beauty of sound

          Thunderlane awoke the next morning and yawned as he slowly climbed out of bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He trotted out of his room and walked into the kitchen to make breakfast for him and his little brother. He pulled out the pancake mix and the milk, along with a bowl. Thunderlane grabbed a spoon and poured the contents into the bowl as he started to cook. Something not many ponies knew about him was that he actually was a great cook and really enjoyed it to. He was pouring the mix into a skillet when his little brother trotted out of his room, "Hey, rumble. Sleep well?"

          The small, light grey pegasus nodded, "yeah I slept fine. Anything interesting happen when you were out flying last night?"

          "Something amazing happened," he said with an involuntary sigh.

           Rumble cocked his head to the side, raising an eyebrow at his brother's odd behavior. "What was it?"

           "I heard somepony playing guitar and singing to it. It was the most amazing thing I've ever heard in my entire life."

           "Do you know who it was?"

           Thunderlane shook his head, "I wish." A smile crossed his face as he thought back to the beautiful music he'd listened to just the night before. He returned his attention to cooking so he wouldn't burn it and flipped the pancakes, "Go ahead and set the table." Rumble obeyed and walked over to the drawer, grabbing the silverware. He flew up to the cupboard and grabbed the plates and cups before landing, though it was still a bit shaky. "Your getting better," Thunderlane said as he had watched the small pegasus.

           "You really think so?" Rumble asked looking up at his older brother.

          Thunderlane smiled and put the pancakes on the plate as he wrapped a wing around his little brother. "Yup, pretty soon your gonna be the best flier in school." Thunderlane smiled as Rumble hugged him. He pulled the small pegasus into a little hug, "dad would be proud." Rumble smiled and released him to finish setting the table. Thunderlane returned to making breakfast and soon was piling the pancakes onto each plate.

          Rumble sat down and started to shovel the food into his mouth. Thunderlane chuckled, "slow down or you'll choke." Rumble said nothing and took a large gulp of his drink before continuing to shovel in food. Thunderlane couldn't help but laugh as he started to eat his breakfast as well.

          When they finished their meal, Rumble grabbed his bags and left for school while Thunderlane rinsed off the breakfast dishes to be washed at the end of the day with everything else. He dried his hooves and trotted out of the house, flying towards the weather factory for work. Thunderlane soon saw a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane fly up next to him as they flew to work. "Hey Lane, better be ready to work hard today."

          Thunderlane nodded. "Hey dash, what's today supposed to be like?"

          "Preparing for a downpour tomorrow to make up for last week. We need Ponyville AND Sweet Apple Acres covered by the end of the day. The team didn't put clouds over the orchard last week and AJ got pretty upset about it. Don't screw up this time." Dash gave him an intimidating stare before flying away.

          Thunderlane shuddered, "she's terrifying sometimes..." He continued flying on when he met up with cloud chaser while Ditzy Doo flew past, almost crashing into him... Again. He chuckled and shook his head. 'she means well... She just needs to work on her coordination and landings.' Thunderlane flew up to cloud chaser, "hey cloud."

          The light purple pegasus smiled, "Hey Thunderlane. What are we doing today?"

          "Preparing for a downpour tomorrow to make up for last week's epic fail. I just got chewed out about not getting Sweet Apple Acres... Rainbow was not happy about that one."

          Cloud Chaser chuckled, "maybe so but it could've been worse. You should thank her, that could've been an angry Apple hounding you about the mistake."

           Thunderlane shuddered, "don't even joke like that. I've seen plenty of ponies on the receiving end of her anger and I don't want that to be me." Cloud Chaser nodded and they soon reached the weather factory. Plenty of thick, dark rainclouds were already prepped and ready to be moved. The Earth Ponies on the ground were tearing down the loose tree branches and potential hazards while the pegasi moved the clouds. "Wanna help me get Sweet Apple Acres?" Thunderlane asked.

          Cloud Chaser nodded, "Sure, I'll help." They each grabbed a cloud and flew off to the famous apple orchard. When they reached the orchard, Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser saw about eight other pegasi with clouds. "Looks like Rainbow Dash is making extra sure Sweet Apple Acres is covered first."

          "Well when the cloud maker malfunctioned and we only had half of Ponyville covered there were barely enough clouds for a light drizzle. We didn't even get Sweet Apple Acres and Applejack needs the rain here so the trees get water." Cloud Chaser looked at Thunderlane and nodded at his explanation as they went about spreading the clouds with three other pegasi while the rookies flew back and fourth with the clouds. "Hey Cloud, did you hear the guitar last night?"

          Cloud shook her head. "No but I heard a few ponies talking about it... Did you?" Thunderlane nodded and she was instantly curious. "Really?! What was it like? Think it'll be there again tonight? Can I go? Where did you hear it?"

