//------------------------------// // 1 - Meeting Clouds // Story: Chasing Clouds // by Azusa //------------------------------// Flitter hummed to herself a happy tune as she trotted to class. She stopped at the doorway and straightened the bow she was wearing in her mane before stepping through. The sounds of her classmates chatting with each other graced her ears. On her way to her desk, she greeted each and every one of her friends by name. A moment later, the teacher walked in. The class fell silent as she spoke. "Class, today we have a new student.” She motioned a hoof at the door. “Why don't you tell us about yourself?" A filly with a dark lilac coat strolled up to the front of the class, waving a hoof at her new classmates and smirking. She rested an elbow on the teacher’s desk as she talked. "My name’s Cloudchaser. I just moved here from Canterlot." "Well, Cloudchaser, why don't you take that empty seat next to Flitter?" The teacher began their lesson on weather control once Cloudchaser had taken her seat. Flitter saw that she didn’t have a cutie mark. Huh? That’s weird, she thought. Her gaze traveled up to Cloudchaser’s mane; her sky-blue locks stuck out in the back, and her bangs swept across her forehead. Cloudchaser glanced at her. “Why are you staring at me?” Flitter’s tail twitched. “Oh! Uh...” Flitter put a hoof to her mouth and whispered into Cloudchaser’s ear, "I think your mane is awesome.” “You do?" Cloudchaser ran a hoof through her hair and grinned. The spikes in the back of her hair shot up when she brought her hoof down over the ones lying against her neck. "Your bow’s adorable." Flitter beamed. "Really?" "Flitter," the teacher suddenly said, "if you're so eager to speak, then can you tell us what kind of cloud this is?” She pointed to a picture of a cloud lying against the blackboard. Flitter looked down at her desk, pursing her lips. A moment later, she stood up. "What was the question again?" A few of her classmates snickered. The teacher rubbed her temple with a hoof and grumbled. "What kind of cloud is this?" "A Nimbus Two Thousand?" Cloudchaser burst out laughing. Flitter made a sheepish grin and scratched the back of her long pale-green mane. The three dragonflies painted on her flank pressed against the hard wood of the chair as she sat down. The teacher’s eye twitched. “Well, Cloudchaser, if you think meteorology is funny, then why don’t you tell us how to make a cloud rain?” Cloudchaser stood up and cleared her throat. ”I assume that you mean the standard way, by kicking them, but I have a theory that I think might be more efficient. “We send out a team of about six pegasi over the clouds, each carrying a bag of dry ice.” Cloudchaser zipped her hoof in a horizontal motion. “They dust clouds with the ice, which condenses the liquid in them, thus making it rain. You see, it takes about thirty seconds for the average pony to get into position, extend their legs, and connect with the cloud. But, with my method, it should take them less than five seconds per cloud.” All the other pegasi, including the teacher, stared at her with their mouths agape. “Well, that was... very interesting, Cloudchaser.” The teacher went back to their lesson. Cloudchaser sat down in her seat and leaned back a little, raising the two front legs of the chair in the air. A grey pegasus with a silver mane named Silverspeed leaned over to Flitter and whispered: “What’s her problem? Doesn’t she know that’s common knowledge?” “Who knows...” Flitter said, not taking her eyes off their new classmate. She’s so smart~ ~~~~~~~~~~ After class had ended for the day, most of the other students stayed behind to help each other with their homework or shoot the breeze. Cloudchaser stood and trotted out the door. Flitter saw her and ran after. “Hey, Cloudchaser, where are you going?” “Huh?” Her eyebrow raised, Cloudchaser stopped and looked back at Flitter. “Home, I guess.” She tilted her head a bit. "Why? You wanna hang out or something?" “Ohmygosh, yes!” she said, catching up with Cloudchaser. “So what’s there to do in this little puff of gas you call a town?” Cloudchaser asked as they trotted down the hall. Flitter told her all about the town, about all the sights, the shops, and where to have fun, though none of the places she mentioned piqued Cloudchaser’s interest. Then Flitter mentioned the rainbow