Eyes in the skies! (closed)

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Gilda was from Cloudsdale. He had been to Cloudsdale, maybe they had missed each other at some point? What a small world! "Yeah I've been to Cloudsdale a buncha times. My big brother even got me a full tour of the weather factory, and I even got to bring some things back for my friends back in Ponyville. It totally wasn't anything like what the bullies said it was. Why'd they spread such bad rumors about how rainbows were made?"

"So a bunch of Griffons is called a flight? That's so cool!" the colt jumped in excitement. He'd have to tell all of his friends that when he met up with them again. They'd probably like to hear about the cool one he met... of course not when she was trying to get them to all go back home. They were here to help too! Speaking of his friends, Gilda wanted to know where they were.

Rumble had told Fleetfoot he wouldn't give her any trouble, and he was going to keep his word. He slumped a little as he prepared himself to betray them. It wasn't a nice feeling. "The Jousting Fields. There's not a lot of ponies there so we've been hiding out there. We don't plan on leaving until things are better here. There's so many sad and confused ponies here, even kids like us. They seem to get better when they'er happy so some of us play with the crystal foals to raise they're spirits. We can also sneak around and we over hear a lot of stuff. There won't be anypony there now though."

They had planned for this eventuality. If somepony looked like they had been found and were being made to take somepony to their hideout the plan was to sneak away. There was a lot of hiding places and small openings they could duck into that full grown mares and stallions couldn't fit into. "For the record, it sucked giving up my friends like that."

Rumble still had one more thing to answer to Gilda, and thankfully it wasn't anything that'd make him feel bad. "I practice a lot back home in Ponyville. I have a small cloud I use like a skateboard. It adds wind resistance, and creates some drag, but its always there if I need to rest. I come from a long line of storm ponies. My big brother Thunderlance could make a thunderclap so loud it could shatter all the windows in Ponyville if he wanted to. He's also an amazing flier and even got Spitfire's attention."

"He taught me all I know about weather and flying. We would've broken the record for wingpower when we had to get water up to Cloudsdale if he had been there. He had feather flue, and he practiced so hard because Rainbow Dash wanted us to break the record that he made himself worse and had to go to the hospital. I was still there to help though... though I didn't get to meet Spitfire. The first tornado broke apart. It wasn't balanced and ponies started crashing into each other left and right. I got shot out without a scratch, but it shot me out sooooo far away that by the time I got back everypony had left. Fluttershy had come and helped out, and they moved the water without me. They all went to celebrate in town, and when I finally caught up, Spitfire had left. I don't know any other kid in my class that can dodge stuff while flying in a collapsing tornado and keep control."

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Okay, so maybe the foal wasn't all bad. At the very least he seemed to be genuinely curious about griffons. Anyone who wanted to know more about her species was pretty cool in Gilda's book. It gave her more room to talk about herself. "Jousting fields." Gilda repeated to herself. That was quite a ways away. She would have to wait to deal with that. She doubted this little foal could zoom off to the jousting fields in one go after flying for so long. The griffon glanced at Rumble as he complained, "Yeah, well, sometimes friends are sell outs. Everything works out eventually though." She didn't add on the 'hopefully' that she was thinking about. She had made up with Rainbow Dash...mostly at least,but everything wasn't back to how it had been. Of course, this foal's issue wasn't quite as serious and she was an adult...or at least old enough to be one. None of the foals would be mad at him for listening to the demands of a big scary griffon.Of course, if they did she could probably afford a single trip to Ponyville to appease Dash and give the foal's detractors a good roar to the face to prove that she was intimidating. No problem....if it HAD to happen. As the foal spoke about his cloud Gilda raised an eyebrow, she had never thought of using a cloud as something to rest on. She guessed it could be useful, but it probably wasn't the best for wing strength, in her opinion. "Thunderlane sounds pretty cool." in the back of her head she was marking him down as more competition. He had caught the eye of a Wonderbolt too! She would need to keep an eye on him. "Well that would suck, you should practice your spin out kid, maybe next time you'll be able to stop yourself." Gilda sat quiet for a second before deciding it was his turn...well, if he had any questions left after the fly down. "Alright, your turn kid, anything else to ask?"

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Was there anything else to ask? Was there anything else to ask? Of course there was a lot of things to ask! This was like, the coolest griffon ever her was talking to. Yeah, the situation wasn't so great, but it was always good to make the most of things. He just needed to make the most out of asking questions.

