Chapter 2: Training Hard
Flying Through the Storm
Chapter 2: Training Hard
As I soared towards the library, the only thing that kept popping into my head was the silver-haired stallion that had saved my life earlier that day. I couldn’t stop thinking about Thunderlane. I groaned as I reached the Books and Branches Library, setting down in front of it. It looked like the meeting had already begun and they were playing some sort of film. I could even hear the cheesy music outside of the massive treehouse. Quietly I pushed open the door and stepped inside. All of Ponyville’s pegasi were in attendance, and I knew the moment I saw the film that was playing onscreen that I had been right about what was coming next. Ponyville had been chosen to provide the water to Cloudsdale this year, which meant I was in for a world of hurt.
“Cloudchaser!” A soft voice whispered at me. I looked over, catching sight of Flitter in the crowd. Silently I made my way over to my sister, who smiled.
“You’re late,” she whispered. I felt my ears heat as I blushed, seeing her expression turn into a silly grin. “Ohhh… I know why,” She teased. I mouthed Shut up! at her and she giggled softly. I looked past my silly sister and scanned the crowd for a moment. A flash of silver mane a few rows ahead caught my eye as I spotted Thunderlane. The stallion was standing next to another pegasi I knew as Blossomforth. She too was relatively new to Ponyville, having only lived in the town for a few months. Thunderlane had a goofy grin on his from what I could see. Thankfully, he hadn’t noticed me yet. I stared, trying to figure out why he was still on my mind. I mean yeah… he saved my life and all, but is that all it was? A minor infatuation with my lifesaver? I couldn’t place a hoof on it, to be quite honest. I didn’t have much more time to consider it before the film cut out with a crunch, followed by the flapping of broken film. Spike, Twilight Sparkle’s dragon assistant, chuckle nervously as he tried to repair the projector. The sharp voice of Rainbow Dash cut through the air over the young dragon.
“So, here’s the scoop. Cloudsdale has chosen our very own Highland Reservoir as a source of the rainwater they need for all of Equestria,” The rainbow-maned mare began. “And you know what that means.” Yes… I really do, I thought dryly. “It means it’s up to Ponyville’s pegasi to bring that water up to Cloudsdale.” The pegasi in the crowd began to murmur excitedly amongst themselves at the news. Flitter turned to me and grinned.
“Isn’t it exciting? Mom and Dad always said that rainy season was fun!” She said brightly. I chuckled.
“Right. Fun,” I said darkly as Dash continued her announcements.
“Not only that, but Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts, will be here to oversee the water transfer and record our top tornado windspeed,” she said. Spitfire! I thought. I was a huge fan of the Wonderbolts, and a chance to meet the flying team’s captain was one I was not going to miss, no matter how much pain I had to go through to do it. “Now last year, Fillydelphia broke the windspeed record with a top speed of nine hundred and ten wing power. But I think we can do better.” Of course you do Rainbow. Of course you do, I thought, sighing. This really was going to be a painful experience. “I think we can get a top speed of over a thousand!” The crowd began its excited chatter once more as Rainbow Dash paused for a moment to let the idea sink in.
“If… each and every pony trains, and trains hard to get their wing power numbers up!” She finished. More murmurs echoed from the crowd and I heard a badly-muffled cough from in front of me. I stopped for a moment, realizing it was Thunderlane. My mind flashed back to the storm. He had gotten quite drenched just like I had, if not worse. I hope he’s not getting a cold or something, I thought for a moment, before shaking the thought away. It seemed that Dash had heard his little cough and decided to call him out on it.
“That coughing better be from a popcorn kernel, Thunderlane. Nopony’s getting sick on my watch,” she said. Thunderlane looked nervous at this, and tried to hide himself amidst the crowd. I made a mental note to rib him about it later. Later. I kept thinking about that concept. What happens next? I thought. What if… what if it’s true? What if I am falling for him? He seems like a nice enough guy… I mean yeah, he’s cocky and a jerk, but… he saved my life didn’t he? The pit of my stomach rolled, and I ended up ignoring the big cheering section at the end of Dash’s speech. What if… what if he doesn’t like me back like that? I tried to shake off the thoughts as the meeting ended and I walked out of the library with Flitter, doing my best to keep up the appearance that I was happy and not conflicted with thoughts about love and romance. Somehow, I could tell that Flitter noticed though. She kept giving me this knowing look and I knew for certain I was going to be grilled later with tons of questions. We had just stepped back onto the main street of Ponyville proper when a voice gave me pause.
“Chase!” Thunderlane shouted as he flew up behind Flitter and me. “Hey, you made it to the meeting then? Pretty exciting stuff right?” I snorted.
“Nothing surprising, really. I kind of figured that’s what was going on,” I replied. “You gonna be alright with your widdle cough, hot shot?” I poked him in the side with my forehoof, getting some interesting looks from my sister. Thunderlane just grinned.
“Yeah I’ll be alright. You girls going to be alright getting home by yourselves?” He asked, trying to appear all big and macho. I decided to have a little fun with him.
“Oh I don’t know, maybe we’ll need a big. Strong. Rain Weather Pony to get us there,” I said, emphasizing each word and turning on the saucy eyes as best as I could, causing the stallion to blush from ear to ear. I burst into laughter at his expression, trying to combine befuddlement, shock and pride, all capped with a blush to the tips of his ears.
“Hey now, s’not funny,” he stammered nervously. I winked at him and looked at Flitter. Hah! My turn to wink now! I thought.
“Come on Flits, let’s leave lover boy here in the dust,” I said. My sister shot a sheepish grin at the stallion and waved to him as we flew off. We arrived within a few minutes and walked inside our cozy little home. Flitter was being unusually quiet. I knew I was in for it. Sure enough, as soon as we got in the house, she pounced on me.
“So… tell me about Thunderlane,” she cooed. I groaned.
