He heard first the twittering of Cinder at the windowsill, then noticed next the intensity of the sun from even behind his eyelids. With a groan, Stormdrift pulled the covers over his head and prayed for more time, but when the cardinal did not yet conclude its conversation with the springbirds outside, the pegasus blinked himself awake and groggily slipped from mattress to floor. His stomach still twisted and churned with the very same nauseousness he had hoped would pass in his sleep, and his eyelids hung with a heaviness he could not begin to describe. In reality, not much slumber had been had; nights when he tried to sleep off anxiety always resulted in the same tossing and turning, along with the drawling of voices in the situations replaying in his head over and over again. He hated every second of it, that crippling anxiety, and yet could find no way from its victim to its victor.
Seeing his master stirred from his sheets, the cardinal cascaded past the pegasus on striking red wings, ever the chipper one to greet the dawn. Like night and day, the little, social bird of a brilliant scarlet contrasted the reserved deep blues of Stormdrift's coat, and not even Cinder's chatter aroused more than a hanging head and dragging steps from the green-eyed stallion. Stormdrift stepped down the staircase and through a number of sunlit spots the window was happy to provide.
“Looks like a nice day,” he mumbled to himself. “More pressure... just what I need.”
Perhaps it was the grogginess of lingering weariness, or perhaps it was the distracting cringing of his stomach, but when a party horn erupted suddenly in his ear, the pegasus nearly jumped from his skin – and unceremoniously tumbled head over hoof down the stairs. His back slamming against the hardwood floor, Stormdrift stared in bewilderment at the curly-haired silhouette hanging over him in the brightest of sunbeams. Though she grinned, she blew the horn once more between his eyes, as if to ensure he was still alive.
“Good morning!” the cotton-candy pony exclaimed, bouncing circles around him as he climbed back onto hooves trembling from the near-heart attack. “You sure wake up slowly! I've been here for hours!”
Finding absolutely no words to greet her with, the stallion stood with tucked ears, furrowed brows and hanging jaw.
Grinning, she batted long, black eyelashes and tapped his teeth shut with a hoof. “Don't worry, I let myself in! I didn't want to ruin the surprise. Oh! Right! Surprise!” ...and a burst of noise and confetti exploded from seemingly nowhere.
Shaking the stuff from his cropped mane, Stormdrift backed away. “Wh-What do you want?”
“What do I want?” She seemed to ponder this only for dramatic effect. “I want to be friends, duh! You ran off so quickly last night – like, whoosh-quickly – you didn't even tell me your name!”
“I-I don't really have a lot of time,” he murmured, peering out the window only long enough to note the position of the sun in the sky. “I really have to go to—”
She dived in front of him when he turned. “Go? Go where? Hey, I'll go with you! You don't wanna get lost, right?”
“Well, no, but—”
She trotted in place. “I know you're probably as zippy as Rainbow if you fly, but I don't have wings, so we have to walk. Come on!"
As he so commonly did, Stormdrift strode with a lowered head and a slow, dragging gait, while the unfazed Pinkie skipped and hopped without discouragement. For a time, she babbled on and on about the folk of Ponyville he had yet to meet – the rest of the Apple Acres family, the alchemist zebra outside of town, Twilight's assistant – but the faceless names were thrown in his midst so quickly he could not memorize a one. Stormdrift did not dare utter a word, not because he could not get one in edgewise, but because he hated to think of dampening her spirit with his sullenness.
“I still don't know your na-ame,” she hummed melodically between breaths.
He held his gaze on his hooves. “Oh, uh... sorry... Um, I'm Stormdrift.”
“Stormdrift and Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie grinned ear to ear, a bounce forming in her step. “Sheesh, talk about opposite names! Are all your sisters named like that?”
“Kind of—”
“Hey! You should meet the Cake twins!” She hopped in front of him, and Stormdrift halted abruptly. “I babysit them sometimes at Sugarcube Corner. You'd love them!”