The Pegasus put a hoof to his chin as he thought about what to ask Gilda. "What's it like living in Cloudsdale? I've only ever visited. What do you do? Do you still live at home? Do Griffons nest?" Rumble knew Gilda was Fleetfoot's student, but was that all? For all he knew she still lived at home with her parents in a cloud basement.

Probably not, but it could happen to somepony! Err... some griffon?

Those were personal questions he was asking. Those were great for getting to know Gilda, but there were still questions he had about griffons. "What do Griffons do for fun? Any special Griffon games ponies don't play?" Playtime was important in growing up! Some games taught you things, and others were a great way to spend time when you weren't being taught something. Every species loved recess! Except maybe Twilight Sparkle. She seemed like the type that'd study during recess.

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Gilda smiled "Living in Cloudsdale is the best, you fly everywhere, clouds are always available for naps and it's always sunny in cloudsdale, no cloudy days, never rains, always rainbows, blue skies for as far as the eye can see, and those are my eyes, and we're up high in the sky." she practically bragged, as if she owned and made the city she was talking about. "and, uh, up till recently I was a mail deliverer, like Fleetfoot was. I don't live with my parents...I do live at my home and...sometimes, it sorta depends. Lot's of times nests are made indoors, but some griffons like being outside or live on cloud-islands without houses. They make regular nests sometimes, some griffons also think it's healthier but they're full of down feathers. Nuttin' but fluff. My egg was born and raised indoors and I'm the coolest griffon ever born, so, yeah." She brushed one of her wings off, though there wasn't really any dirt to brush off in the first place. "And, uh, yeah. We play Stormball. It's pretty much the best sport...ya know, ever." she paused to let that simmer for a moment, "Oh, ya probably don't know about it huh?" Of course she knew he didn't know about it. He didn't even grow up in Cloudsdale, there was a pretty small chance he had ever heard of it, even then he had probably never had it explained. "So...what it comes down to is a bunch of ponies playing a ball game in a super windy environment called the stormosphere. They throw a ball around and try to score points while being in...well, pretty much a tiny super strong storm." she smiled "It's super intense and you have to be super good at flying to handle the winds...but it also makes you super good at flying if you practice enough...so, uh, we should probably get heading to the train, right?"

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Rumble looked at Gilda in wide-eyed wonder as she described Cloudsdale. Nothing but blue skies and clouds. No rain, no overcast days. Everypony flying around wherever they wanted, and plenty of space to nap as well! It seemed Gilda used to work as a mail carrier just like Fleetfoot. Wait. Fleetfoot used to fly for the mail?! She knew something about his favorite Wonderbolt that he didn't know!

Gilda also answered a question Rumble hadn't had the nerve to ask yet. She had come from an egg, therefore Griffons came from eggs. Now the colt didn't have to ask where little griffons came from. Where the eggs came from was something he could probably guess. Chickens laid eggs. There was probably some similarities between the two.

"That game sounds so rad!" The young flier exclaimed. "How many ponies are on a team? How big is the stormosphere? How is a stormosphere even made? Does it have a regular scoring system like soccer, or is it all weird like tennis or basketball where you get different points depending on where you shoot from? What happens if someone drops the ball? Is there a minimum height in the field?" Stormball sounded awesome! He had to know more about it, just had to!

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Gilda smiled. it was a pretty cool game. She and her brother had played it a lot when they were younger, even when she hadn't been able to keep herself upright in the arena. she remembered flying through turbulent clouds and even small storms so she would be able to play the game better...it was an awesome game "There are 11 on each team, on the field, at any point in time. There are probably...like...33 players on a team though, for substitutions, injuries and stuff, ya know? You can only switch players around every eighth of the game though, the rest of the time the winds are too rough." Now came the fun part. "The arena is two hundred yards ad is a big circle, so that's in every direction. It's super hard to make and it takes several expert weather technicians to build one that will last a whole game. It's a huge ball of self sustaining, self supporting winds that has a weak tornado in the very middle of it." she smiled, spreading her wings and lifting into the air a bit, "When the ball is dropped it zooms around on the winds most of the time, except for certain kinds of balls...there are different kinds by the way, and the score is the same no matter what, even if you're behind the goal." She landed quite suddenly. "There are also rules about how long you can touch other players and stuff about how new balls are put in, rogue winds, but that's for when you actually are playing mostly. It doesn't matter in the skyway games....say, wanna try some? I could probably set up a small ball, see if you can fly in it or somethin."

