Accidentally In Love

Accidentally In Love
by milesprower06

Chapter One
Stormworks

'Come on Scribbles, get a move on!'

Sky Scribbles imagined how his boss would berate him for not getting the cloud to Ponyville's Summer Sun Celebration fast enough. If he wasn't afraid of retaliation, he knew exactly how he'd respond too.

"Not all of us have raw talent in speed, Ms. Dash. If you want it there two hours early, I'm sure you'd be more than capable of pushing it all the way there." The dark gray pegasus mumbled to himself as he beat his wings, slowly moving the cumulus across the sky towards the hills just outside Ponyville. It was considerably large, almost too big for one pony. But it was more hours; hours that would be on next week's check. They must have been planning something new for this year's festivities, a cloud had never been on the manifest before.

The flight wasn't made any easier by his saddlebags, which contained his entertainment for the evening. He wasn't the most sociable of ponies, and in retrospect, he was rather grateful that he hadn't attended last year's Celebration, seeing as how half of it was cleanup after that Everfree Forest disaster. But he had the feeling that he should at least be present after delivering the cloud. After all, he didn't want to be a loner all the time, especially considering he lived and worked in the capitol of Princess Twilight's Kingdom of Friendship.

At last, after an hour of flying from Cloudsdale, the outskirts of Ponyville came into view as the sun began it's final descent. Once the sun went down, the party would officially begin, and wouldn't stop until the sun came up the next morning to start the longest day of summer. Most businesses closed the day after the festivities, so ponies could continue spending time with friends, and then catch up on sleep.

As the instructions said, Sky pushed the cloud to over the northernmost hill. If a major outdoor event didn't take place around Town Hall, it was out here. The road snaked through these hills out to Sweet Apple Acres and beyond, continuing east.

With the cloud in place, Sky descended to the grass, and dug through his saddlebags for his chosen entertainment for the evening; a small stack of comic books. He began to flip through the first one when another pony bumped into him.

"Oof!" He grunted, nearly being knocked over. The comic falling for the ground, he looked over to the offender, a unicorn stallion pulling a small cart, who also had a comic book in his magical grasp.

"Whoops, I'm so sorry. I didn't see you there. The hill looked clear when I started climbing." He said, also grabbing Sky's comic book with his magic, and offering it back to him. He eyed the title on the cover.

"Hey, you're a Crimson vs. Indigo fan too, huh? Awesome." The unicorn said, offering a hoof bump.

"Yep, been reading it for nearly nine years now." Sky replied, taking his comic back and completed the hoof bump.

"Name's Cobalt Blaze, nice to meet you."

"Sky Scribbles. Likewise."

Cobalt's coat was true to his name, a dark blue all over. His mane and tail consisted of an even darker blue, nearly black, striped with a contrasting orange. Both were roughly kept. A pair of short, wide oval-framed glasses rested on his snout,in front of his fluorescent orange eyes. His cutie mark was a light gray thundercloud with a bolt of lightning, not something you'd commonly see on a unicorn.

Cobalt likewise took in the features of the pegasus he had carelessly bumped into. His coat was a dark gray, his eyes were a rich blue, his violet and blue mane had been styled into a mohawk, and his similarly colored tail swayed behind him. His cutie mark was a rolled scroll and a black-feathered quill.

Cobalt put his comic back in his saddlebags as he got himself out of the harness of his cart. He walked around to the back, and opened the tailgate. Securely fastened in the back of the cart were several spring-loaded cannons, and a pile of dozens of head-sized spheres, that looked like they were made of either glass or marble.

"What are those?" Sky asked, coming around to the back as Cobalt began to unload the cannons with his magic. He set the cannons up in a circle around the top of the hill, each pointed up at the cloud Sky had brought.

"These..." The unicorn began, grabbing one of the spheres, "are Stormworks, my very own creation. A type of firework."

Sky looked at the fiery blue sphere, and didn't see any kind of fuse or anything.

"How do you light them? I don't see any fuses or anything."

"That's the point. It's my patented magically activated firework. It's much safer that way."

"So how do they go off?"

"Like this."

Cobalt lit his horn, and fired a beam of magical energy into the cloud above them that Sky had brought in. The white cumulus began to glow, and turned several darker shades into gray.

