Another casual day

Awestruck and inwardly delighted, Victoria committed to memory the mare’s violent motion. How the wretched being lurched forth, rose upon trembling haunches, and dashed the little ticking trinket upon the opposing wall; how, with desperation and hysteria, she brought the old longcase clock to pieces!

Victoria touched her hoof to her lip and glanced sidelong at the destruction. It was more than a wonderful discovery that a mare should so easily – and under such replicable circumstances – be provoked.

“Heavens, dear. You just cannot seem to keep your hooves to yourself, can you now?” she produced at last, sobered in expression.

Doodle Bug just sat there with her emerald eyes wide and her mouth agape. She stood there in silence for what seemed like an eternity before she finally managed to squeak out. "T-that's okay, heh, that old clock needed replacing anyways." She said trying to muster up a smile but she could only manage what seemed like a broken frown. A nearly silent sigh whistled through her clenched teeth as she began busily sweeping up the broken clock pieces still slightly in a daze to what had just happened. She then looked at Shala and noticed her cutie mark was a clock. "Why do you hate clocks so much?" She asked her.

Shala was still huffing and recovering her breath. It took her some time before her eyes refocused. "This is why I need some friggin alcohol! That darn ticking!"

She wiped at her wet eyes with a hoof and clutched her head. "I hate clocks! I always know what time it is and they are all always wrong! All wrong! Always in that room ticking away! Not a single one right!" She spouted. Her talent itself could be part of the issue, or the issue itself.

Part of her noticed Doodle's pain of loss, but it was easily blindsided by Shala's own issues. She remembered plenty enough of what happen the previous times she cared for others.

Resting her tea on an adjacent coffee table, Victoria rose up and glided over to Doodle, whom she touched compassionately on the shoulder whilst assisting her with some of the larger fragments.

Without the accompaniment of a visible gesture, she addressed Shala. "You can do no more harm now in confessing your story. Do disarm the sinews and tell us who you are."

"Piteous sister, hath constant time itself betrayed thee?" she breathed, falsely portraying motherly and reconciling tenderness.

"Oh, thank you!" Doodle said as she swept up the smaller pieces and placed them in the trash. Once she was finished she quickly cleaned up the tea she spilt earlier and placed the empty cup into the sink while running hot water into the mug. She roughly scrubbed the inside of the cup a little harder than need be. She then rinsed it out and dried it off returning it to it's shelf. She closed the wooden door with a soft clap and took a seat at the table behind them to listen to Shala's story. "If I could be of any help to you, just let me know." She said quietly.

Shala rubbed her eyes again and forced a defiant laugh. "Hah! Is that it? Tell you my story and all will be good? Thats all everyone wants from me."

She turned away and turned her chin up in defiance. " Never has done me any good and it only means I can be found out faster. No way! I have lost enough to that and I don't need any of that!"

Her head gradually lowered down as her messy mane fell around her head. A hoof rubbed at her eyes again. "I....I just need some friggin alcohol and I'll be fine. Always was."

The pegasus, with mild demeanor, paced in Shala's direction.

"Said Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau," she began with a thoughtful curl of the lip, "'She seeks to escape herself in myth, and does so by any means at her disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into herself, she disguises herself. Lies and inaccuracy give her a few moments of comfort.'"

With presumptuous affection, Victoria swept her hoof along Shala's mane in an endeavor to bring it neatly over her shoulder.

"If you will not speak now, sweet sister, so be it. But I do 'zink 'zat, in time, I or another will know you." Her docile and feminine voice did much to masquerade the devilish resolve which burned in the depths of her eyes.

Upon noticing Shala Rub her eyes multiple times she glanced out the window and saw that it was pitch black and had started to rain. "It is late, would you two like a room for tonight? I have two extra rooms with their own showers if you can't find your way back out of the forest." She said half yawning herself. "I'll make breakfast for everyone and patch the window tomorrow." She said while using tape to temporarily seal it shut.

