New Beginnings

Emerald whistled to herself as she headed out towards a hillside outside of Ponyville to meet Twilight and their friends for a picnic. She reflected over the past month and smiled.

After the aborted date when Holly had restored her memories, Emerald and Twilight had several evenings together where Emerald shared stories of her long life. She had kept the stories light, keeping in mind that the unicorn had never experienced anything like what she had been through even in her early years. The curious mare ate up the stories of her adventures amongst the stars.

Other evenings, they would spend the night curled up on the couch reading and just enjoying each other’s company.

As she approached the group of mares and one drake, the pegasus smiled when she spotted her marefriend.

“Hey guys!” She called out as she approached the group.

A chorus of hellos came back as Twilight stood and gave her a hug that she returned with a peck on the cheek, causing a chorus of ‘awws’ from most of the girls, a catcall from Rainbow Dash and a ‘blech’ from Spike.

Laughing, the pair joined them at the blanket

“So, how’s everypony doing?” Emerald asked as she poured herself a drink.

“Doin' good. Been havin' a good year on the farm.” Applejack replied.

“I’ve been busy training and handling the weather schedule.” Dash replied.

“I just finished an order for a client and am looking forward to a break.” Rarity said.

“I’ve been busy at Sugarcube Corner. With Mrs Cake being pregnant, she hasn’t been able to do as much as she gets further along. Though I have been busy planning for all the upcoming parties.” Pinkie Pie said as she shoved three cupcakes in her mouth.

“I’ve been busy with all the new baby animals. They are so cute but a lot of work to help the mommies so they can rest.” Fluttershy replied.

“Helping take care of the library.” Spike said as he tossed a chunk of garnet into his mouth. “What about you? He asked after he swallowed the gem.

“Just been busy getting the Thunderbolt ready to fly. Should be ready to get it in the air next week. Had to send the canopy back because the material wasn’t strong enough. I just got the new one this morning and it will be getting installed today or tomorrow.” The immortal replied.

“Why are you building that thing? You have a perfectly good set of wings.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Because I know there are pegasi that for whatever reason have lost their ability to fly and that there are unicorns and earth ponies that have looked to the skies and wanted to know what it would be like to fly. This will allow them to do so. I even have plans for larger planes that can carry passengers and cargo around the country and around the world.” Emerald replied as she took a bite of the daisy sandwich.

‘Still can’t get over how good these things are. Tastes almost like a ham sandwich.’ She thought as she chewed.

“So you are planning to replace a lot of the services that pegasi do?” Dash asked.

“Not replace, but assist them and allow them to increase the speed of things like deliveries.” Emerald said. “Because the vast majority of the pegasi population can’t fly for more than an hour or so without having to stop for a rest. This will allow more pegasi to either work in the weather teams, or in the local delivery teams. Plus since the average top speed is just over one hundred miles per hour, the ones that can break two hundred usually go to the racing circuit or the Wonderbolts if they are a good technical flier, the trips from coast to coast can take days. Transport planes that can get from city to city in a matter of a couple of hours will help with things like medical supplies. I have plans for an all weather transport that will have skis as well as tires for landing on snow in the winter to move supplies and if necessary evacuate the residents.”

“Huh, I hadn’t thought of it like that before. I mean I know not everyone is as awesome as I am, but I never thought about how long it can take to move things around.” The poly-chromatic mare said.

“Yup. I also have a couple of personal projects that I have been working on as well.” Emerald said.

“Oh, you mean the secret underground base that has all sorts of advanced technology that would make ponies heads explode from the implications of something so advanced.” Pinkie Pie said with a big smile.

Emerald froze. She had heard of the pink mare knowing things that she shouldn’t know. Fortunately, she was spared having to answer by a stallion with the mail service landing next to them.

“Twilight Sparkle, I have a letter for you.” He said before handing the letter to the unicorn and taking back off.

Twilight opened the letter and began to read.

“You are hereby invited to attend the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain Shining Armour.” She read before getting a distant look on her eyes.

"Twilight? Are you okay shugah?" Emerald asked.

“What?!?”