Something that I’ve learnt over the years is that there’s always an alternate solution to a problem you’re having. It may sound obvious to some but at the same time I would argue that it may not always be the case. Take for example building something like a bookshelf, for some it may be as simple as going out and acquiring the materials needed and bam, you build yourself a bookshelf. But say you aren’t skilled in carpentry then what do you do? Here’s where my argument of multiple solutions starts to become relevant, there are in fact three solutions I can come up with from the top of my mind without having to think about the problem for too long. Should everything still seem bleak after trying to figure out an alternate solution there’s always the option to bring in a second person to look at your problem, a new set of eyes and a new perspective can be invaluable to your success. I guess that in all my ramblings the lesson I’m trying to convey is to not give up when your first approach to a problem didn’t work.

Morning was brewing in Ponyville and I found myself strolling down the main street, watching the various establishments open to my left and right. It had been a little over a week since Twilight and I started trying to figure out just how my abilities actually worked, or rather just the connection thing. This research had made me stay over at Twilights many nights already this week and this morning was no different, in fact all I was going to do was to stop by Rarity to see if my order of warmer clothes was done before heading home to grab a change of clothes and finally returning to Twilight to resume our research. Perhaps I should grab some breakfast from Sugarcube corner on the way back to. I pondered as I walked towards the Carousel boutique, waving back to the occasional pony who noticed that I was passing by. A particularly cold autumn wind suddenly gusted through the street, causing me to shiver slightly and to wrap my arms around myself in an attempt to block some of the cold. I really need to get ahold of some clothes more suited for the season. I thought as the wind died down. The weather still wasn’t inhospitable during the day, but I had noticed that my breath misted during the colder nights now so getting warmer clothes definitely was a priority.

With that in mind I increased my pace so that I could get to dealing with my business quicker. Only I had time to take about four more steps before a distant sound caused me to pause. In fact it sounded as if it was getting closer at a rapid pace.

“Cloooooouuuuuud!” Was all I managed to register before something heavy, soft and fast talking slammed into my back, causing me to stumble forward as it latched onto me in one of the more aggressive glomps I’d received to this date.

“Oh my gosh I thought that I would never see you again after you started researching with Twilight, not that I don’t think that you shouldn’t do research with Twilight that’s cool and all but I really missed you and all and then I got a double blink, itchy hoof and scratchy ear Pinkie tell and I knew that one of my friends was feeling slightly cold and then I thought to myself who would think it’s cold this early in the fall season and then I remembered that you have no coat so it must be you that was feeling cold and so I went out to look for you and saw you further down the street and was so happy to see you that I couldn’t help myself! So how are you?” She fired of at a rapid pace, I was quite sure that she didn’t breathe at any point of it either.

Smiling I looked over my shoulder and into the beaming face of Pinkie who was still clinging to my back. “I’m fine Pinks, but as you said I’m slightly cold so I was heading to Rarity’s to see if my order of warmer clothes was done,”

Pinkie’s face turned contemplative for a moment. “Oh, mind if I tag along? I’m free until the lunch rush hours start,”

Having no reason to disagree I simply told her. “Sure,” making the pink pony quickly climb up my back until she settled into her usual spot with her muzzle resting on top of my head.

“Now onward to dresses and morning scones!” Pinkie declared happily, while pointing the way with a hoof.

A snort of barely suppressed laughter escaped me as I started to walk down the street again with my newly reacquired pony back warmer. I wasn’t going to question her random outbursts and I sure as hell wasn’t going to turn down her company. She was after all the pony I felt that I was closest too among all ponies I knew, bar Tia of course. But there were similarities between the two, Pinkie didn’t hold a place in my heart like my girlfriend did but at the same time I knew that I could talk as openly with Pinkie as I could with Tia. She was the very definition of what I considered a best friend, not that I normally ranked friends. Such practices had always seemed slightly strange to me.

Deciding to try and spark a new conversation I took a deep breath before addressing the pony currently hanging/sitting lazily on my back. “So Pinks any reason that you took this morning off, or was it just how your schedule was laid out this week?”

“Not really, I mean the Cakes and I sit down every Sunday to go over the next weeks schedule and this week I just felt like having Tuesday morning off,” Pinkie supplied from her perch.

