Simply Beautifulby FinnPonyChaptersAct 1Act 2.1Act 2.2Act 2.3Act 3.1Act 3.2EpilogueAct 3.3Act 1Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 1 It was a beautiful day in the peaceful town of Ponyville. Weather was better than anypony could have wished for. Sun was shining brightly but a gentle breeze was constantly present, making the temperature just right. There were couple of ponies in the town center, going on with their daily businesses. It seemed like that the only sound that was heard was birds singing their songs in the many trees of the park happily. Suddenly their singing was interrupted harshly. Loud dance music blazed through once peaceful park of Ponyville. Bass made some of the leaves fall from the trees that were unfortunate enough to be near the large dance floor that stood in the middle of the park. It was full of ponies who were dressed up formally. They were frozen on their places with surprised, amused, confused or even scared expressions on their faces. They clearly hadn’t expected the sudden explosion of loud music. In the middle of all them were a two ponies facing each other. Other was a Pink mare in a white wedding dress and other one was a blue unicorn stallion in a fine black suit. They spoke to each other and soon started to dance crazily. Soon other ponies around the dance floor joined them, leaving only couple of ponies standing outside the wild dancing frenzy. Most of them were older ponies who didn’t have energy for that kind of dancing or who didn’t understand the music. Of course there was couple of younger ponies who didn’t start thrashing around like crazy. They slowly moved towards the tables that were placed under some trees near the dance floor. There was also big table with lots of snacks and beverage placed neatly on it. One of the ponies who wasn’t dancing that exact moment was in front of the table, pouring punch into a plastic cup. He was a brown coated unicorn named Trenderhoof. He owned a slender frame, but was a bit taller than most of the stallions. His mane and tail were well kept and blow-dried, he had violet eyes and white glasses sat on his muzzle. He too had dressed up for the occasion. He wore an expensive tailor made tuxedo with white shirt under it. His violet magic aura lifted now filled cup to his lips and he took a long sip from it. The punch was pretty strong, enough to make him pout. He swallowed and walked back to his empty table where he slumped back to the chair. He rested his face into his hooves while the cup was still in his magical grasp. He took a quick look around himself and then sighed boredly. He had arrived alone, he had spent the whole time there alone and it seemed like he was going to leave alone. He didn’t even know anypony from the wedding. Well, he knew the fiancee and some of her friends, but he hadn’t expected to be invited to her wedding, especially after so many years. He took another sip from his drink and looked towards the dancing crowd. He could see glimpses of an orange mare with blonde mane between the dancing ponies. Seeing her made him smile. She was pretty much the only mare in the crowd that was interesting to him, but she was busy dancing with her fillyfriend. Another sigh, another sip. He kept looking at that mare for a second, thinking how he used to have a crush on her. It was pretty silly now that he thought of it, but he couldn’t help to think what he had missed. He kept looking at the mare that now was dancing not so far away from him. Trenderhoof had always been a stallion that likes simple things. He thought that even the most mundane things usually had so much more hidden under their simple appearance. He also thought that it was the same with ponies. That’s why the orange mare in a stetson hat had made his heart flutter when they first met. He had never seen such hard working, ‘authentic’ pony in his life. Suddenly his eyes came across another lonely soul that was sitting in a shadow of a big tree. She was a grey coated earth pony mare with long, straight cut, purple mane. She was wearing the most simple dark green dress without any accessories. She had long, curvy eyelashes and her turquoise eyes were highlighted by purple eyeshadow. She kept looking at the crowd with a deadpan look on her face. In overall she looked really simple. That wasn’t everything. There was something that made her seem different from every other pony there, he just couldn’t put his hoof on what it was. Trenderhoof took a slow sip while examining her. That bored look on her face made her look rather attractive. He thought for a second. She didn’t seem like she was waiting for anypony, so she probably wouldn’t mind socializing with him a bit. He nodded to himself and downed the drink before leaving the table. He quickly walked past the table with the punch bowl on it and filled two more cups. Then he trotted towards the mare with confident smile on his lips. He stopped right next to the table and noticed that the mare was a bit older than that orange mare, maybe about the same age as he was. The mare sat still without even blinking, she just kept looking at the crowd with expressionless look on her face. Trenderhoof stood there for a second before he cleared his throat. That got the mare’s attention and she turned her head towards him. What troubled Trenderhoof was that she still didn’t seem to have any expression on her face. Usually pony would look confused, or at least have a asking look on her face if a stranger came to them out of nowhere. He shook that feeling away and asked, “Mind if I sit?” The mare shook her head slowly and he took that as a permission to sit. Trenderhoof sat to the opposite side of the table from her. He placed his own cup to the table and turned his attention towards the mare, only to realise that she wasn’t paying any attention to him. She was again just staring at the dancing mass of ponies. First thing that came into his mind was that she was really shy. It was kinda cute in his opinion. “I brought you a drink,” he said and pushed the other cup towards the mare with his magic. The mare slowly turned her head towards him, giving a quick glance at the cup before asking with monotone voice, “Why?” That got him a bit off guard. Usually there was a ‘thank you’ or a ‘no thank you’. He liked his lips, trying to quickly come up with an answer. After couple of seconds he answered, “Well… I thought you would like to have something to drink.” “Why would you think like that?” she asked without any change in her tone. Again an unexpected question that took couple of seconds for him to answer, “Umm… It’s just a way to get the conversation going I guess?” The mare looked at him with blank stare. He in turn looked away. Something in her stare made him feel rather nervous. “So… you want it?” he asked, giving a careful glance towards her. Her eyes moved from him to the cup and then back at him. “Sure,” was all she said before taking the cup into her hooves. Trenderhoof stared at the mare with quizzical look on his face. She was either shy or just didn’t want him there. He went with the first opinion. “So…” he started and waited for the mare to look at him again. “What might be your name?” “Maud,” was her answer. She then took a small sip from her drink and looked at Trenderhoof. He realised that she was waiting for his reply, and he introduced himself, “My name is Trenderhoof, you might have heard of me.” “No,” Maud replied immediately. “I haven’t.” He frowned, but the frown disappeared quickly and a small smile appeared onto his lips as he said, “It’s okay, I don’t like to boast with my complications anyway.” “Me neither,” Maud answered. Trenderhoof smiled a bit wider. Maybe she was starting to open up a bit more. She didn’t. There was further questions or answers from her. She was staring at him though, which he took as a good sign. He decided that he wouldn’t give up that easily. There had to be something behind that simple armor she was wearing. “So why are you here?” he asked. “My sister’s wedding,” Maud answered, making Trenderhoof look at her with a bit suspecting look. Even he barely knew the pink mare that was getting married that day, he knew what she was like. Hyperactive. That couldn’t be said about this mare. “So you’re Pinkie Pie’s sister?” he asked. Maud looked at him and said slowly, “Yes.” Trenderhoof folded his ears to back of his head. It almost seemed like she was annoyed by him being there. He still didn’t give up. He had to get the conversation started. “What do you do for a living Maud?” he asked and took a small sip from his cup. Maud too take a small sip and then answered, still not showing any interest towards him, “I am a rock researcher.” That hit him like a train. He knew that there was something about this mare that made her to stand out from the crowd. Trenderhoof absolutely idolized ponies who had a down to earth job, where you got dirty and sweaty. Those ponies kept the world running, without them there wouldn’t be Equestria. It was fascinating to Trenderhoof. “Really?” he asked with eyes sparkling from excitement. Maud expression didn’t change, she just nodded and said, “I just said so.” “I-I have to say that I find your work absolutely fascinating!” he stammered while giving Maud the most genuine smile. She didn’t seem surprised, or even amused by his sudden outbusrt. She tasted her punch again and said, “Many find it boring.” “Boring!?” Trenderhoof asked with shocked voice. He looked at Maud straight in the eyes and said, “Your job, like everypony else’s who works in such a down to earth job as you self, are the most important jobs in whole Equestria! Without farmers there wouldn’t be any corps! Without builders we wouldn’t have any houses, without your job we wouldn’t have… urh… any knowledge about rocks!” Maud stared at him for a while. Trenderhoof was sure that his little speech would get some reaction from her, but instead she just said with her bored voice, “I just like rocks. A lot.” Trenderhoof sighed and took off his glasses. She still didn’t seem to get any more interested from his company. There was a long silence between them, and he kept fiddling with his glasses in his hooves. Trenderhoof started to think that maybe he should leave Maud alone, even though she had just gotten a lot more interesting. He had once learned when a mare didn’t want his company, and the symptoms Maud had were all too familiar to him. It was a hard decision but he put his glasses back to his muzzle and downed the rest of his drink. He then stood up with defeated expression on his face. Maud immediately turned towards him and asked with her monotone voice, “Where are you going?” “I’m sorry if I was getting onto your nerves, I’ll leave you alone now,” he answered and gave Maud a last sad smile before turning around. He didn’t even take a first step when he heard Maud say behind him, “Don’t go.” He spun around and looked at her with surprised look on his face. Maud stared at him with that deadpan look she always wore. “What?” he asked from her, making her repeat, “Don’t go.” Trenderhoof blinked his eyes confusedly before asking, “You don’t want me to go?” “I said so two times already,” Maud said with a small nod. Trenderhoof kept staring at the emotionless mare for a good while, before slowly sitting down to the same chair as before. He leaned against his other hoof and examined the mare with quizzical look in his eyes. What was going on inside this mare’s head? “I thought you didn’t want me here,” he said and stared at the mare over his glasses. She returned the stare and said calmly, “I like your company.” That made Trenderhoof’s eyes go wide. Now he wasn’t sure if the mare was kidding him or not. Why would she act so coldly towards him if she liked his company? He just had to ask, “Why are you acting so cold then?” Maud looked at her drink for a second, then she lifted the cup to her lips and finished it. She laid the empty cup to the table and said, “I present my feelings a little bit differently than others.” Trenderhoof gave her a suspicious look, his mind filled with questions. He had met many ponies during his travels, each different from another, but that mare in front of him was something different, something new and ‘authentic’. His frown slowly started to change into a smile. He took both of the cups into his magical grasp and asked with a grin, “More Punch?” “Sure.” Act 2.1Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 2.1 It was getting dark as the Canterlot castle’s bell rang twelve times. Most of the capital city’s residents were already in their homes, vast asleep. Only sounds in the streets were the buzzing sound that the electrical streetlights kept and the seldon clatter of iron horseshoes when guards were on their patrols. Besides guards in their flashy armor, there were only couple of evening types who roamed the empty streets. On of them was Maud Pie, the most discreet ponies in the whole city. She was coming back from a old ore mine near the city’s borders. Her grey coat was covered in dust and her normally straight mane was a mess. She wasn’t wearing a beautiful dresses and she didn’t like highly decorated hats everypony in Canterlot had. She was much more happier in her simple and practical green dress. She moved near the buildings, away from the white light of the street lights. She was glad that it was already night when she trotted through the city. There were less curious ponies staring at her at that time. She didn’t like walking on the crowded streets of Canterlot, she just couldn’t blend in to the mass and everypony kept staring at her, making her feel like there was something wrong in her. Maud had feelings too, even though she never showed them to anypony. She wasn’t an emotionless machine like someponies thought. Her line of thought broke as her saddlebag slipped into an uncomfortable position. She nudged her rump so that the bag was once again in a bit comfortable on her back. The saddlebag she was carrying was full of rocks, each different, interesting species that she was going to examine more when she would get back to the hotel she was living. Maud had been visiting Canterlot for couple of days. She was going to stay there for the rest of the week, going to that same abandoned mine every morning. Alone. Of course she liked to work alone, but spending whole day by herself took its toll on her. While living on the rock farm, working days were tough and long, but after the day their family would spent the evening together. In Canterlot, she was alone twenty four seven. It was hard, even for Maud who wasn’t that social. She sighed and looked around herself. She saw a familiar late night café she had never visited. It was still open and light peered out from it’s windows. Maud knew that she wasn’t far away from her hotel anymore. Only about five minutes of walking and she could climb to her bed and fall asleep. Maybe she would sleep a bit longer that night and spend the morning in the hotel, examining the rocks she had brought with her. Again her thinking came to a sudden halt when she passed the café. This time it wasn’t due the discomfort from the heavy bag on her back, but because she spotted something in the café when she had passed it. Or somepony actually. She stopped in the middle of a step and slowly turned around. She looked towards the nearest booth she saw through the the display window of the café. There was a awfully familiar looking stallion in a green sweater sitting there, with focused look in his purple eyes. In front of him, on the table rested his white glasses and a cup half full of coffee. He was reading a newspaper. Maud took couple of steps closer to the window, almost pressing her muzzle against it. She had indeed recognized the pony. He was that same unicorn from Pinkie’s wedding. He kept flicking through the pages, not noticing Maud who stared at him. She kept staring at the stallion, who seemed to be in his thoughts. Maud felt a strange urge to go and talk to him, which was totally not like her. She decided to keep looking at the stallion for a while. Something about him made it impossible for her to continue walking. Maybe it was because he had showed genuine interest in her job. She really liked that. A sudden clattering of hooves distracted her. She turned her head towards the sound and saw a yellow mare walking past her. She didn’t pay any more attention to her. Maud watched the mare walk away for a second. She then turned towards the window again, only to meet pair of purple eyes staring back at her. She almost winced. Almost. The unicorn was staring at her with confused smile on his lips. Maud liked that smile. It was strange to her, usually somepony smiling at her didn’t mean so much. Ponies were always smiling anyway. That smile though, she was tempted to return it. She didn’t. Instead she walked towards the door and quickly shook her body so that most of the dust would fall off. She checked her from the reflection of the window. She was a bit more presentable looking, which was enough for her. She opened the door and stepped in. It immediately felt like a bad idea. Not because of the café itself, no. The building was classy looking place with warm colors everywhere. Maud actually liked the exterior of the place, and could see herself visiting the place during daytime. Like said, it wasn’t the café that made her uncomfortable. It was the customers. There were couple of ponies there besides her and that unicorn, and they all were looking at her weirdly. They probably were thinking that she was a beggar of some sort because of her shaggy appearance. She kept her poker face but felt embarrassed. What had she been thinking? “Hey Maud!” she heard, snapping her away from her thoughts. She realized that she was facing that unicorn. He had a welcoming smile on his lips. His face was so close to Maud that she could see the small stubble on his chin. For a second Maud couldn’t do anything else than just think how good that smile looked on him. Maud stared at him for couple of seconds, trying to remember his name. It would be a bit embarrassing if she wouldn’t remember his name after he clearly remembered her’s. She eyed the still smiling unicorn for couple more seconds, before she remembered his name. Trenderhoof. She blinked before answering slowly, “Hi Trenderhoof.” "Call me Trend," Trenderhoof said and smile grew wider. It seemed like the corners of his mouth would tear his head in half. Maud thought how amusing it would be, but then realized that it wouldn’t be amusing at all so she stopped thinking about it. Instead she said, “Nice to see you.” “Nice to see you too!” Trenderhoof exclaimed. “I didn’t expect to see you again.” Maud hadn’t expected to see him again either, but didn’t say it. She just stared at the stallion in front of her and then nudged her head towards the booth. Trenderhoof got the hint and said quickly, “Oh, where are my manners, please sit down.” And so she did. Maud laid the heavy saddlebag to the chair next to her and sat down. The softness of the chair caressed her rump. It was then when she realized how much her body ached from the hard work she had been through that day. Trenderhoof sat to the opposite side of the table, his purple eyes fixated to her with excited look in them. It actually made Maud feel a bit troubled. Trenderhoof could clearly not see it because he kept staring at her. Maud heard somepony whispering behind her and slowly turned her head towards the sounds. There were two mares couple of booths behind her. They were looking at her but when she turned towards them the whispering stopped and they tried to look as casual as possible. Maud realized that they were talking about her. She knew it had been a bad idea to come there. She looked at her dress that was still covered in quite a load of dust. “Is something wrong?” Trenderhoof asked from her. She looked at him with stoic stare and said, “I look like a beggar.” That made Trenderhoof laugh. Maud saw other ponies turning toward them, making her feel even more uncomfortable than before. “Stop,” she said quietly. He did as she asked and gave her a funny look. “What? It’s pretty funny,” he said. Maud looked at her dress for a while before saying, “I don’t find it funny.” She held a small pause before continuing, “I think it’s embarrassign.” Trenderhoof chuckled and said, “You don’t look like a beggar. You look like a hard working pony to me.” “I’ve been working all day,” Maud confirmed with a calm nod. The look in Trenderhoof’s eyes made her stare at her hooves. His eyes were almost like sparkling. Maud stared at her hooves and Trenderhoof said, “I find that really charming.” That made Maud blink couple of times. She lifted her eyes from her hooves and her gaze met with his. Trenderhoof had a sly look on his face. “Really?” she asked . Trenderhoof nodded eagerly and leaned a bit forward before saying, “Yes. I simply adore ponies who have such a physical job as you have.” He held a small pause and gave her a slightly suggestive look. Was he trying to flirt with her? “It also seems to keep the body in a good shape too.” He was flirting. Even Maud who didn’t have any experience in things like that, knew that he was doing just that. It made her feel hot around her cheeks. She didn’t know what to feel, or actually she had mixed feelings. It made her uncomfortable, but on the other hand it made her think that somepony actually thought she was interesting enough to flirt at. They were silent for a while. Trenderhoof kept staring at her with dreamy look and Maud stared at her front hooves with stoic stare again. She didn’t know what to say, or if she should say anything at all. She was feeling slightly uncomfortable, but still strangely excited at the same time. “I have to ask Maud, where are you working here in Canterlot? I can’t imagine you as a office worker,” Trenderhoof said and took a sip from his now cold coffee. He probably had realized how awkward the situation had been for Maud and changed the subject. “You know the abandoned mine nearby?” Maud asked. He shook his head. Maud then said, “Well, I work there.” “Fascinating.” Trenderhoof said and leaned into his hooves. “What do you do there actually?” Maud thought for a second, eyeing the ceiling. She then turned her stoic back to him and said, “I collect samples and study them. I’m leaving next Saturnday.” “Is that full of those samples?” Trenderhoof asked and pointed his hoof towards the heavy looking saddlebag that laid next to her. She nodded and said, “Yes. Some of them are just ordinary rocks for boulder to play with.” “Boulder?” Trenderhoof asked. “Is he your pet?” “A friend too,” Maud answered. “I didn’t know that you had a pet.” “I do. He’s always with me,” Maud said, and with dug something out of the chest pocket of her dress. She looked at the small rock in her hoof and gently touched it. Like she said, Boulder was not only her pet. He was also one of her closest friends. He was a good listener, and they never fought. A perfect friend. “Here he is,” she said and placed the rock on the table. Trenderhoof looked at the small rock in front of him confusedly. He then leaned forward and examined it over his glasses. “Is he like a rock-beetle or something? I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said and gave Boulder a small poke. “There is no such thing as rock-beetles.” Maud said and watched him poking the rock. He gave her a questioning look and asked, “Then what is he?” “He’s a rock.” “Oh...” Trenderhoof leaned away from Boulder, clearly confused and in his thoughts. He gave a careful glance towards Maud, who noticed it. “He’s really nice when you get to know him,” Maud said and lifted the small rock. She gave it a small nuzzle and put it back into her pocket. “A pet rock… That’s interesting,” Trenderhoof said and gave her a small smile. She had started to like that smile even more. She heard snickering from behind her. Probably the same mares that had been whispering about her earlier. Suddenly she remembered where she was again, and felt even more embarrassed than before. The snickering behind her continued, making her feel like shrinking on her place. She looked at stallion in front of her. He too seemed to have noticed the mares behind her, and had an annoyed frown on his face. “I should go.” Maud said when the constant giggling didn’t stop. She managed to sound calm, even she wasn’t. She quickly rose from the table and took her saddleback. Before she could even say goodbyes, Trenderhoof grabbed her from her hoof. Maud who wasn’t used to being touched, jerked her hoof away from his quickly. “Sorry,” she apologize after that. Trenderhoof had a sad pout on his face. Maud stared at him for a second, then she take a quick peek at the mares that were now trying to look busy reading their menus. She sighed and sat down. Trenderhoof examined her and then looked at the booth were the mares were sitting. “Are they troubling you?” he asked. Maud quickly shook her head. She didn’t want him to be worried. “Are you sure?” Now Maud nodded. Trenderhoof didn’t seem to buy it. He leaned a bit forward, whispering just barely audibly, “Don’t take that from them.” “It’s okay,” Maud answered, feeling troubled. She wasn’t one to take involvement in any kind of conflicts. “No it’s not,” Trenderhoof whispered a bit louder. “Why won’t you stand out for yourself?” That made Maud fall silent. Trenderhoof could see how she tensed up, showing clear signs of discomfort. Maud stared past him, not wanting to talk anymore. She had her own reason why she didn’t want to talk about her abstinence of showing too much feelings. Something she didn’t want to talk with somepony she barely knew. “You don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Trenderhoof said awkwardly, leaning backwards from her. She nodded and kept staring past her. She started to feel like leaving again. Just as she was about to rise up from the table, Trenderhoof spoke again. “Maud,” he said, getting her attention. “I don’t know what you will think about this but…” Maud herself didn’t know what she was going to think about it, or what he was going to say even. “I was thinking…” he started and scratched the back of his head nervously. “I was thinking if we could… see again? Before you leave Canterlot?” Maud blinked. He wanted to meet her again? Was he asking her out on date? Did she want to meet him again? Those were the questions running around her head. She had never been out with a stallion before. She actually never even had wanted to go out with anypony. And why should she have wanted? She had never felt a need for a very special somepony in her life. Now she was getting ahead of things. Maybe he wanted to see just as friends? Maud looked at the stallion in front of her. He had formed nervous grin on his face when she hadn’t answered. She thought what to say for a long moment, before asking with her emotionless voice, “Like a date?” Trenderhoof chuckled nervously and drew small invisible circles to the floor with his hoof. He looked at maud with a asking look on his face and said, “If you want.” Maud felt a single drop of sweat running down her forehead. She was between a rock and a hard place there. She wanted to say yes, but she also wanted to say no. Those two opinions fought inside her head. A small silence before Maud coughed. She had decided to just open her mouth and see which opinion had won the battle. She looked at him and found herself saying quietly, “Sure.” Act 2.2Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 2.2 It was dark. Not as dark as during night time. It was even darker. Pitch black actually. So dark that a pony couldn’t see past it’s own hooves. It was also very very quiet. Abandoned mining tunnels had a bad habit of being just like that. The thick, calm silence was cruelly broken by a clattering of hooves that echoed through the tunnels. Soon the darkness was sliced by a bright beam of light. It came from a flashlight that was being held by a grey pony covered in black dust. She held the flashlight in her mouth while navigating through the tunnels that could be many kilometers in lenght. Maud Pie had her purple mane tied to a ponytail so it wouldn’t get in the way of her work. her fur was messy and the green dress she always wore had many scratches on it. Many would have thought that she would be exhausted by all the walking she had been through that day. Well, she was not. She was actually feeling pretty happy. She had enjoyed her work about fifty percent more since she had met Trenderhoof the other day. Now she had something to look forward. Still, even she was anxious to meet Trenderhoof again, she had her doubts. Date. That word kept spinning in her mind. First things that came to her mind from a word date were movies, cafe, and something to eat. Not that she didn’t like those things, but all of those things had one thing in common. The ponies who were on a date were always the center of attention, especially when another of them was a celebrity like Trenderhoof. Maud shook her head to clear it and focused back to her task of getting out of the mine. It didn’t take long for her to get her thoughts back in order. She didn’t understand how someponies could get lost there. She herself knew exactly where she was. She was about two hundred meters from the surface. Next she would need to turn left, then right, right again then straight past two next junctions and then left again. Then there would be ladders where she could climb back to the surface. Simple. She kept going and in about half an hour later she could smell the fresh air. Five minutes later she was at the ladders that would lead her to the surface. She looked up and saw a small white dot above her. Ten minutes more and she was standing at the edge of a two by two meters wide hole that led back to the mine itself. Now that she was out of the mine, she let her thoughts wander back to the little, or big problem that she was having. She really wanted to spent more time with Trenderhoof, but didn’t know if she could. Frustrated by it, Maud decided to sit down. She walked to a fallen tree trunk and sat down. She started to look around herself. All the trees around the mine were cut down back in the time when the mine was still used. The trees had been used to build houses for the miners, but all the wooden buildings had been either demolished. She could still see couple of rock foundations peeking from the ground. Maud turned to look at the full saddlebag next to her. Usually she would spent all her breaks examining the samples she had with her, but didn’t feel like doing that right at that moment. Her head was too full of questions at that moment. Instead she opened the saddlebag and dug out a small black notebook, pen and a sandwich wrapped in cellophane. In a swift motion she ripped the cellophane away and flipped her notebook open. Maud took couple of dainty bites from her sandwich while flipping through the pages of her notebook. It didn’t actually have any notes in it, just some personal thoughts she had and poems. Lots and lots of poem. Most of them… or actually every single of them were about rocks. She liked rocks. Maud tried to think a tittle for a new poet but didn’t feel like writing after all. With a frustrated sigh she tossed the notebook on top of her saddlebag and continued her feast. She had only couple of bites left when she heard something that made her perk up. She didn’t know what it was until she heard it again. A quiet mumbling. Somepony was somewhere close by. By the sounds of it it was a stallion, and somehow one particular stallion came into her mind. She stayed still for a second, just staring in front of her. Could it be? She quickly munched the rest of her sandwich and rose up, scanning the area around her. No sign of anypony, but she could still hear that quiet mumbling. There had been couple of teens hanging around and getting drunk there, but Maud hadn’t minded them. This time it was different though. The voice was too deep to belong to a teen, and Maud thought that it sounded somehow familiar. She felt her heartbeat raising. She left her saddlebag against the fallen tree and carefully started to walk towards the sound. She realized that the voice came from behind small hill near her. After small hesitating moment, Maud slowly started to climb up the gently sloping hill, bracing herself. She sneaked towards the hilltop and craned her neck to see better. What she saw was… surprising at least. A bit further down the hill there stood a stallion. It was Trenderhoof, standing in front of a big boulder. That wasn’t even the surprising thing. His clothing were. Trenderhoof was wearing a white helmet and on his waist was a utility belt with small pick hanging on it. The big glasses he