nodded at both of them. “Cool, cool. That’s good. That’s good.” I continued to slowly nod. Was I supposed to keep talking? Or was it their turn? They didn’t look like they were getting ready to say anything… Awkward… I cleared my throat after a bit and looked at Kari, “So hey, uh, I um… I saw you flying up there. And…” And what? And… what? “I uh… I really like your… tail. It… it looks really cool.”

… Sure.

Now it was Kari’s turn to look surprised, but he started to smile soon after. He turned to look back at his tail and gave it a few little flicks. It was so weird, the way it swayed back and forth. It was like he had control over every little bit of it, and he could make the tip do the smallest little- gah! Stop it.

“Thanks. It’s kinda helpful as a rudder up there, actually. Fling it around, help keep my balance while changing direction.” As Kari spoke, my eyes darted back up towards his face as I’d sorta gotten lost staring at his tail. Again.

“Oh. Oh? Really. That’s… that’s cool.” I nodded again. I was doing that too much. Nodding. Like a bobblehead. I needed to quit that. Looked goofy. Something else… something other than nodding. Well my wings aren’t doing anything. But what could I do with those? “So… so uh… well if yer tail does that. Ya kinda look pretty aerodynamic overall. That… that just you, ‘r is that a griffin thing?”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Inky, slowly turning to look at me. And giving me a weird look, too… I sorta just pretended not to see it. That was the jealous look, right? Had to be.

Kari looked back at his body, then flared out one of his wings to demonstrate. “Well half bird, so that part is obvious. But the back half… that’s cat. Sorta depends on the type of cat, you know? But most of them are pretty agile or pretty fast. And usually what’s fast on the ground is also fast through the air, so it ends up being pretty aerodynamic too.”

I nodded again. Gah! Something, anything other than nodding. Bah, I got nothing. “An’ yer uh… what are ya, exactly?”

Kari paused and blinked, but then let out a cackling laugh. “Red tailed hawk and tiger. Tiger isn’t the fastest or the most agile… but still pretty good for both. And a lot better than pony,” he motioned towards me. Well he wasn’t wrong… flying horse was a lot less aerodynamic than a flying bird. “What got you so interested all’a the sudden?”

I chewed at my lips, trying to think of a good answer to that question. “Well um… I figured uh, yer still pretty new here. An’ ya did jus’ help free me an’ Stormy from slavers, and-”

Kari smiled again, “Yeah! Did you see that? Got them all confused, bet they thought a whole flock of griffins was coming after them. Then just swooped down, fwoosh, right across the throat,” he lifted his claw and did a sweeping motion as he finished speaking.

I laughed, nerves still getting the best of me and making it come out a little too stiff. “Yeah, yeah I saw. That what th’ noises were though? That part confused me a little but uh, yeah, I saw. Anyway, figured, we hadn’t spent much time t’gether, an’ th’ time we did sorta ended up with us splittin’ ways, then me getting knocked out savin’ you then you flyin’ me back… and uh… Figured maybe we could spend some more time t’gether. Maybe… go somewhere. Or have dinner…”

Kari snickered. “Have dinner? You say it like that, make it sound like a date.”

I sorta just froze for a good five or ten seconds before stammering out, “It’s not a da-” Wait. Wasn’t the point here to hit on Kari and to make them both jealous and split them up and make sure they didn’t get into some idiotic relationship with each other? So… “Well, I mean, if you wanted it to be a date…”

He started to laugh again, but slowly his laughing subsided as he started to consider the idea that I might be serious. Before he could speak, though, a certain somepony else beat him to it.

“Bucky…”

I gulped and glanced over at Inky, trying to look all confident like I knew exactly what I was doing.
“Hmm?”

Her eyes were squinted a little, and she was looking me over. “Are you sure you… didn’t hit your head or something while we were gone? Are you okay?”

My eyes rolled upwards, as if I could actually look at my own head. “Y-yeah. My head’s fine.”

“Really? Because, what, just last week you…” her voice trailed off and she fell silent.

I lowered my eyes back down, coughing as I did so, and looking at Inky again. “Last week?”

I could see her chewing on her tongue. Thinking long and hard. Made me a little nervous… but eventually she lifted up a forehoof and pointed it at me and Kari. “You two should definitely go on a date. Tonight.”

My mouth fell open, but Kari was the first to say anything. “What?!”

Inkblot simply nodded firmly, then pointed at Kari. “Yes. In an hour. You go get cleaned up. Meet Bucky in the food storage building.” She then pointed at me. “You, come with me. I’ll take out your stitches before the date.”

We both just stood there. Dumbfounded. That was the last thing I expected her to do. That wasn’t jealousy. Was it? Apparently I stood there too long, though, as I felt the slightly tingly touch of telekinesis form around me ear, then solidly grip it. I let out a squeaky note of surprise, but Inky simply tugged and pulled me by my ear after her, right into her building, leaving Kari outside alone.

After she got us inside, she closed the door and let go of my ear, her magic switching targets and going about getting a bit of her own gear out. “Lay down on the table.”

I gave an annoyed huff and lifted my wing to rub at my ear. It wasn’t bad, but that did kind of hurt. I gave Inkblot a look out of the corner of my eye, but decided that maybe just listening to her would be best right now. I stepped over and hopped up onto the table, then laid down on my left side.

