Surprise Visit

[Hijinks]

January 8th, Night

Hijinks was annoyed. It was cold, she had to remain undetected and her legs were starting to hurt because Tida's farm was all the way out of town! Why couldn't he just be available whenever she wanted him to?

Hijinks shook off her thoughts as she came up to her destination, Tida's house. Impatient, she began to sprint up to the front door, eager to get out of the cold. "Hey Kitten! Open up!" She yelled out loudly as she banged on the door.

[Tida]

Tida was content to just lay in his house.  It wasn't too stuffy, but it wasn't too cold either.  He decided that it would be a good time to take his bedding out from the closet, as well as to eat his dinner soon.  Before he got to doing those things, he heard banging on his door.  Huh... I wonder who would be coming at this hour, and why?  Hearing his familiar nickname given to him by a familiar filly, he had an answer to one of his questions.  Knowing her, he had a feeling that he knew the answer to his other question.

"Hold on, I'm coming" he said in a louder than normal voice.  Going over to the door, he opened it, and saw her.  "Hello Mimi".  Feeling the cold air, he shivered slightly.  "Come in... it's pretty cold out there."

[Hijinks]

Hijinks didn't need to be told twice as she trotted past Tida and looked around his home. "Nice place you got here." She said without really meaning it. It was sorta like a common courtesy thing to her. Spotting the cushions on the floor by the table, Hijinks made a beeline for the comfiest looking one and curled up on it like a kitty. "Next time, put your farm closer to town. I only got little legs." She murmured loud enough for Tida to hear.

[Tida]

Tida closed the door and shrugged.  "I really didn't want it that close to town, besides... the soil isn't that great the closer it gets to town" he said as he made his way to the other cushion and sat down on it.  "I know that this place isn't really nice looking and such, but it's something.  Would you want something to eat?  I was just about to eat something myself".

[Hijinks]

Hijinks' ears shot up as she heard Tida talking about food. "Yes please, Kitten! I could eat anything right now." Despite what she had come to expect, her tummy did not rumble when she mentioned she was hungry. Odd.

[Tida]

Tida nodded and got up from the cushion.  He went to the closet where he kept his foodstuff and took out a container that had some water and some cups.  He took those to the table and put a cup in front of Hijinks and where he sat, and poured the water into the cups.  He went back to the closet and looked to see what he had from working at the work camp earlier today.  He found an apple and a banana, both which were not fresh, but still good to eat.  He also took out some dried leaves for himself to eat, and brought those to the table.

He put the apple and banana next to Hijinks' cup of water and sat back down on his cushion, putting the dried leaves next to his cup of water.  "Sorry that there's not much to eat, but here you go" Tida said before he started to eat the dried leaves.

[Hijinks]

Hijinks sat up and looked at the food that was offered to her. "... That's kinda sad..." She said, looking at the food on the table. She didn't really care though as she started munching on the apple. She had worse. "So Kitten," she said between bites. "How's farm life treating you?... Having much fun?... Was it everything you'd thought it would be?" Finishing the apple, she began peeling the banana and stuffing nearly all of it into her mouth.

[Tida]

Continuing to eat the leaves, Tida nodded.  "Like I said, there's not much to eat... yet.  I've just started to plant crops as this house was completed very recently.  As for farm life, it's what you would expect when you're running a farm.  It's what I expected it to be like, but we all have to start somewhere.  It's a start at least" Tida said.  "How are you doing?  You must have a lot of exciting things going on" Tida asked, curious as to what she had been up to lately.

[Hijinks]

Hijinks cocked her head to the side in confusion. Why would he do it if he thought farm life was boring? Her thoughts had to be cut short when he asked her a question. "Well you know, just whatever I want. But why did you start a farm if you knew it was gonna be dull? Why not do something... Better?" She asked.

[Tida]

Tida chuckled slightly at her question.  "I sometimes don't know why I decided to start a farm... though I think that it's because it's the one other thing that I'm good at besides my primary talent" he said as he pointed to his cuite mark "and doing something is better than doing absolutely nothing.  As for doing something better, I don't know if there are better things to do given the current state of Manehatten"  Tida said before he finished eating the leaves.

[Hijinks]

"You must want something though," she countered, frowning slightly. "Like... You couldn't have just started a farm because you had nothing better to do! If you can't find it in Manehatten, try another city!" She calmed down a bit as she stopped to think. "If you could change one thing right now, no matter how impossible it sounds, what would you change?" She asked.

[Tida]

No matter how many times he was around Hijinks, she would always find a way to surprise him with what she said.  "What would I change eh...?" Tida thought as he took out his bedding from the closet and set it up on the floor.

Finishing setting up the bed, Tida answerd "I guess the one thing that I would change is that all of my family was alive and here in Manehatten with me.  I mean... I would want to change it so that there was no war, but I know that it would only be delaying the inevitable and it would have happened anyway.  Though, I don't know..." Tida said.  "What about you?  What would you change if you could change something, no matter how impossible it sounds?"  Tida asked.

