“I’m going to take a little walk to take some pictures,” Pipp said, standing next to the door, “Anypony wanna come?”
Sunny looked up from the mess she was cleaning and gave her friend an apologetic smile, “Sorry, Pipp, but I think teaching Izzy how to make pizza is going to take a little while.”
Izzy nodded from behind the table she was kneading the dough in, “We’ll save you a slice, or two”
The pink Pegasus nodded, and then looked at her sister. Zipp had been chopping some vegetables to add to the pizza later.
“I kinda want to see how this unfolds?” Zipp said after her sister gave her an expecting glance, “It’s almost a science experiment. I even have a hypothesis in the making.”
Pipp sighed but nodded and opened the door, trying to look not disappointed. It’s not that she didn’t want to participate in her friends’ cooking experiments, but she’d been to Maretime Bay many times and she still had very few pictures to show. She wanted to capture the beauty of the seaside, and the town, and even take some selfies for good measure.
Despite her efforts, Sunny did notice her friend was slightly upset, and came up with a suggestion.
“Why don’t you ask Hitch to come with you?” Sunny suggested, “He must be at the station.”
Pipp rose an eyebrow as her hoof lingered over the doorknob.
“Isn’t he working?”
“I mean, yeah, but he’s the sheriff. He’s supposed to walk around to keep an eye on everypony.” The orange pony explained, just as Izzy accidentally set the tip of her tail on fire. Pipp laughed at her friend’s clumsiness and, after helping extinguish the fire, she set off towards the police station to find her other friend.
It didn’t take more than a few minutes of flight for her to reach the station. She recognized the building from the tour Sunny and Hitch had given her one of the first times she was there, but she’d never gone in. She landed gracefully in front of it and casually crossed the door. The station was rather small and simple compared to the intricately built royal guard stations back in Zephyr Heights. This was a small room with some desks arranged in the center, and a caged section in the back, which she assumed was some sort of makeshift prison.
“Uh, can I help you?” a male voice asked, startling Pipp.
She looked around and found a red pony with blond hair standing next to the door she’d come in from. She recognized him as the pilot of the giant robot that had destroyed Sunny’s house a few months ago: Sprout Cloverleaf. She never once had a conversation with him, and the only thing she knew about him, besides him being the ex-dictator, was that he used to be Hitch’s childhood best friend.
“Oh, sorry,” she replied, trying her best not to sound nervous, “I was looking for Hitch”
Sprout sighed but didn’t give Pipp any extra reasons to be afraid.
“He’s getting lunch, shouldn’t take him long.” Sprout explained before going back to his cleaning tasks, “You can sit on his chair and wait for him, if you want… uh…”
“Pipp. Petals. Pipp Petals” the Pegasus said, while walking towards what she believed was the desk Hitch used. “You are Sprout, right?”
Sprout nodded, “A pleasure, Pipp. Also, that one is my desk. Hitch’s is the other one.”
Pipp let out a little squeal in embarrassment, and, after a quick glance over Sprout’s desk, she walked towards the other one.
In that other desk, a curious object caught her attention. It was a calendar. A calendar with pictures of Hitch, to be specific. A blush crept up Pipp’s cheeks as she passed to the next page. Hitch as a firefighter. Then Hitch as a sailor. Hitch as a doctor, followed by Hitch as a superhero. The more months she passed, the harder it became to hold back her laughter. It was Hitch dressed as a scarecrow for the month of September that did it for her. It started as a giggle, but the longer she stared at the picture in question, the stronger her laughter became. She was laughing so hard, it startled Sprout, who looked at the laughing Pegasus with curiosity to then notice what she was laughing at. A mischievous smile appeared on his face as he helped Pipp up on her hooves again.
“I see you discovered Hitch’s modeling career.” Sprout said, thankful that his cutouts were now removed of the original pictures.
“What is that?” asked her between fits of laughter.
“It’s Sheriff Hitch’s calendar, of course.”
Pipp kept looking at the other pictures, but her amusement ended when she reached December. Sprout smiled at her as he went towards the archives, and after a short rummage, he took out a few other calendars.
“Are you interested in some past years?” he asked, waving the bunch of calendars toward her.
She was extremely tempted to yank them off Sprout’s hooves and look at the pictures, but there was something that didn’t sit right with her about laughing at his friend.
“Sorry, it would be wrong,” she said, finally, and, although disappointed, Sprout understood and put the old calendars back in their respective places in the archives.
Instead, Pipp returned to the month of January and started tracing the picture with her hoof.
Sprout kept on cleaning, as Hitch finally arrived at the station.
“Hey, Sprout, I brought you a sandwich and a smoothie… Pipp?”
Startled, the princess took the calendar and tucked it underneath her wing, while a prominent blush stained her cheeks. Sprout did his best to hide his knowing grin and just took the paper lunchbag from his friend’s hoof.
“Hitch! You’re here” Pipp said, slowly walking away from his desk as if she’d done something illegal, “I mean, of course you’re here, this is your job… And you… Work here.”
“This is painful to watch” Sprout muttered to himself, but he kept on watching as he slurped his smoothie.
Hitch was about to say something when Pipp’s phone vibrated from underneath her wing, making the calendar fall off.
“Is that-“
“Oh wowie, how did that get in there?” Pipp started mumbling nervously, while clumsily kicking the stolen calendar underneath the desk.
Hitch’s cheeks blushed bright red when he noticed what Pipp was hiding, and, before anything else could be said about it, he laughed awkwardly and picked the calendar up.
