(AKA: my favorite artist!)
"Thank Celestia I brought my hoodie..." I said aloud to myself... and only myself. I had circled the area where I first met Whistle so many times now that it had started getting dark out. I even flew back home to get my hoodie to keep warm after the temperature started to drop to the point of freezing. The whole way there being fueled to take as little time as needed as to not miss my chance to see her again.
What was wrong with me? Here I was, freezing my butt off waiting for a mare I had just met not even 24 hours ago, and for what? Sure she gave me a peck on the cheek, and she's cute, and... Oh... that's right. Shes a cute mare that despite her lacking the ability to speak is still far outside of my league and is having anything to do with me. For all I know this is some elaborate prank she is pulling to get a laugh out of her friends.
I gave my back a stretch and popped my neck. I was sore, tired and really hungry and now... freezing cold. Clouds may look fluffy and inviting, but they are basically big pillows of cold water that zap the heat from your body the moment you sit on them. Even with my hoodie on, I was still shivering to the point of creating fog around me. I was also starting to feel another cold biting sensation, the feeling of rejection.
Something had to have happened for her to not be here, she wouldn't ask me to meet up with her later if she had not meant to do so, would she? She seemed so sweet and sincere, not like the type to stand buck up for no reason. But nevertheless, here I am... Alone. Should I go look for her? What if she was hurt or something? I knew I should have flown her home, now I get to play the wait and wondering game.
I shook my head trying to rid it of thoughts that I knew were not true and held little weight in the way of actuality. This is just stupid, why am I putting myself through this!? I'm sure she is fine, probably just got too busy to worry with the buck who spent what was left of his Saturday waiting for her. For all I know she fell asleep and probably still is.
I looked off towards the very same city I had flown from far off in the distance and took in the last rays of light as the sun faded away. It would be dark soon, too dark to stay out here any longer than I already have. If I waited any longer, it would only be for to catch a cold.
"I waited. What more can I do?" I said as I gave up.
I stood to give one last look around before finally letting go of the last shred of hope I had for seeing her tonight and setting off for home. I stepped off the cloud and fell into a free fall. Un-tucking my wings, I let the cold air fill them and guided myself back towards Ponyville. The landscape had just lost its few remaining colors after today's rain storm, leaving behind nothing but bare trees and a leaf covered forest floor.
I leaned into the wind and let my wings beat harder, if nothing else the extra work would help me warm up a bit. This place was not the same as I remember seeing it, what was once colorful and full of life was now dead and dying. It was not doing anything for my depressed mood, but flying was helping. As if I were a little colt who had just seen his first Wonderbolts show, I poured on more speed in an effort to cheer myself up.
Despite my telling myself that she was basically a stranger to me, I still could not let go of the feeling that I was missing something important between us. It was like seeing her again was the first ray of light after a rainstorm, bringing with it warmth and cheer. I wanted that so badly, but you can only sit in the rain for so long. If she really wanted to or could have been here tonight, she would have been.
With every hard turn, every dive and every roll I felt my mood uplift more and more. The feeling of the wind forcing me harder into a turn, the feeling of loss of gravity when I would go into a dive, all of it helped at this point, no matter how cold. It was like a force that would guide me when I would get upset, something deep in me that knew that this was the cure for all of my problems. Maybe all Pegasi felt this way, maybe they didn't, but I didn't care, I just kept flying.
I rounded the corner to our neighborhood and landed just outside out the corner house on our street, splashing down for the second time today in a puddle. I began trotting towards my home on the far end of the road, still trying to shake off the tingly feeling that would always follow a brisk flight. My head was still buzzing, so much so that I found myself near running to the front door to try and match the pace my eyes were use to seeing.
Trotting is so slow! I don't know why I even bother with it, I could just as easily flew to the door, but no! 'Always trot off the air legs before you sit down!' My instructor would say. Something about using all of your muscles and not just your wings so you don't get lazy. As stupid as it sounded at the time... well it still sounds stupid actually, I guess I still do it out of habit.
I stepped onto the porch of our fixer upper home and crawled out of my hoodie. It was soaked with cloud and smelled like musty leafs after a night of wasted time. I took a curious sniff of it and nearly gagged. "I hate the smell of dead leafs! Bleh!" Tossing it in near repulsion, I watched it land on the old rocking chair by the door and let myself in.
"Dad!? You home?" I shouted, dropping my bags by the door.
"Yeah! OUCH! I'm... I'm in the kitchen!" He shouted back.
"Awesome... He's trying to cook again..." I mummbled to myself as I made my way to the cacophony of sounds coming from the kitchen. Dad had never been one to cook... well anything really. He was more of a take out kind of buck, granted it was only after he successfully destroyed the kitchen first. Not to mention there were few places to order food this late and there is only so many times you can eat cakes and sweets before you crack!
