Skybound Romance

by Prixy05

A Visit to Windy's

The school day that followed passed as a blur to Bow, and before he knew it, the bells rang and school day ended. He hadn't seen Windy again, and he could only assume she had gone home.

Now, Bow stood at the other side of Cloudsdale in front of a little, cloudy, two-story house.

He pulled out the crumpled paper, double checking to make sure it was the right place.

Upon flying to the address Windy had hastily written, it became clear to Bow why he had gone unaware of her. Windy lived on the opposite side of the city from him, and in a rather dislocated neighborhood he had rarely ventured too as well.

Walking up to the front door, Bow could already hear the sound of voices inside. He only had to knock a hoof on the door once before it was answered.

Thoughts raced through Bow’s mind when a lanky pegasus answered the door. He was tall and skinny with a dark blue coat much like Bow’s own and Bow would have to look up if he weren’t rather large for his age. Instead, the two stared at each other eye-to-eye for a few, awkward, silent moments.

“Can I help you?” The pegasus asked after a moment, narrowing his eyes at Bow.

Completely unprepared, Bow stumbled through his words. “Oh um… I’m here to see Windy. It’s for a- school thing…”

The pegasus sighed before he turned away from the door, “Hey Windy! Your coltfriends here!” After a few seconds, Windy appeared, pushing brushing aside the pegasus at the door.

“Thank you Braze!” she said in a passive-aggressive tone while pushing her brother away with her wing, “You can go back to… whatever you do. I’ll take it from here.”

Braze only scoffed as he left, leaving Windy with Bow.

Windy passed an embarrassed glance to Bow, who peered over her shoulder to messy home. “Sorry about all… this,” she said, motioning a hoof to casual chaos behind her, “I did not prepare for you at all.”

“It’s no big deal,” Bow replied, “I’m completely unprepared as well.”

Windy stifled a laugh before she continued, “Well anyways, that tall pony was my older brother, Braze. He’s… moody.”

Bow nodded, “I can see. And he called me your coltfriend? I mean, I wouldn’t say we’re like that.”

Windy didn’t answer, giving a pause before she waved Bow inside, “Come on, let's go to my room.”

The two teenage ponies had barely stepped a hoof inside before a voice called them. “Hey Windy! Who’s this fella?” Bow turned his head to see a squat orange pegasus approach him. The pegasus scratched his chin with his wing, eyeing Bow closely. “Is this that Dawncrack colt your seein’?” Bow did his best to stay polite, staying still as the pegasus got uncomfortably close. “Not a bad find if I do say so myself!”

Windy sighed, putting a hoof between him and the noticeably nervous Bow, “No Uncle Foghorn, this is Bow Hothoof. He’s a friend.”

Foghorn nodded, “A friend. Oh yes, I see how it is. Well, I best leave you two to it.” He chuckled, “I don’t want to interrupt your friendship.”

Windy and Bow exchanged confused glances as they watched Uncle Foghorn trot back into the living room, where he plopped himself onto his favorite cumulus couch. Also in the living room was an older blue pegasus looking over two yearlings who sat in the middle of the floor.

The older pegasus waved at Windy, “Hi sweetie, having a friend over?”

Windy nodded with a paltry smile, “Yes Dad, he’s my… study partner. He’s here to help me study for school, and we really should go start, the studying I mean.”

Bow glanced down to her confusedly, but was quickly spun around by her and led into the kitchen. Cloudbank Concerto, Windy’s mom, was there, turning to the two young pegasi as they entered. She looked at Bow, “You must be Dawncrack! It’s nice to finally meet you! “

She held out a hoof which Bow shook back, “It’s nice to meet you too, but it's actually Bow. Bow Hothoof.”

Cloudbank gasped apologetically, “Oh, I’m sorry! I just assumed you were Dawncrack.”

“Well he isn’t,” Windy interrupted, “He’s my study partner.”

“Study partner? How interesting! Sorry about the mess, it’s just that Windy here’s never had anypony else over before.”

“Yeah yeah, but we really gotta go. School stuff to do and all that,” exclaimed Windy as she attempted to gently push Bow out of the kitchen.

The unmoving Bow came to a realization, “Oh yeah! We should start. Start our studying.” He emphasized studying with a not-so-subtle wink to Windy, who hmphed in reply.

“Okay, have fun you two!” Cloudbank said as she waved the two off.

“It’s studying, it's not going to be fun!” snapped Windy in retaliation as she left.

Windy groaned to herself as led Bow down the hall to her room, firmly shutting the door and collapsing against the wall with a loud sigh as they were both finally alone. Bow, as confused as ever, looked at Windy.

“So wait, are we studying? You seem pretty firmly set in that idea. Not that I’m against that or anything!”

Windy groaned, “No! I mean- Agh! I don’t know! That’s just something I came up with on the fly! I don’t know what I’m doing- I’ve never done this before! I just wanted some privacy! But there’s no privacy in this place!”

Bow shrugged, “Huh, I could never say that about my family, but your family seemed pretty nice.”

“I’m not saying they aren’t but they’re very intrusive. They never give a mare her personal space!”

Bow walked around the room, looking around Windy’s admittedly messing living area, “So Windy, how many ponies live here anyways?”

“Nine.”

“Nine?“

Windy nodded, “Yeah, you’ve got me, my five siblings, my mom, my dad, you’ve met Uncle Foghorn, and last but not least, there’s Granny Tinhorn.”

“My family way smaller,” Bow said, pausing to recount the family members with his wing feathers, “Just me, my parents, and my brother.”

“Wow, sounds very… quiet.”

Bow looked away, “Yeah, quiet’s one way to put it.”

