Learning to Soar

by Pinky Music

First published 2nd of May, 2018

Bob, a brony with a growing depression, somehow finds himself in Equestria. Will this be a good thing, or will he wind up alienating the ponies he loves?

Bob has an unremarkable life. A job that wore on him more than anything, depression, and a sick mother, to say nothing of not doing what he really wanted because he is unable to see any colors. Could life get any worse? Well, apparently it can.

How will he handle being transported to Equestria?

Other art provided by Rainb0wDashie (https://rainb0wdashie.deviantart.com/)

Chapter 1

Author's Notes:

Let’s start this off by saying that this wouldn’t be possible without the stories I’ve read here on FimFiction.net, many of which served as inspiration for this story. I would also like to thank CoffeeMinion, MyLittleGeneration, and especially a collaboration with MisterNick for their generous assistance providing their input. Also, a thanks to Rainb0wDashie for the artwork. Yes, it’s another story about a brony getting transported to the world of Equestria, but I hope there’s enough differences to make it entertaining. Note that this story takes place before the events of season 6.

I am also dedicating this to my mother, who is in a better place now – I love you, Mom.

With that said, let’s start…”My Little Pony, My Little Pony…”

Jason Reilly was over six feet tall, was at least that much in circumference and typically wore what I have been told was a yellow dress shirt. When he leaned into someone’s cubicle he took on the appearance of Pac-man stuck in the corner. Today he was leaning into mine.

“Dahlberg,” he began, his coffee breath hinting at the addition of a new Russian component, “Why is my desk clean?”

“It’s Bob and I put those 186 reports in your mailbox.”

“Dahlberg,” he repeated leaning closer, “My desk has nothing on it. Again, I’m asking why is that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, it’s because those 186 reports aren’t on my desk Dahlberg. Neither are the TPS reports that I’m supposed to have weekly. Why is that?“

The only way anyone can make Jason go away is to nod a lot and agree with whatever it is he’s saying. If I’d put reports on his desk he’d say they needed to be in his box. If they were in his box they should be on his desk. If they are in both he says that it’s a waste of paper and we need to think green and if they are sent electronically he says that it’s one blown server away from disaster and need hard copies. There is no winning with him. That’s office life.

Before he left my cubicle, he asked me about my hours. “You’ve been leaving early Dahlberg and with your review coming up soon it’s probably not such a good idea to make it a habit.”

“My mother’s been sick. HR knows. It probably won’t be for much longer.”

“You get three days of bereavement leave before we start taking vacation days,” said Jason not bothering to look at me as he adjusts the small calendar that hangs from it, “You have to think of your work family first. After all, they depend on you for whatever it is you do,” He clicked his tongue and walked away.

Thirty minutes and several reports later I was on the blue line train headed for St. Francis’. The train rattled and clattered down the track and was covered with the inspirational art of the talents that wandered the city streets instead of sitting in classrooms. The smell of spray paint hung in the air combatting the usual odor of urine that tended to dominate the city’s mass transit hubs.

I kept my head low and my mouth shut. It was the only way to travel. All any normal person really wanted to do around here was just get by and not have to deal with anyone else. Looking up meant that you might have to interact with someone and on the train if you looked at the wrong person you were probably about to have a very bad day. Not that it had been a great one up until that point. It just happened to be the latest in a long string of quiet sullen days.

The hospital wasn’t a long walk from the subway station. I kept my eyes sharp looking around the corners and occasionally cast a sidelong glance behind me for safety sake and walked toward the large square building with the gunshot victim out front. Once inside it was a bee line to the elevator and then a brisk walk to the cancer ward where, as was expected mom would be waiting for me.

“Hey scrote,” called out a familiar voice from the men’s room.

I stopped and turned to see the tall athletic form of my brother slowly walking toward me. “Rick,” I asked, “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Phoenix.”

He sized me up quickly, the same way he used to do when we were kids. “Well,” he began as he scratched his dark goatee, “I was here to close out a deal on some houses on the south side and figured I’d stop by and see mom. You know, be a good son and all.”

“Well she’ll be glad to see you,” I said flatly. Rick hadn’t seen mom or me since the divorce. Somehow he’d gotten it into his head that it was mom’s fault that that stewardess had called the house looking for dad. That it was also her fault for getting sick too.

“She’s asking for you,” he said coolly, “I don’t know why after I flew out here but, you’re who she wants to see first so….”

I nodded and turned away. The hall was long and empty and an eerie quiet filled the air. It always had in the cancer ward. It was as if even the air held its breath as the fates decided who would recover and who would die.

Since I was fourteen, mom had been in and out of the hospital. Birthdays and holidays were put on hold. Each trip in took a little something from her. When she first entered the hospital, her hair had been long and dark and her eyes, though worried, had a spark to them that shined with the light of life and possibility. Yet, now when I looked at her there was nothing but dull finality.

Each time I stood in the doorway of her room during those final days she’d look over at me and smile so gently that it broke my heart a little each time. This time she held out her hand and I took it, my thumb gently caressing her soft aged skin. We talked about nothing that was particularly important, just the day to day things, what shows I was watching which included one with talking cartoon horses, how work was going and then we’d reminisce about the past.

“Do you remember when we saw the Blue Angels at Lake Michigan,” she said quietly.

“Yeah it was like two months after we saw Top Gun with your dad and Rick.”

“You loved that movie,” she said as she patted my hand, “Said that you wanted to be a pilot like Ice Man. How come….”

“Oh mom,” I said, “You know as well as I do that if you can’t see colors you can’t be a pilot. Flying just wasn’t in the cards.” As much as I tried, a tinge of regret seeped out of my words.

She fell silent for a bit and sighed as she watched the TV screen, “Well, you know I just want to see you happy.”

I nodded in acknowledgement, “I know. I am happy.”

She rolled her eyes, “Don’t waste your life telling yourself and me that lie Bob. It’s too damn short.”

“Sorry.”

She closed her eyes and sighed quietly. Her light grip grew lighter and for a moment I thought she was gone. My heart pounded wildly as my grip clenched tighter about her hand as I leaned in to her. Her eyes quickly opened and read my fearful gaze quickly. She sighed again and said, “Darling, I need you to promise me something.”

“Of course mom, anything.”

“Bob,” she said in a measured tone, “I don’t want you to come here anymore.”

“W-what!? Why?”

“This is a place for dying, not living. I don’t want you to remember me like this. I want you to go out and have a life you are happy with.”

“But mom….”

“Please if you love me at all you’ll do this for me. I want you to remember me like I was at the lake. Not like this.”

“Okay,” I said quietly.

“Now go get your brother,” she replied, “He flew out here we might as well talk.”

The train ride home was more silent that evening. Not even the rails clacked. By the time I’d made my way up to my small apartment on the third floor I hadn’t shed a tear but, I needed something to pick me up.
That night I had every intention of watching my silly little talking horse cartoon and forgetting the day that was. Yet, when I opened the door the phone rang. My heart sunk into my stomach and somehow I knew that I was going to have to ask HR for those three days off.

Chapter 2

The funeral was a fitting affair, mom’s favorite flowers - red roses and calla lilies - lined the aisle of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was an old ornate church and it took quite a lot of flowers and candles to decorate it. Fortunately for us, Mom had been friends with several florists and they were willing to sell us what we needed at a discounted rate. At the head of her casket a white rose sat amidst a sea of lilies. I gazed at mom in her ivory colored casket, and for the first time in years she looked at peace. The pain of living and dying could no longer touch her and in spite of the mist that clung to my eyes I was happy for her, and sad that I’d lost my mom and best friend.

I moved to the nearest pew and sat among the many shrouded faces of strangers. Most of them had been friends of mom or associates of Rick’s. I reached forward and cracked open one of the bibles to Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 and read it quietly to myself:

There is an appointed time for everything,
and a time for every affair under the heavens.

A time to give birth, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.

A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to tear down, and a time to build.

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them;
a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.

A time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away.

A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to be silent, and a time to speak.

A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace.

As I read, Mom’s coffin was closed, her face never to see the light of day again. The priest gave the usual spiel that he’d delivered at every funeral he’d ever officiated since the beginning of time. Then Rick took the stage to give the eulogy, something I couldn’t do. Every time I tried to write the words out my hand would shake and Rick would roll his eyes until finally he said, “I’ll do it. You don’t have the nuts for this sort of thing anyway.”

As Rick spoke he conveyed his sorrow. He occasionally would sniff and twice he dabbed his right eye. He said the right things about mom. He told the audience she was kind and loving. He said that she was resilient and that when he thought of her it gave him the strength to succeed when anyone else would fail. At that moment he glanced my way then continued, “… as I sat next to her, holding her hand, she told me how proud she was of me. That I had accomplished so much and that because I was here she was no longer alone.”

My mouth hung low as I balled up a fist in anger. This man who counted himself as my brother hadn’t seen mom in years. He hadn’t called her and when he had bothered to send any sort of card for a birthday or Christmas it was late. Yet, here he was telling a church full of people that if it weren’t for him she would have had nobody. Rick gazed in my direction as he continued, “She passed peacefully from this world into God’s loving embrace and she did so knowing that I, her son was there to see her off. She knew she was loved even if some weren’t able to make the time to see her off. We love you mom. Rest well.”

From the moment I took my place as one of her pall bearers until her casket was lowered into the ground I kept my mouth shut and looked straight ahead. Even when Rick asked for directions to the restaurant we’d chosen to hold the funeral reception at I ignored him and put my earbuds in, then cranked up the Smile song as loud as I could and walked off. By the time we arrived at the Red Lounge, mom’s favorite restaurant, my ears were sore and Rick had moved on.

The Red Lounge was a quaint, but well-appointed hall, filled with beautiful cherry wood accents and old world charm. It was mom’s favorite restaurant. The staff knew her and were sympathetic to our mourning. Whatever appetizers we ordered were free, but Rick and some of his friends were insistent on running up a liquor tab. When he was on his sixth high ball I was still nursing my glass of wine.

My shoulder ached. The coffin had been heavier than I’d anticipated. If it weren’t for that ache, the numbness that filled my heart would have ensured that whatever dark place I felt like crawling into would suffice as I played the past few days through my head. At the forefront of that darkness was Rick.

I could still hear the contempt, though subtle, in his voice, as he described her final moments. I could have gone my entire life and not heard his version of what happened. For about fifteen minutes I watched the bastard make his way across the restaurant glad handing the other mourners and occasionally cracking an inaudible joke. When he finally looked in my direction he motioned to me with his glass a sneer plastered across his inebriated face.

“One… two… three,” I counted and closed my eyes in an attempt to calm the blackness that bubbled within. There was no denying it, I hated him and wanted him gone. Mom would have been disappointed that I wished my own brother would just go away. Unfortunately, blood does not necessarily a family make.

“Hey scrote,” slurred Rick as he pulled out a chair and flopped into it across from me.

“Rick.”

“So, why didn’t you stay? I mean, you’d made it all the way through the rest of it. You should have stayed.”

“You really have the nerve to ask me that, after your eulogy? Why don’t you stick a knife in my heart while you’re at it?” I growled.

“Well, I ordered fish and heart doesn’t go with it,” he said with a chuckle and a shrug, “And anyway I really want to know.”

“Well, if you must know, mom asked me not to come back. She wanted me to remember her the way she was and not like that.”

“Oh bullshit,” he said as he leaned back in his chair, “We all know what happened--you pussed out. You couldn’t even write the damn eulogy. You’re a child Bob. Always have been, always will be.”

I gulped the last of my wine, “That’s a load of crap Rick and you know it.”

“Hey I’m not the one who watches cartoon shows for little girls,” barked Rick, “Oh, didn’t think I knew? I’ve seen your Facebook and the crap you post on it! Your friggin’ earbuds have one of their symbols on ‘em! What is it Pinky Winky or something?

“Pinkie Pie.”

“Dork.”

“Well how do you know what it is Mr. Big Shot,” I spat back.

“I have two daughters. They like that crap. What’s your excuse?”

I glared at him from across the table. It wasn’t just the past few days, but a lifetime of bitterness and unbridled hatred washed over me. The restaurant grew deathly quiet as the chair slowly slid out from under me and my legs straightened up. My body was acting on its own and for the first time that I could remember I watched as the confidence in Rick’s face drained, “Keep talking. I’m begging you,” I muttered.

“Woah, Bob,” said Rick slowly, “Put the blade down okay? W-we don’t need to do this.”

I blinked and looked down at the hand that clenched the steak knife tightly. Quietly, I set it on the table, “Rick, I watch it because it makes me happy. I enjoy being happy. There are so few things in this world that make me feel good. Frankly you’re not one of those things. You know, until you showed up I was content to go the rest of my life without ever hearing your voice or seeing your stupid face ever again. Once this party is over, I hope you go back to Phoenix, get old and leave me the fuck alone forever. “

The thunder boomed overhead as my cab pulled up in front of my building. As I paid the guy the sky opened up and a torrential downpour flooded the streets. After a few minutes of slipping and sloshing I made my way into the building and was well on my way to my apartment. I was exhausted and sore not just from my bum shoulder but from all of it.

Upon entering my apartment I tossed my keys onto the counter and quickly stripped every stitch of clothing I had on before taking the longest hottest shower I could stand. The water pelted away and I closed my eyes for what felt like a year but was probably five minutes as I let the shower do its work and wash the day away. Still, it wasn’t enough.

After the shower I wrapped a towel around my waist and popped a couple of Vicodin left over from a car accident a few years back. It was determined to not be my fault but I knew I could’ve been able to do something, and my shoulder was never the same after that. As I walked through my apartment toward the small living room I decided to do something that would make me happy. I turned on my favorite show, My Little Pony.
For the first time in days the occasional chuckle echoed through my small apartment. The soreness in my heart and body had subsided and a druggy weariness worked its way into me. “There’s a time for everything,” I murmured, “Yeah, right,” I said snarkily as I took a brief look at a photo of Sarah, my late fiancée and myself. The world slowly darkened as I leaned back further into my chair than I ever had before. It felt like I was falling and as the night washed over me I welcomed it.

Chapter 3

The sun’s warmth was the first thing that tried to wake me up, accentuated by the chirps of birds. I inhaled the scent of wildflowers, more specifically lilacs and smiled. In spite of its efforts I kept my eyes shut and tried to convince myself that all was right with the world even though it wasn’t.

Yet, the sun persisted and after about twenty minutes, unable to resist its charms, I rolled onto my side. When the tall grass crunched under my weight, my eyes flew open. Immediately I sat up knowing something was wrong and the world that spilled out before me confirmed it. Nothing was familiar.

My apartment was gone, replaced with a lush park. In the distance, a medium sized town clung to the hills and valley below. On top of all of that the world bore strange hues and shades that I had never known before. My heart beat rapidly as I sat, mouth agape and whispered, “Where the hell am I?”

I repeated the question, much louder this time, into the sky hoping that someone, anyone would answer. With each passing moment my voice grew more panicked until, as if by divine intervention a voice from behind me asked what was wrong. “I don’t know where I am, much less how I got here,” I said as I turned to face whoever it was, only to find a small, four-legged creature that resembled a pony from the show I’d been watching the night before.

“Umm...who said that?”

“I did,” the pony responded.

The frankness of the response was as shocking as the fact that it was a pony who said it. The rapid throbbing in my chest was matched by one in my head as every part of me tried to make sense of what was going on. I scooted away slowly and asked, “Where...what? Why do you look like that? How are you able to talk?”

The pony cocked her head to one side indignantly, “Okay, first rude. Second, you’re in Ponyville Park. Third I’m a pony and I look this way because I just got my mane done thank you very much!”

“No,” I shouted, “What color are you?”
“Lavender,” she said with a huff, “And you’re a blue pony.”

“Blue? Pony? Boy are you off,” I said and gestured with what should have been my right arm, instead a foreleg ending in a hoof came into view.

As the silence between us grew, she watched me as my eyes betrayed the abject terror that grew within me as I slowly waved the new limb. While I did this she took the opportunity to hurry off and left me with my foreleg waving in the morning sun. I raised my left foreleg into view as well and before long it joined its counterpart in a slow hypnotic dance. Unable to come to terms with this revelation I collapsed to the ground muttering in abject shock.

After several minutes had passed in a shattered mess, a calm warm breeze blew through the park. The air grew sweeter than it had before and in what could only be described as a magical calm was slowly restored. In that time two things occurred to me, first if I was in fact a pony then this was a dream, a wonderful lucid dream based upon my favorite TV show.

Second, whether it was because of the pills I’d taken before falling asleep or some other influence the world was in color. For the first time in my life the world looked the way it had always been described. The grass was green. Every child hears that but for the first time in my life I could see and appreciate just what that looked like. The sky was a light blue and my foreleg a darker blue. It was a bizarre color, while cool in appearance; it could also convey a calm and joyous feeling when lighter.

I looked at my legs and thought about how to get up. Carefully working them under me I slowly pushed myself up until I was standing. Slowly I worked one leg after another, starting at a somewhat wobbly gait. Each step reminded me of my youth, where we played at being animals in a zoo at a neighbor’s house in the second grade, Mary Courtier. The problem was that most days we wouldn’t be playing for more than a half-hour before someone wouldn’t play the way she wanted, so she would call the game over.

Yet, her shrill voice drove me forward until I could walk at a steady pace. Soon the walk became a trot, then a canter and before long a full-out gallop. If it weren’t for a hidden stone tripping me up and causing me to face plant into the grass I might have broken into an all out run. Even so, I smiled and noticed a pond to my left, so I moved toward it just to see what my dream self looked like.

The pond was the sort of blue that I’d imagined the ocean looked like in vacation photos from Hawaii. I looked at my face in the water and saw a furry stallion with a dark mane. I had to take a peek down below to make sure nothing there changed and, yup, I’m definitely a stallion, after which I looked over the rest of my body and notice the wings. “Damn, and I didn’t have to go to the academy to get these babies! Hmm….I wonder how they work.”

First I tried stretching. Several of the poses might have worked for yoga or Tai Chi but, all they managed to do was earn more than a few stares from passersby. When that didn’t work I jumped off of some nearby rocks hoping that my pegasus instinct might kick in. Instead all I ended up with were bruised ribs and legs.

It was only when I thought to partially shrug my shoulders that they twitched a little. With a little finagling one of them opened up and flapped so hard that it flipped me onto my back. Undeterred, I got back up and shook off the dirt on my coat. This was my dream and I was going to fly!

I started to flap it again, gently at first. However, as my confidence grew I began to flap it harder which caused me to start spinning out of control. Panic set in as the more I tried to make the wing stop flapping the more it wanted to flap and the faster I spun. Quickly, I dug my hooves into the soft earth and prayed they would hold. They didn’t.

No sooner had they dug in when my errant wing beat harder than it ever had before and lifted me into the air. For approximately three seconds I was airborne until, with a terrified shriek I crashed into the center of the pond. My legs and wing flailed about helplessly as I quickly sank into the muck at the bottom. My heart beat with fear as the idea that if I died in the dream I would die in real life ran through my mind quickly, yet the more I struggled the more stuck I became.

Suddenly a pink sphere surrounded me and began to lift me from what would surely have been my watery grave. As my head broke the surface, my coughs caused what water that was swallowed to be spat up, and allowed me to squeak out, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“I saw your awkward splash and thought you might need some help. Can you stand?”

“Yeah, just give me a bit,” I coughed out.

Once on the ground, I realized that I recognized my savior. It was none other than Twilight Sparkle. My mind raced - even with my inability to see color, I had read descriptions of what she looked like, color wise. Her purple coat vibrant in the sunlight, not to mention her eyes, which regarded me with a confused look. The slight pink in her mane and tail more prominent than expected. She was more awe inspiring face to face than on the screen. “Princess Twilight Sparkle,” I said, wonderstruck.

“That’s me. Have we met before? I’m sure I’d remember if we did.”

“No, we haven’t but, come on, who doesn’t know of ‘The Princess of Friendship’,” I exclaimed, “Well, except for maybe a confused unicorn in a distant part of Equestria who stole you and your friends’ cutie marks just to have everyone be equals?”

Her eye twitches, “H-How did you know that!?”

“Ooo...there’s lots I know about you. What about ‘The Mirror of Worlds?’,” I say with a wink.

Her eyes grew bigger than they were at the time, and her jaw dropped.

Judging by her responses I knew she was surprised. So I kept going. Each question and comment seemed to leave her more speechless until finally I said, “Here’s a better question...How about when your future self came back trying to tell you something, and in the process of you trying to prevent a perceived disaster, you just stand in one place, not moving a muscle, while Spike ate ice cream right in front of you?”

Without warning her horn glowed with a purple aura. All of a sudden, there’s a stretching and popping sensation and we were teleported to her castle. As impressive as it was my stomach objected to the act and not very long later, its contents wound up on the floor.

“Hey, warn someone, er, somepony next time you’re going to teleport,” I griped as I wiped my mouth with my fetlock.

“Sorry, but you kind of stressed me out with what you know about me. How do you know all that, by the way?”

“It’s all part of a TV show. Jeez, millions of people have watched you and your friends at least once a
week go on crazy adventures,” I said much to her obvious discomfort, “By the way you know the time Pinkie Pie made a bunch of copies of herself?”

“Yeah?”

“You missed one.”

She didn’t yell. Instead she took a deep breath and cast another magical sphere about me and carried
me up to one of the third story bedrooms in the castle. She then promptly locked the door behind her and left me. “You know I’m going to have to pee at some point,” I shouted through the door, “And eat too for that matter.”

