Thunderlane grinned as he lay on his back, staring up at the orange clouds. Both Derpy and he were trying to identify various shapes in the clouds, a childish game that she seemed to enjoy quite a bit. It was kind of ironic they enjoyed the game so much, especially since they could easily fly up to the clouds and reform them anyway they wanted.
“Oh! Oh! I know what that is!” Derpy squealed, waving a hoof at the sky.
“Which one?” Thunderlane replied. He craned his neck to see where she was pointing. He scanned the few clouds in the sky, but saw nothing.
“That one! Right there!” Derpy said, accentuating her statement with a solid point of her hoof.
Thunderlane followed the direction she was pointing, but was unable to identify which one.
“It’s a carrot!” she insisted with a triumphant smile.
“Oh, right. That one! Yeah, I can’t believe I didn’t get that,” Thunderlane said, still trying to find one that vaguely resembled a carrot. He grinned despite his repeating mental facehooves. “So what is that? Twelve to… uh, three?”
As he turned to face Derpy, shock coursed through him; she was already looking at him, a frown crossing her muzzle. Her normal eye was staring into his while her wall-eye was still inspecting the clouds.
“You don't see it, do you?” she asked quietly.
“Yes! Of course I do!” Thunderlane shouted back. “It’s that one right… uh…” He pointed at the sky, desperately seeking one that could be even mistaken for one, but gave up after the eighth cloud.
His gaze returned to Derpy, who was staring at her hooves. She sniffled, as if on the verge of tears.
“Oh, just… hold on a sec,” he stated, rising to his hooves as his heart hammered against his barrel. “Stay right there. Please don’t go anywhere.”
With a mighty leap and some furious flapping, Thunderlane was airborne and bee-lining to the nearest cloud. He tucked in his wings and corkscrewed around it. He picked up more speed, molding the cloud into a long, carrot-like shape. He flared his wings, stopping his momentum so he could admire his work.
It’s close, but not a carrot yet…
Thinking quickly, he darted off to a much smaller cloud, grabbed it, and affixed it to the thick end of the first cloud. He fluffed it a few times and flew back to the ground, flopping himself onto the blanket right next to Derpy.
“There’s your carrot,” he stated triumphantly, pointing at the cloud he had just made.
Derpy giggled as she looked up at it and wiggled her hooves, much to Thunderlane’s satisfaction. He looked back up at the cloud and sighed, knowing that he had barely avoided a major disaster. He could only revel in his success for a few seconds, though, before Derpy spoke up.
“Hey, Thunderlane?”
“Yeah?”
A gray hoof reached out and tapped him on the nose, causing him to flinch slightly. He blinked and rolled over to Derpy, who had risen to her hooves.
“Tag! You're it!” she squealed before taking off.
Blinking again, Thunderlane watched her fly off to their carrot. He stood up, but watched as she poked her head out from the top, smiling broadly.
“Aren’t you going to get me?” she called down.
Realizing he was still on the ground, Thunderlane shook his head to clear it of absent thoughts. He spread his wings and hunched over, a sly grin gracing his face. Within a second, he was flying straight at the cloud.
Derpy squealed again and took off in a gray streak, but Thunderlane easily followed. The two pegasi weaved in and around the clouds, each one laughing with foalish amusement.
Derpy was much more agile in the air than Thunderlane had expected, making sharp turns and steep dives. He did his best to keep up, but it was evident he would not be able to catch her.
Her flight eventually evened out into a steady glide, a large smile plastered on her face. As she flew, she closed her eyes and reached out her forelegs, as if she had forgotten they were still playing tag; Thunderlane easily caught up then, floating on the thermals just as she was.
Stretched out before them, the landscape was awash with colors, each part of the wonderful sunset in the distance. The town of Ponyville glowed as the purple shadows of the buildings reached out to the duo. The Everfree Forest was a line of deep blue that wrapped around one side of the town, flanked by the small river which gleamed like yellow diamonds. It was a breathtaking sight, but Thunderlane eventually found himself staring at Derpy again.
Trying to force cohesive thoughts again, he managed to say, “Hey, Derpy?”
“Mmm, yeah?” she replied.
“Tag!”
Thunderlane swerved hard to his left and wrapped his forelegs around Derpy. She yelped in surprise, but laughed as he angled them toward a lone cloud in the distance. Once he was close enough, Thunderlane flared his wings, bringing them to a halt. He released his grip on Derpy and she flew forward, landing with a soft flump on the cloud. She kept on laughing, even as she opened her eyes to look up at Thunderlane, who was hovering over her.
Her laughter died down to a smile as she stared at him with her good eye. For a few long moments, neither pony said anything, preferring to stare at each other.
“Thunderlane?” she asked, breaking his stare.
