Above and Beyond

by Northern Dash

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Adventure
Length: 1112

'Just because you have wings doesn't mean you can fly'. These words have a more drastic affect than Rainbow could ever have imagined.

After thinking about Rainbows comment about not truly being able to fly Twilight is driven to improve her skill in every area she can. Armed with only a friendship journal and a gift from the Wonderbolts she is determined to travel to all four corners of Equestria and beyond to achieve her goal to soar.
Happens in an alternate universe where Twilight went into seclusion trying to find a solution through studying shortly after the events of 'Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3'.

Published 2014-04-21 00:00:05 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-21 00:00:05 UTC

Remembrance of Wonders ended- Part 1

The Yard of Heroes
Shining Armor was feeling nostalgic. He had been called back to Canterlot to oversee security measures for the National Dessert Competition, It had been rather tedious to commission 3 different trains from Ponyville to travel on the same track to avoid a repeat of the last competition, although the cake/mousse/éclair/donut city the fiasco had produced would probably have been nice if anypony had tried it before Pinkie got in eating range. Having completed anything and everything official he had to deal for the time being had done the only thing he could thing to do at the dead of night in his old home town, retraced his first real patrol rout.
His first year in the field had been hard. Not because of a seemingly undefeatable threat against the city or anything dramatic like that but because of how hard it had seemed to work the joints of his actually quite rusty armor to drag it across the relatively short rout from one street corner to another, it felt much different from the sand bags stapled to wooden boards he'd trained in.
One thing that remained constant however was his love for the fact it had taken him past the Yard of Heroes, he had always liked to think he would have a monument in there someday, standing in an imposing position as if ready to face any threat foolish enough to try and attack the city.

He had been a little un-nerved by other famous guards who had earned their place having their stony gaze fixed on the gate, almost as if they were ensuring whoever had been tasked with what was once their duty to protect the city was worthy of the armor some of them had helped design and perfect.

The moon was almost half way through its journey through the night sky through the sea of billions of stars he had spent so many of his nights fixated with. He still wondered in the back of his mind how exactly the moon produced its light and also if somepony had designed the gardens monuments with the intent of them having an other-worldly appearance in the moonlight, it certainly made them seem more intimidating to friend and foe alike.

Deciding to add the illusion of reliving his rookie years he concentrated the soft glowing aura that was radiating from his horn into a focused beam of light and swept in an ark around the legendary cemetery. He was only half concentrating on whether there was anypony around or not but after scanning one of the many rows of well-preserved memorials he caught sight of a glint of metal. He realized after looking again that the light from his horn had reflected off the buckle on a saddlebag.

He tilted his head up to try and illuminate who it belonged to. The beam barely reached its target but he did get a clear enough image to see the cloaked mare kneeling in front of a busy looking memorial he remembered was dedicated to the original members of the Wonderbolts. He thought he had her pinned down as a unicorn by the unmistakable shape of a horn that rose above her dark mane until a gust of wind ruffled her cloak and reveled the tips of two sleek wings.

It was in that moment that he realized who the mare was and began to wonder what business she could possibly have in that part of the city at that time of night. "Twily?" he called softly, knowing better than to startle the sensitive unicorn after both witnessing and experiencing what a spell cast in a panic could result in.

Twilight turned slowly from her position on the lush grass to face her brother.

"Shiny!" she cried, never dreaming of being joined by her B.B.B.F.F. so far from the Crystal Empire. She then remembered that despite the Yard being on the cities border to provide the magnificent view the occupants deserved there were still some ponies that could be woken by an excited sister’s squeal and clasped both her hooves over her mouth, worried that she would hear dogs barking and see candles flaring in windows.

After a few moments of nothing happening Twilight and Shining decided they had gotten away with it and began to carefully walk towards each other from their separate sides of the Yard to meet each other half way so they could whisper. "What are you doing here at this time of night?" asked Shining, remembering the question that had previously occupied his mind "You know mum would kill you if she knew you were up this late".

"She still thinks I follow her bed time?" Twilights thoughts and expression were left bewildered at the concept until she realized that if she didn't think quickly she would have no choice but to explain herself. "Nothing!" she said quickly, desperately trying not to meet his gaze. Shining smiled as he remembered many and various situations of a much smaller and wingless Twilight standing next to an often shattered cookie jar with crumbs matted into her pelt and mane insisting she had done no wrong (through a mouthful of Moon Pie cookies).

"Twilight" Shining scolded in a mock-serious tone "it's almost midnight, in the middle of April and you're standing in a cemetery without a book in site".

Seeing an opportunity Twilight quickly adopted an over exaggerated smile she had learned from watching Pinkie. "Remember when I used to get in trouble for reading in here?" she rushed through in a slightly panicked tone Shining picked up on instantly.

"Don't you think you can change the subject" he replied with a smirk. Twilight finally resigned herself to her fate and took a moment to take a deep breath and sweep her hoof up and out from her chest.

"Okay" she said eventually after deciding on a good place to start. "But we should sit down, this is going to take a while".

Author's Note

'There's a big difference between owning a rifle and being a rifleman'
(I couldn't find who I heard that quote from, at least it's only semi-relevant)

I have an unbelievably rough plan of where Twilight's going to go, who she's going to meet and what those various creatures are going to try and teach her but aside from that I intend to write until I've run out of ideas and try to sustain a story at the same time so the rating could change at some point. Until then I have a Coplay to work on, see you at B.U.C.K. 2014! /).