Act One, Chapter 1: All You Need To Do Is Smile (Revised)
Dear Readers: For future reference; Silver’s thoughts Look like this. And Inkwell’s thoughts Look like this
Cold, alone, dark, abandoned.
Even if he was only three, Silver now knew the harsh meaning of all these words. His so called ‘parents’ and the maze of a city--Manehattan--made sure of that. The snob filled city is a harsh mistress, especially at night when all the partygoers were out. Clouds of stallions and mares swarmed the streets in an attempt to get to the hottest clubs and bars. Stalls were set up on the streets selling various items ranging from fruit to random tourist souvenirs. Silver also noticed several mares standing outside dark and eerie buildings trying to entice stallions, pictures of neon mares winking occasionally hanging brightly over their heads. He had heard much about the places of pony pleasure; places where ponies paid hundreds of bits just to feel a little better about their lives. His parents had even told him about how foals were made (every horrible detail), as it ‘wouldn’t hurt him to know early and he should know what the noises at night are’. He knew he was an accident and that his parents were young but… “Why would mommy and daddy leave me here like this?” was the only thing the earth pony colt could whimper. A tear fell from his deep blue eyes, catching the light from the bright neon signs of the renowned ‘Drowning Sorrows Pub’, almost resembling a rainbow.
“Just wait here Silver, don’t worry we’ll be back in five minutes, me and dad are just gonna get some drinks ok? I love you honey, and remember; No matter how tough it gets, if you smile the world seems like a better place”
Five minutes? Silver was no expert on time but when the moon had moved as much as it had, it had been A LOT longer than five minutes. “-No matter how tough it gets, if you smile the world seems like a better place.” His mother’s words rung in his head like the wedding bells of Canterlot. “How am I meant to smile when my mom and dad don’t even remember to come back for me?”
Come on Silver; remember what daddy used to say? Standing around gets you nowhere, you have to act on instinct.
“Instinct… that’s like, my tummy, right?” Silver sat on his haunches and scanned the area, looking for any sign of a potential path to take. “Well, my tummy says I should goooooo… This way! I think.” wiping the tear off his muzzle, he contemplated on his next move. He started to head in one direction, only to stop and go another, “Aww I don’t know… I used to always just follow them around!” something bright suddenly caught Silver’s eye, it was a colt, with a coat that was so ivory white that he stood out like a boulder amidst a blanket of snow.
Maybe… Until I know what to do I could follow him around?
The more Silver thought about the idea, the more he liked the sound of it. He watched the unicorn colt look through the fruit in the stall. He seemed to be trying not to draw much attention to himself, almost clinging to the ground as he crept closer to a basket full of apples, staying out of the vendor’s view. He didn’t blame him, really; that stall vendor in particular did look quite mean. She seemed to scowl constantly; even to paying customers. As he watched, Silver felt a familiar sensation slowly creep onto his face; despite his current affair Silver was starting to…
Smile.
He couldn’t contain his excitement, surely if somepony could make him smile, in such a dire time, even if he didn’t know why, they could help him right? “Hey! Wait up!” yelled Silver, who immediately started running wobbily towards the ivory colt; ignoring his parent’s former orders. The colt, who had just recently grabbed the basket with his telekinesis, was rather startled by this and as a result dropped the basket, scattering a few of the apples across the path. This in turn caught the eye of the fruit vendor.
She slammed her hoof on the counter, eyes burning with rage as she witnessed the petty thieving attempt. “Hey! What’re you doing? You have to pay for that you stinking thief!” causing a few more fruit to roll down. Salvaging what he could of the rolling red fruit, he grabbed the basket’s handle with his mouth and took off with his bounty. What he didn’t account for was how much energy the younger earth pony had; while his legs were longer and more developed, Silver had a lot more endurance and nearly matched his speed.
The unicorn switched his grip on the basket from his teeth to his magic, enveloping the basket in a mint green aura so he could breathe a bit easier. “Damn earth ponies, why do they get the body strength?” was all he could mutter between breaths. Unicorns weren’t exactly built for athletic purposes, so when he knew he was far away enough from the vendor, he stopped. It only took a few more seconds for a familiar earth pony to catch up and stop just next to him.
