While learning to understand what makes you special, its crutial to take time for yourself. You never know who you may run into that can change your life forever.
Playbitz is a bit of a work-a-holic and when hes forced to take a long vacation, he learns that taking time for himself is just as important as working to help those around him. Siren Bliss is also in the same situation, she has self doubt about her own abilities and talents. When the two meet, they'll realize just how important they are to each other and just how special they really are.
St. Filly was the gateway city to the west. A smaller city compared to ones like Manehatten or Fillydelphia but still just as full of life and active. Playbitz, who had a tan coat, black mid length mane and two toned black and tan wings, had grown so used to the city; it had lost most of its appeal, though to the pegasus it never really mattered very much. Standing on top of a small cloud just outside the city, a young stallion was daydreaming again much like he usually did on his lazy days of working with the city’s weather control. Sure, he enjoyed his job but sometimes he felt that he was being under-challenged and that there was just more to life than waking up, going to work, coming home and maybe getting together with a friend or two. All in all the pegasus felt a bit stuck.
Playbitz decided he had been lounging around enough and needed to get back to work. He trotted in place for a bit to get his blood flowing again while he stretched out his wings. Then with a quick spring in his step, he sprang into the air and took off into the sky.
“You do realize there is such a thing as a day off right?” a soft pink pegasus mentioned as Playbitz landed nearby on the weather team’s city command center.
“I don’t have one of those for at least another few days. Besides, I was just on a break and may have gotten a ---” Playbitz had looked up from where he landed and something had caught his eye.
The other pegasus, Dusk, was looking at her charts for the day. She was trying to focus on making sure her teams were spread out right when she noticed Playbitz had stopped talking. She looked up to him as she started to speak. “You know, it’s polite to actually finish your---“ she noticed that something had Playbitz’s full attention in the sky. “Just what is so fascinating that has you--- Oh my!” She had looked up to see what he was gawking at while she was trying to convey basic speech to PB when finally noticed exactly what had Playbitz attention. Off in the distance, a very large black cloud was growing. The cloud crackled with electricity as the sheer size of the storm made both ponies freeze in disbelief.
Dusk quickly shook her head. She tore her attention from the oncoming storm to her charts, flipping through them quickly and then dropping the clipboard as she looked back up at the storm. “That’s not one of ours.”
It was another sunny day in Ponyville. The town itself was relatively busy with all of its inhabitants going about their day; one in particular was making her way down the main street, headed for a small music shop.
As she entered the store, the doorbell chimed, alerting the stallion in the front that someone was there. “Hey Copper, I’m back.” the female unicorn said cheerily as she made her way to the counter.
The older stallion smiled through his bushy mustache at his employee’s upbeat demeanor. He was an older earth pony with an amber coat with specks of grey, and a dark grey mane and tail. It had been a while since he had opened this music shop in Ponyville. While most days in the past were no problem for the strapping stallion, as he got a bit older, he found that he would need some help minding the store. He had finally admitted to himself that he wasn’t as young as he used to be and put out an ad asking for help with his music shop.
Copper thought himself lucky and maybe even a bit blessed when a brown unicorn trotted into his little shop and asked if he had any open positions. It was rare to find good help, but even rarer to find ones whose passions matched his so well. Even her cutie mark was that of a heart with a music note going through it. He shook his head and looked up at the unicorn as she was tidying up the counter a bit readying herself for another day minding the store. “It’s good to have ya back Bliss. Did you have a good morning?”
Siren Bliss was humming to herself a bit while she checked to make sure she had the necessary items needed to finalize a sale at the shop when she heard Copper’s question. “Oh yeah, It was quite alright actually. I really appreciate the sleep-in you gave me there.”
“Well, you worked pretty late last night getting the inventory redone, I figured I owed you at least that much,” Copper said as he placed a box of pamphlets on the counter. After letting out a slow sigh, a sign of his older age showing, he walked back to his small office in the back. “Oh, by the way Bliss!”
Bliss looked over to the vacant entryway to the back as she answered Copper. “Yeah?”
Copper came back up for the front and placed a small sheet on the counter. “I need you to try getting a few ponies signed up to this,” He emphasized tapping the sheet in front of Bliss.
She looked at the sheet, which was just a page that said “Sign Up” on the top, and had numbered lines in the body. “What’s this for?” she said as her horn gave off its violet glow, picking up the sheet and turning it to be easier for her to read.
“That would be the signup sheet for the singing competition,” Copper nodded. “We’re holding the competition in front of town hall, and the winner will get a trip to Canterlot to perform before the Wonderbolt celebration.”
Bliss set the page down and looked up to Copper with a smile. “Fair enough, I’ll try my best to find a couple talented singers,” she grinned sheepishly and went about organizing the day’s records behind the counter again, writing a note on what needed to be restocked. She slowly came to a stop when she realized that she was being glared at. “What?”
Copper replied while he nudged the pen to her. “You know darn well what, missy. I’ve heard you sing. Shoot, a lot of ponies have heard you sing. Your name should be the first on this list,” He kept his glare on her for a bit longer, waiting for a response. “I understand what you mean Copper. But all the other times, it was for fun … I don’t know,” Bliss trailed off a bit as she put a hoof behind her neck nervously. “What if they say I’m not any good?”
Copper’s glare softened as he gave her a smile “I know for a fact that your amazing,” He then turned to leave the shop, but just before he left he leaned back into the door. “And I look forward to the day that the rest of the world finds that out too.”
Bliss hid her face behind one of the boxes on the counter, only her eyes peeking over the top as Copper left. She hid her face from showing the obvious blush caused by the compliment from the old stallion. She slowly stood up again and looked back at the sheet, staring at it for a brief moment while thinking. Then with a barely audible sigh, she turned away from it to continue her inventory work.
“What do you think you’re doing over there!? Get to your position or get grounded!” Bitz yelled out to a dazed blue pegasus. “You need to take the outer edges and start bringing them in!” This wasn’t going to end very well.
While Dusk had been talking to Playbitz earlier, he had looked up in the sky to see something approaching and growing like spilled ink over the blue sky. Black clouds were spreading out of control. While Playbitz wasn’t a weather manager, he knew that any storm would have been talked about in a weather meeting, or at the very least been a lot more contained than this monster was. As soon as Dusk had looked up to see what Bitz had noticed, he immediately told her to call in the other weather teams and tell them that somehow a rogue storm had brewed.
While there weren’t many rogue storms that came about, Bitz was one that knew a decent bit about them. How the winds could and would shift at any second, how to recover in a crosswind and how to deal with lightning. Most of the time, the rogue storm would develop a pattern, a way for nature to balance out its chaotic outburst. All Bitz needed to do was find the pattern, then using a quick burst of speed, suck out its feeding source of power, which in a storm’s case would be the spot where cold and warm air met. Bitz wasn’t ever known for his speed in flight. To compensate, he knew how to use the air currents for stronger flight. Using the wind, he could triple his wing strength, which would give him an added burst of speed at half the effort.
He flew up a bit to try and find the soft spot of the storm. All he needed was to find it, glide in and then send the faster flyers in to disrupt the airflow, which then made the storm split apart.
The winds were getting worse and worse, it was taking more and more effort just to stay in the air as he was trying to find the soft spot. “Come on. Where are you? You have to be around here somewhere.”
With each passing moment, the storm seemed to be growing stronger, as well as spreading out further and further. As Bitz was struggling to keep his altitude and find the weak spot, he looked down just in time to see one of the younger members of the team trying to mimic his tactic. Sadly for her, she lacked the experience and was quickly pulled into the storm with a startling scream.
“QUICKSHADE!” Bitz yelled out. On impulse he wanted to jump in after her where she had gone in. Not a good idea, a move like that would throw him off balance and he would quickly lose track of what was up and down.
Bitz instead looked up, and took off to go higher. “Hang on Shade, I’m coming!” he yelled out as he tucked in his wings and allowed himself to fall into the storm.
The world was nothing but a chaotic blend of loud wind, wet rain, and panic. Quickshade was in full panic. She tried as hard as she could to flap her wings, but all that seemed to do was make her dizzier, and the stinging rain wasn’t making things any better. “I… I CAN’T DO THIS, SOMEONE HELP ME!!!” she yelled out with a sliver of hope somepony heard her.
Bitz was free falling through the storm, the rain stinging him as it whipped across his face by the wind and his free fall. Just as he felt himself start to tumble a bit, he stretched out his wings as far and as hard as he could, trying to cup his wings downward in an attempt to slow his fall, but allow the wind to carry him. “Argh, QUICKSHADE!” he called out.
“HELP ME! I CAN’T SEE WHERE I AM!”
