Flaming Tale

by Discover

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Slice of Life, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Rainbow Dash, Romance, Original Character, Octavia
Length: 39368

It's time for Flame Thrower to return to his hometown. After proving himself who he is and what he's capable of, the blue pegasus decided that he should return to his family and his old friends.

Five years of being on wholesome adventures and travels around the world let Flame Thrower prove to himself that he's not a weak and ordinary type of pony, which resulted in him gaining his cutie mark. The blue pegasus is returning to his hometown – Cloudsdale, where he left his family and his old life. How his family will react upon seeing that a lost member of their family is back? Does he finally settle what, from now on, he wants to achieve in his life? What, or better, who he meets on the way? Does it involve facing the past and new challenges? Read and see yourself!

Story about Rainbow Dash's brother, who cames back after years of being on the trip around the world to prove himself that he's something more than an average pegasus with blank dreams.

WARNING: First-ever written & published online story by me! There might be some grammar mistakes or poorly used sentences. All in all, do not hesitate to show your feedback to make this story, as well as my future stories, much better!

Romance tag and other characters are for future chapters! :trixieshiftright:

Without further ado,
Enjoy the story! :twilightsmile:

Published 2020-12-20 19:20:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-02-04 20:30:51 UTC

Chapter 2 - Sibling Reunion. (Part 1)

"Easier said than done..." Flame Thrower said to himself as the blue Pegasus flew straight ahead.

A good amount of minutes passed since he took off from his parents' home, and he still couldn't find the street where his sister lives, even though he searched all around Cloudsdale for the exact same name of the street as his mother gave him.

The fire-maned Pegasus thought that finding the street might be the easiest thing after getting all by himself from Las Pegasus to Cloudsdale. However, he quickly found out that finding a street that was supposed to be two streets away wasn't that easy. Flame even ventured back and forth to double-check if he didn't miss the street as he scanned the whole area of neighborhood and adjacent streets. To much of his worry, there was no such street as Wavey Wings Street.

When looking for the street took more time than it supposed, he decided to ask somepony for better instructions that would help him find said street faster. The blue Pegasus remembers that he stopped next to the blueish two-story building with a roof stylized like some kind of cream frosting (but made out of clouds) that was one of the many stores in his parents' house neighborhood.

The said neighborhood wasn't very unique in terms of design of each houses. His parents were lucky enough to get one of them that had actually different look on the outside than most of the houses on the street that followed the same style – pinkish cloud roofed two story building with blue walls and big front yard.

As Flame looked on the store between the two identical houses with pink roof, he spotted a cream-colored coat, rose mane, and pink eyes that belong to Pegasus mare who just left the store and had to take off with the bag of groceries on her back if it wasn't for Flame's yell that took mare's whole attention. The blue Pegasus used the chance to ask if she knows anything that could help him find the street he was looking for.

The cream mare was very kind and her character expressed that she really wanted to help, but all she knew was the fact that she saw an ad about Wavey Wings Street that advertised new apartments for rent in Cloudsdale Daily newspaper. She also suggested that the fire-maned stallion should fly to the north part of the city; as it said in the ad, Wavey Wings Street is localized in the north Cloudsdale. He made sure to thank her for some useful information, and soon enough, they both separated as they took off and begin to fly in different directions.

The fire-maned stallion knew that his father obviously made a mistake in his statement or didn't know where exactly Rainbow Dash's house is, but Flame Thrower remembers that his parents said they helped her to feel in her new home as good as in the old one. So, that means they had to visit her, right?

Flame Thrower didn't know what to think of that; eventually, he did what he always does in such a situation – leave the secondary matter and focus on the present. The blue Pegasus will ask his parents for sure about why Rainbow Dash is living in a different part of the city, and not like his father said, two streets away...

Anyway, thanks to this whole chaos, Flame Thrower was somewhere closer towards the north part of the cloud city. To much of his surprise, he could recognize where. After a whole time of looking all around the city, the blue Pegasus came up with the conclusion that he ended up in the center of Cloudsdale.

As Flame's parents live in proximity to the center of the city, his family would often visit for many reasons Cloudcenter –and thanks to that– the fire-maned Pegasus quickly recognized the place.

It was Cloudcenter – the heart of Cloudsdale, where institutions such as Cloudeseum or School for Pegasi were located. Also, it was the place where cloud streets from the north and south crossed, so the traffic of Pegasi flying towards each section of the city was very busy. Flame Thrower got to know the last thing very fast, thanks to the traffic lights that he made through on the way to downtown.

Due to the fact that it passed so many years since Flame was last time in Cloudcenter, the blue Pegasus decided to take a break next to Cloudeseum. All he knew was the fact that Wavey Wings Street is somewhere in the north part of the city, so he assumed that once he pass by School for Pegasi –which was that big red building with flat roof that Flame saw on the horizon, not so far away from the place where he currently took a break– he will be on the straight path towards the north. If the blue stallion is lucky enough, he will be there in a matter of few minutes, but if it turns out that the north cloud street from downtown is as busy as the southern... well... he would at least have the memory of seeing once again the Cloudsdale's biggest source of sport-related events before the nightmare with Pegasi traffic jams will start all over again.

Cloudeseum was probably one of the most known places, after Weather Factory, in Cloudsdale. It stood as all the buildings on the cloud ground, and instead of walls, it was surrounded by huge marble columns that hold whole blueish flat roof, where on top of that, golden flags fluttered in a little bit chilly wind.

'I think, it looks as good as I rememb–' before he could finish his sentence in his mind, the fire-maned stallion noticed –on one of the big columns that surrounded Cloudeseum– a poster with text saying 'Best Young Flyer competition! Do you want to succeed on a larger scale and become the best young flyer that Cloudsdale has to offer? Then join the competition and show everypony what you can do!'.

Apparently, the Best Young Flyer competition always brings a lot of attention to Cloudsdale. Flame Thrower remembers that when his sister joined it for the first time there was not that many Pegasi willing to watch the racing part of competition called Fastest Young Flyer race. Although, it still had a decent amount of audience back then.

Ever since the competition got promoted by Princess Celestia herself –as one of the best competitions that allowed to select the best talents from the young Pegasi– the competition got fulfilled with Pegasi parents and their foals from all around Equestria. All they wanted was to help their foals to make their dreams come true.

As the blue Pegasus moved his gaze on the right side, Flame saw something that he somehow didn't notice.

Flame Thrower looked dumbfounded on the huge line of Pegasi with their foals standing on the cloud path towards the arched entrance to Cloudeseum. He never quite understood why is it so cool to win one competition even if it was promoted by Princess herself.

He thought that if somepony is fast and knows how to keep his fly stable and wants to keep mastering his potential, then it's all that you need to become better and with time, the best. Winning one competition doesn't mean that you're going to become the best already, but apparently these Pegasi didn't know that.

Flame Thrower groaned as he looked on the line of the Pegasi. 'Now I'm not sure what's worst... Trying to get through the horrible Pegasi traffic or trying to get through this line to Cloudeseum,' he thought.

The blue Pegasus shrugged when he decided to drop the thinking part and without wasting any more of his time, he took off the cloud on which he decided to take break. Flame moved towards the path that lead next to School for Pegasi until he noticed with the corner of his eye that he reached high enough in the sky to see through the marble columns what is currently happening in Cloudeseum.

Flame moved his head towards the building and saw that once Pegasi gets through the entrance; they are met with a dark blue Pegasi with an aqua mane that sits at the desk. 'Of course, after getting through the line to the entrance, there has to be another line to get on the list,' Flame said to himself as he rolled his eyes and suspended himself in the air. After seeing that foals who gets on the list are divided into different groups that will compete with each other, he thought. 'Wow... The last time I was here, there were like seven ponies in the competition and now... it's like seven groups of ponies in the competition!'

Just then, the blue Pegasus finally realised that is about time to get back to his mission. He moved his eyes from the whole scenery in Cloudeseum and increased his speed a little bit; as he flew towards the path that supposed to lead him into the north part of the city. However, it didn't happen without Flame's curiosity that made him look back at the Cloudeseum to get a better last view on the building that he didn't visit since he left five years ago.

The fire-maned stallion realised how many times he ended up watching his sister practice or how many times he cheer her up during the competition (mainly because of lost bets.) Also, it's worth mentioning that whenever she had any competition, his parents always dragged him with them.

Flame Thrower sighed and smiled upon reminding himself of those colorful moments... literally. He reminded himself that once thanks to Rainbow Dash winning a competition he had to dye his mane to rainbow color. Although, the rainbow color came off after a week or so, he made sure to thank Celestia that it wasn't a permament thing.

Reminding himself about the great memories from the past was really enjoyable for the blue Pegasus, until...

Flame has hit his head directly into the head of the lilac Pegasus that he didn't notice on his path. The whole time of his flight he looked back without paying attention to what's before him. If it wasn't for the fact that the fire-maned stallion flew not as fast as he could, and the place that hit the obstacle on his path was his head; he would probably continue to fly like nothing happened and knockback other Pegasus far away. To much of his surprise, destiny had other plans. They ended up being both knocked back after bumping into each other and sent straight to the cloud street below them.

There was even a hearable sound of both Pegasi hitting the cloud. "Ow, that hurt." Flame Thrower groaned as he slowly begins to rise from the cloud-ground. He scratched back and top of his head where –as he thought– was the place that hit the other Pegasus. Flame felt a sharp pain as he touched the place, and almost immediately, he took away his hoof while he let another series of 'Ow.' This time however, he had to close his eyes due to much of the pain.

The blue Pegasus ears picked up a groan coming from the opposite side of where he landed. Flame Thrower decided to look around, and then he noticed slowly rising from the cloud lilac mare. She shook and scratched the top of her head while she kept her eyes closed. "Ugh, what... happened?"

The lilac Pegasus opened her eyes and upon noticing Flame Thrower added, "Or better, who happened..." Slowly her irritated the whole situation face features took happier appearance once she realized who was the main reason of this unexpected situation.

"Cloud Chaser? Is that really yo–" Before he could finish his sentence, the lilac mare flew straight into him; embracing the blue Pegasus into a firm hug, as the impact of the unexpected hug from Flame's friend made them do a few flips back. When they stopped, Flame's head ended up inside the cloud while his friend was on top of the fire-maned stallion; still hugging him. The lilac mare chuckled upon seeing the silly image and added this time with much more of her excitement. "Flame! You freak, you came back!!"

Flame Thrower chuckled with his face inside the cloud. "Yeah, I'm glad you still remember me, Chaser," the blue stallion said as he took his head out of the cloud.

"You? Who could possibly forget you! The whole Cloudsdale was talkin' about your trip when you left!" she said and rolled her eyes. After that, the lilac Pegasus decided to break the hug and get up on her hooves. While she did so, she took her hoof and offered it to her friend to help him get up.

The blue Pegasus took the helping hoof, and soon he stood on his hooves. "Thanks! You have no idea how cool is that to meet you after five years! Not counting the whole heads bumping moment, of course," they both laughed, still partially feeling the pain on top of their heads.

After realizing what his friend said, Flame Thrower added, "But what do you mean the whole Cloudsdale was talking about my trip? From what I know, only me, you, Star, Thunderlane, and my family were the only ones who knew about the trip."

A little hesitation appeared, but after a few seconds she decided to answer anyway. "Well, I kinda told my sister, and she... told everypony." Cloud Chaser lowered her head and moved one of her hooves to scratch her forelimb. "I know you said 'don't tell anypony,' but many good things came afterward!"

"Oh, that..." Flame put one of his wings under his chin as he came up with a realisation. "It doesn't matter anymore, so I forgive you. But, what good things you are talkin' about?"

"Well, after the news spread across Cloudsdale, many Pegasus got inspired by you!" she said. "You have no idea how many Pegasi like you were here in Cloudsdale. When they heard, for the first time, that you're coming once you prove to yourself and everypony that you're somepony special; everypony got excited and some Pegasi from Cloudsdale decided to do the same and, not like they decided to leave their home and go into unknown, but to try new things and don't stop believing in what they are capable of! It was such an amazing thing that even your sister decided to help spread the news about how her brother decided to leave Cloudsdale and won't be coming back until he finds what his special talent is." Such information bring a visible grin on Flame's face. Even when he was gone for a while, his sister still believed in him.

Then another realisation crossed his mind. "So... am I famous here or something?" Flame Thrower asked with curiosity.

Cloud Chaser put one of her hooves under her chin and thought. "Well, for a few months, sure. But, it was so many years ago, and the Pegasi who got inspired probably moved on or forgot about this whole thing once they gained their cutie marks."

"Aw..." Flame Thrower looked down on the cloud as the news broke one of his dreams that he wanted to make come true. He didn't care about the money but rather about how many ponies would talk about him. Such fame would help him find a job in a matter of few seconds, but of course, he missed his chance. The disappointment in the fire-maned stallion's voice was clearly hearable.

Cloud Chaser decided to approach the blue pegasus and put one of her wings besides him. As soon as Flame felt his friends' wings around him, he looked up to meet only with magenta eyes of his friend and a smile on her face. "Remember that for ponies for which you're important, like me, your family or your friends; they will never forget how you helped inspire dozens of ponies."

Flame Thrower sighed as he smiled towards the lilac mare. "Well... I agree. Thanks for reminding me that."

"No problem, but it's only this one time you see me being such nice, got it?" the lilac Pegasus said with smile once she took her wing off the blue Pegasus' back.

As soon as the lilac mare warned him, Flame Thrower nodded and chuckled. "Of course, loud and clear!"

The blue Pegasus also realized that if it wasn't for his friend's sister, he would probably never got such recognition, even though he had no clue about it. "Still, I can't believe that I actually inspired somepony. But if that how it turned out, I'm glad Flitter couldn't keep her mouth shut."

The lilac mare chuckled after getting reminded about her sister. "Yeah, she kinda can't keep a secret. I regret that I told her almost immediately after I did so because I felt that she is not trustworthy with keeping a secret from very beginning. If it wasn't for that rule of ours to tell ourselves secrets, then I wouldn't take the risk. But seeing how things turned out, ponies got inspired and stuff, I think that's even better that I told her."

Once blue stallion nodded in agreement, Cloud Chaser pointed with her foreleg on her friend and said, "Anyway, care to share why did you bump into me like that?"

Flame Thrower scratched the back of his head nervously and decided to look somewhere else to avoid eye contact with his friend as he spoke. "Oh, I didn't even have a chance to say that I'm sorry. Somehow Cloudeseum took all of my attention," the blue Pegasus sighed and finally decided to look directly into Cloud Chaser's eyes. "So... I'm sorry. I hope I didn't hit you too hard or anything like that."

Flame assumed that Cloud Chaser didn't change that much since his departure from Cloudsdale five years ago, and he knew that if somepony would straight fly into her, she for sure would give that somepony a lesson. But instead of an angry expression –due to him saying sorry just now– he meets instead with a smile on her face. She waved dismissively one of her hooves and explained. "Nevermind, if it wasn't for you not looking where you're flying, then we probably wouldn't be talking with each other right now."

The fire-maned stallion decided not to pressure the matter as he knew that she probably forgive him only because the blue Pegasus is her old friend. If it was for somepony else, then, well... you could say that banishment to the moon sounds like a good vacation spot. "Yeah, I think you're right."

"By the way, I was actually flying on the meeting with my friends, wanna join us?" Cloud Chaser asked.

Flame stopped himself for a second to give himself into the thought, then he answered still keeping a hoof under his chin, "Hmm... I'd like to join you! But, I'm actually looking for Rainbow Dash, so if I won't get to her house now, then it will make even more complications and I already have a problem with locating where she exactly lives."

The lilac mare sighed. "Don't worry, Flame. It's just a few minutes, besides, do you even know where she lives?"

"My mom gave me an address, but all I accomplished is that I somehow got here. My father said it just two streets away from our neighborhood, but I couldn't find that street anywhere close, so I decided to ask somepony on the way here and they actually told me that this street is probably all the way in the north part of Cloudsdale!" Flame Thrower said with slight annoyance in his voice. He had no idea that finding that street was this difficult. Reality struck him and finding the street in Cloudsdale was as difficult as finding a needles in a haystack.

"What's the address?" Cloud Chaser asked.

"I think it's probably Wavey Wings Street 11/5 or something like that," Flame Thrower replied.

Cloud Chaser scratched the back of her head. "I... have no idea where that is."

The blue Pegasus groaned and let a sigh upon hearing Cloud Chaser answer that didn't help him as much as he hoped it would. "Great, now I need to find somepony who actually knows where this address is," Flame looked down as he felt being defeated once again.

To much of her surprise, Cloud Chaser reminded herself that there is actually a pony who could help. "Maybe Compass Star will know?"

Flame Thrower looked up as his eyes lit with the new sight of the hope that brings some excitement to the blue Pegasus. "Of course! Compass Star knows every single corner in Cloudsdale!" However, he quickly connected the dots and added. "And let me guess, he will be at the meeting?"

"Mm-hm," The lilac mare said.

He sighed, and without having anything to lose besides the time, took up on the offer. "Alright, let's go then. I guess, few minutes of hanging out with friends shouldn't do any harm."

As soon as Flame Thrower finished his sentence, Cloud Chaser unfolded her wings and said. "Alright, try to catch me if you can, Flamey!" His friend quickly flew into the sky; leaving the fire-maned stallion behind.

"A race? Oh, you have no chance, Chaser!" As soon as Flame realized what's going on, he unfolded his wings, and with much more energy, flew into the sky to catch his friend as quickly as he could to show off his speed. As always, his mane color followed him behind.

"Are you tired yet, flame-colt?" Cloud Chaser asked as she flew in the direction of their planned meeting.

"Flame?" she asked once again upon receiving no answer from her friend.

After getting no answer whatsoever, Cloud Chaser decided to stop and look around in any sight of the blue Pegasus. When lilac mare turned around, she noticed that it was one of the rush hours of Cloudsdale and many Pegasi were either flying to their job or finishing their job and getting back home. The cloud street that she decided in the middle of it stop was full of different Pegasi flying back and forth. Gladly, all Pegasi seemed to head towards Cloudcenter from which Cloud Chaser and Flame Thrower just flew, so their part of the street wasn't that busy. The proximity of the pink building from the weather control sector of Weather Factory that was next to the street didn't help either and obscured any further view.

"Where is that stallion? I swear, last time I saw him, he was behin–" streak made of yellow, orange, and red colors interrupted her speech. All she saw was some colors and a swoosh sound. Then she saw the streak cut through the air that left Cloud Chaser spinning, like some sort of spinning top.

Flame Thrower noticed who he left behind and stopped; as he looked behind himself, he noticed that Cloud Chaser was spinning rapidly due to his speed impact. Eventually, she began to lose her speed and soon she slowly stabilized herself. Even though she stopped spinning her eyes didn't.

The fire-maned stallion chuckled as he decided to quickly return to his friend. He suspended himself in the air next to his friend –who somehow didn't feel straight to the ground below– and took one of his hooves to place it on lilac mare's shoulder as he asked, "Are you okay, Chaser?"

"Uhh.." was all she could say before shaking her head as her eyes finally stopped spinning. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. But... what was that?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry! I saw a poster on the Weather Factory entrance saying that there are new places available for Pegasi who could work as a part of Weather Control team for upcoming seasons. To why I flew so fast, it's just because I wanted to catch up with you somehow," Flame Thrower explained.

"Alright" – she took one of her hooves and scratched back of her head – "but, why were you interested in that offer?"

"I forgot to mention that I'm probably staying in Cloudsdale for good, and for that, I need to get a job."

"A job you say..." Cloud Chaser said as they resumed their flight into the direction of the meeting's place.

"Anyways, that's great! Hope you'll get there, but... is it not like you need some special abilities to become a Weather Control Pegasus?" the lilac mare asked.

Flame run of his hooves through his mane, and after getting a second to think, he answered. "Well, there's no special requirement after all every Pegasi can control the weather, but only best from the best can get to the elite!"

"And let me guess, you want to join the elite?" the lilac mare asked.

The blue Pegasus nodded, on which his friend only sighed. "Well, hate to break it for ya, but as far as I know, you never showed anything in terms of controlling the weather that could actually be taken as something that would get you to the elite." Cloud Chaser said and shrugged as she moved her eyes on what's before her. "But maybe something changed during your trip, and I don't know about it."

The blue Pegasus smirked as he puffed his chest. "There was something where I saved the village by making a gigantic tornado that pulled fire and smoke into it, and then I made the whole thing disappear."

Face features on Cloud Chaser's face took a very shocked look like she couldn't believe what her friend told her. "You gotta be bucking kidding me!"

"Same reaction as Thunderlane," Flame Thrower chuckled as he made a flip on his back to contain the laughter.

"Wait, you saw Thunderlane? When did that happen?" Cloud Chaser asked.

The blue Pegasus flipped back on the right position during the flight. "Yeah, I had to take a break on my way to Cloudsdale. So, I took the break in a small town called Greenfield Hoof, and I met Thunderlane in, what was the name" – he put one of his hooves under his chin and after reminding himself the probable name of the place added – "Pomele Pie's bar? I guess that was the place."

"How original," the lilac mare smirked as she rolled her eyes and added. "Anyway, Thunderlane probably told you why he was there, didn't he?"

Flame Thrower sighed, showing that this news wasn't the best thing he heard, but kept a smile. "Yeah, but if that's what his family wanted and they are happy, then I'm happy for them. Still, lack of Thunderlane's comments upon how I can't handle asking out any mares will be very misse–" Flame Thrower stopped immediately in mid-sentence as he remembered all Thunderlane's comments about his romantic relationships "–wait, I take my words back. That's the part that I won't be missing whatsoever."

"Well, you gotta give him credit for telling the truth. Admit, you ain't that good in this case," Cloud Chaser said while raising one of her eyebrows to make a look that said, 'I know, that you know that's truth'.

"Yeah, yeah. I know," the blue Pegasus said. "But, I still believe that somewhere out there, the second half waits for everypony!"

The lilac mare groaned as she flew closer to Flame Thrower. "Cool, so while you'll be believing, maybe try actually asking out somepony?"

Flame Thrower sighed and decided to push back Cloud Chaser as she was now invading his private space. "We will see, Chaser."

Cloud Chaser flew away from her friend and decided to look on the path before them to avoid hitting by any chance another obstacle... or pony. "Anyway, back to the topic. You are really not making up this whole thing with the fire-tornado?"

"It is one hundred percent truth," Flame Thrower said as he looked on the lilac mare that apparently didn't find the story too real. "Really? Is no pony noticing on my flank one of the main reasons I left and the biggest proof of the thing that I told you?"

