Not Another Romance!

by LordBrony2040

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Prologue

Prologue: Days Gone By

The halls of Canterlot Castle were a bit more empty than usual for the post-lunchtime lull, and Twilight found aside from the guard or odd courier that ran to and fro dressed in palace livery, the palace seemed next to deserted. She supposed, that might have been because of the mare she was with at the moment. It was a realization that made Twilight shake her head in disappointment at her fellow ponies.

Standing a head taller than most stallions, Princess Luna’s imposing figure and her midnight mane was only half the reason that so few of the Equestrian populace would stand in her presence. What drove most of the ponies from her was the reputation that Luna had procured over the past thousand years. For centuries, the foals of Equestria had been told stories of Nightmare Moon, and how she would come down and gobble them up if they didn’t finish their dinner, chores, homework and whatnot. The fact that Nightmare Moon was a factual being, and not some bedtime story like the headless horse actually made such stories linger into adulthood and cause some problems for the socially inexperienced mare upon her return from banishment.

The other problem was that the truth of the moon goddess wasn’t far from the myth. While she would certainly never attack the children of Equestria for not finishing their assigned tasks, Luna was very abrasive and domineering when in public. But then, when her duties involved sentencing ponies for crimes, defending Equestria during the hours between dawn and dusk, as well as removing the mental anguish of the populace while they slept, one needed a thick coat to survive the wear and tear.

It was also why Twilight Sparkle found herself able to be a bit more direct with her than she would with Princess Celestia; aside from the fact that her mentor had been more of an untouchable god figure for most of Twilight's life, while Luna's dealing with the unicorn had first been as an alicorn that appeared more foal then mare, followed by an encounter with her sobbing in despair on Nightmare Night. It made her seem all too...normal. “Princess Luna…what’re you doing up so early? It’s barely past one in the afternoon.”

“Why everypony thinks I sleep all day, I’ll never understand. Six hours is enough for normal ponies, so why not me as well?” the goddess said as she shook her head before looking over to Twilight. “Now Twi, since Tia is busy, um...I belive she is meeting with the Duke of Appleloosa at the moment. So, I shall be happy to cover this week’s curriculum. How are things going between you and Rainbow?”

Twilight resisted the urge to sink in on herself at being called a nickname by royalty. Ever since becoming Rainbow’s teacher, Luna had apparently decided that Twilight had entered some inner circle that allowed her to see a different facet of the alicorns and allow for an extreme amount of familiarity as far as the princesses were concerned. While nothing really had changed between her and Cadence, and things had returned to normal with Rainbow, Luna and Celestia were a but more…teasing, Twilight supposed.

“It’s going…about the same as last week,” Twilight admitted as she thought of her pupil’s studies and their lackluster speed of improvement. “Rainbow is still having trouble moving anything smaller than a pony with her magic. She keeps overcharging the field and…well, I’ve had to pull a lot of things out of my walls so they could heal. Thank you for the eternal re-growth spell by the way. I think Rainbow would have managed to bring the library down a second time if it didn’t patch itself up these days.” It also helped the new town library had a permanently fresh pine scent, despite the fact that it was in no way, shape, genus of form, a pine tree.

The explanation got a loud laugh from Luna. “Ah, I was the same when I was first learning to use my horn. So many of my dolls went flying over half of Equestria,” she said, laughting a moment at some ancient memory before continuing. “And your lessons?”

“Very good,” Twilight replied in her best Unicornian before switching back to modern Equish. “Well, the spoken word at any rate, written is a little bit harder. I managed to get Dash to teach me by reading Daring Do books, and having her read out loud while I performed an transcription spell and followed along. Then I have to go over it all again in the written word since that’s what I’m really needing to learn.”

The memory of those nights filled Twilight’s mind for a moment, and she found herself thinking back to their last session. She and Rainbow had been on the unicorn’s bed with the book between them and Twilight’s journal for transcriptions off to the side as magic made it follow along with Dash’s words. The alicorn’s larger than average wing had been dropped across body to generate a blanket of warm air around her to create a perfect atmosphere, while Twilight found her head resting on the larger mare’s forelegs since her knowledge of the old language had long since gotten to the point where she didn’t need to read along in Equish to help understand the meaning behind the words.

“And the smile?”

Twilight opened her half-laden eyes and found herself back in the castle, standing in the middle of a hallway that felt much too cold all of a sudden. “Smile?” she asked.

Another giggle came from Luna’s mouth, and the alicorn of the night gave Twilight a knowing smirk that the unicorn had seen on Celestia’s mouth all too often as of late when it came time to deliver Rainbow’s weekly progress report. “Well if she can’t fully control her telekinesis yet, there’s no need to move onto the more complicated spells. So, just continue to work with her until she can move something as small as a bit without tossing it with enough force to break the sound barrier.

“Is there anything you require of me, little Twily?”

She could at least stick to Twi, the unicorn bemoaned. Twily was what her older brother called her. “I would like to take a look into the archives again. Something that Rainbow Dash asked me about last week has been bugging me.”

“Oh? Pray tell,” Luna said. “Mayhap I could shed some light on this problem.”

Twilight couldn’t help but smirk. “Now who’s needing language lessons?”

In response, Luna rolled her eyes. “I will admit, full mystery of thy modern vernacular continues to elude me and I doth find myself slipping when excitement ignites a fire within my breast. Now, what hath our dearest niece proposed to thee Twilight?”

“Last week, Rainbow asked me about something called the…Crystallum Imperium, I think it was,” the unicorn said before stopping. “But I’ve looked around and, I’ve never found any mention of a Crystal Empire in my library’s history section…or Canterlot’s for that matter.”

Luna let out a groan. “Ah yes…that is a bit of a sore subject for Tia and I,” she mumbled. “And as you’ve noticed, sore subjects tend to become…forgotten when we’re around. Ponies recognize when we don’t want to discuss things, and such information tends to just fall out of use. The oddity causes me no end of grief after returning from my absence. I’m still trying to find cooks able to make me a decent moon pie.”

The fact that the princess wanted it forgotten did stir a bit of doubt in Twilight’s mind whether she should even be talking about it, but Rainbow had asked, so… “What is it?”

“When Andromeda fled north with her supporters, she put together her own little kingdom in the frozen wastes, beyond the sight of what consisted of Equestria at the time,” Luna explained. “Using her expertise in magic, she created a race of constructs that would eventually be come to known as crystal ponies to serve as her labor force and eventually, rule over.”

Twilight frowned at the oddity of the explanation. “So…she what? Made a bunch of magical dolls to play with?”

“Our sister was mad, but quite knowledgeable in the ways of magic Twilight,” Luna told her. “If you were to ever meet a crystal pony, I guarantee you would not believe it to be some kind of tinker toy. After her creations and several other magics Andromeda thought up failed to meet their designed purpose, she turned to inventing Necromancy.”

Not wanting to get off track, Twilight had to force herself not to ask the half a dozen questions Luna’s explanation brought into the unicorn’s mind and bit her tongue as a reminder to stay on task. “So what happened to it? The kingdom, I mean.”

The question turned Luna’s mood somber. “After we dealt with Andromeda, Tia and I couldn’t simply leave the place unattended to,” she began. “The Empire’s capital city was actually a giant magic amplification matrix Andromeda designed to try and face an unleashed alicorn on equal terms. So we left it in the hands of our most trusted noble house to act as our stewards. However, the last unicorn to hold the empire became hungry for more than what was his and delved into my eldest sister's dark arts in an attempt to seize power over all Equestria. He managed to link himself to the array and gain control of its magic. So my sister and I banished him into the dark abyss. What we hadn’t counted on was the fact that his link to Tambelon dragged it with him.

“The crystal ponies were the single good thing our sister managed to create with her magic Twilight Sparkle, the only bit of her legacy that wasn’t tainted by darkness, and in our foolishness, we destroyed it.”

With the story finished, Twilight found a particularly interesting piece of floor to stare at. "Sorry to bring something so painful up."

“Old news,” Luna replied, just tossing her depressed mood out the window. “Pray tell, what else have you and my dear niece been up to since the two of you returned to Ponyville?”

“Well,” Twilight began before taking a moment to gather her thoughts. Since she had no idea just how much Luna read of the letters to Celestia, the purple unicorn thought it best to try and play it safe by just going over everything. “Well, I suppose you know about the so-called dragon attack on Ponyville…I honestly don’t know what we would have done if Rainbow hadn’t been there to pin Spike down with those cloud chains long enough for Princess Celestia to come and…how does that work anyway? I didn’t know clouds could be made solid enough to do something like that. Rainbow couldn’t even explain how it worked.”

Luna giggled at the question. “Ah unicorns, always doing the impossible, but when another tribe comes along and gives magic as an explanation, they cry foul,” she commented before looking over to Twilight. “It’s a pegasus thing. You’d have to have wings to understand.”

For a moment, Twilight thought to follow that little statement with another regarding something that had been bugging her since her meeting with Celestia in the spa’s massage room. The princess had hinted that it might be possible for Twilight to gain her own status as an alicorn. However, she had not mentioned it since.

Although the trait of modesty had been handed to her by Celestia in every lesson since becoming her student, the debacle that sprang from Twilight attempting to foster such beliefs on Rainbow had the unicorn doubting whether or not such ideals were so absolute as she had believed them to be. But at the same time, addressing her teacher for guidance about such an issue seemed a great deal…out of line.

“Please tell me that was not the last eventful thing that transpired in you little hamlet Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, bringing Twilight’s thoughts to an end.

