One Lonely Bridge

by Milo_Chalks

1: Anger

Pip readjusted the hoodie crawling up his barrel, threatening to expose his cold underside. He was beginning to get into the habit of it, seeing as the elastic at the bottom had almost given up after years of faithful service. ‘I won’t be able to wear this much longer. Rumble’s hoodie is falling apart, I might just keep it near the bed,’ Pip thought to himself as the cold, autumn wind once again bit through his boyfriend's frayed and paper thin hoodie all too easily.

Pip sighed and rested his duffle bag on the cobblestones of the bridge leading into ponyville. It was visceral, standing on the bridge that was both so cemented in his memory, so sturdy, so natural to stand on; But also strangely alien, different, and not quite right. He had trodden on almost every single stone of this structure, even the ones that made up the wall on either side, but standing on it felt… sacred. ‘I could have sworn it was bigger! Were the stones really this small?’ He leaned over the wall and peered over the edge, ‘was it really this shallow?’

He smiled, it had felt like seeing an old friend stepping back onto the old bridge just outside Ponyville, the gateway to his home. He grabbed his bag and shoved it against the wall, climbing over the safe side, and sat down, dangling his legs over the edge. The town in front of him glowed in the setting of the sun, just like he’d remembered; the buildings usual colours were softly highlighted by the light through the rapidly retiring streets. Pip felt a pang of nostalgia as he remembered how early everyone would go to bed here, compared to that of his new home where it seemed as if no-one was sleeping.

“Jeez… I kinda missed this” Pip looked over the rooftops, trying to find his own roof on the other side of the small river. It was like re-discovering a picture long thought forgotten, for the biggest change the town had seemed to have been renovations to his old schoolhouse propped on the hill past the town. He saw Big MacIntosh was still packing his stall ten minutes before the market closed, whilst Spike made a dash to get his groceries in time. A grin spread over Pip’s face as he looked on, everything was in place, like he’d never left.

‘I might have to pop in to see Mrs. Cheerilee and find out who’s the new class president,’ The wind blew across the bridge again, but much stronger. Pip threw his hood over his head in retaliation, bundling tighter and throwing his hooves into the pockets.

Clip clop clip clop….

The wind bit back, picking up once again. He leaned forward, determined not to let the cold win despite how close to the very edge of the wall he was getting.

Clip clop clip clop….

Pip finally heard the hoof steps on the bridge over the gusts billowing around him. He slowly turned to see who was behind him, slinging a hoof back over the bridge wall to reach around far enough. But the second he managed to see who was behind him he gasped. “Featherweight?!”

“Hello Pip! Miss me?” A vastly taller, deeper voiced, and, almost stocky Featherweight stood right behind Pip on the bridge, a frown wrinkling his face. But before Pip could get a word in Featherweight had moved towards him, faster than he could react Pip found himself off balance, his hooves giving little support in his now plummet from the bridge.

“WHAT THE FU-” was all he could get in before hitting the freezing river with a loud SMACK!

Water filled his nose and mouth, the cold tensed his muscles and sent him into shock. The whole world went black as he squeezed his eyes shut, blindly thrashing and writhing about until the longest two seconds of Pip’s life finally ticked by and his floundering body resurfaced. The shock of the impact had forced all the air out of his lungs, and the second his head broke through the water he was rasping for air, he was coughing and sputtering;the cold attacking his nose as the water burnt his nostrils. He scrambled upright and clambered his way to the muddy riverbank, smearing mud and dirt all over Rumble’s tattered hoodie. The hoodie was of little help against the freezing water, and even less so as Pip got back on the bank. The cold became a thousand times worse now that he was dripping wet.

“What the fuck! What the actual fuck! FEATHERWEIGHT! What the fuck!” Pip yelled, trying desperately to huddle away from the freezing wind.

“What are you doing back in Ponyville,” Featherweight glared down at Pip shivering uncontrollably next to the river.

“Excuse me? Fuck you! You just pushed me off a bridge, Featherweight!”

Featherweight turned, Pip could swear he saw a cocktail of emotions in the colt’s eyes. “No Pip, Fuck You…” and with that, he turned and left Pip lying on the river bed, sopping wet and scratching his head.

---

“I honestly can’t explain what happened.” Pip sat next to the radiator set to full blast, a towel wrapped around his waist and his jumper now hanging to dry amidst his mother’s various scarfs.

“What in Equestria could have gotten into him? I saw him with his dad yesterday! They were doing just fine as far as I could tell, they were just buying flowers,” Pip’s mum was busying herself with stitching the pocket of Pip’s University of Baltimare, Faculty of Law hoodie; Pip was distinctly glad it didn’t also take a swim with him an hour ago. “You can’t think of anything that may have happened between you two?” She asked, taking another sip from her ginseng.

“Well, that’s the thing, there’s literally nothing; no good, no bad, just.. Nothing. We’ve had basically no contact.”

“Mmph” Mrs. Squeak put her tea down quickly and gulped it down. “Well, maybe that’s it, you’ve lost touch, Maybe he’s bitter about it. Nonetheless, if I see his hide around town I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind. No-one pushes one of my cubs into a river without hearing from me. That jerk better watch out,” she growled, burying further down in her chair and getting back to stitching.

“Woah woah, stand down Mumma Bear. If I see him, I’m going to talk to him,” Pip frowned, and sniffed the air. “Jeez, why do you drink that stuff? It smells like toilet cleaner at nursing homes,” He wrinkled his nose and readjusted in his seat, snuggling into the towel wrapped around him.

