Other than Othersby HeartShieldFiMChaptersHappy Birthday To YouSilliness and AngerDesireA City In The CloudsHappy Birthday To YouSunburst has never been normal. Not that he wanted to, being normal would make him look like Mom and Dad. And that was the last thing he'd want. Sunburst was a unicorn, and as you know, every unicorn has his own kind of magic. He always thought his specialty was music. Without any effort, he could play piano, kazoo, drums, and many more things. That was, until his twelfth birthday. 'Suuuuuuuuun! Don't you dare to forget your scarf!' Sunburst sighed. 'No, mom. Don't worry.' His mother had decided to take him to his grandparents in the clouds for the first time. She'd thought of everything. They would go with a hot-air balloon, and Sunburst could stay in the basket the whole time. His grandparents had visited them many times before, but Sunburst wanted to know what it was like in Cloudsdale. He'd never been higher that the roof of their house, and that was only because he had to fetch his baseball. His mother pinched his cheek. 'Aren't you excited?' He had to admit he was eager to feel the air up there, to meet Pegasi - the only one he knew was that girl in his class, Fluttershy, and she never said anything - and to play with the clouds he was named after. He still didn't really know why. As he was wrapping his scarf around his neck, his mother walked in with a colourfully wrapped package between her wings. 'Take it,' she said. 'Happy birthday, sweetie.' Sunburst eagerly unwrapped the present and found a heavy book, called "The Traveler's Guide to the Clouds". The book was hard to carry. He grinned and turned the book around to read what the back said. There was only a print of large, friendly letters saying "Have Fun". 'I know how you love to read, and the trip to the clouds is a long one,' his mother said. 'You'll have something to read in the hot-air balloon!' Her son folded the book open and read the first page. He smiled. 'This is just great! Thanks, mom!' 'Let's go,' his mother said, and walked out the door. Sunburst quickly levitated the book and ran after her. Outside, there was an enormous hot-air balloon tied to a pole in the ground. The balloon itself was brightly yellow with blue ribbons all over it, and Sunburst found it a little girly. His mother jumped in the basket and reached out for her son. 'Let's go,' she said, and untied the rope. Sunburst was a little nervous, as this was his first time he'd actually fly. He sat down in a corner of the basket, not daring to look at the view as the balloon got higher and higher. His mom bumped his shoulder. 'C'mon, enjoy the sight!' The unicorn stood up and wrapped his arms around one of the ropes connecting the basket with the balloon. He slowly peeked over the straw edge and gasped. The view was beautiful and breathtaking, indeed. When he looked down, he saw his house, and his father waving at him. Up was the silhouette of Cloudsdale, far far away. He barely could wait. He sat in the corner and folded the book open again. He was a quick reader and his vocabulary was extremely large for a pony his age, but after he ended the first chapter, he already lost what happened in the story. It was about a colt living on his own, then they wanted to break down his house for a road from A to B and then his spaceponyfriend came to the rescue by saving him right before his planet was destroyed. He scratched his head in confusion but decided to keep on reading, and by the time the book was telling him about the worst poetry in the universe, the balloon landed with a soft -poof-. Excitedly his mother jumped out of the balloon and knocked on the door of the fluffy house they landed next to. A very, very old-looking Pegasus pony answered the door. 'Oh, hello sweetie,' she said. 'C'mon in, where's the tiny little boy?' Sunburst didn't hear it, he had kind of disappeared in his book. His mother bucked against the basket to wake him up. The young unicorn snapped out of his fantasy and looked over the edge of the basket. 'Hi grandma!' he said, and he waved. His grandmother reached out for his hand. 'Oh, hello little Sunburst, happy birthday to you! Where is your brother?' 'Red Light is still at home,' the unicorn replied. His mother smiled and explained that this was a trip for Sunburst's birthday, and that he wanted to visit the house of his grandparents alone with his mother. 'Oh, hi there, my grandson,' a cracky voice said, and Sunburst saw his grandfather walk out of the fluffy house. 'Isn't this a lovely place to have a picknick,' Sunburst's mom said. Grandma replied with, 'Eat another sandwich, sweetie.' Sunburst's mother wanted to say no, but her mother kept offering her a sandwich so she thought that accepting it would be the best way to make it stop. She was wrong, because right after the sandwich followed another one, and then an apple and some of the banana cake she made for Sunburst's birthday and then she jumped up and opened her purse. 'I almost forgot to give your present!' she said, and grabbed a mid-sized, wrapped box. 'Here you go, sweetie.' Sunburst carefully tore off the paper, because it was pretty and shiny and it'd be a shame if he would ruin it by tearing it apart. There again appeared a book, this time it said, "Basic Unicorn Spells, Grade Two". His grandmother pinched his cheek. 'Last year, gramps and I gave you grade one. Now you can practice even more things!' Sunburst was excited, because he had learned about everything he knew from the frist part and now he'd learn more advanced spells. 'Thanks, grandma!' he said, as he sat on the side of the basket. They had flipped it over, so he could sit with the others without having to stand up all the time and being completely isolated. He got another sandwich of the plate and ate while reading the first few spells. 'Oh, but I can do this,' he said confidently, and his horn started shining. He closed his eyes and frowned. He sighed. 'Nope, not yet,' he then said, and took a bite of his sandwich. Suddenly, a small brown Pegasus came hopping by. He stopped in surprise. 'Wow, aww you a WEAL unicown?' he asked. Sunburst nodded, slightly proud. 'Wat aww you doin' up hewe?' the filly then asked. The unicorn smiled and said, 'I am currently celebrating my twelfth birthday,' he replied. He heard the soft steps of somepony walking on a cloud and a mossy green pony with yellow hair appeared. 'C'mon, you little. We have to get you to daycare.' She then looked at Sunburst. 'Hey, sorry for my brother. What's a unicorn doing up here?' Sunburst sighed. 'I'm celebrating my twelfth birthday here with my family,' he said, and pointed at his mum and grandparents. The mare squinted, thinking about what could bring a unicorn with clear Pegasus parents up high in Cloudsdale, but then shrugged and said, 'Cool, happy birthday. C'mon, little fella. Let's go.' She lifted off and her brother followed her, his wings not flapping but buzzing since they were so small. Sunburst's mother smiled. 'How nice of her to congratulate you, wasn't it?' The unicorn nodded in silence and folded the book open again. The story was way too interesting. His mother dropped a glass of orange juice, and Sunburst's horn flared yellow for a moment as he put the glass back on the clouds. 