Inkblot spent a minute getting her materials together, then floated them next to her in her magic as she walked over to me. “Okay. It’s just you and me in here. How about you tell me the truth?”

Ha. Haha. Yeah. The truth. Sure. Well, I was snooping around in your tent after you left, and I figured out you’re sleeping with the griffin! Well, it wasn’t really snooping. It was an accident. But she’d see it as snoop-

“I thought you said you liked fillies?”

I blinked. Oh. Oh… that… that truth… I gulped before moving my eye to look at her. “I… I do. Just… it’s just… he’s got… I mean… I really like his tail!”

Inky snorted. “His tail. What is so special about his tail.”

I bit at my lip and fidgeted a little. “Well… It’s… it’s orange. That’s a nice color. An’ black stripes. Also neat. An’… it’s… it’s really long. An’ slender. An’ so flexible, it’s like each part’a it moves so easily. It ain’t like a pony tail where half’a it is hair, he can actually control th’ whole thing. An’ th’ way he makes it flick back an’ forth looks cool, an’ how it curls up…”

Inkblot just stared at me for several seconds after my little rant drifted into silence. “You’ve actually spent a lot of time thinking about that…”

My ears pinned back and I started to blush some. “It’s a really nice tail…”

“Right…” She sighed, then set down some of her things before bending over my neck and getting to work. First she snipped some of the stitches, then started to use her magic to carefully pull them out. “Good luck… I guess…”

I tried to stay as perfectly still as I could for her. “Ya guess?”

“Just… never imagined you trying to chase after a colt.” She let out a long breath as she snipped the rest of the stitches and started to pull them out as well. “Idiot’s been good at listening to orders the last few days though. So he should be nice and cleaned up for you. Your neck looks pretty good. There’ll be a scar, but once your coat grows back in properly, it won’t stand out too bad.”

My brow furrowed as I listened, but I waited to respond. After Inky had pulled out the last of the stitches, I lifted my head a bit and turned to look at her. “Uh… thanks.” That didn’t sound like jealousy. That sounded like… like she was encouraging it.

Shouldn’t she be upset that Kari hadn’t outright said no to the date? Shouldn’t she be trying to stop the date from happening at all? She wasn’t reacting to any of this like she was supposed to. Why couldn’t these fillies just do anything predictably?

Inkblot gave me a little smile and waved her hoof as she grabbed her gear and floated the stitches away back to another desk. “Don’t mention it. Now get out. You have a date to plan in the food storage building.”

I’d spent the last thirty minutes just laying on the ground in the food storage building. In the dark. Night had fallen, and this building didn’t have windows anyway. Something didn’t add up. Two plus two… it should be four. Not five.

Why would they sleep together? Inky might’ve been sad… she said she had frozen up and gotten scared after I disappeared. High Times had warned a few times about things ponies did when they were sad or scared. Things they wouldn’t normally ever do otherwise… things like that, sometimes. But even then, Inky wouldn’t do that. Besides, they were busy trying to figure out how to get me back.

And if he did that to her then… I’d… I’d take my rope and wrap it around his neck and-

Gah. No. There’s no way that would’ve happened. But maybe they’d done it before I left. When Sunny talked about them being together. But… she said that was in Inkblot’s building. Not her tent. If anything, the feather would’ve been there, in her building. But it was in her tent… Sunny didn’t see them together in her tent.

Or maybe it was right before I stopped by to see Inkblot? It was still damp. Things don’t take days to dry out… so it couldn’t have gotten damp days ago. It… but that means… that means it would’ve had to have gotten damp… today. Earlier today. Kari wasn’t there when I got there, though. So it would’ve had to have been a little earlier.

But even then… even if Inky had decided to do that with him, she wasn’t the type to just… like she wasn’t going to just… like that wasn’t something she’d just take lightly. Right…? Me and Kari were basically standing there speechless, and she pretty much made up our minds for us. She wouldn’t… do that… if they’d slept together.

But how was I going to find out? I couldn’t go snooping again. She’d probably catch me. I couldn’t just tell her what I found. She’d think I was snooping the first time and get mad at me. And I couldn’t just ask Kari about it.

Wait. Yes I could. Just… indirectly. Yeah.

Yeah, alright. There we go. A plan. A good plan!

I reached over in the darkness and grabbed ahold of the lighter I’d found. I carefully lit it, then used it to light one of the candles Inky had brought back from that store in the town we found Kari in originally. It… actually smelled nice. Didn’t put off too much light, but it was enough to see and eat by.

I got up and ran around to the other side of the building, grabbing a couple of different items. One was a box of scavenged food for me. The other was some of the meat we’d cooked and preserved back from when we had the big emergency hunt. Kari ate a lot of meat, so he should like it just fine.

I set up a couple of places on the ground for us, with little cushions to lay on, on either side of the candle, then laid out the food in the appropriate places. After doing so, I took a step back to survey my work. It seemed right. I’d never done it before… but I’d heard enough stories from Inkblot to figure this had to be what it was supposed to look like. That filly read way too many books. There weren’t even all that many in the wasteland, but somehow if there were any within a hundred mile radius, she found them. No clue how.

I heard the door open behind me and instantly spun around, perking up a bit. Show time.

The door swung open, revealing none other than Kari on the other side. The open door didn’t exactly let much more light in, since the sun had set, but there was just enough outside and from the candle to let him be seen easily. And… wow, he cleaned up pretty good. Maybe it was the candle, but he just looked… shiny.

