Slide

Chapters

I wanna wake up where you are
I won't say anything at all
So why don't you slide

I wanna wake up where you are

Leaves crunched beneath their hooves, making the silence between them even more uncomfortable for Thunderlane. He stared at the passing grass beside him, his gaze focused on counting every individual blade.

“It’s a wonderful afternoon,” came her voice.

Thunderlane’s head snapped up. He looked over to the mare beside him, his face contorted in shock. She smiled at him, and he couldn’t resist a small grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “It is, Derpy. It is.”

She inched closer to him as they strolled down the well-worn trail leading to Ponyville’s outskirts. Yellows, reds, browns, and even some remaining greens coated the trees lining their path. The air was crisp and clear, perfect for being outside. Barely peeking over the canopy line, the Sun cast a wonderful orange glow over the world.

Thunderlane turned back to Derpy and stared, admiring her like an oil painting. Her blonde mane gleamed like strands of golden hay in the sunlight, and a silly smile graced her features, making her look innocent and adorable.

“So... how was your morning?” Thunderlane asked.

“Oh, good. Dinky was so happy to hear I had plans tonight.”

Thunderlane snorted, his stomach twingeing. “Yeah, she seems to have gotten a lot more recently.”

Derpy tilted her head. “A lot more what?”

Thunderlane shut his eyes and mentally groaned. “More happy. I’ve noticed she’s been a lot happier.”

“I’ve seen that too. I don’t think I’ve seen her act like this in a long time.”

Derpy’s smile started to falter. Thunderlane stomach lurched and he turned to her fully. His goal here was to cheer Derpy up, especially after all she had been through. Grinding his teeth, Thunderlane forced out another sentence, determined to salvage something from this banter.

“Yeah, and Rumble seems to really like having her as a friend,” he added, smiling as he looked over to Derpy.

She turned her good eye to him; her smile stopped fading. “He does?”

“Oh yeah, he won’t stop talking about how much fun she is to be around,” Thunderlane stated proudly, waving a hoof in front of him. “Most of the time, it’s ‘Dinky this’ and ‘Dinky that.’ I think he’s developing his first crush.”

Derpy’s smile spread across her cheeks as she flashed her pearly teeth at him. Without warning, her musical laugh filled the air around Thunderlane, bringing a broader smile to his face.

Well, at least I stopped that from going terribly, he thought.

“I can’t believe it!” she spoke between laughs. “They’ve only been hanging out for two weeks and they’re already so attached to each other.”

Thunderlane’s smile soured this time, especially as she spoke again: “Come to think of it, we only started talking to each other around the same time.”

Thunderlane gave a small laugh at that. “Y-Yeah, we did…”

“Hey, bro! I’m home!”

Thunderlane popped his head up from the kitchen table, where he was cutting up some turnips. A half-eaten piece dangled from his lips. “In here!” he called, trying not to spit chunks of turnip everywhere.

The clattering of hooves against wooden floors sounded in the living room before stopping at the doorway. From there, a smaller light-gray pegasus looked up at Thunderlane with his purple eyes, smiling contentedly.

“How’s your report, Rumble?” Thunderlane asked as he swallowed his turnip.

Rumble trotted up to the table and pulled out a small wooden stool from underneath, planting his rear on it. He reached for some turnip slices. “Pretty good, I guess,” he mumbled as he moved a piece up to his mouth.

Thunderlane’s eyes narrowed. “How good is ‘pretty good’?” he asked, just a little more pointedly.

Rumble shrugged his shoulders at that, rolling his eyes at the same time. “I dunno,” he answered. “I haven’t looked at the grade yet.”

“Why not?”

“’Cause Miss Cheerilee handed them out as we left, so I just grabbed and didn’t bother checking. I just wanted to get out of there.”

Thunderlane sighed, but didn’t press the issue; he had no reason to believe Rumble was lying, but it seemed weird he wouldn’t have looked at it before stuffing it into his bag.

“Well, go and get it. I want to make sure you did well,” Thunderlane said absentmindedly as he picked up another turnip slice.

Rumble groaned, a move becoming more typical as he aged into an adolescent. He had just outgrown his colt stage and was starting to get a little taller, but while Thunderlane thought it annoying at first, he’d come to expect it frequently.

“I’ll get it after I eat,” Rumble said, reaching for more turnip.

“Hey, get it now,” Thunderlane insisted as he slapped Rumble’s hoof away. “I want to see it before you run off for the afternoon.”

Rumble sighed a little too dramatically at that before pushing himself away from the table and trotting out into the living room. Some minutes later, he returned and set a rolled-up piece of parchment on the table before returning to the turnips.

As Thunderlane quickly unrolled the parchment, he expected Rumble to make a noise or give some other sign he knew the grade was bad. But Rumble continued to munch on his turnip slice, giving his older brother an unimpressed look.

“That only worked, like, two years ago,” he muttered.

Thunderlane’s ears flattened, but he ignored the comment. He looked down at the parchment; there on the top-right corner, much to his surprise, sat a large red ‘A’.

“Hey, nice job, Rumble!” Thunderlane stated with a surprised grin growing across his muzzle. “You should have checked this out before coming in all sulky.” He turned the parchment around.

A strange expression crossed Rumble’s face, his bored demeanor gone. With a confused look, he lifted his head, still chewing on a piece of turnip.

“What the? Wait a minute…” Rumble peered at the paper a little harder before an exasperated sigh left him. “That's not even my report!” he blurted out as he threw his hooves into the air.

