The Problem With Magic

by deathtap


Day 27: Cloudy Skies with a Silver Lining

I awoke with the biggest, greatest, freshest feeling I have ever felt ever. I felt reborn, refreshed, renewed, revived, reinvigorated, and all the other re-whatever words that describes this feeling. I felt good. I felt like a million bucks (bits?)! I felt that I could run a thousand miles and back. I felt like I could do all these things, yet I couldn't move for the life of me from below the pile of boxes.

"Someone... anyone... help!" I called out from where I was.

Nothing.

"Oh fine. Anypony?" I muttered out loud in a feeble attempt to amuse myself. Even after all this time I still made that stupid, stupid mistake. It didn't even make sense anymore. Guess old habits die hard.

I fumbled around a bit trying to see if I could at least get a hoof free. Maybe I could push some of these boxes from off of me, then again, how can you push something off of you from under? The logic seemed to die out when I actually thought about it. For what seemed a long time I lay where I was in silence. How long would I have to wait to get free of this stupid prison. At first I had thought that I was too weak to move the boxes, but I soon found this to be fact. I was too weak, or maybe I couldn't use the muscles that would have moved the boxes properly from my vantage. Would that count as weakness? I made a mental note on the face I needed to work out. How would that work? Do your muscles carry over? Will I as fit as I am now after I... when I...

Remembering what was going to happen to me felt like a solid kick in the face. Nobody deserved to be ripped away from something they loved so much. I was conflicted. I would have never felt like this if it weren't for Tutela. I keep telling myself that it would be okay to break my word, but the clever bitch had seen to it that that was impossible. Celestia tried to find out if I was something I wasn't and nearly killed me in the process. What if she actually found out I really wasn't a pony? What then? I don't think she'd be very happy, and considering the agony and pain I suffered through because of that... I was scared. I didn't want anyone to know. I didn't want to die, not when I found something so important to me. I had grown to love this world and those that dwell within it so much that it was killing me on the inside to know that soon it would all be over. There was nothing I could do. Stay and die, or leave and be content with the memories I've made.

"Hello?" I heard a voice call out. "Is anypony here? I know I heard a voice. You're not a ghost, are you? That would be so cool." She has squealed the last part to herself.

I made a face and shook my head inwardly. At least there was someone out there. "No! I'm not a ghost! Please, I'm stuck under these boxes! I can't move!"

"Aw," she made a disappointed groan. Suddenly I saw a pony land a couple dozen feet away through the makeshift peep-hole I had made. She seemed to be looking all over the place, even casting a quick glance over where I was but she obviously couldn't see me. She made a dry face. "That's not very helpful!"

"Over here! Next to you! Um... to your... left!" I desperately cried out. I was terrified that I'd be left there for... who knows how long? And I needed to get back. Twilight and the others would be searching for me.

She turned my way.

"Yes! Straight on from there!"

She walked over towards me.

"Yes, yes! Right under these boxes!" I tried to move a couple to show her where exactly.

She must've seen them jostling around because she floated upwards and out of sight. I heard the sound of the cardboard boxes being rubbed against each other and soon found that the weight on top of me getting lighter. With a big push, I shoved the remaining boxes off of me and stood up with a yell.

"Freedom!"

I then gasped as if I had run out of breath. In fact I found it quite hard to breathe for a moment. It took a second for myself to calm down and let the feeling go. That had never happened before.

The mare in front of me turned her head to the side, then to the other side, then back again. She just stared at me. Not knowing what to do, I just sat there and watched. Then she reached over and poked my nose with her hoof and leaned back to take another good look at me. "You look like a ghost."

"I'm not a ghost!" I exclaimed.

"Are you sure?" She asked skeptically. At once threw herself down at the boxes under her and placed her hooves over her eyes. "Please don't haunt me!"

I could only blink as I stood there dumbfounded.

She stood up and giggled into her hoof. "I'm just kidding. Of course you're not a ghost. I can't see through you. You're as unghost-like as they come."

"Uh... thanks?" Of course she was joking.

She stood there smiling at me.

I blinked, not sure what was going on. "Uh, I'm Forest, Forest Fire."

"Cool," She replied and remained standing where she was with that smile on her lips.

I coughed prompting her to continue. When she didn't, I asked her flat out. "And you are?"

"Silver Lining, though everypony calls me Wobbler." The greyish-blue mare shook her mane, which had two colors to it. She resumed her original posture and smiled pleasantly at me.

I scratched the back of my head. It was certainly getting weird. Why wasn't she talking? "So... Wobbler, huh? Ponies call you Wobbler?"
 
She nodded. "Yes."

When it was clear she wasn't going to elaborate, I continued, "Well... ponies call me Forest!"

"Uh-huh."

Again the silence reigned.

"Well, thanks for everything, but I best be off," I said as I stretched my bones and turned to hop off the cart -- or at least I tried to.

As soon as I was in midair, Wobbler darted forward in that unbelievable speed that pegasi were so good at and she grabbed me by the torso and heaved me backwards in an arc before slamming the back of my head into the base of the cart. It was a near flawless move that would have definitely made those who appreciated wrestling nod in approval. It was perhaps the most perfect suplex anyone never saw. When the back of my neck slammed against the cart, I was released and the momentum, coupled by the angle formed from all the boxes under me, sent me rolling backwards into a another stack of those dreaded cardboard cubes. This time on the cart's lower side. I came in like a wrecking ball and smashed that stack with my flank, which made me come to a stop looking upwards at the stack teetering over me.

"Oh. Great." I muttered as I watched the pile lean over past its threshold and topple down towards me.

Wobbler, for some reason, decided to try and help me up by placing her body directly over mine so that I couldn't get up even if I wanted to. She pulled me into her chest and after a few more attempts promptly braced herself for impact. As frightened as I was, I did the only thing that seemed logical. I pulled her towards me and managed to switch places with her so she was under my body as the debris began to reach us.

A few thoughts flashed through my head at this point. Why had I pulled her down? I could have pushed her out of the way. Why had I placed myself on top of her? I could have just jumped away after I had shoved her aside. Was I actually going to ditch her? Why not? She was a stranger. I had no reason to stay! Why was I still thinking about it and not doing anything-

By the time this last thought flitted through my brain, I saw Wobbler place her wings over her face. I stood firm.

One after the other, the boxes hit me. None of them hurt. Well, none of them really hurt -- a cardboard box is not so soft along the edges, but the weight of whatever was inside wasn't enough to really hurt me. After a few more moments the boxes began to press down and I found myself struggling to remain upright as they jostled me and several managed to hit me quite accurately on the noggin. One, in particular, got me to see stars, but while I was grimacing over the pain, I failed to notice that I was being pinned once more under a new stack of collapsed boxes. It wasn't the weight, it was the awkward angle in which my body got stuck. I couldn't really move, otherwise I might have been able to shake myself free.

This time with a mare under me. And at a really compromising position. I had tried to stop most of them from landing directly on top of her but instead ended up being pressed quite close the mare beneath me.

She looked up at me with two big, light-green eyes and smiled. "We're stuck!" She announced.

She was a clever one, she was. "Yes. We are stuck. This is not a good thing."

"Why's that?"

"Because we don't know how long it'll take them to notice we're missing."

"Who?" Wobbler asked.

A deep dread crept all over my body. "Your c-c-co workers?"

"I have co-workers?”

I gulped. Was she being serious?

“Oh! Yes! Them. They should be back tomorrow. Today's a holiday."

"Tomorrow?” I practically screamed. Then I thought about it. Was that why the other pegasi were at the fair yesterday? But wait, that doesn’t change the fact that we’d be stuck here for the day. That was unacceptable.

For some reason I thought about Applejack and her orchard. I knew that she was right now doing something on the farm. Perhaps not apple bucking, seeing as they were ahead of their crop requirements so far thanks to my harvester.

Why was I thinking of her and not Twilight? A vague recollection of Zap apples coming into season flitted through my mind. Why now?

I tried to shift myself, but all it managed to do was make it abundantly clear just how close to the mare I was. I felt her soft fur. I felt her supple muscles. Felt her warm breath. It was way too intimate and I found myself glancing down at her. Bad move. Really, really bad move. Wobbler seemed to be oblivious to our situation, which kinda made me feel relieved and sad. Still, considering how close she was and how close I was and how close everything else was to one thing or the other, I started to struggle against the weight of the boxes above me lest I embarrass myself any further. This turned out to be the worst thing I could do. She moved to the side and her tail... moved too.

I needed an emergency cure. Something to stop the natural process churning in my loins. I needed something to stop myself from this humiliating situation. I needed something... drastic.

Granny Smith taking a shower, Granny Smith taking a shower, Granny Smith taking a shower...

The image broke my brain, but it was worth it. I let out a sigh of relief (or was it pain?) as things below stopped before they even began. Then she looked down at me, her eyes meeting mine.

Then she said: "Can you move like that again, I think the boxes got lighter."

