//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Getting to Know you // by PlayBitz //------------------------------// MLP: FiM Getting to Know You Chapter 3 The next morning, Play Bitz was walking to the departure platform. As he rounded a corner he saw two pegasus ponies whose faces lit up with excitement when they made eye contact. “Playbitz, we’re so happy we got to see you before you left!” Quickshade said as she bounced to Bitz’s side. “So you excited for your trip?” Cold Front walked up to the two and smiled. “Hey Bitz, need a helping hoof?” Bitz looked down at his bag and smiled to Cold Front. “Nah, they’re lighter than you would think. And I guess you could say I’m pretty excited Shade. Though I can’t bounce around nearly as much as you, someone had to cushion our landing.” He emphasized with poking her in her side with a wing. “Well, be sure to write to us, or call. You know if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask and --“ “Easy sweetie. Let’s not smother him”, Cold Front cut her off. He draped a wing over Bitz. “But, seriously she’s right. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to let us know.” Bitz smiled at the two, and then made his way to the train car with his bags. “Thanks, the both of you. I’ll be sure to keep in contact.” Bitz heard the final boarding call when he was entering the train car. Quickshade called out to him. “Hey Bitz, maybe come home with a special somepony!” The train started to move out as Bitz poked his head out. “Yeah, yeah. And Cold Front will let me cook at the next cookout!” All Bitz heard was some laughter as the train picked up speed away from St. Filly. Bitz made his way to his seat and settled in. It was going to be a bit of a trip to Ponyville, so he was going to take the chance to rest up. Just as he finished storing his luggage, he glanced out the window to see the sprawling landscape give way to a very scenic view of St. Filly’s grand Arch. It was a monument to the west. Catch ya later St. Filly. Hello Mr. Pillow. The hours flew by as the train made its way to the Ponyville station. Bitz had woken up about ten minutes before arrival. Once in Ponyville, things were pretty uneventful. All for except when he ran into a very hyperactive pink pony. “Hi there!” “Uhm, hello ma’am.” Bitz had no idea what to do. “Hehe, no, no, silly, my name is Pinkie Pie. And you must be new around here, cause I know everyone here in Ponyville and I’ve never seen you before!” Bitz stopped for a brief second and then smiled. “Ah well, I’m new here, but I’m just on vacation.” Pinkie threw her hooves up and multicolored confetti fell all around them. “That’s ok, I’ll throw you an ‘I’m only visiting Ponyville’ party!” With a nervous smile, Bitz spoke up. “No, no, that’s quite alright Ma -- Pinkie. It’s not necessary. I was in a nasty accident and need to rest. But, I’m sure there can be some kind of compromise?” Pinkie stopped mid-bounce, nearly right in midair. “Oooh, we can do that. How about if you come to the singing competition? I’m sure you’ll get a great charge from the performance and really take flight!” Pinkie, Stoppit! There’s no need for that! Pinkie gasped and looked off to her side. She whispered “Ooops, sorry Mr. Writer. My lips are sealed!” Bitz gave her a confused look but then stood to start walking. “Uhm, ok. Uh, sounds good, I guess.” Bitz then picked up his bags and started making his way to his inn. He had made his way to the inn and settled into his room. He had taken the training vest out of its bag and placed the training weights on to it. He had some time before his lunch date, so he decided to try out the therapy. It wasn’t nearly as hard as he thought it would be. For the first couple of flaps, it was tough, but afterward, it was fine. Maybe it was just some rest was all he needed. “Eh, oh well. May as well head out to meet up with Starlight.” Bitz put his vest on the bed and made his way out. He had started making his way to the town square where the café meeting spot was, but thought instead that since it was early enough, he would surprise Starlight at her work. After asking for some directions, Bitz found the animal clinic where Starlight was working. He made his way inside to look down at a cute white unicorn with a purple mane, which was more focused on her work than who was in front of her. “Can I help you?” she asked without tearing her vision away from her notes. “Hmm, why yes ma’am. That is if you’re