//------------------------------// // In the Dark // Story: Right Here // by kilala //------------------------------// “Is he here yet, mom?” A pink mare asked as she stared out the window. He hair mane was messy, as she had just woken up. “I’m in the kitchen, Anthea,” replied a yellow pegasus with a pink mane. “I can’t see from over here. Aren’t you by the window?” “Mom, you know I can’t see,”Anthea said with a small giggle. “Well… I can see colors but that doesn’t help much when they’re just blurs mashed together.” “I know, sweetheart. I’m just playing with you,” her mother, Fluttershy, said letting out a giggle of her own. She was so glad she adopted such a positive pony. Anthea, otherwise known as Annie, was always happy all the time and incredibly understanding. It made it very easy for Fluttershy to communicate and bond with her. “He won’t be here for at least a few more minutes. Why don’t you go brush your hair?” Anthea groaned. She’d been waiting for this day for a long time. It was the day that her new coltfriend, Turquoise Blitz, would be spending the whole day with her. They’d spent plenty of time together before but it was different this time. This time they’d be together as an official couple. “But what if he comes while I’m brushing my hair?” She pouted. “I don’t want to miss a second with him.” Fluttershy giggled. “Oh Annie, I don’t think a minute or two will make a–” “He’s here!” Annie shouted noticing a large green blur walking over to their cottage. Fluttershy heard her daughter stumble around in the living room and rush into the wall to help guide herself to the door. “Wait! My mane! I probably look like a mess! Do I look like a mess?” Fluttershy peaked in from the other room to look at her daughter. Fluttershy had to hold back a laugh as she looked at the teenage mare. She had bedhead, her mane was frizzing out in every which direction and she still had lines on her face from the sheets on her bed. “I think you look fine, sweetie,” Fluttershy politely responded. “Good!” Annie shouted. She hurried over to the door and quickly opened it. Standing right in the doorway, arm still in the air getting ready to knock was Turquoise Blitz. He was a very large, light green stallion with a spikey dark green mane. He wasn’t just any normal pony though. He was only half a pony. His other half gave him very unique characteristics such as a long, lizard-like tail, claws, scales and wings that looked like those of a bat. This was no surprise since his mother was a pony and his father was a dragon. “Oh, hi Annie,” he said. “Hi, T! Come in!” She said moving out of the doorway to let him inside. “Hello, Turquoise!” Fluttershy said from the kitchen. “Good morning Ms. Fluttershy,” he said in a gentlemanly manner before looking over to his marefriend who was smiling at him. “Did you just wake up?” “Mmhm. Why?” Annie asked. “Well, your mane isn’t really… in its usual style…” he said in the nicest way possible. “What? Mom! You told it was fine!” Annie said covering her head. “I told you to brush it,” Fluttershy said in a sing-songy voice. Annie just groaned. T smiled at how adorable she was when she was flustered. After watching her suffer just the right amount of embarrassment, he pulled her hooves away from her head and ran his claws through her mane. Annie blushed as he gently brushed her hair. “All better!” He said proudly. “Thanks, T.” Annie blushed still, looking up at her big green blur of a coltfriend. “No problem,” he replied. So what do you wanna do today?” “We could do anything! It seems like it’s gonna be a really nice day.” “Alright. I guess we could go walk over to the lake for a while. Then we could do whatever we want after,” T suggested. “Yeah! That sounds great,” Annie said excitedly. She sat up and wrapped her hooves around the dragon-pony. “Oh, this is gonna be such a great day!” *** It was a great day. Anthea and T spent most of the day just enjoying each other’s company and having fun. Unfortunately, the fun was cut a little short as the weather suddenly became overcast. It seemed as if a thunderstorm was approaching. Not wanting to get caught up in the storm, T walked Anthea, much to her dismay. However, T made it up by spending the rest of the day with her at home. They talked, and played games and T even helped her get some chores done. It still ended up being a great day. “Well I suppose I better get going now,” T said. “It’s getting pretty late and it looks like that storm is getting