7. Hard Landings
Twilight Sparkle Makes a Coltfriend… Literally
Hard Landing
It had been several days since Nimbus had “gone away,” but Twilight still dragged herself from her sleepless bed early every morning so she could watch the sun rise from the top balcony of her castle. It was a quiet, peaceful, and healing time for her soul to think that somewhere out there, there was another pony much like the golem who had been at her side the last few days and likewise enjoyed their special time together. Her friends had been an endless source of support in this trying time, with Applejack stopping by just after every dawn in order to bring a fresh-cooked breakfast, and even Rainbow Dash putting forth the herculean effort of assembling a morning cloud display for sunrise, although she vanished for intensive naptime later.
Sometimes, Twilight was even able to keep from crying when watching the sunrise.
This morning was not one of those times.
“Hey. Ma’am?” There was a faint flutter of wings outside of Twilight’s tear-blurred vision and the sound of a pegasus settling down on the balcony next to her. He was not the most graceful flier because it took several tries for him to get his hooves settled on the balcony rail, and nearly hit Twilight in the face with one of his wings during the attempt. “Are you all right, ma’am?”
The last few days had been hellish for Twilight to go out in public, because she kept hearing little flickers of conversations and words that made her heart surge with hope, only to have the stallion or mare turn out to be somepony she had known ever since moving into Ponyville. This time, she was almost sure the voice was his, but after Twilight Sparkle blinked away her tears and looked at the concerned stallion, the joyous lifting in her heart sank again. He was a rather ordinary pegasus, of a pale, washed-out shade of what Rarity would call Cantaloupe, but Twilight still thought of as Orange Marmalade, and sported a ruffled dark-blue mane that had been cut short enough that the natural curls in it did not tangle as much as Pinkie Pie’s. Well, that was an unfair comparison. Nopony had a tangled mane like Pinkie Pie. Rarity claimed that at least a dozen combs had been consumed by the fierce manemonster that lived inside it.
Still, he had a very compassionate gaze, even though his sparkling green eyes looked bloodshot and tired as her own eyes must have looked. She wiped away an errant tear and tried to draw herself up in a proper princess pose as Rarity had been training her, although she still must have been a terrible mess. “I’m fine.”
“Fine pegasi don’t sit out on a balcony and cry,” said the stallion. “Would you like to talk about it?”
“No.” As responses went, it was blunt, solid, and unmistakable. Even a Princess of Friendship had times when she felt unfriendly, and this was most certainly one of them. Twilight turned her head and looked back over the Ponyville valley, ignoring the unwanted interruption in her brooding.
“Oh.” There was a faint rustling of feathers, but the stallion did not fly away as Twilight wanted. Instead, he asked, “Can I just sit here for a bit? I slipped out of my room for a quick flight this morning, and I didn’t want to overdo it.”
She did not respond.
“I’m Pyro, by the way.” After a little more silence on her part, he added, “So, do you work here?”
“You could say that.” Twilight stole a quick glance at Pyro, who seemed to be scrunching up his face and squinting at her in the bright rays of morning sunlight. “What’s wrong? Can’t you see me?”
“Not really. The nurses confiscated my glasses to keep me in my room. I’m really, really farsighted without them.”
“Nurses?” Twilight looked over the stallion again, but this time spotted the plastic wristband around his foreleg. “What are you doing in the hospital? What are you doing out of the hospital if you’re injured?”
“It was just another little crash,” said Pyro with a dismissive wave of his hoof. “I was glide surfing this high-altitude Rossby wave last week when it hit an updraft from a high-pressure confluence that tossed me up far enough to black out. Next thing I know, there’s this cute nurse changing my bedpan. It’s been a few days, and they still haven’t let me go back to Cloudsdale or even get my gear back to check the recordings, so I don’t know most of the details.”
“Oh. That still doesn’t mean you should be flapping around town,” said Twilight, feeling defensive, but still curious. “Is taking atmospheric readings part of your job?”
