> The Cloudsdale Chronicles
>  by Boltstrike58
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Does the Mark Make the Pony?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swift Wing had become indifferent to the incessant flapping of pegasus wings around him. He kept his own beating as hard as he could, flying in the same circle as the others, creating the familiar whirlpool of air, mist collecting in the middle of the flying pegasi, coming together to form yet another cloud. Swift panted, having not had any water since his break ended, but he kept up the effort, collecting the ambient moisture in the air until the cloud was fully formed.  

This was a task he'd performed many times, though not as much as some of the others. He hadn't been working at the weather factory for very long, and as a result, his superiors hadn't decided what he was best suited for yet, so they had him switching between jobs from day to day. Today, he was part of the cloud creation team, responsible for forming new clouds before bringing them back to the main factory, where they would be shipped wherever they needed to go in Equestria. Swift still didn't fully understand the complexities of the weather controlling system, but he was starting to pick up on the basics. At least it was easier to understand than the meteorology back home.

When the cloud was completed, Swift broke off from the others, swooping down to the cloud itself. He pressed his front hooves against the side of it, feeling his appendages sink into the surface. Clouds had always felt strange to him, like some kind of organic pillow mixed with cotton candy. He shrugged those thoughts off, knowing they weren't important, as he pushed the cloud back over to the weather factory, where a large, metallic funnel stuck out on the side. Swift shoved the cloud into the funnel, where it was immediately sucked downward, disappearing from sight. The cloud would be placed alongside an inspection line, where it would be inspected to ensure it was solid enough, before being sent off.

Swift heard a clapping of hooves. "Great job, everypony! That's a wrap!"

The blue-manned pegasus turned, finding his supervisor, Cumulonimbus, applauding their efforts. Swift and the others smiled through their exhaustion from the day's work. Cumulonimbus, an ice-white pegasus with an electric-blue mane, was a pretty tough taskmaster, but still kind enough to congratulate her workers when they actually did their job properly. Swift appreciated her better attributes, even as this work wore out his wings. 

As it was, that was the last cloud needed for the day, and Swift's shift was finally over. Across the sky, Celestia's sun was beginning its descent, bathing the world in a vivid mix of orange and yellow. Swift settled down on a nearby cloud, taking in the sight of Equestria's beautiful sky. Maybe it was euphoria of being in a completely different world talking, but things in Equestria always managed to seem more vibrant than they'd been back home. Or perhaps he'd simply never taken the time to notice them on Earth. He supposed it didn't matter.

The rest of the weather workers plopped down on to the clouds beside Swift, Gentle Breeze on his right, and Thunder Snow on his left. Swift felt a brief flash of pity for the latter, glancing at the other stallion's Cutie Mark, a snowstorm with lightning bolts. He imagined that particular weather pattern wasn't in very high demand.

"Alright, ponies!" called out Cumulonimbus, immediately drawing everypony's attention, "you did a lot of good work today, but there's always room for improvement. Rainy Day, you were going a little fast there, try to keep a rhythmic pace with the others. Wind Chill, cool it with the flips, you're throwing off some of others. Swift Wing, you're improving, but keep doing those wing exercises I've told you about, at least for now. We may end up assigning you to a different sector again tomorrow."

Swift nodded. The feeling of improvement, even at a task that was relatively menial, made him feel good. He was no employee of the month, but he was doing his best every day at work and—

Don't bother. They'll just throw you out once they see what a screw-up you are.

Swift flinched. There were the thoughts again, plaguing him every time anything remotely happy occurred. He'd gotten used to hearing them, but that didn't mean he was numb to the feelings they instilled. His ears visibly drooped a little, and his head sank. Of course they wouldn't even let him have this.

Gentle Breeze noticed her fellow pegasus' changed demeanor. "You okay there, Swift?" she asked, gently prodding his side with her wing.  

"I'm fine." The repeated and rehearsed line came out of Swift's mouth without much effort on his part. He might as well have those words in quotes for a Cutie Mark. Swift took a moment to glance jealously at the wisps of wind adorning Gentle Breeze's flank. If somebody had told him that one day his greatest desire would be for a magical tattoo to appear on his body, he would've asked where their lobotomy scars were.

The very idea of a Cutie Mark seemed to be taunting him nowadays. Nopony at this job knew he didn't have one—he constantly covered up his flank with a pair of pants he'd bought—but that didn't make him feel any less ashamed. Sure, humans didn't have Cutie Marks, but he wasn't exactly human anymore. To him, having a Cutie Mark was a sort of affirmation, something that said you'd found your place in the world, something that declared to the world "I can do this!" Yet when he'd come to this world, he'd found his flank bare. Perhaps he'd been pinning too much of his hope on getting a mark and discovering his purpose upon becoming a pony, but it still stung. In a sick sort of way, it made sense. He didn't know who he was as a human, and he didn't know who he was as a pony.

Cumulonimbus had been talking some more, but Swift hadn't been listening. He was brought back to reality by the mare clapping her hooves again, saying, "Good-night, everypony!" The pegasi began walking or flying back towards the main area of the weather factory to collect their stuff and go home. Swift Wing tailed behind the others, alone.





Swift trotted down the lane of the Cloudsdale street, his hooves making a soft squishing sound each time they touched down on the fluffy surface. He could've flown to his destination, but had decided against doing so, wanting to give his wings a rest after all the work they'd done today. Besides, Cloudsdale didn't have many real air traffic laws (pegasi thought that controlling the airspace was unnecessarily cruel), and there was always the chance of collision. It was a bit like driving had been back home, only the collisions were fatal less often. There were Flying Under the Influences laws, though alcohol and drugs were far less prevalent than they had been on Earth.

Cloudsdale wasn't much like Ponyville. Where Ponyville's population consisted mostly of Earth ponies, yet had ponies of all three tribes dotted around, Cloudsdale was almost entirely pegasi, though there was the occasional griffon or hippogriff. The other species had likely moved in after the School of Friendship had done wonders for Equestria's immigration. There were also a handful of unicorns, which were vital to the city's function. They placed permanent cloud-walking spells onto everyday objects, such as food or appliances, so that they didn't plummet down to the ground, even as they had to re-cast the spell on themselves every few days (the permanent spell couldn't be cast on living beings). Earth pony visitors showed up from time to time, but Swift had yet to see one actually live in the town.

Another interesting thing about Cloudsdale was that its location tended to vary. Sure, the city was made out of extra-dense clouds that had been enchanted by unicorn spells so that they didn't crumble apart in the wind, but they were still clouds. Being clouds, they tended to drift in the wind. Cloudsdale's exact location varied by a few meters, depending on the wind, though it wasn't enough that one would miss the city if they were looking for it. Of course, since ponies controlled all the weather, and Cloudsdale was the primary weather factory, sometimes the entire city had to be briefly moved to the proper location. When that was required, the entire staff of the weather factory would push Cloudsdale across the sky (it was made of clouds, after all) to wherever it needed to go. Swift hadn't been part of such an event yet, but he figured he would be. Assuming he stayed here, of course.

Swift quietly sighed to himself. Part of him wanted to just ditch Cloudsdale like he had Ponyville, but the rational aspect of his brain quickly chimed in, reminding him that it wouldn't do any good, and he only wanted to leave because he was afraid of something he couldn't even properly verbalize. He was frustrated, unsure of what he wanted to do with his life as a pony, beyond the vague goal of getting a Cutie Mark. He figured it had to be possible. If people from the Equestria girls dimension had Cutie Marks appear on the bodies when they came to this world in Spring Breakdown, there didn't seem to be a reason why he couldn't get one. But he had no idea how to go about doing so.

They just had them appear. You didn't. You know why, don't you? You're such a loser that—

Swift angrily slapped himself in the face, trying to pound the thoughts into submission. He didn't have time for this.

Thinking it over, he realized that the show didn't provide that much information on exactly how Cutie Marks worked. Swift needed more information. Luckily, Cloudsdale had a decent library.





The Cloudsdale Library wasn't as expansive as Princess Twilight's (Swift guessed only the Canterlot Archives could rival that), but the knowledge surrounding the lore of Cutie Marks wasn't forbidden, so it was readily available. Swift merely requested what they had on the nature of Cutie Marks, and was provided accordingly.  

As he flipped through the pages, Swift took a brief moment to reflect on how far he'd come with his pony dexterity. He could turn the pages with his hooves, but he was having a much easier time using the tips of his wings, slipping the edge under each page and pushing upwards. He supposed it fit that he ended up being a pegasus, as he enjoyed the use of his wings quite a bit. It was also odd, considering he'd been afraid of heights as a human.

After combing over a few different volumes, Swift found what he believed he was looking for in the recently published A Comprehensive History and Review of Cutie Marks.

"Though exactly who is responsible for the discovery is unknown, scholars generally no longer debate the origin of Cutie Marks. The Cutie Mark generally originates in the deepest part of a pony, or the soul. The Mark itself seems to be an expression of part of the soul itself. Many believe that this is why the majority of ponies have little to no dissatisfaction with the talent their Cutie Mark represents, though there are exceptions, such as the earth pony Trouble Shoes (however, it should be noted his dissatisfaction stemmed from misinterpretation of his Cutie Mark). It is believed that the presence of the Mark grants the pony the ability to perform the specified talent. This is supported by research uncovered by Princess Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer, in which a spell which removed the Cutie Mark removed the ability to perform the talent."

Swift flinched at the thought. Starlight suddenly seemed a lot creepier in light of the knowledge that she was essentially ripping part of a pony's soul away before. Shrugging it off, he continued reading.

"What remains unknown is whether a pony is destined to receive a specific Cutie Mark, or has the potential to obtain any Cutie Mark, and just earns the Mark in the talent they work on. Likewise, there is usually a connotation between a pony's name and the Cutie Mark they receive. However, the idea that a pony's name determines their Cutie Mark has been largely dismissed in recent years, especially in light of the Cutie Marks obtained by the Ponyville Cutie Mark Crusaders. Perhaps a pony's name simply inspires them to pursue a specific skill, prompting them to obtain a Cutie Mark in that skill."

Swift mulled this over in his head. There wasn't a lot of new information here, considering his knowledge of major events over the past few years (at least those surrounding Princess Twilight and her closest acquaintances). It seems ponies themselves still didn't know everything there was to know about Cutie Marks. Still, the next paragraph seemed to address his biggest question.

"It remains unknown why ponies are the only species capable of receiving a Cutie Mark. Some theorize that ponies possess the strongest connection to the planet's magical field, allowing them to express part of their souls in the form of Cutie Marks. Some believe it dates back to ancient pony civilization, and that the ability to manifest a Cutie Mark was bestowed upon ponykind by the creator in order to help guide ponies through life. Research into Cutie Marks has been inconclusive. Suggestions have been made to attempt to magically bestow Cutie Marks onto non-pony species, but tests have never been approved, citing ethical concerns."

With a sigh, Swift used one wing to lift the cover of the book and close it. Based on what he'd read, his initial theory that, now that he was a pony, he was capable of getting a Cutie Mark seemed to hold water. On the other hand, there was no precedent for something like this, and there was no proof he could get a Cutie Mark. He briefly wondered about reaching out to some mage who had expertise in Cutie Mark magic, but dismissed that idea right away. It would only expose his secret to more ponies, and probably bring him back into contact with Princess Twilight. Consider how his last meeting the the Princess of Friendship had gone, that was something he wanted to avoid like the plague.

Swift placed a hoof on the side of his head. It was troubling to think about his time in Ponyville. In retrospect, he never should've chosen the home of the Mane Six as his home, even if he'd popped into this world less than a mile away from the town. Getting close to them was just asking for trouble. But he couldn't help himself. He'd loved them so much in the show, and the prospect of befriending them had been too great to resist. Especially Pinkie Pie, who he knew would never judge him. Heck, if it'd just been her who knew what he really was, he might've been willing to risk staying.  

He focused back on the book, skimming over the sections related to Cutie Marks and non-ponies, but found nothing else that could be of use to him in his current state. He flipped back a couple of sections, before he found what he was looking for.

"While the average age for obtaining a Cutie Mark is twelve, there have been many recorded cases of ponies obtaining their Marks earlier or later in life. The oldest pony ever to be recorded as a blank flank was Morning Glory, at the age of thirty. Morning Glory finally managed to gain his Mark in gardening, a hobby he'd taken up as a foal, but had previously abandoned. This lends more credence to the theory that ponies are 'supposed' to obtain one specific Mark, however—"

Swift shut the book at that point, uninterested in what remained. At least he wasn't the only one who had trouble finding his purpose in life. He'd been in his early twenties when he left Earth, so he was at least below the record. Age didn't seem to be a factor in obtaining a Cutie Mark. Of course, this still left him with his original problem: he had no idea what he could possibly gain a Cutie Mark in.

Back home, Swift hadn't had any real hobbies. He'd played the occasional video game (something he'd given up by coming to Equestria), tried his hand at writing (though it was mostly fan fiction), and attempted to play a few different instruments. None of those seemed like viable options in his current situation. Plus, based on what he'd just read, there was the possibility that he'd work long enough at his job, and simply get a Cutie Mark for that. But was that what he really wanted? Did the base desire for a Cutie Mark mean he didn't care what talent it was in?

Swift didn't know, and at the moment, he didn't think anypony knew. Resigning himself to the uncertainty, he returned the books to the shelves he'd found them on, and exited the library, lost in thought.





Exiting the library, Swift saw that Celestia's sun was nearing the end of its descent, lighting up the sky in a brilliant orange. There were fewer pegasi dotting the skies, most having presumably gone home. Swift had an unobstructed path back to his home, but he didn't really feel like going home now. Then again, there wasn't anything he really did feel like doing.  

The crimson pegasus walked down the cloud streets again, lost in thought. As he'd previously thought, he wanted a Cutie Mark, but he wasn't sure what he would get it in. He supposed getting a Cutie Mark in weather work wouldn't be too bad, but, again, he wasn't sure that was what he wanted.  The desire for the mark was more a longing for a purpose than anything. A Mark would be a good first step, at the very least. The problem was he didn't know how to go about it. He needed advice.

Unfortunately, he didn't really have anypony he could turn to on such a sensitive topic. His coworkers were alright, sure, but he didn't consider any of them friends. The closest thing he really had to a friend was Cumulonimbus, who'd been responsible for his hiring, and was his supervisor on most days. That didn't mean he was comfortable telling the mare he didn't even have a Cutie Mark. There really was nopony.

As he meandered across the street, Swift casually glanced from side to side, seeing the various shops (formed of clouds, of course) along each side of him. There were wing care supply stores (Swift had finally managed to get the hang of preening himself not too long ago), sports shops (not surprising for such an active species), and Dr. Stray Feather's Psychological Counseling—

Swift did a double-take. No, he hadn't been hallucinating.  

There was, indeed, a psychologist's clinic right in front of him. It was rather nondescript, like most cloud buildings, but there was no mistaking the sign. In addition, according to their hours of operation, they were still open for half an hour.

Swift scratched his chin with one hoof. He'd been in therapy on Earth, of course, but admittedly, he probably hadn't been the best patient. He didn't know how different it would be on this planet, but he was guessing it wasn't so different, given how many similarities there already were between ponies and humans. One thing he knew absolutely nothing about was psychological medication, or if they even had it on this planet. Ultimately, he still had mental problems, and therapy could help with that. He did have a steady supply of bits coming in, so payment wasn't a problem.

His mind made up, Swift walked up to the clinic door, pushing it open with one hoof. The lobby was a lot like counseling offices he'd seen back on Earth. There were two large, comfortable-looking couches, three other separate seats, and a small box filled with books and magazines. At the back of the room was the receptionist's desk, covered by a purple pegasus mare with a deep orange mane. Swift strolled up to the desk, briefly wondering how unlucky a pony had to be to end up with that particular color scheme.

"Uh, excuse me?" he ventured, gently poking the desk with one hoof.

The receptionist pony looked up at him. "How can I help you, sir?" she asked. Her voice sounded rather disinterested, and Swift feared he was making a huge mistake. Still, this mare wasn't necessarily an indicator of Dr. Feather's manner.

"I was, um, hoping I could make an appointment with Dr. Feather?" he asked, trying not to fidget.

The receptionist flipped through a small binder on the desk, reading through the calendar.  

"She has an opening next Thursday. Would that work for you?"

Swift had been hoping to get in earlier, but he supposed waiting one week was pretty lucky.  

"I'll take it," he replied, simply.





Swift made his way back to his home without further incident. Upon his arrival from Ponyville, he scrapped together all the bits he had and moved into a small apartment on the east side of town. It helped that he didn't have any real possessions to move with. His landlord seemed like a reasonable pony, though she'd kinda gotten on his case when he'd first informed her that he didn't yet have a paying job. Thankfully, he didn't have that problem anymore.  

The apartment building itself was actually made out of brick, specially enchanted to not fall through the clouds. Clouds that didn't fall apart or get moved by the wind could be purchased, then used to build one's own house, shop, or whatever, but they were more time consuming to create, not to mention expensive. Plus, you have to pay a zoning fee if you were building a cloud house in the city. If you had one outside a cloud city, you had to have it registered, which Swift presumed was what Rainbow Dash did. Right now, he couldn't afford his own cloud house, so he was stuck with saving up.

Opening the door, Swift climbed up the stairs, passing no ponies on his way up. He produced a key from his pocket, unlocked the door, and strolled into a modest, two-room apartment. Like the place he'd been renting in Ponyville, it had a reasonably comfortable bed, a desk, a magic-fueled refrigerator, and a small bookshelf that wasn't currently holding many books (Swift usually just checked them out from the library). This apartment at least came with its own bathroom, too.  

Swift settled down onto the bed, thinking about the day he'd had. He supposed he'd taken an important first step by going to therapy, but he didn't know for certain if he'd even like this doctor. He'd had more than enough bad experiences with some counselors on Earth to know that not all therapists were good, and there was no reason to assume that Equestria would be any different. Sure, Equestria was a nicer place overall, but it still had its fair share of selfish jerks and condescending smart alecks. He supposed there was nothing he could do but hope, as well as ditch Dr. Feather if it didn't work out. The fact that, if he really wanted this to work out, he'd have to tell Dr. Feather that he didn't have a Cutie Mark didn't help his nerves.

Then he thought back to the letter he'd sent to Princess Twilight and the others. He'd regretted sending it, afraid it would convince them to come out and find him, but two weeks had passed since then, and no ponies had shown up at his door. He supposed it was a shame. He had really wanted to be friends with the Mane Six, having grown to love them so much from watching the show, but he couldn't, not while they knew his past and his "immigrant" status. And there was no way to make them forget or anything, so he was just stuck. The ability to belong was just something that seemed to elude him.

Sighing to himself, Swift ate enough food to constitute a meal, then climbed into bed and fell asleep.
> Session #1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a heavy push, Swift Wing shoved the massive gathering of storm clouds across the sky, aided by several other pegasi. The clump was placed inside of a gigantic, magically enchanted net, designed to keep bits of the fluffy clouds from leaking out. Two other pegasi, each holding one end of the net, flew around Swift's squad.

"Okay, that's it! Cloud movers, you can dive now!" called out Cumulonimbus.

Swift's team obeyed, flying under and out of the net as the other two ponies tied the ends together, keeping the mass of storm clouds contained. With the ends secured, another group of ponies began hitching themselves to the net lines, in preparation to haul the net full of clouds across Equestria.

"Let's get moving, ponies!" Cumulonimbus yelled again. "Las Pegasus needs this storm yesterday!"

Soon enough, the filled net was carried away, and Swift's team of pegasi were left sitting on loose clouds, relaxing and gathering their strength. Pushing normal clouds wasn't very hard, but storm clouds were filled with extra water and lightning, which were heavier than one would expect. Not to mention they'd spent the last two hours making all of those clouds and sticking them together. Weather work was grueling at certain times.

Unfortunately for them, that moment of rest didn't last long, as Cumulonimbus blew her whistle, jolting everypony out of their stupor.

"Look alive, ponies! Not all of you are getting a break now, and we've got an order for cloudy skies over Canterlot tomorrow! Got more clouds to make, let's go go go!"

Thunder Snow groaned to himself. "I swear, she's trying to figure out how long we can go at this before we plummet out of the sky from sheer exhaustion."

Swift and the others shared a small laugh at that, but he, along with a few other ponies, broke off from the group to fly back towards the weather factory. His mid-shift break was scheduled for the next hour, which would give him just enough time to zip over to Dr. Stray Feather's for his appointment, and then come back for the last few hours. It wasn't the most optimal time for a counseling session, but it had been the best offer available to him, and his superiors had cleared it. If he didn't take this, he'd have to wait three more days just to see Dr. Feather.

However, just as he landed on the outer sector of the weather factory, he heard a call from behind.

"Swift, can I talk to you for a minute, before you go?"

Swift cursed silently. Meeting with his supervisor was something he'd always dreaded, even on Earth. He was reasonably certain he'd done nothing wrong, but his nerves always got to him.

You know you're probably gonna get fired. They're wondering why they even bothered to hire you in the first place and—

Swift fought down the urge to punch himself in the head. He closed his eyes and hummed loud enough to drown out the thoughts, even as he turned around and flew over to where Cumulonimbus was hovering in the air.

"Need something, boss?" he asked.

"Well, first off, I want to say you're doing a good job so far," said the mare. "We've put you in a bunch of different positions, and you've been handling most of them pretty well. I think we may end up assigning you to the cloud formation group on a regular basis, given how well you're doing there. You've got quite a bit of endurance."

Swift's spirits perked up a little, though they immediately dropped down again at the next few words.

"But something I notice is you're not being exactly...how should I say this...a team member." At Swift's forlorn expression, she hurriedly raised her hooves. "Not that you're not putting in the work! When you're part of a team, you do your share, nopony questions that."

"Then what do you mean?" Swift asked, having a feeling he already knew the answer.

Cumulonimbus rubbed her forehooves together, like she was trying to come up with the proper words. "You're not a very social pony. You don't chat with the others between jobs, or even during jobs when you're working the same thing. Sure, if somepony asks you a question, you'll answer it, but you never chime into conversations with what you have to say, or anything like that."

Swift groaned. "I don't see how that affects my ability to do my job," he replied, trying his best not to sound as annoyed as he felt. The last thing he needed right now was to get fired for talking back.  

"Hey, a big part of this job is working in teams," Cumulonimbus pointed out. "Maybe if you had some friends it would be easier for you. Plus, we do actually want you to enjoy your job."

Swift sighed to himself, before turning back towards the factory. "Making friends...isn't something I'm good at. I've got a lot of work to do."

Before he could fly away, Cumulonimbus laid a hoof on his shoulder. "Look, Swift, I don't know your life. But you seem like a good pony. I just don't want you to be miserable working here." She flew around to his front. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

The crimson stallion shook his head. "I appreciate the offer, boss, I really do. But I need something I don't think you can provide."

With that, he took off towards the main section of the city, leaving a rather somber looking Cumulonimbus behind.





After clocking out from work, Swift scurried across town to get to Dr. Feather's office on time. He'd been late to therapy appointments back on Earth, and it always made him feel like garbage, even if the therapist in question didn't complain. Fortunately, the streets of Cloudsdale weren't super packed today.

Finally, Swift stood outside Dr. Stray Feather's clinic. Here, he hesitated again. This was probably his last chance to come to his senses and back out of this with no consequence. He doubted they would hunt him down, he didn't even owe them any money yet.  

Slowly, he walked up, pushed open the door and made his way inside.  

The lobby was the same as it had been on the day he'd made this appointment. The same receptionist sat at the desk, going over some papers. No other ponies occupied the space, for which he was thankful, as it meant no awkward staring. Swift simply told her what he was there for, and she told him to have a seat and wait for the doctor. Then she got up, heading through a door on the back wall. Seeing no other options available to him, Swift followed her orders, plopping down into a chair.

For several minutes, nothing happened. Swift sat on his rear like a cat, all four hooves drawn up onto the chair with him, his tail occasionally swishing over his front hooves. His wings fidgeted on his back, a reflection of his currently restless mood. None of the old magazines sitting around the lobby held any appeal to him. All that interested him was getting this over with.

After what seemed like an hour, but was really only a few minutes, the door opened once more, revealing the receptionist, as well as a pegasus Swift assumed was Dr. Feather. She had a bright, bubblegum-pink coat, a lemon-colored mane, and a pair of glasses balanced on her muzzle. Her eyes were bright purple. She wore no other clothing, leaving her Cutie Mark clearly visible: a simple, cartoonish red heart, though this one had a stitch running down the center of it.  

"Ah," she said, as she walked into the room, "you must be Swift Wing." Swift nodded, afraid to open his mouth. He got off the chair, and the two touched hooves in a simple greeting. "It's nice to meet you. Come on back."

Swift followed the mare through the back door, down a short hallway, until they reached her office. She opened the door, then motioned for him to go inside, which he did. Her office was fairly typical by the standards of psychologists Swift had visited before. She had a long couch, a desk, an armchair (what did they call those on this planet?) a few scattered plants, a bookshelf filled with titles about mental health, and what looked like a small fountain that probably ran on magic. Swift, familiar with what happened next, climbed onto the couch, settling down on his butt.

Dr. Feather followed, settling into the armchair in a position that a more humanoid creature would be likely to sit in. She grabbed a few papers from the desk with one hoof. "Okay, so before we get to the important things, I want to get to know you a little bit first. According to the information you provided, you work at the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. Is that correct?"

Swift willed himself to respond. "Yes," was all that came out, in a sort of croaking voice.

Fortunately for him, Dr. Feather either didn't notice his speech problem, or didn't care. "Alright. Can you tell me more about yourself?"

Swift swallowed. Here, he was afraid of letting too much information slip. His true nature, for example. He knew that Equestria's government couldn't know more about him than they already did, and they'd already promised to leave him alone, but he didn't want the fact that he was of a different universe to be the driving point of his therapy. He'd discarded his human life and body, and he was a pony now, so he should act like one. What came before simply didn't matter. He braced himself, and began to tell the story he'd rehearsed.

"There's not a ton to tell, actually. I've been around Equestria, working some odd jobs here and there, but nothing's really stuck for very long. I tried settling down in Ponyville, but...it didn't work out. So I came here."

Stray Feather nodded. "I can see that," she acknowledged. "I've never lived there myself, but from what I've heard, Ponyville's become the weird capital of Equestria over the last few years. Comes with being the home of Princess Twilight, I imagine. Cloudsdale is definitely more relaxed. Now what—"

"Excuse me," Swift interrupted, "but there is one more thing you should probably know about me before we start."

Dr. Feather titled her head to the side, curious. "Okay, what's that?"

Shifting his position on the couch, Swift began removing the pants he always wore whenever he left the house, slowly revealing his secret. "I'm a...blank flank," he admitted, his voice heavy with shame, as he waited for her reaction.

However, Dr. Feather didn't display any obvious signs of shock, like dropping her jaw or springing her wings outward. Her eyelids lowered a small amount, but she otherwise had no change in expression. Instead, she merely made a note on one of the papers. Swift, feeling a bit awkward, pulled up his pants again.

"I see," noted the mare. "I understand why that might be...detrimental to your mental health."

Swift nodded numbly.  

"Do you have any idea why you never obtained a Cutie Mark?"

Truth be told, even with all the research he'd done regarding Cutie Marks, Swift still didn't know if it was something to do with the dimensional transport, or if it was just him. He wasn't about to tell her that, of course.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. I guess...I just never found anything I was really good at. When I was a foal, I never really did anything outside of school besides play around. As I got older and older, I just...never found something."

Stray Feather made another quick note. "I know this doesn't make it better for you, but you're not the first adult blank flank I've worked with. You're not even the oldest. Trust me when I say you're not alone, Swift."

She was correct, it really didn't make him feel any better. In his head, he knew that could've meant there was still hope, but in his heart, he was still dejected at not having a Cutie Mark in the first place.

"I guess my first question would be, do you want a Cutie Mark?" Dr. Feather continued. "Believe it or not, I have had patients that remained blank flanks because they didn't want Marks. If you do, why? What does a Cutie Mark mean to you?"

This was an easy question.  

