Maple Syrup

by Garbo

The Waiting Game

Author's Note:

The first chapter of a story I later abandoned. Was originally published on the site, but was removed a few months later. Part of The Great Shipping Collab.
Proofread by Nygiants93 and Bookplayer

As Thunderlane woke up, he used his hoof to shield himself from the sunlight that always assaulted his eyes in the morning. At least, the sunlight was usually there, but this time there wasn’t the usual infernal brightness. After giving himself a few moments to find his bearings, the half-awake pegasus lowered his hoof and found out why his eyes hadn’t been burned out of their sockets: The shade was down.

Thunderlane found this odd. Ditzy normally left the shade open each night, saying that she liked waking up to the sunlight. No matter how much the he protested, she never gave in. In the end, he would always agree, knowing what would happen - or more to the point what wouldn’t happen - if they got into a fight. Like any other stallion, Thunderlane liked it better when his marefriend was willing to share the bed and in the mood for certain bed-related activities.

Thunderlane had tried to solve it on his own end as well, but no matter how much he tried, he always woke up facing the window. He’d slept on his left side his entire life before moving in with Ditzy; he just found it more comfortable that way. As much as it annoyed him, he knew it was worth putting up with. It was also worth living in a ground house, despite having lived in cloud homes all his life. Hearing a quiet murmur from behind him, Thunderlane was once again reminded why it was worth all those little annoyances.

Quietly, the black-coated stallion shifted himself away from the window, turning his body as carefully as possible. It took him awhile, but when he was done, he was glad his eyes hadn’t been burned out. To him, there was nothing more beautiful than Ditzy’s face when she was asleep. Her eyelids were just barely closed, and her peaceful expression was enough to make his heart melt. During the day, she was often stressed about her job as a mailmare, but right now, none of that showed. She was content in her dream world, the only place where life’s hardships could never reach her.

It was this that made Ditzy different than the various other mares Thunderlane had been in relationships with. He still couldn’t get enough of her, even after a whole year of being together, while his other relationships had lasted a month at most. He’d never seen himself as the kind of stallion to settle down, and yet here he was, and he loved it. No amount of beautiful mares in the world could ever strike his heart as this one had.

The stallion gave himself another few seconds to gaze upon Ditzy’s form before deciding to coax her awake. Nuzzling her gently, Thunderlane heard her breaths get increasingly shallow as she started to wake, and felt her shift a little under the sheets.

Smiling, Thunderlane kissed her gently until he got a response. When he pulled away, he was met with the sight of Ditzy smiling, and even though her eyes were still closed, it was clear she was awake.

“So,” Thunderlane said, putting on his best ‘smexy’ face, “how was that for a romantic wake-up?”

“Pretty good,” said Ditzy, sighing contentedly.

“Are you gonna open your eyes, or what?” Thunderlane asked, chuckling.

Ditzy gave him a playful shove with one hoof, opening her eyes. “I was getting to that!” The mare said, sliding her way into Thunderlane’s embrace. “You just didn’t give me the time.”

“Fair enough,” he said, staring into his marefriend’s eyes longingly. Ditzy did the same, stretching out the silent spell. Both could hear the light chirping of birds from outside, which was something Thunderlane never heard in his cloud home. It was a pretty romantic moment, so naturally, the stallion in the room said just about the most non-romantic thing possible.

“So ... you want to fool around?”

The mailmare shook her head. “We already did that last night, remember?”

Suddenly, it all made sense to the forgetful stallion. “So that’s why the shades were down!”

“Well duh. I don’t think we would want Pinkie seeing what was going on, would we?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he replied, stretching a little. The pink mare’s bedroom window was right across from theirs, since Ditzy happened to live right next to sugarcube corner. Whether it was coincidence or not that she lived next to the primary source of muffins in the town was anypony’s guess..

“Can’t you remember last night?” Ditzy asked, bringing her coltfriend’s attention back to her.

Thunderlane shook his head. “You know how I am in the morning; I need to actually wake up to remember anything.”

Ditzy nodded, remembering that the same scenario had played out a dozen times or so, but didn’t say anything, allowing her bedmate to continue.

“Besides, I’m pretty sure I know how it went down.”

“Well how, then?”

