Avalon

Chapters

Take a Chance With Me (Part I)
More Than This (Part II)
The Avalon (Part III)
To Turn You On (Part IV)
While My Heart Is Still Beating (Part V)

Take a Chance With Me (Part I)

I eyed the spot. It's a lot harder than one might think, picking the right spot at a Canterlot bar. It says something about a pony. It also shows how smart one is, really. Normally, one might expect a full-blown introvert with social anxiety coursing through his veins like pure poison such as myself to sit at the edge of the bar. That won't do. In fact, only somepony wanting to play it coy would park their flanks onto that fluffy white chair and lean up against the perfectly polished marble wall. Somepony there at the edge attracts attention just like how the really sexy mares always speak quietly-- it makes me, paradoxically enough, listen even better than if they were shouting.

My spot was two spaces from the edge, a spot that always made me truly something close to anonymous. I knew that a good third or so of the other regular patrons of the Avalon recognized my face as I sat down, knowing the unicorn with the skinny, brownish-grey body, plain white collared shirt, and short mane. Maybe a tenth of them knew my name, Cinnamon Breeze. Sure, I might have been as distant and separate from the crowd as the massive griffon statues across the nearby restaurant tables. (By the way, it's always been real diamonds in those statues' eyes. I've always been obsessed with faking status and making fronts rather than being true to yourself, and those ponies at the Avalon took actually being posh pretty blasted seriously.)

That night was April the seventh, quite a while ago. I had a date with a champagne glass, like basically every other night for weeks upon weeks before then. As the old song goes, "sharing the drink called loneliness is better than drinking alone". Although, that was pretty overly poetic. The cold, honest truth was that I felt alive sitting there as part of the scenerym with Canterlot ponies enjoying themselves around mem while I felt truly dead just sitting at my apartment with nothing but a fish-tank and a box of wine (I'll be blasphemous and say some some good Canterlot boxed wine is on par with club wares) in front of me.

The resturant area besides the bar seemed averagely packed that night. Familes with foals came in and out as well as tourists and the standard club types. What made the Avalon distinct besides the name (and, Praise Celestia, I loved that name-- so blasted mysterious and smooth that it just rolled off your tounge, Aaaaaaaavvvaalon) was the open atmosphere. Anypony dressed decently could walk right in and receive the same kind, friendly treatment as anypony else, just like this big dreamy white haze of emotional smoothness enveloped anything. That club served as a dreamland, where cream soda and white chocolate scents seemed to fill the air 24/7 and the sophisticated piano playing could only be matched by the gentle crooners.

I waved Spring Fresh over to my spot, propping my hooves against the brilliantly smooth grey stone counter. It didn't matter much that I had seen it all countless times. I still had a little pang of wonder as I gazed above me, the stretches of white marble columns leading into intricate golden indentations and then to slick ceiling tiles with an endless grey on white geometric puzzle going through them. Wooden spires stuck out amongst the tables, with the finest china you'd see outside of a Princess led event, and shone out with smooth, yellow lighting.

I knew that Fab Factory would start singing at the little brownish-grey riser, at the opposite corner of the club floor from myself, at around one thirty in the morning. The clock beside me said 12:41. "Good evening," I said to Fresh. He smiled. As much as I had to be one of the most socially thick, tone deaf ponies on the planet, I knew that he had a genuinly happy smile. He probably welcomed my bits and politeness rather than me as a pony, but a freakishly intense introvert such as myself had to take social approval where I can get it.

I ordered the sparkly white usual. Fresh got it for me in just a matter of seconds, turning to that amazing array of bottles, vials, boxes, cups, little gray pipe-like things that almost seemed sinister, and everything else that the bartenders had at their immediate disposal. I nodded, picked my full glass up, and took a little breath. Fresh trotted over to a cute little brownish white filly in a sharp red dress on my far left. Our eyes met, and I took in her general facade.

She wanted a daddy-type. I was most emphatically not a daddy-type. I gave her one glance, surveying her as a fly would to a hungry spider and her nearby web, and I turned around, facing the restaurant crowd once again. My face had the same characteristic flatness as a moment ago. She acted more dramatically, curling her long, golden mane over her shoulders and wiggling her ears in a "like I'd be interested in a creep like you" gesture.

I picked it all up in my preiphical vision. I hardly cared. In what felt like a microsecond, a set of rowdy colts filled out the empty chairs in between Miss Red Dress and myself. They had university shirts on. One of them displayed a large number one with red embossment, and said stallion immediately made it clear from his movements that he just knew he'd be number one in this bar tonight. I tuned it all out pretty quickly.

Fresh brought me another drink. He was always good like that. I mentally kept pace with my tab, in pretty good standing around that particular time of the month, and I drank it down, not taking the time to savor the taste. That wasn't like me. In truth, I didn't quite feel like myself. I usually spent a Thursday night trying and failing to find a sane mare that liked me for me and came to the bar with a genuinely open mind about what to do, somepony that would want to walk besides the ducks with me outside of the Equestrian Enterprise Institute campus.

Of course, my success rate reminded me of when my little sister talked about sailing a balloon straight up to the Lunar surface: basically impossible but for a crazy hope and dream. That particular Thursday night at the Avalon, I didn't feel like talking to a nice mare at all. It didn't help that I looked like a six out of ten in the attractiveness department. It didn't help that I tended to view compliments as assaults, recoiling at them as if the only served as warning shots for the insults about to come, as well as that every other word out of my mouth came right out of left field.

All of that had been true my entire life, though. Equestrian life for normal ponies has always been a social life where partying served as oxygen-- getting bumped by strangers in crowded, tight spaces with no idea who put what limb where while smoke ekes everywhere and bright flashing lights rain down on your head, mares bringing you to tears just for being a gangly long-maned freak. Social life, like that, was what you had to do or else you might as well just live as a hermit alone in the wilderness.

That fateful night in the Avalon, I didn't just feel isolated and tense, just wanting to observe the crowd rather than join it. I felt angry somehow, with unusual subconscious thoughts. How dare these university colts bump into me over and over again, calling out their boorish idiocy their already half-drunk voices. How dare they feel so bucking entitled to just get acquire the pretty mares like some kind of pack rat picking up a shiny thing.

Another drink seemed to materialize behind him. I gulped it right down. I tried to calm myself down. The prettier the mare on the outside, the more rotten and decrepit their souls always were on the inside, anyways. The ones with the red dresses demanded expensive, basically worthless trinkets from bracelets to necklaces one a regular basis for . Out and out prostitution would be more honest.

