Minor Turbulence

by Midway Bridge

Rating: teen
Tags: Comedy, Sad
Length: 21207

My name is Stormy 'Turbulence' Weather. It's no secret the world hates me. So I just hate it back.

It's no secret the world hates me. So I just hate it back. I'm no outstanding flyer. I'm no hero. I'm no Rainbow Dash. Apart from my perpetual pessimistic and sarcastic attitude, I can be a really nice guy. My name is Stormy 'Turbulence' Weather, and I am renowned for my ability to end up in horrible messes. So they decided to put my talents to use. I don't think they really understand what I'm capable of. Celestia knows I don't.

Rated teen for mild and infrequent profanity, and for the main character occasionally being a dick.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-25 15:51:30 UTC

Part 1: Troubled Past - Prologue

Minor Turbulence Part 1: Troubled Past

Prologue

By: Midway Bridge

I was known as the world’s worst flyer, graduating fourth lowest in my flight class.  The third lowest score was Ditzy Doo who was in multitude of horrible accidents from right from the beginning of the course due to her eye impairment.  The second lowest was Wheezer who has a very bad case of asthma and had to be exempt from the final exam which counted as 60% of the class grade.  The lowest score belonged to Fluttershy who mysteriously disappeared halfway through the year.   I was the lowest scored Pegasus who actually completed the whole course.  It wasn’t that I was poorly skilled it was just that I am incredibly unlucky, but I’ll tell you about that later.

I was rather impressed with the young filly who graduated in the front of the pack as #1.  She was the youngest flier to perform a class 3 Sonic Rainboom.  I knew that she was going places when she grew up, and everyone in the graduating class of 1996 knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life: to join the Wonderbolts.  She set her goals high and only few thought that she couldn’t do it.  Her name was Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow dash was immediately offered hundreds of jobs upon graduation, but she decided to be a weather pegasus in a small town just so she could spend lazy afternoons practicing and napping.  I wasn’t offered a single job; in fact I had to go and practically beg to get one.  I worked as a simple paper pusher in the Cloudsdale weather factory.  You know, the one guy who has to stamp 'approved' or 'declined' right at the top of the pages of the weather requests.  Anypony would think that job was quite easy, and they’d be right.  Of course the one time that somepony from our department screws up it was me.  Somepony had requested a tornado and I must have mindlessly stamped ‘APPROVED’ on it or something.   What happened as a result I'm still not sure, but I know it wasn't good.

Two days later that same Rainbow Dash who was number one in our class had a very, shall I say, loud argument with my boss over the whole matter about legal responsibilities while I sat in the corner of the room feeling like a complete idiot.  I immediately knew who she was, but she didn't recognize me.  She didn't even care to give me a second glance.  I don't blame her; I wouldn't want to know me either.  You’d think meeting your hero, or I guess heroine in this case, would be the greatest thing in the whole world.  It wasn’t even close.

What a funny little thing life is.

Don't start taking pity on me now.  I guarantee that you won't like me.  Hell I don't even like me.

Where are my manners? I haven't properly introduced myself.  The names Weather, Stormy Weather.  Or so it was.  Of course I don't answer to that anymore because most pegasai just call me 'Turbulence'.  It started off as a sleight against my nasty habit of ending up in strong unpredictable crosswinds, and random updrafts and other hazardous whatnots that shouldn't be there while flying.  I used to hate the name, but when you're called something in flight camp that name tends to stick with you for life.  So to cope with it, I started introducing myself as Turbulence to prevent confusion when said pony hears everypony else calling me Turbulence.  What can I say, the name started to grow on me and well… it fit my demure to the T.  Let’s just say I provide 'turbulence' for anypony around me.  Or to put it in layman terms:  I more or less tend to make everypony’s life a bit rougher than it needs to be.  Intentionally or unintentionally.

--=====--

Morning

Welcome to my ordinary life.  My own personal level of Tartarus.  A typical coffee driven, pencil tapping, number crunching day.  I walked in at exactly 7:59.  Not because I'm punctual, because it's a 'I don't want to spend a single moment longer here than I have to' sort of thing.  Beyond getting paid I had no incentive to be here.  Let’s go over my daily routine:

Punch in before the clock turns 8:00 or otherwise come in late.

Drink free mediocre black coffee.  Refill when necessary.

Sit down at desk and loiter, lollygag, or otherwise procrastinate in any way shape or form to avoid step four.

Work.

Get paid minimum wage.

Simple right?  Wrong, three weeks into the job the boss caught whiff of my unproductively.  Literally. I think he has a sixth sense or something for detecting slackers.  When ever he wasn't making little kids cry or beating up small defenseless creatures (sarcasm), he thinks up of ways to make others miserable and fixing his balding mane.

His name was Mr. Butterball.  Don't let the name fool you, he was about as ill-tempered as a caged minotaur on a hot summer day who was jabbed repeatedly with a burning poking stick then slapped in the face with a fish for good measure.  Needless to say getting on his bad side was not a very good idea.  What really was surprising was how long I've stayed on it and lived to tell the tale, or more importantly, kept my job.  I hate to admit it but I need this job.  Work makes bits, bits buy food, food keeps me alive to go to work.

There’s a bit of a betting pool to see who can make him smile out of kindness or compassion.  I laughed in my coworkers faces and told them they had a better chance at training pigeons to do yoga.  Besides, every time Mr. Butterball smiles a puppy dies and I told them they wouldn't want that kind of burden on their hooves.

They weren't amused and subtlety reminded themselves why they didn't like me.

Great, today was off to a good start.

--=====--

Coffee break.

My favorite time of the day apart from leaving.

Something across the room caught my eye.  Cardboard boxes.  I've been here long enough to know what boxes meant.  Both of them meant good things for me.  I squinted my eyes to get a better look at what happened.  Due to the lack of yelling or sobs of misery I ruled out someone getting fired, leaving only one other possibility.

New guy.  Overly optimistic by the looks of him.  He walked with a gait with a slight bounce in it.  Definitely optimistic.  To any onlooker who took their heads out of their cloudicle they would see me eyeing the enthusiastic guy with a cross scowl on my face while he searched for his work spot.  Due to my history I was conditioned into a natural pessimist, the antithesis of most ponies in Equestria.

I took a long swig from my unsweetened black coffee slowly enjoying its bitterness.  Ironically bitterness was the emotion I emanated most of the time.  Most of my co-workers learned to avoid me, but this poor sod was none the wiser, an easy prey to hunt; a perfect target for demonization, snarks, sarcastic comments, and all the while stealing the ink cartridges from his pens and stamps from his desk drawers.  I rubbed my hooves maliciously together.  Today was going to be a good day.

Mr. Optimistic sat in cloudicle B223; the one right next to mine.  My scowl turned into a stupid grin.  Turns out my old neighbor quit without saying goodbye.  Not that I cared though it does explain why she wasn't here last Friday.  He sat down in the chair confirming my thoughts.  He's my fifth cloudicle buddy this year and its only mid-September.  Correction: Today was going to be a very good day.  New guys meant old pranks were fair game.

--=====--

Lunch

I'd like to point out to you now that I hated myself for doing these kinds of things.  It probably would have made my parents mad if I actually knew them. I only did pranks and stuff to spice up the redundant day of paper pushing.

At lunchtime I decided to pull a prank on Mr. Optimistic.  It was a harmless prank but I instantly regretted it.  The first sign of a prank gone wrong is when the initial reaction isn't surprise.  The second sign is when that initial reaction is the guy having a horrible rash break out on him.  Look, you can't blame me for not knowing that he was allergic to ketchup.

Of course they did blame me and I felt downright awful about it.  I never really liked to hurt pones feelings (often) much less actually cause them harm.  I tried to apologize to the guy and clean up the mess but it was too late.

Mr. Butterball had already heard about it and I was supposed to meet him in his office at the end of the work day.  No more pranks, no more coffee breaks for the rest of the day for me.  Just step number four on the plan and pray to Celestia step five pays off.

--=====--

Meeting

To put it lightly, Mr. Butterball was a bit more than just angry.  I never knew ponies could insert that many profanities in just a few short moments.  I haven’t seen him this upset since the last time 'I' accidently lost all of the Cloudsdale weather teams' applications setting them a whole month behind schedule.  It really wasn't my fault, but of course I have the reputation of being the guy to blame for everypony’s mistakes.  I know it was Hoops who did it, that guy could really hold a grudge.

Anyway, it turns out the new guy,Mr. Optimistic, has a name but I forgot it already, but what was important was he's also Mr. Butterballs nephew.  It came as no surprise to me that he got paid twice as much as I did on opening salary.  Nepotism at its finest right?    Despite my killer headache and ringing ears I could definitely pick out the words "Your" and "Fired" somewhere in the angry stream of cuss words and insults.

Honestly, I knew it was coming; Mr. Butterball was just looking for an excuse to fire my flank.  I just gave him one so hence no more job for me.  Hooray for Turbulence!  Now without a job, friends, or any hope of getting either, I flew home in a storm of angry thoughts and bitter resentments.

--=====--

If there was one thing I learned from being me was how to fly in crappy weather.  It was stormy outside.  Black thunderclouds loomed on the outskirts of Cloudsdale.  Random wind gusts whipped novice flyers around, who were trying to get home before the storm hits.  Me, I was flying straight towards the storm clouds.

Only when I was away from everypony else in the thick of a storm did I feel the closest to happiness.  Most pegasai never had the guts to sleep on thunderclouds for fear of getting electrocuted.  For those who don't know what it feels like to be electrocuted, imagine a long and painful burning sensation coursing through your body.  How would I know? I've been struck by lightning plenty of times.  Now when I get hit it practically tickles.

Bet you ten bits Rainbow Dash never got struck by lightning.  No really, she wouldn’t even think of risking herself in getting struck for fear of ruining her perfect life.  Am I obsessed with Rainbow Dash? Probably. I wouldn’t know what else to call it.  It seems to me that she has everything, and for a guy who has practically nothing that seems pretty great.  Did I win the best young flyer competition?  Did I have great friends who would come and watch me compete in the best young flyer competition?  Did I complete a Sonic Rainboom?  Did I have aspirations to be a Wonderbolt? The answer is no, to all of those.  I have nothing like that.

When you have nothing it makes you appreciate the little things more or something like that.  But I can’t share what I appreciate in life with others.  You can’t walk up to somepony and say “I’m proud that I didn’t kill myself yet!”  No, that’s socially unacceptable and earns you a one-way ticket to the loonybin.  Have I contemplated suicide? Many times but I don’t have the guts to do it.  Besides I like my sarcastic inner dialogue with myself and a pretend audience too much.

They say home is where the heart is.  To me home is where the nearest cloud is.  I couldn’t afford rent so my cloudlord sent me packing.  I don’t trust myself on the ground and since sleeping in clouds instead of residencies is illegal in Cloudsdale airspace, I have to pick clouds formed really high or if I’m lucky, storm clouds.

Today was a lucky day despite being fired.  I landed on a black cloud as softly as I could.  It shot a streak of lightning followed by a low rumble.   This one was perfect.  The static energy made my hair stand on edge, and it felt fantastic.  I settled in for a long nap.  And prayed to Celestia to be just like Rainbow Dash.  After all who wouldn't want to be her?

Who thought that I one day would?  Nopony.  Deliverance from my horrible life came in the form of a letter with a lightning bolt insignia.  Before I get your hopes up, no it wasn't one of those legendary Wonderbolts letters.  It was the next best thing.

~----------~

Disclaimer: I am not Laruen Faust incognito, and henceforth I do not own MLP: Friendship is Magic. I make no claim for Hasbro’s characters or world. I am just a humble fan fiction writer, nothing more.  Please leave your questions, comments, and constructive criticism in the comments below so I can better myself as a writer and enhance your experience as a reader.

P1- Chapter 1: The Step

Minor Turbulence Part 1: Troubled Past

Chapter: 1 The Step

By: Midway Bridge

Before I talk about the day of my life started to suck less, I would like to regale you with the story that leads up to it.   I'd like to say it was a cheerful upbringing; one that everypony seems to have.

I'd like to say that.

I could tell you that I had a family with a loving; beautiful mom and a hard working kind dad, but that would be a lie and an insult to your intelligence.  I like to think you are smart enough to see though my horrible lying skills so don’t deny me that.

I was an orphan.  If you’re getting that sort of achy feeling in your heart after learning that little tidbit, that would be pity.  It's always the first feeling that most others get when I tell them that.  Don't pity me.  I hate it.   That's why I don't tell too many others about how I came to be.  If you never felt that achy feeling then either you're laughing at my pains or I'm starting to rub off on you.  Either way kudos to you.  I don’t really know you or if you even exist but here goes the true story of me, (mostly) unabridged and uncut.