“Well,” he said, shifting himself just a little closer to the mailmare, “we were probably lying on the bed …”

“Uh-huh.”

“And I guess I was holding you like this,” he said, resting his hooves just above her bubble cutie marks.

Starting to catch on, Ditzy smiled. “Keep going …”

“Well, I guess I was on top too,” he continued, matching his words with his actions.

Despite her former protest, the mare wasn’t resisting in the least. “Yeah, probably.”

“And then, I went and kissed you … just … like … this.” Unlike the last one, the kiss that followed quickly grew more heated, and the narrator, who was afraid a foal might someday come across this story, decided to take a step outside before things got too involved. After all, in a land like Equestria, there was plenty of other things to look at. It wasn’t an extraordinary day, and the narrator wondered why the author hadn’t picked a perfectly sunny day like all the other authors seemed to do. After mulling it over for a while, his best guess was that the writer was just trying to be different. And as it turned out, that was a pretty good guess, although a good part of it was probably the result of the author being dumb.

Anyways, it was still a pretty decent day. The sunset had ended in the last hour or so, but it was still too early for ponies to be out and about. Some birds were chirping as he’d said before, and for lack of anything else to do, The Narrator decided to think about that. After all, he’d always wondered why the birds - who were perfectly capable of flying south by themselves - needed the help of ponies to go North. Couldn’t they just retrace their path?

=-=-=-=-=

So the narrator spend the next ten minutes thinking about birds. While pondering the differences between Zebafrican and Unipean swallows, he broke his train of thought, realizing that he’d been gone long enough for things to have cooled down. Nervously, he peeked back through the window. He was only able to see through the thin crack under the windowshade. Thankfully for him, the two ponies seemed to be done bucking, mating, consummating, banging, making love, or whatever you want to call it. Deciding to get in there before the story got too derailed, the narrator squeezed under the crack in the window and into the room.

Meanwhile, the two lovers were lying in the bed, basking in the afterglow. Unknown to most ponies, afterglow is actually a type of magic. In fact, Twilight Sparkle had done a very conclusive study on it recently.

But that’s a story for another time.

Thunderlane and Ditzy Doo were slightly winded, both from the activity that had just taken place and from how early it was. Relaxing in Thunderlane’s embrace, it took Ditzy a while to remember the reason she had to wake up this early every morning. But when she did …

“Thunderlane!!”

The stallion winced at the sudden volume of his marefriend’s voice. “What?”

“I’m going to be late for work!”

“Yeah, sure you are,” he said dismissively, holding her just a little tighter.

Angrily, Ditzy glared at Thunderlane until he caved, letting her go. “Okay, fine, I’ll help you get ready.”

=-=-=-=-=

Five minutes later, Ditzy Doo had showered, brushed her coat and mane, and was pretty well woken up. She was now eating a quick breakfast of oats and coffee while Thunderlane preened her feathers for her.

“I wish I could actually take the time to do this right,” the stallion mumbled through the feathers.

Ditzy sensed the innuendo, but didn’t take the time to laugh.

“I think we’ve had enough of that for one day, don’t you?” Finishing her food and chugging the rest of her coffee, the mare stood up just as Thunderlane finished preening the last of feathers.

“So, you’ll be there for our date, right?”

“Of course I will,” the mare said, hurriedly dumping the bowl and mug into the sink. She winced when she heard one of them shatter, but didn’t have time to inspect the damage. Trotting over to the bewildered stallion in the room, she gave him a farewell kiss.

“The preening was relaxing, though. Thanks.”

Before Thunderlane had a chance to respond, she rushed over to her saddlebags, flung them on crookedly, then flew out the door. A few seconds later, Thunderlane heard a dull thud as Ditzy flew into the ground, followed by a string of muffled curses as she fixed the strap that she’d accidentally fastened over her wing.

Sighing, the dark-coated pegasus peered through the window, watching her fly off as fast as she could manage.

“Yeah, relaxed,” he mumbled. If that was her being relaxed, then he was glad he wouldn’t have to see her at work that day. Hopefully by the time their date rolled around, she would be a little more relaxed. Although he didn’t remember this early in the morning, he’d made big plans for their date - relationship-altering ones - and Ditzy being upset wouldn’t help things

=-=-=-=-=

Thunderlane went through the rest of the day, but he didn’t really pay much attention to anything. He wasn’t so zoned out that he started crashing into buildings as he flew along, but he did have to swerve at the last minute to avoid hitting them more than a few times. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the date since remembering it earlier that morning. It was a thought that made him both overjoyed and terrified at the same time.

