The Diversified Growing-Up of a Simple Weather Ponyby bluemeganiumChaptersChapter III - The Weather Pony and the Precipitation of SerendipityChapter I - The Weather Pony and the Wings of an AngelChapter II - The Weather Pony and the Melody that CaptivatesChapter III - The Weather Pony and the Precipitation of SerendipityThe Diversified Growing-Up of a Simple Weather Pony Chapter III - The Weather Pony and the Precipitation of Serendipity by Bluemeganium The time passed by fairly quickly. Still with no cutie mark on my blank flank, I entered the new school year. "...and your new subject for all of you will be—" "RRRRRRING" "Okay fillies, time for a break!" Grumpy Granny was always on time. She started her lessons with the school bell and she ended them with the school bell, no matter what. Even bombs flying around the place couldn’t stop her from finishing her units! The first minutes of our fresh new school day were about organization things, and homework. Stupid Grumpy Granny – she always gave us homework, even in our holidays! In a small break, Springy, Raindrops and I discussed about this new subject. "Another new subject for us! I wonder what it will be this time?" Raindrops wondered. "Fact is, it's exclusively for us pegasi. No other race, like the unicorns, will do this stuff," I declared. "Whatever it is, I'm ready for it!" Raindrops confidently said. After the little break and after all the others had trotted in, Grumpy Granny finally told us all what our new subject will be. "... That’s what very pegasus pony must do! This will be important and relevant for your exam! Your new subject is meteorology or just 'weather’!" Aaah, Meteorology – that sounded nice to me. Though I really loved singing, the mystifying science of meteorology was quite interesting. Especially I always wanted to know how the weather ponies made the snowflakes in its various, beautiful shapes! Awww, and I remembered my mom often told me the tale of a little blind filly called ‘Snowdrop’ when I was a little filly. I really loved this story! In my opinion, winter’s the most beautiful season. As long as the ponies in Cloudsdale didn’t cause a blizzard, ice and snow made the scenery both in Cloudsdale and on earth just look wonderful! Plus, winter was the season for building snowponies! Springy, Raindrops and I met each other to have some lunch. It was a really, really hot day! It felt like a heat wave. It was already a September day, but the heat was impossible to stand. Thinking back, ice and snow would be really welcome, right now. "Sooo hot!" Raindrops complained, "Tomorrow, I'm gonna steal some clouds and let it rain all over Equestria! It can’t be that hard, right?" "Better make it snow," I mentioned, "that would be so neat!" “Cool idea, Medley!” In that turn, Raindrops instantly grabbed Springy who was looking in the sky. “Springy, you’re in?” Raindrops’ sudden action startled her. “Ehm-um-eh… In… what?” “Earth to Spring Skies! Getting rid of this hot weather! “Oh. I haven’t noticed. I’m busy with our new syllabus in our sculpture group.” Still the bright green pony in her hooves, Raindrops shook her and yelled, “Is this so important?” Springy smiled showing her fresh brushed teeth to Raindrops. “Absolooo-tely! I already know the whole syllabus in our group! From what I’ve heard, this will be so much fun this year!” “Um, aaahm, uhm… yeeah sure…,” Raindrops said, let her go and flinched back watching Springy clopping with her hooves in excitement. Emphasized Springy seemed to look forward to the stuff in her group, and she didn't really care about our new weather subject. Raindrops and I on the other hoof thought about it. While Raindrops aimed to have some good marks, I was really curious of making the weather! However, singing or even acting in a play was still on top of my list. I put my hoof around Raindrops. She’s my weather ally now. We both were fascinating about it, so why not put a hoof around your best ally, press your cheek against her cheek, and cheek-cuddle her? “Awww, Raindrops! We’re gonna love it!” “Yes, Medley!” Raindrops reached out one hoof to the sky and continued, “They will bow down to us for the cool snow after the heat!” “We’ll get the best marks! We’ll be superstars!” I exclaimed and squeezed Raindrops tighter on me. “We will. Even our new huffy teacher will praise us!” “Aw, he sure isn’t that bad!” I stated and asked dumbfounded Springy right away, “Am I right, Springy?” Springy shook her head from being the sudden center of attention. She found no words to say and put a hoof on her chin. Raindrops instead speculated, "I've heard he is a mug. He knows tons of things, but will easily let you down. He just doesn't care for his students!" "Really?" I loosened my hug and my jaw dropped. "Fillies cry about him! If they have a question, Mr. Golden Mist rejects them like he has a heart of stone!" "I don't believe that, Raindrops!" Springy startled. "I don't wanna believe it either!" "Me neither!" I agreed on Raindrops' last statement. The next day was all about our new subject. The whole day was just meteorology. No math, no singing and no other things, and fortunately no economics! Aaargh, how I hate this subject! I always got bad marks in economics! Dad's not very amused when I came home with Ds or even Fs. Mr. Golden Mist entered our classroom. He was an old and bald, dark grey pony, who limbed. Hay, is this school full of limb ponies? First, Mrs. Seedflare... and now this old stallion? Anyways, my other classmates were not really interested – like always. Dashie chewed on her third bubble gum before the lessons even started, Thunderlane tried to lick his nose with his tongue, and Periwinkle just stared out of the window. "Good morning, class!" the dark grey stallion greeted us. "Good morning!" all of us more or less replied. "First of all, my name is Mr. Golden Mist. Hee hee." What was the chuckle all about? Old ponies cannot entertain little fillies! Anyways, he continued, "And this is your very day of our special subject, exclusively to us pegasi! The wonders and magic of meteorology! Hee hee!" "Um, what's meteorology?" Thunderlane asked. What the hay? I knew, Thunderlane was kinda lazy, and always hedged when there was a job to do, but dumb? "Good question! Little... what was your name? Oh yeah, Periwinkle!" Hihi! Now that made us laugh! Thunderlane blushed, and Periwinkle turned her head from the window to our teacher with a sinister look. The brilliant-white pony stretched one hoof as fast as lightning and threatened, "ONE MORE TIME!" "Oh, excuse me! I should really look in my notes! Now who's sitting where? Let's make an attendance check!" Mr. Golden Mist rummaged on the desk trying to find our class list. "Ah, there it is! Okay, Dewdrop!" "Wrong list!" I put in. He turned the sheet around. "Hmm... this class? Is Periwinkle there? Yes there she was. Rainbow Dash! Who's Rainbow Dash?" "Here, Mister!" Dashie teetered with her chair. "Sit normal and spit out your gum!" he ordered. "You're the boss!" Dashie spit out her gum outward one of the open windows. "Good power, Rainbow, thank you! Now who's Raindrops?" Raindrops just raised her hoof. "Alright, now Spring Skies must be next of you Raindrops?" "Yes here!" She agreed happily. "Sprinkle Medley!" Now this was my sign. I raised my hoof. "The next one? Stormcatcher?" "I'm here!" "A young stallion I see. Thunderlane too, that's alright." "Now, you must be Umbrella as my last young mare, right?" Umbrella nodded. "And my last one is Zapper, okay, hee hee!" Without a break he continued, "Now. To our last question. What is meteorology? Well it's a thing, only pegasi are able to do it! Unicorns learn magic in your age, Earth Ponies nature. We do weather. And that's all! It's all about the clouds and the temperatures, the wind, the air, the humidity, and so on and so on, hee hee!" He tried to be sympathetic, but his 'hee hee' annoyed me a bit. "Most of the time, our classroom will be in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory! Today at noon, we'll all fly to this place. I'll show you everything you need to know, hee hee." Before noon, we just made very simple things about weather – some introduction stuff. Afterwards, we all flew to the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. Cloudsdale itself is a city just for workers. About at least half of the population was hired either as a worker in the Weather Factory or in some sort of military things. Too bad, my parents were not in one of those. Dad was a construction worker, and Mom householded. So this place was just new for me. And this place really threw my eyes out! I gazed literally! Endless halls, as huge as a mountain, crisscrossed corridors like labyrinths, various clouds of thunder and rain even within the halls, and a lot of old and young pegasi flying hectically around the place. Dozens? Hundreds? This was the enormous Cloudsdale Weather Factory! And I only saw one hall of at least four or five! Raindrops and I were just amazed by this colossus! I mean, those giant halls big enough to gain so much speed that you could even do the legendary sonic rainboom! Springy instead didn't really care and just looked around like she was searching for interesting things. We walked around when I suddenly jumped out of my coat. "EEEEK!" A thunderbolt struck next to me. All of us jumped in fear, and I was just dumbfounded. Mr. Golden Mist just giggled, "Hee hee. You'll have to be used to it!" We all worked out a lot of things in our new subject the next days in the Weather Factory. I must say, it was very interesting, so far. But singing was just unbeatable! Speaking of that, the heat out there was unbeatable, too. I didn't know how many days the heat wave cooked us literally, but it was really time for a little shower! ~ ~ ~ There was one unforgettable day. It was by the end of September, and the heat wave was still unbelievable. I’d already learned to measure the air temperature by just using our wing tips. It must have been around 95 degrees at noon. A complicated thing to explain. By the way, Springy sometimes scrambled those numbers. For example, water became solid at 212 degrees for her, while water boiled at 32 degrees. She's smart – no offense – but she sometimes scrambled things. Things that made us giggle. We all had a little excursion that day. We flew low, just a bit above the ground. The topic this day was called 'inversion'. A phenomenon where the cool layer of the air was sharply separated with the warmer layer above. The cool layer, our teacher told us, always carried fog and cold, and was characterized with high humidity, while the layer above was sunny most of the time. Not a well-fit topic when there was a heat wave, but I couldn't complain about it either. We flew quite slowly above the ground. There was no hurry. We had all the time until afternoon. Explaining weather things and such stuff. We approached a little town that should be our resting area. But of course, we wouldn't land down on the ground! Pegasi must be endurable, especially when it came to weather things! Eight hours hovering in the sky to do our duty was usual, so have a break with moving your wings up and down was a good way to improve our own endurance. Plus, the heat tried us all. Endurance was one thing, but as soon as the temperatures rose above a critical level, even the most endurable pegasi came to their limits. We were all young, so a heat like this was dangerous! More degrees and we must fly back to the weather factory, and had to learn all the stuff on the chalkboard! YUCK, how I hated it! I packed out my lunch. A crunchy sandwich with lilies and slices of peach. In cooking, I was a virtual disaster. There were no words to describe my calamity, my catastrophe, my INability to bake and cook. But one thing was for sure. My mom made the most delicious and the most creative sandwiches ever! I mean slices of peach? How awesome was that! "OH DAMN IT!" I heard a loud shout coming from one of my friends. "What's the matter, Raindrops?" "My tomatoes! My lemons! My candies! All gone!" She bit on her lips in desperation. Raindrops' saddlebag had a hole in it, so she must have lost her food! In the hope of some leftovers that fell not out of the bag, she franticly combed through her entire bag with nothing left but some big books and some pens. She quickly began to snivel, "Oooh no. I'm gonna starve! I'm gonna die of thirst! I'm doomed!" Poor Raindrops. Of course, this was some kind of emergency. A pegasus in the air with both no food and no water. Unimaginable – if Raindrops fainted in front of us, and crashed on the ground! Calling the Life Flight could have been really stressful once they came over. Not only because the ponies of Life Flight would just beat you back or even snarled at you unfriendly once you came close to your friend, but to see how the Life Guard took your best friend to the hospital – your very close friend, who was injured from head to tail, unable to speak to you, plugged to respirators or even some device to watch the vital functions. Such a very, very close friend like Raindrops. A scenario where the pony you love is covered by cables, masks, hoses, blankets and other equipment to rescue somepony's life was really painful to imagine. For all of us young ponies, but especially for me. I offered Raindrops some of my food, leaned one of my hooves in front of her nose, and hoped she’d love it! I sacrificed half of my sandwich for a good purpose. I hope Raindrops likes peach. "Here!" "Medley!" the pitifully desperate pony grabbed away the part of my sandwich, "Thank you so much!" "And if you want, I can share my bottles with you. I hope you like cherry juice," Springy put in, and showed us her two bottles of cherry juice. "Girls," her voice fluttered, "thank you! Thank you such much! It's so nice from both of you!" "Don't mention it," Springy replied and winked, "it's the least thing we could do for you." I blinked. "She's right! Remember our bond? Our bond of friendship? We don't leave a pony behind, no matter what!" Raindrops was rather the tough pony. And such ponies never showed their sensitive kind of feelings. Okay – I exaggerated. I mean, she cared for a lot of ponies when she was in a good mood. But in return, she hardly showed any emotions, except when it was about her best friends. Springy, Dashie and me. This attitude should change when tears were rolling down her cheek. She sniffled through her nose, and that was a clear sign, her emotions were unstoppable. She tried to stop of course, we're talking about Raindrops, but she couldn't. More and more tears fell down. She sniveled and repeated, "Thank you!" This was one of the very very rare occasions of an emotional yellow pegasus pony! And I couldn’t think of why, though. I mean, just losing your food? Maybe it’s because, Springy and I cared about her, but she already sniveled when she found out that she lost her food! However, when we finished our lunch, we had plenty of time to play around if we wanted to. We had 30 minutes of time, till we'd start to head towards Canterlot. But not for a visit. Canterlot lied on the side of a mountain. Mountains were one of the essential things to create an inversion. The layers of different air temperatures collide with the mountains and thereby it promotes the creation of visible inversions. None of us felt like impulsive young ponies. It was just too hot to play around. And to learn things of course. I suggested, "Let's just watch the ground! Just hover! A heat stroke is the last thing we need!" "You're right, Medley," our not-blubbering-anymore Raindrops replied. She shoved her last piece of my former sandwich in her mouth – a pure slice of peach. "Was it fine?" I asked my yellow-coated friend. "Sure! Thanks again, Medley! The peaches were nice!" "Oh, it's alright. You don't need to thank me or Springy anymore. Food's complimentary," I said and winked. Raindrops tilted her head a bit and smiled. After a couple of moments, she seemed to be distracted suddenly. I wanted to know why, so I looked back, and all I saw was Springy and she pointed her hoof down to earth. "See this little town? This is Ponyville!" "I know!" Raindrops hastily moved herself next to Springy. "Ponyville looks so peaceful!" "I've never been to Ponyville before! At least I cannot remember any days I've ever been in Ponyville," I announced. "Look!" Raindrops wrapped her right hoof and pulled me towards her, so I was close to her and pointed her other hoof to a big building on the outskirts of Ponyville, "This must be the hospital! Remember, when I told you all about my accident?" Sure I remember – the 43rd time by now. Springy suddenly spilled over with joy. I just stared at her and Raindrops demanded, "Stop cheering about my bad accident!" "No no no! Look over there!" Now I felt two hooves around my neck. Springy pulled Raindrops and me even closer. "This is Ponyville's town hall!" She kept on pointing with her hooves back and forth like a tourist guide. "And this is the most beautiful, fantastic, tremendous, extraordinary," she took a deep breath, "inspiring, exalting, joyful," she took another deep breath, "there are so many words to describe this wonderful piece of art!" "The town hall looks simple to me," I wondered. "No Medley!" She squeezed us literally with her one hoof. Geez, who knew, Springy could be so powerful? "Next to Ponyville’s town hall! This statue!" Raindrops was wringed between her and me. She couldn't really move herself, so her voice sounded pretty... well 'squeezy'. "Um- hww bwtifwl!" Springy rapidly let us go, folded both of her hooves and behaved like she was in love. "Aww, this is art! This is a beautiful masterpiece of art! I adore it!" I took a closer look. It must have been really the pony statue, she told us about. A huge statue with a pony just standing on its hind legs. Was it a fountain or something? Springy was literally cock-a-hooped and flew roller coasters in the air! She even accidentally flew through a very tiny cloud, where Dashie slacked off. The cloud disappeared, and Dashie caught herself up easily, but was confused and angry about the sudden joy-burst of Springy. "Heey, Spring Skies! That was my cloud!" She then muttered, "You crazy mare!" Joyful Springy returned to us and demanded, "How about, we fly to this beautiful statue? Just a few minutes!" A couple of moments down to Ponyville might not be dangerous, though it was still hot. If the air was hot, the ground was always hotter. We had plenty of time to spend. And I always wanted to visit this nice little town. When thinking about it, I saw Raindrops following her. Okay – that persuaded me. I was in! When we were about to fly down to Ponyville, I suddenly stopped and hovered on my spot. I saw ponies down there – two or three earth ponies, and even some unicorns! These ponies looked like ants from this height, though, but we pegasi have eagle eyes! What I saw was not only the ponies down there, but sorrow and unhappiness in their faces. "What's the matter?" Springy asked. "Look, these ponies! The look so sad! Let's head to them!" I ordered. "Oh, you're right! I wonder why they're so unhappy. I hope not because of us?" Raindrops stated. We landed next to a yellow unicorn with a blue mane. I looked in her deep purple eyes and asked, "Why are you so frowny?" "YOU!" She pointed her hoof to us, "It's all your fault!" I dropped my jaw. "What have we done?" "The heat!” The yellow unicorn looked upon various spots on her body. “I have sunburns all over my body! My mane's a mess! It hasn't rained here since two weeks! Where's the shower?" the yellow unicorn snarled at us. "We're fillies; we don't know how to change the weather!" Springy frowned. "What a disaster! Tell those winged idiots in Cloudsdale, Ponyville wants a cool shower!" The unicorn turned her back to us, went into her house and shut the door with her magic intensively. "She was really ugly to us!" I stated. Shouts could be heard from a distance. "Go away, bunch of incompetent weather ponies!" "Get out, idiots!" "Do us a favor. Leave!" Springy lowered her head and frowned, "Okay girls. Better fly back!" Raindrops hovered a bit and turned her head back. "Medley, don't you come with us?" "Go on you two," I ordered, "I'll follow you soon." I walked through the little town to search for more friendly ponies and all I saw was shutted windows and doors! The heat on the ground felt like magma – extremely hot! Two more minutes, and my hooves were ready for dinner! Sure, it was peaceful in Ponyville, but in an eerie way. It was silent, and nopony was out to enjoy the sun or something. After plenty of minutes, I finally found somepony to talk. To be exact, two ponies snuggling each other. A bright yellow and blue colt and his girlfriend, a pink pony with a yellowish-green curly mane. The pink pony startled a bit when she saw me, but then she said, "Oh, hi!” Her eyes see-sawed. “It's been a long time since a pegasus pony visited us!" I questioned, "Why that?" The colt said, "The whole town believes, you pegasi were responsible for this heat wave," He looked around and whispered, "but I don't believe it!" "Me neither," her girlfriend said, "you must have run out of the clouds or the water, don't you?" "I don't know. I don't work in Cloudsdale or in the Weather Factory. But we're here to learn about the weather." I pointed my hoof up to the sky, where a bunch of pegasi hovered, including my friends, who already arrived the group. "Oh, I understand," the pink pony announced, "but could you do us a favor?" My expression turned frowny. "I have to leave? Fine!" "Nono, please wait!" the pink pony said and held me back, "You can’t do the weather, but can you please tell the Cloudsdale ponies that we're melting here? It is really unenjoyable here! My coltfriend and I can’t take the heat anymore! And the other ponies in Ponyville can't take it either!" Both the colt and the mare lowered their heads and glowered at me. Oh, how they begged me with their eyes. It felt like I was the pony, who must do them this favor. I blinked, smiled and turned my way directly to the group of pegasi above town. I sprinted to my friends, who already awaited me. Raindrops and Springy were not prepared for my sudden speed! Raindrops fortunately avoided me, though it was pretty close. Unfortunately .on the other hoof, I collided with Springy leaving her spinning around multiple times! Springy tumbled, began to swirl like a twister and – tried to – have a talk with me, "Stah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ahp! Wh-h-h-y so fa-a-ast?" I abruptly stopped. Five seconds were fine for them and no more! "I head to Cloudsdale again. Will take a few minutes. But I'll return. Please wait for me!" "Medley, are you—" Raindrops bit my dust literally when I swished through the sky again leaving her speechless and Springy spin around. I didn't care now. Ponies needed me, and I knew what to do! To be honest, I didn't really know why I knew what I had to do. It was some kind of an instinct. Plus, this pink pony tasked me to tell the weather ponies to change the weather. But I wanted more! I felt a bit ambitious – another thing I couldn’t really explain! Another kind of an instinct? I approached the huge weather factory within a few minutes as fast as I could. In my mind, I was aware that the heat was still dangerous. And after noon, the heat would have become stronger. I ran through the halls. One of these halls was the cloud-making section, where the clouds were made there of course, but this was also the place, where the clouds were filled with rainwater, snow, hail, thunderbolts and all the other fancy things! I found out, the rainwater was not the problem. Cloudsdale still had enough of it. You could’ve seen it all over the place! Some basins were still full of rainwater. The problems were the clouds! I can remember one of my first lessons a couple of days ago. Pegasi filled the giant cloud-making machines with a strange violet-bluish liquid. After this, a sudden burst of steam came up from the funnel and small clouds appeared all over the place, ready to be used. Great. There was enough rainwater, but still no clouds in the sky! They really must have run out of the strange liquid! I mean, this liquid was the only thing you need to create clouds! Otherwise, you’d just have some sort of fog, which was pretty useless against the heat of the sun. Clouds were more stable against the heat. Clouds could’ve given you at least a bit of shade, even with no rainwater carrying in it, in case the Weather Factory has no rainwater anymore. Nevertheless, only a few ponies worked in the cloud-making section. Just the ponies for the surveillance. The rest had holidays or had to work somewhere else. It was crystal clear. There were hardly any clouds to make anymore, and that's why everypony's gone! And how were you able to carry rainwater to a town without clouds? Ponies down there needed the cool refreshment urgently! I stand in front of one of those giant machines to produce clouds. Strange liquid or not, I had to try it in the hope of some leftovers in the machine. I smashed and hammered the buttons haply to make the machine work, but in the end it was hopeless! The machine didn't even twitch! "Stupid machine!" I yelled. The huge hall echoed my shout. An old stallion walked on by. I turned to him and demanded him, "Please tell me how I can turn on this machine! It's urgent!" "These machines cannot be turned on, my little pony, unless the supervisor uses a key to start the machines. And she's not here. She has her free days." I dropped my jaw. "But there's one old machine!" The old pony pointed his hoof behind me. I turned my back, and all I saw was a long corridor. "Do you see the rusty green one over there? Just turn the big black switch, and you'll be happy!" How far away was this machine? Must be half of a mile! Anyways, I rapidly flew away, and shouted, "Thank you!" I arrived at the old machine. The sign on the side of the machine said 'Cloudmaker 900'! Wow, this machine must be a hundred years old! Though I still needed at least a bucket full of this strange stuff to create at least one huge cloud, I did the same like before – turn on the machine and see what happens. If I could create a cloud, good, if not, don’t think about it! I turned the switch, and to my consternation, I noticed that the machine didn't make a move. "Aaargh!" I gnarled. When I finished gnarling, I also noticed that the machine was unplugged. Oops! Never thought about the fact, machines need electricity – forgive me, I'm a stupid mare sometimes! Both socket and the plug next to the socket were old and dusty, but that should do. "YES!" Finally the machine worked, and some little parts of cloud material gathered to a big cloud, becoming bigger and bigger. I wondered how much cloud material I needed. Forget it! I'll keep on doing until the Weather Factory finally ran out of clouds! That was my goal! I must make the ponies happy again! No matter what! The cloud became really huge – well, for me! It must’ve been dozens of dozens of hooves! Suddenly, no more cloud material came out of the machine! After two minutes, the old machine must have run out of the very very last leftovers of this strange liquid! The machine rumbled, and no more cloud material came out anymore! No more cloud material! In my thoughts, I repeatedly cursed! How should my first cloud that I've ever made, grow up to a monster cloud? I was aware, those really giant clouds were made outside. Many pegasi shifted tiny pieces of rain clouds outside of the Weather Factory. Those monstrous clouds were built within a day by hundreds of dozens of tiny clouds. I have to admit, 'tiny' is a confusing word. Such clouds were usually as big as my actual cloud was. I talked to myself, "What now?" They’d all laugh at me when I'd arrive with such a tiny cloud to cool down Ponyville! I was worried about this situation. Back and forth through my mind, I desperately searched for a good idea. An idea to compromise my tiny cloud with something really big. "That's it!" Cloudsdale might be run out of virtually anything now – thanks to myself – but rainwater was still available! I pushed the cloud through the entire hall until I reached a giant tap. You can imagine them like the water taps in your bathroom where you can wash your hooves for example! I placed my cloud under the tap, and the cloud was now slowly filled with rainwater! Automatically, like some unicorns hid themselves behind the tap! I wasn't satisfied with just a few raindrops. No! This time was as-much-as-the-cloud-can-carry-time! And even if the rainwater overflowed and the whole hall would be a mess, I didn't care. Ponies out there counted on me! The cloud turned its clear white color to a more darker one. Once, the cloud reached a very dark grey color, some raindrops went off of the cloud. But not as you might think that my cloud would start to rain as long as you carefully move the cloud. To make it rain, you had to stomp on the top of the clouds. Raindrops trailing along the cloud like this didn't count – fortunately. Otherwise I would've returned to Ponyville with no raincloud. Okay, that was enough now. I pushed away the cloud very carefully, and to my surprise, the cloud was really heavy now, almost immovable for me. One wrong move and it will rain in the Weather Factory! Still, rainwater dripped out of the dark grey raincloud, but as long as the rainwater slowly dripped along the sides, it was okay. I wasn't surprised about the fact that I moved the cloud in a pretty unstable way. As an absolute beginner, I didn't knew how to push a very heavy cloud carefully to a place without letting it rain. So I made a easy decision for me – the more the raincloud became too unstable to move, the more careful I was. If nothing helped, I needed to park the cloud somewhere in the sky, and I'd hurry to Springy and Raindrops, so they could help me. The flight to Ponyville felt so long. I moved this heavy cloud now for 15 minutes, and I still haven't reached half of my way, what left me a little bit tired. Fortunately, I grabbed the cloud underneath to push, so I could use this cloud like an umbrella. Plus, the top of the clouds were resistant against the heat of the sun for two or three hours, so I had enough time to move this cloud to Ponyville. I'd definitely return late with my cloud. My teacher and the others would search for me, instead of carrying on with the lessons. But it was sealed. The point of no return was reached long before I filled the cloud with rainwater. I hoped, my teacher wouldn't be mad at me for not staying with the others and leaving without saying a word. Actually, Springy and Raindrops knew that I headed to the Weather Factory. I really hoped, I wouldn't visit the detention room for two or three weeks. I moved and watched the raincloud very carefully for several moments. After a while, I saw flying little dots in the distance. These dots were my friends and my classmates! Just a few more minutes, and I'd be there! I kept on concentrating on my movements. After several minutes, the raincloud was so close to its destination, maybe five more minutes! I was so eager now to make the ponies in Ponyville happy. One wrong shake and I would kill myself! The front of the raincloud passed by my classmates and my teacher Mr. Golden Mist of course. I shouted with a slightly exhausted voice, "Stay– away!" Raindrops flew next to me. She joked, "Haha, Medley! Where did you steal this giant cloud?" I gasped, "No." "What do you mean 'no'?" she asked, "is it a present for us?" "Kinda," I gasped, "take a cool shower– if you want to." "Okay! Just let me stomp on this—" "NOOO!" I interrupted Raindrops from doing so, "Ponyville needs the rainwater! I– I must reach Ponyville first! If you stomp on this cloud, everything will– everything will be ruined!" Raindrops felt disappointed, "Uh?" "Don't touch!" I shouted at her, "It was quite hard to keep this cloud stable without letting it rain down!" "What in the hay have you even done?" she asked. "I– I filled the cloud with rainwater. I gathered the very last pieces of cloud material together, and filled this cloud with as much rainwater as possible. Even– even more than possible. Until the rainwater was about to burst off from– from the sides!" Raindrops reaction was an amazed one as she put her hooves in front of her mouth. That was all I noticed. I just focused on my task, though it was really tough, because the heat got the upper hoof now. The cool shadow turned into a hot spot. I had to talk to Raindrops loudly in the last minute, it hurt in my throat, and I was nearly exhausted! Shifting the cloud, talking loud, the heat itself, no matter how you count these aspects up, all these things sapped all of my energy! My condition was hardly above zero. It felt, like I was about to black out, but I only had one simple mile! I braced myself. "Raindrops," my voice was shaky, "h-help me with this cloud!" Raindrops flew next to me and asked, "What do I have to do?" "Touch it– here. Exactly here!" Raindrops put her hooves at said place. "And now– gently– push! Don't let– this cloud– jump!" Geez, I felt so tired. The heat really burnt me. My sight was like you were in a tunnel and it was all blurry. With my last tiny pieces of energy left I turned my head, and said to Raindrops, "We– we'll make them– we'll make them so happy!" "Medley, you're so amazing!" Raindrops complimented me for my effort. I blinked and had a faint smile left. A few moments later I whispered, "Enough, don't push anymore." The cloud itself stopped after a while. I had to regain energy, so I just hovered and wheezed for a minute or two. After then, I continued whispering, "You– stomp! I– throw." "Throw? Are you sure?" "Yeah, s-some energy left!" "You crazy mare! The heat must have burnt your mind!" "It– it's all okay!" I responded. “If that’s what you want,” Raindrops said and rolled her eyes. Raindrops flew to the top of the cloud and bounced on the cloud up and down. This was my sign to throw the cloud as hard as I could. I aimed the cloud towards Canterlot. There wouldn't be enough rainwater for both towns, but at least, Ponyville got a shower. The first drops of rain ran out of the cloud. Soon after, more and more drops rained down on earth. I stroke out and prepared to toss. As hard as I could, I tossed the cloud, so it could rain down from one end of the town to another. "WWWRAGGGHH!" I directly flew down to Ponyville's town hall. I overtook the cloud above me, and caught some fresh and ice cool rainwater, what relaxed me. It really felt so good! Not because the rain cooled down my body, but I’d help so many ponies! The latter was the thing, it really pleasured me, and the motivator of doing this kind of work. While gliding down, I looked to the ground. The shade of the cloud covered about a quarter of the whole town! And some ponies already gathered – they must have heard of this nice surprise! The intensity of the rain sharply increased, and that was a good sign! After the hell of a heat wave, a big chunk of ice cool rain was the right thing, the ponies down there needed. And it made me so happy to be part of it. I prepared to land, but I couldn't! I felt so paralyzed, and the last thing I noticed was just black! And a dull but heavy impact! ~ ~ ~ I woke up. I looked into the sky, and the huge raincloud surpassed my sight. It still rained, but the intensity already decreased. I woke up in a quite strange position; on the back and my hind legs were spread. The next thing I remembered was the worried but calm voice of Springy. "Medley! Are you alright?" "I guess," I simply answered. "OUCH! What happened?" "You crashed down. It was terrible! Did you hurt yourself?" Springy looked on every corner of my body to search for wounds and scratches. While at it, Raindrops galloped to me, and pushed away Springy. "Wwoah, Raindrops!" she gleamed. "Medley!" Raindrops instantly grabbed one of my hooves. "Did you hurt yourself?" "I already asked the same!" Springy reminded her quite angry. More and more ponies gathered around me. Thunderlane, the friendly pony couple from several minutes ago, Zapper, Periwinkle, and so on. The last ones I recognized were Mr. Golden Mist and Rainbow Dash. Geez! Dashie wrapped herself around my teacher and buried her head in fear! "I'm fine," I replied. These spoken words made Dashie suddenly jump to me in joy and relief! "Med, you were soo awesome! I'm glad you're fine!" "Oh thanks!" I replied. Springy thrust away Dashie and smiled in joy, and Raindrops cheek-cuddled me. The ponies of Ponyville all cheered. I remembered the yellow unicorn with the blue mane. I saw happiness in her face, and not her grouchy meanness before the heavy rain. I saw happiness in everypony's face! Ponyville's ponies and my classmates were so glad! Was it because I was still alive or because of the nice weather I brought them? Anyways, even our ever-half-hearted, bad-tempered Periwinkle smiled! Wow! I've lost my hope in seeing Periwinkle smile some time ago. I sometimes believed, Cloudsdale would've crashed into the ocean, or I would've turned into a stallion before Periwinkle smiled! Now that was worth it! "Medley, how do you feel?" my teacher asked. "Thanks, I'm fine." Due to the fact, it was my teacher in front of me, I rapidly apologized, "I'm sorry for that! I'm sure, I made some trouble when I flew away. I'm really sorry!" "Look around you, hee hee!" I did so. I saw happy faces. These ponies were thirsty, and these ponies were sick and tired of the heatwave, at least for today! But that all was really worth it! It made me so happy to see happy faces. I did something great, and I knew it! My teacher added, "I turn a blind eye to this," winked me, and finished his statement by saying, "hee hee!" I shook my head to clear my mind. I cannot believe it! I made the ponies happy again! I mean, me? A little unknown pegasus pony? It really felt so delightful! Who knew, making weather turned ponies so happy? Okay, I must say, they really deserved the shower. It was the right time to put them out of their misery. Too bad, only for a day. Ponyville had to keep up a few more days until autumn finally started. But I was sure, Ponyville would forgive me. I still laid on the ground very awkward. My flanks crawled – either my hind legs numbed in stillness or beetles crawled all over my body. Ewww! I stood up. To my surprise, I still had control over my hind legs or any other part of my body, though it twitched a bit somewhere around the neck. Okay, I was fine. I could still fly around if I want, and walk without a care. "Medley!" Raindrops and Springy both wrestled me down on the ground. I just stared at them and said, "Girls, I'm fine! Don't turn it worse!" "Medley!" Springy repeated with an increased voice. "I know my name!" I wondered. "No, look there!" Springy pointed to my flank, while Raindrops stared on my flank like I was a showgirl. "You... there’s a cutie mark on your flank!" Saucer-eyed, I looked on my flank and saw no more blank aquamarine spot anymore! There was something that shined like a diamond! Fresh and bright! When the gleam stopped, I finally saw it with my own eyes. My newborn cutie mark! A bright white cloud and one, two, three... five, six... eight, nine. Nine bluish-green raindrops! Like the color of my mane! Pinch me, I must dream! I was paralyzed! The true beauty of a cutie mark! This cutie mark would remain forever on my flank, and I was the chosen pegasus pony of millions! Raindrops congratulated me with a big squeezy hug. Springy nuzzled me and said, "Good job! Very good job! This is your day! You deserved that!" I couldn't really focus on the lessons anymore. My mind was full of my new cutie mark. Raindrops, Springy and even Dashie tried to talk with me, but I didn't really listen to them. I was just too distracted and looked down on my flank every five seconds to control whether my cutie mark was still there or just imagination or even a dream, and I still didn't wake up after my black-out. Back at home, my parents were in the living room. I sneaked upstairs, and just shouted, "Hi Mom, hi Dad!" and shut down the bathroom door. Actually, I stayed out of the bathroom, so my parents would think, I took a shower or something. If you slammed the door of our bathroom shut, it was a different sound, than the door of my own living room. The plan was perfect! I sneaked into my room, and closed my own door silently. I needed something to cover my new cutie mark! It should be a surprise for my parents! But what should I pick? I rummaged through my things, leaving my room in a mess. I found a veil, for example, but the veil was partly transparent – that meant a no. Clothes that let my cutie mark shimmer through were not a good help. But my dress could work! Yeah, that should do! I can cover my cutie mark under my deep pink dress and when dinner was over, my parents would be flabbergasted! I put on my dress. Damn, my dress was tight! Was I chubby or something? How disgusting! Anyways, I had to go to the bathroom again. I wetted my mane, to have an alibi. It was suspicious if you went to the bathroom and your mane was as dry as dust. I sneaked down to have dinner. On the table, there were eggs, tomatoes and sandwiches. My parents stared at me awkwardly. "Darling! Why do you wear your dress? I thought, you don't like it?" Damn, Mom was right! I hated that color! I loved the bright nature colors, and some aquatic colors of course. Pink was fine, as long as the color was bright, and not so... dark. "I'm gonna go out with my friends!" This time, it wasn't a lie. I really wanted to go to Springy. She invited me to her little sleep-over. Raindrops and her little sister Sunny Rays were invited too, but there was one special guest in her list. No one less than Thunderlane! I grinned, "Springy invited me! Sleep-over!" "Now this will be a fancy sleep-over!" my dad replied. "You can bet!" I kept on grinning. I easily took a tomato and shoved it, in my mouth. After then, I took another one. And another one. And another one. "Medley, stop," my mom interrupted my actions, "leave some tomatoes to your dad! He's hungry too!" I already shoved my fifth tomato in my mouth when I quit. My face looked like I had balloons in my mouth. I swallowed and announced, "Fine. But I bet this day will be super-extra-nice! I'm gonna have fun, and no one's gonna stop me!" "Darling, why are you so excited about your sleep-over?" "Maybe I'm in a good mood?" I replied to my mom. "I see," she simply said. "Besides," I prepared to take off my dress, "what do you think about..." I grabbed my dress and shook it off my body, "THIS!" "Daaarling!" my mom shouted in amazement, "that's a cutie mark!" Dad spit out his juice when he saw my brand new flank. Mom continued, "I'm so proud of you!" She offered me a