//------------------------------// // 17 hearts and hooves day gone wrong // Story: Crushed: The Beginnings // by Silent Wing //------------------------------// “Are you sure that I can’t do anything to help, mama D?” I asked again for what felt like the thousands time, trying to convince her that I could really help with Winter Wrap Up, but I had no luck until now. “Sorry Wingy, but the only thing that you could help with would be to cut the ice on the lakes, if you are sure that you want to help the weather team.” She finally caves in, knowing that I could keep that up all day long, if I had to, but luckily this proves to be unnecessary. It’s with a big grin on my face, that I walk over to townhall, where they distribute all the necessary equipment for the different jobs. Major Mare is surprised about my request, but she doesn’t question it any further, instead she just searched for a fitting pair of ice-skates. It takes her a few minutes and I was willing to accept that there are no in my size, when she finally finds a fitting set. After hoofing them over to me, she took one of the maps lying around and marked a few spots on it, before she also gives that to me. It took me only a moment to understand that this map was from the area around Ponyvile and that the marked spots, are the lakes I have to take care off. I thanked her for her help and promised her to be very carefully, before I make my way over to the first lake. I understand that she is concerned, but it’s just a bit of ice-skating, what could there possibly go wrong? When I arrived at the first lake, I was a bit disappointed, that it was only a small pond, but maybe this isn’t so bad for my first-time ice-skating. My first fifteen or so minutes on the ice, I spent more time, trying to get up more than anything else, but I started to smile when I finally get the hang out of it. Since I never went ice-skating before, I don’t know what to expect, so it's a big surprised to me, just how much fun it is. Now I regret deeply, that I didn’t try it earlier and I have to wait almost a full year until I can try it again. The first “lake” doesn’t take me much time, but it is good to get used to those skates and so takes me only a half hour, I walked over to the next marked spot on the map. This lake is much larger than the first one and I am sure that it won’t be as fast as the first one. Carelessly I skate across the ice and I come to an immediate halt, when I her a soft crack. I wait for a few minutes, but when I don’t hear anything else, I just continue like normal. I probably imagined this, but when I move a few more meters I hear another crack, only this time much louder. It is clear to me, that I am now in a very dangerous situation and get from the ice as fast as possible. But thanks to my bad luck, I am almost in the middle of the lake. I take a look around, trying to figure out which coast is the nearest one, before I begin to skate towards it. To my horror, the sound of cracking only gets louder. There are only five more meters left, when I scream in shock as the ice is unable to hold my weight any longer and collapses under me. Immediately, I am surrounded by bucking cold water swallowing some of it, as I continue to scream in panic, while I try to get back to the surface. With a few strokes of my hooves, I manage to lay one of my forehooves on the ice and pull my head long enough out of the water to scream for help. “Help, somepony help.” I scream at the top of my lungs, before I lose my grip again and sink down into the cold water. I try and try again, but it doesn’t take long for me to get tierd. Every attempt to get out of this freezing water cost more and more of my strength. I scream for one last time, trying to take in as much air as possible, before I sink down into the cold water again. Without any strength left, I slowly sink deeper and deeper and I am sure if my descent continues with that speed, I will touch the ground of the lake very soon. I open my mouth, unable to hold my breath any longer swallowing lots of water before I am able to close my mouth again. I grew more and more tired and are almost willing to accept my fate, when I feel something soft touching my hoof, before I black out. I shock awake screaming, pressing Lilu* tightly against my chest for several seconds, before I am violently stopped. I get painfully reminded at the reason why I am in bed in the middle of the day, when my cold says hello again, with a very painful coughing fit. It takes nearly two minutes for me to get my breathing back under control, before I could focus on anything else. The coughing may be painful, but at least it distracted me from my Nightmare, which memories are now coming back with full force. I shiver in fear, when I remember on just how close I came to dying that day and only survived thanks to the purple terror. I am glad that I survived that day, but why had it to be her of all ponies to save me? Everypony would have been better than her, even the scary pink one and now I can’t feel anything else then guilt for what I did to her. When I think back to it, I realize that maybe, just maybe, I went a bit too far when I asked Dusty to write that letter to Princess Celestia for me and sign it with “Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle”. Screw the maybe, I defiantly went too far when I wrote Princess Celestia about her “fantasies”, but that didn’t stop me. Also, I have to admit, it was fun to watch her get scolded by the Princess herself, from my hiding spot. I banish these thoughts, knowing that there are more important things to take care of right now. Right now, I need to go to the bathroom and when I have to get up anyway, I can also find out why it feels so damp around my crotch. With a heavy sigh I push the blankets from my tired body and climb out of my bed, only to almost collapse, when I put my full weight on my weak hooves. With horror in my eyes, I discover the reason why my crotch feels so bad, when I want to give Lilu a quick hug, before I make my way to the bathroom. There in the middle of my bedsheets is a large yellow stain. “Just great, not only do I have the feather flu on hearts and hooves day and a simple nightmare, but now I also wet my bed.” I scream out loud, terrified by this unfortunate turn of events, wondering if my day can get any worse. For a short moment I thing about just climbing back into my bed and wait it out before I get back to sleep. Since those sheets are already dirty, it wouldn’t matter anymore if I just do again what I obviously did in my sleep, but I decide against it. That