“Aight,” I acknowledged, shrugging my wings out of reflex which caused a short guffaw to escape the pink pony.

Confused I stopped and looked up at Pinkies muzzle, it was pretty much all of her face that I could see. “Did I miss something?”

I saw the muzzle shake as she shook her head. “Nono, it’s just when you shrugged your wings you tickled me,” She explained.

“Oh, I’ll try to keep that in mind,” I said as I resumed walking again.

The rest of the walk to the Carousel boutique elapsed in a similar manner with Pinkie and I exchanging small talk and telling each other more in detail what we had been up to the past week. Before I knew my feet had carried me right up to the front door of Rarity’s establishment, but as I reached out to knock on the door a sudden cry from Pinkie stopped me.

“Sneeze tease! Sneeze tease!” She cried as I felt her head rise from its resting position.

I jerked my head up to find Pinkie looking around wildly. “What about a sneeze tease? Is this another Pinkie sense thing?” I wondered.

“Yes, it means somepony is watching us,” Pinkie explained as she continued to look around.

Wondering just what was going on I joined her in her search but as I didn’t know what I was looking for I saw nothing out of the ordinary. A minute later Pinkie spoke up again. “Aw, whoever was watching is gone now,”

“I’m not going to question the accuracy of your Pinkie sense but are you sure it just wasn’t someone who was curious? I mean there are still a few ponies that have kept their distance and aren’t outright hostile towards me,” I speculated. It was true that there were still a few splinter groups in Ponyville that weren’t outright positive to me being there, although they had lessened considerably after the Nightmare night performance.

“Eh, you’re probably right Cloudy,” Pinkie said shrugging in a way that shouldn’t have been possible with an equine body, not to mention how she was still situated on my back and shoulders.

“Aight, then let’s see if Rarity has a moment to spare this morning,” I declared as I reached out and knocked on the door.

Neither I nor Pinkie noticed the black muzzle that made a quick peek from behind the corner its owner had hidden herself when we had started looking around. When the owner had confirmed that it had in fact not been seen it disappeared behind the corner again. A second later the muzzle was no longer black but a soft teal instead as its owner walked out into the street and proceeded down path that lead out of town at leisurely pace.

She had barely had time to open her shop for the day when the distinct sound of somepony knocking on the door rang throughout the, in her opinion, humble boutique.

“Coming~” She called out as she moved over to the door. ”Welcome to Carousel boutique where everythi-,” She began as she pushed open said door but came to a pause when her eyes registered the sight that met her.

Instead of the regular fare of customers that came to browse through her designs or order something new from her she found herself staring at a pair of long, pant cowered, legs that could only belong to one individual she knew. As her eyes traveled upward she noticed a puffy, untamed tail that was wrapped around the tall individual’s midsection. And as her eyes reached the face of her friend she found herself looking at two smiling faces instead of one.

“Mornin’ Rarity,” Pinkie and Cloud said in perfect sync.

A smile of her own found itself onto her lips. “And a good morning to you too Pinkie, Cloud,” She replied as she idly wondered how Pinkie could possibly think that riding around on Cloud like she did was comfortable. But the pink mare had assured her the first time she had asked about it, about two months ago, that it was in fact very comfortable. And if the frequency that her pink friend took the opportunity to ride around on Cloud’s shoulders like that was any indication about the truth in that statement she was inclined to believe her. Before she could think any further on it Pinkie hopped down from her perch, landing surprisingly gracefully beside Cloud.

“Now what brings the two of you to my door this early morning?” She wondered, looking at her two friends.

Pinkie was quick to speak up. “Well I’m just tagging along with whatever Cloud is getting done,”

“And I’m here to put in an order for some winter clothing and to check if any of the autumn clothes I ordered are ready,” Cloud supplied.

Keeping her smile Rarity stepped aside while motioning with a hoof for her friends to enter her home and establishment. “I’d be more than happy to take a new order for you Cloud and as it so happens your last order got completed a few days ago I just hadn’t gotten around to informing you yet. Now please step inside so that I may get to work,” She informed her biggest bipedal customer.

“Sure thing Rarity,” Cloud said with a small nod before he walked past her into the boutique, Pinkie following close behind.

Closing the door Rarity turned to face her friends. “Now, what did you have in mind for your winter clothing Cloud? I’ll admit that I suspected that you’d ask me to make you some so I may have done some preliminary designs,” She said as she walked up to her human friend.