He, however, looked surprised. “Oh… wow. I… I didn’t actually expect you to be in here.”

I blinked and pulled my head back. “Huh. Whaddya mean?”

Kari cleared his throat and quickly ran a talon over the feathers on the top of his head. He was silent for a moment, then stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “Well I… I didn’t actually take you as… you know. The way Inkblot reacted, I almost thought it was some sort of prank you were trying to pull.” He paused and I heard his beak click as he looked over the little area I’d prepared. “Guess not.”

My face started to get a little red, and I was glad that it probably wasn’t visible against my orange coat in the low light. “Like I said, I’m not… before at Market… uh…” I coughed again. Stop stuttering. Stick to the gameplan. “So uh, here, I’ve got food out.” He stepped back and pointed to Kari’s spot with a wing, then went around to my side and laid down on my cushion. “Some meat we got recently fer ya. Ya like ant, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, ant’s okay. Red meat’s better. Guess you guys don’t get a lot of that down here?” He lowered down onto his cushion and didn’t waste any time picking up his serving. He just grabbed the entire slab of meat with one talon and started to yank bits of it off with his beak.

“Uh, no, not really. We uh, ponies aren’t really built t’ eat meat, ya know? So, we sorta just do it fer emergencies, try t’ eat other stuff most’a th’ time.” I just watched him eat for a few bites. How he did it seemed… weird. Like he was angry at the food and ripping it to shreds just to take a simple bite. Were all griffins like that? Or maybe carnivores in general…

I caught myself staring again and quickly went about opening up my can of food, using my forehoof and a wing. “So, no, ain’t a prank… why’d ya think it was a prank, though? Happen to ya b’fore?”

“Not really…” He swallowed the meat in his beak before continuing. “Never actually around others my age much.”

“Oh, so not a lotta girls t’ be interested in?”

Kari’s eyebrow raised. “Girls?”

I blinked then just about choked. Oops. “I mean, uh… guys? Ya jus’ like guys?”

He slowly motioned between me and him. “Thought that much was obvious…?”

I gulped then quickly stuffed food into my mouth after I finished opening the can. Mostly it just gave me time to think while I chewed. “Sorry. New t’ this.”

“Dating or liking guys?”

I started to feel my cheeks flush again. Normally I’d know how to answer that question, but Kari was- wait. Hold on. He just said he only liked guys? The blood started to recede from my face as my mind started to work. Remember the plan. “Datin’. Kinda… my first. Yer first, too? Er… ya ever been… close with any griffins before? Or… ponies?”

Kari shook his head. “No… Bounty hunters, remember? We don’t really socialize with others who aren’t, much… and we’re on the move a lot. So I didn’t get to see many my age, and those I did, well, didn’t get much chance to get close. Ponies… I’ve only ever really talked to ponies since I’ve been here.” He huffed. “Tend to screw up the conversation more often than not. Pretty sure you’re the only one that actually even likes me. Well, you and Firestorm now, I guess. She’s been hanging around a bit today for some reason.”

My brow furrowed as he spoke. Never been with a griffin, no ponies liked him except me… not even a mention of Inky at all. That… there is no way… he… Well if they didn’t sleep together, what in the world was his feather doing there?!

“Buck?”

I blinked and looked back at Kari. “Huh? Oh, sorry… was thinkin’ ‘bout… a thing. Uh…” Right, but now my plan’s finished. It leaves more questions than answers, but the plan’s done… what now? Gotta talk to Inky… but that means I have to get out of here first. Should probably end it as soon as possible… but I can’t just get up and walk out. Oh! He hated talking about his family before.

I cleared my throat. “Why uh… why are y’all bounty hunters? Like, why’d yer parents get inta it?”

The tigerhawk grew quiet for a minute. Which, I at least thought was a good sign, but when he opened his beak, it was not what I was expecting. “In the start, they just did it for the money. After the Enclave invaded and tore up everything, they were left with… basically nothing. But they had some proper experience after fighting in the war… and there were a lot of angry griffins willing to pay to have things… done. So, in order to just help survive, they started bounty hunting.

“It went… really well. And they were really good at it. They got my uncle and aunt in on it too. Got a whole bunch of profit… but then, they kept doing it. Not because they had to, but because they enjoyed it. So, once I was born… well… they got me into it to.” He paused and smirked. “It really is fun, though. It’s like detective work, and hunting, and fighting, all wrapped up into one.”

My ears perked up a bit as he spoke. “Wait, hold up, go back a bit. Enclave invaded? Them’s th’ pegasi ‘r whatever up there, right?”

Kari nodded and followed with a snort. “Yeah. The Grand Pegasus Enclave,” he said mockingly, “bunch of ponies that think everything has to happen their way and if they want it, they can just take it. They invaded the griffin lands like… a few decades ago now, something like that. Killed a bunch of griffins, took a bunch of land, stole a bunch of stuff. Made the griffins really mad at them. Which, after things started to settle again, a lot of the survivors wanted revenge. But they couldn’t just invade the Enclave… so… they would end up putting out bounties on Enclave ponies…”

Wait a second… “Bounties on Enclave ponies? Was that… was that what y’all were doin’ in Enclave territory when ya got shot down?”

