Jonathan was figuring out how he was going to eat the breakfast in front of him. Naturally, he had tried to take the sandwich with his hands, only to squish his nourishment with his hooves. Eating straight from the plate felt too primal. For a moment, he kept dumbly looking at the daisy-sandwich. "Wait a second, daisies?" With both hooves, he carefully lifted the already squished top piece. "Yet another thing to get used to; being a vegetarian."

"Ah never figured Ah would have to teach somepony to walk and run. Let alone an adult zebra."

The striped one turned to look at the mare and gave her a smile. "Apparently you are the pony Redheart mentioned."

"Yes, Ah'm Applejack. Nice to meet 'ya," she gave him a subtle dip of her hat.

"Nice to meet you too," the zebra gave a greeting nod. He turned back to look at the sandwich in front of him, as his stomach gave a small groan. "I also appear to have forgotten how to eat."

Applejack gave an amused huff. "Ah remember somepo-someone who went through almost two days without eatin'," the mare said as she stopped next to the zebra's bed. "It was actually quite comedic. He even got himself prank'd by RD." Remembering the evening at the farm made her smile. He had seemed so happy.

"Good to know I'm not the only one to have gone through hunger," he said around the tongue sticking out from his mouth. A striped hoof carefully pushed the slightly squished daisy-sandwich off the plate and over the edge. The sandwich landed neatly on the other hoof.

"Conqrats'! You just learned how to eat with hooves!" The orange mare cheered.

The zebra pushed the whole sandwich in his mouth, his cheeks bulged out like balloons and crumbs fell on the bed. "Fy fe fay, I'mfh Fonafhafn."

"Don' speak with ye'r mouth full. Ah can't understand a word ye'r sayin'."

He chewed for few seconds and swallowed. "By the way, my name is Jonathan."

Applejack's eyes widened as she took a small step back.

Jonathan saw the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

The orange mare rapidly shook her head. "N-nothin'! Ye'r name, umm... Just sounded peculiar." Her eyes darted all over the place and her expression remained even. "Yea, never heard that kind of a name!" She pulled an awkward smile on her face.

The zebra looked at her with slightly narrowed eyes. The reaction was the same as it had been with Redheart. "Alright then."

"Good! No, umm... Nurse Redheart said ye're fine so we could start the trainin' now if you want."

"Sure, why not?" Jonathan enthusiastically moved to the edge of the bed.

The cowpony had sunk into her thoughts. "He can't be Jonathan! Ah saw him yesterday, in his own human body! This has to be a coincidence of some sort..." She didn't even react to the soft thump.

"Applejack?"

"Wha'?" She turned back to look at the bed, and found it empty. "The hay?"

"Could you help me out?"

Raising a brow, she walked around the bed and found the sight quite amusing. Smiling, she took a step closer to the fumbling zebra. "We could start by get'n on ye'r hooves..."

***

Nurse Redheart knocked on the door of the Ponyville library. The more she had thought about Jonathan, the more worried she had become. The zebra she met has to be the Jonathan she knew. After her shift had ended; she had asked around town but if he was still here, the citizens of Ponyville would have seen him. The story how Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy had found him didn't help her suspicions.

"Hi, Nurse Redheart!" Spike exclaimed from the doorway. "What brings you here?"

Redheart gave him a smile. "Hello, Spike. Is Twilight here?"

Spike's eyes averted to the side. "Umm..." He bit his lower lip and looked over his shoulder into the library.

"Spike?"

He jumped at the call and turned back to look at her. "She's not here. She went to Canterlot with Celestia yesterday."

With narrowed eyes, Redheart kept looking at the rapidly-blinking dragon. "Now, Spike; I know you are lying." she kept a pause and saw him tense up. He was indeed lying. "This is important, Spike. It's about Jonathan."

"Well umm..." He glanced over his shoulder again and fidgeted with his fingers. "After she came back last night, Twilight said she wanted to be alone," Spike whispered. "I respect her word but after I heard her crying in the bedroom..."

"What? Why didn't you ask her what's wrong?" Redheart asked, trying to keep her volume down.

Spike put up a more serious face and looked Redheart in the eyes. "Because I respect her wishes." He averted his head down, giving a quiet sigh. "But now she's been in there for the whole day. I kept hearing sobs from inside all day... I slept on a book pile last night because I didn't want to disturb her." He raised his head to look at Redheart again, his expression giving out his concern. "Maybe you should talk to her."