It started when I was a nameless little tyke left on the steps of an orphanage.  While I don't exactly remember the day at all, it marked the beginning of the problems for me, which seem to follow me for the rest if my life.

Most of the kids in the orphanage where there because their parents died and they had no close relatives that were able to care for them, but I was one of the few kids who was abandoned.  Yes, my mother and father left me in that hellhole called "Mrs. Delight's Orphanage for the Misfortunate." They didn't even care to give me a name.  I hope they had a good reason for it.  Maybe they were too poor to afford a kid.  Maybe they had to go on a secret mission to save Equestria.  Now I know better, they were ashamed to have a bastard son like me.

I was called Stormy Weather because the night I arrived was during a horrible thunderstorm going on.  Since it was raining torrents and booming thunder I wasn't discovered until the storm dissipated after the Emergency Weather Teams cleared it up.  Although I didn't particularly like my name it was given to me by Ms. Sunshine and so it held a bit of value to me.  She was the kindest and most caring pony I have only met and the only one who I actually grew fond of, or allowed to call me Stormy.  She was like family to me.  Around when I was 6 Ms. Sunshine went back to school.  In her absence, Mrs. Delight hired a new teacher to run the class.  The teacher was okay but Mrs. Delight wasn't.  She is definitely second on my list for most misleading names (#1 belonging to Steely Balls but that’s another story).  If I had to sum her up in one word the first word that comes to mind is "Bitch," but that barely even describes the resentment I had for her.

She would put on this mask of lies and smiles for officials and potential foster parents, but her smiles weren't sincere and we all knew it.  She would ask us to clean stuff of hers or to do meaningless tasks.  She would have whomever was unfortunate enough that day to move the filing cabinets around or to rearrange the furniture only to ask someone else to put it back the way it was.  If she was in a foul mood she would punish harmless pranks (usually mine) with time in the "Shed." To those who don't know, calling it a shed implies that there is room.  In the small confined space there wasn't even enough room to think.  Since I am the mischievous sort, I spent more time in the shed than everyone else combined.  I used to keep track of the number of hours I spent in there a year but I lost track after two hundred-fifty something.  I liked the shed.  It gave me time away from everyone else and their problems.

I prayed like hell to Celestia every day that my parents would swoop down from the skies and save me from that horrible place.  They never came.  It was my sixth year at the orphanage when I realized they wouldn't come for me.  That epiphany hit me like a ton of bricks.  Since then I never thought of my parents in an endearing way, usually now I think of colorful adjectives to describe them.

Around when I was five or six the school teacher quit.  Afterwards there were a few days of pure anarchy and chaos which was a complete blast. After the dust settled we got a new teacher.  Miss Sunshine came back from her college and had a degree in education.

I didn't get to meet her when classes started due to me being in the shed for the entire week for the havoc I wreaked the days prior. When I was finally let out I was so happy to see Ms. Sunshine again I practically cried.  Of course I didn’t because that would ruin what little reputation I had.

From that point on I would only do the pranks for one reason, to get time with Ms. Sunshine.  Since she was always encumbered with the needs and wants of others I never get to spend a lot of free time with her without everyone else nagging or prattling with her about useless things.  I liked her a lot and I knew she liked me too, and that was a wonderful thought.  There just wasn't enough time for Ms. Sunshine to spend with me; after all she handled the orphanages classroom.  I would usually sit in the front row, not because I liked to see the board or liked school; honestly I didn't fare so well in it, math and science made my head hurt, while social studies and language arts seemed like a pointless waste.  I wanted to talk with Ms. Sunshine as often as I could.  I'd raise my hoof to ask questions I already knew, and answer questions I hadn't the faintest idea about.  All to just get some time with her.

When ever I set off a firecracker in class, put fake eyeballs in someone’s soup, or whatever I concocted for that day, she would take me aside and say.

"What made you do it this time?" She'd give me a look that was a mixture of disappointment and unfulfilled expectations.  I hated that look but after a while it felt comforting; It meant that she actually cared about me, and that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I know what you’re thinking, "That's not how to get her attention properly!" You'd be right, but explain that to a kid who never felt that kind of care before.  That feeling is perhaps more intoxicating and addictive than anything else in the world (and I drink coffee).

One day after a good old fashioned prank of blue dye in someone’s toothpaste Ms. Sunshine asked me to come to the classroom after hours.

"Stormy?" she asked.   I looked away avoiding the disappointed look.  "Stormy look at me, please."

"Yes?"

"What's gotten into you?  You’re always playing these awful pranks and tricks that hurt your friends-"

"I don't have friends," I interrupted.  "There’s only ponies I tolerate more and hate less."

"Really?" She looked worried.  "Well I'm your friend." She smiled.  "But

"Ms. Sunshine do you love me?"

"Yes, I love all of my students."

That answer annoyed me.  How could one pony like all of us?  It doesn't make sense; they're all so stupid and selfish I have a hard enough time trying to like myself around them.   I wanted to be different than the rest, but I also wanted to be just a “normal kid”.  Her normal kid  Then I hit her with the hardest question I could ever ask her and I still regret it to this day.

"If you love me, why won't you adopt me?"

She wasn't prepared for that question.  She just sat there in shocked silence trying to collect her thoughts.  "Well… I- um, it's difficult to understand."

"What's difficult to understand? What am I doing wrong?” I demanded.

"Stormy…"

"What do I have to do to?"

"Stormy-"

"What is it that makes you-"

"Stormy listen please.  I love you with all my heart, I really do want to adopt you, but think of the others."

"What about them?"

"If I adopt you then the others feel horribly left out.  I can't destroy their hopes, and I can't adopt them all."

"Who cares about them?!" I bursted out angrily.  "They'll all get to walk out with new parents eventually.  I've watched them leave with families all of the time, it's about time they see what I see."

"Shame on you Stormy.  I'm completely appalled at your selfishness.  They watch just as often as you do the others who walk away with families, some of them have been seeing it their entire life and have been here for more years than you.  Think about Blues, he’s been here for sixteen years.  All of his friends now have families except him.  He's been here for 5 more years than you and in 2 years he is no longer under our legal jurisdiction and that thought scares him.  Were you aware he even attempted to commit suicide once?"

I sunk down into my chair.  Ms. Sunshine never raised her voice at me like this.  It's scary being yelled at by others, but it's terrifying when getting yelled at by someone you love.  If I had to shrivel up and die right then and there, I think I’d be content with that.  "I'm sorry…"

She calmed down a bit when she noticed I was cowering down in my seat. "Stormy you're not a bad kid… I know that somepony else will see you the way I do."

"May I be excused?" I asked suddenly.  I didn’t mean to but I had a wicked sad puppy face at the time, you know the sort that they put into cartoons with the big eyes and stuff.

She sighed defeated by my pathetic and seemingly innocuous display. "Yes, but don't cause any more trouble."

I left without another word.  I felt like crap for the rest of that night.  I remember I didn't sleep well either.  The fact that Blues got adopted the week later didn't improve my mood that much either.

I sat in the back of the classroom for a very long time after that conversation.  I didn't want to disappoint her again.  I couldn't take it.  I was unnaturally silent and didn't involve myself in class.  The others caught on pretty quickly about what transpired that night.  Word spread like wildfire here, everypony knew everything about everypony else.  Nothing is private.  Little snots never knew how to keep their noses in their own business.

Other ponies' things would disappear and somehow make it into my possession.  I would constantly belittle my peers, even though most of the time I was half their size.  I never however started fights.  Frankly speaking, I hated the thought of inflicting physical pain.  Sure poking fun of ponies wasn't out of question, nor was petty thievery or blackmail, but direct confrontations weren't my sort of thing.

So when I started to get on the nerves of the wrong crowd, I became the subject of a bully.  Since he was 4 years and 100 lbs my senior we got into some pretty one sided fights.  Now when the fight came to me, sure I would slug it out, but no matter how hard they would hit me or how much pain I was in, I would pull my punches back.  I couldn't help it.  I knew I could take a hit, but could they?  I never had the courage to find out how much pain I could cause.

Call me a wuss or whatever you want.  I don’t care.  I think of myself as the bigger stallion.  The bigger stallion who was trapped in a small body in a cruel world.  I toughed through the rest of my years there making it day by day, week by week.  I'm weaker than them, in body mind and soul.  One thing I learned in the orphanage stuck with me; if you harden your heart to others it can't be broken.  So that's exactly how I lived my life from that point on, no friends, no family, just me and my angry thoughts against the world.

I was 11 when they decided to send me off with the rest of the pegasai to the Cloudsdale Summer Flight Camp.  Summer Flight Camp was a good place for me.  I met a lot of different ponies there.  I think I could have made friends if I tried.  What I appreciated most was I could start all over again, be anything I wanted.  So in light of that, I decided I wanted to be the best flier.  Something that Rainbow Dash already had her sights on.  Two pegasai can't be the best.  There can only be one.  The winner gets it all and the loser gets cast down under the heap of forgotten names.  No one remembers who comes in second of a race.

~----------~

Disclaimer: I am not Laruen Faust incognito, and henceforth I do not own MLP: Friendship is Magic. I make no claim for Hasbro’s characters or world. I am just a humble fan fiction writer, nothing more.  Please leave your questions, comments, and constructive criticism in the comments below so I can better myself as a writer and enhance your experience as a reader.

P1- Chapter: 2 The City in the Clouds

Minor Turbulence Part 1: Troubled Past

Chapter: 2 The City in the Clouds

By: Midway Bridge

Flight wasn't my strong suit in life.  The first time I tried flying was when I was on one of the swings that we had out front of the orphanage.  They used to be my favorite place to go,  it truly felt like I was flying among the clouds.  I had a swing that I marked with a permanent marker that said "Stormy's Swing".  When you’re 5, marking something with permanent marker was something serious, it meant you were 100% sure about a decision.   I didn't let anypony else use my swing, but I don’t think they cared.  Nopony liked the swings the way I did.

One day when I was seven, instead of pretending to fly I decided to jump off and actually give the real thing a go.  I Jumped off and spread my wings, and glided through the air.  I gave a flap of my wings and I flew higher and higher.  I circled a building.  This was true freedom of my life of walls and sheds.  It was soon afterwards I felt something strike my side.  A sharp pain coursed through my body as I began to descend to the ground.  I landed somewhere on the cobblestone path that led out of the walled gate and to the open world.  Upon impact I broke my wing, fracturing the bone severely and a large assortments of abrasions and bruises.  I was awake long enough to hear the laughter of the others.  I checked to see what hit me midflight,  it was a small rock.  Somepony threw a rock at me.  Ms. Sunshine came outside to see what all of the commotion was about and her heart skipped a beat when she saw me as a mess of sprawled limbs and blood. I don't really remember what happened after that so I suppose I must have passed out.  Ever since then I never tried flying again, and my swing remained vacant.

A sad little fun fact about my life: I was 11 and true to my word, I never tried flying since that day on the swings.  That made getting to a city in the clouds for my Summer Flight Camp a bit of a challenge for me.  So I rented a carriage, surprisingly it only cost $10 bits, which was roughly about one third of my lifesavings.  When I got to Cloudsdale I was stunned by the architecture of cloud structures and new faces that I've never seen before.  There were a multitude of columns that was a throwback to the classical Pegasus buildings that were made in pre-Equestrian times.  There were countless others who seemed to be flocking the cities streets and skies.  I prayed my innocent youthful self would just stay anonymous among the crowd.  Just keep my head down and wings furled, go about unnoticed.

The Cloudsdale Flight Acadamy Main Building was the largest edifice I had ever seen.  While the campus itself is composed of multiple structures, the main building is to this day the second largest cloud structure in the known world.  The largest belongs to the grans colleseum that dwarfs any other cloud structure next to it.

Moving on, I walked up the stairs and to the academy’s gigantic red doors and pushed my way through.  I knew that I should have probably practiced flying before I came here, but stupid ass me decided that public humiliation was a better idea.  After wandering the academy halls for what felt like hours I finally found the room I was supposed to be in.  Turns out all I had to do was follow the signs that pointed out the quickest path, but I apparently took the scenic route around the whole building.

I took a deep breath before opening the door.  If I could convince everyone else I was normal I'd have no problems fitting in.  I opened the door to find a multitude of young pegasai listening to an adult was taking roll call.  Since I came through the door that opened into the back of the room I entered without anypony else really noticing.

"You there in the back." Almost anypony else.  Of course the one who did was the coach.  "Why are you late?"

