Chapter 7 - Admissions
The next morning, I deeply regretted ever suggesting the idea of throwing a party to help us all relax. My head of was throbbing, I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, my mouth was dry as a desert and my wings had a dull pain shooting up along them.
Opening my eyes, I squinted at the far too bright light of the early morning, and inwardly cursed Celestia for raising the sun. Putting a hoof up to block the light helped a little, but I still had a splitting headache.
Blinking a few times and rubbing my eyes made me feel a little better, but I knew I needed to get up and have some water and some aspirin if I wanted to feel equine again.
I was about to get up; not a pleasant prospect, when the memories of last night came flooding back in steady spurts. I remember everypony arriving, I remember us all drinking and having a good time. I remember singing a few songs with Dash and the others. After that though, things got a bit blurry. I remember that Berry came and kicked us all out at around two. How did I get home though? More to the point how did anypony else get home? I knew for a fact that Dash was way more drunk than I was, and she had to fly home as well.
It was then I remembered the very end of the night. Dewdrop was the only one still sober. He’d been a gentlecolt and helped me get home without trouble. And then….and then I’d kissed him on the doorstep…quite drunkenly too.
“Aw buck!” I grumbled to myself.
Normally I’m alright even when I’ve had a few too many. I certainly don’t turn into one of those girls that suddenly flirts with everything that moves. So what the hell had possessed drunk me to kiss Dewdrop like that? I mean, it wasn’t as if it was just an innocent peck on the cheek; I’d grabbed him with both hooves and properly snogged him! How the buck was I going to deal with this? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I liked Dewdrop, but I didn’t like him that way.
Did I?
Okay, yes he was cute, funny, smart, kind, and very easy on the eyes to boot. But I was sure, or at least had been until last night, that I liked him as a friend. I mean, Thunderlane isn’t exactly bad looking, but I never saw us as anything but friends. Mind you, the way I feel about Dewdrop I guess is kind of the same way I felt about my last boyfriend. My mum called it the Florence Nightingale effect. I feel sorry for a guy, become friends with him, and then I end up developing feelings for him. The only problem was that my last boyfriend turned out to be really clingy.
I shook my head; Dewdrop wasn’t like that. He lived on his own, was fairly self-reliant, and had gotten himself a good job, albeit through my recommendation.
So what was I to do? Things were going to be awkward as hell on Monday morning. Maybe I’d get lucky and I wouldn’t be working with him for a couple days? Hopefully he’d realise it was just a silly drunken mistake. That was how I saw it at any rate. Still, at least nopony else had seen it. It would be way worse if I’d done it in front of Dash, or Celestia forbid, Flitter. That mare spent most of her off time gossiping with Rarity. If she got wind of it, the story would be all round town by lunchtime.
Deciding that it was one of those problems I couldn’t, and shouldn’t try to fix right now, I hauled myself out of bed. The world came back into focus, although it was still too bright. Looking over, I saw that Fluttershy’s bed was empty and made. The clock on my bedside table told me it was just past ten.
Pushing myself off the edge of the bed, I did my best to smooth out my severe case of bedmane and headed downstairs. If Fluttershy wasn’t too busy at the moment, maybe I could ask her advice?
After popping to the bathroom, and rinsing out my mouth to get rid of the stale booze taste and bog breath, I took a quick bath and did my best to mend the rats’ nest that was my mane. A couple aspirins later, I looked almost like a pony, as opposed to a changeling that had forgotten how to make its disguise magic work, and was now stuck between the two species. The aspirin and the steam from the hot water helped clear my head, and a touch of foundation helped hide the bags under my eyes.
I took a look at myself in the mirror. Satisfied that my blue coat was now clean, my mane and tail were brushed and conditioned, and all my feathers were properly arranged, I headed downstairs for a late breakfast.
My hooves caused the wooden boards on the stairs to creak a little, catching Fluttershy’s attention. She was sitting in her armchair, sipping daintily at a cup of green tea. She looked up and caught a glance at my bleary expression.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” she said with a smile on her face. Fluttershy really has come a long way in overcoming her shyness. She’s even learnt how to be snarky; probably Discord’s fault.
Getting to the bottom of the stairs, I did my best to smile back at my best friend and roommate.
“Morning, Fluttershy,” I replied. My voice was still a bit scratchy, and I sounded a little like Dash, if Dash had grown up in the south of Wales (or Fraggle Rock as my brother calls it).
