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Post by Crescent on Mar 8, 2005 1:54:19 GMT -5
[[this would have happened after the Lost Foal thread in Cotton Candy Cafe and before picking Mookie up from the nursery on the Ponyville thread]]
Tramp trotted down the street, whistling to himself. He was holding a pretty bouquet of flowers he had carefully chosen himself and was looking for the correct house. It had been a long while, but he thought he recalled it somewhat well. Even so, he nearly missed it and had to turn back to get to the door.
He got suddenly very nervous. He had rather liked Fluttershy, but who was to say she would still be here? Who was to say she would still be interested in him, even if she were here? She might be married, who knew?
But he decided to brace himself. He had got this far, and it would be ridiculous to turn back from the doorstep. He thought of his brother, leering at him that he was afraid of a doorbell. So Tramp took a deep breath, checked that there was nothing funny about the way he looked, and then rung the doorbell. And then he waited. Very, very nervously, though he attempted to hide it.
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Post by silverfall on Mar 11, 2005 0:16:21 GMT -5
(She lives in an apartment building, but I can fix this...)
Fluttershy was huffing and puffing as she came up the street. She had been out for a jog each day this week. She'd put on a few pounds since the holidays, what with eating all that candy after Razz had pretty much said "No thanks!" to her advances. She trotted up the walkway to her apartment and was fumbling with her keys. She distractedly noticed the stallion ringing the bell and waiting to get buzzed in.
"Oh, hello," she said, forgetting the reason they'd installed the door lock in the first place. "I can open that for you, if you like." She finally found the right key and held it up proudly. Then a look of surprise crossed her face. "Tramp?"
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Post by WingSong on Mar 11, 2005 0:40:21 GMT -5
((Oooh, gotcha. Will this affect how he acts towards Wing Song in the other thread then? I'll just be here eavesdropping..))
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Post by Crescent on Mar 11, 2005 5:25:17 GMT -5
[[Wing Song: Yeah, I thought it probably will affect to some extent. Silverfall: thanks, I didn't know that ]] Tramp recognised Fluttershy only when she had found the key and he had moved the bouquet away from between them so that he could see her face. A happy smile spread over his face. Somehow, he thought, she looked even cuter when she was a little out of breath like that. For a few moments he forgot himself looking at her. She was really pretty. "Hello, Flutters," he said, when he realised he was being silent too long. A slight blush touched him around the ears and he forgot all his fancy pick-up lines he had planned on ever since Rogue told him they'd be going back to Ponyville. "I'm stopping by the city and I figured... I thought..." He gulped his nervousness down and held out the bouquet. "Here, I brought something for you."
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Post by silverfall on Mar 12, 2005 19:46:28 GMT -5
Fluttershy took the flowers with the surprised expression still on her face. Blinking several times and feeling light-headed, she found herself working her jaw to speak, but no words came out. She let out a small laugh.
"Why, thank you!" She hadn't felt quite this special in a long time. He'd even called her by that little pet name he used to use. "I-I don't know what to say!" She stood there for a moment longer. Was her face getting red? "Well, what am I doing. Let me open the door. Yes, come on in."
Fluttershy turned the key in the lock and proceeded to enter the building. She motioned for Tramp to follow her into the entryway where she stopped for a minute to get the mail out of her letterbox.
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Post by Crescent on Mar 13, 2005 2:13:04 GMT -5
Tramp was pleased to see her getting happy for the attention. It gave him a little more confidence. He smiled and followed her inside. She really was pretty. He'd nearly forgotten how pretty.
"So what have you been up to all this time?" he asked her in lack of anything better, as he stopped to wait for her to pick up her mail. For a minute there he was a little divided on whether he should help her carry something or not. Would she consider it pushy or insulting if he did? The mail and the flowers didn't really weigh anything, and there were mares who preferred doing everything themselves. But then again many of them liked chivalrous behaviour. He sighed in his mind. How was he to know? And then she had already got the mail out of the letterbox, and he felt his chance was past anyway.
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Post by silverfall on Mar 13, 2005 5:27:28 GMT -5
Sifting through the mail, Fluttershy said nothing at first, seemingly distracted by her bills. Then she smiled brightly and motioned for Tramp to follow her up the stairs.
"Well, I completed my training in Dream Valley and came home again just after the battle with the Dark Rainbow. Everything was in ruins. I documented the after events, taking several pictures. You know me, a flutterbug!" She laughed, but then became serious again. "It was terrible, Tramp. I didn't know what to do at first. Then everything seemed to fall into place. I've been helping out at the nursery. There are a lot of young foals who need looking after now."
She led him toward her apartment at the end of the hall.
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Post by Crescent on Mar 14, 2005 8:52:57 GMT -5
Tramp nodded to her, following her. He wondered in passing whether this Mookie he had met earlier was one of those orphans. Perhaps he had been wandering around town ever since the war. It sounded quite unlikely to him, but where else could the lost foal have come from?
He pushed the thought from his mind and looked sympathetic. He was a kind heart, after all, and though used to death, more so than many other ponies, in any case, he still didn't like it.
"I wish I would have been here, then," he said. "I might have been able to do something. In the battle, anyway. But Rogue and I heard of it only after it was all over." He moved a little closer to her. "Are you all right? It must have been hard on you."
