The Honeymoon

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter 5

For most of the following day, everything went smoothly for the couple. Acrylic managed to touch up the painting from that morning as well as to start a new one. Fancy interviewed the local grocer about what sort of products they get on a daily basis. By the time dinner came around, the two of them sat at a table in the corner of the always crowded bar waiting for their meal when in walked the yellow loudmouth.

“Hey ya fella’s,” Braeburn cheerfully said as he went up to the table. “How’ve y’all been today?”

“It’s been…” Acrylic trailed off, trying to choose the right fitting word to describe the day they’ve had as a whole. “Interesting. Yours?”

“Been as busy as a fire ant gettin’ leaves down from a tree. Now that the festival is going at full swing.”

Fancy blinked, “I’m not sure what you mean by that metaphor but I can guess that you’ve had a productive day.” Fancy pulled up a seat and waved for the bartender. “Now, Mr. Braeburn I have a quick little query for you, on the matter of today.”

Braeburn’s eyes lit up. Practically jumping into the chair and leaning over the barrel they were seated at his eyes twinkled as he looked at Fancy. “I’d love ta! How may I be of service to y’all?” He beamed.

Acrylic backed up on his seat a couple of centimeters as Braeburn got close enough to nearly touch muzzles. The bartender came over and Fancy pointed to his glass, the tender quickly getting the hint. “We just had a quick question, do you know a stallion that goes by the name of Rock Slide?”

The cowpony froze for a moment, “Rock Slide?” they nodded. “Wait, sorry Ah’m a little confused here. How’d you come across that name?”

“It’s a rather long story,” Acrylic said. “But in short, we found a mine not too far away from here that had a guy who goes by the name of Rock Slide. Why? Do you know him?” Braeburn held up a hoof and asked to describe him. “Let’s see… Earth Pony, probably early or mid-twenties, charcoal black and he had a dark chocolate mane with a stetson on his head like yours.”

“Huh… that’s weird. Yeah Ah do know ‘em. But if this is the same Rock Slide, the one Ah know is in Appaloosa.” Braeburn rubbed the temple of his head. “Why would he be here of all places?”

“Well he did say that he was here for some mining business or other,” Fancy explained to him. Then he leaned over to the side, looking behind him, “Or, maybe you could ask him that yourself.”

“What? Oh! Oh never mind, sorry Ah let mah mind go someplace. But shoo, yeah I know a Rockslide!” Braeburn chuckled as the barpony placed Fancy’s order on the barrel, Fancy pushing it towards the now laughing stallion. “He is mah Coltfriend!”

Acrylic’s jaw dropped, his drink spilling a little as his hoof holding it went slack. “Wha-! Mmpf!” His outburst was quickly averted with Fancy’s hoof in his mouth.

“How wonderful! Although, I think you ought to do yourself a favor.”

“Sure, what’s that?”

“Turn around.”

Braeburn did so, and his expression brightened up as he saw who was smiling right behind him. “Rocky! What are ya doin’ here?” He threw his forelegs around the stallion.

“Howdy Brae.” Rockslide came up to his coltfriend, giving him a nuzzle as he sat down next to a slightly disgruntled Acrylic. “Sorry for poppin’ on such short notice. I’ve come into town to do that… business you know about.”

“Oh… OH yeah.” Braeburn put a hoof on Rock's lap. “Lads, as I’m a-surring you’ve met ‘em. Regardless, re-meet my coltfriend, Rock Slide.”

“Yeah…” Acrylic said as he took notice of Rock’s hooves as if they were clean of that blue dust from earlier. “I’m not sure if that’s necessary.”

“Come now ‘Crylic,” Fancy patted his spouse's shoulder. “You have to forgive him, he’s still a little shaken up from our encounter this morning.”

The charcoal stallion lifted his hooves, “Hey, Ah get it. Runnin’ in a dark place would get anypony spooked. Still, no harm done.” Rock smiled, offering out a hoof to the suspicious stallion. “How ‘bout we do some rounds. Get to know one another, seeing as you seem ta be gettin’ on just fine with my Brae.”