All eyes were on me, one pegasus mumbled "busted" followed by descending tones, and there were a few sniggers.  Great, I was in a class full of kindergartners.

I wanted to come up with a legitimate excuse that didn't make me look like a complete idiot.  "Um, I got lost."  Was the best I could come up with?

"Can't you read the signs?"

"Um…"

"I can't!" shouted a voice enthusiastically.  Laughs filled the room.

"Nopony cares Derpy!" shouted another colt in the room.  More laughter.

The filly called 'Derpy' slid back down into her chair with a sad frown on her face.  She covered her eyes, and I prayed to Celestia she wasn't crying; I can't stand other ponies crying.  At least the spotlight wasn't on me for now.

"Hey now guys, were all going to have to deal with each other for a month so I want everypony to be nice otherwise I'm kicking your flank out of here." He gave an angry glare at the colt who made the slight.  The kid stopped, but his two friends on either side continued to giggle.  I could already tell at that moment I wouldn’t like those guys.

"As for you," he said directed at me, "what’s your name so I can get you on my list?"

"Stormy Weather," I answered quickly.

"Alright Stormy, welcome to Flight Camp.  Would you care to take a seat next to Miss Dash?" He pointed to the empty desk next to a rainbow maned filly.

"Sure." I sat down.  I tried to be normal and normal ponies say 'hi' to whomever they sit next to right?  So I said 'hi' to Dash.  She just rolled her eyes and blew her mane out of her face completely ignoring me.  I caught that she mumbled the word "Troublemaker" under her breath.  She didn't like me already and I only just met her.  So what, I was late for the first day of camp and I'm immediately in the same boat as the three idiots in the back?!  I mean what the hell is with that!

"Whatever, I didn't care what they thought," I told myself silently.  Which was a complete lie; I cared a lot about what others thought of me. Already I was making it hard to be normal and I've been here for less than a minute.

I turned to the other filly to my right hoping I’d have better luck with her.  A cute butter colored filly with pink hair that hid her face.  "Hi."

"Um, uh, hi." she said in a tiny voice.  She shrunk into her seat and avoided eye contact while making a small whimpering sound.  Seriously, she literally whimpered like a scarred animal.

"Now that you're all here," he said wrapping up roll call and tossing the clipboard on the table, "I'm Coach Windshear I'm the head coach this year.  How many of you have previous flying experience?"

Everyone else in the room lifted their hoofs into the air.  I did too just to fit in with the rest of them I didn't want to be the odd stallion out.  I looked over to the right and saw the yellow filly didn't have her hoof raised.  Good so I wasn't the only one.

"I see, so then this first lesson should be a breeze for you.  Let’s get outside and stretch our wings."

There were murmurs of excitement and a few yawns of boredom.  We all got up and began to funnel into the hallways and follow the coach.  Whatever the first lesson was, I hoped that it would be easy.

“Hi Stormy, I’m Ditzy Doo!” introduced a mare who was walking next to me.   I didn’t notice she was there at first so she startled me a bit.  She was practically yelling in my ear to be overheard by the rest of the noise filling the hallway.

“Um, hi.”  I recognized her now; she was the filly who was called Derpy and I could see why:  her yellown eyes were completely crossed sideways.  I couldn’t help but stare at them bewildered how they got to be that way.

“Where you from?” she asked.  I was having an internal debate on which eye I should make contact with the right one was sort of looking at me but the other was looking the completely wrong way.   I focused on the right eye.  How did she even walk with her eyes like that?

“The Mareisburg suburbs.”

“Really?  I’m from Ponyville!”  Again she was yelling very loudly in my ear.  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed she did a strange jump of happiness when she said that she was Ponyville.

“What’s with your eyes?”  I had to ask, I don’t care if it’s insensitive they were completely freaking me out.

“Oh, they came that way!” she answered with more enthusiasm than I sort of expected.  It was from that point on I deemed Ditzy Doo was too optimistic for her own good.  I tried to walk away from her but she stuck with me like when I super glued that one kid back in the orphanage to a chair (which was freaking hilarious).  I tried bobbing and weaving to get her to stop following me, I thought that it would be too hard for her eyes to keep up with.  It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, it’s just I valued my sanity.

After a while I sighed giving up.  She just babbled away, mindlessly asking me questions and talking about whatever came to her mind at the given moment.  It was torture.  When we came outside into the skyball field I was relieved to hear or rather not to hear Ditzy prattling away like an over stimulated child with ADHD, instead she struck with the sight of the stadium.

I have to say I was rather impressed too, it was the nicest looking field I had ever seen.  The clouds that composed of the field were well packed and formed a perfectly flat plane.  The cloud field was marked for numerous sports, many of which I didn't even know the name of.  There was only one game for me and that was skyball.  Skyball was a lot like the Earth ponies' games of hoofball, but in the air and across a third dimension of depth when flying is added to the mix.  I never played it but I watched a game.  Ms. Sunshine took the class out to Trottingham stadium to see the White Trots face off against the Canterlot Falcons and it was one of the best days of my life.  The roaring crowd and the wicked fast game play kept me ecstatic for the entire three hour game.

--=====--

"Now if everypony's done horsing around I'd like to get started," he waited for everyone to quiet down.  "I need a volunteer."

Everypony shuffled to the back trying to avoid being picked to go first.  That is the cardinal rule of demonstrations, never get picked first for anything.  I tried to hide among the crowd of pegasai; I didn't want to go first.  I didn't know how to even take off the ground properly let alone fly.

I don't blend in well with the other ponies, my physical appearance made it near impossible for me to.  I personally think that I’m not a handsome guy, but I don’t exactly repulse the mares away; that’s what my natural charm is for.  If you took a look at the photo of the Graduating class of 1996 in the Cloudsdale you’d find me in the back row and fourth from the right side.  I didn’t make that face on purpose; the pony next to me had some wicked nasty body odors that day.  If you could get past my grimace of disgust you’d see a scrawny looking kid with a dark stormy black coat and if the picture wasn’t in black and white you’d see my sapphire eyes and electric yellow mane.  If my wings were unfurled you'd notice that they are disproportionally larger than the rest of my body.  It made flying awkward and kind of hard to learn how to control.  My wings were powerful, I was told, but when you don't know how to use them you're screwed.

Back to hiding.  I tried hiding behind Ditzy but she moved to the side to get a better view of a flock of birds overhead.  Why was she watching a flock of birds? Beats me all I knew was she was going to be my cover.  I felt a shove from behind causing me to lurch forward and do an epic face-plant into the clouds.  A bunch of laughter ensued.  I lifted my head to realize I was now at the front of the pack.

"Thanks for volunteering Mr. Weather!" Coach Windshear said picking me up.

Celestia damn it!  I made a mental note to find out who shoved me so I could burn something precious of theirs.

"Now I would like you to kick off the ground and then hover in the air then to land back down," instructed the coach demonstrating the actions as he did, "simplicity itself."

"Aww common, make him do something that's actually a challenge!" complained a voice from the back.  Sounded like one of the three jerks that I already didn't like.  Now that I think about it was probably them that shoved me.

"I'm starting with the absolute basics, anypony who wants to give me grief for it can go walk out the front door."  Nopony else objected.  "Go on show me your stuff."

I unfurled my wings.  I said my prayers and gave a strong flap just like the coach did.  I rose off of the ground.  I soared too high into the air and panicked.  I never flew higher than 5 ft before but now my altitude was something like 10.  I tried to maintain my height but my wings froze up. I said a profanity and corkscrewed back down to the clouds once again, making an imprint of my face on the surface.  Good thing clouds are soft; if I landed on solid ground I probably would have broken a few bones.  It was better than my last attempt 4 years ago; at least I wasn’t stoned (as in rocks thrown at) midflight.

I heard laughter, terrible laughter.  I was personally proud of what I accomplished, but of course they didn't know that that was the first time I attempted flight in such a long time.  I'm sure their first attempt was just as bad if not worse than that.  I brushed myself off.

"That was very good," the coach announced over the others, "a very powerful takeoff I might add. You'd make a fine sprint racer if you practiced."  He made a mark on a clipboard.  “Who’s next?”

“I’ll go next!” volunteered a voice in the crowd.  The pony stepped forward, it was Rainbow Dash.  I wished that she would mess up like me, it would’ve made me feel better if I wasn’t the only one to not be able to do such a simple task.  No of course not, she had to show off her talent of flying, she did a loop and a spin in the air demonstrating her superior athletic abilities.  Right about now my ego took a sucker punch to the gut.  I felt like a fool.

“Very impressive, Miss Dash,” said the coach, “perhaps your calling is aerial acrobatics.”

“I’m shooting for the Wonderbolts Coach.”

“Aim high kid.  Always aim your dreams high.” He marked something on his clipboard.

Her flying was impressive, but it did leave me green with envy for her abilities.  Every day from that point on, I was comparing myself to her.  Each of us demonstrated our flying capabilities and the coach marked something down on his clipboard after each flight.  Some flights were skillful and others were painful to watch.

“Alright settle down.  Now, based on your flying skills we will separate the stronger flyers from the weaker flyers so we can work with the two groups at different paces.  The A-Team will brush up on the basics then proceed to more advanced techniques, while the B-Team will be more focused on mastering the basics.  On this clipboard has each of your names, and a letter marking which team you’re on.   Let’s go by order of performance.”

Everypony exchanged nervous glances or smug looks depending on how confident they were in their abilities.

“Stormy Weather, B-Team.” I expected that, heck I even preferred it over A-Team since I had no idea how to fly.  I walked over to the side on the coaches left where the B-Team would congregate.

“Rainbow Dash, A-Team.”  She elegantly flew over to the right side.

I wasn't the only one sent to B-Team,  Ditzy Doo, who seemed blissfully unaware what was going on was also assinged to B-Team along with 10 others.  The yellow coated mare who sat next to me who's name turned out to be Fluttershy was one of them, she refused to fly at all durring her demonstration.

On A-Team went the three jerks named Hoops, Dumb-Bell, and Score.  Each didn't seem too thrilled about it and made a snark about B-Team when passing by.

And thus the line was drawn in the sand (or rather a cloud); I wanted to be like Rainbow Dash the elegant flyer that was on A-Team.  I know wishes aren’t granted by genies in bottles, I would have to work by flank off to get where she was, and that’s what I intended to do.

~----------~

Disclaimer: I am not Laruen Faust incognito, and henceforth I do not own MLP: Friendship is Magic. I make no claim for Hasbro’s characters or world. I am just a humble fan fiction writer, nothing more.  Please leave your questions, comments, and constructive criticism in the comments below so I can better myself as a writer and enhance your experience as a reader.

P1 - Chapter 3: The Plunge

Minor Turbulence Part 1: Troubled Past

Chapter 3:  The Plunge

By: Midway Bridge

Man, looking back at flight camp almost everypony was a complete dick then (including myself).  I know for a fact practically everyone grew out of it and straightened out, but Hoops, Dumbbell, and Quarterback proved me wrong; they're still the three little brats that should be beaten something special on a daily basis.

Since I was on the B-Team, I started with basic flight poses, just taking off into the air and the most important part of flying: how to land.  I was good at the first two; the latter was a bit of a trouble spot for me.  I always came in too fast and crash or I'd spiral out if control and crash anyways.  To say that it wasn't fair that we had to do actual work while the A-Team had fun and games would be correct; we were doing the basics and actual flight practices while the A-Team got to play sports and do races.

I know that I couldn't fly very well at the moment and the games aren't easy, but still, the thought that we were less than them was a bit degrading.  Not to mention the fact that a select few members of the A-Team felt the need to mention it every time they passed by us with banters and snickers to which I had colorful responses to.

The work itself was leisurely and slow paced making sure no pegasus was left behind the rest of the class.  With that in mind, coach Windshear decided that it would be best if we had partners for all of the lessons.  Guess who my partner was.  I'll give you a hint; she was one of the only pegasus who actually tries their hardest to be friends with you despite all of the odds.  Not good enough?  How about the fact that her eyes never were level with each other?  That's right, Ditzy Doo was my partner.  Every.  Single.  Time.  It wasn't that I didn't like her, she was great now that I look back at it, it was just I wasn't ready to let somepony get close to me.  If no one is your friend or family, you can never have a reason to feel sad when they abandon you.

Take my parents for example.  I never knew them; hence they weren't close to me.  Am I sad they abandoned me and practically left me to fight if the big bad world on my own?  Hell no!  I'm pissed off more than anything else since I don't have actual faces to be mad at.

