A/N: Alright, next chapter's up.
Next chapter after this, I will officially be going on hiatus. No idea when I will continue writing. But I am suggesting that I will continue after the holidays are over or possibly will continue in February 2017. No idea when honestly.
I say this because I will be getting a job soon, so I won't be here all the time to upload but still try to expect an update then.
Other than that, I actually have managed to figure out two key points for the ending to this story which still won't be for a long time, but I will tell them.
* The second last chapter will be one of the longest chapters that I have ever done. It'll take a couple of months to write out that chapter that I can estimate.
* I have made the decision that the main character Brayden might be killed off at the end of the story. The result if so, will be permanent. Depends on what the other readers think. If they don't like the idea, there still is a possibility that I could make a change unless many of them agree with this idea.
Alright, Review Response Time! (Don't worry reviewerguy and MGSfan, I responded to your reviews.)
chipmunkfanantic: Not yet, but it depends on how much readers like the story.
Dragon slayer: Well, it would be both an effect and after-effect of the spell. I have yet to go into the details of those, so it'll be some time until it happens.
billykilly: You know it. King Sombra will be next to encounter, with more secrets unveiled. It'll be a two-parter, but on the second part he will play a huge role.
Dino fan: There will be a major plot point in that story as it'll involve the Earth's governments reacting to those news that were caught. It still is a possibility but it is still too early, but they will return to Earth in a future chapter as the next destination they go to would be with Celestia meeting with either Russia's leader or the monarchy of the post-Brexit United Kingdom. (The leaders would be fictional.)
Nerd pony: Actually, I plan on seeing that next week.
Evil dead fan: No, he won't. There's not really much of a point, and I don't really think that Legend of Everfree will be canon in the Learning To Live universe.
Raptor trainer: That's actually a hard question. I honestly couldn't answer that.
jvs12: Thank you anyway.
4theworldman: I know, but I hope that the hiatus will give me a bit of a break after the wedding chapter.
Guest (1): I plan on that sometime after an emotional chapter. It'll be the last rewrite of an episode. Season 7 and further will not be canon. If the movie wants to be canon, it'll be done in a separate fanfiction. It also depends on if I loved the movie.
Guest (2): As I said, I have no idea when. For how many chapters there is, I have a chapter plan list that'll usually give away the number.
Steve03: It's why I planned the hiatus. Thank you for the review btw.
mr234scott: The motorcycle Brayden had was a Honda Wave brand.
P.S. I delayed the Fluttershy confession. It'll be in a later chapter instead, but left a hint of it for this chapter.
Today seems to look like a lovely early afternoon outside the clean windows of Fluttershy's peaceful cottage on the hill. The animals are very much having their lunch that were being fed to them of various small treats like acorns and nuts as well as birdseed for the birds to fly in and eat from.
I was sitting right there at the end of the couch by the closed window, looking out towards the beautiful scenery provided always by Equestria as the morning was slowly transitioning into the time of day, the sun making its direction slowly towards the west by the magic of Celestia herself. Though the sun is out, it emits a warm glow through the windows as it is the feeling that it is still in the middle of spring, but with summer growing near. The trees and grass on the trails and fields remain green while I caught a few of the pegasi in flight in the skies of Equestria and a few citizens of Ponyville taking a calm trot through the road.
Next room in the kitchen, I can hear the sounds in there of the pantry opening up with the accompanied sounds of silverware clanging a bit along with the plates that seem to have already been packed up beforehoof. The smell alone from the kitchen is like food has already been prepared early after having had breakfast.
Fluttershy was in the kitchen, as she was packing up a picnic basket for something both me and her are going to do today that I haven't done with my closest friend yet: going on a picnic with her outdoors. As I usually knew her, whenever she has picnics it would be with her animal friends, plus she can't forget about Angel her bunny rabbit. Harry the Bear usually is there as well to watch over the picnic and scare anything that essentially wasn't spelling out as the word 'friend'.
Her animals unfortunately are not going to be able to come with us. Why, you might be asking? Well I did say that she hasn't had a picnic with me before, so being that this is a first time for me and her to do an activity like this; this will give me some time away from Twilight and to spend time with Fluttershy as I haven't taken the time to hang out with her for a while.
So yes, what else has been happening in the wide world of Equestria with you Brayden? You're probably asking yourself that right now. A lot of things are going on, but starting with the upcoming: My wedding with Twilight is in a few days, and while I am feeling a bit nervous, I am ready to take the next step in my life to live with her and love her for the rest of my life, while keeping all of my other loves there. She doesn't mind that.
Ann, Alex and Andrea also have been doing really well since they first arrived in Ponyville. Everypony seemed really eager and happy to meet them, but I was already sure that Lyra went crazy as soon as she saw other humans like me, though I have kind of evolved a bit from that.
For what has happened since we came back from Earth; Rainbow Dash had gone to a Daring Do convention which I know Twilight was jealous about since she also reads the books. Something about a fan she met there called Quibble Pants and tensions arising, even with Daring to come and save the day from Dr. Caballeron who is a rival with Daring Do.
