The Thunder Twist Chronicle

Chapter 5

I wake up the next morning, sore as hay, but I feel wonderful. I had such great dreams with Ma. She told me she loved me and that she was always watching me. I love her so much.

I get out of my bed and start to stretch my wings to get the soreness out. After I’m feeling loose, I smell more blueberry muffins wafting from the kitchen. You know, to most ponies, blueberry muffins might get old after eating them every morning for almost two years running, but I love, love, love them. I grab Ma’s urn then head downstairs. I take her back to her spot next to her baby picture then head into the kitchen to prepare the table for breakfast.

“How’re you feeling this morning, sonny?” Gramma asks me as I enter.

“I’m feeling wonderful. I haven’t had a night’s sleep that great since before Ma passed.” I’m almost bouncing with joy.

“I haven’t seen you this happy since you came here. What did you do last night?”

“Well,” I reply enthusiastically, “Ma came to me in a dream last night. She told me that she was watching me, and she was proud of me. Oh, and she also said she loved me.”

“That’s wonderful, Twist. I’m really happy for you. Think you can do another Flare Bomb today.

“Not today, Gramma. I’m still pretty sore even though I stretched.”

“That’s fine I didn’t expect you to be able to do it twice in quick succession. We’ll do our normal routine then. How ‘bout it?”

“Sounds great…”

I’ve been training with Gramma now for five years now. Not meaning to brag but I am now an amazing flyer. I can now perform two Flare Bombs a day, and I only need a day’s rest before I can do it again. However, that is not all I can do. Not at all. It’s just the coolest. It’s about 20 per cent cooler than any other move I have. The training, though, is going to have to come to an end.

“Gramma?” I ask as I enter the kitchen for breakfast.

“Yes, dear?” She looks up from mixing the muffin batter to look at me.

“Um… well, I was thinking… um… that I should end my training.” I look down at the floor. “You see, when I left Ponyville, I promised Ma that we would see the world together.”

“I see,” she looks crestfallen. “I can’t say I’m happy to see you leave, but I’m proud of you. I think you’re making the right choice. Everypony has to leave home at some point.”

“You mean you’re not mad at me?” I look up at her.

“Of course not, sweetie,” she has tears in her eye, though. We’ll eat then you can leave. I’ll even make extra so you can take some with you.”

“Oh, thank you so much, Gramma.”

We eat in silence, wanting to save our good byes until the very end. When we are done eating Gramma tells me to go get ready. First, however, I go to the cupboard and grab an empty jar. I then head to the living room and grab Ma’s urn. I take a few of the ashes and put them gently in the jar. I replace the lid on the urn and put the jar on the table. I turn around and see Gramma watching me with tears in her eyes.

“Thank you so much, Twist. You don’t know how much that means to me.”

With a smile to her, I walk up stairs with Ma. I put her in my bag then put the bag over my back. When I walk back down stairs, Gramma is waiting for me. I walk up to her and give her a huge hug.

“I love you, Gramma,” I say, trying to hold back tears.

“I love you, too, squirt.” I feel the wetness of her cheeks on my neck. She holds me at leg length. “I’m going to miss you. Stay safe and keep in touch.”

“Sure thing, Gramma.” And with that I take off. Not looking back for fear that I will fly back and never leave.

I’ve been flying around Equestria for nearly two years now, training all the while. Every month I stop at a village or town to send a letter to Gramma. I always told her not to write me back because I was always on the move.

I was flying over one of these villages when I saw another Pegasus flying toward me. He had a dark green coat with the same color mane, except his mane had bright yellow shot through it like lightning. He wore two earrings in both ears and wore dark sunglasses on his eyes. His cutie mark was two six sided dice. He looked to be on a full on charge so I hid behind a cloud to let him pass.

The green Pegasus stopped next to me. “Hey, what’re you doin’?”

“Um…um,” is all I can get out. I haven’t talked to anypony in two years. I just give the mail mares an envelope with an address then take off again.

“What? Can’t you talk?”

“Y-yes, I can talk. I’m just not used to it.”

“Why not?”

“I-I haven’t talked to anypony for two years.” Something about him just makes it easy to talk to. But I can’t stay. I’ll send my letter at the next village. “Sorry, I have to go.”

“Where to?”

“I don’t know,” I reply, shaking my head. “Just not here.”

“Hey, come on. We should hang out.”

I turn to face him. Is he implying what I think he’s implying? Does he want to be my friend? “What would you suggest we do?”

“Well for starters, we can introduce ourselves. I’m Gambit.” He holds out his hoof.

I reach mine out, also. “I’m Thunder Twist.”

“Wait, wait. You’re Thunder Twist. Oh, wow, this just got strange.”

“What? How?” I ask

“Well it’s just that Shining Silver talks about you a lot, even though you’ve been missing for seven years. Everypony thinks you’re dead.”

