Tabitha strolled through the city. With her slowly ebbing sense of self-consciousness, she noticed she was far from the only not-pony around. A griffon with bright white wings landed right beside her. "Hey. Meat or veggies?"

Tabitha glanced aside at the male birdcat. Was he really asking if she ate? "Anything that's tasty."

He smiled, beak curling. "Good answer. Always nice to see another... xeno. I can't place your lineage, I confess, but you are who you are, bloodline be damned, and you don't cringe at meat, so bonus points." He spat onto the ground beside him as he walked. "So, where are you headed to?"

Being approached by random people in the city usually meant a scam, at least back in the human world. In the pony world, Tabitha wasn't sure. Maybe he really did just want another friend? "Newspaper office. I need to run an ad." She erred on the side of blunt truth. It was boring enough, she decided.

He seemed surprised at that. "Huh, an ad? What fer?" He leaned in a bit, looking genuinely curious. "Nice dress, by the way." His head twitched towards what covered her pony body. "Don't mean nothing, just nice." He held up a talon as if to ward off the idea that he was hitting on her.

That was just as well, she had a... did she? She supposed she did. It was good enough! "For my apartment building."

"Get out!" He broke into a new smile. "You're yanking my leg. I have a sister coming into town without a good place. Mine's too cramped and she don't like me that much anyway. I'm guessing you're alright with one of us griffon sorts, right?"

The idea of a new tenant sat in just the right place. Sure, Equestria had done some rough things to her, but it'd certainly been treating her right when it came to filling her building. "Send her on over." She gave the address and described it. "Hard to miss, taller than the others around it, ten floors."

"Sounds great. You still have rooms on the top floor?"

As it turned out, she did. "They cost a bit more though."

"Oh?" He sounded suspicious.

"They're larger than the others." She left it there. Explaining how humans thought that made sense seemed a waste of breath. "Bigger and nicer. She won't be getting anything but the best."

He nodded firmly. "She'll like that. I'll pass the word on." His wings unfurled. "Hey, speaking of this, why don't you fly none? Afraid of doing it in a city?"

That was as good a reason as any. "Yeah."

"Don't be." He offered a talon towards her. "Come on. Nature gave us badass wings for a reason."

She spread one wing as she looked down at it, then slowly extended the other. "I'm... not feeling it."

"You don't sound like you're being straight." He waved a talon. "Still, I'm basically a stranger, so yer on your own. You have fun." He zipped off, leaving Tabitha to her trek.

As she went though, she put renewed thought into those wings. Easy Glider's wings, her wings. They had a lot of potential use and meaning. It wasn't as if she didn't want to fly. It looked like fun, and a lot faster than the hiking she was doing, on horse hooves and legs or not. Thinking about them made her pump them a little.

She wanted to fly.

Who didn't? She thought back to her school friends and others, trying to imagine any of them that'd outright refuse the chance. Well, there was that one guy. He was afraid of heights, but if you left him out, most people had the dream at least once of being free as a bird and sailing through the open air.

She could do that...

Her thoughts were interrupted by her arriving at the newspaper office. She smiled on her way in, only to enter a buzz of noise and excited chatter. It was 'just' a newspaper, but that was the best they had, so it was just as busy as any television news center back home.

One of the reporters, a mare with a news card in her cap, stopped dead instead of moving past her. She turned and smiled at Tabitha. "Well aren't you a walking news piece!? What's your name?"

"I'm actually here to put up an ad?" She held up her developed film.

"Forget the ad." The mare waved a hoof dismissively. "You can put that right in your news article and get ten times the hits! Now, what are you?" She glanced up and down at Tabitha. "You a new tribe of pony? I still didn't get your name."

"Tabitha--"

"Tabitha?! The Tabitha? The one making ponies down at Roebucks practically explode?" She flashed a huge smile. "I thought they were exaggerating or something, and here you are! That's it, exclusive interview, this way." She directed a hoof and turned. "Come on."

Tabitha did follow, but in no great hurry. "I'm not trying to draw attention. I just want people for my apartment building."

"The same one?" She glanced over her shoulder. "Has to be. My brother was going on about it before, but he suddenly went quiet. Did he mention me?"

"You're his sister? Due Note's?"

She bobbed her head. "That's the one. Only unicorn in my family, I'll have you know. He sounded real excited about the idea. My current place is going belly up, so I have to move. You have your pictures with you?"

