//------------------------------//
// Chapter 41: The Calm 
// Story: In Equestria 
// by ARandomLonelyDude 
//------------------------------//

I opened my eyes and groaned a bit as I turned in bed to lie down on my right side, and hopefully return to sleep. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Instead, my sides started paining and I was forced to get up to stop that. I looked around as the pain slowly died down. What was the time again? 

The light in my room was on, meaning that it was either easily morning or evening. The vibe in the air, and the clock on the wall above the door, told me that it was evening, about six. I couldn't be sure though since the clock was a stupid twelve hour clock, and I could have been misinterpreting the vibe. I didn't know the date either, besides that it was August, but I knew that something was happening today — something that I couldn't remember but had been looking forward to. Was that why I woke up?

I sat in silence for a while, slowly remembering. It had been around three weeks since I first came into the hospital and I had kinda lost track of time. There wasn't much to do besides rest and I really disliked that. Inactivity sucked ass.

My face scrunched up in negative emotion as I remembered the first two weeks of being here. I was stuck to the bed for those weeks. The first week was terrible with all the magic pumping to restore my internal magic giving me fever dreams. The second had gone better, except for when a doctor came into my room and fixed my broken arm using magic. I shuddered as I remembered how much it pained. They had moved onto fixing all the other wounds I had left after that.

After that, it was an extremely boring experience. I don't have much to do — the hospital's selection of books was small, and I didn't get any visits besides Mayor Mare and sheriff Steel and they came purely for business. As a result, I felt... trapped and lonely. Very lonely. I guess there's no-one that cares that much about me. Or maybe they were just busy. It's not like I'm particularly important anyway. I had just got too used to having someone talking to me everyday as a friend.

I had to stay until the doctors could confirm that my magic is back to normal and didn't just randomly decide to fuck itself —which it could somehow — after which I could finally leave this place. That day was today. I finally remembered why I was looking forward to today.

As if on cue, the door opened and a nurse, nurse Redheart, walked in. She smiled at me while I managed to give her a neutral expression.

"I've got your glasses," she said to me as she came close and handed me a case that I hadn't seen her holding. 

"Thanks," I whispered as I took the case and opened it. Inside were my new glasses. I picked them up and put them on. They weren't as good as my previous pair in terms of improving vision, but they were a lot stronger. I'd take that over vision since seeing clearly wasn't something that was high on my list of priorities — I doubt that there were even glasses that could help me do that.

"Now, let's get you checked out," she continued, prompting me to get off the bed. Once I was off, I followed her out the room, limping a bit on my right arm and already losing my breath. I soldiered on though; going back home was the top priority in my mind.





I walked through the streets of Ponyville as the sun slowly went down. I was right about it being evening. There weren't many people out at this time even though there was plenty of light outside. Those that were outside saw me walking with a slight limp and heavy breathing and probably thought that I was some old hag. I tried to not pay them any mind but I could tell even through my blurry vision that they were staring at me.

Despite it not being good for me, I walked faster. No need for them to see me for any longer in my current state. As a result of walking faster, I reached home quicker and I was winded as well. 

I opened the door and paused for a moment as I remembered some important things. Mainly, all the blood and guts down in the basement. Did someone clean them? I sniffed the air and found that the smell of rotting stuff wasn't present, meaning that someone did. I thought some more and remembered when the sheriff had visited me and told me along with other things — like how they couldn't identify the bitch who broke into my home — that he had given the key to my house to Twilight (the copy that I used to open the door now was under a random rock on the lawn).

Did she clean the place? If she did then I'll have to thank her. But if she cleaned the place then that means she went through my stuff as well. I shook my head at that thought. She might have gone through my stuff but it was for my own good. I didn't dwell on that for long while outside and headed inside.

I closed the door and sat down on the floor, taking some time to catch my breath and sort out my thoughts. I had stuff to do, like saying thanks to Twilight or whoever cleaned up my place, going to work tomorrow, getting all the parts for the coilgun, more locks for the door, and bills–

Actually, health insurance covered those for me. That's what Mayor Mare had told me when she visited me (besides a 'get well soon'). Remembering that made my mood better. 

I moved onto thinking about how I'l deal with the other stuff. Going to work tomorrow was necessary since I had missed three weeks of work already and I didn't need more rest even though my body acted like it; it was just lethargic after being stuck in bed. Parts for the coilgun should be easy as well. I had made a mental list of the stuff I'll need and none of it was really expensive or hard to get, if I assumed correctly, and I'm sure I have some of the parts already but I'll have to check that. Thanking whoever cleaned my place should be easy as well; I just had to find them. Locks should be easy too.

