TITLE: Pony Tale
AUTHOR: The Stationmistress
FEEDBACK: Louandkid@aol.com
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: The Young Riders don't belong to the author, but to
MGM/UA Television, Ed Spielman and Josh Kane. No copyright infringement
intended.

                                  Pony Tale
                         The Stationmistress

All her senses went alert even before she heard the long-awaited words sing
in the air.

"Rider coming!"

Her heart slammed hard against her ribs. Her eyes misted. Her throat went
dry. 'Thank the Maker, he is safe,' was her first thought. The second one
was 'I'll see him again.' And she nearly wept with joy.

It had been five days since she saw him last. Five excruciatingly long,
painfully lonely days. During that time she had become irritable, her moods
unpredictable that the riders began avoiding her as much as possible. Not
that she had sought their company. She had shied away from the others,
preferring instead the society of her miserable thoughts.

What made the separation even more difficult was the knowledge that they
parted in anger. From the moment he stepped out of the barn, her head had
been filled with fear and apprehension. Her thoughts alternated between
what-ifs -- what if he met an accident along the way and never came back?
What if he suddenly became fed up with me and my indecision? What if he just
continued on and on and on and never looked back? -- and I-should-haves -- I
should just have said yes. I should have told him I loved him and thrown
caution in the wind. I should have had more faith in him.

She sighed as she remembered the night before his run.

"I love you. I want us to be together. Why can't you understand that?" he
said.

"I do understand. And no one loves you more than I do. You know that. But I
can't do what you're asking me. I just can't," she answered beseechingly.

"Why not?" he stubbornly insisted.

"Why not?" she repeated incredulously. She tossed her head towards the barn
door where Teaspoon and Buck could be seen repairing broken slats. Cody and
Jimmy were working on a new horse in the corral while Rachel was hanging her
laundry. "Look around you. We have people here. Family. Besides, we have
jobs to do. We can't just leave this place."

He didn't answer but the stubborn set of his chin told her enough. That and
the ticking muscle on his left jaw. A brief flash of humor suggested to her
that he was probably related to a mule. She suppressed the smile that
threatened to break out, knowing he wouldn't appreciate amusement at this
point. Instead, she walked close and started nuzzling his face. She thought
his anger was melting but he took a step back, then another and then one
more until there was a huge gap between them.

"I can't go on like this," he said. "This relationship is going nowhere."

"What do you mean?"

"In the beginning you seemed to think I was too slow. When we got together,
things became too fast. It is never right. I don't know what you want. I
don't think you do, either," he said angrily.

She tried to go near him again, to try and appease his anger but he moved
away. Before he left, he looked back and said. "All I wanted was for you to
take a chance with me."

She had spent the whole night crying after that. No one and nothing could
console her.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts but they kept going back to the
hours she spent waiting. The days had passed at a slower pace than usual.
The way station had been unusually quiet and the inactivity had almost
driven her insane. The nights had been worse. The silence had afforded too
much opportunity to brood over regrets.

But what could she have said differently? However which way she looked at
it, he was right. She had no idea what she wanted. Even now, she still had
no clue. And her uncertainty may have caused her to lose the only one she
ever loved.

Love.

What a simple word. And yet there's nothing simple about it. It is power,
weakness, pain, ecstasy, happiness, dejection, rapture, misery, bliss,
despair, comfort, sorrow, satisfaction, aggravation, joy, grief. It is a
taste, a feeling, a scent, a sound, a scene. It's everything she had
experienced. And it all comes with no guarantee.

Take a chance, he said.

Maybe I will, she thought to herself.

Her mind made up, she started to move towards the barn door, almost knocking
the man beside her to the ground.

"Katie, would you stand still for a minute. I can't brush your coat proper
if you keep fidgeting like that," Kid said, his voice thick with
exasperation. Katie, his beloved horse, had been acting weird for quite a
while and he thought a long, soothing brushing would restore her spirits.
Kid wasn't sure if his idea worked or not because his horse was trying to
get away from him. "You wanna go somewhere? Hmmm," he asked.

Katie rolled her eyes at her owner. Of course, I want to go somewhere, she
wanted to say. That's why I nearly trampled you while trying to get out of
the stall. A slight sound behind her made her turn and her breath caught.

Lightning is back.

Lou was leading her horse into the next stall. Katie vaguely noticed Lou
greet Kid with a kiss, her whole attention focused on the black stallion in
front of her. "Hey," Katie softly neighed.

"Hey yourself," Lightning moved closer.

"I missed you."

"Me, too," he grunted. Katie looked into Lightning's eyes. She wanted to say
more but she knew they had to wait. Kid and Lou were still in the barn and
from the looks and sounds of it, they are in no hurry to go anywhere. Katie
heard Lightning sigh. Her lips curled into a slight smile. Isn't love
wonderful?

The End

(I wrote this story with the knowledge that Lightning is a male horse. After
finishing it, a friend and fellow TYR fan pointed out that Lightning is, in
fact, a female horse. Oooops.)