Lasting Memories

by Boopy Doopy

Chapter Eight

It was a nice conversation the two of them had, and helped to get Charley’s mind clearer. Thunderlane told him a little bit about his foalhood, something Charley passed on when he was asked about it, before the two moved on to the ponies he talked to in Ponyville and the show Thunderlane put on for Cloudsdale. He explained how he was one of the lead choreographers for the whole show, something that impressed Charley with how well the routine went. He also explained how he was next in line to be Captain after their current leader retired. He smiled the whole time he talked, something Charley had to try and look away from because of how much it made him want to melt when he saw it.

“That all sounds very impressive,” he said politely, trying to pretend to be interested. He was more than he would be if it were someone else talking to him at least.

“I guess that means you’ll do a good job when you teach me to fly tomorrow,” he continued.

“Only the best job,” the stallion said smugly. “You’re gonna be a pro by the time I’m done with you. Speaking of which, we should probably head back home and get to bed. I wanna be up bright and early to teach you.”

“I don’t know about bright and early, but I guess that sounds fine. Sleep would be good, too, especially after a day like today.”

A day where he spent his whole time awake on an emotional roller coaster. He hated how much he liked Thunderlane, but knew there was nothing he could do about it. Unless he wanted to stay with Pinkie, he’d be staying with the stallion, since Thunderlane wouldn’t have him sleeping on a bench. That meant more time would be spent with him and more feeling would be developed. It made Charley nervous to think about.

Eventually, the time for the two of them to leave came, and they went back to Thunderlane’s house, the stallion quickly hopping into the shower as Charley just trudged off to bed. He just wanted to go to sleep and forget about today, forget how nice of a time he was having spending time with him, forget that he tried to kiss that stupid horse. He wondered different the day would be if he kissed back, but decided if it was, it wouldn't be by much. Charley would probably be upset with him because he specifically said he didn’t want to be picked up like he was. If Thunderlane kissed back, that would’ve made it certain he was only trying to pick him up.

It would’ve been nice though, he couldn’t help but think. He only likes mares. It would be nice to be treated like one.

He closed his eyes and tried to relax and fall asleep, a task that was much more difficult tonight than previously. Thoughts of Thunderlane swirled in his head, of the stupid move Charley tried to make on him, of the smile the stallion always sent his way. Eventually, he was able to, and he dreamed again tonight.

He was once again in front of Death, Charley looking as pretty as he always wanted to be, a portal to someplace else open before him. He couldn’t describe exactly what it was, other than a place of light and color and music, and took a step forward to head through. Before he could though, a familiar voice spoke up.

“Charley?” Thunderlane asked, suddenly appearing behind him. “You’re really leaving?” His coat glistened especially so right then, his eyes sparkling like stars. He had a sad look on his face as he tilted his head in confusion, sending a look his way that simultaneously made his heart flutter and become wracked with guilt.

“I thought you liked me,” the stallion continued, hanging his head low, a move that made Charley’s cheeks become flushed. “You’re not staying here with me?”

“I- you- I c-can’t,” Charley stuttered. “I told you I would only be here for a week. And you said you don’t like stallions.”

“You don’t look like a stallion to me though,” Thunderlane replied, taking his hand with a hoof. He watched it change back into a hoof, and slowly turn the rest of his body back into the pegasus he was around Thunderlane.

“You look like the most beautiful mare in the world to me,” the stallion continued, wearing that confident smile he always did. “It’s what’s on the inside that counts anyway.”

“No it’s not!” Charley suddenly yelled, jerking his hoof away and watching it quickly turn back into the small, soft hand he had before. “What’s on the inside doesn’t count because the outside still hurts!” he said angrily. “What’s on the inside doesn’t change that!”

The stallion dropped his head again. “But I thought we were going to fly together…” He looked down at his hooves, then up into Charley’s eyes.

He put his face in his hands and screamed. How was this happening? He wanted to avoid this exact situation. He didn’t want to put himself in a position to choose between himself and Thunderlane, but if his dreams were any indication, he was barreling straight toward this scenario. Why couldn’t he have just tried to act better and make friends with Pinkie Pie or that mail mare?

