Storm on the Horizon
The Study of a Winning Pony
Chapter 25: Storm on the Horizon
I do not like mornings. Especially when those mornings start before the sun has even risen. Spike seemed to agree with my sentiment considering he was sound asleep on my back as I trotted down Ponyville's pre-dawn streets. I felt more than a little bit of jealousy as my head and body ached with fatigue.
I arrived at Ponyville's park right as the sun started to peek over the horizon. There were a couple dozen ponies already gathered in a circle despite the unnatural hour most of whom I recognized from the weather team. A couple synapses in my brain snapped off in a lazy, delayed fashion, and I remembered that Rainbow Dash had told most of her fellow weather ponies to be here.
Rainbow was zipping about the circle, and I started making out her words as I got closer. "I just know we're gonna nail this thing! Imagine, Ponyville up on the record board in the weather factory at Cloudsdale! Rainbow Dash's record-holding weather team!"
Cloud Kicker gave Rainbow a smile. "That sounds great, Boss."
"You bet it is!" Rainbow wrapped a wing around Cloud and dragged her into the center of the circle. "Don't worry, I'll make sure they put your name right underneath mine." She grinned and flew over to drag Blossomforth from the opposite side of the circle from Cloud. "You too. Don't worry, I won't forget my two assistant managers when they give us a trophy."
Blossomforth cleared her throat. "I'm not sure there is a trophy for this."
"Well there should be," Rainbow said dismissively. "And there will be once they see how awesome Ponyville is." She wrapped a wing around each of her assistant managers and drew them closer. Cloud gave a tentative smile, but Blossomforth turned away in complete disinterest. Cloud’s smile morphed into a pained wince as she reluctantly turned away from her now distant friend. Their reactions to one another caused a tenseness in my chest. I didn’t like seeing two friends not getting along like this. That was probably something I should help with once tornado duty was dealt with.
“Alright everypony! Put a hoof in the center of the ring, and on three I want everypony to give a big cheer!” If Rainbow noticed the discomfort between her weather managers, she didn't show it. Either she was that oblivious or she was trying to patch up the rift through sheer bravado. With Rainbow, there was no telling which. “One! Two! Three!” The crowd gave a half-hearted cheer, either not having their hearts into the cheer or, like me, only being half-awake this early in the pseudo-morning.
Rainbow wasn’t going to be content with that lack of showing. “I can’t hear you! Louder!” She ran the gathered pegasi through the cheer a couple more times until she got a satisfactory level of enthusiasm for the cheer. “Great! Now everypony split up into your teams! Blossomforth, get everypony ready for warm-ups, I gotta take care of some other stuff real quick.”
Blossomforth nodded. “Sure thing, Rainbow.”
Rainbow Dash zipped over to me, a big grin on her face. “Hey, finally decided to show up?”
I gave her an affirming grunt and then drank deeply from the very large cup of coffee I had brought with me, hoping it would jumpstart my brain into working at something like normal speed. I really didn't need to be walking around like a zombie at a time like this.
Rainbow snorted out a giggle at my obvious displeasure. She was way too bright and chipper given the time, especially for somepony well known for taking naps throughout the day. "Hey, Twi. S'the matter? Too many late-night study sessions?"
My answering grunt sounded distinctly disgruntled.
She gave me a teasing poke to the cheek. "Is that a yes?"
"Don't worry, Dash," Cloud Kicker said, trotting up to the pair of us. "I'm fluent in half-awake grunts. And that was indeed a confirmation."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "You would know that language. I bet you hear it from a different pony every morning."
"Well, I don't mean to brag, but..." Cloud trailed off, buffing her hoof on her chest.
"Good to see you're all so chipper," I said, taking another sip of my coffee.
"'Course we are! We got an awesome day ahead!" Rainbow flitted her wings, as though it was all she could do not to just take off into the sky.
"Tell me when it's actually day," I grumbled.
"Oh c'mon." Rainbow wrapped a leg around my neck and pointed at the sun, which had only begun to peek over the horizon. It was still more than enough to make me squint in pain. "It's totally day."
"That depends on how you classify the beginning of the day." I was sure I had read that classification somewhere, but my sleep-deprived brain couldn't recall what it was.
"Sunrise, of course. Duh," Rainbow said as though it were there most obvious thing in the world.
Cloud gave me a teasing grin. "I do recall something about how sunrise is magically significant..."
I groaned as I looked into my badly depleted cup of coffee. "That is true, considering there are several magical effects and anomalies tied to the rising of the sun." It was a topic I had gone over at length with Princess Celestia, considering she did control the sun.
Rainbow let me go and turned back towards the training field. "Oh, stop being a grouch, Twilight. We're about to make history! So, we need to set up the training facilities and start running ponies through their paces, and round up any stragglers." Rainbow rubbed her chin. "Twi, you’re good with lists, and terrible with ... well, any form of exercise, really. So I guess that means you're on straggler roundup."
"Thanks for considering my natural talents, Rainbow," I said sarcastically. I had to wonder if that was a none-too-subtle jab at me needing to get into shape. "Anyways, I just need to see the list for everypony who is supposed to be here, and any other paperwork."
"Yeah yeah, sure." Rainbow waved dismissively at a disorganized stack of folders sitting on a nearby table. "Cloud," she turned to her assistant manager, "your wingpower numbers are already good, so you can go help Twi with roundup." She briefly glanced Blossomforth's direction while she was busy putting everypony gathered through some basic stretching exercises. "I know Blossomforth's right around ten, but I wouldn't mind her bumping that up a bit more. Give us a buffer for any weaker fliers."
Cloud nodded. "Sounds good, Boss."
I let out a yawn and rubbed at my eyes again. "I'll get right on that then." Moving towards the table, I was stopped when Rainbow put a restraining hoof on my shoulder.
"One sec." Rainbow flicked a glance Cloud's way. "I haven't seen Fluttershy around, so if she hasn't signed in, just let me take care of her, okay?"
"Sure," I said uncertainly. "Though why not let me and Cloud take care of it?"
For a moment Rainbow and Cloud looked at one another. "Just ... I'm way faster than you two," Rainbow said, the confidence in her tone growing as she spoke. "I can go to Fluttershy's place during my break and be back with plenty of time to spare, no problem. No offense,"—she waved at my legs—"but it takes you longer to get around without wings."
I furrowed my brow, not entirely convinced with Rainbow’s stated intentions. "We'll take care of everypony else, then.”
“Yeah, sure, sounds good,” Cloud said in a stilted manner. She motioned for me to follow her to the paperwork. “Come on, we better get on that. Those ponies that didn’t show up aren’t going to round up themselves.”
Rainbow grinned. “Nope, but that’s why I got you two on that. I don’t just wanna beat the record, I wanna blow it away!”
I felt Spike stir on my back and remembered that he was still sleeping back there. “By the way, is there someplace I can put Spike while I do that? Oh, and I need to put the anemometer down somewhere too!” I said, remembering the whole reason I was there to start with. The anemometer was carefully tucked inside my saddlebags, and I had nearly forgotten I was even carrying the thing.