not too terribly busy to say hi to an old friend.” Starlight’s eyes went wide as she moved her eyes to see Bitz standing in front of her desk. “BITTY!!!” Starlight jumped from her desk and pounced Bitz, squeezing on him. It had been years since the two had seen each other. Bitz went from a happy, nervous smile to a pained smile as she was squeezing on his bandages. “Star… little less squeezy. Ow, ow, ow.” Starlight backed off a bit to look at what was causing him discomfort, and let out a sharp gasp. “PLAYBITZ, WHAT IN EQUESTRIA HAPPENED TO YOU!!!” Bitz winced at her yelling and using his full name. “Keep it down. I had an accident, but I can tell you more when we’re at lunch.” Starlight poked him in the chest. “Alright mister, but I want full details. Oh, speaking of, do you mind if we meet up with another friend of mine?” Bitz grunted at her poking but smiled. “Uhm, yeah sure. Who’re we meeting?” Starlight went to answer straight away then thought for a moment. Then with a very slowly growing grin she closed her eyes when she responded. “Oh, I think you two will get along just fine.” Bitz gave her a puzzled look then nodded. “Alright, if you say so. So, I’ll see you there, right?” Starlight nodded. “I’ve got to get a few things wrap up a few things here, but yes. I’ll meet you at the café.” “See you then!” Bitz then leaned forward and gave his friend a gentle hug. Bitz then left the clinic and made his way downtown to see some of the sights. He had passed by a very large and somewhat gaudy boutique. “That’s different. Hmm.” He then made his way further into town to explore a bit before it was time to meet with his friend. As Bitz rounded a corner, he stopped dead in his tracks and backed up a bit in fear of getting nearly run over by a red stallion pulling what looked like an overloaded apple cart. While Bitz was pretty big himself, this pony made Bitz look small in comparison. He stood there for a moment, and then shook his head. He needed to get to the café. He was running a bit late. The café wasn’t too far, and as Bitz approached, he saw Starlight sitting at a table with three chairs. Next to Starlight was a brown unicorn with a purple magic aura around her horn. The two were smiling and chatting with each other. Bitz made his way to the two and caught the attention of the brown unicorn. “Oh, hello there, can I help you?” Bitz was taken back a bit but gestured to Starlight and smiled. “I’m with her actually.” Starlight turned and smiled brightly. “Oh hey, Bitz!” she then turned back to Bliss. “Bliss, this is my friend I was telling you about earlier.” Bliss smiled and turned her attention back to Bitz. “Hello then, nice to meet you!” Starlight set her cup down and gestured to Bitz. “Siren Bliss, this is PlayBitz,” She then gestured to Bliss looking at Bitz. “PlayBitz, this is Siren Bliss.” Bitz held out a hoof to Bliss who graciously accepted it. “Pleasure to meet you, ma’am” Bliss chuckled a bit and smiled. “Please, just call me Bliss. So if I may ask… uh, Bitz? If I may ask, how did you end up nearly all wrapped up in bandages? Bit of a scrapper are you?” Bitz looked down at his bandages and gave a nervous laugh. “Actually, no. bit of a story there. You know, if you both have some time for me to share?” Starlight looked at Bliss who nodded, and then Star looked back to Bitz. “Go ahead. I was going to ask you about those anyway.” Bitz took a seat next to the two and for the next hour shared his story about the storm, and about how his colleague was sucked into the storm and about what he did to save her. Bliss was the first to speak up from her shock. “So, you put yourself in harms’ way to save her? Are you okay, I mean, you can still fly right?” “I’ll be ok. I was told that I have to rest up and strength train my wings. But I think I’ll make a fast recovery. My boss, Cold Front, Quickshade’s husband, told me that I’m on an extended vacation. Seems that I…” Bitz put his hooves up to make a quotation gesture. “Work too much. I was told to take this time to get out and explore a bit and meet some new people.” Bliss giggled some as did Starlight. Starlight finished her sip of her tea and looked at Bitz. “That sounds an awful lot like somepony I know, eh Bliss?” Bliss finished her coffee and with a straight face. “I just don’t think I understand what you’re getting at Miss Starlight.” Starlight turned to Bitz and put up a hoof to block her lips from being read but made no attempt to lower her