“Cloudsdale Meteorological Office hired me for that, yes.” Pyro stretched out his wings and held them rigid. “The secret to happiness is to find something you love doing and get paid for it. Three days of high-altitude pressure wave surfing gives me about three weeks afterwards to do data analysis and recover from the experience. It’s a Win-Win deal, and I get health benefits. Now,” he added, folding up his wings and squinting to look Twilight in the eyes, “it’s your turn. What has you so down?”
Twilight Sparkle could not look back at his narrowed eyes, but stared down at the balcony floor instead. The leaden lump in her chest that had once been her heart had lightened over the last few days of mourning, but still weighed her down enough that she had not been flying since the last time Nimbus had flown by her side. Fluttershy told her getting that feeling out into the open would help, but Twilight found she could not separate the memories of her far too short time with Nimbus from the sorrow of his passing. Still, it was worth a try, even if she had to confess to a stranger.
“I… lost a friend. Not what most ponies would call a friend, but he was special in a way no other pony could ever match. I’d look into his eyes and see him looking back just like he was real. Sure, he was different, and he frightened some other ponies, and I didn’t get the mouth stitched quite right, but he had a really compassionate heart. Well, not a real heart, because of all the stuffing, but a neuro-thaumic feedback loop with fractal learning adjustment and…” Twilight looked up and caught the expression of pure bafflement on Pyro’s face. “He was a Type Six cloth golem I made to help with my dating problem.”
“Oh!” Pyro blinked several times and squinted harder at her. “You’re Princess Twilight Sparkle. I’ve heard about you. The nurses are running a pool on when your next victim… I mean date shows up at the emergency room.”
“Gee, thanks.” Twilight could not keep the corners of her mouth from tucking into a sharp frown, which she was fairly sure the squinting stallion could not see, but he picked up on her tone of voice entirely too quickly for her comfort.
“Don’t sweat it,” said Pyro with another dismissive wave of his hoof. “I’ve had my share of emergency room dates. I’m pretty comfortable cruising along a Fraffenhoofer eddy at altitude, but I’m a klutz near the ground. After listening to the nurses, I can see why you’d build a golem to practice with. They’re a lot tougher than ponies. We have a couple Type Fours back at Cloudsdale we use for hurricane instrumentation or tornado tracking, but I’ve never seen a Type Six.” The stallion cocked his head to one side and squinted at her. “So, are you feeling better?”
“A little,” admitted Twilight.
“Good. I probably should be getting back to the hospital since they’re probably worried about where I’ve gone. Are you going to be okay?”
Twilight nodded, because she could not suppress the little quaver in the back of her throat that she suspected would start up her tears if she talked.
“Cool beans. I’m set to jet.” Pyro cocked his broad wings and sprang from the balcony, but only managed to get a tail-length away before coming to an abrupt stop and falling. The reason was obvious, because Twilight Sparkle had put one princess-powered hoof down solidly on his tail.
“What did you say?” she whispered.
“Um… Cool beans?” came a voice filtering over the edge of the balcony from where Pyro was dangling.
“No.” Twilight took a quick breath. “The other.”
“Set to jet? It’s just a phrase we use around work, since we’re normally surfing the jetstream.” Pyro wriggled a little, but his tail remained stepped-on and immobile.
“What’s… what’s your name?” Twilight’s voice was very low and trembly, but she lifted her hoof off Pyro’s tail when he flapped up a little and maneuvered himself to land awkwardly on the balcony again. “Your whole name,” she added, nodding at the reddish anvil cloud cutie mark on his flank.
“Yeah, it’s a little long, since my parents were both forest firefighters,” said Pyro. “It’s actually Pyrocumulonimbus, after a kind of cloud that forms during fires.”
“You mean cumulonimbus flammagagenitus, the types of clouds that form over volcanic eruptions or forest fires by twisting ordinary clouds into high-altitude persistent structures, although the Cloudsdale Meteorological Association doesn’t recognize them as distinct cloud types and insists on calling them ordinary cumulous types despite their different internal structure,” said Twilight in a rush.
