Errands

At the job again, Ashen is at another odd job. He's called over at a local sweets baker, a table is broken from something that happened earlier, he didn't bother to question what. He likes it at the bakery, the Cakes are some of the friendliest ponies he's met, though he admittedly isn't used to the pink pony upstairs, to the point where he doesn't know her name or tries to bother with asking for it when he has the opportunity.

He removes some screws from the bottom, on his back and his mane brushed across the floor, half black and light grey colored mohawk. A toolbag set aside on the floor beside him. He makes an occasional 'umph' as he works the busted screws off it's spiral hole in the table with the screwdriver in his mouth. As he starts reattaching the legs back to the table, he takes in the quiet and he's a little surprised, as it isn't usually this quiet. He flinches his hoof as he accidentally pricks himself on an old nail, and works to remove it.

After about 5 minutes of unscrewing and replacing, the table looks fixed now. He puts his hoof on the tabletop and tries to rock it, to no avail.

"Stable." he says to himself. He yells out towards the stairs, "Mr. Cake, tables fixed!" He tries to listen for either one of them to reply, but none comes up. Ashen just shrugs and figures they're busy with the twins, he smiles a little remembering when one of them made off with his food once and stuck it to the ceiling. He states outloud again, "Alright, I'll see you both later" He start to make his way to the closed front entrance door and pauses, thinking back on something, his hoof on his chin.

"Lets see, what was that one thing I had to- "

He gets interrupted by a sudden push of force to his face, the door flings open and smacks him from the front. As it slowly retracts from him, he falls backwards and mutters, "Ow.." as he feels his head and rubs his eye. His vision starts to clear after the quick trauma and he sees an unfamiliar face in the doorway.

Reaching the door of her favourite place in town, Destiny pushed the hood of her light aqua cloak down. Sugarcube Corner had always been the place she visited first when coming into town. As she pushed the door open excitedly, she heard a thump.

Squeaking slightly, she jumped inside and looked behind the door. A grey pegasus was lying behind it. She quickly stepped back to give him a little space.

"I-I'm so so s-sorry! Are you o-ok?" He didn't look hurt, but she wanted to make sure.

Oh no...what if I hurt him? What if he gets angry with me! Thoughts rushed into her head. Looking down at him she flicked her tail back and forth waiting for a reply.

Ashen sees the light grey pony, her mane outstanding from the rest. He slowly pulls himself up feeling his forehead, one eye closed and the other open.

"I'm fine." He states, he looks down where he was standing. "This door really needs a doorstop." he mutters a bit jokingly.

He tries to remember what it was he was going to say to himself, but can't come up to it. He closes his eyes and shakes his head slightly, forgetting whatever words were coming together. His scarred ear flicks a bit.

"It's fine, I think I have to get going..not completely sure." He figures his quick thought will come back in a minute and just decides not to try to say whatever he was going to say. He's passive when events like this happen, though in this case there's no other emotion to have.

He opens both his eyes and looks to her saying, "Remind the Cakes to get a doorstop or a smaller door." He makes a half smile and walks around her to outside. Some ponies find it strange that with a look like his, that he's not aggressive when something like this happens.

Destiny lightly smiled at his laid back nature. She stood admiring his spiked mane while listening to him, unsure of what to respond. Realising she was staring, she looked down at her hooves.

As the pony implied he was leaving, she turned to watch him walk outside. She felt as though he didn't look right. It might have been something about the large bump on his head, or maybe just the way he didn't seem to know what he was saying.

She guessed she should make sure he was ok, but just incase, she decided to buy him a cake first. Trotting up to the counter, she greeted Mrs. Cake with a polite smile, and gestured towards a small cupcake with a mountain of icing on top.

After paying for the cake she trotted towards the door, looking around for the grey pegasi. She noticed him but a few steps from the door and slowly walked towards him, stopping a step or so from him.

"A-are you okay? That b-bump looks sore." Stumbling over her words slightly, she tried to sound social, but the truth was she wasn't used to talking to other ponies, and she was unsure of why she felt the urge to make sure he was ok.