hug, and I just fell into her hooves and snuggled her. Dad stood up from his seat, and hugged the both of us, Mom and me. He said, "Meddy, we're really proud of you. Congratulations to your cutie mark!" "Tell us how!" my mom asked. "I haven't expected my cutie mark! And that was all! That's what you said, Mom!" She smiled, while I added, "I saw ponies in Ponyville! They were really miffed by the heatwave. I really wanted to help them out of their misery! So I headed to the Weather Factory." I signalized my next statement by writing invisible quotation marks with my hooves, "I 'lend' myself a big cool raincloud, and let it shower all over Ponyville! And it felt so good to see them happy!" I looked to my flank again and bounced, "And that's all! I really love my cutie mark!" "We've got a new rain queen!" my dad joked. "I'm not sure, it's all about the rain. I feel like, I love all the weather! I can't really explain! I've never loved weather so much before!" My mom replied to my statement, "You've done something beautiful. Getting a cutie mark scrambles your mind. Suddenly, you love more and more what makes other ponies happy. That's all part of your destiny!" "Is destiny perfect?" I asked. Geez, I usually asked no philosophical questions. "That's a tricky question! But what would it be if you get a cutie mark in painting for example, and in the next days, you hate to paint pictures? That makes no sense!" "But if it happens to a pony?" My mom pondered. Then she said, "You can have both a love for paint, for example, and a cutie mark of the same or a different kind. But you cannot have both a cutie mark of a certain thing like painting and the hate for paint. Those ponies are depressed and hate to be themselves." "Does that mean, I'll be—" I quickly changed my mind, "NO, forget it! I don't wanna know it!" "Think positive! That's far better!" my dad suggested. Mom nodded. I nodded as well. I trotted over to my thrown-away dress. Too bad – actually too good – I threw my dress into a dirty corner. "Need to change my clothes I guess," I said, "I can't have a party with dirty clothes!" "So it's a cute-ceañera?" my dad asked curiously. "I suppose," I answered. Good thing, I didn't have to wear this dress again. I accidentally threw it in the dirt – maybe my action was part of another characteristic of a cutie mark? "I need to wear something else for my cutesowhatever!" ~ ~ ~ "Medley, I still can't believe that you received your cutie mark!" Springy's sister Sunny Rays complimented me. "You look so pretty!" Thunderlane added. “Thanks Thunderlane!” I replied. My partly-transparent lilac dress shone even more brilliant with my new-born cutie mark underneath it. No wonder that Thunderlane was so impressed! Speaking of Thunderlane, my brain clicked, because I wanted to know why Thunderlane was here. "Hey, Thunderlane! Thanks again! By the way, what you're doing here? And where's your dress?" I joked. Thunderlane blushed. "Spring Skies just invited me. And NO, keep dresses away from me! I- I hate dresses!" "Oh sure," I ironically said. "Girls, come here!" Springy, Sunny, Raindrops and I gathered and whispered something Thunderlane could not listen to. Then Springy stood up, opened her wardrobe and showed us all a pretty bright pink dress like from a princess of a fairy tale. "Sunny, shut the door!" she ordered. She moved slowly towards Thunderlane and threatened him, "Don't run away! You're gonna love it!" Thunderlane screamed, "Noooo! Get away from me!" He tried to block Springy by shaking his hooves around, but he wasn't aware of a sneaking mare, called Raindrops, behind him. "Got ya!" Raindrops was strong and kept Thunderlane at his spot with nothing but her forelegs! He tried to escape – but it was hopeless! We were about to have a let's-turn-a-stallion-into-a-mare-party! It was really hopeless – four predator-mares attacking the prey! The minutes after were just hilarious when we turned Thunderlane into a pretty pink princess more and more! Springy brought some bows, and some glitter. Springy tinseled Thunderlane's face with the glitter, so his face sparkled in silver and gold! It really looked so funny! "Noooo, stop!" he screamed. We all smiled sinisterly. "Now the lipstick!" I said and chuckled very ugly. Sunny put an evil smile on her face. "Here sis, my deep red lipstick!" After a while, Thunderlane was dressed like a princess, glittered like a christmas tree and his lips shined so bright! "Okay, who wants to kiss him?" I demanded. "Oh, you'll regret it! Leave me free, Raindrops!" "No I won't!" she rejected and gripped him tighter with her forelegs. "I have an idea!" Sunny chimed in, "Sis, grab the bottle! We play spin-the-bottle!" Loser must kiss him!" Aww noo, bad idea, Sunny! She really had nice ideas, but that was not necessary. What, if the bottle picked me? Eww! I grimaced "Owww... F– fine!" Springy fetched a bottle, put it on the ground, and spun the bottle. Raindrops had to hold Thunderlane, so she was the lucky pony. This was now a gamble between the three of us! The bottle rotated and rotated and rotated and... YAY! "Featherf...!" Sunny sweared. HIHI! Now that made my day! Her own idea turned out bad for her! Ow, schadenfreude is such a joyful feeling! "I bite!" Thunderlane warned poor Sunny. "Then I bite back!" Raindrops threatened him, "I practised biting in iron hoof!" He gazed upon Raindrops and stunned. Sunny already came near to Thunderlane. As soon as he turned his head into the right direction, Sunny's lips already met his ones! Sunny went off and exclaimed in disgust, "Ewwwwwww! That’s awful!” Thunderlane shook his head and stuck out his tongue, "PPFF YUCK!" We all nodded. That was the sign for our strong Raindrops to let him free. He fell to the floor and coughed, "Oh, you so gonna regret it!" We all began to laugh loudly. "Yeah yeah," Princess Thunderlane grumbled. We all ate a huge delicious sweet cake with cream, chocolate, cherries, and chocolate splits, baked by Springy. While eating, we had a little conversation. "Soon, we'll also learn how to control the machines. Medley, how did you control the machines?" Raindrops questioned. I put my piece of cake on my plate. "Oh, I'm not really sure. I created the raincloud with an old machine! The new ones were out of control." "Hm? Out of control you said?" not-a-princess-anymore Thunderlane gasped. "No cloud material. All the cloud material was nearly exhausted. To be exact, the blue liquid to form the clouds. The machines were shut down anyways," I told. "But one old machine still worked, right?" Springy threw in. "Right. But it was easy. I just turned on the machine. Little chunks of cloud material came out of the machine.” I gestured and carried on, “The chunks gathered to a bigger and bigger cloud. But after a minute or two, the machine finally stopped." "Must have been some sort of steam, right?" Sunny curiously asked. "Maybe. Though, it felt not so hot. The air outside felt hotter." "Yeah, it was really hot!" Sunny complained, "Too bad, I couldn't taste your icy rain!" She carried on, "And the heat nearly blacked you out! That must've been horrible!" "Kinda," I replied, "But in the end, I really ended up in a blackout when the rain began to fall in Ponyville! I suppose, it was caused by a heat stroke. That’s what you got when you hurry around in the scorching heat! However, you don't perceive anything when you're blacked out. But if you're not, or just half-blacked-out, it's really tough to control yourself!" Sunny gazed on my cutie mark several moments long. "I guess, I know what your cutie mark is meant to be!" I wondered, "Really?" "Handling the highest amounts of rain in a cloud. Handling monstrous winds. Handling the most electrifying thunderbolts. It's all about handling the 'big things'. Well, I suppose," she declared. "Hm," I pondered, "maybe that's why I hadn't lost so much rainwater from my cloud?" "You already knew how to do it properly," Sunny tossed in, "step by step, all your actions from seeing suffering ponies in Ponyville till your blackout developed your own cutie mark to its full entity. Your cutie mark is determined. Once you reach certain steps, for example, that you already know how to move a more-than-full raincloud to its destination without dropping the load, your level of gaining your cutie mark increases. Other factors might be included as well. Like emotions you received from both suffering ponies and the same ponies being happy. And you were eager and zealous of doing the best you can to excite the ponies and your friends!" Woah, those long long statements of smart Sunny! One time, she could talk like anypony else, and in the next minute, she sounded like a psychologist. However, it was quite funny to see the other faces of my friends. I mean, it’s the first time, they met Sunny Rays and her brilliant speeches! While Springy and I chuckled, Thunderlane was really dumbfounded. "Wha– What the...? Can somepony please translate her?" I expected this reaction from Raindrops as well, but she countered both Sunny and Thunderlane, "I understood everything she said!" Was that a joke? Raindrops never met Sunny Rays before! Even Thunderlane was suspicious about it, and countered back, "Yeah? Can you translate that for me?" Raindrops grinned in a strange manner, "Sure! She said, Medley already had the knowledge of moving H2O—" "Okay, never mind!" Thunderlane finished his talk and grumbled. Now everypony’s chuckled so lovely! Except for Thunderlane of course. After we all chuckled our lungs out, I started to remember one thing: Raindrops once had a talk with Sunny, after Raindrops meanly shouted poor Sunny for nothing, a long time ago. All the little issue about dragging Sunny as my flying-judge and Raindrops, who was first mad at Sunny for shrieking her, then at me for having this weird idea and having no trust in my friends. "Speaking of H2O, I’m really looking forward to our next topic! A few days, then we’ll be able to control the machines in the Weather Factory!" Raindrops happily announced, "Far better than crafting. Oh how I still hate crafting!" "I still offer you my help," Springy put in, "crafting can be such a fun!" "Yeah yeah, but to control the weather sounds," Raindrops thought a little bit, "I don’t know. To control the weather sounds really... good!" "Let me guess," Springy leaned herself to Raindrops, "you saw Medley moving the giant raincloud that she created, right? It really amazed you, right?" "A bit. But before that, I found weather things far better than crafting. Maybe, because I really hated crafting for my poor skills, and now I’m happier than ever when I can roam in the sky, let it rain or let the sun shine if you want." "You… twitch?" Springy noticed and pointed to her tail. "What? Me? No!" Raindrops rapidly denied. Her answer was as fast as a sonic rainboom! I watched her tail. Springy was right, her tail really twitched back and forth like a little quake. I remembered, Raindrops told me about a twitching tail. If I remember it correctly, it was in the Cloudeseum in the Best Young Flyer Competition where I had failed miserably, but I didn’t know anymore what it meant. "Aaand you blush!" Thunderlane added. Raindrops quickly turned her head to Thunderlane and shouted with a angry face, "Where do I blush, huh?" "But your cheeks have glowed so red!" he defended. I didn’t know, if it was too late, or Thunderlane was hallucinating. I was first focused on her tail, then focused on her face. I haven’t seen a blush. I looked to Springy in wonder. She looked back to me, smiled, and said, "You young happy mare!" I was confused. Either Raindrops really blushed for something, and she covered it well, or everypony in this round made fun of her. "What’s the blushing all about?" I looked to Raindrops and Springy alternately. "Was she ashamed of something?" Springy laughed, "Oh Medley! Raindrops was as red as a tomato! Haven’t you seen it? But her tail twitching was even funnier!" "Put on your glasses, Springy!" Raindrops snapped at the bright green pegasus pony, "My face was yellow all the time! And my tail did not twitch!" Springy laughed even more, while I was still perplexed. I shrugged and demanded, "Would anypony please tell me, what’s going on?" "Save that for later!" Springy suggested me and looked both to me and Raindrops. I still didn’t knew what was going on here! She added, "Now, something toootally different!" Her sister chuckled when she had changed the topic. How mean of her to change the subject, and leaving me and Raindrops uninformed! I’ll find out for sure! And the new topic was… silence! Springy found no topic to talk about. “Hmm… anything you want to tell? Thunderlane?” Thunderlane stared at Springy and shook his head. Raindrops was still a little bit mad at her, but sighed. "Fine. Now’s the time!” Her sigh sounded like a confession about to start, so everypony in this round quickly turned to Raindrops. “My brother joined the Best Young Flyer Competition," Raindrops abruptly raised her voice like she was in the victimhood, "he’s pretty mean to me! I wanted to take part, because I wanted to do some tricks in the air! Now he took away my chance!" I asked, "There are still some places left, right?" Raindrops shook her head, "No. Only one of us. We belong to the same family. Twins are excluded. Twins may take part if they want. I was too late." Raindrops lowered her head and looked to us sadly. Poor Raindrops! I leaned my head to her, "Come on, Raindrops!" "Oh Sweetie," she responded, "he was so mean!" I just snuggled her and gave her a slight kiss to comfort her. That’s how I learned! You usually nuzzled somepony to comfort or to compliment for something. I couldn’t understand why Thunderlane just dropped his jaw, and both Springy and Sunny stared with a wide-open smile? "What’s the matter?" I asked them. "No nothing," Springy first blocked with both of her hooves then pointed with one of her hooves, "but your marefriend seems to love it!" I turned my head to Raindrops. She sank her head to my chest with her eyes closed and there was a little teardrop running out of her eye. Odd enough, I didn’t really notice the teardrop. More, I wanted to wake up Raindrops. I mean, she closed her eyes, using my body like a pillow? That must be one thing – she fell asleep! I needed to wake her up and shook her entire body! "Raindrops, don’t sleep! It’s not even midnight, and you always want a nap!" Raindrops startled. Her head bustled and her body bustled as well but in the opposite direction. She bustled like a puppet with invisible strings! What made Springy and Sunny laugh pretty loud. Thunderlane was still baffled. He only shut and opened his eyes a bit. Raindrops caught herself after some time and asked, "What the hay happened?" I answered, "You slept. I woke you up." Springy began to laugh again loudly, which I easily ignored. Raindrops looked around herself and grimaced. "Oww. Riiight. I- I feel asleep. Right I feel asleep!" Odd. Why this spooky grimace, and why the strange answer? I couldn’t think about it any further, because Raindrops cut my thoughts off. "Medley! How about, you gonna participate?" "Participate for what?" I wondered. "The next Best Young Flyer Competition! You already took part. I’d love to see you there!" "I don’t really want to," I insisted, "because last time, it really hurt me." "Last time was one and a half year! You’ve grown up! This time you can beat them!" "Last time was one and a half year! You told me that as well. At that time I died in sadness," I countered. "Nooo. This time won’t happen!" she said and wrapped a wing around me. Hay! It was the first time, a pony could wrap its entire wing around my body! I looked to my other shoulder where I saw her yellow wing tip. It felt nice to be wrapped completely by a soft and cuddly wing! Wings were really cuddly for me. When I was a little filly, I always cuddled under or on my mother’s wings! I focused to her face again. "Why do you think so?" "Medley," she took my hoof and looked me deep in my eyes, "I really wanted to join in. M-my brother stole my chance." She now began to sob. "He’s so mean. H-he said mean things like I should’ve come earlier, t-that I was too late, bad luck, next time, that it was my fault." Ow. I never knew, her brother was mean to her. I knew, she had a brother, she even had two brothers. Her one brother is two years older, and her older brother already moved out from home and made a career in the military. So she was the youngest in the family. Being the youngest could be really tough! "I want you to take part! Do it for me!" she solicited me with a heart-stung voice, and with flattened ears and watered eyes, she continued, "He took away my chance!" I looked to the others in our sleep-over session. Sunny copied her flattened ears and looked down to the ground. Great! A sleep-over with troubles and worries! At Springy’s! Speaking of Springy, she tried to say something, but pondered over and over. Thunderlane sure had no idea what we were talking about. I could easily ignore him. But I couldn’t ignore the others. Their frowny looks made me pensive. I hated to see them so cheerless. So unhappy. So doleful. Oh there were so many words to describe just one feeling there was in the air. Suddenly, somepony leaned on my chest. It was Raindrops again. But this time, she wasn’t sleepy. She whimpered – this whole thing must have really hurt her! I suppose, this whole competition thing meant so much to her. Raindrops commented, "Damn! Oh really damn! Now I have to wait sooo long again!" "I must ask you something!" I leaned my own head just on her soft mane, and not on her own head. To feel and stroke my ear through her soft blue mane. Alternately I switched between cuddling through her mane with my ears and my snout. After some time of calming down the situation, I carried on asking my question. "Why is it so important for you?" "When you made your show back then, it really amazed me. Not just your performance. The whole competition was just amazing." She winced and corrected, "To be honest, it was your performance. I loved to see you flying through the air. You amazed me. I was marveled at you. And I really loved to be at your side with Springy." She paused and took a breath. "So I wanted to try it out. Last year should be the first time. But I totally missed the deadline. Ow, that was a lesson for life! I wasn’t really that mad, because well… apples happens!" She slowly regained herself. "This time should be the first time. A week ago, I went to the registration. So I could get the special ticket and take part." She paused again. I guess, this was all too much for her. After some moments, Raindrops finally continued, where she let out a loud noise, "PAH! They told me, my brother already subscribed. I couldn’t participate anymore!" She became angrier and continued, "Isn’t it ironic? The pony behind the counter offered me a free ticket for the Best Young Flyer Competition next May! With me and my family! I really lost my temper so bad! I literally wanted to kill this pony!" "And then?" I asked her softly, still stroking through her mane with my head. "My brother taunted me badly over the last week. He found out, I wanted to compete in the Best Young Flyer Competition. I was really," she enraged while some left tears flew out of her eyes, "pissed off! He made that on purpose! Damn bastard—" "Shhhh!" I interrupted her before the sleep-over turned out into a swearing contest. Raindrops gnarled but then relented. "However, the days after were really depressive for me. At least, I hid my sorrow perfectly," Raindrops sighed a bit, "luckily, a day like this happened." "Why that?" Springy asked in curiosity. "First, I couldn’t have hidden it any longer. Bottling my sorrow up for days, weeks, months, would’ve cankered me for sure. Second, I had a deep pain very deep inside of me. That’s why I almost cried when I lost my food today." I tilted my head into a more straight position and looked to Raindrops from a slightly higher view. I noticed a long time ago, she really wasn’t a pony, who cried and sobbed for little things like losing your own food. Springy or me, for example, were just fine with swearing, though I hated to swear. Now that I knew, Raindrops was worried deep inside, it was no wonder anymore. Her inner feelings were scrambled. "I did good, right?" Raindrops put in. "What do you mean?" Springy asked. "I kept it good. I hid it good. Right? No one saw it, it really bugged me." All of us nodded reluctantly. "Anyways," she continued, "this was really a special day. Not just for you, but also for me. Your efforts made my heart smile again. It was a warm feeling for me when you made all the ponies in Ponyville cheer." Phew, so many compliments by one mare. By one of my closest friends. I wonder how I could take so many compliments. I kept on listening. "I recognized something when you made both the ponies and my heart happy. I recognized something for the future." All of us were really silent. After a little break, she continued again and pressed her head to my direction, so my strokes and my comfort was more intensive, "If you can make hearts shine again, like mine, you will do it one more time! This time, it won’t last very long, but if you enter this competition, you would heal my wounds for good!" "But what about your brother?" Thanks to Springy, I could focus on comforting pity Raindrops, instead of asking questions. She let go and looked me into my eyes with a confident look. "Beat him, Medley! Beat him for good! He stole my chance." I sighed. I guess there was no other way… ~ ~ ~ Author's Note Pre-Reader - UnKnownSalvation. Many many thanks! Chapter I - The Weather Pony and the Wings of an Angel"Wake up... wake up... wake up my darling!" I opened my eyes, when I heard the calm voice of a well-known pony. "Mmmmmh, Mooom! Five more minutes, pwease! It's so early in the morning!" I just turned around, so the light wouldn't catch my eyes. "But darling, today it's your birthday, and—" "BIRTHDAY?" Suddenly my face went from all tired and stuff to grinning from ear to ear. "Birthday? Wohooo! You haven't forget it!" "I wouldn't forget the birthday of my little lady," my mother replied, when she offered me a big hug. Of course, I couldn't resist that one special hug, when a mother congratulated to your birthday. "Happy Birthday my little darling." I tried the best I could to squeeze my mom really hard. It was such a joyful feeling for me. "Looooove ya, mommy". "Hey, darling! If you're going to squeeze me that hard, how can I give you your very special birthday present?" My mom kept on talking, with a laughing smile on her face. "You're about to break my bones!" I let her go. First, I had to realize, what my mom told me. Then I asked her quietly, "You said, you have a very special present for me?" "A very special one, my little shwoopsie!" Now I couldn't control myself. "Yaay! Whatisit whatisit whatisit what is it?" "Oh darling, you'll have to wait until evening when your dad comes from work, and—" "Oooaah, that's not fair!" I interrupted my mother sadfully. "Oh come on! You first need to go to school. Then you can bring your friends too, so they'll see your special present." As positive as these words was, to cheer me up, this wasn't a comfortable way. "School sucks!" The 28th January was a tuesday back on that day, so I was really in a rather bad mood for waiting for my very special birthday present. "Today, I have so much school! Until afternoon. I don't want to wait!" My mother stared silently at me. "Well. If you don't want to wait, then there'll be no cake on the table. No cake with strawberries and chocolate. Too bad, I have to throw away this beautiful cake." "Noooo! Don't tease me, pwease! Pwease, I can wait for my birthday present!" Mom obviously knew how to change my mind. I mean, hay, it's my mom! Tell me one pony who knows an impulsive young filly like me better than my own parents? Especially my mom? So it's no wonder she had her little tricks to make a want-it-need-it-filly turn quiet and patient. "Well... in that case... let's head down to have some breakfast!" As she noticed my still messy hair from getting up at such an early time – though the sun already rose up a bit – she added, "But first you need to hit the bathroom!" I did so. I managed myself to make my mane. My mane is something special, because it had a very very rare color. A blueish-green color to be exact, some ponies say 'teal' to it. Everytime, before going to bed, I used to straighten my mane with a special brush. The result after the nights was somewhat funny: all messy and stuff, and unexplainable random. Seems like I always dreamed of wild adventures? I couldn't remember it, though. Luckily, getting the unique curls of my mane was an easy thing. I always loved the curls in my mane, especially in my tail. Her mane was different from mine. Her ice blue, straight mane, never needed any products. Just a simple brush. No extras like curls or pigtails, meant no intensive caring. When I'd finished my bathroom stuff, I headed down to the kitchen to have some breakfast. I rather stumbled across the stairs and the floor in excitement, but I didn’t care. I even stumbled in front of the table, where our breakfast was. Maybe I was still tired and the sudden wake-up left my body still dizzy. As always, I only needed a slice of bread and some butter. No extras like salad or crunchy flowers. When I'd finished breakfast, Mom trotted next to me. She didn't hesitate, in fact, she took one of my hooves and gave me a golden key. "You'll need this, but now, go to school! Love ya." Mom gave me a nuzzle. So I went to my school that was located in the middle of Cloudsdale. You wouldn't find my school, without having a tourist guide. Tiny streets, where just one pegasus pony had enough space to go through, were nearly unflyable for pegasi. And in one of these tiny streets, you could've find my school. With a bit of luck, of course. But the backyard of this school had one of the most beautiful playgrounds ever. Colorful slides, carousels and swings were placed between beautifully shaped fences and flower-boxes with beautiful flowers from Earth Ponies and even birds came to visit our playground. The classroom was tiny, but comfortable. This classroom had nine tables with seats, the desk of our teacher, the chalkboard, and some important posters for the lessons. Talking about decorations, our classroom was adorned fairly simple. I sat down on my place. The first row on the right. Soon, other fillies trotted in. Two of them were one of my closest friends. "Morning, Raindrops! Morning, Springy!" I waved them a hoof, so they could see me instantly. Raindrops was a yellow pegasus pony with a bright blue mane and bright blue eyes. If you needed an impulsive, pretty spirited pony, Raindrops was the mare for. Springy, on the other hoof, was the nickname of a very bright green pony with a grayish-blue mane and grayish-purple eyes. Only me and Raindrops called her 'Springy', her real name was Spring Skies. "Medley," Raindrops ran over to me, "happy happy happy birthday to you!" Springy followed her and added, "Me too! I wish you a very happy birthday!" The gentle pony flapped with her wings in enthusiasm. I offered them a hug, and we all made a tiny, but cuddly group hug. The three of us were always the first ones in the classroom. The other ones sometimes approached late, even so late, our teacher directly sent them to the principal for being too late. Our teacher is an old mare, and she hates it, when you arrived late. Before the school bell rang, the other six ponies had trotted in. One of these ponies was Rainbow Dash, another two colts were Thunderlane with his best buddy Starburst. Dashie only reminded that I had birthday, the other ones didn't know about it. "Hey Medley! Happy birthday to ya! Whatya got?" "Oh, hey Dashie! Don’t know it yet. I just got a key, and my present will be there when I come home." Dashie was not only a fast flyer, but a fast talker. "Oh, I bet it's gonna be super-awesome! Too bad, I cannot come to your birthday party, to see what it is. I got things to do. So sorry, Med." "It's fine!", I replied. "You—" Our little talk was interrupted when immediately 'Grumpy Granny' – our class teacher – arrived. She was hay of grumpy, no wonder we call her so when she's in absence, but well disciplined. White hair, tiny glasses, wrinkles on her face, the typical old mare from ancient times. Suddenly everypony was quiet and on their seats. Which made the whole day start to become boring. ~ ~ ~ The day was really kinda boring. Outside, there was nothing but cold weather. Luckily the day didn't feel so long, like long school days always were. Raindrops, Springy and I went to my house. Mom told me, I could invite friends if I wanted to. "I cannot wait to see your special birthday present!" said Raindrops, bouncing up and down looking forward to be in my very special birthday guest list. Even Springy was full of joy and added, "This must have something to do with the key, you showed us in the break." Even I literally had question marks in the air, what was all about this mysterious key my mom gave to me. We trotted into my house. The three of us were so excited about the mysterious present, especially me. In the kitchen, was my mom – already awaiting us – and a nice looking stallion in company as well. "Daddy!" I went over to him and hugged him. "Happy Birthday, Meddy!" My dad always called me 'Meddy', while my mom just said 'Darling' to me. It's very nice to have parents like them. "Hello, Miss… uhm…? Hello Miss!" While I was busy hugging my dad, my mom laughed because Raindrops didn’t know her name. "Why, hello Raindrops! You can call me Sprinkle Ice. No need for calling me ‘Miss’. By the way, you two seem very hungry. Why don’t you come into the kitchen?" Both Raindrops and Springy were fascinated by this idea of course. As soon as we all took our seats, mom carried on a huge birthday cake. Like she mentioned it in the morning, the cake had strawberries and chocolate, eleven alighted candles and the number eleven as a candle itself as well. "Okay girls," my mom said, "let's fill our bellies!" "I'm on it!" Raindrops immediately chimed in. Springy raised an eyebrow, when she saw Raindrops promptly shoving a piece of cake in her mouth. "As long as you don't eat up the whole cake, I'm on it too!" "I'll just enjoy it!" I took a piece of cake and slowly enjoyed the taste of strawberry on my tongue. Plus, the cake was filled with delicious cream. What a pleasure. Mom and Dad just watched at us happily. Shortly after eating up the whole cake, Raindrops ate half of the cake, while Springy and I were satisfied with just a quarter, my dad stood up from his seat."'It's time for your very special present, Meddy!" "Yaay!" I happily shouted. "I'm so excited!" "WE'RE so excited!" Raindrops exclaimed. "Sorry, but it’s not your birthday. I'm afraid you have to leave now!" Raindrops, Springy and I dropped our jaws and Mom just grinned in a strange way. "Noooo!" I promptly shouted at him. "Don't make them leave! Oh pwease!" Dad's look was as solid as a rock, and his smile showed no happiness anymore. I collectedly awaited his further reactions when Dad turned his serious, unhappy face to a smiley one. "Gotcha!" "Heeeeey, Mister Daddy of Medley!" Ooooooh, Dad made Raindrops angry. "Listen to me! Don't ever mock us anymore!" I was kinda annoyed as well, but I joined the idea, Raindrops already had in mind. "Girls, you know how we deal with mockers? Ready?" Okay, I was ready. Already ready. "ATTACK!" Raindrops, Springy and I speeded towards him and tackled him gently. "His legs! Watch for his legs!" Springy shouted. "Oh noo, aaargh! Uugh!" Daddy whimpered. I quickly screamed, "Wrestle him down, Raindrops!" And so did the young yellow pegasus mare. She started to learn martial arts called ‘Iron Hoof’, and already practised a few weeks. Good for her, Dad wasn't into fighting things, and Dad quickly fell on the ground. "Now, get me a rope!" spirited Raindrops exclaimed. She always felt like kind of a leader. Suddenly, Mom interrupted all of us. "Okay, enough with the kindergarten games!" She soon added, "What we need is tape! A lot of tape!" Darling, bring the strongest tape you can find!" I joyfully hopped to the basement to get some old gluey tape. And it was the beginning of gleeful party games. We tied up Dad, played family games like 'Twister', and laughed the whole day on. "Geeeez girls, it's way past evening!" "Oh Raindrops, you're right!" I nodded. "And what about your special present?" Dad interrupted us. We totally forgot my birthday present. But I must say, doing fun is a good way to distract little impatient fillies. "Here, open this box. We knew, if we just hid your present, you'd probably find it." Maybe Dad was right. I was a curious little pegasus. "That's why you need this key." I opened the box. To my surprise, there was nothing but two empty cards. "Daaaddy! This is not a very special present!" "Well, then turn the cards around," my mom threw in. A picture of the Wonderbolts, Equestrias most important flying troup, and a picture of the ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia, were printed on the two cards. "Do you know, what this is?" my mom questioned. I shooked my head. "Well, Meddy, your mother and I know, you really love to fly since you were a little filly," Sure, which pegasus disliked flying through the sky? Were they trying to make my present extra special with their speeches? "These are entrance cards for the 'Best Young Flyer Competition' this May." "So... are we going to visit the show?" I asked my parents quite disappointed. "No, darling. We're gonna visit the show, and you may participate in the contest as well! Only 15 young pegasi will have the chance to show how good or how fast they fly!" I was kinda perplexed about this whole thing. Raindrops suddenly cheered up so loud, not even a dragon, finding out he lost his girlfriend, could’ve top her. "Medley, do you even know, what it means? Hay, if you work just a little harder, you might win the competition, and you can call yourself the best young flyer in Equestria!" I must say, I never thought about it how good my flying was or not. I just flew around, like every other pegasus pony did. Was I really that good, though I could never beat Rainbow Dash's speed? Speaking of that, this was definitely one of the things you’d need if you wanted to have a chance to win. Well, I thought so. "I-I'm not sure." When those words were fallen, the faces of my parents dropped into a bit of sadness. But I kept on talking. "Do you all really think, I am a good flyer? I mean, I cannot even reach so much speed to create the legendary sonic rainboom, hardly any pegasi created." Raindrops shooked her head. "No, you don't need to be fast or something. It's not about speed or how many weights you can lift with one wing tip. It's just about how skillful you are with your flying. By the way, what’s a ‘sonic rainboom’?" Springy, actually a really quiet pegasus, joined the discussion. "When you hit the playground, or play along in the sky, you always gracefully fly around. You don't make many loopings or something, and you're not as fast as Dashie, but you do so great. And it looks so fabulous." "Not every pegasus filly can fly that good, darling." The voice of Mom sounded strangely wiseful. "Little pegasi like you still have small wings, which are pretty unmanageable for flying. Only a few pegasi can fly that good in a young age." I was still unsure about if I really was a good flyer. "But what about Rainbow Dash?" "Yes darling, she's a pretty fast flyer. But as mentioned before, speed is not the key to win," my mom said. "Flapping your wings really fast is something every pegasus can do," Springy was trying to give me a wing hug. My mom started to laugh, and carried on: "See, when your little friend is a grown mare, she'll give you a tons of wing hugs. At least she's trying. Speaking of that, most pegasi in this competition are absolute beginners. After all, it's not the Wonderbolts Academy. Just look at them, how much they’re struggling, trying to make a good show and trying to fly around without falling down." "To make it special, Meddy, you are the youngest contestant in the whole group. The oldest ones are 18 or 19. This'll bring you some bonus points." "Indeed," Mom nodded to Daddy's point. "If it helps it, we all believe in you," Springy gently said, "I bet your parents are aware of your flying talent, and in recognition, they bought you these cards. Only parents, who are sure about her daughter or her son, will do this for their little filly." Springy got a good point, but she carried on: "My little sister leaped two classes, because my parents were sure about this thing." Oh yeah, her little sister. Sunny Rays. The yellow young mare with a lavender mane. She was a very intelligent filly. She's one and a half year younger than Springy, but she was pragmatic, and her efforts in school were always excellent. If you need a problem solver or a math genius, you could always count on Sunny Rays. Springy was intelligent too. Maybe it’s in her family. I let myself some time thinking about this situation how much these ponies all relied on to me. I was still unsure of being that talented. But then I turned my head directly to Mom and Dad with a quite baffled stare. Seeing in their faces I kinda imagined, how much my parents were thinking about my own good. Then I felt some water in my eyes. I trotted to my parents directly and threw them a hug, they wouldn't forget. "Thank you! Thank you very much! All of you!" I began to sob and the water flowed. Raindrops encouraged me, "Hey, Sweetie! It's all okay." Instead of trying to give me a wing hug, she just closed her eyes, leaned her head into my mane and gave me a peck on my cheek. We ended the day with Mom bringing Raindrops and Springy back to their homes, while Dad made me to be ready for bed. ~ ~ ~ One day, it must have been on a spring day, I noticed a little colt from the kindergarten flying pretty clumsy around; he even crashed against a wall with his head! Ouch, that must’ve hurt! That reminded me of the all the positive words, my parents and my friends made back on my birthday. So I headed along with Springy and Raindrops on a recess in the backyard of our school a couple of days after. I had a plan. "Come on, lets play with those clouds!" I demanded. "Um... why that?" Raindrops wondered. "To have fun of course. You go first!" "I better stay on the ground," Springy declared. Raindrops was still wondered why I wanted to play with clouds with her. But afterwards she relented. "Okay, fine. I'll fly first." Raindrops had the same flying speed like I had. So it was barely no problem keeping up her pace. We both needed a couple of seconds to the clouds over there. In these seconds, I carefully watched her wings flapping up and down. But I was not entirely sure, what makes her wing movements better or worse than mine. Anyways, Raindrops almost approached the next cloud she could reach, as something popped up very quickly from the cloud. "BOOOOH!" Raindrops quivered from the shriek and tumbled down to the ground. But luckily, I quickly saved her from hitting the ground hard by catching her softly with my back. I mean, this can be very dangerous. If a pegasus pony hits the walkable, solid clouds too hard, this pony just falls through! "Thank you, Medley, but... what... the... hay... was... that...?" Raindrops slowly recovered and a yellow mare with light purple mane landed next to us. "Sunny!" Springy ran over to her in a sudden speed. "Hey sweetie, why are you not in your school?" The little sister of Springy went to another school in Cloudsdale. A school for the more intelligent students. Before giving her a proper answer, Raindrops shouted at her violently at once. "WHAT THE HAY do YOU want from me?" Sunny Rays frowned. Springy and I immediately stepped in with different reasons. For Springy it was clear, because Raindrops shouted at her little, innocent sister. "Chill down, Raindrops. I made her hiding behind that cloud." Kinda dumb idea from me, I know. I met Sunny Rays in her school when I already had school out a couple of days ago. I needed her for a certain purpose. "Oh, well then it's clear." Raindrops voice was incredibly soft. I mean, she outraged Sunny for frightening her, and now the unexpectedly calm voice of the blue-maned pony? "So clear. ARE YOU NUTS? I almost crashed down because of your dumb thing!" She glared at me angrily and asked, "What's that all about?" "Easy-beasy. Sunny is there for a good reason," I tried to calm down. I have to admit, scaring her was maybe not a good idea. Messing with Raindrops, and she’ll messing with you. Raindrops glowered even more. "I just know the reason. Make a fool out of ME?" "Oh don't be so silly. It's not that way, but—" "So even WORSE you mean?" Raindrops interrupted. "Heey," I tried to de-escalate the whole situation. Geez, who knew, Raindrops could outrage like a monster? "Listen to me, please." Sunny Rays shooked her head between to two of us, still paralyzed by Raindrops infuriation, while Springy tried to comfort her little sister. "Remember, when I got the tickets for the Best Young Flyer Contest?" Raindrops just glared at me. "Remember when everyone of you said, I’m like a gifted flyer? I wanted you to fly to the cloud in front of me, so I could see, how your wings were moving. And I needed some neutral support. Sunny watched the two of us from the cloud. I told her to look, how we use our wings. Just that." Oh dear, Sunny now knew about my so-called talent, so I couldn’t hope to get a neutral point of view anymore. "And I told her to scare you, so I could see how you react in such a situation. How you use your wings, and—" "You know THAT was a dumb idea? You could’ve just asked me or us for that?" Raindrops interrupted me once more and increased her voice. "And do you even realize, I would've broken my leg or something if I crashed? All because you wanted to compare my flapping with yours? What are you? Making a fool of me, so you can shine braggy? You know I hate—" "Oh nooo, stop that and listen!" I had to pause her. Sunny and Springy were still unable to talk. So it was just me and Raindrops. "I know, that was a dumb idea scaring you. But I needed somepony, who can judge my flying in comparison with other ponies. It's not about bragging. I'm just so unsure about this whole competition thing." "You're out of your mind!" Raindrops first shooked her head totally quick, then she asked: "Does that mean, you don't trust us anymore? We’re your best friends?" What a couple of nice words... "No. I do trust you. But friends always try to cheer up their friends if you're worried about yourself. So I hired Sunny for that mini-job. If even a pony