One week had passed since Shiron had decided to open his heart to Rainbow Dash and his new friends. Although, he still wasn’t sure if he was making a mistake in doing so. At least the past few days after the beach party had been nice.
Step by step Shiron, warmed up to his friends and even joined Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash on one of their prank tours.
Much to Pinkie’s and Rainbow’s disappointment, Shiron didn’t know how to use magic, except from basic levitation and illumination.
To Shiron, the only alicorn ability he actually wanted was to fly as free as the birds and pegasus ponies. Most of the time, he only used his hooves or wings to grab things instead of using magic.
Maybe it was odd to not use the abilities that many other ponies dreamt of. From time to time some unicorn had asked him for some magical advices while earth ponies and pegasi asked for some help; may it be a growing spell for their plants or spells or turn weather-clouds into other types of clouds. Young ponies were especially excited when they saw him; always asking him to show them some tricks. It made Shiron somehow sad that he wasn’t able to use magic except from his two or three spells; it felt like letting them down.
To him, magic wasn’t that important: it only showed how different he actually was if he was able to fly and use magic. However, he somehow wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing. As much as he wanted to be like other ponies by almost living like a pegasus pony, he somehow was denying a part of who he really was. However, no matter what he tried, he never was able to forget what that voice had told him: ‘Everyone who is different is a monster’.
He had never figured out who this voice was. Though, since he was living in Ponyville, the voice had been mute. Today however, he didn’t really care about being an alicorn or that voice. Now he was enjoying his breakfast with Rainbow Dash.
Like every day of this week, Rainbow Dash had already finished her first inspection fly. Except for a light rain, today’s weather wasn’t very complicated, so Dash finished her work without any problems. After the beach party, Shiron had been able to convince Rainbow Dash to split the inspection flies between them.
Of course, Dash would have never admitted this to anyone, but secretly she was more grateful about this than she showed. Even for her it wasn’t easy to work as the captain of the weather ponies and making an inspection fly every 6 hours. However, no matter how much Shiron tried to persuade her otherwise, Rainbow didn’t split the inspection flies evenly; Rainbow Dash doing two weeks while Shiron did one.
Right now, they were sitting together in Rainbow’s kitchen.
“Do you have any plans for today?” Rainbow asked Shiron before taking a bite from her apple.
“I was planning to give Twilight her history book back. Maybe also borrow some fantasy or action books,” Shiron answered.
“How can you like boring things like reading?” Dash asked, not attempting to hide her opinion on that matter.
“Come on, not all books are boring,” Shiron responded.
With an encouraging smile he added “I’m sure there even some books you would like.”
Rainbow blew her bangs away from her eyes.
“Nah, I’d sooner break one of my wings than to start like reading...” she said with a disinterested voice.
After she finished her apple, Dash continued, “Why don’t you join me today? I was going to a little trip to Cloudsdale and its Weather Factory. Maybe I can even convince them to allow Ponyville to do the tornado duty this year.”
“Isn't Cloudsdale your hometown?” Shiron asked.
“Yep, it’s also one of the biggest pegasus cities in Equestria. You should totally join me!” Rainbow said with a smirk.
“Sounds good, when do you want to leave?” Shiron asked.
“Well, I have some last preparations to finish and since you wanted to give Twilight her book back, I would say we start at 1PM?” Dash replied, failing to hide her excitement.
Though, why was she so excited? Shiron guessed that she hasn’t visited her hometown for a while. Did she have family there or did she just want to show him her hometown?
“Sounds like a plan,” Shiron answered, taking a bite from his apple.
“I can’t wait to see Cloudsdale.” Both ponies were smiling while finishing their breakfast.
One hour later, Shiron had already brought the book he borrowed from Twilight back to the library.
When Spike asked if he was free for an hour, Shiron said yes. After all, Rainbow Dash still needed at least one hour for her preparations.
Now, Shiron and Spike were sitting at Sugarcube Corner’s and were drinking some hot cocoa.