I gazed out at a young unicorn family, their foals as cute as buttons, as they took a seat on the restaurant table across from me. They shuffled awkwardly in their seats, not sure how to put their hooves on the table or what silverware to use. The littlest foal, a sweetie pie with a short, frizzy pink mane and a cascade of freckles, couldn't take her eyes off of the intricate ceiling tiles. I smiled. I knew that I had to look away in a moment to keep from seeming creepy, but I still found such joy from merely seeing other ponies happy. I loved the Avalon for that.

Some commotion sounded off from the side entrance besides me. I shifted around in my seat, eyes looking over my shoulder. A tall, bluish-grey stallion, with a lanky curl in his step that immediately just seemed obnoxious, hopped around a shorter, smaller grey pegasus. The girl's head twisted back and forth, ears drooping. A stubby bluish-black stallion with a chiseled, handsome face wreaked by a smarmy expression leaned up against the pegasus' side.

"Please, just, just tell me where the side gate to the hotel is," she stammered, her blond mane flopping across her face. The two stallions kept on hopping around her-- looking less like ponies and more like imps. I noticed something unusual about her eyes, but the colts kept getting in my line of sight.

"Well, you can always head up this way," the tall one said to the mare, sticking up his front right hoof above his head. He giggled. "Or, you can always go straight down that way." He moved his front left hoof downwards. "Oh, I guess by your eyes that you haven't made up your mind yet." He snorted, in love with his own joke.

"Yeah, very bucking funny," the mare replied, leaning down and wiggling her head. "Like I haven't heard that stuff a million times before."

"How does a backwoods bumpkin get a hotel reservation here anyways?" the stubby one muttered, sticking a shoulder against his tall friend. Their mouths twisted up, horrible smiles going on both of them.

"I guess she wrote it herself, grabbing a few crayons," the tall one cracked. "Only way she'd ever come across the Avalon."

The mare tired to walk away, heading straight over towards the restaurant area. The stallions suddenly shifted over to the side, blocking her. She let out an angry sigh, and she pulled her head back. I spotted a few tears along her cheek.

"Awww, I didn't know that those types of ponies could cry," the tall one said.

"I thought they just opened their mouths and let out some drool," muttered his friend, wiping a hoof against his right cheek.

That's it. I slammed my hoof against the counter and hopped out of my chair. That. Is. Bucking. It. I marched across the empty floor over to the ornate, marble spire surrounded doors. The colts paid no attention to me. I jumped back and smacked my hooves hard against the floor, making a loud clap. The stallion and the mare all turned to glare at me.

"Problem?" the stubby one said, standing up straight and jutting out his chin. I had a hard time keeping myself from smashing a hoof into his smug mug.

"Yeah, there's a problem," I mouthed. My teeth gritting, I leaned forward. My short grey mane pointed over at them like a spear ready to be chucked. "That's not the kind of things that we say to each other here at the Avalon." Somehow, the arching columns and white upon gold furnishings around me pumped me with strength. Those morons could get away with a lot of horseapples around Canterlot. Not here. Not in the Avalon.

"Really?" the tall one sarcastically asked. He stepped away from the mare and lined up besides his comrade, eyes narrowing.

"And that's the kind of way you're going to act if you want ponies to see you as anything but a foal," I said. I sounded a lot more intellectual than threatening, but I didn't care. Those colts felt like ugly stains upon the beautiful, flowing dress of the Avalon. I wanted to just blot them out into nothingness. "So, I suggest you both make your leave. Now."

The tall one stepped forwards, right hoof lined up squarely in the air. Sweat dripped from his face, and his mouth shrank. His stubby comrade sat down instead, suddenly feeling deep in thought. The pegasus that they had picked up had already braced herself against the wall, her mane over her face and her hooves around her chest. She looked totally withdrawn from the world.

"You... little..."

"Autumn," the stubby colt said in an oddly calm voice. He waved a hoof in the air, making a sort of spiral motion. "We're going." I knew it. He had to be the smart one in the relationship. He wouldn't jeopardize their posh club-hopping with an illegal fight, finding the two of them banned for life. He knew that I knew that, and the fact made him even more pissed.

Autumn couldn't believe what he had just heard, eyes bulging. His hoof moved back down to the floor, and he pointed his head away from mine. "Fine, fine. Come on, Fall." The stallions arhced their backs up, trying their best to pose as class-biogted Canterlot elite rather than young punks with a posh front, and they trotted out the door.

"Enjoy your new retard squeeze, nerd," Fall whispered, just loud enough for me and the girl to hear. He slammed the door.

I took a deep breath. Thank Celestia I didn't actually have to tussle with them, and get creamed beyond all recognition! Although I stood pretty tall for a pony, I barely had the strength to lift a TV, and my coke-bottle black frames seemed to almost crack from the thought alone of a hooffight. I leaned down, and I walked over to the pegasus.

"Are you okay, miss?"

"Miss Derpy, Derpy Hooves," she muttered. She slid her back upwards along the wall, and she opened up her legs. Her hooves pointed out at me, swatting the empty air. "Now, you... you..." She leaned her mane to side, spreading it over her cheeks. She strained to put the torrent of emotions in her mind into concrete words.

My body seemed to freeze as I saw her for the first time, taking in all of her without any goons in the way. My heart felt as if somepony had filled it with sugary caramel or something, joy going out across every inch of me. Her curly blond tail seemed to wave me closer. My eyes ran up from her delicate, soft hooves to her incredibly pretty cutie mark-- an image of bubbles-- on her shapely, delicious looking flank. I gazed across her back at those fluttery, cuddly looking wings-- already fantasizing what those feathers would feel like going all over my fur-- and then at her slender, pretty body.

I saw her face. My mind rattled through every cliche in the book. Her wonderful blond mane, looking more like a goddess' frizzy locks than a mere pegasus' hair, complemented her adorable face perfectly. Her eyes had attracted those horrible bullies, and I finally realized why. The eyes pointed out in different directions, something rare enough I supposed. Inside those eyes, she seemed to have these golden beacons. I loved those open and welcoming eyes from very first second.

I had seen plenty of "perfect tens" in the Avalon. She was the first perfect eleven.

"Hello!" Derpy shouted, clopping her hooves upon the floor.

"Oh, yeah, right," I muttered, snapping back to reality. I felt pretty sheepish for shamelessly ogling her.

"Well, thanks... thanks a lot..." she sarcastically said, digging her hoof against the marble spire besides us. Her eyes narrowed. "I guess you just had to be my knight in shining armor just now. Huh?" She slanted her head to the side, a pained chill over her face. "Well, there you go. You did it. You got your rocks off, playing your little role. Well, news flash mister."