"Hmm?" He hums, taking a second to process what she said and replies, "Oh, no no I'm fine. I've taken much worse knocks to the head than this." His thoughts slowly come back to him as the small trauma from the door fades. "Trust me on that." He replies again, trying to reassure her that he is fine. He takes a moment to look at her more closely, though to most others and possibly her, it might look like he's looking her over.

"Anyway, have to pick up a scarf over at Rarity's shop." He tries to continue the conversation to also be friendly asking, "Where are you headed?"

(Based on how your pony is, I think it'd be fun to embarrass the two. Haha.)

"Oh, uhm...okay, if you're s-sure." She didn't really believe him, but she knew how ponies could be. He didn't seem like the usual stallion, most were overpowering and quite frankly, mean. He was different, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on what made him different, maybe it was the fact he hadn't snapped at her when she practically knocked him out with the door.

As he mentioned he was going to Rarity's, she realised that was her next place to visit. "I-I'm headed to Rarity's too, to pick up a new cloak." She had a strange roll to her R's, which was only really noticable when she said Rarity.

She realised she was still holding the cupcake, so she held it out towards him, gesturing for him to take it.

(Yeah, I suppose it would be funny to embarrass them :3)

"Oh." He looks at the cupcake, surprised at the gesture. "Thanks, but not exactly in the sweets mood. Besides I saw you get it. Thanks though." He starts to slowly walk off and turns to her, saying, "Well come along if you'd like Destiny, we're both going there anyhow." He starts to walk off into the marketplace, which is in between the two shops, several dozen ponies are scattered around shopping and browsing several dozen stands all around the streets.

In the not too far distance, is a pony waving at Ashen, seems as just a hello. He waves back with his hoof passively, and keeps on walkingly slowly, waiting for Destiny to follow.

(Read about her nervousness in crowds.)

Shrugging, Destiny placed the cupcake in her lilac saddle bag and gave Ashen a light smile. As he suggested going to Rarity's together, she nodded gently and took a few steps forward to follow him.

Staring at her hooves as she walked, she didn't notice the large crowd until they were too far in to stop and go another way. She looked around nervously and stopped dead. She considered calling Ashen, but she didn't want to stop him, and she didn't want to look like she couldn't handle herself.

As somepony lightly brushed her flank while passing, she jumped forward and tried to get through the crowd to Ashen. Reaching his side, she felt safer for a second, then a large stallion rudely bumped into her side, and she took this as a sign of agression. Darting in Ashen's direction, she took off slightly too late and pushed him out of the crowd as she flew away from the hustle and bustle.

She hid under an empty market stall, staring out at Ashen as she realised she had pushed him into quite a large, regal looking stallion. The large stallion immediatly turned to shout at Ashen. "You filthy excuse for a stallion, how dare you bump into somepony of such a high social ranking? You know, regalness doesn't rub off onto anypony, especially not mules like you. And what is with that manecut?!" The stallion said in his posh sounding accent, his muzzle turned up to Ashen. A few posh looking mares around him laughed at the stallion's mockery.

To Destiny's dismay, the stallion she had bumped into was hurtling himself through the crowd in her direction. How had she gotten herself and somepony she had just met into this?

He lowers his eyebrows and looks annoyed rather than insulted, he swiftly replies to the regal stallion while ignoring the posh looking mares around, "With that attitude I don't think I'd want any part of your damn 'regalness'." He takes a step forward to the tall stallion, undeterred by his insults. He says slightly louder, "And how DARE you use the word mule as an insult, what type of proper gentlepony do you think you are?" He peers at him, his anger slowly rising, evidenced by his continuous expression.

He continues on to scold at the stallion, "I know what kind of 'regal' pony you are, you're the kind who thinks he's so high of class that he can say what he wants and not get talked down to. You're the kind who thinks he's so 'regal' enough to be on the cover on a book, but is only as big as his own ego. You're the kind who thinks you look down upon everypony, but in truth you only have the view of a puny inchworm. And no, that's no compliment." The regal stallion hears every word, his angered look slowly starting to go down upon hearing insults directed back at him. Even more so, he starts to get discouraged as he hears one of the posh ponies giggle at the rebuttal by Ashen.

