A Storm of Emotions

by MelodyMori

Chapter 1 - Home

Summer Storm’s POV
Ponyville, 5th of Summer’s Dawn, 1082

I tried my best to follow Rainbow Dash to her house, my stubby legs making me a lot slower than the older mare. On top of that, I was a bit weighed down by all the cake and other delicious pastries that I devoured at the party. Never tell Pinkie Pie it was too early for cupcakes, I learned the hard way.

“So, uh, where is yer house, Ms. Dash?” I looked up at the cyan mare, having to squint a bit thanks to the bright sunlight.

“Just Rainbow or Dash is fine Storm, ‘Ms. Dash’ makes me sound old.” Dash lets out a snort of amusement, shaking her head. “And you’ll see it if you look up.”

I raised an eyebrow and looked up, gasping at the sight before me. Calling Dash’s abode a ‘house’ a, well, house was the understatement of the century. The building was more of a three-floored cloud mansion. The mansion even had several rainbow waterfalls coming out of it!

“...Woah.” I breathed out, my jaw hanging open in sheer awe at the cloud mansion before me. Well, more above me considering it was sitting at least twenty feet in the air, minimum.

Dash grinned as she flew up a bit, her forehooves crossed in pride. “Nice, huh? Built it myself! Took almost a year but it was worth it!” she waved a hoof towards me before she flew towards the house itself. “C’mon, the inside is as cool as the outside!”

I nodded and cautiously opened my own wings, feeling almost like I was spreading a pair of webbed hands out from my spine.. Truth be told, while I was excited to take to the sky again, I hadn’t had a chance to try out my new wings and see the difference between the bat-like wings and the more bird-like pegasi wings I flew with before. I took a deep breath and jumped up into the air, giving my wings a few tentative flaps to push me into the air.

It took a moment but I was able to quickly, almost instinctively, figure it out. Flying as a thestral felt more like I was catching the air with the webbed-finger-like bat wings instead of just catching the air with the feathers in my pegasus wings. It didn’t feel uncomfortable, just different. In the end, it took a minute to fly up to Dash, but once I got going I was able to turn rather quickly to face her.

“Looks like you got the basics down, Squirt.” Dash grinned, ruffling my own prismatic mane with a hoof. “Now come on, I do have work today so we’re gonna have to be quick. Sorry, wish I could stay longer but I already missed too many days, and not even Princess Luna can save me from a firing.” She let out a nervous chuckle and zipped towards her house, while I did my best to follow as fast as I could.

Once I got to the front door I landed next to Dash on the cloud that made up the ‘ground floor’, sighing a bit as I folded up my tired wings. I held one forehoof over my eyes as I turned to her, the sun now starting to actually bother my eyes. “Can we go inside? Mah eyes are killin’ me for some reason.”

Dash raised a concerned eyebrow but chose to open the doors as dramatically as possible instead of prying. “Gentlefilly, behold! My house!”

I let out a small giggle and cantered into the foyer, once again sighing in relief as my eyes were no longer stinging. Looking to the right I spied some kind of shield with a lightning bolt on it over a dark grey vase. On the right was a statue of a pegasus wearing goggles in flight. In front of me was a long staircase, obviously leading upstairs to...whatever was upstairs.

“Huh, ya have a nice foyer.” I smiled up at the cyan mare, who gave me a happy grin as she closed the doors behind her.

“Oh, the foyer is just the appetizer! C’mon, you got to meet Tank!” Dash rushed up the stairs, almost leaving her trademark rainbow contrail behind her as she went.

Meanwhile, I simply blinked in surprise before cantering after her, a confused look plastered on my face. “If that’s a pet, then how is it named ‘tank’? Ah thought this place wasn’t advanced enough for tanks...”

I headed up the stairs and took a left, following the noise to a nice living room. The floor and walls looked like they were made out of stone and marble with cloud designs, respectively. A dark blue armchair and couch with cloud pillows and some glass and metal tables furnished the room, giving it an almost Ancient Greek look.

Dash herself was sitting on the floor petting an adorable-looking tortoise. The little guy looked up at Dash with a smile on his face, clearly enjoying the attention. Dash looked over and grinned once she saw me, waving me over with a hoof.

“Over here Storm!” Dash called out, her hoof almost frantically waving in the air. “Storm, I want you to meet Tank, my awesome pet tortoise! Tank, meet Summer Storm, Luna’s kid.”

“H-hey Tank.” I held out my hoof to the small tortoise, receiving a light headbutt on my hoof from Tank in response. I smiled and gave his head a gentle pat, a little worried about hurting him, to be honest.

“Aww, he likes you.” Dash chuckled and smiled warmly at the sight. She took a quick glance at the clock and had her eyes nearly bug out of her head at the sight of the time. “Oh fu-I mean, let me show you your room for the summer, and then we can drop by Sweet Apple Acres. AJ wants to show you around the farm.” The pegasus rubbed the back of her head and grumbled under her breath. “Unfortunately we have to be quick before I’m late.”

I rolled my eyes and chuckled at the pegasus’ tardiness. “Don’t worry Dash, Ah understand. Where is mah room?”

The two of us headed up another set of stairs to a handful hoofful of green doors with the same cloud-style as the floor. Dash opened the door on the right and held out her hoof in a dramatic gesture showing....a rather generic room. Simple wooden dresser, metal and glass bedside table, lamp, a cloud...nest?

“Uh, Dash, what’s with the nest?” I raised an eyebrow at the sight, trotting over to the strange furniture. It looked comfortable enough, with a cloud pillow sitting within.