“You’ll stay with me, won’t you?” the stallion asked sadly. “When this is all over, you’ll stay with me? You know I like spending time with you and being around you…” He moved up to lean against him, wrapping a wing around Charley. It caused him to slowly start to change again back into the pegasus.

“I don’t know,” he whispered. “I really don’t know. That’s such a hard choice. You can’t give me a decision like that because I like you too much.” He had to take a breath as he shivered.

“What’s hard about it?” the stallion suddenly laughed. “It’s an easy question. What do you want for breakfast?”

“Huh?”

“Oh, can it be pancakes? No! Waffles! Can we have waffles? Please?”

“It’s not your choice, sport. It’s Charley’s.”

He slowly blinked his eyes open to see Thunderlane and Rumble standing in his room, looking at him expectantly for his choice of morning meal. He yawned and stretched his hooves, muttering quickly that he didn’t really care what they had.

“Well if you don’t care, then it’s gonna be eggs and beans and hashbrowns and toast. You’re gonna need the protein and carbs for today. I plan to have you soaring through the skies by sunset.”

“I’ll trust you up on that,” Charley said tiredly. “Just so long as you don’t crash into me or give me bad advice like that other pony did.”

“Speaking of other ponies,” he said, “once you can fly, the first place we’re heading to is Ponyville so you can apologize to those two.”

“You were being serious about that?”

“Absolutely. Now get up and get stretched out. I want you to be ready to fly right after breakfast.”

He did exactly that, hopping out of bed and stretching his wings out again before making his way to the living room for breakfast. He wasn’t really a breakfast person, normally opting to just head into work, but took it anyway. If what Thunderlane said was true, then he expected to be worn out by the end of the day.

A while later, the two were outside, standing on the clouds, Thunderlane in front of Charley, going through what he should be doing.

“So very first,” he explained, “is that you want to be confident. If you don’t have confidence you can fly, it’s never gonna happen. Do you believe in yourself, Charley?”

“I guess.”

“Aw, come on, you can do better than that! Do you believe in yourself?”

“I’m not gonna yell it if that’s what you’re looking for. But yeah, I’m confident in myself. I have wings and I glided after all, right?”

“That’s good, but you need to have supreme confidence in your ability,” the stallion smiled. “I’d ask you again, but I feel like I’d just get the same response. But don’t worry. I’ll have you screaming by the end of the day.”

That little comment made Charley’s cheeks go hot red, but he didn’t say anything about it. It was just another one of the little things Thunderlane did and said that made him certain he was trying to make him fall in love on purpose. He had to look away before Thunderlane could see how embarrassed he was.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean for that to come off that way.”

“Whatever. Can we just get on with this?”

“Sure. Start by just flapping your wings up and down. I’d like to see how your motion is and correct anything if it’s needed.”

He did as he was told, flapping them up and down while the stallion walked around him. He had a look of confusion on his face as he watched Charley, one that made Charley wonder what he was screwing up.

“Is that how you naturally flap them?” Thunderlane asked.

“Uh, yeah. Am I doing it wrong?”

“Not wrong necessarily,” he explained. “You have good motion, and you lift them all the way up and down from your sides to above your head properly. The only thing that’s throwing me off is why you’re flapping them like a mare.”

“How am I flapping them like a mare?” he asked. “How is there a difference at all?”

“See how the tips of my wings stay perfectly in line with the base of the wing as I flap?” Thunderlane demonstrated. “Mares when they flap their wings curl their wings like you were because their bodies are lighter and it resists the wind much less that way. Stallions can’t do that though because our bodies are heavier, so we need more force under us when we flap to get us off the ground.”

“Okay, well, I didn’t know that.”

“Most ponies don’t because it’s just an inherent part of being a pegasus. Your body should just know what to do. Mostly we only have to explain that to mares when they join the Wonderbolts so they can put more force into their flying, or stallions when they go to dancing school to fly more gracefully. Is that your instinct to flap that way?”

