Chapter 4: You Think You’re so Pretty
-o~ A bit ago… ~o-
“Well that wasn’t very good,” Adagio said as she rubbed at her right ear with her right forehoof. She put on an unsatisfied look as she clumsily mashed her leg against her ear, stopped rubbing it, and shifted the front end of her body towards her hindquarters. She then shifted her body weight to her left and raised her right back leg as she began scratching at her ear like a dog.
In the wide open basement with its exposed wooden walls, pink insulation, and concrete floor, Gibson gave Adagio a dejected look. “… I’m sorry…” he said in an unhappy tone.
Adagio stopped scratching at her ear. “Oh no, it’s all right. Really.” She shook her head. “You’re just not very good.”
Gibson’s eyes became slightly glassy as he puffed out his lower lip. He trotted over to an electric guitar with a light woodgrain color that darkened to a reddish hue at the edges of the guitar. He looked down at the floor as he reached for the guitar, throwing the strap around his neck. “No… I’m loving…” he said with a sad shrug before he strummed his guitar. The guitar sang out with a whisper quiet, melancholy tune. “… cuddly…”
Adagio looked at Gibson for a second and seemingly regarded him for a moment. Something that just might have been sympathy, or perhaps pity, flashed to her expression before it was crushed beneath Adagio’s eyelids which lowered to form a steely, slightly annoyed look with her burning magenta irises. “Look Gibson… I could say stuff like—” Adagio pitched her voice up into a tone of faux sympathy “—‘Oh, that’s okay! You tried your best’ or ‘It’s fine! No one does well their first time.’ But I’m not your mom.”
Images of what transpired between himself and Adagio suddenly flashed through Gibson’s mind. He shuddered slightly. “Thank Celestia for that…” he mumbled.
Adagio continued as she glanced upwards at the ceiling of wooden planks surrounded by pink foam, “The truth is, this moment will probably always haunt you.”
Gibson cringed.
“I mean like… really haunt you. The type of soul-crushing psychological weight that takes pills to fix so you can perform the next time some poor woma-mare is unfortunate enough to be alone with you.”
Gibson winced hard, his guitar strings protesting as he practically dragged his forehoof down them. He looked up at Adagio with a pleading look. “Can’t you give me another chance? Please!?”
Adagio sighed and turned back towards Gibson. “Look, I’m still crazy horny and if I know Sonata and Aria, and I do unfortunately, they probably got your mom out of the house to deal with something incredibly stupid. Meaning your dad is…” Adagio trailed off as her eyes drifted downward. “… is… Oh… oh my…”
Gibson looked down and blushed as he shifted his guitar strategically. “Sorry!” he exclaimed.
Adagio shook her head. “Don’t be sorry! You’re hung like a…” Adagio paused and frowned as realization quickly hit her. “Like a…” She raised a forehoof up to her mouth and coughed, allowing the sentence to die as she moved on. “Never mind. I mean, really though… it’s just so soon!” Adagio smiled. “I’m rather impressed… However… why were you getting excited while I verbally tore you down?” Adagio grinned wickedly. “Don’t tell me you have some weird complex.”
“What?! No! It’s just—”
“I changed my mind,” Adagio said. “I’m actually quite alright with you having a weird complex regarding you being humiliated, or your family, or whatever.”
“No!” Gibson said forcefully as he narrowed his eyes. “It’s uh… It’s an earth pony thing, I think?”
Adagio sat back on her haunches. She gave Gibson an interested look with her brilliantly magenta eyes. “Earth pony?” she asked as she smiled and batted her eyelashes.
Gibson nodded. “Yeah… I mean. We have more strength and stamina than other ponies.” He gave Adagio a sheepish look. “So that means…”
Adagio’s smile warmed up. “Well alright, but that doesn’t explain why it happened when I was going over how I was going to leave you here and go upstairs to find sexual fulfillment with your father…” Adagio pursed her lips slightly. “Which actually sounds incredibly mean-spirited and cruel when I say it out loud like that.”
Gibson shook his head. “It had nothing to do with that!”
“Well, what then?”
Gibson looked up at Adagio with his big, steel blue eyes. “It’s just… it’s just you’re so pretty,” he said before looking away, his cheeks turning slightly red.
Adagio eyes widened as she raised her head up and back slightly.
“Sorry…” Gibson said. “Was that… was that the wrong thing to say?”
Adagio’s smile returned, oozing across her face like warm molasses slowly spilling over a tabletop. “Gibson, put the guitar down.”
“Er…” Gibson did as instructed then turned towards Adagio with a hopeful smile. “So, you’re giving me another— Oh Celestia!”
Gibson watched as Adagio got a running start and pounced him. His head nearly impacted with the cement, only stopping a hair’s width away as a magenta glow caught him and gently lowered him to the ground. Before he could say anything more, Adagio leaned down and placed her mouth over his. She opened her lips and fired her tongue into Gibson’s mouth aggressively.
