Chapter 3: Just visiting
Flying through the late afternoon sky was a blessing, the cool air and simplicity of the open sky was always had a way of clearing your mind, but today it wasn’t helping. His mind was full of the experiences he had since moving away from his cloud home. He sometimes felt claustrophobic spending so much time on the ground, but he had no one to spend time with in the air. None of his friends from his cloud home were strong enough fliers to make the trip, or wanted to. He was never really sure on how they felt about the ground. Some pegasi didn’t like to even admit it existed, while others were okay living on the ground… Just none his age in the town he was living in.
Cloudadonia was close now and my family lived on the outskirts, we even had our own cloud in the sky which was something not many pegasi had. My mom always used to tell me how lucky she was to have been able to get permission to use this cloud for her home, she said it was a perk of managing the small cloud factory in Cloudadonia. Yes, it wasn’t as big as the one in Cloudsdale and it couldn’t make snowflakes or rainbows but it suited our town and was probably the second coolest place to work in town. His dad worked the coolest job, he actually RAN the company responsible for changing the color of the leaves and getting them ready for the running of the leaves. He never told anyone except his most trusted workers how to do it, but every year the landscape beneath us would gradually go from vibrant green to beautiful reds and yellows as my dad and co-workers did their job. He was actually looking forward to it this year, he would get to see the change up close, maybe even get the chance to learn the secret of how they do it.
He was so lost in thought that he flew right into the front door, the loud smack was greeted by a yelp inside from his mother. His dad opened the door to see his son getting to his hooves and shaking his head.
“You know the doorbell still works son, no need to go knocking so hard with that noggin of yours.” His dad wasn’t one to talk, when the fall arrived and he was busy, the rest of the family learned to be quick on their hooves. His dad would come home and crash through anything and everything, no surface was hard enough to stop him and the entire outside of the house had probably been replaced by now from all his crashes.
“I guess it runs in the family, hi dad.” He wrapped his hooves around his dad’s neck, he missed his dad all the time and was constantly hoping for his dad to come visit him, after all he helped the Clementine’s get started back when he was a just a foal.
“I can’t believe how much fun I have down on the ground dad, I know you said you enjoy it but its way better than that. There’s just so much down there.” His dad hugged him back, enjoying the embrace of his son.
“Well your mother is in the kitchen making some pancakes. Maybe since you like the ground so much, I’ll let you try some maple syrup.” I know my face lit up, my dad never let anyone have ANY of his maple syrup. He loved it so much that he insisted that my name be maple. We broke our hug and he nudged me towards the kitchen.
I trotted into the kitchen and waited, mom finished the pancake she was making before coming over and giving me a brief nuzzle. She had never been the most affectionate mother, yes she never discouraged me but being judged ‘good’ at anything almost never happened.
“Hi mom, the pancakes smell great.” I hopped up onto the stool and waited.
Dad came in with two bottles of his prized maple syrup, one nearly empty and the other still with the wax seal around the neck of the bottle. He pushed the half empty bottle towards me then swapped it with the unopened bottle after mom cleared her throat.
Mom put a stack of pancakes in front of both me and dad before joining us with a small stack of her own.
“I hear that you are catching up acceptably well at your new school. I’m pleased to hear that it wasn’t a mistake to let you transfer.” That was about the average I could expect from my mom, in fact that was a compliment, I think.
“It’s hard and a lot of what Ms. Light teaches us is what earth ponies need to know if they’re going to be farmers, but she says I’m doing really good.” I opened the bottle of syrup with my mouth, trying not to taste the wax.
“Does this mean I can stay there for awhile? The Clementine’s told me they would like me to stay if you say I can.” I put the lid down on the table and carefully picked up the bottle, I know my dad would never let me have another bottle if I spilled even a single drop… despite the fact he had already spilled plenty of his all over the table in front of him.
“As long as your performance in school doesn’t drop below acceptable levels I believe this is a good arrangement.” That was practically encouragement.
“Of course, if you still feel that your cutie mark is something related to trees then how can I say no?” He gestured to his cutie mark, a yellow leaf showed that his special talent was related to trees as well.
I took my first bite into a syrup drenched pancake, I felt like I was biting into heaven. If Princess Celestia said maple syrup was to be banned at that exact moment I would risk being banished for just one more bite.
The second the sugary sweet syrup passed my lips I knew that it was maple syrup not trees that would be the focus of my life. I dumped more of the delicious substance onto my stack of syrup delivery devices and dug in with a passion that even my father couldn’t hope to match. My wings even gave a brief buzz.
“Wow, I thought I liked maple syrup, I guess it runs in the family.” My dad said with a smile. I took a break to chew and nodded my head, my mother who was used to stuff like this with dad continued on like I wasn’t violating every rule of fine dining.
“So sweetie, meet any interesting fillies?” Seam Stress and Angelic Note flashed through my head and I started choking on my wondrous meal. That question wasn’t just hard for me to swallow but it was coming from my mother, a pony that was probably famous for not caring about silly things like crushes.
“Now dear, even if he does there is no need to embarrass him about it.” Dad looked on in sympathy as I started coughing really hard trying to breathe, he came over and started tapping me on the back with a hoof until I could catch my breath. The rest of the meal was very quiet, I don’t even remember taking my eyes off my plate. When I finished eating I helped clear the table without looking at either of my parents. Mom went to go listen to music and read a book in the living room leaving me and dad alone to do the dishes.
“You know your mother might not be very good at the romance thing herself but she can certainly spot it easily enough. Is everything ok? I’m here to listen if you want to talk.” That was perfect, I wanted to talk about it but I didn’t want to bring it up and here was the person I wanted to speak about it with asking if I wanted help, I opened up immediately.
“Well I met these two girls at school and we’ve become really good friends. I think one of them likes me, but I think I like the other one. I mean I like Stress but she’s just always so… Twitchy. But Angelic, well she’s so pretty and gentle and nice as can be. She’s nice to everypony even if they aren’t nice to her, I mean she can be overly shy at times but she’s the only unicorn in the school and I’m the only pegasus, but I think that just makes us closer. I don’t know what to do, what do you think dad?” He looked distracted which I knew meant he was thinking things through, my mom might be the head of the house but dad was a real thinker when he put his mind to it. The plate he was cleaning absentmindedly fell back into the sink, he just picked it up again, he was always dropping things or tripping over nothing but he never let it stop him from doing anything.
“All I can say on matters of the heart is don’t force them. If you’re attracted to this Angelic filly then you should let her know. If she’s not interested then there’s no harm, at the same time you can’t let something like a pony’s work ethic get in the way of loving them. Don’t just shove somepony away just because things are hard for them, because sometimes all they need in their lives is somepony to love them.” He handed me the now twice cleaned plate and I held it as thoughts whirled around in my mind.
I thought about the kiss that Stress had given me, I had blushed after getting it and felt light headed on my way home. Is that what love felt like? Or was it the feeling I got whenever I was alone with Note? That feeling of being perfectly happy with everything. I dried the plate and left it on the counter, dad drained the sink and walked out into the living room to snuggle up to mom. Just this once I wished I knew what they felt, that way I could have something to compare it to.
I flew upstairs to my room and buried my head under my cloud pillows and fought with my emotions until I finally dozed off sometime later.