The seventh """Element"""

by Ensil

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy
Length: 7450

A lonely stallion meets the mane six, and quickly becomes an unofficial member of the Elements of Harmony. Eventually he ends up marrying one of them, but nothing goes as smoothly as planned.

Twilight and Pinkie come across a stallion who's in a pretty bad mood. After explaining he feels lonely, and in need of things to do, he gets to help out the mane six with various tasks in their everyday life.

He grows close enough to them that he gets to join them on their adventures, and he even becomes an honorary Element of Harmony.

A rejection, a change of heart, and some relationship issues later, he marries the pony he had a crush on since they first met, and they live happily together, though, many issues still pop up, both for Equestria, and their relationship.

Published 2023-12-27 00:10:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-12-27 00:10:00 UTC

Chapter 1: Help me help you help us all

It was a fine summer day. It had only been a short while since Twilight arrived in Ponyville, but she had already managed to earn the respect of everypony in town by standing up to Nightmare Moon. Still, respect would not give you a map of the place and neither would Pinkie Pie, as she was showing her around town instead.

“The market is that way, that way is Rarity’s boutique, oo! That’s Sugarcube Corner. I live there with Mr. and Mrs. Cake!”

However, Twilight did want that map. She had Spike trotting along behind them, trying to draw a map, and looking rather frustrated. Apparently, a library not offering a map of the town it’s in is unacceptable, according to her.

“Argh! Could we please go any slower? I can’t draw this fast!” complained Spike.

“Oh, okay!” Pinkie happily replied, before stopping and pointing down a road leading out of town. “Iiiiif youuuuu goooooo thaaaaaat waaaaaay, youuuuuu’ll geeeeet toooo Fluuuuuutteeeeeershyyyyy’s huuuuuut!”

She then slowly continued to bounce along forwards. Even taking longer to land after each hop. Twilight was about to ask how she was doing that, but decided not to, perhaps for the better; one of the unwritten rules of this town was to never question Pinkie Pie. You could get anything between an “I dunno” to a 3 hour lecture about why it’s absolutely necessary to wake somepony up with a cannon on their birthday. Most ponies found this out the hard way.

“Actually, just forget about the map. I’m sure I’ll remember where everything is, ” Twilight said with an awkward smile.

As they were nearing the outskirts of the town, they walked past a light brown pegasus stallion with a cream-colored blaze marking going down to his underside, and similarly colored markings on his legs going from his hooves to just below his knees, and on the tip of his wings. His cutie mark was a red and orange starburst with a pair of old-timey aviator goggles fluttering in front of it. His mane, which was combed to one side, and his tail were the same color as his markings, and both were messy. His eyes were a deep dark blue. He was sitting on a bench, looking grimly at the ground in front of him.

As the town tour group walked past him – well, two of them walked, the tour guide preferred to travel by hopping – Pinkie noticed something was wrong. Somepony in Ponyville was clearly not in a good mood, and she wasn’t about to let it slide. She stopped dead in her tracks and backed up, much to Twilight and Spike’s confusion.

“Hey! You!”

Pinkie caught the attention of the stallion, who looked up in surprise.

“W-who?... Me?”

The four of them looked around in awkward silence. There was nopony else on that street Pinkie could’ve been talking to.

“...R-right…” he added, with a slight blush.

“You clearly need a pick-me-up party, STAT!”

“Uhh, Pinkie? What about the tour?” Twilight asked, not wanting to get in the way of her friend, but still wanting to know where everything is.

“TWILIGHT, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!”

Pinkie shrieked at Twilight before dashing home for her emergency party supplies. The stallion watched the commotion in confusion and amusement, but mostly confusion.

“Maybe we should start with introductions?” Twilight turned to the stallion. “Hi! My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m new in town.” She reached a hoof towards him, with an obviously forced smile.

“I think everypony in town knows who you are already, ” Spike added.

“Oh. Right…” Twilight scratched the back of her head with the previously mentioned hoof, while slightly blushing.

“My name is… Rush uh- Novice, ” – he was a bit hesitant to reveal his last name – “...a-and I’m not new in town…?”

The two ponies stared at each other for a second.

“... Soooo how long have you lived here?” Twilight inquired.

“All my- all my life,” Rush said, more saddened now than embarrassed, as he looked down at the ground. “unfortunately.”

“UNFORTUNATELY?!”

Pinkie loudly chimed in, causing the two ponies and the dragon to jump. She had returned with a bundle of balloons, a box which one could assume to contain some sweets, and most importantly for any party, a cannon.

“Don’t get me wrong, this place is, uh, great but… ” He spread his wings out a tiny bit. “...There wasn’t a flight school anywhere nearby… which I could’ve used when I was a colt…”

“Is that why you’re feeling down?” Twilight kept questioning him..

“No, I’m- I’m past that already.”

