Red Flag Valentine

by Meteor_Mirage

Cardinal

As Morning Glory stumbled his way home, his mind was awash with muddled thought and internal screaming due to not one, but two hugs from his crush. And the whole confusion of what Cardinal had meant when he said ‘colts I like’ when referring to him.

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t see the yellow and red figure before him until it was too late.

But thankfully instead of crashing into Apple Bloom, she just pressed a hoof against his chest to halt him. He still jumped, however.

After the jump, Apple Bloom took note of his face, entirely confusion with a light dusting of panic, and frowned. “Didn’t go too well, huh?”

Morning fought against nodding because, while it didn’t go exactly as he’d planned, he still wasn’t turned down or shunned. He just didn’t know what he was at this point.

“It went…” he started, then scrunched his face as he realized he wasn’t too sure how it’d went.

“It went?” Apple Bloom questioned.

“It went.” Morning concluded.

Apple Bloom blinked, then stayed silent in hopes her acquaintance would finish his thought. When he looked to her with the same amount of expectation, she let out a sigh. “I take it he didn’t sweep you off your hooves then?”

Morning shook his head, though with a small, hopeful glint in his eyes. “He did hug me though. Twice.” The small white couldn’t help but smile as he said that.

Apple Bloom smiled as well, if nought wider than her friend did, while she gave him a nice, hard pat on the shoulder. “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. I knew helping him with homework would help! And maybe now we won’t have to potion him too hard.”

“L-let’s not do the potioning, actually.” Morning eeped out softly.

“Speaking of homework,” the apple horse said, completely ignoring the protests she couldn’t even hear, “how’d Cardy take to learning math? Did he pick up on it easy?”

Morning let out a soft, nervous chuckle. “Well, about that…” He began to look around to try and find just about anything to make an excuse out of.

As he did this, Apple Bloom shot him a tired and somewhat disappointed frown, already knowing she would have to teach everything to Cardinal yet again. “I hope you didn’t just give him the answers.”

Drawing a blank, Morning lept to the one thing he knew. “Listen, I’ve gotta go think about Cardinal and cry.” Letting out a soft squeak, he didn’t even take a moment to think about what he’d said before taking off towards home.

Apple Bloom nodded. It made sense.

---

Once home, Morning let out a deep sigh that he didn’t even know he was holding back. Mostly because he was just very used to letting them out as they come. And yet this sigh seemed to come from very deep within himself and, once released, he felt like there was a weight lifted off fo him.

Now that he was alone, he could finally relax and take a break from fielding everyone else’s ideas on how to get Cardinal to like him. Especially now that it was clear that it’d be less of a hassle than he thought. He now knew that Cardinal seemed to have at least a passing interest in him.

Letting out a soft, happy sigh at the thought of that Morning shrugged off his saddlebag. At least, he would have if he had any saddlebag to shrug off. He hadn’t noticed it before during the escape of Cardinal’s room or the failed conversation with Apple Bloom, but now it was plainly clear to him that he was missing a key weight on his back.

Dancing about with more than just a bit of anxiety, he tried his best to retrace his steps and figure out where he must have left it. Moments later, he realized that he knew exactly where he’d left it.

Cardinal’s house.

And he knew he couldn’t just trot on over and reclaim it. Instead, he would probably have to wait until the next day to hope Cardinal remembers it.

With a now soft and somewhat dejected sigh, he shrugged and entered his kitchen. “Well, I guess I should probably trust him with this.” Morning said softly to himself, as is allowed for a pony in the privacy of his own home.

Turning on the oven to a respectable heat of 400°F, Morning leaned back against his counter and grumbled to himself while he waited for the oven to heat.

“I mean, I should probably trust him. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t wanna date him, right?” He scrunched his snoot as he thought it over, but brought himself back with a shake of his head. “No, of course I trust him. And it’s not like I can get the Crusaders to help me with getting it back.”

He couldn’t help but crack a smile as he pictured it, giggling to himself. It was something of a spy-esque thriller with Morning playing as the charismatic super spy and the Crusaders all taking turns as his assistant.

And then Cardinal as some sort of damsel, or one of those sexy but dangerous secretaries to the true villain. And some villain somewhere.