“That was FUN! I love tag! Oh, but can you be it next, mister?”
The unicorn sighed in irritation. Surely this had to be some cruel joke? Did stall vendors keep their kids nearby as lookouts or something now? “Alright, fun’s over. You can go away now.” he snubbed, waving his hoof behind him for emphasis.
Truth be told, Silver’s heart sank a little at those words. But the words his mother left behind still rung in his head, so instead he kept his smile and tried to stay positive. “But why? I don’t wanna go back, it’s cold and dark back there.”
“Well…”
After a short moment of internal debate, a logical reason as to why this colt had to go back could not be secured and the unicorn sighed in self-defeat. “Whatever... just don’t get in my way,” he said irritably, walking away from Silver and the majority of ponies that seemed to loiter at the nearby pubs and clubs. Silver was content with quietly and happily following the older colt… for now at least.
It had been a good twenty minutes since either of the two colts had said anything; the silly thing was, the younger colt was actually starting to creep the snow-white colt out. All he did was follow his every move, smiling and staring off into space, all without a sound. Not only that, but he didn’t seem to care that he was being led away from wherever his parents were. By now they had gone through several alleys that to anypony else would be a maze of neon lights and buildings, but for this colt it was no more a challenge than walking on a straight path. Still… Many questions arose in the unicorn’s inquisitive mind about this particular earth pony. He turned his head in the direction of the alleged ‘creepy’ colt. “So what’s your name, little guy?”
The colt in question blinked suddenly and looked up at unicorn ahead, “Silver Lining or just Silver for short, that’s what mom and dad call me,” he answered, taking a break from his self-appointed vow of silence. “What’s your name, mister?”
The older colt chuckled to himself. “So that’s how we’re going to play this? The little question throwing game?” his voice had a somewhat adult tone to it despite his age, it wasn’t really not the kind of accent you’d expect somepony from Manehattan to sound like, but an adult nonetheless.
Silver just nodded and let out an “Mmhmm” of confirmation whilst taking in the sights now ahead of him. He’d never seen this side of town before, but from the looks of it, he could tell they were going into the richer part of Manehattan. His dad had talked about how all the ponies in this part were snobby and acted like ‘they had a silver spoon up their flank’; whatever that meant. He had also noticed that the buildings around here didn’t look anywhere near as old; ageless and almost devoid of colour, not a single neon light in sight. Maybe his new friend could tell him what his dad meant later.
Rather than avoid Silver’s last question while he had the chance, as he could see he was clearly lost in his own thoughts again, he decided to play along; after all, it couldn’t do any harm. “Well, to answer your question, my name is Inkwell.”
Silver seemed to have a little bounce in his step as he grew seemingly friendlier with his new comrade; “Okay Inky, your turn,” replied the young colt merrily, his smile only faltered by the fact that Inkwell had stopped abruptly in front of Silver, causing him to hit Inkwell’s flank muzzle-first, and rather hard.
Inkwell’s features furrowed into a scowl as the good-natured humor from a few seconds ago had dried up. “Okay, no. You aren’t calling me that. I never even said you could call me that.” Silver on the other hand was trying his best not to laugh, causing the pale colt to raise an eyebrow at the younger colt in confusion. “What’s so funny?”
Silver let out small snickers as his small smile slowly turned into a high-pitched chuckle “I’m sorry Inky! I just can’t stop myself laughing when I see ponies make frowny-faces as silly looking as that!” he said between laughs, if not for the laughing his apology may have actually sounded genuine.
“What did I just say?! Don’t call me that!” He turned around in a huff and walked off with his nose in the air, seeming to shun Silver for his bad taste in names. Silver, of course, paid no heed, and followed him at a brisk pace, “Why am I letting you follow me like this anyway?” he asks “another thing!” Inkwell stopped, turning his head to face the small colt behind him. “Why are you following me instead of being with your parents?” Inkwell caught Silver’s reaction, which was something he immediately regretted. The poor little colt had stopped trotting behind him and looked like he was about to burst into tears. Since Inkwell had only seen him smiling up until now, it came as quite a shock. The only good thing was, seeing him getting upset was enough to get through his cold shell and into his more caring side. Inkwell ran over the possible courses of action that would best remedy the situation, and decided on trotting over to Silver and sitting next to him closely, placing a hoof lightly on his back.
