I was rather late for leaving school on account of staying an extra hour and a half to finish some pending homework I had been assigned; it was almost quarter to five o’clock. Usually, the roads of Manehattan were swarming with students and civilians around the time I was used to leaving. It was normality to have to endure the journey away from educational facilities around quarter past three, but today was rather lonely in comparison to that. Almost nopony at all was walking home now.
I kicked a stone with my hoof, looking downwards and sighing.
Had I done the right thing back there? Honestly, telling off that prissy mare was the most cathartic thing I’d done in a very long time. It certainly made my day… Hell, it made my week.
But… should I have admitted I was a coltcuddler? Was that the appropriate thing to do at the time, under the circumstances of the question I was asked and in the wake of rejecting romance from a modern school celebrity?
As far as science could prove, sexual orientation was a neurological and genetic characteristic of the pony brain; it simply wasn’t a choice, and even without that fact, I was well aware of that from experience. I couldn’t be turned on by mares, and I’d known that all my life. Surely that fact was common knowledge, and others wouldn’t look down on me. …right?
Lost in the stupor of my thoughts, I was completely taken by surprise when I was telekinetically thrown into the alley to my right side.
A powerful thrust from somepony’s hind legs sent me tumbling, and I collided with a trash bin. I recovered swiftly, looking up from the ground at my attackers.
A unicorn and two earth ponies, one of which I vaguely remembered from my Literature class, were standing boldly a few feet in front of me. A hateful, feminine voice came from the one on the left.
“You’ve got some nerve for what you said earlier this morning, Scatter.”
The last word was pronounced with a particularly scornful accent.
…Chelsea.
She chuckled wickedly, mocking my facial expression likely abashed with shock and pain. I suppose that meant my optimistic thoughts about the situation were in vain.
“Colts!” she continued with deprecation, “Teach this coltcuddling loser a lesson he won’t forget, and don’t be too gentle about it.”
With telekinetic aggression, I felt my body slammed and pinned against the wall beside the trash bin. My expression changed to cold blooded resignation.
The earth pony stallion from before trotted up in front of me, and smiled with sadistic elation.
He turned around, preparing to buck me. A drop of blood slipped off of the bruised cut from my shoulder where he had first bucked me.
This was going to hurt.
…A lot.
I closed my eyes and cringed, bracing myself.
“STOP!”
A new voice rang out and my attacker halted instantly, a split second from bucking me. All three of the offenders turned towards the source of the defiance, standing bravely in the entrance to the alleyway. His wings were erected, and he looked utterly pissed with righteous justice.
“The Manehatten police are already on their way. You can stand here and wait for them, or you can get the hell out of here. Hurry up and decide.”
My attacker ponies looked at each other in trauma and shock. The telekinesis pinning me to the wall imploded, and I fell, slumping onto the ground with my flank against the wall.
A few seconds later, they were gone.
I sighed, letting my head hang limp, overcome with pure visceral relief.
My hero trotted over quickly, kneeling down.
“Are you hurt?” He said, moving a hoof to brush part of my mane out of my eyes. The gesture itself was almost… romantic.
I stood up as best I could, unselfconsciously grunting as I did so.
“Yeah, it’s just a bad scratch.” I replied, lifting my head. “Thanks a lot, I owe…”
My words drifted off and lost all meaning as I saw his face for the first time. He was a Pegasus stallion, and he was a very damn cute one at that. He managed to ask what I wanted to before I could properly decide on how to say it.
“It’s nearly lunchtime, want to grab a bite with me?”
I recovered as best I could, putting forward a genuine smile, and probably looking like an idiot.
“Okay, but I’m buying. I owe you for what you did.”
*** *** ***
“So…” I looked at him, munching on my order of hay fries. “You’re a Pegasus. What were you doing trotting around on the ground? Don’t you live up in the Cloudsdale and whatnot?”
My newfound friend, now identified as Soarin’, froze in place at my question. With his gaze still fixated on the recently born shower of rain out the café window, he swallowed hard.
“Well, it’s kind of complicated… You see, I’m in exile right now.” He told me, looking depressingly at his apple pie.
I lifted an eyebrow curiously, tilting my head and provoking him to go on.
“I’m learning about aeronautics in highschool, in twelfth grade right now, and you see, um…” Soarin’ sighed, finally looking turning his head to look back at me. “I’m suspended right now for beating up several other Pegasi.”
My eyes went wide for only a second, before my expression changed to a smirk.
“Well, I don’t doubt you had a good reason to. Earlier, you scared off some bullies to protect me. Any way you look at it, that was an act of justice, and you should be proud of yourself for being able to pull it off without doing anything more than bluffing.”
Soarin’ smiled, soaking up my praise like a sponge. His day clearly hadn’t been going so well, and I was helping him as much as he had helped me.
“Thanks man. So, anyway…”
I interrupted him, my curiosity still at the forefront of my thoughts.
“Wait, you still didn’t tell me why you beat them up.”
My friend opened his mouth and raised a hoof to object, several crumbs from his bite of apple pie spilling out, but he changed his mind as quickly as he had decided to speak it. He was clearly debating whether or not he should tell me.
“You promise you won’t hate me if I tell you?” He asked quizzically, looking at me with a pseudo mixture of sadness and defeat.
I wanted to chuckle, but I knew better than that. Soarin’ was being dead serious with me.
“I promise,” I said, looking at him sincerely. “I won’t think any less of you. You have my word.”
The pegasus smiled kindly, and nodded.
“I beat them out of anger because they were insulting and bullying me relentlessly for several days…” Soarin’ said with a firm tone. “They were bullying me for admitting that I’m a coltcuddler.”