Felix’ day began as it always did. He was woken up by a small animal –a shrew this time– patting his face and squeaking slightly. So he groaned, stretched, and went down for breakfast. Breakfast was a vitamin filled smoothie carefully designed by more doctors than really should be necessary, as well as some bread –whose recipe was equally carefully prepared– apple sliced without peel and some pureed potatoes he spread on the bread. It wasn’t the best, but his favourite thing to put on his bread –eggs– he couldn’t eat too many off, so he limited himself to every other day with egg sandwiches.

After breakfast, he went out to the mailbox. If he was lucky, a new letter from Moonstone had arrived –and today, he was lucky, and he devoured the contents immediately. She had just started a new course in chemistry, which was boring but necessary for graduation. She’d finally figured out how to stay alert during boring lectures, by… holding a pencil to her cheek so she’d prick herself when she started to droop? That didn’t seem like a very good solution to Felix, but her letter swore that it worked. It apparently didn’t make the lecture more interesting though, just made her not be halfway asleep during it. She’d also found yet another new restaurant she liked; it advertised itself as serving traditional mountain zebra cuisine, and Moony swore it did taste like what she remembered of the times Zecora had invited her family over. She checked, and they even had some stuff he could eat; nce he visited in the future, they’d have to go there together…

Once he was done with the letter, he went back inside to carefully put it in a box he stored under his bed with the other ones she’d sent.

Then he helped care for the animals. His momma, Fluttershy, had to be the one to feed and care for all of the injured animals, as well as the ones with very specialized needs, but he helped with what he could; cleaning and picking eggs from the chicken-coop, putting bird seed in the feeders, brushing dogs, chopping vegetables… It was a lot of work, but he did it without complaining, just happy to feel useful. If his mum wasn’t working, she’d be right alongside them helping out, which was fun. Today she had to start early to bust a wild storm coming in from the everfree though, so it was just Felix and Fluttershy. So since he worked alone and he knew it by heart at this point, he slipped into a daydream as he worked. He had a hard time selecting one, so he just settled for the childhood one of him suddenly gaining superpowers. It made the time go faster, and he made sure to stop as soon as he did critical moments of the chores.

After a morning of daydreaming and animal-caring, he went inside to make lunch. Prepared food was always a lot of work in their household, since Mum preferred dishes containing meat, Momma wanted vegetarian options, and Felix himself had a very detailed meal plan he had to strictly follow. So he spent upwards of an hour prepping everything, then asked a nearby bird to tell Fluttershy lunch was ready. Once he’d finished cooking, frying and/or baking everything, she usually rushed in, apologising for being late due to the most recent animal taking longer to care for than she expected. Mum arrived sometime during the meal, gulping down her food, chatting for a little bit, and then throwing herself into the air again to continue working. Felix hoped she’d decide to lower her working hours soon; she wasn’t getting any younger. She never complained, but he saw Fluttershy giving her wing muscles and back massages sometimes.

After he and Momma had cleaned up the dishes, she headed back out to the animals and he was left to is own devices. Sometimes he had doctors appointments, but today was clear; so he instead decided to go into town. He passed Twilight’s School and saw a bunch of students milling about outside – he gave them a wide berth. Not just because they were strangers, but also due to them being students at Twilight’s school. Three times out of five, a congregation of students from there without supervision ended in explosions or various other disasters.

He walked by the castle, peeked towards the market but decided there were too many people, and trotted quickly past Sugarcube Corner before Pinkie had any chance of noticing him. Eventually, he found himself at the train station. It was deserted, except for a single pony working in the station. Well, working was a strong word, considering they appeared to be sleeping from what Felix could see through the window. He… shouldn’t disturb them.

He went back to the outskirts of Ponyville, meandering around aimlessly. He slipped into a daydream as he walked, his eyes turning glassy as he imagined himself finding a rare new animal and the shenanigans that would ensue as he had to try to care for it. A loud warble broke through his thoughts, and he realised his paws had taken him to kinyume’s home; he was right outside her fence. His ears perked up, and he rounded the corner of the fence to enter into her backyard.