The unicorn smiled, and shook her head. “No,” she replied before continuing on. “Well, of course we came here for the Hearts Warming Eve play and had dinner at the castle. Then…um…a few weeks after spring started, Applejack took part in the Grand Equestrian Rodeo. It’s funny, you know…everypony always concentrated on how Rainbow Dash always seemed to place too much of an importance on competing and her boasting, but nopony had guessed the reason Applejack didn’t come home was because she didn’t get a single blue ribbon and was too ashamed for not being able to fulfill her promise to donate money for our new town hall.”

After taking a breath, Twilight paused in thought again and tapped a hoof to her chin. “Let’s see…then there were those thieves.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed at the description. “Thieves?”

“Oh, a pair of ponies named Flim and Flam showed up with a machine that was powered by magic that made cider at the start of Cider Season in Ponyville. But they stole some of Applejack’s apples to do it, and Rainbow arrested them for it,” Twilight explained halfheartedly. “Umm…let’s see…then there was…oh, Fluttershy took some assertiveness training recently…it didn’t work out too well.”

Once again, Luna’s reaction to the news wasn’t what Twilight had been expecting. She simply chuckled. “Well, that is pleasant to hear. The pony who taught me how to speak in the modern vernacular becoming aggressive…it is not a pleasant thought.”

This time, it was Twilight who frowned at the comment. Wait a minute, I never said Fluttershy became…does she already know everything that’s happened in Ponyville? For a moment, she even wondered if this was all some sort of test, but that was more Celestia’s style than Luna’s. Something Twilight had learned of their differing personalities since her instruction of Rainbow Dash began.

However, Twilight left the question unasked, and just continued on. It wasn’t her place to ask questions of a princess after all. “Then there was my little…time travel incident, and well…we got Princess Celestia’s request for an update on Rainbow’s education when Spike was participating in the dragon migration and…I already told you why we’re late.”

“I…see,” Luna said before her own expression shifted to one of thought. “Something else…ah yes! What did you two do for…what was the name of that holiday again? The one that celebrates love.”

“Hearts and Hooves Day?”

“Yes!” the princess exclaimed before looking back at Twilight with a grin on her face. “That is it. Tell me, did you have any…romantic rendezvous with a special somepony?”

Twilight’s face shifted into an expression of confusion to match the discombobulated thoughts running through her mind at Luna’s question. Why would anypony be interested in her? She was just an advanced magical student living in a library with a below average physique and social skills that were just now beginning to bud. “No…why would I?”

In an instant, Luna’s expression turned from an excited smirk with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes to flabbergasted disappointment. “You can’t be serious,” she deadpanned, putting on an emotionless mask that Twilight has seen all of the alicorn’s use at one point or another.

The question made Twilight feel a bit like somepony had poked her heart with a tiny needle for a moment. In all honesty, it would have been nice if somepony had taken a bit of an interest in her, but her logical mind quickly quashed that line of thought. With her friends, teaching, and the studies of ancient magic the princess had been sending her lately, Twilight just didn’t have time for another relationship on top of everything that was already going on in her life.

Still, a tiny little bit of her mind mumbled, still it would have been nice to be offered something like that…even if I had to turn them down.

“Well…just where is my niece anyway?” the Goddess of the Moon asked.

Out of all the stupid, snooty, stuck-up nobles in Canterlot, Rainbow Dash was in the house of the one she hated the least. Fancy Pants was throwing a party to celebrate the midpoint of Spring, and Rainbow Dash had to come because Rarity had wanted to come, and Rainbow had promised Rarity to accompany her to all the big social events for a year in payment for skipping out on her own coronation. After all, if Rarity could drag the newest princess to parties, then she would be invited to all of them.

The real reason for Rainbow’s actions was because she could still remember the look on the poor mare’s face the first day Rainbow had become an alicorn and scared her friends half to death. It was something that she still found herself thinking about nearly every day to help her stay in control of herself. Even though her bonding with the sky had created a place for her power to be channeled to so that no more mana storms would be made from a foolish temper tantrum, her emotions still had a very real effect on the weather around her.

As usual, the white fashionista was mingling with the crowd. She was talking to some gray earth pony with shades that Rainbow thought looked familiar. Soon, Rarity would give a signal to Rainbow for the princess to come over and join in on the conversation for a few minutes, then be on her way before she could put her hoof in her mouth. It was their best method to make Rarity be seen as the important mare Dash knew her to be without the princess messing it up.

It all would have been at least a little bearable if not for the sparkling black dress that Rarity had designed for her. The tiny…thing did little more than cover her marehood, and sparkled from all the sequins that turned Rainbow’s dress into a cloth version of Luna’s mane. It was the reason Rainbow had left it in Canterlot as her super emergency backup party dress instead of wearing it after the mare had made the thing.

“Ah finally, somepony who knows how to hold a good conversation while trying not to look down their muzzles at everything they’re talking about.”

The alicorn looked away from her friend, and over to the unusually tall unicorn that was standing beside her. Fleur was the mare of the house and another one of the Canterlot elite that Rainbow Dash didn’t feel like bucking on general principal.

Rainbow looked over to the unicorn that could actually manage to look her in the eyes without craning her neck up thanks to some eastern country blood. “Lady Fleur…or is it High Lady? I keep forgetting the way nobility is supposed to be these days.” In truth, it didn’t interest her much; although Rainbow did know that Fleur’s husband was just a step below enlightened royalty like Cadence.

Fleur looked over to the princess, genuine curiosity showing in her eyes instead of just the false interest that Rainbow had come to expect from the unicorns around the city. “Just Lady. How did that used to work, exactly?” she asked.

“Be burned if I know,” Rainbow confessed. “I just remembered the more words a pony had in front of their names back in the old days, the more important they were. You should have heard what they used to call Mom.”

The lady giggled the alicorn with a tiny laugh before moving in a little too close to comfort for Rainbow to whisper in the ear of the goddess. “By the way, have you heard the latest gossip? Apparently, Blueblood has decided to try his hand in the office of foreign affairs.”

The news made Rainbow let out a groan. Although she had done her best to forget about the pompous peacock, Blueblood usually was a topic of conversation at least once a week when she came to eat dinner with Celestia and Luna. Apparently, the fool was running himself ragged trying to regain his royal title, doing everything he could try. For the first two months, the idiot threw himself into magical study, getting so far into the subject even Celestia was impressed with his enthusiasm. Only, he failed to produce any meaningful results with all his training, showing everypony the mark on his flank was most certainly not given out for magic.

Blueblood’s involvement with the foreign affairs office was a little unsettling though. There, he could actually cause from real problems that didn’t involve blowing himself up. “So which group can I be expecting a war from? The Dragon Tribes, or the Griffin Empire?”

Fleur laughed. “The birds. He did want to try the dragons first though…but apparently, got halfway to where they were supposed to migrate to in the badlands before coming to his senses one day and running home. Personally, I think it’s the smartest thing he’s done. The lizards would have probably eaten him.”

And I could have been there to watch…buck. “If only,” Rainbow mumbled before realizing her little slip.

Although she had gotten better at it the past few weeks, her memories still brought some problems. While her Aeromancy and hoofwriting had improved drastically, once she had learned to stop writing in two dead languages whenever her mind wandered too much that is, her sense of humor and a few mannerisms had been affected by a dead pony from a time when Equestria hadn’t been such a nice place to live. A few comments that were simply made as a joke involving violence against other ponies had caused some stir early on in Dash's princess days, giving her a bit of a bad reputation.

However, a second later, Rainbow realized that the line of fatalist humor had been participated in by the unicorn next to her without any nervousness or a startled gasp. She narrowed her eyes at the other pony, who smirked in response. The expression also held a bit of danger in her eyes.

“Saddle Arabian, huh?” Rainbow mumbled. “With the name, I would have guessed you were from Prance.”

“My mother had several flings with a dozen or so unicorn tourists,” Fleur answered cryptically. “Premarital sex between a stallion and a mare isn’t so frowned upon back home as it is here.”

Rainbow looked back over to Rarity for a moment to see she hadn’t called the princess over yet, then turned to regard the tall unicorn again. “So how did you and Fancy Pants meet? I don’t think I’ve heard that story.”

The question brought a dreamy look on Fleur’s face, as she was obviously remembering happy times. “Oh, nothing you wouldn’t find in your average storybook romance I suppose,” she said with a blissful sigh. “It was back when he still worked for the foreign affairs office as an ambassador. I was assigned to be his liaison, create a physiological profile, see if we could find a way to exploit him…the usual way things work over there.

“Of course that actually involved getting to know him, acting like his friend and then going on…dates,” she continued before reaching up to tap her horn. “This thing may have made me useful, but I was hardly popular among my peers. There was also the question of if being a unicorn made me more loyal to my father’s homeland than my mother’s.”

Rainbow was able to quickly fill in the rest. “And because of that, you weren’t all that attached to the place, so you decided to run away with him to Equestria after getting to know him for a bit. Changed your name too, I’m guessing.” A moment of silence passed between the two before Rainbow thought of something else to ask. “So, they do that herding thing over there?”

“Oh yes…to both. I even stayed in Prance for a year to help with the whole cover. Even earned a cuite mark while I was there,” she said before turning to show I off. “I was over thirty, but…better late than never I suppose.”

That bit of news got a laugh from Rainbow Dash. “I should bring you by Ponyville sometime, there’s this filly whose been running around with her friends trying to earn one by doing everything they can as fast as they can, but haven’t stumbled on their thing yet. Although, I don’t know if it’ll give her hope, or freak her out it took a pony thirty years to get one.”

