>The wind blows across your body as you fly among the clouds.
>Gently you slow down to a simple glide and turn over.
>The bright blue sky above and the sun basking you in it’s heavenly glow.
>You let out a sigh of contentment, feeling truly at ease.
>Flipping back over, you descend towards a large field near a forest.
>The smell of fresh cut grass and flowers fills the air.
“It’s so lovely.”
>Trotting around as you reach the ground, you observe your surroundings.
>Various flowers are around you and in the trees nearby, birds are watching you.
>You feel so much at peace, until you notice something odd nearby.
>Trotting to the strange object, you recognize it right away.
“What’s an easel doing out here?”
>Some art supplies are next to it, along with a blank canvas ready to be used.
>Shrugging, you feel the urge to create.
>Quickly an image forms together from your pencil.
>Before you can finish, the canvas starts to melt.
“Wha-what’s happening?!”
>A group of faceless ponies surrounded you, taunting you.
>”Looks like the freak made something new.”
>”Why do you even bother?”
>”It’s all garbage anyways.”
>”Everypony can draw, loser.”
“No! That’s not true, I work hard on my pictures!”
>”Sure you do, so does my little sister!”
>They start to laugh at you and get closer.
>Before they can reach you, you awaken and look around breathing heavy.
“...I-it was just a dream...A-all just a dream...”
>Wiping some some tears, you get up to begin your day.
>It’s not often you get a nightmare, but when you do, it’s a reminder of your past.
>Drinking your coffee, you feel your pulse race as it does its job.
“...Just focus Addie...I-I can do this...”
>Unlike yesterday, you go through your warm up with ease.
“...S-see..?...Piece of c-cake...”
>You focus, and draw your dream from last night.
>It’s a little rough to think about it, mostly because of the nightmare that followed.

>Need to keep your mind on the image though, never let it stray.
>You didn’t get this far by letting yourself get distracted.
>Sure your work isn’t good enough, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put effort into it.
>You pause, and consider adding color.
>No, this isn’t worth it.
>Continuing on, you add in more details to the trees and the grass.
>Backing up as you finish it off, you look it over like usual.
>No reference to go by though, considering it was in your dream.
“...It needs something more...”
>Picking up your pencil, you start to add in the one thing you felt missing.
>Yourself.
>You’ve drawn yourself so many times now, it doesn’t take much to get the sketch done.
>The memories of studying wings comes to mind.
>Couldn’t ask a real pegasus, they’d call you weird or something else, so books worked fine.
>Stepping back, you admire your work.
“...N-not bad...Could be better though...”
>You set this picture with the rest in the folder and hear knocking.
>Looking to the time, you feel some relief.
“...He isn’t late this time...”
>You hurry to the door to unlock it with a bit of joy.
>As you finish opening it, you greet him with some glee.
“...H-hey Anon..!”
>”Who?”
>You freeze, before you is a mailmare.
>”Happy Accident?”
>You can barely manage a nod while shaking in horror.
>”Here’s your package, and sign here please.”
>Barely snapping out of it, you take the package and sign before closing the door.
>Your heart is threatening to burst from your chest and your face is on fire.
“...O-out of...All the stupidest...Th-things...”
>Sitting down, you bury your face in your forelegs and softly cry.
>The one time you let your guard down, and you embarrass yourself in front of another pony.
“...S-stupid...Stupid...F-filly...”
>Another knock breaks you out of your crying session.
“...A-Anon..?...P-please be him...Please...”

>You open the door slowly and see him standing there.
>Though the second he sees you, his face shifts to that of concern.
>”Addie, what happened? Why are you crying?”
>Idiot, you didn’t bother to clean up, and now he sees you like this.
>No point in trying to hide it.
“...It’s nothing...I-I’m fine...Really...”
>He clearly doesn’t believe you.
>”You can talk to me Addie, really. We are friends after all, remember?”
>You nod and sniffle.
>It’s here that you have finally decided, you’re going to open up to him.
>You walk over to the couch and sit, with him joining you.
>Your heart beats hard and your anxiety is flaring up, but you press on.
“...I...When I was growing up...O-other foals picked on me...Because I was different...I-I often had no friends, and those that were...Left me because of...My awk-awkwardness...Or something like that...”
>Anon is still keeping his eyes on you, so you continue.
“...I started to draw to not be so alone...It helped for awhile...B-but I did it too much...Mis-missed assignments...So I got in trouble with my teachers...My p-parents...They didn’t like what I was doing either...So they discouraged me from drawing...”
>This is starting to hurt more than you expected, you swallow a lump in your throat and go on.
“...When I finally moved out...I tried to be more outgoing...Pink-Pinkie Pie tried to help me...But that didn’t work out well...Other P-ponies f-find me too weird...So after a while...I stopped trying...And just focused on my sketches instead...They didn’t find me awkward...Didn’t make fun of me...”
>You sniffle again, trying your hardest to not cry.
“...I lock the d-doors to keep...The rest of the w-world away...”
>As you try to talk again, your stuttering worsens.

