Searching For Inspiration (CableZ)

[CableZ]

"The trapeze eh, one of my less performed specialties I must admit, requires more time and space than I care for," Quip laughed, despite his usual performances taking place outside, Quip found the trapeze to take a little too long for his act to fit in.

"Hey that reminds me, I have a few trapeze acts in my repertoire although I don't do them much anymore," Quip looked around for a moment before spotting some of the tricks he had mentioned, making a little gesture for Flyte to follow him over to them.

The tricks in question were various pieces of equipment that one would put on the floor to trapeze over, it seemed there was a wide variety of deathly looking traps and what not. Everything from a standard spike pit looking thing to a series of propped up saw blades, Quip chuckled at the sight of each of them.

"Ahhhh memories, I've not used these tricks in years..you know if you wanted you could have them. I think that a trapeze artist should have the best act they could, after all you're the high flying attention grabbers of the circus, gotta have some drama. Although I should probably advise you steer away from the saw blade surprise at the moment, that trick could put even the great Ponyacci of his game, here lemme show you." Quip walked over to trick, it was made up of several saw blades that had their blades facing up toward the sky. The blades were arranged in such a pattern that no spot was left unbladed, it was quite the marvel of engineering in pain.

Quip flicked a switch on the side and immediately the blades began to start spinning, after a few moments the sound coming from all of the blades spinning so fast that they were a blur. Tossing a piece of spare fruit that fell out of the catapult earlier into the fray, the two would see the melon dissipate in milliseconds. Flipping the switch once more, the blades started to slow back down as Quip turned back to face Flyte.

"Sorry, I got a little distracted there, scary though ain't they?"

[Tartan Lassie]

    Immediately put at ease, Flyte was glad to hear Quip continue the conversation normally. He didn’t seem to think there was anything odd about what she’d said. As she had thought, trapeze wasn’t an act Quip Crack often went in for. He had, of course, done it before, but it wasn’t something he was as well known for. Flyte had already suspected this, but had known he would still be able to give her plenty of advice, since he had so much experience.


    He took her over to examine some of his old equipment. Flyte looked at the dangerous items that would fit so perfectly under her own trapeze equipment. If she removed the net, of course. Some appeared quite simply, other dastardly complex and dangerous-looking. She heard Quip laughing and looked back over to him. To her surprise, he offered them to her. Said he never used them and she should take them. Did he say I was a high flyer? Flyte flicked her tail a little, pleased at his words.


    However he was now gesturing to one that he suggested she didn’t take. She looked at it and could see why. It was literally a floor made of saw blades. “Looks eh… risky.” She said hesitantly. It was then that Quip Crack flicked a switch and the blades started spinning perilously. Flyte stared, the thrill of danger sparking in her, just as it always did when she was in the presence of dangerous acts. She watched as Quip chucked a melon into the terrifying blades, that was promptly torn to pieces. Flyte looked from the blades, to Quip’s mask. Looking closely at it, she was again struck with the desire to see beneath it, to see how he felt about the danger implied her, if it gave him the rush of adrenaline it gave her.


    Quip moved to stop the saw blades and Flyte tore her eyes off him and looked at her hooves, hoping she hadn’t been caught staring at him, when he was clearly showing her something else. But as the blades slowed, he turned back to her. He asked her a question and she looked back up at him. “Scary? Yeah… Really scary.” The mare answered, looking at the slowed saws. She didn’t think now was the right time to admit that Flyte often found it exciting to be scared. Though she would never risk something like that herself, she thought that things that frightened you were rather appealing in their own way. At this thought, she found her eyes drawn back to Quip and his mask. She frowned slightly.

Realising it looked like she was frowning at Quip, she quickly spoke. “Uh… Mr Crack, if you have things to be getting on with…” She waved a hoof absently “I’m sure you’re very busy and I really don’t want to be getting in your way.” This was a lie. She very much wanted to spend more time with this intriguing stallion but didn’t wish to risk his displeasure.

[CableZ]

Quip giggled at her reaction to the saw blades but soon lost his giggle when she asked if she was bothering him. There was an awkward silence for a moment, no birds chirped and no wind blew. The world was silent for all of 3 seconds before the noise of life came back as Quip just laughed, rubbing his eye plates as if there were tears to wipe away.