“…and then Twilight was using her magic to actually lift up the Ursa Minor. I mean, wow, it was as big as a house but she totally lifted it up and carefully sent it back to its cave, can you believe that?” Spike finished another story about the time when two colts named Snips and Snails brought an overgrown astral bear into Ponyville.
If what Spike said about the Ursa was true, then the two colts weren’t the smartest ponies in Ponyville. If a random show-mare came up and boasted that they took down a 400 foot tall bear, you would be naturally skeptical, even with evidence. And besides, just because she did it once doesn’t mean she would willingly do it again.
“That’s amazing, I didn’t know unicorns can get that strong,” Shiron replied.
“Well, Twilight’s special talent is magic. That, and she is one of the most amazing unicorns ever! Sometimes I think that, except maybe Celestia and Luna, there is no pony that has stronger magic than her,” Spike added before looking thoughtfully at Shiron’s horn.
Shiron already expected Spike to ask what kind of magic he was able to use, but Spike knew that Shiron didn’t like that topic.
He took a sip of his cocoa and asked “So, do you already know what you’ll give Rainbow Dash?”
“What I’ll give to her? For what occasion?” Shiron asked.
“You know, for her birthday tomorrow? Or did nopony tell you that?”
“Tomorrow is Dash’s birthday?!” Shiron asked shocked. “No, no one told me about that and I have less than a day to buy her something...” he added, groaning. His head met the table with a light thump.
“Don’t worry; I’m sure you’ll find something. Dash really likes the Wonderbolts and Sweet Apple Acres' cider, if that’s any help.” Spike tried to cheer his friend up.
“I know, but there won’t be any cider until applebuck season is finished, and it’s not easy to find something related to the Wonderbolts here in Ponyville…Except...” Shiron looked up with a hopeful smile.
“Rainbow wants to fly to Cloudsdale today and asked me to join her. She mentioned something about the tornado duty.”
“Sounds good. When will you two start?” Spike asked.
“In about an hour,” Shiron answered. “However, I think I’ll have to visit someone before we start.” Shiron quickly added.
Soon the two friends finished their cocoa and said each other goodbye. Quickly, Shiron took off and flew to his first goal. He just hoped his plan would work.
Almost two hours had passed since Rainbow Dash and Shiron started their trip to Cloudsdale. Usually, Rainbow needed at most one hour. However, today she needed more than twice as long, and they weren’t even at Cloudsdale yet!
Although one reason was that Rainbow showed Shiron various landmarks during their trip, the main reason was because Shiron needed several breaks to rest his wings.
Since the last break, Rainbow paid more attention to Shiron’s flying style and she noticed why he was this slow. During their race some weeks ago, Shiron had almost been able to keep up with her. It had just been a short race since the Everfree Forest was only some minutes from Ponyville.
However, there was a big difference between a short flight through a well positioned training course and a long flight, where the wind and the weather were less controllable.
Shiron made the same mistakes young pegasus ponies were making when they were learning how to fly. For example, Shiron wasn’t using the wind to his advantage and ended up wasting energy fighting it. He also focused way too much on flapping his wings instead of using thermals to carry him.
It wasn’t surprising that Shiron was doing these mistakes. Rainbow Dash had already guessed that he never had anypony to show him how to fly. Instead he had to learn it by himself.
“Looks like I’ll have to be the one to show him how to fly,” Dash thought.
She glanced at him pumping his wings furiously and winced at the complete waste of energy.
“Properly.”
Like every cloud city, Cloudsdale didn’t have a fixed location, but moved with the wind. Depending on the season, ponies had to fly to one of the four main positions of Cloudsdale. Luckily, the pegasus ponies had been able to invent a system that allows them to minimize the distance Cloudsdale moved and build stations at each of the 4 main positions. At the centre of the four stations was one of Equestria’s most important monuments.
Rainbow Dash decided that it was time for a break since they almost reached last part of their trip: flying up to Cloudsdale. Rainbow was already able to see her hometown. But before they flew there, she wanted to show Shiron something every pony had to see at least once.
Both ponies landed close to the monument which showed Celestia with spread wings in front of four ponies and two griffins. Next to the monument were some ponies that put some flowers at the foot of the monument. Shiron and Rainbow silently walked toward the statue until they were in front of it.
