Finding Inspiration

by bahatumay

Chapter 6

It was a morning like any other. Birds were singing, the light from Celestia’s sun streamed through the window, and Wind Shear’s eyes flickered open. Grumbling under his breath at the audacity of the sun, he yawned and stretched.

“Ugh. Finally.”

“Gah!” Now startled and very much awake, Wind Shear flailed and fell out of the bed. He grabbed his blanket and held it in front of himself protectively. “What are you doing in my house?” he asked hoarsely.

Morning Glory shrugged. “You said I could come by.”

“Yeah, but, but when I'm awake, when I'm ready; you broke into my house, to, what, to scare me?”

Morning Glory shrugged again.

Wind Shear scowled and pushed himself up, having moved beyond fear to irritation. “Well, welcome to my house, this lovely, early morning.”

She grinned, and her fangs gleamed. Even the swaying snakes of her mane managed to look smug.

Once he was up and his brain was properly oriented, he realized how snippy that had sounded. “Sorry, just… I've never had a mare show up to my house like this. I mean, autograph hunters, sure; but it's easy enough to throw them out on their ear. But you, you're technically a guest. Do I make you breakfast?”

“I made you breakfast, because your stupid flank was still asleep and I was hungry.” She held up a plate.

Wind Shear squinted. “Is that a breakfast burrito? It's huge.”

“Yep. Freshly made, too. Most of the ingredients are from your garden.” She shook her head. “You have the weirdest planting scheme for your plants, by the way. That one row of radishes in the middle of the parsnips? Really weird. I don't like it.”

Wind Shear rolled his eyes as he took it. “That wasn't exactly intentional,” he admitted, “but thank you,” he added, his voice a bit quieter. He grinned at it. “Fancier than I normally eat.”

“Which is?”

He cracked a smile. “Toast. Cold cereal. Muffins I bought the day before.”

“Well, you seemed to enjoy watching me eat before,” she said, holding up her own, “and this seemed like a good option to show off what my body can do.” She held the plate up, tipped her head back, tipped it over, let the burrito slide into her open mouth, and slowly swallowed it. The sizeable bulge in her throat slowly descended as she let it slide down under its own weight. When it had disappeared, she licked her lips, met his eyes, and winked.

Wind Shear groaned, regretting all his words more and more with every passing second. Irritably, he speared his own with his fork and cut a chunk out. He put it in his mouth and his eyes widened. “Whoa. This is really good.”

“Thanks.”

“Seriously,” he said, quickly taking another. “This is great.” He peered inside. “Are those green onions mixed with the eggs?”

“Yep.”

He paused as something occurred to him. “C- can you not taste it? Because, uh, you have to swallow everything, and-”

She scowled, held up her plate, and, maintaining eye contact the entire time, shoved it into her mouth and swallowed it whole. It cracked in her throat—or did she crack it intentionally with freaky throat muscles?—and she showed no signs of pain or even discomfort.

He decided to not ask her any more questions about her digestive habits.

After washing his plate, Wind Shear looked out the window. “Usually I head out to the garden right about now, but-”

“Sure, we can do that.”

Wind Shear blinked. “Uh, ok. Wasn't expecting that.”

Morning Glory shrugged and got up. “I was an earth pony,” she said. “I like gardens.”

Wind Shear was tempted to ask how she'd gone from regular earth pony to dreaded gorgony, but the image of her swallowing the plate popped into his head and he changed his mind pretty quickly.

She worked fast. He looked up from his fourth plant to see that she was already halfway down the row, little weeds strewn by her path like she was a pony-shaped tornado of weed destruction.

One of the snakes flicked its tongue, and she looked over her shoulder. “You can eat those weeds, if you want to,” she said, pointing to a pile.

“I'm good,” Wind Shear said, shuddering at that memory.

“They’re the ok kind. Won't give you gas,” she added with a hint of singsong.

“I'm good.” He continued working, a bit faster now.

She met him on the next row coming back. He could hear the smirk in her voice. “Something tells me you weren't a farmer before you moved out here.”

“Not at all. I was a writer, but I'm retired now.”

“Aww. No more trying to get schoolfoals together?”

Wind Shear scowled at her. “That happened once.”

Morning Glory held up her hooves in exaggerated innocence.

Wind Shear sighed. “But yes, I wrote mostly romance,” he admitted.

“Ha.” Morning Glory pulled up another weed. “Talk about the blind leading the blind.”

“They were good stories,” he retorted. “Bestsellers, all of them.”

She crunched a weed between her teeth and spat it out. “Stupid, blinded mares will believe anything,” she said dismissively, and her snakes seemed to hiss in assent.

Wind Shear groaned. He was getting pretty sick of this. “You know what? Why don’t you read one of my books and see for yourself?”

“Pass,” she said airily.

