Close Bonds: Chapter Twenty-Nine

Somehow, in the midst of your sleep, you realize that you’re hugging something warm. Firm, but comfortably soft.

Breathing.

In your dream, it takes no form. It’s constantly changing, almost always something unfamiliar. Your special somepony will sometimes appear there in the throng of shapes and faces, but vanish just as fast as they came.

You think maybe it’s your subconscious trying to comfort you. It’s been a rough day, after all. Nevertheless, you take the comfort as it comes. It’s nice to feel someone next to you, a living, breathing—

—human?

Your eyes pop open as you realize you’re hugging Ivan from behind.

In bed.

You freeze, blinking a few times to make sure it’s real and not some cruel, mean trick that your mind is playing in you.

A few blinks later and he’s still there.

This confuses you a little. For one, you’d think he should be at work right now. From the intensity of the light streaming through the half-open blinds, you’re guessing that it’s around nine or ten in the morning.

There’s also the fact that he hates to sleep in. Yet here he is.

When did he come in? You thought you heard the door open earlier this morning, but figured it was Scootaloo on her way to school.

Another question: what happened? Why was he out so late? Where, or with whom did he stay?

Is he still mad at you?

You silence your thoughts for a moment. Soft sighs escape him in his sleep as his lungs expand and contract. His bare back is turned to you, so you can’t see his face, but he seems to be sleeping peacefully.

He obviously took a shower recently, as his skin has a very faint but familiar scent to it. His hair is still just the tiniest bit damp, and again, the scent it has is uncomfortably familiar. It’s not yours, it’s not his, and worst of all, he smells like a mare.

You push those thoughts to the back of your head, choosing instead to ponder on what you’re going to say when he wakes up. If he’s still mad at you, will he talk to you? If anything, you want to avoid another argument at all costs.

Just apologize. He gets over things fast, just apologize and things’ll get better.

…

Yeah. Sure they will.

The shower just stopped running.

You’ve been awake for ten minutes or so due to the combined effect of trying to sleep later than usual, and the pitter patter of shower water.

Oh, and how could you forget? The damn light coming through the window makes it feel like you’re sleeping under a blazing inferno.

You open your eyes, making sure to face away from the window while doing so. Crust lines the edges of your stinging eyelids, which you rub to rid them of their uncleanliness.

God, if you don’t feel like shit. You spent basically the entire night talking with Fluttershy. It started out with you informing her of all that’s happened and her giving you advice, but as the night drew on the two of you began to simply talk. You talked about normal things—things like how her animals were faring, thoughts on recent and upcoming books, new movies, Hearth’s Warming, and even a little bit about Earth.

It was... nice. Nice to talk about casual things, for once. You’d almost forgotten that Hearth’s Warming was coming up.

That bathroom door opens. Emerging from the steaming bathroom is a wet Rainbow Dash with a towel wrapped around her midsection. When she sees that you’re awake, she stops. The two of you stare at each other for a moment.

“H-Hey,” she mumbles, looking off to the side. She scuffs the ground with her hoof, obviously uncomfortable.

“Hey, Dash,” you say quietly.

Silence.

“So, um,” she nods at the covers near the foot of the bed, “I, uh… I saw your leg. Was that from…?”

The area of the bruise was sensitive and a little swollen by the time you left her house last night, so Fluttershy rewrapped it for you. Rainbow, you guess, is probably referring to that.

Your silence is answer enough. You throw the covers off of yourself and move to step off of the bed, but the blue pegasus stops you.

“H-Here, let me help you.” Rainbow Dash darts over to the bed. She places her forehooves on the bed and sticks herself underneath your armpit in an attempt to give you extra support.

You mutter a thanks, and stand to your feet. You wince as you set your foot down, but the pain is only momentary. Dash sets her hoof down, and you notice her bearing her own grimace.

You tilt your head. “Uh, you alright, Dash?”

She turns the other way. “I’m fine.”