Bitz realized her voice was coming from a bit lower than where he was, which was great. Much easier to catch her than it is to chase her. “Hang on, I’m coming!” he said as he tucked in his wings again, and pointed his front hooves out as if he was trying to physically reach out to the otherwise invisible mare in the dark cloud.
“Shade! Keep talking to me, I need to hear you!”
“I don’t want to fall! Bitz I’m so scared, what should I dooo--- AHHHEEEPPP!!!” Quickshade started to panic, but was startled by Bitz touching her hind hooves and holding on.
“Pull your legs to you to pull me in closer. Keep your wings folded!” he yelled out as she did exactly what he told her to do and allowed him to grab hold of her fully. “Ok, now hang on and don’t move!” he yelled out to her as he again flexed out his wings and cupped them. He was going to carry the both of them using the storm as a means of lift.
The winds were tossing the two of them around a little bit, but Bitz was holding strong. He gritted his teeth. Holding out his wings like this for short periods wasn’t too bad. Hell, even for longer glides it wasn’t as hard but with the weight of two while trying to keep them open in this storm, he felt like he couldn’t keep his wings open. “Listen, I can’t keep us stable for too much longer. I need you to do exactly as I say. Stay calm, and take a deep breath. We’re going to drop and when I tell you to, spread and hold out your wings as hard as you can. Don’t let up … ok?”
Quickshade didn’t move, but she yelled out nervously “Okay. I’m ready!”
Bitz took in a breath and folded in his wings. “Here we go!”
The two ponies held tight to each other as they were tossed by the winds. Slowly falling, picking up more speed, the wind rustling past their manes as the storm lashed out around them with strikes of lightning and bursts of strong winds. The free fall tickled at Bitz’s stomach making him fight the instinctual urge to catch himself with his wings. He struggled to keep them open, the wind making his eyes water.
“Ugh, perfect time to lose my vision!!” he cursed to himself.
“W-What did you say?” Shade managed to shakily yell out.
While Bitz was used to doing more free falls, Quickshade most likely had hardly any experience with it. Especially with her being new to the weather team, so that feeling of vertigo and fear that Bitz was feeling had to be the absolute worst for poor Shade. “Hang on Shade, just a little … more. We’re going . . . to be ok.”
As Bitz was thinking of a way to enforce his statement, he felt a rush of what felt like pushing your head out of water, the feeling of cooler air, the calmness of not getting thrown around. It was almost comforting, as if the air was cradling the two as they continued to fall.
Bitz still had his eyes closed and was starting to lose himself in the comforting feeling. After what he had just been through, he yearned for this feeling of comfort, it was so comfortable and … and… Something was wrong. In a panic, he forced his eyes open to see they had cleared the storm above, but they were still falling very fast. He looked down to see a thicket of the woods approaching and he had to act fast.
He threw out his wings, cupping them hard but knew that the landing was going to be very hard. Time slowed down just enough for him to think. He was falling, with a very scared mare under him, waiting for him to give her word to open her wings, but if she did, it wouldn’t matter. They were too close to the ground to make any effort to stop.
The next thing to cross his mind as his body was that; Quickshade was closer to the ground, and when they hit the trees she would be the one to cushion the landing. He couldn’t live with himself if he let that happen. As he was thinking, his body and wings instinctively twisted and turned to put her on top.
The pain of hitting the branches only lasted for a brief moment. As soon as Bitz felt the contact, he curled his wings around Quickshade, he knew nothing else mattered right then but her safety. The two made contact with the tops of the trees. The branches and limbs scratching and breaking against Bitz’s body as he winced but kept his eyes closed and his hold on Shade tight. It was getting to be nearly too much to bear when it finally all stopped. He felt the cushion of something soft, wet, and cold. Bitz opened his eyes and looked around quickly. The two had stopped falling and were on the ground. Shade was shivering in his grasp, but she was ok. He could hear voices yelling out to them but it wasn’t registering. It all felt like a bad dream.
Bitz looked up to the sky, seeing the storm cloud pass overhead, and then four small figures on its outer edge. Two of the figures shot off with what sounded like a sonic boom directly into the storm, but before he could see what happened next, Bitz’s vision faded.
Bliss had been trying to keep herself busy with anything she could to keep herself away from the front desk. Every time she walked past it, her eyes would automatically fall on the blank sign-up sheet.
Bliss sighed to herself.
“I mean, it isn’t like it will be the end of the world or anything right? I’ll sign up, have some fun, get on stage … sing, mess up, and get horrible looks and haveeveryonemakefunofme - “
She stopped herself long enough to sit on her haunches and put her hooves to her temples. This shouldn’t be that difficult. No one is going to hate you for getting a bad score. Just pick up the quill, and sign your name. Bliss gave off yet another long, drawn out sigh.
Bliss stood up and made her way back to some boxes. She needed more time to think, or at least she thought so. She normally hated when the store was this slow, but today she took it as an opportunity to vent her thoughts to herself.
“Look, it’s just a simple competition. No one is out to hurt feelings. It’s all for fun! Why is this so difficult?” She opened the box up to busy herself as she had her little self-conversation.
Sure it’s all for fun, but look. Bliss stopped and obeyed her inner thought for a second and sat a bit puzzled.
Look at your cutie mark B. What does it mean?
“It’s my love for music, what - “
What I’m getting at is if you find out that no one likes your music and ends up disliking your songs, then what else is there, hmm?
“What if I’m no good? W-wh- what if my cutie mark is wrong? What if -“
Bliss shook her head for a few seconds and stopped, returning her hooves to her temples with a pained look on her face.
“Ow, all this is doing is making my head hurt.”
She stopped for a second and walked slowly back to the counter, picking up the sheet in the violet glow of her magic and stared at it for a bit.
“There’s no need to do this to myself. I won’t need to worry about signing up because there are far better ponies at this than me. I just need to stop stressing myself about this.” She gave a very exaggerated shrug. “ I mean seriously, I’m happy here.”
Bliss set the sheet down, turned and gestured with an outstretched hoof.
“Copper is a good pony to work for. He’s polite and nice and I get to meet all sorts of new ponies just sitting in my nice little comfy, cozy shop.” She gave herself a half-hearted smile.
Still, she couldn’t help but feel that something was still wrong. She could feel that burning desire for more than just sitting around and promoting other ponies’ talents while she let hers slowly burn out and fade.
What if we really aren’t any good and they notice?
Bliss had to sit. That last thought really felt like it took the wind out of her sails. She sat for a moment taking a few deep breaths and slowly stood, making her way back to the box she was using to refill the inventory.
“I guess… being here isn’t so bad. I mean, Copper looks pretty happy and I can make it work. It isn’t terrible to be a shopkeeper. I just wish it didn’t hurt this much-“
“Who’re you talking to?”
She was then interrupted when she turned to nearly run into a very pink pony.
Bliss jumped a bit, dropping some of the CDs she was holding and moving a hoof on her chest. “Goodness, Pinkie Pie. You surprised me.”
“Ooops, sorry. I should have said something before, but just so you know, she’s wrong.” Pinkie said seriously.
“Who was wrong?”
Bliss tilted her head a bit.
Pinkie smiled as she looked through a few of the CDs on the shelf.
“Well, first she was talking about how ponies won’t like your music, and then your cutie mark will be wrong. And Oooh, then there was that last bit with her saying what if you’re not any good and the others notice!”
Bliss stared at Pinkie for a bit as she tried to process what she just heard. Did she just read my thoughts?
“He he, no silly, I just read what the writer wrote a couple paragraphs before and that little bit just now. It’s actually kind of funny cause he’s been scrolling up and down and up and-“
Pinkie! Stoppit! Keep to the story.
“Oops, sorry. Uh, lucky guess?” Pinkie shrugged and smiled.
Bliss started to rub her eyes and just stopped trying to think too much into what Pinkie was saying. She could be a bit odd but she was a great pony to know.
“Look Pinkie. I’m just having some trouble. Nothing I can’t handle, just need some time to think, that’s all. But since you’re here, is there anything I can help you find?”
“Well, since you mention it, has the new OctoScratch CD come out yet?” she said with a giant smile.
“Hmm, well let me see,” Bliss said as she made her way to the counter.
Pinkie Pie followed and sat on the other side of the countertop. She kept smiling as she waited for Bliss to look through her inventory list when she looked down and spotted the blank sheet.
“Oooh, what’s this?”
“Oh, that’s a sign-up sheet for a singing competition that’s being held at town hall in a couple of weeks.”
“Oooh, I’d like to sign up!” Pinkie said gleefully.