"To me, a Cutie Mark is a purpose, something I've always wanted. A Cutie Mark is basically a statement to the world that you have the power to do something, something nopony else can do. At least it proves you're capable of doing something. I just want that for myself, for once in my life. I've even read that the presence of the Cutie Mark allows everypony to actually do better at their talent than they would otherwise. And I'm not sure what reason I have to exist without a Mark."

Stray Feather paid close attention as Swift spoke. "I guess I wouldn't go that far," she replied. "However, I won't judge you. If you want to get a Cutie Mark, we should probably start thinking of things you could get a Mark for."

"That's something I'm concerned about, actually," Swift admitted. "I don't really have hobbies or anything like that. If I keep working at the weather factory, will I automatically just get a weather Cutie Mark? If I did, would I be happy with that? Am I capable of getting more than one Cutie Mark, and it'll just be the first thing I work on? From what I read, nopony knows, and I...just don't know what to do with that."  

Dr. Feather looked rather sympathetic as she watched Swift. "I don't blame you," she finally responded. "Cutie Mark magic isn't an exact science, and there are a lot of things nopony knows. Are you sure you don't have any hobbies?"

"Yeah. For me, it's pretty much work, go home, maybe read a book or two. And who wants a Cutie Mark for reading, you know? I'm just...not good at anything."

"That can't be true. Nopony can be bad at everything."

Swift looked down at the floor, feeling the pit in his stomach sinking even lower. "I just...nothing comes to mind. I mean, I'm not looking for a new job or anything, I know there are tons of ponies with occupations completely unrelated to their Marks. I just wish I had something I was passionate about."

"You're not passionate about your work at the weather factory?"

"I can't say that I am. I do take pride in it, at least, but I don't think I want it to define me. Which...I guess pretty much answers my earlier question. Having a weather Cutie Mark wouldn't be awful, but I'm pretty sure I'd rather have something else."

"I can understand that," replied Dr. Feather, "though you have to realize that nopony starts out as good at something. If you really want to work at getting a Cutie Mark in something, you'd need to start out at the bottom and practice."

"Yeah, I know," Swift replied, glumly. He'd had similar conversations back on Earth, though of course, there'd been no mention of Cutie Marks. It was something he'd always had trouble with. He'd try a new thing, not be extraordinarily good at it right away, get frustrated, dump it, and then feel bad about himself for doing so. He was ashamed of the cycle, of course, but it didn't make the habit any easier to break.

"Does anypony else know you're a blank flank?" asked Dr. Feather, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"No, I'm too embarrassed to admit it. I don't really have any friends I'd be willing to tell. Anypony I grew up with has probably long forgotten me by this point, so they don't know."

Dr. Feather placed her forehooves together. "I'm guessing that makes it harder for you. You feel ashamed of being a blank flank, so you don't talk to anybody, so then you feel lonely, and don't feel like doing anything, which means you don't get a Cutie Mark, and it just repeats in a cycle."

"That's a good way of putting it, yeah," said Swift. "It's a problem I want to fix, I'm just not sure how."

"Well, if we want to change your life," continued Dr. Feather, "you need to actually go out and do things. You understand that much at least, right?"

Swift nodded, fear beginning to creep down his spine, as he knew what was coming next.

"I'd also like to find a way for you to work on your social life, but I do realize that social skills don't come naturally to everypony. What I'm thinking is that maybe when you do start developing hobbies, you'll at least have that as a conversation starter, and the friends will follow a little more easily."

"But..." Swift stumbled over his words, "but every time I try something new, I just...fail. And then I feel worse about myself because I didn't make it, and because everypony around me seems to make it so easily. I wouldn't even know what new things to try. Not to mention I don't really know anything about making friends. It's so bad my supervisor at the weather factory actually called me out for not making friends with my coworkers just before I came here."

Dr. Feather gave him a sad smile. "I'm sorry, Swift. From what I'm hearing from you, you have a lot of deep-seated psychological problems. It's bad, because you seem like a good pony who doesn't deserve to have all these things."

Swift perked up a little.  

"We need to find a way to teach you not to judge yourself so harshly, and have more confidence to grow and move on in life," she continued.  

"Well, we've certainly got our work cut out for us," Swift grumbled, still not feeling very optimistic.

"I honestly believe every creature has the ability to succeed. I'll admit, some have it harder than others, through no fault of their own, but they can make it."

"I want to believe the same thing," replied Swift, "it's just...I've never been able to see the value in me for myself."

"That's another thing I think we should talk about. Do you have any idea where this lack of self-esteem comes from?"

That was easy to answer. "I'm pretty sure it's due to my older sister constantly telling me I was living garbage while we were growing up."

Stray Feather winced. "That can't have made things easier for you."

"It didn't," Swift continued. "She hates me. She's always hated me. And our mother never really intervened enough to actually help me. That's the main reason I have no contact with my family anymore."

"That's understandable. At least you were smart enough to cut the toxic people out of your life when you had the option."

Oh, you have no idea, Swift thought.

Dr. Feather looked up from the notes she'd been writing. "From everything you've told me about yourself, Swift, you seem like a good pony who's had a lot of unfortunate circumstances to deal with. But I honestly don't believe you're beyond help. You just need to figure out ways to get around yourself."

"If only it were that easy, right?" Swift joked.

"We're out of time for today," said Dr. Feather. "However, we can make our next appointment now. I look forward to working with you." She held out her hoof again, and Swift pressed his own against it, slightly less hesitantly.





Swift strolled out of the office, his pose neutral, betraying none of the inner turmoil he was going through. He took a moment to mull over the session he'd just been through, thinking about everything Dr. Feather had said, and what it could mean for his future.

Dr. Feather hadn't really told him anything he didn't already know about himself. He knew his serious lack of self-esteem only made his attempts to make friends harder. It probably wasn't the sole contributing factor, but he knew his sister's endless cruelty had only made his view of himself worse.  

The psychologist herself seemed alright. Dr. Feather was a decent pony who clearly wanted him to get better and didn't minimize his problems or the things that'd led to them. He had a feeling she was trustworthy, and would definitely come back.

Looking up, Swift spread his wings, taking off from the cloudy ground and making his way back towards the weather factory for the rest of his shift. He just hope his sessions with Dr. Feather would end up making a difference in his life.
> Check-Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swift Wing dragged himself home after his shift. Today had been difficult, to say the least. He'd been responsible for handling the clouds filled with lightning bolts today, which was always nerve-wracking. Sure, the bolts didn't have enough voltage to kill a pony, and anypony working that job was provided with a rubber suit to protect them just in case, but it made him nervous all the same. Not to mention you had to be really precise when loading the clouds with the electricity, or they might explode.

Trotting up to his apartment, Swift pushed open the door, making sure to check for mail that'd been pushed through the slot, even though he didn't expect to actually find any. To his surprise, there was a single letter laying on the floor, with the address side down. His curiosity aroused, Swift bent down, scooping up the letter with one wing. He turned it over, only to gasp when he saw the return address.

Ponyville. More specifically, Twilight's Castle.

"Oh, come on," Swift groaned, smacking himself in the face with one hoof.

He'd asked them to do one simple thing: leave him alone. Why was that such a hard thing to do? He'd made it clear he didn't want or need their sympathy, and now they were bothering him, even at his new home. What was in the letter, anyway? An royal decree that he was to return to Ponyville so they could shower him with their irritating pity until he felt even worse about himself?

"No, no, don't go there," he grumbled. Maybe he wasn't being fair here. After all, he hadn't even opened the message. Maybe it was just another apology, which would be unnecessary and annoying, but it wasn't worth getting angry over. He figured he might as well read whatever Twilight had to say before he rushed to judgement. At least it wasn't from Celestia and Luna.

He tore open the envelope with his teeth, pulled out the letter, and laid it down on his desk. He pulled up a chair and began to read.

Dear Swift Wing,

	I'm sorry in advance for taking up your time with this letter. I also hope your address hasn't changed by the time this reaches the apartment. I promise, that's not an attempt to criticize you, I was just afraid you might not find Cloudsdale to your liking, and might have moved on. We would've sent this letter by dragon fire, but to do that, I would've needed to have made a magical connection between you and Spike, and obviously, that never happened.

	Again, I apologize for bothering you. After the way we treated you at first, you're probably not very keen on seeing us again. But I promise, if you ever feel like you're willing to give us another chance, we'd all be willing to be your friends. I will never force you to come back to Ponyville, but you will always be welcome there.

	I also wanted to implore you to seek out professional aid for your mental health, if you haven't already (If you have, please ignore this section). Obviously, I'm no psychologist, but from what I know about you, you suffer from some pretty bad depression, anxiety, and a serious lack of self-esteem. I honestly believe if you could get some help, you could start to feel better about yourself, and maybe start to see that you do deserve friendship, just like everypony else.

	Something else I was wondering: Would you be opposed to a visit? By that I mean us coming to you, not the other way around. It wouldn't be all six of us at once, just one or two at a time. I promise, there will be absolutely no talk about trying to send you back home or anything like that. We just want to check up on you and see if you need any help. But you are well within your rights to say no, so don't be afraid that I'll use my Princess influence on you or something like that.

	Once more, I'm sorry for sending you this letter. I understand you have reservations about being around us, but I hope you'd be willing to at least allow us into your circle of close acquaintances. 

	Sincerely,

	Twilight Sparkle

Swift put the letter down. He folded his forelegs and rested his head on them, letting out a deep sigh.

Of course they still wanted to be friends. Friendship was pretty much their whole schtick. They weren't forcing it on him, like in "A Friend in Deed," which was at least a nice break. Twilight was giving him the option to say no. And she was encouraging him to get help that didn't come from her group, which, even though he was already doing so, was a nice thought.

Swift grumbled as he pressed both his forehooves into his skull. He had no idea what he was supposed to do with this. He knew Twilight and the others were only trying to be nice, but that didn't change how he felt. He really wished they'd just leave him in peace, and let him work out his problems on his own. But then he felt guilty for feeling that way, because their intentions were good, and it wasn't their fault he had little to no social skills.  

Should he just say yes to the offer, just to be polite? But then there was the chance he might lose his patience with whoever came and blow up again, and even after that, they'd only worry about him more. What if they suddenly decided he needed to be in a mental hospital for his own safety, and all of Equestria learned about the alien living among them? If he said no, the same thing might happen, and then he knew nopony would ever genuinely be nice to him, it would all be out of pity, and he hated pity. Should he just give up now and try to move to some country outside of Equestria and—

Swift suddenly smacked his forehead against the desk, then took several deep breaths. He remembered from his therapy on Earth that what he was currently doing was catastrophizing. He was immediately rushing to the worst possible scenario and running with that to the conclusion that might not even be logical. Swift lied down on his back, spreading his wings to make himself comfortable, and closed his eyes. He used a mental technique he'd learned awhile back, imagining himself in a 'haven' type location, in this case a warm and pleasant forest, with animals chattering all around him. He kept his focus on his breath, calming down.

After a few minutes of doing this, Swift got to his hooves once more. He went over the letter one more time with a clear mind. There was no real reason to think Twilight and the others would ever force him into an institution, unless he attempted suicide or something, which he was reasonably sure he wouldn't do. Even if they did, they wouldn't announce he was actually a human to all of Equestria. Unfortunately, that still left him with a dilemma: Should he allow them to visit, or not?

With a grunt of frustration, Swift picked up the letter and put it into a drawer. It had gotten pretty late, and he never made good decisions when he was tired. He knew procrastination was an invitation to trouble, but he also knew that putting off responding to Twilight for one day wouldn't harm anyone. Closing the drawer, Swift ate a little, then climbed into bed, falling asleep with little difficulty.





The next day at the weather factory proved to be a little easier, thankfully. Swift's job consisted of pouring the liquid essence of rainbows into batches of clouds. While not intense, it was still a job that required precision, as too much rainbow into one cloud would cause them to start dropping the liquid like rain, only rainbow drops, as Pinkie Pie had learned, were spicy. Once a rainstorm ended, the clouds with the rainbows inside them would be released, and stimulated to produce those rainbows. Swift didn't exactly understand how rainbows, which were simply the refraction of light through water droplets on Earth, could be made from magical liquid, but different universe, different rules.

As he scooped another batch of rainbow essence, Swift felt something bump into his back, nearly falling face-first into the liquid rainbow cauldron, though he managed to spread out his wings and catch himself just in time. He looked behind him, finding the offending object was a familiar, bulky brown pegasus with a tan mane.

"Ooh, sorry, Swift Wimp!" laughed Dumb-bell. "I guess I broke your concentration!"

"Seriously? Swift Wimp?" asked the crimson pegasus. "That's the best you could do? How long did it take you to come up with that one, years?" He thought that was actually less clever than Rainbow Crash, but he didn't share the idea, of course.

Dumb-bell clenched his jaw, clearly not used to having his victims talk back to him. "Listen, punk," he grumbled, getting directly in Swift's face, "you ain't got nothing, you scrawny nobody. My friends and I are the ones in charge around here. Now shut your trap, take whatever I give you, and go back to work without telling anypony before I beat the—"

"Dumb-bell!"

The muscular pegasus flinched as the supervisor for the rainbow team, Meteorology, flew down. He was a tall, thin, white pegasus with a short, pink mane, and a sun rise for a Cutie Mark. Though thin, he was in no way gaunt, and his deep brown eyes held an imposing stare.  

"What did I say about messing with your coworkers?" he demanded. "If I catch you again, you'll be out of this factory faster than you can say Princess Celestia!"

Dumb-bell opened his mouth, likely to protest, but no words came out. Eventually, he simply lowered his head, and flew back to his workstation.

"Thank you, sir," said Swift. "Stupid loser. You'd think he'd have something better to do."

Meteorology nodded. "Don't worry about him and his friends, Swift. Ever since we started to actually catch them in the act, they've been acting up less and less. I don't think they'd have the guts to mess with you outside of work."

"Neither do I," agreed Swift, pouring rainbow into the next cloud and pushing it along. "Seriously, though, Swift Wimp? I could've come up with something more creative when I was a foal."

Meteorology laughed, before flying off back to his station.

Swift continued his work for a few more minutes, before the lunch bell rang. He shed his work coat and helmet, rushing back to his locker and grabbing his lunchbox. He hadn't brought anything special, just a simple sandwich with daffodils, but it would keep his stomach full until dinner time. As he flew up to the cloud cluster that housed the cafeteria, Swift thought about where he would sit. He'd spent the first few weeks just eating by himself outside the main factory, and had progressed up to the cafeteria. Now, he was thinking about actually sitting next to somepony, but even the thought of something so simple made him nervous. Even after working with them for months, he still didn't know these ponies very well. It shouldn't have scared him so much, except—

You know you're a freak. You know you don't belong here.

Swift sighed to himself. The thoughts. Of course. Sometimes, he could go days without having one, but others were filled to the brim with them.

Well, screw you! he thought as loud as he could back at his own brain. He was going to actually try today, and nothing would stop him.

As he landed on the cloudy surface, he began glancing between the tables, looking for any faces he recognized. He might've been willing to open up a little more, but going up to complete strangers was pushing it.

"Hey, Swift! Over here!"

Swift turned his head, searching for the source of the voice. He discovered it not too far away, in the form of Thunder Snow and Gentle Breeze, waving at him. Swift instinctively smiled, trying to keep his nerves from being visible.  

He trotted over to the two ponies, setting himself down on a chair across from them.  

"Hey, guys," he said, pulling out his sandwich, "your day going okay?"

"Meh. Can't complain, I guess," said Gentle Breeze.

Thunder Snow shrugged. "Gracious Wings was getting on my case earlier today, when I was making snowflakes for the colder areas up north. Apparently, despite me having a snow-themed Cutie Mark, I'm not making the flakes with enough finesse. Other than that, it's been okay. What about you?"

"Today's been fine. Dumb-bell was being obnoxious, but Meteorology dealt with him. Why does that guy even work here, anyway? He has a weightlifting Cutie Mark."

"Nopony really knows why him and his friends work here," Thunder responded. "They've just been here for as long as most of us can remember. Maybe they just couldn't make careers out of their Cutie Marks. It's not like there's any rule that you have to work in an area related to your Cutie Mark, but it's still kinda weird."

Swift looked back at Thunder's Mark, and thought of a question. It was kind of a dangerous road to go down, considering it could lead to questions about his own Mark, but it wasn't a certainty.

"So, I don't mean any offense by this, but is there a lot of demand for snow mixed with thunderstorms?" he asked.

Thunder simply chuckled. "If I had a bit for every time I've been asked that question, I could retire," he laughed. "We don't end up making that particular weather pattern frequently, but when I get the chance to whip it up, it's something."

"I've only ever seen it once," Gentle commented, "but it was kind of impressive. Lightning in the middle of a blizzard looks crazy."

"Well, I'll have to check it out sometime," said Swift, before taking a bite out of his sandwich. So far, the conversation seemed to be going okay. He just had to remember to steer it away from dangerous topics.

"So Swift," Gentle began, "what's your story?"

Swift chewed his sandwich. This was alright, he'd rehearsed this version of his past. He could do this.

"Not a lot to tell," he said. "I was born down in Baltimare, and I've spent the last few years wandering around Equestria, trying to find a place that I can settle down in. The last place I lived in was Ponyville, which was nice, but wasn't doing it for me, so I moved here. Never lived in a cloud city before now, so this is a pretty big departure. It's a little different, but not too bad. The weirdest thing is how gung-ho some ponies seem about the weather work."

Gentle nodded. "I can see that. Thunder and I have pretty much spent our whole lives in Cloudsdale, but I can imagine how it looks to ponies who've just got here.  Pegasi seem to have this attitude that we all have to be tough, which I guess calls back to the pre-Hearth's Warming days, when we were the most militaristic of the tribes. Plus, sometimes they act like, since we control the weather, we should have more power, but really, we're not more important than the other tribes."

"I agree," said Thunder. "So you lived in Ponyville? You ever bump into Princess Twilight? Is it really as crazy down there as they say it is? Did you meet Rainbow Dash?"

"I saw Twilight a couple of times, she was nice enough," said Swift. "Honestly, nothing insane ever happened while I was living there. Weirdest thing I ever saw was the changeling king visiting the library. Maybe they just exaggerate normal events that go on down there. Rainbow talked to me from time to time, but she was usually pretty busy. Wonderbolts, you know?"

"Gotta be honest, I'm sorta surprised she actually made it," said Gentle. "Dash is a really good flyer, but she doesn't have a lot of discipline. Or patience, now that I think about it."

"It probably helps that she's had to save Equestria several times over," said Thunder. "I'm not saying they gave her an easy time because of that, I'm saying it probably helped her learn those things."

"She seemed alright," said Swift. "Bit of a showoff, but at least she could back it up. She anything like that as a filly?"

"Pretty much," said Gentle. "It's not like she was mean or anything, but she was super-obsessed with her own ability as a flyer, and with the Wonderbolts. Kind of an oddball pony, to be honest. Not somepony I would've bet on to become one of the saviors of Equestria. But what do I know?"

Swift shrugged. "I didn't get to know the wielders of the Elements very well. Pinkie Pie threw me a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party, and I did see the others, but I didn't spend a lot of time with them." It was a lie, but a harmless one. Then another question occurred to him. "Wasn't Fluttershy born in Cloudsdale, too?"

"Oh yeah," replied Thunder. "She left a lot earlier than Rainbow did, though. As soon as she discovered the stuff on the surface for the first time, she left Cloudsdale and never looked back. She still as socially awkward?"

"I don't know. She was kinda quiet. She does run a nice animal sanctuary, so I guess she must not be completely withdrawn."

"So what did you do in Ponyville? When you got here, you said you didn't have any weather experience, so I'm guessing their weather team didn't have any openings."

"Mostly just odd jobs around the town," Swift said with another shrug. "Seriously, I'm surprised I managed to get this job in the first place. I had no experience or anything."

Gentle nodded. "It's not that uncommon. A lot of pegasi who've never had jobs in weather manage to find jobs here. I think it's because—"

The rest would remain unheard, as the end of lunch bell suddenly sounded. Swift looked down at his hooves, noticing he'd only gotten about halfway through his sandwich. He quickly crammed the rest into his mouth, chewing and swallowing it quickly.

"A weather pony's work is never done," said Thunder, getting to his hooves.

"Sometimes I wish the weather would just manage itself," said Gentle. "Like in the Everfree Forest. Then all we'd have to do is tell ponies what's going to happen."

Swift covered his mouth with one hoof to hide his chuckle. After all, it wouldn't do for Gentle to find out he came from a world where the weather wasn't manufactured.
> Loss of Control
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today was the most glorious kind of day of all: a day off. Swift Wing, after several hard days of busting his rear at the weather factory, finally got a break. He knew exactly what he wanted to do today, and that was sleep. The crimson pegasus lay on his back, wings spread outwards, his legs splayed outwards. He could toss aside his Cutie Mark quest, his worries about fitting in, and just take it easy for a day.

Of course, life doesn't always tend to work out the way we want it to, and it likes to throw wrenches into plans.

The wrench today took the form a massive shaking that almost knocked Swift out of his bed. He barely avoided slamming into the floor by catching himself with both forehooves. Grunting in annoyance, Swift scrambled onto his hooves, and made his way to the window, pulling up the blinds to see exactly what had decided to interrupt his perfectly relaxing day. It couldn't have been an earthquake, seeing as they were in the clouds.

Swift's eyes widened as he looked down into the streets of Cloudsdale. Ponies of all colors, sizes, ages, and genders were rushing down the street, heading directly to the Cloudeseum. Those with wings were flying, of course, but some chose to run on the clouds, likely to avoid crashing into the other flyers. There were plenty of griffons and hippogriffs as well. All in all, it looked as if Cloudsdale's entire population was heading to the same location.

Swift was confused, having heard nothing about any event going on in the Cloudeseum today. To be fair, he didn't really keep up with sports, anyway. That was one thing that hadn't changed from his Earth life. His curiosity piqued, Swift pulled on his pants to hide his blank flank, and scurried down the stairs, rushing out the front door. He spotted Thunder Snow in the crowd.

"YO! THUNDER! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" he yelled, waving his hooves to attract his fellow pegasus' attention.

Fortunately, Thunder heard him, taking a second to spin around on one hoof. "THE WONDERBOLTS ARE COMING TO THE CLOUDESEUM!" he shouted back. "THEY'RE BRINGING SOME MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCESSES!" Then he turned around, rejoining the rushing crowd.

Swift rolled his eyes a little. He honestly couldn't see what the big deal about the Wonderbolts was. Sure, their flying stunts were impressive, but just watching them didn't have anything on the actual experience of flying. Still, if they were bringing a message from Celestia and Luna, there might be something worth hearing. Swift thought about it briefly, then decided he might as well go. It wouldn't do to miss an important announcement.

Swift trotted into the crowd, making certain nopony would ram into him on his way. He looked up at the sky, just to be certain, and found that there were still too many ponies flying to the Clodeseum. Instead, he sped into a gallop, keeping pace with the others fairly easily, and soon arrived at his destination, where a member of the Royal Guard casually pointed him the way to a seat. He noticed his seat was directly under Thunder Snow, and the two clapped hooves together in a brief greeting.

Sitting on his rear, Swift watched as the rest of the crowd filled out. After a few more minutes of waiting, the Wonderbolts flew in from above, clad in their fancy blue uniforms, and their eyes covered with goggles, Spitfire leading the charge. Swift noticed Rainbow Dash wasn't among them, which honestly wasn't that surprising. She was probably just out saving Equestria again.

A unicorn walked out to the central cloud, and cast a quick spell on Spitfire. "Citizens of Cloudsdale," she began, her voice magically amplified, "we come bearing greetings from the ruler of Equestria. We are here to inform you that Equestria is under a new regime."

Swift raised his eyebrows. That wasn't how Spitfire usually talked in the show. Also, a new regime? What was going on?

The yellow pegasus reached up with one hoof and removed her goggles, and Swift gasped. Her eyes were glowing completely green, with wisps of purple smoke coming off them. The other Wonderbolts copied her actions, revealing their eyes were the same.

"Everypony get out of here!" Swift started to yell, frantically waving his hooves to attract attention. "They've been bewitched—"

But it was too late. Dark magic, with sickly green and purple orbs bubbling along it, shot out from the Wonderbolts eyes, washing over the observing crowd. Everyone it touched had their eyes turn the same color, and their bodies went limp, lost in the thralls of possession.

Swift, knowing what was coming, frantically beat his wings, flying above the Cloudeseum to escape, but was spotted by Spitfire. She pointed, and Soarin' flew up to meet the crimson pegasus, tackling him in midair. Swift pounded on his attacker's body, but Soarin' was just too strong. He grabbed Swift's head with both forehooves, forcing Swift to meet his gaze, as dark magic lanced from his eyes into Swift's.  

Then, everything went dark.





Swift found himself standing in a room of pure shadow. There was no source of light, and the ground underneath his hooves had no discerning features. Despite the lack of light, his whole body was clearly visible. Swift poked and prodded at the ground, and flew up into the air a couple of times, but found nothing worth his notice. The room seemed completely empty.

	Swift wandered around for a second, unsure of what exactly was going on. Why was he here? What had happened to bring him here? It was as though his memory had been erased. He placed both forehooves against his skull, trying to recall.

	"Okay, I was gonna sleep in today," he mumbled to himself, "and then...I went to the Cloudeseum...and then I—"

	"You disgust me."

Swift jumped a good distance into the air, startled by the sudden presence of a voice. He spun around, looking for the source, but finding nothing. For a brief second, he wondered if he'd imagined it in the thralls of his confusion. 

	"You disgust all of us."

This time, it was a chorus of voices, resounding all around him. Swift looked up, and the shadows slowly parted to reveal Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six, gathered around him, grown to giant sizes. Their eyes were all glowing green, and their coats dulled. Something about it was familiar, but his brain couldn't figure out what. Swift swallowed nervously, trying to make himself look smaller, as their gazes bore down on him.

	"W-what?" he asked, trying and failing to keep the fear from creeping into his voice.

	"Equestria has no place for failures, Mark," said Twilight, her horn igniting with the familiar magenta aura. "You don't belong here, and you don't deserve that body."

Swift realized what she was doing a second too late. He barely had time to scream before Twilight's magic washed over him. When it faded, Swift looked down at himself in horror. He'd become a human again.

	"No, wait, please!" he protested. "What did I do wrong?! I can do better, just give me a chance and—"

Pinkie Pie's massive hoof came down on him, pushing him onto his back. "Shut up," spat the earth pony. "You've been bothering us all long enough. It's time you went back where you belong."

Mark's heartbeat kicked into overdrive, as terror flooded his entire being.

	"NO! YOU CAN'T! I DON'T WANNA—!"  

A golden magical aura lit up, sealing his mouth shut, as a blue one lifted him into the air. Giant versions of Celestia and Luna glared down at Mark, their eyes as green as everypony else's. 

	"You have tainted Equestria with your stench," Celestia snarled. "Filth such as you must be stamped out."

Mark couldn't even open his mouth anymore, only managing a few muffled screams, as tears poured down his face. But the massive ponies paid no attention, as Twilight lit up her horn once again, creating a swirling vortex of magic in the air. With a toss of her head, Celestia hurled Mark through the portal.

	Mark hit the floor with a painful thud, rolling a few inches before coming to a stop. He frantically climbed to his feet, racing towards the portal, but it collapsed on itself too fast, leaving nothing in its wake.

	Mark fell to his knees, burying his face in his hands, as his shoulders shook with sobs. 

	"Well, well, look what finally dragged itself back."

Mark didn't turn around. He knew exactly what he'd see, but he had no wish to see it. 

	"I see the ponies finally wised up and threw you away, like the piece of garbage you are," cackled his sister. "My only question is why it took so long. After all, anyone with two brain cells can see you're completely worthless as a living thing. Honestly, our parents regret not aborting you, how have you not figured it out yet?"

Mark was still crying, but slowly, his fists began to clench, fingernails digging into his palms and drawing blood. He stood up, still not turning around. He stopped sobbing, and raised his head.