“Then?”

Rush sighed.

“It’s… I’m fine…”

“You don’t look fine to me, and trust me, I know what a pony who isn’t fine and is in need of cheering up looks like.” Pinkie countered.

“I’m- I’m not g-getting out of this without talking about my, uh, life problems with strangers, am I?”

“Well, if you don’t want to-” Twilight started before getting interrupted by Pinkie.

“Nope!”

Rush sighed again.

“Let me just… gather my thoughts, please.”

The two ponies waited patiently for him to speak. Spike was just tapping his claw on the ground impatiently. He took a deep breath before he started speaking.

“I barely have any friends, and I don’t get to hang out with them that often, I’m scared of talking to ponies I don’t know, I’m pretty bad at flying, I couldn’t find any talent I may have other than crashing into things because I give up too easily…”

Twilight and Pinkie looked at each other as Rush rambled on. Seemed like one day, and especially one emergency party, wouldn’t be enough to help him. After he finished, both mares put a hoof to their chin while they tried to figure out some way to help him. Twilight was the first to think of something.

“What if you helped out some of my friends? I’m sure some of them could use a hoof, you’ll get to hang out with more ponies, and maybe you’ll find something you’re good at!”

Rush wasn’t sure what to make of the suggestion. On one hoof, she made a pretty good point; on the other, having to talk to ponies was still scary. Making a decision may have been easier if not for the anxiety weighing down his chest, and making his brain go haywire.

“Rush, are you okay?” Twilight concernedly asked the visibly sweating stallion.

“I’m- I’m fine it’s just-” He paused to take a deep breath. “I’ll- I’ll try…”

“Great! We’ll be right back. Come on, Spike!”

Twilight plopped Spike on her back with her magic before running towards the library, not leaving enough time for anypony to react properly.

“BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TOUR?!”

Pinkie screamed after her, but it was too late. There was no stopping Twilight from making a list.

“So now what?” Rush asked Pinkie.

“Weeeell, since I already got my emergency party kit…”

And with that, it took her approximately 5.46 seconds to set a party up for Rush, who could only let out a “Woah…” in response, before getting blasted in the face with confetti.

After a short while of Rush and Pinkie enjoying cupcakes, and the latter barraging the former with barely related questions, Twilight returned with—who would’ve guessed—a list.

“I’m back! I made a list of all my friends you could try helping.”

“You- you have that many friends?” asked Rush, raising an eyebrow.

“Eheheh, no…” Twilight blushed again. “When do you want to start?”

“I don’t really have anything to do today.” He said as he grabbed one last cupcake, and hopped off the bench.

“Pinkie, maybe you should clean all this up.” Twilight pointed at the confetti on the floor. “We’ll meet you at Sugarcube Corner later.”

“Got it!” Pinkie saluted back, then hit the side of her canon, which vacuumed up all the confetti and balloons.

“How did-”

Rush started with his mouth full of cupcake, before remembering what happened to the last poor foal who asked her that question.

“Nevermind.”

And so, Twilight and Rush waved their goodbyes from Pinkie, then they all awkwardly walked in the same direction for a bit, until Twilight suggested the two of them take a different route.

“So, where exactly are we going?” Rush asked after a while of walking through town – and almost getting lost.

“To riiight- here!”

Putting emphasis on that last word, Twilight stopped in her tracks in the middle of a slightly busy street. Not even near anypony, a building, or even a trapdoor on the ground.
Rush looked around in confusion until…

“RAINBOW!”

Twilight screamed at the sky, causing him to flinch, and some of the nearby ponies to slightly jump and give her weird looks. He looked up towards the sky as well, and noticed Rainbow peeking out from over a cloud above.

“Ough… You don’t have to scream so loud…” Rainbow greeted them. She looked rather displeased that she got woken up by a sound that could definitely deafen somepony.

“Ehehe… Sorry…” Twilight blushed yet again.

“It’s fine.”

Rainbow flew down to the two ponies waiting for her on the ground.

“Hey Twilight! Hey Rush!”

“You two have met already?” Twilight asked curiously, while Rush just awkwardly waved at Rainbow.

“Yeah, he’s one of the weather ponies. Pretty fast, too. Too bad his flying technique is… not… perfect.”

Rainbow scratched the back of her head with a hoof, as Rush just blushed.

“What do you mean?” asked Twilight.

“I- I tend to crash into things, uh, pretty often…” He looked at the ground.

“Hey, don’t worry about it!” Rainbow patted him on the back. “You still finish your tasks faster than most ponies.”

“I guess…” was the only response he could think of.

“So, why were you looking for me anyway?” She looked at Twilight. “I mean, if you just wanted to introduce sompony that’s fine, but next time, please don’t wake me up by blowing my ears out.”