Cloud adopted a thoughtful expression. “Hmm, I know that you know my preference for clothing by now so I’ll gladly take a look at your new designs. They do follow the layers upon layers principle we discussed, right?”

“Why of course, you certainly made your case last time we discussed that. Now hang on for a second while I go grab my designs and the last batch of clothes you ordered,” She told him before heading over to her creativity room.

She quickly grabbed the in progress designs she had and the package containing Cloud’s last order in her aura before walking back into the room where she had left Cloud and Pinkie.

Levitating the items over to Cloud she announced her return by addressing him. “Now, here are the designs as well as your last order Cloud,”

Cloud grabbed the floating package with one hand and the designs with the other before seemingly coming to the realization that he couldn’t flip through the designs with both hands occupied. “Hey Pinks, you think you could hold this for me?” He asked Pinkie, giving the package containing the clothes a light shake.

Pinkie responded without a single moment’s hesitance. “No problemo Cloudy,”

Handing the package over to Pinkie Cloud got to studying the designs he had been handed, occasionally humming to himself. After a few minutes of flipping through the pages he had been handed he spoke up. “Aight, first of Rarity I’d like to say good job. Not that I expected anything else from a pony with your skill, but I think you’ve really gotten human clothing down to an art these past months,” He said, causing a small blush to spread across her cheeks at his praise.

“Oh, you flatterer you. Surely I’m not that good?” She replied, completely self-aware to the fact that she was fishing for another compliment.

Cloud looked up from the pages with his trademark grin plastered on his face. “Oh I’m not just saying that, I’m particularly fond of number two and five by the way,” He said, before giving her a knowing wink.

Getting her blush under control she walked over to Cloud so that he could show her which designs he was referring to. “Ah, you mean the long coat and the gem enchanted jacket. Is there anything you’d like me to change on those or would you like them as they are?”

Cloud sat down next to her. “Well yes, there are a few minor things I’d like to change. First off I’d like both of these to be slightly wider in the neck area so that I can use my scarf with these,” He began, motioning towards the long scarf he was wearing. A gift he had received from the Rustfeathers if she recalled correctly. “Secondly I would like the color to be something that matches the scarf,” He continued.

Rarity waited for him to name a third change, but when he remained silent she took the opportunity to speak up. “Okay, those are easy conditions to work with. Are you sure there’s nothing else you’d like to change?”

A slight rustle sounded as Cloud shrugged his shoulders and by extension his wings. “Not that I can think of, I mean an inner pocket or two would be nice but that won’t affect the overall design,”

“No you’re right, it won’t affect the overall design. Now is there anything else I can do for you?” She asked, as she marked down the changes Cloud wanted on the papers with the corresponding designs.

Cloud tapped his chin as he thought. “Can’t say for sure, I mean I was going to cut my hair as it has grown more or less out of control as of late,” He thought out loud. “It might be a bit tricky to do on myself though as I’ve had help from either Gil or Stella since coming back here. Well it can’t be too hard, right?” He added in the same thoughtful tone, much to Rarity’s horror.

Cloud made as if he was going to stand up but before he had time to move Rarity quickly spoke up. “I could help you with your manecut, I mean haircut,” She supplied quickly, a little too quickly but Cloud didn’t seem to notice.

“You’d do that? I don’t want to take up more of your time Rarity, surely you have more pressing things to deal with than cutting my hair?” He asked.

“Nonsense, I always have time to help a friend,” She stated before gathering up the designs with her magic. “Now don’t move and I’ll be right back with some scissors after I put the designs away,” She continued as she trotted back towards her creativity room.

Once she was out of hearing distance she breathed a sigh of relief at the aversion of the potential fashion disaster Cloud had suggest. Cutting his own hair? Even if the slightly rugged and messy hairstyle suits him that was an invitation for disaster if I ever saw one. She huffed to herself as she entered her creativity room again. After depositing the designs she grabbed a collection of scissors and a comb from a shelf in the room before turning to leave again. Why did she have scissors for her mane and a comb in her creativity room? Why the answer was simple, a lady may have a need to fix something minor in her mane at any given moment. She was after all knowledgeable in the art of a mane styling whereas Cloud had more or less stated the opposite.