“I-I have no idea what this is, anyway, I” he tried to say, both blurting out excuses to one another without listening to what the other said.
Eventually, once the two ponies had run out of nonsense to say to one another, they burst laughing.
“Sorry,” Hitch said after the laughing calmed down, “I have no explanation for this”
“It’s okay,” she giggled, “I was the one looking through your stuff without permission.”
Sprout watched the whole exchange with a complacent smile stuck on his face. The way these two acted around one another made him feel so confident about himself. There was something so deeply hilarious about seeing The Hitch Trailblazer, Sheriff of Maretime Bay, lose his cool around a pink Pegasus princess with a strange fixation for her phone. And then again, said princess was also completely embarrassed out of her mind by simple old Hitch. Sure, he thought of himself as the lame ex-dictator who started a war in a day and a half, but at least he wasn’t acting like these two over there.
“So, what were you doing here?” Hitch asked, placing the calendar inside a drawer as he should’ve done in the first place, “I thought Sunny was making pizza for you guys?”
Pipp’s eyes brightened up as she fluttered her wings excitedly.
“Right! I came here because I wanted to take a walk” she said, looking away from him sheepishly, “Sunny suggested I came with you, since I didn’t want to come alone.”
Hitch rose an eyebrow and chuckled, “Just a walk?”
“Fine,” she admitted, “I also wanted to take some pictures for my socials, okay?”
Hitch finally gave in and nodded, “of course you did.”
But Pipp, without wanting to be ridiculed, played her cards correctly and said: “Oh I’m sure you’ll want to take some pictures as well, won’t you model for me?”
This made the yellow pony blush profoundly while he laughed.
“Hey! Those were for charity, okay?”
“Four years in a row?” Sprout added, making Pipp smile at him.
Hitch, on the other hoof, wasn’t happy with just how much Sprout seemed to enjoy embarrassing him.
“Oh, come on, let’s just go already” Pipp said, walking out the station.
“Hey, Casanova! Don’t forget to ask for her number this time!” Sprout said before Hitch left behind her, “I totally want to text her the pictures from last year.”
“Sprout!”
“So” Pipp said after they had been walking for a while.
“So,” Hitch replied, not knowing what to say.
Pipp was almost regretting asking Hitch to come with her. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy Hitch’s company. Quite on the contrary, he was a very agreeable pony to be with. Perhaps too agreeable. She liked his company a little too much. It had only been a few months since they met, that disastrous show of hers that threatened to end her musical career also happened to be one of the best days of her life. He was an earth pony, but there was something special about the way he carried himself, with confidence and pride, but never cockiness. He was the kindest, bravest and most handsome pony she’d ever seen, and she couldn’t really understand why she felt so funny around him. She tried her hardest to calm down the storm of thoughts inside her, and, instead, she took her phone out and handed it to Hitch.
“Will you please take a picture of me with the ocean in the background?” she said, giving him her most convincing smile.
Hitch nodded and carefully took the phone from her hooves. She took a few steps back and posed. Hitch wondered how anypony could ever look so beautiful. He had never been so mesmerized by somepony’s beauty, except, perhaps, when he first saw Pipp. It wasn’t only the first time he saw a Pegasus fly, but it was also the combination of music, wonder, and pure beauty. He thought that feeling of complete rapture would fade away, but truth be told, the more time he spent with the pony in question, the deeper she captured him. The worst part, he thought, was that she was not only beautiful, but sweet, nice, talented, funny and a bit of an airhead. The more he learned about her, the more he felt it would be impossible to ignore that flutter in his insides. He took a few pictures as Pipp changed poses and eventually gave her the phone back.
“How do I look?” She asked, swiping through the pictures.
Gorgeous? Beautiful? Stunning? Ravishing? Was there a word to summarize that he thought of her the epitome of beauty and grace? That she was everything pretty and good in this world? That his silly crush on her was escalating rather quickly and that he had never felt so in danger near anypony, ever?
“Uh, gooD” his voice cracked. “I mean, pretty good. You’re a model, right? I’m sure you always look good”
Salt and pepper what was he saying?
“Um, thanks?” she said, “You don’t look bad either. I mean, not now, but also not in your pictures. You know? I liked them a lot. Silly me! I almost stole the calendar. I was going to steal from a sheriff! Sheesh.”
How did she wish she could shut up right then and there. She barely kept register of what she was saying. She wasn’t usually like this. She was used to compliments, she adored them, in fact. But Hitch complimenting her. Actually, Hitch just existing nearby, made her so nervous for no reason whatsoever.
“Oh! Haha,” Hitch laughed awkwardly. “That old thing? You liked it?”
“It could’ve used some pose variation, but yeah!” she blurted out, praying to all the magic in Equestria her blush wasn’t as noticeable.
“If you want, you can have a copy?” He said, closing his eyes in case she laughed.
But she didn’t. He opened one eye slowly so he could see her reaction. Sure, she was smiling, maybe holding back a giggle, but it was no mean-spirited laugh.
“I’d love one!” she said, winking.
Author's Note
I wasn't actually planning to write a sequel at all, but after all the encouraging comments and constructive criticisms, I decided to add a bit more to this story.
Nothing serious, really, since this fic was just me being in a silly mood about cartoon horses, but I still hope you like it.
Thank you all for the comments on the previous part and I hope this short sequel delivered on what you expected.
I apologize in advance for any typos you might find. I write these stories at night since I'm a uni student, so I don't have time to proof-read, let alone a beta reader of some sorts. I'll try to revisit this later in case there's any major mistakes to take care of.
Cheers, and happy reading!
