The ballon was all prepped. It's destination was the small, but expanding town of Ponyville. It's passenger was... reluctant.
"Come on Uncle, can't I take a cart or just walk there." Complained the earth pony. He had a plain blue coat, a white mane and tail with a stripe of grey running through it, and a fedora with three gems on each side. Standing next to him was a unicorn with a light charcoal coat and dark blue mane. The grey stallions cutiemark was a flat bench press without a bar or weights. The blue colts cutiemark was a simplistic blue swirl galaxy shape in a classic thought bubble. "Ponyville is only just down the mountain."
"You have got to be there tomorrow morning to teach at the school, and seeing how Discord dropped the train in a lake two days ago this is the fastest way there." Stated the unicorn.
"But Uncle Gym, that basket is so rickety and old i'll probably fall through"
"Hey!" Said the balloon's pilot, taking offense to that comment, "she ain't that old."
"Says you!" The young stallion stated pointedly.
"Sidetrack, how do they let somepony as immature as you get a career in education." Said Gym. "Speaking of said career, you have to get on that balloon. As the representative of Equestria's northern region I can pull some strings, but this is the last one I'm pulling for you. I got you that magic hat you 'needed' all those years ago and I even let you sit with me in Celestia's court, you gotta get out there... Listen, your dad couldn't get a job with his special talent, I couldn't get a job using mine, and nether did your grandpa. You gotta break this cycle."
Thinking on what his uncle just said, and knowing full well that teaching was the only job that the talent of understanding could go into, he looked back at the balloon... and sighed in defeat. Living in the northern part of Equestria left a pony only two options, farm some ice from the glaciers or be a local repairpony. His father was both. His grandpa was both. His uncle used to be a repairpony until he left. Not ideal for a architect, mason, and gym coach.
"Do I have to take THAT balloon?" said Sidetrack.
"I don't have bit fallin' out my plot, boy. It's the best I could do in a short notice." stated his uncle. "Now, in the letter Cheerilee said you could stay tonight at her place but you gotta find somewhere else to stay after that, okay. Send me a letter telling me how long this deal lasts, because I want my basement back."
"Yes uncle." He said dryly getting on the balloon. He skirted around the edge of the basket and seated himself in a corner with one fore leg holding his hat and the other looped through a rope. Why the corner? Sidetrack figured that if the basket were to give out it would be in the area with the least amount of support. The square weave design had its support forces directed to the sides and what is a corner but two sides? Placing himself in the there reduced the chance of the basket going out. He didn't get to teach physics without understanding it first.
"You scared o' heights or somthin', kid?" Asked the still slightly peeved pilot.
"No, I'm scare of uncertainties. I'm not one hundred percent sure that this ballon WON'T fall out of the sky, because many variables CAN MAKE it fall out of the sky... and don't call me kid, I'm nineteen and am almost done with my maji-physics bachelors degree." Stated Sidetrack.
"Well, what do you want me to call ya?" He asked as the balloon took off.
"Seein' how I'm already trusting you with my life in this basket and you're my only company for the next hour and a-half, you can call me Sid."
"Side?"
"No, Sid. S-I-D, Sid. I got distracted in all my classes as a kid and was uber lazy, so when I saw other ponies initialing thing with just three letters I did the same. But, I didn't know until later that they used the first letter of the different words in their names until later. It caught on and, like I said, I'm lazy." Sidetrack explained.
"You gonna talk like that the entire way there?"
"Well, I only tend to talk in this manner if I'm nervous or serious, which actually coincide quite a bit. But, if we start discussing topics that get my mine off the fact that I'm in a structure that has forces that can easily be toppled in favor of a negative result, I should be able to stop rambling."
"I'm not talking 'bout the ramblin'. I'm talked 'bout those big words you keep usin'."
"That would stop as well," said Sidetrack giving the pilot a look as he realized that he didn't know his name, "By the way, I don't think you told me your name. "
"Nope, I didn't. It's Pilot, Cloud Pilot." He said, "Cloud is just to common a pegasus name. I prefer Pilot."
"Cloud Pilot, huh?" Said Sidetrack thoughtfully. "Can you make a balloon out of clouds to pilot?"