“We actually wanted to ask you something. Rush has been feeling down because he doesn’t think he’s good at anything and he needs more friends. We were going to ask if there was anything he could help you with, buuuut it seems like you already give him plenty of stuff to do.”

“Are you kidding? He usually gets the third biggest part of the sky above Ponyville to take care of. If I wanted to give him more, I’d have to take from either Thunderlane or myself, or fire somepony else.”

“Hmm…” Twilight put a hoof to her mouth in thought. “Maybe you could teach him better flying techniques? He did mention not getting to go to flight school.”

Rainbow’s mouth gaped open in shock. “Wait, you can fly like that without flight school?!”

“Yeah, but-... flying fast is just a matter of flapping your wings harder… Stopping and steering is what’s, uh, causing me trouble.”

“What about your parents?” Rainbow further inquired.

“My, uh, my dad was the pegasus in the family… but my parents had to part ways when I was very-... young, ” he explained, more bothered by his lack of speaking skills than the information he shared.

“We’re sorry to hear that, Rush…” Twilight tried comforting him by speaking in a soft voice.

“Yeah, growing up like that must’ve been horrible.” Rainbow added.

“It’s- it’s fine… As I said, I was very young when it happened, so, uh, I- don’t even remember what it was like before that… Plus my mom always cared a lot about me… and my grandparents…”

He trailed off after bringing up his grandparents, but he shook his head and moved on.

“But that’s not why we’re here.”

“Right… Uhh, look, I’ll try training you later, but right now, I need some rest.” Rainbow flew back up to the cloud she was sleeping on earlier and lay back down. “See ya, guys!”

She waved from the top of the cloud, not even looking down at the two.

“BYE RAIN-” Twilight screamed again, scaring everypony nearby once more, and further hurting Rush’s ears. “bow…”

“S-see ya!” Rush also said his goodbye.

With the first pony on Twilight’s list visited, she checked her off as they were on their way to the next location. That being Sweet Apple Acres. The two wandered around the farm looking for Applejack, who they soon found.

“Heya Twilight. Heya- Uhhh” Applejack greeted them.

“R-Rush… my name is Rush. Uh, nice to meet you.”

“Ah, well, nice to meet ya too.”

The two of them shook hooves.

“Applejack, we are trying to find something Rush is good at, mind letting him help you around the farm for a while?” Twilight explained.

“Fine by me. We can always use some more help on tha farm.”

Applejack showed them around the farm, and brought them out to the apple orchards with two buckets, which she placed under some trees.

“All ya have to do is buck them, like this.”

Applejack bucked one of the trees, causing all the apples to fall down and into the bucket… somehow. She then gestured at Rush to try it as well. When he tried it though, he fell forwards after kicking the tree, only managing to knock a single apple down… which (in)conveniently missed the bucket and landed on his head instead. They tried a few more times, but each time he’d either not kick the tree hard enough, or he’d kick it way too hard and fall forward, still only knocking a few apples down at most. There were also some more apple related head injuries.

“Phew… This is… tiring…” He eventually spoke up. “And my head hurts too…”

“I’ll be honest with ya, ” Applejack hesitated a bit. “You’re not good at this.”

“I, uh, could tell…”

“Anything else he could do?” Inquired Twilight.

“Ah have an idea… Just hold on a moment.”

Applejack went ahead and bucked a few more trees, filling the two buckets, while her visitors looked on. After she was done, she clipped the buckets together with a curved piece of metal she also brought with herself.

“See if ya can carry these back to the barn.” She pointed at the buckets of apples, ready for transportation.

Rush crawled under the connector piece, then stood up, lifting the buckets. He was clearly struggling a bit with the weight, but he managed overall.

“Easy there…”

Rush made his way back towards the barn, followed by the two mares making sure he didn’t drop any apples. After arriving, he plopped the buckets down on the ground, accidentally causing a few apples to roll off.

“Maybe ya need some practice, but that’s a good start!”

Rush wasn’t sure how to take the compliment. Or compliments in general, for that matter.

“Thanks…?”

Meanwhile, Twilight checked off another item on her list.

“Do you want to keep looking, Rush?”

“Sure!”

They said goodbye to Applejack and headed back into town.

Next on the list was Rarity. As they entered her boutique, a bell rang above the door.

“Just one moment, dear.”

Rarity greeted them while facing away. She was too busy making dresses to even look behind herself.

“Hello, Rarity!”

“Uh, good morning…?”

The two visitors greeted her back as they walked inside and closed the door behind themselves. The familiar voice, followed by an unknown one piqued Rarity's interest enough for her to turn around.

“Oh my!”

Rush wasn’t sure what to make of her reaction.

“I’m terribly sorry, but that mane is looking horrendous. This simply cannot do.”

She said while grabbing a comb and rushing towards Rush. He, meanwhile, was rather annoyed, but he felt like he should’ve expected this from a fashionista.

