//------------------------------// // Foof // Story: Filly Friends // by thehalfelf //------------------------------// Foof The three of us reconvened in the hallway a few minutes later.  Neither Vinyl or Father said anything about either conversation on our way through the nighttime streets of Las Pegasus.  After wandering around for almost another hour, much to Mother’s amusement, we ended up at a small family diner not far from our hotel.  I was unsure if Father misheard or forgot the taco stand’s location, but we never managed to find it. “We could have been at an upscale restaurant, sampling delicacies we can’t get in Canterlot,” Mother teased.  “But you simply had to find and forget about a little local place, and now we’re here.” Father rolled his eyes, but smiled.  This wasn’t the first time he’d led us on a fruitless hunt through the streets of a strange city.  And for all of Mother’s teasing, it would undoubtedly not be the last time.  “I was just trying to get something different.  Doing the same thing constantly stifles creativity.” “Isn’t getting lost all the time the same thing?” I asked, ducking the glare Father sent my way. “Getting lost by definition cannot be the same.  If you get lost the same way multiple times, are you really lost?”  Father looked over at Vinyl.  “Back me up here.” “No can do.  I’m with Tavi,” Vinyl replied. “So we’ve gathered,” Father said. Vinyl stiffened beside me.  I looked from her to my parents across the table.  With the perfect timing possessed by all wait staff, our food arrived just then.  We quietly distributed our plates and waited for the server to leave before continuing our talk.  I spent the entire time caught between two extremes: Vinyl next to me growing steadily more anxious and Father across the table with his barely restrained smirk. Mother sighed heavily once the server was out of earshot.  “Honestly, Legatus, for an orchestral conductor your timing is terrible.” “I thought it was funny,” Father said, pouting over his soup.  “Octavia started it.” “You told them?” Vinyl asked.  “But before we left, you said—” I cut her off with a hoof and shake of my head.  “No, I didn’t say anything.  Father and I had a… miscommunication in the hotel hallway, but he knew before then.” “You aren’t terribly subtle, Vinyl dear,” Mother said apologetically.  “I figured you both out in the theater.  We’d planned on waiting for you two to say something first…”  She trailed off and stared pointedly at Father. “I thought she did!” he rebutted. The table lapsed into silence while all of us except Vinyl started to eat.  As soon as I noticed Vinyl hadn’t joined in, I poked her under the table.  “Something wrong?” I asked. “That’s just it then?  They knew we’re, uh, dating and don’t care?” Vinyl replied, nervously turning her head to look at all three of us. “I haven’t been disowned yet, I don’t think.” “We’re happy for you two,” Mother affirmed. “You should know we don’t make a big deal out of a lot of things,” Father said.  He jumped a few seconds later as Mother and I both kicked him under the table.  “What was that for?” Mother ignored him.  “As I said, if you’re happy, we’re happy.  And since we already know you well, Legatus doesn’t have to pretend to be a big scary stallion to protect his little filly.” “You didn’t have to say it like that,” Father said, nursing his wounded pride with his soup. Vinyl finally started in on her food.  “That’s anticlimactic,” she said. I shrugged and went back to my own dinner.  I couldn’t speak for the others, but after the long train ride and travel stress, I’d managed to work up quite an appetite.  The hour and a half detour from our initial plans at the theater hadn’t helped either. “Do you have any plans for the rest of the week?” Mother asked as Vinyl, the last one still eating, finished. “Not really.  We were just going to explore a bit,” I said.  Our trip was scheduled for a week, but we’d only planned on going to Father’s first show.  The rest were completely sold out, even Mother hadn’t been able to get tickets for some nights. “I’ve never been on clouds before,” Vinyl added.  “I’m excited to go up there and see what it’s like.” “It’s different,” Father said.  “Be careful to stay on the marked paths, though.  Not all of the cloud up there is safe for non-pegasi.” “That’s why I brought a parachute.”  Vinyl beamed, looking pleased with herself. “No you didn’t,” I sighed. Vinyl didn’t answer, her grin only growing wider. “We are not jumping off the clouds,” I admonished.  “Parachute or not.” “We might not be, but I will.” “Father may get to do his mean stallion impersonation after all,” I deadpanned.  “After Vinyl becomes part of a road somewhere.” “Better get back to practicing in the mirror, dear,” Mother said.  She flagged down our server, pulling out her bag of bits.  “Shall we move on?” A few minutes later, we did just that.  The street stretched before us, comfortably lit by the myriad of unicorn lamps secured in the cloud layer above, supplemented by others embedded in shop fronts and on light poles in all directions.  Night truly never came to Las Pegasus. On the walk back to the hotel, my parents provided us with several places we could visit that they’d been to themselves on prior trips.  After a round of good-nights we split in the hallway separating our rooms.  Vinyl immediately plopped down on her bed and shoved her glasses to the night table. “That could have gone way worse,” she said.  “Especially since you were the one to say we should wait before telling them.” “I wasn’t sure how they’d react,” I answered honestly.  Telling them also meant telling them how and why we broke up if I couldn’t return Vinyl’s feelings. “And here I was thinking you just didn’t want to tell them,” Vinyl teased.  I tensed up, but she didn’t seem to notice.  “Well, whatever.  What do you want to do tomorrow?” “Not skydive,” I answered, settling into my own bed for the night. Vinyl sighed loudly.  “Spoilsport.  I bet you want to go to museums and boring stuff like that.” “I was going to suggest going to explore the cloud castle outside of town, but that sounds like a much better idea.”  I rolled over to hide my smile.  “Good night.” “Wait, Tavi!  That sounds so much cooler, let’s go see the castle!  Come on, how do you make a castle out of clouds anyway?  What’s the point?”  She carried on until I looked over my shoulder to smile at her.  Vinyl smiled back, then clicked off the light.  “Whatever we do, it’ll be fun if you’re around.  G’night, Tavi.” I laid silently for some time, unable to fall asleep until I felt Vinyl crawl into bed behind me. <><><><><> “Seriously, who builds a castle made of clouds?” Vinyl asked. We stood on the edge of a pony-built structure piercing the cloud layer.  They were a little harder to find outside of the city, but this one was right next to where we needed to be.  Dominating the skyline in front of us was an old cloud castle from the tribal days.  Ponies slowly trickled around us past the transition of wood to cloud.  Vinyl hadn’t wanted to take that step yet.  Despite all the ground ponies walking around on the reinforced cloudstuff fine, she seemed afraid to take the next step. I hadn’t crossed over either, but that’s beside the point. “Pegasi, the race of ponies who can walk on clouds,” I responded for the third time.  “I would rather like to visit said castle, if you’re done being afraid.” “I-I’m not afraid,” Vinyl lied.  “You go first.” “Very well, if it’ll make you move, but I reserve the right to call you chicken the rest of the day.”  I walked to the very edge of the platform and held my hoof over the cloudfloor. “I’m no chicken!” Vinyl said.  Before I could take another step she jumped forwards onto the clouds.  They let up little smaller clouds. Before she could turn to look at me and gloat, I stepped off the platform as well.  My hooves sunk slightly into the warm, springy surface.  It was slightly uncomfortable the way it formed up around my fetlocks, not unlike warm mud.  “About time.” Vinyl bounced a couple of times, smiling.  “Be quiet.” With Vinyl by my side, we started towards the castle.  Walking on cloud was an… interesting experience.  We were almost to the main gate before I stopped thinking I was going to fall through, just because my hooves sank into the surface.  It was almost like walking on a thick comforter on a soft bed, which I hadn’t done in years. I resisted the urge to jump like Vinyl had.  I didn’t even bounce, not even a little. The building loomed before us, forcing us to tilt our heads back to see the top of the turrets long before we reached the gates.  “I’ve seen Canterlot Castle, but this is a little…” Vinyl started. “Different,” I finished. “While Canterlot Castle is a defensive emplacement,” called a pony from the gateway, “it’s main purpose over several renovations has been to serve as a symbol of Equestrian political power.  