"Okay," I replied. I didn't like where this had gone at all, and my flat expression had returned.

"I can take care of myself!" Derpy called out, wings flapping as she put power in her voice. "I don't need another pity run from some demented white knight that wants to get into my flanks, thinking that my eyes make me easy." She put venom into that last word, spitting it out.

"Fine..." I muttered. Like ninety percent of all social situations, I had no idea what to say, and I felt sure that whatever I said would be counter-productive. I played it silent.

"So, mister..."

"Cinnamon, Cinnamon Breeze."

"Cinnamon," she said, walking closer to me as our faces became just inches apart. I had mixed emotions, feeling the pain in her voice and her contorting face. I also couldn't believe such an incredibly pretty mare would stand so close to me. "I'll bet that you think I should thank you, grovel for you right now? I'll bet that you expected to rescue me and find me happy for you?"

You've got a lot of... issues in your past, don't you? I took a little breath. "No."

"No?" She looked genuinely surprised at my answer.

"No," I went on, "Because you could probably take care of yourself. I acted because I felt like I had to for me. I couldn't just sit there, for me, because I wouldn't be able to deal with it later. I knew that you could probably handle it yourself, but I didn't want to let you. I guess I was a little selfish."

Derpy, taken aback by what I had said, simply sat down. I had no idea what to do next, like most of my social interactions. On the other hoof, while it's true that I rushed in-- and I did it mostly for myself-- you did look like you might not be able to take care of it yourself. You were just lined up against the wall, sucking in insults.

"Uh, right," Derpy said. She glanced down and back up at me. We locked eyes, and I felt like she started to really size me up for the first time. A tense twenty seconds of silence passed. She apparently liked what she saw. "I should say thanks. Thanks. Really." She stuck out a hoof. "I guess I kind of snapped a second ago and took it out on you."

We shook hooves. "No worries." She stood in place. She glanced up at the ceiling, lost in thought. I realized that she had totally forgotten what she had been doing, and it somehow made me happy. Somepony else that's SOCIALLY AWKWARD! Hooray!

"You were looking for the adjacent hotel of the same name, right?"

"Yes!" Derpy made a little bounce and landed even closer to me. Her smiling face, all of her worries from just a moment ago totally melted, made my heart feel like exploding. I could barely handle being with somepony so beautiful.

"You'd want to go to the end of the bar and go through the large gray ramp for that," I replied, gesturing the way. "But you don't really want to do that."

"What? Why?"

"Fab Factory is starting to sing." I motioned her to sit back over at the bar. She hesitated, face looking blank. "Come on, take a chance with me. It's criminal to pass through the Avalon at this time of night and miss out on hearing the best singer in Canterlot." Best singer that's not royalty, anyways. I didn't want to give short thrift to Princess Luna's daughter Midnight, who could give Fab a ride for his money.

She followed me over to the bar, sitting down next to me. She found my bouncy smile infectious, and we both lazing put our hooves upon the counter. I pointed at the stage directly across from us through the club. Derpy leaned back, letting out a little happy noise at how snugly the frilly white chair fit her flanks. She turned to me.

"Why are we all the way over here if he's over there."

"Better acoustics over here, believe it or not." I gestured at Fresh to come over. He brought two of my regular champagne. Derpy twisted her head over to me, and I silently nodded. She did that back, picking up a glass. Praise Celestia, we didn't have to go through that bucking stupid "Like a drink?", "Like a seat?", etc dance. "As well, now we have a clear sight of him. Up there, we'd muscle through a mass of ponies and not be able to see a thing besides the backs of heads."

Everything I sad was perfectly true. However, the real reason I wanted Derpy over at the bar at me was two-fold: to keep my social anxiety rush from getting too many ponies around me from giving me a gasping-for-breath attack and to be with her in a more intimate setting. Either way, the pegasus with the beauty of a goddess gazed at the stallion with the slick black hair and sharp black suit going onto the stage.

"I can't wait," Derpy said. She leaned naturally to the side as the band started up. Her shoulder and hoof brushed up against mine. I felt like screaming in pleasure, tingles going through my sides and erupting bursts of joy in my mind. There's cute, and then there's 'marry me at first sight' beautiful...

"Everypony having a good night, tonight?" Fab asked in that smooth as silk voice of his. Cheers erupted around him. He ran his slate grey hoof through his swave mane, and he leaned back. The band slowly built up their chill, cool background around him.

Fab swayed left and right to the music, his suit rubbing up against his chest. I couldn't help but move as well. I glanced to my right. Derpy moved so gracefully as well in tune, hooves curling through the air like whips of the summer wind. I vowed that, at the very least, I'd try to get a chance to dance with her.

Fab opened his mouth with his head going back, the crowd sputtering out some scattered applause, and he started to sing.

To Be Continued

More Than This (Part II)

"I could feel at the time," Fab cooed. "There was no way of knowing..." The two of us sipped our champagne.

"He's brilliant," Derpy whispered, falling into a smooth semi-dreamland.

"Fallen leaves in the night," Fab sang, going down on his knees besides a gaggle of freckled fillies. They shot their hooves up, and Fab touched a few of them.

"Who can say where they're blowing?" I sang along with Fab, soft enough that only Derpy could hear. She snapped her head over, and I feared that she'd glare at me for having ruined the mood (just like my near perfect past record for "blowing the moment"). Instead, her cheeks seemed to lighten up. Oh, Praise Celestia!

"As free as the wind," I went on, "Hopefully learning..."

"You know this tune?" she mouthed, hoof still rubbing up against my side.

I nodded. "Why the sea on the tide..." My head bopped to the music, and I kept one eye on Fab as well as another on Derpy's beautiful face. "Has no way of turning?"

"Ooooooh," she murmured, bringing in some gently backing vocals.

"More than this," I sang, "you know there is nothing."

"Nothing," she repeated. Her head seemed to just instinctively lean against mine.

I heard the clinking of new champagne glasses behind me, and I didn't know whether to curse Fresh for interrupting the moment or praise him for giving me more liquid confidence. Wow, Derpy's gone a long way from yelling at me to snuggling up with me... or maybe she's just a real, real lightweight. I tried to recall how many drinks we'd both had.

I didn't want to care. I wanted, as the old cliche goes, to make the moment last forever. The Avalon filled up to the brim with chill, sophisticated pop music. All of the ponies-- from the bratty foals with big plates of spaghetti at the nearby table to the handsome stallions with hooves tapping against the hotel entrance to the wonderful mare at my side and elsewhere-- drank in the beautiful atmosphere.

