#tarnished wings

[writingsofwordsmith]

.:. Tarnished Wings .:.

What do you do when everything you know is yanked out from under you? When the world you knew was exciting and full of wonder kicks you out on the street and tells you to "go get a job", how do you deal with the ordinary? This is the question Silver Sense is faced with. A very unique individual, faced with a very ordinary problem. And he may just find the most wondrous answer.

--- Rating: PG-13 for dark themes and sexual themes Genre: Slice of Life, Drama(?) --- Main Cast: - Silver Sense - Teddy Gruff - Guru & family (not my characters) - [more?] --- Act I - Scene I - Scene II - Scene III

[writingsofwordsmith]

Tarnished Wings - Act I, Scene III - "Teddy"

(( Re-posted from an old blog of mine. First posted Dec. 29, 2013. Edited today. May continue. )) ---

The skyscrapers stretched high above the train station, spires yearning for the same point in the sky. Many a pony, arriving for the first time, could get caught in the spell of modernity, sometimes growing dizzy from the vertigo. Yet Silver didn't look up, perhaps but for a passing, disinterested glance. The sights and scents and sounds of the city were old, familiar memories.

    The pegasus ruffled his feathers with a shudder and closeted the memories.

    “Not now, Silver," he muttered through the handle of his trunk. "Not now.”

    Dragging the trunk off the platform to an empty spot near a dingy trashcan, out of the way of the crowds, he pulled a scrap of paper from his saddlebag. A few lines of addresses had been scrawled in his cousin’s script—work didn’t start for a few days yet, so today was to be spent hunting for an apartment. Gazing into the city, which seemed to suddenly distort and pull away from him, he groaned.

    “Better get started,” he moaned, reaching for his map. “You better not have given me places too far from the station, Guru …” He found the three spots in a couple of wingbeats.

    “Why you–!”

.:.

The ire he felt toward his cousin had dwindled at first. Now, with each clack of hoof on stone, it kindled alongside a burning hatred of Big Trot’s Tower Apartments and it’s ill-mannered, inaptly named manager. As he trundled along, ears pinned against his skull and narrowed eyes carving curses into the sidewalk, passers-by quickened their steps once catching bits and pieces of his colorful tirade.

    “–worthless, broken legged– … –rude, rotten, little– … –and definitely overcompensating for something!” He finished, a good block down the street. With a quick-cast glance around himself and at the map, his teeth began to grind.

    “Another thirty-plus minute walk. I am so going to kill you, Guru.”

    From the train station to `Little Trot’s Worthless Flats`—a much more accurate description, he mused—businesses had been blooming. Playfully painted in bright shades of rose, marigold, indigo and lime, most had been flower shops, eateries, or some combination of both. There had been multiple food-carts, some filled with salted or caramelized cashews, others toasting almonds and pecans with coconut or cinnamon sugar. Some infused the air with the mouth-watering scents of breaded and fried vegetables, while still others simply attempted to trap tourists and bully them into buying trinkets and caps, many emblazoned with `I heart Baltimare`. However, as Silver trotted further into the city, the businesses seemed to wilt.

    Here the buildings seemed to have sprung up like weeds, anywhere and everywhere there was space. Many of the buildings were ancient ruins of brick that had chipped and crumbled with time, whose walls some ponies apparently trusted enough to live within.

    He wouldn't. As Silver walked past these, he every so subtly quickened his steps.

    Yet, even among the newest buildings—sheer sided concrete dwellings—there was a sense of the decrepit. None could have been built within the past ten years. Where there had once been paint, walls now bore great grey patches interspersed with fading flecks of dull, dingy maroons and sickly yellows. In alleyways, one could glimpse graffiti all along the sides of buildings. Above all else, posters prevailed over everything.

    Of the shops that packed and crowded each other in, some looking as if their neighbors were literally crushing them, perhaps hoping the competition would eventually crumble. Literally. Others had dropped into the ground. Littered concrete steps lead down into dimly lit bars, while iron stairs led upward to apartments that rested atop the various businesses. There were plenty of these types of apartments around, but it was clear to the pegasus why his cousin had completely skipped this part of town. Then again, compared to Silver’s memories, this part of town was practically innocent.

