One Way Road

Snow sat down, biting hard on his lip. He never heard anypony that upset before. The pain he felt in the batpony’s tone stabbed at his heart. He felt like the biggest douchebag in Equestria. In the end, he had a nice evening with a pony he barely knew, had a blowjob and then nuked any chances of a relationship because of his eagerness to prove himself not being gay.

The stallion gingerly put a hoof against the silent doors. “I’m sorry,” he muttered out, hanging his head down. “I promise I’ll do my best to make it up to you. Not for me. For you.”

* * *

“What the hell were you even thinking! Have you any idea how much I risked to keep your stupid flank covered?!” Rising Star hissed in a harshly, pacing around in the barrack’s showers. He was upset with his superior, who was gone for the better part of the day. “If anypony found out you deserted your post, they would have you written up, if only that! And now me, the stupid moron I was, decided to lie to two superior officers and five fellow guardsponies! You have any idea what they’d do to me if they found out?!”

Snow was just sitting there under the cold shower. Yesterday the water felt divine. Today, it was still warmer than the cold he had inside. “I’m sorry,” he muttered out. The word started losing meaning to the stallion, being repeated in his head over and over again.

“That’s it? You’re sorry?” sputtered out Rising, shoving his muzzle into Snow’s. “I’m risking my career here. Hell, I’m risking jailtime, and unlike you, I have a family to take care of! What in the whole wide world could be so important it couldn’t wait until after your shift? Huh?!”

Winter remained silent, staring blankly at Star. The earth pony’s temper was slowly fading - while his superior had worse days, his recent erratic behavior and mood swings were a first. He was still very angry with him, but something told him that the sergeant needed a keen ear rather than a flappy mouth right now.

“Okay. Look. Sir. I see something is gnawing at ya from the inside.” He put a strong hoof around the other stallion, shaking him lightly. “How about we talk it over with a strong cider in hoof, hmm? My treat.”

Snow gave his friend the faintest smile. Together the two walked out of the showers, heading outside into the cool breeze of a setting day.

“Oh, and if anyone asks? You got a nasty gallbladder infection. On top of some fierce diarrhea. Got that?”

* * *

The two stallions were sipping their drinks in silence. It took Snow only a few minutes to outline the situation he found himself in, his misunderstanding and consecutive explosion as well as his failed attempt at an apology. Rising Star didn’t know how to reply, mulling the issue over in his head.

He didn’t know the batpony much. He had an adventure with him once, when his marriage was going through a crisis. He was partying hard and his dead-drunk mind mistook the enticing slender shape of Wing Dancer as inviting and mareish. The ash colt didn’t have anything against a quick suck-off in the toilets, even going so far as offering to give tail until the private noticed the stallion bits that shouldn’t have been there. While he was mad at the batpony for his misleading looks, he had a good time enough to simply keep it to himself and not think of the implications. Even after his situation got better and he made up with his wife, he still fondly remembered the night he spend with the colt.

“I don’t know what to say to that, sir,” he finally replied, looking at the slouched shape next to him. “Stuff like that just happens. I mean, not exactly like this, but you know what I mean. Ponies get into fights and that’s how things happen. All you can do is either write it off as a loss, or keep tryin to make it better.” He looked into his mug, swirling the golden liquid around gently. “I know you, at least a tiny bit. You won’t give up, won’t ya? You’ll apologise to that guy even if it kills both of ya, huh?”

Winter shoved his mug to the side, his eyes closed.

“Well...I know it ain’t my place to give out advice like this,” mused Rising, catching the barmaid’s attention and tapping his empty mug, “but if I were you? I’d give it a day or few to settle down. He’s probably really upset as well, but he’s made of softer clay. Let him gather his thoughts, as you should yours. It worked with my wife - we just needed some time to realise that we acted way too emotionally.”

Snow snorted, lying his head on the counter. Give it time? Would that even change anything?

* * *

Having spent the entirety of his sick day under the bed, the batpony felt stiff and sore the following morning. He was still pretty depressed, but he didn’t feel like bailing on the arcade again. The prospect of Winter Snow visiting him there scared him, but he had a job to do and, frankly, he needed money. He wanted to change something in his life. He needed to push himself forward, so that ponies like the sergeant won’t be able to hurt him as much, calling him trash or useless.

The batpony was very skittish and jumped at shadows on his way to the establishment. Every turn he took he expected to see the white coat and dark-orange hair of the stallion. Every sound around him was startling. He felt like his mind was in shambles.

At the arcade, he was greeted with warm smiles. Some of the regulars asked if he was alright, to which he put up a fake grin and claimed it was just a small cold. It was a good idea to come here - the energy of the place, it’s loud noises and colorful flashes distracted him away from the painful thoughts. He still glanced fearfully from time to time at the doors, expecting them to fling open with the silhouette of Snow in the frame.

“You sure you okay, Wing?” asked a regular, swiping his silvers into a saddlebag. “You seem kind of different today. You sure you should be working today?”

“I’m fine, sir, promise. Thank you for asking,” replied the batpony, smiling. He didn’t want others to notice his condition, but it still felt nice that they cared. Winter wasn’t entirely right. He achieved something in his life. He was important in this place. And at least some of the patrons cared about him.

“Well, okay. You know...” the customer fiddled around in his bag, finally fishing out a 5 bit coin. “Get yourself a soda. On me. You look like you need something sweet to brighten your day,” he said, putting the money on the counter.

