"Some zebras, and ponies, can tend to be a bit territorial. It's not exactly a good thing, but it's something we have to accept." Granyl slowly managed a smile of his own, as Midnight's made him feel better. "After my training was done, I ended up leaving my home behind. I was certain that the world had better for me than that, so I took a chance." He laughed a little, recalling some fond memories. "I had fainted after traveling for about... I'd say seven hours strait. Some ponies picked me up in their wagon and hauled me back to their small town, and even helped me back on my hooves, just out of the kindness of their hearts."

He looked down at Midnight, seeming happy to have given a short version of his tale. "I appreciate you listening. It's surprisingly hard to have other ponies listen to you aside from your music when you're a musician..."

She shook her head, "It's no big deal, really. It's nice having someone to talk to, or even listen to for that matter. It's been rather lonely for the past 3 years..." her face fell a little but her ears perked at someone calling her name.

"Midnight!" Looking up, Midnight saw Mayor Mare waving her to the town hall. Midnight gave Granyl an apologetic smile.

"Well, I might be busy for about an hour. You are welcome to come with me or wander around some more if you want."

Granyl simply kept his smile. "I'll look around this general area, wouldn't want to disturb anything. I'll make sure to be here when you return."

Midnight nodded and hurried over to Mayor Mare, following her into the town hall. Mayor seemed to be one of the few ponies that weren't afraid of her and didn't judge her. There were a few other ponies in the town hall and Midnight blinked. The Mayor explained to her that she wanted Midnight to sing for these ponies since they were only here for a short amount of time and Mayor had suggested it. Midnight agreed to it and she walked to the front of the room and nodded to the pony at the piano and started to sing a soft song to the ponies in the room. She got caught in the music and closed her eyes as he sang, forgetting momentarily about the other ponies.

"Guess she has a friend around here after all." Granyl said to himself, turning and trotting off to find his own business. Though he didn't see anything for him to take part in, so he instead decided to just take awhile to watch Ponyville in it's natural state. He sat down on a bench near a fountain, staring off into the distance at the ponies trotting through town. More and more ponies began gathering around town, and the place slowly, but surely became busy. He simply stared, somewhat surprised.

He was brought out of it as the bench shook, causing him to look around with wide-eyes, as he didn't understand what made it move. He skeptically stared off into the distance as there was no apparent reason behind the shaking, and he slowly sat back in his normal position.

Then it happened again.

"What in Equestria is that?" He questioned, swinging his head down and glancing under the bench. Moments later, a head popped out of the ground. Not a pony or zebra's, but some sort of dog creature. It startled him enough to make him fall off the bench, landing on the ground with a thud. The creature quickly ducked back underground, before Granyl could crawl under and see what it was. He glanced down the hole the creature had created, and was unsure of what had just made it. It didn't seem vicious, or that troublesome. Maybe he scared it like it scared him? He pulled himself out from under the bench, glancing back to see a few ponies had stopped and began looking in his direction. He blushed out of embarrassment, slowly crawling back up onto the bench before he began going through his saddlebag to avoid eye-contact.

Midnight hadn't taken quite as long as she had thought. Usually Mayor would want to talk to her when she was finished but the other ponies seemed to be in a hurry so she wasn't obligated to stay for very long. She thanked Mayor Mare and left the town hall. She frowned at the activity of ponyville at this time and went to look for Granyl, eyes darting around her a little as ponies started to look her way. She took a deep breath and tried to ignore them.

Pondering on what the creature he had seen was, Granyl was mostly lost in thought. It was only when he glanced to his left towards the town hall did he realize Midnight was already out, seeming to be looking for him. He hopped off the bench, trotting towards her. He had to stop momentarily as a pony was too focused on Midnight to watch where he was going, and nearly bumped into him, but soon after he managed to get over to her. "I trust everything went well?"

Midnight looked at him and smiled a little, seeming to calm down a little for now, "Yeah, it didn't take as long as I thought it would have. So, where do you want to go now?" She glanced around a little and tried to fight the urge to shrink back somewhere and wait for the town to simmer down a little. Her ears were a bit flattened against her head but she looked back up at Granyl.

"Perhaps somewhere a little more quiet, ...?" Granyl noted her actions; she obviously wasn't too comfortable right now, but was trying. He figured it might be for the best to go somewhere less populated before she started stressing out. He once again thought about the creature, and wanted to figure out what it was. He wasn't quite sure on how to go about it. He figured asking Midnight in the near future would be a good start.

She nodded and smiled nervously, "That would be great, actually." She stepped up next to him and glanced around. "Where should we go? I think there's a park somewhere around here, if I remember right. It's usually quiet."

Granyl liked the idea, smiling back. "A park, huh? That sounds nice." He joined her in looking around. "Let's find it! It ought to be especially quiet at this time of day." Starting to trot off, he was getting rather excited about the park and some quiet time. The park couldn't be too hard to find...

Midnight trotted to catch up and then trotted beside him, glancing around for the park. She was trying to remember where she had seen the park on other days.

"Hey," Granyl spoke up, figuring it was as good a time to ask as any about what he'd seen, considering they weren't going to be at the park for at least a little while. "Do you know of any creatures that can, uh... Dig very well, and kind of look like dogs...?"

Midnight blinked at him and then thought for a moment. She was silent for about a minute or two, "Well, the only thing that comes to mind are Diamond Dogs. I've never seen one but I heard stories around ponyville a little while ago..."

"I think I saw one... I was sitting on a bench by the fountain and it popped up underneath me." He glanced back, looking at the bench he was sitting on. "I managed to see it for a moment, but then it burrowed back into the ground." He figured this was not normal, but at least the creature had appeared to be harmless.

Midnight made a confused humming sound, "That is rather odd. But I don't know how they normally act so I don't think I'm the one you should be asking..." She looked around again and spotted the park. "Ah! There it is!" She smiled at him and turned, heading towards it.

Nodding at her reply and deciding to drop the topic, Granyl followed after Midnight towards the park. It certainly did look like a decent area from what he could tell, and if it made Midnight even seem excited, then it must have been a great place. At least that was his opinion.

She trotted to a bench and hopped up on it to sit down. There weren't many ponies around the park at this time, but the bustle of the town could be heard a little in the short distance.

"Well, this is nice." Granyl said, eyeing the bench. He took a moment to simply stare, wondering if something would pop out from under this one. After around ten seconds of hesitation, he joined her in sitting down. He eyed some flowers across the path from the bench, of multiple colors. He admired them for a moment, glancing between them and Midnight. He considered picking one, but figured some ponies wouldn't be too happy about that, so he crossed it out. "So, what exactly do you do for that Mayor Mare, anyways?"

Midnight was looking around at the sky, at the birds and the scenery around. When she heard him ask his question she turned to him, "Oh, Mayor Mare? Well, sometimes she gets a few ponies together and I sing for them. She noticed almost right away that the ponies in Ponyville would give me the looks that they do and she pulled me aside one day to talk to me about my cutie mark. When I told her, she seemed really intrigued and has been bringing me into town every few days to do it." She gave a light smile.