We walked, admittedly slowly, inland. As it got colder we put wings around each other. We arrived at the restaurant shortly after it got dark; it was about 8:00 p.m. We sat at a table outside, I heard the idle chatter of maybe five or six ponies, and it was incredibly quiet for a restaurant. I heard the waitmare come over, she said to us, "Hello, my name is Windy Breeze, I'll be waiting on you tonight, what may I get for you?" She was talking to Wave Pool, I could hear her, and I signed to her by tapping her back hoof with mine under the table, "The waitress is talking to you. She asks what you want. Sign it to me?" "I'll have a water, a daisy burger and a side of clover," she signed to me the same way. This I told to the waitress, saying that I'd be ordering for her because that she's deaf. The waitress apologized for not realizing this, and asked idly how I knew what she wanted. "She's a good friend," I said signing the entire conversation quickly to Wave under the table so she could be in on it also, "And we're signing to each other. I'd like a water also, and I'll have grilled celery stalks with a side of hay fries."
I heard the waitmare brush a few idle strands of her forelock back into her tidy ponytail and walk off, saying back to us, "I'll get your drinks for you." "Thanks," she signed to me. "No problem," I tapped back, putting my elbows on the table and resting my chin on my hooves. I heard Wave do the same. I heard the waitmare approaching our table, and heard the distinctive noise of magic as she set our water glasses beside us. "Your food will be out as soon as it's ready," she said. I signed this to Wave.
"So," I signed to Wave, trying to make conversation, "Could you describe some of your moves to me?" "Can I, yes," she signed back, tapping on my back hoof, "Do I want to, no. I'd rather let you hear them for the first time when we're back in the sea." I smiled, closing my eyes just for the sake of the emotion. I heard her fooling around with her mane, I wondered why she was doing that but then the waitmare came with our food. "Our food's here," I signed to Wave, smiling. "I know," she signed back, "I'm not blind, just deaf." Then she giggled. I heard the waitmare sigh, and then she levitated our plates in front of us.
"Thank you," I told the waitmare, "I'm sorry you can't hear us signing. I told her that our food was here, and she told me, 'I'm not blind, just deaf.' That's what was funny." "Oh…" the waitmare said, smiling, "Well, enjoy your food. Tell me if you need anything." "What'd you tell her?" signed Wave Pool, she was eating her food, and I could hear her. "Just what we said earlier," I signed back, "Is your food all right?" "It's great," she signed back, "Not as great as you, but…" "The flattery is not necessary, but much appreciated," I signed. She giggled. And we continued eating in silence. Well, really we'd been eating in silence the entire time; sign language doesn't make much noise when you do it like this.
We finished our meals, Wave Pool finished first and I finished not long after. The waitmare came by and asked, "Are you done with those, and could I interest either of you in a dessert this evening?" "Absolutely and absolutely," I said, signing for Wave to tell me what she wanted for dessert. She told me we should split a slice of cloud cake, I agreed and told the waitmare that. "What did I just order?" I signed to her. "Cloud cake. It's really good; I had it once when I lived in Cloudsdale. It's made with clouds, they sweeten it and the sugar weighs it down so it stays on the plate. Then they heavily frost it with meringue, that's the best part. The whole cake is REALLY tall, and it's divided by the meringue into six sections, each with a different color of the rainbow," she described to me. "How long does it take to make this stuff?!" I signed back. "About five minutes," she signed back, "But it's literally impossible to not have fresh cloud cake. It goes bad after six hours exactly, the famous baker Pinkie Pie tested it."
The waitmare brought a plate holding a single, ridiculously tall slice of cake on it, and set it in the middle of the table with her magic. "There you go," she said, to which I replied with a thank you. Then I picked up a fork, it had tines that were really close together and were really long, slightly longer than the slice of cake was tall. I felt all of this with my hooves, then let Wave take the first bite. She stuck the fork in the end of the cake and took a really long piece of the cake. I did the same, and we each ate every single color separately. It was light, fluffy and tasted vaguely like marshmallows. "Good?" she signed to me, a plus side of sign language is that it's still understandable when the other pony's mouth is full. I nodded, taking another bite of the cake. I knew which colors were which because that Wave described them to me as we ate in sync. Purple tasted vaguely of grape, blue of blueberry, green of lime, yellow of lemon, orange of, well, orange, and red of strawberry.
We finished the cloud cake incredibly quickly, and when we were done the waitmare brought the check. "Fifteen bits is your total," she said. I signed this to Wave; she placed fifteen bits on the counter. "There you go," she signed to me, which I told the waitmare. Then I signed to ask Wave's permission to sign, she signed that I could and I signed the paper. "You have remarkable hoofwriting for a blind mare," she signed to me as I handed the check back to the waitmare. "Thanks," I signed back.
We walked back to our room, and I walked in. Wave was standing on her back hooves, balancing there with her eyes closed. I walked over on my back hooves, knowing how to do this properly from the four days my left hoof was broken. I tapped on her shoulder, "What are you doing?" "I'm trying to balance," she tapped on my back hoof with her back hoof, "Want to help me? You're better at it than me…" "Of course," I said, smiling. She held my forehooves with hers and wrapped one of her back legs around mine to stabilize herself. Suddenly, she wobbled, and couldn't catch herself with her wings because she was falling forward. She opened her mouth to warn me but fell too fast, I didn't recognize what was happening in time either. She fell over, but I held myself and her up just enough for her to fall forwards onto me without us toppling onto the floor. My eyes as well as hers were still closed, but I felt my muzzle touching… something. It was warm, I knew that much, and although before I had instinctually closed my eyes and ears, I opened my ears again to hear Wave's breath against my face.
She was breathing through her nose, and although I couldn't see I knew exactly what was happening. Wave was kissing me. If this was some sort of weird accident or anything else I didn't know, but soon she started tapping my back leg with hers. "I'm sorry," she tapped, "I fell over. Do you…" I gently shook my head side to side. "No, I don't mind," I tapped back, "I can help you up if you want…" "No," she tapped on my hoof, "You're warm."
We stood there for five minutes, and then she tapped, "We should go to bed." "I can arrange that," I tapped back, flapped my now very muscular wings and lifted both of us onto the soft bed. "Wow," she signed to me, "You're really strong. All that conditioning must have paid off." I nodded gently. I pulled the covers over us with my wing, and we dozed off.