Chapter 2
Cirrus wiped some moisture off her brow. Carefully, she poked at the small mass of white clouds in front of her, molding it into an elaborate shape.
“Aaand... Done!” She gave her work a critical look: it was a sculpture of a rearing pegasus, wings spread wide, made entirely out of clouds. She had just finished adding the last details, and now, it was ready to be delivered to the client.
Cirrus carefully shoved the sculpture aside, effortlessly floating it to the side of the table. She gathered up the remaining pieces of cloud that were floating around and squashed them together. The result was a tiny cloud, perfect for use in a later project.
She put the little cloud in a box in the corner of her ground-bound workshop. She’d love to have a cloud-house, but that made it difficult to do business with ponies who weren’t pegasi. Cirrus’ house was fine as-is: a simple, one-pony house connected to a workshop, with a sizeable shed in the back to store clouds in. It had everything the shy pegasus needed. The workshop itself was a sizeable room, with a worktable in the middle and little else. Not much was needed to prevent her sculptures from drifting off, except a few walls and a roof.
A loud knocking on the door leading outside got Cirrus’ attention. Hastily, she went over to the door and opened it. On the other side was a pegasus with a cyan coat, a rainbow-coloured mane and tail and pink eyes. “Oh, hello, Miss Rainbow Dash,” Cirrus said. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Uh, yeah,” Rainbow Dash said, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “I need a few clouds for today’s weather. I didn’t check, and I used too many while doing a few stunts yesterday.”
Cirrus went back to her sculpting table and checked her list of clouds. She had quite a bunch, but considering the orders she was working on, she could only afford to give a few to Rainbow Dash. “How many do you need?”
“I need five white clouds, four rain clouds and a thundercloud,” Rainbow said.
Cirrus sighed. If she gave that many clouds away, she couldn’t complete all of her orders on time. On the other hoof, it was important for the weather to be as it was scheduled, and on top of that, it was plain rude to decline a request like that. “Sure, you can grab them from the shed.”
“Awesome! Thanks!” Rainbow Dash immediately flew up, the force of her takeoff moving Cirrus’ recently-made cloud sculpture. Not even a second later, she returned. “Wait, Pinkie Pie asked you to talk to that dragon, right? How did that work out?”
Cirrus dove towards the sculpture, managing to stop it right before it bumped into a wall. She carefully put it back in its former place, floating above the table. “Um, yes, she did,” she said as she walked back to the door. “The dragon was... nice, I guess?”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “You guess? Isn’t that easy to tell? What did he say?”
“He, um...” Cirrus idly kicked at the ground. “He didn’t say anything. He’s mute.”
Rainbow Dash blinked a few times. “How did you talk to him? How did you even find out he’s mute?”
“He wrote it in the dirt after he saved me,” Cirrus said. “I got stuck in the mud because of the rain, and then a tree was struck by lightning, and it almost fell on me. Mister Slatescale caught it.”
“Lightning?!” Rainbow Dash frowned. “There wasn’t supposed to be any lightning at the Whitetail Woods yesterday.” She hopped into the air and snorted. “You could’ve been seriously hurt! I’m going to find the pony responsible for this and make sure they apologise.”
Cirrus reached out to stop her. “Wait, Miss Rainbow Dash—”
“I’ll come pick up those clouds later!” Rainbow said, taking off once more.
“...You don’t have to do that,” Cirrus mumbled. She sighed and closed the door. She briefly made sure that her sculpture wouldn’t drift off again, and looked at her list of clouds. The weather was more important than her work, but now, she’d have to go tell her clients that their orders would take a little longer. Cirrus usually took a few clouds when the sky was supposed to be cleared, but with the current forecast, it’d take a while until she could restock.
On top of that, she also said she’d visit Slatescale, which might not have been such a good thing to say. Sure, the dragon was kind and had saved her, but he was still... Well, he was a giant, scary dragon. But Cirrus said she’d visit him, so that’s what she was going to do.
First, however, she needed to inform her clients that their cloud sculptures were delayed. With a groan, Cirrus went outside.
About an hour later, Cirrus found herself close to the Whitetail Woods again. She was looking at Slatescale from a distance. For some reason, she couldn’t work up the courage to approach him again. Maybe he had changed his mind, and wanted to be left alone?
It was hard to tell. Just like yesterday, Slatescale was curled up on the ground, facing away from the little pegasus. It was difficult to tell, but his red spines rose and twitched slightly every now and then. If he was asleep, Cirrus could just walk up to him and check, and be on her way again if Slatescale wanted to be left alone.