He let out a long sigh, dipping his head some to brush at his head feathers with a talon. “Officially? No. We were part of a diplomatic delegation, designed to help relations between the griffin nation and the new regime of Enclave government. Unofficially… we were there to kill an old Enclave military general.”

My mouth just fell open. That changed… so many things. And made everything make sense. “Didja kill ‘em? But they caught ya?”

Kari hit the ground with his first then lifted it up into the air, “That’s the thing! We’d killed him two days before we left. There’s no way they found out he was dead, or that it was us! He was on a weekend getaway. Nobody expected him back before Monday. And we were leaving by then. But they still turned on us right before leaving their territory and shot us down… It had to be something they were planning the entire time.”

I just stared at him, my food, at least for now, forgotten. On the one hoof, they’d snuck in there and killed somepony. On the other, they also got lied to and his parents died for it… Almost like they were doing the same things to each other, just… Actually… “Ya never really seemed all that sad ‘bout it, though…”

His face fell again, and his eyes wandered for a moment before they honed in on the flickering candle. “I… it’s… it’s like I told Inkblot. What’s the use of getting sad? Getting sad won’t bring them back. Getting sad just… just wastes time you could be doing something else.”

“I dunno… getting sad sometimes can be, like… Like Firestorm, when we got caught. She was real sad… an’ she let it all out. But like, after that, she was able t’ get back up an’ do stuff.”

Kari’s eyes flicked up towards me for a moment, but then focused back in on the flame. “I can already do stuff. What’s sitting down to get sad going to get me?”

I chewed on my lip as I thought about that. It was a good question. But… “Well… so what, then? Yer just gonna be fine an’ not think ‘bout it, and…”

He looked up at me again, though this time his eyes stayed on me. “What would you do if Lily died?”

I froze for a moment, not having expected that question. “I’d… prob’ly… try t’ kill whatever got her, then… I dunno… maybe curl up in a ball an’ cry…” I bit my lip as my feathers ruffled. Even the thought of that was unsettling, really.

“Right. You’d get revenge. How would you do it?”

“Uh… huh?”

“How would you get revenge?”

I raised an eyebrow at Kari. “I’m not sure what you-”

“Would you chase them down? Stalk them? Do it fast, do it slow, what?”

“I… I dunno… I was kinda workin’ offa th’ assumption it was like a wild animal ‘r somethin’...”

Kari scoffed and pointed a talon at me. “No! It was actually somebody from… Manehatten. They had the whole town on their side, up for fighting you. You can’t take them all on. You’d die. So how are you going to get revenge?”

My ears pinned back a little when Kari’s voice raised. “I guess I’d try t’ figure out a way t’ do it without th’ rest’a th’ town knowin’?”

Kari started to smile. “Exactly! You go in, or get someone you trust to go in and you watch. And you figure out where they’re moving and when they’re moving, and you figure out when they’re alone or when they’re vulnerable. And you go in and you strike, silently, nobody knows. Then you leave a message…” he paused and laughed, “you leave a message, maybe a feather, maybe a note, you let them all know that they better never mess you with again, because this is what you’re capable of.”

He pulled his claw back in and made a fist, then slammed it against the ground again. After leaving it there for a minute, he slowly unclenched it and started to use a claw to slowly make little shapes in the dirt next to the cushion he was laying on.

A few moments later he spoke again, this time his voice much quieter, “And all the while you know it won’t change anything. They’re still dead. You’re still sad. And now a whole new set of people are sad because they just had a family member die. And now they want revenge… The worst part… The worst part, though…” He paused and I heard a sniffle from his direction. A wet one. “Is that you know all that, but you’re still so angry that it’s the only thing you want to do. Everything else is just… stepping stones along your way until you can finally do it.”

As Kari’s voice drifted away, the air was filled with silence. Not an awkward one though… rather it was a heavy, sad silence. I’d pulled away some when he had started his rant, but by the end, I wasn’t scared anymore. I realized he wasn’t going to lash out. He was… dumping it out. “Ya thought a lot ‘bout that… haven’t ya?”

He didn’t say a word, but he did give a slight nod as he continued to doodle in the dirt.

The silence took over again as I shifted on my cushion, not entirely sure of what to do. Slowly it came to me, though. I rose up to my hooves and hobbled my way around towards his side of the little area I’d set up. He hadn’t seemed to notice the movement at all.

When I got close to him, I lowered my head down and carefully nosed at his cheek. “Hey…”

He seemed surprised at the contact and his head jerked back to look at me. “Huh?”

I gave a short, dry chuckle at his reaction before saying, “I ain’t never lost my parents… never lost Lily, or Inky… I did lose somepony once, though.”

Kari blinked at me, and even I could see in the dim light of the candle that his eyes were moist. “You did? Who?”

I cleared my throat then turned my body a bit. Once I was parallel with Kari, I laid down again, pushing my right side against his left side, sort of on the edge of the cushion. “Her name was Viridian. She-” I paused and raised an eyebrow when I saw Kari’s reaction to the name. “Viridian… it’s… a greenish… blue-y… thing. She was greenish-blue. Anyway,” I gave a small wave with my left wing, dismissing that bit, and moved on. “She was a little earth pony filly.

“She was a friend’a mine. Well… she was a friend of everypony. Everyone loved her. Then… I guess it was a couple’a years ago now… she left town by herself, her an’ one’a her other friends. Asylum was a lot closer t’ Manehatten back then. They wanted t’ go to th’ city, just fer a short bit, then head right on back home.” I shook my head slowly. “That didn’t happen, though. Well… it did fer one’a ‘em. But not Viridian. Th’ two’a ‘em got caught out after night fell, an’ got swarmed by a bunch’a bloodwings.”