“You’re right.” Pyro gave a short nod. “You’re the first pony since my parents to know that. I’m just glad they didn’t name me that, or my initials would be CF. That kind of nickname would stick with a pony, particularly since I keep flying into things.” He added a smile and a waggled eyebrow before his expression straightened out into something a little more serious. “Are you feeling all right, Your Highness?”
Twilight nodded again, despite the tightness around her chest and her pounding heart. “Could I… escort you back to the hospital? Just to make sure you get there in one piece,” she added quickly.
“Are you sure?” Pyro squinted at her. “I don’t want to bother you.”
“I… may have an ulterior motive,” confessed Twilight. “It will make more sense if I explain it on the way.”
“I insist on buying lunch if I’m being taken advantage of by a beautiful mare—” Pyro stopped and squinted at her. “At least I think you’re a beautiful mare.”
“I’m a princess,” said Twilight with a subdued giggle that cut through her stress with welcome humor. “When we get back to the hospital, I’ll make the nurses give you back your glasses and you can judge for yourself.”
“Fair enough, M’lady.” Pyro drew a hoof up to his chest and bowed. “But a princess doth not need dine upon meager hospital fare. We can slip out the back door at noon for—”
“Hayburgers?” Twilight felt the first warm smile of several days begin to slip onto her face in stages, a happy impulse made only more rapid by Pyro’s near-instant response.
“And waffle fries!” Pyro stepped off the edge of the balcony at the same time Twilight did and flew by her side, with both of them giving each other enough room for the occasional wobble or bob in their flight path.
“By the way, and just for curiosity’s sake,” said Twilight Sparkle as they glided along, “do you have stinky wingpits?”
“Miss Sparkle, Airflow Monitoring Specialists can be in the air for three days straight.” Pyro gave her a straight look, with one raised eyebrow. “By the second day, everypony has stinky wingpits.”
It made her laugh out loud for the first time in far too long, but she decided not to ask him about snoring. It would wait until later. Or until she found out for herself.
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See, I told you I wouldn't hold onto this chapter for a week.
8601456
And then a week from now you pull a surprise Bonus actual final chapter on us and laugh evilly
Is this the last chapter? If so, you need to change the status to complete. If not, I look forward to your next update.
Aw, yay! She found the Pegasus Nimbus took after!
...now just not to accidentally set him on fire and otherwise send him to the Emergency Room.
8601456
I appreciate your lack of self-restraint.
Thank you for your story.
8600905
"Tell him to hold on a few days. I need to look up some spells in Canterlot," Twilight said with a gleam in her eyes that made her friends step back and Spike pull out a scroll and quill to give Celestia a heads up.
The great hoof of destiny strikes again! I was half expecting all those magic sparkles from nimbus to fly off and be absorbed — memories and all — into the pony he had been taking his personality from, though.
Hey, anypony who didn't immediately try to fly away after Twilight said "I’d look into his eyes and see him looking back just like he was real" has to be a keeper. Here's hoping these two are very happy together. Or that they at least get to share a room at the hospital.
A standard Georg romance, by which I mean a delightful riot of comedy, touching moments, and cartoon violence that I thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end. Thank you for it.
This was a good story, sad but sweet ending to a good comedy story. Keep it up.
That's the cutest ending ever
I needed that this morning. Thank you.
How specific was the skill-borrowing spell on Nimbus?
I recall that it's only supposed to borrow skills that are not in use, but if it's specific enough to differentiate between leisurely flight and emergency manoeuvering, then I'm left wondering whether Pyro got landed in the hospital because he'd suddenly forgotten how to fly in dangerous weather. Which means that Twilight's kinda indirectly responsible for his injuries. 
8601487 I second this. A nice, light read all around, and no long waits between chapters.
I do wish we'd gotten a meet-the-parents chapter, though.
Night Light: "Twilight, when your mother and I said that somewhere out there is a stallion tailor-made for you, this isn't what we meant."
8601615
no, I'm pretty sure the idea is the Nimbus was borrowing from this guy and it wasn't noticed because he was laid up
8601615
If this were the case, it still would hardly be the first time her dates put somepony in the hospital. But I think his accident happened first.
