Tale Spinner's Tales

Started by perceptre, 2017 Dec 18, 21:06:38

previous topic - next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Go Down

perceptre

Hi, I'm Tale Spinner! You want to know about me? Well then, come sit close and listen to my tale. Or rather, tales. I'm a pony of many tales - stories that is, I only have one tail, haha. I suppose I should start at the beginning...


Tale the first: "How I haven't gotten my cutie mark yet"

I didn't always go by the name Tale Spinner. I was born as Snow Spinner. That's cuz my parents thought it was cool to have all our names be similar. My siblings and I, that is. My big brother, Sky Spinner, my big sister, Shadow Spinner, and me, Snow Spinner. Well, also I was born during a blizzard. That might have something to do with it.

Anyways, I grew up in the shadow of Sky and Shadow. Sky took after my dad, Cloud Spinner, who worked at the weather factory. Sky was super-interested in the weather from a young age. He'd taste the air and say, "I think it's going to rain tomorrow." Dad would consult the weather-machine calendar and say, "Why, you're right son, we are due for rain! I need to go check the water vapor collection..."

Sky was always tinkering in the backyard with the weather-making kit dad bought for his second birthday. By the time I was born, he had a whole lab in the backyard, with many parts scrounged from worn-down machines from the weather factory. You see, Sky didn't just want to be a factory worker. He was more ambitious than that. He wanted to be a meteorological researcher. He wanted to make more efficient rain, more beautiful snowflakes, and maybe even new kinds of clouds and new types of weather!

And then there was my sister Shadow, who took after my mom, Cloth Spinner. Shadow was a costume designer. She was always busy drawing and sewing in her room. But that's a story for another time.

With Dad occupied with teaching Sky, and Mom occupied with teaching Shadow, they didn't pay much attention to me. Sky tried to teach me the basics of cloud-making, but he gave up after I broke his tenth beaker. And Shadow tried to teach me to sew, but she gave up after I poked her too many times with the needle.

But I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to fly, like the Wonderbolts! I begged my parents to bring me to see their shows. I had pictures of them on my walls. And last year, I decided I was going to compete in the Best Young Flyer Competition. The Wonderbolts would be there, looking for potential talent. So I trained every day...

There was just one problem. I always veered left when I was flying. The doctor said that it was because my right wing was slightly larger than my left. So if there was a gust of wind, and I lost my focus, I would end up flying in circles... That's why everyone called started calling me "Tail Spinner." Even my family. I didn't like it, but at least it wasn't Snow, which is a silly name. I mean, some of my classmates would pour hot water on me to see if I would melt, and I'm not even white!

Anyway, I thought, the other foals wouldn't laugh at me anymore if I won the Best Young Flyer competition. And you know how the Wonderbolts have these nicknames making fun of each other? I'd become a Wonderbolt, and they'd call me Tail Spinner. That would show my classmates!

So I found a fix. I clipped a small weight to the right side of my jacket, so that I was able to fly straight. I had a routine where I made this insane dive and then pulled out at the last minute... Not quite a sonic rainboom, but still pretty amazing. But the day of the competition was really windy. I was doing well until the last act, so that even my classmates were cheering for me. And then for my last act, when I pulled out of my dive there was a big gust of wind and the weight came loose... and then instead of going up I lost control and went into a tailspin... The ground was coming closer and closer, and I thought I would crash - but then, strong hooves grabbed me and my rescuer flew me back to safety. You know who it was?

It was my hero, Rainbow Dash! I was so honored to meet her that I forgot the embarrassment of not even getting runner-up. She told me that I had promise, so I'm sure I'll make it one of these years!

Tale the second: "How I saved Ponyville"

This tale is about  the time I saved Ponyville from a tornado. I swear it's true, even though no one believes it. Luckily for Ponyville, the rogue tornado happened the day after Take-Your-Filly-to-Work-Day. Dad brought me to the weather factory and showed me around. Security was very tight there. We had to go through metal detectors and liquid detectors - they said it was to make sure we didn't have anything to conduct the lightning or pollute the rainwater.