“...B-but you...Y-you seem to un-understand...W-when others t-talk about my d-drawings...I-I can’t...They aren’t sincere...But you...y-you do...”
>You lock eyes with him, you want to say more, but you can’t.
>Not without losing control.
>”That’s...That’s awful, you’re a wonderful pony Addie. It hurts to hear that others didn’t see it that way. Your work is magnificent and it’s even worse to hear that you had to grow up like that.”
>As he is about to continue, you wrap your legs around him and pull him into a tight hug.
>The waterworks behind your eyes let loose, and you lose control at long last.

>You almost jumped when she grabbed onto you like that.
>However when she started to sob, you gently stroked her back.
>Hard to believe with what you’ve seen in this world that she went through that.
>Reminds you of earth, and hurts to even think there are ponies out there like this.
>No point on thinking about it though, you got a very sad pony to help out.
“Everything is going to be okay.”
>She shudders and keeps crying.
>Sure, you weren’t late today, but it was close.
>You’ve been helping out Cherry and Twilight for the project.
>Though you could only help out a little in the morning and evening now.
>Better this way though.
>Addie has started to quiet down from crying.
>She is still shaking and occasionally lets out a hiccup.
“Feeling better?”
>While she doesn’t say anything, she nods.
>Slowly, she raises her head to look at you.
>Her gold eyes are now red and puffy, her ears are still splayed back, but she gives a weak smile.
>”...A-Anon...I...I...”
>She shakes her head and tries again.
>”...Thank you...For everything...”
>You smile back.
>It’s strange how this one pony has become quite precious to you.
“You’re welcome.”
>As you’re both sitting there, her eyes wander over you.
>It’s kinda cute how she does that.
>However, her eyes widen.

>”...I...I made your shirt a mess...I’m sorry...”
>Not that you care, but you don’t have to look down to know it’s pretty soaked.
>You wave your hand around.
“Forget it about, it’s fine Addie. You needed this, I would never get mad at you.”
>Her eyes twinkle a second before she shakes her head and pulls back.
>”...Um...So...Want to see another book..?”
>You let a little chuckle.
“Yeah, sure.”
>She gets up, grabs a book and brings it back.
>As she opens it, you’re a little caught off guard.
>”...It’s on various creatures...”
>Addie points to a few figures that catch your attention.
>Namely the humanoid creatures.
>”....The min-minotaurs are similar to you...Thought you were one when I first saw you”
>That’s kinda funny, not too surprising though.
>She flips the page and you recognize the next couple beasts.
>”...The man-manticore...Usually dwells in the Everfree Forest...S-same goes for the hydra...”
>Note to self, never step foot in there.
>”...Anon..?...Are there creatures like this in your world..?”
>Your eyes linger on the hydra, yeah, to hell with that.
“Yeah, but they’re myths. Unlike here...”
>”...I see...”
>She gets up and heads over to her folders.
>You prepare to get up, when she comes over with a picture and gives it you.
>”...I dreamed of this last night...Just...There was a canvas as well...”
>Looking it over, it’s much more detailed sketch of her as a pegasus standing in a field with a forest in the background.
>”...I-it ended in a nightmare though...F-faceless ponies started to surround and t-taunt me...”
>She shifts around and lets her eyes wander.
>You give her back the picture and stand up to stretch.
“Never forget, they can’t hurt you anymore. You’re safe.”
>She puts the picture away with the rest and says nothing.
>At least she has finally opened up.
“I’m going to head out, Addie?”

>She turns and looks at you with her golden eyes.
>”...Y-yeah...Take care...Anon...”
>She looks like she has more to say, but she just stares instead.
“You too.”
>You leave her home and head to Cherry’s place.
>Along the way, your mind wanders.
>You’ve done more for Addie than any other pony has in a while.
>Quite a lot actually.
>Sure you’re friends, but that nagging thought in the back of your head hasn’t gone away.
>Are you in love with Addie?
>You shove that thought aside as you arrive at Cherry’s and see she is hard at work with the prototype.
“How’s it going?”
>She looks up at you and back to the project.
>”Could be better. It’s almost finished to be honest.”
>Wait, what?
“That was fast, how’d that happen?”
>She steps away from the winged harness and takes a quick drink from a glass.
>”Easy, magic.”
>You want to call bullshit, but you really can’t.
“Magic-wha-how?”
>Cherry looks over to you and blinks a few times.
>”You actually want to know? Fine. Some spells that are layered in a specific way to help reduce overall weight of the device and the wearer. Combine that with an animation spell that realistically mimics wing movement, along with a few other minor spells, and you got the basic groundwork done.”
“Are you sure you’re not a unicorn?”
>She chuckles and shakes her head.
>”No, I’m not. I just repeated what Twilight said.”
>You laugh and shake your head, of course Twilight did..
“Alright, so what’s the hold up then?”
>Cherry sighs and closes her eyes briefly.
>”The prototype doesn’t sustain long flights still and is a little unstable. I can make it work for about a few minutes. Takes almost thirty seconds to take off, so that doesn’t help.”
>Before you can talk, she continues.

>”However, doesn’t mean I can’t improve it. While Twilight can help with the spells, mind helping me with changing the parts and testing? It’s easier to work when there is two of us.”
“If that means we can get it complete faster, sure.”
>As you start to help her out, you know this will likely take all night.
>But it will all be worth it for Addie.