//------------------------------// // The Eye of the Storm // Story: Blue Skye's Story // by Skyfire Storm //------------------------------// July 30, 1998 It was a nice summer's day in Cloudsdale, however, a huge drought has hit central Equestria, meaning the Weather Factory had to produce twice as much clouds as it usually does. While Lightning Fast was working in the Weather Factory, Summer took Blue to Cloudsdale Park to play with Thunder. As he trotted towards Thunder, he noticed something on his flank. It was his cutie mark; it had a thundercloud with a fork of lightning coming out of the bottom. "Good luck, honey! Have fun!" Summer said to Blue, who simply smiled back. She went to sit on a nearby bench and looked at her son and his friend playing. "Hey, Blue!" said Thunder. "Thunder! How was your summer holidays? Did you go anywhere?" Blue asked his friend. "Yeah, I went to Vanhoover. I was visiting my family members. What about you?" Thunder asked in return. "I stayed in Cloudsdale. We were going to go to Manehatten, but my dad's job cancelled our trip." Blue replied with a glum face. Thunder nodded understandingly. "Yeah, weather ponies rarely get days off." Thunder explained. "No they don't. They get a lot more days off than you think." Blue corrected him. Thunder chuckled lightly. "So, how did you get your cutie mark?" Blue asked. Thunder thought to himself. "I created a small thunderhead back in Vanhoover since there was not much rain there recently. However, it only rained for five minutes. Then, the weather patrol guys created a massive one." Thunder explained. Blue was in awe and was quite jealous of his best friend, but he shrugged the feeling of jealousy off. "Cool." was all Blue could say. "What do you wanna do, Blue?" Thunder asked him. "Hoofball?" Blue said as he took out a ball from under his wing. Thunder grinned. "Sure! Let's play!" Thunder replied with a smile and Blue put the ball down on the cloud. As the two colts were playing, two bullies from Cloudsdale Middle School trotted into the park and observed Blue and Thunder play. Thunder turned around and noticed one of them coming over. "Uh, hey!" he said in a frightened but enthusiastic voice. "Hey there, Thunder." the bully said. "How was your summer?" he asked. "It was good, I got my cutie mAAARrk!" he screamed as the bully picked him up by the wing. Blue noticed this and came over to him. "That's by far... the worst cutie mark I've ever seen. It's not even real!" the bully said as he held Thunder in mid-air. "It's a real cutie mark!" Thunder shouted. The bully noticed Blue coming over and looked at his flank. "Leave him alone..." Blue said with a frightened voice. "You... don't have a cutie mark, so back off Blue before I beat you up!" the bully threatened. "Just... please...leave him alone!" Blue shouted as the bully prepared to throw Thunder towards a building. "Why should I leave him alone? He's just a blank-flank who's trying to be cool and so are you." the bully said. Suddenly, they turned around. "Flame! We have to go back home!" a motherly voice shouted from the distance. Blue and Thunder chuckled as the bully turned red. "Who's that?" Blue asked in a playful tone. "Mommy?" Thunder asked, giggling. Flame simply trotted off towards where the voice is coming from and left the two colts alone. The other bully simply shrugged and went after Flame. "Bye Lame-Flame!" Blue waved mockingly. "Thanks for sticking up for me, Blue!" Thunder said with a grin to his best friend. "You're welcome. Anything for my best friend!" Blue replied back, smiling, although that smile was replaced with a glum face soon after. "Blue, is everything alright?" Thunder asked. "It's just that... I've been waiting almost four years to get my mark. Almost everypony in the class has theirs and I don't have mines yet." Blue said sadly. Before Thunder could comfort Blue, a droplet of rain fell on him, soon followed by more raindrops. Blue and Thunder turned and looked at the sky. A thundercloud had enveloped the sun and was slowly moving towards the fields near Cloudsdale. "We should be getting home by now, sweetie." Summer shouted to Blue. Blue gave her a reassuring nod. "Hey, Thunder. You wanna come?" Blue asked. "No, sorry. I gotta go back home." Thunder replied. "Alright. See you tomorrAAAH!" Blue screamed as a loud crash of thunder suddenly rolled through the air. Thunder simply chuckled as he watched his friend get startled out of his mind. "Bye, Blue!" he said as he walked towards his home. Blue turned back and smiled lightly and walked up to Summer and hid under her wing. Summer turned to face him, smiling. "Blue, it's just thunder. There's nothing to be afraid of." she spoke to him in her soft, motherly tone. "I know, mommy, but I'm just startled." Blue replied, still shaking. "Come on sweetie, let's go home." Summer said to Blue, nuzzling him. Blue nodded lightly and came out of under her wing. At home... Blue watched through