Anyways, flight camp had plenty of things to be mad at.  The foals who couldn't get things the tenth time around, the jerks that picked on everypony, the fact that everything came so easily to Rainbow Dash… that was the worst.  She didn't even do it intentionally she never tried; she performed, always putting on a spectacular show to watch.

However, she DID brag about it which tipped me off the deep end.  What she felt was naturally easy, others like me had to practice so hard and fail multiple times before getting it right.  She would just fly in lazy circles over us whistling the same tune over and over again.  It's like she doesn't know the feeling of true hardship.

What made her so special?  What made her life perfect and mine horrible?  I know I wasn't the best friend to anypony, but usually I'm not even given a real chance.  It’s like a relationship with me is just predestined to spontaneously combust into flames.  Not for Rainbow Dash, everyone (with the exception of the jerks) wanted to be her friend and she loved every moment of it.  Heck Celestia knows I somewhat wanted to be her friend, but she never gave me a second glance.  I guess if you start your life flying high you forget that there are those who dwell below wondering why they're stuck there like me.

Rainbow Dash aside, above everything else I loathed with every fiber of my existence the assistant coach Mr. Thunderboom.  Oh boy was this guy was one piece of work.  His short grisly facial hair, dark red coat, his flaming orange mane, and his face perpetually stuck in an angry scowl made his stick out from the crowd.  Not to mention he was only a few inches taller than the rest of us (and we were still growing), so he always felt the need to stand on something whenever addressing us, be it bleachers, chairs, buckets, or once when he stood in somepony's back.  (An additional note that if you should meet him, never mention his height as some unfortunate student learned the hard way.)

One thing you immediately learned about him is that he loves his whistle.  A lot.  He would blow it not only to get the attention of others but also before anytime he said anything.  Sometimes he would whistle to signal some unfortunate soul to fetch him some coffee.  It always was scalding hot and he required them to fly when they retrieved it instead of walking, leading to some nasty incidents with the weaker flyers.  He said it “built good character”.

Turns out the only thing louder than his whistle was his voice.  Oh everpony hated that Celestia damned voice.  When he yelled directly next to your ear it was like covering you head in a cast iron cauldron and someone took a good swing at it with a giant wooden mallet.  Once he actually triggered Wheezer to have an asthma attack just by his voice alone.  That takes skill and honestly in some sick way, I was impressed.

And he yelled often; he has a very, very, short temper.  Rumor has it that he was forced to take anger management but they were forced to give up on him when he basically told them he loved being angry.

Since there were two teams and the head coach had to oversee both, he and Mr. Thunderboom would trade off after lunch break.  While coach Windshear was rather kind and slow teaching he usually had to baby me and the rest of B-Team through the lessons sometimes getting nowhere in an entire day, Mr. Thunderboom was loud aggressive.  Nopony liked his methods, but he yielded results, and fast too.  I can easily say that I learned much more from him than Windshear but I didn’t enjoy any of the sessions with him.

On the first day with Mr. Thunderboom we had the dreaded drop training.  Basically we were positioned on a very high platform and he kicked us off.  Good thing I had already learned how to fall properly.  I fell with grace and style landing surprisingly on all fours.  Fluttershy didn't fair so well she just flailed her legs about before slamming the cloud below.  Since this was a joint team activity, the jerks started a stupid chant to humiliate her further.

"Fluttershy!  Fluttershy!  Fluttershy can hardly fly!"   I joined in eventually jumping into the bandwagon.  It was stupid, but kind of catchy.  I didn't see how much this traumatized her, nor did I know that she cried herself to sleep that night.  If Ditzy hadn't told me I never would have known.  After that I felt horrible.  I was just as bad as the jerks.  No, I was worse Fluttershy was my teammate and I wasn't that good of a flyer either.  I was a hypocrite.

Then there was the way everypony treated Ditzy Doo.  When she talked to them they would cross their eyes and go "derp," hundreds of times.  When a group of them did it, it was worse than annoying.  Yet she never let it show that it bothered her even though I knew she hated it.  She hung out primarily with me, spending all meals and breaks around me.  She considered me as a friend, but I couldn't say the feeling was mutual.

The worst thing about Ditzy was the fact that she always was smiling and happy.  When she messed up, she didn't get mad; she just laughed dusted herself off and tried again.  I couldn't be like that.  I was constantly berating myself for making mistakes easily getting frustrated when it didn't come to me the second or third time.  Sometimes I'd kick things to vent off my steam. I'm still not sure what she saw in me that made her want to be my friend.  We were so different, but I think that's why it sort of worked out.

The first few weeks were easy save for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  We would have these group lessons where both teams were present.  Whenever a B-Team member would screw up somepony on the A-Team was sure to point it out.  Usually the three jerks, but occasionally Rainbow Dash would too.  I didn't expect it to come from her at first since she absolutely hates Hoops, Dumbbell, and Quarterback.  I think she was honestly trying to be helpful, but to me she always seemed to be condescending and patronizing.

I remember after a particularly bad run on the obstacle course where I got a few penalties for hitting the rings on top of getting a really high time the whispers of my nickname started.  Turbulence.  How I despised and welcomed such a stupid name.  It caught on quick too, spreading like wildfire through the ranks of both teams.  I don't know who started it, but soon it didn't matter; everypony used it.  They would say things like "Nice flight pattern Turbulence!" and then mimic my wobbly flight on the ground and then 'crash' like I did.  Sometimes before I start whatever the lesson was, they would announce "fillies and gentlecolts, please remain seated as we might receive some minor turbulence."  It wasn't even that witty, but for some reason they laughed anyway.

Minor turbulence.  That’s all I amounted to at flight camp.  Just a kind of problem you experience when flying.  An inconvenience in their otherwise perfect life.

I don't blame them; my flight was wobbly at best of times and looked like I was spastically flailing about the rest of the time.  I got much better as the days progressed, I even surpassed a few lifelong fliers, but first impressions always last.  No matter what I did how well I flew after that I was the colt who couldn't fly straight, a feat that Ditsy could accomplish.  I became known as the world’s worst flyer.

It wasn't until later that I knew why I had trouble; the air around here seemed so strange to me.  The updrafts and strong winds were foreign concepts to me since I was a land dweller and most of the others actually from Cloudsdale and were used to the sort of thing.

I liked Turbulence in a bittersweet kind of way.  It fit me and my attitude perfectly.  Stormy "Turbulence" Weather.  I made that name for myself, a name that had meaning to me rather than the one I was christened as.  And like hell I made Turbulence for the rest of the class.

Objects would disappear only to be found in possession of others who had no idea how they glt them.  That always provided a good laugh for me since they would usually get in fights.  A firecracker in the bathroom always caused some hectic chaos, and once resulted in a hilarious situation involving, a toaster,  a soup ladle, and a liquid lunch.  Needless to say somepony's day was ruined after that.  Ditsy didn't approve of my pranks, and didn't think they were funny.  But what did she know about having fun?  She never did anything fun to my knowledge.  Honestly she was a bit of a bore at times.

Days and soon weeks flew by.  A few were decent enough but for the most part they were filled with grueling work, disappointment, and sore joints.  I remember the worst day of it all, it was the day of the final test and so far my progress with flying was insufficient in my opinion.   To make up for my lack of skill, I decided to wake up early that morning thinking that I could work the basics while nopony else was looking or judging me by how well or poorly I did.

I took a warm up lap run around the track to get my blood moving.  The day was a bit cooler than the rest.  Too cold to be summer weather.  It was usually colder up here in the clouds than on the surface.  I guess it had something to do with the altitude or something else I should know if I paid attention in class.  The dew from the excess rainwater formed droplets on the surface of the bleachers and rails that bordered the track.  I could see my breath in front of my face.  After completing my lap around the track I decided it was time to fly.

I stretched my large wings and checked to make sure they didn’t have anything stuck to them since once some smart ass decided to hang toilet paper streamers in-between my feathers.  I took off the ground in one powerful flap amounting to a speed that usually took others a few seconds to build up to.  I never had a problem with speed; I was probably the third or fourth fastest one on either team, Rainbow Dash of course being the fastest halving already completing her sonic rainboom and earning her cutie mark.  That was a day to remember certainly many lives were changed that day, mine was.  I knew now what I wanted to amount to.  If I could do a sonic rainboom I was the on the same ground as Rainbow Dash.

I ascended higher till I felt I was a safe distance from anything that was solid or would hurt it I hit it repeatedly.  First I did a simple turn by turning my body while keeping my wings parallel with my body.  Done easily enough if you have sufficient speed to do it.  I pulled to a full stop and hovered bit midair.  Funny enough this was hard for me to do since my powerful wings usually over pushed my weight so I would sort of bob as I floated.  Next I did a loop in the air, a basic stunt flying move that Dash did at every opportunity.  I did dives, turns, loops, until I was bored.  Then I tried coming in for a landing.  I folded my wings and went into a freefall drop until the clouds drew nearer.  I unfurled when I felt was a good time to slow down but I was going faster than I thought.  By the time I realized it was too late I had no choice but to brace for impact.

I smacked he ground with a sickening thud.  Bits of loose clouds flew into the air as did a stream of choice explicative’s.  I could never land correctly coming out of a dive.  I tried again and again, failing in more spectacular fashions as my frustration built.   Landing was my problem and since most of the final test was taken in segments it meant landing was important.  I wasn't aware that I was being watched by prying eyes.

"Hey do you want help?" asked a raspy feminine voice.  I knew immediately it was Rainbow Dash's.  This was the first time she ever spoken to me since the first day.  Obviously her opinion of me changed since then.  No longer was it cynical and judgmental, but like one teammate to another, despite us literally being on two different teams.

"I don't need your help, I've made it this far by myself," I said stubbornly.

"You have natural skill, but you lack control."

"You're the last pony I need to talk about control," I spoke rashly without thinking.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" She suddenly got defensive, if not aggressive.  Her wings unfurled and she tried to bulk up her figure even though I stood a good inch or two above her thanks to my lanky legs.

"Nothing really," I said passively trying to avoid conflict.  She was always a bit of a hot head and took offense far too easily.

“You’d had better.”  She relaxed a bit but kept her eyes squinted as if she was trying to figure something out.  “If you ever need help don’t be afraid to ask me.”

“Okay.  Whatever."  I flew off of the ground in a burst of speed leaving Rainbow Dash in the wake.  I looked back to see that she was rushing after me.

"What's your problem?" demanded Rainbow Dash.  She flew in front of me blocking my path.

I barely stopped and almost careened out of control into her.  Luckily, I maintained my balance and prevented a potentially embarrassing moment.

"Honestly, I have many problems," I replied after I steadied myself.  "You wouldn't understand any of them.  Your life is so… perfect."

"Turbulence, really my life is far from perfect."

"That's not even my name."  I could care less what the others called me, but it made me feel better to make her feel bad for not knowing it.  It had the intended effect.  She was acting as if she insulted me.  After all, she was being called Rainbow crash which she hated.  It wasn't even relevant to her; she never crashed once.  Though, Rainbow Crash was kinda more creative than Turbulence I suppose.  It's like everypony had a nickname at summer flight camp.

"Anyways, what are you doing out here?  It's not like you need any extra practice." Aside from flying, if there was anything above sleep that Rainbow Dash loved, I didn't know it.  She was usually late to practice because she 'overslept'.  If she was out this early in the morning there had to be a reason why.

"I wanted to warm up for the big day today.  Final testing is a big deal around Cloudsdale.  Most of the pegasai schools check your flight score, and I want mine to be the highest it can be.  Maybe I'll even get a perfect 100."

I wasn't convinced by her answer.  Rainbow Dash never warmed up to my knowledge, but I kept my trap shut.  There's always a first for everything right?

"What about you?  What do you think you're going to score?"

"Why do you care?" It came off a little more hostile than I wanted it too, but I wanted to get back to practicing.  I didn't bother to wait for an answer.  "I have to fly.  See you later."

"Wait!"

I kept flying.  I didn't stop.  Whatever she was going to say to me was lost in the sound of the rushing air.  I didn't have time to talk.  The testing began at 10:00am and I had no time to spare.

--=====--

10:00 AM

At the start of the final testing we were given a large prepared speech from the judges about why there were there, what schools they represented, and the importance of the whole process.  I honestly fell asleep twice.  And if it weren't for Ditzy I would have caught up on my lost sleep over the last month.  After the 'inspirational speeches' from the judges we were all ushered down to the practice field to let the long trials of the day to begin.

The judges weren’t an interesting mix of pegasai, all of them came off as stuffy, bureaucratic, and condescending; all of the traits that didn’t mean well for those who couldn’t fly well like me.  There wouldn’t be any leeway with these guys.  All of us knew exactly why they were here though.  They were recruiters looking for the young and aspiring who were particularly skilled so they could get them to join their company / team.  I recognized the Cloudsdale postal services insignia on a mare.  Ditsy told me that she wanted to be a mail mare since that’s what her mom did.  I didn’t see the thrill in delivering letters, but, to each their own.

