Lost at Home

Lost at Home: A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfic by the *Secondbestscribe*

Chapter Seven: That Guy Who Used to Have a Marefriend

Sassaflash... Golden Harvest, or "Carrot Top" as she was being called nowadays... Rarity, too, for a month or so...

Next to Carousel Boutique, in a smallish blacksmith's store, a large hoof-written sign that proclaimed "Horseshoe Blacksmiths: Metalworking, Repairs and Tool Sales!" nearly fell off of its already-precarious perch on top of the roof, propped up against some scaffolding.

Inside Horseshoe Blacksmiths, a stallion with a light amber coat and three blueish horseshoes for a cutie mark was casting down his saddlebags, each one customised with a horseshoe clasp and light amber colour, and running a hoof through his mop of chocolate-brown mane while huffing, his cerulean eyes closed as he heaved a large breath.

What was wrong with him? It wasn't that he couldn't get a marefriend, unlike some stallions that he could name, it was just that he couldn't keep them with him. They would always turn out to be cheating on him, or tolerating him just because he was nice, or staying by his side just so that they could gain access to his meagre assortment of scanty belongings.

And then, when he had served his purpose, like an old workhorse that had lived on a farm and had suddenly gone lame, he would get dumped.

He huffed again, this time putting more of his sheer anger at the world into it, and slammed his hind hooves against the anvil.

This normally helped, but it would occasionally render his hind ankles mildly sprained. It was a good thing that Monny Tore, Ponyville's best doctor, was his twin brother, otherwise Caramel would be broke because of hospital bills alone.

The good thing about jobs, Caramel thought dully as he unpacked his saddlebags, is that they're easier to keep down than mares.

Being the head of an independent establishment had its perks, as Caramel had discovered upon moving from Baltimare. For one, it meant that there was nopony you had to pay, no-one's responsibilities but your own. For another, you felt in charge, which you technically were. It was freedom, of a kind. It got a bit lonely, though, but that was what brothers on leave were for.

Caramel finished unpacking his tools for his trip to Canterlot, where he, along with a hoof-full of other blacksmiths from all four corners of Equestria, had been summoned to forge the weapons for the castle guards. He had felt honoured, worthy even, but after the trip he reflected that while the princesses were really nice ponies, the guards could have almost beaten Big McIntosh in a game of "Shhh!", copyrighted by Fluttershy.

The key word was "almost".

Again, Caramel sighed, this time almost sadly. Maybe it was because he was a four-hoofer...

Well, it wasn't as if Equestria was a homophobic nation or anything. In fact, a lot of famous ponies were four-hoofers, even fillyfoolers and coltcuddlers. And, really, everypony liked Caramel. It wasn't an eager kind of liking, but it was a general one; Caramel was the kind of colt who wasn't the life of the party, but made up a fairly acknowledged percent of it.

Unlike Monny Tore, however...

Monny was the life of the party. By day, he was hard-working and honest; always got his paperwork in, and even as a colt he had finished all his schoolwork and homework to a T. By night, he was a crazy party-goer, and yet he never seemed to do something like get drunk. Although he was the life of the party, as aforementioned, he was also the safest pony around, and yet wasn't known as a goody-four-hooves like other ponies.

Monny was, in short, the perfect stallion. He was safe, and strong, and had a very steady income. He was smart, and talented, and friendly, and about a million other things that Caramel wasn't.

You see, Caramel was boring and clumsy and anti-social and leaning towards the poor side of the equation and a bit dim and weak-hoofed for a blacksmith and so on and so forth.

Caramel sighed, and stationed himself at the anvil. It wasn't as if he hadn't completed the sparse few jobs he had accumulated in the past month, but he was bored. Oh, so bored...

The bell hung above the front door tinkled.

The earth pony looked up in sheer shock, dropping the hammer he was holding in his mouth and making it fall on his hoof. He bit down hard on his tongue, which started to bleed. He swore.

"Buck-buck-buck-buck-buck..."

"Oi!" came a spunky, tomboyish voice from in front of the anvil.

Caramel looked up from his half-cowering position behind the anvil, and was greeted by the narrowed cerise eyes of a blue pegasus that he knew as Rainbow Dash only by the spectrum-striped mane she bore. Riding on the mare's back was a small filly that he recalled as being called Scootaloo; Caramel only knew this because she was the only pegasus filly in Ponyville who couldn't fly.

"Erm," he said, "hello."

Rainbow Dash glared at Caramel, two cerise ovals flashing him the evil eye. Her wings flared with evident irritation, she growled, "Now, look here, Caramel. What's the deal with not being in Ponyville for a whole week, eh?"

"Wh-what?" stammered the stallion, backing away as the mare advanced.

"Some ponies have things to get fixed, you know!" raged Rainbow Dash, her eyes dilating.

"Wait, no, wha-at?" Caramel instinctively tucked his tail between his legs.

"Look at this filly!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, gesturing towards the filly called Scootaloo. "She has a broken scooter that needs to be seen to! And what do you do instead of helping an innocent little child out? Go out and frolic around with the mules, I guess!"

"Actually, I was just - "

"Rainbow Dash," piped up the filly Scootaloo, "I think that Pinkie Pie said that he was at Canterlot."

"Ah-HAH! I knew it! I just KNEW i- wait, what?"

The spectrum-maned mare looked in surprise at the little filly riding on her back. "What... wait... what? What did you just say?"

Slightly bemused, Scootaloo said, "Well, Pinkie Pie said that Caramel was out at Canterlot to forge weapons for the castle guards. Pretty awesome, huh?"

Rainbow Dash was clearly confused by this, but rallied semi-magnificently. Drawing herself up in self-righteousness, she glared at Caramel with flared wings and muttered, "You are SO lucky my sister's cool enough to let you off..."

Caramel gulped, and managed a weak smile. Scootaloo seemed to be somewhat in awe of him... no, no, he couldn't think like that. He would start getting ideas above his station, and THAT had always led to bad things in his life. The stallion sighed.

"So," he said bemusedly, "you mentioned something about a broken scooter?"