THE MARE WHO LOST HER SMILE
A month had now past and word of Ericka and Rainbow Dash becoming an item spread like wildfire through the close nit group. Neither of the two had any idea of how word got out in the first place, but they took with stride and simply explained things as they were asked.
“For the last time, we're just dating!” Ericka exclaimed with a crimson red blush after been pummeled by a ton of personal questions by the farm pony who seemed to be taking pleasure in making her squirm in embarrassment.
“Oh come now thar surgarcube, ah ain't askin if you slept with her did ah?” Applejack asked with a grin at the dark blue Pegasus who's expression was one of pure annoyance and seemed to have a temple pulsing to boot.
“You may as well have asked that strait out.” Ericka replied before giving a sigh to which the farm pony gave a hearty laugh only to get a hoof upside the head by her older brother.
“Forgive mah little sister Cloudkicker, she has a consarned knack for getting her kicks out of being a nib-nosin filly at times.” Big Macintosh remarked giving Applejack a stern look.
“Little?! Ah have you know ah’ve bested ya ten times over in lasso rope contests!” Applejack exclaimed in an offended tone.
Ericka couldn't help but giggle as the two siblings went at it and began to state how each one was better than the other. Eventually she decided to leave the two to their squabbling and walked away from the two who seemingly had no idea she had even left yet.
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“So I heard you and Rainbow Dash are dating.” Richard remarked with a smirk.
“Yeah, what's it to you?” Ericka asked with a scowl wishing right now she had decided to fly back to Twilight's house instead of walk now.
“So did you tell her about the real you yet?” Richard asked curiously.
“We've only been dating a freaking month Richard, I'll get to that if things get that serious.” Ericka replied giving him a glare now. Having her very own statements thrown back at her was something she did not like and the red unicorn picked up on this fairly quickly.
“Okay, well I figured I'd let you know that I'm going to be pulling myself from the mission for awhile. That's why I’m glad I caught you when I did.” Richard replied.
“How long is awhile? And does Pinkie Pie know?” Ericka asked curiously.
“Yeah, she knows alright...” Richard replied and sighed.
“What exactly did you tell her?” Ericka asked curiously.
“Why don't you ask her yourself? I need to get going.” Richard replied and disappeared in a flash of magic.
“Since when did he learn to use magic?” Ericka asked herself aloud a blinked several times before she figured she may as well ask the pink mare what exactly Richard had told her.
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“Pinkie Pie, you here?” Ericka asked as she opened the door to surgarcube corner but saw Mrs. Cake instead.
“Hello there deary, are you here to see Pinkie?” Mrs. Cake asked curiously.
“Yeah, is she here?” Ericka asked curiously.
“Oh she's here alright, the poor dear, she's been crying her eyes out ever since Stiffhorn left.” Mrs. Cake replied with a frown.
“Please tell me he didn't!” Ericka thought to herself dramatically as she ran up the stairs and opened the pink mare's door which revealed a sobbing Pinkie Pie.
“Pinkie, what happened?” Ericka asked concerned at which point the pink mare lunged at her and hugged her tightly.
“He was my first love, the first stallion I ever...” The pink mare sobbed aloud but trailed off.
“He...broke up with you, didn't he?” Ericka asked in a soft tone as she continued to hug her and ran a hoof along her back in a comforting manner.
“He said he didn't want to though, but he...he...had to because his out of town job was moving him back to that far off land he came from!” Pinkie Pie sobbed and trailed off as she continued to hug the dark blue Pegasus tightly.
“Awhile meaning permanently...” Ericka thought to herself in a pissed off tone. “Richard, you inconsiderate asshole!” Ericka thought to herself dramatically and sighed. “Listen Pinkie, I need to go and report to my superiors, I don't want to have to leave you in this state, but if I don't they will pull a stunt like last time to force me to.” Ericka said in a soft tone as she broke the hug and looked into the pink mare's puffy eyes.
“O-Okay. But you'll come back as soon as you can right?” Pinkie Pie asked with a sniffle.
“Of course I will Pinkie.” Ericka replied with a smile, stood up, turned around and began to walk towards the door.
Just as soon as I have a nice long chat with Stiffhorn...
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“Ow, Ow, ow!” Richard exclaimed as Ericka dragged him to the workout room via twisting his arm with a complete set of weight lifting equipment and a boxing ring in the middle.