“Sure, no problem,” Bliss said as she magically floated a quill to Pinkie.
Pinkie took the quill and signed her name on the first slot.
“He he yay! This is so exciting! I can’t wait! Though how come your name isn’t on here Bliss?”
Bliss’s head lifted up from under the counter. She set a black notebook in her magical grasp on the counter, opening it to the current inventory list.
“Ah, I’m sorry Pinkie, but looks like it’s not in just yet. Maybe check in a few days, but I’ll make a note in case it comes in sooner. I’ll be sure to hold a copy for you.”
Pinkie Pie smiled brightly for a brief moment.
“Okie dokie! That sounds like a great idea!” Her smile turned more serious. “But you haven’t answered my question.”
Bliss looked up from the notebook with a slightly puzzled look.
“Oh? OH! Well, I’m not sure if I’ll have time to perform.”
Pinkie’s normal demeanor deflated slightly. “Ah well, that’s ok. Next time then! Thanks for looking for my CD!” she then turned to start walking to the door with a bounce in her step.
“No worries Pinkie,” Bliss muttered softly with a deflated sigh. “Nopony would want to hear me sing anyway.”
Pinkie’s ears shot up, and she literally froze mid trot. She turned to look back to Bliss and in an instant, she zipped back, bobbing slightly like a spring that was slightly tapped.
“Whatcha mean silly billy?”
Bliss looked up with a start, her eyes wide from the shock of having Pinkie suddenly right in her face, but then she calmed down thought about her question.
“Well you know, there are sometimes that there are more important things to be done and -“
Pinkie Pie put her hoof to Bliss’s mouth and stopped her.
“I’m not talking about that silly. You said and I quote ‘Nopony would want to hear me sing anyway’, which is not true! I think lots of ponies would love to hear you sing.” she moved her hoof away from Bliss.
Bliss frowned a bit and hung her head slightly.
“It isn’t that I’m scared to have others hear me sing. It’s knowing that I’m being judged. I know I’ll get a bad score and everyone will agree and I’ll not be able to realize my dream of-“
Pinkie started chuckling and shook her head. She zipped away from the front of the counter to be side by side with Bliss.
“Bliss, Bliss, Bliss. You’re anything but!”
“What?”
Bliss was slightly confused.
Pinkie pressed her cheek to Bliss’ and continued.
“You shouldn’t be so focused on what everyone else thinks. It’s not about being judged!”
Bliss put a hoof to Pinkie’s chest and pushed her away.
“Then what is it about?”
Pinkie zipped away and jumped up in front of the counter, throwing her front hooves in the air as a small shower of confetti and streamers fell around her.
“It’s about having FUN!!”
Bliss sat back, and gave a very small smile to Pinkie. “I guess you’re right. I’ll think on it. Thanks Pinkie”
Pinkie started making her way to the door as she started to sing.
“It doesn’t matter now If you are sad or blue ‘Cause cheering up my friends is just what Pinkie’s here to do”
For whatever reason, Pinkie’s little pep talk not only helped Bliss feel a bit better about signing up, but also about herself in general. Bliss looked down to the signup sheet. Without any hesitation, Bliss picked up the quill with her magic and signed her name under Pinkie’s. She looked up with a smile on her face and walked back to her box to continue restocking but felt an urge to continue where Pinkie had left off.
“Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile Yes I do It fills my heart with sunshine all the while Yes it does”
Copper had been doing errands all morning. First was running to get the licensing submitted for the shop, then getting a couple of the little things done for the house. It was barely mid-afternoon when he finally made it back to the shop. He stopped and rested his hoof on the door.
“Sweet Celestia I’m getting old. Well, ain’t no day like the present!”
Copper opened the door and stepped inside. He made his way to the counter to check up on the list to see if Bliss had listened to his advice, only to be shocked to see Pinkie Pie’s name first. Then right below it was Siren Bliss. Ah, thata girl.
Copper started to make his way back to his office when he heard some singing. He stopped and turned to see Bliss gleefully stocking some shelves, belting out a song that Pinkie Pie had once sang. While his intention was to go to the office, he felt strangely drawn to her voice.
With each step closer, he felt the fatigue slipping away giving way to a very energetic feeling of purpose and meaning. Copper got to the shelves right by Bliss as she continued.
“Cause all I really need’s a smile, smile, smile From these happy friends of mine”
It faded like all his fatigue was gone, replaced by young energy. Copper, not really knowing what was taking him over. He cleared his throat, interrupting (sadly) Bliss’s singing as he didn’t want to scare her.
The two stared at each other for a bit, Bliss with a slight bit of embarrassment of getting caught singing, and Copper with a very large grin on his face. It was even more shocking to Bliss to see Copper put his hoof to his chest and pick up where she left off!
“Cause I love to make you grin, grin, grin Yes I do”
Shocked, Bliss smiled and joined in.
“Bust it out from ear to ear let it begin Just give me a joyful grin, grin, grin And you fill me with good cheer”
The two stopped singing and started laughing together. After a short bit of laughing and some giggles, Bliss spoke up.
“You know Copper, you should sign up too!”
“Yeah, that’ll be the day.”
The two just stood there, staring at each other for a bit, then started laughing all over again.
Something wasn’t right. It was too dark and try as he might, he couldn’t move. What was going on?! Suddenly Playbitz jerked awake. He could barely move and when he tried, tinges of pain shot up his body.
“W…Wh…what happened? Where am I?” he said groggily.
Bitz looked around to see just where he was. He looked around to see the white room, the small TV in the corner of the room and up to his left and right were small machines, one of which had a tube that led to his foreleg. He grunted when he realized he was in the hospital. Fantastic. Ok. What happened here?
He remembered the storm, him diving in after Quickshade and then his memories came back to him in a painful rush. Him grabbing Shade and his horrible crash landing. It was as if he relived each painful moment as they struck the trees and finally the ground. He stopped thinking for a moment as he waited for all the pain to hit him again at once.
And waited.
And waited.
Bitz looked back at his foreleg as he realized that he had the IV which probably had some sort of painkiller in it. He had to think back to that storm. When he crash landed, he remembered seeing something in the sky next to the storm.
What was it? It was some specks… no, it was pegasi. Then two of them shot into the storm with a loud BOOM!
Bitz was jarred from his thinking when a nurse cleared her throat.
“Ah, good… you’re awake. How are you feeling Mr. Bitz?”
Bitz looked up to the nurse and smiled.
“I feel like a bad crash landing.”
The nurse smiled and nodded.
“Well, good news is that is exactly what happened. Bad news is that’s exactly what happened. Are you in any discomfort or pain?” Bitz looked himself over as much as he could.
“None that I’m aware of for right now, at least. How long have I been here?”
The nurse was checking his IV feeds, and the monitors. As she checked off a few notes on her pamphlet she looked back to Bitz. “You’ve been unconscious for about seven hours. Thankfully you’ve only sustained minor injuries. A few cuts and bruises but otherwise you’ll heal.”
Bitz let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“However, you did sustain a very nasty muscle strain between your wings. You overworked them which cause minor tearing of the muscles. Good news is that you didn’t completely tear the muscle, so it will heal, bad news is that you’re grounded for a while.”
Bitz closed his eyes and sighed to himself. Simply outstanding. What else can happen?!
“Oh, and also Mr. Bitz, there are some ponies here to see you. We have a visitor limit so I’ll be letting only four at a time. “
Bitz was a bit puzzled. He didn’t have any family nearby, so how did he have visitors, especially enough to hit a limit?
His question was quickly answered as four official looking ponies walked into his room, each wearing a blue flight jacket.
A white colored mare with a jet black mane approached further and cleared her throat.
“Hello Mr.?”
“Just Bitz will do ma’am.”
“Bitz, very well. My name is Shadow Mane. If you haven’t guessed, we are a squad from the Wonderbolts.”
“The Wonderbolts?!”
“Yes sir, please let me finish.”
Bitz nodded with a slight tinge of red to his fur from embarrassment
“Yes ma’am.”
“The weather report shows that you were part of the first contact group with the rouge storm. And being part of the first contact, you and a…” Shadow stopped and looked through her little notebook “Mrs. Shade penetrated the storm’s wall and from what she has told us, whipped around and around in a whirly fashion and then fell with an oomph,” Shadow then flipped her notebook closed and tucked it into her pocket.
“Now, we do understand that you’re recovering right now and have just woken up. But please answer as clearly as you possibly can.”
Shadow made a quick gesture to the larger grey stallion behind her, who reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a broken piece of rock as big as a grapefruit.
“Does this look familiar to you at all?”
