Pen Pal
By: John Keith Bone
A pen pal from… Where…?
Sister Mary gestured once again to the envelope in my grasp.
“Are you going to open it, Mister Cooper?”
The nun was my World Cultures professor. Apparently, the project of the semester was to maintain a connection with a peer student in another country. We were each assigned a country. I was assigned Equestria. From what I understood, Equestria was the only still-standing monarchy in the world and the only government run exclusively by anthros. Specifically horses. Personally, I thought the whole project a bad idea. But I was only one student…
“Yes ma’am.” I replied.
I took the tip of my pen and punched a small hole in the shell and tore the envelope open. Two sheets of paper were enclosed. One was the letter, written in expert calligraphy, the other was… A photo…? My brow quirked at the artful handwriting. This girl was only eighteen and already writing like this…? This wasn’t writing… It was art!! My eye began to flow through the wonderful shapes and curves of the letters.
Dear Sebastian,
Um… Hello. My name is FlutterShy. I am an eighteen -year-old filly living in Ponyville. Everyone here is super nice and the critters here are simply to die for! There really isn’t much to say about me personally, but I enjoy spending time with animals; taking care of them and what-not, and my friends certainly keep me occupied. Especially PinkiePie. She’s another filly of my age who takes endless joy in throwing parties. She’ll throw parties for quite literally any occasion. She even threw an “after-birthday” party for her pet alligator, Gummy! That was certainly an interesting day… Anyway, I digress. What do you do for fun? What’s Italy like? Do you enjoy animals? Do you have any interesting friends?
Your pen pal, Fluttershy
As a footer, there was a return address.
The photo quite honestly took my breath away. A beautiful young filly with the softest teal eyes I’d ever seen and a silken pink mane sat amid a few rabbits, seemingly speaking to one with a very soft tug at the corner of her lips, giving a semblance of a smile. I was never more captivated by any single, simple photo in all my life… This was no normal filly… I had to respond! Immediately!!
It didn’t take more than a few milliseconds before my pen was gliding across the heading of a yellowed piece of parchment.
Dear FlutterShy…
Oh man… What could a freak like me say to a girl like this!?
“Sebastian!” Sister Mary snapped crossly at me.
My gaze shot immediately to meet her severe gaze. I knew that look… I looked down to see that my pen rested in my left hand. Crap…
A swift strike to my wrist startled me. It didn’t hurt, but it sure as heck stung. I took hold of my stinging hand and glared at the nun.
“I can’t help it! God made it my dominant hand!” I barked irritably.
Her brow set hard.
“It’s the devil’s hand, boy! You know that! The devil wishes to make you say things you don’t mean!”
A quick sweep of her stance revealed that she had just struck me with her left. A perfect opportunity…
“That yard stick… Which hand is it in, Sister Mary?”
The woman looked down and startled at herself, but she stammered and attempted to recover.
“I am a woman of the Church! My hands cannot do wrong when punishing evil!”
That was an excuse I’d never heard before…
“I’ll give you points for originality. But it still means nothing. Just because you wear those habits does not at all mean that you deserve them, and it certainly dosen’t make you a saint! You struck me with the devil’s-“
The red-faced nun snapped before I was able to complete my statement. A swift swipe across my face made me quarter- spin on my heel and fall back onto my rump, my sight filled with white as though a camera had flashed. My cheek pulsed and throbbed as the welp beneath my fur began to rise. Out of sheer reflex, tears began to pool at the corners of my eyes, wetting the bandage over my left. Another student, a human with a short-crop haircut and a cocky smile jabbed his finger at me, laughing loudly.
“The freak just got owned!” he announced to the class.
Several laughs arose from the other students, but a few furs remained silent. My eye bored into the eyes of the nun.
You’ll pay for this, you sordid human… I vowed to myself. A vow I knew I wouldn’t keep… I never did…
Once the laughs subsided and order was restored, Sister Mary began barking instructions to share the letters we recieved with another student. Naturally, the cocky human made his way over to me and snatched the letter from my desk, looking it over for a second, then finding the photo in my grasp and snatching it as well.
“Oooh! Lookie here! Sebastian actually got a photo! Whatch gonna do with this, Sebby, hang it in your bathroom and get off to it every night?” he asked loudly.
I was angry… Suddenly, the words burst forth from my lips without a thought.
“What!? Once isn’t enough for you!? You’ve gotta just keep coming back, huh!? Is your life so boring that the only form of entertainment you have is to make me miserable!? My GOD, you’re pathetic!” I made a grab for the photo, only to have to follow him half-way across the room. He was significantly taller than me, so he could easily get the small square out of my reach each time I grabbed for it.
“That’s it!” I cried furiously.
I then took a death-grip on his shirt and tossed him off to the right, into an empty desk. The other boys froze and watched the display, one shouting “Fight!”. The desk toppled on impact, splaying my prey out for me on the floor. Seeing an opportunity, I leaped onto him, landing with my knee against his gut. My back arched forward as my fist cocked back, but before I could let it go, the boy blindly made a swipe at the left side of my face, tearing my bandage right off my face. The shock on his face was obvious as the red biohazard that stood in place of my normal eye bored a hole squarely into him, murder glinting in it’s red glow. In that split-second, I managed to grab the photo from him and pocket it. I stared down at him and cocked my fist again. He wasn’t walking away from this unscathed… Not this time… My fist came crashing down, smashing into the schmuck’s nose. His head snapped to the right, blood erupting from his nostrils. I cocked back one more time but several pairs of hands gripped me in various places. It didn’t take long before what appeared to be half the class separated the two of us. Sister Mary was quite livid and red in the face, barking at me furiously.
“Sebastian! You should be ashamed of yourself! Horatio was just playing with you-“
I decided I’d had enough and snapped back at the penguin lady.
“Playing!? You call that playing!? For a woman of the church, you have a really sick sense of fun!”
Her brow set in an even more severe manner and jabbed her yard stick toward the door.
“Get out!” she cried.
I was so furious, I obliged the order, snatched my satchel from my desktop and stormed out the door, shoving a boy out of my way as I did.
Thankfully, the last class of the day ended just as I exited the school’s front gates. The familiar towers of wrought iron seemed a bit out of place in a place like Terra… Too classical, even though the nobles still dressed in Victorian and Elizabethan clothes… I stopped for a moment to observe what they called “The Rush”. Every student in the entire school, every day, without fail made it to the front doors at the exact same time. The deluge of profanity, movement and sheer noise would be enough to drown out a train wreck! I’d never seen The Rush from a distance like this… My fascination was short-lived, however. Once I checked my watch, I saw that if I didn’t hurry, I would have been late for work. In a moment, I was tearing down the sidewalk as fast as my legs could carry me. A fence stood at the end of the sidewalk to what appeared to be a construction zone. Unbuttoning my dress shirt and loosening my tie with one hand to allow for better movement, I leaped over the chain-link, planting my left palm on the top rail to carry myself over and had to roll at the landing. A few workers were still around, probably still in the middle of their work.
Just gotta be careful. I thought, ducking between a couple of steel bars making the skeleton of the new structure.
There was a small stack of cinder blocks beneath a jutting bar. I was about fifty yards from the other side of the zone, where I could take a right down the next street and be in the vicinity of the Estate… In my path lied several obstacles, but if I kept to the bars and transferred to the jutting branches of the trees, I could get over the fence without even needing to touch it.
Here goes!
Planting a foot on the highest cinder block I could manage, I propelled myself up ward and grabbed hold of the bar above me. The forward momentum carried my legs forward and up, flipping me backwards onto said bar. Once I had regained my footing, I took off, hopping several gaps in the bars and climbing up a single level. This put me right at eye level with my target branch and a worker who called out. I ignored him and poured on the power, leaping with everything I had. The flight was brief, but the distance I covered was incredible! A solid thirty feet! The branch was just within reach, so I managed to grab hold and scurry up, then shimmy over it’s rough surface to the trunk and hop down.
I hit the ground running, having to take a tac-to-vault over the back wall of the estate. On the other side, I found myself staring in the face of my mistress, Alice Marie Ravensdale. The embarassment lit my face up like a lantern beneath my dark fur.
“U-um… G-g-g-good afternoon, Lady Alice!” I stammered out to the blank-faced mouse.
She’d never seen me out of my tuxedo before, and no doubt didn’t recognise me… She blinked a few times, drawing the bow of her violin away from the strings to stare at me. I found myself panting, suddenly short of breath out of sheer panic. This was so unlike me! I always arrived on time! Never in the year she’d been my mistress had I been late until now! Was she cross? Would I be punished??
“Oh. Welcome back, Sebastian. What happened to your bandage?” She asked, gesturing to the left half of her face with the tip of her bow.
“Oh, it’s nothing, M’Lady. I’m going to go and change.”
Alice’s eyes settled on me in that way that only she could manage. It made the fur on the back of my neck stand on end.