Other things that went on in the town of Ponyville was the Applewood Derby for the school to participate in and some things went wrong for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, as their older sisters wouldn't make things the way they wanted them done. Plus with that, Rainbow Dash was going on a pranking spree and the whole town decided to prank her right back with some sort of zombie apocalypse just because Rainbow switched the real cookies with joke cookies that turned their mouths rainbow-ish.
For one more: while I was out in Canterlot visiting Minuette and her friends; Twilight, Spike and Starlight made a trip to the Crystal Empire to pay a visit with Cadence, Shining Armor, Sunburst and Flurry Heart. Something apparently went up there, and Spike mentioned to me on the way back that he made a new friend there named Thorax. An interesting name... he didn't really specify much on whether Thorax was an Earth pony, pegasus, unicorn or Crystal pony for that matter, but when I visit the Crystal Empire again I'll have to make sure that I meet this Thorax and introduce myself to him.
Just earlier today, a very young griffon was at Fluttershy's doorstep today knocking and practically waking me up from sleep. I answered the door to keep Flutters from getting stressed about it and was greeted by her, being in a color of arctic bluish gray and her eyes being the color of moderate turquoise. She was wondering where the Cutie Mark Crusaders' HQ was apparently because she surprisingly... wants a cutie mark? Not really something a griffon would get as only ponies are able to achieve that from a specific special talent. I told her where it would be near Sweet Apple Acres, and she seemed really excited to meet them. Her name was... Gabby? I'm not sure, but she's surprisingly that young. Sped off before I had a chance to ask her anything else.
The sound of hooves brought me out from my thoughts, snapping me back into reality. As it was only Fluttershy in the cottage with me besides her animals eating and chittering away, my eyes turn from the window and can see her trotting into the living room, a picnic basket held in her mouth as her cyan eyes are looking at me.
She places it down onto the wooden floor, blinking once for a moment. "Everything is packed for the picnic and ready to go." She informs me, petting Angel who was next to her.
My eyes catch the small bunny rabbit hopping right over towards the carrot on the ground that Flutters has left for him earlier while I am talking with her. "I'm hoping that you are bringing along the chocolate chip cookies for this picnic. It's good to just get out there and away from the public eye to catch up on stuff."
"I brought them along, and they're all baked fresh since yesterday," She says to me. "Mrs. Cake had them at the Sugarcube Corner all ready to go for some customers. I just had to buy them; well because knowing you... even Pinkie has told me about your sweet tooth."
"Well, she knows how to read my mind, so at that point: yes, I do have quite a tendency for that." I responded to her with a bit of a smile on my face.
She giggles. "That's Pinkie Pie for you. I'll never really get how she is able to do these kinds of things even when she was mentioning something about a fourth wall. I don't even know exactly what this is unless she means that there is four walls in the room."
"I mean you mean the term 'breaking the fourth wall'."
"Sorry Brayden, but I don't really understand those kinds of physics. I'm an... you know." She tells me, a little confused especially by the look on her face.
"You take care of your friends, the animals. Been living at your cottage for possibly a long time now, and your animals are quite the friendliest bunch that I've met." A carrot is thrown at my head, its orange end with the green bush at the end nearly hitting me in the eye, but missing by above it. "Ow! I completely forgot about Angel there!"
"Angel!" Fluttershy scolds her pet bunny who was snickering from the trouble-making that he was trying his damn best to piss me off for the entire day. In all honesty, I'm just thankful that she is right there in the room to teach him a bit of a lesson on throwing stuff. I mean, he's even thrown Fluttershy out of the cottage once... ONCE! All over a special dessert he wanted her to make him. "No throwing things or food at anypony!"
All the little bunny rabbit can do is pout with a mute grumble with crossing his two front paws together with glare. I can't really read what is going on in his head since I don't understand animal thoughts, but I'm pretty sure that he's calling her quite a spoilsport for ruining his fun.
"Sorry about that... you know Angel..." She says to me, her tone sounding a little bad about that. "Are you hurt?"
"No, not at all," I said to her, gently rubbing the bump above my right eye with my hand. Doesn't even hurt by that much. "Little bunny knows how to toss something though. Just a bump there... nothing to worry about by that much."
She still holds a look of concern. "Okay, I'm just making sure that's all..."
"Well, to get back to our get-together plan of a picnic; whereabouts are you thinking of having our picnic today?" I asked, taking my mind off of what happened.
Fluttershy trots over towards the window by the front door, pulling back the curtain a bit. "Where I plan on us having a picnic together by the cliffside peaks that borders between the Everfree Forest and the valleys. It's a fantastic view to watch the stream there from above the cliffside." She tells me. "And not to mention, you've got a view from below the clouds surrounding the Wonderbolt Academy above."
I nod my head in understanding. "It sounds like it'd be quite the view then, hm?"
