Remember

by Strawberry Jelly

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Slice of Life
Length: 5686

After a childhood friend disappears from your life, you find yourself being forced to live life like nothing has changed. Years later, you meet a mare that catches your interest, but what if your old friend steps into your life once again?

[2nd Person Story, starring 'you', Rarity and Pinkie Pie]
While growing up on a glass farm wasn't what you'd call the best thing in the world, you did have an amazing friendship with your neighbor's daughter. Pinkie Pie and you used to get into all kinds of mischief when you two got together on the weekends. You'd usually stay the night on the Rock Farm with her and you two would stay up in the barn all night telling jokes, playing games, and pulling pranks.
One day she just disappears without explanation, and you are forced to live your life like nothing happened.
Years later, during your trip to the Hearth's Warming Arts Festival, you find yourself being put into what you initially assumed to be a one night stand, only to find out that it was only the start of something more. Toss in meeting your old friend, and what do you get? A concoction for insanity.

So here's something new that I thought I'd try. I've been having writers block on my other story recently, so I decided to try and at least expand a little to help keep me on top of my game.
It's a new style of writing for me to work with, so I hope it turns out okay.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-20 11:30:04 UTC

Prologue

Remember

By Strawberry Jelly

Prologue

Your hooves clack quietly beneath you with each step against the warm pavement.  Today is your favorite day of the week:  Saturday.  It was the day that you get to visit your best friend in the world, Pinkie Pie, and spend the night at the rock farm!  Not that you really have any interest in farming; after all, you spend most of your time making glass with the storm clouds imported all of the way from Las Pegasus.

As for why you're walking instead of flying to your friend's house, it's just because you spend almost all of your time off of the ground, so you relish the chance to actually use your four hooves every once and a while.  Up ahead you can already see the gates to the “Quartz and Ruby Acres” that was the pride and joy of Igneous Pie.

“Oh my gosh, you're late!”  Pinkie cheered excitedly and dashed full force into you, causing you both to tumble across the road in a fit of flailing limbs and giggles.  “I was starting to worry that the blockworms got a hold of you again!  I would've had to have gotten your mom and dad again and they really scare me sometimes, but you know I would've done it to save you, silly filly!”

“... But I'm a colt,”  You comment, barely processing her ranting apart from that ending nickname that you hate so much.  You're going to grow up to be a big and strong stallion, not a mare!  Granted, no matter how many times you tell Pinkie, it never seeps in through that cotton candy head of hers.  Not that you were expecting it to, but it would still be nice to know that she understood.

“So, I made this super yummy cake today and Maud said I couldn't have any until after dinner!  Can you believe that?!”  Her lips turn downwards with those infernal puppy dog eyes that dominated you like a marionette with its strings being pulled.  “You'll help me get the cake out of the kitchen, right?”

“I-”  Your objections are destroyed the moment you see her eyes widen and water, showing off the full reflection of Celestia's golden sunset.  “Well, duh!”

“Yay!”  She squeaks excitedly and jumps up off of you, smiling and showing off her silver braces.  “We'll just take it to the barn and eat it all before dinner, what do you think?!”

“I think-”  You take a deep breath and smile back at her.  No matter how hard you try, you can never seem to object to her smile, “I think we better get that cake, then!”

Climbing back onto all four legs, she quickly pulls you by your forehoof towards the farm in a blinding blur.  Whether or not sugar is the power source for her superpony strength and speed, you always find yourself having to break out into flight just to not have your leg dislocated.

Approaching the open kitchen window, you can smell the savory scent of chickpea burgers and hayfries waft through the air, but the bliss is short lived as Pinkie tugs you harshly down below the window seal.  Her hoof meets your lips before you can object, but the sugary taste that it leaves against your mouth is enough to let you enjoy the brief contact.

“Okay, so here's the plan,”  She uses her other hoof to trace out her plans into the dirt between her hind legs.  “Maud has a superpony sense of hearing, so we're going to have to distract her by blaring the music from the record player in the living room.  She really hates that really noisy Slim Whitpony song that dad likes so much, so she'll have to go turn it off.  That's when you come in through the window and steal the cake!  Alright?”

