Thunderclouds
By Alaborn
Standard disclaimer: This is a not for profit fan work. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyright Hasbro, Inc. I make no claim to any copyrighted material mentioned herein.
Chapter 2
“Mom! Dad! I made it to two wingpower!” ten-year-old Thundercloud shouted as he rushed into his house.
“Thundercloud! Wipe your hooves!” his mother said.
Thundercloud grumbled, but went back to the mat sitting by the door. Winter was nearing its end, but that meant snow was still on the ground, and that in turn meant wet and muddy hooves.
Thundercloud’s father met him in the hallway. “Come here, son.” He flew up and embraced his son.
“Dad!” Thundercloud said as he squirmed.
“Does that mean you’re going to join your mother on snow clearing duty?”
“Uh-huh!” Thundercloud replied.
Like all pegasus foals, Thundercloud wanted to get better at flying. But that was a particularly important goal at the moment, as Winter Wrap-Up was coming up. This was his third Winter Wrap-Up. The first time, not being able to fly, he got stuck with animal duty. Waking up the animals meant crawling around in dens and getting dirt and roots in his mane, not to mention a few scratches from the grumpier critters. The next year, he could fly, but not well enough to fill a role on any of the weather teams.
Now, everyone knew Thundercloud was a big colt, ready to fly all day, even if it just was for clearing the snow off the roofs. Maybe next year, he could join his father in clearing the skies.
“Well, I think this calls for a little celebration,” his mother said.
The family donned scarves to ward off the brisk weather, and flew to the heart of Ponyville. Thundercloud beamed as they approached his favorite destination in the world, Sugarcube Corner. The bakery was quiet, but invitingly warm as always. Mrs. Cake was busily stocking the case with fresh pastries from a tray balanced on Pinkie Pie’s back.
“Hiya, Thundercloud! What can I get you?” Pinkie Pie said, bouncing up and down. Not a single muffin on her tray budged.
“You can have anything you want,” his mother said.
Thundercloud rushed forward, pressing his muzzle into the glass case. So many options! Muffins, cookies, cakes.... “That one!”
“Ooh! That chocolate cake is super scrumptious!” Pinkie Pie said.
“And what would you like?” Mrs. Cake asked Thundercloud’s parents.
“We’ll each have a blueberry muffin,” his mother said.
Thundercloud attacked his slice of cake with ferocity. It was just as scrumptious as Pinkie Pie said!
His parents just smiled. Once Thundercloud was finished, his father nudged him. He held a napkin in his wing.
“Ooh, that’s a picture perfect moment!” Pinkie Pie said. She quickly snapped a photograph of the family, complete with a ring of chocolate around Thundercloud’s mouth.
Winter Wrap-Up arrived, and a song filled the hearts of all the ponies in Ponyville. It was dawn, but everypony was filled with energy.
In his small home in a quiet Ponyville neighborhood, Thundercloud put on his saddle, scarf, and boots, before proudly donning his weather team vest.
“Are you excited, Thundercloud?” his mother asked.
“Uh-huh!”
His father draped a wing over his withers. “Just think, son. Soon, you’ll be practicing weather magic. And who knows? Maybe you’ll find your special talent in the sky.”
“I bet I will!” Thundercloud said.
“Now let’s get going,” his mother said.
His father flew off to join the team in the sky, leaving Thundercloud and his mother to head to the center of town. A group of ponies, all wearing weather team vests, milled around “So, um, how does this work?” Thundercloud asked his mother.
“We’re going to work in tandem. First, we’re going to get our shovels. Then, we fly up to the roof, and push the snow off once the ponies with the carts are ready. Just pay attention to the team lead, Thundercloud, and you’ll be fine.”
A short time later, they heard an announcement. “Team leaders, gather your teams.” The ponies serving as team leaders started gathering ponies into four groups.
“You’re Thundercloud, right?” a young mare said to the colt. He replied with a nod. “Great, you’re with me. I’m Foggy Day, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, miss,” he replied.
Once they had gathered, Thundercloud noticed that most of the younger ponies were on his team, and they made up half the total. Shovels, both normal size and slightly smaller, waited in wooden barrels. “Okay, everypony. We’re going to get started real soon,” Foggy Day said. “We’re tasked with clearing the snow on some of the trickier roofs, where it’s helpful to be smaller.
“Each filly and colt will work with a buddy. She’s there to help you with the heavier snow. If you’re tired or need to rest your wings, just tell your buddy. We don’t want anypony to get hurt.”
With that, everypony lined up to get their shovels, and then paired off. Thundercloud got paired with Blue Haze, a young stallion with a slicked-back mane. “Hey, kid, let’s have fun,” he said.
Their larger group split off into smaller groups of four or six, the right size to tackle a roof. Thundercloud flew onto the roof of one building with peaks above each of its windows. The winter’s snow was nestled into the corners.
“When do we start?” Thundercloud asked.
“We need to wait for the carts,” Blue Haze replied.
Thundercloud waited, and soon saw the cart approaching. He got ready; his hoof bounced off the handle.
