The darkness didn’t last very long. I could tell that I was falling, that much was certain, but I wondered what was taking so long. Surely the ground wasn’t that far below the clouds. I tried to steady myself by flapping my wings, but that only served to make me spin in the air.
I sighed as I looked around, finally finding where the ground was. It was strange to say the least, it was approaching so slowly. The apple trees blocked most of my view of the ground, but I could still see a bit. This part of the orchard must be the golden delicious field, the trees were all spotted yellow. Except for one, a red one which seemed to be moving in my direction. There was a purple one too which I didn’t understand though, I’ve never heard of purple apples before.
I decided not to dwell on unnatural apples, as I started to flick through memories and flashbacks. The day I got my cutie mark, my first friend, my first kiss, my first flight.
I was almost to the ground now so I closed my eyes to revel in the feeling of the air brushing against my wings and fur. It wasn’t much, considering my nerves were still numb from the shock, but it was enough to make me think I was flying.
“CLEAR NO!” I heard somepony scream. Cloud Kicker? I hit something that was fairly soft forcing me to open my eyes in confusion. I looked around before noticing that I was on Cloud Kicker’s back. “Clear, are you okay?” she sounded very worried, I should probably say something to calm her down.
“That was the best landing I’ve ever made.” I mumbled before blacking out again.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Beep!
Beep! Who is mumbling? I wondered as I started to hear some voices.
Beep! “Is she going to be okay?” I heard a faint female voice over the obnoxious beeping.
“She’ll be fine,” a male voice responded, “as a matter of fact, she should be waking up soon.”
“You said that the last two days!” the first voice shouted. My ear flicked slightly as I felt a sharp lance of pain shoot through my head. Apparently the movement wasn’t noticed as the two continued to argue.
“Ms. Skies, please calm down. She’s going to be fine.” the stallion replied. “Now, I’ll send a pegasus to get you when she wakes up, go home and get some rest.”
I heard a huff and a long silence followed, which made me wonder if both ponies had left the room. “Fine.” Frosty grumbled and I heard the door open and shut.
I heard a sigh and the door opened and closed again, leaving me alone with the beeping of the monitors and my own thoughts. With each beep, my headache grew more and more until I had to do something. Groaning, I opened my eyes to look around.
At first, everything was a blurry green mass broken by a brown smudge on what must have been the wall and a dark blue, almost black, spot to the right. I kept my eyes on what must have been the door as my eyes slowly came into focus. After what seemed like ten minutes, my eyes adjusted to looking at the plain brown door. Finally able to see clearly, I looked around the room noticing the walls were a greenish blue color. The window was open letting in a nice warm breeze of night air that felt good against my coat.
Another beep reminded me what I was doing and I tried to sit up. Only to find that I hadn’t moved an inch. I looked down at where my right forehoof was laying under the blanket and tried to lift it. It came up a little, but it seemed to weigh much more than normal. Gritting my teeth, I slowly but surely pushed myself into a sitting position and looked over to the offending machine and its infernal beeping noise.
I tried to unplug the machine, but I couldn’t quite reach it from my spot on the bed. I was also too tired from lifting my oddly heavy body into a sitting position to try moving it again to reach the machine. I settled on glaring at the monitor while reaching for the call button on the nightstand. When I pressed where the button had been I felt scales instead of a button and looked over. Standing on the nightstand just over top of the call button was the alligator that had been following me since I had gotten to Ponyville.
Immediately the little green creature started biting me and I may or may not have screamed like a little filly before realizing that the little guy had no teeth. But whatever I did manage to bring the doctor running into the room to find me wide-eyed in bed by myself lacking one psychopathic alligator, but plus one soggy hoof.
“What’s going on in here?!” the stallion demanded. He was a light tan unicorn stallion with a brown mane and he was wearing a doctor’s jacket with a stethoscope hanging from his neck. His eyes were blue behind his small glasses and currently wide with concern as he looked around for something wrong. He noticed me sitting up with my wings open grinning sheepishly at him.
“Uh, hi.” I chuckled nervously.
He seemed to be struggling between being surprised and being annoyed, finally settling on just being content that nothing was wrong. “Are you okay? I thought I heard you scream.”