“So, where are we going?”

Thunderlane snapped out of his reverie and looked around; he locked eyes with Derpy and stared at her for a bit. Somehow, he started to think about her eyes, and all trains of thought in his mind ground to a halt. It was absurdly fascinating to him right then and there that all the eye contact she could ever make was with one of them.

Thunderlane stared until Derpy broke the contact, a small blush on her cheeks. “Oh! Uh, um,” he mumbled awkwardly as his mentally scrambled for the right answer.

Derpy stared straight forward as they continued to walk, causing Thunderlane to squeeze his eyes shut and shake his head, clearing his thoughts. Only when he finished shaking his head did he find the right words.

“We’re going to a hill at the edge of the Forest,” he said a little too quickly, feeling a blush creeping into his cheeks. “You know, the one where the small waterfall is.”

Derpy remained silent as Thunderlane finished speaking; he grit his teeth together again and mentally bucked himself several times for zoning out on her.

Blowing it? Blowing what? You're doing this to make her happy, remember?

As if she had picked up on what he was thinking, Derpy finally spoke up, the small blush gone and a smile on her face. “Oh, I know that place! It’s the one that always has a rainbow near it, right?”

Thunderlane allowed himself a small smile as she turned back to him and nodded. “Yeah, that’s the place. I figured it would be a nice and peaceful spot to relax.”

Derpy’s smile widened as she looked at him; his blush flared up again. “Hey, I’ve got one question, though. Why don’t we just fly there?”

Thunderlane felt his cheeks grow hotter as he searched yet again for the right thing to say. “I dunno, I just… kinda… think it’s nice to walk… sometimes? I mean, why be in such a hurry?”

Thunderlane mentally facehooved, but to his amazement, Derpy nodded to him and looked forward again, her eyes twinkling.

“You're right. What is the hurry? Sorry for that dumb question.”

“Oh no! No problem! It wasn’t dumb at all.”

They continued to approach the spot Thunderlane had picked out in silence after that. His chest tightened with every step. After about five minutes of this, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Hey, Derpy,” he said in a shaky voice, drawing her good eye onto him. “Thanks for coming out with me.” He grinned sheepishly at her, wondering if that was the right thing to say. Much to his satisfaction, a small rosy tint came to her cheeks as she grinned back.

“You're welcome, Thunderlane. I was a bit shocked when you asked, but I’m glad you did.”

“How do you not know if it’s your report when she gives it to you!”

Rumble shrugged again before swigging some juice, looking with mild interest at an irritated Thunderlane. “I told you. She passed them out at the door. It was already rolled up and I took it and stuffed it into my bag.”

“That's still no excuse for you being too lazy to check and see if it was the right one!”

Rumble shrugged again and took another gulp of his drink. “It’s no big deal, bro. I’ll take it back tomorrow, tell Miss Cheerilee she gave me the wrong report, and get mine back from whoever has it. All good.”

Thunderlane pressed a hoof to his forehead, wondering if this was how it felt to be a parent. The situation was both incredibly simple and frustrating at the same time. Rumble was right: he could just give it back to Miss Cheerilee and get his back tomorrow, but it irritated Thunderlane to no end that this could have been easily avoided in the first place.

“Okay, fine. Take it back tomorrow—but make doubly sure you get the right one next time.”

Rumble threw him a mock salute before rising from the table and lobbing his empty cup into the sink. He turned and trotted out of the kitchen before shouting that he was going flying with his friends. The door opened and shut again, assuring Thunderlane that Rumble had indeed left.

Alone again, Thunderlane heaved a sigh before reassessing the report. Now that he looked closely, it was easy to tell this wasn’t Rumble's script. The letters were much too nice and legible, not to mention there was a lot of words in the report. He knew that Rumble—while smart—disliked writing reports, so he often kept them to as few words as possible, usually giving him less-than-stellar grades. It actually amused Thunderlane that Rumble did that, mostly because he was the same way when it came to writing. The fewer words, the better.

Still, he was curious as to whose report this was, so he found the first word and began to read.

It didn't take Derpy and Thunderlane long to reach the outcropping. A small blanket with an even smaller container sat on the soft green grass, while a small bottle of champagne chilled in a bucket full of icy slush.

Thunderlane kicked himself again; of course the ice would have melted during the day, yet he was too dumb to think of the mess it would make. His surprise was probably dry and crusty from sitting in a picnic basket for an hour or so.

A small gasp came from next to him. He spun to Derpy, expecting her to have hurt herself, but instead he saw her hoof touching her chin, an awed expression on her face. Her wall-eye twitched slightly as her good one scanned the site, making Thunderlane’s stomach flutter.

“Uh… heh, do you… uh, like it?” Thunderlane asked. “I kinda thought this would be… er, nice. Just a quiet picnic on the hill.”

When Derpy didn’t answer him immediately, Thunderlane’s ears drooped and a small frown began to crawl up his face. “Well, I suppose… we can just go back to Ponyville if—”

He was silenced as a gray hoof pressed against his snout. He scrunched up his face as his gold eyes turned to Derpy. Her good eye was looking at him while her wall-eye examined his mane. A soft smile and rosy tint illuminated her face.

“It's very nice, Thunderlane,” she spoke softly.

A huge blush erupted across his cheeks as she removed her hoof. Thunderlane was at a loss for words as she trotted by him, taking her place on the red-and-white checkered blanket and smiling up at him. Swallowing hard, he trotted over and sat across from her.