"Of course Brayden," Her cyan eyes look back at me after having looked outside in the distance from her cottage. "Sometimes when you look up at the clouds, you can see a few of the Wonderbolts doing their usual routine of practice for their shows."
"...I'm pretty sure that it'll be something that Rainbow Dash is more interested in. Not really a huge fan of the Wonderbolts, though I do have to admit that they have saved the day a couple of times."
"No worries, I won't judge your opinion," She assured me. "Though Rainbow might be a little disappointed, it shouldn't really affect anything in your friendship with her."
"Hell, I still have to 'chillax' with her that she still has been eager to do."
She gasped for a moment upon hearing me swear, but I'm pretty sure she needed to keep calm about this but with a bit of a warning. "Um, could you watch your language next time?" She said, a bit quietly.
"Sorry about that."
"It's okay. It's just that... you don't normally do that, and even that is forbidden in Equestria to curse." She tells me, trotting back over towards the picnic basket she has placed down. "Why don't you go and brush your teeth before we get going on the picnic?"
I nod to her request and get up onto my two feet. Fluttershy waits for me while I head upstairs to do my business in regards with my teeth keeping its hygiene. Minuette is expecting to give me another visit to see her at the dental office, and the last thing that I want is to have more cavities or worse, a root canal.
Another good excuse to be in the washroom to do that is also doing my business, as I might as well get that over with.
So yes as you probably know by now, I do my business and make sure to brush my teeth in the proper way that others have taught me since being young. She does make a point after all, and it isn't worth the risk of getting a cavity. Also had to make sure to gargle with some mouthwash, so I should be hopefully be fine if I do this every day until I have another appointment at the dental office. Should a teeth cleaning by then should this go well.
After having finished in the bathroom, I turn and leave out of the room, walking down the steps to the main floor once again. There she is, trotting towards the front door and opening it up to step outside and hold the door open for me. Considering how many times that I've opened and held the door for her, I guess she wants to share a bit of that kind of generosity that I normally show.
"Thank you Fluttershy." I said to her once I was off the stairs and with approach to the front door when she was standing there on the right.
She nods to me in a response of telling me that I'm welcome, putting down the basket for a moment when Angel hops over towards the front door's open arch as if waiting for something to be told to him.
"Awww, I know that you really want to come Angel, but this is a time for both me and Brayden," She tells him, the little bunny rabbit looking a bit disappointed when she informs him of that. "But don't worry, I'm sure that I will arrange another picnic with the rest of our animal friends. Just... be sure to watch over the cottage while I'm gone."
Angel makes an army-like salute and hops right back into the cottage, closing the door behind both Fluttershy and I.
The smell of fresh air was pretty much everywhere, a few clouds roaming about in the blue above. A couple of birds fly about, landing onto the tree branches or continuing on to look for food to eat in vast fields looking for the worms close by the lake. The other few animals were roaming in the hunt for the food they needed for their younglings.
I can hear the sound of Fluttershy's wings opening up and flapping to lift her up off of the ground and into the air. Her cyan eyes look at me, watching to make sure that I will be able to move off from the ground and fly alongside her.
I can feel the wings on my back opening up and I knew I had to concentrate and not think of anything else in order to take flight off from the ground. Don't think of anything, let the wings flap and lift me up... short bursts of released air are felt behind me as they motion with moving back and forth to give me some spirit to get up off the dirt trail with the closed cottage door behind me.
My bare feet lift off from the dirt below and I begin flight upwards to join along Fluttershy in flight towards the valleys and the border to the Everfree Forest. My eyes turn to look at her for a moment, seeing that she is sharing a gentle warm smile at me before focusing on the air path ahead of us to see where our picnic stop would be.
I'm pretty sure that it must be a Saturday because down below on the trail, I could catch the glimpses of young fillies and foals galloping along the road knowing that they didn't have school that day with Cheerilee. Probably getting together with their other friends to participate in general outdoor activities or go out to Sugarcube Corner to grab a snack to have and share with others.
"The weather really isn't too bad today, it doesn't rain until later in the evening so we should be fine," Fluttershy tells me. "It'd just be terrible if it started to rain on us early by chance."
My brown eyes turn to look at her in the conversation. "We'd probably picnic indoors with your other animal friends then, if it was going to pour earlier today. Being back home now, I am doing my best to get used to the weather patterns here made by the weather ponies in Cloudsdale."
"Thunder and lightning are absolutely the worst when it comes to my stance on weather. It scares both me and my animals who reside in the cottage, aside from you."
"Well, at least you know who to come to when you are feeling that frightened." I said to her, my wings flapping behind me as I am next to her.
Her mouth unveils a sweet innocent smile on her lips. "That's true, and I've asked from that only one time when the weather outside was that bad," She takes in a quiet breath before continuing to speak. "Even when scared, it was just me and the rest of the animals before I found you lying on the floor of the Everfree. Back then, it was only Discord on his visits who was there to keep me calm."
"All I can clearly say is that you now have two friends who are there for you in case of something like that."