I poked my head around the corner to see if it was safe to enter only to recoil back into the living room, narrowly avoiding a splatter of sauce that hit the wall behind me. Huh... spaghetti, that's new. I leaned in to have a sniff of the odd red sauce that was now dripping down the way, but I was quickly reminded of two things... One, my father is NOT safe when he is in the kitchen and two, I'm pretty sure spaghetti does not have mayonnaise in it.
"Dad? What are you doing!?" I shouted as I dodge a rouge noodle being flung at the same wall. I dived just in time to miss it, landing under the table where I was now hiding.
"SPAGHETTI!" He shouted as he flung yet another noodle at the wall. "If the noodles stick, they are done!" He said as he returned to his pot of... 'Food'.
"I don't think it works that way! Isn't that just a myth!?" I said, braving the danger to sit in a chair.
"No Idea!" He shouted. "All I know is that you but this stuff in here, and then you put this junk in there and heat it up! I read it in a book." She said as he flung a hoof full of noodles behind him. I was so flabbergasted that I had zoned out before he did so, resulting in my face being covered in look warm pasta. "Cas, be a sport and tell me if they stuck." He said over his shoulder.
I spat out one of the discussing flower ropes, did he add cinnamon to the pasta water!? "Yes..."
"Great! That means they are done and dinner is served." He said setting the pots of whatever he had mixed together in font of me. "Luna's moon, son. You need to get washed up."
"Yeah... Dad, level with me... Are you on drugs?" I said as I brushed what was left of dinner off my my muzzle.
"Don't be ridiculous! I'm just rushed is all, I have to get back to the shop to finish that big order before morning! I still can't believe that MY chairs are going in the castle! Just think of it, Luna or Celestia will sit on my hard work!" He said with a huge grin.
"Dad, you have no idea how bad that sounds."
"Mind out of the gutter son! Now, go get washed up. I won't be back before the sun comes up." He said as he zipped up his jacket.
"Wait! You're not staying to... eat... this? What am I going to do tonight by myself!?"
"Watch the tv, isn't that what bucks your age do these days?"
"We only get on channel, 24 hours of hoofball."
"And it's amazing!"
"Dad, I have hated hoofball for years."
"Well, invite some friends over, just don't trash the place."
"Yeah... would hate to ruin the decor... I don't have anyone to invite over!"
"Well, go to be or read a book. I promise I will get the cable fixed soon, I just have to get this order out so I can get paid for the labor. Now, stay out of trouble, wash up and eat dinner. I'll see you in the morning." He said as he shut the door. Just as he did, a giant glob of mystery sauce fell from the ceiling and landed in my mane.
"Bye I guess."
After cleaning the kitchen and deposing of the rancid dinner he had made, I made myself a peanut butter sandwich and took a shower. It was a welcome seeing as even after cleaning up, I was still frozen to the bone! I just wish that dad would have hung around for more than a second, it would have been nice to talk to somepony tonight. As much as I didn't want to admit to it, I was dealing with a bad case of minor heartbreak.
Even after getting cleaned up and spending a long time under hot water, I was still pretty down over everything. I parked myself on the couch and stared at the turned off tv, wishing that I had something to watch other than hoofball. Maybe I should just go to bed, at this point it seems like a good idea to crash and try again tomorrow at having a better weekend.
I had just started nodding off when the doorbell rang out, scaring me out of the couch and onto the floor. I looked up to the clock on the wall, who would be doing such a stupid thing at nine o'clock at night!? I rolled to my hooves and proceeded to trip over the coffee table, sending me face first into the carpet. Stars filled my vision as I held my now bleeding nose on my way to the door. With a pull I opened it and prepaired to flood whoever was out there with all the bad words I never get to say, but when I saw who it was, I was left with more questions than anger.
"W-Whistle!? How did you?" I started. The near frozen mare stood shivering at my doorstep with a look of terror on her face. She lifted a trembling hoof and pointed to my not rock hard hoodie sitting on the rocking chair. "But... It's freezing out, get in here." I said pulling her inside with a hoof. Her leg felt more like a an ice cube than a leg as I guided her to the couch I had been sleeping on and sat her down.
"What are you doing here!? I waited for you for like... ever!" I said, completely forgetting that she could not talk... again. It had to be hard to live like that, especially with ponies like me always forgetting. He reached into her bags and with a fair amount of fumbling, produced her notepad. He shaky mouth could barely write let alone form sentences. When she finished, she held it in front of my face for me to read, but her shaking was making it impossible to see the paper, let alone read it. I took her hooves into mine and did my best to calm the small earthquake on my couch, Celestia she was like touching the embodiment of winter!
