Your Better Half

by Jay Bear v2

The Eagle's Flight

Cloudsdale’s landing plaza that day would have impressed anyone. Rainbows streamed through channels along its sides, spraying colors on every pony who got close enough to the banks. Floor tiles, arranged into a mosaic of great mythical pegasi, were both as soft as clouds and as solid as a monument. Floating columns topped by enormous statues of pegasi heroes of old circled one half. Beyond them lay Cloudsdale’s heavenly metropolis.

When Gallus landed next to me, though, he didn’t pay any attention to all of that. He locked his gaze on my side.

“There’s something different about you,” he said with a wry smile. “Did you get a mane cut?”

I chuckled. I had gotten a trim that morning, but I doubted Gallus noticed. What he was really asking about were the giant butterfly wings hanging from my back.

Travel to Cloudsdale has always been tricky for an earth pony like me, but there are spells that make it possible. Most visitors get a simple cloud-walking spell and take a balloon up, but I also opted for a deluxe wing spell. If Gallus felt like flying around, I wanted to go wherever he went.

“Pretty cool, huh?” I flexed my wings to give him a better look at the pattern. I had paid extra for handsome wings with black veins lacing through a sunset orange field. “I got some practice with them this morning, in case you want to go flying around later.”

“You must have gotten some practice not sneezing around me too.”

For that, I thanked the vial I’d downed right before Gallus landed. If I told him about going to Zecora, though, I knew I’d have to tell him everything. I didn’t even want to think about it.

“Don’t worry about my allergies,” I said with a hoof wave. “I went to a doctor about them.”

He squinted at me. “So the doc cured them?”

“Yep.”

My little white lie must have worked because he shrugged. “Cool. Anyway, what’s the plan?”

I took ahold of his shoulder—it was supple but muscular—and pointed him at a banner hanging between two columns. On it, lightning bolts from a guitar-shaped cloud formed the word, “Cirripalooza.”

“It’s a music festival!” I said. “A bunch of bands come to Cloudsdale every year and play their newest songs. I got us tickets.”

“Oh. I thought we were going to bust up a snow factory. Professor Dash made it sound fun.”

“I think she only did that so her pet tortoise wouldn’t go into hibernation, but…”

He snickered. What he’d said about Professor Dash had been a joke, which had gone over my head. I felt dumb, but I decided to ignore it. We had a music festival to get to.

We flew to Bora Stadium, a magnificent building smack dab in the center of Cloudsdale. Pegasi flocked around it, while guards above kept watch for anyone trying to sneak in. We landed at the main entrance, where a row of pillars and an enormous pediment loomed over us. As I led Gallus to the entrance, he looked over at a line of ponies buying their tickets at the box office.

“How much do these tickets cost?” he asked.

“Five bits.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

At the box office, a pegasus slid a stack of coins to a ticket agent, and then reached into his saddlebags for more.

“Looks like they’re paying more than that,” Gallus said.

I’d actually paid fifty bits, each, but Gallus didn’t need to know that. If we only had two times to hang out, I wanted him to have fun, not worry about money.

“I got a student discount,” I said, wishing I had a better poker face, “and an early bird discount.”

His eyebrow edged up more.

“Also a bulk discount.” Before he could object again, I grabbed his front leg and pulled him through the entrance.

Inside, the sounds of chatting ponies echoed through the stadium. Its seats were already filled except for the top-most rows. We took off and grabbed a bench in a quieter section that still had a decent view of the stage below. The first band had their instruments out, while a few techs ran around checking equipment.

The ponies near us were almost all pegasi, a lot of them wearing band shirts and studded leg bands. I also saw a couple of batponies, and even spotted a pair of earth ponies and a unicorn envying my wings, but no other griffons.

I opened my saddlebags, which I’d filled with water bottles, snacks, more bits, ear plugs, and the other vial Zecora had given me. Yeah, she’d said I couldn’t take them both on the same day—although I wondered how bad it could be if I did—but I wanted to be prepared for anything. More than likely Gallus and I would go back to our dorm rooms after Cirripalooza, but there was a chance that things today would go really well. I brought the bits in case we needed to get a hotel room, and the second vial so the morning after would be as perfect as possible.