The two of you silently walk to the kitchen. You have a slight limp; slight enough to hopefully be unnoticeable to most ponies. As you approach the kitchen, a faint scent fills the air.

“Did you cook something this morning?” Rainbow Dash asks, seeing the uncleaned pan on the stove and also noticing the smell.

“No, that was Scootaloo.”

She looks at you with a slight curiosity. “You saw Scootaloo?”

“Yeah. She didn’t say anything, though.” You sit down at the table and sigh. “Is she mad at me?”

“She’s… a bit upset right now.” She walks over to the stove and lights the burner for the dirty pan. “You want some pancakes?”

“Yeah… Sure.” A long pause passes between the two of you as Rainbow Dash mixes the batter, pulls out the chocolate chips, and throws butter on the pan. “What about you?”

“Me what?” Her voice intermingles with the sounds of cooking as she focuses on making food.

“Are you… upset with what happened?” You cough into your hand. “The argument, I mean.”

She seems to stop for a moment. “Are you?”

You stop, the gears in your head locking up. What does she mean by that? Is she being aggressive? It really didn’t sound aggressive… Are you still angry with her?

Silence reigns for the moment.

She finally sighs. Turning to you, she says, “Look, Ivan. This may sound weird to you, but… I think we should just let it go.”

Again, you find yourself unable to produce a coherent response. “Ghh—What?”

“It’s—It’s pretty obvious we’ve both been under a lot of stress,” she says, going back to her cooking, but swivels her head for one last look in the eye. “You especially.”

You attempt to refute this, but she just interrupts you with a quick, “Don’t deny it. Especially with the whole—Earth—situation,” she says as if it leaves a bad taste in her throat, “and Cream, and Scootaloo…”

“Oh, come on, Dash. Let’s not blame Scootaloo.”

“I wasn’t blaming her for anything, Ivan. She’s a joy to have around, but… she’s a lot of work. I know that you’ve been trying your hardest to get back on good terms with her and try to keep her on the right track.” A pause. “I talked to her last night. She told me about what happened. What set you off yesterday.”

You groan internally. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. I don’t exactly blame you for what you did. I probably would’ve done the same thing; but, I mean…” She seems to be searching for the right words. “Aren’t things a bit sensitive right now to be yelling at her like that?”

You sigh, catching yourself from reflexively rolling your eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“You’re normally so calm and reserved. Is there anything else bothering you?”

Her question simply passes over your head as you recede into your thoughts. You wonder how Scootaloo is doing right now. From what you could tell, she was still upset with you, as she really didn’t say much this morning. You’d only just had momentary contact with each other—she was leaving the house just as you were entering—but the way she simply glanced out of the corner of her eye, barely even acknowledging you… it stung.

”Hey Scootaloo,” you remember groggily saying to her, ”where are you—”

“School. Bye.”

The whole thing is just so stupid, really. It was all bad timing, bad circumstance… Everything that went wrong just went wrong. On any normal day, you wouldn’t have flipped out like you did. You did flip out; while Scootaloo may have been doing something that was off-limits, you feel that you’re in the wrong here. You should have dealt with it in a much calmer manner. You should have went into your room, shut your door…

...Well, you did do that. However, Rainbow followed you in. She tried to calm you down, tried to make things better… But you were just so irritable at the time.

Any other day, had she done that, just knowing that she had good intentions would have lightened your mood. Yesterday, however, everything just kind of… got to you.

Maybe Rainbow’s right. While you definitely want the best for her, Scootaloo puts quite a bit of stress on both you and Rainbow. She’s an extra mouth to feed, a foal to keep track of, and just another body in your already small, stuffy house. You were still adjusting to her even being there, and still jumping through hoops just to stay on her good side.

Ha. Ha ha. Yeah, so much for that.

Rainbow herself is a lot of energy to keep up with. You absolutely love her to death, but she has a bit of a temper. Intensify that temper with how cranky she’s been getting recently due to corresponding with her parents, among other things… Yeah, not too fun.

