Stormy (Part 1)

Stormy (Part 1)

“Oh Piper, fuck me harder!”

Piper stared down at the back of his lover’s head. A tussled, sweat drenched head of winter white coloured strands met his vision and he fought the temptation to dive into it and bite a mouthful of mane. Instead, he pressed his hooves to her sides and gripped onto the flesh through her golden coat for stability. Focused, determined and now with a firm grip on his lover, Piper proceeded to give her what she wanted.

He took a minute to pause and reflect. He felt comfortable with her. He wasn’t sure why exactly that was, but there was a familiar warmth she exuded, a relaxing aura to her that made him want to lean himself against her back and kiss, bite and lick the gape of her neck in an intimate expression of how he felt.

He wasn’t entirely convinced that this was the perfect time to find that kind of warmth with her, so instead he summoned every ounce of lustful strength he had in his body and thrust into her.

“Mmm, yeah baby. Just like that!”

Her body moved spastically underneath him. She moaned into the pillow and threw her flank to meet the rhythm of his glistening, throbbing member as it slowly filled her tight entrance.

Piper gave a heavy groan. Shy and quiet as he was most times in life, right now he needed to be adventurous and confident. He slid himself slowly out of her, until only the head of his cock was inside of her. He heard her pout into the pillow and grinned. He gripped her sides a little tighter, arched his back and in a quick and heavy motion thrust himself into her.

He could feel the vibrations she gave off, tremor of pure pleasure pulsed up his cock, past his balls and finally when it hit his brain, he couldn’t help but hang his tongue loose out of his already opened mouth.

No pony ever said that nirvana was supposed to feel this good.

They continued like this for hours; him fucking himself inside of her, and then her meeting his erect member with her hips, swallowing him with the infinite wetness of her marehood. When he felt himself drawn to the proverbial edge, and just as he was about to fill her with his intimate love seed, she broke her face off from the pillow and turned towards him.

All pleasure escaped when he realized he was staring into the face of his very much male roommate. White Mane. His golden cheeks were turned upwards in a goofy grin and his baby blues reflected Piper’s worry in them. For a colt who was, apparently, being rutted raw, his face seemed particularly devoid of any signs of arousal - -or, from an alternative standpoint resentment. He just seemed happy to see him.

His mouth opened and he spoke.

“Hey, Piper. Are you cumming?”

Piper's body shot upwards and covers fell from his waist. It took a few quiet minutes of breathing to calm himself down and realize that he'd only dreamt about having sex with his roommate. This came as a double edged sword...

... and speaking of 'swords'; Piper noticed that there was now a tent made out of soft linen sheets between his legs in the bed.

Sigh.

This was the third time in less than a month that he’d had this dream...Not that there was anything overtly psychological about it. It was totally normal for a young colt to have sexual fantasies that started off normal then slowly turned into a sweaty, passionate, butt-fucking session with his gay roommate.

Right?

“I said ‘Are you coming, Piper?’.” He heard his roommate’s soft voice call from the open door of the bathroom.

Hearing White Mane’s voice, Piper’s ‘pitched tent’ gave a twitch.

“I was going to go meet Scout and the others for breakfast." White Mane explained, "Are you coming?”

“Yeah,” Piper mumbled back, quietly. “Just give me a second...”

“Okay.” His roommate sing-songed in response. “Are you feeling okay? It sounded like you were having a really bad dream or something? I could hear you groaning from the bathroom.”

Bad dream?

That was a bit of an understatement.

The pitched tent was still at full attention and he was worried that today, like the few other times he’d had this dream, he’d have to sneak into the bathroom after White Mane left for breakfast and ‘relieve’ himself....

...And hopefully not to the mental image of his roommate this time.

“I’m fine.” Piper answered back. “I’ll just meet you down there, okay? I... um... I need to shower still and get dressed. I don’t want to hold you up or anything.”

White Mane poked his head out of the bathroom. Piper jerked the pillow from under his head and slapped it on his lap. Hiding his shame. White Mane lifted a brow, curiously, and Piper responded with a casual smile.

White Mane smiled back -- that silly, goofy and totally not at all adorable -- little smile of his and ducked back into the bathroom. The sound of a faucet turning on came a few seconds after. Piper exhaled a relieved breath and rolled onto his side. While White Mane did whatever he was doing in the bathroom, Piper tried to think unsexy thoughts

A pre-school on fire.

Two Manticores mating.

His Grandmother.

Piper ran his hoof through his mane and sighed for the umpteenth time.