He’d first remembered just after Ditzy had left. Since he knew he wasn’t going to get back to sleep, he took a quick shower to get rid of the last vestiges of sleepiness rocking the bed hadn’t taken care of. Minutes later, he’d found himself eating breakfast; mind clear. And that’s when he’d remembered the doozy: He was going to ask Ditzy to marry him.

Understandably, he was fixated on the task ahead, and only going through the motions of his routine. He was so out of it that he didn’t realize he was at Sugarcube Corner until he heard a familiar, cheerful voice from behind the counter.

“Hey Thunder! What’s shakin’?”

Of course, it was none other than Pinkie Pie, Ponyville’s #1 party mare. Upon entering the establishment, Thunderlane was nearly always greeted by the energetic mare. Even when she was upstairs watching over the Cake babies or in the kitchen baking, she somehow knew that Thunderlane was there. It didn’t make any sense, but it didn’t really matter to him. Pinkie was a good friend, and it was always nice to talk to her.

“Heh, hey Pinkie.” Still not paying much attention to his surroundings, Thunderlane stumbled over a barstool as he walked up to the counter, barely managing to catch his balance.

Pinkie laughed loudly, snorting like a pig, a sound that seemed somewhat appropriate given her color. “You’re acting silly today, Thunder! Can I get you anything? And where’s Ditzy? Is she not out of work yet? How long until she gets here? Oh my gosh I can’t wait until she gets here!”

Thunderlane ran through the questions in his head before responding. “Uh, I don’t need anything until Ditzy gets here. And no, she’s not out of work yet, but she’ll be here soon.”

“Oh, okay. So what did you want to talk about?”

“Pinkie, you called out to me, remember? I never asked for anypony to talk to.”

“I know, but I can just tell there’s something you want to talk about. I mean, you look pretty happy about something, but you’re kind of nervous too. There must be something that’s making you act like this.”

Thunderlane grinned at the comment. Pinkie was always a good pony to talk to when he was unsure about something. Her energetic personality had often lifted him out of a sour mood.

“Well yeah, there is.”

“What is it? I promise I won’t tell! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a-”

Putting a hoof on her mouth to silence her, Thunderlane continued. “I know you won’t tell, Pinkie. But can you please be quiet about this. I haven’t told anypony else yet.”

“Ooooooh, it’s a secret,” Pinkie said, doing her best to whisper from behind Thunderlane’s hoof , “I’m good with secrets. You can trust me.”

“I know that, Pinkie. I just wanted to tell you since you’ve always been a really great friend to me and Ditzy, and-”

“Oh, it’s about you and Ditzy? What is it? Oh, oh, I bet I know! She’s pregnant, isn’t she? You’re happy ‘cause you’re gonna get a little foal and that’s enough to make anypony happy, really. Do you know what you’re going to name her? or him. or her. You wouldn’t be able to tell this early on would you?” By the end of this, Pinkie’s voice had risen well above a whisper, and the whole restaurant turned towards them after hearing the word ‘pregnant’, and probably some ponies off the street too.

For the first time in the last few hours, Thunderlane frowned. “No, Pinkie, she’s not pregnant. Can you please keep it down!”

Pinkie covered her mouth with her hooves, “Oh, right, I’m supposed to be whispering. Sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Thunderlane replied, a little bit of his earlier grin returning.

“I guess I was just making assumptions. I mean, I know you two have been bucking, but-”

“Wait, what?” Thunderlane interjected, his eyes wide in shock.

“You didn’t think I could figure it out, Thunder? We’re next door neighbors and best friends. Of course I know.”

Thunderlane took a while to recover. Having one of your best friends tell you that she’s keenly aware that you’re sleeping with another one of her best friends tends to be quite a shocker.

“Wait, so how did you know? Did you guess?”

“Well, I did at first. I mean, you’d been going out more months, and you’d been sleeping in the same bed for a lot of that time. I knew it must’ve happened sometime.”