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Rumble soaked it all in. The teams were large, not just on the field, but as a whole. Thirty-three players was crazy! The game was also split up differently, not halves or quarters, but eighths. That was weird... though gold have 18 holes, and baseball was played in innings. The field of play sounded like nothing he'd ever heard of before. The colt could only sit in wide-eyed wonder as Gilda explained everything with such enthusiasm that she began to lift into the air herself!

The colt's mind was still processing all of the sheer awesome he had just been told to almost miss Gilda's question. Almost. It took him a second to snap out of his daze and bounce up on his hooves. "You can do that? That's awesome! I wanna try! Stormy winds are no problem. My family are storm ponies."

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" 'Course I can do that. Im a professional flier and while I'm not a weather pro, I know some moves." Gilda said confidently. Compared to Rainbow Dash and, probably, Thunderlane she was actually pretty inept at weather manipulation. She blamed her talons, half the time she shredded through cloud when she grabbed them! She was better at wind. You can't rip or puncture wind and it's easy to bend. "Alright, kiddo. You go find a ball or something. I'll gather some winds. If you're quick you might be back in time to see me make the arena. It'll be small...but still, pretty cool." Gilda's wings closed a bit but then pumped downwards, sending her rather high into the sky. She would leave rumble to find something they could use to play with. She paused while in the air before continuously looping several times. Soon she had plenty of winds stirred up to make her temporary arena. She only took a brief respite before working the winds into a more sustainable shape. She didn't have any good, large clouds to work with. That meant she didn't have any anchors, so this orb of wind was gonna last 20 minutes tops. "Rumble. You here?!?" she said looking around. Having three dimensions to move in was cool, heck it was Gilda's life, but it also made it impossible to find anyone. "Yo rumble?!...don't tell me I lost him already." she said, mentally cursing herself. Fleetfoot would kill her if she lost that foal! She probably shouldn't have sent him on that ball mission....dang. "Listen up, this orb isn't gonna last too awfully long. I'm good, but not that good!"

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Rumble took to wing as soon as he was told to go find a ball. He was pretty sure he knew where one was. His small wings buzzed and carried him over crystal rooftops toward his destination. The jousting fields were where he and his friends had been holding up. Specifically under the stands. There was an equipment shed there that had all sorts of stuff in it. One of those was a ball... probably.

What equipment shed didn't have a ball in it?

The gray colt landed with a thump. He didn't crash into the ground, it was just a hard landing. Excitement and hurry overrode the need to take it easy. The shed door was opened, and Rumble quickly began his search for a ball he could carry. He didn't need a bit massive yoga ball, or a tiny, but heavy, medicine ball. The colt was looking for the most commonly seen ball on any playground ever.

Rumble was away from Gilda for several minutes. She had let him out of her sight, and it had been her idea! Perhaps he had ran away, perhaps he was off warning the other children. Would Gilda fail at this important task that Fleetfoot have entrusted her with? Before she would worry too much a gray speck appeared in the sky!

Rumble fluttered his way back to the griffon carrying a red rubber ball. The kind you could find on any playground. "I... I found... a ball!" he huffed a little as he flew back to his temporary guardian, and now Stormball coach.

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She waited for him, growing more nervous as a few minutes passed. At first she worried that her creation wouldn't hold until he returned...then she started worrying he just wasn't going to return. That would be embarrassing, though she could try and play it off if Fleet asked...but that would be pretty dirty, she wasn't sure she wanted to lie or tell have truths to her hero. She waited for the little foal, growing more and more agitated until finally...there he was! phew. She took the ball from him to ease his flight "Okay, so we've got a little bit, this should be fun." she said, giving the ball an experimental squeeze, as long as she was careful with her talons she was sure this would work well enough. She motioned to follow and darted over to what seemed to be a soft spot in the rushing ball of wind. "This is how you get in, in a real game this hole is almost always closed and its really hard to get in or out of the sphere when it's not open AND it's against the rules if its on purpose and even if its on accident you're not allowed to bust in!" she finished before diving into the hole, her movements were more strained inside and she lost...pretty much all her grace, her wings beats were rough and hard, her limbs were all tensed, she held herself in place though, even in the tough winds. "Come in whenever, this is called holding. Players don't like it, it's the hardest thing to do in here, even though it's just staying still. Certain players are sometimes called holders because they have a lot of endurance, but they have short careers most the time, and it's not super useful anyways." she had to yell over the winds when he entered, they buffeted ears and made it hard to hear. "fly around and I'll throw you the ball!" she shouted.

