Neoniie

It was really Neon's favourite time of day, nighttime. He felt so much more free under the cover of darkness and the city itself had a more mysterious quality to it. He remembered his first few nights as Nighthoof and the rather painful experience of learning how to leap across the buildings properly. It was certainly an aquired skill for the Earth Pony, as he had no wings to ensure the absence of a nasty fall. However, it had eventually gotten a somewhat shaky hold upon the ability. The gaps were slightly farther apart in Manehatten, which made this first night out a more difficult experience than usual.

He had just taken his first steps into the jump when a voice interrupted his movements. Nearly making a temporary head-to-roof fall, the caped colt managed to catch himself as he toppled off balance. Thank Celestia that I caught that. I wouldn't want to be seeming foalish on only my first night here. Neon turned his muzzle toward the creator of the voice, a creamy brown pegasus. She was a filly, about his age, which made him feel less concerned about his blunder earlier. The Earth Pony cleared his throat quietly, "Yes, miss? How may I, the great Nighthoof, be of service?" He attempted to keep the excitement out of his voice, knowing that he needed to seem professional if this was somepony who was in danger.

"Alright then!" The pegasus declared her words with significant force, causing the cloud above to waver. "Oh yeah," she recalled. "Just a sec." Mirage swooped up toward the cloud and guiding it out the window and back into its native blue skies. Stretching her wings, she lifted the cloud back toward its fellows and basked slightly in the warm glow of Celestia's sun. However, it was only a moment, as the impulsive pegasus had no time for awe. Dashing back inside, she trotted over to the door. "It is a bit of a walk, so maybe you could tell me your story on the way?"

Flux almost didn't catch Thunder's question, as she was grinning at the well-kept shelves of her second home. No matter how many times the unicorn visited the Library, it never ceased to amaze her. Though it was a cliched thought, Flux had always enjoyed the other worlds and perspectives that books could bring. Even though her preferred material was certainly non-fiction, they had a similar quality about them. She could marvel at the Library for days, but then she remembered her company.

"Not particularly," Flux said, the truth still slightly there in her words. "I've just got a couple tomes to collect and such. It is a bit difficult to give a tour of a library, so I suppose you can choose your own destination, Colton." She looked carefully about the many rows of shelves, hoping to find a place to begin her search.

Mirage looked in interest toward the prosthetic leg, never having seen such a device before. She guessed it was probably magic-powered, but still, it was an amazing phenomenon. Realizing that she was staring, she cleared her throat and look back into the eyes of her companion. "Yep! In fact, I have a suggestion for breakfast. A small place called 'Desert Delights'. I saw them building it when I was down here last. Wanna check it out?"

The pegasus could still sense the mild tiredness in Vulpus' voice. She hoped that she hadn't woken the earth pony too soon, as her mornings usually began before even those of most pegasi. "I guess so," she answered, pawing slightly at the groud. "I don't really remember it much. I think I was too excited for today." Her voice pitched upward slightly on the last word, a tiny laugh escaping with her sentance.

Wrong Note was taken aback by Monty's accepting manner toward the odd quirk of the earth pony. The ponies she had encounter in the past had looked significantly less favourably upon her pattern of communication, generally finding it to be an unwelcome trait. However, it did not dampen the purple mare's mood, in fact lifting her confidences. If the zebra did not seem to mind her singing, perhaps Hoofington was truly the right choice for her future life. She watched his trot around with shop quietly, trying to think off a way to answer the inquisitive zebra. With a breath, she explained her situation as well as she could, hoping her meaning came across correctly to Monty.

"Well, sir, there is indeed a tale to this strange speech,

that begins quite far from Hoofington beach.

Manehatten is our venue and a young filly is our subject,

with tone and pitch quite correct.

A cutie mark in singing and a high class upbringing,

though her words could be quite stinging.

A unicorn with magic far reaching,

decided a lesson to the Andantinos needed teaching,

A curse she placed upon the filly,

to make her sing badly and quite silly.

She left Manehatten with a background of laughter,

and found herself in Hoofington not too long after.