Kari interrupted me, nudging my leg with a talon. “Bloodwings?”

My eyebrow raised again? “Ya don’t know what bloodwings are?” He shook his head, which made me blow out a puff of air. “Alright then. Bloodwings’re… massive mutated vampire bats that suck th’ blood outta ponies an’... anything with blood.”

“Oh…” He pulled his claws back and curled them up into a fist.

“Yeah… anyway… Viridian wasn’t able t’ escape, an’ she… well she got sucked dry. Her friend managed t’ get to a small space they couldn’t follow, waited out th’ night, then came back home th’ next mornin’.”

Kari gulped then started to scratch at his throat absent-mindedly. “That sucks…”

I nodded. “Yeah… yeah it does. An’ it caused so much drama. Everyone loved her, an’ now she was dead. Some were mad, some were sad, some acted like it never happened. Some wanted t’ move th’ town, some didn’t wanna go through all that hassle just ‘cause a couple’a fillies got stupid.” I let out a snort, “Some wanted t’ go inta Manehatten an’ go wipe out all the bloodwings in th’ entire city.”

His scratching turned into rubbing at his neck. “That the moral of the story?”

I turned and looked more directly at Kari. “Hmm?”

“The whole… sad, mad, anger, revenge… ‘don’t worry, it’s normal’ thing. Is that the moral?”

“Well… y- no. No, actually. ‘Cause like, sure that’s part’a it, but I don’t really think ya needed me t’ tell ya that. It’s sorta obvious, ain’t it?”

“I guess.”

I shrugged. “Was obvious t’ me, anyway… but… anyway. Th’ moral of th’ story was actually how long it all lasted. After it happened, everypony was in shock. An’ all th’ drama started, but then, they didn’t wanna keep feelin’ that way. All sad, ‘r mad, ‘r whatever. So they sorta just stop talkin’ ‘bout it. But… they were still sad an’ mad… it just… sorta spilled out at other times randomly. Foals bein’ mean, ‘r foals breakin’ down cryin’ jus’ cause the General Store didn’t have any candy bars.

“Point is, High an’ Inky got together an’ decided they had t’ do something. So what they did, is they had a… like a little good-bye party fer Viridian. Everypony got together, an’ told stories she was in, an’ told jokes she told, an’ talked ‘bout her… an’ th’ way they put it, they just finally got everything out. Then we had a proper funeral for her. And after that, everything was better. Well… I mean it wasn’t an instant thing, but after that things started gettin’ better, anyway.”

At some point, Kari had ended up staring at the candle’s flame again. I wasn’t sure when, mostly because I’d gotten a little caught up in the story. The room became silent for a couple of minutes, though, surprisingly it wasn’t an awkward silence. We had sort of ended up sitting there, thinking about our own things.

“Which group were you in?”

Kari’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “Huh?”

“Which group? Were you sad, or mad, or wanted revenge, or what?”

I licked at my lips before taking a deep breath. “I was… mad. At… Viridian, actually.”

He turned away from the flame to look back at me. “What?”

“She knew she shouldn’t go out with just two ponies like that. She knew she shouldn’t go t’ Manehatten. She knew not t’ get caught out at night. She knew. Yet she did it anyway. I was so mad that she let herself get so stupid… an’ that her gettin’ stupid caused… everything t’ be screwed up at home fer like two months. She sorta just left us an’ everything went t’ crap…”

“But she didn’t-”

“I know, I know. Trust me, I know. But… it wasn’t until our little party where I saw everypony gettin’ happy ‘bout her again that I sorta just… got over it. No point in being mad.” After sighing, I looked down at my forehoof. That time wasn’t really one of the times I was proud of. “So… yeah. Moral was s’posed t’ be… stuff got better after we started rememberin’ th’ nice stuff rather than th’ bad ‘r th’ stupid stuff. And… like, if ya ever wanna talk ‘bout ‘em ‘r anything… well… I mean, I’m here.”

It could’ve been a couple minutes, or it could’ve been a couple of seconds, I’m not really sure, but I was surprised when I suddenly felt a wing drape over my back and curl around my side. Actually… it was really warm and soft… was that what it felt like when I did it to others, too?

The next thing I felt was a beak momentarily pressing against my cheek. Now that… that felt weird. Really weird, but I didn’t have much time to think about it as Kari spoke immediately afterwards. “I’ll think about it… But thanks.”

I cleared my throat and turned a bit to look up at him, and gave him half a smile. “No problem. Just doin’ my job.”

Kari snerked, then sniffled. “Yeah, sure.” He left his wing around me and reached out to grab ahold of the ant meat to resume eating, though going through the motions slower this time.

The wing really was snuggly… I think I was starting to understand why Firestorm had such an easy time sleeping under one. I breathed a little sigh of relief and watched Kari as he ate. This result was a lot better than the one I had been expecting when I originally asked the question that started it all off.

As I thought about it, I slowly came to the realization that a certain somepony was going to be really mad about me asking that question to try and end stuff quickly… but, I’d just have to tell her it was worth it. Happy mistake.

“Hey, can ya grab my stuff fer me?”