'Thanks, sweetie,' his mother said surprised, for Sunburst was the only colt she knew who could more than one thing at the same time. Suddenly, his attention was drawn by something way more interesting than the book. A small, bypassing cloud on touch-distance. He quickly closed the book before it was too late and stretched his leg out to touch the very thing he was named after. 'Sunny, be care...' his mum tried to say, but then her son lost his balance. For a moment, time froze and he looked down at the cloud beneath the basket, knowing that only Pegasi could feel their solidness and that he'd fall right through them. Then, he fell. A small poof sounded as he landed face-first into the soft and fluffy cloud. Silliness and Anger'Ouch,' was the first thing Sunburst said. Clouds didn't feel like he expected them to feel. If he wanted to, he could stomp a hole in them, but still it felt like he landed on concrete with a thin layer of foam covering it. Grandma Pegasus immediately hurried to help her grandson get up. 'Sweetie, what is this?' she asked surprised. 'Get back in the basket. Now,' Sunburst's mum demanded, and her son, for once, obediently followed her orders. His mother then turned to her parents. 'What is this?' she said, her voice trembling with anger. 'Did you two know about...' Sunburst's grandparents both shook their heads in utter shock. Sunburst himself sat in the basket, shaking and astonished, continually touching the cloud beneath him. Yep, he could still feel it. He heard his mum and grandparents arguing, but it didn't really get through. His head was filled with a loud buzz, accompanied with a high noise he couldn't actually hear, he felt it. The world shook before his eyes, as if there was an earthquake, except that such things didn't happen in Cloudsdale. He knocked on his head a couple of times, and the noise and the shaking stopped. 'He can hear you!' he heard his mother yell. And then, his grandfather, 'Who cares? You knew he would end up in here!' 'I didn't!' his mother protested. 'I never knew he could... could walk on clouds! I mean, he's a unicorn, for Celestia's sake!' You can't hear them, Sunburst thought, no, heard a voice in his head. They are wrong... 'Who are you?' the unicorn said. The three other ponies turned around to Sunburst. 'What did you hear?' said his grandmother. Sunburst shook his head. 'I... nothing. There's nothing.' 'See!' his grandfather yelled. 'I told ya'!' The quarrel started again and Sunburst pressed his hooves against his ears. 'Stop it,' he whispered. Stop it, his mind replied. Whoever it was that had nested itself into his head, it was right. Sunburst took a very deep breath and yelled, 'Shut the BUCK up, it's my BIRTHDAY!' 'Sunny,' his mother immediately protested. 'Go wash your mouth now.' The unicorn bit his lip and then, he carefully stepped out of the basket. Nothing happened. 'Look, mum,' he said. 'It's safe. Now I wish to know, WHO of you did already know this?' Good job. His grandparents nervously looked at one another and his mother frowned. 'THESE two,' she said. 'These two know it runs in the fam'ly. These two know that when you have a unicorn dad and a Pegasus mom, you'll be able to walk on these cloudy substances. Your gramps, in fact, has found this out all by himself since his MOTHER was a cloud-hopping unicorn.' 'Hay!' Sunburst's grandfather said. 'A little bit of respect for my mother would be nice!' 'Quit it,' Sunburst whispered as he heard his family starting a fight again. 'C'mon, please! T'is my birthday only once a year!' Nopony listened. The three stood in a circle, looking at one another and shouting the most random insults. Sunburst was done with it. Quietly, he walked past the trio. Nopony looked at him, though, and the clouds blocked every hint of sound. Where he first had taken very slow and cautious steps, he now had the courage to run. Faster and faster, the clouds soft yet solid underneat his feet. It was funny to run that fast without making a single sound. He felt like he was flying, but of course, he wasn't. Suddenly, he was snapped out of the narcotic feeling by a loud yell. 'Hay! Watch it!' He felt a bump and landed - again - with his face first in the clouds. 'Owch,' he said, as his eyes fluttered open. 'What... Why?' The pony next to him was strangely familiar. Oh, yes. She was the one with that tiny brother, wasn't she? She was a blankflank, she had long, messy hair, she wore a blue bracelet and... she had just tripped him. 'What was that for!?' he said indignantly. The femme rolled her eyes and simply pointed at the cloud they were standing on. Sunburst followed the line of her leg and saw he wasn't far away from the edge of the fluffy puffy cloud. Below, there was a whole lot of nothing before it got to a small field. If he had taken another three steps, he would've been dead. He blinked a couple of times in confusion and shock, and then looked up at the mare. 'You're still at the ground,' she said. 'Cloud, more.' 'Heh. Am I?' The mare sighed. 'Ugh. Why were you running in the first place?' Sunburst groaned and got up. As he sat on the clouds, he thought about if he should tell the Pegasus about his disastrous birthday. 'Well?' she asked, and left him with no choice than to tell. He sighed and said, 'Well, today is my twelfth birthday and I came here for the first time in my life to celebrate it with my Pegasus grandparents. By accident, I found out I am able to walk on clouds, which shouldn't be possible since I am a unicorn, but still I CAN WALK ON CLOUDS. Now it appears my grandparents knew it all the time since it runs in the fam'ly or something and my mum and they are in a HUGE fight about why they didn't tell me and if they should have to...' 'Geez, really?' the Pegasus interrupted him. 'Oh man, that must be horrible!' Sunburst nodded and continued. 'I hoped this birthday would be the best birthday ever, but all that happened was this investigation and the fact that my fam'ly is a mess right now. It sucks! It totally SUCKS!' The green Pegasus sat down next to him and rised an eyebrow. 'Woah. Especially when you don't have five brothers to take care of because you're mother is too retarded to do it and you have to keep your whole family alive by yourself. Must be hard for you.' Sunburst didn't know what to say. What the buck did just happen? 'Meh, you probably don't even mind it,' the green pony continued. 'Just like I don't mind your bucked up birthday. I have to buy groceries and bring my brothers to school, later.' Sunburst was astonished. Silently, he watched the green Pegasus soar and fly away. He scratched his snout in confusion - it was a miracle she didn't make a remark about it, he oftenly got bullied with his snout - and watched the tiny figure become smaller and smaller in the distance. She had saved his life, sort of. A'course he had seen that cliff himself, he just... suddenly liked danger. Sure, the voice said. Sunburst nervously looked around, but there was nopony on the cloud but him and - in a greater distance - his arguing family. His mother looked like she'd explode with rage, and his grandparents didn't look better, really. But still, there was this strange voice. It was his own voice, undoubtedly, it just sounded slightly... slightly... Darker? the voice said. 