• Published 23rd Jul 2011
  • 7,595 Views, 287 Comments

An Azure Future - Krass McWriter



A Human Father and his Pony Son. A TCB story.

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Part 2

An Azure Future part 2:

THE BAKERY

“GET DOWN FROM THERE!” John shouted in a panic and anger. Azure Wind, a four year old pegasus colt who had turned out to be his long lost son, was on the top of bookshelf.

“But I LIKE IT up here!" protested Azure. He had been living with his father for almost a week now but it felt like much longer to John.

"You're gonna get hurt! Just get down!" John with a tinge of annoyance

"But it was HARD to climb up here!" Pouted azure, it’d taken him almost five minutes to climb atop the twelve foot bookshelf.

"Oh my go- Why'd you climb? You have-" John stammered, he may not have left his apartment much, but he knew that a pegasus' most prized possession were their wings and they'd make up an excuse to use them if they had too. Come to think of it, Azure had been here about a week, and he'd... "That’s not the point. You could fall and get hurt. Just... Just jump down and I'll catch you."

"You sure? Its kinda far..."

"Azure... Are you afraid of heights?"

"N-No!"

"Its okay if you are. I'm not going to judge you."

"I said I'm not afraid. Its just... REALLY far down..."

"Its twelve feet to the floor. I’m six three. I have a reach that extends.. lets say fifteen inches. That’s about seven five. That’s only about four seven to fall and you're not falling. I’m catching you." John explained.

"I don't know..."

Why'd you climb up there if you're afraid of heights anyways Azure?"

"I'M NOT AFRAID OF HEIGHTS! I'M A PEGASUS DAD!"

"Azure, I don't care if you are afraid of heights. It’s okay.”

“Pegasus can fly dad. These wings aren’t for show.”

“Haven't seen you use ‘em.”

“Th-Thats because... Its... Ummm... too cramped in here?”

“Azure, we’ ll deal with this later. Just jump. You’ll be okay, I promise.”

“Here goes...” Azure closed his eyes and gave a little hop. John caught him and set him down.

“Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” John asked with a slight grin. The young Pegasus averted his eyes. “N-no...”

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

“I-I wasn’t scared...” stammered Azure, his face getting red from embarrassment.

John let out a sigh, “If ya say so.” He dropped the subject at that. “What do you want for lunch? I got stuff for sandwiches. Or some potatoes. Or a Salad.” John listed as he looked through the kitchen. Azure cringed at the list. It was all he had eaten for almost a week. “Dad... do you think we could, I don’t know, Go out to eat?” John froze. He found he aspect of going out horrifying. “You SURE you don’t want some cheesy potatoes?” John asked nervously.

“Dad. we’ve had potatoes every day for the last week. It’s getting old, and you need to get out.” Azure stated. It was John's turn to cringe. But Azure did have a point. It couldn't be healthy to coop up a young pegasus.

“Fine, if you really want to.” John conceded.

"Huzzah!" exclaimed Azure. He finally had convinced his father to venture out the door. John gave Azure a funny look. "What? You got a problem with 'Huzzah'?" John just shook his head and rolled his eyes in response. "You got a place in mind there big boy?" He asked with a heaping helping of sarcasm in his voice.

"Well... Can't say I do..."

"So what’s the plan? Just roam the city and hopefully find a place that seems good?"

"Uhhh..."

John smirked. "Sounds like a plan."

"Awesome!"

"But first, I need to go grab some bits from the Money Room." John stated.

"You have a money room?"

"Wanna see it? It’s pretty cool." John said, his grin growing bigger.


“Well why not?” John walked into his room, Azure following him, and opened his closet. He brushed aside a light trench coat to reveal a keypad. He hit a few numbers with the deftness and precision of a marksman and the back of the closet slide to the right. The wall hid a room about six meters wide, ten meters back and its roof was that of the apartment's second floor. Bits were contained in locked steel mesh cages that ran down the walls on either side. Azure had never seen so many bits in his life. “How-how did you GET all this? How much IS there?”

John took a deep breath, sighed and delved into a little backstory. “A long time ago, well before the ponies came, well before I even met your mother, I used to play the stock market. When I was fourteen, I invested a new company called ‘Intelligent Designs’ You may know them a the company that invented produced and perfected Artificial Intelligence. When it was near the height of its power, I was the second most majority shareholder, The guy who had just a few thousand less shares than I opted to buy me out to become the majority shareholder. I accepted. Got a few billion. I was eighteen, retired, and filthy rich. I bought this apartment complex and moved into the penthouse on top. When the ponies came and I saw the alarming rate of conversions, I exchanged all my money for bits when the exchange rate was still good. Just in time too, in a few weeks dollars were hardly worth the paper it was printed on. There is about... three billion four hundred million and some change in there.” John opened up a cage and grabbed a good number of bits and pocketed them. Turning around, he covered his mouth to stifle his laughter. If Azure’s jaw was any lower, it’d be on the floor, and the look of shock was priceless. “Sooo... we gonna go before I change my mind?”