Ashen still continues on with scolding, holding back saying anything inappropriate, but still getting his point through. He asks with a light closed smile, "And my manecut? I don't really care for what you'd think of it. At least I'm not one who goes to a professional beautician every time a spec of dust flies into his own." As he ends that sentence, funnily enough, a kick of dust from a nearby cart flies into the stallion's mane and he flinches. The posh ponies start to chuckle in their usual way, discouraging the stallion to the point where trying to make a rebuttal is useless.

"Now I'll apologize for bumping into you, but don't think I'm going to take an insult, and a bad one at that. Don't you dare use the word mule as an insult." The last part was a bit touching, Ashen turns to Desitny and walks over, overhearing the posh pony laughing at the regal stallion. It's clear from the outcome that, that argument is over and it's surprising how he had handled such a bigot. He wonderingly looks under the empty stand and asks her, "Destiny, what are you doing down here?" He doesn't notice the stallion she bumped into coming from the crowd towards where they are, he's too focused on Destiny. She sees a closer look at Ashen's vest and chest as he ducks down to her level, even under the light fur she can see the muscle he has.

(OHOHO. Also sometimes, the view of an inchworm is usually used as a compliment, when looking at one's view of the world. But in his case he's just an egotistical bigot lol Also what is the other stallion going to do?)

By the time Ashen had finished with the regal stallion, Destiny had rolled over onto her back in laughter, still somehow fitting under the low lying cart. As ashen walked over to her, she stared at him in an upside down position. She was still smirking as he ducked down.

She could hardly talk as he asked her what she was doing under the cart, she was too busy staring past Ashen at the stallion. Realising it probably looked as though she was staring at Ashen, she looked at him for a second, long enough to see how muscular he was, it unnerved her, so she shifted her gaze to the cart above her and replied in a quiet voice, with the only answer she could think of. "I don't like big crowds." Her gaze averted from the cart back to Ashen, watching his expression. Her pale aqua eyes stayed still as she watched him. She didn't even notice the stallion arriving behind him.

The stallion huffed as he stopped behind Ashen. After looking around for a second, he tapped Ashen's shoulder with his hoof. "Excuse me, urm...you. Have you seen that pretty uh, female pony running about here...this place you're, uh, standing in?" It was apparent the stallion was of less than average intelligence, and slightly out of breath. After a second, she realised the stallion was talking about her...She shook her head towards Ashen, hoping he would get the hint and say he hadn't seen her. Her cheeks were flushing slightly, even though she didn't really like being called pretty by a stranger.

She awkwardly shuffled further under the cart, still lying on her back, her upside down gaze fixed on Ashen. She hadn't noticed that the stallion had her saddle bag slung over his back, anypony could tell it was hers by her cutie mark sewn onto the flaps, but she hadn't had time to look up at the stallion.

(He's trying to return her saddle bag. Also, I've never heard of the phrase "View of an inchworm.")

(Yeah it's some old world saying from the pre -colonial times, not well known.)

He stands back up, not really paying attention to his low intelligence manner. "I..think I know the pony you're looking for, heh." He makes a small smile and ducks back down trying to convince her to come out, "Destiny, I think somepoiny wants to talk with you." Ashen notices her face flushed but doesn't try to question it. For a quick second, a grip on Ashen's front vest shows, holster of some kind. He stands and waits before enough of it shows to see what it is.

He asks, "What do you want with Destiny?" but he takes a quick look at the saddle bag and replies before he has a chance, "Oh, I see." He looks over to the cart, "Destiny he has your saddlebag, come on out." He puts out his hoof to help her out with a small smile.

Destiny sighed quietly as Ashen replied to the stallion, then reached his hoof out to help her up. She rolled onto her front and took his hoof gently. After sliding out from under the cart, she stood up, let go of Ashen's hoof and looked between Ashen and the unknown stallion. She quickly dusted herself off with her wings and her gaze set upon the stallion. He was dark blue and had a stocky build. She gave him a tiny smile, trying to be polite even though the stallions earlier mention of her looks had made her nervous.

