My Little Cloudchaser

Chapter I: The Epitome of Monotony

Hi, my name is Arrick. Im what most people would consider a typical seventeen year old. I go to school like everybody else, but unlike a lot of people in my neighborhood, I actually try to get good grades. Everyone says that Im a pretty good kid. Yes, I am a Brony, but Im a bit of a rare breed. Why, you may be asking? Ill tell you why: Im black. Now, Ive been ridiculed to no end for my "Brony-ism", even to the point of one of my closest friends calling me "A disappointment to my own race". But Ive never let it get to me, & thats just one of the things that people like about me. Im resilient & sometimes a bit secretive, but once you get to know me, Im probably one of the nicest guys you`ll meet. My life was the embodiment of monotony, boredom & tedium, though. (Another thing that people say is that I have an extremely extensive vocabulary. Hell, I even won an award for it when I was in kindergarten.) I would wake up at 6:00 AM, go to school, come home at 2:30, then do my homework, play video games, or watch My Little Pony until I ate dinner & went to bed. That was exactly what I did every single freaking day. I think I know why I love Kingdom Hearts so much. I feel for Riku. We both believed that we were destined to do something more than what we already did, & that the first real challenge of our lives would be escaping from the borderline prison we lived in. We both succeeded, but our methods led us both to personal failure. Riku became the human embodiment of Darkness & almost killed his friends & himself, & I made some half-decent friends who ended up betraying me at the flip of a coin. I had been through a lot, & so for the longest time, I did everything in my power to avoid doing anything that could possibly lead to me making friends.

But that was before I became a Brony.

It was a fairly normal day, & I was talking to the one person that had remained my friend throughout my life: a guy named Chris, who was only two years older than me. I was at his house, & we were just sitting around playing Battlefield 3. I was never a huge fan of FPS`s, but Battlefield & Halo were exceptions.

"& boom goes the dynamite!" I exclaimed as the round ended, claiming me as the victor. I usuallly didn`t trash talk a lot when I played video games, but Chris said that it gave him something to prevent, which in turn made him work a lot harder & get a lot better.

"Yeah, that was pretty awesome. Say, I`ve got something to show you." Chris told me as he picked up his laptop.

"What?"

"Youll see..." I didnt like that weird grin he was giving me, but I had learned over time to normally expect the best from him. He opened up a CD case & pulled out a blank CD simply marked, "FiM S1, Ep. 1+2". He placed the disc inside his laptop & it began to play. After only about two minutes, I asked a very important question.

"Chris, the fuck is this?"

"My Little Pony. Just give it a chance, Im pretty sure youll like it."

"Isn`t this supposed to be for like, girls?"

"Not anymore, bro. Not. Any. More." Chris always had a way of sounding intimidating, even when he wasnt trying very hard. We watched a single episode, & I found myself addicted. He had two whole seasons on DVDs, & we ended up watching both of them. He then introduced me to a few other interesting things; a site dedicated to fanfiction, an entire news site with its own app, which I promptly downloaded, & even a massive number of musicians & artists. & to think that all of this was inspired by a TV show about magic cartoon horses. I also found myself extremely interested in writing, so I gave it a try. My first couple of attempts didn`t go so well, but I got the hang of it from reading a lot of it, & I honed my skills quite quickly.

I was particularly happy today. It was the first day of summer vacation, & I had stopped by the small electronics shop on my way home & gotten quite the deal: a copy of Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, & The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, all for a total of twenty-seven dollars. It was one of the only places I knew of that still sold PS2 & GameCube games, & I was quite lucky for that. I was walking home from school, whistling one of my favorite MLP related songs. I couldn`t help it anymore, & began to actually sing. I looked absolutely ridiculous, but I was enjoying myself more than I could imagine, & that was all that mattered.

"Pinkie Pie, Twi, Shy, Aj way more, ponies than I thought freakin out, minds blown, grabbin like a klepto now Im on a roll, payin` at the-"

My revelry was interrupted by a shocking discovery. The window that led into the living room of my house was completely shattered. My mom was at work, but my sister was at home. I had to make sure that she was okay, but I couldnt go in just yet. What if we had been robbed, & they were still inside? I ran out to the garage, & pulled off a quick bit of ingenuity. I duct taped a very sharp piece of scrap metal to the end of a hockey stick, effectively creating a makeshift scythe. I came back around & climbed through the window, being careful not to step on any broken glass. As I walked through the house towards my sisters bedroom, I stopped. I could hear a strange noise that sounded almost like breathing coming from inside my room, but I didnt check it out, since it was probably just my cat. She always loved sleeping on my bed when I was gone. I stepped forward & opened the door to my sisters room. She was laying on her bed in a borderline coma, snoring loudly. Knowing she was still alive, I headed back through the hallway to make sure that I heard my cat & nothing else. There was no way that I could`ve prepared myself for what I saw.

There was a decent sized mound of lilac blue on my bed, topped with a pile of cerulean & white.

"What the..."

I stepped a bit closer, & noticed a few things. First of all, the sound was coming from whatever this was, so it was clearly alive. Second, it had wings! This was starting to look very familiar, but it couldn`t be...

The pile stirred & moved, & I could see a pair of large rose-colored orbs staring back at me, a look of fear plastered across them.

"Cloudchaser!? DAFUQ!?"

The pegasus visibly flinched from my shout, so I dropped my makeshift weapon, crouching down on one knee & reaching a hand out towards her, which simply made her shrink back further.

"Its fine. Im not going to hurt you." I told her in a calm & soothing voice. I had experience with young puppies from doing a small amount of volunteer work at an animal shelter, so I imagined that she would be kind of like a puppy. I continued, keeping my voice low as I spoke.

"Are you okay? Was that you that broke my window?"

"Im sorry, I didnt mean-"

"Its perfectly fine. I can fix it anytime. Im more worried about you. Did you get hurt coming thorugh the window?"

"A little bit..."

"What happened?"

She lifted up one of her wings, revealing a small cut on her side. Nothing big, though.

"Stay right here. I`ll be back in a second."

I stood up & headed towards the bathroom, but before I left, Cloudchaser decided to address me again.

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

She stood up & climbed off of my bed, trotting lightly over towards me.

"Why are you being so nice to me already? I barely even know you, & you barely know me."

"Well, I just always thought that the world would be a better place if everyone could give out a little bit of kindness." I reached back down & ruffled her mane a bit, which just made it look even more awesome than before.

"Huh. So, am I still in Equestria?"

"As far as I know, no. Im sorry, but Equestria doesnt even exist here. Or at least not in real life."

"What does that mean?"

"I`ll explain later."

I headed into the bathroom & grabbed a few supplies, then came back & fixed the cut under her wing.

"I`ll be back in just a minute."

"Okay."

I reached down & scratched underneath her chin, which she clearly enjoyed. I kept scratching just to see how adorable she would look. Needless to say, I nearly developed diabetes. I then walked back towards my sister`s room, noticing that she was now awake.

"Arrick? Who were you talking to?"

My expression turned to a combination of excitement, anticipation, & worry. What if she couldn`t stay in our house? Then again, where would she go? I turned back to my sister, changing the aforementioned expression to pure fanboy-ism.

"Sam, you`re not gonna believe this."

My Little Cloudchaser