At the foot of forbidden desires.

I awaken with a jolt, as the train hits yet another bumpy section of track.

“U-ugh, not again..." I moan. Its been difficult attempting to sleep on this train, every single time the train hits a little bump or another passenger moves between carriages, I wake up.

“...May as well just stay awake for the last little section” I mutter, and begin to stretch. A yawn escapes my mouth, and I hear the sound of the speaker crackling to life.

“Attention all passengers, we are almost at our destination.” it says. “If you look out the window, you can see our destination up ahead.”

I proceed to look out the window, rubbing my eyes slightly, and sure enough, there’s Ponyville. It looks small and quaint, but quiet, and thats all I want right now. After what i've just been through, quiet sounds like a blessing... After... well, the incident, I just want to get away. I heard about Ponyville, and how the residents were very kind and welcoming, and so I packed my bags and took the next train to Ponyville. Now, i’m almost there, and i’m just... staring at it. Its so small, and yet so... alive. I can see the bustle of the markets, as ponies shop for their food and other wares, and I can’t help but smile. It is perfect, just what I need. I sit back, and with a sign of relief, I await for the arrival.

The train stops at the station with a sudden halt, and I am thrown forward, almost hitting the wall on the opposite side. I stand up, brushing myself off and turn to where my luggage is held.

“Well... This is it!” I say “I’m here.” I pick up my luggage, and exit the carriage. As soon as I leave the train, I look around for other passengers getting off. Sadly, no pony else does, they are probably all going to Canterlot.

“Snobs...” I mutter, and walk towards the exit to the train station. I walk out the archway that signifies the exit to the station, and I see the town hall. Its huge, and its totally open so I can see inside, where I can’t help but notice the well designed interior.

“Somepony obviously went all out on this place...” I say, before turning and making my way down the road towards the markets. Looking around, I see the markets bustling with ponies doing their shopping. There’s almost no room to walk. I try and weave around some ponies and travel through the market, before I realise I have no idea where i’m going. I was told I was staying in an apartment somewhere, but I have no idea where it is. I turn to a nearby sooty coloured stallion.

“Uhm... Excuse me?” I say, nervously.

“Oh, hello! What do you need?” he remarks, smiling from ear to ear as he turns towards me.

“Can you tell me where the Ponyville apartments are?” I ask, shifting my hooves slightly, and looking at him. ”I‘m sort of new around these parts.”

“Sure thing! Follow me!” he replies, and begins to walk away. I follow him, looking around at all the stalls at the markets. A certain stall catches my eye, an apple stand run by an orange coated mare wearing a stetson hat.

“Uhm, is that an apple stall over there?” I ask the pony I’m following.

“Yea! Thats the Sweet Apple Acres stall! They have the BEST apples.” he replies, without even looking at the stall.

“I’ll have to visit there later, I love apples.” I say back, but he doesn’t seem to hear me.

“So whats your name?” he says eventually, when we are almost out of the stalls.

“Thunderheart”

“Thunderheart? Thats a cool name!” he replies. “I’m Birchfoot.”

“Uhh... nice to meet you Birchfoot?” I say. We keep walking and we finally reach the end of the markets, and walk out onto the paths that lead around town.

“Are we close?” I ask, because my hooves begin to hurt. The soft clouds of Cloudsdale are much easier to walk on I’ve noticed, these dirt paths are making my hooves hurt. Can’t we just get to the apartment already so I can sleep?

“We’re here actually!” Birchfoot replies, and I jump, because he is correct. We’re standing out the front of a large house. It doesn’t look very apartment like, not like the ones i’ve seen in Canterlot... But I guess it’s a small town.

“This is it?” I say, curious. “Aren’t apartments usually a bit... larger?”

“Silly, this isn’t the only apartment block we have here! All the houses on this road are!” he says, laughing a little. Though, I am still a little curious.

“So, why did we stop out the front of this one specifically?” I ask.

“Becauuuuuuse... this one is yours!” he giggles.

“But, how did you know its mine?” I ask, now really confused.

“Thats easy! Your my roommate!” he says. “I was told I’d be getting a room mate called Thunderheart, its lucky I ran into you! I’ll have to help you get settled in and then we can have SO much fun!” My jaw drops. THIS is my roommate? Oh Celestia, give me strength... He opens the door, and we go inside. I gasp.

“Oh my gosh, so clean! Like, seriously Birch, this place is cleaner than anything i've ever SEEN before.” I say, astounded at the cleanliness of the place.

