"Life has a Volume Knob"

by Vermilion and Sage

Chapter 3: A 'Shocking' Revelation

Chapter 3: A 'Shocking' Revelation

Audio gave Cloudtamer a ten minute head start, and then started making his way to the Flight School’s campus. His little trek passed without incident and soon enough he was at the door to the classroom that Cloudtamer taught in, which was filled with fifteen or so students being trained in general weather control. He made eye contact with her and she nodded to him from the other side of the glass. As soon as he got the signal, Audio ducked out of sight of the window in case any of her students caught the nod and looked back at him, ruining the surprise. Putting his ear to the door, he heard random chatter coming from within. After a moment Cloud cleared her throat and told them to hush.

“…Now, as you are all well aware, every last one of you passed the last prac-app test. True to my word, I’ve brought a very special guest with me today.” Cloudtamer said aloud, to a collective chatter of excitement which was brought to a halt when one of the students broke through the noise to make an inquiry of her own.

“Miss Cloudtamer? Is it your very special somepony?” The student, a filly by the sound of it, asked. Audio heard Cloudtamer laughing as the noise mounted yet again, into an excited chaos of conversation.

“Yes Windchaser, I’ve brought my very special somepony with me today. In fact…I think he’s just outside the door. Why don’t you go get him?” Cloudtamer said both sweetly, and innocently. Audio counted down the seconds until he heard the door handle catch, and a filly’s head appeared shortly afterward. Audio noted that she was older than she sounded. Windchaser’s eyes widened as she made eye contact with Audio and the young mare let out an excited squeal, bolting back into the classroom leaving the door wide open in her wake. The excited chatter reached a climax as the other pegasi pelted her with questions, only to be hushed once again as Audio stepped inside. A collective gasp ran through the room, but otherwise it was silent as he walked up to the front of the room, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. Audio turned to look at the class, casting his gaze over the students. He corrected himself mentally; these were young stallions and mares in this class, not fillies and colts. Most of them looked to be middle adolescent age.

“Students, this is Audio Shock.” She said, giggling. “he is my very special somepony.”

“No…way…” one of the colts said disbelievingly. “DJ Arc? HE’S your coltfriend?”

“S’right kid. Not a myth, also not much of a DJ either. I mostly focus on other artists work helping them get better sound quality if they aren’t satisfied. But in between contracts I do occasionally throw together a few of my own tracks.” Audio said, his voice filling the room without much trouble. Just because he was generally soft spoken, didn’t mean he couldn’t speak loudly when he wanted. The same excited colt’s eyes brightened as questions began to form faster than he could ask.

“I’ve read all about you! Is it true that you were in the Princess’s Royal Guard?” he asked, speaking so quickly that Audio was having trouble distinguishing between words. The colt’s excitement radiated through the rest of the class, who seemed to be in just as much awe as he was. Understandably so, as a DJ was an unlikely match for a teacher like her.

“That was years ago kid. Back when I was Lieutenant Shock of the Darkwatch.” Audio said to a general murmur of approval. The Darkwatch was one of the most dangerous and sought after occupations, and one of the hardest to get into. Each member was in top physical condition and a quick thinker as well. They had to be. The purpose of the Darkwatch was keeping rogue storms and weather patterns from forming at night and disrupting the cycles that the weather pegasi worked so hard to keep on schedule.

“I thought that the Darkwatch was made up of weather pegasi like us, not the Royal Guard?” The student asked, clearly confused. It was a little known fact that while the Darkwatch was made up primarily of highly trained weather pegasi, that a trio of the Royal Guard were directly in charge of the Darkwatch. Audio went ahead and explained this to the young flier, after which he told a few of the stories he liked to share with Cloudtamer’s classes whenever he made an appearance. Cloudtamer walked out from behind her desk and took a place at his side, nuzzling his neck. The door latch clicked open again, and a familiar yellow pegasus with a windswept fiery orange mane walked into the classroom, drawing stares and another gasp of awe.

