Finding Freedom

The sun shone in my face, disturbing me from the best sleep I've ever had. As I opened my eyes groggily, I looked up into the sky. Now I understood what Caramel meant. If I could just sleep on a cloud whenever I got tired, what was the point of getting a house. Hell, If I really wanted to I could just make a cloud house. I made a mental not to ask about that later. I got up and stretched my wings. Life is pretty awesome when you have wings, not gonna lie. I've only learned how to fly one day ago, and now I couldn't wait to try it again.

Instead of lifting off like I had been shown, I just dived off the cloud. Feeling the wind in my face made me smile. The ground got closer and closer. I was about to pull out of this dive when something hit me at a ridiculous peed. The wind got knocked out of me, as I began speeding in a totally different direction. I couldn't see much moving so fast, so I couldn't see what hit me. When I started to slow down, I realized that a pegasus had intercepted me.

The pegasus finally came to a stop and put me down. I stood on my own hooves to look at Rainbow. I should've known. I rubbed my sides as she stopped to catch her breath. When she looked at me I could see she was pissed.

"Just what in the hay did you think you were doing?!" She was shouting at me, why are people always shouting at me?

"I was uh…"

"I don't even want to hear what excuse your going to make up. You know how lucky you are that I saw you. Do you even care? I don't know anything about your last life, but you have people who care about you here."

Uh oh, when she saw me diving, she must've thought I was letting myself fall.

"What about Fluttershy? How do you think she would've reacted?"

I planned on letting Rainbow finish, and then explaining calmly what had happened. Before I could do that another voice spoke up.

"What is going on out here?" oh good it was Twilight. She's the reasonable one, she would understand.

Rainbow spoke first, "I caught Silver here as he was flying straight for the ground!"

I opened my mouth, but Twilight beat me to it, "What?!" Here she turned to me, "How could you do that?! Don't you care about any of us?"

My mouth stayed open in surprise. Surely Twilight would give me a chance to speak. Well if she wasn't going to give me a chance to talk, then I would take one. I opened my wings, and began to build up air beneath them. However before I could fire, I felt the air get sucked out. Confused I looked around myself, as if I was going to find the lost air. Rainbow's wings were open and I could feel them gathering up air.

I shouted at her, "Hey, you can't do that! That's cheating."

"What, should I have let you fly away?"

"I wasn't going to fly away, I was going to stop Twilight from talking, so I could calmly explain what happened."

Before anything further could be said one more voice called out, 'Hey what's going on here?"

Pinkie Pie bounced up to join us. Once again Rainbow spoke first, "Silver was just about to explain why he was attempting to paint himself on the ground."

Pinkie, confused, only said, "Huh?"

I calmly said, "Rainbow thinks I was trying to kill myself."

Wrong words. Pinkie immediately deflated. She gave me the saddest look and said,

"Don't you like it here? I thought we were becoming great friends."

"We are friends."

"Then why would you do that to us?"

I couldn't take it anymore, "I WASN'T!" My voice echoed far away.

"I was diving, y'know like go down real fast then pull up. Come on, you of all people should know that Rainbow. I was doing a trick! You assumed that I was falling, an honest mistake, but this is ridiculous. Now I'm going to go work, and I don't want any of you following me."

With that I lifted my wings and once more. "Oh and one more thing, Rainbow I need to ask you some questions about your house. So if you could meet me at the library later, say around 3 it would be much appreciated."

I took off, and flew towards the farm. Feeling the need for speed, I put more energy into flying. When I could barely see where I was going, I was satisfied. I just love the feeling of wind pushing against you. I think I handled that in the best manner possible. I reached the barn in record time. In time in fact to see Caramel butting heads with Big Mac.

I landed down next to them and watched them try to push each other. Caramel surprised me. He was putting up a good fight considering Big Mac was twice his size. However, the inevitable happened and Caramel was thrown to the ground. I was debating on whether or not to interupt them when Caramel saw me.

"Oh hey Silver. You’re a bit late, but don't worry. Apparently AJ is getting some beauty sleep today."

"Ah'd shut that mouth of yers Caramel, 'fore I decide to wrastle with you. I'd sure hate to let Silver here see you lose to a girl."

Applejack walked up to us from the direction of her small house. I don't think she ever changed her appearance. It's like she made sure that every day she looked exactly the same.

