"Mr. Rich will see you now Mr. Rias." the receptionist chirped happily as she emerged from the back office.

Artex was sitting in a well appointed office on a cushy chair, albeit one designed for the Kavim frame. The entire office was painted in a creamy tan color with an abundance of plants flourishing in all four corners of the room. Several varieties of magazines sat upon a glass topped coffee table and the receptionist had even been nice enough to offer Artex a cup of coffee. The offer was well received obviously. As a former security officer, and somebody who was more than familiar with suckling from the rich dark teat of fresh brewed Colombian roast, Artex accepted gratefully.

The receptionist was an auburn Earth Pony mare with her magenta mane and tail both pulled up into tight buns. She had been the absolute epitome of professional. The moment Artex had walked in she had greeted him warmly, with an open, genuine smile. She had established eye contact and had maintained it the entire time she spoke with Artex. Artex had no prior appointment, and the receptionist had informed him that if he were willing to wait a few minutes she would see if the Earth Pony entrepreneur would be willing to meet with anybody.

Upon hearing the good news, Artex rose to his feet and stepped into the back office. A somewhat refined Earth Pony stallion with a slicked back mane sat behind a simple oak desk. The office was spartan in its decor, housing only a filling cabinet, the desk, the chair, one fern hanging against the left wall, and two chairs in front of the desk. Mr. Rich had a thick book opened on the desk and ledger lines were clearly visible trailing up and down the visible pages.

Mr. Rich rose to his hooves as Artex walked in,
"Ah Emissary, I'll admit I wasn't expecting to see you, but your presence is certainly not unwelcome. However, I get the feeling you didn't come here for a simple friendly visit." he extended his right hoof over the desk, a hoof which Artex shook, "My given name is Filthy Rich, but I very much prefer Mr. Rich. Please have a seat. I'm eager to hear what's on your mind."

Artex sat down, leaned hack and steepled his fingers in his best impersonation of a savvy businessman,
"I... have a question for you Mr. Rich. Aside from standard paper mail, is there any other form of widely used correspondence system or any way to deliver messages from one place to another?"

Mr. Rich met Artex' eyes evenly, but with a curious twinkle,
"None exists. The only other form of communication, and by far the fastest, is young master Spike's flame breath, or perhaps using a very powerful spell or communication crystal. The problem with each of those is that they are either ridiculously expensive or simply unrealistic for common use."

Artex lips formed into a thin smile,
"What if I had an invention of Human origin that could relay a message almost anywhere in a matter of seconds and still be fairly affordable?"

Mr. Rich's eyes fairly danced in excitement,
"You have my undivided attention, Mr. Emissary."

Artex sat up in his chair and leaned partly over the desk wearing a cheeky grin,
"I am assuming you've heard the phrase: 'You have to spend money to make money.'?"

Mr. Rich nodded,
"I've heard it many times in fact. It is a gamble every time anypony starts up a business, but if the products and services are of good quality, the end result speaks for itself. I take it that your invention would necessitate the expenditure of a fairly tidy sum?"

Artex smiled,
"Oh yes quite a lot. However I am certain beyond any reasonable doubt that once Ponies, especially big city Ponies, catch wind of this convenience they will be lining up out the door and around the corner."

Mr. Rich cleared his throat,
"There are a few things to get into order first. I need to be absolutely certain that your invention will work consistently. If any part of my name is going to be anywhere around this invention of yours, it must be a thing of quality." he insisted, tapping the front of his right hoof gently against the top of the desk, "I will not soil my family name by selling shoddy goods or services. I'll tell you what, I have a small stipend set aside in one of my joint business accounts for new ideas and products. The amount is currently just under 300 bits. I'll have my secretary draft a contract and permission to access that account once and only once. The money is to be used only to design the invention and to set it up for a demonstration. How quickly do you estimate you can have a prototype ready?"

Artex sat back in his chair with a restrained grin,
"Give me one month to have it ready."

* * *

Bobby Jewel had just finished his shift at New Humansville Hospital. Tina had not gone into labor yet and they had scheduled for her to come in the next day so they could induce her. The entire medical staff was buzzing with excitement. Tina's son was to be the first Human born in Equestria and the Ponies were more than ready to gain some experience with Human childbirth. Bobby was ready to head home so he could get some sleep, but first he had somebody to visit.

Leo had been acting strange recently and Bobby was worried about him. As the lead doctor and surgeon he needed every one of his staff awake and alert at the drop of a hat. Leo had shown himself to be a natural when dealing with patients and his skills with physical trauma were growing by leaps and bounds, or they were until the past two weeks. Leo had grown steadily more and more withdrawn and testy with the other members of the hospital staff. Bobby had heard about it quickly, as one of the nurses was close friends with Leo, and she had followed him to one of the less visited storerooms. She had reported that she heard him crying in the storeroom, but when she offered to listen if he wanted to talk about what was bothering him, Leo had grown irritable and had outright refused to acknowledge there was a problem at all.

Bobby strode down the empty hallways heading toward the storeroom where Leo had been seen. As he approached the storeroom door he heard the telltale sounds of sorrow, just as the nurse had reported. Bobby reached out his right hand, gripped the handle of the door firmly, took a calming breath, and opened the door.

The storeroom's light crystal was off and opened crates had been neatly stacked around the perimeter of the room, right up against the walls. In the center of the room was an island of crates. Bobby heard the weeping grow more distinct as he silently closed the door behind himself. Some light filtered into the room through the opaque window set into the door, throwing dim illumination and long shadows through the room. Bobby crept around to the far side of the island of crates, the side facing away from the door. Leo was sitting on the floor behind the crates. His knees were pulled up to his chest and his arms were wrapped around his legs. His head was resting on his knees while his chest hitched every few moments. Bobby could hear Leo trying to control his sobs but he seemed to be fighting a loosing battle.

