Post by Skyheart on Nov 19, 2012 13:01:50 GMT -5
((Context: Skyheart has been set up on a blind date by Bardigan, whether he likes it or not.))
Bardigan is waiting very patiently in front of an expensive little cafe in the middle of Ponyville Square, eyes on a watch he's carrying around. Ponies pass him by and stare, but he keeps his eye on the clock. The hours have ticked down to the minutes, which are ticking down to the seconds, which are ticking down to the very final last moment at which point *both* ponies he has told to appear... will appear. He hopes. He's gotten a little desperate, and if this doesn't work, he might as well go fetch that Enigma fellow...
Unbeknownst to Bardigan, there is another pony staring at the same watch over his shoulder. Yes, of course it's Merryweather, why would you even /ask/? Her only concession to this particular 'date' is the removal of her goggle cap, leaving her silvery ringlets of mane tumbling and bouncing about. She stares. And stares. And it's not until that /exact/ microscopic fraction of a second that Bardigan would notice something from the corner of one eye that she blurts, "TIME IS BUT THE STREAM I GO A-FISHING IN." Gnaah.
Bardigan feels something cold and tight seize him by the throat and throw him to the ground. Ah, he knows that feeling well: utter terror mixed with a dash of panic. He falls over, wings and limbs seizing up as he clutches his chest. The watch goes flying and tumbles to the ground. "... P... Puh... Punctual," he manages to squeeze out, slowly uncoiling his legs. "That's... admirable."
Merryweather glee! She beams a maniacal smile at Bardigan from deep within his personal space. "So! Where is he!?" There's a series of retina aching blurs as she proceeds to zip under the table, behind several chairs, and various other bits of scenery before screeching to a halt in front of Bardigan. "He's not here! I HAVE BEEN STOOD UP! He las let me down by stooding up~!" Frantically waving her forehooves, she swoops into Bardigan and clings, weeping as if candy itself had vanished from the world!
Bardigan has only *barely* gotten back on his hooves when Merryweather manages to get all over the area and then fall back onto him in the space of... *is* there a measurement of time small enough to say how fast she was? He's not sure. But even though his heart was in the middle of wheezing and gasping in his chest, a weeping mare is the one thing it can't take the sight of. "Erm... there there," he says, raising a hoof to gently pat her on the back. "He'll be here. He's... far too nice to do that to a filly. Just give it a few more... seconds." She must live in some kind of accelerated time bubble, considering barely ten seconds have gone by.
Merryweather is apparently too tiny to harbor more than a single emotion at a time. She /instantly/ perks, tears vanish, and she pops back into the air with a cheery, "'Kay!" Buzzling like some enormous bumblebee to the other side of the table, she settles into a mellow hover-- not actually /in/ the chair, mind you, but taking advantage of the proximity of it. "So! What's he like?"
"OW! OW! OW! OW!" Skyheart is seen galloping past. He's wearing a collar and a neat black tie and his mane is... half done half messy as Orpheus chases finally pecking him out of the house, down the street, into the square, toward the restaurant, right past Bardigan and Merryweather and right SMACK into a tree.
"Well, he-" Bardigan realizes he hasn't had time to describe Skyheart very well apart from 'he's a stallion, and he is this color:'. He taps his chin. "Well, skyheart... he's... he's a quiet kind of colt. He's a poet, actually. Very introspective. Not big on touching, especially of the wings. Which is odd, since he has a pet bird. You normally see him contemplating a new poem, or getting some quiet writing done. You almost never see him do *anything* loud or out of the ordinar-" Annnd there he goes crashing into a tree. Bardigan is stuck mid-sentence, jaw hanging open and hoof in the air. "... But there's a first time for everything," he finishes, even more shocked than before, if that's at all possible.
Merryweather listens carefully, nodding with quick little blurry nods that resemble afterimages in an old photograph. Quiet, check, she's very quiet, too, can hardly even be heard above a thunderstorm cell. Then Skyheart dashes past. She stares at this. Quick on his hooves, and he clearly loves trees. Merryweather is fascinated by trees, as she is with most things they don't have in Cloudsdale. "That tree didn't fight fair!"
Skyheart is now pegasus-first into a tree. There is a wonderfully done impression of his likeness in the bark as he pries himself from the tree. He's now wobbling a bit trying to shake the stars from around his head.
Bardigan watches Skyheart stagger, reaching out to try and hold him still. "Skyheart!" he announces. "Meet Merryweather. You, sir, are..." He picks up his watch again. "Fifty-three seconds late. Bad form, my friend. Merryweather was beside herself." For about five seconds. "Fortunately I've already reserved a table for you two... right here." And he guides Skyheart down to the chair. He is *not* going to let Skyheart mess this up!
Merryweather zips in and nabs three of the stars from around Skyheart's head, and she puts them in her own mane. Ooh, shiny. She's already on the other side of Skyheart, helping bustle him to the table. "Be careful of the dirt! It is not solid like a cloud! Ponies here cannot build homes from dirt. THIS IS WHY THEY INVENTED WOOD." Merry is an expert in ground ponies!
Skyheart haphazardly hobbles his way to a chair as directed and sits, taking a moment to collect his surroundi- "OW!" Or Orpheus could do it for him after landing on his head. He finally regains consciousness and takes in the sight of his date. "I... um... H-Hello..."
"Don't say it like *that,*" Bardigan whispers on the other side of Skyheart's head, peering at Merryweather from around Skyheart's ears. Pay no attention to the colt behind that other colt's mane! The big feathered hat makes it hard to hide, though. "Put out your hoof! Give her a compliment! Be *assertive!*"
Merryweather is framed with heart-stirring clouds and stunning rainbows as Skyheart looks. This is not true love, there's a team of weather ponies making her sign off on a shipment to Cowcutta. "...and a type nine altostrat..." o.o She realizes Skyheart's there and shoos them away. "Leave it on my desk, leave it on my desk, go on..." The rainbows and clouds are pushed off-screen by the weather ponies. She folds her hooves and tries to look innocent. "So! That... other pony with the big hat says you have a bird that writes poetry!?"