Honestly, all he really knew was that he’d be wearing a catsuit and he’d look damn good in it.

Shaking his head again, he found himself snorting in laughter just a little bit. “Well, that was stupid.” He told himself before laughing for just a few moments later.

Morning looked over to the oven and, upon noting it was only at half of its desired warmth, let out a loud and desperate groan. He couldn’t stand to wait much longer for his grass covered frozen pizza.

He took a quick lap around the island countertop in the center of his kitchen, then flopped right back against the marble counter.

“What am I gonna do?” He asked himself, not quite knowing which question he was really asking. Mulling over it for a moment, he grumbled and sighed yet again. “What am I gonna do‽” He repeated with distress. “None of the ideas I got from the girls really worked, so what now?”

He waited for several moments for the ideas to appear in his head but, upon coming up with nothing, he stomped his hooves lightly while letting out a tiny grumble. “Gosh darn it! I’ve gotta get Cardinal to ask me out somehow!” Giving a soft sigh, he then cocked his head slightly. “At least I know he likes me.”

The white colt swooned as he said that, grinning as widely as possible and pressing a hoof to his chest. A blush covered his face as he recalled the short hug the two had shared before he was forced through a window.

The love produced by this moment was just enough to get Morning thinking of just dropping all of his anxiety and find Cardinal in order to get it all over with.

He almost began to discuss it with himself, but he was abruptly drawn away by the sudden and incessant beeping of his oven, giving him a very loud reminder that it was now pizza time all the time.

Giving up for a moment, he decided to take care of his problems after eating, but still before bed.

---

Waking up the next morning, all Morning remembered was eating most of his pizza, cleaning up, then reading a book until he fell asleep. He got a whole two pages in, as the sheer act of eating his pizza had tired him out enough.

And, by the loud beeping of his alarm clock, he knew that he wouldn’t exactly have the time to both take a shower and plan through all of his romancing escapades.

Needless to say, he had to think it over for a few minutes. And by that point, he was already getting to be late for school.

After the quickest of quick showers, Morning Glory was out the door with a half dried mane (the left half) and a slice of leftover pizza flopping out of his mouth to be devoured on his run. A tactic he picked up from a book he saw on his bookshelf.

As he munched on that grassy pizza and trotted along his normal route to school, he wasn’t very surprised when he saw a white figure approach him and begin to walk in time with him.

Quickly crunching the rest of his pizza, he looked over to give a small smile to Sweetie Belle. “G’morning.” He grumbled softly before clearing his throat, reeling just a bit from swallowing an entire pizza slice at once.

“Morning. So, I heard your date didn’t go as we all planned, huh?” She asked, to which Morning responded with a quick eye roll and loud grumble. She was just going to start with this, huh?

“It didn’t go perfectly,” he admitted with a soft sigh, but he also gave a soft smile as well, “buuuuuuuut he did hug me and maybe he might have let it slip that he likes me so...it’s a plus?” He shrugged, but a larger smile found its way to his face and a giggle to his voice.

It seemed that the smile was infectious, as Sweetie Belle took one up as well. “Well that’s something! At least we have a little to work with.” She told him, to which he responded with an attempt to speak before Sweetie cut him off. “I think we should all meet up after school to discuss strategy.”

Morning took a moment to stop and scratch one foreleg with the other while grumbling a bit. “Uh, about that…”

Stopping and spinning place to look at him, Sweetie Belle looked at him in a very questioning way. “What’s wrong? Getting cold hooves this far in?”

Shaking his head softly, Morning thought over his next response very carefully, muttering under his breath and sighing when he couldn’t figure out the perfect sentence. And yet he spoke more anyway. “It’s just that none of the ideas worked so far, so I don’t see much use and coming up with new ones.” He grumbled softly once he realized the words could come across as rude, but he wasn’t about to apologize for it.

Rolling her eyes, Sweetie Belle frowned at her friend. “Oh come on! That just means we haven’t tried the right one.” Bringing herself up against Morning’s side, she wrapped a hoof around him. “See, I’ve got one idea. How do you feel about karaoke?”