"N-n-no! They didn't get lighter... they're just, um, being shifted and... er, the way things as what to be... that is to say..." I tried to stop thinking. Thinking was bad. Thoughts were bad. My face felt it would bake itself. Wobbler, who was pinned below me. Her... flank... my face...

Granny Smith taking a shower, Granny Smith taking a shower, Granny Smith taking a shower!

Not good. This was really not good at all. I closed my eyes and tried to think of Granny really taking a shower, but the image wouldn't form. If anything, it seemed that a slightly older Applejack was bathing under a waterfall and that wasn't a turn off at all. That mature beauty that exuded from her just... no. Couldn't have that. Not now! What about... Big Mac taking a shower! Surely that would cure what ails me. The problem was when I tried to think of him, I got another version of what looked to be a red Applejack, strong and silent, but seductive. So I thought about Spike biting the pancakes in half, but ended thinking of Twilight eating a pizza with those delicious lips. No, then I thought of Cyan running her hotel only to end up getting tempted by Pinkie into sneaking into my room for some late night-

Everything time I tried to thinking about something to turn me off, my brain would rebel and find anything to turn me on. I was suddenly flooded with thoughts of the girls, each time I stopped the thought before it could fully form in my head and I tried to fight nature's call. Anything! I smashed my head against one of the closest boxes repeatedly trying to kill the images in my brain. I was not going to get a hard-on with a mare mere inches from my...

Then I heard Wobbler giggle.

"You're funny." She stated as she looked down at me.

"F-f-f-funny?" I stammered. Either she was one hell of a tease, or she just wasn't aware of our current position. Despite her intentions, it really did manage to finally cease the fantasy-fetish train dead in its tracks. She just seemed so... innocent and good-natured that the lust I felt vanished on its own and I wondered what I found so stimulating in the first place. Still, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak, I allowed a huge sigh of relief escaped my lips.

“Any moment now…”

“You say something?” I asked. I didn’t quite catch what she whispered, if she whispered.

“Nope,” Wobbler replied with a smile.

"Wobbler, you down here?" A voice shouted suddenly.

"I'm here, Cloudy!"

"Saved!" I was thanking every possible iteration of every deity I knew in my head, praising them for sending me mercy.

When I felt the boxes on top of us getting lighter, I could resist helping to get off the mare beneath me as quick as possible. What if Twilight found out? What is she learned of this? What would she do?

I pushed up and away until I could freely move myself away from Wobbler and I jerked up with a loud roar.

There was a loud gasp as I turned to see a very, very surprised stallion staring right at me, his face literally inches from mine. I tilted my head to the side and leaned back away from him. Then I looked down as Wobbler rolled to her side, folded her legs beneath her, stood up and dusted herself off as if nothing strange had happened. She then flapped her wings a few times to make sure they were okay I guess and turned herself around to face me.

I noticed that she looked unsteady during her brief flight. Perhaps she had broken a wing? It looked like her center of balance was off.

"Thanks!" Wobbler announced to the stallion who was still looking at me as if I was... a ghost!

"Uh... yeah, you've got to be more careful..." My voice died as I saw the stallion walking right up to me.

In what seemed like a state of bewilderment and shock, I saw the stallion pick up one of the boxes and promptly dropped it right onto my head. Instinctively, I moved my head downwards and away to soften the blow. "Hey!"

"Cloudy!" I heard Wobbler exclaim. "That's not nice, y'know."

"Sorry. Didn't mean to drop the box." His voice had almost no emotion in it. He wasn't sorry at all and that apology was so half assed that a toddler could tell he was full of shit.

"What'd you do that for?" I shouted.

"I said I was sorry," he said with the same emotionless monotone.

I looked at the orange-like pegasus (he was not like Applejack's orange, but a darker color). "Not you. Her! Why did you charge at me like that? And slam me into the ground... er... cart!... whatever!" I asked pointing at Wobbler.

She looked at me intently. "Because."

I waited. She, once again, didn't elaborate.

"Yes?" I prompted.

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

"You were saying?" I attempted again.

"I know!" she clopped her hooves together and giggled.

I looked at the stallion standing next to me in an attempt to gain clarity on whether or not what I had heard was correct, but he had this far-off dreamy look in his eyes. Right away I understood that this bozo was going to be of no help, so I turned back to the mare. "I meant, why did you slam me down like what you did?"

"I know what you meant," Wobbler stated bluntly, as if I had offended her.

So, because of her tone, I waited. Waited for her to say something. Anything! But she just remained where she stood with that smile on her face. I let out a slightly frustrated sigh. Thing was, I couldn’t tell if she was having me on or was the real deal.

"Okay. I'm glad we had this talk. I'm going home now."

Again I was about to hop out of the cart, only to feel two hooves grab me across the waist once again. I had time to blink maybe twice, before I felt my body be swung over and smash back into the boxes behind me once again. I had been suplexed for the second time that day. Fortunately there were no piled boxes on the cart this time and it would be fair to say that I was starting to get a little annoyed. Sure, I could respect the love of wrestling for some folks who were into that sort of thing, but I wasn't and I didn't like being dragged into it. So, I stood up, cricked my neck and before either of them could react, I jumped off the cart and landed safely on the ground. The sweet, sweet... fluffy... soft... strangely moist... ground... that was white or some light grey.

I felt huge beads of sweat roll down my head, neck and into the floor. Something, a faint voice last night echoed lightly through my head. Something about... clouds.

With the agility of a nimble animal, I leaped back into the cart with a single bound that would have been the envy for every pegasi ten miles round. Not one of them could have accelerated faster than me the second I realized that it wasn't ground that I stood on. I lowered myself as close to the base of the cart as possible. But wait! That's not helpful! I'm still on a damned cart on a damned cloud! Lowering myself only made me get closer to the cloud.

This revelation made me do what any panicked individual would have done. I jumped at Wobbler and hung onto her like a drowning cat.

"Whoa!" Wobbler exclaimed. She sorta tried to look at me hanging on her and smiled. "You know, earth ponies usually sink through clouds. You didn't. Isn't that awesome?"

"W-where the hell am I?"

The mare turned her head to the side. "No, not there, wherever that place is. I don't even know where Hell is, but it sounds kinda cool. This is Cloudsdale."

My blood turned to ice. "C-C-C-C-Cl-Cl-C-C-Clou-Clou-C-C-Clouds," I stammered, swallowed hard downing as much saliva as I could muster, "Dale?" The last part came out more like a squeak. I tightened my grip on Wobbler's neck.

She seemed unfazed. "No, just regular Cloudsdale. Not the C-C-C-"

Cloudy placed a hoof on my shoulder. "Hey! Get off her!"

"You shut up!" I yelled and tightened my grip. "I don't care, I don't want to die!" Twilight would have killed me if I did. She would find a way to do it, I'm sure. Bring me back from oblivion to kill me for getting myself into this mess.

Cloudy looked highly annoyed and angry for some reason and really tried to pull me off. "You were standing on the cloud a minute ago. Why don't you try it again?" He grunted as he tried to get me to relinquish my hold.

I looked at him straight in the eye and said: "Over my dead body."

What ensued was a tug of war battle the likes anyone had ever seen. It was basically Cloudy versus Wobbler, with me as the rope attached to her neck. But I was not going to let go. No way, no how. After a few minutes of intense struggle, Cloudy gave up and shifted the glasses on his face, pushing them up the bridge of his nose.

Wobbler put her hooves under my armpits (foreleg pits?) and began to do the absolute worst thing in the world. She tickled me. The suddenness did the trick and I found my hooves had released themselves in an involuntary movement to try and stop her from the horrible torture. As soon as I had done this, I dove forwards to replace them, but Wobbler was a little too quick and I found that I had bent too far forward and was now halfway over the edge of the cart. In that moment I tried to push myself back into the cart with a mixture of pointless actions, such as leaning back when most of my body was already over the cart, making that physically impossible as a pony, and I tried to rub my hooves against the side of the cart trying to use it to push myself back. Instead, I felt myself moving in the opposite direction of my desires and I landed with a grunt against the cloud floor. I looked up at the two pegasi with an expression that must have been either pure dread.

I took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. It worked until I looked at the cloud, then the panic would start again. Eventually I calmed myself completely, and slowly got up, my legs feeling like they were made of jelly.

"How come you're such scaredy-cat? It's not like you're the only earth pony up here." Cloudy seemed to enjoy my absolute fear. "First off, why come to Cloudsdale if you haven't properly prepared? You are standing there right now is because you are wearing something that helps you walk on clouds? Is it that bracelet you're wearing?"

I looked at the offending item on my wrist. "Why not. Let's go with that."

"So, since you knew you had a cloud-walking bracelet, why would you be scared of walking on the clouds?" Cloudy laughed to himself.

His logic did work, for the most part. Except this wasn't a bracelet for gallivanting around the clouds. I opened my mouth to say something, but couldn't think of anything intelligent to say, so I closed it.

"Oh! Where are my manners. Cloudy, this is Fortress Spire," Wobbler stated pointing at me.

