When Niko woke up one cold morning, he wrapped himself up in a fuzzy scarf before leaving his dorm for breakfast. He was shivering so bad he almost failed to notice a small parcel at his door. He picked it up, curious, because it was unmarked. Unwrapping it, he was surprised to discover that it was the bottle he had given to Larkspur about a week ago, clearly washed and dried. Attached was a small note that said. Thanks. Niko then had the bizarre urge to find Larkspur and ask him something.
 
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Larkspur sat outside of the school, smoking as usual. He had been doing it for about a year now, and it gave him yet another excuse not to meet his mother’s eyes. Since he had started at the school, her classes were naturally the ones he made a point to skip to where Twilight finally decided it was best he fill that time with something else. Since he was scheduled for Animal Husbandry before noon, Twilight decided that he would be working with Scraps for the rest of the year and help him prep for lunch and dinner. It was a lot of time spent with the grouchy old unicorn, but Larkspur was beginning to admire Scraps’ nasty attitude. If anything could be said about Scraps it’s that he followed his principles firmly, which was more than most of the students at Twilight’s School did. Most were fake, uncertain, insecure and petty. Was he any different? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t care much to think about it. He had enough problems he had with himself to come to terms with. One, being a draconequus. Two, being fatherless. Three, being a bad person. Larkspur didn’t know how to be better. He thought he wanted to be, but he had yet to have a good reason to be better.
 
“Larkspur?” Niko’s voiced called from some far away place, drawing Larkspur back down to Earth. The pony trotted toward him, a cute bounce in his step. “Did the cream work for you?” He asked, smiling as usual.
 
Larkspur didn’t return the smile, but responded, “Yeah, it did. Thanks.” He took a puff off of his cigarette.
 
“You smoke?” He asked without a hint a judgment in his voice.
 
“Yeah.” Larkspur breathed out a cloud of the acrid smoke. He then asked, sort of alreadu knowing the answer, “Do you?”
 
Niko shrugged, “It’s never really interested me…seems like a slippery slope, but I understand why ponies do it.” He walked to the wall and sat back against it, next to Larkspur.
 
“Oh?” Larkspur looked at him in the corner of his eye. “Why do they do it?”
 
Niko held a weak smile, “Because ponies are sad. They pretend they aren’t. They live life like they aren’t. But everyone has sadness within them, and if they don’t, then they must be children.”
 
Larkspur laughed, “Ain’t that the truth? How funny to have such a huge problem with the world summed up in one sentence. Ponies faking and shoving down their problems.” Suddenly, Larkspur became aware that he was saying all of this aloud. In front of another pony. Out loud. Where others could hear him. He retracted back into himself with a loud cough. “Ahh, it’s just a bunch of crap anyway.”
 
Niko looked up, “Aren’t you covering things up?”
 
Larkspur exhaled once more, and watched the smoke for a moment. “You said it yourself. We all are.”
 
They were both quiet for a moment before Niko finally said, “Well, I better go get breakfast. My friends will be waiting for me. Do you wanna come?”
 
“No thanks.” Larkspur put out the cigarette, smashing it into the cold earth. I’ll have to get you back for tricking me into talking to you like this. He watched Niko trot away. He was about to light another cigarette when he heard something; snide laughter, the stamping of hooves, the sound of bullies. Coming from the direction where Niko went. Something seemed to pull Larkspur in that direction. He found himself sneaking toward the sound, low to the ground. He could not figure out why in the world he was sneaking when he’d usually just join the bullies. He reached a bush, and finally made out what they were saying.
 
“Yeah, yeah, we know your dad is, Four-Eyes. He gives you bits for your hoity-toity science shit, so fork over the money, and nobody gets hurt.” A rough, female voice said, followed by the sinister chuckles of her goons. Larkspur peeked over the bush, and recognized the trio instantly. Bad kids like him that worked in the kitchen when he wasn’t in there. He heard stories about them. Starshade was the leader, definitely a dominatrix type that would sooner or later cut your ear off if you even looked at her funny. The two colts, twins of course, were Oriole and Bluejay who accompanied Starshade everywhere she went, perhaps hoping to be on her “do not kill” list when she finally snapped. This was bad.
 
Niko bravely protested, “I’m not giving you anything!”
 
“I’m warning you kid. When I’m outta money, I get cranky. Now be a good little boy and~~”
 
“Let go of me, you half-baked bitch!” The sound of a well-placed punch echoed off the walls of the school.
 
Stunned silence followed.
 
Oh fuck Niko…no no no…
 
A cold, eerie laughter filled the yard. “Ohhhohohoho…do you know what you just did? Huh?” Starshade asked, “You’re dead meat, kid!” A sound of tackling followed, with both Niko and Starshade yelling and grunting. Glass shattering. Someone started gasping for air.
 
Larkspur had to act now. He leaped from the bushes, a little too far apparently, and crashed right into the duo. Luckily for Niko, because Starshade was seconds from crushing his windpipe. Larkspur quickly tried to pin Starshade down, but she was huge, and very strong. She bit and kicked underneath his weight. Time was running out.
 
“Niko, run!” He yelled, smacking Oriole and Bluejay onto their butts with a sweep of his tail. Niko, sputtering and coughing, stumbled to his hooves and scrambled to get help as quickly as he could. Starshade sunk her teeth into one of Larkspur’s paws, and he let out a roar of pain, losing his grip. As soon as he was off her, she bucked him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. She tried to run after Niko, but Larkspur teleported, landing right on top of her again. This tug o’ war continued for several seconds, with Starshade becoming angrier by the second and Larkspur more frightened of what would happen to Niko if he lost his grip. Scratches, bite marks, and bruises were appearing on his body.
 
Strategy. He was barely stronger than her. If he used his power or his claws or teeth, she’d be seriously wounded. Even with Niko’s testimony, if Larkspur hurt Starshade in any way he would be blamed and punished worse than ever. Expulsion even. So Larkspur just held her down with all of his might and tried to keep the other two at bay.
 
Larkspur was losing. Time was running out. His throat felt tight. It took him a few seconds to realize that she had flipped over and was hugging his neck tightly…too tightly. He began to see stars, darkness closed in. Why did he get mixed up with this shit?
 
“You’re fucking dead, you ferret freak.” Starshade said somewhere far way. The world was fading fast.
 
You better have fucking run Niko…
 
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Is this the end for our draconequus friend? Probably not. But it’s still gonna suck.
 
WOW JEEZ, I kinda discovered a new style with this one in my attempt at expediting this piece lol but hopefully it doesn’t look too trashy!
 
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