“Okay class, put your hooves together for our next presenter, Wingsley’s brother,” Cherilee said as she stepped out of the way to give you center stage.
Career day, a tradition of the Ponyville Elementary School where all of the students must bring in their respective guardians to show off what they do. You were more than happy to speak to the class about what you do, Wingsley wasn’t as thrilled to have you talking to his classmates. He instantly associated you speaking with years of humiliation and embarrassment from his friends. However, you had no intention of embarrassing him that badly but you were more than happy to let Wingsley live in fear. When he saw you up there as you took the stage, despair flashed over his face and he sent you a message saying, “I know what you are trying to do, don’t do it. I don’t want you embarrassing me.”
You flashed him a mischievous smile in response asked him rhetorically, “Now, why would I do that?” After that, Wingsley buried his face in his hooves and waited for the experience to be over.
“Hello everypony, I’m Wingsley’s brother and I’m a weather officer...”
_______________________________________________________
You ended your short speech as the dismissal bell rang for school to end. Moving through the rushing crowds of fillies and colts, you make your way to Wingsley’s desk. He sighed, got out of his seat and followed you out the door.
“Thank you for coming in,” Cherilee called to you just before you left.
“No problem,” was your response. Once outside you saw Dinky with Ditzy, greeting each other after a long day of school. A ritual that you found adorable. “Hey Dinky, hey Ditzy,” you greet them cheerfully.
“Hi Wingsley’s brother,” Dinky responded, “I really liked the presentation, I never knew the weather was so cool!”
“Well thank you very much Dinky, I’m glad someponies liked what I had to say,” turning toward Wingsley with a raised eyebrow. He turned away sheepishly and gave a small shrug, slowly making his way away from you and toward Dinky. This just left you and Ditzy.
“So you gave a speech on weather patrol? How long have you been doing that, a month?” she asked, poking fun at your relative newness in Ponyville.
“Well good morning to you too, cutie,” leaning forward into a small kiss. Being with her still gave you that feeling of warmness, but until you found what that actually meant, you were keeping your mouth shut. It would kill you if you brought up the ‘L’ word too early in the relationship only to find that she didn’t feel the same, or worse, if you didn’t either. A conundrum that regularly kept you up at night. You hoped to Celestia, Luna, or any other force out there that you would soon find out the answer, because as of now, this questionable feeling was the single scariest feeling you have ever known. Right now, it was important not to show to Ditzy that deep down, you were terrified.
It didn’t seem that Ditzy noticed anything wrong with you, as she sighed lightly and broke the kiss. “Anyway, do you think that you could pick up Dinky after her magic tutoring class and bring her over to your place to play with Wingsley? I think Sparkler deserves a girls-day-out, since she has to help me with so much during the week,” she told you, giving a small questioning smile. There was no way you could say no to that face, not that you were however.
“Of course I can, it’s the least I can do. I think Sparkler will love to spend some quality time with you. What time does her class end?”
“Around 4:30, is that okay for you?”
“Yeah,” you reply, “I just need to take care of one thing with Wingsley before that, but other than that it works for me.”
“Oh, what are you doing with Wingsley?” Ditzy asked curiously.
“Today Wingsley is going to learn how to fly,” you say with an air of confidence.
____________________________________________________________
“Now see, that wasn’t so bad,” you tell Wingsley, giving a light push as you exited the school playground and made your way of the premises.
“Whatever,” he says rolling his eyes, “At least you didn’t bring up that I haven’t been able to fly my entire life.”
“Hey, don’t be talking like it will never happen. Have you been doing the exercises I’ve been telling you to do?”
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re gonna help though,” Wingsley sighed. “These things haven’t done anything my entire life, I’m a waste of a pegasus.”
You interject, “Hey, don’t say those things, there are plenty of fillies and colts that haven’t learned to fly. And now’s your chance to show them all up.” Wingsley watches you carefully.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s time for you to get out there and start flying,” you tell him confidently.
“What!” He stops, “Are you sure? I don’t think I’m ready yet.”
Wrapping your arm around him to comfort him you say softly, “You are ready, don’t worry.”
“What if I’m not?” he says, sadness bursting through his face.
