Chapter 3: Psych

“The center of every pony's existence is a dream.”

        “Tell Major Rainy Day to make his ponies keep up with the rest of the line!”                

        “Yes Sir!” my lieutenant shouted as she raced down to relay the message.  

I watched her flight path before reviewing the rest of my troops.  It was still mid-morning, but the battle had already taken its toll on both sides.  The zebras were outnumbered, outgunned, and outsmarted, but they refused to simply roll over and give us the path to their capital city.  

The center had seen most of the action and thus most of the casualties.  To the north, the right flank had made major advancements throughout the morning.  If Rainy Day didn’t keep up with the left flank, we were going to lose a glorious opportunity to surround the last remaining non-garrisoned zebra army...

A pink pegasus came from below and stopped just beside me.  “General!”  She stopped to take a few panting breaths.  “The Princess says that backup won’t get here ‘til noon.  She wants you to hold off on the offensives until they’re here.”

I looked around for a moment and spat into the wind.  “Go back and ask Luna if she remembers who the stripes tried to assassinate last week.  Clearly they fear my battle plans more than hers!”  The mare stared at me, eyes wide.  “What are you waiting for?!  Go!”  She dropped away from the group like a rock.

Another messenger approached me.  “Sir... the 8th Infantry is getting hammered.  It ain’t just them, either.  The whole middle is bogged down.  They have good positions, but there’s no way they can push forward.  We’ll run out of troops there before they do.”

I sighed and looked at the warmap.  Thank Celestia for unicorn magic.  Used to be you had to have some pegasus haul an entire table up here and try to stay still enough so the officers could read it.  “Alright... here we are.  Go tell the 7th Armored to move from the right to the center.  Have half of the 41st go with them.”  The messenger turned to go.  “Hey, Muddy will be pissed at having to move from offense to defense.  If he tries to talk his way out of it, remember to tell him it’s an order from the Supreme Commander.”  She nodded and flew away.

Reinforcements were still hours away, but I was determined to end this before they even got here.  And I would as long as that southern flank picked up the pace.  This battle would be the final nail in the coffin of the entire zebra military.  They’d tried to shoot me.  Poison me.  Stab me!  In fact, it felt like they were stabbing me right now...  right in the stomach...

~~~

My eyes jerked open and my heart started racing as I saw talons poking my chest and a beak in my face.  “Freaky monster assassin!” I screamed as I jumped up and backwards.

“Whoa... what?”  Kari said in a foggy daze, lifting his head and looking at me.

I glanced back and forth.  Chapel.  I’m next to my bed.  This is the roof of the post office.  I’m not a mile high in the sky.  “I... uh...”

“Do I really look like a freaky monster?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What?  Oh!  No!  Not... not at all.  I just...  um...  not used to anypony being up here...  But no, you don’t look freaky.  I mean, you look different.  But nice different.  I’m sure you’re completely normal looking.  Probably handsome even.  If-”

He laid his head down.  “I’m going back to sleep now.”

“Okay!”  

I stayed on the other edge of the roof, not wanting to dig an even deeper hole than I already had.  Every time... every single time I wake up before the battle ends.  Sure, I could play out the rest of it in the dirt while I was awake, but it just didn’t feel the same.  Plus I didn’t have a proper uniform I could put on.

Gah!  Stop that.  It’s not healthy, Lily’s voice played in my head.

I grunted and laid down in the nest.  It was still too early for most of Chapel to be up and moving about.  After a couple minutes of restlessness, I noticed light through the windows of the chapel.  I couldn’t think of any better ways to kill time than chatting with Priest, so I got up and glided over to the white building.

Slowly walking to the back of the chapel, I looked around at the few scattered ponies who were there.  Priest has his back to the doors and was watching the candlelight.  There was a stallion laying to one side, simply staring towards the middle of the building.  What drew my attention, though, was a couple laying in one of the forward pews.  They were each clutching something and humming very softly.