worse.” “Awwww. Okay…” Annie said greatly disappointed that he needed to leave. “Sorry we didn’t get to do some more fun things than chores.” “It’s okay. I still had a lot of fun being with you,” T reassured her earning a little smile from the pink unicorn. “You be safe on your way back home, T, okay? This storm doesn’t seem like it’s going to let up,” Fluttershy told him in a worried tone. “Don’t worry Ms. Fluttershy, I–” CRASH T was interrupted by the sound of thunder. Anthea covered her sensitive ears and let out a small whimper. “Oh my, it appears it’s too late,” Fluttershy said observing the sky from the window. “T, I can’t have you walking all the way back to Carousel Boutique in this weather. It’s much too dangerous.” “It’s alright I can–” CRASH T was stopped once more by the thunder. “How about you sleep over tonight?” Fluttershy said as more of a statement rather than a question. “I don’t want to take up too much space,” T said. “It looks like the animals will need it.” It was true. All of Fluttershy’s animals were crowded in the living room also seeking shelter from the storm “Oh my, you’re right. Hm, where are you going to sleep?” Fluttershy said, trying to come up with solutions in her head. “Maybe you could–” “You could sleep in my room!” Annie shouted. T and Fluttershy both stared at her in surprise. “I um… I’m not sure about that honey….” Fluttershy said hesitantly. She trusted her daughter as well as Turquoise, but the books she’d read on how to raise teenage mares and teenage stallions’ raging hormones, scared her. “We have an extra mattress, mom. We could just set it up in my room. There’s plenty of space!” “Um............” Fluttershy desperately tried to come up with an alternate solution but to no avail. “I suppose that would be alright.” “Yay! C’mon, T! Let’s go set up the mattress. You can sleep right next to–” “NO!” Fluttershy shouted, slightly louder than she would have liked. The two adolescents looked at her in horror. Fluttershy cleared her throat and continued. “I mean, don’t worry about it. You two just relax down here and I’ll set up T’s bed.” “Oh, okay! Thanks mom!” Annie said happily. Fluttershy let out a relieved sigh. Crisis averted. *** Later that stormy night, Anthea crawled over into her bed, exhausted from the day. T did the same, carefully lying down as to not break the rather small mattress, which was in the very corner of the room, as far as it could possibly be from Annie’s bed. “Thanks for letting me sleep in your room, Annie,” T said still trying to get comfortable. “Not sure if I’d get any sleep if I had to be in the same room with all the animals. “No problem! It’s actually really nice to have somepony in here with me. It gets a bit lonely,” she said with smile. “Glad I could help then. Well, we better get some sleep. Hopefully the storm’ll pass and we can do some of those other things we were supposed to do today,” T said returning the smile. “Really? I’d love that,” Annie spoke dreamily. “Of course,” he replied. “Well, goodnight!” “Goodnight.” “Oh, wait, forgot to turn out the light,” T said as he got up from his mattress. He walked over to Anthea and blew out the candle sitting on the desk by her bed. Annie’s heart dropped in an instant. She forgot to tell T that she always slept with some kind of light source. She forgot to tell T that she was terrified of the dark. Though she was legally blind, she was still able to see colors thanks to the unicorn magic circulating through her body. The blurs and blobs of color gave her comfort and she was grateful for them. But in the dark, all those colors melted into one single color. Black. She couldn’t see a thing. And that was her worst fear. Being completely blind. She shook in her bed unsure of what to do. I can’t turn the light back on. She thought. Then T wouldn’t be able to sleep. Plus it’s such a silly fear. Being afraid of the dark. He’ll think I’m just some helpless little filly. But I– Her thoughts were interrupted as a flash of bright, white light filled the entire room. Annie covered face as it burned her damaged eyes. Then... CRASH The loud sound of thunder rang in her ears, whose hearing was heighted to make up for her blindness. She let out a small squeak and covered her hooves with her ears. This happened again, and again, and again. She could hardly take it any more. “No, no, no, no, no, no...” she murmured almost silently. “Stop, please” Tears began to form in her eyes. Then, she felt something on her shoulder. “Annie?” Asked a familiar voice, filled with concern. “T,” she said shakily. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I just–“ “It’s okay, he said running his claws through her mane. “Are you scared?” Annie really didn’t want to answer that. It was embarrassing. Being scared of the dark was a fear that she should have conquered years ago. But she didn’t want to lie to him either. He didn’t deserve that. She finally nodded in reply. Instantly she heard T sit down. He placed his head down by hers and continued stroking her mane. She felt the tension in her body fade away. “It’s alright to be scared,” he said. “Would you like me to turn the light on again?” Another bolt of lightning stuck and the deafening sound of thunder invaded her ears. She let out a whimper tensed up again. T quickly stood up and crawled higher onto Annie’s bed and pulled her into a tight hug. “Something tells me the light won’t help much in this case,” T said quietly. “Probably not,” Annie said forcing out a small laugh. There was a long pause. “T, do you think you could stay right here?” “Of course,” he said with a calm smile. He moved closer to her shifting his wings over her shaking body and brushing her back with his long tail. “You don’t think you’re mom’ll be mad if she catches us like this, do you? She made it pretty clear that she wanted me as far as possible from you.” Annie let out a small giggle at the statement. She moved closer to T as well and pressed her face in his chest with a relieved sigh. “I think she’d understand. She was just a little scared is all.” “Annie?” “Mmhm?” “Why didn’t you tell me you were scared of the dark?” He asked. “I just... I just thought it was something you didn’t need to know,” she answered quietly. “I didn’t want you to think I was completely helpless.” “I could never think that,” T said. “Being scared of the dark doesn’t make you helpless. Being terrified of even the tiniest bit blood might though.” “You’re scared of blood?” Annie asked, looking up at T. “The tiniest bit. I feel like that makes me a bit less of a dragon,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t think so. It just makes you more adorable,” Annie said, hugging him tighter. “Thanks,” he replied. They lay in Anthea’s bed awake, just enjoying each other’s embrace. Annie listened to the steady beat of T’s heart as she felt her own heartbeat returning to normal after all the thunder and lighting, which was still going on. She also noticed how warm he was. Must be the dragon in him, Annie thought to herself. She liked it. It was very comfortable. So comfortable that she found herself falling asleep even though the storm continued. Even though it was dark. *** The next morning was quiet and calm. All that could be heard was the remainder of raindrops dripping off the roof of the house. That, and the loud snoring of a dragon-pony hybrid. Anthea, who was still cuddled up by the green giant, laughed at the funny noises he was making. She gave him a little kiss on the chin causing him to grin in his sleep. “So cute,” Annie said to herself. “Anthea? Are you awake?” Called her mother from downstairs. Annie was about to answer but before she could, T rolled over on top of the tiny unicorn, squashing her completely into the mattress of her bed. She squeaked as she felt a large amount of weight on her chest. “Annie?” Fluttershy called again. “Ah, just a minute!” Annie grunted. “T! Get off of me!” Anthea began working up a sweat lifting T off of her chest. His body heat wasn’t helping. She tried pushing him away but he fell right back on top of her. She began panting as he continued working hard to move the giant green mass off of her body and gasped for air after each time he collapsed on her again. “Mmph! Turquoise!” Annie shouted. T finally opened his eyes slightly. “Wha?” he said still in a daze. “What’s going on up here?” Fluttershy asked, peeking in the room but immediately regretting her choice. Her face became completely red at the sight she saw. Her sweaty, messy haired daughter. In bed. Breathing heavily. Under her coltfriend. T turned his head around slowly, Annie still underneath him. “Good morning, Ms. Fluttershy,” he said with a big, dopey grin on his face. He looked at the yellow pegasus’s facial expression carefully though, he couldn’t read it very well. It was a mixture of horror, embarrassment, worry and even the slightest hint of anger. “Is something wrong?” He asked innocently. “MOM! I CAN EXPLAIN!”