Chapter 3 - History
Chapter 3
History
16 years ago, Cloudsdale Area Flight School District
The day began as any other; Summerbug (10 at the time) awoke from his comfy cloud bed and rubbed the sleepies out of his eyes as the mini storm cloud created loud thunderclaps to wake him. He eventually found his way to the kitchen and saw breakfast waiting for him on the table with a note.
Bug-a-boo,
Had to work early, but here’s breakfast. Don’t be late for school! See you at home later.
-Love, mom
Yum, blueberry muffins. He thought as he ate the tasty treat, washing it down with a glass of milk. And with that he grabbed his saddlebags and lazily flew to school. Today’s the day! He thought merrily to himself, I’ll finally ask Rainbow Dash to be my special somepony! Even if she is a little on the young side yet.
To make the confession even better he even had hoof-made her a special Heart and Hooves day card. All the intricate details were wing-tip drawn; a talent few pegasai had or even thought of, really brought out the best of the cute illustration of him kissing Dash on the muzzle and her blushing. The art style was one he had gotten into recently, Neighponese. And after he read some of the comics that were imported he had developed a great love for the art form and got his cutie mark, which was an unfurled scroll with a feather on it ready to write, a week ago as he discovered his love for creating art.
Soon he found himself in front of the school, and even though he had been coming here for quite some time now, this was the first time he had actually gotten up really early just to be in school. This was not because he wanted to, but he had heard that Rainbow Dash would come early on certain days to practice her flying, using the flight class obstacle course, sometimes with her friend Gilda the griffon, and today just so happened to be one of those days. But, as he entered the building, he saw that a few other foals had the same idea as he had: to come early and confess to their school crushs.
As he landed and merrily began his trek to the obstacle course, he was suddenly cut off by a big and menacing brown and white griffon that was two years older than Summerbug.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my old pal buggy. I never expected to see your fat flank here so early! Decided to give me my lunch bits early today? Or maybe you wanna get your beat down early and over with." he taunted. Any other day Summerbug would have ran, or flew, or both, just to get away from him, but today was different. He spent the past two weeks preparing for this day, and his courage was soaring sky high.
"No Guile Gilder, I have something more important to do than to let you jack my lunch bits again!" Summerbug choked out; just because he felt brave didn't mean he wasn't terrified.
"What was that bug face--" Gilder growled, not believing what he was hearing. 'This worthless foal just talked back to me; well he'll wish he never had!'
"I said NO! How about asking your parents for more instead of picking on us little ponies! Or was the teacher wrong about griffons being proud and honorable?" Summerbug spat, clearly hitting a nerve.
"You know what? It sounds to me somepony wants a chocolate swirly after a good thrashing." Gilder retaliated, advancing on the little blue and white pegasus. Just when he was a hoof's length away from the his muzzle; a third, effeminate voice sounded from behind.
"Leave my little bug-a-boo alone Gilder!" the new arrival warned. Summerbug suddenly felt his brave front collapse and his face flush as his blonde maned and hazel furred friend, Silver Stitch, called Summerbug by his pet name.
"Silver Stitch, not helping..." Summerbug grumbled as his face met his hoof in embarrassment.
"And so the other coltcuddler appears. How about you leave now four-eyes before I add you to the mix and wreck that pretty face of yours." Guile was visibly trembling and flexing his talons as he looked between the pair of foals flanking him.
"I-I will inform the school board about this unless you leave him alone, you ruffian!" Silver Stitch weakly threatened as he adjusted his stylish, black framed glasses and fuchsia scarf.
"Ya know now, there's an idea, I hear bloody muzzles are in this week. Hows about a matching set?" Gilder growled and raised both talons, ready to attack both foals simultaneously. As the sharp razors were about to strike his intended targets, suddenly a sharp pain slammed into his side, knocking him off balance and making him miss. Looking over he saw Summerbug getting ready for a second buck, which came straight for his beak.
Striking true, Summerbug told Silver Stitch to get out of the fray, but despite his best efforts his hooves remained planted firmly to the floor as he watched in awe, and horror, of the unfolding fight.
'Have I gone mad? I bucked Guilder, twice! Aww horse apples...'Summerbug chided himself mentally, bracing for next attack; and with one swift kick Guilder sent Summerbug crashing into a group of fillies. As he looked around he noticed that were quite a few foals gathered to see what was going on and both Summerbug and Guilder were too concerned about each other to notice the growing audience as some colts began chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
"You bucked me! You friggin' bucked, me! Now it is so on!" Guilder bellowed, towering over Summerbug. As Guilder brought down a talon, Summerbug clumsily dodged, to receive only an immediate kick to the muzzle that sending little flecks of blood flying in all directions.
