“Twilight, I don’t know about this… are you sure this will work on humans the same way it does on ponies?” I asked as the purple alicorn’s horn glowed a deep violet, which made her roll her eyes.
“Relax, Allen; I’m sure you’ll be fine. Now hold still, because I don’t want to accidentally hit something that isn't you,” she said just as she fired off a bolt of magic the struck me square in the chest, knocking me backwards into one of the many bookshelves that lined her wall.

“Ow,” I said, rubbing my head as I stood up slowly. Twilight ran up to me worriedly.
“Oh my goodness, are you alright?” she asked quickly, “I didn't think it would be that powerful…”
I held my arms out at my sides. My back kind of hurt, but I felt… lighter, weightless, almost.

“I think… I think it worked,” I said slowly, looking at my arms and legs as if they weren't my own.
“Ah, Good. Now remember, when you get to Cloudsdale, try not to get too overworked; your body might get overheated, causing the spell to wear off faster,” she warned me just as the door burst open. A cyan blur trailed by a rainbow zoomed around the room, spinning me around as it went past. I collapsed as Rainbow Dash landed proudly in front of me.

“Oops, sorry, Allen,” she laughed, and then turned to Twilight. “Is he all set?”
Twilight nodded. “Yep, he should be good to go. Are you ready, Allen?”
I nodded as I stood, still a little dizzy. “Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” I said uncertainly as the two ponies led me to the balloon waiting outside.

After about an hour of drifting seemingly aimlessly in the sky, and sstruggling to hold down my breakfast, we finally reached Cloudsdale, where Twilight dropped me off. Twilight had to be the one piloting the balloon, as I had no idea how to do so, and wasn't the greatest flier. Whenever I had tried my hand at a video game that involved an aircraft of some sort, and I would always end up in the same place: on the ground, surrounded by a hunk of burning metal.

Not the place I wanted to be in real life, as you might imagine.

I was a little scared about taking my first step. I sat there, frozen with one foot just barely out of the basket, when Rainbow Dash nudged me forward, causing me to pitch over and fall onto the cloud below. It was strange: I knew clouds were made of just water vapor and dust particles (well, on Earth, at least; who knew what they were made of here?), but I landed on the white, fluffy mass as if it were solid ground. I tested my footing a little, then gave Twilight a thumbs up.

“It works!” I called to her, and she smiled happily.
“That’s great! You two have fun; I’ll come pick you up later!” she said as she took off. I waved as she left, then turned to Rainbow Dash, who was lying back on a cloud with her eyes closed in a care-free manner.
“So, what have you got planned for us today?” I inquired. She opened one eye, thinking for a moment, and then burst into the air excitedly.
“Oh! The Wonderbolts are putting on a flight show down at the stadium! We could go see that!” she said excitedly. I nodded quickly as we headed off towards the cloud stadium, keeping Twilight’s advice to take it easy in mind.

Several miles away, the two winged Sentinels ran across and open field, with the lone Valkyrie flying reconnaissance above them.
{THE HUMAN IS IN THE CLOUD CITY!} the Valkyrie cried down to its comrades in a shrill voice, and they leapt into the air and spread their wings, taking off at high speeds for Cloudsdale.

I had never been to an airshow before, but I’ve gotta say, the Wonderbolts knew how to keep things interesting. They had a crazy, mid-air obstacle course set up, where they zoomed around at speeds that the eye could just barely follow, doing tricks, flying through hoops of fire, and other amazing feats.

“So… AWESOME…” Rainbow Dash said in awe, her eyes huge. I nodded in agreement as one of the daring trio suddenly went into a free-fall, passing through several rings on the way down, and then shooting upwards, to which the crowd jumped up and cheered.
I was clapping and whooping loudly, when I saw something sparkling in the distance: three ice-blue shapes, one much smaller than the rest, all flying in the direction of the stadium.

Sentinels? I thought. Wait, Sentinels can’t fly, can they?

