An Unexpected Guest

by PropsValroa

Chapter III

Blu was shuddering in her grip, legs tight against his barrel and eyes shut tight. He would be fairly unresponsive for a good bit even after they reached the ground again.

He kept muttering to himself that it was happening again.

Cali stayed silent as they soared throughout the clouds. It was weird, turbulent as she flew. She flew rather oddly through the skies. After minutes, breaking the silence, "Enjoying the ride?"

Blu appeared to have started hyperventilating, likely caused partly by the reduced oxygen at the higher altitudes, the other half by his ongoing panic.

"Nonononononononononononononononononononononononononononononono!"

Cali simply laughed before diving down, lower to the ground to allow him to be at ease, or so she thought. "Come on! I know you enjoy it!" she mocked evily. "Hahaha...all you ponies are so weak, when I am the best there is! Oh wait, I'm a pony too!"

Blu's breathing got a bit deeper but progressively more ragged once they were lower. If this kept up he'd likely pass out soon.

He vigorously shook his head, "Nonononononononononono!"

He tensed up before daring to open his eyes for a bit, before shutting them tightly again, "Nononononononono!"

Cali realized that he wasn't fairing too well and landed him down in the middle of some grassland somewhere that he's never been to. "Okay fine, your no fun." she said, not having much concern for him, at least, from what he could tell. She actually did though, deep down.

Blu would get as close as he could to the ground as he could once they had landed, it would take him a bit to recover, "Get off me. I don't want to hurt you but if you don't get off me right now I'll try and pry you off."

Cali scoffed once more. "Hahahaha, thats impossible. But if you say so..." she mocked and the wings and pendant melted away into a red sparkling mist that simply floated infront of him in a cloud-like configuration. She just kept it in that form, content.

He rose up on trembling legs as he continued to steady himself, there was a bit of steel in his eyes as he stared Cali down, "Princess Sparkle may have been a terrible carer, but she did teach me a few things about defence. Don't sell me short in that department, you aren't the first enemy she's had." He took a few more steadying breaths, "I think it would be best if we continued on hoof, I may not be an earth pony but I'm no stranger to long distances."

He looked around, "How far did we get exactly?"

"Not me, you. I don't see why you'd want to walk for DAYS, its a long time away. But hey, your precious energy and not mine." the cloud moved in a way that suggested a shrug like action. "Twilight's magical power doesn't admit to a hill of beans, but, I'll never under-estimate her. Shes a rich spoiled brat." Cali said with a spitting tone.

Blu simply sighed, "Let's get moving then, should I forage along the way or do you think we'll run into a village or two during our travels? I can't say I'm too familiar with this area, wherever we are."

Blu would follow Cali's lead as she floated, looking to get a good view of their surroundings before turning his attention back to Cali, "That cloud form of yours, does that not cost energy to maintain? All that transformation stuff you did back there plus flying, how do you have such a pool of energy to draw from? I'm not sure Princess Sparkle could have pulled off all of what you did in one go."

Cali floated along, leading the way through hills and fields. "When you get used to things for a long time, it becomes less than second nature. And besides, for all you know I could not even be a pony." she said as if hinting at something. "I'm used to shifting forms rapdily. Let's just say that, in other encounters I had to think quick and fast. Not getting into the details that." her tone changed a bit, clearly not wanting to talk about that.

Blu thought for a moment, "You know, you remind me of Princess Sparkle's depictions of King Sombra, he too had a sort of smoke form like the one you use right now. I don't remember if it was something he learned or an innate ability he had." He shrugged, "I doubt she knew, or cared to know. She would never look into anything that Princess Celestia had forbidden."

He'd walk quietly for a bit before chuckling to himself, "Might not be a pony eh? Well, that may or may not make two of us."

The cloud swirled and sparkled in a sort of shrugging motion. It was more of a cloud of sparkles and electricity, if anything. "King Sombra is an interesting one, from what I have heard. I would definitely be into that...restricted section. I'll have you know that the Golden Door didn't have any of that, or so I noticed so far. And yes, you'll never know what I truly am."