“About that Highness,” Fleur said a bit more reserved than she was a moment ago. “With all the social events your friend is dragging you to, Princess Celestia believes you might do with a bit of…refinement training.”

Oh hay no, Rainbow bemoaned. “Look, you’re part of that whole inner circle thing, right? You know I’ve already had all that junk.”

Fleur nodded. “Which is why it is so out of date. I swear, it’s like Luna’s return all over again. So the princess believes that a refresh course is in order. I’ll be…taking a vacation in Ponyville next week. I hope we can spend some time together.”

Translation, Rainbow thought to herself. Come with me to get worked like a diamond dog or I’ll tell Mother on you.

“…swell,” she mumbled while wondering just what the hay was Celestia thinking.

Celestia sat in her almost empty throne room as she looked down at the diagram placed on the table before her, doing her best not to let the nervousness show. From what she could see, her agents had made a complete mess of the situation and with the deadline for decisions quickly approaching, all of her efforts and months of planning were about to come toppling down. If that were allowed to happen, the effects would be felt throughout all Equestria for a generation to come!

In a moment of weakness, Celestia thought of handing her royal duties over to another in order to focus all her attentions on the task at hand, but a few moments of consideration made the goddess throw that idea out as well. Luna’s style of rule was still a bit too archaic for modern times, Aurora wanted nothing to do with the crown, and Cadence couldn’t have such a duty placed upon her at this time.

So, once again, Celestia found herself needing to bear all the burdens alone.

“Okay let’s see…if I repositioned the guards here…no,” she mumbled to herself. “Should I hold the Wonderbolts back until afterwards? But if I do that…hmm, perhaps I should call in Rainbow Dash to fulfill that task.”

The sound of a throat clearing made the goddess look up from the numerous papers before her and turn her attention to her adviser Kibitz. “I know I scheduled more time for this session today,” Celestia told the pony with the pocket watch chain hanging from his fine suit.

“Princess, not to doubt your methods or anything, but…they do have professionals for these things,” he told her. “Perhaps you should be hiring one of them.”

Celestia fixed the stallion with a glare. “I have already had to run off three party ponies, two catering services, five different bands along with ten decorators! It has become quite obvious that if I hope to get anything done properly for my dear niece’s wedding, then I will have to be planning it all myself!”

The declaration had Kibitz giving her a flat look. “Highness, might I remind you the last…social event you planned?”

“As I remember, Princess Cadence’s last birthday party went quite well,” Celestia said, a little confused.

“That isn’t the event I speak of Highness…although, if memory serves…wasn’t the cake and oeuvres an emergency rush job because you forgot the princess was allergic to seaweed?”

With her minor slip-up of a tiny problem pointed out, Celestia shrugged. Even divinity wasn’t perfect. But if Kibitz wasn’t talking about that little incident, then… “Ah yes, the celebration to announce her engagement!”

Once again, her adviser shook his head. “No Highness…although, I don’t think Shinning Armor has quite forgotten about the fact that none of the guests on his half of the list appeared and…did he not have to endure his little sister’s wrath shortly after your adopted daughter’s ascension for not even hearing about their engagement until then?”

Celestia cleared her throat and looked away. “Yes, well…the mail is not the most reliable means of communication,” she mumbled.

“I thought that Twilight Sparkle possesses a dragon bound to your magic that allows you to communicate with her in moments,” her adviser said. “But, that was not the event to which I was referring.”

The point had the goddesses’ ire growing quickly, and she glared at her timekeeper of an adviser with a dissatisfied frown. “And just what event were you referring to? Pray tell?”

Kibitz apparently picked up on Celestia’s mood, and coughed while looking away. “A-Actually, Highness, I was speaking of the…party, you quickly threw together to announce your adopted daughter’s presence as an alicorn to the Canterlot nobility. I do…um…believe that almost ended with Princess Rainbow going mad and drowning all life in Equestria.”

The room was silent for a good ten seconds as Celestia reigned in her anger to keep from striking the stallion in front of her dead. The accusation of insanity and using one’s alicorn nature to end life by abusing the mantel of their domain was something that struck a little too close to home for even Celestia’s self control to handle.

As the temperature in the room began to rise, Kibitz didn’t even seem to notice how close to being fired in more ways than one he was…

…when the door suddenly burst open and Luna came storming in. “Sister! There is a matter of grave importance that we would speak of you with, post haste!”

With the arrival of Luna, and her slip back into the ancient vernacular of Equish, Celestia managed to push her blazing anger aside for the moment. “What is the trouble Luna?”

“Our dearest niece is…” she paused for a moment, then looked down at the papers scattered on the table in front of Celestia. After studying them for a second, Luna let out a scream of absolute terror and flew a quarter of the way to the ceiling in fright. “Thou dost plan another wedding sister? Hads’t thou completely taken leave of thy senses?”

Celestia frowned at Luna’s antics. “Luna, there is nothing wrong with my abilities to plan social events,” she told her. “Just because there have been some minor…hiccups in the past does not mean I am cursed or something!” The appearance of Rainbow Dash as her reborn daughter than their time together since her emergence had cured Celestia of that foolish notion.

“Well…I suppose as long as another group of shadow magic ponies posing as stage actors for the after party’s festivities do not manage to infiltrate the palace to attempt an abduction of Cadence like with what happened at Aurora’s nuptial, things should be alright,” Luna relented.

In response, Celestia groaned. “Yes Luna. I sincerely doubt we shall again be attacked by ninjas. Now, what was this dire news that you’ve come to inform me of?”

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A Day in the Life

The personal office of the head weather pony in Ponyville wasn’t much to look at. In truth, it was little more than a hole in the wall with a desk that took up more than half the room, and other necessities that filled another quarter of it. If the door to the office opened inward, nopony would have ever been able to get in. In the small amount of room that was left open, Rainbow Dash sat behind her desk while she reviewed the application in her hooves before looking up at the pegasus standing there at attention, waiting for her decision.

“Well…everything seems to be in order,” she told him before glancing back down at the paper. “Says here you worked Manehattan weather for two years, and Dodge Junction for another on top of that. You’re familiar with country weather I take it?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“And you seem to be in good shape, work out a lot do you?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Have you had any experience with chaotic weather systems like the Everfree before?”

“No ma’am!”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Well that’s to be expected,” she said. After all, there were no other chaotic storm systems like what was in the Everfree. Even after her ascension, the place still didn’t make much sense to Rainbow and even made efforts to resist her control the deeper into it she went. “Now, for my final question…are you really a soldier of the royal guard, sent here by Princess Celestia to try and keep tabs on me despite the fact that I can take care of myself just fine, and she’s wasting a slot on a weather team that has to deal with some of the most unpredictable and dangerous weather in all of Equestria just so she can try and keep tabs on me at the expense of a real weather pony?”

Her eyes narrowed as she drew herself to her full height and flared her wings, letting them crackle with electricity. The room darkened as the clouds it was made from changed color, and the temperature dropped several degrees. “And you need to think very long and hard before you answer that one, soldier.”

Under the alicorn’s gaze, the stallion wilted, and quickly took what was obviously a falsified resume before quickly dashing out the door, past the other five pegasi waiting to fill the new positions on the Ponyville Weather Team. Rainbow Dash glared at them all for a moment, not recognizing a single one of them. Most likely, it was thanks to the influx of ponies that were wanting to move to Ponyville now that it was a princess town, but that didn't mean a few of them weren't in town under orders from the crown.

Just thinking of how many ponies were trying to get into Ponyville simply because she lived in the town was kind of...scary. Thankfully, Rainbow had managed to talk her mother into making the town a special case in the name of commerce and a bunch of other junk she had managed to talk Twilight into looking up for her. While a few new businesses coming into the little village would help everypony, Rainbow Dash didn’t want her little paradise destroyed by an influx of too many ponies for the local businesses to sustain, or too much competition that would destroy the local economy.

Then there was the weather team. As much as Rainbow Dash hated to admit it to herself, the Ponyville Weather Team needed some help. Mostly due to her lack of busting clouds for the past few weeks. She had already handed over the field work kind of stuff to Cloud Kicker via a promotion, and now served mostly as an auxiliary role. Rainbow spent her mornings filling out forms and showing up on random ponies weather duties later in the day to lend a helping hoof. But she still needed to get some more ponies to replace the loss of labor that Rainbow Dash put in. Then there was the extra hires she needed for the night shift…she didn’t really like to think of the reasons for them though.

On the upside, at least she understood why Twilight ‘ran’ the Ponyville Library that hardly anypony used. She needed the free time to study magic. While Aurora had grown up with the stuff, meaning Dash knew what magic could do, possibly even better than Twilight herself, knowing how to actually do it was another thing altogether. Using her best friend as the model, the alicorn was hoping to just get by with a little paperwork each morning, followed by just giving the normal weather ponies a little help every now and then.

But, that meant hiring her replacements…

Maybe I should just make Ditzy a full-time weather mare, Rainbow thought to herself. Although, that would still leave an opening in the patrol that needed to be filled. And Ditzy working weather all the time these days...that may be a little too dangerous for a mom.

“Okay…um,” the alicorn paused as she looked around the weather department’s main room at the other five pegasi who were waiting for their turn to be interviewed. They were a mixed bag. There was a pretty stallion, a sky blue pegasus, a fit pegasus with light green skin and a yellow tail, a mare with a dark coat, and a large white stallion. “Let’s clear this now, if any other ponies here are members of the royal guard, or have any connections to the military whatsoever, leave now or I’ll turn you into blocks of ice and let you drop through the clouds that way.”