	His sister laid a hand on his shoulder. "If you'd just endeavor to be less of a moron, you might actually pass for a person who's not utterly devoid of value. But no, you like to act like an idiot, because—"

"Shut up."

The woman stopped talking, taken aback. "What?"

"I said..." Mark suddenly spun around on one foot, driving his fist directly between her eyes, "SHUT UP!"

His sister screamed out as she fell backwards and slammed into the floor. Mark wasn't satisfied. He jumped onto her stomach, pummeling her with his fists, punching her in the face over and over again.

	"I'M NOT WORTHLESS TRASH! I DON'T DESERVE TO BE CAST OUT LIKE THIS! YOU RUINED MY LIFE! IT'S NOT MY FAULT YOU'RE SO MISERABLE, SO WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE—"

Something shattered like glass upon Mark's punch. He fell forward, his sister breaking apart into tiny shards. As he passed through, his body morphed, becoming his pegasus body once again. He spread his wings, trying to catch himself, but they were useless against whatever was pulling him forward.

	Swift found himself sitting in the room of shadow once again, only this time, there was a source of light. A large projector screen had appeared in front of him, and Swift soon realized it was showing what he would've seen through his own eyes. He could see his own legs pointing forward as he flew, surrounded by other pegasi, towards Canterlot, with the Wonderbolts in the lead. Everypony else had the same glowing green eyes as the Wonderbolts had had back at the stadium.

	Swift's memory came rushing back, and he realized what was going on. 

"The Wonderbolts were bewitched," he recalled, "and they spread that spell to all of us at the Cloudeseum. What happened a minute ago...it was just an illusion. A projection of my worst fears...my body's being mind-controlled...but who would—"

The answer hit him like a lightning bolt. "King Sombra!"

Swift swallowed as he watched his body approach Canterlot Castle. If King Sombra had returned, and now he was brainwashing ponies all over Equestria, then Swift was definitely in trouble. He only spared a moment to consider how this would look to everyone watching My Little Pony back home, before fear began to creep down his spine.

	"Okay, King Sombra's somehow back from the dead, that's not good. But if he's trying to take over Equestria, then Twilight and the others must already be trying to stop him. They can fix this, they always do..." He muttered those last three words repeatedly, trying to convince himself.

	As the swarm of ponies finally reached Canterlot, Swift looked around. All the ponies of Canterlot were already guarding the Castle, brainwashed just like him. Looking through the crowd, he could see Moondancer, Fancy Pants, and Sassy Saddles, among others. Even worse, there seemed to be ponies all the way from Ponyville waiting, like the Cakes, meaning Sombra was pulling out all the stops. Swift and the other pegasi hovered above the drawbridge, waiting. 

	They didn't have to wait long, as six familiar ponies came rushing up the path, only stoping when they saw all the mind-controlled ponies blocking their path. Rainbow Dash, naturally, tried to fly over the crowd, only to be stopped by the Wonderbolts. Then the unicorns began taking shots at her from the ground.

	"Come on, girls," Swift begged, "get past us! You can't let Sombra win!"

The Mane Six immediately engaged their opponents, but Swift could see they were at a disadvantage. Obviously, they had no desire to harm Sombra's puppets, but even worse, they were vastly outnumbered. Swift watched in terror as his body began chasing after Fluttershy, accompanied by Thunder Snow and Gentle Breeze. Rainbow Dash suddenly zipped by, ahead of the yellow pegasus, accompanied by her own crowd of pursuing ponies. As she passed, Rainbow signaled to Fluttershy, who caught on, and led her own pursuers into Rainbow's, resulting in a massive crash.

	Swift grunted as he felt the pain of the impact, but shrugged it off. It was for the greater good.

	Twilight fired a spell at the disoriented pegasi, creating a magenta bubble around them. Swift's body, as well as the others, immediately began pounding on their new prison, but Twilight's magic held. Swift let out a sigh of relief. At least his own body wouldn't hassle them anymore.

	However, that didn't mean the Mane Six were out of the woods yet. Twilight and the others found themselves surrounded, with nowhere to run to. Swift held his breath, terrified of what was about to happen, when Twilight's horn lit up again, and the Mane Six disappeared in a flash of light, vanishing just as the brainwashed ponies tried to dog pile them.

	Swift couldn't help himself. He jumped up and down and cheered, thrusting one hoof into the air. Twilight must've teleported them inside the Castle, where they could defeat Sombra and fix this mess. Everything was going to be fine.

	"I hope..." he mumbled, as he watched his body continue to pound on Twilight's barrier, cracks beginning to form in its surface.





	A few minutes later, things still hadn't changed for the better. Swift's body and the others were still punching the walls of their prison, and the cracks were a lot bigger now. Even worse, the other brainwashed ponies had run back to the castle, and were now trying to break through the sealed doors, blasting them with magic. The pegasi not trapped by Twilight's bubble were searching for a window to enter, but luckily, it seemed Sombra had sealed them off, probably to keep Twilight and the others from getting in. Unfortunately, Swift could still do nothing but sit and pray the Mane Six would stop Sombra soon, because if they didn't, they'd be back to square one.

	That was when the rainbow-colored shockwave shot of from inside Canterlot Castle, spreading out to every corner of Equestria. When the wave hit Swift's body, he was forced to shut his eyes.

When he opened them, he was back in control of his body, fluttering high above the ground with other pegasi, who were also recovering from Sombra's mind control. He shuddered, feeling suddenly itchy. He looked around at the others, seeing they were in a similar state. Most of them didn't seem to know where they were, even.

"Uh, what just happened?" asked Thunder Snow. "It feels like I just woke up from a really bad nightmare."

Swift heard the flapping of wings, and turned to see the approach of two large, familiar alicorns.

"I think we should ask them," he said, pointing. He quietly breathed a sigh of relief, thankful he didn't have to explain it himself.





Celestia and Luna, thankfully, were able to dispel everypony's fears about what had happened, assuring them that King Sombra had been dealt with, and he wouldn't threaten anypony ever again. Swift hid himself in the crowd, not wanting them to recognize him, but if they did notice him, they didn't show it. Soon enough, most of the ponies began making their way back home, as it turned out Sombra had brought brainwashed ponies from all over Equestria. However, Swift, who was good at being inconspicuous, hung around the castle, waiting for Twilight and the others to emerge.

They came out within a couple of minutes, looking rather relieved. Swift didn't see them carrying the Elements of Harmony, and briefly wondered why. However, his real goal was in sight. He cautiously approached the Mane Six, and cleared his throat loudly.

"Um, girls?"

Twilight and the others turned, and their eyes widened at the sight. Swift gave what he hoped was a convincing smile, praying they wouldn't immediately bombard him with questions. For a minute, the six just stared at him, neither side talking.

"Um...hi, Swift," Pinkie Pie finally spoke up, waving her hoof awkwardly.

Swift swallowed. It appeared they were in the same boat as he. They just didn't know what to say now that he was reaching out to them. He braced himself, and spoke.

"Twilight? Would you mind if I talked to you for a minute? Alone?"

"Oh, o-okay," said the purple alicorn. Applejack gave her a skeptical look, but Twilight patted her on the shoulder, as if to reassure her. She walked over to where Swift was, and the two trotted a good distance away from the castle.

"So..." she mumbled, "I hear Cloudsdale is nice this time of year."

"It is," said Swift. "Weather work is...it's not optimal, but it's not too hard."

Twilight sighed to herself. "Swift...I...I'm sorry, I don't know what to say, or what you—"

"It's alright. I kinda sprung this on you, right after you defeated Sombra and everything, and I'm sure you've already got a lot on your plate, being a princess and all."

"You can say that again," responded Twilight, fiddling with her front hooves. "Celestia and Luna have decided to retire, and they're naming me the new ruler of Equestria."

If the fact that she immediately stuffed a hoof into her mouth was any indication, Twilight hadn't meant to say that, but it was too late. Swift froze in his tracks, wings shooting outwards, and his jaw dropped, as he turned to stare at Twilight.

"What?!" he tried (but failed) not to yell. "They're retiring?! When?! How're you gonna raise the sun and moon?! Why—"

Twilight held up her hoof, signaling him to stop. "Okay, they're not gonna retire until they're sure I'm ready, but it's gonna happen pretty soon. We haven't worked out the details, yet. Can I ask you to keep that a secret? We're not sure how the public will react."

Swift was still reeling, but he nonetheless nodded. He wondered if this was how season nine was going to be presented back on Earth. This certainly did seem like the opener for a season of My Little Pony. Maybe the final season. However, he shrugged it off.

"Listen," he continued, "I got your letter, and I've been thinking about how to respond to it. I thought it would be nicer if I just gave you my answer face-to-face, while I'm thinking about it. Lucky Sombra just happened to brainwash Cloudsdale."

Twilight nodded. "So? Are you okay with us visiting?"

Swift bit his lip, trying to gather his thoughts. "One at a time. Okay, maybe two. For now. And have it only be the calmer ones, like Fluttershy, Applejack, or you. I'm sorry, I'm just...not in the best place right now. I have a lot of recovering to do."

There was a flash of disappointment in Twilight's eyes, but she quickly covered it up. "I understand," she replied. "We'll respect your boundaries. I'll send you another letter, and we can set it up."

"Okay," Swift replied, as he spread his wings, "see you later, then."

With that, he took off, beginning the long journey back to Cloudsdale. He had a lot to think about.

"And a lot to get over," he thought with a shiver, recalling the vision.
> Session #2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swift arrived early for his appointment with Dr. Feather a few days later. This time, he knew immediately what he wanted to talk about, considering King Sombra's possession of himself, along with most of Cloudsdale's population, as well as his impending meeting with some of the Mane Six. Swift wouldn't say he was traumatized by the possession, but only because traumatized sounded like too strong a word.  

He waited a few minutes in the lobby, before Dr. Feather came to get him. Swift sat in the same spot on the couch, leaning back to feel more at peace.

"So I guess my first question is were you at the Cloudeseum when the...incident took place?" she asked.

"Yep," Swift replied, as though she'd asked a perfectly innocent question.

Dr. Feather blinked in surprise. "You seem rather...nonchalant about it."

Swift shrugged. "It's not that it didn't affect me, it just...didn't hit me that hard. I imagine you've got a lot of patients who are having trouble with it, considering we were forced to see our worst fears under that spell."

Dr. Feather nodded. "I wasn't there myself, I was out of town, but from what I heard, it was a harrowing experience. Some ponies can't even sleep at night now, because of it." She turned back to her patient. "Do you have any idea why you feel less impacted by it?"

"Well..." Swift searched for the proper words, "it was pretty similar to a lot of nightmares I've already been having, so I guess it wasn't anything new. I took it for a little while, but then I just...lost my temper, and I think I somehow managed to punch through the illusion through strength of will or something. Then I could see what my body was doing, when it went to Canterlot and started guarding the castle for King Sombra. Lucky I didn't get hurt in the process."

"Well, that's certainly impressive," said Dr. Feather. "From what I heard, not a lot of ponies can even mount the slightest resistance to Sombra's mind control magic. You should feel proud of yourself."

Swift cast his gaze downward. "Maybe, but I didn't really even accomplish anything. I couldn't wrestle back control of my body. I know, I know, I would've just been beaten up by the rest of the brainwashed victims, but still, I wish I could've helped. I'm not feeling survivor's guilt or anything, considering nopony got hurt. I just don't see it really as an achievement."

"Well, would you like to talk about what you were shown in your vision?"

Swift flinched at the thought, but steeled his resolve. After all, the vision was deeply rooted in the psychological problems he was here to solve. He would've brought it up if she hadn't, anyway. Even so, he had to be sure not to tell her the real truth.

"It was my...acquaintances at the weather factory. They found out I was a blank flank, and they cast me out, told me I didn't belong, that I was worthless. They told me I had to go back to my family, and that was when my sister showed up. She started mocking me, degrading me, like she always did. I just couldn't take it anymore. I went berserk, started punching her over and over again. That was when I managed to break through."

Dr. Feather was silent for a moment. When she spoke next, it was with a new level of tenderness. It almost made Swift nervous, as if she was afraid for him.	

"You said last time you were absolutely certain your sister hated you. Do you have any idea why that is?"

That was an easy answer. "She hates me because I was the preferred child. As much as our mom might deny it, I was always her favorite. She pretty much always took my side in fights. Not to mention she seemed to punish my sister a lot more, although my sister was more prone to hitting. In her mind, since our mom wouldn't let her do whatever she wanted to me, that meant our mom didn't love her. It didn't help that, when I was born, my sister had to give up her bedroom for me, and she got the other room. Granted, her new room wasn't crap or anything, but she's still sore over it after all these years.

"She blames me for our dad walking out on us when we were just foals, for us not having a lot of money growing up, and for the fact that she has migraines. I know, that last one has absolutely nothing to do with me, but try telling her that."

He knew he was dumping a lot of information out at once, but he didn't care very much. Every word he spoke brought up another painful memory, another reason to despise his sister. His forehooves curled, digging into the fabric of the couch, and his shoulders tensed. Swift bit his tongue to force himself to stop talking, before he lost his temper and punched something.

"I'm sorry you went through that," said Dr. Feather. Swift noted that she wasn't acting any differently towards him, which made him feel a little better. "Did you ever attempt to reach out to your sister? Like going to therapy with her? I'm not saying you should now, I'm just asking."

"I tried a couple of times. I tried to be empathetic, because I know she had problems too. She felt abandoned by our dad, she had a lot of health problems I didn't. But she just threw it back in my face. Plus, she would never agree to therapy unless it became the 'Blame Swift for Everything' show."

"Is she a blank flank as well?"

Swift paused, mentally cursing for not having seen that question coming. Dr. Feather didn't know about his human life, and he wanted to keep it that way, so it was only natural she'd bring up Cutie Marks. He thought about his sister, who, despite the fact that they hated each other, had some things in common with him. She worked a dead-end job, didn't have many friends, and was generally fed up with life. If she'd been given the opportunity, she might've fled to Equestria as well, though in her case, it would've just been the appeal of a new life, rather than Equestria itself. She didn't watch the show. Would she have been a blank flank as well?

"Yeah," he answered, finally. That was the most likely outcome. "At least she was the last time I saw her. Neither of us ever found anything we were passionate about. That was the one thing she didn't mock about me."

"That would've been hypocritical," agreed Dr. Feather. "And you said your mother was never able to really stop her from bullying you, even if you were her favorite?"

"Not only did she deny she had a favorite, which was pretty obviously a lie, but she always insisted my sister loved me. Even after my sister hit me and screamed about how I should've never been born." Swift rubbed his forehooves against his skull angrily. "She never understood...how deep it cut. How badly it hurt every single time. It's like it was just a game we were playing. It's partially my sister's fault I'm like this. A socially maladjusted freak who can barely talk to anypony."

"You're talking to me, aren't you?"

"It's different. I don't know why, but it's different." Swift sighed. "Every single, tiny mistake warranted her yelling at me. So I started to punish myself whenever I screwed up and she wasn't there to do it for me. Thanks a bunch."

Dr. Feather put down her note pad. "I'm not telling you to look on the bright side here, but at least you're recognizing that you're self-deprecating doesn't come exclusively from you. It was influenced by an outside factor you didn't have any control over."

Swift nodded. That was true.

"So if we take that information and run with it, where do we end up? You were just an innocent foal who had nopony in his corner, and had someone trying to teach him from a very young age that he was worthless. That's not your fault, and it's nothing to be ashamed of. You're not stupid, Swift, and you're not a freak. You just had a hard time."

Swift sighed as he sunk deeper into his seat. "It's a nice thought, I guess," he said, "knowing maybe all the stuff my brain constantly repeats back at me isn't necessarily true. Doesn't make it easier to shut those voices up, though."

Dr. Feather nodded. "Intrusive thoughts are a pain," she agreed. "In my experience, the key isn't getting them to shut up, but to learn how to move forward in spite of them."

Swift opened his mouth to object, to point out how they were making things too hard to do, but managed to stop himself. This was a path he'd covered back in therapy on Earth, although he'd been too resilient to the actual advice. Maybe he should try actually listening this time. Maybe Dr. Feather had a point.

The mare continued, not knowing about Swift's internal dilemma. "A lot of ponies deal with intrusive thoughts, and I understand, they make it harder to take any action that might be beneficial. But it is possible to learn how to do things without getting rid of them completely."

"Okay," said Swift, trying to keep the doubt out of his voice.

"So what have those voices prevented you from doing recently?"

Swift bit his lip. "Well, I did manage to actually socialize a little at lunch a couple days before the whole incident. I ate lunch with Thunder Snow and Gentle Breeze, but I didn't say a lot about myself. I mostly just let the two of them talk about themselves, because I was afraid I'd look boring by comparison. No hobbies, nothing to talk about, y'know?"

"That's a good first step. They didn't ask questions about you in return?"

"Occasionally, they did. And I answered them honestly, I just...didn't get very deep into detail about myself," he admitted.

"See? You could've just ignored them, and I'm sure the voices told you to do so, but you went out and did it anyway! You can do it."

Swift gave a small but honest smile, feeling a little better. Another thing he remembered from his Earth therapy was to take pride in the small victories, no matter how small they were. He hadn't really done that at all, but he saw the wisdom in it.

"So these other pegasi. Do they seem like nice ponies? Like ponies you might wanna be friends with?"

"Well, yeah. I don't know them that well, we've been coworkers for a while, but we haven't talked about much besides work. And my biggest worry is that, if I do become friends with them, they'll eventually find out that I'm...a blank flank." He gestured at his flank, still covered by his pants.

"Is it just because you think they'll judge you for not having a Cutie Mark?"

"At my age? Probably. I don't think they'd go to the extent of bullying me outright over it, but in their heads, they'll think...that I'm less than them. I know that look, and trust me, I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I care about what others think of me. Even if I did get really friendly with them...I'm terrified of them learning the truth."

Dr. Feather wrote a few more notes, before looking at Swift sympathetically. "Why are you afraid of what they think of you?"

"It's...I don't want them to treat me like less than, even if they're doing it to be nice. If they find out I have no Cutie Mark, and that I'm all depressed like this, what if they start walking on eggshells around me? I just want to be like everypony else, not some special pony who needs to be treated like he's made of thin glass."

"Okay, that's a good point," remarked Dr. Feather. "I don't think you're doomed to have to deal with that, but if you want to keep it a secret from them, I think that's fine. It's your business, not theirs. Nopony needs to know if you don't want them to. Have you had any ideas about what you want a Cutie Mark in?"

Swift shook his head. "I've been caught up in work and the whole brainwashing incident, I haven't had any time to think about it."

"Makes sense. I think maybe you should work on that when you have the chance. One of your biggest fears seems to be the idea that you're too boring to be friends with anypony. If you branch out a little, try to work on yourself, that might not be such a big deal.

"Now, before we wrap up for the day, is there anything else you want to talk about?"

Swift hesitated. His meeting with Twilight, while having gone okay, still hung in the back of his head, making him nervous. He wondered if he should've refused, told her he wasn't ready to see them yet. After all, they had parted on less than perfect terms. But he didn't want to let on that he was acquainted with the Princess of Friendship, who was soon to be the sole ruler of Equestria. He had to word this carefully.

"Okay, so, back when I lived in Ponyville, I met some other ponies, and we were friendly for a while. But we had a...falling out, and things ended pretty badly between us. It wasn't long after that that I moved to Cloudsdale. But a few days ago, they sent me a letter, asking if they could come and visit me, and hopefully try to patch things up. I said yes, after laying down some ground rules.

"But now, after thinking about it for a while...I honestly don't know if I made the right decision. Yeah, I set my boundaries, but at the same time, I can't help but wonder if I'm still not ready for it. I'm scared I'm gonna lose control and snap at them, and then things are just gonna spiral out of control, and then...I don't know what else, but I'm afraid of it."

"Well, I am glad you had the courage to set rules and restrictions," said Dr. Feather. "There are some ponies in your position who wouldn't be able to do that, or who'd be afraid to say no, because they'd think they were being too pushy. What kind of rules did you set?"

"I made them promise not to come all at once, at least for now. I didn't want to get overwhelmed. And I wanted it to only be the calm ones, because I thought that might help."

"Those sound reasonable. And you aren't taking any chances that could put your mental health at risk. Why are you afraid you'll get angry?"

"See, the thing is, they know about my...condition." He knew she'd assume he was referring to his Cutie Mark status, rather than something else. "And the last time I was in a room with all of them, their pity drove me crazy, and I sort of blew up at them. I'm afraid that, even with just one or two of them, I'll have that exact same reaction."

"Do you feel like their pity is condescending?"

"Absolutely. I know they don't mean it to be that way, but it just comes across as them looking down on me, like 'Oh, look at this poor blank flank, how pathetic he is. Let's all make sad faces at him.' And that really pisses me off."

"You're sure it's not just you reacting that way? I'm sorry, I'm not trying to say you're in the wrong here, I'm just trying to understand the situation."

Swift sighed. He supposed it was certainly a possibility. Perhaps he had unfairly lashed out at Twilight and the others when they'd simply been trying to help. On the other hand, they had been treating him like he was fragile, something he hated. He doubted it was unfair to get mad at that.

"I...it just felt like...like I said, I want to be a normal pony among other normal ponies. I don't want to be the pony that everyone else has to guard and tiptoe around. I get it, they just don't want to hurt me, but all they're doing is making me feel weak."

Dr. Feather was quiet for a moment, but she didn't seem to be disappointed in him. "I get where you're coming from, and I suppose, if I were in your hooves, I would feel the same way. So what I'm gonna focus on is what you're afraid of. Are you certain they won't have learned their lesson, and you'll lose your temper?"

"Well, not for certain, no. It's been more than a month without us seeing each other, and they're good friends, so they've probably talked about it between each other, maybe they won't treat me like that again. I'm just afraid that, if they haven't, I'll end up blowing up again. And I'm afraid of taking back my agreement because I think I'll look bad."

"Okay, Swift, here's what I think would help. You told me you've learned some breathing exercises and things that calm you down when you get angry, right?"

Swift nodded.

"When they do visit, if they start treating you that way, try one of those exercises, and then explain to them why it upsets you so much. You'll have a stronger standing if you speak while you're calm, and they'll be more likely to listen to you.

"If you honestly don't feel comfortable, I think you'd be fine to cancel. If these other ponies are as friendly as you say, they'd accept it without judging you. However, going for it would also be a good start to stepping outside your comfort zone. That was one of your goals for treatment, and this would be a first step at least."

She looked up at the clock. "We're out of time for today, but I think we've made progress. You'll remember what I told you, right?" 

Swift gave a nod as he got to his hooves. "I'll try my best," was all he could answer.





A few hours later, after he'd finished work for the day, Swift returned home to his apartment. He pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, sat down at his desk, and waited. He mulled over his thoughts, before finally pressing the pen to the paper.

Dear Princess Twilight...
> Shared Experiences
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swift Wing paced around his apartment for what felt like the thousandth time. His nerves were getting to him, knowing what was coming, and he wondered, not for the first time, if he'd made a terrible mistake. He couldn't even keep his wings still, as they kept shooting out from each side, waving around erratically. Thankfully, they couldn't lift him off the ground against his will, but that didn't stop stray red feathers from gathering on the floor.

Perhaps an explanation as to why Swift was freaking out would be helpful. His letter to Princess Twilight had been answered almost immediately, thanks to Equestria's rather prompt mail system. They'd set up a date when Swift could have visitors without interfering with work, and the Mane Six had agreed to all his conditions. However, Twilight had come up with an idea, something Swift would never have suggested himself for various reasons. It involved bringing somepony Swift hadn't met yet, but knew about, who might be able to relate to him a bit better.  

Swift had been torn on her suggestion. The guest was somepony Swift did admittedly want to meet, as awkward as it would be. On the other hoof, this was somepony who hadn't been around during his first disagreement with the Mane Six, and maybe she'd try to talk him into going back to Earth again. He knew Twilight would brief her on his situation, and she wasn't stupid, so maybe she'd know not to bring it up. Still, it was a gamble. In the end, Swift, unwilling to make Twilight feel bad, had agreed.

Now it was just a matter of playing the waiting game.  

Swift forced himself to sit on the bed, his hooves getting tired from walking around the apartment endlessly. He briefly wished he still had fingers, remembering his habit of scratching whenever he was uncomfortable. He settled for raising his back leg up to kick at his ear. He wondered if there was time to leave his house and just hide somewhere in the city. Later, he could tell Twilight and the others he just forgot it was today and—

The ringing of the doorbell abruptly knocked him out of his thoughts.

"Punctual. Of course," Swift groaned, getting back on his hooves.  

He trotted over to the door, undoing the simple lock and pulling it open, finding himself face-to-face with Fluttershy.

"Hi, Swift," said the yellow pegasus, smiling warmly at him.

Swift bit his lip, barely managing a grin in return. "Hey, Fluttershy," he said, without much enthusiasm.  

Fluttershy didn't seem to mind, however. She held up one hoof, and Swift reluctantly pressed his own against it.

"We're not too early, are we?" she asked. "I know this can't be easy for you, and I didn't want to make it worse."

"No, no, it's fine," Swift replied. "It's better that we just go ahead with it, you know?" He didn't change his expression at all, but he mentally swore, afraid he'd offended his other guest.

"I can see that," replied Fluttershy. She made a beckoning gesture on her right, signaling the other pony to finally come into view. Swift watched as the orange unicorn with the red and yellow mane walked into the doorway.

"Uh...hi, I'm Sunset Shimmer," she said, extending her hoof, "but I guess you already knew that."

"Yeah, I did," Swift answered, hoping that hadn't sounded accusatory. "I'm Swift Wing."

The two touched hooves, and then stood around awkwardly, nopony sure what to say.

"So, uh..." Fluttershy mumbled, "we thought it would be best if it was just you two. I'm going to...just go look around town for a while. I'll be back to pick you up, Sunset."

Sunset nodded, and Fluttershy walked off down the hallway. Swift briefly thought about calling her back, but decided it would be rude. With no other option, he beckoned Sunset inside, closing the door behind her.

Sunset made herself comfortable on the floor, sitting down on her haunches, while Swift parked himself on the bed.

"Can I get you anything?" he asked. "I don't have much, but I've got coffee, tea..."

"Just some water would be nice," said Sunset.

Swift busied himself filling a cup for her and passing it over, then moved back to his position on the bed.

"So..." he began, though he soon found himself unsure of how to continue.

"So," Sunset repeated. Evidently, she was having the same problems.  

Swift brushed his wing. "Er...how's life treating you on the other side of the mirror?"

"Can't complain," said Sunset. "We're coming into our final year of high school. I'm thinking about college options, trying to pick a major. I might be leaning towards graphic design, just so I could keep up with my artwork, but I don't know."

"That sounds nice. I saw some of your...'Flanksy' work, it's impressive. Of course, I'm no artist, so I'm probably not the best pony to talk about that. Interestingly enough, back in my world, we have someone who does the same thing, only we call him Banksy."  

"Interesting," noted Sunset. "You said our world is a TV show in your universe, and that includes me and the world I live in now?"

"Your world is a spinoff. Don't get me wrong, I love it." He smiled fondly, thinking of the Equestria Girls stories he loved so much. "I guess my first question is what made you stay? You're not like me, you can jump back and forth whenever you want. Why didn't you ever go back to Equestria?"

Sunset bit her lip, fiddling with her hooves, as though she were deep in thought. She remained like this for a minute, but Swift didn't speak up, afraid of being rude.

Finally, Sunset answered. "I guess...it wasn't just one thing. First of all, I'm assuming you know about what a jerk I was before the whole Fall Formal thing. I burned a lot of bridges back here, and yeah, I know now that Princess Celestia's forgiven me, but there are a lot of ponies who probably haven't. I don't blame them. Plus, back in the human world is where I have my friends, and even if there are versions of them on this side, they're not the ones I know. Not to mention, after spending thirty moons on that side plotting my stupid revenge, I kind of think of myself more as a human than a unicorn."

Swift smiled. "I understand that last part. For me, it's only been a few months, but I already think of myself more as a pegasus." He frowned a little as he thought back to his previous life. "Not that there aren't things I miss about being human. Fingers, for one. But I can live without them, and that's what matters."