“Nothing to tell Flits. Come on, it’s getting late, and I’m dead tired from earlier,” I replied, beginning to head upstairs. Flitter cheerfully bounced up the stairs behind me. I pulled off my covers and plopped into bed. Flits slid into the bedroom and gently landed on her bed. I reached up and turned the light out. After a few moments of comfortable silence, I heard Flitter get up and flutter across the room, landing next to me.
“So… you gonna tell me or not?” She said quietly. I groaned loudly.
“Oh for Celestia’s sake Flitter!” I shouted, nearly sending my sister out of the bed with fright. I reached up past her and turned the light back on. “You’re not going to give up on this until I tell you are you?” She grinned and shook her head. Of course not, I thought. “Alright, fine. I’ll tell you.”
“He seems like a nice guy. How’d you meet him?” She asked, getting a pillow to sit on while we had our little ‘girl’ talk. I sighed, and began to tell Flitter about the cloud clearing that morning over at Carousel Boutique. I danced around a few details, but I mentioned about our little competition. Flitter looked at me curiously when I finished.
“You’re not telling me everything Sis,” She said, more of a statement than a question. I glared at her. “Oh come on, I tell you about Winter all the time, and the first time you get interested in a stallion you won’t tell me anything!”
“I’m not interested in him Flits,” I said. Heat began rising in my cheeks and I knew Flitter could tell I was lying.
“Please. You’re blushing like a filly Sis,” she replied, continuing to read my expression like an open book. Her eyes widened. “You kissed him didn’t you?” I blushed harder. “I knew it! You did!”
“Okay okay, I did. Happy now?” I said. “Didn’t mean anything. I… He wanted a kiss if he won our little competition. That’s all it was.” Flitter’s eyes lit up.
“Aww… that’s so romantic. And then he dashingly saved your life just like that! Oh, I bet you kissed him after that right?” She said excitedly. I glared at her some more. “Oh. You did.” I nodded solemnly. “Do you think he likes you too?”
“I… I don’t know Flits. I’m not even sure how I feel about him. I mean… he apologized for being a jerk and all, and we made a deal to start over and be friends…” I explained. Flitter sighed and reached over, pulling me into a hug. I leaned into my sister’s embrace and smiled.
“You know, it was a brave thing he did saving us both. I’m glad you met him,” she said softly. I sighed in return. The only thing I could think at that moment was Me too Flits. Me too. We stayed like that for several minutes, not saying anything else. Flitter ultimately decided that she was tired and that I was the best pillow she could ask for as she dozed off to sleep in my forelegs. I smiled and nuzzled her cheek, and fell into blissful sleep myself.
*********************
*BEEP BEEP BEEP*
The alarm woke me once more, almost as if it were mocking me. I grunted a bit and tried to move, realizing that my sister was still lying over top of me. Blearily, I stared up at the blaring clock, thankful that it wasn’t showing us how late we were. I could deal with this. I nudged Flitter to try to get her to wake up, but she wasn’t having any of it. I groaned and shoved my sister off the bed to the floor. She jolted awake instantly, crying out as she hit the hardwood floor of our bedroom.
“What’s that?!” She shouted before she realized where she was at. I looked down at her blankly.
“Time to get up Flits,” I said. Flitter shot me a meek grin, pushing her rump up off the floor.
“Oh, morning Sis. You sleep alright?” She asked. I nodded.
“Yeah. As well as anypony else I guess,” I replied. Truth be told, I probably hadn’t slept that good in ages. My muscles felt very refreshed and my mind was a bit clearer. Even the thought of a certain silver-haired pegasus didn’t seem to faze me. “We’d better get going. I bet Dash will be surprised to see us in on time for a change.”
Our morning routine went as normal. A light breakfast and packing of our lunches later and we were off, headed towards the monolithic form of the Ponyville Weather Office. Training for rainy season had been scheduled to begin the following Monday. Today was Friday, and I was certain we’d be using the weekend to prepare for the water move. I wasn’t sure what Rainbow Dash had planned for us, but I knew it was going to be rough. Dash never did anything half way. It was all or nothing to her. The market was the busiest today, everypony stocking up for the weekend ahead. As we sailed overhead, we could see Applejack dutifully moving her apples into her cart as we passed by. I smiled. In the scant few months that we had been living here I had never seen her take a day off once. She was truly one of the hardest working ponies in the entire town.
We arrived at work a few moments later and punched in our timecards right on time. It was quite amusing to see the look on Rainbow Dash’s face when she sauntered into the office and saw that we were already heading out for assignments. I looked down at my card and smiled. I had been assigned to handle clouds again for the morning, this time over at Twilight’s library. It also looked like I was going to have a partner for the morning. I sighed and silently hoped that it would be Thunderlane, but then I remembered he was supposed to be off for a few days. I motioned to Rainbow Dash while Flitter was off looking up her assignment for the day, asking her about the silver-haired stallion.
“Oh. I asked him to come in to work on that rain shower, but he’s off again until training on Monday. He’s a bit of a slacker, but he’s good with rainy weather,” she replied. “Seeing as how his family needs the extra money, he accepted and came in.”
“Huh. Well alright then, do you know who I’m working with this morning then?” I asked. Dash nodded and turned to her list of assignments.
“Let’s see here, looks like you’ve got Ditzy helping you out,” she said. I jumped for joy at this. I really truly loved hanging out with the walleyed mare. While some ponies in the town made fun of her occasionally because of her clumsy nature, her heart was in everything she did. Her current stint as a weather pony was actually the second of her two jobs she worked, all to support her daughter Dinky. I nodded.
“Thanks Dash,” I said. I was about to leave when the door opened and Winter Storm entered. The snowy white pegasus stallion was immediately attacked by my sister, who hopped up next to him. Her expression was a mixture of admiration and awe.
“Hiya Winter!” She said brightly. “Having a good morning?”