like Sunny, who hasn't seen me flying around since whatever-time can tell me, I do good at flying, I can be much more sure that I'm made for competing there." "You know, only your best friends will tell you how good you are, because they know you much better, than some unknown background pony?" Oww. My mouth was wide open. Not because she declared it so directly, but calling a pony a 'background pony' can be interpreted as being a VUP, a very unimportant pony. Plus, I saw Sunny Rays already sobbing a bit with some crystal-glittered tears, when she'd heard about the background-pony thing, which stung not only hers, but my inner feelings somehow as well. "Oh please, be fair! What, if everypony tells you, you are such a great flyer, and the truth is, you just flap your wings up and down?" While Raindrops was still mad at me, Springy suddenly stepped in, "Please stop arguing! It displeasures me and my little sis. Do a handshake or something and quickly forget about this!" Oh dear, Springy really hated arguing and stuff. She’s such a nice loveable pony. If she could, she'd stop any wars by just saying some words. She had a smooth and calm voice to fall in love for. Raindrops eyes and mine’s were looking into different directions. None of us spoke a word in the next seconds. A peaceful but eerie silence was on this place. You could even hear some other fillies giggling on the playground far away. I sighed. "Look. All I ever wanted, was a neutral point of view. Nothing more. It didn't mean not to trust you anymore. But I see now, scaring you was a very naive idea. I'm so sorry for that." Raindrops eyes didn't meet mine. She just looked on the ground and shifted her hooves back and forth. "I'll think about that, Medley. Break's almost over. Better go to the classroom now." Oh dear, Raindrops was still mad at me. Raindrops and I hardly changed any words together in the next days. And as long as you didn't bring up the thing between me and Raindrops, you could've had a talk with Springy at least. So I decided to go to Springy's house after school. It was a pretty decent house with a nice garden. But I rather focused on other things. Decorations were not my big interest right now. While Springy went to the kitchen to make some food for her and her little sister, I took a pillow and sat down in the living room. Everything was so quiet here. Her parents were still at work. I didn't exactly know where they worked. Springy always told me, her parents came late, so she must care for herself and her sister. Speaking of that, her sister Sunny Rays was the one, I wanted to talk with. I sneaked away from the living room, and made my way to Sunny's room. I knocked on her door carefully. "Hey, it's me, Medley." I had a faint friendly smile on my face, and Sunny almost stumbled. "Oh-oh, Hi." I watched at her very gently. "May I step in?" "Oh-um, sure." Sunny seemed to be really nervous about my presence. I could think of why. I better not tried to use the name 'Raindrops'. "So, um, how was my flying?" Apathetically she just answered, "Good." Okay, her first encounter with Raindrops really broke her feelings. Plus, without the 'accident', I would've just stepped into her room, asked her how my flying was, got my judge and I'd be happy. Great idea I had. Next time, better place a skunk somewhere. Anyways, how should I receive a fair judge now? I mean, Sunny might not be that impartial anymore, since the whole thing. Raindrops shouted at her, and she finally knew, I needed her for judgement support. "Look, I know what's happened there. But don't be afraid of that. I'm going to sort things out." But first things first. The flying issue was more important than the one with Raindrops. I took another pillow and placed myself right next to the shy pony. "Please Sunny, can you tell me, why my flying is so good?" Sunny sighed and her next phrase really blowed my mind. "Bearing in mind you are an eleven year old pegasus filly that usually cannot have highly developed flying abilities, your own flying abilities matches a fairly close utopistic state of having best-developed flying skills, which only adult pegasus ponies can ripen after extensive workouts approximately. Your acceleration is bad due to the tiny surface of your little wings in addition to a wrong wing angle, what makes Rainbow Dash fly blisteringly fast due to her nearly-perfect use of the wing angle of 57 degrees plus wing-training with weights to power them up. On the other hoof, she lacks in patience which might make the flap of both wings synchrone, but asynchrone in up-and-down movements. The last wingbeat of every cycle of her is unaesthetically in many ways, in comparison to yours, due to being anxious for gaining the highest speed. Your lack of wanting a quick achievement of high-speed gives your wings time to unfold themselves. Moreover, the anti-gravitational hover after a complete wingbeat brings up a constant up-and-down movement of your whole body." Woah! And she’s such a young filly! I dropped my jaw in astonishment. Not only her expressions were awesome, her apathetic unmelodic way to tell you things was awesome too. Awesome in a sad way, though. But she's really a very bright pony using sophisticated words and stuff that’d really blow somepony’s mind. Fortunately, I understood half of things she wanted to say. I shooked my head to clear my mind. "So, you mean... um... I move my wings quite good for a young mare like me?" "Precisely." Oh dear, her hollow kind of talk just affrighted me. I heard a voice from downstairs. "Sis, food's ready!" We both went to the kitchen and had some meal. ~ ~ ~ Things between me and Raindrops slowly got better. We still hardly had any conversations, but the longer we left alone each other, the better it was. I kept that pace and in a couple of days, we could laugh and have fun like we did a couple of weeks ago. Well, I hoped so. Stupid naive thinking – I know – but what do you expect from a filly like me? The weeks passed by. Three days before the Best Young Flyer Competition, all of the contestants were guided through the area. Just to know where things are, and when it is opened for training sessions, what's important and stuff. Most of the time, I didn't listen. In fact, I was just amazed by the enormous Cloudeseum. The view is just hilarious. As part of the audience, it just looked like a normal stadium. But flying high above the place, the view down to earth is amazing. A big big big chunk of solid cloud, beautifully shaped with columns and arcs and stuff, and in the middle there's a hole, where you could fall into like 3 or 4 miles deep. I've heard, only the bravest ponies fly that high without having fear. As a young flyer, it made it harder to concentrate to fly or your performance when you had to look into the hole down to earth from a certain height. The hole was made for psychologic reasons to intimidate the contestants a little bit. Looking to the tribunes made you have a comfortable performance a little bit, but once you looked into the hole… Fortunately, if a young pegasus was about to fall into death due to reasons, either some guards or even the Wonderbolts would rescue you. But this was a rare case. One problem was: What should I perform? After returning back from the Cloudeseum, I met Raindrops and Springy. Over the weeks, Raindrops and I had an okay situation, though it still wasn't like... you know... the time before my dumb idea. Hoping for better times, I began my talk to Raindrops directly. "Geez! The sight was so awesome! Too bad, you two can't participate. Then you could see it with your own eyes." "I can imagine," Raindrops smiled slightly. Springy asked instead, "Are you nervous about the big day?" Being nervous could've become a problem, though, but I had a bigger problem. "Well, I'm not afraid of being on stage that much. I'm afraid, I still don't have any clue, what to perform." "No ideas?" Raindrops was quite shocked about this situation. "Medley, you had sooo much time. Three and a half months. And you still don't know what to perform?" Yes, she was right. "You haven't even considered about some barrel rolls or loopings or flying through narrow rings?" she continued. Acrobatic things like barrel rolls were not a big thing for me. I concerned, "Well, I'm not that creative when thinking about tricks or shows. I sure won't just fly around. The audience, and especially Princess Celestia and the Wonderbolts all expect a good show from me." Now I'm directly confronted by this problem. And the more I considered about it, the more it sorrowed me. I kept on talking with a blurry almost sobby voice, putting my head into my hooves: "Aaah! I badly need an idea!" Raindrops comforted me: "Ah come on, Sweetie!" Woah, this has been the first time she called me 'Sweetie' since our big wrangle. "What's important now, how we're gonna get some good ideas. And i know just the mare for!" Raindrops turned her head to Springy, who was very quiet like all the time. "YOU!" "What? Me?" Raindrops shifted her leg around her neck, and dragged Springy next to herself. "Yes, you!" Judging from the look, Springy was slightly confused. Raindrops pointed her hoof to Springy’s chest. "Your little sister has a lot of bright ideas. Let's head to her!" I intervened, "Sunny?" Raindrops eyes opened widely after my reaction. "Oooooh yeah. A few weeks ago, I worried myself about Sunny Rays, and how I shouted at her. I went over to her, and apologized for what I have done. It wasn't really fair from me shouting at her without any reasons." My inner senses alarmed me, when the topic of Sunny had started. Better count the seconds till the topic changed to our little escalation. "By the way," Great, now here was the fun part. Really great. "I shouldn't have shouted at you, when we had our little 'crash'. Good friends don't do such things. Good friends talk about it." She waved her hoof to Springy and continued, "Springy suggested me for an apologize. And she suggested me for—" Raindrops paused and looked back to Springy like her face was a piece of paper where you could look up what you’ve written. "Oh right! Reconsidering about my behaviours." Springy just giggled about her last comment. "You’ve memorized it well!" Ooookay, now I haven't expected that. I looked in her bright blue eyes. I don't know, but... I felt like she really cared for our friendly relationship. I mean, we've been friends now since a couple of years. When I'd first graduated in school, Raindrops sat next to me, and she was all nice and stuff. We played together in the backyard, shaped some clouds, kicked them, etc. Just what every pegasus filly did. And when Springy came the next year, the bond of our friendship became stronger than ever. By the look in her eyes, I realized, the apology was kinda important for her. You could see a light sad look in her eyes. "Hey gorgeous, of course I can forgive you. After the things, I did to you, and my stupid ideas and—" Raindrops shoved her hoof on my mouth to stop my blabber. "Do it easy. Let's forget it. Okay?" The next thing was a quite unknown phenomenon for me, when Raindrops shifted away her hoof and suddenly kissed me on my lips. This was a strange but very nice gesture, and I wished I could’ve hold it longer. Must be a kiss of appeasement or something. Springy just smiled at the both of us. "And now, let's head to Sunny Rays!" Raindrops said. Springy and I both agreed, "Fine!" We headed to Springys house. Raindrops chewed on a pencil, Springy laid on the floor staring to the ceiling and Sunny and I just looked at each other in uncreativeness. We went there for a couple of hours. "Hmmmm.... Hmmm... GEEZ, who knew, thinking about performances could've been so hard?" Raindrops screamed. All of us were jumped in fear, like a huge timberwolf would've come to eat us. "Oops, my bad." Raindrops grinned. "I need i need i need a good idea!", my voice frowned when saying that. "Hey, Sunny Rays, you got any ideas?" She seemed to be so much distracted by thinking about ideas, she just hadn't heard Raindrops. "Sunny Rays? Are you deaf?" "Huh, what? Oow." Sunny Rays realized, she deepened her mind too much. "I can tell you a dozen of ideas, but all of these ideas require a certain skill of athletics or acrobatics to do well. And we have no time anymore to drill Medley like a professional acrobat." I instantly put my hooves on my head and said, "Face it, I failed." "We won't let you down Medley," Springy softly chimed in, "we only need to find a way." Raindrops reminded me: "Hey, you told me about the beautiful view, you had." I nodded to her point. "Just tell me. Are you afraid of the hole, you told us?" Judging from my friends, and Sunny of course, I might really have the potential for being a good flyer. So, after all, I could've let me fall towards the hole without making sorrows. "I don't really think so. After all, you guys all count on me. You all think, I am a great flyer. Why shall I fear?" "Confidence," Sunny Rays stepped in, "your confidence reached a higher level by us, who can give you moral safety and support. That's a good base. Without confidence, you won't even succeed. You got the confidence to make a good performance, and we just need the ideas for a good performance." We kept on thinking about good stuff for the competition, though the day was almost over. The next day, Raindrops and Springy accompanied me to the Cloudeseum. Two last days for preparing. For barrel rolls or something, you needed too much time. Barrel rolls are not a bunch of spin-arounds. You need much more flying experience. And what I heard from making barrel rolls, you'd rather lose than rule, cause only a few pegasi were experienced enough to do barrel rolls. Springy placed some rings. "A little bit left... A little bit left, okay perfect!" commanded Raindrops. "Look, Medley!" She wrapped a hoof around me, and we flew to a certain height. "Look down sweetie!" I did so. I saw a bunch of rings one behind another. And in the end, you could see the big hole. "You just gain some speed, fly through the cloudy rings, and either you rapidly change your direction or just fly through the hole, and you come back from anywhere." Sounded like a plan. "I had that idea over night," Raindrops mentioned. I have to admit, I was kinda afraid. But since the little nuzzle on my nose, I've developed some kind of faith in her. I mean, you usually trust your friends. But that was some kind of very deep faith. I hugged Raindrops like there was no tomorrow. "Mmmmust.... freee.... mysssselllf... Uargh. Medley, no need to thank—" I interrupted her again by giving her another big hug and smiled, "Aaaah, Thanks! Thank you," I continued, "I love it to be your friend; I love it so much!" Raindrops freed herself from my tight hug and sighed, "Oh sweetie, of course, I'm always there for my friends." We both hugged each other again. After that, Raindrops went on to her business. "And now, let's have some practise!" The practise went very well. Fortunately, other contestants were either outside the Cloudeseum to practice, or just used a tiny space inside the Cloudeseum for their training. That gave us plenty of space to do our trick. My little fears disappeared more and more, when speeding through the rings. Springy watched the time until I passed the last cloud ring. "5.75 seconds. And this time without touching your wings against the rings." Sure, this was a tough thing. The rings were really narrow, and the more speed you gained, the harder it becomes to fly exactly in the middle of the ring. If the judges see some cloud material bursting off of the rings, they would've given you negative score. Bursting cloud material was a clear sign, a pony touched the rings or barricades, or whatever a pony needed for the show. "I think, you did great," Springy announced. Raindrops nodded in agreement. "Tomorrow, we can work for that sharp boomerang back to the stage." We just worked on flying through the rings. Raindrops' boomerang idea about flying abruptly back after I passed the last cloud ring was a thing, we still had to practise. We ended this day with some more flying-through-the-rings stuff. "Do a fighter stance, after you've returned!" My coach Raindrops had some more ideas over the night to improve our show. Yes, it was called 'our show' now, as Springy is allowed to place the rings in the contest, while Raindrops should guide her. It'd been the last day before the Best Young Flyer Competition was about to start. We tried the 'boomerang', but it tended to be more complicated, than it was. I attempted to return back as quickly as possible, but in the end, I always had to turn back around the Cloudeseum the last four or five times. I mean, it was not forbidden. You could've used the whole sky if you wanted to. As long as the Wonderbolts or Princess Celestia can watch you with their eagle eyes, there was no problem. But I'd rather be in within the Cloudeseum, as the crowd would be much more excited about it. "Reduce your speed! It's not a race after all!" Raindrops corrected. "Don't accelerate too much!" I wondered how many times, I flew through the rings. Must be about 50 or 60 times until the preparations were over. We eventually placed a sixth ring, but just for testing reasons. For the contest, we agreed to place five rings, and nothing should change about it. Though, a sixth ring would be pretty too. We just had one problem. I still have troubles with the boomerang. ~ ~ ~ "Attention Contestants! Please stand in line for the registration!" Okay, that was the signal. Today, the Best Young Flyer Contest was about to begin. Just a little check-in, grab a tag number, and be ready for some rumble. "Awesome! Just awesome!" Raindrops was even more excited than me. "Geez, take a breath. You know who's participating?" I chimed in. "Right right, but the ambience here is just hilarious." Springy nodded for her statement. "Aaaand just look at the crowd!" We saw the whole audience in the Cloudeseum. This place can carry 1,700 pegasi! The tribunes were full. Everypony cheered so loud, I couldn't even hear my own words anymore. "What did you all say?" "Next one... NEXT ONE!" I became deaf somehow. "Me? Oh, right." "Name?" This old lady just sounded like she was from the military or something. To be honest, I don't like such persons. All the authority was not a thing for me, and I felt sorry when I heard of ponies getting drilled very hard by some drill sergeants. She reminded my of our Grumpy Granny. "My name's Medley!" "Medley, Medleymedley... Medley? Oh here! All right, your number is four!" Aaargh, one of the beginners. Not a good sign. That meant, eleven others could do a better job than me. The old lady from the check-in also mentioned, "I see, you're the youngest of all the contestants. Eleven sweet years. Better do a good job, Miss Littlewing!" Miss Littlewing? Did she just say Miss Littlewing? How mean! "I'm so ready, you'll regret it calling me Miss Littlewing!" "Yeah whatever," the old lady announced, "NEXT ONE!" Raindrops found a good thing to tease me a little bit. "Number 4, Miss Littlewing! On the stage!" Springy began to laugh, while I facehoofed her. "Hey, don't start such things! Everypony will see how amazing my tricks will be!" Raindrops slowed down a bit: "Hey, don't be too over-confident! You know, that's not how a pony's gonna handle it." Raindrops was right. I became a little bit too braggy in the last time. Better slow down my emotions. 15 Minutes till the competition started. I was tensed. Really tensed. My goal was, to make the best, and to amaze all the ponies out there. Young and old. Especially Raindrops, Springy and Sunny, Mom and Dad. Five ponies believed in me. Five ponies relied on my flying techniques. Five ponies thought, I could make it. I can't disappoint them. I mustn't! A few minutes after, the old lady from a couple of minutes ago entered the waiting hall, where all of the contestants plus their assistants were waiting for their show. "Okay, Number 1! Get ready!" Meanwhile, the opening ceremony has already begun with loud music like a dozen of fanfares and trumpets. Raindrops chuckled, "Hey Medley. Are you nervous?" Why did she stared so strange to me? Her eyes were half-closed, like she was trying to seduce me. "No! I'm not!" I yelled back and showed her my tongue. But I had to admit, my inner emotions changed from being tensed to being nervous. But it was better to hide it. Raindrops instead put one hoof over both of her eyes, like she was spying somepony. "Then why does you body twitch? Or have you seen a cute stallion or a cute mare out there?" Actually, I wanted to facehoof her for her strange thinking. That idea... eww. "I'm not twitching! It's breezy!" Bad excuse, I know. "Breezy, huh? Springy," Raindrops asked to provocate, "is it breezy here?" "Oh come on, Raindrops!" Good thing, when you have a party pooper like Springy. Technically. "We all know she fears the speed and the hole, and the blamage she'll get." I buried my face. "Aaargh, Giiiirls!" "Okay, Number 1! On the stage, NOW!" Still a little bit mad about Springy and Raindrops teasing me, the strict voice of the old lady cleared my mind. And this whole contest thing went quicker, than I thought. Too quick for me. Geez, in a few minutes, Springy and Raindrops must go out there placing the rings, while I had to prepare myself for the flight of my life. "Number 2! Number 2? You're next! Get ready!" The first contestant was really miserable. The young colt tried three loopings, but crashed when he had to fly through one ring. Feeling dizzy of the crash, a voice from the megaphones commented to him: "Baaaad luck! We hope he's well." Geeez, no 30 seconds and the second contestant already was off stage. "Number 3, you’re next! Get ready!" So this meant, I was the next to get ready. A slight twitch from my legs pointed a bit of nervousness, I never wanted to show. "Are you okay, Medley?" That sweet voice was the thing, I really needed now! I don't know, her voice was just... like you were safe in one's hooves. Springy was a gentle pony – that's what made her stand out! Such gentle ponies, like Spring Skies, were able to handle any emotions of anypony pretty well, and they always had the right answer for your sorrows. "You'll do it," Springy comforted me and leaned her head on mine. I swear, I could smell some blueberries coming from her silky mane! Fortunately, I could hold this feeling a bit longer, because the second contestant and her assistant needed more time. This gentle feeling somehow helped me, and my nervousness disappeared more and more. And when talking about nice things, Raindrops joined the two of us, and wrapped her hooves around my neck to give me a tight hug. We all closed our eyes for about a couple of minutes. "HEY! You're number 4! You should be on stage now!" Oh no, that group hug was so nice! We really haven't noticed the contestants anymore. And now, the audience is waiting for the three of us. Loud music came from the megaphones. Only a few ponies in the audience looked to us, as we haven’t even prepared the course. Springy catched the five rings we needed, while Raindrops was in charge for positioning in the right manner. The both of them needed a minute, so I flew very slowly to my starting position. While Raindrops and Springy were still busy about placing the rings, I observed the full tribunes. Okay, Sunny Rays was here. And I’m not sure about it, but I saw at least Dashie’s father. Too bad, Dashie was not here to cheer me up. Continuing with my observations, I spotted two very well-known faces. I waved a hoof and yelled, "Mooooom! Daaaaad!" Both of them immediately waved back to me, because they’ve already awaited me. I have seen a smile on their faces, what made me smile. I watched down to Springy and Raindrops again. Still, the track was not finished. So I looked over to the Wonderbolts. One of them was Fleetfood. I knew her, because she visited our class last year telling us all about the Wonderbolts, the hard training and their risky, speedy tricks in the air. Dashie was really crazy about that stuff. I was not really interested in that, though it was pretty nice to see a member of the glorious Wonderbolts just a mere hooves away. Obviously, Fleetfood and the two other Wonderbolts were in a discussion, so they didn’t notice me at all. Even Celestia was rather distracted by one of her followers, because there was nothing to perform yet. After a couple of seconds, Raindrops and Springy finally managed to place the rings. Raindrops gave the signal, so my show can begin. Again, loud music came from the megaphones. If I danced in the air or something, we would have some relaxed, beautiful music. But this wasn’t the case. Now, everypony looked upon to me. Especially Mom and Dad, even Celestia and the Wonderbolts. For about half a second, I indirectly looked to Celestia. Her eyes suddenly just stared at me, like she was trying search or analyze me. The Wonderbolts were no thing to deal with, because I couldn’t look into their flying goggles. I took a very deep breath. I was focused. I wanted to do it best. I flapped with my wings three or four times, until I reached an acceptable velocity. Six seconds were an okay time. I passed the first ring without any problems. Even the second and the third ring were no problem for me. Continuing with having no problems, I managed the fourth ring. Now the fifth and last ring was a tough one, because I desperately wanted to make that boomerang. As soon as I passed the last ring, I tried to turn back immediately. All of the attempts of the boomerang in the preparation were a failure. But to my surprise, I succeeded to turn back this time. Promptly, after I faced the matter of fact that I created the boomerang successfully, and after I was in the direction back to stage, I quickly accelerated to the middle of the stage. My face smiled, and I was there, hovering in the middle of the Cloudeseum, being applauded and cheered by the crowd. My bad, I almost forgot my pose. But I catched this up, and did my pose. Not a creative one, as it was just raising a hoof up in the air. Raindrops and Springy scampered from behind, and hugged me so tight leaving me in an unbreathable way. Raindrops was the first one screaming her lungs out while she squeezed me to death. She exclaimed in delight for my successful performance. "YEAAHHHH! WOOHOOOOO! YOU DID GREAT!" Springy was not the pony to scream. Though I felt like I was deaf due to Raindrops' pretty strong lungs, I heard Springy say, "You made it, you made it so well!" "THAT WAS SO A-MA-ZING! How does it feel?" I couldn’t stop to grin and I found no words to say. "Can’t picture it, Raindrops. Must tell you later." While Springy cleared up the place for the next contestant, Raindrops put a hoof around me neck, and we joyfully hovered back to the waiting hall. Before I entered the waiting hall, I had turned my head back to Mom and Dad, and waved them happily. They waved back with a huge smile on their faces. What I haven’t noticed were the reactions of Princess Celestia and the Wonderbolts, though. It must have been an hour or so, until the last competitors finished their shows. Some of them were great with really awesome tricks. Two of the last ones completely failed. And everytime, a challenger finished his performance in front of the Wonderbolts, the audience jubilated. "Do you think, I have a chance to win this?" "Medley, you rocked! Better prepare for our princess, cause you showed them all!" Raindrops was quite confident about this situation. Springy on the other side, was even-tempered. "Don’t worry, Medley. They sure loved your performance! After all, if the people knew, you succeeded your last trick—", Springy giggled and winked at me. Before the winner could be presented in the Cloudeseum, we all had to wait for the list one of the jurors would show in the waiting hall, so we can see who was ranked at which position. The minutes passed by, and I hectically waited for. A young, yellow coated pegasus mare with orange mane and a wonderbolt trainee uniform entered the waiting hall. She wore not the suit, like the Wonderbolts did, but the trainee uniform signalized, that she was on to become one of the virtuosic Wonderbolts. The young mare arranged a fairly huge space, so all of us participants wouldn’t run her over, tear down the list or something. "Okay, contestants! Have a look and do NOT cross this line!" A young brown stallion cheered up suddenly. "Yeeee-Haw, I did it, i did it! Yes, baby, yes!" Raindrops and Springy were pretty surprised by this. "I won, I won, I won, Yeaaah!" I shook my head and had a closer look on the list. To my consternation, I found myself not on the top places. Not even a fifth or sixth place. Not even the tenth. I finally found myself on the paper, and it really shocked me. A 12th place. The contestants spread around, while I was still there looking palishly to the list. Raindrops and Springy knew, there was something going on, so they quickly ran next to me. "B-B…I-" Raindrops saw, I couldn’t bring words on my lips. Then she turned her head to the paper. "Medley, Medley where are you?" Springy pointed quickly with her hoof on the paper. "There she is, Raindrops!" Raindrops widened her eyes in shock. I felt such a bitter feeling in my stomach. It felt like butterflies, but instead, those butterflies were about to devour me from inside. A very biting, itchy but empty feeling. I was still paralyzed about the whole thing, even when the three of us, Raindrops and Springy with a hoof behind my back and with worried faces, trotted to Mom and Dad. ~ ~ ~ The next thing I remembered was me crying into my pillow pathetically. "HOO HOO! BOO HOO HOOOO! SNIFF. Oh whyy? Whyy-y-y? SNIFF." While Dad was away, my mom was delirious with sorrow. "Oh darling," she placed her hoof on my back, "there’s no reason to cry." "HOO BOOO HOO HOO HOO! I sooo did my best bu-but SNIFF no one- no one liked me. BOO HOOOOO!" "Nopony dislikes you, darling. Nopony does that." Her words were powerless. My feelings kept on flowing like a waterfall. Never-ending. I was so torn. I hardly perceived, Raindrops and Springy were in my house, to look after me. "May we come in, Miss?" Not even the soft voice of Springy could’ve stopped my tears from falling now. I was really in a bad mood to care for visitors. I wished, I could’ve locked all the doors around me, and cry myself to death. "Sure girls, come in," my Mother said. I lifted my head away from my wetted pillow. I turned my head and saw two ponies – my best friends – with so worried and sad faces. Raindrops pointed to Springy and whispered, "Go on, Springy. You do better in this." Springy stood in front of me and gently put her hoof under my eyes wiping away my tears. "I’m so sorry for this." Raindrops just stared at me sadfully, while my tears carried on running down my cheeks. I turned my head into my pillow again. In that motion, Springy tried to prevent me from crying into my pillow again, "Oh no please don’t—" I pushed her away. "Leave me alone! BOO HOO HOO!" Springy didn’t let up. In fact, she exerted herself even more to make me stop whining. She neared my head very close. I heard her breath. "SHHHH! It’s all okay, Medley." She stroked through my mane comfortingly. Many times. "BOO HOO HOO HOO!" "No need for crying. Don’t let it bother you." "SNIFF Bu-But…" She kissed me on my cheek to console me. Then she said, "For us, you were great. Really great. You made us very happy. You did something, you’ve never done before. Of all the things that could happen, your little trick at the end finally worked the first time. When Raindrops saw that, she was close to tears." I buried my face into my pillow deeper. I really hated to hear about Raindrops and her emotions right now. I mean, I didn’t have that much pillows for two ponies weeping into. I wasn’t even sure whether Raindrops eyes were already watered or not. "SOB Just leave me alone. I’m torn. Really really torn." "We know, Medley. And we all want to be there for you. We all want comfort you. That’s what good friends always do." Springy began to joke a little bit. "Hey, if you want, you can cry into my tail. My tail is very smooth!" I made no reaction to that. Springy, once again, sorrowed for me, "Oh come on, Medley." Springy grabbed me in a different position, so I could literally cry on her shoulder. "Better go you two. She needs to be alone right now." My mom nodded and demanded, "Come on Raindrops. We better leave now." I could hear my mom turn around from the cracking of my wooden floor. Before my mom finally left, she mentioned, "You are a very sensitive pony, Spring Skies. It’s very glad, my daughter has a friend like you." Springy nodded, and cuddled herself on my head. The door was closed. Only Springy and I were on my bed. She still softly comforted me by stroking my mane. "SOB Why me? Why so bad? I told you all, I am a bad flyer." I buried myself deeper on her shoulder. "No, you’re not." She gently kissed on my head. "Medley, sometimes the world is just mean to a pony. We cannot change it, but maybe we can learn from it. Whining is nonsense if you want to change it." We stayed in this position for a couple of minutes. She sat on my bed, while I was leaned on her soft body. None of us spoke a single word, and all I did was sobbing. "You mean so much to me, Medley. Please stop crying now." She shifted one of her hooves on my back and gave me a tight but soft hug to solace me. Her head was still leaning on mine. "I won’t talk, until you cried out all of your tears! I’ll be there until you’ve cried into sleep!" It must’ve been half an hour or something. I calmed down very slowly. And to my surprise, Springy still comforted me by cuddling on my head peacefully. Tears were still running, though. But I didn’t sob anymore. "Why hey there, Medley? How are you?" She looked into my red-eyed teared face. Her eyes moved up and down searching for tears to clean away, and then she kissed me on my forehead. "See? I’m still there for you. We all are. Why don’t you come down to the kitchen, and have some meal? A great flyer like you must eat." "Oh Springy, it’s just so terrible." "I know. But as I said before, don’t let it bother you. It wouldn’t help any of us." I took a deep breath and loudly sighed. "Ma-maybe you’re right." I was stuck on my bed somehow. I wanted to get up, but my body didn’t want to. "Come on, I’ll help you!" She stood up, and reached me a hoof. I gave her one of my hooves, and she pulled me towards her body. Then she softly wrapped a leg around me. "It’s all gonna be okay." She opened the door, and we both went carefully down to the kitchen, where Mom and Raindrops should await us. "There you are, darling!" my mom slightly smiled at me. "H-Hi, Mom." I looked in her eyes, freed myself from Springy, and leaned my head on her body. "You’re hungry, darling? I have crunchy flowers on the table!" "N-No thanks. I’m n-not hungry." I haven’t counted, how many times I stuttered since the whole disaster. My mum instead chuckled, turned her head to Springy and respectfully said, "I knew, I could rely on you, Spring Skies! You made a very well job!" "Hey, Springy, look there!" Raindrops intervened and pointed her hoof to her flank. "Wha- What’s that?" Springy wondered. I looked upon to her to see what was going on. I saw something like a picture on her flank. My eyes were still filled with some water, so it was unclear to see it yet. "Is… is that a…?" Springy wondered. My mother stepped in, "Yes. A cutie mark. Congratulations, Spring Skies!" "Woah," Raindrops astonished, "how did she get that cutie mark?" My mom chuckled: "If a pony discovers its own fate and discovers what the pony is by oneself, a cutie mark will appear on each side of the flanks. It’ll represent what you are." "Sooo complicated." Raindrops rubbed a hoof on her head. "No, it’s easy. You see, her cutie mark is a sun with a white cloud. She’s spreading cheeriness and serenity in a comfort way. A feeling like when ponies clear up the sky to let the sun shine. As you can see the sun and the cloud on her flank." "You know a lot of cutie marks. Tell me more!" Raindrops eyes gleamed. "You see, she comforted my darling and turned her sad face into a slightly happier face. Her inner dark clouds in her head were cleared in less than no time!" "Mommy, will I get a cutie mark too?" I asked her patiently. She was silent first. Then she nodded, "Yes darling. You will." "But, when my true fate is not flying, but something else, how can I find my true fate?" "See, your cutie mark will not just appear if you’re talented in something like flying. It will appear, when you know your own destiny by yourself. Though, it can be linked with something you’re talented to. A pony like you can discover its own destiny. It’s like a zap you get deep inside, when you’ve done something very beautiful." Raindrops put in, "Oh that sounds so beautiful! I must have a cutie mark! Springy, I envy you!" Springy blushed, while I was paralyzed about it. I was not sad, because somepony else got a cutie mark earlier than me. In fact, I was kinda motivated now. At least, it was my ‘fault’ in a positive way of course, and I was kinda proud Springy got her cutie mark. I let off of my mom, and trotted to Springy. My sight became clearer and clearer, and within some time, I faced the true beauty of somepony’s cutie mark. "Congratulations Springy," I commented and began to smile. Raindrops trotted to Springy too, and we both gave her a tight hug. Springy replied with the words: "Thank you, girls. Thank you!" And I knew, what I was up to now. ~ ~ ~ Author's Note Special thanks to: -Chengar Qordath, who guided me and my first steps. -UnKnownSalvation, who pre-readed this chapter. Chapter II - The Weather Pony and the Melody that CaptivatesThe Diversified Growing-Up of a Simple Weather Pony Chapter II - The Weather Pony and the Melody that Captivates by Bluemeganium ”... so I hope, Mr. Goodair will teach us!” ”Oh no, no way, he's mean! Better, Mrs. Featherclear will be our new teacher!” ”You say that because you think, Mr. Goodair is boring. He's not!” ”Boring, mean, so old, he could be my grampa's grampa, ugly glasses. All the things!” I trotted into our classroom and the first thing I saw was two young mares named Raindrops and Springy arguing about some teachers and who will be the next one. I observed them for a while. It was like a ping-pong-game – Springy and Raindrops exchanged words like ping-pong literally! I just stood there like waiting for yesterday. All the other classmates were already there. Well I have to say, it was the first day of our new school year, but as soon as the days pass by, Dashie and Thunderlane will come late regularly. I gave them two weeks – then either one of them may report their tardiness to the principal. To destroy the wall of blabbering was my next goal. Though, it was quite nice to see Springy in action, blabbering a lot of words, it was time to stop them. ”HEEELLLLOOOO!” Okay, that was too loud, the whole class was wake now. Raindrops and Springy just stared at me. Dashie waved without looking at me and simply said, ”Hey, Med! What you've done in holidays?” She scribbled some things on her desk additionally, but I couldn't figure out what. Thunderlane looked upon me, smiled and waved me a hoof. The others were just impressed how impulsive a filly like me could be in the early morning when you just want to nap for a while. First, I had to reply Dashie before I turned to my friends. ”Hey Dashie! It was a fine holiday! It was really hot, though! My parents and I visited some family members and we helped other pegasi building a cloud house. I went swimming in the pool almost every day, and slacked off!” Well well, thinking back about my last summer holidays was nice. Especially going to the swimming pool, one of our neighbors had, was so enjoyable. Hot weather was not a big thing for me, in fact, I loved hot summer days, even cold winter days. But relaxing in the swimming pool was just like a thousand clouds that carried you softly over the world. ”We were deep into talking. Sorry, Medley!” Raindrops apologized and promptly carried on, ”So you said, you had great holidays? Wait until you hear that, Medley!” ”If I were you, I’d better count how often Raindrops will tell you her story,” Springy smiled, ”she told me her story the fourth time now. Yesterday two times, today two times. And listen very closely! One time, she sailed away with granny, the next time, it was Rainbow Dash!” Raindrops turned her head to Springy and snarled, ”So you’re calling me a liar?” ”Never!” the bright green pegasus pony spoke it out so clearly, you could’ve heard her sarcasm 20,000 miles away. ”Whatever, during the holidays, I sailed on a huuuuge ocean down on earth. It was a huuuge boat, and I went with my parents and Springy was also th—” Springy and I interrupted her simultaneously, ”Not true!” For a good reason – there were two or three days where I spent some time with Springy. One of them was a funny sleep-over together with Sunny. We watched the stars or some fireflies, and told spooky stories about headless horses. ”Besides, you showed me the boat tickets you got, and the photos you made. Just you, and your grandparents. Nothing more.” Springy’s eyes narrowed and she put an eerie smile on her face like she wanted to say ”Gotcha!” in Raindrops' mind. ”Raindrops, you're not a good story-teller!” Springy and I began to laugh about the fact, while Raindrops muttered some things, both of us did not understand. Was there a pony upset? ”Grrrrr....” ”Oh Raindrops,” Springy put a hoof on her head and began to stroke on her mane, ”at least you've tried!” And again, Springy spoke in her sweetest sarcasm. Springy and I began to laugh again, but then we suddenly heard a stomping from outside. We all took our places and were quiet. Grumpy Granny would arrive in a few seconds. I quickly whispered to Raindrops, ”By the way, what were you two arguing about before I trotted in?” ”Some ponies say, we all get a new subject with a new teacher,” she replied, ”and—”. ”Enough! No five minutes of your new school year and you all already behave undisciplined! Fun time is over!” Grumpy Granny trotted in, but to our surprise, she hobbled the way to her desk this time. But hay, she was still like a drill sergeant. ”I'm weak, but I'm still gonna paddle your plots if you don't follow my rules!” We were curious about the thing. Me, Raindrops, Springy, but also the other ones. Rumors have been told about the new subject. And the new teacher of course. After half an hour, Grumpy Granny finally put in the issue about the new subject. ”Okay, now that we're done with our homework, I'll tell you everything you need to know, about your new units of all of your subjects.” She carefully stood up from her seat, grabbed some sheets with her teeth, and distributed them desk for desk. ”These are your subjects for this year! Everything is clear!” ”Miss Seedflare!” Thunderlane intervened after a couple of seconds, ”what is the 'special subject'?” ”Good question, little Thunderlane, now listen up! This afternoon you will all come into the gym, so you can choose between subjects you must visit. There are plenty of subjects for you. The whole school will participate in this. If you don't come, I'll send you to the principal without a word! Got it?” We all replied, ”Yes, Ma'am!” ”Alright then, let's move to our next topic. We'll discuss about the right punctuation!” ~ ~ ~ In the recess, Springy, Raindrops and I took a seat next to a beautiful flower box. ”Look, girls! These gentians look so beautiful, and over there those huge orange gladiolas!” joyful Springy mentioned, walked around the flower box and started to smell on one of the gladiolas. I must say, the flowers around the place were really pretty. When I first visited school, our playground was trashy. No filly ever wanted to play there because it was all rotten and ugly! Another class of our school prettied up the whole place, so it was all like a beautiful garden. Some pegasi flew down to some earth ponies, were teached by the gardeners how to care for flowers, and how to plant seeds. All in all, it was a good piece of work. Some flowers were even fine for me. Like gentians, for example. I loved their deep blue color, and the gentians smelled so nice. ”So, which of the subjects will you choose? Springy?” ”Oh, Raindrops, I still don't know. But I guess chiseling or sculpturing would be fine for me. You know how I love sculpture things out of clay or solid cloud material! Dancing could be nice too, but I'm afraid I have two left hooves.” Raindrops voice raised in excitement and she said, ”If it's something like Iron Hoof, I'll sign up for a thousand years! Medley, what about you?” ”Hm... I must think about it. Painting would be awesome. Or gardening. We'll see it in the gym.” Like Springy, I also didn't know exactly what to choose. ”Gardening, Medley?” Springy stepped in in excitement. ”Awesome! I’ll be your first customer!” Her statement made me feel kinda embarrassed. ”Oh thanks, Springy!” ”By the way, I remember, my little sis also had to choose, but she must visit two subjects. If I remember it correctly, she visits poetics and art. Yeah, poetics definitely, but about the other one, I'm not exactly sure.” Raindrops shoved her sandwich in her mouth. As always, she spoke with a full mouth, leaving crumbs and food all over the table. And all over me. ”Mmmh, guwws, didw wealize?