With a chuckle you say simply, “Then I’ll eat my hoof.”
________________________________________________________________
“Okay! Just like we did before!” you call up to him. “And don’t worry about falling, the cloud will catch you!”
“I thought you said that I was ready?” he called back.
“That doesn’t mean you won’t fall on your face!”
“Thanks for the words of encouragement!” he called out sarcastically.
“Any time! Now come on, let’s see it!”
Wingsley took two deep breaths, holding the air in his lungs for a while before letting it out, it was clear that he was nervous, even from where you were standing. With a final puff of air, Wingsley began to flap his wings as fast as he could. Red in the face, you see he is having trouble keeping the speed up. Flying is a lot more than flapping fast, you need to thinking about pushing yourself up with the air under your wings rather than flapping like a deranged chicken and praying for a miracle. This wasn’t something you could easily explain to a colt, he would have to figure it out on his own. From the unicorns you have conversed with, flying was a lot like magic in the novice levels. It is always difficult to start out with since you can’t really teach ingrained natural abilities; but as you grow in experience, you begin to teach yourself new things about your craft. That is also the reason you want Wingsley to take his first steps, or ‘flaps,’ today.
“-HNNGG!” Wingsley grunts as he struggles to try to gain altitude. In a final push, he leaps forward, sending himself into a spiral, landing on the support cloud. “Damn it!” he shouts, frustrated.
“Hey! None of that language,” you rebuke. “You were almost there, try again.” You pick him up and fly him onto the high cloud he was standing on before. He gets off of your back, peeved but ready to go again. He has similar mishaps in the next few attempts causing serious frustration. After calming him down you decide to attempt a different approach.
Flying and hovering a few feet above Wingsley you call down to him, “Okay Wingsley, if you can touch my hoof we won’t do anymore ‘flying’ today.” This idea was a gamble, there was no way for Wingsley to come close to touching you without using his wings, if he figured that out he might refuse to comply any further. On the other hoof, this was a test to see how Wingsley would react to a trial/reward system. There was a lot of incentive for Wingsley to want to participate, causing him to be more focused and motivated. You felt that this would actually work based on previous observations of Wingsley’s attempted flying. As noted before, flying is a lot more than flapping one’s wings, Wingsley was strong enough to fly, but he had no intended direction or purpose to his flapping. This last desperate attempt to make Wingsley airborne would finally give purpose to his wings. You held your breath and braced yourself for whatever happened.
“So if I touch your hoof I don’t have to do this anymore?” he asked cautiously.
“Of course,” and you meant it as well, if Wingsley flew, you were more than happy to let him take a break.
“No problem,” he said with an air of confidence, assuming he could merely jump and touch your hoof. He was mistaken in that regard, two attempts clarified his expectations. But before he was going to give up, you gave him one last piece of advice.
“You will have to flap a little to reach me. Remember, if you do this, no more practice,” you tell him, referring back to the analogy of dangling the metaphorical carrot in front of the metaphorical donkey (an analogy you have been scolded for using on multiple occasions for its racist undertones).
His eyes narrowed as he prepared himself for launch. His body readied itself to pounce. His wings started flapping at high speeds, it was obvious he was giving this one try 100. Urging him on in your mind, you tried to will his wings to bring him airborne. You tensed for the moment of truth.
Wingsley jumped and instead of immediately falling, he used his wings to propel himself even further off his starting point, launching him into the air. The strain on his face was evident, caused in part by the sheer determination to not have to this again. His tiny wings kept him going as he traveled up and up. Watching in awe as he ascended toward you, he achieved the minimum distance away from your hoof to make physical contact and threw his hoof toward yours. With a war cry, he hits your hoof, calling out in victory.
“Aww yeah! What now? What else you got? You didn’t think I could do it, I guess I’m just that awesome!” While Wingsley’s gloating usually drove you up the wall, but you were fine with it this time. A smile stretched across your face, causing Wingsley to look at you with confusion. “What are you smiling at? I just beat your challenge, now we don’t have to do this anymore. What are you smiling at?” he commanded surprisingly forcefully. To answer you simply pointed to his presently airborne state.