“Actually, we came to ask you something, ” Twilight chimed in.

“Yes, yes, I’m on it.”

Rarity did not let the two explain themselves before trying to comb Rush’s mane, which refused to cooperate with her, no matter what direction or style she tried.

“Hold on, this may take a moment. It’s being more stubborn than Applejack.”

“Could- could you please stop?”

Rush spoke up, not enjoying the non-consensual grooming.

“Rarity, please, this isn’t why we’re here, ” Twilight deadpanned.

“Ah, excuse me!”

Rarity tried combing his mane back to how it was when he entered, then finally stepped away and put the comb back. Her restoration attempts were quite unsuccessful though, so Rush fixed it with a hoof. It may have made his mane messier, but at least it wasn’t in his face anymore.

“Why did you come, then?”

“We wanted to ask you if there’s anything Rush could help you with. He’s looking for things to do, ” explained Twilight.

“Weeell, designing clothes for a stallion model for a change sounds like a good challen-”

“NO.” Rush interrupted instinctually. “I-I mean, sorry, but-... I had enough, uh, fashion for one day already… Besides, I’m, uh, not much for showing myself off.”

“No, no. You’re showing the dress- I mean suit off. You just also have to look fabulous to make the dress- ugh, suit look even better. Sorry, force of habit.” Rarity blushed slightly.

It was clear from Rush’s expression he was not interested in the offer.

“Buuut I won’t force you if you don’t want to do that, dear. But! You must let me design something for you. Those deep, dark blue eyes contrasting the rest of your coat and – rather messy – mane inspired me.”

“Fine… I guess.”

Rush accepted a bit reluctantly, while also being curious what she’ll come up with. He also couldn’t hide the slight blush from the way Rarity just talked about him.

“Good, I’ll get right on it!”

Rarity immediately scurried around her workshop, gathering materials and references.

“Uhh, Rarity? What about the dress you were making before?” Twilight asked worriedly.

“Oh don’t worry about that. I still have until Thursday to finish it, ” Rarity replied, still making a mess.

“But that’s after tomorrow!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Oh well, I can miss a few hours of sleep.”

“Rarityyy…” Twilight was not impressed by the answer, despite her own tendency to value work over sleep.

“Shoo now. I’ll let you know when it’s done.”

She shoved the two visitors out of her boutique, and shut the door behind them. Twilight sighed, and checked another pony off her list.

Only two were left, and the first of them was Fluttershy.

“Oh, h-hello…”

She greeted Twilight and Rush pretty fittingly for her name after they arrived at her hut, which was full of animals like usual.

“Hello, Fluttershy.”

“Uh, Hello…”

The two greeted her back.

“What can I do for you?”

“We are looking for things Rush could do. Need any help with anything?”

Twilight was getting pretty sick of explaining this to everypony by this point. Rush, meanwhile, was busy looking at all the animals. It was like he was in a zoo, but both a lot more open, and a lot more cramped at the same time. While he did find the sight amusing, the bear in the corner worried him, as Harry just stared back at him curiously.

“I’m sorry, but I can take care of the animals alone. I mean, if you want to, you can visit and hang out, but if you don’t, that’s also fine.” Fluttershy explained politely. Maybe a bit too politely.

“Oh well, thanks anyway. Let’s go, Rush!”

After bidding farewell, Twilight and Rush left, the latter a bit relieved by it. Why does she even have a bear in her house…? he thought to himself, as he followed Twilight to their last destination for the day. Another pony down, and there was only Pinkie left to ask.

“Let me guess, you already went through all the friends you made the other day, asked all of them if they needed help with anything that Rush could help with, and I’m the only one left on the list.”

Pinkie said smugly from behind the counter she was leaning on at Sugarcube Corner. Twilight and Rush didn’t even get the chance to say anything before she perfectly described the last few hours in one sentence.

“How did you know?” Out of shock, Twilight made the rookie mistake of questioning Pinkie Pie.

“Eh, last time I saw Rainbow she was sleeping on a cloud, so I knew you couldn’t have spent much time with her, helping Applejack would’ve taken too long, so you probably tried something you’re not good at, then something you were okay at, Rarity got a few dress orders recently, plus she’s usually inspired by new ponies she meets, so she likely shoved you out of the boutique, and Fluttershy tends to work alone, so nothing to do there. Adding all that up – plus accounting for the time it took you to go to each pony, and factoring in Twilight not knowing the town very well yet – it comes out at around three and a half hours, which is exactly how long you had been gone.”

While still a lengthy explanation, Twilight luckily got off without a long lecture… this time.

“Wow…” Rush and Twilight responded in unison.

“Anyway, I’ll keep it brief since I know you still have other things to do today, you can either help me bake – but I feel like I’ll need to teach you how first – or you can help me set up parties or both! Putting banners up with helium balloons is fun, but inconvenient, and while I can make cakes pretty fast, more ponies making cakes is more cakes!”

