MLP: Friendship is Adventure

Midnight couldn’t help pacing back and forth in the waiting room, sweating with worry as Thunderlane, Big McIntosh, and zaps all sat, all worried as well.

Oh dear Faust, please let him be alright! Midnight pleaded to himself.

Gone were any thoughts of his previous intentions regarding Frostfright. The only thing that mattered now was the well-being of his little brother.

Unfortunately, the worry and stress did not sit well with Midnight’s stomach, still quite stuffed from his visit with the Apple Family. What he felt instantly made Midnight cover his mouth and run for the bathroom. The stallions and colt winced as they heard the unmistakable ralphing from the stallions’ room. A few minutes, Midnight stepped out, panting, and looking even more upset. So Big McIntosh went over and held out a can of soda he’d gotten at a nearby machine.

“Drink up, it’ll help settle yer stomach.”

“Thanks, Midnight groaned as he took a seat on one of the benches. Thunderlane went over, asking, “You ok, brony?”

“I’ll be fine,” Midnight lamented, “I just hope my brother will be.”

“Ah’m mighty sorry,” Big Mac apologized, sounding down. “Ah take full responsibility.”

“It’s ok,” Midnight assured him, “You couldn’t have known about my little brother’s allergies.”

“He’s right, big brother,” Zaps seconded, hopping onto the stallion’s back, and hugging him from behind his neck.

“It was just an accident.”

“I just hope my family we’ll see it that way,” Midnight grumbled. “I can already hear my father, scolding me.”

“Ah take it yer pa’s kinda…strict?” Big Mac asked.

“‘Strict’ would be putting it nicely,” Midnight replied as he leaned against the wall behind the bench and took a sip of the soda.

“My mother would just be worried, my sister would be assuring me I’m not at fault…”

“Y’have a sister too huh?” Big Mac asked, “Wha’ she like?”

“Eponya,” Midnight answered, “very strong and beautiful mare, just like our mom. She works as a teacher for unicorn foals at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She’s nice, encouraging, but firm when she has to be.”

“Sounds like a dandy fine mare t’me,” Big Mac chuckled.

“My mother will be understanding about this but my father?” Midnight hissed through his teeth. “Just add this entire experience to his list of ‘Reasons why my Oldest needs to quit his silly dreams and learn responsibility by joining the Royal Guard’.”

He noticed everypony, including the nurse at the desk, was giving him a look.

“…Sorry.”

“Listen, Midnight,” Thunderlane spoke up, “I don’t really know what’s up with your family, and I won’t ask. But this was an accident, plain and simple.”

“Eeyup,” Big McIntosh agreed.  “Past is past, pardner. All you can do hope fer th’ best, and be there fer yer brother.”

Zaps and Big Mac smiled at each other, as Midnight closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Thanks, everypony.”

At that moment, the doors opened and out walked Doctor Stable, all of them getting up, Midnight asking, “Doctor, how is he?”

“Exhausted from the whole thing, but he’s going to be fine,” the unicorn doctor assured. “We were able to reduce the swelling with a spell and get him breathing again. Then we administered the medication and got him to sleep.”

Everypony sighed in relief.

“It’s a good thing he swallowed only a little,” Doctor Stable explained, “after a good night’s rest, he’ll be fresh as a daisy by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Midnight looked uncomfortable. “I have to get these preparations done today! But I don’t wanna leave Twinken alone!”

“I’ll stay, Mr. Midnight,” Zaps volunteered. “Twinken’s my friend, so I’ll stay with him all night, and you can get back to checking on everything.”

Midnight wasn’t really sure if he was willing to leave the care of his brother with another colt, when the nurse spoke up, “I’ll check on them every hour on the hour, sir, and young Zaps can let me know if anything comes up.”

“Excellent idea, Nurse Redheart,” Doctor Stable replied. “Well, Midnight? You do realize if you don’t get your job done, the celebration will have to be canceled, but I understand if you want to stay.”

Midnight sighed, realizing that was true. As much as he was worried for Twinken and wanted to stay with him, he didn’t want to disappoint Ponyville, or his teacher, Princess Florinda.

“Alright, but hold on.”

Midnight took a piece of paper from the Nurse Redheart’s desk, and signed his name on it while casting a spell.

“Nurse? If something comes up, write it down on this paper and sign your name. The message will be teleported to me, and I’ll come straight away.”

“Of course,” Nurse Redheart obliged.

After checking Twinken, and seeing he was blissfully asleep, Midnight was finally comfortable with leaving him there with Zaps and Nurse Redheart, and followed Big McIntosh and Thunderlane outside.