I sighed quietly and looked out the window. It didn’t really matter if she locked me in this room. Sooner or later I knew I’d wake up and this dream would be over. On the plus side, at least I was able to see colors for the first time and I thought that maybe if I saved up my money I could get an eye transplant and see them again. The streets below were filled with activity. Ponies of all shapes, sizes and colors marched about doing their daily business. Somewhere out there the rest of Twilight’s friends were probably solving a crisis of some sort, meanwhile these ponies were busy shopping, gossiping, and living their normal everyday lives. I watched them for quite a while when I heard a small conversation from outside my door.

Slowly I crept up to it and listened. After a moment I realized it was Spike and Twilight. “Come on Twilight, just say it! What’s so important that you brought me up to the third floor?”

“I found this pony on the outskirts of Ponyville and saved him from drowning.”

“Well that was nice of you,” replied Spike, “But what does that have to do with locking him away?”

“He knew things about me that nopony else would know outside of you and my closest friends. I’ve never even met him before today. It’s really strange. He also appears to not know how to fly.”

“So what, Scootaloo can’t fly either.”

“No I mean he doesn’t know how. He’s capable of it but, it’s almost like he never had wings before. It
was worse than when I first got mine!”

“Whoa,” Spike replied. “Why don’t you write a letter to Princess Celestia? She should be able to help.”

The more I strained to listen at the door the more weight I put on it. Finally the large door rattled bringing the conversation to a screeching halt. For a moment prudence seemed to be the best course of action. After all even if it were a dream it didn’t mean I had to be rude.

But then I remembered it was all just a dream. My subconscious had locked me away. This could not stand. “Hey, Spikey-Wikey! I’ll tell Rarity you have a crush on her,” I shouted, then heard hoofsteps moving away from me.

“Hey, get back here and let me out! You’re in my dream! You do what I say! Besides, I have more dirt I can let loose on you! What about Sunset Shimmer?”
The whole room shimmered in a purple light that soon faded. From that point on not only could I not hear them but the sound from the outside world was cut off as well. Grumbling, I flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, “This dream sucks.”

Chapter 4

Three hours had passed since Twilight had locked me in the bedroom. At first my eyes wandered around the purple room, taking in all of the various hues and the colors that complimented them. If I were a little girl or a small pop star from Minnesota this would have been ideal. However, since I was neither, its appeal wore off quickly and was replaced by the mounting frustration of the entire situation. I thought of Sarah and my frustration was slightly dulled. I knew she would have loved the color.

This was my dream. It was completely unfair that I was being held prisoner, unable to do anything I wanted within it. It was entirely too much like my daily life in that respect. At work it was Reilly who kept me boxed in with a million forms and derisive comments. When it wasn’t work there was always someone else or a physical condition that kept me from accomplishing my heart’s desires. Eventually good enough became just that. In this dream I could see color, that wasn’t good enough.

As I muttered about my situation the sugary aroma of fresh baked donuts wafted through the room. I inhaled the scent and ran to the window to see if whoever it was that had the food was within shouting distance. If they were a pegasus they might be able to fly a few to me in trade for something in the room. Yet, when I reached the window no vendor was in sight and my stomach began to lament its situation loudly.

“This is ridiculous,” I growled as I marched to the door of my room and pushed on it. Back in my apartment, the bedroom door seemed solid enough, but in reality it was nothing more than hollow particle board. One good shoulder tackle was more than enough to knock a hole through it if not knock it off its hinges. “I’m dreaming. I may have to compromise in real life but I’m not going to start doing so in my dreams!”

I walked to the far end of the room directly in front of the door. This was it. No longer would I be held prisoner by my subconscious. Today was the day freedom would ring for me. I lowered my shoulder and reared back. Then with a mighty shout I dashed at the door.

The thud was minimal but my groan was mighty. The door hadn’t budged an inch but my shoulder had. The lightning and fire that shot through my right foreleg brought tears to my eyes. It was dislocated. I knew the feeling well and even had the pills from the first time it had happened. “Why am I feeling this?” I asked nobody in particular, “I thought this was a ….”

Before I could finish the sentence the question ‘what if it’s not,’ slipped into my mind. When it did my heart sunk into my stomach and I squirmed back to the bed. Each breath came more rapid than the next, my eyes wide with both fear and realization. This was no dream, it was real.

My eyes darted about the room until they rested upon a large bookshelf with a hole in it. I limped over to it and stuck my foreleg through the hole, gripped the shelf, and pulled until I felt the familiar pop of the ball going back into place. Once it did I gasped in pain and dropped to my rump, removing my foreleg from the hole.

With my shoulder back in place, panic now replaced the pain. My thoughts drifted back to what I’d said to Twilight. Even if she forgave me others might not be so forgiving. If anything I came off as an incompetent spy, stalker, or nutcase. Would the others overrule her if she forgave me? Would they send me to the rack or Tartarus? I ran over the details of all that could happen to me when the sound of the door being unlocked echoed through the room.

Not wanting to take any chances I reared up by the door and waited until it was fully open. Once opened, I pounced, knocking Spike and the tray of food he was carrying over. Quickly I bolted toward a set of stairs going down, adrenaline dulling whatever pain I had. Upon reaching the stairs I stopped when I saw Twilight coming up. We froze the moment we saw one another and stared, me in fear and her in surprise. Without thinking I jumped onto the railing and slid down to the bottom and hoped that the entrance was straight ahead.

“Stop, get back here!” she shouted.

“Not a chance!” I shouted back.

My guess was correct and the world spilled out before me for the first time since Twilight teleported me to her castle. “Sweet freedom,” I cheered with gleeful abandon. It occurred to me as I ran down the road that I’d need a place to hide out until the heat died down. The first pony I saw I asked which direction was the Everfree which he pointed out but warned that it could be fairly dangerous to go into at dusk let alone at night. I thanked him and said, “As long as I don’t stumble through some Poison Joke I should be okay,” before running off.

Any sense of satisfaction that I had was quickly dashed by the familiar ‘pompf’ sound of Twilight’s teleport spell. My legs and lungs burned with exertion as I entered Ponyville, the princess hot on my trail. I continued to dodge my way through the other ponies as Twilight did her best to keep up occasionally even getting ahead of me, looking utterly confused as to what I was up to.

In spite of her confusion Twilight didn’t give up. She continued to stay with me as I wound my way through the streets of Ponyville. Winded, my run had slowed considerably and I knew she’d catch me if I didn’t do something soon. I quickly looked about and saw a large drop cloth under a freshly painted sign. Without thinking I grabbed it and dragged it with me, waiting for the next ‘pompf’ of magic. The moment it came I threw it on her and made my way down a dark alley.

The sound of the next magic burst caused me to skid into the side of a building, even though it was some distance away. I groaned as it aggravated my shoulder injury. Panting, I collapsed on the ground as the sound of magic began to get closer. I looked about quickly and saw a large moving box and dove in just before the next ‘pompf’ sounded next to it.

In spite of the need for silence my lungs and heart did everything they could to give away my hiding spot. I closed my eyes and quietly begged not to be discovered as the low slow sound of clopping hooves echoed along the alley. They paced back and forth, each time they stopped my heart fluttered as fear’s grip squeezed ever tighter about me. Finally, the hoofsteps stopped right in front of my box. I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter, knowing that this was the end and that a lonely cell in a dungeon was calling for me.

The ‘pompf’ that sounded by my box was the most glorious sound I’d ever heard. I waited a few more minutes to ensure that the coast was clear before shakily crawling from my hiding spot. Slowly I made my way through Ponyville and passed Rarity’s boutique as quietly as I could and rounded the corner without incident.

After passing a few more of the shops and stalls that were closing up for the day my next challenge was to make it by Sugarcube Corner. The world-famous bakery was known for its delectable desserts. Even at one hundred yards away the scents of fresh baked goods made my long empty stomach growl loudly. “Easy there boy,“ I said quietly, ”Don’t get me in trouble now.”

“Don’t get who in trouble?” responded a familiar peppy voice.

Quickly I wheeled about and saw her, the original party pony herself in all her pink glory. “Hey there Pinkie,” I said as a huge smile crossed my face.

Pinkie had always been my favorite character on the show. Her over the top cartoonish ways reminded me of a weird combination of Warner Bros. and Disney cartoons. She was her own character and when she showed up I knew I was going to have a good time, no matter how my day had gone. Yet, her showing up as she had made me uneasy. She was one of Twilight’s best friends after all. “So, what’s new in the bakery,” I asked, trying to sound natural.

“Oh, it’s the same old, same old,” began Pinkie, “Not that we sell anything old. We make everything new every day. Did you know that Mrs. Cake made a giant apple strudel cake today? It was at least seven layers!”

“Wow,” I exclaimed, “That’s a lot of cake.”

“I know! It must be for some new visitor from far away,” continued Pinkie, “Like Count DeMoney of Griffonstone or something.”.

“Without a doubt,” I said and took a cautious half step back.

“Hey,” said Pinkie Pie slowly, “I don’t know you. Are you new in town? Because I know everypony in town! Ooh, I should throw you a super awesome amazing ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party! Though it might have to wait a bit.”

“Why is that,” I asked with a gulp as I took another step back.

“Well duh,” said Pinkie, “I’m looking for somepony for Twilight.”

“Who?”

“I dunno. She just said that I’d know who it was because I wouldn’t know them. Wait, I don’t know you do I?”

My mind whirled as I glanced about nervously in front of her. Pinkie Pie could be unusually perceptive at times and completely oblivious at others. Without warning I shot out my foreleg, pointed over her shoulder and shouted, “What in the world can that be?” The moment she turned her head I was off like a shot.

Unfortunately, the head start wouldn’t matter. Pinkie Pie was after me--no matter how fast I ran she would catch me and when she did I knew it would be all over. So, I slowed down and let her close the distance between us as I approached a balloon vendor. “Hey why’d you take off like that,” she asked, “Are you who Twilight was looking for?”

I grabbed the balloons in my mouth and tossed them in her general direction, “I hear you’re really good at making balloon animals Pinkie! Can you make me some?”

“Oohh, balloons! Sure,” she said as she began working feverishly on the balloons. While she did so I snuck off, hid in some bushes and watched as several ponies walked by in the early evening hours. I couldn’t hide from Pinkie or any other pony forever and knew I would have to find some sort of a disguise.

Eventually my gaze landed upon a small white unicorn who was dragging a large garment behind her. It was Sweetie Belle. “Hey kid,” I called out to her, “You with the oversized dress.”

Sweetie Belle faced the bush I was hiding in and looked at it questioningly. “Hey if you give me that dress I’ll give you five bits,” I said to her. She shook her head and I doubled my offer.

Slowly she approached the bush, “I don’t know who you are. Anyway, why would you need a dress?”

“I’m a famous dress maker.”

“If you’re a famous dress maker why are you hiding in a bush asking for a dress?”

“I’ll explain it really simply,” I said and climbed out of the bush and snagged the dress. It was obvious that I was too big for the gown and it tore in several key spots as I shimmied it on as best I could. “Thanks,” I said to the utterly perplexed Sweetie Belle as I ran off.

I skidded around another corner into the marketplace and managed to find a shop selling party supplies. The store clerk stared at me, mouth agape as I grabbed some glasses, a false nose, and a local tabloid. “Charge this to Pinkie,” I shouted to the clerk who seemed to immediately recover from the absurdity of my attire with the mere mention of her name.

I found a park bench and sat down dressed in my disguise. I sighed quietly and let the cool evening air slowly run across my mane. My legs were sore and I looked ridiculous but if it bought me time that was all I could ask for. As I sat on the bench Pinkie slowly walked up to me, “Hey, have you seen a blue pegasus with a brown mane running around who can’t fly?”

“I think I saw somepony like that headed toward the bowling alley. Must be league night,” I said and gestured in a random direction.

“Thanks! This way Twilight,” She said before she bolted off in the direction I pointed, as Twilight wasn’t far behind.

I chuckled and ditched the outfit as soon as they were out of sight. Without further ado, I walked at my own pace toward the Everfree. My legs cramped and if it were possible to limp on all four legs I would have done so.

After about ten minutes of slow walking a murmur started to form in the distance behind me. Slowly I turned to see what the noise was about only to witness a large segment of Ponyville’s population with lights headed in my general direction. “Oh, for crying out loud,” I muttered and began to run again.

For the first time all day fortune smiled upon me when I realized I wasn’t far from the woods. As soon as I crossed the bridge I turned and faced my pursuers who stopped at the bridge. “Ha! I made it,” I said triumphantly, “You thought you could catch me but, I’m here on the edge of the Everfree and none of you would dare enter here at night!”

“Well, of course not. Most of them have work in the morning. There’s no reason for any of us to go into the woods at night unless we have to,” said Twilight calmly, if tired, “Why did you run?”

“I’m not going to jail! There’s no way I’m doing that. I couldn’t do a day in Cook County, I’m not going to be stuck in Tartarus or worse for…,” my voice trailed off as I looked toward the woods, “It’s just probably best for all concerned if I’m in there.”

“No,” replied Twilight, “You’re just confused. Frankly, so am I. So, how about you come on back and we work this out? No more magic locks or anything like that.”

“I’m sorry okay? Sorry that I knocked Spike down, stole a dress…”

“You monster!” shouted a fashionable voice from the crowd.

I winced. Tired, hungry and just ready for it to be over, I asked, “You’re sure it’ll be okay?”

“I promise.”

I smiled weakly and slowly began to walk back toward Twilight when I heard a low rumble in the distance. It sounded like a jet coming in at just around mach one low and fast. Quickly I looked about, unsure as to which direction it was coming from. “The heck is,” I began but never finished.
Time slowed down as the rainbow blur collided with me. For the second time that day I was airborne and not in the way I’d hoped. Yet, as I came crashing down I thought about how this was the weirdest day I’d ever seen in my entire life. Then as soon as I hit the ground blackness overtook me and the world faded from earshot again. Just as well.

Chapter 5

The empty void of unconsciousness wrapped itself about me like a thick dark blanket. It was a dreamless sleep. Nothing fantastic or implausible came to be. Instead, only the wisps of long forgotten memories kept me company and faded as silently as they found me.

A low, guttural moan escaped my lips as the pain of reality began to beat at my brain. My stomach twisted and growled from a lack of food, but soon flipped when the light hit my eyes. Had I eaten anything it would have quickly made for the nearest possible exit. “Dear God what was that that nailed me?” I groaned and instinctively covered my mouth, fearing I might vomit. It wasn’t until I looked to my left that I gave my stomach an entirely new reason to flip. Sitting in the chair next to me was none other than my pursuer, Twilight Sparkle.

My eyes grew to the size of dinner plates when I saw her. Twilight Sparkle had chased me from her castle all through Ponyville to the edge of the Everfree Forest and now she had me. I immediately recoiled and slid back toward the wall that my bed rested against, not caring how fast the world spun.

Twilight stood and reached out to me. I froze as her concerned gaze met mine. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you, but I’m glad you’re awake,” and gestured for me to return to my original place on the bed. “It’s okay. I promise nothing like what happened before is going to happen now.”

“Swear?”

She nodded and it was enough. Slowly, I sank back onto the bed. “I have to apologize for Rainbow Dash,” she said calmly, “She didn’t know that we were working things out.”

“Well, I guess when you’re flying at supersonic speeds conversations can be difficult.”

“This is true,” replied Twilight with a slight giggle, "Fortunately, you seem to have as hard a head as she and suffered a concussion from the impact along with some bruises and a mild separation of your shoulder.”

“No,” I replied, “I popped the shoulder myself when I ran into the door while trying to break it down.”

Twilight stared at me as if I’d grown a second head just then and said, “You ran around town with a bad shoulder? How? That must have really hurt.”

“I was scared. I popped it back in but, fear can make you forget a lot,” I paused as I glanced around the sparsely furnished room then asked, “Where am I?”

“Ponyville Hospital.”

“Good lord,” I muttered, “That’s going to cost a pretty penny. How long?”

“Two days. You’ll probably have to stay a little while longer for safety sake.”

I grumbled in irritation as I began to count up the medical bills and looked to the window, “I don’t think my insurance is going to cover this,” I muttered, plotting my next great escape.

“Don’t worry, it’s taken care of.” replied Twilight.

My mouth dropped open at the revelation. Given what I have put them through, this was the last thing that I thought they would do. “What? But how?” Twilight just looked back at me as it struck me. She was taking care of this! “You?”

Twilight nodded, “There were mistakes made on both sides. I put you into that situation which led to your decision to run. Then, at the end, Rainbow still wound up knocking you out, which wasn’t fair as we agreed to return to the castle. We also need to ask you some things about what you know.”

Well, it wasn’t like I was in any position to argue with anyone. “That’s fine with me. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have once I can think clearly. But, I do need to use the restroom.”

As if she read my mind, Nurse Redheart appeared out of nowhere and helped me walk over to the attached bathroom. Upon first glance, it looked like any ordinary bathroom, but when I examined it closer, there were some differences. All the handles had been designed to be operated by either mouth or magic. The toilet was a different story. It looked similar to some toilets I’ve only heard about in Asia, except elevated and elongated a little to where one had to back over it. I won’t even get into more detail the sensation of going with my new…’equipment’. When I was done and at the sink washing my hooves, I caught my reflection in the mirror.

It was the first time I’d really looked at myself since my time at the pond. It was different now that I knew it wasn’t a dream. My heart pounded rapidly again as I ran my hooves over the strange visage that stared back at me. Slowly, I ran them through the brown mane and matching mustache, now clearly visible and attached to a blue pony face. I sighed deeply as my eyes began to well up. I was a stranger in my own body and as my ears folded back Nurse Redheart asked if I was okay. “If my mother could see me now,” I muttered.

“Well, I’m sure she’d be glad to know you’re okay.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“I could contact her and let her know if you want.”

“No, it’s okay. She’s...busy.”

“Okay,” replied Nurse Redheart, “Well let me help you back to bed if you’re done.” She then let me lean on her as we walked the short distance to the bed. My eyes drooped again when we reached the bed.

Twilight noticed that I’d become sluggish and said, “Why don’t you get some rest. You’re in good hooves here. We’ll see if you’re up for talking tomorrow.”

It wasn’t until the next afternoon that Twilight visited me again, this time with Spike. It was the first time I’d seen the little dragon since I had made my daring escape. Admittedly, he looked none the worse for wear considering I’d bowled him over a few days ago. Even so, I still felt bad about it. ”Hey guys I’m glad you didn’t forget about me. They only had a couple of books available, which I’m surprised I can read all things considered.”

Twilight smiled, “It’s good to see you’re feeling a bit better.”

“Well, I do still have the bout of nausea every so often, and I’m still tired, but all in all, not too shabby. By the way, Spike, I’m...I’m sorry for running over you when I was escaping. You’re one tough dragon.”

Spike answered, “Apology accepted, and thanks!”

“Good news!” said Twilight, “The hospital is releasing you today in my care. They say that while you may have some lingering symptoms that you’re out of the danger zone. However, if anything should go wrong we’ll bring you right back here. Probably via teleport.”

“Be still my aching stomach.”

“Don’t worry,” said Spike, “I got sick the first couple of times she teleported me too. You get used to it.”

“Anyway,” interjected Twilight, “You just need to promise me that you aren’t going to run away again. Can you do that?”

“Scout’s honor,” I said raising a hoof.

“Well then what are we waiting for,” said Spike.

“Nothing I can think of,” I said as I gingerly climbed out of bed. The world wobbled slightly but righted itself quickly. “Easy now world. Let me get my land legs again,” I declared as the other two watched.

“Hey,” said Spike, “How come you don’t have a cutie mark?”

“What?”

“Shh Spike.” hissed Twilight.

“Well, I mean he’d know, wouldn’t he? I mean he’s like your age. Don’t most ponies…”

Slowly, I turned my head and looked at my left flank, then my right. Nothing. No cutie mark, not even the hint that I might have one. “Aw nuts.”

“We’ll talk about it later, I promise. “ replied Twilight.

“I’m going to want some pants.” I muttered.

The sky was overcast as we exited the hospital. The summer breeze promised rain and with that promise the locals had their umbrellas at the ready just in case. As we walked toward the castle I noticed the odd stare from other ponies as they made note of the hospital scrubs I was wearing. “Couldn’t they find some sweat pants or something?” I asked my companions.

“It was all they had. I mean it is a hospital after all.” replied Twilight.

“Yeah, and it’s a lot less weird than that dress you took,” said Spike, “Why did you take that dress anyway?”

It took me a few moments to accurately describe the scene with the balloons from An American Werewolf in London to them in terms they’d understand. I’d never really seen a zoo in Equestria much less heard of any tales of werebeasts roaming the countryside. Still, somehow by the time we’d made it to Twilight Sparkle’s castle they seemed satisfied with the answer to that and a couple of other minor questions as well regarding where I’d hid and how I’d managed to evade them for as long as I did.

“Not to be rude,” I said after the explanation, “But hospital food is kind of bland and I could really go for something a bit more substantial. If that’s okay with you two.”

“I think that’s a good idea.” replied Twilight, “Then we can get down to the business of you: who you are and how you know what you know.”

“Figures. But, fair enough.”

Twilight asked Spike to make some sandwiches while we discussed matters in her conference room. When he hurried off she led me to a room with a large round table and asked me to have a seat. “So, let’s get this started,” she said as she took her seat, “I know that things have been a little confusing for you but, if I’m going to have you here I’m going to need to call you something.”

“Oh, I never did tell you my name, did I?”

“Things seemed to deteriorate pretty quickly when we first met.”

