Flying is for the birds
Celestia’s sun slowly set over the Ponyville park
Nyx was supposed to be the reincarnation of Nightmare moon, but things didn’t go as planned. Celestia had interrupted the spell midway, making Nyx the product of an incomplete spell. Twilight later found the filly in the middle of the everfree forest caught in a thorn bush. At first, Twilight looked at the filly with hate and disgust, but was surprised at the reaction she got when she yelled at it. Instead of retaliating, the little filly shrunk back, scared. Twilight ended up taking the filly home and slowly became attached to the filly Nightmare moon, becoming her mother without even realizing it.
Nyx had gone through a lot ever since then, from becoming queen of Equestria, to putting her life on the line to protect her friends in Ponyville. Twilight just wanted to be the best mother possible.
“Oh Nyx, that’s too fast! No go faster Nyx”! Twilight said sitting on a cloud with her hooves covering her eyes.
Nyx thought she knew how to fly, since she was an adult and flew to Ponyville’s rescue, but when she tried, she only fell onto her face. Unlike magic, Nyx had lost her ability to fly and had to be taught again.
This spurred two things in Twilight; one, being her lack of wings and inability to help her daughter, and two, a way to make sure Nyx stayed safe during the lessons.
Instead of moping and whining when her mother said she’d have to wait three weeks, Nyx read everything in the library about flying, preparing to wow her teacher and make her mother proud. From flying for dummies to Complex Aerodynamics of Stunt Flying. Nyx grabbed every book on the subject, and locked herself in her room to read (After she did all her chores and homework. She wasn’t that kind of filly).
Nyx flew alongside Rainbow Dash, her purple mane flapping wildly in the wind like cooked spaghetti in a wind tunnel. At first she had been nervous about flying, but when she finally got the courage to jump, the wind and adrenaline brought an overpowering sensation to her. She flapped her wings feeling like she owned the sky.
Rainbow saw this and smiled; Twilight however, was nearly throwing a fit on the cloud Nyx jumped from. She was all for Nyx learning how to fly, but why did it have to be so scary for her? Every move Nyx made, every near miss landing back on the cloud drove her insane with stress. One time Twilight grabbed Nyx, threatening to end the lesson early, but was easily persuaded by Rainbow not to.
Nyx readily grew bolder with her flying, scaring Twilight to death, but having the time of her life. At one point, she thought she was ready to do her first flip. Gaining speed, she gave her mother the most joyous look she could, in an attempt to stop her from ending her fun too early.
“Nyx” Twilight screamed “Get over here!”.
Nyx stopped mid loop, sighing with limited patience. “What!?” she said, a little aggravated at her mom’s intervention.
Twilight marched over to her filly and levitated her to her side. “I never said you could do any tricks.” her voice shook from fear, but Nyx didn’t notice.
“What’s wrong Twilight!?” Rainbow said. she had been watching from another cloud close to Nyx, but far enough away so she wouldn’t interfere.
“What’s wrong!” Twilight thought everyone couldn’t see what she did. “What’s wrong is that Nyx is doing tricks, when I never gave permission to.”
Nyx futilely struggled against her mother’s magic.
“Relax Twilight,” Rainbow said “Not only do you have me here, but this cloud stadium we made, so she would be safe doing a few simple tricks.”
Twilight was quickly becoming flustered.
”Come on Twi, Nyx is having fun.”
The fluster on Twilight’s face broke and she sighed in defeat. “I being overprotective again, aren't I?”
“Yes!!” Nyx shouted, still struggling “Why won’t you let Rainbow teach me!?”
Twilight lowered her head ashamed. Her magic faltered and Nyx broke free.
Nyx floated for a few moments, staring at her mother. Finally she moved over, putting her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder “Relax Mom, I know that you care about me, but sometimes you need to let me make mistakes. I won’t learn otherwise”
Twilight sniffed, but hugged Nyx. “I know Nyx, it’s just… you’ve been through so much”
“Yes, but please, let me fly”
“You’ve grown so much Nyx” Twilight gave her daughter one last hug before letting go.
“I know Mom, and thanks”
Twilight nodded and sat down again, feeling surprisingly relieved. While Nyx flew off to her teacher, she took a deep breath and repeated “Let me make mistakes, won’t learn otherwise”
“So, is the family moment over Nyx?” Rainbow asked at the bottom of the slide. “Can we get back to your lessons?”
Nyx eyed Rainbow, “Yes we can continue training, but let me show you what I’ve learned first.”
Rainbow wasn’t one to easily get nervous, but something wasn’t right. She; however, took this as a challenge and nodded. “Okay kid, show me what you got.”
Celestia’s sun dropped lower in the sky. Twilight watched, regretting having the cloud stadium made becouse it took nearly all day. It would be getting dark soon, and that would increase the chances for Nyx to get hurt. Let me make my mistakes. Twilight steeled herself, she mustn't be too overprotective.
Nyx bounced off the cloud wall. building her speed and feeling the wind blow through her mane, turning it into spaghetti again.
