Sitting by the window in his room, exhausted, and everything in his body aching, Tarnished Teapot picked up the mirror that he had left upon the table by the window. It felt warm to the touch. Looking out the window, Tarnish figured it had to be late afternoon.

“Twilight Sparkle?” he said into the mirror. He waited, hoping there would be a response. “Miss Sparkle?”

“I’m here,” a cheerful voice replied.

Looking into the mirror, Tarnish saw Twilight Sparkle’s image rather than his own reflection. She was smiling, she looked happy, but she was also disheveled. Tarnish wondered what he was interrupting.

“Hello, Twilight Sparkle, how have you been?” Tarnish asked, trying to make conversation. This never seemed to get any easier. It still felt awkward talking to Twilight.

“I was just helping rebuild city hall,” Twilight Sparkle replied in a breathless, but still cheerful voice.

Hearing Twilight’s words, Tarnish cringed and felt a pang of guilt. He looked away from the mirror and stared out the window, his eyes lingering on the bleak, grey dirt and piles of rocks. He thought about apologising, but he didn’t see the point. He had already apologised.

“How have you been, Tarnished Teapot?” Twilight asked.

“I am with the Pie family. They’re very nice. They aren’t what I expected. I don’t know what I expected.” Tarnish thought about what to say next and decided upon something reassuring. “I haven’t had a magical accident here yet. I was even using my telekinesis to haul rocks. I dunno, but I think I might be getting a little bit of control.”

“That’s good to hear.” Twilight’s image in the mirror looked serious. “Keep trying Tarnished Teapot, and don’t give up. Don’t do anything foolish. Let these ponies help you if they can.”

Tarnish nodded, even though Twilight could not see him. He sighed and then stared into the mirror. “Twilight Sparkle, I know this is asking a lot, but could you do me a favour?”

“Sure, Tarnish, what can I do for you?”

Tarnish cleared his throat. “I’d like a book about poison joke, if you have one. I’d like to study it, see what has been written about it. Maud said some interesting things. She’s been in contact with poison joke and apparently it has no effect upon her.”

“Somehow, I am not surprised by that.” Twilight’s face became one of befuddled interest. “Tarnish, I’ll send you a few books if I can find them.”

“Thank you, Twilight.” Tarnish peered into his mirror, trying to see details around Twilight. He saw glimpses of Ponyville and felt more than a little homesick. “I really don’t know what else to talk about, so I am going to let you go… I just wanted to say hello, I guess… I don’t know…”

“It was good hearing from you. Keep saying hello,” Twilight replied. She smiled.

Stepping out of his room, Tarnish saw that Maud’s door was open and she was standing in the doorway, watching, almost as if she was waiting for him to come out of his room. Her expression, blank as it was, revealed nothing.

“Come here,” Maud said, stepping backwards into her room.

“No, I think I’d better not,” Tarnish replied.

“Are you worried about my father?” Maud asked.

Tarnish gave one very enthusiastic nod.

“Tarnish, there comes a time in a colt’s life when he has to choose between making a mare happy and her father angry. You are now experiencing that time.”

“Maud, if you don’t mind me asking, but how old are you?” Tarnish looked at the enigmatic earth pony standing just inside of her doorway as he tried to change the subject. “I know you graduated from school when you were eighteen because I was paying attention.”

“Aren’t you clever.”

For one moment, Tarnish though he saw something that might almost be something of a smile. He wasn’t certain. Something had happened upon Maud’s face, but he wasn’t sure what. His eyes narrowed as he began to peer at Maud, trying to study her.

Maud blinked. “I’m twenty. I have been out of school for two years, and as you can see, even with my double rocktorate, I am a failure. I still live at home with my parents.”

Ears perking forwards, Tarnish lifted his head, looked left down the hall, then looked right down the hall in the other direction, and then gulping, he looked at Maud. He took one hesitant step, then another, and then, after looking both left and right once more, he stepped into Maud’s room, not knowing what to expect or what was about to happen.

Tarnished Teapot froze just after crossing through the doorway, his eyes wide. The walls were covered in what had to be hundreds of photographs. He began to look around at the various photos, looking for splashes of colour. After a moment of intense searching, he found a photograph of a large rock with an odd shape, and a familiar pink pony had popped her head into the photo, waving, and smiling at Maud. He spotted another photo, this time, it was Pinkie Pie standing on top of a rock.

“I turned part of my bedroom into a darkroom for my photography,” Maud said, pointing at a door. One corner of her room had been walled off, forming something of a closet.

Looking around, Tarnish found photos of Limestone and Marble. Many photos. They were harder to spot than Pinkie, who was very, very pink. He found photos of Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz. He saw photos of geodes. Seeing something blue in the corner of his vision, he turned his head and saw a photo filled with poison joke.

He stared at the photo, trying to figure out what it was doing on Maud’s wall.

“I thought it was pretty,” Maud said, noticing that Tarnish was staring. “See, you can see rocks in between the flowers. Those are glaucophane rocks. They’re blueschist metamorphic rocks. The blue colour indicates they changed at high pressure but low temperature.”

“They’re beautiful,” Tarnish said in a low voice, feeling guilty for being in Maud’s room.

“All of these photos are things that are important or things I am interested in.” Maud gestured at a photo as she spoke, trying to draw Tarnish’s attention to it.

Turning his head, Tarnish saw a picture of himself. He was standing in front of an odd octogonal basalt column. He remembered the photo being taken. Maud had explained to him how glaciers had shaped the rocks. When he turned around to look at Maud, he discovered that she was right next to him and he almost bumped his snoot against hers. She was so close that when she blinked, Tarnish could hear Maud’s long eyelashes rustle against one another. It was very, very difficult to breathe and Tarnish could not figure out why.

“It was very nice of you to let my sisters play a prank on you without getting angry,” Maud said in a low voice to Tarnish. “That tells me a lot about you. I could never like a pony that didn’t like my sisters or treated them badly. You’ve been respectful of my mother and right now you look terrified about being in my room, which means you respect my father.” Maud blinked and poked Tarnish with her hoof. “I think it is safe that I hang a photo of you upon my wall, along with the other things I am interested in.”

“I don’t know what to say, Maud.”

“No need to say anything, but if you would like, I could tell you about some of these rocks I photographed.”

“I’d like that, Maud, I would…”

Author's Notes:

Subtle.