“Sure.” Rainbow pointed at a tree near the sign-in table. “I can keep an eye on the little guy while you’re busy. Just stick him under the tree over there, it’s a great napping spot.” She waved at us as she moved towards the ponies warming up. “But I really need to get going. See you two later!”
We waved back and then turned our attention to the task ahead of us. I unfurled a quilt from my saddlebags and laid it out near a tree. I carefully levitated Spike down onto it and then the anemometer. After making sure Spike was settled, I turned my attention to the table. On the table sat a clipboard with the signup sheets attached. Next to that was a stacks of paper filled folders with rocks sitting on them as impromptu paperweights—there being no small risk of papers flying away with so many pegasi flying around. I began examining each pile in turn to see what I was looking at and to get an idea of what might need organizing.
Cloud chuckled and shook her head as she watched me work. “This is ... surprisingly organized for Rainbow. I mean, she actually wrote things down, and got all the paperwork we need here.”
“I admit, I thought I was going to have to make a lot of this from almost scratch.” I checked the paperwork, and found most of it to be in order. I moved to the list of all the pegasi in Ponyville and began looking through that, but quickly found an issue. “Even if she accidentally shuffled in a request for thunderclouds into the pile.” I placed that paper to the side and combed through the rest of the list.
“Nope, not accidental.” Cloud flipped over the thundercloud report to show a bunch of scribbling on the back.
Picking the paper up, I squinted at Rainbow’s chicken scratch writing. “What's this supposed to be?”
“Part of the list,” Cloud said simply.
I groaned and rubbed at my eyes. It was difficult to read, especially when my eyes were still a little bit blurry, but I was pretty sure the names on the paper were those pegasi that had recently moved to Ponyville. “I'm too tired for this."
“You look it,” she said as she looked me up and down. “Not a morning pony?”
“More of a night owl,” I said with a yawn. In truth, I had been up later than I should have. I was used to going to bed at a later time than what this early morning called for. Even when I had gone to bed, I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep and didn’t rest particularly well. Now I was paying for it.
"Ah, yes, the wild nightlife of Twilight Sparkle." Cloud gave me a teasing poke to the ribs. "Hooking up with strange books for hours of anonymous, hedonistic reading. Bet you have your share of wild one-night stands with a new book. Though maybe you go back from time to time to revisit an old favorite?"
I returned with my own tired grin. "Often with more than one a night, if you have to know." Maybe it was just because I was tired, but this was striking me as funny.
Cloud grinned and poked me in the chest. "See, now we're on the same page."
"You're making something innocent sound way dirtier than it is," I commented.
"Hey, it's all good, clean, dirty fun," she said.
I gave her a flat look. "I'm pretty sure that's a contradiction."
Cloud grinned all the wider. "And yet, it makes sense."
"I'll give you that much." I turned my attention back to the stacks of paper. "Now let me concentrate for a few minutes, I need to sort through these lists to figure out who didn't show up for mustering."
That brought a chuckle to Cloud. "Yes, I wouldn't want to stand between you and your lists."
"Oh, hush." After a few minutes of work, I had finished drawing up a list of everypony that hadn't shown up.
"So..." Cloud reviewed the list of the ponies, their addresses listed under their names. "We have a list of ponies to hunt down." She frowned as she flipped through more pages. "This is ... not a small list."
I sighed and nodded. "I was worried this would happen. It's hard to get one hundred percent attendance for anything, much less a full effort from everypony. Not everypony is going to be as invested in breaking the record as Rainbow is, and a full investment is exactly what Rainbow wants for Tornado Day."
"Point." Cloud rubbed at her chin. "Always gonna be a few stragglers." I wondered if she was speaking from what she had learned from her classes at West Hoof or from personal experience during her time in the weather service. Based on the complaints I had to hear from Rainbow from time to time, it could be a real hassle sometimes to bring together all the pegasi needed for special weather situations.
"At least we should be fine for creating the tornado to lift up the water we need," I said, doing some rough math in my head based on how many pegasi had shown up today.
"Yeah, we've got a more than twenty percent buffer, I'd say," Cloud agreed.
"That should be alright then," I said. "Even if that's short of breaking the record, at least Rainbow won't get in trouble for failing to deliver the water to Cloudsdale."
"Exactly." Cloud flipped through the rest of the list. "Though I'd like to break that record for Dash."
"Then we're going to have to round up everypony that didn't show up." I too wanted to break that record for Rainbow's sake, even if it wouldn't affect myself all that much.
Cloud snapped the list under her wing. "Fun fun fun, but nothing I haven't done before."
"Shall we then?" I asked, taking an examining look Spike's way to make sure he or the anemometer weren't at risk of getting stepped on.
"I believe we shall." She shot me an easy grin. "So ... me in front, or in back?"
"I figured we would be standing side by side for this," I told her.
Cloud's grin grew. "But then neither of us gets to enjoy the view."
I snorted and shook my head. "You just love being terrible, don't you?" I tapped her on the chest. "Should you be flirting when you're on the clock?"
Cloud made a slight shrug. "I can still flirt while I'm on the clock, as long as it doesn't get in the way of doing my job."
I scooped up the rest of the papers we might need and put them into my saddlebags. "I see Rainbow keeps a loose leash on all of you."
"Yeah, micromanagement really isn’t her style,” Cloud agreed. “She’s more of a delegator. As long as the work gets done, she doesn’t worry about the details."
"That sounds like her." I started towards the nearest house on the list and Cloud followed close behind. "I don't really see her as the type to crack the whip."
"Nah." She shook her head. "She's pretty reasonable. Very hooves-off manager."
"Little hard for her to be hooves-on when she's napping all the time," I said, smiling at the memories of Applejack yelling at Rainbow to do her job while napping around her farm.
Cloud made a soft snort. “Yeah. I figure part of why she's so hooves off is 'cause she'd hate to have somepony hovering over her shoulder telling her what to do. She runs the weather team the way she'd want it to be if she was an employee.”
“It's one management style, at least.” We walked further down the streets before I spoke again. “So, how are things between you and Blossomforth right now? You seemed to be tense around one another back there.”
“Er ... yeah, a bit.” She let out a long sigh. “I messed up, and I'm not sure how to fix it.”
“You tried talking with her?” I asked.
“Yeah. It ... didn't go so well.” Cloud shook her head. “Urgh, let's just stay on-mission.”
“If you don't want to talk about it, I’ll understand,” I said. “But I'm an open ear if you want it.”
“Thanks for the offer, Twilight. It means a lot to me to have somepony in my corner right now.” To my surprise, Cloud stopped and pulled me into a friendly hug. “You’ve been a pretty good friend, especially after all that’s happened between us.”
Not sure what else to do, I embraced her back. Her frame had a tension to it, but I could feel her relaxing slightly as she leaned into our hug. She must have been having a harder time than I initially realized. Then again, I wouldn’t exactly be having fun if I was in the middle of a fight with my friends, either.