voice. “She practically lives at her work. It took a miracle to get her to sign up for the singing competition.” Bliss took the moment to speak up. “Actually, yes. And by miracle if you mean that a certain pink pony that knows how to change one’s viewpoints pretty well, then yes. There was a miracle.” Bitz was puzzled for a bit then looked at Bliss. “Wait, this wouldn’t be a pink pony that’s really bouncy, talks kind of fast and tried to throw a party for a random stranger like me, would she?” Starlight smiled brightly. “Yep, that’s our Pinkie Pie. If you’re here long enough, you’ll get used to her. She’s a good pony and makes some great treats down at the bakery here called Sugar Cube Corner.” Bitz just nodded and smiled. The conversation ended as Starlight looked over at a clock and gasped. “Oh dear, I need to be getting back to work. Oh, the poor dear.” Bliss looked to Starlight. “What’s wrong?” “It’s nothing terrible, but I don’t want to have just drop all the work on poor Fluttershy.” Starlight got up as did Bliss and Bitz. She then moved to hug Bitz warmly. “Look you, don’t be a stranger while you’re here. I want to make sure you’re getting the rest you need as well as enjoy yourself.” Bitz chuckled some and nodded. “Alright, I’ll do my best.” She then turned to Bliss and gave her a hug as well. “It was nice catching up with you. Hopefully we can do this again sooner rather than later.” Bliss nodded. “We will see. But yes, and it was very nice meeting you Bitz.” Bitz looked to Bliss, and an even wider grin formed on his face. “It was wonderful meeting you too… I mean, yes it was nice meeting you too.” Bliss gave a cute laugh. The three then parted ways. The two mares going back to their daily lives, and Bitz made it back to his hotel room. He felt a little tired, but nothing too bad before, but when he saw his bed, and laid on it for a brief moment, the fatigue in his body fell on him like a ton of bricks. He was more tired than he thought he was. Bitz laid on his stomach to get comfortable. “I’ll just rest my eyes for a little bit and then go look around town.” As soon as he closed his eyes, he was out for the rest of the evening night. The next morning, Bitz woke in a daze. It took him a moment to remember where he was, but after he remembered, he tried to stretch like normal, sending a tinge of pain through his body and wings. “Ow! Oooh, that’s tenderer than it was yesterday. Alright, guess I need to do my morning training.” Bitz got the vest out again, this time with a bit lighter weight than before. As he was instructed, he did the different types of flapping with his wings, each with little to no effort or strain. The vest did make keeping in the air harder, but as far as putting any type of strain on him, it was really simple. It almost felt too easy. Well, maybe if I try to fly around the room slowly, I’ll feel the strain a bit more. Bitz nodded to himself and flapped his wings forward, pushing himself to one wall. He turned around and flew to the next. He kept this up a bit longer until he started to feel more strain coming from the base of his wings. Hmm… there it is. Maybe need to stop for now. Bitz landed and removed the vest. As soon as the vest was off, he felt like he had a bit more spring to his step and laughed a bit as he trotted around his room. “I wonder if that Pinkie Pie wore a vest like this for a long time. That would explain the bounciness!” he chuckled to himself. Just as he was getting ready to bounce a bit more, his stomach growled at him. “Oooh yea, I guess a morning workout would require some fuel to burn.” Bitz then made his way to venture outside. The sun had burned away most of the morning’s fog and was in the sky with a few fair weather clouds. “Hmm.” He thought to himself, that café is only a short distance from here, if I keep low to the ground I could try to fly there and see how my wings are doing. Yeah, that way if something happens, I’m close enough to the ground and to avoid a problem. He nodded to himself and took off with a short distance from the ground to the town’s main strip. He landed close to the café and gave himself a smile. “Oh wow, that wasn’t bad at all. My wings feel just fine. Hmm, I wonder what they have for breakfast here.” After an hour, Bitz finished his meal and made his way back to the inn, but stoped about halfway near an open field. “That was a pretty good flight to the café. Maybe another short flight won’t hurt. I mean, if