//------------------------------// // Finale // Story: Winding Roads // by Storm butt //------------------------------// My wrist doesn't hurt as much, don't yell at me... Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It belongs to The Hub, Hasbro, Studio B, and Lauren Faust. I do not own any of these characters in any way or how, nor do I claim ownership to the pony franchise. These characters are simply my toys. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The only thing I love more than you, is the way you treat me." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Winding Roads Chapter 8: Finale The shock of silence filled the room as quick as a lightning bolt would. Braeburn stood there in place, dumbfounded beyond belief. He could sense his legs were trembling, along with his mouth going dry in a panic. His eyesight suddenly stung, and began to blur. "W-What?" He asked, trying to keep his voice just above a whimper. He had to have heard that wrong... he just had too. "I said I'm leaving." Soarin mumbled, now sitting down on his rump as he looked down at his hooves, ashamed of himself. "Tonight's the night my squad and I are heading back to Cloudsdale for the next part of tour..." He seemed distracted as his hoof began to draw circled on the wooden floorboards. He gnawed on his lip for several moments, daring to take a quick glance up with his emerald eyes. Braeburn had his hat down so Soarin wasn't able to see his eyes. However, based on the heaving of the other's chest, it wasn't difficult to nail down what the orbs of green looked like. Braeburn sniffled lightly. "Ya... ya said t-that..." He was silent for several moments. "Ya said ya wouldn't abandon me..." He whimpered, biting his own lip to suppress his sobs a little while longer. Fear ran through his mind, trapping him, entangling him. Soarin was silent for several moments as he looked out the window into the bright sun of Celestia. It moved too fast, this entire conversation wasted their precious time together. His own eyes watered, yet he closed his eyes to hold back the tears. "Come with me." He mumbled. Braeburn's head shot up, a stream of tears coming from his eyes, forcing Soarin to physically wince at the sight. He didn't want to make his lover cry, not now, not ever. He forced himself to look into the eyes of the other. "W-What ya say?" Braeburn asked. Soarin smiled softly "Come with me." He said, louder than before, standing up on all fours "It'll be great, you can travel Equestria, you'll see all the sights, you can..." "I can't." Braeburn winced as he said this, biting his lip. Soarin sat there with his mouth open before shaking his head, dumbfounded and confused. "What?" Soarin asked. He cocked up a brow, his eyes showing a hint of anger and frustration "What do you mean you can't, your life is horrible here, you can't stand it, you would be dead if it wasn't for me!" Braeburn turned away, his back facing Soarin. "I... I just can't." He mumbled. "Apple bucking... it's the only darn thing I know how to do... I'm just a stupid pony who can't do anything but help a town who hates him, Pa made me work on the farm my entire life, he wouldn't let me look into anythin' else!" Braeburn grabbed his hat and pulled it down "I... I won't be able to do anything else, not where you're going to take me..." "Brae, you aren't a stupid pony." Soarin snapped, then forced himself to calm down, for he might scare Braeburn if he started yelling "And you don't need to work, you don't even have to do anything if you want to, with the money I make, I can support us both easily!" Soarin said, taking a step forward and placing a hoof on Braeburn's shoulder. The earth pony shook him off, striking a bullet through the pegasi's heart. "Don't you... want to be with me?" He asked. "You aren't gettin' the darn point!" Braeburn shouted. He was then silent for several moments as he lifted a hoof to his eyes and angrily wiped. "I want to be with you, I want to go anywhere you take me!" The yellow pony whimpered out "B-But I... I wasn't meant for travelin', not like ya are, I wasn't born to travel the world, I was born just to work and never leave this part of Equestria, I'm not ready for going place to place, everypony around here is the same, nopony here was meant for traveling..." Braeburn paused to sniffle loudly "You... you were meant to see the world, it's in a pegasi's blood... If I did go with you... how much would I be holding you down from all of that?" "You... you wouldn't... you woul-" "How much?" Braeburn snapped, whipping his head around, a brief moment of frustration in his eyes. Soarin lowered his own head, staying in silence for several moments. He tried to form a sentence, a lie, but it wouldn't form. He couldn't lie to Braeburn. "Likely, at first I'd have to leave you behind if we did any shows in in sky... and if Spitfire just suddenly dropped on us we had to leave in an instant, we would have to leave you too..." Soarin glanced down "We have shows every other