    CLANK!

    “Oowa-a-a-ahh!”

    Fwump! Flump, whump.

    “Oww …”

    Silver suddenly found himself jerked out of his thoughts by the cry of alarm, reins connecting him to his trunk tugging him off-balance. Forced to twist and dig his fore-hooves into the cobblestone street to keep from tumbling sideways, the reins scraped up the back of his neck, ruffling his mane the wrong way. Ears burning, eyes glaring and snout completed with bull-flared nostrils, he swiveled toward whomever had just upended his trunk and nearly made a scene out of him.

    Laying on his back with hooves in the air, head and neck crammed up against the trunk, was a tan earth pony with a shock of fluffy, blonde fur sprouting from his chin. Silver glanced at the metal stairs and doorway the pony had just come from.

    How do you trip over something that obvious? Silver grumbled, though a corner of his mouth tugged upward. The shock of being overrun faded slowly, reluctantly being forced back by humor at the unfortunate earth pony. From the sideways glances, and the grins and snickers poorly hidden behind the hooves of other passers-by, he wasn’t the only one.

    Stepping forward, he let the reins fall away and shook his mane to settle it. The new pony flopped onto his side, immediately bounding up to start bouncing on his hooves with a huge, sheepish grin.

    “I see you’re alright,” Silver grunted, leering up.

    “Yep. Yep. I’m fine,” the pony responded, huge grin still plastered to his face. He didn’t seem to catch Silver’s irritation. “Ah, sorry about knockin’ o'er yer stuff,” he continued, before promptly tipping the trunk back onto it’s wheels with an energetic shove. He then turned that beaming smile back on Silver, still bounding on his hooves. The pegasus soon found it impossible to remain angry—the stallion’s jovial nature was infectious.

    “Ah, it’s nothing,” Silver responded nonchalantly, glancing at the ground and rustling his wings. A goofy grin had curled its way up his cheeks as the pegasus once more looked up at the earth pony.

    He's probably the same size of Guru, he mused. And, if his memory served him from the time he'd been to Ponyville, that handsome, crimson-coated apple-farmer too. Plus the bushy blonde scruff and those laughing, clear cerulean eyes …

    Silver abruptly looked away and started rubbing his foreleg with a hoof. He glanced around, trying not to keep his eyes in one place for too long, as if casually checking out the area. The stranger continued to stare at him with that ever-present grin.

    “So, uhh, is this where you live?” he hastily began, cutting short the silence and looking back. The earth pony’s grin managed to blossom even larger.

    “Yeeup!” he intoned with an upward bob of his head. “Nice, but also cheap. Ya movin’ in 'ere?” Silver followed his gaze to the trunk.

    “Uhh, actually, I’m looking for place, currently.”

    “Well, this place is reeeal good.”

    Silver followed his gaze up at the monotonous, grey-stoned building, blending into its identical neighbors. Four rows of four windows each rose above him before ending in the lip of a flat roof.

    “I can intraduce ya to the manager?” The earth pony stated in the tone of a question.

    For a moment Silver dwelt on the thought. The possibility hadn’t even come to mind that he might look around here. There was certainly no way Guru would approve, but …

    I suppose it couldn’t hurt. “Sure, I guess.” He chuckled as the bearded face brightened once more. “By the way, my name’s Silver. Silver Sense.”

    “Ah! Where are ma manners?” The earth pony responded with a flourish of his hoof. “I’m Teddy Gruff. Nice ta meetcha.” They bumped hooves in polite greeting. “By the way …” He began, turning back toward where he’d just come from with a wink, “awesome wings.”

--- .:. Story Start .:. .:. Previous Scene .:.

- 1302 Words

[writingsofwordsmith]

Tarnished Wings - Act I, Scene II - "Platform"

(( Re-posted from an old blog of mine. Originally posted Dec. 9, 2013. May continue. )) ---

The small ensemble of five ponies and a trunk crowded part of the train platform, what with the two overly energetic fillies romping about. Silver’s ears were permanently pressed back against the side of his head, face holding a steady expression, as if he were about to be violently sick. The earth pony couple, however, seemed entirely unaffected. While Guru carefully watched the two, occasionally warning them to ‘keep out of the way’ or to ‘stay away from the edges’, his wife continued the conversation.