Now that you think about it, she snapped pretty quickly last night—well, faster than usual, at least. You hadn’t really put a whole ton of thought into how she might be being affected, attributing it all to ‘crankiness.’

“Ivan?”

You snap out of your thoughts. Rainbow, you realize, is standing directly in front of you with a stack of pancakes on her outstretched wing—her good wing.

“Huh?”

She gives you a concerned look. “Are you okay, Ivan?” She slides the plate of chocolate chip pancakes off her wing and onto the table.

“Y—Yeah, I think.” You drag the palm your hand down your face in a moment that suggests waking up. “Listen, I need to go check in with the hospital. Let them know that I’m not showing up today.”

“Oh? Why aren’t you…” Her eyes flicker down your bandaged shin, and her voice dies in her throat. “Aren’t you going to have a hard time walking there? Do you need somepony to go instead?”

“I made it from Fluttershy’s house this morning,” you grunt, rising from your chair. “I’ll be back soon, don’t worry.”

“Aren’t you at least going to eat? I just made pancakes…”

“I’m not very hungry right now.” As you begin to make your way into the hallway, you realize how rude you must seem. “Uhh, maybe you can save it in the fridge for me?”

“Alright.”

As the door closes behind Ivan, you once again find yourself alone in the house.

Well, not completely alone. You have a stack of fresh, buttery, chocolate chip pancakes here.

…

You cover the whole batch up with another plate and stick it in the fridge, right next to the leftover spaghetti. You’re not hungry right now.

You trot on over to the couch and plop down on it. You idly look around the livingroom.

It’s quiet. The quietest it’s been in a long time.

Quiet enough for you to think about things. Things like this whole business with Ivan.

You have a sinking feeling in your gut. This isn’t going to work. This whole, “Let’s just drop it,” business isn’t going to work.

You could feel it. There was tension in the air as soon as you woke up this morning. There was tension in the bedroom, in the kitchen. He barely talked the entire time.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, how could you have fucked up so badly?

Maybe things wouldn’t have been so bad if you just hadn’t punched him. This morning, maybe you would have been able to talk to him had you not felt a guilty pang every time you saw his bandaged leg. Hell, he probably wouldn’t have even ran off last night if you would’ve just kept your fucking hooves to yourself.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

You wonder what he did with Fluttershy last night. The way he looked, with those baggy eyes and that tired walk… He looked like he hadn’t even slept.

She’d better have kept her grabby hooves off of him…

You shake that thought from your head. “No, no, Fluttershy would never do that,” you say aloud. “No, no, no, no—”

Tap-tap-tap!

Speak of Discord…

The soft knocking at your door is unmistakable. You sigh, pinching the bridge of your snout. “Come in!”

You hear a faint voice from the other side. “It’s locked…”

You groan audibly, then hop off the couch and open the door. Outside stands Fluttershy, smiling pleasantly at you.

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, it’s so good to see you!” She leans forward and drapes a foreleg over you in a hug. You feel her take a quick sniff of your mane. “You smell… refreshing, today!” She gives the side of your neck a small lick.

“Yeah, well, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do that to my coat,” you say, wiping the area off with a hoof. You frown, but she looks unfazed.

“Oh, I’m sorry…” She looks past you. “M-May I come in? Or is this a bad time? Would you like me to leave?”

“Ugh…” You roll your eyes and recede into your house, but you don’t close the door. Fluttershy bounds in, cheerful as can be, making sure to shut the door softly behind her.

“Oh, this place looks so nice! So clean, compared to my house. I try to be as clean as I can, but my animal friends are always making a mess somewhere…”

“Uh, huh.” You plop back down on the couch, lying on your belly with your chin between your hooves out in front of you.

Fluttershy approaches the coffee table, picking up a Daring Do book off of it for a moment before setting it down. “So, what have you been up to lately?” she asks, turning her big blue eyes towards you.

