Accidental Sunshine (11) (Patreon)

Grey-17 followed Lyra out of Ponyville, along a road that took them between various fenced areas. Different things grew inside each one, sometimes trees, sometimes rows and rows of the same types of plants. They were obviously deliberate, in the same way the burial pits were used to cultivate grave-fungus for use around the colony.

But there were no dead buried in these places, just some fences, and the occasional statue of a pony in the center of the plants, never moving. She almost asked what they were for, but Lyra didn't seem very interested in anything around them, much too focused on reaching their destination.

There were more ponies waiting for them there, all smelling more or less the same. One was younger than the others, and took Lyra to some large wooden containers to pick out apples to bring back.

Grey-17 watched the exchange with quiet patience, devoting her full attention to understanding what in the name of the ancient queens the ponies were doing. One moment they met, feeling slightly hostile as they both argued about numbers. Then they reached an agreement, and all anger instantly vanished, to be replaced by... excitement?

Next, the one called Applejack stood there and watched while Lyra got to go through her things and steal whatever she wanted, enough to fill her huge bags until they wouldn't carry any more. Finally, she stole a few little metal pieces, and they were on their way again.

"Did that make very much sense to you?" Grey-17 asked, as soon as they were walking back together. "Why did she give you all that fruit for a small bag of metal pieces? It didn't look like you scared her that much."

"Scared her..." Lyra grinned. "Don't flatter me that much, Ditzy, I'm not that intimidating when I haggle. Bonnie says I let ponies walk all over me. But she just says that because I don't want to—" She stiffened, then sped up. She couldn't move that fast carrying so much fruit, but did her best anyway. "So, reading? Felt like jumping into your recovery with all four hooves, huh?"

"You don't actually want to talk about that," Grey-17 muttered, slowing for a few steps as she thought through it. "You just don't want any ponies to realize how much you like... Bonnie."

The unicorn stopped walking, looking sharply over her shoulder. Her calm instantly vanished below a wave of embarrassment and shame, strong enough that Grey-17 actually wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Did she have to feel it so strong it got all the way down into her throat like that?

"I thought you took a hit in the head, Ditzy. You didn't have to just... say it like that."

"Say it like..." She flushed, folding both ears flat behind her. "I'm not trying to anger you! I'm sorry... should I say it a different way?"

"I'm not... angry." The unicorn took a single deep breath, squaring her shoulders. "You don't remember things as well as you used to, that's fine. Yes, I like Bon Bon. But I would rather talk about helping you. Unless learning to read was just an excuse to pressure me into asking her out."

Every little expression was another way for the ponies to confuse her. Why would one need to be “asked out?” Where would they go if they did?

It took incredible focus not to instantly admit to that intention, so she could learn the answers to more questions. But in the end, her primary goal won out. Maybe she could ask Time Turner out later to figure out what it meant.

"I want to learn to read! From what I can tell, all the ponies know how to do it, even the little ones! I need to figure out the secret as soon as I can, before I get in trouble for not knowing."

The longer they spent talking about anything else, the more relaxed Lyra became. She started walking again, no longer trying to run away and escape from Grey-17. She didn't stand a chance to get away with all those heavy apples, anyway.

"I don't know if you would get in 'trouble,' Ditzy. But you're right about how important it is. Every sign, every menu, every pamphlet and instructions on all your medication. Not being able to read means you could get lost, or hurt, and not even understand what was happening."

"That's what I mean!" She trotted just past her, wings opening and closing as she moved. "Do you know how I could learn?"

"I... know where to start," she said. "There are special books at the library, made of pictures and stuff. They're made for older ponies trying to learn. Hopefully since you only have to remember, it will come a little easier for you. We can go together and find them."

That was what they did. Not right away—first she had to go drop off the apples with the pony named Bon Bon, who Lyra mistakenly called Bonnie almost every time she talked to her. But Grey-17 didn't understand pony names well enough to guess about her reasons yet, so kept her mouth determinedly closed.

Probably best to copy the ponies who didn't secretly love her.

Then they went to the “library,” which was apparently a tree secretly hiding more knowledge inside, the way the schoolhouse did. But this one had a much more fearsome protector: a real dragon!

Grey-17 had heard about those before, in the whispered stories of what lay to the forbidden lands to the east. Any bug who went that way didn't just fail to return, they died brutally, sometimes in ways that dragons returned to tell them about.

This one didn't attack either of them on sight, or breathe flames that melted chitin from flesh. Instead, he welcomed them into something called "Golden Oak," and answered Lyra's questions about where to go in its labyrinthine shelves.

"Twilight isn't around right now, don't ask where she galloped off to. But there's probably something for what you need in the... continuing education system. Let me check the codes..."

