“Well, that was nice Joe to let me off like that.” Soarin’ said as he gingerly glided through the air over Canterlot. “I thought he was going to blow a fuse when I ruined his shop like that. Of course, he did tell me to leave as soon as possible before he did something he might regret.”
The Wonderbolt brought a hoof to his chin as contemplated what Joe meant by ‘something he might regret’. Maybe the sharp silverware the baker was caressing like a small foal could hold a clue.
“Nah, Joe wouldn’t do that…
…
…Would he?”
Soarin’ made his way to a small cloud over Canterlot, landing on it softly. It felt softer than usual, but also more firm at the same time. The pegasus couldn’t explain it, but he felt that the cloud was trying extra hard to keep comfortable, as well as better protected.
As the pale blue Wonderbolt laid down he began to ponder about the past events of the day. He actually woke up well rested for the first time in a long time, and had actually grown in size, albeit somewhat, but still. He tore his suit (on accident), and got a two week vacation because of it; fended off four attackers while simultaneously destroying his favorite donut shop.
“I guess that’s productive…”
But one thing that stuck out in Soarin’s mind was that strange cone-like barrier that formed around him when he was flying beyond his normal speed.
“Maybe…” He mumbled to himself.
The Wonderbolt quickly got to all fours and bolted off the small cloud, the force causing it to fly opposite to where he was headed. He was over Canterlot now, so Cloudsdale was a short flight to the northwest, Foal Mountains to the east would prevent a smooth flight, so would the erratic weather the Everfree to the south would also do. Essentially, any flight east would put him farther away from Cloudsdale. North is a good choice, but at the speed he would be flying it would get cold to quickly. Ponyville was to the southwest so...
“West it is.”
All out; that is what was on Soarin’s mind, going all out right now. He was in the best shape of his life and if he was meant to break records today, than by the goddesses he was going to do it.
In one short minute he was over Unicorn Range in between Cloudsdale and Ponyville, and the dreaded barrier had formed once again. What amazed Soarin’ the most was that despite that amount of force he was exerting from his wings, he wasn’t getting tired. It felt that same as if he was on an extended flight.
With more powerful beats of his feathered limbs the cone closed in on him. His eyes were beginning to water badly and instinctively reached up for his goggles, only to find nothing there. Although the irritation in his eyes was annoying, it didn’t cause him to slow down, if anything, he got faster.
The cone was crushing him now. The air pressure was unbelievable, yet the Wonderbolt pushed onward not allowing anything to stop him. Soarin’ didn’t know what would happen next, but he didn’t care. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen now…
*BOOM*
“THIS. IS. AWESOME!!!” Yelled the speeding Wonderbolt.
Soarin’ felt reborn, the speed was like a never ending drug that he only got more of by going faster. It was the same felling that pegasi had when they first flew. And that was exactly Soarin’ at this moment; he had learned to fly again, for the second time in his life.
The shockwave from the boom created a navy blue ring expanding outward with a lightning bolt frozen in time in the epicenter of it all. The bolt extended from the earth below to the heavens beyond the clouds above. Static ran around the ring as it grew in circumference.
Soarin’ kept up his mach speed for almost five minutes, choosing not to speed up nor slow down. As he flew, the light blue pegasus began to recall his grandfather’s words, this time with a little more solemnity. Maybe what his relative said had some merit to it. Today’s events definitely seemed to prove it, that’s for sure.
The stallion finally lowered his speed when he saw the summit of Smokey Mountain. Cloudsdale was a good hour flight away, and that was at a decently fast pace for any normal pegasus. Luckily for Soarin’, he wasn’t a normal pegasus. He was a Wonderbolt, the epitome of what every great aspiring flier should be. And for him it shouldn’t take but 30 minutes, and maybe with his new found speed a little less. The pegasus didn’t want to waste anymore time, he definitely had some questions to ask to his grandfather.
Soarin took a look at the descending sun off to the west. He estimated that it was about half past three, and if he didn’t take his time getting home, he would arrive a little before four.
“Alright Pap, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.”
