//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Two Wings of a Feather // by Blueninetails //------------------------------// It's now half-past noon and Featherweight has been patiently waiting in front of Ponyville Train Station on a bench with one of his bags right next to him. Despite that Scootaloo had offered to help transport his other bag, the lighter one, for him and him offering to pay for her ticket back to Ponyville, she refused and insisted on flying back, saying she could easily get back by flying. While flying was a potential idea, and it wasn't exactly unheard of, of a pegasus flying the distance from Canterlot to Ponyville, she would be flying back with the added weight of Featherweight's luggage, which would hasten how tired she would get. Eventually, Featherweight consided after a few minutes and allowed her to do as she wished. So far that estimate was looking to be wrong. Featherweight did give her an extra few minutes given the extra cargo she would be carrying around, but even that had passed. Nonetheless, he was trained to be a camerapony, and knew how to be patient as he went through is luggage and got out a personal camera and his camera rig and prepared to take a few random snapshots of the objects around him. After another twenty minutes, and about forty pictures later, he finally caught sight of Scootaloo as she trotted down towards the train station, and by the looks of things, he also caught sight of Spike and Applebloom right behind the pegasus. "Hey! Sorry I'm late, decided to take a detour on the way." Scootaloo stated as she, Spike, and Applebloom came to a stop in front of Featherweight. "I should've guessed." he remarked as he sighed, "Where's the bag you were carrying for me?" "I left it at their place." "So that's Featherweight? He 'as changed quite a bit." Applebloom remarked "I couldn't have changed that much, could I?" he replied "Dude, you really did." Scootaloo replied before looking toward Spike, "Don't you agree Spike?" Spike didn't answer right away as he brought a claw to his chin and looked Featherweight over, "I dunno, I probably could've been able to tell that was Featherweight without you telling me." "What?! There is no way you could've been able to tell." "Well, I knew him better than you two did. Aside from noticing his cutie mark is pretty much the same, he's the only one I know who would be wearing a professional-grade camera rig and using a Supershot Clear model 7 camera." Featherweight chuckled in response, "Still recognize my camera I see." then put a hoof out toward Spike. "Hard not to when that was the camera you used during the Gabby Gums incident." Spike shot back as he hoof-bumped Featherweight, "Good to see you again." "I'm still surprised you recognized him." Scootaloo rang in. "Like I said, I was closer friends with him than you, Applebloom, or Sweetie Belle ever were. I'd betcha that even Rumble, Snips, Snails, and Pip will be able to recognize him fairly quickly too." "We'll see." "That aside, yer welcome ta come visit us fer a spell if ya want Featherweight." Applebloom stated, "Spike made some sandwiches fer us, if ya'll are interested." "Well, I am a bit hungry." he admitted embarrassingly "Then follow us, we can catch up on the way." Spike stated before the four of them made their way to Spike and Applebloom's home. --------------------------------------------- "So that's what happened to you." Spike remarked, "Most of us always did wonder what happened to you. Diamond Tiara use to joke around saying you probably ran off because of us." "She never was one for giving compliments was she?" "You kidding, the day I hear her give anypony a compliment, will be the day cut my wings off and give up flying." Scootaloo stated as all four entered the quaint home Spike and Applebloom shared. "Jeez, I know she use to bully you guys, but are you sure you're not just being, you know...mean?" Spike asked "You didn't know her the way we did." "Bes' we just leave that one in the past, Spike. She's gone, learnin' ta take ovah her family's business, and we ain't complainin'." Applebloom stated as she placed a hoof on his arm. Spike merely nodded in understanding before proceeding into the kitchen. Over the next hour or so the four ate and talked about whatever came to mind at that moment. At some point, Scootaloo accidentally let it slip about Featherweight current housing situation, which earned a surprised look from Spike and Applebloom, and a glare from Featherweight before he groaned in annoyance. After a quick explanation, including about how Scootaloo was letting Featherweight stay with her until he found a better place to stay, Spike and Applebloom suggested that maybe he should find a place around Ponyville, especially with the sudden increased demand for housing. Featherweight had to admit, there was a certain appeal to the idea of him staying close to friends, especially considering the alternatives were a less fun in comparison. Unfortunately, it meant one big headache as well. There was so much work that needed to be done from changing his mailing address from the P.O. box in Canterlot to one in Ponyville, to informing his contacts and employers. He decided he'll think it over. As Featherweight and Scootaloo were just about to leave, Scootaloo still needed to show