Now Cloudsdale. Every pony in Equestria knows of the city in the clouds. I had heard the stories of the great pegasi flyers. I had seen the wonderbolts in face-to-face. But I can still remember the shock I had when I first saw the city, it wasn't just the city in the clouds, it was the city of clouds. Everything was fluffy, light and sparkled with colour. It was an immense task to take it all in. The blinding white clouds were trouble as the five of us pegasi land very carefully, unsure on whether we will fall straight through. Once we finally set hoof on the soft surface three of the ponies who are good friends go running off together. I am left with one teal green pegas,i he sighs as we say goodbye to our parents. Once they go we are left on the edge of Cloudsdale staring over the seemingly impossible edge. Together we sit for what seems like hours even though we know we have to be somewhere soon to get into the college. I stop staring into the sky below for a second and ask. "So… What's your name?" He blows some of his mane out of his eyes before replying "Float" I nod before going back to staring. I can see him slowly turning towards me before asking "Do you have a name?" I break my gaze from home and give Float a smile "I'm Storm" I hold my hoof out and thankfully he shakes it. I take a deep breath and sigh not sure what to say next. Am I awkward? I wonder what he likes. Luckily a third party breaks this awkward silence. I pretty mare walks past us and we both find ourselves staring as she goes. Once the mare is out of site we both turn back to each other, we are both notably impressed. I put on the coolest face I can and say "I think I'm going to enjoy this place." I later learn that this is not necessarily the case. Yet it was the perfect icebreaker as we both walk towards the college laughing.
Inside the gates we see many pegasi our age. They all walked or flied around doing their daily activities while Float and I stood wondering about how many there were. I steel myself and begin to walk towards the main building. It was intricately architected like the castle in Canterlot but instead of stone and metal it was made out of clouds. Inside was much the same but furniture made of wood and stone were dotted throughout the interior. I spot the three other ponies of our group and we join them as they wait outside of an office. In a couple of minutes we are ushered inside past a table with a mare writing on one of the stacks of paper with what seems like names of students at a quick glance. Past another doorway is an office and an older pony sits at a desk. He is a dark blue in colour and his mane is white now. I wonder what colour it was in his youth. He looks up from a letter he is writing to see us all standing in a horizontal line near the door unsure of what to say. He looks at each one of us carefully before saying "You are the Canterlot group aren't you?" I look along the line of ponies waiting for them to respond. In the silence I ready myself to speak but the older pony interrupts my courage. "You're a shy lot huh?" My courage still remains and I just change my planned sentence "This is all a very new experience for us. We were just commenting on how we had never seen as many pegasi in our lives." The older pony smiles at this "Yes, many of the groups we bring in from Canterlot are quite surprised at Cloudsdale, in fact some of them never even knew the city existed." It seems as though I have become leader of our little group so I continue to talk. "It's not like we are taught about it very much in Magic school. I could tell you who laid every damn brick in Canterlot though." I rise a chuckle out of the old pony and he stands out from his desk. "It is unfortunate about the state of education in Canterlot." He walks up to me and looking me straight in the eye. he asks "And what would be you name young colt?" I force myself to stand up straighter and match his stare, this moment felt eventful even though I was just saying my name. "My name is Storm Chaser" Silence comes to the office for a few seconds before the old pony smiles. "With a strong attitude like yours, you can go far here."
