School! Flying! Falling! Goofing!

by Lazydrill

Ch. 16 Everything went better than expected!

"How am I going to say that I don't like her like that? How will she react to it? Will we still be friends after this?" you questioned yourself as you walked absentmindedly through the hallway of the school and into the main lobby, not paying much attention to your fellow students as they all were busy with their own things. "I think I'll just need to be direct about it... there is not really a point to talk around it, it would only hurt her more over time..."

You sighed as you stepped into the main entrance of the school, and looked outside to the fountain where you told Lightning to meet you. You didn't know if you were lucky or not when you noticed that Lightning wasn't there yet. Scrapping courage together as much as you could before descending the steps and into the courtyard, you decided that you were lucky to be able to have some time to down your nerves a bit for the upcoming talk.

You reached the fountain with gentle steps and went to sit down next to it, your eyes looking at the sparkling water streams that were flowing out of the fountain sculpture, and into the little water pool below it. You found your thoughts drifting off to other things, including how Rainbow Dash looked when she stood in front of you a few minutes ago, "She looked so... free... competitive, so driven, so energetic. There's something about her that grabs me, something that Lightning does not have. I don't know what that is... and I probably won't find out for a while. But that doesn't change the fact that something about her just attracts me towards her. Maybe it is just because she is so free? Maybe..."

Your thoughts were interrupted when you felt the clouds formed differently by somepony landing on it behind you. You didn't need to guess who that was, "Static?" Yep, no doubt who she was.

You slowly stood up and turned your gaze away from the fountain and towards the voice behind you, "Hey Lightning," you said.

Lightning looked at you with uncertainty, "Uhm... hey. You, uhm, wanted to talk here?" she said as she brushed her left hoof gently with her right.

You gave a small nod, "Yes. I have been thinking..." you found yourself struggling a bit to say what you wanted. You took a gentle inhale and looked directly into her ember eyes, "Lightning, I'm sorry. But I just don't see you in the same way. I like you, but truly only like a friend. You've been my friend almost as long as I've been friends with Dust." Lightning's face and her ears fell when you said it, twisting your hearth and making you feel guilty already for saying it.

Your ears drooped a bit to the side as well as you saw Lightning turning her muzzle away from you. You knew that talking to her was going to be hard, but even so, it didn't prepare you for the feelings that would come with it when you saw Lightning like this. Sighing to yourself, you continued, "Look, Lightning, I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but I just don't feel attracted to you. You're a kind mare and a dear friend of mine, I don't want you to change. I... I hope that my choice doesn't change our friendship..." you finished with hope in your voice, hoping that this indeed would not change your friendship between the two of you.

Lightning sighed and closed her eyes, "I expected that you would say that." You were a bit confused by what she said. She turned her gaze to you, her expression slightly sad, but her mouth carried a small smile, "I hoped you would like me back, but I expected that you wouldn't, Dust said as much." Now you were even more confused.

"Dust said as much? When?" you asked Lightning.

"I told him last year that I thought that I was beginning to like you, he told me then already that there was a very slim chance that you would like me back. He knew you saw me just as a friend, even when I told him last week I wanted to tell you that I liked you, he said the same. Although, he hoped for me that you would like me back, but he said that you would most likely say no. Apparently, he was right," Lightning sighed an air of disappointment. But her face perked up as she stepped a bit closer to you, "Even if you don't like me back, I thank you for being honest to me. And no, this will not change our friendship, I'm happy that I finally got an answer to my question that had been swirling around my head for too long."

You felt a rock falling from your shoulders as you saw Lightning smiling a bit again. Returning her smile, you closed the distance between the two of you and gave her a gentle hug, making her faintly blush. She returned your hug by softly brining her right hoof around your neck.

A long drowned out slurp killed the moment and Lightning promptly released you, "Oh guess, oh guess, who EVER that would be..." You annoyingly turned your muzzle to your right where the slurping sound came from, not to your surprise, you saw Dust drinking a hay shake, sitting on his haunches as he casually slurped his drink out of a straw not that far away from you.

You narrowed your eyes a bit at him, because of all moments he could turn up, it had to be now. "What? Did I do something wrong?" he asked while giving a shrug.

You opened your mouth to say something, but Lightning beat you to it, "DUST! Why are you here!? You said you were going home!" Lightning said as she rushed to Dust, who didn't seem fazed by his sister in the slightest and simply took another sip.

You raised an eyebrow, "You were supposed to go home? When was that?" you asked, not getting where Lightning was going on about.

Lightning facehooved and letted out an annoyed groan before addressing you, "He managed to convince Iron Wing that he hurt his hind leg so bad that he was unable to exercise... And Iron Wing believed him and said he could go home if he could."