I got up, ready to go to the kitchen and make something to eat. I don't really think the bread I brought that day is good now. Cereal would have been fine, but I'm pretty sure the milk had spoiled as well. Anything else I had would take time to cook, and I really didn't feel like spending that much time. I guess I could see if there's something in the kitchen I forgot about. I'll have to go and get groceries tomorrow.

I yawned. Thankfully, I'll deal with a lot of that tomorrow and not today.

Just as I was going to take a step, someone knocked at the door. I turned and opened the door just a bit so that I could see who was there. I then opened the door fully as it was Brush who was outside. 

She immediately pulled me into a hug and said a lot of things that I didn't quite catch because I was too busy appreciating just how good being hugged felt, especially with how soft Brush was and how she hugged with her wings as well. I leaned into her as I hugged her back. Brush stopped talking and we stayed silent for a little while. 

Eventually, she pulled away, which I didn't like much — not that I tried stopping her or expressing displeasure at that — and she looked me over, likely to see if I was alright. 

"You're feeling fine, right?" She asked me as she stopped and looked me in the eye with her ears lowered and her eyes wide. 

"Yeah, just a bit tired," I answered as casually as I could since I didn't want her to be worried about me. Like I expected, she calmed somewhat and she hugged me again, not with her wings though. 

"So, what do you want?" I asked her. 

"Oh, I saw you walking and remembered that I have to give you your key," she said as she pulled back and unfurled her right wing. She pulled out my house's key from in between her feathers and handed it to me. I took it in my hoof and put it on the key holder next to the door.

"Thanks," I said to her before remembering that the sheriff had given the key to Twilight and not her. "Say, how'd you get it?"

"Well, after the sheriff was done with his investigation here, he has handed the key to Twilight, and she came here. I had seen her and followed her here. We met and she told me that she was just checking things out over here, and she invited me in and..." She paused to take a breath before continuing, her ears folding back a bit and her wings twitching as she did, "There was a lot of... blood and the– the dead spider. It was starting to smell bad and Twilight had the idea to clean up the place for you. I helped her with that. She's a lot nicer than I thought. She gave me the key and I've been coming here to feed your crucible for the last three weeks."

She smiled at me after finishing. I stared back, feeling a funny feeling in my chest. She had, along with Twilight, going out of their way to help me. I think that's the nicest thing anyone has done for me ever. 

"Thanks," I managed to say to her after a while. All that time and all I could say was 'thanks'. Man, what an idiot I am.

We stayed silent for a few moments before Brush then added, "Twilight buried the spider in your backyard."

"Oh." I'll have to see that. "Thanks again, you can go."

Brush didn't turn to go. Instead, she said, "Actually, do you mind if I stay for a bit?"

"Not an issue, I'll be back in a minute. You can stay in the living room," I said to her. I turned and went to the backdoor. 

I went outside and after a bit of looking around, I saw a spot where the dirt has been disturbed somewhat recently. The grass was already staying to grow back on it and there was a single, withered flower on the spot. I stopped in front of it and just stared at it. 

Below that dirt was Spider. 

I had seen death before, quite a bit. I had lost people that I would describe as friends, not as close as Brush or Twilight, but friends nonetheless. I hadn't felt particularly sad at any of those since I knew that life ends eventually. Still, looking at the grave made me feel sad. Maybe it was because I had literally made Spider, maybe it was because I felt like I hadn't given him enough in his short life, or maybe because I could have saved him but didn't. Whatever it was, it made me feel sad.

I heard Brush come up and stand besides me but I didn't take my eyes off the grave. We both did there in silence, only the sound of the evening breeze around us. 

Eventually, Brush spoke, "Twilight told me that you liked it quite a lot."

"I did."

"I'm here if you need someone."

I nodded slightly. The memory of him dying kept playing in my head as I stared at the grave. I didn't cry. Brush came closer and put a wing over my back. 

Then, a dark thought came. 

It couldn't have been a burglary. Whoever that bitch was, she definitely had some other motive for breaking into my house. Maybe it was the rumours about my work. Would something like this happen again? Would they be content just with killing me? 

I glanced at Brush and an even darker image came to my mind. If the break-in was to scare me, why would they stop at hurting my creations? They could go for my friends.

The thought might have been irrational but it was still a scary thought. They could get hurt because of me. All because I was doing dark magic because I couldn't handle free time.

I was no longer sad. 

I was angry. 

Angry at myself for putting people in danger, angry at that bitch who killed Spider, angry at the people for being so susceptible to rumours. I was not angry, I was furious. Biomancy would have to wait, they coil-gun had the priority now.