It was bad. Not nearly as bad as yesterday, but nothing in the whole wide world could ever be as bad as yesterday for him. A part of his soul had died and ended up fusing with his desk, thus giving it a vivid green color.
Kidding. Manipulating your own soul was a surefire way to get everypony mad at you, so Calx wisely chose to never cross that line.
Just like every other foal in the classroom, his rump was firmly set against his very own miniature bench. Unlike the others though, his eyes did not lift up to the chalkboard with every screech it produced. Calx’s attention was on the small essay Twilight had tasked him to read and analyze.
So far, the scroll he had planned to use remained desperately blank. The words were still fresh in his mind, but he was still unsure about the format. With his right hoof tightly holding his quills, he was letting himself be invaded by the ideas.
Absentmindedly, looking down to the corner of the sheet, Calx made a diagonal stroke without really looking, going from the top of the page to the middle of the right side. An idea growing in his head, the colt dipped his quill in his inkwell, waiting a few seconds to get rid of the excess, then traced another line, in the opposite direction. Not to be discouraged, he made another. And another. Slowly but surely, the traits of ink became linked to one another, becoming familiar shapes.
His body now leaning over his desk almost completely, face crunched up in concentration, Calx started to think of the adventures they could have, him and his big brother, if they weren’t stuck doing normal boring things like this. Maybe they could fly over a mountain! Or explore a hidden dungeon somewhere in the Everfree! Or even build a submarine and see if there really were seapo-!
“Feather Dust?” The voice of his teacher made him jump and scramble back to a normal sitting position.
“Yes, Miss Cheerilee?” He asked, subtly pushing another blank sheet over his drawing.
For a split second, her gaze went to the scroll he had been working on, and a slight frown graced her features, until, at least, it softened into a more neutral expression. “I would like you to help your classmates when they are stuck on a problem. I trust you have no issue with this?”
His eyes quickly darting over to his classmates, the colt shrugged, his lips forming a nonchalant moue. “Fine with me.”
In his mind, this wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Maybe it would be less monotonous than trying to write that summary. IF Miss Cheerilee thought he was needed.
It didn’t take long, however, for his classmates to start having troubles. Perhaps subconsciously, their teacher had upped the difficulties of the questions, causing more than a few to raise their hooves in a bid for some help.
Quickly, Miss Cheerilee’s eyes widened, taken aback by the number of foals needing her assistance. Putting a hoof over her chest, she cleared her throat, even as her cheeks felt like they were on fire.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” The colt rose to his hooves, moving away from his desk and trotting to Twist, who seemed very confused about the first question.
His teacher frowned at his disrespectful tone, but found that she could not very well fault him when he was both following her instructions and genuinely helping his classmates. Besides, the main reason she had asked him to do this was to help the poor colt socialize. It wouldn’t be doing him much good to never participate in her lessons or even give the impression of being that much better than the rest of his classmate. At least this way, her students would be more likely to accept him in their cliques.
After just a few more seconds of observation, Miss Cheerilee turned around, satisfied, and went to the first foal she saw with a hoof raised in the air.
“Yes, Diamond Tiara?” She asked gently, looking over to the sheet of paper still blank. “What can I help you with?”
The pink filly shook at once, her head snapping toward her teacher. For some reason, Diamond Tiara had been looking at the back of the class, nowhere near Silver Spoon, her usual partner in crime. It hadn’t even been in the Cutie Mark Crusaders direction either. Strange.
“O-oh, huh…” Eyes wide, a deep blush adorning her cheeks and her hold on her quill unsteady, she quickly glanced at the first exercise on the board and bit her lips. “The… first one…”
And, as soon as she had said it, her ears drooped, giving the little girl a severely disappointed look.
Alarm bells started ringing in the teacher’s ears. She made a mental note to keep an eye on her and, maybe, speak with her father.
Letting nothing of her thoughts show on her face, Miss Cheerilee smiled and started explaining the solution to her student.
--
Celly’s light was falling over my coat, giving it a lighter shade, closer to its true color. In more ways than one, the rays of the sun were brushing off against my body, on two radically different scales. It felt akin to… to a subtle reminder to behave, and even the paranoid parts of me thought that the unease settling down in my guts was ridiculous.
I could not help but glance overhead, toward the sky and beyond. A certain number of clouds had drifted lazily over town, shadowing some houses and streets, leading to a few unhappy ponies to glance at Thunderlane and I with a distinct unhappiness to their frowns. From my partner, a few grumbled words reached my ears, but they were nothing new, nothing that could take my mind off the opened space over us.
Parts of me were reaching for the sky, encouraged by sweet whispers in my ears. Only the knowledge that I would soon be able to elevate myself toward the sky could clench that new found thirst. Something up there was… calling for me.
Yet, at the back of my mind remained the souvenir of my body against the hard wooden planks of Blueblood’s airship. Why would I want this so badly when I had been made to pay the unsavory price before? Why now?
I didn’t know the answer.
My ear twitched at the sound of brushing feathers. Before Thunderlane had spoken, my head had already snapped in his direction, in time to see him extending a wing toward the town hall. “Here, this is the town hall.”
“H-hum…” Is he being sarcastic? “I already knew that…”
He gave an annoyed snort, his expression falling flat. “Amazing. Now listen up to the rest of it. Every day, one of us must meet with the mayor’s assistant for a last minute confirmation of the weather or assess any reported emergencies. This means slow negotiations on a bad day and useless trip on a good one.”