Bitz went from looking at Shadow to looking at the rock. Looking at it up close didn’t really help very much. Something like that was difficult to remember. And why would a rock be important anyway?
Wait a minute, that does look familiar. Bitz tried to think harder when it hit him in a quick flash. As he was trying to look for Quickshade, there was something glimmering out the corner of his vision that didn’t move. Bitz brushed it off as unimportant. “Actually, it does, but only a bit.”
Shadow sat and gestured to a silver colored stallion, and he pulled out a pen and his notebook.
“Proceed.”
“Well, it was while I was looking for Quickshade, but as I was looking I saw something glimmer out in the corner of my eye. It didn’t move either. I just brushed it off as unimportant.”
“Mm hmm. Did you notice if it sent out any waves or pulses of energy?”
Bitz shook his head softly and looked her straight in the eyes.
“No ma’am. Like I said, I was more focused on finding my friend than to see what a shiny rock was doing in a storm.”
“Hmm. Very well. Please note Mr. Bitz, that what we shared here is highly confidential and that if you notice any such storm again, to be sure to find shelter. As you are very well aware, you’re not equipped nor trained in dismantling a storm such as this.”
Bitz flinched a bit. I try to save my friend and here I’m getting lectured because I didn’t pay closer attention to a rock? Really?
“But we would also like to apologize to you.”
Bitz was shocked, and he tilted his head slightly.
“Apologize for what?”
Shadow stood and the three other members made their way out of the room.
“We apologize for not making it to the storm sooner. If we had, you and your friend would not have needed to be injured. As I’ve said before, next time… if there IS a next time, stay low to the ground and seek shelter. Let the professional flyers do our job.”
Shadow finished as she walked out of the room leaving a very perplexed and slightly agitated Bitz lying in his bed.
Bitz then muttered to himself. “I’d like to see you guys try doing what I did. Oh wait… you wouldn’t because you would be more concerned with looking at a bucking rock than help somepony who actually needed help.” He finished by dropping his head back into his pillow, letting it poof out.
“Hey, there he is!”
Bitz looked up and snapped out of his grump when he noticed a red stallion with a bluish-white mane.
“Hey, Cold Front. Good to see you I…” then a thought dawned on Bitz. “Is Quickshade ok?”
Cold Front walked up to the side of Bitz’s bed and smiled. He turned to the door just as Quickshade trotted through the door and nearly launched herself to hug Bitz.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you so very, very much! I don’t know what would have happened if you weren’t there!”
Cold Front set a hoof on Quickshade’s shoulder.
“You’d most likely not be here with us, sweetie. Be easy with him now, he wasn’t as fortunate as somepony else here.”
Quickshade gasped, backed off and looked down sheepishly.
Bitz sat up and held himself up on an elbow.
“I don’t see any bandages Shade, are you ok?”
Quickshade looked up to meet Bitz’s gaze and smiled.
“I got a few cuts, but otherwise I’m ok.”
Cold Front moved to give Quickshade a loving hug and turned back to Bitz.
“You saved her Bitz. You saved my wife, on top of shielding her from the majority of the harm from the landing. I owe you.” He then looked down to Quickshade who gave him a loving look, then looked back to Bitz. “We owe you. Is there anything we can do to help?”
Bitz chuckled to himself and shook his head.
“Not unless you guys know how to make me heal faster.” He ended his statement by laughing a few times.
Cold Front smiled and walked up closer to Bitz’s bed.
“Well, funny you mention that. Having my position has its perks and as such I get to tell you that because of your injuries as well as your actions, we at the weather bureau want to make sure you’re fully healed before you even THINK of coming back to work.” “Well I’ll be back as soon as I -“
Bitz tried to cut in.
“I won’t be having that. You were granted paid sick leave to heal, and gain your strength back ON TOP OF paid vacation time so than you can get out and see there are more things that just work to look forward to.”
Bitz waited for a moment to be sure he wasn’t cutting off his friend again.
“Front, you know that’s not necessary. And even still, where would I go? What would I do? St. Filly is full of things I’ve already seen and done.”
Cold Front nodded to his friend and smiled again.
“Then how about you go and see Equestria some? I have a traveler’s account with a few friends. Seeing as you can’t fly for now, I want you to go to the station and tell them where you’d like to go.” He concluded by putting a hoof on Bitz’s shoulder.
“Are you sure about this? I mean will everyone be ok without me around?”
“Bitz, trust me, we’ll be there. You take the time you need and when you get back we’ll be around, I promise.”
“Alright, but only because you said so.”
Bitz let a huge sigh escape his mouth as he looked back to his friends.
“Thank you so very, very much again Bitz. You saved my life.” Quickshade was nearly in tears.
“I’m sure you would have done the same for me Shade. You guys take care, ok?”
“We will.” Cold Front turned back to look at Bitz just as he and Shade were leaving. “Thanks pal, see you soon.”
Bitz set his head back onto the pillow and felt comfortable. Soon sleep took him and he rested for a few more hours. When Bitz woke again, a nurse was bandaging the IV insertion wound and shutting off the equipment next to him.
“What’s going on?”
The nurse looked up and smiled.
“Well Mr. Bitz, we’re releasing you if you believe you’re ready to go. If you’ll please slowly get out of bed, the doctor will tell you what you need to do for the next couple of weeks.”
Bitz did as he was instructed and slowly got himself out of the bed. Shockingly enough, he didn’t have any bandages on his wings, but there were some around his torso and they crossed over the spot on his back where his wings were attached. He felt groggy from the aftereffects of the pain killers, maybe even a little lightheaded but otherwise ok.
As Bitz was stretching his legs and other muscles out, slowly, he was about to try stretching his wings out but just before he could, a green stallion with a white coat stepped in.
“Hello Mr. Bitz. I’m Doctor Pheels Rhyte. I’m going to go over your injuries and the physical therapy I’ll need you to do while you heal, ok?”
Bitz sat on his haunches and smiled.
“Sure thing.”
The doctor smiled and nodded. He looked to the nurse.
“Nurse, please bring me the therapy vest.”
The nurse nodded as she made her way out of the room.
“Okay Mr. Bitz. Here’s how this will work. Over the next few weeks we’re going to have to rebuild your flight muscles.” The doctor made his way up to Bitz and with his magic, circled Bitz’s back between his wings with a soft instrument rod. “This is where they are and we’ll need to do a bit of weight training to build them back up.”
The nurse came into the room and set down a large duffle bag next to the doctor.
“Thank you.” He turned back to Bitz. “In here is a vest I want you to wear and do low level hovering. What the vest will do is hold extra weight for you to lift. It will be like weight training, but for your wings and flight.”
Bitz nodded and looked down at the bag.
“Uhm, not that I can’t or anything but shouldn’t that bag be really heavy?”
The doctor looked down at the bag and smiled.
“Quite the contrary. The bag is aided by unicorn magic, making the contents light as a feather. It’s made so that it’s easier to carry and transport. Now what I want you to do is wear the vest twice a day and hold a good 10 foot hover for as long as you can. Once in the morning and once in the evening.”
Bitz stood and continued to get some more information on his physical therapy he would need to do for the next few weeks. They gave him a small prescription for pain medication, but otherwise he would need to focus on getting as much rest as he could. He gave his thanks and made his way home.
Once he was at home, he thought about where he could go and what he would do. While staying around town seemed an easier thing to do, he really wanted to take Cold Front’s advice and see more of Equestria. He then had an interesting thought. He had a friend that worked in a village called Ponyville. A little white unicorn named Starlight.
The two had been pretty decent friends when Bitz was growing up. She had lived a few doors down from him and the two separated when each went their separate ways for schooling. This little trip could be a nice way to catch up.
“Hmm. So it’s settled.” Bitz stood and walked over to his phone.
After his call to Quickshade and Cold Front, he packed a small bag and then called his friend Starlight. Tomorrow he would take the train to Ponyville, settle in at a local inn, and then meet up with his friend for lunch. Bitz believed it was simple enough. See Ponyville for a couple of days, then maybe check out Canterlot, and then from there, who knows?
The next morning, Play Bitz was walking to the departure platform. As he rounded a corner he saw two pegasus ponies whose faces lit up with excitement when they made eye contact.
“Playbitz, we’re so happy we got to see you before you left!” Quickshade said as she bounced to Bitz’s side. “So you excited for your trip?”
Cold Front walked up to the two and smiled.
“Hey Bitz, need a helping hoof?”
Bitz looked down at his bag and smiled to Cold Front. “Nah, they’re lighter than you would think. And I guess you could say I’m pretty excited Shade. Though I can’t bounce around nearly as much as you, someone had to cushion our landing.” He emphasized with poking her in her side with a wing.
