//------------------------------//
// Moving Day 
// Story: The Cloudsdale Chronicles 
// by Boltstrike58 
//------------------------------//

Swift Wing had very little time to ponder the meaning of Discord's final words before getting back to work at the weather factory. Appleloosa had a greater need for rainfall this year, so Cloudsdale would soon have to be moved to that area to deliver more storms faster. As soon as he was recovered, Swift was put to work helping others form more rain clouds, and then stocked them into the "cloud vault" until they were necessary.

It wasn't until two days before the move that Swift remembered he would be assisting everypony else in pushing Cloudsdale across Equestria. He didn't mind, certainly, but he wondered how hard it was going to be. Sure, no one was expecting him to push the entire city by himself, but he wasn't the strongest flier. Sure, it was made of clouds, which weren't heavy, but there were so many houses and other objects sitting around that added up to something pretty substantial. Could he even contribute anything to the effort? A frown crossed his features as he remembered his time as a human, when he hadn't been able to help his mother lift heavy things, because he had so little muscle until after puberty.

Just as quickly as the depressed thought had entered his brain, it was replaced with another memory. He recalled "Hurricane Fluttershy," where, even with her weak wingpower, Fluttershy had been able to give the other pegasi the push they needed to create the tornado to lift water back up to Cloudsdale. That episode had taught that everyone could contribute something, that every little bit helps. Well, if it worked for Fluttershy, it would probably work for him, especially considering he was in Equestria.  

"Have you ever worked on a moving day before?" he asked Thunder Snow that day, as the two of them finished locking up the cloud vault.

"A couple," replied the pegasus, as he turned the knob. "Honestly, they make it sound like a huge deal, like 'All of Equestria is Depending on us!' and stuff like that, but it's really not that hard. Your wings are kinda sore the day after, but that's it."

"That's a relief," Swift admitted, wanting to be honest, even if he couldn't reveal everything. "I read up on it before I started working here. It sounds pretty simple, at least conceptually. We just push the city. Does the whole town have to stay inside while we do it?"

"Nah. It's pretty much like a ride on a hot air balloon for them. Obviously, we announce we're gonna do it a week before, so everypony knows not to bring out stuff they could drop off the clouds, and the unicorns who live here usually stay inside, but it's a smooth journey for them."

"Good. Is moving the whole city anything like moving individual clouds? I've done that plenty of times before."

"It's a little harder, but mainly just because of how huge it is, and how much everything adds up to, but we've got more than enough wingpower to move it. Even if half the factory staff is sick, we usually just call in some help from the town. Losing those three idiots who beat you up barely put a dent in our workforce."

"I doubt they were even that much help to begin with," Swift quipped. "Seriously, even when they weren't bothering me, they were just goofing off. They didn't take their jobs here seriously at all."

Thunder groaned. "Honestly, I have no idea how they managed to keep their jobs for so long. It's like they never grew up. I knew them back at flight camp, and they were exactly the same. Now, if you wanna talk Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, they've advanced. They learned what their problems were, and actually worked on them."

"I believe you," said Swift.

"You looking to stay in the weather work?" Thunder suddenly asked. "Or is this just a stepping stone for you?"

Swift felt his ears try to flatten against his skull, as though operating on reflex, but he managed to stop them. While the question was easy enough to answer, it made him nervous about his own future. He enjoyed weather manufacturing, but he still wasn't sure it was what he wanted to do with his new life. There were plenty of opportunities in Equestria, the problem was simply that he didn't know which one to take.

"I haven't decided yet," he answered, honestly.  

"Well, at least you work hard," replied Thunder. "There've been ponies here who just daydream the time away, then quit."

"I try. This job isn't exactly glamorous, but it pays the bills."

"Yeah, I get you. So, see you on moving day?" Thunder asked.

"Sure."  

The two pegasi clapped the tips of their wings together, before Thunder trotted out of the factory in one direction, while Swift took another. Soon enough, he found himself outside the factory, and decided to take a scenic flight around the city back to his apartment.  





Moving day was upon them soon enough. Nopony at the factory called in sick, so there was no reason to call for volunteers from the city. All weather factory operations were temporarily shut down, so that the moving could be done without disturbing or breaking anything.  

The setting up of the moving was relatively simple. Swift and everypony else was directed to the area behind the weather factory, where there was the most surface area to push on. Swift's only instructions were to find a spot he could comfortably push from. He thought about how Princess Twilight, if she'd been in charge of this event, would've had everything organized down to the very last detail. Would that be something she'd implement once she was the sole ruler of Equestria?

