The four changelings and Rainbow Dash stood in front of a house.
Like all of the other houses in this neighborhood, the roof was made out of clouds. The ground was made out of clouds and it was decorated with plant-like clouds. A path made out of clouds led towards the purple door of the house which had a nice design. The house was purple and lavender with curved walls and structure. Around the lot of the house was a rainbow fence.
"Humerus," Rainbow called out, looking at Humerus, "I heard that you went here before and that you also met Fluttershy's parents and her younger brother." She laughed, pushing a hoof at Humerus.
"Uh, why are you laughing?" Neon Guard asked. "What's so funny?"
"You're not going to believe me when you see Zephyr Breeze—that's the name of the brother, by the way!" She pointed a hoof at the door. "If he's the pony to greet you, you might be thinking that he's actually the older brother. He's quite tall."
"We believe you, Rainbow," Blue Alarm said.
"OK, let's get inside already!" Red Noise complained as he stormed his way through the cloud path and onto the door.
He knocked on the door with such force and volume.
Rainbow quickly flew her way to him and placed a hoof that separated him and the door. She gave him a sudden glare. "Look, buddy, if Fluttershy was here right now, she would be attacking you for that!"
"It's just a knock on the door, Dash!" Red Noise answered, shrugging and smiling. "There's nothing wrong with letting the ponies know that I'm here!"
"Well, what if they're sleeping? Or, what if they're so shy that a knock like that could even scare them?!"
And, the door opened.
"Rainbow Dash!" Zephyr said, eyeing her as he held the door open. "I didn't know you actually wanted to visit me."
Rainbow groaned, placing a hoof on her head. "No, Zephyr. I don't want to date you or anything! I'm just being with these changelings who are visiting Cloudsdale for the first time—except for Humerus." She gestured a hoof towards Humerus who was frantically waving at Zephyr.
"Ah, old friends!" Zephyr yelled, waving back at Humerus. He noticed the rest of the changelings in front of him. "Come on inside the house! You are entering the Shy abode!"
And the changelings and Rainbow Dash entered.
There was the cloud floor and the cloud ceiling and the beige walls and the wooden cabinets and furniture and the family paintings and the dining table and the dining chairs and the carpet.
"So," Zephyr began as he led the group through the house, "I know that you—" He looked at Rainbow Dash "—are not explicitly here for a date, but you could be here to see if you could have a date the next time!"
Rainbow raised a hoof in anger.
"You don't need to tell me about how you view me, Rainbows," Zephyr said, pushing that hoof away. "It's already apparent from all of your actions recently. It must be an honor to be able to visit me now and then, right, Rainbows?"
"Don't mention anything about this, Zeph," Rainbow said, pointing a hoof at him.
Zephyr eyed Rainbow with a fearful look. Then, he calmed down and sat on one of the dining chairs. "Now, let's not be so dreadful, Rainbow. You still have to cater to the changelings!"
Rainbow looked at the changelings.
They sat down on the dining chairs.
"What shall we eat for snacks?" Zephyr asked, eyeing the wooden cabinets behind him. He stood up and flew up to the level of the higher cabinets. He opened them. "Now, we have some canned food, some chips here." He turned around to face the changelings. "So, what's your choice? Canned food or chips?"
"Zephyr!" a female voice called out. "Who's that?"
"Uh, Mom, some changelings are here to visit!" Zephyr shouted.
"Oh, that's nice!" Mrs. Shy said.
Zephyr looked at the changelings, still hovering. "You still haven't decided yet. Canned food or chips?" He held a can of food on one hoof and a bag of chips on the other. "Canned broccoli?" Zephyr extended the hoof with the canned broccoli. The labeling was very colorful, advertising the broccoli inside to be "the healthiest broccoli ever!"
"You can place broccoli inside cans and you can eat it?!" Humerus yelled.
"It may not be fresh," Zephyr admitted with dodging eyes, "but, you can eat them anytime! They last longer than fresh broccoli, anyway." He smiled. "Of course, I still have to talk about the chips!"
He threw the can of broccoli onto the table. The can landed with a thud.
"What about the chips?" Zephyr said, holding up the bag of chips into the air. The bag was colorful, too, showing depictions of chips. "These chips are cheap, affordable, and tasty! I got one of each flavor from this brand! This one's just plain."