Along her way she learn the way,

to fish rather than sing all day.

With knowledge in hoof she took wood from tree,

making that which you now see."

After a pause, she gave a small wave of the hoof and a quick tune of explanation.

"As for your manners think nothing of it,

formalities are no longer something I covet.

Your own story is interesting as well,

is there any more of it to tell?"

Neon had been staring in awe at the huge machine, watching it with a singlemindedness that had unfortunately left his feet to their own devices. Trotting on autopilot was generally not the greatest idea for the earth pony, due to his propensity for clumsiness. Sure enough, he managed to steer himself right into a passing stallion. He snapped his gaze from the airship, thankful that he hadn't sent the older pony sprawling. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I probably should have watched where I was going a bit more carefully."

He picked up on a specific part of the stallion's sentance and wondered aloud, "I guess he isn't from Manehatten then." Realising that his words had been audible, he quickly corrected himself. "I mean, you. You aren't from Manehatten." The colt now had a rather embarassed look on his face, mentally berating himself for such rudeness. He wasn't exactly high class, but manners were certainly not beneath him.

Flux noticed the odd behaviour of Sparks as well, knowing however the likely reason for his actions. She turned her head in concern, attempting to spot whatever the bird had seen. However, what she did see was almost worse. The path behind them was completely deserted, giving off a slightly spooky feel. She had always found unseen things to produce more fear in ponies that those that are seen and she definately had the evidence to back it up at the moment. Turning her gaze ahead once more, the unicorn took a barely audible breath, telling herself menatlly that it was just an overactive imagination.

"Indeed," she said, following on Thunder's thought. "Is something going on?" Flux knew perfectly well what had called the bird's attention, but she didn't want to worry the grey pegasus unduly and decided instead not to mention that knowledge. However, she was beginning to see the Great Library of Canterlot upon the horizon and any worries she had vanished. Knowledge was power, as they say, and the Great Library was full of the former. There had to be something on the dig site that would help them discover who had taken the documents. "There is it," Flux announced, mostly for Colton's benefit.

Mirage was usually much more of an early riser, not wanting to waste a second of time in the coming day, but she did not have the sun's rays to awaken her this particular morning. Her position upon her cloud made it difficult for light to reach her at all. However, due to her own habitual patterns, the pegasus jolted awake rather suddenly and nearly toppled out of the cloud. Catching herself and rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes with a hoof, she noticed that Vulpus was still quite asleep. Not wanting to wake him quite yet, she quietly returned her hooves to solid ground and trotted out of the room.

The lobby was mostly empty, except for the desk pony and several cleaning staff. Light streamed in from the windows and invigorated Mirage with excitement for the adventure ahead. She walked toward the bulletin board, hoping to find a good breakfast destination and a smile appeared as she located a brightly coloured flyer. With a quick scan of its message, she returned to the room and woke the earth pony softly. "Vulpus."

Mirage trotted off down the hall after aquiring directions from the receptionist to the office of the weather supervisor. The pegasus looked carefully around the structure, trying to begin to memorize what would become her place of work for quite a while. The hallways branched off in several directions, all of which looked the same to the slightly perplexed mare. Hoping that her sense of direction for the building would improve over time, she followed the directions that the receptionist had scribbled down on a slip of paper.

The office was the last door on a right side of the building, a bit more out of the way than Mirage would have suppose such an important place to be. Nonetheless, the plaque on the door proclaimed that it was the weather supervisors office. Dropping her suitcase only to knock sharply on the door, the mare looked around absentmindedly as she awaited the supervisor. It was not a long wait and she was quickly ushered inside. "Hello, I'm Mirage, the desert specialist that was transferred from Cloudsdale." The supervisor nodded, head in a pile of documents as he listened to Mirage talk. "I was just wondering where exactly I should...um...put my things?" With a quick scribble, he wrote some direction to the crew quarters.