“What does this statue stand for?” Shiron asked Rainbow without moving his gaze away from the monument.
“This monument was built to remember how Celestia stopped the last war of Equestria before it was able to actually start,” Rainbow answered.
“This is a just a copy of the original. There are others outside of Canterlot and the main town of the Griffin Kingdom. This is the third and last copy. The real one is stands close to Manehattan, where the peace treaty was signed,” Rainbow continued without looking away.
“Each of the copies were built outside of the main cities of the three fractions of the war: the Royal Defense, the Lunar Rebellion and the Griffin Kingdom.”
“I didn’t know that there were wars in Equestria,” Shiron said quietly.
“Everything looks so peaceful…”
After a while, Shiron said, ”The history book I borrowed from Twilight didn’t mention a war.”
He looked at Rainbow Dash and asked, “When exactly did it happen?”
Following a short pause, Rainbow answered. “Almost 950 years ago. If I had to guess, that book was about more recent history.”
Looking back at Shiron, Rainbow started her story.
“A pony who called himself Flag Burner started to plot a rebellion against Princess Celestia. That pony had said that Celestia had banished her sister because she wanted to become the sole ruler of Equestria and that every story about Nightmare Moon had been a lie. He formed an army and then started the Lunar Rebellion,” Dash said.
With a sad voice she added, “For the first time since the founding of Equestria, ponies had been fighting ponies. “
“That sounds awful,” said Shiron, looking back at the monument.
“How was it possible that a single pony started all that?”
“We don’t know, but to make it even worse, he had also used a squad of ponies to attack the griffins. During that time, ponies and griffins didn’t trust each other, so that attack had ultimately added another war to the ongoing civil war.” Rainbow Dash answered before looking at the statue of Celestia.
“Somehow, Princess Celestia had been able to start peace talks without him noticing,” she added.
“Celestia and three ambassadors met at a secret place, one ambassador for the Lunar Rebellion, one ambassador of her Royal Defense and one ambassador of the Griffin Kingdom. Each of them with a guard."
“Wait, the Lunar Rebellion was lead by Flag Burner. How come it was part of the talks?” Shiron asked after mulling it over for a few seconds.
“Well, at first the ponies of the Lunar Rebellion had believed in their leader; the lies about Celestia and that he had actually wanted to create a better Equestria. However, after the attack against the griffins, they had started to suspect that something was been wrong,” Dash answered, looking at Shiron.
“I mean, why starting a second war if the real enemy had been Princess Celestia?”
After a short break, Dash continued “The Lunar Rebellion had sent their second in command, Red Flag to the peace talks for the signing of the treaty. Everything had been working out but somehow Flag Burner had found the place of the peace talks.” Both Dash and Shiron looked towards the statue.
“Flag Burner knew he wasn’t strong enough to beat Celestia in a fair battle, so he had attacked the ambassadors; their deaths would have stopped the peace talks, and possibly might show Celestia in a bad light.”
“How had Celestia been able to stop him?” Shiron asked, his eyes focused on the statue of Celestia. Since there were statues of the ambassadors with Celestia, surely the ambassadors survived?
“Princess Celestia hadn’t enough time to create a magic shield to protect the ambassadors, so she used the only shield she had…” Dash said softly, just loud enough to hear. “...her own body. “
Shiron looked at Dash with wide eyes, but he was too shocked to say anything.
“Flag Burner used dark magic to try to ensure the death of the ambassadors. Fortunately for them, Princess Celestia took the full of that hit. Despite her injuries, she defeated Flag Burner before she passed out,” Dash said with clear admiration and respect toward Celestia.
“Witnessing that the princess had been risked her life to save them, the ambassadors had realized that that Flag Burner had been the real enemy, not Celestia. Luckily, alicorns are extremely resilient—even to dark magic—so she recovered fully,” Dash finished with a faint smile.
