A Chance of Fire

"I DIDN'T DO IT STE-" You shout as you wake yourself from your horrific dream. Unlike the pleasant feeling of being snuggled against a furry pegasus, you dreamt yourself falling fast in a sea of darkness. As you started to realize that the fall was continuous, you simply stopped screaming and waited for you to become paste on the ground. Unfortunately for you, that end never came. Instead, you were held in the arms of slenderman. Apparently, this made you scream out "I DIDN'T DO IT STEVE!" but you weren't able to make it that far, because slender made your head explode.

Now that your dreamland has crushed your hopes of getting more sleep, you decide to fully wake up and get your day started. You carefully slide yourself out of the covers and wobble over to your dresser. As you're about to begin removing clothes from the dresser, you have a sudden headache invade your presence.

You clutch the sides of your head with your hands, grasping your head as if it would roll off your neck if you didn't hold it in place.  You moan and groan at the sudden pain and stumble into the bathroom, forgetting about your clothes on the dresser.

Not giving the light of day about my clothes...

"Not my problem!" you announce to the air around you.

Sighing loudly, you enter the bathroom, turn around, shut the door, and begin removing your clothing. As you step into the shower to begin your routine, you think about this situation. You have to meet whoever is meddling with your mind at the park at seven o'clock.

"Wait a second..." you say aloud. "Does that mean that..."

You glance at the digital clock that sat by the mirror. It reads:

6:35 P.M.

"NO! I have to hurry up with this shower!"

You scramble to get yourself ready, quickly scrubbing and drying yourself off in a seconds notice. Running out of the bathroom, you gather your once forgotten clothes and quickly slide into them. You quickly eat a piece of bread and sprint out the door, carrying your car keys. Before you leave your apartment, you turn and lock the door. You've been having problems with your neighbors lately and you don't want them to get any ideas.

Turning around, you begin to contemplate on the message. What could this person want? Why did they want to meet you at the park? What is their motive? All of these question continued to swim in your big yet obnoxious brain while you run towards the park.

Sprinting down the streets of your hometown, running by the people; all of these things help push those questions away. In turn, they give you the feeling of being free. You felt like you were alone and in charge of what you are. It reminded you of your childhood: carefree, always wanting to run around while your parents chased after you and laughing all the way. Times changed for you now. You being without your parents, due to their passing to the final stage. Your sister moving to another state. You're the only family member left in the area. Fortunately for you, you're not truly alone. After all, you do have Nice. She's always there for you when you need her.

You're now grinning while running through town, forgetting about manners an-

"OOF"

...people.

You run right into a lady who was walking with a zipped up handbag in her arms.

Got to watch where I'm going...

You look up and see the girl you hit.

To say she's stunning is an understatement.

Her body curved in such a way, that all the ladies would beg to have her shape.

But that's not all!

As you look up, you get a good look at her face. Her beautiful, young look gave her such a nice tone. Her orange, short straight hair shaped like a ready yet steady fire mesmerized you to your core.

The best part of her all...

Her eyes could tell a thousand stories, such a wonderful shade of orange. You could write all those stories out by just staring into them.

What a wonderful pa-

*SLAP*

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"

You falter a bit, grasping your cheek at the place where she slapped you.

Women are so abusive sometimes...

You rise up, continuing to rub your cheek as you do so. As you look upon her, she asks,

"So what do you have to say for yourself?"

...

Really?

"I'm sorry miss. I was in a hurry."

She smiles and replies,

"It's okay. Just... watch where you're going okay?"

You smile and say,

"Will do."

The woman smiles and asks,

"So where were you running to in such a hurry?"

"Going to meet someone in the park," you answer calmly.

"Really?" She questions, a countenance of thought shown upon her.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

Her face of thought disappears, replaced by her wonderful smile.

"I was heading there too! What a coincidence right?"

"Guess so, that is if you think crashing into each other is a coincidence as well."

She giggles at you and says,

"You have a point there."

She looks around and sees that the stoplight in front of you is red, signaling for the two of you to cross the intersection. She turns back to you and asks,

"Let's go, shall we?"

You smile and say,

"Lead on, m-miss?"

She hears the hesitation in your voice and responds,

"Nova."

You respond to her by telling her your name.

"That's a great name, Chance."

You look back at her and nod, walking beside her to your destination. As the two of you walked up to the park gates, you stop simultaneously and look at the sight in front of you.

The park in your hometown was comparable to Madison Square Park. The trees covered the landscape, their leaves turning an orange hue. The flowers surrounded the paths that a person walked on, giving the park a pleasant feel. It's a wonderful sight on an autumn-like day such as this one.

She stops looking at the park first, turning her head towards you and asks,

"So who are you going to meet here?"

You shrug and say,

"I don't know who it is. I was told to come here alone to meet this person..."

She looks away and says,

"Then I must go, right?"

You shake your head and say,

"No you don't. You wanted to come here too so I can't deny you of that."

She turns back, looking up at you.