—” ”Raindrops, don't talk with your mouth full!” I was annoyed about the crumbs in my mane, and Springy couldn't hold out a chuckle. I turned my head to Springy half-way. ”And you! Don't hesitate. Show us your best laughter!” ”I'm sorry, Medley, but you look too funny with the crumbs in your mane. Hihi. Like snowflakes!” Annoyed about this situation, I shook my head impetuously to get rid off all of the crumbs in my mane. I could swear, I also saw a big piece of salad flying on the table! Too bad, I aimed not on Raindrops. ”GULP! Sorry, Medley! You guys realized, all of the subjects we have to choose are some kind of creating stuff? Art, music, crafting, and all of the things? Besides martial arts, I'm not fond of it to be honest. I mean, all of the things sound so boring. No real activity.” ”What you're talking about, Raindrops?” Springy questioned. ”It is something to unfold your creativity, and to unfold yourself! That's such a wonderful thing! Maybe you'll get your cutie mark in one of these things!” ”Umm... I don't really want to unfold myself in that way. I just want to have some activities. Where you can exhaust yourself and be on your limits. Art or crafting is something where you sit or stand in front of your work, and that sounds not really suitable for me.” Sometimes Raindrops had not the sense of art. She's the active pony. You can't force an active pony like Raindrops or Dashie in front of a block of marble. That's something, I can understand. But I was kinda annoyed about what she said. I appreciated these things we can choose this afternoon, and even Springy was very fond of it. Two ponies who are interested in artistic stuff, and one pony who's a real party pooper. Usually, Springy is the party pooper in our little circle of friendship, but this time, all of our excitement about our new subject was threatened by a yellow somepony, with a blue mane. There's no way, Springy and I would let it spoil. I threw in calmly, ”How the hay can you judge, without trying it out? How the hay can you say, it is all boring and stuff, and you haven't even touched a brush in your hooves?” Meanwhile, I drew some circles in the air with my hoof like I was painting imaginary. In my imagination, it sure would feel nice. I continued and looked deep into Raindrops face. Not with a serious face, instead I continued with a more positive expression to motivate my yellow buddy. ”Come on, Raindrops, give it a try! Art or music is also an activity. A different kind of activity. Plus, what about your cutie mark? You still haven't earned one, and this is the chance for you, and even for me, to find out your special talent!” ”I think a lot of fillies will use this to find out their special talent. That's the purpose of this whole choose-your-subject-thing,” Springy declared. ”Right. I can think of it too!” I nodded. My excitement raised. ”Bad thing is, I must choose. Maybe I hammer down some wood with my hooves or something. Could be a nice training,” Raindrops grumbled and shoved her last piece of sandwich in her mouth. ”Oh, don't be so grouched,” I begged. ”today, you will sign up for a certain subject and tomorrow you're full of joy about it! You sure won't regret it!” ”Imagine her as a prima ballerina!” Springy smiled and couldn't hold out another chuckle. Raindrops was not really in a good mood to hear jokes like that. But she let out a big sigh, and said, ”Yeah yeah. Guess I have no choice.” ~ ~ ~ Springy, Raindrops and I flew over to the gym in the afternoon. Three or four schools in Cloudsdale used this gym to do some lessons in physical education. Today was not about sport or something, and you could've seen it when you'd entered the main hall. Dozens of young pegasi stood or walked in the main hall. Beside the sport equipments on the walls or on the ceiling, there was nothing but a couple of booths. In each of the booths, there was at least one pegasus pony. I could think of, these ponies were some sort of guides or deputies to inform little young fillies about the subject they've chosen or they were about to choose. Could've even been teachers instead of guides, though. On top of the stands, the name of the subject was written, and these stands were well-visited. Ten or twelve pegasi per stand was quite the normal. Okay, let's list these subjects up. On the very left stand, you could sign up for painting. Though it's pretty tough to hold a brush in your mouth and to paint your picture in an ocean of marvellous colors, painting was very welcome for me! If you were a unicorn, it was sure an easy thing, but I can think of a couple of pegasus ponies, painting beautiful pictures. Especially my uncle from Las Pegasus was one of them. My uncle made a couple of beautiful pictures, and is still in charge for decorating the walls in enormous and luxurious casinos with his expensive art. Illuminated by a thousand of colors, I was really amazed as a young filly when I last visited some of my uncle's work! Sadly, only for a couple of minutes because little fillies were not allowed in casinos. Speaking about decorations, the do-and-dont’s of decorating was topic in another booth, but it was not the right thing for me. To beautify bird nests, little shops or something with ornaments was nice, no offense, but I wanted it big. Like I already said about my uncle and his paintings gazed by a lot of ponies around the world to make them impress and smile from ear to ear. That's what I want! The next thing was something, Springy was really enthused about it. I'm talking about sculpture things. Another pretty tough thing because you had to chisel everything from wood to marble, from gypsum to various kinds of expensive minerals. When Springy and I talked about this issue a couple of weeks ago at the sleep-over during the summer holidays, she told me about the tools you had to use, like a hammer in your mouth, or the chisel in your hooves, or the other way round, the variety of material you had to carve and of course the dirt in your coat and in your mane, which all sounded too messy for me. Plus, I found it rather hard and uncomfortable to hold heavy tools in your mouth. But Springy seemed to love this stuff. Right when I thought about it, Springy hastily galloped over to this booth to join boxing her way through the crowd screaming, ”Get outta my way!” I'm sure, she'd love it! Have you seen her eyes? They looked so heart-shaped! Anyways, the next stand was all about crafting. Like sculpture things, you had to use tools like screwdrivers and hammers in your mouth. Nail down things and so on. Better see, what's next. And the next thing was acting. I must say, acting sounded really interesting! To be in a play, wearing costumes, being applauded by the crowd – how wonderful it would be! Beside painting, acting was on the top of my list. Then, a stand was all about cooking. Not a good thing to be honest! No no no! I remembered a lot of days with my mom. She teached me how to cook – at least she tried to. Off the record, don't ever let me in the near of spices! One time, I wanted to do a favor for my mom and dad, but instead, I destroyed everything! The salad was too sour due to an overload of olive oil, I burned the sandwiches, and the potatoes were uneatable because I put in too much salt, red and green pepper, and it was all salty and stuff! The cream lacked in creaminess; it was more water than cream. What a shame! Fortunately, the next thing for us pegasi was just singing, and not playing instruments. I couldn't imagine how to play the piano or other complicated instruments with just my hooves and not with magic. But I must say, instruments like the glockenspiel or bells sound so beautiful! The bright tones of bells were so lovely! When I was a little filly, I always wanted to ring the town's bells in Cloudsdale! But singing is different. I have to admit, singing was occasional in my spare time. I'd rather whistled or hummed the songs, instead of singing vocals, but all in all, singing was another thing in my list. The last one was writing. I didn't know exactly, what you had to do. Maybe it was all about writing stories or about the art and improvement of mouth-writing. The first aspect was interesting, but not as interesting as the other things. The latter was nothing special for me because I already wrote my letters and numbers beautiful. My teacher never blamed me for bad mouth-writing. Instead, it was, for example, Raindrops or Thunderlane with a bad mouth-writing, and both of them often had to redo their homework, until it wasn't all sloppy anymore. So writing stuff was the fourth thing on my list, next to painting, acting and singing. There were only eight booths in the gym. I missed other things to participate, though. Springy told, her sister took part in poeting. Gardening was an issue, Springy and I talked about in school. But I could imagine gardening was for earth ponies or unicorns exclusively. And there were also the rare kind of crafts like glass-blowing, horseshoemaking or calligraphy. I shouldn’t wonder, there were no booths here to exhibit those rare things. Horseshoemaking, for example, was really unknown here in Cloudsdale. Maybe down on earth, horseshoemaking was more popular, but I didn’t really want to rack my brain about thinking about earth ponies’ stuff. I fetched my only friend left to have a dialogue. ”So, Raindrops, what's your favorite?” ”Seriously, Medley? Nothing! All boring stuff.” Better change the topic. Not that it was hopeless, but she’d see that she wasn't right, and those things will make a lot of fun. ”Well... isn't it just beautiful to see the smile in her face?” I pointed to the sculpture stand where Springy was just about to sign in for her lessons. Raindrops replied, ”Oh yeah! It is like a dream come true for her. Remember when she told us everything so excited about a new pony statue in Ponyville next to town hall?” Though I'd never been to Ponyville so far, I remembered that she talked about it. I added, ”You're right, there was this Ponyville thing! Have you ever seen this statue, she talked about?” Raindrops shook her head. ”Nope. Haven't seen it. Besides, the last time I was in Ponyville was in a hospital when I've hurt my leg badly down there. I can say, it really hurts when you hit the ground! I'm glad, my leg wasn't broken! Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to walk for a couple of weeks! Horrible!” That was the 42nd time, she told me that! How she fell off of a little cloud, just two hooves from the ground! Nevertheless, I left Raindrops alone. ”Okay, I’ill hit the booths. Hope, you'll find something nice too!” ”Ooooh, sure!” ”Bye!” I first trotted over to the writing section. I quickly forgot about Raindrops' last ironic statement, and informed myself, what the focus of writing was about. A young but massive stallion there told me that writing focused all about both writing and telling stories. He gave me a quick look into one of the famous adventures of Daring Do. ”Mhm, okaay!” I just replied without being that much astonished. I left this stand behind because there were some other priorities to discover. So I walked straight on to the painting stand. There were beautiful pictures on easels exhibited, all of them colorful and made of oil or watercolor! Furthermore, I saw a small box with deep red, yellow and blue pigments, as well as a color palette, various brushes and a canvas to exercise! ”I liiiiike this place!” My eyes gleamed in excitement, and my smile was full of joy. The old painting pony was really glad to hear that. He stuttered, ”Well, little filly. There are not many pegasi, who dare to hold a brush between their lips. Why don't you just brush on the canvas?” I happily nodded. ”Yeah yeah yeah, pwease!” I grabbed a brush between my lips and dipped the brush into the color. ”Don't worry, little filly. Just make some lines or circles. No need to beat my paintings.” I gazed at the exhibited pictures. ”Zeese r ur painzings?” I put away the brush, so he could understand me better. ”Have you painted all these pictures?” ”Of course! This one is my newest work. It shows the rainbow and the endless sky in the dusk.” I promptly reacted, ”But there is a blank piece there! HERE! It isn't finished!” ”Yeah, little filly. I ran out of all all the green colors I had. You see, when I made this picture, it was a day with one of the very very rare sunsets. I sailed on the ocean, and the sky showed not only red and yellow but also a tiny tiny piece of green above the sun. The sky was illuminated in a slight green touch. And the sun itself was nothing more than a green spot above the ocean.” He continued his little story. ”This scenario took just half a minute, wellwellwell. If I could just see it with my own eyes again. If I could see the beautiful, unique green color again. Then I can finish my work.” ”Oh, I see.” I grabbed the brush again and painted a single red line on the canvas. ”NONONO! What's that?” the old painting pony yelled. I dropped my jaw, and the brush fell down on the floor! That hit me hard! ”But but, this was my first try and—” ”SHUT UP! A gifted painter doesn't paint like this! You didn’t take the one brush off at the end. You stopped and then you took the brush off the canvas. You moved your paint to places where paint doesn’t belong! Look, how crappy this last piece of stroke is! And you want to be a good painter?” I… was… this was… My inner parts of my brain were paralyzed by this excoriate critique. Other parts just wanted to slap his face with his own brushes and then smash a canvas on his head. A couple of seconds ago, he was so nice to me. I shouted, ”HEY! You haven't even given me a chance! I just made one stroke! That's not fair!” ”I'll only teach the talented ponies. I have painted many pictures for 60 years! I'm old, but I still can see, who's talented and who's not! I know, what makes a pony gifted!” Was he conceited? I screamed at the vain old man, making my voice a bit croaky. ”Unfair!” To my surprise, Raindrops heard all about it and galloped over to me. I turned to her, then looked around me. Many wondered faces were directed to us. Besides the fact that I drew some attention, I confronted him in assertiveness. ”You cannot leave a pony in the dark, just because a pony’s not gifted! You cannot leave me in the dark! Everypony's got a chance!” ”What are you talking about, Medley?” I stared angrily at Raindrops and pointed my hoof to the vain pony, afterwards to the canvas. ”HE! I made just one brush! He wanted me to try out! I haven't even made one final brush on the canvas, and he yelled at me for being ungifted and for doing everything wrong!” I gnarled. Raindrops instead tried to calm me down. ”Come on, it's not worth it!” My stare bittered. ”Count me IN!” ”And I say NO!” ”Unfair!” I jumped and stomped with all of my four hooves. I spread my wings to menace him more. You cannot do this to me!” my voice increased. ”I can. It's my right to do it. I won't teach you!” The old pony sat on his chair like there was no angry Medley here and crossed his forelegs. The other ponies gathered around me were just silent and did nothing to help me. Raindrops put herself in front of me, and tried to push me a little bit further. ”Come on sweetie, it's really not worthy. Look for something else!” ”It's not over, big stinky man!” I hollered, so almost everypony in the gym could hear me. Raindrops pushed me a bit more out of sight. I finally freed myself and shouted, ”Let me go!” We both were quiet for a time. Eventually, I broke the silence. ”It's so not fair! What does he think he is, huh?” Raindrops sighed, ”Forget him, Medley! Just forget him!” ”Have you already found something?” I asked with a incensed voice. Raindrops knew, I was still angry, but she understood that. ”Crafting. Better than nothing. I signed up, and quickly went away. Just a decision.” ”Hope the others are not such stinky ponies. I better go to the acting stand.” ”Do it, Medley. Keep calm.” ”Thanks, Raindrops!” Unfortunately, acting was already not available anymore. A lot of fillies already signed up. So I went to the singing stand. ”Hello, Lady! Do you want to join us? We have plenty of room!” The voice of the mid-age stallion was rough. He had a gray mane, had dark shades and wore a hat. Though he looked not familiar, he sounded pretty nice, and was really glad to see me. But in the end, everything would turn worse – well, I thought so. ”I've heard you over there. He was mean to you, right?” I nodded. ”You have a pretty clear voice. Do you mind participating with us?” I shook my head. ”What's your name? Don't be shy, speak to me!” I hesitated. ”Medley.” ”And your full name?” ”Sprinkle Medley.” ”Riiiight. How old?” ”Still eleven.” ”And you live here in Cloudsdale, right? I nodded. ”Good. Last question. Which school do you visit?” ”Old town's centre. The one in the middle of tiny streets. Miss Seedflare's my teacher.” ”Oh yeah, the school within the labyrinth! All right, I've signed you up! Welcome to our glee club, Medley!” He made me smile. But not that you think, he turned my feelings topsy-turvy in a second! This acknowledgement was really the thing I needed. After all the happenings in the last minutes, I was still incensed, but it was a nice, comfy feeling. I headed to Raindrops because I haven't seen Springy anymore. When I met her, my first things to say to her were just, ”I'm in!” Raindrops marveled. ”And? You go crafting as well?” ”Singing!” ”Singing? All you do is hum. I never heard you sing before.” ”Don’t be suspicious, Raindrops! The teacher over there believes in me.” I pointed my hoof to him. ”Are you sure?” ”Sure I am. He heard what happened at the painting stand. He said it was mean from the old pony for not giving me a chance. But instead, he wants to give me a chance. He thinks, I have a clear voice.” Raindrops looked over my shoulder to see, who the pony is. Then she turned her head to my direction again. ”You sure have a neat voice when you talk or something. But I'm not sure, what he's up to. Has he ever heard you singing before?” ”Not really. But hay, we need to choose our courses, so it doesn't matter anyways! He'll just make his lessons, make some exercises, tests and all the other stuff, Miss Seedflare already does.” I shrugged in front of Raindrops and continued, ”Are you sure about your teacher?” Raindrops also shrugged, but in an incuriously way. ”I just joined them. I wrote my name in the list without having eye contact to the teacher,” little Raindrops shook her head. ”I'm totally not interested in this whole thing.” ”Oh, Raindrops. Just wait another two weeks. It will be interesting,” I thought to myself. ~ ~ ~ ”Lalalalala-la-la-la-la-la la-la-la-laaa-laaaa.” ”Hey, Medley! It's been 5 hours since you've been singing this song. Don't hurt yourself!” Silly Raindrops. Why should I hurt myself? Maybe my throat hurt from excitement about singing! I took a couple of lessons now. At the end of the day, it was really a lot of fun! Not only singing, but the way my teacher Mr. Piccollo explained it to us, made the whole lessons kinda magical. Like you were able to 'feel' the music. Music itself was complicated, he told us, but not for the ones, who love music. And he really made me love music. Maybe I should really take lessons in playing the glockenspiel? Fact is, I was more and more enthused about singing. And he appreciated it. To say it better, he really loved my clear and bright voice. There were some voice cracks, though, but that's normal in my age, he told me. But maybe Raindrops was right. I better go easy on my voice now. Better avoid a croaky voice. I remembered a pretty young filly, who overdone her singing exercises and started her lessons with a croaky voice. Her voice was so croaky, the chalkboard cracked in pieces! Or maybe it was just the drunk groundskeeper pony of the school, who crashed his cloud-mower into the wall. ”Am I singing that bad?” Wonderful – a rhetorical question! Now how does Raindrops react? ”Are you nuts?” Raindrops was pretty surprised by my question. ”Your voice is pretty! But better slow down before you caw like a crow!” I tried to make this whole thing funnier by making ugly noises while singing. ”LalaLAALAAAAlalalaaa lalaLAA-LAA-la—” Perfect! Raindrops plugged her ears! ”Oough, Medley stop! That was worse than Thunderlane last week.” That made me chuckle. ”It wasn't that bad!” I spoke in an ironic tone. ”Are you kidding me? He sang the anthem so bad! He probably never heard of harmony or melody!” Raindrops shivered by just thinking about his awful gig. She then shut her eyes and shook her head rapidly, to forget this scene in her mind. It was quite funny to see that. But there was another thing, I wanted to know. ”Raindrops, how's your crafting been so far?” Raindrops eyes turned into a sad look. ”Terrible. I'm with Dashie in this mess.” I copied her look. ”Why?” ”Dashie's like me. She's also not happy about it. So we teamed up to craft things together. Last time, we had to finish an aviary made of wood. Winter is coming soon, so we all had to make a warm place for birds, who don't migrate.” She paused. After a while, she sighed ”It was really bad. All the other ones were pretty. Ours was miserable. All slanted, nails stuck out, glue was all over the aviary, we painted it sloppy and to make it worse, we forgot to make a hole in the aviary! How should birds survive in the cold without a warm place inside? That's terrible!” I said nothing. My face still showed a sad expression. There was a little piece inside of me laughing prettily. I mean, that was really a shame if you forgot to make a hole! But I wasn't in a mood of laughing right now. Raindrops seemed to feel really queasy about it. By the look, you could say, she was really unhappy about this situation. And when I heard about the whole aviary thing, this really hurt her. I could easily think of a reason why she was upset in a sad manner. It's certainly not their, Raindrops' and Dashie's, poor skills in crafting. Both of them were sure satisfied with a below-average work, as long as the birds just had a roof over their heads. But their effort was not enough, so the birds must freeze or even die in the cold. I knew Raindrops. And I knew Dashie. Especially Dashie could be really disappointed if she was trying to do her best, and the result was pathetically disastrous. ”Come on. Don't be so sad.” I leaned my head on her own, like I was about to cuddle her. My goal was to console her. I peeked and saw a slight blush on her cheeks. The next thing I made was very strange. Her slight blush and her stillness made me have… it was… phew, it was first hard to explain! It was like a sudden urge that induced me. My body twitched and trembled, but in a positive way, like it was alright. I whispered in her ear ”I really love it when you blush!” and gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek. Raindrops stunned. Her eyes were opened widely. I saw her eyes slightly flickering like she was going to cry soon. She blushed even more! We looked in each other's eyes for a short time. It felt so good right now to console a pony you really like since your first encounter. Our faces were just a hoof away. And we were about to do something that was nearly uncontrollable – a kind of a natural thing I supposed. Raindrops slowly closed her eyes and gently puckered her lips to meet mine. My reaction was quite the same without any inhibitions. We slowly approached each other. I could feel her warm and comfy breath on my face. But before we even touched our lips, we heard a bright voice of a young mare bubbling over in joy. ”Medley! Raindrops! I got an A+!” Oh dear, it was Springy! We had to interrupt this sudden emotion quickly. I spontaneously turned away from Raindrops and offered Springy a hug to congratulate in just one movement. ”Hello Springy! I'm so happy for you!” Raindrops was uptight and stood back first. Then she walked towards Springy and she gave a nuzzle for her good work. ”Nice! Springy!” Springy worried ”What's wrong with you, Raindrops?” Oh dear, Raindrops sounded so reluctant. Even deaf and blind ponies would know, Raindrops was kinda worried. Springy was full of joy, while our yellow-coated young mare commiserated herself. ”Nothing. Just a bit tired from school. By the way, you seem to enjoy it, right?” ”Right!” Springy turned her frown into happiness. Our lucky Raindrops saved the day by using a diversionary tactic! Raindrops quickly forgot her sorrow when she saw Springy smiling again and said, ”Then tell us more!” I believe, it was a just distraction from her own sorrow. Well, at least it was better than nothing. ”Oh everything's fine! The teachers there are nice, my fellow ponies are all nice, and we already started to sculpture little models!” Springy carried her bag on her back. She opened it, and grabbed something with her mouth to place it in front of us. She continued, ”This is a green little pony soldier made of malachite. It took about 4 hours just to hone the body of the pony! But it was worth it to waste the time. I got the best mark. A+!” Raindrops and I were amazed at her work. Springy really made this figure well! There were hardly no defects, the eyes of the pony soldier were pretty detailed and the color of the figure was neat. ”This'll be a present for my little sis! Not for her birthday, but for Hearth's Warming Eve,” Springy happily announced. ”So glad to hear that,” Raindrops added. Springy turned to Raindrops and asked ”How about you? Do you love crafting by now?” Oww. ”Not really. I had to build an aviary with Dashie last time. It was a disaster! None of us loved it! And neither did our teacher. It really sucks!” ”Oh, this can't be that bad! How about, I will help you?” Raindrops looked in Springy's eyes and said: ”Hmm, thanks, but I can't let you do that. You do so love to sculpt things, it's really not necessary to even help us. Besides, it's too late. We already got a bad mark for our aviary. I hope some woodpeckers will peck a hole into our aviary since we forgot to make a hole.” Our sweet yellow pegasus pony cupped her hooves around her head in shame. ”Oh, I'm so sorry, Raindrops.” ”Mhm, thanks Springy. I told you all, this makes no fun,” Raindrops sighed. ”Maybe it's just this time. That should not bother you,” Springy replied to comfort her. ”I'll have my good mood thrown away. Somewhere in the ocean. Just a couple of failures like this. Soon.” ”Oh, come on Raindrops! Fight against it!” Springy said and carried on, ”If you let yourself down, you will not be happy anymore!” Raindrops was silent for a while. She just looked down to the ground. She relented then, ”Maybe, you're right.” Springy was not satisfied with her answer. The young yellow pegasus mare still had her worried expression. ”Raindrops, be fair to yourself!” ”I'm sure, I'll fix it. Just give me some time,” Raindrops declared without meeting her own eyes with Springy's. Springy hesitated for a while. Afterwards, she sighed, ”I hope so.” She then turned to me and saw that I was not really happy about this situation either. Make-the-mare-forget-about-her-sorrow was her job now, so she asked me, ”And I've heard, you love to sing, don't you?” ”Wh-What? Oh yeah. It's been nice so far. We're eight pegasi. My teacher said, I have a bright voice. Mr. Piccollo and some other pegasi really like it,” I faintly smiled. ”He's so right! You really have a neat voice, especially when you talk! Keep talking, I'm listening!” ”Mmh, okay. The first lessons were practical. We exercised the scale, for example. Just the easy ones like C and F major. Do-re-mi and so on. We talked about harmony and disharmony. The next thing will be how to avoid voice cracks.” Springy turned to Raindrops again and saw a slight cheer on her face. Before Raindrops could fall back to some sad emotions again, Springy didn’t gave her a chance to do so, and happily announced, ”You really love her stories, don't you Raindrops?” ”W-what? Sure, absolutely! So nice to hear, she's happy.” Springy turned to me again. ”I'd say, you should carry on, Medley! Maybe you'll earn you cutie mark in singing?” Springy reminded me of something. Maybe it was really time for my cutie mark to appear? ”A musical note? That would be a nice cutie mark!” Raindrops chimed in. ”We'll see it,” I happily said. However, I secretly looked down to the ground in a worried manner. ~ ~ ~ The months passed by. I aged up in winter and this spring was one of the wettest ever. Not that I'd hate it, though. Once on a rainy day, I wasn't motivated to play along with other ponies or with my close friends, so I sat on the table along with Mom and Dad. I was sorrowed these days. and I hoped, Mom and Dad wouldn't know about it. We all ate herb soup. While Mom and I were satisfied with the soup, Dad's stomach knew no limits. Next to his soup, there was a lot of bread, vegetables and some cider on the table. Alcoholic cider of course. It really amazed me how a pony could eat so much food at dinner without becoming fat! Okay, he was a bit chubby, but that’s all. However, I leaned my head in one hoof on the table, while I moved my other hoof back and forth, as well as around the soup plate, like I was drawing imaginary circles. Meanwhile, Mom grabbed her own soup plate, swallowed the whole soup and put away the plate. She turned her head into my direction. ”Darling, what's wrong?” She drew Dad's attention as well as mine. He stopped biting into a tomato and looked at me for a while in silence. He continued eating his tomato carefully, to be ready for a little family discussion. Something that was not really welcome to me right now. ”Nothing, Mom.” ”Have you problems in school, Meddy?” my dad promptly asked. ”No no. It's really fine there. I can sing something for you. I managed to avoid voice cracks many weeks ago.” To distract them, I quickly began to sing, ”Lalaaa-la-la-la-la-laaa—” ”Meddy,” my dad interrupted, ”you sing so wonderful. No need to demonstrate it.” ”Are they mocking you?” Geez. Parents always hammer you with questions! They won't give you time to breath! ”No. I get along fine with my school mates. Both in my class and in the glee club.” ”Then what's the problem, Darling?” I sighed. I must tell them something – somehow. They wouldn’t give up, until you let out all your secrets. ”I learned a lot of things now. Especially in the singing class. I got very good marks. My singing teacher told only two of us, some colt and me, have the most glorious voices he ever heard in his life.” ”So?” Mom curiously asked. It was a really knotty situation, and I was not happy about this situation right now. What if my parents knew about it? Truth is, they'd blabber you until your head explodes. Until the little filly is quiet and happy again. Better make it quick, so I could finish my dinner, hit the shower, do my homework and get ready for bed, without any further questions. To make it more plausible, I hid my face under my hooves in despair and asked, ”Are... I think the other ones in my class are jealous of me!” You got me! I'm not a clever pony if it comes to tell lies. I always was an honest pony, but that white lie would do. Dad became silent. Really silent. You could've mistaken him with one of those pretty pony statues, Springy always talked about. Mom startled and backed her head a bit. She shook her head to catch herself up, then she asked me quite wondered, ”Em, why would they be jealous about you?” ”Don't know? Just a feeling,” I responded. ”Most ponies aren't jealous of something. If ponies are, you'd clearly see it in their expressions and behaviours. Not just 'a feeling',” Mom said and raised an eyebrow. Dad suddenly intervened after the little shock by saying ”Is it that, what troubles you?” It seemed he didn't expect my answer, and his look told that he didn't believe it either. ”I suppose,” I answered Dad's question, leaving Mom's statement unanswered. My look shuttled between Dad and Mom. Both looked at me quite strange. Like they wanted to look through me or something. To scan my brain to search for the truth. Before they'd go any further, I stopped their intentions by saying with a bit of a shaky voice, ”I... will manage it. D-don't worry.” ”How are you gonna work it out?” my dad asked, shoving away his food to have a more direct talk with me. ”By... I um... ,” I hardly found no words to say, ”to show my classmates, they don't have to be jealous of me. Or of the young colt, uh yeah the young colt, don't forget about him! The ponies in the glee club are also jealous of him!” Dad repeated ”How are you gonna work it out?” ”Like I said.” ”And how? Are you gonna try singing worse?” ”No. I'll... find a way. D-don't worry.” ”Medley,” my mom suddenly called me without saying 'Darling' to me, ”I believe there's something more, you don't want to tell.” ”N-no Mom. Nothing more. I was just curious.” Mom and Dad looked in each other's frowny eyes. ”If something troubles you, you can tell us.” ”But Dad, um, there is nothing that troubles me.” I gazed down to the floor. ”Look me in the eyes,” my mom declared, ”what is wrong? Are you sure, there's nopony who's mocking you?” Mom didn't knew. Of course, I feel fine in my class, and the ponies my class treated me like a usual pony. I hated that question. Furiously and to declare it straightaway, I stomped with my hooves on the table shouted out a short but very intense ”NO!” ”DON'T SHOUT AT US! WE'RE STILL—” Mom put a hoof calmly to Dad, who freaked out at me for shouting at them. His voice was powerful. After all, he was hired as a construction worker here in Cloudsdale! On constructions, there’s always a huge noise level, so you needed a loud voice, otherwise you couldn't hear your fellow workers. ”Flare, don't shout,” my mom relaxed the situation a little bit. Meanwhile I'd flinched with nothing to say right now, but Mom turned her head to me, like I was the next pony, who needed to be calm down. Mom just looked me in my eyes with a worried face. I surrendered before the whole dinner ended in a family tragedy. ”There is something.” ”We're listening,” Mom said, and holded her one hoof stronger to one of Dad's. In case of an outrage, so the tiger won't attack me literally. ”Six of my fellow classmates in the singing group have already got their cutie mark, since they joined in. Leaving me, and the other colt I told you 'unmarked'. Perhaps, he'll be the next getting his cutie mark.” I raised my head and my voice and continued with a light sad expression, ”Why don’t I have cutie mark?” Afterwards I sharply dropped my voice level, ”I'm singing well they said.” I looked on my soup that was still untouched. I supposed, the soup was already cold now. The seconds of silence at the table felt so long. Eventually, the silence was broken, when a tapping sound from one of the kitchen's windows could be heard, which was caused by a little dragonfly that got lost. I stood up and opened the window to free the little dragonfly. While I was at it, I headed outside leaving the window open and said with a dry voice, ”I'm going to my room. I'm sleepy,” without looking back to my parents. I didn’t notice their expressions after my confession. All I did was gazing at the ground, free that little flying thing, and trot back sheepishly. I wondered, why my parents remained mute. Anyways, that felt like a slow runaway. Young ponies usually tended to flee after making minor confessions like this one. Most young ponies even cried while running away, but to my surprise my tears contained. I couldn't really sleep. The sunset was done, but it was still too bright outside. Cloudsdale's houses usually have no shutters like the houses down on earth. Just a window or two per room, and that was all. Only a few windows had curtains. I rolled back and forth trying to find a position to fall asleep. With or without my sheets. After a while, I grabbed one of my pillows and threw it on my walls in anger for not falling asleep. ”Grrrrrr.” I heard somepony's coming upstairs. It must’ve been Mom or Dad. I hoped one of them went to the bathroom or something. I wasn't in the mood to talk because it was just uncomfortable for me to tell them the truth. The door was opened by Mom. I turned myself away from her to avoid a talk. Beneath my one last pillow, there was an old plushie. Geez, I didn't know how long I had this plushie. The coat of my plushie was frayed and the overall condition could be described as ‘worn out’. I better throw this plushie away soon, objects never had an emotional attachment for me, even if these objects, like plushies, were made for it. I felt something heavy on my bed and a hoof-touch on my shoulder. It was Mom. ”Hey Darling!” First, I pretend I couldn't hear her. Then I quickly quashed my idea. I simply grumbled into my last pillow like it was a guttural way of saying 'hello'. ”If I were you, I couldn't sleep on that tiny pillow either,” she said, walked away, grabbed the thrown pillow on the floor, and gently laid it back to my bed. ”Um, thanks. Now I must sleep,” I said with a sleepy voice, but the voice was fake. Oh dear, I usually hated it to lie, but right now I faked around more and more, just to feel well. It was time to make it stop. ”Sorry,” I whispered. ”For what?” my mom asked. ”I lied. I hate lying.” ”Darling,” my mom leaned closer to me, ”you can have many talents. Many wonderful talents. You fly graceful and you sing so brightly.” ”Then I must get a cutie mark!” I announced. I haven't noticed, she distracted the lying-issue, yet. My mom put a hoof on my cheek in a comfort manner. She added, ”You can have a lot of talents. But there's one special talent that will make you unique. And you haven't discovered your special talent yet.” Before I could say something, she continued, so I couldn't have the chance to complain. ”Fillies are eager to earn their cutie mark. I can really understand. And that's what makes me so happy, seeing little fillies trying to do some adventures in order to get a cutie mark. Searching for your own destiny is the greatest adventure you can ever imagine.” ”Mhm,” I just hummed. ”You might discover even more other talents in your life. And suddenly, when you expected it at least, it can happen, what one pony's waiting for a long time. You'll find your very special talent.” ”Unfair. There are so many wonderful things out there. It takes so many years,” I complained. ”One important thing is, you must not force it. This will be the worst way to earn a cutie mark. Hardly nopony ever got a cutie mark by forcing it.” I crossed my forelegs and grumbled. ”I know, waiting for your cutie mark upsets you. I totally understand it.” ”I'm upset of other things. Like that I lied to you, to hide my sorrow. To hide my impatience,” I declared. ”Darling, lying is really not the right thing a pony can do. It really surprised me because you're such an honest pony. I'd count it as another talent of you!” Okay, Mom tried to calm down the situation. How many talents I got now? Three? Six? The whole population of Cloudsdale? Wow, I’m a lucky pony who found out lots of talents! Geez, this was not helpful for me! Though I must say, I was really impatient all the way, and maybe that's why it caused some trouble now. And maybe Mom was right. Maybe time was the key for all the good things you want. Mom knew, I was thinking about it right now, but my expression was more... I’d say sad. So she gave me a cuddly hug. I begged close to tears for one last question – okay, three questions. ”Please. Please tell me. Why do I get so sad thinking about my own cutie mark? Why do I need to lie to hide it? And why does it hurt?” My mom hugged me tighter. Her warmth felt like that she really cared for a pony like me. She gently whispered, ”It's because you have a pure heart.” In her presence I became more and more drowsy. After a few minutes, I let off of her and slowly closed my eyes. The next day, I told Raindrops and Springy about my last conversation with my mom about my lack of patience and my want of a cutie mark. ”Oh Sweetie!” Raindrops said and gave me a nuzzle to comfort me. Springy instead warned me, ”If you keep on having sorrow, you’ll be frustrated to tears.” Raindrops nodded in agreement, ”She's right. Don't be so fussy. I also can’t wait to get my cutie mark. But I'm excited about it, and you're being fussy.” I just sighed, ”Hmm. May—Maybe you're right.” ~ ~ ~ Author's Note Pre-readed by goddamnAnimalPlanet. Thanks! ;)