“Huh, thank you…?” said Rush in confusion.

“No problem!” Pinkie replied cheerfully.

“Pinkie, you don’t have to hurry so much, the town tour can wait, ” pleaded Twilight.

“Oh, I wasn’t talking about that, silly!”

Just as Pinkie finished her sentence, a bell started ringing in the kitchen.

“And that’s my cue to leave, see ya!”

“Pinkie, wait!”

Twilight shouted after her, but it didn’t stop Pinkie from running into the kitchen. She sighed and checked the last pony off her list.

“Looks like that’s it, then.”

The two of them went back outside.

“Is there uhh… something I can help… you with?” Rush asked shyly.

“Hmm… Not that I can think of. Spike already helps me out a lot around the library, and I don’t really need help with anything else.”

“Aw… okay…” Rush replied.

“Oh! I could maybe order books from other libraries and you could pick them up for me.”

This piqued Rush’s interest.

“I-...’d be happy to…”

“Great!”

They looked around awkwardly for a while before Twilight spoke up.

“... I guess we should be heading home now…? Since it sounds like I won’t be continuing the tour with Pinkie for a while, I think I’ll head back to the library.”

Rush sighed and looked at the ground.

“I guess…”

“Is something wrong?” Twilight asked with worry.

Rush sighed again and turned around, looking up at the sky.

“...I’ll be honest… All the stuff I said at the bench?... ” He looked down again. “Those weren’t the reasons I was out there…”

Twilight paced forward to stand next to him.

“Then why were you there?”

Rush hesitated for a few moments before he started speaking.

“... I was… I was supposed to help my mom with, uh, something, but-... I just can’t bring myself to do things I-... don’t find… fun…? We got into an argument and I… left…”

“Life can’t always be fun and games, Rush… Despite what Pinkie might try to tell you…” Twilight said understandingly.

“I-I know… I heard that a million times already… It doesn’t help…”

“What were you supposed to help with?”

“Uh, gardening…”

“Maybe Applejack can help?” Offered Twilight.

“I think she has, uh, better things to-... to do than help me- not- do- the things I need to, uh, do.”

“You did say you’ll help her.”

“S-saying things is easy… I’m, uh, not sure how much I’ll be able to… actually help her though…. And. uh, it still doesn’t change the fact she… she has a giant, uh, apple farm to take care of.”

“We can still ask.”

“G-go ahead… I’m going home…. See ya, Twilight… and thanks for the help...”

Rush flew back home while Twilight remained there frowning towards the sky. She wasn’t going to give up so easily, though.

Back home, Rush was busy pulling weeds in his family’s fairly large garden after getting scolded for leaving the way he did earlier. It wasn’t an easy task, and the summer sun’s heat didn’t help either. Most inconvenient for him, however, was that it was really boring. He would’ve much preferred having fun with all the ponies he met that day.

His wishes were soon answered though, as he heard a familiar voice yelling his name from the front gate. Rushing to the front of their yard, he was greeted by Twilight and Applejack waiting outside the front gate. Meanwhile, Rush’s mom poked her head out the front door.

“I-I told you, uh, you don’t have- to help me!” Rush told them.

“We know, but yah still offered to help me and my family, and even if it doesn’t last, a little bit of help is still help. Besides, why tha hay would I decline helping a friend?” Applejack explained.

“F-friend? We’ve, uh, barely talked,” pointed out Rush.

“Maybe, but we’ve spent half the day together, and I don’t think you’re a bad pony, you just need to get out more.” Twilight answered, rather ironically.

“Heard that one before too…” Rush murmured to himself.

“And ah friend of Twilight’s is ah friend of mine!” continued Applejack.

“Thank you…”

Rush thanked his new friends contentedly, and opened the gate for them. His mom invited the three of them inside for some refreshments, and they spent the next few hours weeding out the garden. After they were done, Applejack and Twilight headed home, the former taking care of a few more things on her family’s farm, and the latter trying to deduce some sort of friendship lesson from today’s events to write to her mentor about. Rush, meanwhile, was (mostly) forgiven for his behavior towards his mom, due to all the friends he made. His mom was particularly excited about the fact that all six of them were mares around Rush’s age, but he didn’t really care too much. He was just happy he had friends to hang out with and things to do now. He did get attached to one pony in particular though, but he left worrying about that for another day.

Little did anypony know, they were being watched. A mysterious black bird with glowing yellow eyes was always lurking somewhere nearby Rush and Twilight. Was it one bird? Was it multiple? Nopony knew, but it was clear that that species of bird didn’t fit in a place like Ponyville. Though, there was perhaps more to it than a bird or two getting lost.

Chapter 2: A crash course in flying techniques

“Listen up! If you want to become decent at flying then you do what I say! Got it?”

