“Where have you been Cloudy?” my mom asked frantically, rushing through the living room to come hug me. “We’ve been worried sick about you!”

“Sorry, Mom,” I hugged her back and headed for my room, however my dad decided to stop me before I could go anywhere.

“Son, you mother asked you a question, and we both want to know the answer to it.” He had a stern look on his face. But it was all for show, I know my dad well enough. He may look mean, but he’s twice as nice as he looks. Then again, that definitely would not stop me from getting grounded if I said nothing.

“I went to read some books at the library,” I said pulling the books I was lent by Princess Twilight. He was not letting up so easily. “What?” I think he could tell I was hiding something.

“Does this have anything to do with that over-sized contraption you have in your room?”

“If I say yes, would you be mad?” I tried to act innocent.

“Stone,” he sighed, “look we need to talk,” he had that ‘we’re gonna sit here and I’m going to lecture you’ look on his face. He walked into the dining room and took a seat at the table and gestured for me to do the same. Obediently, I took a seat next to him. “Your mom and I discussed it, and we think it’s about time you got rid of that thing and started something more constructive.”

“But I’ve almost made a breakthrough!” I quickly shouted back.

“It’s not that we don’t admire your persistence,” he calmly answered back, “but we think you should give up on whatever this thing is that you have been building and start trying to make some friends.”

“Yeah right,” I rolled my eyes. “What pony would want to be friends with a blank flank as old as me? I mean come on,” I stomped my hoof, “even the CMC decided that my age was too high and I was on my own!”

“Calm down Cloudy,” Mom came in from behind me and put her foreleg around me. “No pony is perfect, but I’m sure some pony would be willing to be your friend if you just opened up to them.”

“Open up for them to do what?” I pushed her away. “Open up so that they can tear me down further? No I don’t think so.” What was she thinking? What were they thinking? Friends?! Yeah right. That’s like fire and gasoline. The only thing we would have in common is a big explosion.

“When’s the last time you actually tried to make friends?” Dad asked.

I had to think about it for a minute. It was a while, but I remember how it felt. It was terrible. All I remember is a bunch of kicking, laughing faces, and a name. His name is Red Steel. Red was as his name implied, red with a dark brown mane and brown eyes. He has a mechanic cutie mark, though he wouldn’t know a thing about mechanics if not for me. I introduced it to him, and he took to it like a fish to water. He later repaid me by taking me to someplace I don’t remember and I was ambushed by his other friends, beat up, and left there.

A couple weeks after I had recovered, Red came to me and said that he felt terrible about it and that he was sorry and blah, blah, blah. That moment ruined my trust for anypony from that point on.

After that, I kept my nose in as many books as I could find. I wanted to fly away from here. And that’s exactly what I will do. I had decided that if I was going to have a cutie mark, it was going to be about flying, and then I would join the ranks of the Wonderbolts. I would show them all how great I could be. I hoped at least then, they would all stop teasing me.

“A while,” I finally responded. “Not like I need friends,” I quickly added.

“This is exactly why we think you should try and make some,” my mom quickly answered me.

“I know you guys are just trying to look out for me and my well-being, but we all know what happened the last time. I’m not ready to chance it again yet.” I walked down the hall forcing the end of the conversation, but I think my parents were trying to keep it going. I was going to pretend like I was off in my own world and ignore them.

I took a left into my room. Ah, my room. My sanctum of peace. The nice red throw rug next to my bed with its black comforter with two blue stripes caddy cornered to one side of the sheet, and my blank spot where my prototype and blueprints w-.

“WHAT?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I stormed out of my room ready to have a scream battle with my parents and then have them tell me exactly where my prototype was. “YOU TOOK IT! I FOUND WHAT I NEEDED TODAY AND YOU TOOK IT?!”

“Son, calm down,” Dad tried to be reasonable, but reasonable jumped out of a window after I lost something precious to me.

“CALM? YOU, YOU TOOK MY PROTOTYPE!”

“Son, we don’t even know what you’re building!” My dad shouted back. His voice was not near as loud or as stressed as mine, and it only made me angrier.

“WHY!?” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“BECAUSE WE WERE AFRAID THIS WAS GOING TO CONSUME YOU!” My mother shouted back. My dad and I both, shocked at my mom’s reaction caused us both to sit down and straighten up as if on call by Princess Celestia herself.

A tear ran down her face, “You’re constantly home, yet your father and I hardly see you.” She sat down and started to sob.

Come on, don’t do that. You’re making me feel worse. Not the tears. Oh, and now the face.

“We don’t spend as much time home as we used to, and on top of that it’s like we never see you. And when you’re out of your room, you’re out of the house doing research on whatever that thing is!” She pointed to a mangled piece of machinery. Clearly mine, but what in the world happened to it? I bet as soon as they picked it up it fell apart. Which means I should probably take some no- Wait a sec, what am I doing, I’m in the middle of a crisis here and I’m thinking about notes? Oh boy I have turned into my grandpa, haven’t I?

“Look, I’m sorry Mom. I don’t mean to avoid you guys. I know you mean well, but that prototype means a lot to me. I’m going to get it working someday and then I’ll show you guys what it is, I promise.”

“But why won’t you tell us what it is?” She had a point. I honestly had no reason why I never told them. Maybe I never told them because they never actually asked what it was. Maybe I was afraid at what they might say, or that they would laugh since it looks nothing like a pair of wings right now.

“Maybe it’s better if I show you,” I finally replied. I walked over to the mangled contraption and examined it for any extensive damage. Actually, it was fine. It’s, folded? Ha! Another idea just hit me. I had not originally designed it to fold down like that, but the position that the wires had folded the skeleton of the wings perfectly. I made a mental note and then picked it up.

