Danielle squared her shoulders and took a deep, calming breath, 'Okay, I can do this.' Donald and Christine were out in the town, Rose was at work, Artex was working out, Brian and Cheryl F. were busy doing their own thing in the town. It was time for Danielle to sit down and talk to Razor Wit. She was decidedly not looking forward to it.

After breakfast, which everyone shared, Danielle had gone back to her room and waited until everyone else was gone. She spent the time doing her best to prepare for the coming talk with Razor Wit. Now it was time to tackle the issue head-on.

Danielle slowly descended the stairs and walked into the living room. Razor Wit, Oriana, and Vaiawa were all there talking already. She stood in the small space where the kitchen became the living room and observed the mares for a moment before walking over to the couch and sitting down.

The mares all stopped talking and regarded the Human woman seriously before Vaiawa spoke up, "Time to address the proverbial elephant in the room, as Artex would say."

Razor suddenly jutted out her lower lip in a pout, "I'm not that big!" She declared in an overly dramatic fashion. She knew the very second she saw Danielle that the interaction would be extremely tense. Her joke was an attempt to bring some levity to the situation.

The randomness of the statement caught Danielle off guard. She could not help but to join the mares in a few giggles. As the giggles tapered off, silence began to creep in. Thankfully Oriana was there, "No! No awkward silences!" She shook out her mane and gestured between Danielle and Razor, "You two need to talk. Razor, what is your favorite color?"

Razor blinked in surprise, "Erm... green. Forest green."

Oriana then pointed to Danielle, "Same question."

"Pink." The woman answered quickly, "But why did you ask that?"

"To get you to say something out loud in front of Razor." Oriana confessed, "You two need to talk and I mean now."

"I don't think it had the effect you wanted, Ori." Razor said, "If anything it made the situation even more uncomfortable. Why don't you and Vaiawa go on out for a walk or something?"

Oriana had her mouth open to respond, but she found herself caught in Vaiawa's levitation field as the Changeling Queen quietly exited the room. Oriana sighed and blew out an exasperated breath, "Oh fine!"

Once Vaiawa and Oriana were gone, Razor spoke up, "I'm sorry about that. Oriana means well, but she should know you can't force something like this." She made her voice calm and smooth, "Take your time. When you're ready just say whatever you want."

"I hate you." Danielle said softly, "You have everything I ever wanted."

Razor's brows knit together in concern, "Please don't think I ever urged him to move on from loving you. I promise you, I didn't."

Danielle snorted, "That's what Oriana said too. I... I believe it, but I don't want to believe it..." she placed her elbows on her knees then flopped her head into her open palms, "That doesn't make any sense does it?"

"Uh, no... I'm afraid it doesn't." Razor admitted.

Danielle rubbed both eyes with her hands and flopped back on the couch, "I WANT to be mad at you! I..." she sighed again, raising her hands and gesturing angrily, "Urg! I want to hate you! I want to yell at you! I want to scream at you and call you a bitch and a thief!" She stood up from the couch and stomped on the floor, "I don't want to believe anything you say!"

Suddenly the woman seemed to wilt, "But I believe what Oriana said... and I believe you too." She sat back down on the couch and slouched back, "I also know that my husband wouldn't have anything to do with you if that were true." She laid her left arm over her head, "I cried for months." She said quietly, "I thought he was dead. We all did. I thought he was gone forever. I moved out of our apartment and went to live with my Mom. Without him I couldn't even pay the rent. I couldn't keep up with the repairs my car needed so I had to get rid of that. I lost my job because I couldn't focus on the kids I work with. We were supposed to try to have a baby... and now he can't even do that. And almost everything I lost... you gained. How can I not feel like you stole everything from me?"

Razor felt terrible for the woman. She was out of her depth. She wanted so badly to make Danielle feel better, but she could not think of anything. In desperation she decided to try a joke, "W-well I'm still waiting on that car. Huh?" She realized immediately that it had been exactly the wrong thing to say.

Danielle turned her head toward the sheepish Unicorn in disbelief, "Seriously?... SERIOUSLY!? I can't believe you would say that!?"

Razor panicked, "No! I'm sorry! I was just trying to..."

"SHUT UP!" Danielle shrieked rising to her feet, "You... you... UGH!" With a loud bellowing sound, Danielle ran out of the living room.

Razor scrambled to lever her pregnant self out of the chair, "Wait! I'm sorry! Please! I didn't mean anything by it!" Razor Wit felt horrible for the jest. She had never meant to upset Danielle. She finally managed to get herself out of the chair and wobble toward the kitchen. She heard Danielle run up the stairs and made to chase her down to apologize. Sense caught up with her though, 'If I run, I might trip and hurt our foal.' She slowed her pace and decided to walk up the stairs, 'Danielle isn't going anywhere and it will give me time to think about what to say.'

