I sauntered through the warm evening in Ponyville Park, taking in all the sights and sounds of the beautiful landscape around me. Tall trees lined the path, their leaves a glorious collage of green and gold that almost glistened in the late-summer sun, the air beneath them heavy with their sweet scent. A little gust of wind fluttered along my side, ruffling my feathers and carrying with it a pair of butterflies, who nonetheless continued to twirl and dance with each other as they floated into the cool fires above. In the distance, the gentle babbling of the town brook occasionally broke through the giggles of foals as they ran after a kite, the gentle whooshes of the pegasi above as they moved the clouds in preparation for the evening’s mackerel sky, and the chatter of a young couple as they strolled across the lawn, lost to the world and in the wonder of each other’s eyes…
A gentle twinge ran through my chest, as if chasing after the soft smile that graced my lips.
I knew that feeling well.
A giggle tinkled through my ears more clear and serene than any bell, and I glanced to my left to find the goddess who had brought it into the world. My eyes quickly found the loose strands of her mane, the colour of purest gold but more precious than a mere metal could ever be and with the warm, sugary scent of an angel. My gaze roved over her back, worked strong and resilient by years of carrying the town’s mail and her own burdens with a chipper smile and a laugh that could demolish even the hardest walls around the stoniest of hearts. I lingered for a moment on her wings, those delicate, wondrous appendages that allowed her to soar as high as only a pony so incredible deserved to and yet were able to reduce the pair of us to tittery, giggly, cuddly mush; her when I felt forward enough to give her tired wings a preen after a difficult day, and me when she would take those smooth feathers and wrap them around me, a blanket softer than cashmere and more comfortable than should be possible. Finally, I managed to wrench my eyes away from her achingly beautiful body and meet her warm, loving gaze.
Oh, yes did I know that feeling.
She giggled again, giving me that adorable little flash of her pearly teeth as her head bobbed up and down in sheer joy, her cheeks bunching up under her closed eyes until they shone brighter than the sun itself.
“You’ve sure been stare-y this evening, Silver,” she chirped, finally letting her eyes drift open again and allowing me to bask in their glory.
I grinned, pressing even further against her, her lithe side sending thrills racing up my spine. “Well, when I’ve got something so pretty to look at, it’s difficult to stop.”
That most wonderful of sounds filled the air again, and an explosion of warmth and love rocked my heart as she rested her chin across my withers, humming like her easy-bake oven and just as cozy. The gentle puffs of her breath tickled my fur as she rested there for a few wonderful, endless moments, before she sent sparks and frazzles crackling along my back again as she nuzzled me ever so gently.
But then the electricity running down my spine stopped as she gasped, yanking her head away almost too quickly for me to see the most awful sight a pony in love could.
It felt like I had just dived into a frozen lake.
My breath caught in my chest as the dainty little ditty of her hooves clip-clopping on the path stopped, but the pained sigh certainly had no difficulty bursting from her nose. A million tiny needles stabbed at my sides and set my nerves aflame as I spotted the quivering puddles marring the bottom of those gorgeous eyes. My heart stopped dead and the skies themselves greyed as my mare—my wonderful, charming, adorable, incredible mare—choked out, “if only that were true…”
It was as if the very spirit of joy and happiness had left her body, for she let her head hang limp and let those shoulders, that had carried so much mail to so many ponies who simply did not appreciate what she did for them, heave.
I had to put this right; nothing was to make my mare unhappy.
“But, darling,” I soothed, raising her chin with my hoof and choking back a gasp of my own when I saw the vibrancy of her eyes draining away with her tears, leaving them dark and lifeless. “It is true.”
She let out the most tragic little sniffle, but my words stemmed the flow of tears. “Really?” she croaked, the beginnings of her smile teasing me from the corners of her lips.
I showed her how it was done, nodding firmly. “Of course, sweetie.” I leaned in and gently kissed the tip of her nose, though I was sure I heard fireworks in my head all the same. Even if I didn’t, my love’s eyes sparkled and the mesmerising smile graced her muzzle again, as she blinked away the salty dregs. A little sniffle escaped her nose, but, if anything, her face glowed even brighter.
“Oh, thank you, Silver!” My name was muffled as she nuzzled my side again, sending too many tingles across my tummy and explosions through my mind for me to care all too much. I had stopped the most wonderful mare in Equestria from feeling as though she was anything but: This was a glorious day.
But a curious one, too.
