The Mayor of Cloudsdale

Flitter sat in the dark. She loved the dark.

It made you invisible.

She didn't understand why Cloudchaser was afraid of the dark.

Fear was something natural, but when you live with it long enough it will become your best friend.

Flitter laid her head on the pillow. It felt so much softer when she was a filly, just like this niche.

"Rumble, keep that door open! This table is big."

Thunderlane and Cloudchaser tilted the table and lifted it into the house.

"Nice home. And nearby ours too, if we need to foalsit you." Cloudchaser said.

"I don't want a foalsitter anymore, I'm old enough to stay home alone myself."

"I know." Thunderlane and Cloudchaser put the table down. "But your brother likes to have us around." Cloudchaser winked.

She leaned to Rumble and whispered loud enough for everypony to hear: "Everyone around here know he has a crush on Flitter."

Flitter and Thunderlane turned red.

"Kidding." Cloudchaser flew outside go grab one of the boxes.

"Flitter, can you move all these boxes to the kitchen?" Thunderlane pointed at the boxes underneath the table.

"Sure. What's in them?" she asked.

"Plates and glasses and stuff. I'm gonna get the heavy boxes from outside."

When passing Cloudchaser he turned red again.

Cloudchaser put the boxes with his name on them down.

Rumble wondered if Cloudchaser was implying Flitter likes his brother. He could imagine Flitter being too shy to ask.

"You like it here?" Cloudchaser asked.

Rumble nodded. "My room is twice as big as the one in our cloudhouse. I'll show you."

He picked up a small box and flew with it upstairs.

"You just want me to take the heavy one!" Cloudchaser said.

Rumble's room had a big window looking over the street.

"My bed is going to be here." Rumble stood on one side of the room.

"And if my brother is okay with it I will put dad's desk here."

"Nice." Cloudchaser said. "I need to help your brother lift some more things. Flitter can help you unpack if you want to.

Rumble took his pillow and bedspread out of the small box and laid them on his bed.

"Rumble! Rumble! Are you here?" Flitter walked up the stairs.

"Yes!" he replied.

"Thunderlane and Cloudchaser are getting the closet, then we're done." Flitter sat down next to Rumble.

"How exactly did we get this house?" he asked.

"Cloudchaser and I got Thunderlane a job on the Ponyville weather team. But it was actually Blossomforth who knew you could hire this house and it's always good to live near your..." Flitter's eyes moved to the ceiling. "I-is that a tarantula?"

Rumble shrieked. "It is... Can you get it outside?"

Flitter stood up. "No, I'm afraid of spiders, ask Cloudchaser." she said while looking at the giant spider.

"What is it actually doing in ponyville? That kind of spider doesn't live here."

Thunderlane and Cloudchaser flew upstairs.

"Thunderlane! There's a giant spider in my room!" Rumble said.

"Is my brother afraid of spiders?" Thunderlane laughed.

They walked into his room while Cloudchser picked up a glass.

"Then you get it outside if you want to."

Thunderlane gulped, not knowing they were talking about a tarantula.

"Ha! Your're afraid too!" Rumble said.

A little hesitating Cloudchaser catched the spider in the glass.

"I really tought you would scream harder Flitter. Or are you getting over your fear of spiders?"

She threw the spider out the window. Flitter shrugged.

"I hope so, then you won't wake me in the middle of the night again."

"Is she really doing that?" Thunderlane asked.

Cloudchaser nodded, making Flitter blush.

"Welcome back my students!" Cheerilee asked for silence.

"This year is your last before you go to high school, but we got a new student. Say hello Rumble."

Rumble stepped inside the classroom and felt all eyes looking at him.

"Oo. Another blank flank!" somepony giggled.

"Please tell something about yourself." Cheerilee said.

Rumble sighed and started talking.

"Hi. I'm Rumble and I moved to Ponyville with my brother Thunderlane."

"Well, I hope you like it here. Sit down where ever you want."

Rumble looked around the classroom.

There was a place next to a yellow filly with a bow in her hair and between the window and a skinny colt.

He chose to sit next to the window.

"Hello, I'm Featherweight." the colt said.

Rumble smiled.

"Because it's your last year on this school I will tell about everything we're going to do this year, especially for Rumble."

Cheerilee picked up a chalk and wrote with big letters HEARTS WARMING EVE DINNER on the blackboard.

"Every year we organize a dinner on the friday before the hearth's warming eve holiday."

"If you want to know, everypony goes dress to impress then, so colts have to wear a black jacket or something." Featherweight whispered.

Rumble wondered if he could borrow one from his brother and then laughed inside by the tought of his brother in a smoking.