“Uh… listen, sorry, I didn’t mean to sound too… pushy. I’m just not used to having company. Maybe I could help you find your parents? Trust me, kid, I know this city like my own horn.” He smiled proudly to show that he was confident in his statements (as if he ever doubted his abilities).
Tears were now flowing freely down Silver’s face; they seemed to cause his coat to shimmer and sparkle. In any other situation, he would’ve thought it looked beautiful, but seeing a three year old cry was just plain heart breaking. Between sniffles, Silver muttered three words that pulled at Inkwells heartstrings; “They left me outside… they said they’d be back but...”
“Your parents… they just left you?” at this Silver just answered with a small nod. Inkwell’s eyes grew wide and his emerald green eyes were filled with a mix of anger and sadness. “Why those horrible bast-…” quickly Inkwell stopped himself and put a forehoof up to his chest, pushing it back away from him with a deep exhale. “Sorry… I should probably be careful with what I say. Come with me, I want to show you something. It’s not far.”
Carefully wiping the tears from his eyes, before nodding silently and followed his new friend as he started heading into a nearby alleyway.
“Well, little guy, here we are; home sweet home.” Inkwell pointed a forehoof at what looked to be a messy blanket fort; kind of like the one Silver’s uncle had made with him not too long ago. Except, the blankets for the roof looked quite dirty, the concrete wall behind it had been engraved with unicorn gang graffiti and the wooden poles stabilizing the roof looked like they’d snap at any moment. The bed was a large basket with what seemed like the only clean blankets within a 2km radius, and next to it lay a cardboard box with a few poorly kept books inside.
The now worn-out Silver was skeptically scanning the area around them; it was a reasonably sized alleyway and the ‘Home’ was at the dead end of it, he wasn’t quite sure if this was a purposeful tactic or if he just happened to set it up here. “Umm… Inky, I don’t think this counts as a home...” he let a large yawn escape his muzzle upon seeing the bed, which he was now eyeing greedily.
Inkwell shook his head and sighed, “Hey, home is what you make of it, and this is my home,” he continued flatly, “Besides if you MUST know, I too lost my parents. Well, to be precise, I never met them. I was raised in the orphanage ever since I could remember. All I got told when I was old enough was that my mother died giving birth, and that my father couldn’t live without her, so he took his own life.” Inkwell’s face was stoic and unmoved, despite the seemingly depressing recount of his foalhood. “I never made any friends there; all of them were either bullies that let their anger out on younger colts or fillies; or ponies who would rather keep to themselves. So instead, when I was about five I started spending most of my time on the streets. Sure it could be tough, but I could be whoever I wanted out here. I even went to school. Well… kinda. I watch from the window and keep it all up here,” he tapped his head with his forehoof; he once learnt in one of the classes that keeping a young child’s attention was a lot easier if you made gestures with your hooves or magic (if in the case you were a unicorn). “So eventually, I actually enjoyed a lot of the lessons, I even went and bought a dictionary off one of the teachers using the bits I got off begging.
Silver, despite his tiredness, was listening quite contently. Only breaking his silence by giggling softly at his new friends’ latest sentence. “So that’s why you know all those big words? Geez, you had a lot of time on your hooves if you read that, it’s HUGE!” Silver grinned and tried to extend his forelegs while balancing on his hind legs to emphasise his point, only to fall on his back with a small ‘Thud’ and a little cloud of dust spurting out from underneath him.