Once my belt strap was on, I proceeded to fit my gauntlets on my front hooves. Once they were fitted, the skeletal wings unfolded making what looked like two backwards legs coming out of my back. I moved each of my front hooves and each wing moved accordingly.

“You’re making arms?” My dad asked.

“No, it’s,” I sighed. I have no idea why this is so hard. “It’s a pair of wings.” From then on, all I heard were snorts and giggles from my parents, then a burst of laughter from the both of them.

“Why is this so funny?”

“We thought it was so much more serious than that,” my mom said with a chuckle. “We thought you might have been making weapons. You have no idea how relieved we are.”

“Does that mean I can keep them?”

“What are they for?” My mom asked.

“Well what do you do with wings?”

“Wait, you don’t think you can fly, do you?”

“Not yet,” I said with a grin.

“Cloudy,” my dad rubbed his head, “not everyone is meant to fly.”

“Yeah well, I’m not everyone,” I told him. Then I took my wings off, and walked to my room.

I put my wings back on my work desk, turned off the lights, and lied in bed. I stared up at the ceiling, where my Wonderbolts poster was stuck. Both my mom and my dad were on that poster. They had their hoods off, clearly revealing their faces. My dad looked like a younger Soarin, but with a light brown mane instead of Soarin’s gray mane.

My mom is a beautiful red color, she also has a light brown mane, but it has white streaks through. My mom has the sweetest eyes. She could whisk the violence out of even the meanest of dragons.

I just cannot believe them. Of all the ponies in the world, I thought that my parents might be supportive of me. Well there is Prin-

“Princess Twilight!” I quickly sat up and remembered I owe her a letter tomorrow. I need to get it written tonight so I can send it tomorrow morning.

Quickly I went to my desk and grabbed some paper and a pen. I wrote:

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
As promised, here is my first letter….

“No,” I sighed and crumpled up the paper and started again. And again.

Once more.

No this one. Words are hard.

Well, she did want to know what I know about my project, so maybe I should send her a copy of my blueprints. Since my parents still had my originals, I dug around for the copies I had put away in a drawer.

“Ah, there you are,” I said as I found the perfect one. This was the detailed sketch of what I wanted my final product to look like. I think some minor modifications may need to be made, but all in all, I think I’m going in the right direction. It looks a lot like my prototype. The only difference is that my prototype is missing an important component. Feathers. Or maybe some sort of skin-like flap like bats’ wings. I would have to figure that out later. Of course, there was still the matter of writing the letter.

After a few hours of consideration, I finally decided that I would apologize for my first letter, then maybe she would tell me how she wants her next letters to be written.

I wrote”

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I apologize for my informality of this letter. I am not very good with words. However, this is the letter as requested. I have found that using a motor would be too heavy for my project, so instead I came up with a mechanism that would move in motion according to how I walked with my front hooves. The system at the moment is a little shaky, and I only have the skeletal frame built, however, a key component in my wings seems to be escaping my grasp. I think I will have to make either the feathers or a skin-like substance that would allow me to stay airborne. I almost lost everything, however thanks to my parents. They thought I was making weapons and tried to throw it away. Anyway, the blueprint has better detail of my findings of how it would work. Please use it in reference of my future letters until I have decided that a change is needed.

Your subject,

Stone Cloud.

I sighed loudly. Everything is done. Now all I need to do is mail it tomorrow.

Then my parents came back to mind. Dear Celestia, I hate them right now. First they try to take my dreams, then they try to crush them. “Oh!” Speaking of which, that fold came back to mind. Quickly, I picked my pen back up and decided to write underneath my letter.

P.S. When I thought that my parents had broken my prototype, I noticed that it wasn’t broken, the wings were folded, but only if the wire was held a certain distance away from the mechanism. I’m currently thinking about how to incorporate that into my next design.

“Ah, finished,” I sighed with relief, hoping that nothing else would come to mind.

You know, as much as I hate them right now, I really love my parents. My little sister as well. Though I am jealous right now that she is at Wonderbolts Academy and not me. She is the youngest acceptance into the academy in nearly fifty years. The Wonderbolts are in my blood, and I have earn my way in just like them. I don’t care that my parents don’t think I can do it. I think I can, and that is all I need.

I admire both of my parents for getting into their dream job of being a Wonderbolt, and I want to do the same. I want to be just like my parents. It’s just going to be a little bit harder for me. If I didn’t have to worry about school, I would probably have this done in about six months, and I’d be flying to Wonderbolts Academy in a year, easy. Yeah, I am very confident in how well I will do.

A few more minutes of staring off into space led to my eyes getting heavier, and heavier, then soon I fell asleep. I like being asleep. It’s the one place I can still fly with or without wings. I began to dream of racing the wind, punching through the clouds, getting wet from the moisture inside of them.

A loud knock at the door had awoken me. It was morning already. I slowly fell out of bed to the ground, then rolled over to get my hooves underneath me. The knocking progressed, and it was beginning to irritate me. Even as I yelled that I was coming the knocking still got louder. I have no clue how my parents could sleep through such a loud noise. So, I decided I was going to get even with whoever was being so annoying.

“WHAT!?” I shouted as I opened up the door. It turns out I was not as scary as what was at the door, and I jumped a few steps back. A fairly tall green and purple, bipedal dragon was at the door.

“Hello, Cloudy,” he said in a cheerful voice. “Sorry about the rude awakening. Princess Twilight said she would like the letter right away.”

Author's Note

Okay, I'm going to try to update this weekly from now on since it did so well. I hope you guys continue to like this!