“Alright, but-”

“Great!  We'll rendezvous back at the barn at 0800 hours!”  Pinkie cuts you off with a stern, false military-style voice.

You're left in the dust as you watch Pinkie sprint off around the corner of the house, leaving an impossibly perfect puff of dirt that was shaped like her.  How she manages to do these things is beyond you, but Pinkie seems to really just have this weird power to break reality.  Quietly you file that in your mental filing cabinet, right next to the mysterious Pinkie Sense.

“It's already nine!”  You shout after her and gently poke at the dirt with your forehoof lazily.  With the speed she was going, you'd imagine her to have more than managed to make it to the record player and then some.  Just as you stand up, the entire farm seems to shake violently from the loud song that echoes from the  living room.

Fighting through the pain shooting through your ears, you cautiously peek in through the window to see Maud still standing there, unphased by the noise.  Not only that, but she is acting as if she hadn't noticed it at all.  You mentally facehoof at the sight, but realize that it is Maud that you are dealing with, after all.

Luckily though, the stove that she is working at just happens to be facing away from the cake that was on the center table behind her.  Cautiously, you crawl through the window and try to ignore the tantalizing taste of chickpea as you slither on your belly towards your goal.  Gently and carefully, you lift yourself off of the ground with your wings, having the blaring song mask the sound of flapping.

“Easy does it,”  You think to yourself as you slowly reach your forelegs forward, hooking your hooves through the handles and starting to pull back, only to meet face to face with one Maud Pie that had turned around for the spatula that was left on the table.

“What are you doing?”  You see her mouth moving, but you can't make out a single word that she's saying.

“Uhm...  I must abscond!”  You stall for only a moment, looking around the room before spying on the window that you had entered from and quickly fleeing through it with your prize in hoof.

You're almost certain that there will be tartarus to pay later for being caught, but that's part of the charm of living in the moment.  Besides, you know just how delicious this cake's going to be  the moment you and Pinkie bite into the fluffy cotton candy icing.  Quickly, you open the door to the 'Clubhouse' that Pinkie had lovingly deemed the barn as.

“Yay, you're here already!”  Pinkie poked her head out through the trapdoor to the loft above you.  “Hurry, bring the cake up here so I can raise the ladder!”

A small smile shows itself at the corner of your lips, but you oblige and place the cake onto the lift and climb up the rope ladder to meet your friend.  Her eyes glisten like diamonds the moment she finishes pulling the cake up to the loft with you both.

“Maud caught me though, so...”  You look out the window towards the sunset with a sly grin on your lips.

“Oh?  So I won the bet again?!”  Her face turns back to yours, showing a grin that only widens at the realization of what that meant.  “Let's see...  That makes ten minutes, right?”

“Ten?  But it's only five normally!”  You hiss, taking a nervous step back.

“Well, yeah, but you didn't let me last time you lost either!”  She kneels down slightly, shaking her flank like a cat with a viciously playful look in her eyes.

“Mercy!”  You yelp out before feeling a heavy thud against your chest and having two hooves tickle at your sides relentlessly.  It's times like this that you regret ever accepting that bet:  When you two ever go on a mission or anything and one of you fail, the other gains free reign to do whatever they want to the other for five uninterrupted minutes.  Of course you're elated whenever Pinkie messes up, but you didn't realize back then that she never messes up.  One of her bizarre powers seems to be that the more ridiculous of a thing you two do, the lower chance of failure she has.

“Mercy is for the weak!”  She laughs maniacally with a villainous mustache somehow appearing on her face when you weren't looking.

After about fifteen minutes of flailing limbs, sense of time being lost, and your ribs being assaulted, you finally manage to take a well-deserved breath.  In only moments of recovery, you find a slice of cake sitting in front of your face on a pink hoof.  “Say 'Aww'!”  Her mane was disheveled from your rolling around – well, more disheveled than normal – and her trademark grin was plastered on her face.

“Aww...”  You open your mouth, expecting to be offered a small bite, but instead found the entire thing crammed into your mouth with impossible precision that only Pinkie could pull off.  Your eyes widened in horror as you attempted to chew the sugary monstrosity and failing at it for another good fifteen minutes until she decided to finally offer you a cup of milk that she had gotten from Celestia knows where.

