"Life has a Volume Knob"

by Vermilion and Sage

Chapter 2: A Very Special Somepony

Chapter Two: A Very Special Somepony.

Audio had always been a heavy sleeper, especially when had spent more than a day locked up in his studio. This was a well known fact to the white pegasus mare who had been standing at the door, impatiently tapping a hoof idly against the paving stones while she waited in vain for him to answer the door. Audio wasn’t one to ignore guests, and even had an alarm set up on his computer to alert him to the presence of company while he was working. All of this pointed to him being passed out in bed, meaning that it would be no small task to wake him.

Cloudtamer shook her head, sending her light blue mane falling into her face, a light smile playing across her lips as she stood on the doorstep to Audio’s home. She had been out flying and decided to drop in on her coltfriend, in order to drag his flank out of bed and to Cloudsdale with her, only to find a seemingly empty house. Shaking her head again, she located his spare key that he kept under a false rock in his flowerbed under the picture window, and let herself inside the simple, yet luxurious house. There was an odd, smoky smell to the air, originating from the studio, and she surmised that he had indeed been working for a long time, and had somehow managed to destroy his speakers…again.

Quietly closing and locking the front door, she set the spare key on the end table to her left and took soft steps on the even softer carpet, making her way down the hall to Audio’s room. She quietly opened the door, and wasn’t surprised to see her very special somepony wrapped up in the coverings of his bed, almost completely hidden, aside from his black and blue tail that was hanging off the side. As she walked to the edge of the bed, she watched the gentle, and rhythmic rise and fall of the comforter as Audio breathed quietly. Cloud smiled again, and made her way around to the other side of the bed and gently lay down next to her hard working coltfriend.

Apparently Audio wasn’t sleeping as heavily today. As Cloud made herself comfortable, he began to stir, his head appearing from out of the folds of the blanket briefly. For a short moment she caught sight of his piercing ice-blue eyes, but they immediately snapped shut as he fell back asleep. Cloud reached over and nibbled on his ear, in an effort to wake him, and was rewarded when a muffled voice issued from under the blankets. Cloud withdrew, grinning, and ran a hoof through his messy mane.

“Mm Cloud…stop it...” Audio complained sleepily, pulling the covers over his head to ward off his marefriend’s attempts to rouse him from the plushy bed that he was so comfortable in.

“Morning sleepyfeathers.” she said, smiling and laying a hoof over his shoulder. Audio rolled over and smiled at his marefriend, giving her a kiss on the forehead.

“Morning beautiful.” Audio said, smiling, and running his own hoof through the shock of black and blue that covered his head.

Cloud moved her head close to his, gently biting his ear again and laughed quietly, making him smile and shudder. Cloud had been his marefriend for almost four years at this point. He’d met her at the Gala in Canterlot while he had still been a Royal Guard, after a several year separation. They had been in the same class at the Flight School’s Weather Corps several years prior, where they had been acquaintances more than friends, and rivals in the academic and sometimes even physical aspects of the class. Since being reunited though, she’d been nothing short of wonderful. Supportive during his last year in the Guard, and ever more so as he launched his musical career down the fast track. Audio, of course, had reciprocated and supported her in her work as well.
Cloud had done a quick job at figuring out his little nuances and personality quips that, which wasn’t at all surprising as she was also quickly becoming one of the most respected names in weather science. She was excellent at reading patterns and, by consequence, the tiniest of changes in demeanor and baseline behavior never escaped her attention, not even in the slightest. She had him dialed in within a few months of coming to be an intimate part his life, while it had taken him nearly a year’s time to understand how she ticked.

It worked out that Audio had the time to shut himself away without causing detriment to their relationship, because Cloud was often busy for days on end with being an instructor at the Flight School’s Weather Corps in Cloudsdale, teaching fliers experienced and inexperienced how to read the winds in order to avoid dangerous weather patterns while tending to their weather duties. She was good friends with Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts, which subsequently was why Audio had been able to get the autographed flight suit. Occasionally they both attended the teams practices in order to analyze their flight patterns for overall efficiency. But that was neither here nor there at the moment, as her deep golden eyes reflected his caring stare.

