The bed was crowded, but warm. Octavia and Vinyl had both had a larger bed, while this one was a bit smaller so it could fit into Maud’s small bedroom. Upon opening his eyes, Tarnish was greeted with the sight of subdued violet and a bright pink mane entwined together. Bleary eyed, he could see that Maud was holding Pinkie. For a moment, Tarnish marveled at how close two sisters could be; even during a sound sleep, something about how Maud was holding Pinkie struck him as being protective and big sisterly.

Reaching out a foreleg, he caressed Maud’s neck, then, almost as an afterthought, he reached out and touched Pinkie Pie as well, a soft, reassuring, affectionate touch. He thought about how dear Pinkie was to him, how much she meant, what she meant to him. Much like Maud, Tarnish wanted Pinkie’s happiness more than his own. Why? He knew it would make Maud happy, that Maud would be pleased with him and he wanted Maud pleased with him, but it was more than that. Pinkie Pie was very, very pink, she was precious, and some part of him wanted to keep her safe, secure, and happy. He felt the same way about Limestone and Marble. They had been there during the worst of times.

“Stop thinking so loud.”

Startled, Tarnish jerked backwards, blinked, and bonked his head against the wall that was against his back. After spending a second to recover, Tarnish let out a low laugh, reached out, and poked Maud with his hoof.

“Nothing like laying in bed with somepony to make one reflect upon your relationship with them. I did it in Octavia’s bed as well. Now, I am laying here thinking about your relationship with my sisters and I just feel relieved.”

“Relieved?” Tarnish asked in a low voice. He felt Maud’s tail swish up against his legs beneath the blankets. When the blanket rustled, the scent of the occupants in the bed filled Tarnish’s nose. Maud smelled like Maud and Pinkie… somehow, Pinkie Pie smelled like frosting. Or perhaps cake of some kind.

“Yeah,” Maud replied, saying nothing else. She pulled Pinkie closer and the pink pony sighed in her sleep. Maud brushed Pinkie’s limp, straight mane out of her eyes and then kissed her sister’s cheek.

“I’m going to go and take a shower,” Tarnish said in a low voice as he tried to wiggle out of the bed without disturbing the other occupants. He wiggled downwards, towards the foot of the bed, because the wall was against his back and he didn’t want to climb over Pinkie Pie and Maud. That would be awkward and uncomfortable in his current state. Maud might not mind, but Pinkie Pie… Tarnish somehow managed to both shudder and let out a low laugh about his predicament.

Maud, who did not seem to mind Tarnish brushing up against her while he made his escape, let out a sigh and then said, “I think I’ll just stay here with my sister…”

Standing in the shower, Tarnish let the hot water beat upon his back and trickle down his sides. The showerhead was old, almost an antique, made of copper, and was in the shape of a sunflower. He closed his eyes, breathed in the steam, and felt the water soaking into his pelt. As he stood there, the water spraying against him, his summer coat worked free so that his winter pelt could grow in. Hundreds of little hairs washed down the drain.

Friends. Friendship. At one point during his life, Tarnish had been very alone. He had missed out on a lot of development that one went through with friends. Now, he was having to make up for lost time. A scowl of concentration crept over Tarnish’s face and his brows knitted as he placed his left ear beneath the showerhead.

Being married to Maud and being a good husband took work. Effort. Being in love and being a good husband took effort on his part. There was maintenance that had to be done. It was tricky too, because Maud was, well, Maud was Maud and that was that. Being friends, or in this case, being a brother was no different; there was maintenance involved. It wasn’t something that just happened.

Standing there beneath the steaming water, Tarnish tilted his head and it was now his right ear that was getting the full force of the streaming hot water. Octavia and Vinyl Scratch would take a great deal of maintenance as well. His friendship with Octavia and Vinyl was more of a long distance relationship, at least at the moment, and Tarnish wasn’t quite sure of what to do.

There was also his mother, Pinny Lane, but not just her, there was his other mother, Cloudy Quartz, and then there was Igneous. There was family; yes, he definitely had family now, and these complex relationships wouldn’t sustain themselves. They required work, effort, there was much that had to be done to nurture these many connections and keep them growing.

Feeling somewhat overwhelmed, Tarnish slumped in the shower, his head low, getting an inkling as to just how complicated and complex his life had become since taking responsibility for himself, growing up, and getting everything together.

There was a lot of hard work ahead. It was almost like… well, it was almost like a garden of friendship. He had done the planting, he had made the garden, now it was all about growth and watching things mature. Pinkie Pie, in her current state, was like a precious, fragile flower that needed tending. Weeds had shown up in the garden and now, it was time to go to work.

Lifting the bottle of liquid soap in his telekinesis, Tarnish squirted it down the length of his back, lifted up a stiff bristled scrub brush, and began to scrub himself as even more of his chocolate brown pelt washed down the drain. With each stroke of the brush, even more of his summer pelt was worked free and Tarnish could feel a faint, impossible to ignore itch.

Growing up, he had largely been left alone. He hadn’t had any friends. His talent had driven other ponies away from him. Now, as a young adult, Tarnished Teapot was left trying to sort all of this out, but it wasn’t the simple, easy relationships of foalhood. No, Tarnish was stuck with the complex, difficult, potentially volatile relationships of adulthood; there were boundaries, unspoken rules, complex social mores, there were an endless number of nuances and behavioural cues that Tarnish had never learned or experimented with growing up. Now, he had to figure out everything and make up for lost time. Tarnish had been tossed into the deep end to learn how to swim.

