//------------------------------//
// News Flash 
// Story: The Cloudsdale Chronicles 
// by Boltstrike58 
//------------------------------//

To say that Swift wasn't angry would be to lie. The crimson pegasus was so mad he was shaking, and it was only the last few drops of reason in his brain that stopped him from yelling at the alicorn in front of him. That, and the fact that she was a princess, plus the fact that she had magical powers that could easily overpower him.

"Twilight," he began, through clenched teeth, "there are paparazzi outside the building. Lots and lots of paparazzi."

Twilight hurriedly held up her forehooves. "I know, I know, I should've called ahead, but please, just give me sixty seconds to explain myself. After that, you can throw me out, you can do anything you want, but please just give me that one minute."

Swift took a deep breath, holding it for a couple of seconds before releasing it slowly. His temper was starting to die out already, considering the reporters outside hadn't even noticed him coming in, and probably wouldn't connect Twilight's appearance with him, as long as they didn't barge in. He supposed a single minute was the least she deserved.

"You might as well come in," he replied, taking out his key and opening the door. Twilight obediently trotted in after him. Pushing the door shut with one leg, Swift looked up at the clock. "You've got one minute, fill it with words. Sixty, fifty-nine..."

"Okay," Twilight began, speaking as fast as she possibly could, "remember how I told you Celestia and Luna are stepping down from the throne, and leaving me as the sole ruler of Equestria? Well, that's going to happen pretty soon, and when it does happen, I probably won't be able to take trips anymore, unless they're for official business, and there'll be swarms of guards around me all the time. Plus, the paparazzi still don't know about the transfer of power, but when they find out, they're going to be worse than ever. The point I'm trying to make is this is probably the last chance I'll ever have to visit you without causing some kind of national event, and I wanted to see you again, so I rushed over here without thinking, and I immediately realized I shouldn't have, but by then, it was too late, and I'm really sorry about that."  

Finished, Twilight slumped over, panting, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. Swift, his earlier rage having dissipated, watched her curiously.

"How'd you manage to get that out without taking a breath?" he asked, after a few seconds of hesitation.

"I have no idea," Twilight confessed. "I guess I just needed to say all of it, and I couldn't let a little thing like lack of oxygen stop me."

Swift sighed again, his rage having died down to smoldering embers. "Okay, look, I'll forgive you for this one. But next time you or one of the others show up, please write ahead or something. I'm really, really not good with surprise visits. And I know I already said this, but please remind Pinkie: no surprise parties."

"I understand," said Twilight. "The paparazzi shouldn't be able to dig up anything about you, so don't worry about that. I won't say anything about you to them. In fact, I'll cast a silencing spell around myself so I can't even hear their questions."

"That's a relief," Swift replied. "Although, considering the situation I got in a little while ago, they might decide to bother me for entirely different reasons."

"What do you mean?" asked Twilight. She stepped a little closer to Swift, her eyes wide and inquisitive, which made the red pegasus feel self-conscious.  

"Are you talking about those bruises?" Twilight asked, pointing with one hoof. "Was there an accident?"
"Nope." Swift decided he might as well be honest with her. "You remember those three idiots who kept calling Rainbow 'Rainbow Crash' at the Best Young Fliers Competition?"

Twilight stumbled back, startled. "How did you know about—?!" Then realization creeped into her eyes. "Oh, right. Alternate universe TV show."

"Yeah..." Swift replied, feeling a little awkward. "Well, they still work at the weather factory. Or at least they did, until yesterday. You see..." He proceeded to relay the story of how Hoops, Score, and Dumb-bell had assaulted him, only to be stopped by Bow Hothoof.

Twilight's jaw dropped as he finished his tale. "They were gonna beat you to a pulp? Just because you didn't rise to their taunting?!"
Swift shrugged. "Some people-I mean, ponies-are just jerks. There's no reason behind it or anything, they just suck."

"But that's horrible!" Twilight exclaimed. "Are you alright? Do you need help with anything? Do you think they have any friends who might—"

"Twilight," Swift stopped her, raising his foreleg, "I'm sure I'll be fine. Like I said, Bow got there before they could do anything serious. And they're just a hooful of morons with nothing better to do, not a criminal organization."