"Wha–" his lilac friend didn't know what Flame meant by that until she got a better look on his flank. "Oh– I... Okay, this looks cool!"

The fire-maned stallion only chuckled as he nodded in the meaning of thank you.

"Okay, let's say I believe you. Then if I understood it well, by saving that village, you gained your cutie mark?" Cloud Chaser asked.

Flame Thrower nodded once again and said, "Yeah, thanks to that, I was able to come back to my home."

"Wow... well, congrats! You've really proven that being a blank flank doesn't mean you can't make your dreams come true!"

"I wish I could know this sooner, but I've gotta say that the trip was the best decision I've made in my life," the blue Pegasus said.

"That means, you have to tell me everything! You for sure got some cool stories, so maybe–" Before she could finish her sentence, she noticed a building between two cloud towers with coffee symbol and text saying Cloudcafé on its cloud-made roof.

"Well, storytelling will have to wait because we're here!" the lilac mare pointed on the place below them and added, "Ready to meet some friends?"

"Ready as never!" as soon as Flame Thrower finished his sentence, they burst down towards the entrance to the cafeteria.

Soon, both of the Pegasi landed softly before the entrance to the café, and then Flame Thrower decided to open the door by the knob and let Cloud Chaser enter first.

"Wow, when did you become such a gentlecolt?" she asked, on which Flame Thrower rolled his eyes, chuckled, and entered after her. After stepping in, the fire-maned stallion closed the door behind and added, 'Don't get used to it,' to which he only got her smirk.

Once Flame Thrower decided to take a better look at the inside of the cafeteria; he noticed very bright cream-colored walls with portraits hanging on them. There were enough natural light thanks to the wide windows that allowed the light to enter the cafeteria from the front. The next thing was the wooden pink-colored floor. It looked like it was just washed with visible gloss. On the right and left side was plenty of tables, lined up in a row and occupied by ponies that enjoyed the meal – or simply – talked to other ponies or even read Cloudsdale's official newspaper called Cloudsdale Daily.

Before them was a line all the way from the entrance to the tabletop on the end of the cafeteria where ponies could order whatever they wanted from the menu that was hanging above the table. Some gray-colored snobby Pegasi that ended up being the last one looked the most impatient as he was nervously looking, once on the queue before him and once on the watch on his forelimb.

'Business is booming, I guess?' Flame Thrower thought as he scratched the back of his head with the confused look from such a big line in a not very well-known place.

"Hey, Chaser! Over here!" both Pegasi heard a voice calling for them from across the room. As Cloud Chaser looked at the possible source of the calling voice, she noticed a brown Pegasus with green eyes, yellow waved-styled mane, eyes, and the yellow star as a cutie mark.

Flame Thrower noticed Compass Star as well and smiled upon seeing another of his old friends after five years. He nodded to Cloud Chaser, and soon they begin to walk towards the table where Compass Star sits.

That was also the moment that Flame Thrower noticed another Pegasus pony in his friend's company.

Said friend had a gray coat, yellow mane, and eyes that seems to be looking in different directions; also, bubbles were visible as a gray Pegasus cutie mark.

As both Pegasi approached the table where their friends sit, the gray mare smiled with an encouraging smile. Cloud Chaser greet with the gray mare, but while she did so, she also noticed that Compass Star's face features took a more annoyed look.

'What's up with that face? Also, why does he looks like he worked for 12 hours in the mine?' Cloud Chaser questioned herself as she –with Flame Thrower behind her– stood before the table where her friends sat.

Just then, she reminded herself how she promised her friend that this time nothing is going to stop her, thus had a chance to be finally on time... well, at least she tried.

The lilac mare sighed before saying, "Sorry for being late... again. But, you ain’t gonna believe me who I just found!" She took Flame Thrower from behind her into an embrace and pushed him forward to show their friends who were that stallion. "Or more specifically, he found me!"

"Hey, hey! Watch out for the mane!" Flame Thrower protested as he quickly broke the embrace and rapidly tried to fix his mane.

Both Compass Star and the gray Pegasus chuckled upon seeing Flame's reaction on somepony touching his mane.

"Flame Thrower! Glad to see you, old friend!" Compass Star said, and soon the annoyed look on his face has been replaced with a smile.

Cloud Chaser sits next to the gray mare, and Flame Thrower finally finished stylizing his mane. The blue Pegasus looked at his friend and said, "Likewise, Star! Glad to see that you didn't forget me either!"

Compass Star chuckled as he wiped one of his eyes with his hoof. It looked like the brown Pegasus just woke up. "Oh, believe me, forgetting you is something that no pony would be able to accomplish after basically growing up together."

As the brown Pegasus finished his sentence, he reminded himself that there was actually a pony very close to Flame Thrower's heart that did accomplish that. "Well, maybe there is one pony who forg–" Before he could say something that he would regret, Cloud Chaser glanced at him straight into his eyes and with the gesture of her hoof saying 'cut it out,' she stopped him in the middle of his sentence.

Good for him, Flame Thrower decided to look on a couple of Pegasi arguing over what they should order when the lilac mare saved him with her gesture before Compass Star would share something that would probably tear their blue friend apart. But still, the pause in the middle of the brown Pegasus' sentence didn't go without Flame's notice.

"One pony who what?" the blue Pegasus asked as he got very confused over why his friend decided to stop in the middle of his sentence.

Compass Star panicked but tried his best not to show that on his face as Flame Thrower was now looking directly at him. He nervously swallowed and said. "W-who? Well... uh..." –he looked nervously on the opposite of the table and pointed on the gray mare sitting next to Cloud Chaser– "Oh! I'm s-so rude. I didn't even introduce you to my friend!"

"Flame Thrower, this is Derpy Hooves. Derpy Hooves, this is Flame Thrower," the brown Pegasus said as he introduced in the fastest way possible the gray mare and the blue stallion.

The fire-maned stallion raised one of his eyebrows when he saw and felt that his friend definitely kept a secret from him but decided to ignore that and look at the mare next to Cloud Chaser.

"Oh, nice to meet you, Derpy Hooves!" Flame Thrower said as he straightened one of his wings towards the gray mare.

Derpy smiled, did the same, and both Pegasi shook their wings. "And the same goes to you, Flame!"

Compass Star sighed with relief upon seeing that he saved himself at the last minute. The lilac mare did the same and wiped the invisible sweat on her forehead while she let a quiet 'phew'.

"Wait a minute" – the blue Pegasus put a hoof on his chin in thought – "Aren't you that filly who my sister was very competitive in Fastest Young Flyer race, years ago?" Flame Thrower asked.

Derpy Hooves looked straight towards the fire-maned stallion as her eyes seemed to be fixed on him and said, "Uh, I'm not sure I know anything about that. But, I remember that I was first a few times."

"Oh, really? Well, would you like to share it with me? 'Cause I feel like, that was you," the blue Pegasus said.

I didn't take too long for a gray mare to reply with her hearable excitement. "Sure! I actually just joined the competition back then, and it was my first race..."

As the gray Pegasus soon was about to start her storytelling, the brown and lilac Pegasi looked at each other. Compass Star shrugged and soon relaxed by leaning his head onto the seat's headrest. Cloud Chaser rolled her eyes as the brown Pegasus closed his eyes. She looked up towards the rest of her friends as one of them was now telling a story. The lilac mare leaned forward to hear better, placed her forelimb in an arched way, and soon without her notice, drifted away to the land of dreams. Apparently, a sleepless night made itself known.

Derpy looked up with one eye and then back to the blue Pegasus. "Okay, so I remember it like this..."

It's a beautiful day in Cloudsdale (mostly because of the sun that is glowing with its full brightness on the whole city) and seeing such weather gave more motivation to get up from a bed and head out to either work or school. But for some Pegasi, this day was even more special due to the fact that today some of them could have a chance to stand on the podium at the award ceremony, as the new edition of Fastest Young Flyer race was announced a few days ago.

The race had it place on special track behind the Cloudeseum, where the start line was situated. Whole track resembled design closer to letter 'D' with some sharp turns and cloud-made obstacles. The task was simple – be the first on the finish line and do the 3 laps as fast as your wings were able to carry.

Soon enough, the whole lineup was starting to fill up with pony Pegasi as only a few minutes left for the race to begin. Between the track race was a platform for parents or just ponies who wanted to watch the race, and you could tell from that, that everypony was cheering upon seeing young flyers.

Some Pegasi from audience got even a little bit carried away, but saying that a blue stallion with a rainbow mane and yellow eyes got a little bit carried away, was understatement of the millennium. Alongside the blue Pegasus was cyan mare with a red mane that had few streaks of lighter red and magenta eyes. They both were the loudest couple of Pegasi in the audience due to their unique method of cheering and yelling 'Go Rainbow Dash!' before the race has even begun.

Also, both Pegasi had some rainbow hats and even t-shirts with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. However, between the cyan mare and blue stallion was a slightly older (than most foals in the race) colt, that had the same coat color as the rainbow-maned stallion. He even had the same yellow eyes, but very neat divided between the red, orange, and yellow, mane. His look on the face said that he would rather hide somewhere and never come out due to the amount of attention and cringe that his parents always bring whenever his sister has an important sporting event.

"Let this race finally begin, please..." He mumbled under his breath with an annoyed tone as he fixed his glasses.

He wasn't aware that the cyan mare next to him heard his mumbling but she apparently didn't picked up the tone of his sentence. "I can't wait for the race too, Flame! It's the first Rainbow Dash race and it will be so cool to see our Rainbow on the podium!"

"Exactly, Windy! I also came up with an idea of shouting even louder, that's for sure will boost her towards the victory!" as soon as the rainbow-maned stallion said that, he stood up on his hind limbs and took both of his hooves towards his mouth and shouted, 'Go Rainbow Dash! You have this!' While the blue stallion shouted words that he thought are going to help his daughter win. Meanwhile, the Pegasi beneath their seat looked up with annoying features on the face on which Flame Thrower smiled nervously. 'There we go, even more attention...' Flame thought.

Rainbow Dash, upon hearing his parents cheering up method; turned her head towards the platform, and nervously waved back. After doing so, she quickly galloped towards the starting line.

After all, Rainbow Dash wasn't the only nervous Pegasi participating in this race...

The gray filly sighed once she reached the line. She looked around at the other ponies that participate in the race, which are supposed to be her rivals. She wasn't sure if that was a good idea to even come here, but her parents were so happy when she told them that she is going to participate in this race... She just didn't want to destroy that kind of happiness and hope of her parents.

She looked on the platform behind her to see just how many ponies gathered up to watch the event. Apparently, two platforms were filled up with ponies and moost of them were parents, families or friends of her rivals. Sadly, there was no sight of her parents as they both told the gray filly that they won't be able to watch due to the amount of work. They said that even if they won't watch her race physically, they for sure will be there mentally to cheer her up. The gray filly sighed once again and looked down. That thought didn't help as much as she would hope.

"Hey Derpy, nervous?" approaching Pegasi asked.

As the gray filly looked up, she saw a very light blue coat. Then after looking higher, she noticed a dark blue mane and green eyes. "Hey, Soarin. Yeah, a little bit."

"Don't worry, I'm nervous too," Soarin said calmly. "But I'm not giving stress a single chance to get to me. All you have to do is fly through this track to the finish line, and that's all."

"If it was only that easy..." Derpy said. To his disappointment, she wasn't very much cheered up.

"It's not?" he asked.

"Of course it's not! Look at the other foals that are probably better than me!" she started with a slightly angered tone and look in her eyes, but after few seconds, she slowly calmed down as she positioned her head lower while while her ears rested flat against her head. "I will for sure end up in the last place..."

"How do you know they are better than you? Besides, it's everyponies first race!" he patted her on the back. "You don't have to win this race, just get to the finish line, and that's all, nothing more."

The gray filly sighed. "If you say so..."

"Y'know, maybe focus on the positive aspects of this race. My cousin Compass Star had some races too, and thanks to them, he got to know his two best friends, Flame Thrower and Air–" before he got a chance to finish his sentence, a yellow stallion with a blue mane and violet eyes, as well with blue flag as a cutie mark, approached.

"All ponies, please position yourself at the start line!" he shouted.

"As soon as I'll wave this flag" – he took the flag with his wing from one of the fences that hold the banner with text 'Start' – "you'll have to take off as soon as possible, got it?"

All foals nodded and started preparing for the mark to start the race. The yellow Pegasus flew to the cloud that positioned itself before the competitors. "Fly safe, but beat everypony else! Good luck!"

Rainbow Dash decided to take this moment before the race officially started and said. "Y'know, guys. You don't have to try beating me, because we all know that's impossible. I'm the–" before she could finish her sentence, the yellow Pegasus waved the flag, and all of the competitors took off; leaving the cyan filly behind. "Hey! I didn't finish my speech!" as soon as she said that, she took off, but it didn't happen without her falling into a random cloud.

Meanwhile, most competitors were at the beginning of the said race...

The mint filly with yellow mane and eyes was leading but right behind her was the yellow filly with the fire-like mane. They were both followed by two lilac fillies. One of them had a white mane with light blue shades and lavender eyes and the other filly – slightly lighter coat and eyes color with a turquoise mane.

The turquoise-maned filly looked behind as she said, "It looks like you'll be the one cleaning the room, Chaser."

"Probably in your dreams, Flitter!" her sister replied.

"We will see," she turned her head back towards the direction of their race. "But I'll be the one who's gonna win."

The white-maned filly shook her head as she thought that her sister said that she is going to win, on which Cloud Chaser laughed and that made her sister even angrier. "What? Pff... No way, I'm gonna win!"

"I will win!" Flitter shouted with a hearable angered tone.

"No, I will win!" her sister replied in the same tone as her anger begin to rise as well.

"Yeah? Then we'll see if you can catch up with me after that!" Flitter shouted as she got away from her course and flew directly into her sister from the right side. To her surprise, instead of knocking away her sister, it caused both of them to fall off the track. As both lilac Pegasi did few flips back, they landed inside one of the clouds.

As the whole situation eliminated the both lilac Pegasi for a while, It was a chance for Derpy Hooves to bring herself closer to the win. She increased her speed, and rapidly flew by two lilac Pegasi, who were completly stuck in the cloud and apparently argued again.

'Okay, only four more ponies left. If I will keep this speed and not mess up on the way, I have a chance to maybe even finish this race without being the last! ' the gray filly thought as a smile appeared on her face.

Just then, she heard something that flew with enormous speed behind her. Before she could recognize what that thing is, the rainbow streak passed by her with such speed that almost knocked her away from the track as she did to Cloud Chaser and Flitter. Soon enough, she somehow stabilized her flight, but her eyes were still wiggling around. When she shook her head, her eyes fixed, but she sighed with the realization that it was Rainbow Dash, who may be worse in keeping her flight stable, but at the same time, she was impossibly fast. "And the hope of being not last this time breaks again..." she said to particularly no one as she looked down to keep quiet her sad emotions. Derpy could swear that she even heard her saying something like, 'Nothing's gonna stop me!'

Little did she know that Rainbow Dash's flight stability will fail her again...

They cyan filly didn't notice where she was flying, and before she could change her course or at least do anything to prevent the event that is about to happen, she saw the eyes of both a light blue coated colt and a dark mint filly that widen and filled with horror upon noticing rapidly getting closer filly.

"WHAT THE– " is all that Soarin could say before he and Fleetfoot got strucked by the rainbow streak at its finest speed. Both him, Fleetfoot, and Rainbow Dash (who apparently was not strong enough to get through them) were knocked away from the impact, down into the clouds; as they both landed, all Pegasi raised from their place of where they land and begin to massage their heads as they let painful ouches.

Derpy Hooves once again saw more ponies getting eliminated, and even though she felt very bad for them and wanted to check on them if they are alright; she told herself that nothing happened to them and trying to help them will only result in the same scenario as last time. She tried to help somepony back then, and as soon as she stopped, the said pony used the chance to quickly flew up and leave Derpy behind what resulted in her getting the last place.

The gray filly shook all doubts from her head and once again increased her speed; leaving all group of Pegasi on the cloud behind. Only two ponies left and she would end up getting not 5th place, not 4th place, not even 3rd place! But, she would actually win the whole race! That thought cheered her up and boosted her confidence in trying to insecure that indeed there was a chance.

After three minutes of trying to catch up with Spitfire and Lightning Dust, the gray filly finally got close enough to see that both Pegasi –instead of trying to fly as fast as they can– were casually talking and flying next to each other. Spitfire even laughed, probably due to the Lightning Dust' comment about how there are only two ponies who got so far and no pony else seems to get close to them. However, due to their conversation, they seemed to not notice the gray filly that was getting closer by seconds.

"Let's see... After a sharp turn, there's a straight path to the finish line. What would say that after getting through that we gonna race for real?" Spitfire asked.

Lightning Dust chuckled and said, "You mean like always?"

"Like always," the yellow filly replied with a smirk on her face.

"I have to admit, today is super chill. Even Soarin didn't reach this part of the race yet and it seems–" before the mint filly could finish her sentence, she saw how gray blur flew next to both her and Spitfire and was now rapidly directing towards the sharp turn, which after getting through that, there will be a straight path towards the finish line.

Both Pegasi gasped upon realizing what just happened, "Somepony got the lead! I can't los–" Another interruption appeared from now blue blur that cut through the air while it evaded both Pegasi. As they realized that now two ponies were ahead of them, they looked behind and their eyes widen upon another realization that their conversation slowed them that much that it got enough time for other ponies to catch up.

Even though all ponies were getting closer rapidly, Lightning Dust decided to try something that might help her increase her chances of winning. "Look, isn't it Wind Rider himself?" the filly mare pointed behind Spitfire.

"REALLY?! Where, where??" the yellow filly looked in a pointed direction and saw nothing. She growled with anger as she turned back and saw that Lightning Dust was now ahead of her and quickly burst towards the direction of the finish line to chase the mint filly.

As both Pegasi tried to get on the finish line, Derpy did perfectly the sharp turn and was rapidly getting closer to the finish line. But tiredness reminded her about itself and soon she begins to feel exhausted. But even though the gray filly felt that so badly, she tried her best to keep up.

The gray filly felt once again that somepony was getting closer from behind, but she didn't care. She noticed a banner with the text Finish line getting closer and closer. Derpy decided to use all power that was left in her wings to get even close to the finish line, and...

She did it. Derpy crossed the finish line as the flash from the camera took a photo. However, the blue blur that at the last moment wanted to catch up, crossed the finish line at the same exact moment as gray filly.

Everypony from the platform for ponies to watch was cheering, whistling, and even shouting. The gray filly sighed as she landed on her belly on the cloud not far away from the finish line. As she tried to catch her breath, the blue blur landed next to her. The said blur was, of course, Soarin. He as well, fall to the cloud ground and begin to try to catch a breath.

"Well... it... looks like...one of us... is the winner," Soarin said, still trying to catch a breath.

"Soarin...? Wow... how did you got here so fast?" Derpy asked as she as well tried to catch a breath.

"Huh?" colt asked not very sure how to answer, but eventually he replied. "Oh that... I-... have actually no idea." When Soarin's answer made more questions than answers, Derpy raised one of her eyebrows as she looked on her friend.

However, before she could say anything else, the ponies in the background raised their applause again as he and Derpy saw the mint filly who crossed the finish line. When Lightning Dust landed not too far from the finish line, she looked around and noticed both gray filly and light blue colt exhausted. "Really?! I lost?!" Lightning Dust sighed and facehoofed herself.

Not too long after that, the yellow filly arrived and crossed the finish line as well. Spitfire landed next to Lightning Dust as she begins to exchange some words with her friend. The cheering and other background noises from Pegasi that watched the race were still hearable. "Why the heck did you trick me like that?!" yellow Pegasus asked.

Lightning Dust sighed and moved her gaze on the cloud under her as the guilty start rising in her mind. "Ugh... sorry, Spitfire. I thought this way I'll get you out of my tail and will have enough time to catch these two" – she took her hoof and pointed on both Derpy and Soarin – "before they get to finish line."

She sighed. Even though it was not okay for her friend to trick her, she reminded herself that instead of racing like all the others, they both ended up talking. "Okay, let's say that I forgive you... at least for now. After all, we both, instead of racing, were talking like it's nothing."

She looked up to notice that Spitfire had a slight smirk on her face, which made her a little bit more confident as she said. "Yeah, we kinda did."

"Uh, it looks like somehow Lightning Dust and Spitfire aren't that mad for not being first," Derpy said, as she and Soarin were looking at both Pegasi from a distance. It was also that moment when they heard approaching the finish line laughter. They moved their gaze onto the finish line as both lilac fillies quickly crossed the finish line and landed next to the place where Lightning Dust and Spitfire talked. The gray filly and light blue colt saw that the lilac Pegasi looked like they were having a great time together as they even did a brohoof. The total opposite of how they behave before. Also, the main reason they ended up beyond the podium was because of how they treat each other, but now? They looked like they never argued.

"Well, it looks like we won't be getting any of the top places..." the white-maned filly said as she took her hoof and waved it dismissively. "Whatever, I'm glad we won't have to fight anymore, sis."

"Exactly! Also, I should thank you that you stayed to help m. Even though you could fly away any moment and catch the higher place on the podium," Flitter said.

"What kind of sister I'd be if I left my sister stuck in the cloud? Besides, we both realized that if we want to have any chance of winning, we should, at least, try to cooperate and race fair without trying to show how one of us is better than the other. In this case, trying to eliminate each other," Cloud Chaser finished her sentence with a chuckle and embraced her sister in a hug on which both lilac Pegasi smiled heart-warmingly.

"And it looks like Cloud Chaser and Flitter finally stopped arguing over everything," Derpy noticed as the image of reunited sisters brings happiness to her face.

Soarin turned to look at the two sisters hugging each other, and it also brings a smile to his face. As he looked back on the gray mare, his eyes caught something... different. Derpy's left eye was in a lower position than her right eye. He never saw anything like that on his friend's face. "Uh, Derpy?"

Derpy suddenly shook her head, and before he could ask why she did that, her left eye was back in its right place, "Yes?"

"Uh, is everything ok–" before he could ask, the crowd watching Pegasi begin to cheer and applaud as another competitor arrived and crossed the finish line. It was a dark mint filly with a neat white mane. As she noticed the gray filly and light blue colt, the dark mint Pegasus flew towards them and landed next to Soarin.

"Fleetfoot, you did it! You reached the finish line!" Soarin greeted his friend, quickly forgetting about the question he was about to ask.