factory, and Cloudchaser insisted that they sneak in. Flitter tried to convince her not to go at first, but went along anyway when Cloudchaser told her that she would go by herself if she had to. They left the school and took off for the rainbow factory. The entire trip there, Flitter was sweating bullets. She had heard stories of what happened to fillies and colts who were caught sneaking into the factory, but Flitter glanced at Cloudchaser and decided to swallow her fears. Cloudchaser landed by the back entrance and then motioned for Flitter to follow as she ducked inside. When Flitter landed, she darted her eyes around before chasing after her friend, shaking the whole time. Inside, Flitter gazed around the factory. The light glistened off the rainbow falls as it fell into the collection pools with a splash. The sight made her stop, and she let her mouth hang open. Around her, the factory workers went about their jobs. Some stirred the pools of rainbow, while a few others swept the floor. She quickly realized that Cloudchaser was trotting away and charged after her. “Okay, you saw the inside of the rainbow factory. Now let’s go,” Flitter whispered. “Hold on,” Cloudchaser replied. “I just want a little of the rainbow to take home.” “What?” Flitter almost shouted. Before she could stop her, Cloudchaser had already dashed off to one of the pools of rainbow. Taking out a bit, she placed it between the feathers of her wing and dipped it into the colorful solution. She wore a sly grin on her face as she held up the prismatic coin. “Hey! What are you doing here?” Flitter turned to see a large stallion wearing white hard hat and coat. “Look out!” she shouted. Cloudchaser recoiled when she saw the stallion stomping towards her. Without thinking, Flitter galloped forward. She dove at Cloudchaser and the two of them fell into the rainbow pool. A moment later, Flitter felt a strong bite around her shoulder, and she soon found herself rising out of the liquid and thrown onto the floor; Cloudchaser quickly joined her. The stallion took them to the back entrance and threw them out into the street. “The rainbow factory is no place for foals. If you’d gotten hurt, the factory would get shut down, and then we wouldn’t have any more rainbows. Now get lost before I call your parents!” He went back inside the factory, shaking the droplets of rainbow from his mouth and grimacing. Flitter and Cloudchaser looked at each other. The sight of them covered head to tail with rainbow fluid made Cloudchaser snicker; Flitter quickly joined her. “Whew, that was a close one.” Flitter wiped her forehead off. “Yeah,” Cloudchaser said, gazing at the sky. “Last time I got caught sneaking into a rainbow factory, I got lectured for an hour afterwards.” Flitter looked at her wide-eyed. “You’ve done this before?” Her heart skipped a beat. Cloudchaser grinned at her. “Maybe we should just get ice cream next time.” Flitter sighed. Cloudchaser chuckled. “Sure, why not?” ~~~~~~~~~~ A month had passed since Flitter first met Cloudchaser. In that time, they played together almost every day. This day after school, Flitter trotted out the door, adjusting her flight goggles. Outside she saw Cloudchaser kicking a hacky sack by herself. “Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three...” Flitter trotted towards her. “Hey, Cloudchaser, why are you playing by yourself? Why don’t you join the school flight team?” “Aw, I already tried. They won’t let me join. Twenty-six, twenty-seven...” Cloudchaser grumbled. “What? Why?” Cloudchaser caught the sack with her wing, and then she shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. They wouldn’t even let me try out. If they don’t want me on the team, then I don’t care anymore.” She pursed her lips. “Oh... Well, see ya later then.” Flitter started to trot away, her eyebrows upturned. “Yeah, see you.” Cloudchaser went back to playing with the hackey sack. “One, two, three, four...” Flitter stopped. She glanced in the direction of the flight track, then back at her new friend. Eh, there’ll be other flight practices. She went back to Cloudchaser. “Can I play, too?” “Sure!” Cloudchaser kicked the sack to Flitter and they both started kicking it back and forth. It soon turned into a heated match, with neither one of them wanting to be the one to let the hacky sack fall through the cloud. They kept