Grey-17 spent the entire meeting behind Lyra, so she would have enough time to flee if the fire-breathing beast became murderous.

Eventually they came to several books held together in a paper box, along with various other pages and pamphlets. Lyra levitated it into the air, and carried it to the front of the library.

"Does Ditzy have a card on file?" she asked, as soon as they reached the front. "She should, right? Lived here all your life."

The tiny purple dragon groaned, then had to shuffle around through several folders and binders before finding the page he needed. "Yep, right here. Guessing you lost it?"

Ditzy nodded nervously. "I, uh... lost a lot of things after my accident. I don't know if they threw it away, or maybe it burned up with the airship. I think I had some papers and things on there."

Would the pony have kept a “library card” on a flying ship? She still didn't know why the pony was there in the first place. From what she saw, no pony should've been on that ship at all.

Spike, though—the dragon's emotions flared with something that was almost pain, and he turned his back on her. "Let me just, uh... I'll waive this reprinting fee. One second, I'll have another card for you."

He slipped around the corner, leaving the two of them alone at the counter together.

Lyra glanced over her shoulder at Grey-17, grinning. "Guess that takes care of that. I would've covered the fee if he didn't. I'm sure Time Turner would be good for it. He probably wishes he could be out with you right now, huh? But he hasn't been able to get much work done since the accident. It was bound to catch up with him sooner or later."

Grey-17 nodded. "He did want to teach me himself. But he said there was no time. Because of a... mortgage. What's a mortgage?"

Lyra actually laughed—a little too loudly, considering the solemn shelves and books all around them. She covered her mouth with one foreleg as she did so, flushing red around the cheeks. "Of all the things to remember, that one might be... lower on the list. You won't have to worry about bits for a while."

"But maybe I should be worrying!" she argued. "If there's something too big to hunt alone, you go in groups. Time Turner shouldn't have to fight it alone."

Spike returned another second later, holding something in one of those little claws. Far from a weapon, it was a shiny piece of plastic, with a picture of Ditzy Do on one corner. She looked a little different in it, with some metal and glass resting on her nose. She was so much more confident than Grey-17 felt, that same brave mare she had briefly met during the crash.

It wasn't her. She would always be so much less than that pony. She took it anyway, along with the huge box with several books inside. They were too big to balance over her shoulders, but the dragon had a little sack she could use to hold them around her neck, and that helped.

Soon they were leaving, without even having to capture someone and replace them.

They didn't go very far with the stolen box, just back out into Ponyville until they reached a round section full of various plants and trees. They didn't seem to be growing them in any orderly way, just scattering them randomly with a path made of rocks to navigate it all.

There were also some tables between the trees, with room to sit and probably do some other things without the activity of Ponyville getting in the way.

Grey-17 still felt it, obviously. All those creatures radiated magic with every thought and feeling. Lyra could cover her with a blindfold, and she would still feel just as much.

"Not much of a breeze today. We should be able to get some reading done. I don't have anything until rehearsal at two, so... a little while. Unless you have somewhere else to be."

Grey-17 sat on the other side of the table, copying the mare's posture as closely as she could. The local ponies obviously knew what they were doing much better than she could. "Nowhere else! Time Turner will get worried if I stay out too long, but I don't think this is too long."

She leaned close, looking nervously back through the trees the way they'd come. "Are you sure this is far enough? What if that dragon is following us?"

"Spike?" Lyra laughed. "Why would he do that? I don't think he wants to do adult literacy lessons."

She looked over the box, removing one colorful book from the top. She floated it through the air, the same way bugs could when they had a lot of extra magic. Of course that meant Grey-17 barely even knew how the power worked, let alone how to do it herself. She needed every drop of magic she got just to stay alive.

"I don't understand..." She nudged the edge of the book with one hoof. "I don't know how to read, so... how can a book teach me to read? Wouldn't it only work for ponies who don't need it?"

"I have no idea," Lyra admitted. "I think it's a... program. There are worksheets here for you to go through. They're sorted by level, I think the red one here is the lowest. It says one, so."

She flicked it open, and the contents were very different from the dense scrawl of meaningless marks Grey-17 had seen in Ditzy's old books. Instead, there were pictures inside, along with just a few symbols next to each one.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Wants you to start with letters. If you're comfortable, I mean." She set it down on the table between them. "I'm not a professional teacher, just a friend. If you'd rather sign up for classes... you would probably have to go all the way to Canterlot to find enough ponies to do it, but there would be way better teachers."

Grey-17 shook her head sharply. "Of course you can teach me! I've never met any of those other ponies, but I know I can trust you. I don't know... how much I'll remember. But I can listen! I'm ready to learn the secret of reading, even if it's hard!"