Chapter 2

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“Quit pouting, it looks cute on you,” Misty Fly says as I stand in front of the mirror, arms folded.

It’s been about an hour since we spoke with the princesses.

Just before we left the castle, Celestia suggested I get some new clothing, insisting to charge it to her.

I don’t really feel right having royalty pay for clothes I’m only going to be using til we figure out how I got here, change me back to normal and send me back, but Luna insisted I’d never convince Celestia out of it.

Guess, even if only temporarily, she truly does care about the wellbeing of all her subjects, even when they’re not from her own world.

Instead of that hospital smock I arrived in, I’m now wearing actual clothing… or what I guess counts right now.

I’m pretty much wearing a short pure white toga with golden lining and I’m not happy about it.

Sure, it’s a definite improvement over the smock and I’m at least now wearing underwear underneath, but I don’t like how open this feels. I need to clothes that actually feel like clothes, not something you’d go to bed in.

“I agree with Misty Fly,” Sassy Saddles says eagerly, the tall blue unicorn clapping her hooves reverently. “You do look quite adorable, for a creature I’ve never seen before, anyway.”

I honestly don’t know whether to take that as a well-meaning or unintentional insult.

“But, I’m Max,” I say, keeping my arms folded. “Max’s badass, not cute. I mean, I guess she’s cute in her own way, but that’s not the point of her and…” I blink, before facepalming. “Great. I sound like I’m talking in the third person, like Trixie.”

“Either way, you’ll have to make do with these for now, Max,” Misty says, following Sassy over to the register and making the arrangements for the charges to go to Celestia. “Sassy had to work with what she had. Until she and Rarity can finish some custom clothing for you, you’ll just have to wear those.”

I snort, turning away. “Yeah, yeah. I know. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Misty pauses, glancing back at me. “Huh?”

I sigh, putting my hands on my hips and looking to the ceiling. “Nothing. Just an Earth phrase. I’ll explain later.”

The payments finalized, Sassy says she’ll have the other togas delivered to Misty’s house and we leave, myself really just wanting to get out of Canterlot.

Is this because I’m Max and she never felt good staying in one place too long? Have I acquired that too, like a tick?

I sure hope not. That wouldn’t really work well with the fact Misty’s now my legal guardian until I return home.

“So,” Misty glancing up to me as we walk through Canterlot, “you wanna get started on that flight training?”

“I can’t lie,” I say, folding my arms and looking up to the sky in thought, “part of me is kinda itching to give these wings a full try.”

I mean, I wasn’t able to really enjoy my flight from the apartment Clear Skies is housesitting due to the literal crash course in flying I’d been given and how it had been followed by the flight to the castle straight after, but, some parts of it did stick with me.

The feeling of not being bound to the earth, while still being in full control? It’s hard to not say that felt amazing.

Brief as it had been and distracted as I was at the time, that feeling… it was like nothing I’ve ever felt before.

I guess, if I was looking for just one simple word to describe it, it would be freedom.

Freedom from the bonds of gravity. Freedom from the limitations of the ground.

It’s not exactly something every human can say they’ve experienced. Closest I can think of would be those who sky dive and paraglide regularly and even then, they’re still limited by how long the air keeps them aloft.

When you’re the one flying, when it’s your own power keeping you in the air, the only limits are you own body. As long as you don’t get tired, you can remain airborne and free forever.

“Goodness! What is that?”

And now I remember the other reason I want to get out of Canterlot as soon as possible.

Stopping, Misty and I turn around to see a pair of unicorns I don’t recognize from the show.

The stallion is brown with a white mane and blue eyes. I can make out a golden bar for a Cutie Mark under the overly expensive looking tuxedo he’s wearing.

The mare has a white coat, two toned purple mane and a diamond for a Cutie Mark I can just make out under her overly elaborate red dress.

They’re both looking at me as if I’m some plague ridden beast about to soil their clothes or something.

“Can I help you two?” Misty asks and her tone tells me she is as keen to talk to these two obvious snobs as I am, which is none at all.

“Why don’t you have that… thing on a leash?” the stallion says, giving Rarity a run for her money is being overly dramatic, lifting his right foreleg and covering his mouth.

“Has it been vaccinated?” the mare mirrors his actions. “it could go on a rampage and must clearly be contagious.”

“Well, you two are a pair of fuckwits, but you don’t see me complaining,” I say, folding my arms.

Their eyes widen in shock, as if the concept I can speak is something they literally never even considered a possibility.

“I dunno what you snobby shit heads think I am, but you’re reactions show me you’re worthless empty ponies, with no love in your lives,” I point at them. “Here’s an idea, pricks. Next time you meet a unique creature, don’t outright assume their mindless beasts and maybe, just maybe, you’ll have some chance of pulling your heads out of your asses long enough to see there’s a world beyond just you too! Come on, Misty.”

I turn around and stomp off, the sound of Misty trotting after me following seconds after.