“So, uh,” Thunderlane began, “are you hungry? Thirsty?”

Derpy, however, didn't answer him. Instead, she had her eyes closed, her nostrils dilating. With a sudden jolt, her eyes snapped open.

“Is that what I think it is?” she asked, her lips moist.

Thunderlane glanced down to the basket before returning Derpy’s growing grin. “Um, well, I know you like muffins, and Pinkie Pie told me you particularly like the chocolate-chip ones from Sugarcube Corner, so I got us some.”

He reached over and opened the basket’s lid, revealing a small platter of puffy muffin tops. He noticed the chocolate in the muffins was already melting, leaving a trail of sticky confectionery down their sides and onto the platter. He closed his eyes and grimaced, knowing he should have thought that through more.

“What's wrong?” Derpy asked, causing him to stiffen.

“Oh, um, nothing! The muffins just kinda... well, melted.” He lifted the tray from the basket. Showing the messy pile of chocolate muffins to his date was probably going to be the single most embarrassing moment in his life, but a small chuckle came from Derpy. She covered her snout with a hoof as he set the platter down. “I’m sor—”

“Don’t be,” she said, bringing up a muffin with lots of chocolate running down its side. “I love them when they melt a bit. The chocolate is all gooey and delicious!” Eagerly, she bit down into the muffin, a huge grin on her face.

Thunderlane sat there, a little dumbstruck at her happy demeanor before a smile started to work onto his cheeks. Gingerly reaching down, he picked up his own melting muffin and watched as Derpy licked the chocolate off her hooves. He chuckled at that; it reminded him of when Rumble was younger and would lick the batter off a spoon when he baked a cake.

“Hey, what’s so funny?” Derpy asked, causing Thunderlane to snap out of his reverie.

“Oh, nothing. Just thinking,” he said before taking a bite out of his own muffin.

As he ate, Thunderlane noticed Derpy helping herself to a second muffin, happy as a filly. His chest felt warm and fuzzy as Derpy smiled wider, especially after what he had read about her. Remembering that, Thunderlane’s appetite vanished and his smile melted into a frown.

Author's Note

Say what you want, I love this song.

I will try to update this as often as I can, but it should only be three chapters long. Be sure to go thank Einhander for helping me get this idea and 2135D for the epic cover art.

This takes place in Einhander/Cola_Bubble_Gum's Royalsverse, though it was inspried by Sleepless in Seattle and Slide.

I think I'm losing it.

I won't say anything at all

Thunderlane grinned as he lay on his back, staring up at the orange clouds. Both Derpy and he were trying to identify various shapes in the clouds, a childish game that she seemed to enjoy quite a bit. It was kind of ironic they enjoyed the game so much, especially since they could easily fly up to the clouds and reform them anyway they wanted.

“Oh! Oh! I know what that is!” Derpy squealed, waving a hoof at the sky.

“Which one?” Thunderlane replied. He craned his neck to see where she was pointing. He scanned the few clouds in the sky, but saw nothing.

“That one! Right there!” Derpy said, accentuating her statement with a solid point of her hoof.

Thunderlane followed the direction she was pointing, but was unable to identify which one.

“It’s a carrot!” she insisted with a triumphant smile.

“Oh, right. That one! Yeah, I can’t believe I didn’t get that,” Thunderlane said, still trying to find one that vaguely resembled a carrot. He grinned despite his repeating mental facehooves. “So what is that? Twelve to… uh, three?”

As he turned to face Derpy, shock coursed through him; she was already looking at him, a frown crossing her muzzle. Her normal eye was staring into his while her wall-eye was still inspecting the clouds.

“You don't see it, do you?” she asked quietly.

“Yes! Of course I do!” Thunderlane shouted back. “It’s that one right… uh…” He pointed at the sky, desperately seeking one that could be even mistaken for one, but gave up after the eighth cloud.

His gaze returned to Derpy, who was staring at her hooves. She sniffled, as if on the verge of tears.

“Oh, just… hold on a sec,” he stated, rising to his hooves as his heart hammered against his barrel. “Stay right there. Please don’t go anywhere.”

With a mighty leap and some furious flapping, Thunderlane was airborne and bee-lining to the nearest cloud. He tucked in his wings and corkscrewed around it. He picked up more speed, molding the cloud into a long, carrot-like shape. He flared his wings, stopping his momentum so he could admire his work.

It’s close, but not a carrot yet…

Thinking quickly, he darted off to a much smaller cloud, grabbed it, and affixed it to the thick end of the first cloud. He fluffed it a few times and flew back to the ground, flopping himself onto the blanket right next to Derpy.

“There’s your carrot,” he stated triumphantly, pointing at the cloud he had just made.

Derpy giggled as she looked up at it and wiggled her hooves, much to Thunderlane’s satisfaction. He looked back up at the cloud and sighed, knowing that he had barely avoided a major disaster. He could only revel in his success for a few seconds, though, before Derpy spoke up.

“Hey, Thunderlane?”

“Yeah?”

A gray hoof reached out and tapped him on the nose, causing him to flinch slightly. He blinked and rolled over to Derpy, who had risen to her hooves.

“Tag! You're it!” she squealed before taking off.

Blinking again, Thunderlane watched her fly off to their carrot. He stood up, but watched as she poked her head out from the top, smiling broadly.

“Aren’t you going to get me?” she called down.

