To Find Your Smile

by FlashKenshin77

Heartbreak Hotel

To Find Your Smile

Chapter 1 - Heartbreak Hotel

"The worst thing about being lied to is knowing you weren’t worth the truth."

~;~

He urged his wings to flap faster, putting all his energy into escaping the Griffin squadron. He found a few air currents that propelled him faster; he could see the safety of Whitetail Forest.

He felt an increase in air pressure and briefly glanced around, only to swiftly flip to the left as a spear sailed through where he was moments ago. He heard the flapping of their wings before he felt them behind him.

He flipped so he could face them, a full squadron of Griffin soldiers. They stopped as he stared at them in silence.

"Give us the blade and you won't be harmed." The one in the front said.

He raised his eyebrow. "So you can enslave Equestria? Like hay I will!"

"So be it." The leader said, pulling his rapier out of its holster before charging at-

"No that's not right either." A unicorn grumbled, ripping the paper out of the typewriter before crumpling it up and tossing it towards the trash can. He slammed his head down the table, the typewriter jumping.

"You ok Scribbles?" A voice from the doorway asked.

The pony in question lifted his head off the table and looked at the pony who spoke; it was his friend Mystic. Mystic was a unicorn that always wore a black vest over his dark brown coat. He had a short spiky black mane that didn’t cover his dull gold eyes. His cutie mark was a swirling black hole.

"I'm fine Mystic, just stuck on the battle scene." He raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here anyway? I thought you had a date with Sunchaser?"

Mystic blushed. "Yeah… well, her family came in from Trottingham and I thought it was rude to intrude."

"But you two have been dating for two years now; I think they know about you."

"It's…complicated." He said, scraping his forehoof against the ground. He looked at the clock on the wall. "Hey, didn't you have a date tonight too?"

Scribbles looked at the clock and grimaced. "Oh pony feathers, I'm gonna be late!" He yelled, jumping out of the seat and hopping over the unicorn.

"Why don’t you just teleport home?" Mystic yelled over his shoulder.

Scribbles stopped in mid gallop. "Oh yeah…" He said, slapping his face with his hoof before he looked at Mystic. "I'll see you later."

"Good luck Romero." Mystic chuckled as he headed into their office.

Scribbles nodded and a bright flash blinded Mystic as Scribbles teleported away. Mystic chuckled as he levitated another piece of paper into the typewriter and began to write what Scribbles couldn’t.

[….]

"Shower, check; brushed teeth…" Scribbles paused briefly, opening his mouth to check his teeth in the bathroom mirror, which were clean. "Check; bad breath." He blew against his hoof and angled it so he could smell his breath, which smelt like Colgate toothpaste. "Check." He checked his appearance in the mirror; his ember coat was clean and neat, his wavy brown mane cleaned and brushed, revealing his horn in the middle. He checked to make sure his short tail was trimmed and brushed; he glanced at his cutie mark, a pen wrapped in a scroll.

"Well… everything seems to be in order." He chuckled, straightening his suit before heading towards the front door and opening and closing it with a faint use of his magic.

He walked through Manehattan, the streets crowded tonight as he slowly made his way to Moonbeam's house. His face broke into a smile as he thought of the beautiful unicorn, her silver mane styled neatly and her light cyan coat glimmering in the moonlight.

Tonight will be the night. He felt his breast pocket, feeling the small ring box snuggled tightly in the center. He blushed, imagining the scene; he bent down on a hoof, opening the box revealing the majestic horn ring to her as she tearfully said yes.

He finally reached her house on the other side of the city and politely knocked on the door three times. He could hear something inside the house and stood there, debating if he should just enter the house when the door flung open and Moonbeam stood before him, her silver mane disheveled and her cyan fur matted.

"Oh… hey Inky, what are you doing here?" She asked, her voice a bit shaky.

"I'm here for our date." He said, looking at her with concern. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine… and I thought it was next Friday." She said, looking behind her.

"No… it was today. We talked about it yesterday."

"Oh… oh yeah; sorry Inky I forgot." She said. "I'm helping my mother get ready for next week in the store, so I gotta go..."

"But didn’t your parents leave last week to visit your mom's sister?"

"Uh… uh… no… that was…"

"What's going on Moonbeam? You're acting funny."

"Nothing… nothing at all."

"He's not buying it babe." A stallion said from behind her.