She catches up to me and I can tell she’s looking at me.

“People like them always irritated me,” I say, not looking at her. “And, it’s not like ponies don’t know there are other creatures in this world! Yet they treated me like I’m some kind of wild— ARGH!”

Misty says nothing for a few moments. “I agree with you.”

I almost stop in my tracks, turning and glancing to her, seeing a smirk on her face.

She nods. “Trust me, if what little you’ve told me about what you are now is anything to go by, some scathing remarks are the least you could’ve done. And snobs like them deserve a good tongue lashing every once in a while.”

I stare at her for a few seconds, before sighing. “Yeah. I’m gonna have to watch my temper though. I don’t want to cause an incident.”

She shrugs. “Eh. Come on, let’s fly.”

Her wings flap and she flies instantly.

I hesitate, glancing at my back, where Sassy had worked slits for my wings.

I take a deep breath, before running forward, extending my wings to their maximum and leap up, flapping them hard to rise up and join the Pegasus mare in the air.

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I sigh contentedly as I lay down on the cloud bed, feeling the puffy white stuff holding me gently.

Seriously, laying on a cloud is the softest thing you could ever feel. I can understand why Rainbow Dash napped so much throughout the early seasons.

It’s so hard to keep myself from drifting off as I lay in the puffy stuff.

Sighing with disappointment, I sit up and take in my surroundings.

I’m in a small room big enough for my wings, so a little more than ten feet in length.

There’s not much in here, just a closest, a table with a mirror and the bed I’m currently sitting on, all made of cloud.

I’m at Misty Fly’s home, or, I guess, my home for the time being.

Getting to Cloudsdale hadn’t been too hard after I finally got the basics of flying down, though we did have an unintended detour.

Due to the day being rather warm, I hadn’t really thought about it when I started feeling really hot, before I suddenly found myself rocketing through the air without any idea what was going on.

When I stopped and Misty caught up, I’d travelled several miles away from where we’d been going and she said I must’ve been going over two hundred miles per hour, something she wasn’t aware humans can do… and they can’t.

Max, on the other hand...

I lean forward on the bed, putting my hands together, thinking things over.

After my flight, Misty had insisted we stop somewhere, which I soon realized was the Junior Speedsters Flight School, the one Dash, Fluttershy and Gilda all wen to when they were little.

She’d wanted the instructor to measure my top flight speed. The fact I’d gone so fast really shocked and somewhat worried her, so she’d wanted to know just how fast I can go.

We wasted over two hours, with myself trying to push my wings to the maximum I could with my limited flight training, which has literally been less than a day.

Of course, it took a while for Max in the books to learn how to turn her Warp Drive, I think she called it, on and off on command.

We’d just been about given up when, while going into a dive, it happened. I accidentally shot right through several foal’s flight paths.

My top flight speed was registered at three hundred and fifty miles per hour.

With that learned, and my getting kinda miffed when I learned that barely puts me above an Average Pegasus’s Endurance flight speed, we arrived at her place and I’ve been in here since.

Misty’s getting dinner ready, since she now has to cook for two.

I’ll be sure to help out in the future, as I am a pretty good cook back home… at least, I should be. Sure hope I haven’t gotten Max’s bad cooking skills along with everything else. That would suck, when I used to be a good cook myself.

Sighing, I frown at my reflection in the mirror.

I can remember most of the rest of The Flock’s powers, but those aren’t any help to me since I turned specifically into Max and not any of them.

I wince. Yeesh. Actually, thinking that over, I’m glad I didn’t turn into Angel. Not only would I be even younger than I am now, but Mind Reading and Future Sight? They sound awesome on paper, but she was living proof in her universe that it can really suck ass.

“Max?” I literally jump through the roof when Misty calls from down the hall.

After fixing the hole as best I can, I push open the wood-like cloud door to my room and move down the hallway, passing two more doors, before coming out into an open space with a glass table in the centre, on which are two plates, one in front of an empty seat and the other the mare whom I’ll be living with for the foreseeable future.

Glancing around the house, I’m reminded again how interesting pegasi homes are.

You see Dash’s several times throughout the show, plus hers and Fluttershy’s parents’ too, but having another perspective makes things more interesting.

Cloud homes are an interesting blend of clouds and thicker cloud-like bricks. Unlike Dash, Misty Fly’s home isn’t as extravagant and unlike Dash’s parents’, more like a two story apartment in a complex despite being a single building.

The roofs are a darker shade of grey than the wall and floor clouds, with a more solid look that suggest it’s sturdy enough to hold those who can’t walk on clouds without them falling through, at least not right away.

I myself seem to be able to walk on clouds no problem, so it’s not too big an issue.

There are Greek/Roman style columns in the corners of each area of the house, keeping the ceiling up. The windows are an interesting type of glass made from clouds so thin you can see through them, but won’t harm any creature they may happen to fall down on or whom crashes through them.

