Light pleasantries and greetings filled the air alongside the smell of freshly brewed tea as Fluttershy filled our cups. I sat opposite our host today, as Diamond Tiara sat at my left and Rarity took the spot next to the pegasus.

“I see you were able to separate from Twilight,” Fluttershy commented. “It must have been awful not knowing if you’d ever be yourselves again.”

“That detail was rather concerning, I’ll admit, but otherwise it was… quite nice,” I said. “Well, mostly. There were certainly a couple embarrassingly awkward moments, especially when we ran into Twilight’s parents.”

“I rather had fun with it as well,” Rarity admitted before explaining to Fluttershy. “After Twilight and Cloud were able to separate, she and I tried junctioning as well, to see if it worked with other ponies. We got a couple others to try as well, but it seems to only work with certain ponies close to Cloud.”

“I’m kind of glad it didn’t work with me,” Diamond pointed out. “I love my new mom, but I don’t think I want her knowing everything that goes on in my head.”

“I already know you’re a draconophile. Do you even have anything left worth hiding?” I teased.

“See? That’s another reason. Twilight Sparkle’s excessive vocabulary obviously wore off on you. I don’t need to become more like you than I naturally will as your daughter,” Diamond Tiara pointed out.

The other mares giggled a bit, before we shifted gears. “We caught the pony responsible for assaulting Prince Blueblood, and for tricking him into infidelity,” Rarity said. “Since we were junctioned, she didn’t realize who she was talking to when she confessed. I’m still… a little put off from the whole thing, but I think I’ll give him another chance when I’m in Canterlot again. To think that I would be dragged into such political intrigue!” She was more than a little excited at the prospect, I knew not only from her tone but from her thoughts at the time.

When I gave a little laugh, I got more attention than I expected, and after a moment explained. “One of the benefits of junctioning, even for a limited time, is that I get to know my fellow Elements better, how you think, what to expect from you. We’ve all picked up a lot of that from training and working together, but this is definitely much deeper. I’d like to spend some time linked with each of you, both during training sessions, and perhaps doing some more normal things as well.”

“Oh, like flying?” Rarity suggested. “You were able to enjoy the use of our horns when junctioning with unicorns, I imagine you’ll sprout wings with a pegasus.”

“Though, I’m… not really the best of flyers,” Fluttershy quietly pointed out.

“Better than I am,” I countered. “But that’s not really the point. The point is to see things through your eyes, fears and doubts included, so I can be a better leader to you. And who knows? Maybe a bit of my confidence will rub off on you, just like Twilight’s excessive diction.”

“Hmm,” Fluttershy said quietly, as the conversation petered out for a bit. Everyone took some time to sip their tea.

Rarity broke the silence, bringing up another topic. “I’m glad we made it back when we did. The Sisterhooves Social is coming up in a few days. I’d hate to miss a year with Sweetie Belle. It’s one of our favorite things to do together.”

“Sisterhooves Social?” I inquired.

“Oh, it’s a lovely little event here in Ponyville every year,” Rarity began. “It’s a great time for bonding between little fillies and their older sisters. There’s food, and games, and contests.”

“I’ve never been,” Diamond Tiara said. “They’re pretty open about who can be the ‘big sister’, but Dad was the only one who would have volunteered and I didn’t really want my dad playing that part.”

“They’d let a stallion in?” I asked.

Rarity shrugged. “I imagine so, though I haven’t seen it done. More often it’s a mother, or a female cousin or the like. Or even just an older mare the filly looks up to. They’re a bit stricter about the younger fillies themselves.”

“Is there something similar for colts?” I asked.

Rarity laughed heartily at that for a few seconds. “Oh wait, you were serious? I suppose there’d be no harm in something like that, as long as they kept it tasteful, and didn’t replace the makeover stations with, I don’t know, pissing contests or something.”

I gave Rarity a look while I wondered what colts actually would do that fillies did not. The likes of Rainbow Dash and Applejack certainly had no difficulty being physically competitive, or getting dirty. That pair in particular had had countless examples of what we humans metaphorically called ‘pissing contests’. But I’d never heard of a man or boy literally doing so, and couldn’t imagine ponies being different in that regard. Would they?

“You know… I’ve never been to one either,” Fluttershy quietly offered. “I’m too old to go as a filly, of course, but I wouldn’t mind going as your ‘big sister’. If you wanted, that is.”

“Really? I… I really appreciate the offer, Fluttershy,” Diamond said. “But… I was really hoping mom would take me.” Her pleading look to me reinforced the obvious, that she meant me and not her birth mother.

“I’d be happy to take you, assuming they’ll allow it,” I said. “We really should do some more fun bonding things together.”

Diamond and I both looked over at Fluttershy as she sighed in disappointment, looking forlornly at her teacup. She didn’t deflate nearly as dramatically as Pinkie Pie did, but the point still came across.