Before he realized it, Summerbug’s head hit the wall behind him. ‘Of all places to happen, it had to be closer to the ground level with very few cloud walls.’ He thought to himself as he held the back of his now aching head. Squinting, he watched as Guilder approached, and then suddenly stop. Curious, he opened his eyes fully to see what ceased his approach, and was suddenly overwhelmed with horror.
During the fight, the card Summerbug worked so hard on for Rainbow Dash had fallen out and was now lying on the ground right under Guilder’s talon. What was unbridled rage, had now become mocking laughter as the griffon brute picked up the card and read its contents out loud for all to hear;
“Dearest Rainbow Dash, so young and spry,
For several months now you’ve been the apple of my eye.
Your bright blue coat and rainbow mane,
Would surely put any mare to shame.
I love to watch your awesome moves, and on this day I want to choose.
Will you be my special somepony, and hold me close when I am lonely?
And to hold my heart and soul so dearly?
If you do be sure to know, I will be the loyalist colt you’ll ever know!”
As Guilder finished reading, many of the other foals that were gathered around broke out in a uproarious fit of laughter. Summerbug started to feel an empty void begin to tear at the edges of his heart as he sat there, as the emotional pain slowly began to feel like a physical blow to his chest. Tears began to well up in his eyes. “….give it back…that’s not yours…” he weakly said, fighting back his tears.
Guilder, chortling as he spoke, continued his taunt, "Ye-, you actually think- that you have a shot with Rainbow Crash? That blank flank two grades below you? You gotta be buckin’ kidding me. You ain’t got a chance with her! You’re fat, slow, ugly and most definitely the most idiotic foal I know. Even you’re little coltfriend was smart enough to not pick a real fight with me. Face it buggy, you can barely even keep up with that yellow, weak winged filly in flight class. Now, if you’ll excuse me--” Guilder began, tearing the Hearts and Hooves day card to tiny bits right before Summer’s eyes and meandered over to him, tossing the ripped pieces of paper on him like confetti. Reaching down into the saddle bag, Gilder procured five bits, “…I have food to buy.” Then he brought a talon down on Summerbug’s head, slamming his face onto the ground with a sickening thud, and walked away leaving Summerbug to stare at the tiny pieces of paper that he had poured his heart and soul into making. His vision began to blur as he could no longer contain his emotions and tears mixed with blood that both of which were now running freely down his face.
He couldn’t recall how long he had lay on the cold hard ground weeping, a few minutes, maybe a few seconds. He didn’t know or care. But it wasn’t very long after that, that he felt a gentle pair of hooves pick him up and into a warm, caring embrace as a wing gently rubbed his back. Slowly, his sobbing lessened and became more controlled.
“Don’t worry Summerbug, he’ll get his soon enough! I’m here for you, and you can bet your flank the principle will hear about this act of injustice! I’m here for you, and I will be for as long as you need me to be.” Silver Stich promised quietly. Summerbug looked up into Silver’s bronze eyes, and slowly pulled away. “Bug-a-boo, what are you doing? Let’s get to the nurse, you’re beat pretty bad.” He insisted, but his words fell on deaf ears as Summerbug gathered up his things. As he started to walk away he looked back over his shoulder and said, “…Stop calling me that. I’m not a bucking coltcudder, and I’ll prove it to everyone. I’m okay if you’re into other colts Silver, but please for the love of Celestia stop trying to drag me into that world with you. I can’t be anything more to you then a friend, I’m sorry.” He said somberly, then took a deep breath and ran as fast as he could to get to the obstacle course.
“But I can make you happy…” Silver said to the now vacant hallway, a lonely tear tailing down his cheek. With a sigh, he took out his own hoof made gift, a sky blue scarf with golden trim, opened it up and put the pieces of the torn Hearts and Hooves day card on it. Then he rolled the two up together and threw them both in the first trash can he came across, silently crying now knowing the answer to the question never had a chance to ask.
***
Summerbug arrived at his destination, sweaty and wheezing, just in time to see Rainbow Dash and Gilda finishing up a new trick. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The way she would twist and weave, and how the light from Celestia’s sun caught her coat at just the right moments to make for a truly amazing display. It was like watching a leaf gracefully dancing in the wind, the landing not so much. Rainbow Dash had tried to land with a dramatic flair, only to crash head first into a cumulous cloud.
“Heh, you sure your special talent ain’t running inta things?” the Female griffon jested.
“Ha ha, very funny Gilda, but mark my words, I will be the best of the best in all of Equestria! The Wonderbolts will be begging for me to join ‘em!” Filly Dash boasted as Gilda helped her out of the cloud. “Tch, ya, as if. We both know they’ll want me.” Gilda teased with a wink.
“Whatever Gilda…Oh Hi’ya.” Rainbow said, finally taking note of the chubby sky blue pegasus. “You lost or something? The nurse is that way.” She said, pointing a hoof opposite the way he had come.
