//------------------------------//
// Thin Walls 
// Story: Growing up Fluttershy 
// by Wandering Writer 
//------------------------------//

Cloud houses have thin walls.

It’s a well known fact among pegasi that cloud is not a great building material. It does not insulate, which means that summers are going to be very hot, and winters are going to be very cold. It does not stop wind, which can reach incredible speeds at higher elevations. It supports very little weight; most physical objects pass right through it. The clouds themselves are not anchored to anything and often drift around. A common problem among pegasi used to be coming home to find out that their house wasn’t where they left it. 

Despite all of its faults, cloud remains the most common building material for pegasi for two reasons; it is an incredibly cheap building material, and more importantly, it is the only building material that floats in the air. Because pegasi are so insistent on living in the air, many solutions to the problems of cloud housing have been found. Enchantments to ward off weather and temperature and to anchor the clouds are now common place, and more than a few unicorns have earned their cutie marks in cloud manipulation.

There is one problem that has yet to be solved. Sound travels through clouds too easily. Several unicorns have taken a stab at solving the problem, but, due to the fickle nature of sound magic, there have been no successes. A unicorn named Gentle Noise came closest to solving the problem when he invented the noise cancelling enchantment, but the solution was short-lived because it stopped sound from going through clouds at all, leading to many unheard kitchen timers, and a variety of other problems.

In the meantime, pegasi have accepted that cloud houses have thin walls.






Fluttershy was lying in her bed trying her hardest to fall asleep. The other fillies and colts at flight school had been especially mean that day, and their words were echoing through her head. Fluttershy can hardly fly. ‘Why can’t I fly?’ She wondered. All of the fillies her age could fly. Even when many of those fillies were half their age they flew better than she flew now. ‘I wish I knew how.’ If she knew how to fly then they would stop picking on her and calling her names. That would be very nice. She would fly though the course without falling or crashing in to anything, and then she would be allowed to talk to them and have friends. She smiled, and before she knew it she was dreaming. 

But then she heard a noise. Two noises, she noticed, as she started to wake. They were her parent’s voices. She caught them in the middle of their exchange, but she didn’t need to where they began to know where they were heading. They were having another argument. 

This wasn’t the first argument that Fluttershy had heard, or the second, third, or even tenth. She had lost count long ago. They had been a part of her life for so long that she couldn’t even remember a time before the arguments, but she did realize that her parents were arguing more often than they had in the past. 

She wished they would stop arguing, but it was a rather quiet wish. She knew she couldn't do anything, and besides, the arguments just seemed so natural. That’s just the way ponies are, right? You disagree with them and they don’t like it, so they get mad at you. It was so much easier to just agree with them in the first place, or at least keep your disagreements to yourself.

Fluttershy’s bigger wish was to fall asleep. As tired as she was, and she was very tired, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep as long as her parents were arguing. Eavesdropping is a bad thing, and Fluttershy knew that these arguments were meant to be private, so she tried her hardest to not listen.  She reached for the spare cloud that she kept at her bedside, pulled off a few bits, and stuffed those into her ears. The voices dulled. Fluttershy could still hear their voices, but she was unable to distinguish their words. If only that was enough. 

From what she heard, she knew that they would be arguing for at least a few more minutes. They had only just started yelling, so they still had a while to go before they were through. Fluttershy tried to think of something else.

She had seen a bird earlier that day, during flight school. Animals were quite rare in Cloudsdale, the only ones she had seen before were either in her picture books, or very far off in the distance. This one flew right up to her. It was big, with great brown wings and a white head. It hovered in front of her for a few seconds, almost like it was saying hi. Then it turned around and flew away. She wished that she had said hi back. 

She remembered watching it fly away with those powerful wing strokes. Something about the rhythm of the flaps stuck with her. She could still hear it in her head, whoosh whoosh whoosh as the wings flapped. Then it stretched out its wings and what big wings they were. She watched it glide away. Was that what it was like to fly? Maybe one day she would know.

Her parents were still arguing. Fluttershy had thought that they would be done by now, but their voices were as strong as before, perhaps even stronger. There wasn’t anything she could do at that point but listen as they shouted back and forth. This was going to be a bad one. 

Her mom and dad battled back and forth. Their voices became louder, angrier, and more bitter. She could hear them completely through her earplugs now. They weren't being nice at all. They kept at it, forming a rhythm with their shouts. Mom, then Dad, then Mom again. It kept going. Dad. Mom. Dad. Mom. Dad. Mom. Suddenly there was a new sound -- a sound that Fluttershy had never heard before -- a single muffled thump, and all the other noises ceased.

Silence. It was broken by a series of hoofsteps, still as graceful as they always were, that trailed to the front door. The hoofsteps were replaced by a gentle whoosh whoosh whoosh that Fluttershy listened to until she couldn't hear it anymore.

The house was silent again, but Fluttershy wasn't able to sleep.