It was very lucky for him he was who he was; the giant storm grouse living there was normally trained to scream at trespassers when they didn’t just go to the front door. But Thunder recognized him as, well, as close to a concept of family-of-the-yellow-pink-nice-one as a grouse could, and just warbled loudly and sat down in front of Felix, begging for treats. Thunder’s eyes were wide and so-so sad. Couldn’t Felix see that he was practically starving? Why, Kinyume hadn’t fed him for several hours!

Felix lost a bit of his interest once he just smiled and walked around him. With what could have been a mighty sigh of disappointment – but was most likely just an exhalation as the heavy bird rose again– Thunder set off back into the trees which dotted the large yard. No point in wasting time when there was no food involved.

The house was dark and knocking provided no answer. Felix had suspected as much, seeing as she hadn’t noticed Thunder begging food from someone outside. Still, he’d been hoping Disco would be home; he was always fun to be around, and always seemed to know how to make Felix feel comfortable. But he was always traveling and you really had no way of knowing when he’d spend a weekend in Ponyville, so it never hurt to check.

Dejected, he left the house and headed back into Ponyville. He was so bored. He checked out the bookstore, but there hadn’t come in anything new since yesterday. He passed by the park and saw a few families out and about. He even went to see what was playing at the movies, but there wasn’t anything interesting; just as well, he shouldn’t waste money on a movie ticket.

He arrived at the train station again. The clerk seemed awake now, and even had a customer in front of them. Felix should go in. If he wanted to visit Moony over a weekend, he needed to get train tickets. She’d said he could come by at any time he wanted, so he needed to buy tickets. He needed to buy tickets.

He left. He’d been out for long enough today.

Once he arrived back home, he fell into his familiar routine again. He grabbed a snack, and read comics for a while. He was currently re-reading the Finite Peace arc; he knew it by heart at this point, but it was his favourite so he still became engrossed in the story.

Before he knew it, his mum came back from work. She settled down on the couch with a sigh, and smiled as he fetched her a cup of tea from the kitchen. That was also his signal to start with dinner, so he began to prepare three meals again. Unlike lunch, his mum followed him into the kitchen and helped with prepping and setting the table as they chatted about their day. Once the dinner was finished, Mum went out and dragged Momma inside despite her protests.

After dinner his parents settled on the couch together, so he went upstairs to his room. On some –good– days he’d leave for the castle to speak with Moony over the telephone, but this wasn’t one of those. So he instead penned a reply to the letter she’d sent; telling her about the new ducklings that had hatched yesterday, about how everyone was doing, and that Spike had come by a few days ago and invited him to “guys night out” this weekend. He was considering going, but he wasn’t sure; it consisted of a bunch of parents after all and that might be awkward. Then again, he heard Discord was sometimes there. Plus there’d be Spike and Rainbow, so it might be fun. He also told her to please not stab herself on pencils.

After he finished it, he moved onto magic training. He still had problems; his spells never did exactly what he wanted, but he really was getting closer. He lifted a pencil over and over, which was boring, but he kept persevering. He always managed to get the pencil up in the air at this point, but after that different things always happened. Sometimes it just spun in the air, other times it turned green, and yet another time the wood sprouted a leaf. It seemed very random, and he was never quite sure what would happen next. At this point he was used to it though, and was just happy that he had managed to keep it from falling down even once.

So he felt satisfied when he decided practice was over, and went back to reading. A book this time; a mystery novel of some kind which his Mum had recommended. It was fine; not his favourite genre, but it was well written enough to still be enjoyable.

Once he heard his parents walk up the stairs to go to bed, he went down and to the outhouse to get ready himself. He really wished his parents would get an indoor toilet, but, well, expensive. So outhouse and an indoor water pump in the kitchen it was.

Then he went to bed.

It always took several hours for him to fall asleep, so he stared out the window at the sky as he laid there, picking up his nightly daydream from where he’d fallen asleep last time. He wasn’t sure how long it took, but eventually he slipped away into unconsciousness.

The next morning, Felix’ day began as it always did…