Breaking the kiss, she began gently humming to herself before she broke into song.
-o~Also a bit ago~o-
“Are we done walking?” Aria whined out as she trotted behind Love Tap. “‘Cause this is taking forever!”
Love Tap huffed out a sigh as she approached a line of trees. The shining brightness of the day seemed to stop abruptly at the tree line as the shaded tops of the forest blocked out the sun until shade turned into darkness much deeper inside.
“Yes, this is it,” Love Tap said. She narrowed her eyes into an unamused look as she turned towards Aria. “You can stop your complaining.”
Aria chuckled and shook her head. “Bitching,” she said.
“Excuse me?” Love Tap replied in a slightly confused tone.
“When I do it, it’s called ‘bitching’,” Aria clarified.
“Right, right…” Love Tap shook her head slightly. “Look, I might have been a little hasty earlier. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on but you seem to be having a lot of trouble with your earth pony strength. Maybe we shouldn’t… shouldn’t…” Love Tap let the sentence die as she noticed Aria staring at her with a look of intense determination. A look that absolutely screamed ‘Oh, this is GOING to happen!’
Aria broke into song and charged Love Tap at full speed. “Don’t try to take this from me! Don’t try to take this from me!~” As she got within striking range, Aria let loose a forehoof towards Love Tap’s face. “Now-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!~”
Love Tap’s surprise only lasted a moment, not long enough for Aria to connect. The light tan mare quickly shifted her body out of the way of the blow then swatted at Aria, adding to the momentum that was already carrying the purple mare towards the forest.
Aria tumbled and rolled, somersaulting back-over-head until a tree brought her to a sudden stop with a ‘CRACK.’ Bark shot out in all directions from the ensuing impact. Despite the fact that she was lying upside-down with her head on the ground and her back and back legs against the tree, she continued to sing and stare at Love Tap with an unwavering look.
She quickly got up to her hoves, shooting a sneer as she broke into another gallop towards Love Tap. This time she threw all her body weight, shoulder first, into the mare.
Love Top shifted her body to meet the impact with her own shoulder. With a resounding ‘THUD!’ Aria smashed into Love Tap with enough force that the grass under them swayed with the resulting air pressure.
Love Tap quickly reached up with a foreleg and wrapped it around Aria’s neck. With a grunt she brought the purple mare to the ground and positioned herself over her, pinning Aria’s forelegs down.
Now on her back and underneath Love Tap, Aria rapidly brought her legs up to her chest, squeezing them in between herself and the tan mare that was keeping her pinned down. She placed her back hooves against Love Tap’s chest and suddenly thrust as hard as she could. Love Tap was immediately catapulted into the air.
Love Tap flew above the ground with an unexpected grace, spinning her body in midair to get her four hooves pointing downward before she connected with the ground. Her hooves dug into the dirt and skid only briefly before she stopped in place. Love Tap narrowed her eyes and tilted her head upwards almost inquisitively as she kept her gaze focused on Aria. Narrowing her eyes further, she dragged her hoof over the ground a couple times and snorted.
Aria grinned wickedly and galloped forward at full speed again, this time lowering her head as if to ram Love Tap. Love Tap lowered her own head to catch the impact full on. A powerful ‘THUNK!’ filled the area as the impact once again caused the air to bluster. Two sets of four hooves dug deep into the ground as Aria and Love Tap grit their teeth and pressed the tops of their crowns against each other, Each pushing against the other with all their strength.
Love Tap suddenly reared back on her hind legs and kicked out with her fore legs. Aria instinctively raised her forelegs to block. She quickly realized her mistake as she began falling forward. She thrust her forehooves back onto solid ground just as Love Tap connected with both hooves on the top of Aria’s head. Aria swayed slightly as her vision began to blur.
Wasting no time, Love Tap circled to Aria’s side, and pointed her backside towards Aria. She lifted both her back legs up and kicked Aria.
Aria went sailing through the air, smashing straight into a pine tree as wide as she was long that buckled, then snapped from her impact. She continued to fly into the forest, hitting the ground and bouncing over rocks, shrubs and off other trees before finally rolling to a stop on her stomach.
Woozily, Aria got back to her hooves and shot a glare towards the bottom half of the tree she had just been hurled through. She glanced thoughtfully at the top half that laid on the on the forest floor and glanced around her.
Love Tap took a moment to catch her breath then shouted from the other side of the tree line. “Are ya Done?!”
Love Tap got her answer as several large rocks suddenly flew out of the forest and into the sky, flying in a neat little arc towards her. With a slightly startled yelp, Love Tap dodged rock after rock. Her eyes opened widely as something else came through the air, blocking the sunlight.
“TREE!” she cried as she dove forward onto her stomach, the point of the pine tree Aria had crashed into and thrown suddenly landing where Love Tap had just occupied moments before, tumbling end over end and throwing up dirt as it spun vertically over the ground.