"Yeah, I did it!" Fleetfoot said as she approached both Pegasi.

"Good race, Derpy!" she added, on which the gray filly nodded in the meaning of thank you with smiling features on her face.

"And thanks, Soarin. If it wasn't for you, Rainbow Dash, and our little talk that we had after our collision, then I don't think I'd even have a chance to fly all the way here completely alone," Fleetfoot said.

The light blue colt quickly realized what his friend meant and begin to feel horrible for leaving Fleetfoot behind when he tried to catch up with the lead of the race. "I'm sorry that I left you behind, but–"

"Don't worry about it. I got to fully know the whole track, and next time I'll be prepared for every turn and obstacle on my way! Plus, I really need to practice more to fly even faster, and yes, I know that you were slowing yourself down for me, but you didn't have to. But anyway, thank you," Fleetfoot reassured his friend in a sweet tone and smiled to show that she doesn't hold it against him.

Soarin, in return, blushed. The light blue colt nervously looked down as he finally got himself to say, "W-well, what are f-friends for?" on which the dark mint filly smiled.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and added, "Aaanyway... I have to agree that if it wasn't for Rainbow Da– wait... where's Rainbow Dash?"

"She didn't reach the finish line yet?" Derpy asked while she looked around in the sight of a cyan filly with a rainbow mane.

"No, it seems she didn't. But, she was the first that took off, and I remember her saying something like 'I know a shortcut. See ya later on the finish line!' She should be here by now," Fleetfoot said, still without a clue why Rainbow Dash didn't reach the finish line.

It looked like only three of them were concern about the lack of cyan filly as all three of them soon begin to scan the whole area. They looked from the platform where parents –or just Pegasi who wanted to watch the race– were cheering up; to the podium and finally on the finish line. The rainbow-maned filly was nowhere to be seen.

Then something unexpected happened...

The cyan filly suddenly popped up from the middle of the cloud on which all gathered Pegasi were standing and shouted as loud as she can. "I'm the best! I got to the finish line before anypony else..." she begins to lower her tone, as she finally opened her eyes to see that all ponies who the cyan filly thought she outsmarted, long before her, finished the race. But her shouting didn't go unnoticed as the cheering from the watching Pegasi stopped, and all gathered ponies –as well her competitors– looked in disbelief in the middle where Rainbow Dash just appeared.

Her parents' eyes widen as they laughed nervously upon getting some weird looks from the Pegasi above and below their seat. They previously were non stop shouting 'Go Rainbow Dash!' but now all they could say was nervous and almost silent 'Yay...'

Meanwhile, Flame Thrower wanted to disappear... literally. But all he could do is sigh in embarrassment as he facehoofed himself once the possible reason for that appeared in his mind.

'There's no way she got lost on the shortcut,' the fire-maned Pegasus thought, while he still holds his head in his hoof.

"Oops..." the cyan filly nervously added with a chuckle.

Then yellow pegasus stepped in with the scoreboard. He grunted to take the whole attention from the cyan filly to him. "Attention, please!" he begin. "As it seems that all competitors reached the finish line, I think it's a good moment to announce the places."

As soon as he said it, he took out a notepad from his saddlebag with the usage of his teeth and put it on the cloud below him. He opened it and begin to read. "Okay. It seems that two ponies were very close to first place, but after analyzing the photo we have a winner," the yellow pegasus took the photo from the notepad and pin the saif photo to the scoreboard.

"First place, Derpy Hooves!" as soon as he said that, every gathered Pegasi begin to stumble their hooves in applause for the gray filly, followed by 'Congrats!' and 'Good job!' from her competitors.

"Please stand in the first place!" the yellow Pegasus added.

Derpy couldn't believe it. For the first time in her life, she is going to stand in the first place. She didn't hesitate and burst into the sky to land on top of the podium. As the gray filly finally placed her hooves on the podium; she soon saw the ponies that sat on the platform were now looking at her. The applause was still hearable until the yellow pegasus begins to speak. "Second place, Soarin and Lightning Dust!"

The mint filly and light blue colt took off the ground and placed themselves in second place on the podium. They exchanged smiles with themselves and Derpy then they looked around to see ponies that were applauding them as well.

The applause got silenced once again. "Third place, Spitfire and... well, actually Flitter and Cloud Chaser both arrived at the same time, but from what I heard while I asked them about who was first to cross the finish line, it is... Cloud Chaser, who crossed the finish line as the first!"

Cloud Chaser looked back on her sister, "W-what? When did you tell him tha–" before the lilac filly could say any word more, she got silenced by her sister's hoof on her muzzle.

"You decided to help me, so I decided to help you," Flitter replied with a smile and slowly taking off her hoof from her sister's muzzle.

"Now, go! Before I'm gonna change my mind," she smirked, but instead of a harsh reply, Cloud Chaser took her sister into an embrace once again. It only took a few seconds, but it was worth it.

After breaking the embrace, Cloud Chaser looked at her sister. "Thank you, Flitter!" After that, she flew towards the podium. As soon as she placed herself, she got applause from the audience and many congratulations from the other Pegasi who stood on the podium.

"And the fourth place, Fleetfoot and Flitter!" Both Fleetfoot and Flitter placed themselves on opposite sites of the podium. Same reaction from the audience, followed by applause and occasional whistles and congratulations from other Pegasi from the podium.

"Last place... well, today we had only Rainbow Da–" his sentence got very loudly interrupted, because as soon as cyan filly placed herself next to the podium. The cyan mare and blue stallion on the platform start shouting once again, "Great job, Rainbow Dash! You're a-m-a-z-i-n-g!"

It only makes cyan filly even more embarrassed as she cringed back, avoiding looking at her parents.

'Just great...' the fire-maned colt thought as he looked on the image of his sister being last.

The fire-maned stallion took his hooves and pointed on the gray mare while he shouts. "So that's you! Congrats on that win! I remember that my sister said after the race that one day she will be standing in your place," he finished his sentence with a chuckle upon refreshing some old memories when Rainbow Dash just decided to start in the Young Flyer competition.

As he looked back on the gray mare, he noticed that she got a quite nervous look on her face after mentioning that. Flame thought that maybe it's a great memory for him and his sister but not perhaps for Derpy, so he decided to tell her something that should cheer her up and let her quickly forget about bad memories. "Also, I should be thankful to you. I remember that my sister and I had a bet about if she ends up in the first place, I'll have to do the chores like washing the dishes and get her whatever official Wonderbolt's merchandise she wanted. But instead, you won! So, thanks to you, I didn't have to do any of these things."

Derpy Hooves smiled upon hearing that. However, her smile quickly faded, and her facial features took a more concerned look. "Oh, I'm sorry that, because of me, your sister ended up in the second place.."

"Don't be sorry! You actually helped my sister a lot in case of self-improvement," Flame Thrower said as he gave her a reassuring smile.

"I did?" the gray mare asked, not quite believing in what Flame said.

"Of course!" he nodded. "You gave her a good boost of confidence and narcism that –believe or not– she got from me," the blue Pegasus smirked. "And thanks to that, she was more eager to win future races, and thus she became better."

A smile immediately appeared on her face. "Oh, good to hear that! But wait, you mentioned about your sister. But I didn't quite hear her name when I was telling my perspective, so who's your sister?"

"The one and only," he relaxed himself in his seat a little bit more and put one of his forelegs behind his head to make himself even more comfy, as he said. "Rainbow Dash."

Once she heard that, the gray mare couldn't believe her ears. "Really?! For muffins, she never mentioned that she has a brother when I talked with her!"

"Maybe she just didn't feel like she needed to tell anypony? I dunno, but now you know she has a brother, and his name is Flame 'the most awesome Pegasus in Equestria' Thrower" the fire-maned Pegasus said as he runs one of his hooves through his mane.

"Wait, is that your second name?" Derpy asked as she squints her eyes and put one of her hooves under her chin. For the blue Pegasus, it looked like it really struggled her.

He blinked two times and then chuckled. "What? No, it just..." he shrugged. "Sounds cool, I guess."

"Anyway, what is this meeting about, Chaser?" Flame Thrower asked.

As he got no answer whatsoever, the blue Pegasus looked on the mare next to Derpy. He thought that Cloud Chaser was leaning against the table with her face the whole time just because she wanted to relax. Although, when he noticed that her head was slightly down and saw that her mane covered her eyes, the fire-maned stallion finally realized why his friend was so quiet throughout the whole conversation. Additionally, the snore from his side of the table confirmed that Compass Star, while leaning on the headrest of his seat, took a trip to the land of dreams as well.

"Did they fall asleep?" Derpy Hooves asked with a confused look.

"Well, they don't look too energetic, don't they?" the blue Pegasus chuckled as a funny idea crossed his mind. "I've got an idea... just watch."

Flame Thrower hit the table, and almost immediately after his hooves collided with the wooden table, both Cloud Chaser and Compass Star spiked up. Both Pegasi faces had a shocked look as they finally were awake. It didn't happen without both Pegasi rapidly looking in every direction, which gave them a weird look from other ponies in the cafeteria. Soon, their locked their look on the blue Pegasus who kept his hooves on the table, as he and Derpy Hooves were both laughing at their friends' reaction.

"Har har, very funny," Cloud Chaser sighed while rolling her eyes.

Flame Thrower and Derpy Hooves kept laughing for a few more seconds; until eventually, they both calmed.

"I'm not the one who falls asleep!" he said with a chuckle. "But seriously tho, why did you fall asleep?"

"You both are like the fastest Ponies to fall asleep!" Derpy Hooves added as she tried to keep her from bursting with laughter again as their reaction to the sudden wake-up call kept repeating in her mind.

The brown Pegasus stretched himself a little bit before saying, "If you would have to work till late in the night *yawn* then you would be the fastest in falling asleep too."

"Oh, what job do you have that requires you to work that late in the night?" Flame Thrower asked.

Before Compass Star could say, Derpy interrupted him and said, "He works in Weather Factory as one of few cloud scien–, scientsi–..."

"Scientist," Compass Star helped his friend with his tired voice on which Derpy smiled. "Cloud scientist. And, that's the most exhausting job in this whole city, but... I wouldn't change this job for the world!"

"Yeah, you're the only pony I know that enjoys being overwhelmed with work," Cloud Chaser added with a slight chuckle on her face.

"I guess it's a destiny for every Pegasi to work there at least once," the fire-maned Pegasus sighed. "But still, it doesn't explain why Cloud Chaser falls asleep too. Before we got into this cafeteria, you burst with energy, especially after our meeting!"

The lilac mare rolled her eyes before saying, as she leaned a little bit forward.. "I just didn't sleep well because of our new neighbor who decided that it's a great idea to move his bed in the middle of the night!" she stomped her hoof in the table, then sighed. "I had some energy when we met, but when you two start talking about whatever you were talkin', my energy capacity lowered to a few percent. Not mentioning that little race that we did took a lot of my energy as well."

"Oh... I didn't know that you both are so tired. Then again, why did you arranged this meeting if you're" – he took his hoof and pointed on both Compass Star and Cloud Chaser – "like this!"

"Well, we kinda promised to Derpy that we are gonna help with her job since she did a lot for us lately," the lilac mare said.

Compass Star nodded and added, "Yeah, we wanted to repay for her help with doing something for Derpy. Basically, that was the reason for our meeting. After getting ourselves a nice break in the cafeteria, we are supposed to help her with the delivery of letters."

"What letters?" Flame Thrower asked, not quite getting where these said letters are.

As soon as the blue Pegasus asked, Derpy dived down the table and caught with her mouth something that looked like a big brown bag filled with letters. She jerked her head backward and threw the said bag on the table while making the table visibly wiggle with a hearable thud sound from the heavy brown bag hitting the table. "These letters!" Derpy Hooves said while she released the brown bag from her muzzle.

As he looked at the size of the bag, his eyes widen upon reminding himself that Derpy is supposed to deliver all of them. "Oh-wow... that's a decent amount of letters, not gonna lie."

'Where did she hide this bag?,' he thought.

"That's why *yawn* we have *yawn* to help her," Compass Star rubbed his eyes and tried his best not to fall asleep again, but Flame already knew that Compass Star is for sure not going to help as much as he would like to.

"Y'know, I got a better idea," the fire-maned Pegasus said.

Cloud Chaser looked with a puzzled look and asked, "What idea?"

Derpy moved closer and stomped her hooves on the table in exciting meaning, "Oh! Does it involve muffins? Because I'd like to eat one right now."

Flame Thrower shook his head and chuckled. "No, but if you want, we can think about that later."

She quickly nodded as a grin appeared on her face. The blue Pegasus sighed and added. "Anyway, my idea is to get you two to get back home and take the nicest sleep as you can. Meanwhile, I and Derpy; will deliver these letters."

"What? No, no way. We're here to help her, and we ain't gonna let you do the whole work for us," Cloud Chaser crossed her forelimbs, giving away the look of her stubbornness.

"Yeah *yawn* what she said..." Compass Star added very weakly.

Upon noticing how tired Star become in comparison to himself before Derpy's storytelling, Flame Thrower sighed. "You really need to sleep, dude... Otherwise, you could fall asleep in the air, and that wouldn't be fun, believe me."

"What? I'm awake and... ready... to... help..." and before he could fully finish his sentence, the brown Pegasus fall a sleep as his head hit the table.

While everyone at the table looked surprised as their friend hit his head with the table, the blue Pegasus sighed as he reminded himself about one important fact. ’Ughh... I think that I won’t be getting any information regarding that street I'm looking for after all,’ Flame Thrower thought as he facepalmed himself. After doing so, he wanted to shook his friend to wake him up, but upon noticing how his lilac friend was looking at the brown Pegasus, he realized what she had in my mind. "Do the honors," Flame Thrower said.

Cloud Chaser nodded as she flew from her place towards the now sleeping Pegasus and shouted straight into his ear. "Wake up, Star!"

The brown Pegasus spiked up as his friend shouted the words loud enough that even a deaf pony would hear. He shook his head as he looked at Flame Thrower, who had a look on his face that said, 'I'm clearly right.'

"You see? You can't even keep up with the conversation, let alone fly!" he added as he turned his head to the lilac mare. "Chaser, you have to escort Compass Star to his home. And then don't go back, get yourself decent sleep, okay?"

"But–" the lilac mare wanted to protest, but before she could say anything, Flame put his hoof on her mouth, silencing her for good. "No buts, you know that you need to sleep too, and this is a good opportunity. If you gonna fly with us, you will only get even more tired."

"Besides, I and Derpy will have a great time. I can see that coming," the blue Pegasus looked on the gray mare next to Cloud Chaser.

"Exactly!" as soon as Derpy said that, both blue and gray Pegasi took her hoof and stumbled it in a brohoof.

"I know, but this is our first meeting after five years, Flame," Cloud Chaser said as she looked towards the floor. "I just wish we could spend more time together as we used to."

"I'd like that," Flame said. "But, hey! We can hang out whenever we'll have a chance to do so! I'm not going to disappear again, so don't worry."

The lilac mare shook her head, and with a defeated sighed added. "Okay, I guess you're right, mister all better."

"Well, I don't see any reason for staying here any longer," Cloud Chaser said. As soon as the lilac mare noticed that her friend wants to fall asleep again, she stomped her hoof on the table hard enough to leave a visible mark. "Star, wake up! I have to get you home."

The brown Pegasus sprang once again as his friend yelled again to wake him up. All that tiredness left him without having anything to fight his friend's decision. He rubbed his eyes and, with a yawn, said. "Oh-okay... See you both soon!" As soon as Compass Star said that, he jumped on the floor from his seat and then flew into the entrance direction.

Cloud Chaser approached the blue Pegasus and embraced him into the hug. "Don't disappear for another five years, got it?"

The fire-maned Pegasus smiled and nodded as they break the embrace, "I wouldn't take the risk."

Cloud Chaser giggled and rolled her eyes. Then, both Pegasi heard like something hit the door. As the whole group of Pegasi friends, and some other ponies from the cafeteria, looked where the source of the sound was, they saw that apparently, the brown Pegasus walked into the door. "Ouch," he said as he begins to massage his forehead. "Who placed doors in such place?!"

"Is... is he getting worse and worse just by a matter of few seconds or what?" Flame Thrower asked and raised one of his eyebrows.

"I guess coffee didn't work as long as he thought it would," Cloud Chaser chuckled.

"Okay, better going before he falls asleep once again. Bye Derpy!" She waved her hoof in the direction of the gray mare on which Derpy replied with a smile; also waving her gray hoof back. And soon, the lilac mare was gone escorting Compass Star through the door to take him to his home.

Flame Thrower sighed and looked on the mare he's going to help. "Okay, so what about some muffins before we start delivering these letters?"

Derpy replied with excitement in her eyes as she closed them; while grim appeared on her face. "Yay!"

To be continued...

Author's Note

Editing. E-d-i-t-i-n-g. Such a nice word, huh? Well, if you feel the same, and weirdly enough, you also found the word 'editing' lookin' nice, then let me use it in this sentence...

Editing took me four weeks! :pinkiegasp: and to be honest I still feel like it's not enough, but oh well...

I was constantly changing/adding things to fit even better in the overall story reading experience, and I really hope that you like this chapter that I had to divide into two parts. Also, I'm so, so sorry, but this story takes for dang sure a lot of time, and I try my best to finish the chapter as fast as I can without rushing and making the whole story feel like it was boring and short. With that being said, I hope you understand and enjoy the freshly released chapter! ...or maybe if you're reading this in the future then– doesn't matter! Hope you too enjoy this chapter!

About the second part:
It will be released soon, but don't worry, that won't take as long as this one because I wrote both parts as one chapter. The second part just needs a better ending and some polishing. ;)

Anyway, let me know if I messed up anything. As always, feedback is very much appreciated!

Thank you for reading, until next time! :twilightsmile:

Chapter 2 - Sibling Reunion. (Part 2)

"Phew..." Flame said and wiped the sweat from his forehead as both Pegasi took off from one of the cloud houses and flew straight through the north Cloudsdale street. "I'm glad that this bag is no longer that heavy... How many letters do we have to deliver right now?"

Derpy took a quick look at her note on her hoof. After confirming how many adresses left, she turned back to her friend and happily exclaimed. "Just only two letters!"

"Oh, thank Celestia," he said. "I'm not sure if my body would appreciate being in such exercise for any minute longer." Flame didn't lie. In the beginning, the brown bag filled with tons of letters was so heavy, that both Flame and Derpy had to hold the bag together until the weight dropped down enough (after an hour) to make the blue Pegasus carry the bag without a problem.

When the fire-maned stallion asked Derpy if she always has to deliver such amount of letters, the gray Pegasi said that if it wasn't for her boss –with whom she spoke today– she would be at home by now.

However, instead of having a whole day for herself, Derpy's boss gave her a new task of delivering a lot of letters to Cloudsdale because, apparently, nopony else was available. She also mentioned that post office was –thankfully– next to the cafeteria where they both met. That helped her a lot with carrying the bag full of letters since she didn't have to worry about doing something wrong that would cause all letters to be lost in the process.

Flame nodded, not quite getting why she was the only available hard-working mail pony. After all, he thought that there were enough ponies in this profession, but it seems that not many of them are Pegasi.

The gray mare and Flame Thrower flew for a while until they both stopped at the crossroads and waited until the green light let them continue their flight. It didn't take too long for other Pegasi who flew through the same street to stop as well.

As Flame watched all Pegasi flying from the opposite street, he reminded himself of why he got here in the first place. He still didn't know where his sister's address is, and top of that, it looked like there was a very low chance of him getting there faster. He wasted already to much time, so he decided to give it a shot and ask the gray Pegasus about it. Hopefully it won't turn out to be another dead end. "Uh, Derpy?"

Derpy Hooves moved her head and looked at the blue Pegasus. "Hmm?"

"Do you maybe know where is a street called Wavey Wings Street in Cloudsdale?" Flame Thrower asked.

It took a second for Derpy to process the question (which made Flame a little bit nervous giving the fact he would be lost as probably he knows no pony else who could help him find the address,) then, by slowly taping one of her hooves under her chin; Derpy tried to remind herself said street. "Wavey, wavey, wave– Oh, I know where it is! But you mean upper Wavey Wings Street or lower Wavey Wings Street?"

Flame looked back at his friend with visible pure confusion on his face. "What?"

The gray mare took her hooves and raised them once higher and once lower as she begins to visualize her words. "Wavey Wings Street is divided between upper and lower sector. Upper Wavey Wings Street's houses have in their adresses slash after house number, which basically means how high in the sky the house is located, while lower sector only has numbers."

The fire-maned stallion moved his head towards his saddlebag as he opened it to get a piece of paper with his sister's address and read it once again to be sure. "Then, I guess it's higher, 'cause it says 11/5. I was actually so confused about this slash five. Overall, I think it's a weird address... Who even came up with higher and lower sectors?!"

"We may never know" – Derpy put one of her hooves under her chin in thought as one of her eyes moved higher than the other eye – "but why do you want to find that street?"

Flame Thrower sighed and put the piece of paper back into his saddlebag. As he turned his head back, he locked his eyes on the image of ponies flying by. "I wasn't supposed to actually meet any of you today because I was planning to visit my sister to tell her myself that I'm back. But, I couldn't find the street so–"

"You asked Cloud Chaser, and she said she doesn't know too, but maybe somepony at our meeting will know, right?" Derpy Hooves finished his sentence before Flame could even say a word.

The blue Pegasus gave her a weird look as if she told him that clouds are made of marshmallows. "Yeah, that's pretty much how it was..." he said while he dropped the idea of figuring out what his friend just performed.

When no more Pegasi were crossing the street from the opposite side, the light changed to green, and soon all Pegasi from their side –including Flame and Derpy– took off from the cloud that they were standing on the whole time which let them continue their flight.

After a few minutes of reassuring silence between both Pegasi, Derpy looked at fire-maned stallion and decided to break it by asking something that she had in her mind since they left the cafeteria. "Uhm, I heard from Compass Star that you were gone for a quite long time. Can I know why did you leave?"

It didn't take to long to for the blue Pegasus to turned his head towards gray mare and with the smile said. "Yeah" – Flame nodded and made a maneuver that lat him evade few cloud obstacles on his path. After doing so, he quickly flew back on the same level in the air next to his gray friend – "it was because I wanted to prove to everypony that I'm somepony worth having a cutie mark and that I'm capable of doing great things," he explained.

"Did you succeed in that?" Derpy asked while she looked at the blue Pegasus next to her.

