“So, a self-induced fear of heights. How interesting.” the unicorn stallion speaking was a bit of an odd specimen, with an ash gray coat, frizzy white mane, and painfully blue tail curled almost like Pinkie's. His cutie mark was his own head, with a large bump on it and a hammer behind it.

When asked, he'd explained that his destiny was to be a retro phrenologist, but it seemed that Celestia had banned the practice due to a loophole in the law for assaults. So he'd dove into other branches of Psychology instead.

“So, can you do anything for me?” Robert asked. Derpy had introduced him and they'd set up an appointment before she left for the Equestria games preliminaries.

“Maybe. There always ways to overcome things. However, I am unsure if the root cause is what you believe it to be.” the stallion reached into a desk and pulled a pad and pencil. "I'd like to delve into your mind and see what we find. With permission of course.”

“Alright, let's do it. I want to get this over and done with.” Robert sighed. "Look, Doctor Rawhide, are you sure this is necessary?”

“It is if you want to be sure to get over the problem. I'm not promising it will be an instant cure and I'm pretty sure it won't be. However, if we don't have the true root of the problem, we'd just be patching a hole. Closing a screen door in our submarine so to speak.” the stallion smiled, proud of his analogy.

“What's a submarine?” Robert asked. The doctor deflated.

“Never mind. Nurse?” he called out the door.

“Yes?” the white coated, white maned earth pony mare asked.

“Could you fetch Doctor Carter?” he asked. She nodded and disappeared. A second unicorn appeared, this one in a white lab coat with a brown mane and pale blue coat. "Looks like I have a candidate for the delving spell. Are you free to supervise?”

“Absolutely.” Robert raised an eyebrow. "Standard safety procedure. It can be difficult to break the connection from within the mind, so a second unicorn monitors the link and can disconnect the spell safely.”

“Well then, I suppose we should get started.” Robert nodded. Rawhide sat down and drew power into his horn.

“Here we go.”

---

Robert sighed as he trotted out of the hospital. He was assured the two Unicorns would recover in time. He was pretty sure they hadn't done much for his fear problem. On the other hand, he was pretty sure the memory they'd run into would give them something to discuss with their own psychologists.

A winged tiger trotting through town was not a usual sight, but it also wasn't sufficiently remarkable to garner more than a passing glance. Except for one pony.

“Hey Robert.” Scootaloo wheeled up beside him, keeping pace easily. "What's up?”

“Heading home from the hospital.” he answered, mind still on other things.

“You sick or something?” she asked.

“No, visiting a head doctor.” he answered.

“So...”

“So what?” he asked, coming to a stop. The orange pegasus buzzed past him, then leaned and backed expertly up beside him.

“Can you fly?”

“No.” he answered. There was nothing else to say.

“Why?” she asked. He took a deep breath.

“Don't know how.” he replied.

“It's easy, just flap your wings.” she said.

“If it's so easy, you first.” he said.

“I can't. she replied. All I can do is float a little bit.”

“Show me.” she raised an eyebrow. "Okay, but only if you promise not to laugh.”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” the scream at the end when he hit himself was all but part of the promise now.

“Okay.” She stepped off her scooter, started to reach for her helmet strap, then decided against it. Her wings stretched out, as far as they would go, then started moving. Faster and faster, she lifted off the ground, slowly, slowly, then stopped, wings buzzing blisteringly fast, but not generating any more lift. Robert reached out and stuck a paw under her. There was a lot of air there, yet she wasn't flying at all. She landed, exhausted from her efforts. "Your turn.” she managed after a moment, even if she was still panting.

“Alright, here I go.” He moved a few steps back, spread his wings, and beat them down wards. The motion propelled him a few feet into the air, the second beat picking him higher still. He was not graceful and the moment he tried to do anything other than move upward, he lost control. He landed face first in the pond. Scootaloo was torn between horror and laughter. Seeing the enormous wet Tiger pull himself out of the water was enough to send her into hysterics. He walked carefully over to her, and then shook the water off himself, soaking her. This only served to heighten her laughter.

“You look...” laughter took her over before she could finish. "That was funny.”

“I am glad to have amused you.” he said solemnly. “As you see, I have little more luck than you.”

“Yeah, but you got a lot higher.” she pointed out, soberly.

“True, but I have a lot more wing and muscle.” he replied. "Besides, you've still got time to grow into them.”

“Yeah, but... what if they stay like this forever?”

“I doubt very highly that they will. But, if they do, then look to the rest of yourself for strength.” he shrugged.

“What?” she gave him a look of confusion.

“Look, you know that one pegasus, white coat, blonde, muscles everywhere?”

“Bulk Biceps?” she asked.

“Yeah. Have you seen the wings on him?”

“Well, yeah, I guess.”

“Not much bigger than yours, but he flies well enough.” Robert said. "I'd be willing to bet all the time he spends working on his muscles are what keeps him in the air.”

“So you're saying I should work out?”

“Not necessarily. I'm just saying that even if your wings don't grow, you can still fly if you put in the effort.” Robert replied. "Then again, I'm betting your wings will hit a growth spurt when you do. Next thing you know, you'll be a Wonderbolt or weather pony like no other.”