“I made some pancakes. They’re in the fridge, if you want any.”

“Oh no, that won’t be necessary,” she replies. “Although, if you have some tea…”

“Ivan keeps some somewhere in the kitchen. Probably in a cupboard or something. Just watch out for rancid food, we still haven’t cleaned it all out.”

She smiles at you, and then trots out into the kitchen. You hear cupboard doors open and shut, glasses touch down on tile…

“Hey, Fluttershy,” you call out.

“Y-Yes, Rainbow Dash?”

“Last I checked, tea doesn’t make jingling noises.”

“S-Sorry.” You hear what you hope to be the sound of money or keys being put back in their rightful spot. More noises, the stove is turned on, water running…

“Hey, Fluttershy.”

“Yes, Rainbow?”

“Ivan told me he stayed at your house last night.” Upon receiving no answer, you assume she’s waiting for you to continue. “Just wondering, did you guys talk about anything… Um… Pertaining to our… Uh...”

…

“Fluttershy?”

“We can talk about this now while I’m way out here in the kitchen, or we can wait until I’m back with the tea.”

Point taken.

Soon enough, after a small space of time in which you fidgeted on the couch for a bit and heard the familiar screaming of the tea kettle, Fluttershy walks back into the living room with two cups on each wing and the handle of the teapot in her mouth.

“One’th fer yoo,” she says around the teapot, placing a small cup in front of you. She pours some steaming tea into the cup, which you proceed to sniff and take a small sip.

“Yecchh,” you spurt, scrunching up your snout. “How do you guys drink this stuff?”

Fluttershy simply pours herself a cup of tea. After setting down the teapot, she says, “You’re supposed to wait for it to cool down first, Rainbow. Try blowing on it.”

You roll your eyes. “Not that. It’s super bitter!”

“Well, how many sugar cubes would you like?” she asks, revealing a previously unseen bowl of sugar cubes.

“Oh. Uh, four?”

“Let’s start with two,” she says, dropping them in your tea. You watch the small white cubes dissolve and shrink into the dark liquid.

“So, you wanted to talk about last night?”

You suddenly perk up. “Oh! Uh, yeah!”

She picks up her cup of tea, placing it to her mouth to blow on it before taking a sip. “What would you like to know?”

She’s starting to bug you. Still, she’s your source of insight on what Ivan might be thinking… And most likely, she didn’t just show up to have tea and chat.

Although, you wouldn’t mind it if she did. Minus the tea. You haven’t seen a whole lot of your friends, except for maybe Twilight and AJ every once in awhile.

“Well… How is he? Is he mad at me right now?” Another thought, though you’re hesitant to say it, comes to mind. “And how’s his… injury?”

“Well, Rainbow, before we go on, I’d just like to make clear that I don’t believe you ever meant to—”

“Just get on with it. Let’s not dance around the issue here—”

“He’s hurt. Really hurt, Rainbow.”

Your heart sinks in your chest. “Well, how hurt? Like, what did he say?”

“He told me a lot of things. First and most importantly, he loves you very much.” Here, you feel like a stake has been driven through your heart. A very tender, loving stake. “But he’s upset, and—I hate to say it, Rainbow, but I think he’s scared.”

“Scared?” You nearly reel back in shock. “Of me?”

“Well, there’s a very distinct hoofmark imprinted into his shin…” Your ears flatten against your head at the mention of this. “But it’s not just that. He didn’t say it directly, but I think he’s afraid of… losing his family.”

You stare intently at your friend. Losing his family? But… “What?”

“Think about it, Rainbow. He lost his old family. You, and Scootaloo now… You’re all he has left.”

“That’s not true! He could—” You’re silenced by a raised hoof from Fluttershy.

“Yes, he has Twilight, and after that Lyra took him in, and Celestia knows I’ll always be around for all of you.” She gives you a reassuring look. “We all will. Well, except for Lyra, maybe. But the point is, you are the pony who he cares most about in this world. You can quite literally say,” she covers a giggle with her hoof, “that you mean the world to him.” She waits a moment, but seeing as how she’s the only one laughing, she shrinks back into her mane a bit.

