Version: 1
Steaming Brew, or just Steam to his friends, sighed in joy as he let the pleasant taste of a fresh cup of coffee tickle his taste buds. The earth pony stood there in his kitchen, eyes closed, head aimed for the sky, and merely basked in the moment. So peaceful.
Then a small muscle spasm ran through his back and he grunted.
Steam looked down and grit his teeth. It didn't exactly hurt. It was mostly just the suddenness. The doctor had warned him it would probably plague him for the rest of his life. Better than being crippled at least. He was lucky. Others weren't.
He sighed, but it was less relaxed or happy. It was a sigh of resignation. He'd been doing that a lot lately. Staring into his cup where his reflection stared back. Steam replayed his mother's words in his head yet again. Move on. But it was so hard. He wanted to, but he didn't want to. The memories and the hurt just wouldn't go away. Nor would those old daydreams...
Steam finished his coffee and began cleaning the mug in the sink. It was his day off and he really didn't have any plans. Just bumbling around the house for the day didn't sound like a lot of fun. Maybe he should go see a movie. What was in the theater today?
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at his door.
Steam stared. He wasn't expecting anything today. Who could that be? Surprise visit from his dad? Only one way to find out. Steam waddled over to the door.
A long awkward silence reigned as Steam gaped at Marry, his ex-girlfriend, standing on his porch. She... was as beautiful as ever. Then the anger -- and fear -- began to boil.
"Hi," Marry said awkwardly. She looked uncomfortable.
Steam didn't say anything. He couldn't decide what to say. There were so many words. So many things he needed to say. Yet all he could do was stand there.
Marry coughed, the shame making her ears pin. "It's been a while huh?"
"About six months," Steam replied automatically. His voice sounded so blank. Like his expression.
Marry winced. "Right. Been busy, you know?"
"Yes."
Marry looked back and forth for a moment. "Well? Aren't you going to invite me in?"
"Why?"
Marry blinked. "So we can talk? Like old times."
Steam's heart raced. The anger was ready to explode, but he had to bottle it up. She could literally kill him with a flick of her hoof. The best he could manage was an empty tone. Cold. "What do you want?"
Marry swallowed. "Please? I want to talk. We haven't spoken since..."
"You abandoned me."
Marry's throat tightened. "I'm sorry."
Steam couldn't hold it back. He unleashed a scowl full of hate at the mare. "Sorry?" he asked bitterly. "You don't care about anypony but yourself. Just like the rest of them." At the same time Steam felt empowered saying that to her face, he also felt terror. Was he about to die?
Marry looked away. "Please, just let me in. I want to talk."
He wasn't dead yet? No threats? No mockery? It was like an invitation. "Why even ask? You can go wherever you want and nopony could stop you."
Marry met his eyes with a visual plea. "I'm not a monster."
Silence.
"Whatever." Steam turned away from the door, but didn't close it.
Marry lifted a hoof to follow, yet hesitated. She took a breath and gathered her courage. Some part of her had been expecting a verbal beating, but she hadn't anticipated it to be this bad. Maybe she shouldn't have come. The words of Solid Block rang through her head.
"The old you is dead. You are a new mare now. Free and powerful. Forget your past, it's just a weakness to the new you."
She shook her head and marched into the home of her childhood friend. This was important. She had to make things right no matter how hard it was or how much it hurt.
Steam was back in his kitchen brewing another cup of coffee. The smell quickly began to filter through the house. It was such a nostalgic little thing. Marry smiled as she felt her mind flung back to those old times. Winter days spent on his couch taking sips of his famous hot chocolate. Summer days when he shared his secret for making cold coffee taste good. Those weren't just good times, they were great. Why had she walked away from it all?
Marry grumbled in anger... at herself. Her mistake. She was nearly stomping as she stalked into the living room and away from Steam. The room was the same as always. Except for two details that stuck out so much it made Marry pause. The table in the middle of the room was always clear, that's how she remembered it. Steam always was a bit of a neat-freak. Yet right now there was a rather tall stack of newspapers on one side of the table and a little black box on the other. Marry wasn't sure which mystery was more enticing.
She bit her lip and glanced back to where Steam was completely engrossed in preparing his drink. Then she looked back at the two strange things in his living room. Marry hadn't seen or spoken to Steam in... six months... and she felt so disconnected from him now. Like she didn't know him anymore. She had changed a lot in that time and he had too probably. That sense that the two of them, who had known each other since daycare, now looked at each other as though they were strangers was so wrong. She had to learn about this new Steaming Brew.
Marry quietly approached the stack of newspaper. She didn't recall Steam being that interested in the news before. He liked magazines and fantasizing about opening his own coffee shop, not the news. As she got closer however, she began to realize they weren't full newspapers. It was actually a stack of pages from different papers. Once she was in front of the stack her heart raced and her cheeks went bright red.
The top page was dominated by a picture of her... with Solid Block's enormous cock buried in her pussy. The two of them were about five stories tall and fucking on top of what used to be a mechanic's shop.
Marry was paralyzed with embarrassment. Why was this here?! Her hoof flicked across the top page and brushed it aside where it drifted down to the table beside the stack. The next page was no better.
It was an article about the time Marry had stuffed a train in her ass hole. There was a nice picture of her with half the cars already gone.