I furrowed my brow. "Forest Fire, you mean."

"Yes. Forest Fire. That's what I meant. I found him under the boxes you guys brought last night from Ponyville."

Cloudy looked at me. "You were on the cart? Why didn't you say anything?"

I made a face. "I tried. Failed."

"You didn't try very hard, did you?"

"I was tired!" I moaned. "Sleeping sickness and all..."

It was clear that this stallion had some sort of chip on his shoulder against me. As to why, I didn't know. It wasn't like I was sleeping with his... oh. I looked at Wobbler then back at Cloudy, then back at Wobbler, then back at Cloudy again. How had I missed it?

"So... how long have you two been together?" I asked casually as I rubbed my hooves against the clouds beneath me. They felt really weird. It was like walking on a gigantic mattress, but not the kind you could jump and bounce around it. It was firm and soft at the same time. Like a hard mattress. Soft when you touch it at first but as you pushed down it got harder and harder until there it was as hard as wood. Hard enough to actually hurt, but perhaps not hard enough to cause damage.

The fall and the impact I had on that small cloud whizzed through my mind and I felt my bowels tighten for a moment. That could happen at any second. I could plummet through these clouds, straight through this floor and out the bottom of this city, which was high in the sky. Right?

I gulped.

It would explain how I didn't break a bone when I slammed into those clouds during the final part of the RACE.

"Um... quite a while now," Wobbler answered looking up at the ceiling.

The stallion seemed to be shocked hearing this and his face brightened, blushed and he looked the most happiest living thing I ever did see.

"From when I got fired in Upper Whinnypeg as head of the weather team. After that I got transferred to the Baltimare Weather Team and they liked me so much I got an offer here in Cloudsdale! Made me an offer I couldn’t refuse and here I am, manager of the Cloudsdale Inventory System making sure that resources go where they gotta and that we got enough to last our folks up here. Cloudy works with me and we've been working together ever since."

At those last words, it looked like someone had smashed Cloudy's little dreamworld with a sledge hammer. He went from the happiest to most pitiful being in ten seconds flat. It was really quite a feat to see so much happiness melt away from a simple realization, then watch as it transcended into bitter disappointment. How many times did my face make such expressions?

I decided to put let the guy wallow in his misery. I had other things to worry about. "Do you like working here?"

"Yeah!" She floated upwards in that strange shaking motion I had seen before. "See! All sorted and everything!"

I looked around. Indeed, this was a stockroom. There were tonnes of boxes of all kinds around us from everywhere. I recognized a few of the symbols on it, but one thing stood out more than anything else. The height of the stacks. It just went up and up and up. There was no way you could get anything unless you flew. Which wouldn't be a problem in a city of flying creatures.

"Yeah. Well, since Cloudsdale can't really grow anything, we have to stock up on things. That's why everything up here is so darn expensive. I make sure that everything is all accounted for!" Wobbler stated with pride.

I looked at the mare. I didn't want to seem rude, but judging from her character, I doubted that they'd leave such responsibility on her shoulders. Then again, she did say she was the head of a weather team back in the day. That had to account for something. Still couldn't get over how ponies could control the weather.

"So... you still do inventory?" I asked.

She wobbled her head in a sort of half-nod. "Yes and no. I do it to make sure that everything's in order, but my job is to get the delivery notes and make sure they're accounted for in the system."

"You're said you were an inventory manager."

"Yeah! Ponies bring the delivery notes to me, I check them out, then I put them these special folders and put them away in ordered by date."

I turned my head to the side. "Okay, because you sound more like a clerk-"

A searing pain shot up my shin and it took me a second to realize that Cloudy had kicked me. It happened so fast that if the pain hadn't shot through my leg, I wouldn't have thought anything had occurred. I forced a smile on my face. It was obvious he was telling me to shut up.

"That's great!" I croaked.

"So, what're you doing up here?" Wobbler asked gesturing to the... warehouse.

"I guess you could say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time." I gave her a wan smile. "Look, I need to get back to Ponyville. Is there somepony that can take me."

"Well, I could." Wobbler walked towards me.

In the back of my mind I wondered if that was possible with her strange wobbly flight pattern. Wouldn't it be hard for someone like me to hang onto her? Could she really fly that far? Wobbler wasn't like Rainbow. Who was I to judge, though? This felt kind of like that conversation I had about Derpy. Then again, Derpy was a super-elite Equestrian Guard, so she had that over Wobbler. But both seemed to be happy and strong either did not mind their respective nicknames, even going as far as introducing herself with it, or they were really good at hiding it.

Suddenly I felt a death-like grip on my shoulder and felt a bead of sweat roll down my head. I didn't need to look to see Cloudy's eyes glaring at the back of my, boring holes into my skull with their intensity. I knew what he was thinking. That there was no way she could carry me to Ponyville. Or maybe she could, but either Cloudy was secretly telling me that she can't, or that if I climbed on her he'd be less than happy about it. I already made that mistake with Rainbow and it did not end very well. I concluded that, since I was in a cloud city in the sky, not making the stallion behind me any angrier would be conducive to my health. After all, he had wings and there was a lot of empty space between me and the ground.

Or was I just being paranoid? Still, not worth the risk. "Um... maybe there is some other means?" I suggested.

The grip relinquished itself.

"I think so. We don't need to use other 'means'," she snorted at the word. "We can fly."

"Thank you for pointing that out," I muttered sarcastically.

Again the grip.

"Your words ring true and wise," I said aloud trying hard not to let the sarcasm ooze out.

Grip released.

Wobbler looked at me a moment. "Waitaminute! You could go by airship. There's always a bunch of them here heading out to... well, everywhere."

"I... don't have any bits," I mumbled.

Wobbler smiled an impossibly bright smile. "That's okay. I can cover you. You can pay me back later."

Again the grip.

"No, no. That's okay. You don't have to do that," I said through gritted teeth. It would have been really helpful to accept her loan.

"Oh good! Because I don't have any bits!"

I just stood there and blinked. Cloudy must have been doing the same thing because his grip seemed to falter instead of being released right away. I had to ask. I just had to. "W-why did you offer then?"

"I dunno." Wobbler grinned.

I made a face. Even if it's to help a stranger like me who had come out of the blue, there had got to be a limit on how ridiculous you can be. Just, what was going on in her head? I couldn't figure her out. When she seemed like some dimwitted mare, she'd do something to completely throw that idea off only to immediately follow up with something that reinforces it too. I couldn’t tell if she was making fun of me, or if she was the real deal.

She made my head hurt.

The silence was getting awkward again. It really started to get hard to breathe, especially from the stallion's unreleased grip. My chest felt strange and I coughed a bunch of times in a feeble attempt to clear it. The strange feeling did not go away. It felt like something inside me was pushing out.

Suddenly, Wobbler poked my hoof. I jumped, because my mind was a million miles away.

"Oops. Didn't mean to scare you."

"I didn't get scared..." I lied.

She just smiled that impossibly bright smile. "You know, that's rare actually. And nice. Normally unicorns and earth ponies wear necklaces. Never seen a bracelet version before. In fact there's also a spell that you a unicorn can cast that'll make you walk on clouds. A bracelet is kinda cool though."

I blinked for a moment before realizing what she had said. "Well, t-t-that's because I'm special."

"You are?" Wobbler replied with that same bright smile on her face. "Could've fooled me."

Did... did she just make fun of me?

"Come on! Let's go!" she announced before I could come up with a suitable response.

I followed Wobbler, pulling myself out of Cloudy's clutches. How these ponies did it was so confusing to me. It wasn't like a hand, yet it felt like something was indeed holding into me. Just not fingers. It's hard to describe. Like a vacuumless vacuum, but wrapping around everything. It felt that it was a sucking grip, or whatever, but there was actually no sucking at all. Strange feeling, yet it felt like hands as well. I don't know how else to describe it. Then again, I've actually never really thought about it nor how strange it felt. It'd been nearly a month since I had last used my hands and, because of this, I was not missing it at all. It was strange, in a way.

A feeling welled up in my gut. Nearly a month had gone by and my time here was drawing to a close. I pushed that thought to the side as quickly as I could and headed on after Wobbler.

When I approached the mare, I noticed huge stacks of multicolored boxes. These were stacked so high that it actually looked rather precarious and from my vantage it was like looking up towards a skyscraper. I got vertigo just looking at it. I had to keep reminding myself that these ponies could fly and go up there easily. It was, however, still ridiculous. Who would stack the boxes like this? Cloudy must have seen something in my face because he said: "Clouds."

"W-what?"

"Clouds. That's how we're able to stack 'em that high. We use clouds to keep the tall stacks steady."

"But... wouldn't the boxes fall through the clouds?" If that were the case, then what would the need for those necklaces be for non-pegasi? Logically, if things from the ground could float, what stopped these boxes from doing the same.

"Each stack is placed on this special metal," Cloudy stated as he landed on a large metallic plate at the base of the stacks. "Made from the same material as the royal chariots and Guards' armor."

