Chapter 15 Oh, My, That Got Awkward
He got in front of her. Kneeling down, he took her front hoof in his, as he looked up into her eyes, "My darling Pepper..." he began. However, she began to look panicked as he continued, "I know I probably don't deserve it, but please, can you find it in your heart to accept my most humble apologies?"
She let out a huge sigh, "Whew, for a minute there, I thought you were asking me," but then she jerked to a stop, then she continued, "Never mind. Of course I forgive you. Now get up before somepony sees and gets the wrong idea." And with that she started hurrying down the path, her face flushed for some reason.
Boomer actually had to trot a bit to catch up with her. When he did, she just kept hurrying along, tight lipped and wide eyed. Finally, after several minutes of that awkward silence, he asked, "So, just what did you think I was asking,"
She cut him off with a hasty, "I don't want to talk about it."
"Obviously you thought I was going to say something specific."
"Don't want to talk!"
"But how am I supposed to avoid upsetting you, if I don't know what the problem is?"
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure it will never come up."
"You can tell me off about being overly generous to you, but you won't tell me how I almost unhinged you over some words I didn't actually say? What did you think I was going to say?" He demanded.
"I thought you were finally going to ask me to marry you!" She bellowed back at him, then clamped her hooves over her mouth, eyes going even wider.
They stared at each other in stunned silence for several seconds, then she started fumbling at her mechanical wing, muttering, "I'm sorry. I've got to go. I won't bother you anymore." As the wing popped out to flight position.
She started to flap to take off as Boomer shouted, "Oh no. Not so fast you don't." And he pulled with his magic. It was actually a lot easier than it ever had been before. With an almost casual ease, like most unicorns could manage with their non broken horns, Boomer pulled the catch that deactivated her wing.
As it collapsed back down, she stomped her hoof. "That's not fair! You could never do anything like that before."
Honestly, Boomer was almost as surprised as she was. But he just looked at her. "You don't get to drop something like that and just run away. Oh no. We're going to talk about this. And don't try running off. I'll just hang you a foot off the ground, and your hooves can just churn open air. I'm going to have to thank Luna. She fixed whatever was broken with my magic."
Pepper was looking away from him. "That's great. But, can we just forget what I said?"
Boomer shook his head, "No, this is obviously something important to you. It may be a bit embarrassing, but if I can survive pouring my soul out to Pinkie Pie about why I treated her so badly; you can tell me about this, and I'm sure it won't kill you."
She still wouldn't look at him. "You're just going to laugh at me."
"You obviously don't know me very well, or must not think very highly of me if you believe that." He turned her head so he could look in her eyes, "I promise, I won't laugh at you. Even if you tell me horrible puns. Especially then, I hate bad puns." He said with a grimace usually reserved for sucking on lemons.
She giggled, in spite of herself, "Okay. But if you do laugh, I'm kicking your teeth in."
Boomer nodded, "Fair enough. Do you want to start, or should I ask you questions. However, the risk there, is that I may jump right to the really embarrassing stuff before you're ready. If you just talk, you get to control how you open up. Both have their good and bad points. I guess it comes down to which particular horrible tasting medicine you want to swallow. Either way, we better do it while we walk. We still have a ways to go."
She started walking, but was silent for several long minutes. He was patient, knowing just how hard this kind of opening up could be. He thought that maybe it would be good if he started off. "Did my sister mention at all her suggestion to me about Princess Luna?"
Pepper looked over at him slightly confused, so he continued, "Giggles thought that the princess, being single, would be perfect dating material for me."
Pepper gasped, "She didn't!"
Boomer nodded, "In fact, she even suggested it to the princess herself."
Pepper stared at him, open mouthed, as he continued, "We both shot down the idea, but it is part of what led Princess Luna to declare me her knight champion." Boomer glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and asked, "That was a rather personally embarrassing episode I went through recently. Anything similar happen to you?"
A smile finally cracked her face, "You're really going to make me do this, aren't you?"
He nodded his head, "Yep."
She tensed up again, "It's stupid. You're gonna laugh at me."
Boomer kept looking straight ahead, "And you promised to kick my teeth in if I do."
A few more paces in silence, then she asked, "Your sister really tried to hook you up with Princess Luna?"
Boomer nodded again, "Yep. And she suggested Pinkie Pie as well."
This time, Pepper nodded knowingly, "Makes sense sort of. She's about the same age I was when I first fell for you."
Boomer stumbled, nearly falling on his face. "But that was..."
Pepper nodded again, "Yeah, nearly fifteen years is a long time to carry a torch for someone."
They walked for a long while before he stammered, "I, I never knew."
She just sighed, "I know."
That sad, soft acknowledgement kicked Boomer in the gut. He thought about some of the things Giggles had said to him over the last several days. Then, he froze in mid step. "That sneaky, devious, manipulative, oh I swear, if she weren't already dead, I'd strangle her."
Pepper spun to him, "What? What is it?"
Putting his raised hoof back down, he straightened up. "First, tell me what you think the pink glow is. You obviously think it's significant."
She cringed. He could tell she didn't want to discuss it right on the heels of the rest of what they were talking about. But he had a very distinct feeling that they were related. So he just stared at her and raised an eyebrow.