She hovered off the ground slightly. As the blue stallion looked in her direction, she gently took her saddle bag from his back and slumped it over her own, making sure it didn't restrict her wing movement. "T-thank you f-for returning my bag." She said quietly, looking down at her hooves and attempting not to stutter.

The blue stallion smiled. "T'is okay." He said in his 'outdoor' voice. Then he stretched his fore legs around both Destiny and Ashen and embraced them in a rather squishy hug. Destiny wriggled as much as she could but he held them in close to him. The squishy hug unsettled her, not only by the fact she was too close to both stallions, but by the fact that if the blue stallion tightened his grip even a little, she would end up muzzle to muzzle with either Ashen or the blue stallion.

"Gah." Ashen quickly makes that noise, he smiles nervously, he's definitely not used to be being hugged by anypony, mare or stallion. "Okay big guy, release." The blue stallion apparently doesn't either hear him and/or is enjoying hugging them both, perhaps he doesn't get the opportunity that much or just gives a thorough hug. His grip on them both doesn't change, "Alright, that's enou-" he feels the grip tighten and a quick breath of air gets squeezes out of Ashen's and Destiny's lungs. One of his eyebrows goes up and his scarred ear goes down, starting to feel awkward. Ashen glances over at Destiny with her ear slightly twitching and eyes getting wider. Ashen notices them both getting close, their muzzles inches from touching each other. After seeing this, Ashen's ears perk up and looks surprised. "Okay, been long enough." He says to himself, believing the stallion isn't listening to him anyway. He looks to his forearm away from Destiny.

Ashen puts his hooves on the stallion's left foreleg and pries his arm off of himself, with his own amount of strength. Before that happens, however, Destiny's muzzle touches Ashen's cheek for an instant, though he was too focused on prying himself out to notice it.

Ashen takes a quick breath of air after stepping back onto equal footing on the road and says to the stallion, slightly surprised he got out of the hug, but still has a fine grip on Destiny, "I..think that's enough of a hug." He smiles a bit, hoping he'd listen, and luckily he does. The stallion releases Destiny from his strong arm grip and smiles nervously, making a hearty chuckle with an expression that says it all. That he's sorry, he doesn't know his own strength. It's not too surprising.

"It's alright." Ashen quickly says, understanding his expression. He looks over to Destiny, her face flushed, but Ashen doesn't realize why.

(Can guess why lol )

Destiny's cheeks flushed rose as her muzzle brushed Ashen's cheek and she immediately turned her head away. She didn't even notice him wriggling out of the stallions grip until she had no where else to look but behind her. She sighed in relief as Ashen convinced the stallion that he had been hugging her for long enough.

As the stallion released her from his iron grip, she stumbled back and had to flap her wings to stop herself from falling. Standing inbetween Ashen and the stallion silently, her cheeks were still flushed, but the colour was fading slightly. She looked towards Ashen, thinking he didn't seem to have a clue about what had happened in the stallions 'arms', she was slightly relieved by the fact that she might have a chance of making it through the day without making that big of a fool of herself. For a moment, she let herself think of what would happen if he had noticed, and came to the conclusion that he probably wouldn't stay as friendly as he had been.

Remembering her original aim, she looked towards the Carousel Boutique. "Uh, um..." She gestured towards Rarity's store with her head, hoping Ashen might be able to come up with a good farewell for the stallion, as she was lost for words. She was worried the stallion would get upset if she did what she would have done had she been on her own; 'Sorry, I was just heading to get a new cloak, see you later maybe? Uh yeah, bye.' Restraining herself from saying this and bolting away from the awkward situation as fast as she could was hard, so she pretended to be rumaging for something in her saddle bag to keep her mouth busy.