"Must be expensive."

Cloudy just shrugged his shoulders. "Not that expensive. Certainly up here it'll be pricey, but you could buy it on the ground and save a lotta bits. Besides, this metal is everywhere in Equestria, and mining it isn't any trouble at all."

"So... that metal won't sink through the clouds? No matter what?"

"You planning on wearing them as shoes like they did in the old days?"

"What? Me?" I looked him straight in the eyes. "Can you get me a pair?"

"Are you sure? It's-"

"Yes! I'm sure!"

"Well... okay then." Cloudy walked ahead of me and I followed him closely with Wobbler right on my heels.

After a while we came to a brown, or really dull red, door. Before I could open it, Wobbler floated over to a table and took out an envelope and placed some papers inside. Then she opened another door and walked into the next room. I followed out of curiosity and at once my eyes grew to the size of saucers. This room had filing cabinets as high as the boxes in the warehouse, or even higher. They went on and on and on! I mean, wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and the room just did not end. I peered into the darkness beyond and could not make out where the edge of the building.

Wobbler flew upwards gently and opened a drawer not very far from the ground. Then she went to what looked like a control panel of some sort and pushed a button. There was some noise before the entire stack of filing cabinets fell back into what I thought was a solid cloud wall and slid sideways towards the endless corridor. There was another 'ticking' sound and I could see about two dozen stacks away another filing cabinet fell back into the wall and in seconds appeared in front of Wobbler.

I stood there with my mouth open. This was amazing! How could this gigantic stacks move like that?

She opened another drawer and pulled some files out and then walked over to the desk and wrote something down and put it into an 'Outgoing' labeled paper-tray.

"Done. Let's go!" Wobbler stated, turned and marched towards yet another door.

I had so many questions. I wanted so many answers. What made those file cabinets move like that? Was that control panel a computer? Did they have computers in Equestria? I know they did not have any laptops, that was clear when Tutela warned me to keep it hidden, especially from Rainbow, but could they have their own computers? Rudimentary machines with basic calculating power, the kind of thing that must have developed during the infancy of computer?

I looked over to Wobbler who was looking at me with that smile and all the questions that were pulsing through my mind instantly ceased. No offense to the mare, but she was not the one I ought to be consulting with regarding this. Either she'd feign ignorance and play of my gullibility, or she didn't know anything and would pretend she did. Either way, it was clear that Wobbler was not the one to ask regarding this. Cloudy on the other hand (hoof?) probably was the right one to ask, but it was already hard enough to avoid his jealousy so talking to him felt a lot harder than it probably really was.

Wobbler opened the next door and entered in the blinding light of Celestia's sun. I followed slowly, marching my way towards the door, trying to build up some semblance of courage. When the metallic flooring ended, I glided across the ground as if it were made of thin, delicate ice over a lake of some unfathomable temperature. Any harsh movements threatened to break through the 'ice' and send me plunging down hundreds, or thousands, of feet to the ground far below. The hard, solid ground. That thought did not help as I inched through the door and was so close to Cloudy that I heard two elderly mares hovering by congratulate us on being such a cute couple. We were both aghast and although Cloudy took a step away from me, I closed the distance just as quickly. He did not bother moving away the next time. I think it was a good way for him to keep me away from hanging onto Wobbler who seemed to be more interested in everything else except me.

Well, I couldn't really say that. She did suplex me twice to keep me safe after all. So she did care, in her own way. Or maybe she just liked suplexing random individuals and, honestly, I wouldn't put that one over her either.  

We were in a small alleyway of some sort. It wasn't like those abandoned ones that were dark and full of garbage like back on Earth. No, this was different. It was bright, clean, even between these two huge buildings. The white cloud-walls seemed to reflect the sun's light and illuminated the alley. Here there were narrow strips of that metallic flooring, like the same things you'd find over a drain. Big enough to prevent large creatures from falling through, but small enough to let everything else do so. Maybe that's why it all looked so clean! All that dirt just slipped through the clouds and away.

Wobbler walked towards the end, or entrance of the alley and I was compelled to follow. I paused at the edge and peered around the corner. I have to confess, I momentarily forgot about my fears over falling through clouds as I absorbed what lay sprawling before me. I've never seen anything like it in all my life, and perhaps never will. It took me by surprise, the sheer beauty of the city. It even rivaled Canterlot in its majesty, but while I was familiar with rock, mortar and stone -- the common theme of most large structures -- clouds were a whole different thing altogether. Imagine a city built in white marble, accented by fluffy white cotton in places. Tints of color seemed to come from deep within the pseudo-stones giving off a very clean feeling. Like it was pure and shit. Everything was built like that. These pristine walls with their pristine towers and their pristine cleanliness.

But why was it all white? Why did the clouds have to be white? What the hell was I doing up here? What the hell was I doing? I had to get back! I had to get home! Twilight would be worried about me. I had to leave this place. Right now.

I looked at Wobbler floating away from me, but as I did my body felt like it was on fire. Not the singular pain of agony like in my wrist, but through every fiber of my being. It felt like each muscle in my body was on fire, that each strand of hair along my body was a needle boring into my flesh. The pain made my heart feel very, very cold.

Just then I felt something on my back and the pain evaporated just as suddenly as it had come. I looked up to see Cloudy's face looking into mine.

"You okay?" he asked.

He seemed genuinely concerned and that incomprehensible irritation that was there a few seconds ago vanished into the ether just as quickly as it had come. "Been better."

"You sure? You looked like you were in a lot of pain," Cloudy persisted.

"I'm fine!" I snapped.

Cloudy backed off a step. "Okay, okay. Sheesh. Don't get your tail in a bunch."

I looked at him and bowed my head, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Sorry. Just having a bad day."

"I can see that."

We both looked ahead to see that Wobbler had not noticed anything as she was continuously floating away oblivious at my outburst. She looked like she was floating over what looked like a sidewalk. There were ponies and other creatures walking about along there, most of the pegasi flying down the main area between the two sidewalks. The road, I guess. It looked like a bi-lane avenue and there were lamps, a small fence and identical houses all along the strip. It looked like one of those high class boulevards in New York with a distinctly ancient Roman or Greek feel to it all. The tall columns made of clouds were evenly spaced out along the way and to the side I could see a drop. It was nice that they marked the edge of the precipice with something so obvious. I would not be venturing near the tall pillars ever. I thought to myself about how the creators of this show had thought up such a creative concept, but I was increasingly aware of something that struck me deep in my heart. This was not some cartoon. This wasn't a mere show. I wasn't dreaming. This was real. Everything was real. This was real. This world was everything to me. Before I could never have made this comment to myself and accepted it for what it was. That nagging thought that this was some delusion had long since evaporated. Sure, I was waltzing through a magical land full of magical creatures, sure I fool myself into thinking that things were the way they were because of some bet, but deep down I understood the one painful truth. This was where I wanted to be, and I was not allowed to stay. Real or not, I did not want to go back.

Again a steady throb crushed my spirit. I felt hopeless, lost, disoriented, dizzy.

"Watch out!" Cloudy yanked me out of the, what I can only call a street, and I fell onto the raised part next to it. A sidewalk? -- or whatever it was. He stood there looming over me with a mixture of concern and anger in his eyes. "What's wrong with you? You want to get hurt?"

I looked at the pegasus. Another feeling of that unparalleled irritation flitted through my head as I looked into his eyes. Then, just as suddenly as it had come, it was gone again and I felt like the biggest shit on the planet. What was wrong with me? I felt like my hormones were completely out of control. The sad thing was, that irritation felt so familiar. Like meeting an old friend that I had forgotten and was now getting reacquainted.

"Sorry. I'm just not good with heights," I stated stupidly.

He turned his head to the side slowly. "What's that got to do with you wandering along the cloudway?"

"The what?"

"The cloudway! You know. You guys call them streets below. Pegasi can fly around, no problem, but all heavy things and objects that are being pulled need to travel along the cloudway. It's so that there are no unnecessary collisions."

I nodded. It made perfect sense. A special route for the larger things. Clever.

Wobbler was hovering above me. "What are you doing on the floor?"

"I was inspecting the cloud to see if it had any cracks in it," I replied dryly.

Her eyes opened wide. "Do you see any?"

I couldn't tell if she was playing along, or really believed me. "No. Smooth as always."

"Oh good! Come on, let's go. This way."

I followed Wobbler gliding slowly and walked beside Cloudy. He kept staring at Wobbler with that far off dreamy look on his face. It was strange seeing Wobbler fly, her body seemed to want to turn itself around in a corkscrew, but she maintained her leveled flight and looked like she was a boat rocking gently on the waves; she bobbed slightly to the side, but not by much.

"What's wrong with her wings?" I asked Cloudy trying to make conversation.

He snapped his head towards me. "There's nothing wrong with her wings," he barked.

I took a step back instinctively. I wasn't sure if he was going to bite my face off and did not want to take that chance. "I... just that... you know, forget it."