"Well I for one would love to see that."

"Ah'm sure you would. 'Sides Ah don't have the time for beauty sleep."

I couldn't resist, "Maybe you should invest in some…"

AJ turned to look at me so fast, I swear her neck cracked, "Ah suppose you want to be beaten by a girl today too."

I really needed to learn to shut up, "Well I guess when I see one, I'll avoid them."

Caramel had been moving his hoof across his neck, but smacked his face when I said that. AJ on the other hand smiled at me, and not a good smile.

"Hardy Har. Ah think it's time ah showed you how we settle disputes, Apple style."

Uh oh. I wasn't a fool, years of apple bucking had given AJ very well-defined leg muscles. She could most likely kick my ass if she felt like it. At least it wasn't Big Mac that I had pissed off, I don't think I'd walk away from him. AJ began descending on me with that smile. Caramel stopped her though,

"Give the new guy a break AJ, besides I think that you don't need the beauty sleep, you're all ready beautiful."

AJ blushed at his comment, looks like someone has a soft spot after all. She gave me one last look and sighed,

"Well all right, but next time you won't get off so easy. Now get to work!"

Big Mac had apparently walked off at some point, he was an odd guy. Caramel walked with me for awhile as we walked deeper into the farm.

"You owe me for that."

"I know, thanks by the way. I'd really hate to 'wrastle' with AJ, although apparently she would love to with you."

"Watch it, or we'll be 'wrastling'"

"WOAH! Sorry, but I don't swing that way."

"Ha ha… You know what I mean. By the way, there's another worker here today. His name is Star Storm, do me a favor and tell him to watch out for AJ. She likes to pick on him for some reason."

"If I see him I will, what's he look like?"

"Dark blue coat, and a spiky white mane."

"Got it, see you later."

I walked away to begin my work for the day. I didn't see this Star Storm, but I think I heard AJ yelling at someone. I had decided to not investigate. My work was a lot easier today. I still ran and bucked the tree, even though I could've flown. I needed to push my legs to exercise them, so why not do it at work? However, when the baskets were filled, I was able to just fly them real quick back to the barn. I did accidentally run into a tree once, but I don't think anypony was watching.

I finished working around noon as I usually do and flew back to the library. Flying makes everything easier. I'm sure that even cooking would be easier if you could fly while doing it. I walked inside the library to find Lunar, Rarity, and Twilight sitting around.

"Now Lunar's job is in the morning so he has an excuse, but do you two actually do anything?"

Rarity answered first, "Well I run my own business, so I can decide if I open or if I want to close early."

"And I work here at the library. It's not my fault that nopony wants to read anything."

"Well I'm going to go wash up."

Rarity got up as well, "Splendid idea!"

I turned to glare at her, "Alone."

Rarity smiled, "I was just kidding, of course."

I took a brief shower and felt much better. I used to take cold showers in the morning so I could wake up better, but a hot shower relaxes your muscles so well. I walked back into the main room and took my customary spot on the couch. I started to fall asleep, but I made sure to keep one eye on Rarity. They mostly talked about magic, and eventually Lunar left to go bake with Pinkie Pie. Rarity and Twilight started talking about girlish stuff so I let my mind wander.

An hour later I woke up. Twilight was shaking me saying something. I was still too tired to understand her, and I just gave her a blank look. I shook my head to wake myself, and Twilight repeated herself,

"I said Rainbow is here. Are you deaf or something?"

Even half awake I could still poke fun at her, "Only when you're talking. Thanks for waking me up, what time is it?"

"About 1:30."

I looked up and glared at Rainbow, "You're early. That means I lost another hours worth of nap time."

She laughed nervously, "Ha… well I know the feeling."

Seeing that she was still stressing over this morning, I decided to leave Rarity and Twilight to themselves. I motioned for Rainbow to follow me outside.

She spoke first, "I'm sorry about this morning, I over reacted."

"No don't be sorry. You may have assumed wrong, but it was still good that you took action. Imagine if you had been right and didn't act on it. Sometimes you need to think before you act, but never hesitate to act."

"That doesn't really make sense…"

"Then it will eventually."

"Okay…."

"Now back to those questions I wanted to ask you. First, how did you suck up the air I was charging?"