"They're jus' temporary," he said. "One night won't hurt tho'. I suggest you get goin', weather team is out in a few minutes and you're apparently on it." With a nod, Mirage picked up her case again and trotted off to the quarters. She could see why they were temporary, since they were only a series of beds stacked against the wall. Choosing one that seemed vacant and placing her belongings atop it, Mirage resolved to find lodging elsewhere as soon as possible. She quickly returned to the front desk and gained a list of names from the receptionist. Assuming that they were her fellow weather team members, Mirage held tightly to the note and trotted out in search of Hyphen.

Neon trotted absentmindedly through the streets of Manehatten, feeling like a zombie from lack of sleep. He had been out all night on patrol and the huge stack of work that his schoolteachers had presented him with hadn't helped matters. The older colt sighed, once again remembering the suspicion that his parents had been developing lately. They had noticed his constant state of fatigue and his slipping grades much quicker than he had hoped. The yellow earth pony couldn't figure out what they thought he was involved in, but he knew it couldn't have been anything good.

He turned a corner, suddenly feeling the urge to punch something. His patrol last night had not been one of his best, ending up as a complete and utter humiliation and embarassment once again. The colt didn't understand. Nighthoof was supposed to be the defeater of the dastardly, not the dope of dismalness. He was starting to question his resolve.I don't know what to do anymore, he thought, a complete sense of failure falling over the earth pony. He couldn't in good conscience stop trying to help the downtrodden, but he never seemed to do more than amuse or occasionally distract any of the criminals he came across.

Combined with his persistant lack of a cutie mark, Neon couldn't help but feel worthless and helpless. His vision had blurred slightly and the colt angrily brushed the obscuring liquid away. However, the sudden landing of an airship distracted the colt from his woe, bringing forth his curiousity instead. He began to trot toward the impressive vehicle, never having seen such a contraption before.

Flux nodded nearly imperceptably, thinking still through the limited information that had been found by the unicorn and pegasus. She was also trying to keep herself distracted from thoughts of a possible persuer, which at this point would only hinder her deductions, via the small talk with Thunderflash. She found it interesting that her own span of time in Canterlot was comparable to hers. Finding another pegasus in the unicorn-dominated city was also an event of mild interest. It had always puzzled her that the pegasi did not seem to have a highly developed city, or any large settlement, aside from Cloudsdale. The earth ponies and unicorns had their respective upper-class cities, but the pegasi had only Cloudsdale.

However, it was during this idle line of thought that Thunderflash asked a particularly difficult question. She was unsure how to respond, as conflicting outcomes became apparent to her. If they let Thunderflash in on their suspicions, he could possibly become a target of whoever had been the source of the odd events lately. However, she did not want to lie outright, as such things weighed heavily in her mind. Another possibility was that the stallion was in fact already knowledgeable about their predicament, which meant he could only be the presence following them earlier.

She answered as best she could, not truly lying, merely ommiting some truth. "Colton is newly arrived in Canterlot and I offered to give him a tour of the major landmarks of the city. This one was next on our list. Also, there are a few reference books that I already needed to procure."

"Sketch makes a valid point," Flux mused, considering the oddity of a case such as Harmony's. "Perhaps she still has a specific area to discover within the field of the arts?" In truth, Flux was merely hypothesizing. She had very few facts to go on and was basically taking a shot in the dark. Many cutie marks were much more specific than the unicorn's own, however, and that did hinder her experience with extremely specialized cutie marks. Perhaps the appearance of cutie mark was something into which she should look at a later date.

"Nonetheless, wonderful performance, Harmony." She could tell that the foal's eventual cutie mark would result from her love of performance, but the area and specific details were likely undeterminable by anypony. After all, nopony could predict the future with consistency, even with study and knowledge of past trends.

"I guess we will." She stared out at the brightly shining night for a few more moments before returning to her makeshift cloud bed. She hovered to the top of the room and lay down once again in the soft cloud matter. It was things like this that Mirage truly missed from Cloudsdale and made her yearn for the open skies and rainbow waterfalls of her old home. However, she declared that this was not a time to feel homesick and turned her thoughts to the day yet to come. "I'll be turning in, then. See you when it's light again." With that, she buried herself in a blanket of clouds and glided off to the realm of dreams.