Skyheart pauses for a bit. He's not entirely sure what he should be saying. Then there's the bird comment. "U-Um... N-Not really. /I/ write the poetry. Orpheus just um..." He looks up at the bird on his head. "Orpheus, helpe me out here." THe bird coos and gives him a quick peck on the head. "OW! Yeah that..."
Bardigan rolls his eyes and does his best to fade the background, which is about five feet away, attempting to be inconspicuous with a glass of wine. Skyheart's semi on his own for now, but Bardigan's watching. No, really. He has yet to take his eyes off the couple.
Merryweather sees! The bird is management! Right! Merry hears Bardigan's advice and tries to be helpful. "He means you have to be suave! Sophistrated! LIKE THIS!" She warp-blurs directly in front of Skyheart, taking his place were she still on the other side of the table to see it. "OH MERRYWEATHER! YOU HAVE SUCH LOVELY EYES AND THEY ARE IN JUST THE RIGHT PLACE UPON YOUR FACE TO GIVE YOU BINOCULAR VISION WHICH IS SO CRITICAL TO HIGH-SPEED FLIGHT!" She flips places back to her original spot and simperingly bats her eyelashes. "That is SPIFF! Say something else!" Zip, and Skyheart gets a Merry in the face again as she takes his role, deepening her voice, "I AM OVERCOME WITH EMOTIONS THAT HAVE SPREAD INTO MY TEETH AND TONGUE." Merry swaps back to her spot and swoons onto the table. Does... she even really need Skyheart for this date?
Skyheart is rather besides himself as his date seems to be doing this all on her own. "I um.... ah..." Nervous and confused he may be, he knew romance. It was his talent. This was... clearly not. "Um... So... What do you do?" He asks, shrinking down a bit to avoid wing contact as she flitters about like a hummingbird.
Blink, blink. Merry instantly pops up from her swoon, zipping three vertical feet up and snapping off a terrifyingly stiff salute. She's suddenly giving off the aura of a world conqueror, a Marepoleon. "MERRYWEATHER! Cloudsdale Weather Planner and Dispatcher, First Class! CLOUDSDALE WEATHER CORPS! 'Let us be /your/ silver lining!' (tm)" She holds the pose long enough for a slight halo of raw patriotism to coalesce around her before settling back into a gentle hover, completely innocent looking again. "I'm a weather planner!"
Bardigan would have advice for Skyheart, were it not for the fact that he can't keep up with evreything that Merryweather is saying and doing. A weather corpsmare? That's something! "Stay on that!" he hisses. "Let her know how interesting it is!" Because in Bardigan's opinion, it actually is quite interesting.
Skyheart nods a bit in response. "So you worth with the weather teams, huh? What's that like I can't imagine being stuck up in the clouds all day." One might miss the fact that Skyheart grew up in Manehatten, but sometimes it shows up.
Merryweather flashes a twenty-four carat smile! Glee! "Weather is SPIFF! The ground is so weird! Ponies here walk on dirt! There are houses made of wood! PIE ROAMS FREE IN THE FIELDS AND CHAIRS ROCK BY THEMSELVES." Merry's hooves punctuate with the sort of gestures usually used to explain a UFO landing. "It's like some parallel world which is directly under Cloudsdale yet not perpendicular to it, and is thus PARALLEL." Merry is a Cloudsdale girl through and through.
Bardigan's got nothing. After a moment of staring and blinking, he looks at Skyheart and gestures with his hoof, implying that he should, somehow, add to that. After all, being a usually grounded pegasus, he has to have *something* to say about the difference between sky and earth.
Skyheart blinks. "Um..." Well she's not wrong, per say. "Um... Well... I grew up in Manehatten so..." The weather team in Manehatten is often considered one of the most underappreciated districts in Equestria. This might not end well.
Merryweather plans weather for all over Equestria! "Oh! OOOH. You'll love this then! The palace set a target of eighteen inches of snow for Manehatten by Hearthwarming! So we're going to cross-build a nor-easter with a so-wester and make a so-no-west-easter-with-a-twist!"
Only Bardigan's extensive stage experience keeps his eyes from rolling around in their sockets with confusion. He looks back at Skyheart. "Nod politely," he hisses out of the corner of his mouth.
Skyheart is blank-looking. He can't even PRETEND to understand most of that. "Uh..... so that means more snow, right? I should write a letter home?" He tilts his head.
Merryweather sees Bardigan looking blank. Sees Skyheart looking blank. Huh! This is another strange ground-pony ritual then! She spend the next ten seconds looking blank, until she gets bored with that. "Not just snow! SNOW. Only the finest Cloudsdale manufactured snow! Every flake is lovingly hoof-crafted and has to pass nine quality inspection points before it's good enough to fall on your head!"
Merryweather says "CLOUDSDALE WEATHER CORPS! 'Because there's no business like snow business!' (tm)"
Skyheart blinks again. "All that just for snow? I never would have guessed that." He starts to think. "I should probably get that letter out of the way now..." He starts to dig his head into his saddlebags to get his writing supplies.
Derpy hears someone say the word letter and is standing there the next time anyone looks, some distance behind Skyheart, wearing her postal bags for the first time in almost a week and just folding her wings.