“How much sugar did you put in that?!”  You half shout at her as you finally find reprieve from the assault of sugar that had fell upon your tongue.  Not only was it unbelievably chocolatey, but the icing had to have been literally made out of sugar and nothing else.

“All of it!”  Pinkie said matter-of-factly with a wide grin on her lips.  You notice a small gleam of something else in her gaze though, a glimpse of something that didn't feel entirely 'Pinkie'.

“Hey, what's wrong?”  You can't help but ask, only to see her smile waver and her eyes fill with uncertainty.  There's the look of her wanting to tell you something, but her lips seal together in a wry frown that you've only caught before in fleeting moments over the years.  This was different though; this frown wasn't leaving her face, and when she finally opens her mouth to speak, only a strange question escapes it:

“What would you do if I disappeared?”  She asks sincerely, but it feels so out of place to hear from Pinkie Pie of all ponies.  In fact, not once in your life have you ever heard her be so serious.

“Why would you disappear?”  You sit up and look her in the eyes with a worried gaze.

Her own eyes only start to water as a response, sending an shock wave of dread throughout your body.  Seeing her uneasy was one thing, but seeing her cry was more along the lines of impossible.  The last time you saw Pinkie cry was when she saved you from the Blockworms.  Just as she opens her mouth to explain, the world fades out into blackness...

~~~

… And you open your eyes to the bright morning sun that poked its head through a cloud clearing.  You've been out on the road for two days now, and not once have you seen the sun since leaving Manehattan.

“Looks like the weather team decided that there's been enough snow,” You comment with a roll of your eyes and a long stretch.  The weather teams around Las Pegasus were notoriously lazy and hardly even managed the weather in the area.  Due to this, you spent the latter half of your trip trudging through snow and ice, which would probably catch up to you as a cold sooner or later.

“I might as well get going, though,”  You let out a begrudged sigh that signals you leaving the warmth of your wool blanket to get off of your cart and start pulling the over-encumbered hunk of junk.  If it was a gift from anyone other than Smokey for your trip, you would have sold it for scrap in order to buy a better one.  As it stands though, you can't stomach upsetting that lovable oaf.

With a combination of that last memory and the cold air, you find yourself wide awake and ready to finish your trip to Las Pegasus.  'Hearth's Warming Arts Festival, here I come.'  You think quietly to yourself before starting down the road with a bounce in your step.

Chapter 1

Remember

By Strawberry Jelly

Chapter 1

The sun, albeit still on a cold day, feels refreshing against your fur; it gives it that mixture of hot and cold that reminds you of a hot fudge sunday.  'Wow, that dream really messed with your head, didn't it?'  You think to yourself and shake off the memory.  It's been years upon years since that night on the rock farm, so why did it come up again out of nowhere?

With a quick slap on each cheek, you snap yourself out of it and start down the road again.  You still can't help but be a little pissed at how your agent booked you a gig in Las Pegasus without your permission, but at least the promise of seeing Vinyl and Neon again helps a little.  A smirk works its way on your lips as you think over the last time you three had gotten together for a show.

“Celestia, it probably took that janitor weeks to straighten that mess out,”  You can't help but laugh to yourself at the memory.  Before that night, you didn't even think that it was possible to have that many drunk ponies together in a room.  While you enjoy reminiscing though, you find it cut short when you catch a glimpse of a carriage on the side of the road.  “...  Or maybe someone could use a helping hoof.”

It only takes you a few more minutes to come closer to the carriage and notice that the back wheel is busted.  Well, busted in a strange place is more like it as it was snapped clean in half.  Unhooking yourself from your own cart, you walk closer to inspect the damage before calling out to whoever may be around.  “Hello?  Is anyone still here?”

…  No response.

“Hello?”  You call a little louder and circle around the carriage to look for any more damage, as well as any hoofprints that may have been left in the snow.