The unicorn recovered quickly from the collision, faring much better than the mud covered pegasus. She was startled slightly by the swiftness of her recovery and was not quite in command of all her faculties. She blinked twice, clearing the tiny stars in her vision and observing the scene. Celestia must be smiling upon us today, she thought. Not one, but TWO pegasi to assist my research. Unfortunately, subterfuge is not my forte and I doubt any of these ponies would much enjoy being studied like common lab rats.

However, the intervention of a young dragon shook the mare from her ponderings. She also finally noticed the pyromaniacal expression upon the green pegasus' face. She had seen that expression before, especially in unicorns who enjoyed fire-based spells. However, she was convinced that she could get some sort of useful data out of these ponies, especially if she was more flexible to their wishes. Flux was loathe to give up any opportunity to study a pegasus, but she supposed if one were to leave, she would still have access to the other. "Certainly Gizmo," she replied, putting on her less maniacal scientist and more Canterlotian attitude. "I believe the Mayor is organizing the Celebration itself, but several ponies have been assigned certain tasks. Take myself for example, I was asked to create the lighting effects for the entrance of the Princess and such." Her words brought the realization of an opportunity upon her: when this QuickLime came by to observe her work on the lighting effects.

Firefly sped through the air above Cloudsdale, a panic of lateness drawing ever closer. She was never late for any ocassion or even her self-imposed task, being the regimened scheduler that she was. How could I have overlooked the notice for the Shadowbolts meeting on today's page, she chastised herself. Late, and on my first proper meeting as well, we're off to a great start! Her thoughts dripped with sarcasm throughout her hurried flight, not helping the disadvantageous situation in which she found herself. Even her usual pride had abandoned her at the moment, making any sort of self-assurance nearly impossible.

Luckily, the dark treetops of the Everfree Forest began to fly by beneath her outstretched hooves. With a downward acr, the pink pegasus descended into the treetops. She landed without her customary lightning effects and aweing stunt, knowing that such an entrance would only draw attention to her lateness. Curbing her dramatic tendancies, the mare trotted quietly into the clearing designated by the Shadowbolts. Attempting to belnd in with the Shadowbolts already present, she took a position near the very end of the line. She took in a deep breath, attempting to calm her still jittering nerves and hoping that nopony would notice that she had been absent previously.

The unicorn was a bit surprised by the question posed to Thunder and to the answer he returned. It was not that she didn't trust the grey-coated pegasus, merely that she was hesitant at discussing their destination so easily. With the possibility, or perhaps probability, of somepony dogging their hoofsteps, it was not percieved wise by Flux to give their destinations. However, the caution which Colton exhibited was enough to assuage any worries of eavesdropping that surfaced in a situation such as theirs. "Well then, I suppose we shall be off."

She led the way, trotting slightly ahead of her two pegasi companions. As she followed the well-known route to the library, she considered what exactly she would be looking for among its shelves. It will likely pertain to history of some sort, ancient history, she concluded. Specifically that involving unicorns in some fashion, if the engraving of that journal is any indication. She sifted through thoughts and ideas, attempting not to seem as though she was not paying heed to the others. "Thunderflash," she began abruptly, "I assume you live in the area of Canterlot. What is your profession?"

Mirage laughed, "Well, I guess you DO have some experience with cloud walking then." She dipped down briefly into the cloud and ended up arriving on the earthward side of the cloud. However, with a bit of skilled manoeuvering and well-timed flaps of the wings, the pegasus managed to land with the absence of a crash. Mirage trotted over to the window, watching the continued descent of the sun and rising of the moon. "It's strange to think that the raising and setting of the sun and moon were once left to unicorns. If they were that powerful then, maybe earth ponies used to have earthquake abilities or something."

The pegasus was glad to discover that her steering went off without a hitch and they had arrived at the weather team's base of operations. She wasn't yet used to wooden buildings as much as her preferred fluffy and cloud-like dwelling of Cloudsdale, so seeing such a earthy building was a bit odd. Mirage merely let out a quiet laugh at Hyphen's attempted ammendment of her comment. The pegasus had assumed her meaning correctly the first time and thus found the embarassed correction unncessary, but still appreaciated the gesture.