"Yeah, just look on my flank," Flame pointed on his cutie mark as then, for the first time, the gray mare fully saw Flame's cutie mark. "That's my trophy for not giving up and keeping myself with thoughts that I can be as cool as The Wonderbolts themselves! Wait... I'm already way cooler than them!" he smirked.

"So nice to hear thatl! Although I have to say, that your cutie mark reminds me a little bit of Rainbow Dash's cutie mark," the gray mare said.

The connection that Derpy noticed in both Rainbow and Flame's cutie marks raised some interest in his mind. "Maybe it says that we're related or something like that? I'm not so sure about that, but the fire on top of my cutie mark surely goes with my mane and name."

Derpy giggled and said, "Yeah! Your name, mane, cutie mark, but– wait... what's your special talent?"

Flame Thrower smiled upon seeing that another chance of his storytelling arises. "Wanna hear a story about it? I'm sure that at his point, I'm quite good at this."

"Yeah, why not–" before she could finish her sentence, she flew directly into the cloud-made fence behind which stand house "–oops, it looks like we arrived."

Flame Thrower chuckled upon seeing Derpy's silly image of being stuck in the cloud-fence. He flew to his friend and gave her his hoof to get her out of the fence. She took it and slowly got out of the fence trap.

As the blue Pegasus landed on the cloud ground next to his friend, he asked, "This is our address?"

"Yep!" she stated and then looked at her friend with a more saddened face expression. "I'm sorry, but your storytelling will have to wait," Derpy said while she shook off some of the clouds that left on her coat.

"You have no idea how happy I'm to hear that," Flame Thrower said as he chuckled once again.

"But it was you, who sugges–"

"I know, I was just kidding," the fire-maned stallion interrupted her sentence quickly as he saw a confused look of Derpy; he sighed and added, "Anyway, let's deliver these letters."

Two and a half hours later...

"So, this is it, right?" the blue Pegasus stated, as he and Derpy both now stood on the front yard before the two-story cloud tower. After one and half hours of helping Derpy deliver the letters, the blue Pegasus finally stood before his sister's house.

The Cloudominium as the sign above the doors said, was obviously made from clouds. There was a big rainbow that stretched from the top of the roof towards down to the cloud-ground. It also had a look of a tower with attached clouds around and a rock-lined path on the front yard that leads to the entrance. In some parts of the front yard were smaller rainbows that also leads down the cloud towards the ground below.

"Yes, this is Wavey Wings Street 11 upper sector. It's a little bit far away from the center of Cloudsdale, so that's why there are not many cloud houses, but it's also very close to Ponyville," Derpy explained. While the fire-maned stallion looked up, he noticed a very familiar symbol. He had no idea how he didn't notice that when they both arrived, but now he was with no doubt surely convinced that it is Rainbow Dash's house.

'Rainbow waterfalls, blue walls, and a giant symbol of the cloud with a rainbow bolt coming out of it... Yep! that's my sister's house,' Flame Thrower said to himself in his mind.

The blue Pegasus begins to walk towards the door. As the gray mare begins to follow him as well, he said. "Then, let's see if my sister is at hom– wait!" Flame Thrower suddenly stopped, which caused Derpy to bump into his tail. As she shook her head after a collision the fire-maned Pegasus turned back towards the gray mare. "I was so occupied with getting here that I completely forgot about what I'll say when I'll be standing in front of her!"

Derpy Hooves smiled reassuringly as she took one of her hooves and patted her friend on the shoulder. "Rainbow Dash is your sister, so whatever you say, she will be happy to see you."

The fire-maned Pegasus' nervousness begins to fade as it got replaced with hope and a smile. "You think so?"

"I know so," she chuckled. "But we may never find out if you don't knock on the door!"

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks, by the way," Flame Thrower said with a smile as Derpy nodded with a smile and replied, "It's nothing."

The fire-maned stallion turned back towards the path to the entrance. He took few steps, and followed by the gray mare, soon stood before the door with another sign.

'Welcome to the house of the most awesome pony in whole Equestria!' The fire-maned Pegasus smiled once he read the sign that reminds him so much about himself, but at the same time... about his sister.

'The second most awesome pony,' Flame thought as he chuckled to try to cheer himself up. After all, he is about to meet his sister after five years! He hasn't seen her how she grew up – he left when she was still a filly. Now, she had her own house, and apparently, she owned a doormat with herself on it...? Flame Thrower couldn't believe it either. But, that's what he saw as he unintentionally looked down. He had to admit, having such a doormat is cool, but at the same time creepy and weird as heck.

'Maybe I should get my merchandise too? Like some cool t-shirts or stickers, not a doormat for su–' his thoughts got interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. As he looked up, he saw that it was his friend who pressed the button.

"Sorry, but you just stood there for a little while, and I couldn't resist peeking this button," Derpy Hooves said with a sheepish smile.

Flame Thrower took one of his hooves and waved it dismissively. "It's all good."

He sighed, any second now his sister will appear at the door and everythi– "Derpy, I understand you can't resist this button, but, don't you think it's a little bit too much pressing it ten times in just a few seconds?"

"Uh, sorry, I'm done," she said with a sheepish smile as she moved away from the button.

Flame rolled his eyes as they both waited... waaited... waaaited and...

Nothing.

Completely zero reaction or sound from the other side of the door.

As Flame Thrower begins to realize that she is probably not at home, he decided to knock a few times at the door anyway. When it resulted in no reaction again, he decided to use his secret tactic. That should for sure make a some sort of reaction, but If not, that means she is for sure not at home. "Let's try this..." Flame said as he sight and while looking at the windows he shouted. "Hey! I'm Uhm... Soarin! And I'd like to invite you to join the Wonderbolts, yep it's totally true! All you have to do is open the door!"

Again, silence... That means she is not at home.

"Why did you say that? You don't want your sister to take you as somepony else, don't you?" the gray mare with confusion on her face asked.

"It's not like that," he facehoofed himself as he dropped his head down. "I remember that whenever Rainbow Dash heard about anything related to The Wonderbolts from kids in our neighborhood; she couldn't resist to fly by and start talking about how cool they are and such stuff. So I thought, if somepony would say such a thing, she would definitely show up," Flame Thrower looked back to his friend as he still kept his head down. "Doesn't matter, if she was at home, I think she would come out by now."

Derpy saddened, and after a moment, asked. "Oh... so what now?"

The fire-maned Pegasus turned back and looked up to notice that the sun was still in the middle. "Well, that means, from what my mother said, she is probably in Ponyville," he sighed once again and then added. "The problem is, I wasn't in Ponyville since I was a young colt, so probably many things changed. You see how I thought I know Cloudsdale as good as my own hoof and how it turned out... let alone trying to find my sister in Ponyville."

The gray mare scratched the back of her head as she thought. "Well, we actually delivered everything that I had for Cloudsdale, and after leading you to Rainbow's house, I was supposed to fly back to Ponyville's post office. But since you are flying to Ponyville too, maybe I can take you to Sugarcube Corner. From what I know, Rainbow Dash is there very often, so maybe–" the gray mare didn't have a chance to finish her sentence as the blue Pegasus jumped on her, embracing her in a warm hug, by the way almost making Derpy fall to the ground and fixing her eyes for a quick moment. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!!" he said with a big grin.

Derpy giggled as she returned the hug, and after a few seconds, broke it. "No problem!" She took off the ground and flew into the air. "Are you coming?"

He chuckled and as well took off, "Lead the way, m'lady!"

Derpy Hooves giggled once again, and soon they both begin to fly in the direction of Ponyville, which happened to be not so far away from Rainbow Dash place, as she previously mentioned. Also, Flame Thrower did as he said and followed the gray mare all the way to Sugarcube Corner.

The path to Ponyville didn't take too long, as Flame's friend said earlier. It took only five minutes to get them to the center of said town.

Soon both Pegasi softly landed on the ground where he assumed was the center of Ponyville. Flame looked around to notice that the town from his foalhood didn't change that much. More buildings, that's for sure, but other than that, nothing very much changed.

When he looked behind he noticed that Town Hall still stands in the middle of the town, as Flame remembered, but he quickly noticed some other changes. The whole building looked like after a major renovation and was looking much better than the last time he saw the building. Maybe it was due to the newly painted cream paint walls or so polished pink windows that illuminated the Town Hall's interior from the ground floor and the first floor where said pink windows were located. Flame couldn't wrap his head over it, but while he tried, the blue Pegasus noticed the same old reddish pointed-stylized roof, which apparently hasn't had gone through the renovation.

When Flame Thrower got more familiar with the appearance of the cream-colored rotunda, the blue Pegasus begins to look around as he looked over the main road that cuts through the center of the town. Just then, he finally notices some town's inhabitants.

Like the last place he visited, Ponyville was a mix of various races of ponies. He saw a red Earth pony stallion with a blond mane and green eyes. The red Earth pony had a big green apple as a cutie mark and looked like he pulled a wooden cart filled with an apple pile. For some unknown reason, Flame found this stallion awfully familiar.

Eventually, he decided to move to the next inhabitants, which happened to be a couple of unicorn and Earth pony mares that sat on a nearby bench.

The cream mare had curly dark blue mane with violet stripes and teal color eyes. She resembled the exact three sweets as her cutie mark.

While he had no care in the world how they sit on the bench, the next mint-colored mare with cyan mane sat in such a way that it had to make a reaction out of the blue Pegasus.

He didn't understand the way she sat. Instead of sitting like all ponies does, the mint mare sat in such a way that her back was facing the bench while her hind limbs hung down on the edge of a wooden bench. She also kept her forelimbs next to her. For Flame, however, it was not a usual sight, and that definitely got him interested.

Meanwhile, it looked like both mares were talking about something until the mint mare noticed Flame's gazing from behind her friend. The mint unicorn leans out past her friend, which made the cream mare look behind her as well. Thanks to that, the blue Pegasus noticed her cutie mark – a gold lyre.

Still, glazing like a creep on some ponies is not something that Flame would like to have on his account, so he decided to wave his hoof in the meaning of hi with a nervous smile on his face.

Apparently, both mares didn't find it wrong because they smiled and even waved back. After doing so, they turned their heads towards each other and moved with their conversation.

Flame Thrower sighed with relief. 'My curiosity is gonna doom me someday...' he scolded himself in his mind.

"Flame?" Derpy asked as she pulled out Flame from his thoughts while he had focused eyes on an orange unicorn with brown mane, who just entered one of the houses. He couldn't see the rest of his appearance, but that pony looked awfully familiar to him too. Still, as soon as Derpy's words reached his ear, the fire-maned Pegasus quickly turned his head in her direction to give the gray mare his full attention.

"Yeah?" Flame Thrower asked as he moved his head towards the gray mare.

"I asked if that's okay if I leave you here. I have to go back to my work to leave this bag" – Derpy took her hoof and pointed on Flame's saddlebag where he hid Derpy's bag for letters – "and report that all letters got delivered."

It seemed that his gray friend was talking for a long time, but due to his glazing, he didn't hear a word. However, as soon as he realized what Derpy said, his facial features took a more sad look. "Aw, I thought I'd have a chance to talk with you more and finally tell you how I got my cutie mark."

She took her hoof and begun to rub her forelimb as she sighed and looked down. "I'm so sorry, Flame! I thought we are still gonna have some time, but... it looks like it will have to wait."

"I heard that from somepony before," he smirked upon reminding himself that Cloud Chaser still didn't get a chance to know the whole story of his journey. Although he wouldn't care or even dare to always mention that, if it only wasn't for the fact that they are his friends, and it would be nice of him to told them what he has gone through in five years. Also, it's always cool to mention that he had amazing adventures, even if it comes with the price of hour-long storytelling, which after doing so, his mouth feels so dry like if it was Bone Dry desert. "But you still didn't tell me where that Sugarcup, or whatever it's called, is located," Flame added as he knew that it was the biggest one of the many reasons they both ended up in Ponyville.

"Oh, you're right! I'm sorry, " she looked up and chuckled after she hoofed her forehead. "You see that building with a gingerbread-like roof and a tower that looks like birthday cake?" the gray mare asked as she pointed to the said building on the horizon.

"I thiiink I see..." he tried to focus his eyes even harder, and to do so, he leaned but quickly stepped back as Derpy took off and flew before him.

"Okay, then I hope you gonna find Rainbow Dash there! Although I really have to get going..." she looked at the nearby clock tower and soon added. "Bye, Flame! Hope to see you soon!"

Derpy waved and just wanted to take off, but...

"WAIT!" the blue Pegasus yelled almost immediately when the gray mare took off. She looked behind with a surprised and confused look.

"You forgot" – he turned his head to his saddlebag and took the empty bag with Ponyville's post office emblem – "thys," he added while he holds the brown bag in his mouth.

"Oh! Thanks, I'm so silly," the gray mare giggled as she flew to the blue Pegasus and landed before the fire-maned stallion and took the bag from him and threw it at her back.

"Okay, I think I got this. Thank you, Derpy! Looking forward to meet ya again!" Flame said, and soon they waved each other for the last time, and after that, Derpy took off and flew in a different direction.

With a simple sigh, the blue Pegasus looked around once again as his eyes finally rested on the view of a pink fountain with scultputer of a grinning Earth pony mare that stood –with the usage of her right hind leg– on something what looked like a ball.

"Well, maybe I could use some walk and a little bit of chilly relax," he put one of his hooves under his chin. "I didn't have a good walk for a littl– oh, to heck with that! I can't risk my sister getting away again!" he took off and bolted towards Sugarcube Corner, which might be finally the place where he will find his sister. As always, his mane color followed him all the way to the said place.

A moment later, he landed before the supposed Sugarcube Corner with a good impact that took some dust from the ground. Ponies around looked a little bit surprised, probably because they knew only a few Pegasi that could fly with such speed, and Flame's sight was a completely new thing to Ponyville's inhabitants.

'Another impression on some random ponies... Well, more points for awesomeness for me!' Flame Thrower thought as a small smirk appeared on his face.

The fire-maned Pegasus looked at the building. As apparently all buildings in Ponyville, Sugarcube Corner, had cream-painted walls, but that was the only similarity to other buildings that were around. The roof indeed looked as it made of gingerbread with a white frosting stroke that goes around the whole roof, but Flame didn't even think about tasting it. He also noticed the cupcake-like tower that had actual candles on top. Overall, the whole design of the building looked tasty...

After finally taking his eyes off the building, Flame Thrower quickly trotted the gap between him and the door to Sugarcube Corner and pushed it to enter the building. Once the blue Pegasus finally got inside, he closed the door behind and begun to look all around the place.

The first thing that he noticed was the interior decorated with various types of sweets. From the wooden walls with some sweets to candy cane-like columns. There was even a table next to the wall with a few cupcakes on display. Even though the idea of trying anything was very encouraging, he managed to hold back.

As the fire-maned stallion moved his eyes from the teal-colored floor, he noticed straight before him a wooden counter with cakes and other pastries on display. Unfortunately, there was no sign of anypony behind the counter, so he decided to keep looking around. On his left side, there could be seen stairs leading up, but when he noticed that all the ponies sat at the tables on the right side of the bakery, he realized that the stairs might lead to an inhabited part of the building.

Flame Thrower decided to enter the room on his right and –as soon as he did so– the blue Pegasus noticed that it kept the sweets-like design with a little bit brighter color of the walls and four windows through which natural light illuminated the room. The free space in the room got filled with wooden tables where three of them were placed near the windows, and the other three were in the middle, arranged in the row. All the tables by the windows were being occupied, while in the middle only one table has been occupied.

As the blue Pegasus looked around and saw nopony that could look like his sister, he began to worry. 'Please, don't tell me she's not here either...'

Soon enough, Flame Thrower reminded himself that there still is a chance. 'If Derpy was right, then there has to be somepony here who at least saw her today... Well, going back to asking, I guess,' he finished his sentence in his mind.

The fire-maned Pegasus looked around and finally settled his view on the first table in the middle. There was a white unicorn with a blue mane, eyes, and blue spark as a cutie mark. Next to him sat a buffed white Pegasus with red eyes, blonde mane, and weight as a cutie mark. It looked like they had a good conversation with each other until the white Pegasus turned to the table behind him where two Earth ponies were sitting. One of them being purple maned and coated mare with magenta eyes, while the other one was mare as well but with an orange mane, green eyes, and lighter than her mane coat.

The white Pegasus yelled something like 'YEAH!' and decided to show off his muscles to nearby sitting mares from what the white unicorn sitting next to him only chuckled.

Flame Thrower decided eventually to approach them and –without being obligated to somehow get through the tables– he took off from the floor and rapidly, but carefully, flew towards the first table.

Soon, he got close enough to the table to make both white ponies notice him. "Hey! Uhm, do you guys maybe saw a cyan mare with magenta eyes and rainbow mane just about this high?" Flame gestured with his hooves a high that Rainbow Dash may have. He wasn't sure about that because the last time he saw Rainbow was when she still was a filly, so he had to imagine her size after so many years of not seeing each other.

"You mean, Rainbow Dash?" the white unicorn asked.

Flame –after hearing the question– nodded and said with a hope of finding faster than last time where his sister is. "Yep! Do you know where she is?"

The look on the white unicorn's face made it straight, the answer won't be anything the blue Pegasus hoped for. "Sorry dude, but I just arrived. What about you, Bulk?" The white Pegasus replied with a shake of his head which clearly stated that he also has no idea.

"Okay... *sigh* thanks anyway," Flame Thrower said as the hope and excitement quickly vanished from his face.

He left the table and after looking around he realized that there was more than one table being occupied, so hopefully no pony will mind if he asks a few more ponies. Maybe somepony will actually know, otherwise...

'Ughh! Looking for her house was too much pain already and I don't want to repeat that,' the blue Pegasus said in his mind as he lazily flew towards the end of the room flying by tables.

Just then, Flame Thrower reminded himself that since he got here; he saw nopony who looked like they were in charge of the bakery. 'Do these ponies serve themselves or what?' the blue Pegasus thought.

The fire-maned stallion decided to look around in any sight of bakery workers. His eyes slowly scanned the whole room and the counter all the way to the entrance. While he didn't notice anypony in the entrance, other ponies who were present at the tables enjoyed their time with their friends while they eat a slice of cakes, pies, or cupcakes.

Flame Thrower thought that maybe workers took a break, or they are just busy baking all those sweets. So, if he waits for a while, somepony will show up for sure. But, it doesn't mean that he can't ask other ponies while he waits for a worker to show up.

As he moved his gaze from one table to another, he realized that –while he really wants to get to know where his sister is– there's no way he will bring himself to ask all ponies that are present in Sugarcube Corner. The first try resulted in complete failure, and if the second one goes the same way, he will simply just go out and start looking for Derpy. He bet that finding a post office is probably much easier than trying to find Rainbow Dash.

The blue Pegasus looked on his left as he slowly flew through the small space between the tables. He had to choose somepony who might actually know anything regarding his matter, but, how do you know when someone knows anything about the matter based on their appearance?

Flame Thrower sighed as the first pony that he saw was very exhausted looking, sand-colored Earth pony stallion with dark gray mane and green eyes that had some visible bags under them. He sat in the companion of cream-coated Earth pony mare with green eyes, magenta mane, and brown unicorn stallion with white mane and blue eyes.

As soon as Flame begins to look at the trio of friends, the sand-colored stallion's eyes slowly begin to close, and soon his face met with the wooden top of the table with a hearable thump sound. The, now sleeping, stallion friends' groaned with frustration as they rolled their eyes upon seeing the silly image. Meanwhile, flying by Flame Thrower, couldn't help but chuckle upon having a deja vu.

Once, the blue Pegasus focused again, he took his look from the trio and slowly begin to move it towards the end of the room until he saw a view that immediately conquered his mind and caught him off guard.

Next to the big window was sitting a gray Earth pony mare with dark mane, that looked so shiny upon reflecting –the now slowly heading towards the ground– sun.

As Flame stayed suspended in the air, he could swear he started to feel some feelings that he thought were long gone. Gladly, the gray mare keep her eyes on the view outside the window and didn't notice the glaring at her blue Pegasus. Eventually, she moved her –as Flame thought as soon as he saw– beautiful deep purple eyes to look at what she bought to eat. It was also that moment when Flame Thrower for the first time noticed the pink bowtie adoring her neck, and a pink treble chlef as a cutie mark.

The fire-maned stallion didn't know why, but he couldn't stop glaring at her. She resembled some kind of elegance beyond any other mare that Flame got to know that made his brain stop partially working and receiving only the view of the said gray mare.

Suddenly, a memory from not too long ago appeared...

"But, I still believe that somewhere out there, there's a second half for everypony!"

When memory ended, Flame realized its message, but he still wasn't sure if that's the right moment, or, if he had to be honest, is strong enough to make a move. After a fiasco with trying to start a romantic relationship, the blue Pegasus never tried to do it again.

The fire-maned stallion was partially glad that thanks to his journey, he was constantly being occupied with adventures, and thus he didn't need to focus on such things. But now, when fate gives him such opportunity to actually start a friendly relationship with a pony that lovestruck him and then eventually if things would get better evolve into something more, he needs to decide whether try to make friends with her or simply ignore his silly emotions and fly away from it.

Flame felt a wave of nervousness that he recently felt too many times as the thought of approaching the gray mare appeared in his mind. Asking if she knows anything regarding the fact where is his sister might be a good excuse to start a conversation, but...

'Wait, what am I doing? Nervous or not I have to find my sister!' he thought and tried to motivate himself to approach the gray mare. A hope appeared with the thought that maybe he eventually would get not only information about his sister but also a potential relationship with the most beautiful mare he has ever seen. That did the work.

Everything that was going on around him didn't matter as Flame Thrower gulped and begin to fly towards the table where the gray mare was sitting. As he was getting closer to her table, nervousness, that he hoped he got rid of, started to rapidly rise, until...

Unexpectedly, Flame's wings folded as he was so close to the gray mare's table, and with a good impact, he landed flat on the floor. The sound of Flame hitting the floor that everypony felt and heard made the gray mare jump a little bit in her seat and then she moved her eyes on the floor with a worried expression as she noticed there a blue Pegasus. "Oh dear, are you alright?"

The gray mare wanted to jump off her seat and help the blue Pegasus, but Flame, upon noticing her question and realizing the fact that he might just make a fool of himself in front of a mare that he wanted to impress, quickly spiked up onto his four hooves and said, "I'm okay, I'm okay!" he said as he added the last okay when he turned back to other ponies who were staring at him. "Nothing is broken, just move on, ponies!" he said nervously to starring ponies, and they did as the blue Pegasus said.