“What? What do you mean about-” he cut himself off, letting the realization sink in. With wide eyes he slowly looks at you, mouth in a state showing is utter surprise. “I’m flying! I’M FLYING! Ohmygosh, I’m really flying! This is so cool!” With a smile he looked at you and testing his operational wings, threw himself at you in a big embrace knocking you from your stationary state. “Thank you Big Bro! Thank you! You are the best big brother ever!”
Smiling gently, you look upon your baby brother with all the love you can muster. Your baby brother who you sacrificed your past life for; who you cared for the most; who you couldn’t live without. Your baby brother was now all grown up.
__________________________________________________________________
“Well you don’t have to keep going if you don’t want to,” you call to your ecstatic brother. Knowing full well his answer.
“No way, this is too awesome!”
“Why do you think I always tried to teach you?” you ask, laughing.
“You know what? I take it all back, flying is the best!” It was quite shocking how Wingsley was able to overcome his crippling fear of heights and flight so quickly, had Wingsley finally gotten over {your} mom’s death? This is what she would have wanted, I’m just glad I was here to see it. Looking up to the sky you think out loud in your mind. I know you are watching somewhere up there. It looks like like Wingsley is no longer afraid. If you were here, you would be so proud, you’d hug him as hard as you could, just like you did with me. You took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. I love you mom.
*****
“No, no, it’s okay... I can still...” Wingsley drifted off, snoring loudly.
You laughed to yourself, flying is always an exhausting task, especially when you just get started. Taking the still sleeping Wingsley, you lay him over your back to take him to your house for a proper nap. Jumping off the fluffy cloud, you extend your wings to slow the fall of your decent. You land softly onto the grassy knoll right underneath the safety cloud.
“Its okay... I’ll have the sauerkraut...” Wingsley mumbled, sleepily. Inciting a laugh from you.
“Come on, little buddy,” you whisper affectionately. “Let’s get you home.”
_________________________________________________________________
After the short trip back through Ponyville, catching the eye of many ponies with the sight of Wingsley on your back, you make it back home. Stepping through the door frame, you too want to collapse on the couch, unfortunately you have prior engagements.
Tucking him into bed, Wingsley rolls around in his sleep, trying to find a comfortable position. At long last he finds it, his arms go limp and flop to one side, his body relaxes into the plush, unconsciously he yawns before falling fast asleep.
Years of taking care of Wingsley, of tucking him into bed, you have noticed that his yawn has never changed. It was a pleasant immutable feature that no matter how old Wingsley got, deep down he was the same lovable colt you raised. Ever since he was just a foal and you had to fill the role of father/mother/brother simultaneously, you watched over him in his bed. A guardian angel, protecting him from the harshness of the outside world. A world that looked slightly dimmer, a world that left you wondering if there was a point anymore. But you always found a point, Wingsley, whom your entire world revolved around. But with Wingsley it always brought up the question of who you were, were you his brother, or father? That was the question you still didn’t have an answer for.
_________________________________________________________________
Wingsley was asleep and it was only 4:10, you had to pick up Dinky pretty soon. You leave a note telling him where you are to have him not to worry, as well as a celebratory sandwich. Locking the house, you take off flying just above the roofs of the Ponyville residents. Dinky was being tutored by Miss Sparkle, the resident librarian and Celestia’s personal student.
On foot, the trip would have consumed all of your time. But since you were gifted with a sturdy set of wings, the trip took almost no time at all. How did unicorns and earth ponies get along without wings? you wondered. You landed at the library with over 15 minutes to spare. No way were you waiting that long, so you decided to run a few errands first.
You stopped by Applejack’s apple cart to pick up a few apples. She inquired about you and Ditzy and you told her that you were both very happy, to which she responded, “Aww shucks, ah’ was always rootin’ for that girl to find a nice stallion. Glad ta’ see that she’s happy. Here ya go, have an apple on the house. I’m a sucker for sweet stories.” You thanked her and took off. Mmm... apples, this should hold me over for a little while. You decided to save one for Dinky when she finished her tutoring class, a nice ‘after school’ treat, well you guessed you could call it school.
