//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - Cloudsdale // Story: 10 Days, 3 Adventures - Part 3 - "Cloudsdale Reunion" // by TP Night //------------------------------// “NEXT STOP, CLOUDSDALE GROUND VILLAGE!!!” The conductor shouted across the train, loud and clear. “ARRIVAL IN TEN MINUTES - DEPARTING PASSANGERS, PREPARE YOURSELVES TO DEPART THE TRAIN!” He added, even louder. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both got their bookmarks and packed their books into their saddlebags. Rainbow stretched her hooves and wings a bit as she stood up. “Finally. I was starting to get bored, even with Daring. I usually only read for one, maybe two hours at a time. It’s been over three now...” “Three hours and twenty minutes.” Fluttershy said as she looked at a small clock on one of the train cart walls, above one of the emergency exits. She too got up, and stretched her limbs with slight snapping sounds, especially from her wings, which she instead of keeping folded as pegasi usually did when not flying, had kept unfolded and moved up behind her head, to use as a sort-of “pillow” as she had been sitting leaned into the corner of her seat and the wall during most of the trip. “You sure you can fly with those wings? I mean, using them like that for almost three hours must’ve numbed them, right? You got that tingly numb feeling now, don’t you?” Rainbow asked, half teasing, half serious. “Well, uhm, actually, I often use my wings like that when I’m sitting at home too, so I’ve gotten used to it...” Fluttershy replied with her usual shy smile. As they spoke, both of their stomachs growled a bit. After all, it had been a few hours since breakfast. “Hm.. How about we find someplace to eat lunch first, before we fly up?” Rainbow suggested. “Plus, we can both use some more stretching before we fly. Wouldn’t want to get cramps half-way. After all, it’s quite a bit up.” She added. “C-cramps? I..uhm..” Fluttershy started in a nervous tone, but Rainbow quickly noticed Fluttershys growing unease, and calmed her down. “Don’t worry, Flutters. You won’t cramp if we make sure to just rest a bit first, and even if, by some immensely small chance you do feel anything, I’ll be there too. I won’t let you fall.” She said in a soft tone, but then added, almost sounding sad, “...not this time.. not again...” This time it was Fluttershys turn to calm Rainbow down. “Oh, that was many years ago, and you’ve always been there for me. You’ve never let me down. Let’s not speak of this again, okay? that time was a once-in-a-lifetime accident, and... without it, you wouldn’t have made the sonic rainboom, and I wouldn’t have found the butterflies and all the small critters, and... without that rainboom, our lives would’ve been completely different now. We probably would’ve never met the others, or become the elements, or meet and even become friends with all the royals in Equestria...” Rainbow smiled again. “Yeah, you’re right.. it all ended up good in the end.” The two ponies shared a quick hug, before the conductor yelled again. “NOW ARRIVING AT CLOUDSDALE GROUND STATION!!! DEPARTING PASSANGERS, GET OFF!!! REMAINING PASSANGERS, GET OUT OF THE WAY AND THE DEPARTING ONES PASS!!!” Rainbow grinned. “Imagine that guys daily consumption of cough drops. Must be several packs a day, with all that yelling. I saw him earlier, he’s not a unicorn, so he can’t use magic to enhance the voice, that’s all natural!” “And imagine his lung capacity... I bet he could have been an opera singer if he had musical talent.” “Yeah.” Rainbow smiled. “Anyway, we better get off before he starts yelling again, I’m not sure my ears can handle much more of his Royal Canterlot Voice.” Fluttershy agreed with a gentle nod and a small laugh at the Canterlot voice joke. The train stopped, and they both got off. Rainbow took a deep breath of the cool air, a faint wind blowing, barely stronger than a breeze. “Aaah... fresh air.” Fluttershy took a few deep breaths too, smiling. As she did, she started sniffing the air. “Something smells good...” She said, sniffing some more. Rainbow started sniffing the air too, quickly picking up the scent. “Hmm, you’re right. Smells like garlic bread. And onion soup, right...?” “It’s coming from over there, I think.” Fluttershy pointed at what looked like a small diner on the other side of the train tracks. “What do you think, should we check it out? Smells pretty good, so it’ll probably taste as good as it smells.” Rainbow suggested. Fluttershy thought about it for a moment. “Well, some soup and garlic bread would be nice, actually... Yes, let’s go there.” She smiled. The two pegasi waited until the train departed, and then used their wings as boosters to perform a “Long Jump” across the tracks, landing softly on the opposite side, and walking over to the Diner. The sign on the door read “Grey-Feathers Diner”. “Grey-Feather? Sounds like a Griffin name.” Rainbow noted. “Yes, it does.. Maybe a griffin owns this place?” Fluttershy said. “Probably. Anyway, let’s head inside and see if there are any empty seats. I’m hungry.” Rainbow said, and opened the door, holding it open for Fluttershy. “Thanks.” She said with a smile as she entered, followed by Rainbow. * * * Inside the aroma from the food was even stronger. Despite this, only a few tables were taken, and several were free. Rainbow and Fluttershy looked around, and behind the counter, they saw a female griffin, a bit above average weight, with a hairnet on her head and a apron around her upper body. “Welcome to Grey-Feather’s Diner. I’m Grey-Feather, owner and chef. And today I’m also the cashier, because my regular is on vacation. Pegasus. Goin’ to that reunion thing up in Cloudsdale. Guessing that’s why you’re here too, eh?” Her tone was friendly, and her voice was relatively deep for a female. “Yeah, that’s right. We’re going to the reunion, but we wanted some lunch first, and we caught the smell from this place.” Rainbow said, smiling. “I’ll have a menu please, I wanna see