"You must be crazier than me girl, you are quite the opposite of getting in my way...wait no" Quip rubbed his chin to see if he could find the right words. "What I mean to say is that you are no bother, you're actually quite the welcome distraction from my darned income reports, I hate doing math that isn't to do with how much sulfuric acid to use in my sprinkler routines" The jester sighed with a little giggly.

"Trust me, you're fine, although I'm afraid I've run out of things I could show you.."

Quip sighed as he looked around, there really wasn't much left for them to see. He felt bad as he thought he was a better host than this, so far he'd shown her very little. However he recalled a host made the guest feel at home, whats more at home than doing what the guest wanted?

"Hey, why don't we do what you want to? I've been showing you all my memories and stuff but what about you?" He asked with a grin.

[Tartan Lassie]

    Her smile faded as the jester just stared back at her. The world was suddenly completely silent and Flyte nearly ran away then and there. Had she just ruined everything by making it awkward? Even Flyte’s breath seemed to pause for a moment.


    Then very suddenly, and to Flyte’s absolute relief, started laughing. She was beginning to see that laughter from this stallion could mean almost anything, but it was better than silence. The mare even started laughing too, out of pure relief. It sounded a little hysterical.


    Thankfully, Quip did tell her that she was no bother. He called her a… welcome distraction? Flyte beamed like a thousand stars at this. She laughed at his comment but thought about it a little deeper. Did he see her as a welcome distraction because he liked being around her? Or was it that she was simply slightly more interesting than maths. And, let’s be honest, what wasn’t more interesting than maths. Flyte greatly hoped it was the former. She shook her head at the thought, though. Focus, Flyte. He’s a mentor type stallion not a… an available type stallion.


    Flyte turned back to him, tuning back into what he’d been saying. What did she want to do? She hadn’t prepared for this. To be quite honest, she had thought he would give her some advice and then shoo her away. She was honoured to have been allowed to stick around and even told she was welcome. Did he treat all the mares -ponies! I meant ponies!- like this? “Well, uh…” She really didn’t know what to say. She felt maybe she should mirror his own hosting and show him some tricks of her own… but the circus was all the way across town, and she didn’t want it to appear that she wanted to turn the focus onto herself. She looked up to the sky. It was late morning, not yet midday but the sun was high in the sky.


    “We could… go and get some brunch, if you wanted.” She didn’t know why she had said it, it was just what she was thinking about at this time of the day. “I mean, only if you want to. I don’t really know anywhere in Ponyville, but maybe there’s somewhere you want to go?”
She smiled cordially at him. "An energetic stallion like you, you must get hungry quickly."

[CableZ]

"hehe, brunch. I always loved that word, its like two other words had a baby...and that baby was delicious" Quip went silent for a moment as he contemplated just how 'wrong' of a comment that was. "passing over that dark comment...YEAH LETS GO GET OUR BRUNCH ON!!"

Grabbing the mare by her hoof, Quip breathed in as he lifted his other legs back like a cartoon character getting ready to dash off and dash off is exactly what he did. A second later the pair were outside a small little cafe that sat a small ways from the park, looking out at the beautiful flower gardens of the park. It was rather picturesque due to the low number of ponies out and about that day, because Quip and Flyte were performers who made their own schedule they could be out and about when ponies were at work. Plus this area was a little always from the market so there wasn't any sort of hustle and bustle.

Sitting down at one of the little tables with the white table clothes outside of the café, Quip sat back with a sigh. After a few minutes a teenage mare walked out of the café with a pen and pad floating by next to her. She approached the two sat at the table as they were the only new arrivals, in fact the only other pony that was sat outside was an unseen stallion who was reading the newspaper. With a smile the mare asked for the pairs orders, to which Quip flipped through the pages of a menu as one would do when pretending to read a book very fast.

"I'll have a glass of orange and passion fruit juice and some eggy bread please!" Quip grinned through his grinned filled mask.

Turning to Flyte and waiting for her to give her order, the waitress soon went off to get them their food and drinks and left the two once again only in the company of each other...and the news stallion.

