"Hey, where's Evasive? He's supposed to be here."

"He's probably running late again."

"Great, why are we covering for him again?"

It hadn't been an easy day for flying, but work needed to be done, Evasive headed for the skies as fast as his wings could take him. He saw the red sunrise and flew faster. Evasive stared up into the red sunrise. His eyes glimmered with hope as he flew up to his post at the Cloudsdale weather team.

"It's alright guys, I'm here, what's up?"

"What's up?" Stern Light, his boss, wasn't exactly in the mood for small talk apparently.

"We need these clouds out of here Vase, how about you save the small talk for later and get moving! Where have you been?"

The stallion mumbled incoherently and looked at the ground, he had always had trouble interacting and dealing with other ponies. He looked away for a minute before finally answering.

"Umm..."

"You okay?" Stern Light knew he had put him on the spot again and tried to reason with him without being too intimidating.

"Yes, um, I was just, umm..." Evasive was desperately thinking for a way to get out of this conversation, but found he couldn't.

"I pay you to move these clouds, not to come late. Don't let it happen again." Stern Light said clearly.

"Y-y-yessir." Evasive quickly got out.

"Boss, give him a break, and besides, you hardly pay us at all." Agile Skies, one of Evasive's best friends said.

"Stow it. Get to work Agile." Stern Light snapped.

Man I wish I was faster, Evasive thought to himself as he got to work.

Later, as he moved the clouds he found himself down so he began humming the tune to a Filly Fighters song, 'Learn to Fly,' which put him in a better mood. Evasive worked hard as he flew and decided to move away from the other pegasi so he could be alone. He continued clearing the skies for a couple hours. Internally, he wanted to go home early so he could go spend some more time in Ponyville, a place he liked to be around, he felt, there was no friendlier place in Equestria. As he kept daydreaming and moving clouds, he realized he was on a crash course with somepony.

"Woah! Careful Vase, watch it."

"Oh, sorry, my bad." Evasive managed to avoid hitting him, and stuttered out a quick apology.

"You okay?" Agile asked

"Oh yes, I just couldn't where I was going."

Agile snickered, "Yeah, I've heard that one before, what's bothering you?"

Evasive sighed, this was Agile, he thought, the only pegasus who's known you since school, other then her of course.

"Well, um. I-"

Agile laughed, "It's alright buddy, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Evasive blushed, he knew him a bit more than he let on.

"Yeah, I'm just restless, I want to walk around Ponyville again." he said.

"Hah! You are obsessed with that place, you know that?" Agile retorted jokingly.

Agile quickly slapped him on the back to get him moving, "Come on, let's get back to work, I don't like getting yelled at."

Evasive nodded quickly, "Alright, You got it."

Later, after they finished, Evasive started to fly off when he suddenly heard Agile's voice.

"Hey Vase! You headed somewhere?"

"Yeah, I'm... Y'know.."

"Sweet, I'm coming too. I need to meet up with somepony there anyway.

Evasive had walked this road what he felt was a thousand times, Ponyville, he loved the city, the ponies, the friendships, the diversity, he had heard all about how the Elements of Harmony had lived here and had saved Equestria countless times. He felt they were heroes, but he admired how they always seemed to want to be thought of as 'normal' and never think of themselves as above anyone. Just like real heroes should, he thought.

Especially their newest element of harmony, Dusk Noir was it? He felt like he was a real addition to their group. The way he acted just seemed to somehow keep the seven of them calm, collected, and together. Duh. Evasive thought to himself, He's the element of Unity, dummy. Evasive thought in spite of himself, talking to himself was one of his odd habits, but he didn't mind, he read somewhere it was a sign of intelligence, though he couldn't remember where exactly, he did remember reading it SOMEwhere

And that was good enough for him.

Suddenly they came to the place Agile needed to be, Evasive kept looking to the sky, as if scanning for something.

"-So I was just going to just turn and leave, and that's when she-"

"Hm?" Evasive quickly turned his head and pretended like he'd been listening, even though he knew Agile would see right through him.

"Were you listening to anything I just said?"

"uhh, Yeah?"

"Well what was I talking about?" Agile responded with a cold, yet knowing look.

"Ummm... your... marefriend?" he asked unsurely.

"Good one," he chuckled.

"Oh, sorry I was-"

"You were 'out there', I get it." Agile said as he motioned to an imaginary plane of existence.

"What? You think I don't know you do that? How long have I known you again?" he continued.