A moment later she found herself back where Cloud and Pinkie were still waiting, well playing a game of rock, paper, scissors actually and somehow they were continuously coming out with ties. One should probably point out that both sides were throwing all three possible combinations but Rarity pointedly decided to ignore it. Don’t question it Rarity down that path lies only madness. She told herself before clearing her throat, making both Pinkie and Cloud turn their heads to face her.

“Now, Cloud would you be a dear and go sit down beside the stage area? With you being so tall that’s the only place I can effectively cut your hair without having to bring something to stand on,” She told her human friend who quickly got to his feet to comply.

When he sat down again she made her way up onto the stage so that she came to an even height with Cloud’s head. Using her magic she grabbed a spray bottle filled with water before lightly dousing the hair with it. “So before I begin is there any preferred manestyle you like?”

“A bit short and messy is what I’ve normally had and don’t think I’d like to deviate from that,” Cloud said after a moment’s thought.

She nodded before realizing that Cloud could not see her as she stood behind him. “Of course darling, I think I remember how you used to have it these past months. Let’s just take it step by step shall we?” She suggested and with quick nod from Cloud she brought the scissor into action.

For a minute all that was heard was just the snipping of the scissor, but shortly thereafter she felt that the silence started to grow uncomfortable. “So what is that Twilight and you are doing that has hidden the two of you from the world the past week?”

“Oh that, well it’s not exactly a secret so sure I can tell you. Just give me a moment to collect my thoughts,” Cloud began.

“Alright, to skip to the more interesting parts I’ll compress some of the earlier incidents. For some time I’ve been slowly gaining more and more attunement to the storms here on Equestria,” Cloud started to explain.

She stopped working with the scissor for a moment. “Weren’t you already connected to them? I have very clear memories of you doing so quite easily in the past,”

“Well yes, but that’s only half true. I’ve never been able to actually control it, even when I held the form of a pegasus it just seemed to happen. However it seems like it is different now, or at least I hope it is. You see recently I’ve been randomly zoning out whenever there’s a storm raging within a certain proximity of me. It actually took me a while to figure out that it was the storms that caused my lapses too, but once I did I went to Twilight hoping that the two of us could come up with a way for me to control it or at least block it out,” Cloud quickly summarized.

She combed out a part of Cloud’s mane as she let what he had told her sink in. “So how have things gone this week then?” She asked as she readied the scissors once more.

Cloud hummed contemplatively. “Well, to be honest we’ve not really made any breakthroughs. Not in the way we wanted to anyway. In fact we may have taken a step back in some regards,”

“A step back? What do you mean?” She asked while she used a comb to straighten out some errant strands of hair.

“Tell you what, I’ll just start from the beginning of the week so you two can get the full scope of what me and Twilight have been doing,” He suggested.

“I think you mean Twilight and I, darling. But yes I think that’s good way to go about it,” She agreed, while Pinkie nodded vigorously from where she sat in front of Cloud.

Cloud took a deep breath. “Aight, so it all began this one stormy night but the real research part didn’t begin until the morning after that…”

“So, now that we’ve acquired Rainbow’s weather schedule for this week I think we’re ready to begin,” Twilight announced happily.

I just gave a noncommittal grunt in response, seeing how the unnatural burst of energy that I had experienced when connecting to the storm had worn off hours ago. After I had denied by Rainbow when I woke her up in the middle of the night I had eventually found myself back at Twilight’s castle, and there I had immediately been pounced by the knowledge hungry princess. I wasn’t going to be a hypocrite though and complain about it though as I was the one who had suggested this joint study in the first place. However what was left was a rather severe exhaustion and the only thing keeping me awake was the cup of coffee I was nursing in my hands. It didn’t help that I couldn’t tell for certain what time it was but if I were to hazard a guess I’d say it was around six thirty in the morning, making it roughly twenty four hours since I last slept. This of course only further added to my exhausted state.

I covered my mouth with a hand in tired attempt to hide a yawn. “Okay, what did you have in mind?” I asked before giving up the losing battle that was trying to hide my yawns.

Twilight hopped off the chair she had been occupying. “Follow me, I’d like to run some initial scans with some of the equipment I have on hoof. With a bit of luck we might even get some early readings of what happens when you connect to a storm as you put,” She explained as she made her way out of the library.

