//------------------------------//
// Check-Up 
// Story: The Cloudsdale Chronicles 
// by Boltstrike58 
//------------------------------//

Swift Wing dragged himself home after his shift. Today had been difficult, to say the least. He'd been responsible for handling the clouds filled with lightning bolts today, which was always nerve-wracking. Sure, the bolts didn't have enough voltage to kill a pony, and anypony working that job was provided with a rubber suit to protect them just in case, but it made him nervous all the same. Not to mention you had to be really precise when loading the clouds with the electricity, or they might explode.

Trotting up to his apartment, Swift pushed open the door, making sure to check for mail that'd been pushed through the slot, even though he didn't expect to actually find any. To his surprise, there was a single letter laying on the floor, with the address side down. His curiosity aroused, Swift bent down, scooping up the letter with one wing. He turned it over, only to gasp when he saw the return address.

Ponyville. More specifically, Twilight's Castle.

"Oh, come on," Swift groaned, smacking himself in the face with one hoof.

He'd asked them to do one simple thing: leave him alone. Why was that such a hard thing to do? He'd made it clear he didn't want or need their sympathy, and now they were bothering him, even at his new home. What was in the letter, anyway? An royal decree that he was to return to Ponyville so they could shower him with their irritating pity until he felt even worse about himself?

"No, no, don't go there," he grumbled. Maybe he wasn't being fair here. After all, he hadn't even opened the message. Maybe it was just another apology, which would be unnecessary and annoying, but it wasn't worth getting angry over. He figured he might as well read whatever Twilight had to say before he rushed to judgement. At least it wasn't from Celestia and Luna.

He tore open the envelope with his teeth, pulled out the letter, and laid it down on his desk. He pulled up a chair and began to read.

Dear Swift Wing,

	I'm sorry in advance for taking up your time with this letter. I also hope your address hasn't changed by the time this reaches the apartment. I promise, that's not an attempt to criticize you, I was just afraid you might not find Cloudsdale to your liking, and might have moved on. We would've sent this letter by dragon fire, but to do that, I would've needed to have made a magical connection between you and Spike, and obviously, that never happened.

	Again, I apologize for bothering you. After the way we treated you at first, you're probably not very keen on seeing us again. But I promise, if you ever feel like you're willing to give us another chance, we'd all be willing to be your friends. I will never force you to come back to Ponyville, but you will always be welcome there.

	I also wanted to implore you to seek out professional aid for your mental health, if you haven't already (If you have, please ignore this section). Obviously, I'm no psychologist, but from what I know about you, you suffer from some pretty bad depression, anxiety, and a serious lack of self-esteem. I honestly believe if you could get some help, you could start to feel better about yourself, and maybe start to see that you do deserve friendship, just like everypony else.

	Something else I was wondering: Would you be opposed to a visit? By that I mean us coming to you, not the other way around. It wouldn't be all six of us at once, just one or two at a time. I promise, there will be absolutely no talk about trying to send you back home or anything like that. We just want to check up on you and see if you need any help. But you are well within your rights to say no, so don't be afraid that I'll use my Princess influence on you or something like that.

	Once more, I'm sorry for sending you this letter. I understand you have reservations about being around us, but I hope you'd be willing to at least allow us into your circle of close acquaintances. 

	Sincerely,

	Twilight Sparkle

Swift put the letter down. He folded his forelegs and rested his head on them, letting out a deep sigh.

Of course they still wanted to be friends. Friendship was pretty much their whole schtick. They weren't forcing it on him, like in "A Friend in Deed," which was at least a nice break. Twilight was giving him the option to say no. And she was encouraging him to get help that didn't come from her group, which, even though he was already doing so, was a nice thought.

Swift grumbled as he pressed both his forehooves into his skull. He had no idea what he was supposed to do with this. He knew Twilight and the others were only trying to be nice, but that didn't change how he felt. He really wished they'd just leave him in peace, and let him work out his problems on his own. But then he felt guilty for feeling that way, because their intentions were good, and it wasn't their fault he had little to no social skills.  

Should he just say yes to the offer, just to be polite? But then there was the chance he might lose his patience with whoever came and blow up again, and even after that, they'd only worry about him more. What if they suddenly decided he needed to be in a mental hospital for his own safety, and all of Equestria learned about the alien living among them? If he said no, the same thing might happen, and then he knew nopony would ever genuinely be nice to him, it would all be out of pity, and he hated pity. Should he just give up now and try to move to some country outside of Equestria and—

Swift suddenly smacked his forehead against the desk, then took several deep breaths. He remembered from his therapy on Earth that what he was currently doing was catastrophizing. He was immediately rushing to the worst possible scenario and running with that to the conclusion that might not even be logical. Swift lied down on his back, spreading his wings to make himself comfortable, and closed his eyes. He used a mental technique he'd learned awhile back, imagining himself in a 'haven' type location, in this case a warm and pleasant forest, with animals chattering all around him. He kept his focus on his breath, calming down.

