The sound of thunder echoing from town hall shook me out of my stupor. I tore my gaze away from the cliff and to the sky.
No rain, so why did... probably magic.
"C'mon slowpoke!" Scootaloo shouted from her place half way up the hill. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were casually walking up just behind her. I shook my head and powered up my craft, but decided to walk it up the hill, thorougly surprised by how easy a time I was having walking the up nigh vertical surface.
What am I, a tiny horse or a mountain goat? were my thoughts as I crested the hill and lined up with the other three. "Err, whats the go signal?" I asked the orange filly who suggested this.
"How about 'three two one go?'" Scootaloo asked, looking at me with a raised brow.
Right, children, the simple answer is usually correct. I nodded dumbly.
"Racers! On your marks!" She announced, for whatever reason the other two gained a thoughtful look, but quickly shook it off. "Get set... Three! Two! One-GO!" She took off, her wings propelling her down the incline with a cloud of dust. While I was coughing, Apple Bloom turned around and mule kicked the front of her wagon, getting her moving.
Sweetie Belle scooted her chair forward slowly, "c'mon, c'mon!" Was her mantra till gravity took over.
I took one last look over the edge, swallowed, and powered up my pseudo-engine. I won't lie that I was absolutely terrified as I went down that hill, nor will I lie about the sheer exhilaration I felt at the same time. After that initial hill the rest of the course expanded before me, Sweetie Belle had overtaken Apple Bloom for the moment, and Scootaloo could only be tracked by dust and the buzzing of her wings.
I channeled a bit more magic into the spell, and caught up a little, but I had to back off of it a bit, as the craft threatened to tip end over end. Note to self, if you intend to keep this thing, make it a little longer. I let natural gravity help me pick up speed after that, and slowly I came even with the farm filly's wagon. I was beginning to wish I had access to a normal bike, but it probably wouldn't have worked overly well with my new equine shape, I shifted my center of gravity back and added a tiny bit more into the spell, pulling ahead of Apple Bloom. She gave me a competitive smile, and gestured ahead, the course had a rather sharp turn, forcing me to let off the gas pedal, so to speak. Apple Bloom took the opportunity to overtake me, pulling a leaver and rapidly decelerating, pulling around the inside. watching this happen a mere three feet away from me pointed out a crucial detail.
I don't have any brakes!
With this little detail now in mind, I made to just keep in the back, and not let my speed go up to much. I might have stopped altogether, but we were still going down hill, and I still didn't have brakes. Mentally kicking myself for not putting such an obvious necessity on my craft, I practically cut off all magic and just coasted down the hill, happy to be the back of the pack. After we came out of the turn the road flattened out and became mostly straight, swaying back and forth a little. I couldn't help but feel ever so slightly more safe, and decided that maybe I should at least try to compete. There might be no chance of me beating Scootaloo, but I don't see why I can't come in second.
A few moments pass, and I'm neck and neck with Apple Bloom again, and this time I pass her no problem, to which she gives her cart another buck and shoots a few wagon-lengths ahead of me again. I am almost certain that does not physics! Me and her struggled for third off a while, the two of us somehow passing Sweetie Belle and her wheeled chair.
It was at this point in the course that seemingly random wooden siderails began to appear, blocking off traffic and ensuring we didn't run some poor individual over. Just ahead of us we could see Scootaloo, grinding on one of these rails, style points aside, it was clear that she had been doing this every other railing, and had lost considerable speed because of it. Another sharp turn, and I find that our course leaves town, Ponyville is a river adjacent town – or perhaps it has a moat or something, I don't get out much – it has bridges that easily account for up to two lanes of traffic across the water, the problem lies in the fact that the race course doesn't go to the bridge, but runs parallel.
Just before the drop into the river sits a ramp, one that Scoots uses to easily clear the gap, Sweetie Belle suddenly shoots past me and the earth filly, the ramp wobbling under the awkward weight of her chosen vehicle. Apple Bloom quickly turns around again, putting in enough power into her kick to bend the metal outward – which immediately snapped back to its original shape like it was made out of rubber – and sending her flying across the gap. One of the supporting boards of the ramp must have come loose from all the use it was getting, because when I ascended the rickety structure, it snapped flat with the ground and I was sent to the cold river.
I gasped and leaned back hard, tilting my vehicle till I was staring at the sky, my tail touched the water. That is a wierd feeling when you are not expecting it. I paniced, and experienced what any young unicorn does, a magic surge. The wild magic finds a nearby outlet, the enchanted wooden block glowed like the sun. "Oh sh-"
Rainbow dash set down on the cloud, happily pushing the lumps out with her hooves. She does two circles, and then settled into its soft surface; textbook napping cloud. The pegasus let's out a soft coo and closes her eyes. Her ears flick to attention a few seconds later, swiveling to better catch the sound. The mare let's out a grumble and opens her eyes, lifting her head, she starts scanning around to see who is interrupting her peace and quiet. Whatever it is, it's it's getting closer.