Blue Alarm raised his hoof. "I would like the plain flavor of chips."
"What?" Zephyr asked. "You don't even want to check the other flavors? I dislike the plain flavor myself. But, if you want, here." He threw the bag of chips on to the table.
"Is that how you treat visitors, Zeph?" Rainbow asked, having an annoyed tone of voice.
Humerus jumped and rushed towards the bag of chips and opened it and grabbed a hoofful of chips and stuffed the chips into his mouth and chewed on the chips while his friends and Rainbow Dash and Zephyr Breeze looked at him eat, watching him with stunned looks.
"Zephyr," Mr. Shy said as he and his wife entered the room, "we would like to greet the visitors you've brought—here?" The parents looked stunned, also, as they watched Humerus devour the chips.
Zephyr laughed nervously as he watched his parents, sweating on his face, smiling with his teeth, looking here and there. "I promise you that he's not going to finish all of our food!" he suddenly yelled.
"Who's going to finish the food?" Fluttershy asked, entering the room. Then, she had a stunned look on her face.
Then, Humerus threw the bag of chips on to the table. "I'm done!" He flew towards the cabinet. "What other flavors do you have here? Can I open the can of broccoli, also? How do you open them anyway?" He flew back to the can of broccoli. Then, he tried to open it, struggling to do so as he groaned and grumbled in his attempt to obtain the broccoli inside.
Zephyr took the can away from him.
Red Noise pulled him away from the table and back on to his seat.
Humerus eyed the can, whimpering.
"You have guests who are really exciting, Zephyr," Mrs. Shy said.
"I agree with her," Mr. Shy added. "Haven't we seen you before?"
"I saw you when I visited this hosue for the first time!" Humerus answered by happily shouting at them. "Remember?!"
"Oh, now I remember," Mrs. Shy said, nodding.
Fluttershy walked towards the table and sat down.
Rainbow sat down on one of the dining chairs.
"How often do you go and visit your parents, Fluttershy?" Blue Alarm asked. "You have a house on your own in Ponyville, so the question is valid. It would've gotten to my mind sooner or later."
Fluttershy looked at him.
Zephyr placed the can of broccoli back inside the cabinet, closed it, and hastily sat on one of the dining chairs.
The two parents sat on the dining chairs, also.
"It's like you already prepared the chairs for us," Neon Guard said, facing the parents. "I didn't know you were expecting us to be here."
"Sometimes," Mr. Shy replied, "we just place additional chairs around the table in case there were ponies who want to be here on short notice."
Blue Alarm looked at Fluttershy.
"Oh, you were asking about my parents," Fluttershy said. "Well, I visit them every so often, once a week."
"And, you, Zephyr," Blue Alarm went on, now facing Zephyr who was still sweating a little, "what about you? You already have a job. Maybe you have a good enough income to sustain yourself and your own house. How often do you visit your parents?"
Zephyr gulped. He eyed his parents nervously.
His parents smiled nervously.
Fluttershy gave her brother an irritated stare.
"Oh, I visit my parents...every so often, too, like Fluttershy!" He laughed nervously. He placed a hoof on Fluttershy's mane, scruffing her mane until it was a little messy.
Fluttershy eyed him.
The four changelings were looking at him.
"Do you mean once a week?" Blue Alarm asked.
"Oh, more than once a week!" Zephyr said, shying away from the asking changeling.
"And, do you stay with them for hours and hours?" Fluttershy asked, still staring at Zephyr with irritation.
Zephyr was still sweating. "Uh, yeah." He turned towards the changelings.
"Admit it, Zephyr," Fluttershy said. "You still like to live in this house."
Zephyr nodded. "Yeah. That's...true." He looked at the changelings.
"We are trying to help him through this time," Mr. Shy said, bringing the changelings' attention towards him. "We know that he won't change that easily. So, we accommodate his requests to stay here, although we've already established some rules." He placed a hoof on Fluttershy's head. "Fluttershy helped him the most." He looked at Rainbow. "You also helped him, Rainbow. It must be really great to see Zephyr finally make some good effort on his work."
"Yeah, Mr. Shy," Rainbow said. "However, that still doesn't allow him to, uh, throw food on the table, right?"
"Uh, Rainbows," Zephyr said, "I thought you weren't going to mention that?"
"We didn't talk about it."