But I knew the reason. There had been an unscheduled blizzard in the Crystal Empire, a thunderstorm in Las Pegasus, and a heat wave in Manehattan, all in the past week. The head meteorologist said that it was due to "last-minute weather changes," but they were just trying to cover up the truth. There were rumors going around (and rumors are *always* more true than what official ponies say) that there was a masked pegasus who was sneaking into the weather factory and creating freak weather events. We were all talking about it at school and speculating about who it might be. When I asked Dad about it, though, he said the rumors were just a lot of hot air, and they had it all under control.

Dad gave me a tour of the factory - the snowflake maker, the water vapor gatherer, the rainbow pools - and then he wanted me to help out in the cloud-sculpting assembly line. But everything I made was too lumpy, or too wispy, not at all to specifications. I was just getting in the way. He gave up trying to teach me. He gave Sky his passcard and told Sky to take me around.

That was perfect for me - the work was really boring. I told my plan to Sky: together we would hunt down this mysterious masked pegasus and then we'd be heroes!

But Sky just snorted, "Don't tell me you believe those tales too!"

Sky instead took the time to run an experiment in one of the empty cloud-chambers, and seeing as I was bored, told me to go fly around outside. Instead, I prowled around the weather factory, looking for the masked pegasus, without success.

But I did find one thing - a roll of paper stashed in a clump of cloud outside. It was some kind of diagram for wind patterns, and I didn't understand the math, but I could see that the arrows for wind were going round and round, and the numbers seemed quite large. It also had a date on it - tomorrow. I stashed it in my bag and hurried to find Sky.

Sky just laughed. "That's just some student's homework! Put it back where you found it, Tail - or someone's going to be in trouble tomorrow!"

Of course, I took it home with me. I pored over it in the evening. I didn't understand the meteorology, but the diagram could only mean one thing - a tornado. Very suspicious, as it wasn't time for leaf collection, and no tornado warnings had been issued. If no one would believe me, then I would have to stop the masked pegasus on my own. I deciphered that the pegasus intended to unleash the winds at 6am the next morning. So I set my alarm and went to sleep.

I slept past my alarm the next morning; when I awoke it was already 5:45. Not only that, but the piece of paper with the evidence had vanished! I had no time to waste. I didn't even have time to grab my dad's ID card so I could sneak in - I went straight out the door and flew towards the weather factory. It was a blustery day and I lost a few minutes flying in circles. When I got there, the clock was already chiming six. The air in front of the wind-machine was spinning in circles, faster and faster. There was a masked face looking out the window. I was too late.

And then the tornado broke free of the clouds around it - and it was headed straight for Ponyville!

Without a thought to my safety, I flew after the tornado. And did what you're supposed to do - spin around it in the opposite direction. But the winds were too strong. I shouted for help, just before I got sucked in. I felt a horrifying snap and a sharp pain and the rest was a blur of pain and noise, but soon there were lots of pegasi all flying around the tornado - led by the Wonderbolts - and I was sure I saw the masked pegasus among them, too.

I woke up in the hospital. I had to stay there for the next few days because I had broken a wing-bone. It was terrible - I couldn't fly for two months afterwards. The nurse showed me the newspaper headline, which read, "WONDERBOLTS SAVE FILLY FROM ROGUE TORNADO." I read the article, and was sorely disappointed: They didn't even talk about the masked pegasus, or give me any credit for alerting everyone!

I got more respect after that, though. Especially from Sky. He stayed with me in the hospital every day I was there, even though that meant he couldn't run his weather experiments. And as mysteriously as it started, the rogue weather events ended, and no one ever saw the masked pegasus again. I think that he stopped because he didn't want to hurt anypony. But I guess I'll never know.
"How easy it is to fly on paper wings!" - Helen Keller

Rover

   Woah, I gotta say that this is really, really impressive. Nice! :nod:

Go Up