“Thanks, I cleaned it especially for your arrival!” he says proudly, a huge smile on his face. I look at him, and give him a smile. I may be dreading living with this sooty stallion, but I’m sure I don’t have to make his life hell. Even though I know he’ll make mine a living hell. He starts to show me around, and I realise this place is much smaller on the inside than how it looks on the outside.

“...And here’s the kitchen, here’s the bathroom and OOOH!” he suddenly says.

“What?” I say, puzzled.

“This is your bedroom!” he says, as he walks inside the room. Looking around my new bedroom, my heart sinks. The walls are bare, and there is a large bed in the centre. Sure, the larger bed would be nice, but it reminded me of where I was. I wasn’t home in Cloudsdale anymore, in my room with my Vinyl Scratch posters, and everything was messy and just chucked around, and my its-totally-too-small-but-parents-wouldn’t-replace-it bed. I then realised Birchfoot had said something to me, and was awaiting a response. He must have commented on something while I was thinking about my room back in Cloudsdale. Ugh, think THINK, what did he say... Instead of answering his question, I merely looked stunned and said “Huh?” which made him giggle.

“I said, do you like it?” he says, and I resisted the urge to facehoof.

“Oh... Y-yea, I love it!” I reply, and place my luggage down on the bed. “Thank you, I’ll start unpacking now.”

“Ok!” he says, and I begin to start unpacking. I open my saddlebags, containing almost everything I needed to live on my own. As I unpacked, I began to hum a song, almost enjoying the experience.

“Oooh, I know that song!” Birchfoot suddenly says, and begins to hum the song along with me, which made me jump.

“H-hang on, what are you still doing here? I said I was unpacking!” I say, confused as to why the stallion was still in my room.

“I was going to help you out with unpacking!” he says, and smiles again. “Since I know how boring that can be on your own!”

“Uhm, yea s-sure. You can help by....” I say, looking into my bags to find something for him to do. “Oh, I know, you can put up my posters!”

“Ok, that would be awesome!” he replies, and takes out the posters from my bags.

“Careful now Birch, those are very precious to me, DON’T break them. You hear me?” I state, making sure he understands fully.

“Precious stuff, can’t break. Got it.” he smiles and gets to work putting the posters up. Meanwhile, I continue to unpack. I look over at Birchfoot, and suddenly, everything stops. He’s placing a poster on the wall, it’s one of my numerous Vinyl Scratch posters from one of her concerts. He’s having trouble sticking the top corners down, and so he’s on his hind legs, trying to use his hooves to attach it on. I begin to notice more about him, like for example, the front of his mane is slicked back, but the back is fairly rough cut, and almost messy, He’s fairly slim, and has some muscle to him, but not much. My eyes slowly drift down, and I see his cutie mark, which is a frying pan, which I can only assume means he’s good at cooking. My eyes wander slightly, and I realise i’m staring at his well rounded fla-. N-no, thats wrong. Stop staring at his flank, you don’t like that. You don’t like stallions, you like mares! My mind keeps telling me, and I eventually look away. I’m perfectly straight, I’m not a colt-cuddler. I shouldn't have been staring at his flank. I realise that Birchfoot is waving his hoof in front of my face.

“Helloooooooo, Thunderheart? You there?” he says, with a big smile on his face.

“O-oh, sorry.” I reply, blushing slightly due to embarrassment.

“You were just sorta... staring into space.” he giggles.

“I was... uhm... Thinking about home... Y-yea, thats it, thinking about home.” I manage to say, nervously shuffling.

“Ok, i’ve got all the posters up for you! And while you were just staring into space, I packed all your other stuff away too!” he says, giving the largest smile I’ve ever seen.

“Oh. Thanks Birchfoot.” I say, and smile. Maybe living with this stallion wasn't the worst thing to happen to me...

“Well, I can see you’re tired, so i’ll leave you to sleep. Goodnight Thunderheart!” he says, and skips off. I may think he’s a little strange... but its surely going to be interesting with him as my roommate! I think, and I look over at the bed. Not hesitating at all, I jump in, and as soon as my head hits the soft plushy pillow I drift off into sleep.

Thanks for reading my first chapter of my fanfic! Sorry it was so short, I sorta just wanted to get the basic character and setting introductions out first, and plus, widdle Thundie needs his sleep xD I promise they will be longer! :3

So, yea. Leave some comments on how I did. Hopefully, I'll get the next chapter done soon, when i'm not in a writers block.