Featherweight where he was going to be staying before she had to go to work, Spike quickly threw out the idea that he and Featherweight should hang out with their other male friends, for old times sake at least. Featherweight chuckled at the idea, but agreed. Scootaloo lived about half-way across town from Spike and Applebloom, which was probably a good thing considering Scootaloo wanted to hurry so she could meet up with her class. Along the way, they did greet a few ponies who took the few seconds to greet them back, only a couple of them recognizing Featherweight almost immediately. "Well, here we are. Welcome to casa de me." Scootaloo proudly stated as she stopped for a brief moment before proceeding on to unlock the front door. Featherweight was slightly taken back by the sight of the house, not because it was messy or unkept, but because of its size. Scootaloo's house was a two-story home, like most in Ponyville, but was slightly bigger than the regular house, not as grand as Cloudsdalian home, but still. "What's wrong? Jealous I have such a nice place to call home?" Scootaloo asked with a smirk before both walked in. "A little, but not entirely. Scootaloo your home is actually bigger than most homes around Ponyville." he replied before looking towards the living room, which was just to the right of them as soon as they entered, and noticing two decorative pillars on the far corners of the room, "Wow, that's interesting." "The fake pillar things...? Yeah, I wanted to make it look a little like a cloud-home so I asked Applebloom if she could make some fake pillars for me. She did pretty well, huh?" "Yeah." "Anyway, yeah, I'm aware the place is a bit bigger than most homes around town. I like my space." she stated before proceeding to go up the stairs, Featherweight following behind her. "I mean, I think this is a family home. You know, as in for a family of three." "Oh...Yeah, I guess I didn't think of that; but, hey, just means I have more space to work with. Not that I have a lot of junk to fill it in with." Scootaloo remarked, hiding an embarrassed expression from the fact she didn't think the home was actually a family home, she just thought it was a nice place with plenty of space, and because she only had the barest of essentials when it came to furnishings. "You said you were a teacher, right?" "Only half the time. I only teach from two in the afternoon to about five or six, the rest of the time I'm working as part of the weather team, like most of the pegasus ponies who live here." "How much do you earn? This house can't be cheap." "Enough bits, that's all you need to know." "I'm just curious." Scootaloo sighed after a brief moment, "About 175 to 250 bits a month put together, just enough to pay the bills, buy food, and maybe have something left to get something nice if feel like buying it. Anyway, here's the guest room." She opened the second door to the left and walked in. "Well, that's not too bad, I guess. Still though, for a house like this...?" "I don't pay too much for this place. Mayor Mare let's me have a couple of discounts since I'm technically a civil servant, working in both the recreation and weather department." Featherweight put his stuff on the ground and gave the room a good look over. Like most of the house, it only had the bare essentials: a bed, a dresser, and a table. As Scootaloo was doing the same, placing Featherweight's belongings on the ground, Featherweight hopped onto the bed, much like a foal would, causing a small cloud of dust to explode into the air. He immediately started coughing and went over to the window to open it and stick his head out. Scootaloo laughed at his reaction, before saying, "I did say this room was only good at collecting dust didn't I?" "I didn't think you meant that badly." he complained as his coughing started to subside. "The vacuum is in the closet over there," and pointed towards the direction of the stairs, "first door closest to the stairs. Feel free to clean this room up if you want." "Well, it needs a little work, but I still appreciate you letting me stay here. Thanks Scootaloo, I'll try to pay you back somehow." "Eh, don't worry too much about that. You can worry about that later." she stated as she waved a hoof in the air, "I'd give you the grand tour, but I really gotta get going soon, so I'll just be quick about it. My room's the last door down this hall to the right, don't let me ever catch you in there, got it?" "Understood." "Good. Bathroom's the next door over from this room and the room across from this one is my study." "A study?" "Yeah, just another room when I moved in. I mostly just keep some stuff, like books, medals, and some makeshift 'trophies' my students have given as a way of saying 'thanks' in there. I also keep spare skateboards and skateboard parts in there. You're welcome to go in there if you want." "I think I stand corrected, this might be a home for a family of four." Scootaloo mostly ignored it as she continued, "The kitchen's downstairs, your welcome to the fridge and pantry if you get hungry. There's also another bathroom downstairs, but it's a small one with no shower or bathtub. Aaaaand that's pretty much it, the spare key is in a drawer in the kitchen, and I'll see you when I get back later this evening." and with that Scootaloo headed