Twilight breathed a relieved sigh. "I'm just sorry you had to go through that. I really hope it hasn't soured your view on ponies as a whole."

Swift shook his head. "Honestly, they're not that different from humans. Maybe a little more...I don't know what word I'm looking for is. Relaxed, maybe? Naive? But both have their bad apples, and there's nothing wrong with that."

"I suppose," Twilight replied with a shrug. "I certainly can't explain Cozy Glow. Or King Sombra, who used to be a normal pony. They were both pretty insane." Then her eyes widened, as though some new, unpleasant thought had just dawned on her. "Hey, Swift, I don't suppose...you knew..."

"Knew what?" Swift stared at Twilight in confusion. He couldn't read Twilight's mind, obviously, but whatever thought was floating around in it, he guessed it wasn't good.  

"Look, when he returned, we tried to defeat King Sombra with the Elements of Harmony," Twilight continued. "It seemed to work, but he tricked us, and managed to destroy the Tree of Harmony. Along with the elements."

Swift actually gasped in shock. The Elements of Harmony were destroyed? If this was the ninth season of Friendship is Magic, they were pulling out all the stops. It was looking more and more like this was the final season of the show. Good thing this world wouldn't just disappear after the show ended.

Then another idea occurred to him. "Wait a minute. If Sombra destroyed the Elements of Harmony, how did you and the others manage to defeat him? That rainbow shockwave looked just like the magic of the elements."

"Well, we sort of combined all of our innate magic to achieve the same effect. Discord reminded us that we still had the qualities that enabled us to use the elements in the first place. I have a theory that our repeated exposure to the elements themselves is what allowed us to do it, but that's beside the point. What I wanted to ask is..." Twilight took another breath, then looked Swift right in the eye. "Swift, did you know that was going to happen?"

Swift stared back for a second, before furrowing his brow. "What? No! I told you, I didn't know anything that was gonna happen in the future! If I'd known that, I would've told you!" The anger he'd felt earlier began to return, and he didn't feel any guilt over it. Why should he? Twilight was accusing him of screwing over Equestria by not telling them everything.

Thankfully, Twilight got the message. "Okay, okay! I believe you!" she hastily responded, taking a few steps back. "I'm sorry, I just had to know. If you thought interfering in our world would lead to some kind of disaster, I wouldn't have blamed you, but I just—"

Swift rolled his eyes. "Twilight, if you're going to come into my home just to accuse me of endangering Equestria by omission—"

"No, no, no!" Twilight insisted. "I won't, I promise. Please don't throw me out." She looked down. "I know you have that right, but I'm hoping you won't actually use it..."

Swift gave her an annoyed glare, but ultimately relented. He knew he had to set his own boundaries, though. "You have one more chance," he warned her. Twilight nodded in agreement.

Then, another thought occurred to Swift. "Wait, if the Tree is gone, shouldn't the Everfree Forest have grown all over Equestria by now?"

"Celestia, Luna, and Star Swirl all combined their magic to suppress it again," Twilight explained. "The Pillars are considering planting another seed, but that seal should hold for at least a couple of centuries. By the time it wears off, we'll have come up with something."

"That's good to know," replied Swift. "So how exactly are you gonna rule Equestria alone? Are you gonna have to raise the sun and moon by yourself? And what about Luna's duties in the dream realm?"
"We haven't completely figured those things out, yet," Twilight admitted. "Celestia and Luna don't need to be on the throne to raise the celestial bodies. We're talking about transferring those powers to me, but we haven't decided yet. As for Luna's dream walking, right now, the plan is for her to find another pony to train in that field. They don't want to pile too much on me."

"That's a relief, I suppose," said Swift. "What about Cadence? She just staying in the Crystal Empire?"

"Yes. She's going to help me a lot in the first few months of ruling. Is there anything new going on with you? Besides the..." She waved her hooves, clearly indicating what she didn't want to say out loud.

"Not really," Swift admitted. "Like I said, I met up with Rainbow's parents. They're nice enough ponies."