“Did you have fun with Rainbow and everypony else last night?” she asked, now a little more compassionate. It served as a good way to explain my new predicament.
First though, I needed some coffee.
“Er, I’ll tell you in a minute, Shy,” I said, making my way towards the kitchen. “I just need a cup of coffee or something to get me going again.”
As I carefully made my way to the kitchen, I passed a few of Fluttershy’s animal friends. Having lived her for over a year now, they all know me and are quite friendly with me. I may not have Fluttershy’s ability to communicate with them, but I can make myself understood. I think it’s mainly because they all see that Fluttershy and I are friends, so they know I can’t be a threat.
“Morning, Angel,” I said, passing the rabbit who was busily wolfing down his own breakfast. Angel chirped back through a mouthful of carrot.
“Morning, Hummingway,” I said to the hummingbird, the little bird tweeted back.
“Morning, Harry,” I greeted that frighteningly large, yet surprisingly gentle grizzly bear. He in turn rumbled back.
“Morning, Discord.”
I paused mid stride, becoming aware of a new headache spontaneously developing. I shut my eyes for a moment, praying that I’d just hallucinated or something. But, no such luck.
“Morning, Lizzie,” Discord replied far too cheerily. “You look like Tartarus.”
Buck.
“So do you, Discord,” I snapped back irritably. “At least I have the excuse that I went out drinking last night.” Discord turned his nose up at that and huffed irritably.
“I’ll have you know that I work hard to maintain my current appearance!” he blustered. Fluttershy now stepped in, ever the peacemaker.
“Alright, you two. That’s enough bickering,” she said in a maternal tone. “What did you want to talk to me about, Lizzie?”
Shouldering Discord off of one half of the sofa, I sat myself down, while Fluttershy poured me a much needed cup of tea. With any luck the chamomile would help on my headache, or at least keep my stress down around Discord.
“Well, it’s about last night,” I began. Discord quickly jumped in.
“Ah! I knew it!” he declared. “This should be interesting.” A snap of his talons got him a large bag of popcorn to munch on. Fluttershy looked at him pleadingly. To my continued surprise, she managed to have an effect on him, and he fell silent again.
“Well, Dash, me and the others all had a bit too much salt last night,” I explained. “Except for Dewdrop, apparently he’s like you, Fluttershy, and doesn’t drink. Anyway, by the end of the night, we were all pretty far along, and Dewdrop offered to help me get home.” At this point, Fluttershy herself became a little worried.
“He didn’t do anything to you?” she asked, sounding slightly concerned. Weirdly, I could have sworn I saw her teeth gnash for a moment.
“No, no, no,” I reassured her, waving a hoof. “No, it was more what I did to him. When we got back here, he brought me as far as the doorstep. I’d been saying stupid stuff to him all the way back, and when we got here, I kissed him.” Fluttershy blushed.
“Oh…oh my,” Fluttershy said quietly. Discord however, had a different take.
“Ah, young love,” he proclaimed, still munching on his popcorn. I turned to face him.
“Discord! I was drunk!” I shot back. “I didn’t actually mean it.” He raised an eyebrow and there suddenly appeared a pair of half-moon glasses on his nose, which he looked over to me.
“Didn’t you?” he asked, with a sage note in his voice. “Seems to me this is a case of drunk you knowing what sober you wants.”
“It’s not like that!” I persisted. Discord huffed and crossed his mismatched arms.
“For goodness sake, you’re almost as bad as that brother of yours, you know that? You both have somepony you like sitting right in front of you, and you won’t do anything about it.” He paused for a moment. “Listen to me, I sound like that stupid love princess.”
He did however, sort of make a point. Bones’ romance with Applejack, if you can call it that, was painful to any observer. Both ponies danced around the issue for months, until finally Princess Cadence came down to knock some sense into Bones’ head. For goodness sake, at the Hearth’s Warming Eve party, AJ got Bones under the mistletoe, and he still had a hard time believing it!
But I wasn’t like that. I knew Dewdrop had a crush on me, ever since he asked me out for coffee during hurricane season. The problem was that I’d never explicitly told him ‘no’. So last night might well complicate things and give him the wrong idea, and make it harder at the end of the day to be honest with him.