"Soooooooo~ I can understand wanting advice but why come to me, I'm aware I have some kind of following but I didn't expect any other performers would want to know my tricks...quite literally in this case." He giggled to himself

[Tartan Lassie]

    Quip seemed keen on the brunch idea (perhaps a little too keen) and Flyte's face was a picture of happiness as the stallion took her hoof and took off at top speed. Flyte actually struggled to keep up with the high speeds he was moving at. She was far from unfit, and used to running long distances at fast speeds due to her days with the Buffalo tribe, but he'd taken her quite by surprise and she wasn't as accustomed to spending as much time on her back legs as Quip was.

    But she made it to the cafe, looking a little dishevelled but still upright. The cafe was very pretty, Flyte thought. She didn't see cafes and restaurants very often, choosing to spend evenings more often with the rest of the circus performers and eat whatever was being served that night. But here, there were table cloths on every table, and a beautiful view of some colourful flowers. She wondered why Quip Crack chosen this place. They were almost completely alone.

    The trapeze-mare was glad the wind had dropped as the two of them took a seat outside. It was quite sunny now, with no breeze. Flyte quite liked things this way. A waitress came over to take their order and Flyte hadn't even looked at the menu yet. "Oh! Uh... Can I please have some pancakes with syrup and some coffee please?" The unicorn wrote that down and headed back inside.

    Flyte drank a lot of coffee. She knew it was sort of bad for her, but she often needed to stay up late to train or needed extra energy before a show, that sort of thing. She noticed that Quip had ordered fruit juice, a decidedly healthier option. "This place is beautiful, Quip." It was the first time she'd addressed him by his first name, but this cafe seemed a rather less formal area, so she considered it acceptable. I suppose I don't have to think of him as a teacher all the time...

    The beige stallion asked Flyte a question, and she blinked a couple of times before answering. "Well, we were in the vicinity, and Leader suggested it. I didn't think you actually lived here." She laughed nervously. "But everypony knows you're an excellent performer." She thought a little longer about why she hadn't just gone to somepony else in the circus. "And... Well, I suppose I was getting a little obsessive. It might have been a little too much for any of the others to deal with. I guess Ring Leader just thought you could handle me." She grinned at this idea. She had never been very good at holding down a colt-friend and everypony always said it was because she was too much for any stallion to handle. She decided against telling Quip Crack this though. Her smile faltered and she exclaimed. "Hang on! You told me I was the sixth this month! Other performers must've been to see you!"

[CableZ]

Quip chuckled at her words, seemed she had picked up on one of the curiosities. Quip's memory was a little distorted by his hyper active attitude and demeanor, he mixed up what he actually remembers, what he wanted to see at the time and what he wants to see right now. Quip hadn't remembered anything properly since he was 8 years old, for the first few years he had debated with anypony who argued with what he remembered so these days he just embraced it.

"Did I say that?...Oh well then it must be true." Quip giggled at his own little in joke, honestly he couldn't remember much at all. "As for the circus, working on your own is always a good thing. You gotta get good by yourself before you can let others rely on you, if I put Mad Cap's life in my hooves and I wasn't as ready as I could be, I'd be putting her and myself in danger as well as the audience, every performer has a responsibility." Quip spoke seriously for a moment.

"Of course tricks can be dangerous, but the audience should never be in peril. Little creed of mine...mainly because if they were I'd be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, that really put a nail in the 'Use the audience as bait to attract and Ursa Major and tame it' Routine." Quip sighed, it was hard to tell if he was joking or not.

Soon after Quip had said his part, the waitress came out with a tray levitating just in front of her, upon it where plates of food and drinks for the two performing ponies. Coming to a stop , the food and drink swiftly levitated over and placed gently onto the table in front of the ponies. Quip had a stack of eggy bread and a tall glass of orange looking juice, while Flyte had a delicious looking stack of pancakes and a standard mug of coffee before her.

"So, tell me" Quip suddenly sounded like he had food in his mouth, sure enough one of his slices of eggy bread was gone. "What do you hope to be doing in a few years, wanna stay with the circus forever?"

[Tartan Lassie]

    Deciding to breeze past the way Quip answered her, Flyte laughed. Whether it was the truth or not, she definitely believed it was plausible. She found him an intriguing stallion to be around. Interesting, curious and always full of conversation. She leaned forward, head in her hooves, trying to show him that she was listening to him. He surprised her with his next comment. Once he explained what he meant however, she agreed with him completely. She had frequently wondered to herself if the reason she preferred swinging trapeze over flying trapeze. Was it because she was afraid to lay her life in another's hooves? Or was it because she was afraid to take their lives in hers?

