//------------------------------// // Chapter eight: The after effects of a darn good party // Story: From the Outside In // by DarkParable //------------------------------// "HURK!" was all Red had to say the next morning. If I ever eat another cupcake.... he thought to himself as he tried to quell the rebellion in his stomach. The night before he'd been egged on, roped into a bit of an eating contest with Pinkie... He'd gone to bed feeling fine, if so stuffed it wasn't funny, This morning though... Poor fella. At least he'd almost won. Not feeling up to doing much he trotted outside, curled up on his porch and watched the sky slowly grow brighter as the sun came up. He smiled softly, noting that technicolor was a wonderful way to watch the sun rise. It gave everything a rather vibrant feel that sunrises back home just never seemed to match. A soft little sigh escaped him, drawing a stretch along with it. "Ugh..." he muttered as his motions pressed his queasy stomach against the hard wood he lay on. "Yep... Never touching cupcakes again..." he muttered, getting up and rushing off for the bushes. He emerged some time later, feeling a bit better and a great deal emptier. The bush however felt a bit violated and disgusted. Red was oblivious, he didn't speak plant after all. As the thought of food turned his stomach, Red took wing, headed out for the field where he was supposed to be meeting Dash again today. This time around he wasn't left waiting, instead he was startled by a sudden loud pop right behind his head. With a yelp fit for a small dog he shot a good fifty feet into the air and hung there, looking like someone had just show him his worst nightmare. Rainbow Dash was busy laughing her head off at that, quite literally rolling on the ground and laughing out loud. "Oh sweet Celestia, I've never seen anyone jump that badly from a paper bag popping!" she exclaimed, ghasping for breath between fits of uproarious laughter. A rather sheepish landing later and Red was laughing right along with his new mentor. He had to admit she'd gotten him good with that little balancing of the scales. "Surprised you're up and about though Red. If I ate that much in one go I'd probably not get off my cloud for the rest of the week, I mean really, fifty-nine cupcakes, two slices of pie, and a bunch of soda... You're not related to Pinkie are you?" asked Dash with a rather amused smile. "Nope... I'm not, heck I'm not even from anywhere near here. The princesses took me in not too long ago and set me up here. Gotta say, I couldn't ask for a better place to live so far." Red replied with an equally wide grin. They spent a few more minutes talking about the highlights of last night. DJ PON3's awesome wubs, that ill advised eating contest, a game of pin the tail on the pony that resulted in some poor pony getting a nice new beard... It had been a great night, one that Red would certainly treasure for years to come. It was nice to be welcomed like that. "Uhh... Anyways, shall we pick up where we left off?" he asked with a shake of his head, clearing the mental cobwebs of nostalgia... If nostalgia could apply to the events of only five or six hours before. He wasn't quite sure which it was, he just knew he'd fallen into bed at a little after one. "Nah. If yesterday showed me anything its that I was kinda wrong about ya. You've got a good set of wings on you, but... Well... Storm clouds are not your thing." said Dash with a chuckle. "Instead I thought we'd set you up with some normal cloud clearing. You can kick up one heck of a gust mister walking feather duster." "Normal cloud clearing" as it turned out wasn't quite that normal. It involved a whole lot more flapping than he would have thought, though dash did have a point about the whole gust thing. A few strong wing beats and he'd set one cloud pin-balling into a cluster of others, scattering them and single hoofedly inventing the sport of cloud bowling. Dash thought it was kind of awesome, Red just felt like a certain pokemon... Red Wyne used gust, its super effective. Cloud busting on the other hoof, was rather easy for him. He'd found that out the hard way when he'd taken a sky born nap in Canterlot. He supposed that every pegasi found it this easy too, but be that as it may a light tap and "Bomph!" no more cloud. It was kind of annoying when he tried landing on one for a bit of rest and it burst apart, leaving him to hover in place of crash land on the library. "Well, I think that's enough for one day." called Dash, shaking her head and trying not to laugh at the ridiculous sigh of Red clinging to a tiny cloud that was slowly revolving, taking him with it. He waved his acceptance of her words and kept hold of his cloud, trying his hardest not to get too dizzy from constantly being flipped tail over tea kettle. He finally got things under control and left himself draped over the small cloud with a wide grin on his face. Dash had already flown off for her regularly scheduled nap, leaving hi to his own devices. Probably not the greatest idea... He'd gone exploring and found himself stuck in a tree, a rather comical sight considering his hooves stuck out of the foliage, looking like oddly shaped apples considering their color. A rather strong buck to his unwanted perch dislodged him sending him tumbling down into a basket only to wind up covered in apples. "What in tarnation!?" Oh dear... Seems he'd found his way right into the apple baskets of a certain farmpony. A certain farmpony who wasn't too keen on anypony messing with her apple trees. "Uhh hi." he replied, feeling a bit like an overturned turtle in his current position. "Sorry... Wasn't watching where I was going and got myself stuck up there... Thanks for getting me down AJ." he rambled, squirming as he tried to get himself out from under the apples and out of the basket. Sighing Applejack pulled him up and began collecting the now loose apples, checking for bruises and putting the rejects in a neat pile at the base of the tree. A bit of a confused look graced the face of the Farm pony. How'd this fella know her name, she'd never introduced herself. "Ah reckon there ain't no harm done... Say ain't ya that new weather pony from Canterlot? Saw ya last night, and man... You and Pinkie would give a buffet a heart attack." Oh yeah... That new fella she thought to herself. Red blushed a bit, though his fur hid it. A fact he was still quite thankful for. "Well, since ya done fell outa the sky and landed in mah basket, I suppose ya owe me a few hour's work. Ya can help finish this orchard up. Only got a few more trees." Red nodded, it did seem fair considering the fact that he'd probably just cost her a good amount of bits if the pile of half crushed apples was anything to go by.