“The way I see it, Lizzie,” Fluttershy said after a moment. “You have two options. One the one hoof, you can go straight up to him on Monday morning, and privately tell him that what happened was a drunken mistake, and that you have no feelings for him beyond that of friends. It will hurt him, but it will be better for both of you in the long run. On the other hoof, you could tell him that it was a drunken mistake, but you’re willing to see what happens. It all depends on how you really feel about Dewdrop, and what you want to do next.”
I was surprised to say the least. Fluttershy’s advice sounded almost as if it came from the Princess of Love herself. She did offer two good alternatives too. Now I just had to decide. How did I feel about Dewdrop?
Not wanting to be a third wheel between Fluttershy and Discord any longer, I said that I was going for a flight to mull things over. I left the two friends chatting in the living room, while I, grabbing my scarf and goggles, went for a mid-morning flight to clear my head.
By the time Monday morning rolled around, I was feeling better, both physically and mentally. My hangover was now a mere memory, and I had a fair idea of what I was going to do about Dewdrop.
Fluttershy had made some good points, and after much soul searching and talking things over with Mum, I’d decided to press on and test the waters. While I wasn’t about to walk up to Dewdrop and say I liked him (Mum had warned me about mixing work and play), I wasn’t about to crush his dreams outright either. After all, as I said before, he was a nice enough guy, and I considered him a good friend as it was. So for the moment, I would let events run their course.
I headed to meet the others that morning in good spirits. However, I wasn’t prepared for the bombshell Dash was planning to drop. I reached the little group of clouds that she’d selected for our morning briefing just as she broke the news.
“And what the hay do you mean by ‘outbreak’?” Thunderlane exclaimed. Flitter and Cloudchaser were looking at each other nervously, and everypony was chattering excitedly. I landed next to Dash.
“Alright everypony, quiet down!” Dash shouted. Silence fell on the group.
“Now,” she said, more calmly. “This is what I’ve been told. “Cloudsdale is officially under quarantine for two weeks. Nopony goes in or out except medic ponies. That includes a five mile radius around the city. Some kind of flu is what I’ve been told. It isn’t fatal, and everypony who caught it is on the mend. But as of right now, the Weather Factory, which is outside the quarantine zone, is running on a skeleton crew. All the patrols in the local area have been asked to send some of their flyers up to help run things for the next week. After that, it will rotate to other squadrons.”
“So what’s the punchline then?” Thunderlane asked.
“The punchline, Flight,” Cloudchaser said. “Is that we have to send two ponies up there for a week, and we’ll be two ponies down back here.”
“What exactly are we doing up there anyway?” Dewdrop asked. “None of us have had any training on weather manufacturing.”
“Like I said,” Dash replied. “There’s still a skeleton crew up there. They’ll give the volunteers a crash course and supervise. Don’t worry, nopony’s gonna ask you to make snowflakes.”
“Well, I guess I could lend a hoof,” Dewdrop said, much to everypony’s surprise. “I’m still new to the patrol as it is, so me not being here will have the least impact.”
“He makes a good point,” Flitter agreed. Based on that logic, I could go as well. After all, Dad was always telling me to broaden my skill set at every opportunity.
“I’ll go too,” I said. “You guys managed alright without me before. I think you can spare me for one week, right?” Dash frowned and thought for a moment.
“It’ll mean we have a way busier week than normal,” she said at last. “And there’s no way I’m gonna have any time for napping. But yeah, I think we should be able to manage. And having somepony with more experience pick up some tricks from manufacturing will probably help us in the long run too.” There were a few more mutterings around the group.
“Okay then, it’s settled. Lizzie and Dewdrop are going to be working up at the weather factory for this week. The rest of us will have to do our best to get by until then. Everypony okay with that?” There were no dissenters.
So Dash wished us good luck, as did Flight and the others. Rainbow said that we were to report as soon as possible to the weather factory’s front entrance, where all the other volunteers would be assembling. After that, we’d be broken up into teams and assigned to various jobs, working under the skeleton crew who would give us some basic on the job training.
Taking wing, the two of us left Dash and the others to go about their usual briefing, and we headed off in the direction of Cloudsdale.