I folded my wings back to my sides, “Uh yea, I just had a bad dream. Just a dream.” I muttered looking at the call button waiting for it to change into an alligator again.
The doctor looked doubtful, “Ooookay. . . Well, now that you’re up, how are you feeling?” He trotted over and looked closely at one of my wings.
I unfurled the wing he was looking at with some difficulty, “I feel fine, but I feel really heavy for some reason.” I looked at him playfully accusing, “I didn’t get fat off those IVs did I?”
He chuckled a little, “No, and the reason your feeling heavier is because you’re depleted of pegasus magic.” He looked down and touched a few of my feathers gently causing me to shiver.
“You see, when a pegasus is hurt, they have an innate magic that protects them. It’s also what allows you to walk on clouds, manipulate weather, and resist temperatures normal ponies may consider cold or too hot. Although the protection offered from their magic is nowhere near as strong as an earth pony’s. When you were shocked, your pegasus magic protected you. But in doing so, it took all of the magic you had to keep you alive. The fall, from what your friend Cloud Kicker told me, would have probably killed you if she hadn’t caught you in time.” He folded my wing back to my side and took a hoofstep back.
I looked at him curiously, “Really? But that doesn’t explain why I feel heavier.”
He picked up the clipboard and looked between it and me as he explained, “Your pegasus magic makes you lighter so that you can fly faster without tiring so quickly. It is also why you can stand on clouds and earth and unicorn ponies can’t, you need to be light enough that you don’t just fall through the cloud floor.” He placed the clipboard back down on the nightstand, “Does that explain it?”
“Yea, but it gives me another question. How do you know so much about pegasi when you’re just a unicorn?” I cringed a little after I finished the question, “Sorry, that was insensitive.”
He brushed the comment away with a wave of his hoof, “Don’t worry, I’ve been asked that enough not to be bothered by it. Also, to answer your question, I’ll ask you one in return. Don’t you think a doctor should know how to treat more than one third of the population?”
I brought a hoof to my chin thoughtfully, “I never thought of it that way.” I dropped my hoof back to the bed, “So how long until I stop feeling like I’m a lead weight?”
“If your charts are any indication,” he looked at the clipboard again, “you should feel much better tomorrow. Although you won’t be able to fly or anything weather related for about a week from tomorrow.” He took his glasses off, looking at me seriously.
“Are you living in a cloud house right now?”
“Nope, I’m actually staying with a pegasus named Ditzy Doo.” I started stretching my wings trying to get used to their weight.
He smiled warmly as he placed his glasses back on his nose, “Ah, she came to visit shortly after you were admitted. She left you some muffins too.” He opened a drawer on the front of the nightstand and pulled out a box of muffins with a card that said, ‘Get well soon.’ The doctor put the basket back, “Just get plenty of bed rest and eat well and you’ll be back in the air in no time.”
He started heading towards the door before I asked, “Is Frosty okay?”
He opened the door before turning around, “She’s fine, just worried is all. I need to send a message to her saying you woke up, but you need some sleep, we’ll get you checked out tomorrow.” With that he closed the door leaving me alone in the dark room.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Beep! Oh for the love of, I forgot to get him to turn that machine off.
Beep! I sat up, feeling much lighter than I had last night but still heavier than I was used to. I looked around seeing Frosty Skies reading a book in the seat next to the window. I flexed my wings and yawned causing Frosty to look up in surprise before she launched herself across the room to give me a hug.
“Oh Clear, I was so worried about you. When I heard you were in the hospital, I got here as fast as I could, but they said I couldn’t see you. They wouldn’t give me any details and when they allowed me to see you there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with you. And all the doctor would tell me was that you were going to be ‘just fine’.” She hugged me fiercely again, putting her head on my shoulder with a sob.
I patted her on the back, “Come on now, I’ll be just fine.”
“But what happened?” Frosty managed to compose herself enough to just sit on the bed with me.
“Well, after Cloud Kicker and I left the weather office we headed over to Sweet Apple Acres.” I began and for the next half hour I explained what happened up to the shock of lightning.
