ZephyrBurst

Welcome aboard!

Be sure to let the sun go down eventually and come say hi in the chat sometime.

"There's no point in saying anything else hurtful or insulting. We both messed up and we're both terrible ponies."

Zephyr didn't see any point in further conversation with Max. Neither pony liked the other and it was probably best if they remained silent for the rest of the trip and parted ways once they reached Manehattan. He did want to verbalize this thought, but paused first.

"I have nothing else to say to you Max. And unless you've got something important to say... even then, just don't... I don't like you and I'm only doing this to make up for that leg injury. When we get to Manehatten, I don't care what happens to you." He did feel he should make sure Max found some help when they arrived in the city. Maybe to a hospital. Either way, he had hoped Max was done. What he said and what he felt seemed to conflict somewhat.

There can only be one Zephyr here!! D:

Nah, welcome aboard. :smile:

Hey there and welcome to our side of the pasture. Hope you enjoy your stay here. Also I'm feeling great right now. :smile:

Zephyr knew what he wanted to say to Starlight. A date, just a nice dinner and a walk. What a question to ask when he had only just met her. He played out possible outcomes to the question in his head, each one ending up worse than the last. The thought itself was mystifying. Him, with a nice pony like her. If she knew his secrets, would she want nothing to do with him? He ate his sandwich in silence at first, using it to curb the frustration whirling around in his mind.

His eyes would periodically glance up at her, and during one such moment, she was looking at him. Wow those eyes could melt any heart, he thought. He couldn't believe the silly and cheesy thoughts in his mind. It was probably that silly book he was trying to read. Some romance novel he couldn't pronounce the name of and had no idea what the book was about before trying to read it. Not that he understood half of it, too many big words he didn't know the meaning of. He figured he better answer her question, so he finished swallowing the bite he had...

"I think that's a great idea Starlight. As soon as we're done eating, we'll fly over there." No way he could ask her to dinner. He thought it best to let that thought subside for now. There was just so much else going on, she'd probably think it was too sudden anyway. Zephyr had thought it himself. He was just excited to see where things would go.

[[ Continued in A Birthday Invitation ]]

Again, Max draped his injured hoof in front of his face. He's annoying even when he's not trying to be and his ordering Zephyr around wasn't helping. He kicked off the ground for a quick start and shot off toward Manehattan, again keeping his altitude low.

"I am not one of your employees and I don't take orders from you!" Zephyr thought back on the cave, it was something that boggled his mind. He considered Max to be very lucky, had he run into Zephyr in the same situation only a few months ago, the outcome would have been far less fortunate for Max. Zephyr pushed these thoughts to the side for the question at hand.

"I don't understand something Max. In the cave, why did you antagonize me like that? What purpose would that serve? AND, why did you continue to do that when you knew what I was capable of? I just don't understand why you would put yourself in danger like that. And be honest, even if you think it'll sound hurtful. You're good at..." He stopped mid-sentence, again he was being hurtful to Max when he shouldn't. Since he couldn't bring himself to hurt him anymore, it was all coming out in verbal form.

Ooh, these turned out awesome. Good job Brian on your hard work and being able to keep to the show's style. It seems Max has a fan. :3

Hey there, hope you enjoy your time here.

Oh, check out the irc channel sometime and say hi.

Zephyr just watched again as Max gave his earth pony employee instructions and sent him off. He was happy that this whole ordeal was almost over and watched the earth pony walk away. Just then, Max turned to Zephyr. He returned a glare back to Max.

"I can't do that Max..." Zephyr paused before continuing and smiled at Max.

"You could have given me away but you didn't. For that... thanks. I really do appreciate it." He looked down the road in the direction of Manehatten.

His expression became a little more serious. "But I'll be glad to not have to see you ever again either."

Zephyr approached Max, dropped his body low to the ground, and waited for him to climb on again. He still had more to say to Max, but he would wait till they were off the ground.

Hey, I saw you in the chat earlier... wait... I see you there now.

Glad you decided to join up. I'll poke you in irc sometime.

RAWR!! Thanks for deciding to join in after that.

Definitely check around and see what's here and say hi in the irc chat sometime. We won't bite... maybe. ^,..,^

Zephyr figured the pegasus filly would jump or be a little startled from that. Again, he tried to speak calmly.

"Oh, I didn't mean to startle you. I was just out a nightly walk. Couldn't sleep and... well it's not important."

Zephyr sat back on his flank to appear less imposing, he wasn't sure if he appeared scary or frightening to her. He wasn't very good on conversation starters or conversation in general, so he focused on the quill.

