//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Courage and Thought // Story: Courageous // by SleeplessScribe //------------------------------// Courageous Story 1 Chapter 5: Courage and Thought By: SleeplessScribe Geeze, Twilight had a lot of books! I mean, she did live in a library, but still. I perused all her titles, starting in the “W” section, pulling out anything I thought might help. The unicorn herself watched me curiously, examining the books I was talking out. “Nova, what exactly are you looking for in here? “Anything on weather anomalies. I figure there’s gotta be something about those clouds in here somewhere.” I heard her clap, a smile on her face. The unicorn walked over to me, skimming over all the books I had picked out. “Wow, that’s quite a lot. Are you sure you can read all of them?” I turned to her, giving her a sly grin. “I was hoping you wouldn’t mind helping me.” She responded to my grin with a giggle, taking half the books from the stack. “Not at all, Nova. Shoot, I’ll have these books read in no time, I’m quite the speed reader.” Picking up one of the books while she wasn’t looking, I flipped to the very end and looked at it. “Nope, nothing helpful in this one.” “Wait, you, how did you do that?” I couldn’t help but laugh at her confused face. Being inside the library was kind of unnerving, considering one wrong move with my wings could throw down all the books off a shelf, so I decided it was best to stay on the ground for now. “By flipping to the last page!” Twilight playfully hit me in the shoulder, flipping through one of the books. “Alright, let’s quit goofing around. You know, Nova, this idea was actually pretty good thinking. I mean, even if we don’t find out something about those odd clouds, specifically, there may still be information in here that might help.” After a nod, I returned to the front of the book I currently had. “Twilight, when I first pulled that stupid stunt with the timber wolves, you told me there was a difference between courage and recklessness. I have to ask, is it actually possible to be brave without being heedless?” She thought for a moment, turning to me when she was ready to speak. “Of course, it is. I’ll also tell you about something else: fear. Fear an emotion caused by the belief that something or someone is dangerous or harmful. If someone were to ask me, I’d tell them that the difference between being courageous and being rash is how you handle that feeling. When you’re reckless, you act without thinking or caring about the danger or harm. Courage and caution go together; you acknowledge the danger, but you don’t let it stop you, so you act with regard to that danger. Does that make sense?” Some of what she was saying went over my head, but I think I got the point. “Basically the fact that I’ve been doing stuff with no regard for my own safety is what makes me reckless.” “Exactly.” I let out a sigh before actually starting to read. “I’ll try and remember that from now on.” “Please do. I don’t know you well enough yet for you to end up in the hospital or something.” Twilight was surprising me with her multitasking. When I looked over to her, she was already six pages in. Unfortunately, I’m a male, and according to ninety percent of females in Equestria, we can’t multitask, so I found myself unable to focus on reading as I talked with the unicorn. “Oh? And what’s what supposed to mean?” I would say that anyone looking at me would say my grin was either really stupid or really smug. I actually don’t think she realized what she said as her cheeks turned pink. “What, what did I say? I didn’t say anything. Just telling you to remember to start thinking about your own safety, even when you’re doing something brave or dangerous.” My grin remained as I teasingly poked my head between hers and the book from above. “There was also that part about ‘not knowing me well enough yet for me to end up in the hospital or something’?” Twilight was becoming my sister in terms how much fun she was to tease, and the face she made in reaction to me repeatedly raising my brows just made her more adorkable. Yes, that’s a word. I said so. “I was just saying that we’re friends, but I don’t know that much about you, still. All I really know is that you’re an athlete with more intelligence than his sister.” Rolling my eyes, I gave her another grin with lowered eyelids. “You know what can fix that, right? A couple dates.” The unicorn backed away, her face bright red at my words, leaving me to fall on the floor, laughing. “Excuse me?” “I’m just playing with you, Twilight! You’re way fun to mess with, no offense.” After a sigh, she returned to her book with a smile. “None taken. Just… take it easy, I thought you were serious for a minute.” Now I was starting to think she wanted me to make these jokes. I came up close to her face sporting