Chapters BOOM!
The dynamite in the old cottage went off, blowing the sides of the structure towards the demolition crew. The few pegasi on the team flew down to catch the rubble before it landed on the earth pony and unicorns below. The previously spoken ponies all ducked down to avoid being either blown away by the explosion, or beaned in the head with debris. All except the one grey, salt and pepper earth pony who just stood there watching the carnage.
"D.R! Your supposed to crouch down once the explosion starts! You could get seriously hurt!" Came a harsh whisper from the bunker said mare was standing in, as the owner of the voice tried in vain to pull the indifferent pony down out of the way of flying debris. In a sudden movement across the destruction field, the roof came crashing down as a single pegasus tried to keep it aloft. Dark Rose then bolted from her post and steadily galloped towards the rubble, her expression never changing. She arrived at the now landed roof and used her hooves and head to lift the corner up high enough for the light grey pegasus to escape.
"Gee! Thanks D.R! I just don't know what went wrong!" Was the response from the crooked eyed pegasus, The slightly darker mare shrugged and returned to her post, not coming close to being hit at all.
"How did you do that?" asked the same stallion from before, "The field is literally RAINING broken shards of that cottage, how did you not get hit?"
"I'm the one that designed and placed the dynamite, if any pony else went, they would be crushed. I designed it so a certain route would be undamaged so I could go and help Derpy." She said, never once looking at the pony whom she was talking to, she looked around the demo field as more of the cottage descended. After it stopped raining cottage, the unicorns and earth ponies collected the smaller pieces and brought them to a carriage that would bring the rubble to a recycling plant.
"See you at work tomorrow SandStorm." Dark Rose said blandly as she left the site. I should hurry and get home, I heard the pegs say a monstrous downpour was being prepared. , she thought to herself. As she steadily trotted down the streets of Ponyville, she wasn't looking at anypony, having her destination fixed within her sights, a neon orange blur stopped her in her tracks.
"Howdy! Would you like to try a SSS?" exclaimed a earth stallion of sickeningly bright neon colours.
"A SSS?"
"You know! A Super Sugary Sucker!" He said quickly before he bolted back into the hut he emerged from before, almost knocked over the butterscotch coloured earth mare he worked for, grabbed three different coloured lollipop in his mouth and galloped back to the confused grey mare he left in the street. "Ere! take de wed one!" He mumbled poking Dark Rose with the bright red SSS. Cautiously, she took it in her hoof and placed it gingerly in her mouth. With a satisfying crunch noise, she bit down and obliterated the sweet. Her white eyes shrank to pinpricks as the sugar traveled to her brain. Noticing the orange pony was looking at her hopefully, she swallowed the rest and spat out the stick.
"It's quite sweet. But good." she answered his unasked question, with a audible squee he ran back and hugged the mare he almost knocked over.
"See BonBon! I told you it was good!" he said gleefully, as if this was his greatest accomplishment. BonBon simply nodded and muttered something inaudible. The neon pony dashed back to Dark Rose and stuck out his hoof, which she took and gave it a hearty shake. "The name's Sugar Swirl!"
"Dark Rose. As enjoyable this interaction is, it's going to rain and your in the way to my home." she responded glumly, trying to inch around the stallion. His expression lit up and he moved to the side, smiling all the while at the grey, black and white mare as she slowly trotted away from the sweets stand.
"Hope to see you again!" said Sugar Swirl waving his hoof at the mare vigorously. She turned momentarily and waved back briefly. He returned to his hut next to his boss, who gave him a hard nudge in the flank in response to being ran into before.
"Don't let it go to your head, just because she's the most statue like pony around and she liked your creation doesn't mean squat to me. You better sell at the very least 20 of your SSS's by the end of the week." said BonBon motioning to the large barrel filled with bright coloured lollipops.
"Aye Aye Captain!" he said and dashed back out to the street to promote his creation, stopping several other ponies in a attempt to get them to buy them. By the end of the day he had sold 10. "Ta Da! Now I have to sell 10 more in five days!"
"Yeah, good luck with that..." said a sarcastic BonBon, packing up her things and heading back to her house. Sugar Swirl stayed late to clean up and close down, giving a glance down the road to were his boss was heading, he quickly ran down the other direction, placed two red SSS's on Dark Rose's doorstep, and ran off towards his house.
*The Next Morning*
Dark Rose almost stepped on the sweets left on her porch before the sun caught them so a red beam of light shot her in the eye. She picked them up and glanced at the candy stand down Merchant Way, trying to spot the orange stallion. When she saw that he wasn't around, she put two in her saddle bag and popped one in her mouth. Humming a slight tune while on her way to make more dynamite.