Bobby quietly sat down next to the much taller Leo and stared straight ahead,
"So..." he began in American English, making Leo's head jerk up, "You wanna talk about what's bothering you?"

"Jus' go the fuck away man! This is my shit, I got to handle it! I'll figure it out and I'll be fine! Gotta handle my business!" he snarled at Bobby.

Bobby, unfazed by Leo's outburst, pressed on in a calm voice,
"These last two weeks I've been getting the occasional nurse coming to me with concerns for you. I'm worried about you too Leo. Your performance is flagging. I don't want to remove you from the staff roster, but my first concern is for the patients." Bobby ended the sentence early, allowing Leo to fill in the unsaid blanks.

Leo's head wobbled from side to side and he splayed out the fingers of his right hand before he planted it against his face,
"Shit man..." he trailed off and suddenly punched the floor, "FUCK!"

Bobby decided to play a gamble,
"I'm not going to tell anybody if you want to let it out you know. Look, Cessily is going to be evaluated to see if the Ponies can find an actual cure for her fibromyalgia. That means she's going to be out of commission for a while. I need you Leo. I need my right hand. Cessily has her duties to the C.W.G. and so do I, but you don't. I need to groom somebody to replace me and I want that to be you. Problem is, I'm not even going to think about it unless you get yourself together."

Bobby paused for a breath then continued in a softer tone,
"Tell me what's bothering you man. I'm throwing you a freaking life-line here, don't throw it away. I can help you."

Leo suddenly exploded,
"Can't fuckin' NOBODY help me man!" he bellowed throwing his arms out, "You wanna know what's wrong!? Fuckin' everything!"

Leo took a deep breath and began,
"First we end up taken away from everything we know! Then we have to deal with a fuckin' nightmare massacre! Then we gotta deal with the fuckin' rabid werewolves and kill our own people who got bit!" he turned to Bobby, "I fuckin' wake up every, single, fuckin' night in a cold sweat, screaming my goddamn lungs out!" his head fell onto his knees as hoarse sobs shook his tall frame, "I... I can't... do this anymore! My family's fuckin' gone! My parents r' fuckin' Jamaican! Family is everything to us! I can't get it... out o' my head! We're dyin'! WE'RE ALL DYIN'! We got no families, no support, nothin, FUCKIN' NOTHIN'!" he broke down into heavier sobbing.

Bobby didn't move or say a single word. He knew the effects of P.T.S.D. by heart. Being a father forced away from his children, Bobby had taken to thinking of Leo as an older son. He was determined to help him. Leo had edges as rough as a saw blade, but his heart was in the right place. Bobby scooted a little closer to the taller younger man, a friendly presence during Leo's crisis.

"What's the point?" Leo asked quietly, "We all gonna end up dead, just like Spearman. What's the point o' living? What's the goal? Why get married? Why have kids? Why keep going?" he sniffed, "Why not just jump with a necktie o' rope? Fuckin' end it all. Wouldn't have to deal with this pain ereday." Leo slowly raised his eyes, turning so he could see Bobby, "I already got the rope all set up but..." he trailed off staring off into space, "Somehow... somehow I find a reason. Eremornin' I gotta find a reason not to... an' eremornin'... I find one. If one day I don't..." Leo trailed off with a distant shrug.

Bobby sighed and spoke to the open air, not facing Leo directly,
"I've been there, where you are. I'll tell you what helped me get through it. Hope." he took another breath and let it out before continuing, "Hope for the future. I'm a father you know. Two boys and a girl, ages 10, 8, and 6. They were my reason to go on when I got back from deployment. I want to help people, to make a difference in the world. To help make it a world where my kids can grow up and have kids of their own. I have hope that I can pass down what I've learned so that one day, way down the line, that I've helped make our screwed up world a better place." Bobby paused and put his left hand over his mouth, speaking from behind it, "We're all going to die eventually, it's a fact of life. When I go, I want to be surrounded by family who cares for me. I want to feel the satisfaction of knowing that I've left my mark on the world, small as it is. I want to feel everything. I want to feel proud of my kids when they graduate and get married and have kids of their own. I want to leave a legacy of hard work and wise words and lots of kids who I know will keep on trying to make our world a better place." Bobby lapsed into silence while he gave Leo time to absorb everything.

Neither man spoke for over twenty minutes, but Leo eventually broke the silence,
"I don't know if that'll work for me or not man, but..." he turned and looked Bobby in the eye, "Thanks... for at least tryin' to help."

Bobby smiled,
"We both need to go home and get some sleep."

Leo chuckled softly as he stood up, the mirth never reaching his eyes,
"Yeah, I gotta help with Tina an' her baby tomorrow."

The two men made their way to the door and Bobby stopped and held out his right hand,
"If you ever need somebody to talk to, I don't care how inconvenient it might be for me, you know where I live."

Leo stared at the much shorter man silently before grasping the offered hand,
"Yeah..." he smirked very slightly, "Yeah I do."

To Bobby's immense surprise, Leo reached over and gave him a hug. It was brief, only long enough for one pat on the back before Leo let go, but the sentiment was earnest.

Leo wiped his eyes as he stepped back,
"Thanks man. I know erething ain't solved an' shit, but at least I got something to go with."

Bobby smiled up at the towering young man,
"No problem... kid."

Big round of applause for my editor Nightwatch! You are awesome bro! Typos are not! Boo! Hiss!