After a few minutes of doing this, Swift got to his hooves once more. He went over the letter one more time with a clear mind. There was no real reason to think Twilight and the others would ever force him into an institution, unless he attempted suicide or something, which he was reasonably sure he wouldn't do. Even if they did, they wouldn't announce he was actually a human to all of Equestria. Unfortunately, that still left him with a dilemma: Should he allow them to visit, or not?

With a grunt of frustration, Swift picked up the letter and put it into a drawer. It had gotten pretty late, and he never made good decisions when he was tired. He knew procrastination was an invitation to trouble, but he also knew that putting off responding to Twilight for one day wouldn't harm anyone. Closing the drawer, Swift ate a little, then climbed into bed, falling asleep with little difficulty.





The next day at the weather factory proved to be a little easier, thankfully. Swift's job consisted of pouring the liquid essence of rainbows into batches of clouds. While not intense, it was still a job that required precision, as too much rainbow into one cloud would cause them to start dropping the liquid like rain, only rainbow drops, as Pinkie Pie had learned, were spicy. Once a rainstorm ended, the clouds with the rainbows inside them would be released, and stimulated to produce those rainbows. Swift didn't exactly understand how rainbows, which were simply the refraction of light through water droplets on Earth, could be made from magical liquid, but different universe, different rules.

As he scooped another batch of rainbow essence, Swift felt something bump into his back, nearly falling face-first into the liquid rainbow cauldron, though he managed to spread out his wings and catch himself just in time. He looked behind him, finding the offending object was a familiar, bulky brown pegasus with a tan mane.

"Ooh, sorry, Swift Wimp!" laughed Dumb-bell. "I guess I broke your concentration!"

"Seriously? Swift Wimp?" asked the crimson pegasus. "That's the best you could do? How long did it take you to come up with that one, years?" He thought that was actually less clever than Rainbow Crash, but he didn't share the idea, of course.

Dumb-bell clenched his jaw, clearly not used to having his victims talk back to him. "Listen, punk," he grumbled, getting directly in Swift's face, "you ain't got nothing, you scrawny nobody. My friends and I are the ones in charge around here. Now shut your trap, take whatever I give you, and go back to work without telling anypony before I beat the—"

"Dumb-bell!"

The muscular pegasus flinched as the supervisor for the rainbow team, Meteorology, flew down. He was a tall, thin, white pegasus with a short, pink mane, and a sun rise for a Cutie Mark. Though thin, he was in no way gaunt, and his deep brown eyes held an imposing stare.  

"What did I say about messing with your coworkers?" he demanded. "If I catch you again, you'll be out of this factory faster than you can say Princess Celestia!"

Dumb-bell opened his mouth, likely to protest, but no words came out. Eventually, he simply lowered his head, and flew back to his workstation.

"Thank you, sir," said Swift. "Stupid loser. You'd think he'd have something better to do."

Meteorology nodded. "Don't worry about him and his friends, Swift. Ever since we started to actually catch them in the act, they've been acting up less and less. I don't think they'd have the guts to mess with you outside of work."

"Neither do I," agreed Swift, pouring rainbow into the next cloud and pushing it along. "Seriously, though, Swift Wimp? I could've come up with something more creative when I was a foal."

Meteorology laughed, before flying off back to his station.

Swift continued his work for a few more minutes, before the lunch bell rang. He shed his work coat and helmet, rushing back to his locker and grabbing his lunchbox. He hadn't brought anything special, just a simple sandwich with daffodils, but it would keep his stomach full until dinner time. As he flew up to the cloud cluster that housed the cafeteria, Swift thought about where he would sit. He'd spent the first few weeks just eating by himself outside the main factory, and had progressed up to the cafeteria. Now, he was thinking about actually sitting next to somepony, but even the thought of something so simple made him nervous. Even after working with them for months, he still didn't know these ponies very well. It shouldn't have scared him so much, except—

You know you're a freak. You know you don't belong here.

Swift sighed to himself. The thoughts. Of course. Sometimes, he could go days without having one, but others were filled to the brim with them.

Well, screw you! he thought as loud as he could back at his own brain. He was going to actually try today, and nothing would stop him.

As he landed on the cloudy surface, he began glancing between the tables, looking for any faces he recognized. He might've been willing to open up a little more, but going up to complete strangers was pushing it.

"Hey, Swift! Over here!"

Swift turned his head, searching for the source of the voice. He discovered it not too far away, in the form of Thunder Snow and Gentle Breeze, waving at him. Swift instinctively smiled, trying to keep his nerves from being visible.  

He trotted over to the two ponies, setting himself down on a chair across from them.  

"Hey, guys," he said, pulling out his sandwich, "your day going okay?"

"Meh. Can't complain, I guess," said Gentle Breeze.

Thunder Snow shrugged. "Gracious Wings was getting on my case earlier today, when I was making snowflakes for the colder areas up north. Apparently, despite me having a snow-themed Cutie Mark, I'm not making the flakes with enough finesse. Other than that, it's been okay. What about you?"