He blinked twice as a blush began to burn his cheeks. “Yeah?”
Derpy pushed herself up from the soft cloud and closed her eyes right before she pressed her muzzle to his.
Thunderlane’s eyes shrunk to nothing more than pinpricks as Derpy kept herself there, her own blush starting to emerge. Her lips were soft, smooth, and felt incredible on his. His wings gave out as he lost himself in the moment, causing him to lose altitude. In response, he flapped harder and somehow flew forward, breaking the kiss.
Derpy yelped as she fell backward, lying on her back while Thunderlane positioned himself over her, trying not to step on any part of her. They locked eyes again, repeating their actions from seconds earlier.
“Hey, uh, Derpy?” Thunderlane asked, starting the banter.
“Yes?” she breathed as the wind picked up a bit.
Closing his eyes and hoping he didn’t miss, Thunderlane leaned in and kissed her again. Despite his best efforts to make it a little less intense than it was earlier, Derpy responded eagerly to his lead by wrapping her forelegs around his neck. After what felt like the best eternity ever, Thunderlane broke the kiss, lifting his head up so her forelegs fell away.
“I barely know anything about you,” he mumbled, “but I feel like I can do this forever with you.”
Derpy reached up and batted playfully at his nose, a small smile on her face as she initiated another best eternity.
Thunderlane scanned the report with a disinterested look. His hoof held up his head as he read, tingling as it fell asleep under his weight. He never was much of a reader, especially of reports and large textbooks. In school, he did his best to hide the latest issue of Wonderbolt Monthly in all of his books. His teachers always told him that he would need the skills he was skipping out on one day, but he found out being a weather pony didn’t require much math or reading, making it the perfect job for him.
Yet here he was, going over a report after evading any serious forms of reading for months. He swore he heard his teachers laughing somewhere in the back of his mind as he pressed on.
He reached out and plucked one of the turnip slices from the cutting board; it was no longer cold, but thankfully still tasted good. As he chewed, an interesting section caught his eye. The mare the report was about seemed to be the best parent in the world, since the author claimed she had fresh chocolate-chip muffins waiting for her every day.
Thunderlane’s mind wandered at that, the scent and taste of melting chocolate filling his senses. The turnip he was chewing on became inexplicably bland in his mouth, and he wondered why it was not chocolate.
Shaking his head, Thunderlane renewed his efforts to read the report. He had only managed three more lines before the chocolate craving returned to his mind, this time twice as strong. Groaning, Thunderlane rolled his eyes as his stomach growled, angry he was not filling it with sweets.
“Okay, fine. You win,” he muttered to himself. He let the report fall onto the table and lifted his rump from the stool. There had to be some leftover chocolate from his last trip to the sweetshop somewhere in the cabinets, he reasoned; alas, he was met with bitter disappointed when all he found was old candy wrappers stuffed into a small cardboard box.
“Great, just great,” he grumbled, glaring back at the report. “You just had to make me want some chocolate, didn’t you?”
The paper remained still.
He snorted, amazed that he expected it to answer him. He never thought clearly on an empty stomach, so he set himself to putting away the remains of the turnip while occasionally glancing at the paper. He tried to read more of it, but the report was shorter than he thought. After only four more sentences, the ornate script of the author’s name revealed itself.
“Dinky Hooves,” he read aloud, tilting his head in confusion. “Who could that be?”
He racked his mind for any Dinkys. Much to his surprise, the image of a gray mare with a blonde mane and tail popped into his head, along with the creepy-looking eyes she had that stared in different directions. He vaguely recalled her saying ‘Dinky’ at one point, but he couldn't be sure. It had been a long time since he had spoken with that mare and, quite frankly, he couldn’t recall her name despite working on the weather team with her. He could remember Cloudchaser saying it was something silly, though, like ‘Darling’ or ‘Ditzy’.
Still, he gathered his saddlebags from the far counter and stuffed the report into one of them. His appetite for chocolate had been aroused, and he was going to have some.
“Maybe the ponies at Sugarcube Corner could help me,” he said to himself.
After, of course, he settled his unhappy stomach with some chocolate, and perhaps some other sweet things too.
Thunderlane wasn’t sure how long he and Derpy had spent on that cloud, but it was worth every second. What little he could recall that did not involve Derpy’s lips was a blur of colors, sounds, and a giddy feeling in his chest. It was the same feeling he had when he was a colt and got a Wonderbolt costume for Nightmare Night; that childish excitement he couldn’t mentally suppress. Derpy certainly seemed to enjoy herself, if the sheer size of her grin was any indication. It was that kind of smile Thunderlane could look at for hours.
