"Lalalalalala!" the young coltish voice was heard through the cloud-made wall. The black colored pegasus groaned to herself with annoyance.
"Cloud Color!" Color Jam shouted back. "I'm USING the water stall, would YOU STOP singing for me!"
"NO WAY! I wanna be twenty percent cooler!" the answer came.
"STOP QUOTING Rainbow Dash!" Color Jam retorted.
"YOU STOP TELLING ME TO STOP!" her younger brother snapped back from the next room.
"MOOOO-OOOM! Cloud Turd is being stupid again!" Color Jam hollered down the hallway to her mother, Flight Risc.
"Honey, stop pestering your sister about Rainbow Dash." The black and grey splotched mare paused from her lettuce chopping to verbally break the squabble up. "Or I'll make you go to school on the ground."
"AAWWW, Moooom. Ground-school is SOOOO for fillies…" the black, red hued colt whined back.
"Then quit acting like a filly, Cloud Color." Color Jam laughed back.
"DID YOU HEAR THAT! C.J. called me a filly!" the spiky winged young colt pegasus whined again.
"Color Jam, it takes two to make a fight. I'll ban you from Nightmare Night if you pester your brother anymore."
"You wouldn't!" the eldest offspring of Flight Risc turned off the cloud-tap water and threw a towel over her colored mane. "I already have a punishment of taking Red Ace tonight…"
"No whining." Flight Risc re-informed her filly.
"Fine…" Color Jam sulked and plodded into her room.
Flopping down on her cloud-molded bed, Color Jam exhaled gustily. Living life in Cloudsdale was freer, more relaxed than Cloudopolis. Having moved from the busy bustle and permanent action of the huge cloud city to a lower-key, relaxed location of Cloudsdale, Color Jam missed the plethora of white noise that came from the industriousness of the populated mega-city. It wasn't that she hated the expansive space of Cloudsdale – far from – it was just taking time to adjust to the difference.
It would be a year tonight, since they, Color Jam's family, moved. Nightmare Night was a special night where young colts and ponies would dress up and see who could impress who with costumes.
Her father, Night Stock, had been the scariest costumer in his day. A night-black stallion dappled with ever-so-lighter black spots; Night Stock had been a local legend in Cloudopolis. He pulled off dressing as the Night Stallion each and every year.
The Night Stallion was a scary story of the strongest, noble-hearted Stallion who ever flew the skies. He was rumored to scare any pony or brony who crossed his path; and cursed his enemies into stone. Hailing as a great and terrible warrior, Night Stallion had fought and banished his evil brother, the Nightmare Stallion, to Oblivion. The Night Stallion then grew to be frightening and terrible after that; flying around at night on patrol for any sign of the Nightmare Stallion's minions. Ponies would dress up and offer candy to appease the vigilant warrior.
At least, that was the way the story of Nightmare Night went, back in the country of Eponus and Cloudopolis city. Here at Cloudsdale, Nightmare Night was about Nightmare Moon; the evil and misguided sister of Princess Celestia. Candy was handed out to fillies and colts who dressed up; in hopes that Nightmare Moon would be confused when she came looking for ponies to eat. The costumes would mask the pony being a pony and the candy would be offerings to sooth the hungry evil.
Either way, Color Jam didn't care; it was the thrill of the night that appealed to her. Going out and scaring other ponies senseless was what she loved. Tonight, her night was going to be extra special because Color Jam had new friends. Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Glittermind, Fairydust, Dragonfly and Glimmer-It would all be there. Old friends too, would join. Butterpond, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Catslave and Dung Red would join the party.
Laying back and staring up at the sky above her roofless, walled room, Color Jam though back to when she first met her first five friends.
Butterpond, even though she was an earth pony without a horn or wings, was totally awesome. The butter-cream/yellow colored pony was the first pony to NOT compare Color Jam to the pegasus known as Rainbow Dash. B-Pond as her name was, had been so wrapped up in her butter-philia, that the pony didn't say one darn word about how Color Jam was so similar in appearance to another cyan-blue rainbow-maned pegasus. Color Jam had fallen below the clouds in a fit of flying loop-over-loops that she had nearly crashed into the pony. Only Butterpond's loud, warning voice had saved the two from colliding.
The earth pony had been splashing around in a pond located on the Milk farm that her family owned. Color Jam had laughed at the scene and asked why a pony would be so focused on splashing around in a pond. Butterpond had informed the clueless pegasus that she would searching for butterfish; her favorite treat. Her older sister, Milkshake, told Butterpond that butterfish lived in the farm's pond. The two spent the rest of that day searching for butterfish; it had been a really large pond.
Rainbow Dash, Color Jam had come to learn, was completely different personality wise. Being in the same flight class in Cloudsdale; the two rainbow-maned fliers came to politely respect each other due to less hassle. Rainbow Dash was arrogant, loud, brash and a braggart. Color Jam was quite, thoughtful and flighty/distractible. The two, even though their body color was different, Rainbow Dash was cyan-blue while Color Jam was black; were teased about being related. Color Jam was too proud at being her father's first born, that she hated to be called Rainbow Dash's twin sister.
That was years ago, and now the two were casual friends, saying a polite hello when passing.
Fluttershy had been a peer of Color Jam, around the same age. The shy and introvert yellow pegasus wasn't much interest to C.J. but Color Jam hated to see the shy filly being teased. Whenever Rainbow Dash wasn't around to stick up for the pale pink-maned pony, Color Jam would; telling the bullies to go away and fine something else to do.
Their relationship wasn't much beyond that.
Catslave was something of an oddball in Color's book. The earth pony was completely convinced she was a cat; reborn into a pony's body. The pink-fade-orange filly never went anywhere without her blue, yellow-starred witch's hat. The cat-crazy pony's life revolved around feline-kin – anything remotely related to feline, leonine or mythiline (manticore, sphinx, lamia and griffon) would be of utter interest to her.
Color Jam first met Catslave upon rescuing a tree-d cat before a scheduled storm. It was a pegasus' duty to assist with making rain-clouds, storms and other weather for Ponyville. Color Jam made a lasting friendship when returning the helpless cat to its owner. Catslave and Color Jam often hung out on the Milk-Family Farm, just watching cats move and live. B-Pond joined them at times.
Dung Red was another fellow pegasus; although older than the rest of her friends, the dark-red and scarred mare was infamous because of her Cutie-mark. The urban myth went something like; Dung Red was the fastest cutie-marked pegasus in Cloudsdale; finding her special talent the moment of her first equine bowel movement. The study of dung was a nasty one, but to each pony/pegasus/unicorn, their own. Color Jam first met the smelly Dung 'Shit' Red when her parents took her to the red-mare, in hopes to cure a mortally-sick Color Jam. Whatever the dung-studying mare did, she had cured Color Jam; and saved her life.
Unfortunately, Dung Red had been banished from Cloudsdale because of her special talent stunk so much. Now the red-winged mare lived on the edge of Everfree Forest; where her special talent wouldn't offend any-pony. Color Jam still visited the smelly mare; and Dung Red understood when Color Jam would use a cloths pin to plug her nose.
"Tchm, enough thinking, I gotta put my costume on! This is going to be the funniest costume year yet!"
Color Jam had decided to disguise herself as Rainbow Dash; complete with mane and tail wigs in the appropriate colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Her own mane and tail was counted as within the 'rainbow' category, only the coloring order was wrong – red, forest green, yellow, deep blue, orange, violet and olive green.
Hopping up from the bed, Color Jam went to work putting on her costume. Nightmare Night started in less than an hour; and the custom-made costume was a masterpiece.
"Tonight is going to be the best night ever!" Color Jam smiled to herself and nodded.