Spring and Spanner

by CodenameOne

1 - Spring Blossom

Act I

Eine kleine blume

Chapter One

Spring Blossom

The quiet rustling of leaves was all that gave away her presence, but thankfully the sound was lost to the gentle breeze. Her target had no idea she was right behind him, and she intended to keep it that way until the last moment. She kept her body low to the ground, and carefully minded where she was putting her hooves. One mistake and it was all over.

She creeped ever closer to her target, still blissfully unaware of her presence. He was looking out into the open field beyond the forest the two of them were in, crouched low behind a bush. It was a sound choice; he'd be able to see anypony coming long before they'd see him, and the nearby trees provided ample cover.

The filly withdrew her weapon, cleaned and polished just that morning. It was just the perfect length and weight, inspiring confidence in the user. She edged forward, now just feet from the target, and she chose that moment to strike. With her body coiled she leaped forward, the sudden sound alerting her target, but he was too slow. It was too late. She struck him with the baton, and he fell to the ground with a cry of surprise.

"I got you! You're it!" the filly shouted, and quickly scurried off.

"Argh! Get back here, Spring Blossom!!" the colt she'd targeted yelled, but Spring Blossom ignored him. She heard him take off after her, but she knew that she was too fast for him to catch her. Her target now was the safezone, a tetherball post at the other end of the open field, and she raced headlong across the field toward.

"Get back here, you're gonna get it!" Patchouli Rest shouted, and still did Spring Blossom ignore him. It sounded like he was way behind her, too. She effortlessly skirted past all the obstacles along the way, leaping nimbly over the numerous swingsets, tunnels, and seesaws scattered across the field, until at last she was at the tetherball post. She put a hoof up to it and watched Patchouli Rest slow down from his gallop to a canter, an annoyed smiled on his face.

"I can't believe how fast you are" he said, breathlessly, and Spring Blossom just smiled. He was a year older than her, taller too, but he could still never hope to catch her. Whenever they played Tag it always ended the same way.

"Sneaky, too!" Spring chirped. "I came up behind you like a ninja pony, and you never knew I was there!"

Patchouli scoffed and looked away. "Yeah, well, whatever. What do you want to play now? I guess we could play some tetherball, since we're already here" he said, but before Spring could answer the bell rang.

"Lunch time!" Spring said, and took off past Patchouli. All across the playground behind Small Steps Home for Orphaned Ponies young colts and fillies abandoned their games and ran towards the house they all called home. Their caretaker, Miss Ginger, stood upon the step of the back door, beckoning them to come to her.

As Spring neared the open door she slowed down, and filed into the building along with all the other kids. There were other caretakers there in the halls, to guide them to the lunch room, but Spring already knew where to go. From the backdoor to the playground one went left, down the hall for the rooms the colts, and then right towards the front door. Instead of going all the way to the front door, though, they'd take another left through a set of double doors into a room lined with half-a-dozen tables.

Spring Blossom was ready to eat, that was for sure, but there was somepony there in the lunch room who caught her eye. She noticed him because she'd never seen him before, and that meant he was there to adopt somepony. Spring always hoped it was her, but she knew she'd be happy for whoever the stallion picked. He had a silver coat with a short golden mane and tail, a cutie mark of a wrench latched onto a bolt on his flanks. He looked at Spring, but didn't really notice her, his eyes scanning across all the foals coming into the lunch room.

It was like this every so often. A mare or stallion would come to the home, spend a few days or weeks getting to know the foals there, and before Spring knew it another one of her friends would be leaving with their new parents. They all promised to write letters, and some even did, too. Every other week Spring would get a letter from her friend Morning Glisten, all the way in Ponyville.

Spring quickly found a seat at one of the tables and it wasn't long before Patchouli Rest joined her. "Did you see the new visitor, Patchouli?" Spring asked, and her friend nodded. "I wonder what he's like. I bet he's real nice."

"I dunno, he looks kinda...mean" Patchouli said, and Spring frowned. She took another look at the visitor, all the way at the end of the room, his face without a smile. He didn't look mean to Spring, but she thought he should at least smile.