Kari paused in his eating momentarily to look at me, confused, but then it clicked in his head. He reached around the candle to where my food had been, grabbed it, and placed it in front of my new location next to him. “There.”

I gave him a quick smirk. “Thanks.” Emotional talk kinda made you hungry. Who knew?

After we finished our food, we continued to talk for a little bit. Mostly about the weather, actually. He found it really interesting, having not experienced anything quite the same for most of his life. He didn’t like not seeing the sun, though.

“Come to think of it, I should probably take you up there and show you some day. I know where we won’t get shot at, anyway. That’s helpful.” Kari stretched as he finished speaking, then finally pulled his wing away from me, much to my dismay.

“Oh, really? So it’s true, then, ‘bout th’ shootin’ part?”

Kari stretched again, then nodded as he started to stand up. “Yeah… Enclave doesn’t like anything from below the clouds. They think they put the whole thing in to protect them from everything below them. So if stuff from below starts trying to come up… well… they don’t treat it very nicely.”

“Oh… well that sucks. I kinda thought it was just another one’a those stories.” I looked awkwardly up at him for a few seconds before deciding to get up to my hooves as well.

“Yeah. It’s not.” He let out a long sigh then looked around. “Um… you need help cleaning up? I’m not sure… where anything would go, though. Inkblot showed me the outside of the building, this was the first time I’d been inside.”

I looked from him down to our little setup and shook my head. “Nah… I can handle it. It’s late, though… I slept most’a th’ day. You didin’t. Go back t’ yer tent, I’ll clean up.”

“You sure?”

I nodded. “Yeah. See ya tomorrow?”

Kari snorted and reached out to give my shoulder a slight shove. “There’s only so many in this tiny town, of course you’ll see me tomorrow.”

I spread out my wings to help keep my balance, rolling my eyes as I did so. “Uh huh. Whatever. Just go sleep.”

He snickered and moved past me towards the door. “Okay. Goodnight, featherbutt.”

“Hey!”

“What, do only your fillies get to call you that?”

“I… well… y… yes!”

Kari’s voice went into a higher pitch as he opened the door, “I can be a girl too!”

I snorted loudly… partially to cover up a slight blush. If he was a girl… he’d be pretty hot. “If I had a fourth leg I’d use it t’ throw this candle at you!”

He laughed then turned and flew out of the door into the sky, off towards the tent area.

Grumbling into the now dead air, I turned back to the area we’d spent the last couple of hours in. Cushions, against the wall. Food leftovers, taken outside to the trash. Candle, snuffed and put on the shelf by the door. Really it wasn’t much, but he seemed to like it. Which was nice.

Not that it was an actual date.

After cleaning everything up, I left the building and shut the door behind me. I stood outside and took in a deep breath of the cool night air. It felt pretty good. Night was one of the better things, when the big creepy crawlies weren’t out, anyway. It only got topped by rain. Or storms. And a good rainy, stormy night? The best.

It was late, but I still had things to do. First I picked myself up and flew over to Lily’s tent, just to make sure everything was going well. I landed in front of the tent and went silent to listen for a minute, to make sure I wouldn’t interrupt anything, then carefully poked my head through the flap to look inside. It took my eyes a bit to adjust to the darkness, but eventually I was able to make out the outline of Lily and High Times sleeping against each other. Things must not have gone too badly, then.

Slipping away from that tent, I turned and walked down the aisle. I’d be willing to bet that Inky wasn’t asleep yet.

When I got to her tent, I wished I actually had somebody to bet against. I could see a faint light shining from the inside, casting some shadows. As I neared the flap, a knot started to work its way up in my stomach, causing me to just stop and stand dumbly outside.

So, clearly I was wrong. With my first assumption. There was no way she’d let me get away with another lie, though. Could always just go to my own bed. Sleep. Wake up in the morning, maybe everyone would forget about it. Except… Kari wouldn’t. And I’d still have to tell him the truth. Eventually. Sooner the better. Which… is a piece of advice I’d gotten from Inkblot originally.

I let out a long, deep sigh and closed my eyes. Here goes nothing… I bent my head down and started to walk in through the flap. I only got half way in, though, before I froze.

Inky was there, laying on her bed, reading a book using the light emitted from her horn. Well, no. Had been reading a book. Right now she was staring directly at me. Big, piercing blue eyes. “I was starting to wonder if you would come.”

I gulped as she spoke, her stare still keeping me locked in place. “You was expectin’ me?”

She slowly closed her book with her magic. “It’s not often you lie. To me. And it’s usually not for very long.”

After a few moments of chewing on my lip, my muscles started to come back under my control. I slinked the rest of the way into the tent and sort of just stood in front of her awkwardly. “What makes ya think I was lyin’?”

“Really?”

“Yeah… really.”

She snorted then cleared her throat. “First, you wouldn’t have stuttered so much. Second, you wouldn’t have evaded my questions. Third, you wouldn’t have asked him on a date without talking to me first.”

My tail flicked and I held my wings out from my side halfway, “Woah woah woah. First, okay, maybe. Second, maybe I felt like bein’ mysterious? Third, why would I talk t’ you ‘bout that, huh?”