Shaking the thoughts from his brain, Swift placed his hooves against the cloudy wall, giving his wings the occasional flap to keep him airborne. Thunder Snow and Gentle Breeze had taken up positions on either side of him, doing the same pose. There was no wind in the air, and the sun bearing down on them did nothing to help the nervous sweat dripping down the back of Swift's neck.

He must've had some obvious facial giveaways, because Thunder reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "Remember what we talked about," he insisted. "You'll do fine."

Swift gave a nod, recalling everything he knew about the process already. There was nothing to worry about. He could fly just as competently as any of the others, there was nothing to worry about.

"Alright, everypony!" called out Meteorology. He was positioned at the apex of the factory, helping the other, more experienced ponies to push the higher sections, since the factory itself was woven into Cloudsdale's structure. "Give it what you've got, but don't tire yourself out! We don't want to have to fly down and save you because you used up all your energy!"

He blew his whistle, Swift straightened out his body, and began to push. It certainly was a lot more weight than he'd ever dealt with before, but with so many pouring their strength into it, Cloudsdale slowly began to advance across the sky. Swift could feel his wings straining, but weeks of hard weather work had toughened them up. He felt more certain than before that he could do this.

Glancing around him as they went along, Swift saw the cities they passed on their journey. Canterlot stood out on the mountain to the northeast, while Twilight Sparkle's castle nearly poked the underside of Cloudsdale from the southwest, signaling that they were passing by Ponyville. Swift's more sensitive pony ears thought they picked up a call of "Hi, Cloudsdale!" from below, originating from a certain party pony. He could've easily imagined it, though.

The entire trip took around two hours of pushing, with a short break after the first hour. After all, it was a warm day under Celestia's sun, and everypony needed some hydration. But it was right back to work after that, and soon, Cloudsdale was positioned directly over Appleloosa.

Looking down, Swift found the city to be just like he'd remembered from the show. It resembled an Old Western town, with ponies decked out in cowboy gear walking around everywhere. He also saw the native buffalo doing their stampeding around the apple trees, or at least the clouds of dust they were kicking up behind them. He made a mental note to visit the town before they moved Cloudsdale back to its usual spot.

"That's a wrap, everypony!" called out Meteorology. "You can all go home for the day, we're done here!"

Thunder Snow wiped the sweat off his own forehead with one wing. "See? I told you it was easy!" he said, giving Swift a playful punch with one hoof. "Bit of a workout, that's for sure, but not impossible."

"Yeah, you were right," remarked Swift. "Beats the heck out of snowflake inspection, I'll tell you that much."

"Oh, don't even get me started on that job," groaned Gentle. "Seriously, those things require more care than fine china! And if you break 'em, you have to start all over again!"  

The three ponies shared a short chuckle over that, before turning back and flying into the factory.  

"So, Swift," Thunder began, "we were going to go and have some drinks in town tonight. You wanna join us?"

Swift actually felt himself go pale upon hearing that invitation. He didn't get invited out very often, at least not back on Earth, but ponies were even more social creatures. It would've been a lie to say that he didn't want to be asked, but the simple truth was that it terrified him.

"I-I'd like to," he stammered, trying and failing to sound natural, "b-but I've got a late doctor's appointment I've got to go to. S-sorry, guys. M-maybe some other t-time."

Fortunately, the others didn't seem to notice the sudden breakdown the crimson pegasus was having. "Aw, that's too bad," said Thunder. "Well, we'll invite you out another day."

With that, the two pegasi flew out towards the center of Cloudsdale, leaving Swift Wing alone with his thoughts.





"STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!" Swift groaned, as he gritted his teeth and banged his head into a pillow. He would've gone for the wall instead, but he didn't want to get in trouble for noise.  

Swift was back at his apartment, sitting on his bed, trying to punish himself for screwing up what might've been his one chance at actually having a social life. Why couldn't he just grow a pair and say yes when Thunder asked him to hang out? What was he so afraid of?

You're afraid of them knowing what a freak you are, freak.

Swift stopped himself from throwing his head into the pillow again, as his brain chimed in with the thoughts, right on cue. He sighed sadly, already feeling his eyes beginning to water. He considered it a small victory that he'd managed to get home from work without having this breakdown in public. Still, the fact remained that he was having it, and he'd chickened out of an opportunity.

He rolled over, spreading his wings out so he didn't sit on them, and stared despondently up at the ceiling. Was this just his destiny? To be lonely, and blow every chance he'd ever get to change that situation?

"I'm surprised I don't have a Cutie Mark for being a coward," he whimpered. "I don't know what that would look like, but if anypony would have one, it would be me."