'Yeah,' Sunburst said thoughtless. Then, clear again, 'Wait, eh?' The voice in his head was quiet. Sunburst shook his head in confusion and the clouds in his mind slowly disappeared. He starteto think clear and realize that he was actually standing on a fluffy puffy rain machine, made by the Pegasi in Cloudsdale and used everywhere in Equestria. He was a unicorn. Standing on a cloud. He looked down to the field and was slightly proud. DesireSunburst found it hard to stop watching the dancing ponies around the crackling campfire, but his mother dragged him away from the camp. 'Gypsy ponies are not the ponies to hang out with,' she muttered. Sunburst sighed. 'C'mon, mom,' he said. 'It's...' 'NO.' his mother said. 'You come with me now. We have grocery shoppings to do.' Since the whole discovery of Sunburst's density towards clouds, there was an unidentified tension between him and his mother. She had decided not to tell his father or brother, for this could cause another quarrel again. And - next to have Sunburst fillynapped by those hórrible gypsies -, that'd be the last thing she wanted. Although her ears were filled with large rings themselves, she looked disapprovingly at the pierced ears of the dancing ponies. They wore loose clotwondered hes and she why they even wore clothes at all. Nopony did. Okay, there were ponies around who wore pants from time to time, but only the farmers because otherwise they'd be knee-high in the mud. And yeah, she wore jewelery herself. Mostly earrings. Still, ponies wearing clothes felt somewhat unnatural to her. Even her earrings and ear piercings had to be removed from her ears every night, otherwise she couldn't sleep. Mostly, her husband helped her with it. With unicorn magic it was easy to click-twist-open the caps on the earrings, a thing she couldn't do with her own hooves. Back to the clothes - she found it weird that ponies wore them. They had enough fur to cover themselves. Back in her days, everypony walked around in his birthday suit. She shook her head. 'Don't... just stop staring, okay?' 'Don't stop staring?' Sunburst asked. 'Or just stop staring?' His mother took a deep breath and said, 'If you do not come with me at this very moment, I'll send you to Cloudsdale to live with your grandparents.' 'Fine,' Sunburst muttered. 'Go 'head.' His mother was taken aback for a moment but quickly recovered herself. 'Okay, I'll ask 'em then.' Of course she wasn't being serious at all. Of course. Bored? Sunburst had gotten used to the voice in his head and simply shrugged. You're just looking out of that window, his voice continued. Isn't there anything you want to do right now? The unicorn looked up and saw Cloudsdale. From his spot, it just looked like a giant group of clouds with rainbows, but he knew better. 'I'd like to explore Cloudsdale once...' he replied. Exactly! the voice said. Why... why won't you just sneak out of the house, look for Blue Balloon and ask her if you could... "borrow" her hot-air balloon? 'Because,' Sunburst said. 'I cannot leave the house without permission. My father's too strict, my mother's omniscient and my brother is suspicious.' It sounded like the voice sighed in dissapointment. 'Yo, Sunny,' Redlight said. "Sunny" frowned. 'If you call me Sunny óne more time, I'll rip your wings off,' he said. Redlight laughed. 'Of course, little brother. You will rip MY wings off?' 'Yeah,' Sunburst replied. 'It's not like you can rip off MINE.' Redlight thought it would be smart to end the discussion before it'd turn into something serious, but Sunburst had thrown a pillow at him already. 'Hay!' Redlight yelled. 'You'll get that back!' He threw a giant stuffed alligator at Sunburst, but he stopped it in its flight. 'Catch!' he yelled, and threw it back. Redlight ducked down to avoid the flying alligator plush, accompanied by beams of pure terror. Tickly terror. 'Ahhh, stop it!' he cried, as Sunburst attacked him with his so-called "tickle-beams". His mother wanted him to find a better name for it, but he thought tickle-beams was just fine. He had made up the spell himself, no books, no lessons, so he decided he could name it anything he wanted. Sunburst stopped beaming his brother. 'Mercy?' he asked. 'Mercy!' his brother said, as he pulled the alligator closer to cover him. Sunburst took a deep breath. 'Good. Now say, who is lord and ruler of the attic?' 'I am!' his brother replied. Sunburst's horn illuminated as he walked towards his brother. 'Who, you say?' 'Fine!' Redlight shouted. 'You are.' Sunburst smiled. 'Thought so.' A City In The Clouds'Move it, idiot!' the Pegasus pony said. Sunburst looked up from his book, and saw a tiny cloud floating over his head. 'Eh?' he said, and he climbed out of his hammock. The blue Pegasus landed next to him. 'Good, now push it a bit more to the right. No, no. The óther right.' Sunburst didn't know these two Pegasi, but they weren't talking to him. One was as blue as he was, with a fluffy pink mane and tail. She was older than him, he thought, and she already had her cutie mark. The other one was more grayish. She was a blankflank, and of the same age as Sunburst. 'Derpy!' the older Pegasus yelled. 'C'mon, seriously?' There was something wrong with her eyes. They just... didn't seem right. 'Uh, sorry, Cloud Breaker,' she said from up above. 'I... just don't know what went wrong...' The cutie mark of the older pony was two tiny clouds bursting apart, and Sunburst thought he'd seen her before. In Cloudsdale, maybe? 'Yeah, what could have gone wrong?' she asked sarcastically. 'Please, Derpy. PLEASE. Do something right ONCE.' 'Where do you want that cloud?' Sunburst said. The two Pegasi looked at him in surprise. 'What?' the pony appearently called "Cloud Breaker" asked. Sunburst's horn illuminated. 'No, I mean it. Need some help?' 'Yeah!' Derpy said enthusiastically. She jumped off the cloud and landed a bit roughly. 'Hey,' she said, her eyes all goggly. 'Hey...' Sunburst said uneasily, as he had never seen anypony like her before. How did she become so weird? He then continued, 'So, where do you want me to drag that cloud?' 'Over there.' The older pony pointed in the distance. 'That piece of grass needs to be watered. And Derpy just can't get these things right.' Derpy looked at her hooves. 'Uh, I'm sorry, Cloud,' she said. Sunburst beamed at the cloud and got it in his grip. 'Okay, over there?' Suddenly, the cloud turned all gray and it started to pour rainwater. 'Quick, quick!' Cloud Breaker said to Sunburst, and the unicorn pony did the best he could to get the cloud above the field. The older Pegasus took off and helped pushing the cloud towards the grass, but it was too late. 'Sorry,' Sunburst said as the raincloud disappeared. It had emptied itself and now it was gone. Cloud Breaker rolled her eyes. 'I guess we have to get a new one,' she said, and reached out for Derpy. 'C'mon, silly. Let's get some more clouds.' Sunburst saw the two Pegasi fade in the distance, and he felt sad and frustrated. He only tried to help, why didn't it work out the way he wanted? Of course, he couldn't help it that it started to rain, because he only had practiced that spell for so long. It was terribly hard to drag a cloud, for it was made out of a giant amount of very tiny drops of water, and you had to grab them all at the same time and keep them on their place. Still, he was dissapointed with himself. And the Pegasi probably were, too. He sighed as he crawled back in his hammock, and levitated his book into his hooves. Good, where was he? The spells in his grandparents' book couldn't be that hard. He practiced his magic almost his whole life now, he could do this. Hm, a teleport spell. Not for ponies, but for plushies. He rolled his eyes. He was too old for this. Now, where could he find a plushie? 