At least he assumed as much. Mares got usually shocked from such dark events as war.
[]
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Post by silverfall on Mar 15, 2005 19:36:21 GMT -5
(Makes sense to me.)
"No, no," Fluttershy said, smiling gently, but pushing back the comfort of his presence. She closed her eyes. "I wasn't here for the battle. Only the aftermath. The things I saw." She opened her eyes. "Please, come, in."
She opened the door. Her apartment was small, but cozy, and the walls were covered in little photographs in decorative paper frames that she had made herself. Her coffee table was covered in photo albums and her camera was on her desk in the living room. She came in and motioned for Tramp to have a seat on the couch.
"I'm just going to freshen up a bit," she said. "Can I get you anything? Something to drink?" She grabbed a old vase off the bookshelf and was about to go into the kitchen to fill it.
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Post by Crescent on Mar 16, 2005 9:06:54 GMT -5
Tramp rather liked her apartment. He always had liked places that looked like they were someone's home, and Fluttershy's certainly did. The photographs everywhere gave a sense of cosiness that Tramp had always missed in his travelling life. It was not so much to settle down to a specific spot that he missed as much as someone to share his life with, someone to cry and laugh with, someone to have a few foals with. Someone to love. All these thoughts crossed his mind in a tangled mess as he made his way to the couch, smiling to her.
"No, thank you," he said at first, then changed his mind. "Well, maybe a drink." He looked at the vase she picked up. "Can I help with that? I think I still remember where the kitchen is. I could put the flowers into water far you."
[[He has been in the apartment before, I should think, but had they... well, done anything, do you think?]]
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Post by silverfall on Mar 16, 2005 22:24:48 GMT -5
(Are you asking me if they have fooled around? Possibly a little. I bet they didn't get too far, though. Probably not past the couch. ) "Oh, thank you, yes, of course." She handed him the flowers and the vase. "I will go tidy up, then. Help yourself to whatever is in the fridge. Juice, fizzy pop, something with a little more kick." She span around and made for the hall toward the bedroom and the small, single bath. She left the door just ajar so she could continue to talk to him. "So when did you get in?" she asked. She picked up a washcloth and soaked it in the sink and then used it to cool the back of neck. It was cool and refreshing and her eyes were half closed. Her muscles were quite tired from the jogging.
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Post by Crescent on Mar 17, 2005 4:12:03 GMT -5
[[Is what I thought... ;D Makes Tramp miss for more.]]
Tramp took the flowers and the vase and went over to the kitchen, to fill the vase up with water. He noticed she left the door of the bathroom a bit ajar and couldn't help peeking in just a little. Then he checked himself and turned his eyes away, concentrating on taking care of the flowers. He reproached himself. That was not how a nice stallion behaved.
He filled up the vase, grabbed a soda from the fridge and returned to the couch.
"Oh, I came only this morning," he said, easing himself on the couch. "My brother and I helped this friend to set up her booth up to the town square, to sell some veggies."
He wasn't sure why he told her that. Would she be interested? Probably not. He still felt tempted to go up to the bathroom door. But he had never been one of those charismatic stallions who can just sweep a mare off their hooves. For him, it was always a lot of work to even get them interested, or so it felt.
Again Tramp thought jealously of his brother. Rogue never had any problems with mares. In fact, he had practically one in every town.
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Post by silverfall on Mar 17, 2005 12:43:02 GMT -5
Fluttershy finished washing up and gave herself a spritz of Just Peachy just over her head. She tossed her mane, feeling the tinkles of the perfume around her.
"So, your friend is selling vegetables in the square?"
She walked back into the living room and smiled at him as she walked over to the desk and picked up a book. She returned to the couch and sat down next to him. She wasn't too far or too close, but just right to sit and turn to him while they talked.
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Post by Crescent on Mar 17, 2005 14:17:05 GMT -5
Tramp smiled. Ah, the perfume smelt absolutely wonderful. He has already had the time to forget how nice mares usually smelled. A bit belatedly he wondered if he should have got some cologne somewhere or something. Well, too late for that.
"Yeah," he said, then shrugged. "Well, more like Rogue's friend, really. You might remember meeting her in passing - her name's Gibberish. Nervous lot. Talks funny. Very suspicious. We helped her settle down outside the town last time we were around."
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Post by silverfall on Mar 18, 2005 10:23:14 GMT -5
Fluttershy tilted her head and gave it some thought. Her hair fell forward, framing her face.
"I don't remember," she said. "But there are so many ponies in Ponyville now. It's hard to keep track." She sighed wisftully. "I remember the good old days, when there wasn't much but farm fields and now everything is changed. It's nice, don't get me wrong, but it's busy now."
She handed him the book.
"This is a collection of the photos I shot after the destruction. It will be available next season. This is an advanced copy from my publisher."
The picture on the cover was the castle in shambles. In the forground was a foal rushing into the arms of an adult. Both of them were covered in dust and the look on their faces was relief and joy, as if they'd just found each other.
Fluttershy gave a gentle smile. The destruction of the town had been a terrible thing, but ponies were strong of heart and character. It was this strength and pride and the ability to come together against all odds she hoped to honor with her book. It made her proud to live here, to see these ponies every day and know how deep their bravery really went.
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