Merryweather looks shocked! Wait, she's been playing with the lightning capacitor again, hasn't she. "YOU'VE NEVER TOURED THE WEATHER FOUNDRY!?" This is very up close and personal. Any closer and her nose would be molecularly bonded to Skyheart's. "It's only the center of all Cloudsdale! The cream in our coffee! The pride of our hearts! The enduring social contract in our civilized oversight of sky and ground! IT'S SPIFF!"
Bardigan perks up immediately, almost spitting up his wine as he hurries to throw more advice Skyheart's way. "Say you'd love to see it!" he says, like an oversized angel on the other stallion's shoulder. This could turn out to be a second date! Progress already!
Skyheart blinks as Merry gets RIGHT in his face. All he can see is her huge blue eyes blinking on occasion as they stare at him. "I um... ah...." He's hard to breathe when someone else's is right there. He has to say something though. "...S...Spiff?" He comments, "You... You said that before. What's that mean?"
"Mean ~clean!~" exclaims Derpy, glad to be able to explain what a word means for once, rather than the reverse. She throw out her wings and beats them spiffily before settling down. Then she tilts her head. "Have leeetter?"
"There may *be* letters in the future," Bardigan says, rubbing his hooves together in a rather scheming way.
Wow, he's a weird one. He's a poet and he doesn't know plain ponyese? Merry zips back to her side of the table hovers amiably above the chair. Chairs are useful as flight markers, but rarely does Merry actually hold still long enough to sit in one. "Spiff! Neato! Cool beans! Keen-gear! Top hole! Pip-pip! Nifty!..." The camera goes out of focus. When it returns, the clock on the wall behind Merry shows about fifteen minutes have passed. "...bang up! Groovy! Dandy! Peachy! Swell!... uh... Corking! YOU KNOW! SPIFF!"
Skyheart is less than entralled about nine-hundred straight seconds of synonymous slang speak. "Um... Yeah. Spiff. I think I get it..." He's totally forgotten about the letter by this point. "So... um.... Shouldn't we get food or...?"
Bardigan nudges Skyheart's shoulder. "Weather foundry tour!" he reminds him. "Keep that in mind!"
Skyheart glances back and whispers to his friend. "Why? Did you want to go?"
Merryweather has been keeping a written list of SPIFF to make sure she neither misses anything nor repeats herself. This she scrolls back up after a final check. "Food! Food is where I keep all my vitamins! Yes, let's food together! IT IS SOCIAL GLUE, WHICH DOES NOT SMELL LIKE HOOVES THE WAY REGULAR GLUE DOES."
"No, cloud for brains!" Bardigan hisses back. "*You* are going to go! You know! Second date! Let her know you're *interested!* Invest yourself in her, Skyheart!"
"Look beyond the everyday horizons! Break out of your own box!" Bardigan shakes Skyheart's shoulders, realizes he's interrupting, and goes back to his table.
Derpy is delighted to be learning about social mores from Merryweather, who seems so bright and knowledgeable! But she has duties, and must be going. Getting tired of waiting for Skyheart to post his letter, she flaps and takes off for better pastures.
Skyheart blinks a bit and then looks back to Bardigan. Then the shaking happens. He rattles a bit even after Bardigan lets go and turns around. "Um...." Wait. WAS he interested in a second date? He wasn't even sure what was going on NOW!
When did Merry get over to the same side of the table as Skyheart, on the opposite side as Bardigan, and why is she wearing those red horns? Where did she even get them? "ALL INVESTMENTS WILL BE COMPOUNDED QUARTERLY AT NINE PERCENT."
Skyheart is frozen to where he's sitting. What just happened? He isn't sure what's going on right now either. Heck, even Orpheus is kind of confused.
"*Now* get the food," Bardigan says from the other side, his wings looking a little white in this light. "Or some wine! Do *something!* You're letting her slip right through your hooves!"
Merryweather zips back to her own side of the table, leaving the fake horns to spin in midair before they drop to the floor. Zing! Before gravity's even taken ahold of them, she's already got a menu up and is placidly browsing it, the picture of any normal pegasus mare. "I don't know most of these strange earth-pony foods! WHAT IS A SAND-WICH? I told Stormy they ate dirt here! She scoffed, scoff, scoff, and I gave her a throat lozenge only I ate it myself BECAUSE THEY ARE TASTY AREN'T THEY? Waiter? Do you have throat lozenges here?"
Skyheart blinks for a bit and shakes his head. "How about I just order for you...?" He calls the waiter over with a sort of business-like manner. "We'll have two plates of spaghetti, please. Light sauce and a little seasoning."
"No ma'am," says the waiter. "Might I recommend the De la Romani-Colti instead?"
Merryweather buzzes into the waiter's face with the wrath of ten thousand thunderbolts. "WHAT DID YOU CALL SKYHEART!? YOU TAKE THAT BACK OR THE NEXT HAILSTONE WE DROP IS GOING TO COME VERY CLOSE TO YOU BUT NOT QUITE CLOSE ENOUGH TO HIT YOU BUT BOY WILL -YOU- BE TERRIFIED LET ME TELL YOU THAT!" Her wings make a furious staccato in the air, angry hornet style.
"He's suggesting a wine to drink," Bardigan whispers, nose poking up from the bottom of the screen.
Skyheart is plenty freaked himself. In fact he's ducked under the table, leaving Orpheus to rest on the chair back for now.
The waiter remains surprisingly stoic, blinking only once. "De la Romani-Colti, ma'am," he explains. "It is an exquisite wine from the lowlands of Bittonia."
"Oh!" Merry's back above her seat before her shadow has time to catch up, menu in her hooves. "No, I think the 72' Cabernet du Arabi', sommelier." She flashes her pearly whites. Glee!
Skyheart cautiously peeks out from under the table. It doesn't take him long to return to his seat. He shuffles a bit uncomfortably. "So...."
