Sun's Fire

by Discordia5

The Days After

The Days After

Artemis trotted down the halls of the castle looking frantically for his brother who was late for the sunrise. It was extremely rare if not a near impossibility for him to be late for his duties. He came to Solaris’ room and knocked softly. The door slowly creaked open a crack just enough for him to see that his older brother was definitely still asleep or was asleep. Solaris groaned and Artemis saw his covers shift to show that he had rolled over in his sleep. Artemis squinted slightly in thought. There could only be one logical explanation as to why Solaris was still in bed at that hour. He was hung-over. It had only happened at least once before, after one of his birthdays when he had one too many ciders. Artemis only hoped Soly hadn’t done anything stupid the night before, especially to Eris. He pushed the door open completely and walked over to Solaris’ bed. “Soly?” he said and nudged his brother with his hoof. “Solaris.”

Solaris groaned and rolled over again. “It’s too early brother,” he said.

“Actually, brother, it’s late,” Artemis corrected. “And you haven’t raised the sun yet.”

Solaris snorted and stumbled out of bed. “What why didn’t you say so!” he cried and galloped out of his room.

Artemis smirked and slowly followed him out. Solaris galloped all the way out of the castle his horn glowed garishly before he even burst out of the doors and flew straight out into the sky. The sun burst out from behind the hills and into the sky in its proper place for the time of day. He sighed and panted as he landed, stumbled and fell flat on his face. Artemis stood before him not long after. He looked down at Solaris expectantly and waited for him to collect himself. Solaris sighed and stood back up. He shook out his bed-tangled mane and looked at his brother with the same expectant look. “So, how was the party?” Artemis asked.

Solaris scrunched up his face in thought. He honestly couldn’t remember that much ofd the party, he remembered most of the beginning and some of the end, and the middle was a muddled mess of drinking and dancing. One thing that did stand out in his mind, however, was the kiss he had given to Eris. His face lit up like his glorious sun, red and hot. Artemis quirked an eyebrow at him and wondered what had happened himself. “It was good,” Solaris said simply and started to walk back into the castle.

Now Artemis was very curious, he wouldn’t give a reaction like that and just leave it at ‘it was good’! “That’s it?” he prodded further. “Just good?”

Solaris shrugged. “Not amazing, not fun, not unique, interesting…?” Artemis kept going. “Beautiful?”

Solaris paused for a second and gulped. The memory of Eris that night, not just pony Eris, but true Eris. True and unique and beautiful in her own way. The blush on his face grew much brighter. “Yes well,” he started. “Eris was certainly at her best that was for sure.”

Artemis smirked at him. “Uh-huh,” he said.

Solaris walked back into his room and looked at his reflection in the mirror and tried to straighten himself up. He felt like such a filly doing it, but he did want to look nice when going to greet Eris that morning.

Eris groaned as she woke up and her head pounded hard between her ears. She could feel horrible pressure building in between them. “Never again, no more cider!” she groaned and rolled over making herself fall over the side of the bed in the process.

Not just fall over, fall down as it were. The bed was hovering up on the ceiling and everything else was in complete disarray. The kitchen was full of floating dishes, pots, pans, and even food was up in the air. The table and chairs for her “dining room” were standing on the side of the cave and all around her the cave was painted in all sorts of different colors of the rainbow and even some colors she didn’t even know existed! She looked around her cave and couldn’t help herself, she burst out laughing. Even through the pain she could laugh at how she had gone completely crazy and made her cave the way it was. In fact she rather liked it that way it was more her than the way it had been. She just wondered when it happened. Perhaps she had been sleep-snapping and made all of it appear. She wondered if Solaris would like it. The thought of Solaris stopped her in her tracks and she blushed furiously. That night had been, paw and claw down, the best night of her life! Not only did she get to go on an actual date with somepony, but she had gone on a date with Solaris! She danced with him, drank with him, and at the end of the day she even got a goodnight kiss. Eris giggled and started to rise in the air. She made flips and turns in mid-air as she kept giggling. Finally she gave out a squeal and screamed with absolute delight. Solaris kissed her! He kissed HER!! It was an unbelievable thought, an even more unbelievable reality. With those feelings of joy and elatedness she also had feelings of dread and fear. What if he wouldn’t come back, what if he was too embarrassed, what if it was out of pity, or worse what if it was some cruel joke!? Well, she would find out soon enough.

Eris’ ear twitched at the sound of flapping wings and hooves meeting stone. She turned around and saw Solaris standing in the entrance with saddlebags strapped onto his back. That could only mean one thing, he had brought books. More lessons just sounded like an even bigger headache and she was a little disappointed that he was just going to make her read. “Hello Eris,” he said as he came in and started to undo the saddlebags. “We have a lot to cover since we skipped a few days, but I am confident that today you will get the hang of it!”

Eris blinked at him and could feel something in her chest starting to fall. That was it? He was just going to forget about it? Just not mention it and pretend it never happened? “Your place it… looks different,” Solaris spoke up again when he noticed how the table had been arranged.

He ducked his head as pan soared at it. “This seems a little bit dysfunctional for a learning environment,” he said. “Perhaps you could set it back the way it was?”

Eris glared at him, but didn’t do as she was asked. “Why should I?” she asked. “I like it this way.”