She hobbled her way up the stairs, pregnant belly swinging as she did. It was much more awkward than it used to be. Nevertheless, she eventually made her way to the only closed door in the house. She knew it was the right room because she could hear sobbing from the other side.

Razor knocked on the door, "Danielle? I'm so sorry about what I said. Please let me in."

"GO AWAY!" Came the reply from the other side of the door.

Razor sighed sadly and knocked again, "Please. I need you to hear me out. I never meant to upset you like this. I'm not a mean Pony. I made a mistake and I'm so sorry. I wasn't trying to be insensitive. I know you've suffered because of what happened. Please open the door."

Razor suddenly heard a tremendous impact from inside the room as Danielle screamed even louder, "I SAID GO AWAY!"

Razor sat down on the floor sternly, "I'm not leaving until you hear me out."

This time the answer was an almost incoherent screech of rage, "GO AWAY! I HATE YOU!"

* * *

Artex returned home from his workout ready to take a shower. He opened the door then closed it behind himself, "Hey girls, I'm home." The sound of crying immediately caught his attention. Feeling both curious and concerned, Artex followed the sound back to the living room. There he saw Razor Wit weeping loudly into the arm of his favorite chair.

He immediately went to her and wrapped her in a hug, "Honey, what happened?"

Razor looked up from the chair and met his eyes, "Oh Artex I'm so sorry! Danielle tried talking to me and she got so upset! I didn't know what to say so I tried to make a joke to calm her down, but instead I made her cry!"

Artex blinked and drew in a breath through his teeth, making a hissing sound, "Ooh. Yeah sweetie that's not always a good idea. She absolutely loves to joke and especially joke about me when she's calm, but when she's upset that would just make her mad." He dreaded the answer but he knew he had to ask, "What uh, was the joke?"

"She said she had lost everything and I had gained it, so I said that I was still waiting on her car." Razor said. She felt like her stomach dropped out when she saw Artex' face.

"Shit." He said simply, "Oh God, she LOVED that car. It was an old, ugly, beat up Subaru Legacy, but she positively adored it."

Razor felt her eyes filling up with tears again at the revelation. Artex noticed and tenderly wiped her eyes, smoothing down her muzzle in the process, "No more crying, Razor. It'll be alright." He sighed heavily, "What's done is done. I need you to tell me how she responded."

Razor was puzzled that that. She sniffled and asked, "Why-why does that matter?"

"Because it tells me how we need to approach her. Remember, she's bipolar. She knows how to keep it under control, but I need to know what she did. She has no control over whichever way her emotions and mood swing, but she does know how to deal with it without doing any damage. We can formulate our response accordingly." Artex explained.

"W-well she stood up and for a second I thought she might do something, but she ran out of the room and locked herself in her room. I could hear her crying. I tried talking to her but everything I said just seemed to make her more upset." Razor said.

Artex nodded along until she finished, "Yeah, I made that mistake plenty of times too." Razor looked puzzled at his words so he explained, "When she gets really, REALLY upset, specifically hurt, she needs space to let it out and she doesn't like anyone else around. It's one of her control techniques. Her form of bipolar can make her violent, but she learned to channel it into tears. If you try to force her to talk, she'll just amp up more and more and then cry more and more. She needs time to cool down. She separated herself from you because she felt herself amping-up and her control technique kicked-in before she did anything." He chuckled lightly, "She used to throw things at me whenever I did anything that upset her too much. She threw and broke a TON of phones and other things before she learned how to control it." He gave Razor a gentle squeeze and stood up, "Let me check on her and I'll be back down. Okay?"

Razor nodded and watched him leave the room. He headed up the stairs and found the only door that was closed. There were no sounds from beyond the door so he tested the handle. It was locked, "Danielley?" He called quietly, "Honey, can you unlock the door please?"

He heard shuffling from inside the room. Moments later he heard the door click. He slowly opened the door and found Danielle sitting on the bed glumly. He closed the door and sat down next to her, "Razor told me she tried to make a joke and ended up hurting your feelings instead." Danielle did not answer or look at him so he continued, "She feels bad about it, Danielley."

"Good!" Danielle answered, "It was a mean thing to say."

"She didn't mean anything by it, babe. I don't think she knew what else to say." Artex explained.

"Then she shouldn't have said anything!" Danielle declared.

Artex kept calm, "She doesn't know you like I do. She doesn't know how to handle you or talk to you the way I do. None of them do. I promise, she didn't say it maliciously. She isn't like that."