Realizing he was still on the ground, Thunderlane shook his head to clear it of absent thoughts. He spread his wings and hunched over, a sly grin gracing his face. Within a second, he was flying straight at the cloud.

Derpy squealed again and took off in a gray streak, but Thunderlane easily followed. The two pegasi weaved in and around the clouds, each one laughing with foalish amusement.

Derpy was much more agile in the air than Thunderlane had expected, making sharp turns and steep dives. He did his best to keep up, but it was evident he would not be able to catch her.

Her flight eventually evened out into a steady glide, a large smile plastered on her face. As she flew, she closed her eyes and reached out her forelegs, as if she had forgotten they were still playing tag; Thunderlane easily caught up then, floating on the thermals just as she was.

Stretched out before them, the landscape was awash with colors, each part of the wonderful sunset in the distance. The town of Ponyville glowed as the purple shadows of the buildings reached out to the duo. The Everfree Forest was a line of deep blue that wrapped around one side of the town, flanked by the small river which gleamed like yellow diamonds. It was a breathtaking sight, but Thunderlane eventually found himself staring at Derpy again.

Trying to force cohesive thoughts again, he managed to say, “Hey, Derpy?”

“Mmm, yeah?” she replied.

“Tag!”

Thunderlane swerved hard to his left and wrapped his forelegs around Derpy. She yelped in surprise, but laughed as he angled them toward a lone cloud in the distance. Once he was close enough, Thunderlane flared his wings, bringing them to a halt. He released his grip on Derpy and she flew forward, landing with a soft flump on the cloud. She kept on laughing, even as she opened her eyes to look up at Thunderlane, who was hovering over her.

Her laughter died down to a smile as she stared at him with her good eye. For a few long moments, neither pony said anything, preferring to stare at each other.

“Thunderlane?” she asked, breaking his stare.

He blinked twice as a blush began to burn his cheeks. “Yeah?”

Derpy pushed herself up from the soft cloud and closed her eyes right before she pressed her muzzle to his.

Thunderlane’s eyes shrunk to nothing more than pinpricks as Derpy kept herself there, her own blush starting to emerge. Her lips were soft, smooth, and felt incredible on his. His wings gave out as he lost himself in the moment, causing him to lose altitude. In response, he flapped harder and somehow flew forward, breaking the kiss.

Derpy yelped as she fell backward, lying on her back while Thunderlane positioned himself over her, trying not to step on any part of her. They locked eyes again, repeating their actions from seconds earlier.

“Hey, uh, Derpy?” Thunderlane asked, starting the banter.

“Yes?” she breathed as the wind picked up a bit.

Closing his eyes and hoping he didn’t miss, Thunderlane leaned in and kissed her again. Despite his best efforts to make it a little less intense than it was earlier, Derpy responded eagerly to his lead by wrapping her forelegs around his neck. After what felt like the best eternity ever, Thunderlane broke the kiss, lifting his head up so her forelegs fell away.

“I barely know anything about you,” he mumbled, “but I feel like I can do this forever with you.”

Derpy reached up and batted playfully at his nose, a small smile on her face as she initiated another best eternity.

Thunderlane scanned the report with a disinterested look. His hoof held up his head as he read, tingling as it fell asleep under his weight. He never was much of a reader, especially of reports and large textbooks. In school, he did his best to hide the latest issue of Wonderbolt Monthly in all of his books. His teachers always told him that he would need the skills he was skipping out on one day, but he found out being a weather pony didn’t require much math or reading, making it the perfect job for him.

Yet here he was, going over a report after evading any serious forms of reading for months. He swore he heard his teachers laughing somewhere in the back of his mind as he pressed on.

He reached out and plucked one of the turnip slices from the cutting board; it was no longer cold, but thankfully still tasted good. As he chewed, an interesting section caught his eye. The mare the report was about seemed to be the best parent in the world, since the author claimed she had fresh chocolate-chip muffins waiting for her every day.

Thunderlane’s mind wandered at that, the scent and taste of melting chocolate filling his senses. The turnip he was chewing on became inexplicably bland in his mouth, and he wondered why it was not chocolate.

Shaking his head, Thunderlane renewed his efforts to read the report. He had only managed three more lines before the chocolate craving returned to his mind, this time twice as strong. Groaning, Thunderlane rolled his eyes as his stomach growled, angry he was not filling it with sweets.

“Okay, fine. You win,” he muttered to himself. He let the report fall onto the table and lifted his rump from the stool. There had to be some leftover chocolate from his last trip to the sweetshop somewhere in the cabinets, he reasoned; alas, he was met with bitter disappointed when all he found was old candy wrappers stuffed into a small cardboard box.

“Great, just great,” he grumbled, glaring back at the report. “You just had to make me want some chocolate, didn’t you?”

The paper remained still.

He snorted, amazed that he expected it to answer him. He never thought clearly on an empty stomach, so he set himself to putting away the remains of the turnip while occasionally glancing at the paper. He tried to read more of it, but the report was shorter than he thought. After only four more sentences, the ornate script of the author’s name revealed itself.

“Dinky Hooves,” he read aloud, tilting his head in confusion. “Who could that be?”

He racked his mind for any Dinkys. Much to his surprise, the image of a gray mare with a blonde mane and tail popped into his head, along with the creepy-looking eyes she had that stared in different directions. He vaguely recalled her saying ‘Dinky’ at one point, but he couldn't be sure. It had been a long time since he had spoken with that mare and, quite frankly, he couldn’t recall her name despite working on the weather team with her. He could remember Cloudchaser saying it was something silly, though, like ‘Darling’ or ‘Ditzy’.