She was being defiant and a bit of a brat, but if he was going to forget about last night he had another thing coming! “Well, wouldn’t it be rather unpleasant if one of us got hurt by the flying kitchenware?” he asked and dodged the dishes as he tried to walk towards her.

Eris huffed and turned away from him. She still left the cave as it was. “Eris is something wrong?” Solaris asked.

Eris rolled her eyes before turning back to him. “I’ll say something’s wrong,” she started. “I had the best night of my life and got kissed by a gorgeous stallion and all he wants to do is move on and forget about it, like it never happened!”

Solaris blinked at her. “Eris,” he whispered in near disbelief.

She had called him gorgeous. Eris just floated in the air and then a pink cloud formed over her head and started to thunder. “You’d think I’d hear something about it, but noooooo, not a word just more reading lessons!” she continued.

“Eris!” Solaris stopped her. “Can you come down please so that I can talk to you properly?”

Eris didn’t even notice that she had floated several feet off the ground and she was almost touching the ceiling, even the pink cloud had expanded enough to fill the entire cave. She cleared her throat, made the cloud disperse, and slowly came back down. “Alright, I didn’t finish what I was going to say before I noticed your… redecorating,” he said.

Eris quirked an eyebrow and waited patiently. “Well, I was wondering if maybe after the lesson we could go on a little picnic in the Everfree forest, somewhere quiet and private and hopefully not dangerous?” he asked.

Eris’ eyes widened and her heart could’ve burst from its pumping. A second date, he wanted to go out on a second date! “I-I-I,” she started and a blush started to scorch its way across her face. “I would love to.”

Solaris smiled and set the book down in front of her. “Perfect and if you are going to keep it like this then we might as well start,” he said.

Eris looked around gave a thoughtful look. “Well, I guess we can do without the floating dishes,” she said and snapped her fingers.

The dishes clanged and clattered to the ground from where they were floating. Solaris flinched at the noise, but otherwise smiled happily at her and began the lesson.

Solaris actually had a very good idea for teaching Eris. He suggested that she use her magic to show what the words meant or symbolized. It had been fun for the both of them to see her take on what the words were. Every now and then he would also ask her to spell out the word in the air. Her handwriting was atrocious, but it was nothing that good old practice wouldn’t fix. It also gave her chance to practice her magic and have better control over it. Soon after they made the slow glide down the mountain toward the Everfree forest and they started talking, really talking. Not about their pasts or their misfortunes, but about likes, dislikes, interests not that Eris had that many, but she was interested to hear about Solaris’ hobbies and activities. Once they reached the spot, a beautiful sun-filled clearing. Solaris undid his saddlebags again and started to take out a blanket and food. All of it was vegetarian food, but Eris didn’t mind. They ate and kept talking and even shared a few laughs.

It was the second best day of Eris’ life. They had fun and it was just the two of them no one to judge or point or to get in the way. They even stayed longer than intended, after all the food was gone and after the sun started to disappear behind the trees. “Come on, I’ll walk you home,” Solaris said and started to pack up what was left.

For the walk back up there was mostly silence, lasting up until they reached the entrance to her cave. They were both too absorbed in their own thoughts to make more conversation and probably too nervous or sad to try anyway. Then Solaris turned to her and smiled shyly. “I had a wonderful time, we should do this again,” he said.

Eris nodded. “Yeah, me too, I had a wonderful time too,” she said.

Solaris kept smiling and didn’t know what to do. They both stood there for a while neither knowing what to do after that. Finally Solaris made a move, but Eris was quicker and she pecked him on the cheek. Solaris blushed and Eris returned it. “Bye, Shiny,” she said softly and started to retreat into her cave.

“Good-bye, Eris,” Solaris replied saying her name as if it was a rare treasure.

The pattern repeated for a few days. The lessons kept going and Eris showed significant improvement every day until she could read a full page and only stumbled over a word at least once. They had picnics, Solaris gave her air tours over the kingdom, and he even let her use her own brand of chaos over certain areas usually to help his subjects. Solaris showed her how valuable she was to the kingdom and how her powers could be used for good. Making it rain in certain areas, clearing paths, using humane population control for certain animals that were bothersome. Eris didn’t much like her powers being controlled like that, but it made Solaris happy and she was all too willing to do anything that would make Solaris happy. However, the pattern soon changed. Solaris was being secretive, coming by less and less, not speaking as often and always stayed deep in thought. Things were about to change and Eris didn’t think she would like it…

Author's Note:

So here's the next chapter wonder what will happen next!? Only the author knows... lol. Anyway, besides that I'm going to get a little... desperate here, since everyone else seems busy or won't pick it up. I'm looking for an editor/proofreader/pre-reader for this story and most likely for the next story that I'm going to write. So, if one of you lovely peoples who read my story meet any of these preferences and would like to take a crack at this please shoot me a PM. :)

Comments

[Spiritofchaos227]

I REALLY want to help, but if I did, you would a editor to edit my edits

[Altered Giratina]

4911401 I can already see that :P

[Spiritofchaos227]

4911704 DARNIT I'M 13 I'M SORRY!

I'm joking; not offended in the slightest :3

[Burnasius]

Hm...
Misunderstanding dead ahead, man the "Angry female" bunkers. She's going to ASSUME things!

[mattstheman]

"Eris is something wrong?"

Here it comes. God, women. Just wait till the end of the day to see if he says anything, he may just be psyching up or figuring out the best way to bring it up. Always expect stuff straight away don't you?