Attached to his thick waist, crudely adjusted to fit all too tight, were two scraps of makeshift patchwork tied taught to the frame of the device. They each stuck out about four feet, flapping ever so slightly in the gentle breeze. Its owner teetered on the edge of the building, leering out onto the streets below, raining from his eyes cold observation of the oblivious lives of those beneath him.
"I feel like Batpony."
Snails realized he had been drooling as he was torn from a thought he could not remember, a fact he quickly took care of by slurping it back into his mouth. He swiveled his head to gaze blankly at Snips, taking in the sight of his shotty, colorful wing-like contraption and deciding he looked nothing like Batpony. A concern for his cousin began to leak into his mind, and eventually he found the words with which to express it: "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Of course it is!" Snips snapped, his teeth clacking audibly as he faced Snails with a snarl. "I spent hours calculatin' the calculations! They can't be wrong." Snips stepped closer to Snails for emphasis. "And don't you tell mom 'bout it like you did with the fireworks. You ruin everything that way!"
Snails felt a momentary pang of guilt, but he soon forgot it, along with Snips' request, leaving him curious as to why he was nodding. Instead he chose to pull out some gum stuck behind his ear and plop it in his mouth.
Snips groaned and returned his attention to the streets below. It wasn't too far down, he thought. He'd fallen from higher places, after all. The townsponies would probably be mad at him if he broke something, but he was confident it had been long enough since the Ursa Minor incident that they wouldn't be inclined to murder him. Snips sighed as his mind wandered to the mare for which his heart had blindly followed, all those weeks ago. He still had to convince himself that the liar wasn't worth it, to abandon his life and run after like his heart so longed for him to do, but the thought never failed to leave his lips pursed in a frown.
Kicking his back leg out tugged the rope attached to it, and gave an experimental flap of his wings. The air they pushed ruffled his hair and managed, where his heart had failed, to put a smile on his face. Fixing a pair of goggles to his eyes, Snips crouched down in preparation. "Countdown, Snails!"
"Countdown!" Snails slurred dumbly. "Three... two... one..."
"Yeeea-haaaaah!" Snips' legs propelled him like pent-up springs into the air, pushing him up just a little before he proceeded to fall, coaxing a scream from his throat that was both ecstatic and frightened. In an eternal moment the wings fluttered, pulled taught, and at last caught the air beneath them and began to push Snips forward. A few ponies in the streets below looked up at the alarming sound, and what they saw was a strange unicorn colt gliding forward--yet falling alarmingly fast.
Snails watched his cousin disappear over the edge, but a few muffled gasps from below were enough to tell him that Snips had succeeded, at least in part. "Go Snips" he cheered awkwardly, jumping in circles to express his excitement. Snips, meanwhile, was panicking as he rocketed through the streets of Ponyville. Frantically flapping the makeshift wings had slowed his descent, but he only continued to gain more and more forward velocity. Twisting, he managed to zip past taller structures like lampposts and flags by a narrow margin. He was no longer above the shorter buildings, but rather between them, and the street was taking him straight to the town hall. His eyes nearly popped out as he realized he could not avoid it, but they quickly flew shut as the building closed in. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...
Snips stopped. He'd been expecting to stop soon, but he'd also been expecting it to hurt a lot. He just stopped though, as if the air had squeezed up his momentum like a sponge and held him prisoner against gravity. He then fell the rest of the way in moments, flopping to the ground with an "oof!" His contraption flew off his back and landed, harmless but broken, in a nearby bush. It was a rough way to meet the ground, but nonetheless Snips felt safe enough now to open his eyes.
At first he thought he was looking at the sky, but the blue he saw actually seemed to be the color of somepony's hoof. Following the leg with his eyes, Snips traveled his attention to the pony's face, until he realized that face was inches from his, and furthermore it was a familiar face.
"... Trixie?"
The lingering glow of magic was just fading from Trixie's horn, harmless sparks of energy cascading over her face like dust in the wind, until they were blown away by heavy breath from her nostrils, which flared into a snarl directed to the chubby colt beneath her. Snips' look of surprise morphed into one of embarrassment, and he took a few steps back while a blush began to take over most of his face—he had never been that close to Trixie before. A good few strong emotions were all fighting for control in Snips’ mind, but somehow he couldn’t find himself to feel anything but confused.
