The final day of school was here. The time every filly and colt lived for, the long, glorious summer would begin at noon that day. Allegro didn't care much about all of that though as she made her way through the empty sky towards the schoolhouse. She had much more important things on her mind that morning. Tonight's the night. Tonight is the night I finally show myself to her.

As she flew the young filly glanced up at the morning sky, the brilliant expanse almost perfectly matching her coat. Her short, neatly-cropped mane fluttered slightly in the gentle breeze that perpetually blew across the cloud city. She glanced around the sky, seeing nopony else in any direction. A large part of her wished to simply find an outlaying cloud and watch the surface for a while, but for once being in class was more important to her.

The building that housed both the primary and secondary schools in south Cloudsdale finally came into view and Allegro began to descend toward her target. Well, this will be the last time I see this ugly old building for a while. Allegro landed softly on the balcony of the large cloud building, taking a moment to catch her breath and glance behind her one last time at the freedom of the open sky before she entered the roof door and made her way down towards her classroom.

As she descended the stairs leading to the primary school classroom, her cheery mood began to darken. She hesitated outside the door for a few moments, mentally steeling herself against what she knew lie beyond. Well, here we go, the filly thought. Time for my favorite part of the day.

With an exaggerated sigh, Allegro walked slowly into the classroom; she noticed almost immediately that the energetic conversations began to die down, becoming hushed whispers. The moment she crossed that threshold, she was the center of focus of the entire room. As had become normal for her in the last several weeks, the colts in her class whispered lewd comments to each other, a few even going so far as to offer the occasional obscene gesture. The other fillies, some of whom Allegro had been close to in the past, crowded around a single filly's desk in the corner of the room. Some stole glances at her, while others openly admired or scorned her. As usual, Allegro ignored their whispers and stares, save for one...

The white-coated filly actually seated at the desk looked up at her anxiously as she approached. Maybe today will be different... Allegro turned to the filly, a warm smile gracing her delicate features. As soon as she met the other filly's eyes however, her white coat tinged a deep scarlet and she buried her face in her forehooves and light blue mane. Allegro's heart sank and she glanced down at her hooves as she walked past her old friend.

Cotton Cloudy had been one of her closest friends since Allegro started primary school, and the older filly had always matched her adventurous friend's enthusiasm in kind. Since that night however, Cloudy had barely spoken to her and was unable to meet her gaze. Not long after that, the rumors began to spread among her classmates. Allegro trusted that her friend hadn't actually said anything to anypony. She didn't have to; her face betrayed her thoughts every time she looked at the younger filly.

Shaking herself from her reverie, she sought out another of her classmates to help lift her sinking spirits. She spotted a colt sitting in the back of the room smiling at her with the slightest hint of blush forming on his cerulean features. She couldn't help but to grin slightly at his obvious crush; she glanced in his direction, he waved at her as she did, but she noticed that he averted his eyes to avoid hers. Her grin grew wider at this. Yeah... Dream on, Thorn.

As she made her way past his desk, Allegro flicked her navy blue tail up and to her side, lightly swatting the colt along the bridge of his snout, the black hairs at the end of her tail just barely keeping her plot from his line of sight. Thorn jumped up at the teasing contact, and promptly tipped his chair over and spilled out into the middle of the classroom floor, face first somehow.

The room exploded into laughter while the hapless colt scrambled to his hooves and repositioned himself at his desk, immediately hiding his face in shame. Allegro, meanwhile smiled to herself, happy to have the attention of the room off of her for a moment.

"You're here early today, Allegro," a familiar voice called out from behind her. Ignoring the continued stares and whispers of her classmates, she turned to greet her friend Rosewing.

"Well, I figured I should probably come to class before the first bell at least once this year." The two pegasi bumped hooves before making their way towards the back corner of the room towards Allegro's desk. "So, Rosie, how's my favorite filly in all of Equestria?"

Rosewing laughed at this. "Really now, you and I both know every filly in Equestria is your favorite." She glanced over at Thorn, who had not moved since Allegro passed. "Though it seems you have no love of colts in you."

"Oh come on, you saw how he was looking at me, he was practically begging for it. It's not my fault he overreacted a little."

"No, of course not." Both fillies giggled at the outrageous statement, then shared a meaningful glance; Rosewing's red eyes meeting Allegro's yellow ones for a long moment before she spoke again. "So this is it, isn't it? Are you sure you want to go through with this? I mean after what happened with Cotton Cloudy-"

"It'll be fine. Dewdrop is stronger than she seems, I've seen it myself."

"I just don't want you to hurt somepony else or get hurt yourself again. I know how much it bothers you." Allegro followed Rosewing's glance towards the rest of the class, which had once again turned its collective attention on the two of them.

"I don't care about them," Allegro said evenly, though a little louder than necessary.