She looks a little tense and a bit nervous in the tone of her voice. "I know... but I worry about what'll happen after you marry Twilight. Because you'll be living with her by the time after, and when you and her are living at the castle... I don't really know..."
"You're nervous about Discord being the only one to keep you comfortable when the weather is that bad or if you're frightened about different things?" I guessed as I talked with her, placing my right hand onto her left front hoof to assure her. "You shouldn't worry. I'll be there when you need me. Even when I'm not there, try to think as if I was still living in the same room at the cottage."
"Thinking about you being there can be hard though." She tells me.
I chuckled at my small mistake. "I know... but sometimes I cannot always be there. But by all means if it is based on desperation, I'll be there."
"I sure hope so. I'm hoping that your marriage with Twilight won't affect any of our get-togethers."
"It shouldn't," I said to her. "Though I am pretty sure that once I marry her, she'll expect me to go and get a job."
Her left front hoof rubs the top of my right hand softly. "A job really isn't that bad. I'm pretty sure that I told you about what happened when my brother Zephyr Breeze was in Ponyville."
"Of course. How can I forget? I could practically hear him downstairs talking with you when I was preparing to go to visit Sonata at the Sugarcube Corner."
"He's learned a lot more since then," She continues. "I was trying to get him to do at least three different jobs that would be simple and easy for him. All of that time, he would just slack off and do his own thing. Poor Spike, he ended up doing all the work when he should have been doing it."
"I don't blame Spike at all for going through all of that stress. I only ever saw him as he was storming out from the cottage, and he surprisingly never noticed me watching at the window. Had a bad mane-cut though when he was leaving to go live in the Everfree Forest."
"Rainbow Dash shocked him with a lightning bolt from a cloud because he failed to do a job so simple."
"That must have been painful, so I know how it feels about getting zapped." I commented to her.
Fluttershy sighs in a bit of relief. "Well, he has changed a lot after his graduation in regards to his mane-styling degree."
On the ground that are many feet below, my eyes can briefly catch the grass below transitioning above into a dirt ground along with a dip downwards towards the gorge below with a small stream flowing along in the river of blue. Upwards, I can catch a mountainside cliff around the body that reached upward into the clouds above. The Everfree Forest and valleys of Equestria border alongside one another. Had the Everfree been more extended, it'd be a bit of a danger to Ponyville considering the timberwolves and other dangers that lurk in there.
"An interesting sight ahead and below. I never knew that even along the borders of the valleys and the forest, it'd be this beautiful by the mountain." I commented as my wings continue to flap in still flight.
Fluttershy begins her slow descent towards the cliffsides. "The sight will be much better as soon as we land." Her soft-spoken voice calls out to me when she heads down towards one of them that looks okay to land on.
I follow right behind her, watching as she sets her hooves onto the soil and those wings closing up and settling as she used her teeth to grip onto the basket her hooves had been holding for the flight there.
She sets the basket down on the ground as I am landing, my wings closing afterwards and to admit they do feel a bit tired. Perhaps if I train more with Rainbow Dash in the future, she'll have to teach me a little bit on wing endurance and how to have them go on for longer without exhausting them within minutes.
Fluttershy grips onto the red and white checkered picnic blanket with her teeth, pulling it out and setting it flat onto the surface. Only a few wrinkles, but it's been used many times before when she was with her animals or the rest of our best friends.
My eyes perched out towards the view for brief moments while I am helping out Fluttershy with getting out the plates. The sight of seeing Equestria this high up was different from riding the Friendship Express to Canterlot or anywhere else. It almost looks like I can see rest of the Everfree Forest's expansion from this high up. Only a shadow of the Castle of the Two Sisters could be seen from there but a bit far... haven't been there for a long while after the Lord Tirek incident.
"There we go, set it up just right," Fluttershy says to me with a small sigh of relief. "I've packed a couple of things that we could enjoy while we talk to one another. There's apples, daffodil sandwiches, garlic bread-rolls which I know is one of your favorites, a salad that I normally make even for the animals when you're not around and a couple of cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner."
"What about for drinks because neither of us want to get dehydrated." I asked her.
Fluttershy's wing reached into the basket and brought out some of them. Her left wing passed a familiar bottle of apple juice to her other wing that offers it to me. "Your favorite kind of drink. Applejack knows you too well." She says to me with a giggle following afterwards.
"Who would have guessed?" I chuckle to myself as I took it from her wing to open it up with my right hand on the lid, my left holding the bottle.
She reached into the picnic basket afterwards and got herself one that contained just your usual regular water. A garlic bread-roll or two was put out onto the both mine and her plate, with a daffodil sandwich and six apple slices that I am pretty sure are what she meant by apples on my plate. For her plate, she selected on having the salad with nuts and small berry varieties included in the wooden bowl.
"Looks like you did some good time in preparing these well," I said to her, my hands putting the bottle of apple juice carefully in balance and picking up the sandwich on my plate. "I haven't tried the taste of daffodil sandwich before but this should be a new kind of experience to open up my taste buds."