Inkblot’s stare started to soften and she formed a sliver of a smile. “Because before you would’ve decided you liked boys, you would’ve come and we would’ve had an hour chat about your latest wet dream and whether or not it meant you were attracted to them or not.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but the blush forming on my cheeks pushed me back to silence. She… certainly wasn’t wrong. “Well… well maybe I-”

She interrupted me with a huff. “Would you just fess up already, make this easier on yourself? Sunny already told me your plan was to hit on Kari for… some unknown reason.”

I pulled my wings back in tightly to my sides and my ears pinned back against my head. “Okay, okay fine, it’s just… I thought y’all were havin’ sex!”

Inky jumped when my voice picked up in volume. “Don’t get so loud, Bucky, there’s ponies trying t- wait what did you just say?”

I swallowed and dipped my head lower to the ground, my voice dropping to a whisper with it, “I thought… y’all were havin’ sex…”

Inkblot just stared blankly at me, completely stunned. “Who… why… what? Where? When?”

“You. You an’ Kari. Why…? I dunno, ‘cause ya thought he was hot? Wherever… an’ whenever…”

She continued to stare at me, and her mouth was slowly working, like she was having trouble coming up with appropriate words. “And what, exactly, brought you to this stupid conclusion?”

“There’s… there’s a… a…” I let out a breath and stopped talking for a minute. Just showing her would be easier. I stepped over towards her and her bed mat, then reached a wing out to the edge where the feather had been. I pulled it up a little to reveal what I’d found, but I just stared at the spot. The feather was gone. “Uh…”

“You looked… under my bed?”

I pulled my wing back quickly and stepped backwards away from her. “No. No. I mean, yes. But no. I was reachin’ fer th’ box’a cereal. Th’ feather was stickin’ out from under th’ bed. I just saw it an’ pulled it out. I didn’t mean t’ look at nothin’.”

“And from… a feather, you decided we were sleeping together, and you… how… what? How does that connect to earlier?”

“I… I thought… I thought if I hit on Kari, then he’d be lookin’ at me instead’a at you, an’ then you’d get jealous ‘cause he was payin’ attention to me, an’ it’d make y’all stop sleeping t’gether an’ makin’ a huge mistake, and- OW!”

Inkblot had gotten up to her hooves while I was talking and walked over to me, just to lift up a forehoof and smack upside the back of my head. “How stupid are you?”

I reached a wing to rub where she’d smacked my head. “Very…?”

“Yes!” She nodded emphatically. “Incredibly! That’s a level of stupid I’m surprised even you can drop to. Jeez. What if it’d been one of your feathers? Would you have suddenly thought we were doing that?”

I shook my head. “No. Duh. I mean, I would’ve known we weren’t. But, but that’s exactly why one’a my feathers wouldn’t be there.”

“Psh. Chance of one of your feathers being there is a lot higher than one of his.”

“Uh, what?”

She started to speak again, but cut herself off just as the first sounds escaped, her face going to one of shock. She took a quick step back and the light from her horn vanished instantly.

“Inky?” After half a minute of no response, I spoke again. “Inky? Inkblot?” Still nothing. I stepped forward slowly and reached a wing out to give a little poke at her snout, the outline of which I could barely make out.

She shied away from it, evading my touch, but at least she responded this time. “I promise… to never call you stupid about this again. On one condition.”

I furrowed my brow at that response, not the one I was expecting. “Are you okay?”

“One condition, Buck.”

I chewed at my lip for a bit before saying, “Yeah, yeah… one condition. Whatever. Sure.”

“Just… promise me you won’t think I’m a creep.”

I blinked at her. “What? Inky… turn yer light back on. Why would I think that?”

“Because… I collect your feathers.”

“Whozits done what, now?”

This time her horn did start to light up. Not nearly as bright, but enough to barely see by. Her face didn’t have that same shocked look to it as when the light went out. Now she actually looked a little scared. I heard a drawer of her dresser open up behind me and I turned to look, just in time to see her magical glow fading from it.

I glanced back at her, then caught the hint. I turned and walked over to the drawer. Inside were many things, but half of the drawer was separated. In it were two piles of feathers. One large pile of orange feathers, clearly mine, and then a small pile of three of Kari’s feathers. “Okay then…”

“I collect them… And… use them. I just… I just really like them. A lot. I took a bunch of them and make them into my pillow. I also… sometimes… use them to… you know… privately. Earlier I just happened to grab one of his, but I never slept with him. I got it off the floor after he visited me the other day. But then you walked up right after I finished and I didn’t have time to put it back, so I just stuffed it under my bed…”

I closed the drawer with my wing after having examined the contents of it the whole time she had spoke. I turned around to look at her again, my head tilting a bit. “Is that why you like preening so much?”

She nearly looked like I’d shot her. “No! … Yes… No. I don’t know. I just like it. Doing it, and, collecting, and- I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you before.”

“Before? How long’s it been goin’ on?”

“A while… I did have enough to fill a whole pillow…”

“Right…” Well. At the very least, this turn of events freed up my mind to let me think. It was a lot easier to operate when you weren’t the one thinking the other was going to call you stupid if you said the wrong thing. Problem was, I had no idea what to think. Well… except for one thing.

“I’m sorry too…”

Inkblot blinked at me. “What?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t tell ya before… I just freaked out an’... Sunny may have not have been th’ right one t’ go to fer advice…”

“She is eight…” Inky fidgeted a bit before adding, “And I think maybe more concerned with playing matchmaker with you and another colt than she is actual advice.”