Blu shrugged, "Then I guess I won't share what I might be then either. Still, if you're not a pony, why pretend to be one? I mean, there's plenty of other creatures in the world, ones that are more powerful, more imposing, more attuned to greed. I guess I'm assuming you could be something other than a pony."

Cali laughed incredibly deeply before answering, "Ponies are easily the most common accepted species of your world. I can be anything but, ponies themselves are all unique in their desires of this world. I've been to many worlds, I'll have you know. Maybe my story is all just a lie, maybe it's not. Thats up for you to believe in." Cali said slyly. "Free will is what greed is about, doing whatever you want, getting what you want, and not letting you be stopped by it."

She had thought back to other worlds she had went to, and other various things, but it was quite clear that she was out of this world in many aspects.

Blu looked intrigued, "Well then, I hope one day you feel like sharing more about that then, it sounds like it would be quite illuminating to listen to. Though it does beg the question... if you've been to so many worlds, and I assume that means you have the ability to travel between them, why would you stay here when you despise Princess Sparkle so much? Wouldn't it be simpler to simply go to another world and leave her behind you? She seems, if I'm being honest, beneath you to be concerned with."

Cali scoffed a bit at that. "Going to other worlds is not so easy as one may think. It takes time, energy, and interest that I frankly don't have at the moment. As opposed to other realities where I was constantly under threat, and outclassed by my 'rivals' if you will...this one is safe in that regard." she floated along., leading him along. The cloud floated rather calmly.

Blu nodded, "That does make sense, of the two that I know this one is much calmer. If I'm correct in guessing that moving to a new world is a somewhat blind jump it further would encourage you to stay in a safe world rather than risk jumping to a much more dangerous one. Still, that doesn't explain why you care so much about Princess Sparkle, do you have some history with her or something?"

"I suppose I can enlighten you on my true nature, as to what I am. Although I will keep some details vague. Twilight Sparkle...I pick and choose my enemies. I don't like the authority, generally. I am interested in what you talk about, of another world. But if I am to tell you, you will not tell anyone or anything of this." she said in a rather serious tone. Whatever happened in the past, she was very serious about it. The cloud began to shift form slowly over time and glowing brighter. She was changing into something, slowly.

Blu would watch intently as Cali started to transform, "Of course, I would hardly think to tell anyone, I hardly have anyone to tell anyway."

He briefly considered taking some sort of notes on the occurrence, but decided that would pose a risk of the info getting out, and what he needed to know about her he should be able to remember anyway.

The form shifted into a... helicopter of all sorts. It was a black helicopter. It was surely something he hasn't seen before, it's blades rotated un-naturally for sure. "This isn't it...haha, but if you know worlds, you would know what this is." Cali had stated to Blu, triumphantly. She wanted to confuse him a little bit, maybe a lot.

Blu stopped and sighed deeply, "You sexually identify as an attack helicopter..." He looked back up at Cali with a tired expression, "Looks like you were in my world at some point then, or a world similar to it. Though I guess saying that does give me away a bit." He considered explaining, but he figured he'd see how she reacted before potentially giving away too much information.

The helicopter jerked rapidly before vanishing in a show of red mist. The cloud of mist seems more excited or jumpy. "W-WHAT?! HOWS IT POSSIBLE YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS!?!" Cali shrieked in extreme surprise. That is the last response she expected. She expected him to be extremely surprised by that, but he wasn't! How was it possible? Her mind was going at an extremely fast rate and she had a hard time calming down.

Blu rolled his eyes with a bit of a smirk, "I mean, I pretty much told you but still. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out how I know about that very old meme." To be honest he hadn't thought about helisexuals in a very long time, there wasn't exactly much here to remind him of that joke.

He pulled out one of his gloves, wiggling the fingers, "Why do you think I carry these around everywhere?"