"If you knew none of them knew how to handle me, then why did you let me come here!?" Danielle asked in exasperation.

Artex sighed, she had a point, "Okay, I'm not arguing that I neglected to think that part through completely. I didn't prepare them for you."

"Gee, thanks for making me sound like a burden." Danielle snorted.

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Artex said softly, "But you need to give them time to get used to you. I'll admit that I kind of sprung this on them too. I should have tried to prepare everyone for this. Their exposure to bipolar has been limited to me and me alone. Telling them that all bipolar cases are different is one thing, experiencing it is another. I know you're upset and hurt right now, but you need to forgive Razor and move past this. They all need to get used to you and you you need to get used to them. Everybody needs time to adjust here."

"Except you." Danielle said.

Artex smirked, "Yeah, except me."

Danielle leaned onto his shoulder and sighed, letting out some of her anxiety. She felt better now that she had some time to let off some steam and she had a moment with the man she loved, "Can I keep you?" She asked. It was one of their old traditional sayings. She would ask, 'Can I keep you?' and he would reply with, 'For the low price of loving a goof-ball.' She fell back on one of their old habits to help reassure herself that he was the same man she had fallen in love with years ago.

Instead he answered, "Well, you can share me."

It was not the answer she wanted, but it was honest. She did not like the implications, but she knew what she was getting into in that regard when she decided to come to New Humansville. Deciding to make the best of it, Danielle pursed her lips in a pout, "You know what I meant, you sucker-fucker." She replied somewhat playfully. She had many playfully nasty names to call him and he had almost as many for her. Her favorite was, 'Fakin' bacon baldy-locks.'

Artex laughed softly, "Yeah, and you're a Mexican't." He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a gentle squeeze, "Come on, Razor wants to apologize to you. I know you probably don't want to see her right now, but you two need to clear the air. Okay?"

Danielle groaned in less than half-hearted protest as Artex stood up and carefully pulled her to her feet.

* * *

Razor Wit listened as two pairs of steps descended from upstairs and into the kitchen. She watched as Artex led Danielle into the living room and sat down next to her. Razor wasted no time, "Danielle, I am so sorry. I didn't know how much your car meant to you. I would never say something like that and mean it. I was trying to alleviate the tension. Please forgive me."

Danielle rolled her eyes and huffed as she flopped back against the couch, "Fiiiine." She said. It would still take time for her to adjust, but the apology helped a great deal. She lapsed into silence briefly and Razor began to fear the woman was not serious, but then Danielle spoke up again, "Well... if I'm still married to Dan, then... part of this huge house is mine, right?"

Razor was just barely good enough at reading Human facial expressions to see the mischievous glint in the woman's eyes, "Yep! You can have all of Artex' parts! He's the one who invited you here AND all without telling us about it beforehand."

Artex was greatly relieved to hear the joke, brief as it was. It gave him hope that the females would eventually get along. Even so, he had to playfully put in his two sense, "HEY! It was my invention that paid for this place! Shouldn't I have a say in this!?"

"Nope!" Danielle said, "Remember, happy wife, happy life! And THIS makes me happy." She grinned in a cheesy fashion at him, "Besides, now I've got backup whenever I need to yell at you. We'll TAG TEAM your ass, mother fucker!" She dissolved into giggles as her mood swung from grumpy to slightly playful thanks to her bi-polar.

Razor was distinctly put off by the vulgarity, but she could see that Artex was not upset about it. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying it, given the smirk on his face. She felt like she should join in as a show of solidarity if nothing else. Remembering something she heard from a Human woman once, she took a chance and said, "That's riiiiiight! Who runs the world...?" She left the phrase unfinished, hoping fervently that Danielle would pick up on it.

Her gamble was rewarded when Danielle said, "Girls!" Both females burst into a fit of giggles as Artex threw up his arms dramatically and flopped back onto the couch with a forlorn groan.

It made Razor uncomfortable to speak and act like that, but she understood something right then, 'This is harder for Danielle than it is for the rest of us. She gave up her established life to follow Artex back here and even agreed to share him with us even though it goes against everything she was taught. We need to be as supportive of her as possible. This is already hard for her, we need to make it easier. We need to show her that she can rely on us when she needs to. We all need to sit down and talk about how to deal with one another. I don't want anyone else to make the same mistake I did.' It was a rocky start to say the least, and there would need to be some significant adjustments on the parts of everyone, but Razor had hope now.

New chapter. Thoughts regarding the chapter are welcome.

On a personal note, life has thrown me yet another curve ball. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I did not know before, but when your blood sugar goes haywire, it causes your eyes to go blurry. That was a bitch and a half, but thanks to my wonderful wife, I am making healthier decisions regarding food.