“Uh, yeah…” Charley answered, feeling incredibly shy. He could make a good guess as to why he was doing it differently.

“Huh. That’s interesting. Maybe you’re secretly a mare and we just didn’t know it,” Thunderlane chuckled. The comment made Charley blush again and scowl angrily.

“I told you not to joke about that,” he said quickly, staring down at his hooves. “I don’t want to hear jokes like that at all.”

“You’re right, you did. I’m sorry. Anyway, I can teach you how to flap like a stallion, or if you want, you can just try flying using how you flap now. The technique is good enough, even if you’re a stallion. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work. It’ll just be harder to lift yourself off the ground.”

“I’ll do whatever you tell me to do. You’re supposed to be the teacher,” Charley said.

“Well, I guess we’ll try this for a while, and if you’re not able to get it, I’ll teach you how to do it like a stallion. Just remember to kick off the ground at first. It’s gonna be hard to start flying if you never have before.”

He kicked off the ground like Thunderlane said. Over and over again. And yet, over and over again, nothing happened except Charley flapping his wings like an idiot and getting more frustrated. After an hour or so of this, Thunderlane tried to teach him how to flap his wings like a stallion, but that seemed even less successful, if it was possible to be. No matter what he did, he couldn’t keep his wings straight like Thunderlane’s for more than a minute at a time, despite constant assurances that it was easy and he was doing great. He couldn’t see how anyone could fly like that, let alone do it naturally.

“Ugh, this is impossible,” Charley said frustratedly. “I’m not gonna get it because I just suck at this.”

“Remember how I said you needed to believe in yourself? Wavering confidence isn’t going to help you. You have to keep that belief up, even when it’s hard.”

“That’s kind of hard to do when I can’t get it down at all. Flapping my wings like this feels contrary to what my brain wants to do.”

“It takes a lot of mares in the Wonderbolts weeks to change how they want to flap their wings. It’s not an easy thing to do, so I’m not surprised you can’t get it yet. Not that I’m saying you’re a mare, of course. But anyway, why don’t we take a break for now?”

Charley sighed and flopped down onto the soft cloud ground, turning over to his back to stare at the sky. Thunderlane copied his move and laid right next to him.

“This is gonna take more than a day,” Charley said. “I’d temper your expectations for me if I was you.”

“I said a day, and we’ll do it in a day,” Thunderlane assured him. “I have an idea for how to get you into the groove of it. But I’ll tell you about that after this break.”

Charley sighed again and looked away at that. “Why are you even doing this? You already said you don’t like me, and this has to be awkward for you. At the very least, it’s just gonna be harder to leave when I have to.”

“Where exactly are you leaving to?” the stallion asked, raising an eyebrow. “You said a few times you’d leave by the end of the week, but where are you going?”

“That’s the longest story of all time and one I’m not interested in getting into. Now answer my question.”

“I mean, I like you,” the stallion told him, speaking a bit more quickly than normal. “I just d-don’t like stallions like you do.” He sounded a bit flustered as he said it, and took a moment to take a breath to gather himself. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends and I can’t teach you how to fly.” He sent a smile Charley’s way, although this one looked a little more embarrassed than usual.

“Okay… why are you stuttering though?” Charley had to ask. It wasn’t like him to do in the few days he’d known the stallion.

“It’s nothing,” the stallion said quickly. “I was just thinking about something and got words caught on my tongue.” He paused for a second as he stood up and rubbed a hoof behind his head embarrassedly. “Did you want to keep resting, or get back into it now?”

“We can start again,” Charley said, standing up and brushing himself off. He was still thinking of Thunderlane’s stutter as the two got back to work, Charley flapping his wings like the stallion directed as best he could. He couldn’t help but imagine that Thunderlane not only didn’t like him the way Charley did, but didn’t like him at all. He wouldn’t have been surprised. It certainly wasn’t the first time someone didn’t like him. It might be more painful to hear, however.

