The park was always Zephyr's favorite place to go whenever he got excessively angry or just hated life. The pastel greens of the plants and the calming nature of, …nature, usually helped to improve his mood regardless of what was going on to sour it. Today however, it just wasn't working, because no matter what he tried, no matter how much he tried attempted to distract himself with inline poker, he couldn't get over the fact that once again he would be steamrolled in his own life. And he knew that no amount of distraction by either nature or technology would modify that cold hard fact .

"Ugh," he said to himself, something he often did when he just needed to think aloud. "Why do they always do this to me? Why can't they just let me do my own thing?! I mean sure I can be a bit lazy sometimes, but who wouldn't be if you were forced to do things to your breaking point! Plus, it's summer! I've paid my dues for the rest of the year, I've earned this little reprieve. It's not like I want to be a deadbeat my whole life. I just want a break to enjoy nature, follow my passions, or just not do anything and relax for once, is that really such a crime!?!"

He the! sighed to himself, "But that won't happen will it, my step family hates me and clearly care more about controlling my life than actually allowing me to do what I want to do with it. Heck, even my real sister Fluttershy hates me too, because if she didn't, why would she have just gone off to college and abandoned me like this, leaving me to sink like I was on the Titanic! …. Alone…"

"Hey, ya'll ok?" A female southern drawl said snapping him out of his monologues just before he was going to burst into tears in hopelessness.

"Huh?" He said, trying to look away from whoever it was, so they wouldn't see him about crying. "Uh, yeah, I'm…. Fine!", his voice was a bit more watery than he had intended.

"Ya'll sure? Because…" she said, before she was cut off by him.

"Oh that…. That was just… a play!" he said bullshitting on the spot. "Yeah, a play about loneliness, and I'm rehearsing here because it's quiet and helps me momorize!"

"… are ya'll sure, becausec and ah hope this don't sound rude or anythin', but it kind sounded a mite more bit like you were about to cry when you said that." She said, still concerned. "Ah just wanna know if everything's ok!"

Deep down, Zephyr wanted to break down, to tell her everything… but that was a trap he had more than once fallen into, and he wasn't going down that road again! Plus, as friendly as this person was, they were still a stranger at the end of the day, so they were likely asking out of formality rather than legitimate concern. So, instead of giving into the desire to just vent, he just doubled down on his lie. "Oh that….. ok, I admit it, I was crying a bit, but I'm a method actor. It… helps me get into the character a bit more and whatnot "

"Uh huh….." she said, clearly not fully buying what he said.

"And don't worry, you can trust me, I play poker!" He said, trying to deflect with humor.

"Hehe, ok, gotta admit that was pretty good." She said chuckling a bit. "Actually to be quite honest ah play a bit of Texas hold'em mahself, maybe we could…" she said but was cut short again.

"Oh well, I l'd love to but I probably won't have much time this summer, I have….. commitments" he said.

"Oh, well that's a shame" she said.

"Yeah…. It is," he said, "but that's life I suppose" he said before muttering "or at least my life."

"You say somethin pardner?" She asked.

"Oh uh….. nothing of importance." He said. "Anyways, I'm probably going to be heading out soon, getting dark after all."

"Who wee, that it is, ah gotta get home to feed mah dog." She said, "Was nice talkin to ya though, ya'll on snap gap?"

"Um" he said…." Yes but I…. Don't like giving my information away to people I don't know well, " he said, a partial lie.

"Fair enough," she said, slightly disappointed, "Maybe next time we can get to know each other better. Anyway, see ya pardner!" She said before she turned away and began walking back home.

As she did, Zephyr tried to resist looking, seeing as he felt there was no point for someone who, despite her words, he probably wouldn't see again, much less have time to do anything with. However, soon enough, curiosity got the better of him and he turned to watch her. She was rather distant by this time, and the growing darkness certainly didn't help with visibility, but he swore she was wearing a cowboy hat. However, before he could really get a good look, she walked behind a house and out of sight.

"She seemed nice", Zephyr said to himself, "And she liked poker too! Maybe I SHOULD have given her my snap gap…" However, he then shook his head and said "But I know how people are, she was probably just putting on a facade. Plus even if she wasn't it's not like I'd have the time to do anything anyways."

He then looked around again and say just how fast it was getting dark. "Wow, I best get home, I hate it there but it's better than being mugged,"

He said, referring to an inducent where that indeed almost happened the year before. He then turned around to walk home, but had only taken a few steps his foot caught a raised sidewalk block and he fell to the ground, bashing his knee solidly.

"Motherbuck!" he said angrily and was about to get get up and kick the sidewalk to vent his anger, but before he could he noticed something. Right there, sitting in front of him in a dry ditch, was a wilting plant. Normally not something of note, but after looking at it he realized this plant looked a heck of a lot like the endangered Canterlot Mallow! Wanting to investigate further, he got up and turned on his phone flashlight, which only seemed to cement his prior suspicion. Just to make sure though, he put in a quick google image search on his phone, and indeed, the images that came up confirmed it was actually the endangered Canterlot mallow!

"Well I'll be damned, never though I'd see one of these in real life! They're nearly extinct!" He said to himself. "Hmm, doesn't look like it's doing too good though, probably not going to make on its own, especially since this isn't typically the rainiest time of year!" His eyes then lit up as he got an idea. "Well, we do have a pond in our backyard, I'll just take this and relocate it!" He then reached down and used his hands to dig around the plant, making extra careful not to split the roots in the process. Once he had done that, he picked up the plant and began to walk home with it. "Don't worry, I won't fail you like others have failed me!" He said, and began walking home with the plant and an actual purpose for once, no matter how small.