Just as I finished recounting the events, the door opened and Cloud Kicker walked into the room with a pastry box. She looked towards me in concern until she saw me sitting up with Frosty and a devilish grin spread across her face. “Come on girls, you couldn’t wait for me to get here before you started banging?”
Frosty sat up rigidly straight with a blush starting to form under her fur while I facehoofed and grinned. “Well, she was just so eager when I got up how could I say no?” I giggled as Frosty started glaring at me her blush growing.
Before Frosty could say anything Cloud calmed down and moved over to the side of the bed and put the box on the nightstand. “I got you some cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner. On a completely unrelated topic, you are the first new pony to have not received a Pinkie P-A-R-T-Y within seventy-two hours of entering town.”
She spelled the word out as though saying party would summon the pony she was mentioning. She certainly looked like it was because even though she spelled the word out she started looking around the room to make sure that this ‘Pinkie’ hadn’t suddenly appeared.
Satisfied that another pony hadn’t infiltrated the room, she turned back and opened the box to reveal cupcakes that matched my mane and tail colors. “Wow Cloud Kicker, you didn’t have to ask them to customize these just for me. I mean, it’s cool and everything. . . but. . . Cloud?”
Cloud Kicker seemed to have frozen in place as I waved a hoof in front of her. I raised an eyebrow at Frosty who seemed just as confused until she looked at the bottom of the lid of the box which was facing Cloud. At first Frosty seemed as stunned as Cloud, but suddenly burst out laughing, hoofing me the lid. I rolled my eyes at both of them as Cloud started to grin.
I flipped the lid to see, written in frosting, Your party is soon. “Is this from Pinkie?” seeing the look on Cloud’s face was answer enough, “Okay, so she knows I’m new. I’m fairly certain that either you or Rainbow or Blossom might have said something about me and she just overheard you. She’s not psychic or anything.”
I crossed my hooves and Cloud’s smile got wider. Giving a huff, I grabbed one of the cupcakes and took a bite. My eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as I tasted the best cupcake I had ever had.
Cloud nudged me in the side, “So, how was your first Pinkie cupcake?” My only answer was to devour three more of the wondrous delights at record speed. Frosty hopped off the bed and laughed at my reaction with Cloud.
The doctor came in with a clipboard in his magic looking curiously at the two ponies who were laughing their flanks off at me. Although I was too entranced by the taste of the cupcakes to notice until he cleared his throat. Frosty and Cloud stopped laughing but resorted to quiet giggling as the doctor approached me.
“Ms. Night? I have your paperwork here.” He set the clipboard on the bed in front of me. He turned to the giggling pair behind him, “As for you two, you can wait for her downstairs, this will only take a few minutes.”
Frosty and Cloud smiled still giggling a little but made their way out the door, Cloud saying, “See you downstairs Socks.” Before closing the door laughing.
Over the next few minutes and a few tests later, I was walking down the stairs with the doctor just behind. Looking around the room I noticed a clock above the desk saying it was ten after five in the afternoon. The receptionist, a white earth pony mare with pink mane and tail and a small nurse cap with a red plus sign on it, smiling at me when I entered the room. On the wall opposite of where the doctor and I had entered were some benches where Frosty and Cloud were sitting, the box of cupcakes behind Cloud Kicker. Both ponies turned to watch me enter the room and stood up as I drew closer.
“Hey Socks, we were starting to wonder if you were coming down at all.” Cloud said.
I looked to Frosty questioningly, “When did she start calling me ‘Socks’?”
Frosty Skies shook her head, “Long story, I’ll tell you later. So, how are you feeling Clear?” she put a hoof to her chin looking at my wings.
I flexed my wings a little, careful not to dislodge the box of muffins on my back, “I’ll be fine, I just won’t be able to fly for a few days.”
“She’ll be able to fly next Wednesday.” the doctor spoke up from next to me. “But she will need to take it easy until then. As long as she doesn’t hurt herself like last time, she’ll be back to flying in no time.”
“Thanks doc, for everything.” I smiled and the three of us walked out of the hospital, me with muffins on my back and Cloud with what was left of the cupcakes. “So what’s Ditzy up to?”