“Hm?  One moment, darling!”  A voice calls from the inside of the carriage before the door pops open to reveal a rather breathtaking sight.  Despite her slightly disheveled  violet mane, her eyes still glistens with an almost supernatural beauty that compliments her white coat to the point that they both border on perfection.  With a bat of her forelock, she stands composed with an air about her that virtually screams regality.  “Do forgive me if I'm not quite a la hauteur.  I've been trapped out here since last night because that...  That ruffian abandoned me out here!”  She shows her frustration by lightly stomping her hoof against the snow before her eyes widen in realization of how cold the ground was compared to the inside of her carriage.

“He abandoned someone as lovely as you?  Pfft, doubt he was worth your time anyway, miss...”  You trail off, letting her finish the sentence for you.

“Rarity, and quite the gentleman, I see.”  She offers you a sly smirk before shaking her head gently.  “However, that steer is far from my special somepony.  I paid him for transportation to Las Pegasus from Dos Hooves, but when the wheel broke, he decided to just leave me alone out here.  I knew that I should have just taken the train.”

“Ouch, that city's shady at best.  I'm glad that you weren't mugged at least; that city tends to have a bad crowd.  Then again, the train would've been out of the question for you too; I heard that the railways to Las Pegasus were actually closed down because of a bridge collapsing.  That's actually why I'm here,”  You wave your hoof around to present the glorious landscape of snow that goes on for miles and miles in all directions.  “But...  About that wheel though...  I think I actually have a spare wheel in my cart if you'd accept the help.”

“Oh darling, would you kindly?”  She slowly sweeps her hoof against her forelock again and bats her eyelashes at you.  The funny thing is that you know she's playing you, but you really don't care either.  Besides, no matter what comes of this, it's always nice to at least have decent conversation with someone that isn't either male or happens to not 'swing that way'.

After about five minutes of digging around in the supplies in your cart, you find a carriage jack and a spare wheel that luckily looks like it'll fit perfectly on the carriage.  You climb underneath the carriage to make sure that the axel isn't broken,  “So, what brings you to Las Pegasus?”

“Hm?  Oh yes, I actually have a fashion show to attend at the Hearth's Warming Arts Festival.  Would it be too forward for me to assume that's what you're heading that way for as well?”  You hear her speak from beside the carriage.

“Yeah, my agent booked me this last minute show at the festival.  I swear that mare would work me to death if she could,”  You explain with a slight chuckle.  “Uhm, can I ask you for a favor?  In the back of my cart there should be a wheel iron; can you grab it for me?”

“I- Um..  O-Of course,”  She responds with an uneasy voice before you hear the crunching of snow as she walks away and returns moments later.  “Forgive me, darling, but I'm not particularly knowledgeable in these kinds of things, but would it be this bit L-shaped thing?”

“Yeah, that should be it,”  You reply and reach a hoof out from underneath the cart.  You honestly hated this kind of carriage.  The bolts were screwed in at a weird angle, so it was actually easier to work on the car from the bizarre position of being halfway underneath it.  'Honestly, whoever invented this crap needs to be admitted into a psych ward. There's nothing wrong with the way Equestrian carriages are made.'

After a few moments of you working to unbolt the broken wheel, you hear her pick up the conversation again.  “So, you said something about a show?”

“What-  Oh, right.  Yeah, I'm a musician, so my agent tries to book me for all of the biggest festivals and such.  Honestly, I just want to go back to my hometown and deal with my brother's will.  Is it bad that I'm actually partially relieved something came up that lets me take time from work?”  You explanation was stained with a tinge of sadness rearing its head in your voice.

“Will?  Do you mean-  Oh darling, I'm so sorry...”  She says, leaving you wide eyed at the realization of what you just said.

'Why would I tell her that?!'  You reprimand yourself.  Honestly, you're devastated at the fact that you lost your brother, but it still hasn't really sunk in completely yet.  You were just sitting at home, creating a new song, when you had that fateful knock at your door...  “S-Sorry...  I'm not sure why I even brought that up...  Slip of the tongue I guess...”

