Bubble Flurry clung to that bottle as she cooked, spoon in muzzle she caught herself glancing at it wondering if she should say something first. She could be a little pushy and too much to handle, especially when she was excited about meeting someone new, and because of that, she had a tendency to kill off friendships before they even really started.
Stirring her sautéed vegetables, she glanced over to see inky words floating in the water. Excitement filled her and she looked on, her food forgotten for the moment. She read the message aloud to herself, “When would you like to workout tomorrow?”
She practically vibrated in excitement. She spoke to the bottle in reply and the earlier words were lost. She gave him options. She was an early bird by a normal standard and woke up excessively early in order to workout and from what she saw at camp, she gathered he did not like waking up early at all.
He replied quickly saying that the earlier time was fine and the two continued from there. Bubble Flurry quickly stored her meals for the week, washed her dishes, and zipped off to her room to continue talking to him. Hours passed and her face was stuck in the widest smile she had ever worn. She couldn’t remember the last time she was this happy about something. New friends were a wonderful thing, and with how the conversation was going there was a chance he could be a special somepony in the future.
The moon was high in the sky and it was likely Princess Luna would wonder why these ponies weren’t yet in bed, so with a couple last messages, Bubble Flurry decided to bet her new friend that he would not arrive on time in the morning because to his own admission, he did not like waking up early.
“What do I get when I win?” he challenged.
“I will owe you dinner wherever you choose,” she spoke sleepily.
“I accept,” he replied, “Prepare to get rekt.”
They continued for a little bit more, surely a few more messages wouldn’t cut into their sleep time that much.
Soon Snowyfly sent a pretty risky message, “Aside from working out tomorrow and the silly bet meal that I’m going to win, would you like to go out with me sometime?”
Bubble Flurry’s heart soared. She hadn’t thought she could smile any wider and yet she did. “Certainly,” she said into the bottle.
Happiness filled her and she couldn’t wait to see him the next morning. She had no idea how it would go, but she was excited. Snuggling into her bed with the enchanted bottle tucked under her hoof. She fell asleep with a huge smile on her face.
Morning came and Bubble flew out of bed. She was full of energy, not that she usually wasn’t, but even she tended to drag her feet a little if she was just going about her usual day. She lived on the furthest side of campus from the recreation center and she walked that distance every day to work out on her own, but now she was meeting a guy who genuinely liked her there. Popping in earphones so she could listen to some of DJ Pon-3’s newest beats, she walked with a bounce in her step so quickly that she arrived a full four songs earlier than she normally did.
She sat on a bench outside the rec center, looking down at the enchanted bottle. She had gotten a good morning so she knew he was on the way, but her eyes still flicked to the various paths he could take to walk up. Left, right, over her shoulder, at the bottle, and repeat. She saw him in the distance off to her right.
He waltzed up the steps looking positively dead, the lines under his eyes really accentuated that he longed to be back in his bed. To his credit, he did smile. They went inside with a swipe of their student cards and Bubble turned toward Snowyfly.
“So, what do you want to do?” she asked.
“Whatever you usually do is fine,” he replied pretty flatly.
Bubble was feeling awkward, just a little bit, but it was a striking difference from the suave and sassy pony that had been speaking to her for hours the night before. She tried to chalk it up to him being tired and lead him over to the cardio equipment. They could run around the indoor track, or they could use a machine so they could run next to each other and chat, so Bubble chose the machines because she really wanted to interact with him more than exercise anyway.
“So, how was getting here this morning?” Bubble asked, glancing toward Snowyfly.
“There was a collision between some carts that blocked the road so I got here later than I intended,” he said.
“I did promise you some funny stories from my life since you were so kind as to share some of yours last night, didn’t I?” she said sheepishly, losing confidence with every flat response.
“You did indeed,” he said with a glance toward her and a smile. It was all the help she needed to start going through her tales, and with her roommates she had many.
“Okay, so which do you want first? The tale of the sugar melon? The mystery of the macaroni bowl? The basic tales of the words shouted on the other side of my thin apartment walls? Or there is the tale of the duck pony?”
“Um… dealer’s choice,” he said with an uncertain smirk.
