Sugary Sweet Winds
The wind currents blowing between the two towns of Canyon Run and Ponyville cooled the air of the warm morning, providing two Pegasi with a comforting flight path to the latter town. Both late-risers drifted drowsily on the winds of the early morning, yawning along the way. Neither had anything to say to the other, for they were caught up in their own thoughts. The older Pegasus thought over what tricks he would show off to the ponies of Ponyville. His brother simply ran over calculations for new ways to break vortex barriers by using applied physics. It was only their second trip to the rural town, and they would have gotten lost if not for the simple directions of flying east to get there.
"Man, why do we have to go get Sprinkle from her slumber party?" whined Gale over the wind.
"Because, my brother, Cloud has moved out of Canyon Run and since Sprinkle still lives within Canyon Run, we must be responsible siblings and return her home while mother works", Gust explained haughtily.
"I know that, know it all! But why so early!?"
"You were the one who wanted to arrive early so we could demonstrate to Ponyville's Pegasi and I quote 'our awesome moves and stuff'."
Gale clammed up. Arguing with Gust was sort of like what his brother always said about the laws of motion: for every complaint, there was an equal and opposite retort. Succumbing to Gust's superior debating skills, no matter how many times, never once taught Gale a lesson. In a few hours there would be another opportunity to learn one. They continued east until mountains grew out of the ground, shrinking the perspective of the two colts down to miniscule sizes. It wasn't much longer before the snowcapped summits gave way to a large sheltering Ponyville from the outside plains.
The flight path the twins took arched downwards to the center. Upon breaking the tropopause, they spiraled around the other, creating a cone shaped vortex that propelled them into near transonic speeds. Gale pulled forward inverted then let his momentum fall into free spinning backflips. Gust shot forward, put himself in Gale's trajectory, and, when his brother was in range, grabbed the lighter blue pony. Together they spun down to the ground, stopped just before face planting, and shot back up with an explosive tailwind that kicked dust up higher than the rooftops.
Gale looked around. "Where's our cheers?"
"Probably still asleep in their homes." Gust rolled his eyes. "As I had told you they would be."
"Ugh, whatever", he snapped. "Let's just get to Cloud's. He'll tell us where Sprinkle is."
"A detail told to us by our mother." Gust started in the opposite direction. "She is, if I remember correctly, sleeping in the barn of Sweet Apple Acres with her friends."
"Then let's get going!" Gale rushed to take the lead. "Where is it?"
"East from here. I'm sure a large orchard of apple trees will indicate whether or not we've gone far enough."
The darker pony rolled his eyes. Here he was yet again in his brother's shadow. If he loved the attention as much as his twin, Gust might have had a problem being in the dark. It was a good thing—probably for everypony—that he preferred the atmosphere of a quiet laboratory than the earsplitting screams of fillies shouting his name. The only time he ever enjoyed an audience was when he ever got to show off his knowledge of applied physics. He smiled in remembrance of the first time he ever introduced no-fuse fireworks. That was a time he would never forget accidentally setting his tail on fire. The memories lead him back to some of his recent and current projects. To allow his mind to focus less on flying and more on his formulas, he slowly drifted to the ground. Gust's senses hollowed to the point of blocking out reality altogether. As a result, Gale and his simple mind didn't notice leaving him behind.
Gust's body moved on its own while he made himself comfortable in the confines of his head. With each step farther into the streets of Ponyville, his attention dulled even more. He soon wandered into the town's sweets district. Passing the area's trademark, Sugarcube Corner, he kept trotting along. The smaller establishments of candies and ice creams had no more effect on him than the first. That was the case, until he discovered that one of the shops was installing an extension, right in his walking path.
CRASH!
Gust tripped head first over a sack of sugar. He kept going until the physics he held so dear made absolutely sure that he effectively destroyed a wooden bucket, sent countless ingredients into the air, and landed square on the pony setting it all up. Shock kept him from fully bringing himself out of his mental science land, so the squirming pony under his back didn't actually get through until he completely processed what had happened. The second everything set in, he rolled over onto his hooves as fast as he could and helped the pony up.
"My apologies", he grunted, lifting more than half of his share of her weight, "I was very absorbed in my thoughts to notice you."
"It'th okay", replied Peppermint Twist, "Nopony got hurt."
The Pegasus looked curiously at the pony he had just accidentally assaulted. She was a young Earth Pony, no older than himself, though maybe a few hairs shorter. Her soft mint coat vibrantly accented her curly scarlet mane and tail while her pink eyes shone deeply behind her violet glasses. Her smile showed signs of healthy dental habits. He felt the muscle in his chest tighten at the sight of her. Only in his physics magazines and news articles did he ever see a girl so intelligent-looking. He extended his hoof out once more, this time in greeting.