Chapter III - The Weather Pony and the Precipitation of SerendipityThe Diversified Growing-Up of a Simple Weather Pony Chapter III - The Weather Pony and the Precipitation of Serendipity by Bluemeganium The time passed by fairly quickly. Still with no cutie mark on my blank flank, I entered the new school year. "...and your new subject for all of you will be—" "RRRRRRING" "Okay fillies, time for a break!" Grumpy Granny was always on time. She started her lessons with the school bell and she ended them with the school bell, no matter what. Even bombs flying around the place couldn’t stop her from finishing her units! The first minutes of our fresh new school day were about organization things, and homework. Stupid Grumpy Granny – she always gave us homework, even in our holidays! In a small break, Springy, Raindrops and I discussed about this new subject. "Another new subject for us! I wonder what it will be this time?" Raindrops wondered. "Fact is, it's exclusively for us pegasi. No other race, like the unicorns, will do this stuff," I declared. "Whatever it is, I'm ready for it!" Raindrops confidently said. After the little break and after all the others had trotted in, Grumpy Granny finally told us all what our new subject will be. "... That’s what very pegasus pony must do! This will be important and relevant for your exam! Your new subject is meteorology or just 'weather’!" Aaah, Meteorology – that sounded nice to me. Though I really loved singing, the mystifying science of meteorology was quite interesting. Especially I always wanted to know how the weather ponies made the snowflakes in its various, beautiful shapes! Awww, and I remembered my mom often told me the tale of a little blind filly called ‘Snowdrop’ when I was a little filly. I really loved this story! In my opinion, winter’s the most beautiful season. As long as the ponies in Cloudsdale didn’t cause a blizzard, ice and snow made the scenery both in Cloudsdale and on earth just look wonderful! Plus, winter was the season for building snowponies! Springy, Raindrops and I met each other to have some lunch. It was a really, really hot day! It felt like a heat wave. It was already a September day, but the heat was impossible to stand. Thinking back, ice and snow would be really welcome, right now. "Sooo hot!" Raindrops complained, "Tomorrow, I'm gonna steal some clouds and let it rain all over Equestria! It can’t be that hard, right?" "Better make it snow," I mentioned, "that would be so neat!" “Cool idea, Medley!” In that turn, Raindrops instantly grabbed Springy who was looking in the sky. “Springy, you’re in?” Raindrops’ sudden action startled her. “Ehm-um-eh… In… what?” “Earth to Spring Skies! Getting rid of this hot weather! “Oh. I haven’t noticed. I’m busy with our new syllabus in our sculpture group.” Still the bright green pony in her hooves, Raindrops shook her and yelled, “Is this so important?” Springy smiled showing her fresh brushed teeth to Raindrops. “Absolooo-tely! I already know the whole syllabus in our group! From what I’ve heard, this will be so much fun this year!” “Um, aaahm, uhm… yeeah sure…,” Raindrops said, let her go and flinched back watching Springy clopping with her hooves in excitement. Emphasized Springy seemed to look forward to the stuff in her group, and she didn't really care about our new weather subject. Raindrops and I on the other hoof thought about it. While Raindrops aimed to have some good marks, I was really curious of making the weather! However, singing or even acting in a play was still on top of my list. I put my hoof around Raindrops. She’s my weather ally now. We both were fascinating about it, so why not put a hoof around your best ally, press your cheek against her cheek, and cheek-cuddle her? “Awww, Raindrops! We’re gonna love it!” “Yes, Medley!” Raindrops reached out one hoof to the sky and continued, “They will bow down to us for the cool snow after the heat!” “We’ll get the best marks! We’ll be superstars!” I exclaimed and squeezed Raindrops tighter on me. “We will. Even our new huffy teacher will praise us!” “Aw, he sure isn’t that bad!” I stated and asked dumbfounded Springy right away, “Am I right, Springy?” Springy shook her head from being the sudden center of attention. She found no words to say and put a hoof on her chin. Raindrops instead speculated, "I've heard he is a mug. He knows tons of things, but will easily let you down. He just doesn't care for his students!" "Really?" I loosened my hug and my jaw dropped. "Fillies cry about him! If they have a question, Mr. Golden Mist rejects them like he has a heart of stone!" "I don't believe that, Raindrops!" Springy startled. "I don't wanna believe it either!" "Me neither!" I agreed on Raindrops' last statement. The next day was all about our new subject. The whole day was just meteorology. No math, no singing and no other things, and fortunately no economics! Aaargh, how I hate this subject! I always got bad marks in economics! Dad's not very amused when I came home with Ds or even Fs. Mr. Golden Mist entered our classroom. He was an old and bald, dark grey pony, who limbed. Hay, is this school full of limb ponies? First, Mrs. Seedflare... and now this old stallion? Anyways, my other classmates were not really interested – like always. Dashie chewed on her third bubble gum before the lessons even started, Thunderlane tried to lick his nose with his tongue, and Periwinkle just stared out of the window. "Good morning, class!" the dark grey stallion greeted us. "Good morning!" all of us more or less replied. "First of all, my name is Mr. Golden Mist. Hee hee." What was the chuckle all about? Old ponies cannot entertain little fillies! Anyways, he continued, "And this is your very day of our special subject, exclusively to us pegasi! The wonders and magic of meteorology! Hee hee!" "Um, what's meteorology?" Thunderlane asked. What the hay? I knew, Thunderlane was kinda lazy, and always hedged when there was a job to do, but dumb? "Good question! Little... what was your name? Oh yeah, Periwinkle!" Hihi! Now that made us laugh! Thunderlane blushed, and Periwinkle turned her head from the window to our teacher with a sinister look. The brilliant-white pony stretched one hoof as fast as lightning and threatened, "ONE MORE TIME!" "Oh, excuse me! I should really look in my notes! Now who's sitting where? Let's make an attendance check!" Mr. Golden Mist rummaged on the desk trying to find our class list. "Ah, there it is! Okay, Dewdrop!" "Wrong list!" I put in. He turned the sheet around. "Hmm... this class? Is Periwinkle there? Yes there she was. Rainbow Dash! Who's Rainbow Dash?" "Here, Mister!" Dashie teetered with her chair. "Sit normal and spit out your gum!" he ordered. "You're the boss!" Dashie spit out her gum outward one of the open windows. "Good power, Rainbow, thank you! Now who's Raindrops?" Raindrops just raised her hoof. "Alright, now Spring Skies must be next of you Raindrops?" "Yes here!" She agreed happily. "Sprinkle Medley!" Now this was my sign. I raised my hoof. "The next one? Stormcatcher?" "I'm here!" "A young stallion I see. Thunderlane too, that's alright." "Now, you must be Umbrella as my last young mare, right?" Umbrella nodded. "And my last one is Zapper, okay, hee hee!" Without a break he continued, "Now. To our last question. What is meteorology? Well it's a thing, only pegasi are able to do it! Unicorns learn magic in your age, Earth Ponies nature. We do weather. And that's all! It's all about the clouds and the temperatures, the wind, the air, the humidity, and so on and so on, hee hee!" He tried to be sympathetic, but his 'hee hee' annoyed me a bit. "Most of the time, our classroom will be in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory! Today at noon, we'll all fly to this place. I'll show you everything you need to know, hee hee." Before noon, we just made very simple things about weather – some introduction stuff. Afterwards, we all flew to the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. Cloudsdale itself is a city just for workers. About at least half of the population was hired either as a worker in the Weather Factory or in some sort of military things. Too bad, my parents were not in one of those. Dad was a construction worker, and Mom householded. So this place was just new for me. And this place really threw my eyes out! I gazed literally! Endless halls, as huge as a mountain, crisscrossed corridors like labyrinths, various clouds of thunder and rain even within the halls, and a lot of old and young pegasi flying hectically around the place. Dozens? Hundreds? This was the enormous Cloudsdale Weather Factory! And I only saw one hall of at least four or five! Raindrops and I were just amazed by this colossus! I mean, those giant halls big enough to gain so much speed that you could even do the legendary sonic rainboom! Springy instead didn't really care and just looked around like she was searching for interesting things. We walked around when I suddenly jumped out of my coat. "EEEEK!" A thunderbolt struck next to me. All of us jumped in fear, and I was just dumbfounded. Mr. Golden Mist just giggled, "Hee hee. You'll have to be used to it!" We all worked out a lot of things in our new subject the next days in the Weather Factory. I must say, it was very interesting, so far. But singing was just unbeatable! Speaking of that, the heat out there was unbeatable, too. I didn't know how many days the heat wave cooked us literally, but it was really time for a little shower! ~ ~ ~ There was one unforgettable day. It was by the end of September, and the heat wave was still unbelievable. I’d already learned to measure the air temperature by just using our wing tips. It must have been around 95 degrees at noon. A complicated thing to explain. By the way, Springy sometimes scrambled those numbers. For example, water became solid at 212 degrees for her, while water boiled at 32 degrees. She's smart – no offense – but she sometimes scrambled things. Things that made us giggle. We all had a little excursion that day. We flew low, just a bit above the ground. The topic this day was called 'inversion'. A phenomenon where the cool layer of the air was sharply separated with the warmer layer above. The cool layer, our teacher told us, always carried fog and cold, and was characterized with high humidity, while the layer above was sunny most of the time. Not a well-fit topic when there was a heat wave, but I couldn't complain about it either. We flew quite slowly above the ground. There was no hurry. We had all the time until afternoon. Explaining weather things and such stuff. We approached a little town that should be our resting area. But of course, we wouldn't land down on the ground! Pegasi must be endurable, especially when it came to weather things! Eight hours hovering in the sky to do our duty was usual, so have a break with moving your wings up and down was a good way to improve our own endurance. Plus, the heat tried us all. Endurance was one thing, but as soon as the temperatures rose above a critical level, even the most endurable pegasi came to their limits. We were all young, so a heat like this was dangerous! More degrees and we must fly back to the weather factory, and had to learn all the stuff on the chalkboard! YUCK, how I hated it! I packed out my lunch. A crunchy sandwich with lilies and slices of peach. In cooking, I was a virtual disaster. There were no words to describe my calamity, my catastrophe, my INability to bake and cook. But one thing was for sure. My mom made the most delicious and the most creative sandwiches ever! I mean slices of peach? How awesome was that! "OH DAMN IT!" I heard a loud shout coming from one of my friends. "What's the matter, Raindrops?" "My tomatoes! My lemons! My candies! All gone!" She bit on her lips in desperation. Raindrops' saddlebag had a hole in it, so she must have lost her food! In the hope of some leftovers that fell not out of the bag, she franticly combed through her entire bag with nothing left but some big books and some pens. She quickly began to snivel, "Oooh no. I'm gonna starve! I'm gonna die of thirst! I'm doomed!" Poor Raindrops. Of course, this was some kind of emergency. A pegasus in the air with both no food and no water. Unimaginable – if Raindrops fainted in front of us, and crashed on the ground! Calling the Life Flight could have been really stressful once they came over. Not only because the ponies of Life Flight would just beat you back or even snarled at you unfriendly once you came close to your friend, but to see how the Life Guard took your best friend to the hospital – your very close friend, who was injured from head to tail, unable to speak to you, plugged to respirators or even some device to watch the vital functions. Such a very, very close friend like Raindrops. A scenario where the pony you love is covered by cables, masks, hoses, blankets and other equipment to rescue somepony's life was really painful to imagine. For all of us young ponies, but especially for me. I offered Raindrops some of my food, leaned one of my hooves in front of her nose, and hoped she’d love it! I sacrificed half of my sandwich for a good purpose. I hope Raindrops likes peach. "Here!" "Medley!" the pitifully desperate pony grabbed away the part of my sandwich, "Thank you so much!" "And if you want, I can share my bottles with you. I hope you like cherry juice," Springy put in, and showed us her two bottles of cherry juice. "Girls," her voice fluttered, "thank you! Thank you such much! It's so nice from both of you!" "Don't mention it," Springy replied and winked, "it's the least thing we could do for you." I blinked. "She's right! Remember our bond? Our bond of friendship? We don't leave a pony behind, no matter what!" Raindrops was rather the tough pony. And such ponies never showed their sensitive kind of feelings. Okay – I exaggerated. I mean, she cared for a lot of ponies when she was in a good mood. But in return, she hardly showed any emotions, except when it was about her best friends. Springy, Dashie and me. This attitude should change when tears were rolling down her cheek. She sniffled through her nose, and that was a clear sign, her emotions were unstoppable. She tried to stop of course, we're talking about Raindrops, but she couldn't. More and more tears fell down. She sniveled and repeated, "Thank you!" This was one of the very very rare occasions of an emotional yellow pegasus pony! And I couldn’t think of why, though. I mean, just losing your food? Maybe it’s because, Springy and I cared about her, but she already sniveled when she found out that she lost her food! However, when we finished our lunch, we had plenty of time to play around if we wanted to. We had 30 minutes of time, till we'd start to head towards Canterlot. But not for a visit. Canterlot lied on the side of a mountain. Mountains were one of the essential things to create an inversion. The layers of different air temperatures collide with the mountains and thereby it promotes the creation of visible inversions. None of us felt like impulsive young ponies. It was just too hot to play around. And to learn things of course. I suggested, "Let's just watch the ground! Just hover! A heat stroke is the last thing we need!" "You're right, Medley," our not-blubbering-anymore Raindrops replied. She shoved her last piece of my former sandwich in her mouth – a pure slice of peach. "Was it fine?" I asked my yellow-coated friend. "Sure! Thanks again, Medley! The peaches were nice!" "Oh, it's alright. You don't need to thank me or Springy anymore. Food's complimentary," I said and winked. Raindrops tilted her head a bit and smiled. After a couple of moments, she seemed to be distracted suddenly. I wanted to know why, so I looked back, and all I saw was Springy and she pointed her hoof down to earth. "See this little town? This is Ponyville!" "I know!" Raindrops hastily moved herself next to Springy. "Ponyville looks so peaceful!" "I've never been to Ponyville before! At least I cannot remember any days I've ever been in Ponyville," I announced. "Look!" Raindrops wrapped her right hoof and pulled me towards her, so I was close to her and pointed her other hoof to a big building on the outskirts of Ponyville, "This must be the hospital! Remember, when I told you all about my accident?" Sure I remember – the 43rd time by now. Springy suddenly spilled over with joy. I just stared at her and Raindrops demanded, "Stop cheering about my bad accident!" "No no no! Look over there!" Now I felt two hooves around my neck. Springy pulled Raindrops and me even closer. "This is Ponyville's town hall!" She kept on pointing with her hooves back and forth like a tourist guide. "And this is the most beautiful, fantastic, tremendous, extraordinary," she took a deep breath, "inspiring, exalting, joyful," she took another deep breath, "there are so many words to describe this wonderful piece of art!" "The town hall looks simple to me," I wondered. "No Medley!" She squeezed us literally with her one hoof. Geez, who knew, Springy could be so powerful? "Next to Ponyville’s town hall! This statue!" Raindrops was wringed between her and me. She couldn't really move herself, so her voice sounded pretty... well 'squeezy'. "Um- hww bwtifwl!" Springy rapidly let us go, folded both of her hooves and behaved like she was in love. "Aww, this is art! This is a beautiful masterpiece of art! I adore it!" I took a closer look. It must have been really the pony statue, she told us about. A huge statue with a pony just standing on its hind legs. Was it a fountain or something? Springy was literally cock-a-hooped and flew roller coasters in the air! She even accidentally flew through a very tiny cloud, where Dashie slacked off. The cloud disappeared, and Dashie caught herself up easily, but was confused and angry about the sudden joy-burst of Springy. "Heey, Spring Skies! That was my cloud!" She then muttered, "You crazy mare!" Joyful Springy returned to us and demanded, "How about, we fly to this beautiful statue? Just a few minutes!" A couple of moments down to Ponyville might not be dangerous, though it was still hot. If the air was hot, the ground was always hotter. We had plenty of time to spend. And I always wanted to visit this nice little town. When thinking about it, I saw Raindrops following her. Okay – that persuaded me. I was in! When we were about to fly down to Ponyville, I suddenly stopped and hovered on my spot. I saw ponies down there – two or three earth ponies, and even some unicorns! These ponies looked like ants from this height, though, but we pegasi have eagle eyes! What I saw was not only the ponies down there, but sorrow and unhappiness in their faces. "What's the matter?" Springy asked. "Look, these ponies! The look so sad! Let's head to them!" I ordered. "Oh, you're right! I wonder why they're so unhappy. I hope not because of us?" Raindrops stated. We landed next to a yellow unicorn with a blue mane. I looked in her deep purple eyes and asked, "Why are you so frowny?" "YOU!" She pointed her hoof to us, "It's all your fault!" I dropped my jaw. "What have we done?" "The heat!” The yellow unicorn looked upon various spots on her body. “I have sunburns all over my body! My mane's a mess! It hasn't rained here since two weeks! Where's the shower?" the yellow unicorn snarled at us. "We're fillies; we don't know how to change the weather!" Springy frowned. "What a disaster! Tell those winged idiots in Cloudsdale, Ponyville wants a cool shower!" The unicorn turned her back to us, went into her house and shut the door with her magic intensively. "She was really ugly to us!" I stated. Shouts could be heard from a distance. "Go away, bunch of incompetent weather ponies!" "Get out, idiots!" "Do us a favor. Leave!" Springy lowered her head and frowned, "Okay girls. Better fly back!" Raindrops hovered a bit and turned her head back. "Medley, don't you come with us?" "Go on you two," I ordered, "I'll follow you soon." I walked through the little town to search for more friendly ponies and all I saw was shutted windows and doors! The heat on the ground felt like magma – extremely hot! Two more minutes, and my hooves were ready for dinner! Sure, it was peaceful in Ponyville, but in an eerie way. It was silent, and nopony was out to enjoy the sun or something. After plenty of minutes, I finally found somepony to talk. To be exact, two ponies snuggling each other. A bright yellow and blue colt and his girlfriend, a pink pony with a yellowish-green curly mane. The pink pony startled a bit when she saw me, but then she said, "Oh, hi!” Her eyes see-sawed. “It's been a long time since a pegasus pony visited us!" I questioned, "Why that?" The colt said, "The whole town believes, you pegasi were responsible for this heat wave," He looked around and whispered, "but I don't believe it!" "Me neither," her girlfriend said, "you must have run out of the clouds or the water, don't you?" "I don't know. I don't work in Cloudsdale or in the Weather Factory. But we're here to learn about the weather." I pointed my hoof up to the sky, where a bunch of pegasi hovered, including my friends, who already arrived the group. "Oh, I understand," the pink pony announced, "but could you do us a favor?" My expression turned frowny. "I have to leave? Fine!" "Nono, please wait!" the pink pony said and held me back, "You can’t do the weather, but can you please tell the Cloudsdale ponies that we're melting here? It is really unenjoyable here! My coltfriend and I can’t take the heat anymore! And the other ponies in Ponyville can't take it either!" Both the colt and the mare lowered their heads and glowered at me. Oh, how they begged me with their eyes. It felt like I was the pony, who must do them this favor. I blinked, smiled and turned my way directly to the group of pegasi above town. I sprinted to my friends, who already awaited me. Raindrops and Springy were not prepared for my sudden speed! Raindrops fortunately avoided me, though it was pretty close. Unfortunately .on the other hoof, I collided with Springy leaving her spinning around multiple times! Springy tumbled, began to swirl like a twister and – tried to – have a talk with me, "Stah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ahp! Wh-h-h-y so fa-a-ast?" I abruptly stopped. Five seconds were fine for them and no more! "I head to Cloudsdale again. Will take a few minutes. But I'll return. Please wait for me!" "Medley, are you—" Raindrops bit my dust literally when I swished through the sky again leaving her speechless and Springy spin around. I didn't care now. Ponies needed me, and I knew what to do! To be honest, I didn't really know why I knew what I had to do. It was some kind of an instinct. Plus, this pink pony tasked me to tell the weather ponies to change the weather. But I wanted more! I felt a bit ambitious – another thing I couldn’t really explain! Another kind of an instinct? I approached the huge weather factory within a few minutes as fast as I could. In my mind, I was aware that the heat was still dangerous. And after noon, the heat would have become stronger. I ran through the halls. One of these halls was the cloud-making section, where the clouds were made there of course, but this was also the place, where the clouds were filled with rainwater, snow, hail, thunderbolts and all the other fancy things! I found out, the rainwater was not the problem. Cloudsdale still had enough of it. You could’ve seen it all over the place! Some basins were still full of rainwater. The problems were the clouds! I can remember one of my first lessons a couple of days ago. Pegasi filled the giant cloud-making machines with a strange violet-bluish liquid. After this, a sudden burst of steam came up from the funnel and small clouds appeared all over the place, ready to be used. Great. There was enough rainwater, but still no clouds in the sky! They really must have run out of the strange liquid! I mean, this liquid was the only thing you need to create clouds! Otherwise, you’d just have some sort of fog, which was pretty useless against the heat of the sun. Clouds were more stable against the heat. Clouds could’ve given you at least a bit of shade, even with no rainwater carrying in it, in case the Weather Factory has no rainwater anymore. Nevertheless, only a few ponies worked in the cloud-making section. Just the ponies for the surveillance. The rest had holidays or had to work somewhere else. It was crystal clear. There were hardly any clouds to make anymore, and that's why everypony's gone! And how were you able to carry rainwater to a town without clouds? Ponies down there needed the cool refreshment urgently! I stand in front of one of those giant machines to produce clouds. Strange liquid or not, I had to try it in the hope of some leftovers in the machine. I smashed and hammered the buttons haply to make the machine work, but in the end it was hopeless! The machine didn't even twitch! "Stupid machine!" I yelled. The huge hall echoed my shout. An old stallion walked on by. I turned to him and demanded him, "Please tell me how I can turn on this machine! It's urgent!" "These machines cannot be turned on, my little pony, unless the supervisor uses a key to start the machines. And she's not here. She has her free days." I dropped my jaw. "But there's one old machine!" The old pony pointed his hoof behind me. I turned my back, and all I saw was a long corridor. "Do you see the rusty green one over there? Just turn the big black switch, and you'll be happy!" How far away was this machine? Must be half of a mile! Anyways, I rapidly flew away, and shouted, "Thank you!" I arrived at the old machine. The sign on the side of the machine said 'Cloudmaker 900'! Wow, this machine must be a hundred years old! Though I still needed at least a bucket full of this strange stuff to create at least one huge cloud, I did the same like before – turn on the machine and see what happens. If I could create a cloud, good, if not, don’t think about it! I turned the switch, and to my consternation, I noticed that the machine didn't make a move. "Aaargh!" I gnarled. When I finished gnarling, I also noticed that the machine was unplugged. Oops! Never thought about the fact, machines need electricity – forgive me, I'm a stupid mare sometimes! Both socket and the plug next to the socket were old and dusty, but that should do. "YES!" Finally the machine worked, and some little parts of cloud material gathered to a big cloud, becoming bigger and bigger. I wondered how much cloud material I needed. Forget it! I'll keep on doing until the Weather Factory finally ran out of clouds! That was my goal! I must make the ponies happy again! No matter what! The cloud became really huge – well, for me! It must’ve been dozens of dozens of hooves! Suddenly, no more cloud material came out of the machine! After two minutes, the old machine must have run out of the very very last leftovers of this strange liquid! The machine rumbled, and no more cloud material came out anymore! No more cloud material! In my thoughts, I repeatedly cursed! How should my first cloud that I've ever made, grow up to a monster cloud? I was aware, those really giant clouds were made outside. Many pegasi shifted tiny pieces of rain clouds outside of the Weather Factory. Those monstrous clouds were built within a day by hundreds of dozens of tiny clouds. I have to admit, 'tiny' is a confusing word. Such clouds were usually as big as my actual cloud was. I talked to myself, "What now?" They’d all laugh at me when I'd arrive with such a tiny cloud to cool down Ponyville! I was worried about this situation. Back and forth through my mind, I desperately searched for a good idea. An idea to compromise my tiny cloud with something really big. "That's it!" Cloudsdale might be run out of virtually anything now – thanks to myself – but rainwater was still available! I pushed the cloud through the entire hall until I reached a giant tap. You can imagine them like the water taps in your bathroom where you can wash your hooves for example! I placed my cloud under the tap, and the cloud was now slowly filled with rainwater! Automatically, like some unicorns hid themselves behind the tap! I wasn't satisfied with just a few raindrops. No! This time was as-much-as-the-cloud-can-carry-time! And even if the rainwater overflowed and the whole hall would be a mess, I didn't care. Ponies out there counted on me! The cloud turned its clear white color to a more darker one. Once, the cloud reached a very dark grey color, some raindrops went off of the cloud. But not as you might think that my cloud would start to rain as long as you carefully move the cloud. To make it rain, you had to stomp on the top of the clouds. Raindrops trailing along the cloud like this didn't count – fortunately. Otherwise I would've returned to Ponyville with no raincloud. Okay, that was enough now. I pushed away the cloud very carefully, and to my surprise, the cloud was really heavy now, almost immovable for me. One wrong move and it will rain in the Weather Factory! Still, rainwater dripped out of the dark grey raincloud, but as long as the rainwater slowly dripped along the sides, it was okay. I wasn't surprised about the fact that I moved the cloud in a pretty unstable way. As an absolute beginner, I didn't knew how to push a very heavy cloud carefully to a place without letting it rain. So I made a easy decision for me – the more the raincloud became too unstable to move, the more careful I was. If nothing helped, I needed to park the cloud somewhere in the sky, and I'd hurry to Springy and Raindrops, so they could help me. The flight to Ponyville felt so long. I moved this heavy cloud now for 15 minutes, and I still haven't reached half of my way, what left me a little bit tired. Fortunately, I grabbed the cloud underneath to push, so I could use this cloud like an umbrella. Plus, the top of the clouds were resistant against the heat of the sun for two or three hours, so I had enough time to move this cloud to Ponyville. I'd definitely return late with my cloud. My teacher and the others would search for me, instead of carrying on with the lessons. But it was sealed. The point of no return was reached long before I filled the cloud with rainwater. I hoped, my teacher wouldn't be mad at me for not staying with the others and leaving without saying a word. Actually, Springy and Raindrops knew that I headed to the Weather Factory. I really hoped, I wouldn't visit the detention room for two or three weeks. I moved and watched the raincloud very carefully for several moments. After a while, I saw flying little dots in the distance. These dots were my friends and my classmates! Just a few more minutes, and I'd be there! I kept on concentrating on my movements. After several minutes, the raincloud was so close to its destination, maybe five more minutes! I was so eager now to make the ponies in Ponyville happy. One wrong shake and I would kill myself! The front of the raincloud passed by my classmates and my teacher Mr. Golden Mist of course. I shouted with a slightly exhausted voice, "Stay– away!" Raindrops flew next to me. She joked, "Haha, Medley! Where did you steal this giant cloud?" I gasped, "No." "What do you mean 'no'?" she asked, "is it a present for us?" "Kinda," I gasped, "take a cool shower– if you want to." "Okay! Just let me stomp on this—" "NOOO!" I interrupted Raindrops from doing so, "Ponyville needs the rainwater! I– I must reach Ponyville first! If you stomp on this cloud, everything will– everything will be ruined!" Raindrops felt disappointed, "Uh?" "Don't touch!" I shouted at her, "It was quite hard to keep this cloud stable without letting it rain down!" "What in the hay have you even done?" she asked. "I– I filled the cloud with rainwater. I gathered the very last pieces of cloud material together, and filled this cloud with as much rainwater as possible. Even– even more than possible. Until the rainwater was about to burst off from– from the sides!" Raindrops reaction was an amazed one as she put her hooves in front of her mouth. That was all I noticed. I just focused on my task, though it was really tough, because the heat got the upper hoof now. The cool shadow turned into a hot spot. I had to talk to Raindrops loudly in the last minute, it hurt in my throat, and I was nearly exhausted! Shifting the cloud, talking loud, the heat itself, no matter how you count these aspects up, all these things sapped all of my energy! My condition was hardly above zero. It felt, like I was about to black out, but I only had one simple mile! I braced myself. "Raindrops," my voice was shaky, "h-help me with this cloud!" Raindrops flew next to me and asked, "What do I have to do?" "Touch it– here. Exactly here!" Raindrops put her hooves at said place. "And now– gently– push! Don't let– this cloud– jump!" Geez, I felt so tired. The heat really burnt me. My sight was like you were in a tunnel and it was all blurry. With my last tiny pieces of energy left I turned my head, and said to Raindrops, "We– we'll make them– we'll make them so happy!" "Medley, you're so amazing!" Raindrops complimented me for my effort. I blinked and had a faint smile left. A few moments later I whispered, "Enough, don't push anymore." The cloud itself stopped after a while. I had to regain energy, so I just hovered and wheezed for a minute or two. After then, I continued whispering, "You– stomp! I– throw." "Throw? Are you sure?" "Yeah, s-some energy left!" "You crazy mare! The heat must have burnt your mind!" "It– it's all okay!" I responded. “If that’s what you want,” Raindrops said and rolled her eyes. Raindrops flew to the top of the cloud and bounced on the cloud up and down. This was my sign to throw the cloud as hard as I could. I aimed the cloud towards Canterlot. There wouldn't be enough rainwater for both towns, but at least, Ponyville got a shower. The first drops of rain ran out of the cloud. Soon after, more and more drops rained down on earth. I stroke out and prepared to toss. As hard as I could, I tossed the cloud, so it could rain down from one end of the town to another. "WWWRAGGGHH!" I directly flew down to Ponyville's town hall. I overtook the cloud above me, and caught some fresh and ice cool rainwater, what relaxed me. It really felt so good! Not because the rain cooled down my body, but I’d help so many ponies! The latter was the thing, it really pleasured me, and the motivator of doing this kind of work. While gliding down, I looked to the ground. The shade of the cloud covered about a quarter of the whole town! And some ponies already gathered – they must have heard of this nice surprise! The intensity of the rain sharply increased, and that was a good sign! After the hell of a heat wave, a big chunk of ice cool rain was the right thing, the ponies down there needed. And it made me so happy to be part of it. I prepared to land, but I couldn't! I felt so paralyzed, and the last thing I noticed was just black! And a dull but heavy impact! ~ ~ ~ I woke up. I looked into the sky, and the huge raincloud surpassed my sight. It still rained, but the intensity already decreased. I woke up in a quite strange position; on the back and my hind legs were spread. The next thing I remembered was the worried but calm voice of Springy. "Medley! Are you alright?" "I guess," I simply answered. "OUCH! What happened?" "You crashed down. It was terrible! Did you hurt yourself?" Springy looked on every corner of my body to search for wounds and scratches. While at it, Raindrops galloped to me, and pushed away Springy. "Wwoah, Raindrops!" she gleamed. "Medley!" Raindrops instantly grabbed one of my hooves. "Did you hurt yourself?" "I already asked the same!" Springy reminded her quite angry. More and more ponies gathered around me. Thunderlane, the friendly pony couple from several minutes ago, Zapper, Periwinkle, and so on. The last ones I recognized were Mr. Golden Mist and Rainbow Dash. Geez! Dashie wrapped herself around my teacher and buried her head in fear! "I'm fine," I replied. These spoken words made Dashie suddenly jump to me in joy and relief! "Med, you were soo awesome! I'm glad you're fine!" "Oh thanks!" I replied. Springy thrust away Dashie and smiled in joy, and Raindrops cheek-cuddled me. The ponies of Ponyville all cheered. I remembered the yellow unicorn with the blue mane. I saw happiness in her face, and not her grouchy meanness before the heavy rain. I saw happiness in everypony's face! Ponyville's ponies and my classmates were so glad! Was it because I was still alive or because of the nice weather I brought them? Anyways, even our ever-half-hearted, bad-tempered Periwinkle smiled! Wow! I've lost my hope in seeing Periwinkle smile some time ago. I sometimes believed, Cloudsdale would've crashed into the ocean, or I would've turned into a stallion before Periwinkle smiled! Now that was worth it! "Medley, how do you feel?" my teacher asked. "Thanks, I'm fine." Due to the fact, it was my teacher in front of me, I rapidly apologized, "I'm sorry for that! I'm sure, I made some trouble when I flew away. I'm really sorry!" "Look around you, hee hee!" I did so. I saw happy faces. These ponies were thirsty, and these ponies were sick and tired of the heatwave, at least for today! But that all was really worth it! It made me so happy to see happy faces. I did something great, and I knew it! My teacher added, "I turn a blind eye to this," winked me, and finished his statement by saying, "hee hee!" I shook my head to clear my mind. I cannot believe it! I made the ponies happy again! I mean, me? A little unknown pegasus pony? It really felt so delightful! Who knew, making weather turned ponies so happy? Okay, I must say, they really deserved the shower. It was the right time to put them out of their misery. Too bad, only for a day. Ponyville had to keep up a few more days until autumn finally started. But I was sure, Ponyville would forgive me. I still laid on the ground very awkward. My flanks crawled – either my hind legs numbed in stillness or beetles crawled all over my body. Ewww! I stood up. To my surprise, I still had control over my hind legs or any other part of my body, though it twitched a bit somewhere around the neck. Okay, I was fine. I could still fly around if I want, and walk without a care. "Medley!" Raindrops and Springy both wrestled me down on the ground. I just stared at them and said, "Girls, I'm fine! Don't turn it worse!" "Medley!" Springy repeated with an increased voice. "I know my name!" I wondered. "No, look there!" Springy pointed to my flank, while Raindrops stared on my flank like I was a showgirl. "You... there’s a cutie mark on your flank!" Saucer-eyed, I looked on my flank and saw no more blank aquamarine spot anymore! There was something that shined like a diamond! Fresh and bright! When the gleam stopped, I finally saw it with my own eyes. My newborn cutie mark! A bright white cloud and one, two, three... five, six... eight, nine. Nine bluish-green raindrops! Like the color of my mane! Pinch me, I must dream! I was paralyzed! The true beauty of a cutie mark! This cutie mark would remain forever on my flank, and I was the chosen pegasus pony of millions! Raindrops congratulated me with a big squeezy hug. Springy nuzzled me and said, "Good job! Very good job! This is your day! You deserved that!" I couldn't really focus on the lessons anymore. My mind was full of my new cutie mark. Raindrops, Springy and even Dashie tried to talk with me, but I didn't really listen to them. I was just too distracted and looked down on my flank every five seconds to control whether my cutie mark was still there or just imagination or even a dream, and I still didn't wake up after my black-out. Back at home, my parents were in the living room. I sneaked upstairs, and just shouted, "Hi Mom, hi Dad!" and shut down the bathroom door. Actually, I stayed out of the bathroom, so my parents would think, I took a shower or something. If you slammed the door of our bathroom shut, it was a different sound, than the door of my own living room. The plan was perfect! I sneaked into my room, and closed my own door silently. I needed something to cover my new cutie mark! It should be a surprise for my parents! But what should I pick? I rummaged through my things, leaving my room in a mess. I found a veil, for example, but the veil was partly transparent – that meant a no. Clothes that let my cutie mark shimmer through were not a good help. But my dress could work! Yeah, that should do! I can cover my cutie mark under my deep pink dress and when dinner was over, my parents would be flabbergasted! I put on my dress. Damn, my dress was tight! Was I chubby or something? How disgusting! Anyways, I had to go to the bathroom again. I wetted my mane, to have an alibi. It was suspicious if you went to the bathroom and your mane was as dry as dust. I sneaked down to have dinner. On the table, there were eggs, tomatoes and sandwiches. My parents stared at me awkwardly. "Darling! Why do you wear your dress? I thought, you don't like it?" Damn, Mom was right! I hated that color! I loved the bright nature colors, and some aquatic colors of course. Pink was fine, as long as the color was bright, and not so... dark. "I'm gonna go out with my friends!" This time, it wasn't a lie. I really wanted to go to Springy. She invited me to her little sleep-over. Raindrops and her little sister Sunny Rays were invited too, but there was one special guest in her list. No one less than Thunderlane! I grinned, "Springy invited me! Sleep-over!" "Now this will be a fancy sleep-over!" my dad replied. "You can bet!" I kept on grinning. I easily took a tomato and shoved it, in my mouth. After then, I took another one. And another one. And another one. "Medley, stop," my mom interrupted my actions, "leave some tomatoes to your dad! He's hungry too!" I already shoved my fifth tomato in my mouth when I quit. My face looked like I had balloons in my mouth. I swallowed and announced, "Fine. But I bet this day will be super-extra-nice! I'm gonna have fun, and no one's gonna stop me!" "Darling, why are you so excited about your sleep-over?" "Maybe I'm in a good mood?" I replied to my mom. "I see," she simply said. "Besides," I prepared to take off my dress, "what do you think about..." I grabbed my dress and shook it off my body, "THIS!" "Daaarling!" my mom shouted in amazement, "that's a cutie mark!" Dad spit out his juice when he saw my brand new flank. Mom continued, "I'm so proud of you!" She offered me a hug, and I just fell into her hooves and snuggled her. Dad stood up from his seat, and hugged the both of us, Mom and me. He