“Oh! I know,” Rarity said. “Why don’t you junction Fluttershy, so you two can both be Diamond’s big sister?”

Fluttershy looked at me with a case of the ‘puppy dog eyes’ that could only have been mastered at the tutelage of actual puppies. She even managed to extract a ‘fine’ from Diamond before I nodded and she practically leapt across the table to hug me, triggering the junction then and there whether she meant to or not.

The chair tipped backward and I landed uncomfortably on my wings, looking at the ceiling with one eye while the other was blinded with a wall of pink hair. “Sorry,” I said quietly to myself as much as anypony else.

I got Rarity’s help altering one of Fluttershy’s green dresses to my new proportions, leaving my weapons behind as I stepped out of the cottage. My wings spread, feeling the wind, and I looked out at the world like it was full of new opportunities. Fluttershy’s fears flicked through my mind, but Cloud’s confidence denied their power over me.

My wings seemed too short to properly lift me, but that was true of all pegasi as well. I knew they had to have a supernatural lift to them, especially with some of the stunts I’d seen the flying horses pull off, so I trusted them to pull me up into the air, and soon they did. Flying like this was… unfamiliar to both halves. It took me a few minutes of experimenting, but I soon settled into a pose more like a pegasus, with my torso horizontal and my limbs either dangling below or pulled up tighter when I was going for speed.

“You’ve gotten the hang of that rather quickly, darling,” Rarity complimented.

“I want to try,” Diamond requested. With a swoop, I snatched her from behind, lifting her up into the air with me and earning an excited cry she might have been too embarrassed to utter before children her age.

Rarity watched with vicarious happiness until she grew concerned, trailing after us on the ground while keeping a keen watch for any mishaps. As if I would let anything happen to my daughter.

On a whim, we landed atop a small cloud. I had to land upside down, letting Diamond rest on my chest and poke at the fluff with a look of open wonder. She couldn’t step on it herself or she’d fall through, but she got to play with it in her hooves. It wouldn’t hold shapes for her, but I was able to break some bits off with my hands and mould them for her amusement.

It was fun, light-hearted, and innocent, but we could only spare so much time for it. I had chores to take care of. Angel was already glaring at me, no doubt in need of his din-din.

I found myself glaring back. Not the full on ‘stare’, but the firm gaze of a seasoned warrior who wasn’t going to take such disrespect. Angel met it on equal terms for several minutes before we smiled at one another, and headed into the house.

Hands are amazing. Cloud never fully appreciated that, even after spending time as a unicorn. My chores were so much easier with these handy little digits. Wielding a knife came especially easily to me. I chopped up the vegetables for Angel’s salad and everyone else’s meals. I even found myself looking forward to filleting the fish for Harry.

I tucked all the animals into bed before leaving Angel in charge of the cottage. I was too tall for Fluttershy’s bed, and it wouldn’t do to leave Diamond Tiara alone for the night if I didn’t have to. So we walked back through the edge of the Everfree to Cloud’s house. I so badly wanted to fly, but it felt rude. Besides, the weight of my sword on my back, uncomfortably pinned between my wings, made it more troublesome.

The sniper rifle was right out. I’d tried it out just to get a feel for it, but the trigger was meant for a whole hoof rather than a finger and the scope aligned for a pony’s head shape and neck length… it didn’t rest properly on a human’s shoulder like a Shinra-made gun would. I’d have to settle for being a flying swordswoman, and use materia if I needed a ranged attack.

Not that I expected trouble. Most of the creatures native to the Everfree, especially this corner of it, recognized Cloud easily and knew not to make trouble. They also were usually on good terms with Fluttershy and could be talked out of making trouble with a kind word. Really, the only trouble I couldn’t easily avoid or deal with was Diamond Tiara.

“So, are you going to sleep with Nanaki like that?” she asked me.

I’m not even sure what I said in response, it was so quiet and my heartbeat was drowning out my thoughts as it pumped a rush of blood into my cheeks and I shifted my position to try to hide behind my pink hair. Diamond just giggled at me, making it even worse.

“I hear pegasi can do all kinds of fun things with their feathers,~” she teased.

“Where did you even hear something like that?” I questioned quietly.

“Scootaloo,” Diamond said with a shrug.

I gave a little sigh. “How has that been working for you… Spike and you fillies, I mean? If I… if I went down that route, I imagine it’d be a bit like that with Nanaki. Unless we just… you know.”

“Made an actual herd?” I nodded. “What we have… works for us for now. But it kind of… feels unstable. Sweetie Belle and Spike are quite happy with it. But the rest of us? It’s not that we don’t enjoy it, but it isn’t enough. Not in the long run. I’m in no hurry, but I still want a special somepony of my own, you know? A little action on the side doesn’t change that. And the greed growth thing means we can’t just share Spike like that. I mean… I guess we could. Sweetie’s got a spell that makes that nice in bed, but… what about the rest of life? We’d have to move out of town, and everything.”