He could already tell it was going to be a long day.

***

Down in the cafeteria there were five of them with a circular table and separating the bodies of a wicked selection of fine specimens who called themselves freshmen at Camden arts school.

White Mane sat in the king’s crown of the table -- front and centre. Beside him was Scout’s Honour; a pegasus, the same age as White Mane and Piper, who majored in musical theory. To the right of Scout’s Honour was his roommate Vincent. Also a musical prodigy, Vincent was certainly an interesting site at Camden. He was one of less than a single percent of the population at Camden who came from The Gryphon Kingdom.

He didn’t talk about that aspect of his personality much.

From what little White Mane had learned in high school about Gryphon traditions, it seemed Vincent hailed from different plains that most Gryphons who immigrated to Equestria; The black feather’s of his face, coupled with the darker grey of his coat and tail, were synonymous with the ‘Low Lands’ tribes.

To White Mane, Gryphon culture was a fascinating thing. To Vincent, it was a boring repackaging of his life.

On White Mane’s left and rounding out the group, were Sunny Side and his roommate/lover Honey Drop. Both were unicorns and both were drama majors.

White Mane had met both Honey Drop and Sunny Side (who’d also met each other, romantically) in his theatre class. Piper, had met Scout’s Honor (and, by extension Vincent.) in musical theory, and after a few mutual hangouts, the friends, and friends of friends became a tight knit group.

That was the practical shorthand history of why three gay drama majors, two musical theory majors and a--by this point very much late and presently unaccounted for--‘Film Studies’ major all spent their mornings, lunch periods and most evenings together.

White Mane’s interest was divided between the conversation at the table, and elsewhere in the dining hall. He smiled and laughed whenever Scout or someone at the table would crack a joke, or make a witty statement, but his mind was miles away.

Present today in the dining hall was none other than Brawny Brawler, and it only took seeing him to put a frown on White Mane’s face.

Today, like many other hungover mornings for the athletic colt, Brawny entered with his entourage; a revolving door of colts and mares who surrounded him. Laughed with him. Smiled with him and worst of all, in terms of his feminine company, brushed against him.

This upset White Mane.

It hadn’t been more than a month since the Freaks and Geeks party and ever since then, each and every time he’d spotted Brawny anywhere on campus, the older colt would go out of his way to completely and intentionally avoid White Mane’s presence. Their eyes would meet, only for a brief second, then Brawny would frown/glare/whatever at White Mane, turn away and force a laugh at something one of his little cronies said.

White Mane watched him do that exact same thing today; he slapped a hoof -- today it was to a pegasus named Rumblejack’s shoulder -- then bellowed a laugh loud enough that every pony in the cafeteria with an unrequited crush on him got the sense that he was totally invested in the conversation.

Realizing that this was their relationship was troubling to White Mane. The way Brawny acted towards him echoed the idea that for as long as he would know Brawny Brawler, he’d always do his best to avoid him. To pretend their little fling hadn’t happened and, above all else, that he was perfectly committed to heterosexuality.

White Mane tried to take his mind off of this new revelation in his mind by focusing back on the conversation he’d been avoiding. There was a quiet lull now which meant it was anypony (or Gryphon)’s turn to speak their mind.

Sunny Side saw it necessary to do just that.

“You’ll never guess who asked me to take notes for him in cultural studies yesterday.” he announced quite ecstatically to present company.

“Who?” Honey Drop questioned back.

This was the build up of a game Sunny Side liked to play with Honey Drop. Playful banter and mild flirting under the guise of showing interest in a good looking colt who was most times straight and showed no interest in him. Usually, Sunny Side would try to make Honey Drop jealous by name dropping some colt who was good looking and pretend that he’d shown interest in him so that Honey Drop would spend the rest of his day feeding Sunny Side’s ego by latching onto him both physically and emotionally.

It seemed sort of mean spirited, but, who was White Mane to question it?

“I’ll give you three hints; He’s gorgeous. He’s a senior. And, he’s the only colt on campus I’d let buy me dinner in a heartbeat...” Slight pause for Honey Drop to glare daggers at him “, except for you, love.”

Honey Drop responded aggressively, he stroked a hoof against Sunny Side’s cheek and dove in for a quick peck on the lips. Sunny Side kissed back and before the other bodies present were aware of it, they were watching two very much in love ponies make out in front of them.

Slowly, Sunny Side pulled away and grinned. Beside him, Scout rolled his eyes.

“Ahem,” Scout coughed, drawing their attention. “We’re still waiting...”