“Sweetie...” I began, tearing myself away from her affections as if I were tearing off my own skin, but it was necessary to stand before her and look my love straight in those endlessly expressive eyes. “Why in Equestria would you even think that? Was…” My brows furrowed, and once again I felt the pinpricks stinging my sides. “Was it something I did?”
My mare’s eyes both focussed on me, as wide and as round as dinner plates and almost matched by her mouth, before she shook her head and let slip an adorable little smile. “No, Silver…” she whispered, trotting over to me and resting her muzzle against mine. “It would never be you.”
We stayed like that for a good few minutes, her giving me the greatest gift a stallion could ever receive by sharing her very breath with me. I could feel its sugary sweetness tingling as it wafted through my nostrils, my chest burgeoned with a warmth filled every nook and cranny of my being, the very essence of her perky, adorable charm infused to my core, and all the little niggles and aches of the day simply melted into nothing…
Except for one.
“So who was it then, dearest?” I tilted my head away, brow raised and hoping I could come even close to the lip-bitingly adorable picture my darling was whenever she cocked her head. “Was it those mean stallions you used to know from school?”
She kept her flawless smile and shook her head, mane twirling and aglow in the evening sun. “No, Silver… it wasn’t them. They know not to bother me any more.”
If anything her smile eclipsed the sun in radiance, but that did little to mask the sigh that soon escaped. “It was at the market, earlier.” I gently placed my hoof on her shoulder. “There were these ponies laughing and pointing at me…” Her nose twitched in a way that would have made my heart melt if it weren’t already shattering. “And then those bakers ran out of muffins before I could buy any!”
I rubbed my hoof through the soft fur of her back, unable to halt the bowing of her head and the light receding from the world. “And… and that stallion was there, staring over me…”
Her voice had shrunk from a sturdy chirp that could lift me all the way to the clouds to a weedy, wobbly whine that locked my throat, and I knew exactly why. I knew of this stallion, this… brute who has tormented my mare, who stood over her just so that he could make the most wonderful pony in Equestria feel small, who wouldn’t answer her delightful questions about how his wares were made and just stood staring at her, silently, looming over her like some sort of creep. How could somepony dare treat my darling so disrespectfully.
“But it’s okay!”
That blasted away the storm that had enveloped my head, and my beloved’s flawless smile shone through the remaining gloom. “I have you, Silver.” Her curled into a smirk. “And what do I have to worry about when I have a stallion as loving, strong and…”—she stroked her cheek along my side, shockwaves echoing out across my coat from wherever her supple grey graced my bright silver, and I closed my eyes—“... handsome as you are to protect meEEEEEE—”
I opened my eyes, but a different gold greeted me to that of my beloved’s gorgeous pair. The gentle light slipped around the curtains and bathed my bedroom in a warm glow that made me wish I had somepony to share it with. Somepony to share the couch with, her pressed against me as we whiled away the evenings with stories of our days. Somepony to share this bed with, curling up together every night. Somepony to even share those closets with, and watch as her pretty dresses mingled with my uniform and see the little trinkets and gifts of our lives become one big whole…
Somepony to share every moment with, and I knew exactly who that somepony should be.
A grunt escaped my throat as I pushed myself up, my silky mane clinging to the pillow as if it wanted to return to that wonderful dream and that beautiful, amazing mare who joined me there every night, but this was not the time for dreams.
No. This was the time for making them come true.
I grinned, twisting my neck until a satisfying click rang out into the muggy air, and I looked over to the window. It was still mostly obscured, but the light of a new dawn was still there, calling for me far louder than the blaring alarm.
Smirking, I raised a hoof to my bedside table and clicked it silent.
“Yeah… today I’m going to ask you out, Derpy.”
Author's Note
To prove that I'm not just writing MacDash at the moment, here's something a little different... that I actually started more than a year ago. But that I am continuing!
Also, here's to five years on the site. That would probably be more meaningful if I hadn't spent four of them in my own anxieties, but anyway.
A light, chilly gust whisked across my chest, tugging me away from the glorious image that still floated in my mind’s eye. I pushed the covers away and slipped off the mattress, my hooves making sturdy contact with the wooden floorboards. With a song in my heart and a flow in my veins I reached back and dragged my duvet back into its proper place, taking extra care to tuck the corners in and fluff the pillows. I smiled. Surely, if I was to be welcoming my beloved into this room later this evening, I would have to make it worthy of her presence.
I frowned at the empty bottle on my bedside table, the sugary residue around its tip winking at me defiantly in the low light. That would have to go.