Morning just let out a soft squeak as he was ushered along his way to school with Sweetie Belle shopping her idea to him.

---

Thankfully the walk to school didn’t take too long, small village and all, so Morning was mostly in the clear once Sweetie Belle took her seat to discuss him with Apple Bloom.

Mostly being the keyword, as once Morning took his own seat he was approached by a strangely bashful Cardinal.

He approached quickly and gently, immediately setting one of the two saddlebags he had down by Morning’s hooves. He opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped once realizing he had no idea what to say.

“Sorry about last night.” He decided to start with, grumbling softly and scratching the back of his neck. “I didn’t know my parents were gonna be home that soon, and I sorta panicked.” He let out a small, breathy laugh at that, shaking his head. “Anyway, I just wanted to get back to what I was talking about yesterday.” He hesitated, opening and closing his mouth a few times without a sound.

Right when he was about to return to speaking, the school bell rang to cut him off. Cheerilee called for everyone to take their seats, forcing Cardinal to shoot Morning a disappointed look.

“Let’s talk later.” Cardinal muttered, ruffling his wings nervously, then gestured to Morning’s saddlebags. “Thank you, by the way.”

After a beat of awkwardness, Cardinal left for his seat.

Thankfully, the school day wasn’t too difficult or taxing. Aside from Morning obsessing over whatever it was Cardinal wanted to tell him, the time just flew by.

All that was really went over before the bell rang again was the homework from the day before and a little bit of extra instruction to add onto yesterday’s lesson. Then all that was left was the classwork to finish before the bell.

After the class noisily let out and Morning was once again able to think clearly, he looked around to try and find Cardinal. And yet, strangely, he seemed to be missing from his usual nap at his desk, leaving only a small puddle of drool to thrive on its own.

Letting out a soft sigh, Morning Glory looked one seat forward to find Cardinal’s partner in naptime, Scootaloo. Reaching over to her seat, he nudged her gently.

She shot up immediately, looking around wildly for the reason she was so rudely awoken. Seeing that the classroom was now mostly empty, she took a moment to stretch her hooves above her head, the sound of the cracking and popping both horrifying and deafening, after which she scratched the back of her neck and let out a loud yawn.

She then turned to Morning. “Did I miss the bell, or are we just being attacked again?” Without even waiting for a response, she got up out of her seat to stretch herself out with a long and drawn out sigh.

“It’s all over, Scootaloo.” Morning told her without much fanfare. “Now then, did Cardinal tell you where he was going after school before you both snoozed?”

Scootaloo just shook her head. “Nah, I passed out before y’all even got here. Which some would call depression, but I think of it as an adventure.” She gave a grin, tilting her head slightly. Once tilted, her face gave a scrunch in confusion.

She dipped her head slightly, then shook it about wildly. As she did this, Morning spotted a small piece of folded up paper taped to the nape of her neck and flapping wildly about. Grumbling loudly, Scoot just flopped around harder to get rid of it.

Carefully reaching over to his friend, Morning grabbed for the piece of paper to free her from her torment.

Once freed, Scootaloo grinned at Morning. “Thanks! That was getting pretty annoying.” She briefly regarded the paper, but her focus shifted back to Morning moments later. “Anyway, how do you feel about skydiving? ‘Cause I’ve got one heck of an idea.”

Ignoring her almost entirely, Morning Glory went about unfolding and inspecting the paper that was purposefully left behind. Written on it was an almost illegible scrawl, huge and bold across the page. After squinting and tilting his head, he was just barely able to read what it said:

“MEET ME MARKET FOUNTAIN. TALK THERE. -C”

Well, Morning could have told who had written it from just the all capital letters and poor penmanship. The ‘signature’ was just a small confirmation for him.

Needless to say, this caused an absolutely massive jolt of anxiety to grip his heart and rattle it around a bit. He was already gritting his teeth and trying to not to scream in terror as, while he was within spitting distance of having what seemed to be a serious conversation with Cardinal, but he would also have to confront having an entirely serious conversation about his feelings without bolting.

Completely ignoring the face of pure terror on Morning’s face, Scootaloo tilted her head in confusion. “So, does that mean no skydiving?”

