Unpredictable (Balloons)

He went to Sugar Cube Corner to find it pitch-black. Which was odd, considering that it wasn't even that late and there was almost always somepony there. He opened the door and stepped in, only to be greeted by… everyone. The lights turned on, and revealed to Swiftpen a large party. It looked a lot bigger than it actually was, as the store was not very big. It looked excellent, though, and whoever made it put a lot of time and effort into it.

The party was to welcome Swiftpen as the Princess’s scribe, and to the town in general. Even though he already knew the town, he was really glad that everypony wanted to welcome him. The party was great. He went over to Pinkie, who was, as usual, partying the hardest of them all. He wanted to thank her, but couldn't resist the inviting pull of dancing and being generically silly, so he joined in with the crazy partiers.

It was a tiring, but absolutely amazing time. Vinyl Scratch was, of course, covering the music. She never missed out on a chance to play some tracks. Even the food was great. It was completely made up of very unhealthy pastries and sugary punch of varying colors. Every once in awhile when Swiftpen got tired he would go over, shove 2 cupcakes in his mouth, and chug a cup of pink punch, for he found that that was the best tasting flavor.

Around midnight, many ponies had left, but a lot of them were still rockin’ it on the dance floor. He just couldn't tear away from it. It was too fun, there was no reason to stop. Ponies had honestly started collapsing, most leaving after they arose.. Talent was not needed. There was no competition, no pony was better than another. It was just, do whatever you want. If you enjoyed it, you did it. Any judgement was gone from a pony’s observation the second they stepped on the dance floor and felt the groove. Swiftpen loved it.

Around 3:00 am, everyone had left except Pinkie and Swiftpen. Pinkie had fallen asleep, and Swiftpen was about to. He cleaned up the place the best he could, feeling that it was the least he could do, then stumbled home. It was the, by far, best night of his life. He hoped that more were soon to come. He returned home only to instantly collapse on his bed.

He woke up at 9:00, feeling absolutely wonderful. He had no idea why he felt so good, and he didn't even care that he woke up late. He remember what he was doing this day, and quickly hid a pen and paper inside his mane. It would've been quite visible.. without magic. He remembered what Twilight had mentioned yesterday about the plan.

“You should meet the ponies at their homes at around 10:00 am. All of them should be awake by that hour, and will be expecting your arrival and have something planned for the both of you to do.” He had an hour. He quickly went to the café and bought a cup of coffee. He needed the energy, he was a bit sore from last night. Surprisingly he was not very tired. He didn't mind. That party was worth any temporary pain.

He started to head over to Fluttershy’s cottage around 9:45. He knew that the day would involve lots of quiet, awkward, conversation snippets and cute animals. He couldn't tell whether he dreaded this or eagerly awaited it. For some reason, he seemed more inclined to dislike the activity. Which was odd, he would've enjoyed it a week or two ago. He ignored his thoughts and went to the cottage and knocked.

Fluttershy quickly answered and muttered her greetings. Because of her lack of confidence, Swiftpen simply followed her around and mimicked whatever she motioned to mimic. She wouldn't respond to anything that Swiftpen said, apart from incomprehensible and quiet speech blurbs.  Throughout the day, he was thoroughly surprised by her unjudging fair heart and mind. She was kind to anything without a second thought. He realized that this was innocence at its purest. He was shocked. When she wasn't looking (which was often), Swiftpen wrote down notes on her behavior and general actions. He knew what he was doing. The day went on without any interruption or significant detail. He was fairly bored by it all. Tending to animals, counting up animals, protecting wildlife… the like. Still, he got some good notes, and was ready for the next day, knowing that he would have to tell the sporty pegasus the gossipy secret he’d been holding in for a long time. He was kind of apprehensive, but he knew he could trust the mare. He slept easily the whole night through.

                                                                            - - -

He was finally back to his old schedule. 7- wake up, 7:10- buy newspaper, 7:15- buy coffee, 8:00- “relax”. And for this week only at 9:45 he’d head off to whatever pony’s place it was that day. Today, a Tuesday, it would be Rainbow Dash. She lived in the sky, so he figured he could head over to the area under her house and just wait. Or he could surprise her with his magic. That too. He would decide when he got there. When he got there, the blue pegasus zoomed down, making a cool rainbow effect with her mane and tail, and quickly started talking.

“Okay, so, I know we have to do something today, but honestly, we couldn't do anything together because you’re completely grounded, and even if you weren't, I mean seriously, you couldn't keep up with me. So, how about you just tell me your secret with the Wonderbolts, and we can be on our separate ways?” He expected a straightforward approach like this.

“Alright, but I’m only going to tell you this once. You can tell your friends, though alerting too many ponies is a bad idea.” Swiftpen rolled his eyes as he spoke the last words. He then leaned in and whispered the secret in Rainbow Dash’s ear. She started giggling, and eventually spoke one word before bursting into rancorous laughter-

“Seriously?!” Swiftpen smiled and walked away, somewhat glad that he told somepony that silly secret. He honestly didn't care if anypony knew about it- as long as it didn't reveal his identity or anything of the sort. He spent the rest of the day writing up his surprise.