“Oh, right.” Sunny Side purred.

He turned to Honey Drop and gave him a low, sultry, look then back at the others.

“Well, any guesses, then?”

“Iron Will the self help guru?” Vincent shrugged. “He’s your type, right?”

“Oh, you’re no fun.” Sunny Side pouted. “White Mane?”

Drawn from his lustful glaring at Brawny Brawler, White Mane sprang to life.

“I did what now?” He mumbled to questionable stares from around the table. Slightly worried, he managed to politely smile back. “Sorry... what were we talking about?”

“Sunny Side’s telling us about some colt he wants to bang or something,” Scout groaned. “He wants you to guess who it is.”

“Oh, um...” White Mane wracked his brain for colts, on campus, who were attractive, fit and fell within Honey Drops’ definition of ‘sexy’ (Which, to be totally honest, meant any colt who knew how to shower, dress nice and weighed more in muscle than body fat.)

“....The Colt from Las Pegasus?”

Sunny Side scoffed at this, though, he raised a curious eyebrow.

“You’re getting warmer...”

“Um,” White Mane really wasn’t all too interested anymore. “...The Handsome Dunce?”

“Oh, White Mane.” Sunny Side breathed happily. “You’re so close. He’s much better looking than The Handsome Dunce, although, they do hang out a lot. I’ll give you another hint... he’s totally gay.”

“Um,”

White Mane, in all honesty, was both clueless and by now entirely uninterested. It was very typical of Sunny Side to turn what he thought was a fun little guessing game, into a pretentious and drawn out affair.

This was one of those times.

“...You already said it wasn’t The Colt From Las Pegasus, right?”

Sunny Side nodded.

“You guys are really bad at this.” Sunny Side groaned. “I’ll just tell you; It was Stormy!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stormy?” Scout’s Honor exclaimed from where he sat in a mix of disbelief and astonishment. “As in, Jagged Horn’s roommate? That Stormy?”

“The very same.” Sunny smiled back.

“...And he’s gay?”

“Yes. Positive.” Sunny Side cheerfully injected. “Gay, and absolutely gorgeous. This kind of cute colt in my Introduction to Nursing class said they hooked up at The Winter is Coming Party last month. He’s supposed to be an absolute animal in bed.”

“There’s no way, Sunny!” Scout’s Honor groaned. “I saw Stormy leave that party with a chick. That kinda butch girl from ‘Res. The one I was about to leave with, before you,” Scout paused to throw an accusing hoof at Vincent. “, totally cock blocked me.”

“Yeah, about that.” Vincent started, then coughed. “I didn’t want to say anything at the time, because I thought it was pretty funny. But, that chick was pretty clearly a guy, Scout.”

“She so wasn’t!” Scout argued back. “Come on, I wasn’t drunk enough at that party to start hitting on guys, Vincent!”

“Well, you say that...” Vincent chuckled.

Around the table, Scout peered at shit eating grins and coy smiles.

“Oh, that’s really funny guys.” Nervously, Scout laughed and scratched the back of his neck. “I get it, pull a fast one on old Scout for being a dick.”

No one else laughed and Scout sank in his seat a bit.

“Whatever...” Scout groaned. “You guys can pretend all you want, but she was definitely a mare and Stormy’s too cool to be gay!”

“Oh, and colt cuddler’s can’t be cool?” Honey Drop chimed in.

“Well, I mean not like Stormy.” Scout shot. “Look, you guys,” He paused to wave a hoof at the now hugging gay couple. “, are cool because you’re open and happy. You two don’t take any shit from anypony for being the happiest gay couple on campus. That makes you two cool.”

“But?” Honey enquired with an eyebrow raise.

“But, Stormy’s like straight cool.” Scout defended. “I mean, he just doesn’t seem like he’s gay. You know?”

“Excuse you?” Sunny Side, and Honey Drop gawked and by now, even White Mane had to admit he was a little upset with his friend’s choice of words.

“No, no, no. Not in a bad way. It’s just like... that dude’s really like laid back and chill. And, no offense, but you guys are like all girly and stuff.”

“Hey!” White Mane huffed in anger. “That’s a hurtful thing to say, Scout!”

Around the table Scout was met with upset and angry eyes. His face dropped a bit, he tried to smile, failed then just sighed.

“I’m sorry, guys.” Scout winced. “You’re really okay. It’s just sometimes you two” He paused to wave a hoof at the now cuddling couple who leered back at him. “, are really....insatiable.”