Thanks for the story, Georg. You write my favorite fluffy romance.
8601455
"That fucking spy cheated! I hit that Sapper five times but it ended up destroying my sentry anyway!!!"
--me
D’awwwwww cause seriously, that was nice
8601637 8601643 Pyro being in the hospital beforehand is certainly more likely, though it's still a fun bit of speculation. Twilight has a thing for being the ultimate cause and solution to her own problems.
Huh. now it makes perfect sense why he wasn't changing the skills he was using. they weren't being used, because the subject he was borrowing from, was in the hospital where he couldn't use them himself. wow... that's damn good explanation. then again i could be looking into it to much, this was a sweet chapter either way
AND IT ENDS with us hanging
8601714 8601637 Spot on.
8601707 Little do we know about Twilight's thousand year time jump where she accidentally caused Princess Luna to become jealous of her sister and give into Nightmare Moon. She's still waiting for a good time to tell Celestia. Maybe in a few centuries.
8601615 "Twilight, when your mother and I said that somewhere out there is a stallion tailor-made for you, this isn't what we meant." - This is why I love my fans so much. They match my brainwaves. So tempted to ex post facto slip that into a chapter somewhere.
8601565 You're welcome.
8601643
Twilight Sparkle considered what her friend had just said. "So, you think that an emergency room visit somehow immunizes my dates against future damages from another date?"
"Darling, it's about the only possibility that comes to mind." Rarity flipped her mane back and ran one hoof down the actuarial tables. "See. Every one of these stallions visited the emergency room only *once* and only *after* your dates."
After due consideration, Twilight put forward, "So you're thinking I should put prospective dates into the hospital first before asking them--"
"No, no, no!" said Rarity, holding a hoof to her chest. "I mean the hospital is always looking for volunteers, and if you were to lurk... I mean assist with the treatment of Ponyville residents at the emergency room, you could select your dates when they were released, instead of putting them into admittance."
"That's... correct, I suppose." Twilight Sparkle sucked on her bottom lip. "How can I be sure there will be stallions in the emergency room that I'd like?"
"Darling," purred Rarity, quietly scooting the rolling pin behind her out of sight. "I can guarantee it."
I love happy endings.
8601815
Your Rarity is rather amazing, too.
Have you written anything with her as the lead?
A pegasus stallion! And he's been in the hospital! And he's a total egghead!
AND HE'S NIMBUS!
Et vidi et audivi dici a sententia quae Bubsy satis tempora ad scire ut quotiens ingenium habet historia vel sententia quae in ea aliquid sit facturus certissime errabis. Genus occidis vere suspendit.
Ah. There he is.
Yay! Happy ending!
Still needs a sad tag *throws mushy potato*
LOVE IT.
You always tend to end your stories like this, from what I can tell: a little open, but pretty clearly going to be a happy ending. And I friggin' love that. Thank you so much for this one, Georg. Time to go and pick out another one!
8601462
To be fair, with a name like that he might just be fireproof himself.
Neat.
Even though reading this chapter made me feel rather melancholic, I was still grinning the whole time. This was a beautiful story. I aplaud you sir.
Ha. Ha.
(Although "CF" seems like a perfectly cromulent name for an Equestrian...)
Excelent thinking there Twilight! Cut out the middlemare and take your coltfriend to the hospital for your date! Brilliant!
8601982 Translation, please? It's a little long for 'everything'
8602635 The escort is just to ensure he's not The One Who Got Away.
"So, Twilight. It's been a very nice day, and I really like having you around, but..." Pyro fidgeted, sitting in his hospital bed with his glasses sitting on the bedstand, only to have Spike stand up and grab onto Twilight by the tail.
"He's trying to say he wants to go to sleep now, Twilight, so we need to go home. Come on. Don't make a scene. Don't-- Holding onto his bed won't help, Twilight. The nurses said visiting hours are over. Come on!"
"I'll see you tomorrow morning!" blurted out the dragged princess as she was inexorably extracted from the hospital room. "Once visiting hours start again! I'll be back!"