Groaning a little at the sight of his exploits, Inkwell still couldn’t help but smile a little. Seeing a colt this young go through something as harsh as abandonment and yet still be able to make jokes and be a normal colt (at least as normal as Silver could get), made him a bit more cheery too. “Yes, well, as I said, out on the street a lot. Anyway, I took more responsibilities and started reading more until I came up with something: I’m intelligent enough and responsible enough to look after myself, so why not? So, a few weeks ago, I left the orphanage and built this little home. What I couldn’t buy with my hard earned bits--meaning the ones I got from begging--I stole. And well… Here we are.” Inkwell took a deep breath, he hadn’t talked that long since he met this cute filly who said ‘hi’ to him. Of course she ran off to her mother as soon as she found out he lived on the street; but still.
Silver lay on the ground, awestruck. He had met somepony in roughly the same situation as him; he had no parents, and neither did Inkwell. Nevertheless, Inkwell had a lot more experience than him about living in the streets. Maybe… “Inky, would I be able to live with you? I mean, you do seem like you’re doing quite well, but you must be pretty lonely. If we live in the streets together we’ll never be alone again!” exclaimed the Silver, jumping up onto his hooves and grinning, giving his teeth appearing bright white due to the moonlight shining on them, though his coat was now rather messed up from lying on the dirty alley ground. He could faintly see Inkwell’s expression change at that, changing from his stoic story-telling face, to a screwed up face with a mix of confusion, empathy, and maybe a little bit of fear. This lasted for a good while, the silence causing Silver’s grin to falter a little.
Finally, after what seemed like the longest thirty seconds of Silver’s life; Inkwell gave his answer. “I don’t see why not.” These words caused Silver’s eyes to grow as wide as saucers, eliciting a large gasp from the young colt. Flaying his forehooves into the air and balancing (successfully this time) on his hindlegs, he prepared the biggest ‘YAY!’ he could--only to be stopped by a forehoof being stuck in his mouth, “On a few conditions kid. First: Do NOT wander away from me, the streets can be dangerous if you don’t know your way or if you don’t know how to live properly out here. Second: You’ll do what I say because if you don’t you could get lost or be in danger, and I don’t want either of those happening to you. And third… ” Inkwell’s face grew a playful smirk. “… Go get a good’s night sleep; it’s past your bed time I’m guessing.”
Now that gave Silver a reason to smile, the biggest damn smile he could muster. He jumped up and hugged Inkwell, getting up on his hindlegs to wrap his forelegs around his neck. “YAY! Thank you SO-SO-SO-SO-MUCH! I promise you won’t regret it!”
Chuckling slightly at the fact that this little earth pony was almost strangling the life out of him, but a little overwhelmed at his seemingly endless storage of energy, he gently pushed the colt. “All right, all right. Now do you want an apple before bed or are you ok?”
Silver froze up, his eyes wide with what seemed to be fear. “Nuh-uh! I HATE apples!”
And with that, the two newly brought together street ponies curled up in the makeshift bed-basket. It wasn’t exactly classy, but like Inkwell said, home is what you make of it. In the morning, the two colts would start their new lives as street brothers, but for now, they would sleep the night away, Silver’s head resting on Inkwell’s neck as a makeshift pillow, the older colt snoring loudly in his sleep, oblivious to mess he may have gotten himself into.
Silver’s eyes burst open as he jumped about a foot or two into the air, landing rather clumsily onto Inkwell’s head and barely missing his horn. Said pony, who was immediately beforehand sleeping peacefully, (aside from the rather loud snoring) yelped in surprise at the earth pony’s antics. He looked around for any dangers before finally looking up at the quivering colt perched atop his head. “Umm… are you okay? What are you doing? Because if you’re gonna wake up this way every morning I think you’re going to need your own bed, kid.”
Silver was holding his hooves over his eyes with his ears flopped down, shaking like a shimmering silver leaf. He was gently levitated off Inkwells head by the soft, shining embrace of magic. Silver had never been carried that way before, but to his surprise it was rather more calming than he had expected. He was a lot more settled when he was propped down next to Inkwell and he felt a hoof petting his now ruffled, Mohawk styled mane. Uncovering his eyes, he looked up to see Inkwells caring and concerned gaze over him, and now that it was day he could finally make out the other features of his unicorn friend. His mane was a mint green with a slightly darker streak running through the middle; his mane was swept over to the right of his face, his fringe just stopping short of his right eye.