I think everypony was nervous that day, even Rainbow Dash who, how did she word it? She 'played it cool'.  If she didn't futz with something, be it her mane, tail or feathers, every 5 minutes, I wouldn't have noticed.

The first test was a wing power test.  This was more of a formality and actually didn't factor into your final score in anyway, but it usually got the judges attention focused on you if you did well on it.  Unfortunately it also makes the judges have a higher expectation of you, so you had to back it up with a good run in the rest of the events.

The list went alphabetically so since my last name was Weather I had to pretty much go last.  I was gradually getting more anxious as I waited.  The others scored anywhere between 4-7 which was generally the average and what was expected of a pegasus my age.  Rainbow Dash had a stellar 9.6.  Ditsy clocked in around a surprising 5.7.

I had no idea what my wing power was; Coach Windshear didn't let anypony measure with gauges so they couldn't brag or poke fun of others.  I personally would have liked to know beforehand what my wing power was so I could see a margin of improvement, but it was a sort of unspoken expectancy to know your wing power before arriving.

It didn't take long to get to my turn.  I lined on the track and flexed my wings a few times before setting down into the ready position.  I waited with uncharacteristic patients for the wind to die down.  I took a deep breath and exhaled in a puff of warm mist.  It was still cold but the sun was now nearing the middle of the sky.

When ready, I took off with a practiced launch springing into a full speed sprint to the gauge.  I whizzed by the small fan-like contraption.  The breeze created by my passing by spun the fan around.  I slowed down and landed into a canter slowing my momentum.  I waited as one judge read the meter.  He smiled and scribbled a note down.

"10.4."

A wave of excitement washed through the crowd, judges, and coaches alike.  Nopony my age ever has 2 digit Wing power.  There was a mix of dropped jaws and congratulations.    I was just as shocked as them.  I knew I had some power behind my wings but 10.4 was staggering to even reckon.

Rainbow was upset that I basically dethroned her from her position above the class.  And I have to admit, it felt damn good to do so.  I knew I had the judges attention now all I had to do was follow up with something at least subpar.

The next event came the cloud weave, which is basically a few thin clouds that you had to zig-zag through without hitting them in the shortest time possible.  Needless to say, agility wasn't my strong suit.

When it came my turn, I was close to the course record.  The record for the number of clouds hit, that is.  Immediately felt the disappointment in the judges.  They held high hopes for me and I failed to meet them.  The feeling stuck with me and as the day went on, snowballing with each passing event.

I botched the race, the hoop flythrough, and all of the obstacle courses.  I recovered with the events I was good at like the sprint, 100 meter dash, and the long jump. I even surpassed the high score for the long jump with a distance of 26.3 meters.  The long jump was great for me since it was a gallop and once you hit the white line, you spring and flap your wings once then free fall as far as possible.  I didn't have to worry about landing or turning or anything that I had difficulty with.

The last event was the free-style. This was usually angled so a pegasai could display their talents fot what sort of work placement they wanted in the future.  Rainbow obviously showed off acrobatic feats with loops spins and turns.  I watched the judges as she performed, they all smiled and watched commenting to each other probably on how much better she was than the rest of us.  They didn't even write down notes as if they didn't need any more convincing that she was awesome.  They all wanted her to work for them.  When she finished, many congratulated her and asked if she would consider working for them after she finished her schooling and possibly college (which a few offered to pay for).

Others showed off speed and agility, Ditsy simply flew lazy circles in the sky to simply show that she enjoyed flying.  I guess she didn't realize that the class was competing to see who got the best scores, but honestly I didn't care about what she got; most likely I'd never see her again after it.  Which was kinda a shame really, despite all of the randomness and strange conversations, I was beginning to enjoy her company.  Sure she still got on my nerves from time to time, but those times became less frequent as we hung out more.

When the wait was over, and my turn to 'show off' came, I knew right away that I had no hope of getting a good score.  The judges were tired at this point and their eyes drifted off to different places as the last few flyers put on their best effort to impress them.  One of them actually fell asleep and was nudged awake.  I had to do something really special to make a lasting impression on them.

There was no other way.  The only way I could fix this mess was if I could do something downright amazing.  Pulling off a Sonic Rainboom was the only thing I knew would work.

I never asked the universe for anything but if I could do this just this once, I know I would try to be a better friend to everyone.  Even if they are more fortunate than I and I am colored green with envy.

With my mind made up, I flew up higher than before I hoped for the best, and prepared myself for the worst.  Of course the worst did happen, and I wasn't prepared.

I piked down into a deep dive straight towards the earth.  The wind rushed against me.    I beat my wings and held my form firm.  I saw the wind cone starting to form.  I thought I was going to do it, hell I knew I was going to do it.  My vision started to go black from the blood rushing away from my head.  I was going down too steep.  I tried to pull up but I was going to fast to change direction, and I went into a stall.  I started spinning out of control and smacked into the cloud with a bone cracking crunch.

There was a brief moment of silence save for my screams of agony. Nopony said anything, too shocked to utter anything.  The coach was the first to recover; he cleared out the crowd that gathered around the crash zone.

"Mr. Thunderboom calls the paramedics."  He sounded calm but I knew it was his ass on the line, at the moment, if anything bad happened he was legally responsible.

I could hear the others in the distance mumbling to themselves.

"I knew he was going to botch that."

"He tried to do a Sonic Rainboom like Dash."

"What an amateur."

"Did you see that corkscrew?"

"Are you okay?"

"Really Derpy?  He nosedived into a solid cloud.  Or was one of your eyes not watching?"

"It's a miracle he didn't land on his neck."

"Looks like Turbulence has struck out again," said Hoops.  I'm sure if I wasn't in so much pain I think the others would have laughed.   When he didn't get the intended effect on the others he shrunk back into the crowd.

"Get inside everypony," ordered Coach Windshear dismissing the crowd so he could get to me. "How many wings do you see kid?"

My vision was completely blurry and the coach seemed to swirl around and multiply as I looked at him.  "Six?"

"Close enough."

"How did I do?" I coughed a bit.  Who would have thought falling from that height yielded a scratchy throat?

"You took a dive into a construction cloud at a ridiculously fast speed.  Thank Celestia that you're not dead kid."

"I mean score-wise."

Coach Windshear looked at the three judges.  I could barely see them in the corner of my eye, most looked like they were shaking their heads as they scribbled notes down.

"I can't speak for them," he hesitated and I knew it wasn't good, "but I think you did great."

"Good.  At least I finished the course." I knew he was lying, I could see it in his eyes.  I always liked Coach Windshear for being nice when there was no hope.  I closed my eyes happy that the ordeal was over.

--=====--

Luckily for me I only fractured two ribs and had an injured wing so I didn’t even have to go to the hospital.  I didn’t look forward to dinner that day.  The cafeteria was where everypony judged each other on how well they did, who was good, who was bad, who was horrible.  Not to mention the scores were posted on the bulletin board right next to the door.  There was a large crowd gathered around the board so being the impatient jerk I was I shoved my way through receiving an abundance of complaints and a few choice words.

I looked for my name.  Once again the list was alphabetical hence mine was at the bottom but I couldn’t help but look at what some of the others got.  It came to me as no surprise that Rainbow Dash got a 98.  She flew magnificently.  I looked all the way to second from the bottom.

Stormy Weather: 38

“Great,” I said with bemused sarcasm.

Next to my score was a smaller number scribbled in a different ink.

27th

I then realized some smart ass decided to write where everypony sized up to each other.  I was 27 out of 29 (used to be around 30 but Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen for the last week).

"If you want you can have my muffin, it'll make you feel better." She held the unwrapped pastry in front of me.  It smelled of sweet cinnamon and apples.   Somehow she always managed to have a muffin with every meal she had.  Where she got them will always remain a mystery to me, but there were always there.

"I'd rather not."  I never had a muffin before but I imagined that they were quite good, they always smelled nice and put a smile on her face, and this one was no exception.  I didn’t want to feel better today.

"I really think you need it,” she insisted. “It’s always the best if you eat it right away.”

"I don't want your stupid muffin Derpy!" I lashed out loudly.  I angrily flipped my tray letting its contents spill onto the floor.  The entire room had their eyes on me.  You know what I didn’t care one bit.

"I get it your angry now; we'll talk later when you calm down."  Her voice was shaky and fragile.

"Calm?!" I was screaming now my voice dominating the room bouncing off of the walls.  "I am calm!  You can forget later, I don't want to talk to you ever."

"Never?" Her crossed eyes welled up in tears now.

Tears.  I hated it when ponies cried.  But I hated it more when I realized I caused it.

"… I-” I stammered for words.  Any word following I would do.  The word 'sorry' would have been a novel idea to throw in there but for the life of me I couldn't choke it out.  Instead I opt for sprinting for the door and slamming it behind me.  I slump down against it pushing my full body weight against it.  Soon I hear the entire lunchroom slowly return to its usual buzz.

I spare one last look in the room.  Ditzy sat alone her head sunk inside her hooves as her back heaved up in down.  Her apple cinnamon muffin was on the floor rendering it inedible. It must have slipped her grip when I flipped the tray.  I realized that she had nothing to eat besides that ruined large cinnamon apple muffin, and to offer it to me… that meant a lot from her.  So I did the best thing I could for her and for me.  I ran away, or rather flew away.  This is why I never make friends; the only thing that comes from them is losing them followed by years of regrets.

The flight to nowhere was a difficult one.  I had no idea of where to go so I just started with getting away from Cloudsdale Flight Academy.  I didn't care about the storm that was brewing.  My wings were powerful enough to beat against the strong winds, but only just so.  It was a tiresome process.

Thunder rolled in the distance and I was a lone flyer.  First rule of flight camp was never to fly alone at night.  Well screw you flight school!  I was flying alone, at night, with blurry vision.  Ever since I left the academy I was, well… I was, crying.  I hated it when others cried, but there is no word to describe the deep feeling of anger and shame I felt when I cried.

Laugh it up all you want.  Go on.  Jest at the imbecile that was my past self.  I was pathetic then.  Weak.  Thanks to our cultural upbringing and gender roles males who cry aren't accepted by society.  Crying is for the ones who don't have backbones. For those who are cowards.  Colts never cry.  But if I was crying does that make me less of a colt than the rest?  I guess it does.

Why am I telling you this?  You don't want to hear the sad sob story or what sorry excuses for rational thoughts I was thinking.  I was a distressed colt with more issues than I could care to count.

Simple choppy Ideas crossed my confused mind.  Flying.  Alone.  Storm.  Regret.  Home.  That's where I decided to head.  Home.  The orphanage where I was the unnoticed colt in the back row who said nothing.  Unattached to anypony or anything.  Where Mrs. Sunshine was; the only soul in the world who actually cared for me.  Safe from the jerks banters, and the jealousy of Rainbow Dash's perfect life.

The clouds grew thick, the rumblings louder.  I knew that flying in such inclement weather was dangerous.  Why was there even a storm in the first place?  There weren’t any forecasts or orders for one, yet here it was, floating above and around me, raining down upon both my body and spirits.  I felt my mane stand on end.  I was too distracted to notice what was happening, oblivious as to the amount of pain I was about to experience.

The lighting shocked without mercy.  Shooting 10,000 some volts to circuit through my body.  Time seemed to freeze as asphyxiating pain washed over my body.  I knew it lasted less than a second but it felt like minutes, or even hours.  I fell to the ground like a rock, sinking through the rushing air and rain.  My mane smoked on its ends.  I saw the earth rush towards me at a horrifying rate.  I tried to spread my wings to at least break my fall, but they flapped aimlessly at my sides trembling from uncoordinated and electric induced spasms.  My jaw was clamped shut not allowing vocalizing my horror leaving me only to silently scream in my mind.  This was it.  I was going to die.

~----------~

Disclaimer: I am not Laruen Faust incognito, and henceforth I do not own MLP: Friendship is Magic. I make no claim for Hasbro’s characters or world. I am just a humble fan fiction writer, nothing more.  Please leave your questions, comments, and constructive criticism in the comments below so I can better myself as a writer and enhance your experience as a reader.

P1- Chapter 4: Aftershock

Minor Turbulence Part 1: Troubled Past

Chapter: 4 Aftershock

By: Midway Bridge

I woke slowly after that lightning strike.  Frankly I was surprised that I was still alive.  At that point I didn't want to be though, since the amount of pain was overbearing made being dead seem like an easy alternative to living.  The thought of suicide crossed my mind more than once actually, I attempted it once too back a few years before.  If the orphanage didn't have such cheap ceiling support beams you wouldn't be hearing this story.