When Shiron had met Celestia, he had felt an aura of wisdom and power around her. He felt safe around her; a feeling of motherly protection. Hearing Rainbow’s words, he was once again amazed by the alicorn princess. Had she known that she was able survive that attack, or had she actually been ready to sacrifice her own life for safety of Equestria and it’s values of peace and harmony?
Whatever the answer was, Shiron felt deep respect toward Celestia. Moreover, he felt even more honored that both Celestia and Luna saw him as a part of their family, even though they just had met him.
Rainbow Dash was able to see that Shiron was pondering about the story. Dash knew that even though it is sometimes boring, it is important to know the history of her home, if only to not repeat the mistakes others have made. It was easy to take the peace and harmony that they live in for granted, but the ultimate price had nearly been payed for it. Should anypony forget about that, there may not be a Celestia to save them.
When Rainbow felt that Shiron was listening again, she finished her story, “To remember that day, a monument and three smaller copies were built. It was that heroic act of Princess Celestia that had lead to the deep friendship between the Griffin Kingdom and Equestria. Nopony knows what would have happened if that Flag Burner had been victorious, and thanks to Princess Celestia, we’ll never have to know.”
One particular part of that story seemed a bit off...
“You said that he called himself ‘Flag Burner’. Does that mean he has another name? Does nopony know exactly who was behind everything?”
Dash expected this question. In every class and every history book this question was asked at least one. “Well, no one except Princess Celestia knows who that pony was. She never published his name or what kind of pony he was. Maybe she kept it a secret to protect his family or something like that,” Dash answered.
For some time, both ponies were silently watching the statue.
“I hope that this story helps Shiron to see what kind of pony Celestia is. Celestia was ready to sacrifice her life for our future and I’m sure that even now she would do the same. That’s why we love Celestia. She not only gives us the day, but she would do everything for her subjects,” Dash thought.
“She gives us hope for a better future. Though Luna had once chosen the wrong path, I’m sure she’ll also show Equestria her true self and how much she cares for her subjects.”
Dash didn’t know why he would even think that, but she felt that he was slowly coming closer to accepting that he wasn’t the monster he feared others would see in him. Even though he still wanted to be a normal pegasus, he might be able to accept himself being an alicorn someday. Someday...
Both ponies stayed a few minutes longer, watching the monument, before finally continued their trip to Cloudsdale.
After a few minutes, Shiron could already feel his wings hurt despite his break. It didn’t make any sense; he had been flying for months now in varying conditions and speeds, but he never had this problem. Shiron looked over at Dash, but it didn’t look as if she was having any problems.
“I should probably ask her about tha- What is that?”
There was a river running down like a waterfall. The first waterfall soon followed several more and all of them were coming from a giant cloud. Normally, this wouldn’t be too surprising. Clouds were made of water, so why shouldn’t rivers fall from them?
Because those rivers were made of rainbows.
And not just individual colours flowing into one massive rainbow river, but each of the streams of the streams were rainbows. How did the colours not merge and become a black, dirty mess?
Thinking about this made Shiron’s head hurt, so he decide to concentrate on absorbing the sights instead.
There were many pegasi flying—and the occasional griffon—to or from that massive cloud. Surrounding the edges of giant cloud were a set of piers and docks for hot air balloons and airships.
Soon he was able to tell that this was Cloudsdale; the Pegasus Capital. He had seen many other cloud settlements, but none as magnificent or breathtaking as this. How many ponies lived there? Ten thousand? Hundred thousand? More?
From the books he borrowed from Twilight, Shiron knew that Cloudsdale was the main city for creating the weather for all of Equestria. Shiron didn’t believe it until he clarified it with Rainbow. Almost all kinds of clouds were made in Cloudsdale and since the whole town was mobile, the whole weather management system was easier to perform.
Especially because of the insane amount of water Cloudsdale needed. From what Dash had explained to Shiron, the whole tornado duty was needed to transport water to Cloudsdale’s weather factory.
Of course, Cloudsdale wasn’t the only city with a weather factory. Since there always was the risk that something could happen to it, several smaller ones were made, especially close to big cities. They were generally redundant, seeing as Cloudsdale’s was more efficient. They weren’t completely useless though; sometimes emergency weather can take too long to arrive. That way, Equestria was always able to at least manage its weather, even if Cloudsdale was unable to do its job.