his window as the rain pattered down the windowpane. He also looked at the lightning flashing over the city and jumped back into his bed every time he heard a clap of thunder. The cloud was supposed to be moving towards a field, but instead it positioned itself over the city and looked pretty stationary. Summer was downstairs preparing a vegetable salad along with some hay fries. Blue decided to trot downstairs and ask his mom an important question. "Mom?" Blue asked. "Yeah sweetie?" Summer replied, putting down the tray of hay fries on the kitchen counter. "Why is it storming right now?" Blue asked. "Well, sweetie. It's stormy because the weather ponies noticed it's too dry down below, so they realized that we need some rain. And since a thunderstorm like this one is the quickest way of getting the rain to the fields around the city, the weather ponies made one. And don't worry about the thunder, son. I know we don't get much storms in Cloudsdale, but thunder's nothing to be afraid of. It's just the sound of the air exploding as the lightning heats it up." Summer explained. "What's it like being a weather pony, mom?" Blue asked. "Well, being a weather pony is a very athletic job, so you have to be pretty fit for it, and you have to know how to make different weather patterns, so it requires a lot of effort too. But overall, it's worth it because you're helping Equestria in one of the biggest ways possible; by controlling the weather." Summer explained. "Why're you asking sweetie?" she asked. "I'm thinking I want to be a weather pony when I grow up, mom." Blue replied. "You are, sweetie?" Summer said with a smile on her face. "Yep!" Blue replied. "I think you should be a weather pony if you want to, sweetie. I mean, I remember how much you were liked it when it snowed and how you enjoyed it when it was nice and sunny. I think you could be a great weather pony." Summer explained. "Thanks mom!" Blue said and hugged his mom, who hugged in return. Outside however, the storm however, wasn't letting off and the rain begun to steadily get worse. After the talk with his mom and after eating his food, Blue went up to his room to observe the weather. Nothing seemed to be changing; the storm wasn't beginning to dissipate. Blue had enough; he was going to clear up the sky. He went downstairs and went to explain to his mom what he was going to do. "Mom?" Blue asked. "Yeah, sweetie?" Summer replied. "I'm going to go to Thunder's house. Is that alright with you?" Blue asked her. "Sure it is!" Summer replied. "Just be safe and be back before 7. Alright? And don't fly." she told him. "Okay." Blue said. He opened the door and walked to a nearby cloud field, where he took off, however instead of flying to Thunder's house, which was two blocks away from Blue's house, he flew high into the air and went through the cloud cover. There were lightning bolts lighting up the air around him. "Okay... how am I going to do this?" Blue asked himself. He suddenly got an idea. He flew through the clouds around where he is, causing them to evaporate and the lightning bolts circling them to disappear. "Wow..." he said, looking proudly at what he'd done. He continued to fly around the hole in the cloud cover that he'd made, flying through the clouds and narrowly missing several lightning bolts in the process. Eventually, the hole was big enough to see a very nice blue sky from the bottom. Blue continued to fly. This time, he flew through the thundercloud leading to Thunder's home. Due to the larger amounts of turbulence in this part of the cloud, he found it much harder flying through it, but he continued to fly. He continued flying through the large thundercloud, which begun to evaporate and narrowly missed a forming lightning bolt. "WOAH!" Blue screamed as he dodged the lightning bolt. He decided to turn back, but felt something forming on his flank. "Maybe it's just the wind..." Blue thought to himself as he stopped in mid-air. He flew back down into Cloudsdale and landed beside a fountain in Downtown. He looked into the water and saw something on his flank. His own cutie mark. Two small cumulus clouds surrounding the sun. Blue was just lost for words. He begun to tear up out of joy, but decided to hide the feeling until he got home. Blue took off for home where he'd explain to Summer what exactly he was doing. While he was flying through the thunderstorm, he found it hard to concentrate. Rain seemed to lash at him from every corner of the sky and lighting crackled ominously in the background. He reached the clearing that he's made in the storm cloud and turned to fly home. To Blue's surprise, there were two weather ponies making the clearing bigger and one of the ponies was Lightning Fast, his dad. Blue tried to hide in a nearby cloud, but the build-up of static electricity inside it kept shocking him, eventually to the point where Lightning Fast heard him. "What was that?" Lightning asked his partner, Cyclone. "What was what, Lightning?" Cyclone asked. "I don't know, it sounded like a scream." Lightning said, before hearing the same sound again. Suddenly, Blue shot out of the cloud and hit Cyclone's wing. "Auughhh..." Cyclone hissed in pain. "Sorry!" Blue said to Cyclone. He felt a small tap on his wing. It was Lightning Fast, who was now angrier than ever. "And so you should be, Blue." Lightning said with a less-than-pleased look on his face. "Dad!" Blue said and tried to hug him. "What are you doing out here? It's dangerous flying out in this weather!" Lightning shouted at Blue. "I better go back to the factory. See ya, Lightning." Cyclone said and tried to fly into the clouds in order to avoid distracting the father and son. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to get my cutie mark and I thought I'd get it by clearing up the sky over Cloudsdale!" Blue said with tears in his eyes. Lightning's glare softened a bit. "You wanted to clear up the sky over Cloudsdale?" Lightning asked him. "But why?" "Because I wanted to be a weather pony like you and mom. That and most kids in my class already got their marks. Like I said, I'm really sorry and I won't do it again, I promise!" Blue explained. "You want to be a weather pony?" Lightning asked. "Of course I do!" Blue replied. Lightning simply smiled at Blue and wrapped his wing around him. "I'm proud of you, Blue." he said, wrapping his wing around Blue. "But still, you shouldn't have gone out in this weather." Lightning explained. "Mom's probably worried sick about where you are." "I told her that I was going to Thunder's house." Blue told Lightning. "And were you really?" Lightning asked. "No..." Blue said with a glum-looking face. "Don't lie to mom like that. I know you were just trying to get your mark, but you could've been seriously hurt out here." Lightning explained. "I know. And I'm really sorry, dad." Blue explained. "Don't be son. You got your mark and I'm very proud of you for that, just please stay at home in this weather next time. Alright?" Lightning asked, with a smile on his face. "Okay." Blue replied, grinning. Lightning simply ruffled his mane with his wing and they flew off towards their home. At home... It was just after half past five by the time Blue and Lightning came back home and the sky was already cleared up by the more experienced weather patrol, leaving a blue-gold sky. Summer was preparing another batch of hay fries, this time for Lightning, who was supposed to be home by 6:30 PM. While Summer put the fries into the oven, she heard a knock on the door. "Who could that be?" she thought to herself as she opened up the door. To her surprise, it was Blue and Lightning. "Hey honey." Lightning said to his wife, nuzzling her. "Hey, boys! You're both back pretty early..." Summer said with a hint of concern in her voice. "What happened?" she asked. Blue begun to get embarrassed. "It's uh, a long story." Lightning explained with a hint of embarrassment in his voice. "Come on in!" Summer said. With that, Blue and Lightning came into the house and as Blue trotted in, Summer begun to notice a mark on his flank. "Blue, sweetie, can you turn around?" she asked him. "Alright, mom." Blue said and done as his mom asked of him. "Do you like it?" he asked humbly. "It's beautiful, son. I really like it." Summer said in her voice. "But when did you get it?" she asked. "Today..." Blue said with a hint of regret in his voice. "Mom? I didn't go to Thunder's house today." Blue begun to explain. "What did you do, sweetie?" Summer asked. "I had enough of the storm... So I went to clean up the sky just like the weather ponies do." Blue explained. "I'm so sorry for lying to you mom." "Sweetie..." Summer said as she nuzzled Blue. "You know you're not a weather pony yet. Sky-cleaning is a pretty dangerous job." she scolded him. "I know, mom and I really am sorry." Blue explained. "I just wanted to earn my cutie mark so I can be like the other ponies in my school and have a special talent!" "I know you are son and I hope you've learned your lesson. And I'm really proud of you for getting your cutie mark. It looks very unique and I'm sure the kids at school will like it when you come back next month." she said smiling. "Thanks mom." Blue said, grinning. He nuzzled her one more time before she went to pull out the tray of hay fries from the oven. "But this doesn't mean that you aren't getting grounded." Summer said from the kitchen. Blue didn't like being grounded but on several occasions, such as this, he had no choice. "Hey son." Lightning begun. "What is it, daddy?" Blue asked. "How about... we go to weather factory on Saturday and I show you around? Like, show you how we make the clouds, the rain and even how we make wind." Lightning proposed. "Okay! Thanks dad!" Blue said, grinning. "You're welcome, son. You're very welcome." Lightning spoke and ruffled Blue's mane. Summer simply smiled as she put down the plates for her two special guys.