For the start of the festival, though, we only needed the ear plugs. I pulled them out and gave a pair to Gallus.

“What are these for?”

“The music could get loud. These will protect your hearing.”

Gallus scoffed. “Oh, yeah, when I think pony music, ‘loud’ is definitely the first word that comes to mind.”

“This isn’t normal pony music. The first band it is Basashi.”

“So?”

“So—“

Before I could finish, a wave of noise crashed through us, thumping in my chest like a second heartbeat.

The thing I never mentioned is that Cirripalooza wasn’t like other music festivals in Equestria. All of the bands that come to it play a genre called thunder rock. Saying thunder rock “could get loud” was like saying the Dragon Lands during peak volcano season “could get warm.” As Basashi played, their instruments’ frantic bursts, too chaotic to call a rhythm, sent quakes through the stadium’s clouds.

Gallus jammed the plugs into his ears and grimaced. I felt like I was about to choke. He’d never said what kind of music he liked, and I hadn’t thought of a way to ask him without spoiling the surprise. I had thought he might like thunder rock, but at that moment it seemed like I’d made a huge mistake. I got ready to leave with him.

Then Gallus’s claws fell away. His grimace turned into a grin. He loved it.

Soon we were both standing on our back legs, banging our heads and singing along with the throat-shredding choruses, with me helping Gallus whenever he missed a line. I had never told anyone this before, because they would think I was weird, but I love thunder rock. It’s explosive, raw, gripping…and fierce, like griffons. I almost never got to hear it live, but I’d found a few albums at Ponyville’s record shop that I listened to with headphones. That way, no pony would ask me about it.

Seeing Gallus growling to these songs and banging his head to band after band, I regretted being so secretive about liking this. I should have shared it with him sooner.

I started to wonder about the other things I was keeping from him.

Bands came and went, each sharing the same aggression but with different styles. One would have a chorus of growling demonic singers singing over pounding drums, while the next wove cryptic lyrics with plaintive guitars. We caught a breather at one of the band changes. Gallus gulped down water while I checked a billboard for festival info. Next up were a band called Freak with a Beak ft. Gordana.

“I don’t know these guys,” I told him.

“They better have beaks,” he said as passed me his empty water bottle, “or I’m filing a complaint for false advertising.”

That time I got his joke. “Go for it,” I said with a smirk. “I bought the tickets, so I’d get the refund, right?”

He grinned. “Fair point.”

Gallus was still grinning, and so was I, when a griffon appeared on stage.

She strode out, rage oozing from her wrinkled pink head and raven black body with every step. Pegasi bandmates flocked close behind her. Cheers shot across the stadium and broke into a chant.

“Gordana! Gordana! Gordana!”

Gordana strutted up to a mic on center stage and seized it with her claws. The crowd hushed. She peered at us all, like a raptor sizing up her prey. One wing flicked out, and her drummer snapped out a beat. Her beak opened wide.

“GET YOUR FLANKS UP IN THE AAAAAIIIRRR!”

Her roar reverberated as the band erupted into a sonic madness so deafening that it played through the clamor of thousands of pegasi launching into the air. Gallus was confused until I took off.

“It’s a mosh!” I yelled and grabbed his legs.

Gallus hesitated.

“Don’t worry!” I pulled him up, closer to me in the air. “It’s fun!”

I’d been in one mosh before then, although it had only been with a dozen classmates in a Ponyville basement. Moshing in the air, with a crowd this big, was one step away from battle. Pegasi zoomed and dived into each other, spawning chain reactions of collisions, each with a meaty thud that got my heart racing.

For Gallus, it must have been overwhelming. He kept as close to me as he could. His hackles were raised, and his eyes were wide. He was missing out on the fun, so I had to show him what to do.

A wiry pegasus with a mohawk mane hovered not too far off.I could tell from how she was staring at my wings that she wondered if she could ram me without crushing them, so I locked eyes with her. She grinned back. I pawed the air—earth pony habits die hard—and charged. With a whinny, she copied me. We slammed together, chest to chest to keep our wings safe, and bounced away giddy.

