Sky High

Rainbow Dash and Skye High were soaring through the air towards wherever Rainbow Dash was taking them. Dash was surprised that Skye was able to keep up with her. It's not like she was racing with him, but she was going at a decent speed, but he was right behind her the whole way, no complaints. She had even tried speeding up just a tad to make sure he was the real deal, as it turns out he was.

Eventually the duo landed outside of a small cottage close to the Everfree forest, the same cottage Skye passed by helping Twilight and Spike. The cottage and the grounds around it were covered with an assortment bird houses and nests, not to mention the assortment of little furry creatures that Skye seemed extremely fond of. Skye was running back and forth, still following Rainbow, as he admired the birds, rabbits, squirrels, beavers and well, everything else. If Rainbow heard correctly, she even heard little chirps and peeps from Skye, contemplating his sanity in her own head, as a joke of course.

The two climbed up the small hill towards the entrance of the cottage, the top half of the dutch door was open, allowing Skye a good glance inside. All he payed attention to were the little animals scurrying throughout the house and a slightly darkish yellow pony, or maybe she was a grayish gold, with a light pink mane. She was slowly running around to a plethora of little creatures, trying to feed them all as fast as possible.

Anypony could tell that Fluttershy was extremely tired, she was constantly stumbling, spilling and dropping food all over. When she finally turned to greet her guests the fact that she was exhausted was reinforced. Her eyes were drooping and she could barely hold her head up.

“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash.” As she stumbled to the door, opening up the bottom half.

“Uhhh, Fluttershy, are you ok? You look tired.”

“Oh it's nothing, I was just up late last night. There was some awful wailing coming from the forest and I guess I was a little scared, I just couldn't sleep.” At the word sleep Fluttershy starting falling forward onto Rainbow Dash, followed by the rest of her body as Dash lowered her own self to catch her.

Skye couldn't help but look away, down toward the ground. It was his fault that this pony was so tired and he felt extremely responsible. Suddenly a jolt of energy shot through him as he looked up. He started past Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. “You should take her somewhere to rest, I'll handle these little guys. I'm actually pretty good with animals.” He made his way towards the little creatures, grabbing and biting the large pot that Fluttershy had put down on her way to greet her friend. He quickly walked between each little creature's bowl, pouring the exact perfect amount of food before moving onto the next. Very soon he had accomplished his goal of feeding all of the little animals.

During all of that Rainbow Dash had taken Fluttershy upstairs to her room and lay her down on her bed. She hovered over the bed, worried about her friend, before she took the journey downstairs, only to see all of the animals content with their meal. She saw Skye laying down, talking to a little baby squirrel.

“Don't worry little guy, she'll be back down soon, she's just a bit tired.” He showed his smile and the squirrel cheered up, before going back to its food. He saw Rainbow and immediately ran towards her. “Is she going to be alright?” Almost all of the animals turned to look towards Dash, awaiting her response.

“Yeah, she just needs to get some sleep. Fluttershy always gets like this when she doesn't get enough sleep but she'll be fine in a few hours." Well that was exciting, guess there's not much more to do here for a while. "So how about we continue your tour, huh? We'll come back in a few hours.”

“Sure sounds good.” He turns to face the little creatures. “Make sure she gets some rest guys, she's counting on you to stay out of trouble.” He received a series of eeps and yipps from the group, aside from one little white rabbit, who hopped past him going upstairs. He didn't pay much attention to it as he left the cottage with Rainbow Dash.

They left the cottage, entering the village of Ponyville. Skye couldn't help but appreciate the architecture of the town, it's a type that he's never seen before and it still amazed him. He liked how the buildings were so simple, compared to the tall, dark buildings from where he came from. It wasn't long before he passed by the extremely fancy castle-house. Rainbow let him know that it was owned by a unicorn by the name of Rarity and that it was a boutique.

“So.... what's a boutique?”

“Hmmm... it's like a really fancy clothing store, it's also where my friend Rarity makes her clothes. She makes some pretty sweet stuff.” Emphasizing the 'pretty sweet'.

A fancy clothing store... those are normally owned by fancy clothing people and Skye wasn't that big a fan of fancy clothing people. You see, fancy people tend to be fancy jerks, that don't generally like people who aren't up to their standards, which are normally incredibly high. At least that's how it was in the city Skye came from. He followed Dash in anxiously, hoping that this Rarity wasn't the jerk he pictured her to be. As soon as he entered all he saw was a giant stack of cloth and clothing stumbling around the room.

“Hey Rarity. What's up?” Rainbow Dash tried to make a joke, elbowing Skye as she talked. But it turns out she broke Rarity's concentration, knocking her off balance.

