Chapters Kalib pumped his wings as hard as he could as rain poured down around him steadily, he wiped his goggles quickly and thunder sounded in the distance causing him to seize up for a second before regaining control. He had been flying for four days straight and his wings would periodically fade out causing him to plummet several miles until he got them working again. He rolled around a bolt of lightning hoping that he could block out the crash of the thunder but then it sounded right beside him and he felt himself completely black out.
Tulip walked around the clearing that she has been cultivating for the past month and a half. She had the ability to grow tulips quickly but she always found a joy in growing through out the season. Though with her ability she can grow her flowers bigger and quicker; which she'd do for special events, for around the house she would always take her time carefully cultivating the natural beauty in her flowers. Tulip always took her time dig up her flowers so that she doesn't damage the roots in the process. She gently pushed a bug away from one of her plants as she heard a slightly painful whistling somewhere and and barely jumped out of the way as someone shot by her into the ground and she winced at the sound as the pony plowed through the ground almost hitting one of the trees in the clearing. She dropped the tulips she had into her basket before trotting over to the newly formed trench. Tulip could get close to the piled up dirt since it was heated up to a cool orange but it didn't flow.
When Tulip pushed the dirt out of the way with magic just enough to see what was inside she gasped. The stallion inside was definitely unconscious but surprised Tulip the most that he was still alive after a fall like his, which had to be over 10,000 feet of altitude and while wearing a full set of body armor. She cleared her head of all other thoughts except the stallion and focused all her magic on lifting him out of the ditch. This seemed to take forever once Tulip pulled him close enough for the dampening efffect on the stallion's armor to take affect causing him to dip dangerously closer to red hot dirt. Tulip strained to keep him from getting injured any worse but she couldn't help herself as the stallion dropped heavily onto the ground outside the ditch.
"Hey, can you hear me?" Tulip asked the stallion as she shook him gently.
He groaned in response and Tulip sighed as she picked him up before looking at her basket of flowers.
"His safety is definitely more important than flowers." Tulip whispered as she trudged forward.
Whatever the dampening effect was on the stallion's armor had started to affect Tulip physically as she felt like she was trying to walk through congealed syrup that just wanted to pull her down. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly easily strengthening her resolve to help the stallion's she was carrying right beside her.
"You'll be okay." Tulip told the stallion as she looked at him before she stumbled and quickly righted herself. "Try not to trip Tulip."
Kalib could not feel anything except an endless sensation of falling, what made it worse for him is that it felt like he falling from the sky but it sounded to him like he was falling through water. Whenever he tried to speak he felt as if had rocks in his mouth and he could barely breath. After a while he let himself relax and look around, which didn't do him much good since all he saw was pitch black. He felt around with his hooves and cursed when his hoof slammed painfully into something. Kalib let his mind reach out and he felt his mind connect for a second with a unicorn before he blacked out again.
Tulip walked into the living room rubbing her face and yawning. She looked around and as soon as her mind registered that Kalib wasn't on the couch her heart rate rose slightly. She walked briskly through the house and when she didn't find him she burst out the front door. She almost slammed into as he was right outside about to come in.
"Where were you?" Tulip asked him.
"I was going through the forest trying to find my eye patch." Kalib told her as he gestured to his clouded left eye.
"Why are you so self conscious about it?" Tulip asked him.
"I'm not it just makes it easier for people to be around me." Kalib replied as he looked away.
"It doesn't bother me though, so while it is just the two of you don't need to worry about it." Tulip replied.
Kalib looked at her slightly and sighed.
"You barely know me and you're as nice as you are." Kalib said to her.
"You need someone to be nice to you for who you are, not for what you look like." Tulip replied as she hugged him gently.
"What are you doing?" Kalib asked her as he tensed up.
"I'm hugging you, what's wrong?" Tulip asked him.
"Nothing, I'm just not used to it." Kalib replied.
"Then you'll have to get used to it if you're going to be staying here for awhile." Tulip told him. "I'm not taking no for an answer."
Kalib smiled slightly and Tulip sucked in her breath quietly as her heart fluttered a little.
"Of course ma'am." Kalib chuckled as he looked up at the sky.
Kalib watch Tulip walk around the living room straightening out but when ever he offered to help she declined it stating that she could handle what she had to do by herself and with magic when it was required. He watched her pick up something of the things that had been knocked off the coffee table when he has hit it last night and he saw her legs start to buckle. Kalib easily covered the distance to her and wrap his forehead around her and helped her to the couch.
"Thanks, that was weird." Tulip replied, her voice shaking slightly.
"It is due to the magic weakening effect on my armor." Kalib told her as he handed her a glass of water. "It tends to linger on unicorns."
"It affects other races?" Tulip asked him.
"Yeah, usually it makes anyone sick when they get near it when I'm unconscious, so that says something about you." Kalib told her
"What is that?" Tulip asked him.
"You're crazy as hell." Kalib told her. "You take a complete stranger back to your place and try to help them get better."
"So?" Tulip asked him.
"I know only one person that would do that." Kalib replied.
"Who?" Tulip asked him.
"You of course, everyone else would be puking their guts out." Kalib told her with a chuckle. "Thanks for helping me out, if I was stuck in that armor I would've suffocated seeing how the lightning bolt shorted out the life support system."
"You were hit by lightning, why didn't you tell me?" Tulip asked him. "I wasn't looking specifically for that "
"You don't have to worry about that." Kalib told her. "I heal at an extraordinary speed."
"I still want you to take it easy." Tulip replied.
As Kalib turned around Tulip cleared her throat.
"Where do you think you're going?" Tulip asked him.
"I'll meet you at the edge of the forest tomorrow, I have to go find someone." Kalib replied before walking into the trees.