“Uh, Rainbow, why do you-... why do you sound like you're about to, uh, draft me into the- Wonderbolts?”

“Come on, Rush! You gotta get in the spirit for proper training!”

It was Rush’s first training session with Rainbow. They decided that the best location for this was outside of Ponyville, as neither of them wanted to pay for any potential property damage.

“Whatever. Do a few laps around those clouds and we’ll start from there.”

Rainbow instructed while pointing to a few clouds in the sky. The course she planned for Rush had a few moderately tight turns, but it was mostly straight. He nodded, and took off. He gave the course a try, going at it way faster than his normal flying speed, but he overshot the first turn, and lost control trying to correct his path. He tumbled downwards, finally regaining control just in time to slightly slow himself down before crashing into a tree. Rainbow watched the whole thing, flinching when Rush crashed.

“Seems like we have a lot of work to do…” Rainbow thought.

She helped Rush get off of the tree, and after he collected his bearings, she gave actual instructions.

“Let’s start with slowing down.” She took off to give Rush a live demonstration. “You just have to spread your wings out and catch as much air with them as possible.”

She sped forwards, then stopped using the aforementioned technique. After she was done, she pointed at Rush.

“Now you try!”

He took off again, and sped up, before trying to stop like Rainbow did. It took him much longer to come to a complete stop than it did for her, and if he was flying any lower, he would’ve hit another tree.

“Now that’s a start! Keep doing that for a while.” She flew down and lay under a tree. “I’ll be down here if you need me.”

He did as he was told and practiced breaking, while Rainbow rested under the tree’s shade. Right as she was about to doze off, her trainee appeared in front of her.

“Done already?”

“Y-yeah, I, uh, I don’t think I’m getting any better.”

“Alright, come with me!”

They walked some distance away from the tree.

“So, here’s what’s gonna happen. I will go stand somewhere between here and that tree, you have to pick up as much speed as possible by the time you reach me, then stop yourself before you hit the tree. Got it?”

Rush just nodded in response. Rainbow flew away, and stopped somewhere between him and the tree, leaving more distance for speeding up than slowing down. She gave a signal to Rush by waving, who revved up his wings and flew towards Rainbow as fast as he could. After passing her, he tried slowing down, but he couldn’t stop in time, crashing into the tree’s trunk instead. The impact shook a bird nest off from the branches, which fell on the dazed pegasus’ head. The inhabitants of the nest flew down, and gave him a piece of their mind. Of course, he didn’t understand any of it – and even if he did, he couldn’t have processed it due to his headache – but that was maybe for the best. After chirping some very rude things, the two birds picked up their nest and moved it back to its previous resting place. Rainbow also showed up, looking super unimpressed.

“You can steer, right?”

Rush shook his head and stood up, stumbling around a bit from dizziness. He was holding a hoof to his head in response to the ache up there.

“...You said I had to stop before the tree…” he replied, his voice wobbling after the head injury he just suffered.

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean you should fly head first into it!”

“I’m sorry…” He looked at the ground, still holding his head.

“You don’t have to apologize. Look, I’m not giving up on you just yet, buuut you should probably go home for today. I need to come up with a better plan… and maybe look for a helmet.” She scratched the back of her head.

The two said their goodbyes and departed home, though one of them had a bit more trouble flying than the other. Still, he managed to make it without any more damage done to himself.

Upon getting close to his house, he noticed Rarity, carrying a medium sized box, talking with his mom, before turning around and walking away. He landed on the street in front of the house, the sound of which was loud enough to catch her attention before she went too far.

“Ah, there you are! I’ve been looking for you!” she said cheerfully, prancing up to him.

“I’ve been, uh… ‘training’ with Rainbow, ” he explained, a bit unsure of whether it could really be called training or not.

“Feel free to come inside!” Rush’s mom chimed in, more so referring to Rarity.

The three of them headed inside the house, where Rush’s mother offered them some refreshments, and Rarity showed Rush the box.

“Let me guess, it’s the, uh… dress…? Uh, you started making for me the other day.”

“Well, it’s not a dress. It’s something a bit more fitting for a stallion.”

Inside the box was a hooded cloak matching his eye color. It had golden stripes lacing its edges and a buckle on its collar for holding it together when worn, which was in the shape of a starburst like his cutie mark (and it also appeared to be made of gold).

“Woah, Rarity, t-that’s… W-where did you even get all this gold from?” he spoke in amazement, holding up the cloak and looking over it.

“Oh, golden strings are barely uncommon, darling… And the buckle is not actual gold, hehe.”

She rushed the second sentence, almost as if she was embarrassed by being unable to get a pure gold buckle for something she made for somepony she barely met.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s awesome! Thank you, Rarity. Uh, what do I owe you?”

“Oh no no no, you owe nothing, dear.”