“Sure thing,” I said. “If you need anything, I can be there to help you. It’s an open offer.”
“Yeah? Thanks.” A smirk grew on Cloud’s face and her hoof strayed a tiny bit down. “Speaking of open offers...”
I grinned, took that hoof, and moved it back into friendly territory. “Somehow, it doesn't surprise me that you brought that up.”
“Well, I'm nothing if not consistent.” The smirk didn’t leave Cloud’s face but she kept the hoof in friendly space.
“You are very consistent,” I said. “But that is part of your lovable eccentricity.”
“It’s part of my charm,” Cloud agreed as she gave me a quick squeeze. “So ... shall I flirt with you some more, or do you wanna work?”
“I thought you did both at the same time?” The realization that I was in the middle of the street hugging Cloud caused me to feel conscious of what I was doing. True, I had hugged my friends in public, but it was different with Cloud. Wasn’t it? And she did have something of a reputation in Ponyville...
“Yeah, but we can prioritize.” Cloud looked me over with a gaze that was difficult for me to read. “A lotta work and a little flirting, or a little work and a lotta flirting.”
“How about we see how much work needs to be done before we get ahead of ourselves with flirting?” I asked, being practical.
“If you insist.” She nudged my hips with her own. “Though that's not a ‘no’ on the flirting at some point.”
“I suppose there's no harm in it.” Was I really considering going back and forth with flirting with Cloud? I admit, the prospect did sound a bit fun, considering it was just light-hearted in nature. At least I was pretty sure that’s all it was.
“Yup. No harm, and maybe a little fun.” She prodded my shoulder. “So...” She walked out ahead of me, her hips swaying with her steps. I wasn’t staring of course, but it was hard not to notice that she had a nice balance of muscle and flesh, and moved in a very inviting way. I only noticed because she was in front of me. Noticing wasn’t the same as staring.
"You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?" I asked warily.
Cloud smiled back at me with false innocence. "Doing what?"
I gave her a flat look. "Swaying your hips like that."
"I always sway my hips." She continued to move those hips as we kept walking. "Maybe you're just noticing it more."
"It's a little hard not to notice when you're moving around that much." It really did strike me as an excessive amount of movement.
"These hips don't lie," Cloud said coyly.
“I don't think that technically means anything,” I replied.
“I think you're technically enjoying watching them.” Cloud waggled her hips some more just for me.
I turned my head to the side. “I am not.”
Cloud grinned. “If you insist, Duchess. Just saying, nothing wrong with admiring a good view.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said gruffly.
We reached the first home on the list. After I knocked, a pegasus mare with a peach-colored coat opened the door. This was most likely Merryweather. On her back lay a miserable-looking pegasus filly with a light-green coat. "Hello, can I help you?" she asked, looking between us.
Cloud flashed her a smile. "Hey, Merry," she said, sounding like she knew the mare.
Merryweather returned with her own smile. "Hi, Cloud. You doing alright?
"Great." Cloud crammed her neck to give her a better look of the filly. "Looks like your daughter isn't, though."
"My tummy hurts," the filly whined, sounding every bit as miserable as she looked.
Merryweather gently shushed her daughter "I know, honey. Just give me a couple of minutes here before I take you to bed." Merryweather nuzzled her, then turned to us. "Skychaser came down with something this morning. I was on the way to taking her back to bed when you knocked."
Cloud nodded. "Oooh. Totally understandable why you couldn't make it to Tornado Day training, then.” Cloud stopped to give her a once-over. “At least you're still looking good though, right?"
She gave Cloud an amused smile. "Now you know I'm a married mare, Cloud."
"Doesn't make you any less beautiful," Cloud said without any shame.
Merryweather placed a hoof on her mouth as she chuckled. "Aw stop, you big flirt."
"I take it you two know each other?" I asked.
“Have for years.” Cloud nuzzled the other pegasus mare. “And I'll stop flirting when you stop being a pretty mare who likes being flirted with.”
Merryweather nuzzled back. “Let’s hope that doesn't happen anytime soon then.” Her daughter let out another moan, bringing an end to her good mood. “But to answer your question, I'm afraid I can't come to the mustering. At least not today. Not with Skychaser sick like this.”
“Rainbow'll understand,” Cloud said. “Don't worry.”
I wrote Merryweather’s status down next to her name. “We can mark this down as a family emergency. Now if you’re going to need to take the whole week off, you just need to get a doctor’s note and drop it off at the weather service office sometime this week to make sure you don’t get fined for not showing up for tornado duty.”
Merryweather nodded. “I’ll be sure to do that if Skychaser doesn’t get better over—” She was cut off when Skychaser heaved and vomited over her back and shoulders. Merryweather tensed and went rigid.
We just stared at one another for a long moment, none of us being quite sure what to say or do until Cloud broke the silence. “Still pretty, but I'm not hugging you goodbye.”
“You better not,” Merryweather said through gritted teeth.
Skychaser let out another groan. “I’m sorry, Mommy...”
Merryweather let out a long, patient sigh. “It’s okay, dear. It was an accident.” She gave me and Cloud a tired look. “Now if you don’t mind, I have a sick filly to put to bed and a mess to clean up.”
“We’ll let you get to that,” I said. I certainly didn’t see any good reasons to keep her at the door.
After Merryweather closed the door, I turned to Cloud Kicker. “So, she's one of your ... paramours?” They had certainly struck me as friendly enough with one another to be so.
"Nah, just a friend," Cloud said.
"A friend-friend?" I asked. "I mean from the sounds of it you—well..."
"Yeah?"
I took a breath and went ahead and said it. It wasn't as though Cloud was prudish after all. "Had sex with her."
Cloud shook her head. "Nah. She was married when I moved here.”
"But you still flirt with her?" I asked. It struck me as strange to do that with another pony's spouse, especially when there was a kid in the family. That thought brought back unhappy memories where my parents were concerned, even if what Cloud had just done was innocuous compared to what my parents had kept hidden for all these years.
"Yup!" Cloud grinned and motioned for us to get moving again. "I'm really not that complicated. I liked flirting with Merry. It makes her happy, too. Most ponies like being complimented on their looks. It's just harmless fun as long as nothing major comes out of it."
"Uh-huh." I trotted out into the street with Cloud to head to the next address. "I think I can understand that." It was when I thought of the whole incident that I realized something. "Wait, one sec. Let me cast a spell to make sure neither one of us catches something and brings it back to the others."
Cloud nodded. "Dash’d get mad at us if one of us was the patient zero who ruined her plans."
"Right, stand still for a moment." I cast the spell that should help to keep the both of us from getting sick. It wasn't perfect, but it usually did the job when you recently came into contact with somepony who might be contagious. "There, good to go."
"Thanks," Cloud said. "I always make sure to get all my shots, but a little extra protection never hurts."
I could well imagine the underlying reasons for why she made sure she was up to date on her shots. "Not a problem. Anyways... " I pulled out the list of addresses, organized to lead us in an efficient circuit around Ponyville. Making our way to the next address while studying the list, I realized that Cloud was no longer besides me, nor was she ahead of me. That left the next most likely spot she had made her way to.