Behind my mask of shyness, I was fighting a grimace of annoyance. Glancing to the building, toward the fancy, almost olden layout, that sensation only grew. For a second, it made me worry my true feeling would slip.
“You got it?” He asked, prompting me to nod quickly and avoid giving anything away. “Good, in that case, you’ll be the one talking today.”
My jaw dropped. Ah, and to think most of Canterlot combined couldn’t do that to me.
“W-what?”
“You heard me,” the black stallion said, turning around and taking out a weather report. Without waiting any longer, he then started walking toward the town hall, unaware of the death glare I was holding back.
If looks could kill…
--
“I think I got it!” His classmate finally exclaimed, letting him breathe a sigh of pure relief.
“About time!” He grumbled, staring at Snail’s triumphant expression.
It had taken ten minutes, which, since the colt just wouldn’t get it, had seemed like a real torture for the poor little alicorn-in-disguise. For starters, he wasn’t all that patient, and this stuff wasn’t all that hard, so his classmate’s dumbfounded expressions had gotten old quickly enough.
Feather Dust was just happy that he could get away from that desk before he’d just rage quit. With a relieved sigh, he started walking back to his desk, going from the front of the class to the back row. His thoughts already drifting away to more pleasant topics than this tedious task, the little colt almost bumped into a desk, jumping away just in time.
“Oh, sorry, Rumble,” he whispered and took a step to his left, only to stop at the look on his classmate’s face.
Purples eyes focused intently on his work, mouth twisted in a grimace, nose crunched up, he had the profile of a foal needing some help.
“What’s up?” He asked the other colt, putting both his front legs on his desk and leaning over to look at his work. It looked good to him…
“I don’t need your help, Feather,” Rumble said dryly, accidentally snapping the end part of his quill in half. Because of that, ink splashed all over his copy, with a particular blob obscuring an answer completely. “Horseapples!”
Grunting, the gray colt let his head fall face first against his desk, creating a loud noise that alerted the whole classroom.
“Rumble? Feather? Is everything okay over there?”, came their teacher’s voice.
“Yeah!” Calx answered quickly, not nervous in the slightest. “T’was just an accident, Miss Cheerilee.”
For a second, the mare kept her gaze on the two colts, but soon deciding it was not a big concern, she went back to helping her student.
Knowing he had possibly dodged a bullet, Calx turned again, taking care not to talk too loudly.
“No, seriously, what’s up with that?” He pointed an accusing hoof at the desk Rumble had just assaulted. “It won’t even be long to do it again. Hay, I’ll tell you the answers if you want.”
At first, neither colts spoke, Thunderlane’s brother going through a wide plethora of emotions, as shown by the quick successions of grimaces and glares that appeared on his face. Unfazed, Feather Dust waited, albeit with a slowly dulling interest, his chin resting lazily against the top of Rumble’s desk.
For a whole minute, he held his ground against Feather Dust’s inquisitive stare. “It’s not that… I don’t care about this stupid exercise.”
“Huh? What was that all about then?”
“I… had a fight with Thunderlane yesterday.” The grey colt lowered his head, eyes downcast.
Calx winced in sympathy.
“Aw crap, sorry about that.” He reached forward, tipping over the edge, barely reaching him to give him a couple of pats on the shoulder. “How did it happen?”
With a grunt, Rumble sneered, putting his quill down before he snapped it in half.
“Well, when I got back from school, he hadn’t come back from work yet,” he said, shooting a cautious glance in their teacher’s direction, then to his peers. None paid them any mind, which was precisely what he was hoping. “So I got in and waited for him to come back for a looooong time. The sun was already setting over the hills and he still wasn’t coming.”
His friend’s ears flattened against his head. “Yikes...”
“Tell me about it! My stomach was growling super loud when he finally got home, but that’s not even the worse of it. He hadn’t even done the groceries, like he said he would!” His scowl deepened and Calx nodded, albeit not with a frown of his own. “We had to eat some hayseed oatmeal, even if it’s really yucky! But he forced me to eat it all, anyway!”
Orange feathers were rustled. “That’s so not cool…”
“A-and then he got mad, because I failed Miss Cheerilee’s test!” For the first time, Rumble’s expression morphed into something saddened. His bottom lips quivered. “I was sure I had studied enough, but he still grounded me. It’s not fair!”
Now his friend was shaking his head in unison. Clearly, there was injustice at play here. Already, his mind was made, he’d give his pal all the support he needed.
But the poor foal wasn’t done yet. Calming himself down just enough to speak, he leaned closer to drop the bombshell. “That’s not even the worst of it. We started arguing, shouted a lot, and he even sent me to bed an hour early!”
“Un-awesome!” Calx hissed, all too familiar with the punishment some grownups like to inflicted on kids like them.
“Yeah, and I’m not going to talk to him until he apologizes.” Rumble crossed his front legs over his chest, his mind miles away from the exercises he was supposed to be doing. Not that his companion cared much either.
Still grimacing, Calx’s expression had nonetheless softened, a light of understanding unusual for his age glinting in his eyes.
“It sucks, no question, but you shouldn’t stop talking forever. That’s way too much for one fight.” He flashed a grin and his shoulders moved up in a nonchalant shrug. “Hay, my big bro’s a pain when he wants too.”
Rumble scoffed, quite convinced that the injustice done on him couldn’t be equaled by another big brother. Thunderlane was the worst! “Right…”
“No joke!” The orange colt assured confidently, with enough conviction to get Rumble’s full attention. “Like, the other day, when we were in the train to come here…”
--
So that’s why? I thought, putting the information at the back of my mind. With a little focus, I redirected my attention back to the situation at hands, though not without keeping an ear open in case something more happened at Calx’s school.
