The Clouds Await · 10:23am Feb 18th, 2013

So, some people might know I draw a little bit. Nothing too fancy, nothing too spectacular. But for my upcoming project I spent a little bit more time doing something a bit more elaborate than I normally do just to get a title card that would reflect the fic.

I guess this is a good time to both introduce everyone to the project and to let people have a little teaser in the form of the cover art.

For the past month, myself and superior ideas herald and excellent editor Crack Javelin have been cracking out the story, characters, and general flow of this story.

It's a character-based exploratory fic set in Cloudsdale about crime, morals, and the thin line between black and white. Oh, and cookies.

I think the story speaks better than I could regarding the general idea, so without further ado, here's a short preview of the cold opening of chapter one.

I hope everyone will give it a shot, even though it holds the DREADED OC tag. But, anyone who follows me SHOULD already know I treat things very humbly and I never, ever do bad characters, so... please read, hopefully enjoy, and look out for the fic which will be releasing rather soon. Please be sure to leave a comment if you hate it! I sure enjoy reading comments about how my stuff is boring and it sucks! =D

Without further ado.

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The newspaper – The Cloudsdale Gazette – spun through the air three times like a discus before landing squarely in the face of a certain lavender unicorn. Normally, she would have caught it had she not been fast asleep and tucked in under her little plaid blanket.

"Snk– gah!" Twilight yelled, flailing about and knocking the offending rag from her head. It only took one sweep of her powerful wings for Rainbow Dash to make it to the paper before it hit the floor, landing instead in cupped legs.

Rainbow turned it upright, hovering it in front of her friend’s face. Twilight blinked away the sleep and read the words that slowly came into focus.

CLOUDSDALE VIGILANTE GROUP NAMED; SHUTS DOWN CRIME GANG
by Gale A. Mezzo

"R– Rainbuh!" Twilight gurgled, choking on the morning. "Whut time izzit?"

"Five A.M.," Rainbow declared, excitedly. "I just got back from Cloudsdale to get the morning edition!"

"Wh… what for?" Twilight coughed her throat open, rubbing her face with a hoof. "And what are you doing here so early? And when do you read the news?"

"Look." Rainbow responded simply by prodding the page. "Look at this!"

Despite the warm glow of the morning sun sneaking through the bottom of the windows, Twilight still had to light the rest of the paper up with a little bit of magic, bathing the entire room in a gentle purple glow.

Just below the tag was a photograph, printed in full colour for once. It showed a warehouse or a factory or some sort of industrial building, where five figures draped in green swathes of cloth stood triumphantly.

Actually, one of them looked a bit embarrassed, really, but maybe they were just caught unawares.

"Who are these ponies, again?" Twilight asked cautiously, peeking over the top of the paper at the most excited face she'd ever seen Rainbow put on in recent memory.

"Wha– have you not been reading, Twilight? You? Not reading?" Dash responded, holding her hooves to her head in pure, unadulterated shock. "Have you not been keeping up with like, the most awesome story ever?"

"I… guess not," Twilight said guiltily, quickly running down the article to see what she had missed. "Although, the library doesn't really carry the Gazette, so…"

"Well, actually… this is the first time they've been in the papers. But that doesn’t matter, Twilight! You won't believe what they've been doing up there in Cloudsdale!"

"Okay, let me… have a look…" Twilight murmured, grabbing the paper with a blast of magic and propping herself up in bed, reading the first line. "Wait, that's his name? His name is-"

"Yeah, look, I know. They aren't like, you know. Special or anything. And I know, his name's pretty stupid, and he looks kinda geeky, but that's what's so cool about it, Twilight! He's just a regular stallion, you know? And one day he just… follows his dreams!"

"Follows… his… wha?" Twilight mouthed, rubbing the kinks out of the back of her neck and taking a good look at the article. "Alright, back up a little, Dash. Who's this guy?"

"Yeah, so, he's like, an accountant, right? Actually. Well, that's what I heard, anyway. You know!" Rainbow nodded enthusiastically.

"An… accountant," Twilight repeated, dryly, reading more.

Her eyes shot up to stare into Dash's with a look of disdain.

"Was it really necessary to wake me up at five in the morning for this?"

The soft snores of Spike coming from the upper landing told Twilight that least one of them was going to get a proper night's rest.

"Well… I was gonna show you over lunch, but I got so excited, and–" Rainbow flustered.

"How did you even get in?"

"You… you sleep with the upstairs window open, Twilight."

"I…"

Well, Twilight couldn't really argue with that now, could she?

"Fine," she ended up saying with a sigh. "So, this stallion's what… an accountant dream-follower?"

It was the best description she could muster at this time.

"All that, and more! I heard a lot of stories. I mean, they're all the buzz up there in Cloudsdale right now. This is the first time anyone's ever managed to catch the whole team on camera, Twilight. Isn't it awesome?"

"Not really," Twilight said, a hint of cranky impatience seeping into her tone. "How is this any different from any other group? How are they different from the Wonderbolts, Dash? You've always wanted to be with them because they do these kinds of things, don't they?"

"It's… different," Rainbow said, suddenly dropping her tone. Suspiciously so.

"And we just had a huge adventure of our own, Dash. You remember the changelings? That was just… you know, two months ago. And you think this is awesome?"

"Well… yeah!"

"Really."

"Y- yeah. Really."