“What an astute observation, Scout.” Sunny Side said, rolling his eyes. “, 'Insatiable’ is a rather large word for a musical theory major.”

“Hey, whatever.” Scout said. “You guys are like rainbow suspenders and cutoff shorts gay. If, and I’m not even entirely convinced you’re telling the truth about this, but, if Stormy happens to enjoy a bit of sodomy, he’s definitely the coolest gay colt on all of campus.”

“Sodomy? Really, Scout?” Honey Drop asked, gawking at the pegasus. “You make it sound so.... disgusting.”

“Well, it is kinda gross.” Scout groaned. “I mean you do poop from back there.”

“Yeah, and what’s up your poop chute, today?” Vincent asked. “You’ve been in a shitty mood since you woke up.”

Again, Scout’s face fell flat and he bit his lower lip.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled, looking down at the floor. “I mean, you guys are... You look so happy together, and...” He paused and stared off for a second, before coming back to the conversation. “...My parents are splitting up. Again.”

Around the table all the angry or un-amused faces suddenly turned soft and apologetic. White Mane patted a hoof to Scout’s shoulder and rested his head on it.

“I’m so sorry, Scout.” He said, smiling softly. “Are you going to be okay?”

Scout smiled back at White Mane.

“Yeah. Oh, yeah. Totally.” He said. “They do this all the time. They’ll be back together in a few months. Maybe in a year. It just sucks when they do this, because now I’m going to have to pick which one I wanna spend Hearth’s Warming Eve, with.”

“Hey, you’ll be okay buddy.” Vincent smiled, slapping a claw to Scout’s other shoulder. “Just forget about it, right? Besides, The End Of The World party is tomorrow night and I can’t have my wingmate down in the dumps if we’re going to pick up chicks.”

Scout smiled, then turned to Honey Drop and Sunny Side, who sat hugging across from him.

“We’re... okay, right?” He asked, staring inquisitively at the potentially offended couple.

They smiled back in unison and nodded their heads.

All present company seemed at peace now. Tempers were cooled, minds at ease, and suddenly, a noticeable missing presence was felt around the table.

“Hey... where’s Piper?” Vincent asked.

All eyes fell on White Mane, who was left wondering himself where his roommate was.

“He said he was just taking a shower,” White Mane said. “But, that was almost an hour ago.”

“Maybe he skipped breakfast?” Vincent pondered aloud. “He probably just went to class or something. Doesn’t he have film studies today?”

“Probably...” White Mane shrugged.

***

At the present time Piper was very much NOT at his film class, in fact, he was still in his room; laying on his bed. The sheets underneath him, his head rested on a small bundle of pillows his left hoof clutching tight the sheets of his bed, while his right hoof was filled with his half hard stallion hood.

Today was certainly not the best day for Piper.

His shower had taken a lot longer and been much more introspective than he’d liked in a good soak; in fact, he’d skipped the ‘self explorative’ aspect of his shower when he felt guilty about using the mental image of him and his roommate going at it like a couple of rabbits.

Now, for the second time in less than two hours, he was fighting the urge to polish himself to that same thought and instead filling his head with visions of beautiful mares on campus, surprised to find that by the time he’d gotten halfway through his spank bank -- The barista who worked at Monk’s cafe -- he couldn’t even call himself aroused anymore.

This was troubling.

So, maybe, just maybe, he had a bit of a crush on his roommate. That much he was disturbingly aware of. And, maybe, just maybe, he liked the idea of tossing White Mane on a bed, tearing his clothes off with his teeth, kissing him hard on the mouth, wrestling his tongue with White Mane’s while he ground his pelvis against his roommate’s, grabbing the silly colt by the waist, flipping him onto his stomach and then fucking him silly until he was a screaming, writhing mess.

What could he do about it?

White Mane was interested in Brawny Brawler, who was interested in keeping his latent homosexual behavior a secret and avoiding the lustful gaze of his best friend whenever he could. That was something of a problem for the two of them ever becoming ‘the two of them’.

Soap opera fallacies aside, Piper had settled after a long time of thinking -- in and out -- of the shower (and then later, a second time, on his bed) that he’d just have to keep his insatiable lust for his roommate a secret.

And, that is what he was going to do... right after he used that same insatiable lust to settle his now once again growing ‘attraction’.

With a firm grip on his mental state, and a firmer grip on his stallion hood, he got to work.

He started slow. He traveled his length, with his grip soft against the warm flesh, then, when he reached the head of his cock, he stroked down a little faster. Up, a little faster than that, down, again, quicker, until he had a quick and nice pace.