Well… I couldn’t say I had no idea what that was like. Calx and I had had our fair number of fights, sometimes for really stupid reasons too. If… if my memories served me right, then I wasn’t a very sociable person following these either. Besides, experience told me that kids didn’t frame it all in an objective way.
Good, now that I know the ‘why’, I just need to find a way to get him to stop sulking…
But looking at him flying ahead of me and kicking clouds with excessive strength, the confidence I should have felt was nearly absent.
Nearly.
With my hooves solidly planted into the cloud that was carrying me around, I sent magic into my horn, sparks running through my forehead. A second later, that fluffy method of transportation was taking me up to him, pushed by an unnoticeable breeze.
Though with the distance growing between the ground and myself, I soon was reminded of the reason I disliked heights in particular. My heart was dancing near my throat, pumping blood at an unpleasant speed.
For a split second, the nausea jumped higher in my throat, my body fighting a powerful retch. I had to stop before I got sick. Something told me that barfing on the citizen was not part of the weather patrol’s duties.
“What’s with you?” Thunderlane asked, having turned around to see me immobile. “Are you going to just stand there, doing nothing?”
Pushing back the bitter remark on how I had just dispersed seven stray clouds to his four, I forced myself to follow Celly’s script on Cloud Circle, were such a situation occur. “How would you react if I told you I was scared of heights?”
“WHAT?!”
“So that’s how,” I faked lightness in my words, all the while thinking that this plan was not the best Celly had ever lain down. “I was kidding.”
His frown deepened and his stare intensified.
“What?” I shrunk back slightly, my tail curling over my fake cutie mark. “It was just a joke…”
“Good one, here’s another: a pegasus and a unicorn walk in a bar, then they realized they should have been working instead and got fired. The end.”
I tried, I really did try, but for the Elders’ sake, he was giving me urges to beat his face in.
Hopefully, this job offered a good dental plan, because at the frequency I was gritting my teeth together enough for my jaw to hurt I’d run out of teeth in a week.
My tone approaching subzero temperatures, I moved the cloud closer to him, refusing to think about the air entering and exiting his lungs. “Are you always this rude to ponies you barely even know?”
For the first time today, he seemed taken aback, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. “I-I’m not… ”
Far from calming down at his slow realization, I could feel the anger grow stronger in me, eating away the edges of my mask. “This day started with you being unpleasant and just continued spiraling into rude. Look, I’ve had to dance on eggs all morning long and tried to lighten up the mood. Sure, it wasn’t my best, but still… What did I do to you to make you treat me like this?!”
In the moment my words had stopped echoing, it had seemed like the wind had become a deafening force. It was beating mercilessly against our ears, but that alone did not affect us. After hearing my words, Thunderlane's attention seemed so completely on me... It was as if the world had briefly stopped existing beyond the limits of ourselves.
“…Buck,” he swore under his breath, briefly sounding decidedly angry even as his gaze tore itself away from mine. But the next moment, his head turned to me and his expression turned apologetic. “Sorry, dude. I… I didn’t… Darn it!”
I kept silent, catching glimpses of his inner turmoil with every twitch and flinch on his face, ears and tail. Biting on his bottom lips, sending looks toward the ground and somewhere far to my left – the school I realized –, Thunderlane seemed the perfect image of the guilty stallion.
Thus, after only a small moment of hesitation, he let out a deep sigh.
“It’s because of my little brother,” the black stallion said, miserable. “We got into a fight yesterday and it’s been eating at me ever since…”
E-even though I knew beforehand… e-even when I had decided to get him to confess so we could work together… I…. That one hit so close to home…
Inside my chest, something sparked, but nothing I could identify, albeit it was all too familiar. I-it’ll be fine… I found myself thinking toward him.
“Want to talk about it?” I sat down, placing my rump firmly on the fluffiness of my transportation cloud, and tapped the spot next to me with one hoof. “It helps to vent, or at least that’s what my personal experience tells me.”
“We really shouldn’t…” He protested weakly, his eyes going over to the few clouds still floating above the town. “The boss will be pissed if we don’t finish it before ten…”
I probably shouldn’t… but… oh, what the hay? I decided, focusing on the air around the clouds, and with a simple thought, dispersed them.
Ten seconds flat. The urge to chuckle stupidly rose in me.
Fighting to keep my expression neutral for fear that a supremely smug grin would slip, I barely spoke evenly, nodding toward the clouds he had not yet realized were gone. “You’ll find that our tasks might have been cleared out already.”
As he turned around, a burst of satisfaction shot through my veins when his jaw dropped once more. Raising his hoof toward the clear sky with disbelief, he took a few seconds to recover, but once he did, a grin was threatening to split his face in two. “I’m starting to like this magic of yours.”
“It has its advantages,” I replied neutrally, mockingly acting haughty.
“Alright, alright, you win…” Thunderlane flew the distance separating us, expertly landing on his four hooves next to me, before plumping down. Eyes closed, he gave me the impression of his entire body relaxing. That is, until he awkwardly opened his mouth and unsuccessfully tried to push some air out before speaking. “How are you sitting on a cloud?”
How I wanted to give him a deadpan look… You hadn’t care to notice before? “Cloud walking spell.”
His cheeks darkened, taking a pitch black taint. “Ah, huh, yeah, okay…”
Not willing to allow this to devolve into awkward silence, I took the initiative. “So… how did it all happen?”