This one here, like the ones further north and south, have served in the past as bastions of military power.  They give up on a lot of glamour for functionality.” I turned towards the voice, spotting the small pegasus mare partially hidden behind a desk.  She and the desk were tucked out of the way, in what looked to once be a gatehouse.  A couple of other ponies staffed the desk, helping a small smattering of guests, but the vast majority seemed to walk through the gate without pause.  Unsure of what to do, I grabbed Vinyl and led her over. The mare smiled at us as we drew closer.  “Did you have other questions?” “A few,” I said, preemptively elbowing Vinyl in the side. “I didn’t even do anything!” she protested, but I ignored her. “It’s our first visit here, and I’m not really sure what our options are,” I continued.  “Is there an entrance fee, or a sign up for tours?” “Entrance to public areas is totally free.  We do offer guided tours, including some places not open to general admission, but those do cost extra,” she answered.  “You can sign up right here.  They start every half-hour, and last for about an hour.” I turned to Vinyl.  “Did you want a tour?” “Or we could get lost in a big, cool castle all alone.”  I pictured Vinyl waggling her eyebrows, though they were hidden behind her glasses.   “Vinyl!” I admonished, and turned my attention back to the small pegasus.  “Thank you, we’ll think about it and come back.” “Of course, have a good day!”  She beamed as we walked away and turned to chat with her neighbor. “We can take a tour if you really want, Tavi.  I was just teasing,” Vinyl said as we walked away. I winced a little at the whine hidden in her voice.  Maybe I’d been too harsh.  “I know, I’m sorry.  Let’s explore a bit, and we can take a tour after, okay?” Whatever she was going to respond with died as we passed the portcullis and saw the castle grounds for the first time.  We’d seen a bit from the gate itself, but the other side seemed much more expansive.  The big open space was filled with cloud sculptures of armored pegasi soldiers, forever frozen in scenes of training and battle.  Plaques and boards of information dotted the area as well, serving as natural gathering points for the castle’s few visitors. “It’s huge,” Vinyl breathed.  “We could totally actually get lost in here.” “I doubt we’ll get lost outside,” I replied, but I had to admit that the castle proper looked much larger up close.  I hadn’t thought about asking exactly how much was open to the public, but I doubted it was enough that we could truly get lost. We took our time meandering through the courtyard, looking at all the displays.  Vinyl spent the entire time directly next to me, ready with a dumb joke and smile whenever I looked her way.  I was just happy she seemed to be having a good time. After almost half an hour of meandering the grounds, we finally made it to the castle’s front doors.  A helpful map was placed in the entrance, right in the middle, color coding every place we could go, along with the routes tours covered.  As I’d expected, there wasn’t much open to the general public, and it was all covered by the tours. “Should we get in line for a tour then?” I asked her as I finished surveying the map. “A chaperone for our date, you mean?”  Vinyl turned her ever present grin to me.  “If you think you need one.” “I don’t remember agreeing to a date,” I deadpanned, turning back to the gate desk. “We should go on one before we leave,” she said.  I felt more than heard her quickly trot to catch up with me.  “Like tonight.  We could go to one of those restaurants at the top of the cloud towers in the city.” I glanced at her from the corner of my eye.  Her smile had shrunk slightly, but grown more hopeful.  We hadn’t been on an official date yet.  The weeks leading up to the trip I was busy with preparations for it, and with school work.  That’s what I’d told her, at least. She was waiting for an answer.  Fighting down a quick surge of worry, I nodded.  “Alright.” Vinyl’s smile grew back to normal size.  “Awesome!  Come on, castle tour?” A few minutes later we had hoofbands attesting to our payment for a tour, and were standing with a couple of other ponies in the courtyard, waiting patiently.  An hour for the tour, another half hour trip back to Las Pegasus, then a few hours before Vinyl and I’s first date. I hoped I wouldn’t mess it up.