"So you're a writer?" He put his right fore hoof forward. "What kind of stuff are you writing about?" There really wasn't any reason for him to have approached this young pegasus now that he thought about it. What was she doing out here alone? He figured he would get to that later if given the chance.

"I almost forgot, I'm Zephyr Burst."

Zephyr didn't respond to Max afterward, he only remained quiet. There was nothing to say to Max. Zephyr would just wind up saying something hurtful anyway. It wasn't long until he heard Max shout and point to a broken carriage. Zephyr landed close by and Max jumped off immediately. To his surprise, Max actually did care for his employee's safety. Again, Max seemed to forget about his leg and stumbled over because of it. Each time made Zephyr feel worse.

Zephyr waited on the side as Max approached the large earth pony. He was getting nervous again. Max could rat him out at any time. His heart rate sped up when the pony asked Max about his leg. This was it...

Instead, Max lied. Zephyr gave a quiet sigh of relief.

When Max asked for help, Zephyr didn't waste any time and approached the tangled earth pony.

"Oh, of course!"

The ropes were tangled up pretty good, it seemed like he was tied up this way. It took awhile to untangle him completely and Max wasn't able to help very well. It was almost painful for Zephyr to see Max in so much pain trying to do this. Zephyr eventually had to bat Max away so he could untangle the pony on his own.

"Just go rest your leg Max, you can't do much with it like that."

It wasn't really easier without Max, but not having to watch him fumble around in pain was a better alternative. Near the end of the untangling process, he asked Max to hold down a piece of rope for him, but anything requiring Max to use more than his left hoof would be too much.

The earth pony finally came loose. He didn't seem to be seriously injured at all, which was a relief. Zephyr still waited for Max to reveal what actually happened.

Hey there and welcome to the herd!

Like some of the others said, we don't bite.

[[OOC: This thread is now open.]]

The sudden thrashing about and shouting came as a shock to Zephyr. Why did the unicorn want to go back to the cave?!

"I am NOT going back to that cave!"

"I need to check on my employee who was pulling my carriage! I left him behind, but I told him I would go back for him!"

Oh great, it was a detour. The flight to Manehatten was going to be hard enough, but now there was more. It took a moment for Max' words to fully come together in Zephyr's mind. Max had left a pony out in the storm?! He wanted to stop to throw Max off, and yell at him about how disloyal that was, but now there was a pony that needed to be checked up on. There was no time to stop for that. Max was holding on tightly, almost squeezing his underside, so he knew Max wouldn't fly off during the turn. It was expected, he figured Max had probably never flown on a pegasus' back like this and was probably nervous.

Zephyr changed direction to where Max pointed, trying not to turn too sharply. Mainly for his own well being as Max would probably squeeze harder if he had.

"Max, I'm not threatening you here, but if this pony is hurt because of this, I'm going to do more than sprain that leg of yours. You had better hope he's all right." Zephyr was starting to think that he should lay off of Max. He looked miserable the last time he saw his face and not because of the pain in his leg. Max was a horrible pony, but he was making an effort to be understanding and Zephyr decided it would be best to try and be as friendly as possible. The situation certainly could use less confrontation. Zephyr was realizing that both of them felt lower than dirt...

Well then, welcome to our side of the pasture.

Where are you getting all that from? The stamina one seems off, why would Twilight be able to go longer than seasoned athletes like Rainbow Dash and Applejack?

*pokes the new pony*

Hey there and welcome to our side of the pasture. I hope you enjoy it here.

Ah, another who shares my dislike of constant Dash pairings. Anyway, hope you enjoy the forum and all that is here. Feel free to join us in irc sometime.

Well hello there Mike, glad to have you join us.

Hope you enjoy it here in both the RP and non RP sections.

As Max climbed on and his weight fully shifted onto him, he suddenly understood just how hard this was going to be. If this was punishment for what he had just done, it was justly deserved, he thought. Max' sprained leg dangled in his face, and thoughts of Max complaining about the pain right in his ear during the trip filled his mind with preemptive annoyance.

"I'll believe what you say when your actions follow up your words. Till then, I don't care. And just to make sure it's clear. I don't like you either and would rather leave you in this cave. I'm really not sure what's making me do this, so look at it how ever your corrupt mind would."

He began to take off. "Now hold on. If you fall, I'm not stopping to pick you up." Zephyr was only antagonizing Max and had every intent to make sure Max got to Manehatten safely. As much as he hated Max, he simply couldn't leave him. It was troubling, yet liberating to know he could bring himself to help.