"Oh that's easy. It's just a simple self-defense tactic the mares learned in flight school."

"How do I do it?"

"Well, when I do it I just send air over the other pegasus' wings and use that to sweep away any air they've been holding."

"Interesting, I'll have to remember that. Secondly, how do I build a cloud house?"

"Oh well that's a bit harder to explain. I can show you though, follow me."

She took off into the air, and I wasn't far behind. She stopped next to a rather large cloud and turned to face me.

"First you need to collect enough clouds to build your house. Once you have them you need to start molding them into the shape you want."

She demonstrated by molding the cloud she was next to into a pole. She motioned for me to try, and I succeeded in making a poor-looking column. It was a lot like working with clay, except a lot softer.

"My house took me quite some time to build, but mine is really extravagant. I think it took me a couple of months to get the basic structure down. Then I had to fine tune it. I also had to make sure to anchor it to the ground so it didn't fly away."

When she mentioned a couple of months, my smile disappeared.

"Screw that, I'll just sleep on a cloud."

She laughed, "Ya… Well that's what most Pegasi do."

All my visions of an epic cloud battleship went down the drain. My dream of making a huge battleship that I could fly around Equestria, gone in seconds.

"Well that's disappointing, oh well. I guess I'll have to find a different way to build a giant battleship."

"A giant what?"

"Never mind, well I'm going to go back to the library now, you coming?"

"Sure."

We both flew back towards the library. Rainbow seemed determined to make it there before me. I didn't really feel like working up a sweat again, so I gave it a half-hearted attempt. She easily beat me there, and would've started bragging if I hadn't just ignored her and went inside. I went to sit on my couch when something stopped me. Rarity was laying down on the couch already. She was acting like something dramatic had happened, but I didn't care. I just wanted my spot back.

"Oh I think I saw some Fancy-Pants guy outside walking around."

Rarity immediately got up and raced outside. I laid down on the couch and sighed.

Twilight said, "Well that wasn't very nice."

"She shouldn't have been on my couch."

"That's not your couch, it's mine."

"Sure, keep telling yourself that."

Rarity came back in giving me a very stern look.

"I didn't see anyone out there."

"You must've just missed him."

"I'm sure."

"And I'm Silver, what's your point?"

They mostly just talked, while I added in the occasional comment. Pinkie and Lunar joined us shortly after. They brought some food, which I gladly ate, to make sure it tasted good of course. We all just hung out like we had been friends for years. It wasn't until around 3:30 that anything else happened.

Fluttershy walked inside the building, 'Twilight have you seen Silver anywhere? He didn't show up at my house today."

I spoke up, "I think he was at the library earlier."

"Oh thank you." She turned around and left. Only to come back in a second later.

"Wait…"

I tried not to laugh, but it was very difficult.

"Why didn't you come to my house?"

"Well I assumed after yesterday that my lessons were over."

"Oh… Well I guess that makes sense… Does this mean you won't come by anymore?"

"Well not for lessons, but we can still hang out."

"Oh… alright…"

"Why don't you stay for awhile?"

"Oh.. um.. okay…"

She went to sit down on the floor next to me, but I motioned for her to join me on the couch.

Rarity fake whined at me, "How come she gets to sit on the couch?"

"Because she's the only one who hasn't tried to throw me off."

It's true. Before they had all been trying to get me off the couch. It had turned into a king of the hill game, but after even Twilight's levitation magic failed to get me off, I proclaimed myself king.

"Now all we need is Applejack, and it'll be a complete set."

Twilight said to me, "We don't really see a lot of Applejack in applebuck season. It's not until winter that she really has the time to hang out with us."

"Shame, she probably would've been the only one strong enough to get me off the couch."

"I know plenty of magic that could get you off."

"I didn't know you knew erotic magic, but please don't use it on me."

"You know what I meant!"

Most of the day went by like this, until finally Rarity decided to leave. With her went Pinkie and Rainbow. That left me, Lunar, Fluttershy, and Twilight. I would've made a joke about couples, but Lunar was still sore on the subject. I just laid down with Fluttershy listening to Lunar and Twilight argue about something.

Eventually Fluttershy also decided to leave. The sun was giving out its final rays, and I set out to find myself a nice cloud to sleep on. As the moon began to rise I fell asleep once again looking into it.
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