As carefully as she could, Cirrus tip-hoofed towards the dragon. Without making a noise, she managed to walk around Slatescale, to check if he was really sleeping.
One of his big, red eyes stared straight at Cirrus, causing her to freeze up. Evidently, Slatescale wasn’t sleeping, as he slowly lifted his head.
Cirrus felt all the blood draining away from her face. “Uh, h-hi, Mister S-Slatescale. I-I was just...” She stammered for a few seconds. “I said I’d c-come back, so... Here I am?” She raised one of her hooves slightly and waved at the large dragon.
Slatescale smiled and waved back at her with one of his massive claws.
Awkwardly, Cirrus put her hoof back down. “Um... H-How are you?”
Slatescale gave a short nod, then pointed at Cirrus and tilted his head.
“You’re asking how I am?” Cirrus asked, to which Slatescale nodded. “I, uh... I’m fine,” Cirrus lied. She felt pretty bad about telling her clients that their orders were delayed. They said they couldn’t blame Cirrus for it, but that didn’t stop her from apologizing multiple times.
Slatescale smiled and nodded again. He tried gesturing something with both of his claws, ultimately contorting his face a little in confusion. Eventually, he dug one of his fingers into the ground again, writing out a message. ‘THANK YOU’.
Cirrus stared at the text for a few seconds. “‘Thank you’?” She looked at Slatescale and raised an eyebrow. “For what?”
Again, Slatescale wrote something on the ground. ‘VISITING’. Underneath that, he added, ‘IT IS LONELY HERE’.
“Oh!” Cirrus blushed. “N-No problem, really! But I thought other ponies visited you, too?”
Slatescale gave a quick nod. ‘THEY ARE NOT AS NICE AS YOU’, he wrote on the ground.
Cirrus’ blushing increased in intensity, making it feel like her cheeks were about to burst into flames. “Th-Thank you,” she managed to say. “But don’t you have any dragon friends?”
Slatescale’s smile turned into a solemn frown. Slowly, he shook his head. He turned slightly, facing an empty patch of ground. He wrote, ‘COMPLICATED’.
“Oh,” Cirrus said. “Sorry.” She idly toyed with her mane for a few seconds, unsure of what to say. “You know, I don’t have any pony friends. I talk to a few ponies sometimes, but I’m always working, plus I don’t want to bother them. I’ve never done anything fun with them.”
Slatescale didn’t do or write anything, continuing to stare at Cirrus with a sullen look.
“I-I’m sorry for bringing it up,” Cirrus said. “I shouldn’t have done that.” She took a few steps back before turning to leave. “I-I’ll just leave you alone now.”
She quickly found herself walking into Slatescale’s claw, which he had planted on the ground right in front of her. “Hey! What’re you doing?” Cirrus asked as she turned around. “You’re not... angry, right? I-I’m really sorry, honest!”
Slatescale shook his head again and wrote a lengthy message in the dirt.
Cirrus looked at the new text, but she couldn’t make out the entire message from the ground. She spread her wings and flew up, matching the height of Slatescale’s head. From there, she could read what he had written: ‘WE BOTH HAVE NO FRIENDS. WANT TO BE FRIENDS?’
Cirrus blinked a few times. Then, she looked at Slatescale, who gave her a big smile. She looked back at the message to read it again. “I...” Her mouth flapped up and down uselessly as she looked at Slatescale again, who looked somewhat concerned now. Cirrus’ confused look slowly turned into a huge smile. “I’d love that, Mister Slatescale! I’d love to be your friend!”
Slatescale gave a big, toothy grin. He quickly sat upright, towering over the hovering pony, and extended a claw to her.
Cirrus extended her hooves, grasping one of the dragon’s large fingers. She tried shaking it, but only managed to move her own body. In response, Slatescale shook his claw ever so slightly, which, for him, was a gentle gesture, but on Cirrus’ end, it was more like a violent shake-up.
The tiny pegasus could only hold on for about a second before losing her grip, tumbling through the air with a surprised shout. She landed far earlier than expecting, on something hard, yet warm. After shaking her head to get rid of the dizziness, Cirrus inspected what she had landed on: something covered in black scales, and if she looked to the side, really big fingers.
Slatescale lifted the claw with which he had caught Cirrus, and raised her to his face, giving her an apologetic look.