And with that the Wonderbolt took off again; this time northeast to the floating city of Cloudsdale, creating yet another visual display of lights, lightning, and grace…with an explosion thrown in there too.
--- --- --- --- ---
Soarin’s house was with sight. He entered Cloudsdale air space not two minutes ago and was now flying past Cloudsdalian homes at a more reasonable pace, but still at a hurried speed.
“PAP I GOT TO TALK TO YOU!” Soarin’ yelled as he flew into his still door-less cloud home. He checked the still wrecked living room to start with, being that it is the room that connects the rest of the home to the outside, excluding windows. He found no one.
“Grandpa?” The pegasus said quickly glancing in the kitchen…No pony.
Laundry room? Nope. First story guest bathroom. No cigar.
“He better not be sleeping in my bed upstairs.” Soarin’ proceeded to stomp up to the second floor, making sure that if anything was in the floating house they would feel every vibration caused by each step.
He stepped inside his room not bothering to open the door, probably because there were no doors inside his house. One of these days he would need to invest. Soarin’ saw a crumpled heap of a blanket that was hiding something inside. Floating himself over, he grabbed on to the cloth and tossed it onto the floor yelling as he did so.
“GOT YOU!”
Once again, nothing, excluding the pillow that flew out of the mess of a blanket. Soarin’s brow furrowed at this.
“Grandpa! What the hay are you at?”
Scanning the rest of the second floor didn’t take long, and that search as well proved fruitless. Giving up on the missing elder, he made his way back to the first floor clearly a little more than frustrated.
“I can’t believe it! He’s gone again! That old fart has been gone for six years, shows up at my house, uses my stove, laser beams steroids into me, then leaves without saying goodbye?! What kind of pony, let alone grandparent, does that to somebody?”
Soarin’ continued his fuming escapade all the way to the kitchen. “…And I swear if he’s eaten anymore of my foo-“
*crack*
“OW!” The light blue stallion jolted his right fore hoof upward from the sudden pain, and also from the cracking sound that emitted from where he placed his hoof. He glanced down to shards of what looked to be ceramic tile with a small handle. “What the…”
Soarin’ picked up the pieces, careful not to injure himself further. He placed the contents on the small circular table in the middle of his kitchen. Whatever it was, it looked liked it had once been a cup of some sort based on the broken handle. The shards were a dull brown and didn’t look like anything that would hold any value. If Soarin’ had gone to a potter and ask for a cup like this to be made, it didn’t look like it would be too much trouble.
“This isn’t mine, and I don’t remember Pap bringing anything with him.” He said.
Soarin’ thought back to when he first saw his grandfather yesterday, he didn’t have any luggage nor did he have any clothes on. So, stowing this thing away seemed a bit too difficult. Maybe he could have gone out and bought it, but it’s not like a unicorn can just sprout wings and fly away, even with magic.
And why was it even broken in the first place? And why was it in the middle of the kitchen?
“There’s no way there could have been…” Soarin’ drifted off in thought before bolting outside to search the premises of his house. “PAP, WHERE ARE YOU!?” He looked around frantically to see if any pony might have noticed something. His neighbors might have seen something; he would need to check with them first.
A young couple lived closest to him off to the right of his house about 100 feet away. Soarin’ flew up to the door knocking politely, but with some haste. A young light-purple coated pegasus mare answered the door. “Yes, can I help you?”
“Yes, I’m looking for my grandfather, he’s gone missing and I suspect there might have been a break-in-” The young mare gasped at this. “-I need to know if you or anyone else living in this home have seen or heard anything suspicious from 10am to 4pm from that house over there.” Soarin’ motioned over to his house that was adjacent to the one he was at now.
“Well, no. I can’t say I have. I just returned from the Cloudsdale General Hospital. I’m a nurse there.” She said as she motioned to the dull green scrub she was wearing. “I wouldn’t have been able to, and my husband has been at the cloud factory since nine this morning.”
“Darn it!” Soarin’ yelled clenching his jaw, causing the mare to flinch. “I forgot it’s a weekday! Nobody probably saw anything!”
“W-well actually, there’s an old stallion that lives on the other side of your home, he lives there by himself and is retired. If any pony has seen anything, it would most likely be him.”
