The Average Life of Apollo Coronis

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

Before I could speculate about Shika anymore, a loud knocking came from my front door.

“Sit tight. I’ll get that.” I said, sounding more casual with my lovely house guest.

She nodded adorably, and then took another large gulp of her coffee.

Slowly, my hooves approached the door. The knocking would occasionally stop for a second, and then continue. I wondered who in Equestria would be at my door in middle of a snowstorm. I peeped through the glass hole in the door, but all I could see was frost covering the lens. I was about to ignore the knocking completely, I thought it was probably some salespony. But I was stopped by a deep voice shouting from behind the sturdy wooden door.

“HEY COME ON Popo! LET US IN! Pleeaasseee?!”

“Oh for the love of…” I tried not to swear in front of Shika, but the morons behind the door were making it hard not to.

My hoof was controlling itself, it threw open the door. And to nopony’s surprise… Featherweight and Pip were standing outside, almost completely frozen.

Pip forced an awkward smile with his chattering teeth, while Featherweight immediately threw himself onto my welcome mat.

“What in Celestia’s name are you two doing here?!” I whispered angrily.

“Same reason you are. To see that Shika filly!”

I couldn’t believe it. My hoof was still controlling itself, and it was about to launch itself at Featherweight’s face. I wasn’t as upset at Pip as I was at the idiotic Pegasus lying on the welcome mat before me. My gut just told me he was dragged along for one of Featherweight’s schemes.

The two of them shook the snow off of their coats on my porch, as I had instructed them too. I didn’t want to get my floor all wet after all. And it wasn’t until after Pip had shaken off all the snow on his back, that I noticed the large grey lump on his back.

“Achoo!” The grey lump sneezed. Wait, what?

“Oh yes, I forgot to mention… Silver Spoon is here too.” Pip informed me, as if he knew what I was thinking.

Silver climbed off of Pip’s back and bowed, “We’re sorry for coming invited Apollo. It was in good intentions... Kind of.” She explained.

I let out a great sigh, and ran my hoof down my face, “Fine. You can stay for the night.” A part of me wishes they weren’t here, so that I could spend more alone time with Shika. And another part of me was grateful that they were here, so that I could keep myself from accidently doing something inappropriate, or even illegal.

“You two (2) are off the hook. Mainly because Featherweight dragged you along.” I looked at Pip and Silver.

“But you on the other hoof.” My head slowly turned to Featherweight.

The scrawny Pegasus tried to frantically apologize, “I know! I’m sorry!” He repeated, and I eventually let him off the hook. With a warning.

We trotted back into the living room. Shika was still in the same spot, but her coffee mug was empty. She looked at the crowd of people following me, and tilted her head.

“Uh, so my friends… Got lost in the blizzard, and now they’re crashing here until tomorrow. This is Featherweight. And you already know Pip and Silver.”

”Hiya! How’s it goin?” Featherweight attempted to greet her. She just gave him a blank and emotionless stare.

“Hello. It’s nice to see you again.” Pip followed, and then Silver after, “Hi! We’re uh… From the same class. If you didn’t already know.”

She smiled at the two, and then gave them a small wave of her hoof. In my head I was laughing, Featherweight wasn’t exactly the best at making first impressions.

“Why don’t you all have a seat, get to know each other… I guess. I’ll brew some more coffee.” I said, as I trotted back into the kitchen.

“I’ll help.” Silver volunteered, as she walked alongside me.

The grey earthpony was most helpful. In fact, she did most of the work. I decided to let her work, and made small chat with her.

“So how’d you get caught up in Featherweight’s little plan?” I asked.

Her hooves worked swiftly and smoothly, “Well, Diamond said she wasn’t feeling well. So I was stuck at the restaurant alone, until I saw Featherweight in the window. He waved to me asked if I wanted to come with him to see you.” She giggled, and then blushed.

“You’re blushing. I’m guessing it’s something to do with Feather huh?”

“Well, I’m not going to deny that we were close back then. But I was just thinking of how many ponies were staring at him because he was shouting from outside to a filly inside a restaurant. He made a fool of himself… Just for me.”

“And what’s with you two being distant lately? I mean, even I can tell you two (2) would be a cute couple.”

She lightly punched my neck as she laughed, “Haha, nice try. But… I think I have feelings... For another…”

“It’s not me I hope.”

“Shut up.” She said, as she punched me again. But this time, the punch was harder.

“Playing hard to get I see.”

“Hah, you may have normal fillies falling for you left and right. But I’m not a normal filly.”

“Well that’s pretty clear. After all, you did fall for Feath—“

*STOMP*

Silver had slammed her right forehoof onto my left backhoof. I cringed, and gritted my teeth, not wanting to make a scene. She trotted past me, with a tray of mugs on her back.

“That’ll teach you.”

I chuckled, and then limped after her.

“Here you go!” She exclaimed, as she placed the tray on my glass coffee table.

It seemed like Pip was getting on well with Shika, while Featherweight was still trying too hard. Each pony took a mug from the tray, including myself. We sipped our drinks, while Featherweight told absurd and farfetched stories.

“Have you guys ever wondered if we’re just characters in some story? Not like spiritually or anything. But what if our actions and thoughts are controlled by an author somewhere?” Featherweight asked.

I replied, “You mean like a God? If it’s an author you’re talking about, then I’ve got a pretty messed up one.”