"...iiiiiiii--" something erupted from the cloud she was on and shot straight past her, she just barely recognized the shape of a foal on some... thing shooting off into the sky."--iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..."
"...what the buck?"
I finished giving my opinion on my current situation about three seconds ago, since then my accent had leveled out, as well as the light levels. I was now hugging the frame of my sky piercing ridiculou-cycle as it just sat there in open air, no longer going up, but still forward.
I let out a nervous laugh as I adjusted my grip. "Its... it's probably fine! The spell slowly weakening and is now level with the pull of the panet! So I just have to wait for it to weaken a bit more, and float back down to-" I heard a fizzle and a pop, I looked up up at the only thing keeping me afloat, as the magic in it sputtered and ceases to function.
"Oh you son of a b-!"
Rainbow Dash finished recollecting all the cloud matter and packed it all in the whole in her napping cloud. She looked around cautiously, then settled down into it. Just as she was about to lay her head down, it was back. She looked over the edge of the cloud, not spotting anything, then slowly cast a glance up.
--iiiiiiiiiiiiii--!!!!!!" The projectile landed in another cloud with a massive 'PWOMF' scattering tiny fragments of it and shooting a wooden and metal glob out the bottom.
"What the buck?"
I squeezed my eyes closed when I started falling, I felt a sudden impact, but whatever it is I hit was just so spongy that it just absorbed the the force. I dont know where my wheels went, but they slipped right past me. I cautiously open one eye. "...huh?" My vision was a little blurry from my eyes watering, due to my sudden conscription to the Equestrian Space Program, but I can't see anything but blue and white. I wipe my eyes with a fetlock. "What am I...?" I press my forehoof farther into the thing supporting me. "Kinda feels like a..." I blink three times and stare in amazement at the cloud I'm on, this is mainly surprising due to the fact that I don't have wings right now!? I stumbled and fell over, my surprise is quickly overridden by the fact that I am now lying on the softest thing in the entire world, my heartbeat retreats from my ears and I pull a chunk of the cloud up with my hooves. "How am I even --"
Flap
Flap
Flap
My ears homed in on the intruding sound, allpwing me to focus on the subjects words aswell. "...gent? is that you? What are you doing up here?" Rainbow Dash asks me. I roll my head back and look at her.
"Your guess is as good as mine."
We stared at eachother for a little while, she then touched down on the cloud. "Are you, good here?" I nodded hesitantly. "Then I'm gonna go get Twilight."
"Okay." With that she took off, rainbow contrail showing me that she made a Beeline straight for the library. It's really hard to be worried when the softest substance known to man, or rather, ponies is holding you aloft, but it's also hard to relax when you know for a fact that it should not be able to do so.
I carefully shifted positions to a more comfortable one, and prepped another gravity spell, just in case. Once I was sure the cloud wasn't about to drop me at any moment, I crawled over to the edge of the cloud and watched the final leg of the race. I was a little disappointed that I had checked out this early, cause this final leg of the race was when it apparently got interesting, with jumps, a half pipe, and all manner of stunt stuff. Scootaloo, of course, won by a landslide, Apple Bloom coasted past the finish line, and Sweetie Belle limped up to the end, apparently she exhausted herself magically, even just turning. They celebrated their winning placements for a minute but then started staring down the track. They spoke amongst themselves for a moment, then Scootaloo started racing back along the track.
What is she-? Oh, right, probably wondering what happened to me.
As she got closer to where I unintentionally bailed on the race, she suddenly went off course, probably spotting something. I turned to follow her trail, and she came up about twenty feet east of my cloud, a straight line from the ramp. She stopped next to my missing vehicle. I was wondering where that thing went.
She took off her helmet and looked around, I tried waving to her but she didn't spot me. I pawed at the cloud for a moment, weighing my options.
On one hand, this is kinda the perfect opportunity to pull some kind of prank on her, since I have the element of surprise.
But on the other hand, I've already pranked her today, and pulling another one might be a bit overkill.
Screw it. "Up here!" I shouted, catching the filly by surprise. She turned her attention skyward and gave me a look of utter confusion. "Hi."
"How are you up there?" She called up to me.
"I don't know," was my simple reply. We exchanged glancse for a few moments. Then the other two racers came to check up on the winner. They asked her something in conversational volumes, so I couldn't hear what they said, but I could guess as Scootaloo's reply was to just point a hoof at me.
"What are ya doin up there?" The farm filly asked.
"Nothing much." Is that the only question people know how to ask right now? I sighed to myself.
Rainbow Dash came back with a confused Twilight staring at the clouds, when she spotted me she asked the most sensible question, and I was quite thankful for the variation. "What are you doing up there?" Not...
"That is the question of the hour isn't it?" I snarked, eliciting an eyeroll from the magic mare.
"Hold on, I'll get you down." Rainbow offered. She picked me up under the barrel and slowly glided down to the ground. Upon my hooves touching the earth, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, and collapsed onto my side.
"What happened?" Twilight asked, rainbow Dash excused herself to go hang out with Pinkie Pie.