my options here.” “Uhm.. I’d like soup, please.. and, uhm, some garlic bread on the side, if you have any... It smelled like garlic bread, so I was hoping you had some...” Fluttershy said in her usual, shy tone. “Sure, but I got more than one soup you know, so what would you like? Todays soups are, Tomato soup, potato soup, onion soup, or my family recipe mixed-vegetables stew with carrots, potato, leek, sweetcorn, some secret herbs, and shredded cabbage.” “Uhm.. the tomato soup, please... if it’s not too spicy...” “Don’t worry, it’s the non-spicy kind, just plain tomato and a pinch of sea salt.” Grey-Feather said, and then turned to Rainbow who was looking at the menu. “And you? Decided yet?” “I’ll have a hayburger, medium size, with cheese.. and can I get a couple of slices of tomato on it too?” “Sure, I can add a slice or two, got really big tomatoes here. Local farm south of here. Now, both of you, last question - What do you wanna drink?” “Peach ice tea.” Rainbow said, giving the menu back to Grey-Feather. “I’d like that too.” Fluttershy added. “Okay then. One tomato soup, one medium cheeseburger plus tomato, and two ice teas, peach flavor. Gonna be about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, have a cookie as an appetizer.” The griffin waved her talon at a large jar of Chinese fortune cookies at the counter, next to the cash register. “Ooh, fortune cookies.” Fluttershy smiled. “What are those?” Rainbow asked. “Well, they’re usually served in Asian restaurants, after the meal... You take one and break it open, and inside is a small scroll of paper with some words of wisdom, or a quote from a philosopher, or a riddle, or stuff like that.” Fluttershy smiled. “Me and Rarity sometimes visit a small noodle shop in Ponyville, and they serve these after the meal.” “Sounds egghead-y, but I’ll have one anyway. Want one?” “Yes, please.” Fluttershy smiled. The two ponies grabbed their cookies, and broke them open, revealing the scrolls. Rainbow opened her first, and read it out loud. “It says... You will face trouble in your near future, but you will overcome it.” Rainbow smirked. “Yeah, that’s a good fortune... I always face trouble, and I always overcome it! What did yours say?” Fluttershy opened hers, and read it. “Your meal is Half-price if you show this scroll to Grey-Feather.” Rainbow looked at her. “No seriously, what did it say?” Fluttershy held it up to Rainbows face. “That is what it said, look for yourself.” A minute later, Grey-Feather returned with the food. Fluttershy held the fortune scroll up to her. “Uhm.. I got this in the cookie... does that mean my meal if half price, like it says?” “What? Oh for Celestias sake... He really did include those discount scrolls...” “Who?” Fluttershy asked. “My brother, Grey-Tail. He makes these cookies, including writing the scrolls he puts inside them. Last time he said he’d made scrolls with discounts on them. I thought he was joking. Guess not... Don’t worry, I’ll give you the discount. And then I’m gonna have him pay me the rest of it. And because of that, I’m also giving you dessert on the house. and by “on the house” I mean his credit.” Rainbow grinned at the offer. “Wow, thanks! By the way, this hayburger is awesome!” Grey-Feather smiled. “Thanks, hun. Family recipe on that too. In fact, all my food is. As for that dessert... you like chocolate cake?” Both ponies nodded. “Oh yes, I love chocolate.” Fluttershy replied while eating her soup and garlic bread. “ooh.. very garlic-y, just like I like it.” She added with a growing smile. “Glad you ladies like my food. You’re welcome back anytime.” After they finished eating, the two ponies left the diner. Rainbow looked straight up. “Wanna wait a bit, or wanna fly up right away?” “Oh, I think we should rest a bit first, let the food settle a bit. We could go sit down in the park behind the station for a while.” “Sure, let’s do that.” Rainbow replied, as they started walking, and once again jumped across the rails to the station side. They went around the station to a small park, one they had been to many times before. It had a small pond, some trees, benches, and a lot of bushes and flowers. they sat down on a bench, with their bags placed beside it on the ground. As they sat there, Fluttershy dosed off a bit. A little while later, she awoke from Rainbow gently poking her side, and whispering. “Flutter. Look. I know how much you love birds, so I thought you wanted to see this.” Rainbow said, pointing at her head - where a Swallow sat in her mane, with a focused stare at the pond in front of them. Fluttershy giggled lightly. “I think she’s using you as a look-out post. She’s probably hunting bugs.” “Great... So I’m a watchtower now...” Rainbow smirked. Fluttershy smiled. “I can ask her to leave if you want...” “Nah, it’s okay. We can stay a few more minutes before we head out. It’s still the middle of the day, and we’re not in a hurry. The reunion starts tomorrow, and your family knows we usually take it easy. They won’t expect us yet for a while.” “True, I never gave them any specific time, I just told them sometime during today.” “Exactly my point.” Rainbow grinned. Suddenly, the swallow spread its wings and flew off of he head, straight at the pond, where she caught something, and then flew off into one of the nearby trees. “Well, guess I’m not a watchtower anymore. Wanna get going?” “Oh well, yes, we’re done here anyway... We might as well get it over with.” the two pegasi stretched their wings, grabbed their saddlebags, and took off into the air, flying almost straight upwards for several minutes. As they rose, the air got warmer. They found a spot of thermal winds, and spread their wings wider, letting the rising warm air do most of the work as the slowly glided around in circles, upwards. the flight took them about five minutes, after which they broke off from the thermal stream and made a last push with their wings to reach the landing platforms on the outskirts of the flying city, Cloudsdale.