A gray colt soared above the ground, flapping his wings ever so often. He glanced downwards, looking over the town he had only just moved to today. He was checking out the scenery while his older brother, Thunderlane, moved the furniture to his liking, it was his brother's house after all. Rumble really never knew his parents, but heard great stories about them from Thunderlane, and also one he didn't like to remember...
Rumble didn't remember this story, but he had been alive when it had happened. Only 5 moons old at the time.
Tunderlane explained this story carefully to Rumble when he was old enough, in fear that the colt would break down and try to run away, thinking that he wasn't wanted. Why Thunderlane thought that, he didn't know, because their parents loved them dearly and would never give them up no matter what, but in this story, they were forced to. They would have fought to the death for their two precious foals, which they basically did...
"Oh cool, there's the school I'll be going to!" Rumble suddenly burst out, talking to himself and nopony else in particular. Looking down upon the little red school-house that resembled a barn quite a bit. He let a smile slip onto his snout, and he decided that he'd go check out the scene, since nopony was there, it was Sunday, right?
He took in one deep breath before he slowly glided over towards a fluffy light gray cloud and touched down on it, then leaped off that one to the next closest cloud, and then the next, and the next, and then... the next. As easy as it was to get up, it wasn't so easy to get down. Well to him, anyways.
When he finally felt himself leap onto the soft earth, little droplets from the dew covered grass soaked into his fur-covered hooves and he breathed out a sigh. Not a sad sigh, a relaxed one, he enjoyed the feel of earth under his hooves, but he also loved the feel of wind blowing through your mane and rush of adrenaline you got while flying.
Rumble, after relaxing for a moment, took a step towards the school-house before a dazzling magenta mare gleefully bounded out of the school to greet the newcomer. When she reached him she offered him her hoof as part of her greeting, then she stated, "Hello little one, that was some exemplary flying! You must be Rumble, correct? Well I'm going to be your teacher, Miss Cheerilee!"
Rumble's brain clicked when she said her name was Cheerilee. He returned the gesture of the hoofshake and smiled, "Yep, I'm Rumble. Nice to meet you Miss Cheerilee." He said politely and gave a slight nod to her, almost like a bow.
"Ohohohohoh! We have a little gentlecolt now! Don't we?" She asked in a kidding voice and pulled her hoof back, then placed it back on the ground. She noticed that after she said this, Rumble had blushed a bit and rubbed a hoof behind his neck with embarrassment. She gave a small giggle and then said, "I'll see you tomorrow, Rumble!" Before turning and slowly trotting back into the school-house.
Now Rumble, left blushing in the school yard, stood there for a few moments just speechless. When he finally collected himself, he gulped and felt the blush leave his face, Cleastia, that was embarrassing... He thought and then speedily began to trot home, wanting to feel the earth beneath him instead of feeling the wind in his mane.
When Rumble got home, he noticed Thunderlane couldn't have been home yet, since the door wasn't unlocked. He shrugged it off and wondered if Flitter and Cloudchaser were home yet, they had said he could come over whenever he liked, so what was he gona do? Go over there house! If they were home...
Which of course, they weren't when he got there.
He sighed and walked back over to his house, looking a bit miserable the whole way, when suddenly a pink mare bumped into him, knocking him over.
"Oopsies! Sorry about that let me-" She cut herself off and covered her mouth with her hooves, gasping, then as soon as she was there, she was gone. Rumble cocked his head to the side when he had come to his senses again, and simply figured that she had been a figment of his imagination and shrugged it off.
He got back onto his hooves and continued on his merry way to... somewhere. He looked around and tried to spot some colts that he could play with while he waited for Flitter and Cloud, or his brother. And it was good that he was looking for some, because soon he spotted a small group of colts, seemingly his age.
He trotted over with a peppy bounce in his step, and when he reached them, he gave a smile, "Hey, I'm Rumble." He declared and extended a hoof to none of them in particular, as soon as he did, a light cream colt with a pure dark brown mane and tail, returned the hoofshake and replied, "Hey! I'm Featherweight." This new colt was actually quite shy, but wasn't when it came to the opportunity to make a new friend. That was a colt, of course.