"Well, we here having a good-natured race, and it was rather fun!" I began, feeling with my magic until I found my lost bike thing. "But, I figured out pretty quickly that I forgot a rather important safety feature on this thing, then the ramp over the river collapsed-"
"It did?! I thought I made it rather surdy." Scootaloo interrupted.
"- then I had a magic surge, which overcharge my gravity engine, which sent me into the sky faster than a two stage rocket." I was given quizzical looks for my analogy. I have got to figure out how to hold my tongue on subjects like that.
"O..kay, but, how did you wind up on that cloud?"
"I don't know, is there some kinda spell for that?"
Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought. "Yes, I do believe that there is a cloudwalking enchantment, but it is highly unlikely that a magic surge would cast such a difficult spell."
"Unlikely or not, I was on a cloud, the horn on my head says that I shouldn't be able to do that, without specific magic," Nothing else made sense to me, so it had to be that. "Do you have some kind of spell to see if I have an enchantment on me, or do we have to go back to the lab?"
"I do have something that will work, it's a bit simple, but it will make you glow green if you've got an acitve magical effect that isnt normal for a unicorn, basically, if you have an enchantment on."
"Good enough, scan away."
Twilight light up her horn, and a rippling sensation crawled over my fur as the magic enveloped me. After a few seconds my vision tint was charged from purple to green. "Well, I guess that settles it, you currently have the cloudwalking enchantment on, it normally lasts about three or four days, but since the one on you was the result of a magic surge, it could last mere minutes or longer, it will wear off eventually, but I wouldn't get used to snuggling up in a cloud unless you've got some wings around for safety."
I caught the double meaning and gave her a nod. Although I did wonder briefly why it was that we weren't just telling people about my tribe switching wierdness, I understood that it was a bit odd, but it would probably be easier in the long run.
Then again, it could make me the target of some shady group for being able to harness the powers of all three tribes. Probably not, that's likely my human, conspiracy-prone brain, meh.
After that little incident, Twilight took my bike home to review the enchantments I had put on it like some kind of impomtu magic homework assignment, and I was left in the company of three fillies.
"So, how about we head over to Sugarcube Corner and celebrate my awesome victory?" Scootaloo sugested, reminding me that I was hanging out with a bunch of kids at the moment.
I rolled my eyes at her and gave a nod of consent, and we all made our way back into town, the orange mare preening herself over her skills. Once we were sat down at the table, AB gave our order to Mrs. Cake. I was sat next to the group's resident stable unicorn, and was across from the winner herself. The co-owner of the bakery came back with a few plates of apple pie, and a fritter for each of us.
I happily scarfed down the apple pie, but for whatever reason, I was really in the mood for mint icecream, I don't have a clue as to why, as my favourite flavor of frozen treats is death by chocolate.
"Hey, you gonna eat that?" I looked up to see Sweetie Belle looking between me and my remaining snack, and I was getting similar looks from the other two occupants of the table. I sighed and grabbed the the treat in my magic, ripping it into three equal pieces and floating a small bite to myself.
"Nah, you can have the rest, I insist." I said, plopping my little bit into my mouth. "Hmm, pretty good, too bad I'm not all that hungry at the moment." I said as I floated the remaining thirds over to each of their plates and looked out the window, returning to my thoughts of a pint of Ice cream.
The scene that is Ponyville was calm and relaxing from my vantage point, and every now and then someone/pony would walk by the window. Pinkie Pie pronked by with Rainbow, the pegasus sporting an evil grin, knowing those two, I shudder to think of what they could do together, not that I would know, the only two of the group I've spent any time with were Flutters and Twi.
Another minute went by, the fillies around me throwing around names for their secret society. I had tuned out the conversation from the get go, but it seemed that they had decided on the goal of finding their special talents. Apple Bloom threw out the possible name of "Cutie Mark Crusaders" and the other two members agreed.
As the sun began its descent, Sweetie Belle excused herself from her newly formed club to go spend some time with her sister. With her left my guarantee to keep my horn where it was, so I had to leave as well. The whole party seemed disappointed that it had to disband, and they put in their best puppy dog eyes to drag a promise out of me to hang out tomorrow.
I dropped in the library after a few minutes of walking, and was greeted by a certain dragon with the hiccups, I asked him what was going on, and he said that Rainbow and Pinkie pranked him eariler.
"Anyway, why are you wearing that?" He asked me, pointing at my noggin.
"Huh?" I looked up, to see that I was still wearing the helmet that Scootaloo had lent me. "Oh, I guess I just kinda forgot it was there." I undid the strap and placed it near the front door to be returned tomorrow. The sound of muffled snickers brought my attention back to a mirthful dragon.
I sighed. "It's standing on end, isn't it?" Spike broke out into full blow laughter. Helmet hair can't be that funny. "Whatever, I'ma go take a shower then."
I trotted right past him and kicked the bathroom door shut. I quickly switched on the water and hopped into the shower. Sighing contentedly as my long blue hair was plastered to my neck. "Maybe I should just chop this all off... it'll be a hell of a lot less trouble."