“Oh, hey there Flitter. Yeah, you?” The stallion replied. I rolled my eyes. Either he had rocks for brains or he just flat out could not see how crazy my sister was about him.
“So looks like we’re working together this morning,” Flitter said. Winter nodded as he pulled out his assignment card.
“Looks like. Isn’t that like the sixth time this week?” He said blankly.
“Well you know me. I lose count of things so easily!” Flitter said, chuckling nervously. Smooth, I thought, grinning.
“Well, you ready to get going then? Plenty of work to do after all,” Winter said. Flitter nodded.
“Yeah, let me just get my things and I’ll be right behind you,” she said. The stallion left the room, leaving me and Flitter alone for a moment. I giggled.
“Flitter, when are you just going to ask him out already?” I said. Her face went bright red.
“You… you think I should?” She said. I nodded.
“Come on, you’ve been pining over him for what… months now? He’s not even gonna notice that you’re there if you don’t do something about it,” I said. Flitter sighed.
“I just… he’s so cool,” she said, her eyes turning dreamy. I tapped her on the shoulder.
“Equestria to Flitter, come in Flitter. You’re gonna be late for your assignment,” I said. Flitter made a ‘meep’ noise and grabbed her things, zooming out of the office. I sighed, considering my own romantic troubles. Flitter had it easy. At least Winter wasn’t completely oblivious to her feelings for him. It was obvious to anypony who paid even the tiniest bit of attention to my silver-maned sister. Thunderlane on the other hand… did I really know how I felt about him? I shook my head and shrugged off the thoughts. It was time to get to work.
I stepped out of the Weather Office and took off towards the Books and Branches library, considering what my boss had said about Thunderlane. Why did his family need the extra money? I knew I shouldn’t pry. They probably had some hardships of their own, much like a lot of ponies had. As the library came into view, I scanned the skies for a familiar grey pegasus. My eyes lit up when I saw her. She was sitting on a cloud, her golden eyes gleaming as she caught glimpse of me.
“Cloudchaser!” She cried out, nearly falling off the cloud in her exuberance. I giggled as I flew up to her.
“Good Morning, Ditzy! How are you today?” I said.
“I’m doing alright, what about you?” The blonde-maned pegasus replied.
“Oh you know. This and that. You hear about our little rain shower escapade yesterday?” I said as we began our work for the morning. It was still as boring and tedious as ever, but with Ditzy there, it seemed like I could do it all day and not really care.
“I sure did! I’m glad you two are alright,” Ditzy said as she flew upside down and bucked into another cloud. I chuckled at this. Ditzy was also the only pegasus in Ponyville that I knew that could fly in such erratic patterns and actually know where she was going.
“Thanks. I sort of have Thunderlane to thank for that. If it weren’t for him, Flitter and I probably would have been toasted marshmallows,” I said jokingly. Ditzy’s already bright eyes widened a bit.
“Oh, I know him. I did a few jobs with him before they stopped letting me work with storm clouds,” she said.
“Really? Do you know anything about him? I only just met him yesterday,” I inquired, trying to get some information about the stallion out of the walleyed mare.
“I don’t know much. He has a little brother by the name of Rumble. He and Dinky have played together a few times since they moved here. Nice kid,” Ditzy replied, kicking another cloud into nothingness. I nodded.
“I see,” I said, thinking about what the mare had said. Continued thoughts of the silver-haired stallion danced in the back of my mind. They pervaded my thoughts so much that I almost didn’t hear Ditzy asking me a question.
“What’s that Ditz?” I said, cocking my head at the blonde mare.
“I asked why you were so curious about him,” she said. Uh oh, I thought as my blush revealed my true intentions to the other pegasus. She grinned widely. “Ohh… that’s why. I see. You like him don’t you?”
“No!” I shouted reactively. “I mean, I don’t know alright. We had some uh… interaction yesterday and now I don’t know what to feel.” Ditzy reached over and placed a hoof on my shoulder.
“It’s alright. I understand. I won’t say anything more about it alright?” She said. I smiled and nodded. Ditzy always seemed to know just the right things to say. I looked over the sky, now devoid of clouds.
“Thanks Ditzy. I really appreciate that. So… you excited for this whole rainy season deal?” I asked, changing the subject as quickly as possible. Ditzy nodded exuberantly.
“Sure am. Knowing Rainbow Dash, we’ll be certain to break that top wing power record!” She exclaimed as we soared towards the ground, landing next to the library. We decided to make our way back slowly to the office, since we had finished so quickly and lunch wasn’t for another hour at least. A quick trip through the market with my friend was just what I needed.
“Yeah. I’m sure it’ll be rough though,” I said, thinking of the coming weeks and how much my wings were going to be sore from all the flying. Ditzy merely shrugged off this concern.
“It’ll be fine. I’m just glad to be a part of it. I tell you though, I’m more worried about Fluttershy than anypony else. Did you see her last night?” She said. I shook my head as we made our way into the town square. “Oh. She was positively all out of it. I think she’s frightened. She never has been a very strong flier.” I nodded. I only knew Fluttershy in passing in that she was a close friend of Rainbow Dash; however in my interactions with her I knew that she was almost completely ground-bound. The timid mare preferred to be rooted solidly to the earth.
We arrived back at the office within the hour and I bid goodbye to Ditzy as she flew off towards the mail office for her other job as a mail courier. Taking a seat in the office lounge, I pulled my lunch out, and began eating my apple while I waited for Flitter to show up. A few minutes later, my sister fluttered her way into the lounge, a bright smile on her face. I waved as she sat down next to me.
“Heya Sis, what’s got you so happy?” I asked as she pulled out her lunch, which happened to be a daisy sandwich. She grinned.
“You are not going to believe the morning I had!” She exclaimed, almost as if she had been waiting all morning to tell me her news.