A dream couldn't be as good as this. The warm, yellow lights seemed to project a haze over everything. I closed my eyes, and I just let the rest of the song flow into my soul. Derpy, never having heard the song before (oh, how I pitied her), tried to repeated a few lines. It sounded rough and slipshod, as well as completely adorable.

The song came to an instrumental break, and the band broke into some filler material. Cranberry, the co-manager of the whole club, trotted out along the side of the stage and pulled Fab aside for something. My ears perked, although clearly I couldn't hear a thing. I wonder why on earth Cranberry, such a normally cheerful unicorn, would have such a cold expression over his old face.

I turned to the side, coming face to face with Derpy. I counted at least three glasses right below our noses. Hmmm... I'd better be more careful about these. Still, I shot out a hoof and commanded Fresh to keep the sparkly bubbled train a going.

"You clearly know the place," Derpy said.

I nodded. It shouldn't have been a point of pride; how hard is it to find a club and drink there every single night? Still, I felt a puffy chest coming on all the same. "Yes, this is basically a second home," I replied. I chuckled. "In all honesty, more like a first home."

"So, everypony knows your name?"

I froze. Names, faces, dates... I hate that. I always have. For a moment, I flashed back to a bunch of moments in life where I've had family members, co-workers, classmates, and others that I've known for years talk to me and I've been unable to recall their face. "In a way," I cryptically answered.

Derpy didn't seem to like that answer, ears moving up.

Honesty is the best policy. Not for ninety percent of girls, of course, who just want endless happy lies. It's for ones with the kind of inner sweetness that Derpy has. "I'm pretty much the type to fade into the background," I commented, sipping my latest glass. "That's my life." I winced. Ugh, it's seduction time. Not pity party time. My face drooped down. You're going to ruin this like you ruined your old job, like you always ruin everything.

"Ugh, I wish!" Derpy called out, wings rubbing up against the counter as she twisted in her seat. "If only I could just fade into the background." She put hooves against her head.

I felt some feathers against my shoulder, a dream come true already being fulfilled. I fantasized about feathers in other places for a second, but I shook my head, snapping out of it. "Why?"

"Oh, for Celestia's sake," Derpy began, and she scooched upwards with her bottom hooves smacking against the chair. "My life, it's just been... I can't believe it. Not just ponies losing it over my eyes, although for that what do I care. They're just ignorant. No, the other things has just been worse... so worse..." I saw her face seeming to bleed, little pains bursting across. I realized that she flashed back to dozens of awful moments from her childhood.

"Derpy," I muttered. I hovered my hoof over her hoof, not sure if we had crossed the line of that kind of physical intimacy yet.

"Wreaking Ball!" Derpy moaned. She swatted her mane over he shoulder and reached for another drink. Fresh hopped around in the back to keep us getting more and more loaded. "They always called me that. Even the ponies that didn't care in the slightest-- the slightest--" She smacked me on the shoulder, emotions dripping off of her face. "Knew that they couldn't do anything serious around me." She sniffed, holding back tears. "Klutz would be the worst kind of understatement. I've destroyed buildings."

I felt the oddest combination of emotions. I wanted to kiss her, hug me, and scream at her that it's all alright since I can relate so well. I simply sat back, breathing hard. The alcohol had started to do its work on both of us; I could tell.

"You hear me, Cinnamon?" Derpy muttered, head going down onto the counter. "I've destroyed buildings. I've tripped. I've slipped. I've bounced. I've gone down wells. Down wells, having to climb out like a dog. I've never had a good, steady job. They know. They should know." She stomped a hoof down, almost breaking a glass. "I don't ever do it quite right enough. It's a guessing game, and I can just ruin everything."

I didn't care if it was the right moment. I had enough alcoholic courage to slide over and put a hoof around Derpy's back. Her wings drooped down low, sadness almost oozing off her body.

"It's fine."

"I might even destroy this place. This club. They could kick me out right now, for their own safety." I saw drips of tears upon the counter below her. "I lost the map for good. I almost lost my hotel voucher at least three items now."

"I live in Canterlot, after all. I'll tell you whatever you need to know." I rubbed my hoof against her. Praise Celestia, I felt like holding a treasure; I had never touched a more tender thing in my life.

She snapped her head back, snorting hard. She gave her a slanted look. "Right, like I need another guy to hold my hoof and help me to do things other normal ponies can just do by themselves. I don't need that." Her tough front melted, and I could tell the vulnerability in mind eyes. "Another so-called savior that would just... just... walk right out of my life again." She slumped back in her chair. "Walk right out as easy as he walked in."

Her mood is swinging like a gate. I sniffed, rubbing my nose idly with my hoof. That was one of my body's own little cue's that my own tolerance had just about reached its limit. I decided to boldly go forward, and I muttered over for two smaller, more intimate red wines instead. I didn't quite know what I wanted from Derpy. I just sensed that she needed an ear, and I owed her that, just as common courtesy as a fellow pony.

"I'm sorry," she said, and she nudged closer to me. She scoffed at herself. "First, I snap at you for standing up for me. Second, I snap at you for listening to me and getting me drinks." She made a low moan, eyes blinking. "Funny, I'm the deepest extrovert in the world, and I always say the wrong thing."

"No kidding, I know, doing that myself. I know too blasted well," I replied. We exchanged a silent moment of understanding. We glanced out at the stage as the band picked up and Fab hopped right onto stage. He did one of his classic little moves, twirling his front hooves in an imaginary loop while curling the microphone in between his legs. He looked so ridiculous, and the crowds always loved it as much as I did. He made some small talk with the audience that I tuned out of pretty fast. Come on, now, you idiot! Make some kind of move on this goddess besides you!

"So, what's your story, then." Derpy pointed an accusatory hoof towards my chest. "How did you ever end up in Canterlot, fading into the wall of the poshest place I've ever seen?"

"I used to live in Ponyville..." I started, both my hooves rubbing my thick glasses and going down my skinny, brownish-grey body. I wasn't sure what to say-- feeling even more awkward than usual. I knew that these killer moments, in which one tried to find common ground with the mare of your dreams, oftentimes ending with a snide accidental remark and wine thrown at one's chest.

"Really, wow. I'm from there. My daughter is staying with Fluttershy right now around by the city hall there."

Daughter? That word felt like a knife through my back. I strained to think. I don't see a ring. No bracelet. Nothing there meaning anything... what on earth is going on? Oh, well. I wrapped my knees against the bar.

"Sure, so..."

"So..." She seemed totally oblivious to the pains that had enveloped me.

"I guess Fluttershy, your wife, is going out with your daughter and then, uh," I said, trailing off. I wanted to just crawl up into a little ball and cry myself to sleep.