8602535 I think the best romance stories give you that tugging feeling under the breastbone and a few tears, along with a pretty solid impression that things are going to turn out well. The One Who Got Away gave me that warm fuzzy, as well as Drifting Down the Lazy River.
8601918 The poor, poor guy.
8601867 Only in bits and pieces. Rarity really comes into her own as a behind the scenes proud manipulator. I've got a couple nice scenes in Her Royal Morning Coffee that make her shine in her element.
“Interesting.” Rarity moved closer to the counter and leaned forward, which was a little disturbing, but not nearly as much as the sudden squeal of glee she let out and the abrupt smile which followed. Her horn lit up and a light magical touch brushed across Dry Roast’s face before he could react, but by then it was too late.
“Applejack, do you see this?” Something hovered in Rarity’s magic between the two mares, a very small and nearly impossible to see object that even Applejack seemed to be having trouble discerning. “It’s a hair, exactly the same shade as Twilight’s and far too short to be anything but a facial hair.”
“How in the heck would one of her hairs get on Dry’s face, though?” asked Applejack with a thoughtful look indicating the question was somewhat less rhetorical than it first appeared.
“Oh, no, nono!” gasped Rarity as Dry Roast began to open his mouth to defend himself. “Don’t say anything, Mister Roast. “We’ve gone too far already. Whatever you and our friend are doing at night is no business of ours. Come along, Applejack. I said come on!” she insisted while walking to the door, practically towing the hefty farm pony along behind her and leaving the forlorn apple muffin untouched on the counter.
By the stars over the calm sea
You can write good stuff
That is all
Carry on
8602715
*What could possibly go wrong?*
And we have seen and heard the phrase that Bubsy states enough times to know that every time a character in a story utters the same phrase, something is certainly going to go wrong. Really kind of kills the suspense.
8602715
Hey are you planning on doing a sequel to this?
8602715
This could backfire in a spectacularly Twilight fashion...
*beep*
*beep*
*beep*
*bee-deep-beep-deep-bee-deep-deep-beep-dee-beep-beep-dee-beeeeeeep*
Nurse Redheart spun around and glared at Pinkie who was currently dressed in a spiked blue mohawk and reflective shades. Pinkie had what appeared to be a turntable and multichannel synthesizer/mixer plugged into the beeping, flashing equipment beside the hospital bed. She gave the turntable a quick spin, causing a warbling, trilling wail.
"DJ PONK@ IN DA HOOUUSSEEE!"
"Pinkie!" she scolded. "This is an intensive care ward! Not an EDM rave! Would you kindly stop messing with Twilight's equipment?"
Pinkie folded up her turntable and synthesizer into her mane and pronked over to where Fluttershy and Rarity were standing.
Redheart rubbed the bridge of her muzzle in exasperation.
Celestia banish it, why do these things always happen before I get to go on break?
"Ok! From the top!" She pointed a hoof at Rarity. "You said she came to you for advice concerning a stallion?"
Rarity nodded. "That is correct. The poor dear was in quite a state. It seems she finally found a perfect stallion, but circumstances were keeping them apart."
Redheart nodded sagely. "I certainly hope so! I told him to keep Twilight out during non-visiting hours"
"Beg pardon?"
Suspicious Circumstances, one of the security guards here at PGMC. Twilight was making a nuisance of herself, so I had Mr. Circumstances escort her out with orders not to allow her into the wards until the next visiting hours."
"Oh."
"Oh?" Redheart looked askance at Rarity.
Rarity nervously pawed the laminate floor with her hoof. "I may have said something to the effect of 'Not even fate can keep true love separated. True love finds a way to scale any wall, overcome any obstacle'. I did not realise she would take it so literally."
"Right". Redheart pointed at Pinkie. "She came to you for for help, yes?"