"We could've done that, if you said you needed a thundercloud." Sky offered.

"It's no ordinary thundercloud. It's charged with my magic so I can control the lightning when I shoot these up around the cloud.

"Ah. Stormworks. Gotcha." Sky said, understanding.

"Well, since you made the long trip with the cloud, how about a front row seat with me for the show? View doesn't get any better than this. Cannon's aren't loud either because of the springs. No powder. I save the bangs for the stormworks themselves." Cobalt offered, grabbing a rolled up blanket from the back of the cart and unfurled it on the grass, taking off his saddlebags.

"Sure." Sky answered, taking off his own saddlebags, and taking a comfy spot on the blanket, getting his comic book back out.

"When does the show start?"

"Mayor Mare will come by and let me know when I can start. Usually not until it's completely dark." Cobalt said, looking off to the horizon, where there were still hints of light from the setting sun.

"So how long have you lived in Ponyville?" Sky asked.

"I've lived here most of my life. My mom's side of the family is from Baltimare. My dad's from Las Pegasus.

"So the stormworks is how you make your living?"

"Yep. I don't travel all that much for live shows, I just manufacture the stormworks, and serve as a reseller for the cannons that fire them. What about you? From around here?"

"I've only been living in town for about three years. Naturally, I'm from Cloudsdale. I was there until I was around six years old. Then my mom, my sister and I moved to Hoofington."

"You mom and sister? What about...?"

"Mom and dad split up when I was six. It was the reason we left Cloudsdale."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's alright. It was a long time ago. None of it was my fault. It's between my mom and dad, I never worried too much about it."

"So what do you do? I'm guessing something involving writing."

"Not as much as you'd think. I enjoy writing, but not so much as an occupation. Primarily, I'm with Ponyville's weather patrol, and I occasionally put a short story in the Ponyville Daily."

With that, the two of them opened their respective comic books. Sky had a reprint of issue #1 of Crimson vs Indigo. Cobalt had brought something considerably newer, issue #100. They were there reading for about fifteen minutes before Mayor Mare came up the hill.

"Good evening, Cobalt. Is everything ready?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am. At a periodic pace, we've got enough stormworks for a two hour show."

"Glad to hear it. You and your friend can start firing when the music starts."

Mayor Mare returned down to the festivities that were now starting to get underway. Ponies all around the hills were laying out picnic blankets, setting up lawn games like horseshoes, or gathering for the music Vinyl Scratch was mixing and playing.

"Alright, ready for a show?" Cobalt asked Sky, setting his saddlebags aside, and lighting up his horn.

"Absolutely. I think they are too." Sky pointed down to a small group of young ponies, and their parents, who had gathered at the bottom of the hill ready for the show.

Using his magic, Cobalt loaded each of the five cannons around the edge of the hilltop. When Vinyl's light show paused, he took that as his cue, and fired the first cannon. The fiery blue ball launched up into the sky. It arced over the cloud, and when it was at it's peak, the cloud struck the ball with a bolt of lightning. Blue bursts of fire shot up out of the stormwork as it exploded in a brilliant flash of light, to cheers and whoops from the bottom of the hill. Using his magic to toggle the cannon actuators, Cobalt fired off two more in quick succession. The cloud struck them at the same time, and red and yellow pyrotechnics filled the sky. The next two shots were also fired in pairs, and the lightning bolts were prolonged, remaining connected to the balls as they arced over the cloud, sending out a flurry of sparkling rockets even higher.

Needless to say, Sky was awestruck. As the show progressed throughout the night, the explosions contained within the spheres got bigger. At the two hour mark, Cobalt glanced in the back of the cart, and grabbed the last five stormworks, each wrapped in a red ribbon, letting him know that these were for the finale.

"Ready for the big finish?"

"Show me what you've got." Sky replied, eager to see what these last five were going to do.

Sky loaded them into the cannons, and with a signal from down below, Vinyl's music came to an abrupt pause. His horn glowing brightly, Cobalt fired off all five cannons at their highest setting, sending the balls up with a single strike each from the cloud. They spiraled around each other in a helix formation, each glowing a different color. These traveled higher than any previous shot, and when they reached the peak of their trajectory, the helix collapsed, and the five balls exploded in a spectacular display of multicolored fire. When the bang died down, there were cheers all around, especially from the younger ponies.