I quickly downed the remaining coffee I had left in my cup before hurrying after the
young alicorn, my long legs making it easy to catch up. Twilight led me up a staircase I hadn’t bothered to explore during any previous visits to the castle and into to a room containing, what I considered to be old, computers and various other machines. A faint memory of having seen these things before played at the edge of my consciousness but before I could fully remember Twilight brought my attention back to her.

“If you would be so kind to sit down in the chair over there while I start the relevant machines for the tests I had in mind I will be with you in a moment,” Twilight announced before walking over to the machines which purpose, beside the fact that they were scientific in nature, escaped me.

True to her word only a few seconds passed after I had sat down before Twilight walked up in front of me, a helmet connected to the various machines in her magical grasp. Actually calling it a helmet was a rather gracious way of putting, seeing how it looked more like a pasta strainer with a few LED’s and cables attached to it. Nevertheless I took the helmet from her, putting it on my head without voicing my thoughts on its looks.

Using her magic Twilight quickly fastened the helmet using a chinstrap that I had missed. “There, now all I need you to do is try to connect to a storm or at least space out as you have described yourself doing when you quite couldn’t connect. All in all though all you need to do right now is try to connect and the machines will do the rest. As for a storm, the one from yesterday is still going, although it has been moved towards the Appleloosa region since this morning,”

“Aight, I’ll give it a shot but this might very well give us nothing,” I warned her before closing my eyes, turning my focus inwards.

For the following minutes I just sat there, the only sounds that I could hear was the quiet humming of Twilight’s machines and my own breathing. Slowly though the unconscious decision I had made to close my eyes started to show an effect on my already tired mind as my consciousness started to ever so slowly slip into sleep. Just as I was about to cross into the realm of dreams I felt a slight tugging sensation but due to quickly fading consciousness it rapidly fell away from me. Well at least until a certain purple princess yelled out her exuberance.

“There! Go back, do that again!” She cried out, causing me to snap open my eyes and sit up straight from where I had begun to slouch. The slight tugging I had experienced turned into a sudden pull and before I knew what was going on the machines I was connected to overloaded in a shower of sparks and smoke.

I blinked in surprise. “Whoops?” I offered sheepishly as I surveyed the damage I had unwittingly caused. Looking down at my right hand I found small arcs dancing between my fingers. Most likely due to the overload, I was bound to absorb some of it. I thought to myself before turning my attention to Twilight.

“Hey Twilight, you alright?” I called out, looking around the room. A coughing sound brought my attention to my left side where I could see an orb formed out of Twilight’s magic shimmer through the receding smoke.

“I’m fine, but what the hay was that? Just what did you do?” She asked, her voice coming through slightly muffled due to the force field.

“I don’t know, I tried to recall how I felt when connecting to a storm but ended up almost falling asleep,” I offered in an apologetic tone.

The force field bled away and Twilight took a step forward through the remaining smoke. “Well that can’t be all, there has to be more to it than that. Did you feel anything strange?”

I brought up my right hand to my face to pinch my nose but paused as I saw the sparks still dancing between my fingers. “I did, at least I think I did. Just before you called out I experienced a tugging sensation. It’s not best way to describe it but I can’t put another word on it,” I said slowly. I had been half convinced that I had imagined the entire thing, but perhaps there was something more to it.

“A tugging sensation? I wonder…” She started but tapered off as if she came to some sort of realization. With hurried steps she went over to one of the machines, which had stopped smoking for now, and levitated a long strip of paper. “Aha, I knew it! Just before, whatever it was you did the Thaumatic Sensory Unit picked up a spike of pegasus magic coming from you. That being said I’ve never quite seen this wave pattern before,” She exclaimed happily, showing the strip of paper in my face with her magic.

I stared at the paper, that for the record looked like some sort of readings similar to that of an old lie detector or perhaps an earthquake machine, before clearing my throat. “That’s great and all Twilight, but I can’t read what this tells me. Furthermore I’d like to know why I’m currently electrified in a similar way to when I’ve used a griffon shock stick,”

A contemplative look found its way onto her features as she brought the paper back to her. “Oh, I forgot that you haven’t been taught how to read thaumatic wave lengths. Long story short these lines here signify pegasus magic and as you can see the writing needle fluctuated quite wildly there at the end. Now as for what it means, and this is just an educated guess I might add. I think that you tapped into the abnormal lightning resistance that you seem to have rather than your sense for storms in general. What then happened was something akin to an artificial lightning strike where your body tried to even out the difference in electrical charge between you and the machines, this of course led to a feedback loop which caused them to overload. I think…” She summarized.