“Hi Dinky,” you call to her.
“Hi, Wingsley’s Brother!”
“How was tutoring?”
“Really hard,” she complained, “I can’t do anything other than hold a book for more than a few seconds.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Twilight interjected. “Lot’s of fillies your age have trouble with magic, all it takes is a bit of practice and hard work. You’re going to be an amazing magician someday Dinky.”
“Thanks Twi.”
“Take care now, tell your mom that the muffins were delicious.”
“I will! Thank you!” Dinky called.
“Bye you two,” Twilight responded, waving her hoof in farewell. You raise your hoof as well to say goodbye to Twilight and begin to walk with Dinky back to your house. Dinky looked confused as she peered all around.
“Where’s Wingsley?” she asks.
“He’s at home taking a nap,” you paused. “He just learned how to fly today,” you tell Dinky, beaming, “We can wake him up when we get home.”
“Wingsley can fly now? That’s so cool!” Dinky exclaimed. After, Dinky paused for a moment, pondering a question, “Wingsley’s brother?” she asked, it should be noted she has never called you by your true name.
“Yes Dinky?”
“Why do you spend so much time with Mommy?” The straightforwardness of the question took you back slightly, but you were more than happy to answer, within certain bounds of course.
“Well,” you start to say, trying to find the words to explain your relationship to a filly. “Your mom and I are going out.”
“Going out?” Dinky replied, confused. “How do you ‘go out’ with her? She’s not even here and we’re already outside.”
Whoops, wrong choice of words. “We’re dating. We’re boyfriend and girlfriend,” you explain.
“Ooh, now I get it. So you like-like her?” she asks with a knowing smile. You laugh in response at the youthful vocabulary she used.
“Yes, yes I do,” you admitted, smiling. “I ‘like-like’ her very much.”
“Mommy talks about you all the time, especially with Auntie Carrot Top.”
“Oh?” you ask. “I hope it’s nothing bad,” you tell her giving her a smile.
“It’s never anything bad,” she responds. “It’s always about how nice you are, and how much better you are than this other stallion she mentions. She always gets really happy when she talks about you. You know, I think Mommy like-likes you too!”
“I sure hope so,” you chuckle. It made your day that Ditzy shared your enthusiasm for each other.
“Wingsley’s Brother?” Dinky asked, interrupting your thoughts. You look over to the young filly who is staring up at you. “Are you going to marry my mommy?”
“Well it’s a little early to tell now,” you reply. You are continually shocked by the straightforward questions this little filly is asking, although marrying Ditzy isn’t the worst idea. “Why do you ask?”
“Well then you’d be my daddy, I’d like you as a daddy.” Dinky immediately stopped moving and looked at the ground, dejected. “I never who knew who my daddy was, Mommy says we can’t talk about him.”
Dinky’s words touched your heart more than you thought possible. And with it came a wave of empathy for the filly. You went over to her and took a seat next to her. Putting a hoof on her shoulder you tell her softly, “Hey now, don’t be sad. Your mom loves you more than anything in the whole world. You are so lucky to have a mom like her.” She smiled a little at the last statement before you continued, “You know what? I barely knew my dad either. He ran off when we were still young. But I had Wingsley. That was the only thing I needed to keep going. Stick with the loving family you have, because you already have everything you need. But for the record, I don’t know why anypony wouldn’t want to be your dad. Now come on, let’s go wake Wingsley up.
“Okay,” Dinky said, smiling.
_________________________________________________________________
“Hey buddy,” you say as you nudge Wingsley awake.
“Bro?” he asked. “What’s goin’ on?”
“Dinky’s here,” you tell him directly.
“Really? Okay, I’m gettin’ up,” he said groggily.
Dinky lit up as she saw Wingsley, “Hi Wingsley!” she called. “I heard you learned how to fly! That’s so cool!” Wingsley began to talk very excitedly to Dinky, giving her all the detailed information. You chuckled to yourself as they talked, realizing how hungry you were. You walked to the fridge to grab some food, but before you could pillage the stock of food, the kids perk up.
“Hey Big Bro? You want to play with us?”
“You sure you want an old guy like me playin’ with you?”