something happens, I can land and I’ll be just fine. Bitz took flight and made his way over to the open field. Being happy with how he was feeling with the short flight, Bitz decided to take his flight up a bit higher, letting his wings stretch. He landed to check himself over. Hmm, not bad. No real pains to speak of. The doc said I need to rest and relax, right? Well this is relaxing! Bitz nodded to himself after thinking his condition was acceptable. Just before he was about to take off again, a small shadow crossed over him, making him look up. The sky was dotted with a few fair weather clouds that were pretty high up. With a small chuckle and a gentle push Bitz was off in the air making his way up to the clouds. Once up, he made a gentle landing on one of the clouds. He trotted around a few circles and laid down on his legs to look over the edge of the cloud. “I probably shouldn’t do this. I KNOW I shouldn’t do this. What I should do, is flutter ways down, make my way back to the hotel, rest up a bit and then go out and about through the town…yeah.” Bitz kept on nodding and then looked back down over the cloud. He stood up, stretched out his wings and then just stood there. Who am I kidding? BOMBS AWAY!!! Bitz didn’t really move, he just shifted his weight to one side, making it look like he was just standing and tilting, wings closed. He then shoved off the cloud and began his freefall. After about a few seconds, Bitz threw out his wings and swooped down by the field. Enjoying the rush, he pushed himself back up toward the clouds. When he got closer to the clouds, he had an idea. Let’s push this a bit higher! Bitz flew up, past the clouds, his forelegs pushed in front of him as if diving upwards into the sky. His two toned wings giving powerful flaps propelling him upward at a decent speed. He had been pushing his wings pretty hard. They were starting to feel a bit more tired than they usually would but Bitz didn’t take too much notice. He was having too much fun. He kept pushing himself higher and higher. Just as he felt he could push himself up more, Bitz stopped, and allowed himself to hover and look down from where he was. All the colors of the ground started to meld together. Ponyville looked like the size of a bit. He was high enough that the air was getting pretty nippy. Bitz looked up and shook his head. Any higher up would start building up ice in his feathers. He was already pushing himself fa bit much and that would surely end in disaster. Happy with his current height, Bitz smiled to himself, this was going to be fun. He tucked his wings in, and allowed himself to gently, but quickly start to freefall. The wind rushed through his mane, and his fur; it was invigorating. He pushed his forelegs forward, reaching out to the ground, waving his hooves through the rushing wind. He kept his eyes squinted, had he known he was going to freefall, he would have worn his goggles, but squinting would do for now. After what felt like an eternity, Bitz thought he was close enough to the ground. He was at the level of the fair weather clouds when he threw out his wings again. He could feel his feathers curling upward from the wind rushing through them. It was the moment when he tried to cup his wings to catch himself into a glide that he realized he pushed himself too far. His wings gave out, not able to stay outstretched, they curled in on themselves from the fatigue and he started to fall out of control in a slow spin. Oh buck! Bliss was having a pretty good day so far. She had finished doing her inventory early and everything was in its place. Copper was in the back going over some of his lists and possibly getting some things done for himself. She never really could tell everything that the old stallion did in his office, either she didn’t care to know or it just wasn’t ever her business. Bliss made her way up to the counter and placed the inventory book down on the counter. She turned back to the doorway behind it and called out. “Hey Copper, I’m heading out for the day!” The stallion poked his head from the doorway and smiled. “Thanks a bunch Bliss. Sorry to have called you in on a day off, wouldn’t have gotten all that done without your help.” “No worries, I enjoyed helping you out. Side’s, still have pretty much the whole day to myself to get some errands done for the day.” Copper stepped out from the back and up to the counter to look through the inventory list. “Hey, yea. Get yourself