Each and every story told caused Snowyfly to have to stop trotting on the machinery because he was laughing so hard. “How do you not throw it in the trash?” he asked between stints of laughter.
“No idea, but they used my dish drying towel to sop up its rotting juices and left it on the counter,” Bubble laughed along with him, but she wasn’t laughing hard enough to stop trotting.
Their time doing cardio was up and they moved down to the weight areas. The facility was stocked in such a way that Bulk Biceps would think he was in heaven. Unfortunately, Bubble knew she was with an athlete pony and she hadn’t worked weights nearly as much as she had wanted to. He wanted to work tossing weighted balls back and forth between them, an exercise that Bubble knew of but had never done.
He chose a ball and worked it around a little himself before tossing it toward Bubble who would have to stand on her hind legs and catch it in her forelegs. She didn’t time it right or take it into account how heavy the ball was, so she lost grip on it and it hit her right in the muzzle.
Snowyfly laughed, “Okay, no, no, we’re using a lower weight.” He took the ball away and grabbed a lighter one.
Bubble pursed her lips in mild embarrassment. She was the fitness pony and here she was making a clumsy fool of herself. Luckily, he looked amused by it so she didn’t take it too hard.
They finished up working on the few exercises that Bubble had come up with and Snowyfly looked at her to decide what was next. Her mild embarrassment coupled with wanting to spend some more time interacting with Snowyfly lead her to take him to the student lounge in the Physical Education building.
She had just wanted to sit down and chat, but the presence of a ping-pong table lead Snowyfly to pick up the paddles and talk while they played. Bubble had never played it and certainly lacked the dexterity to do it off the bat. She held the paddle in her mouth and Snowyfly levitated his with green magic. Conveniently, they didn’t keep score.
Snowyfly talked about all of his exploits in hockey as a goalie, even when he tried to make it into a professional league. Bubble just listened in amazement, the game lost in translation. He sounded amazing and he wasn’t even bragging, he was just so matter of fact. Unfortunately, he hadn’t made it.
“Hmmm… well, you sound pretty amazing, and your cutie mark is of goalie pads. Maybe you’re meant to be a goalie teacher!” Bubble tried to sound reassuring.
“It could be something like that,” he smiled weakly.
Bubble could see the amusement slipping from his face. Quickly, she changed the subject. “Last night, you mentioned you were a writer. I write too. Are your main characters usually stallions or mares?”
“Mares,” he answered with an uncertain grin.
“That’s funny, I usually write stallions,” Bubble laughed. She was positively enchanted with the pony in front of her. He was great and she really couldn’t see anything bad. He was a bit coy, but she could see that after a bit of a warm up period he would come out of his shell. She felt the happiness swelling in her chest.
He smiled at her response, “It’s funny how love works.” The blooming love in her heart teased his senses and caused him to slightly lose his composure. His eyes, which were normal by pony standards lost their pupil and became one solid hazel color, just like a changeling. In response to what had happened, he squeezed his eyes shut and put a hoof up between his eyes.
Bubble had seen. Her mind was so preoccupied with the words that had slipped from his mouth that she didn’t even care about the fault in his disguise. She couldn’t help but smile at him. She waited for him to open back up, staring on with her huge grin.
He peered at her over his hoof. “What are you smiling at?” he grumbled.
After nearly a whole day of witticisms being passed between the two, she really tried to think of something smarmy to say. She couldn’t think of anything and she didn’t want to dismiss his comment with sarcasm either, so she just replied with one word. “You.”
They continued chatting until he had to leave for class and Bubble returned to studying for her exam, which had fallen to the wayside in light of the new relationship she was building. Things were going so well that she couldn’t help but feel optimistic about her test too.
They continued their contact for the couple days that they were apart. Then on their final day of school for the week, Snowyfly decided to cash in on their bet meal and take Bubble to one of his favorite local restaurants. Bubble had been so excited to make a good impression that she did up her mane and wore only her best outfit.
The restaurant was a small place. Bubble was amazed at how quaint the atmosphere was, especially since Snowyfly had been going on about it as if it was the best thing since lemon cakes.
The waitress sauntered up, looking at Snowyfly and started up a conversation. “I know what you want, I don’t know what you want.” She peered at Bubble with a smile on her face.