“Oh?” I said, feigning some measure of interest. Usually any time Flitter had something really exciting to talk about it had something to do with how cute her bow looked that day or how interesting the clouds were.
“Winter Storm asked me out to dinner next Saturday!” She cried out loudly, startling several other weather pegasi who had been sitting in the lounge during lunch. I smiled at them nervously and waved down Flitter.
“Quiet down Sis,” I said urgently. Flitter smiled meekly as she plopped into her seat. “You’re serious? He asked you out?”
“Yep! Oh Cloudchaser, it was so romantic. We were clearing clouds together this morning and he wrote a little message in them to ask me,” she said dreamily staring off into space. I giggled and nudged her back to reality.
“Well, I’m very uh… happy for you Flits,” I replied. Flitter’s eyes lit up like diamonds as she stared back at me. Oh no. No no no no, don’t you dare get that look in your eyes! I thought as I knew what was coming next.
“I got it!” She nearly shouted again before realizing she was being too loud. She quieted down instantly. “Why don’t you ask Thunderlane to come with us? It could be like a double date!”
“What,” I said blankly. “No… No no no. Not happening sister. No ma’am.”
“Oh come on!” She said. “Why not? I can tell just by the way you were around him last night. You like him. If you don’t ask him out, some other pretty mare will.”
“This coming from the mare that was pining over one stallion for three months before he worked up the courage to ask her out? Not to mention a stallion who up until now almost completely ignored you?” I said flatly, deflating my sister’s spirit a little. “Sorry Flits, but not only that, it’s your first date. Shouldn’t it be something special for you two?” She cocked her head in thought.
“I guess. I dunno, I don’t think he’d mind. I’ll ask him later when I see him,” she said. “I just… I wanted to help you out, you know.” I giggled and grabbed Flitter into a small hug.
“And you know how much I appreciate that little Sis, but I keep telling you I don’t need that kind of help. It’s just… not that high on my priority list at the moment,” I said. It was true enough. Even with Thunderlane’s smile stuck in my head, and all this talk about relationships and mushy stuff wasn’t my thing. I just wanted music and good times, hanging out with m friends. Love didn’t really factor into any of that. “When it’s going to happen, it’ll happen.”
“Well, it may never happen if you don’t get off your rump and make it happen,” Flitter said. I sighed.
“Do I need to repeat what I said about you pining for Winter Storm? Because that was about you, you know,” I said.
“Alright, I get what you mean. Sorry for bringing it up. But just… think about it alright? It wouldn’t necessarily have to be a date really. I mean you guys are friends now right? Could be just two friends hanging out,” she chattered, trying to put a spin on the whole situation that might be acceptable to me.
“I… I guess so,” I said, thinking back to yesterday and my deal with Thunderlane, to start over and work things out as friends. It would give you a pretty good chance to get to know him better, The voice in the back of my head said. I sighed in defeat. “Alright, I’ll ask him on Monday before training.”
“Yay!” Flitter shouted, drawing a few more irritated stares from the other pegasi in the lounge. She looked at them apologetically. “Sorry…” She said before she drifted back into her seat, thinking of nothing but a certain snow-white pegasus. I finished my lunch, the instant oatmeal fairly tasty and filling. As I dropped the bowl into the bin, I glanced up at the clock. Lunch was just about over. Time to get back to work. I picked up my stuff and set it back into my saddlebags.
“Flits. Time to get going to our assignments,” I said, nudging my sister in the side. She snapped back to reality and nodded, picking up her things as well and following me back into the main office. I punched my time in and grabbed my assignment card for the afternoon. Afternoon assignments were the best. By lunch time, most of the cloud cover had been taken care of for the day, so afternoon assignments usually dealt with very special things like rain showers, winds, and other types of weather. It was also good because there usually wasn’t much work to do at all, so many times a lot of us got to go home early simply because there wasn’t enough left to do for the day. I sighed as I looked down at the card. No such luck today though, I thought, reading the index card with my assignment printed on it. Apparently I was scheduled to make an afternoon commute to Cloudsdale to pick up some equipment for the upcoming rainy season training. Joy is me, I thought. I showed the card to Flitter.
“Looks like you can run home without me tonight Sis. I’m gonna be home a little later than normal,” I said. She nodded as she went off on her own afternoon assignment, most of which had to do with simple cloud maintenance over near Carrot Top’s place. Some weather ponies have all the luck I suppose, I thought as I grabbed a supply cart and took off towards Cloudsdale. Within the hour I arrived at the grand city of the pegasi. Its bright and shiny clouds were a testament to the ingenuity that we pegasi had cultivated for centuries. Columns of pure white clouds lined the streets, which were obviously also cloudstuff, while off in the distance the Cloudiseum stood, a massive monument among the already impressive city. I looked again down at my index card and realized that the address that I was to pick the equipment up at was the Wonderbolts Headquarters. I squealed with joy at this. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all! I thought as I sped through town towards the familiar gold lightning bolt that adorned the building belonging to the famous flying team. I touched down and unhooked the supply cart just outside and trotted into the main lobby. The receptionist, who looked to be quite bored, looked up at me with blank eyes.
“Can I help you?” She asked shortly. I smiled meekly and handed her the equipment list.
“I’m from Ponyville’s Weather Team. Here to pick up equipment for the rainy season training,” I said smiling. The receptionist nodded and set the card down.
“One moment,” she said, standing and exiting the lobby through a door behind her and leaving me alone in the quiet lobby. I picked a chair out and sat, twiddling my hooves as I waited for her to return. Well. Okay, maybe this isn’t as exciting as I envisioned, I thought as I stared at the various posters that adorned the lobby walls. At least there’s some cool stuff to look at. Everything from recruitment posters to tour posters lined the four walls. A massive trophy case sat on the far end, filled with numerous awards not only for competition but for service to the crown of Equestria. As I looked at the memorabilia, I found my thoughts moving towards Thunderlane once more. I sighed, tapping myself in the side of my head with one of my front hooves. Why was I so hung up over this? Did that kiss really mean that much? My mind swam with possibilities of what my life might be like if I just let myself give in to these feelings. I groaned audibly in frustration. I just met the guy! I thought. This is just way too fast. I don’t even know anything about him, let alone what kind of mares he likes. He probably doesn’t like me anyways. I should just give up thinking that maybe Cloudchaser could get a guy.