"How does it feel," Neon Guard asked, "to have Fluttershy be a heroine of Equestria?"
"Really?!" Zephyr whispered angrily at the changeling.
"What's wrong?" he said. "Is there something bad about asking that?"
"You're making me feel worse!"
"Oh, sorry." Neon Guard turned towards the parents. "Uh, you have a nice house here!"
"Why, thank you...oh, we forgot to ask you your names!" Mrs. Shy said.
Humerus flew right on to the table, making the parents move away from him a little, shuddering at his sudden jump. "I'm Humerus, and this is Blue Alarm—" He gestured towards the blue changeling "—and this is Red Noise—" He gestured towards the red changeling "—and this is Neon Guard!" He gestured towards the green changeling wearing a hat. "And, we're best friends!" He flew up and flew around in the room.
Fluttershy eyed him.
Humerus stopped moving, hovering in mid-air.
He scrambled to his seat.
"Did you just use the Stare on a changeling?" Zephyr asked, a little amazed.
"No," Fluttershy said. "That was just a normal stare."
"What's next on the list?" Blue Alarm asked as they flew past the houses.
"We're going to one of the stadiums," Rainbow replied. "Stadiums are where many of the main events happen in Cloudsdale. Flying competitions, flying exhibitions, conventions—all kinds of activities!"
The relatively peaceful neighborhood of houses was farther and farther away the nearer and nearer they went towards one of the large stadiums.
From the stadium sounded the noise of crowds of pegasi with the muffled voice of an announcer describing the routine and the style of the pegasi flying.
The changelings and Rainbow Dash flew over the stadium.
There were many, many pegasi filling up all the seats. The sound of the crowds was loud, thundering. At the center was open space. A few pegasi flew, performing cool aerial stunts, going fast enough that they made sounds with each turn and with each loop, wowing the audience as could be heard by the loud approval the pegasi gave through their shouts and their stomps. Meanwhile, the announcer went on giving his remarks on the pegasi doing the stunts and the showy flying, sometimes verbalizing his positive impressions about the stunt performed, sometimes voicing his criticism about the maneuver done.
Several pegasi, all wearing similar uniforms, were flying around in the audience section, carrying trays filled with popcorn and drinks. Some pegasi were entering the stadium and taking whatever seats were still free, others were already leaving the stadium.
"This is the Freestyle Exhibition," Rainbow explained as they hovered over the cloud stairs and passing by rows and rows of seated pegasi all watching the entertaining and interesting performance in front of them. "This is where any pegasi can fly his way and try to give the crowds something fun to watch. It's sort of like a competition, but there's no prizes."
"Maybe the prize you're going to get is fame!" Humerus yelled.
Some ponies angrily looked at him, a pony even shaking his hoof at him.
Rainbow laughed as they went on hovering down the stairs. "Fame is something I already have. I'm a Wonderbolt, remember? But, I guess you could start your Wonderbolt journey here, showing off to other pegasi and proving to them that you're very skilled at flying."
The changelings watched.
There were three pegasi flying at the same time. It was a coordinated effort, a planned yet graceful dance—one pegasus would fly up into the air while the other two supported him. One of the two supporting pegasi swooped down and performed a dozen loops. The other flew out of the open area and flew right beside the audience, giving the pegasi there a fascinating experience of a gusty wind as the pegasus sped past them.
"While I do admire their individual talent," the announcer declared through the speakers prepared across the stadium, "I'm just seeing a cacophony. There's no harmony to it! If these were three solo acts, I would've at least given them a great comment or two, but they said that it was a group performance! This doesn't look like a group performance to me! Do you agree, everypony?"
The pegasi just kept watching the performers and the fliers continue their act.
"I must protest against this!" the announcer went on. "There's nothing connecting all these three different performances together! What am I supposed to be looking for? What's the theme? What are you trying to do? Because, I like all the flashy things you're doing, but that's just the surface! What's the inside, the content?"
Rainbow giggled. "Looks like those ponies aren't up to his standards!"
"I don't know," Humerus said, munching on popcorn from the popcorn bag he's holding.
"Wait, where did you get that?" Neon Guard asked, sounding very concerned. "I don't remember you buying popcorn."