Sunset smiled warmly at him. "Well, as somepony who's actually lived a life that involved moving between worlds, I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have, or help you with anything you might need."

Swift perked up a little. Thus far, it seemed Sunset was willing to listen and understand him. She hadn't made a peep about him going back home. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, and he'd been worried over nothing.

"Well, for the next one, how long did it take you to get over that feeling? You know the one I'm talking about. The one where you keep waking up in your bed, thinking you're gonna be back in the place you were born in, but then you open your eyes, and feel your different body?"

"Oh, somebody finally put that into words!" exclaimed Sunset, throwing her forehooves into the air. "Seriously, I've lost track of the number of times I've had to explain that to the others, but I've never been able to pull it off!

"As for when that stops happening...well, I'm not sure exactly how long it takes. I vaguely remember it being at least a year later that I stopped having that feeling, but to be honest, my memory of those days isn't the greatest. I've spent a lot of time trying to block out the thoughts I was having during those years."

"Mainly because those thoughts consisted of thinking about how to take over Equestria and make your former mentor grovel at your hooves, right?" said Swift. As soon as his brain caught up with his mouth, he quickly added an, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend," at the end. Thankfully, Sunset waved him off, showing there were no hard feelings.

"Pretty much, yeah," she replied. "I want to remember the things I did, so it's not like I'm pretending I never actually did them, but forgetting the pleasure I took in doing them? That I can live with."

"That's a good attitude to have. From what I've seen, you aren't the only one. You, Starlight, and a lot of others have had similar experiences." Swift chuckled to himself as a thought occurred to him. "Though I have to ask, using a high school as your evil army?"

"Not my proudest moment, I admit," said Sunset, laughing as well. "I may not have thought that one through, entirely."

"Do you ever get...y'know, homesick? I know you have the option of just hopping over whenever you like, but I'm guessing you still miss this place at least once in a while. Heck, if I'd been raised in Equestria, I'd always miss it."

"Sometimes, yeah. I do miss being Princess Celestia's student. And I wish I hadn't thrown that life away. If I hadn't, a lot of things would probably be different. But I've accepted that I can't change the past, and I'm happy with the life I have now." Sunset looked at Swift curiously. "Do you miss your original dimension?"

Swift swallowed. This was going down a road he didn't like. If Sunset got the idea that he was actually homesick into her head, then she'd tell Twilight, and then they'd—

Stop it. You're catastrophizing again, he thought as loud as he could at himself. Besides, after a conversation this personal, Sunset wouldn't tell anypony about it, not even Twilight. Nothing left this room. If she was going to do him that courtesy, he could at least be honest.

"Sometimes. Like I told Twilight and the others, I don't miss my sister, given how she treated me, but there are things I miss." He held up his hooves. "Part of me wishes I'd kept my hands in the transition. Easier to pick things up with. Of course, I've learned to use my hooves since then, and even my wings sometimes, but still." He waved his tail back and forth. "It took me a while to get used to this."

"I get it." Sunset ignited her horn, levitating up her cup of water to her lips. "Sometimes, I just forget I have this when I come back here." She set down the cup, then looked back at Swift. "Are you sure you don't miss your family? Your sister I understand, but what about your mom?"

Swift sighed. He supposed he should've seen this coming. "I do miss her, I admit. But our relationship wasn't the greatest. She tended to infantilize me, minimize my problems, and downplay the crap my sister pulled on me. That's why I stopped coming to her when I was depressed. She didn't understand me." He hoped that put an end to that discussion, and thankfully, Sunset didn't ask any further questions.

"I'm sorry about that," replied the unicorn. "I'm an orphan, so it's pretty hard for me to relate to those feelings. The closest thing I had to a mom was Princess Celestia, and as I'm sure you're aware, we had our rocky moments. We've patched things up since then, but those fights still happened."

"So you really didn't have parents?" asked Swift, his mind jumping back into fan mode. "Back home, that was a pretty big theory surrounding your character. Your past, prior to becoming Celestia's student, was never brought up, so a lot of people assumed that was the case."

Sunset shrugged. "I guess it gave me one more excuse to leave Equestria. I didn't have friends or anything, so all I had left to leave behind was Celestia." Then her curious nature seemed to take hold. "What else do the fans say about me?"

Swift thought back to Earth, and the MLP fandom. "Well, there were a lot of interpretations of how your split with Celestia actually happened, since we never saw it. And there was tons of fan fiction of the two of you reuniting, before the Memory Stone incident actually showed us. Now that I think about it, you were a super popular character."

Sunset giggled. "That's nice. I'm assuming that came post-rainbow laser to the face?"

"Oh yeah."

The two ponies shared a chuckle, before the conversation dropped to silence once again. Swift, for his part, was out of questions, even in the face of one of his favorite characters. Sunset didn't seem to have anything to add, herself. Swift guessed that this was a better outcome than her pestering him to change his mind, but the awkwardness was palpable.

"Is weather work very difficult?" Sunset finally asked. "I didn't learn a lot about it, since, y'know, I'm a unicorn. Really, all I know is the cloud-walking spell."

"It's like a lot of other fields, I guess," Swift replied. "There's good days, bad days. Some jobs are easy, some are a pain in the flank. I think my least-favorite thing to do is handle the storm clouds, because of all the electricity, but the rest of it's okay. It's interesting because, now that I'm a pegasus, I have that innate connection to the weather and forming clouds and things like that just come naturally to me. No Cutie Mark yet, but maybe that'll change." Another thought occurred to him. "Was it weird to transition to a world where Cutie Marks don't exist?"

"Oh, that was an adjustment," Sunset admitted. "It made me realize I had a lot of biases about ponies based on their Cutie Marks. Because, see, you can look at a pony's Mark and usually guess what it means they're good at, along with their name. Of course, you're not always gonna be right, ponies are diverse creatures. But in the human world, nobody has those, so you know practically nothing about anybody unless you ask. It forced me to face the fact that I pretty much relied on Cutie Marks to judge ponies, which is probably bad. Does your home world have tattoos?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, the first time I saw one, I kinda mistook it for a Cutie Mark, and I thought I somehow lost my Cutie Mark when I went through the mirror, and...let's just say when I figured out what it really was, I was pretty embarrassed."

Swift threw back his head and laughed, trying to apologize in between chortles. Sunset didn't seem to mind, though.

"You seriously...I'm sorry, that's just really funny," he managed to wheeze out. "Thank you, that was hilarious." He coughed a couple of times, clearing his throat again.  

Sunset shared in his laughter. "So they really didn't show any of my backstory? They just had me appear?"

"Well, the first time we saw you was when you took the Element of Magic. They showed a little bit of you as Celestia's student in the tie-in comic books, but those aren't considered canon. Like I said, back on my Earth, you're actually a really beloved character. A lot of people felt sorry for you during the whole debacle with the Sirens, since you were trying to prove you were better and yet nobody seemed to believe in you."

"That's nice to know," said the unicorn. "I don't really blame them for that, given how horrible I was. And most people have accepted me, so I'm happy now. Sure, there's still the occasional person who isn't willing to forgive what I did, and we had that whole incident with Wallflower before we managed to change her mind, but I can accept that."

Swift sat back, thinking what he wanted to ask about next. "How long did the species change take you to adjust to? I've adapted pretty well, I think, but it took time. I imagine going from being a quadruped to a biped is just as hard."

"Certainly. I was really freaked out by fingers. I thought they looked like little skin tentacles sticking out of where my hooves were supposed to be. Once I figured out what they were for, they turned out to be pretty useful, but they still scared me for a long time. Then there was the whole clothing taboo. I almost got arrested for indecent exposure early on. Trust me, you don't wanna hear that story. Was it any harder for you to do the opposite?"

"Probably not. I had an advantage you didn't, since I knew a lot about the world where I was going. I knew I wouldn't be wearing clothes very often, but that was still kinda weird to get used to. And then, when I did get here, I spent the first few minutes instinctively trying to stand on two legs." He spread his wings. "It took me a long time to get used to using these, let me tell you."

"At least I didn't have to deal with any new appendages," Sunset remarked. "I did lose my horn, so I suppose that makes us even. I lost count of how many times I instinctively tried to lift something with my magic."

The two smiled again, before a knock at the door interrupted their thoughts. Swift got up and answered it, finding Fluttershy waiting on the other side.

"Hey there, Swift," said the pegasus. "I'm here to pick up Sunset. I-if that's alright, of course. I didn't come back too soon, did I?"

"No, no, it's fine," said Swift, sneaking a glance at the clock. Indeed, they'd been talking for more than an hour. "You ready, Sunset?"

"Sure," replied the unicorn, getting to her hooves. She trotted over to the door, then turned back to Swift. "This was really fun, actually."

"Yeah. Maybe we can do it again some other time," Swift replied. He was being fully honest, he'd enjoyed this experience.  

"Maybe. Well, see ya later!" Sunset and Fluttershy waved good-bye, then trotted down the hallway, Swift closing the door behind them.

As he walked back over to his desk, Swift breathed a small sigh of relief. As calm and fun as his talk with Sunset had been, he always left social interactions feeling tired. He wasn't sure why. He had no plans for the rest of the day, thankfully.  

He grabbed a blank journal he'd bought a couple of days ago, picked up a pen, and thought about writing in it. He'd tried journaling a couple of times back home, but it hadn't helped, mainly because he usually only wrote when he was feeling depressed, and then gone back and re-read the entries, which only made him feel worse. But today had been good. Maybe if he wrote something positive, he'd have something happy to look back on when despair tried to envelope him.  

Steeling himself, Swift set his pen to the paper, and began to write.
> A Scuffle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today, Swift Wing found himself doing the job he hated the most at the weather factory: snowflake inspection. See, in Equestria, before they were loaded into clouds, the snowflakes had to be crafted from ice crystals into at least mostly equal-sized pieces, in order to ensure that the snow distribution was balanced. Swift's current position required him to carefully examine each flake to make sure they were around the same size. On paper, this sounded easy.

In practice, however, it was a pain in the neck. Snowflakes, even ones temporarily enchanted to not melt, were obviously not made to be handled with hooves, or any kind of limbs without fingers. It was very easy for anyppony touching them to accidentally break one apart, or otherwise damage it. The broken ice pieces would then have to be sent back up the assembly line, where they'd be reused. The problem here was that Swift had to fill a certain number of clouds in the day, and the more flakes he broke, the longer the task would take. Swift Wing simply didn't not have the finesse required for this particular job. Even manipulating the snowflakes with his wingtips didn't make it any easier.

"SON OF A—" Swift yelled as he broke yet another snowflake. He bit his tongue to stop himself from cursing, not sure how the other ponies in the room would take it. Sighing, he swept the broken snowflakes into the chute and moved onto the next batch.  

It was lucky for him that his superiors had already informed him that he wouldn't be doing this job again after today. Apparently, they'd realized his strengths didn't lie here. He smiled a bit at the thought, feeling that fortune was on his side, at least for now.

Now that he thought about it, he'd had a pretty long string of successes since he arrived in this city. He'd gotten this job without much hassle, he'd gotten regular appointments with Dr. Feather going, and the whole meeting with Sunset Shimmer had gone as well as it could've. Admittedly, the whole "getting brainwashed by Sombra thing" hadn't been a pleasant experience, but in the end, he hadn't gotten hurt. However, even if Swift wasn't the superstitious type, this line of good luck had to end sometime, and it made him slightly nervous that something bad could be around the corner.

He quickly shook his head, as though attempting to physically dislodge the thoughts. There was no point getting agitated over something that hadn't even happened yet, as he'd learned from therapy back on Earth. He picked up the magnifying glass he'd been using and went back to inspecting the snowflakes, hoping to get today over with as fast as possible.

Of course, life loves to throw wrenches into well-laid plans. In this case, that wrench took the form of another stallion's rear end backing into Swift's side, causing the red pegasus to jump in his seat and push the table up with him. Every snowflake was shattered upon impact, and Swift dropped the magnifying glass.

Naturally annoyed, Swift rounded on the pony who'd bumped him, discovering a grey pegasus with a black mane that grew over his eyes (leaving Swift wondering how he saw anything), and a Cutie Mark consisting of three footballs. Internally, Swift groaned, realizing this was yet another one of the stallions who'd bullied Rainbow Dash in the show. He thought the pony's name was Score.

"Wow, Swift Wimp!" jeered the stallion. "Looks like somepony's gonna be doin' some overtime work!"

Swift clenched his teeth, anger starting to course through his veins. The most tempting option was to punch the offending stallion in the head, preferably multiple times. But all that would do was get him into more trouble than the pony who was messing with him. He took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm himself.  

"Whatever," he replied, turning away from his fellow pegasus and sweeping the broken snowflakes into the chute.  

Score didn't seem to expect that reaction, though. He gritted his own teeth, reaching forward and grabbing Swift by the shoulder.  

"Hey, punk!" he demanded, as he pulled Swift around to face him. "I know you ignored Dumb-bell before, but you don't get away with that twice! Here's what you're gonna—"

Swift spread his wing outward, smacking Score in the face with only a small amount of force. Then he turned back to the desk, opening the hatch to the assembly line and releasing some more snowflakes. Then he picked up the magnifying glass and started inspecting them again. Score, apparently baffled by the reaction, reached for him again. Swift tensed himself, ready to move in case things escalated.

However, at that moment, the supervising pony for the snowflake team, Blizzard, walked by. Score noticed, and immediately retracted his hoof, and went back to his own work, leaving Swift alone. Swift breathed a small sigh of relief, thankful this wouldn't devolve into a pointless fight.





A few hours later, Swift had finally managed to process enough snowflakes to finish the day. With his work completed, he strolled out of the weather factory, planning to make his way to the Cloudsdale Library to continue his research on Cutie Marks. After all, he still didn't have one, and even though he had no idea what he would or could get, he still desired one. Ponies themselves didn't have all the answers as to how Cutie Marks worked, but maybe he could gain enough understanding to slightly control the process.

As he trotted past an alleyway, a foreleg shot outward and grabbed him by the wing. Swift yelped out as he was pulled into the alley and had his body swung around and smacked against a wall. He grunted as his jaws clapped together and he fell forward to land on his stomach.

Swift groaned, trying to shrug off the pain and climb back onto his hooves. He opened his eyes again to see his assailant, only to discover there were three stallions facing him. And, to his annoyance, they were the three bullies who coined the name "Rainbow Crash." Dumb-bell, Score, and the tan-colored pony with the three basketballs Cutie Mark (Swift remembered his name was Hoops).  

"Uh, can I help you?" he asked, pushing himself back into a standing position once more.

But as soon as his legs were fully extended, Dumb-bell stomped forward and shoved him into the wall once again, knocking him down.

"No, Swift Wimp," he replied, "but we're gonna help you understand the facts of life."

"Really? You're still going with 'Swift Wimp?'" quipped the red pegasus. "That's not even a clever insult. You couldn't have come up with anything better?"

Evidently, his snark was not appreciated, as Score reached back with one hoof and punched him in the face. Swift was forced to spit, and once he opened his eyes, he saw that he'd spat out a bit of blood as well. Clearly, he wasn't going to talk his way out of this one.

"See, here's what's going on, Swift Wimp," said Hoops. "The ponies who run the weather factory are nothing compared to us and the power we got. We're the ones who are really in charge. You don't seem to realize that, brushin' us off like we ain't nothing. So we're gonna have to pound some sense into you."

Swift held up his front hooves, trying to replicate the human placating gesture. "Hey, come on, guys," he insisted, "we don't have to beat each other up over something so small. I'm sure we can come to a better arrangement."

"Not gonna happen, punk," said Score, as the three pegasi advanced on Swift. "You've already earned this beating, so you might as well take it—"

Swift Wing suddenly snapped into action, diving his top half to the side and bringing up his rear end. His back legs swung in an arc, clocking the three stallions in the faces and knocking them sideways. Swift kept up his momentum, using all four legs to push off the cloud alley and launch himself into the air. He hadn't been a great fighter as a human, and he'd never fought in his pony body before, so he figured his best option was to get back into the public space, where these idiots couldn't beat him up without attracting unwanted attention.

Unfortunately, his plan ran into a road bump as Dumb-bell managed to recover and lunged at him just as he was taking off. The stallion seized Swift's tail in between his teeth, stopping his ascent. With a powerful yank, Dumb-bell pulled Swift back down, giving Hoops enough time to tackle him out of the air. The two pegasi slammed into the cloud alley, and while some of Swift's impact was cushioned (since the ground was clouds), he still had a heavy, muscular pegasus land on him.

Hoops recovered soon enough, standing up and pressing all four hooves into Swift's back. He lifted one foreleg, only to stomp down on Swift's head, eliciting a pained grunt. Hoops evidently found this amusing, as he repeated the action several more times, laughing as he did so.

"Let's break his wings!" chuckled Score. "We'll see how Mr. Goody Four-Shoes shows up to work then!"

"No. Remember, we said nothing permanent," replied Dumb-bell. "We just wanna teach the dirtbag a lesson, not kill him."

Swift ground his teeth some more, trying to think of a way to get out of this mess. Not only was he outnumbered, these three were all stronger than him. The only thing he had in his corner was the fact that they weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. His brain began racing, trying to outthink them. An idea occurred to him, and he began to put it into action.

He spread his wings, managing to stick them out between Hoops' legs. Then he began frantically beating his wings, pushing his body upwards and lifting Hoops in turn. With a heavy heave of his back, he sent the other stallion forward, falling face-first into the cloud ground. 

"Oh, a tough guy, are you?!" yelled Score, taking off with a flap of his own wings and charging towards Swift.

Swift, having climbed to his hooves once more, ducked under the other pony's first punch, before responding with an uppercut directly to Score's jaw. Judging by the stallion's reaction, he didn't have a glass jaw, but the blow landed with some force. Unfortunately for Swift, he was unable to see Hoops' follow-up from behind him, receiving a punch to the back of his head for his trouble.  

Swift stumbled forward from the hit, only to get another one in the stomach from Dumb-bell. With one stallion in front and one in back, and Dumb-bell rearing back for another punch, Swift quickly ducked, causing Dumb-bell to stumble forward and hit Hoops in the neck.

"Oops! Sorry, bro!" said Dumb-bell.

"You idiot!" shouted Hoops, clutching the area that would soon have a bruise. "How'd you let him dodge that?! All you had to do was punch down a little!"

"Well how did you let me hit you?! You could've dodged, too!"

"Uh, guys?!" yelled Score. "A little help here?!"

Hoops and Dumb-bell turned at their friends yelling, discovering that, while they had been arguing, Swift had been trying to get away again. Fortunately for them, Score had tackled the crimson pegasus, and was in the midst of grappling with him. Swift was standing on his back legs, with Score standing behind him. Score's forelegs were hooked under Swift's, trying to wrestle Swift into submission.

Swift grunted as he tried to wiggle his way out of the hold, lifting his back legs and trying to kick Score in the shins. His efforts yielded little to no reward, and Swift had a brief moment to lament the fact that ponies didn't have any toes he could stomp on. He tried snapping his head backwards to headbutt Score in the face, and though he landed a hit, the other stallion didn't loosen his grip.

The red pegasus was left with no time left before Hoops and Dumb-bell advanced on him, with each pony punching him in the stomach once, knocking the wind out of him. Then Dumb-bell went for his face, sending more spittle flying from his mouth, and Hoops followed with an overhead smash. Swift could only whimper in pain, as he felt the drops of blood from his nose and mouth drip down onto the ground.

"Stupid loser," laughed Hoops. "I'd give you credit for trying, but honestly, you were doomed from the start. Any last words before we put you in a body cast?"

Swift tried, he genuinely tried to say something defiant, so he'd at least retain his dignity before he went out, but one too many blows to the head made it hard to talk. All he managed to get out was a weak cough.  

"Yeah, that sounds about right," said Score. "Let him have it, boys—!"

"Let that pony go!"

The four ponies all turned towards the entrance to the alleyway. Swift's vision was blurred from the blows and he couldn't see very well, but he could just about make out the silhouette of another stallion standing there. There were no discernible features, except for a blue coat, but the pony looked just as big as the three currently wailing on him. His voice sounded a little familiar, too.

"Oh, you got a problem with how we go about our business, old man?!" demanded Hoops. "Back off, or we'll include you in the beating!"

"You won't be beating anypony, you dolts!" sneered the mystery stallion. "You know who I am! What's to stop me from going to your bosses and informing them exactly the kind of illicit things you get up to outside of work?"

Dumb-bell snarled angrily. "I can think of a few things, you scumbag. Score, keep Swift Wimp here while we deal with this idiot."

Score nodded, maintaining his grip on Swift while the other two charged the newcomer. If Swift had been a little more conscious at this point, he would've made another attempt to flee with the intent of calling more ponies to help out this stranger. Unfortunately, things being what they were, he didn't think he could've stood up if Score weren't keeping him in that position. He didn't even have the strength to call out a warning to the newcomer.  

However, within the next few seconds, it became apparent that the other pony didn't really need his help.

Hoops was the first to reach his target, throwing a clumsy roundhouse punch that was easily dodged. Then the pony responded with a haymaker that sent the other stallion flying backwards to crash into the wall. Dumb-bell tried to take advantage of his opponent's distracted state, aiming a buck at the back of his head, but the stallion anticipated this. He flapped his wings and flew upwards, dodging the attack, before dropping back down and bringing his hoof down on Dumb-bell's head.

The stallion then came to a stop in the middle of the alley, with the other two lying on their backs, clutching their heads.

"Had enough?" he asked. "I'd advise you to say yes."

"Shove it," Dumb-bell growled from the ground, trying to climb to his hooves.

The other stallion sighed, but made no move to attack. Hoops and Dumb-bell managed to rise once more, both looking furious. With a quick flap of his wings, Hoops took off and soared over his enemy, landing behind him. Now they had the stallion surrounded on both sides, where he shouldn't have been able to defend against both attacks. Swift swallowed nervously.

With a roar of fury, Hoops and Dumb-bell both dived forward, intending to tackle the stallion. However, he was ready for their assault, shifting so he was standing on his back legs, and flapping his wings a bit to get off the ground. His back legs lifted up, catching Dumb-bell in the face, stopping the pony in his tracks, while his forelegs reached behind him to grab Hoops by the head. Then he heaved forward, swinging Hoops over in an arc, and smashing the two stallions together. Through the ringing in his ears, Swift thought he heard something crack.

Hoops and Dumb-bell both yelled in pain, their bodies going completely limp. They collapsed in a heap, legs and wings all splayed outwards, and manes ruffled and uneven. This time, they did not get up.

With that settled, the stallion marched past them, staring directly at Score.

"I trust you've realized the futility of trying to take me on at this point," he said. "How about you let that pony go and we can end this the easy way?"

Swift could feel Score trembling in his position, but he maintained his grip on the crimson pegasus. Clearly, he wasn't going to take the other stallion's advice, and Swift guessed his good luck was about to come to an end.

"Sorry, pal," Score snorted back, "but you don't get to mess with us and then just walk away! You wanna take me out, too?" He maneuvered his body so that Swift eclipsed him completely. "Try and get past this loser you're so desperate to save!"

The other pony groaned, but it seemed to be a more annoyed groan than a frustrated one. He spread his wings outward, dived forward, and grabbed Swift around the stomach. Swift managed a quick surprised yelp before the stallion yanked him out of Score's grip, then tossed him backwards, landing on his stomach on the cloudy alley. The clouds cushioned the impact again, but now Swift couldn't see what was going on behind him. He didn't have the strength to lift his head and turn around, either.

His ears worked just fine, though. Swift turned them around so they were pointed behind him, listening to the sounds of the battle going on. Score released a terrified squeak as (presumably) the other pony descended on him. There was the sound of a hoof connecting with skin, and another slamming noise, before total silence reigned over the alley.

The silence was interrupted when the stallion said, in between pants, "Don't think that you can just corner this pony again, punks. I'll have a word with the weather factory staff, and if I have any say in it, you three will be out of a job for this!" Hoops, Score, and Dumb-bell could only manage some pained groans in response.

Then, Swift felt a gentle pair of legs slip under his stomach, lifting him off the ground. The unknown stallion heaved Swift over his head, placing the pegasus onto his back.  

"It's okay, I gotcha," said the mystery pony. He then began walking slowly, so as to keep Swift from falling off. "I'll get you to the hospital, buddy."

Swift didn't think he'd be able to stay conscious for much longer, but he'd regained just enough strength to ask one question.

"Who...are you?" he wheezed.

"Name's Bow Hothoof," replied the stallion. "Nice to meet ya."

Swift barely managed to register the surprise before he passed out. He'd been rescued by Rainbow Dash's dad.
> Recovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bow was as good as his word, getting Swift to the hospital in record time. It probably helped that Swift was fairly skinny by pony standards, and thus, easy to carry. Swift was processed quickly, since his injuries weren't too bad. Thankfully, nopony questioned why he was still wearing his pants in the hospital. Swift himself found it kind of odd that they didn't ask to see his Cutie Mark, considering they were used as identifiers among ponies, but he didn't complain.

After a quick exam, it was determined Swift had a mild concussion, along with some pretty bad bruises, but luckily, nothing else. He'd have to stay in bed for about a day, and they wanted to keep him for that day so they could observe him and make sure nothing unforeseen occurred. The hospital sent a message to the weather factory, letting them know that Swift would be out of commission for a little while.  

In his hospital room, Swift laid his head back onto the pillow, and took several deep breaths, while the nurse monitored him for any changes. Relief was the main emotion coursing through the pony right now. If Bow hadn't come along, he probably would've been in much worse shape, and without a witness, the three ponies might've gotten away with it. Now they'd be out of the weather factory for good, making his job that much easier.  

A knock at the door drew his attention. He lifted up his head, and turned towards the door. It slowly opened, revealing a pair of white pegasi with blond manes, wearing blue uniforms. Swift recognized them as officers of the Cloudsdale Police Department.

"You're Swift Wing?" asked one of them. Swift nodded. "Good. We're here to get your statement regarding the assault those three idiots committed on you."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that," replied Swift. Internally, he felt a bit more joyful. Hoops, Dumb-bell, and Score would not only lose their jobs, they'd be going to jail, and he'd never have to see them again. This was turning out better than he'd expected.

"We've already arrested those three," continued the officer, "thanks to the call we received from Mr. Hothoof. You'd better thank him, by the way. He's fully prepared to testify and say that he saw them attack you, and that anything you did to them was just self-defense. Are you willing to do the same?"

"Absolutely," said Swift. It wasn't like those three were part of some pony mafia.

"Alright, if we could just get your signature here." The officer held out a sheet of paper and a pen. Swift took the pen between his teeth and signed, thankful that he'd practiced writing this way. Satisfied, the two pegasi turned and left, leaving only a card with the address of the station on it in case Swift needed anything further.

Swift leaned back into the bed, and would've fallen asleep, had another knock at the door not interrupted him. The nurse pony opened it up, revealing his newest visitor, Bow Hothoof. There was also a second, lighter blue pegasus standing behind the stallion, and Swift tried not to give away the fact that he recognized her.

"Hey there, buddy," said Bow, trotting up to Swift's bedside. "I'm glad to see you're still in one piece." He gestured to his companion. "This is my wife, Windy Whistles."

Swift had to bite his tongue to stop himself from saying "I know." He reached out and bumped his hoof against the mare's. "Nice to meet you," he croaked out, before coughing a couple of times.

Windy quickly passed Swift a glass of water. "Here, you'll wanna drink up."

Swift obeyed without hesitation, draining the glass in a couple of quick gulps. "Thank you," he breathed once he was finished. "And thanks for saving my hide back in that alley."

"Oh, that was nothing," Bow insisted, scratching the back of his head with one hoof. "I was just passing by. I did what any good pony would've done."

"But you're not just any good pony, sweetie!" replied Windy, giving her husband an affectionate nuzzle. "You're the biggest, strongest, best stallion ever!"

Swift smiled a bit at the display. "I'm sure you've already learned it by this point, but my name is Swift Wing. Nice to meet you."