usually wore had been replaced by smaller, more practical ones and he wasn’t wearing his trademark sweater either. Maud examined the sight with her mouth a bit open. What the hay was he doing there, in those clothes? She then noticed that Trenderhoof was struggling with something, swearing quietly and pulling his right fore hoof. By closer inspection Maud realised that his hoof was stuck under the big boulder in front of him. She frowned. The boulder was gabbro specimen. They were the most mischievous kind of rocks she knew. He didn’t look like he was hurt though, but clearly couldn’t get free by himself. Maud would have found the situation funny, but Trenderhoof’s weird clothing got all her attention. She kept looking at the stallion in trouble for a minute longer, before realizing that he may need some help. She almost tiptoed towards him, and he didn’t seem to notice her. He was too busy trying to get his hoof free. Maud stopped just couple of steps behind him. “Hey,” she said and Trenderhoof almost jumped out of his skin. He turned around as much as he could without ripping his own hoof off and looked towards Maud with scared look. It soon changed into a happy smile though. Maud deadpanned at him. That smile was something she liked in him more than anything else. It was so charming and somehow just seemed so genuine. It was something like Pinkie Pie’s smile, but it felt somehow different, better. “Hello Maud,” Trenderhoof exclaimed. Maud didn’t answer. She was still a bit confused by his appearance. Trenderhoof noticed her looking at his clothes. He puffed out his chest and asked, “Well, what do you think?” “About what?” she asked while curiously poking the small pickhammer on his utility belt. Once again a question he hadn’t expected. “I-I’m an geologist!” he tried. Maud’s eyes went wide, but then she returned to her calm state and said with a shake of her head, “No you’re not.” Trenderhoof looked at her with his mouth a little open. He then gulped and said, sounding almost sad, “I thought that you’d like if I’d look like one.” Maud was about to say something but then his words came through to her. He had dressed as a geologist to impress her? She looked at the smiling stallion in front of her and felt heat rising onto her cheeks. She managed to keep it under control and kept her poker face. “It’s…” she started and a hopeful expression spread on Trenderhoof’s face. “Nice.” There was a deep silence after that. Both of them kept staring at their hooves. After a minute Maud remembered that Trenderhoof was in trouble. “Do you need help?” she asked from Trenderhoof who started to smile sheepishly. He coughed nervously and said, “I’m okay.” “Your hoof is stuck,” Maud said and pointed at his hoof that was indeed stuck. He shrugged and said with bad faked poker face, “Its nothing, really. I can get it out of there whenever I want.” Maud gave her a look that made him chuckle nervously. He rubbed the back of his head with his free hoof and mumbled, “Yeah… Whenever I want.” Maud shook her head and sighed. She then walked over to the boulder and put her front hooves against it. “Watch out,” Trenderhoof warned. “ It’s pretty heavy. A pretty mare like you might get h…” He was cut out by Maud pushing the boulder with little effort, making it rise from over his hoof like it was made out of paper mass. Trenderhoof stared at her with his jaw almost hitting the ground. Maud returned his stare and after couple of more seconds she asked a bit annoyedly, “Are you going to take your hoof away or not?” “Oh,” he exclaimed when he realised that he was now free. He backed couple of steps and Maud released the rock. It came down to the ground with loud thud that made them both jump couple of inches off the ground. Maud looked amusedly at the stallion who stared at the big rock that she had just lifted up. She turned around and started to slowly walk towards the saddlebag she had left behind. It didn’t take long before Trenderhoof raced next to her. He had a respectful smile on his lips as he started to speak, “Well that was something!” “What?” Maud asked, clearly knowing what he meant. He had a big grin on his face as he continued to adore her, “I’ve never seen a mare with your strenght!” “That’s nothing,” Maud said and shrugged while getting closer towards the fallen tree where her saddlebag was. Trenderhoof just chuckled a little and kept walking side by side with her. When they reached the fallen tree, he spoke again, “You must be wondering why I’m here.” “Yes,” Maud answered. Trenderhoof stopped and sat on the tree trunk when Maud started to pick her things up. “I thought that you like working, yes?” he asked from Maud, who simply nodded. “And I am mighty interested about your work,” he continued, earning Maud’s attention. “So I decided that we should meet here!” he finished while throwing his hooves up in the air. Maud stopped her packing and looked at him with that deadpan look. “Is this our date?” she asked. “Oh… Um… Sure!” Trenderhoof exclaimed. Maud gave him a calm stare. She turned to look away from him while thinking how well things had worked out. She didn’t need to go to the town with him, so she wouldn’t feel awkward being the center of the attention. And she liked working with rocks, and now she could do that while spending time with him! It was perfect. “Of course if you want we can go and have a coffee or something...” he started, but Maud turn back towards him. “No.” she quickly said. “I prefer this opinion.” Trenderhoof seemed relieved and started to clap his hooves together while saying, “Splendid!” Maud turned back towards her saddlebag and threw her notebook inside it. She then lifted onto her back and stared at the brown stallion. “What now?” she asked from him. “You just do your thing!” he said cheeringly. “My thing?” Maud asked and gave him a strange look. Trenderhoof chuckled and clarified with a smile, “You just continue working. I’ll hang around and I’ll take care of the talking too.” Maud nodded. It sounded like a good arrangement to her. “Lets go then!” Trenderhoof said happily. “I can also help if you want.” Maud knew that she didn’t need help with anything, but didn’t want to be rude. She thought for a second before coming up with a task easy enough for him. “You can carry my saddlebag.” “With pleasure!” Maud took a hold of her bag and lifted it from her back onto Trenderhoof’s. He was clearly surprised by the weight of it but did a good job trying to hold his calm look on his face. “Is it too heavy?” Maud asked and was about to lift it off from his back, but he shook his head quickly and said, “Not… at all. I can manage.” He had determination. She had to give him that. “Thanks,” she said, making Trenderhoof smile proudly. He did a small bow and said with playful voice, “Anything for you.” This time Maud couldn’t control her blushing, something that wasn’t like her at all. She turned her face away from him and started to walk towards the entrance to the mine. Trenderhoof huffed while sifting the weight of the bag on his back. Maud felt strange feeling of sudden happiness flow through her. It was first time when a stallion carried her saddlebag for her. Actually many had offered their help but she had never accepted it. Anyway, she liked when he offered his help. The heavy bag on Trenderhoof’s back It didn’t stop him from chatting with her. “So what are you actually doing in here?” Trenderhoof asked. “I am studying if there is enough minerals in this mine to reopen it,” Maud answered and he listened in awe. “You work in an abandoned mine all alone? Isn’t that a bit dangerous?” he asked and Maud shrugged. She then looked at him and said with almost smug tone, “Not for me at least.” Trenderhoof snickered and said, “I believe you.” Then he looked at Maud and asked, “Could I see the mine?” “Sure.” Maud answered. “I was going there actually.” “Ooh… Can’t wait.” And he didn’t need to. As if on cue Maud stopped on her tracks and put her hoof against Trenderhoof’s chest, stopping him too. He looked at her with confused look on his face. “It’s right here,” Maud said and pointed at the small hole in the ground about twenty inches away from where he was standing. He looked at the hole and then at Maud. “That’s the mine?” he asked and pointed at the hole. “Yes.” Maud answered. Trenderhoof took careful step towards the entrance and peeked over the edge. All he saw was the first ten meters of ladders and then just thick darkness. It wasn’t like the mines he had seen in the pictures. There wasn’t electric lights, no elevator or anything else actually. Just darkness. He gulped and then muttered to himself quietly, “Oh boy…” Maud noticed his concern. She walked next to him and said, “Just follow me and you’ll be fine.” * * * “I told you to follow me,” Maud lectured Trenderhoof, who rubbed his aching head. They had already come out of the mine, after only thirty minutes after going down there. Their little trip hadn’t gone too well. “Sorry. I didn’t see that the ceiling was so low,” he said and drooped his ears embarrassedly. Maud didn’t hear that. She was checking Trenderhoof’s head for cuts or bruises, running her hoof in his blonde mane. It was so soft that she didn’t remember to focus on her task. She kept petting his silky mane until he asked, “Is there anything?” She snapped back to reality and felt how a deep blush emerged onto her cheeks. She shook her head and sat next to him. She grabbed the white helmet Tenderhoof had wore and examined it. It had a small crack on the spot where it had hit the ceiling off the low tunnel. She then turned towards the looming Trenderhoof. She thought how she got really scared when Trenderhoof yelped in the dark. She first thought that something bad had happened to him when she had seen him holding his head, so they rushed to the surface. Gladly he hadn’t any injuries. Well, maybe his ego had gotten couple bumps. “Good that you had a helmet,” Maud said and placed the white helmet back to the ground between them. Trenderhoof sighed sadly and said, “Yeah… Sorry that I ruined your work.” Maud looked towards the entrance to the mine. That little mishap had indeed made her fall a bit behind the schedule. Not that she really cared. She was just happy that he was okay. “It’s okay,” Maud answered and looked at him. Trenderhoof gave her a small smile before saying with sheepish grin on his face, “I think I’ll let you do your work from here on.” They then spent a small moment in silence, and strangely enough Maud found the silence uncomfortable. Usually she didn’t like small talk, but this time she wanted to talk. It took her a moment before she noticed her saddlebag and came up with a topic. “Are you hungry?” she asked from Trenderhoof. He held his stomach for a second and nodded, saying, “A little bit.” “I still have one sandwich left,” Maud said and pointed at her saddlebag. “We can share.” Trenderoof’s ears sprung up and he started to smile happily. The smile almost made Maud blush again. “I’d like that,” He said. With that Maud pulled her saddlebag in front of her and started to go through it. The sandwich was under all her equipment so she had to empty almost all of her things before reaching the treat. Maud placed the black notebook on the ground. Trenderhoof noticed it and looked at it for a second, before taking it into his hooves and asking, “What’s this?” Maud turned around and her eyes went wide when she saw what he was holding. She jumped towards him and grabbed the notebook. She held it tightly against her chest and turned her back towards him. She didn’t want him to read any of the things she had written in it. “Ohh… Was that like… a diary or something?” Trenderhoof asked, sounding sorry. Maud nodded and looked at the notebook in her hooves. “Sorry,” Trenderhoof said quietly. “I was just interested.” “It’s okay,” Maud said without changing her tone. She swept some dust off from the notebook’s cover. “There’s just some thoughts and poems there anyways.” “Poems?” Maud nodded. Trenderoof’s mouth was open and he had surprised look on his face. He inched closer to Maud and asked, “Do you write poems?” Maud nodded again, a bit coyly this time. Trenderhoof smiled strangely and said, “I’d like to hear your poems. I wrote some myself, but couldn’t get the rhyme right in the end.” “What?” Maud asked. Only one pony had asked to hear her poems before. It was Twilight Sparkle, but Maud could tell that she hadn’t liked them. After that she hadn’t read them to anypony. Not even her family. “Really?” she asked. “Yes! I couldn’t quite come up with a good rhym….” “No, Do you really want to hear my poems?” She asked. Would his answer even matter? Would she really read her works to him? “Of course I would like that!” She would. Something in him made it impossible to resist. Was it his blonde, blow dried mane? Violet eyes or that damn smile he always wore when he was around her? She didn’t know but she found herself nodding again. That made his smile grew even wider. Their stares met for a second when Maud turned to look at him. Their gazes lingered in each others eyes for a second before Maud turned back towards her notebook, trying to hide her blush. It didn’t work but Trenderhoof didn’t say anything. He just kept smiling. Blushing Maud opened her notebook and flipped to an random page. She noticed that on the right page was one of her best works. She cleared her voice and Trenderhoof leaned towards her. Then she started to read. “Rock. You are a rock. Gray. You are gray. Like a rock. Which you are. Rock.” She finished reading and turned towards Trenderhoof, waiting for a reaction. Trenderhoof had a frown on his face, which Maud thought looked like a confused one. She quickly thought that he hadn’t liked her poem and shut her notebook. “They’re not so special really,” she said quietly and stared at the ground. “That was different,” Trenderhoof said, gaining her attention. Maud saw that he had a warm smile on his lips. When he had her attention, he continued, “It was full of personality, it was simple and told about the writer’s feelings.” “You just made that up,” Maud said with deadpan stare. Trenderhoof chuckled and gave her a sheepish smile. “Maybe, but you know what…” he started, clearly waiting for Maud to ask ‘what’. “What?” “I really liked it,” He said with a smile. Maud blinked slowly and stared right into his eyes. “Really?” she asked and saw how he nodded eagerly. Twilight had said that she liked her poets too, but maud knew she hadn’t meant it. This stallion in front of her though, he seemed to like it for real. “Can I hear another?” “What?” Maud asked for third time in a short time. If Trenderhoof wouldn’t have known better, he would have thought that she had bad hearing. “Can I hear another one?” He repeated with a ensuring smile. Maud had hard time trying to speak. His question had been so unexpected that her brain didn’t know how to react. Luckily her mouth did, and she said, “Sure.” They stared at each other. Maud kept staring into Trenderhoof’s eyes while thinking how she couldn’t have asked for a better date. Then she started to speak. She remembered almost all of her poems by heart, so she stared into his violet eyes while speaking. “Rocks; these are my rocks. Sediments: make me sedimental. Smooth and round, asleep in the ground. Shades of brown and gray…” Act 2.3Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 2.3 It was surprisingly calm at the Canterlot’s train station that day. The reason to that probably was the fact that it was sunday, and nopony had to rush anywhere. The day wasn’t that good either. The sky around Canterlot was covered in grey clouds, making the sky look like a giant ceiling. The weather was windy, and it predicted rain. The pier where Maud Pie and Trenderhoof stood was almost empty. Only one older mare sat on a nearby bench. The atmosphere was silent, but not as awkward as it used to be between those two. They sat on a bench, facing the rail tracks. Trenderhoof had a small smile on his lips while Maud wore her trademark blank stare on her face. Trenderhoof stole sideway glances at her, uneasiness in his mind. He still tried to deny the fact that Maud was leaving. They had had so many nice moments with each other that it felt downright wrong for her to be leaving. He sneaked another careful peek towards her, admiring her looks. Of course she was attractive when covered in dust like two other times they had met during her time in Canterlot, but her clean appearance was just irresistible. Her straight mane and straightly cut bangs, those long eyelashes that fluttered when she blinked, that green dress that pressed against her body… Trenderhoof looked away with smug smile on his lips. Then his expression fell into much darker one. She was leaving. “Is everything alright?” he heard Maud asking with her monotone voice he had crew to like past few days. He turned his head and his gaze met hers. When they met for the first time, Maud had avoided eye contact with him, but now she stared right into his eyes. He considered that as great progress. “Yeah… I’m just a bit sad that you’re leaving,” Trenderhoof said, sadly staring in front of him.. “We had nice time together.” “We did.” Maud said and returned to stare in front of her too. “It’s a shame.” It was more than a shame. It was awful. Trenderhoof knew that that day would come, and he had practiced how to tell her about his feelings. He had a shameless crush on her, but he still wasn’t sure how she felt about him. She was so hard to read. What if she didn’t have the same feelings towards him? What if she thought him only as a friend or something? Trenderhoof straightened his pose a little and glanced at her, sighing deeply.. He knew he had to speak up soon, but he didn’t know what words to use. He had never been wordless around the mares. Not even with Applejack, who had been another mare he had been drooling after. Another sideway glance, another sigh. Maud noticed it and turned towards him again. She noticed his troubled look and asked, “Are you sure everythings alright?” “Yeah…” Trenderhoof sighed and turned towards Maud. “Everything’s…” He stopped when his eyes met hers. She looked at him with that stare of hers. Her stare… Those turquoise eyes... It was something that went right through him, making his heart flutter. He knew that it was time. “Uh… Actually I have something to ask,” he said. He decided to proceed with caution, just in case. Maud nodded. “I’ve been thinking… I really enjoyed spending time with you...” Trenderhoof started and played with the sleeve of his sweater nervously. Maud agreed by nodding again. Trenderhoof let his sleeve be and turned to look at her straight in the eyes. “And I thought that… maybe we could spend some more time together?” “Sure.” Trenderhoof’s eyes went wide and his mouth opened. It had been easier than he had thought. For a moment he stared at her like that, but then his mouth turned into a wide grin and his eyes sparkled. He was just about to say something when Maud continued, “We can see when I come back from the rock farm.” Trenderhoof’s face went to confused one again. It could take pretty long before Maud would be coming back, and he wasn’t a fan of remote relationships. “It’s nice to have a friend here.” A friend? Trenderhoof almost winced when he heard that. Did he just get a friend zoned by her? No. He shook that thought off. She probably just didn’t understand what he meant. Just as he was about to speak, a loud whistle interrupted him. He and Maud both turned towards the sound and saw the train to rock farm glide to the pier. The whistle was heard again and the locomotive released a vast amount of steam to the pier with a loud hissing sound. They kept staring at it as the doors opened in unison, couple of ponies coming out of it. They saw a Conductor walking out of the first car and trotting off to do whatever he was doing. “That’s my train,” Maud said and jumped down from the bench. She picked up her bag from the handle and turned towards Trenderhoof. “It whas nice sheeing you,” she mumbled with the handle in her mouth. Trenderhoof didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded. Maud turned around and started to walk towards the train. Trenderhoof immediately face-hoofed himself and rose up, dashing after her. “Maud wait!” he said and trotted next to her. She turned her head towards him but didn’t stop walking. Trenderhoof didn’t have too much time so he went straight to the point, “I think you understood me wrong!” Maud gave him a look that told him to explain himself, which he did. “With spending time with you…” he said and looked at Maud. “I meant spending it as more than just friends.” I took couple of seconds before his words sunk into her. When they did, her eyes went wide and she stopped dead on her tracks, staring at him with confusion and surprise. Trenderhoof smiled at her nervously, waiting for some kind of an answer, which he didn’t get. Maud just turned to stare at the ground, making his smile vanish. He backed away couple of steps. She didn’t seem like she liked the idea. Trenderhoof’s ears dropped and he felt how his heart fluttered even harder. Only this time it was due sadness and annoyance. Why did he have to ruin it? Now it was almost impossible to be ‘just friends’ with her. He hung his head and gulped. “Of course we can be just friends if you want,” he said and lifted his gaze towards Maud, expecting to see her walking towards the train car. To his surprise she stood on her place, looking at her with slight blush on her otherwise emotionless face. “Sorry…” she started, with a hint of nervousness in her voice. “I just got surprised.” “All aboard!” the conductor shouted, but they didn’t hear it. “Nopony has ever asked me anything like that,” she said and looked at Trenderhoof, who started to see a new glimpse of hope. He took step forward and asked, “So… uh… what do you say?” There was a brief silence between them. Trenderhoof looked at her with anticipation in his look. Maud seemed to be thinking about something for a second or two, before she opened her mouth. Trenderhoof bit his lower lip and folded his ears backwards, waiting for the answer. “Sure.” Trenderhoof instantly jumped in the air and whooped, but his voice was overran by the loud whistling sound. They looked at the train and saw that it started to move slowly, pushing more steam to the pier. As happy as Trenderhoof was, he knew that Maud shouldn’t miss the train, so he turned towards her and said, “I’ll help you to the train.” “No need to,” Maud said and picked up her bag again. Trenderhoof gave her a confused look before saying, “But you will miss your train!” “So it seems,” Maud said calmly and stared as the train slowly moved away from the pier. Trenderhoof was looked at her and then at the train confusedly. What was going on? When it was about fifty meters away from the station, Maud dropped her bag and turned towards him, saying, “I think I will have to stay here for another week.” “Ohh… Oh! And I don’t think you have any bits left?” he asked with one brow raised. Maud shook her head. Trenderhoof smiled as he realised what she was doing. “Well it would be rude if I wouldn’t help a damsel in distress now wouldn’t it?” he asked with a sly grin on his face. Maud nodded. “In that case you can stay at my humble abode,” Trenderhoof said and bowed a little. Maud blinked slowly and turned around, making her way towards the exit. Trenderhoof quickly picked up her bag and trotted after her. He thought about doing something bold for a second, before he went from thoughts to actions. He lifted his hoof sneakily and placed it onto Maud’s shoulder. She winced and looked at his hoof, and then at him. Trenderhoof wore a sheepish smile, but it didn’t help. Maud nudged his hoof off from her shoulder and gave him a stern stare. “Sorry,” he chuckled nervously and continued to walk on her side, smiling from ear to ear. It was going to be a great week. Act 3.1Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 3.1 “Are you sure you don’t want any?” “Yes.” Trenderhoof frowned, but then nodded. He turned away from Maud, facing the vendor of the ice cream stand. He examined the menu for a second before saying, “Just plain vanilla cone, thank you.” The vendor nodded and started to make his order. Meanwhile Maud started to look for a free bench near the stand. The small square near Trenderhoof’s apartment was surprisingly empty, considering that the day was so good. Sun was shining, birds were singing in the branches of the only tree in the middle of the square and small gold fishes splashed in the fountain that surrounded the lone oak mentioned earlier. Maud didn’t keep admiring her surroundings for too long, and soon found a perfect bench, under the shadow of the oak. She sat down and waited for Trenderhoof to join her. She stared at him as he walked towards her with the vanilla cone in his magical grasp. His blow dried mane flowing in wind and his violet eyes looking towards her behind his glasses. Maud felt a shudder. It was still strange thinking about their relationship and she still felt like giggly teen around him, but luckily she could hide that. She had accepted those feelings in the past two days, and had learned to like them in a way. She was snapped away from her thoughts when Trenderhoof sat besides her and said, “Quite lovely place.” “Yep,” she said and looked around herself. The square was surrounded by typical Canterlot styled buildings, nothing too special, but she liked the cobblestone that covered the square. Fine cobblestone indeed. She noticed that it was actually the first time she had paid any attention to anything that had something to do with rocks in the whole time she had spent living in Trenderhoof’s apartment. Well she had spent almost three hours teaching Trenderhoof about rock cycle, but that didn’t count. She came to that conclusion that Trenderhoof had stolen all her attention, which was a hard thing to do. She really liked rocks. “You want some?” Trenderhoof asked from her, snapping her back to reality for second time. He was levitating the ice cream in front of her nose. She leaned backwards and shook her head. “I’m not much into sweets,” she said but Trenderhoof kept pushing the cone forward while pleading, “Just one lick. The taste is quite charming.” Maud gave her an annoyed look, but then turned towards the ice cream and gave it a dainty lick. It tasted like vanilla, big surprise. She didn’t like it. “Well?” Trenderhoof asked. “I don’t like sweets.” Trenderhoof frowned amusedly, and then gave the cone a lick himself. The they were quiet for a while, before he spoke again, “Can we hold hooves?” “What?” Maud asked, pulling her hooves closer to herself. The question had surprised her completely. For the past two days she had liked spending time with Trenderhoof, but they hadn’t done anything physical yet. Not even held hooves. “Come oon…” Trenderhoof dragged the end of the sentence. “We should look like a pair when we’re one.” Maud didn’t answer “I know you will like it.” he tried. Maud rubbed her hooves together nervously, but she still had her poker face on. Trenderhoof opened his mouth to probably peg again, but he was interrupted by two very high pitched scream. They both turned towards the ear aching scream and saw two teenager mares dashing towards them. Other one was a light green colored and the other one had very light brown coat. Maud immediately spotted some similarities between those two teenagers and Trenderhoof. They both had same kind of sweaters as he did, and the other one even had exactly identical glasses as he had. Clearly some big time fans of him. “Ohmygoshohmygosh! Trenderhoof we love you..!” the other one shouted. Maud grabbed his hoof into her own and pulled him closer to herself, driven by some strange urge. The teens and Trenderhoof were equally surprised, and maybe Maud herself was too. The teens slowed down and looked at them with confused stare. “Umm…,” the green mare started slowly. “Did we interrupt something?” “Yeah…” Trenderhoof said while still staring at Maud with confused, but in the same time happy look on his face. Everypony were silent for a moment. Only the rustling of leaves in the oak behind them was heard until the light brown mare said shyly, “C-could you sign this magazine?” She presented a magazine to them, which Maud recognized as some famous travel magazine. The cover of it had a picture of smiling Trenderhoof in it. “Oh… Of course!” Trenderhoof said and tried to extend his hoof towards the magazine, but Maud held it tightly. He gave her a strange look, and Maud grudgingly let go of him. “What’s your name beauty?” he asked from the shyly smiling mare, making Maud almost fold her ears backwards. The mare giggled and said, “Latte.” “Latte… I like your glasses by the way,” Trenderhoof said as he levitated a pencil from his pocket. The teen giggled and Trenderhoof started to write. “From Trenderhoof to Latte… with love,” he spoke as he wrote, making the girls giggle even harder. Maud didn’t like that, and when he released the magazine Maud immediately wrapped her fore hooves around his right hoof again. Trenderhoof smiled stupidly and said, “It was nice seeing you girls, always a pleasure to meet fans.” The girls blushed and curtseyed at him, before trotting away from them, giggling and fighting over the magazine. They looked after the two young ponies for a moment, and then they disappeared behind the corner of nearby house. “Lovely girls,” Trenderhoof said. Maud just let out a small ‘hmph’. Trenderhoof turned to look at him with teasing look in his eyes. He leaned closer to her and whispered, “Are you jealous?” “No.” Maud answered quickly, looking the other way. She was jealous, and that wasn’t even the worst part.The worst part was that she didn’t even know why! It wasn’t like her to get jealous over a stallion. Trenderhoof chuckled and continued his teasing, “I think you are!” “No.” Maud denied again. Trenderhoof snickered and stared at her with a small smile and strange look in his eyes. Maud stared back with questioning look. “Now we look like a pair,” he said with sly voice. Maud realized that she was still holding his hoof in a tight grip. She looked up and saw him smiling warmly at her. That was the same smile that made her feel giddy a while back when they first met in Canterlot. It made her tighten her grip around his hoof. They stared at each other for a second, before Maud said in her monotone voice, “I like this.” “I knew you’d like it,” he said and took another lick from his ice cream. It didn’t take long before Maud noticed someponies looking at them with interest. Maud started to feel uncomfortable when she noticed more eyes fixated towards them. She felt like shrinking under their gazes, letting go of Trenderhoof’s fore leg. He turned to look at her and saw her staring down at her own hoofs. “What’s wrong,” he asked, reaching towards her. Maud just shook her head and muttered, “Everypony is looking.” When Trenderhoof heard that he lifted his gaze to see if she was right, noticing how the ponies mentioned earlier turned to look elsewhere, trying to evade his gaze. A frown appeared onto his forehead, grunting annoyedly. It wasn’t first time everypony who knew about his magazine were interested in his private life, and by everypony who knew about his magazine, he meant everypony in whole Canterlot. A celebrity’s relationships were always a good source of gossip around the city. “Don’t mind them,” Trenderhoof said and looked at Maud, who was staring at her hooves with deadpan look. She slowly lifted her head and looked at him while saying, “They are judging me.” Trenderhoof snorted angrily. He grabbed Maud’s hoof into his own and held it tightly. He felt Maud tensing up and trying to pull her hoof free, which he didn’t allow. He waited until Maud was looking him in the eyes and started, “Well two can play that game.” “What do you mean?” she asked. Trenderhoof chuckled and nudged towards the pony closest to them. He was a dark grey stallion who was wearing a black vest. He was eating ice cream. “Look at him. He can’t eat ice cream without making a great mess,” Trenderhoof whispered to her. He was right. Maud saw that the stallion was making his black vest covered in the melting white ice cream. “And that one,” Trenderhoof said so the pony he was addressing. Maud recognized him as one of the ponies who had been whispering to the another stallion about them. Trenderhoof waited until he was sure that that stallion was looking at him. “He keeps stealing sneak peeks at that mare’s backside!” he said loud enough for the mare in question to hear. She let out a loud gasp and turned towards the now sheepishly smiling stallion. There was a loud smack when the mare’s hoof connected