A tapping on my side broke me out of my self-defeating thoughts. I looked up for a moment and then did a complete double take. A light orange pegasus mare with a mane like wildfire stood before me. She had a smile on her face. I had to close my eyes to be sure that I hadn’t fallen asleep or something and was dreaming. I opened my eyes again, seeing the mare still standing there. Her expression changed to one of confusion. I blinked. Spitfire of the Wonderbolts was standing in front of me!
“Miss? You’re here to pick up the equipment for Ponyville correct?” She said quite politely. I stammered to get out my answer. Spitfire chuckled. “Sorry for startling you. I get that quite often.”
“S-S-sorry,” I managed to say. “The equipment. Yes. Ponyville. That’s me. Yep.” To say I was nervous was a bit of an understatement. I knew that Spitfire was going to be taking an active interest in the rainy season, but I didn’t know it would be this active! I rose to my hooves shakily.
“Well then. Follow me. We’ll get everything loaded into your cart for you. We’ve got your goggles and things you’ll need for the actual event,” she said, motioning for me to follow behind. I stepped in line and trotted along, not wanting to say anything that would be too embarrassing. This was Spitfire after all! The orange mare chuckled as she must have seen my nervousness creeping up into my expression.
“Are you alright? Looks like you need to relax a bit,” she said, breaking me out of my stupor. She smiled once more. “Say, you look kind of familiar. Do I know you?”
“I… I don’t know that you do ma’am. I’m just a Ponyville Weather pony after all,” I said. The mare scrunched up her face and stared at me for a moment.
“You really do remind me of somepony. Wait a minute. Are your parents Sky Chaser and Stormy Winds?” Spitfire said. My eyes popped out of my head in complete embarrassment. I meeped nervously.
“They… they’re my mom and dad yes,” I replied. Spitfire’s eyes lit up.
“That’s right! I’ve met your parents before. They’re really nice. Very hard working weather ponies,” she said. “So you’re their daughter huh? What’s your name?”
“C-C-Cloudchaser ma’am,” I said.
“No need to call me ma’am Cloudchaser. Just call me Spitfire alright? We’re here by the way. Why don’t you help me start getting this stuff loaded up?” Spitfire replied happily. We had arrived at a back room where a large amount of equipment was neatly stacked into organized piles. A push cart lay off to the side. Spitfire grabbed the cart and began loading goggles, whistles, and other equipment such as wing weights onto it. I grabbed a stack myself at her instruction and began setting them onto the cart, feeling a little bit surer of myself around the celebrity. Flitter was not going to believe this when I got home! We were roughly halfway done loading the cart up before Spitfire spoke again.
“So… when I saw you in the lobby there, you looked a little distraught, Cloudchaser,” she said, turning to me directly. “That’s sort of why I came out instead of letting one of the others take care of you. Figured you might want somepony to talk to. Am I right?”
“I… I’m fine really. Just with this rainy season coming up I’ve been pretty stressed,” I said. “Just worried we won’t be able to get that water up here is all.” Spitfire grinned knowingly.
“That’s a lie and you know it as well as I do. I don’t have a doubt in my mind that you Ponyville pegasi won’t make it. After all, you’ve got Rainbow Dash leading you, you should be fine,” she said. “Why don’t you tell me what’s really on your mind? Or I can keep guessing if you’d like.” I sighed heavily. Here was somepony willing to just listen to me about this whole Thunderlane business. Somepony who I could talk to without being poked fun at like my sister or turned into the weekly gossip like Rarity. I drew another sigh and began, explaining the events of the previous day and my meeting with Thunderlane, and how he saved our lives from the storm. I mentioned my sister’s insane idea of the double date and finished up to today. By the time I was done I felt myself feel a little more at home with the orange mare, like I could talk to her about anything. Spitfire smiled.
“Well you’re right about one thing. He definitely sounds like a jerk,” she said.
“I know right?” I replied. She chuckled.
“But here’s what I think. I think you should go for it,” the orange mare said. I started to protest but she cut me off with a motion of her hoof. “Now now, just hear me out alright. You say you don’t know how you feel about him and I get that. But what if you never find out? What if he turns out to be the one for you? Your special somepony. Ponies just like you get this chance every day of their lives and they choose to ignore it. You owe it to yourself to find out for sure. And if it doesn’t work out, you may still find yourself with a new, close friend out of the whole thing.”
“But what if he doesn’t like me… like that? Won’t it be awkward then?” I said.
“Only if you choose to make it that way, sure,” she said. “But you should know where you two stand. I’m not saying you go off and tell him you love him or anything like that. Get to know the guy. The problem with most love at first sight relationships is that most ponies just dive into them without really knowing a thing or two about their partner. Go out on a few dates with the guy, hang out with him. Get to know him and his family. There’s bound to at least be a common interest there somewhere.” I looked away for a moment and then back to the fiery pegasus. She had a wide smile on her face.
“I… I see. I’ll think about it. How do you know so much about this stuff?” I asked.