Fluttershy finishes taking a sip of water and speaks to me after gulping it down. "It's one of Equestria's traditional recipes. Go on ahead and give it a try." She had suggested.
I brought the sandwich closer to me and open my mouth, taking a bite out from the sandwich. By the taste that my tongue was the first to catch onto, I could tell that the sense could feel that it has silky touch based on the pedals as my teeth begin chewing them up. A couple of munching on that bite and I eventually swallow it down.
She was pretty much right there, this does taste pretty good.
"Mmmm..." I commented as I reach and eat an apple slice that was off of the silver plate. My eyes caught the smile that Fluttershy had on her face before turning to her salad that she was eating. I can hear the sound of her crunching as it was the mixture of nuts and leaves mixed together when I trace back to the sandwich I am eating.
All is silent between the two of us as we eat lunch and stare off at the view of central Equestria and its wonders. A few mountain birds like the Gray Jay, the white-tailed Ptarmigan and the Dusky Grouse could be seen flying along, tweeting songs among themselves. If I know my close friend, she probably understands what they are singing about. Two Gray Jays fly in a spiraling order before descending to a spot on the pine trees that the mountain allows them to grow.
I ate a bit of my bread-roll as I slowly make progress with the daffodil sandwich on my plate. Might as well take as much time as I need. A few of the apple slices on my plate have already been consumed while listening to the sounds of nature along with the occasional sound of Wonderbolts in flight above could be heard. Practically two apple slices there to deal with.
Fluttershy is slightly above on my progress for lunch, as she's already finished the apple slices and with a small bit of the bread-roll left. The salad she has is only half-way done, but I am sure that she is patient enough to understand that I could take a bit of time if necessary. She knows this because I've had to tell her ahead of time what my favorite foods were when I first came to Equestria.
"So..." She is the first to speak to me after that bit of silence.
"So?" I asked, finished swallowing a piece of the daffodil sandwich and turning to look at her.
Her cyan eyes are looking right at my brown eyes, and she brings her soft right front hoof towards my left hand, placing it on top of it and giving it gentle strokes. "Aside from my silly fears I told you about, are you ready for your wedding with Twilight?" She asked me.
The thought of her comes back to mind along with the bonding that I would be making with her. "Yeah, I am," I said to her. "I only feel a bit nervous as I fear that the wedding might turn out bad for the both of us."
"What do you mean Brayden?" She asks me. She doesn't sound concerned by the tone of her soft-spoken voice, but just curiosity on why I would be thinking like that.
I gulped for a moment. "Well, if I remember about what happened with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence's wedding, I can't help myself but give myself some fear that Queen Chrysalis would try to take over Equestria again the same way she did with theirs."
"Now Brayden... you know that wouldn't happen after her second defeat." Fluttershy says to me, still rubbing the top of my left hand with her hoof to keep me calm as even the thoughts of the Changeling queen made me shudder. "With the security against the changelings, there's no way that any of them would get into Equestria again."
"You do make a point there, but I am also scared inside that I might mess up during the ceremony. Then that entire thing would've been a complete waste." I frown a bit with disappointment inside as I responded to her.
She is calm as she listened to me. "Well, you don't need to be nervous about it. That's why you asked me to be there for you before you walk up to the alter. I'll be right there with you so you have a best mare there with you to ease the situation."
"Thanks, but no thanks Flutters. Twilight's already got the stallion of honor there to help her out as well, her brother Shining Armor," I told her as she looked only a little bit disappointed. I brought my left hand off of the mat and placed it onto her right cheek. "But hey, you'll be with the bridesmaids as you did a great job in that role at Cadence and Shining's wedding."
"Oh, thanks..." She said to me, her cheeks lighting up and that cute smile of hers appearing on her lips. "I- I'm not sure who else will be with me for the role as well?"
I thought about it for a moment, recalling who else has come to me with hopes of playing a role in the wedding, considering this kind of would be a historical moment in the history of all Equestria. "Well, for the other bridesmaids; Rarity, Pinkie and Lyra will be there alongside with you, so you should be fine. I've yet to select my usher, but I'm trying to decide if the role should go to either Spike or Big Macintosh."
"And I know Applejack and Minuette are going to be Twilight's Pages to carry the train on her wedding dress. The rest are yet to be announced or seen at the wedding, but if I am aware I guess either Celestia or Mayor Mare would probably be the one to speak for you at the altar."
I take my left hand off of her cheek to take hold of the sandwich and take a bite from it before continuing. "Depends on if the ceremony is taking place in Ponyville or Canterlot, but until then I have yet to find that out tomorrow evening from the coordinators."
She blinks her eyes. "It'd be quite the surprise if it was in Canterlot, but your mother knows you're probably a person who prefers the home-side, so the most likely will be Ponyville."