"For a while, I used to think Rainbow didn't even have parents. She never brought them up. It wasn't until she started letting them come to her Wonderbolt shows that we found out anything about them." Twilight had a small chuckle at the thought. "Honestly, the thing that surprised me the least was the fact that Rainbow was an only child."

Swift shared a brief smile with the princess. "Really, all I've been doing is working in the weather factory. Like I said before, it's alright."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Twilight. She lit up her horn, summoning a small pocket watch out of nowhere. "I should probably go, I've got some princess training to work on."

"Alright," said Swift. "I'd offer to walk you out, but I'd rather not give the paparazzi more fuel."

"No, I understand. I won't say anything about you to them, I promise. Again."  

Twilight then draped a wing over Swift's back, in a sort of hug. Swift then pulled the door open, allowing the princess to trot out of the door. Twilight's telekinesis enveloped the door and swung it closed.

Swift strolled away from the door, making his way to the couch and lying down on it. He gently massaged his temples, trying to process what had occurred. He wasn't angry at Twilight anymore, but it still left him feeling unsettled. It was annoying, but there was nobody he could really talk to about it, because admitting you knew one of Equestria's princesses, soon to be its primary ruler, raised too many questions.

"What should I do now?" Swift wondered aloud. "Besides talk to myself? Should I admit it to Dr. Feather? Or—"

A small popping sound preceded a voice saying "I wouldn't really recommended that. The more ponies you let in on a secret, the bigger the security risk."

Swift leaped off of the couch in fear, his wings spread out, and slammed into the floor. Placing his hooves against the floor, he got back up, and turned to find the exact figure he'd expected.

"Discord..." he groaned.

Indeed, the chaotic draconequus floated just below the ceiling, eating a bucket of what appeared to be dusty old sunglasses. He chuckled at Swift's annoyance, casually waving the furry white hand on his tail.

"Sorry for the intrusion," he laughed, "but when Twilight told me she was coming to visit you, I simply had to observe and see what shenanigans you were getting into! After all, you are one of Equestria's more interesting residents."

Swift rolled his eyes at Discord's antics, not at all surprised by them. "I take it you know where I'm really from, then?" he asked.

"Of course! I felt it as soon as you breached the walls of this reality!" Discord replied, spreading his mismatched hands. "I knew who you were, but I thought it would be more fun to sit back and let Twilight and the others figure it out for themselves. Though they did end up needing my help to finally solve the mystery." He reached into his bucket, pulling out several more pair of sunglasses and devouring them. "I must admit, I was surprised when old Hoody decided to let you into Equestria. He knew the risks you'd be facing, but I guess he liked you enough."

Swift paled. "Y-you know about him?!" he exclaimed. "H-how?!"

"Oh, he's a good friend of mine. When you're a cosmically powerful being, you tend to seek out others of your own kind. If you can find them, that is." Discord then laid back, and began doing the backstroke through the air. "We share a lot of interests. For instance, observing the society of you humans."

He thoughtfully placed his lion's paw on his chin. "A fascinating species, I must admit. No magic, yet they've advanced further than ponies. At least, in most realities. Did you know there are versions of your Earth where humans have colonized the entire universe?"

"Well, I know about the multiple universe thing, but no, I did not know that," said Swift. "Seriously, though, why are you here? Don't you have better things to do?"

"Admittedly, yes," replied Discord. "But you and you situation are...intriguing to me. Sunset Shimmer pulled off something similar on the other side of that mirror, and I wondered if you could do the same. Plus, you come from one of the realities where Equestria's a TV show, meaning you have a unique perspective."

"Thanks, Q," Swift quipped. "Or have you heard that one before?"

"Plenty of times, but I never get tired of it. I wanted to call Twilight Batgirl, but she wouldn't get it."

Swift laughed a little. "Uh, can I get you anything? You are my guest, even if you invited yourself. Though can you please use the door next time?"

"I'll think about it," Discord replied with a snort that probably indicated he wasn't going to think about it. "Don't worry about refreshments, I'm fine."

"You haven't really answered my question, you know," Swift continued. "What do you want with me?"