Still, he gathered his saddlebags from the far counter and stuffed the report into one of them. His appetite for chocolate had been aroused, and he was going to have some.

“Maybe the ponies at Sugarcube Corner could help me,” he said to himself.

After, of course, he settled his unhappy stomach with some chocolate, and perhaps some other sweet things too.

Thunderlane wasn’t sure how long he and Derpy had spent on that cloud, but it was worth every second. What little he could recall that did not involve Derpy’s lips was a blur of colors, sounds, and a giddy feeling in his chest. It was the same feeling he had when he was a colt and got a Wonderbolt costume for Nightmare Night; that childish excitement he couldn’t mentally suppress. Derpy certainly seemed to enjoy herself, if the sheer size of her grin was any indication. It was that kind of smile Thunderlane could look at for hours.

By now, the Moon was hanging in the sky, decorated by stars and a few wispy clouds. Ponyville had begun to close up for the night, windows and streetlights being the only source of light in the town. They walked through the streets, both giggling and bumping into one another as often as they could. To anypony else, they surely looked like a couple of drunks stumbling home, but Thunderlane didn’t feel too wasted. Granted, they had drunk a whole bottle of champagne on the date, but the buzzing in his mind stemmed mostly from another source.

“So, what do you have, uh, going on tomorrow?” Thunderlane asked with a nervous smile.

“Just running a couple of errands and making muffins for Dinky,” Derpy said. “Did you have anything planned?” She turned to him, a sly grin slipping across her muzzle.

Thunderlane gulped. “Well, uh, nothing much. Rumble has school and it’s my day off tomorrow, so, uh, nothing much.” For the umpteenth time that day, he mentally bucked himself for his response.

Derpy just laughed and kept on walking, her smile never wavering. “Sounds like somepony’s nervous,” she remarked.

Thunderlane’s wings shivered at that, as he hoped against hope this wasn’t going to lead to where his mind was taking it.

“I’m not nervous. Just, ah, thinking about stuff, and… things.”

Even Thunderlane had to admit his choice of words was rather horrendous at that point. While he was no stranger to dating, he had never felt this awkward around a date since he was younger than Rumble.

“Stuff? Like what?” Derpy asked, the playfulness in her voice increasing.

“Oh, you know. Life and things, you, Wonderbolt tryouts. Stuff like that,” Thunderlane said, trying to play off his nervousness.

Derpy’s eyes twinkled like the stars above. “Me? And just what was it about me that you were thinking of?” she asked, her words slurring slightly.

Thunderlane gulped again, trying desperately not to admit where his imagination was running off to. “Uh, um… I was thinking about you being a m-mom and all. And how much I like that,” he added, wishing he could take the words back the second they left his mouth.

Derpy laughed as she looked away from him. An instant later, Thunderlane felt her tail brush up against his back leg, sending a shiver up his spine.

“Mmmm, I like being a mom, too. Foals are so adorable. I kinda want another one, actually,” she said, the slur in her speech becoming more pronounced.

Thunderlane was sure his coat would catch fire soon. “Oh, really?” he replied.

“Yeah, a little brother or sister for Dinky to play with and pamper. I always wanted a big family, you know?” she said, turning to him again.

Her tail brushed up against his back leg once more as she finished talking, a little more forceful than last time. His back went rigid as his brain scrambled to make a response.

“My family was never very big, but yeah, I always wondered about having a large one too,” he said with a nervous laugh.

“Then where are you going?” Derpy asked as she stopped walking. “This is my place, remember?”

Thunderlane froze in mid-step, looking around wildly; he had been so wrapped up in his conversation with Derpy that he had forgotten he was escorting her home. Turning to her, he gulped once again and forced out a smile.

“Oh, right. Well, uh, I guess this is goodnight?”

“Yeah, it can be. Unless…” Derpy paused, staring at him with a devilish grin.

“U-unless?”

“Well, Dinky is at a sleepover at Sweet Apple Acres. You could come in for a bit and we could, you know, discuss having big families,” she said, batting her eyes at him.

Thunderlane felt his wings shift uncomfortably as they tried to stand up on their own. “As, uh, inviting as that sounds, I r-really don't think…” he said, his blush erupting from underneath his dark coat.

“Aw, please?” Derpy asked, a hint of sadness in her eyes. She placed a hoof on his shoulder. “I’ve had such a lovely day, and I can make you a great cup of coffee.”

Thunderlane opened and closed his mouth, silent as his wings shifted again. His mind ran through tons of options of what to say, all of them turning down her offer in the most polite way possible.

“I, uh, yeah. I’d like that,” he said, going against everything his mind screamed.

A wide grin broke out across Derpy’s face. She turned to the door and pulled out a key from under the welcome mat. After a few seconds of fumbling to find the lock, the door swung open, and Derpy entered, flashing a hungry look and whipping her tail. Thunderlane could only feel the heavy falls of his hooves as he approached the door, hoping not to mess up the night after their perfect day.

“Dinky? You mean Dinky Hooves?” the pink ball of energy shouted at Thunderlane, causing his mohawk to shudder a bit. He rubbed his ear as she stared at his with her wide eyes.

“Uh, I guess so? I just want to know if she or her mother was around,” he replied.

His words had barely left his lips before the door jingled behind him, causing the pink mare's face to light up even more.