"In february you will all take the PONY intelligence test to help choose the best high school. There will also be a day where the directors of different schools will tell about theirs."

"Miss, what does PONY stand for?" A white pony with glasses asked.

"I actually don't know Twist..."

The whole class laughed.

"In may we will have summer camp of course."

"Yay!!!" Everypony screamed.

"Silence please, I'd like to tell the last thing before we start with the first school day program.

At the end of the year the highest class will peform a musical for all your family members and friends. It's the highlight of the year.

And at the last school day you wil lead a group of younger ponies trough this years game."

"Those games are always boring. It's always too hot, those little ones wander off or fight and there are always ponies who think it's funny to move the signs of where to go." Featherweight whispered.

Rumble couldn't help but laugh at his description. That's exactly what a last school day game trough a little town looks like.

When Rumble got home his brother, Cloudchaser and Flitter were paining the walls of the living room.

"How was your first school day?" Thunderlane asked.

"It was ok. I've met some ponies who are nice." Rumble sat down on an empty paint bucket.

"That's nice to hear. Scince you're home so early, you can help us paint." Cloudchaser said.

"Are you serious?" The last thing Rumble wanted to do was painting walls.

"No I'm not. Go explore the town and make sure to stay near the centre."

"I heard there's a sweets store and a library near town hall." Flitter said.

"Cool! I'll be back in an hour!" Rumble said while flying out the door.

The sweets store was easily found.

It was filled with cookies, donuts and cake.

"Hello. can I help you?" A tall yellow earth pony asked.

"Uhm..." Rumble looked around.

A pink mare walked in and put some cupcakes on a shelf.

"I'd like a cupcake." Rumble pointed at the cupcakes the pink mare was holding.

"Very good coice. They are freshly baked." The mare said while handing Rumble the cupcake.

"That's one bit."

Rumble sill had some pocket money and one bit and it was ceap in comparison to Cloudsdale and Cantorlot.

Flitter told him that those cities had the highets prices for actually everything.

After he paid he went to town hall. The center of Ponyville had something from the center of Cloudsdale, except Cloudsdales center was a square and town hall wasn't in the center of the square.

But it was just as crowded and there were just as much market stands.

Rumble flew to the library to avoid getting pushed.

"Hello. Is this the Ponyville library?"

"Yes. This part is public and upstairs is private. Are you here to get some books, I've never seen you around here." A purple mare said.

"I just moved to Ponyville." He explained.

"What kind of books do you like? I just got a new book from A.K. Yearling." The mare lifted a book off the table.

Then he noticed the wings on her back. She was princess Twilight Sparkle. Rumble saw her a few times in the Cloudsdale newspaper.

"I like adventure books and thrillers."

Rumble always liked that kind of stories. The first one he read was also the scariest. Maybe because he was much younger and maybe because it was the first one. But after he got over it he loved those stories about ponies solving crimes.

"Oh. Those are over here." She pointed at one side of the wall.

Rumble searched trough the shelf and choose three books.

When he realised how late it was he quickly said bye to the princess and went home.

"Hello class." Cheerilee said.

"We start this year with a nice little project. You are going to take a photo of two of your family members, like your aunt or grandmother. It's for the bigger project centering about pony's in general.

So, I'm going to hand out papers with a number. You're going to work with the pony with the same number."

"But miss! I don't want to work with somepony else then Silver Spoon!" a pink filly said.

"Then I'm sorry, but you have to." Cheerilee said while starting giving little pieces of paper.

The pink filly pouted.

"Diamond Tiara is always like that. You better give her what she wants, her dad is very rich." Pipsquek said.

Featherweight nodded.

"I have number two!" the white filly named Twist said.

Cheerilee gave Rumble three papers.

"Which one do you want to have?" He showed all three papers.

Featherwight shrugged and then picked the left one.

"I want this one." Pip got the middle paper.

They all folded the papers open.

"Hey Twist!" Pip said "I have two too!"

"Hu! You're lucky. I got six so I'm with Silver Spoon." Featherwight looked at the grey filly who was talking about how much she wanted Diamond Tiara to have six too.

Rumble unfolded his.

"Eight."

He looked around the class, where everypony stood up and screamed their numbers.

"I'll go with you if you don't want to walk around them alone." Pip stood up.

"Ok." Rumble hoped it was amepony he already knew.

"Hey y'all, I'm three!" A yellow filly said.

"Oo! Me too!" a white unicorn hugged the yellow filly.

"They are with the orange pegasus over there a group. They have some sort of club to get their cutie marks. Don't bother them."

Rumble nodded. The classroom was a total chaos.

"I hope you're with snips. Then you will get a lowerer grade." somepony said.