Love Tap looked up and grit her teeth as a surprised, worried look came over her. Aria had apparently followed the rocks and trees and was now descending towards her, one of her forelegs pulled back along her shoulder.
Still on her stomach, Love Tap flung herself to her right as Aria thrust her forehoof forward. Her hoof hit the ground as Aria herself continued forward. Grass and dirt flew up in all directions as Aria smashed her way forward, launching Love Tap away from a brand new crater in the ground.
Love Tap slowly got to her hoves, coughing as she shook grass and dirt clumps off of her. She cast a worried look towards the new hole next to the forest.
Her ears couldn’t help but flop down around her head as a purple hoof emerged from the edge.
Aria Blaze emerged from the hole, covered in dirt and looking plenty battered and bruised. Despite this, she still gazed at Love Tap with the same intense determined look she started the fight with.
Slowly, Love Tap’s ears raised back up as a smile began to spread across her face. Love Tap’s eyes narrowed into laser beams pointed in Aria’s direction.
Aria dragged a forehoof over the ground a couple times, it easily pushed the grass and dirt aside as it dug deeply into the earth.
Still smiling, Love Tap repeated the motion of digging her own hoof through the dirt.
Aria launched into a gallop, still singing as she rushed towards Love Tap.
Love Tap likewise propelled herself to Aria as she began singing along.
The two ponies rose their chests up and slammed into each other at full speed, more dirt and rocks were flung in all directions as the air around them seemed to flee from the scene of violence.
Love Tap made no attempt to gain the upper hoof or throw Aria back to the ground, instead she threw her head about wildly and kicked out with all her hooves, all the while smiling excitedly as she joined Aria in her fevered song.
Aria smiled too as she continually thrusted with her forehooves, occasionally rearing up on her hind legs to bat with her forehooves or press her weight forward so she kicked out with her back legs.
The mares fought recklessly, allowing blows to find their marks as each one was brought to the ground time and time again only to get back up and resume the melee of hooves and strength that was completely ruining the ground around them.
Aria took another swing, but this time her eyes went wide as she felt her other three legs give out from under her. Her legs suddenly splayed out in all directions as she collapsed to the ground. Her breathing ragged and uneven as she tried desperately to catch breath that had seemingly long left her lungs.
Reared up on her back legs, Love Tap stopped kicking her forehooves out and lowered herself back onto all fours. She let out a sigh of relief and shook her head back in forth quickly, forcing dirt and loose bits of rocks to fall out of it. “Phew… I was wondering if that would ever happen.”
“Huff…Puff… I’m… I’m fine!” Aria insisted as she tried and failed to get back to her hooves. “I’m just… just—” Aria swallowed “—I’m just a bit winded!”
Love Tap shook her head. “You’re completely out of energy.”
“Screw you!” Aria shot back irritably. “Huff…Puff… What do you know?!”
Love Tap chuckled. “You attack… no… you do everything with all your strength all the time! No wonder you’re so grumpy! Your muscles must be killing you!”
Aria frowned slightly and stared up at her eyelashes. “Muscles… Sure… Let’s go with that.”
Love Tap trotted forward and extended a forehoof. “You need to learn how to be gentle.”
Aria glared up from the ground. “Gentle?” she practically spat out.
Love Tap looked up and bobbed her head from side to side. “Or at least not rip off doors and stuff when you open them.”
Aria sighed and put her face in the ground. She reached up a foreleg. Love Tap wrapped her own foreleg around it and pulled Aria onto her hooves.
Aria teetered slightly.
Love Tap quickly placed herself alongside Aria and grabbed one of Aria’s forelegs, draping it across her neck. “Here, lean on me.”
Aria’s face flushed red as she looked at the ground, her arm around Love Tap. The two began to slowly trot back to town.
Love Tap chuckled. “Are you okay with hayburgers? I don’t really feel like cooking much at the moment.”
Aria’s stomach growled for her before she could speak up. “Works for me,” Aria said. “I’m starving.”
“Me too,” Love Tap said. Her brow suddenly tightened as she continued to walk forward.
Aria gave her a quizzical look. “Something wrong?”
Love Tap shook her head. “I don’t know, I swear I’ve forgotten something…” Love Tap’s steel blue eyes suddenly shot open wide. “Oh no… Oh no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no!”
“Dude, calm down!” Aria exclaimed. “What the heck is eating you all of a sudden?”
Love Tap turned to Aria with a panicked expression. “How good is Sonata with watching kids?!”
Aria didn’t speak. She didn’t make a sound. She just stared at Love Tap with her deep amethyst eyes. Her mouth remained emotionless as Aria tilted her head up as far as she could until it was almost at a 90-degree angle from its starting position.
Love Tap felt her heart pound hard in her chest, even harder than it had fighting Aria. “Oh, horse apples!”