"Well, if you really mean that..." Rosewing had known Allegro long enough to know better than to press her friend on the subject. She twirled a bit of her pink mane in her yellow hoof for a moment, collecting her thoughts. Finally she started again. "So, are you excited about summer flight camp?"

Summer flight camp is an event unique to the cloud city. While flight lessons are a part of the standard primary school curriculum in Cloudsdale as well as many other cities with a large pegasus population, summer flight camp focuses solely on it, without the rules and restrictions of traditional school. The camp itself is funded, almost singlehoofedly, by the CEO of the weather factory, and the clouds necessary to build the grounds each year are supplied free of charge as well. Because of this, many pegasi families across Equestria send their foals to Cloudsdale to attend, the only limitation being the cost of transportation to and from their homes. Summer flight camp has in recent years become amazingly popular among its attendees despite the fact that it takes up several weeks of their summer vacation.

After a long pause, Allegro met her friend's question with a shrug. "I'm not really sure. With everything that happened recently, I'm not sure I want to be there... Although, I could probably use the practice."

"Well, there'll be plenty of time for that..." Rosewing knew all about her friend's condition, a rare genetic defect that caused her to use far more energy than necessary while flying. Rather than dwell on the somewhat depressing subject she chose to again shift the topic slightly. "And, of course, there will be plenty of chances to see all your fellow foals' toned, sweaty bodies, tails taut against the surging wind, wings fully erect."

"Hey, come on, I don't think like that all the time!" Allegro balked. "Anyway, you're one to talk."

"Now now, you know I only have eyes for one of my classmates."

It was now Allegro's turn to pause and consider her next words. She knew exactly who her friend had referred to; a certain coffee-colored colt that had moved to Cloudsdale earlier that year. "You know, you really should just tell him how you feel about him rather than just twisting yourself in knots like this."

"Not everypony is invincible like you, Allegro. I don't know what I would do if he didn't feel the same way..."

"I don't know about invincible, it's just that I've never really had feelings like that for anypony before. But anyway, you can't stay quiet on this forever, especially with camp coming up. If you don't make a move pretty soon, eventually somepony else will." She paused to let her words sink in. "I could always tell him for you if you can't-"

"H-Hey look, here comes Dewdrop!" Rosewing practically shouted. At once silence dominated the room while Allegro, as well as the rest of the assembled foals, turned to where Rosewing's hoof indicated. There, halfway in the doorway, stood a turquoise pegasus filly frozen in place, cowering slightly and attempting to hide her face behind her too-short-for-the-job bright yellow mane.

Nice one, Rosewing... Allegro sighed heavily. The fact that she had been responsible for provoking the outburst never occurred to her...

She trotted over to the doorway, taking the attention of her classmates back onto her shoulders as she did. "Mornin' Dewdrop," she said as she approached the filly and placed a hoof on her side, strategically placing herself between her skittish friend and the eyes and ears of their classmates.

"Oh! Um, good morning Allegro." Dewdrop fidgeted a little as she spoke, but was able to maintain her voice. "I'm a little surprised that you made it here before I did today. You seem to arrive just before the second bell more often than not."

"Yeah..." Allegro withdrew her hoof from Dewdrop's side and instead placed it on the back of her neck, rubbing it nervously. I was a little excited about today, well, tonight, and didn't sleep all that much last night... "So anyway, is everything set for tonight?"

Dewdrop nodded. "My parents said that after the accident last week, the factory is running behind on the clouds for flight camp this year, so the whole division is working nonstop. They said it will probably take a few days at that pace, so it's just going to be my big sister and me at home until then."

Perfect. "Sorry to hear about your parents working so much overtime, but that does mean we can pretty much do whatever we want tonight." Both fillies smiled at that.

Allegro glanced behind her. The spectacle of her presence seemed to have died down for another day as her classmates had returned to their own conversations or preparing for class. She motioned Dewdrop to follow and the two made their way towards Dewdrop's desk. "Well, it's about time for class," Allegro commented, watching as Dewdrop slid gracefully into her seat. "You're still gonna meet me and Rosewing over at Sunny's Shakes after we get out today, right?"

"Oh, ah, y-yes of course."

Allegro could feel the hesitation in Dewdrop's voice as she spoke, "Good. I'm sure Rosewing's looking forward to hanging out with you again-"

Their conversation was interrupted by the first bell. Allegro swore under her breath. "Well, I guess it's that time. I've got something to take care right after class so I'll meet you at Sunny's, okay?" Staying just long enough to see her friend's nodding response, Allegro made her way back to her own desk as did everypony around her.

The energy in the classroom was brimming with anticipation.

The long-awaited summer vacation was about to begin.

Author's Note

So here it is, my first attempt at "publishing" a story of any kind. I'm surprised at myself that this ran as long as it did, given that it was a prologue.

So, next chapter should be fun as we shift to Dewdrop's house (one guess what'll happen there...). The gap between chapters will likely be indefinite, but this next one should be out within the week, with any luck.