Thundercloud mentally chided himself for trying to hold the shovel with his hoof, but then he paused. He wasn’t thinking about it, and so he did what felt natural to him. He looked at the handle. It was the part a pony wrapped his mouth around, but it was called a handle. Handle. Hand.
Thundercloud pictured it in his mind, standing on two legs like a human. His hand would wrap around the handle, and his other would support the shovel. He pictured the shovel moving like that; it felt right, as if the shovel had been designed by and for humans.
“Thundercloud!” Blue Haze called.
“Huh?”
“The cart’s here.”
“Sorry, I was thinking,” he said. He took the shovel in his mouth, and started pushing the snow off the roof into the waiting cart below.
Once the building was done, they flew to the next building. Thundercloud and Blue Haze landed, hooves sinking in the thick show. “You need to pay attention, Thundercloud. If you don’t, you’ll miss the snow duck.”
“What’s a snow duck?”
“Snow,” Blue Haze said, motioning with his wings. He then yelled “Duck!” while kicking a chunk of snow at Thundercloud.
Thundercloud was not expecting that, and ended up with snow all over his muzzle. But the colt couldn’t help but laugh, and give his Winter Wrap-Up buddy a snow duck of his own. But once the cart came by, they ceased their play and returned to work.
The team worked all morning, and then broke for lunch. It was just cold sandwiches made with pickled flowers, but Thundercloud wolfed them down. After eating, he was so eager to go that he flew up to the next building on their list.
But waiting was boring. He thought about building a snowpony, but figured it would probably fall down. Or maybe some flying practice, but his muscles were already aching.
Thundercloud spotted two ponies walking by the building, a unicorn couple. He grinned. “I’ll get an early start!” he said to himself.
He took the shovel in his mouth and, starting from the roof’s peak, pushed a row of snow down. The big mass of snow went over the eaves.
“Twitchy tail!”
Confused by the shout he had just heard, Thundercloud peered over the edge. The snow had missed the unicorn couple because a pink earth pony had shielded them with an umbrella. It was the mare who worked at the bakery, Pinkie Pie.
“No, Thundercloud, you have to wait for the carts!” she said with a smile.
“But it was going to be funny!” he protested.
Pinkie Pie frowned at him. “Nopony likes to get covered with snow. It’s cold, and then it gets in your boots and under your saddle, and it makes Winter Wrap-Up a lot less fun!”
“But snowball fights....”
“Are for younger ponies like you. And what if there was ice caught in the snow? Did you think about that?”
“No,” Thundercloud admitted.
“You should always think about what makes other ponies smile,” Pinkie Pie said. “And you can start tomorrow! Tomorrow is a fresh chance to be a better pony.”
“Okay, Miss Pinkie Pie,” Thundercloud said.
Winter Wrap-Up proceeded uneventfully. Thundercloud ended the day sore and tired, but found a reserve of energy to enjoy the party that lasted well into the night. His parents had to drag him back home, but they still praised him for working so hard.
The first day of spring was a day off school, and despite staying out late, Thundercloud awoke bright and early. Many ponies would be busy in the fields, planting their important first crop, but Thundercloud was free to do anything. He said goodbye to his mother and ran out the door.
Feeling the warm spring sun reminded Thundercloud of how much he missed the warm weather. He felt invigorated as he ran to the library, a fascinating building shaped from a tree. He had learned it was actually the second library like that in Ponyville!
The old mare who worked as a librarian smiled as he entered, though Thundercloud recognized it was a forced smile. When he first learned about humans, he had looked up every book about them, or that even mentioned them, both in the school library and the town library. That didn’t endear him to the librarian, who always tried to steer him to “broaden his literary horizons”. But after exhausting every book about humans, he eventually stopped coming.
“Good morning, Thundercloud,” the librarian said. “I’m afraid the library doesn’t have any new books for you.”
“Um, actually, I wanted to see if you had any books on inventions and inventors,” he replied.
The librarian’s expression brightened considerably. “I think that’s an excellent interest for a young colt like you!” she said. “I recommend this biography of Bright Light, who was a very prolific inventor. And here’s one about the machines you can find in the weather factory in Cloudsdale! There’s a lot more I could recommend....”
“That’s okay. I’ll start with these two,” Thundercloud said.
Thundercloud hurried home with his borrowed books. He fashioned a nest out of the blankets on his bed and got to reading. And three hours later, he was frustrated.
He saw dozens of inventions. Many of them looked entirely wrong for ponies like him. And not one passage described why the inventions looked the way they did.
Over the next several months, Thundercloud repeated the process, always ending in frustration. Around him, the tools of everyday life mocked him, looking always out of place for a world of ponies.
One day, near the end of the school year, he returned his latest borrowed books. “I’m not sure what other books are left for you to read, Thundercloud,” the librarian said.
“Can I borrow books from other libraries?” Thundercloud asked.
“Why, yes. I can arrange for an interlibrary loan,” she replied. “In fact, I know of a biography of Spark Shower that I’m sure you’ll love.”
“No. I want to find more books about humans.”