By now, the Moon was hanging in the sky, decorated by stars and a few wispy clouds. Ponyville had begun to close up for the night, windows and streetlights being the only source of light in the town. They walked through the streets, both giggling and bumping into one another as often as they could. To anypony else, they surely looked like a couple of drunks stumbling home, but Thunderlane didn’t feel too wasted. Granted, they had drunk a whole bottle of champagne on the date, but the buzzing in his mind stemmed mostly from another source.
“So, what do you have, uh, going on tomorrow?” Thunderlane asked with a nervous smile.
“Just running a couple of errands and making muffins for Dinky,” Derpy said. “Did you have anything planned?” She turned to him, a sly grin slipping across her muzzle.
Thunderlane gulped. “Well, uh, nothing much. Rumble has school and it’s my day off tomorrow, so, uh, nothing much.” For the umpteenth time that day, he mentally bucked himself for his response.
Derpy just laughed and kept on walking, her smile never wavering. “Sounds like somepony’s nervous,” she remarked.
Thunderlane’s wings shivered at that, as he hoped against hope this wasn’t going to lead to where his mind was taking it.
“I’m not nervous. Just, ah, thinking about stuff, and… things.”
Even Thunderlane had to admit his choice of words was rather horrendous at that point. While he was no stranger to dating, he had never felt this awkward around a date since he was younger than Rumble.
“Stuff? Like what?” Derpy asked, the playfulness in her voice increasing.
“Oh, you know. Life and things, you, Wonderbolt tryouts. Stuff like that,” Thunderlane said, trying to play off his nervousness.
Derpy’s eyes twinkled like the stars above. “Me? And just what was it about me that you were thinking of?” she asked, her words slurring slightly.
Thunderlane gulped again, trying desperately not to admit where his imagination was running off to. “Uh, um… I was thinking about you being a m-mom and all. And how much I like that,” he added, wishing he could take the words back the second they left his mouth.
Derpy laughed as she looked away from him. An instant later, Thunderlane felt her tail brush up against his back leg, sending a shiver up his spine.
“Mmmm, I like being a mom, too. Foals are so adorable. I kinda want another one, actually,” she said, the slur in her speech becoming more pronounced.
Thunderlane was sure his coat would catch fire soon. “Oh, really?” he replied.
“Yeah, a little brother or sister for Dinky to play with and pamper. I always wanted a big family, you know?” she said, turning to him again.
Her tail brushed up against his back leg once more as she finished talking, a little more forceful than last time. His back went rigid as his brain scrambled to make a response.
“My family was never very big, but yeah, I always wondered about having a large one too,” he said with a nervous laugh.
“Then where are you going?” Derpy asked as she stopped walking. “This is my place, remember?”
Thunderlane froze in mid-step, looking around wildly; he had been so wrapped up in his conversation with Derpy that he had forgotten he was escorting her home. Turning to her, he gulped once again and forced out a smile.
“Oh, right. Well, uh, I guess this is goodnight?”
“Yeah, it can be. Unless…” Derpy paused, staring at him with a devilish grin.
“U-unless?”
“Well, Dinky is at a sleepover at Sweet Apple Acres. You could come in for a bit and we could, you know, discuss having big families,” she said, batting her eyes at him.
Thunderlane felt his wings shift uncomfortably as they tried to stand up on their own. “As, uh, inviting as that sounds, I r-really don't think…” he said, his blush erupting from underneath his dark coat.
“Aw, please?” Derpy asked, a hint of sadness in her eyes. She placed a hoof on his shoulder. “I’ve had such a lovely day, and I can make you a great cup of coffee.”
Thunderlane opened and closed his mouth, silent as his wings shifted again. His mind ran through tons of options of what to say, all of them turning down her offer in the most polite way possible.
“I, uh, yeah. I’d like that,” he said, going against everything his mind screamed.
A wide grin broke out across Derpy’s face. She turned to the door and pulled out a key from under the welcome mat. After a few seconds of fumbling to find the lock, the door swung open, and Derpy entered, flashing a hungry look and whipping her tail. Thunderlane could only feel the heavy falls of his hooves as he approached the door, hoping not to mess up the night after their perfect day.
“Dinky? You mean Dinky Hooves?” the pink ball of energy shouted at Thunderlane, causing his mohawk to shudder a bit. He rubbed his ear as she stared at his with her wide eyes.
“Uh, I guess so? I just want to know if she or her mother was around,” he replied.
His words had barely left his lips before the door jingled behind him, causing the pink mare's face to light up even more.
“Hi, Derpy!” she called, waving her hooves in the air.
“Hi, Pinkie!”
“Derpy?” Thunderlane asked, turning around with his brow furrowed.
Standing at the door was the mare from the weather team. Atop her blonde mane sat a small blue hat, and a brown bag was slung across her neck. A wide grin split her face as she trotted forward, staring at him with one eye.
“Hi, Thunderlane. How’s Rumble?”