The two other pegasi exchanged a look, Frosty answered, “She’s with Dinky at the park, I’ll tell her to meet you guys at her house.” With that she gave a last look to Cloud and sped off to find Ditzy.
Cloud grinned seductively, “So now that we have some alone time, how about we head back to my place,” her grin change to an innocent smile, “to have some of those muffins.”
I rolled my eyes with a smile, “Is it on the way to Ditzy’s?”
“Actually, it’s right there.” she pointed a hoof just down the street. I followed her hoof to see a wide single story house.
“That’s convenient, but why live so close to the hospital?”
“Well, when you live like I do, it’s convenient to not have to fly across town every day.”
We got to the door and she pushed it open. “What do you mean ‘when you live like I do’?” I asked as we walked through the door.
She seemed slightly surprised, “Well, I guess since you’ve been out for two days and we barely talked for five hours on the job, you wouldn’t know. I’m a little notorious for, as some ponies quote ‘Sleeping with anything that moves’.” She walked to the coffee table in the middle of the floor and put the box of cupcakes she had down.
The gears in my mind started to slowly turn as they processed exactly what the lavender pegasus had just said. I had just walked into the house of a highly sexually active mare. And I wasn’t too concerned for some reason. It took me a minute to realize that Cloud had stopped talking and was looking at me with some concern. “Um, sorry, I kinda drifted off.”
Cloud pouted, “I’m not that boring am I?”
“O-of course not!” I stammered out, “I was just surprised about how casual you were about. . . well your lifestyle.”
She rolled her eyes sitting on the couch just behind the coffee table, “I couldn’t live the way I do if I lied about what I do. Like I said before, most of the town knows. Now how about those muffins?”
I moved to the coffee table and laid the muffin box on top of the cupcake box and sat down on the opposite side. “Well, that’d explain all of the innuendos and flirting you did when I got here, and when I woke up.” I opened the muffin box and pulled one out, “It must be why you brought me to your house.”
Cloud took a muffin and took a small bite, chewing thoughtfully, “Yes and no. I like flirting and banging with other ponies because it’s fun, and another way to show,” she waved a hoof around in the air for a moment, “affection. As for bringing you to my house, I thought you might want to talk about. . . it.”
I looked at her questioningly, “About what?” I took a small nibble from the muffin. Which, by the way was as good, if not better, than the cupcakes had been. More testing was required.
Cloud looked me seriously, “Clear, if there’s one thing everypony knows, it’s that most pegasi love to fly. You just had that taken away temporarily, and it hasn’t seemed to bother you.
I fiddled with the muffin looking around the room for the first time. Behind me a few hoof lengths was the door we both had entered. The coffee table came up to the top of my legs and a couch was just on the other side with the other mare sitting on it looking at me intently. The rest of the room was fairly spartan. To my left was a small kitchen that seemed to not get much use except for the icebox. To my right was a pair of doors, one near both corners. I could just get a glimpse of a closet through the one closer to the entrance. I looked back at my muffin, “I don’t know.”
She set her muffin down and walked around the table putting a wing over my shoulders, “It might help to talk about it.”
I put my muffin down and stamped my hoof in frustration, “I feel empty.” I muttered, “Like some fundamental part of me just. . . died. Hay, lifting my hooves and my wings is more difficult than I ever thought possible. On top of that, I can’t even fly?” I stamped my hoof again angrily, “It isn’t fair! Every pegasus loves flying!”
I scuffed my hoof against the carpet a tear I hadn’t noticed fell to the floor, “Now I can’t even do that. What good am I? A weather pegasus who can’t even get in the air to push a cloud.”
Cloud hugged me tighter, “Come on Clear, you heard the doctor it’s only a week. And a weather pegasus, a grounded weather pegasus can still do her bit. Every part of the team is an important part of the team.” She gave me a squeeze, “And don’t forget, you have friends who care about you, you don’t have to go through this on your own.” She wiped a tear off my muzzle gently.
I sniffed, “You’re right, but what am I supposed to do for a week? I don’t want to feel useless.”
“Well, Blossomforth could always use some help. Rainbow seems to forget, or maybe ignore is the better word for it, the paperwork side of weather work, so Blossom takes care of it. Well as much as she can, but it’s a lot of work.” She squeezed me one more time with her wing and stood up, “If you want we can go talk to her now and get you all set up for tomorrow.”
