After class let out, Flitter invited Cloudchaser over to her house again. Flitter’s eyes were red and the fur on her cheeks tearstained. After a moment’s hesitation, Cloudchaser accepted the invitation. They kept silent for the whole trip to Flitter’s house.
When they reached the house, they went into Flitter’s bedroom and sat next to each other on her bed. The moment Flitter sat down, tears started pouring down her face. “Cloudchaser, what am I gonna do? I don’t think I can live without my friends, but what about you? I don’t want you to be alone.” She pressed her face deep in Cloudchaser’s chest.
Cloudchaser wrapped a hoof around Flitter and slowly brushed her mane with a wing.
Flitter looked up at her, and their eyes met; for a moment, her tears stopped flowing. Her gaze drifted down to Cloudchaser’s lips, which were slowly drawing closer to hers. For a moment, she thought Cloudchaser was going to kiss her. It was just like in the movies. But wait, isn’t Cloudchaser a girl? The thought made her turn away, blushing.
“I...” Cloudchaser said, pressing a hoof to her cheek. “I better go.” She stood up and galloped out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Flitter slumped onto her bed. A moment later, she moved one of her hooves to her lips. She had never shared a kiss with another pony before, but would a kiss from Cloudchaser count? They were both fillies, after all. Flitter didn’t know. Maybe I wouldn't mind finding out what it's like...
She stood and slowly trotted to her bedroom window. She laid her hooves on the windowsill and rested her head on them. Outside, she saw that the sky had turned a bright orange as the sun lowered beneath the horizon. I’ve never felt this way about a girl before. What’s wrong with me? The thought made Flitter’s tear ducts well up again. Maybe I’ll feel better after a short flight. That usually works.
Flitter stepped out of her bedroom window and took to the air. The ponies she saw from the aerial view of the field below looked like ants. Far behind Cloudsdale was a large mountain range that looked almost purple in the fading sunset. Flitter had always wanted to fly there, but her mother wouldn’t take her. She had decided to travel there one day, when she grew up some more.
Maybe I’ll ask Cloudchaser to come. And with that thought, her mind returned to the problems at hoof. Flitter was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice when the sun traveled behind the hills. She was about to turn back toward her cloud house when she heard the sounds of splashing water and breathless screams from the ground below.
In the light of the moon, she looked down to see a small filly being swept away in a river. Uh-oh! She scanned the area, looking for an adult. What do I do? When she couldn’t find one, she started to sweat. She gulped and dove towards the child, the piercing wind blowing through her mane as she flew faster than she had ever flown before. On the way down, she tossed clouds left and right to get them out of the way. As she reached the stream, Flitter extended her front hooves and swept them under the foal. But before she could take to the air again, the current below caught her and carried them both away.
Not good. Not good! Still holding the filly, Flitter darted her eyes around. Up ahead, she noticed a fallen tree hanging over the river. If I can just grab it... She raised a hoof out of the rushing water to grab one of the branches. As she passed under the tree, the branches slipped out of her grasp. Stupid hooves, she thought, eyes widened.
With the fallen tree out of the way, Flitter’s eyebrows shot up when she saw water rushing off the edge of the waterfall up ahead. Coming closer to the edge by the second, she grit her teeth and dug a hoof into the wall of the river. But it merely slowed the inevitable as they were both swept over the falls.
Flitter quickly joined the foal in her screams. What do I do? What do I do?! Turning her head in every direction, she soon caught a glance at one of her wings and face-hooved. Duh, I’m a pegasus! She extended her wings and soared through the air with the filly, lifting up above the water. Swooping down, she landed on the ground far from the steam and let the filly go.
“I guess *huff* those years *huff* of flight training *huff* really paid off,” Flitter said, breathing heavy with her tongue hanging out.
After a moment, the foal finally let go and looked around. “Where’s my mommy?” she asked, looking up at Flitter with large, quivering eyes.
“Uh, where did you see her last?” Flitter asked as she scanned the area.
“At the park, by that huge oak tree.”
“Okay, let’s start there,” Flitter said before trotting off with the filly. When they found the oak tree the child had mentioned, her mother was nowhere to be found. They called her name by the apple stand, by the drinking fountain, and by the merry-go-round, but they couldn’t find the filly’s mother. When Flitter was about to just take the kid home with her and sort it out in the morning, the child finally heard her mother calling for her.
“Mommy!” she said, cantering toward her with tears in her eyes.
“Cherry!” the filly’s mother said once she spotted her child. “Cherry Berry, I couldn’t find you anywhere!” She hugged the filly. “Oh, you’re soaking wet. Where did you go?”
“To look at the fishies. This pegasus brought me back.” Cherry pointed to Flitter.
“Thank you for your trouble,” Cherry’s mother said.
“Aww, it was nothing.” Grinning, Flitter scratched the back of her mane with a hoof. She remembered back to when she was younger and decided that she didn’t want to get Cherry in trouble.
They said their good-byes and the mother and daughter trotted away. When they was out of view, Flitter stopped trying to look brave and collapsed onto her back. The foal she saved had almost died; she had almost died. She moved her hooves to her face. They were shaking. I need to talk to Cloudchaser.
After a long time of just lying on the grass and looking up at the stars, Flitter sat up and flew home. When she got there, she saw her mother sitting outside, her grayish mane lit up by the lamp above the door. Tears were welled up in her eyes. Flitter had barely landed on the front porch when her mother saw her and wrapped her hooves around her in a warm embrace, sobbing.
"Flitter! I was so worried! If something had happened to you, I... I don’t know what I’d do. I couldn’t decide whether to go looking for you or to stay here in case you came back.” She squeezed Flitter tighter.