Twilight turned her sleep-deprived gaze to the picture once again. There was that main guy with the funny name. He wasn't standing tall, or brave, and in fact looked like he was trying to diminish himself. He looked… rather dull, really, but yet, all draped in green, there was something… well, she would have liked to describe him as heroic, but he was just so plain-looking.

Beside him was a younger mare, a teen by the looks of it. Early adult at the most. She was looking tired, but proud. Her fully braided mane and uppity demeanour suggested that she should not have been there at all, and was probably more comfortable at a café drinking tea. But she shone with a regal comeuppance that stole the scene.

There was another stallion, about the same age as the mare, with a blazing quiff that poured over his eyes. He stood up proud, confident, sticking his chest and head out for the cameras and looking very pleased at what he did. He might have even been flexing. He seemed rather excited to be there, and he seemed to be the only one smiling for the camera.

Then there was the Gryphon. A strange sort, sitting hunched up on her hind-quarters with her claws gently cusped in front of her, as if she were waiting for it to all be over. She seemed to be bleeding from her head, as evidenced by a dark red stain on her feathers, but yet, she maintained this calm, eerie smile on her beak. She seemed reserved, but capable. Or maybe not. It was hard to tell, with Gryphons.

Finally, there was that odd one in the back, with a nervous smile on her face. She was wearing a white lab coat of some sort, and was sporting some sort of thick eyewear. Her mane was pulled back, very neatly, but it fell over in layers down the back of her neck. She reminded Twilight of herself during her younger days, when her parents had bought her her very own 'My Little Chemistry' play set.

"You like these guys?" Twilight asked again, no less weary from the attempt to analyze the photograph. There was no way. This was a rag-tag bunch of uncool. They should have brought a sign along with them saying 'we are rather uncool, sirs, thank you very much'. There was no way.

"Yeah, look, I do, okay? Don't ask. They're really cool, the stories are cool, and you know what? I appreciate a pony who does what they want and how they want to. I appreciate him for trying. And what he's doing is helping everypony up in Cloudsdale. And besides, he gets into so many amazing adventures that–"

"Wait." Twilight held a hoof up, squirreling her mouth to the side. "That's why you like them, don't you?"

"W– what?"

"Dorky guy, exciting adventures, fun and colourful team… he just reminds you of Daring Do!"

"He… wha–? No! I mean, not really," Dash claimed, stammering. "I mean… a little bit, maybe, but… aww, c'mon, Twilight! It's like… Daring Do's just a book. These guys are the real deal, you know? He's living it out! He's doing amazing things for justice and has all the honour and all the bravery and he's just some dorky accountant! Can't you see?"

Twilight shook her head slowly, patronizing eyes waving back and forth.

"Dash." Twilight sighed, putting the paper down. "Do you know what romance means?"

"Eew, yeah. I… yuck. Love and stuff."

"No. Not that meaning. There's an older meaning. One that a lot of ponies don't really know. It means 'the spirit of adventure', Dash. All those things in a good Daring Do book that you like? The heroes and quests and great amazing tales of chivalry and exciting plots and all that? That's what the older meaning of 'romance' is."

"What– what are you getting at, Twi?"

"Dash, you're… romancing the clouds. You're making Cloudsdale out to be something that it isn't. You're making this group out to be something it's not. Do you really think a dorky guy like this could have done all those amazing things you heard about? You said this is the first time they've been in the papers right?"

"Well… yeah," mumbled Dash.

"And… did you read this article?"

"Not yet. I mean, I was gonna, but I thought I should show you first, and–"

"Dash, you really should. They aren't anything like you're saying they are. I hate to burst your bubble but, look," Twilight tapped the paper, "even that stallion himself says in this that they were just at the right place at the right time. Nothing more. They aren't adventurers. They're just a bunch of ponies. And a gryphon, it seems. And they were just doing their civic duty.”

"I don't know, Twilight. There's a lot of stories, honestly. About him snatching ponies from out of the sky, about him fighting off hordes of ferocious skybeasts, and even one where he exploded and he was fine! And there was that story where he–"

"Dash. I might have to let you down. I'm really sorry, but until there's more than just stories, I don't really think…"

Rainbow sighed, looking down at her new hero for the month. Maybe Twilight was right. Maybe they were just a bunch of dorks and nothing more. They sure looked like dorks, not like the great hero that the stories were about. Did they really do all those things she just mentioned?

"… I mean, there might be some truth to those tales, but... tales tend to get exaggerated, you know what I mean?" Twilight appended. Maybe she was being just a bit too harsh thanks to the rude awakening she had received.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess you… oh. Oh! Wait!" There was a spark that lit inside Dash's eyes – the one that said that she was getting a 'great idea'.

"Rainbow."

"I'm gonna go find him!" Rainbow shot a hoof up. "Then I can ask him about it and... I don't know! But I can ask him if the stories are true or not!"

"Rainbow, really?" Twilight objected, tired of Dash's bullheadedness.

"Yeah, I mean… why not?"

"Listen, Rainbow," Twilight sighed, pushing the newspaper back into Rainbow's hooves. "Leave the romance where it belongs. In the clouds, alright? These are their stories. Not ours."

With a dismissive wave of a hoof, Twilight lowered herself back onto her pillow, shutting her eyes and beckoning her friend to let her have a few more minutes of rest. But even as she did so, Rainbow couldn't help but glance wishfully one last time at the article and the five faces staring back at her…

"Did you hear me?" Twilight mumbled.

"Wha?"

"I said, these are their stories. Not ours."