The two sat in silence for a moment before Windy jumped up with a flap of her wings, “So, how about we begin this properly?” She marched across the room, clearing space kicking away her sister’s random detritus on the ground. “Bow Hothoof,” Windy began, taking on an aire of mock formality, “it's been a while since we were last acquainted. How are you doing my good pegasi?”

Bow cleared his throat, “Oh, um, still the same I guess. You pull any good pranks lately?”

Windy waved a hoof, “Nah, I stopped doing pranks a while ago.”

“Same. So what do you do?”

“Studying. Papers. Hanging out. Regular schoolpony stuff. Oh! I do like to follow the latest Wonderbolt news!” She paused. “And there is one more thing…”

Bow leaned in closer, “What is it?”

Windy looked around before letting out a large breath, “It’s something… private. I don’t really tell anypony about it.”

Bow nodded in understanding, “Oh. Well if it's private, I don’t want to intrude or anything.”

Windy held up a hoof, “No! I want to tell you about it! It’s just…” she stopped, “It’s hard for me to explain in here,” she turned away, walking up to the window. Bow watched as Windy proceeded to open the window to the back yard. Windy waved at Bow, “Just follow me.”

Bow followed Windy through the Windy, almost getting his large body stuck in the process. After squeezing him through, Windy made sure to shut the window behind her.

The duo walked across the backyard, stopping before the fence that separated the yard from the other yard of a neighbor. Windy made sure no one was looking before she squeezed her tiny body through the fence. Bow, of course, would be completely unable to fit, so he simply flew over.

Trotting up to the rear side of the neighbor’s house, Bow noticed that it looked dilapidated, at least as dilapidated as a house made of clouds could look. “Nopony’s lived in this place for moons,” said Windy after she took notice of Bow’s curiosity, “And a while ago, I found a way inside.”

Bow watched with curiosity as Windy pried open a looser part of the cloudy wall, opening a dark hole into the house. She motioned him inside before sealing away the hole.

Windy and Bow stood in silence in the surprisingly dark interior of the abandoned house. Through the lack of maintenance, the cloudy walls had taken on water, making the house’s interior a dark shade of gray, blocking out most exterior light. Windy led Bow through the shambled room, turning through a doorway blocked by errant floating flecks of cloudy material.

As he pushed through the floating cloudpuffs, Bow gasped. The room before him was bathed in a gentle light, created by the glow of various objects placed on wooden shelves hastily attached to the walls. Jars of glowing things, cloud bits, and miscellaneous goods, many of which were glowing, cast a speckled light that created a kaleidoscope of color on the ceiling.

“What is this place?” Bow asked Windy, who smiled at his expression of astonishment.

“This,” announced Windy, “Is my private place. The place I go to when I need a break from… everything really.”

“Wow,” Bow gasped. He walked around the room, examining the colorful objects on the shelves. “And what are these?”

“Whenever something happens” Windy began, tenderly taking down an object from a shelf, “I like to go back and remember it. Things are so busy for me nowadays, so sometimes I go here and relax in the quietness and reminisce. These objects, these mementos, they help me to… look back at the things I want to remember.”

“Like this,” she walked over to a shelf and took down a jar filled with a rainbow-colored liquid with gray specks floating inside, “These are some rainbows from our family vacation to Rainbow Falls. And this,” she took down what looked like a faded blue cap, “This is from my very first Wonderbolts show!”

She stopped, chuckling to herself, “Look at me, ranting about all this. I bet it just looks like I’m hoarding a bunch of junk.”

Bow adamantly shook his head, “No, I get it! All this stuff means a lot to you. Everypony has things that matter to them. I mean, I still keep a poster from my first Wonderbolts show.”

Windy smiled, “Yeah, this stuff really does mean a lot to me.”

The two stood in silence for a minute, basking in the soft spotted glow. Eventually, Bow spoke up again, “So, when you came in here to remember things, did you ever think about me? What I mean is, did you ever think about that day in flight school?” Bow coughed, trying to stave off the awkwardness of his wording, but Windy ignored it.

“Of course,” Windy calmly stated, “How could I ever forget that day?”

Bow felt a tinge of guilt in his stomach. He had nearly forgotten that day, though his reuniting with Windy had caused a cavalcade of memories to swirl back into focus in his mind. He watched Windy take down another jar from a shelf.

“This,” Windy said as she held it up to him, “This is from that day.” Inside was a small, pale yellow, cloudpuff floating in the middle of the jar. “Do you remember during the end of that day, when we watched the moonrise in the cloud?” Bow nodded. “This is a part of the cloud we sat in, I took it to remember that day. I took it to remember you.”

“Woah,” Bow mumbled, his words getting caught in his throat. He felt a warmth flush through his body as he couldn’t think of what to say.
Windy cast a look of concern after he didn’t say anything, “Oh, is this too weird for you?”

“No, not at all. This place is wonderful Windy,” He spread his wings, “All of this is wonderful. Thank you for bringing me here.”

She looked up at him with a little smile, “Thank you too Bow, for just listening to me.”

Bow jokingly waved her off, “Peh, it's nothing anypony could do Windy. Say, what is that thing from?”

For a long while the two ponies sat in the darkened room. They talked some more, Bow asking questions about Windy’s collection of mementos with her graciously offering an explanation for every object. Windy felt like a weight was lifted off her back as talked about her feelings and memories associated with her little collection. For now, Windy was happy.

For Bow, a familiar feeling, much like the one he had felt that night in flight school long ago, echoed through his body. He let his body sink into the cloudy floor. He knew he would have to say goodbye and leave, it was only a short visit after all, but right now, Bow wanted to stay in that room with Windy, amidst the glowing colors of her memories.