I picked it up by its scruff and swept my eyes over the rest of my domain. Fortunately, I had little reason to worry about the rest of the room. Those pesky cobwebs that had recently begun to weave the corners of my ceiling together had been swept away a couple of days ago with a firm swipe of my duster, so that was clean. Further down, a few crumbs lingered on the bedside table, the only remains of the gooey, delectable muffins I had had for dinner. A quick wipe would deal with those, and then there was the floor. I had swept it last night, after I retrieved the Post Office uniform I had casually tossed on the floor after…
After…
She had winked at me. I know she had. I was giving Derpy her satchel—the special one that had her beloved muffin embroidered on the side—with her deliveries freshly checked and ordered inside it, and she winked at me.
My eyes fell shut and I took in a deep, warm sigh, still able to smell her wonderful, sugary scent.
I grinned, unable to help the happy little chuckle tickling my throat. Yes. Today was the day!
I popped my eyes open again, flicking them over to the closet, in which my clean, pressed uniform was safely tucked, ready for to coming Monday where I would finally be able to join Derpy at work in… in…
I almost rose off the floor, blood rushing through my ears. In my rightful place.
Bottle still tucked between my teeth, I turned tail and stepped out of the room. My hooves struck up a jaunty beat as I trotted down the hallway, nodding at the photograph of us together at the company picnic last year, and into the kitchen. The door opened to reveal a brightness that assaulted my eyes and forced me into a squint, but I soon adjusted and gave the room a cursory sweep. I pursed my lips as I spotted the state of the garbage bin, but that could be resolved later.
At that point, I needed a plan.
I set the bottle on top of the trash and poured a bowl of my favourite cereal. It felt a little light as I carried it to the table, but it was a decent breakfast for a stallion of my needs.
However, it wouldn’t be enough for me and my special somepony.
I hummed as I took my first bite, my chest practically dissolving into mush as I digested those two incredible words. Yes, it was finally going to happen.
I gulped down the mass in my mouth, swiftly replacing it. I had tried to confess my feelings to her last year, at the company picnic. I had tried to pull her to one side, tried to let her know what a majestic, wonderful soul she was and how honoured I would be if she were to let me be her special somepony, to let me be her island of hope in the sea of disgust and hatred that washed over her from the rest of the townsponies. But I hadn’t counted on their insidious nature; they had kept us apart. Deliberately. Every time I had tried to talk to her, or walked towards her with her favourite treats on my back, I had to watch as those ponies buffeted her around with their laughter.
I swallowed, taking a bigger bite. The same had happened on Hearts and Hooves Day, too. I had spent all day preparing that big, fluffy heart for her, but I was never able to get close enough to her. I stamped a hoof, the bowl chinking as it shook. That… that stallion had surrounded her. He pushed her around the whole day, never letting her out of his clutches and letting out that menacing, booming chuckle whenever she tried to escape and join me.
My chest plummeted. I had failed her.
I licked up the milky dregs from the bottom of the bowl and purposefully planted a hoof. No more. No more would I stand idly by and let my mare suffer in her lonely nightmare. I would make myself hers…
But how?
I frowned as I picked up the empty bowl. Perhaps I should start with some roses? I nodded to myself as I dropped the crockery in the sink. After all, Derpy had been the only mare at the Post Office who hadn’t spent the entirety of Hearts and Hooves Day riding a great wave of delicious red petals, and she had looked so wistful, so adorably hopeful whenever one of those smug fillies wandered by, slathering over their bouquets and childishly waving them in front of my sweetheart’s poor, innocent eyes.
I finished tying the garbage bag and picked it up, smiling. Yes. Roses were definitely the way forward. I could already see her face light up as I presented her with my offering. I would bow my head, showing proper reverence to the most wonderful creature to walk this land, and she would let out that giddy little giggle that an entire symphony would never be able to recreate as she took her corsage of flowers. Her soft, delicate lips would gently parse out one of the petals and she would let out the most satisfied, gracious hum as she savoured its sweet juices, before she pressed them against my cheek.
And then the whole world would stand still.
I grinned as I placed the trash-bag in its metal dungeon on the kerbside, and my stomach gurgled as I stood back up. I frowned. The bag had been bound good and tight, so it couldn’t have been that. I sucked my teeth, and a strange staleness washed over my tongue under the pervading sweetness of my breakfast. I probably should have checked the box before plunging in. Then again, I didn’t often eat breakfast; I was usually too busy working that early in the morning or jogging when I knew I could exercise without bumping into any of my beloved’s—
“Hello, there.”