"Thank you." She looks ahead at the park in front of you both.

"Shall we?"

"You ask that question a lot don't you?"

She giggles and grabs your hand.

"Come on Chance! Let's go by the bridge!"

You smile and let her drag you with her. After all, she's the one pulling you. Don't want to waste your energy right?

As the two of you approach the bridge, you suddenly begin to feel a bit under the weather. You turn to Nova and say,

"Nova?"

She turns her gaze towards you and asks,

"What Chance?"

You ask,

"Can we sit down?"

Nova smiles and says,

"Sure." She pauses and spots a bench nearby the bridge. She points at the bench and says,

"Let's go sit over there."

She drags you over to the bench and sits you down.

Unfortunately, her version of 'sitting you down' is smacking your bottom on the bench at a hundred miles per hour.

You moan as your rump hits the bench.

That's going to leave a mark.

You look at her, confused by her strength.

How the hell did she smack me that hard on the bench?

She grips your shoulders, pinning you to the bench. She calmly states,

"Listen."

Okay...This just did a one eighty.

You simply stare at her, waiting for her to continue.

"You have dreams right?"

You nod and ask,

"Why does that mat-"

"It does. Let me finish."

You shut your trap in an instant.

"Do you have...dreams of a pegasus?"

Your eyes widen upon hearing the mythological creature.

Seeing your alarmed reaction, she continues,

"I do too. The weirdest thing is that I have the same dreams. Probably a different figure though..."

You ask,

"What does this pegasus in your dream look like?"

She loosens her grip of you and responds,

"He looks like you..."

Without hesitation, you respond,

"Really?"

"Yes...he had the same hair...the same eyes..."

She brings one of her legs onto you and smiles.

"And he said something to me that shook me to the core..."

Shaken by her forwardness, you stutter,

"W-what did he say?"

"I love you."

Your nervousness disappears, replaced by a sense of relief. You ask,

"So you're implying that we were supposed to meet?"

She gets off you, placing herself beside you on the bench.

"I guess so..."

"So what do you think we should do?"

She sighs and looks down at the ground. She says,

"I don't know...I thought you would've known."

"Well we're at an impasse aren't we?"

She shrugs and stands up. You decide to get off the bench, since you don't want to be left alone with this horrible headache you have. You'd rather have company to take your mind off the pain.

She begins to walk away from the bridge, leaving you no choice but to follow her. You walk right beside her, wondering if she's thinking the same thing as you.

You can't help but wonder if this message was to make you two run into each other...

No way...that would be way too easy.

You shove that thought aside.

So what was the point of this message?

You can't really think of a way to describe it. There's some underlying issue that you can't put your finger on.

As you think of this, you turn to see Nova looking at you. She asks,

"Are you okay Chance?"

You jump a bit at this, and nervously reply,

"I'm doing okay," you pause, allowing yourself to calm down. "I'm just thinking about this whole situation."

She averts her gaze back to the winding path ahead and says,

"I know...I'm doing the same thing."

You sigh and ask,

"Should we talk about it a bit?"

She snaps her gaze back to you, confused by your logic.

"Why do you think that we should?"

You avert your gaze skyward, looking at the puffy clouds above.

"We're both having the same dreams of two different pegasi that somehow told us in their own way to get here." You look back at her, and calmly continue, "It's not simply coincidental now..."

She averts her attention to the circle, where a statue of the mayor stands as a monument. She turns to you and says,

"So what do you think we should talk about?"

You sigh again and reply,

"What did you dream of at first?"

"A lot of things... The stallion would just talk to me about things that happened during his day. It was kind of...relaxing."

Weird...I didn't know I was that lame as a pony...

"He also made a ton of jokes and teased me a bit..."

I'll take that back as soon as she sa-

...and covered me in tree sap at least three times in a row."

I take that back, I am a genius.

You laugh at the absurdity of the statement and ask,

"Why did you get covered in tree sap?"

She frowns a bit and says,

"Because he was such an ass."

"Whoa, tone the language. There are young children present."

She looks around to see no one but the two of you. She growls and says,

"But there isn't any children here."

You smirk and say,

"Oh really?"

She pauses and begins to think over what you said. Suddenly, a look of realization takes over her face.

"You asshole!"

She playfully shoves you, making you falter a bit. She smiles and says,

"That stallion is definitely like you."

"Just without the tree sap right?"

She guffaws a bit and says,

"Of course and I'm glad you don't do that," she pauses. "But if you do, I will send you to the next dimension. Understood?"

You nod and salute like you're in the army.

"Yes Miss Captain Tree Sap!"

She shoves you again and growls,

"That's Captain Nova soldier!" She points to the ground. "Now drop and give me twenty!"

You smile and begin to run towards the exit. You turn your head back and say,

"You gotta catch me first!"

She smiles and runs after you, yelling for you to stop. You, however; have no plans of stopping until you figure out what this pegasus stuff means...

"Gotcha!"

...or until she catches up to you.