Redheart followed the dragon inside. "Twilight?" she waited for few seconds, but got no response. "Twilight? It's me, Redheart. I came to see you," again, no response. Looking around the silent library, the concern started grow inside her. "Spike," she turned to look at the dragon. "Did she-"

A sniff made Redheart turn her head towards the stairs leading to Twilight's room. The purple unicorn was standing at the lower end of the stairs; wiping her eyes with a hoof, with her mane messed up. "Twilight? What's wrong?"

The unicorn raised her head and revealed a pair of reddened purple eyes. She looked in the blue eyes of Redheart. "I..." She closed her eyes and sniffed again. "I..." Taking a deep, shaking breath, she lowered her head. Her voice trembled, "I killed Jonathan."

***

Applejack trotted along the streets of Ponyville. She felt proud of herself for teaching the zebra to walk in a day. He now could stand and walk, but trotting and galloping were too much for one day. The training didn't go flawlessly though; he tripped on his own hooves quite a few times and thus he faceplanted on the tiled floor.

Thinking about the zebra, or possibly Jonathan, made her bit her lip. "Ah have got to go see Twilight. Maybe she knows where Jonathan is..." She turned around the corner and saw the huge tree of the library rising up at the end of the street.

Applejack raised her hoof to knock on the door but stopped as she heard muffled voices from inside library. Lowering her hoof, she pressed her ear to the cold wood of the door.

"What do you mean you killed Jonathan?"

"The spell I used will kill him in a year."

Applejack blinked her widened eyes as she pulled her head away in dismay. "This can't be true..." The opening door made the three turn their heads.

Twilight's horror got worse as she saw her friend step in. "Applejack..."

She raised her head to look at the unicorn. "Is that true, Twilight?"

Twilight lowered her eyes before shutting them. "Yes. I'm afraid so."

"Ah just taught him to walk!" Applejack yelled and pointed a hoof at the direction of the clinic. "Why and what did you do to him?!"

Twilight's eyes flashed open and stared down at Applejack. "I didn't want him to suffer anymore!" she yelled.

"But, Twi-"

Twilight raised a hoof to silence the cowpony. "Last night, Jonathan told me everything. His life had been a nightmare, and the last four years of it had been a living hell." She paused for a few seconds. Her lip curled into a frown and quivered slightly. "I remembered a spell I read some time ago, a spell that would turn him to a zebra and make his horrible memories go away." She shook her head, setting tears flying away from her eyes. "But I didn't know the spell would also kill him in a year, and..." her voice drifted away.

Twilight grumbled to the floor, sobbing and covering her head with her hooves. "I... I just wanted him to live a happy life..."

she said around the weeps before bursting into tears.

Redheart went next to the crying unicorn and laid down next to her. She embraced Twilight to a hug. "Shh, it'll be alright," she whispered.

"Ah..." Applejack lowered her head and sniffed. "Ah will get the others. You shouldn't be alone." She turned around and galloped outside, the tears feeling like cold streams on her face in the chilly air.

***

Jonathan rapidly blinked his eyes to get the morning blur away as he sat on the soft clinic bed. Looking around, he noticed he hadn't been served breakfast like he had been yesterday. It wasn't a surprise to him. After all, he wasn't a patient anymore. Luckily the clinic had let him to stay for one more night. "I need to find a place to sleep in. I won't be sleeping here anymore." He turned his head to look outside. The sun shined on the chilly autumn morning without any clouds in the sky. Most of the passers-by wore some sort of winter clothing, water vapor coming out of their noses with every breath.

Yawning, he moved to edge of the bed. "Alright, do it just like yesterday..." He lowered his left hind leg towards the tiled floor. "Okay... Going well so far... Aaand... Touchdown! Now the other one..." The hoof slowly descended and made contact with the cold tiled floor. "Yey, now the front hooves..." He pushed the bed with his hooves, boosting his upper body in the air. He turned on his hind legs and twisted his body. The front hooves hit the tiled floor in a slight angle. "Oh damn." His hooves slipped to the side, resulting in a hard faceplant.

For few seconds, Jonathan only saw stars and his head rang loudly. He gave out a frustrated huff. "I need to get outside. This tiled floor is starting to grow on me." He shook his head and pushed himself up. Still slightly dazed by the head impact; he swayed from side to side as he walked to the door.