Flame upon noticing that the staring disaster from all ponies in Sugarcube Corner has been averted, moved back to face the gray mare, but as soon as he did so he lost again his confidence upon seeing her face. "Oh, thanks Celestia. I've thought for a moment that you've broken your wings."

The most delightful accent that he has ever heard, that was what Flame thought when he heard the gray mare directly speaking to him. "N-no! You see–" he unfolded his wings without a problem "–everything is okay!"

"Oh, so that wasn't the reason for you falling on the floor. Coming back, what was the reason then?" As soon as she asked the question she noticed an uncomfortable look on the blue Pegasus face and added. "Of course, you don't need to tell me if you don't want to."

The blue Pegasus shook his head. "No, it's o-okay! I just... uh, I just wanted to ask you a question a-and... got a little bit nervous, to be honest."

Instead of getting scolded or laughed at as Flame years ago received, he got a genuine smile from her as she softly said, "There's no need to worry. I certainly do not bite."

After hearing that, it only boosts his interest in her, as well his confidence... at least enough to make him speak properly. "Okay... so I'm looking for somepony, and more specifically, I'm looking for Rainbow Dash. My friend told me that she was here before, but I got here and she is nowhere to be seen. I asked somepony about it, but they said they have no clue since they arrived shortly before me. And my question is, have you seen her here, or maybe, you know where she might be right now?"

"Uhm, I can confirm that Rainbow Dash was here, but I'm afraid that I don't know where Rainbow Dash might be right now-"

"Oh... t-that's okay, Uhm... so, I'm sorry for interr-"

"You didn't let me finish! I've wanted to say that I do not know where she might be right now, but I recommend you not to ask some random ponies of that, but rather try to ask Pinkie Pie about it. From what I know, she is a close friend of Rainbow Dash,"

"Pinkie...Pie?" As soon as he asked with no idea who was that Pinkie Pie, the gray mare pointed on the pink pony that was walking towards one of the tables from the kitchen with cake on her head, while her tail served as a tray for cupcakes. When the pinkie mare finally reached the table, she lowered her head letting the cake slide down on the table. After the chocolate cake was placed on the table, she moved her tail in an arched way and let the cupcakes slid down on the table as well. The family of yellow Earth pony grinned upon seeing that their sweets finally arrived and soon begin to rapidly consume them on which the pinkie mare giggled and by grabbing the tray with her mane she happily hopped back to the kitchen.

'Okay, first of all, now she appeared? And second thing, how the heck she managed to do that?!' Flame Thrower asked himself in his mind, but quickly he shook his head as he didn't want to start a debate whether what he saw was real or not.

He looked back to the gray mare and with a smile he said. "Okay, I'll give it a try. Thank you, Miss... uh..."

'Seriously, why I have to make this so awkward?!' he begins to scold himself again, but he was stopped once he looked on the gray mare.

Instead of getting angry, she understood that they have just met and didn't even introduce themselves to each other properly. Upon noticing embarrassed blush on the blue Pegasus face, she giggled gently behind her hoof and soon added. "Octavia Melody. And it's nothing, I'm very glad to help."

'Octavia... such beautiful name...' Flame Thrower thought as blush made an appearance on his face.

When Flame spaced out, Octavia used the chance and decided to let the blue Pegasus that she would also like to get to know his name. "Also, you wouldn't mind telling me your name, would you?"

Not expecting that whatsoever, Flame almost fainted. "Of course n-not! My name's Lame Thro- I mean, Flame Thrower!"

Again her gentle giggle made him calm. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Flame Thrower!"

"And it's great to meet you, Octavia... Melody!" the blue Pegasus said.

After a few seconds of nervous smiling and having no idea what else to say he finally managed to speak. "I guess, I'll have to go looking for that Pinkie...Pie and ask her out- I mean, ask her if she knows anything!"

Octavia looked confused at the blue Pegasus for a moment after hearing what he said but adding that he corrected himself she justified it as a simple slip of the tongue. "Oh well, then I certainly don't want to hold you back. I really do hope you will find Rainbow Dash, and that, we will see each other soon!"

"Yeah, exactly! So, uhm, bye!" Flame nodded and waved with the usage of one of his hooves as if he had to move on and start looking for that pink pony, but for some reason, he still stood in the same place.

"Is there anything else you would like to ask?" Octavia asked as she thought their conversation ended, but when a blue stallion didn't move at all, she realized that he has probably something more to say.

'Don't worry, you've got this!' Flame Thrower thought to himself as he sighed.

"Uhm, maybe... what would you sa– *THUMP*" before the blue Pegasus could even formulate his question he got very loudly interrupted by the sudden opening of the door.

Everypony present in Sugarcube Corner looked towards the entrance to see a white unicorn mare that after a few seconds of scanning area as if she was looking for somepony rushed with the piece of paper hold by her teeth towards the table where Octavia sat.

Soon, the white unicorn passed by the blue stallion; basically, making Flame almost fell on the floor due to her speed and strength. Although, when she finally reached the table, she stopped and begin to inhale as she tried to catch a breath.

Flame Thrower meanwhile, had no idea what in the world happened as he slowly balanced himself out of the very dangerous situation that could result in him meeting the painful wooden floor once again. He looked up to notice that the white unicorn actually wear some kind of pink glasses and headphones on her blue-aqua-divided mane as she jumped on the seat next to Octavia.

"What is it, Vinyl? And, please, don't tell me you just rushed all the way here to tell me that electricity went out... again." Octavia rolled her purple eyes upon thinking that her friend has another drama that she would have to take care of.

However, the white mare shook her head as she took the paper with her magic that she carried from her muzzle and placed it before the gray mare.

"What's that?" Octavia asked as she took the paper in her hooves and begin to read. "Canterlot's Royal Orchestra... rehearsal?!"

She couldn't believe that such information appeared with her not knowing anything until now. "It scheduled for tomorrow?! Oh Celestia, I need to prepare!" Octavia put the piece of paper back on the table as she took one of her hooves and placed it on the white unicorn's shoulder. "Thank you, Vinyl! You're such a good friend!"

The white unicorn saluted as in the meaning of 'No problem!'

However, Flame upon seeing what happened, cleared his throat to remind that he is still here.

Octavia looked towards standing Pegasus and with a slightly embarrassed expression said, "Oh, please excuse my roommate's behavior. She is rather... an energetic pony to say the least."

"It's okay," he smiled at Octavia and then moved his head to the white unicorn. As he got closer he straightens his forelimb to greet the white unicorn. "Nice to meet you by the way! Vinyl, am I right?" Vinyl nodded, took his hoof, and shook it.

When they were done with introducing, Octavia was finished drinking her tea as she put it back on the table and jumped off her seat. "Well, it's been nothing but a pleasure to have a conversation with you, but now I have to get back to my home and prepare for tomorrow's rehearsal," she said to the blue Pegasus.

Even though that wasn't good news for the fire-maned stallion, he tried to keep his cool and with a forced smile, he said.
"O-okay! Uhm, then bye! I'm looking forward to meeting you again!"

Octavia giggled once again and said. "You don't need to worry about that. I'm pretty sure that we will get more than one chance to meet, Flame Thrower."

The blue Pegasus smiled after hearing that, and soon as the gray Earth pony noticed the hour on the clock, she quickly trotted towards the door. As she stopped before opening the doors she yelled. "Come on, Vinyl!"

Vinyl looked on the blue Pegasus. When Flame looked back at her the white unicorn as she saluted, put her headphones back, and with a motion of her head to the beat to the music, she quickly galloped towards the exit where her friend waited.

As Octavia opened the door to let the white unicorn exit first, she waved her hoof towards the fire-maned stallion. Flame Thrower didn't hesitate to quickly return the gesture in kind of nervous way. After that, she trotted through the door and close it behind.

When the gray mare and her friend was gone, Flame Thrower realized something that he was supposed to ask. 'Wait... NO! I forgot to ask her if she would like to go out for dinner or something,' he facehoofed himself.

The only chance for having such a unique mare as a friend was gone and he didn't even ask her anything regarding their future meeting. Well... he will have to trust fate. Still, there's a matter of finding his sister. "Anyway, where's that Pinkie Pie?"

"HEY! What do you need my help with??" as soon as he heard the squeaky voice from behind, Flame Thrower bolted into the air with a terrified expression and caught the first thing that got into his hoof, in this case, a chandelier. The blue Pegasus holds himself to the thing as if his life would depend on it, but when he noticed pink pony laughing out loud he realized that is probably Pinkie Pie.

He also noticed –as he was hanging on the chandelier– that all ponies present in the bakery were again looking at him. "Mind your own business, would ya?"

"Maybe stop bringing attention to yourself for more than a minute?!" the white unicorn from the first table that Flame approached yelled.

"Whatever!" He growled and then softly landed on the floor.

As Pinkie eventually calmed down she raised from the floor on which was rolling before and said, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you."

The blue Pegasus took a very embarrassed look on his face as he quickly decided to justify his actions. "You didn't scare me, only... uh, caught me off guard!"

As Flame noticed Pinkie's look that clearly said that she was not buying any of that, he decided to move on. "Anyway, I need to know where's Rainbow Dash and Octavia told me that–"

Before he could finish his sentence, Pinkie put her hoof on his muzzle, silencing him. "Sorry, but can we like... go somewhere else and talk? Everypony's still hearing what you say even if they are not looking."

As Pinkie took her hoof from his muzzle, he said with irritated the whole situation voice, "Fine! Where do you want to talk?"

"Follow me!" the pink pony said as she begins to hop towards the counter which happened to be straight from the entrance.

When they finally reached the counter, Pinkie Pie walked beside, while leaving Flame Thrower before the counter. "Now, we can talk!

The blue Pegasus looked on his left where the room with tables was literally a few steps away, and with hearable sarcasm said. "Well, that makes a heck of a difference..."

He sighed and then decided to just stop caring about that and simply ask. "Okay, so as I said, Octavia told me that you're Rainbow Dash's friend and I need to know where she is. I've got here because another friend of mine said that last time she saw Rainbow Dash, she was here," the fire-maned Pegasus explained.

Pinkie simply chuckled and then took Flame in an embrace with one hoof. Blue pegasus got a little nervous of sudden action and wanted to get away from her embrace as far as it's possible. Too bad, her embrace was too strong to resist. "Everypony is my friend, and Rainbow Dash is my bestest friend! Nice to meet you, by the way!" She broke her embrace and then looked at Flame with a look like she realized something. She put one of her hooves on her chin in thought.

'Oh no, I have a bad feeling about this,' Flame thought.

"Are you..." she gasped and her eyes widen as if she looked like she realized something big. "ARE YOU RAINBOW DASH'S FAN?!" Pinkie Pie shouted and placed her hooves on the table to raise herself above the blue Pegasus. She even got so close that her head was about a few inches from Flame Thrower. If not for him lowering himself, he was more than certain that she would bump him right in the face.

Still, in a lowered position, he looked nervously around to see how many ponies were looking at him right now. Apparently, not the whole bakery was focused on him again. 'Cool, now they don't care.'

Flame let a sigh and then slowly pushed Pinkie back to make her go back behind the counter. "I'm not anypony's fan... and definitely not Rainbow Dash's fan!" he growled and then put one of his hoof on his face and closed eyes. Once he got calmer, he opened his eyes to see widely smiling Pinkie and decided to try again.

"Look, I'm only looking for Dashie. If you know where she is, then great, if not..." He stopped in mid-sentence as the thought of the possibility that Pinkie Pie doesn't know about it either crossed his mind. "Just please, tell me that you saw Rainbow Dash."

"Of course! I think, she was here like an hour or two ago with another friend of mine, Applejack. They were talking about something, then Applejack said that she and her family are going to prepare for Summer Sun Celebration that's coming next week. Oh, I think they will make some of their Apple pies! You should totally taste them, but I'm not sure if you're more into pie's or the cider that will be there as well!" Pinkie happily exclaimed.

"Summer Sun Celebration, huh?" he asked, and as soon as he asked he remembered that there was indeed coming to a big event next week. He got to know about that when he was still in Las Pegasus. It was actually one of the many reasons why other ponies decide to depart as well that day. "Oh yeah. Totally, slipped my mind..."

However, Flame Thrower shooked his head as he reminded himself that there's something far more important. "Anyways do you know where Rainbow Dash is right now?"

"Hmm..." Pinkie put once again a hoof under her chin as she thought. "She said she's gonna help Applejack with repainting the barn."

'Rainbow Dash volunteered to help repaint the barn...? Oh, I have to see that!' he thought as a grin formed on his face.

"Yes! But, wait, where's that barn?" Flame Thrower asked.

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes as if she expected the blue Pegasus to actually know the place. "On Sweet Apple Acres."

Still, it didn't say too much in terms of the location for the fire-maned stallion, so he had to ask again, "Okay, great, but more specifically where's that place?"

The pink pony sighed upon being asked another question, but even though she pointed her hoof towards, what the fire-maned Pegasus thought, west. "It's on the edge of the town and you're a Pegasus. All you have to do is fly high enough in the sky to notice a big old red barn on the horizon. That's the Sweet Apple Acres."

"Thank you so much! Now, she has to be there! Gotta go, bye Pinkie!" he waved and then turned around to make his way directly to the door.

Pinkie waved back and chuckled as he watched the blue Pegasus making his way towards the door. "You're very welcome! I know that you're probably a new pony in the town, but soon enough you will know every corner-"

She stopped herself before letting a bigger gasp than last time. "YOU'RE A NEW PONY IN THE TOWN!" As soon as she stated that out loud, she rushed towards the door to the kitchen behind her, and before the fire-maned Pegasus could realize what happened, she was gone.

However, he could swear that before the pink pony fully disappeared behind the door, he heard her yelling, "MRS. CAKE!!! We got an emergency!"

Flame turned back and made a very confused look on his face. "Okay...? This place is weird."

After saying that, he turned back towards the door, open it, and stepped outside; closing the door behind. He took a good breath to let all the fresh air from the outside to fulfill his lungs and then looked up.

'(...) you're a Pegasus. All you have to do is fly high enough in the sky to notice a big old red barn on the horizon,' Flame repeated Pinkie's words in his mind as decided to give it a try and bolted into the sky.

As he put one of his hooves above his eyes to make a better view, Flame noticed that something that fit Pinkie's description actually appeared on the horizon. Without any more hesitation, he said, "This is it! She has to be there, there's no other option!" And as soon as the blue Pegasus finished the sentence, he burst towards the direction of the barn.

It didn't take too long for the blue Pegasus to flew throughout Ponyville and direct on the offroad path towards the east that got him, after two minutes, to the place he was looking for. He suspended himself above Apple orchard immediately as he noticed it, and soon, begin to look around.

The first thing that took his attention was Apple orchards which stretched far beyond the horizon and surrounded the whole farm. On the ground and next to the entrance, he saw freshly new-planted corns that have just begun to grow and groundwater well placed close to a nicely developed cornfield.

On the opposite side, Flame saw –what he thought– a wooden chicken coop that stands out from other buildings on the farm since most buildings were painted red, but this specific coop was not painted at all. He even noticed some chickens going out of the coop. Also, there were animal pens which half of them was empty and the other half has been occupied by pigs.

Before Flame looked at the barn, his eyes caught sight of an orange building behind the barn that had a barrel-like designed roof and some accents with carrots. The path to said building lead from the farm, but Flame had no idea whatsoever what that building is supposed to do other than having something with carrots as the field with carrots before the building and other carrot-like decorations visually said.

Finally, the blue Pegasus landed with his eyes on the red barn that he was so eager to find. It looked like the barn was inhabited due to the visible curtains in the windows and flowers on the windows sills. Also, the roof had a typical barn-designed metallic look, but with a small tower and few vertical roof windows.

He also noticed that the barn had a big wooden door in front of the building, but he assumed that the actual entrance had to be that smaller extension on the right side where a smaller path from the main path leads to.

Before deciding to make another move, Flame looked up to notice a wind direction indicator with a big red apple on top of it. "Okay, it has to be that barn that Pinkie was talking about," he looked down to see if anypony appeared near the farm, but found no one.

"Although, I think it's the only farm in the area," the blue Pegasus looked around, again nothing caught his eyes that could be taken for a farm that he had to find. "Nah, it has to be that one!"

With more confidence knowing that this for sure has to be the location he was looking for, he finally stated, "Alright, let's see if my sister is there-" Flame noticed something was off and as the realization finally comes in, he facehoofed himself. "Why am I talkin' to myself? Ugh... this whole looking for Dashie thing is making me go crazy!" he sighed and after doing so he landed on the ground with all of his four hooves with good impact leaving his mane colors behind. Flame looked on the arched entrance with apple to the farm and saw letters 'Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres!' that finally destroyed any pieces of uncertainty that still remained.

While entering the farm, Flame decided that instead of approaching the door, he can just simply look around, and maybe his sister will eventually show up. After all, Pinkie said that Rainbow Dash was helping her friend with repainting the barn. Although the barn looked fine from the front and side, the fire-maned stallion assumed that they probably finished those parts (due to him noticing that paint didn't dry enough thanks to the color) and moved on behind the barn. So. he had a place where he should look first.

Without wasting any more of his time, Flame decided to head towards the path and then turn behind the barn. But before he could make a few steps, on his path appeared a yellow filly with red mane, orange eyes, and magenta bowtie adoring her mane.

Surprisingly, he didn't notice her before, when he was looking if anypony is around. After thinking about this whole thing a little bit more, Flame realized that he acts as if he was planning to break into the barn and steal something. "Uhm... Howdy, stranger! What's bringin' you to Sweet Apple Acres farm?" the yellow filly finally bring Flame's focus to reality.

As Flame looked down, he quickly answered. "Uh... well, I'm looking for Dashie. I heard she was helping her friend over here."

"Dashie?" the yellow filly asked not very sure why that nickname sound very similar until she finally realized. "Oh, ya mean Rainbow Dash? Sure, she is with mah sister. Rainbow Dash is helping her with paintin' our good ol' barn," she turned back and looked in the barn's direction.

"They probably start paintin' the last wall," she scratched back of her head with one hoof as she returned her look back to the blue Pegasus. "So, if you wanna talk to her, go behind the barn and then you should catch 'em."

"Okay, thanks for the info," Flame Thrower nodded to the yellow filly in exchange for a little –but still– help, which the yellow filly returned.

"No problem, stranger," she said. "By the way, the name's Apple Bloom. It's nice to meet ya!" the yellow filly stretched out her hoof towards Flame which the blue Pegasus took. To his surprise, the yellow filly shook their hooves stronger than he expected, and before he knew, his foreleg was swinging up and down in rapid motion.

As the yellow filly finally released his hoof, he looked at it as the hoof begin to slightly hurt. 'Okay, apparently all Apple family folks have a lot of strength.'

"Don't need to call me stranger. Also, nice to meet you, Apple Bloom! I'm Flame Thrower, and as you probably have noticed, you're talking to the best Pegasus that Equestria has to offer!" Flame Thrower always had this thing to impress everypony with his talents, but when it comes to foals, it's almost his duty to inspire a younger generation. That's why he decided to mention that he's the best, which may or may not be true.

Again, to much of his surprise, the yellow filly, instead of looking impressed, chuckled. "Ya for a sure sound like Rainbow Dash! Are ya her fan or somethin'?"

"Seriously, you too?" he facehoofed himself once again. He didn't know why blue coat nowadays meant that you're Rainbow's fan, but he couldn't care less.

"Haha, Ah'm just messin' with ya!" Apple Bloom said as she chuckled once again. "Anyway, Ah have to help mah grandm–"

Before the yellow filly could finish her sentence, a loud shout came from the door as the green elderly looking mare with white mane and orange eyes appeared standing in the frame behind the yellow filly. "Apple Bloom! On mah apple pies, where did that filly–" she looked around and when she noticed Apple Bloom talking to somepony she said. "There ya are! Stop talkin' with that fella and help me gettin' these" –she took in her muzzle one of the boxes and throw it outside– "old boxes off the attic. We need them all outside before sunset for Big Mac to collect and take 'em to Ponyville."

"Ugh, grandma why do we have to clean up the attic today?" the yellow filly looked behind and then back to the blue Pegasus. "Ah'm sorry, but Ah gotta help my grandma."

"No problem at all, it was nice to meet you," Flame said. Apple Bloom smiled and trotted towards the door where her grandma stood and soon disappeared as she entered the house.

Meanwhile, the elder pony looked back on blue Pegasus and asked. "Are ya lookin' for somepony? Or maybe ya are one of those fellas who try stealin' our apple cider, hmm? Better start runnin' or else–" Flame Thrower had no idea what the elderly looking mare was talking about, but good that Apple Bloom eventually came back when she heard her grandma's yell and told the green mare that Flame is only looking for Rainbow Dash. "Hmm... okay, but stay away from our supplies! Got it?"

Flame scratched the back of his head confused as ever. "Uh, okay..."

The elder pony smiled. "Good pony," she said, closing the door with a loud slam.

The blue Pegasus upon seeing that pony is gone sighed with relief as the whole scene finally ended. 'Note to myself – don't even dare to piss off Apples,' he thought.

Flame shook his head, and without any further hesitation, started walking straight ahead. However, after few steps, the blue Pegasus decided to give some thoughts about what elder mare said before. He knew how apple cider is important for Ponyville and the Apple family's business, but he didn't know that they protect their supplies that much. Flame also remembers how his father used to say that cider from the Apple family is the best drink that ever got a chance to exist.

Unfortunately for Flame, his father never really showed him where is exactly the place of creation of such tasteful drink. But now, when he was in the place; looking at the barn and nearby surroundings, he could swear that he felt for a second nature and all the hard work done by family members to provide what's the best from their apple orchards.

Just then, the blue Pegasus start hearing some voices of conversation from afar. Flame didn't even notice, while he was again taken by his thoughts, that he trotted the distance from the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres and was very close to the end of the barn. As the distance between him and the end of the red wall of the barn didn't exist anymore, he decided to take a peek from behind the wall on, what he thought, source of earlier heard voices and...

"There she is!" Flame Thrower said quietly to himself, but visible excitement on his face. He couldn't help but form a little tear (that he quickly swiped from his eyes) when he finally, after talking to several ponies and flying from one place to another, found his sister.

A big grin appeared on his face as he now noticed how much his sister changed while he was gone. She wasn't Flame's little sister anymore, but her most recognizable part - messy rainbow-colored mane, was still visible. Although, he had to admit. Even if her mane got a little bit longer, it was for sure more cleaned up than when she was a filly.