Dash stepped over to me, her head tilted in confusion as she poked the nest with one hoof. “It’s a nest, Storm. Er, pegasi like to sleep in nests made of clouds instead of beds like most ponies, something about instincts or whatever.” Dash shrugged, her wings shifting with the motion. “We can get a normal mattress if you want.”

“No, no, a nest is fine.” I rubbed the back of my head, feeling my cheeks grow a bit hot in embarrassment. “Ah just never saw somethin’ like that before. Back home...” I frowned a bit, my eyes growing hot for a moment before I blinked it away. “Back home we only had mattresses.”

Dash put a hoof on my back, giving it a comforting squeeze. “Trust me Squirt, you’re going to love a nest. Oh, that reminds me!” she sped over to the small closet in the corner and rummaged around for a moment. She pulled out my small stuffed bear and set it in the nest with a triumphant grin.

I blinked and let out a small giggle at the sight. “Thank you. Uh, Ah don’t wanna cut the moment short but shouldn’t we be headin’ out?”

Dash nodded and opened my bedroom window. “Yeah, you’re right. C’mon Squirt, I’ll race ya to Sweet Apple Acres!”

“Oh, yer on!” I yelled back, trotting over to the window to accept the challenge.

---

Nightshade’s POV
Cloudsdale, 4th of Summer’s Dawn, 1082

“Mom, why weren’t you there to save us?” North Star whined, his high voice ringing through the winter landscape.

My eyes snapped open, a harsh gasp rattling out of my mouth as I was dragged out of my nightmare. While I may not have been covered in sweat thanks to having chitin instead of skin, my wings were flapping a bit in an effort to keep myself cool. I rubbed a hoof over my head in an attempt to ground myself before rolling out of bed.

The feeling of only three hooves touching the floor was still something I was not used to, and I had to fight the urge to limp around. The prosthetic helped for sure, but I couldn’t feel anything once chitin met metal. My growing irritation made the small electrical device at the ‘frog’ of the prosthetic spark a bit, not enough to damage the floor but enough to catch my attention.

“By Hurricane’s sheath, you’re driving yourself crazy Midnight,” I growled to myself, shaking my head in an effort to dispel the lingering dread from my nightmare. “Focus, filly, focus.”

I cantered down the stairs, drinking in the sky-blue floor and white walls of my home like I’d never see it again. A horrible thought but considering I nearly died last ‘mission’ I couldn’t count out death for the next one. I spun down the next staircase, heading down to the closest thing to a ‘basement’ in Cloudsdale, City of Clouds.

The stairs ended in a locked metal door with a small hole in place of a keyhole. I slid my changeling horn into the hole and felt it draw a piece of my magic inside, verifying my identity before unlocking. I flicked on the single lightbulb in the room with a wave of my hoof, revealing an old suit of leather and metal armor on a ponyquin. I stepped over to the armor, carefully inspecting it to make sure the enchantments to keep the rust and rot off it was still active. Once I made sure of that, I began to put it on for the first time in...well, ages.

First I put on a black light cloth dress to give a bit of buffer between my armor and chitin. It wrapped around my chest and hugged my barrel, moving toward my flank and hanging off almost like a skirt, but left my legs bare to ensure proper mobility. Once it was secure and my wings were free to move I started to put the actual armor on. Around my barrel went a dark grey piece of studded leather, tight enough to ensure that it wouldn’t get in the way but loose enough to ensure I could move easily and quickly. Around all four of my legs went dark grey studded leather gauntlets, the middle protruding outwards to ensure strikes get deflected properly. I set a leather skirt around my waist to protect my flank, completing the simple layered look. I didn’t have a helmet, having lost it ages ago.

All geared up I ventured back upstairs to make sure all my locks were set and my note was on the table if Lightning Dust or somepony else managed to get in. I kissed the forehead of both of my spouses and my foal, my teeth almost clanking against the cold stone.

“I promise, I will bring you back,” I swore to the silent room, nodding to myself.

All set I ventured back to the basement and opened a secret hatch, pushing myself through the cloud layer. Once I hit the bottom layer of Cloudsdale I properly buzzed my wings, disappearing into the night, my destination clear: Our Town.

Author's Note:

Happy belated anniversary to PTFG! Their 10th anniversary was the 18th! Admittedly I was supposed to update that day since it was a Saturday but like a fool, I never hit 'submit'.

I know Rainbow Dash in canon has a normal bed, but I find the idea of pegasi sleeping in cloud nests too adorable to not use.

Hope you all enjoyed it! Writing multiple POV's is going to be interesting, especially since I plan to have this fic be more of a slow burn versus everything happening in a week like the prequel. Anyway, let me know what you think of the chapter, and see you Saturday!

Comments

[Degenerat]

🧀🐀

[shadow wolf1573]

Nice

[RegMoDII]

“By Hurricane’s sheath, you’re driving yourself crazy Midnight,” I growled to myself, shaking my head in an effort to dispel the lingering dread from my nightmare. “Focus, filly, focus.”

I could just have a dirty mind, but if this is what I think it is, this is great

[Wolfwaffe]

Okay... Look, my only bit of critique here is the usage of 'POV xyz' prefixes. For goodness sake, find some other way to distinguish POVs.

[SethFilms]

yooo i just read 'flurry of problems' and now I cant wait for more!!!

keep it up!!!~

[Auram Potentia]

wait so the changling is part of the family that is stoned in the house and not just stashing them there?