Merryweather points a hoof at Skyheart. "Your trouble is that you're too tense. You need to relax and not be so jumpy all the time! You need to be laid back and mellow, like, oh, what's her name, Pinkie Pie, you know."
The waiter goes to get their orders, whilst Bardigan stands behind Merryweather and nods solemnly in agreement. Lighten up Sky!
Skyheart pauses and tries to remember Pinkie Pie. Last he saw of her she literally rolled a cake downhill on his birthday- somehow knowing when his birthday is. Maybe she's not always like that? "I... I'll try. S-Sorry. I just... I just get nervous in situations like this." He chuckles a bit. "Look at me. The romantic scared of it himself."
"You know what relaxes me!?" asks Merry, buzzling a bit in the air. "Sailing! We need to take you up in my airship! You'll love it! The wind in your hooves! The wide open sky! Skimming the clouds-- type one cumulus or higher, we don't want to bank under a thermal inversion-- IT'S SPIFF!"
Skyheart blinks a bit. "Um... I've... never been on an airship before..." He says weakly. "Um... What's that like?"
Bardigan's nodding gets more and more excitable until his hat is bobbing back and forth on his head. Yes, yes, go on!
"What's it like? WHAT'S IT LIKE!?" Merry's zipped across into his personal space again, to try and sling a foreleg over his neck, using the other one to sweep wide, grand gestures like a true showpony. "Imagine it! The sky as far as the eyes can see! Clouds under you, over you, inside you, don't keep your mouth open like that, it's not healthy, swallowing all that cloud at once! Give you gas! The deck gently rolling underhoof! The creak of the ship's timbers! IT'S AS IF YOU HAD WINGS!" the pegasus mare tells the other pegasus within earshot of a third pegasus. Hmmm. Nope, no irony here. "Picnicking in the clouds! And then you can sail straight into Cloudsdale! Whooo!"
This part actually DOES impress Skyheart. He can almost picutre the scenery. "A clear view of the stars uninhibitied by the clouds..." He mentions to himself. "Wow...."
Bardigan makes 'move along' motions with his hooves from behind Merryweather. Something you're both interested in, something you'd like to do... only one thing to do next Skyheart!
Merryweather is already next to Bardigan, watching his hooves with wide eyes. o.o "You should have a doctor look at that. YOUR HOOVES HAVE THE HOKEY POKIES."
Skyheart goes from wonderous right back to confused. "Huh?" He looks over to Merry. "he's just ah... um... Actually, yeah. He's sick. Just got back from the doctor."
Bardigan facehoofs. He marches right over to Skyheart and whispers in his ear. "Ask her to *show you!*"
Merryweather blur-zips back a few feet from Bardigan. She sprays disinfectant towards him. She then puts up a barricade of police tape between two chairs. The megaphone is perhaps superfluous. *KTTCH* "ATTENTION PONIES. DO NOT APPROACH THE PEGASUS IN THE FUNNY HAT. HE IS HIGHLY INFECTIOUS. THAT IS ALL." *TCH*
Skyheart gives a look to Bardigan. "I...I know that I... I just..." He shrinks down again. Yep, the help isn't so much telling Skyheart what to do more than it is to swallow his nerves and DO IT.
"Do it or I'll... I'll hug you with my wing!" Bardigan blurts out.
Merryweather is busy stapling up a flier. It's got a photo of Bardigan that precisely matches his exact current pose and facial expression, and reads, 'BEWARE: HOKEY POKIES. If you feel the urge to turn yourself about, please seek medical help immediately. A public service reminder from the CWC.'
"Do it or I'll do it for you!" Bardigan adds, either choosing to ignore or still ignorant of posters of his face all over. He's probably just used to it, being a famous actor. "It sounds beautiful! And she's nice! At least *experience* it for yourself!"
Skyheart lurches down. "Wh-What? You woulnd't...." He sighs. "B-B-But... I... I can't keep up with her..." Excuse time!
"Then let her take you along with her! Go with the flow, Skyheart! Please, just this once! For yourself if nopony else! Orpheus, *you* agree with me right?"
Merryweather is back at-- above-- her seat on the other side of the table. In the background behind her are many fliers and ponies reading them and staring at Bardigan.
Skyheart clenches his teeth and takes a breath. "Fine... But..." He shakes his head and looks at the mare. "M-Merry...?"
Bardigan leans in and eyes Skyheart like this: i134.photobucket.com/albums/q120/leaf_on_wind/AvatarsAndSigs/FluttershyStare.png
Merryweather's eyes sparkle! Dewy and soft! Wait, she's staring past Skyheart at the dessert trolley. She pulls her gaze back to this table and she focuses. "Yup!"
You say "W...I mean... Um... Well... That sounds.... nice. I mean.. um..."
"You um speak-um in strange tongue, ug. What for you um mean?" Merry waggles a hoof behind her head to represent some sort of native headdress.
Skyheart lets out a breath. "When's your next flight? I'd like to see the ship." There. He said it... Kind of...
Bardigan swings around his stare to Merryweather.
"Oh! Welllll!" Merry begins flipping rapidly through a day planner. This is of no help and it is not even her own. Boy, Barnstormer's schedule is dull-- training, training, airshow, training-- hey a date with Big Mac! She circles that in red for Stormy and adds a small heart. Tee hee. Merry looks up after a moment. "IT'S MY AIRSHIP AND I CAN FLY IT ANYTIME! How about I pick you up at <SPECIFIED PLACE> on <DESIGNATED TIME>!?" That's not a euphemism, and how in Equestria does she get her voice to echo like that at the supposed blanks?
Skyheart blinks a bit. "Um... S-Sure...?" How else do you respond to that?
"SPIFF!" agrees Merry brightly, and zips over to high-hoof Skyheart.