“Yeah! Please? It’ll be fun.”
“Alright,” you sighed.
_________________________________________________________________
Hushed voices from two young foals were heard in the distance. Both brave, yet equally terrified.
“Anything to report corporal?” Lt. Steelwing (Wingsley) asked.
“Nothing as of yet, lieutenant,” stated Corporal Manafire (Dinky).
Lt. Steelwing sighed, “We have met the creature on the field many times today, each time resulting in retreat. The only chance we have is a surprise attack.”
“But sir, how will we get past him, he’s everywhere and nowhere at once. He’s too powerful!”
“Get ahold of yourself corporal! I will tolerate no insubordination!”
Corporal Manafire was right however, you skulked in the darkness, as a creature of the night you felt no fear, and soon you would strike against the brave warriors. A single thought passed through your dark mind, Damn, these kids take their war games to the next level. Why the hell didn’t I get to play like this when I was little?” You quickly dismissed the thought and proceeded with your dark plan. While sneaking, you nudge a desk; prompting a squeek.
“What was that?”
“ORBITAL STRIKE!” you shout as you jump into the air and began assaulting the two warriors with pillows.
“Ahh! Retreat!”
“There is no escape,” you laugh.
“Corporal, we have to use the Final Weapon!”
“We have no idea what it will do!”
“There’s no time, fire!” Corporal Manafire launches the ‘Final Weapon’ at you with magic. You throw yourself back as though you were struck by a heavy object. Falling to the ground, you are assaulted by the two warriors.
“Gah! My one weakness!” you cry out.
At that moment, Ditzy opens the door to see if you were home only to find you getting pummeled by two young foals wrapped in pillow armor, while the rest of the house looked like a warzone. Everypony involved immediately stopped and the room became quiet. Breaking the awkward silence you turn to Ditzy and ask, “What’s up?”
Ditzy couldn’t contain herself and her and Sparkler, who was also with her, burst out laughing. The sight of you beaten to a pulp with two plush pillows was the single funniest thing she had seen all day. Dusting yourself off, you stand to greet Ditzy. Calming down from her laughing fit, Ditzy manages to say, “So it looks like you guys had fun,” as she scanned the living room ‘battlefield.’
“It was... an interesting day,” you tell her, smiling.
“I’ll bet.”
“Hey, how about I take you out tomorrow? Nothing too fancy, just a little bit of fun.”
“I’d like that, but now I need to get these girls home. Night,” she said as she gave you a kiss goodnight. You return the kiss and wave farewell to her for the night.
_________________________________________________________________
Morning came swiftly, and while you were still half asleep, Wingsley burst into the room scarring you half to death. Before you could calm your heart rate, Wingsley spoke to you in an exuberant tone, “Can we go flying today? Please, please, please? I woke up early so I could get ready! So please can we go flying?”
“Sure, why not?” being terrified for his entire life of flying, you were more than happy to teach him after all these years. From your reclined position, you found yourself looking up at your baby brother who was lightly hopping in excitement. His eyes shined for a challenge and was eager to make up for lost time. His characteristic contagious smile would have made it impossible to say ‘no’ to him even if you were not physically or mentally able to teach him. With a sweep of your arm you embrace Wingsley into yourself, getting him into a headlock. “Just five more minutes, okay?” He struggled briefly before giving up the fight, realizing it was hopeless.
“Fine... But only five more minutes!” At this you chuckled slightly before drifting off again, feeling that your life was finally coming together with your job, your best friend, Wingsley, and Ditzy. An image of her followed you into your dreams as you tried to make the most of your five minutes of peace.
_________________________________________________________________
“Any reason you want to start practicing at this Celestia-damned hour?” you ask, irritated by lack of sleep.
“Well I couldn’t sleep at all last night, so I thought, ‘Why don’t I get my big brother to take me flying later?’ and then here we are,” he gestured to his surroundings.
“And why couldn’t you sleep like a normal pony?”
“Flying! I just can’t stop thinking about it! It’s all so, so... so new!”
“Yeah, flying does have that effect,” recalling your first experiences flying. “Anyway, let’s get started. So far you have only managed to hover, let’s try to take this up a notch. Start to hover, then I want you to fly to me. I’ll be down the street.”
