Aerial: My Soul to Keep

Multitudes of pastel colored ponies finally exited their examination room, their relieved breaths, a sign of accomplishment just for completing the final exam alone, as even then, their mumbles exchanged answers in desperation for those safeguarded extra marks.

Third to last from the dissatisfied herd was the unicorn representing the clouds herself, a smile plastered on her face, peppy and chirpy without needing a reason or care in Equestria... other than the fact it was her eighteenth birthday and officially her last day of test.

"Cara Mia! Addio! It's finally over!" She came to her knees, embracing the two ponies' legs behind her. "Liberation has come! Master has given Aerial an education, and now Aerial is free! Aerial is forever grateful!" she muffled in between the duo of unicorn's splash white fur.

"Hmm, quite." Cara Mia, the mare between the twins stated, her light-blue braided mane resting on her shoulders as she stood beside her brother and his amber-like unkempt own.

"Yes, and please do not cry in my coat ever again, it's going to take days before I get this stain out of my coat." And then there was Addio. These two were definitely twins; everything similar save for the hair.

"Anyways, I know you cannot contain your excitement for tonight, because it's your party and all, but all you announced was 'PARTY AT MY PLACE!'" He couldn't possibly seem to muster enough enthusiasm to mimic Aerial's profound happiness. "But I don't think anypony actually got the time."

"Oh, right right... the time... the time for the party... my birthday party..." Aerial mumbled to herself. "I don't think daddy even gave me an official time, he just said that I could have one."

"A birthday party?" The twins questioned in simultaneous calm bewilderment, staring at each other as they had begun their own world of conversation.

"I didn't think she had one," Addio recalled. "I thought it was just a regular party."

"Apparently she does," Cara Mia corrected.

"Yes, of course she does, but I didn't know she was capable of having one," the brother refuted, tilting his head towards the odd one out of the three, who by now was sitting on her haunches mesmerized and enticed by their arguing.

I love how they argue... it's so calm, interesting and not to mention, I can never quite get what they're talking about Aerial thought to herself, happily observing the two's debate in the background.

"So then what's the matter? Everypony has a birthday, this day happens to be hers," the azure maned mare continued.

"Yes, that's the point, everypony has a birthday, and everypony has a birth date," Addio refuted, stressing out the points to his sister as he became more and more restless.

"Ah, I see what you mean," Cara Mia finally understood, dropping the entire argument as if it never occurred. "But, I guess you should confront her on the matter, it seems she has a greater interest in this than I do."

"I suppose she does, but there is no point in asking."

"Why not?"

"Because it's her birthday."

With an astonishingly satisfied nod of her head, the twin sister paused for a moment as she rummaged through her mind, staring at her brother. She finally emerged from her catatonic state and asked, "Do we still have the orange portal home? I'd like to lea-- I mean, make preparations for tonight's party..."

"Indeed I do, I guess you'd like to leave now then?" Addio confirmed on his side, awaiting for his sister's command, as she did with a quick but silent nod of her head. "Alrighty then, the honor is yours... just do not try not to close it too quickly this time, the last pony we tried that on lost a chip of their hoof."

"Yes, you need not remind me of that incident," Cara Mia rolled her pitch black eyes, aiming quick at the wall as a bolt of magic in similar, bright colors as her mane splattered against the plain school's wall, a live image of a room untidily packed with books, flasks, chemicals and concoctions through a cylindrical frame.

Aerial couldn't help herself to a behind the scenes preview of what the twins' rooms looked like, further more, she couldn't have been more surprised for how those two of such uptight standard could let their room succumb to such a poorly driven state. "Is that... your room?"

"Yes," both flatly responded.

"It is a bit... untidy, but I guess we'd need to do a little spring cleaning in Summer, isn't that so, Mia?" Addio chuckled.

"Haha, so it seems," the azure sister withheld her laughter as the two began their trot through the light-blue rimmed void in the wall. "I guess this is our goodbye until tonight, Aerial. Oh, and please do enjoy the rest of your birthday."

"Yes, ciao for now, and do fly low today... Celestia knows the sun is murder," Addio forewarned, popping his head out of the portal to leave Aerial with that little reminder.

She wove her forehoof back and forth, sending the twins off with a slightly disturbed smile, left alone muttering through her teeth. "How the buck did I become friends with them anyway?"

"Aha, you see! She sounds just like her father! The masculine, classy voice was heard from their side of the portal.

"Which one?" Cara Mia's faint voice asked.

"How am I supposed to know? I've never met eith--" The portal's time had come to a close before Addio's sentence was complete.

"Same old, same old, just a bunch of non-sense with those two," Aerial sighed, quickly changing her cheery mood to one more survival fit for the school grounds, stoic as she trotted throughout the school and ponies, who over time had become less friendly with her, and of course her special talent.

Shoving herself through the crowds of unwilling ponies, she had made it finally outside; fresh air and the sky above her to set her mind at rest. Her eyes fixated on a pegasus flying above, stretching and cracking the bones of his wings from the long, torturous and not to mention, extremely difficult test.

The unicorn takes a seat on her tired haunches, gazing at the sky with a dastard thought in her mind. It was her father's words, nothing big, nothing to bug her when it was said... but focus on something too much, and then it really sinks in.

You may fly like one of us, but you're still a unicorn Her father's words echoed through the machinations of her mind, as she took this time to gaze at the winged pony perch on his cloud.