The mint green pegasus raised a hoof. “Does that include Wonderbolt reserves, your Highness?”

Rainbow Dash sighed at the mare’s question. “Yes,” she said before looking through the list of ponies who applied to get the mare’s name, “Lighting Dust.”

A second later, three of the ponies hung their heads, and headed towards the door, leaving Rainbow alone with the dark pegasus and the pretty boy stallion. After they had departed, the pretty-boy stallion looked around at the empty room and grinned. “Does this mean we get the job?”

“Do you wish an occupation simply handed to you, foal?” the dark female pegasus asked him with a frown. “Where is your pride as a pegasus?”

Resisting the urge to simply kick the pretty stallion out and hire the dark pegasus on the spot for her remark, Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath and released it slowly to help clam her nerves. Unfortunately, she couldn’t follow all of Twilight’s advice to picture her restlessness leaving like a dark storm cloud as she exhaled. The first time she tried that, it really did create a dark storm cloud that got off a few lightning bolts before needing to be dispelled.

“Come with me Ms…Starry Night?” Rainbow Dash read before looking back up to the dark pegasus with the dark blue, almost black coat and light blue hair.

A second later, the mare complied. As they got inside the office, Rainbow Dash managed to get a good up-close look at the pegasus. Despite her full-grown size, she still had a bit of…youthfulness about her that tugged on…something in the back of Rainbow’s mind.

She just shrugged it off. After remembering her past life, Rainbow couldn’t help but feel that way when it came to some ponies. It would appear at the oddest times, a half-remembered face, a new song that sounded like something five thousand years gone, different types of food that nopony knew how to make anymore, anchient curse words that nopony even understood. The whole bloody thing was burning annoying.

“So let’s see,” she muttered before looking down on the paper, “Eighteen huh? Just moved to Ponyville? And on your birthday?”

Starry Skies nodded. “That’s right um…is it Highness, or Princess Rainbow, or-”

“Just Rainbow,” Dash emphasized, “Ms Dash when we’re on duty…if I decide to hire you that is. And your special talent?”

The dark pegasus smiled. “I’m into astronomy Ma’am,” she replied enthusiastically. “And…I know it doesn’t say anything about my job history…mostly because I don’t have one. But! I have moved and kicked clouds plenty of times before! My family lived out near the Smokey Mountain, next to Tall Tale, and that place always makes it so hazy I needed to clear the skies every night just to see the stars around our farm. I know it’s not Everfree weather Miss Dash, but-”

A raised hoof and a little chuckle settled the obviously nervous pegasus down quite a bit. “Okay that’s enough,” Dash told her. “Moving out as young as you did…takes guts." It also hinted at things best left unspoken in a job interview, but Rainbow put those concerns on the back burner for the moment. "I like that, you’ll need it for Everfree weather and…I take it you’ve worked weather at night before?”

“Oh yes! But…if you don’t mind…I would prefer afternoon work,” she explained. “I don’t really mean to be so demanding, but…I’m only here to help pay for my tuition to Canterlot University. I’m actually taking a personal study course in-”

Once again, Rainbow Dash cut her off with a raised hoof. “Hey no worries my…a friend of mine is in the same boat,” she told the filly. “Afternoons are fine. If you can past a test later today, we’ll get it all settled in the next few days. Send the next guy in on your way out, would you?”

As the dark pegasus made her exit, Rainbow thought she saw an odd glint out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked over to face Starry Night, the pegasus was already gone. Need to tell her not to wear jewelry while flying, the alicorn told herself. Although, Rainbow couldn’t seem to remember just what kind of earrings the pegasus had on.

A few seconds later, the other pegasus walked in and sat down while Rainbow Dash pulled out his resume and looked it over. “So…Flash Sentry? Oh come on! With a name like that, do you honestly think I’m not going to guess royal guard?”

The tanish-orange pegasus put on one of those playcolt grins that stallions such as him seemed to be born knowing how to do, and leaned forward over Rainbow’s desk. “Actually Ms Dash, I finished my tour of duty a few weeks ago and didn’t sign on for another,” he told her while pointing it out on the paper the alicorn held. “And I have had military training when it comes to working weather, things like precision lightning strikes and using fog as cover. But I’m sure I can push around a few clouds if it comes down to it.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Rainbow admitted after thinking things over for a moment. In truth, Ponyville’s weather management department was a bit of a redundant thing with her around. A simple act of will could change the skies from cloudy to clear and vice versa in seconds, no weather factory required. It was when her thoughts drifted, or when Rainbow Dash dreamed that things became…difficult. She supposed somepony with military experience would be an asset.

Unless of course he was really there as a plant by Celestia, while the twelve other guardsponies who applied for the position where just there to draw fire to allow the last one on the list to slip in undetected thanks to the fact he was no longer officially in the Guard with his tour of duty being over. But…Rainbow didn’t think Celestia would have been that sneaky about something.

After turning her attention back to the stallion, Rainbow looked over to the duty schedule hanging on the wall, and then back to Flash. “You’ll be taking the evening shift. Assuming you pass your entrance test later today,” she added as an afterthought. Although as far as she could tell, that was a forgone conclusion. Any pegasus could work the weather after all. “I’ll help you get started, but it’s really nothing more than just standing around and seeing if some rouge weather from the Everfree comes in, or if any bad weather just appears. If that happens, just come and wake me up.”

“Bad weather just…appearing?” the pegasus asked.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Luna makes sure I don’t have anything in the way of nightmares anymore,” Dash told her before putting everything away in her desk and scooting the other pegasus out of her office so she could lock up; remembering to grab the letters waiting in her inbox; one of which she noticed bore the official weather office seal from Cloudsdale. “Just make sure you report for duty on time, and it’ll all go fine. I’ll introduce you to everypony and we’ll go from there. The night crew is a little laid back, but, they’re good ponies.

“Now, I gotta get going or I’ll get chewed out,” she finished before heading to the exit as fast as she could. The last time that Rainbow Dash had been tardy for Twilight’s magic lessons, the little purple unicorn had made the alicorn understand it was never going to happen again. Having to live through the consequences just once was bad enough.

Twilight completed the circuit of the library that was her home as she finished making sure all the preparations for Rainbow’s magical lesson were completed. The bookshelves had been covered in glass with an enchantment to make them magic reflective, the warning signs had been posted outside, Spike was off at Rarity’s for his daily session of helping the unicorn with whatever it was that she would be needing for the day, and Twilight’s special teaching aid was resting behind her unicorn bust until she was ready to deploy it. With the final check to her checklist complete, Twilight activated the magical wards that would insure anything less than a magical explosion strong enough to annihilate Canterlot would be contained within her tree.

As was usual whenever she thought about such things, Twilight found herself thinking back to the first library that had gone up in flames and comparing it to her current one. Aside from the extra floor that held enough room for a living space that didn’t double as a storage closet like her old room, it wasn’t all that different. Being in the trunk of a tree, the overall area was still round, with an upper floor that let to a balcony and a spiral staircase that took up half the room. Twilight had even managed to find another unicorn bust to replace the one that usually sat in the middle of her large table. Replacing the telescope had been a bit of a chore, as she and Spike had to find the material for the lenses themselves to insure for the best quality of work before commissioning the best telescope maker in Canterlot for the job. Getting everything not book related had created quite a bill, but Rainbow Dash had 'princess ordered' Twilight to put everything to the princess’s royal account since she had been the one to blow up the old library.

Of course Twilight had explained time and time again how it wasn’t Rainbow’s fault, but Twilight’s own for pulling at an alicorn’s horn, but Rainbow that just made Rainbow start pulling rank to end their argument. Then she literally flew the unicorn all over Equestria looking for the best bed, stove, and lab equipment to replace what had been destroyed. It had been an…interesting weekend, being held in Dash’s forelegs as she darted from city to city at speeds approaching that of sound. Twilight had tried to talk her into just letting the unicorn order something from a catalog like a normal pony, but it seemed Rarity was rubbing off on the alicorn, what with her ‘need to examine everything personally’ explanation.

And, it had been kind of fun, Twilight told herself. Being in the sky with Dash's legs wrapped around her, seeing the world from the princess's perspective was something she had never done before. While balloons gave a bird's eye view, they did not allow for the feel of the wind, the scenery rushing below her, the rejuvenating feeling of being driven through a raincloud for a quick cleansing. It was a learning experience Twilight would cherish for the rest of her life.

The door banged open, drawing Twilight out of her memories as her student rushed in with a cry of, “TEN SECONDS! I’M STILL ON TIME! I STILL HAVE TEN SECONDS!”

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at the panicked look on the goddess’s face as her rainbow mane danced around like it was on fire. She still didn’t understand how Celestia and Luna had theirs look so pristine, but Rainbow’s was just as messy as ever, only… slightly more mobile as it flanked her neck and came down around her shoulders while it shimmered with the magic of a divine being. “That you are Rainbow,” Twilight admitted while she glanced up at the clock just in time to see it tick to 10AM. “So, let’s get started, shall we?”

As the alicorn’s face turned from one of panic to calm, Twilight practically felt the weight of her responsibility settling on her shoulders. The newest princess, Rainbow Dash, was coming to Twilight to learn magic. While it had originally been a punishment placed upon her by Celestia, Twilight had come to see it for what the sun goddess probably meant for it to be: a great responsibility and tremendous honor. Twilight knew there were probably a dozen unicorns who were better suited at the task than her, but she was the one Celestia had put her trust in to give her reborn daughter the proper magical education an alicorn required.

