Look Before You Leap [Wide Open]

[drizzle]

Cloud hopping was by far the best way to get around if you didn't feel like stretching your wings. How unicorns and earth ponies could go around on the ground all the time was a mystery to him. That soft, cottony feeling under hoof - it couldn't be beat. And Drizzle - with his penchant for less-than-graceful landings as of late was equally thankful for the forgiving bounciness - the squishy wisps of fog serving as a great crash pad for any accidental spills.

He had woken up that morning with a kink in his right wing - probably because somewhere in the middle of the night he had rolled over on it, pinning it between his body at a weird angle. His ma'd taken a look at it, deemed it fine, if sore, and told him to keep from flapping around so much - at least for today. Not the easiest thing to do for some pegasi - but he'd taken it in stride, and decided that maybe today would be best spent dealing with things closer to the ground. Clasping the padded handle of a bucket in his teeth, he had set out cloud hopping, until the tiny rooftops of Ponyville grew closer and closer.

One, two, three - another leap took him out in the air, and doing his best to keep his flaps to a minimum, he spread out his wings, using their surface as extra balance as he coasted down to another lower-hanging batch of cover. He stumbled, but managed to catch himself with only one front leg sinking up to his knee in dampness. A final hope and he'd be at ground level - but he didn't want to drop down unexpectedly.

"Lookout below." He whinnied. Or, tried to, at least. With his bucket still firmly clasped in his mouth, it sounded more like 'moooof bwoooo.' But it was better than nothing. With a leap, Drizzle was off - and it was about three seconds after he had launched himself into the air that he realized his mistake - he really should have checked first to see if anyone was there ANYWAYS. And that they had heard them.

Because then he probably wouldn't have found himself swooping quite low - on a direct course for some other pony.

[fluttershy]

"Lookout below."

Of course the powers that be deemed her the unfortunate mare to be strolling beneath the pegasus as he leapt. A squeak of surprise left Fluttershy as the cry hit her pale ears, the filly freezing in her tracks. Unsure of exactly which direction he was coming from, her only next thought was to flatten herself against the ground, hooves holding her ears down in terror. A pair of snowy ears peered out from her mane, followed by an unimpressed face. Angel's nap had been disturbed.

A nigh silent rant and a paw in the air expressed his discomfort, the bunny sitting squarely on the back of his pony companion. He then turned to Fluttershy herself, a frown on his adorable little face, which probably made him difficult to take seriously. Not to mention that Angel couldn't speak English. It was only when he began to bounce in frustration that the mare had the courage to look up, however.

"Oh, oh, Angel... Please... please calm down." She asked softly, voice barely more than a whisper. With no idea who her almost assailant was, Fluttershy didn't want to make any more noise than she absolutely had to, despite Angel's apparent need to cause a fuss. Oh, how they differed sometimes.

[drizzle]

Drizzle did not have much time to do much else other that swerve - or else risk running the pony over. So while it was far from the most skillful of terms - it did it's purpose on making sure he and the pastel-colored mare did not become a hopeless tangle of limbs. He flopped to the side with a grunt, head really as sparks blurred his vision - and continued to keep it blurred, until he realized the actual cause was the fact that his glasses were hanging askew from one ear.

It took him a minute to adjust them - but his sudden return to focus brought him face to face with a not a very upset pony, as he might have thought - but bunny who was literally hopping mad.

"M'foree!" He mumbled, realizing a second later that somehow, throughout the tumultuous landing, he had still managed to keep hold of his bucket. Dropping it solved his sudden speech problems. "I'm sorry! I didn't think - I - I should have known better than to just go before looking and I-I didn't mean to, honest!" He felt a little odd, apologizing to an irate rabbit whom he couldn't suspect a spoken answer from...but then again he should have been equally apologetic to the filly whom he'd essentially run down.

"I...I didn't hurt you, did I?!" He continued, forcing himself to look at the other pony, and not study his own hooves instead, although that seemed an easier answer. "I didn't mean to, honest!"

