They were watching her.
Eyes, wide and narrowed alike, watched her every step as she walked along the cloud road. They followed her, glistening with curiosity and brimming with the thrill of mystery.
Below those eyes were the mouths of many pegasi. They were whispering, quiet enough to know that the conversation was meant to be private but loud enough so that she knew what they were about. Some were tittering with excitement while others mumbled with suspicion.
“Isn’t she that pony who was struck by lightning?”
“Yeah! Yeah! She has the same flame-mane and everything!”
“I can’t believe she survived that shock!”
“It should’ve killed her.”
“That Timberwolf should’ve killed her. Those things are insane!”
“Don’t you think it’s odd that she just happened to turn up next to a dead wolf?”
“I bet she killed it.”
“I’ll bet she was practicing neighcromancy.”
“Don’t you think it’s strange that she was found in the Everfree?”
“What was she doing in that forest?”
“I heard she jumped off a cloud just to show off.”
“What kind of filly would jump off a cloud before she learned to fly? She could’ve killed herself!”
“What a freak.”
Flameheart cringed as she heard the word that tainted her childhood. She was never known for her accomplishments, no matter how hard she tried. She was never ‘the fastest mare in her class’. Never the ‘pony with straight A’s’. Never the ‘youngest pegasus to try out for the Wonderbolts’.
Since the incident in the Everfree Forest some ten years before, she was only known as ‘freak’.
She halted suddenly and looked back at the gossiping pegasi behind her. They stopped dead cold in their chattering as they caught her eye, not brave enough to talk behind her back to her face.
Flameheart snorted and turned back to walking, hearing the conversations start up again as she turned away. It sickened her that they didn’t have the guts to gossip right in front of her.
What sickened her more is that some suspicions were true. She did kill that wolf. She did jump off the cloud. She could have killed herself. But nopony else knew what happened for sure, and even her own mother knew only half the story.
She pricked her ears. One of the many mentions of her name was growing louder.
“Flameheart! Hey, Flameheart!”
Flameheart turned and beamed as she saw a mossy mare with a dark green flowing mane. “Emerald! What’s up?” Seeing her oldest and best friend always brightened her mood.
“Not much. Just getting ready for school,” she replied nonchalantly. Then, excitedly, she gushed, “Can you believe it? Our first day of sky school! No more junior sky for us!” She giggled girlishly.
Flameheart rolled her eyes. “Come on, Emerald. It’s just sky school. How different can it be?” Her dismissive tone shrouded the nervousness she felt.
The mossy pegasus widened her eyes. “I heard that the teachers are a lot tougher. And…” She lowered her voice ominously for dramatic effect. “They give out more homework!”
Flameheart gasped, feigning shock, before both mares fell into a fit of laughter. Wiping tears from her eyes, Flameheart puffed, “But… Seriously though… It can’t be that bad.”
“Heh, heh. Yeah. I guess you’re right,” Emerald admitted. “But I’m still nervous.”
The amber pegasus shrugged. “I guess I am, too. But,” she added, her tone brightening, “at least we’ll be in it together.”
************
“Emerald: Class 101. Flameheart: Class 102.”
Flameheart’s heart and jaw dropped when she heard which classes she and her best friend were in. The beige mare at the pedestal in front of the entire Freshmare class of Cloudsdale Sky School was reading down a scroll stating the names of pegasi and the classes they were assigned to. The two classes, 101 and 102, split the number of pegasi down the middle, creating a more efficient student to teacher ratio.
However, for Flameheart it meant that she was now separated from her only friend.
“Emerald! What are we going to do?” The amber pegasus exclaimed when the ceremony was over. “I don’t want to go through sky school without my best friend!”
The green pegasus contorted her voice to be soothing, though her heart leapt into her throat. “Don’t worry, Flameheart. We can still eat lunch together. It’s not the end of the world.” She grinned. “Besides, we might even make some new friends.”
Flameheart sighed and imitated her friend’s own smile. “Yeah, okay. But you’ll still be my best friend.”