Wind Shear saw an opportunity and jumped on it. “Ah, I see. You know, there’s no shame in not being able to read,” he said sweetly.

“I can read,” she scowled, her upper lip twitching up.

“Right. I’m sorry I don’t actually have anything in a second-grade reading level-”

His voice cut off as she quite literally tackled him to the ground. She pushed him down, hooves pressed against his shoulders, her eyes flashed and she bared her teeth; and the snakes all coiled against her head as if in preparation to strike. And for a brief moment, he feared he’d pushed her too far.

But she quickly brought herself under control. She straightened up, took a step back off of him, and licked her lips. “Sure,” she said. “I’ll read one of your stupid books. But make it a good one, because I'm only reading one.”

Wind Shear walked back inside and stopped in front of his bookshelf. She had a point. Which was his best work? Which one could she read that she'd like?

Assuming she could like anything, that is.

He scanned the books. His fourth Wandering Wheel book was probably his strongest, but there was no way she’d understand that twist about Cake Batter without having read the second one. Second Open Door book was good, too. She’d have to read the first one first, though.

Actually, that was a pretty good idea. It had been his first attempt, and he had knocked it out of the park, so to speak. The success of that book had spawned his longest series, and most of his other books, too; so lots of ponies had liked it. It was worth a shot. He went back outside. “Try this one. Book one of the Open Door series.”

She squinted at the cover critically. “Is it any good?”

“Yes,” he said snippily. “I did write it.”

“Romance?”

“Yes.”

“Love isn't an open door, though,” she said, taking it almost defiantly. “It's a shut door and a room full of disappointments.”

“What happened to you?” Wind Shear asked curiously. “It’s like you hate the whole world.”

“Yeah? Well, the whole world hates me, so…” She shrugged and took the book. She sat down on the stump and opened to page one. Her snakes seemed to patrol her space, slithering over each other around her head.

Wind Shear shook his head and kept working.

“What kind of name is Blueberry Pancake?”

“A good one,” Wind Shear retorted.

There was silence for a while. And then-

“Seriously?”

He sighed. He knew exactly what she was referring to. “If you can get past my names, it's a decent story. Promise.”

She made a noncommittal grunt and kept reading.

Wind Shear continued working. He finished the next row, and was halfway through the third when it occurred to him that Morning Glory hadn’t said much else. He dared sneak a peek at her. Her snakes were moving, but she was not; she was engrossed in reading. He shrugged and kept working.

And, as it usually did, the sun got hot, and Wind Shear got hungry. Well, less hungry than he normally was, what with the breakfast she had made; but in his defense, it had been earlier than his usual breakfast time.

Eh, it was time for a break and a snack. He was a grown stallion and didn’t need to justify it to anypony. He looked over at Morning Glory. “I usually head into town to get lunch around now, do you-?”

Barely looking away from the book, she reached down, pulled a carrot from the ground, and swallowed it whole. “I'll be fine here,” she said tersely.

“Alright,” he said slowly. He turned and walked away, briefly looking over his shoulder to see if she were to change her mind, but she didn’t move.

He smiled, satisfied. Well, maybe that had been a good choice of book, after all.

---

Mid-afternoon, he meandered back home. He was not surprised to see that the garden was devoid of ponies, gorgony or otherwise.

But when he made it inside, he was very surprised to see a gorgony lounging on his couch, still reading, her snakes relaxing on her head. Their tongues flicked out at him, and one lifted up to get a better taste. The briefest shudder ran up his back.

“Oh, hey,” she said, waving a hoof distractedly at him.

“Hey,” he returned. “Still reading?”

“Yeah. Mostly because I'm convinced you’re going to botch it sometime or later and I’m waiting for that moment.”

That sentence had sounded almost prepared. A little smile flitted across his face.

She looked up at the clock and did a double-take. She hissed under her breath. “I’ve got to get back home.” She looked down at her book. “Uh, you mind if I borrow this?”

“Not at all,” Wind Shear said.

She nodded, paused long enough to pull her cloak on, and then walked out the door. He waved goodbye, but she did not return the gesture.

As he went back inside to tidy up, he noticed a book on the ground, hiding under the couch. Strange. He pulled it out and grunted in surprise. It was the book he thought she had been reading. As he reached to put it away, he realized there was another hole in the row. She had been reading the second book in the series. He grinned as he slid it back in its spot.

It faded somewhat as he looked to the right. The empty space there next to book six haunted him. He shook his head. Best case scenario, she got bored in that slow part of book five and he could steer her towards another series.

Comments

[CasperSantiq]

MOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! please?

[Crystal Static]

More chapters yay!

Why can't we have more fics like this one on the front page?

~Crystalline Electrostatic~
4:12_11/27/2017

[Dudofall]

8574905
I bet that's what Morning Glory will say, thus spurring Wind Shear to start on the sequel.