"Plus, if possible I'd probably have it private as possible with a couple of select guests like Twilight's parents, our friends from Canterlot, Coco Pommel if she isn't too busy with her job in Manehattan, the Cutie Mark Crusaders as I'll be tasking them as flower girls... or fillies you could say," I had to get down on the basics on invitations as well as some special ones I've befriended since I came here. "Sonata Dusk is a definite yes as she'll be very happy to be tasked with the wedding cake for her and Mrs. Cake to work on. Alex and Andrea are also in, haven't heard what Ann said yet as she was busy with Lemon Hearts, but I have yet to hear from her soon. Maud Pie is invited onto the guest list because Pinkie begged me to, and it's hard to resist her. There's more, but I can't really get out all of the other names that are invited."
"I'm sure that you'll have all of those in line when you give them to Derpy for delivery. You don't have anything to worry about by then." She assures me, having finished take a bite of her salad.
"That I really hope for."
A blue jay comes along from flight and tweeting away to its other friends. It lands on our picnic mat, staring at the both of us. It's eyes look at me first before tweeting at me.
I can't really understand what the tweets even mean as I'm no animal expert like Fluttershy is, but I'm pretty sure that she would have an idea on what it could be telling me. A giggle from her was heard beside me.
"Mr. Blue Jay there is tweeting that you have really nice wings." She tells me to translate the tweet for me.
"Uhh... well thank you." I responded to the bird.
The bird tweets again a few times to let Fluttershy translate that. "He says that you're welcome, and it's probably the first time that this bird has seen you in Equestria."
"The wonders of nature..." I stated with a smile on my face as the bird hops off from the picnic mat and spreads into flight. My brown eyes watch as it flaps its wings and soars off with the rest of his other bird friends to look for worms or birdfeed to eat when it wasn't tweeting along with others.
"You should really consider going on nature walks with me," Fluttershy suggested to me when I turn back to look at her. "It'd be a great way of giving you a bit of exercise in the future, and always something to do when spending some time together if you're feeling down or a bit stressed from anything."
"Who doesn't like a good nature walk every once in a while?" I responded to her, picking up the last of my food. "When I still lived on Earth, I would go outside on the trail when it was still there, put my earphones on and listen to music. Quite a beautiful sight even if my taste in music is different from yours or anypony else."
"What happened to the trail?" She asked.
"With the unfortunate times that were going on there, people there thought of using it for extracting oil there and ended up destroying the environment there," She gasped with an almost silent shock as I was telling her this. "So many small animals living in the forest lost their lives because of this and despite the protests, they went on with it anyway regardless."
"Those poor things!" She says in a saddened post-shock. "How could those people be so cruel to do that?"
I exhaled a sigh before continuing. "Unfortunate times are changing upon the Earth... most people are filled with greed in their hearts to be rich among all people. That's the curse of humans, in order to achieve their passion they have to destroy to get it. It's all in their blood."
"So that's why the footage that was shown to us when I with the rest of our friends were foal-napped... those machines they called them operated by that race of yours to tear down the forests and pollute..."
I finished with the sandwich as I listened to her speak with me, and by the tone in her voice she almost sounds a bit angry. "I hope you're not mad at me..." I spoke to her, sounding a bit quiet.
"Oh Brayden, I'm not angry at you. I've told you this whenever you felt down, I will never raise my voice at you unless necessary. But what'd make things worse in our friendship is if I accidentally used the Stare on you, I'd feel devastated inside," She says to me, understanding the emotion in my voice before getting back on topic. "I'm just a bit angry towards the rest of the race you grew up with. They just think they can take and savage anything they want from those beautiful places."
"Always been a part of history there. One piece of land is owned by someone else, and a couple of others want it for themselves and will do anything even if it means bloodshed or destruction." I said to her.
From the distance, I can hear music begin to start up while Fluttershy gets up onto her four hooves off from the mat and begins to trot forward a couple of steps to the cliff edge to stare out into the lands of Equestria.
The sunlight shines down upon her from there, a couple of birds flying by and descending towards a few of the trees in the valleys and in the Everfree Forest. In the music that I was hearing, I can hear a native flue playing there even as I knew what she was going to do when she stared out into the wide open from here. The wind blowing a bit in her mane to make it flow, she closed her eyes for a moment and silently took in some breath before beginning to sing.
You think you own whatever land you land on
The earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know ev'ry rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sun-sweet berries of the earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we're all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or let the eagle tell you there he's been
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
How high does the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down
Then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or coat-skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountain
Need to paint with all the colors of the wind
You can own the earth and still
All you'll own is earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind
She finished singing as she turns and looks at me from the cliff edge, as she had sung to me. My brown eyes gaze at hers for those couple of moments with even her own eyes blinkinga few times before trotting over towards me once again.
Moving close to me, I brought my right hand forwards to her as she extended her hoof to take and hold onto her hoof as we can't release from the friendly gaze that me and her were sharing together. Her face looks like she wants to ask me a question with hopes that I could be able to answer it.
"I hope that you do understand what I mean..." She says to me, only sounding a bit of woe for her animal and friends in nature.
For those moments, I can only share the same feeling inside that she might be feeling from seeing the images of habitats being destroyed, animals not being protected without them. "Yeah... I do." I responded to her.