I nodded and sat quietly as I tried to think of a good name, “Well, the thing is…I don’t think my name would make a whole lot of sense to you. I mean it’s not a typical name that you’d have in Equestria.”

“I’m sure it will be better than Mystery Stallion.”

I tapped my hoof to my chin for a moment, then said, “Call me Maverick.”

“Is that what your name is?”

“Yeah.” I said with a smile.

“Okay, Maverick let’s cut to the chase. How is it that you can’t fly, don’t have a cutie mark and yet know all of the things that you know about my friends and I?”

The air grew heavy in the conference room as I stared at the desk for what felt like a long time. Finally, I said, “Well, I wasn’t always a pegasus. I just kind of woke up that way the day you saved me from drowning.”

“Okay.” she said with a sigh as she began to take notes, “Then, what were you?”

“A human. Sort of like what you ran into in the mirror world but, less technicolor and no magic. Well...unless you count sleight of hand.”

Twilight paused briefly in her writing and looked at me, “How do you know about me? About any of this?”

“Well, in my world your adventures are a television show and a successful line of toys. Millions of people watch your exploits. Some even watch it daily.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, “Ar-are they watching right now?”

“I don’t know. TV doesn’t work that way.”

Twilight rubbed her temple and continued with her questions. Some of them were mundane like what kind of food did I enjoy. Some questions were more complex and centered around topics like world politics, technology and so on. Occasionally she would look nervously out her window wondering just who might be watching and how. No matter the question I answered it as best as I could until Spike walked in with the sandwiches.

“So, what’s for lunch?” I asked.

“Well,” began Spike, “Twilight usually eats a daisy sandwich at lunch so I made one of those for her. I didn’t know what you liked so I just went with peanut butter. Is that okay?”

“You know that’s perfectly fine.” I said digging in, “I don’t munch on grass, except for once when I was four. My folks had a fit.”

“Why?”

“Well, humans don’t eat grass.”

“Humans?”

“It’s a long story Spike.” said Twilight quietly as she leaned away from the open window.

“By the way Spike,” I said, “My name is Maverick. Nice to meet you. Officially I mean.”

Spike nodded as he watched Twilight continued to contort herself in order to avoid being seen.

“What’s with her?”

“Another long story.” I said.

“Regardless of who may be watching,” said Twilight, “Tomorrow, if you’re not feeling wobbly, you’ll need to apologize to the other ponies that you wronged. If you’re going to stay in this world, you’ll need to learn to get along with them.”

I thought about what happened and felt guilty for what I had done, “No objection here,” I said with a shrug, “I’ll also need to find a place to stay. I mean it’s really nice that you’re letting me stay here for a bit but, we both know I’ll need to find a place and a job at some point.”

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes but first things first. You’ll need to learn your way around town and, more importantly, how to fly and take care of yourself as a pony.”

“Wait a second,” interrupted Spike, “Who’s watching?”

“Spike,” replied Twilight as she rolled up her notes and scrawled a letter with them, “These need to go to the princess post haste,” Spike nodded and took them from her. She then turned to me, “I’ve got just the teacher for you.”

“Who,” I asked, “Rainbow Dash?”
“No,” replied Twilight, “But I can assure you that she’s very good at getting novice fliers off the ground.”

Chapter 6

It was 7:30am, and my dreams were pleasant...until Twilight started to wake me up. It was funny, normally I would be up by now, but the excitement for today’s activities, combined with some homesickness, gave me a little bit of insomnia the night before. My continued resistance to her efforts irritated her enough to levitate me out of bed and into a tub full of cold water.

Shocked into conscious thought, I couldn’t help but scream, “Ahhh!! Twilight! No fair!” My lower lip shivered at the freezing temperature in the tub.

After I dried off, I put on the hospital scrubs again, the only clothes that I owned, and met up with Twilight. My lack of clothing was something that I would need to fix somehow. I quietly wondered if Ponyville had the equivalent of a Goodwill nearby.

The morning sun was warm as the chirping of the late night crickets gave way to the rattling of morning cicadas. As we walked down the road from Twilight’s castle I was surprised at just how far it was from Ponyville. On top of which, Twilight moved at a snail’s pace. Every few feet she’d stop and glance about suspiciously in an attempt to see who might be watching.

“Twilight, I’m pretty sure our TV doesn’t work that way.” I replied, “Is this part of the reason you wanted to get out of the castle early?”

“It’s just the idea…” said Twilight with concern.

I sighed, “You know, a little bug or gnat can watch what we do too. But, they aren’t going to do anything to us right?”

“But, what if they …I mean….”

“Twi, come on. Don’t you think that your magic, hell, even the magic of the princesses, would have seen anything like a camera watching you?” I asked in exasperation.

Twilight shot me an angry look as we walked down the path in near silence. She continued to mutter to herself about what measures she might have to take now that interuniversal beings were watching. With each new proposal, the tenor of her voice increased in desperation.

I sighed, “Twilight, I’m not as smart as you, but how about this: somehow those that write the show get their ideas subconsciously. Perhaps they are attuned to this universe in some fashion.”

Twilight looked at me with a sudden understanding, “I can’t believe I never thought of it that way! It’s entirely plausible!” My theory did prevent her from going into panic mode, but she started babbling on how this would be possible, most of which I tuned out because it was so far over my head it wasn’t funny.

“Twilight, I’d love to hear a dissertation from you about this,” I said in a noticeably sarcastic tone, “but do you think we could go somewhere to get some real clothes for me? I doubt these scrubs will last long with regular use.”

Twilight gave me the stink eye for a brief moment, then said, “To get you some new clothes, we’d have to go to Carousel Boutique.” Her knowing look told me this was my first opportunity to apologize to a pony I had wronged.

My cheeks flushed in embarrassment, as I remembered her calling me a ‘Monster’. “Well, then I have first pony to apologize to then, don’t I?”

“You’re right, Maverick. I’m glad you’re taking responsibility for that.” she said with a smile, “We should probably get you some saddlebags too, if possible. I’ve got at least one little gift for you that will help you get around.”

“That’s cool.” I said vacantly as I wondered just how Rarity might react to seeing me again.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well,” I began, “how mad do you think she’s going to be with me?”

“You did ruin a dress of hers.”

“Yeah, I remember, I was there.”

“But if I know Rarity I’m sure if you are honest and sincere in your apology, she’ll forgive you.”

I nodded. “You know, you’re probably right. I mean she is one of your closest friends. If anypony would know, it’s you Twi.”

We talk a little more about Earth in the five or so minutes it takes us to get to Carousel Boutique. “Twilight, I think you should enter first. I’ll be right behind,” I shivered at the thought of an angry Rarity, despite Twilight’s assurance.

“Fine, if it’ll make you feel better.” Twilight reluctantly conceded, and we entered the Boutique. If it wasn’t for what happened to the dress, it would have been a pleasure, but right now, it would be nice to not be knocked silly. Little did I know what was about to happen...

Rarity was working on a dress at the time with her back to us, a pretty purple and white ensemble with gems scattered about. She applied a golden ribbon to it, along with some more gems as accent. She paused a moment when she heard the door open.

“Good morning, Rarity!” Twilight said.

“Hello, Twilight. What brings you here?”

“I have a new friend here I’d like you to meet. This is Maverick.”

“Always a pleasure to meet…,” when she turned around and saw me, she gave me an angry glare. I merely gave a sheepish grin and waved a hoof. “You! You destroyed a beautiful dress!” If she could shoot fire from her eyes, I’m sure she would.

There wasn’t any time to worry about that, because before I knew it, a pillow was rocketing to my face and knocked me over before I could duck. Dazed, I sat up, only to have a barrage of pillows rain down upon me. Now, I remembered pillow fights when I was a kid, they were nothing compared to how fast a unicorn can fling a pillow. If this was a cartoon, there would be little birds flying around my head.

Rarity reloaded and continued on, “Do you know how long I worked on that dress to make it absolutely perfect!? It took me two whole days to collect the gems I had sown into it, not to mention a week getting the pattern right!”

She chucked a couple of pillows at me, one I had barely managed to dodge, while the other took my legs out from under me, which caused me to faceplant painfully into the floor. I looked at Twilight for some help, but it seemed she was slightly shocked at Rarity.

“It was going to be for Princess Cadance! She deserves better than to have her dress mutilated by the likes of you!”

With that, she threw another pillow and a ruler at me. I managed to dodge both, but she grabbed the ruler again in her magic and smacked me on the flank with it.

“AAAAhhh!!!” I groaned in pain and dropped again onto my rump.

Before Rarity could reload, I cowered behind Twilight as I shouted, “Rarity, please, I’m sorry!”

Twilight, who had recovered from her shock, approached her, while I remained where I was, “Rarity, can we have a moment?”

“Yes, darling.” They moved out of earshot, all the while Rarity glaring at me. Twilight was updating her on my situation. At a few points in the story, she looked at me, then back at her, and her expression softened until she was calm again. At that point, they moved back over to where I was sitting.

“You’re...really sorry about what happened?” Rarity asked.

I nodded, “Yes. I was just scared out of my mind, and I deeply apologize for what happened to the dress. I’ll pay you back, do a jig, anything to make it up to you.” I looked deep into her eyes as I spoke, my ears drooped in regret.

Rarity almost looked like her normal self again, “Well, Twilight told me you are trying to make amends and if she believes you deserve a second chance, then I shall give you one as well.”

“Thank you, Rarity,” relieved, I added, “I was also wondering if you had something that looked better than these hospital scrubs. I just don’t have any way to pay you right now, however.”

She gave me a look over, “Please step up here so I can get your measurements.”

I stepped up onto the platform as she brought out a measuring tape and started taking measurements, which included putting swatches of clothes on me. A pin caught me in the backside and made me yelp in pain. I held the retort that was about to come out. Given what I had done, she deserved to get a hit in here and there.

Twilight just smiled and nodded. “Maverick, we should get going. I’ll get you a muffin at Sugarcube Corner while we talk to Pinkie.”

“Sounds great! Thank you again, Rarity, for the second chance. I will never forget this.” Nor would my rump forget the smack of that ruler. I was sure I’d have a welt from that.

“Just don’t try on any more dresses, darling, and that will be payment enough. Oh! I almost forgot! Here is a set of saddlebags. They are a little bit used, but I would rather they go to somepony that could use them instead of throwing them out.” She levitated them out and settled them on my back. It was a strange feeling to be sure, but not uncomfortable.

“Agreed. Besides, I don’t think that pink was very flattering on me.” We all have a good laugh at that one as Twilight and I left the Boutique.

“Remember the gift I told you about earlier? Well, it’s a map of Ponyville. Here, I’ll put it in one of your saddlebags for you,” Twilight said as she levitated the map over, opened one of my bags and put it in.

“Thank you for the map, and for helping to calm down Rarity.” I smiled as we made our way to Sugarcube corner.

It took all my willpower to prevent from squee’ing when it came into view. The smell of fresh pastries hit my nose, and I could almost taste the cupcakes that awaited inside. There was also the smell of buttered bread, which made me envision a loaf easily breaking apart in my hands...if I still had hands. I almost didn’t want to enter for fear of ruining the image. It wasn’t until Twilight dragged me in with her magic that I realized how long I stood there, drool pooled at my hooves from my tongue that hung from my mouth.

“Twilight, I can walk, you know.” She released me from her grip at that, and I looked around the shop. It was exactly as I expected, with all sorts of confectionery delights around. One could get a cavity just looking at everything. All the smells I anticipated were here: sugar-filled chocolate cupcakes, bread that looked fresh from the oven, with just the right hint of butter on top, and frosting-covered cake made my mouth water again. As I turned around toward where the main counter was, my vision became obscured by two blue eyes surrounded by pink. “Yaaa!” I screamed and backpedaled away, landing on my rump.

Pinkie went on one of her rapid sentences, “Hey! You were the one running through town, and I was like ‘you’re the one Twilight was looking for!’ and you distracted me when you ran, then you shoved some balloons at me, and I was all ‘I love making balloon animals’ right?”

My eyes widened in amazement at what I just witnessed and concluded that the show did not do her credit for being able to say all that in one breath. If there was an auctioneer here, they would probably pray that she never become one, “Yes, that was me, Pinkie. I came to apologize for my behavior that day. I really like you because you’re friends with everypony and try to make all your friends smile. I hope we can be friends.”

Pinkie rushed to hug me, “Oh, I forgive you. Besides, I love making balloon animals, and making new friends!” She hugged me even harder.

“Pinkie...not so...hard!” Pinkie released me, while Twilight chuckled as I caught my breath.

“Ooohhh!!! Gotta plan a ‘Welcome to Ponyville-Equestria-Becoming a Pony’ party!” she yelled as she somehow hovered in midair and shot off as only she could. Twilight and I looked at each other, wondering how she knew about the 'Becoming a Pony' part, which neither of us had informed her of yet.

Meanwhile, Twilight had purchased two muffins and was waiting at a table for me. Freed of Pinkie’s hug, I sat down at the table and checked myself for damage, but everything was ok. My eyes drifted down to the muffin on the table, and I picked it up to start eating, lost in thoughts of home.

Twilight noticed and put her hoof on mine, “Maverick, what’s wrong? You seem a little down.”

“Oh, just a bit of homesickness I think. I’m sure it’ll pass.”

“I can’t imagine how you’re feeling, but I’m here if you need to talk anytime.”

I don’t know why, but part of me wanted to lash out at her, and I reigned it in. She was only trying to be a good friend, after all. “Thanks, Twilight, but there is another thing that bothers me a bit. I don’t like having others pay for what I need, it makes me feel like a freeloader.”

“I can understand where you’re coming from, Maverick. Once you get to flying, I’m sure I can help you find a job. In the meantime, you can help Spike with odd jobs around the castle. I’d be happy to pay you bits for whatever you do.”

It touched me that she would make an offer like that to somepony she still hardly knew, and my homesickness was forgotten as I thought about it. “You know, I’m going to have to break this habit of thanking you, Twilight. I am glad to be able to help out in any way I can.” It made me smile again.

She finished her muffin, while I put the remainder of mine in a bag so we can get to Rainbow Dash’s place. It confused me as to why she was in such a hurry, as far as I knew, she didn’t have anything else planned today. Maybe she just didn’t want to waste any time.

When Twilight stopped, I looked up and my jaw dropped, as Rainbow’s house was more incredible than I could have imagined. Just like the show, rainbows made graceful curves up and over the ends of the clouds that held her house up, to say nothing of the towering magnificence of the house itself. I wondered how much it cost her to get that built, when the question of how to get up there popped into my mind, “Umm...Twilight, how are we getting up there? You know I still can’t fly.”

“I’ll teleport us up, so get ready.”

I braced myself as Twilight charged the spell. Once again, the familiar stretching and popping sensation surrounded me and we reappeared in front of Rainbow Dash’s front door. My stomach got a little queasy, but nowhere near as bad as the first time, and I was glad for that. I looked over the edge and the fact we were at least 200 feet up off the ground while standing on clouds made me giddy and I started bouncing around, yelling, “Whee!”.

Twilight gave me an irritated glare as she yelled, “Maverick! This is serious!”

“Aw, Twilight. Give me a little slack, we can’t walk on clouds where I come from!” I whined.

She rolled her eyes and groaned, so I followed her to Dash’s front door.

Twilight walked up behind me, and I knocked a few times. We waited a few moments, looked at each other, then I knocked again. Now we heard some movement inside, along with a muffled “Owww! Tank! Coming…”

The door opened, and a very disheveled-looking Rainbow Dash appeared at the door, yawning, with bags under her eyes. I was tempted to ask her if she had a tangle with a manticore or something, but decided against it.

Twilight looked concerned, “Rainbow, sorry if we woke you up, but Maverick here is feeling better and has something to say.”

Dash looked irritated, “Twi, you do know it’s my day off, don’t you? I need to catch up on my napping.”

Dash slowly looked me over and realized I was the pony she knocked out at supersonic speeds. “Hey, you’re the one I knocked out...you must have a really,” YAWN, “tough head.”

I chuckled at that, “Yeah, Rainbow, I wanted to apologize for everything that happened. Can you forgive me?” I offered my hoof.

“zzzz...Wha..where?” She had actually fallen asleep while I was apologizing! I must have telegraphed my feelings or something, because Twilight put her hoof on my shoulder before I could do something I’d regret.

“I said I apologize for everything that happened that day you knocked me out, and I have no hard feelings about that, either.” This time I hope she heard me, I don’t like repeating myself a lot like that.

“That’s ok...at least we both have a hard head, so that’s a start,” she yawns, then looks at Twilight, “It’s my day off and I’m really beat. My bed is calling me back.” With that, she shut the door. This left me a bit confused.

“Twilight, who is going to train me?”

“Fluttershy.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I know Fluttershy is completely kind and caring, but she didn’t strike me as a flight instructor. Besides, wasn’t it Dash who taught you how to fly when you became an Alicorn?”

“That’s part of the reason I’m having Fluttershy train you. Dash was really tough to learn under, and I didn’t want to witness a repeat of that sort of training. You wouldn’t like it, trust me.”

My eyes widened in surprise, “I didn’t know the whole story behind that, so I appreciate your honesty.”

Twilight teleported us back to the ground and we continued on toward Fluttershy’s place. Spike was right, this last time I barely felt a thing from my stomach. Teleporting was nice and all, but I’m itching to fly. Maybe it’s a pegasus instinct combined with my desire to be an Air Force pilot.

I imagined flying around, doing loops and plowing through clouds, it made me believe that Twilight was right about having Fluttershy train me first. Besides, after I get better at flying, Dash could step in if I wanted to do more, maybe racing or something. Regardless of where my path would take me, I resolved to make the most of it.

We moved along, noticeably closer to the Everfree forest, and as I looked around in awe of the surroundings, my pace slowed to where Twilight was directly in front of me, which caused her to call out to me. I quickly trotted up alongside her, glad that the day was sunny and warm, but not obsessively so.

The buildings started to get fewer and farther between, which made me wonder how far out of town Fluttershy’s cottage was until it came into view as we crested a hill. It looked just as it did in the show, quaint and surrounded by flowers and animals. It was incredible seeing all the different colors of birds, which only made me feel better about my situation. My wings fluttered in excitement at the prospect of flying, but that excitement was tempered a bit because of the fact that I realized it wasn’t going to be easy.

“Please wait outside. I would like to explain the situation to Fluttershy alone.” Twilight said as she held a hoof up to me.

“Sure thing, Twilight. I don’t want to cause a problem.” with that response, she went inside. Despite my curiosity, I kept out of earshot, not that Fluttershy’s voice would be loud enough to be heard. With the area around her cottage covered with flowers that had vibrant colors and most of the birds around with spectacular plumage, it was easy to get distracted, but it didn’t last long as I realized that I was going to be able to fly soon, Air Force be damned. While I waited for them to finish, I pulled out the remainder of my muffin to finish it. As it was about to enter my mouth, a noise came from a nearby tree. With my ears able to move toward the sound I was hearing, it didn’t take long to discover the source. It appeared to be a squirrel watching me from a tree.

“Oh, hello there. You look kinda cute.”

With a speed that surprised me, he flew down and snatched the muffin from my hooves and ran off with me in pursuit. A couple of times, I was close to catching him, only to have him change directions at the last second. He darted around a corner of Fluttershy’s house while I followed closely, then he went through some sort of fenced-in paddock. I jumped over the fence and then doubled back toward the tree he originally came from. I couldn’t catch up before he scurried up the tree to a branch I couldn’t reach (at least not without flying) and blew a raspberry at me while he finished the muffin as I stood underneath, my forehooves on the tree. Without a thought as to how crazy it sounded, I yelled, “I hope you get some indigestion from that!”

It was at that point that I heard somepony clearing their throat, and when I turned around, an amused Twilight was there, along with Fluttershy, who was hiding behind her mane. I gave an embarrassed grin and said. “Uh, how long were you there?”

“Long enough.” Twilight said, and introduced me as I trotted up, “Fluttershy, this is Maverick. Maverick, this is Fluttershy, and she’s agreed to teach you how to fly and take care of your wings.”

I kept my inner brony at bay so she wouldn’t get scared. “Hi, Fluttershy, I’m pleased to meet you.” Her coat and mane were more pretty than I had imagined.

“Um...Hi, Maverick.”

Before we got too far, Twilight moved to me, “Maverick, come back to the castle when you’re done. I may have some things for you to do so you can earn some bits.”

“You got it. Thanks, Twilight.”

As Fluttershy looked down, I tried to break the tension. “Fluttershy, thanks for agreeing to train me. Before we get started though, would you be kind enough to show me around? I had a dog from where I came from, and would like a little tour.” That comment had the intended result, which brought Fluttershy out of her shell a little.

She said in a louder than normal voice (for Fluttershy, anyway), “Really? What kind of dog was it?”

“Well, we called the breed a ‘Jack Russell’ terrier.” I was about to describe their role, when I thought that the part about hunting foxes would not sit well with her, and settled for just a simple description. “They are a small and energetic dog.”

Her smile brightened the mood. “They sound adorable! Well, let me show you around.”

As we headed around her cottage, animals started to appear from almost everywhere. It felt as if they were both curious about me and happy that Fluttershy was there. Several rabbits approached, as well as that flying squirrel that stole my muffin.

“Hey Fluttershy,” I pointed at the squirrel with a smile, “what is his name?”

“His name is Squirrely. He’s a flying squirrel.” she said, as he flew down to my back, and I raised my wing to my face. He ran up my wing to look at my face, then blew another raspberry at me before he jumped off and scurried back up the tree. Fluttershy giggled, “Don’t mind him, he’s just having some fun with you.”