“I…I was just really tired yesterday. Because of your test, we started the day behind on some stuff. It wasn’t all that bad though, except that near the end of the day, we got an alert for an unexpected thunderstorm over the Everfree Forest.”
His eyes went to the cloud, before going back to me. “So we spent hours to fight it off, make sure it doesn’t get near the town, but by then, it’s way past sunset.”
Internally, I cringed. Had that been my fault? I hadn’t particularly kept a great focus on the skies yesterday, so I couldn’t be sure. Knowing what this had led to, I felt my tail twitched with the jolts of unease this sent through me. Luckily, Thunderlane hadn’t noticed or cared. He just went on, his shoulders starting to lean down, as if a weight was pushing on him.
“I came home late, I didn’t even have the time to go buy some grocery before the shops closed. Can you imagine being me for two seconds? I’m sweaty, my legs feel heavy, my wings are sore, I just want to relax and forget this whole thing ever happened. But Rumble’s been waiting for me for a few hours now, so I whip out the first thing I can do for supper.”
“I’m… guessing that didn’t go too well?” I said slowly, my mouth twisting into a pained grimace.
His nostrils flared, his voice grew bitter. “You think? The little brat starts to whine about the food not being to his liking and he gives me lips for not filling the fridge sooner. Not just a few words, a whole blown up tantrum! At that point, I’m already on the verge of smacking his rump red. But I manage to swallow it down and sternly tells him something like ‘don’t you dare act spoiled now’ and tells him to eat everything because there aren’t any snacks left in the house.”
The scene comes easily in my mind, too easily. I was not observing the scene, I was part of it, as the big brother tired of hearing whining.
My guts contracted painfully on themselves.
Again, Thunderlane did not notice. At this point, he was venting for himself more than my benefit.
“By then, the atmosphere in the house is just shot, we’re both pissy. Except I happen to catch a glimpse at one of his school papers, a test he took not long ago.” He paused, his hooves actually shaking with barely restrained anger. “He failed and normally, I would have just tried to talk to him about it, but for this test, I had to nag him for a few days to study. And the day before the exam? I caught him slacking off. When he said that he was ready, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, but… yeah…”
To my own surprise, my hoof went to his back, giving him a couple of comforting pats. At that, Thunderlane glanced at me, a ghost of a smile on his lips, that I actually returned.
I knew what it was like all too well… Calx’s voice was ringing to my ears, though one purely from my memories. His blue form was at a small school desk, squirming with an excessive energy that he could not exhaust on a good day, and whined.
“So I ground him, which was probably harsh, but again, bad day, bad attitude from him, we start arguing. It didn’t get that ugly, so I’m really grateful about this, but I still ended up sending him to bed early. No way was I going to deal with him any longer.”
“I… yeah, okay, I get where you’re coming from with this.”
“And this morning, we both refused to say a word,” he finished slowly, this time much more clearly hesitant and remorseful.
I felt just a little stunned. Okay, yeah, you had a lot on your plate, buddy.
And, more than that, the cold had left my chest. His… his tale had chased it away.
“Look, I know it sounds bad right now, but believe me, this isn’t going to last.”
“Really?” He replied, but without much conviction to it.
“Yeah, it happened dozens of time between me and my little brother.” I fought the urge to extend a wing over his shoulder, opting for a less cover-blowing hoof. “You’ll be fine.”
That got him more interested. His back straightening, the hint of grin floated on his lips. “Oh, so you have a brother too. What is he like?”
“Kind of a brat, actually.” I snorted, unable to help myself. “I love him, but he’s a hoofful for sure.”
He rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Tell me about it.”
“Well…” My voice trailed off, as I pretended to be hesitant and inexperienced. “Since you asked, I could tell you about some times he really made me want to tear my mane apart…”
Eyes sparkling with renewed life, Thunderlane quickly stretched one wing and folded all but one feather, forming the pony equivalent of a thumbs up.
Grinning, I got started, fishing from my memory something just up to Calx’s level of spectacular. It did not take long to get him laughing with me.
--
They were progressing so slowly... she dared not imagined the thoughts that had to run through Applejack’s or Rainbow Dash’s minds. Green and dark pink irises were focused on the path ahead of them, but she had the firm conviction they flickered to her as soon as she stopped looking.
Already, she could feel a sting behind her eyes. Her cheeks were burning. She was so ashamed! Even when she had told them she would conquer her fear, even after she had insisted to come with them, their progression was still sluggish to an extreme. Try as she might, her body fought her on every turn and just about every instinctual parts of her did the same.
The forest was sending vibes of sheer wrongness in every possible direction. It was unnatural, unscientific, un-… un-…unorderly! And it had never done so in such a powerful way before.
Each step demanded an effort from her. Her legs shook, leaving uneven hoofprints in the muddy ground.
“Yer feeling okay, Twi?”
No, no she was not feeling okay. In fact, if she were to scientifically quantify her state of mind, she would say that she was the very opposite of okay. Her whole body felt funny, and not in a good way.
Her instincts were telling her to take her friends and run as fast as ponily possible. Every bone in her body trembled at the dancing shadows, at the overgrown plants and the unkempt nature. Paradoxically, the complete silence had a reassuring quality for her. She could not have explained it, but the sterile background reminded her of something…
A flash of light… trumpets… a calm motherly voice…
Beyond this, however, her senses were stretching ahead, toward the old castle of her mentor, the place she had first discovered the Elements of Harmony. It was the only thing that allowed her to move forward. In her blood, she could feel the call of an ancient being, perhaps the most appealing call to have ever reached her ears.