“Wait, at first you guessed?”

“Well, actually, it was this morning when I figured it out for sure. The twins woke me up early, so I was already awake. The window was open, and I heard you.” Pinkie said this easily, as if she was just talking about the weather instead of that fact that two of her friends were having sex. That smoothness wasn’t helping Thunderlane’s nervousness. He couldn’t remember feeling more awkward since flight school health class.

“Was it really that loud?”

“Not too loud, but it’s not like it matters. Nopony’s up that early anyway.”

Thunderlane wasn’t normally one to blush, but considering the circumstances, it wasn’t a surprise. “Yeah, I know. Still, I guess we could’ve been more careful. The weird thing is, I don’t remember either of us opening the window.”

“You’re right, you didn’t.”

Now he was even more confused. “Um, Pinkie, one of us had to. It wasn’t open when I woke up.”

“No, see there was this ghostie.”

“A ghostie,” said Thunderlane with an unreadable expression.

“Uh huh. He came from inside your room. He opened up the window and went outside. He was kinda floaty … and clear … and, well, a ghostie!”

“Pinkie, how long were you watching our window?” he asked suspiciously.

“Oh, I wasn’t really. The ghostie was the first thing I noticed. I saw it out of my … uh … oh, what’s the word?”

“Peripheral vision?” He guessed.

“Yeah, that one!”

“Oh, okay.” Knowing that his good friend wasn’t a stalker put him at ease. With any of his other friends, he wouldn’t have questioned them for a minute. But despite how well he knew Pinkie Pie, there were times she could be the littlest bit crazy, and he couldn’t put that sort of thing past her, no matter how much he trusted her.

“So anyway, the ghostie just sat there, so that got boring. I was just sitting there thinking, and then I wondered, why would he ever leave your room? I mean, you two are so super-fantastically fun to hang around, I don’t see how anypony - or anyghostie, I guess - wouldn’t want to stay. And that’s when I heard … well, you know.”

Thunderlane’s cheeks felt hot again, accompanied by the appropriate color. “Uh, yeah, I get the picture. So you think you saw a ghost going out the window?”

“Yep! He was a really nice guy too. After he came out the second time, we talked a bit. He was kind of surprised I could see him though. He called himself The Narrator. Isn’t that a funny name?”

Thunderlane just chuckled, knowing there was no way that story was true. He figured the mare had just got it mixed up with a dream she’d had the night before. Having to wake up before sunrise could do that sort of thing to a pony. If it could make him forget a night of fun with Ditzy, he figured it could mix up reality and fiction.

Fortunately for Thunderlane, he would never find out how wrong he was, as Pinkie suddenly refocused their derailed conversation.

“So if you’re not getting a foal right now, when are you? Just wondering! I mean, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.”

Remembering why he and his friend were talking, Thunderlane thought up his response accordingly.

“Well, I think we were waiting until after the wedding.”

“Well that doesn’t help, Thunder. How am I supposed to know when you two are getting married?” Pinkie Pie asked, not taking the hint.

He stared at her for a few seconds, just smiling, seeing how long it would take the hyperactive earth pony to put the pieces together. When she finally did, she gasped loudly, nearly inhaling all of the air in Sugarcube Corner. She was about to shout, but the stallion put a silencing hoof to her mouth before she could inform half of the town about his matrimonial plans.

“Pinkie, can you promise me you’ll be quiet this time? I really don’t want everypony knowing about this.” The pink-colored earth pony nodded energetically, and he released his hoof.

“So you and Ditzy are engaged? Oh my gosh this is so exciting! This calls for a party!”

“You mean the reception?” Thunderlane deadpanned.

“Well, yeah, of course that. But I mean it’s such a big thing, I figure it deserves two parties! don’t you? And will you please please please let me plan the reception? That would be so much fun! I mean Cadence and Shining Armor’s was good enough, but you two? Oh my gosh, that would be so super-duper terrific!”

“Well I can’t say yes just yet Pinkie.”

“Why not, Thunder? Is there somepony else you want to do the reception? I guess that’s fine with me, even though I really, really, really want to do it.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that, well, I haven’t asked her yet.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Wait, so you’re saying you’re going to-”

“Propose here. Yeah.”