“Hi, Derpy!” she called, waving her hooves in the air.

“Hi, Pinkie!”

“Derpy?” Thunderlane asked, turning around with his brow furrowed.

Standing at the door was the mare from the weather team. Atop her blonde mane sat a small blue hat, and a brown bag was slung across her neck. A wide grin split her face as she trotted forward, staring at him with one eye.

“Hi, Thunderlane. How’s Rumble?”

Author's Note

Finally! That terrible delay is over!

So why don't you slide

Thunderlane blinked up at the moonlight as it illuminated the ceiling, his mind churning with activity. It was late into the night—probably early in the morning, truthfully—meaning he should really go to sleep if he intended to make it to the Weather Team meet the next day.

The small nuzzle followed by a sigh into his chest caused him to glance down; Derpy was fast asleep, foreleg draped across him and her head rising and falling with every gentle breath. She looked so happy while she slept.

He gently brushed away some rogue strands of her mane, which allowed him to get a good look at her face. Her mouth was slightly open, lightly blowing around the fur farther down his chest, while her eyes twitched under their lids. He had to admit, she was even cuter when not trying.

Looking back up, he extracted his wing from under Derpy’s body and took a deep breath, reflecting on the evening. After entering her home, Thunderlane had expected Derpy to do the predictable thing and try to seduce him. Sure enough, she was drunk enough to try the dumb line of the ‘coffee being in her bedroom’ and asking him to come get it with her.

Though he had no intention of taking advantage of her, he didn’t necessarily fight back when she pinned him to the bed and started making out with him. Thankfully, she passed out during the brief session and he had laid there ever since, not wanting to disturb her.

On his way up here, he had noticed the walls were covered in pictures. Most of them depicted Derpy and Dinky doing something together—like flying or cooking—but he did notice a couple involving a brown stallion, wearing a bowtie and a large smile. The photos depicted him with his leg around Derpy, or holding Dinky as a foal, meaning he was more than likely her father and Derpy’s special somepony.

Thunderlane scrunched his brow. If that was Dinky’s father, then why was Derpy a single mother? While having a foal out of wedlock was frowned upon on most of Equestria, it was common enough in Ponyville, and he had not heard about any deaths recently. However, Derpy probably had a good reason to be a single mother, and he had no business prying into her past unless she let him.

A soft moan came from his chest; Thunderlane glanced down to see Derpy rousing herself. He lifted his hoof as she raised her head, looking at him with half-lidded, bloodshot eyes.

“Hi there, sleepyhead,” Thunderlane whispered.

“Wha time issit?” Derpy asked, her speech slurred terribly.

“I don't know. Probably like one or two in the morning.”

“Good.” She laid her head back down, this time closer to his neck. “You're comfy.”

“Uh, thanks, I guess,” Thunderlane said, laying his own head back down.

Within a few seconds, Derpy’s faint snores reached his ears.

Thunderlane began to close his eyes too, but felt her hooves begin to wrap around him. Glancing down as much as he could, he could just make out her hoof curl around his chest. He felt her nuzzle his neck.

“So warm,” she mumbled before snorting again.

As he laid back again, Thunderlane knew he was pinned for the night. As he closed his eyes, a strange sense of contentment washed over him. He wrapped a hoof around Derpy. All his questions could wait until sunup; then and there, a sleepy mare needed him, and nothing was going to move him from his spot.

“Oh, is that where Dinky’s report went? I thought it was strange she got a ‘D’,” Derpy said, smiling the whole time. “She's usually a straight-A student.”

Thunderlane snorted as he walked next to Derpy, carrying a brown bag filled with chocolate chips. It was unsurprising that Rumble would get such a low grade, but he could deal with that later.

“Well, Rumble wasn’t really paying attention when he got the report, so I don’t blame you,” he said.

“I’m just glad it was a mix-up,” Derpy said. “Dinky was crying so hard when she got home that she didn't want to make any muffins with me. She just ran into her room and shut the door.”

Thunderlane had to stop and facehoof at that comment. Of course, Rumble’s lack of attention would have unseen repercussions. There would be a severe decline in his social life when Thunderlane returned.

“I'm so sorry about all of this,” he said as he caught up to Derpy. “Rumble didn’t mean it. He’s just kind of… absent-minded when it comes to school. I know he has some brains in that noggin, but lately he just seems to have stopped trying.”

“Oh, don't worry about it,” Derpy said brightly, smiling at him. “It’s probably just puberty kicking in—I’m sure he’ll come around. Besides, it does Dinky good to cry once in a while. She’s always stressed out from school and homework, along with the entrance exam coming up.”

“Entrance exam?”

“For Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” Derpy’s beaming smile was like a second sun. “I’m so proud of my little muffin. She’s been wanting to get in for years, and now that she got a special recommendation from Princess Twilight, she thinks she has to wow the judges like the Princess did.”

“Oh, I see,” Thunderlane said, turning to look forward. “I remember waiting for the Wonderbolts tryouts. Spent months practicing, and sat through the scariest half-hour of my life waiting for them to call my name.”

“You tried out for the Wonderbolts?”

“I did, but you can tell how that went.” Thunderlane looked at his hooves.

“What happened?” Derpy pressed.

“I was still sore from practicing the day before, and my wing cramped on the ninety-degree left turn. Smashed through three of the obstacles and one trainer with my momentum, and then had to be rescued by the real Wonderbolts when I started falling.”

“Oh dear!” Derpy lifted a hoof to her mouth. “I'm so sorry, Thunderlane!”

