In the Morning

Slowly I rose out of sleep and gained consciousness in my Equestria dreamscape. With my eyes still closed I started taking stock of my situation.  I was lying in bed on my right side. It was warm and the bed felt really good. As I digested this information several new questions began to pop into my semi-functioning brain.

    One, why did this not feel like the bed I was use to? It wasn’t a bad bed but it was not the one in the bedroom of my cottage.  Two, if this was not my bed where was I and how did I get there? Three, where was that steady rumbling, whistling sound I could hear coming from? 

    Faced with a need to answer these questions, and an increasing urge to use the bathroom I slowly opened my eyes. Cool early morning sunlight drifted through arched windows that were framed by faux Greco-Roman style columns. On the wall directly across from me was a poster with a stylized formation of Wonderbolts tearing across the sky. I was still trying to get my brain to engage as I processed these new pieces of information. Who did I know that had a poster like that? Then the rumbling sound happened again and suddenly I was wide-awake. 

    Cautiously I lifted my head and looked over my shoulder. Haphazardly sprawled across her own bed in that fashion the only young can do was Rainbow Dash. She was lying on her back and her limbs were flopped in random directions. As her chest rose and fell the room filled with the sound of her snoring.

    Gingerly I slipped out of bed and headed for the bathroom. Upon completion of that most important task of the day I took a moment and looked at myself in the mirror. A still somewhat sleepy-faced, sky blue pegasus stallion stared back at me. As typical for me in the morning my mane and tail were a tangled mess. Remembering again why I had been forced to spend the night at Dash’s place link I slowly extended my left wing. It was a bit sore but nothing like it had been last evening. On the water basin stand was the tin of Foalsmane, by force of will I compelled myself to chew and swallow a couple of the foul-tasting leaves then quickly washed the taste from my mouth with a glass of water. Have purged the worse of the taste from my taste buds I borrowed a random brush off the counter and got the worst of the tangles out of my mane and tail. Looking a bit more presentable I went and checked on status of my gracious host.

    In my absence Dash had rolled over in her sleep and was now lying on her belly. In the process she’d succeeded in scattering the blankets to one side of the bed. Her snores were muffled now by the fact that she had her face buried in the pillow. Face down, haunches up with her tail flopped to one side I got a view of my boss that I usually did not witness. I decided it might be best if I went out to the living room and did my morning stretches there.

    I was almost done with my morning routine when I heard the sound of the bathroom door closing. A few minutes later there was the sound of toilet flushing and a very sleepy Rainbow Dash came wandering out to the living room. With somewhat bleary eyes she stared at me.

    “How ya feeling Brick?” She grumbled still not quite awake. “Think ya can fly?”

    I gave a few quick flaps and rose off the ground and then settled back down again. “Yeah, as long as I don’t push it I should be okay.”

    “Good.” Said the mare. “I’m not scheduled for weather today and neither are you. So I guess I’ll see you sometime time tomorrow. Now I’m going back to bed. You know where the door is.”

    As she turned to retreat back to bed I smiled. “Thanks for everything Dash.” The prismatic mare looked back over her shoulder and smiled. 

    “No problem. Take care.”

    I stepped out on to what passed for Dash’s front porch, snapped my goggles into place and then launched myself into the morning air. Hedging on the side of caution I took my time flying home; no rushing things and took every chance I could to glide. Even so within a few minutes I was turning into the wind to land in front of our cottage.  There was smoke coming from the kitchen chimney but nopony came out to greet me. I trotted up to the front door and went to open it with my mouth.

    The front door flew open and two mares tackled me. Ouch! Fortunately I did not land on my bad wing; still I found myself lying on back staring up at Petina and Carousel. For several seconds it was hard to understand what they were saying since both of them were talking quickly at the same time.

    Petina: “Brick where have you been all night?”

    Carousel: “Are you all right?”

    Petina: “I was about to start a search party!”

    Carousel: “Nopony had seen you since late yesterday!”

    Unison: “We were worried about you!!!”

    Recovering from the verbal onslaught I slowly climbed to my hoofs.

    “I’m sorry I worried you mares so much. With hindsight I probably should’ve had Dash deliver a message to you last night while she was getting dinner.”

    Petina ears perked up. “What does Rainbow Dash have to do about this?” I could already see the gears grinding in her head.

     “Well yesterday I put in more continuous flight hours in one day than I have ever done.” The mares nodded their heads.

    “Yes.” They said in unison.

    I sighed. “Well at the end of the shift Dash offered me a drink at her place.” Petina leaned forward with a very intense look in her eyes.

    “And?” Said the white unicorn mare. Carousel nodded her head.

    “Well we had few drinks at her place and it was getting late.”

    “Aanndd?” Both Petina and Carousel were staring at me very intently now with curious expressions on their faces.

    “But when I went to leave I discovered I had strain a flight muscle and couldn’t fly.”

    “Aaaannnddd?” Both of them took couple steps forward.

    “So Dash gave me a back rub.”

    “AAANNNDDDD?” 

    “But even after a massage and preening I was still was unfit for flying, so Dash decided to put me up for the evening at her place.”

    “AAAAAANNNNNDDDDD?” Both mares had impish grins on their faces now.

    “ So I slept at her place last night.”

    “AAAAAAAANNNNNNDDDDDDDDD?” Petina was practically hopping up and down wanting to find out what happened next. Even Carousel was very interested.

    “So this morning I woke up and found I could fly again, so I said goodbye to her and came straight home. And here I am.”

    For several seconds the two mares stared me without saying a word. Then Petina stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at me.

    “Ppfffttt! That’s it! We stayed up all night worrying about you! You spent the night with one of the hottest mares in Ponyville and you come back home with a boring tale like that!”

    Petina promptly turned around and trotted back into the cottage muttering something about pearls and swine. Carousel stood and watched the white mare vanish back into the dwelling. Then she turned to me.

    “I’m happy you’re home safe.” Said the golden earth pony mare. I nodded my head.

    “Thank you Carousel.”

    “But I fear Petina was hoping for something of a more “juicy” tale from your adventures last night.” Then she smiled at me. 

    “Why don’t you come inside? There is a fresh pot of coffee and I made blueberry coffee cake this morning.”

    I nodded my head and followed her inside.

To be continued.