For a week, everyday, Sugar Swirl would stop Dark Rose on her way home from work and sell her 2 lollipops, both red. On the fifth day he had sold 20 SSS's (mostly to the same pony) and his boss promoted him, this was the sixth day afterwards.
"OH! Hey Dark Rose! Here to buy something?" asked BonBon, greeting the now familiar face.
"Actually, I'm here to see Sugar Swirl. He told me you promoted him so I got him a Salt Lick as a congratulations." she said opening her saddlebag to show the other mare a small cube of salt next to a bottle of cider.
"Well, hate to break it to you, but Swirl didn't show up today, I think he's at home sick!"
"Where is his house? I'd like to bring this to him today." she said emotionlessly, although BonBon could have sworn she saw her steady gaze flicker with concern before returning to expressionless.
"Yeah, sure. He lives on Cottage Lane, go down Merchant Way, turn left, it's the big yellow house on the corner. There's no way you'll miss it." after receiving the directions, Dark Rose made her way down Merchant Way, took a left, and immediately saw Sugar Swirl's house. The only thing that set it apart from the others was the sickly shade of yellow.
Without a second of hesitation, she knocked on the front door loudly with her hoof. A few muffled cries of "Gimme A Thecond!" and "Who Peut Dat Dere!?" later, the neon orange stallion opened the door to scold whatever Filly Scout was trying to sell him cookies, but stopped to gawk at the usual customer that was at his door with a blank expression on her face.
However calm Dark Rose looked, it did not mask the look of "OH MY CELESTIA WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR FACE!?" look she had in her eyes.
Sugar Swirl's entire face was swollen and covered in blue spots, his neon green and pink mane sticking up on ends. He looked and felt exhausted, though he would never admit to the last part. Dark Rose shook her head in disbelief and wrapped a hoof around a bunch of his mane and pulled him out of his house and onto the street.
"OW! Did tou come to vizit or harath me?!" scrambled the sick stallion, thrashing in the statuesque mares grip. Without answering, Dark Rose pulled his front door shut and dragged her captive up Cottage Lane, took a right, and marched all the way back up Merchant Way. Ignoring Sugar Swirl's grumbling about "Crazy bucking mares", she unlocked her front door and pulled the stallion in.
"Take a seat, I'll make some herbal tea, feel free to take a blanket." she said, motioning to her living room, which had a dark green couch covered with an assortment of grey throw pillows. A glass table sat in front of the couch, which was facing a unlit fireplace, adjacent to a mahogany bookcase. As his sudden hostess disappeared to what he could only guess was her kitchen, the sick stallion reluctantly trotted into the well decorated room.
He sat down on the comfy piece of furniture and took in his surroundings a bit more. There was two neatly folded blankets sitting on a rocking chair the same colour of the couch he was on, which he took one off and wrapped it around himself, it didn't seem to do anything helpful, but it did make him feel a bit better. The bookcase was filled with an assortment of novels titled things like "Pokey and Staple" "How to Make Harmless Explosives" and "Tomorrow Will be Brighter Than Yesterday".
But what really caught his somewhat obscured attention was a small blue and purple picture frame. He got of his seat to get a closer look and saw a purple pegasus mare with a puffy pink mane wearing a bridal gown, next to her stood what he could only assume was her husband, who was a dark red earth stallion with a light brown mane, wearing a simple dark blue tux. Written on the bottom of the frame were the words "Mum and Dad"
"What kind of tea do you prefer? Chamomile or Earl Grey, their the only kinds I have." Came a shout from the assumed kitchen, snapping Sugar Swirl back to reality, to which he promptly ran back to the couch, sat down at gave a muffled response of "Chermermerle iz ferne!" feeling like he just violated this hospitable mares privacy. After five agonizing minutes of silence, a kettle whistled and Dark Rose trotted out of her kitchen with a platter of small biscuits and tea.
Setting the tray down on her coffee table, she sat down in the rocking chair and picked up her cup. "Go ahead, it should cure up your Poison Joke rash." she said nonchalantly, taking a sip of steaming chamomile. Before she had said that, Sugar Swirl had taken a sip as well, but when he heard the Poison Joke part, he nearly spat it out.
"How did you know I was infected with Poison Joke?!" he almost shouted, the tea having already soothed his mouth enough to allow him to talk. Dark Rose merely shrugged in a "Just a hunch" manner and continued with her tea. After a few minutes of dispatched chit-chat, the tea and biscuits were finished, wordlessly, the hostess picked up the dishes and tray and was about to leave when her captive spoke up.