—tormentors.
I knew that voice.
My eyes shot around and found a green pair glinting smugly back from atop a preening sneer. I knew this voice and I knew this mare. Not by name, but by deed. She had been one of the ponies who attended the company picnic last year, and she didn’t even work for the Post Office, so she must have been there just to poke fun at my Derpy and make her want to run away in tears (she didn’t, but I could see in her eyes that she was fighting them back). She had also been part of Derpy’s team last Winter Wrap Up, and had dared to scream at Derpy just because she tried to find the southern birds a different way to other ponies. She was different; that didn’t make Derpy stupid!
But it certainly made mares like this cruel, judgemental harpies.
I glared at her, and felt a certain satisfaction well within me when I saw her recoil. Served her right!
With a snort I stalked back into my house and slammed the door, hoping the sheer force of the blast would knock that disgrace into something equally disgusting. I had the roses locked in place for my plan, but that didn’t seem quite like enough for my sweet. Derpy may be the most wonderful mare in the universe, and she would never judge anypony by their failings, but I couldn’t treat her like that. She was my princess, my world, my everything; she deserved only the best!
I walked back down the hall and into the bathroom, grimacing slightly as the door squeaked open instead of its typical smooth glide, but the grin quickly returned to the silver face in the mirror. Two rows of creamy teeth marched in straight rows to form what I hoped was a charming smile, though they could have done with a clean. I squirted a minty dollop onto my toothbrush and scrubbed away, eyes resting on the quirky burst of slate grey that sprang from my scalp, where odd strands stood proud because they had been blessed by her touch. Long ago, she had run her hooves through my mane, twiddling it betwixt her delicate hooves and even taking the time to deem it ‘cute’. I had been a mere colt before that day, when those gentle pools of gold had first shimmered at me and lit up my life; since then, I was a stallion.
I glanced at the glimpse of my body I could see in the mirror and allowed my grin to turn cheeky. Not only was I a stallion, but I was something of an imposing stallion; not a slab of dumb muscle like that red brute, but hints of subtle strength creased my barrel, ready to leap to my mare’s defence and shield her from whatever horror the world could throw at her.
I spat out the slick foam and fixed a stare at myself. No, I could not allow myself to I think in such a way. Derpy was the embodiment of all that was wonderful and good and pure in Equestria, and she never allowed her mind to be sullied by actually thinking she was. I had to be good, and humble, and worthy of her.
A sigh rustled through my nostrils, cut short by another lurch from my stomach. Perhaps my breakfast had not been as filling as I had imagined. However, this would allow me to treat Derpy to a lavish meal. I grinned. Last month she had scrimped and saved enough to treat herself to a plate of something sweet and creamy in that fancy place on the other side of Ponyville, and she was beaming and giggling and lapping it up like she was having the time of her life… alone… in a restaurant…
With everypony staring at her…
I tapped my hoof on the sink, grin spreading further still. Of course this was the answer. My darling would be loping through the streets, the weight of everypony’s ills and eyes daring to press her into the ground and crush her gentle spirit for good, when I would rush to her aid and whisk her away to a lovely afternoon nosh, maybe bringing a muffin or two of my own and watching her face light up as she melted into their chewy goodness. Then we would return to my humble abode, our coats pressed together like two halves of the one whole, and curl up on my bed with the sweet sounds of her breathing being the perfect lullaby…
I choked back a tear at the beauty in my mind’s eye, because there was one thing left that could complete that image.
After cleansing my muzzle of minty residue, I raced out of the bathroom and back into my bedroom. I scooted around the bed, barely avoiding tripping on the polished floor before I arrived at the closet, flung the door open, and dived for the bottom of the clothing pile.
A crisp, dark suit hung limply from my beaming mouth, hoofkerchief still tightly folded into its breast pocket, my father’s cufflinks glinting at me in the dawn sunlight. I had not donned this particular piece of finery since my last date with a mare, back in the days before I knew better. Now it would help set me on my path to romantic bliss.
I briskly folded my suit and gently placed it into my saddlebags and sprinkled all the bits from my drawers on top of it. A proud grin framed my muzzle as I stepped back into the hallway, ready to put my brilliance into action, but I paused for a moment to take one last look at my picture. The ghosts of the tingles that her forearm sparked across my back danced for one last time as I pressed my lips against the glass. From today, I would no longer need this picture; I would have the real, wonderful, incredible thing.