“Hello, Buckweiser,” Priest whispered as I got closer to him.  He got me every time.  I could sneak up on anypony but him.

        I sat down next to him.  “How’d you know?”

        Priest grinned at me.  “You have lived here for thirteen years now and you are a very predictable colt.  What has you up this morning?”

        I thought I was being attacked by zebras with pointy sticks, that’s what.  “Oh, you know, couldn’t sleep.”

        Priest’s grin widened.  “The Laziest Crusader couldn’t sleep...”  He looked around behind him.  “Let’s continue this on the balcony.”

I followed him up the stairs, watching the stained glass windows as we passed them.  The ones which were still intact all were pictures of the Goddesses.  When he reached the middle of the balcony, far away from anypony else,  he turned around and sat down.  “So what is wrong?”

“Nothing.  Really,” I said, sitting down and looking over the railing.  “I’m fine.”

“You have turned sleep into an art-form, Buckweiser.  If you can’t sleep, something is wrong.”  I couldn’t really argue with that.

“I’m fine, really.  I guess I’m just used to sleeping alone.”

The older unicorn hid most of his shock.  “You allowed your new friend to sleep on your roof?”  My face must have betrayed my thoughts, because he quickly added, “It’s a small town, you know how fast word travels.”  I shrugged and nodded.  “That was very nice of you.  So you couldn’t sleep because you were uncomfortable?”

I sighed gently and looked at him.  “Not really.  Well... yes.  A bit.  After I woke up from a dream thinking he was trying to kill me.”

Priest’s grin came back full force.  “Ah, Inkblot’s first session may be more exciting than I thought.”  I gave him a very confused look.  “She came to me for advice yesterday.  She is worried that Scoodle’s absence will cause problems for some of the younger fillies.  She feels she has read enough books about therapy to be able to help out.”

I grunted and hung my head.  “Don’t tell me... you said it would be a wonderful idea.”

“It is her special talent,” he said, moving to stand beside me.  “But I also said she should start with you since you two are already good friends.”  

Me?  But I’m not a young filly!

Priest chuckled at the look on my face.  “Help her out.  Inkblot has been wanting to do this for a long time.  It’s the reason she reads every single book the Crusaders find multiple times.”

“Okay, okay.  I was gonna do it anyway,” I said after a minute.  “Well at least my boredom has been cured.”

Priest began laughing again.  “You were bored and came to me?”

“Yeah.  Why?” I asked.

“Don’t you remember what you used to call me?”

“Um...  Priestie the Beastie?”

He smiled.  “Before that.”

I thought for a minute before laughing myself.  “Sad, lonely preacher pony.”

“Now look at you,” he said, “coming to the sad preacher pony to liven up your morning.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Next thing you know I’ll be spending all my time in here lighting candles and eventually become the moral guide for the entire town.”

“Let me know when that happens.  I want to see it for myself.”

We sat there, side by side, silently watching the ponies below us.  A jittery mare snuck through the doors and headed straight to a corner of the large room.  Simply being inside the chapel seemed to calm her, the twitching slowly coming to a halt.  

I laid down and continued looking through the bars of the railing.  “You never have told me why you do this.”

“You never asked.”

“Well I’m asking now.”

Priest took a deep breath.  “Because ponies deserve to be happy.  The mare in the corner?  Her mother never stopped using chems while she was pregnant.  She’s been addicted to Dash and Mint-als since the day she was born.”  Nodding to the couple sitting up front, he continued, “They were traders.  Doing honest work making an honest living.  They heard they could make some more caps out here in the Hoof, so they brought their caravan and three children here.  First raiders took their goods and burned their wagon, then slavers took their kids.  They‘ve prayed constantly for years that their children fought and died so that maybe they were spared the horror of growing up in Paradise.”

Priest took a step closer and nodded to the stallion still laying off to the side of the room.  “And him...  I’d try to stop him if he wanted to continue his pilgrimage, but I couldn’t blame him.  He was taken by a group of cannibal raiders.  There is almost no muscle left in his back legs and his skin is so scarred that his coat only grows on his back.  He was rescued just before he was killed, but he every day he has flashbacks to the week he spent being eaten.”