He managed to make a small smile to try put the ivory unicorn’s mind at ease, “It… it was nothing. I just had a nightmare Inky; that’s all. I’m sorry if I scared you. Don’t worry, I’m fine.” It seemed to work; almost immediately afterwards, Inkwell facehoofed and let out a small groan of frustration.
“You’re never gonna stop calling me that are you?” Silver only answered with a grin and a giggle, causing a smile to creep onto Inkwell’s face. It seemed that Silver’s smile was just as infectious as it was heartwarming. “Fine... you can call me that... I guess… sometimes. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at the formally panicked colt.
Pondering on it for less than a second, Silver had returned to his normal state, the smiling, uppity, chirpy colt. His smile’s size was only matched by his heart. “I’m okay Inky, I’m sure it’s nothing.”
Inkwell looked down at him, deep blue eyes staring back up at him with innocence and happiness. Needless to say it somewhat baffled him; how could a young colt be happy like this after being abandoned and awaking from a nightmare so bad he literally leapt onto his head? In a way he kind of admired it. “If you’re sure... Now I’ll be going to the local school soon and I want you to come with me, it wouldn’t sit right with me if I left you alone here.”
A wave of relief ran through Silver Lining’s mind at that, there was no way he wanted to be alone, even for a short time right now. Especially after that horrible nightmare; he would have told Inkwell about it but he didn’t want to worry him after all he’s done. Besides it’s probably just that once, tonight I’ll have a good night sleep. Wait did he just say school?
Much to Inkwells surprise, Silver’s wide grin had suddenly transformed to a scowl and his eyes narrowed into small slits, “School!? I don’t wanna have to go to that! Dad always said it was BOOORING and that all you do is sit still and listen! I’ll die of boredom Inky!” Silver jumped up onto his hind legs and grabbed Inkwell’s muzzle for balance, staring straight at him now, pleading dark blue eyes peering into his own emerald eyes. “If I go just PLEEEEEASE don’t make me listen! I promise I’ll be good!”
Inkwell just blinked unknowingly, he had NO idea why he hated the thought of school so much. He personally loved it; sitting in a pristine environment with a wise teacher, sharing knowledge with the students--not to mention a library with hundreds of books! Of course, Inkwell had to sit outside the window, but he could still pretend, right? Maybe it was the fact that Silver would have to stay still for more than a minute. Knowing that arguing with him was obviously a battle he could not win, he just shook his head and sighed; “Fine, but one day you will have to go to school. Knowledge is part of what gets you through life; that and being happy, but you seem to have the latter sorted out.”
Still standing on his hindlegs, the Silver just gave the unicorn a confused look and cocked his head to the side. “Latter? What’s that? Is it edible?” Silver licked his lips at the thought of food, he never realised how hungry he was until now. His parents had left him before they had a chance to fetch dinner, he would have accepted Inkwell’s offer of apples if he didn’t hate them so much. Out of everything I could eat that I had to hate, it HAD to be apples. Which almost everypony eats.
“-that’s why it’s the latter. Do you understand now?” Inkwell had just explained the entire meaning of ‘Latter’ and why it’s called latter. Unbeknownst to the colt, Silver was yet again in his own world.
Getting back on to all fours, Silver darted his eyes around, scanning the area for something to change the subject. “Oh um… that’s cool” There was an awkward pause between the two; getting used to each other might take a while, but it’s only the first day of their living together. Over a time they would learn each other’s faults, their talents, and what makes them unique. Eventually Silver decided to be the one to break the silence, “So Inky, shouldn’t we go? You don’t seem like the kind of pony who likes being late.”
And that about did it for Inkwell; he ran as fast as he could as soon as he grabbed his note-taking equipment, panicking a lot more than need be whilst running rather swiftly through the maze of alleyways that connected the upper district of Manehattan’s bustling streets, barely dodging every snob and vendor that had been unfortunate enough to get in his path. Silver was struggling to keep up for once but was allowed a short break after Inky had collided with a fruit stall that was crossing the street (Why are they always doing that?). But on the way to the school Silver realised he had learnt a valuable lesson today.
Never make a unicorn late for anything.