“You my darling, are coming to Cloudsdale with me today.” Cloud said to him, looking directly into those ice blue eyes. Ever since he had met her, she had never shied from looking him directly in the eyes when they spoke. Audio had come to appreciate that.

“Mm, and what are we doing there?” he asked, stretching and then rolling onto his back. Cloud took this opportunity to lay her forelegs over his stomach, and rested her head on his chest.

“I promised my newest class that they could meet my ‘fabled coltfriend’ if they all passed their practical test on clearing thunderheads without dangerous discharges.” She said. “They are all under the assumption that you are some sort of myth, just like the last class, and the one before that. You’re quickly becoming the stuff of legend, love.” Cloud added after a moment.

“Oh, that one again.” He said, smiling, and putting his left foreleg around her. “I suppose I could fit that into my extremely busy schedule of nothing. I’m a couple days ahead right now, so I’m taking some time to unwind.” Audio mentioned, feeling the steady rise and fall of Cloud’s chest on his, her stark white coat contrasting with his own light gray. “Besides, I managed to…erm. Never mind, not important.” Audio cut himself off, embarrassed that he let his attention lapse to the point of wrecking another set of speakers. Among other details that he had failed to enlighten his marefriend to, is the little trip to Canterlot that he had planned for later, if his friends had been able to make the proper arrangements on their end. Audio really worry too much about though, as he knew he could count on his friends to have it taken care of.

Cloud rolled her head from the vertical position it was in to the right, looking back at him again, giving him a wink.

“Managed to cause a little ‘hiccup’ with the speakers?” She asked, knowingly.

“How’d you figure that one out? I know you’re good, but seriously…” Audio complained. He could hide nothing from this mare…but he didn’t mind in the least. She was perfect.

“I smelled the smoke in the air. You really should get some proper ventilation in there, Staticbrain.” she said, using her affectionate nickname for him.

“I’ll be sure to do that sometime soon then.” Audio said. It was something he had been meaning to do, and now that it was fresh in his head, relatively speaking, he would make the proper arrangements.

“Well then, I suppose we should get going soon. Cloudsdale may only be a short flight, but it’s been a few weeks since we’ve flown together, and I’d like to take our time getting there.” Cloud said, nuzzling his neck affectionately.

The two were quiet for a few minutes, enjoying each others company. Audio moved to get up, drawing a groan of discontent from Cloudtamer, who unwillingly sat up. Audio kissed her neck as he sat up, attempting to make amends for the disturbance, and clambered out of bed to get ready for the long day ahead. She watched him as he walked out of the room, and followed him out into the hallway. Cloud’s attention was drawn to his cutie mark, a static waveform with three white flagged eighth notes. He had the same mark magically stitched onto his outfits as well. The light gray pegasus had went into the bathroom, and Cloud heard the water start running, and so she decided to get something ready for him to snack on. She knew that he wouldn’t have bothered to do it himself, out of habit. She had noticed that Audio usually decided to forgo breakfast in favor of waiting for lunch and dinner, but Cloud had learned that if she were to throw something onto a plate for him, that he wouldn’t ignore it.

Cloudtamer often worried that Audio didn’t eat enough, but he seemed to maintain good health, and so she tried to avoid worrying too much. This time though, she got him out a couple slices of bread, hay and some honey, and put it together on a plate, leaving the sandwich on the table in the dining room. Hearing the water in the bathroom cease running, Cloud went and sat down on the couch in the living room and waited for Audio to finish getting ready.