Moving on from that dark chapter of my life, I found myself in the hospital and with more pain than I thought possible.  Literally all of my muscles were sore; from my hindquarters to my jaw, everything ached of a thousand pains and sometimes twitched involuntarily.  My head felt like it got hit by a freight train, my throat was dry, and for the life of me I wanted to eat just about anything to satisfy my hunger.  All in all:  I felt like shit.

I guessed that I was in a hospital, based on the fact that a machine beeped in perfect sync with my heartbeat.  I didn't feel the desire to open my eyes though, if the staff thought I was asleep they wouldn't bother me with questions or anything and just let me rest.  I felt a pressure on my face, rather more or less a ring of pressure which was most likely an oxygen mask to keep me breathing.  I tried to turn my head but it was immobilized in a somewhat uncomfortable position.  Sleep felt like a good idea.  The warm blanket was plenty enough to lull me back into a dreamless slumber.

When I awoke the second time I felt much more aware of my surroundings.  Outside I could barely make out PA announcements paging doctors to various wings of the building.  Wings...

Sweet Celestia I couldn't feel my wings!  I tried to flex them but I couldn't tell if they moved or not.  I instantly engaged panic mode struggling against my physical restraints.  My eyes shot open only to let bright white light blind me.  I didn't care.   I jerked my head forward and freed myself from the oxygen mask.  My breathing instantly became heavy like I was trying to breath with a full load of bricks on my chest.  I used my teeth and hooves to pull off the heavy blanket.

My eyes were still adjusting to the light but I could clearly make out my wings.  They were wrapped completely in tight white medical tape and had poles supporting the delicate bones underneath.  At least the worst of my fears was gone when I saw the wings to still be there.

I didn't notice but the machines steady beeps became a long frantic high-pitched tone.  It wasn't 10 seconds before nurses and doctors rushed in expecting me to flat line.  To their relief, I wasn't about to, but I felt dizzy and my vision started turning black.  I sunk back down into the bed.  Air was so hard to breathe in; each breath was becoming more labored with each gasp.

I felt the mask be placed on me and air came back to me as easily as it did on the surface.  I clutched onto the device for dear life with a zealousness I never thought I had before.

"You shouldn't be up, what were you thinking?"

I didn't answer.  I wouldn't dare to depart with my lifeline for even a split-second to answer such a pointless question.

"What's your name kid?"

I breathed in from the mask before speaking.  "Turbulence, but my given name is Stormy Weather."

It sort of came out really fast so I could fit it in one breath.  I quickly returned to the mask before I had to inhale.  From that point on I decided it would be easier to answer as short as possible.

"Alright Turbulence, are your parents around?"

I hated that question.  They always assume that you have them.

I shook my head no.

"Somepony I could contact?"

I gave that question some thought before answering letting the machines fill the silence.  There was only one pony who I would like to see.  "Ms. Sunshine."

"And she is?"

"Teacher."

"Where does she live?"

"Near Marisburg." I took a breath.  "1/2 days fly." By Celestia I sounded worse than Wheezer during an asthma attack.

"Oh, earth ponies don't fly."

Wait.  I looked at the doctor searching for set of wings that weren't there.  Earth pony.  Since the doctor was an earth pony, I had to be on the surface.  Where the hell was I?

Almost as if sensing my confusion he told me where I was, I wasn't in the Cloudsdale hospital like I originally suspected, but rather the Marris View hospital.  Not only a few miles from the orphanage.  So I made it about halfway, that's good I guess.

"Rest up now, alright?"

--=====--

I must have fallen asleep for a long time after that because the next thing I remember was waking to a hushed conversation between the doctor and Ms. Sunshine who apparently just arrived.

"What happened exactly?"

"He flew directly into the bad storm that was out of control from the eastern seaboard.  He was struck by lightning and collapsed midflight.  Thankfully we had somepony catch him before impacting the ground and rolled to take the fall, saving his life and most of the damage."

Somepony… saved me?  Who would bother to go out of their way to save me?

"How is he?" asked Ms. Sunshine.

Him or me?

"Turbulence will be fine, he has a few minor injuries and some trauma to his chest where he was struck by the lightning, and his wings are quite fragile so they will need to be casted for at least 3 weeks."

"Turbulence?"  Now she sounded quite confused.  I imagined her raising an eyebrow like she did whenever I asked a strange question.

"Yeah, that's what he called himself.  Quite fitting I suppose."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, look at his wings."

"Yes?"

"Kids his age usually need a kids medium sized cast.  He's wearing an adult small."

"Is that bad?"

"Well no, it's just… different.  He has a condition called magna alis, a genetic defect that makes your wings grow nearly twice as fast.  It's a dominant trait that only can be passed down from direct bloodlines.  Quite exceptionally rare too.  What's fitting is that he'll never be able to fly normally.  His wings are just simply too big and strong for his smaller body."

Well that sure explained a lot.

"I see.  I should have never sent him to flight camp."

"Not every pegasus is meant to fly.  Though I have heard of a few with his condition who overcame it.  In fact they became stronger fliers because of it, but for him, it'll be best if he remained with four hooves on the ground."

There was a long pause, a ruffling of papers, a few taps of a pencil or pen (a habit that Ms. Sunshine would do when she was reading), followed by a few minor comments about medical terms between her and the doctor that I didn't understand.

"Will he be permanently damaged from the lightning?" she asked after a while.

I hoped not.

"Electrocutions are always a tricky matter, but most likely not.  It's amazing really, he's incredibly lucky that the voltage barely crossed his, but as a precaution we'd like to keep monitoring his vitals."

"The worst is the burn mark across his chest, it's asphyxiating his right lung making it incredibly difficult to breathe.  Until he's fully healed of it, he'll need to wear the mask."

"So how long is he going to be here?"

"A 2 weeks stay at best but we'd like to keep tabs on him after that."

"That's some strange cutie mark on him though,”  he commented.

Cutie mark?  I was very tempted to crack open my eyes to get a good look at my supposed cutie mark.  Thought it was needless to say I was excited beyond reckoning.  I wondered exactly what it would be, and who it made me.

"It looks almost volatile, what are his talents in to get a mark like that?" asked the doctor.

"I didn't know he had one, must have earned it at flight camp.  I'll ask him when he wakes." I felt her run a hoof through my mane in an endearing way.  "I'm proud of you Stormy."

You know that feeling, like when you feel warm and fuzzy?  I have very few of those moments but this was one of them.  I could stay like this forever. But like all things good that happened to me it had to end.  Ms. Sunshine promptly left after the doctor did leaving me alone to myself.  I knew I shouldn't get up, but I was so intrigued with what my cutie mark could be.   Curiosity won over my concern for my health, and I took off my oxygen mask and threw off the covers.

What I saw didn't surprise given the events as of late.  It was a cloud and lightning bolt, not entirely unlike Rainbow Dash's own cutie mark.  Only it did look different.  The cloud wasn't white and puffy, it was black and foreboding like it was threatening to rain any minute.  The lightning bolt also wasn't like her nearly iconic multicolored mane, but a sinister yellow streak, a stark contrast on my otherwise grey body.  What I liked best about it most was that it matched my coloring perfectly.  I had seen some cutie marks that looked horrible since they didn't match their bearers coat and mane.

I lay back down with a smile; at least I got something done right in my life.  Even if my mark was bound to come, I was happy with it.  A black storm cloud.  It was more than perfect.

--=====--

The next few uneventful months of my life went slowly, painfully so.  I took it one breath at a time.  I slowly worked myself back up to healthy cardio levels.  When walking up and down staircases didn't practically kill me, I decided to once again to try flying.

Stretching the stiff wings from being casted for a few weeks and then neglected for a few more felt great.  I didn't do any strenuous flying just leisurely gliding and basic stuff that I never really had a problem with at camp and ended with one 'almost' crash landing.  I had to stop when my heart started to palpitate, but I knew now at least I wouldn't be stuck on the ground and forced to work as a fry cook for a living.

The hospitals method of 'keeping tabs' on me was a weekly visit to a doctor.  He'd ask me all sorts of questions about my health, emotions, est., because after all being struck by lightning was supposedly 'traumatizing'.  They wouldn't know what traumatizing was for me.  Parental abandonment:  Distraught.  Bad friends or lack thereof: Meh.  Getting struck by lightning: Traumatizing?  I don't think so.  Try poor judgment on my part.

I didn't take any of the therapy parts seriously.  Whenever he asked me how I was feeling.  I'd say some smart ass pun like, electrified, enlightened, or glowing.  He wouldn't laugh and ask me all sorts of nagging questions. It was incredibly boring so I just tried to answer as short as possible to get out.

The real questions came when he talked about how I felt about being alone.  That subject was a bit touchy for me.  That question I would just dodge around.  I'd say, "It feels okay to be by myself," leaving no real room for more questions about it.  Truth was I wasn't sure how I felt about it.  I felt stronger and independent like it was me against the world.  But I also missed that small taste of companionship with Ditsy.  Of course I kept that to myself I wouldn't tell my actual thought to a stranger.  How could he possibly help me?

My relationship with Ms. Sunshine grew more tense.  I knew she wanted to look after me since I was like a surrogate son to her, but she worried about me too much.  She would ask me multiple times a day how I was feeling, what I was going to do and if I needed to take a break from class.  It was extremely frustrating.  She treated me like a foal who just learned how to walk.  She would baby talk me on occasion, which I felt insulted my intelligence.  So after a while I started spending less and less time with her, and did my own thing whenever I wanted, which more often than not, resulted in trouble.  Most of the time I would get in trouble at the orphanage, but on occasion I'd get detained by the local law enforcement.

I think it was a bit hard on her though.  I would really try not to do anything bad or disruptive, but I couldn't help it.  She wouldn't yell at me or even get mad.  She'd just put on a smile and quietly clean up the mess or fix any problems without a word.  Besides how could she yell at a crippled orphan?

It went on like this for years, long after I had fully recovered.  We grew to be so distant practically no words were said between us at all.  We simply coexisted in the same building, saying what we had to when we had to, but no more or less.

It all came down to a boil one night after lights out.  This was my favorite time to sneak out since the rest of the orphans were goodie four shoes and stayed in bed.  As if being good would get them adopted.  Pah!  I've been there for sixteen years now and the only ones that get adopted are the boot-lickers, the snobs, and the pathetic naive ones.

Anyways, I unexpectantly found Ms. Sunshine in the classroom which was directly below the sleeping quarters.  The room was lit with a measly candle that barely shown enough light to distinguish her face from the desk and papers that laid on it.  She had a rare scowl that adorned her face.  It must have been something really bad.  Curious to see what it was I made way from direction of the front door and into the classroom.

"Hello."

She jumped at the sound of my voice, yelping a bit in fright.  She composed herself when she realized that it was only me.

"Hello."  Her face brightened a little, but still had a look of worry.  "You shouldn't be out of bed."

It wasn't really in an ordering, condescending, or patronizing tone.  It was simply a comment.

"What's got your tail in a knot?" I questioned walking up to the dwindling flame so she could see me better.

"A job opened up in an elementary school, and I applied.”  She answered.  “That's where I went last week for an interview."

I honestly didn't know she ever left.  I must have skipped class that day, a new found hobby of mine that I was getting a lot of grief about.

"Let me guess, you're upset that you got declined?"

"No, it’s far from that."

"Wait...” the look on her face didn’t show of rejection, it showed of a much deeper sorrow, one of loss and pain, a feeling that I knew all too well.  “You didn't get regected did you?"

She shook her head no. "Here's the letter of acceptance."

I looked over the document with disbelief.  Sure enough she had landed a job at a remote school in some forgotten corner of the world. I hardened my expression realizing what came next.  This is why I didn't love anypony.  But I didn't know if I still loved her.

"Good for you.  Now go and get lost. I don't need you here." The words were every bit as vile and bitter as I wanted them to be.

"That's a real shame.  I was planning on taking you with me but now I'm having second thoughts." She paused, “Stormy what happened to you?  You used to love me."

"The names Turbulence now.  It has been for four years.  It makes me weak to love."

"Stormy don't be like that. Come with me.  Please."  She was practically begging.  "You'll be happy."

"The only thing that hurts more than being alone is being sent to be there."

"I'll never abandon you.  I swear it on Celestia's morning light."

"Then what are you doing now?  Didn't you make that same promise to the others?" I pointed upwards where the rest of the younger kids slept.  Empty, broken, promises.  She should have told them the truth and better prepared them for the real cold world instead of filling it with fantasies.