It was a task she would not fail…difficult as it may be.

With that, Twilight cast a conjuration spell, and bright signs saying ‘NO HOOVES ALLOWED’ appeared in various corners of her library to remind her student of their number one rule while Training Time was in effect. She just hoped Time Turner didn’t wander into the library again. That incident with the discrimination lawsuit wasn’t something Twilight cared to remember anytime soon.

Then she cast her second spell to help with the complete immersion method that Twilight had decided to pursue with Rainbow’s training. It was a simple spell, meant to keep foals from touching things with their hooves in museums whenever there was a large display ponies had to walk around to enjoy. Whenever a pony got within a few inches of an object under the enchantment, a tiny shock of static electricity would zap them away. It was completely harmless, and helped teach younger children not to mess with things that weren’t theirs.

After the spells had been cast, it took a moment for Rainbow Dash to look around the room and notice something that was off from her usual training sessions. “Where’s the weights?”

“I think we’ll try something a bit different today,” Twilight told her while trying not to look too excited about what might be a breakthrough, as long as her theory about Rainbow’s magical control problem panned out. She would need to keep the plan close to her chest of course. If there was one thing that Rainbow hated worse than failure, it was letting her friends expectations down. “But first, do you remember our last big success?”

The princess frowned at the smaller pony, clearly upset. “You mean when you put most of me in a force field bubble and jumped off my house? Yeah, I had nightmares for three days after that!”

Twilight cleared her throat and looked away from her most loyal student as she remembered the unscheduled weather that had shown up during those nights. The weather team had put in a great deal of overtime and was still expanding in case of emergency situations. “Yes…but! You did manage to keep me from crashing into the ground with your horn!” she replied as happily as she could. They had laughed about it at the time, but…Twilight supposed that it might have looked a little risky from Rainbow’s perspective.

“Only because you kept teleporting away when I tried to catch you!” the former pegasus exclaimed. “Not to mention what I had to do to break that stupid shield! My wings were blackened for a week from that discharge.”

Yes, I forgot that she could generate lightning direct from her body, the unicorn told herself. It had also scared the hay out of Twilight. A burst of that much lightning from her wings…if Rainbow Dash had still been a pegasus, Twilight doubted her friend would still have her wings, or even a working spine. The flash of light and the accompanying boom had been one of the scariest moments of her life, and she had almost forgot to teleport away when Rainbow attempted to grab her like a pegasus instead of saving her like a unicorn would.

“But you didn’t tear me apart, just like I knew you wouldn’t,” the purple mare continued, beating back the horror of that memory with the joy she felt at finally making a breakthrough with Rainbow’s magic training.

Rainbow gave Twilight a glower that made the unicorn wonder if her alicorn friend also understood the secrets behind Fluttershy’s stare. “You mean like I’ve done with everything else? Fine, I can move stuff with my stupid horn! But if its not a big hunk of metal, or pony, I just rip it to pieces!”

It was a deceleration Twilight had heard several times before. After Rainbow Dash had finally tapped into the magic of her horn. It wasn’t that far off from the truth either. The alicorn’s telekinesis was volatile. Small objects got so much force put behind them that Twilight had seen some of the things Rainbow practice with get thrown into distant mountains. She could move the larger things, if in an extremely jerky fashion that screamed a lack of control. Hollow objects without enough reinforcement were usually crushed by the pressure Rainbow’s magical aura exerted on them. So Twilight had been trying to teach her with a number of large spherical weights that were completely metal.

The alicorn let out a dejected sigh and lowered her head. “It’s been half a year and I still can’t even do stuff a foal can do with her horn,” Rainbow mumbled. “That stuff that happened in the Everfree may have let me access my unicorn magic, but let’s face it Twi…I totally buck at this stuff. Alicorns are suppose to all have super magic talents, but I’m…pony feathers, I’m…a total loser.”

Anger bloomed inside the unicorn as she watched her princess berate herself and lower her head to the ground with a sigh for what Rainbow Dash saw as failings. Twilight could understand it…somewhat. Rainbow was a genius at flying and Aeromancy. During their time together, Twilight had even learned the alicorn had a kind of hyper awareness that allowed her to take in everything around her and instantly process the information; it was a talent she had gained from her past life out of necessity while leading troops from the front lines. To a pony like her, not mastering, or at least understanding something right off the bat was a failure.

“That’s not true, and you know it!” Twilight insisted. She stormed over to the alicorn and did her best to make herself seem as physically threatening as she could to the mare who topped Twilight by a head and had enough magical power to level Ponyville with a sneeze. Then she poked Rainbow in her chest with her hoof. “Of course you’re going to have control problems! Foals need to use nearly all their magic just to turn a page or open a box! They learn control as they grow. You have enough unicorn magic to crush a mountain! The fact you can move anything at all without turning it into a deadly projectile or blowing it up is a huge improvement!”

As Rainbow looked away from her teacher, Twilight picked up her student’s barely audible mumbles. “Says the magic genius with perfect control.”

“Are you kidding me?” Twilight nearly shouted. “What you’re seeing as perfect control is the result of years worth of study under Princess Celestia! When I was six months into using my magic, I turned my parents into potted plants and Spike into a giant baby dragon!

"Rainbow, you’re miles ahead of where I was back then if you count by experience!” She decided to leave out the part that it was because she had a guide while Twilight had been self taught. As irate as Twilight was at the moment, she was still able to keep her focus. Dash needed a little ego boost with her perspective, and the unicorn intended to give her one.

For a moment, that seemed to satisfy Rainbow, until she mumbled ‘potted plants’ to herself, then looked back to Twilight with a frown. “Wait a minute…that’s your cutie mark story!” she exclaimed as she pointed an accusing hoof at Twilight. “Of course your magic went out of control! You got caught up in the positive energy burst of my Sonic Rainboom and got your magic amped up way too high for it to be controlled. So that doesn’t count! The magical influx of a Rainboom…”

Twilight gulped as Dash continued her explanation about the effects of the event which gave her a cutie mark. After just a few seconds, Twilight’s anger was completely forgotten.

As much as she hated to even think it, when Rainbow got all…egghead, the unicorn felt a heat rise beneath her tail that was very akin to what she experienced for one week a month. It didn’t help at all that the alicorn wasn’t anything bad to look at either. In fact, Rainbow more akin to physical perfection than any other pony Twilight had seen before she ascended. Now, the extra height, muscle, and mass that filled Rainbow out simply completed the completed the picture of a perfect mare topped by her pointy horn.

STOP THINKING LIKE THAT TWILIGHT, the unicorn told herself before she could begin to remember the feeling of Rainbow wrapping her hooves around the smaller mare and the warm security she had felt while they had flown across Equestria to get her home restocked. Acknowledging Rainbow’s attractiveness from an analytical standpoint was one thing, but getting heated about it was just wrong. Rainbow had been her friend, and now she was her student, and her PRINCESS! All of which implied a level of trust, responsibility, and authority that made such thoughts towards the alicorn completely forbidden!

Not to mention it's all physical anyway, she thought. Years of foal sitting by Cadence had taught her that while looks were a good thing in a stallion or mare, basing a relationship off them was the deepest betrayal of love one could do. And looks were the only thing Rainbow Dash had.

Only looks.

That was all.

Her ego and…other stuff Twilight was sure she could think of at a more appropriate moment completely ruined any chance of Rainbow being a viable romantic partner.

Not that Rainbow Dash was even an option for anypony’s fantasies. She wasn’t Cadence, an enlightened alicorn who was chosen by Celestia. She was a goddess, Celestia’s daughter. It would have been the same as a pony who thought about Celestia Herself in such a fashion!

“…uh, Twilight?”

A poke on the end of her horn brought Twilight out of her ruminations, and back to reality with a startled cry. “WHAT?” the unicorn shouted as she hopped back in fright for a second. After realizing what she’d done, Twilight blushed. “Sorry I was just…sorry.”

With Rainbow’s face showing nothing but confusion, Twilight figured that was the end of their little debate and decided to switch the subject. “Look, let’s take a little break from practice today…okay?” she asked hopefully. Rainbow had always been an athlete first and foremost, and since gaining her horn and extra memories, she had only become even stricter when it came to practicing thanks to the fact proper preparation meant the difference between life and death back in Aurora’s day.

It was actually a very noble quality, how Rainbow Dash could stick to a schedule.

“Uh…why?” she asked hesitantly, turning her head to look at Twilight out of the corner of her eye, as if expecting some kind of trick.

The fact that Twilight was planning to do just that made the unicorn turn her head away and cough. “Well, you tend to work better when you’re calm Rainbow, and…we’re not exactly mellowing out right now,” she explained as truthfully as she could. “Plus…there’s this.”

Twilight wrapped the face-down book she had hidden from Rainbow behind the unicorn bust in her magic, and showed it to her student. As the alicorn’s eyes widened in what Twilight could tell was surprise, then got even bigger in excitement, Twilight prepared herself for the inevitable-

“Squeeeee!” the Alicorn of Storm and Sky, Defender of Equestria and unofficial Goddess of War exclaimed in a foal-like voice before she was able to express herself with real words…sort of. “Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh! Is that the new Daring Do book? How did you get the new Daring Do book? That’s not due out for like…two months! How’d you get this? I can’t even get this!”

With her princess jumping on her hind legs with excitement in her voice Twilight couldn’t help but smile as she continued to hold the copy of Daring Do and the Temple of Time in her magic. “I know a pony,” she said with a smile.

Of course, that pony was Princess Celestia. She was a fan of the books, and always received the very first copy of every book in the series before they were even finished printing them all, much less shipped all over Equestria.

“So, do you want to take a little break today and read it?” Twilight asked.

The reaction Dash had to the question was almost laughable. First, she froze solid, then all four hooves dropped to the ground in a loud thunk. An expression of hesitation crossed her face, and Twilight watched as the alicorn’s entire body seemed to shake, as if the decision to continue her lessons or take an unscheduled day off from training was causing an actual physical conflict. “Well…I…um…okay. I guess one day couldn’t hurt,” she finally said. “I mean, it’s not like missing a few hours of practice is going to make me any worse, right?”

“Great! I’ll get everything set up then!”

Fifteen minutes later, Twilight held the tray of tea and cookies in her magic along with the Daring Do book as she climbed up onto her bed and got in place. A few seconds after that, and the alicorn climbed up to lay down beside her and draped a wing over Twilight’s back. As the unicorn inched closer to the princess, there was a minor change in the air around her from Rainbow adjusting the temperature to the exact degree that Twilight liked it while keeping a steady airflow.

“Okay here we go-ow!” Rainbow exclaimed before the zap from the spell Twilight had placed on the library kicked in, keeping the alicorn from touching the tome. Then she looked over Twilight and sighed. “Twi, you forgot to turn off your torture spell.”

Twilight resisted the urge to give her student an evil grin. She even managed to give her princess a look of complete cluelessness about what she knew was coming. “Actually Rainbow, that spell is on a timer. It can’t be turned off once cast,” the unicorn lied.

A sigh escaped the alicorn’s lips. “Well you’ll just have to turn the pages then. No biggie.”

“But then who’s going to hold the food?” she asked as innocently as she could before levitating the platter front of the alicorn’s face. Then, to add to her half-baked excuse, Twilight pulled a quill out from her desk as well as one of her empty journals she kept on hand since learning Rainbow’s old languages. “Not to mention I need to keep a transcription spell going to record your words, and make sure the pen always has enough ink, and-”

Rainbow’s half-lidded eyes and humorless expression cut Twilight off before the alicorn’s words ever did. “You want me to be the one using magic on the book?” she asked evenly before looking over to the object in question for a moment, then back at Twilight. “This is the magic practice for today, isn’t it?”

Well, that was three excuse quicker than I expected, Twilight thought to herself, thankful she didn’t have to resort to faking a horn injury. After putting her writing utensils aside, the unicorn smiled up at her friend. “Rainbow, do you know why I jumped off your house that day when we got you to use your magic to catch me?”

“Because you tend to go completely nuts when you get desperate?” she replied, raising an eyebrow at the unicorn and smirking. Twilight didn’t think the comment was all that funny.

Still, she managed to keep calm, just like Celestia would want her to be, and let out a cleansing breath before speaking. “It’s because I knew you would never hurt me,” she told the alicorn softly while laying a purple hoof on top of Rainbow’s blue and giving her a gentle smile. “Magic channeled through your horn obeys your deepest desires, not spur of the minute emotions like your wings. You may have been afraid, and panicky, and a dozen other things, but I knew you would never hurt me with your magic, even if you tried to.”

Twilight blinked when she caught the scent of a fresh spring morning, and realized she and Rainbow’s muzzles where little more than an inch apart. Upon realizing their situation, she froze, then quickly drew her head away while Rainbow did the same. Okay…that was a little…intense, the unicorn told herself before clearing her throat and speaking. “Ahem! So…um, I thought to myself, if that was what it took for Rainbow to learn how to move a pony, then I needed to find an object you could use to accomplish the same thing and…well, here it is.”

The smirk that crossed Rainbow’s face made Twilight a little nervous. It wasn’t her confident smile, or the one that she put on while trying to placate somepony when all she wanted to d was get away. It was Rainbow’s ‘I know something you don’t’ smile, and it made Twilight frown in worry. “You forgot something Twilight.”

“What?”

“I’m a pegasus that’s fought in wars…kind of, a little shock isn’t much when I’m ready for it,” Rainbow Dash told her before aching out to touch the book. There was the accompanying zap, which got a flinch from the alicorn, but she kept her hooves on the cover despite the electricity’s attempts to dislodge it. “See? This is-”

Both of the ponies blinked when smoke started to rise from the book’s cover.

“Oh, buck, it’s on fire,” Rainbow mumbled as she withdrew her hoof.

Seeing her one of a kind, first printed Daring Do book begin to smolder, a million alarm bells went off in Twilight’s mind. Quickly going into full-on panic mode, Twilight let out a scream at the horror her eyes were witnessed to. Then, she reared up in surprise and backed away from the flames before looking over to the princess next to her in a panic. “Stopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopit!”

For her part, Rainbow looked at Twilight almost helplessly, then back to the book and then the unicorn as Twilight came down from her rearing when her plot hit the bed’s headrest before finally turning her attention back on the book. Then, she flared out her wings and gathered her magic before an arctic blast of cold air and snow. A second later, the book-cicle fell to the ground in a block of ice, the alicorn registered a crash and the sound of breaking glass, then looked to see she had blown their snacks onto the ground, shattered the tea cups, and soaked a good part of the bed she had been standing on in snow.

“So um…I don’t suppose you have a replacement? Eh-hehe?” the princess asked nervously.

As the image from one of her more vivid nightmares died down, Twilight took in a breath to help slow her quickened heart. On one hand, she knew it had been an accident. But Rainbow had just burned a book, the greatest sacrilege short of bucking Celestia Herself in the muzzle! Then, to top it off, she was that ‘I know I’m guilty but look how many teeth I have’ grin!

It was infuriating!

“You…book! GRAAAAH!” Twilight managed to scream as her thoughts continued to do battle against her burning anger.

Rainbow took to the air and looked around the room in a wild panic while Twilight seethed at the…alicorn.

“Hey um…I’ll clean this up and, then-”

The alicorn princess.

“-if we can’t fix it, I’ll get you another, I swear,” Rainbow finished as she landed to look around the room and started trying to tidy up, using her own wings of all things.

Her alicorn princess.

Her alicorn princess, that was looking to Twilight for guidance in the ways of magic under the direct orders of her past and present mother: Princess Celestia.

And so, Twilight was able to choke down her anger with a little reminder, as she had been doing since they began studying magic back in Ponyville. Remember Twilight, she’s your princess and your student…remember how many accidents and foolish things you did when you were learning magic? Well Rainbow doesn’t have the limits you did back then!

Letting out a long breath to push away her anger, Twilight put on a fake smile for the alicorn’s benefit. “It’s okay Rainbow, I’ve got fail-safe spells for stuff like this,” she assured her princess. It would probably mean taking a nap in the middle of the day thanks to the energy required, but at least her mattress would be dry.

“And the book?” the goddess asked hesitantly.

Twilight sighed and looked down at the block of ice. “I can fix that too but…don’t think this is going to get you out of your magic practice,” she told the alicorn, resuming her teaching stance. “We’ll get everything cleaned up, and start again.” And when I do finally get you able to use a quill like a normal unicorn, you’re going to be writing ‘I will not use my hooves during magic practice’ one thousand times! Ruler, goddess, and daughter of a goddess that had taught Twilight everything she knew or not, Rainbow's status only went so far.

“I love you,” Dash said.

“W-what? Since when?” Twilight asked.

“You remember that day, at the university, when you brought those pages for me to translate?” Dash continued. “Since then. You were so kind, and understanding. How could I help but not fall in love with you?”

“But, why didn’t you tell me?” the unicorn went on.

“I…I told myself it was because you weren’t ready,” Dash said. “I mean, you never looked at me like that once and…I…oh pony feathers who am I kidding? I was scared. Scared of what’d you say, that you’d reject me, that…that it would have made things so awkward between us, we couldn’t even be friends. I was such an idiot.”

“No! I was the idiot! I should have seen, should have been paying attention,” Twilight said, “I just…I never had anypony like you even notice me before. But…for what it’s worth, I think I love you too, Daring Do.”

The unicorn shifted be book back over to the alicorn, who took up reading the text. “Then, the pegasus took up the seemingly elder academic in her forelegs. She was careful to hold her as gently as possible, or else Rosetta’s bones, made frail before their time by the temple’s curse of aging would have been damaged. By her mental calculations, Daring guessed the unicorn who had unknowingly stolen her heart had reached the triple digits in her physical age, but all she could see was the brilliant mare that she had run into those two years ago.”

Having reached the end of the paragraph, Rainbow scooted the book back to Twilight and listened as the unicorn went on. “She bent down, and the two explorers, who had become the closest of friends, shared their first, and last, kiss while the Temple of Time collapsed around them as it was turned to dust by the aging magic. A moment later, and Rosetta joined it, her body falling apart and being blown away by the wind before it could hit the ground.”

The chapter came to its end, and Rainbow just found herself staring at the book in front of her, unable to turn the page to move on to the final battle between Daring Do and the Neighzies. After working through the shock, the alicorn turned to look down at the unicorn laying on the floor mat with her, safely tucked under her right wing. “Did…did they just kill off Rosetta?”

“Actually the book only has one author and…looks like it,” Twilight replied. “Got to say, I’m relived. That whole romance thing the author was building up in the previous book seemed pretty forced.”