Somewhat unconvinced, but not wanting to cause an issue, I respond, “If you say so, Fluttershy. You’re the expert here.” Meanwhile, the squirrel was making faces at me before we moved away.

As we continued the tour, she showed me her butterfly garden, bird sanctuary, as well as other various animals such as dogs, a couple of tortoises, bees (stayed away from them, never did like ‘em) and her friend bear Harry. He gave me a hug after she introduced us and it felt as if a rib was going to snap.

“Harry...can’t...breathe!” I squeaked out, and he dropped me. “Ugh, now I know how getting checked between two forwards must feel like.” Fluttershy had a confused look to her as she apparently had no idea what I was talking about. All the while, Squirrely followed us, and he seemed interested in me for whatever reason.

I followed her inside, where we headed to her living room so she could show me how to care for my wings. I looked around at what felt like a miniature city of pets. Off to the side, a blur of white passed by, which made me flinch. Shortly after, a white rabbit was sitting on her couch, glaring at me. I smiled at him in the hope it would break the tension, but he only crossed his arms and tapped his foot. “Fluttershy, I don’t think he likes me.”

“Oh, he just needs a little time to get to know you, that’s all. Angel, this is Maverick. I’m going to be teaching him how to fly.” Angel’s expression seemed to be one of shock, then he started to laugh. “This isn’t funny Angel. He came from another world and was turned into a pony.” That got him to stop, but he just waved a paw at me dismissively.

“Now, Maverick, let’s take a good look at your wings.”

I spread them as requested. Even though my body was still new, there were some feathers that apparently were out of place, most likely caused by my failed attempt to fly when I first arrived and my subsequent escape attempt. “Wow, they look a little...messy.”

Fluttershy nodded and continued, “You need to take good care of your wings, so part of that is learning what the feathers do, and how to preen them. We’ll first go over what they do. The most important ones are your primary feathers. They help generate your thrust and lift, so without even one of them, you will have problems flying.” She extends one of her wings and shows me the feathers she was talking about. Likewise, I looked at one of my own, which still was alien to me, to examine what mine looked like. I had to turn my head a fair bit to see them all, and the flexibility of my neck was beyond what I was used to, after all, as a human, my neck couldn’t turn enough to let me see my own back.

“Wait, Fluttershy. Don’t we pegasi use magic to fly, just as we can for weather control?”

“Not really, Maverick. All our flight is governed by our wings and bone structure, which is similar to a bird’s.”

I wasn’t too sure about that, but then when I reexamined my memories of the show, it never really explained how pegasi flew. All I had to go on was headcanon from the fandom, which, as it turned out, was partially right but mostly wrong. It meant that if I were to return to Earth somehow, but stay as a pegasus, I would still be able to fly. I shook myself free of these musings and returned to paying attention to Fluttershy.

“Next, you have your secondaries. You can stand the loss of a few of these, but, like the primaries, lose enough and you will also have problems maintaining your lift.” She again showed me with one of her wings, as I mimicked her movements. It still amazed me at how I was able to get at all the feathers that she was pointing out, despite some of them being difficult to get at, which made me even more appreciative of the fact that I could have somepony help out as needed.

“The rest of the feathers on your wing are there to help protect your flight feathers, so losing them won’t hurt you, but you should still be careful not to lose too many of them.”

I noted the remainder of the feathers she was pointing out to me. “Fluttershy, it’s amazing, I never realized how important all these feathers were. I guess I was just taking things for granted because I never had wings before.”

“Um...I can see how you might feel that. Twilight had the same issue when she became an alicorn.”

That surprised me, as Twilight didn’t seem the type. I thought she would have gone to read a book on pegasi anatomy or alicorn anatomy (if one existed).

“To continue, however, preening is very important, as it keeps your feathers nice and straight, as well as lubricated with oils that are in our mouths. Preening is also a very intimate activity between two pegasi, so you normally want to only do this with or to somepony you are close with, either a family member or a special somepony. It can also mean that you are looking for...more.”

Ok, she had to mention that part, which now made this feel a little awkward and caused me to blush, “Ok...hmmm...that may not come up but...that’s good to know.” Great, now I’m unintentionally mimicking Fluttershy. My eyes had drifted over to her and noticed she was also blushing at what had been said, which made this moment all the more uncomfortable.

After a long pause, she proceeded to show me on one of her wings, which helped me as I followed her movements to shift the wing into the positions she needed. It still amazed me that my pony neck was that flexible, and that made it feel weird that I could look at my back just by turning my head. Without that, it’s doubtful that I could have gotten it done. Regardless of how well it seemed I was moving my wings, it still took some getting used to, as I wound up smacking myself in the face once or twice, earning a little giggle from Fluttershy and a blush of embarrassment from myself. I grabbed a feather of mine in my mouth to straighten and oil it, but I held it too hard, so when I pulled my head back, the feather came out with it. My eyes went wide and watered with the pain, which caused me to yelp. My wing, now bleeding from the feather I unceremoniously yanked out, trembled in a pain as alien to me as these wings are.

“Oh, let me get something to help you, I’ll be right back.” Fluttershy rushed down the hall and came back with a first aid kit. She took a bottle from the kit, shook it up and set it down. “Maverick, this is going to sting a bit, but I need you to hold your wing still.”

I held my wing out full and steady, despite the slight sting coming from it, “Ok, I’m ready.”

She took the bottle, aimed it at where the feather was, and sprayed. It was all it took in me to keep from retracting my wing from the feeling. It felt better when she was done, and at least the bleeding stopped.

“Excellent, Maverick. That should heal overnight, but shouldn’t hurt your flying tomorrow. We’re just going to be hovering, so you won’t be using it too much.”

“Now, before we go on to your other wing, preening is also the time you want to pluck dead feathers so a new feather can grow in its’ place. Look along the center of one of your feathers, and you will see a dark red line, that’s your blood and indicates a healthy feather, and you saw what happens when you pluck them. If you only see what appears to be a hollow tube, then that’s one that is dead and needs to be removed. I don’t see any on your wings, but I have one here.” She then showed me the feather on her wing that matched her description of a dead feather. As I leaned in to get a better look, what she had said regarding preening being an intimate act struck home with me, and I could feel my cheeks flush with embarrassment. I pulled back quickly from her wing, which put me off balance and I fell to the floor, right onto the wing that I plucked the feather from, earning another yelp as I immediately jumped up to my hooves.

It amazed me how much care is needed to make sure one can continue to fly as I start to work on my other wing, straightening out the feathers that were out of place from my earlier attempt at flying and my escapades, and took great care not to repeat what I pulled earlier. Even when I was studying for the Air Force, I looked at maintenance manuals for various aircraft and while preening was not as hard as all that, It gave me a newfound respect for what I’ve seen birds do with their feathers. When I was done, she inspected my job and was pleased with what I had done, as I gingerly folded my wings back at my sides.

“Very good, Maverick. You learn fast! That will be all for today, but tomorrow we’ll start with some basic flying exercises and hovering. Would you like some tea before you go?”

Normally I’m not a tea person, but I couldn’t help myself and answered, “Tea sounds like a great idea, thank you,” and I waited in her living room as she trotted off into a back room to prepare the tea. Until now, I hadn’t fully examined her cottage. All the little nooks and crannies that animals could stay in was amazing, and seemed to just be part of her house. A few mice had come out of their hole to take a look at me. In an attempt to be friendly, I moved one of my hooves toward one. “Hey there, little fella,” the mouse sniffed it, then returned to their home.

Fluttershy returned with a tray that had a teapot, two cups, and some sugar cubes. “How much sugar would you like?”

“Well, I don’t really drink a lot of tea, so I will defer to whatever you recommend.” With that, she put two cubes in and hoofed the glass to me.

She made me feel so calm that the glass was at my mouth and I was drinking before I even thought about how my hooves were holding the glass. I shoved thought out of my mind and continued to drink as the tea was absolutely delicious, steam wafting up from the mug, enhancing the scent. My mouth exploded in a cacophony of flavor when the tea hit my tongue, “Wow, this is amazing Fluttershy, I don’t know why I’ve never tried this before!”

“T-thank you, Maverick.”

I finished the tea and set the cup down. “I...I am glad that you are giving me a chance here. I’ve always wanted to fly back home, but I couldn’t because I couldn’t see in color. It’s so exciting to be able to fly under my own power. I was afraid that you would be too scared of me.”

“Maverick, Twilight said you needed help and you are a good pony. She told me what happened when you arrived and that you were just frightened -- I know how that feels. The urge to panic is almost irresistible. Just remember everything I will be teaching you and I will be proud.”

“I will, and... thanks, for everything.” I said, swinging one of my forehooves in front of me.

“You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow at 10, ok?”

The time agreed upon, I left for Twilight’s castle. After all I had done, my only wish was to be worthy of her efforts. She truly deserved to be the element of kindness.

The afternoon sun was warm as I wandered through the streets of Ponyville. The murmur of other ponies going about their days and the soft clatter of various carts mixed with the sounds of chirps of nearby birds. For the moment, a small smile crossed my lips as I took in the sights.

As my hooves wandered so did my mind. While part of me was amazed at how quickly I’d adapted to walking on all fours, the ease of handling items as a pony and just how peaceful it was here, another part of me made my heart ache. The quieter I was the louder that part grew. It wasn’t long before the gray years of my past were attempting to flood my present. My smile evaporated.

Quickly, I began to sing a little song to myself. My pace quickened and soon I found my way heading to the largest building in the area, Twilight’s castle. It was the one place that I was sure to find a soul or two that I could talk with and keep my mind off of my troubles.

True to her word, Twilight had work for me to do at the castle, from sweeping up a few rooms, to helping Spike put some new books she received away. She had left Spike and I in the hallway to work on the list she gave us.

I took a nervous look at Spike before grabbing a broom and heading toward the open library doors. Spike followed with the box of books and another broom. Once in the room, I started sweeping up awkwardly, not being used to standing on my rear hooves for an extended period of time, not to mention that my hips started hurting after a bit. I wished that I could hover, at least that way I could hold onto the broom without worrying about balancing.

Spike was doing his part putting books away, and we continued working for several minutes in stunted silence. I noticed he would occasionally look over to me, which gave me the impression that he wanted to talk, but wasn’t sure where to begin.

“Maverick, you missed a spot,” Spike pointed to a small pile of dust on the ground.

“Oh, thanks, Spike,” I responded with a smile, and swept up the dust bunny.

“Hey, no problem,” he replied and resumed his straightening.

I watched him work for a few minutes as he deftly dusted the shelves and rearranged the books into neat rows. “Wow, you’re quick,” I complimented.

“Thanks,” said Spike, “Twilight likes everything to be just so. Especially in the library.”

“I bet.” I responded then cleared my throat, “Hey, I know we didn’t exactly get off on the right hoof, but I just want to make sure you knew that I’m not looking to take your place or anything like that.”

Spike blinked. “Why would I think anything like that!?” he asked, “I know this is only temporary. As long as you don’t intend to do anything toward Rarity we’re fine.”

“What? Oh, no no no, Rarity is only a friend, nothing more,” I said as I resumed my sweeping.

“I was kinda wondering, how was it before you first got here? Did you have any friends back home that you miss?”

“Well, I knew some people from work, but no one I would really call friends. Certainly nobody I would really miss. What about you? I’m sure you have stories about Canterlot before you and Twilight moved to Ponyville, right?”

“Well, yeah, on those days Twilight wouldn’t need me, I usually hung out with Moondancer or Twinkleshine. We’d have donuts at Donut Joe’s, or play some hoofball.”

“That sounded like fun. How was it moving from there to Ponyville? I ‘m sure you had things to have brought over, right?”

“Well, after Twilight found the elements and defeated Nightmare Moon, she had me go back to Canterlot and arrange moving what she needed from there to Ponyville. Of course, she had all that in a checklist, so it made it really easy to get done. It also gave me a chance to say goodbye to Moondancer and Twinkleshine.”

“I’m sure that must have been awkward, saying goodbye without Twilight being there.”

“A little bit, but Twilight made it up to them, and now she visits them whenever she’s in Canterlot, or needs to get away for a bit.”

I had finished sweeping and started helping Spike with putting the books away, “I was curious about something...I know about Ember, have you kept up with her?”

“We write each other regularly. Most of the time it has to do with dealing with pony culture, but there are times where we just write as friends. It’s nice to have a friendly dragon to write when I have questions. What about your family? Don’t you have anypony that you miss?”

I was placing a book back on the shelf when he said that. Twilight just happened by as I was putting it away when she spotted it and grabbed it in her magic, “Maverick, this book belongs in the arcane theories section over here,” she said, placing the book in the correct location before she left on another errand.

“Just add that onto the list of mess ups that I’m responsible for, eh,” I manage a half-hearted chuckle, adding, “I’ll try and remember that for the future, Twilight,”

Spike moved over to me and quietly said, “Don’t worry, you kinda get used to Twilight’s…”

“Nitpicking?” I completed for him.

Spike scratched the back of his head sheepishly, “Eh...yeah.”

I nodded in acknowledgement, then looked out the window and noticed it had gotten dark out, “Ooohh, look at the time, I think I should get to bed. Don’t want to be too tired for my flight training tomorrow. Goodnight!”

As I made my way to my room, I felt as if that could have gone better. At least I got to know Spike a bit better. I also didn’t realize how much Twilight’s nitpicking could get on one’s nerves, but I knew that that was just part of who she is. I pushed what happened to the back of my mind--I was going to learn how to fly tomorrow! It was exciting to finally attain a life-long dream.

Chapter 7

Morning came, and I rubbed my eyes to clear my sight. I got to bed later than I wanted, what with all the excitement I had yesterday with the prospect of learning to fly. My sleep, however, was pockmarked with images of my mom’s face, tainted with an accusatory look, along with disappointment. Other shadowy figures made their presence known, but no words were said. Certain events in life replayed themselves in my mind’s eye, like when I found out my Dad was cheating on my Mom. I thought that what happened afterward was all my fault, like if I was a better son, then he wouldn’t have needed to find someone else for his life.

After my morning bathroom rituals were completed, I headed into the kitchen for breakfast. Spike smiled and nodded to me as he inquired about what I’d like. I offered a polite half smile in response and made myself a bowl of cereal, sat down at the table and assured him that this would be enough.

“So,” he began, “Today is the big day huh?”

“Hm?”

“Well, when you learn to fly. Twilight told me.”

“Oh.” I nodded with a mouth full of cereal, “Well, that’s the plan, right?”

“Yeah,” said Spike as he watched me eat. “Are you okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“You seem kind of out of it.”

I sighed and moved away from my bowl, “Just a rough night is all.” I quickly glanced up at the clock that hung in the kitchen, “Oh hey look at the time. Gotta go don’t wanna be late.”

I could feel Spike’s gaze on me as I walked out of the kitchen and past the map room. I quietly nodded a good morning to Twilight as I passed her in the hall and made my way out the front door shutting it behind me. “Some mornings,” I muttered to myself knowing that I still had a good hour or so before I was due at Fluttershy’s.

It wasn’t until I was moving through Ponyville when I noticed that the wing where I plucked the feather from still felt a little sore, and I stretched it out to ease the tension. It caused me to frown a little, and I hoped it wouldn’t impact my flight much. I closed my eyes to try and clear my mind of the tension of last night’s sleep, which wasn’t helped by the smell of fresh grass and lilacs, which reminded me of some of the flowers in my mom’s garden before she got sick. On my way, I tried to frolic through the streets of Ponyville in an attempt to lighten my mood. I even stopped at SugarCube Corner for a muffin and a joke from Pinkie before continuing through town.

It wasn’t until I changed tactics to thinking about my upcoming flight lessons that I got out of my ‘funk’. I began to wonder about helping out at winter start up, but I wasn’t sure whether we were in the current season, so I made a mental note to ask Fluttershy when I get there.

As I trotted up to her house, I noticed Fluttershy feeding some of her bird friends on one side. For a brief moment, I stopped to watch her as she moved about gracefully. I made sure she knew I was coming, as I didn’t want to scare her.

“Morning, Fluttershy.” I yawned.

“Hello, Maverick. Umm..are you ready to begin, you look a little tired,” she said quietly, her pink hair framing her face in her own demure way.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. I was just too excited last night for today and had trouble getting to sleep.” I shuffled my hooves in excitement.

“I can understand that, Maverick. As long as you can concentrate, we’ll be fine.”

“Do you think my wing will be ok after yesterday?” I asked and stretched out my wings to show her that I had properly preened and was prepared, minus one feather.

She took a look at where the missing feather came from, “Your wing looks fine, you shouldn’t have any trouble. Let’s go to the field over there, it’s soft in case you crash.”

“I had another question, I think it’s summer, but how close are we to fall? I’d like to be flying by winter start-up.”

“We are in the middle of summer, but if you apply yourself, I think you’ll be ready in plenty of time! It will be at least 4 moons until winter start-up.”

I hopped back and forth on my hooves excitedly, “Thanks, Fluttershy! I won’t let you down!”

We trotted over to the field, using a nice, flat stretch of grass that felt smooth and soft under our hooves, the nearest tree was about 30-40 feet away. She first had me do some wing-ups. This was something I wasn’t expecting--I had seen them do it in the show, but had no clue how it would feel. I spread my wings and placed them on the ground. I carefully pulled my forelegs up and was surprised that I was holding myself up with just my wings. Slowly, I lowered myself down almost to the ground, then pushed myself up. I repeated it, and was surprised at how easy it seemed, but I was really sweating at 10 wing-ups.

“Good going, Maverick, especially for somepony new to wings!” Fluttershy beamed with pride.

“Thanks, Fl-Fluttershy.” I said panting, “That means a lot coming from you.”

She then had me do 20 more before we were done warming up. At the end of the warm-up, I looked toward the tree, to see Squirrely looking at us, a curious expression on his face. I just stuck my tongue out at him and didn’t care how it made me look. Besides, I already looked foolish earlier when he stole my muffin.

After a short break, she had me practice flapping my wings in sync without actually trying to take off. The goal was to increase my ‘muscle memory’ so that using my new wings would feel natural. Considering what happened at the lake, I was eager to give it a go.

That was somewhat easier said than done--it was the two extra appendages on me that I still had trouble commanding at times. When I thought I had them both flapping, it turned out either only one was flapping, or they would alternate one after another. It started to get frustrating, but I took a deep breath to calm down before I went at it again. Eventually, I was able to move them properly. With that accomplished, my excitement grew as my dream came closer and closer. With every flap, my coordination had improved to the point where they flapped in perfect sync and it felt natural to me.

Fluttershy smiled in approval, “Well done! You’re getting the hang of it, Maverick!”

“Thanks Fluttershy,” I said as I tucked my wings in, “You don’t know how much this means to me. Soon I’ll be among the clouds! Zipping along faster than I’d ever imagined!”

“I think we’re ready to take the next step,” continued Fluttershy, ”Some light hovering.”

“Oh.” I replied quietly.

“Maverick, we need to take baby steps here. If you go too fast, you could hurt yourself, and I don’t want you to repeat what happened when you arrived.”

I grimaced at the memory of that day, splashing down into the pond and Twilight saving me, but what Fluttershy said made complete sense. Even back on Earth, people would start on simulators or with a flight instructor for a while before even starting to fly on their own, so it wasn’t too much of a leap to think it would be similar for pegasi learning to fly. “You’re right, Fluttershy. I was getting ahead of myself. Thanks for keeping my head out of the clouds, so to speak. Let’s get started.”

This was it, time to finally get off the ground under my own power. I really wanted to get to flying but as she said, ‘baby steps’. I tried flapping my wings a little harder, but when I did, it turned out that it was a bit too hard and they catapulted me about 50 feet in the air, which startled me. The fall down caused me to panic, stop flapping, and flail my legs uselessly. When all was said and done, my face met a dirt pile and I relived the memory of spitting out what made its way into my mouth. At least this wasn’t in an F-22 -- there was no chance of an explosion if there’s no fuel.

I must have been quite a sight as Fluttershy rushed over to me. “Oh, my. Are you alright?”

I had to spit out some dirt before I could respond. “Yes, only my ego took a direct hoof to the face. I guess it wouldn’t be flight training without eating dirt.”

I heard somepony laugh and, as I looked around, noticed Squirrley on his back. I muttered, “It’s not that funny, you little nimrod.” Most of the time I thought squirrels were cute, but this one was starting to get on my nerves. I wished I still had hands, I had a finger with his name on it.

“Ok, are you ready to try again? Don’t flap so hard this time.”

I shook the dirt out of my coat, at least what I could get, and with determination replied, “Yes, just let me get set.” I set my hooves firmly and started my practice flaps. I slowly went faster until my hooves were several inches off the ground. I kept up the hover for several minutes when a rush came over me as I shouted “Woohoo!!! Eat that, Air Force!!”

This, however, made me somewhat overconfident, as I flapped a little harder, causing me to shoot up like a jet performing a vertical climb, then come down like before, ironically into the same patch of dirt. It took a few seconds in the dirt to clear my head from the dizziness I inflicted upon myself. It felt as if the world had slapped me in the face again.

This time, even Fluttershy facehoofed, and I couldn’t really blame her. After all, she had emphasized ‘baby steps’. I heard something akin to squeaking and looked back to where Squirrely was laughing at me again. He then showed off by gliding down to one branch, then doing a backflip to another. “Ha ha, but you can only glide, can’t you?” Great, I just taunted a squirrel - again.