"Glad to meet you, pal," said Bow. "I'm sorry those three idiots felt the need to pummel you like that. I'm honestly surprised they've managed to keep their jobs at the weather factory this long. Luckily, they're getting what they deserve."

Swift nodded. "Stupid losers. They didn't even really have a good reason for it. Yeah, I know, there's really no good reason to corner somepony and beat the snot out of them, but even disregarding that, their whole motive was stupid."

Bow raised an eyebrow. "What was the reason they gave you?"

"They'd been getting on my nerves at the factory," Swift continued, "bumping into me and trying to get a rise out of me. Probably so I'd get in trouble when I retaliated. When that didn't work, I guess the best thing they could think of was to send me here." He scoffed, rolling his eyes in the process. "Idiots."

"It's lucky you showed up when you did, Bow," chimed in Windy. "Otherwise, there would've been nopony to corroborate Swift's story. They might've managed to get away with thrashing him."

"I'm more concerned about what they would've done to him," Bow replied. "Seriously, they were talking about breaking his wings. Those ponies may be stupid, but they're also just plain cruel."

"Yeah, but luckily, we don't have to worry about that," said Swift.  

Bow opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, the nurse returned to the room. "I'm sorry to disrupt everyone," he said, "but this patient requires long periods of rest. He'll probably be getting out tomorrow."

"Alright," replied Bow. He turned back to Swift. "Why don't you come visit us after you get out? We'd love to chat some more." He scribbled down the address on a piece of paper, before passing it over.

Swift took the note, trying to decide if he'd take them up on the offer. Sure, the couple might be a bit overbearing, and related to Rainbow Dash, but they seemed like nice enough ponies. He supposed there was very little risk in visiting them.

"Thanks. I will," he promised. "Hopefully, I'll be in better shape next time you see me."

Bow and Windy then turned around and trotted out of the room, leaving Swift alone with his thoughts. The crimson pegasus then settled his head onto the pillow, and closed his eyes. After everything he'd been through, he was looking forward to some sleep.





The next day, Swift was released from the hospital, with instructions not to take any intense jobs at the factory for the next few days. He was also supposed to fly as little as possible to avoid straining his injured muscles. Barring anything unforeseen, Swift would be completely fine. Since he'd been excused from work that day, Swift had decided to take up his rescuer on the offer.  

Bow and Windy's house wasn't hard to find, sitting on the south side of Cloudsdale. It resembled a lot of nice suburban homes from back on Earth, though this one had the distinction of everything beneath being made of clouds. The house itself was fairly small, and Swift briefly wondered how cramped Rainbow Dash must've felt as a filly, since she loved flying so much. Keeping her contained inside must've been a nightmare.

Swift swallowed as he trotted up to the door. He knew that this visit had little chance of exposing him, unless he said something really stupid. However, at the end of the day, he was still a socially awkward pony. Even if he'd already met these two before, he was still nervous he'd embarrass himself. Still, at least they wouldn't be asking any questions he couldn't answer.

He raised one hoof and knocked. It only took a couple of seconds before Windy answered the door.

"Oh, Swift! I'm glad to see you're out of the hospital!" she exclaimed. "Come in, come in! We've been hoping you'd visit!"

Swift strolled into the house, while Windy went off to find Bow. Swift recognized some of the interior from the episode "Parental Glideance," although he'd only watched that particular episode once. Naturally, the walls were covered with photos of Rainbow Dash, some featuring her with racing medals, some of her in her Wonderbolt uniform, and a hooful of foal pictures. Swift smiled a little, briefly wishing he'd had parents as doting as Rainbow's. Then again, that would've gotten annoying after a while.

Soon enough, Windy and Bow strolled back into the living room. "Swift, buddy!" exclaimed Bow. "I'm glad to see you're still in one piece!"

"Mostly thanks to you, but that's beside the point," Swift said with a smile. "Are you sure there isn't some way I can repay you? I pretty much owe you my health, if nothing else."

Bow shook his head. "Like I said, I just did what any good pony would've done. Knowing that you'll be okay is reward enough for me. Come on, let's sit." He gestured over to the couch.

"Oh, let me go get some snacks!" insisted Windy, scurrying out of the room.  

Swift obediently took a seat on the couch, while Bow took the chair. 

"So, even though I protected you, we don't know much about each other," said Bow. "Let's share some of our stories. You wanna start?"

"Well, there's not a lot to tell, admittedly," said Swift, mentally calling up his rehearsed story. "I've been on the move throughout Equestria for the last couple of years. I tried living in Ponyville for a while, but unfortunately, that didn't work out. Then I came to Cloudsdale, got a job at the weather factory. That's about it for me."

He looked up at Bow, only to see the stallion had frozen in surprise. Swift wondered why, until he realized he'd mentioned Ponyville. It didn't take a genius to figure out exactly what had caught Bow's attention.

"You used to live in Ponyville?!" exclaimed Windy, coming out of the kitchen with a plate of fruit balanced on one hoof.

"Yeah..." Swift ventured, trying on purpose to sound more confused than he really was, "why? Did you two used to live there, or—"

"Well, no," replied Bow, "but our daughter lives there. The amazing Rainbow Dash!" Bow then pulled open his outer jacket to reveal a t-shirt with Rainbow's Cutie Mark on it. "Bet you didn't know we were the parents of a Wonderbolt and the bearer of the Element of Loyalty!"

"No, but wow!" replied Swift, stuffing as much surprise into his voice as he could. "Now that I look at your pictures, I do recognize her..." He figured informing them that he knew Rainbow Dash was safe enough.

"Oh, you met her?!" exclaimed Windy again, taking a seat in the recliner next to her husband. "How is she? Amazing, right? Tell us, how's she doing?" A frown briefly replaced the enthusiastic smile on her face. "We haven't had the chance to fly down and visit her for a while. Honey, we really should get on that."

"I agree," replied Bow, "but first, tell us. Is she doing alright? Still flying with the Wonderbolts? How incredible is that! Our daughter is just awesome!"

"W-well," Swift stammered, "I don't know her very well. We bumped into each other a couple of times while I was living in town, which I think is kind of unavoidable in such a small town, but that's it. I wasn't really close friends with Princess Twilight or any of the other bearers. She seemed to be doing fine to me. She was a nice enough pony."

The couple's faces dropped in disappointment, but only for a second, as they soon sprang back into their overjoyed smiles.

"Nice enough?!" Windy replied. "Why, our Rainbow Dash is the nicest pony of all nice ponies!" She whipped out a megaphone. "OUR RAINBOW IS THE NICEST—" She stopped, seeing that Swift was plugging his ears with his wingtips. "Oh, I'm sorry. Force of habit. We're trying to learn not to cheer every little thing Rainbow does anymore, but it's hard to break that routine."

"I'll bet," replied Swift. "Still, she is a great pony. I was there when the Wonderbolts spread Sombra's mind control to Cloudsdale. If it hadn't been for Rainbow and the others, I'd still be brainwashed."

"Oh, that sounds nasty!" said Bow. "We were out of town for a business trip that day, so we didn't get caught up in that, but we heard all the details. It sounds terrible."

"Believe me, it was." A thought suddenly occurred to Swift. "What do you two do for a living? I just realized I never asked."

"Well, back in our younger days, Bow and I used to work in the weather factory," replied Windy, "but after years of that, we both moved into desk jobs. Managing what weather is gonna be sent where, on which days, you know?"

"That's how I recognized those three idiots beating down on you," Bow continued. "They've been working there for years, doing just enough work so they don't get fired, but never enough that they advance. Their little tussle with you was the worst thing I've ever seen them do. Even if they somehow get found innocent (which won't happen, but if it did), they'll never be welcomed back there."

Swift was surprised they didn't bring up how the three bullies had picked on Rainbow Dash at flight camp, or even when she'd come to Cloudsdale for the Best Young Fliers Competition. Perhaps they simply didn't know. He considered informing the couple of it, but then reasoned it would raise more questions, as well as get him in trouble with Rainbow Dash. It just wasn't worth it.

"So is there anything else you can tell us about yourself?" asked Bow. "With a name like Swift Wing, I'm honestly surprised you're not a racing pegasus."

Swift shrugged. "I guess my parents thought I might be, but I never had any interest in that kinda stuff. I learned enough to fly, but that level of physical activity just isn't for me." Mentally, he briefly wondered if he should've chosen a different name. He knew from the show that ponies did occasionally change their names, like with Mrs. Cake, but he didn't know the details.

"I understand that," said Windy. "Not everypony can be Rainbow Dash, after all!" Then, realization dawned on her. "I did it again, didn't I?"

Swift chuckled a little. "I don't know what it's like to have foals, but I'm guessing it's hard to stop yourself from praising them all the time."

"If you're a good parent, it is," said Bow. "Our Rainbow Dash was always such a competitive pony, always aiming for the highest peak she could find. I guess we always just wanted to do our best to build up her confidence, so we always praised her hard work."

Swift smiled, thinking about how Rainbow's upbringing had molded her, giving her the ego she was famous for. Rainbow was a good mare, but sometimes, she got a little carried away. He supposed he couldn't blame her, with parents like this. Ultimately, they'd done the best job they could've in raising her, and there was no shame in that.

"So what are you planning to do with your weather factory career?" asked Bow. "Hoping to move up into a manager job, like us? Or is this just a step on the road to your dream?"

Swift's expression shifted into a slight frown. "I'll be honest, I have no idea," he replied. "I only work in the weather factory because it was the best job I could get. I'm just not sure what I want to do with my life." Mentally, he was praying that they wouldn't ask about his Cutie Mark. While he liked these ponies, considering what Bow had done for him, he wasn't comfortable with revealing one of his deepest secrets to them.

Fortunately, Bow merely nodded in acknowledgement. "I understand. You're still young, not everypony figures out what they want to do with their life right away. Heck, it took me years to figure out what I wanted to do."

"Same here," said Windy. "It doesn't make you any less of a good pony, though."

That made Swift feel a little better. He'd always been depressed over his uncertainty about his future, but, apparently, from an outside perspective he wasn't all that different. He climbed to his hooves.

"Well, I'd better get home," he said. "They'll be expecting me back at the weather factory tomorrow, so I'd better get some sleep tonight."

"Alright," replied Bow. "I'll walk you to the door."

"Good-bye, Swift!" said Windy. "I hope you'll drop by again sometime! I'll make us one of my special deserts!"

Swift and Bow trotted to the door of the house. "Thanks again for saving my flank, Bow," said Swift. "If you ever need a favor, feel free to call me up."

Bow chuckled to himself. "Don't worry about that, pal," he replied. "You don't owe me a thing. I was just being a good citizen."
He opened the door and Swift strolled out, waving good-bye to Bow with his wing as he strolled away.





Swift briefly lamented that flying back to his apartment was out of the question. His wings hadn't been badly damaged by the bullies' assault, but he didn't want to disobey the doctors and accidentally cause permanent damage. At least walking gave him a chance to enjoy the sunset, what he could see of it between the buildings. Still, all he wanted was to climb into bed and shut down until tomorrow.

However, as soon as he reached the outside of his apartment, he noticed something that shouldn't have been there. A large crowd of ponies was gathered outside the building, many armed with cameras. The visible Cutie Marks he could see consisted of things like newspapers, cameras, and microphones, leading him to guess that they were reporters. Swift swallowed nervously, wondering if they were covering the story of him getting assaulted and were looking for him. That was attention he didn't want to attract.

Luckily, the crowd of ponies didn't even seem to notice him as he trotted towards the building. Instead, they were talking amongst themselves, and his ears managed to catch snippets of their conversations.

"Do you think she'd take a back door?"

"What's she doing here, anyway? It's just an apartment building."

"Are there any unicorns here that know the far-hearing spell?"

"I know we shouldn't follow her in, but come on—"

Swift quietly slipped around the crowd, making his way to the entrance. He opened the door and made his way to the staircase, beginning the long trek up to his apartment. He hoped that, whatever those ponies were here for, it had nothing to do with him.

Those hopes were dashed, as he reached the door to his apartment, and found a very familiar guest waiting outside.

"Er...I...hello, Swift," said Princess Twilight Sparkle.
> News Flash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Discord..." he groaned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Whatever," Swift snorted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I believe you," said Swift.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sure."  

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Princess Twilight,

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

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

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

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

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

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

	Yours, Swift Wing

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

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





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

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

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

Soon enough, Swift had finished off his salt lick, and set off to fly back to Cloudsdale. He needed to get some sleep, especially with everything that had happened over the last few days.
> Session #3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"...so, basically, he asked me to go hang out with him and Gentle Breeze, and I freaked out and said no. Brilliant move on my part."

Swift Wing's day found him lying on his back on Dr. Feather's couch, reciting the events of the last few days to the psychologist. She hadn't asked him to sit in that position, it had been his suggestion. After the stress he'd been through recently, he wanted to feel comfortable during this session. He'd explained to her the situation with the three idiots from the weather factory trying to beat him up, but of course, that wasn't the most pressing concern.

Dr. Feather had put down her notepad, and was listening intently to Swift's story. "How did they react when you said no?" she asked. "Did they seem disappointed? Did they act judgmental?"

"Thankfully, no on that second one," Swift answered. "I stumbled over my words a lot, but they didn't seem to notice. Thunder just said he was sorry about it, that maybe it could happen some other time, and then they left."

"Well, isn't that a good sign? They didn't condemn you or anything, and they seem to be willing to wait for you. That's good."

"In theory, yes, it is," said Swift, rubbing his hooves over his eyes. "However, I don't see what's there to stop me from freaking out and doing it again. This happens to me all the time. I set a goal for myself, the time comes to accomplish that goal, I fail to do so, and then I just stew in my own misery. What is there to stop this from being another one of those incidents?"

Dr. Feather looked thoughtful at Swift's words. "What kind of goals are you setting for yourself?" she asked, after a minute.

"Well, I'm not going for huge, world-changing stuff," he admitted. "It's usually just little things, like getting up a few minutes earlier on my days off. But when that day comes, I just silence my alarm clock over and over again, and never get up on time. I can get up for work, but usually, only at the latest possible time. And then I feel lazy because of it."

"Understandable. Anypony would be frustrated with that. Are you sure you're setting realistic times?"

"I think so. I'm only trying to get up around five minutes earlier. Yet, I still can't do it."

"At least you're making an effort. There are plenty of ponies who don't even do that."

Swift sighed to himself. "I know, and sometimes, I do make little bits of progress. But my mind tends to discount those moments. When you've gone so long without anybody believing in you, it's pretty hard to believe in yourself."

"You're talking about your sister?"

"Yeah. My mother...she tried her best to be supportive, but she didn't get me. I know it's cliche to say that, but I don't know how else to put it. I love her, but there's a reason I don't talk to my family anymore."

Dr. Feather sat up, as a thought apparently occurred to her. "What about your father? You never mentioned him before."

Swift visibly flinched. He should've guessed that question would come up sooner or later. Dr. Feather noticed right away that she'd hit a sensitive spot.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to answer—"

"No, no, it's alright," Swift insisted, gathering his willpower. "I just...I haven't thought about him in ages. My parents divorced when I was six, and after that, I never saw him again. I asked my mom why he left us, she told me she didn't know. There's no reason to believe she's lying." His thoughts briefly wandered, thinking about whether or not divorce was a big thing in Equestria. His research hadn't answered that question.

"Do you think that affected you? Maybe it was part of the conditioning that led to your mental illness?" asked Dr. Feather.

"It might've," admitted Swift. "It's not like I'm desperately seeking his approval or anything, I barely remember the guy. When I got older, I thought about tracking him down, but decided not to. If he wasn't gonna be there for me, I'm not gonna try and make him."

"Okay, if you're sure." Swift could tell by the tone of her voice that she wasn't one-hundred percent certain he was telling the truth, but at least she wasn't harping on it.

"Anyway, we've talked about my sister, and her 'charms.' Also, I'm pretty sure she blames me for the divorce, and before you ask, yes, I know it wasn't my fault. I was six at the time, for Celestia's sake! But it just became another reason for her to hate me."

"I'm sorry," said Dr. Feather. "But it looks like you can understand how having the idea that you're no good reinforced continually into your brain left you mentally unhealthy."

"Oh yeah. I'm no psychologist, but I figured that out quite a while ago." He nearly added a sentence about how it helped convince him to come to Equestria, but stopped himself by biting his tongue.

"And when you're presented with an opportunity to socialize and make friends, your negative self-image makes you afraid, and you think they'll judge you the same way she did."

"That's a pretty good way of putting it," Swift summed up. "They don't seem like rude or arrogant ponies, so I'm pretty sure that wouldn't actually happen, but logic doesn't really help when you're having a mini panic attack."

"You said you met with the pony who saved you from those three morons. He invited you out from the hospital. What made that different from Thunder Snow's invitation?"

Swift pondered the question, putting his hoof on his chin. "I...don't know, now that I think about it. I mean, Bow protected me, and I guess that made him seem safe in my head, or something. I didn't really reveal anything personal when I was there, but I didn't feel afraid of him or his wife."

"So, since those other ponies went to the trouble of asking specifically you to hang out, could you try to apply that same logic to those ponies?" asked Dr. Feather. "I know, this is easier said than done, especially for someone with your particular traumas, but it can be done."

Swift frowned a little, but not in anger. He felt more lost than anything. The solution she'd pointed out seemed super obvious in retrospect, but the idea still sort of unnerved him. That idea made him feel sad, as though everyone in Equestria had received some sort of guide on how to interact with others, but he'd missed out. Now that he thought about it, he'd had that same feeling back on Earth.

"You've gone a little quiet," said Dr. Feather. "What are you thinking about?"

Swift decided not to censor himself. "Like you said, it's easy on paper, but when I actually try to go out and do it, I...freak out. I feel like the only pony in Equestria who's terrified at the prospect of making a friend. It doesn't help that I don't want them to know I'm a blank flank." He felt one eye beginning to water.

Dr. Feather gave him a sympathetic look. "Well, if it's any comfort, I believe in you," she promised.

Swift swallowed, beating back the tears. He knew there was no shame in crying in front of her, but he preferred not to. "I'll try," he managed to get out, after a minute of silence.

"Alright. I can't ask for any more than that. Anything else you want to talk about?"

Swift laid back down, looking up at the ceiling. "Well, do you remember those acquaintances I talked to you about in Ponyville?" Dr. Feather nodded. "You see, I sort of omitted something important. Those ponies...are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. I didn't know all of them particularly well, but I did meet all of them."

Dr. Feather didn't seem perturbed by his confession. "Alright. Did you get mobbed by paparazzi when you were around them? I understand they've been focusing on Princess Twilight quite a bit recently, with her taking over the throne and everything."

"No, thankfully. I've been writing to them a little, recently, and a couple of days ago, Twilight herself came to visit me. And there were a ton of reporters around my apartment. She didn't say anything to them about me, so I don't think they figured out she was meeting me, but I still think it was kinda rude to show up, unannounced, and risk my name getting into the tabloids. I wasn't shy about telling her that, believe me. To her credit, she did apologize, at least."

"That does sound a little rude. Did she explain why she came without prior notice?"

"Yeah. She said that, since she's gonna be ruling all of Equestria pretty soon, she wanted to see me one more time while she could still go places without a constant guard. While I am kinda flattered by that, I still got annoyed with her, which she did seem to understand. It just bothers me that I set my boundaries, but she bypassed them."

"I think anypony would be frustrated by that. Still, at least she apologized to you. I wouldn't waste your energy dwelling on it and holding it against her, it'll just make you feel angrier."

The crimson pegasus sighed and rubbed his face. "You're right, I know. I can't even really stay mad at her, since she's not a bad pony. But I'm not making any promises if she does it again. Granted, that's unlikely."

"Fair enough," replied Dr. Feather. "What about the Cutie Mark search? Any progress on that front?"

"Not really," Swift admitted. "I've read a lot about Cutie Marks in the past few weeks, but I haven't really been trying to actually get one. There's just so much conflicting research on how ponies actually get one that study doesn't really help. I'm not sure if I need to nurture a talent I want a Cutie Mark in, or just do what I've been doing, and maybe it'll show up by itself one day." He looked up at Dr. Feather. "How'd you get yours, if you don't mind me asking?"

"It's no trouble," she answered. "When I was a filly, I used to volunteer to help the school nurse out from time to time. I spent a lot of days just comforting ponies who got hurt and were staying in the hospital wing, and one day it just showed up." She chuckled a little at the thought. "A lot of ponies suggested I go into surgery, but I remembered how much I loved that, and I decided to become a counselor instead."

Swift smiled. "Lucky," he quipped. "I just wish I knew what I was supposed to do with my life."

"Did you hear about the Cutie Mark Crusaders while you were in Ponyville? I hear they help a lot of ponies who are unsure about their Marks."

"I thought about visiting them," Swift admitted. "But from the stories I've heard, they mostly deal with ponies who already have their Marks, not blank flanks." He left out the fact that he wasn't comfortable revealing his biggest secret to three fillies.

"Well, in my opinion, the first thing you should do is focus on finding what you enjoy, then see what happens from there. You're not going to get a Cutie Mark just by doing nothing."

"I know," he answered with a sigh. "I read somewhere that most researchers believe Cutie Marks are an expression of a pony's soul, so if you don't really know yourself, you won't know what your Mark is gonna be. Kinda paradoxical, isn't it?"

"It sounds like you need to work on getting to know yourself and what you want out of this life," replied Dr. Feather. "We have a little time left, is there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

"One more thing, kinda in the same vein as our first topic. It's about my self-image. I just...I don't see how anypony would want to hang out with me, ever, once they know what I really am. I'm a boring pony, as much as I'm ashamed of it. The sad, unfair truth is that everyone needs to be interesting to be wanted. There's no place for a pony that doesn't do anything, a pony that doesn't even have a special talent. What's even the point of my life?"

Saying all of that in one go broke something internally. Swift covered his face with his hooves, allowing a few tears to leak out from between them. He'd been suppressing these emotions for weeks, and now that dam was ready to burst. He was ashamed of losing control like this in the middle of a session, but he physically couldn't stop himself.

Dr. Feather passed him a tissue, then spoke calmly. "Swift, I want you to answer me honestly. If you met someone like you, somepony with no hobbies, an uninteresting life, and no Cutie Mark, would you throw them aside like garbage?"

"Well...no," Swift admitted. "I don't wanna be cruel."

"Then why do you assume everyone else will do that to you?"

"...I don't know."

"I know, your emotions don't always make sense, but there are ways to work around that. You can be better than those doubting thoughts in your head. It's not your fault your sister basically brainwashed you into believing you have no value, and you can get past it."

Swift wiped away the tears on his cheek. "I just...I wish she hadn't done that. I wish I knew what it was like to be confident."

"You'll find that self-esteem. It'll just take time and effort, maybe some practice. I want you to see what steps you can take, and try coming up with a step-by-step plan so that, next time Thunder asks you to hang out, you don't succumb to your anxieties."

Part of Swift doubted that there would even be a next time, but he kept quiet.





Swift Wing dragged himself home after what he hoped was a productive session. In hindsight, he supposed he hadn't really learned anything new, just new ways of looking at things. That was pretty much how therapy was supposed to go, but sometimes he wished the counselors would be able to just give him the answers, something he was certain every patient wished at some point. Still, it was nice to have someone to talk to at all.

As he made it back to his apartment, he looked over by the mailbox and saw a familiar, gray pegasus mare with a blond mane filling up each one. He trotted over to her.  

"Hey, I'm in 217," he said, showing her his room key. "Can I just have my mail now?"

"Sure thing!" replied the mare, reaching into her bag. "Let me see, 216...no, that's 318...here we go!" She handed him a couple of letters.

"Thanks," said Swift, trying not to stare at her mismatched eyes. "Thanks for serving us, miss...?" After all the debate on the internet back home, he couldn't stop himself from being curious as to what her real name was.

"Hooves. Derpy Hooves," she answered with a smile. She shook his hoof, then went back to sorting the mail.

Swift briefly wondered if she'd been born with that name, or if she'd changed it, but decided it would be rude to ask. He simply took the letters he'd been given, and trotted back up to his room. He flipped through them, discarding the ones that were just coupons he would never use (some things really did never change, no matter what dimension you were in). Eventually, he came upon a letter inscribed with Twilight's familiar signature.  

"Wow, that was quick," he remarked to himself, tearing the envelope open.

Dear Swift Wing,

	Thank you for your concerns regarding my ascension to the throne of Equestria. I admit, I have been quite stressed about the prospect, though not as much as I was before Sombra's attack. Also, thank you for the encouragement. Though if I'd known my years of friendship lessons were designed to prepare me for something as intense as this, I might've spent more time reading up on economics and the like.

	Now, as for your problem, I want to say that I understand, but that would be lying. As you probably know, I turned down a lot of invitations back when I was Celestia's student, but not out of social anxiety or anything like that. It was more that I had no interest in making friends. So, while I empathize, I can't say I know exactly what you're going through. I hope your counselor can help you with a bit more insight on that front.

	If you want me to be completely honest, from what I know about you, you're not a boring pony. You were able to spend time with me and my friend group, and nopony thought you were awkward or weird. You care about helping others, and you do have quite a life story. Of course, I'm not saying you should reveal your true nature to anyone, because I think that's not what you want. You never directly lied to us, so I believe you can tell others about your life while being vague enough that they won't catch on.

	Also, your letter was pretty timely. Rainbow Dash wanted to be the next one to come visit you, but she was concerned that you might still harbor negative feelings towards her after what she said to you, back when we'd just found out who you were. I told her you probably wouldn't, but she wanted me to make sure I got the truth from you. I also wanted to know if you'd be comfortable with me sharing the contents of your last letter with the others. You sort of implied that you were, but I didn't want to assume anything. Please respond as soon as you can.

	Thank you,

	Princess Twilight Sparkle

Swift read through the letter again, finding nothing he hadn't expected, with the exception of the Rainbow Dash thing. He supposed, after the flying lessons they had together, she probably wanted to apologize for being so quick to judge him. At least he hoped that was the reason.

Was he okay with Twilight showing the letter to the others? He had meant to write that he was, hadn't he? There were none of them he didn't trust, so he could see no argument against doing so. Meeting with Rainbow again after so long would be pretty awkward, though, especially after the thing with her parents. What else did he have to lose, though?

Grabbing a piece of paper, Swift scribbled down his response, stuffed it in an envelope, and stamped it. He planned to get it to the post-office as soon as he got something to eat. After Twilight's prompt response, taking a long time to get back would've felt rude.
> Let the Rainbow Remind You
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was another day off work for Swift Wing. He'd specifically requested it so that he could go through today's meeting without having to wait until he was done making more clouds. His superiors had evidently decided that he was good at that, and assigned him to solely focus on it for the foreseeable future. Swift didn't mind, but that kind of work sure was tiring.

At the moment, he was standing outside of his apartment, occasionally checking his watch. She was supposed to get here within a couple of minutes, but knowing her, she could easily be taking a nap, and would wake up, realize she overslept, and zoom over to him. One of the few things he missed about Earth was phones, and the ability to instantly communicate. Twilight had Spike's dragon fire, at least, but that was pretty much a luxury only she had.  

"Yo, Swift!" called out a hoarse voice. Swift smiled a little. Right on cue.

He turned, discovering a mare trotting towards him. She was wearing the Equestrian version of a gray hoodie, which sat on her back, completely obscuring her mane, tail, and Cutie Mark, with only two little holes for her wings to stick through. She also wore a pair of sunglasses over her eyes. The exposed portions of her coat, the few that existed, were sky blue.

"Uh, do I really have to wear all this stuff?" Rainbow Dash complained. "It's cramping my style!"

"Come on, Dash," Swift replied. "You're a Wonderbolt. If you're seen walking around with me in public, it's gonna lead to questions I can't answer. Please, just do this for me?"
"Alright, alright," acquiesced Rainbow. "Gotta respect your right to privacy and all that. Sometimes I wish this place was smaller, like Ponyville."

"Me too." The two pegasi started to walk down the cloud street, side by side. "So are there any good places to eat around here? I haven't been looking, because I've been trying to save my money."