A shrill bell sounded, announcing that the students should be in class soon. Flameheart and Emerald shared a hug and went in the opposite directions to their classes.
Arriving at her first class, Flameheart looked around. She checked items off the imaginary list in her mind as to what she expected. Chairs: check. Desks: check. Blackboard: check. Other students: check. Teacher: check. Inspirational posters that tend to get annoying after awhile of staring at them in boredom: check. Everything seemed normal.
Well, almost everything.
“Good morning, students. I hope you’re excited for your first day of sky school,” chirped the teacher.
“Yes, Mrs. Goldbeak,” the class droned in response.
Flameheart was stunned. Her teacher was a griffon.
A student coming in behind her asked, “Why is our teacher a griffon?”
“How else is she supposed to teach us Griffish?” Another student nearby replied, scoffing as if it were obvious.
Flameheart decided to join the conversation. “What’s Griffish?”
Mrs. Goldbeak seemed to have been listening to the murmurs that circulated around the room. “Take your seats and I’ll answer all your questions.”
The young pegasi flew to desks around the room. Flameheart, not knowing any of them, decided to take a seat around the middle of the classroom. Not too near to the windows, where she would get distracted, or to the side, where she would have to crane her head to see. It wasn’t too far in the back, where it would be hard to hear the lesson, but not too close to the front, where she might be labeled ‘teacher’s pet’. It was the perfect spot.
She looked to the neighboring desks. To her left, a blonde, grey pegasus mare with a golden, cross-eyed expression. To her right, a silver mare with a jet black mane and neon green eyes. They seemed friendly enough.
Looking in front of her, she saw that her teacher had begun to speak.
“For many of you, this is your first year of sky school. In junior sky, you had the basic classes, such as Equish Literature, Mathematics, and Flight, so it may be new for you to have language classes.”
A turquoise mare in the back of the class raised her hoof.
“Yes, Miss Sherbert?”
“What languages will we be learning?” she asked, blowing a piece of bright orange mane out of her eyes.
“Good question! In later years, you will be learning all sorts of languages, but this year we will be focusing on Griffish, the language of the Griffons.”
The cross-eyed mare to Flameheart’s left raised her hoof.
“Yes, Miss Do?”
“I thought griffons spoke the same language we do,” she said, mildly confused, and many other students in the class nodded assent.
Mrs. Goldbeak shook her head. “Griffons learn Equish early on in life because of the common interactions between Griffons and Equines. But in their own culture they often speak their native language, which is why you all are learning how to speak it in the case that you may need to use such knowledge someday.”
The mare sitting to Flameheart’s right raised her hoof.
“Yes, Deinopis?”
“So why are you teaching us, instead of another pony?”
The rest of the class gasped. The words sounded as if they could offend the griffon. They looked anxiously to the teacher.
Mrs. Goldbeak, however, was not offended and in fact smiled mischievously at Deinopis. “Who better to teach Griffish than a griffon?” she asked rhetorically.
There were no more questions after that, so Mrs. Goldbeak began the lesson.
************
After Griffish class, in which they learned several vocabulary words in the language, the class trotted off to Flight class. Since the pegasi already learned how to fly early on in school, these classes were more about health and fitness. They were led by a well-muscled stallion pegasus.
“Okay, students,” he began in a gruff voice. “My name is Ship Shape. Mr. Shape to you. This year in Flight you will learn the appropriate heart rate for exercising, how to fly a mile in under ten minutes, how to maintain optimum care for your wing feathers, and how to play several air sports with good sportsmareship.” He emphasized the last two words to show that he was serious about playing by the rules.
“Today we will ease you into the program with a game you all should know.” He flew over to a nearby cloud and brought over two sacks of vests, red and blue, and two flags, a red one and a blue one. “Capture the Flag!”
Mr. Shape split the class into two teams of ten, putting the mares and the stallions on separate teams. “Later on in the year,” the teacher explained, “you will be sharing teams with the opposite gender. But, since it’s the first day of school, I’ve decided to put you into good old fashion ‘colts vs. fillies’ teams.”