[Hijinks]

Hijinks got up and marched right up to Tida. "Do not shift the subject, Tida!" She yelled, shoving her face right up close to Tida's. She had a furious scowl on her face and her eyes were now burning a light blue. "You want your family back? You want to prevent conflict? You want peace? Well you don't deserve any of it! Your inaction disgusts me! How can you sit here in your bucking empty house thinking this is the best situation you could be in?" She shouted at him, gesturing to the room around them. "What is it that you want, Tida?! Think real hard about it!"

[Tida]

Tida couldn't fully understand why Hijinks was very upset with him... sure... it could be viewed that he wasn't trying to do anything, to help the cause, but there are different ways of going about it.  As for this being the best situation... it really was, at least for the time being.

Taking a step back and regarding Hijinks with a calm demeanor, he started to explain.  "Your probably right... I probably don't deserve peace, the prevention of conflict, or my old family back.  But the prevention of conflict... that is impossible to achieve anyway.  As long as we have these things called opinions, we will always have conflict, as everyone's view is different from the next, which probably will not agree with each other."

Thinking, Tida continued "As for wanting my old family back, I think that I didn't explain that well enough, or at all, and for that I'm sorry for not explaining it.  Of course I'll never get them back, but I think that I wanted the core idea of that; a family.  A group of ponies that you can come back to; a group who you can trust and share things with be it good or bad; a group that helps each other out when they need help.  Laughable?  Probably.  Stupid?  Maybe, but that's what I really want" Tida said as he finished his explanation.

[Hijinks]

Hijinks' blood boiled with rage; it required all of her self control to not slap Tida across the face like she thought he deserved. "You... I cannot understand you, Tida! I thought you were different but... you're not! You're afraid, aren't you?! You're afraid of stepping over lines, of failing others! You're so afraid that you've convinced yourself that sitting in this bloody house, alone, was your best option! Do you even have any friends? Has anypony but me visited you yet?"

[Tida]

Tida is usually very patient, but everyone has their limits.  He was shaking slightly with his head down, not looking at Hijinks.  "Heh... the friends I had over here are all dead, so no... no one has visited me except for you.  And yeah... I am afraid of stepping over lines, killing others because of what I decided to do.  It's kinda hard to just forget about it when you're constantly reminded of it!"  Tida was going to explain what he meant, but stopped himself "You know what?  what I say doesn't even matter because you don't care what I think; what you say and what you do is the right way and what everyone else says or does is wrong!"

Looking up at Hijinks with tears in his eyes, Tida continued "You don't understand me because you won't try to understand me.  In fact, that's the root problem of this entire goddamn city and the war... no one tries to understand each other or their reasons for doing things."

[Hijinks]

Hijinks' blue eyes faded the instant Tida began to crack. She held a neutral face while Tida talked but as soon as he finished, Hijinks started to grin devilishly. "Heh. It's about time." She stated smugly as she returned to her cushion and sat down on it. "I've actually been spending weeks trying to understand you, but you always had this annoying mask of calmness around you... Until now."

"But..." Hijinks tapped her chin in thought. "I'm actually curious now. Why do you think the ponies are trying to fight back against the griffons? Why do the griffons act like... griffons? Why am I here talking to you if I don't care about what you have to say?"

[Tida]

Watching Hijinks as she made her way over to the cushion, Tida muttered to himself "そうか。。。".  He made his way over to the table and took his cup.  He went back to his food closet and poured water into the cup.  He then took a drink, refilled his cup, and drank that too.  Wiping the tears from his eyes and calming down a little, Tida returned to the table and sat down, all the while thinking of the questions that Hijinks asked.

Rubbing his temples and taking a deep breath, Tida began to answer her questions.  "Well... if you really want to know what I think about those things, I think that the reason the ponies are trying to fight back against the griffons is that they think that by driving the griffons completely out of Manehatten or Equestria for that matter, that everything will return to normal" Tida said in a slightly shaky voice.

"As for the griffons, I have a feeling that they didn't do it for the fun of it.  Thinking about it, it seems that the main reason why these things happen is because of resources.  Since there aren't infinite resources in Equestia, places are bound to run out sooner or later, which probably led to the griffons attacking Equestria because of the resources it had, that their lands didn't."

Tida thought for a moment about her last question before beginning.  "If I had to guess, I think that you care for me, not necessarily for what I have to say.  After all, you wouldn't even have bothered to come out all this way if you didn't care about me" Tida finished, voice still slightly shaky.

[Hijinks]

Hijinks huffed. "Your first answer doesn't apply to everypony. They're not all as dumb as bricks as you imply. I would say that the ponies are lost without their leader, Celestia, and now they are panicking and lashing out like animals with their backs to the wall. The griffons are slowly destroy the pony race as a people. If it continues, ponies will become nothing but second-class citizens. It's a conflict that must be fought in the eyes of a lot of ponies..." Hijinks grinned at Tida. "Surely you can see that without a proper leader, most ponies would turn to bloodshed in that."

"Anyway." Hijinks began after a quick moment of silence. "Your second answer was just a quick insight as to why they invaded in the first place. I don't actually know many griffons myself... But I would expect them to be bitter. A lot of them died in the war... And possibly even before the war if you're right. If I were to guess, I would also say that most of them see ponies as a lesser race possibly due to differences in culture or history." Hijinks tapped her chin. "Dunno. Griffons are hard to talk to so I never get a chance to find out."