    Quip mentioned his partner, Mad Cap, and she pulled back off the table, blushing. Flyte had forgotten about Mad Cap. While the harlequin was not as well-known as her masked partner, the blue mare had heard rumours from fellow performers that Mad Cap and Quip Crack were a couple in more ways than one...

    She laughed at his last statement, but the laugh was more half-hearted than before and didn't hold that full deepness that it usually did.
As their orders arrived, Flyte nodded. "I agree completely. Safety is a very important issue. I still wear a safety harness a lot of the time. In flying trapeze, teamwork is imperative to the act. You need to be absolutely sure that your partner is confident in his abilities and you in yours before you rely on him. Thank you." The last was to the waitress, who nodded primly and left them to it.

    Flyte gratefully picked up her coffee and took a sip, trying to clear her cheeks of any pink sheen. Her pancakes looked delicious but there were quite a few of them... She doubted she would finish them. Still, Quip got stuck right it (or, at least, the food went near his mouth and then was gone, but that didn't necessarily mean he'd eaten it,) and Flyte decided to follow suit. Just as she raised a pancake to take a bite, the beige stallion asked her another question. She put the pancake back down.

    It was a question that occasionally worried her. Where was she going in life? But she decided to answer it with her current plans. "I want to trapeze for as long as possible. But I'm not staying with the Cirque d'Illusion for much longer." She smiled, thinking about other places she could go. "I'm looking for somewhere new. Not necessarily a circus, just another group I can travel with for a while." Flyte was a herd pony by nature, and preferred to travel with others. She had attempted to freelance for a while, but the equipment is just too much for one pony to handle. She waved a hoof thoughtfully. "Of course, there will be a point where I'm not longer able to fly. When that happens, I think I'll probably stick around, helping rookies and just generally enjoying the travelling fair, without having to perform."

    As she finished, she took a bite of the first pancake, being careful not to get any on her coat. As she chewed, she thought of a question she could ask him. "What about you? Are you going to keep performing your whole life. I mean, you have a partner. You couldn't abandon her. Are you... very close with Mad Cap?" She asked. Her voice was a little too curious, a little too innocent, but she really hoped she hadn't been to obvious about her question.

[CableZ]

Quip tapped his hoof on the table, it was a little tick he had to keep himself from exploding in a burst of energy. He'd starting doing it after he'd made Mad Cap cry during a period when she lacked confidence in her abilities and he'd run off chasing a kite. Now Quip may have been a bit of a ditz, not noticing stuff or being distracted but he was not a bad pony. When he made the actual effort to keep focused for the sake of a ponies feelings then it was clear he was paying attention, he did this especially when ponies spoke in the tone that Fylte was using currently.

She didn't seem excited, if Quip was here and he was talking about the future he'd be all over the place. In his head the future was infinite possibility and zero probability. Anything could happen and he loved it. But instead she seemed almost downtrodden by the idea of the future, that wasn't riiiight. No in Quip's mind the future was everything and anything that could be, will be and may be. However he didn't have time to think on this as he was then asked about Mad Cap, he'd not really expected that but with Mad Cap's rising popularity it was only inevitable that there would be interest in her, although he didn't really expect in that form, not that he gave it a second guess. Sitting back and rubbing his chin, he thought how he would classify his relationship with Mad Cap, he didn't want to say she felt like a sister because frankly he didn't think siblings had so much fun together, but that was based on experience with his own brother. It took more thought than he figured it would, he had never really thought about it before now anyway.

"Me and Mad Cap?" He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, propping his head up with his hooves holding his chin up. "We're pretty close, we share a house after all. She's my best friend, assistant, partner, pretty much everything...OH and my lindy hop partner" Quip giggled slightly at the memories of all they had been though. "I guess you could say we're pretty close, truth be told be aren't that talkative to be honest, at least not about stuff most ponies seem to be. Its always something irreverent or about a trick you know?" He giggled. "Why do you ask, might I inquire?" He leaned forward with curiosity, still propping his head up on his elbows.