Bardigan pats Skyheart on the back. "Good job, my boy."
Bardigan is waiting very patiently in front of an expensive little cafe in the middle of Ponyville Square, eyes on a watch he's carrying around. Ponies pass him by and stare, but he keeps his eye on the clock. The hours have ticked down to the minutes, which are ticking down to the seconds, which are ticking down to the very final last moment at which point *both* ponies he has told to appear... will appear. He hopes. He's gotten a little desperate, and if this doesn't work, he might as well go fetch that Enigma fellow...
Unbeknownst to Bardigan, there is another pony staring at the same watch over his shoulder. Yes, of course it's Merryweather, why would you even /ask/? Her only concession to this particular 'date' is the removal of her goggle cap, leaving her silvery ringlets of mane tumbling and bouncing about. She stares. And stares. And it's not until that /exact/ microscopic fraction of a second that Bardigan would notice something from the corner of one eye that she blurts, "TIME IS BUT THE STREAM I GO A-FISHING IN." Gnaah.
Bardigan feels something cold and tight seize him by the throat and throw him to the ground. Ah, he knows that feeling well: utter terror mixed with a dash of panic. He falls over, wings and limbs seizing up as he clutches his chest. The watch goes flying and tumbles to the ground. "... P... Puh... Punctual," he manages to squeeze out, slowly uncoiling his legs. "That's... admirable."
Merryweather glee! She beams a maniacal smile at Bardigan from deep within his personal space. "So! Where is he!?" There's a series of retina aching blurs as she proceeds to zip under the table, behind several chairs, and various other bits of scenery before screeching to a halt in front of Bardigan. "He's not here! I HAVE BEEN STOOD UP! He las let me down by stooding up~!" Frantically waving her forehooves, she swoops into Bardigan and clings, weeping as if candy itself had vanished from the world!
Bardigan has only *barely* gotten back on his hooves when Merryweather manages to get all over the area and then fall back onto him in the space of... *is* there a measurement of time small enough to say how fast she was? He's not sure. But even though his heart was in the middle of wheezing and gasping in his chest, a weeping mare is the one thing it can't take the sight of. "Erm... there there," he says, raising a hoof to gently pat her on the back. "He'll be here. He's... far too nice to do that to a filly. Just give it a few more... seconds." She must live in some kind of accelerated time bubble, considering barely ten seconds have gone by.
Merryweather is apparently too tiny to harbor more than a single emotion at a time. She /instantly/ perks, tears vanish, and she pops back into the air with a cheery, "'Kay!" Buzzling like some enormous bumblebee to the other side of the table, she settles into a mellow hover-- not actually /in/ the chair, mind you, but taking advantage of the proximity of it. "So! What's he like?"
"OW! OW! OW! OW!" Skyheart is seen galloping past. He's wearing a collar and a neat black tie and his mane is... half done half messy as Orpheus chases finally pecking him out of the house, down the street, into the square, toward the restaurant, right past Bardigan and Merryweather and right SMACK into a tree.
"Well, he-" Bardigan realizes he hasn't had time to describe Skyheart very well apart from 'he's a stallion, and he is this color:'. He taps his chin. "Well, skyheart... he's... he's a quiet kind of colt. He's a poet, actually. Very introspective. Not big on touching, especially of the wings. Which is odd, since he has a pet bird. You normally see him contemplating a new poem, or getting some quiet writing done. You almost never see him do *anything* loud or out of the ordinar-" Annnd there he goes crashing into a tree. Bardigan is stuck mid-sentence, jaw hanging open and hoof in the air. "... But there's a first time for everything," he finishes, even more shocked than before, if that's at all possible.
Merryweather listens carefully, nodding with quick little blurry nods that resemble afterimages in an old photograph. Quiet, check, she's very quiet, too, can hardly even be heard above a thunderstorm cell. Then Skyheart dashes past. She stares at this. Quick on his hooves, and he clearly loves trees. Merryweather is fascinated by trees, as she is with most things they don't have in Cloudsdale. "That tree didn't fight fair!"
Skyheart is now pegasus-first into a tree. There is a wonderfully done impression of his likeness in the bark as he pries himself from the tree. He's now wobbling a bit trying to shake the stars from around his head.
Bardigan watches Skyheart stagger, reaching out to try and hold him still. "Skyheart!" he announces. "Meet Merryweather. You, sir, are..." He picks up his watch again. "Fifty-three seconds late. Bad form, my friend. Merryweather was beside herself." For about five seconds. "Fortunately I've already reserved a table for you two... right here." And he guides Skyheart down to the chair. He is *not* going to let Skyheart mess this up!
Merryweather zips in and nabs three of the stars from around Skyheart's head, and she puts them in her own mane. Ooh, shiny. She's already on the other side of Skyheart, helping bustle him to the table. "Be careful of the dirt! It is not solid like a cloud! Ponies here cannot build homes from dirt. THIS IS WHY THEY INVENTED WOOD." Merry is an expert in ground ponies!
Skyheart haphazardly hobbles his way to a chair as directed and sits, taking a moment to collect his surroundi- "OW!" Or Orpheus could do it for him after landing on his head. He finally regains consciousness and takes in the sight of his date. "I... um... H-Hello..."
"Don't say it like *that,*" Bardigan whispers on the other side of Skyheart's head, peering at Merryweather from around Skyheart's ears. Pay no attention to the colt behind that other colt's mane! The big feathered hat makes it hard to hide, though. "Put out your hoof! Give her a compliment! Be *assertive!*"
Merryweather is framed with heart-stirring clouds and stunning rainbows as Skyheart looks. This is not true love, there's a team of weather ponies making her sign off on a shipment to Cowcutta. "...and a type nine altostrat..." o.o She realizes Skyheart's there and shoos them away. "Leave it on my desk, leave it on my desk, go on..." The rainbows and clouds are pushed off-screen by the weather ponies. She folds her hooves and tries to look innocent. "So! That... other pony with the big hat says you have a bird that writes poetry!?"