“Ah’m gonna go let th’ fam’ly know yer lil’ brother’s alright.”

“Ok, nice meeting you, Big Mac,” Midnight said, shaking the farmer’s hoof, “and let Applejack know no hard feelings.”

“Eeyup!” Big Mac smiled and headed off.

“Shall we continue with the tour?” Thunderlane asked.

Sighing, Midnight said, “Alright, let’s check off ‘catering’ from the list. Next up is decorations.”

“Then we’re off to town hall!” Thunderlane declared.

Finding town Hall wasn’t a problem, as Midnight had seen it back in the square. What he wasn’t expecting was to see all the flowers, vines, and floral décor, along with birds and critters.

“Where did all this flora and fauna come from?” Midnight asked.

“Huh?” Thunderlane gave him a confused look.

Sighing, Midnight deigned to use simpler terminology, as he rephrased the question.

“The pretty flowers and cute little critters?”

“Oh! Well,” Thunderlane pointed towards the front door, “I think the decorators are inside.”

The interior of Town Hall had been transformed into a floral wonder, like an indoor garden. Flowers, tied with ribbons hung in strategic places, the carpet had been covered with cherry blossom petals, there were even a few bells. The only thing was, most of the decorations were being handled by the critters they’d seen outside, squirrels, birds, rabbits, raccoons.

“Well, I must say, whoever is responsible for all this is a visionary!”

“Beautiful…” sighed Thunderlane.

“I must agree, beautiful indeed,” Midnight seconded.

“Not the décor, her!” Thunderlane pointed out a butter yellow Pegasus mare, her mane and tail long and pink like blossoms, her cutie mark a trio of butterflies. With her was an earth pony stallion, his coat was a clover green, his mane and tail green like pine, with streaks of soil-brown running through them like roots. His eyes amber while his cutie mark was a pinecone with a sprig of pine needles.

“Well done, little ones,” the mare spoke with such a gentle and adorable voice.

“I can’t thank you enough, Fluttershy,” said the earth pony, blushing a little as he watched her guide the blue jays as they raised a large bouquet and hung it on the chandelier above with the others.

“When the Mayor asked me to provide all the flowers for the decorations, I wasn’t sure how I was gonna get it all done.”

“It’s my pleasure, Forster,” Fluttershy assured him when she noticed the newcomers. “Oh! Um, hello!”

“Good afternoon,” Midnight greeted, “my name is Midnight Blaze, here to check on the decorations. I must say, you’ve done a wonderful job.”

“You’re…w cum…” Fluttershy whispered, shrinking back a little from Midnight’s praise.

“Pardon?” asked Midnight, “I didn’t quite hear you.”

“She said, ‘You’re welcome’,” answered Forester. “I was actually the one given the task for decorations, and I was a little out of my… comfort zone, if y’know what I mean.”

“I don’t see how, considering the job well done,” Midnight assured as he looked around.

“Well, Fluttershy… she kinda offered her help,” Forester explained, looking sheepish, “and she showed up with all her critters, and… They’retheoneswhoreallypulleditalltogether!”

Midnight was a little taken back by Forester’s rushed talk, when Thunderlane zoomed up and gave the earth pony a noogie, saying, “You charmer, you! I’m actually a little jealous!”

Forester turned red as Big McIntosh as he appeared to pass out.

“Oh my!” gasped Fluttershy as she checked on him.

“Well, uh!” Midnight instantly wanted to be out of there. “The décor is obviously in good hooves! We’ll let you, uh… get back to it.”

Midnight grabbed Thunderlane and teleported out of there.

“Phew!” Midnight wiped his brow as he and Thunderlane walked down the street. “Well, I guess it’s time to check on the weather.”

“Hmm, last I checked the morning roster, Starfyre’s supposed to be on weather patrol,” Thunderlane replied while looking up.

Midnight followed his example in scanning the sky and noticed how cloudy it was.

“Well, he’s not doing a good job is-”

“INCOMING!”

“What the?” Midnight looked towards the sound of the voice and…

“OOMPH!!”

It’d only been a split second but for Midnight it felt like an eternity, as he’d seen a figure crash into him from out of nowhere, sending them both tumbling on the ground for a few seconds. When they stopped, Midnight was flat on his stomach, crushed by the weight of a Pegasus stallion with a coat yellow like a harsh ray of sunlight, a swept-back mane and wild tail, orange at the roots but the rest a burning blue, like the most intense tongue of flame, his eyes were bright red, and his cutie mark was an orange and yellow flame shaped like a Pegasus wing.