“N-no, I just wanted to see you…” He began, wiping the blood off of his muzzle.
“Who?” Dash asked, “There’s two of us here.”
“Y-you, Rainbow Dash… um I was hoping-” he began before a voice called out from the flight class doors. “He’s really gonna do it!” And sure enough, a small herd of foals came dashing over to the three.
“Hey lame-o, what the hay is this all about?” Gilda shot at Summerbug.
“Oh no…This can’t be happening…” He said in horror as they were now surrounded by half the school it seemed.
“Calm down Gilda, They probably are here to see my awesomeness! Hey everypony! I’m a bit tired right now, but I guess I can give ya all a show after school.” The rainbow-maned pegasus boasted.
“What are you on about? We just wanna see the drama unfold!” squeaked a pegasus filly.
“Huh?” Dash said, cocking her head in confusion.
“I’m so sorry, I-I really didn’t want to ask you like this, but…w-would you be my special somepony?’ He managed to choke out, his face scarlet.
Realization dawned on her, and she herself began to feel her own cheeks flare up in embarrassment. Suddenly a what seemed like thousands of voices rang out saying things like “He actually asked her!”, “Summerbug and Rainbow Dash sitting in a Tree-” and “Rainbow Crash has an admirer!” in addition to catcalls.
Panicked, she became angry with the one who brought this unwanted attention on her and blurted out the first things that come to mind, “ As if! Why would I ever date anypony like you? It takes away from my fly time with Gilda and besides, you’d need to be, like… two hundred percent cooler before I even consider it! I don’t think you could even keep up with a butterfly! So take your little drama show somewhere else you jerk!” She yelled and quickly flew off, leaving Summerbug even more heart broken than before, and if that wasn’t enough, Gilda turned her wrath on him as well, grabbing his throat and bringing his muzzle barely an inch away from her beak.
“What’s the big idea? Now look what ya did, you actually managed to embarrass her, and that is somthin’ I ain’t neva seen anypony do. An jus’ cause ya wanted a ‘special somepony’, how lame is that! I doubt she even has any interest in boys at this point. Now listen up and listen good, cause if I eva’ see ya sorry face ‘round here again, Imma make sure it looks worse than it does now. And even if she did like boys, they’d need ta be strong, resilient and be able to keep up wit her. Heh, I bet I even got a betta chance with her than you. Seriously, who wants a fat, sniveling colt like you anyway? Do us all a fava and crawl unda a rock.” She commanded, releasing her hold on Summerbug, and flying after Dash.
Everypony was laughing at his failed attempt, and some went on to elaborate what had happened earlier with Guile, caused more rounds of laughter. Having been rejected, bruised, humiliated and beaten, he flew away as fast as his little wings could carry him. ‘This can’t be happening. It was never meant to be this way…’
***
After a visit to the nurse, Summerbug reluctantly sat through his classes, trying his hardest to not break down or draw any more attention to himself. 'This has to be the worse day if my life, so many failures and embarrassments before the bell even rang. I am worthless...’ He thought to himself.
As the day pressed on, he cycled through the mornings events over and over again, growing in both anger and depression simultaneously, until only two things were on his mind;" Who needs friends" and "I'll get in shape and make everypony rue this day!"
But despite his best mental promises and threats, he still found himself at the end of the day alone in the auditorium. It had seemed that the stress of the day gave raise to new insults, like ‘weeping wonder’ and ‘dumbbug’. On occasion he even caught glimpses of a yellow filly with a pink mane that he recognized to be one of Rainbow's groupies, and just scowled at her. What he was too blind to see was the pained expression that she wore. Soon he came to one conclusion, that all he needed was his art and nothing more.
Absentmindedly grabbing a hoof-ful of cloud, he began sculpting it into a mini Rainbow Dash. As he finished with some minor details, and using the innate magical talent that all pegasai had in regards to weather control, he gently blew on the miniature cloud sculpture and froze it solid. He then looked it over and ran a hoof along it with a sigh. The sadness returned and he tossed it aside as he curled up into a ball and let his emotions out again, for what seemed the hundredth time today.
To his chagrin, he felt a pair of hooves, once again, wrap around him and pull him into an embrace. Partially annoyed he opened his eyes and prepared to lecture Silver Stitch again, only to feel the words die in his throat as he saw a blonde and grey filly with a golden, cross-eyed stare looking back at him.
"Oh, sorry for not asking, but I heard you crying. And I came to see who it was, and saw you. Hugs always make me feel better when I'm all kinds of sad, so I thought, 'I should hug him!' and so I did." she said, almost too merrily.