“I’ve been there, Cloudchaser. There was a stallion I had my eye on for the longest time. I was too scared to pony up and tell him how I felt or even that I had any interest in him at all. Eventually he got married to some other mare, and I missed out. Funny sidestory to that, we’re still good friends to this day,” Spitfire said, before turning her face directly towards mine and staring at me deep into my eyes. “I don’t ever want to see that happen to anypony else ever again. You have an opportunity here Cloudchaser. Not just to forge what might possibly be a lifelong friendship, but also a chance to find love.” I nodded slightly, thinking on the mare’s words. She and I finished loading up the rest of the cart and once we were done we realized it was a little silly to carry all this stuff up front to just have to move it to another cart. Spitfire offered to send our cart back later and for me to just take the supply cart we had used. I flew away from the Wonderbolts Headquarters, pulling the borrowed cart behind me, my mind awhirl with possibility. Spitfire had seen me off personally, giving her regards to my parents and Rainbow Dash along with a message for the latter to let her know when she would be in town for the tornado event.
As Ponyville came into view, I had already gotten lost in my thoughts about what Spitfire had said. Maybe she was right. Maybe… just maybe there could be something there. And like she had said, maybe I just needed to find out for myself instead of wondering and waiting. I dropped the supply cart back at the Weather Office and locked it up in our own supply room. I walked past Rainbow Dash’s office and dropped the note from Spitfire in her mailbox. As I punched out, I took one last look at the office I wouldn’t see for the next week due to our training regimen.
The flight home was uneventful to say the least. My mind still buzzed with the idea of actually asking Thunderlane to hang out with me. As my home came into view, I noticed the lights were still on. Flitter must still be up, I thought as I landed and stepped into our cozy house. Flitter lay on the couch in our living room, her snoring indicating that she had tried to wait up for me. I smiled and picked my twin up from the soft cushions, carrying her along on my back upstairs to bed. Carefully I deposited the sleeping mare onto her bed. I gave her a kiss on her forehead and muttered “Good night Sis.” before hopping into my own bed. Sleep came quickly, along with dreams of a certain silver-haired pegasus who seemed to have captured more of me than I could ever admit.
*********************
The rest of the weekend flew by and before I knew it, the dreaded monster known as Monday had arrived. And that particular Monday was going to be even worse than a normal one, because it was the day we started training. Flitter and I were up in a flash, faster than I think we ever had been. We made our way along the wind to the park, where Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle had set up a track and field for the pegasi to train in the art of wing power. I cringed at this term, dreading what my wing power might turn out to be. We arrived right on time, along with most of the rest of Ponyville’s weather pegasi. There were also the non-weather pegasi that lived in Ponyville. Every pegasi in town was expected to be a part of this event, simply because the extra bodies would help us achieve our goal that much faster. Flitter giggled at me as I tried to fuss with my mane. I had officially told her over the past weekend that I would ask Thunderlane to just hang out. Flitter, being her normal awe inspired self, had naturally taken to giggling like a girly girl anytime the stallion’s name was mentioned. Naturally, I threatened to stuff her in a tree like Fluttershy had been hiding in the other night if she didn’t quiet down. That didn’t work. I groaned as I brushed it back and left it there. My bed mane was atrocious and it almost never seemed to come out right.
As we landed in the park, I scanned the crowd for Thunderlane. I might as well do this now so I don’t chicken out, I thought, remembering Spitfire’s advice on taking chances. Come to think of it, I haven’t even seen him since the other night. I hope everything’s alright. Finally I located him. He was standing over next to Blossomforth, chatting idly with her. I cringed at the thought of this. Was he interested in her? I couldn’t tell. They seemed to be just chatting friendly-like. Standing next to him was a younger colt with a light grey coat and a dark grey mane and tail combination. Thunderlane looked over and locked eyes with me for a moment. I felt something… surge within me. Like there was some sort of connection there that I couldn’t see but feel. The stallion smiled and waved at me to come over. I flapped my wings in response and landed next to the dark grey pegasus.
“Heya Chase. Have a good weekend?” He said with a friendly tone. I smiled.
“Pretty good weekend yeah. You?” I replied.
“We had a great weekend! We got to see the Wonderbolts!” The colt standing beside Thunderlane erupted. I could tell he had just been waiting to tell anypony about it.
“Oh really? And who might you be little guy?” I asked the colt. He grinned widely.
“I’m Rumble. Thunderlane’s my big bro,” he said. To be truthful, I nearly died from the cuteness. The pegasus colt was so adorable! I smiled knowingly up at Thunderlane. He chuckled.
“I uh… took him to Cloudsdale on Saturday to see the Wonderbolts show. He hasn’t stopped talking about it since then,” he said. See? He’s good with kids too! The voice in the back of my head screamed at me. Shut up so I can think! I thought back at it.
“Sounds like you had a fun time then,” I said. Rumble was zooming around us, happy as can be. I giggled at the little colt running by with his wings buzzing. He was so cute!
“Yeah, it was pretty cool,” he said. “Hey do you know Blossomforth by the way?” He indicated the white mare standing off to the side. I nodded and waved at her.
“Heya Blossom,” I said. She smiled brightly back. “We’ve met once or twice. I’m Cloudchaser.”
“Oh, nice to meet you. Thunderlane has mentioned you a few times,” she said. I glared at him.
“He has, has he?” I said. “Nothing too embarrassing I hope?” Blossomforth laughed.
“No, just said you were pretty cool to work with,” she said. Thunderlane’s face turned a deep crimson and he began to space out a bit. I poked him in the side, snapping his attention back to the situation at hand.
“Hehe, yeah sorry about that. Yeah, that’s all I said… yeah,” He replied. I rolled my eyes. A horn blared, indicating that Rainbow Dash was ready for us to get started. Blossomforth bid us goodbye and flew over to join her other friends to listen to Dash’s pre-training speech. Rumble bounced along after her. Thunderlane went to fly off himself, but I caught him with a hoof.
“Thunderlane?” I asked. Ok Cloudchaser, it’s now or never. You can do this! I thought. You can do it!
“Yeah Chase?” He said with a smile on his face. I started to speak but I couldn’t force the words I wanted to say out for some reason. Instead, I heard myself saying.