to the face of that stallion. It made Maud feel a strange wave of satisfaction wash over her. “And don’t even get me started on the rest of these!” Trenderhoof almost yelled with amused grin on his face. It made the other ponies in the square start squirming on their places. Starting to dismiss into different ways, giving Maud and Trenderhoof some well deserved privacy. “See? They are just ponies like us!” Trenderhoof said as he pulled his hoof from Maud’s, lifting it over her shoulder. Maud tensed up. It felt like holding a statue for Trenderhoof. Soon Maud started to relax slowly though, resting her head onto his shoulder. They stayed like that for a long moment. Trenderhoof finished his ice cream and kept holding Maud in his hooves. He looked down and saw her calm expression, thinking why she was like that around other ponies... Then his mind raced back to the first time they met in Canterlot. He remembered the mares that giggled at her annoyingly, and how she had became incredibly tensed when he had asked why she hadn’t defended herself. He stared at Maud in his thoughts. She noticed it and asked, “What?” Trenderhoof snapped away from his trance with a wince. He gave her a stupid look before fixing his pose. “I was just thinking…” he started slowly, Maud getting interested. He gulped before asking, “Why are you so… Or why didn’t you just go and tell them to...” The words got stuck in his throat when he felt how she got tensed up in his hooves. He immediately felt stupid, and decided to drop the matter by saying, “Sorry. It’s not any of my business.” Maud looked up at him for a moment, thinking about something before saying, “I haven’t never been the one to interact with others.” Trenderhoof didn’t say anything, mainly because he didn’t know what to say. Maud tightened her grip around him and continued. “I’m not like my sisters. They smile all the time and go out every night,” she told him. “I’m the oldest of our family’s siblings.” “I don’t see why that is so terrible,” Trenderhoof said, earning a look from Maud that made him shut up. “Pinkie, Marble and Limestone don’t know it, but our family was really broken when I was a filly,” Maud told to Trenderhoof, who gulped. This wasn’t going to be a good story he guessed. “We were really poor. I went to sleep feeling hungry every night.” Maud told and felt how Trenderhoof placed his head to rest on top of hers. “It was then when mom told that she was waiting for another foal. Pinkie Pie,” Maud continued, holding a small pause before continuing, “We had to work day and night to make enough bits so we could provide enough food for another mouth to feed. I never went to school and didn’t have any friends” “It must have been hard,” Trenderhoof said. “It was. I worked so hard that in the end I could tell the type of any rock by just looking at it,” Maud told him, explaining couple things for him. “It is hard to smile when you don’t have any reason to do so,” Maud said and sighed. “We found the big iron vein after Pinkie was born. She doesn’t remember any of it.” “So you managed after that?” Trenderhoof asked. Maud nodded but then said, “We did, but the hard times left some scars to me and dad. That’s why it was hard for my sisters too, until Pinkie got her cutie mark. Dad wasn’t the best father before that.” “How does your sister's cutie mark have anything to do with this?” Trenderhoof asked confusedly. “I’ll tell you someday,” Maud told him with a deadpan stare. “Anyway, dad became lot happier after she got it, like my sisters.” “But you didn’t?” Trenderhoof asked a bit worriedly. Maud shook her head slowly. She squeezed him closer to herself and said, “No. I did. It’s just hard for me to show it after all those years. I'm happy but I just can't show it to anypony. Pinkie Pie is the only pony that can make me smile.” “How about me?” Trenderhoof asked and gave her the smile she liked so much. She stared at him, trying to force out a smile, but it never came. “No, sorry.” Trenderhoof’s smile turned into a less broad one, but he kept smiling. Maud was starting to open up to him. It had to mean that she trusted him. Or at least that usually meant it. That mare was so hard to read. He chuckled and he said, “I promise that someday I will get a smile from you.” “I hope so,” Maud said and pressed her head back to his shoulder, sighing sadly. Trenderhoof noticed that. He smiled to himself. He had knew it! Under Maud's simple appearance was indeed a feeling thing, a beautiful, authentic mare. He nudged her a little to get her attention. “Would you like to have some ice cream?” “No.” “Are you sure?” “No.” “What kind?” “Chocolate.” Act 3.2Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 3.2 Trenderhoof’s apartment hadn’t been what Maud Pie had expected it to be. Of course it was in the centre of Canterlot, and it was a penthouse apartment with rent about same amount of bits that Maud made in year, but it was rather simply decourished inside. Not that the furniture were cheap or anything, they were hoofmade and probably cost a fortune too, but their appearance was something that anypony could have in their homes. Also the color design was very simple. White colors everywhere. Not something that you expected to see in a home of a famous journalist. Well, Maud liked the simple design. Maybe not enough rock-themed furnitures but it could be arranged. Maud and Trenderhoof were sitting in the kitchen, around a big dining table that was from a fine quality maple tree. The sun was just starting to rise up onto the sky, and it’s warm first rays of light poured into the kitchen. Trenderhoof had told her that it was one of the reasons he had rented the apartment. Maud was eating cereal, without milk. She didn’t like to mix milk into her cereal. Trenderhoof was eating cereal too but his cereals were drowning in milk. Or that’s how Maud saw it. The morning went on like all the others that far. Maud ate in silence, offering some of her food to Boulder who rested on the table. Like always, Trenderhoof seemed like he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “I’ve been thinking...” he started and munched a spoonful of cereals. After his mouth was empty again, he continued, “Maybe I should make a visit to Rambling rock ridge?” Maud stopped with the spoon still in her mouth when he mentioned her birthplace. She gulped down the cereal and asked “Why?” “I realised that I haven’t done a single article about rock farming,” he said and leaned into his front hooves, eyeing Maud strangely. “And I have recently found that profession quite interesting,” he continued. Maud lifted her front hooves to the table, leaned closer to him and asked without breaking her poker face, “Is there some reason for that?” “Well,” he said and inched his hoof closer to hers. “I met a interesting mare couple of days back. And she’s quite a good looking too.” Their hooves touched. Their relationship had deepened greatly after the day in the square. They touched each other without problem, Maud not being so scared of it anymore. They had been holding hooves almost nonstop. Maud also had started to like Trenderhoof’s sweet talking and his constant flirting. She thought that who knew how long it would take for them to see again after she would leave Canterlot, so she would get the most out of it. “That’s…” Maud started, but didn’t know how to sweet talk. She looked at Trenderhoof for help. He chuckled and tried, “Sweet?” “Yeah. That.” Trenderhoof smiled and leaned even closer, pursing his lips slightly. He crossed Maud’s too close for comfort line. She pushed him gently backwards from his forehead, feeling almost bad for him when she saw his pitiful face. It wasn’t first time he had tried to kiss her, with same result. Maud liked him, and she really wanted to kiss back, but she had never found enough courage to actually do it. “Sorry… again,” Trenderhoof said with apologetic smile. Maud lifted her hoof to brush his cheek gently as consolation. He smiled a bit more happily for a second, and they pressed their foreheads together. After a while they leaned backwards, staring into each other’s eyes. Then Trenderhoof’s expression changed into a shocked one, and Maud noticed him looking past her. She turned to look where he was looking at, and saw the kitchen clock. It was half past eight. Maud knew that he was supposed to be at the office at nine. “Oh no,” he cried and rose up from the table. “I’m going to be late!” Maud calmly looked from the chair as he dashed off and ran around his apartment, trying to find his saddlebag. Maud looked to the table and saw the lost saddlebag sitting right there, in the middle of it. She took it into her hooves and cleared her throat to get Trenderhoof’s attention. He stopped on his tracks and looked at her with sheepish grin. “Oh how absent-minded I am,” he said and flipped the saddlebag onto his back before reaching his hoof towards Maud, who mimicked him. They shared a hug. Maud was still new in things like that, but she liked it. Trenderhoof was a really great hugger in her opinion, his hugs were warm and in the same time stern, making her feel comfortable. She especially liked the scent of his mane. It smelled clean. Nothing else. “It’s pretty busy day today,” he said, still holding Maud. She nodded so that Trenderhoof could feel it. He slowly pulled away and said, “But you can come by at the office if you want.” “Okay.” Trenderhoof smiled and started to walk towards the door. He quickly glanced at the clock and muttered to himself, “Ohh… She’s going to kill me.” That made Maud’s ears perk up. She knew that his boss was a stallion, not a mare. “Bye then!” Trenderhoof exclaimed from the door. Maud waved at him, and he disappeared behind the door. Maud kept thinking about the line he had muttered just mere seconds before. She jumped off from the table and walked to the nearby window. After couple of minutes she saw Trenderhoof trotting towards his office. Even she knew that what she had heard was nothing, something still kept bothering her. She was not sure why. * * * Trenderhoof trotted down the street with spring in his step. Even the fact that he was almost late from a very important meeting didn’t stop him from smiling. Maud Pie had that kind of effect on him. He peeked over his shoulder. His apartment had disappeared from his sight long time ago, but he still felt an urge to look behind him, every time hoping to see that grey mare behind him. She wasn’t there. Trenderhoof sighed and looked forward again. He wanted to be home. Usually he was happy when going to the office, he liked his job unlike some of his co-workers. Maybe it was because he had almost triple pay rate compared to them, and he often met famous ponies during his travels. In a matter of fact he was supposed to meet one in fifteen minutes. It was reason to his hurrying. He knew that it was important meeting, and that it was also going to be the most interesting meeting he had had in months. Normally he could not have have even imagined to miss something like that, but now... Now he wanted to be home. For the past week there hadn’t been a single day when he hadn’t thought about staying home. Actually he had skipped work just the day earlier, spending the whole day with Maud. He felt bad in a way for not showing up on the most busiest time of the week, but didn’t regret it. Time with Maud had been invaluable. Trenderhoof trotted past the café where they had seen each other for the first time in Canterlot. He chuckled to himself when he remembered how embarrassed Maud had looked, sitting there in her dust covered dress and tangled mane. The memory of her appearance that night made Trenderhoof’s heart beat faster. He knew how other ponies probably didn’t know nothing about her because of her simple appearance and unintentional coldness in her voice drove most of them away from her. Like those mares that kept making Maud feel awkward when they met in the café he just passed. They saw just a dirty pony with dull look on her face. It still made him feel a bit angry, because he knew that Maud wasn’t like that. Trenderhoof crossed a road, almost getting ran over by a chariot, but he didn’t even notice it. He was too deep in his thoughts. He thought what Maud really was. She was a strong, independent mare who had a hard work. Trenderhoof also knew that she was also an intelligent. She loved poems and fashion was also part of her… in some way at least. Trenderhoof knew he shouldn’t have started thinking about her, because now it was almost impossible to not turn around and gallop right back to her. The more he thought about her, the more perfect she seemed. Trenderhoof’s ears stated to feel warm and he smiled smugly to himself when he started to think about Maud’s more physical features. She was couple old years older than him, and years of hard work had clearly shaped her body to perfection... Trenderhoof’s eyes had a glassy gaze in them when he trotted forward. not seeing or hearing anything that happened around him. His daydream had set him into some kind of a automated walk mode. He would surely had walked past the office, if a voice would not have called his name. “Trenderhoof! There you are!” a feminine voice with sophisticated tone shouted, making him snap out of his fantasy, that had made his cheeks got redder shade on them. He turned around and realised that he had walked past the front doors of the office, and that his visitor was already there, waiting for him. Trenderhoof shook his head to clear it, and then started to walk back towards his visitor. In front of him stood a white mare in her twenties. She had a big brimmed hat on top of her head, covering some of her curled royal purple mane. Under the brim of the hat, two big azure eyes stared at him while a happy smile spread on the mare’s lips. She stood in a pose, which Trenderhoof thought was almost like a reflex to her. “Well hello Rarity. It’s been too long,” Trenderhoof said, returning the smile. It had been a long time since they had seen each other, during the Pinkie Pie’s wedding to be exact. Trenderhoof remembered how he had first tried to avoid meeting her during the wedding, thinking that their meeting would be rather awkward, considering the Applejack incident. Of course they met, but they both were adults so everything had gone well. “Oh, too long my darling,” Rarity cooed. She then nudged her head towards him, showing off her hat that was probably one of her newest creations. “How do you like it? It’s one of my newest creations.” “It’s lovely,” Trenderhoof answered. In his opinion it was just a hat. Hat with lot of glitter. Surely it would have been much more charming if one certain earth pony wouldn’t be the only thing in his head. “So Rarity. Are you ready to begin?” Trenderhoof asked, eager to get the meeting over with. “I have all the plans and alternatives ready just for you.” “Ooh, I cant wait to get started,” Rarity exclaimed. “I have so many amazing ideas for this year’s Ponyville Days festival!” There was a small pause, her eyes glimmering and lips curling into a excited smile. “I is going to be magnificent!” she tittered. Trenderhoof smiled and opened door to her, before saying, “Without doubt, dearest Rarity.” * * * “That was absolutely exhausting!” Rarity whined and hung her head dramatically. “But also most rewarding!” “Yes, indeed,” Trenderhoof said calmly. They slowly walked towards the door that lead towards the now crowded streets of Canterlot. Their meeting was over. It had been complete hell to Trenderhoof. Not because he didn’t like Rarity, or the meeting itself, but because he had a burning urge to get back to his place to see the mare of his dreams again. “I can’t believe that boss of yours,” Rarity continued with disapproving tone. “How can’t he be interested in Ponyville Days Festival!? It’s the most important festival in whole Ponyville! He seems to think that Ponyville is just some backwater full of jockels! Glad I could get him to see the true charm of my hometown” She ended her sentence with a loud ‘hmph’. Maybe it wasn’t Ponyville’s charm that made him bend to her will. Maybe it was her charm. She turned towards Trenderhoof, waiting for an reaction. It took couple of seconds before he noticed Rarity staring at him. “What?” he asked. They stopped in front of the front door and Rarity gave him a suspecting glare. She leaned closer to him and said, “You have been acting strangely today.” He was about to say something about being in a hurry, but Rarity was faster. “Is it mare trouble?” Trenderhoof stared at her with surprised look. “Is it that obvious?” he asked, making Rarity chuckle girlishly. She fluttered her eyelashes while speaking,”Oh you can’t keep those things away from Ponyville’s number one gossip queen.” Trenderhoof chuckled and shook his head amusedly. Rarity let out a squee and asked, “Who is her? Some famous pony of course.” “Actually she’s just a regular pony,” Trenderhoof said with smile. “Just like me and you.” “That’s so sweet,” Rarity said with dreamy look in her eyes. “How is she?” Trenderhoof lifted his gaze towards the ceiling, thinking how to describe Maud the best way. “She’s much more than she lets other ponies think… She hides under her simple appearance,” he started, scratching his small beard. “She doesn’t speak too much, but she’s a great listener. She doesn’t want to be the center of attention, but that makes her even more interesting.” “So it is Applejack incident all over again?” Rarity said with a raised brow. Trenderhoof scratched his neck awkwardly and said, “It’s different this time. I know it.” Rarity smiled warmly at him and said, “So you really are head over hooves in love with her?” “Yes. I think I am,” Trenderhoof said with a nod. “I wouldn’t want anypony else.” “Not even me?” Rarity suddenly asked with a seductive tone and sultry gaze. Trenderhoof frowned and answered without hesitation, “Not even you.” “Well that’s good to hear,” Rarity snickered. “Because otherwise my coltfriend would get real mad. And he’s pretty aggressive sometimes.” Trenderhoof noticed a teasing grin appearing on Rarity’s lips. He returned it. “Good to see that we both have gotten over that little accident and moved on,” Rarity said. Trenderhoof nodded knowingly. He then reached his hoof towards Rarity, inviting her into a friendly hug. “It was good to see a old friend,” Rarity said when she returned the hug, closing him into a friendly embrace. She gave Trenderhoof a small kiss to a cheek while saying, “Come visit me and the girls in Ponyville someday.” “I think I will...” Trenderhoof said, a bit taken back by the sudden peck on the cheek. He quickly decided that it was just a gesture to say ‘good bye’. He cleared his throat and a smug grin appeared onto his face. Rarity gave her a confused look in response. “I bet that Pinkie Pie want’s to meet her older sister’s new coltfriend someday,” he said and liked the way how shock emerged onto Rarity’s face. * * * About five minutes earlier Maud Pie was briskly walking towards Trenderhoof’s workplace. She had struggled alone with her unsettling thoughts for many hours, before finally deciding to go and meet him. First she had been nervous about leaving the apartment, but had noticed that not too many ponies actually were staring at her. She thought that it was because she wasn’t moving around with famous pony like Trenderhoof, and because she wasn’t returning from work, covered in dust. And even if somepony might have looked at her curiously, she didn’t care. She was feeling too troubled to notice them. She trotted past the familiar café, not even glancing at it. Her mind was racing around the small, barely audible sentence mumbled by Trenderhoof that morning. “Ohh… She’s going to kill me.” Subconsciously she knew that he could have meant a co-worker or a customer, but rest of her didn’t listen to her subconscious. Later on she would realise that it was because she finally had a pony to care for as more than just a friend, wanting to keep him for herself and not let go. She would also realise that her jealousy was some kind of a defence mechanism that her mind had created while being disoriented by all those new, strange feelings Trenderhoof had caused in her. On that moment however she didn’t even consider those opinions. Actually she didn’t know what to think, or why she was so worried. She didn’t think that Trenderhoof would have another mare. He wasn’t like that. She knew that. She was snapped back to reality for couple of seconds when she almost hit two ponies walking slowly in front of her. Other one was a stallion and he was walking with mare glued to his side. Maud wouldn’t have paid any attention to them and would have just passed them, but they did something that made her stare at those two. They kissed. Maud slowed down to match the speed of those two lovers in front of her. She saw the dreamy gazes in those two unicorn’s eyes. They clearly were in love. Maud fell back to her thoughts. She had showed clear signs of affection towards Trenderhoof. They held hooves, they leaned against each other while sitting side by side, they hugged each other… But they haven’t kissed. She felt a blush forming on her cheeks while thinking about the concept of kissing. It was an physical expression of affection or love between two ponies. Love. Did she love Trenderhoof. She didn’t know, but something in her made her feel warm while being with him, and jealous when somepony else was near him. She had never loved anypony, so she couldn’t tell if what she was feeling was love. But she knew that it was some kind of deep affection at least, and that she liked it. She shook her head and speeded up her pace, walking past those two lovers. She had just gotten a new urge to get to Trenderhoof and prove her suspicions wrong. Suspicions? Was she suspecting that he was maybe doing something with other mare? She cursed mentally, still not knowing what she was doing. She started to trot. It didn’t take long before she recognized the light brown colored building that had the logo of Trenderhoof’s magazine hanging over it’s front doors. She slowed down and walked towards it with mixed feelings. She felt good to see him, and in other hand she feared that she would see him with another mare. On that moment she realised that she was indeed afraid that he had somepony other. She stopped just before the glass doors. She could see inside, but saw nopony in the lobby. She took a deep breath and was about to go in, when one of the doors to the lobby opened. She felt her heart jumping to her throat when she spotted Trenderhoof, in all his splendor. She felt relief for a second, but then she showed up. Maud let out a small, just audible gasp when she saw somehow familiar white mare walking besides him, talking to him. Like said earlier, she should have realised that she was just a customer to Trenderhoof, but in her confused state she immediately felt her heart skipping a beat from pure horror. She retreated towards the wall, so that she could peek behind the doorway. She could have just rushed in, but something stopped her. She decided to examine the situation. They were talking about something, that white mare fluttering her eyelashes annoyingly while she spoke. Maud saw that Trenderhoof smiled at her, making her feel even more nervous. She remembered the mare suddenly. She was one of Pinkie Pie’s friends. That fact made her feel even more grim. She had thought that they were friends. Maybe she didn’t know about Trenderhoof and Maud? She shook her head, even if that white mare didn’t know, he did. She saw that now Trenderhoof was looking nervous, speaking something she couldn’t hear through the thick glass. She kept watching with deep worry. The mare gave her a look that was clearly suggestive. By that point, Maud’s heart was almost coming through her chest. She had a bad feeling about that look, and she saw them exchanging some words, and Trenderhoof reached his hoof towards her. They hugged. Maud’s mouth opened. She stared at the stallion. She felt how her heart stopped beating, but knew that they could hug as just friends. She still had her hopes up. The mare kissed him. Maud’s world stopped. She stared at Trenderhoof and that white mare. For a second, nothing happened, but then she felt sharp pain in her chest. She felt how her heart shattered. She saw them backing away from each other, with smiles on their faces that hurt her even more. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to run away. Her heart started beating fast, her breathing got harder, small sad voices escaping from her mouth. She started hyperventilating. She laid onto her stomach and hid behind her hooves, shuttering. She stayed in that pose for a second, until the shuttering stopped. When Maud lifted her head again, her face was cold and emotionless. Not even single tear was shed. Maud didn’t look inside again, instead she turned around and started walking towards the same way she had came. * * * Trenderhoof twisted the key in the lock with his magic, opening the door with a quiet klick. He grinned happily and stepped in. It had been taken him a bit longer to get home, mainly due Rarity’s harsh lecture to not ever hurt Maud’s feelings, because otherwise he would have six very angry mares after him. He chuckled at the image of him being chased down by one princes and five elements of harmony. “Maud? I’m home,” he announced as he stepped into his own apartment. It was quiet. He wasn’t suspecting anything though, Maud never responded. She always trotted to meet him and gave him a gentle hug, which he was waiting eagerly in the hallway. She never came. Trenderhoof was a bit surprised, but thought that she was probably in bathroom or something. He trotted to the living room, not seeing a single soul. “Maud?” he called again. No response. Trenderhoof trotted towards the bathroom next, knocking on the door gently. Again no response. Trenderhoof thought for a second. He then tried the handle. Unlocked. He took a peek in the bathroom and saw that Maud was not in there. In a way he felt relieved. It would have been awkward if he would have crashed on her while she was on a toilet. He didn’t feel too troubled at that point. He was sure that Maud was taking a nap in the bedroom. He closed the bathroom door and trotted to the door of his bedroom, noticing that it was open. “Maud?” he asked silently, not wanting her to get startled. “I’m home.” He pushed the door, opening it just enough to see that the bed was made. Now he started to feel rather nervous. What if Maud had just left to see him at his workplace? They could have passed each other and now she was at his workplace, trying to look for him. She could get lost for Celestia’s sake! It was clear that Maud wasn’t there, so his best guess was that she was out in the city tryin g to look for him. He sighed and hung her head for a moment. Trenderhoof would just need to calm down. He was sure that when Maud would find out that he wasn’t working any more, she would come back there. He turned towards the door that led outside. He thought for a moment before starting to walk towards it. He knew that Maud could take care of herself, but something drove him towards the door. He passed the kitchen, but stopped suddenly. Trenderhoof turned around and stared at that fine quality maple tree table of his. Well, actually he stared at something that was resting on it. Trenderhoof walked to the table and saw that the object that had caught his interest was a white piece of paper, pinned down by something he recognized as one of the rock samples Maud had brought along with her from the mine. He didn’t pay any attention to the rock though, he just flicked it away with his magic before lifting the paper into the air. he levitated the paper closer to his face, examining it carefully. His jaw dropped and his eyes went wide, then his face grew a terrified expression on them. His lower lip quivered as he eyed the paper, not believing what was written on it. “It wouldn’t work out. Please don’t follow me.” That was all there was. He stared at the paper with same terrified look on his face for a long moment, before releasing it from his magical grasp and dashing towards the bedroom. He almost banged the door off from it’s hinges as he rushed into the bedroom. He let out a gasp as his suspicions came through. Her saddleback was gone. He rushed back to the living room, skidding to a stop in front of the window. He tried to look out for her, but didn’t see her silhouette anywhere. Trenderhoof slumped down in front of the window, pressing his forehead against the window. His body started to shut down. He fell limp against the window, all of his limbs paralyzed. Only his mind was racing. Maud wasn’t like that. She wouldn’t leave him without saying it face to face. She couldn’t do something so mean to anypony and Trenderhoof knew that. He had seen how she really was. He knew. Or did he? His limp body winced as that thought passed his mind. What about if he was wrong? No. He dismissed that thought with a shake of his head. He loved her. He knew Maud’s feelings better than anypony. It didn’t take long before that thought was again on his mind though. Maud was a pony that you could not be read so easily. She didn’t show her feelings to almost anypony, and now Trenderhoof started to think if she had never even showed her feelings to him? No she hadn’t. She said that she liked him, but did not act like it. Of course they had been holding hooves, hugging and snuggling, but without emotion those actions were meaningless. Just some meaningless touching between two ponies. “But she wanted to date me…” Trenderhoof said, arguing with himself. Sure she had said that, and maybe even meant that, but what if she had gotten some second thoughts? “No,” Trenderhoof said with tearful voice, but his mind had already came up with a argument. How could he explain the note that was now laying under the table? He didn’t want to think about it. “I know she loves me,” he whispered, but his mind immediately inquired if he could be wrong. Of course he could be wrong. Trenderhoof turned towards the paper with tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes. He gulped and levitated the paper towards him. He closed his eyes and levitated the paper with grim news in front of him, hoping that it would had different message in it when he would open his eyes. It didn’t. It still said, “It wouldn’t work. Please don’t follow me.” Big tears started to roll down Trenderhoof’s cheeks, and he felt a sudden urge to get intoxicated. He rose up and started to walk towards the door. He knew that there was a small shop that sold booze nearby his apartment. He opened the door, not bothering to close it behind him and started to walk down the stairs with big tears rolling down his cheeks. EpilogueSimply beautiful by FinnPony Epilogue Six mares stood in front of the bakery that resembled something straight from a foals coloring book. It was Sugarcube Corner, and those six mares were the elements of harmony. The element of harmony was more excited than before, or like she herself described… “I’m so super excited that I can barely stay in my skin!