Reinventing What's Best

That's Gonna Leave a Mark...

After Glow shivered slightly, staring at the indigo horizon he sped towards. "You ready for your first real job, G?" His mentor, Eve, smirked. "Uh.. sure thing." He smiled sheepishly. "Don't be nervous, you've basically done it on your own before, just I won't be yelling at you this time. It's all you." She flew in closer to elbow him lightly. He chuckled to be polite, then looked back at his destination. "... I'm scared. What if my invention doesn't work..?" He bit his lip. "Psh- now you're making things up." Eve scoffed, rolling her eyes with a smirk. "I'm serious, Eve..! I can't test it unless it's the real thing and... if it doesn't work for the real thing..." His mind was racing. The colors would be delayed, it might even let out the secret of sky painters if he messed up bad enough... "If it doesn't work, I got my bag. And we go back to the drawing board, no biggie." Eve shrugged, patting her satchel. "... I just.. I don't know... Are you sure it's ok for me to do this? The others don't mind that I--"
"For the last time, G, you've been training as a sky painter for months! No one cares that you weren't born into a family sky painters. Half Light saw your strong wings and your creativity, and next thing I know I'm teaching you how to do a sacred tradition. Couldn't be more proud of you, same for the others." Eve droned on, failing to notice the nervous wreck the stallion next to her was in. He hadn't thought about letting Half Light down. The stallion had been friends with his father since their high-school years, and they were so close that when After Glow was born, his father asked Half Light to be the god father. That's basically how he got into this sky painting job. How was he supposed to know it was what he was meant to do? He was 14 years old and still a blank flank- he could be amazing at selling newspapers for all he knew. "G? G are you even listening? You look like you're about to have wing lock." Eve nudged him. "What if... even if it works... I don't get my cutiemark?" Glow looked at the ground far below them.
"You'll get it, don't you worry. Even if it isn't today, you'll find what makes you special. I know you will." Eve smiled. He hadn't heard that a million times... Eve, however, seemed satisfied with her speech and looked forward. She gasped excitedly, and grinned. "The sun's a comin'! Hurry over there or you'll miss your chance!!" She gave him a hearty pat on the back. Glow's eyes shot open, and his wings collapsed to hid sides. "I can't!" He yelped as he began to plummet to the Earth. "I'm not helping this time, G!! You gotta do this on your own!" She called down to him.
"Oh come on!!" He groaned, trying to gain back control of his wings. The field of grass below him was a good incentive to fly again. He grit his teeth, forcing his wings to open. Instantly his free fall halted and he glided upwards slightly. He pumped his wings with extra power to pick up lost speed. In a few seconds he was racing towards the clouds just about to be touched by the morning sun.
"There ya go, G man!! Go get 'em!" Eve hollered excitedly, waving her hoof in the air. Glow's heart was racing, he blinked, quickly pulling down his goggles before he forgot. He craned his neck to reach a string by his shoulder and attatched to the harness he wore.
Traditionally, skypainters used bags or necklaces, even buckets to hold the pigments that they colored the clouds with. It made the process much more difficult, and harder to just let the artistic flow take over, since the painter had to focus on technique to do even a decent job. Glow's invetion, if it worked, would attatch to the flier's wings with a harness and light weight tubes lining their thicker feathers. The harness holds containers of pigment, and once the string is pulled, they're let loose through the tubes- like a high-tech paintbrush.
"Please work..." He muttered, gripping the thread in his teeth and pulling. He flew straight up, colliding with a cloud. Color exploded around him, and for a moment, time stopped. Saturated reds blended into bright yellows and radiant oranges. For a moment, all the worries just... left him. He could feel the dew collecting on his cheeks, and a wide smile grew on his face. He laughed to himself, then let out an exhilerated shout as time continued on and he began to plummet. He flapped his wings, racing at another cloud, but this time he made contact gently, running the tips of his feathers on the underside of the cloud. He watched in awe as the white cloud grew to a light pink, with a soft orange tinge along the bottom. He flew from cloud to cloud, looping upwards and sideways and everything in between. For the first time in a long time, he was just living in the moment. Just alone with the clouds, the wind, and his colors. He spiraled vertically, bursting through three clouds as they exploded with color. He laughed, overcome with joy. He had even forgotten about Eve, who was... shouting?