How she came to that conclusion, he didn't know. “I can't,” he mumbled, and stepped around her.
Promptly, Pinkie spun on her heels and interrupted his walk once again: “How about we visit Fluttershy? She's real quiet and stuff, just like you!”
He gave her a look, then moved around her again. “I have to be somewhere.”
“How about berry-picking with Berry Punch? Or we could go bowling! Darts? Checkers? Staring contest?”
“I have to meet the Mayor,” he insisted, quickening his pace and dodging his way around her time and time again. “M-Maybe some other time, okay?”
She went undaunted, however, all the way into Ponyville and up to the city hall, where the pegasus was finally rid of her (the city building was much too staunch and stiff to entertain the rambunctious Pinkie Pie). Naturally, the Mayor was a busy individual; she attended to the usual welcome-to-Ponyville speech and pointed out locations on a map spread about her desk, all the while wondering why she'd made such meetings with new residents mandatory when she had far more important things to do.
“The Ponyville Stormspotters have been low on members for some time now,” the Mayor sighed, though the pegasus noticed the optimistic glimpse in her eye. “I have appealed for Cloudsdale assistance for a number of years now, but as you should already know, cities in the sky are much harder hit by inclement weather than those on the ground. I'm so relieved to finally have one of the Cloudsdale Stormspotters here in Ponyville – we're hit by thunderstorms often since none in our current team can handle more than rainclouds.”
He sank into his shoulders and shrugged, casting a brief glance at the stormcloud adorning his flank, complete with raindrops shaped like golden bolts. Hardly the flashy cutie mark his sister had, but then again, he was hardly the flashy individual she was. “I'll do my best,” he said, but his stomach twisted.
After noting the Stormspotters' base location and meeting time later that afternoon, the Mayor politely escorted him back to the lobby when their meeting completed. Stormdrift was left standing on city hall steps without intent nor destination in mind, and with Pinkie Pie nowhere in sight, the stallion breathed momentary relief and moved at a more leisurely pace for his home on the outskirts of town. There was much unpacking to do, after all, and he hated to think of getting in the way of busy ponies amidst a normal yet bustling day in the center of Ponyville.
He tasted the shift in the air on his tongue, then braced himself against the sweeping western winds that blew past and sank once more into his shoulders. Surely such things were only his imagination.
The squeal of the Sugarcube Corner door announced Twilight's presence even before she could greet those within herself. The giggling of the Cake twins echoed from up the staircase, and over the commotion she could hear their blue-eyed caretaker singing and tapping some sort of dance on the floor. Mrs. Cake only winked and nodded, giving her permission to follow the sound, and with that and a contented smile the unicorn trotted up the stairs and around the corner.
“Twilight!” the earth pony would exclaim, hardly bothering to pull off the extravagant glasses perched on her nose, complete with fake eyes hanging from the lenses and a bright, red nose. Twilight seemed to catch her in such garb more often than not, yet still could not stifle the light chuckle that surfaced as a result.
“I brought the book you asked for, Pinkie,” the unicorn nodded, pulling it from her saddlebags with help from her magic and drifting it over to her. “'Foals and Fillies: Teaching Core Skills.' It was one of the books already in the library when I moved in. And how are my two favorite twins today, hmm?”
Pound and Pumpkin lit up at the attention, though the filly was first to approach. In her mouth was her favorite stuffed bear, still missing one of its buttons for its eyes – her brother was evidently living up to his name. “Twilight,” Pumpkin said, promptly dropping the bear, “are you still gonna teach me how to fix Mr. Chubby's eye after school tomorrow?”
“That depends,” the elder unicorn grinned, noticing Pinkie had already buried her face in the delivered book. “Have you been practicing what I showed you?”
“Uh-huh!” The filly stepped back and shut her eyes tight, blue-tinted magic sparking from her horn and slowly but surely, levitating the bear a few inches off the ground before it fell again. Gasping for breath after such frustration, Pumpkin beamed. “Mr. Chubby's a lot heavier than the needle and thread, though. I can pick that up just fine, so you'll teach me, right?"
