Fallen

Through that time of abuse and shunning, flight had been my only friend. No matter how hard the bullies hit me, I could always escape my woes in a single minute of feeling the wind through my mane and feathers.
I knew that I was no prodigy. That mare, Rainbow Dash, now she was a prodigy. She was, after all, the only pegasus able to perform a Sonic Rainboom in centuries. But flying was nonetheless my one and only passion, and I knew that I was born to fly.
I had hardened my heart on that day to the abuse of other ponies, so I resolved that I would never again need to be sad, or cry. As long as I could fly and explore exciting new lands, I would never want or need anything else. And I never did, until this night, as I sat by my window.
Opening my window, I launched myself out, falling into the starry abyss for a few seconds of free fall until pulling up in a glorious moment of power with a sweep of my outstretched wings. Moonlight illuminated my white coat, turning me into a glowing silver comet as I danced among the stars.
I should have been happy. I should have felt the familiar rush long ago paired with the glorious freedom of flight, but in the back of my mind, a shadow still lingered. Why? This dream I had held nothing scary, sure, it was weird, but nothing frightening when I thought about it. So why did I wake up in a cold sweat, shivering?
It just felt wrong, on a fundamental level. Like the sound of the word “poison” or “cancer”, it wormed my way into my heart, leaving an icy feeling in its wake. I shivered, realizing that this night flight would not help me this time; it would only freeze me solid.
Gliding around, I surged into my room through my window, folding my wings tightly against me the moment as I entered through the frame. Relying on deeply ingrained muscle memory, I flared my wings before alighting with barely a whisper on the floor. I return to my bed, sure again that I would be awake long into the night. But, to my surprise, I quickly fell into a peaceful sleep.
The next day, I rose out of bed to the sound of my alarm, eat breakfast, and slogged to work. I worked at the cloud factory, transporting ready-made clouds from the factory doors to scheduled destinations around Equestria, where the local weather ponies took them off my hooves. I slipped into my harness, stretched, and loaded up on the clouds, towing them through the air on my daily rounds.
After a long shift, transporting clouds from Canterlot to Las Pegasus, I finally reached my last stop, Ponyville. The local weather pony, Rainbow Dash, waited for me at the edge of town atop a low-hanging cumulus. Looking down, I saw Adamant and Green Sigil waiting for me on the ground. I unloaded my last few clouds, then Rainbow Dash whisked them away with a cheery “Hey, thanks, dude!”
I glided to the ground, and my friends greeted me. “Why don’t we go to Horte’s Café for a bite?” Green suggested, and Adamant and I agreed. I zoomed back to the Cloud Factory to drop off my harness, then caught back up with them.
After a bit of small talk, mostly about each others’ respective work days, (Adamant works in construction and Green uses her skills of perception for her job, dowsing), we arrived at the local eatery, and sat down at a table, next to a harried-looking white unicorn scratching furiously with a quill on a notepad.
“Oh, my word! This week is just a nightmare! It’s truly and exactly the worst thing ever! First the truly exhausting work order from Fluttershy for fifty miniature coats for baby squirrels! I say! Fifty! Why do we ponies even bother waiting on these creatures hoof and foot? They care for themselves alright in the Everfree, the horrid place.
“I say, I simply have had no time for an appointment at the spa all week! A lady has her needs, after all! If I can’t get my hooficures, I think I might… ugh!
“And then the order for twenty custom dresses for Prince Blueblood’s royal ball! I say! If Twilight hadn’t asked so very politely for the order, I would tactily tell him to shove his order up his– oh!”
Rarity paused mid-soliloquy as she beheld the three of us at the next table.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, have I disturbed you?” she asked, embarrassed, as she began to blush.
“Oh, no, sorry.” Green replied, “No problem at all.”
“Well, if you excuse me, I must…” and she hurried out awkwardly, clutching her notepad and quill.
“That mare has problems.” Adamant sighed.
She’s so annoying! I thought to myself. I have no idea how anypony can stand her! All she does is go on about fashion, her precious hooficures, and how superior she is! I have no idea how she can be the Element of Generosity, when she’s so self-centered! Seriously–
Green must have seen the disgusted expression on my face. “Adam! Sky! I’m surprised at you two! Can’t you see how swamped she is! She’s being dramatic for a legitimate reason. And that’s just how you see her. She’s actually very nice once you get to know her. She really is generous, just in a way that you can’t really see if you can’t look past… well, she is kind of annoying, but cut her some slack, okay?”