the same expression I had earlier, and said “How do you know I wasn’t?” However, her new expression wiped the look off of my face, bringing a nervous grin out of me. “Right, sorry. You know, Twilight, I will say this seriously: you’re a lot cooler than I expected you to be.” She continued flipping the pages as she giggled. “I’m not sure if I should be offended or flattered. Anyway, we’re not getting anywhere distracting each other like this.” I returned to the book I had barely even starting, giving her a “pfft”. “Twilight, you’ve been doing most of the talking while reading, don’t talk to me about distractions!” After another laugh from her, I began my own reading. Had it been anyone other than Twilight, I would’ve been slightly ashamed at the fact that I had only finished two books in an hour as opposed to her five, and honestly, the only thing I was really learning about was weather itself, no strange occurrences or anomalies yet. No Pegasus should have to admit this, but I honestly didn’t know a whole lot about clouds, rain, and the like; all I knew was how to move clouds. After a while, Twilight was starting to take books from my stack, and eventually when I reached for another one, they were gone. I fell on the floor, looking up at the studious mare. “Gah, how long have we been at this?” Twilight closed the last of the books I had pulled out and looked down at me. “Three and a half hours.” “Really? It doesn’t feel like that long. Did you find anything?” Unfortunately, the mare shook her head. “Nothing specifically about these black clouds we’ve been seeing. Most of the material I read through was about how certain weather is created and how it works.” She looked through the window, and despite being on the floor, I could see through it as well. I guess the sight of my sister made her think of it when she asked me, “Say, Nova, I know racing season must be over now, but if you haven’t been able to visit your sister in such a long time, what’s changed to give you time to do it now?” It was really a stupid reason, and I had looked into getting that rule changed, but in the end my efforts were shot down by the owners of the EAAR. “All professional league racers are required to spend a minimum of four years in their special training camp. I found it totally dumb that they made us do that, but their claim was that ‘not only does it give our racers a specialized training regimen to follow, but it also promotes sportsmanlike conduct by supporting interaction between racers.’ Sometimes I wonder if the heads of the association are even thinking about the stuff they do.” I really didn’t want the subject to stay on my absence, so I thought of something more relevant to the current situation. “Twilight, about the clouds. Obviously, these things aren’t normal, but if they’re still actual clouds, than they’re basically a whole bunch of condensed water droplets, right?” “Well, yes, that’s assuming they are indeed just very strange clouds.” “Alright, so if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be possible to either cause those droplets to evaporate again, or, if need be, saturate them so much that it causes them to precipitate?” She raised her hoof to her chin, tapping it as she spoke. “Well, in order to do either of those, you’d need an incredible amount of heat. Clouds form when water evaporates into vapor and rises. As it gets higher, that vapor condenses again into a cloud. Eventually more droplets will be added into the cloud until the cloud can’t hold any more, and that’s what happens to make it rain. At least, when nature runs its course. It’s obviously quite different when pegasi control the weather.” As she talked, I found it so odd how two ponies can give birth to a pony that found stuff like this so interesting, and then another one after him that only found interest in naps and trying to be faster than her brother. “So based on the assumption that these clouds are actually clouds, it might be possible to get rid of them by either heating up the air around them enough to cause the condensed water to become vapor again, or evaporate enough water to have them saturate the clouds, correct? Do you know any kind of spells that could generate that much heat?” The hoof remained on her chin, her brow now furrowed. “I could try one, but environmental changing spells are rather difficult, so I wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long.” “I think I may have another idea.” ------- Taking apart those clouds took a lot longer than I thought it would. However, after almost four hours, we were finally done. We made our way to Twilight’s to let my brother know we were done, but as we did, everything suddenly got dark. “What the hay? Hey, it’s supposed to be sunny for the rest of the day, what’s going on?” Fluttershy nudged my shoulder, pointing at the