           Thunderlane had to raise his hoof for silence to stop the onslaught of questions before she could go any further. He chuckled and said, "yes really. It was amazing. Yes. Yes, and I'll show you after work." He said, answering each in the exact order that they were asked. The two shared a laugh and heard the characteristic bash of hooves against a tree as an apple rolled out into their veiw.

           Applejack walked out from the tree to pick up a loose apple when she noticed the two pegasi and the clouds. "Bout' time we got some rain here!" She called up with a smile. "Its hotter out here than Apploosa in July!" She chuckled as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. Thunderlane chuckled and pulled a small chunk of the gray cloud off and chucked it at Applejacks face. It busted, splashing her with icy rain water and cooling her off. Applejack let out a satisfied sigh and laughed, "thanks for that! Now ah better get back to work." The orange mare picked up the apple and turned, trotting back off into the trees.

           About halfway through the day, all the other pegasi came flying to the orchard with all the leftover clouds from Ponyville. Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser gazed out over the small village, now dark with the promise of rain sometime that night and expected to last all of tomorrow. The two friends then turned to the large orchard, which had a decent chunk of it dark with clouds. They were beyond grateful that the rest of the team was able to help. There were about forty members all together in the small town's weather factory. This put them at a bit of a disadvantage considering the pegasi had not only the town to cover, but the apple orchard as well. To cover the entire orchard in the time period they were given would usually take the whole team.

           Everyone was taking a short lunch break, sitting in their little groups on clouds and chatting. Cloud Chaser was pounding Thunderlane with questions about the guitarist and a few of the other pegasi flew over to listen to his answers, all equally as curious since they weren't there to hear it. Rainbow Dash flew over, wondering why everypony was over there. "Hey, whats going on here? The last time a crowd like this gathered Cloud judo flipped Thunderlane." The grey pegasus' face turned bright red as laughter erupted from the pegasi around him.

           When Cloud Chaser finally got over her laughing fit she looked at Rainbow Dash. "Thunderlane was telling us about the mystery musician, he heard somepony playing guitar and singing last night."

           The cyan pegasus nodded and sat down. "Yeah, I heard a few others talking about that to. I bet it was awesome! Think they'll be there again tonight? I wonder who it is..." She placed her hoof under her chin and thought for a moment. "I'll think about it while we work, lunch break over!" Thunderlane sighed and lowered his head. He grumbled before reluctantly getting up and going back to work.

           Rainbow jumped when she felt somepony wrap their hooves around her from behind, letting out a short high pitched squeak. She turned to see her coltfriend, Soarin and the two laughed. "So anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

           "Yesterday somepony was heard playing guitar so I was told." She said with a chuckle.

           "Really? Who?"

           "Nopony knows. I haven't heard it myself so I'm not sure if their exaggerating the talent this pony has or if it's actually as good as they say. I'm gonna go see if I can hear them play tonight." Rainbow said, not hiding the excitement of something new. "It's been a while since anything interesting happened here."

           Soarin chuckled, "well there's an opening in the next show if you want a spot. The junior bolts are trying out for a permanent spot on the team next month."

           "I know, I'm really excited."

           "So what happens to the weather factory then? You can't work here when your a wonderbolt, you'll be gone to often."

           "I'll have tryouts to see who could best qualify to take over managing this place."

           Thunderlane heard that last bit and perked up, working more alertly. 'maybe I have a chance to prove to her that I could run the weather factory...' He worked tirelessly the rest of the day, trying his best to restrain from the lazy habits he'd developed the past few years

          After work, Thunderlane led Cloud and Rumble to where he was at when he heard the music. They all sat down on a cloud and Rumble spoke up. "So... This is where you heard that musician?"

          Thunderlane nodded, "yeah. Whoever they are... They should be here again soon if they come out tonight."

          Cloud and Rumble looked at each other and shrugged as they settled into the cloud. The two had a feeling this would be a long wait.

           Applejack trudged up to the top of the hill overlooking the peaceful town and sat down, once again pulling out the beautiful guitar from the case as she settled against a tree trunk. She placed the guitar on her lap and positioned her hooves on the instrument. She ran her hoof along the neck, finally settling it two frets from the top as she began to hum a tune her mother would sing to her when she was a filly. "You would not believe your eyes, if ten million fireflies, lit up the world as I fell asleep..." She began strumming on the guitar as the day melted away in her music.

'Ah can't think of a better way to end the day...'

          "Cause they'd fill the open air..."

          Thunderlane jumped up as he heard the melodic voice once again. "I told you she'd come!"

          Cloud and rumble, who had since fallen asleep from boredom, jumped and looked around frantically. They stiffened as they too heard the voice and slowly relaxed, entranced by the melody. "And leave teardrops everywhere..."

           Thunderlane couldn't help but let a triumphant smirk cross his face. 'I knew it! I just knew she would come back!'

           "You'd think me rude but I would just stand and... Stare..." Thunderlane listened happily as the guitar complimented the song nicely, making it one of the most beautiful things he'd ever heard.

Proofread by CowgirlVK