The Mayor of Cloudsdale

Flitter sat by the table and let her friends explain. The weird pony was after her.

Somehow she wasn't afraid of him, as if she knew all along it was about her.

Thunderlane said she'd better stay at Cloudchasers house, so he wouldn't come to her house.

Cloudchaser then said sarcastic that if she stayed at her house he knew exactly where to find her.

Flitter sighed and as she expected they started to shout and curse about what to do.

She let them. It was indeed them to decide her choices.

Rumble didn't knew he wasn't going to school for a while.

He caught a real bad fever causing him to stay in bed.

It was also causing him to think endlessly about the notes he wasn't allowed to tell his brother about.

Thunderlane now had two ponies to worry about. His brother and Flitter.

He argued all night long with Cloudchaser, but the only conclusion they could find was that the weird guy wasn't after her, but after Flitter. He only didn't knew where she lived, so he sent the notes to Cloudchasers house, which was the meeting point of the group.

They still didn't knew why, but maybe they didn't even wanted to know that.

He doubted if he should tell Rumble about it, but he then told himself it was better for his brother not to know.

He would only worry about Flitter, and he was already sick.

Cloudchaser visited Thunderlane and asked about Rumble.

He still had the fever and laid in bed whole days.

"Shouldn't we go to the doctor with him?" Thunderlane asked.

"Is that really a question Thunderlane? Of course we'll go to the doctor if he keeps that fever." Cloudchaser sat down on a chair.

"No, I mean now. Before it get's worse."

Cloudchaser tought about that for a while.

"You're right. Maybe I can get the doctor to visit us. Then we don't have to carry Rumble all the way trough town." she imagined what Flitter would say about that.

"Besides all this negativeness, got anything nice to tell me?" Cloudchaser asked.

"Actually, not really." Thunderlane sat on the chair opposite Cloudchaser.

"What about Blossomforth?"

He didn't knew what to answer to that. He hadn't seen her scince their failed date.

"I... I didn't speak to her after, well..."

"Oh, alright. I didn't either. I wonder why she left so immediately." Cloudchaser got them something to drink.

Thunderlane shrugged. " I don't know either.

"It must have been important. She isn't the type of pony to leave others alone." Cloudchaser said.

Thunderlane said nothing.

"I'm sorry." she then said. "I shouldn't have lauged at you. It was just stupid." she looked at the floor.

"It's ok. It probably sounded very funny. Being left by your date." Thunderlane laughed a little.

He only hoped that date wasn't the last.

The doctor visited that afternoon. Both Cloudchaser and Flitter were at Thunderlanes house.

He listened to Rumble's breath and heartbeat and advised Thunderlane to keep Rumble in bed and give him antibiotics because he might had a wing infection.

Thunderlane thanked the docter and let him out. Cloudchaser then immediately went to the pharmacy to get antibiotics.

"Flitter?" Rumble asked.

"Yes, I got something to drink for you." she gave him some orange juice.

"What did the doctor say?"

"You might have a wing infection and Cloudchaser is now getting medicine for you." Flitter said.

"He also said you should stay in bed for a while."

"Can you tell my friends then , that I won't be at school very soon?" Rumble asked.

Flitter nodded.

"What do they look like?"

"Uhm... Featherwight is white and very skinny. He usually carries a camera around because he does something for the school paper. Pip and Twist are with him. They're white too." Rumble tought of his friends, who would probably wonder where he was.

"Sure. I will tell them." Flitter said before she left.

Rumble didn't knew if it was day or night, if he was asleep or not.

Everything was just a mass of unrealistic things and toughts.

He once tought Thunderlane told him his grandmother was there to visit, but that was a dream and when he asked the real Thunderlane he told him his grandmother didn't visit beacuase his granfather was in hospital.

But maybe that wasn't a dream. Maybe the dream Thunderlane was the real one and the Thunderlane who said she didn't visit was a dream one. Rumble didn;t knew.

He tought about Flitter too. There had to be a way to tell her that she had too look out.

Once in a while she visited him and Rumble tried to make sure she wasn't a dream by asking questions the dream-her couldn't answer.

That way, he made sure she wasn't gone.

Sometimes he heard his brother and Cloudchaser shouting at eachother about things he couldn't hear very good.