“You really think so?” she asked.

“I know so. I also promise not to tell some sappy story about finding yourself.”

“THANK you.” she laughed. "I don't think I could take another one of those.”

“Me either. I always hated those.”

“You got them too?” she asked.

“Did you notice I've been slowly gaining stripes as I've been living here?”

“I hadn't but now that you mention it...” she hesitated, unsure exactly what he was getting at.

“Well, tigers get stripes the way ponies get cutie marks. I didn't get mine until I came here. My family and friends all had them for years, and I got a little teasing about it. Turned out I wasn't meant to get them in the same way as the others. I had to find out who I was meant to be, and then earn it.”

“You think that's not sappy?” she asked, grinning.

“Well, considering I figured it out after besting two of my three brothers and my sister in one big fight to see who would end up heir, I think it's about as not sappy as you can get.” he shrugged. "If that's too sappy for you, I'm not sure how I could spice it up.”

“No, that sounds pretty awesome.” she admitted. "Well, maybe not the fighting. I mean, why would you fight your own family?” she asked, slightly concerned.

“Tiger tradition is that only the strongest get to lead. My father is leader of my tribe, so my brothers and sister and I are all in line to be leader of the tribe when he steps down. Since you can only have one leader, we fight to see who is the heir. Who becomes leader when he leaves. My eldest brother won. So he's the one who will take over.” he answered, leaving a few choice bits out so as not to have to explain them.

“We just have Princess Celestia, and the others I guess.” Scootaloo said.

“True, but do you know a stronger pony than Celestia?”

“No. Rainbow is more awesome, and Twilight is more magical...” she paused.

“So?”

“So, I guess Celestia is all of those things, just not as much of them.” Scootaloo suggested.

“The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.” Robert offered. "She might not be the greatest at each thing, but she is good at so many that it makes up for any lack.”

“I didn't think about it like that.” the pegasus considered it.

“Also remember that she has had centuries to practice.” the look on the pegasus faltered for a moment.

“I see your point.” she nodded. "I guess I'd have to be an alicorn for that to work?”

“I presume so, but truth be told, I've never really looked into the matter.” he answered her. "I mean, immortality must take some doing if to date the only three beings ever to achieve it are Celestia, Luna and Discord. Although, I'm not entirely sure if the same rules apply to Discord. Indeed, it might be fair to say that since time doesn't apply to him, he can't be mortal and thus can't be immortal. Or couldn't have not been mortal.”

“Umm... isn't this something you should discuss with Twilight? I know she likes those long-winded overly complicated explanations.”

“Oh, yes, I suppose you're right.” he considered it. "Of course, I do have you here now, while she's off doing her official thing. And I'm thinking about it, so best to continue the line of thought.” he saw the look on her face and laughed. "Gotcha. I have yet to fail to get a reaction. They think I'm just going to keep talking and talking until some horrible event happens to distract me.”

“Everyone's used to Twilight, because that's what she does. She either talks until a disaster happens, or until she creates one.” Scootaloo chuckled.

“I see. Perhaps you can answer me a question.”

“Really? About what?” she perked up at the opportunity to answer something.

“The weather. If the weather team is all competing in the Equestria Games, who's running the weather here?”

“Well, not all the teams will qualify, and only a few of them compete each day. So the teams not competing will be here all but the day before and after. And not all of them are actually weather pegasi. This will be like tornado day, when all the pegasi who can fly will be called to weather duty.” she explained.

“Tornado day?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Rainbow Dash got Cloudsdale to pick the Ponyville reservoir to draw water from for this year's weather cycle. All the pegasi who could fly got together and made a huge tornado to suck the water up and dump it into the weather factory. She wanted to set a record, but a bunch of ponies came down with feather flu and couldn't make it.” she shuddered. "They barely made it the second time after Fluttershy helped.”

“Is there some reason the water wouldn't just evaporate and rise into the clouds on it's own?”

“Yes.” this was technically a secret, though not a very well kept one. "Umm... clouds shaped by pegasi need a specific... wetness.” the word humidity escaped her. “Cloudsdale is a big city and too much water in the wrong place would cause it to break apart. And that would be really bad.”

“Ah, I see. And the Feather Flu?”

“Oh. That's a bad pegasi disease. It causes your feathers to fall out. Like molting, but not at the right time. And if it doesn't go right, it's ugly. Really ugly. Most pegasi end up in the hospital.” she shuddered again, wings twitching this time.

“Okay. Hey, I seem to be mostly dry. Why don't we go see if they have anything special for two hard working fliers at Sugarcube corner.” Robert offered. Scootaloo grinned.

“Race ya.” she said and disappeared on her scooter. She bulleted through town, ducking and dodging traffic from carts and pedestrians alike. Most of the citizens barely noticed any more, unless she crashed, which was less and less frequent. She rounded the corner and stopped in front of the sweet shop. "Hah I...”

Robert trotted around the corner behind her. “Win.”

“How did you get here so quick?” she asked. She had won, and she wasn't going to let that go, but...

“I can't fly. But I've been gliding for years.” he grinned. She laughed. "Of course, as the rules go, loser buys.”

“You're going to regret losing.” she rubbed her forehooves together.