Shiron was able to see the first buildings of Cloudsdale. It was amazing what pegasus ponies were able to do; a whole city built out of clouds, giving so many ponies homes and jobs.
“No wonder Rainbow Dash loves this place so much,” Shiron thought.
“I never thought something like this was possible!”
Soon, they reached an empty bit of cloud and landed. Rainbow turned to Shiron with a smile but before she was able to say anything, three pegasus stallions landed next to them.
“Hey look, it’s Rainbow Crash,” one of the stallions sneered. He had a dark grayish brown coat and his cutie mark was a dumbbell with six weights.
“What are you doing here? Being all lameo again?” he added.
“Yeah, Rainbow…uhm…Crash!” the second pegasus added with a less intelligent voice. That pegasus had a bluish gray coat and mane covered eyes. His cutie mark was three joofballs.
Rainbow didn’t seem very impressed seeing the three bullies.
“This again? I thought you quit it after my awesomeness during the Best Young Flyers Competition,” she said with a hint of exasperation.
“Yeah, you might have won the BYF Competition and done a Sonic Rainboom,” the third bully shot back,
“However, if you really are that good then you would be a Wonderbolt by now. But you’re still the same old Rainbow Crash and the Wonderbolts are still ignoring you.”
It seemed that Rainbow knew this three ponies but she never mentioned them to Shiron. To Shiron, it didn’t matter who they where, but if they were trying to bully Dash, then they were making a big mistake.
“So, I guess you are so much better at flying, then?” Shiron said skeptically with helping of sarcasm. He looked at the pegasus with the dumbbell cutie mark; most likely the leader of the bullies.
The bully laughed mockingly, “Oh, has our little Crash found a loser friend?”
He took a step closer to Shiron before he added, “I’m sure you’re also a failure, just like Rainbow Crash here, right boys?”
He glanced at his friends.
The other two took a step back, realizing that the pony before them had wings and a horn.
“Maybe we should just go, Dumb Bell...” one of them said.
“Oh come on, don’t be a foal, Hoops!” Dumb Bell exclaimed
“You think I’m afraid of a pegasus pony with a fake horn?”
Trying to prove that he was right, Dumb Bell took a step closer to Shiron and tried to knock off his ‘fake’ horn. Before Rainbow could react, Dumb Bell’s hoof was already stuck in the air; a faint yellow aura covering his hoof.
“Guess you were wrong with your fake horn theory,” Shiron said with a challenging grin, letting go of Dumb Bell after shoving him back with his magic.
At first Dumb Bell wasn’t sure what to do. However, his surprise only lasted a few moments before he was back to his original arrogance, “Fine, you have a real horn. Only proves that you are a wimp of a unicorn, trying to look like an alicorn”
Dumb Bell laughed again.
“Told you guys that this pony is a failure!” Dumb Bell said to his friends, but they were already 200 feet away.
“You know–” Shiron said with a dangerous calm, with his wings flared.
Dumb Bell slowly turned around “–I don’t like my friends being insulted,” Shiron continued. “I really think you should apologize.”
Rainbow wasn’t sure what was happening right now or what to do. Since she knew Shiron; she had see him being sad, happy and even bashful. However, she never saw him being angry. To be honest, Dash never saw any alicorn being angry.
The surrounding air seemed icier than it should be at this altitude...
“I don’t care if you insult me‒” Shiron stated coldly, taking a step toward Dumb Bell,
“‒but I won’t allow anyone to insult my friends.”
Dash saw that Dumb Bell started to sweating. It wasn’t a big surprise; he tried to insult and attack an alicorn. Of course he didn’t know that Shiron didn’t know how to use magic except from two or three simple spells. Neither was he a strong fighter. Just being an alicorn seemed to be enough to shake Dumb Bell.
“I….uh…I was just joking, right Rainbow?” Dumb Bell asked with fear evident in his voice.