"Oh, there's plenty. But if you really want the best value for your bits..." Dash replied. She pointed with one blue hoof. "You can't beat the Silver Lining. Best place in the whole city."

Swift briefly snickered at the cloud pun, but still marched towards the place as Rainbow pointed it out. "Thanks for the recommendation. I'll pay, I've got the money now."

"Are you sure? It's really no trouble. I'm a Wonderbolt now, I make a lot more cash."

"Look, if you really insist, we can split the bill again. Just don't order an all-you-can-eat buffet."

"Don't worry, I gotta keep up this muscular body."





After they'd made their way to a table, they ordered (Swift going for an omelet, and Rainbow picking out a daffodil sandwich), and began to converse.

"So how's everything been?" Swift ventured. "I know about Twilight's impending ascension, of course, but what about you and the others?"

"Not a ton of stuff has changed, honestly," said Rainbow, taking another bite of her sandwich. "I was actually in Appleloosa a couple days ago. Ponyville was playing in the buckball tournament. I got to meet up with Quibble Pants again."

"The guy from that Daring Do convention? What's he up to?"

Rainbow proceeded to tell Swift about Quibble's problem with his marefriend's daughter, Wind Sprint, and how her attempts to mold him into a sports pony had pretty much ended in failure.  

"That makes a lot of sense. Some ponies--and people--just aren't fit for the sports world. Look at me." Swift gestured to himself. "I'm never gonna make the Wonderbolts. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just stating the facts."

"Yeah, I suppose," Rainbow replied. "Hey, Swift? I know Twilight already wrote about it in her letter, but I'm really sorry I accused you of being a spy for some other evil universe or whatever. I didn't have any evidence, I shouldn't have done that." She snorted. "Some Element of Loyalty I am. I teach you how to fly and promise to keep your secret, but the second I find out what you are, I turn around and yell at you."

"Hey, I'm not still mad at you for that," Swift insisted. "You had a right to be suspicious of me. And I don't think you went against your Element. What should you be more loyal to, some guy you just met, or your best friends?"

"Fair enough. Still, you didn't deserve to be treated like that, and I'm sorry."

"Alright. I'll accept your apology, if it makes you feel better."

"Thanks, buddy." Rainbow took the last bite of her sandwich. "So, uh...I heard you met my parents."

Swift chuckled a little at her cringing face. "Yeah, although it was an accident. Your dad saved my hide from those idiots. I really owe him for that."

"Those same three who bullied me and Fluttershy at Flight Camp? Yeah, I remember them." Rainbow groaned at the memory. "I can't believe they tried to beat you up just because you ignored them. Who does that?!"

"Losers who have nothing better to do with their time," said Swift. "They couldn't even come up with a decent insult from my name. All they had was Swift Wimp. That's even less creative than Rainbow Crash."

"Still, I never expected them to go that far. Then there's the fact that my dad rescued you. I never thought of him as a tough pony. He has a desk job, for Celestia's sake! And before that, all he did was weather work!"

"You wouldn't know that by watching the way he took on those three. It was like they couldn't even touch him. Lucky Sombra's enchantment didn't manage to touch him, or you girls might've had to fight him back at the castle."

"Yeah," Rainbow agreed. "So, do you have any interest in joining me on a trip to my parents' house, since you're friends with them? I promised them I'd visit the next time I was in Cloudsdale, and it would be nice to talk to them about somepony besides me."

"Sure. I'll come if you want me to." Swift was actually happy at the prospect. He'd been meaning to visit Bow and Windy again at some point, and this gave him a perfect opportunity. "Just don't tell them my secret, alright?"

"Don't worry, I'd never do that to you."





After finishing their meal, and Swift caught Rainbow Dash trying to pay for the whole thing when he wasn't looking, they set off for Bow and Windy's house. They lived on the other side of Cloudsdale, so Rainbow Dash's cover had to endure for longer than they'd expected. Still, nopony recognized her, or if they did, they didn't call out to her. Everything was going great.

"You sure you want me along for this?" asked Swift. "You know there's a chance that they'll get  the...wrong impression."

"What wrong impression?" asked Rainbow. "Seriously, you know them. Sure, they're overbearing, but they're cool ponies."

Swift got the feeling Rainbow hadn't picked up on what he meant, but he decided not to press it. Instead, he raised his hoof and knocked on the door.

"Coming!" came a familiar voice on the inside. A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal the face of Windy Whistles. "Oh, hi Swift, how are you doing..." She trailed off, as she noticed the second guest on her doorstep.

"Uh, hi mom," said Rainbow, pulling down her shades. "I—"
She didn't get out another word before Windy tackled her to the ground, squeeing all the way. Rainbow's glasses fell off, and her hood slid backwards.

"RAINBOW!" she shouted, wrapping her forelegs around Dash's neck. "WE HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN SO LONG AND I KNOW I TOLD YOU TO VISIT, BUT IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AND I LOVE YOU!" She lifted her head and yelled back into the house, "BOW! RAINBOW'S HERE!"

From in her mother's embrace, Rainbow groaned. She turned her head to look at Swift, who was trying (and failing) to contain his laughter.  

"Hardy har har," whined the pegasus. "You wouldn't be laughing in my position."





After Windy got through gushing over Rainbow (and Bow proceeded to do the same thing), the two pegasi had finally calmed down enough to let Swift and Rainbow into the house. Windy had been baking cookies, so they were served some, along with glasses of milk, despite informing the couple that they'd already eaten.

"We didn't know you two were close friends!" said Bow. "Swift mentioned he knew you, but not very well."

"We're not that close," said Rainbow, shooting a quick, coded glance at Swift. "We just met while he was in Ponyville. He seemed like a nice enough guy. I dropped by the city to visit him, and I figured I could knock out seeing both you two and him at the same time."

"Yeah, she was interested to hear about me getting a job at the factory, since she used to work there," added Swift. They'd practiced their cover story on the way here to avoid alluding to the truth about Swift's time in Ponyville, which could potentially expose him.

"Glad to hear it," said Bow. "So Rainbow, how's the Wonderbolt business going? Everything you ever dreamed of?"

"Pretty much, yeah," said Rainbow. "We're practicing a new routine for Princess Twilight's coronation. Spitfire says I've exceeded a lot of her expectations."

"That's good," said Windy. "Sorry we weren't able to come to your performance last week. You know, lotta weather arrangements needed to be sorted out."

"That's okay." Rainbow pressed her forehooves together, looking a little awkward. "I, er...I guess I never apologized for not telling you and dad about the whole Wonderbolt thing. So I'm sorry."

"Thanks, Dash," said Bow. "But we forgave you already. We could never hold a grudge against our Rainbow Dash!" He wrapped a leg around Rainbow's neck and squeezed her close.

"Dad, you're doing it again," Rainbow moaned.

"Oh, sorry!"

Swift giggled a little. If he had to be honest, he was feeling a little jealous, having not had a great relationship with his own parents. Still, it wasn't like that was Rainbow's fault, so he pushed it aside.

"So," Windy began, "is this your...first time hanging out?"

"Pretty much, yeah," said Swift. He was confused over the hesitation in her voice. What was she thinking about?

"Well, Rainbow...you know..."

Rainbow Dash blinked a couple of times. "Mom, I'm sorry, but I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."

Windy fumbled with her forehooves a little. "It's just...we would like some grandfoals, and Swift is a nice looking stallion—*"

Rainbow and Swift had both been taking sips of their milk at the time, but upon those words, both spewed the contents of their mouths out. Bow and Windy narrowly avoided the spray of liquid coming their way.

"WHAT?!" Rainbow screamed. "YOU THINK...ME, AND HIM...?!"

"YEAH!" added Swift. "I MEAN...SERIOUSLY, WE BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER!"

"Honey, we talked about this," said Bow. "We promised we wouldn't pressure Rainbow about the whole relationship thing. She'll find somepony in her own time."

"I know, I know," Windy responded. "I just thought they looked kind of cute together..."

"MOM!" Rainbow screamed again. "AGAIN, WE BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER!" She grabbed a nearby paper bag and began taking deep breaths into it.

Swift could only cradle his head in his hooves and shake from side to side from sheer embarrassment. "This is not happening..." he moaned.

"I'm so sorry, you two," Bow hastily said. "It's just something we were talking about earlier. Rainbow's pretty much accomplished her career goals, so we were thinking about her personal life."

Rainbow only glared at him.

"Not that we want to put any pressure on you in that department, sweetie!" Bow added. "And Swift, I promise I'm not asking you to date our daughter."

"Good," Swift replied with a groan.  

Windy, to her credit, did seem to realize she'd been overbearing. "Sorry, you two," she apologized. "It's a motherly thing, I promise not to do it again."

Swift didn't know how to respond anymore. And apparently, neither did Rainbow Dash.  





The rest of the visit passed, albeit awkwardly thanks to Windy's shenanigans. After they'd finished their cookies, Swift and Rainbow Dash headed back to Swift's apartment.  

"I'm sorry about my mom," said Rainbow. "I swear, I never expected her to pull a stunt like that. Did that show of our lives ever show you my parents?"

"Yeah. There was an episode that told the story of them finding out you were a Wonderbolt and all that stuff with Scootaloo afterwards. I never expected that either."

"They love me, I love them, and I understand they mean well, it's just a little...much sometimes. I mean, seriously? I think it's just because you're the first stallion they've ever seen me hang out with."

"Lucky they didn't see you with Quibble Pants then, am I right?" Swift joked. The two pegasi shared a small, uncomfortable laugh at that thought.

"Thanks for being so understanding, though," added Rainbow.

"It isn't your fault. My mother once made a joke when I had a friend over who just happened to be a girl. She wouldn't talk to me for a week. Then my mom made another joke that I didn't even like girls, when she knew fully well that I did."

"Sorry about that." Rainbow looked at Swift. "Are you alright? I know you've had some pretty rough times here, what with those three idiots trying to beat you up, and Sombra managing to take control of you, and everything."

"Don't worry about me, Dash," insisted Swift. "Honestly, anything Equestria's thrown at me pales in comparison to how much life sucked back home."

Rainbow frowned a little at that statement, making Swift curse internally. He knew that topic was probably something he should avoid, considering how they'd reacted when they'd learned his reasons for leaving Earth. He suddenly felt worried about what Rainbow Dash would report back to Twilight.

"Well, if you're sure," Dash continued. "Rarity wanted to be the next one to visit you. Do you wanna set up a date for that?"

"Uh, sure," replied Swift. He pulled a small notebook out of his saddlebags, in which he'd written down his work schedule for the next couple of weeks. "How about next Thursday? I've got nothing going on there."

"Sounds good. I'll let her know." Rainbow spread her wings, and took off from the ground with a single flap. "Take care of yourself, buddy." She made a turn in midair and zoomed off, leaving Swift alone.

The crimson pegasus sighed as he made his way back into his apartment. "That could've gone better," he grumbled.
> Trouble on the Horizon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that Swift was back at work, the next big project for the weather factory was the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. This one was especially important, as it would be the final one before Celestia and Luna retired. Canterlot needed very specific weather for the day, so the weather team was tasked with making sure the city got plenty of rain in the time leading up to it. Swift had been busting his flank making rain clouds for the past week, and he was exhausted. Thankfully, he hadn't been scheduled to work on the day of the celebration. Now, with the day itself upon them, he was looking forward to a relaxing break at the event itself. He wasn't expecting the chance to speak to Twilight or any of the Mane Six, considering they were probably busy with the organization, but it would be nice to see, anyway. He'd seen Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy a couple of times, as they were coordinating the weather, but that was it.

With Cloudsdale moved closer to the mountain, and Canterlot itself, Swift could move between the two quickly, as could any pegasus that could fly decently. At the current moment, Swift was strolling through the streets of Canterlot itself, with the celebration itself due in a little while. Thunder Snow had come with him just to hang out, and the two were enjoying the sights in the time they had.

"I've actually never been to Canterlot," remarked Thunder. "Outside of, you know, that time King Sombra brainwashed us all to attack it."

"Same here," said Swift. "I've seen pictures of the city in a lot of books, but never in person." He'd wanted to visit Canterlot since he'd arrived in Equestria, considering how important it was to the series, but the time hadn't seemed right until now.

"To be honest, I'm kinda surprised the princesses are retiring," admitted Thunder. "I mean, sure, Princess Twilight is great. She's saved Equestria a hundred times over. But Celestia's been around so long, and Luna's only technically been on the throne for a few years. I wonder what made them decide to just hoof it over to her. What do you think, Swift?"

Swift was silent for a minute. He didn't know for certain, but this sounded like a series finale to him. Like this was going to be the final season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. He supposed it made sense. Celestia had certainly been grooming Twilight for something all those years. He didn't know why they decided to completely give up the throne so soon, but he supposed he wasn't in any position to judge.

"I don't know what to feel," he finally admitted. "I'm sure Princess Twilight will be a good ruler. I just wonder what the others will do with all of their new free time."

"Good point," replied Thunder. "I don't know how anypony who retires ever manages to find enough things to do. If I didn't have some sort of job, or obligation, I'd go crazy."

Swift opened his mouth to continue the conversation, but the two were interrupted. That interruption took the form of a blast of lightning in the skies above, followed by a thunderclap. Swift and Thunder slammed their forehooves over their ears, just in time for rain to begin pouring down upon them.

"I thought they ordered clear skies for the Summer Sun Celebration!" shouted Swift above the noise.  

"They did!" Thunder yelled back. "Feather Flatterfly was supposed to have his team clearing out all the clouds by now!"

"Maybe we should check on him!"  

Another bolt of lightning struck, this time hitting the ground right next to the two pegasi.

"Or maybe we should find some cover!" Swift shouted again.

Swift and Thunder charged through the now pounding rain, rushing towards Canterlot Castle. On the way, they passed the food stand, and noticed several earth ponies with dulled eyes lying on the ground and looking weakened. Swift's brain began racing, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't good.

Eventually, they made it to the castle entrance, diving under the archway in the front to get out of the rain. Both pegasi shook themselves free of the water clinging to their coats. The two Royal Guards stationed at the door didn't seem to mind them.

"Well, this is a fine mess we're in," complained Thunder, as another lightning strike lit up the sky.  

"I know, right?" said Swift. "Seriously, did somepony open the emergency storm vault at the factory? Because I can't think of any other way this could've happened."

"I don't know. Feather Flatterfly is always compulsively checking the weather schedule, and he's always focused on getting things right, so I highly doubt he would have made a mistake this big."

Before Swift could reply, the front door swung open. Swift and Thunder turned around to find Princess Twilight, as well as the rest of the Mane Six, Spike, Celestia, Luna, and Discord, coming out the door.

"Excuse us, we're in a bit of a hurry—Swift?!" exclaimed Twilight as she noticed him. "What are you doing here? I thought you weren't scheduled to be part of today's weather team."

Internally, Swift groaned. He'd really hoped that this wouldn't come up today, not while he was with Thunder.

"Princess Twilight?" said Thunder. "You know him?" He turned back to Swift. "You never said you knew her personally."

"Oh, we all know Swift! He—" Pinkie Pie began, before Applejack shoved a hoof into her mouth as nonchalantly as possible. Realization rose into the party pony's eyes, and she looked down, as though she were ashamed.

Thunder was giving Swift an odd look, and he didn't like it. He could feel himself starting to sweat, and Discord certainly wasn't helping by whipping out a camera and photographing the whole incident.

"See, Pinkie here threw me a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party back when I first arrived," said Swift, his brain kicking into overdrive to come up with a story. "That's when I met them. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to name names, or seem like I was bragging, like 'I know the Princess of Friendship,' you know what I mean?" He turned back to Twilight. "I was going to attend the Summer Sun Celebration, but it looks like that might fall through."
Thunder still looked a little skeptical, but he nodded anyway. He turned back to the Mane Six. "Can any of you tell us what's going on?"

"The earth ponies are getting sick. We don't think it's the food, but we don't know what else could've caused it," said Applejack.

"The unicorn firework brigade we hired now think this is beneath them, for some reason," added Rarity.

"We're not sure what's going on with the weather. All we know is that somepony mixed up the order," said Rainbow Dash.

"Well, you'd have to be doing an intentionally bad job to botch it this badly," said Swift, looking up at the raging storm. "Is there anything the two of us can do to help? We're both trained weather ponies."

"Yeah, but I'm guessing neither of you have a lot of practice wrangling rogue storms," replied Rainbow. "That's best left to me and the rest of the Wonderbolts."

"Are you sure you don't need us?" asked Thunder. "We do know how to bust storm clouds. We could focus on those while you take on the big stuff."

"I suppose that could work," said Celestia. "But you'd still be taking a bit of a risk. Are you certain you want to help? There's no shame if you don't want to put yourself in danger."

Swift did have to admit, that storm looked pretty intense. He hadn't had to dismantle anything more dangerous than a rain shower so far. Still, it would be pretty rude to ignore ponies in trouble. From the look on Thunder's face, he guessed his friend had come to a similar conclusion.

"We'll do what we can," he insisted.

Celestia studied him for a minute, but she apparently overcame any doubts she had. "Alright then, my little ponies. We'll accept your assistance."

"Excellent! I don't have to lift a finger!" cheered Discord. "Or a talon. Whichever you prefer."

"Discord..." Fluttershy admonished him.  

"I know, I know. It's just that nice nobody's asking me to snap everything away." He gave Swift a small wink, sending a shiver down the crimson pegasus’ spine.





Busting a storm cloud was not like busting a normal cloud. While a pegasus could simply buck a normal cloud to break it apart, bucking a storm cloud would make it discharge a lightning bolt. The only ways to safely break a storm cloud up was to either wait for it to dissipate naturally, or tie something around it and squeeze until it popped. The latter method was dangerous, especially in a raging storm, where there was always the possibility of being struck by lightning, but a trained pegasus, or group of them, could pull it off.  

Rainbow Dash and the rest of the Wonderbolts were currently performing that particular move, constricting one of the larger clouds and making it swell. More and more raindrops were squeezed out of the cloud, until, with a burst of sound, it broke.

Swift and Thunder took their hooves off their ears. "I suppose I should be glad we don't have to do those clouds," said Swift. "Imagine getting zapped in midair, then plummeting."

"I know," replied Thunder. "I have an older sibling who used to bust storms that blow in from the Everfree, and they told me all their horror stories."

"And yet, you still decided to become a weather pony."

Thunder glared at Swift for a second, but he clearly knew it was all in good fun.

"Let's get to work," he continued.

When the two pegasi, alongside Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, had reached Feather Flatterfly, they'd found a sobbing wreck of a pony freaking out about the disastrous weather mismanagement. Fluttershy had opted to stay with him to try and get some answers as to what happened, while Rainbow ordered Swift, Thunder, and some other volunteering pegasi to collect the smaller storm clouds.  

"So, Swift," Thunder began, as he scooped another cloud up, "like I said, you never mentioned you knew all the Elements of Harmony bearers."

"It didn't seem important," Swift replied. He felt sweat drip down the back of his neck, and he was pretty sure it didn't have to do with the workout he was getting. "And like I said, I didn't want to brag."

"Yeah, I guess I can understand that," said Thunder. "How'd you end up meeting them all, anyway?"

Swift flinched, though he tried not to show it. Thunder was prying, and it was unsettling. But Swift couldn't just tell him to drop it, that would only arouse more suspicions.  

"As I told you before, I saw them all at Pinkie Pie's party. We talked a little, but we weren't really close. They knew I existed, and knew my name, but that's about it." Swift grunted as he crammed another cloud into his bucket.

"Still, they seemed to recognize you pretty fast," Thunder continued. "Why'd you move away from Ponyville, anyway? You said it wasn't for you, but what exactly did you mean?"

Swift had to fight to keep from grinding his teeth. "Well...to be honest, there was a problem with somepony back there. But it's all in the past. Doesn't matter anymore."

"What kinda problem? With whom?"

Swift would've had to be an idiot to miss the eagerness in Thunder's voice. This was getting out of hoof.  

"Look, it's private," he said. "Could we please drop this subject?"

"Aw, come on, dude!" Thunder protested, giving Swift a gentle poke in the ribs with one hoof. "I bet it's an awesome story! Just tell me and—"

Swift turned his head, looking Thunder right in the eye. "No," he said, his voice firm. This was his last resort. He didn't want to push Thunder away quite so roughly, but his friend wouldn't stop.

Thunder looked a little shocked, and for a second, Swift worried he'd gone too hard. But the other pegasus soon relaxed, smiling again.

"Alright. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pried so much," he said.

Swift gave a nervous grin in return. The situation had been defused, but he knew he'd aroused Thunder's curiosity. Fear began to grip Swift's heart, and worst-case scenarios began to play out in his head. What if Thunder told their bosses about it at the weather factory, and it prompted an investigation into Swift's background? Would Twilight and the others cover for him, or would they spill all his secrets?

Then he took a deep breath, and released it slowly. Rational thought began to take place once again inside his brain. Thunder was interested in what he'd been through in Ponyville, sure, but nothing suggested he'd become suspicious of Swift. Swift had committed no crime simply by knowing Twilight, so Thunder had no reason to go to the authorities. Besides, the Mane Six hadn't said anything about him back at the castle, and they'd promised to keep his true nature to themselves. Everything would be fine.

Swift and Thunder dived downwards, carrying their loads of storm clouds, which would be sent back to Cloudsdale for proper disposal. The two landed next to Fluttershy and Feather Flatterfly, who'd calmed down considerably since the last time they saw him. Fluttershy was patting him on the back with one wing.

"It's alright," she said. "There's nothing to worry about, see? The weather will be all cleared up in time for the celebration."

"Thanks. And thank you two for your help," said Feather. "Oh, why did I trust her, though? What was I thinking?"

"Her? Who?" asked Swift. "What happened to cause this weather?"

"There was this salmon-colored pegasus filly," Feather explained. "I was panicking about last-minute changes to the weather, and she came up to me and said she'd take care of it. I was feeling desperate, and I agreed." He groaned. "Guess I should have the word gullible as a Cutie Mark."

"Salmon-colored pegasus filly..." Swift repeated, scratching at his chin with one hoof. He couldn't figure out how, but that sounded awfully familiar.





About an hour later, Rarity had re-convinced the fireworks unicorns to put on the show, Applejack and Pinkie Pie had helped the earth ponies get back on their hooves, and Rainbow Dash's team had fixed the problematic weather. With everything back to normal, the Summer Sun Celebration

proceeded.

Swift and Thunder, as a reward for their assistance, were given front-row seats. They watched as Celestia spoke about how it was the end of the Summer Sun Celebration, only for Twilight to step in and announce how the holiday would be reworked into the Festival of the Two Sisters, honoring Celestia and Luna. Swift applauded with everypony else.

With the ceremony complete, ponies began filing out. Swift got up to leave as well, but he and Thunder were suddenly cut off by the appearance of Pinkie Pie. While Thunder leaped about a foot in the air at the sight, Swift didn't react aside from a smile. He supposed he'd gotten used to the party pony's antics.

"You sure you two don't want to hang around?" she asked. "There's plenty of tasty food left!" She produced a tray of cupcakes.

"Thanks for the offer, but I've had my fill," Swift politely insisted.  

"Suit yourself," replied Pinkie. She immediately began shoveling food into her mouth.

"Are you sure that's safe?" asked Thunder. "I thought some of the earth ponies got sick from the food."

"It can't have been the food," Swift pointed out. "They told us she was eating tons of it during the preparations. If it were contaminated or something, she would've been the first pony to be affected."

"Oh, right. I forgot."

"What Pinkie was trying to say," began Twilight, as she and the rest of the Mane Six approached, "is we're grateful for your help."

"You're welcome," replied Swift. "We were just doing our civic duty."

Twilight smiled in response, but in his head, Swift felt conflicted. There were too many unanswered questions. What made the earth ponies sick? Who convinced the fireworks unicorns that they were above everypony else? And who was the filly that messed up the weather? Swift didn't know, but he had a growing suspicion that this wouldn't be the end.
> Divided We Fall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swift Wing didn't know what was worse: the fact that civilization as everypony knew it seemed to be collapsing, or that he was stuck in the middle of it.

Two weeks had passed since the final Summer Sun Celebration, and Swift had returned to Cloudsdale. Soon afterwards, he'd received an invitation in the mail, a ticket to Princess Twilight Sparkle's coronation. He'd decided he might as well go, seeing little risk to his secrecy in doing so. However, at the current moment, it looked like the coronation might not go according to plan.

Swift had heard the rumors, of course. Claims that the earth ponies were hoarding food to themselves and refusing to serve pegasi and unicorns, the unicorns thinking they were the most powerful ponies in the land and should be treated as such, and the pegasi saying they'd reduce Equestria to a barren wasteland if they weren't given special accommodations. Then there were the things said about the yaks, griffons, and other creatures. He'd dismissed these as ridiculous, seeing how Equestria had gone for centuries without this kind of thing happening. However, everypony else didn't seem to see it that way.  

As Swift trotted down the Cloudsdale street, it seemed like a ghost town. Everypony was shut inside their homes, with the windows covered up. Swift didn't have to look to know that the majority of the unicorn residents of the city had already fled to wherever the majority were gathered. The griffons and hippogriffs had disappeared as well. In addition, the city had a large influx of pegasi from all over Equestria flying in just to get away from other kinds of ponies.

Thinking back to his idea that this was a setup for the final season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Swift supposed it made sense. For a final obstacle, what better than to have the Mane Six face the tribes of Equestria being torn apart? Of course, that didn't mean he liked being caught in the crossfire. It also didn't explain how it was happening.

Suddenly, Swift's sensitive pony ears picked up what sounded like arguing. He picked up the pace, following the noise to its source in a nearby alleyway. Between the buildings, Swift found two pegasi he didn't recognize, both stallions, staring down a lone unicorn mare. She was bravely resisting them, but clearly losing at the same time.  

"You horn headed jerks always thought you were better than us!" snarled one of the pegasi. "Well guess what? Cloudsdale belongs to us! Nopony wants you here, so just get lost!"

"But Cloudsdale is my home, too!" the unicorn insisted. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. "I've got just as much right to be here as anypony else!"

"So you can use your freaky magic to mess with our flying and our weather?" demanded the other pegasus. "Maybe it's time somepony knocked you down a peg..."

The two began stepping forward, but Swift dived in between them and their target, spreading his wings protectively in front of the unicorn. Both stallions recoiled in surprise.

"Look, guys," Swift began, speaking quickly to hopefully cover up the fact that he was afraid of another beating, "don't you have anything better to do than pick on this lady? Seriously, back off."

"What's the matter with you?!" snapped the first pegasus. "You know how snobby unicorns are! We're just doing our part to clean out Cloudsdale!"

He raised a hoof, and Swift braced himself for a punch, but the stallion's comrade stopped before anything could go down.

"Come on, Weathervane," said the pegasus. "He's not worth the trouble. He wants to protect lesser ponies, it'll come back to bite him soon enough."

Weathervane gave Swift another glare, but he nonetheless lowered his hoof. The two turned around, spread their own wings and flew off, leaving Swift alone with the unicorn mare.  

Swift released the breath he'd been holding. He folded his wings back into his sides, and turned to face the unicorn.

"Sorry about those guys," he said to her. "There seems to be a lot of hate going around Equestria lately." Then he noticed the mare was still quivering. "Hey, are you alright? Did they do anything to you?"

"Get away from me, you pegasus brute!" she suddenly shouted. She charged past Swift, pushing him back with one hoof, and charged down the street.

Swift was so shocked that he made no attempt to follow her. His brain was still trying to process exactly what had happened, but coming up blank. Finally, he sighed to himself, and set himself back on the route to his home. He'd prefer staying in isolation to this.





Finally, the day of Twilight Sparkle's coronation arrived. Since Cloudsdale was still so close to Canterlot, Swift could easily make the journey back down. However, before going, he wanted to have a talk with Bow and Windy. Surely, if anypony could avoid this hate plague, they could.

He knocked on the door of their house, and was promptly greeted by the two pegasi.  

"Hi, Swift," said Bow. "What can we do for you today?"

"Please, please tell me you don't believe all the non-pegasi are out to get you," Swift begged.