"That would be great," Mirage said, not weighing the question at all. "After all, I wouldn't want to lose you after just meeting." She began trotting toward the base, excited at the prospect of resuming her weather duties.

This is probably rather late, but just to introduce her:

Name: Firefly

Stage Name: None

Position: Starter

Speciality: Lightning-based weather manipulation, stunt flying

Motivation: Currently, revenge against the Wonderbolts. Though, her main goal is to be the fastest and most recognizable flier in Equestria.

Character: Structure-oriented and determined. Due to her upbringing, she can also be rather narcissistic and proud. However, she is also set on improving others and loyal to those who are loyal in return. She also has a penchant for dramatic entrances and guestures.

Flux was glad that Colton's own testimony had more or less confirmed her diagnosis spell's results. The uncovering of Sparks was quite an odd event and the unicorn had to admire the hardiness of the tiny bird. Thuderflash still gave off an air of awkwardness, not that Flux could blame him. She would likely have similar feelings if she were to crash into the already in-progress events of two strangers. She considered Thunder's offer, wondering whether she should ask the question that weighed on her mind.

Remembering that he was asleep until just recently, the mare decided that it would be pointless to question him about the patrons of 'Creative Confectioneries'. "I cannot speak for Colton, but you are forgiven in my opinion. Think nothing of it."

Mirage watched the unicorn's spellweaving, finding their ability to create something from nothing pretty amazing. Even the fact that a tiny flame could lift the balloon and basket seemed like a miracle. She supposed that those were the perks of a world of magic. As the balloon picked up, the basket rocked back and forth in the air slightly. As it managed to steady itself into a stationary position beneath the inflated balloon, Mirage remembered Hyphen's request. "Not a problem. Just tell me which direction we need to go." She took a literal flying leap out of the basket, doing a quick circle around the hot air balloon as a quick warmup for her wings. She hovered just outside the basket, flapping her wings quickly. She didn't usually need any sort of pre-exertion exercise, but after that crash she'd had, Mirage didn't want to sprain her wings by not being prepared for using them extensively.

"Well, during one of those lecture back at Cloudsdale College that I never really listened to, I think there was something about earth ponies..." She scrunched up her face in concentration, trying to remember. "I'm not really sure, but it was just a theory, some unicorn was working on it, apparently." The pegasus shrugged, not really interested in the affairs of academics.

Cosidering his comment about flying, a memory was brought to Mirage's mind. "That reminds me, a while ago in Cloudsdale there was the Young Flier's competition. Apparently, there were four non-pegasi walking around. I've no idea how they did it, but that's pretty impressive."

Mirage poked her head up from her 'cloud bath', looking down at the earth pony. "For being a pegasus, you mean?" She lay back, staring up at the ceiling. "I suppose it is pretty awesome, but you earth ponies aren't too shabby yourselves. I mean, just the fact that you have those hot air balloons makes you at least the most inventive of us." She formed small smile, "Besides, I still thnik there are some hidden talents of the earth ponies that nopony has found yet. It only makes sense."

Mirage had actually been halfway out the window when Vulpus had given his input. She turned back to him with a little laugh, confusedly amused by his embarassment. "I'll be right back," she said, unfurling her wings and jumping out into the air. She picked up speed quickly, remembering that tonight was scheduled to be nearly cloudless. The pegasus needed to snag a cloud before the nightly weather team came out to round them up. She flapping her wings repeatedly, keeping herself stationary in the air as she looked around for a cloud. To the east, she noticed a tiny cloud. It was just big enough for her to use, but not big enough to produce any rain. "Bingo."

She jumped on the cloud a few times, to make sure that any stored water wouldn't decide to rain all over the hotel room. Then, she began pushing it back toward the hotel. Getting it through the window proved to be a slight challenge, but the cloud was not a solid and was very malleable, making it possible with some carefull cloud sculpting. Moving it into the air above a vacant part of the room, Mirage dived into the fluffy whiteness, loving who much it reminded her of home.