Pinkie bounced in place excitedly. "Yeppers! Twilight came all sad and grumpy-wumpy and I asked her what was wrong and she said that she need me to make a special recipe of the worst, most awfulest Baked Bads I could so she could go to the hospital to be with her 'True Love' because that's what Rarity says and that true loves would not be kept by circumstance or Circumstances so I made her the worst Baked Bads I could think of even though the Cakes said I was not allowed after the last time, but Twilight's a princess so I had to listen to her so I made them with raisins, okra, broccoli, and oatmeal, because I knew she was going a bit loco in the coco and I even use carob beans which everypony says tastes like chocolate, but it really is a lie and tastes like sadness and disappointment and I baked them in the oven for—"
"Right right right! I think I get the picture." She stared at the oesophageal tube pumping the contents out of Twilight's stomach. "Before today, I wasn't aware that alicorns could get poisoned..."
"Fluttershy!"
*eep!*
"Can you explain that?" Redheart asked, pointing with her hoof.
"That" was a mass of stitches, sutures, and scrapes criss-crossing Twilight's face, head, neck, and muzzle.
"Um, she flew over to the cottage and blew a raspberry on Angel Bunny's tummy while he was sleeping."
Redheart's eyes boggled. "Are you telling me that Princess Twilight was savaged by a little rabbit?"
"Um, he gets...cranky when you startle him awake from his nap."
Redheart's rejoiner was interrupted by a pained groan from Twilight's bed.
Rarity was the first to spin around. "Girls! Girls! She's finally awake!"
"Uughh...! Where...where am I?"
"You are in the Critical Care ward of Ponyville General Medical Centre. You are stable now, but you gave all of us quite a scare."
Twilight tried to focus her eyes on the voices and shapes to her side. Everything was all muzzy, and fuzzy, and wobbly. "What happened? What's wrong with me?"
Redheart sighed, reached into her saddlebag, and withdrew a thick scroll.
*thump!* *swish* *swish* *swish*
The bottom of the scroll hit the ground with an impressively solid sound, rolled across the floor, and out the door.
Redheart put on a pair of spectacles and stared at the top of the diagnosis in her hoof. "I think it would be easier to enumerate what isn't wrong. According to your diagnosis, you aren't pregnant and you don't have testicular cancer."
She stared down at Twilight over the tops of her spectacles. "You have a lengthy convalescence ahead of you Princess. At least 3 to 4 months."
"Oh." Twilight paused thoughtfully. "Well, can I at least see Pyro then?"
"The high-altitude flyer? Only during visiting hours; he was checked out 5 hours ago."
8602849 No. (Actually, this is the longest I've had one of my recent stories run until somebody asked that question)
8602901 Excellent!
8602901 HILARIOUS coda. Have you considered sending it in to Never the Final Word?
8603124
Oh. I was not aware that this existed...
If you want to send it in, go right ahead. Feels a bit gauche if I nominate myself.
I was hoping they'd do something crazy and bring Nimbus back as a real pony with the Power of Love, 'cause that's totally how I would have written this. Still, this ending is sufficient.
Good story. A bit straightforward for my taste, not a lot of highs and lows, no real surprises. Even so, there's no major flaws for me to complain about.
8622523
...is alive!
cdn.movieweb.com/img.news/NEDwYenVc3lJGM_1_1.jpg
Well done. Liked and faved.
that magic though.
Keep going! ;)
8650032 I have others. I really think Drifting Down the Lazy River is my best so far, although Monster in the Twilight and Letters (the sequel) has been astonishingly popular. I'm still writing on Letters, and people keep reading them.
8650032
Seriously AtonalPoet, Georg is not just blowing his own horn when he mentions having other great stories on this site, many on my favourite list are works of his. Drifting is just one of many great stories... The One Who Got Away is the story Drifting grew from and is another you should check out. Georg has some great characters who pop up in several of his stories (Pumpernickel is a great, if much put upon, one from his Nocturne Saga).
Seriously, I'm waffling now... go check out Georg's list of stories and if the large number seems offputting, feel free to note me for some other recommendations.
Dawww! Happy endings for everypony!
That's a really cute ending
Cute.
8601456
Caught the first chapter of this series when it came out but lost track of it for a while.
Glad to see everything worked out well in the end, even if it was Cathartic.