"Uh...Thanks -"
"Derpy! I'm Derpy 'Ditsy do' Hooves. Kinda a weird name I know. Nice to meet you! You're Summerbug right? I heard how you stood up against that bully Guilder and asked Rainbow Dash to be your special somepony. I thought you were really...uh...what's the word...bold? Maybe...wait! I got it! Brave! It was really brave of you." she said with a reassuring nod.
Confused, he responded with, an uncertain 'thank you,' to the pony. This was actually the first time a filly, a filly actually tried to comfort him. Even though he felt really happy, it also felt a little weird. He had become so used to it being Silver Stitch being his shoulder to cry on that, finally having a filly offer hers instead was not only a breath of fresh air, but also a very alien feeling. And to top it off, she did so without a second thought! Anypony else would think twice given his undeserved reputation of being into colts, but not this sweet wall-eyed filly named Derpy.
"Thanks, I did need that." he said, feeling himself blush ever so slightly.
"Um, if I can ask you a question; is it true, about you and Silver Stitch? I don't want to assume, but I’m curious." she sheepishly asked.
Summer's admiration for her soon turned sour. 'And there it is! I knew this was too good to be true...’ he thought to himself.
"No, it's not. We're just friends and nothing more. Why, did he put you up to this? I should have known, no filly wants to be with me. If it’s not because they think I'm ugly, then it's because they think I'm gay. Thanks Derpy, but I think I should leave." he said, cynically, and pulled out of her embrace, just to get yanked back more tightly than before.
"That's not true! I really do just to help. Nopony is making me do anything! You shouldn't talk bad about yourself or lose hope just cause of a bad day." Derpy said, her words obviously ones she would often tell herself it seemed. She flattened her ears as concern laced her features. "Really..." she added.
Summerbug had dealt with too many emotions already for today and pulled free of her grasp, and flew away as fast as he could manage.
Derpy sat there, head held low as she herself felt like she failed to help somepony in need. She felt a hoof on her shoulder as Silver's voice reached her ears, " Hey there, don't look so sad. He's just having a terrible day. I saw the whole thing from the doorway, and I can't thank you enough for trying to help him. My name is Silver Stitch, I am...or was it seems...his best friend. Would you like some company?" he asked, sitting next to Derpy, and hugged her. "You like him too, don't you?" he asked warmly. She nodded.
"As do I," and the two sat embracing each other.
***
"Then I finally decided to buck up and get around to getting in shape and started doing big cloud sculptures to help with my flying. It took forever, but now here I am telling you about how lame and pathetic I was." Summerbug deadpanned.
Rainbow Dash's jaw hung agape as he finished telling his tale and took a bite out of his rose and dandelion sandwich.
"That was like a soap opera! It was so sad and sappy I almost gagged on my food. Twice. Seriously! You were so emo! But I guess I can't judge you too harshly, after all we were just foals back then. So I guess that kind of stuff was a pretty big deal. And just so we're clear on something, if you would have waited and asked me somewhere private I might not have reacted the way I did. And Gilda...she was she was such a jerk back then too. Maybe she was why I wasn't very popular with the colts, and since she hinted that she had a better shot with me than you I’m curious as to why she really wanted to hang out with me all the time."
"But after hearing your side I wanna say sorry. Like I said, if it was a private confession things might've been different. I panicked and hurt you really bad. So, whadda ya say? Bygones?" she asked, extending a hoof in friendship.
Summerbug looked down, and pondered. Ever since that day he shut himself away from everyone, built up walls and trained his mind to push away any kind of feelings that he would often times come to regret having. But, this was a new age, they were both fully grown, and he understood what was truly important, peace and survival. Gingerly, he lifted a hoof and gave her a hoof bump.
"Yeah." He smirked.
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This story is very entertaining. I hope the next chapter comes soon. BTW, where can I find the artist of the cover art?
4466232 thank you
I do my own art as well actually
Why ze hate?
4480557 plot device. ^.^;
4243660 thank you very much for the feedback and critique. I've done a series of rewrites of this story with the aid of a proofreader and I also borrowed a little from the brief rewrite you offered, giving you credit for that. If you be willing to give this one more look over I'd be honored.
When I first saw the cover:
I WANT TO LIVE!
I WANT TO LIVE!!! (To the OC)
cool story bro.
4659937 thank you!
It's so good I start to read it a third time. Good work!
4672952 Thank you very much! I really appreciate it!
I should have the next chapter out before the end of august. only reason why it's been so long is I'm getting married in about 3 weeks and there's a whole lot of running around going on.
4759243 You are welcome and congratulations!
So how's the wedding life treating you? Also, will we see more of Summerbug? I want to see how he manages to catch Rarity's attention.
5103648 Yes, it's just been a really crazy couple of months. Getting adjusted to a new local and getting used to having a spouse is a lot tougher than I expected it to be. But I plan on getting the next chapter out hopefully sometime soon. I'm truly sorry for the delay.