I was left sitting slightly dazed at Twilights rapid explanation. “Of course…” I said once I found my voice again.

Twilight didn’t seem to notice that I was still confused as to what exactly had happened so instead of a more thorough explanation she just continued on. “Well we can’t do any more readings since the equipment is fried but there’s one more thing I’d like to try before we call it for the night,”

For a second I considered telling Twilight that we had passed into morning a couple of hours ago but stopped myself as it would just take longer for me to actually get to myself some sleep if I did. “Aight, what should I do?” I asked instead.

“Simple, try and find that tugging sensation again,” She told as if she was commenting on the weather.

Rather than coming up with a snarky reply I just sighed before turning my focus inwards again, expecting to find nothing. Although when I almost instantly felt the tugging sensation throughout my entire body I couldn’t stop myself in time. “What the hell?!”

“I take it you found the sensation again?” Twilight commented.

I shot a bewildered look in her direction only to find her wearing a smug expression. I raised an eyebrow. “Alright you obviously know what is going on so I’ll bite, what is it that you know and I don’t?”

Twilight kept her smug expression as she cleared her throat. “Simply put, what you’re feeling is your inherited pegasus magic. I only realized this when you described how it felt though, you used almost the same words Rainbow used when she tried to help me understand my own pegasus magic,”

“Okay we know what it is, but why was it easier to feel it now?” I asked.

“Oh that’s easy. Before you absorbed the energy you weren’t actively using the magic, it was dormant for lack of a better term. But now, due to your Paragon trait to keep the energy within your body rather than make it dissipate into the air like a normal pegasus, your magic will remain in an active state until you get rid of your charge,” Twilight answered happily.

“So you’re saying that the key to solving the problem is for me to learn how my pegasus magic works?” I wondered.

Twilight wrinkled her brow. “I didn’t say that, but it might be worth a shot to explore this further,”

I yawned again. “Aight, sounds like we have a game plan for now. However I’m going to get some sleep before I fall asleep here in this chair,” I said before yawning again.

My yawns seemed contagious as Twilight yawned loudly herself before answering. “You know what that actually sounds like a good idea. Let’s discharge any excess energy you have in you and then you can borrow one of the guest bedrooms,” Twilight suggested and I was more than happy to accept…

“So was it the solution to your problems?” Pinkie asked, interrupting the flow I had built up.

I was about to shake my head but stopped myself just in time as I remembered that Rarity was cutting my hair. “No, from what we’ve learnt so far were nowhere close to figuring out how I connect to storms. On the bright side though I’ve gotten a bit more adept at controlling my pegasus magic or to be more precise controlling the flow of energy inside me,”

Rarity stopped working with the scissors for a moment. “Pray tell, what do you mean when you say controlling the flow of energy?”

“Hang on a sec it’ll be faster if I show you,” I said, holding up my right hand in front of me.

I closed my eyes and tried to find the inner tugging that I had come to associate with my inherited magic this past week. A few moments passed, before I felt the now rather familiar feeling and when I opened my eyes I found that a spark would leap between my fingers every ten seconds or so. This was of course way less than when I used an external source of electricity, not to mention that it was extremely draining to pull it out from within myself. But for the sake of my little show I kept with for another minute before allowing the electricity to flow normally through my body again.

“That was supertastic Cloudy!” Pinkie exclaimed while she threw her fore hooves into the air.

“Quite the display yes, seeing you pull that trick does remind a bit of our first meeting darling,” Rarity agreed.

“Well I’m still incredibly new to this being a part of me and all so I’ll need way more practice before I can actually use it for anything. But I’m hopeful that this new knowledge will help me improve, err… Certain aspects of my life,” I agreed happily before tapering off.

“Darling it’s no secret to us that you want to improve on your, erm Paragon techniques,” Rarity began but I cut her off.