All of this served to reaffirm something in her mind.
The Everfree Forest didn’t make any sense!
‘Chaos’, Ventus had all but told her.
“I… No, but I’ll power through it.” She stopped, taking a deep breath and repeating the calming motion Cadence had taught her. “We need to find out what happened to Zecora!”
“’Course we do, Twi. And we will. Yew just look yer gonna pass out.” Applejack frowned, before moving right in front of her alicorn friend. Legs locked, she stood strong, but it did not affect the light of concern shining in her pupils. “Rainbow and Ah could always just do the searchin’ and tell yew everything back in Ponyville. Wouldn’t be needed for yew to push yerself so hard.”
“N-no…” Twilight said, even if dozens of voices in her head were pushing her to accept the offer. “I’m sure. It’s something I told the Princess I would do and I will. I’m strong enough to do this. I’ll find out what happened to Zecora.”
For a moment, the new princess wasn’t sure her friend would accept her reasoning, as the orange mare was staring straight into her eyes with a serious face.
“Okay…” Applejack agreed and stepped aside, but with no little amount of reluctance. “Ah can’t fault yew fer that.”
Smiling, Twilight nodded gratefully at her, a silent promise being exchanged between them.
“Hey!” A rash voice suddenly called them from above.
Taken by surprised, both mares turned in an instant and, their instincts attuned to danger in a place like the out-of-control forest, stood ready for any confrontation. However, the instant they recognized the rainbow mane and the cyan fur, they relaxed, allowing to speedster to land next to them.
“So far, I haven’t seen anything from up there.” Rainbow Dash shook her head, gritting her teeth in frustration. “There’s no way of seeing through that screen of leaves, Twilight…”
“Let’s start by getting to her house. Perhaps there is some sort of hint your siblings couldn’t detect, Applejack. Then, if we didn’t fi-” She abruptly cut herself off as if something had punched the air out of her lungs.
“Twi?” Applejack stepped in, placing a hoof on her back. “What’s wrong?”
“I-it’s…” she started, staring at empty air.
If Rarity had been with them, perhaps she would have understood as well.
Twilight could have sworn that magical signature was one she was familiar with. In fact, she might have studied it in details already. In a small laboratory in Canterlot Castle, with electrodes and graphs. And one handsome stallion on a pedestal.
“Ventus?” She whispered as her cheeks started to burn, glancing at their surroundings.
No sooner had the words escaped her lips that she was hit by a burst of bone-chilling cold. For a split second, the alicorn was convinced that she had been turned into a block of ice, that even her heart had stopped being made of flesh and could only pump cool disdain for the world in general. A lance of freezing magic seemed to have went straight through her.
“Twilight!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash shouted, running to her side.
The sensation passed. In the ambient magic, the disturbance had already disappeared, leaving no even a trail of that corrupting cold. But the shivers would not fade away so quickly.
No, she decided, it definitely hadn’t been him.
--
It… somehow, it had clicked. Once the ice had been broken, it just turned into a contest of sort, see which one of us had the brattiest brother, and the stories wouldn’t stop coming out of our mouths. So far, neither of us were willing to concede in favor of the other. So we went on at it all morning long, even while bucking or magicking the clouds away, or drenching some very specific crops with reasonably heavy rain.
“He did not do that!” Thunderlane screamed foul, half-grinning, half in disbelief.
The farmer on the ground sent a very confused look his way. That poor mare… She probably wasn’t used to dealing with weather ponies as unfocused as we were in that instant. But then again, her farm was a little outside Ponyville proper, not unlike Sweet Apple Acres. Maybe she wasn’t one for noises in general…
Not that I really care much.
“I swear!” I shouted back, reveling in what I knew would be my victory. “He was convinced it would enlighten him.”
“Cloud, you’re pulling my legs!” Black hooves pushed the rain cloud away, shaking his head. “I’m calling horseapples!”
“D-damn it, Thunderlane!” My magic surrounded the next cloud, pushing it over the next spot. “Stop calling me a liar, my fur was stuck like that for days!”
Startled, he missed his kick completely, bucking the empty air and, momentum obliged, falling flat on his belly against the raincloud. Which promptly started showering the plants we were aiming for anyway. And dispersed, causing the black stallion currently lying down to let out a yelp of shock and fall face first into the mud.
At this point, the mare just about had it, deciding that she had better stuff to do somewhere else. We were just about finished anyway. Or… Correction, I thought, glancing at Thunderlane who was standing up and cracking his neck, we will be as soon as he gets out of the veggies.
“That was…” He said, trotting up to the spot next to me, flapping his wings to get rid of the excessive water.
“Yes, it was…” I started, tearing off my gaze away from the soaked plants and giving him a semi-serious look.
It started with a chuckle. Just a small noise, coming from him. We held each other’s gaze for quite a long time actually, about five seconds. Then… then we started laughing for real.
I was rolling on the floor, my hooves wrapped around my stomach as my hilarity got the better of me. I laughed and laughed… the world around us disappeared for an instant. My soul wasn’t weighted down by evil thoughts, my parents didn’t depend on me to save them, my brother and I weren’t stuck in a completely foreign world. It was simply… me… and Thunderlane, laughing our rumps off so hard we were starting to cry.
Elders that felt good!
I heard a long-going sigh of relief from where Thunderlane was. We sniffed, and I ran a hoof alongside the damp trail on my face.
To my surprise though, Thunderlane started chuckling again, though with a sadder tone. “You know, we stand around complaining about our little brothers, but I don’t think I could really stand to live without him.”