"Ha! No way in heck," chuckled Pilot, "I've got and interestin' story 'bout that..."
The rest of the balloon ride was fairly peaceful. Pilot and Sidetrack shared stories to pass the time. The sky was filled with plenty of other balloons and airships do to the train taking a swim and ponies wanting to head home to check on there loved ones after Discords short reign. Many of the bigger airships were heading out on far trips do to the fact that they could hold more ponies and were not likely to make a second trip soon enough for their clients. A few of the smaller commercial balloons were headed to Manehatten and Trottingham because they were closer and could make the trip in a few hours. The smallest of the balloons were mostly private ones hired by the ponies with the most bits, with the exception of four. Those four have been making the hour and a half trip to Ponyville for the better part of the day. Cloud Pilot's ballon happens to be the oldest and smallest of the four.
"...so when Rendezvous started the spell I gave him, he mixed up step twenty-nine and twenty-eight and ended up locked out of his house instead of locking the dead bolt threw the screen door." Finished Sidetrack with a laugh.
"Imagine that. I thought only unicorns could learn magic," stated Pilot, "prob'ly cause their the only ones that can use it."
"Who told you that?" Sidetrack gave a questioning look. "Most magic is just energy manipulation through undiscovered subatomic particles that make up a soul nicknamed 'fate particles'."
"...in Equestrian please?"
"Well...um, OH! Your flying!" Said Sidetrack suddenly.
"What about it?"
"The average wing span of a pegasus isn't even half of what's needed to get lift." Stated Sidetrack as Pilot self-consciously examined his wings. "You are actually using magic to reduce the affect of gravity on you."
"So that's pegasus magic. What about you earth ponies though?"
"Our magic actually is almost completely passive," he explained, "it usually boosts strength in times of need or increases our endurance while working."
"So it's got nothin' to do with growin' plants," Pilot said. "I thought that that was what made earth ponies special? The unicorns got magic, pegasi could fly, and earth ponies grew food better."
"How long can you pull a hundred pound plow through sun baked dirt?" Asked Sidetrack with an eyebrow raised.
"Good point, but how long can you do it?" Pilot asked with genuine interest.
"Well in all honesty, most of my magic gets sapped away by this hat," he said pointing at the gems on his fedora. "The green one up front is connected to a quill because my mouthwriting is terrible. The grey one works like a pair of glasses that's why my eyes are grey. The red one at the back is the most tiring of the three, it lets me project my thoughts onto a flat surface."
"I'd ask you were you got it, but it looks like we're here." Pilot stated with a chuckle.
"What? I didn't even notice. Thanks for keeping me distracted." Sidetrack said as he grab the suitcase he packed and walked off the basket, even stepping on the middle this time.
"No problem, nice gettin' to know you, Sid." Pilot said as he took off in his ballon. He had other clients in Canterlot to attend to.
Sidetrack had been to Ponyville before. While living with his uncle he had a day trip down the mountain about twice a year. He didn't do much on those trips, mostly visit the flower shops by the train station or get a vest from Carousel Boutique. The owner, Lady Rarity, was the only seamstress Sidetrack had meet that agreed on his simplistic fashion choices. He had only two types of clothes, one black coat with a silver tie and a few identical vests with large pockets. He was just pondering this as he made his way through the market as he heard a feminine voice that sent chills down his spine.
"Sid? Is that you?"
He knew this voice. Then he placed it. As soon as he recalled the owner, he immediately had to fight both sides of his fight or flight instincts. After about thirty seconds the latter of the two one and he took off.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" *Crash!*
He made it a total of four feet.
"Get off me you crazy mare!"
"You left me there! You raised my hopes and didn't even show up!"
"Like you really expected that to happen?"
"Yes, I did. You showed me the possibilities, and then showed me up."
"Are you that naive? Did you really expect me to go through with that after that last night?"
"But did you have to take the ring with you?"
"Um... Lyra? Sorry to interrupt, but, um, what are you talking about?" Said the cream colored earth pony with pink and blue curls. She was starring completely perplexed at the light green unicorn with a lyre cutie mark straddling the blue earth pony. There was an awkward silence among the three of them as the unicorn helped Sidetrack up.