Rainbow was on guard, she didn’t know what Nyx planned, but she would be damned before she broke Twilight’s promise to keep Nyx safe.
Nyx flapped her wings, gaining speed and momentum; adrenaline flowed through her and her senses heightened, making everything slow down in comparison. Her movements were preplanned, where she would land, what direction she would go off at, and how much energy to put into each jump.
Twilight lit her horn, creating the same kind of safety net she used to catch the cake way back when, but dropped it. Nyx needed to make her own mistakes.
Rainbow watched Nyx pick up a surprising amount of speed. Her narrow eyes brimming with concentration and Rainbow knew that Nyx was planning something more than a basic loop
With a final jump Nyx left the safety of the cloud cone.
Nyx flapped her wings again, going from perfectly vertical to horizontal in one movement. She then flapped her left wing, using the extra force to throw her into a controlled spiral.
Twilight suddenly got up and ran to the edge of cloud cone. “Nyx! Come back!” This wasn’t part of the plan, Nyx wasn’t supposed to leave the safety zone.
Rainbow saw Twilight get flustered again and went into rescue mode.
Nyx was smiling, this was going to be the moment she makes her Mother proud, the moment she makes everypony love her.
Spinning around, the dark blue sky became the dark green earth become confused with one another and it was getting harder and harder for Nyx to tell where she was. She had planned to leave her spiral and land safely on a cloud, but it was hard to find a suitable landing site, and she couldn’t stop...
Moving downward, she finally found a lonely cloud, just sitting there in the sky. Nyx turned again, angling her spiral so she would drill a hole straight through it, earning even more pride points from her mother. She would then turn up and land on the cloud, smiling as Rainbow stared at her, awed.
Rainbow was going on panic, Nyx was going too fast for a cloud to stop her, and she could hear Twilight’s rapidly growing worry.
Nyx began to get really dizzy, and it started to mess with her movements. Instead of going through the cloud, her body began to spin, changing the impact point. Nyx couldn’t recover in time and ended up hitting the cloud like you might a brick wall.
Nyx was stunned, her world spinning on more than one axis, as she lost total control of herself, stalling out and plummeting to the ground.
“Nyx!!” Twilight screamed
Rainbow had already plotted an intercept course; and, with her heart racing, did her best to catch Nyx before she hit the ground. She had gotten under Nyx and was planning to catch the filly on her back, but something was wrong.
A rapid bloom of pain filled Nyx’s mind and was the last thing she thought of before everything went black.
Slowly, Nyx groaned as she came into the conscious world. The smell of antiseptic filled her nose as she breathed, and she felt trapped by a warm wall of something.
‘Beep, beep, beep’
Nyx heard what she guessed was a heart monitor. Slowly, groggily, she pushed off the white blanket, feeling her legs crack from disuse. She stretched, letting loose more loud cracks. The next thing she noticed was that she was really thirsty and smacked her lips.
A soft moan came from the left side of her hospital bed. Nyx turned and saw her mother asleep, drool flowing from her mouth, a big smile grew on her face when she saw the one who loved her most.
Rubbing her eyes, Nyx didn’t feel her fur on her eyelids, but a tough cloth.
“Wh-” her voice cracked almost as loudly as her legs did. She looked at herself, and saw that she was nearly covered in bandages.
“M-Mom.” Nyx was suddenly worried that she might have really scared her mother. “Mom, get up.”
“Wha huh!?” Twilight snorted, her ride into the conscious world was much shorter and rougher than Nyx’s.
Nyx watched with growing worry as her mother slowly looked at her. If she hadn’t been so scared, she might have laughed at her mother’s rapid change in expression. It went from shock, to worry, to relief and finally stopped at anger. Nyx knew that her mother wouldn’t yell at her, but that didn’t stop her from cringing and closing her eyes as tears grew on their own accord.
Then she was hugged.
“Oh Nyx, I thought you would never wake up again.”
That did it, Nyx started to cry and lean into Twilight’s embrace. She blubbered apologies, terrified of what kind of punishment she would be given for making Twilight think she would never wake up.
When the two finished their joyous reunion, Twilight grabbed a pitcher from the side table, pouring its contents into a paper cup which she floated towards Nyx.
Nyx was rubbing her eyes when the cup reached her, but when she reached for it, it floated away.
“Relax Nyx, I’ll take care of you.” Twilight said
Nyx didn’t fight, if it was anypony else however, she would have taken the cup and drank it all in one gulp.
Twilight smiled lovingly as she levitated the water to her daughter’s face. Nyx had her mouth open, expecting the drink to end her parched mouth’s suffering, but she only felt water splash in her face.
“How dare you do that to me!” More tears flowed from Twilight’s eyes as she threw the cup on the ground “Do you know how scared I was!?”
Nyx quivered, the warm blanket at her side suddenly becoming too hot.
“Why did you leave the cone I painstakingly made to keep you safe! You know how I get whenever you put yourself in danger.”
“I-i’m sorry.” Nyx said, unable to think of anything else to say.
“Oh you will be sorry young lady, because you’re grounded, permanently .”