“I… I think I see what you mean.” You stare at the patterns in the couch, running your hoof over them. You’d wondered for a long time if he reciprocated the your feelings as intensely as you felt them. The fact that he chose to stay in Equestria rather than going to his home world seemed to confirm this, but it sounded different coming from a friend. “I… love him… too.” You blink. “And I think I know why he’s afraid of losing us… I guess.” You look up at Fluttershy. “He’s been real stressed recently. I knew what the reasons were, I guess I just didn’t know the reason behind those reasons… if that makes sense.”

“As long as you understand that something needs to be done and are willing to take action, then it’s okay.”

“But what?” you ask almost despairingly. “I tried to talk to him this morning… I mean, I told him that I thought we should just drop it, but I was going to talk after breakfast—”

“You need to let him know that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to fix this. Once he’s confident in you, he’ll do the same.”

“But what?” you repeat to her, looking desperately to her for advice. “What do I do?”

“Well, I’m sure you’re aware that you sometimes tend to… oh, what are the right words… lose your temper. Just a bit. You’re normally a sweet pony, if somewhat confrontational, but—”

“Wait. Wait wait wait. I think I see where this is going.” You scowl at her. “This was all a trick, wasn’t it? A setup. You’re just trying to get me to go—”

“Rainbow, I just think that especially now, it would be a good idea if you just took those anger management classes. Just to try them.”

“Ohh, come on!” You cover your face with your hooves. “I can’t believe this! All this time, you were just here to convince me to do something that you’ve been bugging me for months about and thought you could finally convince me!”

“Rainbow, I sincerely believe that it would help your relationship if you at least tried to tone your anger down a little—”

“Yeah, I try! I try all the time! What, do you think I get mad on purpose?!”

“No, you don’t, and that’s why this would help! Rainbow, you flew out of control last night! Did you see the bruise on his leg? Don’t you know that you could be legally charged with domestic violence?”

“Yeah, well, you know what? I think I’m going to leave before I get charged with some… other… violence…” You growl, shaking your head. “I’m leaving, alright?!”

You hop off the couch and head towards the door. Fluttershy follows right behind you, pleading the entire way. “Please, Rainbow Dash, just take some time to think about it!”

You swing the door open and are about to leave, but then realize that you would be leaving Fluttershy alone in your house. Fluttershy.

“You know what? You get out,” you command, pointing at her. She just stares at you for a moment, before obeying.

She stands outside on your front porch, giving you pleading eyes. “Please, Rainbow. I know you’re upset, but just think about it.”

“Oh, I’ll think about it, alright. Goodbye, Fluttershy.” You shut the door on her, leaving you alone to your thoughts.

You stand there for a moment, just thinking. Thinking.

Celestia. Fuck.

Clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop…

The rhythmic beating of your hoofsteps is joined by a cacophony of hundreds of other hoofsteps and voices as you enter the market. You don’t hear any of it, however, as such petty noises are drowned out by the one in your head.

They’re still fighting, as far as you can tell. You weren’t there long; you went in and out your bedroom window as quickly as possible, stealthily grabbing a sack of bits out of your dresser and leaving. You heard yelling through the walls—only Rainbow’s voice though, not Ivan’s. Still, it made you cringe.

Have they always been this way? Always fighting? They always seemed happy together before… did it start after you showed up?

No. No, Rainbow Dash punched Ivan in the face once. It was at the park. Were they together then? You think they were. They were living in the same house at the time.

Still, you can’t help but think that it really is your fault—no, you know that it’s your fault. Yesterday when Ivan walked into the house, you could tell he was mad at you, and you directly. And you know exactly why, too.