“Let’s be honest here Rarity you can’t really call shocking yourself with electricity be it natural or artificial a technique, but if this helps me to develop it into proper technique or at least make it safer then it’s a win in my book,” I stated.

“Fair enough darling, now why don’t you get on with the rest of the story while I finish up with your mane cut,” She agreed.

“Aight, now let’s see I had gotten to the point where I decided to stay in one of the guest rooms…”

I woke up sometime in the afternoon unable to tell where I was exactly at first but then memories of what I had been doing since late last night came flooding back. Sitting up in the bed I stretched my arms and worked out a couple of kinks in my wings before swinging my legs out of the bed. Grabbing my clothes from the chair where I had haphazardly thrown them yesterday I headed out of the guestroom and towards the kitchen, intending to grab something to eat before I went to find Twilight again. However it seemed that this was a day for efficiency as I found Twilight already sitting at a table munching down a salad when I entered the kitchen area. She acknowledged my presence by raising a wing while she continued to chew her food, so instead of interrupting her I just raised a hand to return the silent greeting before grabbing what I needed to make a few sandwiches. We ate quickly and in relative silence, only exchanging small pleasantries, and within minutes the two of us were heading towards the library ready to resume our little project.

As we crossed into the library Twilight was the first to speak. “Okay, I have a few ideas I’d like to try regarding what we learnt yesterday but first we need to increase your proficiency with your magic,” She declared.

Seeing how I had no better idea I simply agreed with her and sat down by one of the tables as Twilight went around her library, collecting books regarding pegasus magic. And so I finally started to actually learn how to control an aspect of my life that I had given little thought in the past, hoping that it would bring some clarity to my situation. That being said I quickly found myself engrossed in the subject and before I knew it the remaining daylight had fled to give way for the night. Confused as to how absorbed I had been in my reading I turned to Twilight to speak but when she realized that I had stopped reading she beat me to it.

“Did you have a question?”

“No, not really. I was just surprised at how much time had passed,” I answered her sincerely. An answer that was quickly accompanied by a hungry gurgle from my stomach. “Aaand apparently I’m quite famished too,” I added with a chuckle.

Twilight joined in on the chuckle. “Story of my life, well it used to be, back in the day. If it wasn’t for Spike I would’ve continued to read and read until I collapsed from malnutrition,” A small smile played on her muzzle as she was temporarily lost in her memories. “Well then why don’t we take a break here and we’ll do some practical exercises and tests after some dinner?” She suggested after her short trip down memory lane ended.

“That sounds like a plan I can get behind,” I agreed, placing a piece of paper as a bookmark before I stood up from the chair I had been sitting in.

I followed Twilight out of the library as we headed to the kitchen, discussing how we should proceed with our project from here on out. Our spirits were high as we seemed to be making good progress in unlocking the secrets of my heritage.

“However that initial burst of optimistic thinking quickly proved to be a fluke, fast-forward six days and Twilight and I found ourselves at our wits end. Every time we thought we made a breakthrough we ran into a wall and got no further no matter what we tried.” I told my audience of Pinkie and Rarity.

“So that’s it then? There’s no available solution?” Rarity asked as carefully cut some of the hair around my left ear.

“I didn’t say that, but for the moment were kinda stuck and all we can do is to practice the aspects of my inheritance I have some control over. And as such I came here today for a little breather. Now, I’m almost finished recounting the happenings of this past week-“

Pinkie interrupted me loudly. “Well get on with it then, the suspense is killing me!”

I rolled my eyes slightly as I couldn’t understand what suspense Pinkie was talking about but resumed my retelling without dwelling on it.

“How about the weather magic bypass test mentioned here?” I asked Twilight who was sitting across me at the table. Actually sitting was a generous way to put it she was half-slumped over the table wearing a bored and slightly frustrated expression.

“We tried that two days ago, the results were inconclusive,” She muttered.

I sighed tiredly, we had been at this for the past three hours. “Then what about the advanced aptitude test mentioned in The Cloudsdale Journal issue 204?”

“Those tests were proven ineffective and have been updated since that was published. Before you ask we’ve already tried the updated versions.” Twilight sighed. “Did we do the Pegasus meditation techniques for increasing thaumatic activity?” She proceeded to ask.

I placed my face into my hands and let it rest there as I answered. “Yeah, we did those yesterday before we moved onto trying to interface with a single storm cloud,” I took a deep breath and continued. “How about runic multi sample tests?”