With a smirk Wingsley said, “No problem.” Wingsley jumped into the air and started to flap his new, fully functional wings. Hovering, no longer a problem, Wingsley attempted to shift his body to guide his trip. He had the right idea and you applauded him for it. But as with all new fliers his success did not last long. Whatever goes up must come down, hard and violently in this case. Wingsley took a nosedive into the ground, a jarring impact that made you cringe.
After checking if he was alright, you suggested, “Maybe we should hold off on flying for a little while. And come on, let’s get you cleaned up and lets head over to Ditzy’s house.
_________________________________________________________________
Dropping Wingsley and Dinky off with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and letting Sparkler play with her friends, you and Ditzy head off to spend some quality time together. You both make your way through the town to the grassy knoll you snuck off in the middle of the night to. It was your spot, the spot where you first started to wonder about your true feelings for Ditzy and you felt it was the best spot to start to spend time together.
“Ah, this spot. It looks so different in the day. What made you decide to take this spot?”
“Well it was either here or the club,” referencing the two spots important to the advancement in your relationship. “What can I say, I’m a sentimental colt.”
She leaned in and kissed you, “Or was it because you wanted some place we were alone?” she asked playfully.
“Well maybe that had something to do with it,” you admitted. Ditzy giggled and kissed you again. It was a beautiful summer day, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping in the distance, and a cool breeze blew lightly through the air slightly rustling the trees. Despite the heat, you and Ditzy were scooted next to each other closely. For a while, you and Ditzy admired the Ponyville landscape together before Ditzy broke the silence.
“Hey, do you want to have a little fun?” she asked.
You shifted uncomfortably and your heart rate picked up a little. “What do you mean?”
She looked at you quizzingly, “What do you mean, ‘what do I mean?’ I asked if you wanted to-” A look of knowledge washed over her face and was immediately followed by a face with an expression that told you, ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ She slapped you softly but hard enough so you would get the point. “Get your mind out of the gutter,” she commanded. “I meant like cloud shaping. You’re lucky that you’re cute.”
Rubbing your cheek slightly, you chuckled nervously to relieve the tension, “Cloud shaping, sounds good.” Taking off, you both soar into the sky to begin crafting your sculptures. You believed yours would impress Ditzy, but only if you made it perfectly to scale. Forming the clouds into perfect circles was proving difficult because of the sheer size of the clouds. When at last you made all the circles you needed to, you arrived at the problem of arranging them and not allowing them to move separately. To deal with the problem, you used a trick you learned from Prevailing in weather patrol. Using an almost invisible section of cloud you weave it through the clouds forming a polar bond using the evaporated water molecules. Feeling satisfied that it wouldn’t move you went to the task of knocking out holes in the shapes. Making the holes and then shaping the holes turned out to be easier than expected. You finished right as Ditzy was putting the final touches on hers. Signaling to each other, you headed down to the ground level to admire each other’s work.
Ditzy said excitedly, “Oh, guess what mine is first!”
“Okay, um lets see... Two muffins? Wow, they really look detailed.”
“No, well yes, kinda. What type are they?”
Sheepishly you say with a nervous smile, “Cloud flavored?”
“No the first one is poppy seed, and the other is blueberry. I mean you can see it right there,” she said, slightly frustrated.
“I’m sorry,” you say softly giving her a slight kiss and a smile, “I’ll get it next time. Now come see mine.” Ditzy looked up at yours, mouth agape. She looked behind her and then up to your sculpture again and again.
“That’s... That’s a perfect recreation of my cutie mark!”
You beamed, “I know.”
“But how did you...” she waked up to you with a playfully questioning glance. “So how much time do you spend looking at my flank?”
No win question, crap. “Um...” you stammer but are quickly silenced by Ditzy’s hoof.
“It’s okay, I love it. And besides, you are the only stallion I let check out my flank,” which caused you to blush slightly.
“Hey look over there,” Ditzy said, pointing somewhere in the distance. Upon closer inspection you saw Carrot Top sitting by herself. “So how do you feel about pranks?”