I stood up wiping the rest of tears away, “Tomorrow? What about tonight?” I picked up my muffin before walking to the door behind Cloud.
Cloud’s tail flicked nervously, “Well, I figured you could use a night off, especially after the doctor’s orders. Come on, let’s go see Blossom.”
“Alright, and I’m sorry about that, I don’t usually get so worked up.” I muttered as I passed her going out the door.”
“Don’t worry, that’s what friends are for, and besides, we can’t be sexy all the time.”
I rolled my eyes and ate my muffin in one bite before following Cloud to the town hall.
___________________________________________________________________________________
I felt strangely lighter, not physically lighter of course, after my outburst of emotion at Cloud’s house. It wasn’t much but I had a small spring to my step as we arrived in front of the weather office. Before I could knock on the door Cloud Kicker walked straight in. At first I was slightly confused as I just saw four or five great stacks of paper sitting on the desk.
I took a step in and closed the door when I heard Cloud say, “Base camp to vanilla bean, I repeat, base camp to vanilla bean come in vanilla bean.”
I rolled my eyes and apparently somepony agreed with my assessment, “What do you want Cloud Kicker can’t you see I’m busy?
Cloud snickered, “Honestly I can’t see you at all.” She earned a giggle from me and an exasperated sigh from Blossomforth.
The sound of hooves making their way around the desk was clear by the clicking on the tile floor, “Yeah yeah, very funny Cloud, now who did you bring with you? Not another mailpony with paperwork I hope.” She finally appeared around the desk taking a long look before, “Oh, Clear! You’re alive!” she ran towards me wrapping her hooves around my neck.
I patted her back awkwardly with a hoof, “Yeah, alive and on the mend.”
She dropped back to all four hooves, “So what brings you by the office? Ready to get back to work? We have a heck of a rainstorm coming up.”
“Cool your horseshoes, hot flank, she’s not quite ready for weather duty yet.” Cloud moved to stand beside me.
The white mare stepped back, her brow scrunching, “Oh, I’m sorry, I just thought-”
“It’s fine, but you were kind of correct Blossomforth,” I said quickly, “I did come for some work. Just not the weather pushing variety.” She looked inquisitively at me, “I was actually wondering if I could help with some of the paperwork. It looks like you have your hooves full already.” I looked behind her for emphasis.
Blossom looked disdainfully at the stacks of papers littering the desk, “To be honest, I only just started working on making a dent in that. I found out that Rainbow Dash had been, um, procrastinating on the paperwork. I offered to help her with it and, well, here I am.”
“Well, would you like some help for a bit?” I volunteered before Cloud Kicker stepped in front of me and started pushing me back to the door.
“Don’t you remember, we have to meet Frosty and Ditzy back at Ditzy’s house.”
She kept pushing me to the door as I gave Blossom an apologetic smile, “Maybe next time?”
Blossom sighed but gave me an encouraging smile, “Sure, see you tonight Clear.” I noticed Cloud make some gestures at Blossom with her hoof before placing it over her eye. Shortly after I heard Blossom say, “Actually you can take the night off, I’m about to finish up here myself.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Ooookay.” I said skeptically as Cloud and I exited the office, “What was that about?”
Cloud simply shrugged, “We should get to Ditzy’s house, she and Frosty must be wondering where we went.” She gently nudged me in the direction and we started walking.
We walked in silence for what seemed like ten minutes before I saw Ditzy’s house starting to come into view. I noticed that none of the lights were on even though the moon was starting to rise. “Frosty must be having trouble finding Ditzy in the park.” Cloud commented.
“But why would Ditzy be out so late with her daughter, I would have thought she would have been home by now.” I mentioned. We stopped in front of the door and looked at each other.
“Think we should just go in?” Cloud asked.
“I don’t see why not, it’s where I’m staying for now so I would guess it’s okay.” I pushed the door open slowly before I stopped, “Did we leave the cupcakes at your house Cloud?” I looked back to her.
Cloud coughed for a minute before answering, “Um, yeah, I forgot to bring it with us.”