Although you can't really see her, you can only imagine that she's wearing a frown with the next thing she says.  “I can't even imagine what would happen if Sweetie Belle...  I'm sorry.  I can't believe that she has you out here when you're so-”

“It's fine.”  You cut her off with a stern voice before softening it,  “In a way, I wanted to get my mind off of it...  I'm still a little in shock from the whole thing.  If you don't mind, can we change the subject at all?”  You ask with the addition of a nervous chuckle, but you can tell she understands.

“So, what kind of instrument do you play?  Violin, saxophone, trumpet, piano...?”

“I'm actually a... Well, I'm a DJ by trade, but I can play piano and saxophone pretty good too.  Back when I was younger, I used to be in a jazz band with a few other ponies.”  You say as you tap your hoof against the ground in search of the spare wheel, only to feel it levitate against your hoof.

“Looking for this?”  You hear her give you a soft laugh that reminds you of wind chimes almost.  Even her laughter sounds like it suited only the highest of nobility in Canterlot.  “Also, a Disk Jockey, really?  I will say that it's hardly my taste, but I do have a few friends that love that kind of music.”

“Read my mind; thank you,”  You smile a little as you pull the wheel onto the cart and work on bolting it in.  “Also, it's ironic that techno and such really isn't my favorite genre either.  I personally like smooth jazz, but it doesn't pay the bills like I wish it did.  That's why the old band split up, actually.”

“Maybe I'll have to come and see your show though; I will say that you surprised me.  I never expected a Disk Jockey to be so...  So...  Well mannered,”  She says with a hint of nervousness in her voice, which elicits a slight smirk from you.

“Yeah, you'd be surprised how normal a lot of us really are.  We only really act that way on stage because it gets the crowd involved,”  You shrug.  “Well, I guess not all of us are that way;  I mean, Vinyl Scratch isn't particularly well mannered.”

“Wait, you know Vinyl?”  Her tone changed to one of intrigue instead of just class.

“Yeah, I'm actually supposed to be plugging a show with her and Neon Lights tonight.”  You peek out from under the carriage to see an expression of mixed excitement and fear.  “Why?  Are you a fan or something, because I can intro-”

“Oh, nonononono!  No, Vinyl's actually my cousin; I have her perform for my fashion shows from time to time.  I suppose I'm just shocked and maybe a little relieved that you're friends with her.  She may be a wild one, but she only really talks to ponies that she knows are good ponies,”  She explained with a smile returning to her face.

You only smile back at her.  'I guess it really is a small world, after all.  Hm, maybe I should make a song about that.'  You laugh to yourself before changing the subject.  “Alright, so I have the wheel changed, so it should work now.”

“Well, I do suppose that's one thing out of the way,”  She lets out a relieved sigh before her eyes widen at an idea.  “Oh right, wait here for one second.”  With that, she pokes her head into the carriage for a moment before coming back out with a large ruby levitating beside her head.  “Please take this for what you did.”

“What?”  You stare blankly for a moment while it sinks in what she was trying to do.  “Oh, no!  I couldn't ask for that.  I was just helping because it was the right thing to do.”

“Oh, and I'm just doing the right thing for you doing the right thing,”  She explained with a smug grin on her lips; one that quickly fades the moment she sees you hook your cart onto the back of her carriage.  “What are you doing?”

“Well, I'm not about to let a lady pull a carriage,”  It was your turn to wear a smug grin, to which she closes her eyes and shakes her head.

“Only if you take the gem,”  She says with a wry frown forming on her lips.

“Fine, but my going rate would be a bit of conversation for the road as well,”  You poke your tongue out at her.  Honestly, it was getting lonely and unbelievably boring out here, so having someone to keep you company is looking like a godsend at this point.

“Hm...  You drive a hard bargain,”  She lets a playful smile surface, bringing a hoof to her mouth in feign thought before answering.  “I think I may be able to live with that price.”  With that, she climbs into the carriage, but glances back at you with a bat of her eyelashes for only a moment.

'Well, this is going to be a trip, that's for sure.'  You think to yourself when you feel your heart skip a beat from her gaze.  With that, you continue your trek down the long, snow-covered road to which you both just talk about life, silly stories, and anything else under Celestia's golden sun.