sky. “Um, Rainbow Dash, Nova’s moving clouds.” As I looked to where she was pointing, I saw my brother packing in clouds in front of the sun, eventually spreading them out once the entire thing was covered. Flying up to him, I would have managed to knock him on the head had he not ducked. “Nova, what are you doing? Today was supposed to be completely sunny!” He seemed not to care about my obvious displeasure. “Sorry, sis, but I need to do this, and you need to help. Twilight and I have an idea for getting rid of these problem clouds, but in order to pull it off, we need to shield everypony until we spread the word for them all to stay indoors.” I shook my head quickly, raising my brow at him. “What are you talking about? What exactly are you planning?” Without a word, he grabbed me and pulled my back down to the ground with him. “That doesn’t matter right now, let’s just go around and spread the word, alright? The sooner everypony is inside, the sooner we can get rid of these problems.” That’s exactly what we did. Basically, Fluttershy and I helped Nova inform all the citizens in Ponyville to stay indoors without any idea why we were even doing it. I don’t say this often, but my brother can be a real pain sometimes. “So, why exactly are we doing this?” He opened his mouth, but before he could get anything out, Twilight ran up to us, already getting a sentence out before she even stopped moving. “I just got a letter back. Everything’s ready to go, but it can’t stay this way for very long. Is everyone under a roof?” My brother gave a kind of goofy salute. “Yes ma’am!” All I heard from the unicorn was “We” before a loud roar echoed through the entire town. Immediately, Nova took off towards it, leaving us with no choice but to follow if we didn’t want him doing something crazy. Once again, we all found ourselves at the edge of the Everfree Forest, where a mass of those black clouds had now come together, forming some kind of monster. Its wings were spread out, wider than any Pegasus wingspan I’ve ever seen. Its four legs sported freakish claws on each foot, and at the head was a huge beak and two beady red eyes. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t friendly, and it wasn’t happy. Fluttershy was already cowering, curled up behind my brother. “What in Equestria is that thing?” Both Nova and I looked up at the sky, but I guess he noticed it before me. “Well, whatever it is, it’s made of those clouds that have been giving us trouble. Which means, if we can get rid of this thing, that might just solve the whole problem.” Nova made a move towards it, but he found himself trapped in a magic grasp and being pulled backwards. Twilight said, “Wait, all of you! Look, something is inside of that thing!” After squinting my eyes, I saw it too. I couldn’t make it out very well, but the silhouette basically resembled a smaller version of the shape the smog had now taken. “Do you think it’s trapped in there, or do you think it is this thing?” The unicorn shook her head, biting her lower lip a little. “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen anything like this before, so I couldn’t tell you. Nova, what do you- Nova?” He wasn’t there. Of course, while Twilight was distracted, he had decided to start messing with the monster. It was swiping at him as he flew circles around it, managing to stay out of reach. “Rainbow, Fluttershy, get up to the clouds blocking the sun and get ready for my signal! Twilight, is it going to move on its own, or is she watching?” She looked up at the clouds Fluttershy and I were now holding for a moment, turning back to Nova. “She said she’d be watching for when those very clouds move!” “Alright, good. Now you get under something, Twi!” My brother flew up a bit higher, looking down. When he saw that this thing was following him, he sped up, heading right for us. He kept having to swerve to the side to avoid getting struck with those claws, but once Twilight was under a bench and he was right in front of the “sun shield”, he shouted out “Now!” and quickly dove under the beast. Fluttershy and I pulled apart the clouds as fast as we could, and the sun was huge. It was closer than I had ever seen it before, and it was beaming right down on the cloud monster. Well, it would have been if there were still any of those black clouds left. However, my eyes widened and I rushed towards what was left of it as the sun returned to its normal position in the sky, catching her before she hit the ground. Her body was covered in cuts and bruises, and there were spots on her body where her fur was missing that had clearly been burned prior to the sun exposure. Despite this, I could still easily recognize her, and I think Nova could to as all three of them walked over to me. He kneeled down, moving the feathers out her face. “Sis… isn’t this your old friend Gilda?”