"I'm Continental Gust."
Twist happily completed the gesture. "Peppermint Twitht. Are you new in Ponyville?"
He nodded. "Yes, but I haven't moved in. I live in Canyon Run. I'm only here to make sure my sister makes it back home safe with my brother, wherever he might have flown…" One glace around the surrounding destruction forced him to continue. "Would you like help cleaning? It was my fault there is even a mess to clean anyway."
"Sure. I wath only getting ready for today anyway." She stooped to scoop up the candies that had somehow scattered out into a sugary minefield over the street.
Seeing how many there were to pick up, Gust also saw his chance to show off a little. He shot into the air and circled the airspace above the block. Without Gale to assist him, the colt could only manage a very thin tornado. It was a good thing what he had to gather in his funnel cloud were light candies and nothing more. His speed combined with his varying diameters created a vortex just powerful enough to pull all of the round sweets into a single pile in front of the stand he thankfully didn't turn to a pile of splintered wood. When he finished he landed just in time to hear the last of his applause. Twist spun around and looed in his vision as the dizziness reigned in his head. Motion sickness wasn't much of a factor for he was much too excited to pay any mind to anything that wasn't the grateful filly.
"That wath imprethive!"
Gust swept the few candies that escaped the pile back onto their mountainous prison with a few swipes of his tail. "Thank you. I usually cannot produce such a twister without the help of my brother."
Twist hadn't yet returned to collecting the candy. What he did was one of the coolest, and nicest, things she had ever seen. Gust didn't seem to mind cleaning up his mess by himself, and she had the feeling that he may not have let her lend a hoof anyway. The candy was back in its un-shattered jar a few moments later, leaving the two with a silence to share. Twist thought over ways to thank this new Pegasus, and found one when her wandering eyes avoided his face and stopped on a bowl of sample sweets.
Ignoring her sign that asked ponies to take only one, she picked out one each of the multicolored candies and held them out for him. "Thethe are for you! Welcome to Ponyville, Gutht!"
He gladly accepted the candy. The way her lisp punctuated his name rang adorably in his ears a bit. He stored most of the round confectionaries under his left wing, as he wasn't about to leave anytime soon. The one that he left out sported a white stripe running through its translucent sides. He ripped the wrapper from it and placed it on his tongue like he did to savor all new tastes. An electrifying sensation washed over his mouth. He widened his eyes in surprise.
Twist leaned forward. "Do you like it?"
"I've never before tasted a candy so perfect!" He closed his eyes and rose into the air on his hind legs. He got back down and smiled wider than he had ever smiled for anypony. "Did you make them yourself?"
She nodded. "Those are my newest recipe for basic fruit candies."
"Amazing. I suppose that was orange I just tasted? I also noticed hints of cream."
A second nod. "That's right! Usually ponies can't taste everything in my candy."
"You've certainly done your best to create a new taste using the given elements. When I stop giving it my full attention I find that the blend of ingredients are spectacular."
Twist blushed bashfully. "Oh, it can't be that good."
"Modesty shouldn't be a factor here; you deserve every molecule of pride that I know you feel." Gust felt strange for giving away so many compliments, whether he meant them or not. He usually never even noticed other ponies let alone found anything about them to praise. This particular pony was a very rare exception. She appealed to his chemist side like no other pony before her. He was just about to go on when somepony interrupted.
"There you are!" yelled Gale from the sky above. "Why did you bail on me like that!?"
"I—"
"Never mind! I found Sweet Apple Acres, let's get going! Sprinkle's waiting!" Gale didn't let his brother even have a moment to say goodbye to his new friend before dragging him by the tail into the air.
"I'll see you later, Twist!" He managed before losing sight of her. He thought he saw her wave just before clearing the corner of a building, but was more worried about losing the candies she gave him to think too much about it. He gathered them all from under his wing, broke free from his twin, and followed the showoff carefully so as not to drop them. That's when he noticed his brother was shouting at him.
"Hello! Equestria to Gust! Anypony in that big head?!"
"Did you want something?" he snapped.
"I asked who that pony was like a hundred times!"
"A new friend." Gust kept his hooves low to keep the candy from the eyes of Gale.
"Friend? Since when do you care about friends? You don't even hang out with the eggheads at that physics place!"
"None of them are as interesting as Twist." He smiled to himself and added under his breath, "Or as pretty."
Ooh, it looks like the first chapter brings the first crush. I wonder what will happen in the second chapter, or even the third!
Sorry for the delay. It took me forever to get the cover for this story done.
Trivia:
Gale and Gust are two of my longest developed characters appearance-wise. It took me forever to figure out what I wanted them to look like.
I typed almost this whole chapter at my new college between classes. An efficient way to manage time, yes?