Less startled now than he initially was, Snips noticed a few things off about Trixie, aside from the wild, ferocious beast that was her expression; Trixie’s hat and cape were missing, for one. Only adding to the mystery was the fact that Trixie was soaking wet, little droplets of water caressing her face (and the rest of her body) on their downward journey to the growing puddle at her hooves. Yet, still, her mane seemed to hold its shape, defying the water its right to rid her form of its subtle beauty. Snips always thought Trixie looked something like a weeping willow, an analogy he felt more proud of now than ever. This did nothing but bolster his infatuation for the mare, however, sending his heart into a fit as he began to remember why he had followed her so blindly and dragged his oblivious cousin into the whole mess.
“Trixie, are you okay?” Snips had already felt hesitant to voice his concerns, but the look Trixie gave him made him wish he could take them back and stuff them somewhere deep inside his brain where he would never even consider voicing them again.
“No, I—Trixie is not okay!” Trixie stepped closer to Snips, who shrank back in response to the hostility frothing from her voice. “She is miserable, penniless, and it is all your fault!”
Snips felt a flash of guilt when he heard those words, but he quickly found a scrap of courage and grasped onto it with all his might. “M-my fault? You were the fraud!”
“And you were the one stupid enough to lead a celestial beast into town!”
Snips flinched, but held strong to his scrap of courage. “Y-you said you could vanquish it! You lied!”
“SHE DID NOT—I…” Trixie’s voice cracked and broke, the shards seeming to fall from her throat and dig into the tissue of her heart. Silence followed as she tried to push past the pain, but each time she spoke her voice let out naught but a low, pitiful squeak. Snips’ resolve fell flat at the sight, leaving him in the awkward position of trying to decide if he should extend a hoof in comfort. Before he could decide, however, Trixie found the remnants of her voice and spoke with them; all the power they once had was gone, and in its place was emptiness. “I did not lie. ‘Vanquish’ was simply a bad word.”
Trixie had hoped that the streams of water still dripping from her face might disguise the tears now joining them, but her voice betrayed every bit of her true emotions. “I-I came back to have a word with you—and others—about what happened; you especially, because you’re young. Little ponies shouldn’t have to learn from the big ponies when the big ponies mess up…” Trixie’s wistful, solemn tone said she spoke from experience. By now Snips had more than made up his mind to comfort Trixie, stepping forward to lay a hoof on her shoulder. Trixie’s voice stopped it mere moments before it met its target. “Don’t… touch me, you pudgy… l-little… whelp...” Trixie had to force each word out one at a time. The lock of hair that had to this point held strong fell with a ‘smack’ to her face; by the time she put it back where it belonged her eyes were shrouded in shadow, her head trained directly on the ground.
Each deliberate word Trixie had said struck a dagger in his heart, and by the end Snips felt about ready to die of heartbreak. He asked himself what he would do, if he really was about to die. Only one answer came to his mind, and despite the stupidity Snips was overcome with a strange and powerful desire to follow through with the wish. Before he could remember he was not about to die, Snips did the only thing he wanted to do in that moment.
Trixie froze for a moment at the feel of clammy lips pressed against her own, but she soon was overcome with disgust and pulled away, almost by instinct. The way her eyes locked with Snips’ just after that reminded her all too much of the kiss they’d just shared and all she could do was look away. Snips tried for a moment to re-establish eye contact, but a feeling of stupidity soon led his eyes astray. The silence he and Trixie created was riddled with the various noises made around them as everypony else’s life went on.
All Trixie could think about was how much she just wanted to leave—how much she hated Snips in that moment. How much she wanted to go home. “I never was welcome here,” Trixie muttered. Leaving behind a colt slowly breaking down into tears to match her own, she turned and followed the familiar path that led away from town.
Snails wandered into the town hall and at last spotted Snips sitting alone in the center of the path, his back turned to Snails.
“Heya, Snips!” Snails cried out and awkwardly began to trot over. “Did you fly?” He asked, ignorantly, innocently. Snips’ eyes never left the path before him, staring longingly at the figure he dearly wished was still there.
“No, Snails,” he answered. “I fell…”
Author's Note
Well, I tried. 
I wrote most of this the other night, when I should have been reding stories for my Weekly Watch. Speaking of which, I have a couple stories to read... eheheh... 
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this! I don't expect great things from this, but some constructive criticism never hurt. Feel free to rip it to shreds, I'm not particularely attached to it.
