The Ghastly Gorge yawned before them like a gaping maw as both Tarnished Teapot and Maud Pie came to a stop. The canyon walls formed a short ridge, but grew higher and higher the further into the canyon one went. A body of water that seemed too weak to be a river but too strong to be a stream trickled out of the canyon and flowed into Froggy Bottom Bogg.
The road forked here, one part of the road followed along the bottom of the gorge, winding along the flowing, frothing whitecaps that spilled over the many rocks. The other road went up a steep grade, following along a series of short, twisty switchbacks.
The last three days had been quiet, yet difficult days, the days following the petrification incident. Maud had said very little, but had become increasingly affectionate. Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle had traveled with them on the day following, helping out while trying to cheer up Maud.
“Maud, are you okay?” Tarnish paused and then stomped his hoof. “I know I keep asking this—and I am going to keep asking this until I get a straight, honest answer.” Tarnish looked at the two roads before them, the high road and the low road. He could not help but feel that life was being symbolic again. He heard Maud heave a sigh, followed by the jangle of tack as Maud began to unhitch herself from the wagon. “Look, I know that something is wrong.” Using his telekinesis, he locked the brake lever on the wagon, something now done without thinking, a habit.
“No Tarnish, I’m not okay,” Maud admitted. Head held low, Maud sighed once more. “I’m getting better though.”
“What do you mean?” Tarnish tilted his pith helmet back upon his head and gave Maud a good looking over, trying to find some clue, some visual indicator about her mood.
“Tarnish… when I met you, I was The Rock. A rock is a solitary, isolated thing.” Maud lifted her head and then turned her body around to look at Tarnish. “Since meeting you, I’m neither solitary nor am I isolated. It never really bothered me much before, facing danger on the road. My family was at home, in a safe place, and I felt that I could take care of whatever happened to threaten me. I was in control of everything that took place.”
“And having me around changes things?” Tarnish asked, feeling a growing curiousity.
Maud’s eyes narrowed somewhat. “Considerably.”
Now silent, Tarnish’s eyes strayed away from Maud and focused instead upon the flowing water just behind her. He listened to the sound of the water as it slapped and splashed against the rocks. Somewhere, off in the distance, an eagle screeched.
“Now I am in a position where I can’t control everything. You could get hurt. Bad things could happen to you. I find it all very troubling to deal with. You mean everything to me.” Maud paused and took a deep breath, held it, and then let it out in a slow huff that sounded as though she was deflating. “It also means that I can get hurt. I would go out on these roads without a worry or a care in the world. I would travel hoofloose and fancy free. Now I find myself worrying all the time.”
“I don’t know what to say, Maud.” Tarnish, feeling useless, decided it was time to fill the water barrel. He supposed that this was as good as of a place as any to stop. He lifted the quarter full barrel in his telekinesis and hauled it out of the back of the wagon.
“There is nothing you can say,” Maud said. “I need to grow up and accept a few things. I guess that even I can change, even though I don’t like admitting it. I have needs, just like any other pony, and I don’t like admitting that. I made a mistake, Tarnish.”
“You made a mistake?” Tarnish raised his eyebrow. The barrel was heavy.
“I think part of the problem with my solitary nature was me.” Maud closed her eyes. “I think I kept other ponies away, including my sisters and my parents. It was easier to believe that I was just weird and then go about my life. I understand that I am different, but right now… I don’t know where my nature as The Rock ends and the place where I just gave up begins.” Maud opened her eyes and looked at Tarnish, drinking him in like a thirsty pony drinks water. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot while I was pulling the wagon and walking. The past day or so has been awful and uncomfortable while I made these admissions to myself.”
“So this is what you do when you are quiet… you… figure all of this stuff out and… I don’t even know what to say or how to finish that sentence.” Tarnish walked closer to Maud, the fine gravel scattered over the road crunching beneath his hooves. He set the water barrel down upon the small, round stones beside the flowing rapids. He took off his pith helmet and tossed it into the wagon.