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while trotting in circles. She hadn’t been able to stay on one place for the whole morning. It was the day Maud would be visiting Ponyville again. She had been looking forward to it ever since… Well, ever since Maud had left last time. “Calm down Pinkie Pie,” Twilight Sparkle said as she made sure her wings were in perfect order. Applejack then joined her, “Yeah hold down yer horses. she will be here in a moment.” Rainbow Dash seemed to take her words too seriously, and she tried to stop Pinkie Pie by biting her tail, only to be dragged along behind the pink mare. Pinkie Pie didn’t even notice her. “But I haven’t been this excited since like, ever!” Pinkie Pie answered, still dragging Rainbow Dash behind her. “You were this excited when you waited for the cupcakes to be done yesterday!” Rainbow Dash said annoyedly when she let go of her tail. Pinkie continued to trot in circle, but smiled sheepishly. “Yeah… but I’m still pretty excited.” The mares snickered at her and watched as she kept trotting in circles. “I think it’s nice to see Maud again,” Fluttershy said, not wanting to be left out from the conversation. Others let out agreeing voices and then Rarity said, with slightly smug tone nopony noticed, “Oh yes. I have a feeling that she is very happy to see us too.” “Of course she is!” Pinkie said happily. Fluttershy leaned closer to Rarity and poked her in the side gently. Rarity turned towards her and she said with voice just above a whisper, “I was just thinking… when we meet her, should I tell her that she… rocks? Get it?” Rarity gave her a deadpan look, that made her back away with sheepish look on her face. There was a short silence before Rainbow Dash sighed and said, “I don’t want to be a killjoy…” Others turned towards her and Pinkie stopped pacing. “...But I hope everything goes a bit less awkward than before,” she finished, rubbing her neck. Others changed some nervous glances. “I hope she doesn’t read any of her poems,” Twilight said with a shudder. The memory of listening hundreds of her poems was still haunting her. “They all were about rocks…” she mumbled silently, Fluttershy patting her on the back. “Oh pish posh!” Rarity exclaimed. “I believe that everything will different.” “Yeah!” Pinkie agreed loudly. “Besides Gummy’s been waiting to meet Boulder too! Lets not make this awkward to them too so you girls behave yourselves!” The mares chuckled at her and agreed to follow her instructions. They didn’t want to hurt the feelings of the pony that always made them smile, no matter what. And so the waiting went on for couple of minutes, Pinkie Pie continuing to pace while others patiently waited. It didn’t take long before Pinkie Pie stopped pacing, facing towards something in a pose that hound did when it spots a prey. Others turned towards the direction she was looking at and saw the pony they had been waiting for. Maud slowly appeared from behind nearby building, walking down the road towards them. She hadn’t changed so much. She still had straightly cut and brushed mane and that same green dress she always wore wherever she went. There was still something different about her, something none of them could put their hooves on. As she got closer, all the six mares gasped in shock when they realised what was the small detail that made her look different. She was smiling, and it wasn’t just a small grin, no. It was a broad, genuine smile. Something they hadn’t expected to see. “Is she…” Twilight started, and Fluttershy ended, “...Smiling?” They kept watching with their eyes wide as the mare trotted onwards. Rarity started to smile with a knowing smirk on her face. She had an idea of what might be behind that smile. Her doubts soon were proven right, as a brown stallion with slim build trotted next to her. He was wearing a green sweater and had white glasses on his muzzle. “Is that…” Twilight started, but now it was Pinkie Pie who cut in, “Trenderhoof!?” “I really hate when everypony cuts in when I’m talking!” Twilight hissed quickly, before turning back to watch the duo making their way towards them. “If he starts to sweet talk to you, I will kick him in the shins,” Rainbow whispered to Applejack who pushed her away with annoyed groan. The pair was almost in the talking range with the six mares, when they gave each other a sideways glance. What happened next was something that they didn’t see coming. Maud and Trenderhoof leaned closer to each other, pressing their lips together into a affectionate kiss. All but Rarity’s jaws dropped, Pinkie Pie’s jaw literally hitting the ground. “Whaaa…?” she asked, dragging the word a bit too far. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Meanwhile the pair ended their kiss with a quick peck and turned to face the elements. “Hi Pinkie,” Maud said happily and closed her into a hug, smiling the whole time. Pinkie slowly returned the hug, still baffled by what she had seen. It took a moment before she had cleared her head enough to break the hug and turn to face her sister. “Ouhuuhh…?” she said, making Maud giggle. That made Pinkie’s eyes go wide. She had never seen her sister giggling. She hadn’t seen her sister kissing a stallion either. All these things made her confused. Maud kept smiling at her, letting all sink in. Pinkie kept looking between Maud and the coyly smiling stallion behind her. “Are… are you two… uh… dating?”, she finally managed to ask. “Because it looks an awfully lot like that.” Maud chuckled. She had never seen Pinkie so lost for words. It was amusing. “Yes. Yes we are,” she said happily. It all happened so fast that Trenderhoof can’t quite understand what happened still to this day. All he knows was that he was suddenly pressed against two mares, one he loved, and one he just barely knew. He was also being almost squeezed to death. Maud didn’t seem to feel even the slightest amount of discomfort in the embrace of her sister, while he was almost passing out. Luckily Pinkie Pie’s hug got a bit gentle when she shouted, “This is like the best thing ever! I get to throw you two a party!” The others had been quiet until that moment. Small smiles started to appear on their faces, while Rarity’s grin grew even bigger. “I knew you two could work it out!” she exclaimed when Pinkie released from her hug. Everypony turned to look at her. Maud and Trenderhoof smiled at her while others had confused frowns on their foreheads. “You knew!?” Pinkie asked while stomping closer to her in a threatening pose. Rarity backed away with a nervous grin and muttered, “Uhh… Why yes! Yes I did…” “And you didn’t tell me!?” Pinkie asked with more angry voice. Rarity gulped and quickly explained, “I pinkie promised not to!” That made Pinkie’s expression change into a suspicious one. She gave a look at Maud, who nodded. Pinkie started to smile again and said, “Okie Dokie Lokie. Good that you didn’t break it!” Rarity swept some sweat from her brow, sighing in relief. Maud gave her a wink. She had maybe just saved her hind, from which she was highly grateful. “I have to ask…” Applejack said carefully. “Just… How in darnation did this all happen?” “It’s a long story.” Trenderhoof said. "Lets just say that I like simple things." He gave Applejack a friendly smile that made Rainbow snort angrily. "And you if any should know that, Applejack." Rainbow Dash almost did as she promised earlier, but Applejack managed to keep her under control. Trenderhoof chuckled nervously at the angry mare. He then pulled smiling Maud closer to him and said, "Like said, it's a bit long story." “Oooh! But I love stories!” Pinkie Pie shouted and pulled a box of popcorn seemingly out of nowhere. She sat in front of him and stared up at him with waiting look. “But you have to tell me if it has a good ending. I don’t like stories with sad endings. They make me sad.” Twilight was about to say something, but Applejack stopped her by placing a hoof on her shoulder and whispering, “Don’t. Just don’t.” Twilight hung her head and let out a defeated sigh. Maud snickered and looked at Trenderhoof with love in her eyes. “It has a pretty good ending,” Trenderhoof said while gazing into those green eyes. There was a quiet second, and then they pushed their lips together with a wet sound that made Rainbow Dash gag. Others aaw’ed and Rarity sniffed, levitating a tissue to her face. Fluttershy clapped her hooves together happily while Twilight smiled an approving smile towards the pair. Rainbow kept making gagging sounds, until Applejack give her a quick kick in the leg. She stopped after that. When the long kiss ended, they kept staring into each others eyes. There was a moment of some kind of perfection between them for a second. Everything being just right. It was just simply beautiful. “Well…” Maud started with a big smile. “It began when I was walking towards the hotel in Canterlot one night, carrying a bag full of…” “Sedimentary rocks!” Trenderhoof ended the sentence, earning an annoyed look from Maud and laughs from her friends. “So anyway,” Maud continued, starting to draw small circles into his chest with her hoof. “I saw Trend in this café…” THE END Act 3.3Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 3.3 How was she there again? Maud stood on the pier two of the Canterlot’s train station. She was surrounded by other ponies, but saw them just as a big blur around herself. Some of them bumped into her, but she stayed completely still, not even blinking. She had been like that ever since she had left from Trenderhoof’s apartment. First she had decided that she would just leave, but her mind forced her to leave a note to him, so he wouldn’t come after her. She thought that the note might have been too long, but she hoped that Trenderhoof would get her point. Maud kept staring in front of her, still seeing just a big blur of ponies in front of her. Where was that train? She wanted to get as far away from Canterlot as she could. She kept cursing to herself in her head, not really being mad. She was disappointed. She had let somepony other than her family member deep into her life for the first time, and look what happened? She had been immediately betrayed by the only stallion she had ever had any feelings for. She decided that she would be better living alone. That way she wouldn’t feel betrayed ever again. She would go back to her family’s rock farm and stay there, studying rocks. They will never do her any harm. They were grey and cold, just like she felt at the moment. Her lower lip started to quiver a little while thinking about all that. She sighed deeply, still not moving. Where was that damn train? She took a quick glances at the blur around herself, starting to spot individual ponies in the mass. Of course they were pairs. They reminded her about him. She groaned to herself. Now her overstimulated mind started to play tricks on her and she knew it. Everytime she looked at some smiling pair, all the warm and happy moments they had shared together emerged into his mind, but then the bitterness in her pushed them aside. She continued to sulk in silence. Where was that that train? As if on cue she heard the train arriving. She perked up and saw the locomotive slowly moving on the rails, pulling the rest of the cars with ease. Maud sighed in relief. Finally she could escape all the commotion of Canterlot… And the harm it had caused her. Almost. “Maud!? Is that you?” she heard a familiar female voice call. She slowly turned her head towards the voice, unpleasant shock and rage washed over her, but she managed to gulp it down. There in front of her stood nopony other than that white mare Maud recognized as Rarity. Somehow her name was much easier to remember now. “It is you!” Rarity exclaimed and stepped closer to Maud, who stared at her coldly. Rarity didn’t notice that and continued, “You are looking absolutely charming. Have you done something with your mane?” Maud would have wanted to stay silent, but forced herself to answer. “No,” she said, a bit more bluntly than she had intended. Rarity seemed to have noticed her cold stare now, because she asked with worried look, “Are you alright darling?” “Yes,” she hissed and looked over Rarity’s shoulder. It took Rarity a moment to compose herself. She opened and closed her mouth couple of times before clearing her throat and muttering, “Uhh… it was just that… you… looked so….” She stopped when Maud turned around, giving her no further attention. Rarity realised that something was wrong. Then she noticed that Maud was carrying her saddlebag. Soon she realised the fact that she was at the train station, looking like boarding the next train. “Umm… Maud my darling?” she started carefully. The word ‘darling’ almost made Maud wince out of disgust. She started to walk towards the now stopped train, not even turning to give Rarity a glance. The doors opened in front of her and she stepped in, hoping that that way she could get rid of Rarity. She sat down to the nearest seat, only to notice that Rarity had followed her into the train. “What are you doing Maud?” Rarity asked and sat down next to her. Maud looked at her and said with deadpan stare, “Going home.” She noticed that her answer seemed to cause great deal of confusion in Rarity. Rarity stared at Maud for a second, before asking, “Already?” What was that mare’s problem? She kept pushing her nose into Maud’s businesses, which she didn’t like. And what was that ‘already’ question? “The train’s leaving,” Maud said, hoping for her to leave. Rarity smiled and chirped, “Oh but I’m going to Ponyville.” Damn. Maud had forgotten that Ponyville was in same direction as Rambling rock ridge. Great. Now she would have to spend almost half of the train ride with the mare who stole her stallion. It was going to be a long ride. “Soo…” Rarity dragged the word, wiggling her back legs a little. “What is wrong?” Maud gave her a deadpan stare, before turning her head away from her. Rarity was starting to get really worried. She knew about Maud and Trenderhoof. Had something gone awry between them? She had promised not to tell anypony about them, which she had grudgingly promised. Maybe Maud had made him promise not to tell anypony? If so, she would make things worse for him if Rarity would tell Maud that he had told somepony about their relationship. Rarity squinted her eyes in thought. She would need to take it easily, making sure she wouldn’t slip anything. She sat more upright and cleared her throat. “Is it stallion trouble?” Maud’s eyes went wide and her left one twitched a little bit. She stayed like that for a second. Rarity didn’t know but she had just passed the final line. Maud couldn’t hold herself anymore. Maud suddenly turned around and pushed her muzzle against Rarity’s with an angry frown on her face, something Rarity had ever seen before. It frightened her a bit. “It is,” Maud said, ending the sentence with an angry snort. Rarity could almost see the smoke coming from Maud’s nostrils. She backed away but Maud kept pushing forward. Rarity had her ears folded backwards and a nervous look on her face. Her back soon hit the wall and she couldn’t escape the angry mare in front of her. “W-what’s the p-problem dear?” she stammered and started to inch downwards, trying to get some room, which Maud didn’t give her. “You.” “Me!?” Rarity whined in shock. What had she done to make Maud feel like that? “Yes.” Maud said, snorting again. She leaned slightly backwards, but Rarity still stayed low, looking equally shocked and scared. She had seen Maud crush a ten by ten meters wide boulder with her bare hooves, and didn’t want to suffer the same fate. “What have I ever done to you?” she asked quietly, lifting her hooves to protective stance. Maud glared at her with that same angry look and started, “I saw you with…” She stopped and Rarity saw her lower lips starting to quiver. Maud turned to look away from her and sighed, “...with him.” They both were silent after that. Maud sat perfectly still and Rarity kept staring at her with wide, confused eyes, blinking constantly. With him? What was Maud talking about. Only stallion she had been with was… Oh. Ooh. Now everything started to become clear to her. If she meant Trenderhoof by ‘him’, there was only one conclusion she could come up with. Maud had seen her in the office with Trenderhoof, and had formed some hasty conclusions. Oh Celestia help those earthponies. Sometimes they didn’t seem to have any kind of logical reasoning in them. Rarity chuckled to herself, which was a mistake. Maud immediately spinned around, hitting her hoof to the wall of the train car next to Rarity’s head, causing a big crack to appear where her hoof met the wall. Rarity let out a yelp and pushed backwards, deciding that for her own safety she should tell Maud something that would hopefully clear some things for her. “Maud, dear! I have nothing going on with Trenderhoof!” Maud’s eyes went wide again. She stared at Rarity with her mouth little open. Rarity eyed Maud’s hoof nervously, ready to defend her if she would get mad at her again. She sighed relievedly when Maud leaned back. “H-how…” Maud started, looking at Rarity. “Oh Trenderhoof told me about you my dear,” Rarity said and saw that Maud was now staring at her own hooves. “Don’t be mad at him. I made him tell.” “I saw you kissing,” Maud admitted confusedly. Rarity immediately knew what she meant. She chuckled and said with a wave of her hoof, “That? Oh it was just a small peck on the cheek. I just had to know if it was how I had ima…” She stopped when she noticed Maud’s angry sideways glance towards her. She chuckled nervously and said, with a bit less enthusiasm, “Heh… Just saying goodbye… You know… like in Prance right?” Of course Maud knew Prance. She had been there couple of times. Enjoying her time in the Maressif central, working with a group of local geology hobbyists. Complete amateurs compared to her, but she didn’t have time to start remembering the past. Maybe she had been making wrong conclusions. Maybe Trenderhoof was freaking out about her letter right now? She felt a sharp tug in her chest when she realised that Trenderhoof was probably feeling the same way as she did when she saw him with Rarity. They felt the train nudging a little and starting to move slowly. Rarity looked outside of the window, and realised that she would need to speed things up, otherwise it would soon be too late for maud to get off the train. “He still likes me?” Maud asked quietly. Rarity sighed and placed her hoof onto Maud’s shoulder, giving her the most convincing smile. “He adores you,” Rarity said to Maud, making a small blush appear onto Maud’s cheeks. She turned towards Rarity and asked, “Are you sure?” “He said so himself,” Rarity said warmly and placed her hoof onto Maud’s shoulder. Maud winced and looked at her with uncertain look on her face. “Rarity,” she said calmly, before asking, “What do I do?” Rarity looked at her with a warm smile, and asked, “Do you like him?” Maud nodded. Rarity smiled widely and then exclaimed, “Well go on then!” Rarity could have sworn that she saw a small smile appearing on Maud’s lips, but wasn’t sure. Then they remembered that the train was leaving. Maud looked past Rarity and saw that the pier’s end had just passed their car. She let out a groan and got up, saying in her monotone voice, “I got to get out.” “~I’ll pull the emergency brake!~” Rarity sing-a-songed and was about to do so, but Maud stopped her by saying, “No need to.” “What?” Rarity asked confusedly. “How are you going to get out?” “Bye Rarity,” Maud said and started to gallop towards the back of the train, dodging confused ponies in front of her. Rarity stared after her and soon she disappeared into the next train car. Rarity blinked couple of times, before she turned towards the window, opened it and pushed her head out. She looked towards the way where Maud had started to gallop, and soon she saw a heavy looking saddlebag flying from the very last train car, landing onto the pier. Soon a gray mare in green dress jumping after it, landing just barely on the pier. Maud balance on the edge of the pier for a second before gaining her balance. Rarity snickered when she saw ponies on the station getting scared by that. She saw Maud looking towards her, waving quickly before snatching her saddlebag into her teeth and dashing off. “Oh those silly earthponies.” Rarity muttered as she pulled her head back inside the train. She closed the window, sighed deeply and slumped on her seat in very unladylike fashion. She then chuckled to herself and thought how she had just saved somepony’s relationship. * * * Maud Pie dashed through the streets, dodging surprised ponies that were walking into her path. She was still carrying the heavy saddlebag in her teeth. At some point she started to wonder why she was even carrying it. She stopped for a moment and dug her notebook from the saddlebag, placing it into her pocket before kicking the bag away. It landed somewhere accompanied with a nasty sound of breaking glass, but Maud was already running and didn’t notice it. Maud was feeling terrible. She also felt kinda happy at the same time. She knew that Trenderhoof hadn’t been messing with other mare like she had thought, but now she was in front of another problem. Trenderhoof was surely hurt and and it might be hard to win him back. But she was determined to do it. She looked up and saw the familiar block of flats in front of her. Soon she would meet him. She returned her gaze back in front of her, only to see a obstacle in front of her. There was a cart in front of her, too close for her to go around. She gained more speed and slid under it, scraping her dress and messing her mane. She didn’t care. Only thing she cared was that probably miserable stallion waiting for her. Maud noticed that she was getting funny looks from the ponies around her, but didn’t care. They could look all they wanted. She didn’t feel scared or troubled by them like she once did. They were ponies just like she was. One pony she cared for had taught her that. As she got closer to her goal, her thoughts became clearer. She would march in and tell him that she was sorry for doing what she had done. She would tell him that she cared about him. It seemed so simple. She almost crashed through the door to the building she was headed. She managed to slow down enough to not break the door. She panted lightly and stared up the stairs. She started to trot upwards, sinking back to her thoughts. A slight fear started to creep into her mind. What if Trenderhoof was too hurt to even consider forgiving her. No. She was a thought pony. She wouldn’t give up until he would. He had made her feel wanted, she would do whatever to get that feeling back. She was halfway up when she realised that she could have used the elevator. She decided that if she had already halfway there, she would push herself until the end, so she kept trotting up the stairs. She fastened her pace, almost running up the stairs. She felt her heartbeat getting faster, and not only from all the running she had done. Soon she reached the penthouse floor, stopping on the end the stairs, staring towards the only door in the floor. It was open, first sign that something was wrong. She stared at the doorway. Suddenly everything seemed so much harder. After who knows how long, Maud braced herself and started to walk towards the open door. She carefully poked the door, making it open with a loud creak that made a shudder crawl up her spine. She stepped into the apartment where she had had so many good times, but now the atmosphere was completely different. Blinds had been shut, making the whole apartment dark. Second sign. When she walked past the kitchen, a new and strange smell reached her. She pouted at the smell. It was clearly cigarette smoke she was smelling. Third sign. Now Maud was getting worried. She walked silently towards the living room. She stopped just before the doorway to the living room. She had to take deep breath before she could brace herself to face what was going to happen in the living room. Maud stepped forward, seeing her goal on the sofa in front of her, facing away from her. Maud saw a big pile of stubbed cigarettes on a couch table, and under all them she saw a corner of paper. She could guess what paper it was. She turned back to look at the stallion in front of her, or his back to be precise. She was smoking, something Maud hadn’t seen him do before. It made her sad because she knew how Trenderhoof thought about smoking. Maud stood silently and watched. She wanted to speak but couldn’t. It wasn’t so easy as she had thought. She watched as Trenderhoof levitated the cigarette out of his mouth, placing it into the big pile of other of it’s kind. He then levitated another from the pack on the table, lighting it with his horn and slumping deeper to the couch with a loud sigh. That made Maud’s heart ache. She couldn’t stay quiet anymore. “Trenderhoof.” she called quietly, making the stallion jump upright. He turned around on the couch and stared at Maud with his eyes wide. It was then when Maud really saw how bad shape he was. Trenderhoof’s mane was looking flatter than usually, his eyes had a sad gloss in them and he had lost his glasses somewhere. The cigarette hung in the corner of his mouth. “Maud?” he asked confusedly, making the light cigarette fall from his mouth, landing on the fitted carpet. They stared at each other. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, the gray mare that had left him alone with a letter was now standing on the doorway of his living room. Her face was in a shadow, so he couldn’t see her face clearly, and his lost glasses didn’t help at all. He could see that her dress was torn, showing her body at some points, and her mane was messy and tangled. For a moment he felt like jumping over the couch and rushing to embrace her, but then remembered the reason to his current state. He frowned sadly and turned around, saying, “Did you forget something?” “Trend.” he heard Maud saying in her monotone voice. That made Trenderhoof snap harshly at her, “Again that tone! I should have started to feel worried when I first time realised that you don’t ever even change your tone.” There was a deep silence between them. Trenderhoof levitated a new cigarette to his mouth and light it, taking a long drag from it. He didn’t know it but behind him, Maud sat down, slowly slumping down to her stomach. Something stirring up inside her. She felt something emerge. Something that she had been holding down for years… “I realised that I should have known better,” Trenderhoof continued angrily. “You never even showed any feelings towards me. Whatever I did, you just stared at me with expressionless look. Can you even feel anything?” A mental dam broke behind him. Another long drag, yet more of heavy silence. Trenderhoof worked his cigarette halfway done before he started to turn around while saying, “Just take what you came for and…” He stopped when he saw her. She was laying on the ground, her ears drooped and big sad eyes staring at him. Big tears rolled down her cheeks, dropping down on the carpet, forming a damp spot on it. Crying Maud stared at him for a long second, before burying her face into her hooves and starting to sob uncontrollably. The sobbing turned into a loud cry, and soon Maud was wailing helplessly on the floor. It made Trenderhoof feel like a monster. How could he ever had said those things to such a beautiful thing like her? On another hand he thought that crying made her look even more beautiful Not because she liked to see her cry, that would have been terrible. It was because she was finally showing her emotions, something she hadn’t been able to do for so long time. It was beautiful. Trenderhoof kept staring at her for a moment, before he spat the cigarette out from his mouth and jumped over the couch, kicking it over in the progress. He dashed to her, falling onto his rump next to her. Trenderhoof hesitated for a second, afraid to touch the sobbing mare. “Maud,” he muttered and placed his hoof onto her shoulder. She winced and he saw her giving a quick glance towards him before burying her face back into her hooves. Trenderhoof was now feeling too much guilt, and felt how tears started to form into the corner of his eyes too. “Maud I’m sorry,” he said and gently lifted Maud’s head from under her chin. Her eyes were red and the fur on her face was damp from tears. She tried to turn her face away from him, but he forced her to look at him. They stared at each other. Maud could smell the cigarettes from his breath, but didn’t really notice it. His eyes were taking all her attention. His violet eyes were full of something that made her feel like crying even more, which she maybe did. She didn’t know why she couldn’t stop the whimpers leaving her mouth. Maybe it was because she was finally releasing all the pent up emotions she had concealed for so long. “I-I c-can feel!” she cried as tears continued to fall down her cheeks. Trenderhoof shed some too, and pulled her more upwards so she was now in half sitting, half lying pose. “I know,” he said and pulled her into a tight embrace. Maud wrapped her hooves around Trenderhoof’s body, pressing her head against his chest. She felt how couple of tears dropped onto her head. Knowing that he was crying somehow made her feel better. It was a sign that she meant something for him. “I didn’t mean it,” Trenderhoof said with teary voice. “Sorry… sorry… sorry…” They laid there for time that felt like eternity. Trenderhoof petted Maud’s mane while she let the tears come. It seemed like she would never stop. Trenderhoof’s sweater was getting soaked in tears, but he loved it. He loved her. “I love you,” he slipped, not regretting it afterwards. He felt how Maud stopped her sobbing, slowly lifting her head from his chest, staring at him with her eyes that were red from crying. A moment of complete silence. Both of them had same, expressionless look on their faces. “Do you mean it?” she asked with shaky voice. Trenderhoof pressed his forehead against hers, saying, “From the bottom of my heart.” Maud saw how the smile she loved so much appeared onto his lips. Loved? The smile she loved? She loved that smile. It was so clear now. She loved that smile, she loved him. Corner of her mouth started to twitch. Trenderhoof’s eyes were fixated to those lips. Maud quickly licked her lips and closed her mouth. Then it happened. The corners of her mouth started to slowly, but surely turn upwards. Trenderhoof felt how another wave of tears came to him. Maud was smiling. It was just a small, simple smile everypony always wore, but it was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen on anypony. Maud almost started to cry again, but not from sorrow, but from happiness. She was finally showing her emotions to somepony else than her sister, and it was all because of him. “I love your smile,” Maud confessed, her green eyes fixated to his. There was tension in the air, but it was the best kind of tension there was. The tension that usually hung in the air when something inevitable and wonderful was about to happen. “Your smile is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen,” Trenderhoof said and brushed some of her messy mane away of her face, tracing his hoof behind her ear, making it flicker. Maud followed his hoof with her muzzle, gently touching it with her snout. “You’re simply beautiful,” Trenderhoof sighed. Maud’s smile started widening on her face. Trenderhoof felt how his heart started to beat faster. Maud felt it too, embracing the feeling. She slowly lifted her hoof onto his shoulder, while he wrapped his hooves around her waist. Maud blushed, but kept the new smile she had found on her face. “I love you…” she said and leaned towards him, feeling how Trenderhoof pulled her closer to himself from her hips. They kept looking each other in the eyes as the distance between their faces started to get smaller. Maud winced when the tip of their muzzles brushed against each other, but she didn’t stop. Instead she quickly pushed herself forward, closing her eyes. Their lips met. Trenderhoof pulled even harder, making her press tightly against his chest. Maud was both in bliss and terrified. The kiss was her first ever, making it somewhat scary experience. In the same time she didn’t feel scared at all. She loved it. The feeling of his lips against hers was wonderful. She didn’t even mind the slight taste of cigarette from his lips. She was still smiling, not managing to stop even if she would have wanted. She slowly opened her eye, seeing that Trenderhoof’s eyes were staring back at her with love in them, couple of tears rolling down his cheeks. She blinked and gave him a loving look. The kiss had to end. They had to breath sometime. Their lips separated with a loud smack, but both of them stayed in the pose they were, their snouts touching. Trenderhoof shed couple of tears again, smiling that smile. Maud returned it, rubbing her hoof against his cheek comfortably. “Why did you buy cigarettes?” she asked after a while, nuzzling his cheek with her muzzle. “Because they didn’t sell any booze,” Trenderhoof said with a sheepish grin. The reality started to come back at him. His apartment was a mess. There was cigarette stubs everywhere, and the smoke couldn’t be good for the furniture. The couch was flipped upside down, making the situation rather amusing. Then he saw that the stub he had threw earlier was still smoking, slowly burning the carpet. Trenderhoof let out a small hiss from between his teeth. It was going to be a tough job to start changing the fitted carpet. “Well the carpet and the furniture are pretty much ruined.” Trenderhoof said, making Maud giggle. “I bet I can’t get the smell away from them.” He thought for a moment and said in his thoughts, “I must get some new ones.” There was a spark in Maud’s eyes when she heard that. She pulled him from under his chin, making their muzzles press against each other. She had a wide grin on her lips when she asked, sounding excited, “New furniture?” “Uhh… yeah,” Trenderhoof said a bit confusedly, making Maud snicker. “Maybe something a bit more…” she started giving him a strange look. “...rock themed?” Trenderhoof started to laugh, Maud joining him. They quickly kissed before Trenderhoof said with a sly grin, “Sure.”