…

No. You can’t think like that. He was just being stupid. He just stormed in all angrily and didn’t even tell you what was going on. Really, you don’t even know if seeing your dad really was the whole reason he got mad. It could have been something else entirely.

…

Either way, that’s no way to handle things. Even if you did do something that might have upset him.

Even if you did…

Shaking these thoughts from your head, you approach a food stand. You lay a few bits on the counter, and tell the stall pony, “I want a fruit salad and a salt cube.” Remember your manners. You don’t want him to spit in your food. “Please.”

The stallion looks you over for a moment, eyebrow raised. “Ain’tcha supposed ta be in school right now, kid?”

You frown. “Do you want my money or not?”

He shrugs, and then takes the bits. The few minutes it takes for him to prepare the salad gives you more time to think about things.

Things like running away. Somewhere far away where you wouldn’t bother anypony, where you wouldn’t bother Ivan, or Rainbow Dash, or your dad, or that one pony that you got fired… The more you think on it, the more it seems like it would be better for everyone if you just disappeared.

Well, maybe except for Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. They would probably miss you, and you would definitely miss them. Maybe you could write to them. You could come visit them once in a while, or they could visit you wherever you found yourself living. Maybe they could even help you run away. They could supply you with some bits to start off, and—

The stallion’s voice. “Hey, kid.”

You look up to see that your fruit salad is finished and rests atop a thin wooden plate. Beside it is a small white salt cube. You nod and take the salt cube in your mouth, while resting the plate on an outstretched wing. “T’ankths,” you mumble out.

He grunts in response. You take your food and walk to one of the nearby tables.

You sit in silence, casually eating your food. As you sit and chew, you watch as numerous ponies stroll by: young, old, stallion, mare, filly, colt. You wonder if any of them have the same problems you do. A foal darts off into the crowd, followed close behind by a young but somewhat tired-looking mare, who you assume is its mother. Both re-emerge from the crowd a minute later, but this time the mother holds the colt, tucking him close to her chest and with a scowl on her face. She sets the colt down, giving him a cold glare. She appears to be speaking sternly to him, accentuating her talk with stomps of her hoof and other angry gestures, but the colt just keeps nuzzling her and laughing. Eventually, after a few minutes of pushing him away every time he tries to nuzzle her, she sighs, rolling her eyes. The colt takes this as a cue to rise to his hind legs and hug her around the neck, and the mare’s eyes soften. She gives in and nuzzles her son back. The two walk off in another direction, disappearing from your sight.

You decide to focus on your lunch for a bit. You pop a grape into your mouth, trying to distract yourself with… other things.

…

Oh, shit.

Is that Ivan?

He looks your way, and you instantly duck. You watch from under the table as he stops for a moment, scanning the crowd.

What’s he doing?

Suddenly, he starts walking in your direction. Your heart jumps into your throat as his eyes seem to rest on your shivering form for a moment, but then look slightly past you as if he’d seen you but hadn’t recognized you. Studying his gait, you’re suddenly reminded from this morning that he has a limp; deciding to act first and ask questions later, you prepare to make a dash from under the table before he sees you. Looking behind you at Ivan as you bolt in the other direction, you suddenly find yourself colliding with a soft, furry mass.

You, as well as the pony you just ran into, let out a simultaneous “Oof-!”

The other pony seems to be bigger than you, as you find yourself planted back on your butt in the middle of the road. You shake your head, fighting dizziness, and look up to see who you crashed into.

A pink mare looks down at you, her eyes wide in surprise. She seems oddly familiar. She wears a white, painted-splattered cap, just the right size to fit comfortably on her head with her ears sticking up from around the sides. She seems to have an improvised saddlebag on her, with paintbrush slots on the outside and some paint cans sticking out of—

Sweet mother of Celestia, that’s that pony you got fired from the hospital.

Why is life so cruel?

“Hey! Cream!” Though you can’t see him through the crowd, you hear Ivan’s voice. You take the chance to take one last fleeting look at the pink pony before darting under the table again, silently pleading with her with your eyes as you cower underneath the barely-suitable-for-hiding wooden structure.