week while not on tour, I'm not really sure how long we have between tours, Spitfire does all of the planning for us..." "See?" Braeburn whimpered out. "I'd hardly see ya, Ah'd be alone all the time, and when ya finally are home ya'll be exhausted, and Ah would feel too guilty to bother ya, am I right?" "But you won't see me at all if you don't come!" Soarin yelled, suddenly wrapping his upper legs around Braeburn and burying his face in the other's bare back "I... I don't want to go!" He suddenly wailed "Not without you, I don't want to leave you behind!" Braeburn could tell Soarin was now crying. He had never seen Soarin cry, not this much, and the sounds were breaking his heart. "That's why... If we won't see each other anyway... we should just... maybe we should... just end i-" "Shut up!" Soarin yelled, squeezing the other tightly and turning his head to face him "I'm not going to abandon you here, all alone, where everypony hates you for no reason. I don't care... I don't care what I have to do, I'll still see you every day if you come with me..." Braeburn bit his lip "Don't promise what ya can't keep." He mumbled, turning his head from Soarin's. He didn't want to see the other's tears, it hurt him too much. His own heart began to break, it was hurting him so much. Soarin crying, all of this conversation shouldn't have happened. "I forgot..." Soarin mumbled "I forgot it was today, I had been having so much fun these past two weeks... I forgot about everything!" He whimpered. Braeburn bit his lip "Ah did too." Soarin looked up, tears flowing from his eyes before reaching up his hooves and bringing the other's head to his, nibbling on the other's lips for several moments before breaking away, sniffling loudly "Today... today is going to be the best day of your life, nothing is going to stop that." "Soarin... I..." Braeburn stopped talking, finding he couldn't come up with words. Before he settled on anything, the other's lips crashed with his, this time much more forcefully. Braeburn was taken off of his hooves as a tongue entered his mouth. Soarin kept it like that for the better half of an hour. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Braeburn sadly nuzzled the others cheek, curling up tighter under the light blue wing and hoof covering his back. He glanced out into the deserted terrain of the country. "We're up pretty high..." He mumbled, glancing down over the edge of the mountain as wind blew through his mane. He could feel Soarin shrug. "Lucky you're so light." Soarin teased, a hint of sadness in his voice. Soarin had taken it upon himself to fly Soarin up to the highest place in sight with no warning whatsoever. He wasn't sure how he felt about this himself, but he was glad nopony could find them up here. Soarin kissed his cheek, just as a thought popped into his mind "What are we going to do 'bout all of this?" Braeburn asked, shifting closer to the pegasus cuddling him "How are we going to ever see each other, or talk to each other like this?" "I thought we weren't going to talk about that." Soarin mumbled, pausing his nuzzling. Braeburn felt his heart sink, he was silent as he simply shrugged, hoping Soarin would answer. The pegasus simply sighed "I guess I could write you... but you wouldn't be able to write back, me being away so much." Soarin paused, looking at the other intently. Braeburn lowered his head into his hooves, glancing at the ground. "Oh." Soarin blinked several times as he cuddled the other tighter. He seemed to think for a moment before smirking and grabbing the pair of goggles around his neck and lifting them above his head, danging them in front of Braeburn's eyes. The earth pony glanced up, cocking up a brow "Your goggles?" He asked, turning to the other "What's that for?" The light blue pegasus smirked and nuzzled the other on his ear, causing Braeburn to blush. "This, my friend, is my treasure." He said, placing them in Braeburn's hooves. "Treasure?" Braeburn mumbled, glancing at the other. Soarin felt his heart grow lighter, he had manged to take his lover's mind off of him leaving for a brief moment, and that made him happy. "Yes, my treasure." Soarin said "My dad was a huge fan of the Wonderbolt's, so naturally I got to see a lot of them when I was a foal." The pegasus mumbled "It made him happy to go and see them, since he couldn't fly anymore after injuring his wing in an accident before I was born. it got me really interested in flying, watching them soar and zoom through the sky, they were so elegant and graceful, I wanted to be just like them." "Then?" Braeburn asked, sitting up now, looking down at the other, keeping the goggles in his hooves securely. "I started practicing my flying a lot more when I noticed how happy he seemed. I got real happy when he did, the more and more I flew. I think he was happy that I was able to fly and be so happy about it when he wasn't. The better I got, the more he smiled. So one day, he entered me into one Cloudsdale's best young fliers