~~~

“Oh, Darling, did... Did she really do that?!”  Rarity tries to ask through her laughter, to which you only find yourself laughing even harder.  It seems that you have stories about Vinyl that even her own cousin hadn't heard about.

“Yeah!  That mare can NOT handle her peppermint schnapps.  You should've seen her reaction when she woke up the next morning!”  You burst out into laughter again for another good minute before you both finally calm down for a well-deserved breather.

There's not a single doubt in your head that you definitely needed this trip to get your mind off of everything.  You expected it to only cause that regret and pain to fester, but no; instead you were actually laughing and having a good time with another mare.  “Ya know; I just realized that you told me all of these stories, so are you going to spend Hearth's Warming with them?”

“Oh...  Right, I probably should...”  She comments idly for a moment, sounding like she's lost in thought.  It only lasts a moment though, as she opens her mouth to speak again.  “Well, this have been a little weird lately.  Most of them are doing their own thing with their families...  I do suppose that's one reason I decided to come to this festival.”

“So you're not going to spend it with your family?”

“No...”  You feel a twinge of guilt when you hear the shift in her tone.  “My family isn't really that close.  I only really consider myself close to Sweetie Bell, but even then it's a little strained...  You see, I haven't really told Sweetie that I'm technically her guardian now.”

“Wait, what?”  You look back at her to see that pained look on her face.  “How are you her guardian?”

“Well, our parents are the kind of parents that have never really grown up, I suppose is a good way to put it.  When I was a filly, I never really had too many rules or anything, and when I moved away my parents suddenly felt like they did something wrong, so they suddenly became oppressive to poor Sweetie...  One day she actually tried to run away and I let her stay at my house,”  She speaks with a strange mixture of longing and joy in her voice.  “Well, they decided that they were horrible parents and talked to me about either adopting her, or finding someone else that would.  I love my sister, but she really can be a handful sometimes...”

“Wow...”  You murmur and offer her a slight smile.  “I can only imagine how hearing that would feel...  So when you said you haven't told her, what does she think?”

“Honestly?  I'm not really all that sure.  I think she knows something is amiss, but I don't think she really wants to know the truth either.  After all, she's happy with her little friends and being my little sister,”  Rarity lets out a soft sniffle before realizing that her eyes are watering a little.  “Oh my, how unladylike...  I'm sorry, but can we...”

“I understand.”   You reply and turn back to face the road.  “We're almost to Las Pegasus anyway, so just take a moment to yourself while I find us a hotel.”

“Find us a hotel?”  She asked with a teasing voice.  “My, my, getting ahead of yourself, aren't we?”

“But I-”  You feel your cheeks heat up a little at her teasing, causing you to snap your head straight forward towards the city.  “I just meant a hotel with different rooms and... and...  Yeah.”

You hear her laugh at how flustered you've gotten, but the window closing muffles it out as she takes the last moments before arriving in the city to find her privacy.

~~~

“Fifteen different hotels and not a single one has a room open!”  You let out a frustrated sigh, hearing one in unison from the mare in the carriage behind you.

“At this rate, I fear we may have to sleep in the carriage.”

“Well, I suppose this'll be a good reminder to book a room in advance next time.”  You chuckle before pulling up to another hotel.  “Please let their be vacancy this time.”  You pray aloud and unhook yourself from the carriage, opening the door for Rarity yet again.  Honestly, the gentlemanly charm probably was wearing thin by this point.

“Hell, dear, do you happen to have any vacancies?”  You hear her say for what seems like the thousandth time tonight, but she still somehow makes it seem like it's only her first.

“Let me check,”  The desk attendant says as she opens a drawer and pulls out a single key.  “Well, we only have one room open, but it's a two bed.  Would that be okay, or...?”

“We'll take it!”  Rarity declares and slams a large gemstone down onto the counter with a hardly contained excitement.

“But-”  You start to argue about sharing a room, but receive a shushing glare from the white unicorn.

“Here's your key, and I'll have an bellhop take your bags up for you, alright?  Your room should be 207,”  The attendant explains as you both headed towards the elevator.

“Are you really okay with us sharing a room like that?”  You ask with a hint of concern in your tone.  Normally you would be 100% okay with spending time alone with a beautiful mare, but it felt a little strange doing it with someone that you only met earlier that day.

“We just visited fifteen other hotels; I'm not going to pass up an open room...  Besides, I trust you.  I doubt a gentleman like yourself would ever even think about doing anything to a lady,”  She explains with that playful bat of her eyelashes again that makes your heart skip a beat.