I glanced over to Gallus. He looked, by turns, worried, puzzled, and finally eager to join in.

Then he looked terrified.

I heard a bellowed “YEAH!” half a nanosecond before a herd of bulls pretending to be a single burly white stallion clobbered me. I careened away, my wings useless, and crashed into Gallus. The force knocked him out of the air, and I clung to him for dear life as we fell…

About three yards.

Mist sprang up from our impact on the soft cloud floor. Feathers rained down from the frenzy. Neither Gallus or I moved. My legs felt so natural around him, and his so comfortable around me. We breathed in sync, sharing the scant air between us, and I savored his scents of orange spice and oak. I felt content and dizzy, like I was waking up from a dream I didn’t want to leave. It would have been easy to cup his head with my hoof and pull him to my lips.

But my nose began to itch.

I startled, rubbing my muzzle against a leg to hold off the sneeze. Why wasn’t the potion working anymore? A clock near one of the exits read a half past six. We’d arrived around noon. Where had the time gone?

“You all right?” Gallus asked.

I pulled away and snorted. The day wasn’t supposed to end now, not at that one moment when anything could happen.

Telling him wouldn’t cure me. At best, it’d make him feel sorry for me. At worst, I’d find out he didn’t care.

“Fine and dandy!” I sputtered.

But my wings betrayed me, convulsing against an itch on my barrel.

“I’ve gotta use the bathroom,” I said. I didn’t let him reply before I took off, ducking under the roiling crowd and darting out of view. The urge to sneeze finally overwhelmed me. A volley speared through my lungs and sinuses, sending my head whipping back and my rump into the floor.

I’d made it to a deserted hallway leading to the entrance. Alone, I could turn into a quivering phlegmy mess and no one would notice. Gallus would probably come looking for me, though. Or maybe he wouldn’t.

I needed a drink. I reached for a water bottle in my saddlebags.

It wasn’t water I pulled out, though. Zecora’s second vial fell into my hoof. Sip it, and my allergies would go away. I couldn’t go back to that moment between Gallus and me, but I could hope for another to come.

But she’d said I needed a day between each dose. Something about causing bedlam if I did. But what did that mean? Had she made it with poison joke, so drinking too much would make my mane go frizzy or shrink me to the size of a mouse?

Gallus would get a kick out of seeing that.

I popped the vial’s cap and downed its fluid. Instantly, my nose relaxed and my itching eased. My muscles went limp. I slid down to my belly with a relieved sigh and closed my eyes.

When I opened them a second later, Cloudsdale was speeding away from me.

I didn’t understand. Somehow I’d slipped through the clouds. I tried to flap my wings, but they were disintegrating into gossamer threads. Both of my spells had broken.

“Help!” I screamed, hoping to catch someone's attention. The festival music drowned me out, even as I plummeted away. No way anyone could hear me over it.

Time slowed down, drawing out my dread and regrets. I couldn’t remember the last thing I’d said to my parents or my sister. I hoped I had told them recently that I loved them.

I knew I’d never said it to Gallus.

A dark speck appeared against Cloudsdale’s backdrop. Somepony was looking down! I flailed my limbs, trying to get their attention, but air resistance sent me tumbling. Before I twisted away, the speck grew wings and dived.

Ground filled my view. Trees and grass raced at me. It was too late. I shut my eyes, unable to watch any more.

I felt an impact. Bone-rattling force squeezed my ribs and sent liquid splashing out. For the briefest of seconds, I wondered how much longer I’d be conscious.

Then I heard Gallus: “Gotcha!”

I peeked. We were gliding over the ground, Gallus holding me up while water sheeted away from his face in the wind. He had crushed my remaining water bottles when he’d grabbed me and saved my life. I wanted to curl into his arms forever.

It could never last. Even him holding me made me itch.

We landed, and Gallus let me go. “Needless to say, you owe me a huge favor now,” he crowed.

“Anything you want,” I murmured.

“You’ve got that right. We’re playing by Griffonstone rules.” He tapped his beak, wrapped up in scheming. “Let’s see… Should I make you do my homework for the rest of the semester? Or maybe make you dress up in that cat costume for a week?”