    “Honestly, Silver honey, I don’t know why you would consider being a messenger for the Equestrian Express a `small job`. In fact, it’s quite `illustrious` if you ask me,” she mentioned, quoting him with laughter in her eyes.

    Silver’s expression softened a mite and he glanced to the side, eying the ground as he spoke.

    “I knew you would, Rosemary, and that’s the problem. It’s just not me. It’s just so–” he cut himself off, casting a searching gaze about the other ponies milling around them. “Nevermind. I don’t like it, is all. Even if I’m good at it.” He paused for a beat, then: “It’s just not me,” he repeated.

    “Well, I think you’ll be fantastic at it.”

    The pegasus grunted a noncommittal agreement and looked into the distance, where the train would soon be appearing. A passerby or simple acquaintance might not have been able to tell, but Rosemary and Guru knew that the complement had meant something to him. A short, sweet pause lingered for a moment, before being remorsefully driven away by the twin demonspawn.

    Or so Silver silently dubbed them.

    “Uncle Silver! Uncle Silver!” Thing 1 harped, accosting the only somewhat larger pegasus with a needless amount of words. “Why’re you going away? Where’re you going? What’re you going to do? Why’re you leaving us?”

    “Yeah! Why, uncle Silver? Why?” a softer voice questioned in a higher-pitch. It was coming from Thing 2, attached to his foreleg like a leech.

    If looks could kill, Guru would be dead a thousand times over for his daughters’ crimes against personal space. Rosemary snorted back a giggle at Silver’s dark expression.

    “Get. Them. Off. Me.”

    “Uncle Silver! C’mon! Tell us!”

    “Yeah, tell us!”

    “Guru, I swear to Celestia if you don’t get them off me–”

    “Uncle Silveeeer!”

    “Uncle Silver, pleeeease?”

    “You’ve been told a thousand times already!”

    “No we haven’t!”

    “Tell us! Tell us!”

    “Dear sweet Celestia,” Silver muttered, closing his eyes and clenching his jaw, “kill me now.”

    Finally, Guru had enough enjoyment from watching his daughters torture his cousin.

    “Earthheart, Rosepetal, give your uncle some space.”

    In unison the two fillies whined, but reluctantly obeyed their dad. They hung around for hardly a few seconds until Earthheart thought up some new game and they went running off once more.

    “I remember when Autumn and Thunder were that age,” Rosemary sighed wistfully. “They’re always so full of life and joy when they’re young. So energetic.”

    “That’s one word for them,” Silver muttered grumpily under his breath, watching the fillies with a cautious eye.

    “Lighten up, cuz,” Guru said, patting him in the withers. “They’re just fond of you, is all.”

    “Too fond.” He grumbled, glanced up at Guru, then back down and taking a subtle step to the side. “You know I don’t like children.” Peering at the large clock in the station, then out down the track, he smiled. Smoke could be seen puffing along in the distance. Right on time. “Train’s about here.”

    “Ah. Well then, I guess I better round up the fillies. You got something you wanna say to Rosemary, anyhow, don’t you?” Guru gave his cousin a meaningful look and another comforting pat, before trotting off. Silver shot a fervent glance at Rosemary’s expectant expression, but was unable to meet her eyes. Looking down, he scuffed a hoof on the boards and huffed.

    Fine, he grumbled silently, but reluctantly obeyed Guru’s suggestion.

    “Well, I, uh … I know that you already forgave me, but … I’ve never said it. So …” Silver trailed off. Taking a deep breath, he flashed another look toward her face, holding her gaze for a breath. “I apologize for, my part, in what Guru and I did, all those years ago. It was wrong of us- me. Of me. Horribly wrong ..." He trailed off, realizing he was rambling.

    Eyes foxed on the boards beneath him, he was acutely aware of Rosemary's presence next to him. Nervously, he flickered his gaze toward her expression. She was smiling widely, eyes shimmering in joyous compassion.

    “Thank you, Silver. It means a lot, to hear that from you. Of course I’ll forgive you.”