We walked side by side for some time before Cloudy sighed a long, deep, tired sigh. "Sorry I snapped like that, but she gets a lot of flak for it."

I furrowed my brow. It took me another second to understand what he was talking about. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Lotta ponies give her a hard time about it, but she doesn't know they are. Or she doesn’t care. That makes some of them make meaner comments sometimes. I think that she humors them on purpose, like she knows they're making fun of her but acts like she doesn't know and... yeah, sorry. I'm just tired of hearing it. I know it's not your fault, just that I get really angry and-"

"I get it!" I interrupted.

He paused slightly at my outburst. "You... don't care?"

"Why would I care? It was a passing curiosity. Just it kinda looks... cool?" I was going to say 'strange', but thought it would be like spitting into the wind. It would come back and hit me in the face.

"Cool? You think that it's cool?"

"Yeah!"

A dreamy smile appeared on his lips. "You should see her fly It's magical."

I bit my lower lip and furrowed my brow. This guy had it bad. Real bad. But from his words I couldn't tell if Wobbler understood or if she just chose to ignore his feelings. It was so obvious. It would have to be if I noticed it. There were times when she acted almost like Derpy, that awkwardly eyed pegasi's clownish clumsiness was all just an act to offset her true identity. No matter what, I couldn't get over it. She was one of the baddest assed guards in the Equestrian Guard.

There was a moment of silence that I was about to break with another comment when my breath was taken away by what I saw. Even though I was high up, the clouds did feel solid and I had gotten used to the probability of falling to my doom. But what silenced me now was the spectacular view. Before I didn't notice, but now that I could see from my new vantage point, I noticed that I stood on what seemed to be a smallish cloud which floated above a much larger one beneath it. I walked closed to the edge where a railing made of clouds prevented me from falling the several stories down to the larger cloud. From here I could see the view of Canterlot and the palace and my eyes must have opened ten times wider than they were originally intended for.

"Like it?" Wobbler asked floating in front of me blocking part of my view.

"It's... magnificent!" I sputtered. "Wow!"

She giggled. "Yeah, I know. I never get bored of this view. Anyway, there's the airship! See?"

She pointed to a large vessel sitting idly on the larger cloud so that it was level with it. If I had to go by its size, I was going to say that this airship was huge. Far, far bigger than the Intrepid or any other airship I had seen, and a I did see quite a few in Canterlot. Then again, it looked like a huge cloud as well. I mean, the shape of a ship was clearly visible, but it looked like it was made from clouds.

"That's massive!" I shouted, as if the volume of my voice would match the volume of the vessel.

Wobbler looked at the ship, then at me, then back at the ship and rolled her eyes. She grabbed my head and moved it so that I changed the angle of my glance to a tiny boat. Well, it was tiny compared to the huge ship.

"Not the big one. That's the Atlas. She's being built to explore the far, far west," Wobbler stated and landed next to me. She leaned against the railing and rested her head against her hoof. "Wouldn't it be so cool to go? I wish I could be on that ship. Did you know that the Intrepid went south already?"

"Why can't you?" I asked.

She looked at me as if I had said the dumbest thing ever. "What? You don't think I tried? I've done everything! Everything, even a... a..." she hesitated.

"Cleaning pony," Cloudy put in.

The words made Wobbler groan and she lowered her head to the ground (that was really a cloud). "Yes. Even as a cleaning pony."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with being a cleaning pony," I replied nonchalantly remembering Red's words.

"I know... it's just... can you imagine? Cleaning everything everyday?"

She was right. I couldn't.

"Anyway, they won't choose me. I don't have the 'right stuff'." She looked at the Atlas longingly.

"Well, what does the 'right stuff' entail?" I asked.

Wobbler stared at me for a moment before responding with a sigh. "Because… reasons."

"Well, all you need to do is try a little harder," Cloudy stated, putting his hoof on the mare's hoof as she hovered in midair.

If looks could kill, those last words would have shredded Cloudy into a million tiny pieces or frozen him in an iceberg. It was clear she didn’t take kindly to his opinion of her.

Cloudy gulped. "I-I-I'm sure if they’ll change their minds."

"You're right!" Wobbler exclaimed excitedly, her mood switching suddenly. "Everypony's been practicing and trying out and I've gotta do it too!"

"Yeah!" Cloudy said aloud, the sound of relief washing over him. He seemed to collapse in on himself and did not say anything further.

Still, he did manage to say the right thing and Wobbler was up and away, zooming through the sky doing loop-the-loops and other aerial acrobatics. I thought about what Rainbow would be doing if she were here. Would she give this slightly clumsy but good-natured mare some pointers, or would she herself end up trying out for a position on the Atlas? Somehow I found it very hard seeing Rainbow take orders from anyone. She barely listened to her father.

Her father.

Brian.

What was going on with me? I couldn't waste time here! I had to get back. The others would be looking for me and they'd never guess to look in another town, let alone one floating in the sky. I couldn't waste my time with these two. I had to get back as soon as I could.

"Cloudy, I really need to get to Ponyville. I need to get there as quick as possible -- without using magic." I added the last part before he could suggest teleporting. "Oh, and it has to be free."

"Free?"

"Free."

"You want somepony to take you to the ground for free?" Cloudy snickered. "You're joking, right? Maybe ten years ago it was possible, but not any more. Cloudsdale is too high now."

"I can pay them when I get to Ponyville. My friend will cover me," I said trying to mask the desperation in my voice. I was getting a little hysterical and I think it was beginning to seep through my rugged exterior. Well, whatever exterior I had.

Cloudy sighed. "Look, no pony will fly you down there without something for their efforts."

"But... I'm famous." I pouted at this.

Wobbler zoomed in close to my face and seized my cheeks in her hoofs. "You are? Really?"

"Yesh," I squeaked as the pressure from her hooves hurt.

Wobbler's eyes twinkled. "Really? Truly?"

"Yesh!" I squeaked louder.

"Wait. How do I know you're telling the truth?" Wobbler stated releasing my face bringing her head close to mine.

Extremely close. Unhealthily close. Not that I could help it.

"I really am! I'm Forest Fire! I won the Equestrian RACE!"

There was a sudden hush as the words left my mouth. I looked up at Wobbler and then my eyes drifted above her to a group (herd? Flock?) of pegasi children hovering over us.

"I knew it!" one of them shouted.

Before I could blink, I was overwhelmed by these tots trying to get me to sign anything they had. It was hard to convince them that I was unable to do so without a writing implement, but somehow one of them had one and I ended up signing a good number of autographs. When the last of them had flown off happily, I turned towards Wobbler who was staring at me in much the same way a predator would stare at her prey.

I gulped.

"I'll take you to Ponyville, but on one condition," Wobbler said, a certain look on her face.

I gulped. "O-okay."

"You get me a tryout for the Atlas."

I blinked. Did I just hear that right? "Wait. You want me to get you to tryout for the Atlas?"

She nodded quickly, obvious excited at the prospect.

"I thought you liked working here.”

“I’m bored,” she moaned. “I want to be out in the field again. I wanna feel free! Not be bound to a desk.”

Couldn’t blame her. I did it for years, it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. “Sure, I can relate to that, but how am I supposed to do that?"

"Well, you could always ask them."

I made a face. "Really? Just ask them all nice like? Something tells me that you're a little too optimistic."

She just shrugged. "You’re famous. They’ll listen to you. Plus, no Atlas, no Ponyville."

She had me. "You drive a hard bargain."

"No, I don't know how to drive," she replied nonchalantly and fluttered down a sloping roadway (cloudway?) towards what looked like a shopping district.

I followed grumbling to myself. How is it that I keep on getting sidetracked the way I do? I probably could find another way down to the ground, but I had no idea which way Ponyville was or how far it could be. I didn't have much time left and the clock was ticking. I had to get back and make the most of the time I had left. Why was I getting delayed like this? I trotted, catching up to her. "So, how we do this?"

"I dunno. You tell me," Wobbler replied landing at what looked to be a crosswalk. There were some pegasi ogling at a window across the 'street', or a smaller cloudway or whatever. Most of them were young, perhaps high school aged, and I looked harder at where they were looking at and I could see that they were gazing longingly at what looked like a recruiting office.

In clear, bold, dark blue letters across the top of the window was written: "Equestrian Pegasi Weather Team" and just below that in italics was another row of text, this time in red with an underline that started out thin and got thicker on its way to the right, read: "Fly With Equestria's Best! The Wonderbolts!"

I stared at it for a moment. "Why don't you do that?"

"What? That? I'm already a member of the weather team," Wobbler stated as if I had bestowed her with an insult. Probably had.

"No," I replied. "I meant tryout for the Wonderbolts instead of the Atlas. That way you can say that if you're good enough to be a Wonderbolt then you're good enough for the airship."

She looked at me for a moment before shrugging, "Sure, I could do that, but they won't allow me to participate in Wonderbolt tryouts. Everypony knows that the Wonderbolts training is the hardest and-" her voice trailed off towards the end.