“WHAT! Did Sil not get my note? Wait. How do you know her?

“Sil? Wow, I’ve never heard anyone call her that. I don’t know if she got your note I just met her two years ago. We’ve been friends since.” Seeing my body tense with anger he says, “Just friends, buddy calm down.”

“OK. OK, I’m calm.”

“That’s the ticket. Now do you wanna hang. I’ve gotta bust these clouds then head to Cloudsdale to get my pay. After that, wanna come home to Canterlot with me?”

It’s not until he says those last words that I realize how much I miss the place. “Sure I’ll come.”

“Great! Lemme just finish up here.” I sit and wait about a minute for him to finish up. When he’s done he flies up to me. “Ok let’s go.” And we take off toward Cloudsdale.

As we are flying towards Cloudsdale we talk about different things, small talk mostly. I ask him who his parents are and he replies that it’s Vinyl Scratch and Octavia. They adopted him when he was two years old. I listen to his story avidly, genuinely interested in this new stallion.

“What about you?” He asks. “What have you been doing these last seven years?”

“Well, the first five I spent living with Gramma. She taught me how to fly well and let me help around the house. It was fun. These last two years I’ve been travelling around the world, though.”

“Ah, I see. So I’m the only pony other than your grandmother that you’ve talked to in seven years?”

“Yep.”

After that we lapse into a friendly silence. After a while, he challenges me to a trick contest. I am more than willing to oblige. We both start off with simple tricks. As we progress, the tricks get harder and harder. After an hour, we are pretty much tied.

“OK,” he says. “Time to play my trump card.” He proceeds to spiral into a nosedive with his wings pinned to his back. When he is ten feet from the ground, he pulls out of the dive, and, with a powerful flap of his wings, he starts climbing again, still spiraling and now doing back flips. “Ha! Beat that,” He yells with a triumphant grin.

“OK. I will. You might want to get back about a mile if you don’t want to get hit with it.”

“Ha! OK. If you say so.” And he takes off.

I start spinning slowly in tight circles. Then I speed up, making the circles wider. After about a minute, the flames start appearing. After another minute the tornado starts to appear. Then, when I feel I’m going fast enough, I angle upward, let the twister propel me even faster out of the mouth. I hear the boom right as I clear the mouth. I don’t even have to look back. I just fly right to Gambit, whose mouth is open in awe.

“Holy hay, dude. That was awesome. Well I guess I lose.” He gives me a good natured shove. “Let’s get going.” And, just like that we’re off again.

We get to Cloudsdale without a hitch, and Gambit picks up his pay. We start, flying toward Canterlot.

When we can see it, Gambit turns to me, “Do you want to walk or fly in?”

“I’d like to fly right to Mrs. Rarity’s house if that’s OK.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Let’s surprise her, though. You hide while I knock on the door.”

I smile, even though he can’t see it. “That sounds fun.”

We land right outside Mrs. Rarity’s house and I go hide around the corner as Gambit knocks.

“Shining Silver,” I hear Mrs. Rarity call from inside. “Can you be a dear and get the door for me please.”

“Sure thing, Momma.” Oh, her voice sounds amazing to my ears.

I hear the door open and Gambit speaking. “Hey, Shining Silver. What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing. Just helping Momma around the shop. Did you need something?”

“Nah, I just wanted to give you a surprise.”

Taking my cue, I step from around the corner into Sil’s line of vision. “Hey Sil.”

She’s more beautiful than I could ever have imagined. Her coat is the same ivory as her mother’s. Her mane and tail are a dark pink, and her cutie mark is a spool of baby blue thread. Her eyes change from shock, to disbelief, to utter joy in one second. “TWISTY,” I hear as I am simultaneously tackled to the ground. “Where have you been? I’ve missed you so much.” She then kisses me on both cheeks and the forehead.

“I’ll leave you two to it then,” Gambit says with a chuckle.

“Thank you, Gambit,” I say. “I’ll get a hold of you later.”

“Sounds good,” he walks away.

“Oh, Twisty,” Sil says. “Come inside, Momma would love to see you. MOMMA, LOOK WHO CAME HOME.”

“Who is it dear?” she spots me. “Oh my.” She promptly faints.

When Mrs. Rarity comes to, she is on the couch. Sil and I are sitting on the floor, watching her.

Oh, good heavens, that wasn’t a dream,” she says with a weak chuckle.

“How’re you Mrs. Rari-.”

I’m cut off by a knock at the door.

Sil stands up. “I’ll get it.”

“Is the stallion Thunder Twist here?”

I walk into the main hallway and see two of the royal guard standing outside the door. “I’m Thunder Twist. How may I help y’all?”

“We are under the orders of Princess Celestia to take you to her immediately. So if you would, please, come with us…”