But, to much of his surprise, Flame didn't think his plan through... again. 'Wait, how am I gonna approach her? It's not like I can just randomly show up after so many years! Ugh, I knew I should send her a letter too,' he thought as he facehoofed himself.

The blue Pegasus didn't want this reunion to be so casual, after all, they didn't see each other for five years. He demanded from himself to make this something a way more fun and memorable.

As thinking out the plan took few seconds, Flame finally got an idea as an even bigger grin appeared on his face.

Meanwhile on the opposite side...

"Couldn't you just paint the whole wall from the bottom to the top? That way it would be a lot easier!" Rainbow Dash was arguing over a good amount of minutes with her friend, because of how slowly the orange Earth pony was doing her job of painting the bottom of the wall.

The orange pony with a stetson hat rolled her eyes and put the pencil from her muzzle back into the bucket with red paint. "Ahem... no wings, Earth pony?" she pointed the obvious. "How Ah'm supposed to paint from the bottom to the top if Ah can't even reach the top?!"

Rainbow Pegasus suspended herself in the air and blew a raspberry upon hearing what her friend said. "Then get yourself a ladder or something! It'll be ten times faster than painting the whole wall all by myself!"

"Rainbow, it's not always about bein' the fastest," she facehoofed herself and soon added. "Besides ya ain't even paintin' the whole wall!"

"Whatever! But still, I think-", Rainbow Dash didn't get a chance to end her sentence, while she and her friend heard like if something quickly cut through the air before they could even see what that was.

"Did you hear that?" Rainbow Dash asked as both ponies begin to look around. After scanning the whole area, Rainbow Dash saw nothing that could be taken as the source of what they heard before. However, the earth pony with a stetson hat decided to look up, and, to much of her surprise, she noticed a blue Pegasus who was slowly flying behind her cyan friend.

When the fire-maned stallion suspended himself behind Rainbow Dash, he took one of his hooves and put on his muzzle. "Shhh..." he visualized to the Earth pony, while Rainbow Dash shrugged and looked back on her friend. "Nah, it was probably nothing."

The cyan mare however noticed the confused look on her friend's face and asked. "What?" Her friend didn't reply, but instead, she gestured with her hoof to look behind her. Rainbow Dash sighed as she thought that it was probably her friend trying to make fun of her. To much of her surprise, instead of seeing nothing, she met with the yellow eyes of the blue Pegasus. "Boo."

"AAAA!" Rainbow Dash yelped, and after doing so, landed with her back straight on the ground.

When the cyan mare slowly begins to look once again, she noticed that both the Pegasus and her orange friend were laughing out loud. "Yeah, very funny, Flame... I– wait!" she raised from the ground and looked up again, but this time she looked like she couldn't believe it. "Flame?!"

"Haha, did you miss me, sis–" Before he could finish his sentence, his sister flew directly into him as she embraced her brother into a hug. Flame Thrower however got taken back a little due to the force with such his sister flew into him, but quickly returned the hug. "I see that now we don't mind hugs," he added with a smirk.

"Oh, shut up," Rainbow Dash said with a smile while she slowly breaks the hug, but still kept each other close. "I've more than some right to do so after not seeing each other for a few years, bro."

"Uh, great to see ya both so happy and hate to break it, but... who in the hay are ya?" the orange pony asked as both Rainbow Dash and Flame Thrower looked back on Dashie's friend.

"Oh, right..." Rainbow smiled nervously and then added. "Applejack, this is my big bro... Flame Thrower!"

"On sweet apples! Ya never mentioned before that ya have a brother!" Applejack stated while being a little bit confused with the fact that her friend has a brother, but she smiled and decided to greet him anyway. "Nice to meet ya, pardner!"

Upon noticing first Applejack's confusion that now was replaced with a smile, Flame said. "Don't worry, I didn't know either that Dashie has a brother... Nice to meet you too, Applejack!" As he looked at his sister, Rainbow Dash gave him not very amused glance. "What? As far as I know, you never shared with anypony about my existence."

Rainbow Dash sighed upon realizing that her brother was right. "I know, but when Pegasi in Cloudsdale was talkin' about you so much, I just simply wanted to avoid any conversations about you. You have no idea how long they could talk about how much time it will take you to get back and such stuff!"

"Oh, you mean my moment of fame that I didn't even know about..." Flame said as he and Rainbow Dash landed before Applejack.

"Somepony told you about it?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yeah, Cloud Chaser said... thanks for letting me know by the way," he turned his head away from his sister and looked straight ahead.

"Ugh, sorry okay? I just wanted to talk with you about so much, but whenever we got with the family to write a letter to you, I had no idea what to write!"

"I know, I know..." Flame sighed as he looked once again at his sister, then he shook his head and added with much more enthusiasm. "Anyway, instead of sad faces, we should be happy, because Super Siblings are once again united!"

Applejack again, being not privy to what both Pegasi was talking about, asked "...Super what?"

Rainbow Dash slightly chuckled before saying, "It's just how we named ourselves back when I was still a filly and when Flame was helping me with the practice."

"And I still hold my opinion that I'm a better coach than that Rainbow Blaze dude," Flame added upon which his cyan sister rolled her eyes, but kept a smile on her face.

Just then Applejack looked at the sky behind both Pegasi. The sun was slowly disappearing behind the horizon as the sky took more orangeish color. The reflection of the sun's rays created an amazing image that both Pegasi and Earth pony could share together. All of them were in awe upon seeing such beautiful background. "Wow, look at this sunset... surely looks so beautiful," Applejack said. While she begins to look on the opposite side for a better view, she noticed a big red stallion with an attached wooden cart, who apparently waited for either her younger sister or her grandmother to pack more boxes. "Howdy, Big Mac! Let me help ya with that boxes," Applejack however decided to help her brother herself and trotted from both Pegasi towards the pile of boxes.

Flame only looked back on the red stallion, and after seeing him up-close, he finally realized who that is. Also, when Applejack mentioned that it is Big Mac he was one hundred percent sure that it is indeed his old –and only– friend from Ponyville. Apparently, the red stallion noticed him and probably also didn't have a problem with recognizing his old friend as he looked back and wave with one of his hooves towards Flame.

The fire-maned Pegasus waved back, and with a smile, he turned back to his sister as another realization crossed his mind. "Hey, Dashie?"

"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash asked without taking her eyes from the slowly hiding sun.

"Could I..." –Flame Thrower scratched the back of his head nervously as he wasn't very sure if his sister will accept him. Well, there was always an option to live with parents.– "y'know, stay at your home before I get a job?"

It took a second for the cyan Pegasus to reply, but it was probably due to the fact that somehow she really liked the view of the few last moments of the sun, before the moon with all mighty-looking stars from Princess Luna will take control. "Of course! But better be prepared, because you're so tellin' me what happened on your trip."

Flame chuckled, probably due to the fact how many ponies would like to hear about him talking all day about his journey. "Deal! And you are gonna tell me what happened when I was gone." The cyan mare turned her head towards her brother and nodded. After doing so, they both slowly looked back on the horizon when the sun was nowhere to be seen as the sky from behind become darker and some stars begin to flare on the –soon to become– night sky.

After five years, they finally have their sibling reunion...

Author's Note

Finally, the second chapter is done! :pinkiehappy:

I really do hope that you like the story so far! I tried my best to turn my ideas into words, and at the same time, I try to practice writing more and more (to be 100% sure that what I'm writing is enjoyable for anyone and not only me.) Plus! I really like this story and I'm overwhelmed with the ideas for the future chapters! I can't wait to start writing the third chapter and let me tell you, oh boy, things will go down the hill in the third chapter!

If you have any questions or want to share your opinion – don't forget to leave a comment with a solid feedback! ...Let me know if I messed up anything. :derpytongue2:

Thank you for reading, until next time! :twilightsmile:

Chapter 1 - Home, Sweet Home.

When a blue Pegasus saw the precious land below the sky, it almost overwhelmed him by the number of memories to the point that he would stop somewhere and give in to the old memories. However, that was not a priority.

Years ago, Flame Thrower flew above the same lands, but back then, his main goal was to visit as many places as he could to learn and become the best Pegasus that Equestria has to offer. Now all he wanted is to get back to his home, to his family...

Young pegasus visited many places, meet many new ponies, and learn a lot throughout the years. Flame Thrower thought of himself as nothing more than an average pegasus who is the same as all the others, but deep inside, he felt that he could be better. That's why he left in the first place, leaving behind his parents, sister, and friends.

The blue Pegasus is returning after a good amount of years with priceless experience and confidence. Flame Thrower is more than an average pegasus who can control the weather, his adventures and friends that he made on the travel proven to him that it's true, and no matter what, you should never give up on your dreams. With that knowledge, he could finally get back to his family, establish himself, find a job, buy a house, and live every stallion's dream. That was his plan.

Flame Thrower begins to notice fields with yellow wheat below him. He almost immediately recognized that it was a part of the town called Greenfield Hoof. This particular town happened to be northwest of the place where his family lives. Only two and half hours of flying from Greenfield Hoof and then Flame would finally reach his destination. Unfortunately, he had already been flying for a few good hours since his departure in Las Pegasus. He didn't want to cross his limit of the number of hours spent flying and risk injury of one of his wings, so a few minutes of break sound good.

Once, fire-maned stallion noticed the main center of the town, he quickly went off his direct course and began to fly very fast towards the ground. Flame Thrower corrected his position in the last second and land perfectly on four hooves. Air picked up a little bit of dust due to his spectacular landing but quickly began fading.

Greenfield Hoof wasn't a very known place. The whole town was an average size, with Town Hall standing in the center. Surrounded by homes, restaurants, and shops were giving away a look of rather a young town that just started developing but had that old school feeling. The town's inhabitants consisted of pegasi, earth ponies, and some unicorns. It seemed that everypony lived there in harmony and were knowing each other.

What was more interesting in the town's structure was the number of parks and places to relax or enjoy nature. Also, far beyond the main center were plenty of farms on which Greenfield Hoof made money.

Flame Thrower lifted his head to scan the nearby area to find a shop – or perhaps – a bar where he could buy some water to relieve his needs.

While his wings folded, he noticed a little bit of dust on his mane that he quickly shook it off.

"My neat perfect mane always gets worse after landing," Flame Thrower groaned.

After giving up on the idea of fully researching his divided in red, orange, and yellow mane in any sights of dust, he sighed and said, 'Whatever' to himself.

He looked around and noticed Pomelo Pie's Bar sign. While the blue Pegasus was walking towards the entrance, his eyes caught some of the ponies that were staring at him.

"Probs they can't bear my awesomness," he finished his sentence with slight chuckle.

Just the way my sister would say, he thought.

Before he knew, his mind drifted to questions related to his arrival. How much changed? is his sister still the same narcissistic pegasus as he is? Do his friends still remember him? And most important. How, his parents will react to his sudden arrival?

Anyway, these questions will have to wait, because he reached the entrance. Flame Thrower opened the door with the usage of his hoof and, after stepping in, closed.

The blue Pegasus saw some ponies sitting at the tables and bar. Just by looking at some of them, you could tell they were having a pretty good time. Flame Thrower decided to get for what he had come. There's no point in standing there, so he sat down at the bar next to the brown earth pony. Soon enough, a white unicorn with a brown mane, mustache, and blue eyes arrived.

"Hello! What can I get for you?" Flame Thrower noticed the question and replied, "Just glass of fresh water."

The white unicorn nodded and turned back to get with his magic a glass from the shelf. He used his magic to levitated the bottle with the text Crystal Water written on it. After filling the whole glass with water, he placed it next to the blue Pegasus.

"If you would like more water or maybe to try something else, then don't hesitate to call me," the bartender said. Basing on his rebellious appearance, he assumed that Flame is probably one of the ponies that will stay way longer than usual.

Not trying to waste any more of his time, bartender decided to take care of other things. But, before he could move on, the blue Pegasus said, "Alright, but I don't think this will be necessary."

He quickly drunk half of the glass of water before the white unicorn could say anything and, with a sigh, placed it back in its place. "It's really all I need right now."

Refreshing taste of the water surely helped to recharge his energy. Even though, he flew for a few hours straight, a little bit of water is all what he needed. Flame Thrower at this point was practicaly trained in long hour trips with little of water and any other important supplies.

Bartender nodded as he looked at the fire-maned pegasus, who was tasting the water as it was his last. He moved on to other things, leaving water-tasting stallion behind. Flame Thrower took another sip of water.

"Wow. I didn't even know, I'm that thirsty," he sighed and said to particulary no one within easy reach.

To his surprise, somepony heard his mumbling.

"Flame? Is that you?" A familiar voice hit him from the behind. He turned back to notice a dark gray coat, amber eyes, and a turquoise-white mane Pegasus with a dark cloud and yellow bolt coming out of it as a cutie mark.

"Thunderlane! What's up?" Flame said with excitement once he realized to who that voice belongs.

Thunderlane sat next to him. He looked very much surprised as well to see his old friend. "I don't believe what I see... It's really you!"

The dark gray pegasus straightened his forelimb towards Flame to greet his old friend in their special brohoof. "Welcome back, Flame Thrower! How many years it was? Two? Three?" He still couldn't get how to hay he found his friend in some random bar in Greenfield Hoof after many years.

"I honestly lost track, dude," Flame chuckled and added. "Anyway, it's really cool to see you after all of these years, bro!"

"Me too, but what a pity that Compass Star had to return to Cloudsdale with Cloud Chaser yesterday. I bet they both would be happy to see you again."

"Wait, Star and Chaser were here too?! Aw, shucks. But I'm heading to Cloudsdale too, so I guess I'll have a chance to meet them anyway."

"Oh, you're back permamently, or only to just get some of your comics?" Thunderlane asked while raising an eyebrow.

Flame Thrower sighed and looked down on the table before him to avoid any eye contact with his friend. "For now, all I want is to get back to my family. What next, well... we will see."

The blue Pegasus looked up, as if he was summoning old memories and slight smile appeared on his face. "Do you remember what I said all these years ago?"

Thunderlane wasn't sure what exactly his friend had in mind. But before he could say anything, Flame Thrower looked directly at his friend, "I'm coming back once I prove that I'm more than a Pegasus pony with blank flank whose destination is to work at the weather factory through his entire life and guess what, I did it."

"You did? But, how do you know that?"

Flame visibly rolled his eyes and then said with chuckle, "You're telling me, that you really didn't notice?"

The gray Pegasus made a confused on his face, so Flame Thrower was more than sure that his friend didn't notice the biggest change.

"Well, do you remember how eager we were to get our cutie marks?" Thunderlane wasn't sure where the blue pegasus was heading with this question. But he did remember all those times when he, Flame Thrower, and occasionally Compass Star and Cloud Chaser were trying everything to gain their cutie marks. All those failed attempts at figuring out what is their special talent, and when at the end everypony got their cutie mark and how happy they were, because of it. Well everypony, but Flame Thrower. That's one of the reasons blue pegasus left.

At the point where all of his friends got to know their special talent, Thunderlane saw that Flame Thrower felt left out. They even had a conversation about it where the blue Pegasus admitted that his special talent is still unknown to him. That made him sad. School bullies were always trying to remind him about this fact. Even though his friends tried their best to help and protect blue pegasus, he couldn't stand being the weaker one. After that, he became more "look, how amazing I'm!" type of pony to hide his problems. The part that probably his sister took over. Soon the whole idea of the trip was born, and when Thunderlane noticed, it was too late to change his mind. Years flew by, and he hasn't heard from his friend for a long time, until now.

Everything fit perfectly into the puzzle, and Thunderlane finally realized it. The gray pegasus slapped himself mentally and looked down to notice, for the first time, a cutie mark on Flame's flank. He saw a symbol of a red bolt, with its top made into something that resembled fire. It was divide into the same three colors as Flame's mane – red, orange, and yellow.

"You really did it..." Thunderlane said, slowly lowering the tone of his voice. He looked on the floor, locked his eyes on it for a few seconds for the message to get through him. Then, with much more energy, he looked up at Flame's face and widely smiled.

"Flame, you freakin' did it!!" As soon as Thunderlane said that, he threw himself forward to embrace the blue pegasus in a hug.

Flame Thrower chuckled and patted his friend on the back, "Yeah, I did it."

Thunderlane slowly broke the hug with a still visible smile on the face and slowly sat back in his place.

"It's great to see you like that! You've finally found your special talent, and on top of that" – the gray pegasus pointed on his flame-bolt looking cutie mark – "your cutie mark looks freakin' awesome!"

Flame Thrower chuckled upon hearing Thunderlane's compliment about his cutie mark. Anyway, he agreed with his friend.

"Thanks! After what I've gotten through, I think that this trip was the best decision I've made in my life. Yeah, it came with some sacrifices, such as being far away from home and family. Also, being not able to see how my sister is growing up stink too. But in the end, it made me a better person. Well... more amazing than I already was," Thunderlane chuckled at the last sentence that reminds him of Flame's character. Even though, he knew that this was supposed to be a joke.

"Okay, okay flame-colt. Care to share how did you gain your cutie mark?" Thunderlane replied in the same teasing tone.

"Well" – Flame Thrower turned his whole body to directly look at Thunderlane and sighed – "it wasn't anything easy or even very heroic, but I did save a village." Flame Thrower ran one of his hoof through his mane to give away a look of brave stallion to only make his friend look like he heard a good dose of joke.

"Then tell me about it! I can't wait to hear how it happened," Thunderlane said. He looked impatient and eager to hear the story that finally let his friend to discover his special talent.

"Alright, alright. Lemme start from the beginning..."

Back to few months ago.

"Thank you so much for your priceless help, Flame Thrower!" the cream Earth pony mare with a yellow mane and two shovels cutie mark happily exclaimed, as her friend put the last box full of vegetables on top of the pyramid of boxes with the usage of his wings.

The fire-maned Pegasus flew to his friend that stood next to the pyramid and admired the whole work that Flame has done. "Don't sweat about it, Sally. Besides, that's the least I can do for giving me a place to stay through the storm back then."

Sally Saddle rolled her green eyes but still kept a smile on her face, "It was two years ago, and I already said that I would never let anypony stay outside when such a terrifying storm was about to come."

Flame Thrower sighed and decided to sit. While doing so, the fire-maned Pegasus reached with his hoof to wipe the sweat on his forehead that appeared when he picked up boxes with vegetables, "But still, you let me stay for a little bit longer."

"If two years means a little bit longer, then yeah, I guess I did let you stay for a little bit longer," Sally Saddle couldn't help but chuckle upon realizing how times quickly flew by. It felt like yesterday when she saw a blue Pegasus that looked like he had gone through quite some adventures for the first time. When she offered him help and a place to hide before the storm, she also asked what is he doing here. She remembers that Flame Thrower only said, 'I don't know,' and pointed on his blank flank to finish his sentence with, 'but I'm gonna figure it out.'

She wasn't sure what that meant back then. Over time they become good friends, and Flame Thrower decided to share his story and his goals. She felt so bad for him. Being a young stallion and still didn't get a cutie mark, was surely a depressing matter for her friend. At the same time, she thought if it's really possible a for pony to doesn't have a cutie ma–

"Sally...? Sally? SALLY!" she jumped back in a sudden shout that throws her out of her thoughts.

She shook her head to focus on what her friend was saying, "Wha– What?"

"You seem like you zoomed out for a second, is everything okay?" Flame Thrower asked in suspicion upon what conquered mind of rather always focused mare.

"Yeah, I was just–" Sally Saddle took one of her hoof and scratched back of her head "–thinking about something, I guess."

She quickly waved her hoof dismissively, "Nothing Important."

"Okay...?" Flame's suspicion alert was now at its highest level, but even though he didn't want to push the matter, so soon he decided to move on.

"Anyway, I started thinking about going bac– wait, what's that smell?"

Suddenly Flame's smell sense picked up a rather strong smell, which wasn't pleasant for sure. As much as Flame Thrower didn't want to, he sniffed more of that weird smell to know from where it's coming.

The blue pegasus got up on his hooves and driven by the smell, he walked towards the main road from Sally's house. Cream Earth pony decided to follow her friend, and soon she picked up some ideas about the smell source.

"It smells like a burning oak and..."

"Wheat?" as soon as he added they reached the front yard. When they looked from behind the bushes to get a better look at the village, they saw a view that froze the blood in their veins.

Upon their own eyes, they saw that nearby forest caught on fire and it started rapidly spreading through the wheat fields towards the village. Their eyes widen as they heard screams and panic. Some of the ponies tried to stop the raging flames; others tried to protect their families and run as far from the fire as it's possible. Before they knew, forest that was surrounding the village got completely lost in flames. Some Pegasi decided to use their magic to push the clouds with water over the fire. Unfortunately, that didn't help as well. Fire was too strong and was spreading too quickly.

Flame Thrower decided to look around if there was any way to escape the village before the fire reaches the first houses. To much of his fear, he found that the whole village was right in the middle of the burning forest.

"Who builds a village in the middle of the forest?!" Flame screamed at the stupidity of the pony who decided to build this village.

And soon he started to scream at himself, "Why I didn't even notice that?!"

Meanwhile, his friend froze for a few seconds with eyes locked on the flames coming out of the forest. She threw herself at his friend and grasped his head with her hooves to her level, "Flame, you have to do something!"

"Me? Wha– What can I possibly do? My weather controlling ability is useless. You saw those pegasi who tried to send the water from the clouds and it didn't work!" Smoke from the forest and nearby fields reached the village. The gray smoke thickened the air. Breathing with every breath become more and more difficult.

"I don't *cough* know! But, Flame, for crying out loud, your name is literally Flame Thrower! *cough* You always looked for the chance to gain your cutie mark, now it's one of them!" Flame Thrower quickly think over every single word from his friend until he realized.

Some magical spark appeared in his eye for a second, and his mind finally pieced that all his adventures and every single decision that he made guided him to this exact moment.

"Please say, you know what to do! Please, I don't want to leave my home and all of this ponies on their own!" Some tears leaked from her eyes.

" *sniff* Please..." she looked directly into his eyes in any sight of hope.

Instead of telling her, Flame Thrower gently took her hooves away from his face. He spread his wings and with look that says that he knows what to do burst into the air.

She decided to wipe her tears and look around. First wave of flames entered the village from the back, catching two houses on fire. Sally Saddle noticed some ponies that were trying to organize themselves somehow in a safe enough place away from the buildings, but other ponies were still running around in panic. Ponies from the organized group tried to do something, but others didn't want to listen because of how scared they were. One of the runners was now directly running at her, on which Sally stepped back and straighten her forelimb on which the running stallion crashed and fell to the ground.