"Snips always gets the lowest grades of the class. That's him." Pip pionted to a yellow-ish colt.

"And they are Scootaloo and Stargaze."

Rumble looked at the two ponies.

"That is Dinky. Her mom is the mailmare. They are Archer and Button Mash. Do you still get it?"

Rumble actually didn't.

The mailmare girl made a duo with Diamond Tiara.

Pip, Featherweight, Twist. Apple girl, Sweetie, Scootaloo. Diamond Tiara, Spoon, Stargaze. he repeated in his head.

Button Mash and who's mom was the mailmare?

"Who has eight? Who has eight?" He asked, doubting if anypony heard him.

He heard "I don't" a few times when Cheerilee told the class to go back to their seats.

"Who hasn't found their duo yet?" Cheerilee asked.

Rumble put up his hoof, just like five others.

"Archer, you're with Zipporwhill. You both have one.

Rumble? You have eight so you're with Scootaloo.

Lisa Doolots, you're with Luckette."

"Who was Scootaloo again?" Rumble asked.

"That one." Pip pointed at the orange pegasus who was talking to Apple girl and the white unicorn whose name he forgot.

Thunderlane walked into the building where a mare was sitting behind a desk.

So this was the building of the Ponyville weather team?

"Hello. I'm Thunderlane." he said.

"You're new here? Well, I will give you a tour around this place. This is the entrance hall. I'm the secretary of the Ponyville weather patrol and I usually sit here. Behind that door is the cantine and over there will be the schedule of the month. You get your task over here and when you're done ýou'll mark it on this list." the mare pointed at a paper taped to the wall.

Thunderlane nodded and looked at the schedule. Clearing clouds above the farm at monday and making it rain in Ponyville on tuesday. He could do that.

Thunderlane searched for Cloudchaser in the cantine.

"Hey Thunderlane. Blossomforth and I are here."

Thunderlane sat down next to Blossomforth.

"I have to make it thunderstorm tonight and that is seriously the worst thing to do. I heard of a pony who sprained a wing because of that." Blossomforth complained.

"You know those stories are not true. They're made up on a spooky night. Possibly at a sleepover by some colts who wanted to make the filly's scream." Cloudchaser gave Thunderlane a smoothie.

"If you're teasing the girls, you always ask for trouble ya know."

Blossomforth rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you say. But have you heard about Hoops?"

"Hoops?" Thunderlane asked.

"Oh. You're living in Ponyville now too. You're missing all the news about pegasi.

I'll explain. Hoops, that guy with his hair before his eyes has been spotted by Big Shot at the Wonderbolts Academy after he failed his test. And guess what? He was holding that clipboard Spitfire usually has." Blossomfoth said.

"So he was trying to change his results?" Thunderlane said.

"Yup." Cloudchaser got them some cookies.

"Then he got a serious problem." Thunderlane said "I wonder what the Wonderbolts are going to think of that."

"Speaking about the Wonderbolts, Blaze and Fire Streak are dating." Cloudchaser mentioned.

"They are?" Thunderlane ate another cookie.

"The last one is for me." Blossomforth pointed at the cookies on the plate before them.

"But I paid them!" Cloudchaser said.

"You already ate half of them." Thunderlane complained.

They all laughed.

"Do you want another drink?" Cloudchaser said.

"Yes please." Blossomforth and Thunderlane said at the same time.

"Sure. I'm right back."

"So we have to do this together." Scootaloo said after school.

"Yes. I'm Rumble." Rumble said. "Whose family should we take pictures of?"

"Yours. My grandparents are dead and I don't have siblings."

Rumble nodded.

"We'd better go right now. Or else it's raining." Scootaloo pointed at the sky.

"Ok. We'll take a shortcut trough the forest. We'll be there in twenty minutes."

There was a path going trough the edge of the Everfree forest that lead directly to Cloudsdale.

When Rumble was younger he and his brother always took that path when they visited Ponyville. It was too close near the village to be dangerous and there were a lot of beautiful flowers.

"I'm going to get my scooter and say bye to my friends." she said.

But if you flew too high up you could get stuck in a tree.

Rumble reminded himself that he had to tell Scootaloo that.

They followed the path Rumble told about.

Should I say something to her? Rumble tought while Scootaloo was looking at the flowers.

If yes, what?

Luckily for him Scootaloo started talking first.

"This is a nice path."

"Yeah. I've been here a lot with my brother." Rumble answered.

It felt silent again. The only thing they heard was the sound of the scooter riding over pebbles.

"And, how long is it actually to your grandmother?"

"Around five minutes from now."

The road turned right real fast and Rumble remembered there was a gap as deep as a house in this path.