She like me cannot remove her gaze off from me. "I want you to make a promise for me," She tells me, knowing her long enough for her to trust me. "Please promise me that even with your role to protect us from dangers that even me or our other friends cannot overpower with the magic of friendship, to keep my animal friends safe from harm. I really REALLY don't want anything bad to happen to them."
"Fluttershy," My hand's fingers gently stroke her soft hoof to keep her calm. "As long as I live, no harm will ever come to your animal friends. Even when the Song of Order was given to me, I swore upon myself and the blade that I would protect everypony no matter what came to Equestria for those purposes. When I mean everypony, I also mean your animal friends as I care about the environment and the other animals that live in the habitats they're meant to live in. I will do what I can to help, just as you were there to help me."
The look on her face could tell me that she was happy with the choice that I made, as I am known even in defense to have my peace-keeping motive that way. "Thank you Brayden," She says to me with relief in her voice. "I feel overjoyed inside, knowing that my other friends will be safe. And yes, I am aware of having helped you to be safe, but I don't recall saving you before..."
I scratched the back of my head with my other hand. "You could say that you were helping the others, but you were all part of what assistance they needed. Plus, you gave me this bird whistle on my birthday. I'm sure it will go to good use in the future." I respond to her. "But if one thing mattered most for you to help save my life, it was using your warmth to keep me from freezing."
"Oh that one," She says, her cheeks turning pink again. "You were on the verge of collapse there by the coldest temperatures that were dropping, but I recall that Twilight was lying on top of you to try to get to stir up but she didn't have enough of it. She asked me to try and I thought it wouldn't work, it took only a miracle from there."
"For that, I have to thank you," I said, scooting a bit forward and placing my other hand onto her right cheek. "I know it sounds tiresome to hear, but you've earned it many more times."
Her blushing grew again even when my hand gently stroked my best friend's cheek. "I- umm..." She sounded a bit nervous, unable to take that smile off from her mouth. "T-Thank you as well... f-from me."
"Aw Flutters, you don't have to thank me for anything," I said to her. "It's all on you should anything ever happen to me that you have to step in for."
She felt comfortable in my presence. "Anytime." She stated to me.
Everything became quiet between us aside from the birds' tweeting in the distance and the wind gently blowing. There was that moment again of me and her, just gazing at one another. My heartbeat staring at those beautiful cyan eyes of her, it must have pounded a bit faster or possibly skipped a few beats. I'm not really sure.
Locked in that position there, I can't feel it but I can see myself motioning slowly forward to her as she was doing towards me. My eyes felt a bit like they wanted to close shut the more I was getting towards her. Her eyes look like they are closing shut as well, and once my eyes were shut, I wasn't too sure what to expect next.
WHOOSH!
The sound of the fast pace of wind speeding by caught both me and Flutters off-guard as we opened our eyes to that sound, both myself and her having a change in our color on our cheeks. Hers remains the same pink, but mine felt a bit red. I wasn't feeling at all embarrassed, but more surprised.
I don't really know what was going to happen there just yet there, but I'll find out what went on in that moment later.
I take my hands off from her cheek and hoof. My head turns to the figure that flew right past us and back to us from there. Who would I have guessed there? It's one of the Wonderbolts right there with the traditional eye-wear of theirs. Based on the color of her mane though it's not too hard to figure out who this was.
Her mane was the color of vivid orange with brilliant amber, while her eyes had the color of brilliant orange. Her coat bears the color of what looks to almost resemble the gold tone. She bears a uniform on to look like a superior watching out the other trainees for the Wonderbolt Academy. I pretty much knew at this point, based on the episodes that I've been watching that this was the team leader: Spitfire.
"Sorry to break your attention for both of you, just orders that I've got to inform you both about in regards to the weather changing soon down here." She said, flapping her wings and keeping afloat.
I smiled at her, even if she doesn't even know me yet. "It's going to rain sooner than I thought?" I asked.
"Afraid so. Weather ponies in Cloudsdale have been contacting and coming to me all day every half-hour to discuss that I needed to begin making that move with all of the weather ponies to come in and place the storm clouds in their positions. We've got to loosen the rain after all from the clouds."
"Well, there goes plans for the rest of the day outside." I commented, giving a bit of a shrug.
She nods her head in agreement to my statement. "The clouds are slowly coming in for the rain for the rest of the afternoon, but at least it'll end sometime in the middle of the night as the weather ponies were telling me. Schedules... the weather ponies have got to solve that pronto."
"I'm sure that they will, just give them some time." I said to her.
"Of course," She said to me, pausing for only a moment to take a look at me as it's probably the first time that she's met me face-to-face. "Wait a minute, you look quite familiar... haven't I seen you somewhere before?"
I shook my head and smiled at her in greeting. "I don't believe we have, but one of my best friends named Rainbow Dash says that she knows you apparently."