He knew he had a session with Dr. Feather in a couple of days, but right now, it stung. The worst part was that, logically, he couldn't blame anyone but himself. He'd made that choice, and now he had to live with it. Maybe he was just a fundamentally broken person, and that fact hadn't changed now that he'd become a pony. What now?

He thought long and hard about what he was going to do, before an idea occurred to him. He didn't like it, and it was taking a bit of a risk, but he didn't exactly have a lot of other ponies he could go to for advice.

Grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, Swift sat down on his bed and began to write. He went with what his creative writing teacher had taught him long ago on Earth: Don't worry about getting it perfectly right the first time, just get something down and then fix it later. So he wrote long and hard, putting his thoughts into the most fitting words his brain could come up with. For the next ten minutes, there was simply the scratching of his pen against the paper.

Finally, he got out everything he could think of, and set the pen down. Lifting up the paper, he began to read what had just come out of his head.

Dear Princess Twilight,

	Sorry to bother you, considering you have the whole "succeeding Celestia and Luna" thing going on right now. If I know you, you'll be really stressed about making sure that everything is perfect. Before I get into the purpose of this letter, I want to assure you that I believe you'll be a great leader. You've been preparing for this for years, and I'm sure you can pull this off.

	With that out of the way, let me get into why I wrote this. You see, I have a couple of coworkers that I've gotten kind of close to over the past few days, and they invited me to hang out tonight. While that doesn't sound like anything big, I panicked, freaked out, and said no before my brain had even fully processed what they were saying. Yeah, not my proudest moment. 

	I've talked a lot about wanting friends, and wanting to put myself out there, but when I was presented with an opportunity to do just that, I turned it down. I don't know what's wrong with me, honestly. Before you ask, yes, I'm going to bring this up to my therapist the next time I see her, but I need somepony to talk to right now, even if it's just to vent my thoughts. 

	I guess I was afraid. Afraid of those other ponies finding out the truth about me. No, not the fact that I'm a human. If you girls were willing to excuse that, I doubt anypony else would be bad about it. I'm afraid of them knowing that I'm just some schmo, someone who doesn't have hobbies or anything. My whole life right now is basically my job at the weather factory, nothing else. Who wants to hang out with someone like that? 

	I know that everyone deserves friendship, but the cold reality, at least back on Earth, was that you have to make yourself interesting if you want to have friends. You have to be someone people will want to be close to. Maybe it's easier in Equestria, and I just haven't noticed until this point, but I can't shake the things that are embedded into my brain. Back home, everyone just thought I was boring and ignored me. I don't know if I can deal with that again.

	I know you're not a psychologist or anything, but you and your friends are the experts when it comes to friendship problems. Maybe, if you girls could just come up with some advice for me, or if you can't, just acknowledge that you read this, that would be really helpful to me. The act of getting this down on paper has made me feel a little better already. Thanks in advance for anything you can do.

	Yours, Swift Wing

Swift set down the paper, taking a deep breath as he processed it all. It was pretty much the best he could do, given his mental state. He'd always had a habit of going with the first draft of things he wrote, for better or worse. He sighed to himself, hoping he hadn't just screwed himself over.

He found an envelope and prepared the letter accordingly, before flying over to the post office, and dropping it off. There was nothing left to do but wait for the results.





Having nothing better to do, Swift flew down to Appleloosa sooner than he'd planned, and bought a salt lick to enjoy just for himself. This was pretty much the pony equivalent of buying and eating a whole pizza by oneself, something Swift had been very familiar with as a human. Plus, he enjoyed the taste, and it made him feel better after the day he'd had.

Looking around, Swift saw that many creatures besides ponies were visiting the tavern. It was mostly griffons, a few of whom he recognized from Cloudsdale. Clearly, they'd had the same idea as him. There were also plenty of buffalo, including Little Strongheart, who seemed to be hanging around Braeburn. Swift briefly wondered if those who shipped the two of them back on Earth were correct. The rest were hippogriffs, probably looking for a change from their watery home environment. He didn't talk to any of them, but they seemed to be mingling among the ponies just fine.

Now that he'd distracted himself from his personal problems, Swift thought about the way the world of Equestria was changing. He was fairly certain that what he was in right now was intended to be the final season of Friendship is Magic, with Twilight taking over and all. He'd never expected to be able to predict what was going to happen, and in fact, he didn't want to, but it was still sort of a shock to him, knowing he'd get to watch the season unfold from a unique perspective. Of course, getting brainwashed by Sombra hadn't been part of the plan, but that wasn't his fault. It had just happened.

Soon enough, Swift had finished off his salt lick, and set off to fly back to Cloudsdale. He needed to get some sleep, especially with everything that had happened over the last few days.