I craned my neck to look behind me. Little to my surprise, Cloud had a rather pleased smile on her lips. "You're looking at my rear, aren't you?" I asked, knowing the answer.
Cloud looked up and smirked. "You're putting your butt in front of my face, aren't you?"
"What?!" It took a moment for me to think what else to say. I really hoped I wasn't blushing right then. "No, of course not. Why would I do something like that?"
Her smirk grew all the wider. "Why, you got ahead of me to show your plot off. To be fair, it's a very nice rump to show off."
I let out a huff, reminding myself that Cloud was just being herself. “Maybe I should just shake it around for you? Considering you seem to be watching it so intently."
"Well, since you offered..."
I rolled my eyes and then took a quick look down both ends of the street and saw nopony out yet. Fine, if Cloud was going to tease me, I might as well return the favor. So I did and shook my rump right at her. That caused Cloud to laugh as she watched my rump move back and forth for her.
"There, now you got to see me shake it," I said, trying to sound confident over my self-consciousness.
Cloud nodded approvingly. "That I did, and I liked it."
My cheeks flamed up, and I couldn't bring myself to look Cloud in the eyes. "Big surprise there."
"Hey." Cloud wrapped a wing around me in a casual hug. "It's a nice rump. Don't be ashamed of it. Be proud."
"It's a bit embarrassing to be proud of my rear," I said. "It's my, you know, rump, back there, being it."
"Yup." She gave me an encouraging squeeze. "And it's a good-looking one."
"You don't need to say that to make me feel good, really," I insisted. "I don't need to be flattered just to feel good."
That brought the smirk back to Cloud's face. "So it does make you feel good?"
"I didn't say that specifically," I said, feeling my cheeks flush all the more. "You're just flattering me. You do that with everypony."
"True." She chuckled. "In any case, I'm saying it 'cause it's true in your case. I mean it. You look good. Nothing wrong with that."
I looked away from her, feeling embarrassed by her words. "Um, thanks." Thinking I needed to say something in return, I said. "I guess you look pretty good too."
Her head tilted slightly at my compliment before her mouth quirked into a grin. "Yeah? Thanks." She gave me a final squeeze before letting me go.
We arrived at the next address and Cloud knocked on the door. There was a long enough wait that Cloud was about to knock on the door again when the door opened. The dark-gray stallion looked like he had just woken up considering his blue-silver mohawk looked like it had been struck with a localized apocalypse. Thunderlane yawned and blinked sleepily as he looked between us. “Hm, Cloud, Twilight? What're you two doing here?”
Cloud gave Thunderlane an evil smirk. “We're here 'cause we needed a stallion for a threesome.”
Thunderlane’s eyes widened. “Really?!” Cloud probably couldn’t have grabbed his attention harder if she had slapped him. My jaw just dropped at the suggestion.
Cloud’s smirk evaporated into a flat look. “No. It's day one of tornado duty, Thunderlane. You didn't show.”
The look of hope on Thunderlane’s face dissolved and was replaced by confusion. It was certainly a contrast to my own relief that Cloud was just joking. “Wait, that's today?”
“That's what you and everypony else were told at the meeting,” I added. Admittedly, I was a bit unhappy with how Thunderlane had gotten to sleep in while I had been forced to wake up at an unnatural hour. That was why I was letting Cloud take care of this one.
“So hustle and get to the training field,” Cloud said firmly, pointing the way where everypony was gathered. “Now.”
Thunderlane let out a depressed groan and rubbed at his face. “Alright, alright, let me get cleaned up and I'll be right there. Promise.”
Cloud nodded. “That’s fine. But trust me, I'm nice compared to how Dash would handle you if she thought you were sleeping in. You don’t want to get slapped with a fine for that.”
“I know, I know.” He let out a sigh. “I'll be there.”
Cloud said. “Alight. See you there.”
Thunderlane closed the door, assumedly to apply however much manecare product was required to make his mohawk.
I gave Cloud a flat look. “A threesome? Really?”
Cloud shot me a grin. “What? It was just a joke.”
I found a grin creeping onto my own face. “Okay. I guess it was a bit funny seeing his reaction.”
Cloud chuckled. “Yeah. The way his eyes got all big and hopeful. Nothing like the idea of a threesome with a couple beautiful mares to get a stallion’s hopes up.” She shook her head. “That was a bit mean, but so worth it.”
“I suppose it's alright as long as no feelings were hurt.” I gestured my head for us to get moving again, and the two of us started towards the next house on our list.
Cloud nodded. “Just like one of Rainbow's pranks.” She poked me in the shoulder. “And you can thank Rainbow for introducing me to pranking, by the way.”
“She got you started on that habit, did she?” Rainbow was a fairly infamous prankster, and I had been the victim of more than a few since I had come to know her. Especially when she and Pinkie Pie had joined forces.
“Pretty much,” Cloud confirmed. “All the way back at Flight Camp. Granted, she wasn’t great at the whole planning part of her pranks back then, and absolutely terrible at covering her tracks. Probably ‘cause she wanted everypony to know she did it. You don’t write your name in liquid rainbow across all the training clouds if you’re trying to get away with it.” She chuckled and shook her head. “Anyway, once she got me into it she stuck to coming up with the big ideas, and it usually fell on me to plan out all the little details and logical issues. Nowadays, we mail each other pretty often.”
“I generally try and stay out of prank wars,” I said. “I'm a bit worried I'll get too wound up by it.” That was one issue with having so much magical power and knowing as many spells as I do, there was always the temptation to use that power. Abuse it, even. There were dozens of rather devious things I could do with what I had my disposal if I put my mind to it.
“That might be for the best,” Cloud said. “I know I wouldn’t want to provoke an Alpha-level unicorn. No offense.”
I shook my head. “None taken. I think that was technically a compliment anyway.”
We reached the third address on our list. Cloudy Skies’ cloudhouse floated up above us, and I saw a pegasus flying about gathering clouds.
“Huh, I wonder what she’s up to.” Cloud waved to the pegasus to get her attention.
I watched as the pegasus continued to gather clouds. “I’m not sure. She’s collecting those clouds for something though.”
Cloudy Skies noticed us and flew down to land before us. “Oh, hey Cloud, Twilight.” She gave us a guilty smile, her frame tense.
“Hey, Cloudy.” Cloud took a quick glance at the gathered clouds above us. “So ... why aren't you at tornado duty?”
Cloudy Skies let out a long sigh. “Sorry, I'm trying to fulfill a favor I owe to the flower shop. I was planning to water their flowers real quick before the muster, but then I woke up later than I intended, and then it took way longer than I thought it would to gather the clouds I needed, and...” Her wings drooped. “This morning has been a mess. I made the promise before tornado duty got scheduled, and now I’m in over my head.”