She hemmed and hawed, but finally spoke up, "It's just a silly fairy tale all the young fillies tell each other."
She looked at him, obviously hoping he would tell her to forget it, but he made a rolling motion with one hoof, obviously wanting her to carry on.
She blew out a breath and continued, "It's said, that when a pony finds their heart's match, their love will be so bright, it will shine in the darkness."
Boomer nodded, "Ah, that one. The boys have a similar one, but young boys come to a different conclusion. They say, if you see a girl glowing, run for the hills as fast as you can. Boys can be rather stupid." And he grinned self mockingly.
But Pepper's head hung sadly. "It doesn't matter though. I've just been kidding myself. Your horn may glow in the dark at times, but I don't, so, I'm just grasping at shadows. I obviously don't mean the same to you that I thought you do to me."
Boomer cocked his head at her, baffled, "You're kidding, right?"
Her head jerked up, stunned. He continued, "Do you know why I kept coming back to watch you, despite the pain I felt, knowing what had happened to you? It was because every time I saw you, it was like being bathed in the warmest sunshine.
"Before I saw you that first time, I was almost at my end. For five years I'd been fighting so much pain and darkness, it was all I could do each day to NOT end my own life. Then, I saw you, and the world had color and light again. For the briefest of moments, I felt hope. And then, I blew you up."
He stared into her eyes, letting her see the pain, the horror that had become his life, and then, the joy at first seeing her. Followed by an entirely new level of horror at what was about to happen to her. "I barely managed to save your life that day, but you have managed to save mine a thousand times since. Every time the weight of everything got to be too much, I would go and sneak a glimpse of you. Don't try and tell me you don't glow. You are the only light in my life that matters. Honestly, I felt guilty for getting such joy from just seeing you, after what happened. I couldn't face you, but I couldn't leave you alone either."
Pepper had tears in her eyes. He wiped them away as she said, "Really, seeing me brings you joy?"
He smiled through tears of his own, "More than anything." And he again kissed her nose. But then, he leaned in and gave her a kiss like he'd dreamed of giving her for fifteen years.
When it finally broke, she looked up at him smiling, "That was so worth the wait." Then she scowled at him. "Why did you wait so long? Honestly, I'd all but given up on you. I nearly didn't come to the palace today, but the invitation from Princess Celestia was rather insistent. That and with Indigenous Rock begging me to come along, I felt like I couldn't refuse. I didn't even know this had anything to do with you, Indigenous only mentioned Pinkie. When you led the precession in, I was stunned. I do have to admit though, you looked better than I've seen in a long time. For a change, you were walking tall and confident. I didn't see any signs of that brittle shell you wear. Well, except for around your eyes right at the end when you walked off down that corridor after presenting Pinkie Pie. I assume you went somewhere and had a meltdown, because when you came back with Princess Luna, you were even more confident and self assured. A bit startled, but more together than I'd ever seen you. Well, at least until you turned around and saw me."
Boomer cringed, "Oh yeah, nothing impresses the girls more than having a magical panic attack when you see them face to face."
They started walking again. She sidled up close, so they were walking flank to flank. He had to admit, it felt really good. So good in fact, that he was having trouble maintaining enough anger to keep his horn glowing red. After the fourth or fifth time of it cooling and the light flickering out, he half grumbled to her, "You are making it really hard to hold onto enough anger to heat my horn up. I may have to pick a fight with you, just to be able to light the path for you."
She giggled, "Maybe you should try something other than getting mad then. You said seeing me brings you joy, try that."
Boomer considered it. He knew how to pump other emotions into his magic. Anger had just always been the easiest. He concentrated on that thread of joy he could always count on when seeing Pepper, and mentally shifted it into position to power his magic, readying it to light his horn.
Concentrating on that as he was, it would be no surprise he'd not paid full attention to what Pepper was doing. What was a surprise, was that as he went to light his horn, Pepper decided to reach up and nibble his ear.
Their world flashed blindingly white.
As the light began to fade, and as Boomer blinked the spots out of his eyes, he turned to Pepper, who was also blinking madly. She laughed, "Wow! Well, at least we know that works. I'd say we have some light."
Looking around them, the area was still lit brighter than noon. And as he turned his head a single spot of light, so bright it actually scorched the grass it touched, tracked his movements. Apparently, his horn was putting out a spotlight stronger than any he'd ever seen.
He throttled down the amount of energy going into his magic more and more until at last, he was only producing as much light as would come from a full moon. He was amazed at how little it took. He actually had to lock in that tiny whisper of power, as every time he glanced at Pepper, the light tried to flare back to full blinding strength.
She looked at him gigging, "You," she started singing.
He scowled, "Don't! I told you I don't like puns."
But she kept right on singing, “You light up my life. You give me hope, to carry on…”
He grumbled, “Should have just let you get blown up.”
Then, inspiration hit. He grabbed her and kissed her with even more passion than the last time. That did the trick. She stumbled on in silence for several minutes. Although it could almost be called staggering.
Finally, she shook her head and looked over at him, “WOW! I have got to tease you more often.” Then she reached up and nipped his ear again; which caused him to miss a step or two.
Pepper smiled, "You're in trouble now. I've found your Achilles heel."
He rolled his eyes, "That's no real feat. You've always been my biggest weakness." She smiled even more warmly at that.