said, "Meddy, we're really proud of you. Congratulations to your cutie mark!" "Tell us how!" my mom asked. "I haven't expected my cutie mark! And that was all! That's what you said, Mom!" She smiled, while I added, "I saw ponies in Ponyville! They were really miffed by the heatwave. I really wanted to help them out of their misery! So I headed to the Weather Factory." I signalized my next statement by writing invisible quotation marks with my hooves, "I 'lend' myself a big cool raincloud, and let it shower all over Ponyville! And it felt so good to see them happy!" I looked to my flank again and bounced, "And that's all! I really love my cutie mark!" "We've got a new rain queen!" my dad joked. "I'm not sure, it's all about the rain. I feel like, I love all the weather! I can't really explain! I've never loved weather so much before!" My mom replied to my statement, "You've done something beautiful. Getting a cutie mark scrambles your mind. Suddenly, you love more and more what makes other ponies happy. That's all part of your destiny!" "Is destiny perfect?" I asked. Geez, I usually asked no philosophical questions. "That's a tricky question! But what would it be if you get a cutie mark in painting for example, and in the next days, you hate to paint pictures? That makes no sense!" "But if it happens to a pony?" My mom pondered. Then she said, "You can have both a love for paint, for example, and a cutie mark of the same or a different kind. But you cannot have both a cutie mark of a certain thing like painting and the hate for paint. Those ponies are depressed and hate to be themselves." "Does that mean, I'll be—" I quickly changed my mind, "NO, forget it! I don't wanna know it!" "Think positive! That's far better!" my dad suggested. Mom nodded. I nodded as well. I trotted over to my thrown-away dress. Too bad – actually too good – I threw my dress into a dirty corner. "Need to change my clothes I guess," I said, "I can't have a party with dirty clothes!" "So it's a cute-ceañera?" my dad asked curiously. "I suppose," I answered. Good thing, I didn't have to wear this dress again. I accidentally threw it in the dirt – maybe my action was part of another characteristic of a cutie mark? "I need to wear something else for my cutesowhatever!" ~ ~ ~ "Medley, I still can't believe that you received your cutie mark!" Springy's sister Sunny Rays complimented me. "You look so pretty!" Thunderlane added. “Thanks Thunderlane!” I replied. My partly-transparent lilac dress shone even more brilliant with my new-born cutie mark underneath it. No wonder that Thunderlane was so impressed! Speaking of Thunderlane, my brain clicked, because I wanted to know why Thunderlane was here. "Hey, Thunderlane! Thanks again! By the way, what you're doing here? And where's your dress?" I joked. Thunderlane blushed. "Spring Skies just invited me. And NO, keep dresses away from me! I- I hate dresses!" "Oh sure," I ironically said. "Girls, come here!" Springy, Sunny, Raindrops and I gathered and whispered something Thunderlane could not listen to. Then Springy stood up, opened her wardrobe and showed us all a pretty bright pink dress like from a princess of a fairy tale. "Sunny, shut the door!" she ordered. She moved slowly towards Thunderlane and threatened him, "Don't run away! You're gonna love it!" Thunderlane screamed, "Noooo! Get away from me!" He tried to block Springy by shaking his hooves around, but he wasn't aware of a sneaking mare, called Raindrops, behind him. "Got ya!" Raindrops was strong and kept Thunderlane at his spot with nothing but her forelegs! He tried to escape – but it was hopeless! We were about to have a let's-turn-a-stallion-into-a-mare-party! It was really hopeless – four predator-mares attacking the prey! The minutes after were just hilarious when we turned Thunderlane into a pretty pink princess more and more! Springy brought some bows, and some glitter. Springy tinseled Thunderlane's face with the glitter, so his face sparkled in silver and gold! It really looked so funny! "Noooo, stop!" he screamed. We all smiled sinisterly. "Now the lipstick!" I said and chuckled very ugly. Sunny put an evil smile on her face. "Here sis, my deep red lipstick!" After a while, Thunderlane was dressed like a princess, glittered like a christmas tree and his lips shined so bright! "Okay, who wants to kiss him?" I demanded. "Oh, you'll regret it! Leave me free, Raindrops!" "No I won't!" she rejected and gripped him tighter with her forelegs. "I have an idea!" Sunny chimed in, "Sis, grab the bottle! We play spin-the-bottle!" Loser must kiss him!" Aww noo, bad idea, Sunny! She really had nice ideas, but that was not necessary. What, if the bottle picked me? Eww! I grimaced "Owww... F– fine!" Springy fetched a bottle, put it on the ground, and spun the bottle. Raindrops had to hold Thunderlane, so she was the lucky pony. This was now a gamble between the three of us! The bottle rotated and rotated and rotated and... YAY! "Featherf...!" Sunny sweared. HIHI! Now that made my day! Her own idea turned out bad for her! Ow, schadenfreude is such a joyful feeling! "I bite!" Thunderlane warned poor Sunny. "Then I bite back!" Raindrops threatened him, "I practised biting in iron hoof!" He gazed upon Raindrops and stunned. Sunny already came near to Thunderlane. As soon as he turned his head into the right direction, Sunny's lips already met his ones! Sunny went off and exclaimed in disgust, "Ewwwwwww! That’s awful!” Thunderlane shook his head and stuck out his tongue, "PPFF YUCK!" We all nodded. That was the sign for our strong Raindrops to let him free. He fell to the floor and coughed, "Oh, you so gonna regret it!" We all began to laugh loudly. "Yeah yeah," Princess Thunderlane grumbled. We all ate a huge delicious sweet cake with cream, chocolate, cherries, and chocolate splits, baked by Springy. While eating, we had a little conversation. "Soon, we'll also learn how to control the machines. Medley, how did you control the machines?" Raindrops questioned. I put my piece of cake on my plate. "Oh, I'm not really sure. I created the raincloud with an old machine! The new ones were out of control." "Hm? Out of control you said?" not-a-princess-anymore Thunderlane gasped. "No cloud material. All the cloud material was nearly exhausted. To be exact, the blue liquid to form the clouds. The machines were shut down anyways," I told. "But one old machine still worked, right?" Springy threw in. "Right. But it was easy. I just turned on the machine. Little chunks of cloud material came out of the machine.” I gestured and carried on, “The chunks gathered to a bigger and bigger cloud. But after a minute or two, the machine finally stopped." "Must have been some sort of steam, right?" Sunny curiously asked. "Maybe. Though, it felt not so hot. The air outside felt hotter." "Yeah, it was really hot!" Sunny complained, "Too bad, I couldn't taste your icy rain!" She carried on, "And the heat nearly blacked you out! That must've been horrible!" "Kinda," I replied, "But in the end, I really ended up in a blackout when the rain began to fall in Ponyville! I suppose, it was caused by a heat stroke. That’s what you got when you hurry around in the scorching heat! However, you don't perceive anything when you're blacked out. But if you're not, or just half-blacked-out, it's really tough to control yourself!" Sunny gazed on my cutie mark several moments long. "I guess, I know what your cutie mark is meant to be!" I wondered, "Really?" "Handling the highest amounts of rain in a cloud. Handling monstrous winds. Handling the most electrifying thunderbolts. It's all about handling the 'big things'. Well, I suppose," she declared. "Hm," I pondered, "maybe that's why I hadn't lost so much rainwater from my cloud?" "You already knew how to do it properly," Sunny tossed in, "step by step, all your actions from seeing suffering ponies in Ponyville till your blackout developed your own cutie mark to its full entity. Your cutie mark is determined. Once you reach certain steps, for example, that you already know how to move a more-than-full raincloud to its destination without dropping the load, your level of gaining your cutie mark increases. Other factors might be included as well. Like emotions you received from both suffering ponies and the same ponies being happy. And you were eager and zealous of doing the best you can to excite the ponies and your friends!" Woah, those long long statements of smart Sunny! One time, she could talk like anypony else, and in the next minute, she sounded like a psychologist. However, it was quite funny to see the other faces of my friends. I mean, it’s the first time, they met Sunny Rays and her brilliant speeches! While Springy and I chuckled, Thunderlane was really dumbfounded. "Wha– What the...? Can somepony please translate her?" I expected this reaction from Raindrops as well, but she countered both Sunny and Thunderlane, "I understood everything she said!" Was that a joke? Raindrops never met Sunny Rays before! Even Thunderlane was suspicious about it, and countered back, "Yeah? Can you translate that for me?" Raindrops grinned in a strange manner, "Sure! She said, Medley already had the knowledge of moving H2O—" "Okay, never mind!" Thunderlane finished his talk and grumbled. Now everypony’s chuckled so lovely! Except for Thunderlane of course. After we all chuckled our lungs out, I started to remember one thing: Raindrops once had a talk with Sunny, after Raindrops meanly shouted poor Sunny for nothing, a long time ago. All the little issue about dragging Sunny as my flying-judge and Raindrops, who was first mad at Sunny for shrieking her, then at me for having this weird idea and having no trust in my friends. "Speaking of H2O, I’m really looking forward to our next topic! A few days, then we’ll be able to control the machines in the Weather Factory!" Raindrops happily announced, "Far better than crafting. Oh how I still hate crafting!" "I still offer you my help," Springy put in, "crafting can be such a fun!" "Yeah yeah, but to control the weather sounds," Raindrops thought a little bit, "I don’t know. To control the weather sounds really... good!" "Let me guess," Springy leaned herself to Raindrops, "you saw Medley moving the giant raincloud that she created, right? It really amazed you, right?" "A bit. But before that, I found weather things far better than crafting. Maybe, because I really hated crafting for my poor skills, and now I’m happier than ever when I can roam in the sky, let it rain or let the sun shine if you want." "You… twitch?" Springy noticed and pointed to her tail. "What? Me? No!" Raindrops rapidly denied. Her answer was as fast as a sonic rainboom! I watched her tail. Springy was right, her tail really twitched back and forth like a little quake. I remembered, Raindrops told me about a twitching tail. If I remember it correctly, it was in the Cloudeseum in the Best Young Flyer Competition where I had failed miserably, but I didn’t know anymore what it meant. "Aaand you blush!" Thunderlane added. Raindrops quickly turned her head to Thunderlane and shouted with a angry face, "Where do I blush, huh?" "But your cheeks have glowed so red!" he defended. I didn’t know, if it was too late, or Thunderlane was hallucinating. I was first focused on her tail, then focused on her face. I haven’t seen a blush. I looked to Springy in wonder. She looked back to me, smiled, and said, "You young happy mare!" I was confused. Either Raindrops really blushed for something, and she covered it well, or everypony in this round made fun of her. "What’s the blushing all about?" I looked to Raindrops and Springy alternately. "Was she ashamed of something?" Springy laughed, "Oh Medley! Raindrops was as red as a tomato! Haven’t you seen it? But her tail twitching was even funnier!" "Put on your glasses, Springy!" Raindrops snapped at the bright green pegasus pony, "My face was yellow all the time! And my tail did not twitch!" Springy laughed even more, while I was still perplexed. I shrugged and demanded, "Would anypony please tell me, what’s going on?" "Save that for later!" Springy suggested me and looked both to me and Raindrops. I still didn’t knew what was going on here! She added, "Now, something toootally different!" Her sister chuckled when she had changed the topic. How mean of her to change the subject, and leaving me and Raindrops uninformed! I’ll find out for sure! And the new topic was… silence! Springy found no topic to talk about. “Hmm… anything you want to tell? Thunderlane?” Thunderlane stared at Springy and shook his head. Raindrops was still a little bit mad at her, but sighed. "Fine. Now’s the time!” Her sigh sounded like a confession about to start, so everypony in this round quickly turned to Raindrops. “My brother joined the Best Young Flyer Competition," Raindrops abruptly raised her voice like she was in the victimhood, "he’s pretty mean to me! I wanted to take part, because I wanted to do some tricks in the air! Now he took away my chance!" I asked, "There are still some places left, right?" Raindrops shook her head, "No. Only one of us. We belong to the same family. Twins are excluded. Twins may take part if they want. I was too late." Raindrops lowered her head and looked to us sadly. Poor Raindrops! I leaned my head to her, "Come on, Raindrops!" "Oh Sweetie," she responded, "he was so mean!" I just snuggled her and gave her a slight kiss to comfort her. That’s how I learned! You usually nuzzled somepony to comfort or to compliment for something. I couldn’t understand why Thunderlane just dropped his jaw, and both Springy and Sunny stared with a wide-open smile? "What’s the matter?" I asked them. "No nothing," Springy first blocked with both of her hooves then pointed with one of her hooves, "but your marefriend seems to love it!" I turned my head to Raindrops. She sank her head to my chest with her eyes closed and there was a little teardrop running out of her eye. Odd enough, I didn’t really notice the teardrop. More, I wanted to wake up Raindrops. I mean, she closed her eyes, using my body like a pillow? That must be one thing – she fell asleep! I needed to wake her up and shook her entire body! "Raindrops, don’t sleep! It’s not even midnight, and you always want a nap!" Raindrops startled. Her head bustled and her body bustled as well but in the opposite direction. She bustled like a puppet with invisible strings! What made Springy and Sunny laugh pretty loud. Thunderlane was still baffled. He only shut and opened his eyes a bit. Raindrops caught herself after some time and asked, "What the hay happened?" I answered, "You slept. I woke you up." Springy began to laugh again loudly, which I easily ignored. Raindrops looked around herself and grimaced. "Oww. Riiight. I- I feel asleep. Right I feel asleep!" Odd. Why this spooky grimace, and why the strange answer? I couldn’t think about it any further, because Raindrops cut my thoughts off. "Medley! How about, you gonna participate?" "Participate for what?" I wondered. "The next Best Young Flyer Competition! You already took part. I’d love to see you there!" "I don’t really want to," I insisted, "because last time, it really hurt me." "Last time was one and a half year! You’ve grown up! This time you can beat them!" "Last time was one and a half year! You told me that as well. At that time I died in sadness," I countered. "Nooo. This time won’t happen!" she said and wrapped a wing around me. Hay! It was the first time, a pony could wrap its entire wing around my body! I looked to my other shoulder where I saw her yellow wing tip. It felt nice to be wrapped completely by a soft and cuddly wing! Wings were really cuddly for me. When I was a little filly, I always cuddled under or on my mother’s wings! I focused to her face again. "Why do you think so?" "Medley," she took my hoof and looked me deep in my eyes, "I really wanted to join in. M-my brother stole my chance." She now began to sob. "He’s so mean. H-he said mean things like I should’ve come earlier, t-that I was too late, bad luck, next time, that it was my fault." Ow. I never knew, her brother was mean to her. I knew, she had a brother, she even had two brothers. Her one brother is two years older, and her older brother already moved out from home and made a career in the military. So she was the youngest in the family. Being the youngest could be really tough! "I want you to take part! Do it for me!" she solicited me with a heart-stung voice, and with flattened ears and watered eyes, she continued, "He took away my chance!" I looked to the others in our sleep-over session. Sunny copied her flattened ears and looked down to the ground. Great! A sleep-over with troubles and worries! At Springy’s! Speaking of Springy, she tried to say something, but pondered over and over. Thunderlane sure had no idea what we were talking about. I could easily ignore him. But I couldn’t ignore the others. Their frowny looks made me pensive. I hated to see them so cheerless. So unhappy. So doleful. Oh there were so many words to describe just one feeling there was in the air. Suddenly, somepony leaned on my chest. It was Raindrops again. But this time, she wasn’t sleepy. She whimpered – this whole thing must have really hurt her! I suppose, this whole competition thing meant so much to her. Raindrops commented, "Damn! Oh really damn! Now I have to wait sooo long again!" "I must ask you something!" I leaned my own head just on her soft mane, and not on her own head. To feel and stroke my ear through her soft blue mane. Alternately I switched between cuddling through her mane with my ears and my snout. After some time of calming down the situation, I carried on asking my question. "Why is it so important for you?" "When you made your show back then, it really amazed me. Not just your performance. The whole competition was just amazing." She winced and corrected, "To be honest, it was your performance. I loved to see you flying through the air. You amazed me. I was marveled at you. And I really loved to be at your side with Springy." She paused and took a breath. "So I wanted to try it out. Last year should be the first time. But I totally missed the deadline. Ow, that was a lesson for life! I wasn’t really that mad, because well… apples happens!" She slowly regained herself. "This time should be the first time. A week ago, I went to the registration. So I could get the special ticket and take part." She paused again. I guess, this was all too much for her. After some moments, Raindrops finally continued, where she let out a loud noise, "PAH! They told me, my brother already subscribed. I couldn’t participate anymore!" She became angrier and continued, "Isn’t it ironic? The pony behind the counter offered me a free ticket for the Best Young Flyer Competition next May! With me and my family! I really lost my temper so bad! I literally wanted to kill this pony!" "And then?" I asked her softly, still stroking through her mane with my head. "My brother taunted me badly over the last week. He found out, I wanted to compete in the Best Young Flyer Competition. I was really," she enraged while some left tears flew out of her eyes, "pissed off! He made that on purpose! Damn bastard—" "Shhhh!" I interrupted her before the sleep-over turned out into a swearing contest. Raindrops gnarled but then relented. "However, the days after were really depressive for me. At least, I hid my sorrow perfectly," Raindrops sighed a bit, "luckily, a day like this happened." "Why that?" Springy asked in curiosity. "First, I couldn’t have hidden it any longer. Bottling my sorrow up for days, weeks, months, would’ve cankered me for sure. Second, I had a deep pain very deep inside of me. That’s why I almost cried when I lost my food today." I tilted my head into a more straight position and looked to Raindrops from a slightly higher view. I noticed a long time ago, she really wasn’t a pony, who cried and sobbed for little things like losing your own food. Springy or me, for example, were just fine with swearing, though I hated to swear. Now that I knew, Raindrops was worried deep inside, it was no wonder anymore. Her inner feelings were scrambled. "I did good, right?" Raindrops put in. "What do you mean?" Springy asked. "I kept it good. I hid it good. Right? No one saw it, it really bugged me." All of us nodded reluctantly. "Anyways," she continued, "this was really a special day. Not just for you, but also for me. Your efforts made my heart smile again. It was a warm feeling for me when you made all the ponies in Ponyville cheer." Phew, so many compliments by one mare. By one of my closest friends. I wonder how I could take so many compliments. I kept on listening. "I recognized something when you made both the ponies and my heart happy. I recognized something for the future." All of us were really silent. After a little break, she continued again and pressed her head to my direction, so my strokes and my comfort was more intensive, "If you can make hearts shine again, like mine, you will do it one more time! This time, it won’t last very long, but if you enter this competition, you would heal my wounds for good!" "But what about your brother?" Thanks to Springy, I could focus on comforting pity Raindrops, instead of asking questions. She let go and looked me into my eyes with a confident look. "Beat him, Medley! Beat him for good! He stole my chance." I sighed. I guess there was no other way… ~ ~ ~ Author's Note Pre-Reader - UnKnownSalvation. Many many thanks!
Chapter I - The Weather Pony and the Wings of an Angel"Wake up... wake up... wake up my darling!" I opened my eyes, when I heard the calm voice of a well-known pony. "Mmmmmh, Mooom! Five more minutes, pwease! It's so early in the morning!" I just turned around, so the light wouldn't catch my eyes. "But darling, today it's your birthday, and—" "BIRTHDAY?" Suddenly my face went from all tired and stuff to grinning from ear to ear. "Birthday? Wohooo! You haven't forget it!" "I wouldn't forget the birthday of my little lady," my mother replied, when she offered me a big hug. Of course, I couldn't resist that one special hug, when a mother congratulated to your birthday. "Happy Birthday my little darling." I tried the best I could to squeeze my mom really hard. It was such a joyful feeling for me. "Looooove ya, mommy". "Hey, darling! If you're going to squeeze me that hard, how can I give you your very special birthday present?" My mom kept on talking, with a laughing smile on her face. "You're about to break my bones!" I let her go. First, I had to realize, what my mom told me. Then I asked her quietly, "You said, you have a very special present for me?" "A very special one, my little shwoopsie!" Now I couldn't control myself. "Yaay! Whatisit whatisit whatisit what is it?" "Oh darling, you'll have to wait until evening when your dad comes from work, and—" "Oooaah, that's not fair!" I interrupted my mother sadfully. "Oh come on! You first need to go to school. Then you can bring your friends too, so they'll see your special present." As positive as these words was, to cheer me up, this wasn't a comfortable way. "School sucks!" The 28th January was a tuesday back on that day, so I was really in a rather bad mood for waiting for my very special birthday present. "Today, I have so much school! Until afternoon. I don't want to wait!" My mother stared silently at me. "Well. If you don't want to wait, then there'll be no cake on the table. No cake with strawberries and chocolate. Too bad, I have to throw away this beautiful cake." "Noooo! Don't tease me, pwease! Pwease, I can wait for my birthday present!" Mom obviously knew how to change my mind. I mean, hay, it's my mom! Tell me one pony who knows an impulsive young filly like me better than my own parents? Especially my mom? So it's no wonder she had her little tricks to make a want-it-need-it-filly turn quiet and patient. "Well... in that case... let's head down to have some breakfast!" As she noticed my still messy hair from getting up at such an early time – though the sun already rose up a bit – she added, "But first you need to hit the bathroom!" I did so. I managed myself to make my mane. My mane is something special, because it had a very very rare color. A blueish-green color to be exact, some ponies say 'teal' to it. Everytime, before going to bed, I used to straighten my mane with a special brush. The result after the nights was somewhat funny: all messy and stuff, and unexplainable random. Seems like I always dreamed of wild adventures? I couldn't remember it, though. Luckily, getting the unique curls of my mane was an easy thing. I always loved the curls in my mane, especially in my tail. Her mane was different from mine. Her ice blue, straight mane, never needed any products. Just a simple brush. No extras like curls or pigtails, meant no intensive caring. When I'd finished my bathroom stuff, I headed down to the kitchen to have some breakfast. I rather stumbled across the stairs and the floor in excitement, but I didn’t care. I even stumbled in front of the table, where our breakfast was. Maybe I was still tired and the sudden wake-up left my body still dizzy. As always, I only needed a slice of bread and some butter. No extras like salad or crunchy flowers. When I'd finished breakfast, Mom trotted next to me. She didn't hesitate, in fact, she took one of my hooves and gave me a golden key. "You'll need this, but now, go to school! Love ya." Mom gave me a nuzzle. So I went to my school that was located in the middle of Cloudsdale. You wouldn't find my school, without having a tourist guide. Tiny streets, where just one pegasus pony had enough space to go through, were nearly unflyable for pegasi. And in one of these tiny streets, you could've find my school. With a bit of luck, of course. But the backyard of this school had one of the most beautiful playgrounds ever. Colorful slides, carousels and swings were placed between beautifully shaped fences and flower-boxes with beautiful flowers from Earth Ponies and even birds came to visit our playground. The classroom was tiny, but comfortable. This classroom had nine tables with seats, the desk of our teacher, the chalkboard, and some important posters for the lessons. Talking about decorations, our classroom was adorned fairly simple. I sat down on my place. The first row on the right. Soon, other fillies trotted in. Two of them were one of my closest friends. "Morning, Raindrops! Morning, Springy!" I waved them a hoof, so they could see me instantly. Raindrops was a yellow pegasus pony with a bright blue mane and bright blue eyes. If you needed an impulsive, pretty spirited pony, Raindrops was the mare for. Springy, on the other hoof, was the nickname of a very bright green pony with a grayish-blue mane and grayish-purple eyes. Only me and Raindrops called her 'Springy', her real name was Spring Skies. "Medley," Raindrops ran over to me, "happy happy happy birthday to you!" Springy followed her and added, "Me too! I wish you a very happy birthday!" The gentle pony flapped with her wings in enthusiasm. I offered them a hug, and we all made a tiny, but cuddly group hug. The three of us were always the first ones in the classroom. The other ones sometimes approached late, even so late, our teacher directly sent them to the principal for being too late. Our teacher is an old mare, and she hates it, when you arrived late. Before the school bell rang, the other six ponies had trotted in. One of these ponies was Rainbow Dash, another two colts were Thunderlane with his best buddy Starburst. Dashie only reminded that I had birthday, the other ones didn't know about it. "Hey Medley! Happy birthday to ya! Whatya got?" "Oh, hey Dashie! Don’t know it yet. I just got a key, and my present will be there when I come home." Dashie was not only a fast flyer, but a fast talker. "Oh, I bet it's gonna be super-awesome! Too bad, I cannot come to your birthday party, to see what it is. I got things to do. So sorry, Med." "It's fine!", I replied. "You—" Our little talk was interrupted when immediately 'Grumpy Granny' – our class teacher – arrived. She was hay of grumpy, no wonder we call her so when she's in absence, but well disciplined. White hair, tiny glasses, wrinkles on her face, the typical old mare from ancient times. Suddenly everypony was quiet and on their seats. Which made the whole day start to become boring. ~ ~ ~ The day was really kinda boring. Outside, there was nothing but cold weather. Luckily the day didn't feel so long, like long school days always were. Raindrops, Springy and I went to my house. Mom told me, I could invite friends if I wanted to. "I cannot wait to see your special birthday present!" said Raindrops, bouncing up and down looking forward to be in my very special birthday guest list. Even Springy was full of joy and added, "This must have something to do with the key, you showed us in the break." Even I literally had question marks in the air, what was all about this mysterious key my mom gave to me. We trotted into my house. The three of us were so excited about the mysterious present, especially me. In the kitchen, was my mom – already awaiting us – and a nice looking stallion in company as well. "Daddy!" I went over to him and hugged him. "Happy Birthday, Meddy!" My dad always called me 'Meddy', while my mom just said 'Darling' to me. It's very nice to have parents like them. "Hello, Miss… uhm…? Hello Miss!" While I was busy hugging my dad, my mom laughed because Raindrops didn’t know her name. "Why, hello Raindrops! You can call me Sprinkle Ice. No need for calling me ‘Miss’. By the way, you two seem very hungry. Why don’t you come into the kitchen?" Both Raindrops and Springy were fascinated by this idea of course. As soon as we all took our seats, mom carried on a huge birthday cake. Like she mentioned it in the morning, the cake had strawberries and chocolate, eleven alighted candles and the number eleven as a candle itself as well. "Okay girls," my mom said, "let's fill our bellies!" "I'm on it!" Raindrops immediately chimed in. Springy raised an eyebrow, when she saw Raindrops promptly shoving a piece of cake in her mouth. "As long as you don't eat up the whole cake, I'm on it too!" "I'll just enjoy it!" I took a piece of cake and slowly enjoyed the taste of strawberry on my tongue. Plus, the cake was filled with delicious cream. What a pleasure. Mom and Dad just watched at us happily. Shortly after eating up the whole cake, Raindrops ate half of the cake, while Springy and I were satisfied with just a quarter, my dad stood up from his seat."'It's time for your very special present, Meddy!" "Yaay!" I happily shouted. "I'm so excited!" "WE'RE so excited!" Raindrops exclaimed. "Sorry, but it’s not your birthday. I'm afraid you have to leave now!" Raindrops, Springy and I dropped our jaws and Mom just grinned in a strange way. "Noooo!" I promptly shouted at him. "Don't make them leave! Oh pwease!" Dad's look was as solid as a rock, and his smile showed no happiness anymore. I collectedly awaited his further reactions when Dad turned his serious, unhappy face to a smiley one. "Gotcha!" "Heeeeey, Mister Daddy of Medley!" Ooooooh, Dad made Raindrops angry. "Listen to me! Don't ever mock us anymore!" I was kinda annoyed as well, but I joined the idea, Raindrops already had in mind. "Girls, you know how we deal with mockers? Ready?" Okay, I was ready. Already ready. "ATTACK!" Raindrops, Springy and I speeded towards him and tackled him gently. "His legs! Watch for his legs!" Springy shouted. "Oh noo, aaargh! Uugh!" Daddy whimpered. I quickly screamed, "Wrestle him down, Raindrops!" And so did the young yellow pegasus mare. She started to learn martial arts called ‘Iron Hoof’, and already practised a few weeks. Good for her, Dad wasn't into fighting things, and Dad quickly fell on the ground. "Now, get me a rope!" spirited Raindrops exclaimed. She always felt like kind of a leader. Suddenly, Mom interrupted all of us. "Okay, enough with the kindergarten games!" She soon added, "What we need is tape! A lot of tape!" Darling, bring the strongest tape you can find!" I joyfully hopped to the basement to get some old gluey tape. And it was the beginning of gleeful party games. We tied up Dad, played family games like 'Twister', and laughed the whole day on. "Geeeez girls, it's way past evening!" "Oh Raindrops, you're right!" I nodded. "And what about your special present?" Dad interrupted us. We totally forgot my birthday present. But I must say, doing fun is a good way to distract little impatient fillies. "Here, open this box. We knew, if we just hid your present, you'd probably find it." Maybe Dad was right. I was a curious little pegasus. "That's why you need this key." I opened the box. To my surprise, there was nothing but two empty cards. "Daaaddy! This is not a very special present!" "Well, then turn the cards around," my mom threw in. A picture of the Wonderbolts, Equestrias most important flying troup, and a picture of the ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia, were printed on the two cards. "Do you know, what this is?" my mom questioned. I shooked my head. "Well, Meddy, your mother and I know, you really love to fly since you were a little filly," Sure, which pegasus disliked flying through the sky? Were they trying to make my present extra special with their speeches? "These are entrance cards for the 'Best Young Flyer Competition' this May." "So... are we going to visit the show?" I asked my parents quite disappointed. "No, darling. We're gonna visit the show, and you may participate in the contest as well! Only 15 young pegasi will have the chance to show how good or how fast they fly!" I was kinda perplexed about this whole thing. Raindrops suddenly cheered up so loud, not even a dragon, finding out he lost his girlfriend, could’ve top her. "Medley, do you even know, what it means? Hay, if you work just a little harder, you might win the competition, and you can call yourself the best young flyer in Equestria!" I must say, I never thought about it how good my flying was or not. I just flew around, like every other pegasus pony did. Was I really that good, though I could never beat Rainbow Dash's speed? Speaking of that, this was definitely one of the things you’d need if you wanted to have a chance to win. Well, I thought so. "I-I'm not sure." When those words were fallen, the faces of my parents dropped into a bit of sadness. But I kept on talking. "Do you all really think, I am a good flyer? I mean, I cannot even reach so much speed to create the legendary sonic rainboom, hardly any pegasi created." Raindrops shooked her head. "No, you don't need to be fast or something. It's not about speed or how many weights you can lift with one wing tip. It's just about how skillful you are with your flying. By the way, what’s a ‘sonic rainboom’?" Springy, actually a really quiet pegasus, joined the discussion. "When you hit the playground, or play along in the sky, you always gracefully fly around. You don't make many loopings or something, and you're not as fast as Dashie, but you do so great. And it looks so fabulous." "Not every pegasus filly can fly that good, darling." The voice of Mom sounded strangely wiseful. "Little pegasi like you still have small wings, which are pretty unmanageable for flying. Only a few pegasi can fly that good in a young age." I was still unsure about if I really was a good flyer. "But what about Rainbow Dash?" "Yes darling, she's a pretty fast flyer. But as mentioned before, speed is not the key to win," my mom said. "Flapping your wings really fast is something every pegasus can do," Springy was trying to give me a wing hug. My mom started to laugh, and carried on: "See, when your little friend is a grown mare, she'll give you a tons of wing hugs. At least she's trying. Speaking of that, most pegasi in this competition are absolute beginners. After all, it's not the Wonderbolts Academy. Just look at them, how much they’re struggling, trying to make a good show and trying to fly around without falling down." "To make it special, Meddy, you are the youngest contestant in the whole group. The oldest ones are 18 or 19. This'll bring you some bonus points." "Indeed," Mom nodded to Daddy's point. "If it helps it, we all believe in you," Springy gently said, "I bet your parents are aware of your flying talent, and in recognition, they bought you these cards. Only parents, who are sure about her daughter or her son, will do this for their little filly." Springy got a good point, but she carried on: "My little sister leaped two classes, because my parents were sure about this thing." Oh yeah, her little sister. Sunny Rays. The yellow young mare with a lavender mane. She was a very intelligent filly. She's one and a half year younger than Springy, but she was pragmatic, and her efforts in school were always excellent. If you need a problem solver or a math genius, you could always count on Sunny Rays. Springy was intelligent too. Maybe it’s in her family. I let myself some time thinking about this situation how much these ponies all relied on to me. I was still unsure of being that talented. But then I turned my head directly to Mom and Dad with a quite baffled stare. Seeing in their faces I kinda imagined, how much my parents were thinking about my own good. Then I felt some water in my eyes. I trotted to my parents directly and threw them a hug, they wouldn't forget. "Thank you! Thank you very much! All of you!" I began to sob and the water flowed. Raindrops encouraged me, "Hey, Sweetie! It's all okay." Instead of trying to give me a wing hug, she just closed her eyes, leaned her head into my mane and gave me a peck on my cheek. We ended the day with Mom bringing Raindrops and Springy back to their homes, while Dad made me to be ready for bed. ~ ~ ~ One day, it must have been on a spring day, I noticed a little colt from the kindergarten flying pretty clumsy around; he even crashed against a wall with his head! Ouch, that must’ve hurt! That reminded me of the all the positive words, my parents and my friends made back on my birthday. So I headed along with Springy and Raindrops on a recess in the backyard of our school a couple of days after. I had a plan. "Come on, lets play with those clouds!" I demanded. "Um... why that?" Raindrops wondered. "To have fun of course. You go first!" "I better stay on the ground," Springy declared. Raindrops was still wondered why I wanted to play with clouds with her. But afterwards she relented. "Okay, fine. I'll fly first." Raindrops had the same flying speed like I had. So it was barely no problem keeping up her pace. We both needed a couple of seconds to the clouds over there. In these seconds, I carefully watched her wings flapping up and down. But I was not entirely sure, what makes her wing movements better or worse than mine. Anyways, Raindrops almost approached the next cloud she could reach, as something popped up very quickly from the cloud. "BOOOOH!" Raindrops quivered from the shriek and tumbled down to the ground. But luckily, I quickly saved her from hitting the ground hard by catching her softly with my back. I mean, this can be very dangerous. If a pegasus pony hits the walkable, solid clouds too hard, this pony just falls through! "Thank you, Medley, but... what... the... hay... was... that...?" Raindrops slowly recovered and a yellow mare with light purple mane landed next to us. "Sunny!" Springy ran over to her in a sudden speed. "Hey sweetie, why are you not in your school?" The little sister of Springy went to another school in Cloudsdale. A school for the more intelligent students. Before giving her a proper answer, Raindrops shouted at her violently at once. "WHAT THE HAY do YOU want from me?" Sunny Rays frowned. Springy and I immediately stepped in with different reasons. For Springy it was clear, because Raindrops shouted at her little, innocent sister. "Chill down, Raindrops. I made her hiding behind that cloud." Kinda dumb idea from me, I know. I met Sunny Rays in her school when I already had school out a couple of days ago. I needed her for a certain purpose. "Oh, well then it's clear." Raindrops voice was incredibly soft. I mean, she outraged Sunny for frightening her, and now the unexpectedly calm voice of the blue-maned pony? "So clear. ARE YOU NUTS? I almost crashed down because of your dumb thing!" She glared at me angrily and asked, "What's that all about?" "Easy-beasy. Sunny is there for a good reason," I tried to calm down. I have to admit, scaring her was maybe not a good idea. Messing with Raindrops, and she’ll messing with you. Raindrops glowered even more. "I just know the reason. Make a fool out of ME?" "Oh don't be so silly. It's not that way, but—" "So even WORSE you mean?" Raindrops interrupted. "Heey," I tried to de-escalate the whole situation. Geez, who knew, Raindrops could outrage like a monster? "Listen to me, please." Sunny Rays shooked her head between to two of us, still paralyzed by Raindrops infuriation, while Springy tried to comfort her little sister. "Remember, when I got the tickets for the Best Young Flyer Contest?" Raindrops just glared at me. "Remember when everyone of you said, I’m like a gifted flyer? I wanted you to fly to the cloud in front of me, so I could see, how your wings were moving. And I needed some neutral support. Sunny watched the two of us from the cloud. I told her to look, how we use our wings. Just that." Oh dear, Sunny now knew about my so-called talent, so I couldn’t hope to get a neutral point of view anymore. "And I told her to scare you, so I could see how you react in such a situation. How you use your wings, and—" "You know THAT was a dumb idea? You could’ve just asked me or us for that?" Raindrops interrupted me once more and increased her voice. "And do you even realize, I would've broken my leg or something if I crashed? All because you wanted to compare my flapping with yours? What are you? Making a fool of me, so you can shine braggy? You know I hate—" "Oh nooo, stop that and listen!" I had to pause her. Sunny and Springy were still unable to talk. So it was just me and Raindrops. "I know, that was a dumb idea scaring you. But I needed somepony, who can judge my flying in comparison with other ponies. It's not about bragging. I'm just so unsure about this whole competition thing." "You're out of your mind!" Raindrops first shooked her head totally quick, then she asked: "Does that mean, you don't trust us anymore? We’re your best friends?" What a couple of nice words... "No. I do trust you. But friends always try to cheer up their friends if you're worried about yourself. So I hired Sunny for that mini-job. If even a pony like Sunny, who hasn't seen me flying around since whatever-time can tell me, I do good at flying, I can be much more sure that