//------------------------------// // Date Thirteen - Lepidopterrifying // Story: Cheerilee's Thousand // by xjuggernaughtx //------------------------------// Cheerilee slowed for a moment, falling behind the massive pegasus, and then trotting to his left side as he passed. She’d been walking in his shadow for several minutes, and she’d begun to get chilly. As the sun warmed her again, she turned her face to it, sighing happily. “So… you work at the gym,” she said, cudgeling her brain for some topic of conversation that would engage the stallion. So far, Snowflake hasn’t proven himself to be a big talker. “What’s that like?” “Huh?” the stallion said, his face crinkling as he slowly processed the question. “Do you like working there?” Cheerilee asked slowly, enunciating each word carefully. “YEAH!” Cheerilee flinched, lowering her ears against the volume of his shout. “Well, that’s nice,” she said, scanning the wooded path for anything that might spark some dialogue between the two of them. “Um, everypony should have a job that they like.” she finished, forcing a perkiness into her voice that she normally reserved only for foals. “YEAH!” he replied, thrusting his hoof into the air. “Could you lower the volume a bit?” Cheerilee asked, wincing. “Huh” and “YEAH” were almost all this stallion ever seemed to say, and his constant screaming was like a metal spike boring into her skull. The stallion suddenly stood on his hide legs, stepping forward and flexing his impressive muscles until they threatened to burst from his skin. “YEAH!” he yelled into the heavens. “I mean, okay,” he said, as Cheerilee covered her ears with her hooves. Oh, thank Celestia! He can talk! Cheerilee thought, massaging her temple. We're making progress. Snowflake pulled up abruptly, his eyes slowly travelling left to right and back again. “The… gym,” he muttered. As Cheerilee opened her mouth to ask if everything was all right, he held up a hoof to silence her, his brow furrowed in deep concentration. “When I think of the gym, I think of...” Cheerilee jumped as he leapt into the air, his tiny wings a blur as they somehow managed to haul his bulk from the ground. “Um… hold on, okay?” he said as he landed on a branch high above her head. It groaned under his considerable weight. “What are you—” “I just forgot… something…” he called down. Hidden by the leaves, she couldn’t tell what exactly he was up to, but he was making quite a racket. Several squirrels and small birds fled as branches splintered. Sweet sisters, what now?! Cheerilee thought, rubbing her temples more vigorously. “Okay, sorry” he said, plummeting several yards before his wings somehow managed to slow his descent. “Sorry, I just needed… um…” Landing, he looked away, biting his lip. Cheerilee coughed as a cloud of cloying sweetness enveloped her. Stepping back, she took a few deep breaths. “Uh…” Snowflake said, his face rapidly reddening. “Did you just… douse yourself in cologne?” Cheerilee said, stretching her neck out to take another whiff. The huge stallion reeked of over-ripened fruit and tropical wildflowers. The teacher fought to keep from bursting out laughing as a butterfly landed on his nose. “Well, I… um” Snowflake said, blowing the butterfly back into the air. “Well, I sorta sweat… a lot, and when you said that thing about the gym, I started thinking—” Snowflake stopped abruptly as the butterfly landed on his ear, then began crawling down his face. Eyes crossed, he watched as it walked between them before shaking his head vigorously to shoo it away. “Anyway,” he continued, flushing again, “I just—” The stallion issued a low growl as several more butterflies landed on him, crawling across his fur and probing him with their long, sticky tongues. Cheerilee took a few steps backward as he shook himself like a dog. The butterflies took to the air briefly before landing on him again. “Snowflake, what was that stuff?” Cheerilee said as several dozen butterflies flitted their way through the trees toward them. “Dunno!” he replied, taking to the air as the butterflies attempted to land on him again. “Just some stuff I ordered. The magazine said it had phero-somethings that made ponies like you!” He winced, twisting and flailing above Cheerilee as a second grouping of butterflies arrived and landed on him. “Well, stop panicking!” Cheerilee yelled up at him as she trotted back and forth. “They’re just butterflies.” “No!” he bellowed. “They’re licking me, and they’ve got weird feet that are sticky or something!” Spinning rapidly, Snowflake threw the insects from him. Seconds later they reconverged, covering nearly half his body in a multi-colored swarm. “They feel all creepy!” He looks like a living mosaic, Cheerilee thought, trying to come up with something to do that could help the poor stallion. She grimaced as more began filtering through the leaves above them. All around Cheerilee, butterflies of all shapes and sizes were arriving in ever-increasing numbers. “Get ‘em off! Get ‘em off!” the stallion bellowed, falling to the ground and rolling. As he attempted to crush the insects, they took off, landing immediately again when he stopped. “Snowflake, calm down!” Cheerilee cried, running to him. She swept her hoof through the sea of insects, but they either crawled out of the way or took to the air. An instant later, they reclaimed the area. “Just stay calm. It can’t hurt you!” “They’re in my ears!” he shouted, swiveling his head violently. “They’re crawling up my nose!” “Shoo! Get out of here!” Cheerilee yelled, jumping through the air and waving her hooves at the vast cloud of insects with little effect. “Snowflake, I think you’re going to have to run!” Cheerilee sighed, realizing the hopelessness of that suggestion as soon as she said it. On the path before her, the pegasus sat, rubbing his face in an attempt to gain some sort of respite from the swarming butterflies. He’d rid himself of them just long enough to take a breath before they’d land again, now three levels deep. I can’t even see him anymore! she thought, her breath coming in ragged gasps as panic began to set it. He’s in real trouble! Cheerilee scrambled in several different directions, before finally setting on the one that she thought would be the fastest route back to town. “J-just hold on!” she cried. “I’m going to get…” Her words trailed away as the ball of butterflies began to slowly lift off the ground. Flapping in unison, they were several yards into the air before the teacher arrived. Leaping, she tried to grab where a leg might be, but she came away with nothing but a hoofful of delicate, multi-colored insects. As she watched the enormous cloud of butterflies ascend, she unconsciously released her hoof, allowing the last of the butterflies to join the swarm. “Seriously?!” she yelled after them. “How am I even supposed to report something like this?!”