You glanced at Dust, "How the hay did you mange that?"

Dust stood slowly up and turned to his left, lifting his right hind leg a bit, you saw a big bruise on his coat, a really big one. "Remember when that rainbow mare kicked me this morning?"

You couldn't believe what you were hearing, "There is no way that that giant bruise is from her hind kick..."

Dust turned fully to you again and sat back down, taking another sip while nodding, "You bet it is. It still hurts like a bale, though. I'll be feeling this tomorrow I think."

"Good. That's what you get for being so damn annoying form time to time," Lightning said with a smirk.

Dust shrugged again, releasing his straw from between his lips, "Maybe so, but in the end, it worked out for me. I got to skip P.E.T. or however they call it now, I got early leave, and I got three of the best shakes I've ever had."

Lightning's facehoof could be heard from where you were standing, making your forehead tingle by only seeing it. Walking up to Dust, you asked, "Okay, first off, where did you get them? Because I want one, too."

"There is a new shake shop just around the corner, it's called; 'Hay's shakes barn'."

"Okay, second, how did you pay for three of them?" you asked, since you knew Dust almost never took any Bits to school with him.

"I didn't, they were free samples, since it was the first hour that they were open."

Your eye twitched, "You've got to be feathering me... you get 1 bad thing today, and it ends up to benefit you in more than one... what a wagonload of ponyfeathers..."

"STATIC SPARK!!"

"Aaah!!" you almost jumped a few feet in the air as you heard your mom yell your name. Landing on the clouds again, you gulped and slowly turned your head around. You saw your mom standing a few hoofsteps away from you, looking at you disapprovingly. You chuckled innocently, "Hehe, uhm. Hey, Mom."

Your mom's wings were slightly flared in annoyance, and you knew why; she never approved of you cursing out loud like that in public, or any other place, really. "Static! You know how I think about cursing like that!"

Your mom came walking over to you with her eyes dangerously narrowed. Step for step, you walked slowly backwards, trying to get distance from your mom while you putted on your most awkward and innocent smile you could muster. You passed by Dust, who was now slurping on his shake as if he was watching a show. Only to drop his shake as he was being pushed aside by your mom's right hoof, dropping his shake and falling flat onto the clouds, muttering a small 'ouch'.

You would have laughed at that, if it were not for the fuming mare. You walked so far back, that your tail and flank bumped into the sides of the school building. Realizing all hope was lost, you sat down onto your haunches and clapped your two front hooves together as if you were praying, "MOM, I'm sorry! It just flew out!"

Your mom, however, would have none of it, "Oh, no, mister. You're not going to get out of it this time!" You closed your eyes and prayed silently to Princess Luna to wake you up. Only to be answered by silence. Not only from Luna, but from your mom as well; no approaching hoofsteps, no lecture, no yelling, no wing flaps, nothing.

Opening your right eye just a bit to peek through, you saw your mother frozen in her tracks. Gazing up to her eyes, you opened yours fully with a raised eyebrow as you saw her looking you up and down. "Why did she stop?" Glancing down to your front hooves, you saw the varies of burn spots on your coat. "Aaww, hay. If she finds one thing worse than me being bad-mouthed, it is when I show any sign of pain, or anything that I normally don't have..."

"Static... Why does your coat have darker colored spots on it?" your mom asked, her tone shifting to concerning.

You chuckled weakly as you began standing up on all four of your hooves again, "Hehe, it's nothing, Mom. Really, I'm fine."

Your mom now narrowed her eyes again, but this time in suspicion, "Static. Tell me. What happened? And don't lie to me, young colt. Because I know when you do."

You kept your fake smile up, but began to falter under her narrowing gaze. Finally relenting, you sighed, "Okay. I've just come out of the infirmary a few minutes ago..."

Your mom's ears drooped to the side of her head as she walked closer to you. Her stern gaze melting away into concern, "Static, why where you in the infirmary? What happened to you? Are you okay?" your mom asked as she went to nuzzle your right cheek gently.

You leaned into your mothers affectionate nuzzle, and softly returned it to soothe her concerns, "I'm fine now, Mom. I'll tell you everything at home, okay? We need to get Summer and Gloom from Ponyville."

Your mom stopped nuzzling you and stepped a bit back from you, giving you space, "Okay, but when we get home, I want the full story, you hear me?"

You reassured her with another nuzzle on her left cheek, "Mom. I promise you that I'll tell everything when we're home. But lets first pick up Summer and Gloom, they probably wonder where we are."

You ended the nuzzling of your mother and craned your neck back. Looking into your mom's eyes, you saw her looking you over one more time before sighing and nodding, "Only if you feel good enough to fly, because else I want you to get home right now and rest."