    Silver flinched, then gave her a sheepish smile.

    “Heh. Uh, thanks.”

    Guru chose that moment to come walking up, Earthheart and Rosepetal in tow.

    “You’ll visit us, right?” Rosepetal quietly asked, hugging her daddy's right leg.

    “We’re interested in that too,” Guru added. Rosemary giggled softly and nodded her agreement.

    “Well, yeah, of course,” Silver responded over the puffing of the engine as it neared. “I’ll, uh, send a letter, telling y’all when I’ve settled in.”

    “Why don’t you bring the letter? Save on postage,” Rosemary quipped with a wide smile, laughter in her eyes.

    “Paper and ink too,” Guru added, grin just as large.

    Silver couldn’t help but return a grin of his own.

    “Yeah, yeah. Maybe.”

    No one spoke for a few moments. Even if they had wanted, the noise was too loud for that. The train squealed into the station, followed by a stampede of hooves; ponies getting off the train, greeting families; ponies leaving the platform, getting on the train …

    Ponies saying goodbye to family. Silver, watching all the other ponies saying goodbye, slowly returned his gaze to his cousin, expression somewhat somber and distant. When he spoke, his voice was uncommonly soft.

    “See ya later, Guru.”

    The large pony smiled down with a similar expression.

    “Yeah. See you.”

    The train blared it’s horn once, twice, shrill and impatient. An attendant came and helped Silver carry his trunk onto the train and, before too much time had passed, the platform and the four waving ponies shrank out of sight. The pegasus drew in a shuddering breath. Once again, he was leaving family, though this time it was a much happier affair.

    Family? The thought struck him as strange, uncomfortable. Can I really call them … family?

    He glanced out the window. Nature flew by, changing from field, to forest to mountain and back again, all so rapidly that they appeared to blend like paint from one image to the next. Each scene was there for only a moment, then it was gone. Just like time …

    He shook his head violently. No! He couldn’t think about those things. Not now. Not yet.

    It hurt too much.

    “Look forward,” he muttered to himself. “Look forward to Baltimare.” Pulling out a book from his saddlebag, he settled back, waiting for the ride to end.

--- .:. Previous (Story Start) .:. .:. Next Scene .:.

- 1091 Words - Guest starring: Rosemary, Guru, Earthheart and Rosepetal from AskRosemaryandGuru.

[writingsofwordsmith]

Tarnished Wings - Act I, Scene I - "Job"

(( Re-posted from an old blog of mine. Originally posted Nov. 30, 2013. May continue. )) ---

“I got a job.”

    He said it quietly amid the cacophony of clinks and clattering dinnerware, but the din of supper immediately subsided. The other two adults at the table stopped eating to study the pegasus, then glance at each other, while their eldest children looked up from their food to watch. The last two at the table continued to chow down, both fillies oblivious to the change in atmosphere. The earth pony mare dabbed at her lips with a napkin, her husband setting down his fork.

    “Well, that's, great news, Silver,” the stallion managed. “I suppose I am a bit surprised, though. You hadn't mentioned anything about an interview before.”

    “Didn't wanna get your hopes up,” Silver interjected, absently pushing his salad around the plate. An awkward silence began to swell as the couple waited, anticipating more. The pegasus shifted his gaze onto them.

    “What?” he questioned, irritated.

    The stallion looked helplessly at his wife, silently asking for her to explain. She acquiesced with a forced smile.

    “Well,” she began. “Considering how much you were … getting frustrated at us for pressuring you so much, we would have expected you to tell us if you came across anything.”

    “Oh.” Silver looked back at his plate, self consciously putting his hooves out of sight beneath the table and slouching back.

    “So … what is it?” She pressed.

    “It's just a small job.” Shrugging, Silver looked everywhere but at anypony’s eyes. “Nothing illustrious.”

    “There's nothing wrong with small jobs. What are you going to be doing?”

    “Just … stuff.”

    “Well, we would like to know, Silver.”