“Sometimes that happens.” Cloud looked down the street to where the flower shop sat. “The flower shop, huh?” Cloud sighed and spread her wings. “Right, let's get it done fast. You know if flower trio doesn't get their plants watered, they'll be fainting and wailing about 'the horror!' for days."
"I swear, they're the biggest drama queens I've ever seen," Cloudy Skies said.
"Same here," Cloud agreed. "And trust me, they are just as overdramatic in bed. The foursome was nice, but my poor eardrums..." That comment made me imagine the flower trio screaming out in ecstasy without Cloud even touching them. It was times like this that make me hate my imagination.
But the three mares that ran the flower shop being notorious drama queens was my own impression of them too. Their reaction to the bunny stampede had certainly been excessive. At least the way Rarity had put it, the three of them had been very popular in school, and they had never quite acclimated to the idea of not being at the center of the universe. Part of me wondered if that was self-commentary on her part, however unintentional.
Cloudy Skies stretched out her wings and sighed. "But I owe them for a past favor. Really, they're nice when you get to know them."
After considering how much time we had to find everypony on the list, I said, "It should be alright for us to finish this real quick." Cloud was a weatherpony after all. She should know how to do a job like this in very little time.
"Let's knock this out quick," Cloud said as she took off. "We've got a lot of other ponies to sort out."
I waited patiently as the two of them went about gathering enough clouds to create a quick downpour. I was pretty good with waiting, but not so much waiting while doing nothing. Shame I had forgotten to bring a book with me when I left the library while I was in a half-awake stupor.
Eventually, I heard a trio of voices call from down the street.
"Oh thank you!"
"You're a lifesaver! Our business is saved!"
"Our flowers aren't all going to die! Yay!"
I was pretty sure I could see the flower shop owners dancing with each other down the street as a raincloud precipitated on their flowers. In the sky I could see Cloudy Skies flying to where all the other pegasi had gathered. That was at least one pony back on the right track.
Cloud Kicker fluttered back over to me and applied her face to her hoof—whether out of actual embarrassment at the flower trio's antics or consternation, I couldn't tell.
"They at it again, I take it?" I said, asking the obvious.
Cloud rubbed at her forehead. "When are they not?"
"At least that's one pegasus taken care of." I double checked the list to confirm where we needed to go. "Seems Bluebreeze is up next."
Cloud rolled her eyes, a sense of exasperation to the gesture. "Why am I not surprised?"
Her response caused me to raise an eyebrow. "He a problem pony?"
"One of those perennial slacker types," Cloud said with clear displeasure in her tone. "Always some excuse for why he didn't get things done on time, or half-flanked the job whenever we pull him for weather work."
"Ah, that type." About half the times Rainbow complained about her job, it involved somepony not pulling their weight and either causing everypony else on the team to have to work extra hard to pick up the slack or creating a headache for her when somepony complained about the sloppy job that had been done with the weather. "I guess you get to learn everypony's type in the weather service. Especially when you have to pull pegasi from outside the weather service now and then."
"Pretty much," she said. "Either way, we need to see what his deal is. Even if I have a pretty good guess that it’s going to be another lame excuse for skipping work.” She sighed and rubbed her face. “Plus, he lives halfway across town from where we are, so it’s a long walk."
“Then we better get moving.” The two of us trotted towards his home. Not wanting to walk in complete silence, I asked, “So, um, how are things between you and Derpy these days?”
Cloud shot me a teasing grin. “Why Twilight, are you asking about my sex life?”
That response caused me to splutter incoherently for a few seconds before I could create a proper sentence. “I was just creating conversation! Not my fault that sex is a big part of your life.”
“Fair enough,” she said. “And yeah, things are good on that front. Derpy and I ... we've been having some good times lately.”
The way Cloud said that and the fact that this relationship had been ongoing for a while now made me wonder where it might be going between them. “Doesn't it make things awkward when you're already friends?”
“Not really. I mean...” Cloud struggled for a moment as she pulled her words together. “It's pretty much just being friends, but with awesome sex too. So even better.”
I frowned pensively as I considered that. “I guess that's a bit odd for me to wrap my head around.”
“It's ... well, no offense,” she said cautiously, “but it's hard to explain just how nice sex is to somepony who's never ... y'know.”
“Had sex?” I finished for her.
“Right, right,” Cloud said. “Just didn't want to poke at it if it's still a bit of a sore spot.”
“I wouldn't call it a sore spot.” It wasn’t like I was ashamed of being a virgin. It just meant I had never had sex, not neglected some great moment of enlightenment in my life.
“Good, then. If being a virgin makes you happy, then that's fine.” She gave a shrug. “I don't really get it, but you probably don't get why I'm the way I am.”
“I can't say I do,” I admitted. “But I would like to figure that out. You're a lot different than most ponies I've met. I guess I'm just curious what makes you different.”
Cloud gave me a curious look. “What, studying me didn't give you that answer?”
“It gave me some answers, but... I don't know,” I finished weakly. I knew a lot of things about Cloud Kicker, but I didn’t really understand her. Part of me wondered if that was because she was so wrapped up in a topic I knew very little about. “There is still a lot I don't know.”
“I suppose if we're hanging out together all week, now's your chance to find out.” We arrived at Bluebreeze’s house. “But we can deal with that after we’ve dealt with our slacker here.” Cloud trotted up to the door, briefly brushing up against my side, making me wonder if it had been intentional or not. It didn’t help that I wasn’t sure how to feel about being touched like that, anymore. The best I could do for the moment was put it out of my mind and focus on the task at hoof as Cloud knocked on the door.
A sea-blue pegasus stallion opened the door and frowned when he saw the two of us. “Oh, hey, what brings you to my place?” He smiled at us, but it struck me as forced.
“Hey, Blue. You’re missing tornado duty,” Cloud said firmly.
“Yeah, about that.” Bluebreeze rubbed the back of his neck. “A family emergency came up, so I can't come.”
“Uh-huh,” Cloud said skeptically. “What kind of emergency?”
He shuffled a bit in place. “My grandma died yesterday, so I'm a bit down about that. Got funeral stuff to go to. You know how it is.” The way he made it sound, it was more of a burden to him than something he was actually sad about.
“Riiight.” Cloud gave his a very unhappy frown. “Is this the same one who died about four months back? Or the one who died last year? Or...”
“Hey, I have a lot of grandmas,” Bluebreeze protested, his tone testy.
“Obviously, with how often you need to take off work to go their funerals.” Cloud narrowed her eyes, and I got the impression that this wasn’t the first time she had danced this dance. “I'm pretty sure you've tried that one at least half a dozen times.”
Bluebreeze lifted his nose in a defiant gesture. “Also, I have a bugpony coming by to check my house for termites, and I don’t want to miss my appointment.” Cloud and I gave him a flat, unconvinced look. “And my icebox is broken, and somepony is coming by to fix that.”
“You done making excuses?” Cloud asked, her patience wearing thin in her tone. “Because I’ve heard all of these before from you, and I’m not buying them.”
“I’m also not feeling well.” He let out a halfhearted cough. “I don’t want everypony to catch what I’ve got.”