“Maverick, ignore him and focus on what we’re trying to do here.”

Unable to stop myself, I shouted, “He started it!”

“That doesn’t matter. You need to remember that being able to fly requires concentration and confidence. Letting Squirrely into your head will only slow down your flying. You have to get the basics down and learn how to use your pegasus senses well enough that you will be able to fly comfortably without hitting anypony.”

Determined to not let Fluttershy patience be in vain, I tried again, with Fluttershy offering words of advice all the way. It felt like forever, but, upon reflection, it was more like a couple of hours until I was able to hover, raise and lower my altitude. It wasn’t the most graceful of hovering, but at least the ground wasn’t a familiar face anymore. With more practice, I’m sure this would get more natural. However, we had not yet practiced moving around while hovering.

Fluttershy was excited, “Very good, Maverick! Let’s keep practicing that for a little more and we can take a break for lunch.”

“Lunch already? What time is it?” As if in response to the question, my stomach growled.

“It’s just past noon. Back to our lesson, however. What you need to remember is that hovering is rather easy once you have your pattern down. Actual flight, including moving while hovering, however, is a bit trickier as you have to deal with air currents and other creatures that can fly. Pegasi have a normal sense of the currents, you just have to learn how to read them. That will be more important at higher altitudes.”

“Umm...isn’t there a lot less oxygen up there?” my concern was apparent.

“Well, yes, but pegasi have larger than normal lungs to make up for that. That’s also why we are more naturally resistant to cold temperatures.”

I took a very deep breath and almost immediately noticed a difference. I was able to hold my breath a good two minutes! That was another plus for being a pegasus. Twilight is sure to have a book on Pegasi anatomy, as I should get more familiar with how my new body works.

Fluttershy gave me a nudge that brought me back to the present and the fact that my wings felt like they were burning up, along with the muscles in my che..barrel. I pushed through it to continue my hovering practice until it was time to eat.

I fluffed my wings after I landed. It was tiring practice, but not in a bad way. When I got myself all settled, Fluttershy led me back into her cottage, where she made some salad, full of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, carrots and olives, along with some apple juice. I eyed the dish with trepidation. Even on a good day, I wasn’t the one who would really be considered a vegetable lover, at least unless it was on meat of some kind, and silently wished I had a nice, juicy cheeseburger instead. I slowly leaned my head down and took a sniff of it and found it to appeal to my new pony senses, at least, that was the only thing I could come up with. My mouth found a nice bunch of lettuce to chomp down on, along with a couple of the tomatoes and gingerly started to chew. The explosion of flavor that greeted me surprised me to say the least, and my eyes went wide. Needless to say, my next bite was bigger.

“Fluttershy, this salad is amazing! I’ve never tasted anything like it.” I gushed, making her blush. That wasn’t a lie, either. The lettuce was really crisp, and the onions, tomatoes, carrots and olives all tasted as if they had just come off of whatever plant they grew from. While meat would be missed, this started to change my mind about salads. “Fluttershy, what else can pegasi eat? I know that for the most part we are herbivores, but there has to be something else, right?”

“Th-thank you, Maverick. As to your question about what we can eat, fish can be a part of our diet, however that’s mostly for those near the coastlines where one might need something to eat right away.” Fluttershy smiled back at me.

That would explain why my teeth seemed close, yet so different to what I had back on Earth, and I nodded in understanding. I then had that familiar feeling where I needed to relieve myself. “Umm…Fluttershy, where’s your bathroom?”

“Through that hallway, second door on the left.” She pointed out.

All done with my business (which I’m still not totally used to), we headed back out to the field to practice my hovering, which included some slow movement in all directions. After showing great progress and control, she has me go near the top of a tree, but not very high. She instructed me to spread my wings, jump off and try to glide down.

I took a deep breath, spread my wings and jumped forward. While my wings helped me glide for several feet, like my earlier attempts at learning to hover, they shortly betrayed me, folding upward and let me fall face-first into the ground, where I tumbled head over hooves. Fluttershy rushed over to see if everything was alright. I could only respond with a groan of pain as I righted myself. Once again I had to spit dirt from my mouth, but I had a taste of real flight! The wind on my wings and through my mane, however brief, only served to spur me on. I noticed that that squirrel was laughing at me again. I wasn’t going to respond again to his taunts. Fluttershy, on the other hand, gave Squirrely a look that stopped his laughing in its’ tracks.

My wings seemed to be ok, other than a feather or two that were out of place, but they were easily put back where they belonged. I stretched out my body, with my wings fully extended.

Glad that I was ok, Fluttershy replied, "Maverick, try this. Go back up to the branch you were on and spread your wings, but before you take off, I want you to close your eyes and just feel the air moving through your wings, and be calm."

I took Fluttershy’s advice seriously, as the ability to fly under your own power was just a dream on Earth...I wasn't going to let this failure stop me. “Ok, Fluttershy. I trust you.”

I hovered up to the branch and stood there for a moment before I did what she had asked. With my eyes closed and wings spread, I felt the muscles that controlled them, the slight wind moving through the feathers, and the strange, yet comforting sensations as they ruffled. When the right moment came, I opened my eyes and jumped forward. This time was different, my wings held, yet still moved along with the currents of air and I made it a fair distance before I landed. I was excited until Squirrely flew by and landed a further distance away from me. Undaunted, I repeated that success several times, but still wasn’t able to out-glide the squirrel.

She had me try again but at a lower height. I kept at it and got slightly better, enough to have stopped faceplanting and rolling along the ground every other time. Before we knew it, it was about 4pm and sweat poured down my face. How ponies could sweat was beyond me, but then again I didn’t know much about horses or equines in general to begin with, so I didn’t pay it too much attention.

My reverie was interrupted by Fluttershy, “You’re making good progress, Maverick. You can go home now; you look like you need the rest. We can continue on tomorrow. Oh, and make sure you keep moving your wings so you don’t cramp up.”

When I had turned to leave, Rainbow Dash had landed nearby, “Wow, when Twi told me the story, I couldn’t believe how bad he flew!”

Fluttershy gasped, “Rainbow Dash!”

“What,” Rainbow asked. ”It’s true isn’t it?”

In an instant whatever good feelings I may have had about my lessons evaporated. My face fell and I lowered my head. It was true. I wasn’t good at flying. The only thing I’d accomplished thus far was causing trouble for others. “I think I’ll be going now,” I said, sullenly and began to walk away.

“Wait,” said Fluttershy, and with surprising agility she managed to cut me off before I’d gotten too far, “Ignore Rainbow, she has a tendency to put things entirely too bluntly for her own good.”

“I guess.”

“Listen Maverick, you’ve really made great progress today,” she said with a small smile.

“I suppose so.”

“You weren’t born a pegasus. It’s going to take some time.”

“Thanks,” I said with a small smile before looking back at Rainbow Dash with a measure of disdain. “It seems no matter where I go I’m always running into jerks,” I muttered to myself.

"What was that?”

“Nothing,” I said, turning back to Fluttershy, “Just me talking to myself. I’m gonna head back to the castle now. I’m sure I have some work waiting for me there.” With that we said our goodbyes and I began the long walk home, my mood considerably worse than it was when I’d arrived that morning.

Each step toward the castle reminded me in a million different ways how many times I’d fallen on my face that day. Yet, even with the aches and pains I’d occasionally move my wings as Fluttershy instructed. As the castle drew closer I made it a point to take a shower and a couple of aspirin before doing anything else.

The moment I set hoof in the door Spike popped his head out from one of the side rooms and greeted me. “Hey, Maverick. How was your day,” he asked with a scroll in claw, which I could only assume was a list of chores that needed to be done.

I eyed the list and then Spike quietly before responding, “Oh, fine I guess. I could really use a shower. We can talk about it later, okay?”

“Sure!” he said, “Take your time. I’ll be around here doing the list.”

I nodded and headed to the nearest bathroom with a shower, turned the water on and stepped in. The hot water splashed off of my coat and mane working its way to my skin. A low loud moan of pleasure escaped my lips as I let the hot water cascade off of my weary form for a long time before I finally began to wash away the dirt and grime of the day.

When I popped out of the shower I felt like a new stallion and found Spike eyeing me from the hallway. “Dude, you okay,” asked Spike, “I’ve never heard anypony make that sound.”

“Oh.” I blushed and looked away, "Sorry, I guess I just needed that more than I wanted to let on. It's been a long day."

"But you can fly now right?"

"I can hover some," I said with a shrug and began to flap my wings. After a few moments I hung in the air a couple feet off the ground, "See?"

“That’s great, Maverick! It’ll come in handy for some of the things that Twilight needed done.”

I moved closer so I could look at the list along with him, one of the items was to clean some of the higher windows, “Hey, Spike, I’d like to try this one, it’ll give me a chance to work on my hovering. Plus, Fluttershy said I needed to keep my wings moving so that they don’t cramp up.”

I took a bucket, rag and a ladder with me. Upon nearing the top of the ladder I set the bucket down and began flapping my wings. Once airborne, I began cleaning the upper windows while Spike mopped the floor.

The late afternoon sun gave way to the inky black of night as we made our way around the great hall and cleaned our sections. When we finished the last room, Spike looked up at me and said, “You picked that up pretty quick!”

I could feel my cheeks flush as I made my way back to the top of the ladder. "Thanks, but, it's just hovering. It's not like I'm zipping around through the clouds or anything." I carefully set my hooves down on the ladder while Spike held it. "Though I will say that I'm getting better at landing and not crashing into everything."

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” said Spike cherrily, “Keep this up and you’ll be able to fly anywhere anytime sooner than you think!”

“Thanks, Spike.” I said as I climbed down the ladder, “I really hope so.”

We continued to talk while we worked. Spike continued to focus on the ground level stuff while I continued to push around the ladder and work on things that were out of his reach. Eventually he asked if there was anything I missed about being a human. "The hands," I said without hesitation, "They were just so much easier for grabbing things. I mean I can still grab stuff but, it just feels weird."

“Oh, you’ll get used to it,” called a voice from the far end of the hall. We turned our heads and saw Twilight walking through the hall and examining our work. “Wow, you two got a lot done in such a short amount of time,” she exclaimed, “Impressive!”
“Thanks Twi,” I said quietly as I stretched.

"I think this calls for pizza," declared Spike.

"I'm down but... wait ... what time is it?"

"9:30--it's kind of late for pizza Spike," replied Twilight.

"Oh come on! We haven't had pizza in forever!"

"Eh, if it's all the same to you two I'm kind of beat. I think I'll just grab something small out of the kitchen and head to bed." I yawned.

Twilight nodded, "That would probably be best."

I said my good nights and did just that and before long found my way into bed. Slowly I stretched out underneath the sheets and yawned. For the first time in what felt like a long time I was completely exhausted and sleep had no trouble in finding me.

Chapter 8

The ups and downs of the emotional roller coaster of yesterday disappeared quickly when sleep took me. Once it had a hold of me, those ups vanished, leaving me alone to wallow in darkness. Indistinct forms in the shadows crept about and before long, I found myself back at the reception, being greeted by a familiar voice.

“Well, well, scrote. I knew you liked that show, but I didn’t think you’d go this far!”

I cringed at my ‘nickname’, “W-what is that supposed to…” I stopped in my tracks as I looked over my body to find that I was still a pegasus, the murmur of the other guests starting to rise in volume.

All he did was start to laugh at me, along with everyone else. I yelled for them to stop, which only made them jeer at me. Unable to deal with the strain, I ran from the building, but their voices only grew louder and louder, overwhelming my senses. I tried to take to the air in a vain escape effort, but my wings wouldn’t cooperate. Soon after, I found my legs had no strength left in them to continue running, and I felt frozen in place despite my frantic attempts to get them working, as my brother walked up to me again. Panic set in as he spoke.

“Ha, ha. Useless as a human, and now useless as a pony. No wonder you wouldn’t stay with Mom that night.” His condescending tone echoed loudly in my ears, which made them flatten on my head as I gave up my escape attempt. He was right, I was useless. My job, while I earned good money, never felt fulfilling, and as a pony I could only hover! I eventually was surrounded by humans, when my brother walked up to me and started to reach for me with a saddle, with my Mom there, passively watching, but holding a bridle and a crop. My brother continued, “If you were useless as a human, the least you can do is give rides to little girls and boys.” he said with an evil laugh. I didn’t stop them from putting the saddle and bridle on me, then tied me to a post where I gave rides all day long. My brother, always there with a sneer as he gave the crop to the little girl riding me at the time. It was when she hit me that I bolted upright in my bed and screamed, sweat pouring down my face.

I couldn’t get back to sleep after that, so I went to the bathroom to start my morning routine. Before I started, however, I looked in the mirror to see the face I was still trying to get used to that was mine. My feelings were all over the place as if they were on a wheel that kept spinning over and over. Remorse, depression, fear…it was only a matter of time before they started to run my life. Happiness made rare appearances that I cherished every time it made itself known. I shoved those feelings aside and decided to preen my feathers instead of showering first. Pain shot through my wing like fire as I spread it, and my eyes watered at the sensation. While it might have been something that could be akin to workout pains, it worried me nonetheless, and it made my preening all the more difficult because I couldn’t hold my wings as steady as I would like. Despite this, I got my wings to a presentable state and took my shower. Letting the hot water just run over my coat, I reflected on Rainbow’s words, which combined with my nightmare and everything else, just sent me deeper into a depression as if I were sinking into a deep-sea trench tied to a cinderblock. The shower became background noise as I felt like a shell of my former self, destined to be kicked around by others, never to fight back for my own identity.

I climbed out of my funk to turn off the shower and dry myself. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized that living here, with them, wasn’t going to be just like the show. I had deluded myself into thinking it was all sunshine and rainbows here, when I hadn’t thought that there would be more going on that was never shown. It was scary, now that I thought about it, how closely this resembled my past life. Perhaps it would be better all around for me to just avoid as many ponies that I’ve hurt. At least I wouldn’t be subject to continued torment. Fluttershy and Pinkie would be obvious exceptions, of course.

I got my scrubs back on, checked my wings once more, then made my way to breakfast and picked at my food, the nightmare last night still fresh in my mind. When Twilight came in, I furrowed my brow at her before taking a more vested interest in breakfast.

“Good morning, Maverick.” she said with a yawn.

“Morning, Twi.” I responded with my own yawn and twitched my wings a bit, still feeling some pain from my earlier preening, to say nothing of the nightmare that plagued my mind at the same time.

Even in the morning, Twilight was still observant enough to notice my mood, “Is…there anything wrong?”

“Nope, I’m ok.” I looked around furtively for an excuse to get away when my eyes settled on the clock, giving me an idea. I scarfed down the rest of breakfast, the mumbled to Twilight, “Mmmfff…I’m going to be late! Gotta go!”

“Ok, but don’t forget to go to Rarity’s after your training! She needs your help around the shop!”

All I gave her was a, “Yeah, yeah…” as a response as I bolted out of the castle as fast as I could. I waited until I was well away from the castle before I slowed to a simple trot, since I was actually going to be an hour early. This afforded me time to get a muffin at SugarCube Corner, which let me also say ‘hi’ to Pinkie. Her infectious attitude caused me to feel a little better, but not enough to snap me out of my funk.

Fluttershy was already in the meadow that we were using for my training as I arrived, “Good morning, Fluttershy!” I greeted her in a false, cheery voice. I was still in a bad mood after the nightmare, but I didn’t want to burden her with that. My mind wandered a bit due to the pain I was feeling from my wings, worried that I might disappoint her with my performance (or possible lack thereof) today. She worked so hard with me to get my flight to where it was today. To be forced to stop because I hurt my wings for my stupid decision to hover so long…well I wouldn’t be able to handle that. I could see it now – I crash, have to tell Fluttershy what I did, and then she gives up on teaching me how to fly. I wasn’t going to let that happen. It was then that I noticed the squirrel was there, seemingly content to watch our goings on.

“Good morning, Maverick. I want to apologize for Rainbow yesterday. Sometimes she doesn’t realize what she’s saying. I had a little talk with her.”

“It’s ok, Fluttershy. I’ve already forgotten it.” I lied behind a forced smile that I hoped she couldn’t read through.

“In any case, I told Rainbow that she should apologize to you directly.”

I showed her my wings again, suppressing a wince at the pain so she could examine my preening. “Very good, Maverick. I think you have preening down well, and that feather will be back in a couple of weeks if you keep up the good work. Let’s warm up with some wingups.”

I chuckled a little at the unintended rhyme and started the exercises, despite the pain I was in. I hid my face from her so she wouldn’t see any expression of pain that might come through. We then moved on to gliding, and I silently prayed that my wings held out when I spread them, a small tear coming at the amount of pain they were communicating to me. I really didn’t want to let her down, but the feeling that this was going to end badly kept gnawing at the edge of my thoughts. As I jumped, time seemed to slow down, my wings refusing to maintain position as my pain increased tenfold, compounded by colliding with a few branches until my forehooves dragged along the ground. My hind end raised up in the air as I started to somersault head over hooves before my momentum was stopped by hitting a tree. Through my daze, I start crying inside as I knew I had let her down. Fluttershy rushed to my side to see if I was all right, finding that I had a laceration on my right forehoof, some missing feathers from my left wing, and my eye swollen shut from where I hit the tree. I half expected Squirrely to swoop in and start laughing at me, but instead he had moved nearby, looking almost as concerned as Fluttershy. She had Squirrely get a freezing sponge for my eye. I waited for her to berate me as other ponies had already done, but was surprised instead as she asked me what I did last night after our training while she tended to my injuries. I filled her in on the odd jobs I had done in the castle for Twilight.

“Well, no wonder you crashed. You must have overdone it with the work you did last night. Let me help you get those kinks out, then we’ll work on your pegasus senses. Please sit down.”

I did as she requested, sitting on my haunches with my forelegs down. It amazed me how comfortable and natural this position felt as Fluttershy walked around me and started to massage my wing joints. I gasped at the sensation and almost dropped to my belly, it felt so good.

“Wow, Fluttershy. This feels amazing…” I moaned, eyes drooping at how she seemed to magically soothe the tension out of my wings. When she was done, I had almost fallen asleep when she nudged me awake.

“Maverick, you should be fine now, but no more flying or hovering for about a week or two.”

“I promise, no more hovering or flying until you say otherwise. Thanks, Fluttershy, the massage hit the spot.”

Since she had me effectively grounded, we went through her house to her roof so she could teach me how to listen to my pegasus senses. That was something incredible to feel for the first time. She had me close my eyes to make it easier for me to pay attention to what my wings were telling me. It wouldn’t be until my flying greatly improved that these senses would become second nature. All the pressures of the wind going around me and what they meant - a bird flying by here, another pegasus there, and a cloud sitting above us. If I had to describe it better, I would say that it reminded me of beautiful autumn day, the leaves changing colors as ponies, birds, etc. move through the sky. I think she flew around me because I felt warm air move through my wings, giving me the impression of a pegasus slightly above me and to my left. I turned my head to the location and opened my eyes to find out I was right, and Fluttershy was hovering there, smiling at me. A smaller wave moved toward me and I was turning toward it and saw Squirrely come in and land. He handed me an olive branch and smiled at me. “Oh, Squirrely, thanks! No hard feelings here.” it was enough to get my mind off of the more depressing things that have happened to me.

We had a couple of hours after lunch to train some more, making me even more adept with my senses, before I headed over to Rarity’s to help make up for the destroyed dress. My eye looked a lot better, thanks to Fluttershy and Squirrely’s help, so at least I no longer looked like I got smacked in the face by a Manticore. Along the way, I noticed a little vacant house with a ‘For Sale’ sign in front. It had a second floor with balcony. I looked closer, noting a missing section of fencing for the small front yard as well as a few balcony supports. I did like the paint scheme, a deep brown on the corner supports, with a lighter khaki on the walls and a beige, thatched roof. I made a mental note of where it was, as I didn’t have time to inspect the interior. When I entered Carousel Boutique, I couldn’t help but remember Rarity’s attack on me, and I immediately called out, “Good afternoon, Rarity. I’m here to help out around the boutique. Please don’t throw a pillow.”

She chuckled, “Greetings, Maverick. I appreciate any help you can give, and I’m done throwing pillows.” She gasps as she turned toward me, “Darling! What happened to you!”

I refused to deny it, it would be an insult to her, “Let’s just say that I had an unfortunate incident with a tree, and the tree won.” I looked away in embarrassment, “It looks worse than it feels, I’m fine.”

“Well, if you say so, but it looks rather bad. Would you like some makeup to hide that eye of yours?”

As much as I would love to hide this even more, I wasn’t about to start wearing makeup, “As enticing as that is, Rarity, I’d much rather not.”

“I think I understand where you’re coming from. Let’s get to work, shall we? First, can you please help move some of those ponyquins over to that side of the floor? Also, I’m expecting a client to come and pick up her dress. But before all that, you need to get changed, those hospital scrubs are a travesty to fashion, and your first set of clothing is done.”

“Wait, first set?” I inquired, as she levitated a box over to a changing room as I went in. The shorts were a classy yellow, just a shade deeper than Fluttershy’s coat, the shirt a sky blue, just like Rainbow’s coat, but with a little bit of a rainbow color when looked at just right in the sunlight. At least they were more comfortable than those scrubs, even when they were new. The interesting part was getting the shirt on, which had two extra holes for my wings, “I love these Rarity, but what do you mean that this was the ‘First set’? What else do you have in mind?”

“Pfft...bah, a slip of the tongue, don’t worry about it, darling. Now please get to moving those ponyquins.”