"Stop!" I shouted making her wince. "Look, I'll get you that tryout for the Wonderbolts! Even if it's for a day, if you can master their training, well, then they'll have to accept you on the Atlas, wouldn't they? Because... hardest flying... training and stuff..."

Wobbler looked at me for a moment with eyes that I couldn't read. Cloudy was standing next to her and staring at me as if I had grown a second head. He opened his mouth to say something when Wobbler darted straight up off the ground and rushed into me squeezing me in a death-grip-like embrace. I couldn't breathe. She released me and I landed with a light thud on the cloud.

"Yes! That's it! You sure you can get me that tryout? If I can be okay enough to be even considered being in the Wonderbolts, then I will be good enough for the Atlas."

I couldn't let her down. We both had too much riding on this. I needed to get home. I needed to get home right away. "I will."

"Then there's no time to lose! Let's go!"

She zipped across the road narrowly avoiding getting hit by a cart carrying large goods. The pegasi pulling and controlling the huge cart swerved at the last minute avoiding smashing into Wobbler who entered the recruitment place even before I set foot (hoof?) on the sidewalk she was on. She moved quickly, had to admit that. Not as quick as I was, but she had the advantage of... flight, which really helped when the thought of me running could push me through the clouds below. Somewhere I knew it wouldn't happen, but another part of my mind told me not to tempt fate.

As I entered I saw Wobbler already there, but to my surprise she was standing there as the recruiter was saying something.

"...and to actually think that you believe you have what it takes to be a Wonderbolt? Look, miss, you have a weak wing and there's no way they'd allow you to join. I'm sorry, but my hooves are tied."

Cloudy entered a split second after me and gave me a look that spoke volumes. I could see Wobbler already almost in tears.

I had to do something. My time with Twilight and the others was on the line here. And I had a promise to keep.

"Uh... hi there."

The recruiter saw me and his eyes went wide. "Y-y-y-you're that stallion on the screens!"

"Y-yeah! That's me!" I replied a little shyly. I coughed."

I hated to do it, but I needed to get the recruiter angry. He looked at me with a mixture of admiration, which was great, and suspicion, which was not. I would have been intimidated by him if I hadn't tangled with creatures a hundred times larger than him before. I wasn't scared of him. Well, maybe just a little. A teeny bit. A smidgen.

"What can I do for you?"

"I want you to let her tryout for the Wonderbolts."

He looked at me for a long moment. "That all you have to say?"

"Y-yeah! She's fit for anything you can throw at her!" I stated, bumbling over my words. I hadn't thought through this stupid plan. But I had a goal and I was going to get it. "You don't want her to join because you know that she'd ace everything you could throw at her and then some!"

I was completely talking out of my ass. I had no idea if Wobbler was that good of a flier.

"You think that I'd listen to an earth pony when it comes to flying-"

"Just admit that you're scared!" I shouted, I had to stall for time to think of a better plan of action. But really? Scared? Scared of what? I had to delay it until something in my brain clicked. And that could take a while. But to my surprise the recruiter looked at me with a thoughtful expression.

"You really believe that she can pass?" the recruiter asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Psh, yeah." Ooh, that was smart. Way to go, Forest! "She's one of the most talented flyers ever."

"That a fact?"

"She could fly rings around... you!" Well, that was slightly true. She could if they were both flying the same speed and she used that strange flying method.

"Uh-huh."

"You wouldn't last two minutes against her!"

He stood there staring at me. "Look, kid, if you think that I'm going to fall for your taunts, you're highly mistaken."

Kid? "Oh yeah? Well, what are ya? Chicken?"

Every single pony in that recruiter office gasped and froze in their tracks. It was as if I had said the F-word in a preschool.

"What did you call me?" The recruiter asked.

"Yeah, Forest. That was mean." Wobbler put a hoof on my shoulder. "Don't insult chickens."

Cloudy roared with laughter for a split second before placing his hooves over his mouth to stifle the sudden outburst. I stood there blinking before it finally clicked in my head. I couldn't help but follow Cloudy's example, only I didn't hide my raucous laughter.

"So you think you have what it takes?" The recruited asked glaring at Wobbler, towering over her by a head. "Fine. Let's see just how good you are! I'll test you out myself! To the training field!"

Suddenly I found myself on top of Cloudy's back as we headed towards a plateau where there were all sorts of gadgets and shit. I mean, it looked just like another amusement park, except nobody seemed to be having fun and there were quite a lot of frowning faces. Cloudy landed on a grassy patch near what looked like a runway, but it couldn't be. Pegasi don't need runways. Do they?

"Let's see how good you are against this!" The recruited pointed to a strange device.

It looked like a large spinning wheel with a place for the pony to sit in. It looked real fun, actually. I wouldn't mind riding in it. The recruiter placed himself inside and nodded to a pony behind what I could only assume was the control panel for it. He pulled the lever and at once the machine began to spin around and around. It went faster and faster and faster, then a loud 'clack' was heard and I saw the recruiter zoom into the air in a vicious spin. Expertly he seemed to counter the rotation and landed next to Wobbler moments later with an indifferent expression on his face.

"Time?"

"Seven point four seconds."

"That good?" I asked Cloudy.

"Very. And that was on the hardest setting."

"Wobbler stand a chance?"

The stallion looked at me. "Never."

"Aren't you the optimistic one," I muttered.

"I mean, I never have any doubt."

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow. "That made no sense."

"You, on the machine,” the recruiter shouted.

At those words, Wobbler flew into the machine and signaled she was ready after placing a pair of flight goggles over her eyes.

"We'll put it on the easiest set-"

"You can leave it on fast. I don't mind," the mare replied.

There was a lingering silence. The recruiter sighed. "Look, lady, I know you want to prove a point but the hardest setting isn't a joke. It's-"

"I know what I'm doing," Wobbler cut in gently but firmly.

That mare was an enigma.

"Fine. It's your choice." The recruiter nodded at the pony behind the control panel and threw the lever.

At once the machine started its whirring and soon the spinning motion sent Wobbler around and around and around in increasing speeds. I was getting dizzy just looked at her. Finally I heard the same noise as before and Wobbler shot out straight into the...

"What?" I stated as Wobbler came to land on the ground in front of us as if nothing had happened. It was like she was never on that machine. It took her longer to land then to escape the spinning. I was the only one in that entire area that actually said anything. Everyone else just stared at the mare. How did she do that?

"I-impossible! How could you recover from that so fast?" The recruiter shouted still unconvinced about what he saw was real.

The mare shrugged. "I've been in worse."

The recruiter just stood there dumbfounded. I should have been impressed as well, she literally came out of that contraption and made a successful landing in under five seconds. Maybe less. I don't know, but it was faster than the recruiter.

"O-okay, you've proven that you can recover quickly, so what?" The recruiter stated, but didn't sound very convinced. "T-that's only one part of what it takes to make it as a Wonderbolt." The recruiter grabbed a flag and placed it in front of Wobbler. "Okay, next we go flag hunting. You'll need a partner-"

"Cloudy?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna be my partner?"

The stallion rushed over to her side. That grin on his face was way too big. That dumb-lovestruck look that he always gave her whenever she asked him to do something. It was sickening. I hoped I didn't looked like that when Twilight asked me something. Oh god. Do I really look like that?

Another thing the recruiter didn't expect to see. "Well... good! How this game works is that the team to find the most flags in five minutes wins. Remember, you gotta stay with your wingpony, you got that?"

The two ponies nodded.

"Good. Streak, you're with me. Okay, let's go!"

The two teams zipped off into the sky. Some of the others followed them to get a better look.

Within a minute, the recruiter returned and placed a flag on the ground next to me. Then another. And another. By the time five minutes were coming to a close, there were ten flags on the ground. With thirty seconds to spare, I wondered if Cloudy and Wobbler had failed. Then again, I should have known better. The mare in question landed next to me on the grassy area with behind her Cloudy carrying around fifteen flags of the opposing color. It was clear that they had won.

The recruiter wasn't as surprised with this outcome as he was with the last one. He did complain about how the rules were that they had to drop off each flag one at a time, but I argued that he didn't explain the rules well enough and that he should have laid them down before the game began. He accepted it eventually, but deep down I knew that in a rematch he would have beat Wobbler and Cloudy. Anyway, this was the kind of guy that would fold under peer pressure. I mean, it was so easy to get under his skin and make him do these stupid games or whatever they were. Luckily for him that these Equestrians were a good lot. Doubt drugs and other nefarious things were a concern here.

"Fine! Next is the obstacle course. But we're going to change the rules around. Instead of navigating through it as a team, we're going to race through it!" the recruiter turned and walked off in a huff.

I caught up to Wobbler. "Think you can beat him in a race?"

The mare shrugged. "Dunno. I'll try, but he's a recruiter for the Wonderbolts, so... I don't think so."

Her honesty was refreshing. "So, how are you going to beat him this time?"

Wobbler shrugged. "Didn't think I'd get this far. Don't worry, after this I'll take you to Ponyville as promised. I've actually never had a chance to tryout for the Wonderbolts before, but it's a lot harder than it looks."