"For the record, I kept the ring because it was mine, not because I didn't want you to have it. ANYWAY, my name is Sidetrack, but you can call me Sid." Sidetrack said as he held a hoof out to the other earth pony.
"Bon-Bon, nice to meet you," she said as she shook his hoof and switched her questioning gaze between other two ponies.
"So, what did you end up doing with it?" Asked Lyra determined to not drop the subject.
"I sold it, for like... three bits, I think?" Answered Sidetrack.
Bon-Bon looked at him, still with the questioning look. "Three bits? An engagement ring should go for more than that?"
Sidetrack and Lyra froze, simultaneously. Then they looked at Bon-Bon, simultaneously. Then at each other, simultaneously. Then back at Bon-Bon, simultaneously. Then they reacted differently.
"No. No,nononononono...." Said Lyra to Bon-Bon, looking aghast.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahaha, ha, ha-ah, woo. Sorry, but the fact that that's what you thought we were taking about, that's to rich," apologized Sidetrack with a smirk. "It would work out nice me but she doesn't swing that way, if you didn't know already."
"Oh, I know alright." Said Bon-Bon giving Lyra her bedroom eyes, making her blush.
"Reeeeeeally," said Sidetrack with a smirk, "well I'll tell you one thing Lyra must really knows how to pick 'em"
"Why, thank you." Said Bon-Bon, "But seriously, what was that you to were talking about?"
"Should you tell her or should I?" Sidetrack asked Lyra.
"You should. You don't have a reputation for being crazy." Said Lyra with a mouthful of venom.
"Yeah, okay. Anyway, about ten years ago we, that would be me, Lyra, and a few others, started a fan club fo-"
"Let me guess," said Bon-Bon with a sigh, "humans. Lyra, is this 'fan club' what got you obsessed."
"One, I'm not obsessed. Two, I can prove they're real. And three, its his fault everyone thinks I'm crazy. Now let him finish, he can explain things fast." Lyra said.
"As I was saying, ten years ago started a fan club for humans. The teacher at the time let us continue because we did as much research as possible to find out, hypothetically at first, what one would look like. About a year later I learned of the muti-dimension theory and original thought theory. I combined then into the six-dimension soul-partial paralleltivity theory. You can read about it in my book. It basically said that if you thought of it, it happened in some dimension somewhere.
"So the fan club, lead mostly by me in some aspect, worked for two years on the sidelines to breach these dimensions. Along the way we gave ourselves 'human names'. Heartstrings took Lyra, I took Sid, Rendezvous took Ron, and we gave Jumbo the name Jimmy.
"Lyra managed, somehow, to get the spell a slot in a convention, but the night before I finished the last or the mathematics and I told Lyra that the difference in physics between the dimensions could decimate five city blocks. I TOLD her that she should close the slot, but when she said that she didn't need me I took the mana focus ring that was needed to finish the spell and I've been avoiding her ever since."
Bon-Bon stared. Then turned to Lyra. "I thought you said he could explain things fast?"
"But if I just told you that we made a spell that could let humans walk in our world and I wouldn't let Lyra use it, then I would sound like a jerk" Sidetrack said in his defense.
"You are a jerk, because I was the only one in our slot at the convention and everypony thought I was a loon." Said Lyra.
"Lyra you are a loon," stated Bon-Bon. "Or have you been skipping your therapy sessions the entire time."
"Those are for my OCD and mild bipolarism, and you know it."
"Not that watching you to banter back and forth isn't interesting, and trust me it is, but it's getting dark and I need to find out were Cheerilee lives" interrupted Sidetrack.
"Cheerilee? What's your business with her?" Said Lyra. Both mares were looking at him with suspicion.
"W- well, I'm filling in for her at the school and do to air traffic and the suddenness of things she offered to let me spend the first night of my stay at her place," stated Sidetrack. "Why do you care?"
"We care because she's our neighbor and she's been a nervous wreak since she got 'flip flopped' by Discord," explained Bon-Bon calmly.
"Neighbor? Then you could show me were she lives right?" He got a nod from both of them. "Great, lets not keep her waiting."