'Hnnnng...' Sunburst closed his eyes as he completely focussed on the spell. His horn shot some fireworks, but that was about it. Frustrated, he threw the book across the room. Then, he stood up to fetch it and try again. He sighed and put the pony plush back in front of him. His horn illuminated as he tried a levitation spell, and then he immediately switched to teleportation. It worked. The plush disappeared. Sunburst opened his eyes and looked around in surprise. 'Woah,' he said to himself. Woah indeed, his brain replied. But... where did it go? Sunburst thought about the same thing, and searched through his room. He pulled off the blankets and turned his pillowcase inside out, but the hoof-stitched mud-coloured heavily-outworn plushie was nowhere to find. 'Criiiiispyyyyy!' he cried out, as if the stuffed pony was going to answer. 'He's here!' he heard his mother's voice from downstairs. Sunburst hurried down the stairs and saw his mother doing the laundry. 'Look,' she said, and pulled out the perfectly clean Mr. Crispy. Sunburst grinned. 'What's it doing there?' he asked. His mother tossed the plush at him and said, 'I thought he could use a shower. He smelled.' Her son frowned. If his mother had washed Crispy, then what did he just teleport away? 'You were right, mind,' Sunburst said. 'There's a lot of things I'd love to do right now.' Like what? his mind asked. The unicorn frowned. 'Eh, I think... well, Cloudsdale's no option, y'know.' Why not? 'Mum would notice. Also, dad would kill me. He would kill me until I'm dead.' True. Whatcha gonna do about it? The unicorn rolled his eyes. 'I have no idea,' he said. 'You mind?' Yes, I am your mind, the voice said. 'That wasn't exactly what I meant, but...' You'll thank me later, his mind continued. Believe me. You're going on an adventure! Sunburst looked out of his window and bit his lip. 'I... I don't know, really...' Fine then, said the voice. 'I mean... it'd be fun, but I am... it's a bad idea with my parents, mind,' the unicorn continued, but his mind didn't listen anymore. He sighed. 'Great. Nopony to talk to, nopony to play with...' 'You could play with me,' his Pegasus brother said. 'C'mon, Sunny. Please?' Sunburst hadn't heard his brother enter the room they shared, so he startled and threw a pillow at him. 'Oops, sorry bro,' he said, as he nearly knocked Redlight out with the pillow crossing the room at nearly 120 mph. Redlight shook his head. 'Eh, nevermind. Who were you talking to?' 'Nopony,' Sunburst quickly replied. 'Nopony at all.' Redlight sighed. 'Well, fine,' he said. 'Mum's downstairs. She wants us to play Monopony with her.' 'Yay.' The brothers quietly went down the stairs. 'I win. Again!' Redlight said happily. Sunburst rolled his eyes. 'Congratulations,' he said. 'Want me to clap or something?' 'Sunburst,' his mother said. 'C'mon.' The unicorn sighed. He wished that he was somewhere else, instead of being locked in the most boring living room in all of Equestria, with the most boring family ever, playing the most boring game of all time. He was not really a pony who liked board games. He liked to be outside, climbing trees, staring at clouds and chasing his dreams. 'Woah, Sunburst? You there?' Redlight waved his hoof up and down in front of his brother's face. Sunburst didn't say a thing as he stood up from the dining table and walked away. 'Hay, Fluttershy!' The yellow pony cringed and froze. Sunburst walked up to her. 'Eh, I said hay... Fluttershy?' The little Pegasus didn't reply, she only looked up to Sunburst from under her hair. The unicorn smiled. 'C'mon, I won't hurt you,' he said. 'I only have a question.' The hallway of the school was filled with laughter and the sound of hoofsteps, finding their way through the crowd. Fluttershy squeaked something Sunburst didn't understand at all. 'Sorry?' he said, but then the scared Pegasus ran away and disappeared in the crowd. Sunburst rolled his eyes. 'C'mon! I just wanted to ask something!' 'Well, Sunburst,' he suddenly heard. He turned around to see a rather familiar pony. 'Hey Fleur!' he said, as he recognized his friend. She walked up to him. 'What did you want to ask?' Sunburst smiled shyly. 'Just wondering...' '...what a simple girl like Fluttershy is doing in Canterlot? Why, I actually wonder myself, too.' Sunburst shook his head - this was really something he had néver thought about - and said, 'Nah, I wonder what Cloudsdale is like.' Fleur smiled. 'Ah. Well, full of Pegasi, I think.' 'Of course it is. But, I mean, are they nice? Would they be needing a unicorn there?' The white unicorn - about one and a half year older than Sunburst - simply shrugged. 'I have no idea. Why do you want to know?' The blue unicorn grinned. 'Neh, it's not that important.' At that moment, the school bell rang. 'See you later,' Sunburst said, and he walked away. As he wandered through the large, overdecorated halls he thought about the city in the clouds. Oh, how he wished to return. Also, he wondered who that rude green Pegasus was. She wasn't exactly mean, more cheeky. She probably lived close to his grandparents. Maybe they'd meet again, when he visited his grandparents' house. As he was walking in his own world, he heard somepony say, 'Hay, sleepy! Watch out where you walk!' A younger pony, also a unicorn, placed his hoof on Sunburst's tail. 'Eh, what?' Sunburst asked surprised. 'What's going on?' The unicorn squinted. 'I saw you talking to Fleur De Lis,' he said. 'I'm only making sure that you're not stealing her from me.' Sunburst couldn't help but chuckled. 'Come on, I am totally not into her.' He thought for a moment. 'I'm not into anypony, actually,' he then said. 'She's all yours, partner!' He gently pushed the little unicorn away and smiled as he left. How cute. A tiny filly trying to make Fleur fall in love with him. Pff, he could be her little brother! Sunburst then got an idea and turned around. 'Hay, little guy!' he said, trying to get the unicorn's attention. 'What?' a voice sounded from beneath. Sunburst looked down and saw that the unicorn was a lot closer than he thought. Sunburst's horn illuminated and a bouquet of white and purple roses appeared. 'Here,' he said. 'You should give this to her.' The unicorn grabbed the flowers with his own magic. 'Woah, really? Thanks... eh...' 'I'm Sunburst,' said Sunburst. 'Good luck.' He was pleased as he watched the little filly storm off with the flowers. Fluttershy had looked from behind the door of the ladies' room. Maybe the unicorn wasn't that scary at all. Maybe she just should get herself together and... 'Hay, Klutzershy!' she suddenly heard, and cringed. Behind her, there were two earth ponies. 'You're so shy, your mummy doesn't even know your name!' one said. The poor Pegasus bit her lip as she tried to keep her tears inside. She squeaked softly as she slowly walked into the ladies' room. Another pony closed the door. 'What were they talking about?' she asked. Fluttershy looked up to see a pink, young mare with a cutie mark of a bow and arrow. 'Hm?' the mare asked. Fluttershy dove in one of the toilet booths and quickly closed the door behind her.
Happy Birthday To YouSunburst has never been normal. Not that he wanted to, being normal would make him look like Mom and Dad. And that was the last thing he'd want. Sunburst was a unicorn, and as you know, every unicorn has his own kind of magic. He always thought his specialty was music. Without any effort, he could play piano, kazoo, drums, and many more things. That was, until his twelfth birthday. 'Suuuuuuuuun! Don't you dare to forget your scarf!' Sunburst sighed. 'No, mom. Don't worry.' His mother had decided to take him to his grandparents in the clouds for the first time. She'd thought of everything. They would go with a hot-air balloon, and Sunburst could stay in the basket the whole time. His grandparents had visited them many times before, but Sunburst wanted to know what it was like in Cloudsdale. He'd never been higher that the roof of their house, and that was only because he had to fetch his baseball. His mother pinched his cheek. 'Aren't you excited?' He had to admit he was eager to feel the air up there, to meet Pegasi - the only one he knew was that girl in his class, Fluttershy, and she never said anything - and to play with the clouds he was named after. He still didn't really know why. As he was wrapping his scarf around his neck, his mother walked in with a colourfully wrapped package between her wings. 'Take it,' she said. 'Happy birthday, sweetie.' Sunburst eagerly unwrapped the present and found a heavy book, called "The Traveler's Guide to the Clouds". The book was hard to carry. He grinned and turned the book around to read what the back said. There was only a print of large, friendly letters saying "Have Fun". 'I know how you love to read, and the trip to the clouds is a long one,' his mother said. 'You'll have something to read in the hot-air balloon!' Her son folded the book open and read the first page. He smiled. 'This is just great! Thanks, mom!' 'Let's go,' his mother said, and walked out the door. Sunburst quickly levitated the book and ran after her. Outside, there was an enormous hot-air balloon tied to a pole in the ground. The balloon itself was brightly yellow with blue ribbons all over it, and Sunburst found it a little girly. His mother jumped in the basket and reached out for her son. 'Let's go,' she said, and untied the rope. Sunburst was a little nervous, as this was his first time he'd actually fly. He sat down in a corner of the basket, not daring to look at the view as the balloon got higher and higher. His mom bumped his shoulder. 'C'mon, enjoy the sight!' The unicorn stood up and wrapped his arms around one of the ropes connecting the basket with the balloon. He slowly peeked over the straw edge and gasped. The view was beautiful and breathtaking, indeed. When he looked down, he saw his house, and his father waving at him. Up was the silhouette of Cloudsdale, far far away. He barely could wait. He sat in the corner and folded the book open again. He was a quick reader and his vocabulary was extremely large for a pony his age, but after he ended the first chapter, he already lost what happened in the story. It was about a colt living on his own, then they wanted to break down his house for a road from A to B and then his spaceponyfriend came to the rescue by saving him right before his planet was destroyed. He scratched his head in confusion but decided to keep on reading, and by the time the book was telling him about the worst poetry in the universe, the balloon landed with a soft -poof-. Excitedly his mother jumped out of the balloon and knocked on the door of the fluffy house they landed next to. A very, very old-looking Pegasus pony answered the door. 'Oh, hello sweetie,' she said. 'C'mon in, where's the tiny little boy?' Sunburst didn't hear it, he had kind of disappeared in his book. His mother bucked against the basket to wake him up. The young unicorn snapped out of his fantasy and looked over the edge of the basket. 'Hi grandma!' he said, and he waved. His grandmother reached out for his hand. 'Oh, hello little Sunburst, happy birthday to you! Where is your brother?' 'Red Light is still at home,' the unicorn replied. His mother smiled and explained that this was a trip for Sunburst's birthday, and that he wanted to visit the house of his grandparents alone with his mother. 'Oh, hi there, my grandson,' a cracky voice said, and Sunburst saw his grandfather walk out of the fluffy house. 'Isn't this a lovely place to have a picknick,' Sunburst's mom said. Grandma replied with, 'Eat another sandwich, sweetie.' Sunburst's mother wanted to say no, but her mother kept offering her a sandwich so she thought that accepting it would be the best way to make it stop. She was wrong, because right after the sandwich followed another one, and then an apple and some of the banana cake she made for Sunburst's birthday and then she jumped up and opened her purse. 'I almost forgot to give your present!' she said, and grabbed a mid-sized, wrapped box. 'Here you go, sweetie.' Sunburst carefully tore off the paper, because it was pretty and shiny and it'd be a shame if he would ruin it by tearing it apart. There again appeared a book, this time it said, "Basic Unicorn Spells, Grade Two". His grandmother pinched his cheek. 'Last year, gramps and I gave you grade one. Now you can practice even more things!' Sunburst was excited, because he had learned about everything he knew from the frist part and now he'd learn more advanced spells. 'Thanks, grandma!' he said, as he sat on the side of the basket. They had flipped it over, so he could sit with the others without having to stand up all the time and being completely isolated. He got another sandwich of the plate and ate while reading the first few spells. 'Oh, but I can do this,' he said confidently, and his horn started shining. He closed his eyes and frowned. He sighed. 'Nope, not yet,' he then said, and took a bite of his sandwich. Suddenly, a small brown Pegasus came hopping by. He stopped in surprise. 'Wow, aww you a WEAL unicown?' he asked. Sunburst nodded, slightly proud. 'Wat aww you doin' up hewe?' the filly then asked. The unicorn smiled and said, 'I am currently celebrating my twelfth birthday,' he replied. He heard the soft steps of somepony walking on a cloud and a mossy green pony with yellow hair appeared. 'C'mon, you little. We have to get you to daycare.' She then looked at Sunburst. 'Hey, sorry for my brother. What's a unicorn doing up here?' Sunburst sighed. 'I'm celebrating my twelfth birthday here with my family,' he said, and pointed at his mum and grandparents. The mare squinted, thinking about what could bring a unicorn with clear Pegasus parents up high in Cloudsdale, but then shrugged and said, 'Cool, happy birthday. C'mon, little fella. Let's go.' She lifted off and her brother followed her, his wings not flapping but buzzing since they were so small. Sunburst's mother smiled. 'How nice of her to congratulate you, wasn't it?' The unicorn nodded in silence and folded the book open again. The story was way too interesting. His mother dropped a glass of orange juice, and Sunburst's horn flared yellow for a moment as he put the glass back on the clouds. 'Thanks, sweetie,' his mother said surprised, for Sunburst was the only colt she knew who could more than one thing at the same time. Suddenly, his attention was drawn by something way more interesting than the book. A small, bypassing cloud on touch-distance. He quickly closed the book before it was too late and stretched his leg out to touch the very thing he was named after. 'Sunny, be care...' his mum tried to say, but then her son lost his balance. For a moment, time froze and he looked down at the cloud beneath the basket, knowing that only Pegasi could feel their solidness and that he'd fall right through them. Then, he fell. A small poof sounded as he landed face-first into the soft and fluffy cloud.
Silliness and Anger'Ouch,' was the first thing Sunburst said. Clouds didn't feel like he expected them to feel. If he wanted to, he could stomp a hole in them, but still it felt like he landed on concrete with a thin layer of foam covering it. Grandma Pegasus immediately hurried to help her grandson get up. 'Sweetie, what is this?' she asked surprised. 'Get back in the basket. Now,' Sunburst's mum demanded, and her son, for once, obediently followed her orders. His mother then turned to her parents. 'What is this?' she said, her voice trembling with anger. 'Did you two know about...' Sunburst's grandparents both shook their heads in utter shock. Sunburst himself sat in the basket, shaking and astonished, continually touching the cloud beneath him. Yep, he could still feel it. He heard his mum and grandparents arguing, but it didn't really get through. His head was filled with a loud buzz, accompanied with a high noise he couldn't actually hear, he felt it. The world shook before his eyes, as if there was an earthquake, except that such things didn't happen in Cloudsdale. He knocked on his head a couple of times, and the noise and the shaking stopped. 'He can hear you!' he heard his mother yell. And then, his grandfather, 'Who cares? You knew he would end up in here!' 'I didn't!' his mother protested. 'I never knew he could... could walk on clouds! I mean, he's a unicorn, for Celestia's sake!' You can't hear them, Sunburst thought, no, heard a voice in his head. They are wrong... 'Who are you?' the unicorn said. The three other ponies turned around to Sunburst. 'What did you hear?' said his grandmother. Sunburst shook his head. 'I... nothing. There's nothing.' 'See!' his grandfather yelled. 'I told ya'!' The quarrel started again and Sunburst pressed his hooves against his ears. 'Stop it,' he whispered. Stop it, his mind replied. Whoever it was that had nested itself into his head, it was right. Sunburst took a very deep breath and yelled, 'Shut the BUCK up, it's my BIRTHDAY!' 'Sunny,' his mother immediately protested. 'Go wash your mouth now.' The unicorn bit his lip and then, he carefully stepped out of the basket. Nothing happened. 'Look, mum,' he said. 'It's safe. Now I wish to know, WHO of you did already know this?' Good job. His grandparents nervously looked at one another and his mother frowned. 'THESE two,' she said. 'These two know it runs in the fam'ly. These two know that when you have a unicorn dad and a Pegasus mom, you'll be able to walk on these cloudy substances. Your gramps, in fact, has found this out all by himself since his MOTHER was a cloud-hopping unicorn.' 'Hay!' Sunburst's grandfather said. 'A little bit of respect for my mother would be nice!' 'Quit it,' Sunburst whispered as he heard his family starting a fight again. 'C'mon, please! T'is my birthday only once a year!' Nopony listened. The three stood in a circle, looking at one another and shouting the most random insults. Sunburst was done with it. Quietly, he walked past the trio. Nopony looked at him, though, and the clouds blocked every hint of sound. Where he first had taken very slow and cautious steps, he now had the courage to run. Faster and faster, the clouds soft yet solid underneat his feet. It was funny to run that fast without making a single sound. He felt like he was flying, but of course, he wasn't. Suddenly, he was snapped out of the narcotic feeling by a loud yell. 'Hay! Watch it!' He felt a bump and landed - again - with his face first in the clouds. 'Owch,' he said, as his eyes fluttered open. 'What... Why?' The pony next to him was strangely familiar. Oh, yes. She was the one with that tiny brother, wasn't she? She was a blankflank, she had long, messy hair, she wore a blue bracelet and... she had just tripped him. 'What was that for!?' he said indignantly. The femme rolled her eyes and simply pointed at the cloud they were standing on. Sunburst followed the line of her leg and saw he wasn't far away from the edge of the fluffy puffy cloud. Below, there was a whole lot of nothing before it got to a small field. If he had taken another three steps, he would've been dead. He blinked a couple of times in confusion and shock, and then looked up at the mare. 'You're still at the ground,' she said. 'Cloud, more.' 'Heh. Am I?' The mare sighed. 'Ugh. Why were you running in the first place?' Sunburst groaned and got up. As he sat on the clouds, he thought about if he should tell the Pegasus about his disastrous birthday. 'Well?' she asked, and left him with no choice than to tell. He sighed and said, 'Well, today is my twelfth birthday and I came here for the first time in my life to celebrate it with my Pegasus grandparents. By accident, I found out I am able to walk on clouds, which shouldn't be possible since I am a unicorn, but still I CAN WALK ON CLOUDS. Now it appears my grandparents knew it all the time since it runs in the fam'ly or something and my mum and they are in a HUGE fight about why they didn't tell me and if they should have to...' 'Geez, really?' the Pegasus interrupted him. 'Oh man, that must be horrible!' Sunburst nodded and continued. 'I hoped this birthday would be the best birthday ever, but all that happened was this investigation and the fact that my fam'ly is a mess right now. It sucks! It totally SUCKS!' The green Pegasus sat down next to him and rised an eyebrow. 'Woah. Especially when you don't have five brothers to take care of because you're mother is too retarded to do it and you have to keep your whole family alive by yourself. Must be hard for you.' Sunburst didn't know what to say. What the buck did just happen? 'Meh, you probably don't even mind it,' the green pony continued. 'Just like I don't mind your bucked up birthday. I have to buy groceries and bring my brothers to school, later.' Sunburst was astonished. Silently, he watched the green Pegasus soar and fly away. He scratched his snout in confusion - it was a miracle she didn't make a remark about it, he oftenly got bullied with his snout - and watched the tiny figure become smaller and smaller in the distance. She had saved his life, sort of. A'course he had seen that cliff himself, he just... suddenly liked danger. Sure, the voice said. Sunburst nervously looked around, but there was nopony on the cloud but him and - in a greater distance - his arguing family. His mother looked like she'd explode with rage, and his grandparents didn't look better, really. But still, there was this strange voice. It was his own voice, undoubtedly, it just sounded slightly... slightly... Darker? the voice said. 'Yeah,' Sunburst said thoughtless. Then, clear again, 'Wait, eh?' The voice in his head was quiet. Sunburst shook his head in confusion and the clouds in his mind slowly disappeared. He starteto think clear and realize that he was actually standing on a fluffy puffy rain machine, made by the Pegasi in Cloudsdale and used everywhere in Equestria. He was a unicorn. Standing on a cloud. He looked down to the field and was slightly proud.
DesireSunburst found it hard to stop watching the dancing ponies around the crackling campfire, but his mother dragged him away from the camp. 'Gypsy ponies are not the ponies to hang out with,' she muttered. Sunburst sighed. 'C'mon, mom,' he said. 'It's...' 'NO.' his mother said. 'You come with me now. We have grocery shoppings to do.' Since the whole discovery of Sunburst's density towards clouds, there was an unidentified tension between him and his mother. She had decided not to tell his father or brother, for this could cause another quarrel again. And - next to have Sunburst fillynapped by those hórrible gypsies -, that'd be the last thing she wanted. Although her ears were filled with large rings themselves, she looked disapprovingly at the pierced ears of the dancing ponies. They wore loose clotwondered hes and she why they even wore clothes at all. Nopony did. Okay, there were ponies around who wore pants from time to time, but only the farmers because otherwise they'd be knee-high in the mud. And yeah, she wore jewelery herself. Mostly earrings. Still, ponies wearing clothes felt somewhat unnatural to her. Even her earrings and ear piercings had to be removed from her ears every night, otherwise she couldn't sleep. Mostly, her husband helped her with it. With unicorn magic it was easy to click-twist-open the caps on the earrings, a thing she couldn't do with her own hooves. Back to the clothes - she found it weird that ponies wore them. They had enough fur to cover themselves. Back in her days, everypony walked around in his birthday suit. She shook her head. 'Don't... just stop staring, okay?' 'Don't stop staring?' Sunburst asked. 'Or just stop staring?' His mother took a deep breath and said, 'If you do not come with me at this very moment, I'll send you to Cloudsdale to live with your grandparents.' 'Fine,' Sunburst muttered. 'Go 'head.' His mother was taken aback for a moment but quickly recovered herself. 'Okay, I'll ask 'em then.' Of course she wasn't being serious at all. Of course. Bored? Sunburst had gotten used to the voice in his head and simply shrugged. You're just looking out of that window, his voice continued. Isn't there anything you want to do right now? The unicorn looked up and saw Cloudsdale. From his spot, it just looked like a giant group of clouds with rainbows, but he knew better. 'I'd like to explore Cloudsdale once...' he replied. Exactly! the voice said. Why... why won't you just sneak out of the house, look for Blue Balloon and ask her if you could... "borrow" her hot-air balloon? 'Because,' Sunburst said. 'I cannot leave the house without permission. My father's too strict, my mother's omniscient and my brother is suspicious.' It sounded like the voice sighed in dissapointment. 'Yo, Sunny,' Redlight said. "Sunny" frowned. 'If you call me Sunny óne more time, I'll rip your wings off,' he said. Redlight laughed. 'Of course, little brother. You will rip MY wings off?' 'Yeah,' Sunburst replied. 'It's not like you can rip off MINE.' Redlight thought it would be smart to end the discussion before it'd turn into something serious, but Sunburst had thrown a pillow at him already. 'Hay!' Redlight yelled. 'You'll get that back!' He threw a giant stuffed alligator at Sunburst, but he stopped it in its flight. 'Catch!' he yelled, and threw it back. Redlight ducked down to avoid the flying alligator plush, accompanied by beams of pure terror. Tickly terror. 'Ahhh, stop it!' he cried, as Sunburst attacked him with his so-called "tickle-beams". His mother wanted him to find a better name for it, but he thought tickle-beams was just fine. He had made up the spell himself, no books, no lessons, so he decided he could name it anything he wanted. Sunburst stopped beaming his brother. 'Mercy?' he asked. 'Mercy!' his brother said, as he pulled the alligator closer to cover him. Sunburst took a deep breath. 'Good. Now say, who is lord and ruler of the attic?' 'I am!' his brother replied. Sunburst's horn illuminated as he walked towards his brother. 'Who, you say?' 'Fine!' Redlight shouted. 'You are.' Sunburst smiled. 'Thought so.'
A City In The Clouds'Move it, idiot!' the Pegasus pony said. Sunburst looked up from his book, and saw a tiny cloud floating over his head. 'Eh?' he said, and he climbed out of his hammock. The blue Pegasus landed next to him. 'Good, now push it a bit more to the right. No, no. The óther right.' Sunburst didn't know these two Pegasi, but they weren't talking to him. One was as blue as he was, with a fluffy pink mane and tail. She was older than him, he thought, and she already had her cutie mark. The other one was more grayish. She was a blankflank, and of the same age as Sunburst. 'Derpy!' the older Pegasus yelled. 'C'mon, seriously?' There was something wrong with her eyes. They just... didn't seem right. 'Uh, sorry, Cloud Breaker,' she said from up above. 'I... just don't know what went wrong...' The cutie mark of the older pony was two tiny clouds bursting apart, and Sunburst thought he'd seen her before. In Cloudsdale, maybe? 'Yeah, what could have gone wrong?' she asked sarcastically. 'Please, Derpy. PLEASE. Do something right ONCE.' 'Where do you want that cloud?' Sunburst said. The two Pegasi looked at him in surprise. 'What?' the pony appearently called "Cloud Breaker" asked. Sunburst's horn illuminated. 'No, I mean it. Need some help?' 'Yeah!' Derpy said enthusiastically. She jumped off the cloud and landed a bit roughly. 'Hey,' she said, her eyes all goggly. 'Hey...' Sunburst said uneasily, as he had never seen anypony like her before. How did she become so weird? He then continued, 'So, where do you want me to drag that cloud?' 'Over there.' The older pony pointed in the distance. 'That piece of grass needs to be watered. And Derpy just can't get these things right.' Derpy looked at her hooves. 'Uh, I'm sorry, Cloud,' she said. Sunburst beamed at the cloud and got it in his grip. 'Okay, over there?' Suddenly, the cloud turned all gray and it started to pour rainwater. 'Quick, quick!' Cloud Breaker said to Sunburst, and the unicorn pony did the best he could to get the cloud above the field. The older Pegasus took off and helped pushing the cloud towards the grass, but it was too late. 'Sorry,' Sunburst said as the raincloud disappeared. It had emptied itself and now it was gone. Cloud Breaker rolled her eyes. 'I guess we have to get a new one,' she said, and reached out for Derpy. 'C'mon, silly. Let's get some more clouds.' Sunburst saw the two Pegasi fade in the distance, and he felt sad and frustrated. He only tried to help, why didn't it work out the way he wanted? Of course, he couldn't help it that it started to rain, because he only had practiced that spell for so long. It was terribly hard to drag a cloud, for it was made out of a giant amount of very tiny drops of water, and you had to grab them all at the same time and keep them on their place. Still, he was dissapointed with himself. And the Pegasi probably were, too. He sighed as he crawled back in his hammock, and levitated his book into his hooves. Good, where was he? The spells in his grandparents' book couldn't be that hard. He practiced his magic almost his whole life now, he could do this. Hm, a teleport spell. Not for ponies, but for plushies. He rolled his eyes. He was too old for this. Now, where could he find a plushie? 