“You’re really not helping your cause, you know that?” I asked. I pulled out one of the forms and started writing on it. “I really don’t want to do this, but you should know that the fine for not showing up for tornado duty is five hundred bits a day.” I liked to think of myself as a patient pony, but Bluebreeze’s attitude was wearing on me fast. I could accept him not being wild about having to report for tornado duty, but being outright lazy irritated me.
Bluebreeze’s eye widened. “Wait, what?! That’s outrageous!” He looked to Cloud. “Look, it’s just tornado duty, Cloud. It doesn't matter. Plenty of pegasi should have shown up to do the job. We don’t need everypony in town to show up just so the weather manager can stroke her ego by breaking some record nopony cares about.”
Cloud’s tone took on a steely resolve. “Yeah, it does matter, and as far as you’re concerned, it doesn’t matter what Dash’s goals are. You're legally obligated to participate. So get moving unless you want to rack up thirty-five hundred bits in fines over the next week.”
He groaned and rubbed his face. “No reason to be such a hardflank.”
“Rainbow needs everypony out there. That includes you.” Cloud jabbed a hoof the direction of the mustering field. “So stop slacking off and get your plot in gear.” She stomped a hoof. “Now!”
“Fine, fine, I’m going.” Bluebreeze grumble something under his breath as he closed the door after himself.
Cloud nodded sharpely. “And don't think I won't check on you. If you ditch training early, you'll get the fine just the same as a no-show.”
He winced at that. “Gotcha, I'll be there. No need to ride me.” He took flight and headed towards the mustering field.
Once he was a safe distance away, Cloud let out a deep breath. “Well, I think that got him moving.”
“It seemed to.” I looked at the rest of the names on the list wistfully. “Hopefully none of the other ponies on the list will be that much of a problem.”
Cloud shrugged. “If they are, we'll manage. Not like I don’t have plenty of experience with rounding up ponies and getting them to do a job they don’t want to do.”
“That must be rough,” I commented.
“It’s not so bad,” Cloud said. “While most pegasi don’t want to get pulled off for weather duty, most are willing to do their part without too much of an issue.”
“I’m thankful I don’t have to deal with something like that most of the time.” Getting everypony motivated for something like Winter Wrap-Up wasn’t exactly easy, and that was a once-a-year thing that everypony knew needed to get done. I could only imagine the headache doing something like that on a weekly basis would be.
Cloud turned from staring after Bluebreeze to give me a grin. “Nope, just lots of books and a dragon assistant to worry about.”
I grinned back. “And that’s plenty for me.” I suddenly felt my fatigue from the morning come over me again. Knowing where we were at in Ponyville, I asked Cloud, “Mind if we take a break to get a coffee over there?” I pointed down to the cafe that sat at the street corner. “I'm not awake enough for this.”
“Sure, I'll take you out for coffee.” Her grin turned into a teasing one. “But don't start getting ideas.”
I snorted, enjoying the humor of the moment much more than our reaction with Bluebreeze. “Yes, we wouldn't want anypony getting the wrong ideas. Don’t worry, I’ll manage to refrain from throwing myself at you while we’re drinking coffee at the cafe.”
“My allure has been known to make ponies do crazy things.” She turned and flicked her tail, and it brushed my nose. “Not like I'm a loose mare who'll just put out for anypony who buys me coffee.”
I didn’t dignify that with a comment, and the two of us headed into the cafe. “Anything you want?” I asked as I headed to the counter. “My treat.”
Cloud sat down at one of the tables. “I could go for some of that iced lemonade.”
I looked at the menu and confirmed that lemonade was indeed offered. “Alright, one sec.” I ordered the lemonade, and a coffee and bagel for myself. Once I received my order, I returned to our table and placed everything down. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Cloud sipped at her lemonade and lay back in her chair. “So ... read any good books lately?”
I smiled as the topic turned to something I liked. “Oh yes, plenty. I finished one on transmutation theory last night. Then the day before that I got through a couple of novels of a science fiction series I'm reading. Then there was the history book I read covering the modernization of the caribou tribes. Things have been really interesting up there ever since somepony finally dealt with Ember the Crystalline.” I frowned in annoyance and amended, “Though that’s a bit too recent to show up in most history books.”
“Sounds fun.” She took another sip of her lemonade. “I've been trying to slog through Shadow Kicker's memoirs lately, but ... urgh. I swear, Noun Verb must have a deep hatred for the Equestrian language.”
“Oh, him,” I groaned. “The bane of early modern classical literature.” Noun Verb had been a scholar from eight centuries ago, and in my opinion had managed to mangle a large volume of classical works in his misguided attempts to make them available to a more modern audience. It didn’t help that many of the original copies of those works no longer existed, and now all we had to work with was the incomplete or mistranslated copies Noun Verb had created.
Cloud nodded. “Somepony needs to go back over some of the books he butchered and fix them.”
"That's been the project of more than one pony, trust me. Noun Verb was ... prolific in his manglings." In addition to the efforts of scholars to try and restore old writings back to their former glory and make them available to modern readers, there were several outstanding rewards for those who could find original copies of a number of classics. One student on an academic trip to the Zebrican Empire had managed to make herself a small fortune by discovering several such works in an old monastic library. True, all the scrolls had been in Zebrican, but they seemed to be direct translations none-the-less.
"Oh well." Cloud shrugged and returned to drinking her lemonade. "Either way, I've been working on it off-and-on for a while. You know, family history and all that."
"It would make sense that you would want to read about one of the most important ponies of your family." Shadow Kicker was one of the most famous matriarchs of the Kicker Clan, and instrumental in the destruction of Pegasopolis and in propelling Equestria into the early modern period, at least depending on which historians you asked. Her role in the Lunar Rebellion and the fact a great deal had been written about her by contemporaries made her a favorite subject for that time period.
"Pretty much," Cloud said. "I mean, I'm technically a member of the Cult of Shadow and all."
"Technically?"
Cloud gave another shrug. "It's been a while since I was ... y'know, active."
"Ah, I understand," I said, guessing the likely source of her statement. "You wouldn't exactly be the first pony to stop regularly showing up for religious meetings. Whatever your personal reasons are."
"Point." Her head tilted in a curious look. "What about you?"
"Me? I'm a member of the Cult of Sol Invictus," I said. "Though that's mostly been private stuff since moving to Ponyville."
Cloud nodded. "I guess that's no surprise. Sparkles are big sponsors of the cult, and you did spend a long time as Celestia's student."
I let out an embarrassed chuckle. "You can say it comes with the territory. Little hard not to be influenced when you're being mentored by the ruler to Equestria and your family has a long history of serving the princess."
"I guess so." Cloud leaned back in her chair and glanced at the ponies who were starting to gather in a line to be served. It seemed that now that the sun was up the morning rush was starting to come in.
"Eyes wandering again?" I felt a bit of irritation when it seemed as though Cloud had found more interesting things to look at rather than the pony talking to her right across the table.