“Huh, I guess we could get them tomorrow.” I pushed the door the rest of the way open before looking around for the light switch.
I found the switch, but before I could flick it on, the lights came on by themselves. “Surprise!!!!” many voices shouted as a plethora of ponies appeared behind corners and furniture.
Some dubtrot started up to get the party rolling and get some ponies dancing. A large banner hang in the middle of the room read ‘Congratulations on Surviving and Welcome to Ponyville!!’ Just under said banner were a few familiar faces; Frosty who was looking almost at home in the party scene, Blossomforth who was waving at me with a pencil behind her ear, Ditzy who had Dinky on her back was smiling warmly at me, and Rainbow Dash who was preening her feathers but managed to throw me wave anyway. I totally did not jump three hooves into the air or squeal in fright. Nope, that was, uh, Cloud behind me who did that. . . yeah. Before I could make my way towards them I was tackled from behind by something.
I heard Cloud Kicker chuckling before the voice of the pony on top of me started speaking in a hyper-bubbly voice. I managed to rotate my body so that I could see the pony who was pink with a pinker frazzled mane and tail. Unable to keep up with the speed of her speech I looked to Cloud who was standing nearby. I looked questioningly at the pink pony and back to Cloud who seemed to understand what I wanted.
“Hey Pinkie Pie, I think Clear Night wants some alone time with you.” I glared at Cloud barely resisting slamming my hoof into my face as the pink pony gasped loudly.
“Really? But the party just started, and if the party just started that means you haven’t had time to meet all your new friends and if you haven’t had time to meet your new friends then you couldn’t call them friends, and if they’re not your friends then you’re lonely and that would make me so sad so maybe later huh?” I stared wide-eyed at Pinkie Pie as she bounced, literally, away seemingly oblivious that she had left me speechless.
I heard Rainbow Dash’s laugh join Cloud’s as my brain tried to process what just happened. Most of the party guests had started mingling with each other as Frosty helped me to my hooves with barely concealed laughter. “Did you all plan this?” I asked, slightly irritable from being plowed over by Pinkie Pie.
“The party? Or the assault by Pinkie pie?” Frosty asked, still giggling.
“Both.” I said simply. I was starting to ease up, I mean what pony gets pissed that someone threw them a party?
“Well, after my party Pinkie asked where you were.” Frosty began, but I put a hoof up to stop her.
“You had a party already?” I asked
“I know right and so soon after that purple unicorn’s too. What was her name? Twilit Sparklight?” She pondered for a moment before shaking her head, “Anyways, Pinkie Pie asked me if I could delay you getting home from the hospital so she could set the party up and deliver the invitations.”
She looked around before leaning close, “I have never seen a pony jump out of my bit bag before, it freaked me out.”
I nodded, who wouldn’t be surprised by that? Those aren’t meant to hold a pony. Frosty Skies stepped back.
“Happened right after I left your room yesterday too. But enough chatting with me, go get some new friends!” She spun me around and shoved me towards the throng of ponies while giggling.
I barely managed to stay upright and found myself face to face with a familiar orange-maned earth pony, “Hey Carrot Top.”
“Hey Clear Night, liking the party so far?” Carrot Top asked taking a drink from the cup in her hoof. Immediately a pink blur flashed by and her cup was full again.
“It’s great, um, was that just-” I pointed a hoof in the direction the blur ran off to.
“Pinkie Pie? Yup, she seems to run on a sugar high all the time. Just don’t give her any caffeine. Nopony knows what will happen, but everypony has agreed that it probably won’t end well.” I looked around spotting Pinkie Pie zipping around the room.
“I see your point. I better go or Frosty is likely to start herding ponies towards me.” I gave a small shudder.
She giggled, “Go have fun Clear.”
I looked around to find somepony else to talk to before noticing a grey mare with charcoal colored mane. She was talking with the vaguely familiar white unicorn DJ. Actually it seemed like they were having an argument of some sort. Taking a breath, I wandered closer to the two.
“-not let you mutilate my chosen instrument!” the grey mare muttered vehemently. I stopped next to a table a few hooves-lengths away to not intrude.