'Hnnnng...' Sunburst closed his eyes as he completely focussed on the spell. His horn shot some fireworks, but that was about it. Frustrated, he threw the book across the room. Then, he stood up to fetch it and try again. He sighed and put the pony plush back in front of him. His horn illuminated as he tried a levitation spell, and then he immediately switched to teleportation. It worked. The plush disappeared. Sunburst opened his eyes and looked around in surprise. 'Woah,' he said to himself. Woah indeed, his brain replied. But... where did it go? Sunburst thought about the same thing, and searched through his room. He pulled off the blankets and turned his pillowcase inside out, but the hoof-stitched mud-coloured heavily-outworn plushie was nowhere to find. 'Criiiiispyyyyy!' he cried out, as if the stuffed pony was going to answer. 'He's here!' he heard his mother's voice from downstairs. Sunburst hurried down the stairs and saw his mother doing the laundry. 'Look,' she said, and pulled out the perfectly clean Mr. Crispy. Sunburst grinned. 'What's it doing there?' he asked. His mother tossed the plush at him and said, 'I thought he could use a shower. He smelled.' Her son frowned. If his mother had washed Crispy, then what did he just teleport away? 'You were right, mind,' Sunburst said. 'There's a lot of things I'd love to do right now.' Like what? his mind asked. The unicorn frowned. 'Eh, I think... well, Cloudsdale's no option, y'know.' Why not? 'Mum would notice. Also, dad would kill me. He would kill me until I'm dead.' True. Whatcha gonna do about it? The unicorn rolled his eyes. 'I have no idea,' he said. 'You mind?' Yes, I am your mind, the voice said. 'That wasn't exactly what I meant, but...' You'll thank me later, his mind continued. Believe me. You're going on an adventure! Sunburst looked out of his window and bit his lip. 'I... I don't know, really...' Fine then, said the voice. 'I mean... it'd be fun, but I am... it's a bad idea with my parents, mind,' the unicorn continued, but his mind didn't listen anymore. He sighed. 'Great. Nopony to talk to, nopony to play with...' 'You could play with me,' his Pegasus brother said. 'C'mon, Sunny. Please?' Sunburst hadn't heard his brother enter the room they shared, so he startled and threw a pillow at him. 'Oops, sorry bro,' he said, as he nearly knocked Redlight out with the pillow crossing the room at nearly 120 mph. Redlight shook his head. 'Eh, nevermind. Who were you talking to?' 'Nopony,' Sunburst quickly replied. 'Nopony at all.' Redlight sighed. 'Well, fine,' he said. 'Mum's downstairs. She wants us to play Monopony with her.' 'Yay.' The brothers quietly went down the stairs. 'I win. Again!' Redlight said happily. Sunburst rolled his eyes. 'Congratulations,' he said. 'Want me to clap or something?' 'Sunburst,' his mother said. 'C'mon.' The unicorn sighed. He wished that he was somewhere else, instead of being locked in the most boring living room in all of Equestria, with the most boring family ever, playing the most boring game of all time. He was not really a pony who liked board games. He liked to be outside, climbing trees, staring at clouds and chasing his dreams. 'Woah, Sunburst? You there?' Redlight waved his hoof up and down in front of his brother's face. Sunburst didn't say a thing as he stood up from the dining table and walked away. 'Hay, Fluttershy!' The yellow pony cringed and froze. Sunburst walked up to her. 'Eh, I said hay... Fluttershy?' The little Pegasus didn't reply, she only looked up to Sunburst from under her hair. The unicorn smiled. 'C'mon, I won't hurt you,' he said. 'I only have a question.' The hallway of the school was filled with laughter and the sound of hoofsteps, finding their way through the crowd. Fluttershy squeaked something Sunburst didn't understand at all. 'Sorry?' he said, but then the scared Pegasus ran away and disappeared in the crowd. Sunburst rolled his eyes. 'C'mon! I just wanted to ask something!' 'Well, Sunburst,' he suddenly heard. He turned around to see a rather familiar pony. 'Hey Fleur!' he said, as he recognized his friend. She walked up to him. 'What did you want to ask?' Sunburst smiled shyly. 'Just wondering...' '...what a simple girl like Fluttershy is doing in Canterlot? Why, I actually wonder myself, too.' Sunburst shook his head - this was really something he had néver thought about - and said, 'Nah, I wonder what Cloudsdale is like.' Fleur smiled. 'Ah. Well, full of Pegasi, I think.' 'Of course it is. But, I mean, are they nice? Would they be needing a unicorn there?' The white unicorn - about one and a half year older than Sunburst - simply shrugged. 'I have no idea. Why do you want to know?' The blue unicorn grinned. 'Neh, it's not that important.' At that moment, the school bell rang. 'See you later,' Sunburst said, and he walked away. As he wandered through the large, overdecorated halls he thought about the city in the clouds. Oh, how he wished to return. Also, he wondered who that rude green Pegasus was. She wasn't exactly mean, more cheeky. She probably lived close to his grandparents. Maybe they'd meet again, when he visited his grandparents' house. As he was walking in his own world, he heard somepony say, 'Hay, sleepy! Watch out where you walk!' A younger pony, also a unicorn, placed his hoof on Sunburst's tail. 'Eh, what?' Sunburst asked surprised. 'What's going on?' The unicorn squinted. 'I saw you talking to Fleur De Lis,' he said. 'I'm only making sure that you're not stealing her from me.' Sunburst couldn't help but chuckled. 'Come on, I am totally not into her.' He thought for a moment. 'I'm not into anypony, actually,' he then said. 'She's all yours, partner!' He gently pushed the little unicorn away and smiled as he left. How cute. A tiny filly trying to make Fleur fall in love with him. Pff, he could be her little brother! Sunburst then got an idea and turned around. 'Hay, little guy!' he said, trying to get the unicorn's attention. 'What?' a voice sounded from beneath. Sunburst looked down and saw that the unicorn was a lot closer than he thought. Sunburst's horn illuminated and a bouquet of white and purple roses appeared. 'Here,' he said. 'You should give this to her.' The unicorn grabbed the flowers with his own magic. 'Woah, really? Thanks... eh...' 'I'm Sunburst,' said Sunburst. 'Good luck.' He was pleased as he watched the little filly storm off with the flowers. Fluttershy had looked from behind the door of the ladies' room. Maybe the unicorn wasn't that scary at all. Maybe she just should get herself together and... 'Hay, Klutzershy!' she suddenly heard, and cringed. Behind her, there were two earth ponies. 'You're so shy, your mummy doesn't even know your name!' one said. The poor Pegasus bit her lip as she tried to keep her tears inside. She squeaked softly as she slowly walked into the ladies' room. Another pony closed the door. 'What were they talking about?' she asked. Fluttershy looked up to see a pink, young mare with a cutie mark of a bow and arrow. 'Hm?' the mare asked. Fluttershy dove in one of the toilet booths and quickly closed the door behind her.