With the show concluded, the ponies who were captivated by the show at the bottom of the hill now moved onto other activities, while some of the younger crowd couldn't stay awake, and began napping on their picnic blankets. Vinyl's music continued as ponies began to dance in front of her light show.

Cobalt packed away the five cannons back in his cart, and without dozens of bowling-ball-sized fireworks, his return trip was no doubt going to be easier. When he latched the tailgate, his stomach announced it was time to get something to eat.

"My thoughts exactly. In the mood for anything particular?" Sky asked, as they began to descend the hill towards the concession stands.

"Oh yeah. I'm all about onion rings and barbeque sauce." Cobalt told him, his stomach rumbling at the mere mention of his favorite snack.

"I can't say that I've ever had that."

"Oh, then you are in for a treat my friend. Just wait until you try it."

Not even 30 seconds after getting to the concession area, they found a stand selling quite a few variations of fried snacks. They got two servings of piping hot onion rings and a generous bowl of barbeque sauce, and found a nearby picnic table. They dipped at the same time, and took a first bite, the fried breading crunching between their teeth.

Sky immediately wanted more.

"Oh wow, that is good."

Preferring a little onion ring with his dipping sauce, Sky was quite liberal with the barbeque. He quickly chewed his way through his serving of onion rings. The combination of the crunch of the breading, juiciness of the caramelized onion, and the sweet succulence of the sauce made it a perfect snack. After a few bites, Cobalt got up and returned a few minutes later with two mugs of ice cold apple cider.

"Here ya go, it's on me."

"Thanks."

To return the gratitude, Sky went and got a third serving of onion rings which the two of them shared with what barbeque sauce remained.

"So how often do you do shows yourself versus how often you just ship materials out?" Sky asked, taking his last bite of onion ring.

"It really varies. It depends on how many times I'm booked, and how far away it is. I don't like to charge too much if it's far away. But renting space on a train does get pricey sometimes. I try to get out to as many places as I can for that personal touch, but if there's not too many events close by, I'll usually just ship it out to them, because going halfway across Equestria for a two-hour show isn't really feasible."

"Yeah, I can see that."

"So, your cutie mark. You must do more writing than your occasional column in Ponyville Daily, right?"

"Yeah. There are a lot of my stories that I keep to myself."

"Why?"

"Well, sometimes I feel they're not up to par. But most of the time, I just feel like they're, well, too silly."

"What do you mean by too silly?"

"I write a little bit of everything. Comedy, slice of life, horror..."

"You write horror? What's silly about that?"

"Well you know those mythical human creatures? I got drunk one night and wrote a short story about a party planner who kidnapped party attendees, slowly tortured them, and then harvested their guts for ingredients for her desserts."

"Ah. Well, I'm certainly glad we've finished eating."

"Yeah. I enjoy writing, but I want to make sure I have something really really good before I try getting published or something like that."

"I should come by and see some of what you've written sometime."

"What about you? Your cutie mark is obviously centered around your Stormworks, but do you have any other hobbies?"

"Sure do. I like to draw on occasion. If I have some free time, I like working on my cart, to try to tweak it so I can go faster over rough terrain."

After finishing off their cider, they went to play some games, and listen to some of Vinyl's set. Sky didn't care for the dubstep as much as Cobalt did; their tastes in music were a bit different. Now that they weren't sitting around eating and talking, the night seemed to go by a lot faster. Before they knew it, Princess Twilight had come up on stage, and had formally announced the sunrise. After that, a whole lot of very tired ponies started to head back to town for what would either be a long, tired day off, or a day full of naps. Cobalt and Sky returned to the top of the hill, where the unicorn got hitched back up to his wagon.

"Tonight was awesome. It was great to meet you. It's always nice to make new friends. It'd be a shame if this was the last we saw of each other." Cobalt offered.

"Yeah. I'm sure you know how Twilight defeated Nightmare Moon with her new friends. Heh, can you imagine how it would be if Princess Twilight still wasn't the least bit interested in making friends after that whole mess?"

"It would be twisted, that's for sure. So, the next issue of Crimson vs Indigo comes out next week. Meet you at the comic shop?"

The two of them shared a hoof bump.

"Sounds like a plan to me."