I shuddered at the descriptions he gave.  “None of them deserved what happened, but here they are, broken and battered.  Each and every one of them deserve to be happy.  If I didn’t at least try to help them, I’d be no better than her mother, the slavers, or the raiders.  I know I’ve never told you any of that before, but I have told you this:  We need to care about each other.”

The disgust in my gut was doubled when I that I had just now learned the stories of the adults in Chapel.  Some of them had lived here for... how many years now?... and I had never taken the time to find out anything about them.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.  

“Sorry for what?”

“For...”  What was I sorry for?  Well, I knew.  I just didn’t want to admit it.  “For not caring.”

Priest leaned down and nuzzled my neck.  “I’m not going anywhere.  You have plenty of time to spend sleeping before I have to teach you how to work a lighter,” he said with a light chuckle.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go talk to Rage.”

“Rage?” I asked, finally looking up at him.  

I waited to get up until Priest had started his discussion with Rage.  Stepping back outside, I started thinking about stories of all the fillies and colts in Chapel.  I played with many of them, but I never had learned most of their histories.  At least I had the advantage of knowing who to ask first.  

But that would have to wait until tomorrow.

*****

“C’mon!  Just go in!”

“I don’t want to.”

“She ain’t gonna murder you in your sleep.  Now get in there,” I said, pushing up against Kari’s rump.

“Were those stories all true?”

I huffed and puffed.  “No!  Okay, some of them were.  Maybe half of them.  Fine, most of them were true.  But she’ll like you if you just go inside!  She doesn’t do that stuff to ponies she likes!  Er... griffons too.”

“What are ya’ll doin’?” came an unamused voice from the doorway.

“Good job, Kari.  Last time I saw her outside of the post office she ate somepony.  This is all your fault!”

“Buck, come here,” Charity said.  

I stopped pushing and walked around to stand in front of her.  “Yes?”

“Shut up.”

I saluted with a wing.  “Yes sir!  Ma’am!  

The yellow pony looked at the griffon.  “Kari?”

“Uh... y-yes.”

“Are you as strong as ya look?”

“I... I think so,” he said while trying to make himself look smaller.

“Good.  There’s a little fort out west of here in a ravine.  Scoodle’s team said there were half a dozen ghouls in it.  Buck knows where it is.  Take him and go clear it out.  Oh, and bring back anything that’s still inside the fort.”  She went back inside when she finished.

“See?” I said, walking back to Kari.  “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”  

Kari looked at me then back at the empty doorway and whimpered.  

*****

“Wow...”

I slowly nodded.  “Yeah...”

“Didn’t she say-”

“Yep.”  

“But that’s gotta be-”

“Uh-huh.”

Resuming our silence, we kept looking out over the cliff.  Down in the ravine I could count fifteen ghouls.  Most of them were huddled up in one area.  Enough skeletons littered the bottom of the gorge to explain how each of them got stuck down there.  There was a tunnel from the bottom all the way back up to the top of the cliffs, but they were too big to go through them.  

“You said you were good with that rope?” Kari asked, pulling his eyes away from the ghouls.

“Yeah, why?”

        “Because this is going to be fun.”

        After telling me my part of the plan he went and hovered a few feet off the ground.  I pulled out my rope and checked it.  No frays.  Tight knot.  All in all very much like a rope.  Putting the end in my mouth and my front hoof through the loop, I lifted off and dove down to the ghouls.  

        I didn’t fly very high above their heads, but none of them realized I was there.  Picking out a ghoul away from the main group, I took a minute to line up my shot.  Releasing the end of the rope, I mentally went over the steps.  Start swinging.  Keep an eye on the target.  Wait for the rope to come around, and release! 