“Those require you to actually have something to test on in the first place,” Came Twilight’s bored reply. “But what about the magical branching test? Did we do that?”

“We did, and I believe you called the results a joke and that the inventor of the test must’ve been a xenophobic ass to not include individuals from multi-race descent in the results bracket,” I supplied in the same bored tone as Twilight.

“Augh, this is so bucking frustrating,” Twilight groaned and I was inclined to agree. “Oh and for the record I used the term xenophobic plot-hole, not ass,”

I gave a tired nod at her correction. “This would’ve been so much easier if there actually was some sort of Storm paragon writings left, but no it had to be lost to ages or the past thousand years or so at least,” I ranted and a sarcastic edge found itself into my voice.

With a groan of my own I too slouched out over the table only to shoot right up again when Twilight suddenly cried out. “That’s it! Cloud you’re a genius!”

Bewildered I looked at the now beaming alicorn. “I am?”

“Yes, because I just thought about a place that just might have what we don’t and it was your comment that made me think of it,” She elaborated happily.

“You’ll have to be a bit more specific than that cause I’m not sure I follow,” I said, my voice filled the confusion I felt.

“Well what if I told you that there’s a place that recently showed up after having been locked away in time for a little over a thousand years and that place has a perfectly preserved library,” She baited.

Slowly my mind started to recall bits and pieces of things I had been told about the girls different adventures. Namely about a place out in a cold tundra, a place where the ponies who lived had shimmering coats that imitated the qualities of gems, a place that had been sealed away with its now defeated evil overlord, it is: “The Crystal Empire,” I said out loud as the final piece fell into my mind.

At the other side of the table Twilight was beaming. “Exactly, and the best part is that since I’m royalty and not to mention a close friend to princess Cadence we can just send a letter with what we need and then they can have the books shipped here,”

Her smile proved infectious as I found myself sporting a grin of my own as I extended a fist for her to bump. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get to writing that letter,”

“…and that’s where we stand right now in terms of progress.” Cloud finished his retelling of his week.

Rarity smiled to herself. “I must say darling it sounds like you and Twilight went through quite a lot this week,”

Cloud released a wistful sigh. “Tell me about it, I’m just glad that we might actually find a solution,”

“I’m sure you will find what you’re looking for Cloudy, fingers crossed that you do,” Pinkie spoke up from her seat across from Cloud.

“Thanks Pinks,” Cloud said with a chuckle.

Smiling to herself she took some time to look over the mane-cut so far and came to realize that she had more or less finished some time during Cloud’s story. “Well darling all that’s left for me to is to show you what I’ve done,” She told her human friend as she levitated a small mirror over to him.

Cloud looked himself over, studying the reflection carefully from a couple of different angles. “Looks perfect Rarity, thanks again for taking some time from your schedule for this. Do I owe you anything?”

She hopped of the stage and walked up next to Pinkie so that she could look him in the eyes again. “Oh pish posh darling, the juicy gossip you’ve provided me with and your story is quite enough,”

Cloud wore a confused expression for a second but seemingly decided to drop it. “Well then, in that case I’m going to head home and grab a change of clothes and then grab some breakfast on my way back to Twilight’s,” He said, standing up.

“That sounds like a good idea, but don’t forget your package,” She agreed as she grabbed the clothes he had ordered earlier in her aura, levitating them over to him.

He shot her a thankful smile. “Thanks Rarity,” He walked over to the door and pushed it open, Pinkie following him out while she stayed at the door. It was her establishment after all.

“Hey Cloudy you should go by Berry and thank her for giving you time off from work,” Pinkie suddenly said.

A look of dread rapidly grew on Cloud’s features. “Ssshit!” He cursed before he took off running down the street towards Berry’s diner.

Rarity blinked momentarily stunned by Cloud’s outburst and came back just in time to hear Pinkie say, “Was it something I said?”

Author's Notes:

And just when you thought that you could sleep a wild chapter appears. At least some of you have to be close to sleep, right? Anyhow I fun writing this chapter so I hope it's an enjoyable read or at the very least drives the plot forward somewhat.

As I'm heading off to bed myself as I'm typing this I'll just leave the working title for the next chapter, Much to learn.