He gave the mares red vests and a red flag and the stallions blue vests and a blue flag. “To brush up on the rules, both teams must attempt to capture the other team’s flag and guard their own. If you get tagged by the opposing team in their territory, you must go to the ‘jail’ on that team’s side. If another one of your teammates who have not been tagged tag you while in jail, everypony in the jail get released and cannot be tagged again until they cross back over the border. If you get tagged holding the flag, the flag is put back in place and you go to jail. A pony released from jail cannot capture the other team’s flag. No flying above the tops of the clouds. Any pony caught flying above the clouds will be disqualified. The game is won when the other team’s flag crosses the border onto your territory.” He clapped his hooves together. “Now that you’re caught up, let’s go down to the game area.”
The teacher flew off towards a mass of clouds a bit off and the class followed close behind.
Flameheart gasped as she saw the area. The cloud came together to form the shape of a large forest, complete with foliage, trees, and clearings. The amber pegasus shuddered as horrific memories arose but put on a brave face and entered the cloud forest with her teammates.
Mr. Shape drew a clear line across the middle of the forest, indicating the border between the two teams, and turned to his class. “All right. The game will start when I blow my whistle, so I’ll give you five minutes to hide your flags. GO!”
And with that both teams flew off into the forest, eager to begin the game.
The mares on the red team grouped together in the center of their territory. “Okay, girls!” A white pegasus with a bright blue mane ordered the team, naturally acting the leader. “Our flag is red. This gives us a disadvantage in camouflage because, while the stallions can pass theirs off as a piece of blue sky, ours will be as vibrant as a flare. Therefore, we need to defend it with a pegasus who can catch intruders the best. She turned to the grey mare who sat next to Flameheart in Griffish class. “Ditsy, you will defend the area with the flag.” Ditsy nodded and saluted the mare.
Deinopis looked puzzled. “Why her?”
“Because,” the blue mare explained, “She can see two places at once with her eyes and can see an enemy coming faster than any of us.”
“How do you know that?”
The blue mare grinned. “I’m a friend of her brother.” She turned to the turquoise mare with an orange mane. “Orange, you defend the jail.”
Orange Sherbert shrugged and replied, “Okay.”
The blue pegasus turned to the other team members. “Flameheart, Deinopis, Dusk, Starry, Sunny, and Sky. You will stay behind in the forest until needed.”
“What will you be doing, Colored Canvas?” Starry Night asked.
“Cloud Kicker and I will be the first ones to sneak into enemy territory. If we get captured, two of you will go next. For this to work, you will have to be in teams of two at varying areas in the forest.” She turned to Flameheart and Deinopis. “You two will defend the Eastern part of our territory.” She turned to Dusk and Starry. “You two will defend the Western part.” She turned to Sunny and Sky. “You guys will defend the North most part of our territory and alert the others if we are captured.” She turned to Ditsy. “Hide the flag in the Southwest corner of the forest.” She turned to Orange. “Defend the jail at the Southeast corner. We don’t want enemies knowing where exactly the flag is, if we can help it.” She turned to Cloud Kicker. Meet me at the border so that we’ll be ready when the whistle blows.”
She placed her hoof in the center of the group of mares. “Go team!” The others put theirs hooves in, and shouted together, “GO TEAM!”
The team members quickly ran off to their assigned spots.
Upon arriving in the Eastern part of their territory, Flameheart and Deinopis heard the whistle blow and knew that the game had begun.
Deinopis looked over at Flameheart. “So, you’re the mare who jumped off a cloud before she could fly, right?”
The amber pegasus flinched. Deinopis obviously was often unintentionally blunt. “I-I don’t think we’re supposed to talk while we guard the territory.”
“Nonsense!” cried Deinopis. “Nopony’s here! And if anypony comes we’ll catch them easy anyway. I mean, you’re the fastest mare in Cloudsdale.”
Flameheart blushed. “Well, not necessarily in all of Cloudsdale…”
The silver mare dismissed it. “Whatever. You’re really fast. And this,” she motioned to her cutie mark, which featured a large, metallic spider dangling from a strand of spider silk and holding net-like web between its front four legs. “Means that I’m really good at trapping things.”