She stares at you for a moment with a perplexed look. Out of the corner of your eye you see Ivan round the table, walking past as he approaches her. You do your best to stay as far away from him while staying under the cover of your hasty shelter. The mare you now know as Cream snaps her attention away from you and looks up at the towering figure that is your adoptive father.

She takes a moment to regain her composure, but manages a convincing smile. “Hey, Ivan,” she greets, dusting off her chest.

“What’s up?” he asks, extending a fist out to her. She bumps it with her hoof.

“Besides you, you mean?” She casts him a smirk. “Here, I can’t even see you completely. Let me just back up for a moment.” She backsteps a bit, until there’s a good amount of distance between the two, as if a part of the joke. You, however, notice that it ensures that Ivan is facing the opposite direction from you.

He reciprocates with a groan, stepping towards her to close the gap. “Yeah, yeah, like I haven’t heard that one before. Your jokes are getting old, Cream.”

She dismisses him with a hoof. “Ivan, please. You just have a shitty sense of humor.”

He stares intently at her. You start to wonder if he’s angry, but are shown otherwise when the two simultaneously burst into laughter.

Huh. He’s laughing? That’s different. He looked pretty upset this morning, and as far as you know, he and Rainbow are still fighting. There’s no way they got over a huge fight just like that.

Besides, you really don’t get what was so funny about the joke in the first place.

“Ahh, shit… We’re so weird,” she says, wiping her eye.

“It’s just you, I think,” Ivan answers, drawing a few more chuckles from the both of them. It takes a few moments for the giggles to subside. “So,” Ivan says, “what are you doing right now? You look like you just got done working at the paint factory.”

“Ahh, you’re close. But no.” She takes off her multi-colored cap. “If you’re wondering, this thing’s been splattered with paint since… a long time ago. I decided when I was a filly that this would be my painting hat, and that’s what it’s been ever since.”

“Really? Not a beret or something?”

“No. These, you see,” she indicates to all the colors messily wiped and splashed onto the old cap, “are memories. This particular article of clothing happens to have a stroke of paint from just about every work of art I have ever created ever since I was ten. Aside from that, it keeps the sun off my face when I’m working outside.”

“Interesting,” Ivan comments, rubbing his chin. “Never seen you wear it before.”

“Well, of course you haven’t. You’ve never seen me paint.”

“I’ve seen you do those sketches you do when you’re bored.”

“Okay then, smartass. I’ll make sure to bring it to the hospital from now on—” She stops herself. “—or not.”

Ivan’s face seems to darken at this, and he shifts uncomfortably. You yourself feel a pang of guilt.

Funnily enough, Cream seems to be the only one unfazed. She doesn’t even seem to notice Ivan’s own change of demeanor. “Welp, I’m off to a small painting gig I got. You look like a busy stallion, so I’ll let you go.”

Ivan perks up. “Oh? You got a job?”

She smiles. “Kind of. I’ve been doing odd jobs here and there, whatever I can get my hooves on. I’m doing a wall down at the Ponyville Day Care Center today. Hoping to get done by late afternoon.”

“Painting right?”

“No, I use crayons. These buckets of paint in my saddlebag are just to dip them in, and the brushes are for tickling myself when I start to get bored.”

He rolls his eyes. “Alright, alright…”

“You know I kid,” she says playfully, nudging Ivan’s leg with her elbow. You hear him immediately suck in air, and he quickly pulls his leg back.

This doesn’t go unnoticed by Cream. “Hey, you alright, dude?” She sticks out a hoof to poke the sensitive spot, but Ivan instinctively moves his leg again.

“Uh, yeah. I got hit in the shin.”

Hit in the shin. Yeah, if that isn’t the truth. That was the moment when you decided to back the fuck out of that room. Retreat, hide, disappear until the sirens end.