"W-what? What are you doing?! There's fire a-and–" she grasped stallion by his coat before he could mumble another sentence. "What are you doing?! *cough* Running around in panic will only make the whole situation even worse!"

Sally Saddle let go of stallion and pointed on the group of ponies behind him. "There's some group of organized *cough* ponies" – stallion looked behind and, after he noticed the group, looked back on the cream mare – "go there and hide!" He nodded, and without wasting any time, galloped towards the group.

Sally Saddle knew that there's many more panicking ponies, so she decided to try her best and somehow convinced them to join the organized ponies.

Meanwhile, Flame Thrower was above the smoke that wrapped the whole village. He tried everything, from making simple clouds with rain to trying to summon a storm, but nothing worked – hay, he knew that clouds wouldn't make a difference because other pegasi tried. Speaking of, where are they?

Flame looked around and saw that he's alone and pegasi were gone. They probably took their families, and what's the most important for them and simply decided to fly away. The fire-maned pegasus kicked the nearby cloud in frustration, making it disappear. He didn't know how much time left before fire will take over the whole village, but certainly not much.

"Come on, come on, COME ON! What possibly could save this village?" he closed his eyes and tried his best to think of every possible option. Every single theory about pegasus magic he learned at school. Everything...

He didn't know. He really tried his best, but– Hey, Flame! You remember this fire-tornado trick or whatever this thing is called?

He quickly opened his eyes and noticed that no one was around. His eyes widen once he realized that voice sound exactly like his sister. Flame Thrower decided to close his eyes once again and focus. Another shot of random memory appeared, but this time the blue pegasus didn't open his eyes.

Yeah, it's possible when you're doing laps around the small area with a certain speed.

But what's the difference between that, and normal tornado? the cyan filly asked.

Well, from what I know, fire-tornado can pull into its structure any element of nature. So, technically it's not only fire-tornado but water-tornado, earth-tornado and air-tornado as well, the blue pegasus explained.

She took the confused look on her face. Wait, you said into its structure, but when water is transported to Cloudsdale through a big tornado, it's inside the tornado, not making the tornado.

Because that's the difference. Fire-tornado is a part of pegasus magic, and it takes a lot longer to learn and be able to make even a small tornado. You have to master making a normal tornado with other pegasi, then you can try to make a fire-tornado or water-tornado by yourself. Even though, I think that every pegasus that masters the skill of making the tornado can make and control only one type of the tornado.

Flame suddenly opened his eyes as the memory ended.

"Fire..." he looked down. Smoke and flames still didn't want to give up on their occupation.

"Tornado," he looked up and flew higher in the sky to see how really big is the area.

The back of the forest disappeared long ago. Only the middle was still in flames. Somehow it took longer for the fire to spread through the village, so there is still a chance.

"I really hope this gonna work," he bursted towards the vilalge and begin to make laps at his finest speed. His mane's color that followed him was all that could've been seen.

Back to the ground, Sally Saddle and some other ponies finally succeeded in gathering the whole village in one place. But wherever they looked, they saw a fire.

"I-Is that's how it's going to end?" one of the ponies asked.

"No! My friend, Flame, will save us! Just don't panic and soon everything will be fine," Sally Saddle said, while she tried to calm everypony before panic takes over once again.

"*cough* You really believe in that?" asked a gray Earth pony mare with blue mane, eyes and pile of scrolls as a cutie mark.

"What?" Sally asked once again.

"Your friend, Flame, how ironically. Probably left you too like other Pegasi did!"

"No! *cough* He would never leave us in such situat–" Mare interrupted and got closer to Sally with very angry look on the face, "Face it! If that was true what you say he probably would be here with us, trying to help at least!"

"But he's trying–" mare interrupted Sally's explanation again with shouting, "No! I don't want to hear about it. Not, before–"

"Excuse me, miss. Rule Batch. *cough* But, I think that getting angry at each other is the last thing we should do right now." Upon hearing a new voice, mare angrily turned back to face the pony who said it. Once she turned, she saw a taller and athletic green unicorn with chess as a cutie mark.

"Chess Titan? Oh, great, now I'm stuck with you, too," she put one of her hooves between her eyes, closed them, and sat back on the ground.

As soon as she did that, whole crowd felt and saw that fire wildly reacted to the wind, which weirdly begin to accelerate. Everypony looked confused, and some of them even gasped upon seeing that smoke is rising. Even Rule Batch decided to open her eyes and look at the whole scenery with a confused and worried look on the face. Soon whole fire started to rise and they saw above them a gigantic size tornado that was pulling all smoke and fire into its structure.

"What the hay is that?" somepony from the crowd asked.

"That's" – Sally Saddle looked behind to the pony who asked the question – "Flame Thrower."

Meanwhile in the sky, Flame Thrower didn't care how much energy took the whole tornado from him. He gave his finest speed to control the tornado as long as it pulls all fire from the ground.

Suddenly at his eighth lap, he felt that his wings are slowly giving up due to the amount of the speed.

"Come on! I can do this!" Flame Thrower tried to motivate himself even more.

"I have to keep–" The powerful implosion of the tornado's structure is all they saw. The whole fire just disappeared and shock waves burst in every direction of the world.

Some of the ponies had to close their eyes, otherwise, the light coming from it would blind them. Soon, they slowly opened their eyes and decided to look around. Fire and smoke disappeared, the air was warmer than usual, but the worst is no more. Some houses burned to the ground, but quite some of them survived.

When they realized that danger is no more, all ponies burst into a laugh and started randomly hugging each other as they were old buddies. Some fillies and colts begin to jump around with smiles on their faces. Overall, everypony was happy that they survived.

Sally Saddle sighed in relief, but then she reminded herself who was in charge of now gone tornado. She become worried and decided to scan the nearby area in the sight of her friend. He had to be somewhere. When all ponies left their spot and began investigating the whole village, Sally Saddle decided to search for her friend. Once she passed by one of the burned houses, she noticed something buried into the ground. Soon she noticed that this object has a mane and–

"FLAME!!" Sally Saddle yelled and galloped as fast as she can to her buried face to the ground friend. She sat next to him and put one of her hooves to his head.

"Flame..." she said softly with tears in her eyes.

Sally Saddle assumed the worst and looked down in pure depression. She couldn't control herself anymore and tears begin to falling down her face. She cried at her friend's body. Sally still wanted to believe that anytime soon he would wake up and everything will be fine, but after a few seconds without any sign of him waking up, she decided to check his breathing and heartbeat. Worried that her friend might be in even worst condition she started yelling, "HELP! somepony ple–"

To her surprise, she heard first cough coming from her friend. She looked down, and after a second, another cough left her friend's mouth.

" *cough* Aw, my head," Flame scratched back of his head as he slowly turned on his back.

"Flame! Oh, I w-was so worried!" Sally Saddle quickly looked on Flame's face and then embraced him in hug, while sobbing in his shoulder.

"Wow, what did I missed?" he said with wide smile as he returned the hug and patted his friend on the back to calm her down.

After a minute they break the hug. Slowly Sally Saddle backed off, still looking with smile and tears on Flame's face.

"Well, let's better get up. It's not that comfy lying half into the ground," he smirked on which Sally chuckled.

She got up on her hooves and offered her hoof to Flame Thrower, which he took and slowly rised from the ground.

"You really did it, Flame! You saved us, I knew I could count on you!" she couldn't stop smiling.

"Honestly, I can't believe that worked, and before you ask, I have no freakin' idea what I did or how I even survive that without a scrat–" as soon as he said that, he felt a painful stab in his back. "Ouch."

She looked with worried look at her friend and decided to ask, but Flame Thrower replied before she had a chance, "I-I'm fine."

Ignoring his words, Sally decided to inspect her friend in case of any visible injury, but what she saw was quite unexpected.

"Great Celestia!" Sally Saddle shouted.

Flame visibly rolled his eyes, "It's not that painful."

"No, look at your flank!" Flame was confused, but did as she said.

When he turned to look back on his flank, his eyes saw red bolt with fire on top of it divided in three colors - red, orange and yellow; same as his mane.

His eyes widen as he shouted, "No way, I got a cutie mark!"

Flame Thrower took his friend into the embrace, quickly forgetting about the pain in his back.

Back to the present.

"You gotta be bucking kidding me," Thunderlane was listening all the time to Flame's story, and even though he had Flame's cutie mark as evidence, he couldn't believe what he heard.

"You saved a village and many ponies by making a freakin' gigantic fire-tornado?!" the gray Pegasus shouted, while throwing his hooves in the air.

"Yeah, I also dissolved smoke and extinguish the fire. Except for the burned houses, wheat fields, and forest, the village wasn't too damaged. I helped them recover for about a few weeks, and after that, everything got back to normal. Although we found the reason behind the whole fire. Somepony very smart decided to make a camp in nearby forest, and when they were leaving in the morning, they left behind still burning campfire, and you know the rest. Got them caught two weeks after, and believe me, ponies from the village made sure that they'd repay for everything," Flame Thrower turned to the left to get the sip of the water. Talking for that long made his mouth a literal desert.

Thunderlane looked down with wide eyes as he was trying to process the whole story.

"Wow," he said softly.

"I thought that your stories could sound cool, but... that was beyond my expectations," he looked up as Flame Thrower drunk whole water to the bottom, and with a sigh, placed it back in its place.

"Well, if that's really true," Thunderlane chuckled.

"What do you mean? It is true!" Flame Thrower tried to protest and say that he would never lie about the story that changed him as a person, but once he turned to face Thunderlane, his friend put his hoof in front of him to stop whatever he wanted to say.

"I know, I believe you. You said too much details, and I know that you're not a storyteller kind of pony to came up with good story offhoof," Flame Thrower rolled his eyes.

"But I'm very proud of you as your friend, Flame. You wanted so badly to prove anypony that you're more than a random pegasus whose purpose is to spend all of his life in weather factory. Now, look at you! You just told me a story about how you saved a village from being burned to the ground," Thunderlane patted his friend on the back.

Flame smiled upon hearing that his old friend is proud of him even after all of these years.

"And I bet there's probably more of these juice stories!" the dark gray Pegasus looked with eager look in his eyes.

"Yeah there is, but if you don't mind, let's leave it for another occassion. I think my throat needs some break," Flame explained.

Thunderlane sighed, but agreed that this story his friend told him will do fine until they meet next time. Once they meet again, Flame will have a chance to tell another story. He assumed that experience and adventures he went through in five years may be even better than Daring Do's new comics volume.

"Well, I shared my story, you asked questions. Now, it's my turn, don't you think?"

"Okay, ask right away!" Thunderlane relaxed in his seat in order to prepare himself for Flame's questions.

"So, what about you? What are you doing here, and what Chaser and Star were also doing here?" That were the questions that got Flame's mind attention. He didn't know what Thunderlane was doing here or even his other friends that apparently got interested in this place too.

The gray Pegasus quickly processed questions from his friend and then with prepared answers replied, "Oh, they were visiting me. And to answer your other question. I moved with my family here around six months ago."

"Why did you move here? You never mentioned that your family wanted to move from Cloudsdale," Flame Thrower said scratching back of his head after he tried to thinking a good reason for Thunderlane's family to move to a new town.

"Yeah, because my family decided one year ago that we have to move. My mother got a well-paid job in the town hall, so instead of taking trips or leaving our family for a couple of months, we decided to move here," the gray Pegasus explained.

"I guess I could understand that," Flame Thrower said, but soon after moment of thinking he realized another thing. "Why your mother wanted to get a job so far from her home?" It seems very silly for Flame Thrower to get a job in another town and then make trips back and forth that take two and a half hours to get to the place where she works.

"It was that, or another three years of working as a color correction engineer in weather factory. You know my mother, she always wanted to help other ponies, and by working in the factory, she barely had time to interact with friends or relax. My father got a job as a local journalist, so that how everything turned out," Flame Thrower nodded after Thunderlane's explanation.

Then the fire-maned Pegasus reminded himself that there was another member of his friend's family. "And what about your brother? Was he happy about it?"

"Uh" – he sighed and looked into the floor – "yeah, Rumble. He wasn't too happy hearing that we have to move to another town. You know, friends and all that kind of stuff," Flame nodded once again at Thunderlane's gloomy answer. It looked like his brother really enjoyed living in Cloudsdale. That had to be quite a big change for a young colt, to move to a new place, leave his old friends behind and start a new chapter of his life.

The gray pegasus shaked his head and then slowly looked up on the wall before him, "But somehow, we managed to change his mind, and now he's quite happy. He got some new friends, and, I guess, he's still in touch with his other friends from Cloudsdale."

Flame Thrower smiled upon hearing that in the end it went pretty well with Rumble's adaption to new environment, "Good to hear that! It's been so many years since I saw that little colt. I guess, he's not such since a long ago, huh?"

Thunderlane chuckled. "Yeah, if you could see him right now. He's like I'm gonna–" His eyes widen as accidentally the gray Pegasus looked on the clock hanging above the entrance to the bar.

"Oh, no!" Thunderlane said with a worried tone once the clock reminded him about his task and his purpose for coming to the bar.

"What's the matter?" asked Flame Thrower with confusion. His friend looked like he saw a ghost, so Flame Thrower decided to look back just to be prepared for whatever that was that took Thunderlane's attention.

Thunderlane looked down on the blue pegasus, "I'm sorry, Flame, but I have to rush home in this moment, gather some papers and bring them to my mom. I promised her that once I help Stellar Hope, I will deliver her papers. My mom apparently will have a meeting about the town's funds in about" – he got up from his seat and moved past his friend to better see the hour on the clock – "12 minutes?!" he shouted upon realizing how little time he had to deliver papers from his house to his mother's work.

Meanwhile, whole bar crowd looked at the Thunderlane and his sudden shouting. He smiled back nervously, and quickly approached his friend. "Look, I really have to go. But if you visit this town in the near future, then let me know and we can hang out. I can even take Rumble along or ask Star and Chaser to join us."

Flame Thrower looked up on his friend that was now trying to leave as fast as he can, "Don't worry about it. Run to your house before your mother will punish you with another pile of paperwork", the fire-maned stallion smirked.

Thunderlane nodded and quickly run to the exit. Before he opened it, he turned back and said, "Until next time, Flame! Hope to see you soon! Oh.. and tell your parents and sister I send them best regards!"

The gray Pegasus waved on which Flame Thrower did the same in return.

"No problem, now go!" Flame pointed on the door and before he could even blink his friend was gone.

"No problem..." he said in a lower tone to particularly no one.

Flame Thrower turned back to the left and put his hooves on the bar counter and called, "Hey, bartender!"

Soon, white unicorn approached and asked, "Yes?"

"More water, please," the bartender nodded and took Flame's glass to fill it up with fresh water once again.

For some reason he keep repeating Thunderlane's words in his mind. Oh.. and tell your parents and sister I send them best regards.

"This gonna be a long day..." he sighed.

After almost two and a half hours of his flight, Flame Thrower noticed from a position of the sun that it has reached noon. The whole five hours and thirty minutes of being in the air with only one break will give its impact tomorrow for sure. He began to feel tired, but it didn't slow him any second. He wanted to reach his home as quickly as it's possible. Flame Thrower was far too long away from his home.

Only thirty minutes and– he interrupted his thoughts upon noticing a very familiar cloud structure. Flame Thrower considered that maybe it was a different cloud that happened to look like the cloud that welcomes every pony Pegasus that enters Cloudsdale with a big sign Welcome to Cloudsdale! He quickly dropped the idea. There was no point in stopping and checking if that was that particular cloud. Because, as the blue Pegasus assumed earlier, he still had thirty or so minutes to get to Cloudsdale.

Well, he thought so.

Leaving the very familiar looking cloud behind, he flew further until his eyes saw the city in clouds. He momently stopped and then begin to look around if that was Cloudsdale. He saw familiar looking buildings from clouds and Pegasi that were flying into and out of the city.

Flame Thrower couldn't believe it. Not only because he managed to be thirty minutes faster than he assumed, but because after all of these years, he's once again in his hometown. He grew a big smile on his face, alongside some single tears that he quickly wiped. There was no point in just staying in the same place any longer. The fire-maned stallion rapidly burst into direction of the city, leaving colors of his mane behind.

Once the blue Pegasus entered Cloudsdale, Flame Thrower noticed that he was currently flying through one of the many streets that leads to the inhabited part of the city where his lived. It didn't take too long to find the path that leads directly to his parents' house.

While he flew through the city, he saw many familiar buildings on the way, such as Cloudeseum or a weather factory. He still remembered, how after one year since he started going to school, his class had a school trip to said Cloudeseum. That's when he got in the chat with Cloudchaser, and thus he met Compass Star and Thunderlane. Flame Thrower smiled while he flew by the familiar buildings that brought old memories.

After two minutes of rapid flight, which almost made him burst into some group of friends and knocking dozens of ponies away on the way, Flame finally reached his parents' house front yard. He stopped for a moment when the number of childhood memories and feelings hit him at once. As soon as Flame Thrower looked at the house made from clouds, he sighed, shook the stress off, and flew to the door. He didn't want to hesitate any longer. It was the time he finally returned to his home, to his family. That made him get enough confidence to knock a couple of times on the door.

The blue Pegasus waited outside, thinking of all possible scenarios and reactions from his family side. He repeated in his mind all that he wanted to say, just in case.

It didn't take too long to finally hear that somepony is reaching to the door on the opposite side. Soon door opened, revealing a cyan Pegasus mare with reddish mane and magenta eyes that glanced at him from behind the door. Suddenly her eyes widen, and her face made an almost shocked look.

"F-Flame? Oh, great Celestia, that's really you!" Once, she realized who is standing before her, she embraced young stallion in tight hug.

"Hey, mom! It's really great to see you!" Flame hugged back his mother.

After a minute of heart warming hug they break the embrace.

"Believe me. Me too, son!" his mother smiled widely and happily upon seeing her son's appearance.

"Honestly, I wasn't expecting you at all. You could at least say something in the last letter," Flame chuckled and cleared his throat to prepare his voice for the announcement.

"I know, but I wanted this to be a big surprise, because..." he stretched last word long enough to throw his forelimbs into the air. "I'm staying in Cloudsdale for now!" After hearing that, his mother looked very surprised, but in a good way. She grew a smile on her face, because finally after five years her son is back home.

But even though the news was far more than just great for her, she had to ask something important.

"Does it mean, that you've found that thing you left for?" the fire-maned Pegasus nodded and slowly put his hooves on the ground.

"Yeah, I met many new ponies and traveled around the world, which allowed me to learn a lot about myself and what I'm capable of," Flame explained.

His mother smiled once again upon hearing that and then gestured into the house.

"That's so amazing to hear, son. But don't stand outside, come on in!" she stated with even happier smile on which Flame didn't hesistate and entered, closing the door behind.

"So, do you have any plans on what to do next?" his mother asked while they both got into the living room.

"Yeah, I've got some plans–" Flame Thrower looked around to see if anything changed. From what he saw, the furniture was the same as when he left. Although, the new color of walls and windows made the living room much brighter than he remembered. While Flame Thrower took his eyes from the furnishings and walls, he noticed two doors leading to his room and his sister's room. He sighed, all these memories within this house struck him once again. The cyan mare noticed Flame's sudden lost in his thoughts and wanted to ask if there's anything she can help with, but before she could even ask, Flame Thrower quickly finished his sentence. "–to get a job, buy a proper house, and then live every stallion's dream," he added jokingly the last part on which his mother chuckled.

"Oh, I certainly hope so, because I wish you what's the best, Flame. Let me get your father, and then you can share all those awesome memories and experiences from your travel with both of us," they exchanged smiles as Flame's mother went to the door at the end of the room that leads to the backyard.

She opened the door and shouted, "Bow! Flame came back, you've to greet him!"

The cyan mare noticed that her words didn't get to her husband as he continued to mow the area before him and kept his eyes focused on doing that. She decided to shout even louder. After she did so, there was no way her husband couldn't hear that. Flame Thrower even jumped a little bit when he heard his mother yelling.

"Windy, did you say somethin'?" the blue Pegasus with the same yellow eyes as Flame, but rainbow-colored mane and tail asked. He turned off the mower to hear better what his wife was saying.

"I said, Flame came back, you have to greet him!" As soon as his wife's words reached his ears, he froze for a second, and then looked directly at Windy Whistles.

"Flame came back?!" Bow Hothoof dropped the mower on the ground and galloped towards the door. He passed by his wife and burst into the living room. Upon noticing that his son indeed was there, he couldn't bring himself to contain his emotions.

"Hey, dad. It's great to see you–" before he had a chance to end his sentence, Flame Thrower got squeezed into the tighest hug his father ever got him.

"I can't believe it, you finally came back. It's so amazing to see you, son!" His father got suddenly very emotional and even let out some tears. It didn't surprise his son that much since he was very emotional too by his reunion with the family. But with every passing second the urge for air begin to surpassing any other priorities.

"Y-yeah, but I've got some s-stories too!" he squiked and hoped that this could save him.

His father let go of him before he run out of the air. "Oh, right! I bet you've some good ol' stories. I can't wait to hear them! Windy, would you prepare some tea for us?"

His wife nodded as Bow Hothoof asked. After closing door and turning back, she passed by his son and walked towards the kitchen.

"Right, good cup of tea is all what we need before we'll hear any of your stories!" she added on the way to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, his father sat on the couch and wiped the sweat off his forehead from previous work. Flame Thrower decided to do the same, so he sat on the couch on the opposite site to his father, and put his bag next to him while he waited for his mother to prepare the tea.

"So... how was your flight to Cloudsdale?" his father asked.

"Actually, had gone quite well. Not counting that at some moment I flew for four hours straight and had to take a break. But besides that, I've got to Cloudsdale faster than I expected. I'm much earlier."

"Good to hear that! I always knew that you and Rainbow Dash are going to be speed demons, but never expected anything like that!" Bow Hothoof knew that his children were always some kind of racers, but he always assumed that Rainbow Dash is more of athletic and speed-breaking Pegasus pony. Flame Thrower on the other hoof, was always into making tricks or flying theory. Perhaps, this trip really did change him.

But what made him come back? Bow remembers that years ago, Flame said something about proving himself and everypony that he's capable of doing incredible things. Maybe he found it, but does it means he's staying, or he has to prove something once again?

"So, you're staying in Cloudsdale or going on another trip?" Flame couldn't help but chuckle upon seeing that his father rolled his yellow eyes. Bow Hothoof always believed that the whole trip is unnecessary because he and his family knew that Flame Thrower is special and has many impressive skills. But back then, the fire-maned Pegasus believed otherwise and didn't listen to what others have to say. In the end, it turned out that his father, his whole family and friends were right from the very beginning.

