Questions Without Answers
A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic One-Shot Fanfiction by Ponyswamp
Again and again the key slid into the lock, only to jiggle slightly and yield unsatisfactory results. I groaned and tried once more, once more changing nothing. A groan escaped my lips.
“Consarn it...”
A door creaked open behind me, and I turned to see a gray earth pony mare with a silvery-white mane, who I assume is my roommate, enter from the stairwell. She wore a small pair of glasses, and carried herself with the grace of nobility.
“Key not working, dear? Let me give it a try.”
I nodded and let her pass, and watched in relief as the door creaked open on her first try. My hoof connected with my muzzle as I groaned.
“Fer the love of Celestia, Ah must've tried that a hundred times!”
The mare chuckled and started dragging her bags through the door and into the hotel room. Moments later I followed suit, lifting my own luggage onto my bed.
“You had the wrong key. They think that's the one for 503, and not 305.”
Another groan followed my flopping onto the bed. “What in tarnation were they thinkin'?”
She shrugged. “You know, I'm betting that they weren't.”
We both laughed at that, and settled into our beds.
The mare looked at me. “You seem... familiar. Somehow.”
I shrugged. “Ah'm not from around here, so ah doubt ya know me.”
She scoffed. “I may look prim Manehattanite, but I came from a small town called Ponyville.”
Suddenly, I connected her appearance to my memories. “Silver Spoon?”
Silver Spoon looked at me blankly for a moment, then gasped. “Oh my word, Applebloom? Is it really you?”
I chuckled. “Yeah, that's me.”
She trotted over and wrapped her hoof around me. “By Celestia, how long has it been? Thirteen years?”
“About twelve, actually. How's Diamond Tiara? Do y'all keep in touch?”
Silver Spoon shrugged. “We got in a fight just before graduation all those years back, and now we're on... less than friendly terms.” A sigh escaped her lips, and she smiled sadly. “But enough about her, what about you? Did you and the other, oh what was it, Cutie Mark Crusaders keep in touch?”
“Sweetie Belle's fine now. There were some problems with Rarity, and the rest of us too, ah suppose, y'all remember that? We got over them, and things are better now.” I chuckled. “After Sweetie got the bits saved up, he turned out to be one handsome stallion.”
Silver Spoon giggled, and nodded. “Yeah, I remember that whole debacle. I'm glad it all turned out okay for... him.” She sat there for a moment, kicking her hooves. “And... Scootaloo?”
There it was. The part of my past that I couldn't escape. A long moment passed before I sighed sadly.
“We... haven't talked since the incident with the graduation party. With her going off to Cloudsdale for pegasi college, and me headin' off to Manehattan for college there, we just... didn't talk.”
My lips began to quiver. “Ah don't even know how she feels about all of it! About me! About me and... me and her.”
Silver Spoon was silent for a moment, but she nodded and held my hoof. “Hey, it's alright. She's your friend. Friends will always be there for you. Isn't that something Princess Twilight said?”
I nodded. “But friends don't always tell friends that they secretly love them.”
“But friends don't let stuff get between them.”
As I began to say something, there was a knock on the door. Silver Spoon perked up.
“Oh, that must be Affluent. Late, as always!” She trotted to the door, just outside of my view, and returned after a moment, frowning at a letter.
“Alright, so it wasn't Affluent. Just a letter from her.” Silver Spoon tore it open gently with her mouth, pulled out the letter, and began to read to herself. I took the opportunity to start unpacking my things.
Suddenly, my actions were cut off by my roommate's anguished and angry cry. I turned just in time to see her tear up the letter, open the hotel room's window, and fling the pieces to the wind.
“Oh, that's fine! Just fine! I never loved you, anyways!” Silver Spoon spun around and flopped down onto her bed. “Applebloom, do me a favor and never fall for someone like her. It'd be more a favor for you than for me.”
I sat down next to her and laid a hoof on hers. “What happened?”
She put on a fake smile and laughed a fake laugh. “Oh, nothing. All that happened was that my fiancee left me at the altar, so to speak.” A pillow was thrown at the wall. “I loved her, dammit! I loved her and she left me for some broad in Canterlot!”
The full grown mare next to me rolled over onto her stomach and started crying into a pillow. After a moment, she came up for air and glanced at me from the corner of her tear stained eye. “Oh my gosh, is this how you felt after the thing with Scootaloo?”
After I took my own moment, I nodded slightly.
I then took a piece of advice Fluttershy gave me once to heart, and I let her cry it out. My hoof was always there for her to hold, and the mare next to me took full advantage of that fact.
When she was all tuckered out after her sobbing, she nodded to me with a soft smile. A genuine one, this time. “I know we had our differences as foals, but right now you're the best mare in my life.”
I blushed a little at that. “Aw, it ain't no problem! Ah'm always here fer a friend.”
At that moment, our eyes locked. Her expression was a tender one, a face of thanks and grief. My own was tender as well, but one of comfort and understanding. The two of us gazed into each other's eyes for what seemed like an eternity.
And then Silver Spoon closed the distance between us, locking our lips as her eyes closed. I pressed back, not with my hooves to stop her, but with my lips as well. She needed a friend in her time of need, but she wanted more than that. And I was happy to oblige.
Our lips held against each other's for a long while. A light moan escaped her, and her hooves wrapped around me, pulling me on top of her as she rolled onto her back. I let myself drift with her, not once daring or wanting to break our kiss.
After a long moment, she broke our lips. “Do you mind?”
A small chuckle. “It's a little late to mind, Ah'd say.”
She too chuckled, but shook her head. “I meant about, well, that.”
It took me a moment to realize where her hoof was. And when I did, I gulped and paused.
“No.”
~~~
Two Years Later...
Silver Spoon and I entered the food court, which was noticeably lacking in attendees, save for one, a pegasus mare in a competitive flight suit. “Honey,” she complained, “you do know we can afford a more reputable locale for our lunch?”
I grinned. “Ah know that, but there's nothing quite like a Manehattan hayburger!”
Her eyes rolled. “You sound like a commercial.”
“Naw, Ah don't have the booming voice or the glorious paycheck.”
We both giggled as we sat down at the table next to the one occupied by the pegasus, who took no notice of our presence. My wife then decided to cut right to the chase. “So, you have to start working on the big skyscraper downtown? Won't it be dangerous?”
My own eyes rolled as I waved my hoof dismissively. “Yeah, but don't you fret! There's no danger!”
Silver Spoon bit her lip, but nodded. “All right, just be careful.”
A small chuckle. “Sure as can be! Now, you wanted the dandelion sandwich?”
Her eyes rolled for what must have been the hundredth time today as she nodded. “Yes, and hold the hay fries. I'm only a little peckish.”
I stood at the exact moment the pegasus did, and we collided, forehead to forehead, hard. It would remind me of another such incident, if my head didn't hurt so much.
When the world stopped spinning, I saw the mare who had hit me, and who obviously had a very thick skull, with her hoof extended.
I froze.
And took the hoof.
“Applebloom,” she said calmly.
I returned a nod. “Scootaloo.”
The two of us stood there for a moment, before we nodded a nod that was meant for only the two of us. She walked away, threw a bag in the trashcan, and left. I sat down at the table with Silver Spoon.
Neither of us looked back.
Author's Note
Okay, I've written something a little less on the depressing side. Happy? If so, good.
If not, well, I tried.