"Why did you bring me into your house? Was it just to make me some tea?" She turned and huffed quietly, setting the tray down, she looked at the stallion in question and said.
"It's what I do for a friend."
Three hours after Dark Rose arrived home and realized that Sugar Swirl had called her "Rose", she sat in her rocking chair, clutching a cup of earl grey tea to her chest as she stared at the picture of her parents on her bookcase. Her mother's giddy smile as she side-hugged her brand new husband on their wedding day. She clutched the cup tighter at their smiles, and tried to sink her head further back into her chair, but to no avail, the faces of her lovely parents had practically been etched into her eyelids.
She cried out in defeat and rose suddenly, launching the fragile cup across the room, where it shattered with a resounding crash. Facing the bookcase, she reached for the picture but faltered, seeming uncertain wether she should disturb their happiness, but finally gripping it her hoof and pulling it close. Without really realizing it, she trotted quietly to her bedroom and lied on her stomach with the picture on her nightstand. She stared at the couple sadly, the childish writing on the preserved moment a painful slap from the past.
A ghost memory passed over her as she lied there, her room faded out to reveal her dining room in a soft amber light. The picture frame beneath her tiny hooves almost finished, footsteps echoed above the filly's head as she hurried to finish the chicken scratch on the bottom. A lovely purple mare came down into the room, her pink mane a disheveled mess, while a dark red stallion came after her. They paid no heed to their daughter at the table giddily hiding the picture frame under the table. After a while, the two adult ponies sat down with their coffee and started small talk with the filly.
"How did you sleep Dear?" said the phantom of her mother before taking a sip of her scalding beverage. The foal didn't hear her question and bounced on the table in her joy and gave the glitter coated picture frame of her parents on their wedding day to them. Tears glistened in their eyes as they surveyed their young daughters work, they admired her craftsmanship, and the fact she got up so early to make it without their knowing.
"It's gorgeous Dear. Absolutely gorgeous!" said her father bringing the small foal in for a hug and wrangling his wife in for a group hug. The small pony sighed in content at her parents joy and nuzzled closer to them, and they shared a happy embrace in the morning sun.
The past faded away to show the grown mare her dark room again, but them room quickly became obscured by the tears pouring from her eyes as the final words of the memory echoed around her head as she clung desperately to the picture frame. "It's beautiful Rose, just like you.". She couldn't contain the wails as she let loose the emotions pilling up, spilling out a ravine through her eyes as she hugged her craft to her chest as the moon lit up the tears on her face.
Sniffles echoed around the empty halls of her home, the walls bearing empty picture frames and a foal's paintings. A chair in her kitchen bearing terrible doodles over the legs, from her rebellious days. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get the smell of her parents perfume and cologne from the carpet in their room. The past haunted her like a unforgiving ghost, constantly reminding her of her pain. A new but constant memory succumbed her vision, showcasing a hill adorned with stones, the sky pouring it's contents on a teenaged foal alongside a bright red unicorn.
"Aunt Peppermint?" asked the sad filly, raising her white eyes to her aunt how was holding a umbrella over her niece with her magic. The adult mare turned to face her tear stained cheeks.
"Yes Dear?" she responded, bringing herself closer to the grey pony in front of her. The latter sniffed and turned to twin headstones standing perfectly next to one another.
"Do you think they know how much I miss them?" she sniffed, rubbing a muddy hoof under her eye to wipe a tear away pointlessly.
"Yes Dear, I'm positive their standing right on their graves and are listening to you right now." her aunt answered, looking hopefully at the at the two graves, her eyes watering when the passed her brother's. She then levitated two white roses out of her saddlebags and placed them gently in the soil of her brother and sister-in-law's graves.
Bringing the sobbing foal to her black clad chest, the two mares softly trotted down the grave riddled hill and back into the town. She softly kissed her niece's forehead, whispering a promise she vowed to never break.
"A'll take care of ya ok? A'll move into Ponyville from Trottland and well make sure your never sad. Does that sound ok?" her niece looked up momentarily and nodded briefly before returning her gaze to the path to her house.
The merciless memory returned to being a memory as it once again faded away, leaving the grey mare a sobbing mess under her dark blue covers as she tried to hide from it. She cried until her throat was sore and her heart was out of tears, and she attempted to sleep. Hours passed by as she lied on her back, begging for rest, but a day of running from death and confronting a memory of death weren't a excuse enough for her to sleep. So for the rest of Luna's night, Dark Rose sat on the doodled chair in her kitchen staring at the two empty chairs at the table until the morning sun pushed out the door to work.