“Well, be sure to write to us, or call. You know if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask and --“
“Easy sweetie. Let’s not smother him”, Cold Front cut her off. He draped a wing over Bitz. “But, seriously she’s right. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to let us know.”
Bitz smiled at the two, and then made his way to the train car with his bags. “Thanks, the both of you. I’ll be sure to keep in contact.”
Bitz heard the final boarding call when he was entering the train car. Quickshade called out to him. “Hey Bitz, maybe come home with a special somepony!”
The train started to move out as Bitz poked his head out. “Yeah, yeah. And Cold Front will let me cook at the next cookout!”
All Bitz heard was some laughter as the train picked up speed away from St. Filly. Bitz made his way to his seat and settled in. It was going to be a bit of a trip to Ponyville, so he was going to take the chance to rest up. Just as he finished storing his luggage, he glanced out the window to see the sprawling landscape give way to a very scenic view of St. Filly’s grand Arch. It was a monument to the west. Catch ya later St. Filly. Hello Mr. Pillow.
The hours flew by as the train made its way to the Ponyville station. Bitz had woken up about ten minutes before arrival. Once in Ponyville, things were pretty uneventful. All for except when he ran into a very hyperactive pink pony.
“Hi there!”
“Uhm, hello ma’am.”
Bitz had no idea what to do.
“Hehe, no, no, silly, my name is Pinkie Pie. And you must be new around here, cause I know everyone here in Ponyville and I’ve never seen you before!”
Bitz stopped for a brief second and then smiled. “Ah well, I’m new here, but I’m just on vacation.”
Pinkie threw her hooves up and multicolored confetti fell all around them. “That’s ok, I’ll throw you an ‘I’m only visiting Ponyville’ party!”
With a nervous smile, Bitz spoke up. “No, no, that’s quite alright Ma -- Pinkie. It’s not necessary. I was in a nasty accident and need to rest. But, I’m sure there can be some kind of compromise?”
Pinkie stopped mid-bounce, nearly right in midair. “Oooh, we can do that. How about if you come to the singing competition? I’m sure you’ll get a great charge from the performance and really take flight!”
Pinkie, Stoppit! There’s no need for that!
Pinkie gasped and looked off to her side. She whispered “Ooops, sorry Mr. Writer. My lips are sealed!”
Bitz gave her a confused look but then stood to start walking. “Uhm, ok. Uh, sounds good, I guess.”
Bitz then picked up his bags and started making his way to his inn.
He had made his way to the inn and settled into his room. He had taken the training vest out of its bag and placed the training weights on to it. He had some time before his lunch date, so he decided to try out the therapy.
It wasn’t nearly as hard as he thought it would be. For the first couple of flaps, it was tough, but afterward, it was fine. Maybe it was just some rest was all he needed.
“Eh, oh well. May as well head out to meet up with Starlight.”
Bitz put his vest on the bed and made his way out. He had started making his way to the town square where the café meeting spot was, but thought instead that since it was early enough, he would surprise Starlight at her work.
After asking for some directions, Bitz found the animal clinic where Starlight was working. He made his way inside to look down at a cute white unicorn with a purple mane, which was more focused on her work than who was in front of her.
“Can I help you?” she asked without tearing her vision away from her notes.
“Hmm, why yes ma’am. That is if you’re not too terribly busy to say hi to an old friend.”
Starlight’s eyes went wide as she moved her eyes to see Bitz standing in front of her desk. “BITTY!!!”
Starlight jumped from her desk and pounced Bitz, squeezing on him. It had been years since the two had seen each other.
Bitz went from a happy, nervous smile to a pained smile as she was squeezing on his bandages. “Star… little less squeezy. Ow, ow, ow.”
Starlight backed off a bit to look at what was causing him discomfort, and let out a sharp gasp.
“PLAYBITZ, WHAT IN EQUESTRIA HAPPENED TO YOU!!!”
Bitz winced at her yelling and using his full name. “Keep it down. I had an accident, but I can tell you more when we’re at lunch.”
Starlight poked him in the chest. “Alright mister, but I want full details. Oh, speaking of, do you mind if we meet up with another friend of mine?”
Bitz grunted at her poking but smiled. “Uhm, yeah sure. Who’re we meeting?”
Starlight went to answer straight away then thought for a moment. Then with a very slowly growing grin she closed her eyes when she responded. “Oh, I think you two will get along just fine.”
Bitz gave her a puzzled look then nodded. “Alright, if you say so. So, I’ll see you there, right?”
Starlight nodded. “I’ve got to get a few things wrap up a few things here, but yes. I’ll meet you at the café.”
“See you then!” Bitz then leaned forward and gave his friend a gentle hug.
Bitz then left the clinic and made his way downtown to see some of the sights. He had passed by a very large and somewhat gaudy boutique. “That’s different. Hmm.” He then made his way further into town to explore a bit before it was time to meet with his friend.
As Bitz rounded a corner, he stopped dead in his tracks and backed up a bit in fear of getting nearly run over by a red stallion pulling what looked like an overloaded apple cart. While Bitz was pretty big himself, this pony made Bitz look small in comparison.
He stood there for a moment, and then shook his head. He needed to get to the café. He was running a bit late.
The café wasn’t too far, and as Bitz approached, he saw Starlight sitting at a table with three chairs. Next to Starlight was a brown unicorn with a purple magic aura around her horn. The two were smiling and chatting with each other. Bitz made his way to the two and caught the attention of the brown unicorn.
“Oh, hello there, can I help you?”
Bitz was taken back a bit but gestured to Starlight and smiled. “I’m with her actually.”
Starlight turned and smiled brightly. “Oh hey, Bitz!” she then turned back to Bliss. “Bliss, this is my friend I was telling you about earlier.”
Bliss smiled and turned her attention back to Bitz. “Hello then, nice to meet you!”
Starlight set her cup down and gestured to Bitz. “Siren Bliss, this is PlayBitz,” She then gestured to Bliss looking at Bitz.
“PlayBitz, this is Siren Bliss.”
Bitz held out a hoof to Bliss who graciously accepted it. “Pleasure to meet you, ma’am”
Bliss chuckled a bit and smiled. “Please, just call me Bliss. So if I may ask… uh, Bitz? If I may ask, how did you end up nearly all wrapped up in bandages? Bit of a scrapper are you?”
Bitz looked down at his bandages and gave a nervous laugh. “Actually, no. bit of a story there. You know, if you both have some time for me to share?”
Starlight looked at Bliss who nodded, and then Star looked back to Bitz. “Go ahead. I was going to ask you about those anyway.”
Bitz took a seat next to the two and for the next hour shared his story about the storm, and about how his colleague was sucked into the storm and about what he did to save her.
Bliss was the first to speak up from her shock. “So, you put yourself in harms’ way to save her? Are you okay, I mean, you can still fly right?”
“I’ll be ok. I was told that I have to rest up and strength train my wings. But I think I’ll make a fast recovery. My boss, Cold Front, Quickshade’s husband, told me that I’m on an extended vacation. Seems that I…” Bitz put his hooves up to make a quotation gesture. “Work too much. I was told to take this time to get out and explore a bit and meet some new people.”
Bliss giggled some as did Starlight.
Starlight finished her sip of her tea and looked at Bitz. “That sounds an awful lot like somepony I know, eh Bliss?”
Bliss finished her coffee and with a straight face. “I just don’t think I understand what you’re getting at Miss Starlight.”
Starlight turned to Bitz and put up a hoof to block her lips from being read but made no attempt to lower her voice. “She practically lives at her work. It took a miracle to get her to sign up for the singing competition.”
Bliss took the moment to speak up. “Actually, yes. And by miracle if you mean that a certain pink pony that knows how to change one’s viewpoints pretty well, then yes. There was a miracle.”
Bitz was puzzled for a bit then looked at Bliss. “Wait, this wouldn’t be a pink pony that’s really bouncy, talks kind of fast and tried to throw a party for a random stranger like me, would she?”
Starlight smiled brightly. “Yep, that’s our Pinkie Pie. If you’re here long enough, you’ll get used to her. She’s a good pony and makes some great treats down at the bakery here called Sugar Cube Corner.”
Bitz just nodded and smiled.
The conversation ended as Starlight looked over at a clock and gasped. “Oh dear, I need to be getting back to work. Oh, the poor dear.”
Bliss looked to Starlight. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing terrible, but I don’t want to have just drop all the work on poor Fluttershy.”
Starlight got up as did Bliss and Bitz. She then moved to hug Bitz warmly. “Look you, don’t be a stranger while you’re here. I want to make sure you’re getting the rest you need as well as enjoy yourself.”
Bitz chuckled some and nodded. “Alright, I’ll do my best.”
She then turned to Bliss and gave her a hug as well. “It was nice catching up with you. Hopefully we can do this again sooner rather than later.”
Bliss nodded. “We will see. But yes, and it was very nice meeting you Bitz.”
Bitz looked to Bliss, and an even wider grin formed on his face. “It was wonderful meeting you too… I mean, yes it was nice meeting you too.”
Bliss gave a cute laugh.
The three then parted ways. The two mares going back to their daily lives, and Bitz made it back to his hotel room. He felt a little tired, but nothing too bad before, but when he saw his bed, and laid on it for a brief moment, the fatigue in his body fell on him like a ton of bricks. He was more tired than he thought he was.
Bitz laid on his stomach to get comfortable. “I’ll just rest my eyes for a little bit and then go look around town.”
As soon as he closed his eyes, he was out for the rest of the evening night.
The next morning, Bitz woke in a daze. It took him a moment to remember where he was, but after he remembered, he tried to stretch like normal, sending a tinge of pain through his body and wings.
“Ow! Oooh, that’s tenderer than it was yesterday. Alright, guess I need to do my morning training.”
Bitz got the vest out again, this time with a bit lighter weight than before. As he was instructed, he did the different types of flapping with his wings, each with little to no effort or strain. The vest did make keeping in the air harder, but as far as putting any type of strain on him, it was really simple. It almost felt too easy.
Well, maybe if I try to fly around the room slowly, I’ll feel the strain a bit more.
Bitz nodded to himself and flapped his wings forward, pushing himself to one wall. He turned around and flew to the next. He kept this up a bit longer until he started to feel more strain coming from the base of his wings.
Hmm… there it is. Maybe need to stop for now.
Bitz landed and removed the vest. As soon as the vest was off, he felt like he had a bit more spring to his step and laughed a bit as he trotted around his room. “I wonder if that Pinkie Pie wore a vest like this for a long time. That would explain the bounciness!” he chuckled to himself.
Just as he was getting ready to bounce a bit more, his stomach growled at him. “Oooh yea, I guess a morning workout would require some fuel to burn.”
Bitz then made his way to venture outside. The sun had burned away most of the morning’s fog and was in the sky with a few fair weather clouds. “Hmm.” He thought to himself, that café is only a short distance from here, if I keep low to the ground I could try to fly there and see how my wings are doing. Yeah, that way if something happens, I’m close enough to the ground and to avoid a problem.
He nodded to himself and took off with a short distance from the ground to the town’s main strip. He landed close to the café and gave himself a smile. “Oh wow, that wasn’t bad at all. My wings feel just fine. Hmm, I wonder what they have for breakfast here.”
After an hour, Bitz finished his meal and made his way back to the inn, but stoped about halfway near an open field.
“That was a pretty good flight to the café. Maybe another short flight won’t hurt. I mean, if something happens, I can land and I’ll be just fine.
Bitz took flight and made his way over to the open field. Being happy with how he was feeling with the short flight, Bitz decided to take his flight up a bit higher, letting his wings stretch. He landed to check himself over.
Hmm, not bad. No real pains to speak of. The doc said I need to rest and relax, right? Well this is relaxing!
Bitz nodded to himself after thinking his condition was acceptable. Just before he was about to take off again, a small shadow crossed over him, making him look up. The sky was dotted with a few fair weather clouds that were pretty high up. With a small chuckle and a gentle push Bitz was off in the air making his way up to the clouds.
Once up, he made a gentle landing on one of the clouds. He trotted around a few circles and laid down on his legs to look over the edge of the cloud.
“I probably shouldn’t do this. I KNOW I shouldn’t do this. What I should do, is flutter ways down, make my way back to the hotel, rest up a bit and then go out and about through the town…yeah.”
Bitz kept on nodding and then looked back down over the cloud. He stood up, stretched out his wings and then just stood there.
Who am I kidding? BOMBS AWAY!!!
Bitz didn’t really move, he just shifted his weight to one side, making it look like he was just standing and tilting, wings closed. He then shoved off the cloud and began his freefall. After about a few seconds, Bitz threw out his wings and swooped down by the field. Enjoying the rush, he pushed himself back up toward the clouds. When he got closer to the clouds, he had an idea. Let’s push this a bit higher!
Bitz flew up, past the clouds, his forelegs pushed in front of him as if diving upwards into the sky. His two toned wings giving powerful flaps propelling him upward at a decent speed.
He had been pushing his wings pretty hard. They were starting to feel a bit more tired than they usually would but Bitz didn’t take too much notice. He was having too much fun. He kept pushing himself higher and higher.
Just as he felt he could push himself up more, Bitz stopped, and allowed himself to hover and look down from where he was.
All the colors of the ground started to meld together. Ponyville looked like the size of a bit. He was high enough that the air was getting pretty nippy. Bitz looked up and shook his head. Any higher up would start building up ice in his feathers. He was already pushing himself fa bit much and that would surely end in disaster.
Happy with his current height, Bitz smiled to himself, this was going to be fun. He tucked his wings in, and allowed himself to gently, but quickly start to freefall. The wind rushed through his mane, and his fur; it was invigorating. He pushed his forelegs forward, reaching out to the ground, waving his hooves through the rushing wind. He kept his eyes squinted, had he known he was going to freefall, he would have worn his goggles, but squinting would do for now.
After what felt like an eternity, Bitz thought he was close enough to the ground. He was at the level of the fair weather clouds when he threw out his wings again. He could feel his feathers curling upward from the wind rushing through them. It was the moment when he tried to cup his wings to catch himself into a glide that he realized he pushed himself too far.
His wings gave out, not able to stay outstretched, they curled in on themselves from the fatigue and he started to fall out of control in a slow spin.
Oh buck!
Bliss was having a pretty good day so far. She had finished doing her inventory early and everything was in its place. Copper was in the back going over some of his lists and possibly getting some things done for himself. She never really could tell everything that the old stallion did in his office, either she didn’t care to know or it just wasn’t ever her business.
Bliss made her way up to the counter and placed the inventory book down on the counter. She turned back to the doorway behind it and called out.
“Hey Copper, I’m heading out for the day!”
The stallion poked his head from the doorway and smiled. “Thanks a bunch Bliss. Sorry to have called you in on a day off, wouldn’t have gotten all that done without your help.”
“No worries, I enjoyed helping you out. Side’s, still have pretty much the whole day to myself to get some errands done for the day.”
Copper stepped out from the back and up to the counter to look through the inventory list. “Hey, yea. Get yourself some lunch and enjoy the rest of the day. You know… you should ask your friend Starlight about that stallion you guys were hanging out with yesterday.”
Bliss was a bit shocked and slightly embarrassed, but then a thought came to mind. “Wait, how do you know I was with Star and some friend of hers?”
“Well m’dear, had you not been so enveloped in what the stallion was saying, or how he looked, you might have noticed that I was with my wife a few tables over. I didn’t think it was right to interrupt a chance for you all to make a new friend.”
Bliss was slightly confused, on top of her almost obvious embarrassed blush. “But are you sure it was us? I mean there are other ponies with the same type of colors and --“
“Bliss, sweetie, I may be getting old, but my powers of observation are as sharp as ever. It’s good that you’re meeting new people. Sometimes I wish you would get out more and enjoy yourself than make yourself stuck here with an oldie like me.”
Bliss puffed her cheeks out a bit but conceded to Copper’s insight. “Well, you may have a point. I’ll take your advice, and with that, I’d like to get out of here before I start on a new little project.”
That last little statement shocked Copper a bit, and then he gave her a devious smile. “Go on, GIT. Enjoy your day!”
Bliss laughed as she made her way outside. As the shop door closed behind her, she started walking through the town. She hadn’t really planned much for the day, but decided that she needed to enjoy the good weather while it was here.
Lunch was starting to sound good, and Bliss had wanted to try a new little place that had opened up about a week ago on the edge of town. She nodded to herself and made her way to the diner.
Today was going to be a good day. She got to get some work done in the morning. And the breeze felt nice. She tilted her chin up to let the breeze go through her fur and mane. She then opened her eyes to take in the cool blue sky when she stopped walking for a moment. Something had caught her eye. Had she not been trying to focus on the pure blue sky, she would have missed seeing the speck making its way downward.
“Huh? I guess some pegasus dropped something midflight.” Bliss looked downward to guess where the item may fall to. “I don’t have much going on today so I’ll find what it is that fell, report it in, and then the owners can find it later.”