(How'd you guess? x3)

"Oh, right." Ashen says, upon seeing Destiny's gesture. "Thanks for bringing back her saddlebag, quite nice of you." The stallion smiles feeling accomplished, Ashen makes a small one as well, luckily the stallion feels like his job is done and starts to walk off. Ashen says to Destiny, "Well that was an interesting experience, little fun honestly." His laid-back attitude starts to show again, after being scolded by a higher class pony and awkwardly hugged by a large stallion, he seems to take it in stride.

"Alright, lets head in." He slowly walks towards the boutique, letting Destiny follow right behind, he enters and says out loud, "Rarity? You in?"

A faint voice echoes from the other room across the main room, "Over her Ashen darling! Just putting some finishing touches on a little project." They can both here some humming coming from her, clear Rarity is amidst in her own thoughts of creativity.

Ashen feels the back of his head, adding on, "Is that scarf I ordered here yet?" It takes a few seconds to hear her reply, "Why yes, it's just on the table over there. The dark blue box, not the baby blue. I already got the b- Sweetie Belle, hold still before I accidentally poke you."

They can both hear an annoyed sigh, clear where it's coming from. "Aaannddd, there." A faint giggle comes from her, happy to be finished. "Oh you look absolutely like a doll!~"

"This is too..frilly." says Sweetie Belle. "Oh posh, it looks wonderful!" says Rarity, in a delightful and proud tone. "It's all the rage these days, how do you like it sweetie?~"

"Guess they're having their 'sisters time'." Ashen coughs, not sure what to add-on with them both doing something.

"Oh! Oh yes, go ahead and take the box Ashen darling, I already got the payment for it." says Rarity, remembering his question from earlier. She pokes her head out from the corner and sees Destiny, "Oh sweety, good to see you~" greeting her nicely as well.

Destiny smiled warmly at Rarity, looking relaxed. Rarity had always been nice to her, so she felt safe around the white unicorn. "Hey Rarity. How's it going?" She spoke quietly, but with no stuttering. It was clear she trusted Rarity.

"Well I've had a wonderful day so far, Fancypants came to visit!" Rarity replied in her usual upbeat tone. Destiny smiled, she enjoyed hearing a pony so content. "Rarity, has my-" Rarity interupted her, reading her mind. "Of course dear! My orders are never late. I hope you don't mind that I made you more than one. The thought of you only having blue cloaks and no choice made me-" Destiny smiled, and Rarity understood that she didn't have to explain herself any further.

After Rarity had returned her gaze to Sweetie Belle, Destiny trotted over to the rail of cloaks. Along the rail there was her typical light aqua coloured cloak, along with cloaks of quite a few other colours, lilac, black, violet, indigo. She helped herself to a box to put them all in, and neatly folded them into the box. Leaving bits to pay for the cloaks, and of course a tip, Destiny put the box into the empty side of her saddle bag. She smiled lightly at how she could fit all the cloaks inside the small box.

Trotting back over to Ashen she stood infront of him. Mentally, she was compairing their height, but it probably didn't look that way as she glanced up and down Ashen's body a couple of times. She found that he was a hoof or so taller than her. Looking down at her hooves after making sure Ashen had got his box, she stood quietly for a second. Then she spoke up, "So...where are you headed to next?" She noticed she was finding it easier not to stutter when talking to him, and guessed it was a good sign.

"Not anywhere in particular, just headed home to drop this off." He carefully places the box upon his back, balancing it along without a bag, he notes Rarity's statement, "Heard of Fancypants, never got to really see him. But he's pretty nice from what I heard. I guess I'm heading home, I..hmm." He tries to finish the sentence, but seems to stop dead right there.

"I'm just going to head home Destiny, was nice to meet you." He makes a warm smile and holds out his hoof to her. He adds, "I sort of live in the Everfree Forest, so I don't think it'd be a good idea to follow."

(Short because I want to see a reply from her to that lol Read that she has an interest in the forest.)

Destiny perked up when he mentioned the Everfree Forest. "You live in the Everfree?!" She already knew the answer, but she thought she had just imagined him saying it. Ignoring his hoof she tried hard not to make a fool of herself by looking too excited. Before he had a chance to reply, she was talking again. "I love the Everfree Forest! I never knew ponies lived there though." She sighed at this small lack of knowledge. "C-can I come with you? I'd love to see the part of the forest that ponies live in...I mean uh, if you don't mind." Her speaking had sped up more than usual until she hit the last part of her sentence, and her voice lowered back down to her usual shy tone.