It wasn't long before some of the caretakers came out of the kitchen bearing the day's lunch, tomato soup, and began setting tables. As they ate, there wasn't much to talk about, the room filled only with the sounds of spoons hitting ceramic. Spring ate in silence, along with everyone else, but after a few minutes she felt like someone was standing behind her.

Spring looked over her shoulder and saw the visitor standing there, his face turned away from her as he looked at the foals at the other table. After a moment his head turned back and he saw Spring looking at him, and she smiled gleefully. The visitor simply nodded and trotted away, headed for another table. Spring's smile died and she watched him as he went from table to table, looking over the colts and fillies seated at each.

"So creepy..." Patchouli commented, and although Spring frowned at that she didn't disagree. She decided to be nice to him, if he talked to her, since if Miss Ginger had let him in he couldn't be bad, right?

The visitor came back towards the table Spring was at, this time on the other side of it. Again he stopped between Spring's table and the table on the other side, and looked at the one table before looking at Spring's. Again did the two of them lock eyes, and again did Spring smile. This time less boisterously, but still brightly.

The visitor simply turned and trotted away.

Spring frowned again, and wondered just who he was and where he'd come from. She and all the other kids went to school in town, and she didn't recognize the visitor, but that didn't mean anything, really. Still, all the other adults that had come to visit and adopt had always smiled at everypony. This visitor hadn't even smiled once, yet!

A short time later Spring had finished her lunch, along with everypony else, and Miss Ginger and the others came to gather up all their dishes. One of the caretakers led them all away from the cafeteria towards the sitting room, where they'd all gather to hear Miss Ginger or somepony else read them a story. Spring, at age 9, didn't like story time quite as much as she used to, but didn't mind it so much. Very quickly the foals had all found their spots and it wasn't long before Miss Ginger arrived as well.

Spring was ready to hear the story that Ginger had picked when she heard the door behind her open. She turned, as did everypony else, and watched as the visitor trotted in. He quietly scanned the crowd of foals and didn't say anything, and Spring turned back to see Ginger.

"Everypony, this is Spanner Wrench. You all saw him in the cafeteria earlier. He's here because he'd like to get to know you all better, alright?" Ginger said.

"Yes, Miss Ginger" the kids all collectively said at once. They all turned their attention to Ginger as she began to read aloud. It was a story that Spring had heard before, so she wasn't very interested. Unfortunately, the visitor was behind her, so she couldn't really look at him without him noticing.

Maybe he's just shy Spring Blossom thought suddenly, and smiled. That had to be it! She hadn't heard of shy adults before, but they had to be out there. Maybe if he visited again Spring would try talking to him.

With her mind made up Spring focused her attention on Miss Ginger and listened to the story, her mind preoccupied with what she'd say to the visitor, Spanner Wrench, next time she saw him. She supposed she could talk to him today, but wasn't sure she was up to it. She also wasn't sure if he'd be up for it, being his first time at the home, so she figured it was best to hold off.

He's not a bad pony, I just know it.

---

After twenty minutes or so the story was finished, and the foals were free to spend the rest of their days as they saw fit. It was Sunday, so they'd all be back in school tomorrow, but for now the day was theirs.

Spring had just finished using the bathroom and was ready to go back outside to play when she saw Miss Ginger at the end of the hall, near the backdoor. Spring smiled at her and cantered down the hall towards her. "Hi, Miss Ginger!" Spring said as she got closer.

"Hello, Spring Blossom. There's somepony who'd like to meet you here" Ginger said, and Spanner Wrench stepped out from around the corner. He looked down at Spring, and she smiled at him.

"Hello there, Spring Blossom. I'm Spanner Wrench. Would you like to talk?" the visitor said, the first time Spring had heard him speak. His voice was deep, nothing like that of the other colts that Spring knew, or even as deep as some of the stallion teachers she had at school.

"Sure, Mr. Wrench! Do you wanna see my room?" she asked, and Spanner nodded. She led him and Ginger down the hall, and to the door that was her room. She opened it up, and the two adults followed her inside. The rooms at Small Steps weren't very big, with enough space for a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a bookshelf, but Spring had made the most of her limited space, finding little places to put the stuffed animals she got at school.