I'm made for competing there." "You know, only your best friends will tell you how good you are, because they know you much better, than some unknown background pony?" Oww. My mouth was wide open. Not because she declared it so directly, but calling a pony a 'background pony' can be interpreted as being a VUP, a very unimportant pony. Plus, I saw Sunny Rays already sobbing a bit with some crystal-glittered tears, when she'd heard about the background-pony thing, which stung not only hers, but my inner feelings somehow as well. "Oh please, be fair! What, if everypony tells you, you are such a great flyer, and the truth is, you just flap your wings up and down?" While Raindrops was still mad at me, Springy suddenly stepped in, "Please stop arguing! It displeasures me and my little sis. Do a handshake or something and quickly forget about this!" Oh dear, Springy really hated arguing and stuff. She’s such a nice loveable pony. If she could, she'd stop any wars by just saying some words. She had a smooth and calm voice to fall in love for. Raindrops eyes and mine’s were looking into different directions. None of us spoke a word in the next seconds. A peaceful but eerie silence was on this place. You could even hear some other fillies giggling on the playground far away. I sighed. "Look. All I ever wanted, was a neutral point of view. Nothing more. It didn't mean not to trust you anymore. But I see now, scaring you was a very naive idea. I'm so sorry for that." Raindrops eyes didn't meet mine. She just looked on the ground and shifted her hooves back and forth. "I'll think about that, Medley. Break's almost over. Better go to the classroom now." Oh dear, Raindrops was still mad at me. Raindrops and I hardly changed any words together in the next days. And as long as you didn't bring up the thing between me and Raindrops, you could've had a talk with Springy at least. So I decided to go to Springy's house after school. It was a pretty decent house with a nice garden. But I rather focused on other things. Decorations were not my big interest right now. While Springy went to the kitchen to make some food for her and her little sister, I took a pillow and sat down in the living room. Everything was so quiet here. Her parents were still at work. I didn't exactly know where they worked. Springy always told me, her parents came late, so she must care for herself and her sister. Speaking of that, her sister Sunny Rays was the one, I wanted to talk with. I sneaked away from the living room, and made my way to Sunny's room. I knocked on her door carefully. "Hey, it's me, Medley." I had a faint friendly smile on my face, and Sunny almost stumbled. "Oh-oh, Hi." I watched at her very gently. "May I step in?" "Oh-um, sure." Sunny seemed to be really nervous about my presence. I could think of why. I better not tried to use the name 'Raindrops'. "So, um, how was my flying?" Apathetically she just answered, "Good." Okay, her first encounter with Raindrops really broke her feelings. Plus, without the 'accident', I would've just stepped into her room, asked her how my flying was, got my judge and I'd be happy. Great idea I had. Next time, better place a skunk somewhere. Anyways, how should I receive a fair judge now? I mean, Sunny might not be that impartial anymore, since the whole thing. Raindrops shouted at her, and she finally knew, I needed her for judgement support. "Look, I know what's happened there. But don't be afraid of that. I'm going to sort things out." But first things first. The flying issue was more important than the one with Raindrops. I took another pillow and placed myself right next to the shy pony. "Please Sunny, can you tell me, why my flying is so good?" Sunny sighed and her next phrase really blowed my mind. "Bearing in mind you are an eleven year old pegasus filly that usually cannot have highly developed flying abilities, your own flying abilities matches a fairly close utopistic state of having best-developed flying skills, which only adult pegasus ponies can ripen after extensive workouts approximately. Your acceleration is bad due to the tiny surface of your little wings in addition to a wrong wing angle, what makes Rainbow Dash fly blisteringly fast due to her nearly-perfect use of the wing angle of 57 degrees plus wing-training with weights to power them up. On the other hoof, she lacks in patience which might make the flap of both wings synchrone, but asynchrone in up-and-down movements. The last wingbeat of every cycle of her is unaesthetically in many ways, in comparison to yours, due to being anxious for gaining the highest speed. Your lack of wanting a quick achievement of high-speed gives your wings time to unfold themselves. Moreover, the anti-gravitational hover after a complete wingbeat brings up a constant up-and-down movement of your whole body." Woah! And she’s such a young filly! I dropped my jaw in astonishment. Not only her expressions were awesome, her apathetic unmelodic way to tell you things was awesome too. Awesome in a sad way, though. But she's really a very bright pony using sophisticated words and stuff that’d really blow somepony’s mind. Fortunately, I understood half of things she wanted to say. I shooked my head to clear my mind. "So, you mean... um... I move my wings quite good for a young mare like me?" "Precisely." Oh dear, her hollow kind of talk just affrighted me. I heard a voice from downstairs. "Sis, food's ready!" We both went to the kitchen and had some meal. ~ ~ ~ Things between me and Raindrops slowly got better. We still hardly had any conversations, but the longer we left alone each other, the better it was. I kept that pace and in a couple of days, we could laugh and have fun like we did a couple of weeks ago. Well, I hoped so. Stupid naive thinking – I know – but what do you expect from a filly like me? The weeks passed by. Three days before the Best Young Flyer Competition, all of the contestants were guided through the area. Just to know where things are, and when it is opened for training sessions, what's important and stuff. Most of the time, I didn't listen. In fact, I was just amazed by the enormous Cloudeseum. The view is just hilarious. As part of the audience, it just looked like a normal stadium. But flying high above the place, the view down to earth is amazing. A big big big chunk of solid cloud, beautifully shaped with columns and arcs and stuff, and in the middle there's a hole, where you could fall into like 3 or 4 miles deep. I've heard, only the bravest ponies fly that high without having fear. As a young flyer, it made it harder to concentrate to fly or your performance when you had to look into the hole down to earth from a certain height. The hole was made for psychologic reasons to intimidate the contestants a little bit. Looking to the tribunes made you have a comfortable performance a little bit, but once you looked into the hole… Fortunately, if a young pegasus was about to fall into death due to reasons, either some guards or even the Wonderbolts would rescue you. But this was a rare case. One problem was: What should I perform? After returning back from the Cloudeseum, I met Raindrops and Springy. Over the weeks, Raindrops and I had an okay situation, though it still wasn't like... you know... the time before my dumb idea. Hoping for better times, I began my talk to Raindrops directly. "Geez! The sight was so awesome! Too bad, you two can't participate. Then you could see it with your own eyes." "I can imagine," Raindrops smiled slightly. Springy asked instead, "Are you nervous about the big day?" Being nervous could've become a problem, though, but I had a bigger problem. "Well, I'm not afraid of being on stage that much. I'm afraid, I still don't have any clue, what to perform." "No ideas?" Raindrops was quite shocked about this situation. "Medley, you had sooo much time. Three and a half months. And you still don't know what to perform?" Yes, she was right. "You haven't even considered about some barrel rolls or loopings or flying through narrow rings?" she continued. Acrobatic things like barrel rolls were not a big thing for me. I concerned, "Well, I'm not that creative when thinking about tricks or shows. I sure won't just fly around. The audience, and especially Princess Celestia and the Wonderbolts all expect a good show from me." Now I'm directly confronted by this problem. And the more I considered about it, the more it sorrowed me. I kept on talking with a blurry almost sobby voice, putting my head into my hooves: "Aaah! I badly need an idea!" Raindrops comforted me: "Ah come on, Sweetie!" Woah, this has been the first time she called me 'Sweetie' since our big wrangle. "What's important now, how we're gonna get some good ideas. And i know just the mare for!" Raindrops turned her head to Springy, who was very quiet like all the time. "YOU!" "What? Me?" Raindrops shifted her leg around her neck, and dragged Springy next to herself. "Yes, you!" Judging from the look, Springy was slightly confused. Raindrops pointed her hoof to Springy’s chest. "Your little sister has a lot of bright ideas. Let's head to her!" I intervened, "Sunny?" Raindrops eyes opened widely after my reaction. "Oooooh yeah. A few weeks ago, I worried myself about Sunny Rays, and how I shouted at her. I went over to her, and apologized for what I have done. It wasn't really fair from me shouting at her without any reasons." My inner senses alarmed me, when the topic of Sunny had started. Better count the seconds till the topic changed to our little escalation. "By the way," Great, now here was the fun part. Really great. "I shouldn't have shouted at you, when we had our little 'crash'. Good friends don't do such things. Good friends talk about it." She waved her hoof to Springy and continued, "Springy suggested me for an apologize. And she suggested me for—" Raindrops paused and looked back to Springy like her face was a piece of paper where you could look up what you’ve written. "Oh right! Reconsidering about my behaviours." Springy just giggled about her last comment. "You’ve memorized it well!" Ooookay, now I haven't expected that. I looked in her bright blue eyes. I don't know, but... I felt like she really cared for our friendly relationship. I mean, we've been friends now since a couple of years. When I'd first graduated in school, Raindrops sat next to me, and she was all nice and stuff. We played together in the backyard, shaped some clouds, kicked them, etc. Just what every pegasus filly did. And when Springy came the next year, the bond of our friendship became stronger than ever. By the look in her eyes, I realized, the apology was kinda important for her. You could see a light sad look in her eyes. "Hey gorgeous, of course I can forgive you. After the things, I did to you, and my stupid ideas and—" Raindrops shoved her hoof on my mouth to stop my blabber. "Do it easy. Let's forget it. Okay?" The next thing was a quite unknown phenomenon for me, when Raindrops shifted away her hoof and suddenly kissed me on my lips. This was a strange but very nice gesture, and I wished I could’ve hold it longer. Must be a kiss of appeasement or something. Springy just smiled at the both of us. "And now, let's head to Sunny Rays!" Raindrops said. Springy and I both agreed, "Fine!" We headed to Springys house. Raindrops chewed on a pencil, Springy laid on the floor staring to the ceiling and Sunny and I just looked at each other in uncreativeness. We went there for a couple of hours. "Hmmmm.... Hmmm... GEEZ, who knew, thinking about performances could've been so hard?" Raindrops screamed. All of us were jumped in fear, like a huge timberwolf would've come to eat us. "Oops, my bad." Raindrops grinned. "I need i need i need a good idea!", my voice frowned when saying that. "Hey, Sunny Rays, you got any ideas?" She seemed to be so much distracted by thinking about ideas, she just hadn't heard Raindrops. "Sunny Rays? Are you deaf?" "Huh, what? Oow." Sunny Rays realized, she deepened her mind too much. "I can tell you a dozen of ideas, but all of these ideas require a certain skill of athletics or acrobatics to do well. And we have no time anymore to drill Medley like a professional acrobat." I instantly put my hooves on my head and said, "Face it, I failed." "We won't let you down Medley," Springy softly chimed in, "we only need to find a way." Raindrops reminded me: "Hey, you told me about the beautiful view, you had." I nodded to her point. "Just tell me. Are you afraid of the hole, you told us?" Judging from my friends, and Sunny of course, I might really have the potential for being a good flyer. So, after all, I could've let me fall towards the hole without making sorrows. "I don't really think so. After all, you guys all count on me. You all think, I am a great flyer. Why shall I fear?" "Confidence," Sunny Rays stepped in, "your confidence reached a higher level by us, who can give you moral safety and support. That's a good base. Without confidence, you won't even succeed. You got the confidence to make a good performance, and we just need the ideas for a good performance." We kept on thinking about good stuff for the competition, though the day was almost over. The next day, Raindrops and Springy accompanied me to the Cloudeseum. Two last days for preparing. For barrel rolls or something, you needed too much time. Barrel rolls are not a bunch of spin-arounds. You need much more flying experience. And what I heard from making barrel rolls, you'd rather lose than rule, cause only a few pegasi were experienced enough to do barrel rolls. Springy placed some rings. "A little bit left... A little bit left, okay perfect!" commanded Raindrops. "Look, Medley!" She wrapped a hoof around me, and we flew to a certain height. "Look down sweetie!" I did so. I saw a bunch of rings one behind another. And in the end, you could see the big hole. "You just gain some speed, fly through the cloudy rings, and either you rapidly change your direction or just fly through the hole, and you come back from anywhere." Sounded like a plan. "I had that idea over night," Raindrops mentioned. I have to admit, I was kinda afraid. But since the little nuzzle on my nose, I've developed some kind of faith in her. I mean, you usually trust your friends. But that was some kind of very deep faith. I hugged Raindrops like there was no tomorrow. "Mmmmust.... freee.... mysssselllf... Uargh. Medley, no need to thank—" I interrupted her again by giving her another big hug and smiled, "Aaaah, Thanks! Thank you," I continued, "I love it to be your friend; I love it so much!" Raindrops freed herself from my tight hug and sighed, "Oh sweetie, of course, I'm always there for my friends." We both hugged each other again. After that, Raindrops went on to her business. "And now, let's have some practise!" The practise went very well. Fortunately, other contestants were either outside the Cloudeseum to practice, or just used a tiny space inside the Cloudeseum for their training. That gave us plenty of space to do our trick. My little fears disappeared more and more, when speeding through the rings. Springy watched the time until I passed the last cloud ring. "5.75 seconds. And this time without touching your wings against the rings." Sure, this was a tough thing. The rings were really narrow, and the more speed you gained, the harder it becomes to fly exactly in the middle of the ring. If the judges see some cloud material bursting off of the rings, they would've given you negative score. Bursting cloud material was a clear sign, a pony touched the rings or barricades, or whatever a pony needed for the show. "I think, you did great," Springy announced. Raindrops nodded in agreement. "Tomorrow, we can work for that sharp boomerang back to the stage." We just worked on flying through the rings. Raindrops' boomerang idea about flying abruptly back after I passed the last cloud ring was a thing, we still had to practise. We ended this day with some more flying-through-the-rings stuff. "Do a fighter stance, after you've returned!" My coach Raindrops had some more ideas over the night to improve our show. Yes, it was called 'our show' now, as Springy is allowed to place the rings in the contest, while Raindrops should guide her. It'd been the last day before the Best Young Flyer Competition was about to start. We tried the 'boomerang', but it tended to be more complicated, than it was. I attempted to return back as quickly as possible, but in the end, I always had to turn back around the Cloudeseum the last four or five times. I mean, it was not forbidden. You could've used the whole sky if you wanted to. As long as the Wonderbolts or Princess Celestia can watch you with their eagle eyes, there was no problem. But I'd rather be in within the Cloudeseum, as the crowd would be much more excited about it. "Reduce your speed! It's not a race after all!" Raindrops corrected. "Don't accelerate too much!" I wondered how many times, I flew through the rings. Must be about 50 or 60 times until the preparations were over. We eventually placed a sixth ring, but just for testing reasons. For the contest, we agreed to place five rings, and nothing should change about it. Though, a sixth ring would be pretty too. We just had one problem. I still have troubles with the boomerang. ~ ~ ~ "Attention Contestants! Please stand in line for the registration!" Okay, that was the signal. Today, the Best Young Flyer Contest was about to begin. Just a little check-in, grab a tag number, and be ready for some rumble. "Awesome! Just awesome!" Raindrops was even more excited than me. "Geez, take a breath. You know who's participating?" I chimed in. "Right right, but the ambience here is just hilarious." Springy nodded for her statement. "Aaaand just look at the crowd!" We saw the whole audience in the Cloudeseum. This place can carry 1,700 pegasi! The tribunes were full. Everypony cheered so loud, I couldn't even hear my own words anymore. "What did you all say?" "Next one... NEXT ONE!" I became deaf somehow. "Me? Oh, right." "Name?" This old lady just sounded like she was from the military or something. To be honest, I don't like such persons. All the authority was not a thing for me, and I felt sorry when I heard of ponies getting drilled very hard by some drill sergeants. She reminded my of our Grumpy Granny. "My name's Medley!" "Medley, Medleymedley... Medley? Oh here! All right, your number is four!" Aaargh, one of the beginners. Not a good sign. That meant, eleven others could do a better job than me. The old lady from the check-in also mentioned, "I see, you're the youngest of all the contestants. Eleven sweet years. Better do a good job, Miss Littlewing!" Miss Littlewing? Did she just say Miss Littlewing? How mean! "I'm so ready, you'll regret it calling me Miss Littlewing!" "Yeah whatever," the old lady announced, "NEXT ONE!" Raindrops found a good thing to tease me a little bit. "Number 4, Miss Littlewing! On the stage!" Springy began to laugh, while I facehoofed her. "Hey, don't start such things! Everypony will see how amazing my tricks will be!" Raindrops slowed down a bit: "Hey, don't be too over-confident! You know, that's not how a pony's gonna handle it." Raindrops was right. I became a little bit too braggy in the last time. Better slow down my emotions. 15 Minutes till the competition started. I was tensed. Really tensed. My goal was, to make the best, and to amaze all the ponies out there. Young and old. Especially Raindrops, Springy and Sunny, Mom and Dad. Five ponies believed in me. Five ponies relied on my flying techniques. Five ponies thought, I could make it. I can't disappoint them. I mustn't! A few minutes after, the old lady from a couple of minutes ago entered the waiting hall, where all of the contestants plus their assistants were waiting for their show. "Okay, Number 1! Get ready!" Meanwhile, the opening ceremony has already begun with loud music like a dozen of fanfares and trumpets. Raindrops chuckled, "Hey Medley. Are you nervous?" Why did she stared so strange to me? Her eyes were half-closed, like she was trying to seduce me. "No! I'm not!" I yelled back and showed her my tongue. But I had to admit, my inner emotions changed from being tensed to being nervous. But it was better to hide it. Raindrops instead put one hoof over both of her eyes, like she was spying somepony. "Then why does you body twitch? Or have you seen a cute stallion or a cute mare out there?" Actually, I wanted to facehoof her for her strange thinking. That idea... eww. "I'm not twitching! It's breezy!" Bad excuse, I know. "Breezy, huh? Springy," Raindrops asked to provocate, "is it breezy here?" "Oh come on, Raindrops!" Good thing, when you have a party pooper like Springy. Technically. "We all know she fears the speed and the hole, and the blamage she'll get." I buried my face. "Aaargh, Giiiirls!" "Okay, Number 1! On the stage, NOW!" Still a little bit mad about Springy and Raindrops teasing me, the strict voice of the old lady cleared my mind. And this whole contest thing went quicker, than I thought. Too quick for me. Geez, in a few minutes, Springy and Raindrops must go out there placing the rings, while I had to prepare myself for the flight of my life. "Number 2! Number 2? You're next! Get ready!" The first contestant was really miserable. The young colt tried three loopings, but crashed when he had to fly through one ring. Feeling dizzy of the crash, a voice from the megaphones commented to him: "Baaaad luck! We hope he's well." Geeez, no 30 seconds and the second contestant already was off stage. "Number 3, you’re next! Get ready!" So this meant, I was the next to get ready. A slight twitch from my legs pointed a bit of nervousness, I never wanted to show. "Are you okay, Medley?" That sweet voice was the thing, I really needed now! I don't know, her voice was just... like you were safe in one's hooves. Springy was a gentle pony – that's what made her stand out! Such gentle ponies, like Spring Skies, were able to handle any emotions of anypony pretty well, and they always had the right answer for your sorrows. "You'll do it," Springy comforted me and leaned her head on mine. I swear, I could smell some blueberries coming from her silky mane! Fortunately, I could hold this feeling a bit longer, because the second contestant and her assistant needed more time. This gentle feeling somehow helped me, and my nervousness disappeared more and more. And when talking about nice things, Raindrops joined the two of us, and wrapped her hooves around my neck to give me a tight hug. We all closed our eyes for about a couple of minutes. "HEY! You're number 4! You should be on stage now!" Oh no, that group hug was so nice! We really haven't noticed the contestants anymore. And now, the audience is waiting for the three of us. Loud music came from the megaphones. Only a few ponies in the audience looked to us, as we haven’t even prepared the course. Springy catched the five rings we needed, while Raindrops was in charge for positioning in the right manner. The both of them needed a minute, so I flew very slowly to my starting position. While Raindrops and Springy were still busy about placing the rings, I observed the full tribunes. Okay, Sunny Rays was here. And I’m not sure about it, but I saw at least Dashie’s father. Too bad, Dashie was not here to cheer me up. Continuing with my observations, I spotted two very well-known faces. I waved a hoof and yelled, "Mooooom! Daaaaad!" Both of them immediately waved back to me, because they’ve already awaited me. I have seen a smile on their faces, what made me smile. I watched down to Springy and Raindrops again. Still, the track was not finished. So I looked over to the Wonderbolts. One of them was Fleetfood. I knew her, because she visited our class last year telling us all about the Wonderbolts, the hard training and their risky, speedy tricks in the air. Dashie was really crazy about that stuff. I was not really interested in that, though it was pretty nice to see a member of the glorious Wonderbolts just a mere hooves away. Obviously, Fleetfood and the two other Wonderbolts were in a discussion, so they didn’t notice me at all. Even Celestia was rather distracted by one of her followers, because there was nothing to perform yet. After a couple of seconds, Raindrops and Springy finally managed to place the rings. Raindrops gave the signal, so my show can begin. Again, loud music came from the megaphones. If I danced in the air or something, we would have some relaxed, beautiful music. But this wasn’t the case. Now, everypony looked upon to me. Especially Mom and Dad, even Celestia and the Wonderbolts. For about half a second, I indirectly looked to Celestia. Her eyes suddenly just stared at me, like she was trying search or analyze me. The Wonderbolts were no thing to deal with, because I couldn’t look into their flying goggles. I took a very deep breath. I was focused. I wanted to do it best. I flapped with my wings three or four times, until I reached an acceptable velocity. Six seconds were an okay time. I passed the first ring without any problems. Even the second and the third ring were no problem for me. Continuing with having no problems, I managed the fourth ring. Now the fifth and last ring was a tough one, because I desperately wanted to make that boomerang. As soon as I passed the last ring, I tried to turn back immediately. All of the attempts of the boomerang in the preparation were a failure. But to my surprise, I succeeded to turn back this time. Promptly, after I faced the matter of fact that I created the boomerang successfully, and after I was in the direction back to stage, I quickly accelerated to the middle of the stage. My face smiled, and I was there, hovering in the middle of the Cloudeseum, being applauded and cheered by the crowd. My bad, I almost forgot my pose. But I catched this up, and did my pose. Not a creative one, as it was just raising a hoof up in the air. Raindrops and Springy scampered from behind, and hugged me so tight leaving me in an unbreathable way. Raindrops was the first one screaming her lungs out while she squeezed me to death. She exclaimed in delight for my successful performance. "YEAAHHHH! WOOHOOOOO! YOU DID GREAT!" Springy was not the pony to scream. Though I felt like I was deaf due to Raindrops' pretty strong lungs, I heard Springy say, "You made it, you made it so well!" "THAT WAS SO A-MA-ZING! How does it feel?" I couldn’t stop to grin and I found no words to say. "Can’t picture it, Raindrops. Must tell you later." While Springy cleared up the place for the next contestant, Raindrops put a hoof around me neck, and we joyfully hovered back to the waiting hall. Before I entered the waiting hall, I had turned my head back to Mom and Dad, and waved them happily. They waved back with a huge smile on their faces. What I haven’t noticed were the reactions of Princess Celestia and the Wonderbolts, though. It must have been an hour or so, until the last competitors finished their shows. Some of them were great with really awesome tricks. Two of the last ones completely failed. And everytime, a challenger finished his performance in front of the Wonderbolts, the audience jubilated. "Do you think, I have a chance to win this?" "Medley, you rocked! Better prepare for our princess, cause you showed them all!" Raindrops was quite confident about this situation. Springy on the other side, was even-tempered. "Don’t worry, Medley. They sure loved your performance! After all, if the people knew, you succeeded your last trick—", Springy giggled and winked at me. Before the winner could be presented in the Cloudeseum, we all had to wait for the list one of the jurors would show in the waiting hall, so we can see who was ranked at which position. The minutes passed by, and I hectically waited for. A young, yellow coated pegasus mare with orange mane and a wonderbolt trainee uniform entered the waiting hall. She wore not the suit, like the Wonderbolts did, but the trainee uniform signalized, that she was on to become one of the virtuosic Wonderbolts. The young mare arranged a fairly huge space, so all of us participants wouldn’t run her over, tear down the list or something. "Okay, contestants! Have a look and do NOT cross this line!" A young brown stallion cheered up suddenly. "Yeeee-Haw, I did it, i did it! Yes, baby, yes!" Raindrops and Springy were pretty surprised by this. "I won, I won, I won, Yeaaah!" I shook my head and had a closer look on the list. To my consternation, I found myself not on the top places. Not even a fifth or sixth place. Not even the tenth. I finally found myself on the paper, and it really shocked me. A 12th place. The contestants spread around, while I was still there looking palishly to the list. Raindrops and Springy knew, there was something going on, so they quickly ran next to me. "B-B…I-" Raindrops saw, I couldn’t bring words on my lips. Then she turned her head to the paper. "Medley, Medley where are you?" Springy pointed quickly with her hoof on the paper. "There she is, Raindrops!" Raindrops widened her eyes in shock. I felt such a bitter feeling in my stomach. It felt like butterflies, but instead, those butterflies were about to devour me from inside. A very biting, itchy but empty feeling. I was still paralyzed about the whole thing, even when the three of us, Raindrops and Springy with a hoof behind my back and with worried faces, trotted to Mom and Dad. ~ ~ ~ The next thing I remembered was me crying into my pillow pathetically. "HOO HOO! BOO HOO HOOOO! SNIFF. Oh whyy? Whyy-y-y? SNIFF." While Dad was away, my mom was delirious with sorrow. "Oh darling," she placed her hoof on my back, "there’s no reason to cry." "HOO BOOO HOO HOO HOO! I sooo did my best bu-but SNIFF no one- no one liked me. BOO HOOOOO!" "Nopony dislikes you, darling. Nopony does that." Her words were powerless. My feelings kept on flowing like a waterfall. Never-ending. I was so torn. I hardly perceived, Raindrops and Springy were in my house, to look after me. "May we come in, Miss?" Not even the soft voice of Springy could’ve stopped my tears from falling now. I was really in a bad mood to care for visitors. I wished, I could’ve locked all the doors around me, and cry myself to death. "Sure girls, come in," my Mother said. I lifted my head away from my wetted pillow. I turned my head and saw two ponies – my best friends – with so worried and sad faces. Raindrops pointed to Springy and whispered, "Go on, Springy. You do better in this." Springy stood in front of me and gently put her hoof under my eyes wiping away my tears. "I’m so sorry for this." Raindrops just stared at me sadfully, while my tears carried on running down my cheeks. I turned my head into my pillow again. In that motion, Springy tried to prevent me from crying into my pillow again, "Oh no please don’t—" I pushed her away. "Leave me alone! BOO HOO HOO!" Springy didn’t let up. In fact, she exerted herself even more to make me stop whining. She neared my head very close. I heard her breath. "SHHHH! It’s all okay, Medley." She stroked through my mane comfortingly. Many times. "BOO HOO HOO HOO!" "No need for crying. Don’t let it bother you." "SNIFF Bu-But…" She kissed me on my cheek to console me. Then she said, "For us, you were great. Really great. You made us very happy. You did something, you’ve never done before. Of all the things that could happen, your little trick at the end finally worked the first time. When Raindrops saw that, she was close to tears." I buried my face into my pillow deeper. I really hated to hear about Raindrops and her emotions right now. I mean, I didn’t have that much pillows for two ponies weeping into. I wasn’t even sure whether Raindrops eyes were already watered or not. "SOB Just leave me alone. I’m torn. Really really torn." "We know, Medley. And we all want to be there for you. We all want comfort you. That’s what good friends always do." Springy began to joke a little bit. "Hey, if you want, you can cry into my tail. My tail is very smooth!" I made no reaction to that. Springy, once again, sorrowed for me, "Oh come on, Medley." Springy grabbed me in a different position, so I could literally cry on her shoulder. "Better go you two. She needs to be alone right now." My mom nodded and demanded, "Come on Raindrops. We better leave now." I could hear my mom turn around from the cracking of my wooden floor. Before my mom finally left, she mentioned, "You are a very sensitive pony, Spring Skies. It’s very glad, my daughter has a friend like you." Springy nodded, and cuddled herself on my head. The door was closed. Only Springy and I were on my bed. She still softly comforted me by stroking my mane. "SOB Why me? Why so bad? I told you all, I am a bad flyer." I buried myself deeper on her shoulder. "No, you’re not." She gently kissed on my head. "Medley, sometimes the world is just mean to a pony. We cannot change it, but maybe we can learn from it. Whining is nonsense if you want to change it." We stayed in this position for a couple of minutes. She sat on my bed, while I was leaned on her soft body. None of us spoke a single word, and all I did was sobbing. "You mean so much to me, Medley. Please stop crying now." She shifted one of her hooves on my back and gave me a tight but soft hug to solace me. Her head was still leaning on mine. "I won’t talk, until you cried out all of your tears! I’ll be there until you’ve cried into sleep!" It must’ve been half an hour or something. I calmed down very slowly. And to my surprise, Springy still comforted me by cuddling on my head peacefully. Tears were still running, though. But I didn’t sob anymore. "Why hey there, Medley? How are you?" She looked into my red-eyed teared face. Her eyes moved up and down searching for tears to clean away, and then she kissed me on my forehead. "See? I’m still there for you. We all are. Why don’t you come down to the kitchen, and have some meal? A great flyer like you must eat." "Oh Springy, it’s just so terrible." "I know. But as I said before, don’t let it bother you. It wouldn’t help any of us." I took a deep breath and loudly sighed. "Ma-maybe you’re right." I was stuck on my bed somehow. I wanted to get up, but my body didn’t want to. "Come on, I’ll help you!" She stood up, and reached me a hoof. I gave her one of my hooves, and she pulled me towards her body. Then she softly wrapped a leg around me. "It’s all gonna be okay." She opened the door, and we both went carefully down to the kitchen, where Mom and Raindrops should await us. "There you are, darling!" my mom slightly smiled at me. "H-Hi, Mom." I looked in her eyes, freed myself from Springy, and leaned my head on her body. "You’re hungry, darling? I have crunchy flowers on the table!" "N-No thanks. I’m n-not hungry." I haven’t counted, how many times I stuttered since the whole disaster. My mum instead chuckled, turned her head to Springy and respectfully said, "I knew, I could rely on you, Spring Skies! You made a very well job!" "Hey, Springy, look there!" Raindrops intervened and pointed her hoof to her flank. "Wha- What’s that?" Springy wondered. I looked upon to her to see what was going on. I saw something like a picture on her flank. My eyes were still filled with some water, so it was unclear to see it yet. "Is… is that a…?" Springy wondered. My mother stepped in, "Yes. A cutie mark. Congratulations, Spring Skies!" "Woah," Raindrops astonished, "how did she get that cutie mark?" My mom chuckled: "If a pony discovers its own fate and discovers what the pony is by oneself, a cutie mark will appear on each side of the flanks. It’ll represent what you are." "Sooo complicated." Raindrops rubbed a hoof on her head. "No, it’s easy. You see, her cutie mark is a sun with a white cloud. She’s spreading cheeriness and serenity in a comfort way. A feeling like when ponies clear up the sky to let the sun shine. As you can see the sun and the cloud on her flank." "You know a lot of cutie marks. Tell me more!" Raindrops eyes gleamed. "You see, she comforted my darling and turned her sad face into a slightly happier face. Her inner dark clouds in her head were cleared in less than no time!" "Mommy, will I get a cutie mark too?" I asked her patiently. She was silent first. Then she nodded, "Yes darling. You will." "But, when my true fate is not flying, but something else, how can I find my true fate?" "See, your cutie mark will not just appear if you’re talented in something like flying. It will appear, when you know your own destiny by yourself. Though, it can be linked with something you’re talented to. A pony like you can discover its own destiny. It’s like a zap you get deep inside, when you’ve done something very beautiful." Raindrops put in, "Oh that sounds so beautiful! I must have a cutie mark! Springy, I envy you!" Springy blushed, while I was paralyzed about it. I was not sad, because somepony else got a cutie mark earlier than me. In fact, I was kinda motivated now. At least, it was my ‘fault’ in a positive way of course, and I was kinda proud Springy got her cutie mark. I let off of my mom, and trotted to Springy. My sight became clearer and clearer, and within some time, I faced the true beauty of somepony’s cutie mark. "Congratulations Springy," I commented and began to smile. Raindrops trotted to Springy too, and we both gave her a tight hug. Springy replied with the words: "Thank you, girls. Thank you!" And I knew, what I was up to now. ~ ~ ~ Author's Note Special thanks to: -Chengar Qordath, who guided me and my first steps. -UnKnownSalvation, who pre-readed this chapter.