When Tulip woke up the next morning she heard a tapping on her window. She quickly walked over to it and when she opened it she found Kalib standing a few feet away still holding a few rocks, which he dropped as she was opening the window.
"It wasn't me." Kalib told her.
"Oh yeah, then who was it?" She asked him.
"I have to say there was a bird flying back and forth dropping the pebbles on your window." Kalib replied with a grin.
"Whatever you say." Tulip replied, smiling back. "I'll be down there in a second."
"You don't have to rush." Kalib replied as she walked into her bathroom.
Kalib was stacking the pebbles that he had dropped when he heard the door slam and he quickly scattered the tower.
"So what's the plan?" Tulip asked him.
Kalib looked at her but when he tried to speak he was caught off guard. Yesterday he hadn't really paying too much attention to how Tulip looked but since his wasn't as distracted he was stunned. Her hide as blue as the mid morning sky, her hair a passionate, firey red, and her deep, breathtaking purple eyes that seemed to silently captivate his attention.
"You okay?" Tulip asked him.
"Yeah, just got distracted that's all." Kalib replied.
"O...Okay, so what do you have planned for today?"
Before he responded Tulip noticed the blood soaked bandages on his side.
"Get in house, now." Tulip told him.
"What?" Kalib asked her.
"I said get in the house now!" Tulip told him. "That's an order from your apparent nurse."
Kalib finally looked at his side and chuckled.
"You don't need to worry its only a little scratch." Kalib told her.
"Get. In. The. House. Now." Tulip hissed while jabbing a hoof towards the door.
"Okay, okay, I'm marching." Kalib chuckled as he walked by her and through the door.
Tulip quickly laid a few clean towels over her couch before helping Kalib lay down again. She peeled off the bandages and gasped as she saw how deep the gash was.
"What happened?" Tulip asked him as she summoned up her a first aid kit.
"Trees just hate me." Kalib chuckled before groaning.
"Stop talking so that I can stitch you up." Tulip told him.
Kalib nodded as he straightened himself out so that Tulip could stitch up his side.
After Tulip got done stitching up his side and bandaged it up she sighed.
"You need to be careful." Tulip told him.
"That isn't fun." Kalib told her as he got up.
"Kalib, please." Tulip told him.
"Okay, you want to go for that walk now?
"Yeah, we shouldn't go to the wood though since trees 'hate' you, maybe the city." Tulip told him.
Kalib nodded and the two of them left.
Kalib paid for yellow scarf from a side shop and fluidly and gently fixed it around Tulip's neck causing her to blush gently.
"You didn't have to buy this for Kalib." Tulip told him.
"I can see you shiver I don't need both of my eye working perfectly to see that." Kalib replied.
Before Tulip could say anything else she heard a voice behind them.
"Tulip, I haven't seen you in a few days." May told her.
"Oh hey May, sorry I've just been busy the past few days." Tulip replied.
"Whom might you be?" Sketch asked Kalib.
"I'm Kalib, I'm partially the reason Tulip has been busy for a while." Kalib replied as he handed Tulip a hot chocolate causing her to blush again.
"That's too cute, are you two dating already?" May asked them.
Before Kalib could react Tulip blurted out. "Yeah, we just wanted to keep it low key for a little while."
"Our lips are sealed then." May told her. "You better take good care of her Kalib."
"Of course ma'am." Kalib replied. "Come on sweetheart let's get to our date
Tulip tried to lower the stallion on her couch but she accidentally whacked his head on the edge of her coffee table.
"I'm so sorry." Tulip told him.
She pushed herself as hard as she could and finally placed the guy onto her couch. Tulip wiped she forehead and studied the stallion's armor close and prepared a spell on her hooves to protect them from the hot metal as she yanked at the jaw of his helmet. She yanked hard enough to when her hooves slipped off the metal she fell backwards but to her surprise she was gently placed back on her hooves. She walked back to where the stallion was laying and looked over the helmet trying to find something that might detach the bottom from the top. When she didn't find anything that would look like a switch or latch she sat down and blew a strand of hair out of her face.
"First I almost get killed when you drop from the sky and now I can get your helmet off to at least see who you are?" Tulip asked him.
She huffed as she cast a scanning spell on the stallion's body and noted his fractured ribs and sighed when that was all that was wrong with him. Tulip ran a hoof along the front of his chest and she felt a small rise in the center of his chest plate. She put a little pressure on the peak and fell on the station's chest as the peak suddenly dropped. She got quickly as she watched the armor separate down the middle revealing a tan hide. Tulip looked the stallion's face as the helmet receded and gasped as she saw his eyes was wide open showing one piercing emerald green eye that made her stop for a second as her breath caught in her throat, but the the other eye was slightly clouded with a scar across it.
"Water...?" The stallion asked her.
She only nodded before walking into the kitchen.
Tulip watched the stallion closely as he stretched and she applied a burn ointment on his chest and back where the armor had heated up the most. She picked up the glass of water and pressed it against his lips forcing him to take a drink before setting it back down and finishing the application of the burn ointment.
"There we go, now I'll need you to take it easy for a while." Tulip told him.
"Of course, um you never told me your name." The stallion told her.
"My name is Tulip." Tulip replied.
"A beautiful name for a beautiful mare." Kalib replied as he ran a hoof through his almost black mane. "Kalib Odiv at your service, my lady."
Tulip blushed slightly and only blushed harder as he brushed a strand of her mane out of her face.
"Are you okay?" Kalib asked her
"Yeah, will you be okay sleeping on the couch tonight?" Tulip asked him. "I'll have the guest room fixed up tomorrow."
"That's fine, I've slept on the before so taking a couch for a night doesn't bother me." Kalib replied with a slight grin.
"Good night Kalib." Tulip told him.
"Good night Tulip." Kalib replied as he laid down on the couch