Her sudden enthusiasm had startled Rarity, but the unicorn didn't stray from her work, she just giggled slightly at Destiny's weird obsession with the forest. Destiny's eyes sparkled as she stared at ashen, with her head tilted slightly waiting for a reply.

(*A serious interest in the forest :3)

"..uhhh." His ears are folded back as he's surprised, he doesn't usually hear such enthusiasm from the ponies here. He slowly replies to her, "Not..many ponies live in the Everfree Forest..at least none that I know of. As much as I know, me and my parents are the only ones who live there. Aside from Zecora of course." He still sees her sparkling eyes and tilted head near him, he's just a bit uneasy.

"Uhm..sure?" He answers, unsure what to say. "Lets uhh...go." He slowly starts to step out, and looks behind him to see if she's following, which of course she is as eager as she'd ever be. The faint voice of Sweetie Belle echoes from the shop, "No wait, don't leave me here!"

"Oh hush now Sweetie, I'm almost done~" says Rarity, still wanting to add onto her outfit.

After a bit of walking, Ashen comes to the edge of the forest, evidently he's near Fluttershy's animal coop in the back of her home. He looks around uneasy, looking upon the ground, slowly sneaking about. It's..strange to see Ashen uneasy after what happened a bit early, to the point where it'd be a good idea to question why he seems to be watching the background for something.

Destiny's expression grew ever happier as they reached the forest, she noted that they were at the far end of the tree line from her house. She looked up at the large trees, the trees that by legend, grew by themselves in a forest where the clouds moved with no help, and the animals cared for themselves. She felt a strange presence in the near by bushes, and chose to keep an eye on it as they walked.

She pulled the hood of her cloak back up, which had been on her back under her saddle bag the whole time. It felt good to have the hood up, she didn't really know why, but it made her feel safer.

She really did love this mysterious forest, she thought it brought out the true side of her. Destiny's excited expression faded as she noticed that Ashen seemed to be checking for something. She edged closer to him, still keeping an eye on the bush where she felt a strange presence. She was sure something was watching them, but she focused on Ashen. "What are you looking out for?" Her voice broke the silence between the two ponies.

Suddenly an object flies out of the bush and hits Ashen upside the head...a carrot?

The silence is broken again with him saying, "Darn it Angel!" Angel pops out of the bush with a little smirk and runs off. "Ugh." Ashen sighs, looking at Angel hop back to Fluttershy's back door and go through a doggy door. "Ugh, the bunny likes to annoy me ever since I met Fluttershy." Angel pops his head out the doggy door, only to be greeted from inside by an assertive, yet still quiet voice saying, "Nonono Angel, no throwing your food at him." Ashen continues on after his little meeting with a carrot, and heads to a broken down path into the forest, the background seemingly getting darker and darker with every step. He doesn't seem to be looking around as often, only with his eyes, weirdly enough at occasional vines. He says, "Try not to step on the vines." A crack in the branches catches their attention, and something small and green slowly crawls into view.

A tiny lizard looks at them with it's slightly off-synched eyes, and it seems to croak. Appears to be a type of frog, with a brightly colored series of lines along it's back. For some reason Ashen covers his ears with his hooves, and says, "You might wanna cover your ears!" He yells that out, not knowing his own volume.

(The temptation to hold it is too strong...make her hold it, mwahahaha. )

After giggling gently at Angel's attempt to annoy Ashen, Destiny took a few moments to look around. Noticing Ashen had walked off without her, she trotted up behind him, and followed his gaze to a small green creature on the ground. She thought it was unbelievably cute.

Hearing Ashen's warning, she covered her ears with her wings, giving Ashen a confused look. The small frog-like creature looked harmless enough, but she decided it might be better to listen to Ashen than to herself, as she probably only thought it was harmless because of her affection for small reptiles and amphibians. After covering her ears, she kept her wings over them, but used one hoof to lift up the creature gently, caressing it with her free hoof. It was just so cute, she had an urge to hold it. And it didn't seem asthough holding such a small creature was going to do her damage.