Flameheart’s eyes widened with wonder. “Cool. How’d you get it?”
“My dad used to take me hunting when I was a filly. I was really good with nets and tranquilizer, and I loved inventing new traps.”
Flameheart was confused. “Hunting…?”
The silver mare shrugged. “How else are ponies supposed to keep wild animals at bay when they stray from the woods? But don’t worry,” she added, noting the amber mare’s expression, “We only catch and tranquilize animals and release them back in the forest.” She changed the topic. “Speaking of which, why were you in the Everfree forest? Were you practicing neighcromancy, like they say? Why did that Timberwolf die? Did you kill it? Did you burn it with dark magic? Did it go wrong? Is that why you got burned too?” Deinopis kept talking, not realizing how uncomfortable this was making the amber pegasus or the fact that her ears were laid back against her head.
“Please stop. None of the rumors are true. I don’t want to talk about it.” Flameheart’s voice shook. She was suddenly being confronted by all of the things that were said about her and the questions wouldn’t stop. She was scared and… angry.
“Oh, come on. Some of the rumors have to be true. I mean, it wouldn’t be said if it wasn’t true. Come on. You can tell me. I won’t tell anypony. Did you hunt it down? Did you want to practice non-unicorn magic on it? I only ever heard about non-unicorn magic! It’s supposed to be dangerous! You must be really brave! Why did you choose a fire spell? Is it because it matched your mane?” She seemed to know more about black magic than Flameheart did.
Flameheart started to back away. She didn’t want to talk about that night. While she didn’t use black magic, she did burn the wolf. She couldn’t truthfully deny that she didn’t. Deinopis would want to know how she burnt the wolf, and even she didn’t really know. She was getting angrier. Who was Deinopis to accuse her of such ridiculous claims? Who was she to continue on the subject when Flameheart had repeatedly asked her to stop? Who was anypony to give her suspicious glances and gossip behind her back?
Fury bubbled up in her gut, moving through her veins straight to her brain. She had felt this sensation before. She was worried for a moment, but the worry dissipated as rage clouded her thoughts.
“Uh, Flameheart, are you okay?” Deinopis began to worry. Flameheart was beginning to hyperventilate. The silver mare gasped as the pegasus in front of her opened her eyes and revealed them to be blood red.
The amber mare’s legs extended, her wings growing. Her teeth turned sharp as fangs right before Deinopis’ eyes. Flameheart’s mane and tail ignited, illuminating the area of clouds.
Deinopis’ eyes widened, their pupils shrinking to pinpricks. “M-magic…?” she murmured, her voice near silent with fright.
No longer was this her classmate and teammate. This was a monster. A fiery monster of unknown creation. The only explanation Deinopis could find was magic.
Flameheart roared at her. The roar was otherworldly, demonic. It played right down to her deepest instinctual fears. She had become the prey, and the predator was right in front of her. A streak of Deinopis’ mane and tail began to brighten. From jet black, to dark grey, to silver, to a lighter grey, to almost white.
She roared again and slammed into the silver mare. Deinopis tried to fend off this monster with her wings and hooves, but they were tiny compared to the strong, agile appendages Flameheart now had. She was kicked and buffeted by the wind created by the giant wings, and was laying bruised, bloody, and broken on the cloud forest’s floor.
Flameheart looked down at her peer, now moaning with pain, and suddenly she calmed down, shrinking and extinguishing as more and more of her mind came back from control of her rage. Guilt overtook her. Not again! She thought.
“Deinopis! Are you okay?” she asked.
The broken pegasus looked up into Flameheart’s worried eyes. “Get… AWAY… from me… you… FREAK!”
Flameheart backed away, shocked at her words. Suddenly she heard the shrill call of a whistle, and many hoofsteps coming nearer.
Mr. Shape galloped up and gaped at the scene in front of him, a look of shock passing over his face. A broken and bloody student lying nearby another burned student. “What happened?”