//------------------------------// // Ch1: A Simple Misunderstanding // Story: Hostile Intent // by Storm Vector //------------------------------// The sun rose high over Ponyville, illuminating the amber, brown and red leaves still hanging from the trees. It was a week away from the Running of the Leaves, and the treetops trembled in the soft breeze wafting through town. Crystal Lattice was also trembling, but not for nearly the same reason: the bright green unicorn watched through fearful cyan eyes as two of her best friends snarled at each other with fury she had never seen in either of their eyes. “I already told you I’m sorry, how many more times can I say it?!” Midnight Storm yelled, his eyebrows dragged down as far on his face as they would go. His thick black sunglasses protected his sensitive pale yellow eyes from the brilliant sunlight, but it didn't hide the sheer fury on his deep, dark blue face as he glared at Winter Whisper standing across from him. “'Sorry' isn't enough to cover it Midnight,” the snow white mare snapped back. Her horn was covered by the massive sunhat covering her entire front half, shielding the pony from the rays of the sun that threatened to roast her chilly body alive. But even without the sun her horn was shimmering with hints of her soft blue aura and flecks of her white, otherworldly ice power, though she restrained herself from using that just yet. Crystal was briefly thankful for that, but it was a small comfort with the harsh snapping flying between them. “You expect me to think your behavior is just going to change? I know you better than that!”. She scowled back at him, practiced with seeing his eyes behind his glasses: she'd certainly spent long enough staring into his eyes over the last two months. “How is my attitude the problem here, you’re the one who started it!” Midnight pointed a hoof accusatorily at her, his wings flaring with anger. Crystal bit her lip as she watched the anger brewing between the two, uncertain what to do. Their relationship had been phenomenal for two months, never an issue they didn't seem willing to talk out: where had this whole mess come from?! Winter stared at him for a second before returning. “Now you’re pinning this on me?! I can’t believe you’d do that! I know you don’t like changing but I thought you’d at least have some sense of decency.” “You know what? Fine. Decency it is,” Midnight huffed, his feathers ruffled as he tensed his wings. “No point making a bigger scene of this. Bye Winter,” he muttered, before launching himself into the air and flying away. "Midnight no, wait!" Crystal belted out, turning to charge after Midnight as he launched into the air and flew off towards the edge of town. He made it across three streets and down another block as Crystal ran fast as she could, her limited muscles built more for long distance hauling than running. She hoped for a bit that he would land, but finally she realized he was just going to keep going and raised her panting voice to call out to him. “Stormy come on, I can’t run this fast…” For a few seconds, it seemed like Midnight would ignore Crystal and fly back home, but a moment later he seemed to sigh and tilt himself backwards a little bit. He dropped and landed just as he was just past, the line of buildings at the end of town, to wait patiently for Crys to catch up. The mare slowed down a little bit, trying to catch her breath, though Midnight seemed patient enough to wait for her. Crystal finally got close enough and slowed to a trot up to Midnight, breathing a little heavily as her body tried to calm her down from the run. “Midnight, what’s going on with you two? I don’t understand…” “Maybe you don’t need to Crys,” he muttered. “Maybe some ponies just aren’t meant to be together.” “Oh yeah, like I’d believe that for a heartbeat,” Crystal replied. “So you two are having an issue, that doesn’t mean you’re over!” Midnight reacted by closing himself off more, so Crystal decided she needed to change tactics before he locked down completely. “But okay, she’s being a pain. What did she do to you exactly?” “She laughed at me, that’s what she did!” he snapped. “I told her about that crash and she laughed in my face about it. I just don’t get how she could be so insensitive to me about this!” “Whoa whoa, Stormy, easy,” Crystal replied, gently pushing a hoof against his chest. Midnight was hyperventilating, his rage getting the better of him, and Crys knew that wasn’t going to help anypony. As he thankfully started to listen to her calming advice, he started breathing slowly and rhythmically like she’d taught him almost a year ago now, to help his anxiety. “Alright, now can you fill me in on something real quick?” Midnight sighed, but nodded with closed eyes. “I realize you don’t want to talk about this, but…what crash are you talking about? I don’t understand.” There was another heavy sigh from the pegasus, before he looked away from Crys and spoke again. He glanced around for a moment, then