The mountain

Jim noticed Shayla followed him out onto the balcony. He looked out onto the silent town.

"Beautiful isn't it? Reminds of when I lived in trottingham when I was a lad. It was so quiet at night since most ponies were either sleeping or in the pub, so it got really quiet when I went to bed. Scared me at first, but I ended up finding it comforting."

He sipped his tea. As usual, his mum's stuff always did wonders. He was feeling pretty sleepy, and his eyes were closing a lot.

"Whelp, I'm off to bed. Take what you want from the kitchen and sleep on the couch if you want. G'night."

Jim went into his room and flopped into bed. He shut his eyes and instantly fell asleep.

"Goodnight then." Shayla yawned and went back to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and was surprised at the kinds of food in it. She had never really had anything besides the forest's variety. She closed the fridge and decided to just take some crackers from the pantry, hoping it was alright with Jim. She munched the crumbly crackers and layed down on the couch. She finished and tossed the wrapper in what she hoped was the trash can. She snuggled up into the comfy couch cushions and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning

Jim woke up, stretching. He recalled the previous night and wondered how Shayla was. He walked out of his room, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. She was asleep on the couch. He kept his noise to a minimum and put on some toast. He spread some Jam on it then sat on the balcony, eating his breakfast and watching the town wake up. He had to go to the clinic soon for work. Or at least he would have if he hadn't got the letter.

The mailmare flew up to Jim and handed him his post. He looked through the letters. Not much, just a few random boring stuff. He looked in one however, and smiled.

'Dear Jim. Today we have a couple of new trainees in. We had other ponies scheduled to take the day off to make room for them but a couple turned up anyway. Would you be ok with just taking a day off?'

Jim quickly wrote a reply saying he'd be fine with that. Excellent, a day off.

Shayla heard Jim shifting around in the kitchen, but she ignored him and kept her eyes closed. She squeezed them shut and opened them again. She yawned, sat up, and stretched. She heard noise out on the balcony and assumed Jim was out there.

She got up off the couch and strolled smoothly into the kitchen. She looked around, searching for the tea she had had yesterday. She pouted when she didn't find it, and instead found a ripe apple. She munched on the juicy fruit.

Jim went back inside. He'd been going out on the balcony a lot lately. He saw that Shayla was up, so he thought best to tell her.

"Huh. I don't have to go to the clinic today. Apparently they had some other ponies scheduled for it since we had trainees in but some turned up anyway, so they gave me the day off."

Now, what to do? He looked in the fridge and realised it was a little bare. He'd need to get some stuff from the market for that. He turned to Shayla.

"The fridge is a little empty. I'm off to nab some food from the market. You want to come or stay here? Or maybe go back to the forest?"

"C-linic?" asked Shayla, sounding the word out. She shrugged and said "I'm not really sure what I should do. I'm always in the forest, and I've never actually met another pony. Let alone spent the night in a house. Thanks again, btw.

"I've never been to a store, so, uh, if you wouldn't mind me coming, I'd love to!" she finished happily. She felt like being social for the first time.

"Come if you want."

Wait, she'd seriously never met anypony else? Where were her parents? Probably a touchy subject. Jim decided to just take it in his stride for now. If she wanted to talk about it, she would. He made a quick lift of what he needed then trotted out of the flat.

Jim walked down to the market with Shayla. He knew his way around.

"Lets see....bread first."

He popped up to the bakery stall and got a coupe of loaves. He then popped up to the fruit and veg bit and nabbed some apples and the like. He also got some biscuits. Or at least what he called biscuits- these ponies always used the word "cakes". He never got that. He chatted with the stall runners, just general gossip. One even asked "so, are you two a thing?" Jim just laughed and reminded them he was with Sunny.

He finished up the shopping, then decided he might as well do something while he was out. He turned to Shayla.

"I'm off to have a wander about the town. You want to come along?"

Shayla followed Jim around the square as he collected his groceries. He finished up and asked her if she'd like to wander around town. She shrugged, nodded and waited for him to lead the way.

Jim wandered up to the bowling alley. Pretty full today so he didn't bother. He always hated the noise. He had a look at the farm bit in the further out bit of town. He liked that bit better but didn't really fancy looking at apples all day. He took to the sky to have a look around, but there was absolutely bugger all left to do.