“Afternoon Cloudtamer.” Spitfire greeted her friend. “Hey Audio! I heard you were in the neighborhood. Thought I’d drop by and invite the two of you to dinner with Soarin’ and I tonight.” She added with a wink to Audio. He felt a near imperceptible stiffening in Cloudtamer as she noticed the gesture. She looked up at Audio, who met her eyes and simply smiled. Audio brought his attention to the classroom, laughing quietly to himself as he counted the dropped jaws and dumbstruck faces. Shifting his focus yet again, he looked back at Spitfire. He knew that he could count on her and Soarin’ to get everything in place, and was once again he had found his trust to be well placed.

“We’d love to.” Audio replied, smiling “Where at and when?”

“Soarin’ reserved a table at The Crystal Pony in Canterlot, so there around Nine-ish?” The yellow mare said, almost questioningly. Audio nodded, and started thinking of ways to placate Cloud’s insatiable curiosity.

“That sounds great, Spitfire! See you there.” Audio replied for the both of them. Spitfire nodded and exited the room, leaving him to the scrutiny of his marefriend. Knowing this, Audio jumped on the opportunity to cover his flank as quickly as possible. He wasn’t going to take the risk of his plans being exposed until the time was right.

“Why’d she wink at you?” He asked, turning to regard the mare next to him with a look of utter confusion plastered across his face.

“I thought she was winking at you!” Cloud replied. This was funny. Very funny indeed, for the second time in a single day, Cloudtamer was legitimately at a loss as to what was going on. The first time couldn’t really be counted though, since even Audio couldn’t quite remember what had possessed him to write down that page of notes that she’d been so interested in earlier this morning.

“Huh. Well maybe it was a twitch or something. You know she’s always flying around without those flight goggles on.” Audio mentioned, trying to shift the subject as much as possible. He turned his attention to the classroom full of colts and fillies. Though to be fair, most of them were nearly the same age that Audio had been when he was selected for the Darkwatch, so filly and colt were probably misnomers. While he wasn’t an instructor himself, Audio had learned quite a few tricks over the years, and always made a point to pass on a few tips to each class that he met.

“Alright, now how about you open your little ears and pay good attention to what I’ve got to teach you here.” He said, looking back and seeing that Cloudtamer was already drawing the diagram on the whiteboard. Audio knew without asking, that she was still going over the conversation with Spitfire in her head over and over again. He didn’t need to ask. Her writing was getting more compact as it always did whenever she was focusing hard on something. Despite her new distraction, Cloud was almost done etching out the diagrams that Audio would need for the first part of the lecture. This was much easier for her to guess, because he gave the same lecture each year. She was constantly one step ahead of him.

‘Or almost constantly.’ Audio thought, laughing internally. Focusing again on the task at hoof he brought his mental notes to bear. Audio started off by showing them a few small tricks for getting that extra little burst of speed needed for tackling particularly stubborn rainclouds. After a short break, and a couple questions, he continued on, teaching the class how to read the wind without using clouds for a reference, by looking at trees, grass, and the way that birds were reacting in flight. Just as usual, each student was drinking in his lesson, and taking detailed notes. Cloudtamer was a bit of a stickler for note taking, and would assign extra homework to those students who decided not to take anything down for a particular lesson.

He went on for about an hour and a half before saying his goodbyes, and signing a few pictures taken by the eager colt fan, whose name he had come to learn was Jetstream. Audio took an interest in this particular colt, because he was a virtual encyclopedia for everything weather, making Audio seriously doubt that the colt needed this particular class in the first place. Jetstream also appeared to be in peak physical condition. He made a mental note to talk to Shining Armor about keeping an eye on Jetstream as a potential Darkwatch candidate. While he was no longer a member of the Guard he still kept in relatively good contact with his old boss, though ultimately the decision of who was accepted into the ranks of the Darkwatch was up to Lieutenant Skyfire, the new commander. Apparently his word was still largely respected amongst the Darkwatch, so Audio figured that if he dropped Jetstream’s name to Skyfire, that the he’d drop in for a visit in the near future.

Jetstream handed Audio a photo to sign of the two of them high-hoofing in front of the whiteboard. Audio took the photo and signed it, leaving a quick message reading “Life has a volume knob, crank it to 11!–Audio Shock.

