It was the weekend. After morning had come and gone, Persica had started for Canterlot with a cart filled with freshly-plucked peaches behind her. Arriving at one of her normal patrons, she unloaded them there, accepted the bag of golden bits as payment, and went back on her way with her now-empty cart. With the wooden wheels behind her squeaking as they rolled over the street, she went to do a quick bit of shopping for one kind of specific set of items.

With the secrets she confided to the changeling not two-and-a-half weeks ago, an ambiance of peace came to her weary mind. She felt much more... comfortable around Habeas, for lack of a better word, and it was an easy, carefree comfortableness she had not felt toward another creature, not even her daughter, for a while longer than she could remember. He was definitely a being who had earned her trust, and perhaps even something more, though she couldn't quite put her hoof on just what it was...

However, any suspicion on what it was vanished as she arrived at a small, local agricultural shop situated in Canterlot's square. Persica always came here for plant needs, and why she had come now was for that very reason. Parking her cart near the entrance, where the check-out booth also laid, she entered and looked around for the objects of her search. After spending the next few minutes collecting what she needed, she brought her items back to the entrance and approached the booth, where a certain pony waited for her.

"So, what'll it be this time, Persica?" the unicorn and owner of this small store, Garden Flower, asked from behind it. She was a young mare with crimson fur and a short black mane lining the back of her neck, and always seemed to have an inquisitive mien about her.

Persica hoisted the bags of plant food she had acquired up onto the counter. "I'm here to buy a few bags of Magic Miracle Quick Grow," she said.

"Huh," Garden Flower hummed, her green eyes witnessing all the bags pile up in front of her. "You certainly have quite a few. What's the occasion? Stocking up for your flowerbed next spring?"

"I just need the plant food to get the crops in my garden to flourish before autumn ends."

"You actually got your garden started? The big one?" she asked as she processed the materials and was handed the proper amount of pay for them, quite surprised by the look on her face. "You've always told me you'd never find the time to make it."

"Well, I kind of had help in its realization," Persica spoke, right before she started moving the purchased bags back into her peach cart. Garden Flower rubbed a hoof across her chin in deep thought and gave off a small smile.

"Surely it couldn't have been that daughter of yours who did the work," the unicorn snickered. "Who did it?"

"Just a..." Persica thought for a moment. "Tenant. He's a friendly fellow who decided to lend a hoof."

"Just a tenant?" Garden Flower asked, equal parts disbelief and teasing in her voice. "All these years, and not once have you told me that somepony's rented out a part of your house. And yet, the moment one lone pony does, they turn out to be a guy who was willing to lend you quite a bit of assistance. Persica, are you sure that this is 'just a tenant', and not some... dashing stallion you haven't told me about?"

To this eccentric inquiry, Persica gave the unicorn a response in the form of a large, deep glare from her good eye. "What is it that you're trying to say, Garden Flower?"

"That maybe, just maybe, you finally found yourself a... special somepony," she replied with glee. "So tell me Persica, have you?"

"Your claim is faulty," Persica muttered dismissively. "And not to mention utterly absurd."

"Is it?" the unicorn smirked. "Is it absurd? Sounds to me like you're trying to hide something."

Persica sighed before grumbling her response through gritted teeth, which she had twisted into a grin in her attempts to remain affable. "Insist that I have feelings for him one more time, and I can guarantee that you won't like what happens next, Garden Flower." Anyone who knew Persica close and long enough, Garden Flower being no exception, knew full well that she wouldn't make good on these vague faux-threats. But still not wanting to be too rude to a customer, she refrained from further egging Persica's ire on, though the devious smile on her lips held firmly. After exchanging brief good-byes to one another and watching the mare trot off with the cart of garden supplies in tow, Garden Flower went back to her business.

Persica moved through Canterlot with her wagon at a leisurely pace. As she passed by the many ponies who roamed along the streets and sidewalks on her way out of the city, she thought on the words of that shopkeeper; on her accusation of harboring affectionate feelings for her 'tenant', which to say was the changeling currently living and recuperating with her. And as she reached the road and traveled from it to her house, she continued to muse and argue to herself on how such an idea was insane, plain and simple.

"I still can't believe it. They're growing so fast," Habeas spoke to Peach Blossom, watching with grand fascination as the seeds he had planted not too long ago were already closing in on full maturity; doing so in the forms of becoming healthy, thick green stalks and leafy patches that jutted from the brown soil. There wouldn't be much more time left until they all bore their trademark foods, less than another two-to-three weeks most likely.

"I told you that the plant food my mom gets is filled with special things that helps them grow quickly in times like these," Peach Blossom spoke up from just outside the short picket fence walling the garden off from whatever pests had the audacity to attempt to enter it. "The stuff they put in it is some kind of magic."

Habeas's condition had improved immensely by now. His broken leg, now fixed into its proper shape, felt close to being fully healed. His hard cast of resin broke to little bits just two days ago as it finally rotted away, but that was a natural occurrence. He planned on making a new one, but Persica, sensing that it was not needed, put the lame limb in a sling of white cloth instead. The large slash over his chest had also sealed up as well, and the only thing that seemed to be lagging behind in the healing process was his wings, which still looked as tattered and useless as they had become at the beginning of the month.

Though she was happy for him, Peach Blossom found this to also be a tad on the bitter side of things. Soon, Habeas would probably be back to full health and have to leave. This thought troubled her greatly, for she so very much liked her new friend, and watching him be around her mother was the perhaps the happiest Peach Blossom had ever seen Persica since she could remember.

When the filly secretly observed how the pair of them acted when she was visibly not around, she could see how gaily both of them got along. They spoke often to each other, mostly about matters she couldn't quite hear from the distance she spied on them from, but talked with the disposition of cheerful old companions. Also, for the last week, the young pony had one, single, important question she wanted to ask at least one of them, if only to sate the unclear suspicion that was eating at her. And with Habeas currently being the only one with her at the moment, that was exactly what Peach Blossom sought to quench.