Him on top of White Mane, biting hard at his soft and supple neck.

This was starting to feel good.

His hooves roaming White Mane’s delicate little body.

Like, really good.

Him brushing his stallion hood against White Mane’s.

Goddess, this was the best clop session he’d had in eons.

Him, gripping White Mane’s flank hard. Kissing his roommate with passionate intensity.

He was so close. Just a few more seconds.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Oh, shit! Climax!

With a feeble half pant/half moan, and one last thrust of his hips, Piper sprayed his load across his chest.

Quietly, and ever so slightly ashamed of himself, he stared down at his chest where much of the fur was matted with a glistening white pearlescent liquid, then his hoof, then the door where whomever had unintentionally interrupted his clop session was still knocking.

“Hello?” A voice, muffled through the wooden frame separating him or her, and Piper, pondered a thought. “Anyone home?”

Panic. It crept up his spine as he tried feebly to assess the situation, here was ‘he’, with a chest mostly soaked in his love seed, as was his hoof, while a stranger -- or maybe even his roommate -- stood at his door begging for entrance.

Oh, fudge.

Thinking quickly, Piper grasped his sheets in his unstained hoof and patted himself dry; the sheets now carried his seed on them, but, that was fine. He could either wash them later today, or, alternatively, burn them if need be.

The knocking continued and Piper leapt from his bed, dashed to the bathroom and grabbing a bundle of toilet paper, soaking it in a mix of tap water and soap, cleaned himself of his shame. Checking himself over, then over a second time, he realized he was as ‘clean’ as he’d ever be and moved towards the doorway.

Opening the door he was met with a very unusual sight.

Piper now stood face to face with a stranger. His visitor was a colt--smoke grey coat, wicked ink mane and an ear-to-ear grin on his face.

From his experiences at Camden, and reputation, Piper recognized this stranger in an instant as Stormy. Jagged Horn’s (AKA The Handsome Dunce) roommate. Though, why he was standing in the open doorway was very much still a mystery.

“Are you, Piper?” Stormy pondered, staring curiously at the blushing and quite out of breath colt before him.

Piper nodded.

“Cool, cool.” Stormy grinned. “My roommate told me you might have a copy of The Fallacies of Starswirl the Bearded that I could borrow from you?”

Piper’s had been curious, but now, Stormy and his craving for what Piper easily regarded as one of the finest books written about one of his favorite historical figures in Equestrian history had drawn his full attention.

Noticing Piper noticing him with a quizzical look, Stormy slighted for a brief second, then realization -- or what looked very much like it -- dawned on him and he spoke.

“Sorry. I’m Stormy.” He introduced himself with an extended hoof. “My roommate, Jag, said you guys were in the same classic lit’ course before he dropped it, and that you’re like, well, probably the pony to see on campus about borrowing a book?”

Well, now at least Piper had method to go along with the madness. That was comforting.

“Um... yeah, I have a copy of it.” Piper smiled. “That is, if you don’t mind a hard copy?”

Stormy smiled back.

“Of course not.” He paused for a second and raised a brow when he noticed Piper shifting on his hooves.

Inconspicuous as he wasn’t, Piper was still trying his best to quickly and quietly dismiss the colt at his door and on top of that, reassure him that he hadn’t in fact interrupted a very intimate moment between himself, his mind and a bottle of hand lotion.

Stormy seemed aloof, his brow lowered and he smiled again.

“Do you mind it I come in?”

At first, Piper was hesitant, inviting a stranger into his dorm seemed like something his R.A. had advised him against during his orientation. But, then again, he was never one to miss out on a chance at meeting a new acquaintance with similar academic interests and then befriending them.

Besides, Piper was almost entirely convinced he’d done a bang up job of cleaning his mess.

And so, Piper nodded and invited Stormy inside.

Piper led the way and did a double take at his bed; The sheets! He’d totally forgotten about the sheets. There was a rather particular dark and damp spot that stuck out like, well, a cum stain on an otherwise spotless pair of sky blue sheets.

Quickly, and realizing it was the lesser of two evils, Piper leapt on the bed and nuzzled his flank into the mess that was his latest midday emission, smiling inconspicuously at Stormy as he hid his self made mess.

Stormy, aloof to Piper’s situation, smiled back kindly and lay flat on White Mane’s bed. He rested his head on White Mane’s pillows and kicked his hooves up on the bed’s railing. This earned him a curious, almost offended, look from Piper.