Rumble smiled brightly, then turned to look towards the other two, one a slender dark gold unicorn with a teal mane, and the other a complete opposite of the other. The slender one was the first to speak, "Well ehh, I'm Snails." He said with his blank stare, and light smile.
Then the stout unicorn next to him spoke up, "And I'm Snips!" He said in the most annoying voice nopony could ever imagine. It was squeaky, yet deep and... it was just indescribable. Though, Rumble didn't mind it, he was just glad to be making some new friends. Rumble scanned over the colts, then noticed that Snails had something at his hooves. It was a bright red ball, shining brilliantly in the sun that covered the land.
He cocked his head to the side, and motioned towards the ball, "What's that-" He was cut off by a brown and orange blur, streaking past him with the ball now rolling at his side as he tapped it harshly every so often. To Rumble's surprise, Featherweight streaked after the thief in an instant, fluttering his cream wings to give him a boost. Snails stood dumbfounded for a moment before chasing after them with Snips at his heels.
"Hey!" Featherweight had shrieked, with a hidden giggle as soon as the brown and orange blur had stolen the ball right from under Snail's snout.
Suddenly, the blur stopped dead in his tracks, making dust fly up behind him as he came to a stop. The blur was a pony, also his age, who was a dark chocolate brown, and had an orange mane, with streaks of darker orange mixed into it. And now that he had stopped, the others who had been pursuing him, collided with him, making a loud CRASH.
When the dust cleared from around the jumble of ponies who were piled into a heap, the dark brown and orange pony at the bottom, the new pony spoke, "Hey, I'm Button Mash." He said coolly, with a sly smile spread slickly onto his face, "Why aren't cha playing 'Capture' with us?" He asked simply, now shaking the other ponies off himself.
Rumble looked at the shimmering ball that was the supposed target of this game and made himself keep a straight face. Then dived for it, the game finally clicking in his brain.
As far as Featherweight could tell, he and his friends were pooped. He and the 'gang' were sprawled out in a meadow just in the outskirts of Ponyville. He honestly couldn't believe that they had chased the ball all the way over here, just to collapse from exhaustion. Plus it was getting late, how long would it take them all to get back home? Featherweight was usually a worry-wart, but now he was just to happy to be one at the moment.
"Well, I have to get going." Rumble said, pushing himself up with his forehooves. He sat on his rump for a moment, stretching out his ruffled wings. Featherweight was disappointed with this, but said his goodbye, the others did also, and watched Rumble swiftly dart away from the group.
After a while, the sun was starting to sink back and the moon starting to rise up. Featherweight was now the last one in the meadow, since the others were all worried about getting home before dark. He on the other hoof, was not, unlike he usually was. His parents were off some place and he was supposed to go over to Shady's after the normal sunset. The sun hadn't set yet, so he figured that he would sit here and enjoy the tranquilness of the area. Feathers let a sigh escape from him as he looked at the setting sun, but almost as soon as he did, he heard a noise.
He froze at first, then spun over onto his stomach, and then he pressed his head to the ground and waited. His waiting came to and end in a moment, for he saw the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. An ivory unicorn, looking as if she was almost a newly shined piece of real ivory. Her mane was a pastel purple, with streaks of another type of pastel color, pastel pink. And her eyes, such a lovely olive green. Featherweight new this little pony, she was his classmate, she was Sweetie Belle.
Suddenly she stepped up onto a lonely brick-colored rock and inhaled deeply, before Featherweight knew what she was doing, she began to sing. Featherweight was mesmerized by her confident, yet gentle and dainty voice. She was so... beauti- No, Featherweight! He thought forcefully, She is a gross, icky, disgusting- ... beautiful, charming, lovely, elegant-
THUMP!
Uh-Oh... Featherweight jumped up and bolted over towards Sweetie Belle, who now was laying down. She had went face first off the rock. As he sped over to her, images flashed through his mind of her, scratched up, hurt, mangled. Cleastia, he was a worry-wart, wasn't he?