“Good afternoon Rainbow Da-aaa-aaa-ashhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” Rarity yelled as she almost comically jumped into the air, throwing her assortment of clothing all over her room. The two pegasus jumped into action, Dash very quickly flew to Rarity and heroically caught her with her front legs. Skye flew around the room, collecting the massive amounts of clothing flittering through the air.

There was a special way he flew around the room, and Rarity couldn't help but notice it as she looked up to see a grey blur and a faint rainbow trail. Finally, the clothing started coming together into a neat column, perfectly folded. The clothing even arranged itself in the same order from which it had originally fallen. The blur disappeared as there was no longer any clothing left falling freely. From behind the stack of clothing came a shining, light grey pegasus. Rarity couldn't help but compare him to her imaginary prince in shining armor. Not only was this pony extremely fast and dexterous, he had an extremely keen eye for detail. He began to walk towards her and she couldn't think of anything to say. Suddenly she was gently put down by Rainbow Dash, breaking her concentration on the mysterious pegasus.

“Ahh, thank you Rainbow Dash.”

“Hey no problem, what else would an awesome pony like me do?”

“And thank you Mr. …” Half-expecting the gentlecolt to introduce himself first.

Skye stopped moving towards the unicorn and started backing towards the door, afraid that the fancy pony would be upset with the way he went about catching the clothing or stacking it.“Uhmmm, yeah no problem. I hope I stacked and folded it the way you like it, but if not I could just go... sorry if I bothered you.”

Rarity and Dash could feel how apprehensive Skye was and Dash was the first to react. “What? Are you kidding, did you see how fast you were, and you have such good control. I didn't know you were that good at flying.”

Skye stopped his retreat at the compliment. “Oh, well, I mean, I'm not that good. I just got lucky I guess.”

Rarity finally found the words to say, yet was disappointed that he never addressed himself. Still she tried to reassure him and even tried to joke around “As much as I adore my work, next time would you please be a proper gentlecolt and break a lady's fall? Now, may I ask you for you name kind colt?”

Skye couldn't see past Rarity's little joke and immediately turned around with his head and ears pointed downward. He started for the door. “I'm sorry, my name's Skye High and I'm sorry that I disappointed you. I'll be leaving now, please don't be too angry at me, it would be better if you just pretend I was never here.”

Rainbow Dash couldn't be more confused at what was going on. Was Skye for real? I mean it was pretty obvious by Rarity's tone that she was just joking. Rarity was even more confused and even worse she felt bad. “Wait, Skye, don't leave. I apologize, that was very rude of me. Thank you so much for doing that...” A she points her forehoof towards the pillar of clothing. “... for me, why it would've taken me at least an hour to tidy up that mess.”

Skye quickly turned around with a gentle smile on his face. Was a fancy pony really apologizing to him? Normally they would just yell at him and command him to leave their sight. But this one was different, she was very polite and kind and she hasn't yelled at him once. “I'm sorry, I guess I just took you too serious. You see where I come from, fanc... uhm, refined ponies such as yourself, are normally terribly, terribly mean. I guess I just kinda expected you to be the same, but I was wrong. I'm sorry for judging you way too early. Can you forgive, Miss Rarity?”

“But of course Skye, as a matter of fact I can tell that we're going to make great friends. Hold on a moment, I have something I wish to give you.” Rarity walked towards one of her many dresser drawers and started rummaging around for a few moments. “Ah, there you are.” Her horn grew a bright purple and she turned around only to see a ridiculous bright smile on Skye's face. It was creeping her out just a little, she just had to question it. “Are you alright darling, you seem a bit... ill.”

Skye finally realized just how strange he was looking. “Oh I'm sorry.” He turned his head towards the ground, scraping his hoof across the floor. “It's just been a really long time since anyone has called me a friend... a really long time.” Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity felt something in his words. It's like he was sad and happy at the same time yet they both felt kinda bad for him. Rarity was the first to speak up.

“Well, I'm glad I can be your friend dear.” From behind her came a floating silver chain link necklace with a dark-blue sapphire embedded in its core. Its core gem was surrounded with a golden lining. To most people It just seemed like a regular necklace that was decently crafted. The necklace flew through the air and surrounded Skye's head as it dropped down onto his neck. “Please accept this Skye, as a token of our friendship.”

“Of course Rarity, I'll never take it off, I promise.”

Rainbow Dash just stood there half confused, half betrayed. Skye had come to Ponyville for her right? So why was he spending so much time paying attention to Rarity? Maybe she was just getting a little jealous but for some reason she just wanted Skye all to herself. “Hey Skye don't you think we should go, I mean, you don't want to spend all day with Little Miss Royalty here, right?” Rarity gave her an annoyed look as Skye nodded his head towards Rainbow.

“Uhmm, sure, see you around Rarity.”

“Indeed.” As she walked past them towards her column of clothes.