spoke in a whisper. “I…I was practicing a complex flip one night, and I lost control. I slipped out of the loop and I slammed into a tree." Midnight winced, but continued to talk, still not looking at Crys as she watched his face carefully. "I walked it off without a problem, but I was so ashamed it was eating me up inside. I had to talk to somepony about it. I thought Winter would be understanding, but…but she just laughed in my face over it.” “That doesn’t sound like the Winter I know…” Crystal said, trying to gauge Midnight’s reaction to her statement. She wasn't certain what he thought, but she decided to try and push forward anyways. “Is…I know that’s embarrassing and I wouldn’t want somepony I care about laughing at me for having a problem like that, but…is that all she did?” “What do you mean ‘all’?!” Midnight snapped, causing Crys to recoil. “She laughed at my flying, doesn’t she know how much that means to me? She’s mocking me for…for…agh, what’s wrong with her?!” “Midnight, hang on a second. I…I haven’t ever heard you talking about flying like that before. I know you like being up there, but…what does that mean to you then?” Things were suddenly beginning to fall into place, and she had to push forward and figure out if she was correct. “You’ve only spoken to me about flying as a way of getting around, a good escape for a dangerous situation if you get too far into the forest. Is that not what it’s about to you then?” “Of course it’s not, flying is something…I…” he started to yell, but he quickly backpedaled. “Crystal, I…you can’t tell this to anypony else, got it?” Crystal nodded immediately. “I…well, you know how I feel about the Wonderbolts, right?” “’Kinda overrated’, I think were your exact words?” Midnight nodded, briefly smirking at her words before he continued in a hushed voice. “Well, I…I’ve still gone to a few of their shows, and…and I watch how everypony looks at them. I watch their looks and I can’t help but think that, well, I kind of…sometimes I might…” His voice dropped dead quiet as his neck and wings drooped. “I might like having somepony look at me like that.” Crystal smiled as she softly put a hoof on his back, stroking the back of his neck softly as she tried to ease his addled mind. “Aw Stormy, you want just a little attention? So you really enjoy flying like that then?” “It’s not just the attention, it’s the feeling I get while I’m up there. Feeling the wind under my feathers, it’s…I just can’t describe it," he stared into the sky, gasping and smiling as he stared at nothing specific. "It just feels like I belong there. I practice tricks like that because it feels good to me, because I love the sensation I get after I do some insane stunt. It’s something I want somepony to see…not everypony, but somepony, sometime.” Crystal nodded understandingly, thinking of how she felt when she found a perfect gemstone hidden deep inside the crystal mines. “So, when Whispy laughed at hearing you made a mistake, she insulted something about you that you hold so close to your heart?” Midnight nodded. “But it’s not fair, is it? To be this mad at her…you didn’t know, I haven’t told her anything about that feeling…nopony knows how much flying means to me.” “Well, that’s not true anymore,” Crys smiled, swinging in and bumping her flank into Midnight’s. He jolted in surprise and looked up at her, breathing softer as she watched her smile. “And I don’t think Winter’s going to be ok being so mad after you explain how she hurt you, is she?” “I really doubt it,” Midnight replied, with a little smile of his own. “But when we’ve been so angry at each other, I don’t know if she can forgive me that easily…” “She might not Stormy, but that’s a problem you have to face if it’s going to get better.” Crystal didn’t like having to say that, but she didn’t have any better advice for him right now. He just had to try and make things work, that was the end of it. As expected, Midnight sighed, but he nodded his head. “It can’t just be easy all the time, I guess. Can I ask you to come with me, make sure I don’t put my hoof in my mouth again?” “I’d be delighted to, and I can’t wait for this to end. I hate seeing you two fighting like this.” “Alright, alright, thanks for the extra guilt,” Stormy bonked her in the shoulder. “We’d better go before she gets too…riled…Crys, do you see that?” “What? See what?” she asked, quickly turning her gaze to match his. He was looking somewhere up in the sky. “Over there, something headed towards Canterlot,” he said, pointing with a hoof. Crystal looked as close as she could, following where he was pointing, until she spotted what he was talking about. There was something moving towards the capital city…some things, at least three large shadows moving and…flapping wings? “Are there supposed to be griffons visiting or something?” she wondered aloud. “I feel like some noise would have spread down here if a delegation was coming…wait, are they…they changed heading. They’re coming this way.”