“I have an idea,” Thunderlane suggested, bending down. “Climb on my back.”

“Why?” Charley asked, not that he was opposed to the idea, even if it would make it harder in the future to detach himself from the stallion.

“Just do it!” the stallion laughed, lowering his head and waiting patiently for Charley. He made a show of rolling his eyes and sighing as he climbed on, laying down flat on the pegasus.

“And now stretch your wings out,” the stallion instructed, Charley doing as he said. Once he did, Thunderlane stretched out his own and settled them under Charley’s, a move that made the latter gasp and shiver. The undersides of his wings were sensitive.

“What is it?” he asked. “I’m not hurting you, am I?”

“N-no, I’m fine. But why are we like this?”

“You’re gonna rest your wings on mine so they can copy my motion,” Thunderlane explained. “And then after a while, you should be able to get it down.”

He was lifted into the air, his wings forced to follow Thunderlane’s flapping as he was. It felt weird to do it the way he instructed, but he let it be done, trying to actually move his wings with Thunderlane rather than just letting them rest. He figured that would make it easier.

As he did, he couldn’t help but let out little breaths and shiver every so often at the feeling of Thunderlane’s feathers rubbing against his wings. He had to know this was distracting Charley. There was no way he couldn’t. It only made him more confused as to why he stuttered earlier. If he didn’t like him, why was he still doing this? What was his agenda?

They worked on the motion for a long time, just going slowly up and down as Thunderlane floated them in the air. It was a nice, relaxing motion, one that would make Charley fall asleep if not for the sensitivity he felt. He tried not to imagine this being a romantic gesture.

He focused on moving his wings like Thunderlane did, breathing slowly and deeply as he did. He said he had to be confident, and confident he would be. He could do this.

The stallion he laid on seemed to sense this, and asked, “Think you’re ready? I’ll float on down if you are.”

“I can do it,” Charley assured him confidently. “No sweat.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” the stallion smiled. “I’m gonna move away now. Keep on flapping when I do.”

He did as he said he would do, carefully moving his body down as Charley flapped his wings in the air. He wasn’t able to keep his spot in the air, slowly sinking down as though in a vat of thick liquid. Still, he was moving down slower than Thunderlane was, so that must have been a good thing.

“You’re doing good!” Thunderlane called, now a few dozen feet below his friend. “Try and put more air under you though! You’re gonna need to build up strength and stamina to be able to fly for long periods of time.”

He figured as much, and tried to push down his wings more forcefully with each flap to get air under him like Thunderlane said. He felt like he wasn’t getting any higher though, although he did notice his slow sinking through the air was slowing down. Not quite flying yet, but closer.

“Just stay focused! You can do it, as long as you don’t freak out!”

Yeah right. Like he’d do that. He knew that much just from learning how to swim. This felt like about the same thing, except with ten times more work. It was such a struggle to keep flapping his wings, especially the way he was now, and he was quickly getting tired.

“I don’t know how long I can keep this up,” Charley said a bit breathlessly.

“Just keep going! You’ve almost got it!” Thunderlane encouraged. He flashed a smile up at Charley that made him want to keep going, even with as tired as he was getting. He realized Thunderlane could probably convince him into committing murder with that smile and how nice it was to see.

“If you want to change your flapping style back to what you were doing originally, you can,” the stallion suggested. “It might be easier for you if it comes so naturally.”

He took his advice and started to flap his wings the way he did before. He put the cheek burning thought that he was flying like a mare aside as he let his wings flap more comfortably. A second later, he watched himself start to rise into the sky more.

“Whoa! Hey! I’m actually doing it!” he exclaimed, looking at a cloud next to him to make sure he was indeed moving up. Sure enough, the cloud was below him eventually enough. It was extremely slowly, but he was technically flying.

“I really am doing it! I’m flying!”

“Yes you are!” Thunderlane said happily quickly making his way up to him. “I told you it’d be before the end of the day. We got that before we ate lunch even!”