Finding herself speechless, Flitter wrapped her hooves around her mother and they stood there for a while. Eventually her mother’s tears stopped flowing and they let go. When Flitter looked up at her mother, she saw a faint smile on her face. Flitter sighed, and they went back inside.
~~~~~~~~~~
Cloudchaser didn’t show up for school the next day. All day, Flitter kept glancing back at Cloudchaser’s empty desk instead of paying attention to the teacher.
The last bell rang, ending Flitter's math class. She stood and closed the books on her desk, staring down at them with a frown. She sighed, her shoulders slumping.
Silverspeed chuckled to herself. “I see your loser friend didn’t even show up for school today. Have you reconsidered my offer?”
“Ah, buzz off!”, Flitter said, staring daggers at her.
Silverspeed turned up her nose with a “Hmph” and went out the door.
“Flitter?”
Flitter turned to see her teacher trotting towards her. “Yes?”
“Since you’re such good friends, you wouldn’t mind taking Cloudchaser her homework?”
Flitter’s heart skipped a beat. Before she could object, her teacher placed the papers on Flitter’s desk and trotted back to her desk.
Flitter put them in her saddlebags and stood, her heart racing. She trotted to the door and was about to step through when her teacher stopped her. “Oh, and Flitter, try not to catch Cloudchaser’s cold. We wouldn’t want you missing class, too.”
Oh, she’s just sick. Flitter’s heart calmed. “Okay.”
Butterflies filled Flitter’s stomach on the way to Cloudchaser’s house. Twice, Flitter questioned whether her friend was really sick before she landed at Cloudchaser’s doorstep.
Flitter’s heart raced. As she raised a hoof to knock, a dark lilac blur shot out and tackled her, making her drop her saddlebags on the doorstep. They both tumbled off the cloud and started falling to the ground below, their hair flowing freely in the wind.
“Flitter!”
Flitter opened her eyes to see the side of Cloudchaser’s unkempt mane. Her hooves were wrapped around Flitter, holding her tight.
“I did it, Flitter!” Cloudchaser shouted at the top of her lungs.
Flitter leaned back to look at Cloudchaser; a large grin was plastered over Cloudchaser’s face. “Did what?” Flitter asked.
“I got my cutie mark!” Cloudchaser eased her grip on Flitter. Eyes watering and mane flickering wildly around her, Flitter spotted a mark on Cloudchaser’s flank in the shape of a shooting star.
They unfurled their wings in unison, slowing their descent to a glide. “When? How?!” Flitter asked, her eyes widening.
“Last night, I was staring out my window when I thought I saw a comet shoot across the sky. The air pressure made a ripple which shoved the clouds surrounding it away. Then I started thinking about how the weather is organized and I realized I wanted to do that. I wanted to be a meteorologist.
“That’s why I wasn’t at school today. I stayed up too late reading weather books. My mom let me sleep in because she saw how hard I was working. The funny thing is I didn’t realize I had gotten my cutie mark until I woke up about an hour ago.”
I didn’t see a comet last ni—Wait a minute! Flitter’s eyebrows shot up. “Cloudchaser, when did you see this comet?”
“Just after the sun set. Why?”
Pressing a hoof to her chin, Flitter did the math in her head. It was difficult, but she managed, and when she did, she could not help but blurt out: “That wasn’t a comet, Cloudchaser, that was me!”
Cloudchaser raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”
“I took a short flight last night and saw a filly drowning.” Flitter gestured towards her chest with a hoof, her eyes wide. “You must’ve seen me save her.”
“Wait, so you helped me get my cutie mark?!” Cloudchaser placed a hoof on Flitter’s shoulder.
Flitter giggled sheepishly. “I guess so.”
“Oh, Flitter, that’s awesome!” Before Flitter knew what was happening, Cloudchaser quickly spun around and kissed her, their manes fluttering in the breeze. Flitter’s face turned a bright red as she felt Cloudchaser’s lips press against her own, but she soon relaxed her eyelids as they barrel-rolled through the air, and then she relaxed her wings.
Flitter was so lost in Cloudchaser that she didn’t notice that they had started diving until they crash-landed onto a nearby cloud. When Flitter sat up, she saw Cloudchaser lying on top of her, her head resting on Flitter’s chest. She touched her lip with a hoof and gasped. “Cloudchaser, you kissed me!”
“Huh?” Cloudchaser looked up at her friend. “Oh, uh... yeah.”
Neither of them said anything for a moment.
Cloudchaser gulped. “H-how was it?” she asked, her eyes traveling over the cloud. The nape of her neck started to sweat.
Flitter grinned. “It was awesome!” She helped Cloudchaser to her hooves and gave her a quick hug. “C’mon, there’s something we gotta do!” Flitter took off, Cloudchaser following closely behind.
“Where are we going?!” Cloudchaser shouted when she caught up with Flitter.
“You’ll see!”
They flew over to the mountains behind Cloudsdale. Compared to what Flitter had gone through the night before, flying to the mountains was a cake walk. For the entire trip, they both said nothing; they just smiled.
As they sat there and looked out at the clouds, Flitter’s mind traveled elsewhere. I wonder what my mom is going to say when she finds out I’m in love with Cloudchaser. Will she accept it? Flitter’s eyes widened. What if she kicks me out onto the street?!
Cloudchaser wrapped a hoof around Flitter’s shoulder and gave her a light squeeze. She looked at Flitter with a smile and a blush.
Aww, who cares? It’ll work out somehow. Flitter thought as her head fell against Cloudchaser’s.