Evasive rolled his eyes "Okay, thanks."

"Sorry Vase, gotta pick up some stuff. This is where we depart."

"Huh? Oh um... Is this the place?"

Agile laughed, "Yeap,"

Agile mock saluted Evasive and headed in for Celestia knew how long, he decided it was time to go home and collect himself, it had been a long day at work and he was tired.

Evasive walked through the doorway and into his home, it was a nice home, at least he felt it was nice, it was a bit compacted, but he felt it suited him. A comfy bed laid across the hall, and a shelf for books and other belongings. The walls were plastered with posters of his favorite bands, the Filly Fighters, Green Neigh, and Neighvana. He gained an interest in rock music a long time ago as a colt struggling with a divorce and not feeling like he had many friends at all. He loved the energy of the melody, and the power behind the sound, it felt like he was given the energy to fly a hundred times around the city. It made him in a sense, free.

A little pegasus colt growing up in many different places, Las Pegasus, Cloudsdale, he was always very friendly with his classmates, and even though he was admired by some, as he was always good at most sports, he never felt it inside. He was never social, almost always interacting only when he had to.

And acting only when he had to, one of these rare occurrences would be whenever he saw someone being hurt or threatened, usually by someone else. He especially remembered when one poor mare was being bullied because she had a condition that made her wall-eyed, it made him so sad that she would be bullied for something so trivial as that. He could remember the rage he felt that day when her tormentors started acting with more malice than ever before.

Look at her eyes!

They're so weird.

Freak.

He could feel the anger rise up when she started to tear up at their taunts, her sobbing echoing in his mind causing him to tear up a little too.

Stop it. She's just different.

She's such a freak of nature. No wonder she has no friends.

Just stop.

He thought about losing all composure and control and just lunging at them all, wailing on them and beating them until they stopped, but he couldn't, no matter how angry he got he wouldn't let himself loose. He would've torn them apart and he wanted to let them know it, but somehow he couldn't. He just didn't have the courage.

She was gone, probably somewhere she could be alone. He cursed and chastised himself mentally as her tormentors left. He couldn't stand up for a poor mare who was being harassed. How pathetic was he?

She was sobbing, crying her eyes out, it felt like she had had this happen to her before, but never before like this. He took a deep breath and stepped forward, showing himself.

"Hello?"

She stopped crying for a minute and turned to face him, her blonde mane was unkempt and ragged, her eyes bright red from the tears that fell and her face looked so worn down, it was almost too much, but he stood his ground, he wanted to help her didn't he?

"Are... Are you alright?"

What a stupid question he thought to himself, How do you think she feels? Some help you are.

After wiping some of her tears away, she sniffed and responded.

"I think so."

He inched closer, trying to appear friendly.

"Are you sure?" he asked genuinely.

"Oh. They... They do that a lot. I'm used to it." she sighed, it broke his heart to see her like this, so sad, yet so accepting of such cruel treatment. Like she had faced this all her life.

"I'm sorry they have to be that way. I really, really am." he said sincerely.

"It doesn't matter anyway, I know I'm useless." she said dryly.

"You are not useless! Don't ever think that." he responded with conviction he didn't even know he had, however he continued gently.

"You're important. Don't let anyone think you're not."

"But... my eyes..." she tried to continue but choked back a sob.

"There's nothing wrong with your eyes, they are what makes you unique. It's nothing to be ashamed of at all." he put his wing on her back and looked her in the eyes. "At. All."

"You.. you don't see them as...as-"

"Not really, I.. actually see them as.. pretty."

He felt unsure, like maybe he said something wrong, he looked around panicked for a minute and tensed away from her, but all doubts went away when she turned to him. She paused for a minute, then smiled, and he felt relieved when he realized he had said something right for once.

"Thank you" she said.

His heart was lifted, he felt good, having helped her. They both smiled.

"What's your name?"

"My name's... Derpy."

"Hello, My name's Evasive."

That was the day he met her, his best friend. Her name was Derpy, but everyone called her Muffins because she loved muffins. He had always loved going down to Ponyville to talk with her about things on her mind, his best friends in Ponyville were Derpy and the Doctor she was always around.

That Doctor was one of the weirdest ponies Vase knew, but he always liked talking with him. He was a quirky pony, but enjoyable to be around. Mainly he liked visiting him because Derpy was always visiting him.

I'll visit them again tomorrow, I'm sure the Doctor's in, he always is. He thought to himself, he was tired, but tomorrow was a new day, full of hope and potential.