        The rope landed right around the ghoul’s neck.  I jerked back hard and started flying straight up.  I flapped my wings hard, but it was much easier than I expected to haul a ghoul.  Maybe being dead made them a lot lighter.  Either way, I was soon rising above the edge of the cliffs.  Once the dangling ghoul was also above edge, I hovered and turned over to look down.

        Just a second later, a white and brown blur came barreling straight through the ghoul.  Fleshy bits flew everywhere, some even came all the way up and hit me.  

        “Da hay wuff dad?!” I yelled around the rope in my mouth.

        Kari came up and hovered next to me.  “That was how you kill a ghoul!  Yeah!  Neeeext!”

        “You’re crathy!”

        “Maybe!”  He yelled as he flew back to his position.  

        I shook my head in amazement.  That ghoul exploded.  Were griffons naturally that powerful?  I put that on a list of questions I would ask later and dove back down to pick up another ghoul.  

        I never thought that ponies exploding - even zombified ones - would become routine, but around the eighth time I carried a ghoul skyward, I realized it had.  Again Kari shot right through the ghoul and again ghoul bits spattered everywhere.  After a few more, Kari flew back up to me.

        “Just three left.  Let’s go have some extra fun.  I’ll take two you take one.”

        Before I could protest, he was already diving down to the bottom of the ravine.  I grunted and decided to just go along for the ride.  

        Immediately after landing he pounced on the nearest ghoul.  I watched from the side as he attacked its face with his talons and the second ghoul rushed at him from the side.  With a single motion, he curled his wing forward and then sent it flying out at the ghoul.  The edge of his wing slammed into the ghoul’s stomach right as it was rearing up.  The impact almost tore the ghoul in half!  

        I screamed when the third ghoul let out a hoof-curling shriek right behind me.  I jumped into the air to get away.  How could Kari even stand touching those things?  They looked all squishy and flaky.  I panicked and reverted to the routine.  I tossed my rope over his neck and flew straight up.  

        After I was halfway up the cliff-face, I stopped and turned around.  Kari wasn’t following me, he was just looking up at me.  Great.  He was leaving it to me to kill this one.  How could I hit him as hard as Kari had?  I looked around trying to get ideas, and then it hit me.  I didn’t need to him.

        I flew forward and full speed with the ghoul straight out behind me.  I jerked to a stop and yanked my head around, causing the ghoul to swing out beside me.  With a final twist I sent it flying into the side of the cliff.  Bits went flying, but they weren’t as spectacular as when Kari had done it.

        I flew back down and landed next to the crazy griffon covered in ghoul blood.  

        Kari laughed.  “That was your first fight, wasn’t it?”

        Without Lily next to me shooting at everything that got close to us?  Yes.  “No!”

        He laughed harder.  “Yeah it was.  You had no idea what to do once you had him up in the air.”

        “Whatever.  Hey!  You need to teach me that thing you did with your wing!”

        “You don’t know a basic chop?”  He walked sat up on his hind legs and start curling my wing with his talons.  “You really were raised by earth ponies, weren’t you?  Now tighten your muscles.  Good.  Now just release them all and fully extend the wing straight out to the side.”

        I did as he said and my wing jerked straight out like his had, but a lot slower.  “That seemed weak...”

        “Practice it constantly.  It’s weak at first, but as those muscles get used to working in a different direction, it’ll get a lot stronger, a lot quicker.”  He stepped back over to the bodies of the two ghouls he had killed.  “Not bad, though,” he said as I practiced the chop again.  “Score’s Kari: thirteen, Buck: one.”

        “Hey, I should at least get an assist for the... thirteen and one?  Are you sure?”

        Kari looked back at me with an eyebrow raised.  “Eleven in the air, two down here, and your one.  Why?”

        “Because before we started I counted fifteen down h-”

        “DUCK!”