“Maybe later.” Morning squeaked non-committedly , then just bolted out the door.

---

Morning Glory approached the center of town much like a prisoner on death row. He slowly meandered down the streets of Ponyville, his eyes cast down to the floor while ponies watched him walk.

It was obvious to him that everyone was well aware of what was really going on. Especially due to the constant influx of ponies reaching out to amp him up and congratulate him on finally getting it done. As well as giving their hopes that it wouldn’t go at all like last time.

All Morning was able to do was smile politely and nod, then walk away and grumble to himself softly before the next pony approached him.

And yet somehow he still managed to make it to the marketplace before the sun set. He took a short moment to take a small breath and calm himself down, slowly creeping from market stall to market stall as he tried to get a feel for what was going on.

He hid behind the cherry stall, the one closest to the fountain at the center of town, and peeked over the side to see if Cardinal had showed up yet. If not, he was going to abscond and find a plan before attempting to attack again.

And yet those plans were dashed the moment he saw Cardinal right by the fountain. Strangely enough, he seemed to be pacing back and forth between the fountain and a tree nearby, frequently looking all around him for any signs of Morning.

Ducking back behind the stall as Cardinal began to search, Morning curled up in the fetal position right then and there, pressing his back against the wood of the stall. He internally screamed at himself to both leave for home and also to go confront Cardinal already. As such, he was torn.

He was extremely startled when the cherry attendant cleared his throat, looking down at Morning disdainfully as he muttered to himself about Morning driving all of his customers away. Pressing his hooves against the bottom of the stall, the cherry pony lifted with all the earth pony strength he had and uprooted it from the ground.

He then proceeded to stomp his way out of the marketplace, leaving Morning defenseless and visible to the entire world.

Turning around to look to the fountain, Morning caught Cardinal’s curious gase. Knowing he was trapped now, he scrambled to stand back up and face the fact that his choice had been made for him.

He trotted as quickly as he could without being extremely awkward as he approached the fountain and final boss of his adventure. He kept his eyes to the ground, fearing running away and hiding were he to look at the colt before him.

Once before Cardinal, Morning stared down to his hooves while scratching one of his forelegs against the other. He attempted to greet his friend, but couldn’t manage the words.

“Heya Morning.” Cardinal instead began, just before letting out a breathy, nervous laugh. He moved one hoof to scratch the back of his neck. “I was sorta getting worried you weren’t gonna show. But here you are.”

“Here I am…” Morning agreed with an equally nervous chuckle. “I sort of got sidetracked with… stuff.” He gestured behind him to the empty space that once housed a cherry stand.

Cardinal nodded gently. “Yeah, I saw that.” He said before letting out a short laugh. “I guess that he just really didn’t wanna deal with us today.” Casually looking around at the ponies staring at them both, he couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Y’know, unlike everyone else around here.”

Morning managed to share in the smiling and giggling, finally looking up to look Cardinal in the eyes. The two shared a short moment of smiling at each other before Cardinal motioned his head towards the fountain.

“We should sit. This might take a while.” With another larger smile, he nudged his buddy just a little bit before approaching the edge of the fountain to take a seat.

Morning Glory joined him only moments later, sitting just a bit too close to Cardinal, not that either colt minded one bit. The two of them sat there calmly for the longest moment, trying their hardest to not get performance anxiety from all the ponies around them.

“I really like you, Morning Glory.” Cardinal said softly, purposefully looking away from Morning for the moment. He shook his head gently, letting out a soft chuckle. “I mean, how couldn’t I? You’re always so nice to me, and so helpful.”

Morning couldn’t help but blush as he grinned from ear to ear, very happy to be hearing any praise from Cardinal. Giggling just a bit, he scooted just a slight bit closer to Cardinal. He couldn’t exactly form any words to respond yet, but he was enjoying hearing Cardinal’s.

“Just in the past couple days you’ve been so sweet.” Cardinal continued, slyly wrapping one hoof around Morning. “I mean, you brought me a snack after one heck of a training session, got me tickets to that sick Wonderbolts show, and even let me copy your homework.”