Twilight nodded, chuckling, and directed the girl to go play before returning to Pinkie's side. “They're growing up fast, aren't they?”
“Hey, Twilight,” Pinkie murmured, “did you find anything in your library on that other thing I asked for?”
The earth pony lay sprawled on her stomach across the floor, book spread out in front of her, and Twilight didn't hesitate to settle down beside her to watch the children at play. “The stuff on the Cloudsdale weather teams? Spike and I both went through most of everything and didn't find a thing. Sorry, Pinkie... I guess I just don't own much about Cloudsdale. Why?”
“We-e-ell,” she drawled, rolling on her back, “I thought if I learned a couple things about their Stormspotters, I'd have something to talk to Dashie's brother about. He sure doesn't smile much.”
Twilight frowned: it was probably for good reason he didn't. “I think he's kind of a special case, Pinkie,” she said, quite clearly hesitating to share her observations with one so typically blunt and impulsive as the pink-maned earth pony. What she had heard outside the barn between Dash and Stormdrift the previous night... was that already too much to make known? Unconsciously, she shook her head; no, that would have to remain private. She would bring it up with Rainbow Dash herself. “I know what you did for Cranky Doodle a few years back was really good for him, but... well, not everything can be so easily solved.”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed. How to put this in simple terms? “Cranky was only, well, cranky because he'd searched for his lost love for most of his life. The fact that Matilda was in Ponyville when he moved here was a sheer stroke of luck, really. Reuniting them sort of solved all his problems, right?”
“Right! Isn't it great?!”
“Well, yes, but...” A nervous pause. “Look, I just don't think Stormdrift has that type of problem. From what I've seen of him so far, his problems seem to stem from living in his sister's shadow or being bossed around by her, hinting at a long streak of self-esteem issues that would probably take years of therapy to correct and...”
Pinkie stared blankly.
“Just be careful,” Twilight said, lifting back up onto her hooves. “If I were you, I would just let him be for now, at least until he gets comfortable. You saw what happened with Cranky: If you rush things and push yourself on him too much, you'll make him withdraw even more.”
Twilight could not imagine Pinkie Pie had any real experience in aiding the clinically depressed – which by her own calculations Stormdrift could be – and if the piny pony were to mess around too much with one like he, things could end up dire. He could end up moving away.
Pinkie, finally prying the silly glasses from her face, seemed to consider this. “So... is there a way we can help him feel better now that he's here?”
“There are several different ways that could potentially help,” Twilight mused, unconsciously straightening up and assuming a very orderly, knowledgeable air. “Exercise, meditation, a creative outlet, time out with friends—”
“Like a party with friends?”
“No, Pinkie, not necessarily.” She sighed. “I don't really know him, yet. I'm not sure what his exact needs are, or if we should even be trying to interfere. We only met him yesterday; he could have just been tired and grumpy after moving all day.”
It was fairly unsettling to see Pinkie actually consider these things so seriously. “Okay, Twilight,” she nodded finally, “I'll leave him alone.”
With evening settling fast, Stormdrift glided through Ponyville clouds with anticipation on his wings; to sense oncoming rain so soon unsettled him. He did not dare have his skills as a “veteran” Cloudsdale Stormspotter put to the test so soon after arriving in his new home. What if he messed up? What would they think of him? The stallion could only be grateful that those clouds seemed a ways off yet – a few days, perhaps – but if his gift and cutie mark proved him right, the storm would not pass Ponyville. He shuddered at the thought.
Near the center of town he found the Stormspotters' treehouse, which he realized doubled as a home as he weaved between its limbs. The glow of a warm light within its doors welcomed him at the balcony, and the chatter he heard seemed excited and friendly. Only a few voices, he observed – good, not a big crowd – and with that the stallion tapped hesitantly at the door.