Their faces fell. "So you've heard those rumors, too," said Windy. "At least you don't seem to have fallen for them."

Swift breathed a sigh of relief. "It feels like all of Equestria is going completely insane," he confessed. "I thought ponies would've learned not to distrust each other. Don't we celebrate that happening every Hearth's Warming?"
"You make a good point," said Bow. "I'm sure Rainbow and her friends don't have anything to do with this idiocy. But I have no idea how it's happening."

"Neither do I," replied Swift. "But it's driving me crazy. I saw this unicorn getting taunted by a couple of pegasi, I stepped in to help her out, and she called me a pegasus brute! What in the name of sanity is going on out there?!"

Windy shook her head. "I wish we had answers, Swift, but we're as much in the dark as you are. I hope Princess Twilight knows about this insanity. Her and Rainbow might be able to talk some sense into everypony."

Swift opened his mouth to reply again, but at that moment, an enormous sound, comparable to a sonic boom, reverberated across the land. A flash of red, orange, and green light, originating from Canterlot Castle, lit up the sky through the window. Swift, Bow, and Windy all gasped and slammed their hooves over their ears to drown out the chaotic clatter.  

The three pegasi rushed outside, just in time to witness the end of the massive magical blast that tore through the back of Canterlot Castle. Cloudsdale was too far away for them to see exactly what was going on, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that it wasn't good.

"What the heck was that?!" shouted Swift.

"I don't know!" exclaimed Bow.

Before anypony else could speak, they were interrupted again, this time by a stampede of hooves and a whole flock of wings rushing across Cloudsdale. They spun around, discovering what looked like every pony in Cloudsdale charging towards the Cloud Colosseum. Some were using the cloudy streets, while the rest flew above. In addition, off in the distance, Swift could see many pegasi, most of whom worked in the weather factory, creating a cloudy barrier around the city.

"I don't like this," Swift muttered. From the expressions on Bow and Windy's faces, he could tell they felt the same.





Swift, Bow, and Windy wasted no time in joining the throngs of ponies cramming into the colosseum. At the center, holding a magical, amplifying microphone, the mayor of Cloudsdale hovered, along with a hooful of royal guard pegasi.

"Ladies and gentlecolts," announced the mayor, "it appears we are undergoing a serious crisis. We've just received word that the villains Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and Cozy Glow have joined forces and attacked Canterlot. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, the Pillars of Old Equestria, Discord, and five of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony have been captured. It is believed that Princess Twilight Sparkle has escaped, but unconfirmed at this time."

A collective gasp echoed throughout the colosseum. Swift Wing could only swallow in fear. If this really was the final season of Friendship is Magic, they were certainly pulling out all the stops. Three of the old villains teaming up? Not to mention they had to be the ones responsible for all this hatred between ponies. Cozy Glow certainly had to have been the one screwing with the weather for the Summer Sun Celebration.

"What do we do now?!" shouted somepony.

"It must be because of those stupid earth ponies and unicorns!" screamed another.

Soon, the air was filled with ponies roaring angry words, while the mayor and the guards desperately tried to maintain some semblance of order. Swift, Windy, Bow, and some others refrained from joining the craze, but they were the exceptions.

"This is awful..." Swift muttered, watching ponies descend into madness around him. "How could they-?"

Suddenly, everypony fell silent as a cold wind began to blow across Cloudsdale, followed by an unnatural howl. Swift began to shiver, feeling bits of frost begin to form on the tips of his wings. He, along with everypony else, cast their eyes skyward. There, floating above Equestria, were three ghost-like, horse-shaped entities, blowing a frigid gale from their mouths and flying in a circle.

"The windigos..." breathed Bow.  

Swift felt both awed and terrified. He remembered the first Hearth's Warming episode, where they discussed how the windigos nearly brought ponies to extinction by feeding off the tribes' hatred for each other and froze nearly all of them. If they truly had returned, it meant the situation was even worse than it had previously seemed.

Everypony in the colosseum turned to the mayor once again, silently begging for words of comfort. Because nopony had any ideas left.

"That's enchanted wind!" declared the mayor. "We can't control it. And we can't rely on those snooty unicorns for any help. Build up the cloud bank! We'll try to block it!"

"What about everypony down below?!" demanded a young pegasus colt.

"They're on their own!" insisted the mayor. "We all are!"

Swift couldn't believe what he was seeing. While there were clearly some doubters in the audience, the majority of ponies seemed to agree with this course of action. Like it was right to just give up on everypony else and fend for yourself, when that was the exact thing fueling the windigos. From the looks on Bow and Windy's faces, he could tell they were having the same thoughts, but none of them knew what to do.

"Everypony! Wait!" screamed that same colt from before. Swift snapped his head back, watching as the colt flew into the center of the colosseum, and grabbed the microphone from the mayor. "My name is Hyper Sonic! Listen! Remember the original story of Hearth's Warming? How the windigos fed off the hatred the pony tribes had for each other?! That's what's happening now! That's the reason they've returned!

"Focusing on our differences keeps us divided! Villains and creatures like the windigos use that against us! So we have to come back together if we're gonna stop them! Not just pegasi, but all ponies, all creatures in Equestria!"

"You honestly think if we all hold hooves and sing songs, it'll drive away those monsters?!" somepony shouted back, and Swift fought the urge to run over and deck him.

"It's not about singing!" Hyper Sonic retorted. "I'm a student of Princess Twilight's school! We learned how powerful the magic of friendship is! How, if we work together, we can accomplish anything! That's how Princess Twilight and her friends always managed to save Equestria! Because they work together! Sure, it sounds kinda silly, but there's real power in friendship! The power to save Equestria! They've always done their part, now it's time to do ours!"

For the first time in days, the seeds of hope in Swift's heart began to grow. This colt was saying all the right things. Somepony was standing up for what was right. Maybe this was it. Everypony would come together to fight against the villains and the windigos, and then the Mane Six would save Equestria. That would be a sight to see.

"Why should we listen to you?!" yelled another pegasus. "You're just a foal!"

"Those snobby unicorns and food-hoarding earth ponies won't help us!" shouted yet another.

The colosseum was soon filled with voices demanding a reason why they should bother to help. Hyper Sonic tried to speak over them, but his voice just wasn't loud enough. Soon enough, pegasi began to suggest that they simply move Cloudsdale as far from Equestria as possible, and let the rest of the ponies and other creatures fend for themselves.

Swift stood watching in sheer disbelief. He didn't understand what was wrong with these ponies. Why were they being so selfish? Why were they willing to abandon Equestria just to save their own flanks? Somepony besides Hyper Sonic had to speak up, to let everypony know what was right.

Swift wasn't a very reputable pony in Cloudsdale. He was pretty much a nobody who'd been in the news once. Not to mention, he hated public speaking. But he knew somepony had to step up, and if he waited, it might be too late. Steeling himself, Swift spread his wings, and took off towards Hyper Sonic's position. He briefly heard Bow and Windy call after him, but he ignored them.

Flying up next to Hyper Sonic, Swift gently poked the colt on the shoulder, prompting him to turn around.

"Hey, kid, can I borrow that microphone?" asked Swift. Hyper shrugged and passed it over. Swift thanked him, then turned to face the crowd, and took a deep breath.

"EVERYPONY SHUT UP!" he screamed as loud as he could. Hundreds of hooves rushed to cover hundreds of ears, but the main objective was accomplished. Every pegasus in the colosseum was silenced in one fell swoop, and all the attention was on Swift.

Ignoring the shaking feeling in his chest, Swift continued. "Thank you! Now that I have your attention, let me give you something to think about. Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends have put themselves in harm's way countless times to protect ponies like us. I myself was rescued from King Sombra not too long ago. Anypony else?"
Several hooves went up.

"But maybe they were wrong to do that, if this is how we're gonna repay them! I bet Princess Twilight is already on her way to Canterlot, with a plan to fix this mess and save Equestria again! Apparently, if the roles were reversed, none of you would be willing to lift a hoof to help!"

"Who are you to talk to us like that?!" demanded a voice from the crowd.

"My name is Swift Wing!" the crimson pegasus shouted back. "I'm just a normal pony, like all of you! And I can see, without a shadow of doubt, that you are all letting yourselves get played like puppets! Did it ever occur to you that us cowering and hiding away from other ponies is what the villains want? That all those bad rumors about the other tribes were probably started by them?! That the windigos will just feed off of our fear and destroy Equestria?! None of you are thinking!  

"Hyper here was right! Princess Twilight and her friends might need us right now, and we're just standing here doing nothing! Well, I won't be part of it! I'm flying off to Canterlot right now to help take down those villains! I'd bet you anything that the other tribes, pony and otherwise, are on their way there right now! Does anypony else have the guts to help out?! Or are you gonna stand there and let Equestria die without even trying?!"

His voice spent, Swift took a couple of deep breaths, passing the microphone back to Hyper as he did so. That speech had taken quite a bit out of him. His lungs felt dry, and he could feel a strange buzzing from his flank. But that was insignificant at the moment. Swift looked up, hoping he'd accomplished something.

As he looked around the colosseum, what he saw started to lift his spirits a little. There were dissenters, of course. Some ponies just looked angry at being spoken to in such an angry manner. But the vast majority had thoughtful expressions, like Swift had awoken something within them. They were speaking with each other, looking confident and brave. Swift could tell he'd reached most of the ponies present.  

"I think that's my cue," said the mayor of Cloudsdale. She reached over and took the microphone from Hyper's outstretched hooves. Then she faced the crowd. "Alright, everypony! If we're gonna help Equestria, we're gonna need some assistance from the unicorns, earth ponies, and every other tribe! I say we go pick them up now!"

A roar of affirmation rose throughout the crowd, followed by thunderous applause. Even the pegasi who Swift had annoyed joined in, probably going by the phrase "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Swift breathed a sigh of relief , before flying back down to rejoin Bow and Windy.

"Swift..." Bow stammered, as though in awe, "...that was...incredible! How'd you do that?!"

Swift wiped sweat off his forehead with one wing. "Celestia as my witness, Bow, I have no idea. It just...seemed like the right thing to do."

"I'd say it worked!" exclaimed Windy, indicating the crowd. "It looks like we're gonna get to help our little Dashie save Equestria for once! And it might not have happened without you!"

Swift smiled shyly. "I was just doing what anypony would've done," he said. "I'm sure, if I hadn't, somepony else would've."  

"Come on then, Swift!" said Bow, as he spread his wings. "There's no time to waste!"

Every single pegasus in Cloudsdale took off, flying towards the final showdown.
> United We Stand
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swift's prediction during his little public standing turned out to be correct. Both the unicorns and the earth ponies had been coaxed into taking action to save Equestria, thanks to ponies who'd been students of Twilight's school, most notably Sandbar. In addition, the rest of the Student Six had convinced their races to join in the fight, wanting to help the ponies who had accepted them. Swift had to admit, they were good at this, even if they weren't his favorite character from the show.  

With the unicorns combing their magic for mass teleportation, and Chancellor Neighsay directing them where to go, the army that would rescue the Mane Six grew and grew. Somepony suggested swinging by the Peaks of Peril to grab the kirin as well, and it turned out they wanted to help, too. Swift had to force himself not to squee at the sight of Autumn Blaze, a character he really liked.  

Soon enough, the army was ready. Every major and minor character from Friendship is Magic, every background creature, even Tempest Shadow (or Fizzlepop Berrytwist) from the movie, even the Flim Flam brothers. Everyone was there.  

"Now, we're betting Princess Twilight and her friends are already there," said Neighsay, "but we don't know how long they'll be able to hold out. Remember, protecting them is our priority."

"We're ready to do our part," said Thorax.

"Yaks ready to smash!" chimed in Prince Rutherford, punctuating it with a stomp.

Swift Wing swallowed, grateful he didn't have to be the leader of this team. Stepping up once was hard enough.





The journey to Canterlot was quick, but not entirely painless. Swift's experience with instant teleportation was nonexistent before that day, and then he had to go through about seven in a row. Being teleported left him disoriented and kind of nauseous, but thankfully, the effects were brief.

After arriving in the hills outside Canterlot, the unicorns acted fast, throwing up a magical shield around Spike and the Mane Six, saving them from the villains' attack. Swift briefly wished he had a camera on him so he could've taken a picture of Tirek's face once he saw that all of Equestria had come together to stop him and his allies. He briefly wondered how Cozy Glow had become an alicorn, Chrysalis had grown weird crown-like protrusions, and what the floating bell was, but it didn't matter.

Neighsay and Spitfire pointed, prompting every creature to charge forward. Swift joined the pegasi and other flyers, zooming towards the villains and beginning to whip up a fog to blind them. The changelings zipped down, shape-shifting into the Mane Six as a distraction.  

Swift darted to a fro, using the training he'd gained from his job, while weaving between the magic beams cast by the villains. To say he wasn't afraid would've been a lie, because he was quivering internally. He was within spitting distance of three of the worst villains in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and they would take him out without a second thought. But he understood he had to do his part for Equestria, his adopted land. So he flew like he'd never flown before.

Suddenly, Swift noticed Tirek reaching out with his hands. Chrysalis and Cozy Glow had taken flight as well, attempting to infiltrate the wall of pegasi and snatch them out of the air. The changeling queen in particular was gaining on Derpy, and baring her fangs. Swift knew somebody had to act fast, and he had no way of knowing if anyone else saw it. So he made a quick u-turn, looped around and flew straight at Chrysalis, driving both forehooves into her surprised face before she could react.

"That's for a Canterlot Wedding, bug-face!" he snarled.  

Unfortunately for Swift, he'd left himself open, a fact Tirek took advantage of, grabbing the crimson pegasus with one large hand. The centaur didn't waste time on words, opting instead to yank Swift up close to him, and preparing to suck out his magic. Swift cringed in fear, knowing what was next.

As it turned out, he needn't have worried. Garble the dragon came to Swift's rescue by ramming his shoulder into Tirek's spine, forcing Tirek to release his grip. The centaur was soon blinded by a swarm of fireballs hurled by angry niriks. Swift flew backwards, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, buddy!" he called out to Garble.  

The red dragon rolled his eyes, presumably at being chummy with a pony, but he nonetheless rejoined the fight. Swift returned to fog-making duty, trying to blind the villains again and dodging a laser from Cozy Glow in the process. Unfortunately, that was cut off when Tirek reared back and punched the ground, sending out a shockwave of magical energy that sent Swift and all the other ponies around them flying. Swift flew back and crashed into the unicorn shield that had been formed around the Mane Six and Spike.

"Hey, girls," he grunted, as he slid down the shield like a water drop off a car window. Twilight politely acknowledged him with a wave.

After Swift hit the ground, he turned around to find that Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy had thrown off the creatures that were plaguing them. The unicorn brigade didn't look like they could hold the shield any longer, but Twilight didn't seem to mind. She took to the air, and fired a magic beam, stopping the villains in their tracks.

Ascending higher, Twilight launched into the customary speech about how every creature had reminded her of the power of friendship and all those important things. Swift thought it certainly sounded like something that would be present in a Friendship is Magic finale, especially for the whole series. That feeling grew when he saw the Student Six, the rest of the Mane Six, and Spike begin to glow white, and the Pillars of Old Equestria teleported in. It was a bit cheesy, of course, but standing alongside an army to vanquish evil was something he'd never experienced on Earth. It was sort of amazing to be part of.

Then, three massive rainbow lasers came from the Pillars, the Mane Six, and the Student Six, converging on Twilight. Her own rainbow laser blasted the windigos from the sky, along with their winter storm, and brought down the power of harmony on the villains, changing them back to their normal selves.

Chrysalis, naturally, attempted to bite back with some evil rant, only for Pinkie Pie to take Discord's magic and drop a castle-sized cupcake on the three of them. Swift didn't know why Discord's magic was trapped in a bell, but he took it back fast enough, along with restoring Celestia's and Luna's. Then the three of them combined their magic and turned the villains into a single, stone statue, imprisoning them forever.

Swift breathed a huge sigh of relief, and from the sounds he heard around him, he wasn't the only one. It was finally over, and no creatures had died in the action. Now, after everything, he just wanted to go home and lie down.

Unfortunately, it seemed life had other ideas, as Swift was suddenly teleported out of the crowd of creatures down to where the main cast stood.

"Wait, what?" he asked, even though nobody had spoken to him in particular. In fact, nobody seemed to have noticed him. Twilight and Celestia were talking, and the rest of the Mane Six were standing around looking proud.  

"Sorry about this, Swift," came a haughty voice from behind him. Swift turned around, to find that Discord had slithered up beside him. "I was hoping you'd cover for me while I sneak off? I imagine they're not too happy with me, still, seeing how this was at least partially my fault."

"Your fault? What are you talking about?" Swift asked. Then, as he remembered the conversation they'd had at his apartment, his eyes narrowed. "Discord, what did you do?"

"Oh, that's right, you're not in the loop," replied the draconequus, smiling nervously. "Well, you see..." He proceeded to relay his recent activities to Swift, whose eyes grew wider and wider with each word.

"You pretended to be Grogar, resurrected King Sombra, recruited those three, and planned to attack Twilight's coronation...to support her?!" he yelled. "Discord, what were you thinking?! Were you thinking?! You didn't see any possible negative outcomes to doing that?!"

"Um, Swift?"

"I mean, seriously! You didn't think they'd use the ability to work together against you?! You even told them where the real Grogar's bell was?! What possible reason could you think that was—"

Swift stopped, noticing that Discord was pointing behind him. He slowly turned around, finding that the Mane Six, Spike, Celestia and Luna were all staring at him, no doubt wondering what he was doing there.

"Uh, hi, everyone," he mumbled. "Yeah, Discord kinda warped me over here. He's hoping I'll distract you while he runs away."

"Traitor," Discord snarled under his breath.

Fluttershy gave Discord a brief Stare, before turning her attention back to Swift. "Thanks for being part of this, Swift," she said. "You seem to have found your place among ponies."

"You could say that," admitted Swift. "It's not perfect, but I'm making progress."

"I'll say!" added Rainbow. "You managed to get a Cutie Mark, that's a big step!"

Swift tilted his head. "Cutie Mark? What are you talking about?"

"She's right, Swift," added Twilight. "Look!"

She pointed at his flank with one hoof. Swift turned, discovering that the pants he always wore had been torn at some point during the battle. Indeed, on his flank, there was some image, causing Swift to pale a little. He hurriedly yanked the pants off with his teeth, discovering that the mark was one pony foreleg reaching out for another, grasping it the way humans would shake hands. Also, the first leg seemed to be lifting the owner of the second upwards.

"WHAT?!" he shouted, then immediately regretted it. "I don't...how...why...?"

"You didn't even know you had that?" asked Applejack. "It must've been really recent, then. Did you ever feel anything from your flank?"

"Well, yeah. I felt this buzzing on it when I..." Swift's ears dropped, as he realized exactly when it must have appeared. "Oh, no..."

"What? What's wrong?" asked Pinkie. "It's a Cutie Mark! I don't know what it means, but you found what you're good at! Doesn't that make you happy?"

Swift swallowed. "I wasn't hoping for something like this." He briefly explained what had happened back in Cloudsdale, how he had to stand up to convince the pegasi to fight alongside the others. "Just my luck. I get a Cutie Mark in public speaking, something I absolutely hate doing."

Twilight started talking about how fascinating it was, the implications of a being not from their dimension obtaining a Cutie Mark, but Swift wasn't listening. He knew it was bad, but the urge to give in to despair was getting to him. He'd stepped up when other ponies needed him, but now he was forever branded as being good at that, like it was something he was supposed to do with his life. It was something he'd done in the heat of the moment, not something he wanted to do full-time.  

"I don't think it's public speaking you're good at, Swift," commented Celestia. "From the incident you described, it sounds more like your special talent is bringing ponies together. What you did in the Colosseum was brave, and Equestria clearly needed you. You stepped up when other ponies needed you."

"But I don't want to be that kind of pony!" exclaimed Swift. "I wanted to live a quiet, safe life in Equestria as a regular citizen! What am I supposed to do with this, now?! Are ponies gonna start expecting me to be someone who stops conflicts between them?! Or am I gonna have to become some kind of...of..."

He was running out of words. All the others were looking at him, with undecipherable emotions in their eyes. Even Twilight had stopped her geeking out. It made him angry, thinking they were pitying him again, but then he took a couple of deep breaths, and that calmed him down a little. He spread his wings out and lied down on the grass, trying to relax.

"I just...I wasn't expecting anything like this," he admitted. "When I came to Equestria, I never thought I'd be part of your adventures, but I was okay with that. I wasn't so arrogant to think I'd become part of your crazy lives. However, this is the second time I've been dragged into one of these escapades, and now I have this mark, and I have no idea what to do with it."

Rarity came up to Swift, and used her magic to give him a small pat on the back.	

"I don't think any of us could tell you for sure what to do with that mark, Swift," she said in a comforting tone of voice. "But nopony ever said you had to do the job of your Cutie Mark for a living. My talent is gem-finding, but that's sort of a supplement to my career."

"Are you still seeing your counselor?" asked Twilight. Swift nodded. "I would talk to them about it. I'm sure they can help you decide what it is you want."

"I guess," Swift replied. He didn't say anything, but he was beginning to wonder if he should confess the whole truth to Dr. Feather. After all, it wasn't like she could go to the authorities, considering all the princesses already knew everything about him. \

He looked back at Twilight and the others. "Sorry about Canterlot Castle," he said, pointing to the ruins of what had once been the pony capitol building. "That looks almost as bad as the damage the Storm King did."

"It's nothing we cannot rebuild," said Luna. "Are you certain you're doing well, Swift? I have been staying out of your dreams to avoid disturbing you, but have you been having nightmares?"

"Surprisingly, no. At least, none that have remained in my head the day after. I promise you all, I'm doing great." It wasn't entirely a lie, but it wasn't entirely truthful, either.  

"Very well, then."

Swift turned to Discord. "Now, can you please send me back before someone gets suspicious? The last thing I need is for all these creatures to find out my secrets."

"Oh, fine," Discord acquiesced, readying his fingers for a snap. "Buzzkill."

With a pop, Swift was teleported back to his place in the army that had saved Equestria. Every creature had been too engrossed in their conversations with each other to notice he'd left for a few minutes. Swift released another relieved sigh, before stretching his wings. He set out through the crowd, looking for Bow and Windy, or perhaps Thunder Snow. For the moment, he just wanted to be an average pony, albeit one who'd been part of something very special. The debacle about his Cutie Mark could wait, at least for now.
> Session #4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swift Wing continued to wear his pants whenever he went out. Sure, he didn't have to hide a blank flank anymore, but that didn't mean he was comfortable with his new Cutie Mark. It was a problem he should've considered before getting it. A Cutie Mark was basically a statement, a proclamation of "I can do this thing," broadcast to any creature with eyes. Swift briefly wondered if there were other ponies that got self-conscious about their own Cutie Marks. His guess would've been in the affirmative, but it wasn't like he was going to go around asking.

What Swift feared the most was what he'd brought up during his talk with the Mane Six. If ponies thought he was good at bringing them together or something, what if they started to come to him for help resolving their disputes? Honestly, he would've preferred some kind of weather Cutie Mark to this. There would've been far less pressure placed on his shoulders.  

He still hadn't shown his new mark to anyone working at the weather factory. He knew they wouldn't kick him out of his job or anything based on it, since that made no logistical sense on top of being illegal (Swift had looked it up). However, that didn't mean they wouldn't react to it at all. They might start giving him more responsibilities, or expect him to be some sort of leader. All Swift really wanted was to be an average pegasus, one who didn't stick out like Pinkie Pie at a family reunion. The more he thought about it, the more the Cutie Mark seemed more like a curse than anything. It was making it hard to sleep at night.

After his team finished whipping up storm clouds for the day, Swift made his way to Dr. Feather's clinic as fast as he could. She was the only pony he could think of to turn to.





"Glad to see you made it on time again, Swift," said Dr. Feather, as she leaned back in her chair. Then her expression changed, presumably as she took in the tired look on Swift's face. "Are you alright? You don't look too good."

"I don't feel too good," Swift admitted. "Something's happened, something that I thought would be fantastic, but right now, it's just stressing me out."

Dr. Feather raised her eyebrows at that statement, but only for a second.

"Alright, what happened?" she asked.

"This." Swift removed the pants he wore, showing her the Cutie Mark that now adorned his flank. "I got this right after that little display I put on at the colosseum, before we all went to save Princess Twilight and her friends."

"Ah, so you unintentionally got your Cutie Mark," said Dr. Feather. "What's the problem? Is it that your mark isn't for something you want?"
"Sort of...it's hard to explain." Swift sat down on the couch. "When I got up in front of everypony, and gave that speech, I had no confidence I would accomplish anything. I didn't think anypony would listen to me, especially after they didn't listen to Hyper Sonic. The only reason I did it is because I thought it needed to be done, especially since nopony else seemed to be doing anything. I couldn't just let every pegasus in Equestria abandon all the unicorns and earth ponies. But I didn't want to be forever branded as somepony who can bring ponies-and maybe other creatures, if we're being generous-together."

"Well, you did a very brave and noble thing, Swift," Dr. Feather replied. "I was impressed when I recognized you. However, I think I still don't fully understand. Why don't you want this Cutie Mark?"

"Like I was saying, I don't want to be seen as somepony with this big, important, Equestria-changing talent, or whatever," Swift continued. "I just wanted to lead an average life, being a face in the crowd of ponies. That was all I was going for when I came here."

"'When you came here?' What do you mean? When you came to Cloudsdale?"

Swift almost bit his tongue in surprise. He hadn't meant to let that slip. He knew he could easily lie, and cover it up, but he was afraid she'd see right through it. Not to mention, ever since the battle for Equestria, he'd been wondering whether he should confess everything to Dr. Feather, including what he really was. Now, that option was seeming more and more unavoidable. With a swallow, Swift steeled his resolve.

"I...haven't been entirely honest with you," he began. "What I'm about to say...I need you to promise me it won't leave this room. Besides, Princess Twilight already knows about it, so there's no point in telling the authorities."

Dr. Feather looked concerned. "Swift, are you in trouble with the law?"

"No, nothing like that. Can you give me your word you'll keep this under your hat?"

Dr. Feather still looked unsure of herself, but she gave a small nod, anyway.

Swift took a deep breath. "You see, I'm not from Equestria. I wasn't even originally a pony. I come from a planet called Earth, where I was a creature called a human. I made a deal with some sort of supernatural creature (don't ask) to be sent to Equestria and become a pony. I wasn't even sure if it was possible for me to get a Cutie Mark, but apparently, that point is moot."

He looked up at Dr. Feather, fully prepared for the worst. However, she didn't seem to be freaking out, or at least she wasn't showing it. She was scribbling on her notepad, occasionally looking back at Swift.  

"Why did you leave your home world?" she asked, after a few minutes.

"I'll be blunt: my life sucked," Swift continued. "I've already told you about my sister, and how badly that screwed with my self-esteem. I was stuck working a dead-end job, no friends, and humans don't get Cutie Marks, so I had no idea what I was supposed to do with my life. In my world, Equestria is fictional, so the idea of it just sounded so much more appealing than anything in my life. I tried to make a life in Ponyville, but Princess Twilight and her friends found out about me, and tried to convince me to go back. Even after they gave up on that, I wasn't willing to stay around them. We're on better terms now, but I still don't talk to them much."

"Knowing that...actually explains a lot of the problems you have," Dr. Feather replied. "I promise, I don't mean for that to sound rude."

"It's okay," said Swift. "I've had a lot of time to think about my life situation. I think it makes sense when you think about it."

"You've been through a lot, Swift," she continued. "I'm sorry."

Swift swallowed.

"To be honest, your case with your Cutie Mark isn't the first I've seen," she said. "By that, I mean I've seen other ponies who get Cutie Marks in things they weren't expecting, and they become terrified by the prospect of having to live with that talent. It's called Cutie Mark Imposter Syndrome."

Swift blinked a couple of times. "I'm sorry to change the subject," he began, "but you're taking this whole me being an alien thing pretty well."