Soarin’ perked his head up and to the other side of his home. Sure, he knew it was there, but he never knew the pony that lived there. “Thank you for your help!” The pegasus stallion said hastily before bolting off.
“Wait! Should I contact someone?!” The mare tried calling out, but it was too late. Soarin’ was already gone.
The Wonderbolt arrived at the simple cloud home, this time on the opposite side of his house and knocked on the door with a little more urgency than last time. A grey elderly pegasus stallion with a darker shaded mane answered the door a few seconds later. “Can I help you sonny?”
“Possibly-“
“Possibly? Son, either I can help you or I can’t. So which one is it?” The old pony asked interrupting Soarin’.
“I believe you can. My grandfather’s gone missing and I believe there was a break-in at my house. I need to know if you have seen or heard anything suspicious from that home.” Soarin’ said, once again pointing over at his cloud home.
The old stallion took one step to look out to right of his home. He observed Soarin’s house for a few seconds before taking a step back into his house. “Yes I did.” Soarin’ got excited. “There was some yelling and some bright flashes of light coming from your house last night.” Soarin’ wasn’t excited anymore; he was actually getting a little frustrated.
“No, no, not last night. Today!” The young pegasus yelled.
“I’m going to have to ask you to lower your voice colt. This is my property and I will not be disrespected by some belligerent hooligan on my own doorstep!” The old pony yelled right back in a condescending tone.
Soarin’ couldn’t believe this guy! The sky blue pegasus was looking for his missing grandfather, and this old fart was giving him unnecessary troubles. The old pony could help, but he is just so full of himself that he won’t take the time of day to do so.
The young stallion inhaled deeply and exhaled just as much; he couldn’t let this opportunity slip away, his grandfather was missing and he needed Soarin’s help.
“I apologize sir, I’m just a little stressed because my Pap is missing.”
The old grey pegasus paused for a moment, seemingly a little surprised at the apology. “Well, I see you have at least some manners; maybe you could try asking those questions again with a little more self-control and maturity.” The old pony said in a very fatherly way.
A couple years’ military and professional flight training prevented Soarin’ from smacking the disrespectful coot across the muzzle.
Soarin’ simply nodded, “Yes, and thank you. I was just trying to know if you saw or heard anything suspicious coming from my home from 10am to 4pm today.” He stated in a very soldierly tone.
“Yes I have.” The older pony said without hesitation.
Soarin’ was taken aback momentary before barraging the grey stallion with more questions. “What did you see? Did you hear anything? Was my Pap in pain?”
“Slow it down sparky and I’ll show you.” The grey pegasus said as he took a step back into his house while motioning Soarin’ to follow. The Wonderbolt quickly obliged .
One quick left turn later inside the dusty old home and they were both in what appeared to a living room slash study. Under the only window at the far end of the room was a couch that could fit about three fully grown stallions. The pair of Pegasi made there way to the window, passing by a desk on their right which was adorned with a few empty picture frames and one or two books.
“And this is what I can see.” The old pony said as pointed with his right fore hoof to Soarin’s house. From the window Soarin’s house could be seen about a hundred feet away with other homes further away in the background. No discernable features could be made out from the Wonderbolt’s home at this distance aside from the only window on the first floor.
Soarin’ stepped forward to get a better look out of the window. He noticed that from this angle the window he was looking at was the one from his kitchen, where he had found the pieces of ceramic cup.
“So, what happened?” Soarin’ said turning back to the grey stallion.
“Well, some time before noon I was at my desk catching up on some of my reading when I heard some yelling coming from your home. Your yelling from last night was pretty annoying, but the argument seemed a little more volatile this time around. Even though it seemed a little more serious I was able to ignore it.”
“What were they arguing about?” Soarin interjected.
“I don’t know colt! Do you see how far away we are from that house? I’m surprised I was even able to hear anything at my age.” The elderly pony said, aging ignorance surfacing once again.
“Right, sorry.” The young pegasus reluctantly said.
“Anyway, as I was saying, even though I was able to ignore the arguing I was not able to ignore the loud thump that I heard.”