She waited silently, deciding not to question Ashen's weird behaviour around this harmless looking creature.

As she holds the small frog in her free hoof, she can hear the frog's little body start to shake and it's little eyes blink a few times, it starts to open it's mouth and it releases a loud echo of sound, so high in volume that she can hear her brain rattle in her head. Her hair even following the constant volley of sound. Ashen words something out while not covering his ears now, hoping she could read lips since his voice is so drowned out.

"START PETTING IT'S BACK!" He yells out, his volume perfectly fine, the sound the frog is emitting seems to be so loud and powerful that it's voice is only directional, much like a siren.

(If you've ever heard one of those air raid sirens before, they slowly rotate and are so powerful that the sound mostly travels in the direction it points in.)

Sadly his voice can't interrupt even a part of the noisy frog's constant volley of sound. He yells out again, "I WANT TO GET THIS THING TO STOP BEFORE MORE OF THEM COME. THAT'S A MATING/SCARING PREDATOR CROAK." to no real avail. The whole time Destiny should be glad she's covering her ears, otherwise she'd be temporarily deaf or worse for a while, and Ashen wouldn't want that to happen to his new friend.

He reaches over and snatches the frog from her, it's long volley of constant sound stopping with a spooked squeak and slowly followed by him petting it's back. He turns to her as he strokes the frog's back and asks, "How's your hearing?"

The sound was blocked enough for her not to have a constant ringing in her ears for a while, but not enough to not effect her hearing. Ashen's voice sounds like he's down a long hole and her on the top, his voice as faint as a moth's wing beating in the night.

"Destiny?" He calls her name, hoping she'll hear it, though considering she wasn't expecting it, probably not very well. As she might be trying to read his lips, she thinks he asked, "Kiss me?" due to her sound perception being off.

(I must. I MUST. As Celestia as my wit- okay got bored of that bit. Mwahahaha, I had to do it. )

Destiny lowered her wings from her ears as the frog went quiet. But she realised she couldn't hear very well. Attempting to read Ashen's lips as she saw them moving, her figure shrank. Had he just said "Kiss me."? Tilting her head, she stepped back, restraining her instinct to run away from awkward situations. Surely he hadn't said that.

"W-what? Did you just say 'Kiss me?'" She asked in a raised voice, not realising the volume of her voice. She kept her head tilted but stepped forward, hoping she would be able to hear him better when she was closer. Keeping her space, she stood infront of him, giving him a rather confused look. She wasn't going to move until she could fully hear him. No matter what he said, or what she thought he said.

The movements of his mouth kept replaying in her head as she tried to shake off the thoughts about possible reasons why he would say that. She couldn't come up with an answer that sounded logical to her, so she shook her head around a few times. Then she slumped to the ground in what seemed to be a graceful movement. Shaking her head had made her dizzy and thrown the pegasus off balance. She decided that if she stayed on the ground there was no way she could fall any further, so she lay staring up at Ashen. Still attempting to be close enough to read his lips but not so close that either of them would feel uncomfortable.

"Wha- Nonononono!" He shakes his head with his hooves in front of him, both shaking side to side, he looks embarrassed with his eyes wider. He backs off a step, so not to make her uncomfortable.

"That's not what I said." He says, soon realizing she can't hear him that well. "Hmm." He puts his hoof on his chin and looks around, looking down to the ground. He moves his hoof and starts to draw in the dirt: 'I didn't say that, I asked if you were alright. You can't hear me. It'll go away in a bit. " He figures her balance is off due to her hearing, so he swiftly grabs her by her hoof and props her up, slowly walking her further down the path to guide her and allow her to stay balanced. Ashen tries to ignore her asking if he said to kiss him, as she misinterpreted, but can't be helped in her current dilemma. He doesn't try to pay any attention to both them both holding hooves.

(Would look cute. Sorry if it's rather short.)