“It’s medicinal, Pip. It tastes better than it smells, and it smells better than you did when you walked in,” She smirked, reaching for the cup again.

Pip opened his mouth in shock as he reached for his own tea, a far tamer black tea. “I’ll throw you in the river and we’ll see how you smell after!” He huffed, taking a very loud, and very ungraceful slurp of the hot tea.

---

Leaning against the bridge again Pip munched into his apple and wondered to himself if he really did want to see Featherweight again. Sure he wanted to buck the colt, but he also needed to know what the hell had gone on? Had he done something to piss him off? Or did he truly just feel abandoned, left behind and forgotten in this hick town? He never meant it, really, just being pen pals is so tough, and with uni, and Rumble, what could he realistically do?

Finally, just as Pip was getting to the core, he saw a cream coloured head bob up over the crest of the bridge. As Feather came into view he realised his old mate hadn’t noticed him yet, choosing to instead look over towards the Apple farm at the town limits.

“I see you got my letter” Pip called out, Feather’s head snapped around and locked and they locked eyes.

Feather looked shocked, pulling a contorted face and looking down at a piece of paper in his hoof. “Eugh” He grimaced, and went to turn around.

“Hey! Feather! Wait! What the fuck man?! Talk to me! What the hell is up with you?!” Pip shouted as he ran after Featherweight, already most of the way back over the bridge back.

“I didn’t do anything to you!” Pip cried out angrily, marching over to the top of the bridge and glaring down at Featherweight who was all but a step away from the end of the bridge.

Suddenly he stopped as Pip’s words were processed, and then slowly he turned back around again. From anywhere else in Ponyville the scene may have looked almost comical, a mexican standoff on that cheerful bridge, two lanky, teenage colts facing each other and waiting for the other to move. But no tools or weapons pervaded this fight, only stares and silence. The wind whistled around the bridge as leaves continued to join into a pile of discarded brown and yellow waste that littered the cracks and crevices. Pip took a step forward, the detritus crunching underneath his hooves.

“I didn’t do a single thing to you, Featherweight, why are you-”

“THAT’S THE POINT PIP!” Featherweight shouted as he marched forward, his muzzle twisted in anger as reached mere centimeters from Pip’s own. He looked up at Pip, holding his own despite standing the lower ground. Pip could only recoil and take a step back.

“You were my friend.” Featherweight sat down, the anger gone, replaced with sadness, almost desperation. “You were there for me, we looked out for each other! We were the scrawny kids, the little guys. But then you wracked off to Baltimare with Rumble once school finished and I never heard from you again. You were my closest friend, heck, I would have gone so far as to say one of my only friends. You and Rumble. Then you just shed me off… Like a leaf on a fucking tree,” Feather used his hoof to angrily sweep the cobblestones, lifting a small pile of leaves into the air. The wind quickly caught them and sent them fluttering away, to sink slowly towards their fate on the river below.

“Feather! I couldn’t keep living my life here, I needed to get away from Ponyville. Baltimare was that for both Rumble and I. We needed to get away, this place has been the cause of so much anxiety for both of us! Rumble still won’t come back. You didn’t even try to keep in touch Feather.”

“You think this is about Ponyville? You think I didn’t try to keep in touch? Pip! You didn’t even respond to my letters, for eight months I sent them to you! You and Rumble, but neither of you sent a single letter my way. I had to ask your Mum for contact details because you didn’t even tell me where you lived. You were my best friends! I felt like I had been betrayed… Can you even begin to imagine how that fucking felt? Can you even begin to imagine how I fucking felt?”

“This has everything to do with Ponyville! You expect me to just put my entire life on hold, my relationship with Rumble, my education, my job… just to slam a couple of beers with an old friend halfway across Equestria? We all had to move on, not just me and Rumble, everyone, all of our classmates. So why didn’t you? Huh?” Pip glared back, taking a step forward again. “You had plans, you were coming to Baltimare too. We even talked about it! Remember? Then you just vanished, and hid yourself away during our final holidays, and you have the absolute AUDACITY to call ME A JERK? The one that just abandoned everyone! I didn’t turn your back on you, Featherweight…” He spat. “You turned your back on us.”

Pip pushed past him violently, leaving the tall, lanky colt standing on the bridge in horror.

“You don’t know… do you…”

Pip stopped in his tracks. He found himself just as Featherweight had been just minutes ago, angry and about to storm off back to Ponyville. He caught his anger, and buried it away for now.

“What don’t I know, Featherweight?” He replied tentatively.

“Oh, so you didn’t bother to find out why after years of planning and talking about moving away with you guys, I decided to stay here in Ponyville? Why I let everyone move on without me? And why I put my entire life on hold.” Featherweight was now on the crest of the hill, Pip looked up at him as he stepped forward, a frown spread across his face.

“What are you talking about?” Pip replied, stepping closer.

“Pip… my dad had an aneurysm…”

Author's Note:

This is only going to be a two-parter so stay tuned! Thanks so much for my editors and thank you for reading, please if you see anything or have anything to say drop it in the comments, I absolutely love to read them

Comments

[CrackedInkWell]

This is off to a promising start. Good job! Keep it up!

[TheAmazingMe]

Fuck that’s a lot of swearing. Teenagers, amirite? Can’t imagine what I’d do in Pip’s horseshoes. You think you just fell out of touch and then boom! Turns out your friend has been dealing with some serious stuff by himself.

Honestly very interested in where this goes.

[Milo_Chalks]

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Thank you both! It's finally coming together now, I should have this up this week in actual fact! Sorry for the wait, been focusing on finishing university and everything but back on the saddle! and keen to finally finish this two-parter!