some lunch and enjoy the rest of the day. You know… you should ask your friend Starlight about that stallion you guys were hanging out with yesterday.” Bliss was a bit shocked and slightly embarrassed, but then a thought came to mind. “Wait, how do you know I was with Star and some friend of hers?” “Well m’dear, had you not been so enveloped in what the stallion was saying, or how he looked, you might have noticed that I was with my wife a few tables over. I didn’t think it was right to interrupt a chance for you all to make a new friend.” Bliss was slightly confused, on top of her almost obvious embarrassed blush. “But are you sure it was us? I mean there are other ponies with the same type of colors and --“ “Bliss, sweetie, I may be getting old, but my powers of observation are as sharp as ever. It’s good that you’re meeting new people. Sometimes I wish you would get out more and enjoy yourself than make yourself stuck here with an oldie like me.” Bliss puffed her cheeks out a bit but conceded to Copper’s insight. “Well, you may have a point. I’ll take your advice, and with that, I’d like to get out of here before I start on a new little project.” That last little statement shocked Copper a bit, and then he gave her a devious smile. “Go on, GIT. Enjoy your day!” Bliss laughed as she made her way outside. As the shop door closed behind her, she started walking through the town. She hadn’t really planned much for the day, but decided that she needed to enjoy the good weather while it was here. Lunch was starting to sound good, and Bliss had wanted to try a new little place that had opened up about a week ago on the edge of town. She nodded to herself and made her way to the diner. Today was going to be a good day. She got to get some work done in the morning. And the breeze felt nice. She tilted her chin up to let the breeze go through her fur and mane. She then opened her eyes to take in the cool blue sky when she stopped walking for a moment. Something had caught her eye. Had she not been trying to focus on the pure blue sky, she would have missed seeing the speck making its way downward. “Huh? I guess some pegasus dropped something midflight.” Bliss looked downward to guess where the item may fall to. “I don’t have much going on today so I’ll find what it is that fell, report it in, and then the owners can find it later.” Bliss feeling a bit proud of herself for her soon-to-be noble deed of the day, found herself out in the meadow. She looked around a bit to see if anyone else had noticed the falling thing when she looked up. That wasn’t a ‘thing’ falling, it was a pegasus! Bliss started to panic a bit. What do I do?! What can I do?! “Ah ... Ah You… YOU IN THE SKY!!! WAKE UP! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF! FLAP YOUR WINGS!!! WAKE UP!!!!” The wind was rather soothing by now. Bitz had felt like he was drifting to sleep. Nothing was quite as soothing as feeling the wind through his fur. A nagging thought was nipping at his brain though. Something was wrong but he couldn’t figure it out. That was until he finally heard the voice. “WAKE UP!!!!” Wake up? Maybe I should peek to see who is trying to interrupt my nap… wait. When did I fall asleep? Last I remember was flying and -- Bitz’s eyes shot open with a shock, looking down to see the ground quickly approaching and worse yet, somepony was right there trying to catch him! In an instant, Bitz threw his wings out again, not caring how tired or how much it hurt, catching himself at the last second, narrowly missing the other pony’s head and curving himself to land sloppily on the hill, using his front hooves to try and stop his momentum. As he’s skid to stop himself, his left hoof caught on the ground and caused him to dive head first into the earth, coming to a halt with a very unflattering pose of his rear up and head down in the mud. Bliss ran up to the crashed pegasus and gave out a sharp gasp. “Are you ok?! Oh my goodness, Stay there, I’m going to go get some help!” Bitz grunted as he pushed himself upright and turned to look at who was with him. He froze a bit at seeing the cute unicorn from the other day. “No no, I’ll be ok. Nothing I haven’t done before.” Bliss ran up to him and enveloped him in her magic aura. She gently helped him upright and dusted some of the bits of grass and mud off his body. “Oh, heh, thanks uhm, Bliss.” Bliss looked him over and saw that this was the pegasus from the day before, and then took