Spring and Spanner

by CodenameOne

10 - Sorrow

Chapter Ten

Sorrow

Spanner Wrench was in a dark place. For years he had run from the truth of his past, had buried it, had ignored it. But when it had reared its ugly head again unexpectedly he had been unable to confront it.

'The audacity... You have some nerve coming here.'

In the days since Stalwart Shield's visit he'd found himself spiraling further and further down into a demented prison of rage and scorn. He'd smashed the training dummy into pieces, he'd scorched the film that Stalwart had given him until not a single ash of it had remained, and yet still he was slipping away. Spring hadn't said much to him all weekend, and when he'd come home from his walk in the woods the day before yesterday she'd already been asleep.

She knew something. Spanner didn't know what, but he couldn't help but feel that Spring Blossom had learned the truth. That she had seen the way he'd been acting, and it had scared her. It scared him more, because it was a reminder of what he could lose. In the years since he had left home Spanner Wrench had silently contended with the demons that had followed him to his new life in Equestria, but bringing Spring into his life had changed him. He was opening up more, smiling more, looking forward to each day more and more. And in just five minutes, Stalwart Shield had taken all that away from him.

Except that wasn't true. Spanner knew it wasn't true. Spring was still here, he still had his life with her, but it had reminded Spanner that he couldn't escape. He wasn't hiding from his old country, but he had gone years believing that it had very much forgotten him.

'I have something for you. Here. Maybe this will make you care.'

And then there had been the film. For years, Spanner had avoided all news from his homeland. After he'd left, he hadn't cared what happened. Whether it crashed and burned or prospered, he didn't give a damn. Now, his old friend was forcing him to care. After he'd watched the film he'd been given Spanner had tracked down a few newspapers that covered foreign news, and had learned what was happening in the fatherland. An enemy masquerading as a neighbor was lurking in the shadows. An enemy that could be a friend and a coworker and a spouse and a foalsitter. An enemy that looked as equine as him and Spring, but beneath the surface was something far sinister.

It was all lies, he told himself. He knew it. He knew what the leadership back home was like, and whatever they were saying, whatever they were drumming up to get their citizens to believe, it was all damned lies.

False or not, as far as Spanner was concerned there was no choice to make. The fatherland could burn in Tartarus for all he cared. Spring Blossom was all that mattered to him now, and he would be damned if he left her behind to fight some fool war against an enemy that could so effortlessly manipulate him, twist him, before draining him dry.

It was Monday, and Spanner Wrench had elected not to go into work. He knew there was no chance he'd be able to focus on his work today. Instead he found himself deep in the woods behind his home, trotting aimlessly, lost in thought.

He would never go back. He swore it to himself. His life in Hollow Shades was everything he had ever wanted, he had just never known it until he had it. If Stalwart Shield thought he get Spanner to leave it all behind by appealing to some arbitrary sense of honor or duty he was sorely mistaken.

Spanner stopped and sat down by a tree, and looked it over. There was a group of rocks nearby, and Spanner trotted over, intrigued. It dawned on him that they were the rocks that Spring had hidden among that first day he had fostered her, almost two months ago. He smiled sadly, looking at the patch of grass in the middle of the rocks. He lied down amid the rocks and his thoughts drifted to Spring.

'HOLY COW! You came flying out of the sky!'

He had learned a lot from Spring. A lot about himself, mostly, in ways that Spring would never know or understand. She completed him, and he hoped that she understood what she meant to him. The news in the fatherland seemed to think the threat was real, and that it would soon threaten Equestria and the rest of the world. It was hogwash. Just the usual trumped-up scaremongering they used to rile everypony up.

'I don't know if you'll end up adopting me, but...I hope you will!'

He expected that Spring felt that he had changed her life more than she had changed his. In her eyes, life was perfect. She got to go to the same school, with all her friends, and live in the one town she'd known all her life. But now, things were changing, and that was what pissed off Spanner the most. A filly Spring's age didn't need to know what her dad had been through, she didn't need to know that bad things were happening in another country.

'The Fatherland endures! The Fatherland PROTECTS!!'

Spanner sighed, curled up in the grass, and closed his eyes. Spring was his priority. He would shield her, protect her, from everything. That included the truth about his past. It was just the way it had to be, to keep her safe.