Deep in contemplation, Tarnish realised that Maud existed in a similar state; she too, hadn’t had many friends growing up, but she had at least had her family. She too, was stumbling through the learning process. He wondered what she thought of their friendship with Octavia and Vinyl Scratch; it was a somewhat more complex friendship as Octavia and Vinyl were part of the very grown up married couple being friends with another married couple type. It was a tricky four way relationship that probably had its own rules and Tarnish didn’t know what they were. It was made even more complex by the fact that Octavia and Vinyl were both mares. Tarnish had to be friendly but also respect boundaries. He had to be friendly without being flirty. There was an invisible line that he was aware of but he did not know its location; crossing that line would make Maud jealous perhaps, but might also make Octavia or Vinyl angry. Should that happen, the consequences would be dire; Tarnish would have three mares upset with him—three. That was a lot to fix all at once, and was no doubt a difficult situation to smooth over, assuming of course that the three mares would allow him to work for forgiveness.

Friendships like these came with the assumption of trust, which was quite a burden. Tarnish gave himself a shake in the shower as he continued to scrub. A fine lather had been worked up over his pelt. The stiff bristles of the scrubbing brush worked loose many fine pelt hairs, teeny, tiny, short little pelt hairs, and he could scratch his itch so long as he kept scrubbing. He squirted more soap over himself. Tarnish was now a tall pony and there was a lot of him to wash. He had grown over the summer, and was still growing like a weed.

As Tarnish entered Maud’s room, he heard her and Pinkie talking to each other in low voices. After a few steps, Tarnish found himself beside the bed. Lowering his head, he planted an affectionate kiss at the base of Pinkie’s ear, hoping to cheer the pink pony up.

There was a peculiar sound and when Tarnish pulled away, he saw that a few precious curls had returned to Pinkie’s mane. Pinkie had turned her head around a bit, and now both she and Maud were looking at him. Pinkie lifted her forelegs and he felt them close around his neck. There was a warm, firm but gentle hug, and Tarnish felt himself pulled closer. He leaned against the bed, allowing Pinkie to hold him, and he could feel her breathing against his neck.

“Maud, you’re so lucky,” Pinkie Pie said in an affectionate voice touched by sadness. “You have Tarnish and he’s just right for you. I wasn’t so lucky.”

“What happened, Pinkie?” Maud asked in a subdued monotone.

“I don’t know if I can talk about it,” Pinkie replied, shaking her head as she clung to Tarnish’s neck. “But I know I need to talk about it… it just hurts so much.”

Tarnish slid his front half onto the bed and braced his back half with his hind legs. Pinkie was still squeezing him. He settled in as best as he could for a good long listen. Just as he was starting to get somewhat comfortable, Pinkie pulled him into the bed completely while Maud pulled both Pinkie and Tarnish over, making more room in the bed. Tarnish lay on his stomach and pulled in his legs until he was comfortable in the pony-loaf position.

“I had a special somepony,” Pinkie Pie began in a sad, squeaky voice. “When I went home, I found him with somepony else. I kinda sorta mighta lost my mind a little bit and I told him to explain himself.”

Pinkie Pie went silent, heaved a forlorn sigh, and pressed her face into Tarnish’s neck as her sister squeezed her. She shuddered as she took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and let out a squeak of emotional pain.

“He was sick of waiting for me… I was a conquest… a trophy… he only wanted me for bragging rights because I was the Element of Laughter… he didn’t love me at all…” Pinkie Pie’s words trailed off and she let out a shuddering sniffle that made her barrel hitch. “He just wanted to bed me so he could brag about it and I’m so glad that I waited… I almost made a mess of things… I was so tempted a few times… and it hurts so much!” A flood of tears cascaded down Pinkie’s cheeks as she began sobbing.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie… I don’t know what else to say.” Tarnish felt his neck growing wet and snotty.

“I understand now why my Mama was so worried about you and Maud… she was so scared… we talked, she and I… she was so scared that it was just a fling and she was so relieved when you and Maud settled down and I kept putting the pressure on my special somepony to settle down with me and he kept telling me he wasn’t ready to settle down yet and I kept resisting his advances and he even tried to make me feel guilty for not looking after his needs and then when I went back to Ponyville I saw him with another mare and he was so cruel to me when he told me what was really going on and it hurt so much to realise that he never loved me at all this whole time.” Pinkie went silent, sucked in a deep breath, and then let out a wail of anguish that made objects in the room rattle.

Tarnish looked into Maud’s eyes and for a moment, he saw something, some reaction, some emotion, but he did not know what. But he had seen it. He worried for Maud, knowing that she would be upset by this. She would be hurt. Maud, for all of her stoniness, had soft spots—she had vulnerable places. She could be hurt and Tarnish had witnessed that. He was seeing it now.

“My heart hurts,” Pinkie whispered in a strained voice that was bubbly with phlegm.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” Tarnish said to Pinkie, “Maud will get you into the bathroom, she’ll help you get cleaned up, and when you’re both done, I’ll serve you tea in the kitchen. How does that sound?”

“That sounds super nice,” Pinkie replied. “I’m hungry. I want some food.”

“I’ll see what Cloudy has ready.” Tarnish felt Pinkie sniffling against his neck. “I think you need a little tea and sympathy.”

“I do.” Pinkie pulled her face away from Tarnish’s neck and a quivering smile could be seen upon her face. “Thank you, Tarnish… thank you for being so good to my sister and being there for me when I needed you.”

“Hey, you were there for me first,” Tarnish replied, “I was just too stupid to see it at the time.” He lowered his head and planted another kiss on Pinkie, this time right between her ears. As he pulled away, several strands of her mane curled up and Pinkie’s smile became a little more steady.

Maud gave Pinkie an epic earth pony squeeze, followed by a kiss. “Come on, Pinkie, I’ll get you cleaned up. Let’s go…”

Author's Notes:

Recovery, then goodbye.