"I'm staying in Cloudsdale for now. Gotta find a well paid job, then start thinking about the future. Well... at that point I should get rich enough to live in the mansion," Flame Thrower said half seriously, half jokingly.

"Haha, that's my boy! Always keep your head up!" Bow Hothoof said.

Not too long after that, his mother entered the living room. She put a silver tray with cups on a coffee table. Releasing the pressure that she had on her mouth, she took one of them in her hoof and sat next to her husband. Bow and Flame did the same and took their cups. After that they sat back in their places.

The whole family first had to drunk the tea giving into the lemon taste, before Flame's storytelling.

"Now you can share some awesome stories with us," Windy Whistles stated, while she put her cup of tea aside and gave her full attention to her son.

Bow Hothoof put one hoof behind his head for more comfort. While still slurping the lemon tea, he moved his eyes to look on his son and gave him a sign that he has his full attention too.

Flame Thrower smiled as he put his cup of tea on a coffee table.

"Well, before I'll tell you the stories. I think you should see something." Flame said and slowly got up from the coach. He moved a little bit away from his parents to give them a better look at him. Then, the blue Pegasus unfolded his wings and revealed his flame bolt cutie mark.

"Tada!" Flame happily announced as his parents gasped upon seeing his cutie mark.

"Is that?" Bow Hothoof asked he didn't get a chance to end his question as Flame interrupted.

"Yes. It's one and only, Flame Thrower's cutie mark!" the blue Pegasus said in such a tone like he was presenting a high-quality product at a popular exhibition.

Meanwhile, his parents couldn't deal with such amount of emotions. They closed their eyes and throw one of their hooves into air while holding with other hoof tight to each other.

"Our son got a cutie mark!" they shouted.

Flame Thrower, in the process, folded his wings and cringed back with lowered ears. He for sure didn't expect that reaction.

The blue Pegasus chuckled nervously and then looked at his parents, that after a few seconds, finally calmed. "Yeah, I've got a cutie mark some months ago. You probably want to know the story, right?"

"You bet!" they shouted in unison.

Flame Thrower rolled his eyes upon seeing their silly antics and slowly got back on his place on the couch.

Not too long after that, the blue Pegasus begin his storytelling...

Hours went by, while fire-maned stallion was now reaching the conclusion of his story how he got a cutie mark. He told them everything. How he saved the village and made fire-tornado, as well how his friend was in help on the ground, while he in the air tried to figure out how to get rid of fire and smoke.

"And after that, Sally told me to look at my flank, and that's how I saw it for the first time," he finished his story.

Flame looked up to see that his parents were in complete awe as their son told them a story that would be good enough to make a book out of it. They felt worried in some storytelling moments, when Flame, his friends, or anypony life was in danger. But after all, their son was safe and sound before them telling them a story of his most precious goal.

"Wow! I... don't know what to say. Son, that was... amazing!" his mother stated. She couldn't get herself to say any words to comprehend her proud and surprised emotions.

His father was holding both of his hooves on the opposite side of his head. With wide eyes and jaw dropped look he listened to whole story. He sighed and throw his hooves into the air, "My son is a true hero! Flame, I'm so proud of you. I think we'll have to celebrate it someday!"

"Yeah, that would be awesome! But, for now, do you want to hear another story or maybe–" before Flame could finish his sentence, he noticed that suddenly his mother look on the face changed like something conquered her mind and now was bothering her.

After a moment, Windy sighed and looked up to her son's face. "Would you tell us how it was at the very beginning? Because, after a week when you left I was very worried and started doubting the whole idea about this trip, but your father convinced me to trust you to go on your own because you're strong and maybe you really will find whatever you were looking for. But now, after five years, I'd really like to know how was your first trip."

"Sure. It wasn't easy to be on my own, but I tried my best," Flame Thrower nodded as he decided to get a quick slurp of lemon tea to clear his throat and prepare it for another hour-long storytelling.

After relieving his thirsty need, he put cup of tea back on the coffee table, "After I left, it was so difficult to find myself in the situation and know where to go. So, I tried figuring everything, step by step, even if it included some ups and downs..."

Five years ago.

Somewhere far from his home, a young Pegasus is struggling with a strong wind that blows from the north. Flying through such weather wasn't a good idea, and on top of that, he had zero idea where he is.

The flight was getting harder and harder with each passing second. Flame Thrower could barely keep up to not be blown away by the wind. Then, a much stronger wave of thin air hit him from the left side; sending fire-maned Pegasus into the vortex that leads him in rotation towards the ground.

He screamed, "AHHH!" as he was getting closer and closer to the ground while spinning nauseously.

At the same time, on the ground. Brown Earth pony stallion tried his best to harvest fully grown-up corn. He tried with all his might to pick up the plant, but the corn just wouldn't give up. He took a stalk of the corn in his mouth and began slowly moving backward. Once, he was sure that distance is good enough to harvest a plant, the brown Earth pony sharply pulled corn.

The result was way different than he expected. The stalk of the corn slipped from his mouth and once released from the pressure; fired in the opposite direction and throw its corn content far beyond the horizon.

The brown Earth pony made with his blue eyes look that said, 'Buck' He sighed and looked at his basket where all corns from his harvest were present. It was not his best harvest, around half of the basket filled with corn, but at least it could provide enough food for his family.

Before he knew, he sat on the ground and took one of his hooves to wipe the sweat coming from his forehead. Suddenly he felt wind acceleration as his burgundy mane and mustache, blown by the wind took the messier look. He looked up at the weather and shrugged while taking one corn from the basket.

As soon as he did so, he thought that he heard somepony's voice. The brown Earth pony quickly scanned the nearby area and saw no one, so he assumed that's probably was a wind blowing in the cornfield.

The crimson-maned stallion heard the same voice again but now was more hearable. As soon as he realized that voice was actually somepony, a colored streak passed by him screaming, "AHH! Watch out!" then it bumped into the tree. All he could see was some leaves falling to the ground upon collision with an undefined flying object. He laid the corn back into the basket and decided to investigate the whole situation with an eventual offer of his help.

Once he reached the tree that somepony's bumped into, brown earth-pony noticed a blue coat colt with yellow eyes and divided into three colors mane, hanging upside down with exhausting of screaming and nauseous face.

"Ugh..." is all the blue colt could say.

"Hey, are you alright, young one?" asked brown Earth pony. That was definitely a view that was not common in the countryside.

The fire-maned colt shook his head.

"Yeah," the fire-maned colt shook his head, and proceed to stretch his wings to fly away from the branch that he was currently hanging on. As soon as he did that, the blue colt felt pain in his right wing, and before he knew, he begin falling towards the ground.

"Gotcha!" said stallion with two corns as a cutie mark.

"You have to be more careful," he stated as he slowly put the blue colt on the ground.

"And what are you doing here? Not many ponies, and especially pegasi, visit our farm."

"I was just flying by, then some wild wind caught me and send me straight to the ground!" the blue colt stated in anger.

Stallion decided to calm him a little bit and put one of his hooves on colt's shoulder, "Don't worry, young one. You did nothing wrong. Besides, maybe we can contact your family–"

"NO!" young pony yelled.

After a second fire-maned colt realized how rude his answer sound, so he shook his head once again and said, this time, more softly, "I can't talk with them. I'm on my own."

Stallion gave him an understanding look and took the hoof from young pegasus' shoulder. "So, maybe you wanna join me and my family at the dinner? Your wings for sure need some break, also you can't fly in such weather."

"Uh, thanks, but you're kinda a stranger and I'm not sure if I should trust you..." he declined his offer.

Earth pony chuckled upon seeing that fire-maned Pegasus' parents well taught their son, "You should at least take a break for some minutes to wait through this weather, and for your wing to heal up quickly."

The blue young pegasus scratched back of his head, "I'm not sure..."

"It's alright. Look, my name's Corn Volume and yours?"

"The name's Flame Thrower!" the blue colt without hesitation and any doubts puffed his chest and straighten his forelimb towards the stallion, "Best Pegasus pony you could have a chance to meet!"

Corn Volume looked confused, but decided to shake his forelimb, "Right... Anyway, now we know each other. Do you want to join us?"

"Well, I..." Flame Thrower still wasn't sure.

Corn Volume chuckled again once he realized what's might be the reason, "Don't worry I don't want to foalnapped you or anything. Besides, I've got my own foals, I don't need more."

Upon hearing that, he quickly protested, "Hey! I'm not a foal, I'm a young stallion!"

"Alright, whatever you say. Are you coming or not?" Corn Volume rolled his eyes.

"Okay, but just to catch some z's and then I'm heading out!"

"Fine with me. But, don't expect me to help your parents to find you, when they will be looking for you," the blue colt smirked and shrugged.

Corn Volume decided to pick up the basket of his harvesting and with Flame alongside him, he walked back home.

It didn't take them too long to reach the dark wood house standing in the middle of cornfields. Fire-maned pegasus looked around once more to get more familiar with the place before accidentally bumping into Corn Volume.

Corn Volume turned back to notice that Flame sat back on the ground while he used one of his hooves to massage the place that met with Corn Volume's hind limb. The brown Earth pony rolled his eyes, and then with a push of one of his hooves, he opened the door.

"Come on in, Flame," Corn Volume said, while he hold the door for the blue colt to go through.

Flame Thrower shook his head and slowly got on his hooves. He passed by Corn Volume, entered the house, and once he was inside, Flame saw that three ponies at the table were staring at him with a confused look.

One of them being an orange Earth pony with green mane and eyes with a wagon full of corns as a cutie mark that asked, "Honey, who's that?" with a still confused look on the face.

On the opposite side of the table were two fillies that looked identical – brown coat, blue eyes, and orange mane. Like Flame, they didn't have their cutie mark yet, and like her mother stared at the young Pegasus. Neither of them said anything until Corn Volume stepped inside, closing the door behind.

"His name is Flame Thrower. I found him hanging on the tree, when he bumped into it, because of the wind that sent him off his course," Corn Volume explained.

Orange mare's face suddenly changed from confused to almost worried. "Oh my, are you alright?"

Flame Thrower nodded. "Yeah, I just need to rest for a while to heal my wing. Mr. Corn Volume said that I can stay here till the weather gets better."

Corn Volume passed by Flame Thrower and his family, and soon was gone in the kitchen. He was probably preparing some of his harvests to either be turned into food or sold.

"Oh, well. Make yourself at home! You can stay here as long as you want, but may I know where you were going?"

"Thank you, Mrs...?" As soon as he said thanks, the blue colt realized that he hadn't gotten the name of an orange mare.

She smiled, and upon hearing that Flame didn't know her name, quickly decided to fix it by politely adding a missing piece in his sentence. "Maize Favor."

"Thank you, Mrs. Maize Favor! I was heading to Canterlot since I always wanted to visit that place, but because of this wild wind that sent me to the ground, I might be a little bit later than I've planned," Flame Thrower shared his plans that contained visiting Canterlot as his first place on his adventure into the unknown.

"Okay, then I hope, once the weather gets better, that you will safely reach Canterlot. Meanwhile, may I as well introduce you to Flower Corn" – she pointed on the filly on her left side – "and Cherry Corn," then on the filly on her right side.

When Maize Favor pointed on each filly, Flame Thrower tried his best to memorize names and details that would help him recognize them.

"Uh, nice to meet you" – Flame quickly approached the first filly and shaken hooves with her – "and you!", then the second filly and did the same. After greeting the corn twins, he stepped back to give them their personal space.

"You too, Flame!" twins said in unison with closed eyes and a happy smile on their faces.

Wow, they even answer in unison, he thought.

As soon as he end his sentence in his mind, Corn Volume got back from the kitchen with the bowl of freshly cooked corns. He put it on the table and sat next to his wife.

Brown Earth pony looked down to Flame Thrower and asked, "So, do you want to join our dinner?"

"Let's say I got enough of food before I took off from Cloudsdale, so I'd rather take some rest and hope my wing is gonna feel better once I get up," the fire looking mane colt explained. He made sure to eat some good amount of food before taking off Cloudsdale. His mother insisted on taking a bag along with him, but Flame Thrower assured her that as soon as he reaches Canterlot, he will visit his uncle.

"Anyway, thanks for asking," Flame Thrower added after the second to repay for Corn Volume's words of concern.

"You can lay yourself down on the couch for now, if that's okay with you," Maize Favor said as she pointed on the nearby couch.

Flame Thrower smiled and begin to walk towards the couch.

"I have no problem with that at all!" the blue colt added as he reached the couch.

The fire-maned colt jumped on the couch, and after making himself comfortable, he looked on the big window before him.

"One day, I'll come back..."

Back to the present.

"I can't believe you ended up in the countryside, because of the weather!" Windy Whistles stated with a not very happy look on her face. Once she remembered that she actually warned her son about the weather, she got only angrier. "I remember that I told you that you should wait a day or two because Weather Control Pegasi announced that there might be a good dose of a strong wind that will help clouds go faster for an upcoming event, but you didn't listen!"

His mother even stumbled her hoof into the couch giving away the message that says, "You should listen to me, kiddo!"

Upon seeing one of his wife's outbursts, Bow Hothoof put one of his hooves on the center of his face, closed his eyes, and sighed, "There she goes again."

Flame decided to calm the heating atmosphere between him and his mother and calmly said, "I agree that it was stupid of me to make a trip when such weather was about to come. But back then, I was really one piece of a stubborn pony," his parents chuckled and rolled their eyes upon hearing how he described old himself.

"Tell me about it," Bow Hothoof said.

Flame sighed and decided to look down in shame, "Yeah, so again, I really changed since then."

He slowly looked up to look at his parents. "And I see my mistakes. But I think that even though I had many crashes into the ground through the whole trip, it always leads to something great like learning how to gain more confidence or how to become a better version of myself."

Windy decided to rethink everything that Flame told them so far, and soon she came up with the conclusion.

"Well, you said that every time you crashed somepony helped you and also taught you something new. I guess, except for crashes, fights, and trying to survive, you tried your best to stay careful as much as you could. And you came back, as you promised me," she ended her sentence with a smile on which Flame sighed in relief.

His father's face, on the other hoof, looked not very sure and perhaps even guilty. Before the blue pegasus could ask what's wrong, Bow said, "I have to admit, even if I was the one who was saying that you'll do fine and everything, I still had some doubts about letting you. You were at such young age, and it was probably very stupid of us to–" fire-maned stallion knew where his father was going with this sentence, so he wasted no more time to explain his point of view, to try change his father's mind. "No, you did the right thing. Because of your decision, I became who I am today, and I'm very proud of that. I wasn't some tiny colt who needed to be babysitted 24/7. Also, I finished the school before I got on the trip, so nothing of basic education avoided me. Besides, you had Rainbow Dash to take care of."

"You might be right, but still..." his parents sighed upon realizing that their son brings a good point. "We really missed you, son!" As soon as they said it, Flame's parents looked up with teary eyes upon which the view broke Flame's heart. The blue pegasus decided to unfold his wing and fly right between his parents to embrace them in the family hug.

"And I missed you, guys!" he said, hugging them tighter as they returned the hug.

After a minute of big family hug, they slowly break the embrace. As Flame Thrower was going back to his place on the couch, his parents wiped the forming tears on their eyes. Flame Thrower noticed that this moment, was probably the peak of their sad emotions upon seeing their son once again, so he decided to make the atmosphere better.

"Gladly, Rainbow's not around. Otherwise, I'd be doomed with 'Aw, my brother likes hugs' for the whole week," Flame rolled his eyes once he remembered all times when his younger sister could gain an advantage over her brother with silly comments.

The whole family burst laughing, even Flame Thrower joined them. It worked.

But he noticed that something is off. Flame talked with his parents for a good amount of time, and while he enjoyed sharing his stories, he never got a chance to see his younger sister.

Flame Thrower decided to ask his parents about that. "Speaking of... Where is Rainbow Dash?"

His parents came to their senses as Flame asked the question.

"She's living two streets away. You probably want to meet with your sister right?" Bow Hothoof raised an eyebrow with a smile on his face.

"Of cours– I mean, yeah," the blue pegasus corrected himself at the last moment before he could even get a chance to fall into his father's trap that was supposed to reveal his real feelings towards his sister. But he and Rainbow Dash always thought that family love is too cringey for them, so they decided to keep it low-key, and Flame wanted to keep it like that.

Upon seeing Flame's reaction, his parents slightly chuckled.

Fire mane looking stallion rolled his eyes, "But, when did she moved away?"

"She moved last year. We were supporting her as much as we can, and tried our best to make her new home to feel like her old one. Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but," Windy Whistles realized something and decided to announce that, so she grabbed her husband and pulled him closer to herself. "Our foals are the most amazing ponies in whole Equestria!" the cyan mare screamed while closing her eyes and throwing her free hoof into the air.

Windy Whistles removed her hoof from her husband's neck and flew from her place on the couch to her son and pointed at him with her hoof. "First you! You went on your own into the unknown without any practice in terms of survival or even someone who could look after you. And years after, you came back with amazing stories, experience, and cutie mark! You discovered your special talent and helped many ponies on the way there" she flew back to her place on the couch, still keeping the overwhelming joy and proudness on her face.

"And then Rainbow Dash, and her amazing skills and talent. Not to mention that she made Sonic-Rainboom when she was just a filly and wants to become a future Wonderbolt. A Wonderbolt!" his mother's excitement was very hearable. It wasn't a secret that Windy Whistles herself was also a big fan of The Wonderbolts. She on the other hoof never tried to join their academy.

"Every mother would be proud of such wonderful ponies, and I'm sure I'm beyond being proud of what you and your sister reached so far. And I belie– no, I know that you'll reach something great one day," Windy Whistles said, and after her Bow added, "We both know."

He sighed and tried his best not to cry again. "Thank you, mom, dad. I'm very happy to hear that you're proud of me!"

After calming himself, Flame Thrower sighed and said, "Also, I couldn't believe when you wrote in the letter years ago that she made something like that! Honestly, I felt bad that even my younger sister did something, and I was still at the bottom of figuring what my special talent is. But even though I'm very proud of her."

He looked up to look at the ceiling. "My sister being a Wonderbolt one day, wow," he said, mainly due to check how cool it sounds, and apparently it did sound that way.

"We also still can't quite believe that she tries her best to join the Wonderbolts Academy. When we saw her on her practice, well might say our support for your sister was visible for everypony in the stadium. Also, do you remember how she was addicted to Wonderbolts when she was a filly? And how her coach was helping her to get the best view on her favorite team whenever they showed up?" Bow Hothoof asked.

"Yeah, I guess his name was Rainbow Blaze? I'm not sure, but I remember he dyed his mane to look similar to Rainbow's to show how much of a team they are. At one point, she even asked me to dye my mane, but I said that I will dye my mane once she wins a race... and guess what happened one week after that," he sighed and looked at the wall on his left.

His parents gasped upon realizing the real reason why his mane was once a rainbow color.

"So that's why you dyed your mane to look like Rainbow's back then. I swear, not including the size, you and Rainbow Blaze looked exactly the same!" his father said.

"Yeah, good that my original color got back after some washing, otherwise ponies still would ask me about coaching others or how did I train Rainbow Dash to be that good," Flame Thrower rolled his eyes and crossed his forelimbs when he reminded himself how many times he had to deal with such ponies on the way to school.

He looked back on his parents and put his forelimbs back on the couch. "Anyway, I remember she used to watch The Wonderbolts when they were showing on some occasions. Also, I remember that her room was full of posters of The Wonderbolts. She once even told me that one day she will be the best Wonderbolt out there, and honestly, I didn't doubt it for a second..." Bow and Windy raised eyebrows at the same time and then looked at each other.

"I mean, maybe she will be good enough," he tried to correct himself, but it was too late.

Darn emotions, can't you be quiet for a minute? he thought.

After that, his parents only chuckled. They saw not once how they care for each other, but they always were trying to hide it.

"Alright, so I think you should visit your sister," Windy Whistles said as she got up and started to walk towards the shelf where she got a piece of paper, and then by using feather with ink, she wrote her daughters' address. Soon after that, she turned back and gave the piece of paper to her son.

"This is her address. If you knock and no one will answer, don't worry. She barely stays home, besides sleeping and reading some comics. If something like that happens, then visit Ponyville and ask one of the ponies or her friends they will know for sure where Rainbow Dash is."

He took the paper and put it into his bag, that was sitting next to him on the couch. After that, he put the bag on his back, got up, and once again hugged his mother.

"Thanks, mom. I think it's a good idea to look for her now," Flame Thrower said with a smile as he broke the hug.

"Okay, but you will be right back, yes?" Windy Whistles asked as she was looking at her son, that was heading towards the out of the living room.

"Actually, I know that I was gone for five years more or less, but I want to try to live on my own. Don't worry, I will stay in Cloudsdale for now, so we will be in touch. I want to find a job and then buy a house, get married and all that stuff. But to do so, I need to try living on my own. For now, I don't want to throw myself on you after all those years. And before you say anything, please. I don't want to make you worry about me anymore. I will ask Rainbow if I can stay at her place, then I'll try to find a job," the blue pegasus explained with the hope that his parents will accept and respect that.

Bow Hothoof decided to approach his son. "Alright, do as you want and remember that we will support you no matter what, Flamey," Flame Thrower chuckled as they did a brohoof.

The fire-maned stallion smiled at his parents, turned back and begin to walk towards the door. He stopped before opening the door and turned his head back to his parents, "It was so great to see you. I promise I'll visit you more often!"

"Don't worry, son. You can visit us whenever you want. Remember to tell Rainbow about these stories, too!" Windy Whistles said, while Flame opened the door and stepped outside.

"I will, for sure! Love you, see you soon!" he waved his hoof back to his parents.

"Bye, son! Love you too!" Flame's parents replied in unison. After that, he slowly closed the door.

Wow, didn't go as bad as I thought, Flame said in his mind.

He sighed in relief and opened his bag to take the piece of paper.

Wavey Wings Street 11/5, as soon as he read the address, Flame put the piece of paper back into his bag and lifted in the air. After doing so, he begins to fly in what he assumed good direction, as always, the color of his mane followed him wherever he flew.

Author's Note

Well, what do you think? It was my first-ever story published online, so I might get more experience with posting stories over the time, because all that stuff is not that easy as I thought. If the story will be good enough to reach some level of interest, then soon I'll post more chapters. Also, I count on a good amount of feedback, so I can write the next chapter much better!

Thanks for reading, until next time! :twilightsmile: