Skycloud

His sister nearly kicked the door off of its hinges as she came into his room.  Her mane, instead of its natural electric blue was now a mucky looking tan color.  She was dripping wet, fresh out of the shower.  The previous night, his mischievous side took over, and he put hair dye in her shampoo bottles.  She must have mixed them together, and now ended up with something looking unusually close to a giant dirt clod on top of her head.

By now he was out of bed and at the window sill, saddlepack strapped and ready, pulling upwards on the bottom part of the window frame frantically, trying to open it to provide an emergency exit.  However, she was halfway across the room storming towards him, her eyes filled with rage and her hair-straightener in hoof.  She held it as one would hold a baseball bat when getting ready to hit a game-winning homerun.  He screamed, furiously shaking the window for a way out.  Just as she was about to hammer him with all of her enraged might, the window flew open with a loud thud!  He made a leap for it, and got out just in time, laughing hysterically as he dropped out of the window and straight over the edge of Cloudsdale.

He caught himself midair and positioned his body at an angle, flapping his wings and pulling out of the free-fall with one swift motion.  He hovered there for a second, ecstatic at how good he was getting at this.  It had been about a year and a half ago that he had his first flight.  However, he was excelling at his abilities, and though there were others that were better than him, he just enjoyed the feeling of the graceful wind through his wings, along with the frequent rush of adrenaline here and there.  Maybe he could grow up to be somepony great one day, or even the best flyer in Equestria!  Nah! he thought.

The sound of a chuckling pegasus behind him awoke him from his momentary daydream.  He turned around to see Wind Twirler, another young colt about his age, but nearly twice his size.  He was perched on a nearby cloud, obviously knowing that Thundermach would be there.

Best friends since young colthood, they’d known each other for their entire lives.  Wherever one was, rest assured the other would not be far behind.  They were two peas in a pod, and yet they were complete and utter opposites.  Wind Twirler was large, bulky, and quiet for the most part, whereas Thundermach was usually loud and obnoxious, and though he was in very good shape, he was still a bit on the skinny side.  In more than a couple instances, Wind ended up having to get Thundermach’s sorry plot out of trouble, whether it was childish bets he never paid off, late homework assignments, or even making sure his daily chores and responsibilities were kept up with.  In a way, he was an older brother to the reckless pegasus, and kept him in check…or, at least he tried.

“Oh, hey Windie!” Thundermach greeted.  “Windie” was a pet name that he would give his friend just to annoy him, although now it had become accepted between the two of them.

“You do know that you’re almost late for school, don’t you?” he replied in his low, quiet voice.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” he cleared his throat, “I just have a mild habit of sleeping in a bit late.”

“A bit.” Wind repeated.  He opened his wings, and floated for a moment before motioning his head to Cloudsdale.  “Come on,” he said, and together they ventured off to school.

As they flew side-by-side, they didn’t talk as much as they usually did, possibly because it was too early, or it could’ve just been that nothing had really happened to talk about yet, besides Thundermach’s “wake-up call”.  As they flew nearer to the main part of the city, they passed a familiar house.  Mrs. Penny, the mare out in the front yard, was an elderly lady.  She often greeted Thundermach when he was passing by.

"Oh, hello, boys!" she shouted gleefully, "How are you two doing today?"

"Hi, Mrs. Penny!  We're good.  We were just going to school." he giddily replied. "This is my friend, Wind."  Wind waved his hoof modestly.

"Well, it's nice to meet 'ya, Wind!" she said with her Camanedian accent. "Would you two care for a cookie?  I've just got a fresh batch outta' the oven!"  Thundermach looked at Wind, a small grin on his face.

"Trust me," he said, "you're gonna' want to try these."  Wind shrugged, figuring it couldn't be too much trouble...as long as it only took a minute or two.

As they neared the red-brick building with the blue, orange, and red letters CFA (Cloudsdale Flight Academy) standing proudly at the top of the building, something didn’t seem quite…right.  The school was huge compared to some in other regions and cities in Equestria, and taught the same pegasi for years 1-12, meaning that each year the school had at least 1,500 to 2,500 students filling the hallways each day.  However, now there were no pegasi in the area.  The numerous groups of them that would usually be occupying every square inch of the main entrance with noise and activity…were absent.  Then it hit the two confused seventh-year fliers.  They looked slowly at each other before their eyes darted to the clock hanging above the doors.  10:15!