Shortly thereafter Audio took his leave of the classroom with Cloudtamer following closely behind. He was almost a little surprised that she had failed to bring up Jetstream in any of their conversations previous, though he didn’t really have time to bring it up as they stepped out into the hallway and Audio hugged her goodbye. Once again he tried to steer the subject of conversation in a favorable direction

“I’m going back to my place for a few hours, to finish replacing my speakers, and tidy up a bit. I’ll be back afterward though, to pick you up and then we can go to meet Spitfire and Soarin’ in Canterlot.” While he didn’t particularly want to leave, Cloud had a few more lessons to go through yet, and he had some things to take care of as well.

“I think you just made Jetstream’s day. I had to keep myself from laughing every time he mentioned your stagename in class.” Cloud said, tracing Audio’s jawline with the tip of an outstretched wing. Audio had come to realize this to be an extreme sign of affection, coming from her. “And please, please be careful flying back. Ponyville is scheduled to have a large storm today. I know you’re a good flier…but accidents happen.” Cloud said to her coltfriend, obviously worried. She always worried. Audio hugged her tight and reassuringly.

“I’ll be fine. The storm isn’t supposed to be starting until later tonight, when most everypony will be in for the night, and out of harm’s way. We’ll be in Canterlot by then, and afterward, just so you won’t have to worry, we’ll stay the night at your cloudhome.” Audio reassured her again. He hoped it would work, and was relieved when she relaxed a bit and smiled back at him.

"Well you better get at it then, Staticbrain.” Cloud teased him using her little nickname that she had tagged him with after realizing that he nearly ate, slept and breathed music. Rolling his eyes, Audio nipped her on the neck right underneath her ear, causing her to draw a sharp breath in. He looked back at Cloud, whose eyes glowed with a dangerously playful look. Audio could almost see his impish grin reflected off them. He knew how to get her going.

“Oh you’re such a tease!” Cloud complained her voice slightly whiny.

“I’ll make it up to you later, love.” Audio responded, giving roguish wink before turning around and making his way out of the school.

Cloud watched him walk down the hallway and disappear around the corner. He was hiding something, but she wasn’t sure what it possibly could be. She knew that they had been invited to dinner in Canterlot by her childhood friend Spitfire, but it lacked any kind of special occasion that she knew of. There were no holidays, minor or major, within several weeks. Cloud wished that she’d have had more time to ply Audio with questions regarding their evening plans, but the day was busy until they'd have to leave for dinner. Sighing, Cloud entered the classroom once more, and was immediately assaulted by a barrage of questions about how they’d met, where, and how long they'd been dating. Cloudtamer took the time to answer each of them.

“We met at the Grand Galloping Gala, about 4 years ago, but we've known each other since Flight School, in this class, in fact.” Cloudtamer started, recalling the night as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. “Audio was there overseeing the event, keeping the skies clear. He was mingling like all the others, when Spitfire pointed him out to me. I didn’t have a special somepony at the time, and I highly suspected that she would try to get me with somepony that night. He was easy to spot in the dark because his coat was died to the regulation white at the time, and I didnt recognize him right away. at least, not until he showed me his cutie mark. Anyway, Spitfire nudged me in his direction, even walking me over and then introducing us, after which she disappeared into the crowd. We talked a bit, and when another one of his Darkwatch showed up to take over for him, we went for a walk in the gardens, and things just kind of evolved from there.” Cloud finished. She just gave the basic rundown, like she did with everypony she had this conversation with.

“But no more questions for now, we’ve got another lesson to cover before the day is done, and this one is fun, so take good notes, and pay attention.” She said, turning her gaze to the whiteboard full of pictures and diagrams she had drawn up for Audio. She briefly went over the conversation with Spitfire again while she cleared the board and drew up a few more pictures and a table of wind speeds. Turning to the class she saw them already busy copying down the drawings. Cloud gave them all a few minutes to finish their notes before launching into one of her favorite lessons on how to break apart a tornado in its developing stages, right up to after it had made touchdown.

The rest of the day went by faster than Cloud had anticipated, and before she knew it the bell was ringing and she was on her way back home, cheerfully thinking of all the ways she could wring Audio’s little gray neck to wrest his secrets from him.

Comments

[Vermilion]

Well after a long wait, Chapter Three is finally done! I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it!

[Faggot]

hur dur
-abreeham lincan

[Vermilion]

1424889

I see...anything else?