Giornate di Sole
First Day
Through the sun-bathed streets of Ponyville, a young zebra stallion trotted, gently humming a tune to himself. He spread his wings and flew away. Wait, what? Yes, he is a zebra with wings. A zebrasus? A Pegabra? That doesn't matter; this is no story about an alicorn prince, son of the Princess Celestia, bedding gorgeous mares by the score, so on and so forth. Besides, our zebra could never live up to that expectation, mainly considering the fact that he was not interested in mares. I know some of you might be thinking "Oh, this is that kind of story?" Please bear with me, it gets better.
Our zebra, by the name of Haydrien, was napping on a soft cloud, enjoying the breeze against his short cropped black and white mane. He thought alot about his life so far, how he got here, and what he'll do next. Haydrien was a buck of simple tastes, and mostly stuck to himself whenever possible. Born and raised in Dodge Junction, it was hard to make friends or be actively social seeing as, according to the lovely residents of said town, "a dirty wingback," and, also a "Goddess-dammed striper." After coming out to the only pony that could know that he was a coltcuddler, himself, it was in everypony's best interest for him to, literally, 'get the hell out of Dodge'.
Haydrien eventually came upon the quiet little town of Ponyville, hoping to find somewhere to settle down in. After getting a job in helping maintain weather, and turning a few heads for being the only (zebrasus?) in the immediate area, he rented a small house from the local anthropologist, whatever that was. Everypony knew her as Lyra, Heartstrings, or sometimes both! Everypony also thought that she was crazy. What a silly filly, these humans are just the spawn of some foal's imagination; there is no way that they could be real, right?
Anyway, it was the weekend, this means this Haydrien could the the thing that he does best: sleep! He couldn't be bothered with things like others, or tasks around the house. It was his time, just him and this deliciously-fluffy cloud. Nodding off to sleep was easy, staying asleep wasn't as he was abruptly woken up by a mare's booming voice from below.
"Haydrien! Get your stripey-flanks down here!," she yelled from below as precious 'me-time' was stolen from Haydrien.
After gliding down and gently rubbing his tired eyes, he was confronted by a bored-looking pegasus mare. Ah, yes... Hazel, a loud, brash, and maybe even bold, mare. The sun glisten against her, you guessed it, hazel-colored mane that, quite actually, complemented her almond coat. A cutie mark of hazelnuts adoring her flanks.
"What did you need, Hazel?" asked Haydrien, slightly upset over his loss of sleep, but he couldn't stay mad at his best friend for long.
"I'm bored out of my mind! After breaking my wing, I've been so stir-crazy. Being grounded is the worst that that could happen to me!" she whined, stomping her hooves into the dirty to emphasize her frustration.
After slowly blinking his half-lidded eyes, Haydrien started "What can we do, though? It'd be pretty one-sided fun time for a pegasus to try to entertain a grounded one."
"Oh, gee, thanks for understanding my issues! I can always count on you for ideas." she said back, the sarcasm basically rolling off her tongue with each word.
"You know, you're not even supposed to be up and about so soon," he said back to the agitated mare, "Nurse Redheart said to give it a few more days of rest before you go running around. Besides, you're on payed leave, so don't be too worried about it."
"Fine," she groaned back, "I'll rest up like the namby pamby that everypony wants me to be, but if you wanna hang, you know where to find me." She turned around and set off home.
"Later, Hazel! I'll check up on you tomorrow!" Haydrien called back as she was getting further away. A simple nod of Hazel's head acknowledged this.
And with that, Haydrien set off home as well, as it was becoming late in the afternoon, and there were some things that he, reluctantly, had to do around the house.
He left with the sun slowly dipping in the sky.
///
As Haydrien trotted home, he came upon the library of the town's local celebrities. It seems it was quite the commotion as she was greeted by another winged unicorn of pink and a unicorn stallion with a two-toned blue mane and a brilliant white coat and... and... Oh Celestia, those curvy flanks, muscular build, and that gorgeous smile. Before he could shake those thoughts away, Haydrien had found himself dazed and sitting on his haunches after smacking his face into a metal pole.
"Smooth." He thought to himself.
Before he could get himself up and run away in embarrassment, he saw a familiar white hoof in front of him, offering help.
"Hey, buddy, you alright?" The stallion asked, seeming amused and concerned.
"I, uh, was looking at something, uh... over there!" He said obviously making excuses.
"Mmhmm?" he added back, catching onto the zebra's darting eyes and hasty tone.
"So, uh, t-thanks for the hoof up." Haydrien smiled warmly at him.
The unicorn patted Haydrien on the back, causing him to relax muscles that he didn't even realize were tense. "Be more careful in the future, okay?" Shining smiled back as he looked into Haydrien's teal eyes.
Haydrien blushed deeply as he imagined many naughty thoughts about this stallion who was now running a hoof through his mane. A tiny squeak was all that Haydrien could manage.
Shining simply chuckled and trotted back over to his favorite little sister and princess.
Haydrien realized what just happened, the tension in his frame returning. He set off home now with a renewed vigor.