When he finally managed to reach her, she was sitting up and mumbling, "How could I be so clumsy?" Her hoof was pressed to her nose and he noticed when he came into her view, that tears were leaking from her eyes slowly, leaving clear stains. And he realized that blood was coming from her nose, getting some of her hoof that was squishing against her nose to stop the progressing bleeding..
"Sweetie Belle?! Are you alright?" Featherweight asked in shock, and winced when she bolted up, letting blood trickle down from her snout. She sniffed and wiped her face, catching any tears that were left under her eyes, while she accidentally smeared some blood across her face.
She sniffed once more and forced a small smile on her face, "Oh! Uh- Featherweight! Hi- Y-Yeah, I'm fine." She lied and ran her clean hoof through her mane, she had always thought Featherweight was so kind and caring, and now she was embarrassed that she did something so clumsy- And in front of him!
Featherweight took a step towards her and frowned, "Ar-Are you sure?" He asked her as she took a step away from him.
She nodded vigorously and replied, "Y-Yeah."
He nodded then shuffled his hooves as he worked up all the courage inside of himself to finally ask, "At least let me walk you home." He looked up in time to see a pink blush on her face.
She gave a shy smirk, "Alright." She responded and watched Featherweight's shocked reaction. Featherweight was thrilled! And definitely proud of himself. He cautiously walked up to her, afraid he had dozed off in the meadow and this was a dream.
As they left the meadow side by side, Featherweight still thought that he was in a dream, and would see Princess Luna at any moment, but frankly, he wasn't. He, the scrawny pipsqueak, walking the most beautiful pony in all of Equestria, Sweetie Belle.
Soon they were trotting down a cobblestone street, coats almost touching. They hadn't spoken the whole time they were trotting along, and Featherweight didn't mind. It was a nice peaceful night, plus they were both enjoying it, just walking in silence, side by side... and before they knew it, they were at Carousel Boutique.
Sweetie stood at the door and swirled her hoof around in a perfect circle, "Thanks, Featherweight. I really appreciated this." She spoke silkily, a blush creeping back onto her ivory and blood smudged face as she looked up into his deep brown eyes. She took a step towards Feathers, and he felt his face burn. Was she going to-
She kissed his cheek lightly, and she hurried into the boutique with a quick, "Goodbye, Featherweight."
He stood there, outside the boutique, mesmerized, and placed a cream hoof to where she had kissed him. He slowly pulled it down his face and felt some dry blood crumble away. He blinked once before saying aloud, "Sweet."
*****
"Woah, she really did that!?" Shady Daze asked, just as shocked as Featherweight had been when Sweetie Belle had kissed his cheek.
Featherweight nodded, his eyes having a dreamy look in them. He sighed and touched his cheek one more time- after he had touched it maybe... 22,568,342 times already. He didn't care that a tiny red smudge was where she had kissed his cheek oh so gently.
Featherweight absent-mindedly placed his hoof into the bowl of popcorn in front of him, trying to grab some, but accidentally spilling popcorn from the bowl. A moment later he was brought back to reality when Shady Daze's mom trotted in, "Featherweight, Shady Daze, time for dinner!" She announced cheerfully, but then grimaced at the mess of popcorn that was still flowing out from his bowl.
Featherweight immediately stopped and smiled sheepishly at her, "Oh, al-alright." He said and piled the popcorn into a neat pile, which made Shady Daze's mom's face ease up a bit. He stood up as soon as she left the room, and so did Shady.
Featherweight shook the thought of Sweetie Belle and Shady Daze's mom away from his thoughts, and made his way down the stairs, Shady trailing behind him. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, a scrumptious scent of Apple Brown Betty filled their nostrils and they bolted towards the kitchen for a reassuringly yummy meal.
And thankfully it was scrumptious indeed, both of them probably having more then three helpings of Creamed corn, Mashed potatoes, Bread, and Broccoli, plus Apple Brown Betty. As soon as they finished, cleaned off their plates, and washed up, they trotted up stairs in a flash, to gossip about Sweetie Belle, plus the other girls in school.
