The rest of that day Fixinit stayed on the couch until dinner, Spike stayed in the kitchen babbling over Rarity and Twilight stayed in her studies. Nopony talked during dinner and after that they all parted ways, Fixinit slept on the couch, Twilight slept in her room, and Spike slept in his basket. The next day Fixinit got up early to leave the house; he didn’t want to talk to Twilight before her date with Silver.
“Spike, you coming?” he said, the dragon was up and ready in a matter of seconds.
“Yep!” and with that they set off, the entire way there Spike noticed that Fixinit had a look of deep thought on his face, it never faltered.
-----
I was working on a new outfit that I thought would look stunning on a white mare with purple hair when I heard the doorbell ring.
“One moment, dearie!” I yelled to the front, I carefully set down my tools and fabric and trotted to the front “hello, Fixinit. What can I help you with?”
“I just need a gem, I owe Spike one and I didn’t have any on hand. I was just wondering if I could have one.”
“Sure, how big?” I walked over to one of my many chests of gems.
“Oh, just a normal sized one is fine.” I found a very generic jewel that I knew I could spare.
“How’s this?” I held it in front of him.
“That will do perfectly.” He took it in his magical grip and put it in Spikes hand, Spike had hearts in his eyes and his tongue was hanging from his mouth.
“I think he wants more crystals.” I said with a chuckle, Fixinit looked down at the baby dragon and saw the look on his face, Fixinit smirked.
“Or something else.” He said in a… funny tone.
“What dear?”
“Oh, nothing, but I noticed that this place is much quieter than it should be. Where’s Fed and Sweetie?” he looked around as if searching for them.
“Out on another adventure, something about teaching Scootaloo to fly.”
“Who’s Scootaloo?”
“One of Sweeties’ friends, a Pegasus that is too small to fly effectively at this point.”
“That’s too bad. Do you need any help with anything?” he must have been thinking of paying me back for the small gem.
“I should be able to manage. But you work with time turner, right?”
“Yes, but its Sunday so I don’t have work.”
“Oh, I know, but I have a malfunctioning sewing machine, could you take a look?”
“I would be more than happy to.” he followed me to my work room.
“This is the one, it won’t start up and I can't figure out why.”
“Let’s see.” He opened the machine and started playing with the gears, then he went and worked the pedal with his hoof, some gears spun and others did not “I see your problem, there is a piece of fabric caught in the mechanics, it should only take a second to fix, hold on.” His horn lit up and a piece of cloth floated out.
“Thank you, Fixinit. You’re a life saver; I would be down a fourth production if this one hadn’t gotten fixed. How can I repay you?”
“The gem was enough.” He assured me.
“The gem was a gift, I must pay you back.” I ran out of the room, got a small brown bag, filled it with bits, then ran back in “here.” I hoofed him the bag.
He opened it, looked inside then hoofed it back “I can't take this.”
“Why?”
“It’s just too much”
“Oh no, I insist, you really helped me out today, this is the least I can do for you.”
“Fine I’ll take… half of this.” Where have I heard that before?
“No, take it all. Please!”
“One third.”
“Two thirds.”
We were now practically touching muzzle to muzzle, staring intently into each other’s eyes. “One… fourth. Final offer!”
“Fine.” And with that I split the coins and put one fourth into the bag, he took the bag and thanked me on the way out.
After they were gone I got the strangest sense of déjà vu.
-----
I woke up this morning and both Fixinit and Spike were gone, I hoped that they hadn’t left like Dillon did, then I panicked a little, then I calmed down for my date with Silver. It was only a few minutes away and I wasn’t nearly ready. I quickly brushed my mane, polished my horn, and then set out for Olives Garden.
When I got there I was two minutes’ late, Olives Garden was an inside/outside restaurant so some of the tables were in front of the restaurant. When I walked closer I noticed Silver Rain sitting at one of the outside tables with his face on the table. I walked up behind him.
“Why is your head on the table?” it shot up and looked at me.
“y-you actually came?” he stuttered in disbelief.
“Of course, it wouldn’t be very nice of me to blow you off.”
“I just didn’t think you would actually come. I acted so weird back at the library.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine, trust me, it’s hard to express inner emotions.”
“I know.” I sat down across from him at the table.
There was a large period of time where neither of us said anything.
“So, how should we start this off?” I asked.
“Well… I guess we should talk about ourselves. What do you like to do?”
“I like to read, I like to go to the fairs, I like to meet new ponies. What do you like?”
“I like to know what to do next…” he looked down a little, then another awkward silence.
“Ok. Um, what do you want to eat?” I picked up my menu.
“I’ll have the dandelion sandwich.”
“Me too, waiter.” I called the nice looking server over to us.
“Yes, madam?”
“Two dandelion sandwiches, please.”
“Ok, I’ll be right out with them in a moment.” He left to place our orders.
Another silence occurred. It was starting to get on my nerves, actually.
“Silver, this isn’t working.” He got a scared look.
“What, what is it?”
“We aren’t learning anything about each other at all. Mostly, we’re just sitting here silently. Let’s take another approach to this.”
“And how would that be?” he calmed down a little.
“Just act like you would around anypony else, your family, your friends, roommates, anypony.”
“I don’t have anypony else.” He looked down a little.
“What? You must have acquaintances of some kind.”
“No, you’re actually the first pony I’d talked to in a long while.” He looked down further.
“Where’s your family?” I was starting to worry.
“I don’t know.” He looked down even more.
“That’s terrible.” I held his hoof.
“I can handle it though.” His voice didn’t show any signs of sadness, the fact that he was looking at his lap was the only giveaway “I’ve been traveling my whole life, whenever I stopped to rest in a town or city something bad would happen and I would be forced to leave. I have never known love, only loss. You are the longest mare friend I have ever been with.”
“But it hasn’t even been a day!”
“I know.”
I felt so sad for this stallion, he had been alone his entire life, never to know the joys of love or even friendship, the thing I was sent here to study. I now realized exactly how alone this guy had been, I started to cry. A tear fell, he saw it hit the table and looked up.
“Please, don’t cry.” He said kinda urgently.
“b-b-but you’ve been s-so lonely.” I cried some more, then he started to cry, too.
“d-don’t c-c-cry.” Then he started crying uncontrollably, not loud or a lot, he just couldn’t stop.
“Why are you crying?”
“What?” he blushed a little “I'm not crying!” he sobbed a little more.
“Yes you are. There’s a tear. Come here.” I moved around the table and hugged him, after a second of hesitation he hugged back; we sat there for the next few minutes just trying to calm down.
We calmed down and a minute later our food came. We ate and thought. I need to help this guy; he needs somepony to be with.