Audio exited the bedroom, looking at the clock as he did so, realizing that he had let a full day go past while he was wrapped up in the warmth of his blankets, and made a turn into the bathroom and started the shower. After a moment, he tested the temperature and stepped into the running water. It felt good against his coat, and quickly soaked and matted down his mane and tail. He didn’t normally take long showers, but this one felt so good, that he spent an extra few minutes enjoying the feeling of the water falling onto his body. Eventually though, he stood up shutting the shower off and started drying off. Opening the door to the hallway, Audio went back into his room and put on a fresh set of clothes. He made his way down the hall and into the living room, where Cloudtamer was resting on the couch, intently looking over a clipping of the several hundred notes that were more or less organized on the coffee table. Smiling, Audio went into the kitchen, only to find that Cloud had thrown together a little something for him to eat, which he was more than happy to do. He cut the sandwich in half, and put the second piece on a plate for Cloud.

“Saved some for you.” He said, setting the plate down on the table. She was wrapped up in the notes for a second, but set them down, stood up and stretched her wings in a teasingly suggestive manner. Audio tried very hard, and failed equally as hard, to notice.

“I’ve already eaten sweetheart. Go ahead and finish it.” She said, picking the rest of the sandwich up in her mouth and giving it to him. Audio finished it in a single bite, while Cloud looked down at the papers again, as if trying to make sense of the notes.

“I don’t get it.” She finally admitted. “What is this all mean?”
Audio regarded the particular paper she was referring to, and laughed after he realized what it was.

“Oh. That. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense, love. Its meant to be a load of nonsense, pertaining to nothing.” The pegasus replied, still chuckling. “But enough of that. You, have a class to teach.” He reminded his marefriend, giving her a playful nip on the neck, eliciting a little squeal of surprise from her. In response Cloud gave Audio a gentle knock on the flank and chased after him. She was faster than most pegasus, aided by a thin build. Then again, Audio’s time spent on the Royal Guard had certainly not been wasted, making him equally, if not just slightly faster. So when he unlocked, opened, relocked, and dove out the front door, the gauntlet was thrown.

Audio took off into the sky, hovering a few feet off over the tops of the tree out front. Cloudtamer wasn’t the kind of mare to back down from a challenge, especially from Audio. She came half galloping, half flying out of the house, pulling the door closed behind her, and took off after him. Already being in excellent physical condition, and a strong flier to begin with, Audio quickly set the pace, each flap of his powerful wings moving him faster and higher. Feeling a bit cocky, even knowing that Cloudtamer was nearly as he was, he took the risk of looking back over his shoulder only to find Cloudtamer was nowhere to be seen. Audio stopped and looked around, trying to figure out what had happened to his partner.

Audio was always confident, and occasionally let it go to his head. It wasn’t something he made a habit of, but Cloudtamer quickly realized that he had done just that during their little game of chase. She pulled up and away and kept herself hidden by putting her flight path in between Audio’s line of sight and the sun, passing him up when he looked back and stopped. There were a few clouds here and there and one just so happened to be placed directly to the top left, and another to bottom of Audio’s current position. Cloudtamer took advantage of this opportunity to set down on the higher cloud, and stalk her special somepony in a game of cat and mouse, trying to contain her laughter as she watched his confused expression.

‘Where did she go?’ Audio thought to himself. He was perplexed; Cloud was an excellent flier, and always kept up with him. There was no reason for her to have fallen that far behind such that it was taking this long for her to catch up. He didn’t realize what was going on until it was far too late.

“Hey Audio-o!” Came the sing song voice. He turned around and looked up at the sound of his name being called - right as Cloud crashed into him and pinned him to the cloud on his back. She crossed her forelegs on his chest. He looked up at the mare he had come to love. Audio didn’t have anything to say at the moment, so he wrapped his hooves around her neck and drew her into a kiss. Cloud hummed happily and returned the kiss enthusiastically. After what seemed like hours the two broke and took back off into the sky towards Cloudsdale, conversing as they went, and as they neared the pegasus city, Audio drifted away as to not give the appearance that they were together, in case any of Cloudtamer’s students happened to be watching out for the two.

Comments

[Spark Valor]

I simply can't wait for each update. With few to no errors, a strong central character and a believable story line, this is quiet a find.

[-Brutus]

1347148 Yes this, a quite underrated story. I personally like all OCs story- a quite fun read.