//------------------------------//
// Wind-Filled Sky 
// Story: Beyond Blind Eyes 
// by Lunaric 
//------------------------------//

"How about you?" Cotton waited for a few seconds without response before looking to her right. Solid was looking across the orphanage's attached park at a distant yellow pegasus. "You really like her, hm?"

Solid shook his head. "Yeah... She's nice." His head dipped down, "And not-to-mention, strong."

"Good luck, Solid." Aqua stood up. "She's a hard one to catch."

He sighed, "I figured."

Silence stretched on as Aqua approached. When the filly got close, Cotton spoke out to her. "Hi Aqua. How'd you know where we were?"

Aqua nodded her head upwards. "Hey, guys. Oh, I could just hear you two talking. Recognized the voices and all that, y'know?"

Cotton deadpanned. "Aqua, we were a few hundred hooves from you."

An eyebrow raise from the filly. "Well, yeah. I couldn't hear what y'all were saying, only recognize the sound."

"That's weird." Looking to her side at Solid, she continued, "That's weird, right?"

Solid hummed and looked up in thought. "Only a little, really."

Cotton tilted her head. "Huh?"

"Some of the higher-ups are pretty good at recognizing voices..."

Aqua interjected, "Oh yeah, that'd make sense."

Now looking at the filly, "Huh?"

"You're sounding a bit like a broken record there, Cotton." She nodded. "But yeah, if there's a lot of chaos going on during... let's say some scuffle, you gotta be able to pick out the important voices in a crowd. I've gotten a lot better at it since..." Aqua looked down. "Yeah..." Cotton closed the distance and hugged the filly. There was a quiet yelp before Aqua buried her face in Cotton's mane. A muffled, "Thanks."

A crack of thunder went off in the clouds above. Cotton's feathers rustled. It's going to rain. "We should probably head inside." Cotton pulled the filly up so she could climb onto her withers.

"Can we stay by the-" She shook her head. "On the front porch?" Aqua scaled the tower that is Cotton and nestled between her wings.

That feels really nice... "Alright, but why?"

"I wanna listen to the rain..." Solid beckoned Cotton to follow him back. "Does it look like it's going to be heavy?"

Cotton began to trot to the entrance of the orphanage. "Yeah. I can feel it."

"You can?"

"Yeah. In my wings." She ruffled her wings, brushing them against Aqua's sides.

"That just a you thing or a pegasus thing?"

"A pegasus thing."

"Huh. Neat."

At the end of their walk, Cotton sat down just outside the front door, looking out at the rain. Solid stood behind them, but after some time, he sat down next to the two.

None of them cared to say a word as they listened to the rain.