“Why don’t you ever do anything if you that rich?!” Exclaimed Azure, snapping out of the initial shock.

“It’s... complicated.” John shrugged, unsure how or even if he should explain his mother left with no warning and more or less lost the will to live. “We doin’ this?”

“Lets go.”

******************************************************************************

John stared at the door to the outside world. Its had been years since he left for anything unnecessary. He took a deep breath, collected himself, and stepped outside.

John was instantly blinded. “Gyaaaaah! My EYES!” Azure facehoofed in response and pushed his overreacting father the rest of the way out of the entrance way. John blinked a few times in rapid succession to help adjust to the light. The streets looked like a rainbow threw up, they were practically INFESTED with pastel colored ponies. “Shit thats a lottta ponies.” John mumbled. He looked around, which way to go? “Lets go this way!” Azure exclaimed while pointing down the street, and started walking off.

Not even one hundred meters walking down the sidewalk John started to panic. Ponies. Ponies. PONIES! John’s paranoia was kicking into full gear. I KNOW they’re talking about me, saying bad things. Horrible things! John started fidgeting.

“Are you alright dad?” Azure asked with some concern.

“Never better!” John said nervously, giving a weak laugh.

“Nopony cares that you’re human dad, and if they do, they can suck on a muffin.” The pair continued down the street. John thought about what Azure said. Maybe... It really is all in my head. Nopony’s even really looking at me, no second glances, no odd looks, no glares. He examined the day. A gentle breeze was blowing, The sun was shining, a few pure clouds were lazily trekking across the sky. It was a typical Californian day. The natural weather must make it easy on the weather team. Hell, they probably don’t even work most days. They continued down the street just enjoying the day. They finally came to a small bakery, John recognized the bakery from his past, It was where he met Catherine. He smiled at the memory. “Hey let’s go in here Azure. If it’s half as good as it used to be, you’ll love their donuts.” John said, opening the door and heading in.

“Welcome to Top Goods! I’m Cream Baker, what can I get you today?” The Cream colored earth pony from behind the counter called, preoccupied with putting a fresh batch of cupcakes in the oven.

“Sup, Grindah, it’s Coke.” The baker pony dropped the tray and whipped around.

“Ho-lee shit. Its the Muther-fuckin Coke. I haven’t seen you in about... three and a half years. Me and the rest of the Get’em gang thought you died. We placed bets on what we thought happened, I opted for ‘Abducted by a Pegasus gang who buried you on Mt. Everest’. But Noob always thought you went insane and moved to the middle of nowhere and stockpiled weapons for the ‘oncoming war’ or somethin’.” Cream Baker sighed. “Good times, good times. So who’s this little pegasus?” queried Baker, taking a bite of a banana nut muffin.

“I’m his son!” Azure exclaimed. Baker choked on his muffin.

“YOU HAVE A SON! WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN!” Baker shouted.

“Eh, I just found out too bro.” John shrugged. “So, how about some donuts?”

“Man, never thought YOU of all people would have a kid. The usual coming right your way Coke.”

“Bring another for the kid would ya Grindah?”

“Waaaaaay ahead of you, as always.” Baker said, finishing John’s order.

“Dude, everyone saw you push me into that ravine Grindah.”

“But, ‘I’ won.” Stated the earth pony, puffing out his chest pridefully, and set down the pastries on the table.

“What ARE these?” Azure asked sniffing the donuts.

“They’re good is what they are. So what you’ve been up to Grindah?”

“Runnin’ the shop mostly, I have to get back to work now, don’t be a stranger!” The earth pony trotted into the bakery of the shop.

Azure sniffed the pastries and took a small exploratory bite. “These. Are. AWESOME!” Azure snapped up half the donut. “Sho, howsh do yoush kniw dats poniesh?” Azure asked, his mouth still full of the sugary treat.

“Me, him and few other demented souls were the best bunch of crazies you could find. Went to high school together. Had all sorts of adventures. Hung out all the time.”

“What happened?”

“Ponies. I’ll just leave it at that.” John said. They finished their meal. He yawned and arched his back. John looked outside, it was starting to get dark out. “So, ya ready to go?”

“Yeah, we should head back.” John paid for the food, bid farewell to his old friend, and exited the shop.

“Hey, how about a race?”

“A race?”

“Yeah, back to the apartment complex.”

“Heh. Sure. on the count of three.”

“One...”

“Two...”

“GO!” And with that, the odd pair took off.

******************************************************************************

“Beat ya dad.” Azure gasped between heavy breaths.

“You cut me off in the hallway!”

“Bah. You’re just a sore loser.”

“Whatever.” John opened the door to his apartment and walked in, Azure following.


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Notes:

I already have names for everypony in Johns Get’em Gang and we’ll met most of the later.

The town they’re in is based loosely off the town In california where I grew up.

It was a fun chapter, leave a review, thought, and stuff you’d like to see whereever. If I like it I’ll use it.