down stairs to grab her things and was out the door. Featherweight paused for a moment as he looked around the room, then gave a quick and went to get the vacuum, the room wasn't going to clean itself. He spent the better of two hours properly cleaning the room and putting his stuff in areas around the room where they wouldn't get in the way. He mostly just took the bedsheets out to a clothes wire to beat the dust off it, and hoped Scootaloo was telling the truth about the room having very little use, it was far too late in the day to properly wash them and hope they would be dry before he went to bed that night. Once he was properly satisfied with the cleaning, Featherweight decided to head downstairs and find something quick to eat, nothing fancy, a simple fruit will be fine. Unfortunately, it seems that would be easier said than done. As Featherweight thoroughly went through the kitchen, checking all the cabinets, the pantry, and the fridge, he only managed to find some bread, a box of s'mores-flavored pop-tarts, fruit -most of which had already gone bad-, and some fuzzy, dark-blue thing which was in the vegetable drawer of the fridge. Not interested in finding out what that thing was, and considering there wasn't much food to choose from, Featherweight grabbed a pop-tart and ate that before heading out to go grocery shopping. As the sun was about to set, Scootaloo arrived back at her home, tired after that day's lessons. Outside of keeping up with at least 10 different foals with either roller blades, skateboards, or scooters, Scootaloo also had three new pegasus fillies to teach in her flight class, all three being first-timers and gave Scootaloo a run for her money when it came to keeping up with them. "Feathers, I'm home. You didn't destroy my place while I was out, did you?" she called out as soon as she entered the abode. Almost immediately her nose was assaulted by a very pleasant aroma. Curious, she followed the scent into the kitchen where she was greeted by two bags of freshly-bought goods on the table, and Featherweight tending to a pot of what was probably soup or some type of stew on the stove. "Hey, Scootaloo, welcome back." "Uh, yeah, thanks Feathers...What are you doing...?" "Okay, done, it should be clean-" she heard Dinky's voice ring out from behind her as the unicorn mare entered via the front door, "Oh, hey there Scootaloo." "Hey there Dinky, what are you-? Is that from my fridge?" Scootaloo pointed at the veggie drawer in Dinky's magical aura. "Yeah, I wanted to clean it up whatever you decided to keep in here before I put some of the groceries in here, so I went out and hosed it down." "There was something in there?" "You didn't know...?" she asked before opening the fridge and placing the drawer back where it belonged. "Well, I see you made yourself quite at home already." Scootaloo replied with a smirk to Featherweight. "Sorry...," he replied in an embarrassed tone, "you didn't have a lot of food here, so I went out shopping for some; and, I thought I could show my appreciation for what you're doing by making a home-cooked meal." "What are you talking about? I got plenty of fruits to pick from." "Most of them were rotten Scootaloo." "They weren't rotten, they were just...overripe." she rebutted. "They were actually rotten, Scootaloo." Dinky remarked as she took a seat at the table. "Okay, fine, they were pretty bad. I still brought home something edible though." "What did you get?" Featherweight asked, turning his attention towards her. "I got some cheese." "Cheese...?" Dinky asked curiously "Yeah, I have some bread, I can make a sandwich." "Is that all you eat?" "No! I still eat some fruits and some oats on the occasion." Scootaloo replied, her eyes darting about the kitchen. "I'm not sure if that's the healthiest of choices, the fruits and the carbs you get from a sandwich are fine and all, but in your line of work, I think you might need to eat a bit more than just a couple of oats and bread." Scootaloo snorted in response, "Why are you here anyway, Dinky?" "Oh, she saw me in the market place this afternoon." Featherweight replied "Actually, it was Pinkie who saw him first. I was actually going into Sugarcube Corner to pick up an order for my parents, when I saw Pinkie greet him and call him by name." Dinky explained, then turned to look at Featherweight, "I have to admit, I didn't really recognize you at first." "See, I told you you're not an easy stallion to recognize." Scootaloo rang out "Anyway, he was doing some grocery shopping, and it was obvious he was getting more than he can carry, so I offered to help him out." "So that's what's up, huh? Well, that's cool I guess." "He did explain everything to me. Why he was here, and had a key to your house of all things." "Did you get the newspaper while you were out Feathers? There's probably listing there of the new houses that's up for sale." Scootaloo asked as she turned her attention to him. "Oh, um...no, I actually forgot about that." "Figures. Too busy sight-seeing your old hometown?" "No, I really did just forget." he replied as he turned the fire on the stove off, "This is ready, so if you're both hungry, we just need some bowls." "You can bet your tail I am. Here, I'll get some bowls." Scootaloo remarked as she quickly went over to the cupboard where