"Any ideas if what we could do Shayla?" He asked her, still in the air.

"Um," Shayla began, "I don't exactly know this town. I only come down here ever so often. Perhaps you would like to drop your groceries off at your house? Then we could figure out what to do." she finished quietly, remembering Jim still had the food from the market. Shayla felt her stomach growl, but passed it off as nervousness from being in town so long. She normally preferred to come down for a quick get away from the forest, but never over night.

"That's an idea. I'm getting a little hungry myself."

Jim flew back to his flat and packed away the shopping. Now, what to do? He was getting a little bored of
eating in. Hey, that's an idea! There's probably a café about! He turned to Shayla.

"How about we get something to eat? I'm getting pretty hungry and there'll be a café about somewhere."

Shayla's stomach growled at the thought of food. She nodded as motioned for Jim to lead the way.

She wondered what kinds of food there would be at a cafe. She hoped it would be good.

"Oh uh, I don't have any....money." she said as she suddenly remembered.

"It's fine. I'll pay."

Jim flew down to the town square and looked around for a café. Spotting one, he trotted over and sat at a table. A waitress came over and handed him the menu. He decided on a baked potato. Can't go wrong with those. He asked for one from the waitress, then turned to Shayla.

"What do you fancy?"

"Oh uh thanks." Shayla said with a smile, she looked through the menu but couldn't recognize anything she might like.
"Um, I'll have....some tea....and biscuits."

She hoped they had tea and biscuits, she wasn't sure as she had never been to a cafe. Shayla grinned and looked around the cafe, it wasn't very busy, yet I wasn't empty either. She tucked a stray hair into her ponytail and looked down nervously.

The waitress came with the food pretty quickly. Jim scarfed down his potato equally fast. He loved that- delightful little potato. He also got some tea since he felt like it. He drank his, then noticed Shayla was looking rather nervous.

"Are you OK?"

Shayla's eyes brightened with glee as she sipped her tea.

"Are you OK?"
He must've noticed her nervousness.

"What? Oh, yes I'm fine. I've just never been to a cafe." she responded, shaking her head to rid the nerves.

Jim felt now was the best time to ask. The question that had been niggling in his head all day.

"Do you live in that forest all by yourself? Is there a reason for it? I don't mean to intrude, but it has been bothering me lately."

"Do you live in that forest all by yourself? Is there a reason for it? I don't mean to intrude, but it has been bothering me lately." Jim seemed to be bursting at the seams, Shayla nearly fell back from the shock of all the questions.

"Well, I, yes. I do live alone in the forest. I've lived there all my life." she replied after sipping her tea. She dipped a biscuit in the liquid thoughtfully.

"Really? Is there any particular reason or can you not remember?"

A pony who'd lived all her life in the woods. How can that happen? Did her parents abandon her or something? He thought best not to ask. He drank some of his tea, slower than usual since he was listening to the story.

Shayla felt heat rush to her cheek as she nodded. She didn't know what the heat was, it had never happened before.

"I-I don't exactly know why I've lived in the forest. I, just have. Ever since I was little." she smiled a bit, but it probably looked more like a grimace. She drank her tea to hide her face for a bit.
"The first thing I remember is waking up surrounded by animals. They each taught me how to live in the wild without help."

Jim noticed Shayla was going red a bit. Better change the subject. Luckily, Jim had finished his food and asked for the bill. He paid up then got out of his seat, leaving the café.

"So, what should we do now?"

"Umm......you're the one who lives here. You tell me?" she asked, smiling, relieved he had changed the subject.
"What do you do for fun around here?" She smirked, remembering Jim saying that in the forest.

"I don't do much, since I don't have a lot of free time. Want to go back to the pond?"

It was the only thing Jim could really think of. He didn't have much left in the tank for what to do.

Shayla thought for a moment.
"Um, sure, I guess. It's not that interesting, just a pool of water. But I guess if you want..." she replied, blinking.
She pondered the places to go in Ponyville, but she couldn't think of anything.

Jim nodded and flew off to the pond. As he went, he observed the landscape beneath him- a lush green forest. Right, the pond....

He saw it- a glimmer of blue amongst the green. He flew down to it and landed softly this time, then turned onto his back and started doing the backstroke. Ah, the peace and quiet of this place... Much better than ponyville. He lay back, swimming with his eyes closed and not thinking at all.