“Yeah, later Rarity.” But Rarity ignored her, still walking towards her column. Rainbow felt a little bad, but nothing so extreme that it would cause her to apologize.

The duo left towards the main road. They started walking towards the center of town. It wasn't long before Skye felt a strange feeling, not just the feeling on being watched, but the feeling of being stalked. He started looking around as he noticed a mysterious shadow disappear into the nearest alleyway. He didn't want to worry Dash and continued to follow behind her. Suddenly he heard a galloping sound from behind him as he turned around and was tackled with a force that cause both him and his attacker to somersault across the ground for a few yards. When he finally stopped rolling he was on his back with a strange pink pony pinning him down. “I FOUND YOU!!!” Skye was a little scared, but his fear was replaced with happiness at the next question he heard. “Will you be my friend strange guy?”

“Sure.” He replied with his patented smile that seemed to impress all the ponies. The pink pony jumped off of him and continued bounding around happily taking a deep breath. Finally she exerted her energy as she stopped right in front of Skye's face.

“That's good because when I first saw you I wanted to give you the welcome that I give every new pony but I couldn't find my Welcome Wagon; So then I tried to find you and Cheerilee told me that she saw you and Twilight head towards her house; so I followed you there but when I got there you took off in the sky and I couldn't follow because you fly so darn fast; so I went back to looking for my welcome wagon and guess where it was, I'll give you hint, it was is the last place I would have ever ever looked!”

Surprisingly, Skye followed all of that, which was more than most ponies could say. “Uhmmm... was it behind...” Skye pointed one of his hooves at a tree. “... that tree?”

“No silly, that was the 253rd place I looked, actually it was in my closet. Don't you hate it when what you're looking for is in the last place you would have looked?”

Rainbow couldn't help but butt in. “Pinkie, why is your closet the last place you'd look?”

“Becaaaaause, don't you know about the monster in the closet? Why would I give him the Welcome Wagon? He's not new around town.”

“Pinkie, we all no there's no such things as monsters in a closet, they're just bed time stories to scare little fillies to sleep.”

At those words a very large, furry, two legged creature walked out of the gingerbread house with a bag full of pastries. He walked past the trio of ponies. He spoke incredibly slowly and had a very deep voice. “Heeeeeyyy Piiiiinkiiiiieeee.”

“Hey Monstroo, we still up for Monopony tonight?”

“Yeeeeeeep.”

“Cool, see you then!” Pinkie gave a little smirk towards Rainbow Dash as Dash couldn't help but put her hoof up to her face. Skye was laughing the entire time, he found the entire situation hilarious. But he eventually got over his laughing attack.

“You're really funny Pinkie, my name's Skye High by the way.”

“Good to meet'cha Skye, I can just tell we're gonna be the best of best of best of friends!”

Once again Rainbow Dash was feeling a little betrayed. She just wanted to hang out around him, not have him pay absolutely no attention to her. She started thinking again, why did she feel this way? Was it something about Skye that made her feel this way? Maybe she was just tired and didn't realize it but now she just wanted to get away from Pinkie Pie. “Hey, sorry Pinkie, but we've got a pretty busy schedule ahead of us and you're kinda slowin' us down.”

“Oops, sorry I'll just get out way. But hey, you both should come to Sugar Cube Corner tonight at 7, it'll be fun.”

“Ok Pinkie, we'll be there, but we really gotta go, later.

“Seeya Pinkie, nice meeting you!”

“Byebye!!!”

Dash walked a ways down the road before Skye practically burst with excitement. He was bouncing around, much like Pinkie Pie does. “So who are we going to meet next Rainbow? I can't wait!”

That strange annoyed feeling overcame Dash again but this time she quickly got over it. She still had no clue why she was feeling this way about Skye, it was kinda weird. It's like he had some kind of magic barrier around him that attracted her to him. Instead Dash started thinking about where to go next. Skye already met Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie. Applejack was out of town until later tonight. Maybe they could go back to Fluttershy's cottage, it'll be about two hours if they walk back since they left the first time. She determined that doing that would be the best course of action. “We could go back to see Fluttershy, maybe she's better now.” Rainbow Dash started to beat her wings as if she was about to take off. “C'mon, I’ll show you some of the sights on the way.”

Dash took off, with Skye right behind her. She led Skye all the way around town, telling him about all of the buildings as they flew over them. Rainbow only spent her time telling him about the important buildings, like the Town Hall and the Town square, the Schoolhouse, the clock tower, and she finally lead them over Sweet Apple Acres.

“That's Sweet Apple Acres, it's where my friend Applejack lives. She's out of town right now but she should be coming back later today.” Skye had never seen a farm like this before. He looked upon many acres of apple trees, a tall red barn, and a quaint little farmhouse.

“Cool, can't wait to meet her.”