Act 1Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 1 It was a beautiful day in the peaceful town of Ponyville. Weather was better than anypony could have wished for. Sun was shining brightly but a gentle breeze was constantly present, making the temperature just right. There were couple of ponies in the town center, going on with their daily businesses. It seemed like that the only sound that was heard was birds singing their songs in the many trees of the park happily. Suddenly their singing was interrupted harshly. Loud dance music blazed through once peaceful park of Ponyville. Bass made some of the leaves fall from the trees that were unfortunate enough to be near the large dance floor that stood in the middle of the park. It was full of ponies who were dressed up formally. They were frozen on their places with surprised, amused, confused or even scared expressions on their faces. They clearly hadn’t expected the sudden explosion of loud music. In the middle of all them were a two ponies facing each other. Other was a Pink mare in a white wedding dress and other one was a blue unicorn stallion in a fine black suit. They spoke to each other and soon started to dance crazily. Soon other ponies around the dance floor joined them, leaving only couple of ponies standing outside the wild dancing frenzy. Most of them were older ponies who didn’t have energy for that kind of dancing or who didn’t understand the music. Of course there was couple of younger ponies who didn’t start thrashing around like crazy. They slowly moved towards the tables that were placed under some trees near the dance floor. There was also big table with lots of snacks and beverage placed neatly on it. One of the ponies who wasn’t dancing that exact moment was in front of the table, pouring punch into a plastic cup. He was a brown coated unicorn named Trenderhoof. He owned a slender frame, but was a bit taller than most of the stallions. His mane and tail were well kept and blow-dried, he had violet eyes and white glasses sat on his muzzle. He too had dressed up for the occasion. He wore an expensive tailor made tuxedo with white shirt under it. His violet magic aura lifted now filled cup to his lips and he took a long sip from it. The punch was pretty strong, enough to make him pout. He swallowed and walked back to his empty table where he slumped back to the chair. He rested his face into his hooves while the cup was still in his magical grasp. He took a quick look around himself and then sighed boredly. He had arrived alone, he had spent the whole time there alone and it seemed like he was going to leave alone. He didn’t even know anypony from the wedding. Well, he knew the fiancee and some of her friends, but he hadn’t expected to be invited to her wedding, especially after so many years. He took another sip from his drink and looked towards the dancing crowd. He could see glimpses of an orange mare with blonde mane between the dancing ponies. Seeing her made him smile. She was pretty much the only mare in the crowd that was interesting to him, but she was busy dancing with her fillyfriend. Another sigh, another sip. He kept looking at that mare for a second, thinking how he used to have a crush on her. It was pretty silly now that he thought of it, but he couldn’t help to think what he had missed. He kept looking at the mare that now was dancing not so far away from him. Trenderhoof had always been a stallion that likes simple things. He thought that even the most mundane things usually had so much more hidden under their simple appearance. He also thought that it was the same with ponies. That’s why the orange mare in a stetson hat had made his heart flutter when they first met. He had never seen such hard working, ‘authentic’ pony in his life. Suddenly his eyes came across another lonely soul that was sitting in a shadow of a big tree. She was a grey coated earth pony mare with long, straight cut, purple mane. She was wearing the most simple dark green dress without any accessories. She had long, curvy eyelashes and her turquoise eyes were highlighted by purple eyeshadow. She kept looking at the crowd with a deadpan look on her face. In overall she looked really simple. That wasn’t everything. There was something that made her seem different from every other pony there, he just couldn’t put his hoof on what it was. Trenderhoof took a slow sip while examining her. That bored look on her face made her look rather attractive. He thought for a second. She didn’t seem like she was waiting for anypony, so she probably wouldn’t mind socializing with him a bit. He nodded to himself and downed the drink before leaving the table. He quickly walked past the table with the punch bowl on it and filled two more cups. Then he trotted towards the mare with confident smile on his lips. He stopped right next to the table and noticed that the mare was a bit older than that orange mare, maybe about the same age as he was. The mare sat still without even blinking, she just kept looking at the crowd with expressionless look on her face. Trenderhoof stood there for a second before he cleared his throat. That got the mare’s attention and she turned her head towards him. What troubled Trenderhoof was that she still didn’t seem to have any expression on her face. Usually pony would look confused, or at least have a asking look on her face if a stranger came to them out of nowhere. He shook that feeling away and asked, “Mind if I sit?” The mare shook her head slowly and he took that as a permission to sit. Trenderhoof sat to the opposite side of the table from her. He placed his own cup to the table and turned his attention towards the mare, only to realise that she wasn’t paying any attention to him. She was again just staring at the dancing mass of ponies. First thing that came into his mind was that she was really shy. It was kinda cute in his opinion. “I brought you a drink,” he said and pushed the other cup towards the mare with his magic. The mare slowly turned her head towards him, giving a quick glance at the cup before asking with monotone voice, “Why?” That got him a bit off guard. Usually there was a ‘thank you’ or a ‘no thank you’. He liked his lips, trying to quickly come up with an answer. After couple of seconds he answered, “Well… I thought you would like to have something to drink.” “Why would you think like that?” she asked without any change in her tone. Again an unexpected question that took couple of seconds for him to answer, “Umm… It’s just a way to get the conversation going I guess?” The mare looked at him with blank stare. He in turn looked away. Something in her stare made him feel rather nervous. “So… you want it?” he asked, giving a careful glance towards her. Her eyes moved from him to the cup and then back at him. “Sure,” was all she said before taking the cup into her hooves. Trenderhoof stared at the mare with quizzical look on his face. She was either shy or just didn’t want him there. He went with the first opinion. “So…” he started and waited for the mare to look at him again. “What might be your name?” “Maud,” was her answer. She then took a small sip from her drink and looked at Trenderhoof. He realised that she was waiting for his reply, and he introduced himself, “My name is Trenderhoof, you might have heard of me.” “No,” Maud replied immediately. “I haven’t.” He frowned, but the frown disappeared quickly and a small smile appeared onto his lips as he said, “It’s okay, I don’t like to boast with my complications anyway.” “Me neither,” Maud answered. Trenderhoof smiled a bit wider. Maybe she was starting to open up a bit more. She didn’t. There was further questions or answers from her. She was staring at him though, which he took as a good sign. He decided that he wouldn’t give up that easily. There had to be something behind that simple armor she was wearing. “So why are you here?” he asked. “My sister’s wedding,” Maud answered, making Trenderhoof look at her with a bit suspecting look. Even he barely knew the pink mare that was getting married that day, he knew what she was like. Hyperactive. That couldn’t be said about this mare. “So you’re Pinkie Pie’s sister?” he asked. Maud looked at him and said slowly, “Yes.” Trenderhoof folded his ears to back of his head. It almost seemed like she was annoyed by him being there. He still didn’t give up. He had to get the conversation started. “What do you do for a living Maud?” he asked and took a small sip from his cup. Maud too take a small sip and then answered, still not showing any interest towards him, “I am a rock researcher.” That hit him like a train. He knew that there was something about this mare that made her to stand out from the crowd. Trenderhoof absolutely idolized ponies who had a down to earth job, where you got dirty and sweaty. Those ponies kept the world running, without them there wouldn’t be Equestria. It was fascinating to Trenderhoof. “Really?” he asked with eyes sparkling from excitement. Maud expression didn’t change, she just nodded and said, “I just said so.” “I-I have to say that I find your work absolutely fascinating!” he stammered while giving Maud the most genuine smile. She didn’t seem surprised, or even amused by his sudden outbusrt. She tasted her punch again and said, “Many find it boring.” “Boring!?” Trenderhoof asked with shocked voice. He looked at Maud straight in the eyes and said, “Your job, like everypony else’s who works in such a down to earth job as you self, are the most important jobs in whole Equestria! Without farmers there wouldn’t be any corps! Without builders we wouldn’t have any houses, without your job we wouldn’t have… urh… any knowledge about rocks!” Maud stared at him for a while. Trenderhoof was sure that his little speech would get some reaction from her, but instead she just said with her bored voice, “I just like rocks. A lot.” Trenderhoof sighed and took off his glasses. She still didn’t seem to get any more interested from his company. There was a long silence between them, and he kept fiddling with his glasses in his hooves. Trenderhoof started to think that maybe he should leave Maud alone, even though she had just gotten a lot more interesting. He had once learned when a mare didn’t want his company, and the symptoms Maud had were all too familiar to him. It was a hard decision but he put his glasses back to his muzzle and downed the rest of his drink. He then stood up with defeated expression on his face. Maud immediately turned towards him and asked with her monotone voice, “Where are you going?” “I’m sorry if I was getting onto your nerves, I’ll leave you alone now,” he answered and gave Maud a last sad smile before turning around. He didn’t even take a first step when he heard Maud say behind him, “Don’t go.” He spun around and looked at her with surprised look on his face. Maud stared at him with that deadpan look she always wore. “What?” he asked from her, making her repeat, “Don’t go.” Trenderhoof blinked his eyes confusedly before asking, “You don’t want me to go?” “I said so two times already,” Maud said with a small nod. Trenderhoof kept staring at the emotionless mare for a good while, before slowly sitting down to the same chair as before. He leaned against his other hoof and examined the mare with quizzical look in his eyes. What was going on inside this mare’s head? “I thought you didn’t want me here,” he said and stared at the mare over his glasses. She returned the stare and said calmly, “I like your company.” That made Trenderhoof’s eyes go wide. Now he wasn’t sure if the mare was kidding him or not. Why would she act so coldly towards him if she liked his company? He just had to ask, “Why are you acting so cold then?” Maud looked at her drink for a second, then she lifted the cup to her lips and finished it. She laid the empty cup to the table and said, “I present my feelings a little bit differently than others.” Trenderhoof gave her a suspicious look, his mind filled with questions. He had met many ponies during his travels, each different from another, but that mare in front of him was something different, something new and ‘authentic’. His frown slowly started to change into a smile. He took both of the cups into his magical grasp and asked with a grin, “More Punch?” “Sure.”
Act 2.1Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 2.1 It was getting dark as the Canterlot castle’s bell rang twelve times. Most of the capital city’s residents were already in their homes, vast asleep. Only sounds in the streets were the buzzing sound that the electrical streetlights kept and the seldon clatter of iron horseshoes when guards were on their patrols. Besides guards in their flashy armor, there were only couple of evening types who roamed the empty streets. On of them was Maud Pie, the most discreet ponies in the whole city. She was coming back from a old ore mine near the city’s borders. Her grey coat was covered in dust and her normally straight mane was a mess. She wasn’t wearing a beautiful dresses and she didn’t like highly decorated hats everypony in Canterlot had. She was much more happier in her simple and practical green dress. She moved near the buildings, away from the white light of the street lights. She was glad that it was already night when she trotted through the city. There were less curious ponies staring at her at that time. She didn’t like walking on the crowded streets of Canterlot, she just couldn’t blend in to the mass and everypony kept staring at her, making her feel like there was something wrong in her. Maud had feelings too, even though she never showed them to anypony. She wasn’t an emotionless machine like someponies thought. Her line of thought broke as her saddlebag slipped into an uncomfortable position. She nudged her rump so that the bag was once again in a bit comfortable on her back. The saddlebag she was carrying was full of rocks, each different, interesting species that she was going to examine more when she would get back to the hotel she was living. Maud had been visiting Canterlot for couple of days. She was going to stay there for the rest of the week, going to that same abandoned mine every morning. Alone. Of course she liked to work alone, but spending whole day by herself took its toll on her. While living on the rock farm, working days were tough and long, but after the day their family would spent the evening together. In Canterlot, she was alone twenty four seven. It was hard, even for Maud who wasn’t that social. She sighed and looked around herself. She saw a familiar late night café she had never visited. It was still open and light peered out from it’s windows. Maud knew that she wasn’t far away from her hotel anymore. Only about five minutes of walking and she could climb to her bed and fall asleep. Maybe she would sleep a bit longer that night and spend the morning in the hotel, examining the rocks she had brought with her. Again her thinking came to a sudden halt when she passed the café. This time it wasn’t due the discomfort from the heavy bag on her back, but because she spotted something in the café when she had passed it. Or somepony actually. She stopped in the middle of a step and slowly turned around. She looked towards the nearest booth she saw through the the display window of the café. There was a awfully familiar looking stallion in a green sweater sitting there, with focused look in his purple eyes. In front of him, on the table rested his white glasses and a cup half full of coffee. He was reading a newspaper. Maud took couple of steps closer to the window, almost pressing her muzzle against it. She had indeed recognized the pony. He was that same unicorn from Pinkie’s wedding. He kept flicking through the pages, not noticing Maud who stared at him. She kept staring at the stallion, who seemed to be in his thoughts. Maud felt a strange urge to go and talk to him, which was totally not like her. She decided to keep looking at the stallion for a while. Something about him made it impossible for her to continue walking. Maybe it was because he had showed genuine interest in her job. She really liked that. A sudden clattering of hooves distracted her. She turned her head towards the sound and saw a yellow mare walking past her. She didn’t pay any more attention to her. Maud watched the mare walk away for a second. She then turned towards the window again, only to meet pair of purple eyes staring back at her. She almost winced. Almost. The unicorn was staring at her with confused smile on his lips. Maud liked that smile. It was strange to her, usually somepony smiling at her didn’t mean so much. Ponies were always smiling anyway. That smile though, she was tempted to return it. She didn’t. Instead she walked towards the door and quickly shook her body so that most of the dust would fall off. She checked her from the reflection of the window. She was a bit more presentable looking, which was enough for her. She opened the door and stepped in. It immediately felt like a bad idea. Not because of the café itself, no. The building was classy looking place with warm colors everywhere. Maud actually liked the exterior of the place, and could see herself visiting the place during daytime. Like said, it wasn’t the café that made her uncomfortable. It was the customers. There were couple of ponies there besides her and that unicorn, and they all were looking at her weirdly. They probably were thinking that she was a beggar of some sort because of her shaggy appearance. She kept her poker face but felt embarrassed. What had she been thinking? “Hey Maud!” she heard, snapping her away from her thoughts. She realized that she was facing that unicorn. He had a welcoming smile on his lips. His face was so close to Maud that she could see the small stubble on his chin. For a second Maud couldn’t do anything else than just think how good that smile looked on him. Maud stared at him for couple of seconds, trying to remember his name. It would be a bit embarrassing if she wouldn’t remember his name after he clearly remembered her’s. She eyed the still smiling unicorn for couple more seconds, before she remembered his name. Trenderhoof. She blinked before answering slowly, “Hi Trenderhoof.” "Call me Trend," Trenderhoof said and smile grew wider. It seemed like the corners of his mouth would tear his head in half. Maud thought how amusing it would be, but then realized that it wouldn’t be amusing at all so she stopped thinking about it. Instead she said, “Nice to see you.” “Nice to see you too!” Trenderhoof exclaimed. “I didn’t expect to see you again.” Maud hadn’t expected to see him again either, but didn’t say it. She just stared at the stallion in front of her and then nudged her head towards the booth. Trenderhoof got the hint and said quickly, “Oh, where are my manners, please sit down.” And so she did. Maud laid the heavy saddlebag to the chair next to her and sat down. The softness of the chair caressed her rump. It was then when she realized how much her body ached from the hard work she had been through that day. Trenderhoof sat to the opposite side of the table, his purple eyes fixated to her with excited look in them. It actually made Maud feel a bit troubled. Trenderhoof could clearly not see it because he kept staring at her. Maud heard somepony whispering behind her and slowly turned her head towards the sounds. There were two mares couple of booths behind her. They were looking at her but when she turned towards them the whispering stopped and they tried to look as casual as possible. Maud realized that they were talking about her. She knew it had been a bad idea to come there. She looked at her dress that was still covered in quite a load of dust. “Is something wrong?” Trenderhoof asked from her. She looked at him with stoic stare and said, “I look like a beggar.” That made Trenderhoof laugh. Maud saw other ponies turning toward them, making her feel even more uncomfortable than before. “Stop,” she said quietly. He did as she asked and gave her a funny look. “What? It’s pretty funny,” he said. Maud looked at her dress for a while before saying, “I don’t find it funny.” She held a small pause before continuing, “I think it’s embarrassign.” Trenderhoof chuckled and said, “You don’t look like a beggar. You look like a hard working pony to me.” “I’ve been working all day,” Maud confirmed with a calm nod. The look in Trenderhoof’s eyes made her stare at her hooves. His eyes were almost like sparkling. Maud stared at her hooves and Trenderhoof said, “I find that really charming.” That made Maud blink couple of times. She lifted her eyes from her hooves and her gaze met with his. Trenderhoof had a sly look on his face. “Really?” she asked . Trenderhoof nodded eagerly and leaned a bit forward before saying, “Yes. I simply adore ponies who have such a physical job as you have.” He held a small pause and gave her a slightly suggestive look. Was he trying to flirt with her? “It also seems to keep the body in a good shape too.” He was flirting. Even Maud who didn’t have any experience in things like that, knew that he was doing just that. It made her feel hot around her cheeks. She didn’t know what to feel, or actually she had mixed feelings. It made her uncomfortable, but on the other hand it made her think that somepony actually thought she was interesting enough to flirt at. They were silent for a while. Trenderhoof kept staring at her with dreamy look and Maud stared at her front hooves with stoic stare again. She didn’t know what to say, or if she should say anything at all. She was feeling slightly uncomfortable, but still strangely excited at the same time. “I have to ask Maud, where are you working here in Canterlot? I can’t imagine you as a office worker,” Trenderhoof said and took a sip from his now cold coffee. He probably had realized how awkward the situation had been for Maud and changed the subject. “You know the abandoned mine nearby?” Maud asked. He shook his head. Maud then said, “Well, I work there.” “Fascinating.” Trenderhoof said and leaned into his hooves. “What do you do there actually?” Maud thought for a second, eyeing the ceiling. She then turned her stoic back to him and said, “I collect samples and study them. I’m leaving next Saturnday.” “Is that full of those samples?” Trenderhoof asked and pointed his hoof towards the heavy looking saddlebag that laid next to her. She nodded and said, “Yes. Some of them are just ordinary rocks for boulder to play with.” “Boulder?” Trenderhoof asked. “Is he your pet?” “A friend too,” Maud answered. “I didn’t know that you had a pet.” “I do. He’s always with me,” Maud said, and with dug something out of the chest pocket of her dress. She looked at the small rock in her hoof and gently touched it. Like she said, Boulder was not only her pet. He was also one of her closest friends. He was a good listener, and they never fought. A perfect friend. “Here he is,” she said and placed the rock on the table. Trenderhoof looked at the small rock in front of him confusedly. He then leaned forward and examined it over his glasses. “Is he like a rock-beetle or something? I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said and gave Boulder a small poke. “There is no such thing as rock-beetles.” Maud said and watched him poking the rock. He gave her a questioning look and asked, “Then what is he?” “He’s a rock.” “Oh...” Trenderhoof leaned away from Boulder, clearly confused and in his thoughts. He gave a careful glance towards Maud, who noticed it. “He’s really nice when you get to know him,” Maud said and lifted the small rock. She gave it a small nuzzle and put it back into her pocket. “A pet rock… That’s interesting,” Trenderhoof said and gave her a small smile. She had started to like that smile even more. She heard snickering from behind her. Probably the same mares that had been whispering about her earlier. Suddenly she remembered where she was again, and felt even more embarrassed than before. The snickering behind her continued, making her feel like shrinking on her place. She looked at stallion in front of her. He too seemed to have noticed the mares behind her, and had an annoyed frown on his face. “I should go.” Maud said when the constant giggling didn’t stop. She managed to sound calm, even she wasn’t. She quickly rose from the table and took her saddleback. Before she could even say goodbyes, Trenderhoof grabbed her from her hoof. Maud who wasn’t used to being touched, jerked her hoof away from his quickly. “Sorry,” she apologize after that. Trenderhoof had a sad pout on his face. Maud stared at him for a second, then she take a quick peek at the mares that were now trying to look busy reading their menus. She sighed and sat down. Trenderhoof examined her and then looked at the booth were the mares were sitting. “Are they troubling you?” he asked. Maud quickly shook her head. She didn’t want him to be worried. “Are you sure?” Now Maud nodded. Trenderhoof didn’t seem to buy it. He leaned a bit forward, whispering just barely audibly, “Don’t take that from them.” “It’s okay,” Maud answered, feeling troubled. She wasn’t one to take involvement in any kind of conflicts. “No it’s not,” Trenderhoof whispered a bit louder. “Why won’t you stand out for yourself?” That made Maud fall silent. Trenderhoof could see how she tensed up, showing clear signs of discomfort. Maud stared past him, not wanting to talk anymore. She had her own reason why she didn’t want to talk about her abstinence of showing too much feelings. Something she didn’t want to talk with somepony she barely knew. “You don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Trenderhoof said awkwardly, leaning backwards from her. She nodded and kept staring past her. She started to feel like leaving again. Just as she was about to rise up from the table, Trenderhoof spoke again. “Maud,” he said, getting her attention. “I don’t know what you will think about this but…” Maud herself didn’t know what she was going to think about it, or what he was going to say even. “I was thinking…” he started and scratched the back of his head nervously. “I was thinking if we could… see again? Before you leave Canterlot?” Maud blinked. He wanted to meet her again? Was he asking her out on date? Did she want to meet him again? Those were the questions running around her head. She had never been out with a stallion before. She actually never even had wanted to go out with anypony. And why should she have wanted? She had never felt a need for a very special somepony in her life. Now she was getting ahead of things. Maybe he wanted to see just as friends? Maud looked at the stallion in front of her. He had formed nervous grin on his face when she hadn’t answered. She thought what to say for a long moment, before asking with her emotionless voice, “Like a date?” Trenderhoof chuckled nervously and drew small invisible circles to the floor with his hoof. He looked at maud with a asking look on his face and said, “If you want.” Maud felt a single drop of sweat running down her forehead. She was between a rock and a hard place there. She wanted to say yes, but she also wanted to say no. Those two opinions fought inside her head. A small silence before Maud coughed. She had decided to just open her mouth and see which opinion had won the battle. She looked at him and found herself saying quietly, “Sure.”