"And miss how my little sisters have been enjoying their day? And miss to see if they managed to set off Miss Cheerilee? Heh, no way," you said as you shook your head slowly, a grin plastered on your face as you imagined Miss Cheerilee begging you and your mom to pick up the two devils.

Your mom let out a sweet chuckle, "You know that she had her hooves full on you as well a couple of times. I believe it will be the same with your sisters." Your mom sighed happily," Alright, but we now really have to go, your sisters will be waiting."

You gave a nod and unfurled your wings. Your mom doing the same, flapping her wings and taking off of the ground and into the sky. You followed her lead and followed her into the sky. "OH! Mom, hold on a second!" you said as you remembered that you hadn't asked the 'Dusties' if they would want to go with your group on the vacation trip.

Your mom nodded at you and hovered in the air, her eyes following you as you turned around towards the cloudy ground and landed near Lightning and Dust. "Hey, Lightning? Hey, Dust?"

The siblings turned to you, both with their eyebrow raised, "Yeah?" they said at the same time.

You smiled at them, "What do you two think of going with me, Berry Petal, Lucky, Sky Edge and Blazing Beats on a trip through Equestria this winter vacation?"

"Will there be food?"

"Really, Dust? That is the first thing you want to know? We are planning a trip through Equestria, you know, with clubs, restaurants, café's. And you wonder if there will be food?" you said unamused. "Lightning, would you be so kind?" Lightning nodded and raised her hoof.

*swoof*

"HA! You missed, sis!" Dust laughed as he blew a raspberry at his sister.

*WACK*

"And now I didn't," Lightning said with satisfaction. "Anyhoof, Static, I would love to join in on your trip. I would like to see Rainbow Falls again!" Lightning did a hoof pump in exclamation.

You smiled at her, "Great! I always wanted to go there myself as well!" you said as you extended your right hoof to Lightning which she bumped with her left. "How about you, Dust?"

"Imblurg..."

You sighed and pinched your nose with your hoof, "Dust, you know we cannot hear you when your muzzle is buried in the clouds."

Dust wiggled his flank and pushed his front hooves into the clouds, trying to push himself out of the cloud he was stuck in somehow. Not you could really blame him, you had the same problem today.

With a 'plop' sound his head was released by the cloud and he fell onto his haunches, "Bleh, that cloud was really puffy," he patted his tongue with his right hoof. "BUT, I'll happily join in with you guys! Anything better than spending my winter vacation alone with my parents... With sis it is bearable, but without..."

"I'll simply count that as a yes," you said matter of factly. "Very well, I'll let the others know tomorrow that you'll come with us. We still have time to plan and see how we are going to organize the trip, but the ponies are in on it!" you said with enthusiasm. You've never been on a real trip through Equestria, except a few times with your parents before your sister were born, after that, your parents would rather spend time with you and your sisters in Cloudsdale, as to be able to keep an eye on you and your little sisters. And even then, it was only three days every time when you went on vacation, and every time it was to your aunt and uncle in Canterlot.

"Static, are you done talking down there? We need to get your sisters!" your mom called from out of the air.

You brought your gaze to the sky, towards your mother who was still hovering on her spot, "I"m coming, Mom!" Turning your eyes back to the dust siblings, you bit them farewell, "Alright, Dust," you walked to him and held out your hoof to him.

"You got it, bro! I'll see you tomorrow," Dust said as he got to his hooves and bumped your hoof with his.

"Lightning," you said gently. Lightning looked into your eyes, Her's expanding as you hugged her once more. "We'll always stay friends, right?" you asked her softly.

Lightning hugged you gently back, "Of course we will, featherbrain," she whispered into your ear.

Chuckling, you released her and she did the same. Turning away from them, you unfurled your wings with grace and flapped them up and down, launching you into the air and brining you next your mother, "Where were you three talking about? Something about winter vacation? Is there something that I must know?" she asked right away as you came to hover next to her.

Smiling at her, you said, "I'll tell you and Dad at dinner. Although, if I know you, you'll probably not like it too much, nor will Summer and Gloom. Dad would probably be with me on it."

Your mom now raised an eyebrow at you, "I would rather have you to tell me now. You know I can't stand waiting on such things."

You stuck your tongue out to her, "I know!"

You zipped away towards Ponyville with your mother quickly chasing after you, "YOU'RE GOING TO TELL ME RIGHT NOW, MISTER!"

"YOU'LL HAVE TO CATCH ME FIRST!!"

Comments

[KingYakko5991]

Aw MAN! This music is EPIC! I mean this chapter was excellent! Really enjoying the story! Keep up the great work! (Yes, I listen to music and read now...)

[Lazydrill]

6680316 Why not both? I do the same very often! /)