Humerus smelled the hot and beckoning, buttery aroma of the steaming popcorn from his bag. "I got this when you weren't looking. You were all paying attention to Rainbow Dash and the pegasi there that you didn't notice me buy popcorn from one of the ponies over there!" He pointed towards a faraway pony in uniform.
"Did you even ask me permission to use the money?" Neon Guard spoke, frantically opening his bag and searching for something.
"I got it while you weren't looking!" Humerus jumped up and hovered over the stairs. "So, the plan is to go to more of these stadiums and events and then buy more popcorn while Rainbow is telling you all about the event!"
His friends and Rainbow looked at him, smiling. "You do know that, in order for your plan to work, we're not supposed to know about it," Rainbow said. "It has to be a secret. Now that we know, we're going to be watching you more closely."
The other three changelings laughed.
The pegasi near them looked at them angrily and some shushed them.
Some pegasi wearing white coats and white helmets were pushing clouds around in the sky. Other pegasi were holding jars and containers including jars of lightning. They moved out in an orderly fashion, with a few pegasi wearing hats directing their pegasi fellows to move out to this direction, to this city, to this place.
The pegasi in the sky were moving, carrying clouds and jars to different directions out of Cloudsdale.
"Those pegasi are going to be travelling to other places in Equestria to place the clouds there," Rainbow conveyed while she pointed at them.
The changelings looked up.
"Some of them are carrying the jars of lightning you saw earlier," Rainbow said. She eyed Humerus with a menacing look before going back to smiling. "They're going to be bringing in storms for a few places. I heard that Ponyville is going to have some stormy weather today. Maybe I might have a sleepover at Twilight's later. I heard Applejack and Rarity are invited, too."
"We know of your competitive streak with Applejack," Blue Alarm said as they stood on the clouds as some pegasi flew past them while others walked past them. Around them, pegasi were entering and leaving buildings, some carrying food and drinks, others carrying newspapers and books, still others were holding bags. One pegasus was carrying a camera, taking pictures of each and every building he passed by, beholding each picture as he smiled at the wonder of the memory. He also took pictures of the pegasi going about. He also took a picture of the changelings and Rainbow Dash. Then, he flew away.
Rainbow looked at the pegasus with the camera. She looked back at Blue Alarm. "What were you saying?"
"You were very competitive with Applejack," Blue Alarm said. "That was back then. Are you still competitive with her now?"
"It depends," she replied, gesturing with a hoof at them calmly and casually.
Then, they hovered over the cloud sidewalk.
"How are you four together?" Rainbow asked. "You're quite different from each other. Well, I and my friends are also quite different from each other and different ponies usually become friends with each other, but I wanna hear your story!"
Humerus took in a deep breath of air.
Red Noise pulled Humerus away from Rainbow Dash. "Let someone else tell the story!"
Rainbow stared at them. "Alright?" She pointed at Neon Guard. "You! Neon Guard! You told me that you were the leader of your friends. Maybe you could tell me the story about how you became friends."
Neon Guard smiled. "I don't wanna bother you with all the details, but, basically, after Thorax taught us about how to share love and, therefore, making us free from our hunger for love and from the evil rule of Chrysalis, I wanted to go straight towards the changelings who were the closest I had to friends: Blue Alarm, Red Noise, and Humerus." He stopped, his eyes watery as he gazed upon his friends who were looking back at him, smiling. "They were always with me whenever we went out to steal love from others."
"Uh, OK?" Rainbow said, recoiling from him a little bit. "You don't have to remind us about all of that, you know."
"Oh, right." Neon Guard scratched his head, avoiding Rainbow's look. Then, he looked back at her. "They weren't really my friends, but they were the closest to friends I could have. We were always planning together, always working together to steal love, always following Chrysalis. We really believed her when she said to us that stealing love is the only way to have our hunger for love fulfilled. So, after all the reformation that happened with us, I went straight to those three changelings. Actually, what impacted and affected me the most was they were all looking for each other and they were now looking for me." He sniffed. He wiped away a tear. "And, that's how it began. We hugged each other. No longer did we have to hurt ponies and other creatures in order to steal love from them. We could instead live peacefully and in harmony with them—and we could do it as friends!"
"Hug!" Humerus cried out.
And the four changelings embraced each other.
Rainbow sniffed and wiped a tear. "Aww, why did you have to make me cry?!" she shouted, whining and complaining about it.