[spike]

Drop off this. Pick up that. Spike kind of wished Twilight could run her own errands every now and then. But that came with being an assistant, he guessed. Didn't mean he couldn't get a little tired of all the errand-running now and then, though. He hadn't left the library but a few minutes ago to drop off some books for Fluttershy. By the time he'd get back, Twilight would probably have some more for him to drop off for somepony else. Maybe even some to pick up.

But on the bright side, Fluttershy was just up ahead. Maybe now he wouldn't have to make the trip all the way to her house. "Hey, Fluttershy. I got those books Twilight said you-" Spike stopped himself upon noticing Angel hopping angrily at another pegasus with Fluttershy trying to calm him down. "What happened here? And uh... who's your friend?" he asked, motioning towards the splotchy-coated pegasus.

[fluttershy]

The pale pegasus kept her body as close to the ground as she could, trying to hide how much she was shaking. A flurry of apologies were sent her way from the mottled-grey colt, but Fluttershy could utter nothing more substantial than a weak, "it's... um, it's alright."

The bunny atop her back sat squarely on his hind quarters, tiny, fluffy arms folded indignantly. He would stand up to this bumbling idiot, even if Fluttershy wouldn't! Of course, what the rabbit hadn't been expecting was to be veered off to the side as the mare twisted her body round to spy the origin of a familiar voice.

"Spike! I-I... we... um."

Fluttershy sent the baby dragon a weak smile, unable to form the words to explain what had happened. It had all been so fast, too! She hadn't even asked this greyish pegasus his name. Her attention was drawn again, however, by the white bunny trying to regain his previous comfortable position. They shared a glance as her muzzle craned around, and the mare silently pleaded him to 'play nice'. Angel frowned, but sat down. One problem over, for now.

[Deleted]

As the scene unfolded below an azure pegasus drifted lazily over head, she had just woken up from her afternoon nap and was now proceeding to stretch her wings to try and wake up. It was a weird sensation, flying slowly and she could say hooves down that it was not one she was fond of, hopefully she would wake up her wings soon and then she could really hit the air.

That was her plan at least, until she saw her friend Fluttershy cowering below her, She didn't know what was going on but no one made Fluttershy feel like that! Apart from well...Okay alot of things scared her friend but Rainbow was about to make sure this Stranger wasn't one of them.

She swooped down with lightning speed, landing with a thud next to her friend, puffing out her chest slightly, clearly proud of her own speed. Her mind quickly returned to her friend however, putting her hoof on the other female's shoulder
"Fluttershy! Whats wrong? Is this pony botherin' ya?"She frowned then paused looking now directly at Spike, even more confused as to what had gone down "What the hay is goin' on here?"

[alo]

Having traveled from Hoofington, through Everfree Forest, to Ponyville, Alo was in need of a rest. Yet the weariness he felt wasn't shown in the way he walked or in his expression. But then again, you could never tell what the Earth pony was thinking...
Stopping to rest for a moment, he had just managed to shake his red and silver mane out of his face when he watched a peculiar scene unfold in front of him as a Pegasus nearly ran in to one of its winged kin and a rabbit (who now seemed very upset over the matter).
As Alo watched more and more ponies--plus what appeared to be a baby dragon--come upon the scene to question about what had happened, he felt the need to offer some sort of assistance.
Giving his navy blue body a small shake, the earth pony made his way over to the group and politely dipped his head in greeting.
"Might I offer an explanation?" He asked in the soft and kind tone that was his voice. "It seems this Pegasus," Here he indicated Drizzle with a small point of his hoof, "was...skydiving I suppose? And hadn't quite made sure his landing area was clear of others and had to swerve to avoid colliding with this dear here and her companion. And then, that is when you all started to show up of course" Alo finished before falling silent once more.