The sun beckoned Sugar Swirl out of his home the morning after Rose saved his life (He decide over his supper to call her that from now on). He happily trotted to the candy hut he worked in on Merchant Way, stood soldier like at his post, and waited for the first customer of the day. A familiar face appeared at the top of the way and slowly made her way down to greet him.
"Gooooood morning! " he cheered as his deadpan friend stopped in front of him, his smiled faltered as he noticed her nearly solid white eyes were a tad pink. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that her dark grey nose had a reddish tinge to it as well, along side the corners of her eyes being kinda puffy. The realization hit him like a band wagon. "Were you... Crying?!" he asked in disbelief. Rose sniffed and shook her head no, turning away from him to start trotting away again.
But Sugar was faster than that, he quickly circled the stand and stood firmly in front of the grey mare as she lowered her head. He gently placed his hoof under her chin to make her look at him. He put on a stern but soft expression and looked her in the eyes.
"Tell me why and I'll never ask again." he said, knowing Rose wouldn't want to bring it up at any other time. She looked around her for another solution, but accepted her defeat and opened up to her friend. Pouring out the details of her sadness from the night before to the cheery pony before her, sobbing out the parts of the memories. Sugar's face didn't seem to change as she finished, she looked up at him with fresh tears in her eyes, and brought her close to him and whispered to her. "It'll be okay, the past is the past, you can't let it define your future."
In the hug, neither pony realized that they were both equally hugging each other, sharing a tender embrace in the middle of the street. Once the moment broke, Sugar wiped away her fallen tears and looked at her again.
"No more crying okay? Don't want to see any more tears on that pretty face." Rose just nodded and sniffed a bit, wiping the remaining tears away.
"Nopony has ever really cared or frankly noticed that I cry." she said before buying the latest creation that her companion made, he called it a "Lifesaver" in honour of her saving his life while gathering the ingredients, she found it pretty funny. After a prolonged goodbye, Dark Rose continued her trot to work, albeit this time it was a lot cheerier, with her humming the song "Beautiful Mare" in her stupor.
Nopony noticed the slight tinge of pink spread over the white of her irises and staying there.
Author's Note
Purposely listening to sad music to get in the mood for this chapter... Mostly Bruno Mars and Jason Mraz.
"Beautiful Mare" will become a song in the universe soon... Soon...
Cutie Marks and Timberwolves
Two days after Sugar Swirl stupidly ate a Poison Joke cupcake and Dark Rose invited him into her home for tea. The two ponies, now friends, went for a walk together, mostly to collect some sugar cane for Sugar's newest creation.
"It's going to be the greatest piece of candy Equestria has ever seen!!!!" he rambled as they walked, Dark Rose paying more attention to the flora around them then to her companion. As Sugar Swirl began listing all the ingredients for the seventeenth time in the past five minutes, she absentmindedly trotted up the path with the cheery stallion chatting away.
"HEY!" he shouted suddenly, making the normally unfazeble mare jump out of her skin.
"What?!" she hissed, turning slightly to face him as she walked.
"I just realized, your'e cutie mark is a beaker, and yet you work as a demolitionist! So, what I mean is, what's your special talent?" he said eyeing the mare's flank with a questioning glance at the bright green foaming beaker that served as her cutie mark. She merely sighed and gestured to the path ahead of them.
"Once we reach the pond where this stuff grows, I'll tell you." with a edible squee noise, Sugar Swirl dashed ahead in a neon orange blur, forcing Dark Rose to speed up. In a quick five minutes, the two had arrived at a small body of water with a few bunches of sugar cane and mint. Sugar Swirl wasted no time plucking the amount he needed and turned t his companion.
"Sit!" he said, pointing to a log tipped over a few feet away. After both of them sat down he stared at the grey mare eagerly. "Now tell!"
Dark Rose sighed again and began her cutie mark story. "I was a very small filly when I was younger, not many ponies thought I was good at anything, because everypony else my age had gotten their cutie marks already. I was prepared to accept that I was going to be a blank flank for life, when a poster hit me in the face. I skimmed it over to find a science fair was happening on the weekend, this made me very giddy, as it was my best subject. So I raced home to prepare a project, I was going to make a chemical reaction. I spent the night perfecting the brew, acetone peroxide and hydrazoic acid, works like a charm. When the fair came around, all the school foals laughed at the small beaker at my stand, the judges came to evaluate my project.