[Tartan Lassie]

    Flyte was eating her second pancake as Quip Crack spoke. She frowned a little as the stallion described how close he was to Mad Cap. She hadn't realised that he lived with her, though after he said it, it became fairly obvious that she would. She finished her second pancake and picked up napkin, daintily wiping her mouth of syrup. She glared at her plate of pancakes for a long moment before remembering that just because she couldn't see his facial expression, doesn't mean he couldn't see hers. She shook her head and looked back up to his face.

    "Lindy hop?" She echoed, wrinkling her nose slightly. She didn't say it out loud, but lindy hop wasn't a dance she particularly admired. Yes, it required strength and energy but she did not find it any way graceful or appealing. With dance being one of her methods of training, she much preferred choreographed dances such as ballet, contemporary or jazz, her favourite being theatre and concert dance styles. She had appeared in the chorus of Cats, as temporary replacement and that genre remained her favourite to this day.

    But as she replaced her frown with a smile, Quip said something odd. They didn't really talk much? That seemed odd for two ponies he claimed were so close, but once she thought about it, it made sense. Since performance was Mad Cap's passion as much as Quip's, it was perfectly normal for them to talk about that sort of thing. Flyte nodded, a little sadly. She had never really found anypony to bond with over that sort of thing. On a bad day, she might even say she was lonely. For now though, she was content to spend time in the company of another, more famous performer and bond with him over tricks of the trade.

    He leaned closer and she leaned back a little, reflexively, though it wasn't a reflex she was used to. "I- What? Why?" She spluttered for a moment. Her cheeks flushed red as she continued "Oh, you know... I was just-" She waved a hoof in what was supposed to be a nonchalant way, but probably came of as flailing. "Some colts back at the tent were saying you two were... you know... -that she was your marefriend." She finished lamely. "They were just being silly, huh?" She looked back at them, hoping that she was right, and they weren't that kind of close. She went to bring her hoof back down but accidentally smacked her plate of food. The was stick slapping sound followed by a horrible clatter as the plate hit the ground. Flyte dived to catch it, but she was nowhere near quick enough and now there was just pile of dirty pancakes on the ground under a chipped plate. Flyte blushed harder than she had thought possible, her ears burning hotly. "Oops. Sorry." She said in small voice, trying to scoop up the mess.

[CableZ]

Quip lurched forward in an attempt to catch the plate as it fell and it got close for a moment but alas he was too late, as it shattered, Quip's hoof momentarily grazed Fytle's. Sighing at his own failure, Quip sat back in his seat as he looked defeated down at the mess upon the floor. At the sound of the crash, the waitress that had brought them their food came rushing out of the cafe to see what had happened. Gasping slightly at the sight of the plate shards and pancakes on the ground, she sighed before smiling at the two and quickly getting to gathering the shards of plate and pancakes and collecting them on her tray.

"I'll bring you some more" She smiled at Fylte before heading off back into the store.

Trying to recall what questions Flyte had asked before the little plate incident, and one stood out. He'd actually dealt with the question dealing with him being in a relationship with Mad Cap before, he didn't understand why people were so interested. Then again Quip could sometimes get a little obsessed with some of the soaps he watched so he could understand wanting to know about celebrities, but he didn't think of himself as a celebrity so he wondered why Flyte wanted to know.

"Well no, Mad Cap isn't my marefriend" He giggled at the very idea, Quip could be kind of dense sometimes. "Why do you ask anyhoo? Didn't think you'd be that interested?"

[Tartan Lassie]

    Flyte was grateful for the fact that there were very few ponies in the cafe, so she didn't have to bear the disapproving looks from others. The crash attracted the attention of the waitress and she came to clear up the mess. Flyte looked guiltily at her. "I'm so sorry." She murmured, her ears laid back. The waitress smiled though, doing a brilliantly professional job of taking care of the situation. After she had scooped everything up onto her tray, she kindly offered to bring Flyte some more and Flyte thanked her. As soon as she had vanished back inside, Flyte lay her head on the table. "Ugh... Sorry, that's was stupid." Inside she was rebuking herself for acting like that in front of Quip Crack.