would be too disgusting, even for my taste. It takes a lot of effort out of me, to make it to the bathroom so that I can take care of my business, Including trying to clean my private parts. After ten minutes of scrubbing them with a washcloth, I accept that I will only fully get rid of it with a bath or a hot shower, but for both I am way too tired. Halfway back to my room I recognize something odd. The house, that had been silent earlier, was now filled with the sound of crying, coming from aunt Cloudchasers room. I hesitate for a moment, before I change my way and enter her room without knocking. There she is lying in her bed, face buried in her pillow. “Aunt Cloudy,” I call out for her, but when she doesn’t react, I make my way over to her and climb into her bed. I give her a soft nudge with one of my hooves, finally getting her attention. “Wingy, what are you doing here? You should be in your bed.” She exclaims in shock with a disapproving look on her face. I flinch for a moment when she reminds me on that, before I lay down next to her. “I heard you crying.” “It’s nothing Wingy, really.” She tries to reassure me, forgetting that there are some things, that make it hard to hide, when you have been crying recently. The most obvious of all those, would be the tear streaked fur directly under the eyes. “Aunt Cloudy, we both know that’s bullshit.” I reply, not giving her the chance to say anything else. I try to snuggle closer to her, to give her as much comfort as possible, but she tries to keep some distance. At first, I wonder why, but it only takes a second for me to understand the reason behind this. After all I am sick and the possibility that I am still contagious is high. “Really Wingy, I am fine.” She repeats, trying to convince me that she is meaning it, but she isn’t very convincing. “Yeah, right, and the Wonderbolts are the worst fliers in all of Equestria.” “You should be glad that Rainbow isn’t here. She would have skinned you alive, if she heard you saying that.” We both look at each other for a moment, before we break out into uncontrolled laughter. I ignore the pain from my throat for the moment, glad that she is still able to enjoy a good laugh. Aunt Cloudy looks at me for a moment, before she offers me a deal. “Okay, I tell you what happened, but only if you go to bed without any argument, directly after that.” I agree with her on that one and wait for her to start, giving her all the time she needs for her to get ready. I know that this can’t be easy for her, but from my own experience I know that it always helps to talk about the things that trouble you, unimportant what it is that troubles you. At first, she is a bit unsure, but the more she explains what happened to me, the more relaxed she gets. If what she tells me really happened liked that, I begin to wonder if somepony exchanged his brain with hay. How else could anypony be this stupid? Cloudchaser caught him in the middle of a rough session with a mare named Skyra. He tried to reassure Cloudchaser that this wasn’t what it looked like and he only loved her, which made Skyra blow up on him, since he told her the exact same thing only a few minutes ago. Now both of them were upset and demanded answers from him and it took only a bit of convincing to get them. Obviously, Thunderlane had been switching between Cloudchaser and Skyra for around a year now, only because he got bored from having sex with the same pony for a longer time. They left soon after this, but not before Skyra made him scream like a filly, from bucking him into the body part which he was thinking with. “So how will you get back on him?” I want to know from her, after she finished her explanation. I have an idea for that, but this would only work if she and Skyra work together. After all, he betrayed both of them. “I don’t think he is worth the trouble.” She replies instantly, only to reconsider after a few moments of silence. “Why, don’t tell me you have an idea Wingy.” I just grin at that, waiting for her to say something, but after a few minutes of silence, I just can’t hold it back anymore. “Why not make him believe that you and Skyra formed your own herd after a while, to show him what he is missing out. Surely, she wants to get back at him to.” She thinks about it for a while, with a smile soon forming on her muzzle. “If she is up for it, that could work out very well. But now it’s back to bed for you.” I hesitate for a moment, remembering what I discovered earlier, before I ask her something that is extremely embarrassing for me. ”Can you maybe change the sheets first, they are kind of messy.” At the end of this sentence, my face is so red, that a tomato looks pale in comparison. She looks a bit surprised, when I tell her this, but it only takes her a moment to continue and now it’s her turn to find out what happened. “What happened?” She asks a bit worried, but it wouldn’t surprise me, if she already knows what I am implying. Like her, I hesitate for a bit, before I gather the courage to tell her everything. Starting with my nightmare from winter wrap up to what I discovered when I get up so that I can go to the bathroom, even including the part about what I thought for a moment, before I actually went to the bathroom. “Wingy, you should never consider something like that.” She replies, more worried about what I thought, than about my little accident. I look down in shame, knowing that she is right. And again, I can’t help it but feel disgusted, that I even considered it. The silence after this lasts for a few minutes before she finally breaks it, asking something I didn’t expect. At least not after what I just herd. “Do you want to sleep with me tonight.” Since in my eyes it is always better to have company, than to be alone when something troubles you, it isn’t a surprise that I just nod. Even after she says that there is something I had to agree to, I just nod again, not really caring what she meant with that. As long as I don’t have to be alone tonight, I would do almost everything. “How is it even possible that you have some of those in my size?” I ask surprised a few minutes later, after she finished putting a diaper on me. “Don’t tell Rumble that you know this, but they are leftovers from when he had the same problem as you.” She replies in a whisper, before she lays down next to me. “I won’t.” is all I say, understanding how bad he must feel about this, should I ever bring that up in a conversation. Satisfied with my answer she pulls me closer to her, allowing me to bury my face in her fur, before she places one of her wings over me.