it flying between them for a long time before Cloudchaser missed and let it drop below the cloud. She gave a short chuckle. As the loser of that round, she had to retrieve the toy. They played many rounds with the hacky sack with Flitter gaining only a slight lead. She was just about to claim another victory when Cloudchaser’s mother showed up to take her home. So Cloudchaser said goodbye to Flitter and took off with her mother. Flitter was about to leave as well when her eyebrows shot up. The hacky sack! she thought, diving down under the clouds. When she found it, she brought it back inside and placed it on Cloudchaser’s desk before going home. ~~~~~~~~~~ Flitter wore a beaming smile on her face as she met Cloudchaser in the hall on the way to class the next day. In the classroom, she saw her classmates chatting away while they waited for their teacher to arrive. “G’morning, Silverspeed!” Flitter said, waving at her. “Flitter, you skipped flight training again yesterday. Where were you?” Silverspeed asked. “Oh, I was playing with Cloudchaser.” “What?” Silverspeed slammed a hoof on her desk. “You’re still friends with that egghead?!” Flitter recoiled a hoof. “Hey, she is not an egghead! Cloudchaser is really smart and cool and... and... awesome!” Flitter stomped a hoof on the cloud floor. “No!” Silverspeed stood up. “Cloudchaser is a know-it-all blank-flank egghead!” “You just don’t like her ’cause she’s smarter than you!” Flitter gritted her teeth. Why am I getting so worked up over this? Silverspeed pressed her forehead against Flitter’s. “You take that back!” Flitter pressed harder. “Apologise to Cloudchaser!” “No!” Silverspeed turned up her nose at Flitter. “If you’re going to play with that egghead, then this ends our friendship.” “W-what?” Flitter’s mouth hung wide open. “But... why?” “Because,” Silverspeed snapped, “I don’t want to have anything to do with that blank-flank, or her friends.” “I...” Flitter hung her head low, and she slowly trotted out of the classroom, pouting. The rest of the class only watched in silence. “Flitter, where are you going?” Cloudchaser asked, speaking up only now. Flitter shut the door behind her, tears welling up in her eyes. Inside the bathroom, Flitter trotted up to the sink and turned on the faucet. She splashed some water on her face and looked up at the mirror. The light pink veins in her eyes matched the color of her cheeks. She pressed a hoof under her eye and gently pulled it down to get a better look. Upon hearing a knock at the door, she let go and turned off the faucet. She heard the door open and then Cloudchaser’s voice: "Flitter? Are you okay?" Flitter’s gaze lowered to the basin. “She’s been my friend for so long.” She turned around. “We’ve been friends since kindergarten. And now...” She snuffled. Cloudchaser wrapped her hooves around Flitter and held her tightly. “I’m sure it will be okay." Flitter buried her face in Cloudchaser's chest, her uncontrollable tears staining the fur beneath them. Cloudchaser paid it no mind as she stroked her friend's mane. If only there was more I could do for her, she thought. If only I was stronger... braver... After a few moments, Flitter’s tears stopped flowing. “Let’s get back to class.” Cloudchaser put a hoof around her shoulder and they left the bathroom. When they got back to class, they found the rest of the students in their seats, chatting away with each other. On the way back to her chair, Flitter turned to one of her classmates and said, “Hey, Drizzle.” Drizzle stared down at her desk. Flitter raised an eyebrow. “Huh? Lightning Dust, what’s with Drizzle?” Lightning Dust looked back at Silverspeed—who shook her head—and then she sunk down into her seat. “Medley? Blossomforth? Skyra?” Flitter said, darting her gaze around the room. “Speak to me!” She spotted Silverspeed in the back row, grinning and holding her front hooves together in front of her chin. “They’re not your friends anymore, Flitter. Either you end your friendship with that egghead, or we’re never speaking to you again!” Flitter’s face drooped. She trotted back to her desk and sat down. The rest of her classmates ignored her as they talked amongst themselves. Cloudchaser kept her mouth shut the entire time. Moments later, the teacher came in and started taking attendance. She didn’t seem to notice that Silverspeed was glaring at Flitter.