"Who the hay is that?" Scribbles asked, anger starting to be heard in his voice.

She looked at him sympathetically. "This isn't how I wanted you to find out Inky."

"Find out what?!"

She moved aside and a stallion walked up next to her. He was rather large for a pegasus, nearly double the average size. His coat was dirt brown and had the same color mane. If it wasn’t for the wings, Scribbles would've sworn it was an earth pony. His bright blue eyes stared at Scribbles however, full of pity and contempt.

"Scribbles… this is Cloudduster… my coltfriend." Moonbeam whispered.

Scribbles stared in shock, looking between the two. Tears welled up in his eyes. "But… I thought we were…"

"I'm sorry, I've been meaning to tell you that I wanted to break up but I met Cloudduster… and I just got caught up in things." She said.

"Oh… I get it. You were waiting for me to run out of money and suck all the jewelry and dinners and movies you could get out of me before you were gonna end it, weren't you?" Scribbles said quietly, his voice full of pure fury. "Well don’t worry, you don’t have to. I hope you have fun with your new colt toy."

"Inky!" She said, her face going red with embarrassment.

"Don’t you ever call me Inky again Moonbeam! But don’t worry, you'll never have to." He said, before teleporting away. They were blinded by the flash and didn’t see the two tear drops fall and hit the pavement.

[….]

Mystic yawned as he set the piece of paper on top of the others. He stretched his back and was awarded with a few pops. "Ah… much better." He mumbled as he hopped out of the chair and made sure everything was locked up before he left for the night. I'm sure Inky didn’t open the windows… like usual... He walked towards the only window in the room and made sure it was locked. As he turned around, another bright flash blinded him again. "Ugh, what the hay?" He paused as he saw Inky curled in a ball, his body shaking as he cried, his forehooves covering his face. "Inky, what the hay happened?"

Inky was silent and the only noise in the room was Inky's crying.

"Inky?" Mystic asked, frowning as he watched his best friend continue to remain silent on the floor.

"It's over Mystic… it's over… and there wasn’t anything to begin with." Inky whispered, his voice hoarse.

[….]

Inky stared at the ring, the golden band shining brightly in the sunlight. He sighed quietly, shutting the ring box and tucked it away in his pocket. After telling Mystic everything that had happened, Inky immediately went home, packed his apartment easily in his saddlebags and found his landlord. He talked her out of his lease and got what money he could before he headed down to the train station. He quickly asked for the farthest town away and the seller gave him a ticket to some town called Ponyville. He paid for the ticket and waited for the train.

As the train came closer, he thought about ending it all and jumping in front of it but chickened out at the last second. Instead, he sluggishly made his way on board and sat in the very back of the train, away from everypony else.

"Approaching Ponyville Train Station in t-minus five minutes; all disembarking ponies please get ready." A voice over the loudspeaker said, interrupting his thoughts.

Everypony in Inky's cart smiled and talked amongst themselves as he silently got his bag from the overhead compartment. The only one in the cart besides himself that wasn’t talking was a little filly who kept her flank covered by her tail. She silently held her bag as she continued to stare at the ground, a frown on her face. He instinctively wanted to go help the filly and try and find out what was wrong but fought against it, knowing it would be useless. He just stared at his bag and waited till the train came to a complete stop.

The doors opened and ponies all got up and exited the cab. He waited till he was the last pony in before he got up and walked to the doors. He stared at the crowd and noticed the filly on the train was surrounded by three other fillies and a mare with a Stetson hat. He was glad that she had somepony waiting for her and he hesitantly made his way into town, struck by how different it was than Manehattan.

He stared in awe at what he could only describe as a marketplace, stalls full of fruits and hay barrels and all sorts of things he couldn’t really see from the distance. He could faintly see a statue of a pony near the Town Hall… and he could've sworn he saw a giant cupcake on top of a gingerbread house?

What in Celestia? He wandered around town, looking at the buildings. They were vastly different that Manehattan; here they were made of wood and the roofs thatched instead of the concrete that he was familiar with. I wonder if they have an inn. He continued to wander, trying to find somewhere where he could sleep for the night. Alright, I got about two hundred bits to last me till I find a job.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a dangerously pink pony shoving her face into his. "HIYA!"