"I late. Followed you. Flew fast. lost track. Saw Hoodie. Here now. COLD" I read aloud and looked back to her for confirmation that that was what she meant to tell me, but she just looked at me with a wide eye'd and slack jaw expression. I lowered her note to better she her face, it was as if she was looking through me with her eyes locked onto mine. I became lost in that moment, any resentment I had melted away knowing that it had all been a misunderstanding. Even if I tried, I don't think I could be mad at a mare who had most likely been trying to catch me while I raced home then spent the last hour or so trying to find me in the cold.
I reached behind her with a wing and grabbed the blanket I had been using and wrapped it around her. She watched my every move, her eyes following my hooves as they worked to wrap her up tight in my efforts to keep her from getting sick. I stood up from my spot and began to trot away, Whistle's eyes began to dart as she fell into a look of uncertainty.
"Calm down, just sit there and try to get warm, I'll build a fire." I said as I trotted out back to grab some firewood. It seemed to put her more at ease but she still looked restless under her mountain of my blankets. I trotted quickly out to the woodshed and gathered as much wood as I could, stacking the logs on my back in doing so.
Why had she chased me? I know I'm not the fastest flyer out there, but I can hold my own on the track. If she had been chasing me that whole time, then she must have one heck of a set of wings on her! I was flying mad, fueled by rejection and anger, it was a small wonder she hung with me as long as she did, let alone find me. But why had she done that?
Was it the same reason I sat there all night waiting on her? Did she want to apologize? Maybe she just wanted to set things right and got carried away. Surely she was not feeling the same things that I was, was she? Even now, after everything that had happened, I had never let go of that little feeling she gave me back on the school's steps. No, that's crazy! What mare would want a mopey buck like me... I didn't even like talking in class! I would just stare out the window and wish I could be flying rather than learning about plant cells.
I trotted back into the room where I was immediately spotted and stared at as I began to make a small fire in our fireplace. I bucked a few logs on the holders and tossed in a match with a few squirts of lighter fluid for good measure. I might not be good at a lot, but since we lost mom, I had quite the knack for building a fire. Call it not wanting to freeze to death, but when you are left at home in late January enough, you learn things or you shiver.
Before long I had managed to build a decent sized fire and had taken a place on the floor in front of the couch. Even with all the feeling I had, I still didn't think it was a good Idea to act on them. What if she didn't fell the same, what if she was just here for the warmth. If I sat next to her and so much as touched her without her being ok with it, what would she do? I would be humiliated yet again and have to spend an awkward night with her here in my house.
So when she rested her chin on top of my head and warped her hoofs around my neck softly as we both watched the fire, all of those thoughts melted away. Half elation, half terror of the total lack of experience with mares filled my now shaking body. Every move I made felt like it was done so in shaking, jerky motions, even time felt like it was slowing down as I looking into the beating flames of the fire before us.
Whistle tugged at my neck in a gesture for me to sit on the couch with her, so with possibly the worlds most awkward clamber, I did as I was asked. I rest my back beside her and looked to her for what to do next. Well, turns out this is humiliating no mater how she feels about the situation.
Sensing my unease, she rested her head on my chest and put a hoof on my shoulder. Her mane was tickling my ear and neck, but I didn't care. This was the first time I had ever been this close to mare before and I was going to enjoy every moment of it! The smell of lavender mixed with the smoke from the fire, giving off a scent that kept me wanting more. With her every nuzzle at my neck, I found myself becoming more and more wanting to hold her, but my mind still wanted me to take things slow.
"I wish I had waited longer." I said in my best apologetic voice.
"I wish you had too... I was about to touch your shoulder before you jumped." She said back to me... Wait...WHAT!?
"You can talk!? Why have you not been doing that this whole time!?" I said leaning back away from here. She had bee, lying to me? What the hell!?
"Because I wasn't sure." She said in a beautiful voice that... No! I'm mad and want answers.
"Sure of what!? I have a chipped tooth from the other day!" I said, throwing my hoofs wide. She reached up and put a wing to my cheek top me.
"I trust you." She said as she pressed her lips to mine. She was, kissing me!? What is going on here!? I don't know what to do! My brain shot into overload as I felt her tongue find its way to mine, my body fell limp and anything I had been feeling in the way of anger once again wash away. Amazing what something like what she was doing could do to change a bucks mind. Why had she simply just talked from the start though? The thought was soon pushed out of my mind, house, city at this point as I felt my instincts take over.
I gently eased her body to the couch as the two of us held and kissed by firelight. All of the emotions I had been dealing with over the day, all of the stress and waiting... it was all worth it. Every. Single. Second of it. Why had she not spoke before? I'm sure she had a good reason, no need to ruin the moment, there will be time for that later.
Art work by the very talented: MidnightPremier
(AKA: my favorite artist!)