Turning the lock, he slipped into a dark house. It was small, but arranged so that it was homey and felt lived in. Plopping down on his couch with a bounce, he snuggled into a warm blanket, loving the softness rubbing against his coat, nodding off asleep soon after.
He still had some things to do around the house, but he'll do those tomorrow. Right?
Beginning of the Week
After peeling his fur from the couch, Haydrien suddenly stopped and asked himself a question that's been plaguing him for days, “why did I sleep on the couch?” Whatever, it never stopped him from getting a good night's rest.
After a quick breakfast of toast and hay bacon, Haydrien set off to work for another day of wrestling unruly clouds and filling out rainstorm requisition forms. Oh Celestia, the excitement is just to much to handle. At least Hazel's wings are mostly better so she can at least yell at the other ponies on how to do her job.
///
Haydien found himself nodding again on a really fluffy cloud towards the end of his shift. Seriously, why don't we just sleep in the sky? It's not like it will rain on us or anything. After a few more minutes of napping, Haydrien had felt a muzzle brush up against his ear, “WAKE UP, HAY, THERE'S A FIRE!” An awfully familiar voice screamed in his ear. His eyes shooting open, Haydrien put as much distance between himself and the cloud, as if it were... on fire.
An eruption of laughter came from below as Haydrien had found the source of his rude awakening.
“Wow! Really! A cloud on fire!? You really are something, Haydrien.” It had come from Hazel, who, once again, was finally up and about.
“Oh my goodness, Hazel, don't ever do that do me again! You almost gave me a heart attack!” Haydrien yelled back at Hazel who was now rolling over on a cloud and holding her stomach in laughter. After calming herself down, Hazel came over and draped a wing over Haydrien's back.
“Come on, Hay, it was pretty damn funny, but I'm sorry.” Hazel nuzzled Haydrien apologetically. She had suddenly let go any flew a few feet away.
“Whoa, that was getting to freakin' lame for me.” She snickered back at him and gave him a playful shove.
“So, where have you been all day? It's been awfully quiet without you, Hazel.”
“I've been stuck filling out some mindless paperwork and mostly stuff that involves sitting in a chair for hours on end. In short, today was boring as hell. But my wings are better, and you bet I'm ready to use them!” she threw her wings open and winced at the sudden movement of them.
“Jeez, Hazel, you're seriously gonna kill your wings at this pace. Maybe taking it down a notch is good for you. At least for a few days?” Haydrien commented back, trying not to laugh at his friend's recklessness.
“Ugh, whatever, it's cool. I'll just lay up tonight, and read or something like that.” She added enthusiastically.
“Thank you,” Haydrien added with a smug grin on his face. “It's time to go home, Hazel, I'll see you tomorrow. You had better not do anything too crazy without me, okay?”
“Gotcha.” She said back, opening her wings, but this time more gently.
Haydrien watched his friend fly way before heading off home.
///
This day, Haydrien decided to fly home on the clouds. At least now he could avoid kissing anymore metal poles or looking like a damn schoolfilly in front of any Royal Guards.
Beginning his descent towards his house, Haydrien noticed a stallion waiting in front of his house with a box.
“Oh man, it's Silver Buck. He's, like, the cutest mail pony, like, ever! I'd better say something funny and witty to him.” Haydrien thought to himself as he landed a few from his door, getting the attention of Silver Buck.
“Um, are you Haydrien?” he asked quietly.
“Sí Señor” he said back to him curtly. “Shit. I have no idea why I just said that. I heard them say it last time I went to Marizona and I thought it would be appropriate” Haydrien was mentally beatting himself up over that.
“¿En serio?” Silver Buck added back with a small grin on his face.
“Oh, man, I have no idea what he just said. Maybe it wasn't too important.” Haydrien thought, he was panicking in his head at this point. “So, w-what did you need?”
“A package for you from Dodge Junction, sir! I need you to sign for it” He said, bringing his wing into a mock salute and handing over a clipboard.
“Dodge Junction, huh?” Haydrien said back a little deflated. “Thanks, man.” He picked up the package with one wing and opened the door with the other.
“Hey, uh, sorry, I wanted to ask you something!” Silver Buck called to Haydrien who was almost inside. “What was your name?” He asked, unable to look Haydrien in the eyes.
“It's... Haydrien. Isn't that on your clipboard?” He asked him, seeming a little confused.
“Huh? Oh, right.” Silver Buck looked down, blushing. “W-well, I'm Silver Buck. I hope I see you around, Haydrien.” He smiled shyly at him.
“Woah! Is this happening? It is happening! Thank you, princesses!” He was squee'ing like a schoolfilly in his head again. “C-cool. You too, man.” A few seconds passed before they broke their gaze and parted ways.
///
Haydrien had package down on his coffee table and squee'd. This time for real. He quickly grabbed a knife and opened the package, careful not to damage anything inside.
Inside were a small container of home-baked cookies and a letter from Haydrien's mother, asking how has he been, and why he hasn't found a nice mare yet. These questions were usually met with “I've been busy”, or something to that effect.
Setting the package down on his counter, Haydrien let it slip from his mind as he had more things to do around the house, and didn't want to shirk them this time.