Her eyes turned back to me as I scowled at her and she perked up and returned her full attention to me, making me wonder if she realized what she had done. "Just curious to see who's around. Never know if one of the ponies we’re looking for might come waltzing in here."
"Riiight..." I said, not sounding convinced even to myself. "Mind if I ask you a few questions? They’re a bit more private in nature."
Cloud waved for me to continue. “Go for it.”
I took a long drink of my coffee as I went over my thoughts. “I guess... I suppose I just don't get the whole sex thing. A lot of ponies like you are pretty preoccupied by the subject, while I...” I shrugged. “I don't know. I've never put a ton of thought into it. I’ve always had other things to preoccupy my time that felt a lot more important to do.”
“Everypony has different priorities,” Cloud said. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“True,” I said. “I always put my studies above everything else.”
She nodded. “So now you're thinking about broadening your horizons a bit?”
“Maybe,” I hedged. “Friendship was something I excluded from my life for a long, long time, and now I've come to regret that. It could be I've made the same mistake with romance, or maybe not. I’m not sure at this point. It's just that I never considered it due to ... my issues.”
“The whole obsessive student thing?” Cloud winced. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make it sound that bad.”
I waved the accidental insult off. To be fair, it was true. “Right, that. And also because I always figured I would get into an arranged marriage, so I didn't think romance was even worth bothering with. It just seemed like a bunch of trouble to get into.”
Cloud tapped at the top of the table. “And now you're realizing your options are wide open, and you're one of Ponyville's most eligible bachelorettes?”
“Something like that, yeah.” I thought it was a bit much to call me one of Ponyville’s most eligible bachelorettes, but it was nice of Cloud to say so. “I've never been on a date before, or kissed—or even held somepony's hoof. Much less, um...” I had to clear my throat before I could continue. “Visited one of Canterlot's brothels. I've been led to believe that most ponies in the city tend to get their first experience that way. The two of us are completely different from one another that way.”
“No kidding,” Cloud said. “Not that there’s anything wrong with your life, don’t get me wrong.” She gave me a smile. “You’ve done a lot with your life already, and I admire that. It’s that we’re just different ponies.”
“A bit of an obvious statement.” I let out a long breath. “Still, I can't help but sense that my perspective has changed a bit.”
“Oh yeah? Thinking about maybe picking up a coltfriend for yourself?” She grinned a mischievous grin. “Or a fillyfriend?”
I worked to keep Cloud’s comments from derailing my train of thought. “Maybe, I don't know. I’m still thinking all of this through. It seems so daunting in and of itself.”
“Daunting?” Cloud scoffed. “Nah, it's easy. At least once you know what you’re doing.”
I gave her a teasing grin. “So says the pony who has had sex with about a third of the town.”
Cloud made an impish smirk. “Only a third? Give me some credit, it’s at least half.” She finished off her lemonade and placed it to the side. “But seriously, what part's tripping you up?”
“How about everything?” I sighed and rubbed at my forehead. “There's the complete lack of experience I have, and what little I do have isn't exactly good.” It was an effort not to grimace at the memories of Fluttershy rejecting me, or how I had embarrassed myself in front of Princess Celestia. “This is something I have no practice at. Which in turn doesn’t exactly help raise my confidence.”
Cloud’s mouth contorted in a contemplative frown. “Well, the only way to get more experience is to go out there and try. Dating is like most things, you have to do it in order to get better at it.”
“I suppose that’s true,” I said. “I guess I need to think about it, and how I want to go about this.”
Cloud grinned and her ears perked. “I know what you need! A practice date! I'm gonna guess that the problem is that you're nervous and have too many expectations. That sound about right?”
I gave her a cautious nod. “Yeah, that is what it sounds like.”
“So. a practice date means no nerves or expectations, right?” she asked.
“True, if it's just practice.” Giving myself practice tests had been one of my methods for helping me deal with the stress of an upcoming test. It seemed reasonable that a practice date might help me with the same issues here.
Cloud nodded. “Then I think we have a gameplan.”
“I suppose we just need a pony for the practice date,” I mused. “With no pressure or expectations with the event. I wouldn’t want to get anypony’s expectations up or cause any awkwardness.”
“Always one of your friends,” Cloud suggested.
I hummed myself as I thought about the possibility. “That might be a solution. Even if that might be a bit awkward.” After what had recently happened with Fluttershy, I really didn’t want to go on even a practice date with her. It would be too painful.
“Rarity’s quite the social butterfly, you know.”
I stroked my chin as I thought it over. “I guess I could ask if she's alright with the idea. I don't want to make things awkward for her, but I'm sure Rarity will understand. She’s usually really good about stuff like this.”
“No harm in asking, right?” She grinned mischievously. “Have fun.”
“I'm a bit surprised you didn't offer yourself as a candidate for this,” I commented. “Given you're you, no offense.”
Cloud shrugged. “I figured you'd be more comfortable with one of your buddies.” Her grin returned and she leaned towards me. “But if you want to date me...” She waggled her eyebrows invitingly.
I grinned back at her, feeling a bit naughty myself now that Cloud had gotten me into the mood for it. “I don't know, do I want to date you? And do you want to date me? It is just supposed to be a practice date. That means no kissing, a low likelihood of hoof-holding, and certainly no chance of banging.”
“Well...” Cloud brushed a hoof against her chest. “I don't mean to brag, but I am the top playpony in all of Ponyville.” She chuckled to herself. “So actually, yeah, bragging a bit. Just saying, if you want to know about dating, I am an expert.”
I finished off my coffee as I considered the proposal. True, Cloud could make me uncomfortable, but I had been getting along with her as of late now that we understood each other a bit better. Not to mention it would be good to learn from somepony who was accomplished at dating. I would probably be more comfortable with Rarity, but I could always ask for her assistance later. No reason I had to restrict myself to one practice date, and getting two different perspectives on the topic would probably be beneficial for my purposes.
“I suppose we can give it a shot then,” I finally agreed. I gave her a teasing poke to the ribs. “As long as you remember to keep this in friendly, practice date territory and don’t try and whisk me off to your bed.”
Cloud grinned back. “Cool. And relax, I'll be a perfect gentlemare. I know where the borders are here. I certainly don’t want to be the mare who turned you off of dating. You deserve a lot better than that.”
“It would be nice to relax for once.” I levitated our trash to the trashcan. “It's been a while since I could really do that.” While it had only been a few short weeks since I had first gotten my assignment from Princess Luna, it felt a lot longer due to everything that had happened, and most likely it was going to be even longer before I was done.
“Deal.” Cloud stood up and stretched out her wings. “A nice relaxing dinner, some good conversation, all the usual stuff. And I won't even flirt with you.” It was a second before she added, “too much.”
I chuckled at the jest. “Flirting is supposed to be part of dating, or so I've heard.”
“Exactly,” Cloud said with a nod. “I mean, I'd be a pretty poor date if I didn't tell you how lovely you looked at some point.”
I stood up, trying to not let Cloud’s compliment affect me. “I'll make sure to write up some notecards for my own flirts.”