The complete lack of interest by her best friend made the alicorn shudder a little. “What do you mean forced? Daring and Rosetta were perfect for each other!”

Twilight just rolled her eyes at Dash’s comment, much to the alicorn’s annoyance. “Please, it was completely out of character,” she replied. “Daring Do is supposed to be this fearless pony who faces death on a weekly basis, and she’s afraid of what her best friend will think if she admits to a crush? I don’t buy it.”

With the unicorn just tossing that kind of idea out there, the alicorn found herself frowning at Twilight. “Hey! Death defying stuff is easy because if you mess up, you die and don’t have to worry about it afterwards,” she countered. “Telling somepony how you feel…that’s hard. You don’t just go back to being friends or…anything really. Either the one who has the feelings gets mad over being rejected, or the pony she has feelings for distances herself from the first one to try and avoid the issue.”

Rainbow took a deep breath and shook the old memories away to try and clear her head. She hadn’t thought about that pony in…well, centuries really. “Then there’s the guilt over ruining everything, and it is ruined. Some ponies say things go back to normal eventually, but that’s just a load of manure. When it’s love, real love that comes from knowing a pony better than anypony else in the world and wanting to spend the rest of your life with her…things never go back to being just friends. It just hurts too much.”

Ah geeze, why the hay did I have to say something like that? Now Twilight’s going to think I’m weird, and…yep, thinking about Twinkle again, Rainbow told herself with a sigh. It just wasn’t fair, Rainbow Dash had never even met that stupid unicorn! She had died thousands of years ago!

But that was the problem with super alicorn memory power. The goddesses needed to remember thousands of years worth of knowledge. So an alicorn who had barely been around for a hundred years, after missing several millennia in-between, had near crystal clarity in her recollections.

What the hay was it with her and librarians anyway? Okay, archivist, Dash corrected herself. Twinkle Star hated being called a librarian. Libraries didn’t carry the ancient pagean scrolls describing Aeromancy. She was the royal archivist of Trottingham. Well, Old Trottingham, the Trottingham that was around in current times wasn’t like the former Equestrian capital at all. It had been settled by some ponies too in love with stories of the past some five hundred years ago.

“Is this…um…sorry, you…I know you don’t like talking about your past life,” Twilight said, a little depressed. The alicorn understood though. A walking piece of history was in front of her, and while Rainbow gladly went on about things like Starswirl, and what her own family was like during the beginning of their reign, Aurora’s life was a little too personal for her to just go yakking to anypony.

Rainbow looked down at her best friend and smiled. Anypony else, she might have had a problem with talking about it with. They would have thought she was uncool, or being totally lame. But Twilight…she had already seen the alicorn at her lowest point, and she hadn’t laughed or held it over Dash’s head that the great Rainbow Dash had been afraid of a stupid piece of paper.

“Her name was Twinkle Star,” Rainbow began softly as she practically felt the old memory envelop her. “She was…this unicorn who was in charge of the royal archive back when I was Aurora. She um…I’m not sure what her talent was, but her cutie mark had a bunch of pink stars and…hay, she even had one of those crazy natural highlights.” The alicorn poked the unicorn’s head with a laugh, tracing the pinkish-purple streak in Twilight’s mane. “It was pink though…with a white mane and coat.”

“She? I thought you married a stallion? I specifically remember you talking about having foals!”

The reminder of her old husband got sigh from the alicorn. “I did, and don’t get me wrong, he was…nice,” Rainbow admitted hesitantly after a moment of thought to try and find the right word. “But…it wasn’t the same back then Twi. You…well…you got married because you were supposed to have foals. Things like love, that was supposed to come later.” And Rainbow supposed she had loved the stallion who courted her, they had plenty of good moments. But the fire she had felt for her first crush just hadn’t been there.

“So what happened?” Twilight asked, the concern evident in her voice. “To Twinkle, I mean.”

Rainbow felt the moisture in her mouth increase so much she had to swallow. She couldn't just throw a tiny scrap to Twilight like that. It would drive the nerd insane. “I told her how I felt, like an idiot. She thought I was joking, not the funny Pinkie kind of joke that makes you laugh, the Discord kind that makes you flinch. Then, like a moron, I told her again a few seconds later and I…kissed her.”

The memory of that particular incident made Dash shudder. Twinkle had been accepting…at first. Only an idiot turned down a noble’s advances. Aurora had been royalty, and the daughter of divinity. If Aurora hadn’t of cared enough to notice the other mare’s trembling, if she hadn’t asked what was wrong and thrown off the ‘nothing’ the unicorn gave in response…

If I had just ignored it…would I have been able to show how much I really cared for her? Rainbow Dash asked herself.

After I basically raped her five or six times? Dash’s conscience retorted.

“And then?” Twilight inquired.

Using an old trick she had learned from a military commander, Rainbow pushed the feelings of self-disgust down into her stomach, and took in a cleansing breath. She put on a fake smile and gave it to Twilight. “It didn’t work out. She was all books, and I had…other things to do.”

Rainbow pushed the mental image of the unicorn sobbing on the floor, begging Aurora not to banish her from the castle, from the only life she had ever known. Twinkle had been the infant daughter of the fallen nobility when Celestia took power, abandoned by her parents when Andromeda’s forces fled to the north. She not only lacked a noble house to protect her, but her linage practically made the unicorn a target of retribution for every other pony in the castle with a grudge against the old system.

Afterwards, things had just been too…disturbing.

Every time Aurora would pass Twinkle in the hallway, the unicorn would shudder in fear and avoid the pegasus’s gaze. The one time she had tried to apologize and get the bottom of things, cornering Twinkle in the archive, the unicorn had broke down into sobs and peed on herself in fear. After that, Aurora had simply stayed away from her friend, intent on not scaring her anymore and sending a servant to find what she needed in the archives while Twinkle became even more of a recluse. A week, later, Aurora went off to oversee the construction of Cloudsdale and begin her life in the military.

When she came back the following year and managed to drag Celestia out of her immortality experiments, Aurora had found out the archivist Twinkle Star had just disappeared. Nopony seemed to have known where she went off to…or even cared. And if Luna didn’t know where a pony was, then that pony wasn’t around anymore.

The old memories sent a shiver of fear down Rainbow’s spine, and she looked over to Twilight, her eyes pleading. “We’re still friends, right Twilight?” she partially asked, but mostly begged. “Even with this stupid horn, and…and the whole alicorn thing. We’ll always be friends, right? Even if I have to put on a stupid crown, and-and have to sit on a throne and-”

Twilight’s expression went from surprise, to a slowly softening calm. A glow of magic closed the alicorn’s mouth, and she smiled up at the mare with the living rainbow mane. “Of course we’re friends Dash. We’ll always be friends.”

Is she just saying that? Rainbow had to ask herself. How many times had she been given false smiles, both in the past and present? The new generation of nobles were just as fake with their words as the old, although the literal backstabbing had gone down with Celestia ruling for thousands of years.

The touch of a pony’s cheek against her neck made Dash flinch. A second later, the rising panic in her heart was completely crushed as Twilight continued to nuzzle the larger mare. In its place was something that left the powerful alicorn feeling as small and weak as a breezie. It was the knowledge that Twilight would never abandon her, never run from her, fear or mock her. And it made all her fears seem nothing but the product of a foolish mind.

“Thanks Twilight,” she mumbled, bringing up a foreleg to wrap it around the tiny unicorn and bringing her into a deeper embrace that involved more than just a wing. “If my best friend started treating me all…royal…I don’t know what I’d do.”

Twilight let out a soft giggle. “Oh come on Rainbow, we’re close…but I can’t be your best friend. That’s Fluttershy.”

“Older doesn’t mean better,” the alicorn mumbled. She loved Fluttershy like a sister. She would do anything for her, help her with any hardship, and utterly annihilate anypony, or minotaur, that dared to mess with her. But the trust she shared with Twilight, just wasn't there with Fluttershy.

However, Twilight wasn’t finished. “Applejack.”

“We’re more like…buddies,” Rainbow admitted. In truth, she had found herself growing rather distant with Applejack since that day in the Everfree. AJ didn’t joke or needle Rainbow like she used to, and the increased physical abilities that came with her size and alicorn status made physical contests way too one-sided to be fun.

Celestia had even gotten a letter out of that last one, talking about the nature of winning, and how it just wasn’t worth it without any competition. But without that rivalry that their friendship had been built on, Rainbow was finding her relationship with Applejack to be somewhat…hollow.

It was a pain that tore at her heart.

“And if the next words out of your mouth are Rarity or Pinkie Pie, I’m going to make an ice cube where Celestia don’t shine,” the princess threatened in a half-joking manner.

Twilight’s eyes went wide for a moment, and she broke out in a snicker. “Okay, you win,” she admitted. “And…well, we have kind of grown closer I guess. We both study magic now, and read the same books, and…you’ve helped me learning a whole new language and…” The unicorn’s eyes widened, and she let out another giggle. “Wow, we really have been spending a lot of time together, haven’t we?”

But, the happiness was not to last. Twilight’s face went back into a pensive frown that made her face scrunch up in the most adorable way possible and made Dash just want to squeal in delight at the level of her cuteness before she spoke again. “But that’s all stuff that I like, or at least why I should consider you my best friend…it still doesn’t tell m why I’m yours.”

