//------------------------------// // In The Unforgiving Cold // Story: Anonymous and The Nightingale // by Daedelus //------------------------------// "Uuuuugh," you groan as you come to, "Wha-What happened last night?" You groggily ask, picking your head up to look around. You were at home in bed at least, that's good. The pounding headache you have is a clear sign that you were drinking last night as well. You feel a warmth on your chest as your blanket rose and fell. Huh, must be your dog. Anyway, time to go back to sleep, ... REALIZATION Your eyes shot open, remembering that you don't even have a damn pet. So, what the hell is on your chest? Oh, "Oh god." Now this is bad, if...Nightingale was drunk and you were drunk last night, (and no one makes good decisions when they're intoxicated) what exactly did you and her DO in this bed?! You could feel your clothes, so there was a small moment of relief that you could enjoy. But still, knowing how much of an idiot you are while being drunk, you could have very well done the dirty deed with your clothes on. Slowly, you pulled the blanket up, and saw the mare of the hour. Nightingale was sprawled out on your chest, with an empty bottle of Buckweiser in her grasp. She had a small smile while slept, along with a few bits of bacon peppering her muzzle. Wait, bacon? Slowly but surely, the events of last night came back to you. From the bacon fiesta, all the way to the drunk shenanigans you and her did around the house. You chuckled softly, which caused Nightingale to stir and rise up. However, she didn't remember that she was under your blanket. So when she sat up, she looked like a 5 year old kid using a blanket for a ghost costume for Halloween. You begin to laugh, causing her to turn her head in your direction, "What the buck?" She asked tiredly, "Here, let me help you." You say, pulling the covers off of her. She stared at you, as if she was looking for something. It was when Nightingale noticed where she'd been sitting that made her eyes widen, "Um, Anon? What exactly did we do yesterday?" You didn't answer her immediately, you just looked at her for a moment. Gazing into her sapphire eyes, "Don't worry, we didn't do anything last night." She sighed in relief, "Good." She slides off your chest and lands onto the floor. Like a cat, she stretches...with her ass facing you. You look away, not wanting to be caught. You've hardly ever seen her angry, you sure as hell didn't want to deal with that. You get out of bed yourself and walk towards the kitchen. You saw exactly what you had expected. Plates shattered and strewn about the kitchen floor, bits of food stuck to the wall, and empty Buckweiser bottles took up the dining table. "Well, fuck me." *30 Minutes Of Vigarous Cleaning Later* You put your hands on your hips and admired you handywork. Now that's a clean kitchen! You flop on to the kitchen and sigh. You felt Nightingale land onto the couch with you, "So what do you wanna do today?" She looked at you funny for a moment, "Anonymous, did you forget what we talked about yesterday?" "...Maybe." Nightingale responded by rolling her eyes, "Twilight and the others are coming over today!" "Oh! Oh yeah!" "I'm going to head out and tell them." "Alright, see ya later alligator." There was a long pause in the room before she spoke up again, "Do you know what you have to do Anon?" You thought long and hard, you really did. But nothing came to mind other than, "Wait for you to come...back?" You could see her eye twitch a few times, "GO AND MAKE SURE WE DON'T DIE IN THE BUCKING BLIZZARD!!!" "Right, right. I almost forgot about that." More like you completely forgot. Pushing yourself off of the couch, you walk over to the coat hanger, grab a jacket, put on some boots and walk to the market. Nightingale came out right after you and went in the direction of Twilight's castle. The snow was really high, every step you took resulted in the snow coming up to your shins. Good thing you lived close to the market, you didn't want to imagine what this walk would be like for 15 to 20 minutes. Once you made it past the glass doors, you grabbed a grocery cart. The first thing you had to do was grab some firewood, planks, a hammer, and nails. "Excuse me," you asked one of the clerks, "Do you know where I could find the hardware?" The mare pointed to your left, "Sure, it's aisle 10 right past the canned foods." "Thank you." "Your welcome." You head on over to aisle 10 and grab one of the hammers and a pack of nails. Walking deeper into the aisle, you grabbed a big set of planks. Conviently, the firewood was up front when you came into the store. Now for the ponies' food. For this you just sped down each aisle grabbing a ton of pony food. "Pony food. Heh." You pushed the heavy cart towards the checkout. Well, the easy part was done. Now for the hard part, carrying all this shit to your house. "Fuck." "Excuse me?" "Oh, yeah?" "That'll be 153 bits, sir." You pulled out your pouch of bits and set them down. "There's 220 in there, just keep the change." The stallion gave you a huge smile, "Thank you so much." You couldn't help but smile yourself, "Hey, it's Hearth's Warming Eve ain't it? You have a good day now." You finally found a good hold on groceries. Not wanting to delay getting back home any further, you walked out of the market and into the cold, trudging through snow once more. You have to walk carefully so that the planks don't come loose and fall into the snow. While you walked, your mind began to wander. "How is this gonna go? I mean I don't mind having Twilight and the others over, but how is Rainbow Dash going to react?" This was something you had to take account of, because if there was one mare who could fly off the handle quicker than most, it would be her. This made your beard itch something fierce. Damn it, now you really doubted the thought of patching things up with Rainbow Dash. However, you should just focus on boarding up the windows when you got home. You could see your home in the distance, tightening your hold on the planks you began to move faster. Once you got the door open, you slung the groceries on the couch and dropped the planks. You took off your winter wear and grabbed three planks along with the hammer and nails. *50 Minutes Of Anon The Builder Later* You fixed yourself some burgers after you finished boarding up the house. You had a glass of fruit punch to go along with your food. Then, you heard the door open, Slowly, you turned around. Yep, that was them. They all had huge smiles on their faces. You walked out of the kitchen and made your way towards them, "Uh, hey gu-" You were cut off when Twilight flew into you, wrapping her arms around your neck, "Anon! I missed you so much! Oh, this is gonna be the best Hearth's Warming Eve!" While you tried to counter act Twilight swinging you around, the others got ready to swarm you, even Nightingale. You tried to run but Applejack grabbed your legs, "We missed you so much darling!" "We sure did, sugarcube." "AnonImissedyousomuchIcan'twaitwe'retotallygonnafindoutwhatmadeyousadsowecouldmakesureitneverhappensagain!" And there was Pinkie, talking a mile a minute. After they got they're fair sure of strangl-ahem, hugging you, You got up and saw Fluttershy. She floated up to your height and hugged you gently, you returned the gesture. "Hi Anon." She greeted, in her signature small voice, "Hey Flutters." "Well since most of us are here, how about we start with some eggnog?" Twilight asked, making a large bottle appear with her magic. While they conversated and drank, you grabbed a beer and went upstairs to you room. You slipped into some pajama pants and a white T-shirt. About halfway down the stairs, you heard the talking die down. Weird, if anything, Pinkie would have kept the mood going. Once you made it down the staircase, you saw her. And She was giving you a damn good Luigi death stare, "Hey Rainbow Dash."