The initial lift off, before his wings could catch a current, was the hardest part. He lifted himself off the ground and flew up toward the hole he made. The musty damp air inside the cave, mixed with his damp fur and dirt drying on him, made the flight toward the exit harsh. When Zephyr reached the exit, he had to move slow to get through. He began crawling through to keep from scraping Max along the cave ceiling and to give his wings a small break. The crawl seemed to take forever. The outside was right there within reach and Zephyr so desperately wanted to be out of the cave. It finally happened and there was a great sense of freedom and reprieve afterward.

"Now you really need to hold on..." And with that, he boosted himself with a kick off the cave wall and flew off toward Manehatten. He knew this was going to be a long flight. Zephyr kept his altitude fairly low in case he needed to land abruptly like Max starting to slip off. Normally he would fly well above the trees, sometimes above the clouds. As he imagined, the soft rain felt great.

For me, it made more sense if Applejack won.

Zephyr laid on his back for a moment trying to assess if he was injured or not. The fall hurt his back side and his hind legs stung a little, especially the one that was nicked when he tried to get away from the falling rocks. Bending and turning didn't reveal anything unusual, just the normal pain that came from falling. He was relieved to know nothing was sprained or broken, though Zephyr was usually lucky with that kind of stuff.

Max limped over to the upside down pegasus actually looking concerned for Zephyr's well being. It wasn't expected, but Zephyr believed it to be a facade. He shot Max an upset stare.

"What do you care?" Zephyr rolled over to bring himself up on all four hooves and shook himself off as well as he could. His fur was still damp from when he was caught in the rain which caused some dirt to stick to him. He hated that tugging feeling it had on his fur. Just something else to annoy him. Previous thoughts about Max letting the authorities know about this, returned. Somepony is going to ask him what happened, even worse was when he brought Max back to Manehatten. Leaving Max here would solve most of that. It was possible Max could eventually get out on his own if he really tried... maybe. It didn't matter, Zephyr couldn't leave him here. He had already done something he shouldn't have, which made him feel bad enough.

Zephyr looked up at the gap in the cave in, which was now bigger. He sighed when he realized the day was no where near being over. He was going to have to carry Max. At least out of the cave, which was going to be rough on his wings. He sighed again.

"I should have hurt your legs AFTER getting out of the cave." He wasn't even sure what that meant or what difference it made to anything. He looked at Max, but didn't smile. Reluctantly, Zephyr kneeled down.

"Well hurry up, get on my back so we can finally get out of this cave." He was actually looking forward to the light rain that still came down outside.

Zephyr didn't respond to Max at first. He was trying to concentrate as he had almost gotten a larger rock free from the wall.

He tried not to sound so annoyed. "I stopped because..." He paused for a moment as he was intently digging out a few bigger rocks. "Because what I did was wrong... Even if you did have it coming. And for the last time, I'm not going to, FINALLY!"

Zephyr pinned his hind legs to the wall to use for extra leverage when he placed his two fore hooves on a larger rock and pushed hard. The rock barely moved at first and Zephyr began to grunt as he used all his strength to push it out the other side. The rock slid out and Zephyr's body laid on the top of the debris as a result of the push. He could see outside clearly, and could even get out if he wanted, but he couldn't leave Max.

That area of the debris started to shift and eventually cause a rock slide. Part of which, Zephyr was using to rest his hind legs on. His hind legs followed the rocks sliding down and Zephyr came with it soon after. He quickly tried to push off the rocks and fly, but he was only half successful. His right hind leg was hit with a falling rock as he pushed himself away and he tumbled backward to the ground, landing on his back a few paces away from Max. Luckily for the both of them, the rock slide didn't go far and helped to make an opening big enough for both of the ponies.

Zephyr sighed when he heard Max' question. OF COURSE Max would suspect him of using and ditching him. He was starting to think it might've been a good idea to just let Max get hit with rocks. Zephyr stopped and looked down at Max.

"Oh that's easy Max..." He turned and moved a hoof sized rock off the rubble. "It was my intention to leave you here to rot alone." Zephyr said it jokingly, it wasn't often that Zephyr made a joke as his tone wasn't quite sarcastic, and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to sound when making one. He giggled after, hoping Max would get it.

He turned to look at Max again. "If I didn't care at all about your well being, why would I bother to tell you to get back from the falling debris?" He turned back to work at the cave in again.

"If you need to know, I planned on making this hole big enough for me to fly you out on my back. But if you want to keep assuming I'm out to get you, I can leave you here. I mean I wouldn't want to prove you wrong!" Zephyr's tone displayed that he was annoyed, but not like before, he was much more calm in his demeanor.