"Today's been fine. Dumb-bell was being obnoxious, but Meteorology dealt with him. Why does that guy even work here, anyway? He has a weightlifting Cutie Mark."

"Nopony really knows why him and his friends work here," Thunder responded. "They've just been here for as long as most of us can remember. Maybe they just couldn't make careers out of their Cutie Marks. It's not like there's any rule that you have to work in an area related to your Cutie Mark, but it's still kinda weird."

Swift looked back at Thunder's Mark, and thought of a question. It was kind of a dangerous road to go down, considering it could lead to questions about his own Mark, but it wasn't a certainty.

"So, I don't mean any offense by this, but is there a lot of demand for snow mixed with thunderstorms?" he asked.

Thunder simply chuckled. "If I had a bit for every time I've been asked that question, I could retire," he laughed. "We don't end up making that particular weather pattern frequently, but when I get the chance to whip it up, it's something."

"I've only ever seen it once," Gentle commented, "but it was kind of impressive. Lightning in the middle of a blizzard looks crazy."

"Well, I'll have to check it out sometime," said Swift, before taking a bite out of his sandwich. So far, the conversation seemed to be going okay. He just had to remember to steer it away from dangerous topics.

"So Swift," Gentle began, "what's your story?"

Swift chewed his sandwich. This was alright, he'd rehearsed this version of his past. He could do this.

"Not a lot to tell," he said. "I was born down in Baltimare, and I've spent the last few years wandering around Equestria, trying to find a place that I can settle down in. The last place I lived in was Ponyville, which was nice, but wasn't doing it for me, so I moved here. Never lived in a cloud city before now, so this is a pretty big departure. It's a little different, but not too bad. The weirdest thing is how gung-ho some ponies seem about the weather work."

Gentle nodded. "I can see that. Thunder and I have pretty much spent our whole lives in Cloudsdale, but I can imagine how it looks to ponies who've just got here.  Pegasi seem to have this attitude that we all have to be tough, which I guess calls back to the pre-Hearth's Warming days, when we were the most militaristic of the tribes. Plus, sometimes they act like, since we control the weather, we should have more power, but really, we're not more important than the other tribes."

"I agree," said Thunder. "So you lived in Ponyville? You ever bump into Princess Twilight? Is it really as crazy down there as they say it is? Did you meet Rainbow Dash?"

"I saw Twilight a couple of times, she was nice enough," said Swift. "Honestly, nothing insane ever happened while I was living there. Weirdest thing I ever saw was the changeling king visiting the library. Maybe they just exaggerate normal events that go on down there. Rainbow talked to me from time to time, but she was usually pretty busy. Wonderbolts, you know?"

"Gotta be honest, I'm sorta surprised she actually made it," said Gentle. "Dash is a really good flyer, but she doesn't have a lot of discipline. Or patience, now that I think about it."

"It probably helps that she's had to save Equestria several times over," said Thunder. "I'm not saying they gave her an easy time because of that, I'm saying it probably helped her learn those things."

"She seemed alright," said Swift. "Bit of a showoff, but at least she could back it up. She anything like that as a filly?"

"Pretty much," said Gentle. "It's not like she was mean or anything, but she was super-obsessed with her own ability as a flyer, and with the Wonderbolts. Kind of an oddball pony, to be honest. Not somepony I would've bet on to become one of the saviors of Equestria. But what do I know?"

Swift shrugged. "I didn't get to know the wielders of the Elements very well. Pinkie Pie threw me a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party, and I did see the others, but I didn't spend a lot of time with them." It was a lie, but a harmless one. Then another question occurred to him. "Wasn't Fluttershy born in Cloudsdale, too?"

"Oh yeah," replied Thunder. "She left a lot earlier than Rainbow did, though. As soon as she discovered the stuff on the surface for the first time, she left Cloudsdale and never looked back. She still as socially awkward?"

"I don't know. She was kinda quiet. She does run a nice animal sanctuary, so I guess she must not be completely withdrawn."

"So what did you do in Ponyville? When you got here, you said you didn't have any weather experience, so I'm guessing their weather team didn't have any openings."

"Mostly just odd jobs around the town," Swift said with another shrug. "Seriously, I'm surprised I managed to get this job in the first place. I had no experience or anything."

Gentle nodded. "It's not that uncommon. A lot of pegasi who've never had jobs in weather manage to find jobs here. I think it's because—"

The rest would remain unheard, as the end of lunch bell suddenly sounded. Swift looked down at his hooves, noticing he'd only gotten about halfway through his sandwich. He quickly crammed the rest into his mouth, chewing and swallowing it quickly.

"A weather pony's work is never done," said Thunder, getting to his hooves.

"Sometimes I wish the weather would just manage itself," said Gentle. "Like in the Everfree Forest. Then all we'd have to do is tell ponies what's going to happen."

Swift covered his mouth with one hoof to hide his chuckle. After all, it wouldn't do for Gentle to find out he came from a world where the weather wasn't manufactured.