She turned and watched as Spanner scanned the room. She knew that all her decorations wouldn't really interest the stallion, but she was just glad to see that maybe he wasn't as shy as she thought.

"Fitting décor, I should think. Tastefully done, as well" Spanner said, and seemed to take notice of something. He nodded at the window at the other end of the room, and Spring turned to it. "I see you have a flower planter outside your window. Do you tend to those flowers yourself?"

Spring nodded vigorously. "Mm-hm! I really taking care of them, they're so pretty! They're peh-- Puh-too-nyuhs" Spring said, proud of herself for pronouncing it right.

"How lovely. I see you have some flowers on your desk as well, and... A letter?" Spanner said, and Spring trotted over. She reared up on her hind legs and plucked the letter off the desk, and looked at Ginger.

"It's from Morning, dear. It came earlier today, and I left it here for you" Ginger said, and Spring looked the envelope over. "Morning Glisten was her friend, before she was adopted three years ago. I'm happy to see they still write to each other."

Spring set the unopened letter on her bed, intending on reading it later. "Morning was adopted by Princess Sunset, Princess Twilight, and Princess Fluttershy! I was so happy for her, and thought it was so cool! I think I still have a newspaper that Miss Ginger gave me; it has Morning's picture in it, from when she attended a Princess Summit in the Crystal Empire!" Spring excitedly explained.

Spanner nodded. "I have heard of Princess Morning Glisten and her mothers. How kind of you two to maintain correspondence."

Spring looked at Miss Ginger, who smiled. "When two ponies maintain correspondence, it means they write letters to each other" she explained, and Spring nodded.

"Morning really liked to read books, so we didn't play together a whole lot, but I really missed her when she left. I was still happy she got adopted, though!" Spring said, quickly adding that last part.

"It still hurts to see them go, though, doesn't it?" Spanner asked, and Spring nodded glumly.

"I still have friends here, though, and we all play together and go to the same school. I really like it here, but...I still hope I get adopted some day" Spring said, though she felt a little ashamed to admit that in front of Miss Ginger.

"I understand. Would you like to go play with your friends now? I'm sure they've been waiting for you" Spanner said, and Spring nodded. She followed the two adults out into the hallway, and closed the door to her room.

"Bye Mr. Wrench, it was nice meeting you!" Spring said.

"Goodbye, Spring Blossom" he replied, and Spring took off for the backdoor to find Patchouli Rest. She just had to tell him that the visitor had talked to her, and that he wasn't a bad pony like he had thought.

Spring Blossom was good at that sort of thing. At figuring out if others were good or bad. In her experience, though, everypony was good. The caretakers were nice, all the visitors were nice, and even all the foals were nice to each other. Even if they did get into fights sometimes they still made up afterwards. Everypony she'd ever known at Small Steps Home for Orphaned Ponies was good, and all the townsponies and teachers she had in nearby Hollow Shade were good too. She had no trouble at all believing that Spanner Wrench was a good pony too, he was just a bit shy, and Spring hoped that he would come back.

If he did, Spring Blossom was sure that she'd have no trouble at all getting the stallion to open up to her.

Comments

[Krickis]

It makes me so happy to see these characters again, and Spanner Wrench proves to be an interesting one I very much want to learn more about. I like your take on Spring Blossom a lot; very excitable and a little naive, she's super endearing.

Current theory is that Spanner was an orphan. His comment about it's sad to see them go seemed like he knew a bit about that. Of course it could be that he had something else in mind (he's definitely lost some friends) but it would explain why he's here is he was also adopted. Whether I'm right or wrong though, definitely eager for more!

[Levi the Liberator]

I like this alot. Especially the concept. I have been looking for a story about fatherhood.

[CodenameOne]

10837016

I'm glad you like the concept, and I hope you enjoy the story!

10836897

Current theory is that Spanner was an orphan.

Say, that's a good theory! It might be true. It might not be true I'm glad you like how the story started, and I think you'll really enjoy it. I think there's a few moments that you'll really appreciate; little touches and things here and there that I can't wait to see your reaction to.