Nudging Rock Slide, Braeburn’s cheeks started to glow. “See, ain’t this dandy! All gettin on like clockwork.”

“Uh… I don’t exactly drink,” Acrylic pointed out. “We’re only here for dinner.”

Rock Slide looked over at the bartender from the barrel, “Can I get a lemonade? And a Scotch on the Rocks?” Two drinks slapped on the table, one next to Acrylic and the other next to Rock. “A drink is a drink Mr. Acrylic, silly filling or not.” He smirked.

“Right…” the artist picked up his glass. After taking a sip from it, he still couldn’t help but feel that there was something not right about the stallion sitting right across from him. Giving him the kind of look that was similar to what a player in a poker game would put on when hiding all his cards and knowing something.

“Ya know,” Rock Slide began. “Ah’m a little curious, what brings you and yer friend out here for anyway? Bein’ such a big-time artist, not many ponies like yerself tend ta come here that often.”

“They’re on honeymoon,” Braeburn said, holding up his glass. “Just got hitched recently.”

“Really?” the charcoal pony blinked, “Huh, small world eh? It’s not every day that we ran inta folks that are… ya know.”

“Indeed, it’s not easy,” Fancy nodded. “Now if it’s not improper of me to ask, how did you two meet?”

“Well ah suppose it was when we were on investi-” Braeburn trailed off, looking over to Rock Slide shocked.

“As colts, we grew up here together.” Rock Slide chuckled and wrapped a hoof around his coltfriend’s shoulder, eliciting a small jolt from Braeburn. “Took Braeburn to accidentally come out to half the town to make me realize my feelings fer him. Wasn’t hard after that, 'cause it wasn’t like I didn’t know if he was too.” Acrylic looked between the two quickly. Catching Brae’s slip-up, he added. “Now Brae here has always been terrible with his tongue, forgettin’ things and sayin' too much on accident. He’s lucky ah still keep him in the loop, even after we moved to settle Appaloosa.”

“So, how long have you been dating?” Acrylic inquired.

“Officially? Year and a half,” Braeburn smirked. “Though Ah’ve known him since we were little, it just grew, ya know?”

“Ah,” Fancy nodded. “The classic friend turned special somepony. That’s rather sweet of you.”

“But that’s what happened,” Rock said, his coltfriend too wrapping a hoof around him. “And Ah’ve never regretted making my decision of being a thing. Of course, we do have our… jobs that keep us apart now and again, but try to meet up whenever we do get in touch.” He chuckled, “Well, Ah guess there’s no need in tellin’.”

“What?” his yellow stallion blinked, “That we buck like rabbits?”

Rock Slide shoved his hoof over Braeburn’s mouth, his shocked expression nearly sending them flying both of their stools. In the chaos, a bright smile lit up Fancy’s face. Laughing.

“Oh it’s fine! We do much wor-” His words were quickly muffled as his own coltfriend followed in Rock Slide’s hoofprints and shoved a panicked hoof into his own mouth.

---

“Fancy, I can’t believe I am saying this… but I think you were onto something with the cave down there earlier.” Acrylic sat on the bed, looking into the bathroom and fluffing the pillows.

“What do you mean, dear?” Fancy asked through a toothbrush lodged in his throat.

“I don’t like Rock Slide, not a single bit.”

The room was silent, void of the obnoxiously loud teeth brushing coming from the other room.

“Acrylic, I think you are being paranoid, he seems lovely. And if Braeburn’s excellently… excellently loud mouth carries any weight, then that would make him the sheriff's assistant’s coltfriend. And how much trouble could somepony like that cause?”

“I still can’t believe you tried to offer a foursome.”

Fancy stuck his head out, with a toothbrush still in his aura. “You know, I’m surprised to see you prudent all of a sudden. I mean, you do remember when the new Hoofcolt-”

“Okay, two things: first of all, he trusted us in his virginity and I believe that I was the one to suggest helping him out as a one-time thing. In which we all agreed upon.” After getting up from the bed, he opened a suitcase that had his husband’s robe. “Secondly, I may still have a lot to learn about Equestria’s culture, but I’m sure somewhere that newlyweds are supposed to spend time together.” Before Fancy could open his mouth, Acrylic added. “And even if that wasn’t the case, may I remind you that, unlike the Hoofcolt, we’ve only met these ponies for about a day at most.”