I hit the ground and looked up.  A shrieking ghoul and a screeching griffon collided in the air directly over my head.  They came crashing to the ground next to me, the ghoul pinned down in a position I was quite familiar with.  Kari gripped its neck in his beak and started biting down.  Funny colored goop leaked out of its neck and the ghoul’s eyes started to bulge.  

SNAP!

Kari pulled away from the corpse and wiped his beak off on his feathers.  “Fourteen to one.”

After a few heavy breaths, I got up and collected myself.  “Alright.  That’s all of them.  Let’s go check the fort.”  I tried to step over the latest kill, but my hoof brushed its head and the head started to roll away.  It was completely separated from the body.  I looked at the head then up at Kari.  “You... you bit its head off?!  With your beak?”

Kari took a step back and looked nervous.  “Y-yeah.”

“Is that... is that what you were going to do to me yesterday?”

“Until your friends tackled me...,” Kari said, still slowly backing away.  I hadn’t thought it was possible, but now I was even more thankful to Scroll and Plate for getting there as quickly as they had.

“Is that a thing all griffons do?  What kind of hunters were your family?”

He bumped into the edge of the ravine and stopped.  “Yeah.  Well... no.  Most griffons use guns, but I’m terrible at aiming.  And you have to promise not to tell anyone about the second thing.”

“Why?” I asked, stepping towards him.  I had a sense that this was going somewhere bad.

“Because my family was hated by everyone because of what they did.”  Lovely.  My mind started going through all the bad things it could think of.  Murderous cannibals?  Pirates?

“Fine.  I promise.”

“We were bounty hunters.”

I stopped and sat down.  “Bounty... hunters...” I said, trying to keep a straight face.  Kari nodded.  “What kind of bounties?”

“Whatever paid.  Griffons, ponies, annoying creatures...”

I couldn’t hold it in anymore and dropped to the ground laughing.  

“What’s so funny?” he said, fear turning into anger.

It took a minute, but my laughter finally stopped long enough for me to speak.  “I was expecting you to say you were part of some freaky cult or something.  I don’t know what it’s like where you’re from, but bounty hunters are fine down here.  Heck, they’re everywhere.  There’s whole areas in towns where bounty hunters can go to pick up contracts.”

Kari just stood there and blinked.

Finally I was able to get up.  “Ah, that was good.  Alright, c’mon.  Let’s go clear out the fort and get home.  You look as filthy as I feel,” I said, turning towards the small hole in the face of the cliff.  

Stale air assaulted my nose when I stepped inside of the fort.  A hunting rifle, some ammo, and a box where the only things there.  Kari picked up the rifle and ammo while I went through the box.

Bobby pins... some more ammo... and some recordings?  Those weren’t supposed to be there.  Various things were always kept in our forts, but recordings weren’t one of them.  I pulled my radio out of my saddlebag.  Power button... volume... tuning...  I turned it over.  Some gibberish written in tiny print on the bottom.  I turned it back over.

“It’s right there.  Top left on the back,” Kari said from over my shoulder.  

I pressed the button on the top left and the entire back popped open.  Placing the recording inside and closing it, I hit the power button and turned up the volume.  Music started flowing out of the little speakers.

*****

“Yeah I own this beat!  You can call me the king or the ruler!  Felon on bass gettin’ hoarse at the mic!”

“We’re gettin’ twenty percent cooler!”

“We had a great day out!  Callin’ my name like Mareis Bueller.  It’s time to wrap this up!”

“We’re gettin’ twenty percent cooler!”

        Kari and I landed as he yelled out the final line of the song.  Coming down from our top speeds, I stopped with a graceful slide while he bouncily skid across the ground only stopping when the storage building got in his way.  “Whooo!  Yeah!  Now that’s music!”  I trotted over to his new resting place.  “Problems?”

        He winced and looked up at me.  “I’ve never seen someone dumb enough to land going as fast as they possibly could.”

        “Well you didn’t have to follow me,” I said, sticking my tongue out at him before holding out a wing to help him up.  “Alright.  I need to go see Inkblot.  Can you handle talking to Charity alone?”