“I’ll have whatever he gets,” she said with a smile. She wasn’t a picky eater really, so whatever it was would be fine.
“Alright,” she looked at Snowyfly, “You sure you want your usual?”
“Yes please,” he said.
It wasn’t long before she returned, her demeanor a little embarrassed. “Ah, we’re out of your usual. We are also out of most everything else.”
Snowyfly looked down a little embarrassed too. “I guess we’ll need to see those menus, huh?”
When the waitress walked away, Bubble started laughing into her hoof. “Oh, this is hilarious. It is a fitting continuation of the day, from us getting caught in the rain and having to hide from dangerous lightning to me being the only pony silly enough to walk through it and get soaked to the bone.”
Bubble’s levity seemed to help because Snowyfly began to smile about it too.
They ate and laughed about the misfortunes of the day and once Bubble provided the bits for dinner, they walked back to her apartment.
“I suppose I should invite you up, but the complex is a little troublesome to get into. We have a lot of party ponies,” she said as they walked. She hoped by some miracle that he could get in, but she wouldn’t bet her mane on it.
By some kind of Equestrian magic, the usual bumping and jiving band of party ponies were nowhere to be seen and the way in was unimpeded. “Well, I’ll be.” She said with bugged eyes. “You are welcome to come up if you’d like.”
“I think that’d be nice,” he said, as he followed her up the stairs that lead to her apartment.
“I just hope my roommates aren’t home,” she said, her ears pinning back in dismay at the thought.
Snowyfly grimaced, remembering the tales from the gym, “I hope not too.”
Another sliver of redemption fell in Bubble’s lap when she opened the door to the apartment and found it silent. Sure, their dishes still hadn’t been done from weeks before, but that was usual for them. Unlocking her room, they entered into her own little slice of the world.
There really wasn’t anywhere to sit in there either, being an apartment near a university meant that spaciousness was a rarity. Bubble only really had her bed to offer for seating and to her relief Snowyfly parked himself on it, using one of her many pillows to prop himself up.
“I have stuff we can do. We can just chat if you want. I can make tea.” She started, suddenly unsure what this was all supposed to mean.
“Talking is fine by me,” Snowyfly said.
Bubble parked herself next to him on the bed, making sure to leave a couple feet of space between the two of them. She didn’t want to seem presumptuous. It took about ten seconds before Snowyfly couldn’t help himself and said something smarmy, leading to Bubble reaching over and tickling his side.
He laughed a bit as he trapped her hoof with his. And with that, the challenge was issued.
Bubble reached out with her other hoof, which was quickly caught by his. He twisted her around so he was lying with her head down by his side and all she could do was look up at him. They stared at each other for a moment before he released her.
Every one of Bubble’s attempts to tickle him lead to her being trapped with his hooves or his magic, and every time she lost they lingered for a moment as they stared at one another. Regardless of her lack of prowess Bubble kept on trying though. It was fun for her. She enjoyed playing a little rough.
“You’re relentless,” Snowyfly laughed when he trapped her once more.
“I tend to outlast my opponent,” she smiled back at him.
They stared for a moment again and Bubble leaned toward him. When he didn’t move she leaned back and continued to try to break free of his hold. It was their final little scrap, both were a little tired. Snowyfly had allowed Bubble the high ground above him and when she was trapped once again, faces inches from one another, she rested her forehead against his in fatigue.
Neither moved for a moment, both breathing a little heavily from their scrum. Their breathing calmed and Snowyfly moved for his nose to touch gently against hers. They lingered like that for a moment before he pressed his muzzle against hers in a gentle closed-mouthed kiss.
Bubble had been hoping for that. She gently kissed him back. They probably exchanged ten or so small kisses one after another before slowly parting. Both were smiling silly little smiles. Bubble waited for a moment before slipping off to the side and cuddling up next to him.
“I was hoping for that,” she said quietly.
“I kind of got that from you leaning in and all,” he said.
“I got a little tired of waiting,” she teased.
They cuddled together like that for a bit. Now that Bubble knew his affection for her was pretty solid she decided to finally make a call back to his little slip. “So, when you said ‘It’s funny how love works’ you meant it to an extent.”