Nodding, my ears wide open for Calx’s mishaps that were doubtlessly going on in school, I focused a bit to create another cloud. “I understand the feeling.”
“When our parents passed away, it was just me and him, you know? It’s not easy, but… I know I have to. He’s my brother; I don’t want to let him down. I can’t.”
I gave him a reassuring smile, and it was genuine. “I have a feeling you won’t.”
“Thanks.”
Well, things aren’t going too badly, I thought, hopping on my cloud, its softness feeling almost skittish underneath my hooves. For perhaps just a second too long, I played a bit with the pressure I was applying on each limbs. Clouds had the weirdest texture.
“Where’s the next one?” I turned to Thunderlane.
“The next field over, east of here,” he replied, extending his wing, then taking off.
For a split second, a pained look flashed across my face. Any smile, any lightness, any confident, it was all briefly gone. I didn’t want to fly.
And yet… there was still this whisper in the back of my head…
With no other option, I forced my cloud up, trying to keep my mind on my partner rather than the growing sensation of illness that came with high altitudes.
The familiar nausea was back. Slowly, a strange feeling of weightlessness was snaking around my limbs, running across my skin, giving me the impression I would fall apart. The pulse of my blood in my temples had my mind going wild, as if every squirt of blood would just drip of my body, as if my flesh was disintegrating. It was only when the feeling was at its worst that my luck so far ran out. Starting with my colleague flying besides me.
“What about you?” He asked, his eyes shining with sincere interest. “What’s your story?”
Closing my eyes for a second, I let out a deep sigh. “W-well, perhaps you’ve heard of our parents, Sky Pattern and Wind Tunnels?”
That stopped him almost dead in his track.
“Are you kidding me?” Thunderlane was suddenly in my face, albeit without any hostility, luckily. “Those two only have their names in every weather patrol’s ideal workers! I can’t help admire them.”
Blinking, I only moved my cloud backward, still staring at him as he got over the initial shock.
In fact, it happened rather quickly, with him placing his chin on his hoof. “Never heard they had children though.”
“Yeah…” Okay, Celly, can’t help but think that was not your best move so far… “Well, they didn’t want the publicity or the harassment for us, especially considering…” I grimaced, gently touching the tip of my horn.
Thunderlane’s eyes widened in understanding, and he winced badly. “Oh…”
“It’s not all bad, certainly not…” I looked down, before taking a deep breath and putting on a ‘brave’ face. “I’d just wish that everypony could look past my physical attributes and let me do what I want to do with my life.”
Now the guy was grimacing as if I had been forcing him to chew on a sour lemon. Ears flat against his head, a sympathetic look on his face, he placed a hoof over my shoulder. “L-look… I didn’t mean to be so…”
“S-sorry, I wasn’t trying to make you feel guilty.” Maybe…
That would be a little too vindictive, especially since I knew his reasons already and… well, I kind of like him as a pony. Still, I had to keep those manipulative skills sharp; they would probably salvage more than one lie I had had to spin to protect Tom and myself.
Once the silence had gone on long enough, I continued.
“Still, I never had too much of a problem with it when our parents were alive. I even got to complete half of my studies without any major trouble. But… once, they… they, huh…” To my surprise, my eyes stung and my guts felt twisted. …This isn’t what happened… this ISN’T what happened. They’re doing fine! They are! THEY HAVE TO BE FINE! “You know…”
He nodded sharply, once, and the grip on my shoulder tightened.
“A-and after t-t-that, a friend of my father took us in, but they weren’t very rich. Still, we couldn’t complain and I even managed to score a position in Gallopfrey’s weather patrol. I-it… seemed like things were looking up.”
I could see Celestia and Luna smiling at us, that night when we came back from the orphanage… I could hear their voices clearly… I could feel a motherly warmth
The weight of what had been lost, by my own damn fault, hit me with such force… I almost stopped breathing.
For a moment, I could not speak. Under the surface, my mind had gone wild, emotions running free in a maelstrom of regrets… of guilt…
But… at some point, I started to feel a little warmth, spreading in circles. It was a soft pressure, so unlike the weight of my shitty choices…
And a whisper reached my ears. “It’s okay, Cloud. It will be…”
I… I had to stop this… This had to come to an end, fast! “When I heard they were cutting down on the number of employees back home in Gallopfrey… there wasn’t any choice. We came to the closest town with an open seat for a weather pony. And now… it’s just me and Feather Dust…”
An awkward silence installed itself between us. The wind itself had seemed to quiet down around us, but that was no surprise to me. T-this one had hurt… badly.
“Look, Cloud…” He rubbed his hoof against the back of his head. “You seem like a nice guy and all, and, believe me, I know what you’re going through. If you need help… you can come to me. I might not be the best there is, but I like to think I am not doing that bad of a job raising Rumble and I will help you. I swear I will.”
When I spoke, it wasn’t the acting that made my voice tremble. “Y-you don’t have to do this… I already told you I didn’t take it personally before-”
Something vaguely mud tasting pushed against my lips, stopping my words cold and making a really stupid thought go through my mind. So that’s what it feels like to have a hoof shoved in your mouth?
“It’s just something I can relate to, and I do want to make it up to you for my behavior. I’ll help you if you want.” He grinned, almost cockily. “Deal?”
The heart wrenching feeling being nearly gone, I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could say anything a sudden fear enveloped my entire being.
“Wha-”
A blur violently threw Thunderlane out of my sight, at the same time as an unbelievably cold air brushed past my muzzle.