    The beige stallion seemed unaffected though and Flyte was thankful that he chose to continue the conversation as if nothing had happened. She sat up, head in her hooves, looking sheepish. His next question left her feeling just as awkward as the last one and she was pleased there was no more plates she could knock over. However, her coffee and Quip's food was still within reach so she slowly pulled her front legs back off the table. She grinned as she gave her answer. "Oh, I was just curious. You're quite famous, and I figured I would've heard if you were courting somepony. And since the rumours about you and Mad Cap are false, I can safely assume you are a single stallion?" She winked cheekily. "After all, it's always good to know what fellow performers are on the market, hmm?" She giggled at him.

    If asked, Flyte probably wouldn't be able to say what provoked that more forward answer. She had just been embarrassed and, instead of retreating inside her shell like some ponies do, she was covering up her embarrassment by relying on her confidence. This was something she'd always done. She was a performer at heart, after all. She took a sip of coffee, awaiting her pancakes. She suddenly felt hungry again, but had been put in a different mood. "Soooo, Quip. What kind of mares catch your eye?" She asked playfully, irritated that she couldn't scan his face for some kind of reaction.

[CableZ]

Quip settled back into the coversation happily as something like accidentally breaking plates and the like was very boring to him. Anyway as she went over why she asked him, he didn't really mind as he didn't think it as much of a personal question, it was more of a casual thing to him when his mind was usually going over what insane thing he could do next. Anyway with her next question he actually had to bring himself back down into reality to think about what the answer to the question would be, or what she meaned by it. He sat back and thought about it for a moment, tapping the metallic forehead of his mask lightly for a moment.

"Hrrmmmm, I never really thought about it I guess." Quip didn't know what to say, shaking his head slightly "I guess it's gotta be some mare who can keep up with me, who makes me laugh, who is as lively as I am!" With a giggle he leaned forward slightly. "I can't say its ever been a point of consideration for me, I've been focussing on making ponies laugh for 12 years, ever since I was 6!!"

Quip had left home when he was very young, younger than would make sense to any pony but when he ran away he knew it was for a reason. His home never made him happy, quite the opposite and he knew he had to get out. He lived on the streets of Manehatten for his youth, busking and building up popularity and making a name for himself. Manehatten was where Quip exploded and the city still thought of him as one of its brightest stars, while Quip didn't know it a lot of mares would jump at the chance to date him. But he never thought about personally, maybe it was time he considered it?

"How about you, what stallions catch your eye?"

[Tartan Lassie]

    Sipping her coffee, Flyte listened carefully to Quip’s answer, wondering what kind of clues and hints she could glean from it, since she couldn’t read his eyes and his body language appeared very controlled. Her experience with stallions was vast and it was unusual for one not to express an interest in her. As he described his “perfect mare”, the earth pony had to bite off the words but surely Mad Cap is all of these things, not wishing to draw it to his attention if he hadn’t noticed. Still, she thought, it must be difficult for mares to handle him then. He’s laughing all the time, how would they know if it was them making him laugh or not. She grinned at this idea as the waitress returned with her fresh plate of pancakes. She levitated them down and Flyte thanked her again. “I’m really sorry, by the way.” she added guiltily.


    After the waitress had left, Flyte considered Quip’s answer. She knew he was famous and must have mares queuing up simply because of his status, never mind those who were more interested in his personality and looks. He was tall, which Flyte liked, and little scary, something else that appealed to her. “Hmm, I’m sure you have a lot of attention already. From those with eyes for more than your antics.” Flyte giggled. She cocked her head examining him. There must be ponies that are put off by his mask, she thought curiously. The deep blue mare certainly found it a little sinister, not that that put her off.


    She munched pancakes as he finished and asked her the same question, turned on its head. She thought about it, but not for long. It wasn’t too difficult a question to answer. Flyte too, had her share of admirers, though she had never been able to hold down a stallion. She was very interested in the idea of courting, but she becomes disenchanted easily if she feels she isn’t being shown the attention she deserves. It’s a symptom of her vanity. “I like a stallion that has plenty of time for me.” She answer, subtly avoiding making herself sound bad. “He needs to be lots of fun, able to make me laugh and appreciate my skills.” She thought a bit longer. “We don’t necessarily need to have things in common, but I suppose it would help”


    The thistle-haired mare began nibbling on her third new pancake, grinning at Quip Crack. She was enjoying his company so far. She glanced around a little at the café. “Why do you think it’s so empty?” She mused, almost to herself “I mean, I know it’s a little early, but it’s a nice day, ponies should be out her having some lunch.”