“Me and you are gonna have a little heart to heart chat and a friendly boxing match while we're at it!” Ericka said in a tone that made the man realize he had little choice in the matter as she toss him into the ring, tossed a couple boxing gloves at him, crawled into the ring, and put on some of her own.
“Listen, if this is about Pinkie Pie, then-OW!” Richard began to saw only to get socked in the nose.
“Better put your defense up or I'm gonna mop the floor with you!” Ericka exclaimed as she hopped back and forth in front of him.
“You do that every other day.” Richard replied dismally and barely blocked another punch from the woman.
“Now the first thing I want to ask you is, why the hell didn't you tell the truth about yourself? And you better answer me honestly.” Ericka asked as she danced back and forth.
“I already told you why. It would have jeopardized the mission.” Richard replied only to get a swift jab in the side.
“Wrong answer, two more chances to tell me the truth before I take the boxing gloves off and really kick your ass.” Ericka replied as she danced back and forth.
“Okay, fine! I was afraid she would hate me for lying to her all this time.” Richard replied as he blocked another strike from her.
“Alright, that sounded like a honest answer, question number two: Why would you feed her a line of bulshit if you were going to be leaving the mission permanently?” Ericka asked curiously.
“I don't know!” Richard replied only to get a swift jab in the gut which knocked the wind out of him.
“One more chance Richard.” Ericka replied in a threatening tone as Richard caught his breath.
“Geez, fine! I told her that because I didn't want to tell about the real me.” Richard replied once he caught his breath.
“In other words, same answer as the one before it. Fine. I’ll take that one. Now then, last question: Why did you decide to leave the mission permanently?” Ericka asked as she jumped back and forth.
“I can't answer that.” Richard replied at which point Ericka took off the boxing gloves, balled up a fist and was about to deck him square in the face before he recoiled and fell onto his ass. “I was afraid I was getting too close to her! I didn't want to hurt her anymore than I had too! I was in love with her Ericka! Do you even know how hard this was for me?!” Richard exclaimed in a panicked tone at which point Ericka lowered her fist and sighed.
“At least you were honest with me, now stand the fuck up. I'm not going to kick your ass.” Ericka said after a few moments extending a hand out to help the man up.
“Do you always have to resort to violence?” Richard asked in a shaky tone as she helped him to his feet.
“There were better ways to deal with this than to just leave her like that. She's most likely still balling her eyes out over you.” Ericka remarked with a saddened expression.
“I know, but I took your advice and I thought about it really hard. In the end, I thought that was the best choice.” Richard replied and sighed heavily.
“You were her first you know.” Ericka replied as she leaned against the boxing rings wires and crossed her arms.
“H-Her first?” Richard asked with a wide-eyed expression.
“Yeah, her first love and her first time. She gave something special to you Richard, she's not going to get over you so easily.” Ericka replied and sighed.
“I-I had no idea.” Richard replied looking completely flabbergasted by this new set of information.
“Well, now you know. I'm not going to force you to go back to her, but I'm going back to give her the best support I can after I’ve given my report to Stillborn and the others.” Ericka replied, stepped out of the boxing ring and left Richard standing there as she left the room.
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“So they do have a military power and the two dual breed creatures are the rulers of their world, impressive work Airfreed!” Stillborn remarked with a satisfied expression now.
“Thank you sir!” Ericka replied as she gave him a prim and proper salute and looked over at Josh who simply glared at her.
“Oh, get your blasted tail out of a knot already!” Ericka exclaimed in an annoyed tone as she walked over to him and extended her hand to him. “I forgive you for trying to screw me over. So lets let bygones be bygones shall we?” Ericka said with a smile.
“You talk as if you're one of them. Are you sure that you haven't grown too attached to your equine body Ericka?” Josh asked curiously at which point Ericka lowered her hand and narrowed her eyes at him.
“How would you know how they speak? Have you walked among them before I did?” Ericka asked curiously as she looked at the professor whom simply grinned at her.
“I have work to be done about the lab Ericka, I'm sure we'll speak again very soon.” Josh replied simply and walked past her.
“What's the deal with him? What is that guy hiding from me?” Ericka asked herself curiously as she watched him walk to the other side of the room, opened a door, and disappeared behind it.
“Ugh, I'll deal with him later, I've got a friend to console.” Ericka thought to herself, walked over to the V-M-A machine and closed the door over her.