The unicorn rolled his eyes, “I won’t argue, but I just thought that it might have been fun.”

“Just not with him,” Acrylic muttered, catching his spouse's ear.

“I fail to see what sort of fault you find in Rock Slide, I mean, what do you have against him? Mr. Apple likes him quite enough.”

Setting the robe on the bed, the artist took a calming breath. “And I don’t deny that. Yes, I can tell that he loves him. But… Something’s not right with all of this.”

“How so?” Fancy’s head disappeared back into the bathroom.

Acrylic thought for a moment, “For starters, don’t you think it’s rather odd that someone like Rock would be working here, and yet he doesn’t tell Braeburn about it, even if he’s having that festival thing here in town?”

“Pssh, so?”

Acrylic took a step towards the bathroom, “And I noticed some sacks down at the mine, who holds gems in sacks?”

“Sandbags, keeping the water out of the cave.” Fancy didn’t miss a beat.

“Well… well… Braeburn nearly told us something, but Rock stopped him. Didn’t you say that he was telling you about some salt dealers in the area?”

Fancy finally came out of the bathroom, putting a reassuring hoof onto Acrylic's shoulder. “‘Crylic, dearest. If anything Braeburn seemed quite willing to rid of all that. Now how could a stallion have malice when they are dating a pony like him? That gruff old bartender down there has more of a chance of being involved in those deals than he does.” Fancy embraced Acrylic, pulling at stray mane hairs and lifting his chin. “How about we go to the festival tomorrow? We go to bed a bit earlier so we can stay up extra late tomorrow night. Sound good?”

“Okay,” the artist nodded. But upon reflection of what his husband said, it gave him an idea. “But before I do that, I need to slip out for a second.”

“Why?”

“I just need to ask somepony something really quick. Give me about a few minutes and I’ll be right back.” Although a little disappointed, he did let Acrylic slip out the door of their room. Down the stairs and through the hall, he went up to the nearly empty bar where he found the bartender cleaning up.

“I’m about to close son,” he said.

“Oh, I’m not here for a drink or anything like that. Look I know it’s late, but I need to ask you a few very quick questions on something.”

He looked up from his rag, “What questions?”

“Okay, I grew up in a mining village where after the day is done, the workers would come back home exhausted and with dirt on their hooves. So do miners come here often?”

He snorted, “When haven’t they? That’s the better question. They come in here asking for beer to drown out the day of workin’ in the mines of course. They’re so darn plum tired that they don’t bother to wash off the dirt out of their hooves as they trek dust in here that makes the floors look like outside.”

“I thought so,” Acrylic nodded. “Now, here’s the real question that I want to ask: have any miners that come in here had blue dust on their hooves?”

The bartender stared at him sternly. “Blue dust? And what could have possibly brought this little spark in interest from a pony of your nature on such a matter?” The bar pony's eyes narrowed, looking right into Acrylic’s own.

Acrylic took a huge gulp and “I-It’s something that I’ve heard. Blue dust, but nopony’s told me what they meant by it, I’m just curious.”

“Any miner with blue dust on his hooves makes it clear to others what he’s mining after. Sky Salt, as it’s called in these here parts. Take a few licks out of it, and you’ll be seein’ things that aren’t there for days. To the point where you can’t tell what’s real and what ain’t. It’s highly illegal, and that’s all that you need to know ‘bout it. Why, anyone that stupid enough to step in here with blue dust on their hooves is going straight to jail.”

“Thanks, sir, that’s all I needed to know,” but just as Acrylic was about to trot back to the room the bartender called out to him, beckoning him close.

“Look buddy, I don’t know what your game is, but I’d be careful who you talk to about that sort of thing, best be on your way.”