Charley laughed at the thought of what he was doing. He was a bird horse flying in the clouds with another bird horse who taught him how to. And all of this was after he ate fish and toast and baked beans and watched him preform a show yesterday, and went out for drinks with him the day before. If he would’ve been told this would be his life a few days ago, he would've thought the person who told him was crazy. And yet here he was, somehow. How this could be real life, he didn’t know, but he loved it.

He turned to Thunderlane as he smiled, watching him smile back proudly and caught the sight of those beautiful eyes again. Flying was nice, but more than that was seeing how proud Thunderlane looked. He knew he shouldn’t have been entertaining this. It was just going to make him more caught up in the stallion than he was already, but Charley couldn’t help it. He knew he was in love.

“I need a rest,” he said after what felt like a long while but was really only a few seconds. “This is completely wearing me out.”

The two descended with that, Thunderlane explaining that all he had to do was flap his wings more slowly and with less force to lower himself properly. It wasn’t as easy as all that, Charley nearly falling to the ground near the end, but luckily the black pegasus was there to catch him. He tried not to think about how he was spending a lot of time in Thunderlane’s hooves and on his back.

“So now I know how to fly,” Charley smiled. “Well, kinda. I know how to flap my wings and fly higher, but not more than that.”

“If you can already glide, then you basically know everything there is to know for the basics. I mean, it’ll take a lot of practice to get good, but I didn’t promise you’d get good in a day.”

“No you didn’t. But that was an interesting experience. Now I just need to figure out how to be able to kick off the ground and fly myself.” Charley stretched as he continued, “But not right now. Right now, I want lunch. What do we have to eat?”

“I was thinking more fish, but you didn’t like how I cooked it last time, so whatever you want is fine.”

There’s no way he’s not doing this on purpose, Charley thought as he blushed. All of this can’t just be him being nice. He has to be trying to manipulate you.

“I can… show you how to cook it correctly if you want me to,” Charley offered embarrassedly, knowing it was against his best interest. “If you want me to, I mean. I’d just prefer you not mess it up again.”

“You d-don’t have to do that if you don’t want to,” Thunderlane told him quickly. “I don’t want to make you do something you don’t want to do.”

And he stuttered again. Maybe he really is just trying to be nice and I’m just making him uncomfortable offering things like that. Bur if he doesn’t like me, why is he doing this? God, why am I so obsessed with him?

“Well, if you say so,” Charley responded, letting out a breath as his ears flattened against his head. “Sorry I offered.”

“Is something wrong?” the stallion asked. “I wasn’t trying to offend you. You just said before that you didn’t like cooking, so I assumed you didn’t want to do it.”

It’s just another thing in the long list that’s everything, he thought to himself, almost saying such aloud. He stopped himself though, replying, “It’s nothing. Let’s find something for lunch.”

Comments

[Phetiamwantip]

Wow, Charley is flying for the first time. Boopy Doopy you did a great job on this new chapter, I'll be willing to see how good he's going to be when Thunderlane shows him some other flying tricks that he could try to do. Dream high, beyond the sky; no matter wings so small, keep vision bright; just dare to learn, for you are born to fly.

[Bronycommander]

Nicely done! I can understand charley's struggle.

[rikithemonk]

11251247

Nicely done! I can understand charley's struggle.

I agree.

Ive been there. I think most of us have fallen for someone out of reach, rather your straight or gay. But at least if your straight there is a chance for the girl or guy you like to return the feeling. But if you're gay like I am, sometimes the one you fall for is just completely out of reach. I fell for a few straight guys and all you can do is watch as they date the wrong women, or whats even more heart breaking, watch as someone else makes them happy.

No feeling worse in the world.

Monk
“Puberty was a curse for those inflicted with it, and boundless amusement for others who survived the process.” -Scarheart

[Bronycommander]

11251354
I hear ya, its not easy, having had a similar experience in school. Hey, can I Privatly ask for an opinion?

[Luckyfanisaac]

It made him Charley nervous to think about.