As usual, I took the lead spot, with Dewdrop following behind and slightly off to my left. It was a fairly quiet flight. As much as I knew it was highly improbable, I couldn’t help but remember Mum’s comments about Dad getting ill last week. He couldn’t have inadvertently caused some sort of plague could he; introducing a human illness to the ponies who had no immunity to it? That was one of the many concerns Bones had had when we first got here, although he was more worried about us catching something.
I shook my head. It seemed very unlikely. After all, Dad never went near Cloudsdale normally, so how would spread and affect only there? We were well into autumn as it was and well on the way to Hearth’s Warming. More than likely this was just one of those winter bugs that had done a little better than most.
Getting up to altitude, we saw Cloudsdale. The place looked alright enough, although we couldn’t see any pegasi flying about. A few miles from there, presumably outside the quarantine, was the smoke stacks of the weather factory, which was still pouting out rainbow coloured smoke. I caught Dewdrop’s attention and gestured to the large facility. We quickly changed course.
We would have gotten there without trouble if not for what happened next.
As we were gliding along on the thermals, I suddenly became aware of a shadow passing overhead. For a moment, the air was colder on my coat and the sun was briefly blotted out. I scarcely had time to push up my goggles and look before the four of them were on us. Four Royal Guard pegasi, in full armour suddenly surrounded us. I hadn’t even heard them coming. The shadow had been the guy on top cover sliding into position. The one on the right signalled to me, and I moved closer and pulled down my flying scarf so as to speak without having to yell.
“You’re very close to the quarantine zone, you two,” he called out.
“We’re local weather patrol,” I replied, gesturing to the goggles around my neck. “Heard they needed volunteers to help running the weather factory until things calm down.” The guard looked us over.
“Fair enough. We’ll escort you there then, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure. We’ll follow your lead.”
Our flight of six now moved around, with the guards moving into a less aggressive formation. I wondered what they were doing up here, or why they’d suddenly intercepted us.
“How come you guys are up here anyway?” I asked. “I know Cloudsdale is under quarantine, but I didn’t think we’d need guards.”
“We’ve had a few ponies try to get in or out. Some folks who live there were away when the quarantine was set up, and there are a few tourists and visitors stuck there. A few of the more desperate ones tried to cross the line, so we’ve been sent up here to turn ‘em back. I tell you, that flu they’ve got is something nasty.”
Before long, we came upon the landing platform for the weather factory. The guards all banked away, with one pausing to rock his wings in a friendly gesture to his fellow flyers.
Touching down on the soft clouds, we found a pegasus dressed in a white lab coat waiting for us.
“You some more of my volunteers?” she asked as we landed, I nodded.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I’m Lizzie, and this is Dewdrop. We’re from Ponyville’s local patrol.” The mare reached out to shake our hooves.
“I’m Clear Skies,” she said. “I’m in charge of snow production here at the weather factory.”
Clear Skies had a very light pink coat and a light purple mane, with a few lighter highlights in it, done up in a fairly short style. She was around Dash’s age, perhaps a little older.
“If you’d like to follow me,” she said, turning around. “I’ll show you where you’ll both be working for the next week.”
Following her inside, we were first led into the locker room. Since there were so few ponies here at the moment, we had our choice. We also got issued a lab coat, hard hat, and protective goggles. Clear Skies then led us out to the factory floor, giving us a brief health and safety lesson on the way.
We soon found ourselves in a large, open room, filled with several large tanks of snow. Each one had a large pipe that dropped down to the floor, with an obvious valve for controlling the flow. Nearby, there was a similar tank filled with a large amount of cloud material
“Right,” Clear Skies said. “This is snow cloud production, where the pair of you will be working. As you can see, the snow itself is already manufactured. Thank Celestia that this outbreak hit after we’d actually made up the snowflakes. There’s no way we could ask a bunch of volunteers to do that. It takes years to learn how to make snowflakes. Anyway, all you two have to do is take the snow from those tanks and fill the empty clouds so we can start putting down the first snowfall next month. The principle is the same as putting clouds together for a storm, so you should be alright. If you have any problems, there’s an intercom on the far wall that connects to snowflake production; you can reach me there.”
“Makes sense to me,” I said.
“Yeah, me too,” Dewdrop added. Clear Skies smiled.
“Good. Then I’ll leave the two of you to get started. Lunch break is at one, and we clock out at five.”