Within seconds, it swung open to him, and in its doorway an apricot mare smiled at him. “Hey there,” she said, her wings extended and voice almost boyish in nature. He found it somehow... familiar. “Stormdrift, right? I'm Scootaloo. C'mon in, I think we're ready to start.”
Her messy violet mane drifting in and out of her vision, Scootaloo tapped the door shut behind him with a swing of her hip and trotted past, a confident bounce in her step he could not help but admire. Counting no more than ten mares and stallions in his midst, Stormdrift dwelt in the back with a perked ears and a roused sense of excitement. Where it had come from, he did not know, but when his fellow pegasi turned and smiled and greeted him without the same overwhelming commitment he had met at 'his' party the previous night, Stormdrift could only breathe great relief and forge a genuine smile.
“All right, everyone,” Scootaloo called, and commotion quieted quickly. “We're thinkin' it might rain tonight, so let's make this quick so Bowbolt can go measure the clouds before they get here. First order of business is that our transfer from Cloudsdale just moved here last night instead of next month, which will be useful if this rain's as bad as I'm sensin' it'll be. Storm, you gonna introduce yourself?”
At first, his head dipped – then, with a burst of sudden confidence he seemed to absorb from the Stormspotters' leader, he straightened his neck and puffed out his chest: Best to try to make a good impression. “I-I'm Stormdrift,” he mumbled, then cleared his throat and forced his voice louder. “I-I work with clearing storms more than rain. I, um, was with the Cloudsdale Stormspotters for a few years, until they sent me here.”
“I'm thinkin' that if the Cloudsdale 'Spotters sent him, he's got to be good,” Scoots said, “and he's the only one of us that can take care of something besides rainclouds and snow, plus he's got experience with the real deal up in the sky. Right?”
Shrugging, he turned his eyes. “The weather's kind of nasty in Cloudsdale, I guess.”
“Right,” she grinned, “so I'm votin' he take the adviser position Juniper Sky had before she got pulled back to her old team in Phillydelphia. Anyone opposed?”
His jaw dropped, but none seemed to notice – with unanimous nodding of the heads and excited chatters rising among them, Stormdrift seemed given no choice in the matter. That confidence he'd absorbed, blown away within seconds! Immediately he cowered into his shoulders and backed up against the wall in terror of the expectations he'd somehow brought with him – but his cutie mark did not lie, even when he tried to hide it with his wing. He was branded as being gifted with the storms.
“Then it's settled,” Scootaloo proclaimed, “the new guy's my new second-in-command! Now that Cloudsdale finally listened to us and sent us a real Stormspotter, things are finally going to turn up around in here in Ponyville!”
They erupted into cheers and exclamations, congratulating the petrified Stormdrift with offers of drink and food and talk; their meeting went on as such, excited with the new rankings even as they assumed more serious business and finally broke apart for the night. When they left, the stallion could not even near the door, too heavily surrounded by Ponyville Stormspotters that wanted to hear of his glorious Cloudsdale days, where the weather was horrid and made for unending adventure they all wished to see. He had nothing to offer them but hesitant smiles and promises of “Maybe another time,” which they were not at all discouraged by, much to his chagrin.
When he finally managed his way to the balcony and spread his wings to leave, the chipper call of Scootaloo halted him one last time: “Hey, Stormdrift, hold up a second.”
His front hooves on the bannister, the stallion folded back both wings and ears alike.
“Just wanted to say welcome to Ponyville,” she grinned, “and to tell you not to worry about the rain tonight. You just go home and get yourself settled in this time, and we'll take care of the rest. Got it?”
A heat in his cheeks, he offered a quick nod. “Got it,” he mumbled, and as always, disappeared in a flurry of midnight blue feathers into a starry sky.
---
A/N: Apologies for the great delays in chapters; I lost my muse after receiving really bad feedback from a submission site I sent the first two chapters to, and had pretty much put the fanfiction down for good until recently feeling the need to keep up with it. There's been a lot of views and stuff since February since I was last on here, so that's really encouraging. Thank you everyone! Please let me know how everything looks and where I can still improve. :)