We begin to walk through the halls of the college. The pony who I now know is headmaster Astral leads us, giving us a tour on the college's facilities and its history. "You see, the Cloudsdale College was the first one built here. Our sister the wonderbolts academy is known to be more prestigious and therefore pegasi fillies clamour to fill its spots. But that means we can be more selective with our students." The old pony points to multiple paintings across the top of the walls "Cloudsdale College and Cloudsdale has the longest military history out of any species of pony. Cloudsdale College has taught some of the fiercest fighters in this history. One of the saying among these ponies was that while the officers were taught to fly at Wonderbolts academy the ponies who actually fought were taught to fly here." He stops outside a room that leads to the back field "I hope that all of you can continue this ethos we have received." I nod to the old pony, I feel confident even though he has likely conducted the tour thousands of times and he is merely like an actor on stage reading his lines. I am ready to get stuck into learning and practicing flying. Headmaster Astral can sense this and begins with his welcoming smile "I'm sure you are all excited to begin, luckily our first lesson is something physical, follow me all of you." We are led out the back to a field of clouds where a group of ponies had gathered around a pony wearing a cap. Astral walks us up to him and waves his hoof across our line "This here is the Canterlot group coming in for their first lesson." The pony in the cap nods and gives us a similar welcoming smile. It's almost creepy how similar it is. "Hello there guys. I am Nimble Astral and I'm taking you for physical activities and lying practice." Thank would be it, Nimble is he headmasters son. The lightbulb gives me a small rush of joy as I feel almost like a detective. Nimble continues to talk to us "While you learn advanced flying techniques in the classroom this is the place you practice them. Since this is only the beginning of the year we will be doing some basic review and some games to keep you guys alert."
Headmaster Astral takes his leave and we are left in the hooves of Nimble. We are put into groups for a game of pegasi hoofball. Everypony lines up and gets ready to play. On the other side of the line to me I see a giant brute of a pony. He is set like Canterlot's mountain and a dark brown in colour. He is staring me down with his eyes. I am not deterred by this and meet his stare. Nimble blows the whistle and I watch the ball come sailing directly towards me. I catch it but by the time I look up all I see is a dark brown shoulder. I feel him hit me and I go spinning off down to the cloud below. The landing is soft but the pain from my jaw throbs enough for me to have hit stone. The ball rolls off my hoof and the game continues without me. I look up to see the brown colt standing over me. He spits the words "Bucking cheating Canterlot shits. Don't get up and you won't be hurt again today." He flies off and I am soon met with Nimble looking over me. "Are you ok? Can you hear me?" I push myself to my hooves and fiddle with my jaw, I soon hear a small click and the pain subsides almost immediately. I nod to Nimble saying "I've walked on stone all my life, I've had worse." Nimble replies "Are you sure, you can go and get it looked at." His eyes show concern for me but I put on my best confident face and say "I'm fine…But thanks" It's strange for me to have a teacher show concern, but I could get used to it just fine.
The brown pony wasn't kidding about the pain. Everytime the ball comes near my possession all I see are shoulders and hooves from the brown pony and what I could only assume are his friends. I am knocked around from one end to the other, leaving the game open for my teammates who win by a large margin. After our game we go into some wash-up rooms. While I nurse my eye which has already begun to colour in the distinct shape of a hoof I hear some pony step up behind me. I look up and the mirror confirms my suspicions. The brown pony begins by repeating what the first words he said to me. "Bucking cheating Canterlot shits!" I turn around saying "What the buck does that even mean?" The brown pony leans in closer and points to my bruised eye. "It means hay-for-brains that you all get here for free while we all struggle to pay the fees!" I hold my ground "Well in case you ignorant bastards haven't noticed us over in Canterlot struggle to learn to fly at all! We can't even get basic lessons for fillies!" The brown pony laughs and gains back-up from his buddies before saying "In the capital? There's so much money around there they use it to fill in holes they shit in!" I copy his laugh to mock him before replying "True, if you have a horn growing out of your head! Ponies see wings in Canterlot and ask when they are returning back to Cloudsdale!" The brown pony is growing tired of my resilience so he asks me while pounding his front hooves together. "You have balls for a frilly Canterlot filly. What name would you like on your headstone?" Shitcoat as I now call him in my head and his gang don't scare me so I use what limited of a formal education I got and mount an equally powerful response. "Storm Chaser, and while you're at it why don't you give me the name of your marefriend so I know what bitch to fuck when you're run out of Equestria!" Shitcoat has now seen red and his hoof comes towards my head. I duck and his hoof connects with the fluffy cloud wall behind me. While he pulls it out of the wall I jump up and spit in his ear. I am left with Shitcoat's two friends. I pick the leanest one and barrel my way through and into the outdoors. It doesn't take much to lose the other one as he is as stupid as Shitcoat is strong. I work my way back inside and find my way to my accommodation. All the while with the largest smile on my face I have ever had.