Equestria; a journey with equines

Chapter 7

I like clouds

We leave the library and into the streets of Ponyville, it's still fairly dark outside and it appears that no-pony else is awake. The streets are eerily silent. The sounds of Celestia's and Twilight's hoofsteps echo off the sides of the dark and silent houses. My mind is filled with suspicion, what has Celestia got planned?

We move towards the centre of town, the echoes of hoofsteps being the only sound loud enough to be noticeable. My own footsteps make no noise, years of practice, because walking without making a sound has its advantages. It's a skill made more potent by the the power within me, normally you could still hear me if you were paying attention, but I'm currently completely silent.

Twilight looks as nervous as I do, it's apparent that she doesn't know what's going on either. Something about this is very suspicious. I can't think of any plausible reason why we would need to be outside so early. Although, maybe I'm just over thinking, just calm down and trust the princess.

...

The centre of town is dominated by a large stage, the same stage that was present during the award ceremony where Applejack was given a trophy for being reliable, or something similar. I guess that I will be up there at some point as Celestia gives her public introduction. To be honest, I fairly sure that I will get the same reactions as everypony else so far, disbelief, horror, fear and general fainting.

A shadow shifts in my peripheral vision, I turn towards it. Nothing. I can't shake the feeling that we're being watched. This makes it all the more suspicious, especially the fact that we've been walking in silence, no dialogue at all. I expect that Twilight would have been catching up with the princess this whole time, but obviously I'm wrong.

My eyes scan the area, looking for the cause of the movement. My eyes fix on a lone cloud, floating in the vicinity. Strange, a lone cloud. I'm not 100% sure how the weather works around here, but I'm sure that it shouldn't be there.

Celestia stops.

Twilight and I stop too. Spike is still out of it.

"Sister, I would like you to meet Michael." Celestia says warmly.

A figure steps forth from the shadows, princess Luna. She looks at me like I'm an animal in a zoo, processing the presence of a creature from a different world.

"We are pleased to meet you." She extends a hoof, smiling. Well, at least she is speaking modern English without the Royal Canterlot Voice, still refers to herself as a plural though.

I shake the hoof, feels strange to shake a hoof, but I wouldn't want to be rude. "Princess Luna, the pleasure is all mine." I smile back. She looks at me strangely, probably the whole 'how do you know my name routine'.

"That presence, that power..." She backs away, slowly.

"Yeah, I know, you distrust me because you can sense the Nightmare's power within me. Well, you're right, the Nightmare's power is inside me. But I assure you, there is nothing to fear, the being that was once Nightmare is gone. To put it bluntly, I suppose I ate it."

She just stares, her eyes wide.

"I do have control over the power, that and it can be fuelled by emotion and instinct, but I've been practising." My lower arm and hand glows with an aura of black, I focus on that suspicious little cloud. I have no idea if this will work, while it's true that I had been practising with small objects in the little spare time I had, I didn't try to move anything as large as the cloud.

The cloud glows black with the same aura as my arm, it descends towards the ground. The cloud reaches ground level in moments and lands.

"It's probably nothing compared to what you all can do, but it's a start." I turn to Twilight who had been silent during the confrontation with Luna.

"Are you okay?" I ask the unicorn.

She snaps out of her slight daze. "Michael, that was pretty impressive. Unicorns can't manipulate clouds at all, only pegasi and even then, they can't do it without touching the cloud."

"Oh, cool." I walk towards the cloud that I dragged to the floor.

I touch the cloud, it's solid and soft. It's really nice. I can stand on the cloud too. I climb onto the small cloud and sit down on the soft white surface. I use the magic I possess to manipulate the cloud further, I can fly around using the cloud.

The three equines look up at my method of transport. I fly around some more. It's incredible,  flying with the air in your face and the freedom to go wherever you please. I like clouds.

I land the cloud back on the ground and dismount.

"That felt amazing!"

They just stare.

"Oh, sorry. I'm easily distracted. I guess we have a manner of business to attend to, why else would we be here." I chuckle nervously.

The alicorn sisters nod towards each other.

Celestia speaks. "We have decided that you study magic with Luna and Twilight," Luna nods. "We are curious to the extent of your new power."

"That's fine with me."

"Good, now we have much to do to set up this public introduction" The princesses depart to finalise preparations.

"Uhh, Twilight. There's a monster. Uhh, downstairs." Spike says drowsily, it appears he had finally joined us.

"No Spike. He's not a monster, he's a guest." Spike looks p at Twilight, confused. "Spike, this is Michael, he's staying with us for he time being." She gestures towards me.

The dragon looks at me nervously. "Um, hi. My names Spike. I'm Twilight's number one assistant." It looks likes he's back to his original self again.

"Hi Spike. Well, now introductions are out of the way, I going to take a trip on a cloud." I clamber back onto the cloud. "Hey Twilight, care to join?"

"Michael, I can't walk on clouds. Only pegasi can do that."

"Well, you know a spell to walk on clouds. I'm sure both you and Spike will enjoy flying on a cloud."

"Yeah Twilight, it will be fun!" Awesome, I got the dragon on my side.

"Okay, I don't see why not." she says reluctantly.

Twilight's horn glows with bright purple light, engulfing herself and Spike for a moment before dissipating. They both clamber onto the cloud, Spike more enthusiastically than Twilight.

"Okay, he we go."

The small cloud takes to the skies. Speeding around the town and up In the sky. Both of my passengers are thoroughly enjoying themselves. The sun's coming up now, marking the morning. We come to a stop above the town hall.

"That was AMAZING!" Spike yelled.

Ponies are waking up now, windows are opening and store signs are being switched to open. Ponyville is full of early risers.

"Well, I think we should get back to Celestia, the town is waking up." I say.

They nod in agreement.

...

We arrive at the stage in the centre of town and land the cloud behind the drawn theatrical curtains that hid the contents of the stage from curious passer by.

Celestia meets us behind the stage, Luna is not with her.

"The mayor has called the whole of Ponyville to this event, they don't know about you at all, they just know that I'm here to speak. This should be quite event, introducing a new species to Equestria. Twilight, go join your friends, I'm sure they're pretty excited. Now if you excuse me, I have a crowd to address." Celestia disappears through the drawn curtains. A loud series of cheers follow her entry.

"Twilight, what about Pinkie?" I ask.

"I don't know, but I'm sure it won't be a problem." she smiles nervously and departs to join her friends elsewhere.

I wait patiently being the curtains. I'm not exactly listening o what Celestia is saying, but it's getting quite the reaction from the audience. Loud cheers follow every other sentence.

I've never liked public speaking or standing up in front of even the smallest of audiences. I don't even know how many is out there. Calm down, nothing to worry about.

The curtains open. I can't believe what I see.