        Kari stopped brushing the dirt off his sides.  “She scares me.”

        “She scares everypony,” I said, trying to give a reassuring smile.  “Once you tell her what you did out there she’ll like you a lot more, don’t worry.”

He started slowly walking towards the post office.  “If you say so.”

“See ya in a bit!”  I yelled, trotting off in the opposite direction.  I found myself humming the tune of the song and singing in my head.  Seven colors in your hair, get your boots on dear cause we’re goin’ out there...  Great.  Now it was going to be in my head all day long.

Unlike last time, the inside of Inkblot’s shop was extremely well lit.  I had to blink a few times before my eyes adjusted to the brightness.  

“Helloooo!  You’re just in time!”

“Hey, Ink,” I said, taking in all the changes to the room as I walked in.  There was a faint scent in the air.  It smelled like the chapel, but just a bit different.  The entire room had been rearranged.  A couch sat against one wall while a single chair, which Inkblot was occupying, sat on the edge of a rug in the middle of the room.  “Where’d ya put everything?”

“Oh, it is all in with the Stockpile.  I hope you don’t mind.  I wanted everything to be absolutely perfect for this and there just wasn’t any room in here,” she said, batting her eyelashes.  

“Mmhmm,” I mumbled.  Inkblot pouted.  “So where do ya want me?”

Her face lit up again.  “Just lay down right there on the couch.  And I heard you had some interesting dreams!  You should tell me all about them.”  Wow.  Word really did travel fast.  Too fast...  Somepony wasn’t doing her job.  

“Do we really have to do this?” I asked as I climbed onto the furniture.  This couch was actually softer than the bed I used to sleep on.  A bit lumpy, but those could be worked out.

She got up and walked to the side room that contained her miniature library - all the books she refused to let go into storage.  Which was almost all of them.  “Please,” she said from the other room.  “This is very important.  I want to help all of the Crusaders, but I need to practice first.  Priest was right that I should start with you.  A nice setting where I can practice the process of therapy.”

“Great.  Now I’m an experiment,” I said as I started preening.

“Don’t think of it like that!  Think you are my first step to greater things!”

“Meanin’ I ain’t great enough?”

“Oh do stop being so difficult, Buck.  You know exactly what I meant.  Ah!  Here it is.  Volume One of the Ministry of Peace’s Guide to Helping Ponies, Creatures, and Critters.”

“You gonna use the ponies, creatures, or critters section?” I asked with a suppressed laugh.  I heard a loud sigh from the other side of the wall.

Inkblot did a double take at me as she walked back into the room.  “Stop preening while I’m talking to you!” Inkblot shouted.

I looked over at her without stopping what I was doing.  “But there’s this ghoul... gunk all over my feathers.  It’s disgusting.”

“It’s disgusting, so you use your mouth to clean it off.  That makes sense,” she said dismissively.  

“Don’t get mad at me!” I said, addressing her fully.  “You are the one that read ‘All About Cleanliness’ to us!  I wanted you to skip it, but nooooo.  You just had to go in order.

Inkblot let out a soft snort.  “It isn’t my fault all you feathered things are so nasty about it.  I can’t imagine how it tastes.”

“Actually... I never really taste anything at all.”

My reply stopped her from launching into her next attack.  “You don’t?”

“Well... no.  When I do it, my mouth gets all watery and everything tastes kinda like...  I dunno.  It ain’t bad, whatever it is,” I said, going back to preening.

“Bleh,” she said, going back to her chair.  “Just don’t get anything on my couch.”  She settled in and looked back at me.  “Now about those dreams...  Are you eating that junk?!”

I held perfectly still and swallowed hard.  “... No...”

“You were!  You were eating it!” she said as she got up and ran over to me.  As she got closer, she started swatting at me with her book.  “Off!  Get off my couch!  I will not have something so gross happening there!”