The DJ scoffed, “Ah c’mon Tavi, I’m not going to damage it. I’m just going to make it amp friendly.”
‘Tavi’ growled, “Why are you so insistent about this Vinyl? It works perfectly fine without it having an extra hole in it.”
“It’s not a hole! It’s an amp jack.” Vinyl responded sounding a little offended, “And it’ll be totally amazing too! You could hook it up to some speakers and mfffmfmf.”
‘Tavi, with her hoof in Vinyl’s mouth just glared, “No.” With that she took her hoof away from Vinyl’s muzzle and walked away . . . right into me. “Oomf! I’m terribly sorry, I didn’t see y-.”
Vinyl zipped up behind her interrupting, “Hey Clear, fancy meeting you here.” She grinned while ‘Tavi straightened her bowtie.
“Well Pinkie did throw this party for me.” I rolled my eyes while smirking at Vinyl.
“The surviving and welcome party.” ‘Tavi said, “I was wondering, what’s the bit about surviving?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, embarrassed, “Well, long story short, I hit a thundercloud without discharging it. And maaaaybe I fell a few hundred feet out of the air.” I grinned sheepishly.
‘Tavi put a hoof to her mouth in concern, “Are you okay? How long ago, why aren’t you at the hosp—” A white hoof stopping the tirade of words.
“Chill Octavia, if she still needed to be in the hospital they wouldn’t have let her out.” Vinyl removed her hoof from Octavia’s mouth, “So, what’d the doc say?”
“Just to stay out of the air for a few days. I hope you don’t me asking, but why were you guys arguing?”
Octavia rolled her eyes, “Well my roommate here, wants to install an ‘amp jack’ to my cello.” She glares at Vinyl for a moment, Vinyl sticking her tongue out playfully at Octavia. “And I refuse to let her deface my instrument so she can hook it up to one of her machines.”
Vinyl sighed, “It’s not going to ‘deface’ your cello ‘Tavi, it’ll just allow me to mix our genres easier. Just think! Classical and Techno music, fused in a mixture of wubs and melodies!” As she finished she had hugged Octavia close, waving one white hoof as if picturing the fans of their combined music.
Octavia rolled her eyes, “I’ll think about it,” Vinyl grinned widely with a squee, “but I don’t promise anything Vinyl. Now we need to get back to your set before it runs out of music.” She gave a smile to me, “It was nice seeing you Clear Night, maybe we’ll bump into each other again.” Before pushing the extremely happy unicorn back to her setup.
I smiled back, giving a short wave to the pair, before slinking around some of the dancing ponies. A few stopped me to welcome me before going back to dancing. A blue unicorn mare with a mane and tail that looked a bit like blue and light blue toothpaste, hoofed me a toothbrush as she welcomed me. I couldn’t quite hear her name due to a loud bar of music but I smiled and took the offered gift before moving on. I found it a bit odd to see that her cutie mark was an hourglass instead of something dental related but I shrugged it off.
I made it to the hallway where most of the refreshments were placed as I felt a hoof tap me on the shoulder. Turning around I noticed Ditzy looking a little worried but she quickly assembled a nervous smile. “Hey there Ditzy, what’s up? Where’s Dinky?” I asked as I noticed the filly missing from her mother’s back.
“Oh she’s fine Clear,” giving me a genuine smile, “I put her to bed shortly after the party started. She was pretty tuckered out.” She smiled fondly for a moment before noticing my questioning look, “With all the parties that Pinkie throws, most of the buildings are built with soundproof walls.” When I nodded my understanding, she continued, “I do need to ask a favor of you Clear.”
I waited for her to continue as she started to seemingly measure me up. After about a minute of silence, not counting the music, “What do you need?”
She nodded after another moment while both of her eyes focused onto me, “I have a very special delivery that I have to take to Manehatten and it will take about a week for the round trip.”
I blinked in surprise as I guessed at what she was getting at, “You need a foalsitter for Dinky?”
Ditzy nodded firmly, “I know you just got out of the hospital and everything, but Carrot Top is going to be fairly busy this week and can’t foalsit. And Sparkler is staying at a friend’s house while they study together for some test coming up, so she’ll only be able to come over for a short time each day.” As she finished explaining, Ditzy’s eyes started misaligning again as she shifted on her hooves again.