He only knew it was about him and the fact one of them wondered if an infection could make a pony this sick and why the medicine weren't working.

For Rumble it didn't matter. He still had the fever, real bad headaches and felt like the world was spinning around.

"This is ridiculous." Thunderlane said while pacing through the room.

"Nopony is sick this long." Flitter said. "Are you sure it's just an infection?"

"I don't know. But soon it's nightmare night and has has been sick for I-don't-know-how-long." Cloudchaser answered.

"Yes and you don't want to go to the hospital." Thunderlane said.

"No! We aren't going to the hospital." she agreed.

"But he's sick, and what if it's really somthing real bad." Thunderlane shouted.

"It is not, and it going to the hispital only makes it worse." Cloudchaser said.

"Aren't hospitals supposed to heal ponies?" Flitter asked.

"Yes they are, but it's corrupted. They won't help us."

"But it's about Rumble, not about us." Flitter said.

"You too?! You started telling about corruption. Remember that doctor?" Cloudchaser said, still pacing.

"Yeah, sure." Thunderlane said huff.

"And what did he look like?" Cloudchaser stood still.

"Uhm... Tall, dark purple, stallion, Pegasus, stethoscope cutie mark, light blue mane and tail... I forgor his eye colour." Flitter said.

"How the heck did you remember that?" Thunderlane frowned.

"Pecisely. Pegasus. He is corrupted." Cloudchaser said.

"Please, We could always go to the Ponyville hospital and we can't let Rumble stay in bed like this." Flitter said.

Thunderlane nodded immediately.

"And why would she corrupt everypony for us, send Flitter notes. We're just three of the so many pegasi and we don't even live in Cloudsdale."

Flitter looked nervously at her two friends and waited for Cloudchasers answer.

"Because we don't understand the choises of the mayor."

A few weeks later Thunderlane woke his brother up.

"Rumble, your friends are here."

Going to the hospital didn't help. Cloudchaser was right, which was very painful to admit to her. He could never wipe her grin from his mind.

He still had to thank Flitter for helping make up between him and Blossomforth. Blossomforth apologised for leaving. It really relieved him.

Rumble was sitting in bed when Featherweight, Pip, Twist and Scootaloo walked up the stairs.

"Hey Rumble! We brought you a basket of fruit." Pip said.

"Yeah. And I have to carry it." Scootaloo said sarcastic.

"Thanks." Rumble said.

"You totally missed nightmare night." Featherweight said. "Miss Cheerilee was dressed up as a ghost, with chains and all. It looked really cool."

"Nightmare night? Is it already Nightmare night?" Rumble asked.

"Yeah, You've been out for real long." Scootaloo said.

Rumble smiled. He was really happy his friends visited.

"I forgot my camera, otherwise I would show you."

"What were you wearing?" Rumble asked.

"I was a cowboy, Featherweight was a royal guard, Twist was Daring Do and Scootaloo was a Shadowbolt." Pip said.

"Dinky was mare do well, Sweetie Belle was princess Platinum, Diamond Tiara was some sort of queen too. You should have seen her face when Sweetie Belle appeared in the princess Platinum cape her sister wore in Canterlot." Twist said.

"She must have been jealous." Rumble said.

He really hoped Diamond Tiara wasn't picking on Sweetie belle for that.

They told about the visit of a school director from Trottingham and Vanhoover and that they weren't impressed.

They had a math test and almost the whole class got an E, except Featherweight and Archer.

Scootaloo did the presentation about Commander Hurricane herself and got a B.

Then they told a story about the visit of Discord, the former choas king. He was with a yellow mare and he showed them some magic.

Miss Cheerilee once sent Diamond Tiara home for misbehaving and everypony then was talking about her dad's reaction.

When they left, Rumble felt asleep with a smile.

Thunderlane and Blossomforth sat in the cantine of the Weather patrol.

"So are you really searching for another job?" he asked.

"I'd like to do something more administrational. I don't know why, but I'm getting really tired of kicking clouds."

"Alright." Thunderlane answered.

"How is Rumble doing?" Blossomforth said.

"Not very good. He's still at home with the fever."

"Oh..." Blossomforth looked down. "And the notes?"

"Flitter's still getting them, and we can't go to the police, because they aren't really a threat."