Bliss feeling a bit proud of herself for her soon-to-be noble deed of the day, found herself out in the meadow. She looked around a bit to see if anyone else had noticed the falling thing when she looked up.
That wasn’t a ‘thing’ falling, it was a pegasus!
Bliss started to panic a bit. What do I do?! What can I do?! “Ah ... Ah You… YOU IN THE SKY!!! WAKE UP! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF! FLAP YOUR WINGS!!!WAKE UP!!!!”
The wind was rather soothing by now. Bitz had felt like he was drifting to sleep. Nothing was quite as soothing as feeling the wind through his fur. A nagging thought was nipping at his brain though. Something was wrong but he couldn’t figure it out. That was until he finally heard the voice.
“WAKE UP!!!!”
Wake up? Maybe I should peek to see who is trying to interrupt my nap… wait. When did I fall asleep? Last I remember was flying and --
Bitz’s eyes shot open with a shock, looking down to see the ground quickly approaching and worse yet, somepony was right there trying to catch him!
In an instant, Bitz threw his wings out again, not caring how tired or how much it hurt, catching himself at the last second, narrowly missing the other pony’s head and curving himself to land sloppily on the hill, using his front hooves to try and stop his momentum.
As he’s skid to stop himself, his left hoof caught on the ground and caused him to dive head first into the earth, coming to a halt with a very unflattering pose of his rear up and head down in the mud.
Bliss ran up to the crashed pegasus and gave out a sharp gasp.
“Are you ok?! Oh my goodness, Stay there, I’m going to go get some help!”
Bitz grunted as he pushed himself upright and turned to look at who was with him. He froze a bit at seeing the cute unicorn from the other day. “No no, I’ll be ok. Nothing I haven’t done before.”
Bliss ran up to him and enveloped him in her magic aura. She gently helped him upright and dusted some of the bits of grass and mud off his body.
“Oh, heh, thanks uhm, Bliss.”
Bliss looked him over and saw that this was the pegasus from the day before, and then took note of all his bandages and his current condition.
“What on Equestria were you thinking?” she scoffed at him.
Bitz continued to dust himself off and looked at Bliss. “I may have overdone it there. But I’m fine really.”
He then folded a wing and turned his head to start preening some of his damaged feathers. His preening was a bit sloppy though, as he ruffled through his feathers a bit too aggressively, slightly messing up the other feathers around the damaged ones in the process.
Bliss was walking around Bitz trying to see if there were any cuts or bruises that would need attention. As she circled around him for the fifth time, she noticed something was very wrong with the way he was preening his wings. She puffed her cheeks a bit in anger when she spoke.
“What do you think you were doing? What kind of pegasus pulls a prank like that? You realize that you made me nearly have a heart attack seeing you fall like that?”
Bitz gave a long sigh and stopped preening for the moment and looked at Bliss. “I am very sorry. I pushed myself way too hard and I’m going to be paying the price for this.”
He looked at Bliss who was still scowling at him. It made him feel even worse. “I wasn’t trying to do something like that. It started off as just trying to test out my wings, and suddenly I’m freefalling.” Bitz gave another long sigh. “I ended up getting carried away and nearly got very seriously hurt in the process.”
Bitz moved his wing and head back and started preening again when Bliss looked closer at what he was doing. “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to preen,” he said between gritted teeth. He looked back at her with a feather between his teeth as he nibbled on the feather trying to straighten it out.
Bliss gave a disappointed sigh and moved to his side. “Not something I normally would do, but do you mind if I show you the correct way of doing that?”
Bitz stopped and held out his wing to the mare, not sure if a unicorn really knew how to preen wing feathers. He figured it couldn’t hurt.
Bliss used her magic to gently comb through the feathers, when she came to one that was out of line. “You’ll need to bear with me on this, ok?”
Bitz looked at the mare with confusion. “Uhm, ok why-- YEOW!!!”
Bliss had held out the feather with her magic and then she plucked the black feather from his wing and with a quick shake of her head, she tossed the feather to the side.
“You have a few more feathers here that need tending to, but I think you can do that on your own.”
Bitz nodded as he looked at the tuft of unkempt feathers then to the cute unicorn.
“So, is it normally that painful?”
Bliss looked at Bitz with a raised eyebrow.
“Normally no, however, because you were doing it improperly for so long, it’s not going to be pleasant for a while, but you need to push through it. Otherwise … “She used her magic to hold out his wing, stretching it out. “You’ll have to put more effort into flying day after day. Soon, you’ll no longer be able to keep yourself flying.”
Bitz was curious.
“So, uh how do you know so much about feathers and preening?”
Bliss’s magic faded as she sat and smiled.
“Well you see, my family isn’t all unicorns. My father and brother are pegasi. I had to learn how myself to help my younger brother until he learned how to do it himself. You wouldn’t believe the kind of trouble it was to try keeping him grounded,” Bliss then stood and looked Bitz over.
“Now, I know you’re old enough to know better and blah, blah, blah, but I’ll still say it. You should listen to what your doctor told you. You need to heal properly and try to take better care of your wings.”
Bitz nodded at her statement and request albeit with a slight blush. Here’s a mare that was honestly worried about his well-being. Then a wild idea popped into his head.
“Uhm, Bliss? Would you mind terribly if we had lunch or maybe even dinner sometime?”
“Hmm? Well, I guess I could, I mean I don’t really see any harm from it.”
“Uh, it’ll be my treat of course! It’s the least I could do for your help.”
Bliss thought for a moment and then smiled. There wasn’t any harm from a friendly meal together. It’d at least give her a chance to make a new friend.
“Yeah sure, that sounds fun.”
Bitz stood and had a beaming smile.
“Awesome, it’s a date.” He said as he trotted off to his hotel.
Bliss stood and took a deep breath and shook her head.
“What a strange pony. “ She then started making her way back to the shop when his last words finally registered.
Celestia’s sun was slowly creeping up into the sky gifting the land below with a new morning. A single ray of light was peeking through a the hotel window making it harder and harder for Playbitz to stay asleep. Shifting a bit, Bitz took in a long breath and turned to his side trying to find a comfy spot not flooded with sun. It was going well until he shifted enough to put pressure on his sprained wings which shot a jolt of hot pain through him waking him up.
“OW!” Bitz rolled over and buried his head into the pillow grunting. “Sweet mother of biscuits that hurt. Great way to wake up Bitz, Ugh!”
Playbitz slowly pushed himself off the pillow and matress and finally out of bed. He stretched out his legs like his normal routine. Just as he let out a big yawn another tinge of pain went through his back near his wing joints. This was cause either by sleeping on it wrong or that spectacular wreck yesterday. Slowly stretching, Bitz opted for the latter.
It was a typical morning since his recovery vacation started. First was the hardest part of waking up followed by a long session of nothing but stretches which consisted of Bitz slowly reaching out as far as he could with each appendage. After stretching out a bit, he decided to give his wings a good few flaps to try and see if even flying was possible.
Thankfully, to his relief, the slight hovering didn’t hurt too much more than it did the previous morning. With a sigh of relief, Bitz looked over to the weighted vest resting on his suitcase.
“Alright, now that’s over with, I think its time for a bit of food.” He said to himself as he slowly put on weighted vest.
Immediately after saying something about food, a realization hit him.
“Oh yeah! That’s right! I have that lunch date with Siren! Oh today just got AWESOME! Okay, easy there stud, just relax… cool the jets and play this smooth. Its just lunch. We just met and its not an actual date . . . just lunch with a really really cute mare.”
Bitz stopped talking to himself for a bit and was wondering why he was getting more tired than usual by simply hovering. Looking down right at the vest, he was very happy no pony was around to see the blush go across his face as he quickly remembered he was wearing extra weight.
Firmly landing on the wooden floors, he walked over to a mirror to address himself. Pointing with his hoof to the mirror and himself he gave a stern look.
“Stay cool, calm, and reserved. Its just lunch.”
“Oh sweet Celestia. A DATE… why did he have to call this a date? This isn’t a date! I mean, I just met the guy.” Bliss stopped pacing for a moment and stared off into space for a moment. “Who goes off and is just like ‘hey, I know we just met and all but lets start dating cause you know, why not?’”
Bliss was very flustered. The morning had started pretty average. Waking up, bark at the rays of the sun as she tried to hide under the covers for a but up until her brain woke up and brought up her mental daily schedule. It was when she was thinking about lunch when she remembered what the reckless pegasus said the day before.
“It’s a date. No its not, who the hell just openly declares going on a date without trying to get to know a pony before hand?” Bliss stopped herself a bit and took a few breaths. “Easy girl. He can’t be that naive. Sure, reckless but he can’t be that rash. Look, we’ll just go, set a few things straight and try to have a decent lunch. Oh Shoot!”
