Here is "A New Outlook". This story takes place in the same universe as two of my other stories. Whether you have read them or not is irrelevent and is not necessary. At best, they will be contextual to this story, giving it some perspective. But besides that, sit back, relax, and enjoy the story. If you have a comment, be it negative or positive (or neutral) you may put it in a review if you want. It doesn't matter to me. I will be doing this story at my own pace and to help me I will be keeping a very strict timeline. It will also, most likely, happen quickly. This WILL NOT be a my usual 50,000-60,000 word story. Maybe twenty. Since I like to get this out of the way early, Rainbow is 29 and Thunder Clap is 30. The characters are anthro, which means the top half is completely human (except for wings and horns) and the bottom half (below the waist) is more horsish i.e. horse legs and tail. They are about the same height, with Thunder Clap being an inch or two taller. I'm also looking for a beta reader since I just can't seem to get my crap straight for the punctuation. No one's complained about it in a long time, but it's still average at best (to me). I also just want some consistent feedback on my stories. Also, I WILL be keeping this one teen. For sure. Enjoy.
May 2nd (Wednesday)
"Rainbow, where are you?" I asked myself as I flew over Ponyville. I was getting fed up with looking for her. She had told me in her letter that she would be waiting at the train station for me, but I got there hours ago. Well, maybe not hours. More like twenty minutes; but it felt like hours!
I kept scanning the ground for her unique mane, but I was losing hope fast. I had been searching for what felt like forever. And I was pretty fast.
I stopped and hovered. "Fine Rainbow. Have it your way. I'll just come back in six months." I said to myself. I was tired of looking and I was tired of waiting. I had stuff that I could be doing.
I turned and took off towards the train station to see when the next train back to cloudsdale would be.
As I was flying, something shot past me overhead.
"I recognize that flight-trail." I put on the speed and burst after it.
I started gaining on it and flew up next to it, just barely having my wing miss the other pegasi's.
"Rainbow!" I yelled to get her attention.
She looked over at me and grinned, then shot forward.
"Fine, have it your way." I put on even more speed, quickly gaining on her. When she saw me catch up she sped up once more. I responded with more speed of my own.
If she wanted a game of follow, I would happily oblige.
Suddenly she turned right, across my flight path, making me have to bob above her trail. I quickly veered towards her and resumed flying beside her.
"Rainbow!" I called. She looked over with that same devilish grin she always had. I pointed towards the ground since the wind was whipping my voice away.
In response, she took off. She poured on speed I didn't even know she had. However, I was pretty fast myself and raced after her.
She zig-zagged through the sky with me hot on her trail. Eventually, she rocketed into a cluster of clouds. I flew up high above it to wait for her to shoot out of it. After a few seconds, I knew that she wasn't going to.
I flew down into the cloud cluster and started listening for her wingbeats. Too late, I heard them flapping quickly behind me. Before I could turn to face her, she slammed into me and clamped her arms around my wings and my own arms, causing us to tumble. All the while, I could hear her hysterical laughter.
We fell down and smashed into a cloud, causing a rather large dent in it.
I felt her let go of me and flop down next to me on my right. I whipped my face out of the cloud, a little angry at her.
She took one look at me and started laughing even harder. I brought my hand up and felt that a bunch of cloud had covered my mane and turned it into its own creation.
I couldn't help laughing alongside her.
After we calmed down enough to catch our breaths, I took her in.
She still had that same rainbow mane and sky blue skin. They were beautiful compared to my unexciting rust colored mane and white skin.
She was wearing her deep blue jumper which exposed her muscle shirt underneath. She was also wearing her usual deep blue high waters. She hadn't changed a bit in the last six months since I had seen her. These weren't much different then my clothes, but instead of a muscle shirt, I had on an orange T.
"Forget I was coming today?" I asked her with a smile on my face.
"Nah, I just wanted to make you work for it." She answered.
"It's my birthday!" I complained to her.
"What of it?" She asked with a stoneface.
"It's the whole reason I'm here. You couldn't come to cloudsdale this year so I came here." I told her. I knew she already knew, but I also knew that she reveled in the fact that I would come this far to spend MY birthday with HER.
I glared at her.
"Alright fine!" She threw her hands up in defeat. "Happy birthday." She whispered.
"Thank you." I told her, a little sarcastically.
"So what do you want to do?" She asked me.
"Well, try to avoid Pinkie for one. I don't want a repeat of last year." I shivered. Last year had not ended well. Rainbow had taken her friend Pinkie with her to help plan my party last year. Let's just say she found a way to get three hundred pigs into the city and they...got loose. How? I don't know. And I never want to.
"Have it your way, but Pinkie always plans the best parties. You can't say that last year wasn't at least interesting." She said.
"I'll give you that, but I don't want it happening AGAIN. I still have nightmares." I shivered again.
She just laughed and slapped my arm playfully.
"Since you're here, why don't you come meet the rest of my friends? Fluttershy isn't feeling so hot right now, a little trouble in the everfree a few months ago, but everypony else should be up to it. Come on, they're all awesome. You know, in there own right."
Nice save. Always have to keep up the awesomest around shtick.
"Nah, I'm good. Right now, I just want to go to bed. That train ride sucked." I told her. I could see the sun already starting to set. That's what I got for taking the four o'clock train instead of the eight.
"Really? The great and powerful Thunder clap..." She started in a fake manly voice. "Is tired?" She ended it with her own voice and asked the question seriously.
"Yes, the great and powerful Thunder clap is very tired." I answered, starting to get annoyed. She should know by now that I get cranky when I'm tired. We've known each other for almost two decades now.
"Fine. You've got the angry look in your eyes. Follow me." There it is.
She stood up and took off. I stood up as well and took off after her. We flew for a few minutes toward the outskirts of town.
We soon came upon a large floating castle with a rainbow water fall coming out of it. I had seen her home a lot since she moved to ponyville, but it still amazed me whenever I saw it.
She flew over to it and landed on the landing pad in front of the door.
I set down right next to her.
It was at this moment that she noticed I didn't have any bags.
"Where is all your stuff?" She asked.
"I'm not staying long. I'm leaving tomorrow night. I didn't think you'd want me around long." I answered.
Last time I had visited, six months ago, I had visited for her birthday and stayed a week. She seemed ready to snap at me at any moment and I wasn't going to risk my life over a silly little courtship if she wanted me to leave.
She frowned. "Alright." She opened the door and stepped inside with me right behind her.
"Same room?" I asked her. She nodded.
"Well, I'm gonna hit it early then. Like I said, I'm pretty sore, and the little workout we had didn't help." I told her.
I made me my way towards her guest bedroom.
"Night." I heard her call from her living room. She sounded a little sad, but I didn't notice anything too out of the ordinary. If it was bad, we could talk in the morning. I may have loved her like a sister, but nothing beats sleep.
"Good night." I called back.
I opened the door and went over to the bed. I collapsed on it, my face falling into the soft pillow. I hadn't realized I was THAT tired.
"Are you okay?" I heard somepony asked behind me a few seconds later.
I looked behind me to see Rainbow in the doorway with a concerned look on her face.
"Yeah. Just tired." I turned my head back into the pillow.
"Do you want anything?" Why was she being so motherly? Maybe something was really wrong.
I turned my head back towards her. "Are you okay?" I asked her.
She looked surprised. "Yeah... yah I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? Anyways, get some sleep. I'm going to push you hard tomorrow." She said with fake excitement. She closed the door behind her.
Oh Rainbow, we've known each other for forever. You can't hide anything from me. I'll get to the bottom of it if it's the last thing I do. However, the first shall be sleep. For the final time, I smashed my face into the pillow and fell asleep.