Hijinks shook her head and addressed Tida again. "And finally, your third answer would have been more accurate if you actually asked me... I guess you don't actually care what I think after all." She teased, putting on a fake sad face. "Heehee, I'm just kidding."

[Tida]

As he listened, Tida nodded.  He knew that the points that Hijinks brought up were true; ponies needed a leader, and an effective one at that, or else it would be a chaotic mess, like it was now... kinda.

Tida was going to ask Hijinks about something, but hearing her say that he didn't care what he thought of her made him wince internally.  "I guess..." Tida started "...if it's not too late to ask since it's bad to assume things, why are you here?"

[Hijinks]

Hijinks yawned as she shifted around on her pillow. "Well..." She paused as she tried to think of what she wanted to say. "Remember when you asked what I could change if I could change anything? Well I would... how do I put it?... I would want to change the way other ponies think. Imagine the things ponies could do if there was no fear, no depression and no hopelessness..." She stared off into space for a second. "You know... The richest place in the world is the graveyard... Because that's where all the best ideas go..."

Hijinks looked up at Tida. "You are not happy, right? You want something to change? You have the power to do it... Anything you want..." She yawned again and curled up in a ball on the pillow, closing her eyes. "And maybe I like you a bit too..." She muttered before seemingly going to sleep.

[Tida]

Tida sat there, pondering what Hijinks said.  If the ponies in graveyard could come back and leave the living with any idea they had, what would they leave?  Of course, the graveyard itself could be full of ideas, but he didn't know.  He also started to think about the other things that she mentioned, be decided that it wasn't good to go farther into them, so he stopped thinking about it... for now.

Looking up from his seat, he realized that Hijinks wasn't there.  He walked around to the other side of the table and found Hijinks curled up on the cushion.  He looked down and gave a slight smile.  Carefully picking Hijinks up and putting her on his back, Tida took her to the bed that he had laid out earlier.  Gently putting her down, Tida put the blanket over her body.  "Goodnight Hijinks" Tida said in a quiet voice.

[Hijinks]

Time-skip to tomorrow morning
--------------------------------

Hijinks groaned as she shifted around on the bed. Not want wake-up. Want sleep. Comfy bed. She wrapped the blanket around her body and curled up in a ball, determined not to wake up early today.

[Tida]

Tida awoke to a cold morning.  Looking outside, he saw that it was snowing.  He stretched his body out to take the kinks out from his body from sleeping on the floor.  He saw Hijinks wrapped up in the blanket of his bedding, and decided not to disturb her.  He walked to the closet where he stored his foodstuff so that he could eat something before thinking of what he had to do for the day.

[Hijinks]

Hijinks heard Tida doing some stuff... Particularly noisy stuff which was ruining her chances of going back to sleep. "Kitten!" She groaned from under the blanket. "Where are you?!" she shuffled around, trying to get out of the blanket cocoon which she had trapped herself in.

[Tida]

Hearing Hijinks, albeit a bit muffled, Tida responded "I'm in the kitchen".  Slightly confused when he heard the rustling of cloth, he went back into the sleeping area and saw that she had wrapped herself pretty good as it seemed that she had a hard time getting out.  Tida looked for a part in the blanket cocoon that he open up to help her out.  He found a place and started to carefully help Hijinks to get out.

[Hijinks]

Hijinks didn't make it easy for Tida as she continued to shuffle around in the blanket cocoon. Eventually, she managed to get free, rolling herself off the mattress and onto the floor with a "Oof!"

Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she drowsily looked up at Tida. "Kitten, I found you." she mumbled.

[Tida]

Tida managed a slight smile.  "Good morning Mimi."  Realizing that he really didn't have much food in the house, he frowned.  "I know that I don't have all that much to eat... but would you want something to eat?" Tida asked Hijinks.

[Hijinks]

Hijinks cocked her head to the side. "Food in the morning?... You mean like breakfast? I haven't had that in aaaaages!" Hijinks exclaimed, making wild gestures with her hooves to accentuate how long ago it was since she last had a proper breakfast.

Hijinks giggled and ran over to her preferred cushion at the table. She fidgeted in her seat as she waited for Tida to bring her food.

[Tida]

Tida nodded, chuckling  as he went to his foodstuffs closet.  Opening it up, he  was greeted to the sight of a pretty empty closet.  Slightly worried that he wouldn't be able to find anything for Hijinks to eat, he looked everywhere.  Fortunately, he found an apple that looked in pretty good shape.  Unfortunately, he didn't find any dried leaves that he could eat, as he noticed that they weren't ready yet.  Hmm... I need to go get some more leaves and start drying them out... I also need to get more food too Tida thought.

Taking out the cups and the container that held the water, he noticed that it was becoming empty also.  Keeping a mental note on what he needed to get, he brought the cups and the container to the table and set them down.  He went back and got the apple and brought that to the table.  He put the apple down in front of Hijinks and poured her a cup of water.  Sitting down on the other cushion, he poured himself a cup of water.  "Again, sorry that there's not much to eat, but here you go" Tida said.

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