Oh shit.

I drew my sword in anticipation of the attack. “EVERYONE GET OUT OF HERE!” I shouted, the shapes now close enough to make out that they were, in fact, flying Sentinels. There were two of them, flanked by a slightly smaller eagle-shaped one that led the pack. The two original Sentinels appeared to have the same kind of creature attached to their backs, which, obviously, allowed them to fly.
The one in the lead shot straight at me, suddenly picking up speed as it attacked. I jumped to the side and swiped with my blade, just missing its wing. One of the two Sentinels landed in the arena, its wings allowing it to walk on clouds.

“Aw, come on, there is NO way this stuff can support a heavy block of glass like you, wings or not!” I yelled as I charged, starting a parry-strike battle with one of them. At one point, it had me locked down in a block stance as it pressed down on my sword.
C’mon, Allen, think of something! I urged myself, and suddenly got an idea. Let’s see how strong the clouds are after I get at them!

I quickly slipped from under the crystal behemoth’s massive blade, causing it to swing down and puncture the clouds below. I quickly ran around the Sentinel, pressing my sword down into the cloud as I did, and cut a perfect circle around my enemy. It fell through, but I could see it take off after dropping for a few seconds.

I saw the other Sentinel land next to the hole, ready to take its partner’s place, but I realized what I had been overlooking throughout this fight: Wings make them light enough to walk on the clouds, I thought, so why don’t we do a little clipping?
I charged at the beast, ducking and sliding between the gap in its legs, and swung upward, neatly slicing off its right wing. The Sentinel stumbled a little, as if it were off-balance, and fell over. I jumped on its back and held my sword golf-club style, shouting “FORE!” as I severed the other wing, and jumped off just as my adversary fell through the white blanket we stood on.

Now was the time where the crystal bird decided to mess with me. I rapidly dove at me, narrowly missing each time, until one of its strikes finally connected, making a clean cut in my left leg. I dropped to the ground, suddenly letting go of my sword as I did, and screamed in pain.

I quickly took of my sweatshirt and wrapped it around my wound, careful not to make it too tight, and saw my foe was turning around to make one last strike. I also noticed I was sinking into the clouds a little bit, and Twilight’s warning re-entered my head.
Better hurry this up, I thought quickly, and scrambled for my sword as the creature drew closer, its right wing streaked with my blood.
When it was just a few yards away, I pulled my sword right into the path of my attacker just before it reached me, the creature’s trajectory sending it right into the sword, which sliced it cleanly in half. I looked behind me to see the two halves fly backward about twenty feet before passing through the clouds, doomed to fall to the ground below.

I stood up and saw the last Sentinel soaring towards the edge of the cloud field, breaking from its flight and running at me on foot. I had a plan, but I wasn’t sure about it; like I said before, I’m not good with extreme heights, much less falling from them. I stood with my back to the edge behind me, staring as the Sentinel kept its pace towards me, blade arm raised high. I lifted my feet every once in a while as they sunk into the clouds like quicksand, the spell just about finished.

This is a bad idea! I yelled at myself just before the Sentinel reached me. I stepped to the side and grabbed onto its normal arm as it flew off, spinning and twisting to try and throw me down, and I slashed at one of its wings. Then, I grabbed onto the stump that was left from the former wing, and sliced downward, chopping of the other one. Doing this, I pushed away from my enemy, and his greater weight caused him to completely surpass me in our descent.

Yes! I beat them! I thought triumphantly, then looked down. Oh shit, I’m falling!
I flailed my arms wildly, scanning the ground directly below me for any sort of water source to land in. Not seeing one, I decided it was time to scream.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH-huh?” my panic was interrupted by the sight of a rainbow-colored circle that rapidly expanded in the distance.
What is tha... oh, okay, I thought, realizing what I was seeing. Moments later, Rainbow Dash flew past at nearly Mach 10, hooking her forelegs underneath my arms and carrying me off.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, grinning dangerously, “think I’d let you fall?”
I smiled up at her. “To be honest, I was a little worried back there.”