Skyheart pauses for a bit. He's not entirely sure what he should be saying. Then there's the bird comment. "U-Um... N-Not really. /I/ write the poetry. Orpheus just um..." He looks up at the bird on his head. "Orpheus, helpe me out here." THe bird coos and gives him a quick peck on the head. "OW! Yeah that..."
Bardigan rolls his eyes and does his best to fade the background, which is about five feet away, attempting to be inconspicuous with a glass of wine. Skyheart's semi on his own for now, but Bardigan's watching. No, really. He has yet to take his eyes off the couple.
Merryweather sees! The bird is management! Right! Merry hears Bardigan's advice and tries to be helpful. "He means you have to be suave! Sophistrated! LIKE THIS!" She warp-blurs directly in front of Skyheart, taking his place were she still on the other side of the table to see it. "OH MERRYWEATHER! YOU HAVE SUCH LOVELY EYES AND THEY ARE IN JUST THE RIGHT PLACE UPON YOUR FACE TO GIVE YOU BINOCULAR VISION WHICH IS SO CRITICAL TO HIGH-SPEED FLIGHT!" She flips places back to her original spot and simperingly bats her eyelashes. "That is SPIFF! Say something else!" Zip, and Skyheart gets a Merry in the face again as she takes his role, deepening her voice, "I AM OVERCOME WITH EMOTIONS THAT HAVE SPREAD INTO MY TEETH AND TONGUE." Merry swaps back to her spot and swoons onto the table. Does... she even really need Skyheart for this date?
Skyheart is rather besides himself as his date seems to be doing this all on her own. "I um.... ah..." Nervous and confused he may be, he knew romance. It was his talent. This was... clearly not. "Um... So... What do you do?" He asks, shrinking down a bit to avoid wing contact as she flitters about like a hummingbird.
Blink, blink. Merry instantly pops up from her swoon, zipping three vertical feet up and snapping off a terrifyingly stiff salute. She's suddenly giving off the aura of a world conqueror, a Marepoleon. "MERRYWEATHER! Cloudsdale Weather Planner and Dispatcher, First Class! CLOUDSDALE WEATHER CORPS! 'Let us be /your/ silver lining!' (tm)" She holds the pose long enough for a slight halo of raw patriotism to coalesce around her before settling back into a gentle hover, completely innocent looking again. "I'm a weather planner!"
Bardigan would have advice for Skyheart, were it not for the fact that he can't keep up with evreything that Merryweather is saying and doing. A weather corpsmare? That's something! "Stay on that!" he hisses. "Let her know how interesting it is!" Because in Bardigan's opinion, it actually is quite interesting.
Skyheart nods a bit in response. "So you worth with the weather teams, huh? What's that like I can't imagine being stuck up in the clouds all day." One might miss the fact that Skyheart grew up in Manehatten, but sometimes it shows up.
Merryweather flashes a twenty-four carat smile! Glee! "Weather is SPIFF! The ground is so weird! Ponies here walk on dirt! There are houses made of wood! PIE ROAMS FREE IN THE FIELDS AND CHAIRS ROCK BY THEMSELVES." Merry's hooves punctuate with the sort of gestures usually used to explain a UFO landing. "It's like some parallel world which is directly under Cloudsdale yet not perpendicular to it, and is thus PARALLEL." Merry is a Cloudsdale girl through and through.
Bardigan's got nothing. After a moment of staring and blinking, he looks at Skyheart and gestures with his hoof, implying that he should, somehow, add to that. After all, being a usually grounded pegasus, he has to have *something* to say about the difference between sky and earth.
Skyheart blinks. "Um..." Well she's not wrong, per say. "Um... Well... I grew up in Manehatten so..." The weather team in Manehatten is often considered one of the most underappreciated districts in Equestria. This might not end well.
Merryweather plans weather for all over Equestria! "Oh! OOOH. You'll love this then! The palace set a target of eighteen inches of snow for Manehatten by Hearthwarming! So we're going to cross-build a nor-easter with a so-wester and make a so-no-west-easter-with-a-twist!"
Only Bardigan's extensive stage experience keeps his eyes from rolling around in their sockets with confusion. He looks back at Skyheart. "Nod politely," he hisses out of the corner of his mouth.
Skyheart is blank-looking. He can't even PRETEND to understand most of that. "Uh..... so that means more snow, right? I should write a letter home?" He tilts his head.
Merryweather sees Bardigan looking blank. Sees Skyheart looking blank. Huh! This is another strange ground-pony ritual then! She spend the next ten seconds looking blank, until she gets bored with that. "Not just snow! SNOW. Only the finest Cloudsdale manufactured snow! Every flake is lovingly hoof-crafted and has to pass nine quality inspection points before it's good enough to fall on your head!"
Merryweather says "CLOUDSDALE WEATHER CORPS! 'Because there's no business like snow business!' (tm)"
Skyheart blinks again. "All that just for snow? I never would have guessed that." He starts to think. "I should probably get that letter out of the way now..." He starts to dig his head into his saddlebags to get his writing supplies.
Derpy hears someone say the word letter and is standing there the next time anyone looks, some distance behind Skyheart, wearing her postal bags for the first time in almost a week and just folding her wings.
Merryweather looks shocked! Wait, she's been playing with the lightning capacitor again, hasn't she. "YOU'VE NEVER TOURED THE WEATHER FOUNDRY!?" This is very up close and personal. Any closer and her nose would be molecularly bonded to Skyheart's. "It's only the center of all Cloudsdale! The cream in our coffee! The pride of our hearts! The enduring social contract in our civilized oversight of sky and ground! IT'S SPIFF!"
