BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!
"Auuugh.."
Midnight Lancer awoke slowly, the horrible beeping of his alarm clock dragging him tooth and hoof from a rather lovely dream he was having. He clung to the fragments of his paradise stubbornly, but the blaring of that infernal machine tore them from him bit by bit, eventually breaking the will of the stallion.
One eye opened, followed shortly by the other, their gaze fixed on the window of his apartment. It hung open, the faint sounds of the bustling ponies below reminding him that it was yet another day in the busiest city in Equestria. With another groan, Midnight sat up in his bed and slammed a hoof against the top of his clock. The abuse, thankfully, shut it up for the time being. Glancing over to his defeated foe, the pegasus froze as he registered the time on its scuffed faceplate.
"Shit, I'm late!"
Any semblance of tiredness immediately disappeared, replaced instead with the dread of missing orientation for a second time. He was a Sophomore this year, and the last thing he wanted was a repeat of last year's debacle.
Not wasting any more time, the pony shoved his blanket off of him before scrambling out of bed and blasting through his morning routine. With a speed nearly rivaling that of a Wonderbolt, Midnight dove through his shower, shoved some toast into his muzzle and fitted his uniform as best as he could before flying out his window in panic.
Down at street level, several ponies paused as they watched the pegasus shoot out of the tenth story window and dive towards the pavement. Some gasped at the sight, the stallion picking up frightening speed as he passed floor after floor, his wings tight against his frame. Just as it seemed he was about to become a pancake in the middle of the road, Midnight unfurled his wings and redirected his course to shoot down the avenue, only just passing above the tops of table umbrellas and taxis with a mighty gust.
A chuckle escaped Midnight as his wings beat hard against the air, relishing in the audience that followed his daring dive from the window. Muttering under his breath with an air of satisfaction, "You still got it Midnight, you’ll be a pro in no time!" His thought was interrupted by a rather large yawn escaping his muzzle, "Just gotta fix that sleep schedule.."
Below him, the sprawling metropolis of Manehattan was truly living up to its title as the Big Apple, with every inch of it bustling with expected activity. Lining the streets and roofs of smaller buildings were countless cafes and shops, packed to the brim with ponies chatting about the newest gossip or emerging fashion trends over morning coffee. Earth ponies lugged huge piles of concrete to the many potholes caused by the swarm of taxis, while pegasi dotted the towering skyline as they cleaned windows and delivered mail. Unicorn policeponies maintained order at each chaotic intersection, their magic helping keep up with the sign work and whistling needed to tame the mob of commuters.
His white and blue uniform glistened in the morning sunlight like a beacon above the chaos going on down below. Midnight could've sworn a policecolt had yelled at him to stop after he nearly crashed snout-first into a fruit stand, but the earth pony had no hope in Tartarus of catching a pegasus mid-flight.
After what felt like an eternity, the stallion smiled as his prize appeared. Just a couple streets ahead lay the entrance to Manehattan Technical University, the last of the schoolponies seemingly making their way through the oversized golden gates and towards the main hall. With a final burst of energy, Midnight pressed on towards his goal, flapping harder and harder as he zeroed in for landing just past the finish line.
"Almost.. just like you've practiced.."
Just as he passed those grandiose gates to the university grounds, a pink pegasus landed in front of him, completely unaware of the blue bullet rocketing towards her. With a sudden gasp and wings flaring to act as air brakes, he reacted the only way he could with so little time.
"Moooovveee!!"
Crash!
In the blink of an eye, black and blue merged with purple and pink as the high velocity stallion impacted the poor, innocent mare. Her saddlebags were immediately thrown from her as the pair crumpled into each other, papers and colorful feathers flying all over the place. As the dust settled, a groan escaped Midnight first, his mind fighting hard to stop everything from spinning.
Midnight would find his wobbly gaze upon the pony he had flattened and immediately panicked. Stumbling to his hooves as best he could, he grabbed the mare and tried to pull her back up, "Sweet Celestia! Are you alright!?"
"Whuh.. Huh?.." was the only response to escape the mare as she was dragged back to her hooves, her own world a swirly mess.
Midnight coughed awkwardly as the seconds ticked by, the mare seemingly stuck staring at him after he had helped her up. "Are.. are you okay, miss?" Tilting his head, he began to wonder if crashing into the pony had injured her.
She blinked slowly.
After a lack of response, he nervously laughed and turned towards the piles of papers strewn about the sidewalk. "Oh, here, let me help you get these. It's the least I can do after bumping into you like that!"
Quickly moving thanks to his wings, Midnight worked around the mare, grabbing a large portion of the papers and haphazardly stacking them together. By this point, the pink pegasus had snapped out of her strange state and had begun re-securing her saddlebags to her flanks, still eyeing the colt as he collected her admission paperwork.
After a few moments, Midnight presented the sloppily collected papers to her with a smile, huffing and puffing slightly. "Sorry about that again. My name's Midnight Lancer, what's yours?"
There was a short pause as the mare tilted her head at his question, grabbing the papers from the stallion and doing her best to organize them before slipping the pile back into her bags, "I'm.. uh.. Peach Harvest.."
The reply was shorter and less enthusiastic than Midnight had hoped for. Maybe it was the fact he had torpedoed her just moments ago, maybe she was holding back anger or maybe she was just new to Manehattan. After all, she didn't look like a city pony, really.
While waiting for her to continue, Midnight took a moment to size up the mare in front of him. Her fur was a creamy peach color, and her short, fluffy mane was a two tone mixture of purple and sky blue. Sitting behind her mane was a bright blue bow, nearly as bright as his own mane. The saddlebags that were now firmly tied down to her body were clearly an original design, stenciled with the abbreviation: 'P.H.', alongside a little heart.
Midnight raised his eyebrow as he took in her apparel. No city pony would wear something so special around Manehattan of all places, such things were likely to get lost or, Celestia forbid, stolen in the chaos of daily life here. Everything about this pony, from her quiet nature to her attire, screamed small town pony.
His thoughts were interrupted as Peach Harvest cleared her throat, muttering to Midnight. "Uhm.. Thanks for helping me grab those papers, Mister Midnight. I was looking for Admissions, sorry if I got in the way.."
Midnight perked up as she regained his attention and immediately tried to reassure the pony. "No, no! It was my fault for not paying more attention, Miss Harvest. Honest! Sorry for making your first impression of MTU so.. violent.. hah.."
Another nervous chuckle found its way out of the pegasus as he turned towards the main hall that he had fought so hard to reach earlier. He was absolutely late by this point, that much he knew, the stallion just hoped he could get in without being reprimanded too harshly for it.
Deciding not to waste any more of the mare's time, much less his own that he was now in the negative with, Midnight turned and smiled one last time at the pink pegasus. "Hey, I gotta run before Sophomore Orientation starts, but Admissions is just inside the main doors there, you can't miss it! See you around!" Just like that, he dashed off towards the building, leaving Peach Harvest standing there to watch him as he left.
Peach, for her part, said nothing as the stallion galloped away. Normally, she'd simply roll her eyes and keep walking towards the hall after being bumped like that, but a strange feeling forced her to stand there and watch Midnight as he disappeared through the doors. Something about that stallion was different. Was it him helping her with her papers, that warm smile or maybe his strangely soft looking coat?
She didn't know, but as she began to walk towards the doors the stallion had bolted through, one thing was certain.
She'd absolutely see him again.
Peach Harvest smiled.