With that she left us to it. There were about a dozen workstations here. Dewdrop and I took the ones at the far end, to save time moving snow and cloud around. We decided to work together rather than separately. I’d form up the clouds, and then Dewdrop would add the snowflakes. All in all, we should be able to make a sizeable snowstorm by the end of the week.
We spent the next two days as worker bees. It was a nice change actually from weather work. Yes, it was repetitive as hell, but I still found some enjoyment from it. Whether or not that was due to Dewdrop also being there was up for debate.
By Wednesday, we’d settled into a routine for the week. As ever, I’d leave Fluttershy’s bright and early while she was feeding all the animals. With my silk flying scarf round my neck and a packed lunch in my saddlebags, I’d head off towards Cloudsdale. I’d pass the guards, who all knew me by sight. Usually, I’d meet up with Dewdrop on the way in, his light cyan coat standing out against the grey clouds. After that, we’d touch down at the factory, touch base with Clear Skies and get to work.
For the most part, we worked in companionable silence, occasionally chatting when we first got in. I’d also got into the habit of sharing lunch with Dewdrop in the factory’s break room. Despite how little we talked, I think we both got a fair bit closer. I knew Dewdrop had been crushing on me ever since that incident with the tornado, but now I was starting to feel similarly towards him. I’d been single for a few years now. Heck, one of the main reasons I’d asked Discord to let me stay as a pony was because I wanted to meet somepony someday. The upshot of it was, yes, I liked Dewdrop, and he liked me. Now, what was I to do about it?
My obvious first thought was to ask him out. Maybe I could try that bistro place Rarity was talking about? If things went well, we could go further and see what happened, if not, it would just be a meal out between friends.
I asked him when we were both tucking into our sandwiches in the break room.
“Say, Dewdrop, can we talk for a minute?” I asked. He looked up, curious.
“Yeah, sure,” he replied, setting his own dandelion sandwich to one side. “What about?” I felt my heartbeat increase.
“I want to talk about what happened after the party,” I explained evenly. Dewdrop suddenly turned a shade of red, presumably at the memory. “First of all, I want to say I’m sorry.” Dewdrop now fond his voice.
“Oh…it’s alright,” he said. “You were pretty drunk after all. We all do silly things when we’ve had too much salt. You should have seen some of the antics my old man got up.”
“I wanna try and make it up to you,” I went on. “How about I take you out to dinner this weekend? Rarity was telling me about this nice little bistro place down on Stirrup Street.”
I thought I was pretty smooth. It wasn’t as if I could just come out and say I liked him. Knowing Dewdrop, that would probably just scare him off anyway. This was a bit more subtle, but I figured it was still obvious enough for him to work out what was happening.
He certainly seemed to get what I was driving at, because for a moment or so, he froze pretty much solid where he was, mouth half open in shock. I suppose I would be too if my previously unrequited crush asked me out. I’m not gonna lie though, his surprise was really cute. After a moment or two though, he recovered.
“Erm…yeah…sure, I’d like that,” he stammered out. “Do you want me to come by your place or..?” I flashed a smile at him.
“I’ll come to yours and pick you up. Say around half seven?” Dewdrop nodded emphatically in agreement.
After lunch, we went back to work. Dewdrop was positively beaming the whole time, but trying not to show it. Our time together went from companionable silence, to near constant nattering. By the end of the week, it was as if we’d already had a date or two, because we knew so much about each other.
When we came down from Cloudsdale on Friday afternoon, Dash and the others were waiting for us, having prepared a little welcome back party in the park, nothing major, just a banner and a few soft drinks. I couldn’t help but notice the conspiratorial whispering between Flitter and Cloudchaser, and the near constant furtive glances towards me and Dewdrop.
I figured that by tomorrow night, the whole town would know that something was up. Of course, I didn’t count on that information falling into a certain pair of hooves.
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as Discord said young love, it is so sweet.
i really like this chapter it is a super good friends based chapter.
8559302 I feel it's an improvement over the last time I wrote this kind of chapter, way back when I first wrote 'My Family and Other Equestrians'. It's not perfect, but it's better than what I did last time.
8560183
aww yes i think i know the chapter you are talking about.
yes you have improved greatly as a author in all areas.
just cause you have no experience does not mean you can't lean lessons from watching, reading about and talking to others. especially with something as complicated as romance.
Basically you can look, but if you aren't trained to operate whatever you are looking at then you shouldn't touch whatever you are looking at.