The Rose In The Background

by TLC

The Fated Encounter

The Rose In The Background
Chapter Three
"The Unintended Encounter"

Hours into the cold of the night, the Golden Mare was cluttered and noisy with ponies a plenty. I stood outside the establishment, the neon sign flickering at an inconsistent rate. The sky was blanketed with dozens of twinkling stars, each one staring down at me as I stared back, with only the rose mare on my mind.

It was damned near torture. How could I have let this mare I've said not a word to, have my every sense by the gall? Her ivory gaze still penetrating my psych, I approach the worn door to the tavern and push it open. Just then, the thick stench of cider and cigarettes filled my nostrils and warmed my senses. With a wheeze and a light cough, I stepped inside and made my way past the many tables towards the bar.

"Hey, Tops!" I heard my name and looked forward, my fellow employee Lime Rush waving me over whilst wiping down the bar. "What took you so long? This place is on fire tonight!"

"R-Right." I say, lifting the bar latch and walking behind the counter. I already start to pick up glasses and bottles of cider in routine fashion, absent minded to the shouts of 'Bartender!' or 'Hey, past a couple shots this way!' After about ten or fifteen minutes of working, Lime Rush and I stood back and watched over the rowdy bunch. Out of my sight, Rush watches me with a curious glance.

"Aye, you alright Tops?" He asks me, I turn to him. "You seem a little more out of it tonight."

I let out a sigh, adjust my hat and scratching my neck. "It's nothing."

"Wait! Don't tell me!" He says as he held up a hoof and placed one to his chin, looking as if in deep thought. "Hmm...would this have anything to do with a certain flower pony?"

I lean against the bar, rolling my eyes. "You know me too well."

"Come on, Tops." He tells me, leaning beside me with a hoof to my back. "You come here, slack jawed over this gal, and do absolutely nothing about it!"

"And what, pray tell, do you expect me to do?" I ask him. Much to my dismay, he offers the answer I know all too well.

"Just ask her out."

Ask her out? Me, when I can't even manage a conversation rather a simple hello. I'm left in her wake a babbling fool, a fool who's lost in the seas of love and has no life preserver. She, the golden beacon of my lighthouse, illuminating from behind the hovering clouds and waves of doubt which tempt me not a step towards less I drown.

"You make it sound so easy." I tell him, my voice dejected.

"Tops, you're over-thinking this a bit." He says, wrapping a hoof around my shoulders. "You've clearly fallen for this mare, yeah?"

"Completely." I can't but admit defeat to him.

He nods. "Have you spoken to her? And not like a 'Hi' or 'Nice weather we have here', like a full on conversation."

"Not exactly." I say. "What are you getting at?"

"That's the first step." Lime Rush said, shaking me a bit. "Next time you see her, just walk up and start up a conversation. Compliment her flowers or ask her how the stall's doing."

"That's not a bad idea..." I pondered. As negative I looked at the suggested, what did I really have to lose? No one is doubting me but my own self, shoving all possibilities of happiness and a tranquil future with this beautiful mare out of reach like a parent placing the cookie jar out of reach of their child...But why? Why can't I find it in myself to approach such a marvelous pony with any lack of confidence?

"Tops?" Rush shook me. "Hey man, I can take care of the bar tonight. Just go home and get some rest, alright?"

I turned to him and tried to fight my way to staying, but in that moment it seemed hopeless. Lime Rushed stared me down with a seriousness I've never seen from him. He must realize how much this is to me and finds that it means something to him as well.

"Oh...alright." I say, slightly dejected. Before leaving, Lime Rush made me a drink for the road. It was his own specialty, named after himself due to it's lime hinted scent and flavor. As he slid the glass across the bar over to me, I could not ignore one special addition he added to the drink.

He topped the drink with a tiny plastic rose as an ordainment.

~*~*~

The rain had finally stopped, my flowers weren't completely flooded by it which lightened the mood a bit. The clouds left the sky naked to the eyes of the world, revealing its stars as they danced above the lands sleeping heads. The smell of wet earth was heavy My hooves squished lightly on the wet soil leaving my cottage with the two unannounced guests that visited me an hour before.

Bon Bon and Lyra had talked me into going out for the night, saying it would help me think and relax me. I tried to protest, the only thing I needed was my favorite chair, maybe a cup of coffee while I continue to pick apart my thoughts of him. But alas, it was no use. And I wielded no power against their urging as I know they want the best for me, these nightly fantasies are nothing but a constant distraction from my lonely reality.

I didn't tell them exactly what was on my mind, or about the hatted stallion.

As we journeyed into the night, both walked beside me. My eyes were straight ahead, but I could feel them scanning my expression.

"Roseluck, you haven't said anything since we left." Lyra said, snapping me to attention.

I blinked, shaking my head as I came down from the clouding thoughts. "I'm sorry. I guess I was just lost in thought for awhile."

Bon Bon walked closer to me to lay a hoof on my back. "Sugar, why don't you tell me and Lyra what you're thinking about?"

"I..." I began, but the words dragged their heels and fell from my mouth, landing face first onto the cobblestone roads of town. "It's nothing, really. Where are we going?"

Lyra beamed. "Only the best place to go when your head's bugging you!"

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "She's talking about the Golden Mare." She explained. "Have you ever been there?"

"No, but I've walked past it once or twice." I said. I had past by the establishment in the past but never thought twice about it. I was never much of a bar pony, or one to dine anywhere other than my own home. "What kind of restaurant is it?"

To this, I was a bit confused when Lyra nearly fell backwards in laughter.

"It's not a restaurant, Sugar." Bon Bon explained. "It's a bar."

"But not just any bar!" Lyra said, her enthusiasm visible in her widening grin. "The Golden Mare is a well-known bar even way over in Canterlot, ponies from there occasionally travel all the way over just to drink here!"

Bon Bon shook her head. "And Lyra insists this is the perfect place for you to open up and let out any troubles you have."

I looked up towards the sky as we continued onward, imaging what this bar was like and unaware of my surroundings.

"Roseluck?" I heard Bon Bon say behind me

"Hmm?" I say back, only to bump into something in my path. "Oh, excuse..."

I turn to apologize, only to have my words die on my tongue and the life snatched out of me by the hatted stallion who stood before me, us both frozen whilst staring into the eyes of the other.