competition. I got real nervous, and almost didn't go out on stage, but I kept thinking of my dad, and when I finally flew out, I tried to imagine how happy he would be if I just did my best." Soarin was silent for a long time. "I never flew faster than I did that day... I broke the wing speed that day, it's been broken since, in fact this one cyan pony did a Sonic Rainboom and broke the record just last year, but I broke it then with a wing speed of twenty five..." He paused a long time. "The Wonderbolt's were there, all of them retired since then, but they personally gave me the trophy and medal... I got my cutie mark that day... I was the youngest pegasus to ever win that competition." "Really, the youngest?" Braeburn asked, wide eyes in awe. Soarin chuckled and kissed his cheek lightly, not believing how much the other was interested in this lame story. "Yeah, the youngest, dude." Soarin said, looking up "My dad gave me those goggles after that, and I knew what I wanted to do, and that was to join the Wonderbolt's." Soarin grew silent. "That was the last thing he ever gave me..." Braeburn was silent for a long time, and so was Soarin. "T-Then what?" He finally worked up the courage to ask. "Dad got sick... real sick... It started off with the feather flu, and then it just got worse and worse..." Soarin mumbled "I promised him I would join the Wonderbolts... and he promised he he would get better if I did... I was still a stupid foal when that happened, I thought it was true." Soarin sighed loudly, as if remembering bad thoughts "It took me three years after that... but I became the youngest Wonderbolt ever too, I'm a full five years younger than anybody else on the squad..." Soarin paused "Dad died the next year... I remember being really angry because he broke his promise... it took me a long time to calm down and forgive him... I knew he loved me, and was glad I could fly well enough to be a Wonderbolt, like he always wanted to do... Those goggles are all I have of him." Braeburn was silent before reaching out a hoof and putting the goggles right in front of Soarin's face "Here..." He mumbled "I'm... I'm not really sure what to say right now... Sorry." Soarin chuckled before standing up and taking the goggles. He looked at them for a long time before stretching them out and putting them over Braeburn's head. The earth pony jumped "W-What are ya doin'?" He asked, slight alarm in his voice. "Giving them to you." Soarin said, smiling sincerely. "B-But these are your treasure!" Braeburn cried out, fumbling with the goggles now around his neck worriedly "I-I can't just take them from you!" "That's why I'm giving them to you... it's a promise that I'll come back for them, alright?" Soarin asked "And until then, I want you to take good care of them, and don't get them broken or I ain't coming back!" He was half teasing with the last part. Braeburn was silent before smiling and suddenly holding the other in a hug, Soarin chuckled and hugged him back tightly. "I'll take good care of 'em, promise." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The essence of twilight was on the horizon, it caused a deep hole in Braeburn's chest to open up as Soarin walked beside him through the two "The day was too short." He mumbled gently, a hoof caressing down his mane as Soarin attempted to comfort him. "Hey buddy, it'll be alright, we still have plenty of time in the day." He mumbled "I told Spitfire I'll fly to Cloudsdale myself, so I can take all the blame if I'm late, I don't have to go for hours." He mumbled. "Yeah..." Braeburn mumbled. He continued walking until a hoof stomped in front of him, blocking his path. "What is it?" He asked the pegasus. Soarin's wings slapped in a direction to which Braeburn saw two groups of ponies dancing. "What's that?" He asked. "Oh, that?" Braeburn asked "Wild west dancing and mild west dancing." He said. "I never really saw the big deal in the whole thing though, some of those ponies dance there all day long." He rolled his eyes "You can't be seriously interested in that." "What's the difference?" Soarin asked. "One's mild and ones wild." Braeburn said, only to earn a playful slap on the back of his head with a wing. "Ow..." He mumbled. "I say we go and dance." Soarin said, flashing the other a grin of delight, his eyes sparkling with energy. He grabbed the other's hoof and began to drag him toward one of them. "W-Wait!" Braeburn cried before he was flung in the midst of a group. He suddenly felt self conscious, and glanced to Soarin who looked to be having the time of his life as he kicked his hooves in the air. Braeburn blinked several times and watched the other. He stood there not moving as the other glanced at him before grabbing his hoof once more and swinging him close. "S-Soar..." He grumbled. "What, it's a dance, isn't it?" Soarin teased as he caught the other in his upper legs and stuck out his tongue before swinging him out once more. Braeburn felt himself be spun once or twice, and after awhile found