Why is it so hard for him to just say that I'm one of them... I can fly better than some. I am faster than others. I practice everyday. Yet, he doesn't consider me one of them... why? Is it because my wings aren't permanent? That I can only fly for a few hours? What is it... why did he have to say that?

She took one of those deep sighs, clearing her thoughts as the wind swept her mane to the side, an unfamiliar and feminine   voice entering as she erased the harsh words of her father.

It whispered, "Are you sure you're a pegasus? Are you sure you're one of us? I'd really like to see a unicorn fly."

And as the voice demanded, Aerial abruptly found herself intertwined by stringy white magic, interrupting the serene moment as the magic wrapped around her legs, kneading them closer together. The magic spreading from the web, engulfed her within its transparency as it lifted her from the ground.

"C'mon, fly... do some pretty tricks for me. You are one of them, are you not? Or are you just a simple unicorn... pftch, as if, you only know two spells; Telekinesis, and that stupid flight spell. Show me your worth," challenged the smug voice with a hiss.

Scarlet eyes scanned her surroundings, searching for the possessor of this ranged magic. Aerial strained herself with darting eyes from corner to corner, yet the only two within the vicinity was herself, and the oblivious napping pegasus.

In a blink of an eye, Aerial's mane continuously whiplashed the side of her cheek, striking it as she desperately tried to gather her bearings, finding herself flailing amongst the clouds above the school.

"HOLY SH-- wait a second," she paused, looking at her horn as her descent continued. She slapped her hoof on her face and dragged it down as she overcame the sudden, embarrassing moment of her forgetful mind. "Duh Aerial, you have wings! ... well magic to get wings."

Sparks danced and flared within the sky, her horn alit with a thick, scarlet glow as an orb of blinding light challenged Celestia's sun, forming around Aerial. Wings matching her midnight blue coat sprouted from the orb as she emerged victorious over the stranger's challenge, hovering with exhausted pants and beads of sweat dripping from her brow.

"Bucking hell, twelve years with this spell and it kicks the shit out of me every time! Every time!" She cursed.

The smell of ash found its way into her snout, causing her to sneeze with watery eyes. In distraught, those same teary eyes caught a glimpse of something on fire. Nothing in the sky, except for the sun and herself could've been that way... and for the most of it, the sun wasn't the culprit.

T-That bastard... she tele'd me too close to the sun! was her last focused thought before her wings burnt themselves out, driving her lungs mad to extraneous and high pitched cries for desperate help as gravity began to work against her.

C'mon Aerial, calm yourself down! Just focus and try to muster up another pair of wings... even though you will faint from overexerting yourself, and then die... yeah, that doesn't sound too much like a great plan. I am going to die. On my birthday. Great.

A few hundreds of meters away from kissing the ground, Aerial closed her eyes in preparation for the worst. Note that her internal composure was polar opposite from her flailing, screaming, crying and not to mention horrified expression. Her mind may have been still and had reassured her acceptance that she was going to die, yet in reality, she sounded something a bit more like this:

"I DON'T WANNA DIE! PLEASE, PLEASE, CELESTIA! DON'T TAKE ME NOW, I'M STILL A VIRGIN! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, CAN I STILL WISH FOR ME NOT TO DIE!?"

Something loud, something angry erupted in the skies with a single roll of its bellowing drums. It overcame Aerial's hoarse screaming, and it silenced Equestria. It was thunder, the sign of an oncoming storm, yet, no grey cloud was spotted in the princesses' blue sky.

"Holy crap, it's--" Aerial's words were winded away, astounded as she was met with a familiar stallion cradling her in his light-cyan hooves upon impact. "Dad."

"I don't remember you being this heavy eighteen years ago." He looked down at her with a smile, his snow-white blotted snout reaching where his candy cane mane stopped, basking in the sun as he slowly descended from Equestria's heavens, struggling to touch base with wings now at his side. Graze looked at his daughter, the life drawn out from her nearly endless screaming, her body still trembling with dilated eyes.

He had set her down and began to comfort her, patting her back as she reluctantly tried to catch her breath. "I know you can't talk... but I can't deal with the situation if you don't communicate with me. Was it level 3 magic?"

An attempt was made from Aerial, mustering up everything she can to speak. In the end, through her faults and the traumatic event, all she could have down was slowly shake her head in nerve wrecking trembles.

"Was it level 2?" Again, he found his daughter mute, but the answer clear. "Dammit..." he cursed himself, rubbing the back of his mane, finding himself in a whole new world of stress. "Alright, I didn't spot any unicorns on my way here other than you. Stay put, and I'd--"

His daughter clung to his right foreleg, repeatedly shaking her forehead in great distraught, fearing for a seconds of today's events. "I-I couldn't see anyone, Dad... all I heard was... was this voice, and then, the next thing I know, I-I-I was--"

"Shh, I know, I know... you can come with me, but the second you feel anything strange around your body, anything that isn't your magic, you grab onto me. Hopefully they aren't too accurate with that spell. C'mon, let's get a move on to somewhere safer. Double the pace and follow me, we're going to see if we can get a lead on whoever could've done this," Graze ordered as he began his trot into the school.

"W-where are we going?" Aerial questioned, following his lead and by his side like glue.

"To the Principal's office. It's about time, maybe the first and only time he'd get to see me, so I'm going to make this one trip count."

"Yeah... you really never attended those P.T.A meetings anyway... why is that?"

"Hmmm." The stallion chose to stay mute on this one, gently opening the double sided doors of the school as he made his way inside.