Ponies once dug it to make a path from underneath Cloudsdale to Ponyville. They also built a bridge but it was broken.

Rumble didn't noticed it that much because he was always flying.

He saw the edge of the gap.

"Look out!" Rumble screamed, but the scooter felt over the edge of the gap pulling Scootaloo down too.

She shrieked while her helmet got stuck behind a branch and snapped from her head.

Scootaloo tumbled down screaming and bumped into a tree.

Rumble landed next to her and shook her shoulder.

"Are you ok? Give an answer!"

He turned her around and saw a giant wound on the side of her head.

"Please say something!" Rumble panicked.

Oh dear Celestia. What if she hit her head to hard and didn't wake up?

He barely knew this filly, he met her just yesterday.

"Scootaloo? Scootaloo!!!" He looked around, not that there was anypony who was going to search them. He told Thunderlane this morning that he wanted to go to the library after school and Cloudchaser and Flitter were at work.

Screaming for help wouldn't help, he also didn't brong bandages or anything. He could fly back to Ponyville and get help, but leaving her here wasn't a good plan. His grandmother lived outside Cloudsdale, which was only two minutes flying from there, but Rumble didn't knew if he could carry her.

Then she moaned and tried to stand up.

"Argh, my head..." she looked at Rumble who was relieved he didn't had to deal with an unconcious classmate on the second school day.

"We need to go. Your head looks real bad." Rumble said.

Scootaloo nodded and grabbed her scooter, almost tripping over a stone.

"You don't need that. My grandmother lives on the cloud above us. We can fly up there."

Scootaloo stared at him for a second, then suddenly she pushed Rumble so he felt against the tree and scooted away.

What the heck is wrong with this filly? Rumble tought.

He got up and flew after her.

"Hey! Come back!" he shouted "You're going the wrong way! Ponyville it the other way!"

Scootaloo didn't gave a reaction, much to Rumble's annoyance.

Yelling at her wouldn't help. And how much he wanted to just turn around and let her be, Rumble had to help her. She was seriously injured.

"Listen, if you're mad, I'm sorry!" He didn't even know why he was saying sorry.

"But you need to stop and turn around. Your head is bleeding real bad."

Rumble flew next to her and could catch her just in time before she felt unconscious.

"They have nice drinks here." Blossomforth said.

Thunderlane nodded.

"It's also a good job. Most pegasi work and live their whole life in Cloudsdale. Born there and died there. The only stuid thing is that you always have to work at moments when it doesn't fit your own schedule. Like, Thunderlane has to bust clouds soon, so you have to go to his house and wait for Rumble." Blossomforth pointed at Cloudchaser.

"Uhu. And you have to work every thursday evening at the same time you used to go to the sports club, while on friday you have nothing to do."

"Then I'm quite lucky. I usually start when Rumble leaves for school and I'm back before he's back. On day's I'm not I ask Cloudchaser to foalsit him." Thunderlane said.

"After flight school, he might get a job at the Ponyville weather partrol too. Then he doesn't have to move back to Cloudsdale."

"Maybe he's going to marry some unicorn and moves to Canterlot." Cloudchaser suggested.

"Whoa, stop." Blossomforth said "Are you discussing Rumble's love life right now?"

"Yeah... He will figure something out and we're not the ponies to discuss that."

"It was meant as a joke."

"But I think there are more intresting things to talk about then my little brothers love life." Thunderlane added.

"Sure. Let's talk about yours then." Cloudchaser looked at Thunderlane and Blossomforth who were looking at eachother trying to figure out whose love life Cloudchaser meant.

"You both. You always complain that friday evening is lame and you look pretty cute together."

Cloudchaser stood up.

"Now I have to wait for Rumble when he gets back from school."

She flew away leaving her friends blushing awkwardly.

"WHAT THE HECK?!" Cloudchaser shouted at Rumble.

"We were so worried!" Flitter added.

"When we heard you were at the Ponyville hospital you seriously creeped us out!" Cloudchaser continued.

"I'm sorry" Rumble said "but I didn't knew anything else to do and maybe she was dead. Are you very mad at me?"

"We're not mad, of course not. You did the right thing but you really scared us." Flitter said.

"Just imagine your brothers face when one of us is telling him you're at Ponyville's hospital. And I'm not really afraid of anything, but It's not going to be me." Cludchaser got a little smile from the grey colt.

"She will be all right, luckily. Why did you decided to go there anyways?" Flitter asked.

"We needed a photo of my grandmother and she felt. I dragged her all the way to the hospital on the other side of the town. When we got there I tought she was dead!"

Flitter felt the panic in Rumbles voice and imagined what he must have felt when he was in the forest with that unconcious filly and it felt all too familiar.