“Oh, sir, thank you so much! But I don’t know if I could-”

“Too late, already walking away! Take care Wingie, see ya later!” laughed the regular, trotting away gleefully.

The batpony looked down at the golden coin, feeling himself tear up a little. It wasn’t much - just a single gesture of kindness. Sometimes patrons would leave him tips like that. But on this particular day, somepony wanting to make his day a bit brighter felt like a spear of light piercing the pitch-blackness inside of him. As gingerly as he could he picked the coin up and deposited it in the bag under the counter. It meant more to him than the patron ever knew.

* * *

Little by little Winter Snow was settling down, thawing like magma. Each day he woke up, strolled across town, entered the barracks, donned his armor and begun his daily patrol. He ignored the snickering and giggling behind his back - the story about his “problems” gained traction and the stallion had to constantly deal with both them and his worried superiors giving him discrete advice on how to deal with “those kinds of problems”. All the stallion did was nod and smile, his mind still orbiting around the burning issue of his apology to the batpony.

He didn’t know why it was so important to him. Maybe it was because what he did was wrong, and as a guard it stood against all he vowed to uphold? Maybe his honor could not stand the stain left behind by him abusing somepony weaker than himself?

It was an agonizing experience. Each day he just wanted to go there and sort things out, say his apology and make up to Wing Dancer somehow. If it weren’t for Rising Star and his advice, he would have done it. His friend kept stalling him with the most basic questions: What would he do? What would he say? How would he make it up? Winter couldn’t answer a single one.

“Okay, Winter, sir. Here’s the deal. I can see you’re gettin more anxious each day. It’s been like what, four days? Maybe we could try arranging some kind of apology together, huh?”

Snow gave his friend a quizzical look. They were out in the open, on the castle’s fortifications. The view from here was splendid and the dry, summer wind gently brushed the worried stallion’s mane. “W-What do you mean? We? B-But this is-”

“I know, I shouldn’t butt in,” cut in Rising, pushing his superior to continue on their rounds. “But trust me, the way you look? Your gloomy mug could make a manticore uneasy! You need some help arranging this. And besides, what if he won’t want to talk to you directly? What if he’ll just run away when you confront him?”

Snow hung his head.

“Oy, don’t give me that look. Don’t you worry bout a thing, okay? I’ll talk to Wing Dancer for you, convince him to meet you somewhere where you can apologise proper. Then we’ll write you up all the fancy words you’ll need to put your mind at rest and this whole mess behind you. Okay? Deal?”

Winter nodded slowly. A small smile crept onto his muzzle. He was happy he had such a good friend to back him up.

* * *

Wing Dancer was back to his regular, chirpy self, much to the delight of the owner. The past few days were horrible, with the patrons asking him whether there was something wrong with his best (and only) employee. When confronted, the batpony squirmed around and said it was something personal and that he’d get over it eventually. Today was probably the first day in about a week when the colt came in with high spirits, chatting up patrons and roaming the game stands like he always did.

The batpony was indeed feeling a lot better. Just yesterday he took the first step on his road to change - he bought a newspaper, looked through the ads and rang up a few companies that were looking for secretaries or the likes. He got invited to a few interviews, one of which would be later today. He was really excited at these new opportunities - who would have thought it would be so easy to start moving forward!

“What can I get for you, sir?” he asked, hearing a customer approach the bar. He had his back to the counter, moving around some cans to make room for a restock.

“Hello there. Would you have a minute to talk? It’s important.”

The voice sounded familiar. Wing turned around, noticing a brown stallion. It took him a few seconds to remember who he was - he was a guard, somepony from the bar near the castle walls.

“U-Ummm,” started the batpony, suddenly uneasy. “I-If you want sir, we can talk here. W-Would you like something to drink?”

“No, thanks,” Rising Star replied, putting his hooves on the top. “I just want you to listen for a little while. You see, I’m Winter’s friend and- no, wait!”

Upon hearing the name, Dancer instantly backed away from the counter, his ears flat against his head in distress.

“Hey! Hey, just take it easy, okay? I’m just here to talk, okay? Nothing more. Can we do that? Can you listen?”

Wing was considering getting the owner and asking him to deal with the customer, but…

“Okay. Good. So. My name is Rising Star, and as I said, I’m the giant moron’s friend,” he said, shooting a small apologetic grin. “Listen. Winter is feeling really bad about this whole mess, okay? I mean, I guess it’s also partially my fault, although I don’t know how a sane pony could even reach such a conclusion in the first place.” The stallion shook his head, continuing: “He’s really worried about you. He wanted to apologise so badly, I had to talk him out of it every single day since you had that fight. He doesn’t want you to feel hurt and all he cares about is that you know he didn’t mean anything of what he said that day.”

Wing let himself relax a bit. He listened attentively to Rising, the emotions he thought gone resurfacing again. “I told him to leave me alone,” he muttered in a breaking voice, fighting back unexpected tears.

“I know, I understand. But look. He’s a cretin, a real jackass for what he did. I know how it is when someone you like and trust goes all ape-shit on ya,” he sighed, crumpling his nose. “It hurts a lot, right? It tears you apart, makes you nauseous and light-headed, doesn’t it?”

Dancer gave a small nod, wiping his face with a hoof.

“Bottling it up won’t make it go away,” stated Star. “Everything deserves closure. He had a go at you, it’s only fair you give him a piece of your mind. Tell him how he made you feel. I promise he’ll just listen and sincerely apologize. Then you can just go, and neither I nor him will bother you ever again. Okay?”