“Hah, I feel like my author would be somepony who loves adventure. I’ve sure had my share of excitement.” Pip joined in.

Silver followed, “My author probably just wants to set me up with somepony who’s totally not my type, just to shock his readers.”

“I kind of want to hurt this guy now. Making me sound like… A pervert…” I whispered to myself near the end of my sentence.

Featherweight continued, “Oh, and did you hear about these things called… Oh what were they called? Tch… Uhh, Ah! Homans! I think that’s what they were called.”

“Alright. Where exactly did you hear about this?” Pip asked in a serious tone.

“It’s not just a rumor. But some ponies have actually seen them!” Feather exclaimed again.

“Oh yeah? In Ponyville?” Silver asked jokingly.

“Nope. In… Another world!”

Everypony almost dropped their drinks. And those who didn’t sighed. I joined in. After all, who would believe in that nonsense?  Well it looked like Shika was interested, regardless of her silence. Her eyes sparkled; she seemed so fascinated with the scrawny pony’s stories. I was glad that she was enjoying herself; I wasn’t doing a very good job of entertaining her before these three (3) arrived.

"In another world? Do you really believe that?" I asked.

He nodded with a stern look on his face.

I sighed, before taking another sip of my drink.

Time passed on again, as snow and frost began to form around the windows. The howling of the blizzard outside added to the feeling of absolute cold around my body. Five (5) of us chattered on and on around the small glass coffee table in the middle of the living room. Eventually, the clock on my wall struck twelve (12) and a strong bell rang and echoed throughout the house.

Silver yawned and stretched her four legs out, "Maybe we should hit the hay now. It's getting late."

"One problem though." I said, "There's only one bed in this whole house, and it's mine."

"That's no big deal. Shika and I can sleep in the your bed. You three (3) can share the couch." Silver giggled.

"Uh, how about no? I'd rather sleep in the bathtub." I replied sarcastically.

"Ditto. Pip can have the couch. I'll just curl up near the fireplace or something." Featherweight agreed.

Shika stuttered, and tried to interrupt us, "U-Um... What do you mean by 'we'll be sleeping in his bed'?"

"Well we can't have a girl sleeping anywhere else, now can we?" Silver raised her chest up high like some sort of inspirational speaker.

"I-I... Um... Alright then..." Shika whimpered.

Pip sat silently on the couch, with small grin on his face while drinking his coffee. The two fillies trotted off to my room at the end of the hall, while the other two colts and I stayed in the living room.

When we finally heard the sound of my bedroom door closing, we immediately huddled around the glass coffee table.

"So how are we gonna spy on them?" Featherweight asked.

"That's what this meeting is? I was just wondering if you guys wanted to watch a movie or something." I replied.

Pip followed in the conversation, "I just came to get my mug."

"Popo! You have two (2) perfectly fine fillies sleeping in your bed. Now what are you gonna do about it?" The scrawny pegasus asked.

I answered, "Uh, let them sleep peacefully?"

"Wrong." He replied.

"I'll just put this in the sink." Pip said, as he took his leave.

"It's tradition for teenage colts to spy on teenage fillies while they sleep!"

"That is beyond creepy Feather. I've never even heard of a tradition like that." I replied by pushing his face away from mine.

"Are you serious? That's like... The most popular tradition among teenage ponies these days!"

"Since when do teenage ponies ever have a situation like this in their own homes?"

"What do you mean?" Featherweight asked, as he stared at the ceiling.

I explained, "There are three (3) colts and two (2) fillies sleeping under the same roof without any adult pony supervision. That's not something that happens very often among students like us."

"Apollo is right." Pip trotted back into the living room, "Spying on sleeping girls would be dishonest and shameful."

Featherweight began to growl, "Grr... Always playing the nice guy huh?"

"Hm? What was that?" I asked, but I already knew what he was snarling about. He was always the type to easily become jealous.

"Nothing." He snapped silently, and then trotted over to sit on the windowsill.

Pip and I looked at each other, and shrugged. The spotted earth pony lazily flopped onto the couch, leaving me with the rug near the fireplace. To be honest, I preferred the rug more than the couch, after all there was more room to move around. Pip once explained to me about how he one day woke up on a couch-like chair in Principle Alex's house, and it was the most comfortable sleep he had ever experienced. That's another reason why I let him sleep on the couch.

Featherweight had fallen asleep on the windowsill, Pip was letting out snores that were barely noticeable, and I was stoking the small fire in the fireplace with a metal poker. The fire grew larger and larger, until the sparks were inches away from my face. The roaring flame cracked and snapped fiercely underneath the marble mantlepiece.

Even though I was against anything perverted that Featherweight tried to force into my mind, tonight I couldn't stop thinking about what he said. Some part of me wanted to go along with his plan, to spy on the fillies in my bedroom. But I just couldn't bring myself to stoop so low. The fire began to die ever so slowly, and the fire pit eventually filled up with ash, nothing else but ash. It seemed like the world had gone into complete silence aside from the sounds in my living room.

I tried to fall asleep on the rug, but the howling blizzard outside kept me from doing so. The ticking of the clock was the only sound in the room aside from the hail clashing on the window. But then, as I faced the ceiling on my back, I noticed something odd. The sound of hail pelting on the window was quite loud, too loud. It sounded almost like... Knocking.

Rolling on my side, I tried to get up, but I stopped. What I saw made me freeze in my tracks, and stop moving completely.

A figure stood in the window.