she stored what plates, bowls, and cups she had. "No, thanks Featherweight. I mean, I do appreciate the offer, and it really does smell wonderful; but, I never told my mom that I was gonna be eating with friends, so she and Dad are probably waiting for me at the table waiting for me to get home." Dinky remarked as she got up from the table. "You sure...? Well, more for me and Feathers." Scootaloo remarked as she put the extra bowl away, and placed two at the table, before going off again to find some spoons. "Don't worry, we understand. See you around Dinky." Featherweight stated "See ya." she bade the two, before taking her leave. As Dinky was leaving, Featherweight brought the pot of soup over to the table, being careful not to spill it as he held onto the handle with his mouth. He gingerly poured some into both bowls before going back to place the pot back onto the stove. "Eat up." Scootaloo didn't need to be told twice as she immediately took a spoonful and put it in her mouth, regretting it almost immediately. In her rush, she neglected to remember that this was freshly cooked and was still quite hot. "Blow on it first Scootaloo." he remarked, unable to resist smiling in amusement, as he took his seat. "Yeah, yeah..." The two soon fell into a quiet peace as they ate. Featherweight really didn't say much, having nothing really that would be exciting enough to talk about, and Scootaloo didn't say much either due her constantly having her mouthful of the delicious meal that Featherweight made. It was rather obvious that Scootaloo very much liked it, which was more than enough for Featherweight to take as a compliment. Once they were done, Featherweight took their bowls and placed them in the sink and put the leftovers into the fridge, while Scootaloo patted her content, full belly. "That was so good." she remarked, "Been a while since I last had a home cooked meal." "Really...?" "Oh yeah, I don't cook often, and I'm happy with a sandwich for dinner. Where did you learn to cook like that?" "The recipe belongs to my mom, but it was really my old mentor that got me into cooking." he replied as he went back to his seat. "No kidding?" "Nope, he use to tell me that a good picture feeds the mind, but a good meal feeds the body." Scootaloo snorted, "Sage-y stuff right there. Anyway, thanks for the meal Feathers, I did appreciate it." "No problem." he stated with a smile. "Hm....Hey, Feathers, you said something about paying me back earlier, right?" "Yeah, I did." "Just a thought, while you're staying with me, looking for your own place to live, why don't you pay me back by cooking?" "Huh...?" "Based on what you told me, you're probably quite good as a cook, more experienced than me at least. So while you're here, living with me, why don't you handle the food and stuff, and I'll worry about the other expenses." "Kinda like a rent?" "Hey, you forked over at least 15 bits each time you stayed at that motel at Canterlot. I'm sure you could easily make a meal that costs a fraction of that. Even I know I can make a good lettuce salad with just three bits." "Well, that is true..." he admitted, then thought back to earlier, Scootaloo really didn't use her kitchen much outside of storing the occasional food item, "Well, alright, I guess I can agree to that." "Cool." "I'm gonna head up and get some sleep now. I need to fly to Canterlot tomorrow." then got out of his chair "You do?" "I still need to pick up my pay from the concert remember?" "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that." "Are you still gonna be up for a while longer?" "Yeah, I got some stuff to sort through up in my study, so I'll be up a little while longer." "Okay, see you tomorrow Scootaloo." "Later, Feathers." With that Featherweight headed back up the stairs and to his room to get his brush and toothpaste before heading towards the bathroom, as Scootaloo rested her head back for a moment and looked up at the ceiling. She looked over to the sink, where their dirty dishes were, contemplating whether she should wash them now or later. Later was a better option though, as she got out of her chair and went back to the front door to get her saddlebag before she headed up to her study. Along the way, she passed by Featherweight, who was just finishing up in the bathroom, with his toothbrush and toothpaste in a plastic cup, which he was holding with his mouth. "Um, you know you're welcome to leave that in the bathroom, right?" Scootaloo asked with an amused smirk. "I didn't want to bother you by keeping my things around the place." he replied as soon as he placed the cup with the dental stuff on the ground. "It's a toothbrush and toothpaste, Feathers. I'm not gonna harass you for leaving something I usually expect to see where I expect to see it. Just...make sure yours isn't close to mine." "Okay, I understand." he replied with a nod. "Cool. Alright see ya around Feathers." and went into the study Featherweight, who decided to just leave his things in his room for now, picked up the cup and retreated into his room. The room wasn't what he was use to. In fact, it was almost kinda eerie how much more vacant it appeared in the dark, but at least the bed was a bit more welcoming than the motel bed. He closed his eyes and let sleep take him. He had quite the flight to take tomorrow.