note of all his bandages and his current condition. “What on Equestria were you thinking?” she scoffed at him. Bitz continued to dust himself off and looked at Bliss. “I may have overdone it there. But I’m fine really.” He then folded a wing and turned his head to start preening some of his damaged feathers. His preening was a bit sloppy though, as he ruffled through his feathers a bit too aggressively, slightly messing up the other feathers around the damaged ones in the process. Bliss was walking around Bitz trying to see if there were any cuts or bruises that would need attention. As she circled around him for the fifth time, she noticed something was very wrong with the way he was preening his wings. She puffed her cheeks a bit in anger when she spoke. “What do you think you were doing? What kind of pegasus pulls a prank like that? You realize that you made me nearly have a heart attack seeing you fall like that?” Bitz gave a long sigh and stopped preening for the moment and looked at Bliss. “I am very sorry. I pushed myself way too hard and I’m going to be paying the price for this.” He looked at Bliss who was still scowling at him. It made him feel even worse. “I wasn’t trying to do something like that. It started off as just trying to test out my wings, and suddenly I’m freefalling.” Bitz gave another long sigh. “I ended up getting carried away and nearly got very seriously hurt in the process.” Bitz moved his wing and head back and started preening again when Bliss looked closer at what he was doing. “What are you doing?” “I’m trying to preen,” he said between gritted teeth. He looked back at her with a feather between his teeth as he nibbled on the feather trying to straighten it out. Bliss gave a disappointed sigh and moved to his side. “Not something I normally would do, but do you mind if I show you the correct way of doing that?” Bitz stopped and held out his wing to the mare, not sure if a unicorn really knew how to preen wing feathers. He figured it couldn’t hurt. Bliss used her magic to gently comb through the feathers, when she came to one that was out of line. “You’ll need to bear with me on this, ok?” Bitz looked at the mare with confusion. “Uhm, ok why-- YEOW!!!” Bliss had held out the feather with her magic and then she plucked the black feather from his wing and with a quick shake of her head, she tossed the feather to the side. “You have a few more feathers here that need tending to, but I think you can do that on your own.” Bitz nodded as he looked at the tuft of unkempt feathers then to the cute unicorn. “So, is it normally that painful?” Bliss looked at Bitz with a raised eyebrow. “Normally no, however, because you were doing it improperly for so long, it’s not going to be pleasant for a while, but you need to push through it. Otherwise … “She used her magic to hold out his wing, stretching it out. “You’ll have to put more effort into flying day after day. Soon, you’ll no longer be able to keep yourself flying.” Bitz was curious. “So, uh how do you know so much about feathers and preening?” Bliss’s magic faded as she sat and smiled. “Well you see, my family isn’t all unicorns. My father and brother are pegasi. I had to learn how myself to help my younger brother until he learned how to do it himself. You wouldn’t believe the kind of trouble it was to try keeping him grounded,” Bliss then stood and looked Bitz over. “Now, I know you’re old enough to know better and blah, blah, blah, but I’ll still say it. You should listen to what your doctor told you. You need to heal properly and try to take better care of your wings.” Bitz nodded at her statement and request albeit with a slight blush. Here’s a mare that was honestly worried about his well-being. Then a wild idea popped into his head. “Uhm, Bliss? Would you mind terribly if we had lunch or maybe even dinner sometime?” “Hmm? Well, I guess I could, I mean I don’t really see any harm from it.” “Uh, it’ll be my treat of course! It’s the least I could do for your help.” Bliss thought for a moment and then smiled. There wasn’t any harm from a friendly meal together. It’d at least give her a chance to make a new friend. “Yeah sure, that sounds fun.” Bitz stood and had a beaming smile. “Awesome, it’s a date.” He said as he trotted off to his hotel. Bliss stood and took a deep breath and shook her head. “What a strange pony. “ She then started making her way back to the shop when his last words finally registered. “Wait… what?!”