I scampered off the couch and laid in the middle of the floor.  “But you said-”

“Don’t tell me what I said!  I know what I said!  I’m the one that said it!  And right now I’m saying that you’re a radhog!”

I huffed and muttered, “I always knew that so called cutie mark was just a big dirt stain...”  

My muttering was a bit too loud.  If daggers really could shoot out of eyes, I would’ve had knife-sized holes all over my head.  “Dirt stain?!  I’ll have you know this is a-”  She stopped and let out a scream.  “Enough!”  She moved back to her chair, taking many deep breaths.  “Tell me about your dreams.”

“Do I have to?” I said, trying to stay as close to the floor and as quiet as possible.  

“Yes.  You do,” she said in a very calm tone of voice.  “Go ahead, I’m listening.”

*****

Phallic narcissism stemming from a Neighpoleon Complex and castration anxiety.  I could agree on the last one, although I thought that was probably something all colts had.  I couldn’t imagine anypony not caring about something so painful.  The first two, though... I had no idea what those were.  But apparently I had them all according to our newest therapist.  

I got away from the ranting unicorn and her big words as quickly as I could after I finished telling her about my dreams.  I fled to the safety of the post office roof.  Kari was waiting for me and looking forlorn.

I floated down next to him.  “Fillies.  Ugh.”

“What’re they good for?”

“Absolutely nothin’.”

*   *   *

The griffon was in shock.  “You ate it?  You really ate it?”

“What was I supposed to do?  She said not to get it on her couch.”

He rolled his eyes.  “Oh, I don’t know, wait?”

“But I didn’t...” I stammered.  

“That really is kinda gross.  You ate two hundred year old meat and flaky skin from a filthy-”

“Okay okay!  I don’t need to know what I ate.”  And neither did my stomach.  It suddenly wasn’t very happy about the whole ordeal.  

He laughed and stood up.  “And I was thinking my talk had gone badly.  That really cheered me up.  Thanks.”  He looked down at me and I stuck my tongue out.  “I’m going to go find something real to eat.  Maybe those radroaches you talked about are nearby,” he said before jumping off the roof.

        I curled up in my nest and pushed thoughts of ghouls, flesh, and therapy out of my mind.  Strangely, that left pretty much nothing behind to think about.  There was my cloak.  My nest.  My vest.  Ears, eyes, nose.  Shoulders, knees and hooves, knees and hooves.  Wait...  nest!  Kari didn’t have a nest!

        I leapt off the roof and raced to the stockpile.  Finding some suitable material, I picked it up in my hooves and flew it back to the roof of the post office.  I pulled some wonderglue out of my saddlebags and got to work assembling the collection of wood and blankets.

        By the time Kari got back, I was just stepping aside to admire my work.  It was slightly bigger than mine and sat right next to it.  I remembered his reaction to seeing my nest, but I hoped he’d at least try it out.

        “Hey Kari,” I said as he landed.  “Check it out!”

        “Um, what is it?” he asked, looking it over.

        “It’s your nest.”

        “My... nest.”  He looked at me oddly.

        “Yeah, I know, you’re not a bird.  But just try it out.  It’s a lot better than sleeping on the roof.”  He looked at the nest then back at me.  “C’mon!  It’s comfy, trust me.”

        He shook his head and circled the nest.  After making sure he would fit, he gently worked his way into it.  

        “It ain’t so bad, is it?”

        He laid his head on the edge of it.  “Ask me again in the morning.”

        I smiled and jumped into my own nest.  Hiding my head from the light with my wing, I slowly drifted off to sleep.

*****

“Yes sir, I am aware of how late at night it is.

“Sir...

“Sir, we found the boy.

“Yes sir, we’re sure.

“Roger.  Sir, he’s not alone.  

“Correct, sir.  He’s with a pegasus.

“Unknown, sir.  

“Roger WilCo, bringing them both.”

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

Footnote: Level up!

New Perk: Swift Learner.  Just because you don’t know doesn’t mean you can’t know.