Rush was about to object, but felt like he wouldn’t have won.

“If you say so…”

“Why don’t you try it on?” his mother suggested.

“Right...”

Rush put the cloak on, wearing the hood of it over his head, buckling it together at his neck.

“How does it look?” he asked the others present.

“You look fabulous, darling!” Rarity responded.

“It looks good on you, ” his mom also replied.

“I’m glad you like it, but I must go now. I still have a few dresses I need to finish.”

They saw Rarity off to their gate and bid farewell. Returning back inside, Rush took off his new clothing and hung it up in his – pretty empty – wardrobe. He spent the rest of the day reading comics before going to bed earlier due to having weather work to do tomorrow.

“Okay, everypony! We need to clear out all the clouds above and near Ponyville, got it?”

The weather ponies all nodded at Rainbow.

“Also, Rush. After our ‘training’ yesterday, you might wanna wear this as well.”

She picked up the protective helmet she had laying on the ground next to her with a wing. Nopony audibly questioned why she brought it with her, but now that she said it, they all burst out laughing. Well, the stallion in question didn’t find it very funny. In fact, he was moderately mad at Rainbow, who didn’t even intend to embarrass him. Having to wear goggles for casual flying at this age was embarrassing enough.

“Everypony, quiet! You all have work to do!” she shouted.

They all immediately departed, even Rush, but the incident remained the day’s biggest topic among them. Luckily, Rush finished his part of the sky before lunch, so he didn’t have to listen to everypony laughing at him. After he was done with clearing away clouds, he checked in with Rainbow before leaving work, as was required.

“Alright, good job! Oh and uhhh… Sorry about earlier. I really didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

“It’s… okay… I guess… See ya!”

His mood left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she was going to make it up to him… once she figured out how to do so.

The next day, Rainbow was running late because Pinkie Pie was doing Pinkie Pie things and held her up. Twilight just so happened to be walking through town though, and she noticed a group of three pegasi laughing at something and some other nearby pegasi watching in disgust. She was curious what the commotion was about so she walked closer. It was lucky she did, because the something they were laughing at was actually a somepony.

“Hey, Rush, why didn’t you wear the helmet? You could’ve hurt your little head.”

“Seriously, how did you manage to get Rainbow Dash to train you if you need a helmet?”

“Being that bad is actually impressive.”

“What in Celestia are you doing!?” Twilight interrupted, furious with how they were treating her newest friend.

“Rainbow came to work yesterday with a helmet and…”

“...and she told Rush to wear it after some training they had apparently.”

“It was hilarious!”

“How would you feel if everypony was laughing at you because no pony helped you learn how to fly?” Twilight argued.

“Uhh, that’s what flight school is for.”

“He never got to go to flight school… and his parents couldn’t teach him either.”

“Wait, you learned to fly like that on your own?”

The pegasi turned towards the stallion they were just bullying, who could only nod in response.

“That’s more impressive than how bad you are.”

Neither Rush or Twilight were pleased by this statement.

“What’s going on here!?” Rainbow arrived as well.

“These ponies were making fun of Rush, ” Twilight explained.

Hearing Twilight’s explanation and seeing Rush tearing up made Rainbow furious as well.

“WHAT!? Rush, you don’t have to work today and you three fill in for the both of us!”

“But that’s so much more sky!”

“Well, maybe you shouldn't have acted like foals. Now get to it! We need it to be slightly cloudy today.”

All the weather ponies with the exception of Rush and Rainbow took off, and hastily started filling the sky with clouds.

“Uh, th-thanks, you two.”

Rush finally felt comfortable enough to speak. He wiped his tears away as he thanked his friends for standing up for him.

“Aw, it was nothing.”

Rainbow waved it off and Twilight nodded.

“By the way, Rainbow, did you give the book I gave you to Rush?” Twilight inquired.

“Right… I’ll go get it real quick.” Rainbow dashed off.

“Uh, book?” Rush asked curiously.

“It’s something I found in the library that might help with your training. On that note, I better go now. I have some things I need to take care of. Goodbye Rush!”

“See ya!”

He sat there alone until Rainbow came back a few seconds later with a book in her mouth that she handed to Rush.

“Here you go!”

“Uh, ‘The Science Behind a Pegasus’ Flight’…?”

“Yeah… I told her it most likely won’t be useful, but she said you should have it anyway.” She shrugged.

“Aerodynamics? Center of mass? Thrust? Gravitational force?” Rush listed off terms he didn’t understand as he flipped through the book. “Do you learn this stuff in flight school?”

“Nope.” Rainbow shook her head.

“Yeah… This is, uh, way over my head.”

“Aaaanyway, since we don’t have work to do today, do you want to continue your training?”

“Forget it, Rainbow.” He looked at the ground and sighed. “I-I don’t think we’ll get anywhere...”