The floor feels stable enough that non-cloud-walkers could walk on it without fear of falling through the floor and plummeting to their death, not that I think Misty has had too many non-flyers visit her house before.

Curtains, a few posters and photos dot around the house, letting colour in so everything isn’t all grey.

Sitting down, I’m a little taken aback when I realize, along with some potatoes, corn on the cob and carrots, there’s some chicken breast and bacon on not only my plate, but Misty’s too.

“I thought ponies didn’t eat meat,” I say, though it’s somewhat of a lie.

I’ve known for several years now that equines can actually eat and digest meat, but it was never fully expressed in the show or EQG movies whether or not MLP ponies eat meat. It was mostly just discussed within the fandom.

Best case scenario, they just don’t eat red meat.

“Equines in your world are weird, kid,” Misty says, using her wings to hold her knife and fork, cutting a piece of pototaos and chewing it. “All poniesh in Equeshtria eat meat.” She swallows. “Granted, we don’t eat red meat, but we do still eat meat.”

I nod. Thought so. Just had to clarify.

“So, I’ve been meaning to ask about what you can really do,” Misty says as I cut some chicken and eat it. “We know you’re top speed and flight and you mentioned this Max character you’ve become is pretty strong, but what else, kid?”

I pause, the last piece of bacon inches from my lips. I frown, thinking. “Well, it’s been a while since I read the books, so let me think while… um...”

I trail off, looking away.

“What?” Misty asks, lifting a potato slice to her mouth, before she seems to notice my empty plate. “Wow. You were hungry.”

“Well, to be fair, this is the first time I’ve eaten since arriving here,” I say, scratching a finger against my brow nervously.

Misty nods quickly, taking my plate and flies over to the cloud kitchen counter, grabbing some of the remaining food and, apparently thinking ahead, piles twice as much as before onto my plate.

“So, Max’s skills?” she says after laying the plate in front of me, which I quickly tuck into.

I chew for several moments (seriously this chicken is brilliant, either the trope in fanfics that Equestrian food just tastes better than either food is true or Misty is just that damn good a cook) then swallowing, thinking.

“Well… best I remember, along with her abilities of flight and speed, I do remember something about fast healing and breathing underwater. Enhanced eyesight too, since I can zoom in on things far away, like a hawk or eagle,” I point to my eyes with my pinkie-finger while I shovel several chucks of potato in my mouth.

The eyesight thing is definitely something I know Max has and it not just something I got that she mightn’t have. It’s how Max first met her half-sister unaware in the first book. I remember that much.

Was there anything else though?

“Huh. Interesting power set there,” Misty looks up at the cloud ceiling. “Breathing underwater, huh? Must say, didn’t see that one coming. Breathing underwater isn’t exactly something you associate with flying.”

Just wait til… til…

I frown, looking down at my plate as I take another mouthful of chicken.

Something she said there just triggered something in my brain. I remembered something for a second there, but… it’s gone. Whatever memory I was just about to get has drifted back into the abyss.

“Um… Max?”

I glance to Misty, confused by her shocked expression, before glancing down at my currently empty plate, followed by my stomach growling loudly.

“Um… can I have some more?” I ask, blushing.

Apparently I’d neglected to mention the whole “Max eats like a tank” part.

Author's Note

Hmmm. I dunno. i feel like this isn't much at all, like it's just a baseline, but i needed to get something out or i was going to drive myself crazy.

today i finally finished scanning all my usbs and, thankfully, it seems all the ones i truly care about now are all good, so that's one weight i've been carrying around for the last 3 weeks finally off my shoulders.

and, since i was able to wrap up my USB stuff faster than expected, i chose to try and write the next chapter, knowing i need Max to establish her home before i can really move forward.

I intend for Max to spend a bit of time exploring Cloudsdale before going to Ponyville, since Ponyville isn't going to be her home for the school.

that's not to say she won't go there often. as her memories start to slowly trickle in, she's going to be using her foreknowledge responsibly, but those times will be few and far between til around late season 6 and onwards.

Again, sorry if this feels kinda ho hum. i should be able to make the next chapter much better, as i'll be able to focus far more of my day on writing it than i had today. plus, not having to fight anxiety from the moment i got to bed to getting onto the library computer will certainly help the creative juices flow much better.

Either way, i hope you enjoyed this chapter and, for anyone wondering where i got my info on Pegasus flight speeds for Max to learn, even at her Max speed, she's not really much better than your average Pegasus, GO HERE.

I'd originally planned on checking RD's flight speed states from that episode of Death Battle where she fights G1 Starscream, but realized i couldn't base off that because Dash's average top speed is freaking 3800 miles per hour, which leaves Max in the dust so having her sized up against Dash first off would've just been kicking a horse while it's down. she doesn't need that negative a smashing on her ego that quickly.

anyway, i'm rambling and have less than ten minutes before my computer time is up, so i'll shut up.

hope you all enjoyed this chapter, hope i'll be able to make the next one much better and, til next time, stay say, stay clean and later everybody