A shrill whistle battered Star Hunter’s consciousness awake. His left foreleg tingled in protest at having been a pillow all night but with only a slight stumble he brought himself about on the cirrocumulus. With each sleep clearing blink he watched as an approaching, blonde buzz cut wearing cloud coalesced into Snowflake’s scowling visage.
“Morning, sunshine! Did you fly all the way up here to bring me breakfast? So far I’m seeing a distinct lack of anything even resembling a doughnut.”
“I shoulda known to look up here first when ya weren't home. I thought ya were done already with your sulking n’all.”
“Naaahnsense,” Star yawned. “Nothing like a good sulk to enliven the spirits. Any chance Flits took the new wings out for some libations?”
“I wasn’t so sure she’d go for it after the way she seemed afraid to even look at her yesterday – but on my way to your place earlier I flew over Lucky out doing his rounds. An’ from the way he was stomping about I’d guess Wild was out all night again. Ya still planning t’give the new gal her first lesson today?”
Star smacked his hooves together with a dull clack. “I wouldn’t want the newbie to miss out on an enlightening experience, now would I?”
Cloudchaser’s head slapped against the cushion as her headrest was yanked out from under her.
“Ugh, you really shouldn't drool on company property, you know.”
With a shriek she rocketed off the couch to hover near the ceiling. Her dark blue intruder just sat beside her couch with a silly grin. “Star Hunter? What in Tartarus are you doing in my room!”
“Page eighty five, eh? I don’t think Wild’s even read this far yet. Though, to be fair, she may have been with the company before this thing was even penned.” Calmly ignoring the fuming pegasus he walked over to the door leading to the balcony before throwing open the curtains to the bright morning light. “Locking your doors at night is a good habit, you know.”
Pivoting to gape at the balcony door Cloudy noticed the turned deadbolt right before the cheerful light of a beautiful morning clawed itself into her brain. With a hissing cry she snapped her wings shut and fell in a lumpy heap to the floor. A muffled “Hey!” sounded out from the floor below.
“I did lock up last night!”
“I know, I was just commending you about exactly that. Rose let me in through the hallway.”
“Urgh – I think I might be sick.”
“Splendid! There’s no better way to be for the lesson I have in mind today. Now, feel free to go and wash up before we get started; you smell rather like a raisin past its prime.”
Cloudy’s complexion turned slightly eggplant, “Do you mind?”
“Not at all! I’ll just entertain myself by sitting here and –“ Star took a moment to pan his gaze around the tiny, spartan living space “ – look at your, um, clock. Or maybe imagine what sort of books you might someday put in that shelf. Unless, of course, empty shelves are part of your design motif. Who am I to judge?”
“Ugh, fine!” she grumped, rubbing her hooves on her temples. “Whatever, just think up a good reason I shouldn’t buck a permanent dent into your hindquarters while I get cleaned up.”
Star snapped a sharp salute, “Understood!”
Star watched with clinical detachment as yet another rosy stream of bile plummeted to the ground far below. “Hopefully your dinner isn’t spoiling anypony’s picnic down there. So red’s your poison, eh? I prefer a sweet white myself – not that you’ve asked. But, seeing as your muzzle seems otherwise busy at the moment, I’ll understand your current reticence.”
Cloudchaser coughed and spat. “I’m really not sure I can do this right n—urk!”
“And that’s four! At this rate you’ll beat Flitter’s record!”
“I thought this – lesson,” she hissed, “was to get used to flying with these things on?” She shook the weights fastened to her hooves.
“Well, that’s more like lesson two. Or maybe two point five. One or the other. The first, and, as you’re demonstrating colorfully, most important lesson is how the rapid ascent descent pressure change does not play well with an inebriated pegasus’s anatomy.”
“I did actually read the safety section. You know, like you suggested?”
“And thank you for listening so well! Still, I’ve seen too many ponies that ignore that nice, bold, very visible part of the manual and think that they’ve got some sort of magic gastric system and that they’d be spared such indignities. I’ve found the best and most sure way to dissuade such thinking is to experience it firsthoof.”
“Great, fantastic, you’ve proven your point. Are we done then? Can I go home and let my stomach crawl off to die somewhere?”
“Not quite yet,” Star stated, gesturing at the watch on his foreleg. “It’s still early enough in the day that we should be able to get some more laps in. With your first ascent now only two days away we need to try and wedge as much practice in today as we can. Your original flight scores show high overall speed and endurance but you’ll still need to continue to improve while taking the weight of your gear into account. Your scrapers will be about two kilos each and the last thing I want is for you to go flipping mane over tail when you underestimate the strain your forelegs are going to feel. That, and if you wallop Wild she’s likely to retaliate, accident or no. So, again, hooves up and go to the second Pause and return.”