The next page was dominated by a picture of her and Solid Block making out while she pumped his cock and he massaged her pussy. They were more than 10 stories tall in this one and he had pushed her back, caving in the side of a large office building behind her.
And on and on and on they went. She barely made it to the half-way point before her heart couldn't take it anymore and she had to stop. Marry quickly realized that Steam had been collecting all the news stories about her and her... exploits. But why?
The mare needed a break from that humiliation. Her eyes latched on to the little black box. The other mystery item. It was a bit smaller than her head. Making her way around the table, she felt something different as she drew near. A familiarity she knew shouldn't be there. She had never seen this box, yet she knew what was inside. It couldn't be...
Marry stood in front of the box and her breathing became more difficult. She swallowed. She waited. Nothing stopped her. She opened the box's simple latch and the lid lifted away like a clam shell.
A diamond-studded bracelet. A wedding band. The kind of thing a stallion presented to a mare before he asked them to marry him.
How long she spent staring at the piece of jewelry she didn't know. Her mind was locked up, desperately trying to understand why Steam would have this just lying around.
"I wasn't sure what to do with it after you left," Steam's voice pierced the unholy quiet.
Marry squeaked and spun around. Steam looked utterly... blank. Just like he had at the door. "Is this a wedding band?" she asked. Stupid question. She already knew the answer.
He nodded. "I was building up the courage to... ask you." He licked his lips. Where was his coffee? Hadn't he been brewing one?
Then Marry realized what he had just said. Her eyes widened. "W-wait. You were going to... ask me?"
His eyes bore into hers. "Yes."
They stood there for at least a minute. Neither of them had a thing to say after that.
"I'm sorry," Marry said again.
Again Steam glared. "Why?"
Marry blinked at that. "I-I-I shouldn't have left. I shouldn't have abandoned you or anypony else!" She felt tears threatening to escape. Why wouldn't he accept it?
He continued to shoot daggers with his eyes. "You're really trying to apologize to us little, insignificant, lesser beings?" his voice was filled with vicious sarcasm.
Marry recoiled. "I never said anything like that. I know other size shifters say terrible things like that, but I never have!" she asserted.
Steam shook his head. "You spoke very clearly with your actions. Your parents haven't even heard from you since you ran off with Solid Block. And how many lives have you ruined while you had your fun? The day you left you demolished Daffodil Fire's shop, the one that's been in her family for five generations. You almost killed Sugar Rush, the town's loved baker. You pulverized the main road leading to the big city and cost countless pony's their jobs because they had no way to get to work.
"And you almost killed me too," he finished his short cold rant.
Marry's ears were flat. She couldn't move. She couldn't defend herself. She couldn't do anything. "I'm sorry."
"And how much have you destroyed since then?" he added one final gut punch for good measure. He even raised an accusing eyebrow.
Marry opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She closed it with a click. She turned away from him. In the corner of her vision she saw the stack of newspaper articles. He had been keeping track of her... debauchery. She couldn't escape that mistake.
"Marry," Steam said to regain her attention. "That day six months ago showed me who you really are. And I want nothing to do with it."
Her jaw fell. Then he kept going.
"You say you want to apologize. Why? Do you think everything will go back to the way it was? You think we can ever be friends again? Or lovers?"
She couldn't help a glance back at the wedding band. The one he never got a chance to offer her.
"That day when you became a size shifter and burst through the roof of the gym, you should have immediately been combing through that rubble looking for me. Desperate to make sure I was okay. I don't blame you for becoming a size shifter. I blame you for... leaving me there, barely conscious, terrified that I'd never walk again, while you ran off with a stallion you'd known for less than a day and fucked him. Kissed him. And left me behind."
Time dutifully marched by. Neither pony moved except for another muscle spasm in Steam's back that needed every ounce of his willpower not to let her see. He would not show her weakness. The only thing a size shifter respected was strength after all. Not that he had any chance of actually impressing her.
"I'm sorry," Marry whispered.
"You don't care about me. You proved that when you left me for dead so you could get a piece of Solid Block's monstrous cock. Go away."
Author's Note
This is more of a criticism than a true story. Once upon a time I read a short story with this premise, though taking place before the events of the tale you just read. Let me summarize the inspiring story I'm poking with this because I can't recall who wrote it or what it was called.
It was a romance story about a man who convinced his girlfriend to get into healthy living as a way to deepen their bond. They changed their diets and went to the gym regularly until one day they encountered a "Solid Block". This stranger was really a size shifter and somehow could tell that "Marry" was one too. So he brushed "Steam" aside and pushed "Marry" until she awoke her inner power and began to grow uncontrollably. "Solid Block", also being a size shifter, grew with her and kept her calm. Then kissed her and ran off with her into the sunset to live happily ever after as lust driven rampaging macros.
Anyone else suddenly get a sick feeling from reading that? That's how I felt when I read that story. Like, what the hell! About 20 pages building up this relationship between Marry and Steam, then she just leaves him for dead to run off with a TOTAL FUCKING STRANGER!? Loyalty is very important to me. So of course a story where the girl just dumps her boyfriend for a stranger who taught her a magic trick... yeah that's going to boil my blood a little.
Couldn't help thinking about what happened to that poor guy after the fact. His girlfriend abandoned him, didn't even bother to check and make sure he survived her growth spurt out of the gym, and ran off to fuck some other guy she didn't even know.