Smiling at Ditzy, “Of course Ditzy, it’d be a pleasure. I’m just going to be doing some paperwork for Blossomforth for the week so I’ll be able to keep an eye on Dinky.” I walked over to give her a reassuring hug with my wing, “I’ll just need a list on what I might need to do or look out for.”
Ditzy relaxed a bit, “You’re a life-saver Clear.”
Chuckling a bit, “Nah Ditzy, that’s Cloud Kicker, she saved my life, remember.” Ditzy rolled her eyes at my comment before we both heard a snickering behind us.
Turning around quickly we saw Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth behind us, the latter blushing a bit as the former spoke up, “Seriously Clear Night, not a day goes by and you’ve already put your moves on two mares.” Ditzy blushed furiously as well Blossomforth while I was sputtering trying to form a complete sentence.
“I wasn’t!” I finally got out, causing Cloud Kicker to laugh a bit, “Seriously, she was just asking for a favor!” Ditzy nodded, although this caused Blossomforth to facehoof and Cloud Kicker’s grin to get wider.
“Ditzy, you sly filly, now I know why you let her stay with you.” Cloud Kicker winked, smiling as Ditzy and I blushed furiously. She let us stumble through a few moments trying to explain before she started laughing again, “Chill girls, I’m just teasing you. Anyway, we wanted to welcome you again before heading home, have to be up early to get the rainstorm ready.”
Blossomforth nodded, “I’ll get you started when you come in tomorrow on the paperwork Clear. 7am sharp.”
I shuffled a bit, “Hey Blossom, would you mind if I did the paperwork here?” Seeing her looking at me quizzically, I explained, “The favor Ditzy asked me was watching Dinky for the week.”
Her mouth opened in an O of understanding, “I don’t see why not. . .” she looked to Cloud who just shrugged slightly, “Just come over and pick it up at 7am then, and return what you’ve finished by 7pm okay?”
I nodded, “I’ll see you tomorrow then Blossomforth, it was nice seeing you again.” I held out a hoof.
She shook my offered hoof, “Likewise. We do need to get going though, it is pretty late.” With that, she and Cloud Kicker turned to join the small stream of ponies leaving the house.
I took a quick look at the clock noticing it was almost one in the morning. I also noticed how messy the room was and moved to start cleaning with a resigned sigh before Ditzy tapped me on the shoulder, “Don’t worry about it Clear, Pinkie will have this cleaned up shortly. On the other hoof, we both have an early morning ahead of us so it’s bedtime.”
I rolled my eyes as she nudged me towards my room, “I am a grown mare you know.” I chuckled light-heartedly as a pink blur started flying around the emptying room, leave a trail of cleanliness in its wake.
Opening the door to my room, I turned back to Ditzy, “Thanks, for the party and allowing me to stay here I mean. It really means a lot to me.”
She smiled brightly, “It’s no trouble at all, just make sure you take care of my little muffin this next week okay?”
I raised an eyebrow, “Little muffin?”
She just shrugged, “I love muffins and I absolutely love my little Dinky, so I call her my little muffin.”
“Makes sense to me. Anyway, I’ll make sure Dinky will be safe this week, I promise.” I said confidently, although she seemed to be sizing me up again.
After a few awkward moments, her eyes looked in different directions as she seemed satisfied with what she saw, “Alright Clear, but if anything happens to my little muffin. . .” She left the sentence hanging as she trotted up the stairs to her room.
I felt a small chill roll down my spine as I closed the door to my room behind me. Note to self: do NOT mess with Ditzy’s daughter.
Climbing into the bed, I tried to get a bit of sleep. But switching from sleeping during the day to sleeping during the night wasn’t quite as easy as flipping a switch. So I laid in the bed tossing and turning thinking about everything that had happened since I came to Ponyville.
I winced as I remembered the lightning shock I receive, causing me to rub my forehooves together a little nervously and my wings to give a small flutter. I rolled over again, muttering, “If I can survive that, I can certainly take care of a little filly right?”
Before I finally fell into a shallow sleep, one last thought passed through my mind; How hard could taking care of one little filly be?