“Sorry,” He said taking note of Piper’s glare. “Jag..uh, he had a couple of girls over last night for a quick game of ‘Which one of you has the lowest standards?’and kicked me out.”

Stormy gave a heavy sigh and relaxed into the pillows.

“I guess your invitation got lost in the mail?” Piper grinned, trying to ease the tension.

From where he lay, Stormy chuckled.

“I guess so.” He paused and scratched at his stomach. “Anyways, I spent last night sleeping on a couch in the art lounge until The Colt From Las Pegasus and his new girlfriend came in to break in the couches.”

Piper watched Stormy yawn, stretch his hooves upwards, then shut his eyes and lay back in the bed.

“I haven’t slept in like,” slight pause to yawn, again. “twenty hours, dude.”

“That’s rough.” Piper said.

Stormy nodded.

From his seat, Piper got to his hooves and stared silently at the bookshelf, then at Stormy, then at the now not so apparent stain in his bedsheets. He withheld a sigh when he realized after Stormy left, he’d have to shower, again, to clean himself off, but, that didn’t quite matter now.

Right now Stormy needed a book that he owned, and Piper was more than happy to oblige him.

At first, Piper was a tad hesitant to lend it to a colt whose roommate had a reputation on campus as a total--and proud of it -- degenerate, but, Stormy seemed relatively harmless by comparison; a kind hearted, well intentioned -- at least from what Piper could gather from him -- who just had the misfortune of being associated with his drug addicted, mare laying, pill popping roommate.

It was Jag’s fault, really.

There was an inherent and prevalent kindness to Stormy that made Piper truly believe lending him this book was both doing him a favor, and laying the groundwork for a potential future friendship at Camden.

With that in mind, Piper made the decision to indeed lend Stormy his copy of The Fallacies of Starswirl The Bearded.

“Let me grab that book for you.” He said.

“Cool.” Stormy replied.

Piper moved towards his small library of books. He’d come to Camden knowing he couldn’t bring his entire collection, just the necessities, so it wasn’t nearly as impressive as it could have been; just a few dozen novels, novellas, biographies, autobiographies and even some printed copies of scrolls sent and received by The Princess Celestia herself.

Again, it was nothing too impressive.

Rifling through the works of Shakes Spear, then Poe, Dickinson, S. Thompson, Lundegard, his hoof finally found what it had been raised to receive; The Fallacies of Starswirl The Bearded: Second Edition. He plucked it from the shelf and tossed it gently at the base of the bed where Stormy lay.

Stormy grabbed the book, stared at it for a brief second, then up at Piper with a curious gaze and cocked eyebrow.

“This,” He said. “ is a second edition copy. This...has got to be over fifty years old, at least?”

“Um,” Piper mumbled. “... one hundred and thirty seven years, actually.”

“I can’t borrow this!” Stormy stated holding the book now like some precious jewel, gently clutched in his hooves. “Dude, If I lost this, or if Jag wrecked it... I couldn’t live with myself.”

“Well,” Piper smiled. “I guess you’ll just have to take good care of it.”

Stormy’s eyes went soft and wet for a brief second, then he smiled -- ear to ear -- and gave a half of a chuckle.

“Piper, listen... I really appreciate you lending me this. I promise I’ll return it exactly as it is.”

He halted for a brief second, stared down at the book and ran a hoof long across the cover, like he were petting a cat, then stared back up at Piper.

“But, let me buy you a drink or something? He asked. “I owe you. I mean, this book is worth...at least five hundred bits. It’s the least I can do.”

Piper scratched at his mane; he hadn’t exactly planned out his evening, and, Stormy was certainly a kind enough pony to accept, but, then he thought about White Mane and what he was doing tonight. Surely, it would be rude to leave his roommate stranded tonight. WIth that in mind, he smiled to himself. Piper had just planned a fun and exciting evening for the two.

“Sure.” He said. “What time works for you?”

Stormy grinned and tucked the book into his saddle bag. He got off the bed and walked to the door, then turned to Piper.

“Oh, great,” Stormy said ecstatically. “How about seven at Nell’s?”

“Sounds fun.” Piper replied.

“Right on,” Stormy said, grinned, then flashed a smile. “Thanks again, Piper. I’ll catch you later.”

With that, Stormy exited the room and left Piper alone and with what sounded like a fun night out on an otherwise bleak and boring Thursday at Camden.

Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to tell White Mane the good news.... right after he took another shower to clean the mess off of his flank.