Although the mare had a very nice cap and a front, she had nothing over her flanks or back end. Not that it should matter, or so Tabitha firmly reminded herself. "Sure, right here." She surrendered her pictures. "We have a good amount of room just waiting for happy tenants."

The earth mare accepted it and looked over the pictures carefully a moment. "Huh, not bad. I know the area at least." She raised a brow a bit. "You don't..." Her nose flared as she took a whiff much like her brother had. "You don't mind if I--" She sniffed again, large and grand. "Sorry. You don't..." She was falling for it, deep and hard. Maybe it was a familial thing?

If Tabitha wanted, or so she quickly reasoned, she could have her way with the mare without any resistance. Of course, that would make her a monster. Taking advantage of a mare, no matter how... Stop that! Tabitha shook her head free of the thoughts. She moved briskly to the nearest window and threw it open, allowing noise and fresh air to come in.

"Ah, thanks. I was getting a little stuffy." She smiled, expression clearing with the fresh air. "As I was saying, I should visit. I can write up this article on you and this place you have, a combo package. It'll get placed far up closer to the front and you won't have to pay for it." She smiled brightly. "And I might just move in, so hey, all upsides."

It was a subtle thing, but Tabitha could see the reporter's tail was raised just enough to give a subtle signal. Though the scent had stopped being overwhelming, its effects hadn't faded instantly. "Let's do that." Anything to put some distance. "How about tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow's fine, how about eleven?" When Tabitha nodded, she made a quick note with a quill in her mouth. "Tomorrow it is. I'll be there! Now I hate to send such an interesting pony away, but I do have other work to do, unless you want to do the interview now?"

Tabitha gently waved that away and slipped out of the door she had come in through. That had cost less than she planned, but she'd have to deal with a pheromonally sensitive pony. It seemed to vary from pony to pony. Razz and Coco could and did say no to it. Bubbles fell right under its sway, even if she deflected violently with related... things...

Tabitha wandered down the road, considering what to get done next when she felt a small hoof touch one of her wings. She stopped and looked down to see a small colt poking at her without shame. "Excuse me?"

"Hiya!" exclaimed the colt as he continued right on feeling up the wing. "I bet you can fly real good." The colt was a unicorn. There were no wings on him. "Are you a pegasus?"

Was she? "Mostly, yeah..."

"Can you fly?" He clopped his little hooves in the air, seated on his haunches. "I'd like to see that."

She felt like she was being nudged towards it, though it was something she wanted to do... "I never had practice," she confessed truthfully.

"Aw!" He pointed to a nearby park. "You could try there. There's hardly anyone there compared to here."

The park did have less ponies per square foot, both in the air and on the ground. If she wanted to make a fool of herself... "You know what?"

"What?"

"I think I'm going to get a friend for this." She nodded mostly to herself and left the little colt behind. If she was going to learn how to fly, why not take advantage of the friend she had that was also part bird? Razz would be delighted at the excuse to hang out, and had offered to show her how to use those wings of hers before.

On her way home, a smell wafted past her nose, and it was far from herself. It was delicious, but not meaty. A glance revealed a cart of grilling carrots, and that confused her. She approached the stand curiously.

The stallion behind the small stand smiled brightly. "'Lo there, miss! Hungry?"

"I wouldn't say no to a snack." She was feeling quite ready to devour something.

He indicated a small sign with a hoof. "Just two bits gets you a hot carrot with all the toppings!"

The bits were surrendered and she got a hot dog bun, but instead of a hot dog, the carrot was placed on it and various toppings slathered on it. Did that work with a carrot? She was about to find out. "Thanks." She bit down and found it had been grilled just enough to soften it a little. She easily took another bite and nodded as she walked. She'd had much worse foods in her life...

She arrived back at her building with a quarter of her snack left. She popped the remainder into her mouth and got to chewing as she stepped inside. Dark was there, looking thoughtful and frowning. "Hey, Dark."

Dark nodded. "Your tenant is difficult to pin down. Despite having no clear source of employment, she is rarely in her apartment to question." She gave a soft tsk of annoyance. "I've far from given up, Miss Taylor."

Tabitha didn't remember telling Dark that. Dark seemed to notice the expression. "Sorry. The more I know, the better I can react to changing situations. I don't mean anything bad by it." She smiled and offered a hoof. "Luna sent me to help you."

Author's Notes:

Luna's help. Is that a typo?