    “And I don't wanna say!” The table suddenly dropped into utter silence after the mild outburst, startling the mare and turning all six pairs of eyes on the pegasus, which made him feel even smaller than he already was. “Look. Y'all wanted me to get a job. I got a job. Why do y'all have to know everything about it?” Scooting out his chair, he grabbed his mostly untouched plate in his mouth. “Thanks for dinner,” he grumbled past it, before stalking out into the adjacent kitchen. The elder siblings shared an uncomfortable glance, wings rustling while their mother sighed.

    From the kitchen, the pegasus heard one of the fillies innocently ask, “Why's uncle Silver so angry?”

    “He's just … having a bit of trouble, that's all.”

    Silver scoffed, silently cursing.

    “What kind of trouble?”

    “The trouble kind. Dear–” The scraping thump of another pony hastily getting up sounded over the protests of the filly, a heavier sound than when Silver had left. A moment later, the impressive figure of the grey earth pony stallion walked through the kitchen into the family room, where the tiny pegasus had curled up on a couch to sulk.

    “What do you want, Guru?”

    “Can we talk outside?” The reply was steady and quiet, but firm.

    Silver rolled his eyes, ears flat against his skull, but complied none the less. No sooner had the door to the back patio shut behind them, than the interrogation began.

    “What was that in there? I'd sooner expect that from Thunder, even Autumn, but not you.”

    “Liar,” the pegasus countered, deliberately turning to face away from the pony who dwarfed him. “You know me well enough. Of course you should expect that from me.”

    “Disregarding the fact that you shouldn't disrespect anyone—or that she's my wife—you certainly have no right to disrespect her, after what you did.”

    “What we did,” Silver corrected viciously.

    “I’ve had time to make that up to her, not to mention I’ve actually apologized. You haven’t had the luxury of saying that yourself.”

    “Ugh! I'm sorry, then.”

    “No your not.”

    “Fine, I apologize,” Silver consented with half-lidded gaze and a subtle sneer, slightly turning around to glare.

    “I'm not the one you should be apologizing to–” Silver rolled his eyes and resuming looking away, “–but that's not the point right now.”

    “Then what is?”

    The heftier pony deflated with a long, quiet breath. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but now that he had … well, suffice it to say he hadn’t been meaning to put off the conversation for as long as it had. Trotting around the twin Adirondock chairs, he raised a hoof to place it lightly on the pegasus's shoulder, but it was shrugged off. He let it hesitate awkwardly in the air, before settling gently back down on the wooden deck.

    “Silver, cuz, we used to be so much closer, but–” he paused, took a breath. “You've been growing so distant, recently.”

    “Yeah, well …” Silver glanced down, scuffing a hoof against a wooden board. “That's what happens in eighteen years, when your best friend moves on. He grows distant from you.”

    “We've been over this. You expect me to have continued pining over you? Everyone thought you were dead! I thought you were dead!”

    “I know!” Silver screamed, wings flaring, causing the larger stallion to flinch. “I know,” he repeated quietly, wings drooping. “I know, and I can't hold it to you, but that doesn't change the fact that …” The small pegasus trailed off with a sigh, a world-weary sigh.

    Too easily expressed, Guru mourned silently. Considering his age ...

    A beat later, Silver spoke up again.

    “The world's moved on, and I have nothing for me but–” he hissed through clenched teeth, “–a lousy messenger job.”

    Silence stretched over the two, broken only by the low moan of wind whistling through the yard. Leaves littered the lawn while the last few clung desperately to the limbs of nearly naked trees, the cold slivers of autumn promising soon the sharper bite of winter. The tiny pegasus curled in on himself and shivered. With a start, Guru noticed just how small his younger cousin was. It was something he’d grown used to.

    Was he really always this small …?

    “You always did make a wonderful scout,” he murmured. The comment managed to elicit a small smile from the pegasus, though it soon faded.

    “Yeah, but I was better at fighting. Liked it more, anyhow.” Silver glanced up into the mournful eyes of the old soldier. “Besides, could you have ever seen me as a simple messenger?”

    The resulting smile didn’t reach his cousin’s eyes.

    “C’mon, let's go back inside.”

--- .:. Next Scene .:.

- 1039 Words - Guest starring: Rosemary, Guru and family, from AskRosemaryandGuru.