Usually it would have disturbed Shiron if someone was afraid of him; he was neither a monster nor violent. Right now, he wanted to stop that bully. Of course Dash was strong and confident and most likely didn’t need any help, but Shiron couldn’t just leave her—well, not exactly ‘to their mercy’, but still...
“I’m…sorry if it sounds…like an insult...” Dumb Belle tried to laugh.
“Well, I think I hear my mates calling…” he added quickly before flying off.
None of them noticed that the crystal on Shiron’s necklace glowing during that entire exchange.
As suddenly as Shiron got angry, his demeanor changed back as if nothing happened. That icy chill in the air also disappeared. Maybe it was just a cold front that just so happened to be passing by?
“I’m sorry about that,” Shiron apologised, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I really don’t like bullies… Admittedly, I got a little carried away back there,” he added with a nervous grin.
“Don’t worry,” Dash waved off with a smile.
“Those three jerks always try to get under my skin, but it was nice of you to help me anyway.”
With a wink she added, “It was also kind of cute!”
She barely managed to hide her amusement at his blush.
“Ha, he’s way too easy to tease,” Dash thought with an inner giggle.
“It’s even easier than teasing Flutters or Twilight!”. Playing a little prank always was fun, even if it’s just verbal.
“Well, back to our trip,” Dash quickly announced, changing the topic.
“There is still a lot to see come on!”
Only a moment later Rainbow Dash was already in the air and Shiron followed her. Moments later, he nearly caught up with her. If Dash wanted to play tag, then he would play it.
Despite taking way longer to fly to Cloudsdale than she had planned, Dash still had some time to show Shiron around Cloudsdale. They visited some of the main attractions like the Wonderbolts arena, one of the rainbowfall springs, the museum of pegasus pony and weather history and Cloudsdale’s market square.
Just like in Ponyville, the citizens of Cloudsdale quickly took notice of Shiron. It being way larger than Ponyville, there were also more pairs of eyes that stared at him.
Seeing her friend starting to feeling uncomfortable with all the attention, Dash tried to restyle Shiron’s mane to cover his horn. It wasn’t perfect, and anypony who would take a closer look would have noticed the horn sticking out of his forehead, but for the time being, it seemed to work. At least most citizens now didn’t take notice.
Luckily it was only his horn that made Shiron look like an alicorn instead of a pegasus. As long as he wouldn’t become as tall as Celestia, getting a longer horn or getting a magical mane, it still was possible to make Shiron look like a pegasus pony.
Rainbow and Shiron landed close to some older looking buildings, with a cloud being protected by some glass-like material. The cloud didn’t look special but there was a sign next to it with writing that looked completely alien to Shiron.
Dash saw Shiron looking at the cloud and said, “This cloud was the foundation of the old Cloudsdale. During the Lunar Rebellion, it got damaged beyond repair. After Celestia stopped the conflicts, both the pegasi and griffons took the old foundation to use it as the foundation of the first version of this Cloudsdale.”
“First version of Cloudsdale?” Shiron asked, confused. What accident caused the need for another version?
“Yes, unlike most pony buildings, cloud buildings are never really finished; you can always add new clouds” Dash answered.
“Oh, so cloud-houses were modular. That actually made quite a bit of sense.” Shiron thought.
“For example, our house; when I moved to Ponyville, it only had a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room and my bedroom, all connected with only a small hall.” Dash continued.
“Yes, it had been a small house but it was my house,” Dash thought.
With evident pride she said “I always worked on it and still am! When I had found a good cloud we didn’t need in Ponyville, I converted it into a structure-cloud and added it to my house. Slowly, my cloud house has turned into a little mansion with enough space for me and my friends. As well as two guestrooms and a second bedroom.”
Of course it hadn’t been that simple. Turning a weather-cloud into a home-cloud wasn’t easy, not to mention all that paperwork! Luckily, Equestria’s laws weren’t too complicated and Dash quickly learned what she needed to do to upgrade her home. That also included using her pegasus magic to modify clouds. Depending on what a cloud should be used for, she sometimes even had to buy special potions to protect her home from getting cold, especially during winter, or to help protect the cloud from condensing or evaporating.