An itch prickled my side. I’d agree to whatever he wanted so we could end this farce.

Gallus snapped his claws. “I’ve got it! You have to…” His voice changed, no longer triumphant, now serious. “Tell me exactly what has been going on with you.”

“What do you mean that—“ A sneeze cut me short.

“Bless you. And what I mean is you’ve been acting strange all day. You took me to Cloudsdale, you bought my ticket to that music festival—a batpony told me how much they really cost, by the way—you went skydiving without your wings, and now your allergies are uncured. What has gotten into you?”

“No one cured my allergies. They can’t be cured,” I blubbered. “I went to a zebra in the Everfree Forest. She gave me a potion that keeps them under control for a few hours, but it only works twice. She also told me not to take both doses in the same day, but I did because the first dose wore off. I guess drinking them both broke my cloud-walking and wing spells.”

“And it did squat all for your allergies.”

I giggled despite myself.

“I still don’t get it,” Gallus said. “You’re so allergic to me that you’re one sneeze away from losing your snout, but you invited me to go to Cloudsdale with you. Did you consider, and I’m just brainstorming here, not doing that?”

“No. I wanted to hang out with you.”

“Why?”

“Because I want…”

I couldn’t say it.

“What?” he demanded. “What do you want?”

“I want you!”

It gushed from me in a spray of phlegm.

Gallus stared at me, his beak agape. Seconds crawled. I tried to work up the courage to tell him how I’d wanted one unforgettable day for us because we’d never get a second chance, but that courage never came.

Then Gallus clamped his beak shut. He glowered at me, rage building in his eyes.

“Oh, you mean you wanted something from me.”

“No!”

“So that’s why you’ve been buttering me up,” he snapped. “What do you think I can—“

Words would never be enough. I lunged forward and pressed my muzzle to Gallus.

He didn’t move. We were frozen, him a statue, me about to crumble, until my lips slipped off of his cold, numb beak.

“I meant I wanted you,” I sighed. “I wanted everything about you. Your sarcasm, your strength, your confidence…”

Memories of him rolling on his back in the cat café sprang to mind.

“Your cuteness…”

His claws dug into my chest like needles. He pulled, dragging me closer to him, and leaned forward.

“I wanted you too.”

Then he buried his beak into my muzzle, hungry, probing, and fierce. My heart shuddered. His wings covered my head, and his arms held me tight. His claws ran through my mane, coaxing needy moans from me.

I tried to bend towards him, but couldn’t. He’d already pressed his body against me. Instead I wrapped my front legs around him and rubbed my hooves on his back. His supple muscles flexed with his every move. I laid messy kisses down his neck, thankful for this moment, as fleeting as it would be.

We collapsed together, one entangled mess of fur, feathers, sweat, and musky heat. He propped himself up over me and looked into my eyes.

“This… This feels nice,” he said between pants.

“That felt incredible.”

“No, I… Yeah, okay, that was great.” His claws found their way back to my chest, and I caressed them. “I mean this, though.”

“This what?”

“This… Being wanted.”

I had no idea what to say in response, so I just held him tighter.

He pushed off and flopped to the ground beside me. Evening air chilled me, sending up goose bumps over my skin.

“We’ve gotta figure out your allergies, though.”

I whimpered. Reality had come crashing in again. “There’s nothing to figure out.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” He laid a claw on my collar bone. I shivered as he stirred the sweat pooling in the hollows around it. “You know how you were going to take a long shower after the cat café? That way you wouldn’t trigger your mom’s allergies.”

That had been my plan, not that it ended up mattering.

“What if I did that?” Gallus asked.

I felt a rush of excitement. Bathing would have helped my mom because I picked up cat dander at the café, and showering would have washed it off of my body. Gallus shed cat dander, but if he showered, he’d still wash off some of it.

“That could work,” I said.

And I knew the perfect way to test it.

Comments

[Apple Bottoms]

Today I learned a new word! Pediment! And the idea for Thunder Rock is GENIUS! It totally fits!

[Ice Star]

Absolutely excellent cuddly stuff going on here.