“Oh my gosh, that makes so much sense! I mean, this is where you guys first met, and you go out here all the time, and Ditzy loves muffins. Oh, do you want me to hide the ring in a muffin? That would be so romantic,” Pinkie was hugging Thunderlane at this point, nearly choking him, as most of her hugs had a way of doing.

“Um, Pinkie, do you think you could turn down the energy just a little bit?”

“Oh, sorry about that,” she said, letting him go. “I’m just so excited!”

“Yeah … I am too,” whispered Thunderlane with more than a hint of fear in his tone.

Pinkie noticed his hesitation. “You’re nervous, aren’t you?”

Thunderlane nodded, although he thought ‘panicked’ would be a more accurate word. Or maybe ‘frightened for my life’.

“Well of course you are! It’s a big deal; I’d be worried if you weren’t nervous.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But what if she says no? I mean, I doubt she’d dump me, but I don’t know what would happen if she didn’t want to. I’m afraid it won’t be the same.”

Pinkie just shook her head. “What are you talking about? You two are perfect for each other, and there isn’t anything that can just tear you apart, especially this. You know that.”

“I know, but still. What if she doesn’t want to get married yet?”

“Then you wait till she’s ready! She’s not going to stop loving you just because you propose to her. She’ll probably like that you’re ready to make that kind of commitment to her, even if she doesn’t want to yet. Trust me, I’m a mare too, you know, and that’s what I would think.”

Thunderlane wasn’t used to hearing that kind of thing out of the sometimes-immature mare, but he couldn’t deny the truth of it.

“You know what Pinkie? I guess you’re right.”

“Right about what?” asked a voice from behind him.

Recognizing the voice, Thunderlane went rigid in fear. He’d forgotten the reason he’d come to Sugarcube Corner in the first place: to go on a date with his marefriend, who had just shown up at an inopportune moment. With nothing but stuttering coming out of his mouth, he was lucky to have a certain pink-maned heroine there to save him from certain doom.

“We were talking about his mane. He said he’s thinking about styling it normally for once.”

Thunderlane had no choice but to play along. “Well, yeah, It’s … uh … kind of getting a little boring, since I’ve been doing it for so long.”

Ditzy looked surprised. “Really? I though you always liked the Zebafrican style.”

“Well you know, I’m probably not going to, but, y’know, it might be something to try sometime,” said Thunderlane, who was staring daggers into Pinkie Pie. She had left the counter and was busying herself by stacking up some dishes to be cleaned later. Even though she was turned away from him, Thunderlane could tell she was having trouble containing her laughter. He knew a prank when he saw one.

“Oh, okay. So, are we going to sit down or what?”

“Sure,” he said, gritting his teeth. “Let’s go.”

As the two walked over to one of the booths, Thunderlane saw Pinkie fall over in a fit of laughter. The mare knew well enough that Ditzy would bother him about it for a good part of the date. It wasn’t really Ditzy’s fault, though. She was just being curious.

And of course, after they sat down, that was the first thing they talked about. It went on for a good fifteen minutes, maybe more. It seemed to last forever for the stallion at the table. He liked his mane the way it was; he didn’t care if everypony else seemed to think it was odd. But he also knew that he had to keep up the act so Ditzy wouldn’t think anything was amiss. Thus, the conversation continued until Thunderlane got up to get some food.

“Pinkie, can we get two daisy sandwiches and a tray of muffins?”

“Sure thing!”

It only took her a minute to get the food, since the sandwiches didn’t require cooking and the muffins had already been made. Thunderlane’s eyes followed Pinkie around as she got the ingredients for the sandwiches. When she was done, she came over and brought him the food. balancing the tray on his back, he turned to the mare at the counter.

“Pinkie, you do realize I’m going to get you back, right?”

“Yesserie!”

“Okay, good, just making sure, we’ll talk after I’m engaged.” he said, giving her a wink.

Pinkie Pie just smiled, going into the back room of the restaurant. Meanwhile, Thunderlane brought the food back to the table. Looking up, he saw Ditzy waving him over. He looked over at her and smiled; she had a way of making him do that.

