Walking On Broken Glass

        “Hey, Juniper, look at this one.” A light blue pegasus colt giggled as something small and long with far too many legs to count scurried up and down his forelegs.

        “Cut it out Whirlwind. You know I hate bugs!”

        “Would you quit being such a baby.” The colt said, extending the terrifying looking creature in her direction. “It’s not gonna hurt you.”

        The orange pegasus let out a terrified shriek and crawled further up the rock she’d been perched on. “Ew, get that thing away from me!.”

        The colt frowned and retracted his hoof, allowing the creature to scurry over the rest of his body. “Geez, you’re no fun.”

        “And you’re gross. Seriously, how can you let that thing just crawl all over you like that?”

        “I like it. It tickles.”

        The filly wrinkled her nose at him. “Whatever, just get it away from me.”

        The colt blew her a raspberry in return. “Scaredy cat.”

        “Weirdo.”

        “Crybaby.”

        “Creep.”

        The colt offered the filly a sinister smile, fluttering up and thrusting the creature into the filly’s headspace, just inches from her nose. “You hurt his feelings.” The colt said, donning his best fake pout. “Say you’re sorry.”

.

The filly screeched, shooting up into the air and putting as much distance between herself and the disgusting colt as possible.

“Celestia, I cannot stand you sometimes.”

 Not about to let his prey escape so easily, Whirlwind took off after her, the same impish smile on his face.

Juniper struggled through the canopy, fighting valiantly with the dense leaves and branches before she was finally able to break through. Whirlwind emerged hot on her hooves, zeroing in on the filly’s position and tearing off in her direction.

The two foals raced through the bright afternoon sky, Juniper flying nearly as hard as she could while Whirlwind casually fluttered after her. The pair covered another generous bit of open sky before Whirlwind finally caught up to the filly, pulling up beside her and giving her a smile that was so cheeky that she could practically count his teeth.

“C’mon June. You know I always was the better flier.”

“Leave me alone!”

“Not until you apologize.”

“In your dreams.”

“C’mon, June.” he smirked, offering the centipede to her again. “Kiss and make-up.”

Juniper made an ugly face at the insect, nearly falling out of the sky as her disgust overpowered her concentration “Ugh, why do you have to be so gross.”

“C’mon. Just one little smooch.”

 “Seriously, go away!”

Peeling her disgusted sneer off her brother, June gave the ground whizzing by underneath her a thorough inspection, spotting a small checkered flag sticking out of the foliage, she abruptly broke off from her flight path and dove back down into the canopy.

Another grueling bout with the forest’s particularly obstinate branches and leaves awaited her, and she fought with every last ounce of her strength to fend them off. After carving herself a well-earned path and breaking through the other side she immediately spread her wings, reducing the beat of her wings to a measured flap as she gently eased herself toward the ground. It was only once she heard the angry rustle of leaves and branches immediately behind her that she began to lose her composure, her steady descent quickly turning to a panicked race to get herself to the sanctity of solid ground.

When she was but a hoof’s length away from the forest floor, something slammed hard into her back, sending both her and the unknown entity crashing into the ground in a jumbled heap. Taking a moment to shake the stars from her eyes after her less than graceful landing, Juniper tried to get to her hooves but found there was something heavy pinning her down. Staring down her nose at the light-blue coated, white maned nuisance reeling on top of her, Juniper let out a scoff and roughly pushed the other foal off of her and into the dirt.

Getting to her hooves, Juniper threw one last scornful scoff at the pegasus colt lying beside her before making her way away from the crash site toward a colorful break in the trees. Upon passing through them she came upon a clearing with a little wooden house sitting smack dab in the middle. She unfurled her wings and was prepared to try the field in one leap when she heard the bramble behind her rustle.

She didn’t even have time to react before the terrifying creature she’d been trying so hard to escape from peered down into her eyes from the part in her hair. She screeched as though she were on fire, leaping into the air and clearing the field in one terrified burst of speed. She didn’t even bother fully landing before she took hold of the door-handle, throwing it open and zipping into the house.

She skidded a bit as she whipped around to face the open door, her brother’s cackling body swaying in wide arcs as he flew toward the house. She blew him the biggest raspberry her hungry lungs would allow before slamming the door in his face and turning sharply on her hooves, shuddering at the fact that it had been on her — that it had actually touched her mane.

“Oh my Celestia.”

Immediately her hooves were roving every inch of her body, trying to find any traces of any bugs or gross insects Whirlwind had decided to leave her with. After doing at least two or three good passes — and one last one just to be completely sure — she had deemed herself sufficiently bug free and allowed herself to slump against the door in relief.

Her relief didn’t last long, as the furious clopping of hooves quickly stole her attention. Just then, a pegasus mare with a yellow coat and three groups of butterflies for a cutie mark came scuttling around the corner, her pearlescent pink hair falling in front of her face.

“Oh my, what’s going on out here?”

Juniper’s face contorted and she leapt at the larger pegasus, forelegs and wings outstretched as she collided with one of the mare’s rear legs.

“WhirlwindwasplayingwithbugsandthenhewasshovingitinmyfaceandthenhethrewitONMEand-”

The larger of the two pegasi smiled down at the little foal clamped to her leg. “Slow down, honey. Tell me what happened. Slowly this time.”

“I went on a hike with Whirlwind and he started playing with bugs again like he always does.”

The older pegasus nodded. “And then what happened?”

“He kept on putting it in my face and everything.”

“And then?”

“I screamed and flew back here and then he crashed into me and then right before I got home he put it IN MY MANE!”

“Oh my.”

“It was so gross!”

The older mare gently slipped the frantic filly off her leg before making her way across the kitchen toward the door. “Alright, I’ll go have a talk with him. Why don’t you go upstairs and take a shower, okay?”

The filly nodded before waddling her way into the other room and out of sight. Turning toward the door, the bright yellow mare grabbed the handle and eased it open. Stepping out onto the porch of the solitary little house, she found the other pegasus foal buzzing around the second story window, making faces at the filly in the window as she did her best to ignore him.

“Whirlwind,” the older pegasus began, making the sky blue colt flinch. “Were you picking on your sister again?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Because she told me you were.”

The colt went back to making faces at his sister in the window again. The mare moved in front of him to block his line of sight.

“Whirlwind. Why do you always pick on your sister so much?”

“Maybe if she wasn’t such a baby about everything.”

“Honey, you know your sister is sensitive.”

Whirlwind craned his neck to further taunt his sister, the older pony frowned and moved to block him again. “Could you maybe try being a bit nicer to your sister? For me?”

Whirlwind managed to once again find a way around the older pony, to which the mare responded by gently grabbing him by the shoulders.

“Whirlwind…”

The colt refused to meet the older pony’s eyes.

“Come on sweetie. Let’s go inside and have some sassafras, okay?”

“Fine.”