Spring Blossom was glad that it was lunchtime. It wasn't just that she was hungry, even though she was, but also that she badly wanted to talk to Patchouli Rest. He was ten, and once Morning Glisten had been adopted he'd basically become her best friend in Hollow Shades. She knew that he could help her.

Spring quickly collected her lunch, a salad with grated cheese, and headed for one of the empty tables near the corner of the cafeteria. Usually she liked sit with a crowd and just talk with ponies, but she wanted to be alone with Patchouli for this. She sat at the empty table and a few moments later Patchouli joined her. "You don't look so good, Spring. Do you need to go to the nurse's office?" he asked.

"No. I didn't sleep very well last night. Something weird is going on with dad" she said.

"Like what?"

"This weird stallion came to visit us on Friday, but he spoke this weird language that I didn't understand. Him and dad talked for a while, and the stallion tried to give my dad a movie, but he smacked it out of his hooves! He kept it, though, and I saw him watching it that night. The film was weird, and there was a pony giving a speech that spoke that same language. Ever since then dad's been acting real scary..." Spring said.

"Scary? Is he...hurting you?" Patchouli asked.

"No! He's never hurt me at all, but there was this wooden pony he was hitting real hard, and then he burned the movie, and then... I don't know what's happening, Patchouli" Spring said, and put her chin on the table. "I think that visitor was a bad pony, and he made dad angry. I wish I knew what they'd said."

"Have you talked to one of our teachers about it? Or Miss Ginger?" he asked.

"No. I wanted to ask Miss Ginger on Saturday, but she wasn't at Small Steps when I went" Spring explained. "And then yesterday I didn't feel like going outside. I told dad I haven't been feeling well. I thought about writing to Morning, but that'll take too long. My dad needs help right now!"

"I wanna help, Spring, but...what can we do?" Patchouli asked. "What if you just talked to him? Maybe it's just a misunderstanding."

Spring didn't think that's what was happening. Her dad had known the visitor well enough to let him inside the house, but clearly didn't like him very much. "I guess you're right, I should just talk to him. I have to be brave, I know that, but will it really be that easy?"

"Um... Maybe?" Patchouli asked. "Miss Ginger always says that if we have a problem with somepony, then we should just talk it out with them. I know you don't have a problem with your dad, but if he has a problem then maybe if you talk to him about it he'll realize a way to deal with it, or something."

Spring nodded, and started eating her salad. It was worth a shot, at least. Maybe once she got home she'd talk to Spanner and tell him what Patchouli had told her, or tell him that maybe he could ask one of the ponies he worked with for help. Spring hadn't met any of the ponies he worked with, but dad had told her that one of his coworkers had two colts around her age. Spring thought it'd be nice to meet them, but first she had to help Spanner.

She'd just have to get through the rest of the day.

---

The rest of the day had passed slowly. Really slowly. She tried to pay attention to her lessons, but kept getting distracted by thinking about how she was gonna talk to Spanner. Eventually the school day ended and Spring trotted home, the butterflies in her stomach fluttering again.

She pushed open the door to her house and stepped in. "...Dad?" she called, and there was no response. She closed the door behind her and trotted into the house proper. "Dad?"

"In the kitchen, Springy."

Spring trotted back into the kitchen and found her dad sitting at the table, drinking something out of a coffee cup and looking at some pictures. Spring climbed into the chair across from him, unsure of where to start. "What are those pictures of, dad?"

"Some old friends. Did you have a good day at school, Spring?" he asked, and Spring nodded. She was going to ask him the question that had been on her mind all weekend, but... She had to be brave! Her dad needed her help, she couldn't afford to hold back.

"Uhm, dad... Who was that stallion who came by on Friday?"

Spanner paused just as he was about to take another sip of his drink, and set the cup down. He looked down at the photos in his hoof and set them aside. He didn't seem surprised that Spring had seen him, but rather he looked...sad.

"A stallion I once knew. There was once a time when I would've done anything he asked. Now?" Spanner said, and took another sip of his drink. "Now he's a relic, reliving something that ended years ago."

Spring didn't understand. "I don't get it... Dad, why did you...hit that wooden pony?"

Spanner looked at her weirdly, like he was afraid. He put a hoof to his head, and put down the photos. He pushed his drink away, his eyes on the table. After a few minutes, he began to speak.

"Five years ago..."

Comments

[Krickis]

Damn, right when we're about to learn something I get caught up on this story! Looking forward to Spanner's explanation here, and I'm glad Spring is talking to him.