“Sure thing, Rarity,” I answered. I didn’t bother to push for more information, and started to move the ponyquins she had requested. Satisfied after I moved the first of several to the other side, she went to her workroom as she had some designs to finish up on. I had one more to move when the front door opened. I turned to face the pony that just entered and dropped the ponyquin I was moving at the sight of her. A light pink mare with magenta mane, along with a visible sneer that just screamed ‘I have money, you have none, worship me!’, somepony who, in the back of my mind, had hoped to never meet, Spoiled Rich, and a cold shiver ran up my spine.

“Rarity, dear, is my dress ready?”

I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t make a mess of things, “Greetings, welcome to Carousel Boutique, how may I help you?”

She eyed me with contempt, “I seriously doubt it. Where is Rarity? I want my dress.”

“Rarity is busy right now, however she informed me somepony would be dropping by for her dress. I will retrieve it for you,” with that, I headed in back to get the dress. After I entered the room, I was dumbfounded as to where it would be, but after some examination, she appeared to have them organized by first name, which made it easier for me to find it. I came out of the room and hoofed it to her, “Your dress, ma’am.”

“Well, it’s about time!” she said with that snooty accent of hers.

“Is there anything else I can assist you with today?” I asked, ignoring her attitude.

“I seriously doubt it, especially from you.”

I merely responded with, “Ma’am.” and hoped that was the end of our encounter. Boy, was I wrong!

She walked around me, continuing to look down on me with her piercing stare that would give Medusa a run for her money to turn somepony into stone, “Don’t think I haven’t a clue who you are, either. You are that pony that showed up and caused the disturbance through town the other day. If it were up to me, I would run you out of town entirely.”

“Then I am pleased it is not up to you.” I retorted, unable to keep the snark out of that response.

“It should be…,” She finished her walkaround of me, then moved closer as she berated me, “You who have no business being here, in the company of Rarity, much less myself. Such an irresponsible and useless pony probably couldn’t do something as simple as paint a house!”

Her words froze me in place. I attempted to ignore her as she continued on, but my efforts were futile in front of the barrage of insults. At times, I thought she would hit me in the chest or something, but she maintained her distance. Memories of my nightmare resurfaced, reflecting what my brother keeps saying in them, as well as an episode of when my boss gave me a verbal lashing after I said something I shouldn’t have about some reports.

Rarity appeared from her workroom to see what the commotion was. “Spoiled, I would expect a pony of your stature to refrain from insulting my assistant.”

“Rarity, he doesn’t belong here after what he did!” Spoiled responded with a cold stare in my direction, “He dared to imply that I was out of shape to wear this!”

“Spoiled, your allegations do not befit a pony of your stature. He has been nothing but pleasant to talk to and is working to make amends for his actions. Please leave, now.”

The rest of what Spoiled said turned into mumbling, as I took the opportunity to slink into a back room, and could only just flop down in a shivering mess. My eyes shut as my memories betrayed me once again with my mom’s disapproving face that appeared in my nightmare, saying things I couldn’t understand. The outside world lost focus as if I had left the range of an FM radio station, turning into static background noise to the inner workings of my mind, destroying what good mood I had.

Rarity found and carefully approached me as I shook, “Darling, I’m so sorry you had to go through that. Are you ok?”

When I failed to respond to her, she moved closer and shook me a little bit, startling me, my wings reflexively snapped open, accidentally smacking Rarity in her muzzle.

“Ahh!” I shouted, “S-sorry, R-Rarity.” I stammered, closing my wings, yet still shaking from the encounter. “I-I think I’ll be all right…”

“Darling, no matter what she said, you are not a useless pony. Fluttershy tells me that you’ve been doing well and even Twilight noted that you help her.”

“I suppose so.” I respond, unconvinced that somehow Spoiled was right.

Rarity immediately noticed that I was uncomfortable being in customer’s view, “I have just the thing,” she said as she led me into a back storage room, where she had me tidying up. I wasn’t even in any mood to keep working, but I had to keep my promise. When I was done, I headed back to the castle, my mood again soured by somepony that had to ruin it.

When I got back to the castle, Twilight heard me passing and started to talk as she turned around, “Maverick, I’m glad you’re back! I have your…” she stopped her sentence as she turned around and saw me, gasping, “Maverick! What in Celestia’s name happened to you?”

I wanted to just go hide in my room to drown in my own sorrow, “I’m okay. It’s nothing to worry about. I’m just going to go to my room for now, ok?”

“Please, tell me, what happened?”

“Nothing special happened, really, I just won’t be flying soon. Rarity and Fluttershy can fill you in on the details. I’ll be in my room.”

“I’ll put your pay in my safe, just come to me when you want to claim it.”

I merely waved a hoof toward her as I walked off to my room, where I closed and locked my door. A sigh escaped my lips as my face made itself known through a look in my dresser mirror as I walked over to the window. I reared up and hooked my forehooves over the windowsill, looking up at Luna’s night sky. A look in a mirror would tell me I’m a pony, but inside, I only see myself as I was on Earth, pretending to be a pony, and it felt horrible.

Chapter 9

The next morning, after I had cleaned up, my thoughts were still in a turmoil. I didn't want anypony to worry, so I fell back on my usual routine of fake happiness. After a long time as a human, this shouldn’t be a problem to pull off with the ponies. I was pretty confident that I could fool Twilight, Spike, and even Rainbow Dash. However, the real test would be Pinkie, Fluttershy, and, if I ever ran into her, Applejack. It then occurred to me that life here was feeling more and more like on Earth. Nothing I did seemed to totally please everypony: Twilight would go off on me about why she arranges things or would just pester me with questions on Earth, Rainbow would make some snarky comment on my flying (despite Fluttershy’s best efforts), and while most ponies appeared to have put my romp through town behind them, I knew that that was the first thing that came to mind when they saw me. Fluttershy and Pinkie, on the other hoof, were the only bright spots in my days. Neither gave me any reason to think they were anything but authentic in their comments, and made me really work hard to please them.

The buttery smell of pancakes brought me out of my thoughts in time to prevent me from faceplanting into the dining room door. This allowed me to gather my courage before entering the dining room, where all the sights and smells had my mouth watering. Twilight and Spike were already eating, and as I filled my plate, we talked about the events of the other day and I apologized for being short with her.

A couple of weeks passed since my crash landing, although I really felt that I was better a few days later. Fluttershy didn’t want to take any chances, however, and my mood dropped like a stone for letting her down. Once again, I was reminded of my failure to protect Sarah, that weight on my shoulders as heavy as the car I drove. The thought was pushed out of my mind as I worked on my senses, kept my wings preened properly (I had to remove a couple of feathers already), and did wing-ups to help them get stronger. My injuries healed to the point where you’d be hard-pressed to notice that anything had happened to me. Fluttershy was kind and patient as always, despite my failure.

As far as Pinkie went, I would stop by every morning on the way to train with Fluttershy to pick up either a muffin or a cupcake. She would tell me a joke or some sort of funny story, which brightened my mood. She was totally true to the show, in that her goal was to have everypony be her friend and she loved to see her friends smile.

My flight wasn’t the only thing I worked on to better myself; how I treated Twilight, for example. Ever since I appeared in Equestria, I’ve done nothing but make her life more difficult. I could only imagine what her reports to Princess Celestia looked like. To this end, I resolved to treat her with more respect as befitted a princess, despite her reluctance to flaunt her status. She kept putting my pay in her safe, separate from the other bags of bits she had.

Spike, meanwhile, wasn’t as oblivious to my attitude changes as I had thought. Actually, he was quite observant most of the time. Even though a smile was on my face, my lethargic movement at times gave away my true feelings. He hadn’t said anything to me about it, but somehow, I could tell. After some of my discussions with Twilight, he would give me that look that basically said, 'So you're going with that story, eh?'. Even if we hadn’t said anything to each other about this, I was ever so grateful for him to let me work this out on my own. Maybe one of those unspoken ‘guy’ things, even if he’s a dragon.

I still took it easy with regards to my chores around the castle, especially the library, which reminded me the most about mom – before she had gotten too weak to hold one, she always loved reading a good book, and we practically had a library in what was a meager house to begin with. Most of my mistakes in cleaning occurred here, where I was completely distracted by memories. On more than one occasion, Twilight would go into her ‘lecture mode’ about why she had things organized the way she did. When she wasn’t doing that, I’d get peppered with more questions about where I came from. My heart would beat faster when Twilight would suggest even a full meeting with her until I basically told her I didn’t think I was ready to talk to her quite yet. My unwillingness to talk about my issues would cause Twilight to start mumbling something. While a part of me wanted to know what she was saying, it was overridden by the dark cloud that hung over me.

Sometimes, my chores would take me around town, and I would notice an odd rustling that seemed to follow me, even though there was no breeze. Even when I used my senses, I couldn't get a clear picture as to what was causing it. It didn't worry me too much, since nothing here was actively out to get me, excluding Rainbow's tackle that first day.

I was starting to get a little stir crazy, being grounded like this, but at the same time my resolution to follow Fluttershy’s flying advice overruled any objections I may have had. My depression got pushed to the side as her house came into view, still one of the few times a day I'm truly in a happy place. Hopefully she’d let me do some hovering today, “Hello, Fluttershy. I’m ready for some more training. I’m feeling great,” I spread my wings to show her and put my saddlebags on the ground near a tree, ironically the same tree I crashed into weeks earlier that grounded me. This session just had to be perfect—my earlier failure made it a requirement in my mind as I didn’t want to fail her again.

“Excellent. I have to take care of a couple of animals in back and we can begin.”

“Do you mind if I join you?”

“Um...sure. If you really want to.”

We walk around until a familiar face reared his head - that squirrel that was laughing at me during my initial flying lessons. “Well, well, who do we have here? How are you doing, Squirrely?” He chittered back at me.

"It seems that he's taken a liking to you, Maverick."

I knew what she was trying to do, but I wasn't ready to open up yet, "I think I see that, even if our initial encounters were less than amicable."

"Well, that does it for my chores for now. Ready to start your session?"

"Ready!" I responded as enthusiastically as I could.

After our usual bout of wing-ups, she had decided that I could start hovering again. I stayed low to the ground and moved about, thinking that the wing-ups must be helping as after about 10 minutes of constant hovering my wings didn’t feel all that tired or stressed.

“Great work, Maverick!” she said as she beamed with pride.

Her praise lifted my spirits, “Thanks! I’m also feeling everything in the air like you described. I’ve never felt anything like it before, but I can totally see how it works now. I feel like I’m closer than ever to really flying.”

“I’m proud of you! Especially since you never knew anything about flying and senses before. Based on how you did today, I think you may be ready for some short glides tomorrow. Be back here at the same time, ok? I have a few other appointments that I need to take care of, otherwise we would be doing more today.”

“That’s alright, Fluttershy. I’ve taken enough of your time already, and I appreciate your help.”

Fluttershy must have noticed something in my voice as she asked, “Maverick, is there something wrong?”

“No, everything’s fine.” Fluttershy didn’t need to be involved in my problems.

I got my saddlebags back on and left the meadow, trotting through town. Ponies I passed would greet me by saying ‘hi’ or raising a hoof, so I greeted them in kind. It was enough that Twilight was getting curious, but given what happened when I returned after my accident and the incident with Spoiled Rich, I shouldn’t be surprised. I made up my mind that I would talk to her once I got back to the castle. That plan took a little pause when I approached SugarCube Corner, however, as the thought that picking up some sweets for Twilight and Spike would help smooth things over. I got a couple of vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting for Twilight and myself, and one with gems for Spike. Pinkie helped me select the one that was his favorite, as I wasn’t sure which one would be the best. She also had another joke for me, which only served to brighten my already brighter than normal mood.

When I reached the castle, I made a quick dash to my room. A knock on my door startled me, but turned to be a blessing in disguise, since Twilight was there with what I assumed were more chores.

“Good afternoon, Maverick. I hope your training went well. If you would like to come down to the dining room, Spike and I were about to eat, then these chores need to be worked on.”

“Thanks, Twilight. I am kinda hungry after today.” my stomach rumbled at the mention of being hungry.

“Sounds like your stomach agrees with you. Let’s go.”

“Twilight, before we go, I feel I owe you an apology. I had returned from Rarity’s not in the best of moods and shrugged you off.”

She gave me a compassionate look, “Maverick, Spoiled Rich can be a pain to deal with even on a good day. Those that aren’t familiar with her would have a problem with her attitude. I don’t hold your response against you.”

“Nonetheless, Twilight, what happened before Rarity intervened was pretty basic. I was about to move the last ponyquin that Rarity asked me to take care of when she came in. I held my tongue, because I didn’t want to start anything, and then got her dress as she requested. She then starts going on about my…activities…through town that first day and would’ve run me out of town. I didn’t help matters by stating I was glad it wasn’t up to her. After that, everything went downhill as she started insulting me all over the place. I honestly don’t remember much of it as I think I was in shock from her attitude. It was at that point, I think, that Rarity came out, and you know the rest.”

Judging by her look, she wasn’t happy with my treatment. I quickly informed her that I was ok and to not worry about it anymore. I even added that I’ve put it behind myself, hoping she would buy it and stop her inquiries. It worked and we moved on. I was genuinely impressed with myself that I fooled her.

We headed to dinner, where a nice vegetable and pasta dish was sitting on the table, along with some salad and crisp bread rolls that smelled like they just came out of the oven. We had some wine to drink, and as I popped some of the pasta in my mouth, I was again surprised at the flavors that greeted me. After dinner, there was some pumpkin pie a la mode, one of my favorites, in addition to the cupcakes I brought. When I took a bite, however, memories of happier times with mom surfaced, when I practically ran over my brother to get the first slice at a picnic. Sarah and I would also go on picnics, and despite Twilight and Spike making things a little better, my memories weighed on me like a ton of bricks, enough so that I excused myself to start my chores early and on my own.

Spike joined me shortly and we worked on the list together again. By that time, I was over my reminiscing about mom and Sarah, so our work proceeded swiftly. My ability to hover again helped, and I paid closer attention to how long I did that so I wouldn’t run into the same problem as before.

The night was another troublesome affair, which meant that I got up earlier than I had planned...again. I panted while I gathered my senses, a small part of me thinks I should talk to somepony, however, the majority of me voted to keep this quiet. No one listened to me when I was human, why would being a pony be any different?

I went to take a shower to clean off the sweat after waking up. While it hasn’t proved helpful to make me feel better, I was clean. I preened, got my saddlebags, then had some breakfast of eggs and hash browns Spike had made.

Before I left the castle for training, I needed to find out where a realtor was to talk to them about the house. I was going to ask Twilight when I remembered about the map that she had given me. I took it out of my bag and, unfortunately, it didn’t show me any realtors, so I found Twilight to ask her. She was kind enough to mark the location on my map, and there was enough time for me to visit them.

Once again, I found myself standing in front of the house that I was considering buying. Something inside me kept bringing me here, the only phrase that came to mind was ‘a kindred spirit’. This house is broken, and while it would be great to buy it and fix it up, I couldn’t convince myself it was the right thing to do, not when my own life was so broken. I messed up so badly when I arrived, how can I fix this when I can’t even fix myself?

The heaviness in my heart was forgotten when the realtor pony arrived, and let me in. The house wasn’t as bad as I had feared, but it did need some work done. The fireplace surround needed to be re-mortared, a couple of stairs to the upper level were missing, some minor plumbing work, and a couple of holes that needed to be patched. That didn’t include anything behind the walls that might make themselves known as repairs are made.

“This doesn’t seem to be too bad. I can handle most of these repairs myself. What’s the asking price?”

“It’s ten thousand bits, when everything is said and done. You’ll likely need more for the repairs needed, however.”

“Hmm…I will have to double check what I’ve got. Is that price considering the current state it is in?”

“Yes, but it has been available for a couple of months, so we can try to talk the seller down to about 8,500 bits.”

“Well, that sounds…reasonable.” I wasn’t terribly familiar with the house buying process, but with the amount of shows on the subject on TV, it wasn’t a terribly alien process. At least that didn’t remind me of something depressing.

“For your situation, however, I would recommend a rental instead. A home like this might be more than you can handle.”

Her suggestion merely served to sour my mood, but I shoved it aside, and told her I would drop by with information on what I have saved up to see about any sort of down payment, thanked her for her time, and left. Before I did, however, that rustling noise caught my attention and I noticed a tail disappearing out of the corner of my eye.

On the way I stopped again at SugarCube corner, this time opting for a chocolate chip muffin. Pinkie, with her usual cheerful mirth, greeted me with the joke of the day. She was still able to make me smile, though as time went on, it had changed from being genuine to being something a bit more…forced. Fortunately it wasn’t to the point where she could detect it, and if she could, she wasn’t showing it to me just yet. I waved goodbye to her and proceeded on my way to Fluttershy’s.

I arrived at the ‘training meadow’ Fluttershy and I use for my flight practice. This was the only real high point that exists most of my days, being with her and learning. Doing wing-ups, gliding, or just hovering, she was a breath of fresh air to be with.

Now, that wasn’t to say that the others weren’t pleasant to be with, it’s just…the show ignored their bad side or things that would make one question their character. What could one expect from a 20-24 minute episode aimed at little girls? Fluttershy, on the other hand, and to an extent Pinkie Pie, well, I have yet to find anything bad to say about them, but I couldn’t bring myself to trust anypony, at least not yet. Each had their own faults (which I would rather not go into right now) that kept reminding me of people I knew on Earth. As my eyes scanned the meadow, I spotted Fluttershy apparently speaking with Squirrely.

“Morning, Fluttershy.”

“Good morning, Maverick.” she paused, a question on her lips, but unsure of the best way to ask.

I took the uncertainty out of her hooves, “Is there something wrong?”

She pawed at the ground with one of her hooves, “Well…I’m just curious-how you are feeling?”

“I feel great!” I responded enthusiastically, hoping that she would buy the forced smile on my face. Squirrley didn’t seem convinced, but he wasn’t my concern. Fluttershy appeared to be satisfied with the answer, but with my attention focused on not letting them know how I was really doing, I forgot how perceptive she could be.

"Oh, ok. You know you can talk to me if you need to, right?"

I looked into her eyes, which, in retrospect, was a mistake. They shimmered with concern and if I didn't know better, I would have thought she was performing her 'stare' on me. It was all I could do to hold my composure, "Absolutely."

After a typical round of training, which included some gliding again, I got my saddlebags on to return to the castle. I looked at Fluttershy as I was leaving, a twinge of sadness in her eyes. The only conclusion I could draw was that she was disappointed in me not talking to her about my problems. It saddened me that my lack of openness was causing this problem. It didn’t help that I forgot a shower was scheduled for today, and it started raining on my way back.

What a shitty way to end a day.

Author's Notes:

We're almost to the climax here, next chapter will be interesting for everyone to say the least.

I want to thank everyone for sticking around and reading it!

Chapter 10

It has now been about two months (or is it moons?) since I arrived in Equestria, and it was getting more and more difficult to keep my temper in check. Like a rising tide, they dominated my thoughts night after night. I wish my mom was here, she was good at interpreting things like this. Memories from the past crashed into my thoughts like when mom left my dad after finding out he had been cheating. The arguments that had ensued caused me nightmares when I thought that it was my fault that he and mom separated, however misguided that had been. She helped me get through those times, and my eyes betrayed my feelings, as a lone tear dribbled down my cheek.

On the other hand, I was starting to fly, not just hover or glide, but no better than fillies or colts almost half my age. I was happy when I was gliding, but now, flying, there wasn’t any real joy when I have kids basically out-flying me all over the place, which wasn’t helping my confidence. In a way, I might as well be back home, as everything I was going through back there was very similar. It didn’t make me want to work harder at it at all.

On my daily visit to Sugarcube Corner, cupcakes were the choice of the day to drown my woes in. When I stepped up to pay for it, I gave a forced smile to Pinkie, hoofed over the bits, and was going to head out when she called out to me. I half turned around to look at her.

“Maverick, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, why do you ask?”

“Well, my Pinkie sense told me somepony was feeling sad, and the only pony around is you.”

“There’s nothing wrong as far as I’m concerned, Pinkie. My only regret is not talking to you more often, once a day is not enough,” that was the honest truth, at least.

“You know I’m always available to talk if you need, Mav. Just say the wordie and we can talkie. Or if we were walking it would be a talkie walkie! Or would that be a walkie talkie?”

That one almost made me giggle, “Thanks, Pinkie. I’ll keep you in mind. See you around,” I gave a more genuine smile to Pinkie as she still gave me a concerned look at my departure.

Mindlessly, I made my way over to Fluttershy’s place. Here and there, I’d spot Squirrely following me, and I honestly didn’t mind. We had developed a rapport with each other, to the point where while he wasn’t my pet, we could be considered inseparable. I never considered a squirrel as a companion until now. I was more of a dog person myself, but as time had gone on, Squirrely was as loyal a pet as anything. It was when I approached Fluttershy’s that I decided that he was the pet for me.

“Hey, Fluttershy!”

“Oh, hello Maverick. What can I do for you, today wasn’t supposed to be a training day, was it?”

“Oh, no, it isn’t. I’m just interested in Squirrely. He’s been pretty much with me every day for the last moon or so and we like each other.” When I said that, Squirrely glided down from somewhere and landed on my back. I extended my wing, where he ran up it and to my face where we nuzzled. Fluttershy had that ‘awww!’ look on her face and I loved it.

“You two look great together. Let me get you a starter bag with some food, medical supplies, and caregiving guide for him. I’ll be right back.” She rushed off into her house.