"R-really? You make it look so easy."

She just shrugged. "I'll ask Cloudy to carry you down. I don't think I could do it even if I wanted to."

"Down?" I gulped. I had forgotten that we were still way up high. Waitaminute! "This is solid ground, right? This isn't some sort of cloud disguised to look like ground, right?"

Wobbler looked at me as if I had grown two heads. "Why would we do that?"

"Why indeed," I muttered and rubbed my hooves against the sweet, sweet ground. "You know, I just can't get over how easy getting him to do this was."

She looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "You called him a chicken. That would make anypony mad. Well, any pegasi. Don't know about unicorns or earth ponies. And yeah, that wasn't very nice."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Pegasi don't like being called chickens. I'm sorry."

"Well, what about you? Wouldn't you get angry?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Well, I guess so, but I wouldn't take it like... like you guys. Doesn't it mean cowardly?"

Again Wobbler looked at me as if I had grown two heads. "Who told you that? Maybe it's an earth pony thing, but chickens can't fly."

As if that had explained everything, Wobbler trotted off towards Cloudy. After a moment I kinda put it together. Chickens couldn't fly, so no wonder the recruiter took it as an insult. He probably wanted to prove to me that he wasn't a flightless bird, but considering that my only flight ability was a beeline towards the ground, that was an impossibility. Sadly, Wobbler was the only source he could vent on and all that did was backfire on the poor guy. If I wasn't do damned desperate to get home, I might have pitied him. Honest.

Still, obstacle courses were all about speed and endurance. I wasn't sure if Wobbler had either, considering that I had only met her a few hours before.

"You're going down this time," the recruiter taunted as he stood at the starting line.

"I plan to go up and down, over and under those wind tunnels. Of course I could fly under all of them and avoid the entire obstacle course..."

"That's not what I meant... you know what, never mind." The recruiter turned and put his goggles over his eyes. "Just don't do that. That's cheating."

The ponies hovered in the air and headed upwards into a large cloud above us.

"Fortress, you wait here," Wobbler commanded.

"It's Forest, and where am I supposed to go?"

If she heard me, she made no sign as she followed the others. Cloudy walked up and stood next to me. "The starting line is up there, so they'll do the first part of the course and then come around that tip. You ought to see them around there before they tackle the air tunnels."

"What's in the first part?" I asked.

"Some rings they have to navigate through, then some lightning puffs- those are clouds that have a light charge in them. They serve no real function in weather apart from training recruits to get used to the rubber suits that the Wonderbolts are supposed to wear during severe storms that go out of control."

I nodded. "You seem to know a lot about the Wonderbolts."

He completely ignored my statement. "After that they'll fly into a light weather front. The lightning is a little stronger, but it shouldn't really bother them in those suits. After that we'll see them come out and hit the wind tunnels."

A part of me felt disappointed that I'd miss the entire first half of the obstacle course. So, we waited for a bit before long Cloudy stated: "Okay, they're coming."

"How do you know that?"

He pointed up at a group of pegasi flying quickly along the outside of what looked to be cordoned off.

Moments later I spotted the recruiter shootings forwards like a bullet towards the first part of the course. Wobbler, on the other hand, didn't seem to be stressing about it. In fact the recruiter paused in mid-flight to look back at her before continuing on. By the time Wobbler reached the air tunnel obstacle, the recruiter was already flying over the second of the six. Honestly, they looked nothing like wind tunnels that I knew of but more like a huge hair dryer that shot a practically straight cylinder of air from one side of the course to the other. Should have named them 'air hurdles'. Oh how I wished I could fly.

Would being able to fly cure me of my acrophobia?

Wobbler paused a few meters before the first of those windy barriers. She seemed to sum it up and then she flew straight through the damned thing. I don't mean up and over, I mean right through it. Or rather, she flew in such a way that her flight pattern seemed to mold around the air current, like I would run around a tree if I were to get as close as humanly (ponily?) possible to it. She hugged the surface of the wind barriers and as she exited one, she quickly twisted her body so that when she tackled the next one she was using her back to follow the air blasts.

Everyone stood there gaping at her, so I did the only thing that I could. "Go Wobbler!"

That seemed to snap Cloudy out of his trance. He cheered along and I could see that others were starting to join in, although they didn't shout to her like we did. I guess it would've been pointless. I've been near hairdryers before. They are loud. It wasn't like Wobbler could hear us.

Still, the way she navigated past all those windy things was like art. She wove around them easily and while the recruiter successfully navigated through it as well, Wobbler's form was almost like art in motion. There was something sublime with the way she flew, and while it was evident from the recruiter that he was doing his hardest, Wobbler looked more like she was enjoying a leisurely stroll (or whatever the flying equivalent of that was) more than trying her hardest to win a race.

She landed in front of us, stumbled a little bit, but caught herself before she fell. Then she looked up to us and smiled. "So, how'd I do?"

The recruiter looked at her and raised his hoof. "I'm sorry, but I can't qualify you for the Wonderbolts."

Wobbler inhaled a little shaky breath, but stifled any sign of emotion before it could form as she reached for the hoof.

"Well, that's fine!" I cut in.

The recruiter looked at me funny. "I thought you said she wanted to be in the Wonderbolts."

"No, no. I wanted her to tryout for the Wonderbolts. But what's your opinion? She a good flyer?"

The recruiter smiled. "I'm sorry I doubted you... what did you say your name was?"

"Silver Lining, though everypony calls me Wobbler."

"Well, you are decent, but you just can't muster up the speed we require for the Wonderbolts. I'm sorry, but if you could fly faster, even with your unorthodox flying pattern, you could qualify. I'm sorry if I had raised your expectations."

Were ponies always this good at resolving their problems?

"Oh, I don't want to join the Wonderbolts. I want to be part of the Atlas."

The recruiter blinked. "What?"

"Yeah, I want to be part of the crew."

The recruiter looked at Wobbler for a moment. "What do you do now?"

"I'm a-"

"She works with central for acquisitions on imports," Cloudy stated before Wobbler could finish. "She doesn't realize just how important she is to the system."

"You don't seem like somepony who should be working behind a desk," the recruiter said looking at Wobbler. “You understand that this airship will be gone from Equestria for a long time, right? Months.”

“I do,” Wobbler replied.

“You’re willing to spend that amount of time away?”

“I am.”

“Interesting.” The recruiter looked past her and really looked at the stallion standing off to the side. "Wait. Cloudy? Cloudy Skies?"

"You know Cloudy?" Wobbler asked.

The recruiter laughed. "Do I know Cloudy? That is a question. I didn't know you were back in Cloudsdale. How've you been?"

The two chattered like old school chums. I guess they were, as a matter of fact. They got along rather well, but what bothered me was why Cloudy didn't introduce himself to his friend sooner and waited until now. Also, how come the recruiter didn't recognize him until he put on that scarily official voice and shit? What the fuck was going on? Why was he hiding something? I felt my blood start to boil. I wanted to hit this stupid stallion. I wanted to punch him across the face. I wanted to hurt him so bad, I thought I'd explode if I didn't. I just wanted to fuck his shit up. I wanted to ki-

"Fortress!"

I jumped. "Wha-? What happen?"

"You okay? You were kinda spacing out for a bit. Muttering to yourself. Not a good sign," Cloudy answered looking up at my face. "Something you wanna tell me?"

Who was this guy? Wasn't he just some nervous lovesick nerd who worked with Wobbler in the warehouse or whatever? Suddenly he seemed a lot more... intelligent. Maybe I just assumed too much. I mean, the recruiter recognized him. Perhaps that was a sign or something.

Still, what was that? That anger. I don't know what was coming over me and what was frightening was that it was getting more intense in shorter bursts. I really was about to hit him. Or worse. If Wobbler hadn't snapped me out of it...

"Uh, sleeping sickness. Still have traces of it."

"You have Sleeping Sickness?" Cloudy asked taking a step away from me. "Why didn't you say so?"

"I thought I was over it," I lied. I was. Just I couldn't think of another good excuse at the moment.

"Anyway, so yeah, I can talk to some of the folks who are working with the Atlas project. I'll put in a good word for her, but I don't know if they'll need a clerk."

"I used to be a part of the weather team before I was transferred."

Wobbler explained about her past, but I didn't really listen. I had other things on my mind and it was already late in the afternoon. I had to get back. I had to get back home as soon as possible. Whatever this was that was happening to me, I just had to get back home. I watched as Cloudy placed a hoof on my shoulder and pulled me aside.

"Look, I want to thank you for helping Wobbler out. I appreciate it, but from here on out I'll watch her."

"You could've helped her all this time, right?"

He looked at me and turned his head away. "She's not somepony that likes to get hoofouts from others, so no, I couldn’t have. She also doesn’t like taking orders from others and that’s what life on an airship is all about."

"Then you should make sure that she’s in charge. You are going to go with her, right."

"No thanks to you. I'm not leaving her side."