Before Glow could snap out of his trance, a large bird slammed into the side of his head as he surfaced from the third cloud. His body went limp, and he watched as the clouds raced away from him- he was falling. Only this time, he really couldn't move. His wings loosely wrapped around him as he plummeted, head too dizzy to react. A light pink blur flew overhead, then his second freefall of the morning was brought to an abrupt stop. Eve had caught him, very painfully, and she was barely holding up both their weights as they floated towards the ground. "Mm... Eve..? How... how bad did I mess up..?" He asked groggily, cringing at the thought of ruining the clouds. Eve's hooves touched the ground, and Glow shakily rolled off her back onto his own weak legs. "Oh, G..." Eve muttured. Glow grit his teeth, waiting for disapproval.
"It's amazing!!" She cheered, her wings flew open to hug him, bouncing up and down. "Oh you beautiful egghead! You did it! It worked! It worked!" She shouted and laughed. Glow pushed her away, about to heave from all the motion. He finally got a chance to look to the clouds and... his own jaw dropped. He had done that? There was no way... "That's one of the best mornings I've ever seen!! We have to get back to the others!" Eve squealed, racing off towards the village and out of sight. "Eve- wait!!" Glow cried after her, clumsily trotting in her direction. "I still can't--" before he even finished, Eve came back at lightning speed, tackling After Glow to the ground. "Did you look at your flank yet?!" She gasped. "No..!" Glow gulped. Eve grinned, bouncing off of him. "There's no way it doesn't have some kind of explosion of awesome on it after that performance!!" She squealed, trotting in a circle with uncontrolled excitment. Glow took a deep breath and slowly brushed the damp dust from the clouds off his flank...
Nothing..?
Eve froze, frowning. "Ah geez, kid... That... That can't be right..." She mumbled, not even trying to hide her confusion. "... Maybe I'm not meant for this..." Glow sighed, folding his wings. "What? How can you say that? Look at the sky, G! It's one of the best I've ever seen!" She laughed in exasperation. "What if it was just the invention, Eve? What if... those clouds are just a coincidence..? Maybe I went into thinking one thing so I didn't get my cutie mark for inventing..?" Glow looked at Eve with tired, hopeless eyes. "B.. But all the training- art like that doesn't just happen, G..!" Eve sputtered. "If you train hard enough for anything you can be the best at it, even if it isn't your cutie mark." G huffed, opening his wings, trying to get airborne again. "... We'll try a sunset..! Or a dark and starry night- something!! There's just no way you aren't--"
"What you all want me to be?" Glow cut her off, looking her in the eyes with a challenging expression. After a brief silence, he sighed. "... Sorry... Yeah, we'll try that... I need more test runs, anyway... Let's head back." Glow motioned with his head as he managed to pull himself back into the air. Eve frowned, kicking the dirt slightly. "... Ok.." she sighed. "Don't worry, Eve. Like you said, maybe it's just the time of day. I just got discouraged for a bit, is all. We'll try again later, ok?" Glow smiled, trying to cheer Eve up. Even if he wasn't convincing himself, he had to at least try to convince her. "... Yeah, I get it, kid. We'll try again tomorrow, however many tries it takes. No matter what, I got your back!" She smiled, flying above him and giving him a noogie. "Eve, stop!" Glow chuckled, pushing her hooves out of his hair and flying ahead of her. "If I can't annoy you, I'm gonna race you!" Eve grinned, speeding past him. "Hey!! You got an unfair start!" Glow laughed, flapping his wings for a burst of speed. He didn't need to worry about getting his cutiemark... Maybe he would get it in inventing, like he wanted. Whatever his special talent was, he had to be patient. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait... I hope. He thought to himself, shaking his head to shift his focus to racing Eve.

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This is a story for Mysttify- 's skypainters contest. Hope you enjoyed!