They looked at one another, shock and horror on their faces.

Without a second of hesitation, they both darted in opposite directions, not even bothering to say good-bye.  Thundermach flashed down the hallways as fast as possible, and at this point he didn’t even care about the “No indoor flying!” signs that littered the school walls.  The only thing that mattered was that he stayed out of view and reached his class with as much speed as he could muster.  As he whizzed down the long winding halls and staircases, he realized just how fast he was going.  It was rather impressive, the time he was making, but there was no way to think about anything else than reaching first period.

He almost ran headfirst into the door of his class, but managed to stop just a couple of feet short, leaving long hoof-made skid marks in the floor where he grinded to a halt.  Oh no!  Mr. Peck’s gonna’ kill me!  Slowly opening the door and trying to regulate his breaths, Thundermach poked his head inside of the classroom to almost immediately come face-to-face with the gryphon.  He stood at least 3 feet taller than him, and wore an overly large monocle which seemed to magnify his right eye by at least 2 times its regular size, making his glare hilariously terrifying.  Behind his teacher, several of the pegasi in his class stifled laughter.  He looked up to see that he hadn’t even fixed his hair this morning, and now his ridiculous bedhead had his mane in some sort of misshaped mess.

“Sorry.  I…uh…I had a, um…uh…” he gave up and took his seat.

The rest of the day was, for the most part, uneventful, if you don’t count the unexpected explosion of a party cannon from halfway across the courtyard.  It was, of course, the senior classmen messing around again.  Actually, whenever this kind of stuff happened, it was almost always the same pony.  She had a snow-white coat, with a weird-looking yellow mane, and only ever seemed to laugh or smile.  From what he’d heard, she often bordered obsessive partying, something he never really thought somepony could do.  And although he couldn’t ever remember her name, she was always managing to attract his--and everypony else's--attention somehow.

After school, his older sister approached him and handed him some of her spare books from the day.  She told him to tell their parents that she would be going to the new Cloudsdale Mall for the afternoon, and to remember to do his homework and behave himself.

“Okay.” he said.  Pssht!  As if!

He met up with Wind a couple of minutes later, who, as usual, looked completely calm.  Nothing really stirred him up, not even the end of a school week,  whereas Thundermach got more and more excited as the weekend approached.

“Hey Thundermach,” he said, “Ready to go?”

“Ugh!  More than ever!” Thundermach replied, “I’m dying to get out of here!”  They began flying at a steady pace, the noise and cacaphony of voices dying down as they left the school grounds.  They were flying for a little while before one of them spoke.

“So...did--who was it again? Mr. Gooseberry?--notice when you came in?” Thundermach asked.

“No,” Wind answered, “What about you?  Mr. Peck was sure to notice you.  You do tend to have...dramatic entrances.”

“Ha!  Boy did he ever.  I swear, it’s like he knew I was comi--” he was interrupted by a sudden flash that sped past them both.  Thundermach yelped, almost falling when the air wave hit him, and Wind just stood there, unmoved by the ridiculously fast pegasi that just sped right in front of them.  They were headed downwards through the clouds, obviously racing.

“Stupid seniors.” Thundermach said.  He looked to Wind.  Something was wrong.

“Wind?” he asked, only to no response.  His friend's eyes were wide, and he looked...well, Thundermach couldn’t quite put his hoof on it, but he could tell that there was some sort of issue.  He waved a hoof in front of the colt’s face.  It was as if he was in some sort of hypnotic trance.

“Is everything alright...hellooo?  WIND?!”  This snapped him out of it.  His friend looked around for a second before turning back to Thundermach.

“Y-Yeah,” he said, “it was...nothing.  That just looked like...I thought I saw...nevermind.”

Thundermach laughed.  “I think the sun’s gettin’ to ya’, buddy!”

“Yeah...” he agreed quietly.  There was a mix of confusion, contemplation, and anxiety on his face.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked.  Wind paused, and before replying, he stared at the hole in a nearby cloud the older pegasi had left in their wake.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

The white puff quickly regained its composure after a second or two, and the duo once again took flight, beginning their route home.