To Be Continued

The Avalon (Part III)

Derpy slapped all her hooves down on the counter, head wiggling uncontrollably. She let out a torrent of deep laughs. She tried to speak, but she couldn't, still almost giggling herself silly. "Fluttershy... is... not..." She snorted, smacking my shoulder. "Not my wife... oh, geez, Cimmanon."

"I see," I whispered.

"You are simply priceless," Derpy muttered, and she yanked a hoof in the air for another spot of red wine. "I'm starting to really, really like you."

"Oh, alright," I said. I had a painful ten seconds of silence while my mind frantically tried to get back into gear. "Well, life back in Ponyville was... difficult." I turned a little solemn. She could tell as well, and she put on a very sweet expression. "My parents tried their best, and they were very loving, caring. Still, though, I had the worst time learning everything. I was so painfully, deeply introverted."

"Oh, dear." Around us, the band's music picked up.

"Everypony thought I would be a special needs type of pony for life, unable to understand directions for anything and unable to go across public places with devestating panic attacks."

"You don't have to say any more," Derpy said, and she had a reflective, distant kind of look around her face. Her ears perked up. "My cousin has always been just like that. Hard to talk, hard to hear, hard to remember things, always doing repetitive behaviors, paralyzed with fear socially, and picked on mercilessly to boot. Only, he got loaded up with medication and shelved into a 'special care center'." Derpy bit her lip at those last three words, feeling like punching somepony.

"When I finally did make it at Canterlot, educationally, I excelled," I said. The music went into some kind of ripping, samba-like beat behind us, and we found ourselves bobbing along by instinct. "Long story short, I became a 'whiz-colt' or so they say. I graduated things early. I got myself into economic and business related stuides."

"What happened?" She put her head against her hooves, looking pretty facinated. "Why aren't you in some office building somewhere, a big boss with a lot of peons? Why aren't you making millions of bits?" She eyed my cutie mark, an image of shipping boxes loaded with books with electronic cables around them.

"Long story short, I happened." I swung around, moving from Derpy's gaze and just staring straight up at the ceiling. I always did that to keep the pain down as I reflected. "Business is networking. And networking is about being social. And being social is like arsenic in my wine." I took a sip. "And, as a 'disgraced' business partner, I found myself gone from Spice and Co. Thank goodness I found myself some niche work at the Equestrian Enterprise Institute. The EEI, one of the oldest think tanks in town-- low pay, but at least we deal in abstract ideas and concepts rather than social things where you stand around besides water-coolers, always being judged."

"Wait a moment. 'Disgraced'?" She repeated.

"Most ponies there think I... cheated," I said, gritting my teeth. "Saying that I crunched the numbers in the wrong way in order to falsify my reports." I finished my glass, downing a huge load of wine in a split-second. "Truth is, well..." I took a deep breath. "I made a mistake." I mushed my hooves against my head. "Just. A. Mistake."

"Why didn't you just correct the mistake? Or why didn't they just understand and forgive you?"

"Introvert, remember?" I snapped at her. I shouldn't have. My face apologized immediately. I had to have been too loaded to control myself very well, and neither was her. I saw her moves getting rather tipsy.

"Sorry..."

"No, I'm sorry." I put my hoof atop hers. She held it tightly. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry in life about a lot of things, a lot of mistakes I've made." Our front hooves eveloped each others. "It's like... in that old office, I never stood out well to anypony. I had no ally. I had no real, true friends. I just had loads of acquaintances, and I always knew that I was nothing more than a potted plant-- just a prop that's part of the scenery." I sniffed. "I got in trouble... because I couldn't ask for help. I was just physically inable to do it. I got ill. I got in trouble, and I had noone to support me."

"That's so sad." She stood up. My heart sank as our hooves lost their touch.

"No, seriously." I waved my hooves over my face, trying to come to my bearings. You did it! You blew it! You had the girl of your dreams, and you dumped on her like a therapist or something... you idiot! I coughed, wishing just for once that my subconsciousness mind would stop insulting me and stop putting me down for once. "I'm sorry that I've just rattling on and on to you." I felt like hitting myself.

The music around us suddenly grabbed us like a giant's hooves smacking down around our shoulders. We both eyed the stage. "Now the party's over. I'm so tired," Fab crooned. The crowd seemed to lose it. He's playing the Avalon's song. He's playing 'our song'. The club's own special song. This has to be a sign or something.

Derpy stood right in front of me. She didn't quite seem to know what to say, her face idly looking around the bar and her hooves behind her head. Any second before the music came on, she would have gone "well, nice talking to you" and left for the hotel. But then it played! This has to be the moment! I have to go for it!

"Then, I see you coming," Fab sang, wiggling his flanks for the girls with hooves beating against the stage, "Out of nowhere..." I have to do something! Derpy glanced at the exit, and I hopped down out of my seat.

"Derpy?" I found myself panting all of a sudden, sweat beading down along the sides of my head.

"Yes?" she asked. Her voice seemed to almost squeak, softness and tenderness pouring into my ears. She had her mane flicking against her eyes, making her even more beautiful than I could have imagined.

"Much communication in a motion..." Fab crooned.

"Shall we dance?" I asked, holding out a hoof.

Derpy glanced down at my hoof and up at my face again. She took a little breath. I felt as if the entire world had come to an end. Finally, she put her hoof down, clasping my closely.

"Y-yes," she replied, nervousness flashing over her face.

I felt like rocketing a hundred feet straight up, through the roof and into the night sky. I moved a little closer to Derpy, and my hips started to do a little swaying. She giggled, and she did the same. We both eyed the dance floor about halfway in between the bar and the stage. We walked together, a happy skip in both our steps.

We stepped onto the golden-edged dance floor, and we felt warm, soothing yellow light coming up from underneath us. I gazed into her eyes. I couldn't bear to see an ounce of hurt or pain in those eyes. I wanted to wake up next to those eyes forever.

We hear the tender croon of Fab's voice, and we swayed to the right. Our hooves just naturally brought our bodies even closer togther. We made a short twist here, a slight dip there, and a gentle turn, before long finding ourselves about cheek to cheek. Her hooves, rubbing along my body, shot little bursts of joy along my sides. I felt her mane sweeping across my body. All of the sensations came together so strong, and I almost wanted to cry.

Derpy, for her part, had the most content look on her face. I could barely understand it. Her cheeks looked so adorable, and her lips looked so full. She leaned her head over against my neck, and we continued our gentle dance. I knew that we had hundreds of ponies around us. I didn't care. Normally, I would go into a full on anixety attack at this amount of social pressure. But I didn't. I hardly had a care in the world. I had Derpy, and that seemed like all anypony could ever want.

The song wound down, the band taking it's sweet time with the smooth, cool instrumentals. Derpy curled her head over and gazed at my face. I gazed back. The sweet throbbing of the bass felt like a tweaking of our hearts.

"You really like my eyes, don't you?" she asked.

"I love your eyes."

"Funny, all of the colts that I've been with have never wanted to look at my eyes." She made a happy sigh. "They'd peek at my flank. Admire my wings. Complment my voice. But not my eyes. Then, there's you. You're so different."

"Am I?" I held her even closer, feeling more like a hug than a dance grip.

"You lock on my eyes and never let go."

"Why wouldn't I want to look at your beautiful eyes forever?"

"Beautiful eyes?" She smirked, still not quite believing me.

The music died, and ponies drifed away from the floor. We kept on standing at the edge, bottom hooves lined up along the gold intentations in the floor. The lights seemed to shine upon right Derpy. I could hardly picture even Princess Celestia looking so nice.

"Never forget," I said, lining up face to face, "That you have beautiful eyes." Our voices had lowered to a whisper.

And we kissed.

To Be Continued

To Turn You On (Part IV)

It ended way too fast. My lips enveloped hers, her head turning and her mane rubbing up upon my chest. Pure pleasure just seemed to pour into my body. Our heads twisted over, tongues nuding up against each other's teeth. Kiss melted into kiss and then to another kiss, cycle repeating again and again. Yet, just a moment later, we found ourselves standing seperate from each other.

"Derpy, I..."

She brought a hoof against her face. She seemed hesitant, but at the same time I could see her heart racing inside her chest. She tried to force her mind to freeze, getting herself to come to a decision. I stepped over to her side. I led her off of the dance floor and around twoards our spots at the bar.

"Is something wrong, Derpy?" I reached out and put my hooves in the shoulder.

"I'm... it's okay. It's... actually... I..." she stammered. We backed up against the bar. She panted, and I found myself panting just as fast. She swung her head back, a grin popping up in her face. "It's better than okay."

"Better?" I repeated.

"I haven't," she muttered. She brought her eyes right up to mine, and I gazed for the umpeenth time as those golden wonders. "I haven't felt exactly like this since I had... Dinky. Not since I had her. Not since I lost my husband. I haven't been like this for, for so long. Feeling like this for years."

I understood. She has the daughter. I guess she's the expert and I'm just the novice. For Celestia's sake, I can count on my hooves how many girls I've had really mean something in my life. She broke my hold over her. I started to worry, but she motioned me to follow her, looking so content. I guestered at Spring Fresh that I'd see him later. He gave a friendly wave.

The two of us went through the big ramp into the hotel complex above the Avalon. Derpy stopped in front of a side desk, accosting a sleepy looking green mare behind the counter. The mare quickly slid Derpy's voucher into a console and brought out a shiny silver key marked 202.

Derpy smiled. I smiled. The other mare smiled, and she seemed to take a little nap as he walked off. Derpy didn't say a word, she simply kept on tugging me with her hoof to follow her along. Her wings flapped as she trotted, looking so adorable. We went up the stairs, moving side by side.

She stepped up at the door, and she flicked the keys over to me. I ducked to catch them, slipping and falling on my flank. She found this hilarious, and she tapped her bottom hooves against the wall.

Come on, now, Cinnamon. You can do this. Hooves shivering with nervousness, I magically lifted up the keys and unlocked the door. She stepped in, and I immediately followed. Derpy swayed as she walked. We heard the club's music going on perfectly underneath us; Fab's crooning still forming the soundtrack of our lives.

"From close up inside a single room," Fab sang several feet below us. I gazed upon Derpy as she bounced onto the massive black bed. She silently curled her head back against the pillows, legs rubbing up against each other. "With an open book aside, like you read in school..."

"Derpy," I muttered. I posed myself at the foot of the bed. She slid her legs against each other, making my heart race even faster. My eyes moved up along her thighs to her wings, shot straight out in full excitement. She looks so pretty. I had no idea exactly what to do next.

"It's so easy, believe me," the crooning voice went on, "When you need fun."

I watched her hooves rubbing up against her chest, moving down her belly. She giggled. She spread her legs open, and she threw her hooves up into the air. My eyes flicked all across her body, finally resting upon her face. I couldn't get my focus off of her eyes. Somehow, jutting out in different directions, they looked even sexier than I could possibly have imagined.

"You like my eyes, don't you?" she moaned.

"I love your beautiful eyes," I said, climbing up onto the bed by instinct. I sat, still paralyzed by fear, right in front of her on the sheets. Although I had nothing on her for experience, I wanted her. I had to have her, feeling it oh so badly.

"That's not all of me that's beautiful," she said, leaning up and bringing her head over to my neck. She littered kisses along up my shoulder and over to my chest. My face buried deep inside of her mane.

She leaned back down onto the bed, and I perched on top of her. Our kisses traveled all over each other's bodies. Our hooves pressed against each other, lining up face to face. We made out once more, and I could hardly breathe. She had her hooves curling against mind before nudging down onto my belly. I more than returned the favor, rubbing down over between her legs.

She felt soaking wet. I knew what that meant, and she knew that I knew, cooing as my hoof made a little circle against her slit. Her hooves touched the tip of my colthood. Pleasure shot through my sides, making me shiver.

Derpy slid her hooves down my colthood and finally slapped them against my thighs. I had positioned myself perfectly. We made out for a while, her tongue rubbing right along my teeth and exploring in ways that I had never even imagined. She broke the kiss. I stood poised over her, my colthood throbbing, and

It felt too good to be true. Yet, there she lied, legs sticking out and wings bent upwards to brush against my sides. I put kisses along her chest as I leaned myself closer. My colthood's tip moved down along her belly, a trail of pre-cum going along towards her slit. "Derpy, I... I love you." I took a deep breath.

"I know you do." Her voice seemed to bury into my very soul.

I closed my eyes, and I thrust myself forward. I immediately collapsed upon her body, her wings fluttering across my sides. The pleasure seemed to boil my brains, feeling so soft and so warm inside of her. I clenched my teeth, hooves angling along Derpy's shoulder, and I nudged myself forward. Inch by glorious inch drove me out of my mind.

I let out a loud whine, feeling sheepish at how feminine I sounded. I cooed as well as I pulled slightly out. I felt so much pressure, so much joy coming from her wonderfully tight fit. I tried my best not to scream. Derpy moved her own hooves down over to my legs. She seemed to wrap me up, curling my body over to hers.

I thrust myself in again. Derpy had her turn to moan, soft noises bursting out from inside of her. I felt so happy that she felt so happy. I brought myself forwards all the way to the base, and I leaned over to kiss her once again. She giggled, eyes closing. As we kissed, I slid out as slow as I could before moving forwards again, her slit enveloping me perfectly.

She twisted her head downwards. I saw her jiggling from the emotion. She had to be close, very close. She had been without a stallion's touch for quite a while, and she hadn't been with somepony this intimately in years. "Please," I said, feeling her breaths against my chest. "Let me see those eyes of yours."

She opened her eyes back up, gazing at me. I felt so totally overcome, and I pumped myself into her even harder. She gasped, and I gritted my teeth. We became something tough, something mechanical. I thrust into her over and over again, finding a quick rhythm. I knew that I should make this last, but I couldn't bear it. Neither of us had the stamina. We just had to release, to relieve ourselves with each other.

She started squeaking at each thrust, face contorting. It sounded like such music to my ears. I sped up, groaning. Her wings burst out and scattered all over the place onto the body. The pleasure became just so intense, totally running me right over the line. I buckled down for one last thrust, hooves intertwined with hers. We screamed.

I emptied myself into her. The moment dragged on and on, pure ecstasy filling our minds. I popped off of her, leaning backward in the air and finally collapsing onto the other side of the bed. My colthood throbbed, white film still dripping out of the tip. We both panted hard, looking over at each other's place on the bed.

She smiled. I smiled. She leaned backward, back arching up against the wall. She pointed silently down between her legs at the wet mess. Before even saying a word back, I tossed my body over and buried my face into her slit. I slurped with total abandon, moving up and down as well as side to side. She seemed to purr like a kitten, hooves digging into my mane and pressing my face in. I kissed along her slit, tongue curling inside and tickling her lips.

With the sounds that she made, he might as well had a continuous orgasm for several minutes afterwards. I didn't know, but I didn't care to ask. I just wanted to know that she felt happy. Halfway through, she twirled her wings around and stuck feathers all along my limp colthood. It sprang back to life again, nirvana coming from every single fuzzy stroke. I couldn't manage to cum again, but it hardly mattered.

Finally, after goodness knows how much bliss, I leaned onto the pillows and drifted off to sleep. Derpy laid back besides me, her hooves rubbing up against my neck. She held me almost like a teddy bear, those eyes of hers never out of my sight until I totally entered dreamland.

To Be Continued

While My Heart Is Still Beating (Part V)

I first felt my nose, rubbing against a thick bundle of sheets. It twitched, picking up that wonderful, bubbly sort of aroma that Derpy carried around herself. I tried for force my eyes open. I had had enough alcohol for three ponies, let alone one. Even for a hopeless bottle-hound with an absurdly high tolerance such as myself, the morning sun seemed to just stab my eyes. I curled my head around, letting out a loud cough.

I had the horrible sensation of being alone. I guess it made no sense, being such an introvert, but I always hated being completely alone, with not even a fishtank around. I leaned up in my bed, trying to rub the hangover away with my hooves. That, of course, hardly worked. Seeing Derpy long done, I walked up, heading for the bathroom.

I glanced at myself in the mirror for a moment before turning on the water. My horn lit up, waving an unopened hotel toothbrush-toothpaste canister over to me. I paused before I stepped into the shower. My eyes focused on a small, slightly faded photograph hidden besides a set of cheap shampoos. I walked over.

I saw Derpy, looking just as radiant as last night, sitting alongside a cute, tiny filly. Stacks upon stacks of dandelions in a rainbow of colors stretched behind them. I immediately knew that they were at that one big flower festival, and that Derpy had held her daughter as the suvenior-huntering photo ponies came upon them.

There there are. In their own little world. Their world. I took a gulp. Not mine. Without me. I felt somehow that I shouldn't be bothered-- that one-night-stands had taken places all across Canterlot last night, even with Princess Celestia herself if tabloid rumors ended up true. Derpy was what I needed. I was what she needed.

And then that was it. That's it. The end of everything between us, just as normal Equestrian high society moves along. I found myself slinking down, collapsing onto the floor. I heard the water running along behind me like an endless waterfall. It seemed stupidly poetic, matching the emotions flowing through heart. I could barely move. Except... I found myself crying.

"Derpy," I moaned. My eyes narrowed, cheeks rubbing against the cold, hard floor tiles. "I love you." I didn't care that we just meant. I didn't care that drunken one-night-stands was a key Canterlot tourist magnet for visitors such as herself. My insides screamed at me. I couldn't recall ever feeling so sure of anything in my life. I wanted to magically hop right into the picture and lock onto Derpy's side like a bolt on a beam, clutching her daughter as tightly as my own flesh and blood.

I love you. I need you. I need you forever. I somehow managed to reach up, swatting the water off. I grabbed some towels and muttered through some spells, trying to at least look partially normal. I brushed for a moment, eyeing the refrigerator nearby the door all the while. I praised Celestia when I spotted a bunch of crackers and canned frizzy juices.

Gulping them down, I promised myself I'd buy Derpy a whole room's full of canned juice as penance. Later! I need to find her and tell her how I feel! I have to do it now! I scanned the apartment. I can't see any clothes, bags of suveniors, or anything... that's weird. She just woke up and left me here? No note? No phone message? No.... nothing! My heart sank. I knew she wouldn't be gone for good yet, she left her special picture after all, but I wouldn't dare take any chances.

After I had made myself reasonable presentable, I trotted out of the room. All of the hallways seemed deserted, which was odd to say the least for a Saturday afternoon at the Avalon. I went over through some more hallways, flowing in and out of a bit of a daze, before suddenly popping through a set of steel doors. "Uh, oh," I muttered.

I had to have accidentally stepped into some kind of storage-type area by mistake. My eyes flopped around the stacks of white wrapped boxes to the steel pipes that jutted about in interesting geometric type arrays. I heard some chirping all of a sudden. My head curled back, and I saw a cloudy sky with a handful of blue-jays sailing overhead. I'm outside? How the buck did that happen?

"I said to Cardie, I said... that's 'Not what your sister said last night!' Heh," said a somewhat familiar voice from several yards away.

"Then, right, he took the entire load of casabas-- and just-- went..." said somepony else, budling for emphasis, "Wham!" I heard hooves slapping against wood. They sounded pretty strong, and I didn't want to know what they were attached to.

I scanned the air above me, idly hoping that I'd spot something recognizable. I came upon a concrete ramp and followed it up. I saw a huge outdoor musical concert in front of me, all kinds of high, low, and medium society ponies poised atop nice, comfortable benches. "Ah, so I'm at the 'Deluxe Promenade' at Avalon West," I murmured, "Sure to see somepony I know around. Maybe the staff ponies saw Derpy somewhere." I scanned the crowd and the nearby stage. I couldn't tell who would be performing, but I had a serious hunch.

Sure enough, Fab Factory made his way from the back of the Promenade up to the back of the mass of ponies. Mares young and old trotted over to high-hoof him. A few even put their heads against his sides. He took it all in good stride, insisting that he'd sign autographs later. That's the common touch for his fans. That's so rare in Canterlot. He'll made it really bucking far. I watched Fab make his way through the center of the crowd up to the stage-- his stage.

I shook my head, trying to remember what I was doing. Derpy! Where is that wonderful mare, that goddess in pegasus form? I started to survey the crowd. Fab made some small talk, telling a corny old joke. The audience ate it all up. A three piece band from the far side of the stage began to play, and ponies cheered. I saw a familiar looking blur of grey flying several feet upwards at the part of the crowd closest to me.

"Derpy!" I called out. She couldn't see me from the distance, and she could hardly hear me over the clamor. I stood up high, waving my arms and shouting. "Derpy!"

I saw her bobbing her head to the music, hooves tapping against her legs. Fab started to coo, and Derpy's head perked up even more. "All of those ponies, everywhere," Fab sang, a hoof going through his handsome mane. Derpy kept on looking forwards, and I kept on waving. "Ever so needing... where's it all leading? Tell me where."

I hollered her name one more time. For whatever reason, her gaze shifted from the audience over to my direction. I saw her lock eyes with me with way across a flat grassy patch.

"Nothing insincere," Fab crooned, almost just for us two ponies, "I'd better have pity." She didn't leave you, you dummy! She left to see another concert. It was more than a one-night-stand! I smiled, wondering how I could have been so scared of losing Derpy. "I'd better go easy. I never will lay down... while my heart is still beating." Fab's words felt so right.

Derpy flapped her wings and brought herself up. Oh, good, she sees me clearly. I turned around, scanning the area around me for a nice way to climb from the concrete ditch-like place I stood in up onto the grass. Hmm...

*Wham!*

I felt hooves clutching my sides, and I let out a feminine squeal. A wall of tall, bluish-grey flesh smacked against my face. "Oh, no!" It was the thugs from last night-- those awful, bigoted stallions. I waved around with my hooves, helplessly. I could barely fight a cold, let alone angry ponies.

"Ready for you beating, retard-bucker?" Autumn muttered into my ears.

I reflexively coiled myself down, trying to concentrate with my horn. A magic blast! Something! Anything! A hoof slammed upon my horn, feeling like it almost cracked in too. I screamed in pain, tears coming from my eyes. I felt myself thrown against the hard concrete.

I opened my eyes, spitting out blood at the same time. Fall and Autumn perched over me, laughing pouring from her faces. I could hardly stand their cackling, sounding like something out of an evil dragon. I held my hooves up, and Fall bucked them back onto the ground. I moaned.

"Oh, boys!" called out a familiar voice. My eyes popped up and saw Derpy flying overhead, her eyes narrowed into slits.

"Got a problem, little miss I-can't-spell?" Fall smarted off.

"Oh, that is it," Derpy hollered, her hooves rubbing up against each other. "That. Is. Bucking. It." She swooped down. I saw Fall perching himself forward, prepared to catch her like a line-drive.

He couldn't image that much speed, and she slammed right into him, pouding his body into the concrete. I smiled. Autumn hopped right onto Derpy's back. She thrust her wings up and seemed to tear shreads into his face with the feathers. Fall arched himself back up only to get a hoof to his chin, curling him over the pipes.

I managed to stand back up only to see Derpy leaning over and perching her back up right in front of Autumn. The stallion tried to sidestep, but he wasn't nearly fast enough. He took Derpy's kick right to the stomach, tossing his body over twoards me. I tumbled back down on the ground.

I heard loud yelling from behind me. Apparently, a lot of the Avalon staff had heard the little tussle. I knew that hooves were stamping over closer, and that whomever saw us would immediately report us all to be expelled for life. The unconscious stallions I didn't care about; their word had to be mud. I cared a lot about Derpy, and her rom. Her planned vacation. My eyes closed. Just one thing to do.

"Derpy, you had nothing to do with this." I forced myself to stand up. "They'll believe us. You don't have a scratch on you. Say that I fought with them. Say that you just stood by. Fall, Autumn, and I were the hooligans."

"You'll get banned for life, won't you?" She made a caring, loving expression.

I heard the hooves behind us just almost making it. I locked eyes with Derpy. "I know. Let me get banned. I can't bear to see you kicked out-- your dreams and your vacation ruined as well as your other plans here."

"But, the Avalon is like your home. I mean, didn't you say that it is your home? It's your life," Derpy protested, waving her hooves around.

"It's fine..."

"No, it's not fine!" She leaned against my shoulder, emotions surging under her pretty face. "You can't do this for me-- not when this place is all you have."

"No," I calmly said. I turned over and came totally face to her, so wonderfully close to those special eyes that other ponies hated but I knew to be most beautiful eyes in Equestria. "All I have is right here." I rubbed her hooves with mine, smiling. "All I need is right here."

She nodded, flying up. I heard he shouting out to the Avalon staff. I shrugged, mind feeling blank. I turned to say something, but I knelt down. I coughed a bit more blood, and I passed out.

A few days later...

I recognized Twilight Sparkle from atop the heads of the other ponies. Colgate bobbed up right behind her, grinning. Twilight clearly felt relieved. I couldn't believe, according to Derpy, that she had felt afraid of Derpy and her daughter visiting Canterlot with just Fluttershy to help out. Derpy stepped out from the train onto the Ponyville station floor. I followed just a few inches behind.

"It's great to see you," Colgate chirped, trotting over. She eyed the big bag of suveniors atop the tip of Derpy's wing, making a happy "oooooh". Twilight stepped over. She eyed Derpy and moved up over to me.

I stood there right besides Derpy, my hoof curled tightly along her side. Her head nudged over by my chest. Twilight opened her mouth, but she stopped. She didn't have to say anything. We didn't have to say anything. Twilight just knew.

The purple unicorn made a content sigh. Derpy and I sauntered our way forwards, eyes looking up past Twilight at the beautiful sunny day across Ponyville. We had a lot to look forward to.

"My name's Cinnamon." I stuck out a hoof at Colgate.

Derpy leaned to the side, gazing up at me. I looked down at her. She kissed me on the cheek, making me blush. Yep, a whole lot to look forward to.

The End.