The sun continued to hang in the sky, paused. Wavering on the moments just before afternoon, when its light would bathe the waking world in the most brilliant orange hues. It merely sat there, frozen, as if it too was waiting for the mysterious beat to reveal its nature. That MUST have been what was going on. That… or, maybe Celestia was just feeling lazy today.
Cloud and Cloudy were now trotting through one of the many paths in the small forest outside of Cliffside. Their coats dappled with moving patterns of light coming through the branches of the many leaved trees surrounding them. Initially, Cloud Charmer had lead Cloudy Night on a very direct path towards the town. Yet as they were nearing the edge of the woods she suddenly veered off down a small rightward path. It appeared to Cloudy as if Cloud Charmer meant to skirt around the town entirely.
“Why are we not going into town, Cloud?” Cloudy asked with some concern, she had a feeling that she knew why they weren’t going directly into town.
Of course, this question did not halt Cloud Charmer in her tracks, though she did answer her friend as they trotted down the path. “We are going into town. We’re just going to get Thunderstruck and then we will all head into town together.”
“Oh, yes, I had forgotten.” Cloudy had not forgotten, but she had hoped that Cloud would forget about him. She had only met that strange colt a couple of times since she had started spending her time with Cloud Charmer, but he had still managed to make her nervous enough to fall over her own hooves. She did not want to repeat the first day they had met. “Okay, but his house is in town.”
“I know that.”
“How, you’ve only lived here for a month?”
“When you encounter new terrain you must memorize it. Better it become your advantage than your opponents.”
“Hold on. Did you just quote Long Beak, the second standing general of the first official organized Equestrian griffon platoons?”
“Yes, I did.”
Cloudy Night was amazed. Where had this sudden knowledge of military history come from? To a better point, how did Cloud Charmer know and apparently understand one of the greatest generals of griffon history?
“How do you know Long Beak?”
“No time to tell you right now, we need to go get Thunderstruck. Ask me again later.”
Cloudy fully intended to do just that, though she really didn’t understand just why there was no time to ask Cloud Charmer now. However, the question she had originally asked still stood unanswered. “If he’s not at his home then where is he?”
“Where he always is: the stadium.”
Cloudy Night almost tripped when she said that. The stadium! They were going there! She had to find a way to stop her friend. She couldn’t go to the stadium.
“Well… uh… how exactly do you know that Thunderstruck is even at the stadium?”
“As I said, he’s always there, so that’s where we’ll find him. I’m sure of it.”
This was not going well at all! First the strange beat and now this! She hated the stadium! It was always so full of ponies, and crowds still made Cloudy very dizzy and nervous. Why had she opened her big mouth and agreed to go to town? Even now, Cloudy could feel a vibration, likely the beat of the stadium itself, as it made its own tune from the ponies now filling the place. She never even considered the fact that the vibration was actually her shaking from the nervousness of going there.
“Oh! Why don’t we just forget about Thunderstruck and go into town ourselves?” Cloudy whined, still trying to avoid that stadium to the best of her ability.
The moment these words left Cloudy Night’s mouth Cloud Charmer slammed her trot to a halt, bumping herself into Cloudy as she whisked around to face her friend. Cloudy was now faced with a pair of stormy grey eyes that seemed to bore into Cloudy’s very soul.
“Cloudy Night! We both agreed that we would find Thunderstruck and now you want to leave him behind! We mustn’t be rude!” Cloud’s eyes looked enraged, yet her voice spoke only amusement, only playfulness.
Confused by this, Cloudy took the moment to ask her friend, “how do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Make yourself seem like you’re furious when you’re not?”
“I’m not furious.”
“No, but you SEEM like you are.”
“To be honest, Cloudy, I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about.” Cloud Charmer said as she returned to trotting through several bushes lying completely off the path. Cloudy followed, though it seemed like Cloud Charmer was taking her along the most ridiculous path possible. She could not think of any way to beat Cloud Charmer, whose logic was sound. Still, she could and did resort to plain old whining.
“Cloud, why can’t we just not go to the stadium?”
Rather than respond as she did last time, Cloud Charmer answered cloud with a question. “Do you know what that sound is?”
Cloudy looked around, confused, she could hear a lot of noise, mostly the beats that were coming from everything around her. Sure it was louder here, but who was she to say it couldn’t be? “No. what is it?”
“It’s the sound of we’re already here!” Cloud Charmer responded, bounding through the bushes in front of the two ponies. Reluctantly, Cloudy Night followed, preparing herself for the bombardment of sound, both physical and otherwise, that she knew she would meet.
She wasn’t prepared for it…
Cloud Charmer burst through the last bushes that sat just above the top row of the stadium, which was now sitting below her. She knew she had made the right decision to come at the place from the top instead of the front.
The stadium itself was a concave dome shape. Carved right out of the one hill that sat inside of the forest itself. No pony actually knew where it came from, but many believed it had to have been made by magic. There had even been seats carved into the rock that made up the stadium itself. At the bottom of the dome was a flat patch of ground, dusty and worn by the hoofsteps of many ponies throughout the ages. This patch of ground led into a wide path, which went all the way through the forest and into town.