Dr. Feather shrugged. "I took an oath when I started this job. I promised I'd do my best to help any creature that came to my office, and I'm not gonna make an exception just because you're from somewhere I didn't know about. Plus, based on your actions during the crisis, I think we can agree you're not a spy or something. Heck, thanks to Princess Twilight and her friends, Equestria's been so much more welcoming to other creatures. May I continue with what I was saying before?"

Swift nodded.

"Thank you. Now Cutie Mark Imposter syndrome is pretty common among ponies in your situation. By that, I mean ponies who got their marks later in life than average. My personal theory is that ponies who get their marks later are the ones with the most uncertainty about what they want, so when they're provided with the thing they sought, they're not sure how to accept it."

"I guess that also makes some sense," Swift said with a shrug. "I've read a lot about Cutie Marks since I got to Equestria, and some researchers think they're an expression of part of a pony's soul or something along those lines. That's why most ponies find satisfaction with their marks even if it takes a while. I think my biggest problem is not knowing what to do now that I've got this mark." He looked down as his flank. "I like the job I have now, I don't want to have to give it up just because I have this now."

"That's nothing to be ashamed of," insisted Dr. Feather. "Lots of ponies all over Equestria do jobs that have nothing to do with their Cutie Mark. Heck, look at the princesses. Sure, Celestia and Luna raise the sun and moon, but they also function as Equestria's head of state, at least for a little while longer."

"Good point," admitted Swift. "Honestly, my biggest, or rather my most logical fear, is that with this mark, they'll expect me to take on more leadership or something like that. I never wanted to become some giant deal. When I came to Equestria, I didn't think I'd become part of Princess Twilight's adventures, but that happened. All I really wanted was a quiet life here."

"There's nothing stopping you from having that, Swift. Besides, you'll be glad to know nopony can force you to do anything because of your Cutie Mark. That's enormously illegal. See, the thing about getting a Cutie Mark is that most ponies don't know exactly what they're going to do with it once they get it. It's something that takes time to figure out."

Swift pondered that, recalling the episode (he couldn't remember the name) where the Cutie Mark Crusaders helped out Trouble Shoes. His problem was that he'd been misinterpreting his Cutie Mark's meaning. Part of Swift wondered if making a quick trip down to Ponyville to meet the Crusaders himself was a good idea.  

"I think, right now, you should focus on trying to figure out what you want to do with your Cutie Mark, seeing what options are available to you. If you want to keep your job, that's fine. If you find something else that you like better, that's fine, too. The most important thing is that you live the life you want to live."

"Thanks for that," said Swift. "I guess I do need to do some more research. After Princess Twilight's coronation is over, of course. I don't want to miss out on that."

Dr. Feather blinked. "You actually got invited to that? That's kind of impressive on your part."

"Yeah. I've been trying not to advertise it. I don't want to brag or anything, like 'Ooh, look at me, Princess Twilight is my acquaintance.'"  

"Good thing you haven't let it go to your head," replied Dr. Feather. "I hope you enjoy the coronation."





This time, fortunately, there was no big disaster to force everypony to put off Twilight's coronation yet again. Swift took the day off work, though he didn't tell anyone why, and made his way down to Canterlot for the celebration. As he set himself down into his seat, he took a look at the crowd, discovering that pretty much every creature who was anybody was in attendance.  

Twilight's parents were there, of course (Swift wished they'd been given a bit more exposure in the show), along with Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart, who thankfully didn't look like she'd get up and fly around. Tempest Shadow sat at the table next to him, and she seemed to have gained more control over her broken horn, as it didn't randomly spark anymore. Directly across from Swift sat Discord, who conjured up a sweaty collar to tug at. No doubt he was still feeling guilty over the whole Grogar thing.  

Pretty much every major leader of the tribes attended, including Queen Novo, Dragon Lord Ember, King Thorax, and Prince Rutherford. The Student Six were split across two tables, along with the Pillars (though Swift didn't see Stygian. Perhaps he'd decided this wasn't his scene.) Even Autumn Blaze was there, and once again, Swift forced himself not to squee at the sight of her.  

It was nearly sundown before the ceremony itself finally began, with Celestia giving a short speech about how Equestria would be left in capable hooves and all that stuff. Swift had a bit of a sad smile on his face at the thought that he probably wouldn't be seeing the two sisters again in his lifetime. Still, it was their choice. After everything they'd been through, they probably deserved a break.

As Celestia finished, Twilight stepped out, wearing a gown no doubt created by Rarity. Then she tripped and somersaulted, and Swift almost had to stuff a hoof into his mouth to keep from laughing. He knew it was kind of rude, but he couldn't help himself.

Then, Celestia and Luna removed their crowns, fusing them into a brand new golden one. Fluttershy's trained geese flew down to lower it onto her head, though they looked rather annoyed for some reason.  

That was when things started to go wrong.

The Wonderbolts flew in for the traditional flyover, only to be caught up in the fireworks that someone had prematurely set off. Fluttershy's hummingbirds and butterflies were freaking out because of something Swift couldn't see on Twilight's back. The geese dropped the crown, and Twilight lunged forward, managing to barely catch the crown with her horn, though it fell onto her head upside down. Then she plummeted off the balcony, to the shock of every creature present, though her wings managed to save her.

Applejack attempted to save the moment by prompting a toast, but nobody's glass had been filled yet. Once the waiters came around, they began filling the glasses with applesauce. The farm pony shot an annoyed glare at Big Mac, who covered up his head. Twilight herself looked absolutely mortified. Swift looked around at the chaos unfolding, before shrugging and starting to drink his applesauce.

"To Princess Twilight Sparkle," he said, though he didn't think anyone heard him.





The party died down quickly, and soon enough, Swift was preparing to leave with the rest of the guests. The coronation had been a disaster, but it was over, and there wasn't any reason left for him to stay. But just as he prepared to fly back to Cloudsdale, he was approached by a royal guard.

"Swift Wing," she said, "Princess Sparkle has requested your presence."

Swift raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. Instead, he simply followed the guard back to the tables, discovering that Twilight was enclosed in a group hug with Celestia, Luna, Spike, Starlight, and the rest of the Mane Six. He made another sad smile at the sight, which felt like the end of an era. Once they parted, he cleared his throat to get their attention.

"You wanted to see me, Your Majesty?" he asked, giving a small bow.

Twilight used her magic to push him back up. "Swift, there's no need to bow in this setting. Besides, you shouldn't have to bow to friends."

Swift gave a nod, but internally, felt very awkward. Sure, he liked Twilight and the others, but he still wasn't sure if he was comfortable enough to consider them friends. He chalked that up to his still unresolved mental issues.	

"Anyway," Twilight continued, "I just wanted to thank you for coming. I know our friendship hasn't been the best, but I appreciate it. You're a good pony, and I'm happy to count you among my friends."

Ah, Swift thought to himself. She was trying to make him feel like he belonged in Equestria. To make up for the whole debacle in Ponyville. He was grateful for it, even if it sounded...he didn't know what word he would use. Condescending was too harsh, considering what Twilight was doing.

"You're welcome," he replied simply, holding up one hoof. Twilight pressed her own against it. "I'm guessing this is the last time we'll see each other for a while, huh?"

"Most likely, yes," replied Twilight. "Being the ruler of Equestria won't allow me to get out whenever I'd like." She noticed his visible Cutie Mark for the first time. "I see you're not wearing your pants."

"I didn't see the need today," said Swift. "I don't know how much I'll keep them on from now on. I told my counselor everything about what I really am." He chuckled at Twilight's shocked face. "Yeah. I was terrified to go through with it, but ever since then, it's like some of the weight's been lifted off my shoulders."

"That's great! I'm glad you're feeling a little better." Twilight stepped forward and hugged Swift with one leg. Swift stiffened, surprised at her sudden affection, but he eventually managed to return the gesture.

"Thanks." He looked around at the rest of the Mane Six. "So are you girls gonna be okay? I know you've lived in the same town for so long, so this has gotta be a tough adjustment."

"It's alright, dear," said Rarity. "Besides, Twilight decreed that we, as the Council of Friendship, will meet every moon, so we'll still see each other." 

"That's good. I'm glad you're staying friends." Swift turned to face Celestia and Luna, who'd been quiet for the whole conversation. "What are you two going to do? I imagine you'll have a lot more free time now that you're not running the country."

"We're moving off to Silver Shoals," replied Luna. "For now, I'll continue my dream patrol, though efforts to find a replacement are in the works."

"We'd like to extend our offer to Twilight to you as well, Swift," said Celestia. "If you need our help, we want you to feel free to seek us out."

"Thanks, but I probably won't," replied the red pegasus. "I'm just looking for a quiet life in Cloudsdale from now on. Hopefully, I won't get dragged into any more adventures."

Everyone shared a small laugh at that, before Swift spread his wings. "I'd better get back. I only took one day off. Thanks for inviting me, though."

With that, he launched himself off the ground, before making a u-turn and flying back towards Cloudsdale. While it may have been the end for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Swift knew his own story wasn't even close to being finished.
> Season's Cheers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was finally time for Swift Wing's first Hearth's Warming in Equestria. He knew about the holiday from the show, of course. How it was a celebration of the first time the three kinds of ponies came together, and banished the windigos, before settling in the new land they'd discovered. It was certainly an interesting take on the Christmases he'd enjoyed back on earth, since it didn't have the whole religious aspect. Not that Swift had ever been religious, but he still participated in the holiday.

Unfortunately, the season came with a lot more work at the factory before his big break. Snow was in high demand all over Equestria, and Swift found himself stuffing tons of newly created snowflakes into clouds, before they were sent to the place they were needed. Thunder Snow also got the chance to show off his unique talent, and Swift had to admit, despite its dubious practicality, he was pretty darn good at it.

That left the gifts of the season. Swift didn't have very many ponies on his list, but he wanted to get special things for those he did. He had a gift in mind for Princess Twilight, though it would have to go through the mail, since his chances of actually seeing her were small. He also wanted to get something for Bow and Windy, as thanks for everything they'd done for him. Thunder Snow and Gentle Breeze were more difficult, as he wasn't sure of their likes and dislikes. Still, they were the ones he was closest to at the factory, and they'd been kind. They deserved presents.

Swift trotted down the cloud streets, heading for the local market. He was wearing a simple beanie hat to cover his sensitive ears, but no other clothing, for two reasons. One was that ponies were so hairy already, meaning most of his body was warm enough on its own. The second was that he'd forgone his pants, leaving his Cutie Mark in full view. Oddly enough, he hadn't been asked any questions about it since getting it. His best guess was that everypony else thought he'd already had it, and had merely displayed that talent when Chrysalis, Tirek, Cozy Glow, and the windigos had attacked. Not that he wanted more attention because of it, of course.

He browsed the stalls of the Cloudsdale market, searching for things that might make good gifts. The market was similar to the Rainbow Falls Hearth's Warming Craft Fair, where ponies came together to sell things for the holidays. Even back on Earth, Swift had never been the best at thinking of gifts, so he decided to simply search and hope to find good things. Bow and Windy were easy enough, as they loved Rainbow Dash more than anything, and loved putting up photos of her. Swift got them some new, artsy picture frames for Rainbow's next Wonderbolts show.

Thunder and Gentle were far more difficult, however. Swift simply didn't have much knowledge of their lives outside of work. He browsed many stalls full of wonderful objects, but he wanted to be thoughtful, instead of simply giving them something effortless. After about an hour of searching, he gave up and went home for the day.  

Swift wrapped the presents he already had, and tried to think of how to find better ideas for Gentle and Thunder. Eventually, he decided to approach Cumulonimbus, hoping the older pegasus knew his coworkers a little more intimately.





The next day, after Swift finished whipping up snow clouds for the day, he set out to find his supervisor. The weather factory was a fairly large place, but Swift had an idea of where he needed to go. Since Cumulonimbus was much higher ranked than he, the older pegasus wouldn't be on his way out yet, and would probably be in the administrative offices. Those were easy enough to find.

Reaching the entrance to the staff room, Swift gently knocked with one hoof before entering. Here, he was greeted by dozens of pegasi, along with the occasional unicorn, all busying themselves with paperwork. Swift asked the secretary if he could see Cumulonimbus, and was granted access to his supervisor's office.

"Swift! How are you doing?" asked the ivory pegasus. "Glad to see you're still working hard this holiday season. Did you need something? There's not another pony getting on your nerves, is there?"

"No, nothing like that," said Swift. "In fact, this isn't even a work-related visit. It's about Thunder Snow and Gentle Breeze."

"What about them? We've noticed you working pretty well alongside them."

"Yeah. See, I've been looking into getting them presents for Hearth's Warming, but I have no idea what they would like. I was wondering if you could give me some ideas, so I could at least get them gifts they're gonna use."

Cumulonimbus brightened up upon hearing those words. "I'm actually really glad to hear that, Swift. Just by observation, we know you're a pretty quiet pony, and you seem to have trouble making friends, so the fact that you're making an effort is a good sign."

Swift smiled in response, trying to ignore the tingling in his chest and the sweat dripping down the back of his neck. He knew the other pegasus meant nothing by it, but it still felt unsettling to hear that kind of praise. Nopony in the factory knew he had to go to therapy just to feel and act normal, and he intended to keep it that way.

"Now, about your question," Cumulonimbus continued, oblivious to Swift's discomfort, "Thunder spends most of his time working. He's usually the first pony to volunteer for overtime shifts, and I think he's still going to school for weather management. My guess is he's trying to get some sort of high-ranking position in this place. Guy doesn't have any other family, so he pretty much obsesses over his work, though not to an unhealthy degree.

"Gentle, on the other hoof, is different. She has a pretty active social life, and apparently she loves puzzles and things like that. Not that she doesn't enjoy her job, she does, it's just she has more outside interests. She's a kind pony who spends a lot of time taking care of her older mom. Honestly, I think that's the best I can tell you."

Swift nodded, his brain already racing to come up with ideas for presents. "Alright, that's a big help. Thanks, Cumulo, I think I have what I need now."

"Good for you," replied his supervisor. "Happy Hearth's Warming!"

"Happy Hearth's Warming!" echoed Swift, as he trotted out of the office.





Swift returned to the market soon after, this time armed with some rudimentary knowledge of what to buy. He hoped the others wouldn't mind if he bought them things that were inexpensive, but he guessed they wouldn't, considering they worked at the factory too, and were aware he didn't make that much. Still, in the end, Swift found some appropriate gifts that didn't hurt his wallet, and wrapped them himself. During the holidays, Swift had always enjoyed giving presents more than getting, and he was sure this year would be the same.

The next day, the entire weather factory was having a small Hearth's Warming party, with free food for all the employees. Swift decided it was the optimal time to give his presents to Thunder and Gentle. He wasn't expecting any gifts from them, but he didn't care.

Even with his new Cutie Mark, and the progress he'd made, Swift still wasn't comfortable in social situations. Thus, he decided to hang around the back of the party, eating frosted Hearth's Warming cookies and occasionally joining in conversations when there was an opening. It wasn't much, but a few months ago, he might not have even gone to the party, so he took what he could get.

He had the presents for Gentle and Thunder in his saddlebags, and waited patiently for the moment when he could hand them over. The two seemed to mingle with the rest of their coworkers for the duration of the party, never staying in one place for too long. Sometimes, Swift would bump into one or the other, but not both at the same time. Finally, after chugging down some eggnog, Swift saw the two of them together, hanging out by the snack table. Mustering his courage, he went towards them.

"Hey, guys!" he announced, proclaiming his presence. Gentle and Thunder looked up.

"Oh, hey, Swift," said Thunder. "I noticed you haven't been wearing your pants recently. Did you just decide it was time for a change of pace?"

"Yeah, I guess," answered Swift, eager to get away from this line of questioning. "Anyway, I know we're not super close, but I wanted to get each of you something for the holiday." He popped open his saddlebags, before pulling out two carefully wrapped presents. "Happy Hearth's Warming."

Thunder and Gentle both blinked in surprise. Clearly, neither of them had expected this. Still, they couldn't resist, tearing the paper away with their teeth. Thunder's present contained a set of rubber boots, lined with wool on the inside. Swift had thought they'd be useful when messing with storm clouds, as they'd prevent him from shocking himself. Gentle unwrapped a book containing over one-hundred logic puzzles to work on.  

"Whoa," said Thunder. "How'd you know I was looking for something like this? Thanks, Swift!"

"Yeah, thank you!" said Gentle. "These will keep me busy for months!"

Swift smiled. This was the thing he'd loved the best about the holiday. Seeing the people/ponies you loved unwrapping their gifts and the joy on their faces when they did so was enough of a present for him.

"I'm glad you like them," he replied. "I went to Cumulonimbus for ideas as to what to get you guys, and he was really helpful."

"It's actually kinda funny," said Thunder. "We were looking for you, too. We wanted to give you this." He produced a present of his own, bearing Swift's name, and passed it to the crimson pegasus. "It's from both of us."

Swift's eyes widened as he took the present. "You didn't have to—" he began.

"No, but we wanted to," replied Gentle. "Especially after everything you did at the Cloud Colosseum, you deserved something."

Swift carefully ripped away the wrapping paper to find a tray of freshly cooked fudge. He cut away a small piece, and bit into it, finding it very palatable.  

"Thank you, guys," he said, as his eyes began to water. He suppressed it as best he could. He didn't want to cry in front of them, not because he was afraid they'd judge, but because he didn't want them to delve into his past. Not yet.

"Oh, it's nothing," insisted Thunder. "You're a good friend, and it's the season of giving."

Swift kept his smile up, and stepped forward to hug the other two with his wings.  

"Well, here's to another year of friendship," he said, taking another bite of fudge.





Once the party drew to a close, Swift trotted his way down to Bow and Windy's house. They received the picture frames happily, knowing they'd soon have plenty of photos of Rainbow to fill them with. They'd also gotten him a new winter hat for a present, which fit snugly over the tops of his ears. Swift had never been keen on receiving presents, always feeling he never deserved them, but getting some when he'd expected to get none was a pleasant surprise.  

Finally, having finished the majority of his holiday cheer dispensing, Swift went back to his apartment to prepare his present for Twilight. He knew she'd claim he didn't need to get her anything, but he figured that since he wouldn't be spending any money on it, he could get away with it. He set out a piece of paper and a pen on the desk, and sat for a few minutes, thinking. He wanted to get the proper words in his brain before he put them down.

After some more deliberation, he took the pen and wrote, trying to get the words as clean as possible. He hated scratching out mistakes. Eventually, he finished, and read what he'd put down.  

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

	I'd like you to acknowledge this letter as my formal Hearth's Warming gift to you and your closest friends. In it, I formally extend my forgiveness to all of you over that whole debacle where you tried to get me to go back to Earth. I know I already accepted your apologies before, but this time, I really mean it. I understand you were trying to help, even if I think you went about it the wrong way. 

	Of course, this doesn't mean I want to go back. I love life here in Equestria, and I wouldn't trade anything for it. And I'm grateful to you for extending the hoof of friendship to me, even though, with how rude I was to you, I probably don't deserve it. I hope you'll take this letter as a gesture of goodwill from me, and I wish you the best of luck in ruling Equestria. 

	Your Friend,

	Swift Wing

Setting down the letter, Swift ran his eyes over the words one more time, trying to feel satisfied. He guessed he'd never feel one-hundred percent pleased with it, but he was pretty close now. He folded it, put it in an envelope, and stamped it. He knew, as it came from the bottom of his heart, Twilight would be happy to receive it.
> Companionship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hearth's Warming came and went, and eventually, winter did the same. Of course, Cloudsdale, being a city of clouds, didn't have any kind of Winter Wrap-Up, but at the weather factory, Swift Wing still had to adjust to the changing seasons. Clouds full of snowflakes gave way to clouds full of spring rain, and warmer temperatures were now prevalent throughout Equestria. Swift didn't mind, as the cold and gray days had gotten boring after a while.  

Therapy sessions with Dr. Feather were going well. Now that she knew the truth about his origin, she was able to help him with more in-depth ideas. Occasionally, they'd get sidetracked when he mentioned something that was different between Earth and Equestria, and he'd have to explain it to her, but he didn't mind. At least he could talk to her like a friend as well as a doctor.  

Swift had spent some time with Thunder Snow and Gentle Breeze outside of work. There hadn't been any large gatherings, just the three of them going out to restaurants occasionally. Still, it was nice to feel like he belonged somewhere for once. There was friendly banter about work, and discussions concerning how Twilight was doing as ruler of Equestria. Swift kept up with the news, and thought she was a good ruler so far, though she hadn't made any massive alterations yet. There had been some changes at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, mostly concerning the curriculum, which now contained more friendship lessons, but that didn't affect Swift.  

As he sat alone in his apartment, Swift thought about his life situation, and everything that had led up to the present. He knew he didn't want to return to Earth, and was confident he never would, but there were things about his previous home that he missed. Digital media was one of them, though he supposed if he was really desperate, he could write Starlight and ask to visit the world on the other side of the Mirror Portal. Playing video games with Sunset Shimmer would make a nice trip one day, but not yet.

Other creatures were coming to live in Equestria more frequently now. Cloudsdale had previously hosted small numbers of griffons and hippogriffs, but more were starting to immigrate, along with dragons and changelings. There were no yaks or kirin yet, but Swift was willing to bet that ponies were already working on permanent cloud-walking spells that would allow those creatures to live there. It was a good thing, of course. It was always good when differing nations got along. Swift simply felt unsure as to how to adjust to the changes that were coming. If Twilight's coronation had signaled the end of an era, this solidified it.

Lying on his back on his bed, Swift stared up at the ceiling. If he were to be honest, right now he felt lonely. Thunder Snow and Gentle Breeze still didn't know the truth about him, he could only see Dr. Feather once a week, and Twilight's friends didn't have time to spend on him. He knew he had friends, but living alone was depressing. He just wished he had someone to talk to every day when he got home, even if they couldn't respond back.

Swift's eyes widened as a thought occurred to him. He wanted someone or something to talk to. He knew somepony who might be able to help with that particular problem. Sure, it might be a while before she could accommodate him, but he was sure she'd do so. Grabbing a pen and a piece of paper, Swift parked himself at his desk, and began to write yet another letter.





A few days later, Swift departed from Cloudsdale. He'd taken the day off work again, which turned out to be a lot easier than it had been on Earth. Maybe ponies were just better at hiring enough workers to make sure the operation didn't fall apart if one wasn't there.  

Swift made his way across Equestria to Ponyville, aiming himself at the Sweet Feather Animal Sanctuary on the outskirts. Fluttershy had been surprisingly quick to respond to his request, considering she not only had to manage the animals, but classes at the School of Friendship. He hoped she wasn't running herself ragged trying to cover everything, but after that episode where Zecora got sick, she'd probably learned not to.

With a few more flaps of his wings, Swift touched down at the front entrance of the sanctuary. Fluttershy was there waiting for him, with Angel Bunny perched on her back. She smiled and waved politely at him as he walked through the gate.

"Hi, Swift!" she called out happily. "I'm so glad you wrote to me! I'm sure we can help you find the perfect little pet."

Swift smiled back as he pressed his hoof against hers. "Thanks, 'Shy. Again, I'm really sorry to bother you, but I figured you'd be the best one to talk to. It's been kinda lonely in my apartment, and I figured having an animal friend could help fill that void."

"That's great to hear!" said Fluttershy. "I've got so many wonderful animals here, and they'll love you, and you'll love them!" Taking a deep breath, she floated into the air with a flap of her wings and began to sing. "Now, Swift Wing—"

Swift interrupted. "Uh, Flutters? I appreciate the help, but I don't need the musical number. I've already seen you do it with Rainbow Dash, and I already have a love of animals."

"Oh, right. I forgot about the whole 'alternate universe' thing. Okay!" responded Fluttershy. Her perkiness wasn't diminished at all. "Do you have any idea what you're looking for?"

"Back on Earth, before I moved out of my mom's house, we had cats, but I don't know how well one would adjust to living in a cloud city. I know Rainbow has that magic propeller thing for Tank, but I'm not sure that would work. I think having something that flies would be a good place to start."

"Alright, good thinking. Follow me! I'll show you my variety of winged animals."

Swift and Fluttershy advanced deeper into the sanctuary, surrounded by various creatures. Swift had to admit that the way animals were cared for in Equestria was much nicer than it had been on Earth. Sure, there were plenty of people who worked for animal conservation and welfare efforts (he'd admired Jane Goodall), but there were so many endangered species, and that didn't seem to happen in Equestria. Plus, even in zoos, there weren't places where you could get up close to baby elephants and creatures like that.

"So you had cats back in your world," Fluttershy began. "Did you have any other animals?"

"Nope. I worked in a veterinary clinic for a while, but I quit after a couple years. It just wasn't for me, and it was too stressful."

"I can understand that. Animal care isn't for everypony, and neither are pets. Still, you probably understand animals better than some ponies, and you'll take good care of one. Speaking of which, here we are!"

The two had arrived in a small clearing, where flocks of birds and swarms of flying insects were gathered. A hummingbird flew up into Swift's line of sight and locked eyes with him, before zipping off to go about its business. Fluttershy took off again, allowing an eagle and a falcon to land on her forelegs.

"Aren't they majestic?" she commented. "What do you think?"

Curious, Swift trotted over to Fluttershy and reached out a hoof. The eagle made a quick hop over to his foreleg, but his talons didn't dig into the skin. Swift gently reached up with one hoof to touch the feathers, but a quick glare from the eagle prompted him to lower it.

"I don't think this guy likes being petted very much," he commented. The eagle gave a noise that might've been a huff, and flew away.

"Yeah, he's a little proud," admitted Fluttershy. "If you want something more affectionate, I have plenty of options! How about a ladybug, a bee, or a butterfly?" She held out a hoof, showing the insects sitting on top of it. The ladybug actually waved at Swift with one leg.

"I don't know," he replied. "I'd be afraid I'd accidentally sit on something that small. Do you have anything bigger?"

"Fair enough. How about these?"

Fluttershy gave a small whistle, summoning several more birds in all colors of the rainbow. There were robins, sparrows, ravens, and a flamingo that gently nuzzled Swift's face with its beak. As he looked around, he took notice of a bat clinging to Fluttershy's wing. He trotted past the birds to get a closer look.

"Oh, you noticed this little guy!" she commented. She stretched out her wing, revealing the bat's full form. He was small, even by bat standards, with a gray head, a long snout, and a wingspan of about two hooves. Swift reached out, and gently stroked his furry head, eliciting a small squeak of joy from the creature.

"He's cute," Swift said.  

"Interesting," said Fluttershy. "He's usually pretty shy around strangers. Maybe he just likes you."

"What kind of bat is he?"

"A gray-headed flying-fox. What do you think? Could you see yourself taking care of a bat?"

Swift pondered for a moment, rubbing his chin with one hoof. "Maybe. What about his sleep cycle? I know bats are nocturnal, and I wouldn't want to disrupt him in any way."

"Bats are usually more active at night because their predators aren't active during that time, and they can search for food safely. But since you'd be feeding him, he wouldn't have to worry about that, which would let him adjust to your schedule. It might take time, but I'm sure it would work. After all, Twilight managed to get Owlowiscious onto her time table."

Swift smiled. "Alright, I'll take him." He held out a foreleg, and the bat climbed onto his hoof. "I might need some help learning how to take care of him, of course. Would you mind helping me with that?"

"Not at all! Do you have a name in mind for him?"

Swift took another look at the bat. The creature had wrapped his wings around Swift's leg and was attempting to cuddle him. "I have some ideas."





Luna's moon had risen into the sky by the time Swift returned home with his new friend in tow. He'd also collected several pages worth of notes written down by Fluttershy regarding the care of the bat, as well as some books borrowed from the Ponyville Library on the same subject. He'd also bought some items that would help his new pet feel more comfortable in his new environment. The bat was comfortably snuggled against one of Swift's wings as he trotted back into his apartment.

Once he'd gotten back inside, Swift set up a tall stand the bat could hang from and sleep on. He gave his new friend some nectar to eat, and gently patted him on the head.

"It's okay, Bruce. I'll take care of you," he said, to which Bruce responded with an affectionate squeak.