Bardigan perks up immediately, almost spitting up his wine as he hurries to throw more advice Skyheart's way. "Say you'd love to see it!" he says, like an oversized angel on the other stallion's shoulder. This could turn out to be a second date! Progress already!
Skyheart blinks as Merry gets RIGHT in his face. All he can see is her huge blue eyes blinking on occasion as they stare at him. "I um... ah...." He's hard to breathe when someone else's is right there. He has to say something though. "...S...Spiff?" He comments, "You... You said that before. What's that mean?"
"Mean ~clean!~" exclaims Derpy, glad to be able to explain what a word means for once, rather than the reverse. She throw out her wings and beats them spiffily before settling down. Then she tilts her head. "Have leeetter?"
"There may *be* letters in the future," Bardigan says, rubbing his hooves together in a rather scheming way.
Wow, he's a weird one. He's a poet and he doesn't know plain ponyese? Merry zips back to her side of the table hovers amiably above the chair. Chairs are useful as flight markers, but rarely does Merry actually hold still long enough to sit in one. "Spiff! Neato! Cool beans! Keen-gear! Top hole! Pip-pip! Nifty!..." The camera goes out of focus. When it returns, the clock on the wall behind Merry shows about fifteen minutes have passed. "...bang up! Groovy! Dandy! Peachy! Swell!... uh... Corking! YOU KNOW! SPIFF!"
Skyheart is less than entralled about nine-hundred straight seconds of synonymous slang speak. "Um... Yeah. Spiff. I think I get it..." He's totally forgotten about the letter by this point. "So... um.... Shouldn't we get food or...?"
Bardigan nudges Skyheart's shoulder. "Weather foundry tour!" he reminds him. "Keep that in mind!"
Skyheart glances back and whispers to his friend. "Why? Did you want to go?"
Merryweather has been keeping a written list of SPIFF to make sure she neither misses anything nor repeats herself. This she scrolls back up after a final check. "Food! Food is where I keep all my vitamins! Yes, let's food together! IT IS SOCIAL GLUE, WHICH DOES NOT SMELL LIKE HOOVES THE WAY REGULAR GLUE DOES."
"No, cloud for brains!" Bardigan hisses back. "*You* are going to go! You know! Second date! Let her know you're *interested!* Invest yourself in her, Skyheart!"
"Look beyond the everyday horizons! Break out of your own box!" Bardigan shakes Skyheart's shoulders, realizes he's interrupting, and goes back to his table.
Derpy is delighted to be learning about social mores from Merryweather, who seems so bright and knowledgeable! But she has duties, and must be going. Getting tired of waiting for Skyheart to post his letter, she flaps and takes off for better pastures.
Skyheart blinks a bit and then looks back to Bardigan. Then the shaking happens. He rattles a bit even after Bardigan lets go and turns around. "Um...." Wait. WAS he interested in a second date? He wasn't even sure what was going on NOW!
When did Merry get over to the same side of the table as Skyheart, on the opposite side as Bardigan, and why is she wearing those red horns? Where did she even get them? "ALL INVESTMENTS WILL BE COMPOUNDED QUARTERLY AT NINE PERCENT."
Skyheart is frozen to where he's sitting. What just happened? He isn't sure what's going on right now either. Heck, even Orpheus is kind of confused.
"*Now* get the food," Bardigan says from the other side, his wings looking a little white in this light. "Or some wine! Do *something!* You're letting her slip right through your hooves!"
Merryweather zips back to her own side of the table, leaving the fake horns to spin in midair before they drop to the floor. Zing! Before gravity's even taken ahold of them, she's already got a menu up and is placidly browsing it, the picture of any normal pegasus mare. "I don't know most of these strange earth-pony foods! WHAT IS A SAND-WICH? I told Stormy they ate dirt here! She scoffed, scoff, scoff, and I gave her a throat lozenge only I ate it myself BECAUSE THEY ARE TASTY AREN'T THEY? Waiter? Do you have throat lozenges here?"
Skyheart blinks for a bit and shakes his head. "How about I just order for you...?" He calls the waiter over with a sort of business-like manner. "We'll have two plates of spaghetti, please. Light sauce and a little seasoning."
"No ma'am," says the waiter. "Might I recommend the De la Romani-Colti instead?"
Merryweather buzzes into the waiter's face with the wrath of ten thousand thunderbolts. "WHAT DID YOU CALL SKYHEART!? YOU TAKE THAT BACK OR THE NEXT HAILSTONE WE DROP IS GOING TO COME VERY CLOSE TO YOU BUT NOT QUITE CLOSE ENOUGH TO HIT YOU BUT BOY WILL -YOU- BE TERRIFIED LET ME TELL YOU THAT!" Her wings make a furious staccato in the air, angry hornet style.
"He's suggesting a wine to drink," Bardigan whispers, nose poking up from the bottom of the screen.
Skyheart is plenty freaked himself. In fact he's ducked under the table, leaving Orpheus to rest on the chair back for now.
The waiter remains surprisingly stoic, blinking only once. "De la Romani-Colti, ma'am," he explains. "It is an exquisite wine from the lowlands of Bittonia."
"Oh!" Merry's back above her seat before her shadow has time to catch up, menu in her hooves. "No, I think the 72' Cabernet du Arabi', sommelier." She flashes her pearly whites. Glee!
Skyheart cautiously peeks out from under the table. It doesn't take him long to return to his seat. He shuffles a bit uncomfortably. "So...."