Thunderlane really should’ve been watching where he was going, though. He nearly missed seeing the stallion who was walking to the same place he was. Eyes widening, the normally athletic pegasus . Tripping over the pony’s hind legs, Thunderlane somehow managed to grab the food in between his wings before falling face first into the floor. Ditzy rushed over to him immediately, and once she was sure he was okay, had trouble containing her laughter.

“Hey sweetie, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think so. How’s the food?”

“Fine.”

“How’s my dignity?” he asked with a forced smile.

That just about did it for Ditzy, who started laughing openly.

“Not so good.”

=-=-=-=-=

An hour later, they still couldn’t stop talking about it.

“Were you really not paying attention, or were you just trying to make me laugh?” Ditzy, who was now sitting on the same side of the booth as her coltfriend, finished off the last of the muffins.

“It wasn’t a set-up, I swear!” Thunderlane was already done his meal, since he’d let Ditzy eat all the muffins.

The mailmare barely managed to hold the muffin in her mouth over the laughs. “And afterward, all he could worry about was whether or not you were going to sue him!”

“Yeah, is Davenport always like that?”

“Uh-huh. I have to deliver stuff to him all the time. The whole time, he can’t stop asking me to be careful just so I don’t hurt my back or wing or somehting. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Thunderlane couldn’t stop laughing either. “Sounds like it.”

Chuckling, Ditzy wrapped him in a warm embrace. Hugging her back, he looked around the restaurant, realizing that he and Ditzy were the only two ponies there. Pinkie had even put up a closed sign for them, although the restaurant didn’t close for at least another hour. If there was any time to just get it over with, it would be now. Ditzy was happy; they were both happy. That didn’t make him any less nervous, though. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down a little. It didn’t help much, but Thunderlane already knew that nothing was going to help in that regard. He was just stalling.

“Hey, Ditzy?”

“Mmhm?” she said, mumbling into his coat.

“I just wanted to ask you something.”

“What kind of something?” she asked.

“Well … it’s kind of, uh, important.”

Ditzy stirred a little before releasing him from the cuddling. “Okay, what is it?”

Saying nothing, Thunderlane got up. He opened up his saddlebags and got the box out. Taking another deep breath, he got down on one knee, and held the now-opened box out to the mare he loved, and said: “Ditzy Doo, will you marry me?”

Wide-eyed, Ditzy didn’t look as overjoyed as he’d hoped. “I … uh … I.” Thunderlane waited as his marefriend went through every known way to stutter ever invented. When she finally got around to speaking, her response was even worse.

“Thunderlane … I love you, I really do, but I’m not sure I’m ready for … well, marriage. At least not yet. You understand, right?”

Grimacing, Thunderlane closed the box, putting it on the table. “No, you don’t need to feel bad about it. I’m okay with it. I guess I just wanted you to know that that’s how I feel.”

Thunderlane tried reaching out to hug her again, but Ditzy recoiled. “No, it’s … it’s very sweet.”

“Sweet? I just asked you to marry me! That’s a lot more than sweet!” Stopping himself, he realized he’d been shouting. Knowing it would only make the situation worse, he stopped before he said anything he’d regret.

“I’m just asking why, I guess. If there’s something I need to know, you can tell me.”

“This isn’t the place to talk about this,” the mare said firmly, trotting out of the door. As quickly as he could, Thunderlane gathered up his things and ran after her. On the way out, he shot a glance at Pinkie, who had a concerned look on her face. For a moment, the stallion was tempted to stop and talk to her, because at the moment, he wanted comfort more than anything else. There was no guarantee of comfort if he followed Ditzy, but at the same time he couldn’t just abandon the mare he loved, especially when she seemed distressed.

After his moment’s hesitation, Thunderlane stepped out the door into the darkness of night, thoughts still racing through his head at the speed of sound. But amid the mental chaos, there was one comforting thought - a memory of what Pinkie had said:

What are you talking about? You two are perfect for eachother, and there isn’t anything that can just tear you apart, especially this.

The distressed pegasus recognized this one good thought and grasped at it. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that somehow, everything was going to be alright. Ditzy did love him, and whatever she was worried about, it was something they could overcome together.

So, with some renewed confidence, Thunderlane took the short walk to his marefriend’s place, coming face to face with the front door. Behind it was a mystery, something he wished he didn’t have to face, and yet, something he could not ignore.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door, and with it, a challenge he would soon have to face.