"Stormy it’s not like that-"

"Do you even have a plan? The opening salary isn't even enough to cover the two of us!  You never think these things through."

"We'd think of something."

"Yeah, like what?" I demanded.

"I don't know.  Is that what you want to hear!?"  She raised her voice at me.  She never did that before. "Do you enjoy tormenting others and putting them down!?  Do you want me to not take you with me?!"

Five years ago I'd have jumped right on it and said sianara to the other kids.  Now, I feel like everything she said before was just a lie.  She didn't care about the others, she didn't want to be fair to them, she didn't want to adopt them all, just me and her.  What I would have killed to get was starting to look like not even worth getting out of bed five minutes earlier for.  I knew now that she wasn't perfect.  She was flawed. I didn't see it  before because I didn't want to look, blinded by petty love.  No more.  I didn't need her anymore.

"Miss  Sunshine?" interrupted a new squeaky voice in the room.  We had been so involved in our argument that we hadn’t noticed a third guest to enter.  It was a small foal with big sleepy eyes like she just woken up.  I didn't know her name, didn't care either.  "Why are you yelling?"

"I'm, well…” she searched for an answer, “never mind me, I was just upset."  She stopped explaining herself and put on one of her fake smiles.  "Just go to bed sweetie, I'm sorry I woke you."

"Okay," yawned the small kid.  She trudged away slowly.

We listened for her to walk up the flight of stairs, before we said anything else.  We had no desire to bring this conflict to the attention of those not a few feet above us.

"Stormy listen..." Ms. Sunshine began.

"No." The words didn't pain me to say them like I thought they would.  "I won't come with you."

“Don’t be ridiculous." She laughed nervously as if what I said was some kind of an ill-timed joke with a bad punchline.  "I know that you’ve wanted this for a long time.”

“That was true when I didn't know what I wanted for myself and my future.  Now, I do know.  And you’re not part of it.”

"…what?  I thought that…" She sniffed to hold back the tears.

"I'm no kid anymore.  You can't lie to me like you can to her."

Her face fell in defeat.  "Very well, if that's how you feel." All traces of her composure left, her voice trembled and her eyes watered freely.  "You should walk yourself to bed now."

And so I did.  I had no desire to see her cry.  I won't be made weak by others anymore.

"You'll always be Stormy to me,” she called behind me, "even if you don't see it in yourself.  Goodbye."

I didn’t reply.  I didn’t even grace her with turning around.  I kept walking.  If I turned back now I might never be able leave her.  I became stronger than ever that night, outgrowing my silly childhood affection.  I was truly independent.  No family.  No friends.  Just me.  Alone.  I thought I was happy.  Ever since that night a void slowly formed inside of me, and it wasn't until it was too late that I realized what it was; It was a void that never could be filled; a void of regrets.

The next morning she was gone, only leaving a letter of resignation on the desk.

End Part 1

~----------~

Disclaimer: I am not Laruen Faust incognito, and henceforth I do not own MLP: Friendship is Magic. I make no claim for Hasbro’s characters or world. I am just a humble fan fiction writer, nothing more.  Please leave your questions, comments, and constructive criticism in the comments below so I can better myself as a writer and enhance your experience as a reader.

Part 2: Waking into a Dream - Transition

Minor Turbulence: Transition

Growing up

By: Midway Bridge

They blamed me of course.  They always blamed me.  I was blamable for everything.  Even for the things I didn't do.  But this time the evidence was overwhelming.  I was the last known pony to speak with her, there was an argument, there were tears, and there was the fact that I was me.

Needless to say, since I was one of the older members of the orphanage, I held a position of seniority over the others.  Henceforth, nopony said anything to my face, but I knew they despised my very existence.  And surprisingly I was okay with that.  They could hate me all they want, because I didn't care for what they thought.

The new teacher was a joke.  I had no respect for her and didn't even bother to learn her name.  I was a menace that year, so when I requested to transfer to Cloudsdale as a boarding student, it was welcome and I was shipped off the next day.

My stay in Cloudsdale was as noticeable as a single grain of sand in a beach.  I did nothing big, said nothing important, sat in the back, did poorly on tests, and lived day to day one block from the school in a boarding house.  In essence, I barely existed there as a wallflower.

I noticed Rainbow Dash in the hallways.  I might have said hi, but she was hanging out with some griffon name Gilda.  She might have been some foreign exchange student, I don't know.  But what I did know was that she was a complete bitch. So I didn't even bother talking to Dash.  Fluttershy was there too.  She apparently found a soft spot for the surface which earned her a bit of ridicule from everypony.  I learned that Ditsy transferred a year before I came and was being schooled in Ponyville.  I would have liked to see her again, but I know I wouldn't have the balls to confront her about last moments with her.

I stayed there for two years finishing up my high school and starting my life outside of the orphanage.  I was 18 now, an adult, so I was no longer the legal responsibility of the orphanage.  That scared me a bit.  I hated the damn place but it was home to me.  A home that wanted nothing to do with me and slammed the door in my face upon arrival, but home none the less.

Following my graduation, I applied to the Cloudsdale University and got denied for low grades.  I couldn't afford a private college anyways, so I went and enlisted in the military through the Annapples Military Academy.  My breif stay in the military told me two things:  I didn't like being in the military and didn't have a choice but to do it if I wanted to go to college.  Turns out I didn't want to go to college that much.  I'll leave it at that.

After that failed escapade, I landed a job in the Weather Factory later that year back in Cloudsdale.  I started as a cloud maker, but all the clouds I made turned into storms too early and wreaked havoc, damaging the facility and keeping it inoperable for over a week.  I was then moved to snowflake making.  I tip my hat to all of the snowflake makers because damn that job was hard.  I lasted about an hour before they transferred me to the mindless job of weather approval.

Weather approval was a bit of a bore and didn't pay well enough for bed and board as well as food, but the job was a job (with coffee).  I'd jump between apartments and temporary housing very often so I had to travel light.  I traveled very light in fact.  I took one of the empty coffee cans from work and filled it with all the money I had.  That was it.  All of my personal belongings.

I got into some thick situations with fake id's and the wrong crowd a couple of times.  Alcohol may have been involved (very very involved), and that sort of sent me into a bit of deficit spending.  Between the drinks and posting bail so I could go to work the next day, I was broke.

Then I got fired.  The one thing I couldn't screw up in life.  I knew I had nothing else to do, nowhere else to go.  I went and got fired over some stupid prank.  I guess in the end fate got the final laugh.

I made off for the storm clouds that night and nested among the lightning bolts.  They hurt a bit, but ever since I got my cutie mark they shocked less and less.  Sometimes I liked the pain; it kept the world real.  I soon slipped into a dream filled sleep.  One filled with surreal fantasies and delusive notions.  If only my dreams were my life and my life but a dream…

Begin Part 2: Waking into a Dream

~----------~

Disclaimer: I am not Laruen Faust incognito, and henceforth I do not own MLP: Friendship is Magic. I make no claim for Hasbro’s characters or world. I am just a humble fan fiction writer, nothing more.  Please leave your questions, comments, and constructive criticism in the comments below so I can better myself as a writer and enhance your experience as a reader.

P2 - Chapter 1: The Letter

Minor Turbulence Part 2: Waking in a Dream

Chapter: 1 The Letter

By: Midway Bridge

Something was off when I woke up.  I didn't know what it was at first.  I rolled over in my bed.  Ah mystery solved, I was in a bed.  Since I didn't remember how I got there either I was kidnapped against my will and drugged (improbable), was moved in my sleep by law enforcement (likely), or passed out after blowing all of my money on alcohol (wouldn't have been the first time).  I had a horrible headache which indicated a hangover so that wasn't good.  I felt around for my coffee can.  I felt around for it in the bed.  My anxiety grew the longer I couldn't find it, but I calmed when I felt its cool rim.  I pulled it out and shook the coffee can.  There was a satisfying clinking sound of a few bits still in there.  Good, that gets rid of option three.

I looked around the room.  It was vacant save for a single pony sitting in a wooden armchair.  The pony startled me; he was wearing some sort of gas mask over his face along with a skin-tight jumpsuit of some sort.  Or was it a her?  Probably was a he, though was nearly impossible to tell with the mask covering the curves of face and the jumpsuit covering all but the wings and the hoofs which he (presumably) was busy filing.

Since there weren’t any officers in the room, I started to lean towards the kidnapped and drugged option a little more now.  When you wake up and see a gasmask wearing pony you'd think so too.

The pony had a green coat and wings folded to his sides; the jumpsuit jacket was made of thick black leather that was edged with red and yellow.  On the shoulder was a single golden lightning bolt emblazoned in a ring of red.  The gasmask was unlike anything that I had ever seen.  The two filters on the sides glowed softly with a light blue hue and the lenses of the eyes reflected the same color, creating an ominous blank stare.  Combine that with the deep respiration of the mask and I was official, freaked out.

"Who the hay are you supposed to be?" I asked nervously.

The pony looked up then just shrugged and continued to file his hooves.  I shuffled nervously in the bed.

The door opened and a different pegasus walked in, she was stood tall and proud, she wore the same uniform but without the gasmask-like thing.  Her hair was long and blond, not like the electric yellow I had, but lighter and with a touch of a few blue streaks running down it.  She had a light build like most pegasai, but even through the jacket it was easy to see that she had a toned physique as the result of hard work.  Her eyes were a nice light cyan that matched her dyed mane.  Her lips were pursed in a frown like she just heard bad news.  Perhaps she did, and was here as a result.  After all, I was usually followed by bad news wherever I went.

The pony in the chair said something to her but it was muffled by the mask making it hard to understand.  The gasmask wearing pony got up and left without another word.  Not to mention my killer headache didn't help my hearing either.  I needed my mourning coffee… if there's one thing I'll miss about my job it'll be the espresso maker.

"Right, question time," she stated like she was assuring herself of what to say.  She approached to bed and pulled up a chair. "So what’s you're name?"

No point in hiding it.  "Turbulence."

"Alright then Turbulence, what the hay were you doing in the middle of a storm napping?" She wasn't yelling, but I could tell she was trying to scold me like a child.

"I was tired so I took a snooze is that a crime?" I was pretty sure it wasn't but I'm not to well versed when it came to the bureaucratic nightmare we call politics.

"Beds too good for you?"

"Don't have a bed to sleep in." She faltered a bit upon hearing that.  There was a flash of uncertainty across her face but she recovered before speaking again.

"So you just took a snooze in a class 3 storm?"

"A class three storm, huh…" I wracked my brain to remember that stupid meteorology class I was forced to take.  I drew a blank.  Right, play dumb.  "Didn't seem like one when I got there, it was just a few storm clouds and some gusty winds."

"Are you daft?  The weather stations were calling the storm for a week now ever since the system blew out of the Everfree forest.  Don't you read the papers?"

"Can't say I do." I hadn't had the time to sit and read a paper for a very long time.  Not to mention to actually afford one.  All those extra bits could add up to something important like rent for a week.

"Guess you don't get out much then."

I'm outside more often than you.  I freakin live outside.

"Excuse me for interrupting your 'question time,' " I said in a mocking tone while drawing air quotes.  She glared daggers at me but I shrugged it off.  "But who's shooting the questions and what was the deal with the other guy?"

"Who Pilot?" she asked gesturing to the door.

"Sure," I clarified.  How was I supposed to know who Pilot was?

“Don’t worry about him.  He’s a real sweetheart when you get to know him.”

“That’s one hell of a creepy gas mask though…”

"It's not a gasmask exactly, but you don't really need to understand that." There was that frustrated parental tone again.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You see Turbulence," she put an unnecessary stress on my name as if it were to intimidate me or something, "at the Emergency Weather Bureau, we have technology even the Wonderbolts aren't authorized to use.  I don't want to bore you with the details."

At least that answered as to who I was talking with, or rather who she represented.  "Why has the Emergency Weather Bureau taken an interest in a simpleton like me?"

"You practically had 100,000 volts flowing through you when we found you," she said, "We'd like to know why you aren't fried to crisp."

"Don't we all?"

"You mean you don't know?" she asked, she raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

"All I can tell you really is that when I was young I was struck by lightning and this appeared."  I took off the covers to show her my cutie mark.  "Hurt like hell then but, ever since lightning never bothered me that much."

"That's very interesting… tell me more, anything really would do."

"Isn't much more to tell.  I passed out when it happened don't remember a thing." That was only partially true, but she didn't need to know the rest of that story.  The lead up, getting saved, and the whole 2 and a half month recovery thing wasn’t something she needed to know.