_________________________________________________________________
Now the plan to prank Carrot Top was pretty mild by your standards. Growing up in Cloudsdale, you saw various pranks that could only be categorized as cruel. Ditzy’s pranks were more of jokes played in good fun.
“Okay, ready to push?”
“Yep!”
You brought dozens of clouds from all over ponyville to over the area where Carrot Top was sunbathing, and now was the final step of the plan. You blotted out the most sun you could with the clouds you acquired to force Carrot Top to wake up and assess the situation. Peering through the clouds, you see your plan working. Carrot Top stood up and looked up to the sky for an explanation as to the sudden gloomy weather, and the next thing she know, the sky fell. Clouds once stationary, were being flung through space towards her location. Carrot Top shouted as she ran for cover, dodging incoming clouds. One after another, they dispelled onto the ground. Once the barrage died down, Carrot Top looked up and saw you two laughing your wings off.
“Okay you two, get on down here!” Carrot Top commanded. Willingly you and Ditzy descended to meet Carrot Top. “What compelled you to do that?” Carrot Top asked, frustrated.
“Oh come on Carrot Top,” Ditzy said, “you do this stuff to me all the time, it’s about time you got what’s coming to you.”
“Well I could see this coming from you, not so much from the boyfriend. I can call him the boyfriend now, right?” Ditzy nodded in response. “Do you really let that adorable pegasus wrap you around your hoof?” she asked rhetorically.
“I would hardly say that I’m-” she cut you off.
“Look at her, she’s adorable. Of course she has you wrapped around her hoof, just fair to tell you the truth.” You look at Ditzy for confirmation, she only responds with a smile and a shrug. Carrot Top walks around you, judging you. “So this is your guy? Seems like a good choice. Good set of wings,” she gave your wings a poke. “You know, I dated a pegasus for a while, and it’s true what they say about big wings.” You blush a deep scarlet upon hearing this, you turn to Ditzy to find she is blushing as well. “Anyway, I’m glad to see you two are happy, but if you do this again I’m kicking your flanks back to Cloudsdale,” she warned.
Ditzy laughed, “Okay, fair enough.”
“Come on Ditzy, let’s go check on the kids.”
_________________________________________________________________
Sometime later.
“Please can we go? Please?” Dinky asked. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders want us to stay over!”
“Okay honey, be safe but have fun,” Ditzy said to Dinky.
“I will mom,” Dinky responded, giving her mom a big hug.
“Same goes for you little bro,” you tell Wingsley while giving him a gentle noogie.
“Yeah, yeah, I will,” he said laughing.
“Come on Wingsley, we’re going to be late!” Dinky called. Wingsley popped up and ran after his best friend. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had set up the slumber party as another way to try to find their special talents and they had invited their entire class to join in. Both Wingsley and Dinky were adamant about attending, and you felt that it would be good to be with other foals their own age.
“They grow up so fast,” Ditzy commented with a sigh.
“They really do,” you acknowledged, still reveling in Wingsley’s early achievement.
“So um, do you want to come over for dinner? I mean the kids are out and I don’t have any plans so...” her voice trailed off, she scratched the back of her head with her hoof while her eyes scanned the ground. Eventually, she looked up at you with her signature small, cute smile.
“Sure, I would love to,” you respond. You always enjoy the alone time you have together and would never turn it down. With a motion of her head, she signals you to walk with her back to her house.
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Once at Ditzy’s house, you asked her if she wanted help with dinner. Ditzy said that it was alright, but you insisted. Without further objection she complied.
While making dinner, you started thinking back to the ‘early days’ of your relationship which was the time you called when you first met her, “Hey Ditzy?”
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“When we met, did you ever think we would become a couple?” you ask in a light-hearted way, to take a look back and see how far you both had come.
“Hmm,” she pondered. “Well you know I always found you cute, I mean how could I not? You might not thought I noticed, but it was really obvious you had a big crush on me. Not to mention you were the nicest stallion I had met in a long time. Then there came that time in the post office...” she paused a moment, “Right then, I would have said ‘no.’ But then I got to know you better and well, the rest is history,” giving you a small smile. “So what about you? Did you think we would be a couple?”