“Hit in the shin?” Cream asks, looking concerned. “I thought I felt a lump there. Are you alright?”

“Yeah. That lump is probably from the bandages.” He gingerly peels his pant leg up, revealing the gauze covering his shin. “It’ll be alright, probably. It’s an excuse to skip work today, at least.”

A frown crosses her face. “What are you doing up walking around, then? Shouldn’t you be at home, resting it?”

“Well, I was walking to the hospital to call in.”

“Oh.” Still frowning, she asks, “Couldn’t Rainbow do that for you or something? I mean—”

“Nah, it’s fine. I needed some fresh air, really.” You look up into the clear sky. “Better get it while it lasts with all these storms, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess…” She follows his gaze for a moment, looking up into the sky, but she can’t seem to keep her eyes of the injury as her attention almost immediately returns to the bandaged area. “Damn though, Ivan, it seems pretty bad… How do you even get that?”

Not even a hesitation in his answer. “It happened last night. I went out in the storm, stupid me, and, well… yeah.”

“Yeah?” She’s leaning forward now, looking to attack the issue like a shark, but holds her tongue when she notices Ivan biting his lip. Instead, she just shakes her head. “You’re stupid sometimes, you know that?”

“Yeah, yeah, love you too, Cream,” he responds sarcastically, albeit looking visibly relieved. “I’ll see ya later, alright?”

“‘Kay, Ivan. Get your ass back home and rest, too. Have Rainbow take care of you, order her around and shit. She owes you for all that time in the hospital.”

He smiles one last time, then turns and begins limping away. You watch anxiously as he slowly walks off, an irrational fear in your gut making you think that he’ll turn around at any moment and catch you when freedom is so near.

Luckily, he doesn’t. Cream watches him leave, noticeably taking a sidestep that blocks Ivan’s view of you, and vice versa. Finally, after a tense half-minute, she turns to you.

You contemplate making a dash for it. However, something about her makes you feel as if that would be the… wrong decision. Not that it would end badly for you, moreso that you would be ungrateful to ditch her after she covered for you like that. You still remain in place under the table as she approaches you, however.

“Hello, there.” Despite being cream-pink and out of a job, she has a very sunny disposition. Her grin stretches from ear to ear, as if meeting you is the best thing that’s ever happened to her. “You’re Scootaloo, right?”

You say nothing, choosing to remain silent. This does not seem to bother her in the least.

She continues on, as if you’d actually answered. “I’ve seen you before, but I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. My name is Cream.” She extends a forehoof in your direction. “But since you’re family of Ivan and Rainbow now, I’ll bestow upon you the privilege of calling me Auntie Cream.”

When you don’t respond, she remains frozen in her friendly pose, except for a few blinks every other second. You start to wonder how long she would stand there if you didn’t do anything, but the thought of her acting like a statue and staring at you for a long time makes you uncomfortable.

Hesitantly, you put a hoof forward, lightly bumping hers. Her grin settles into a polite smile at this point and she lowers her hoof, putting you more at ease.

“It’s good to meet you, Scootaloo,” she says. Your eyes dart around, as you’re momentarily unsure of how to reply.

“Y-You too,” you finally answer.

Author's Note

Well, it's been awhile, hasn't it? Just so you all know, I'm getting back in the game.

Just don't expect weekly updates like the good ol' days, k?

Also, apparently CB is at a ninth or tenth-grade reading level. I love the new features of wordcounter.net

Oh, and something else very quick. I'm not going to give you a big long description, but I'm entering a contest in which authors and artists and such try to coerce their followers into donating money to Syrian refugees. So if you're interested, this is my donation page, and this is the page detailing the tournament. Most likely gonna be making a blog post about it and posting this on my user page as well.

ONE LAST THING!!1 Starting with this chapter, I'm importing stories directly from GDocs. If you notice any formatting errors, please notify me so that I will go back copy+paste and never import from GDocs again.

Because that shit happened last time. A few last times. And I wasn't happy.