He pressed his lips together and looked away, “My brain didn’t filter that very well.”
He was still being coy, oh joy.
Bubble was so elated she didn’t care about it that much. “It came from the heart then?”
“I guess you could say that,” he said shyly.
Bubble didn’t want to ruin the mood, but maybe she could lift the mood with her reaction. It was a gamble but she was going to take it. “You know, your phrase wasn’t the only thing I noticed when you said that.”
Snowyfly froze, “Oh, you mean you noticed my overwhelming embarrassment at sounding like a creep?”
Bubble scooted up, maybe she could make it romantic. “I noticed, that your eyes changed.” She put her head on his shoulder and looked up at him with big wide eyes.
He laughed nervously, “Oh, you mean a trick of the light. Why would my eyes change? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Bubble puffed up her cheeks. She was trying to be romantic for Celestia’s sake and his coyness was making it really hard on her. She flattened her ears to her head in a huff before perking back up with a grand smile on her face. She hovered half of her body over him, looking him in the eyes. She really focused on how he made her feel, how happy she was, how much she adored the pony in front of her. That was how it worked, right? Could they taste that kind of thing?
It didn’t take long before his eyes flickered between his disguise and his changeling ones.
She didn’t react negatively. She looked into those eyes and let her smile consume her more. His character was what she loved, and she really wanted to let him know that she loved what was beneath the pony façade as well. She moved a foreleg closer to his body in a strange kind of hug and thought about how she felt when he had finally leaned in and kissed her.
That did it. A fiery rush of green magic overcame him in a rush and a shiny black changeling laid in her bed instead of the dashing unicorn he had pretended to be. He looked horrified.
She leaned in and planted a kiss on his mouth, careful of his fangs. “That is what I noticed.”
He looked a little shocked, still frozen in place on her bed.
She was going to have to do more to get him out of that one. Leaning in closer she nuzzled her head against his, feeling his wispy auburn mane, his ear fin, and his tough shining carapace against her. “You’re a changeling and a rather pretty one at that. I haven’t seen many of you guys that deviated from the standard blue hues of Queen Chrysalis’s hive. The reddish tones really complement your eyes.”
“Y… You’re not bothered?” he asked, uncertain of the words he’d just heard.
“Of course not, silly, I like you for who you are, not what you are.” She sat back and continued to admire his changeling appearance.
His fangs were sharp like any good changeling would have. The black carapace on his body shone in the light like she’d never seen. Her roommate ponies would die to have their hooves shine as brilliantly. What little she could see of his wings told her that they were the same auburn color as his mane. A twisted horn shot up from his head accompanied with equally spiny looking ear fins. His bugged hazel eyes were looking at her face, reading her expression with confusion.
“How can you look at me like that?” he asked.
“Because it’s funny how love works,” she said with a smile as she leaned into him. She bopped her nose against his with a little laugh before falling on the bed next to him. “I was trying to be romantic, saying ‘oh, I noticed your eyes’ and you just coyly had to block it, didn’t you? You’re so mischievous.”
“Because I’m a changeling?” he asked in a slightly flat tone.
“No, because you’re Slippy Dip, the most ridiculously silly goalie coach to ever hop on skates.” She giggled. She hoped she was making him feel good about himself. That is all she wanted to do. She didn’t want there to be a huge frightening secret between them so she fished it out and wanted to reassure him whole heartedly.
He let out a laugh, finally. “My name is not Slippy Dip.”
“But, honest question,” she asked as she looked up at him, “is it really Snowyfly?”
He shook his head, “I would have been run out of the hive with a name like that. It’s Cavalier.”
She put her hoof to her muzzle, “Cavalier, a synonym for indifferent, unconcerned, and dismissive. That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
“Do you see why I like to go by Snowyfly?” he smiled. Even as a changeling his smile was charming.
“I suppose,” she said, “Did you choose that yourself?”
“Yeah,” he sounded excited, “It is a combination of the snow goalies make in their crease and the butterfly save that I like to do. I figured it would be fitting so I created my cutie mark to match my interests.”
Suddenly his demeanor dampened slightly. The mention of his cutie mark had been a little awkward earlier too. “I suppose it was a bit of a pipe dream, thinking that a destiny-less thing like me could make my own destiny.”