Despite the fact that the path leading to the stadium was hard to miss and easy to follow, the older ponies from town never seemed to come here. This, of course made it the perfect place for all of the fillies and colts of Cliffside. It was their gathering place, a semi-secret home to all the bored ponies who wished to hangout or play with others in their free time. Here they played, here they talked, and here they held races.
The races were the most popular event that the children of Cliffside had to look forward to. Usually on the laziest and most boring of days ponies held races from the stadium to the town square, with viewers lining up along their respective streets on the way to the square. Of course, this was not the only place that races were to start and end, but it was the most popular route.
Races were not simple to organize though. In fact, nothing that the fillies and foals of the town did together was easy to organize. They needed a leader, somepony who could bind them together, and keep them together. That pony, was Thunderstruck.
Thunderstruck was by far the fastest pony in the races. Some even called him the fastest earth pony in Equestria. He sported a dark coat, and a silver mane; just slightly tinged with the colour green. His cutie-mark was a runic symbol, all sharp lines and vertices, which represented the ancient word for lightning, at least by the claim of local historians.
Ponies often asked Thunderstruck how he came to be as fast as he was, and every time he would answer that he was the only member of his family born with ability given to his far ancestor, who had received similar speed after being struck by lightning while working the fields. His parents had apparently chosen his name because of this ancestor, not actually realizing that he possessed more than a shared appearance with his great great great great grandfather. This was his story, though most didn’t believe it. Though there was no proof of the allegations against him, Thunderstruck was rumoured to be a fantastic liar, and about five times as clever as the cleverest fox a pony could find. Regardless, he held the community together, and was often organizing meet ups at the stadium for all the youngsters of town.
It would seem to Cloud Charmer like today was one of those particular days.
There was no doubt, all the young ponies in town had gathered at the stadium today. It had been a boring week, so when Thunderstruck had sent out his invitation, everypony came. Cloud Charmer stood at the top of the stone stadium, whose seats were absolutely filled with talking ponies from every nook of town. There was even a small crowd that had gathered at the dusty flat space at the foot of the stadium. Not only was the noise buzzing through the place thunderous in nature, but Cloud could also feel a great beat drumming through the place as well. This was the beat of adventure! This was exactly what she was looking for.
Cloud Charmer took a deep breath and turned to Cloudy just as she came out of the bush beside her. She looked disoriented, understandable, as the noise and crowds would certainly make her nervous. Cloud Charmer knew this, yet she did not worry. This place would be quiet soon enough.
“Do you see Thunderstruck anywhere, Cloudy? ‘Cuz I can’t!” Cloud Charmer said.
Cloudy Night looked through the stadium, it was so much worse than she expected. Not only was there the crowd, but there was a pounding incoherent beat to go along with it! It was all very confusing to look at, but Cloudy still gave it a try. She was good at picking out details, after all. Sure enough, at the center of the crowd placed at the foot of the stadium was that unforgettable silver mane. “He’s in the center.” Cloudy answered, afterwards immediately turning to look at her friend instead of continuing to stare at that dizzying crowd. “I still don’t know how you seek to get his attention, though.”
It was the look that Cloud Charmer gave her that told Cloudy all that she needed to know. Her ears dipped back, and she covered them with her hooves just as Cloud sucked in a deep breath.
“HEY THUNDERSTRUCK!!”
The sound slammed around the stadium, rising from thunder to lightning in the sheer jolting quality of its noise. Within moments of the unleash of this sound the stadium stood silent, save for the beat, but that was inconsequential to anyone but Cloud Charmer and Cloudy Night.
Everypony who could locate the source of the sound just stared at the two ponies at the top of the rise. Some were wondering who these strange ponies were, some already knew.
Sure enough, the crowd at the centre of the stadium parted, and out walked Thunderstruck, his mane shining in the now turning orange light like a beacon. He stared up at the two ponies who had so rudely interrupted his meet up... and he smiled.
“Well, if it isn’t my two best friends in the world.” Stated Thunderstruck; grinning like a fool at the little grey pony and her dark blue companion.
Cloud Charmer looked back at him, and snorted. “ I would think it was hard to keep count of how many best friends you have, Thunderstruck.”
“That’s cruel, Cloud, and you know it. You know you two are my friends, and that I value your words like a rose values the rays of the sun in spring.” Another thing about Thunderstruck, he was very poetic, and he loved to show it off.
“All right, I’ll skip the poetry today Thunderstruck…” Cloud Charmer paused to look at Cloudy, who nodded, “We wanted to know if you’d like to hangout in town with us. We've got a feeling something cool is going on there.”
This statement certainly gave Thunderstruck pause. He had only known the two ponies for about a month, and yet if he had learned anything from playing with them, it was that their intuitions were usually correct. However, he had already made plans, unless…
“That sounds delightful, but sadly I have already promised these ponies a race. Some of the challengers seem to think that they can beat me for sure. However, I have a counteroffer, one that will allow us both to meet our individual ends.”
Cloud Charmer was intrigued. “ What did you have in mind?”
“Race us.” Thunderstruck said.
“Race you!” Cloud Charmer echoed.
“RACE THEM!” the crowd cheered.
“Why me!” Cloudy Night whispered.