Love Lost

Ruby Shine leaned her head absently on her hoof, staring down into her cider. This was her.... Third or fourth this evening? She couldn't quite remember. But she deserved them all, and certainly had the bits to pay whatever tab she racked up.

She sighed softly. She'd finally had the time to come down and clear out her mother's things from the house she'd owned here. It had involved going through hundreds, if not thousands of pictures of her as a filly, and ads from the newspaper telling of her success in Canterlot. Her mother had followed her entire rise to fame. She had saved every failed piece of jewelry Ruby had made as a child, every hammered-too-thin earring and too-tight necklace. Going through her mother's things was like seeing the last testament of her mother's love: The last goodbye from the only pony she'd loved as of yet.

And she'd had to go through all of this, alone. Mother had never remarried, and so Ruby was the only Shine in her mother's gaze. No siblings, no father, not even any close friends. Diamond Shine, her mother, had been such a private pony after her husband's passing.

Her curls cascaded over her shoulder and she brushed them back to lay across her flank, covering her cutie mark. She didn't need people tonight immediately recognizing her for who she was. If somepony simply wanted to talk, so be it. But she would not be talking of her business tonight.

Shadow Jet walks into the tavern and sits down next to Ruby Shine and orders himself something strong o drink