"Habeas, could I ask you something real quickly?" she inquired.

"Sure thing," he said as he reached one of the tomato plants with a watering can close by and inspected it closely for any hornworms that had the chance to be crawling about on it.

Holding her breath, Peach Blossom asked away without care for possible reprisal. "Do you think my mom's... pretty?"

"Well, yes," Habeas freely admitted, still carefully looking over the small plant with his snout practically touching it. "She's a very attractive mare with many spectacular qualities. I have little thought on how anypony would see her otherwise."

The filly couldn't help but smile at this delicious new bit of information, and simply couldn't help what came out of her mouth next as well. "Mr. Brittle, I've noticed how good you two have been together. Do you think you might... like my mom?" This odd question, as Peach Blossom could see by the way the changeling's head shot up so fast his chipped horn almost scraped across the plant, came down like a bomb on Habeas.

"Wha- n-no! Of... of course not!" he sputtered, looking at Peach Blossom with eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Where on earth did you get that idea?"

"Mmm... just asking," was all she responded with in true, mischievously childlike fashion. Habeas looked barely convinced by the filly's statement, and kept the cocked-browed look as he picked up the watering can in his mouth and began sprinkle the sprouts and stalks below with a small shower. However, now that she had spoken about the subject, the sting of it burned within his mind.

Yes, as he had said, Habeas thought of Persica as a beautiful creature. She had a curiosity-provoking, albeit rugged air of mystery about her, she was a kinder and more pleasant pony now that the two had gotten to know more about each other, and the way she smiled at him, however rare such an occasion was, never failed to warm his heart like a candle to snow.

"Um... Mr. Brittle?" The voice of Peach Blossom snapped the changeling out of his thoughts. Coming back reality, he looked at her with the can's handle still in his mouth.

"Mmf?" he mumbled.

"I think you're starting to overwater the tomatoes."

Habeas looked down, and instantly pulled the watering can away. Placing it to the ground, he examined the moist soil closely, to see if he had made a mistake that would bid fatal for the poor plant. It was nothing major in the slightest, and that revelation made him exhale a deep breath as he lifted his cranium.

"Sorry, I was just lost in thought," he laughed lightly as he looked back to Peach Blossom, going quiet shortly afterword.

"Hmm... whatcha thinking about?" she wondered aloud.

"Just... things," he hurriedly replied, thinking of a way to avoid the conversation before it could become any more awkward than it was. "Say, Peach Blossom, I'm a little thirsty from this work. Could you fetch me a glass of water please?" he asked politely.

"Sure thing!" the filly agreed before spinning around and trotting toward the house, giggling to herself and leaving Habeas alone with the image of her question still freshly planted in his head like the plants in the garden. He could do nothing else but stew on it as he continued with his work.

Oh, such a maddening thought it was! To just think of a changeling and a pony falling for one another, much less him and her... the very concept itself sounded outrageous. Habeas shook his head and chuckled to himself. Of all the ideas to suddenly plague his mind, speculating that he was beginning to feel more intimate and affectionate emotions toward that wonderful mare was an enigma.

Right?

He shook his head again. That was... a crazy thought, and nothing more. A daydream for the utterly hopeless. Mumbling an innocent insult to himself and putting a wide grin on his fanged mouth for it, he mirthfully went back to work without a worry in the world.

He wasn't at it for long until he was once more interrupted. Peach Blossom had just come back out and given him the small glass of water he requested, upon which he thanked her, when the sound of squeaking wagon wheels came into their ears. Both the changeling and filly looked to it and saw Persica's returning shape coming down from the road, pulling her cart along with minimal effort. As she parked it by the barn, Habeas, without flaw, chugged down the glass of water, left the garden and approached the cart, from which he unquestioningly started to help her move the cargo within by flopping one of the bags of plant food over his shelled back.

"Habeas," she said to him with a chuckle of amusement at his unkempt generosity. "You're certainly eager. You don't really have to do something for me this minuscule..."

"Oh, I insist," he replied, using his magic to levitate another in a halo of greenish energy, bringing them into the barn where they were stored. Persica, rolling her eyes, allowed him to carry on with a shrug. Picking up as many bags as she could carry herself, she entered alongside him. Peach Blossom, seeing them readily go about it together again, collected the empty cup and quietly slipped away back to the house, as to not bug them.

When the last bag was put away after a short amount of time flew by, Persica dusted her hooves off with a clap and looked to the changeling. "Habeas, now that you can walk well, I was wondering if you'll want to put on a disguise and come to town with me when I go into it again tomorrow. Interested?"

"What for?" he asked, curiously.

"I delivered that cart of peaches I was carrying to a brewer there today, and I'm expecting to get a good share of some of the masterfully-concocted results when I return tomorrow come noon. I may just need some assistance with it."

"That definitely sounds like something I'd want to do," he agreed, as the two started to exit the barn. "But what about Peach Blossom?"

"In case she hasn't informed you yet, she's sleeping over at a friend's house tomorrow," Persica replied, pushing the door open for the both of them. "There'll be somepony to watch her."

Habeas gave off that cheerful smile of his that Persica had grown quite accustomed to by now. "Sure, I'm up for it! It'll give me a real chance to move my legs around."

"Great," she smiled back, setting off for the house. "And remember, we'll be leaving just before noon comes around."

"I won't forget," he said back. Persica soon vanished within the house, and Habeas, watching her as she left, sighed in contentment at the realization that this well-spoken mare was the same pony who once tried to kill him. Humming a happy little tune to himself, he went back to check on the last parts of the garden in need of tending to.