Act 2.2Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 2.2 It was dark. Not as dark as during night time. It was even darker. Pitch black actually. So dark that a pony couldn’t see past it’s own hooves. It was also very very quiet. Abandoned mining tunnels had a bad habit of being just like that. The thick, calm silence was cruelly broken by a clattering of hooves that echoed through the tunnels. Soon the darkness was sliced by a bright beam of light. It came from a flashlight that was being held by a grey pony covered in black dust. She held the flashlight in her mouth while navigating through the tunnels that could be many kilometers in lenght. Maud Pie had her purple mane tied to a ponytail so it wouldn’t get in the way of her work. her fur was messy and the green dress she always wore had many scratches on it. Many would have thought that she would be exhausted by all the walking she had been through that day. Well, she was not. She was actually feeling pretty happy. She had enjoyed her work about fifty percent more since she had met Trenderhoof the other day. Now she had something to look forward. Still, even she was anxious to meet Trenderhoof again, she had her doubts. Date. That word kept spinning in her mind. First things that came to her mind from a word date were movies, cafe, and something to eat. Not that she didn’t like those things, but all of those things had one thing in common. The ponies who were on a date were always the center of attention, especially when another of them was a celebrity like Trenderhoof. Maud shook her head to clear it and focused back to her task of getting out of the mine. It didn’t take long for her to get her thoughts back in order. She didn’t understand how someponies could get lost there. She herself knew exactly where she was. She was about two hundred meters from the surface. Next she would need to turn left, then right, right again then straight past two next junctions and then left again. Then there would be ladders where she could climb back to the surface. Simple. She kept going and in about half an hour later she could smell the fresh air. Five minutes later she was at the ladders that would lead her to the surface. She looked up and saw a small white dot above her. Ten minutes more and she was standing at the edge of a two by two meters wide hole that led back to the mine itself. Now that she was out of the mine, she let her thoughts wander back to the little, or big problem that she was having. She really wanted to spent more time with Trenderhoof, but didn’t know if she could. Frustrated by it, Maud decided to sit down. She walked to a fallen tree trunk and sat down. She started to look around herself. All the trees around the mine were cut down back in the time when the mine was still used. The trees had been used to build houses for the miners, but all the wooden buildings had been either demolished. She could still see couple of rock foundations peeking from the ground. Maud turned to look at the full saddlebag next to her. Usually she would spent all her breaks examining the samples she had with her, but didn’t feel like doing that right at that moment. Her head was too full of questions at that moment. Instead she opened the saddlebag and dug out a small black notebook, pen and a sandwich wrapped in cellophane. In a swift motion she ripped the cellophane away and flipped her notebook open. Maud took couple of dainty bites from her sandwich while flipping through the pages of her notebook. It didn’t actually have any notes in it, just some personal thoughts she had and poems. Lots and lots of poem. Most of them… or actually every single of them were about rocks. She liked rocks. Maud tried to think a tittle for a new poet but didn’t feel like writing after all. With a frustrated sigh she tossed the notebook on top of her saddlebag and continued her feast. She had only couple of bites left when she heard something that made her perk up. She didn’t know what it was until she heard it again. A quiet mumbling. Somepony was somewhere close by. By the sounds of it it was a stallion, and somehow one particular stallion came into her mind. She stayed still for a second, just staring in front of her. Could it be? She quickly munched the rest of her sandwich and rose up, scanning the area around her. No sign of anypony, but she could still hear that quiet mumbling. There had been couple of teens hanging around and getting drunk there, but Maud hadn’t minded them. This time it was different though. The voice was too deep to belong to a teen, and Maud thought that it sounded somehow familiar. She felt her heartbeat raising. She left her saddlebag against the fallen tree and carefully started to walk towards the sound. She realized that the voice came from behind small hill near her. After small hesitating moment, Maud slowly started to climb up the gently sloping hill, bracing herself. She sneaked towards the hilltop and craned her neck to see better. What she saw was… surprising at least. A bit further down the hill there stood a stallion. It was Trenderhoof, standing in front of a big boulder. That wasn’t even the surprising thing. His clothing were. Trenderhoof was wearing a white helmet and on his waist was a utility belt with small pick hanging on it. The big glasses he usually wore had been replaced by smaller, more practical ones and he wasn’t wearing his trademark sweater either. Maud examined the sight with her mouth a bit open. What the hay was he doing there, in those clothes? She then noticed that Trenderhoof was struggling with something, swearing quietly and pulling his right fore hoof. By closer inspection Maud realised that his hoof was stuck under the big boulder in front of him. She frowned. The boulder was gabbro specimen. They were the most mischievous kind of rocks she knew. He didn’t look like he was hurt though, but clearly couldn’t get free by himself. Maud would have found the situation funny, but Trenderhoof’s weird clothing got all her attention. She kept looking at the stallion in trouble for a minute longer, before realizing that he may need some help. She almost tiptoed towards him, and he didn’t seem to notice her. He was too busy trying to get his hoof free. Maud stopped just couple of steps behind him. “Hey,” she said and Trenderhoof almost jumped out of his skin. He turned around as much as he could without ripping his own hoof off and looked towards Maud with scared look. It soon changed into a happy smile though. Maud deadpanned at him. That smile was something she liked in him more than anything else. It was so charming and somehow just seemed so genuine. It was something like Pinkie Pie’s smile, but it felt somehow different, better. “Hello Maud,” Trenderhoof exclaimed. Maud didn’t answer. She was still a bit confused by his appearance. Trenderhoof noticed her looking at his clothes. He puffed out his chest and asked, “Well, what do you think?” “About what?” she asked while curiously poking the small pickhammer on his utility belt. Once again a question he hadn’t expected. “I-I’m an geologist!” he tried. Maud’s eyes went wide, but then she returned to her calm state and said with a shake of her head, “No you’re not.” Trenderhoof looked at her with his mouth a little open. He then gulped and said, sounding almost sad, “I thought that you’d like if I’d look like one.” Maud was about to say something but then his words came through to her. He had dressed as a geologist to impress her? She looked at the smiling stallion in front of her and felt heat rising onto her cheeks. She managed to keep it under control and kept her poker face. “It’s…” she started and a hopeful expression spread on Trenderhoof’s face. “Nice.” There was a deep silence after that. Both of them kept staring at their hooves. After a minute Maud remembered that Trenderhoof was in trouble. “Do you need help?” she asked from Trenderhoof who started to smile sheepishly. He coughed nervously and said, “I’m okay.” “Your hoof is stuck,” Maud said and pointed at his hoof that was indeed stuck. He shrugged and said with bad faked poker face, “Its nothing, really. I can get it out of there whenever I want.” Maud gave her a look that made him chuckle nervously. He rubbed the back of his head with his free hoof and mumbled, “Yeah… Whenever I want.” Maud shook her head and sighed. She then walked over to the boulder and put her front hooves against it. “Watch out,” Trenderhoof warned. “ It’s pretty heavy. A pretty mare like you might get h…” He was cut out by Maud pushing the boulder with little effort, making it rise from over his hoof like it was made out of paper mass. Trenderhoof stared at her with his jaw almost hitting the ground. Maud returned his stare and after couple of more seconds she asked a bit annoyedly, “Are you going to take your hoof away or not?” “Oh,” he exclaimed when he realised that he was now free. He backed couple of steps and Maud released the rock. It came down to the ground with loud thud that made them both jump couple of inches off the ground. Maud looked amusedly at the stallion who stared at the big rock that she had just lifted up. She turned around and started to slowly walk towards the saddlebag she had left behind. It didn’t take long before Trenderhoof raced next to her. He had a respectful smile on his lips as he started to speak, “Well that was something!” “What?” Maud asked, clearly knowing what he meant. He had a big grin on his face as he continued to adore her, “I’ve never seen a mare with your strenght!” “That’s nothing,” Maud said and shrugged while getting closer towards the fallen tree where her saddlebag was. Trenderhoof just chuckled a little and kept walking side by side with her. When they reached the fallen tree, he spoke again, “You must be wondering why I’m here.” “Yes,” Maud answered. Trenderhoof stopped and sat on the tree trunk when Maud started to pick her things up. “I thought that you like working, yes?” he asked from Maud, who simply nodded. “And I am mighty interested about your work,” he continued, earning Maud’s attention. “So I decided that we should meet here!” he finished while throwing his hooves up in the air. Maud stopped her packing and looked at him with that deadpan look. “Is this our date?” she asked. “Oh… Um… Sure!” Trenderhoof exclaimed. Maud gave him a calm stare. She turned to look away from him while thinking how well things had worked out. She didn’t need to go to the town with him, so she wouldn’t feel awkward being the center of the attention. And she liked working with rocks, and now she could do that while spending time with him! It was perfect. “Of course if you want we can go and have a coffee or something...” he started, but Maud turn back towards him. “No.” she quickly said. “I prefer this opinion.” Trenderhoof seemed relieved and started to clap his hooves together while saying, “Splendid!” Maud turned back towards her saddlebag and threw her notebook inside it. She then lifted onto her back and stared at the brown stallion. “What now?” she asked from him. “You just do your thing!” he said cheeringly. “My thing?” Maud asked and gave him a strange look. Trenderhoof chuckled and clarified with a smile, “You just continue working. I’ll hang around and I’ll take care of the talking too.” Maud nodded. It sounded like a good arrangement to her. “Lets go then!” Trenderhoof said happily. “I can also help if you want.” Maud knew that she didn’t need help with anything, but didn’t want to be rude. She thought for a second before coming up with a task easy enough for him. “You can carry my saddlebag.” “With pleasure!” Maud took a hold of her bag and lifted it from her back onto Trenderhoof’s. He was clearly surprised by the weight of it but did a good job trying to hold his calm look on his face. “Is it too heavy?” Maud asked and was about to lift it off from his back, but he shook his head quickly and said, “Not… at all. I can manage.” He had determination. She had to give him that. “Thanks,” she said, making Trenderhoof smile proudly. He did a small bow and said with playful voice, “Anything for you.” This time Maud couldn’t control her blushing, something that wasn’t like her at all. She turned her face away from him and started to walk towards the entrance to the mine. Trenderhoof huffed while sifting the weight of the bag on his back. Maud felt strange feeling of sudden happiness flow through her. It was first time when a stallion carried her saddlebag for her. Actually many had offered their help but she had never accepted it. Anyway, she liked when he offered his help. The heavy bag on Trenderhoof’s back It didn’t stop him from chatting with her. “So what are you actually doing in here?” Trenderhoof asked. “I am studying if there is enough minerals in this mine to reopen it,” Maud answered and he listened in awe. “You work in an abandoned mine all alone? Isn’t that a bit dangerous?” he asked and Maud shrugged. She then looked at him and said with almost smug tone, “Not for me at least.” Trenderhoof snickered and said, “I believe you.” Then he looked at Maud and asked, “Could I see the mine?” “Sure.” Maud answered. “I was going there actually.” “Ooh… Can’t wait.” And he didn’t need to. As if on cue Maud stopped on her tracks and put her hoof against Trenderhoof’s chest, stopping him too. He looked at her with confused look on his face. “It’s right here,” Maud said and pointed at the small hole in the ground about twenty inches away from where he was standing. He looked at the hole and then at Maud. “That’s the mine?” he asked and pointed at the hole. “Yes.” Maud answered. Trenderhoof took careful step towards the entrance and peeked over the edge. All he saw was the first ten meters of ladders and then just thick darkness. It wasn’t like the mines he had seen in the pictures. There wasn’t electric lights, no elevator or anything else actually. Just darkness. He gulped and then muttered to himself quietly, “Oh boy…” Maud noticed his concern. She walked next to him and said, “Just follow me and you’ll be fine.” * * * “I told you to follow me,” Maud lectured Trenderhoof, who rubbed his aching head. They had already come out of the mine, after only thirty minutes after going down there. Their little trip hadn’t gone too well. “Sorry. I didn’t see that the ceiling was so low,” he said and drooped his ears embarrassedly. Maud didn’t hear that. She was checking Trenderhoof’s head for cuts or bruises, running her hoof in his blonde mane. It was so soft that she didn’t remember to focus on her task. She kept petting his silky mane until he asked, “Is there anything?” She snapped back to reality and felt how a deep blush emerged onto her cheeks. She shook her head and sat next to him. She grabbed the white helmet Tenderhoof had wore and examined it. It had a small crack on the spot where it had hit the ceiling off the low tunnel. She then turned towards the looming Trenderhoof. She thought how she got really scared when Trenderhoof yelped in the dark. She first thought that something bad had happened to him when she had seen him holding his head, so they rushed to the surface. Gladly he hadn’t any injuries. Well, maybe his ego had gotten couple bumps. “Good that you had a helmet,” Maud said and placed the white helmet back to the ground between them. Trenderhoof sighed sadly and said, “Yeah… Sorry that I ruined your work.” Maud looked towards the entrance to the mine. That little mishap had indeed made her fall a bit behind the schedule. Not that she really cared. She was just happy that he was okay. “It’s okay,” Maud answered and looked at him. Trenderhoof gave her a small smile before saying with sheepish grin on his face, “I think I’ll let you do your work from here on.” They then spent a small moment in silence, and strangely enough Maud found the silence uncomfortable. Usually she didn’t like small talk, but this time she wanted to talk. It took her a moment before she noticed her saddlebag and came up with a topic. “Are you hungry?” she asked from Trenderhoof. He held his stomach for a second and nodded, saying, “A little bit.” “I still have one sandwich left,” Maud said and pointed at her saddlebag. “We can share.” Trenderoof’s ears sprung up and he started to smile happily. The smile almost made Maud blush again. “I’d like that,” He said. With that Maud pulled her saddlebag in front of her and started to go through it. The sandwich was under all her equipment so she had to empty almost all of her things before reaching the treat. Maud placed the black notebook on the ground. Trenderhoof noticed it and looked at it for a second, before taking it into his hooves and asking, “What’s this?” Maud turned around and her eyes went wide when she saw what he was holding. She jumped towards him and grabbed the notebook. She held it tightly against her chest and turned her back towards him. She didn’t want him to read any of the things she had written in it. “Ohh… Was that like… a diary or something?” Trenderhoof asked, sounding sorry. Maud nodded and looked at the notebook in her hooves. “Sorry,” Trenderhoof said quietly. “I was just interested.” “It’s okay,” Maud said without changing her tone. She swept some dust off from the notebook’s cover. “There’s just some thoughts and poems there anyways.” “Poems?” Maud nodded. Trenderoof’s mouth was open and he had surprised look on his face. He inched closer to Maud and asked, “Do you write poems?” Maud nodded again, a bit coyly this time. Trenderhoof smiled strangely and said, “I’d like to hear your poems. I wrote some myself, but couldn’t get the rhyme right in the end.” “What?” Maud asked. Only one pony had asked to hear her poems before. It was Twilight Sparkle, but Maud could tell that she hadn’t liked them. After that she hadn’t read them to anypony. Not even her family. “Really?” she asked. “Yes! I couldn’t quite come up with a good rhym….” “No, Do you really want to hear my poems?” She asked. Would his answer even matter? Would she really read her works to him? “Of course I would like that!” She would. Something in him made it impossible to resist. Was it his blonde, blow dried mane? Violet eyes or that damn smile he always wore when he was around her? She didn’t know but she found herself nodding again. That made his smile grew even wider. Their stares met for a second when Maud turned to look at him. Their gazes lingered in each others eyes for a second before Maud turned back towards her notebook, trying to hide her blush. It didn’t work but Trenderhoof didn’t say anything. He just kept smiling. Blushing Maud opened her notebook and flipped to an random page. She noticed that on the right page was one of her best works. She cleared her voice and Trenderhoof leaned towards her. Then she started to read. “Rock. You are a rock. Gray. You are gray. Like a rock. Which you are. Rock.” She finished reading and turned towards Trenderhoof, waiting for a reaction. Trenderhoof had a frown on his face, which Maud thought looked like a confused one. She quickly thought that he hadn’t liked her poem and shut her notebook. “They’re not so special really,” she said quietly and stared at the ground. “That was different,” Trenderhoof said, gaining her attention. Maud saw that he had a warm smile on his lips. When he had her attention, he continued, “It was full of personality, it was simple and told about the writer’s feelings.” “You just made that up,” Maud said with deadpan stare. Trenderhoof chuckled and gave her a sheepish smile. “Maybe, but you know what…” he started, clearly waiting for Maud to ask ‘what’. “What?” “I really liked it,” He said with a smile. Maud blinked slowly and stared right into his eyes. “Really?” she asked and saw how he nodded eagerly. Twilight had said that she liked her poets too, but maud knew she hadn’t meant it. This stallion in front of her though, he seemed to like it for real. “Can I hear another?” “What?” Maud asked for third time in a short time. If Trenderhoof wouldn’t have known better, he would have thought that she had bad hearing. “Can I hear another one?” He repeated with a ensuring smile. Maud had hard time trying to speak. His question had been so unexpected that her brain didn’t know how to react. Luckily her mouth did, and she said, “Sure.” They stared at each other. Maud kept staring into Trenderhoof’s eyes while thinking how she couldn’t have asked for a better date. Then she started to speak. She remembered almost all of her poems by heart, so she stared into his violet eyes while speaking. “Rocks; these are my rocks. Sediments: make me sedimental. Smooth and round, asleep in the ground. Shades of brown and gray…”
Act 2.3Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 2.3 It was surprisingly calm at the Canterlot’s train station that day. The reason to that probably was the fact that it was sunday, and nopony had to rush anywhere. The day wasn’t that good either. The sky around Canterlot was covered in grey clouds, making the sky look like a giant ceiling. The weather was windy, and it predicted rain. The pier where Maud Pie and Trenderhoof stood was almost empty. Only one older mare sat on a nearby bench. The atmosphere was silent, but not as awkward as it used to be between those two. They sat on a bench, facing the rail tracks. Trenderhoof had a small smile on his lips while Maud wore her trademark blank stare on her face. Trenderhoof stole sideway glances at her, uneasiness in his mind. He still tried to deny the fact that Maud was leaving. They had had so many nice moments with each other that it felt downright wrong for her to be leaving. He sneaked another careful peek towards her, admiring her looks. Of course she was attractive when covered in dust like two other times they had met during her time in Canterlot, but her clean appearance was just irresistible. Her straight mane and straightly cut bangs, those long eyelashes that fluttered when she blinked, that green dress that pressed against her body… Trenderhoof looked away with smug smile on his lips. Then his expression fell into much darker one. She was leaving. “Is everything alright?” he heard Maud asking with her monotone voice he had crew to like past few days. He turned his head and his gaze met hers. When they met for the first time, Maud had avoided eye contact with him, but now she stared right into his eyes. He considered that as great progress. “Yeah… I’m just a bit sad that you’re leaving,” Trenderhoof said, sadly staring in front of him.. “We had nice time together.” “We did.” Maud said and returned to stare in front of her too. “It’s a shame.” It was more than a shame. It was awful. Trenderhoof knew that that day would come, and he had practiced how to tell her about his feelings. He had a shameless crush on her, but he still wasn’t sure how she felt about him. She was so hard to read. What if she didn’t have the same feelings towards him? What if she thought him only as a friend or something? Trenderhoof straightened his pose a little and glanced at her, sighing deeply.. He knew he had to speak up soon, but he didn’t know what words to use. He had never been wordless around the mares. Not even with Applejack, who had been another mare he had been drooling after. Another sideway glance, another sigh. Maud noticed it and turned towards him again. She noticed his troubled look and asked, “Are you sure everythings alright?” “Yeah…” Trenderhoof sighed and turned towards Maud. “Everything’s…” He stopped when his eyes met hers. She looked at him with that stare of hers. Her stare… Those turquoise eyes... It was something that went right through him, making his heart flutter. He knew that it was time. “Uh… Actually I have something to ask,” he said. He decided to proceed with caution, just in case. Maud nodded. “I’ve been thinking… I really enjoyed spending time with you...” Trenderhoof started and played with the sleeve of his sweater nervously. Maud agreed by nodding again. Trenderhoof let his sleeve be and turned to look at her straight in the eyes. “And I thought that… maybe we could spend some more time together?” “Sure.” Trenderhoof’s eyes went wide and his mouth opened. It had been easier than he had thought. For a moment he stared at her like that, but then his mouth turned into a wide grin and his eyes sparkled. He was just about to say something when Maud continued, “We can see when I come back from the rock farm.” Trenderhoof’s face went to confused one again. It could take pretty long before Maud would be coming back, and he wasn’t a fan of remote relationships. “It’s nice to have a friend here.” A friend? Trenderhoof almost winced when he heard that. Did he just get a friend zoned by her? No. He shook that thought off. She probably just didn’t understand what he meant. Just as he was about to speak, a loud whistle interrupted him. He and Maud both turned towards the sound and saw the train to rock farm glide to the pier. The whistle was heard again and the locomotive released a vast amount of steam to the pier with a loud hissing sound. They kept staring at it as the doors opened in unison, couple of ponies coming out of it. They saw a Conductor walking out of the first car and trotting off to do whatever he was doing. “That’s my train,” Maud said and jumped down from the bench. She picked up her bag from the handle and turned towards Trenderhoof. “It whas nice sheeing you,” she mumbled with the handle in her mouth. Trenderhoof didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded. Maud turned around and started to walk towards the train. Trenderhoof immediately face-hoofed himself and rose up, dashing after her. “Maud wait!” he said and trotted next to her. She turned her head towards him but didn’t stop walking. Trenderhoof didn’t have too much time so he went straight to the point, “I think you understood me wrong!” Maud gave him a look that told him to explain himself, which he did. “With spending time with you…” he said and looked at Maud. “I meant spending it as more than just friends.” I took couple of seconds before his words sunk into her. When they did, her eyes went wide and she stopped dead on her tracks, staring at him with confusion and surprise. Trenderhoof smiled at her nervously, waiting for some kind of an answer, which he didn’t get. Maud just turned to stare at the ground, making his smile vanish. He backed away couple of steps. She didn’t seem like she liked the idea. Trenderhoof’s ears dropped and he felt how his heart fluttered even harder. Only this time it was due sadness and annoyance. Why did he have to ruin it? Now it was almost impossible to be ‘just friends’ with her. He hung his head and gulped. “Of course we can be just friends if you want,” he said and lifted his gaze towards Maud, expecting to see her walking towards the train car. To his surprise she stood on her place, looking at her with slight blush on her otherwise emotionless face. “Sorry…” she started, with a hint of nervousness in her voice. “I just got surprised.” “All aboard!” the conductor shouted, but they didn’t hear it. “Nopony has ever asked me anything like that,” she said and looked at Trenderhoof, who started to see a new glimpse of hope. He took step forward and asked, “So… uh… what do you say?” There was a brief silence between them. Trenderhoof looked at her with anticipation in his look. Maud seemed to be thinking about something for a second or two, before she opened her mouth. Trenderhoof bit his lower lip and folded his ears backwards, waiting for the answer. “Sure.” Trenderhoof instantly jumped in the air and whooped, but his voice was overran by the loud whistling sound. They looked at the train and saw that it started to move slowly, pushing more steam to the pier. As happy as Trenderhoof was, he knew that Maud shouldn’t miss the train, so he turned towards her and said, “I’ll help you to the train.” “No need to,” Maud said and picked up her bag again. Trenderhoof gave her a confused look before saying, “But you will miss your train!” “So it seems,” Maud said calmly and stared as the train slowly moved away from the pier. Trenderhoof was looked at her and then at the train confusedly. What was going on? When it was about fifty meters away from the station, Maud dropped her bag and turned towards him, saying, “I think I will have to stay here for another week.” “Ohh… Oh! And I don’t think you have any bits left?” he asked with one brow raised. Maud shook her head. Trenderhoof smiled as he realised what she was doing. “Well it would be rude if I wouldn’t help a damsel in distress now wouldn’t it?” he asked with a sly grin on his face. Maud nodded. “In that case you can stay at my humble abode,” Trenderhoof said and bowed a little. Maud blinked slowly and turned around, making her way towards the exit. Trenderhoof quickly picked up her bag and trotted after her. He thought about doing something bold for a second, before he went from thoughts to actions. He lifted his hoof sneakily and placed it onto Maud’s shoulder. She winced and looked at his hoof, and then at him. Trenderhoof wore a sheepish smile, but it didn’t help. Maud nudged his hoof off from her shoulder and gave him a stern stare. “Sorry,” he chuckled nervously and continued to walk on her side, smiling from ear to ear. It was going to be a great week.
Act 3.1Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 3.1 “Are you sure you don’t want any?” “Yes.” Trenderhoof frowned, but then nodded. He turned away from Maud, facing the vendor of the ice cream stand. He examined the menu for a second before saying, “Just plain vanilla cone, thank you.” The vendor nodded and started to make his order. Meanwhile Maud started to look for a free bench near the stand. The small square near Trenderhoof’s apartment was surprisingly empty, considering that the day was so good. Sun was shining, birds were singing in the branches of the only tree in the middle of the square and small gold fishes splashed in the fountain that surrounded the lone oak mentioned earlier. Maud didn’t keep admiring her surroundings for too long, and soon found a perfect bench, under the shadow of the oak. She sat down and waited for Trenderhoof to join her. She stared at him as he walked towards her with the vanilla cone in his magical grasp. His blow dried mane flowing in wind and his violet eyes looking towards her behind his glasses. Maud felt a shudder. It was still strange thinking about their relationship and she still felt like giggly teen around him, but luckily she could hide that. She had accepted those feelings in the past two days, and had learned to like them in a way. She was snapped away from her thoughts when Trenderhoof sat besides her and said, “Quite lovely place.” “Yep,” she said and looked around herself. The square was surrounded by typical Canterlot styled buildings, nothing too special, but she liked the cobblestone that covered the square. Fine cobblestone indeed. She noticed that it was actually the first time she had paid any attention to anything that had something to do with rocks in the whole time she had spent living in Trenderhoof’s apartment. Well she had spent almost three hours teaching Trenderhoof about rock cycle, but that didn’t count. She came to that conclusion that Trenderhoof had stolen all her attention, which was a hard thing to do. She really liked rocks. “You want some?” Trenderhoof asked from her, snapping her back to reality for second time. He was levitating the ice cream in front of her nose. She leaned backwards and shook her head. “I’m not much into sweets,” she said but Trenderhoof kept pushing the cone forward while pleading, “Just one lick. The taste is quite charming.” Maud gave her an annoyed look, but then turned towards the ice cream and gave it a dainty lick. It tasted like vanilla, big surprise. She didn’t like it. “Well?” Trenderhoof asked. “I don’t like sweets.” Trenderhoof frowned amusedly, and then gave the cone a lick himself. The they were quiet for a while, before he spoke again, “Can we hold hooves?” “What?” Maud asked, pulling her hooves closer to herself. The question had surprised her completely. For the past two days she had liked spending time with Trenderhoof, but they hadn’t done anything physical yet. Not even held hooves. “Come oon…” Trenderhoof dragged the end of the sentence. “We should look like a pair when we’re one.” Maud didn’t answer “I know you will like it.” he tried. Maud rubbed her hooves together nervously, but she still had her poker face on. Trenderhoof opened his mouth to probably peg again, but he was interrupted by two very high pitched scream. They both turned towards the ear aching scream and saw two teenager mares dashing towards them. Other one was a light green colored and the other one had very light brown coat. Maud immediately spotted some similarities between those two teenagers and Trenderhoof. They both had same kind of sweaters as he did, and the other one even had exactly identical glasses as he had. Clearly some big time fans of him. “Ohmygoshohmygosh! Trenderhoof we love you..!” the other one shouted. Maud grabbed his hoof into her own and pulled him closer to herself, driven by some strange urge. The teens and Trenderhoof were equally surprised, and maybe Maud herself was too. The teens slowed down and looked at them with confused stare. “Umm…,” the green mare started slowly. “Did we interrupt something?” “Yeah…” Trenderhoof said while still staring at Maud with confused, but in the same time happy look on his face. Everypony were silent for a moment. Only the rustling of leaves in the oak behind them was heard until the light brown mare said shyly, “C-could you sign this magazine?” She presented a magazine to them, which Maud recognized as some famous travel magazine. The cover of it had a picture of smiling Trenderhoof in it. “Oh… Of course!” Trenderhoof said and tried to extend his hoof towards the magazine, but Maud held it tightly. He gave her a strange look, and Maud grudgingly let go of him. “What’s your name beauty?” he asked from the shyly smiling mare, making Maud almost fold her ears backwards. The mare giggled and said, “Latte.” “Latte… I like your glasses by the way,” Trenderhoof said as he levitated a pencil from his pocket. The teen giggled and Trenderhoof started to write. “From Trenderhoof to Latte… with love,” he spoke as he wrote, making the girls giggle even harder. Maud didn’t like that, and when he released the magazine Maud immediately wrapped her fore hooves around his right hoof again. Trenderhoof smiled stupidly and said, “It was nice seeing you girls, always a pleasure to meet fans.” The girls blushed and curtseyed at him, before trotting away from them, giggling and fighting over the magazine. They looked after the two young ponies for a moment, and then they disappeared behind the corner of nearby house. “Lovely girls,” Trenderhoof said. Maud just let out a small ‘hmph’. Trenderhoof turned to look at him with teasing look in his eyes. He leaned closer to her and whispered, “Are you jealous?” “No.” Maud answered quickly, looking the other way. She was jealous, and that wasn’t even the worst part.The worst part was that she didn’t even know why! It wasn’t like her to get jealous over a stallion. Trenderhoof chuckled and continued his teasing, “I think you are!” “No.” Maud denied again. Trenderhoof snickered and stared at her with a small smile and strange look in his eyes. Maud stared back with questioning look. “Now we look like a pair,” he said with sly voice. Maud realized that she was still holding his hoof in a tight grip. She looked up and saw him smiling warmly at her. That was the same smile that made her feel giddy a while back when they first met in Canterlot. It made her tighten her grip around his hoof. They stared at each other for a second, before Maud said in her monotone voice, “I like this.” “I knew you’d like it,” he said and took another lick from his ice cream. It didn’t take long before Maud noticed someponies looking at them with interest. Maud started to feel uncomfortable when she noticed more eyes fixated towards them. She felt like shrinking under their gazes, letting go of Trenderhoof’s fore leg. He turned to look at her and saw her staring down at her own hoofs. “What’s wrong,” he asked, reaching towards her. Maud just shook her head and muttered, “Everypony is looking.” When Trenderhoof heard that he lifted his gaze to see if she was right, noticing how the ponies mentioned earlier turned to look elsewhere, trying to evade his gaze. A frown appeared onto his forehead, grunting annoyedly. It wasn’t first time everypony who knew about his magazine were interested in his private life, and by everypony who knew about his magazine, he meant everypony in whole Canterlot. A celebrity’s relationships were always a good source of gossip around the city. “Don’t mind them,” Trenderhoof said and looked at Maud, who was staring at her hooves with deadpan look. She slowly lifted her head and looked at him while saying, “They are judging me.” Trenderhoof snorted angrily. He grabbed Maud’s hoof into his own and held it tightly. He felt Maud tensing up and trying to pull her hoof free, which he didn’t allow. He waited until Maud was looking him in the eyes and started, “Well two can play that game.” “What do you mean?” she asked. Trenderhoof chuckled and nudged towards the pony closest to them. He was a dark grey stallion who was wearing a black vest. He was eating ice cream. “Look at him. He can’t eat ice cream without making a great mess,” Trenderhoof whispered to her. He was right. Maud saw that the stallion was making his black vest covered in the melting white ice cream. “And that one,” Trenderhoof said so the pony he was addressing. Maud recognized him as one of the ponies who had been whispering to the another stallion about them. Trenderhoof waited until he was sure that that stallion was looking at him. “He keeps stealing sneak peeks at that mare’s backside!” he said loud enough for the mare in question to hear. She let out a loud gasp and turned towards the now sheepishly smiling stallion. There was a loud smack when the mare’s hoof connected to the face of that stallion. It made Maud feel a strange wave of satisfaction wash over her. “And don’t even get me started on the rest of these!” Trenderhoof almost yelled with amused grin on his face. It made the other ponies in the square start squirming on their places. Starting to dismiss into different ways, giving Maud and Trenderhoof some well deserved privacy. “See? They are just ponies like us!” Trenderhoof said as he pulled his hoof from Maud’s, lifting it over her shoulder. Maud tensed up. It felt like holding a statue for Trenderhoof. Soon Maud started to relax slowly though, resting her head onto his shoulder. They stayed like that for a long moment. Trenderhoof finished his ice cream and kept holding Maud in his hooves. He looked down and saw her calm expression, thinking why she was like that around other ponies... Then his mind raced back to the first time they met in Canterlot. He remembered the mares that giggled at her annoyingly, and how she had became incredibly tensed when he had asked why she hadn’t defended herself. He stared at Maud in his thoughts. She noticed it and asked, “What?” Trenderhoof snapped away from his trance with a wince. He gave her a stupid look before fixing his pose. “I was just thinking…” he started slowly, Maud getting interested. He gulped before asking, “Why are you so… Or why didn’t you just go and tell them to...” The words got stuck in his throat when he felt how she got tensed up in his hooves. He immediately felt stupid, and decided to drop the matter by saying, “Sorry. It’s not any of my business.” Maud looked up at him for a moment, thinking about something before saying, “I haven’t never been the one to interact with others.” Trenderhoof didn’t say anything, mainly because he didn’t know what to say. Maud tightened her grip around him and continued. “I’m not like my sisters. They smile all the time and go out every night,” she told him. “I’m the oldest of our family’s siblings.” “I don’t see why that is so terrible,” Trenderhoof said, earning a look from Maud that made him shut up. “Pinkie, Marble and Limestone don’t know it, but our family was really broken when I was a filly,” Maud told to Trenderhoof, who gulped. This wasn’t going to be a good story he guessed. “We were really poor. I went to sleep feeling hungry every night.” Maud told and felt how Trenderhoof placed his head to rest on top of hers. “It was then when mom told that she was waiting for another foal. Pinkie Pie,” Maud continued, holding a small pause before continuing, “We had to work day and night to make enough bits so we could provide enough food for another mouth to feed. I never went to school and didn’t have any friends” “It must have been hard,” Trenderhoof said. “It was. I worked so hard that in the end I could tell the type of any rock by just looking at it,” Maud told him, explaining couple things for him. “It is hard to smile when you don’t have any reason to do so,” Maud said and sighed. “We found the big iron vein after Pinkie was born. She doesn’t remember any of it.” “So you managed after that?” Trenderhoof asked. Maud nodded but then said, “We did, but the hard times left some scars to me and dad. That’s why it was hard for my sisters too, until Pinkie got her cutie mark. Dad wasn’t the best father before that.” “How does your sister's cutie mark have anything to do with this?” Trenderhoof asked confusedly. “I’ll tell you someday,” Maud told him with a deadpan stare. “Anyway, dad became lot happier after she got it, like my sisters.” “But you didn’t?” Trenderhoof asked a bit worriedly. Maud shook her head slowly. She squeezed him closer to herself and said, “No. I did. It’s just hard for me to show it after all those years. I'm happy but I just can't show it to anypony. Pinkie Pie is the only pony that can make me smile.” “How about me?” Trenderhoof asked and gave her the smile she liked so much. She stared at him, trying to force out a smile, but it never came. “No, sorry.” Trenderhoof’s smile turned into a less broad one, but he kept smiling. Maud was starting to open up to him. It had to mean that she trusted him. Or at least that usually meant it. That mare was so hard to read. He chuckled and he said, “I promise that someday I will get a smile from you.” “I hope so,” Maud said and pressed her head back to his shoulder, sighing sadly. Trenderhoof noticed that. He smiled to himself. He had knew it! Under Maud's simple appearance was indeed a feeling thing, a beautiful, authentic mare. He nudged her a little to get her attention. “Would you like to have some ice cream?” “No.” “Are you sure?” “No.” “What kind?” “Chocolate.”