"Stupid pony. Do you know why? It's just ridiculous." Blossomforth said.

"No. It's all unknown."

"Maybe I can help. I know somepony working at Cloudsdale's town hall. He's one if the imortant guys there " Blossomforth suggested.

"What would he do then? It's clear he changed his coat colour and all." Thunderlane said.

"No, but how weird it might sound, If you paint over a cutie mark, the mayor can see it and thus tell who could be that guy."

Thunderlane frowned. "And you think sompony as important as the mayor of Cloudsdale would have time for us?"

"I know how stipid it sounds, but I can always try, and we can't let Flitter live like this." she said and looked Thunderlane in his eyes.

"Alright." Thunderlane said "By the way, would you like to do something this saturday?"

"I'm sorry." Rumble heard a voice say.

"I't's my fault you're sick now. You caught a cold and that turned into this."

He tried his best to recognize the voice. Flitter? No, Flitter had a real soft voice.

Rumble tried to wake up.

The voice was too high to be his brother.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

The pony didn't hear him.

"I should have asked somepony else, we don't even know eachother that well."

"Who are you?" Rumble tried again.

"You're waking up, good."

"Scootaloo?" Rumble opened his eyes and saw he face of the orange filly.

"What are you still doing here?"

"Still? It's been two weeks scince we brought you that fruit." she frowned.

"Two weeks?" Rumble lost the sense of time.

"Yeah, do you remember that?" she asked.

Rumble nodded.

"Are Featherweight and Pip here too?"

"No, I'm alone. I wanted to say sorry for that letter. It was way too cold and now you're in bed all the time." Scootaloo said.

"Why aren't you going to the hospital anyway?"

"I don't know. My brother and Cloudchser decided that." Rumble shrugged.

"That's just mean. So they rather have you have the fever?" Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.

"I guess." Rumble said.

When Scootaloo left that was the only thing he tought about. He should have gone to the hospital, instead, they just let him be sick.

He reminded himself to ask them whenever they visited him.

"Wake up! You need to hear this." Scootaloo almost pushed Rumble out of his bed.

"What? Wake up..." he said.

"And be quiet. Your brother is asleep."

Rumble shook his head and looked at Scootaloo who was standing next to his bed.

"Thunderlane?"

"Yes. He's asleep and we don't want to wake him up."

Rumble stared at hear, not really knowing what she meant.

"It's night." Scootaloo pointed at the clock. 2AM.

"What the heck are you doing here then? I's cold."

"That's why I'm here. Now listen." Scootaloo told about the hospital and that she searched up something about the fever.

"And I know why your brother and those mares aren't taking you to the hospital. I heard them say s..."

Rumble interrupted her. "You spied on my brother?!"

"Shhh! Okay, maybe I did, but it wasn't spying, I just wanted to know why you weren't going to the hospital, and I could imagine you wanting to know that too." Scootaloo explained.

"That's still spying actually." Rumble said "Wait, how do you even got in my room?"

"I can't fly, but I can climb in the tree just under your window. Do you want to know what they said or not?"

"Yes." he answered. He wanted to know really, really badly.

"They were talking about a pony they just referred to as 'her' and she corrupted the doctors or something. They said something about notes and that mare who looks girly."

Rumble raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I don't know what their names are, but you have your brother, that mare with the spiked hair and the girly one. They said there was something about notes adressed to the girly one."

"Really?!" Rumble got up. So they figured it out themselves? Now he didn't have to tell them.

"Be quiet." she said. "What's with them anyway? Your borther is always with those two."

"They're friends." Rumble didn't knew actually when his brother met them , but he grew up with Cloudchaser and Flitter as his foalsitters.

"I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. They were going on about it forever."

Other subject. Rumble didn't wanted to talk with Scootaloo about the notes.

"Did they really said they were afraid of corrupted doctors?" he asked.

Scootaloo nodded.

"Oh, before I leave, I found this taped under your desk at school." she gave him and envelope before she jumped out the window.

For Rumble. Don't open. was written on it.

Its the handwriting of the weird pony! Rumble realised.

With his heart beating twice as fast he opened it.

Keep out of this if you're smart.

I warn you. This is not a game.

Don't tell your brother, Cloudchaser, Flitter or Blossomforth. I'm watching you all.

I know where to find you.