“Yeah, I bet...” Rainbow practically whispered to herself.

“What? Sorry, I didn't hear that.” Skye gave her a little smile when she turned around with a confused look on her face.

“What?! I mean, nothing, just talking to myself.”

“Oh, ok.”

Are you kidding me? How could he have possibly heard that? Not only was she whispering but they're soaring through the air, no regular pony can hear anything other than a yell. There was definitely something weird about Skye and she was trying to put her hoof on it. The rest of the short flight towards Fluttershy's cottage was silent, aside from the air streaming past both of the pegasus. "Strange," Rainbow thought," there weren't any clouds in the sky today."

The two rainbow maned pegasus landed at the entrance of the cottage as Rainbow Dash let herself in. She raised her voice, but didn't yell, “Fluttershy, you awake?” There was a long bit of silence before Skye heard the clopping of horseshoes upstairs, they were extremely sporadic. As he eventually saw Fluttershy quickly trot down the stairs. A little bunny rabbit right behind her.

“Oh, why hello Rainbow Dash. Do you need something?” She then saw the smiling grey pegasus behind Dash. Like all of the ponies, Fluttershy was amazed by his smile. Yet unlike the other ponies, Fluttershy was able to put her hoof on what it reminded her of. To her it was like the smile of a little brother that she always wanted. And then suddenly she realized that he was staring right at her, his head slightly cocked to the side. She quickly tried to avoid eye contact with Skye, and lowered her head down to the left. “So uhm, who's your friend Rainbow?”

Rainbow Dash was once again, extremely confused by the situation she found herself in. Not only was Fluttershy acting weird, but so was Skye. In fact, she's pretty sure that she suddenly became a mirror, because both of the shy ponies were doing the exact same thing at the exact same time and neither knew that the other was doing it. They both looked up at the same time but when they met eyes they both let out a soft 'eep' before going back to ignoring each other. Finally Dash was tired of awkwardly standing in between the two ponies and walked behind Fluttershy and proceeded to push her rump so she moved towards Skye, forcing them to... well do something.

Skye was the first to speak up, as quiet as it was. “Ummmm, hi, my name is Skye High. It's good to meet you.”

Now it was Fluttershy's turn to respond, but she seemed to catch 'Rarity syndrome', she couldn't think of anything to say. Instead she just let out a series of mumbling, of any word that would come to her head. Rainbow Dash was starting to get annoyed. It's like they were the same pony and as much as she liked Fluttershy, she couldn't deal with two of her. She finally spoke up. “Can you two just hurry this up already?”

Fluttershy did as her friend commanded, yet still incredibly softly. “Nice to meet you Skye, I'm Fluttershy.” She finally looked up to see Skye looking right at her and she couldn't help but look right into his light cyan eyes with a little smile on her face.

For the 3rd time today, Skye came out of his shell, trying to spark up some kind of conversation. “So... I see you like animals! I really like animals too. You see, I walked most of the way to Ponyville and I was in the forest through most of it. One time I got lost in the forest, I had no clue where I was when suddenly a little rabbit came out of a tree trunk and helped me on my way. Then another time I got lost at night and a whole ton of little creatures let me sleep in this giant tree trunk, it was really cool. So what do you do with all of these animals, do you take care of them all?”

“Um, yeah, I take care of a lot of animals until they're ready to go back to their homes. I also take care of ponies pets while they're gone.”

“That's really cool Fluttershy, you have an awesome job.”

From there, the three ponies just kinda stood around for a few seconds, neither of them could think of anything to say but it seemed Dash's jealousy got the best of her, she was actually starting to get annoyed that Skye wasn't paying that much attention to her. Not only that, but it was almost like he was drawing everypony's attention away from her. “Well then, I think it's about time that we head out Skye, we don't want to get in Fluttershy's way or anything.”

“Oh, really? You're no bother, you can come by and visit any time Skye. If you don't mind me asking, what are you two going to be doing today?”

Skye had no clue and looked upon Rainbow Dash for the answer. Dash just stood there thinking, the tour of the town was already over and she didn't have anything planned. Then she came up with a great idea. “Skye and I are going to race, I wanna see just how fast he is!” It was brilliant, not only was it a great way to pass the time but there was no way anypony in Equestria could beat her, this was gonna be a piece of cake.

“Really? You want to race me?  Cool, I've actually always wanted to race the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria.”

“Do you mind if my little friends and I watch, it's been a little slow around here recently.” Fluttershy spoke softly.

“Not at all Fluttershy, I hope you all enjoy watching a stomp.” Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof on the ground and had her look of confidence on her face, which was rivaled by Skye's confident look.

“We'll see about that.” His grin becoming even wider. He definitely wouldn't allow himself to get beaten, not even by Rainbow Dash.