“Nanaki doesn’t have that kind of issue at least,” I said. “And… you get really close to somepony when you share a body and mind with them for a few days. If everypony really wanted to, it’d be harder and harder for me to say no to a herd.”

“But everypony doesn’t?” Diamond prodded.

“Twilight found it an interesting experience, and she’s glad she did it, but she’s basically moved on already. I think we could woo her into it if we tried, or maybe if we spent more time junctioned she’d get into the idea, but it’s definitely not a priority for her right now,” I said.

“And Rarity?” Diamond pressed with a sing-song teasing voice.

“We didn’t do anything!” I objected. “Well, not that we didn’t think about it. With both…”

“Both?”

“Nanaki and Prince Blueblood…” I whispered.

We walked in silence a bit. “But only thought about it,” she noted finally.

“Rarity could go either way too, at least right now. But we’re not going to press her, and if we don’t she’ll give Blueblood another chance.” I shrugged, glancing at my wings in a bit of surprise at how the weight shifted. I wasn’t used to the sensations yet. “It’s up to him if he keeps her this time. If we invited her into a herd right now though, she’d join, but honestly it’s because she thinks it’d be easier. Blueblood lives in Canterlot. He’d give up more than he is willing to to move to Ponyville, and her work and friends are here.”

“That’s not a great reason to join a herd,” Diamond noted, to my silent agreement.

“As for Fluttershy,” I said, pushing through the insecurity that was now my own. “I’ve never been with a stallion before, I really don’t know what to feel about it except nervous. I’ve never been with a mare before either. It is tempting to do it like this, so Cloud-me can help Flutter-me through it, even if that’s cheating in a way. But then what if I like it too much, and I can’t help but get involved deeper? And then what if I accidentally break up Cloud and Nanaki? Or what if I can only do it while junctioned, and end up losing myself forever and becoming Cloudshy forever. Will I really have time to take care of all the animals and lead the Elements at the same time?”

“You worry too much,” Diamond stated.

“I do,” I agreed. “But knowing that doesn’t stop me.”

The next day, while Diamond was in school and after finishing my morning chores at Fluttershy’s cottage, I took to the skies. I took a lonely cloud hovering near Sweet Apple Acres and started pushing it about, still marvelling a bit at the fact that I could. There was definitely a bit of weight to it that I could feel as a slight strain when I tried to push it around.

Fluttershy wasn’t much of a flier, as pegasi go. She usually preferred to hover or drift, or even walk about. She’d been teased about it quite a few times as a filly, and Rainbow Dash’s protection had been the foundation of their friendship. But like this? I could feel the familiar sensation of the mako in my cells flowing out through my blood into the muscles of the wings, strengthening them. Without it, I could barely push the cloud around, but with it I could take it half way to the Everfree before I paused to look around.

Now that it was ‘mine’, or at least out of the way, I got to work on sculpting it. I didn’t have a particular plan in mind at first. I was just playing with the fact that I could shape clouds with my hands and have them stick the way I stuck them. I had managed to create the likeness of my daughter and was starting in on a similar cloud mould of myself when an angry sounding voice cut across to me from the far side of the cloud.

“Alright! What wise-pony stole my accent cloud? And what are you doing with it… wait, is that a cloud sculpture?” Rainbow Dash winged closer to me, even as my nervousness drew me to keep hidden behind the cloud. “Fluttershy?!”

Hiding failing, I flitted up above it, landing on a bit I hadn’t incorporated into the statue yet, and waved with a deep blush. “Uh, hello Rainbow Dash. I’m sorry I took your cloud… you can take it back if you want it.”

“Whoa! You got merged with Cloud this time? And… learned how to sculpt clouds?! That’s really good, Fluttershy. Cloud? Help me out here…”

“I’ve been going by Cloudshy,” I offered. “I just… I’ve been trying things since I, you know, came together. And since I was planning to take Diamond Tiara to the Sisterhooves Social… I got inspired.”

“I’ll say,” Rainbow said, admiring my handiwork. “The Sisterhooves Social, huh? You’re just lucky I’m not going.”

“How’s that lucky?” I asked.

“Well, you won’t have me to compete against, especially in the main event,” she pointed out.

“You could always take Scootaloo,” I suggested. “I hear they’re pretty loose on who can be a ‘sister’.”

“Scootaloo? The pegasus with your daughter’s herd?” she confirmed.

I rolled my eyes at the word ‘herd’, but otherwise didn’t object. “She’s an only child, and she’s a huge fan of yours. She even calls herself the Element of Awesome, in your honor. You could at least ask… if that’s alright with you.”

“You know… I might just do that. See you at the races,” Rainbow said before racing off back toward town. As the rainbow streak slowly faded behind her, I wondered what would come of this. But rather than focus on my fears, I focused instead on the exciting new opportunities.