You have GOT to be clopping me!
“Thunderlane!” I shouted, spinning around, and freezing in place when two pale blue gusts of wind spiraled past me.
But there was no time. I shook my head, trying to shrug off that moment of hesitation, and scanned the air for a sign of the black stallion.
Buck…
I spotted him.
Three ghostly figures had encircled him, trapping him within their grasps. Three figures… three figures in the shape of ponies…
Caelum…
“He tore apart his soul.”
One of them suddenly charged, wrapping itself around its target.
“The fragments he had thrown away had taken on a life of their own.”
Fragments of Caelum…
My vision blurred and I staggered, new emotions rippling through me. They overwhelmed me, with each thought fading away into something lesser, something primal.
Mine.
Feeling the power built up in my guts, I brought myself closer. The windigoes’ attention was sorely on their prey, on the pegasus who had been unlucky enough to cross their path. Their ethereal bodies were twisted, akin to the coils of a ghostly snake.
Small, pale clouds escaped Thunderlane’s mouth, fading away as soon as they formed. Already, his eyes had become glassy, as if a veil covered them. Weakly, he struggled, hoping to get out of their grip, but his hooves went right through the windigoes. For but a brief moment, it appeared as if the two’s bodies existed as one, as if the windigo was part of him.
A violent impulse washed over my mind. A need. A want. A lust for what was to be mine.
Without thinking, I willed myself closer to them. The cloud underneath my hooves was already a pony’s length away from the ghostly creatures. Their proximity had my heart pumping blood at an accelerated rate. The edges of my vision were hazy, unclear… blurry. A filter of ice seemed to be growing over them.
“Stop,” I said.
And they stopped, moved by an unfathomable instinct to follow my commands.
The three windigoes stood still, their heads turned toward me. The one closest to me… I could see Thunderlane behind him, through its body. A fine layer of frost had started to cover his coat.
Finally, my head light, swimming in cold water, I raised my right front leg and pointed it at the windigoes.
“You’re mine…”
Strident neighs.
Grey.
One windigo gave a panicked whinny, but moved no further. It couldn’t. I didn’t want it to.
The wind was brushing against my fur. It, alone, accompanied me here. No other living souls remained in the valley. Everywhere my eyes fell, they saw nothing but the hills, charred by lightning bolts or magic blasts, covered from one end to another with the senseless losses of lives that had been perpetrated.
They had lied. Their names on the treaty… meant nothing. It had been a diversion, a way to divert the eyes from the attack they had prepared.
A skirmish. They dared called it a skirmish!
The ghostly imitations were starting to fade away before me. Their hold on my companion was also wavering.
A feeling of nausea lifted my heart in my throat. Staggering, I pushed my right hoof over my mouth, forcing the sensation back. I was failing. I couldn’t bring Order back to ponykind. Their hatred of each other ran too deep, firmly anchored by their prejudices. They wanted no peace. They would rather kill each other to gain a fleeting advantage.
My strength was being challenged. Already, the air felted charged by something outside of Order. I would not allow this!
Things blurred. The world was not of an ashy grey anymore. Vibrant green flashed before my eyes, and I realized I was staring at the ground from my perch. It felt as if there was truly nothing but this single color, with only the light of the sun to create variation and shade. But something shattered this illusion of a united world. A black object was falling.
W-what wa-?
Pure white eyes were staring back at me.
I could not help but smile at the creature. It was perfect. A creature of wind and cold. The bringers of a perfect Order, extensions of myself, fragments of my soul, ready to bring this barbaric species to the brink of extinction.
I blinked. My creature had disappeared.
Was that… Caelum? I frowned, trying to summon back the already fading memories. Images that could be seen with perfect clarities just seconds ago were disappearing from my memories. Even my own body, which I knew should have been covered with golden fur, only appeared to be of a plain orange color.
At my sides, the illusion covered up the truth of my nature, making me look like a pony. Like one of… of them?!
Pure ice started pumping in my veins. A vivid disgust twisted my mouth into a scowl. I could barely stomach to spend even an instant in this form. As soon as that thought had formed, my body turned to air, and dove toward the ground.
Thunderlane was still spiraling downward, his body battered by the wind. There was not much time left until he'd hit the ground.
His eyelids flickered open, and, as luck would have it, it felt as if his gaze met mine.
Something flashed in my mind.
“When our parents passed away, it was just me and him, you know? It’s not easy, but… I know I have to. He’s my brother, I can’t let him down.”
I felt a twitch, something, through even this state of immaterial being I was in.
“Sorry, Cloud, I shouldn’t have taken out my anger on you. That was a real jerk move of me. Can we start this over?”
“If you need help… you can come to me.”
“It’s just something I can relate to, and I do want to make it up to you for my behavior. I’ll help you if you want.”
With a gasp, I watched the body as it nearly collided with a bird of some sort. To my shock, I felt something grip the inside of my chest. My heart had suddenly started beating at a maddening rhythm; I felt a shiver reach down to my very soul.
For some reason, the pegasus’ fall slowed down. The air around him… felt different, a little more solid, stretching out at his passage rather than pushed away outright. Beneath him, a cushion of air started to form, and I understood.
I was doing this?!
In but a few minutes, Thunderlane’s mad descent toward the ground had slowed down enough that there were no more risks for his life, and when finally he touched the ground, the air let him go softly.
For a few seconds, my body didn’t reform. The wind, almost shakily, span around the clearing, coming close, but never in contact with him.
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to overcome this ridiculous unease, and almost fell to the sensation of weight my pony body had.