Dash pointed at some buildings in the distance, “Just like my house, Cloudsdale also changed over the time. From a little village—no bigger than Ponyville—it had become the biggest pegasus city with hundred thousands of citizens, maybe even more! Cloud cities don’t really have a size limit,”
With a grin she added “Twilight’s tree has similar abilities. If needed, she could also add more rooms by letting the tree grow. However, tree-buildings do have a size limit.
“It even became a popular contest to show your cloud buildings. The next contest is in 5 months if you are interested.” Dash winked at Shiron, hoping that he would see what she was saying.
“Some ponies use clouds to give their home special forms. Last year I even saw a cloud house that looked like a sleeping dragon!”
Before Dash was able to continue, she heard the bells of the weather factory announcing the time. She silently cursed the fact that there were only 24 hours in the day; there was still so much to see! It was fun showing Shiron her hometown, as little as she managed.
With a sigh, she announced, “Looks like we have to stop our tour here; I need to go to the weather factory now for a meeting. Unfortunately, the meeting is only for the Weather Chief’s of each town.” She hated that she wasn’t able to spend more time with him, or take him to the meeting. It felt like she was letting him down.
“I hope you aren’t mad...”
“Don’t worry, Dash, I’m not mad at you,” Shiron reassured with a smile.
“Where is the weather factory? I could wait there after I visited some shops.”
Seeing the mild confusion on Dash’s face, he explained, “I wanted to buy some saddlebags for some time now, but I couldn’t find anything good ones yet.”
Relieved that Shiron wasn't mad at her, Dash pointed at some odd looking buildings, “You see that building there? The big one, next to some rainbowfalls and a cloud that looks like a giant funnel. That’s the weather factory,“ she said.
“I don’t think the meeting will take that long, so I should be finished in, at most, one and a half hours.”
After a quick scan of the skyline, he found the factory. It looked kind of weird; the mixture of greek architecture and elements of steampunk, “Ok, thanks. I’ll see you there and good luck,” Shiron replied.
“See you later, Shiron” she said before she took off.
As soon as Dash had left, Shiron thought what to do. He assumed that he would need about 20 minutes from the shopping street to the weather factory. Despite the fact that he didn’t lie when he said that he needed some saddlebags, he actually hoped that he would be able to find a good present for Dash.
“Dash really likes the Wonderbolts,” he thought, remembering Spike’s words.
“So, your name’s Shiron?” he suddenly heard a female voice saying behind him.
Shiron turned to the source of the voice and saw an older mare with a blue flying uniform and some goggles on. By the look of her appearance, that mare was a Wonderbolt. That, or she was a big fan of them.
“Uhm, yes, my name Shiron,” he answered, not sure who that pony really was or what she wanted.
“Too bad I missed Rainbow Dash; I would have loved to talk to her again...” the mare said with a hint of sadness.
“Well, let me guess: Dash is here to try to get the tornado duty for Ponyville this year?”
It seemed that this pony knew Rainbow Dash. Shiron wasn’t sure if she was an old friend or something similar, but he answered, “Yes, but how do you know about that?”
“That’s the Dash I know; always trying to get Ponyville and her friends more attention!” she laughed.
“I’m glad she hasn’t changed that much.”
“So, are you an old friend of Rainbow?” Shiron asked the mare.
“Oh, I’m sorry. How impolite of me,” the mare apologized before she put out her hoof to Shiron.
“My name is Stormchaser–" she said with a friendly smile, "–and I think we have a lot to talk about.”
Editor’s Note: Hi! My name is Muranuse, and I will be this fics editor for now. I wanted to get all of this done by the 5th, but I only managed to get 14/26 pages done. I was originally going to do just a quick grammar and spelling check, but after seeing Shiron’s (the OC’s) character, I realised that he wasn’t Gary Stu we all know and dread, so I did a little rewording, a few additions, a bit of rewriting, and when I checked the page-count, I had only done a quarter of what I thought I had done! Anyway, expect a part 2 soon; Half Term is coming!
*prepares party-canon*
Also, anyone else have problems with latency when using a large number of suggestions in GDocs?