Act 3.2Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 3.2 Trenderhoof’s apartment hadn’t been what Maud Pie had expected it to be. Of course it was in the centre of Canterlot, and it was a penthouse apartment with rent about same amount of bits that Maud made in year, but it was rather simply decourished inside. Not that the furniture were cheap or anything, they were hoofmade and probably cost a fortune too, but their appearance was something that anypony could have in their homes. Also the color design was very simple. White colors everywhere. Not something that you expected to see in a home of a famous journalist. Well, Maud liked the simple design. Maybe not enough rock-themed furnitures but it could be arranged. Maud and Trenderhoof were sitting in the kitchen, around a big dining table that was from a fine quality maple tree. The sun was just starting to rise up onto the sky, and it’s warm first rays of light poured into the kitchen. Trenderhoof had told her that it was one of the reasons he had rented the apartment. Maud was eating cereal, without milk. She didn’t like to mix milk into her cereal. Trenderhoof was eating cereal too but his cereals were drowning in milk. Or that’s how Maud saw it. The morning went on like all the others that far. Maud ate in silence, offering some of her food to Boulder who rested on the table. Like always, Trenderhoof seemed like he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “I’ve been thinking...” he started and munched a spoonful of cereals. After his mouth was empty again, he continued, “Maybe I should make a visit to Rambling rock ridge?” Maud stopped with the spoon still in her mouth when he mentioned her birthplace. She gulped down the cereal and asked “Why?” “I realised that I haven’t done a single article about rock farming,” he said and leaned into his front hooves, eyeing Maud strangely. “And I have recently found that profession quite interesting,” he continued. Maud lifted her front hooves to the table, leaned closer to him and asked without breaking her poker face, “Is there some reason for that?” “Well,” he said and inched his hoof closer to hers. “I met a interesting mare couple of days back. And she’s quite a good looking too.” Their hooves touched. Their relationship had deepened greatly after the day in the square. They touched each other without problem, Maud not being so scared of it anymore. They had been holding hooves almost nonstop. Maud also had started to like Trenderhoof’s sweet talking and his constant flirting. She thought that who knew how long it would take for them to see again after she would leave Canterlot, so she would get the most out of it. “That’s…” Maud started, but didn’t know how to sweet talk. She looked at Trenderhoof for help. He chuckled and tried, “Sweet?” “Yeah. That.” Trenderhoof smiled and leaned even closer, pursing his lips slightly. He crossed Maud’s too close for comfort line. She pushed him gently backwards from his forehead, feeling almost bad for him when she saw his pitiful face. It wasn’t first time he had tried to kiss her, with same result. Maud liked him, and she really wanted to kiss back, but she had never found enough courage to actually do it. “Sorry… again,” Trenderhoof said with apologetic smile. Maud lifted her hoof to brush his cheek gently as consolation. He smiled a bit more happily for a second, and they pressed their foreheads together. After a while they leaned backwards, staring into each other’s eyes. Then Trenderhoof’s expression changed into a shocked one, and Maud noticed him looking past her. She turned to look where he was looking at, and saw the kitchen clock. It was half past eight. Maud knew that he was supposed to be at the office at nine. “Oh no,” he cried and rose up from the table. “I’m going to be late!” Maud calmly looked from the chair as he dashed off and ran around his apartment, trying to find his saddlebag. Maud looked to the table and saw the lost saddlebag sitting right there, in the middle of it. She took it into her hooves and cleared her throat to get Trenderhoof’s attention. He stopped on his tracks and looked at her with sheepish grin. “Oh how absent-minded I am,” he said and flipped the saddlebag onto his back before reaching his hoof towards Maud, who mimicked him. They shared a hug. Maud was still new in things like that, but she liked it. Trenderhoof was a really great hugger in her opinion, his hugs were warm and in the same time stern, making her feel comfortable. She especially liked the scent of his mane. It smelled clean. Nothing else. “It’s pretty busy day today,” he said, still holding Maud. She nodded so that Trenderhoof could feel it. He slowly pulled away and said, “But you can come by at the office if you want.” “Okay.” Trenderhoof smiled and started to walk towards the door. He quickly glanced at the clock and muttered to himself, “Ohh… She’s going to kill me.” That made Maud’s ears perk up. She knew that his boss was a stallion, not a mare. “Bye then!” Trenderhoof exclaimed from the door. Maud waved at him, and he disappeared behind the door. Maud kept thinking about the line he had muttered just mere seconds before. She jumped off from the table and walked to the nearby window. After couple of minutes she saw Trenderhoof trotting towards his office. Even she knew that what she had heard was nothing, something still kept bothering her. She was not sure why. * * * Trenderhoof trotted down the street with spring in his step. Even the fact that he was almost late from a very important meeting didn’t stop him from smiling. Maud Pie had that kind of effect on him. He peeked over his shoulder. His apartment had disappeared from his sight long time ago, but he still felt an urge to look behind him, every time hoping to see that grey mare behind him. She wasn’t there. Trenderhoof sighed and looked forward again. He wanted to be home. Usually he was happy when going to the office, he liked his job unlike some of his co-workers. Maybe it was because he had almost triple pay rate compared to them, and he often met famous ponies during his travels. In a matter of fact he was supposed to meet one in fifteen minutes. It was reason to his hurrying. He knew that it was important meeting, and that it was also going to be the most interesting meeting he had had in months. Normally he could not have have even imagined to miss something like that, but now... Now he wanted to be home. For the past week there hadn’t been a single day when he hadn’t thought about staying home. Actually he had skipped work just the day earlier, spending the whole day with Maud. He felt bad in a way for not showing up on the most busiest time of the week, but didn’t regret it. Time with Maud had been invaluable. Trenderhoof trotted past the café where they had seen each other for the first time in Canterlot. He chuckled to himself when he remembered how embarrassed Maud had looked, sitting there in her dust covered dress and tangled mane. The memory of her appearance that night made Trenderhoof’s heart beat faster. He knew how other ponies probably didn’t know nothing about her because of her simple appearance and unintentional coldness in her voice drove most of them away from her. Like those mares that kept making Maud feel awkward when they met in the café he just passed. They saw just a dirty pony with dull look on her face. It still made him feel a bit angry, because he knew that Maud wasn’t like that. Trenderhoof crossed a road, almost getting ran over by a chariot, but he didn’t even notice it. He was too deep in his thoughts. He thought what Maud really was. She was a strong, independent mare who had a hard work. Trenderhoof also knew that she was also an intelligent. She loved poems and fashion was also part of her… in some way at least. Trenderhoof knew he shouldn’t have started thinking about her, because now it was almost impossible to not turn around and gallop right back to her. The more he thought about her, the more perfect she seemed. Trenderhoof’s ears stated to feel warm and he smiled smugly to himself when he started to think about Maud’s more physical features. She was couple old years older than him, and years of hard work had clearly shaped her body to perfection... Trenderhoof’s eyes had a glassy gaze in them when he trotted forward. not seeing or hearing anything that happened around him. His daydream had set him into some kind of a automated walk mode. He would surely had walked past the office, if a voice would not have called his name. “Trenderhoof! There you are!” a feminine voice with sophisticated tone shouted, making him snap out of his fantasy, that had made his cheeks got redder shade on them. He turned around and realised that he had walked past the front doors of the office, and that his visitor was already there, waiting for him. Trenderhoof shook his head to clear it, and then started to walk back towards his visitor. In front of him stood a white mare in her twenties. She had a big brimmed hat on top of her head, covering some of her curled royal purple mane. Under the brim of the hat, two big azure eyes stared at him while a happy smile spread on the mare’s lips. She stood in a pose, which Trenderhoof thought was almost like a reflex to her. “Well hello Rarity. It’s been too long,” Trenderhoof said, returning the smile. It had been a long time since they had seen each other, during the Pinkie Pie’s wedding to be exact. Trenderhoof remembered how he had first tried to avoid meeting her during the wedding, thinking that their meeting would be rather awkward, considering the Applejack incident. Of course they met, but they both were adults so everything had gone well. “Oh, too long my darling,” Rarity cooed. She then nudged her head towards him, showing off her hat that was probably one of her newest creations. “How do you like it? It’s one of my newest creations.” “It’s lovely,” Trenderhoof answered. In his opinion it was just a hat. Hat with lot of glitter. Surely it would have been much more charming if one certain earth pony wouldn’t be the only thing in his head. “So Rarity. Are you ready to begin?” Trenderhoof asked, eager to get the meeting over with. “I have all the plans and alternatives ready just for you.” “Ooh, I cant wait to get started,” Rarity exclaimed. “I have so many amazing ideas for this year’s Ponyville Days festival!” There was a small pause, her eyes glimmering and lips curling into a excited smile. “I is going to be magnificent!” she tittered. Trenderhoof smiled and opened door to her, before saying, “Without doubt, dearest Rarity.” * * * “That was absolutely exhausting!” Rarity whined and hung her head dramatically. “But also most rewarding!” “Yes, indeed,” Trenderhoof said calmly. They slowly walked towards the door that lead towards the now crowded streets of Canterlot. Their meeting was over. It had been complete hell to Trenderhoof. Not because he didn’t like Rarity, or the meeting itself, but because he had a burning urge to get back to his place to see the mare of his dreams again. “I can’t believe that boss of yours,” Rarity continued with disapproving tone. “How can’t he be interested in Ponyville Days Festival!? It’s the most important festival in whole Ponyville! He seems to think that Ponyville is just some backwater full of jockels! Glad I could get him to see the true charm of my hometown” She ended her sentence with a loud ‘hmph’. Maybe it wasn’t Ponyville’s charm that made him bend to her will. Maybe it was her charm. She turned towards Trenderhoof, waiting for an reaction. It took couple of seconds before he noticed Rarity staring at him. “What?” he asked. They stopped in front of the front door and Rarity gave him a suspecting glare. She leaned closer to him and said, “You have been acting strangely today.” He was about to say something about being in a hurry, but Rarity was faster. “Is it mare trouble?” Trenderhoof stared at her with surprised look. “Is it that obvious?” he asked, making Rarity chuckle girlishly. She fluttered her eyelashes while speaking,”Oh you can’t keep those things away from Ponyville’s number one gossip queen.” Trenderhoof chuckled and shook his head amusedly. Rarity let out a squee and asked, “Who is her? Some famous pony of course.” “Actually she’s just a regular pony,” Trenderhoof said with smile. “Just like me and you.” “That’s so sweet,” Rarity said with dreamy look in her eyes. “How is she?” Trenderhoof lifted his gaze towards the ceiling, thinking how to describe Maud the best way. “She’s much more than she lets other ponies think… She hides under her simple appearance,” he started, scratching his small beard. “She doesn’t speak too much, but she’s a great listener. She doesn’t want to be the center of attention, but that makes her even more interesting.” “So it is Applejack incident all over again?” Rarity said with a raised brow. Trenderhoof scratched his neck awkwardly and said, “It’s different this time. I know it.” Rarity smiled warmly at him and said, “So you really are head over hooves in love with her?” “Yes. I think I am,” Trenderhoof said with a nod. “I wouldn’t want anypony else.” “Not even me?” Rarity suddenly asked with a seductive tone and sultry gaze. Trenderhoof frowned and answered without hesitation, “Not even you.” “Well that’s good to hear,” Rarity snickered. “Because otherwise my coltfriend would get real mad. And he’s pretty aggressive sometimes.” Trenderhoof noticed a teasing grin appearing on Rarity’s lips. He returned it. “Good to see that we both have gotten over that little accident and moved on,” Rarity said. Trenderhoof nodded knowingly. He then reached his hoof towards Rarity, inviting her into a friendly hug. “It was good to see a old friend,” Rarity said when she returned the hug, closing him into a friendly embrace. She gave Trenderhoof a small kiss to a cheek while saying, “Come visit me and the girls in Ponyville someday.” “I think I will...” Trenderhoof said, a bit taken back by the sudden peck on the cheek. He quickly decided that it was just a gesture to say ‘good bye’. He cleared his throat and a smug grin appeared onto his face. Rarity gave her a confused look in response. “I bet that Pinkie Pie want’s to meet her older sister’s new coltfriend someday,” he said and liked the way how shock emerged onto Rarity’s face. * * * About five minutes earlier Maud Pie was briskly walking towards Trenderhoof’s workplace. She had struggled alone with her unsettling thoughts for many hours, before finally deciding to go and meet him. First she had been nervous about leaving the apartment, but had noticed that not too many ponies actually were staring at her. She thought that it was because she wasn’t moving around with famous pony like Trenderhoof, and because she wasn’t returning from work, covered in dust. And even if somepony might have looked at her curiously, she didn’t care. She was feeling too troubled to notice them. She trotted past the familiar café, not even glancing at it. Her mind was racing around the small, barely audible sentence mumbled by Trenderhoof that morning. “Ohh… She’s going to kill me.” Subconsciously she knew that he could have meant a co-worker or a customer, but rest of her didn’t listen to her subconscious. Later on she would realise that it was because she finally had a pony to care for as more than just a friend, wanting to keep him for herself and not let go. She would also realise that her jealousy was some kind of a defence mechanism that her mind had created while being disoriented by all those new, strange feelings Trenderhoof had caused in her. On that moment however she didn’t even consider those opinions. Actually she didn’t know what to think, or why she was so worried. She didn’t think that Trenderhoof would have another mare. He wasn’t like that. She knew that. She was snapped back to reality for couple of seconds when she almost hit two ponies walking slowly in front of her. Other one was a stallion and he was walking with mare glued to his side. Maud wouldn’t have paid any attention to them and would have just passed them, but they did something that made her stare at those two. They kissed. Maud slowed down to match the speed of those two lovers in front of her. She saw the dreamy gazes in those two unicorn’s eyes. They clearly were in love. Maud fell back to her thoughts. She had showed clear signs of affection towards Trenderhoof. They held hooves, they leaned against each other while sitting side by side, they hugged each other… But they haven’t kissed. She felt a blush forming on her cheeks while thinking about the concept of kissing. It was an physical expression of affection or love between two ponies. Love. Did she love Trenderhoof. She didn’t know, but something in her made her feel warm while being with him, and jealous when somepony else was near him. She had never loved anypony, so she couldn’t tell if what she was feeling was love. But she knew that it was some kind of deep affection at least, and that she liked it. She shook her head and speeded up her pace, walking past those two lovers. She had just gotten a new urge to get to Trenderhoof and prove her suspicions wrong. Suspicions? Was she suspecting that he was maybe doing something with other mare? She cursed mentally, still not knowing what she was doing. She started to trot. It didn’t take long before she recognized the light brown colored building that had the logo of Trenderhoof’s magazine hanging over it’s front doors. She slowed down and walked towards it with mixed feelings. She felt good to see him, and in other hand she feared that she would see him with another mare. On that moment she realised that she was indeed afraid that he had somepony other. She stopped just before the glass doors. She could see inside, but saw nopony in the lobby. She took a deep breath and was about to go in, when one of the doors to the lobby opened. She felt her heart jumping to her throat when she spotted Trenderhoof, in all his splendor. She felt relief for a second, but then she showed up. Maud let out a small, just audible gasp when she saw somehow familiar white mare walking besides him, talking to him. Like said earlier, she should have realised that she was just a customer to Trenderhoof, but in her confused state she immediately felt her heart skipping a beat from pure horror. She retreated towards the wall, so that she could peek behind the doorway. She could have just rushed in, but something stopped her. She decided to examine the situation. They were talking about something, that white mare fluttering her eyelashes annoyingly while she spoke. Maud saw that Trenderhoof smiled at her, making her feel even more nervous. She remembered the mare suddenly. She was one of Pinkie Pie’s friends. That fact made her feel even more grim. She had thought that they were friends. Maybe she didn’t know about Trenderhoof and Maud? She shook her head, even if that white mare didn’t know, he did. She saw that now Trenderhoof was looking nervous, speaking something she couldn’t hear through the thick glass. She kept watching with deep worry. The mare gave her a look that was clearly suggestive. By that point, Maud’s heart was almost coming through her chest. She had a bad feeling about that look, and she saw them exchanging some words, and Trenderhoof reached his hoof towards her. They hugged. Maud’s mouth opened. She stared at the stallion. She felt how her heart stopped beating, but knew that they could hug as just friends. She still had her hopes up. The mare kissed him. Maud’s world stopped. She stared at Trenderhoof and that white mare. For a second, nothing happened, but then she felt sharp pain in her chest. She felt how her heart shattered. She saw them backing away from each other, with smiles on their faces that hurt her even more. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to run away. Her heart started beating fast, her breathing got harder, small sad voices escaping from her mouth. She started hyperventilating. She laid onto her stomach and hid behind her hooves, shuttering. She stayed in that pose for a second, until the shuttering stopped. When Maud lifted her head again, her face was cold and emotionless. Not even single tear was shed. Maud didn’t look inside again, instead she turned around and started walking towards the same way she had came. * * * Trenderhoof twisted the key in the lock with his magic, opening the door with a quiet klick. He grinned happily and stepped in. It had been taken him a bit longer to get home, mainly due Rarity’s harsh lecture to not ever hurt Maud’s feelings, because otherwise he would have six very angry mares after him. He chuckled at the image of him being chased down by one princes and five elements of harmony. “Maud? I’m home,” he announced as he stepped into his own apartment. It was quiet. He wasn’t suspecting anything though, Maud never responded. She always trotted to meet him and gave him a gentle hug, which he was waiting eagerly in the hallway. She never came. Trenderhoof was a bit surprised, but thought that she was probably in bathroom or something. He trotted to the living room, not seeing a single soul. “Maud?” he called again. No response. Trenderhoof trotted towards the bathroom next, knocking on the door gently. Again no response. Trenderhoof thought for a second. He then tried the handle. Unlocked. He took a peek in the bathroom and saw that Maud was not in there. In a way he felt relieved. It would have been awkward if he would have crashed on her while she was on a toilet. He didn’t feel too troubled at that point. He was sure that Maud was taking a nap in the bedroom. He closed the bathroom door and trotted to the door of his bedroom, noticing that it was open. “Maud?” he asked silently, not wanting her to get startled. “I’m home.” He pushed the door, opening it just enough to see that the bed was made. Now he started to feel rather nervous. What if Maud had just left to see him at his workplace? They could have passed each other and now she was at his workplace, trying to look for him. She could get lost for Celestia’s sake! It was clear that Maud wasn’t there, so his best guess was that she was out in the city tryin g to look for him. He sighed and hung her head for a moment. Trenderhoof would just need to calm down. He was sure that when Maud would find out that he wasn’t working any more, she would come back there. He turned towards the door that led outside. He thought for a moment before starting to walk towards it. He knew that Maud could take care of herself, but something drove him towards the door. He passed the kitchen, but stopped suddenly. Trenderhoof turned around and stared at that fine quality maple tree table of his. Well, actually he stared at something that was resting on it. Trenderhoof walked to the table and saw that the object that had caught his interest was a white piece of paper, pinned down by something he recognized as one of the rock samples Maud had brought along with her from the mine. He didn’t pay any attention to the rock though, he just flicked it away with his magic before lifting the paper into the air. he levitated the paper closer to his face, examining it carefully. His jaw dropped and his eyes went wide, then his face grew a terrified expression on them. His lower lip quivered as he eyed the paper, not believing what was written on it. “It wouldn’t work out. Please don’t follow me.” That was all there was. He stared at the paper with same terrified look on his face for a long moment, before releasing it from his magical grasp and dashing towards the bedroom. He almost banged the door off from it’s hinges as he rushed into the bedroom. He let out a gasp as his suspicions came through. Her saddleback was gone. He rushed back to the living room, skidding to a stop in front of the window. He tried to look out for her, but didn’t see her silhouette anywhere. Trenderhoof slumped down in front of the window, pressing his forehead against the window. His body started to shut down. He fell limp against the window, all of his limbs paralyzed. Only his mind was racing. Maud wasn’t like that. She wouldn’t leave him without saying it face to face. She couldn’t do something so mean to anypony and Trenderhoof knew that. He had seen how she really was. He knew. Or did he? His limp body winced as that thought passed his mind. What about if he was wrong? No. He dismissed that thought with a shake of his head. He loved her. He knew Maud’s feelings better than anypony. It didn’t take long before that thought was again on his mind though. Maud was a pony that you could not be read so easily. She didn’t show her feelings to almost anypony, and now Trenderhoof started to think if she had never even showed her feelings to him? No she hadn’t. She said that she liked him, but did not act like it. Of course they had been holding hooves, hugging and snuggling, but without emotion those actions were meaningless. Just some meaningless touching between two ponies. “But she wanted to date me…” Trenderhoof said, arguing with himself. Sure she had said that, and maybe even meant that, but what if she had gotten some second thoughts? “No,” Trenderhoof said with tearful voice, but his mind had already came up with a argument. How could he explain the note that was now laying under the table? He didn’t want to think about it. “I know she loves me,” he whispered, but his mind immediately inquired if he could be wrong. Of course he could be wrong. Trenderhoof turned towards the paper with tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes. He gulped and levitated the paper towards him. He closed his eyes and levitated the paper with grim news in front of him, hoping that it would had different message in it when he would open his eyes. It didn’t. It still said, “It wouldn’t work. Please don’t follow me.” Big tears started to roll down Trenderhoof’s cheeks, and he felt a sudden urge to get intoxicated. He rose up and started to walk towards the door. He knew that there was a small shop that sold booze nearby his apartment. He opened the door, not bothering to close it behind him and started to walk down the stairs with big tears rolling down his cheeks.