"I see." She stood up again.  She walked over to the door.  "You might want to wash up and look presentable."

"Hey wait!  You never answered my question!"

"Which one?" she tried to recall but got nothing.

"What's your name?"

"Gale," she answered bluntly before she quietly shut the door behind herself.  What a charmer she was.  I’m glad that I never have to see

I got up out of the bed, a task that proved to take more effort than anticipated.  She asked me to look presentable; all I had to do was look in the mirror to see why.

A bad mane day was something that sometimes happened for a pony who slept in bed.    Now imagine me after sleeping in a storm cloud.  There is a noticeable difference.  Today was no exception.  My electric yellow mane was a complete mess shooting out in sporadic directions.   After wrestling with it for a better part of 5 minutes, I looked, by my standards, 'presentable.'

I noticed a small letter on the desk next to the bed with my name addressed on it.  It was a dreary dark grey and had the golden lightning bolt motif of the Emergency Weather Bureau.  I assumed it was for me to read.  I opened it quickly curious to see the contents.

"Dear Turbulence,

Your presence is requested at the Emergency Weather Bureau on November 18th for an audience with Captain Rook.  Arrive no later than 3:00 pm.  If the date is inconvenient please send a written response ahead of time.

Director Rain,

Head of EWB"

What a strange letter to receive.   The calendar on the wall showed that today’s date was the 17th, so I had the whole day to decide if I even wanted to go.  I wondered why they would possibly want to see me again until I realized I probably had to retell the entire story from the beginning to her superiors so they got it on record or something.  I freaking hate the government.

When I walked outside Gale was standing idle by the door waiting for me.  The gas masked pony dubbed 'Pilot' was nowhere to be seen.  I supposed he had better things to do than foal sit me.

"Good, you're ready."

"What the hell is this?" I lifted up the envelope.

"A letter."

No shit.  "Why do you need to leave a letter for me?"

"Pilot left it for you.  Its contents are for you only."

"Come on, why does the bureau need to see me?  We already talked."

"That's for the captain and you to discuss," she said.  She seemed to be enjoying my frustration.  "Seeing that you’re alive and well, I’ll be off.  You've haven't been checked out already but you can leave.  Or stay if you wish."

She walked out and around the corner of the hallway narrowly avoiding the medical staff rushing a new patient into a different room.  I watched her as she exited the building and took off for the skies.

--=====--

November 18th

I took her advice on staying in the hospital for the night.  I should have injured myself more often since sleeping outside during the winter is just brutal.  The Emergency Weather Bureau wasn’t too hard to find, it was a gigantic grey monolithic structure that was just a few blocks down from the famed Cloudsdale Weather Factory.  I hadn’t given the building much thought beforehand it was always in the background and out of the way of my daily life.  But now I climbed the many stairs that led to the buildings foundation.

The building itself was comprised of solid earthly materials that somehow managed to stay above the clouds (magical enchantment perhaps?).  There were columns above the stairs that resembled classical pegasus architecture, but otherwise it was in complete stark contrast to the surrounding city.  Above the large wooden doors was the same lightning bolt in a red ring that I had been seeing a lot of as of late.

The door creaked loudly as I entered.  The interior of the building was incredibly large.  I the first floor of the building was primarily comprised of the lobby which I now walked through.  All of the walls, pillars, even the floor was  made up of finely polished black marble.  It was dimly lit by spherical electrical lanterns and tall glass windows on either side of the room which cast strange reflective lights off of the gleaming marble.   On the floor was a giant depiction the circled lightning bolt but there were words etched into the red ring in black letters.

“In the darkest of nights filled with the brightest of lights we come, protect, and serve till the clear sun rises again.”

Cool.

There wasn’t a single soul in the room other than a single secretary quietly typing a paper up.  She sat behind a dark wooded desk.  I briskly walked up to her; my hoofsteps clopped loudly and echoed throughout the room with each step.

I cleared my throat to get her attention.

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked without looking up.  She shifted her glasses a bit, but remained focused on the task at hand.

“I’m Turbulence and I got this letter-“

“Use the elevator on the left, floor 10” she said not waiting to hear what else I had to say.

“Okay then.” I had no idea what an elevator was, so I assumed it was the big fancy golden plated door to the left of the desk.

The doors slid open without a sound when I approached.  I jumped back when I saw somepony else coming out.  They jumped back too.  Wait… it was just my reflection.  Now I felt stupid.  Inside was just a tiny mirrored room.

“Um… is this-"

“Just go in and press 10,” she sighed in exasperation.  Obviously she got this kind of confusion a lot.

I walked into the small room there was a row of buttons on the side ranging from 2-15 and a few letters like L and B.  I pushed the button numbered ten and the door slid close.  Then I felt something strange.  I didn’t know what at first but then I knew.  The room was moving.   Sweet Celestia the room was moving!  I started to quietly panic in the confined room.  Lights were flashing and the lurching movements of the room made me feel queasy.  Soon the doors opened.  And I teetered out of the confounded elevator right into something or rather somepony.

That pony of course was Gale.

“First elevator ride I assume?” she said with a smirk pushing me off of her and wiping her jacket clean.

I nodded and tried to regain my balance.  Of all of the ponies I could crash into it had to be her…

“The captain said you’d be here.  Follow me.”

The floor was carpeted red with golden trim on the sides there were other ponies in the room, all were wearing uniformed garb.  Some were like Gale’s and others were blue and had different symbols.  They all talked amongst themselves as we passed by.  This floor was different than the first. The walls were a bleach white.

“Step lightly,” she said.  She was already a few paces ahead of me.  We stopped towards the end of the hallway.

"When you meet the captain speak quickly and to the point.” She brushed off my coat in a few places and fixed my mane. “Address him as sir or Captain, never as simply Rook.  And for the love of all things good don't stare."

"Stare at what?"

"You'll see for yourself." she said "Good luck."  She shoved me into a different direction and gestured to the room with a big golden plank marked ROOK in large letters.

--=====--

I walked into the room.  There was a single pegasus sitting behind the desk hovering over a game of chess.  From what I could tell none of the pieces had yet to move.  He was a dark blue coated Pegasus and unlike all of the other ponies I saw in my brief visit he didn’t wear any sort of uniform, but he had a black one with golden stripes hung up with care on a rack next to the desk.  His eyes were a dark blue also staring intently at the board in front of him.

"Sit down." He motioned to the chair across from him.  I sat.  The glass chess set lay between us almost challenging us to play a game.  His pieces were opaque and frosted white while the ones on my side were a translucent and bent the light through them like tiny lenses.

"Are you a player?"

"Not really, no." Did I really look like a chess player to him?

"There’s a certain kind of tranquility in chess that many fail to appreciate.  It teaches us many things like humility, patience, and tenacity.  The game itself is mathematically perfect, which is why it is still popular today.  When played correctly and each piece supports each other, the player is victorious.  To do this the player must plan ahead many turns in advance."  The stallion slid a pawn two spaces forward on the board.  "As you know, my name is Captain Rook, leader of Emergency Weather Response Team 403."

"Yes, sir." I responded as I was instructed to do so.

"There's an opening on my team that I want to see filled.  I think you’re the stallion for the job, but like the game of chess I must plan ahead.  Are you truly ready for a job like this?"

"With all due respect sir, I had no idea I was to be interviewed for a job"

"Spare me the sir's and whatnot, I was through with that since I was discharged from the Royal Guard." He shifted around in his seat a bit.  It was then when I caught a slight glimpse of what Gale said not to stare at.  His right wing.  It was completely messed up and bent out of shape, twisted in directions that the bones shouldn’t have a reason to go to.

"Military doesn’t like liabilities.” He sighed folding his damaged wing away. “Isn’t that right Stormy?"

"You know my real name?" The note had addressed me as Turbulence and I had been referred as such by everypony for years now.  Just hearing it aloud felt odd.

"I know all about you."

"You don't know anything about me."

"That is where you are wrong." He opened up a file on his desk.  "Stormy Weather, named after the big storm that occurred during the second week of May.  Approximately 19 years old.  Due to a lack of birth records his date of birth is unknown so he celebrates his birthday on the day he arrived at the orphanage instead on May 14th.  Was a bit of a troublemaker in the orphanage, received numerous detentions for pranks and whatnot.  Picked on by a bully and also reportedly crashed the first time you took flight.  You never were adopted due to a label put on your file that marked you as disturbed."

I didn't know even know that.

"When you were 12 you went to Cloudsdale summer flight camp.  Having no prior knowledge of flight you had trouble arriving there in the first place.  To get there you rented a chariot that cost about $100 but they charged you only $10 out of the kindness of their hearts.  Due to your inexperience as a flyer you were quickly labeled as different from the rest.  Your closest thing you have to a friend was Ditzy Doo who was known as 'Derpy' due to an eye impairment that caused her eyes to cross.  You didn't consider her a friend due to your bitterness and rough upbringing, but never the less she tried her best to make you feel welcome and loved, even if unappreciated."

"Hey I appreciated what she did-"

"By pulling pranks on her and teasing her? Sure," he snorted, "that’s how I would treat somepony who shows me kindness." His voice was layered thickly with sarcasm.

He continued, "In summer flight camp you had a run in with Rainbow Dash, she was the top flyer in the class but she came to you out of pity to help you, but like everyone else you meet, you shut her out."

That was a private conversation that I didn't tell a soul about.

"A pony coined the nickname 'Turbulence' and it stuck with you ever since.  During the final test you had a strange occurrence involving a near black out during a downwards spiral to the surface.  Luckily you almost regained control before impact and suffered minimal damage.  You finished nearly last in the test due to your off course flying."

"That night back on you flew outside on your own to fly home to the orphanage.  It was here when you were struck by lightning and caused you to black out.  You would have died if someone hadn't saved your life."

"Do you have records on who it was?" I asked hopefully.  This could answer at least one of my questions from that night.

"Upon interview he didn't want to disclose his name."  He said stiffly.  Obviously he wanted to know that too so he could complete that file of his.

"Upon waking up you discovered your cutie mark; a black cloud with lightning bolts shooting out of it.  When you came back from flight camp, you changed a bit and four years later your "parental figure" Ms. Sunshine left having gone having moved to Baltimare to start a new life.  From here your grades plummeted marking you as the lowest in your class.  You remained in the orphanage until 18 where you decided to try to go to college.  Instead of your first choice, you vouched for three years to Anappless for a military career where you were given a scholarship due to your predicament.  After 1 semester you were kicked out before graduating because of disorderly conduct.  You re-applied again under a different alias but were denied entry and were practically court marshaled for falsifying a military document."

I was told that misunderstanding was to be kept off record.

"In the end you got a job as a weather approver in the Cloudsdale weather factory.  You had ins and outs of apartments since couldn't afford rent and food  while having occasional underage binge drink, so you lived, illegally I might add, on wayward clouds outside of the city.  You made $10,150 this year but you requested that you only were paid $9,999 to be exempt from federal taxes.  A few days ago you were fired from said job and made your way into a storm cloud to spend the night where you wound up getting rescued by our team.  Which leads us to the present day." He closed the file and slid it into the bottom drawer of his desk.

"How do you know all of this?" Damn creeper must have been stalking me for practically my whole life.

"I make it my job to know more about my recruits than they do.  You'd be surprised how much the government keeps on record."

I had a sinking feeling that he pulled a few strings to have all of this information.  He also most likely took some illegal routes to acquire it.

"Tell me, are you going to leave the life that you came from behind you?  We don't have the luxury of dealing with practical jokes or any sort of crap.  You work for me, don't complain and maintain the peace.  I get you paid money, enough so you'll want to learn how to do your federal taxes.  I've made my opening move so now I ask you, what's yours?"

I gave it a moment to think.  I didn't really have any options at this point. I didn't have enough cash to make it through the next month.  I recently got fired from my job and one just happens to fall into my lap? Some would call it fate, but I know better. Fate hates me.

"What's the catch?"

"No catch.  Unless you count dealing with dangerous weather a catch, but given your history it's more of a perk."

This guy knew me too well.  Literally.

"I'll take the job…"  I moved a single clear pawn to the center of the board challenging his, "…but only for the money."

"An interesting move, but I didn't expect anything more or less from you."

"When do I start?"

"Right now.  Welcome to Team 403."

~----------~

Disclaimer: I am not Laruen Faust incognito, and henceforth I do not own MLP: Friendship is Magic. I make no claim for Hasbro’s characters or world. I am just a humble fan fiction writer, nothing more.  Please leave your questions, comments, and constructive criticism in the comments below so I can better myself as a writer and enhance your experience as a reader.