Merryweather points a hoof at Skyheart. "Your trouble is that you're too tense. You need to relax and not be so jumpy all the time! You need to be laid back and mellow, like, oh, what's her name, Pinkie Pie, you know."
The waiter goes to get their orders, whilst Bardigan stands behind Merryweather and nods solemnly in agreement. Lighten up Sky!
Skyheart pauses and tries to remember Pinkie Pie. Last he saw of her she literally rolled a cake downhill on his birthday- somehow knowing when his birthday is. Maybe she's not always like that? "I... I'll try. S-Sorry. I just... I just get nervous in situations like this." He chuckles a bit. "Look at me. The romantic scared of it himself."
"You know what relaxes me!?" asks Merry, buzzling a bit in the air. "Sailing! We need to take you up in my airship! You'll love it! The wind in your hooves! The wide open sky! Skimming the clouds-- type one cumulus or higher, we don't want to bank under a thermal inversion-- IT'S SPIFF!"
Skyheart blinks a bit. "Um... I've... never been on an airship before..." He says weakly. "Um... What's that like?"
Bardigan's nodding gets more and more excitable until his hat is bobbing back and forth on his head. Yes, yes, go on!
"What's it like? WHAT'S IT LIKE!?" Merry's zipped across into his personal space again, to try and sling a foreleg over his neck, using the other one to sweep wide, grand gestures like a true showpony. "Imagine it! The sky as far as the eyes can see! Clouds under you, over you, inside you, don't keep your mouth open like that, it's not healthy, swallowing all that cloud at once! Give you gas! The deck gently rolling underhoof! The creak of the ship's timbers! IT'S AS IF YOU HAD WINGS!" the pegasus mare tells the other pegasus within earshot of a third pegasus. Hmmm. Nope, no irony here. "Picnicking in the clouds! And then you can sail straight into Cloudsdale! Whooo!"
This part actually DOES impress Skyheart. He can almost picutre the scenery. "A clear view of the stars uninhibitied by the clouds..." He mentions to himself. "Wow...."
Bardigan makes 'move along' motions with his hooves from behind Merryweather. Something you're both interested in, something you'd like to do... only one thing to do next Skyheart!
Merryweather is already next to Bardigan, watching his hooves with wide eyes. o.o "You should have a doctor look at that. YOUR HOOVES HAVE THE HOKEY POKIES."
Skyheart goes from wonderous right back to confused. "Huh?" He looks over to Merry. "he's just ah... um... Actually, yeah. He's sick. Just got back from the doctor."
Bardigan facehoofs. He marches right over to Skyheart and whispers in his ear. "Ask her to *show you!*"
Merryweather blur-zips back a few feet from Bardigan. She sprays disinfectant towards him. She then puts up a barricade of police tape between two chairs. The megaphone is perhaps superfluous. *KTTCH* "ATTENTION PONIES. DO NOT APPROACH THE PEGASUS IN THE FUNNY HAT. HE IS HIGHLY INFECTIOUS. THAT IS ALL." *TCH*
Skyheart gives a look to Bardigan. "I...I know that I... I just..." He shrinks down again. Yep, the help isn't so much telling Skyheart what to do more than it is to swallow his nerves and DO IT.
"Do it or I'll... I'll hug you with my wing!" Bardigan blurts out.
Merryweather is busy stapling up a flier. It's got a photo of Bardigan that precisely matches his exact current pose and facial expression, and reads, 'BEWARE: HOKEY POKIES. If you feel the urge to turn yourself about, please seek medical help immediately. A public service reminder from the CWC.'
"Do it or I'll do it for you!" Bardigan adds, either choosing to ignore or still ignorant of posters of his face all over. He's probably just used to it, being a famous actor. "It sounds beautiful! And she's nice! At least *experience* it for yourself!"
Skyheart lurches down. "Wh-What? You woulnd't...." He sighs. "B-B-But... I... I can't keep up with her..." Excuse time!
"Then let her take you along with her! Go with the flow, Skyheart! Please, just this once! For yourself if nopony else! Orpheus, *you* agree with me right?"
Merryweather is back at-- above-- her seat on the other side of the table. In the background behind her are many fliers and ponies reading them and staring at Bardigan.
Skyheart clenches his teeth and takes a breath. "Fine... But..." He shakes his head and looks at the mare. "M-Merry...?"
Bardigan leans in and eyes Skyheart like this: i134.photobucket.com/albums/q120/leaf_on_wind/AvatarsAndSigs/FluttershyStare.png
Merryweather's eyes sparkle! Dewy and soft! Wait, she's staring past Skyheart at the dessert trolley. She pulls her gaze back to this table and she focuses. "Yup!"
You say "W...I mean... Um... Well... That sounds.... nice. I mean.. um..."
"You um speak-um in strange tongue, ug. What for you um mean?" Merry waggles a hoof behind her head to represent some sort of native headdress.
Skyheart lets out a breath. "When's your next flight? I'd like to see the ship." There. He said it... Kind of...
Bardigan swings around his stare to Merryweather.
"Oh! Welllll!" Merry begins flipping rapidly through a day planner. This is of no help and it is not even her own. Boy, Barnstormer's schedule is dull-- training, training, airshow, training-- hey a date with Big Mac! She circles that in red for Stormy and adds a small heart. Tee hee. Merry looks up after a moment. "IT'S MY AIRSHIP AND I CAN FLY IT ANYTIME! How about I pick you up at <SPECIFIED PLACE> on <DESIGNATED TIME>!?" That's not a euphemism, and how in Equestria does she get her voice to echo like that at the supposed blanks?
Skyheart blinks a bit. "Um... S-Sure...?" How else do you respond to that?
"SPIFF!" agrees Merry brightly, and zips over to high-hoof Skyheart.
Bardigan pats Skyheart on the back. "Good job, my boy."