The rest of her mental schedule was coming to her and she remembered that she still had to find time to start rehearsing for the competition coming up in the next few days. She was settling down a bit while she remembered what other things she had to do for the day. The only problem was that her mind kept going back to the last words Playbitz said the previous day.
“It’s a date.” Bliss rolled out of bed. The voice of Playbitz playing over and over in her head saying the same thing. “It’s a date. No its not! Its not a date.”
She continued to have the mental battle of trying to go over her daily schedule and the date argument while she got ready for the day. Slowly the argument was making her more and more agitated when she finally had enough.
“No, no more. I simply have too much stuff happening right now to even be considering looking for a stallion yet alone just a ‘date’. I’m going to have to set this Playbitz straight on a few things since . . . really, what block head assumes a meet up is a date?”
Playbitz was making his way through Ponyville to the little café to meet up with Siren Bliss. He left a bit early since he decided to keep wearing his weighted vest. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing to wear but he needed to get used to its feel and weight to keep using it like he’s supposed. The added weight was not very hard to walk around with, but when it came to flying with it, whole different story.
Playbitz rounded the corner to the café and there outside, was Bliss sitting at a table sipping on a tea. As he approached the table, he passed by a waitress and asked that a coffee be brought to the table. He sat down and smiled while he got situated then looked up to see Bliss smiling but looking a little flustered.
“Hello, sorry if I’m late.”
“Oh you’re not late, in fact I think the two of us are a bit early. I had a few things I needed to take care of this morning and figured it would be easier to relax a bit here than try to beat the clock. Better early than late.”
Playbitz smiled as the waitress came by and delivered his coffee. “Will that be all, sir?”
“Yes ma’am, thank you. So, Bliss,” he turned his attention back to her. “I was wanting to say that this …” he motioned to the two of them with his hoof shaking it between them a bit. “…is more of just us meeting up and not like an actual date. Right?”
Bliss’s eyes went wide and she let out a rather big sigh. “Thank Celestia.” She quickly covered her mouth and gave off a sheepish blush.
“I’m sorry if that was a bit rash, just this has been weighing on my mind since yesterday.” Bliss gave off a nervous chuckle. “I mean, could you believe that I thought that you meant this to be a date?”
Playbitz was taken back a little by her rather forward comment but relaxed when what she said made perfect sense.
“Yeah, I mean don’t get me wrong, it would be awesome to get a date with you at some point but a little café lunch is hardly what I would call a good date location.” He said while smiling and taking a sip of his coffee.
Bliss had tensed up a bit more from that statement. She had to set this blockhead straight. “Well, first off I do very much agree with you.
Secondly as charming as that may be to hear, I’m not ready for any type of relationship right now. Too much happening that I fear would take away from enjoying anything a relationship could offer. Or anything I could offer to the relationship.”
While what she said was little, it had felt that whatever chances Bitz had with this girl was dashed before it even was properly developed. He mentally scolded himself Way to go, not only do you strike out any chances but you got her upset. Tact there stallion, tact.
“But you know, you seem like a nice enough pony and I’m always willing to make new friends!”
At a nearby table, a lavender alicorn princess’s ears perked up and began looking around for what may have caused her inner voice to start cheering.
“I can always use new friends. So, shall we possibly start on a better note?” Bitz asked with an unsure smile.
“Why yes, I believe that would be wonderful. Hello, my name is Siren Bliss.” She reached out her hoof and Bitz reached out with his and gave hers a shake.
“Hello Siren Bliss, I’m Playbitz, though you can call me Bitz. It’s nice to meet you.” He said while smiling.
The two sat back down and took a sip of their beverage before continuing.
“So, Bitz could you tell me a bit about yourself? Like could you tell me where you’re from and what do you do?” She said with a bit of enthusiasm.
“Well, first of all, I’m part of a weather team. Nothing too fancy but it’s a living. From time to time I enjoy running into a rogue storm or few and enjoy the feeling and sounds of a good storm.”
Bliss tilted her head and asked. “Rogue storm?”
“Yeah, those are the pesky unplanned storms that brew up every once in a while and some get to be a bit strong.”
“Strange, though I thought that all storms were either planned or at least accounted for at the very least?” Bliss asked as she took another sip of her tea.
“Well, Its rather complicated and while I could go into more details but it gets rather technical and boring if you’re not into the kind of stuff.”
Bitz rubbed the back of his head, knowing full well trying to learn the whole process himself took a classroom and at least a month. “I can go into that more later on if you’re still interested.”
“Ah, fair enough. Lets see, Well I’m from Ponyville and I work at a little music shop. Nothing too crazy but I… wait a moment, you wouldn’t happen to know what time it is would you?” Bliss had asked as she set her now empty cup of tea down.
Playbitz’s smile softened as he looked around. He then motioned for a waiter as they were passing by. “Excuse me, you wouldn’t happen to know the time would you?”
The night was slowly coming to an end. It was a bit hectic but after meeting everyone it was amazing to finally get a chance to be alone with nothing more than just the two of them together.
Bitz was deep in thought as he and Bliss were walking together through the parks pathway when a little splash of a water droplet brought Bitz back to reality to look up. He saw the sky had gone a little grey when he looked back to his right to see a very contented Bliss nuzzled up against him, eyes closed slowly walking alongside him. The droplets started to grow into a sprinkling of rain on the two when Bitz nudged Bliss with his wing.
“Hey.” He looked up. “its starting to rain, but you know I can’t help but to feel like its soothing.”
Bliss looked up at him, a little puzzled but when he moved around to face her she was a little confused until she saw that smile on his face that seemed to make her feel at ease.
“The rain is soothing. But you know what? I think its more soothing just being here with you.” Bliss emphasized as she took a few steps closer to Bitz to nuzzle his neck.
Bitz took a few short steps closer to Bliss and took a deep breath. Bitz was thinking of all sorts of ways to say what was on his mind to Bliss, but from all the creative and complex ways he could think of doing it, he simply let it flow.
“Bliss?”
Bitz’s voice brought Bliss from her quiet soothing nuzzle, the rhythmic heartbeat replaced by Bitz’s voice.
“Hmm, yes?”
“I . . . you and I are best friends you could say right? Like I mean, we’ve been through quite a bit together and from whats happened recently, our friendship has grown to something… bigger.”
Bliss moved back a bit to look up at Bitz as he continued but nodding to him.
“I know that we’re still trying to find our place and all but something is telling me that everything is going to be alright.”
Bliss continued to listen but something deep inside of her started to spark as key words started resonating inside her head.
“Bitz, I think that everything happens for a reason and that no matter what happens, if you’re with me, everything’s alright.”
The small sprinkle started picking up gently to a little rain shower while the two continued. Bitz moved back gently and lowered his head to Bliss as she finished and gently kissed her on her lips. Bliss was caught a little off guard but then closed her eyes and tilted her head to deepen the kiss.
Bitz moved his head back to break the kiss and he put his muzzle to hers when he spoke.
“I love you, Siren Bliss.”
With those five words, the world seemed to not matter any longer. The only one that mattered was the stallion standing before her as she reclosed her eyes and nuzzled against his chin with a slight gasp.
“And I love you too, so very very much.”
Hearing those words, Bitz no longer cared that the rain was getting him and surely Bliss wetter than they wanted to be. He no longer cared, in fact, an unseen force was making his body move as if to a slow waltz getting Bliss to follow. The two lovers alone in the park, standing on a small pathway with the rain as the only sound while the two moved together in a dance.
Bitz stopped dancing making Bliss to look up from her contented yet wet embrace.
“Sweetie, can you rear up and hold onto my shoulders?”
Bliss nodded and after doing what Bitz instructed, he held her close as he stretched out his wings. He then started up their dance again while embracing her within his wings.
Feeling wrapped up by Bitz, Bliss felt like she was being protected inside of a cocoon of warmth and love. By the stallion she loved more than she knew how to express. Suddenly, the little spark inside of her head felt like it linked with her heart and exploded into something she could no longer contain. But it came out softly and lovingly:
“Short steps, deep breath Everything is alright Chin up, I can't Step into the spotlight She said, "I'm sad," Somehow without any words I just stood there Searching for an answer
When this world is no more The moon is all we'll see I'll ask you to fly away with me Until the stars all fall down They empty from the sky But I don't mind If you're with me, then everything's alright”
Playbitz moved his wings and gave a mighty push up, lifting the two gently into the air. Bliss still holding on opened her eyes after her little song and quickly closed them again. She was never one for heights yet alone flying but she trusted Bitz with all of her heart.