There I stood, Cloud Circle, over the weakened pegasus that I had decided to save.
Why? Why had I bothered? Ponies were ungrateful, spiteful creatures by nature. There couldn’t be any benefit to saving somepony I’d just met. Not when I knew what ponies really were like. Backstabbers. Warmongers.
A sharp pain seized my forehead, and I felt myself stagger forward, one hoof bumping against Thunderlane’s shoulders. The contact felt burning.
WHY?! Why, why, why, why?! Ponies hate me! They don’t care! Not that humans are much better! Or the griffons! The minotaurs! The donkeys, the mules, the dogs, the dragons…
The edges of my vision were darkening. I could only focus on the unconscious black pegasus right in front of me.
I was panting, each breathe coming out loud and heavy, ringing to my ears, almost reminiscent of a predator running after a prey. White mist danced in front of my eyes, evaporating too quickly to be discernible. My insides felt cold.
There is only… there is only…
Red eyes – or are they meant to be brown? –, curious and shining with life.
A lavender coat, that gives her cheeks the perfect shade of purple once she’s embarrassed.
A gruff voice and one so delicate.
A flowing mane of multiple colors, a tall and proud stature, but at the same time, the sensation of a warm, feathery embrace all the same. Light and flames.
Perhaps… perhaps even that stupid compass star cutie mark.
Slowly, I let out a deep sigh, shaking off the darkness snaking around the corners of my eyes. My thoughts were growing more focused again.
Celestia would never be able to ignore what would have transpired here. My colleague, found dead while showing me the ropes all alone? There’s no way she’d believe in an accident.
There, a good and rational reason for my actions, but… the image Thunderlane’s unconscious body felt burning against my retina.
He needs medical attention. Quickly.
Acting up on instinct, without stopping to give it a second thought, a wave of magic went through me and focused into my horn. However, that heating up sensation brutally evaporated, as I let the build-up energy loose.
Slowly, I looked up. My eyes followed the bolt of magic as it flew higher and higher, marking our position with enough flamboyance that a few pegasi were bound to notice. The sky was mostly clear by this point.
But a few minutes passed, and nopony had shown up yet.
“Thunderlane!”
I jolted with relief as I heard the panicked shout, and could not remember the last time I had been this glad to see a mortal. Three of them actually.
One light blue stallion and two grey mares, Flitter and Cloudkicker.
She dove for him straight away, her breathing accelerating as she kneeled by his side. Quickly though, she looked up to me, her eyes reflecting my own – falsely nervous – image. “What happened to him?! D-did you do this?!”
Of course. You would think that, you insignificant lit-
“Flitter, shut up!” Cloudkicker shouted, grabbing one of her shoulder and pulling her back.
The stallion turned to me. “Quick, tell us what happened.”
“A… there were…” I won’t be able to hide this for long. Celestia’s bound to ask questions… “Windigoes, three of them.”
For a second, the three of them froze, their jaw slackened.
“I just blasted them with a thunderbolt…” I continued timidly, pretending to that the reason my legs were shaking so badly was fear rather than bloodlust, pretending that their incredulous gazes weren’t making me want to grind their faces into the ground. “They scattered away… I-I…”
“Is this a joke?”
“N-no, it’s not a joke.” Elders, that mare was just pissing me off! “Thunderlane was hit directly by them and I don’t know what to do. He just keeps getting colder!”
Briefly, that this was part of my knowledge surprised me, but it was eclipsed by their reactions. Flitter, running a hoof on his body, froze, before turning back to me.
“Can’t you teleport him to a hospital?!”
As if I’d accept a pony into the wind!
Feeling my self-control slowly slip, I forced my anger down my throat, lest I lash out and get in deeper trouble. “I-I don’t know the spell…”
No sooner had I spoke that the one of the pegasi I couldn’t name took charge. “Cloudkicker, fly ahead and warn the hospital staff. Flitter, help me carry him.”
With a stiff nod, both mares agreed, moving without a second of hesitation to help their friend.
“You…” The stallion hesitated, a glint of unease passing in his eyes. “Cloud, run back to the headquarters and inform the secretary of the situation.”
“Okay…” I said, pushing on my hind legs and sprinting away.
I ran, but didn’t think of trying something else. The idea of changing into air briefly crossed my mind, but… I felt hesitant to do so. What had happened was eating at me.
So, my new colleague, who, up to recently, hadn’t shown anything but annoyance at me, ended up being attacked and I had to save his life, right after we had a talk about our respective situations, sympathized and became friendlier toward one another. I couldn’t have come up with a more convenient plan if I tried.
The images of his falling body flashed before my eyes.
I slowed down.
But that would have implied that I deliberately set him up to be attacked by those windigoes…
My tail twitched. I was trying not to think back on his promise already.
“When our parents passed away, it was just me and him, you know? It’s not easy, but… I know I have to. He’s my brother, I can’t let him down.”
Shaking, I gritted my teeth and lowered my head. My focus was only on the blades of grass twirling and twisting under the sudden assault of an unexpected breeze. But through flashes, the green turned black, the twisted lines became feathers.
Why did I catch him?!
...
Why wouldn’t I?
He’s… a friend, isn’t he?
And at once, the whispers died out, as if they had never existed.
I felt calmer than before, that swirling pool of ice resting too deep inside me to reach my consciousness. Still, the peace I sought was tainted by an imperfection, a pinching bolt of unease right in the middle of my chest.
Finally, I looked upward and closed my eyes.
…I hope you’ll be okay. I really do.