Walking along the hallways and following the signs to the main exit, he hoped to meet Applejack or Redheart on the way. He didn't know anything about this place, how was he going to get a place to sleep in? Seeing the other ponies wearing winter-clothing hinted at sub zero temperatures; at least during the early and late hours. Sleeping outside wasn't an option. "Maybe there are motels or some other accomodations?"

The realization hit him almost instantly: he had no money and he couldn't possibly get enough to pay for a warm bed in a day. "Great... So it's off to beg someone to keep me from freezing to death." Looking around, he noticed he had arrived at the atrium of the clinic; judging from the amount of seats and the nurse standing behind the reception desk. The room was well lit by the natural light coming inside and the exit doors were right ahead.

"Umm, sir?"

Jonathan turned around. The nurse pony behind the reception desk waved at him. He raised a brow at her.

"Sir, you need to sign a form before you can leave," She said before taking the clipboard in her mouth and showing it to him.

"Oh, alright." Jonathan walked to the desk and looked at the piece of paper. "By signing this you... bla...bla... Yeah, pretty simple." He extended a hoof towards the pen-holder. The hoof banged on the holder, tipping it over and spilling the pens all around. "Heh, sorry," he gave the receptionist an awkward smile.

Jonathan fumbled with the pen as he tried to keep it between his hooves, leaning to the table with his body and standing on his hind legs.

"Sir..?"

He dropped the pen again. "Damn..." He looked up at the nurse, who seemed to be amused and frustrated at the same time. Jonathan couldn't read which one was dominant. "Yes?"

"Wouldn't it be easier to write with your mouth?"

Jonathan raised a brow and turned back to look at the pen on the floor. "Huh, how's that going to work?" He raised his head again and saw another mare writing to a clipboard; the pen was indeed in her mouth. He turned back to look at the receptionist. "Yes, it would be."

He took the pen in his mouth, trying to balance it with his tongue and keep it in place with his teeth. "Well, this is an interesting way to write..." He lowered his head toward the paper.

A few seconds later he raised his head. "Thone." Realizing the pen hindered his speech and probably made him look silly, he spat it out. "Done."  He patiently kept looking at the nurse, as she inspected the document.

"Mister Johathuan..." She eyed the zebra over the clipboard. "You may leave now."

Jonathan blinked a few times in surprise, was his writing that bad? "Alright, thank you." He turned around and headed for the exit.

He could hear an amused snicker from behind him. "Zebras..."

Pretending not to hear it, Jonathan continued outside. The cold, morning air felt refreshing as he took a deep breath. Glancing around, he saw many ponies with winter clothes but to his surprise, he didn't feel cold at all; despite not having anything on. He looked over his shoulder at his striped body, the black and white giving a nice contrast in the sunlight. "Good to have fur, it feels so warm!"

"Mister, why are you lookin' at yerself?"

Jonathan turned his head around to look at the speaker. It was a little filly; with a red mane and a pretty bow on her head. He gave her smile, trying to find what to say and wondering if she felt cold in this weather.

"Come back 'ere, sillyfilly! Don't you go botherin' strangers!" Came a shout from some distance away. Jonathan saw the mare looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"Yes ma'am!" The filly ran to the green, elderly mare and followed along beside her. The mare gave one last look over her shoulder before continuing to walk along the street.

Jonathan shrugged. The reaction the mare had given him had been somewhat expected. So far, he hadn't seen any other zebras, which probably meant they weren't very common sight; also taking a note on the receptionist's reaction. "Racism? Don't be silly..." He let out a huff, puffing water vapor in front of him.

He looked around, thinking what to do next. He had no money, no place to sleep in and no other contacts than Applejack and Redheart. "If I was a video game character, this would be the start of an epic..." he halted on his words as his eyes followed a young mare passing by, "...plot." Realizing what he looked at, he turned away and shook his head. "C'mon! You have more important things to think about!" He felt his cheeks getting hotter. Starting to think how he could get money in a place like this, he began to walk at a random direction.

---------------------

A/N: Wow, it took way too long to get this done. I sincerely apologize for taking so long! I'm not completely sure when I have the time to write the next one, but I don't think it takes the same 3 weeks like this one did..

(Should I add a comedy tag... or put a "teen" rating for that last one...)