“Eh, don’t be. If anything, it taught me that I wasn’t meant to be a Wonderbolt.”

“That's not true!” She trotted ahead, pressed a hoof to his chest, and stared right at him. “One failed tryout doesn’t mean you can’t be a Wonderbolt. Sometimes accidents happen, and we need to get over them and try again!”

“Easy there, Derpy,” Thunderlane said, backing his head up. “I’ve come to terms with it. It’s not that I physically can’t be one. It’s that I don’t perform well in front of a crowd.”

“Nopony does! That doesn’t mean you’re any less of a flyer than Soarin, or Spitfire, or Fleetfoot—”

“Derpy, calm down,” Thunderlane said as he resumed walking. “It’s fine. Things played out the way they did for a reason. If I passed the exam and became a Wonderbolt, Rumble would have nopony to look after him, and the Weather Team would be short-hoofed.”

“That is a flimsy excuse and you know it,” she said, turning around.

Thunderlane blinked twice before shaking his head. “Look, it’s all in the past, Derpy—seven whole years ago. It’s not like I totally gave up being one, it’s just I’ve accepted what happened, and am happy with where my life has gone since then.”

Derpy just scrunched up her muzzle and pouted at the ground. “I hate it when ponies give up on their dreams,” she muttered. “I always wanted to be a mother, and didn’t give up when I was told any foal of mine might have the same birth defect I have.”

Thunderlane’s eyes shrunk, his jaw clenched shut.

“Still, it’s your life and you live it how you want to, I suppose,” she continued, looking up. “If you don’t think you can be a Wonderbolt, I can’t change your mind.”

“Oh, ha ha ha. My parents used to pull that on me when I was younger,” Thunderlane said. “My dad always said that when I didn’t make the hoofball team.”

“Doesn’t make it any less true,” Derpy insisted. “You never believed you’d make the team and never did when you tried, right?” she asked, turning to him.

Thunderlane ground his teeth together, a sudden jolt of anger welling up in him. He snorted and turned away from her.

“Don’t act like you know anything about me,” he snapped. “We only met twenty minutes ago. I’ve already told you more than I should have.”

A long silence followed his statement as the two of them stood there, each looking in opposite directions.

Thunderlane snorted as he thought about what Derpy had said, each word followed by echoes of his father’s voice. He had tried to join the Wonderbolts and make the hoofball team, regardless of what the others thought. Life had just never worked out in the way he wanted it to, but he had accepted the inevitability and that he should just go with the flow.

“I'm sorry, Thunderlane.”

He looked up, surprised to see genuine sadness in Derpy’s eyes.

“You're right. I don’t know anything about you and I shouldn’t pretend to. It just upsets me to know that somepony else give up on their dreams, mostly because Dinky says the same thing when she thinks she can’t pass her exam.”

Thunderlane’s bitterness evaporated as he faced Derpy, who was staring at the ground again. She frowned, and looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“I don’t want her thinking she’ll never be good enough to be a Gifted Unicorn,” Derpy mumbled. “She’s meant to do special things and doesn’t… doesn’t need anypony filling her head with doubt. Especially herself.”

“Hey, hey,” Thunderlane said, putting a hoof on Derpy's back. “She’ll pass her exam, even if I didn’t pass mine.”

Derpy looked up at him, her bottom lip quivering. “But I don’t want to hear her say what you said. The whole time you spoke, I pictured Dinky saying all of that to me.”

Thunderlane ground his teeth again, this time out of embarrassment. Thinking back, he did sound suspiciously like a defeatist.

“Look, she will pass her exam. My gut says she will blow away the judges, and have them begging for her to enter their school. If she can write a report as good as the one Rumble took by mistake, she can do much more than pass a simple test.”

He smiled as Derpy wiped her eyes, trying not to break down in tears.

“Y-you really think so?” she asked.

“Yes,” Thunderlane answered without hesitation.

Derpy managed a small smile, and Thunderlane felt the pit in his stomach lessen. While she had upset him, he still should not have lashed out at her for voicing her opinion. What was worse, he had made her cry in less than half an hour after meeting her, a new and shameful record. As his conscious bucked him for his pig-headed behavior, he smiled back to Derpy with his most sincere grin.

“D-do you think you can tell her that?” Derpy asked. “She never listens when I say it… but it might help if somepony else says it too.”

“Absolutely,” he said.

Derpy's smile widened even more.

“And you could help us make some muffins. That always cheers us up.”

Thunderlane nodded. “Sure. It’s not like Rumble will be home soon anyway.”

As Derpy beamed at him, he found himself grinning back. Her smile was really cute—almost cute enough to look at all day.

Thunderlane’s eyes snapped open once he realized he had fallen asleep. Instead of soft moonlight, morning sunlight bathed the room. He glanced around the room, noting it was white with very little in it besides the bed and a dresser.

He yawned as he leaned forward, and glanced around. The morning shift was evidently in full swing, meaning he would have to either work later, or take the day off. The latter choice seemed the best option, especially since Derpy also had the day off.

Derpy.

Jumping at the thought of her, Thunderlane looked down, only to find himself alone in the bed. Looking around the room again, he noticed the door was wide open. After untangling himself from the bedsheets, he rolled off the bed and trotted out the door, hoping against hope she had not already left.