"Ah, Rainbow's been talking in town. But I kind of figured that she must have mentioned something about you," She says to me, landing onto the soil and extending her hoof to welcome and introduce herself properly to me. "I'm Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts. and you are...? Been a while since she said your name." Guess that was a brainfart there.
"Brayden," I said my name to her. I brought my hand forward, taking it and giving her hoof a good firm hand-hoofshake. "It's good to meet you."
"Good to meet you too... hold on a moment please." She lets go of my hand, gets out her whistle and looks up to the skies with a loud sounding of the whistle. My head turns up to see a few of the trainees watching from above. "All of you! Get back to the training field!" The pegasi who watched us flew up back into the clouds back to the Wonderbolt Academy. Spitfire looks back at me. "Sorry about that, trainees can be hard sometimes to keep in order, plus they need to be back by the training field. Reports on their training status will be given to them by me."
"It's no problem." I said to her, as I understood how it can be stressful to deal with those trying to train in order to achieve their dream.
I can hear hooves trot forward beside me as it is Fluttershy. "Can't you tell the weather ponies to wait on the clouds a bit?" Her soft voice tells her. "Me and Brayden are having a picnic, and I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to do so right now."
"Sorry but I'm not in control of the weather. Tell that to the Cloudsdale workers that make sure that schedule is done." Spitfire says, feeling sorry to disappoint her.
Fluttershy sighed a bit in defeat, knowing that there isn't really a way to stop the weather there. I felt disappointed inside too, as it's been a while that me and her got together to do something. My left hand is placed onto her back.
"I'm sure that there is another alternative to work it out Fluttershy." I said to her.
"I know I don't really want to stay too long, because I think I'm being a bit of a distraction to you both. Plus the trainees could be watching us speak again." Spitfire tells me.
I nod in understanding. "Well you weren't distracting us, as I'm always welcome to meeting a new face that I can befriend."
"It's good to meet you too. When Rainbow comes along for practice again, I'll notify her that I was introduced." She says to me, offering what bronies on Earth would call a bro-hoof which I did give to her.
She spreads open her wings and jumps with a soar off into the skies of Equestria and past the clouds to the Academy above, leaving me with Fluttershy again.
I turn around and look at Fluttershy for a quick moment first, but then turn to look at our plates. Fluttershy's still hasn't finished her salad yet, but is quite close to getting there as it is practically the only thing remaining there for lunch. My plate has only the garlic breadroll that has had two bites, but I savor the taste for that kind of stuff always, so it's not like I'm going to cram it into my mouth immediately when there.
"Aren't you going to finish that?" She asked me.
I turn to look back at her. "Well, seeing how the weather is coming earlier than any of us expected I might have to eat it on the flight back to your cottage." I responded to her.
She nods her head in understanding. "I'll wrap up the salad and save it for later as a snack. There's only a couple of bites left for that, so I might as well."
"Do you have a plastic wrap for it?"
Fluttershy trots over to the picnic basket while continuing. "I don't really leave for a picnic without the plastic wrap. I have to keep the food fresh when in the fridge." She reached into the picnic basket and got out the item mentioned. I move to the side and take the bread-roll, taking a few bites from it.
I decided to help her out with putting things away, and place the bread-roll into my right hand so I can work with my weakest hand that was not my preference like when it came to writing. I used that hand to take the plate that I used to store it into the basket, as well as Fluttershy's plate where the other food she ate were gone.
"Thank you Brayden." She says to me with appreciation in the tone of her voice. She encloses the strip of plastic wrap onto the salad. I brought the bread-roll in my right hand to my mouth, taking a bite. She hands me the wrapped salad and I store it into the basket.
From there, I made sure to pick up the basket and move off from the mat so that she can sort it out. I was tasked by her to take the other side of the mat and fold it with her. We do fold it by squares after that until it reached that good size to fit into the basket. She places it in to cover up the leftover food.
"Everything covered?"
She nods her head. "It is," She tells me. "We'll have to figure out what else to do as we'll be inside for the rest of the day."
"There always can be something that we can do," My wings spread open with hers following afterwards. They flap for moments to lift me up off of the ground and into the air as I continue speaking with her. "There are other things we can do in the cottage like take care and interact with the rest of your animal friends, maybe a board game that I brought from Earth."
"Those sound interesting, I've played board games before when me and Zephyr were still young." She commented.
I smile as we take flight, the picnic basket in her front hooves as we take to the skies above the valleys and edge of the forest below us. "Excellent, I'm sure that I can find something for both of us to play together. If Angel wants to join us, he'll just have to watch and we'll see if he wants to play as well."
"And Discord?" She asked. "He might be coming over soon."
All I can do is chuckle for a moment as the draconequus himself came to mind. "Of course, he can join us."
A/N: Thank you for reading the chapter. Expect the next chapter to be up sometime around the holidays.
I'm pretty surprised, the US will now be having their 45th president which by chance is both a CEO and will be the oldest President for the upcoming term ahead. I don't really have any comment on that as I don't live in the United States, but I hear about it here in Canada.