Cloud barely contained a giggling snort. “Oh, I just know you're going to make a big checklist for this date...”
“And do research ahead of time. I want to be prepared,” I added. I wanted to be fully prepared, even if it was a practice date. No sense being sloppy about this just because there weren’t any strings attached.
“But of course. I think about three books on dating will do it.”
“I'll see if there are that many in the library,” I agreed. “If not, I'll order some.”
Cloud chuckled. For whatever reason, a lot of ponies were amused whenever I determined I was going to research a new topic. I supposed it was because I sought to be a lot more prepared than most ponies would bother with. “This'll certainly be interesting.”
I ran a hoof through my mane. “No joke. When will this little play-date be?”
Cloud pursed her lips in thought. “I'll pick you up the Wednesday night the week after we’re done with Tornado Day?”
I nodded. “Next Wednesday night should be fine.”
“It's a date.” Cloud stretched out a wing, inviting me under it. “So, back to work?”
Seeing no real reason not to, I stepped under the wing, and let her wrap it around me. “Yep, back to work.” There was still a lot to do before I could concentrate on pleasures.
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Seems kind of unfair to forcibly draft pegasi into tornado day and give them ridiculous fines if they don't want to do it.
After Tornado Day.
The lucky pony won't be Cloud, or at least it's far less likely. Didn't Azalea make a cameo a few chapters ago?
Oh it is on now...
6206284 And soon, they'll get it on.
Er... I know you're you, Cloud, but given that Rainbow is already in a pretty stable, devoted relationship...
Phrasing.
6206347
I love this story. Twilight is so innocently adorable, but she's mature in her thought process, and that makes for a very unique narrator. Oh, and we can obviously never get enough Cloud! I'm real glad that those two are getting along now that they've actually talked like civilized adults. I don't know how long it will last, but i'll savor the relative "easiness" of this story's current chapters.
6206246 thank you for reminding me to watch Fiw again
6206231
Read Life and Times of a Winning Pony, the legal obligation of all Pegasi to perticipate in tornado day is a holdover from the military meritocracy of old Pegasopolis.
Heh... the future is filled with twilight filtering through the clouds~
She is a lot more relaxed with the sexual pegasus, I'm really looking forward to this practice date, in a way they are close friends, this is indeed quite the AU of events inside the Winning Universe, they never did react this much in the original, and I love every moment of it.
Seriously, snark and relaxed Twilight is best Twilight, but study determination Twilight is pretty awesome as well~
6206231
Haha, jury duty much? At least in the States.
--
I really enjoyed Cloud and Twi's little back-and-forth in this chapter. It was so cute seeing Twi start to get into the teasing.
6206231
It's something that -has- to be done, and it's best to do it with local manpower. Look at our society, if we had a setup like that, would you go "Oh, there's something important that I can volunteer to do!" or "Meh, someone else will handle it. I'll sit on my butt and watch TV."
Requiring them to put in a little work like... what? Once or twice a year if they're able-bodied? That's not that different from paying taxes. For that matter, they're probably compensated for the drafting. If anyone wants to complain about that, they're pretty lazy which means they must be pretty well off to be such a layabout. They can pay for the luxury of skipping out on tornado duty.
[[P.S.: That's why it's called Tornado 'Duty'.]]
I loved the back and forth between Cloud and Twilight in this chapter. It's nice to see Twilight be more comfortable with Cloud, which lets these interactions flow more smoothly and create these discussions. I'm looking forward to the play-date, though I'm sort of doubtful if it will even happen. I can't quite remember how the days after Tornado Day went in Life and Times but there was the issue of feather flu with a certain somepony...
Sorry I can't offer any productive feedback, just wanted to say I went to reading this immediately when I noticed it was posted and that I realyl enjoyed it. Thanks, Ponibius!
A good chapter all around. Good thinking about that sickness prevention spell, Twi. Saved your hides.
Shame it won't save anyone else
And of course Twi will read books on the dating subject! Fun how Could was just pulling her leg (I presume) and Twi just didn't detect it... adorakable oblivious bookhorse.
I wonder what will get in between their practice date though, there's always something popping up.
That was great
Now we know what happened with Twilight being the way she was during Tornado Day 
It seems she probably had fun on a date with Cloud Kicker 
Maybe a little too much fun 
Just kidding at least i hope it is 
Though I think it will be an innocent date 
I WANT MOAR SOON! 
If that is alright with you 
Oh man, we're at Tornado Day week finally, the moment of truth for certain questions.
A day on the town with Cloud and Twilight, hmn.
Lots of flirting, too. Hmmnn...
Eww. Now that is a good excuse for missing some or all of Tornado Day.
Heh. As much as that was a joke, it was a little surprising at how much more I liked the idea than just Cloud & Twi by themselves. Much less disapproval from me if that is how it goes down, oddly enough.
Bluebreeze on the other hand doesn't remotely have a good excuse.
I have to wonder what morning prayers for Twilight looked like in Canterlot. "Morning, Princess, here's a list, arranged in order of criticality and preference."
Huh. So, a practice date with Cloud, with pre-established guidelines of no funny business, and set for the week after Tornado Day week. Now that just tosses some semi-known future events up in the air. Rarity would have been more entertaining, to be honest, on account of Applejack, but the future "date" with Cloud could be fun too.
Hahaha!
Wait, the Wednesday AFTER the Tornado Day? So we still don't know what happened the night before... that and Fluttershy being the only one to know... could it be?.... That would be some seriously fucked up shit on her side...
Great chapter, as always. Since I have holiday now I think I can write chapter followups on this and Chengar's sequel.
6209544
That got a laugh out of me
6208987 Well, no... Read that again, they're going to have a date AFTER the tornado duty.
Maybe someone who knows Latin better than I do can confirm, but shouldn't a cult devoted to Princess Celestia be Sol Invicta? Unless she's secretly a prince?
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You're probably right but it's been mentioned enough times by now as Sol Invictus throughout the verse, to the point where I don't think it can be changed.
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And this would also be the proper way to pray TO Twilight when she becomes a Princess.
I really enjoyed this chapter. Was hoping this fic would get to this point where Cloud could teach her about dating and glad that is finally happening. Cheers.
I really loved this chapter it gave a lot of building towards twilight and cloud kickers reletionship as friends and a hint to futre events In the next chapters
I give it 10/10 dashes.
Keep up the great work guys looking forward to the next chapters
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Commence read.
Looks like they have that all planned out and have gotten a few stragglers.
Man, Twilights really changed a lot since this started. And let's see if I can actually manage to keep track of this story this time around.
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She is the youngest sibling.
*opens mouth* *closes mouth* *walks away*
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Thanks for catching those mistakes.
As for TwiLuna shipper, there's always a possibility I'll do something with that in the future. For this fic right here I kinda wanted to wrap up all current drama, and write other stuff elsewhere. Since this had already become a bit of a plot hydra as was. So we'll see how things go in the future, and what I feel like writing in the future.