“Good luck with the training.” Thunderlane looked a little disappointed for a moment, an expression of confusion marking his face.
“Oh, well yeah you too Chase. I’ll catch you later alright?” He said. I nodded, turning away and flying back to join Flitter. Stupid stupid stupid! I thought angrily at myself. It’s so obvious that he doesn’t like me. I’m so stupid! I tried to keep my composure as I joined my sister, mostly since she was trying to get my attention to ask me how it went. I smiled and waved her off as I pointed to the center of the crowd, where Rainbow Dash stood.
“Alright Ponyville pegasi! Today’s the day we get started getting you all ready for rainy season. In just two weeks, we’re gonna have you all flying at maximum power and kicking butt! I want to thank you all for showing up today and helping us beat that wing power record. Are we ready?!” The rainbow maned mare shouted over the tops of the gathered pegasi. Cheers of excitement rolled up from the crowd. A particularly large and very muscular white pegasus leaped up proudly shouting “YEAAAAHHH!” at the top of his lungs. He then proceeded to bump heads with one of his buddies. Some ponies apparently get extremely pumped for this, I thought. Once Rainbow Dash had finished her speech, we began to separate ourselves into small groups, each of us working on various exercises. I started off with some simple stretches while Flitter began doing some more complicated ones. She was always really very good at physical activity. Me, I was laaaazy. Still, I figured I was doing something right when Rainbow Dash walked by and checked up on us.
“Stretch those glutes, Flitter! Nice flexibility Cloudchaser,” I heard Dash say. I smiled and nodded, continuing to do my stretching. “A… little too much flexibility, Blossomforth. Uh, somepony give Blossomforth a hoof.” I looked over in the direction Rainbow had been walking, seeing poor Blossomforth all wrapped up in herself. She had a bit of a panicked look on her face. I stopped, trotted over and began helping her untangle the mess of limbs she had gotten herself into. The white mare smiled as she took my hoof and pushed back to her feet. “Let’s see some faster trotting, Thunderlane!” I turned for a moment at the sound of his name. The stallion was trotting along hard, having picked up a burst of speed after Rainbow had shouted at him. He had a very determined look on his face, much like the look he had when he was facing down the rain storm. He trotted on by and I followed him with my eyes. Then I noticed it. The way that she was looking at him. Blossomforth was doing the exact same thing that I was. I realized with no uncertainty that I didn’t like one bit of it.
“Blossom,” I said flatly, breaking her out of her spell and forcing her to look at me.
“Yeah…?” She said. She still seemed to be a little woozy from her mix-up.
“I asked if you were alright,” I repeated, flatter than a pancake. A really, really flat pancake.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. No, I’m fine thank you. Got myself a little twisted up there for a moment,” she replied, smiling. Noticing that Rainbow Dash was suddenly conspicuously absent I decided to see if I could get a little information from Blossomforth.
“Well that’s good. Anytime. Hey I was gonna ask you earlier, but how did you and Thunderlane meet?” I said. Her eyes lit up at the sound of the stallion’s name.
“Oh, Thunder? We met at work actually. Well, sort of. I sort of bumped into him when I was doing some cloud-work back in Cloudsdale. I’m a little clumsy if you hadn’t noticed.” She giggled, and I nodded in response. “But yeah, I nearly took him out. He was so nice about the whole thing even though it was my fault. After I moved to Ponyville we kept in touch. I was actually the one who recommended him to come down here.”
“Interesting,” I said, motioning for her to follow me in a bit of a light jog. Might as well get some training in while we talk, I thought. If Dash comes back and sees we’re slacking off I won’t ever hear the end of it. “I thought you guys seemed a bit close. You and he ummm…” I trailed off. Blossomforth’s eyes widened when she realized what I was implying.
“Oh. Oh! Well, we went out a few times after we met, but then I had to move so we broke it off. I actually thought I might never see him again,” she said. I sighed. Of course. An ex-girlfriend! I thought with rage. Not only that, one that probably still holds a candle for him. “It wasn’t until I got a letter from him that I found that he was commuting all the way down to Ponyville.”
“Yeah, what’s up with that anyways?” I asked as we rounded the next corner of the track. A lot of the other pegasi were busy doing numerous other stretching and wing-up exercises that it really was just us out on the track.
“Well… I don’t know if I should tell you that really Cloudchaser. It’s kind of his business you know,” Blossomforth said. I nodded and sighed.
“You’re right. Sorry that I brought it up,” I replied. Blossomforth smiled.
“It’s alright. Hey, I was thinking about maybe going out to dinner tonight, just myself but I could use some company. Would you maybe be interested in hanging out?” She offered. I grinned at this. Good. This’ll be a good way to find out if she still has a thing for Thunderlane, I thought. I nodded.
“Sure, sounds great. I’ll let Flitter know I’ll be home late,” I said.
“Flitter, that your marefriend?” Blossomforth said, before putting her hooves to her mouth when she realized what she’d said, a deep blush forming on her face. I laughed. I guessed I could see how ponies could interpret it that way. We were both grown mares living together.
“No, Flitter’s my sister silly. That’s her over there,” I said as we rounded another corner. Flitter was busy trying to do some wing-ups, and they weren’t going too well. She plopped to the ground and waved at us as we passed.
“Ohmygosh, I’m so sorry about that. I just assumed…” Blossomforth said. I shrugged and waved her off.
“It’s alright. We live together, so I can see why some ponies might think that. Mom and Dad sent us down here on our own, and we really don’t make enough to afford our own places,” I replied.
“Oh, I see,” she said. “Well, I guess if she wants to come to, that would be fine. The more the merrier.”