"You're a good friend, Cloudy, but if you keep trying to hold her back, that's all you'll ever be to her."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Did it sound like a threat?"

He narrowed his eyes. "No, I guess not. But you don't know what's out there."

"Look, I had a major run-in with a bunch of Ursas and there was this thing with an army of Diamond Dogs. If I could survive that, I'm sure that you'll survive whatever's out there. Especially on that airship. I mean, did you see how huge it was?"

He did not even dignify me with a response. "Come on, I'll take you down. Just sit on this cloud."

I hopped on top of the cloud, and my body went right through it until my bracelet. I was hanging there with my right hoof over my head in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Seems that your magic in your bracelet is running out," Cloudy pointed out.

"That's not possible." Didn't the ability to walk on clouds have nothing to do with the bracelet? There was no way I could know. I mean, how was I supposed to tell? When I crashed into the cloud when I fell out of the Intrepid or when I slammed into that cloud during the RACE, I didn't have magic infused within the bracelet. Did I? Holy shit, what if I was on Cloudsdale when it stopped? The thought made my blood run cold through my veins.

"Doesn't matter anyway. Hop on my back. It isn't that far down from here."

And he wasn't joking. We landed on a path that led down the plateau where the Wonderbolt training grounds were. I got off and took a step back. Cloudy nodded to me and spread his wings to take off when Wobbler landed next to him. She stumbled slightly, but recovered just as quickly.

"Thanks, Fortress-"

"Forest."

"Thanks, Forest. I won't forget this."

I smiled despite myself. "Good luck out there. If you do get that job then I hope you have a good time traveling around the world."

"Oh, I will. Maybe I’ll see you around?"

I just smiled at that and shrugged. With that the two of them spread their wings and flew upwards and out of my sight. 

After they had gone I made a face because I didn't know where to go. But, considering where I was, there wasn’t really much of an option. It was either down the path or down the side of the cliff. So, hugging the area nearest the solid mountain, I walked down carefully. It took me some time to get to the bottom, but if did feel good to be free from the tremendous heights. I looked up and saw Cloudsdale hovering in the air above me. I tried hard not to think of the drop. Saying that it was a long way down was an understatement.

As I approached an intersection at the base of the mountain, I saw a sign pointing towards Ponyville along with some other places. I scrunched up my snout and pursed my lips in annoyance. What made me make a face was the distance. Down the road, my ass. Ponyville was a hundred miles from where I was, which was a really long way, assuming miles here in Equestria were the same as on Earth. Well, not that it mattered. With my speed I could run that in no time at all.

I started trotting and slowly started to build up speed, but something was wrong. Unlike before, my legs started to feel really weak after the first few miles and by the time I started to see the eighty mile mark I thought my lungs would explode. Something was wrong. Everything was wrong. What was happening to me?

Suddenly I found myself sluggish, and I felt that if I continued this way for much longer I would pass out before I got anywhere. I slowed down my speed to a slow trot and tried to catch my breath, but it didn’t work. So I resorted to walking for a bit in order to rest up. After I felt that I could try again, I went to a quick run before slowing down.

Several times I had to stop and take a breather, but all along I knew that I had to continue. I had no choice. I had to get home. I just had to. I’d been away for too long already and I wondered what Twilight and the others were thinking. So I tried to ignore the pain and pushed on alternating between a fast and slow run.

The sun was setting now and as I watched the glowing orb vanish over the horizon. Then, somewhat comically, the moon zipped up into the sky and I thought about the Princess Luna rushing through her duties to get down to whatever she did during the night, but I had to stop and take it in. The majesty of the stars and the night itself was amazing. I just could not get over it. Now the stars were always impressive in Equestria, but right now, as I stood alone and gazed up into the sky, I felt so insignificant. Up there were millions of the twinkling dots and here I was on this world ready to say farewell to everything I loved and held dear.

The girls knew that something about me was different, but they still didn't really understand and I didn’t want them to. Rainbow might've been convinced about me being human, but in the end I don't think she really believed it in her heart. Twilight was utterly convinced that I was a Changeling and didn't seem to accept any other explanation. And the others? They just didn't care. Except Pinkie. Pinkie was just Pinkie. Out of all of them, it was Pinkie that worried me the most. The others would get over it and move on, I knew that. But Pinkie, I wasn’t sure and that scared me.

Then there was Applejack.

"Damn, that sky is gorgeous," I whispered, perhaps trying to convince myself she no longer mattered when she mattered quite a lot. We had been through quite a lot together and I still wasn’t over her. I knew I should have been, but I couldn’t help it. And it was so confusing because I knew I loved Twilight too. “Damn the fucking sky is gorgeous!”

I put my head down and continued on my way, anger in every fiber in my body. Except, I wasn’t sure who I was angry at. Was I angry at Twilight for confusing me? She had insisted we tried to work things out despite everything I told her about Tutela and having to leave her. Was I angry at Applejack for giving up on ‘us’ so quickly? She could have fought like Twilight did. Was I angry at Atom for coming back? He should have continued skulking around the village and being out of Applejack’s life. Was I angry at Tutela for bringing me here and letting her rip my heart out of my chest, shit on it, soak it in acid and leave it out to decay in the festering sun? Or was I angry at myself for finally understanding that life is shit without friends. That life isn’t worth squat if you can’t share it with anyone.

I fell on my face. A sharp pain shuddered through my center and I felt like my chest was breaking apart. I closed my eyes and let myself squirm on the ground trying to make the agony go away, but it persisted for a time. When it did stop, I could barely stand, let alone walk. I lay down where I stood and panted heavily. I knew this pain. I knew it because I could never forget it. It was the first real pain I felt and it made my blood run cold. It was the same pain I had felt when the spell Tutela cast on me that turned me into a pony.

Gritting my teeth, I urged myself onwards. I didn’t have very far to go. I just had to grin and bear it. To get home and hug the mare I loved. But who? I loved both Applejack and Twilight. Who should I hug and spend the last few days with? Couldn’t be Applejack. She’s with Atom now.

Then I saw a sight for sore eyes. In front of me was Fluttershy’s cottage. The lights were off, but that was okay. I didn’t know Fluttershy that well anyway. So I walked by her place and headed over to Twilight’s library. As I walked, I noticed that Sweet Apple Acres was also dark, except for Applejack’s room. I saw her in her room looking at something. A part of me wanted to trot on over and call out to her, but Twilight’s face appeared and for the first time I felt really happy. I felt that I had gone over a large hurdle. I would always love Applejack, but never in the same way we had in those special few days. I would never forgive myself if I broke Twilight’s heart with Applejack. Twilight really did love me, even if she was mistaken about me being a Changeling. I was going to break Twilight’s heart anyway when I left, I had to make the most of-

I could not even yelp as another attack sent me off the trail and into some bushes. I curled up tightly into a ball and waited for the pain to subside. The attacks were getting closer and more painful. Something was wrong. Something was more wrong than wrong. What was happening? This was too soon, was it not? I could not let Twilight or the others know about the truth about me. I just couldn’t. Even though they thought they knew, I couldn’t let it be true for them. I couldn’t let them know that I was really a human. I couldn’t live with the knowledge that they’d hate me forever knowing that I lied to them about everything. That my entire existence in Equestria had been nothing more than a series of lies on top of each other.

I opened my eyes and allowed them to adjust to where I was. I hadn’t been very long. I could tell that somehow, perhaps by the scent in the air, and stood up. Applejack’s light was now out. I walked on towards the library and the walk was quiet for the most part. Once or twice I did see some ponies going to and fro in the distance, but nobody I knew nor cared about.

At one point I thought I saw Applebloom, but she just walked into an alley and disappeared when I approached it.

Finally I saw home. I waked to it and felt the startup of another attacking coming along. I quickly hid inside a bush and waited it out. This one was shorter than the others, but twice as painful. My hooves felt like they were breaking apart, like they were being split from the inside out. Then my snout felt like it was being crushed and my jaw bent itself inwards till I thought it was going to snap in two.

Finally, I got to the door and knocked.

A tired dragon opened up and smiled when he saw me. “Hi Forest? Where’ve you been? I was looking for you earlier today- Forest? Forest!”

I felt his arms carrying me and I felt myself being lowered onto something soft. I gritted my teeth and held him. There was no need to go and find a doctor now. I knew what was happening. I knew that it was time, despite my pleading and begging. Tutela had not given me and extension and the spell was starting to break. My body was starting to return to its original form and there was fuck-all I could do about it. I could not let him go and fetch the doctor nor Twilight. Not just yet, anyway.

“Forest, Twilight’s not here. She’s in the hospital. We should take you there-”

“No.” I sat up and sighed. “No, Spike. I just need to sleep. I walked a hundred miles to get here. I’ll be fine in the morning.”

“A h-hundred? Wow. I guess that explains it,” he replied sounding very much unconvinced. Still, he did not press it and I thanked him in my heart for that.

Imagine that. My best friend is a dragon. I love my life here. I love it so much.