A Love Worth Waiting

by JediWyrm

Chapter 2: Growing Up.

Thag was on his bed reading the latest letter from his cousin Alto. She talked about some of the things she had made while practicing her cloud sculpting work. The letter also talked about a friend of hers whose talent in extreme weather control got her a scholarship to Celestia's School for Talented Pegasi.

He sighed as he thought about Alto. Remembering the times that she has visited and the fun they have had with each other. It had been a couple years since they had last spent time together and he could still feel his crush on her.

In his letter he mentioned that he was doing well academically, and how it had has felt like forever since they had spent time with each other.

The next year Alto came out to visit again. Her and Thag enjoyed staying up late talking with one another. He help her with her sculpting by striking random poses for her to make out of clouds.

As they spent time just hanging out Thag had trouble determining if his feelings her just a simple crush born out of puppy love, or if it was developing into something more real.

Once the month was over and Alto left for home leaving Thag to realize that his feelings were definitely turning into the real thing.

The young colt slowly become a young stallion all while working hard on his education with aims to become a teacher of sciences and mathematics. Having been inspired by his own teachers to help the next generations.

His hard work got him accepted into the Canterlot University which required him to move into the mountain-side city to attend. His cousin sent her congratulations in the reply to the letter he had told her about it in.

As he began his classes Alto told him about how she had gotten a job at one of the clouddscaping businesses that tended to the public areas of Cloudsdale. She used the yard in front of her house to showcase some of her own work at cloud sculpting, selling one on occasion and even getting a special commission sometimes.

Thag sent his own congratulations in return and focused on his schoolwork. It wasn't long before life turned his path. He had been getting a stipend from the school to cover a small apartment in the city, but he was quickly racking up student loans to pay for the school.

Deciding that looking for a job would help cover his expenditure during his education he began looking around. He was easily handling his early courses but the job hunt was going as well as trying to move a mountain.

As the weeks turned to months he put off the job hunt to tackle his finals for the semester. Once Thag picked out his next classes he turned back to looking for a job. He even managed to make a couple friends to hang out with.

In that manner he spent the first year and a half of his college years. As he was in the middle of a semester he managed to find an easy job waiting tables. It didn't earn him a lot of money, but he did get enough to be able to get away from the stereotypical college diet. His schoolwork did begin to take a small dive bringing his GPA to the low 3's.

The dean for Thag's course called him into her office.

“Thag Vertice I have a little bit of bad news for you. The school has decided to increase the tuition, and during the reworking of the financial aspects several things had to be cut from the budget. As such a couple of the loans you are currently applied for are no longer available as well as the living stipend.” The mare stated.

As he processed the information the numbers were crunched in his head. With the little amount he was making from his job, there was no way he could afford to finish the course. He wouldn't even be able to stay in the city itself.

Thag was able to finish the semester while making arrangements to return home. He got a cart and packed up everything he own just before he took his finals.

He looked over the letter he had gotten from Alto once she had gotten his that talked about what had happened. The comforting words calmed him and got him through the tests.

The day he got the grades from the finals back was also the day he left Canterlot. He had a few days of travel ahead of him.

Thag was camping in a forest, his cart parked on one side of a small clearing as he tried to get a campfire going. The wood he had picked up would not light and after being stubborn and trying for longer than was necessary he gave up and ate his dinner cold.

He was grateful that the sun hadn't quite set yet as he laid out his sleeping bag. Curling up in it to get some sleep when the lack of noise caught his attention. A moment later a loud roaring filled his ears. Afraid that some monster was barreling down on him he slid out of the bag.

Looking around Thag noticed something wrong with the sunset, mainly that it was setting in the north. He quickly figured out why that was when a wall of fire started to rapidly swept towards him. He ran over to his cart to pull out his large wool blanket. He also bucked the cart over completely hoping that it being upturned might save some of his things now underneath it.

Move towards the center of the clearing he tossed the blanket over himself and tried to settle in under it. Mere seconds later and he could hear and feel the fire as it began to consume the forest around him. His breathing became more and more laboured and combined with the exertions of the day caused sleep to start to claim him.

The mighty roar of the fire lulled him into the darkness.