“Hey, while she’s busy getting that, you don’t look like a Squirrely. You look more like a…a ‘Steve’. Would you mind it if I changed your name?” He shook his head at me. “Well, then. Steve it is!”

Fluttershy returned with the bag of supplies, where I updated her on his name change. She was excited that we were getting along so well. When we first met, we really didn’t like each other, but as time went on, we understood our roles better and became best buds. Little did I know that that would be really tested in the next few days. Nonetheless, the moment he officially became my pet was the next greatest moment here, the first discovering that I was a pegasus.

I headed back to the castle to get Steve acclimated to his new home, temporary as it may be. After I put away the supplies Fluttershy gave me, I found Twilight to introduce him, and hoped that she would let me keep him, since our relationship has been up and down, and I wouldn’t blame her if she said no.

“Hi, Twilight. Um, I hope you don’t mind, but I have a pet. Meet Steve,” I said with trepidation.

Steve poked his head out from my mane and waved, “Hi, Steve! It’s nice to meet you. Maverick, I need your help in the throne room retrieving a crystal from the chandelier.”

I followed her to the throne room, “I’d be glad to, but don’t take this the wrong way, but why don’t you get it, you can fly too.”

“I have my reasons.”

“Way to be clear, Jason.” I muttered at the explanation that Twilight gave. She gave me a confused look to which I only responded, “Nevermind.”

I wondered if this was a veiled test or something. Maybe she was going to try to get me to open up to her, when I was still not quite ready, nightmares notwithstanding. Normally my reaction would be to brush this off, but knowing Twilight, she’d keep trying, so it was in my best interest to get this over with as quickly as possible. I flew up to nab the crystal she pointed out and brought it down.

“Ok, what now?”

“Look into it.”

My eyes stared deeply into the crystal, which showed the memory of them stopping Nightmare Moon and restoring Princess Luna. “This is…incredible.”

“It’s also what friendship can do. If I hadn’t trusted my friends during that, we would have never stopped Nightmare Moon. I want to earn that same level of trust with you. I mean, learning about a world without magic, yet knows about us?”

With that comment, my fears about her really being my friend were realized. I was just another being to her, one out of place in Equestria and to be learned about. After she departed, I left the crystal on the table. It would have been just the thing for her to use against me, to learn about the being that came from another universe to be poked and prodded.

It was another night of restlessness, which ended with me waking up screaming and sweating. A noise to my right attracted my attention, where Steve was sitting. He had a concerned look on his face.

I felt bad for the little guy. First night with a new owner and he practically got scared out of his skin in the morning. I couldn’t know if Steve thought it was his fault or not, so I had to say something, “Steve, this isn’t your fault. I’m trying to work through this.”

With Steve on my head, I wanted to clear my mind so I took a walk around town. I went around the outskirts to stay as far away from other ponies as I could. Absorbed in my concerns, I almost bowled over a little filly that happened to be walking the same path. I reared up and spread my wings to help me back off of the white unicorn that I recognized as Sweetie Belle. I mumbled a sorry to her and just walked off. I didn’t even bother to look back at her expression upon seeing me again, though if I were to do so, I would’ve seen some...curiosity. My near miss with Sweetie Belle only served to emphasize my depression, because of what had happened the first day I appeared in Equestria. I could only imagine that she didn’t like me…after all, I took a dress she was entrusted with and practically destroyed it.

My aimless wandering found me at Ponyville Park. I found a bench to sit on and observe the fillies and colts play with one another, which made me wish I was that young again. If time could be reversed...I squeezed my eyes shut, my loneliness and despair fueling a dark vision. The thought that kept appearing over and over again…’Would things be better if I were never born?’ Steve smacked me on the head a few times in a vain attempt to capture my attention, but I ignored him. He sighed (or at least what could pass as one), then jumped off my head. This captured my attention to where I opened my eyes to see him chittering to Fluttershy. At one point, she raised her hoof to her mouth to say, “Oh…my.”

She approached me, “Maverick, Maverick! Are you alright? You look troubled.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I sighed, “I love the feeling of the sun on my fur.”

She moved closer in order to speak softly, “I know about your nightmares, and that you have been lying about your feelings to everypony.”

Wait, what? The only way she could have known that was…and I turned to look at Steve, who only grinned at me. “Somebody needs to mind his own business…” I muttered to him.

“Maverick, I’m your friend, and I’m worried about you. You don’t need to face this alone.”

Something snapped in me, and I yelled, “Look, if I wanted somepony to needle me about things, I’d let Twilight do it! I’m sure she’d have an unending stream of questions to pepper me with!”

A moment of silence came around us, as some of the other ponies that heard my outburst just stopped and stared at me. Guilt came over me like a tidal wave, my ears drooped, and I stammered out an apology.

With a hurt look, Fluttershy managed to squeak out, “Maverick. Just remember if you ever need to talk, you can always come to me.”

Fluttershy walked away, but before she could get far, Steve jumped to my head and hit me with an acorn while pointing to Fluttershy, an angry look on his face. “Ok, ok, buddy. I get the message.” I rubbed my head where Steve hit me and called out to her, “Fluttershy!”

She turned around as I approached her. “I’ve…reconsidered. Could you meet me at the castle after dinner?” She smiled and nodded when Steve chittered something to her. I remained at the park for a couple of hours, just watching the ponies that came and went. As the day grew late, I noticed the clouds being brought in, which reminded me that an overnight shower was scheduled, and I really don’t like the rain.

The scheduled shower drove me home, where I found Spike in the kitchen, getting some dinner ready. I appreciated some distraction before tonight with Fluttershy.

“Hey, Spike. How was your day?”

“Mav, it was...fine,” the look on his face said it all. My experience with relationships told me all that I needed to know.

“What’s wrong? You sound like something bad happened.”

“It’s trouble with somepony I really like.”

“Well, why don’t you just ask her out?”

“I don’t know about that. Girls are just so…confusing.”

“I can’t deny that, they were just as confusing where I came from, but all you can do is to ask her and let things go from there, one step at a time. I’m sure, no matter how it ends, she’ll still be a good friend. As a matter of fact, I would never have met my former fiancée if I never spoke up. I wish I had said more than I did…”

The forlorn look on my face must have been evident to him, “Something happened to her, right Mav?”

I took a deep breath, “I'd...rather not talk about it.”

“I’m sorry,” he placed a claw on my shoulder.

I looked down at the table, feelings for her that I had long thought forgotten were starting to come up again, “I guess some scars don’t ever heal. When will dinner be ready?”

“In about 30 minutes.”

I thanked him before heading to my room. With every step, I got more angry with myself about how I handled Sarah. In my mind, everything that had happened was my fault, regardless of what the police said. What was more important right now to me, however, were these nightmares that plagued me night after night. Two moons of this had its’ impact on my attitude, and unfortunately, Twilight happened to find me as I was just a few doors away from my sanctuary, preventing me from calming myself down before Fluttershy could get here. Steve, meanwhile, jumped off of me as she approached.

“Maverick, I was just looking for you. We need to talk. I noticed you left the crystal on the table.”

“Can it wait, Twilight? I’d rather be alone right now,” the exasperation in my voice was apparent. I cringed as even she picked up on it.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you over the past couple of moons, but it needs to stop or you need to talk about it. Of everything that you told me, there’s still something you’re keeping locked away, and it’s not healthy.”

“Look, I’m still not ready to talk to you about it.”

“Why? You can trust us to keep it secret if you want. We’re your friends.”

“Really? Or is this just something you want to know because I’m just another interesting science project? The pony that appeared from nowhere?”

Steve took this moment to jump off my head and run off, much to my surprise.

“No, it’s not that at all! We’re your friends and we are worried about you. Please...tell us what is wrong and let us help you. You don't have to face this alone.”

My frustration with everything started to let loose, “Look, Twi, I don’t need to answer anything you or any other pony has to ask me! Why are you hounding me like this?”

“I don’t mean to hound, but you still need to talk about this. Nopony is mad at you about your race through town, but if that’s what’s still bugging you…”

“Just stop it, Twi,” I interrupted, “You don’t know everything about me, so stop trying to make me think that you do! Nopony can ever understand what I went through, so quit being a smartass and leave methe hell alone!”

I left her sitting there with her ears turned down and ran up to my room to look for Steve. After I examined my room, it was apparent that I even drove my last friend away. I grabbed my saddlebags, found some rope, and glided out of my window to the sound of thunder in the distance. I didn’t need anypony stopping me on the way with ropes wrapped around my barrel and saddlebags.

“Time to end this. I was right from the beginning, everypony would be better off if I wasn’t around at all,” I muttered to nopony in particular.
It wasn’t long before my destination was in sight, the location where I first appeared in Equestria, a nice, quiet spot to think. Darkness entered my mind like the storm clouds over town, and plagued my thoughts as I approached the pond.

Author's Notes:

And we get to the darkness. What will happen next?

I'm NOT sayin'!

Chapter 11

The grey skies above let loose with a torrent of rain, which only served to sour my mood even more. I hated the rain – it was raining when I had that car accident that killed my fiancée, and again after my mom's funeral. I sat there and shook my head.

"Figures," I muttered, just looking at the pond I almost drowned in when I first arrived. I got the rope out, filled the saddlebags with rocks that were lying around, and somehow managed to tie it around my barrel and saddlebags to make sure they wouldn’t slip off and that my wings were tied down. I stood up and walked slowly to the water's edge, since the heavy rocks made my gait somewhat wobbly.

"Useless as a human, useless as a pony..." I sighed as I closed my eyes and prepared to finish it off, when a familiar voice pierced the evening.

“Maverick!"

My eyes snapped open. Fluttershy was here?! I turned around to see her racing up to me, faster than I've ever seen her move before, which only served to make me feel guilty at putting her through this. When she arrived, she wrapped me in a hug of hooves and wings. Ashamed, I looked away, unable to meet her eyes.

"Please, don't do this! You're my friend and I would hate to lose you!"

I just sat there, absorbed in her embrace, confused. My mind just couldn't process anything, much less respond to her. She continued her pleas for my life.

"With everything you've done and been through, the progress you made in flying and helping other ponies...I know that the ponies you have met enjoyed your presence. Think of all that you've done for Twilight and Rarity. The castle looks a lot better than it had in a long time, thanks to you."

I still couldn't find anything to say in response when a sudden thud of the saddlebags hitting the ground behind me made me jump. Somehow, Fluttershy had managed to loosen the rope holding them to my body. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought she could do something like that.

"Think of the accident you had after you overworked your wings. You worked your way back and I was so proud of you when you started to hover and glide again."

Fluttershy gently coaxed me away from the water's edge and walked me back to her house with her wing draped over my body. Compassion radiated from her, unspoken yet understood. When we arrived at her house and she entered, I paused at the door. My voice decided to make a return.

"Fluttershy, how did you know where I was? Nopony saw me leave the castle."

She turned around to answer me, “Steve got me. He followed you, and when he saw what you were going to do, he found me. I was already on my way to the castle to talk to you. If it weren’t for him, I might have been too late,” he popped out of Fluttershy’s mane and waved at me.

“Little stinker, I thought that he was gone for good and didn’t care about me anymore.”

"Of course he cares about you. He followed you around all that time before you decided to adopt him. He did that because he likes you and thought you needed another companion,” Steve looked at me and nodded while Fluttershy continued, “You look like you could use some tea, I’ll be right back,” she whispers something to Steve, who salutes and turns to watch me as I entered her house and closed the door behind me.

After she left the room, Steve moved over to me. I started to pet him, lost in thought, wishing for a way out of this depressing mood. If I wasn’t staring where Fluttershy was, I might have missed Angel running through the room and out his bunny door. I dismissed the event as trivial, since he didn't seem terribly fond of me. I realized, as Fluttershy returned with tea and filled a cup for me, that I had to come clean. For everything that Fluttershy did for me, she deserved to know the truth.

“I…I can’t do this anymore…”

“Do what, Maverick?”

“F-Faking it…this…whatever I have,” I twiddled the cup between my hooves before I took a sip.

“I’m not sure I understand. Please, tell me.”

“Well, it started a few days before I arrived in Equestria. I had left my job to visit my Mom in the hospital. She…was dying of a very bad disease that they couldn’t cure. My brother was there, which surprised me, seeing as how we hadn’t seen or spoken to each other much since my parents divorced, but that’s a story for another time. I went to my Mom’s room and we talked about the day we had, remembering the happy days of the past, things like that.”

Fluttershy sat there, still with a look of concern as I continued my story.

“For a moment, I t-thought she was gone, as her hand in mine went limp. She wasn’t, though, and she asked me something that I never thought she would. She said to me, ‘I don’t want you to come here anymore.’”

Fluttershy gasped, “Why would she ask you such a thing?”

I sighed, “Well, she said, ‘I don’t want you to remember me like this. I want you to go out and have a life you are happy with.’ I couldn’t believe she just said that, but what do you say? I couldn’t just say no to my own mother. I tried to lie to her, as I did you, saying I was happy. She saw through that right away. I could only tell her that I promised, and I then left her side.”

“That must have been a very hard promise to make, Maverick. I can understand why you did what you did. You were only trying to fulfill your promise to her.”

“Well, what made it worse was when I got home, I got a message that she had passed away.”

I managed to look at Fluttershy and saw she was starting to cry. I didn’t even notice that I had started crying myself. Choking back my tears, I continued my story.

“Well, after the funeral, at the reception, my brother basically accused me of ‘abandoning’ my mother, not even believing what I told him of her request. This…person…who was my brother, who basically wrote my mom off after my dad cheated on her! I then…threatened him with a knife without even thinking about it. I didn’t follow through, but I did leave him with some parting words, basically along the lines of ‘leave and don’t ever come back’.

“I’ve had all these setbacks and problems, and I just kept on with this false face of happiness, or just telling everyone that ‘I’m ok’. That’s what I can’t do anymore, fake being happy for everyone, or even everypony, but it's what I thought everypony wanted to hear. In a way, I started to believe it myself.”

Fluttershy moved over and hugged me again, and my tears resumed. It wasn’t until I couldn’t cry anymore that I was able to collect myself. I wiped my eyes with a fetlock when we separated, “Th-thank you, Fluttershy. I feel as if I made the right choice talking about this.”

“You're welcome. We’ll all help get you through this – it sounds quite disturbing…”

“I can understand why. There’s another thing that I had to deal with, but I feel the need to tell you so you know my whole story. You see, I…I had a fiancée, Sarah. We were deeply in love and it was a few months until our wedding when the accident happened. It was a wet road, my car spun out into the path of another, and the other car hit the side where my fiancée was sitting. She was killed instantly, something that I initially blamed myself for.”

She had a confused look, which I could understand as they don’t have cars here, but she doesn’t ask me anything.

“A year after that accident, and I realized that there wasn’t anything I could have done differently. I have since come to terms with it and remember the good times.”

She smiled, “That’s very mature of you, Maverick, but there’s another thing we need to talk about, isn’t there?”

“Y-yes, the nightmares that Steve told you I was having.”

I went over the nightmares in detail, how they were affecting my sleep, which, in turn, affected my behavior. Just going over the details made me shudder as if I had had another episode. I even told her about my encounter with Spoiled Rich. Fluttershy responded, “Maverick, I would be scared too if I had them. You said you had them since you arrived?"

I nodded.

"It's a wonder Princess Luna hadn't intervened by now. Promise me if they continue that you contact her."

“I promise,” I answered with a smile, a real one this time. A knock at the door startled me. “Who could that be,” I blurted out.

Fluttershy opened the door to reveal Twilight and Angel, “Thank you for coming so quickly, Twilight. Maverick has some things that he needs to talk with you about.”

My ears folded back as I thought of the way I had berated her before I left the castle. I looked at Fluttershy, who reassured me with a smile, then turned back to Twilight, “Twilight, I owe you an apology for what I said before I left the castle. I was out of line. I offer no excuse.”

I repeated what I told Fluttershy, including my attempted suicide, and noticed Twilight’s reaction. Compassion, concern, and shock crossed her face, and at the end, she hugged me as well.

“Maverick, I had no idea…I want you to know you don’t have to fake being happy here. We want to make sure you’re truly happy, and you’ve made a big first step in talking about this with us. I think Fluttershy would agree that we want to help you heal. I accept your apology.”

We talked into the night about what happened. It caused new feelings for my mother to come to the surface even I didn’t realize were there; resentment and guilt. It helped a little to find out that these ponies I’ve loved on the show had similar problems, they were just never expressed on TV.

"I...I just can't believe that I had these toward my own mother. She was someone I highly respected, especially given what she was going through, but I don't like feeling like this."

Fluttershy responded, “Maverick, resentment is normal for what you’ve been through, but you have to learn to let it go. Do you really think your mother would want you to hold onto that about her and what was happening?”

My frustration got the better of me, “No, Fluttershy! I keep wanting to let it go, even after all this time since I’ve arrived here. Just when I thought that I've moved on, up it rears its ugly head again!”

“Maverick, please calm down. You will be able to let it go in time. I will be here to help you if you need it, as would everypony else.”

Twilight chimed in, “Fluttershy is right, Maverick. We all have had our personal ‘demons’ to fight in the past, and it was the strength of our friendship that we could deal with it and move on. From what you described, you didn’t have much of that from where you came from, but you do have that here.”

I sighed, “Thanks, Fluttershy, Twilight. It’s just frustrating to feel this way about my own mother.”

Twilight spoke with a sense of experience, “Don’t worry, Maverick. This is something that needs time to heal.”

“I understand. I’m starting to feel better now that I’m talking about it, but I still feel like a failure, mooching off your generosity.”

“But you’re not a failure, Maverick. You’ve come a long way in your flying since you’ve arrived, and you aren’t mooching. You’re helping to make the castle a pleasant place to be in, and for that you are earning your keep.”

We looked at the time and decided we needed to get back to the castle. Twilight and I bid goodnight to Fluttershy, Steve jumped back onto my head, and we headed back. Despite how emotionally draining the day was, each step back felt easier and easier to make. We arrived, bid our goodnights, and I went to my room to turn in. Sleep was a welcome companion tonight, as the nightmares that plagued me were dispelled.

Even though Twilight was kind enough to give me a couple of days to think about what we talked about and get over the worst of my issues (not the least of it was the nightmares), it took a couple of weeks for me to feel like I wasn't being smothered anymore. As I mulled over what was already said and how I was feeling, the pieces slowly started to come together. It also helped me realize that I needed to plan for the future, especially if I didn’t want to be a burden to anypony else. I knew that the others were keeping an eye on me while at the same time, they didn’t interfere with my decisions. That fact alone spoke volumes to me about how they thought of my presence, and how I really didn’t want to die, but rather a last cry for help that was answered.

I felt I had to write something about it in order to move on, so I got a scroll and pen from Spike and got to writing. When I was done, I flew up to a cloud to set it free. Even though somepony flying by might look at me as if I was silly, I went ahead and read what I wrote, “Mom, I know you might not ever see this, but if you do, I have some things that I need to say before I can move on. You were right that I wasn’t happy when you last spoke to me at the hospital, when what I was really feeling was anger, hurt, and resentment. The loss of Sarah, then you getting sick…it was all too much for me. I also really think it should have been me and not my brother to be the last to see you alive.

“It also wasn’t just you I was mad at. I was also mad at myself, for not taking whatever opportunities that presented themselves, talking to others about my feelings, not the least of which was telling you the truth about how I viewed the whole situation. It wasn’t until something special happened, a new world that I wound up in, as well as friends that were never there before who really cared about me. Two…two miracles that I never thought would ever happen in my lifetime – the ability to see in color, and to be able to fly. Who knows where this world and the miracles within will take me, but I only see good things from here on out.

“Well, I can’t live like the person I was before you died and realize that the only way that I can continue with my life and have closure is to let you go. I’ll never think of you as anything but my mom, but maybe that’s what you were trying to tell me, in your own way, by asking me to not come back. I’m through with all the death that seemed to surround me, and ready to work better at having a full life, a life that you would be proud of. I can’t say goodbye, but I will just remember the good memories you left me.”

Twilight had cast a spell on the note that would let it fly up and up after I let it go. I rolled it up, kissed it, and lightly pushed it upward as if it were a floating lantern from one of my favorite movies. As it floated out of sight, I noticed that it was getting dark, so I headed back to the castle, gliding into the sunset and feeling a little lighter than when I left. It was time to move on and enjoy life once again. Who knows what will happen in the future, but what I do know is that it won’t be boring anymore.

Twilight and her friends were waiting for me at the castle. She stepped forward to ask, “Feeling better now?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s a start anyway.”

“Just remember that your friends are here whenever you need it.”
The others nodded and voiced their approval. I gave them a thankful, tearful look before going in to hug them all. I’ve finally started to feel like I belong here, and knew things could only get better from here.

Author's Notes:

Well, the dark days are almost done for Maverick. Now he can start getting better, independent, and less nightmares!

Chapter 12

The next couple of months were like night and day compared to the previous months, filled with more good times than bad. The darkness that was overcoming me had passed for the most part, and whenever I was in a bad mood, I was more confident in talking about it with my friends. Even when my mood wasn’t at the level of ‘bad’, doing my exercises or even working on small jobs here and there for ponies in town would get me feeling better. At least I was making a positive difference in ponies’ lives, something that was always there, but I hadn’t acknowledged it until recently.

The day for the ‘Running of the Leaves’ was finally here, and, with the help of everypony, I felt ready to tackle this challenge. Now, my ego wasn’t so large that I expected to win or even get top place, but I would feel incredibly happy to complete this task. AJ and Dash came up to me as I registered and got my number.

“Mav, you reckon you’re ready for this?”

“As sure as ever, AppleJack. I’m not expecting to win or anything, just complete the race without completely wiping myself out would be a pleasant ending for me.”

Rainbow sidled up next to me and gave me a bump with her shoulder, “Hey, either way, you’re totally awesome, but I’m not going to go easy on you!”

“Rainbow, I wouldn’t have it any other way. But between you and I, I want to come in before Bulk Biceps myself.”

Pinkie announced that the race was about to begin and to get into places. As I headed toward the starting lines, I took note of how the line ups are matching as we get ready. The excitement in the air was contagious as I danced on my hooves, anxious to get the race started. Twilight, apparently, decided to join in on the race for the first time since her first year in Ponyville. We chatted a little before we got into our starting stances, and then the starting gun (or whatever they used) went off.

I galloped for about a minute, then settled down into a comfortable canter, pacing myself as I also enjoyed the scenery. I passed a few ponies and moved into the shade of some trees. The smell of pine needles, mud, and other assorted things in the leaf litter reminded me of when, just a couple of months ago I was steeped in an all-encompassing darkness. As I moved from the shade into the sun, I thought about my friends who helped me through the tough times. Sure, I wasn’t out of the woods yet (figuratively and literally), but I know it would just be a matter of time. They had always been there for me, even when I didn’t think that anypony really cared about me, and it was a pleasant thought that I had friends here that I could rely on when things get bad.

During the race, the sounds of hoofbeats rang loud in my ears. If I were human, I would be tempted to climb a tree or find some other cover from the veritable sea of ponies that were racing. I chuckled to myself at that, because now I’m one of those that is generating the sound. I looked around during the race and noted the colorful leaves that fell down, my feelings now were as cheerful as the colors that one could see all around us. I took deep breaths to smell the forest around, adding to the surreal theater of nature I was experiencing. Not only that, but when I concentrated on the smells and sounds around me, I just got into a flow. The noise and smell of the ponies that were around me could not override the calming nature of the woods around us, but the colors, wings and horns on them only served to remind me that I wasn’t on earth.

With all the trees we passed, it felt like we were running faster than one could fly. The experience was incredible, and carried me through the twists and turns. I felt like I was floating on air, despite the fact I wasn’t flying. I slowed down again, pacing myself so I wouldn’t be all worn out by the last stretch, in case I needed some additional energy. Twilight happened to catch up to me at this time, so we paced each other and chatted about the race. I brought the subject of Winter Start Up with her, and how I might help.

“I’m sure we can use your help somewhere, Mav.”

“Think I could help move some clouds?”

“Well, I’d have to leave that to Rainbow – she is the weather manager for Ponyville.”

“Really? I thought that with her becoming a Wonderbolt, she would have to give that up and leave it for somepony else.”

“Well, there is a fair amount of time that her backup is taking care of the teams, but she still takes care of the weather for the most part.”

“Hmmm…that makes sense she would have others to cover when she’s not around. Speaking of being around, I’m still looking to be on my own you know? I understand I’m earning my keep and all, but there’s something about having one’s own place to take care of.”

Twilight nodded in response. At least she understood my point, so I pushed myself into a gallop when we approached the section where we would pass the house. The sun made laser-like beams of light through the canopy, each getting bigger as the leaves fell to the ground. I remembered the episode where Applejack and Rainbow Dash competed against each other in this ‘race’ and marveled at the spectacle around me. The path that was laid out left the forest and made us weave our way through town, past the house I was looking to buy.

The view of the house energized me like nothing before, so I returned to a gallop along the last few stretches of the race, until I crossed the finish line. Afterwards, I trotted around to an open field to cool down, until I bumped into Rainbow Dash, who beat everypony there. I however had come in a very respectable 14^th place of about 30 ponies, which pleased me to no end. Dash congratulated me (after she boasted about her win) and invited me for hayburgers with Fluttershy. I couldn't say no to free food, and besides, I hadn't seen Fluttershy in a while.

After we get our food and a table, Fluttershy asks, “I haven’t seen you around lately, Maverick. What have you been up to?”

“Well, I’ve been helping around Twilight’s castle, odd jobs around Ponyville, that sort of thing. I’ve…well, got an eye on an abandoned house that I’d like to buy,” I described the house and the state that it is in.

“Sounds ambitious!” was Fluttershy’s reaction.

“Sounds awesome to me!” Rainbow chimed in.

“It’s both, I think, but it’s also going to be difficult, and as of right now, the house is outside of my price range, but it’s just a matter of time before I can afford it.” I reached for my hayburger as if I had hands, almost squishing it before I caught myself and picked it up like a pony.

“Given your determination when I was teaching you how to fly, I’ve no doubt you’ll achieve it.” Fluttershy said, and Rainbow nodded in agreement.

With that topic closed, Rainbow asked, “Mav, I was wondering why you keep wearing clothes? I understand that you wore them all the time where you came from, but you’re here now.”

“Well,” I nervously scratched the back of my head, “I know this is going to sound a little silly, but, I’m self-conscious about being a blank flank. C’mon, a pony my age without a cutie mark? I can’t imagine how much worse my encounter with Spoiled might have been if she knew that.”

Flutters and Rainbow looked at each other with matching grim faces that told me they agreed with that sentiment. They looked past me, so I turned my head around and noticed Hard Hat walking up to us.

“Hiya, Mav, girls!” he said as he approached.

“Hi Hard Hat.”

Rainbow interrupted, “Wait…Mav, you know Hard Hat?”

“Oh, yeah, I met him while working on some houses in town a while back. We’ve been good friends since. What did you need, Hard Hat? I hope that we don’t need to fix that roof again over at Lyra’s place.”

“No, Mav, but…I was..uh..wondering if you’d like to come with me to a birthday party this evening?” his eyes seemed to shift back and forth between Flutters and Dash, almost as if they were having some sort of silent conversation, but I decided to ignore it.

“Um…why? Who is it for?”

“It's for Golden Harvest, and it’s going to be lots of fun.”

I gave him a sideways glance, “Yeah, I bet you just want to ambush me for a prank or something like that.”

“It’s not like that, but there will be a surprise.”

“You think Golden Harvest would appreciate it? She doesn't seem the type of pony to appreciate a 'surprise', if it's what I think you're planning.”

He put on a pouty face, “Awwww, but it just wouldn’t be the same without you, Mav.”

“Oh, and how about that time you and Pinkie tricked me into jumping in a pool filled with jelly?”

Rainbow giggled at that one, "Now THAT's a story I'd like to hear."

"Don't even think of it, Rainbow! I don't want a repeat of that, unless you want me to tell everypony about that one time you collided with…"

“All right! All right!” she interrupted, then crossed her forelegs over her chest.

Hard Hat pleaded, "C'mon, Mav. I promise to make it worth your while. Besides, Golden Harvest really, really would want you to come!"

“Fine! Do you mind if I go back to take a shower? I still feel all sweaty from the race.”

“Not a problem. Party’s at Sugarcube Corner, 7pm. See ya there! And…ya stink, literally!” with a chuckle, he left.

I looked back over at Rainbow and Fluttershy, both of them seemed to be giggling at me, “Hey, what’s so funny?”

Fluttershy immediately put her hooves over her mouth and blushed, while Rainbow only said that they were thinking about the pool filled with jello.

“Uh-huh…” I replied, “I think that I’m going to go take that shower now.”

Fluttershy raised a hoof to stop me, “Maverick, have you ever been to a spa?”

“Never, in this or my previous life, and I’m not going.” I crossed my forehooves in defiance.

Fluttershy, for her part, gave me a look where it was only time before one would cave in to her. My eyes met hers, which was a mistake on my part, as her gentle gaze destroyed my feeble resistance after a few minutes and I gave in. I looked at my hooves and while I didn’t have any idea what a bad hoof would look like, I’m sure they would have a farrier there. I may have read up on my new anatomy, but didn’t really pay too much attention to things other than my wings and related exercises.

When we finished our meals, Fluttershy and I took off for the spa. In addition to getting my hooves taken care of, we also had massages, which felt incredible! When the spa pony got to my wings, I groaned in satisfaction as she hit all the right points. It was so relaxing, I almost fell asleep on the massage table. To the credit of the spa pony, she gently woke me so I could get off the table. We then headed to the steam room to relax some more before leaving. When we were finished, Fluttershy had some chores to do, so she headed off her way and I went back to the castle. I wasn’t in my room for very long when there was a knock at my door.

“Hi, Twilight, what can I do for you?”

“I didn’t get a chance to talk to you before you left with Rainbow…I just wanted to say how proud I am of you at how far you’ve come in such a short while.”

“Thanks, Twilight. I don’t think I’m quite out of the woods yet, but with the help of you and your friends, I’m getting better.”

“Well, the fact that you’re trusting us and talking about your problems is a real big step on its own. By the way, you look extra clean and fancied up, is there something you’re doing tonight?”

“Well, Fluttershy took me to the spa, much as I didn’t want to. It was not as bad as I thought it would be.” It was then that I took a closer look at my coat and noticed that it was growing a little thicker. “Hmm…I don’t remember my coat being this thick before.”

“Mav, it’s normal this time of year for one’s coat to grow thicker in preparation for winter. This is especially true of pegasi, who have to fly in such cold weather.”

“Oh, well, as long as it’s normal…back to the party, though, were you coming along?”

“I have a couple of things to finish up here, but yes, I’ll be there as well. You go on ahead without me, I’ll see you there!” She gave me a smile that I could only describe as cute as she walked away.

Steve jumped up onto my back, then my head and pointed to the window, telling me that it was time for me to head out. Nothing needed to be said between us, as I headed out to the balcony and jumped off, spreading my wings on the way down and pulling up, soaring above the trees as I headed into town, flying rather fast, one hoof ahead of me, the other at my side in a ‘Superman’ pose.

I almost passed up Sugarcube Corner, but caught myself and landed a short distance away. The building was unusually dark and quiet, which gave the surrounding town an eerie feel, as there was nopony around. Steve, meanwhile, had hopped from my head and scampered inside the store.

“Steve! Get back here, it doesn’t feel right!”

All he did was look back at me, smirk, and continue into the store. I sighed and started to slowly walk toward the store, ears moving about as I listened for any danger. I moved slowly up the steps and into the store, looking about as I said, “Hello, is anypony here?”

The inside of the store was pitch black to the point where I couldn’t see my hoof in front of my face. What made the situation all the more disturbing was the complete lack of the usual smells that the store had. No wonderful cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, or fresh bread seemed to exist to assault my senses. All of a sudden, the lights came on and everypony around yells “Surprise!”, with Pinkie suddenly on my left, and Fluttershy on my right. All I could do is freeze like a deer in headlights as I saw all the ponies there.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the late posting, but here's the next chapter!

Art provided by Rainb0wDashie

An image to go with it.

Chapter 13

To say that every function in my brain ceased at that point in time would probably be an understatement. My mouth hung open as it felt like almost everypony in town was there (though that would be impossible to fit in Sugarcube Corner). All of their eyes were trained on me, their smiling faces showed me that my fears of being unaccepted were unfounded. Inexplicably, the normal smells that were there came back as well, which I could only chalk up to something only Pinkie could do.

Fluttershy placed a hoof on my shoulder, “Maverick, are you ok?”

Her touch snapped out of my stunned silence and the corners of my mouth turned up at the amount of ponies there smiling at me. I looked at all the friendly faces and still couldn’t believe this many ponies were happy to see me.

I looked at Flutters, “I’m fine. I had thought that everypony forgot about the party. I almost forgot myself!”

Pinkie zipped in front of me and grabbed my head in her hooves, eyes wide, “I’m soo, soo, sorry Maverick! I would have had your party sooner, but got delayed.” Her eyes darted toward Twilight, and I put two and two together. Twilight must have convinced Pinkie to hold off on the party while I was still unstable. I vowed to thank Twilight later for that, because even though I knew a Pinkie party was awesome and all, I wasn’t ready for it at the time. Even I couldn’t tell how I’d respond. She must have also convinced Pinkie to not mention me turning into a pony.

Pinkie released my head and fired her party cannon, which streamed confetti over everypony. DJ-Pon3 was there providing tunes, with a suitable thump I could feel through the floor while Pinkie shoved a chocolate cupcake into my mouth. It was, quite literally, the best I’ve ever had, the smell of chocolate only serving to enhance the taste of it in my mouth, while it inexplicably melted as it hit my tongue. She also made a humongous cake, quite literally the biggest thing I’ve ever seen, ignoring the one made for the episode ‘MMMystery on the Friendship Express’.

Pinkie was getting the games started with the usual staples such as dunking for apples, pin the tail on Celestia (that was more fun than I thought it would be), and even a version of Twister. That was the first time I’ve played that game, and it was hilarious as at the end, myself, Dash, and Derpy found ourselves making a pony pretzel before we collapsed in a heap, laughing hysterically, along with the other ponies watching the game. While we were collapsed on the floor, I got a good whiff of muffins from Derpy, which didn’t surprise me much.

I drank some punch and mingled about the room. Hard Hat was there with a smirk on his face, and I hoofbumped him in return. As I moved about, I would briefly glance at the pile of presents by the cake as I spoke to the other partygoers, until my eyes caught a pegasus mare at the snack table talking to Thunderlane. I was so absorbed with her that I didn’t notice Rainbow flitting over to me until she waved her hoof in front of my face, “Equestria to Maverick! You all there?”

“Rainbow, who’s that,” I asked and pointed to the mare in question.

She looked over, “Oh, that’s Clear Skies, she’s on the weather team. Why?”

“Just curious. I haven’t seen her before.”

All Rainbow said was, “Uh-huh…”

“Everypony, time for Maverick to open some presents!” Pinkie yelled. She then picked me up and sped over to the table with the huge cake and presents nearby. When she put me down, I wobbled a little, dizzy from the extreme speed and sudden stop. As my eyes took in the sight before me, my lower lip trembled a bit. We never had a lot for Christmas or even birthdays when growing up, so this was completely new to me.

I slowly walked up to the table, mesmerized by the pile of presents, “Oh, you didn’t have to go to this trouble everypony.”

Twilight stepped up, “We wanted to. Given what you had been through, you deserve it.”

I picked up a present with some nice purple wrapping paper that had Twilight’s cutie mark on it. I ripped the paper off and opened the box within, which contained a Daring Do book and one on the history of Cloudsdale, “Thank you, Twilight, I love them.”

The next one I grabbed was a white box, adorned with a beautiful purple ribbon. I pulled the ribbon free, lifted the lid and saw a flight suit that was adorned with lightning bolts, but wasn’t easily confused with a Wonderbolts flight suit, “Oh, Rarity. This.is.AWESOME!”

“You’re welcome, darling! Perhaps you could stop by later for some formalwear ideas I have.”

“Most certainly, milady,” I bowed, causing Rarity to blush slightly.

Next was a pink box that just had to be from Pinkie. I ripped it open and as I pulled the top off, a bunch of confetti shot up with the sound of a party horn, which caused me to jump back slightly and flare my wings. There was a dozen cupcakes inside of different flavors, but most of them were the kind she had me try out the other day. The smells of all of them made it difficult to not grab one right away and stuff it into my mouth. I fluffed my wings a bit before I folded them back at my sides.

“Cupcakes! Thanks, Pinkie.”

“They’re for you to take home, so don’t eat any of them here.”

“I won’t, Pinkie promise,” and I go through the motions.

I opened the gift from Rainbow Dash – it was a poster signed by all the Wonderbolts, herself included, and a pair of flight goggles, “Wow. Thanks, Rainbow! I’m definitely going to get this framed.”

She flitted over and hoofbumped me.

The remainder of the presents were nice as well. Everything had something to do with a new homeowner, whether it’s dishes to necessary supplies. I couldn’t fathom where all this would be stored, but I was sure Twilight had someone I could put these. I felt like I owed everypony a speech or something, after looking through the crowd of ponies that I’ve worked with, helped in town, as well as my friends.

I stomped my hooves on the floor to call attention to me. “Everypony! First, I would like to thank you all for coming to the party. It means a lot to me to see everypony here. There are, however, a few that I would like to especially thank.

“Twilight, you were my first friend when I arrived here in Ponyville. I wasn’t in the greatest of places at the time. Your patience and understanding helped me get through it, even if I really tested that at the time.

“Fluttershy, there are not enough words that I can say to express my thanks for all that you did for me. You rescued me in more ways than one and I will forever be in your debt.

“Last, but certainly not least, Pinkie Pie. Your persistence in your efforts to make me happy and smile was a bright point in my days, even when I was depressed. You were always there for me and never gave up on me. I’m happy to call you my friend.”

Twilight beamed at my comments, and told me when I was done, “There’s one more for you.”

She levitated a scroll over to me, which I grabbed and unrolled. It was an official document related to the house I was interested in. The price noted…I had more than enough bits saved up to buy it. I looked toward Twilight and smiled while my eyes teared up, “Twilight…I-I don’t know what to say.” Words failed me – I never thought this day would come, but now I knew that everypony accepted me for who I am, forgiven me for my acts, and would stand by me when I needed help. I looked around at everypony, their smiles genuine. Tears of happiness and joy cascaded down my face, and I wondered when the hell did I get so emotional. Everypony came in and group hugged me, while everypony else stomped their hooves on the floor in approval.

“It’s what friends do. Just remember that house needs a lot of work, and it won’t be easy.”

I chuckle and wiped my tears off my face, “Twilight, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it. Besides, I have a bunch of friends somewhere that I can ask for a hoof here and there.” I gave her a playful wink.

“Thank you again, everypony!”

After I set the presents aside to take home later, I looked around to take in the sight of all the ponies there, most of whom I recognized. There was Lyra and Bon Bon, Big Mac, the CMC, Roseluck, Lily, Daisy, Derpy and Dr. Whooves (at least that’s how I spelled it), the Cakes and their foals, among others.

Applejack even brought some of her cider, which tasted so good that I could see why Dash got so frustrated at not being able to have any thanks to Pinkie always getting the last mug. It smelled heavily of apples, which disguised the alcohol (or whatever their equivalent was) from me. I was starting to feel a bit tipsy after the second mug and by the third I was outright drunk.

“You ok, Mav? You look like you’re in some sorta trance,” she said, then followed my gaze over to the pony I was transfixed on.

“If you ask me, Dash, he looks a mite tipsy.” Applejack said, chuckling a little.

Next thing I knew, my head felt as if it was going to split wide open when I woke up in my bed. I gingerly opened my eyes and looked around. The first thing that I managed to focus on was Fluttershy sitting there.

“Ooohhh, my head,” I groaned as I massaged my temples.

“Good morning. Here, have some water, it’ll help. Drink it slowly.” she hoofed me a glass.

I nodded as I drank, “I guess I can’t hold my liquor, or rather, cider.”

“We were concerned when we saw you collapse like that. AJ carried you back here to the castle. Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I think so, I hope I didn’t make a fool of myself in front of anypony...did I?”

“No, you only passed out while trying to beat Applejack and Rainbow Dash in drinking.”

I facehoofed, “Well, at least it wasn’t anything real stupid. Did I at least win?”

“You managed to win against Dash, but passed out against AJ.”

I rubbed my temples, “Wow, I’m not going to let Dash forget that. I don’t know about you, but I could use some breakfast.”

“If you’re up to it, we can go down to the dining room. Spike should have some ready by now.”

It’s a good thing Fluttershy is so soft-spoken, otherwise I would be writhing in pain. As we slowly headed down to the dining room, I thought of yesterday’s party when the lights came on, and smiled. Fluttershy and Twilight were right, I had lots of awesome friends in Ponyville, and knew that they would help me deal with my issues. I just wished I could remember the pony’s name that I was walking to that night.

After a great breakfast of eggs, several pieces of toast, and haybacon (which actually is better than real bacon), my headache waned enough to where it wasn’t so...pronounced, which made it easier to be happy to be with Fluttershy.

“Thanks again, Fluttershy. I’m glad to have such great friends like you and the others to help me.”

She smiled, “You’re welcome. I do have to go and tend to my animals now. You should rest a bit.”

“I would, but I do have to go see about that house first.”

“I understand. Just promise me you’ll not overdo it, ok?”

“I promise,” I hugged her before she left, “I’ll take a nap after everything is signed and wait until tomorrow to move in.”

I found Twilight in her library where she told me that all my gifts were brought back to the castle and placed in storage. I thanked her for that and for her thoughtfulness in convincing Pinkie to hold off on the party until I was ready. If she had had the party while I was in such a fragile state, well, I didn’t know what I’d do. Once I was finished repairing the house, I was going to get her something special.

We went to the realtor pony to take care of purchasing the house. Once that was out of the way (and a lot of practice writing with my mouth), I took it easy for the rest of the day as Fluttershy asked (and my head demanded). The next day, I felt much better, so I went to get some supplies and tools from Barnyard Bargains to help me fix some of the easier problems, while I also made a list of things that I would need Applejack’s help with. The good part was that most of the major repairs were done before winter start-up, where the ones that remained could wait until spring, which made me a very happy pony indeed. I also moved everything I had from the castle to the house, with Twilight’s and Fluttershy’s help.

Who knew where this life would lead me, especially since I still haven’t gotten my cutie mark yet, but one thing is for certain...it’s not going to be boring, I am not going at it alone (not if my friends have anything to say about it), and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Author's Notes:

Well, that does it for the first arc. I hope it doesn't take me as long to come up with the second arc, but I have a few shorties with Maverick to tide the time.

Thank you all for your support!