Star hunter blew a couple quick blasts on his whistle and spun about, ignoring the groan of protest behind him as he drifted down to sit on the cloud he had brought up earlier. Cloudchaser’s speed had been steadily declining through the first two laps and he expected this time that he’d be waiting about an hour and a half for her to return from the stratopause. He really disliked having to push her so hard so early but the team had been way behind on their haul since their – loss last fall. He frowned as he shook the memories out of his mind. The team had already been docked their bonus and he’d be damned if he was going to let their deficit spill over into eating away at their salaries.
Snowflake had already blown through his bits during the holiday season and had resorted to what he jokingly referred to as field rations: namely harvesting the young wild onions and grains that had started to sprout near the edge of the Everfree since Wrap-Up earlier in the month. Flitter always seemed to have plans a few steps ahead and Wild had Lucky to fall back on so it could be worse, Star thought. He was secretly proud of his own forethought; having bought heavily from the late October apple harvest and drying the fruit. Unfortunately all this had amounted to was that his remaining savings were free to pay up the quarterly lease on his house – something he had been counting on using his bonus for.
Sighing, he looked up to squint towards the receding lilac dot above. He figured he’d have her do one more lap after this one and then he let her call it a day. Her gear should be couriered in this afternoon or in the morning and then everything would be set to get the team back in the sky. A few small starfalls or a couple decent ones and they’d be gliding easier. Besides, he was getting tired of dried apples.
Star flopped over on his side causing little tufts of cloud to detach from his roost and hover in his vision. Absentmindedly he huffed a breath at one and sent it spiraling away, watching as it unraveled into decaying wisps of vapor. The worst part of this sort of training, for him, at least, he thought with a smirk, was the waiting. Between the cold air of the lower strat tousling his mane and the warm early afternoon sunlight warming his coat he could feel his eyelids slowly creeping closed.
Napping, he decided, was functionally much the same as patience, after all.
Rising to stretch his forelegs and wings, Star Hunter turned to look at the retching mare, wobbly flying a few meters away, which had roused him from his slumber. “Nnnh, two hours, huh?” he noted, blinking at his watch. “You must be more torn up than I had –“ his words halted as an ironclad hoof caught him viciously in the shoulder; the sudden impact sprawling him on his side.
A rictus glare occluded the declining sun as Cloudchaser loomed above him, panting between rancid coughs.
“—you,” she croaked. “How,” she started again, “dare you—” Cloudchaser suddenly curled inward, forelegs wrapping tightly around her midsection as she choked on her rasping voice.
Star Hunter took the moment to scuttle backwards and right himself again. He turned his head to pull his canteen from his bags as Cloudchaser began to cough hoarsely. Bringing it forward to offer to her he felt the stun at her fury fade as he noticed the tears tracing a path down below her tooth-grit glare. To his relief she gently grasped the canteen with her fetlock and, biting down to pull open the stopper, began to drink.
“Look—“ he began, only to be immediately cut off by a weighted hoof waving in his face.
“No, you look,” she said, using her free hoof to close the canteen. “I can put up with a lot of nonsense, and, from what I’ve seen so far you’ve got plenty of that to offer. I know this job is hard, grueling work and I can accept that this farce you call training is actually of some sort of merit, but” – she thrust the bottle back – “you showing that my effort isn’t even worth your time? That torturing somepony as an object lesson bores you? That,” she bit out, “is unacceptable.” She scrubbed a foreleg across her eyes and shakily whispered, “Just – are we done, then? C-can I at least stay on until you get a replacement? I really need the bits and –“
“Woah, woah – what are you talking about? Replacement?”
Cloudy gestured weakly towards the widening black stain on Star’s shoulder; the center of the bruise oozing a bit where the metal cuff had split his skin. “I—“
“Gave me exactly what I deserved. Look,” he stared straight into her questioning eyes, “there’s no reason at all to get corporate involved. We were horsing around and you forgot about the weights. That’s. All. It. Was,” he stated, punctuating each word by tapping against the wound. “I know it’s no excuse for my behavior but I was up way too late last night and I’m being more of an idiot than normal. I really didn't mean to tweak your nerves this much. I’m sorry.”
Cloudchaser searched Star’s gaze, seeing no hint of his normal jocularity. Sniffling, she nodded in response. “I’m sorry, too, I guess. I try to not let things get to me this much anymore.”
Star smiled and clapped his hooves. “It’s all well and good. I see you've got a little fire in you and I need to respect that –“ he grinned sheepishly as he rubbed at his bruise “– or else I may get burned again. Now, come on then, let’s call it a day, shall we? How about I fix you a little treat as reward for your hard work today? How do you feel about dried apples?”
The mare’s rage fueled flush had begun to fade but at his words her complexion muddied with a hint of a greenish hue. Turning about on her back legs she leaned over the cloud edge and noisily vomited up the water she had swallowed.
“I knew you had one more in you, Cici! Though, to be honest, I’m starting to feel the same way about dried apples.”
Cloudy spat a last bit of wine tinted fluid into the sky below before turning an ember tinted glare over her shoulder. “That’s another thing: don’t call me Cici.”