As he made his way over to the stairs, he glanced at the wall and paused. With the hallway bathed in light, he could see the stallion was very striking in his appearance. He had a strong jawline leading up to a mane that curled into backward spikes. His piercing blue eyes seemed to stare back at Thunderlane, causing him to gulp. He was a handsome fellow, one he could see Derpy easily falling for.

Shrugging, Thunderlane turned away from the picture and headed downstairs, his thoughts centered around her. “Derpy? You here?” he called out.

“In the kitchen.”

Turning to his left, Thunderlane trotted through the doorway to find a decent-sized kitchen with a round wooden table in the center, exactly like it was when he had first come over to make muffins and talk with Dinky. The checkerboard floor clicked beneath his hooves, and he smiled as he saw Derpy sitting at the table.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” he said as he sat at one of the chairs. “You're up pretty early.”

“I'm sorry, Thunderlane,” she said quickly. “I shouldn’t have done this to you.”

Thunderlane blinked. “Done what?” he asked.

“Invited you in… kissed you, and Celestia-knows-what-else,” she said, her voice cracking. “You’re a nice stallion, and me taking advantage of you is just… just…”

She placed her head in her hooves.

Thunderlane jumped out of his seat. He rushed over to her, but she was already sobbing by the time he arrived. Without thinking, he pulled her into a hug.

“Derpy, calm down,” he whispered. “Nothing happened last night.”

She only wailed louder as he spoke.

“I’m a terrible p-pony for doing that to you!” she said between sobs. “You were so nice to m-me yesterday, and I treated you like a one-night-stand!”

“You didn’t treat me like anything!” he said back. “All that happened was we went to your room and you passed out!”

“No, I remember kissing you, and then I blacked out!” she cried. “I’m so, so sorry, Thunderlane!”

“Derpy, look at me.”

When she didn't, Thunderlane put one of his hooves under her chin and brought her head up. Her eyes were bright red and swollen with tears, but he stared into them as if nothing was wrong.

“We. Did. Nothing. You didn’t take advantage of me. I just lay there with you. We fell asleep. That’s it.”

He stared at the blubbering mess for a couple more seconds, until deciding that words were not working. Without a second thought, he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, silencing her sobs momentarily. He kept them there until her sniffling stopped; only then did he pull away and focus on her still-puffy eyes. Instinctively, he reached up and wiped a tear away.

“Do you believe me now?” he asked softly.

She responded by kissing him back a little more forcefully than he did, but it was worth it not to hear her crying anymore. He felt her hooves wrap around him and he responded in kind, pulling her into a tight hug.

When she broke the kiss, she nuzzled into his chest. “I was so worried you would hate me,” she choked out, hugging him tighter.

He placed his chin on top of her head. “It would take far more than that to make me hate you.”

“Yeah, but… that’s what Dinky’s father said too. A week before he left us.”

“The brown stallion?” Thunderlane asked, his ears perking up.

Derpy let out a long sigh before continuing. “Yes. His name was Time Turner: my first crush, and Dinky's father.”

“What happened to him?” he asked cautiously.

“He…” She inhaled deeply before continuing, “he loved to tinker with things. But one day, one of his experiments went horribly wrong, and… there was nothing… n-nothing left but a giant black sc-scorch mark on the f-floor. Dinky was only f-four years old…”

Thunderlane hugged her tighter and pressed his chin down harder. “I just… wow. I am so sorry, Derpy.”

“I swore no stallion would ever replace him,” she said.

Thunderlane felt fresh tears wet his chest.

“I’m not going to replace him, Derpy. No stallion ever will,” he said.

“But you make me feel happy again, and… that was the first time I slept through the whole night since he died.”

Thunderlane ground his teeth and thought hard. If anything was to come of the date yesterday—of the night before—he had to make sure whatever he said came out right. Not just for himself, but for Derpy too. He steeled himself and took a deep breath.

“Derpy, you are a beautiful mare,” he said, quivering slightly as he spoke. “I don’t know what it’s like to lose somepony as special as he was, and I probably never will. I hope I never will. Things in life don’t always go the way we want them to, but there’s a time to fight the wind, and a time to follow it. I’ve let it push me along, and it brought me to you, but you… you’ve fought it, and you found me updraft. Call it fate, destiny, whatever you please, but know that I never want to see you cry, or know you can’t sleep at night because you miss him.

“You are the most amazing pony I’ve ever met, Derpy, and I will do what I can to make you know that. I won’t be the same as him, but I am willing to try filling the void.”

Thunderlane closed his eyes, knowing he had misspoken somewhere there. His line about following and fighting the wind was pretty stupid, likely one of the dumbest things he had ever said.

Just as he chastised himself for his stupidity, he felt Derpy grip him tighter and pulled her head out from under his chin. Bracing himself for whatever she would say, he gulped and looked down at her. She still had tears streaming down her face, but the cute smile he remembered was also there.

“Thank you, Thunderlane,” she whispered before kissing him again.

This time, Thunderlane took charge and pulled her in closer, making sure she knew he would never let go of her. The kiss was long,, and he was sad when it ended, but eventually Derpy stared back at him, still smiling.

“What are we going to do now?” she asked.

“First thing is to dry those,” Thunderlane said as he reached up and flicked away a tear. “After that, I’m sure some fresh muffins would be welcome. I think the Cakes made a special kind today.”

“Will you… walk me there?”

“Why don’t we just slide?” Thunderlane said, mentally bucking himself immediately after saying it.

A small chuckle came from Derpy as she placed a small kiss on his cheek. “I'd like that.”

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed it!