I smirked a little, then let out a laugh. “Yeah… her last suggestion was that I skip even tryin’ t’ hit on ‘em an’ just go right up an’ kiss ‘em.”

Inky loosened up a bit more, giving a small laugh as well. “Sounds like her, alright.”

I nodded, then took a deep breath and looked around the tent. Okay, so. Status check. Apologies, done. Feel a little better, yeah. Everything else is still in the same place, world didn’t end, that’s good.

I bit at my lip then went over to Inkblot’s bed and laid down on it, in the same place I’d been several hours ago. After I got settled, I glanced up at Inkblot and extended my left wing out, raising it up a bit as I did so. She was still standing there, now looking as awkward as I had earlier. She looked to my face, then to my wing and back.

I snorted and raised an eyebrow. “Well are ya gonna lay down ‘r not?”

She didn’t need to be asked twice. She darted down to the bed and plopped right next to me.

Once she was settled against me, I lowered my wing down and gave her a hug with it. “Do ya wanna start this talk over?” She gave a nod, so I took a deep breath. “Alright… So. I panicked an’ thought ya were sleepin’ with a griffin… so I got advice from an eight year old an’ now I’ve just had a date, my very first date, with a boy griffin an’ I ain’t even gay.”

Inkblot pressed her lips together then picked up where I left off, “And I’ve been collecting your feathers for… a lot of years, and using them for all kinds of things, and I never told you because I thought you’d think I was weird and avoid me if I did.”

“Conclusion?”

“Uh…”

“We’re both dumb, Inky. That’s th’ conclusion.”

“Wait, how is mine dumb?”

“‘Cause ya thought a little thing like thinkin’ yer creepy would make me avoid ya.”

“I didn’t say creepy, I said weird.”

“I know. I said creepy. ‘Cause I’m thinking it kinda is… maybe. I’m not really sure. But then again, I don’t really care, either.”

Inkblot looked thoroughly confused now. “But why not…”

I snorted and turned to look back at her. “Well fer starters…” I nodded towards my wing that was laying over her, “Kari did this t’ me just a bit ago. An’ it actually felt really nice. So I can't blame ya there.”

“Wait, you cuddled?”

“Well… fer like half an hour.”

“You cuddled with a guy?”

I blew a puff of air at her face. “Yes. Fer like half an hour. We actually ended up talkin’ ‘bout his parents… an’ death… He started t’ feel bad, though, so I had t’ tell him about Viridian.”

Inky sobered up fairly quickly when I mentioned the last bit. “Oh… wait, you got him to talk about his parents?”

“Yeah… I was shocked.”

“That’s… that’s incredible. I mean, I got him to do it, but just barely. And not for very long. And he ended up leaving in tears.”

“Wait, was that the…”

“Huh?”

“Oh… Sunny just said she had seen Kari leavin’ yer place th’ same day I disappeared, but that he’d left in tears…”

“Yeah.” Inkblot nodded. “That was that day. He’s really, really angry about it, and it was like he was thinking the only way to not get so pissed off that he did something stupid was… to just not even remotely think about the subject at all.”

“He was kinda like that tonight too… Though… he did seem a little… relieved when I pointed out he wasn’t totally alone in those thoughts.” I took a deep breath then continued, “I actually had an idea of goin’ back out t’ that city they crashed in, maybe buryin’ his parents… might help him just deal with stuff. I dunno. Just a thought. Also I told him if he ever wanted t’ talk, I’d listen.”

And just that quickly, Inky was back to looking surprised, only this time she had a smile to go along with it. She leaned over and nuzzled at my cheek then let out a little laugh. “See… I said you didn’t have to read the book to be a counsellor. And you even followed my advice on the same day I gave it… I think that might be a record.”

“What? I follow your advice..”

“Yeah, after you screw it up three more times then a week later decide I was right all along.”

“Oh shut up…”

“You know it’s true, Bucky.”

“Truth or not, shut up!”

She snickered. “Okay, okay.” She let out a more content sigh, then let the light fade out from her horn, leaving us in darkness again. “Still can’t believe you cuddled with a boy.”

I was sort of glad it was dark again, because the more she brought that up, the more I was finding it embarrassing. “Yeah yeah… he was soft. Get over it. His beak felt weird.”

“What, beak? You kissed him, too?”

“What?! No. Jeez, who are ya, Sunny? I didn’t kiss nobody… still ain’t kissed nobody. That thing ya did t’ my muzzle’s the closest I’ve ever come. He just sorta nuzzled me, that’s all. Think he felt a lot better after my story.”

“Awww… You two would be perfect for each other…”

“Oh c’mon. I still barely even know him. He could be a psychopath fer all we know.”

“True. But he’s not.”

“An’ how do you know? Yer a clothes repairer, not a therapist.”

Inky scoffed. “I’m both. I’m also a field medic, and a group organizer. What are you, exactly?”

“Blank flank extraordinaire! My talent is everything an’ anything.”

“Except smarts. You don’t have a talent in that.”

“Hey… ya promised t’ stop callin’ me stupid.”

“No… I promised to stop calling you stupid about today. I never said anything about not calling you stupid ever.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ugh… Why am I even friends with you?”

Inky laughed. “Because.”

“That helps, thanks…”

Author's Notes:

Big thanks to Kibu, Scrap Metal, and No One, for helping with plot, and grammar, and spelling, and storytelling, and, you know, things that actually make a story good.