“Alright, I don’t think that’ll be any problem,” I said. In the distance I could see Rainbow Dash trotting back into the park. Lurking behind her was her friend Fluttershy. I bid Blossomforth good bye and headed back to Flitter, who was standing next to Twilight Sparkle and some strange looking device. I looked at the lavender unicorn sitting next to it. I really didn’t know the mare herself, just tales of her accomplishments. Personal student of Princess Celestia, rescued Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon, defeated Discord, nearly destroyed the Grand Galloping Gala. In short, here was a living legend sitting next to us, with the adorable pudgy figure of her dragon assistant Spike. He was carrying a clipboard with a pencil and was muttering to himself as he wrote on the stack of paper attached to the board. My curiosity getting the better of me, I approached Twilight.
“What exactly does this machine do?” I asked the purple maned mare. Her eyes lit with joy. It was as if Hearth’s Warming Eve Morning had come and she had gotten her most favorite present in the entire world. Then she began to speak, and to be completely honest… I was pretty lost. Now I’m no dummy, but I couldn’t keep up with anything that Twilight Sparkle said whatsoever. It was just that high over my head. Luckily Flitter appeared to be having the same issue, so it wasn’t just me. She looked over at Spike and asking him instead. “Yeah. What exactly does this machine do?”
“It tells you how fast you’re flying and how strong your wings are,” he replied without missing a beat. A mixture of emotions washed over me at hearing this. One of these was enlightenment, as I was able to finally grasp what Twilight was trying to tell us. Another one of these was fear. My eyes widened, the fear kicking enlightenment out the door as it took over. I realized with no uncertainty that they were going to measure how fast we could fly so that they could tell who to cut and who to keep. What if I don’t fly fast enough?! I thought with panic. Better yet, what if Thunderlane sees that I can’t hack this? What will he think? As if right on cue, I heard a cough behind me from the stallion himself. He’s still coughing? What’s up with that? I thought. Before I could say anything about it, Twilight popped up from spot on the grass and lifted a can of aerosol disinfectant with her magic.
“Is that you again, Thunderlane? Please, we need to have a germ-free environment,” she said, spraying the stallion with the disinfectant. He winced visibly at this before protesting.
“It wasn’t me, it was Blossomforth,” he said motioning to the white mare behind him. Blossomforth merely giggled. I glared at him, my eyes nearly popping out of their skull. You jerk! Blaming your own cough on Blossomforth! I thought, feeling a pang of sympathy for the pegasus before I realized that in a sense she was my competition. Once again, before I could say anything, I was politely, and I use this term loosely, interrupted by Rainbow Dash.
“Don’t worry Twilight. Thunderlane’s just cooking up an excuse to spend tornado day in bed,” The cyan mare said as she landed next to Thunderlane. “Why don’t you get over here and be our first test flyer, Thunderlane?” The stallion nodded nervously as he moved to take his place on the track’s starting line. As he did, I heard another cough to my side and saw that it was Blossomforth. Wait, you too? I thought, feeling very confused about all of this. Why are you coughing? My attention turned to Thunderlane as he stretched out and revved his wings. The grey pegasus shot forth like a rocket, speeding around the track and soaring past the starting line in what seemed like no time at all. The blades of Twilight’s speed thingy device twirled about and a little arrow moved up on the side of it.
“We have nine point three wing power,” Twilight said, beaming. Every other pony cheered on Thunderlane, myself included, but inside I felt a deep pit in my stomach. I knew sooner or later it would be my turn. What would happen then? Could I keep up with the rest? Rainbow Dash gave a chuckle that interrupted my train of thought as she stepped up to the line herself.
“Not bad… not bad,” she said as she cracked her wing joints and began to rev her wings up. In a flash of color she was gone. Within mere seconds the cyan mare zoomed past the starting line, causing Twilight’s device along with every other pony in the vicinity to almost fall over. In fact, Twilight did. She shot up, her mane a bedraggled windblown mess as she exclaimed “Sixteen point five wing power!” Everypony cheered heartily for her, and I just knew she was soaking up the attention like a sponge. Dash flew above the crowd so everypony could see her.
“Now listen up! If each of you can get your numbers up to at least ten point zero wing power by the end of the week, we’ll no doubt set a new tornado speed record. We’ll be number one!” She shouted. The crowd began to cheer and my spirits dipped even further. Ten point zero wing power? How was going to even be able to do this? You’re kidding right? Please tell me you’re kidding, I thought. Somewhere in the back of my mind though, I knew she was not kidding, and that this was going to be the toughest two weeks of my entire life. I looked over at Thunderlane. The goofy stallion had one of his trademark grins on his face as he chatted with Blossomforth. A determined grin crossed my face as I realized what I was going to have to do.
I was going to have to be a better flier than Blossomforth could ever hope to be. Not just that, I was going to have to be the best of the best. I would work hard, harder than anypony else to show him that I could be the best. As I stood there, watching the other pegasi take their own turns at the track and their wing power being recorded by Twilight, a plan began to formulate in my head. This could work. I could just feel it in my bones. A whistle shot through the air, jolting me out of my thoughts as I realized I was being called in next. I glanced over at Flitter, who had yet to take her own turn, and smiled.
Two weeks. Two weeks to give it my all, and get my head in the game, I thought as I took my place at the starting line. I revved my wings up, and away I went.
--------
Next Time!
Wing Power is the name of the game! Cloudchaser is ready to give it her all to win it. Will she be able to beat Blossomforth? Will Flitter survive her date with Winter Storm? Will Thunderlane ever get a clue? Find out next time on “Flying Through the Storm Chapter 3: Wing Power Hour”!
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
1,118 users online
1,918,295 hits today, 2,205,040 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Yay, new chapter!
I like how you weave the show into this story. Looking forward to seeing how this goes after the event
1128066
Thanks! Much appreciated!
1138939
Thanks! I am enjoying writing them.
Really nice, loved the inclusion of Roid Rage in there. I have to admit, at the beginning, I thought that "Winter Storm" was just another of his many names, and that there would be some Flitter x Roid Rage.
Now, I just need to find me a Roid Rage shipfic.