This re-perked Soarin’s interest immediately.
“I went to the window to see if I could find out anything. Unfortunately, I couldn’t, and yelling soon died out too. I went back to my desk to read in peace finally when I noticed some strange lights reflecting off my wall just above my desk. When I turned back around an odd dark blue light was coming from that window, but it was dying out quickly. I was about to go back to reading again, when I saw this black object about the size of a pony fall out from underneath your house.”
“A PONY?” Soarin’ was panicking now. “Did you get a good look at him? Did he have a grey mane!?” With each question he took a step closer to the old pegasus.
The grey stallion quickly shoved Soarin’ back to a more comfortable range. “Will you just stay calm for two seconds? No it wasn’t a pony; I said it was about the size of one. And no, it didn’t have a grey mane, it was all black…or at least from what I could see from here.”
“So...you’re saying you’re not sure?” The Wonderbolt said quickly.
“Listen, I’m just saying to you what I saw. That by no means says that I have eagle eyes, but I’m fairly certain of what I saw.”
Soarin’ turned away, glaring at the floor slowly getting more frustrated by the moment.
“After that, nothing else happened. Your house was quiet, and I’ve been having a peaceful day until now.”
That sealed it for Soarin’. “Alright thanks for your help.” He said quickly before leaping out the window.
Soarin’ could vaguely make out the sarcastic ‘you’re welcome’ response as he flew to the ground a mile below his house. Luckily he didn’t live near the Rainbow Run-off where excess rainbow material would form Winsome Falls, so lakes of rainbow juice would not inhibit his search.
Immediately when he reached the not-so-dense forest that was below his home Soarin’ began to scan the area for anything out of the ordinary. Gliding just above the woods for several minutes yielded no results, and it began to frustrate the Wonderbolt greatly.
“I don’t get it!” The pegasus yelled. “I should be right below my house, why is nothing here?” Soarin’ looked up to the skies above searching for his house as a slight breeze blew through his disheveled mane.
“Wait a minute.” He muttered to himself as a realization hit him. “The wind! What was I thinking? Anything falling from the height definitely wouldn’t fall straight down. The wind would push it at least a hundred yards or so from that distance.”
Soarin’ flew up more feet to get a better feel of the pressure in the air to determine what direction the wind was blowing. He closed his eyes instinctively letting his oneness with the sky expand. (You know, with him being a pegasus and all).
“Southeast, the wind is heading southeast.” He mumbled to himself.
A few more minutes of flying led him to a less dense area of the woods where trees were sparse. It didn’t take him long to find something. The sun’s descending light reflected off of something on the ground. Soarin’ quickly investigated only to find that it was his door.
The rim of said door beginning to show signs of evaporation; it was a cloud door after all. Soarin’ took a quick look around to see if anything else was out of place in the innocent forest.
“GRANDPA!” The pale blue pegasus called out. A few leaves brushing up against each other were his only answer. “Pap, can you hear me?” He called out again yielding the same result.
Soarin’s anger was building and the headache now forming was not helping him stay calm, nor was the rumble of thunder near by. The pegasus took to the skies again just above the woods and continued to head southeast, all the while screaming for his grandfather.
The setting sun was now being blocked by inclement storm clouds that seemed to appear out of no where, but Soarin’ was not paying attention as he kept his gaze on the ground below, looking for anything that might aid his search.
The forest soon became an organized mess of apple trees, and Soarin’s migraine was picking up steam, as well as the wind. This in turn made it more difficult to fly. Not wanting to strain himself further, and also to stay out of the rain that was being to form, the stallion found a lush apple tree to cover himself and rest.
“How can I be this tired?” Soarin’ panted as he laid his right fore hoof on the tree. His vision began to blur as the world around him continued to darken from the grey clouds and setting sun. The light blue pegasus looked up to the torrential sky above and let out one last call simultaneously with a lightning bolt that struck a nearby tree.
“GRAANDPAAA!”
His cry echoed along with loud rumbles of thunder. With the rain pouring down and lightning streaking across the sky, Soarin’ passed out.