“Oh, come on! You’ve only tried once, and I didn’t even do a good job explaining everything. Don’t let the others discourage you!”

Rush stayed silent, but it didn’t take him long to make up his mind.

“Fine, let’s go…” he replied in defeat.

The two flew out to where they were practicing the other day.

“So, there’s a bit more to stopping than just spreading your wings out. You also have to shift your weight backwards, and… how do I explain this… you try to flap with your wings like when you take off, but instead of flapping upwards, you flap backwards…?”

“Makes sense… I, uh, I think.”

“So try it! We’ll do what we did yesterday. Just maaaybe try avoiding the tree this time.”

They did the stop-before-the-tree exercise again a few times – with less crashing into trees this time – and gradually shortened the distance by which Rush overshot the tree. He still couldn’t stop before it, but they were making progress at least, even if not a lot of it.

After the training, Rush headed to the library in hopes he can return the book Twilight gave him. When he got to the door, he had to take a moment to calm himself, and collect his thoughts. Eventually he mustered the courage to knock, and Spike opened.

“Hey Rush!”

He froze up a bit as he was expecting Twilight.

“Oh, uh, h-hello Spike.”

“Are… you okay?” It wasn’t hard to notice Rush sweating bullets.

“Yeah, I’m-I’m fine. I, uh, was going to, uh, give this back to, uh, Twilight, ” he explained with a forced smile.

He showed Spike the book, who turned around to call for her.

“Twilight! Rush wants to see you!”

“I’m coming!”

She soon appeared at the door.

“Hello, Rush! Oh, did you like the book?”

“I… didn’t, uh, understand much of it, ” he said while keeping the awkward smile.

“Oh well. Thanks for bringing it back, though I don’t think I’ll be needing it.” She took the book from Rush with her magic.

“Who-who knows?... Maybe you’ll sprout wings one day…?”

Rush quipped, causing Twilight to chuckle.

“That sounds ridiculous!” She added with a smug expression.

They stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments.

“Well, I-... better be going, uh, home now.”

“I have some stuff I need to study too. Bye!”

“Bye, Rush!”

“See ya, guys!”

As the door closed in front of him, Rush let out a sigh and held a hoof to his chest, before turning around and flying home.

The next day when Rush arrived at the weather ponies’ meeting spot before work, he was approached by the pegasi who bullied him previously. He felt his chest grow heavy again as they got near, but he was pleasantly surprised by what they had to say.

“Hey, uhhh, sorry about yesterday…”

“We really didn’t know you grew up like that…”

“We thought you failed flight school or something…”

Rush and the two other pegasi deadpanned at the fourth one, who couldn’t keep himself from awkwardly smiling back.

“We’re sorry…” the three finished in unison.

“It’s… it’s fine… just don’t do it again, ” Rush responded.

“No way, my wings are so sore from yesterday.”

“Me too.”

“Me three.”

“Glad you learned your lesson, ” Rainbow chimed in. “Now, the crops need a few days of rain so they can grow.”

“OH, COME ON!”

The ex-bullies shouted, not being thrilled by having to fill every inch of the sky with clouds multiple days in a row with sore wings, but they had no other choice.

The next time Rush and Rainbow had some spare time (and energy) to train again, they decided to try something new.

“To turn sharper, you have to shift your weight towards the direction you’re turning, flap less with your wing towards the turn, and stronger with the other wing. Also, you might want to slow down a bit.”

“Uh… how exactly do I, uh, do that? Sounds like a lot of... complicated… wingwork…”

“It’s not that bad when you get used to it. Try to circle those clouds.” She pointed at some clouds in the sky creating a triangle.

He went around the course slowly. He feared that going much faster would cause him to spin out again, so he refrained. This however didn’t do much to improve either his stopping or turning.

“You should try going faster!” Rainbow instructed him after flying up as well.

He tried his best, but the faster he flew, the more he overshot the turns, which caused him to slow down again.

“Yeah, this isn’t working, ” Rainbow commented.

“...Any other, uh, ideas?” Rush stopped to ask.

“Not really… maybe you should practice stopping more for now. I don’t think I need to be here for that, so I’ll go home if you don’t mind, but you know where to find me if you do need help.”

“It’s, uh, it’s fine… I can figure it out…. I think.”

The two pegasi parted. Rush spent some more time trying to improve his air breaking on his own, but he still couldn’t have stopped himself if he flew towards the ground. Luckily, Rainbow continued helping him out every once in a while, and their weekly training sessions did help both Rush’s flying and confidence, mostly the latter though. That being said, even Rainbow admitted he had a lot of potential. Maybe one day he could become the second best flier in Ponyville.

The weird birds appeared again. Still unnoticed, they’ve lurked in the background, always watching. Even if somepony did know they were there, they still wouldn't be able to tell how many there are, or why they’re there. All except one…