I carefully dropped a few drops of acetone and nothing happened, a bully laughed and pushed me from behind, causing me to spill WAAYY to much into the beaker. The blue brew turned acid green and started foaming, a few judges tried to take a closer look, and BOOM! the beaker exploded, sending the grown ponies flying. A bright green puddle fizzed on my stand, the school filled and colts gave a collective gasp, and I turned to look at my flank, a bright green foaming beaker stood proudly as my cutie mark. So my talent is a mix of mad science and explosives." she finished, sucking air into her lungs after continuously talking.
Sugar Swirl just gave her a blank stare and the corners of his mouth slowly twitched upward. "Did you win?"
She shrugged, "I got a blue ribbon. So I guess."
Sugar started shaking with glee. "My turn!" he cleared his throat and started speaking in a Morgan Freezerburn voice. "I was a pretty shy colt when I was younger, but that never stopped my mother from trying to shove me into social situations. So one day, she gave me a box of lollipops to share with the foals at my schoolhouse, and I tried one. By Celestia's mane they were terrible, sugar free and tasteless< it just wouldn't do. So I snuck back into my house and filled a cupcake tin with sugar paste and food colouring with some fruit juice, stuck a popsicle stick in each and put them in my freezer. For an hour I avoided my mother around my home, hiding in cabinets, under my bed, under her bed, until finally They were done.
The ones with taste I brought to the park and sat down on a bench and waited, I even ate a few to test them. Sugary perfection. A pink filly bounced up to me and asked if she could try one, I gave her one and she quickly bit on it and her pupils shrank to pinpoints. She screamed and started jumping around my bench, she then shouted to all the other foals to come and try one of the "BEST PEICES OF CANDY SHE EVER TRIED!". When all of my creations were finished, I trotted home, when I opened the door, my mother greeted me, then gasped and gave me a hug. Turns out when the pink filly was shouting, I had gotten my cutie mark." he concluded, gesturing with his hoof to the bright red lollipop on his flank.
Dark Rose was about to comment, when a low growl echoed around them, Sugar didn't seem to notice as he continued talking. D.R placed a hoof over his muzzle to silence him. "MHMM?!"
"shush. Listen..." the growl came again, closer. Yellow pupil-less eyes appeared across the pond, staring down the two ponies. Several other pairs of eyes appeared around the first set, before a giant timberwolf came out of the bushes and pawed at the water to see if it was safe. It barked to the others and a pack of twenty wolves entered the clearing, all staring at the two ponies. "Sugar, give me the mint. NOW !" she hissed holding out her hoof slowly.
Sugar Swirl obliged in fear as the mare slowly stood up and calmly walked to a patch of dried thistle. She started grounding the thistle in with the mint and threw it in her mouth, she then approached the pond and snapped a piece of sugar cane and ground that up to. The pack of wolves were getting closer to her, swimming across the body of water. She waited before spitting out the contents of her mouth on the crushed sugar and threw it in the water.
"RUN!"
The ponies wasted no time in running away from the wolves and now foaming pond, agonized wails erupted behind them as the foam reached the timberwolves. As the leader turned to mulch, the rest tried to swim away, but Dark Rose's mixture was spreading across the water too fast for them. Once the two were out of the Everfree Forest, trying to catch his breath, Sugar Swirl stared at the mare in front of him in amasement.
"HOW IN EQUESTRIAN DID YOU DO THAT!?"
"Equestrian *Huff* thistle has magical *puff* properties. When mixed with *wheeze* oil, it acts as a *struggled breath* acid." she started in between laboured breaths. Without thinking, the neon colt wrapped his forehooves around the mare and gave her a hug. The hug didn't surprise her in the slightest, but she stiffened when she realized it wasn't a bone crushing hug that would have eliminated her attempt at inhaling.
A few passerby glanced at the peculiar scene, a bright orange stallion clinging to a distressed grey mare. which the latter was desperately trying to understand what was going on, but her brain acted like "I DON'T KNOW! MAYBE HE'S HURT?" but luckily, before Dark Rose's brain had a meltdown, Sugar Swirl pulled away from the hug and looked straight into her confused eyes.
"You just saved my life." he said uncharacteristically calmly, stepping away from his friend, before snapping out of his temporary stupor and bouncing towards his house. "Welp! See you tomorrow Rose!" he waved.
She waved back with a dumb expression on her ever deadpan face, she waited until he was out of sight before exhaling a breath she didn't realized she was holding in. Clutching her chest because of lack of oxygen, she slowly treaded home in a cloudy manner, almost bumping into several other ponies on her trip to her doorstep. She stalled as her mind cleared, realizing what he had said she put a hoof to her forehead in shock.
"He called me Rose. No pony has EVER called me Rose."