"I don't really want or need anything from you," Discord replied. "It's more of what you bring to the table, just by being here." He snapped his fingers, summoning a glass filled with some strange, green liquid that he proceeded to drink, before he spoke again. "I'm not keen on turning Equestria into a chaotic wasteland anymore, but I still enjoy some interruptions to the status quo every now and then. That's what chaos is about, you know. Change. Otherwise it would get frightfully dull." He pointed at Swift with his lion paw. "And you, my friend, are a good mix-up. When you came to Ponyville, you threw a wrench into what would've happened. Sure, it's not as over-the-top as my personal style, but still, you're something different."

Swift stared back at the draconequus, perplexed. "Uh...you're welcome, I guess," he responded with a shrug. "But, honestly, I don't have any plans that would leave a huge impact on Equestria. All I really want to do is get a Cutie Mark and settle down. Maybe find a life partner—"

Discord chuckled. "Oh, Swift. Swift, Swift, Swift. You really think your life is gonna stay quiet just because you moved away from Ponyville? Sure, Equestria may have its periods of silence and peace, but they don't last long. Just look at how you got dragged into Sombra's scheme!"

Swift narrowed his eyes. "What are you implying?" he asked, unable to keep the suspicion out of his voice.

"Oh, don't get the wrong idea. I have no intention of bringing my...'unique' brand of chaos into your life. I'm just telling you, Equestria won't be soft and silent forever. Sooner or later, you're gonna get dragged into some hijinks. It's not like I can see the future, but in this case, I don't have to. Although, it may be indirectly, I admit."
Swift was unable to stop himself from swallowing nervously. Perhaps he didn't know it, but Discord was digging into one of Swift's fears. Namely, the fear that moving to Cloudsdale had been for nothing, and he'd just get dragged into more of Twilight's adventures, which could potentially lead to him being outed to all of Equestria, which could ruin everything.  

Discord continued. "Anyway, what I'm curious about is how your presence, the presence of a human, is going to alter things. Maybe you'll take on a role akin to Sunset Shimmer's in this world! Or maybe you'll simply be the first human to ever obtain a Cutie Mark. Oh, the anticipation!"

"Discord," Swift interrupted, "can we drop this? Please?"

Discord opened his mouth, possibly to release an overly-dramatic sentence bemoaning Swift's lack of "fun," but when he opened his eyes, and saw the look on Swift's face, he closed it again.  

"I...I'm sorry," he said, sincerely. "I went too far. I know you don't want to be outed."

"Whatever," Swift snorted.

"Hey," Discord snapped back, with a little more force, "I may not be the most tactful individual, but I am warning you: be ready. Not even I can predict what's going to happen to Equestria once Twilight's on the throne. Maybe it'll just be more of the same, maybe it'll radically change. And you'll be dragged along with it."

Swift thought about issuing another angry dismissal, but ultimately relented. Discord did have a point. Great change had been inevitable back on Earth, and that seemed to be a constant in Equestria too. The possibility of being outed as a former human did exist. Perhaps he needed some kind of contingency plans in case it did happen.

Discord continued in a softer tone of voice, perhaps sensing he'd been a little harsh. "I've had to learn to roll with it ever since I was freed from stone. Trust me, learning to consider the needs of others for the first time in my life wasn't easy."

"I guess that's true," Swift replied. "Though it took a while for that lesson to stick, didn't it?" He didn't directly mention Discord's brief alliance with Tirek, not wanting to open old wounds. Also, angering a being who had essentially god-like powers probably wasn't a good idea.

"Fair enough," said the chaos spirit. "You should have an easier time than I did, though. Your very nature isn't tied to chaos itself." He flapped his tiny wings, flying out of his spot. "Well, I know when I've stayed long enough. I'll leave you be. Oh, one more thing." He turned back to Swift. "You might want to consider staying away from Canterlot until Twilight's coronation is done, if you can. I know you don't really like crowds, so that should be easy for you, but I'm just letting you know."

"Wait, what?" asked Swift. "What does that have to do with—"

But he was too slow. Discord raised his eagle talon and snapped his fingers, disappearing in a flash of white light. Swift Wing was left alone in his apartment, unsure of himself.