himself dancing to the music, focusing on Soarin to ignore the glares he was no doubt receiving from the other ponies around him. Soarin smirked and spun him in once more, catching him. "Why are ya leading?" Braeburn mumbled, wincing as his cheek was licked by his lover. "Because if I remember, last night I was on the to-" "I get it!" Braeburn cried out as Soarin laughed out loud. It was the first time he had danced with Soarin, and he found himself surprised at just how much fun he had. The hours ticked by too quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Ya got everthin'?" Braeburn asked, looking deeply into the other's eyes. It was nightfall, it had finally come. Braeburn had a great time that day, nopony interrupted their fun, and he didn't feel he was wrong for anything he attempted to do. The only problem is that almost everything they did ended up with either of them thinking of just how little time they had together. Soarin nodded, tightening his saddle bags around his sides. He glanced into Braeburn's eyes before smiling "Hey... d-don't look so sad." He mumbled, even though his own eyes were glimmering in tears. He smiled softly before reaching out a hoof and stroking Braeburn's cheek. The earth pony sniffled and then proceed to wipe his eyes with a hoof. "Ah can't help it if I'm upset the... the sexiest pegasus in Equestria is leavin' me..." He whimpered out. He glanced out toward the apple orchard, it looked so different at night. It was hard to believe just how big it looked from here. "The feeling's mutual." Soarin said, smiling softly. He saw that Braeburn smiled, yet his eyes welled in tears. Soarin felt his gut tighten as he suddenly grasped the other in the tightest hug possible "Sure you don't want to come with me?" He asked. Braeburn shook his head, then realized Soarin couldn't see him in this position "I'm sure... I can't travel like you, it's better this way..." "Don't say that you featherbrain." Soarin said as his hoof stroked down Braeburn's mane and his cheek nuzzled the other's neck. There was a long silence "It's only six months..." He mumbled "Till me and the others come out this way again... do you think you can wait that long?" "O-Only s-six?" Braeburn said, his voice cracking "I-I can go th-through that in a s-second." Soarin broke away from him, only to feel a hat deposited on his head. "What's this for?" he asked, glancing up at the rim. Braeburn just smiled "My dad gave it ta me when I got my cutie mark... before he started actin' like... yeah..." He mumbled "I want ya ta hold onto that... same with these goggles, it's my treasure..." He mumbled, fumbling with the pair of goggles around his neck. A long silence occurred. "You're coming with me if anything happens to you here, I don't care how small it is, but if you get hurt again because of me... then I'm going to drag you myself." "Soar..." Braeburn mumbled, before smiling softly. "I... thanks..." Soarin smiled before suddenly grabbing the other's head and mashing his lips into his. It was the same as the past hundred times, yet this time he seemed more passionate, trying too hard and yet not hard enough. Braeburn let the tongue enter his mouth and wrestle with his for a good five minutes. Soarin started to gently fly up with his wings, and Braeburn had to get on his hind legs to keep kissing him. Soarin suddenly broke away, and Braeburn saw he was panting heavily, he lowered himself back to all fours. "I'm so glad I fell in love with such a good kisser..." The pegasus joked. Braeburn smirked with tears in his eyes. "I love you." Soarin said, looking down on Braeburn as his wings gently flapped down cool air onto the earth pony's body. "Love ya too, ya big oaf." Braeburn said. He didn't dare swallow, afraid the taste of Soarin would leave his mouth. Soarin smiled down on him. "Wanna know something?" Soarin asked suddenly. "What?" Braeburn said, erecting his ears up once more. "I... I don't think that bartender ever spit in your drink... I seriously don't." Soarin said, before smirking down at the other. "See you later, dude." He was teasing with the "Dude" part. Soarin hardly called him Dude or Man anymore... they had grown too close for that. Braeburn was silent as this truth sunk in "S-See ya later..." He mumbled. He wasn't willing to say goodbye, because he didn't want to believe it was goodbye. Soarin blinked away the tears in his eyes before suddenly flying off, afraid he might start crying. He left Braeburn there, letting the earth pony think about his own feelings.. He glanced down around his neck, and gently stoked the frame of the goggles. He turned and began to trot home in the night. He wasn't afraid of being attacked at the moment. Braeburn decided he wasn't going to cry or feel sorry for himself. They didn't part on bad terms, they didn't get in a fight, they were just going their separate ways for a short time... Braeburn held his head high, and began to count down each and every moment until six months had run its course.