He stopped and backpedaled, falling on his flank. "Uh… hi." He whispered. The pony in front of him was the very essence of pink; her mane looked like cotton candy, poofy and pink with her tail sharing the same qualities. Her bright blue eyes shined with curiosity and happiness. Her cutie mark was of three balloons, one butter yellow and two light cyan blue

"Oh your new here aren't you? I love meeting new ponies! It's so fun to watch them smile." She said, her smile widening. "I'm Pinkie Pie."

"Inky Scribbles." He muttered, staring at the ground.

"Oh wait." She giggled. "Hold on one super duper second." She said before disappearing. Before he could even process her disappearance, she was back, pulling a cart. "Everypony loves this part." She said before pressing a button on the side of the cart. The cart expanded and speakers along with several trumpets appeared. Music started to play out of the trumpets as she started to sing.

"Welcome welcome welcome

A fine welcome to you

Welcome welcome welcome

I say how do you do?

Welcome welcome welcome

I say hip hip hurray

Welcome welcome welcome

To Ponyville today."

The music ended and she smiled. "Wait for it." She giggled happily when suddenly confetti and cake batter launched out of the trumpets and covered them completely. Inky sat there in shock as Pinkie continued to laugh. "Whoopsies, looks like I put cake batter in there again." She looked him as she licked the cake batter off of them. "So…" She said, leaning closer to him.

He leaned back. "So…?"

She pointed to her mouth and gave him a smile. "Aren't you gonna smile?"

He frowned. "I don’t feel like it." He said. "I probably won't again, that part of me seemed to have died awhile back." He said bitterly.

She pouted. "But everypony has to smile eventually."

He sighed and got off his flank. "Not me." He said as he walked away from her.

"But you have to!" She said from his side, bouncing along.

"Highly unlikely." He said, trying to ignore her.

She got in his face. "But… but… don’t you want to just a teensy wincey bit?" She insisted.

"Nope and sorry but I have to go now." He said, walking past her. He continued to walk a few feet before turning around and seeing her still standing there. He sighed and turned around before walking back to her and forcing a fake smile. "There I smiled."

She looked at him with a big smile on her face and hugged him. "See? I knew you could smile." She promptly dropped him on his flank and pointed to the building with the cupcake on top. "Do you see that building?" She asked.

"Yeah?"

"Be there at eight tonight, I have a super special surprise for you! See you later!" She said before hopping away.

He stared at her disappearing form. "What…. just happened?" He asked no pony in particular before getting up and continued his search for an inn.

He was too in deep in thought that he didn’t see the pony in front of him till they collided with an "umph". He quickly shook his head as he saw he had run into a lavender unicorn and had caused her to drop her books. "Oh I'm sorry." He muttered, using his magic and gathering them for her.

She smiled and took a hold of the books. "It's quite alright." She looked at him. "I haven't seen you before in Ponyville…"

"Yeah I just arrived from Manehattan." He said, staring at the ground still.

"Oh… well, welcome to Ponyville; I'm Twilight Sparkle, the resident librarian. And you are…?" She asked.

He finally looked up and got a good look at her. She had a lavender coat, pretty violet eyes, a long dark sapphire mane with streaks of violet and pink, the same with her tail. Her cutie mark seemed to be a large purple star surrounded by several smaller white stars. He blushed. "Uh… Inky Scribbles." He whispered, nervously pawing at the ground.

Twilight paused momentarily, tilting her head slightly as she thought. She then held a hoof out. "Well it was nice to meet you Mr. Scribbles but I have to get back to the library. If you ever want to borrow a book, you know who to look for." She said before starting to walk off. Before leaving however, she paused. "I'll see you later." She said, looking over her shoulder at him with a small smile.

He dumbly nodded his head, watching her as she walked away. He shook his head, realizing he was just looking for somepony to fix his heart. His smile faded, turning into a frown. "Yeah…" He whispered, walking around town, still hunting down the elusive inn.

Author's Note:

Hello... I'm not too sure about this; I've had this one on the back burner for a while and I thought I should publish it and see what other people think. I'm not too sure if it'll continue, more of me being bored I guess. Thanks for reading!

Comments

[Moonof]

Keep writing! It's sounds AMAZING!!!!!!!

[The Seneschal]

Agree with the guy above meh

[Valiant Hearts]

I like the premise that it offers and the introduction. Though it could have used more reasons than one to make Inky not smile