“Ooh…” moaned the stallion on top, massaging his head “…that didn’t turn out right.”

“Really? It didn’t?” asked Midnight, the venom of his sarcasm made evident. He might have yelled were his lungs not on the verge of collapse. Despite being on his back, he was able to notice the stallion was wearing a Wonderbolts uniform, but one that showed he was a recruit, not a full-fledged member, and he also had on a pair of goggles, that unfortunately had cracked, likely from the crash-landing. He noticed Thunderlane was gaping at them, and as the realization dawned upon him, he looked to be on the verge of laughter.

Then the stallion took off his goggles and yelped, “Aw man! That’s my second pair this week, my trainer’s gonna kill me!”

“Ahem!” Midnight cleared his throat, the stallion looking down and apparently noticing him for the first time, their eyes blinking.

“Hello.”

“Did I…?”

“Yes.”

“Well, heh…” the stallion rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed, “this is awkward.”

“Indeed,” Midnight deadpanned.

“Been a while since I crashed into anypony.”

“You don’t say…”

“No hard feelings?”

“That depends – Are you Starfyre?”

“That’s me, Ponyville’s premier weather pony and promising recruit of the Wonderbolts, at your service.”

“Great!” Midnight beamed, looking happy. “Say, Starfyre, if it’s not too much trouble, mind doing a little something for me?”

“What’s up, brony?”

“Oh nothing, just a teensy favor to make my day a little easier.”

“Sure thing, shoot!”

“Would you be a gentlecolt and…” Midnight started off, sounding polite before he did a pretty good execution of the Royal Canterlot Voice and thundered, “GET THE BUCK OFF ME!!!”

Somehow, from his position of being flat on his stomach with a full grown stallion on his back, Midnight was able to buck Starfyre off and send him flying while Thunderlane helped Midnight to his hooves.

“You ok, brony?”

“Considering somepony just crashed into me…” Midnight seethed as he dusted himself off, while Starfyre promptly returned, looking miffed.

“Ok, I’ll admit I was kinda acting like a dunce there,” he griped, “but was that really necessary?”

“If you’re goofing off and plowing ponies into the ground, then yes,” Midnight retorted. He gathered himself with a deep breath, then said, “I’m Midnight Blaze, and Princess Florinda assigned me to check on the weather.”

“Yeah-yeah, I’ll get it done in a few,” Starfyre waved off as he lazed on a cloud. “Just as soon as I’m done practicing.”

“For what?” asked Midnight.

“The Wonderbolts!” answered Starfyre, pointing to a poster on a nearby tree. “They’re performing at the celebration tomorrow! And I’m gonna show my trainer how much I’ve improved!”

“The Wonderbolts?”

“Yep!”

“The most tested and skilled flyers in all of Equestria?”

“You know it!”

“Ppht!” Midnight had handled these types before. “As if they’d let in a clumsy Pegasus who couldn’t keep the sky clear for one measly day!”

“Yo!” Starfyre neighed, Midnight having gotten his attention. “I could clear this sky without even touching one cloud!”

“Prove it…” Midnight smirked with narrowed eyes.

Growling, Starfyre leapt off his cloud, taking flight. He zoomed straight up into the air until he was so high he looked like a yellow speck.

“You might wanna keep your head low,” Thunderlane smirked.

Ignoring him, Midnight’s horn glowed and conjured a pair of binoculars and looked up. He looked to see Starfyre was diving straight down, leaving a trail of embers in his wake. He zoomed past one cloud and almost-instantly it evaporated into nothing.

The Pegasus zoomed to and fro, up and down, evaporating every cloud he zoomed past, until…

“Loop de’ loop around and whoosh! See? What’d I tell ya? Without even touching one cloud!”

The sky was perfectly clear, leaving Midnight to gape in shock that Starfyre really had cleared it without actually touching the clouds. Unfortunately, Midnight had not heeded Thunderlane’s warning to keep his head low, and his mane had paid the price.

“Ha! You should see the look on your face, priceless!” Starfyre gloated. “You’re a riot, Midnight! Let’s hang later, `kay? Later Thunder!”

And with that, Starfyre zoomed off, Thunderlane saying with a smirk, “Scary, isn’t he?”

“Rrgh!” Midnight growled, having been made to eat his own words as he huffed off, Thunderlane following as he said, “Wait! It’s actually kinda stylish in a… swept up way!”