We landed back at the library that evening, where Twilight was waiting anxiously. “I heard what happened at the stadium; are you two okay?” she asked, and saw my makeshift bandage. “Oh, Allen, let me help you with that!” she insisted, and I took the shirt off of my leg, wincing in pain as the fabric rubbed against the still-raw wound. She closed her eyes and focused as her horn glowed a light blue, and my leg became wrapped in a magical veil of the same color. When it faded, my leg was completely healed; there wasn’t even a scar.

I widened my eyes. “Wow, thanks, Twilight!” I said, bending my knee to test it out.
She smiled. “It’s no problem, but try not to get too terribly hurt. Healing spells won’t work on serious wounds if the user doesn’t have a knowledge of the patient’s anatomy; this was just some simple muscle tearing, but organ damage and bone fractures are out of the question,” she said cautioningly. “Anyways, since Allen can’t really get back to Cloudsdale now, why don’t you two stay here tonight?”

I looked at Rainbow Dash, who shook her head. “Sorry, Twilight, but I’ve gotta get back to Cloudsdale and make sure everypony is alright,” then she turned to me. “Thanks for the awesome time today, Allen! Even though it was broken up by those monsters.”
I nodded. “I never thought I would find myself flying on a Sonic Rainboom before,” I said, laughing, and the light-blue pegasus smiled.
“I’ll see you guys later!” she called as she zipped off, and I turned to Twilight.

“I’ll have to ask Rarity to wash this; its covered in blood!” I moaned, holding the black fabric lump to the side with two fingers.
Twilight nodded. “That might be a good idea; after all, you don’t want to wear a used bandage to the party tomorrow!” she said as I ran off to drop the shirt off at the boutique.

Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were glaring at each other. “Why would you do this, Luna?” Celestia asked her sister angrily, “why have you developed feelings for this boy?”
Luna stomped, irritated. “I may have learned to better control my behavior after the Elements of Harmony freed me from my inner darkness, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still jealous of the fact that more ponies love your day more than my night. Then, this young human comes along, who is completely unlike any other humans we’ve heard about, and he is exactly how I would want my special somepony to be: kind, gentle, understanding, and appreciative of what I create!” she yelled.

Celestia narrowed her eyes. “It doesn't seem natural. He is a human, and you are an alicorn, a pony. Why can’t you see that you two cannot be together?” she said in a low voice.
The lunar princess continued to protest. “He is here all alone, without any other of his kind to comfort him. You know very well that I know how that feels!” she shouted, which caused Celestia to look at her in shock.
“Luna, please, listen…” Celestia begged, but her sister wouldn’t listen.

“Celestia, you want him to want to stay in this world with us, but you must understand that you are taking him away from his kind. Don’t you think that since this human has shown so many personality traits similar to ponies, he may feel the same about love? And if he cannot be allowed to love us, then who else is there for him?”
The white alicorn didn’t have an answer. She just stood there, staring sadly at Luna. She’s right, Celestia thought, why would I expect him to willingly stay?
“He isn’t going to like it when we tell him the truth,” Celestia sighed dejectedly. Luna trotted over to her elder sister and wrapped a gentle wing around her.
“We can only hope that he will accept what has happened and move on,” she said, not sounding too sure.

The crystal pillar was starting to panic. It could only be a matter of time before the human found what it so desperately wanted to hide. There was no choice but to send out the worst of the Crystal Guardians. Having a shred of mercy for even the humans, the pillar didn’t want it to come to this, but desperate times require desperate measures. It had to create what could possibly be the deadliest creatures it could bring out.

As it shot out a blue, beam, creating three human-shaped masses of crystal, and the pillar spoke to them quietly.
{Crystal Assassins,} it said in a commanding tone, {you know what to do.}