“Well I was going to make it happen one way or another,” you tell her, moving closer to her slowly. “If I knew how smart, how funny, how amazing you were,” you wrap your arms around her. “I may have kissed you on the spot.” She sighed lightly as you kissed her very romantically. You enjoyed the kiss until you thought you smelled something that was catching on fire. Ditzy’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Oh, no!” she broke the kiss to deal with dinner. You smile sheepishly and suppress a laugh. Doing that, in your opinion, was worth slightly burning dinner. Ditzy wanted this to be a nice dinner and as much as you felt you were helping by being awesome and super romantic, you knew you had to do your part. Well so much for that.
You continued helping Ditzy as much as you could, although that wasn’t saying much. You were never the most amazing cook, and Wingsley has described your dishes as ‘edible.’ With a little help from Ditzy, you both manage to complete dinner, not without noticing an occasional few side glances from Ditzy which caused her to immediately look away. This was curious, but you didn’t ask any questions.
Lighting a few candles on the table, you both sit down to a pleasant, romantic meal. Smiling, you gaze at her, her beautiful hair illuminated slightly by the candlelight. All of her features, even the more subtle ones, were brought to the surface. She looked beautiful.
“Thanks for dinner Ditzy.”
“Oh it’s nothing,” she said quietly, “And besides you did a lot of it.”
You laughed lightly, “I’d hardly say that, I mean I can barely cook to save my flank. You had to constantly fix what I did whenever I screwed up.”
“I guess you did make a few mistakes,” giving you a smile.
“Nonetheless, it tastes amazing. Thank you.” Your comment was only met with a light blush. Never before had Ditzy ever been shy, at least not with you. After dinner you were going to find out what was wrong. But right now, you were going to fully enjoy the delicious meal in front of you. Who knew Ditzy could cook so well?
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You finished dinner mostly in silence, by now you had a sneaking suspicion as to the cause of Ditzy’s odd behavior, although you weren’t sure. Acting like a perfect gentlecolt, you picked up the plates, brought them to the sink and cleaned up immediately. Ditzy insisted that she could take care of it later, but you told her that it was the least you could do for an amazing meal and you didn’t want her to think you were a slob.
You made your way to the sofa with Ditzy and snuggled up next to her in front of the fireplace. Ditzy had her head buried in your coat, trying to get as close to you as possible, although you doubted she could get much closer than she already was. You bent down and kissed her on top of her head. You wrapped your wing around her and pulled her body in closer. Reaching out with your arm, you embraced her, bringing her head closer to yours. Ditzy offered no resistance. Then began a long series of delicate kissing. With each passing minute your heart melted a little bit more, all the muscles in your body were relaxed, your mind was somewhere drifting off on cloud nine. That warm feeling you had felt before had evolved from its cozy state to an inferno of emotion, it enveloped your entire body and threatened to consume you completely. If being with this mare isn’t love, then love must be damn-well hard to come by. If these feelings are wrong, then nothing I have felt in my life was correct. I love Ditzy... You repeated it in your head to understand the full depth of what you admitted to yourself, I love Ditzy.
You smiled amidst the romance of the moment. “Ditzy,” you manage to say between kisses.
“Yes?”
“What was with you,” *kiss* “at dinner?”
“Hmm?”
“You were acting, strange,” you said softly.
Ditzy broke the kiss and smiled at you, “I was nervous.”
“Nervous about what?”
“Nervous about, maybe...” she whispered something into your ear that caused your eyes to widen with surprise. Ditzy chuckled at your situation, suddenly your roles were reversed. Ditzy showed none of the nervousness she felt previously and instead was brimming with confidence, while you on the other hoof were holed up inside yourself. You look at her for confirmation of what she just said. She chuckled to herself as she got off of the sofa. Grabbing you playfully by your tail, Ditzy pulled you off the couch, not that you were resisting. Still in a state of shock, you pick yourself up nervously and give a quick glance to Ditzy making sure you understand the full weight of the situation. Giving you a kiss on the lips, Ditzy led you by the hoof up the stairs, and into her bedroom.
To be Continued...