~~~

You collapse onto your bed and let out a long, relieved sigh as your aching legs have a moment to rest after a long day of pulling not one, but two carts.  While Las Pegasus is famous for its cloud beds, you'd be happy with a slab of stone at this point.  You hear Rarity saying something to the Bellhop, probably along the lines of giving them a tip, but you honestly can't even focus on anything other than your own lament.

“I've never seen a pegasus pull a cart for that long before,”  You hear her comment in your direction this time before feeling a shift on the mattress, followed by a pressure on top of your extended hind legs.  “You must be positively sore, Darling.”

You only grunt in response, letting your head only sink deeper into the pillows of your bed.  The last time you felt this torn up was when you used to work on the glass farm and had to haul those huge sheets of glass to the carts.  'Why do I keep thinking about those old times lately?'  You ask yourself before feeling a light pressure against your withers.

'Oh Celestia, that feels amazing,'  You murmur internally as you feel your stiff muscles slowly be massaged out of your back.  The problem with most carriages was that they were designed for earth ponies, so they were a little uncomfortable on the wings; thus the horrible stiffness that plagued them right now.

“I'm sorry to have made you do that all day; I didn't think it would've hurt you this bad,”  You hear her mumble as the two hooves slowly make their way down your back and brush over your wings....

…  And your eyes pop open in the sudden realization, “W-What are you doing?!”  You half-shout as you look back at her with wide, shocked eyes.  Sure enough, there was a white unicorn straddling your hind legs with her hooves firmly planted against your back in a firm, but gentle massage that felt far too amazing of a reprieve to fight back.

“Why, I am apologizing for making you pull those heavy carts all day,”  She replies and brings her hooves back up across your spine and against your withers again.  “...  And thanking you as well.  A lady always shows when they are appreciative.”

“I- Ah!”  You let out a surprised shriek the moment her hooves touch against your wings again.

“Oh my, what's the matter?”  She asks with her kind smile hiding something a little more sinister behind it.  Despite her kind words, her hooves refuse to leave your wings, taking extra care to massage them.  “Are they that sore?”  She says and squeezes down onto your wing a little, sending a jolt of electricity through your body.

There's no way that she's doing this innocently anymore; you know good and well that she's having fun teasing you.  'Oh Celestia, please no!'  You feel an uneasy pressure between you and the bed, causing you to look on in horror as you see her slowly bring her mouth down to your wing and gently bite onto a bent feather.  “W-Wait!”  You hiss out a little too late as you feel the sharp jolt of pain and pleasure echo through your body.

“Stop what?”  She asks with a sly grin on her lips as she levitates the feather to the bedside.

“Y-You know what you're doing!”  You whimper with the feeling of your cheeks being lit on fire.

“And you want me to stop?”  She raises her brow with a curious gleam in her eyes.

“M-More for you...”  You admit with a tinge of guilt at how that pressure is growing unbearable now.

“For me?”  She gives you a gentle laugh before leaning down against you, her chest slowly brushing between your wings.  “How about this, then.  You're a musician, and I'm a seamstress...  What I want to propose in an exchange of goods that I believe you may find is mutually beneficial to us.”  Her voice suddenly becomes that of a business woman.  It's no wonder how she's such a popular designer if she can use that dominating tone on customers.

Still, you can't help but let the proposition intrigue you a little.  “What kind of exchange are we discussing here?  What are the terms?”  You raise a curious brow, to which she smiles, but keeps her 'all-business' tone.

“Well, you and I both are dealing with stress from everyday life, so here's what I was thinking:  We perform this exchange of goods during these few days at the Festival, and then we both go our separate ways.  So, we have fun here at the festival, get our minds off of the world, and maybe let out some... stress.”  You see her horn glow and you feel a sudden jolt of pleasure rush from more... personal areas.  “So, do we have a deal?”  She says with her grin turning more seductive.

“I...”  You can't help but take the moment to enjoy the euphoria, which was probably your downfall.  Normally you weren't the kind of stallion to have one night stands, but considering the position she had you in – both physically and emotionally – you can't help but answer the way she wanted you to:  “Deal.”

“Good, because you most certainly won't regret it.”  She leans down and plants a soft kiss on your neck, leading into a long night of what you needed, but never admitted to needing...