Cirrus snorted, then giggled. Quickly, the giggling turned into full-blown laughter. “I’m sorry, Mister Slatescale!” She said between chortles. “I-I’m not laughing at you! I don’t even know why I’m laughing!”
Slatescale raised an eyebrow and smiled, carefully setting Cirrus down on the ground again. Once more, he wrote something in the ground. ‘YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CALL ME MISTER’.
As soon as Cirrus read the text, she stopped laughing. “Oh. Um, I’m really, really sorry, Mist— Uh, I mean, Slatescale.”
Suddenly, Slatescale’s body started shuddering, and the huge dragon wheezed and snorted. He quickly bent forward, and with a shaky claw, wrote something again. ‘WE ARE FRIENDS. DOES NOT MATTER.’
Cirrus breathed a sigh of relief. “O-Okay. Right. Friends.” This would take some getting used to. “What are you doing, anyway? Are you okay?”
Slatescale nodded and took a few seconds to compose himself. ‘LAUGHING’, he wrote.
“Oh!” Cirrus giggled. “That’s... kind of funny.” She’d never heard mute laughing before. As she looked at all of the things Slatescale had written in the ground, she couldn’t help but grin. She couldn’t even remember the last time she felt this happy!
But on the other hoof... “Hey, Slatescale?” Cirrus pointed at all of the enormous words written in the dirt. “You wrote a lot of stuff today, and the ground’s almost full.”
Slatescale looked at the ground, seeing that about half of the clearing was filled with his writing. He gave a quick shrug and wiped away some of the text with his claws.
“Oh. That works, I guess,” Cirrus said. “But what I mean is...” she trailed off, sitting down. “What if you could, I don’t know...” She made a few big gestures with her hooves. “What if you didn’t have to write to communicate?”
Slatescale looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, never mind. I was just thinking out loud.” Cirrus briefly looked in the direction of the sun, noticing that it had almost reached the horizon. “Is it that late already? I should go home.” She stood up, flicking her tail to get rid of some dirt that was caught in it. “I haven’t eaten dinner yet, and I still have to take care of some work. I can come back tomorrow, if you want?”
Slatescale deflated a little and laid down, giving a quick, but eager nod.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow!” Cirrus said as she rushed back home. Before she left the clearing, she turned around and waved at Slatescale, who gave a wave back.
Cirrus was disappointed that she had to leave, but she also felt strangely happy. She should have tried making friends a lot earlier! She couldn’t wait to visit Slatescale again tomorrow, but she wanted to check something before she went back. Tomorrow, she’d make a small trip to the library.
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
741 users online
909,793 hits today, 1,822,946 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Congratulations on the second chapter
, I think it's a success
I love that you are continuing this story.
Yea you should finish this! This is awesome!~
FÉLICITATION ! Vous avez écrit un second chapitre !
Joke aside, this is a good chapter. I have waited it long, but it was worth it.
This story just makes me feel good.
This makes me happy. I always like a good "Different Worlds" story....like Beauty and the Beast; Changeling fics; etc.
yay~ !
finaly the second chapter and a good one !
MOAR!
Luna's nipple, it's alive!
No, really?
Seriously tho, yay another chapter!
It's lightning that strikes trees, not thunder - thunder is just the sound lightning makes.
And I can't help but notice that Cirrus forgot to ask Slatescale about the party stuff again. Pinkie probably won't really care (especially if she learns that the reason Cirrus was distracted was friendship), but I bet Cirrus is going to think that she cares a lot and will hate her for it until Pinkie calms her back down.
2721867
Yeah, I just had this sneaking suspicion that it'd probably be a good idea to not leave people hanging on this.
2722702
The one time I forget to check if I've got my facts straight or not, and I make an elementary mistake like this
Fixed it, thanks!
and so it begins.....
global3.memecdn.com/EXCELLENT_o_97048.jpg
It has begun..
Maybe
You know, I just got around to reading this, and I gotta say I'm intrigued. I am also tempted to dry Cirrus and Slatescale for a cover art. I even have this cute image in my mind of Cirrus on top of Slate's head, hugging him, with him looking up at his forehead towards her, grinning out of one side of his mouth in amusement.
Damn, so many things I want to draw. . .
were is 'feels' vid when you need one
Nice work for a while I just though cirrus cloud was going to be a Fluttershy recollection but I actually relate to this story a bit I don't have a lot of friends not necesarily because I can't approach them but simply because I never really cared berween trying to get my grades up my brothers kidney transplant stuff and my writing but I still like to talk to people through the written word (text messages) every once in a while