Adamant harrumphed, and I sighed. She was right. Rarity probably was a good pony at heart, even though her prissiness did make it difficult to see.
Or maybe not.
“All drama queens aside,” I said, “I feel so darn tired. I had the weirdest dream last night.”
“Was it scary, but not?” Green inquired, eyes wide.
“Did it give you the willies, but you didn’t know how afterwards?” Adamant asked.
“Well, yeah! Wait a minute… you too?”
“Yes! I dreamed of an eerie eye sigil, like my cutie mark, that appeared before me, and it seemed to insinuate my thoughts as I stood before it.” Green said.
“What? I dreamed that I was atop a mountain where a great plain was spread out below me. I have no idea how that would be scary, yet I woke up in a cold sweat.” Adamant mused.
“I dreamed of a cloud that told me that it knew what I wanted…” I said.
We all sat there thinking, as the waiter took our order and brought us our food. We munched in silence until the sound of the bells at the door interrupted our thoughts. It was the local librarian, the unicorn Twilight Sparkle, and her slave–I mean, assistant, Spike the dragon. They seemed caught in a heated discussion.
“I tell you, Spike. There are too many coincidences. It can’t simply be a fluke. There’s something going on with this town.”
Spike set his mouth in a straight line. “I’m tellin’ ya. It’s just your imagination. You’re getting worked up again. Like the time where you thought you would be sent back to Magic Kindergarten just cuz you couldn’t write a report on friendship for one week. It turned out okay. I’m tellin’ ya again. You’re overreacting.”
“Spike… seriously, listen to yourself. A parasprite invasion coincides with the arrival of Princes Celestia, when parasprites haven’t been sighted in these parts for a thousand years. Zecora said so. Also, remember when that big red dragon took up residence in that nearby mountain? It just suddenly decided to sleep in that mountain, hundreds of miles away from the nearest dragon territory, and it only took a little nudging from Fluttershy to drive it away. From what I know of dragons, they are far too proud to take orders from a mere pegasus.”
“But what about Fluttershy’s Stare? That could have caused it to listen.” Spike replied.
“You’re thinking all dragons are like you. Remember when you decided to tag along with the migration? You discovered that dragonkind was cruel, and took no orders. I’m telling you, Spike. Besides, no dragon ever makes an impulse decision to move like that. And there’s also the fact that the Cutie Mark Crusaders can never seem to see their true talents. I mean, hello? Sweetie Belle, singing. Applebloom, construction. They even acknowledge that they’re good at those things, but they don’t ever seem to make any more of it than that. How can they not see that?”
Spike quieted, thoughtful. “I don’t know, Twilight. Gee, the way you put it… I could almost see your point. I still think you’re overreacting, though.”
Green looked both of us in the eyes. “This is our guy,” she hissed, “he’s causing all this.”
Adamant looked at her warily. “How can you be so sure?”
“Think about it, guys! He can perform magic that we hadn’t even thought possible. You both saw him rip a hole in reality to come here, and saw him shapeshift as well. He might be as powerful as or more powerful than the draconeqqus Discord. So why not time travel as well?”
Adamant just rolled his eyes. “Green, please. You’re just being paranoid. There’s no way this is the same character. Time travel, please.”
“–and then there’s this buckskin pegasus mare who confirms all this.” Twilight said in the background.
Speed of Heat.
“So?” Spike crossed his arms.
“So, I know that we don’t know much about her, but I do know that she seems to see things others miss from where she flies. Granted, she doesn’t talk to other ponies much, so she doesn’t know exactly what’s going on all the time, but when I got Rainbow Dash to track her down, she seemed to know a lot of details. I think we can trust this source.”
“I don’t know…”
“Look, we know what she said, she’s seen a strange gray pegasus stallion in a cloak wandering around, trying his best not to be seen by anypony, for many months before. She’s seen him at the scene of every single one of these events, doing… something.”
Green raised her eyebrows at Adamant and I.
“Well… knowing Speed, I guess…” I mused.
“Exactly! And we know how that crazy stallion the Doctor has been rambling about time travel for all this time, so maybe it might be true?”
“Yeah, well, I’m still not convinced. Maybe, maybe not.” Adamant said.
To myself, I wondered. What if it was true? That we had a shapeshifting, world-travelling, time-travelling sorcerer on our hooves? I shivered, suddenly frightened.