Bubble nearly shot back in offense for his own honor. “Just because a changeling doesn’t get a cutie mark doesn’t mean that they have no destiny. That just means that you can do anything you want. You can change at any time and do whatever you feel like. Do you want to be a baker this week? You got it. Do you want to travel Equestria on your iridescent auburn wings? You can do it. I’m a bit envious. Some ponies get cutie marks and they aren’t entirely sure what they mean.”
“What do you mean?” he asked with a bit of warm-hearted curiosity.
“I mean, look at mine. It is a bunch of white bubbles. What am I supposed to make of that? Surely, there isn’t a job in bubble blowing in Equestria that needs the likes of me. I still don’t really know what mine means but I’m at an age where I have to really start figuring out what I am supposed to do. I’m pretty envious of someone with as many possibilities as you.”
“You’re a little naïve, you know that?” he said.
“I might be, but I like to try to make ponies feel good about themselves.” She rested a foreleg over his torso, “Oh dear, would me referring to you as a pony offend you? And should I call you Snowyfly or Cavalier?”
He laughed, “No. In fact, I kind of prefer it. And Snowyfly sounds better.”
“Good,” she said as she gently rubbed his torso, or was it thorax, this was going to get a little confusing. “Because to me you’re wonderful and shouldn’t be removed from anypony else.”
Snowyfly wrapped a holey leg around his Bubble Flurry and relaxed for the time being. They nuzzled and caressed one another slowly. Both were incandescently happy, or maybe in Snowyfly’s case he was iridescently happy, but the point being is their mutual affection warmed them both.
“So, when you said ‘it’s funny how love works’ were you looking for something?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he teased, leaning in and kissing her cheek.
“Really? No idea?” she giggled, “Now, that sounds like something that would indicate you had at least something in mind.”
“Who knows? My brain likes to make a mess of things,” he continued to intentionally play coy.
Bubble puffed up her cheeks again in playful frustration, “Oh, well I guess this all doesn’t mean anything does it?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he nipped at her with his fangs.
“Oh, really? Then you must have something in mind?”
“Maybe I was looking for my own very special somepony,” he said quietly.
“Well, I wonder if you’ll find one,” she teased.
“I think I have,” he said.
“Did she say yes? Did you ask her romantically? Oh, goodness, you must give me the details.”
He snickered, “Would you be my very special somepony?”
Bubble smiled up at him, calling back to when he had asked her out in general. “Certainly.”
They kissed a bit more, slightly more forward than the closed-lipped ones he had tried when they were roughing about.
Bubble moved up to plant a kiss on his temple and to her surprise he moved, leading to her huffing air out of her nose onto one of his ear fins. The sound that proceeded to escape from Snowyfly’s throat filled Bubble with such mischievous excitement that any relaxed fatigue she had settled into evaporated. “Oh my, what was that?”
“N… Nothing,” he said as he tried to worm away.
“Really?” she said, leaning closer as she puffed out another breath on his ear fin. This time she had made sure it was a little harder.
There was that mewling noise again.
“Ohohoho, nothing huh?” she sniggered into his ear. She teased out her tongue, lightly catching the thin black edges with only the gentlest caress.
He let out a hiss. Not the kind of hiss that meant that he was in pain, but a hiss of embarrassed pleasure maybe.
“Aw, why are you hissing at me?” she asked warmly. She knew what this was.
“Sensitive,” he whispered out in syllables between her various assaults on his ear fin. Soon it was the only word he could say when he wasn’t hissing or choking back quiet mewling noises.
Bubble enjoyed finding ways to make ponies she cared about feel good like that. She had never been that physically overt on a first date, but she felt like this one was something special. “It’s getting late. I should walk you out, shouldn’t I? We both have a long day tomorrow at camp.”
He got up, happy the assault was over, “Yeah. It’s been great.”
“Let me know when you are home safe,” she held up her enchanted bottle as an indicator of what she meant.
“I knew what you were going for, you goof,” he used a holey hoof to ruffle up her main before magically donning his Snowyfly façade and heading out of the apartment with her in tow. A goodbye kiss sealed the evening with enough love that Snowyfly would crave their next meeting together as much as Bubble would long for it.