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Rumble followed Gilda to the little arena she had made. I twas really impressive! He didn't know that Griffons could manipulate weather, and now she had done something he had never heard about doing with it! Gilda was now, in fact, the coolest griffon ever. There should be merchandise sold of her, and her face on posters. She still wasn't as cool as Fleetfoot though. It would take a lot more to shake his fandoms around.

The colt's entry into the rushing ball of wind started out simply enough. He dove into it, and then was promptly swept up by the wind. "Ahhhhhh!" he shouted, but it wasn't out of fear or worry, but mostly annoyance. He tumbled this way and that, a gray ball of flailing hooves and wings for a moment. This was just like the tornado he had been in, but this time there wasn't a herd of ponies also there for him to dodge. A hoof stretched out there, a wing tilted just so, and suddenly his random bobbing began to stabilize.

Rumble was light, and not strong enough to fight the currents for too long, but it didn't take much effort to go with the flow. He kept his hooves outstretched to feel the air in front of him, and turned to meet any currents he went into. He still had to buzz his wings here and there to get used to the new current, but he wasn't doing too bad. "Okay! I think I got the hang of this no-whoa! Now. Throw me the ball!"

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Well, he wasn't terrible. He was doing better than most foals would in air like this. He must not have been kidding about his family. Still, she expected it would take him quite a while before he was able to stay st-, Wha?! "Oh, that was pretty quick." she said, surprised by how well he had adapted to the winds of the storm. If he kept up like this, they would be able to do a lot more than she had originally thought...though she wouldn't get to tease and brag quite as much since he wouldn't be fumbling around all the time. She would just have to make up for it by really tiring him out. "Alright, but first, remember that the wind doesn't only catch you, you have to chase the ball a bit kiddo." she said, holding up the orb. "3...2....1go!" she said, giving the ball a decent throw at rumble. The winds would catch it and push it back and forth even as it came towards him, of course it wouldn't hit him directly, but it also wasn't incredibly out of range. The throw of the game took quite a bit of practice in itself, noticing what you were throwing through, but there wasn't time to teach him that today...probably not at least. "Bring it back, then go back to where you were and hold again. We'll try a few more throws." she said confidently, she was expecting quite a bit from this foal after her first impression. "Oh, and make sure not to slack off, keep it quick! Hustle!" she added harshly, couldn't let herself seem friendly after all! She was a coach at the moment!

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Gilda's surprise made Rumble puff out his chest with pride. He has surprised the #1 coolest Griffon, that meant she either had some pretty low expectations for him, or he was just that awesome. Rumble liked to believe the latter. The throw caught him off guard though. It was cheaty to do a steady count only to speed up at the end! "I got it!" he called out as he tried to fly and meet the ball.

Rumble was way off. With all the chaos tossing the ball around anticipating where it was going to go was just about impossible for him! Just as it looked like it was going one way, it'd go another. The small Pegasus would try and meet the ball only to move into a current and get swept away from the ball. Soon came the point where it was no longer about trying to catch a thrown ball, but to chase after it as it was tossed around. This part was a bit easier on him. As soon as he could follow the path the ball was spinning in he could gain on it.

Once it was clasped in his hooves he did his best to fly back to Gilda. He passed her the ball and made his way back to where he had roughly been when she threw it and attempted to hold. Grey wings buzzed hard against the current to keep him steady, and it was a losing battle. Turning into the wind so he wouldn't create as much drag helped, but it was taking all he had to stay still.

Somepony was going to sleep well tonight.

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Gilda watched the kid with a small amount of pride. She remembered when she had been introduced to the sport, she had loved it too, even though it was tiring. She too had chased the ball around a windy sphere, though it had been a bit bigger and she had been a bit less successful, especially since the city made ones were used a lot like ice rinks, lots of random fliers. She roughly glided a bit closer to the foal, just in case he got a cramp or couldn't take the wind anymore. "Alright, now go ahead and throw the ball back...or try to, it's tough stuff to throw to, if you want to play you need to know the basics though, always throw a little off target, it can't make things much worse, I always like to throw a bit to high and to the left, but everyone does it differently....oh, and make sure to keep yourself steady while throwing, a lot of newbies forget to keep their wings going." she ended her advice there, raising her voice over the wind was beginning to get a bit tiring...not as tiring as flying in it, but she was used to that. She made sure to get herself ready for the throw, had to make sure she looked cool catching the ball, after all, she couldn't let the foal down!