[drizzle]

It was truly a sign that the situation was getting taken out of his own hooves, if he'd had any margin of control to begin with, when the crowd started gathering. It may have only been two ponies and a dragon (an honest to goodness dragon! He'd thought it'd be way bigger, but STILL) but it might as well have been a street full of people - strangers coming to stare at him because he'd been stupid enough to not look where he was going. And it'd been an accident!

Not that anyone else would probably think that. The newer pegasi in particular, her words seemed almost an interrogation. He gulped, but wasn't able to stumble anything else out at first - his tongue as properly tied as if someone had literally knotted it in it's middle. All he could do was shrink in on himself, tucking his head down as if that would make everyone forget what had happened.

The earth pony - Drizzle at first thought he would try to help explain where he seemed unable to under the scrutiny of the others - but he got it all wrong. Skydiving? Oh no - never! It had all been an accident - nothing like that! Skydiving implied doing something for fun, and this was anything but. He gulped again, swallowing the lump that made it so difficult to talk - and that's when it all seemed to come tumbling out.

" I wasn't skydiving or trying to scare her or nothing like that - nothing! I promise that wasn't what I was trying to do! I'm supposed to go and get some water and bring it back but last night when I went to bed I must have twisted something when I slept and my wing really hurt - so I was just taking my time hopping around and I didn't run into or hurt nopony for the looongest time - until this time because I wasn't thinking and I DID call out to lookout but then I jumped and I didn't look and she was there and I got scared and she got scared and I landed and I really didn't mean to hurt her or scare anypony HONESTLY but I think I did and you probably think I'm horrible and maybe I deserve it 'cus I should have looked where I was going!"

Story out, Drizzle shrunk down as low as he could, hiccuping slightly as he tried to regain his breath after his rapid-fire explanation. Wheezing through gritted teeth, the young colt's gaze travelled from rabbit, to the two pegasi, to the dragon and the earth pony as if he expected one of them to jump him. "I...really...really didn't mean to scare nopony!" He huffed, although he thought he had made that point several times - it really was important and repeating it really couldn't harm him.

[spike]

Before Spike could even greet Rainbow Dash, another pony (this time one he didn't know) had arrived, suggesting that perhaps the pegasus had gone skydiving and had the misfortune of almost landing on Fluttershy. "Skydiving?" Spike thought to himself. "What in Equestria is a pony doing skydiving all the way out here?" Spike was about to give the idea more thought, but was interrupted by the pegasus giving a rapid-fire, very nervous sounding defense.

Spike stared blankly at the pegasus as he gave the accelerated explanation, and it wasn't until several seconds after finishing that Spike shook his head free from the state of semi-stupor it had put him in. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down, man. We believe you. As long as it was an accident and no one got hurt." He then looked over at Fluttershy, who had finally managed to get Angel to settle down. "You didn't get hurt, did you Fluttershy?"

[fluttershy]

It was the crowd of ponies (and a dragon) more than the near-collision that was keeping her nerves on edge now, the pale pegasus sticking to the ground for the time being. Honestly, she just wanted to become small and unseen, hidden away from the eyes of the town for the rest of the day. Keeping her line of sight to the ground, the mare barely risked a glance to each of them around her - although she did feel a little better upon hearing Rainbow Dash's haughty entrance, as lacking in tact as she was... not that Fluttershy would ever tell her that!

Listening but not speaking, Fluttershy kept an ear on the explanations between ponies, hoping they would just sort it out between themselves. She wasn't hurt or anything, and the poor colt seemed quite apologetic for almost landing on her, so there was no harm done really. The mare, keeping low still, could just about crane her head over her shoulder to give her dearest Angel a quick nuzzle before finally hearing Spike bring her back into the spotlight. A high pitched squeak escaped the pony before she could muster the words to answer the baby dragon.

"Um, well, no... I-I'm fine." Came her typically quiet voice, glancing quickly from the purple figure to the mottled grey. "N-Nothing to worry about. Really."

Finally settling her gaze on the apologetic pony, Fluttershy sent Drizzle a warm, albeit nervous, smile. "It's really okay... don't worry."