“You got in another fight, didn’t you?” she asked solemnly.
A sigh left me at that moment. Only Alice knew me that well…
“Yes. Yes, I did.”
“Horatio?”
“Yes…”
A small sigh rose from her parted lips. She knew about the human, and greatly disapproved of his behavior toward others.
“Sebastian,” she began, but I quickly cut her off.
“All is well, Lady Alice. ‘Tis not a problem.”
“But he tore the bandage right off your face! What was this about, anyhow?”
In response, I merely offered the photo of my new pen pal. She took the square of filmed paper and examined it carefully.
“Who’s this?” she asked inquisitively.
“My new pen pal. She’s a filly living in Equestria.”
“What’s her name?”
“FlutterShy.”
A long silence passed whilst Alice rolled the name about her tongue. Finally, she nodded with a small smile, deciding she liked it.
“You don’t have to change, Sebastian. In fact, I like the loose look on you. It’s less intimidating. Would you be so kind as to play something for me?” my mistress asked, offering both the photo and the bow to her instrument.
I took both, slid the picture into my back pocket and sank into the wrought iron chair across from her, bringing the violin to my cheek.
“Is there anything particular you’d like to hear?”
Before Alice could answer, one of the maids burst into the courtyard, waving her arms frantically.
“Lady Alice! Lady Alice! We have a guest! Lord Lawrence is here! Shall I prepare the tea!? Brunch!?” she rattled out, paniced.
That was my cue, which I took quickly.
“Karin, calm down,” I ordered the human. Although at twenty-one, five years my senior, she seemed to blush at my tone, and stopped waving her arms about.
“Now, that’s no way for a Ravensdale servant to behave… Go prepare brunch for our guest. I shall be down momentarily to assist you with the wares.” I continued in a comanding tone, a hard expression plastering itself on my face. Once she scurried off, I stood and placed my right hand over my heart with the slightest bow to Alice.
“Please pardon me, M’Lady. Duty calls.”
Alice was not looking at me, but instead was back to playing her violin. Once my words caught her ears, she looked up, only to see that I was gone. It only took a minute and a half before I was dressed in my typical uniform: a solid black tuxedo with a red bow tie and sterling silver watch and chain. In truth, I despised bow ties with all my heart, but the little length of silk brought Lady Alice endless amounts of joy, so I tolerated it.
A quick glance out the window of my dormitory showed that Alice was still playing and Karin, with the help of a another human, Laura, a fruit bat, Madelyn, and twin lionesses Mina and Merin were setting up the dining table. I had to hurry… In a flash, I threw my window open and hopped out. Sure, my room was on the fifth floor, but Alice’s balcony was a meager ten feet beneath me. I landed with a heavy thud and leaped onto the ivy off to the right and Let myself drop two stories before stopping myself. A quick glance showed a branch of Alice’s favorite willow tree. I could easily make it… After the leap, I had to stumble forward a bit to catch my balance. The wares were being wheeled out as soon as my feet touched Earth. Alice had made her way over to sit at the head of the long table. Though not as dressed up as she usually was, she still gave off a very regal air. An air I loved. It took only seconds for the fine silver to be set and the napkins properly placed and folded, a job I commandeered from Karin who fumbled with the little bits of paper endlessly. Once all was set, I scurried over to stand to Alice’s right, sort of my “place”. Each of the servants of the house had one. This one had become mine within the first two weeks of my employment under the Ravensdales… Alice had once turned to me at a social gathering with her father and smiled, telling me that she “never wanted me to leave that spot”. To this day, I could never figure out why… Oh well…
Lawrence Harmon was a close friend of Lord Ravensdale. In fact, the human had helped the lord in many cases with design flaws in the larger arms that Ravensdale Arms created. His serious face and harsh demeanor were merely a ruse to disguise a tender, loving, father-like heart. The tall man strode in with a powerful gait and sat at the other end of the table. To his left rested a slender stallion whom I had known for a long time. His name was Giovani. The guy hated my guts only because Alice never scolded me… Because I never gave her reason to… Even so, the poor butler’s ego could simply not stand to be trampled, unintentionally, by a mere boy of sixteen. Understandable, but even so, his snooty attitude toward me and everything I did was quite an irritant… Still, I tried to be as polite as I could. Madelyn was the first to approach the man with a bottle of Malici from ’64. Indeed a good choice, but Giovani took the glass from her rather forcefully. What was he up to? Trying to prove that he wasn’t as inept as he very clearly was? Sure enough, Lord Harmon shot the horse a dirty look that caused his hands to visibly shake. The crimson liquid was just leaving the neck of the bottle when I realized it wouldn’t make it… Great… The Lord, however had lost himself amid the food and didn’t even seem to notice his butler’s grave mistake… In a flash, I stood to the Lord’s left with his glass at the bottle’s end, not allowing the wine to stain the cloth. Giovani startled slightly at my speed. Alice, however, knew exactly what had happened. She knew me better than anyone else, after all. She’d seen what was beneath my bandage. Knew why I always wore at least two layers of clothing. Seen and smelled what lied beneath my clothes, but it didn’t bother her. “You’re Sebastian Cooper. My butler.” She always said…
Lord Harmon looked up at me with a quirked brow. “Um… Thank you, Sebastian.” He said slowly, pondering what had happened. Alice smiled her gentle smile and straightened her dress once again.