“Please don’t say that you feel stupid.”
Hearing Maud’s words, Tarnish winced. “I wasn’t going to say it, but I was thinking it.” Tarnish’s admission pained him, but he felt this was a time to be honest. Maud had been honest with him. “I feel real intimidated by you sometimes. You have all this drive and dedication. All of this determination. You have life all figured out—”
“I do?” Maud shook her head and blinked a few times. Her ears splayed backwards, then perked forwards, and then, her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. “I just got done telling you how flawed I am and how I need to figure everything out, because life no longer makes sense.”
“Yeah, and I was just thinking about how stupid I was, but I wasn’t going to say it.” Right after he said these words, he regretted them. He let out a snort and wished that he had kept his mouth shut. He looked down at his amulet, hoping he could blame his slip up on his magic, but the amulet was a soft shade of blue. Frustrated, the colt snorted again, now angry with himself.
“Right now, I am so tempted to just toss you into the river,” Maud said to Tarnish.
“Yeah, well, you’d be right to do so. I messed up,” Tarnish replied. “If you’d like, I could toss myself in. I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
“Why are you sorry?” Tarnish’s eyebrow raised.
“It felt like the right thing to say.” Maud’s lips pressed together as she made her decision. She started forwards, her back tensing as she prepared herself for bipedal movement.
She snatched Tarnish, who let out a startled squeak as he was hefted into the air. Maud had her forelegs wrapped around his middle. She stomped over the slippery stones, almost stumbling, and made her way out into the water. Then, she dropped herself and Tarnish into a pool deep enough to fall into.
Maud did not let go. Bobbing in the swift water, Maud clung to the pony that she loved, and the water carried her to a large boulder. The water pressed her back into the sunny stone; the water was cool and wonderful, while the rock was warm from the sun.
Tarnish twisted around in Maud’s embrace, and she assisted him, turning him around, until he was facing her. She saw his face, she could see a smile, and somehow, she knew that they both felt better.
“Loving you means accepting risks,” Maud said, her muzzle brushing up against Tarnish’s as she spoke. “It scares me something awful, but I suppose I am willing to accept that.”
“I’ll try not to wander off too far.” Tarnish wrapped his forelegs around Maud. “I guess we need to stick together. I got carried away. I went out looking for more shale and to be honest, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. I let down my guard and that was stupid of me. I didn’t do that because I was stupid… I was just doing stupid things.”
“I do stupid things.” Maud’s snoot bumped up against Tarnish’s lips. She was tempted to bring up the fact that she did Tarnish on a regular basis, but remained quiet. Now was not the time for that sort of sarcasm or snark.
“You married me,” Tarnish replied.
Maud snorted, spraying Tarnish with water droplets. She squeezed Tarnish just hard enough to send a clear message to him that he had gone far enough. “I intentionally got swallowed by a hydra so I could punch it to death. From the inside.”
Shaking his head, Tarnish found himself in disagreement. “No, there is a fine line between stupidity and bravery. That was brave.”
“I disagree,” Maud replied in a flat monotone, sounding a bit more like her usual self.
She could feel Tarnish pressed up against her, she clung to him, glad to have him near, and she could feel a small, hard lump between them. Boulder pressed into Maud’s ribs. There were no other hard lumps between them… yet. Little Boulder had been just as much a source of comfort the past few days as Tarnish and Pinkie had been. Closing her eyes, enjoying the water, Maud felt a growing sense of gratitude for what she had in life.
“Whatever happens, we’ll face it together… and I guess that will make everything okay,” Tarnish said as he clung to the wet mare that he loved more than life itself. “So, what are we going to do here in the Ghastly Gorge?”
Maud looked into Tarnish’s blue eyes and felt her heart go pitter-patter in her barrel. “We’re going to study the source of magic for all of Central Equestria. You and I are hugging each other in one of the carriers for it right now.”
“What?”