Shala grunted and turned away from Vicky. She would love to give that pegasus a run for her money, but right now she was feeling vulnerable enough. The truths she spoke could wait. Her mind was a mess and she needed to get away from it. And there was only one way she knew how to.

"You want something out of me? Get me some friggin alcohol. I'll go crazy if I have to put up with this sobriety any more!" She flailed a hoof in her desperation, still keeping her eyes sealed. "I'll sleep in the rain and rob a liquor store if I have to!"

For one reason or another, she looked to Doodle, as if her being the host made her more or less responsible for her demands.

Victoria smiled passively, though not putting such a crime past the unicorn.

Turning first to Doodle Bug, she nodded gratefully. "Please, dear, 'zat would be most kind of you; for, although I do not wish to detain our passionate friend Shala -- " Indeed, that was her intention precisely -- "I do believe we could benefit from some rest."

Briefly glancing at Shala, Victoria relayed her proposal. "Tonight, we'll sleep in peace; and tomorrow, you'll have your wishes. Hmmm?"

She turned back to the hostess. "May I be of service to you, Mademoiselle?"

Doodle shook her head and said. "No thank you but the rooms are down that hall to the right." She picked up Comical's cup and washed it, then put it away. She then turned to Victoria and said. "You can put your cup in the sink and I'll wash it tomorrow."

As she started to walk down an ajacent hall way to her own room she mentally slapped herself. How rude am I not showing these ponies to their rooms? "It's right this way" She lead them down the long hall way and turned a corner to reveal three guest rooms all with new dove feather beds.

"I hope you'll be comfortable enough." She said quietly remembering how hard she worked to make thoes beds.

Shala had already made up her mind. These ponies were not making sense enough to her. She had needs and they were not being fulfilled. It was time she did something about it.

"I'm out of here! I'm going to get smashed out of my mind." She stormed off, looking for the door to leave and head off into town in pouring rain if nopony stopped her.

Victoria was quite pleased at the sight of the comfortable beds, and her expression displayed it. Just then, however, the subject of Victoria's interests moved to take off; and so, by nature, she proceeded in Shala's shadow.

"Oh my -- Shala! Would you not prefer to take up her genuine offer of hospitality? Shala!" She followed on, remaining close but in such a nonaggressive manner as to have no effect on the wayward mare.

As Victoria passed Doodle, she attempted to justify the circumstances in a hasty whisper. "Do forgive me, sweetheart -- and bless you for your goodness. Goodbye!"

Thus, within but a few inexplicable moments, the two mares were out of the cabin and engulfed in the darkness of White Tail Woods, leaving the hostess and the slumbering stallion behind.

"Wait!" Doodle called after them. "Do you need some help getting out of the woods?" She quickly shut the door and ran after them with some umbrella saddles and offered them to the two ponies. She wouldn't just let two ponies go out in the storm, get lost in the woods and catch a nasty cold.

"I don't need help. Just alcohol." Shala grumbled as she tredged through the rainy forest. There were few forces in Equestria that could stop her now that she was dead set on getting her fix.

"Alcohol is the best hospitality I can get!" She said louder with more force. Her aggravation was only getting worse. It was a blessing it was raining outside as her eyes could run freely now with little visible consequence. "If you are coming along then you are paying." Shala demanded from Vicky.

Endeavoring to remain on Shala's tail, Victoria could only offer brief parting words. Tossing her mane -- which, by then, was heavy with innumerable beads of water -- over her shoulder, she swiftly acted to address the pegasus in the distance.

"Non, love!" she cried in the direction of Doodle before taking flight to account for ground lost. "Go in, stay dry. Shala and I shall make do."

Barely able to retain control of her tender wings in the fury of the storm, Victoria heeded not the tears which Shala lost in the rain. However, embedded deep within the unicorn's fervent voice, she swore she had intercepted the slightest ghost of grief...