Chapter II - The Weather Pony and the Melody that CaptivatesThe Diversified Growing-Up of a Simple Weather Pony Chapter II - The Weather Pony and the Melody that Captivates by Bluemeganium ”... so I hope, Mr. Goodair will teach us!” ”Oh no, no way, he's mean! Better, Mrs. Featherclear will be our new teacher!” ”You say that because you think, Mr. Goodair is boring. He's not!” ”Boring, mean, so old, he could be my grampa's grampa, ugly glasses. All the things!” I trotted into our classroom and the first thing I saw was two young mares named Raindrops and Springy arguing about some teachers and who will be the next one. I observed them for a while. It was like a ping-pong-game – Springy and Raindrops exchanged words like ping-pong literally! I just stood there like waiting for yesterday. All the other classmates were already there. Well I have to say, it was the first day of our new school year, but as soon as the days pass by, Dashie and Thunderlane will come late regularly. I gave them two weeks – then either one of them may report their tardiness to the principal. To destroy the wall of blabbering was my next goal. Though, it was quite nice to see Springy in action, blabbering a lot of words, it was time to stop them. ”HEEELLLLOOOO!” Okay, that was too loud, the whole class was wake now. Raindrops and Springy just stared at me. Dashie waved without looking at me and simply said, ”Hey, Med! What you've done in holidays?” She scribbled some things on her desk additionally, but I couldn't figure out what. Thunderlane looked upon me, smiled and waved me a hoof. The others were just impressed how impulsive a filly like me could be in the early morning when you just want to nap for a while. First, I had to reply Dashie before I turned to my friends. ”Hey Dashie! It was a fine holiday! It was really hot, though! My parents and I visited some family members and we helped other pegasi building a cloud house. I went swimming in the pool almost every day, and slacked off!” Well well, thinking back about my last summer holidays was nice. Especially going to the swimming pool, one of our neighbors had, was so enjoyable. Hot weather was not a big thing for me, in fact, I loved hot summer days, even cold winter days. But relaxing in the swimming pool was just like a thousand clouds that carried you softly over the world. ”We were deep into talking. Sorry, Medley!” Raindrops apologized and promptly carried on, ”So you said, you had great holidays? Wait until you hear that, Medley!” ”If I were you, I’d better count how often Raindrops will tell you her story,” Springy smiled, ”she told me her story the fourth time now. Yesterday two times, today two times. And listen very closely! One time, she sailed away with granny, the next time, it was Rainbow Dash!” Raindrops turned her head to Springy and snarled, ”So you’re calling me a liar?” ”Never!” the bright green pegasus pony spoke it out so clearly, you could’ve heard her sarcasm 20,000 miles away. ”Whatever, during the holidays, I sailed on a huuuuge ocean down on earth. It was a huuuge boat, and I went with my parents and Springy was also th—” Springy and I interrupted her simultaneously, ”Not true!” For a good reason – there were two or three days where I spent some time with Springy. One of them was a funny sleep-over together with Sunny. We watched the stars or some fireflies, and told spooky stories about headless horses. ”Besides, you showed me the boat tickets you got, and the photos you made. Just you, and your grandparents. Nothing more.” Springy’s eyes narrowed and she put an eerie smile on her face like she wanted to say ”Gotcha!” in Raindrops' mind. ”Raindrops, you're not a good story-teller!” Springy and I began to laugh about the fact, while Raindrops muttered some things, both of us did not understand. Was there a pony upset? ”Grrrrr....” ”Oh Raindrops,” Springy put a hoof on her head and began to stroke on her mane, ”at least you've tried!” And again, Springy spoke in her sweetest sarcasm. Springy and I began to laugh again, but then we suddenly heard a stomping from outside. We all took our places and were quiet. Grumpy Granny would arrive in a few seconds. I quickly whispered to Raindrops, ”By the way, what were you two arguing about before I trotted in?” ”Some ponies say, we all get a new subject with a new teacher,” she replied, ”and—”. ”Enough! No five minutes of your new school year and you all already behave undisciplined! Fun time is over!” Grumpy Granny trotted in, but to our surprise, she hobbled the way to her desk this time. But hay, she was still like a drill sergeant. ”I'm weak, but I'm still gonna paddle your plots if you don't follow my rules!” We were curious about the thing. Me, Raindrops, Springy, but also the other ones. Rumors have been told about the new subject. And the new teacher of course. After half an hour, Grumpy Granny finally put in the issue about the new subject. ”Okay, now that we're done with our homework, I'll tell you everything you need to know, about your new units of all of your subjects.” She carefully stood up from her seat, grabbed some sheets with her teeth, and distributed them desk for desk. ”These are your subjects for this year! Everything is clear!” ”Miss Seedflare!” Thunderlane intervened after a couple of seconds, ”what is the 'special subject'?” ”Good question, little Thunderlane, now listen up! This afternoon you will all come into the gym, so you can choose between subjects you must visit. There are plenty of subjects for you. The whole school will participate in this. If you don't come, I'll send you to the principal without a word! Got it?” We all replied, ”Yes, Ma'am!” ”Alright then, let's move to our next topic. We'll discuss about the right punctuation!” ~ ~ ~ In the recess, Springy, Raindrops and I took a seat next to a beautiful flower box. ”Look, girls! These gentians look so beautiful, and over there those huge orange gladiolas!” joyful Springy mentioned, walked around the flower box and started to smell on one of the gladiolas. I must say, the flowers around the place were really pretty. When I first visited school, our playground was trashy. No filly ever wanted to play there because it was all rotten and ugly! Another class of our school prettied up the whole place, so it was all like a beautiful garden. Some pegasi flew down to some earth ponies, were teached by the gardeners how to care for flowers, and how to plant seeds. All in all, it was a good piece of work. Some flowers were even fine for me. Like gentians, for example. I loved their deep blue color, and the gentians smelled so nice. ”So, which of the subjects will you choose? Springy?” ”Oh, Raindrops, I still don't know. But I guess chiseling or sculpturing would be fine for me. You know how I love sculpture things out of clay or solid cloud material! Dancing could be nice too, but I'm afraid I have two left hooves.” Raindrops voice raised in excitement and she said, ”If it's something like Iron Hoof, I'll sign up for a thousand years! Medley, what about you?” ”Hm... I must think about it. Painting would be awesome. Or gardening. We'll see it in the gym.” Like Springy, I also didn't know exactly what to choose. ”Gardening, Medley?” Springy stepped in in excitement. ”Awesome! I’ll be your first customer!” Her statement made me feel kinda embarrassed. ”Oh thanks, Springy!” ”By the way, I remember, my little sis also had to choose, but she must visit two subjects. If I remember it correctly, she visits poetics and art. Yeah, poetics definitely, but about the other one, I'm not exactly sure.” Raindrops shoved her sandwich in her mouth. As always, she spoke with a full mouth, leaving crumbs and food all over the table. And all over me. ”Mmmh, guwws, didw wealize?—” ”Raindrops, don't talk with your mouth full!” I was annoyed about the crumbs in my mane, and Springy couldn't hold out a chuckle. I turned my head to Springy half-way. ”And you! Don't hesitate. Show us your best laughter!” ”I'm sorry, Medley, but you look too funny with the crumbs in your mane. Hihi. Like snowflakes!” Annoyed about this situation, I shook my head impetuously to get rid off all of the crumbs in my mane. I could swear, I also saw a big piece of salad flying on the table! Too bad, I aimed not on Raindrops. ”GULP! Sorry, Medley! You guys realized, all of the subjects we have to choose are some kind of creating stuff? Art, music, crafting, and all of the things? Besides martial arts, I'm not fond of it to be honest. I mean, all of the things sound so boring. No real activity.” ”What you're talking about, Raindrops?” Springy questioned. ”It is something to unfold your creativity, and to unfold yourself! That's such a wonderful thing! Maybe you'll get your cutie mark in one of these things!” ”Umm... I don't really want to unfold myself in that way. I just want to have some activities. Where you can exhaust yourself and be on your limits. Art or crafting is something where you sit or stand in front of your work, and that sounds not really suitable for me.” Sometimes Raindrops had not the sense of art. She's the active pony. You can't force an active pony like Raindrops or Dashie in front of a block of marble. That's something, I can understand. But I was kinda annoyed about what she said. I appreciated these things we can choose this afternoon, and even Springy was very fond of it. Two ponies who are interested in artistic stuff, and one pony who's a real party pooper. Usually, Springy is the party pooper in our little circle of friendship, but this time, all of our excitement about our new subject was threatened by a yellow somepony, with a blue mane. There's no way, Springy and I would let it spoil. I threw in calmly, ”How the hay can you judge, without trying it out? How the hay can you say, it is all boring and stuff, and you haven't even touched a brush in your hooves?” Meanwhile, I drew some circles in the air with my hoof like I was painting imaginary. In my imagination, it sure would feel nice. I continued and looked deep into Raindrops face. Not with a serious face, instead I continued with a more positive expression to motivate my yellow buddy. ”Come on, Raindrops, give it a try! Art or music is also an activity. A different kind of activity. Plus, what about your cutie mark? You still haven't earned one, and this is the chance for you, and even for me, to find out your special talent!” ”I think a lot of fillies will use this to find out their special talent. That's the purpose of this whole choose-your-subject-thing,” Springy declared. ”Right. I can think of it too!” I nodded. My excitement raised. ”Bad thing is, I must choose. Maybe I hammer down some wood with my hooves or something. Could be a nice training,” Raindrops grumbled and shoved her last piece of sandwich in her mouth. ”Oh, don't be so grouched,” I begged. ”today, you will sign up for a certain subject and tomorrow you're full of joy about it! You sure won't regret it!” ”Imagine her as a prima ballerina!” Springy smiled and couldn't hold out another chuckle. Raindrops was not really in a good mood to hear jokes like that. But she let out a big sigh, and said, ”Yeah yeah. Guess I have no choice.” ~ ~ ~ Springy, Raindrops and I flew over to the gym in the afternoon. Three or four schools in Cloudsdale used this gym to do some lessons in physical education. Today was not about sport or something, and you could've seen it when you'd entered the main hall. Dozens of young pegasi stood or walked in the main hall. Beside the sport equipments on the walls or on the ceiling, there was nothing but a couple of booths. In each of the booths, there was at least one pegasus pony. I could think of, these ponies were some sort of guides or deputies to inform little young fillies about the subject they've chosen or they were about to choose. Could've even been teachers instead of guides, though. On top of the stands, the name of the subject was written, and these stands were well-visited. Ten or twelve pegasi per stand was quite the normal. Okay, let's list these subjects up. On the very left stand, you could sign up for painting. Though it's pretty tough to hold a brush in your mouth and to paint your picture in an ocean of marvellous colors, painting was very welcome for me! If you were a unicorn, it was sure an easy thing, but I can think of a couple of pegasus ponies, painting beautiful pictures. Especially my uncle from Las Pegasus was one of them. My uncle made a couple of beautiful pictures, and is still in charge for decorating the walls in enormous and luxurious casinos with his expensive art. Illuminated by a thousand of colors, I was really amazed as a young filly when I last visited some of my uncle's work! Sadly, only for a couple of minutes because little fillies were not allowed in casinos. Speaking about decorations, the do-and-dont’s of decorating was topic in another booth, but it was not the right thing for me. To beautify bird nests, little shops or something with ornaments was nice, no offense, but I wanted it big. Like I already said about my uncle and his paintings gazed by a lot of ponies around the world to make them impress and smile from ear to ear. That's what I want! The next thing was something, Springy was really enthused about it. I'm talking about sculpture things. Another pretty tough thing because you had to chisel everything from wood to marble, from gypsum to various kinds of expensive minerals. When Springy and I talked about this issue a couple of weeks ago at the sleep-over during the summer holidays, she told me about the tools you had to use, like a hammer in your mouth, or the chisel in your hooves, or the other way round, the variety of material you had to carve and of course the dirt in your coat and in your mane, which all sounded too messy for me. Plus, I found it rather hard and uncomfortable to hold heavy tools in your mouth. But Springy seemed to love this stuff. Right when I thought about it, Springy hastily galloped over to this booth to join boxing her way through the crowd screaming, ”Get outta my way!” I'm sure, she'd love it! Have you seen her eyes? They looked so heart-shaped! Anyways, the next stand was all about crafting. Like sculpture things, you had to use tools like screwdrivers and hammers in your mouth. Nail down things and so on. Better see, what's next. And the next thing was acting. I must say, acting sounded really interesting! To be in a play, wearing costumes, being applauded by the crowd – how wonderful it would be! Beside painting, acting was on the top of my list. Then, a stand was all about cooking. Not a good thing to be honest! No no no! I remembered a lot of days with my mom. She teached me how to cook – at least she tried to. Off the record, don't ever let me in the near of spices! One time, I wanted to do a favor for my mom and dad, but instead, I destroyed everything! The salad was too sour due to an overload of olive oil, I burned the sandwiches, and the potatoes were uneatable because I put in too much salt, red and green pepper, and it was all salty and stuff! The cream lacked in creaminess; it was more water than cream. What a shame! Fortunately, the next thing for us pegasi was just singing, and not playing instruments. I couldn't imagine how to play the piano or other complicated instruments with just my hooves and not with magic. But I must say, instruments like the glockenspiel or bells sound so beautiful! The bright tones of bells were so lovely! When I was a little filly, I always wanted to ring the town's bells in Cloudsdale! But singing is different. I have to admit, singing was occasional in my spare time. I'd rather whistled or hummed the songs, instead of singing vocals, but all in all, singing was another thing in my list. The last one was writing. I didn't know exactly, what you had to do. Maybe it was all about writing stories or about the art and improvement of mouth-writing. The first aspect was interesting, but not as interesting as the other things. The latter was nothing special for me because I already wrote my letters and numbers beautiful. My teacher never blamed me for bad mouth-writing. Instead, it was, for example, Raindrops or Thunderlane with a bad mouth-writing, and both of them often had to redo their homework, until it wasn't all sloppy anymore. So writing stuff was the fourth thing on my list, next to painting, acting and singing. There were only eight booths in the gym. I missed other things to participate, though. Springy told, her sister took part in poeting. Gardening was an issue, Springy and I talked about in school. But I could imagine gardening was for earth ponies or unicorns exclusively. And there were also the rare kind of crafts like glass-blowing, horseshoemaking or calligraphy. I shouldn’t wonder, there were no booths here to exhibit those rare things. Horseshoemaking, for example, was really unknown here in Cloudsdale. Maybe down on earth, horseshoemaking was more popular, but I didn’t really want to rack my brain about thinking about earth ponies’ stuff. I fetched my only friend left to have a dialogue. ”So, Raindrops, what's your favorite?” ”Seriously, Medley? Nothing! All boring stuff.” Better change the topic. Not that it was hopeless, but she’d see that she wasn't right, and those things will make a lot of fun. ”Well... isn't it just beautiful to see the smile in her face?” I pointed to the sculpture stand where Springy was just about to sign in for her lessons. Raindrops replied, ”Oh yeah! It is like a dream come true for her. Remember when she told us everything so excited about a new pony statue in Ponyville next to town hall?” Though I'd never been to Ponyville so far, I remembered that she talked about it. I added, ”You're right, there was this Ponyville thing! Have you ever seen this statue, she talked about?” Raindrops shook her head. ”Nope. Haven't seen it. Besides, the last time I was in Ponyville was in a hospital when I've hurt my leg badly down there. I can say, it really hurts when you hit the ground! I'm glad, my leg wasn't broken! Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to walk for a couple of weeks! Horrible!” That was the 42nd time, she told me that! How she fell off of a little cloud, just two hooves from the ground! Nevertheless, I left Raindrops alone. ”Okay, I’ill hit the booths. Hope, you'll find something nice too!” ”Ooooh, sure!” ”Bye!” I first trotted over to the writing section. I quickly forgot about Raindrops' last ironic statement, and informed myself, what the focus of writing was about. A young but massive stallion there told me that writing focused all about both writing and telling stories. He gave me a quick look into one of the famous adventures of Daring Do. ”Mhm, okaay!” I just replied without being that much astonished. I left this stand behind because there were some other priorities to discover. So I walked straight on to the painting stand. There were beautiful pictures on easels exhibited, all of them colorful and made of oil or watercolor! Furthermore, I saw a small box with deep red, yellow and blue pigments, as well as a color palette, various brushes and a canvas to exercise! ”I liiiiike this place!” My eyes gleamed in excitement, and my smile was full of joy. The old painting pony was really glad to hear that. He stuttered, ”Well, little filly. There are not many pegasi, who dare to hold a brush between their lips. Why don't you just brush on the canvas?” I happily nodded. ”Yeah yeah yeah, pwease!” I grabbed a brush between my lips and dipped the brush into the color. ”Don't worry, little filly. Just make some lines or circles. No need to beat my paintings.” I gazed at the exhibited pictures. ”Zeese r ur painzings?” I put away the brush, so he could understand me better. ”Have you painted all these pictures?” ”Of course! This one is my newest work. It shows the rainbow and the endless sky in the dusk.” I promptly reacted, ”But there is a blank piece there! HERE! It isn't finished!” ”Yeah, little filly. I ran out of all all the green colors I had. You see, when I made this picture, it was a day with one of the very very rare sunsets. I sailed on the ocean, and the sky showed not only red and yellow but also a tiny tiny piece of green above the sun. The sky was illuminated in a slight green touch. And the sun itself was nothing more than a green spot above the ocean.” He continued his little story. ”This scenario took just half a minute, wellwellwell. If I could just see it with my own eyes again. If I could see the beautiful, unique green color again. Then I can finish my work.” ”Oh, I see.” I grabbed the brush again and painted a single red line on the canvas. ”NONONO! What's that?” the old painting pony yelled. I dropped my jaw, and the brush fell down on the floor! That hit me hard! ”But but, this was my first try and—” ”SHUT UP! A gifted painter doesn't paint like this! You didn’t take the one brush off at the end. You stopped and then you took the brush off the canvas. You moved your paint to places where paint doesn’t belong! Look, how crappy this last piece of stroke is! And you want to be a good painter?” I… was… this was… My inner parts of my brain were paralyzed by this excoriate critique. Other parts just wanted to slap his face with his own brushes and then smash a canvas on his head. A couple of seconds ago, he was so nice to me. I shouted, ”HEY! You haven't even given me a chance! I just made one stroke! That's not fair!” ”I'll only teach the talented ponies. I have painted many pictures for 60 years! I'm old, but I still can see, who's talented and who's not! I know, what makes a pony gifted!” Was he conceited? I screamed at the vain old man, making my voice a bit croaky. ”Unfair!” To my surprise, Raindrops heard all about it and galloped over to me. I turned to her, then looked around me. Many wondered faces were directed to us. Besides the fact that I drew some attention, I confronted him in assertiveness. ”You cannot leave a pony in the dark, just because a pony’s not gifted! You cannot leave me in the dark! Everypony's got a chance!” ”What are you talking about, Medley?” I stared angrily at Raindrops and pointed my hoof to the vain pony, afterwards to the canvas. ”HE! I made just one brush! He wanted me to try out! I haven't even made one final brush on the canvas, and he yelled at me for being ungifted and for doing everything wrong!” I gnarled. Raindrops instead tried to calm me down. ”Come on, it's not worth it!” My stare bittered. ”Count me IN!” ”And I say NO!” ”Unfair!” I jumped and stomped with all of my four hooves. I spread my wings to menace him more. You cannot do this to me!” my voice increased. ”I can. It's my right to do it. I won't teach you!” The old pony sat on his chair like there was no angry Medley here and crossed his forelegs. The other ponies gathered around me were just silent and did nothing to help me. Raindrops put herself in front of me, and tried to push me a little bit further. ”Come on sweetie, it's really not worthy. Look for something else!” ”It's not over, big stinky man!” I hollered, so almost everypony in the gym could hear me. Raindrops pushed me a bit more out of sight. I finally freed myself and shouted, ”Let me go!” We both were quiet for a time. Eventually, I broke the silence. ”It's so not fair! What does he think he is, huh?” Raindrops sighed, ”Forget him, Medley! Just forget him!” ”Have you already found something?” I asked with a incensed voice. Raindrops knew, I was still angry, but she understood that. ”Crafting. Better than nothing. I signed up, and quickly went away. Just a decision.” ”Hope the others are not such stinky ponies. I better go to the acting stand.” ”Do it, Medley. Keep calm.” ”Thanks, Raindrops!” Unfortunately, acting was already not available anymore. A lot of fillies already signed up. So I went to the singing stand. ”Hello, Lady! Do you want to join us? We have plenty of room!” The voice of the mid-age stallion was rough. He had a gray mane, had dark shades and wore a hat. Though he looked not familiar, he sounded pretty nice, and was really glad to see me. But in the end, everything would turn worse – well, I thought so. ”I've heard you over there. He was mean to you, right?” I nodded. ”You have a pretty clear voice. Do you mind participating with us?” I shook my head. ”What's your name? Don't be shy, speak to me!” I hesitated. ”Medley.” ”And your full name?” ”Sprinkle Medley.” ”Riiiight. How old?” ”Still eleven.” ”And you live here in Cloudsdale, right? I nodded. ”Good. Last question. Which school do you visit?” ”Old town's centre. The one in the middle of tiny streets. Miss Seedflare's my teacher.” ”Oh yeah, the school within the labyrinth! All right, I've signed you up! Welcome to our glee club, Medley!” He made me smile. But not that you think, he turned my feelings topsy-turvy in a second! This acknowledgement was really the thing I needed. After all the happenings in the last minutes, I was still incensed, but it was a nice, comfy feeling. I headed to Raindrops because I haven't seen Springy anymore. When I met her, my first things to say to her were just, ”I'm in!” Raindrops marveled. ”And? You go crafting as well?” ”Singing!” ”Singing? All you do is hum. I never heard you sing before.” ”Don’t be suspicious, Raindrops! The teacher over there believes in me.” I pointed my hoof to him. ”Are you sure?” ”Sure I am. He heard what happened at the painting stand. He said it was mean from the old pony for not giving me a chance. But instead, he wants to give me a chance. He thinks, I have a clear voice.” Raindrops looked over my shoulder to see, who the pony is. Then she turned her head to my direction again. ”You sure have a neat voice when you talk or something. But I'm not sure, what he's up to. Has he ever heard you singing before?” ”Not really. But hay, we need to choose our courses, so it doesn't matter anyways! He'll just make his lessons, make some exercises, tests and all the other stuff, Miss Seedflare already does.” I shrugged in front of Raindrops and continued, ”Are you sure about your teacher?” Raindrops also shrugged, but in an incuriously way. ”I just joined them. I wrote my name in the list without having eye contact to the teacher,” little Raindrops shook her head. ”I'm totally not interested in this whole thing.” ”Oh, Raindrops. Just wait another two weeks. It will be interesting,” I thought to myself. ~ ~ ~ ”Lalalalala-la-la-la-la-la la-la-la-laaa-laaaa.” ”Hey, Medley! It's been 5 hours since you've been singing this song. Don't hurt yourself!” Silly Raindrops. Why should I hurt myself? Maybe my throat hurt from excitement about singing! I took a couple of lessons now. At the end of the day, it was really a lot of fun! Not only singing, but the way my teacher Mr. Piccollo explained it to us, made the whole lessons kinda magical. Like you were able to 'feel' the music. Music itself was complicated, he told us, but not for the ones, who love music. And he really made me love music. Maybe I should really take lessons in playing the glockenspiel? Fact is, I was more and more enthused about singing. And he appreciated it. To say it better, he really loved my clear and bright voice. There were some voice cracks, though, but that's normal in my age, he told me. But maybe Raindrops was right. I better go easy on my voice now. Better avoid a croaky voice. I remembered a pretty young filly, who overdone her singing exercises and started her lessons with a croaky voice. Her voice was so croaky, the chalkboard cracked in pieces! Or maybe it was just the drunk groundskeeper pony of the school, who crashed his cloud-mower into the wall. ”Am I singing that bad?” Wonderful – a rhetorical question! Now how does Raindrops react? ”Are you nuts?” Raindrops was pretty surprised by my question. ”Your voice is pretty! But better slow down before you caw like a crow!” I tried to make this whole thing funnier by making ugly noises while singing. ”LalaLAALAAAAlalalaaa lalaLAA-LAA-la—” Perfect! Raindrops plugged her ears! ”Oough, Medley stop! That was worse than Thunderlane last week.” That made me chuckle. ”It wasn't that bad!” I spoke in an ironic tone. ”Are you kidding me? He sang the anthem so bad! He probably never heard of harmony or melody!” Raindrops shivered by just thinking about his awful gig. She then shut her eyes and shook her head rapidly, to forget this scene in her mind. It was quite funny to see that. But there was another thing, I wanted to know. ”Raindrops, how's your crafting been so far?” Raindrops eyes turned into a sad look. ”Terrible. I'm with Dashie in this mess.” I copied her look. ”Why?” ”Dashie's like me. She's also not happy about it. So we teamed up to craft things together. Last time, we had to finish an aviary made of wood. Winter is coming soon, so we all had to make a warm place for birds, who don't migrate.” She paused. After a while, she sighed ”It was really bad. All the other ones were pretty. Ours was miserable. All slanted, nails stuck out, glue was all over the aviary, we painted it sloppy and to make it worse, we forgot to make a hole in the aviary! How should birds survive in the cold without a warm place inside? That's terrible!” I said nothing. My face still showed a sad expression. There was a little piece inside of me laughing prettily. I mean, that was really a shame if you forgot to make a hole! But I wasn't in a mood of laughing right now. Raindrops seemed to feel really queasy about it. By the look, you could say, she was really unhappy about this situation. And when I heard about the whole aviary thing, this really hurt her. I could easily think of a reason why she was upset in a sad manner. It's certainly not their, Raindrops' and Dashie's, poor skills in crafting. Both of them were sure satisfied with a below-average work, as long as the birds just had a roof over their heads. But their effort was not enough, so the birds must freeze or even die in the cold. I knew Raindrops. And I knew Dashie. Especially Dashie could be really disappointed if she was trying to do her best, and the result was pathetically disastrous. ”Come on. Don't be so sad.” I leaned my head on her own, like I was about to cuddle her. My goal was to console her. I peeked and saw a slight blush on her cheeks. The next thing I made was very strange. Her slight blush and her stillness made me have… it was… phew, it was first hard to explain! It was like a sudden urge that induced me. My body twitched and trembled, but in a positive way, like it was alright. I whispered in her ear ”I really love it when you blush!” and gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek. Raindrops stunned. Her eyes were opened widely. I saw her eyes slightly flickering like she was going to cry soon. She blushed even more! We looked in each other's eyes for a short time. It felt so good right now to console a pony you really like since your first encounter. Our faces were just a hoof away. And we were about to do something that was nearly uncontrollable – a kind of a natural thing I supposed. Raindrops slowly closed her eyes and gently puckered her lips to meet mine. My reaction was quite the same without any inhibitions. We slowly approached each other. I could feel her warm and comfy breath on my face. But before we even touched our lips, we heard a bright voice of a young mare bubbling over in joy. ”Medley! Raindrops! I got an A+!” Oh dear, it was Springy! We had to interrupt this sudden emotion quickly. I spontaneously turned away from Raindrops and offered Springy a hug to congratulate in just one movement. ”Hello Springy! I'm so happy for you!” Raindrops was uptight and stood back first. Then she walked towards Springy and she gave a nuzzle for her good work. ”Nice! Springy!” Springy worried ”What's wrong with you, Raindrops?” Oh dear, Raindrops sounded so reluctant. Even deaf and blind ponies would know, Raindrops was kinda worried. Springy was full of joy, while our yellow-coated young mare commiserated herself. ”Nothing. Just a bit tired from school. By the way, you seem to enjoy it, right?” ”Right!” Springy turned her frown into happiness. Our lucky Raindrops saved the day by using a diversionary tactic! Raindrops quickly forgot her sorrow when she saw Springy smiling again and said, ”Then tell us more!” I believe, it was a just distraction from her own sorrow. Well, at least it was better than nothing. ”Oh everything's fine! The teachers there are nice, my fellow ponies are all nice, and we already started to sculpture little models!” Springy carried her bag on her back. She opened it, and grabbed something with her mouth to place it in front of us. She continued, ”This is a green little pony soldier made of malachite. It took about 4 hours just to hone the body of the pony! But it was worth it to waste the time. I got the best mark. A+!” Raindrops and I were amazed at her work. Springy really made this figure well! There were hardly no defects, the eyes of the pony soldier were pretty detailed and the color of the figure was neat. ”This'll be a present for my little sis! Not for her birthday, but for Hearth's Warming Eve,” Springy happily announced. ”So glad to hear that,” Raindrops added. Springy turned to Raindrops and asked ”How about you? Do you love crafting by now?” Oww. ”Not really. I had to build an aviary with Dashie last time. It was a disaster! None of us loved it! And neither did our teacher. It really sucks!” ”Oh, this can't be that bad! How about, I will help you?” Raindrops looked in Springy's eyes and said: ”Hmm, thanks, but I can't let you do that. You do so love to sculpt things, it's really not necessary to even help us. Besides, it's too late. We already got a bad mark for our aviary. I hope some woodpeckers will peck a hole into our aviary since we forgot to make a hole.” Our sweet yellow pegasus pony cupped her hooves around her head in shame. ”Oh, I'm so sorry, Raindrops.” ”Mhm, thanks Springy. I told you all, this makes no fun,” Raindrops sighed. ”Maybe it's just this time. That should not bother you,” Springy replied to comfort her. ”I'll have my good mood thrown away. Somewhere in the ocean. Just a couple of failures like this. Soon.” ”Oh, come on Raindrops! Fight against it!” Springy said and carried on, ”If you let yourself down, you will not be happy anymore!” Raindrops was silent for a while. She just looked down to the ground. She relented then, ”Maybe, you're right.” Springy was not satisfied with her answer. The young yellow pegasus mare still had her worried expression. ”Raindrops, be fair to yourself!” ”I'm sure, I'll fix it. Just give me some time,” Raindrops declared without meeting her own eyes with Springy's. Springy hesitated for a while. Afterwards, she sighed, ”I hope so.” She then turned to me and saw that I was not really happy about this situation either. Make-the-mare-forget-about-her-sorrow was her job now, so she asked me, ”And I've heard, you love to sing, don't you?” ”Wh-What? Oh yeah. It's been nice so far. We're eight pegasi. My teacher said, I have a bright voice. Mr. Piccollo and some other pegasi really like it,” I faintly smiled. ”He's so right! You really have a neat voice, especially when you talk! Keep talking, I'm listening!” ”Mmh, okay. The first lessons were practical. We exercised the scale, for example. Just the easy ones like C and F major. Do-re-mi and so on. We talked about harmony and disharmony. The next thing will be how to avoid voice cracks.” Springy turned to Raindrops again and saw a slight cheer on her face. Before Raindrops could fall back to some sad emotions again, Springy didn’t gave her a chance to do so, and happily announced, ”You really love her stories, don't you Raindrops?” ”W-what? Sure, absolutely! So nice to hear, she's happy.” Springy turned to me again. ”I'd say, you should carry on, Medley! Maybe you'll earn you cutie mark in singing?” Springy reminded me of something. Maybe it was really time for my cutie mark to appear? ”A musical note? That would be a nice cutie mark!” Raindrops chimed in. ”We'll see it,” I happily said. However, I secretly looked down to the ground in a worried manner. ~ ~ ~ The months passed by. I aged up in winter and this spring was one of the wettest ever. Not that I'd hate it, though. Once on a rainy day, I wasn't motivated to play along with other ponies or with my close friends, so I sat on the table along with Mom and Dad. I was sorrowed these days. and I hoped, Mom and Dad wouldn't know about it. We all ate herb soup. While Mom and I were satisfied with the soup, Dad's stomach knew no limits. Next to his soup, there was a lot of bread, vegetables and some cider on the table. Alcoholic cider of course. It really amazed me how a pony could eat so much food at dinner without becoming fat! Okay, he was a bit chubby, but that’s all. However, I leaned my head in one hoof on the table, while I moved my other hoof back and forth, as well as around the soup plate, like I was drawing imaginary circles. Meanwhile, Mom grabbed her own soup plate, swallowed the whole soup and put away the plate. She turned her head into my direction. ”Darling, what's wrong?” She drew Dad's attention as well as mine. He stopped biting into a tomato and looked at me for a while in silence. He continued eating his tomato carefully, to be ready for a little family discussion. Something that was not really welcome to me right now. ”Nothing, Mom.” ”Have you problems in school, Meddy?” my dad promptly asked. ”No no. It's really fine there. I can sing something for you. I managed to avoid voice cracks many weeks ago.” To distract them, I quickly began to sing, ”Lalaaa-la-la-la-la-laaa—” ”Meddy,” my dad interrupted, ”you sing so wonderful. No need to demonstrate it.” ”Are they mocking you?” Geez. Parents always hammer you with questions! They won't give you time to breath! ”No. I get along fine with my school mates. Both in my class and in the glee club.” ”Then what's the problem, Darling?” I sighed. I must tell them something – somehow. They wouldn’t give up, until you let out all your secrets. ”I learned a lot of things now. Especially in the singing class. I got very good marks. My singing teacher told only two of us, some colt and me, have the most glorious voices he ever heard in his life.” ”So?” Mom curiously asked. It was a really knotty situation, and I was not happy about this situation right now. What if my parents knew about it? Truth is, they'd blabber you until your head explodes. Until the little filly is quiet and happy again. Better make it quick, so I could finish my dinner, hit the shower, do my homework and get ready for bed, without any further questions. To make it more plausible, I hid my face under my hooves in despair and asked, ”Are... I think the other ones in my class are jealous of me!” You got me! I'm not a clever pony if it comes to tell lies. I always was an honest pony, but that white lie would do. Dad became silent. Really silent. You could've mistaken him with one of those pretty pony statues, Springy always talked about. Mom startled and backed her head a bit. She shook her head to catch herself up, then she asked me quite wondered, ”Em, why would they be jealous about you?” ”Don't know? Just a feeling,” I responded. ”Most ponies aren't jealous of something. If ponies are, you'd clearly see it in their expressions and behaviours. Not just 'a feeling',” Mom said and raised an eyebrow. Dad suddenly intervened after the little shock by saying ”Is it that, what troubles you?” It seemed he didn't expect my answer, and his look told that he didn't believe it either. ”I suppose,” I answered Dad's question, leaving Mom's statement unanswered. My look shuttled between Dad and Mom. Both looked at me quite strange. Like they wanted to look through me or something. To scan my brain to search for the truth. Before they'd go any further, I stopped their intentions by saying with a bit of a shaky voice, ”I... will manage it. D-don't worry.” ”How are you gonna work it out?” my dad asked, shoving away his food to have a more direct talk with me. ”By... I um... ,” I hardly found no words to say, ”to show my classmates, they don't have to be jealous of me. Or of the young colt, uh yeah the young colt, don't forget about him! The ponies in the glee club are also jealous of him!” Dad repeated ”How are you gonna work it out?” ”Like I said.” ”And how? Are you gonna try singing worse?” ”No. I'll... find a way. D-don't worry.” ”Medley,” my mom suddenly called me without saying 'Darling' to me, ”I believe there's something more, you don't want to tell.” ”N-no Mom. Nothing more. I was just curious.” Mom and Dad looked in each other's frowny eyes. ”If something troubles you, you can tell us.” ”But Dad, um, there is nothing that troubles me.” I gazed down to the floor. ”Look me in the eyes,” my mom declared, ”what is wrong? Are you sure, there's nopony who's mocking you?” Mom didn't knew. Of course, I feel fine in my class, and the ponies my class treated me like a usual pony. I hated that question. Furiously and to declare it straightaway, I stomped with my hooves on the table shouted out a short but very intense ”NO!” ”DON'T SHOUT AT US! WE'RE STILL—” Mom put a hoof calmly to Dad, who freaked out at me for shouting at them. His voice was powerful. After all, he was hired as a construction worker here in Cloudsdale! On constructions, there’s always a huge noise level, so you needed a loud voice, otherwise you couldn't hear your fellow workers. ”Flare, don't shout,” my mom relaxed the situation a little bit. Meanwhile I'd flinched with nothing to say right now, but Mom turned her head to me, like I was the next pony, who needed to be calm down. Mom just looked me in my eyes with a worried face. I surrendered before the whole dinner ended in a family tragedy. ”There is something.” ”We're listening,” Mom said, and holded her one hoof stronger to one of Dad's. In case of an outrage, so the tiger won't attack me literally. ”Six of my fellow classmates in the singing group have already got their cutie mark, since they joined in. Leaving me, and the other colt I told you 'unmarked'. Perhaps, he'll be the next getting his cutie mark.” I raised my head and my voice and continued with a light sad expression, ”Why don’t I have cutie mark?” Afterwards I sharply dropped my voice level, ”I'm singing well they said.” I looked on my soup that was still untouched. I supposed, the soup was already cold now. The seconds of silence at the table felt so long. Eventually, the silence was broken, when a tapping sound from one of the kitchen's windows could be heard, which was caused by a little dragonfly that got lost. I stood up and opened the window to free the little dragonfly. While I was at it, I headed outside leaving the window open and said with a dry voice, ”I'm going to my room. I'm sleepy,” without looking back to my parents. I didn’t notice their expressions after my confession. All I did was gazing at the ground, free that little flying thing, and trot back sheepishly. I wondered, why my parents remained mute. Anyways, that felt like a slow runaway. Young ponies usually tended to flee after making minor confessions like this one. Most young ponies even cried while running away, but to my surprise my tears contained. I couldn't really sleep. The sunset was done, but it was still too bright outside. Cloudsdale's houses usually have no shutters like the houses down on earth. Just a window or two per room, and that was all. Only a few windows had curtains. I rolled back and forth trying to find a position to fall asleep. With or without my sheets. After a while, I grabbed one of my pillows and threw it on my walls in anger for not falling asleep. ”Grrrrrr.” I heard somepony's coming upstairs. It must’ve been Mom or Dad. I hoped one of them went to the bathroom or something. I wasn't in the mood to talk because it was just uncomfortable for me to tell them the truth. The door was opened by Mom. I turned myself away from her to avoid a talk. Beneath my one last pillow, there was an old plushie. Geez, I didn't know how long I had this plushie. The coat of my plushie was frayed and the overall condition could be described as ‘worn out’. I better throw this plushie away soon, objects never had an emotional attachment for me, even if these objects, like plushies, were made for it. I felt something heavy on my bed and a hoof-touch on my shoulder. It was Mom. ”Hey Darling!” First, I pretend I couldn't hear her. Then I quickly quashed my idea. I simply grumbled into my last pillow like it was a guttural way of saying 'hello'. ”If I were you, I couldn't sleep on that tiny pillow either,” she said, walked away, grabbed the thrown pillow on the floor, and gently laid it back to my bed. ”Um, thanks. Now I must sleep,” I said with a sleepy voice, but the voice was fake. Oh dear, I usually hated it to lie, but right now I faked around more and more, just to feel well. It was time to make it stop. ”Sorry,” I whispered. ”For what?” my mom asked. ”I lied. I hate lying.” ”Darling,” my mom leaned closer to me, ”you can have many talents. Many wonderful talents. You fly graceful and you sing so brightly.” ”Then I must get a cutie mark!” I announced. I haven't noticed, she distracted the lying-issue, yet. My mom put a hoof on my cheek in a comfort manner. She added, ”You can have a lot of talents. But there's one special talent that will make you unique. And you haven't discovered your special talent yet.” Before I could say something, she continued, so I couldn't have the chance to complain. ”Fillies are eager to earn their cutie mark. I can really understand. And that's what makes me so happy, seeing little fillies trying to do some adventures in order to get a cutie mark. Searching for your own destiny is the greatest adventure you can ever imagine.” ”Mhm,” I just hummed. ”You might discover even more other talents in your life. And suddenly, when you expected it at least, it can happen, what one pony's waiting for a long time. You'll find your very special talent.” ”Unfair. There are so many wonderful things out there. It takes so many years,” I complained. ”One important thing is, you must not force it. This will be the worst way to earn a cutie mark. Hardly nopony ever got a cutie mark by forcing it.” I crossed my forelegs and grumbled. ”I know, waiting for your cutie mark upsets you. I totally understand it.” ”I'm upset of other things. Like that I lied to you, to hide my sorrow. To hide my impatience,” I declared. ”Darling, lying is really not the right thing a pony can do. It really surprised me because you're such an honest pony. I'd count it as another talent of you!” Okay, Mom tried to calm down the situation. How many talents I got now? Three? Six? The whole population of Cloudsdale? Wow, I’m a lucky pony who found out lots of talents! Geez, this was not helpful for me! Though I must say, I was really impatient all the way, and maybe that's why it caused some trouble now. And maybe Mom was right. Maybe time was the key for all the good things you want. Mom knew, I was thinking about it right now, but my expression was more... I’d say sad. So she gave me a cuddly hug. I begged close to tears for one last question – okay, three questions. ”Please. Please tell me. Why do I get so sad thinking about my own cutie mark? Why do I need to lie to hide it? And why does it hurt?” My mom hugged me tighter. Her warmth felt like that she really cared for a pony like me. She gently whispered, ”It's because you have a pure heart.” In her presence I became more and more drowsy. After a few minutes, I let off of her and slowly closed my eyes. The next day, I told Raindrops and Springy about my last conversation with my mom about my lack of patience and my want of a cutie mark. ”Oh Sweetie!” Raindrops said and gave me a nuzzle to comfort me. Springy instead warned me, ”If you keep on having sorrow, you’ll be frustrated to tears.” Raindrops nodded in agreement, ”She's right. Don't be so fussy. I also can’t wait to get my cutie mark. But I'm excited about it, and you're being fussy.” I just sighed, ”Hmm. May—Maybe you're right.” ~ ~ ~ Author's Note Pre-readed by goddamnAnimalPlanet. Thanks! ;)
