Reticence

Ice... Breaker...

Marble had barely said a word in the last half-hour. Given the sum total of her life, that was hardly relevant to say, but given the last few hours that was a big, big outlier.

She would give out smiles that wouldn't reach her eyes, she would sigh, she would squeak, she would skate.

She would say, "Mmmhmm". Sometimes, anyway.

But she wasn't talking, not anymore.

And maybe that was because her brain was exploding all over again.

But it wasn't like the last few times, though. The last ones had been fireworks. Passionate, blazing, wonderful fireworks. They were explosions of sheer joy.

Now, the explosion was a fiery, all-consuming burn. In slow motion.

It was the 'everything that could go wrong was going wrong' scenario in her mind right now. The realization that she was screwed, in no uncertain terms.

She loved Minuette.

How could something so innocent be so wrong? Here she was with a mare who made her feel like the center of the universe without having a spotlight thrown on her, and all she wanted to do was have a nice first date. Except she couldn't, not anymore.

I wish I'd never heard of the Pairing Stone, Marble bemoaned.

Her spine shuddered at the thought of the root of her problems. If she'd just never gone to the Pairing Stone then this wouldn't be a problem! If she'd never told Pa then this wouldn't be a problem.

But she had. And she had. And it was her problem now. As much as she wanted to pretend it wasn't an issue, there was no denying that she was falling in love with the perfect perky pony holding her hoof. The pony of her dreams.

The pony who wasn't her soulmate...

Marble felt like she was choking. Her skates slipped awkwardly across the ice as she tried desperately to hold onto her composure. Now that the pure shock factor was wearing off, the panic was beginning to set in.

What am I going to do?

Marble gulped, her throat a desert. The right thing to do would be to tell Minuette they had no future together, right? After all, the Pairing Stone had told her they weren't soulmates; there was nothing she could do about that. It was pointless to continue, especially with her real soul mate out there, somewhere.

But then, why did that make her feel like throwing up?

Marble shouldn't be feeling the way she felt about Minuette in the first place; this night was supposed to be her closure. It was a way to move on and close the book on any relationship with Minuette. But at the same time Marble's stomach flopped at the mere thought of that.

She didn't want to call it off with Minuette. She didn't want their first date to be their only date. She wanted to keep being around her. She wanted to eat at the Tasty Treat again, and see movies with her, and go to another party with her. She wanted to hold her hoof some more, and hug her, and cuddle with her, and... kiss her.

Yet, Marble didn't think she had the strength to defy fate. If it was doomed to never work out between them, why even bother?

Not to mention that wasn't fair to Minuette, too.

Marble had been avoiding the thought, but she knew Minuette had her own soulmate, too. A pony she was destined to be with, and spend the rest of her life with, and be happy with. As much as thinking about that other pony made Marble's blood boil with jealousy, it wouldn't be right for her to deprive Minuette of the pony she was meant to be with.