EpilogueSimply beautiful by FinnPony Epilogue Six mares stood in front of the bakery that resembled something straight from a foals coloring book. It was Sugarcube Corner, and those six mares were the elements of harmony. The element of harmony was more excited than before, or like she herself described… “I’m so super excited that I can barely stay in my skin!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while trotting in circles. She hadn’t been able to stay on one place for the whole morning. It was the day Maud would be visiting Ponyville again. She had been looking forward to it ever since… Well, ever since Maud had left last time. “Calm down Pinkie Pie,” Twilight Sparkle said as she made sure her wings were in perfect order. Applejack then joined her, “Yeah hold down yer horses. she will be here in a moment.” Rainbow Dash seemed to take her words too seriously, and she tried to stop Pinkie Pie by biting her tail, only to be dragged along behind the pink mare. Pinkie Pie didn’t even notice her. “But I haven’t been this excited since like, ever!” Pinkie Pie answered, still dragging Rainbow Dash behind her. “You were this excited when you waited for the cupcakes to be done yesterday!” Rainbow Dash said annoyedly when she let go of her tail. Pinkie continued to trot in circle, but smiled sheepishly. “Yeah… but I’m still pretty excited.” The mares snickered at her and watched as she kept trotting in circles. “I think it’s nice to see Maud again,” Fluttershy said, not wanting to be left out from the conversation. Others let out agreeing voices and then Rarity said, with slightly smug tone nopony noticed, “Oh yes. I have a feeling that she is very happy to see us too.” “Of course she is!” Pinkie said happily. Fluttershy leaned closer to Rarity and poked her in the side gently. Rarity turned towards her and she said with voice just above a whisper, “I was just thinking… when we meet her, should I tell her that she… rocks? Get it?” Rarity gave her a deadpan look, that made her back away with sheepish look on her face. There was a short silence before Rainbow Dash sighed and said, “I don’t want to be a killjoy…” Others turned towards her and Pinkie stopped pacing. “...But I hope everything goes a bit less awkward than before,” she finished, rubbing her neck. Others changed some nervous glances. “I hope she doesn’t read any of her poems,” Twilight said with a shudder. The memory of listening hundreds of her poems was still haunting her. “They all were about rocks…” she mumbled silently, Fluttershy patting her on the back. “Oh pish posh!” Rarity exclaimed. “I believe that everything will different.” “Yeah!” Pinkie agreed loudly. “Besides Gummy’s been waiting to meet Boulder too! Lets not make this awkward to them too so you girls behave yourselves!” The mares chuckled at her and agreed to follow her instructions. They didn’t want to hurt the feelings of the pony that always made them smile, no matter what. And so the waiting went on for couple of minutes, Pinkie Pie continuing to pace while others patiently waited. It didn’t take long before Pinkie Pie stopped pacing, facing towards something in a pose that hound did when it spots a prey. Others turned towards the direction she was looking at and saw the pony they had been waiting for. Maud slowly appeared from behind nearby building, walking down the road towards them. She hadn’t changed so much. She still had straightly cut and brushed mane and that same green dress she always wore wherever she went. There was still something different about her, something none of them could put their hooves on. As she got closer, all the six mares gasped in shock when they realised what was the small detail that made her look different. She was smiling, and it wasn’t just a small grin, no. It was a broad, genuine smile. Something they hadn’t expected to see. “Is she…” Twilight started, and Fluttershy ended, “...Smiling?” They kept watching with their eyes wide as the mare trotted onwards. Rarity started to smile with a knowing smirk on her face. She had an idea of what might be behind that smile. Her doubts soon were proven right, as a brown stallion with slim build trotted next to her. He was wearing a green sweater and had white glasses on his muzzle. “Is that…” Twilight started, but now it was Pinkie Pie who cut in, “Trenderhoof!?” “I really hate when everypony cuts in when I’m talking!” Twilight hissed quickly, before turning back to watch the duo making their way towards them. “If he starts to sweet talk to you, I will kick him in the shins,” Rainbow whispered to Applejack who pushed her away with annoyed groan. The pair was almost in the talking range with the six mares, when they gave each other a sideways glance. What happened next was something that they didn’t see coming. Maud and Trenderhoof leaned closer to each other, pressing their lips together into a affectionate kiss. All but Rarity’s jaws dropped, Pinkie Pie’s jaw literally hitting the ground. “Whaaa…?” she asked, dragging the word a bit too far. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Meanwhile the pair ended their kiss with a quick peck and turned to face the elements. “Hi Pinkie,” Maud said happily and closed her into a hug, smiling the whole time. Pinkie slowly returned the hug, still baffled by what she had seen. It took a moment before she had cleared her head enough to break the hug and turn to face her sister. “Ouhuuhh…?” she said, making Maud giggle. That made Pinkie’s eyes go wide. She had never seen her sister giggling. She hadn’t seen her sister kissing a stallion either. All these things made her confused. Maud kept smiling at her, letting all sink in. Pinkie kept looking between Maud and the coyly smiling stallion behind her. “Are… are you two… uh… dating?”, she finally managed to ask. “Because it looks an awfully lot like that.” Maud chuckled. She had never seen Pinkie so lost for words. It was amusing. “Yes. Yes we are,” she said happily. It all happened so fast that Trenderhoof can’t quite understand what happened still to this day. All he knows was that he was suddenly pressed against two mares, one he loved, and one he just barely knew. He was also being almost squeezed to death. Maud didn’t seem to feel even the slightest amount of discomfort in the embrace of her sister, while he was almost passing out. Luckily Pinkie Pie’s hug got a bit gentle when she shouted, “This is like the best thing ever! I get to throw you two a party!” The others had been quiet until that moment. Small smiles started to appear on their faces, while Rarity’s grin grew even bigger. “I knew you two could work it out!” she exclaimed when Pinkie released from her hug. Everypony turned to look at her. Maud and Trenderhoof smiled at her while others had confused frowns on their foreheads. “You knew!?” Pinkie asked while stomping closer to her in a threatening pose. Rarity backed away with a nervous grin and muttered, “Uhh… Why yes! Yes I did…” “And you didn’t tell me!?” Pinkie asked with more angry voice. Rarity gulped and quickly explained, “I pinkie promised not to!” That made Pinkie’s expression change into a suspicious one. She gave a look at Maud, who nodded. Pinkie started to smile again and said, “Okie Dokie Lokie. Good that you didn’t break it!” Rarity swept some sweat from her brow, sighing in relief. Maud gave her a wink. She had maybe just saved her hind, from which she was highly grateful. “I have to ask…” Applejack said carefully. “Just… How in darnation did this all happen?” “It’s a long story.” Trenderhoof said. "Lets just say that I like simple things." He gave Applejack a friendly smile that made Rainbow snort angrily. "And you if any should know that, Applejack." Rainbow Dash almost did as she promised earlier, but Applejack managed to keep her under control. Trenderhoof chuckled nervously at the angry mare. He then pulled smiling Maud closer to him and said, "Like said, it's a bit long story." “Oooh! But I love stories!” Pinkie Pie shouted and pulled a box of popcorn seemingly out of nowhere. She sat in front of him and stared up at him with waiting look. “But you have to tell me if it has a good ending. I don’t like stories with sad endings. They make me sad.” Twilight was about to say something, but Applejack stopped her by placing a hoof on her shoulder and whispering, “Don’t. Just don’t.” Twilight hung her head and let out a defeated sigh. Maud snickered and looked at Trenderhoof with love in her eyes. “It has a pretty good ending,” Trenderhoof said while gazing into those green eyes. There was a quiet second, and then they pushed their lips together with a wet sound that made Rainbow Dash gag. Others aaw’ed and Rarity sniffed, levitating a tissue to her face. Fluttershy clapped her hooves together happily while Twilight smiled an approving smile towards the pair. Rainbow kept making gagging sounds, until Applejack give her a quick kick in the leg. She stopped after that. When the long kiss ended, they kept staring into each others eyes. There was a moment of some kind of perfection between them for a second. Everything being just right. It was just simply beautiful. “Well…” Maud started with a big smile. “It began when I was walking towards the hotel in Canterlot one night, carrying a bag full of…” “Sedimentary rocks!” Trenderhoof ended the sentence, earning an annoyed look from Maud and laughs from her friends. “So anyway,” Maud continued, starting to draw small circles into his chest with her hoof. “I saw Trend in this café…” THE END
Act 3.3Simply beautiful by FinnPony Act 3.3 How was she there again? Maud stood on the pier two of the Canterlot’s train station. She was surrounded by other ponies, but saw them just as a big blur around herself. Some of them bumped into her, but she stayed completely still, not even blinking. She had been like that ever since she had left from Trenderhoof’s apartment. First she had decided that she would just leave, but her mind forced her to leave a note to him, so he wouldn’t come after her. She thought that the note might have been too long, but she hoped that Trenderhoof would get her point. Maud kept staring in front of her, still seeing just a big blur of ponies in front of her. Where was that train? She wanted to get as far away from Canterlot as she could. She kept cursing to herself in her head, not really being mad. She was disappointed. She had let somepony other than her family member deep into her life for the first time, and look what happened? She had been immediately betrayed by the only stallion she had ever had any feelings for. She decided that she would be better living alone. That way she wouldn’t feel betrayed ever again. She would go back to her family’s rock farm and stay there, studying rocks. They will never do her any harm. They were grey and cold, just like she felt at the moment. Her lower lip started to quiver a little while thinking about all that. She sighed deeply, still not moving. Where was that damn train? She took a quick glances at the blur around herself, starting to spot individual ponies in the mass. Of course they were pairs. They reminded her about him. She groaned to herself. Now her overstimulated mind started to play tricks on her and she knew it. Everytime she looked at some smiling pair, all the warm and happy moments they had shared together emerged into his mind, but then the bitterness in her pushed them aside. She continued to sulk in silence. Where was that that train? As if on cue she heard the train arriving. She perked up and saw the locomotive slowly moving on the rails, pulling the rest of the cars with ease. Maud sighed in relief. Finally she could escape all the commotion of Canterlot… And the harm it had caused her. Almost. “Maud!? Is that you?” she heard a familiar female voice call. She slowly turned her head towards the voice, unpleasant shock and rage washed over her, but she managed to gulp it down. There in front of her stood nopony other than that white mare Maud recognized as Rarity. Somehow her name was much easier to remember now. “It is you!” Rarity exclaimed and stepped closer to Maud, who stared at her coldly. Rarity didn’t notice that and continued, “You are looking absolutely charming. Have you done something with your mane?” Maud would have wanted to stay silent, but forced herself to answer. “No,” she said, a bit more bluntly than she had intended. Rarity seemed to have noticed her cold stare now, because she asked with worried look, “Are you alright darling?” “Yes,” she hissed and looked over Rarity’s shoulder. It took Rarity a moment to compose herself. She opened and closed her mouth couple of times before clearing her throat and muttering, “Uhh… it was just that… you… looked so….” She stopped when Maud turned around, giving her no further attention. Rarity realised that something was wrong. Then she noticed that Maud was carrying her saddlebag. Soon she realised the fact that she was at the train station, looking like boarding the next train. “Umm… Maud my darling?” she started carefully. The word ‘darling’ almost made Maud wince out of disgust. She started to walk towards the now stopped train, not even turning to give Rarity a glance. The doors opened in front of her and she stepped in, hoping that that way she could get rid of Rarity. She sat down to the nearest seat, only to notice that Rarity had followed her into the train. “What are you doing Maud?” Rarity asked and sat down next to her. Maud looked at her and said with deadpan stare, “Going home.” She noticed that her answer seemed to cause great deal of confusion in Rarity. Rarity stared at Maud for a second, before asking, “Already?” What was that mare’s problem? She kept pushing her nose into Maud’s businesses, which she didn’t like. And what was that ‘already’ question? “The train’s leaving,” Maud said, hoping for her to leave. Rarity smiled and chirped, “Oh but I’m going to Ponyville.” Damn. Maud had forgotten that Ponyville was in same direction as Rambling rock ridge. Great. Now she would have to spend almost half of the train ride with the mare who stole her stallion. It was going to be a long ride. “Soo…” Rarity dragged the word, wiggling her back legs a little. “What is wrong?” Maud gave her a deadpan stare, before turning her head away from her. Rarity was starting to get really worried. She knew about Maud and Trenderhoof. Had something gone awry between them? She had promised not to tell anypony about them, which she had grudgingly promised. Maybe Maud had made him promise not to tell anypony? If so, she would make things worse for him if Rarity would tell Maud that he had told somepony about their relationship. Rarity squinted her eyes in thought. She would need to take it easily, making sure she wouldn’t slip anything. She sat more upright and cleared her throat. “Is it stallion trouble?” Maud’s eyes went wide and her left one twitched a little bit. She stayed like that for a second. Rarity didn’t know but she had just passed the final line. Maud couldn’t hold herself anymore. Maud suddenly turned around and pushed her muzzle against Rarity’s with an angry frown on her face, something Rarity had ever seen before. It frightened her a bit. “It is,” Maud said, ending the sentence with an angry snort. Rarity could almost see the smoke coming from Maud’s nostrils. She backed away but Maud kept pushing forward. Rarity had her ears folded backwards and a nervous look on her face. Her back soon hit the wall and she couldn’t escape the angry mare in front of her. “W-what’s the p-problem dear?” she stammered and started to inch downwards, trying to get some room, which Maud didn’t give her. “You.” “Me!?” Rarity whined in shock. What had she done to make Maud feel like that? “Yes.” Maud said, snorting again. She leaned slightly backwards, but Rarity still stayed low, looking equally shocked and scared. She had seen Maud crush a ten by ten meters wide boulder with her bare hooves, and didn’t want to suffer the same fate. “What have I ever done to you?” she asked quietly, lifting her hooves to protective stance. Maud glared at her with that same angry look and started, “I saw you with…” She stopped and Rarity saw her lower lips starting to quiver. Maud turned to look away from her and sighed, “...with him.” They both were silent after that. Maud sat perfectly still and Rarity kept staring at her with wide, confused eyes, blinking constantly. With him? What was Maud talking about. Only stallion she had been with was… Oh. Ooh. Now everything started to become clear to her. If she meant Trenderhoof by ‘him’, there was only one conclusion she could come up with. Maud had seen her in the office with Trenderhoof, and had formed some hasty conclusions. Oh Celestia help those earthponies. Sometimes they didn’t seem to have any kind of logical reasoning in them. Rarity chuckled to herself, which was a mistake. Maud immediately spinned around, hitting her hoof to the wall of the train car next to Rarity’s head, causing a big crack to appear where her hoof met the wall. Rarity let out a yelp and pushed backwards, deciding that for her own safety she should tell Maud something that would hopefully clear some things for her. “Maud, dear! I have nothing going on with Trenderhoof!” Maud’s eyes went wide again. She stared at Rarity with her mouth little open. Rarity eyed Maud’s hoof nervously, ready to defend her if she would get mad at her again. She sighed relievedly when Maud leaned back. “H-how…” Maud started, looking at Rarity. “Oh Trenderhoof told me about you my dear,” Rarity said and saw that Maud was now staring at her own hooves. “Don’t be mad at him. I made him tell.” “I saw you kissing,” Maud admitted confusedly. Rarity immediately knew what she meant. She chuckled and said with a wave of her hoof, “That? Oh it was just a small peck on the cheek. I just had to know if it was how I had ima…” She stopped when she noticed Maud’s angry sideways glance towards her. She chuckled nervously and said, with a bit less enthusiasm, “Heh… Just saying goodbye… You know… like in Prance right?” Of course Maud knew Prance. She had been there couple of times. Enjoying her time in the Maressif central, working with a group of local geology hobbyists. Complete amateurs compared to her, but she didn’t have time to start remembering the past. Maybe she had been making wrong conclusions. Maybe Trenderhoof was freaking out about her letter right now? She felt a sharp tug in her chest when she realised that Trenderhoof was probably feeling the same way as she did when she saw him with Rarity. They felt the train nudging a little and starting to move slowly. Rarity looked outside of the window, and realised that she would need to speed things up, otherwise it would soon be too late for maud to get off the train. “He still likes me?” Maud asked quietly. Rarity sighed and placed her hoof onto Maud’s shoulder, giving her the most convincing smile. “He adores you,” Rarity said to Maud, making a small blush appear onto Maud’s cheeks. She turned towards Rarity and asked, “Are you sure?” “He said so himself,” Rarity said warmly and placed her hoof onto Maud’s shoulder. Maud winced and looked at her with uncertain look on her face. “Rarity,” she said calmly, before asking, “What do I do?” Rarity looked at her with a warm smile, and asked, “Do you like him?” Maud nodded. Rarity smiled widely and then exclaimed, “Well go on then!” Rarity could have sworn that she saw a small smile appearing on Maud’s lips, but wasn’t sure. Then they remembered that the train was leaving. Maud looked past Rarity and saw that the pier’s end had just passed their car. She let out a groan and got up, saying in her monotone voice, “I got to get out.” “~I’ll pull the emergency brake!~” Rarity sing-a-songed and was about to do so, but Maud stopped her by saying, “No need to.” “What?” Rarity asked confusedly. “How are you going to get out?” “Bye Rarity,” Maud said and started to gallop towards the back of the train, dodging confused ponies in front of her. Rarity stared after her and soon she disappeared into the next train car. Rarity blinked couple of times, before she turned towards the window, opened it and pushed her head out. She looked towards the way where Maud had started to gallop, and soon she saw a heavy looking saddlebag flying from the very last train car, landing onto the pier. Soon a gray mare in green dress jumping after it, landing just barely on the pier. Maud balance on the edge of the pier for a second before gaining her balance. Rarity snickered when she saw ponies on the station getting scared by that. She saw Maud looking towards her, waving quickly before snatching her saddlebag into her teeth and dashing off. “Oh those silly earthponies.” Rarity muttered as she pulled her head back inside the train. She closed the window, sighed deeply and slumped on her seat in very unladylike fashion. She then chuckled to herself and thought how she had just saved somepony’s relationship. * * * Maud Pie dashed through the streets, dodging surprised ponies that were walking into her path. She was still carrying the heavy saddlebag in her teeth. At some point she started to wonder why she was even carrying it. She stopped for a moment and dug her notebook from the saddlebag, placing it into her pocket before kicking the bag away. It landed somewhere accompanied with a nasty sound of breaking glass, but Maud was already running and didn’t notice it. Maud was feeling terrible. She also felt kinda happy at the same time. She knew that Trenderhoof hadn’t been messing with other mare like she had thought, but now she was in front of another problem. Trenderhoof was surely hurt and and it might be hard to win him back. But she was determined to do it. She looked up and saw the familiar block of flats in front of her. Soon she would meet him. She returned her gaze back in front of her, only to see a obstacle in front of her. There was a cart in front of her, too close for her to go around. She gained more speed and slid under it, scraping her dress and messing her mane. She didn’t care. Only thing she cared was that probably miserable stallion waiting for her. Maud noticed that she was getting funny looks from the ponies around her, but didn’t care. They could look all they wanted. She didn’t feel scared or troubled by them like she once did. They were ponies just like she was. One pony she cared for had taught her that. As she got closer to her goal, her thoughts became clearer. She would march in and tell him that she was sorry for doing what she had done. She would tell him that she cared about him. It seemed so simple. She almost crashed through the door to the building she was headed. She managed to slow down enough to not break the door. She panted lightly and stared up the stairs. She started to trot upwards, sinking back to her thoughts. A slight fear started to creep into her mind. What if Trenderhoof was too hurt to even consider forgiving her. No. She was a thought pony. She wouldn’t give up until he would. He had made her feel wanted, she would do whatever to get that feeling back. She was halfway up when she realised that she could have used the elevator. She decided that if she had already halfway there, she would push herself until the end, so she kept trotting up the stairs. She fastened her pace, almost running up the stairs. She felt her heartbeat getting faster, and not only from all the running she had done. Soon she reached the penthouse floor, stopping on the end the stairs, staring towards the only door in the floor. It was open, first sign that something was wrong. She stared at the doorway. Suddenly everything seemed so much harder. After who knows how long, Maud braced herself and started to walk towards the open door. She carefully poked the door, making it open with a loud creak that made a shudder crawl up her spine. She stepped into the apartment where she had had so many good times, but now the atmosphere was completely different. Blinds had been shut, making the whole apartment dark. Second sign. When she walked past the kitchen, a new and strange smell reached her. She pouted at the smell. It was clearly cigarette smoke she was smelling. Third sign. Now Maud was getting worried. She walked silently towards the living room. She stopped just before the doorway to the living room. She had to take deep breath before she could brace herself to face what was going to happen in the living room. Maud stepped forward, seeing her goal on the sofa in front of her, facing away from her. Maud saw a big pile of stubbed cigarettes on a couch table, and under all them she saw a corner of paper. She could guess what paper it was. She turned back to look at the stallion in front of her, or his back to be precise. She was smoking, something Maud hadn’t seen him do before. It made her sad because she knew how Trenderhoof thought about smoking. Maud stood silently and watched. She wanted to speak but couldn’t. It wasn’t so easy as she had thought. She watched as Trenderhoof levitated the cigarette out of his mouth, placing it into the big pile of other of it’s kind. He then levitated another from the pack on the table, lighting it with his horn and slumping deeper to the couch with a loud sigh. That made Maud’s heart ache. She couldn’t stay quiet anymore. “Trenderhoof.” she called quietly, making the stallion jump upright. He turned around on the couch and stared at Maud with his eyes wide. It was then when Maud really saw how bad shape he was. Trenderhoof’s mane was looking flatter than usually, his eyes had a sad gloss in them and he had lost his glasses somewhere. The cigarette hung in the corner of his mouth. “Maud?” he asked confusedly, making the light cigarette fall from his mouth, landing on the fitted carpet. They stared at each other. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, the gray mare that had left him alone with a letter was now standing on the doorway of his living room. Her face was in a shadow, so he couldn’t see her face clearly, and his lost glasses didn’t help at all. He could see that her dress was torn, showing her body at some points, and her mane was messy and tangled. For a moment he felt like jumping over the couch and rushing to embrace her, but then remembered the reason to his current state. He frowned sadly and turned around, saying, “Did you forget something?” “Trend.” he heard Maud saying in her monotone voice. That made Trenderhoof snap harshly at her, “Again that tone! I should have started to feel worried when I first time realised that you don’t ever even change your tone.” There was a deep silence between them. Trenderhoof levitated a new cigarette to his mouth and light it, taking a long drag from it. He didn’t know it but behind him, Maud sat down, slowly slumping down to her stomach. Something stirring up inside her. She felt something emerge. Something that she had been holding down for years… “I realised that I should have known better,” Trenderhoof continued angrily. “You never even showed any feelings towards me. Whatever I did, you just stared at me with expressionless look. Can you even feel anything?” A mental dam broke behind him. Another long drag, yet more of heavy silence. Trenderhoof worked his cigarette halfway done before he started to turn around while saying, “Just take what you came for and…” He stopped when he saw her. She was laying on the ground, her ears drooped and big sad eyes staring at him. Big tears rolled down her cheeks, dropping down on the carpet, forming a damp spot on it. Crying Maud stared at him for a long second, before burying her face into her hooves and starting to sob uncontrollably. The sobbing turned into a loud cry, and soon Maud was wailing helplessly on the floor. It made Trenderhoof feel like a monster. How could he ever had said those things to such a beautiful thing like her? On another hand he thought that crying made her look even more beautiful Not because she liked to see her cry, that would have been terrible. It was because she was finally showing her emotions, something she hadn’t been able to do for so long time. It was beautiful. Trenderhoof kept staring at her for a moment, before he spat the cigarette out from his mouth and jumped over the couch, kicking it over in the progress. He dashed to her, falling onto his rump next to her. Trenderhoof hesitated for a second, afraid to touch the sobbing mare. “Maud,” he muttered and placed his hoof onto her shoulder. She winced and he saw her giving a quick glance towards him before burying her face back into her hooves. Trenderhoof was now feeling too much guilt, and felt how tears started to form into the corner of his eyes too. “Maud I’m sorry,” he said and gently lifted Maud’s head from under her chin. Her eyes were red and the fur on her face was damp from tears. She tried to turn her face away from him, but he forced her to look at him. They stared at each other. Maud could smell the cigarettes from his breath, but didn’t really notice it. His eyes were taking all her attention. His violet eyes were full of something that made her feel like crying even more, which she maybe did. She didn’t know why she couldn’t stop the whimpers leaving her mouth. Maybe it was because she was finally releasing all the pent up emotions she had concealed for so long. “I-I c-can feel!” she cried as tears continued to fall down her cheeks. Trenderhoof shed some too, and pulled her more upwards so she was now in half sitting, half lying pose. “I know,” he said and pulled her into a tight embrace. Maud wrapped her hooves around Trenderhoof’s body, pressing her head against his chest. She felt how couple of tears dropped onto her head. Knowing that he was crying somehow made her feel better. It was a sign that she meant something for him. “I didn’t mean it,” Trenderhoof said with teary voice. “Sorry… sorry… sorry…” They laid there for time that felt like eternity. Trenderhoof petted Maud’s mane while she let the tears come. It seemed like she would never stop. Trenderhoof’s sweater was getting soaked in tears, but he loved it. He loved her. “I love you,” he slipped, not regretting it afterwards. He felt how Maud stopped her sobbing, slowly lifting her head from his chest, staring at him with her eyes that were red from crying. A moment of complete silence. Both of them had same, expressionless look on their faces. “Do you mean it?” she asked with shaky voice. Trenderhoof pressed his forehead against hers, saying, “From the bottom of my heart.” Maud saw how the smile she loved so much appeared onto his lips. Loved? The smile she loved? She loved that smile. It was so clear now. She loved that smile, she loved him. Corner of her mouth started to twitch. Trenderhoof’s eyes were fixated to those lips. Maud quickly licked her lips and closed her mouth. Then it happened. The corners of her mouth started to slowly, but surely turn upwards. Trenderhoof felt how another wave of tears came to him. Maud was smiling. It was just a small, simple smile everypony always wore, but it was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen on anypony. Maud almost started to cry again, but not from sorrow, but from happiness. She was finally showing her emotions to somepony else than her sister, and it was all because of him. “I love your smile,” Maud confessed, her green eyes fixated to his. There was tension in the air, but it was the best kind of tension there was. The tension that usually hung in the air when something inevitable and wonderful was about to happen. “Your smile is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen,” Trenderhoof said and brushed some of her messy mane away of her face, tracing his hoof behind her ear, making it flicker. Maud followed his hoof with her muzzle, gently touching it with her snout. “You’re simply beautiful,” Trenderhoof sighed. Maud’s smile started widening on her face. Trenderhoof felt how his heart started to beat faster. Maud felt it too, embracing the feeling. She slowly lifted her hoof onto his shoulder, while he wrapped his hooves around her waist. Maud blushed, but kept the new smile she had found on her face. “I love you…” she said and leaned towards him, feeling how Trenderhoof pulled her closer to himself from her hips. They kept looking each other in the eyes as the distance between their faces started to get smaller. Maud winced when the tip of their muzzles brushed against each other, but she didn’t stop. Instead she quickly pushed herself forward, closing her eyes. Their lips met. Trenderhoof pulled even harder, making her press tightly against his chest. Maud was both in bliss and terrified. The kiss was her first ever, making it somewhat scary experience. In the same time she didn’t feel scared at all. She loved it. The feeling of his lips against hers was wonderful. She didn’t even mind the slight taste of cigarette from his lips. She was still smiling, not managing to stop even if she would have wanted. She slowly opened her eye, seeing that Trenderhoof’s eyes were staring back at her with love in them, couple of tears rolling down his cheeks. She blinked and gave him a loving look. The kiss had to end. They had to breath sometime. Their lips separated with a loud smack, but both of them stayed in the pose they were, their snouts touching. Trenderhoof shed couple of tears again, smiling that smile. Maud returned it, rubbing her hoof against his cheek comfortably. “Why did you buy cigarettes?” she asked after a while, nuzzling his cheek with her muzzle. “Because they didn’t sell any booze,” Trenderhoof said with a sheepish grin. The reality started to come back at him. His apartment was a mess. There was cigarette stubs everywhere, and the smoke couldn’t be good for the furniture. The couch was flipped upside down, making the situation rather amusing. Then he saw that the stub he had threw earlier was still smoking, slowly burning the carpet. Trenderhoof let out a small hiss from between his teeth. It was going to be a tough job to start changing the fitted carpet. “Well the carpet and the furniture are pretty much ruined.” Trenderhoof said, making Maud giggle. “I bet I can’t get the smell away from them.” He thought for a moment and said in his thoughts, “I must get some new ones.” There was a spark in Maud’s eyes when she heard that. She pulled him from under his chin, making their muzzles press against each other. She had a wide grin on her lips when she asked, sounding excited, “New furniture?” “Uhh… yeah,” Trenderhoof said a bit confusedly, making Maud snicker. “Maybe something a bit more…” she started giving him a strange look. “...rock themed?” Trenderhoof started to laugh, Maud joining him. They quickly kissed before Trenderhoof said with a sly grin, “Sure.”