“So what brings you here, Lord Harmon?”
The Lord’s brow softened a bit as his eyes fell over my mistress. Something seemed different, however. The softness seemed less like contentment, and more like sorrow. A thought crossed my mind to push into the man’s mind and see what was wrong, but that would have been rude. Asking directly would only get me lies, so I let it be.
“I am here on business, dear Alice.” He replied curtly.
“Dear Alice”… He never referred to her that way before… Something was wrong… I returned to my place at Alice’s side while Giovani made his way behind us for something.
“You see, dear… I’ve been ordered to kill you.”
A metallic click sounded behind us and I felt cold steel press to the back of my head. Giovani was armed…
I almost felt Alice’s eyes widen as the gravity of the statement hit her. The Lord sighed heavily and stood, circling the table to stand near my dear mistress. The knife he produced from his coat was actually a Ravensdale 14’ Buckrake. A skinning knife. One of the best on the market.
“Well well, Giovani,” I began, “It seems that you’re growing bolder in your attempts to deface me in front of my mistress. And you, Lord Harmon,” I looked to the aging man with a hard look, “Trying to kill a young lady… Tsk, tsk, M’Lord. You should be-”
“Shut your mouth, boy!” Giovani cried in a fury.
The impact that his gun against the back of my head caused it to snap forward, blurring my vision for a moment.
“Sebastian!” Alice cried out, quite on the verge of tears.
The anguish in my mistress’ voice set me on edge… As I righted myself and turned to face the enraged stallion, I brought my glove to my hand and bit down on the wrist, drawing it up and off, baring my paw which I promptly curled into a fist.
“Your orders, Mistress?” I prompted, with an edge of steel in my voice.
All that came was a terrified scream. My gaze turned imeadiatly to find that the source was Alice, covering her face from a swinging Harmon. The knife barely missed her hands. Now was my time to act, or allow harm to befall my beautiful Alice. My mind set into a state of high input, causing me to see in what seemed like slow motion. When I was like this, I could move at mezmerizing speed… Nothing was faster than me…
Two steps was all it took to reach the aging fool and grab his wrist. I twisted it behind his back and tore the knife from his grip. A shot sounded at that moment. My eye swiveled to eye Giovani’s bullet which was heading straight for Alice. Heart pounding, I bolted for it, reaching out and snatching the little lead projectile between two fingers and hurled it back at the shooter, planting it right between his eyes. The slug passed clean through his skull and splayed his greymatter about the laquered wood table. The now-defensless Lord Harmon, who was cowaring in my one-eyed gaze.
“P-please! I didn’t want to-”
“And yet you tried!” I cut the fool off.
“Please, spare me! I don’t want to die!!” Harmon pleaded.
“You come here… Threaten my mistress…. Attempt on my life… And expect to just walk away? A real man would never beg for his life…” I explained coldly. The look on the Lord’s face was that of a small child being scolded by his father.
“This is where you die, Harmon.”
The stroke split the man’s jugular. The cascade that burst forth from the open line painted a great deal of my coat scarlet… Harmon gurgled his last words and as he fell, I witnessed the very life leave his eyes… The light that faded was easily the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen… I settled my gaze on a shaking Alice.
It took a few hours, but eventually, she calmed down and bid me an early night. She wished to sleep her nerves into submission. As I sat in my dorm, staring at a Silent Hill: Dead of Night, it struck me to check my pockets. I found FlutterShy’s picture! In the scuffle, I had completely forgotton about it! I still needed to write a response!! In moments, I had my pen and paper. But what to say….?
....
Dear FlutterShy,
My name is Sebastian Cornelius Cooper, and I’m far from your average butler….