Morning looked away from Cardinal for a moment, pressing his hoof to his mouth as he giggled quite a bit loudly. “You’re very dumb. A very dumb pony sometimes.” He turned back to face Cardinal as he continued to laugh, only to be surprised when he saw a worried look on his face.

Taking on a worried look of his own, Morning squeaked and leaned towards Cardinal, covering the pegasus’ hoof with one of his own as he realized what he’d said was probably rude as heck. “What I mean is, uh, you… don’t know why I gave you those, do you?”

To his credit, Cardinal took a moment to think about it, but shook his head when he came up with not much. “Is it because you like me?”

“No, it’s because I l-” Morning paused to fully comprehend what his friend had just said. Sighing softly, he nodded once he realized Cardinal had nailed it on the head. “Yes. I like you, Cardinal. I like you too, I guess.”

He leaned back slightly, bracing himself on the edge of the fountain so as to not fall in while he gazed up at the sky. “All those gifts…were to get that through to you. With the help of the Crusaders, at least. Sweetie Belle thought I should get you flowers,” he turned to look back at Cardinal and look into his wide eyes, “but you ate those, and I had absolutely no idea how to come back from that.”

Cardinal could only respond by blushing largely, soon after moving to hide his face in his hooves. “I was really hungry and I didn’t knoooooow!” He then began to giggle into his hooves.

“And then came the tickets that Scootaloo gave to me, to give to you, so that you and I could spend time together.” Morning continued, and by the look on Cardinal’s face he could tell that his friend knew where he was going with this. “I didn’t expect you to go back to her with them. But that’s fine because I’m not the biggest Wonderbolts fan.”

“Scoots might have just screwed you there. I don’t think you could’ve made it to a Cloudsdale show.” Cardinal admitted as he flexed his wings gently, but still shrugged afterwards. “Was a pretty good plan though.”

Morning gave a nod. “I didn’t really expect it to that well, but I was desperate. What I did think was gonna work was Apple Bloom’s plan.”

Cardinal joined in on this nodding, following where Morning was going for once. “I guess that was probably getting the both of us alone in a room so we could ‘do our homework’ together, huh?” He asked with a sly wink.

“Basically. And I’m pretty sure it almost worked.” Morning lead on with a somewhat teasing grin.

“Ooooonly if my parents hadn’t shown up when they did.” Cardinal agreed as he scooted ever so slightly to the pony to his side. “But they’re not here now~” He said with a grin and a wink.

Morning briefly looked around to the ponies surrounding them, blushing heavily while realizing they were still staring. And yet, looking back to Cardinal, he couldn’t find the want or need to panic. Instead, he just breathed out a sigh and wrapped his hooves very gently around Cardinal’s waist.

Ignoring the gentle cheering around them, Cardinal hugged the smaller pony right back, pulling him even tighter to his chest.

This hugging lasted for quite a long moment, just enough time for most ponies in the crowd to pass off their bits to Cheerilee, who was watching from afar.

Pulling back first, tough still leaning slightly against Cardinal, Morning sighed happily. “So, do you want to go get lunch sometime?”

“Can sometime be now?” Cardinal asked quietly, nudging his now more-than-friend gently before rubbing his tum a little bit. “I haven’t really had much to eat today.” As if to emphasize this point, his belly gave a loud growl between the both of them.

All Morning could do was laugh and very gently nuzzle against Cardinal’s chest.

End.

Comments

[Milo_Chalks]

Fantastic fic and really fun, cute little read.

Although I feel like we could have really explored the relationship with Cardinal's parents because the way you set it up it sounded like they were not too happy about his sexuality. Maybe even just Cardinal standing up to them with Morning Glory. I just feel like you've put so much effort into this wonderful fic and we've got this loose end that should be tied. In the end it is your decision but this fic really does deserve just that little bit more for a complete conclusion.

Other than that I'm really happy to have read that, consider me excited for whatever else you have up your sleeves!

[Meteor_Mirage]

8765941
I've gotta admit, I have absolutely no idea where I was going with his parents. Even if I did, I don't really think I would have been able to fit it into what I had in mind for this story.

Maybe I'll revisit it in a future story, but that probably isn't in the cards just yet.

Also, thank you for all your kind comments on this story.