“Because…” Dash managed to say before she froze. Because I love you. Because most gentle, most amazing mare I’ve ever met. You’re like a princess that came down from a mountain and found something worthwhile in an annoying showoff who went against everything you stand for. You gave me kindness instead of scorn, understanding instead of rejection, friendship instead of fear…or worse, she said in her mind, then pushed the thoughts away before they could bring the images that cam with the ‘or worse’ part, of her friends standing in front of the ruined castle after she had linked with the sky and…

“NO! Please! DON’T LOOK AT ME!” Dash’s memory of herself screamed before she was able to push it away with the knowledge that Luna had insured there weren’t any…adverse effects from the encounter.

“Because you know me better than anypony,” Rainbow told her truthfully. “Because I…” Love you. I love you more than you will ever know. “And I think you’re the coolest unicorn I’ve ever met.”

Twilight blushed and looked away from the alicorn. “That’s some pretty high praise coming from you.”

As the unicorn fell silent, Rainbow realized they were still locked in a tight embrace, and closed her eyes to savor it. For just a moment, she pretended that they weren’t just friends, that Twilight knew about her feelings and returned them in earnest. She imagined they ate lunch together as a couple every day, instead of as teacher and student like they had earlier when Twilight had complimented her on only destroying the Dearing Do book just seventy-three percent of the time Rainbow had tried to turn the pages with her magic. She imagined they spent every night together in an embrace like the one they were currently sharing, after a passionate night of love-making where Rainbow would make Twilight squeal in delight until the unicorn had a throat too tired to talk. She imagined them spending the rest of their lives together as Twilight argued the merits of Starswirl while dressing up in that ridiculous costume, and Rainbow shared secrets about her first mother that made Twilight laugh for a few seconds before her adorkable nose would snort and get a giggle out of Rainbow.

By the time they grew old together…

“Hey Dash, somepony’s here looking for you!”

…a roar from a dragon destroyed the library they had settled down in to raise the adopted foals.

Aww geeze, the alicorn told herself as she looked up from the mat they were on. “I thought we told Spike not to call unless it was an emergency,” she said before getting off the unicorn and standing on her own four hooves. The stiffness in her joints came as a surprise. They felt like they had been still for hours. “What time is it anyway?”

“Five twelve,” Twilight told her after glancing up at the clock hanging from her wall.

The answer made Dash’s body go stiff for a moment. Then, statement at her situation took over. “WHAT?” I was supposed to be meeting with the new weatherponies over ten minus ago!

She danced around nervously for a minute, looking around the room. Had she and Twi really spent all bucking day just laying around and reading Daring Do? They didn’t even get that far! Just…nine tenths of the way through, Rainbow Dash realized as she stared at the book that had been mangled and repaired multiple times throughout the day.

“Sorry,” the alicorn said to Twilight as she rushed over to her fantasy lover and…barely stopped herself from leaning down to plant a kiss on the unicorn’s cheek. “Work, weather stuff…um…gotta go!”

As she rushed out the door, her hearing was able to pick up a confused Twilight muttering to herself. “What was all that about?”

Downstairs, she found Cloud Kicker was waiting for her in the library’s main room, as she had kind of expected. The presence of Starry Night was a bit unexpected though. At least until Rainbow remembered she was supposed to be testing the newbie. “Hey girls, sorry I got held up…uh…” For a moment she considered pulling the princess business card out on them, but…that had gotten old after the first week since nopony called the alicorn on it.

“You finally get it on with Twilight? Cause then I’d totally understand Boss,” Cloud Kicker replied. What with Cloud being the town pervert, Dash would have been a little disappointed if she had asked anything else.

Star’s elated gasp and look of excitement, however, was very unexpected. “Did you?”

“Get what on with Twilight?”

Before Rainbow could tell Star to mind her own business, then demand Cloudy to tell her what she told Star that the dark pegasus took such an interest in Rainbow's relationships, the little dragon’s question made Rainbow Dash become a rigid as stone. “Um…nothing Spike…it’s…nothing,” she assured the young dragon rather awkwardly before giving Cloud a death glare that sent a shiver of terror down the pegasus’s spine.

“Well come on gotta go, need to train the newbie and see what she can already do,” Rainbow Dash said before she went out the door. Then, being as careful as possible, she wrapped Cloud Kicker in her magic and pulled the pegasus out of the library as well before she could ruin Spike’s innocence.

As CK blurred past her, screaming in terror as she was rocketed into the sky the second the pegasus cleared the door without being crushed into red paste, Rainbow called her half-controlled telekinetic yank a win. Then, while the sub-director of Ponyville’s weather department adjusted herself in the air and came to rest of a cloud that Rainbow created with a flap of her wings, the pegasus with the dark coat walked up to her and frowned. “You should be a bit more careful with your horn.”

Despite the reminder came from a total stranger, Rainbow found herself flinching as if her own mother had caught her stealing cookies. “Uh…right,” she said. “Didn’t meant to scare you or anything. It’s just…CK can be a bit…unfiltered when it comes to some stuff.”

“Yes, I found her idle chatter quite…stimulating,” Starry Night replied. “I take it ‘banging’ refers to sexual intercourse?”

“…how long was it before she asked you?” Rainbow groaned.

“Ten seconds after she asked the Sentry foal,” the dark pony with wings replied.

The mention of the other weather recruit brought a frown to Rainbow’s face. Right, he’s supposed to be here too, she reminded herself. “Hey where is Flash anyway?”

“The manner in which Cloud Kicker propositioned him had the foal needing to visit the-ah there he is,” Star said a minute before the pegasus came into Dash’s view; from the corner of her eye at least. The fact that Star had been looking at the alicorn and still notice something like that at the edge of her field of vision was pretty impressive. It was something that took both Aurora and Dash a long time of flying to develop, and weeks for her to do it all the time without the use of her wings.

The fact that Star could do it too pretty much made her a guaranteed her a position as a member of the weather patrol. A bit of hesitation entered her mind when she wondered just how a pony interested in astronomy had picked up such a skill, as it was mostly a military thing that some pegasi attributed to their magic…but such doubts were quickly thrown aside. Starry Night was…there was just something about her that said she could be trusted; and Rainbow Dash had always been a pony who went with her gut.

A second after Rainbow had cleared her head, the other pegasus landed next to Starry, smelling like he had flown through a rain cloud for a quick washing. “Hey guys, what’s-”

“RAINBOW DASH!”

The goddess froze in terror as the purple unicorn appeared in the doorway and glared at her princess with a look of fury on her face. “What did I tell you about flinging ponies around with that horn…of…yours,” Twilight finished, her voice changed from rage to a strange tone that only came when the unicorn was genuinely confused about something.

“Sorry Twi,” Rainbow apologized hesitantly. “It won’t happen again.” At least, for the rest of the day. She couldn’t make any grantees about tomorrow.

Apparently, the unicorn didn’t hear her, as she always knew when Rainbow was thinking that and made her also promise to try and do better. Instead, she looked right past Rainbow, and to the pegasi in her company. Her head titled the way it did when she was trying to figure something out that didn’t require critical thinking, more like when the problem proposed to her was just an inquiry, rather than a conundrum; or a Class C question instead of Class A+.

“Have we met?” Twilight asked.

Starry Skies drew her head back a bit. “W-What?” she stuttered while backing away a little from the unicorn looking in her direction. “No, I do not b-belive so, Ms Sparkle.”

The other pony in the pair smiled at her and stepped forward. “I think I’d remember a mare like you,” he said as he moved in front of Starry Night. “Name’s Flash Sentry, and you are?”

As the former guardsman got inside of Twilight’s personal space, obviously making her disturbed as a snowball in Tartarus for his intrusion, what with how she got all wide-eyed and everything a minute before she became so flustered her cheeks turned red and she let out a stutter. “Oh um…h-hello.”

Dash’s eye twitched, and thunder rumbled overhead. All the ponies looked up to see a storm cloud had formed over the library, threatening both rain and lightning. A second later, Twilight let out a little jerk, and then stood up to look at Dash…or glare at her, as that was what she was doing a second later.

A wave of her wings dispelled the storm cloud, and Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. “Okay everypony, let’s go see if you’ve got what it takes to be one of my weather ponies,” the Goddess of the Sky announced a second before Cloud Kicker finally came in for a landing. She nodded to her second-in-command to take over the show.

“Okay we’re going to be going through some basic stuff today to see if you’ve even got what it takes to hope to handle Everfree weather!” the other mare announced a but too loudly for just two ponies. “That means speed tests, some cloud busting, and cloud corralling; and that’s before we even think about beginning to teach the two of you anything about how weather works to see if you're even worth our time! Now let’s get up in the sky and run some laps ponies!”

Before Rainbow could follow CK up into the sky, she found a bunch of letters floating in front of her face. The one from the Cloudsdale Weather Office stuck out the most.

“You forgot your mail,” Twilight said in a strangely absent tone. When Rainbow looked up, she understood why. The unicorn was looking up at the retreating figures of the three pegasi with that odd thinking expression on her face again.

In an attempt to focus on something else, Rainbow snatched the important piece of mail out of the air with her wings, then tore it open with her teeth to read what was inside. It wasn’t good news…at least, these days it wasn’t. A year earlier she would have been ecstatic, but now…the letter just served to remind her of the changes in her life.

“Buck.”

“Something wrong?” Twilight asked, making Rainbow look up before she handed the unicorn the letter.

After taking a whole second to read the bloody thing, Twilight looked back up to Rainbow. “Tornado duty?”

“It’s this procedure for Cloudsdale’s weather factory to refill its water stores and prepare rain and snow for the next year. This year, it’s apparently Ponyville’s turn to do the job.”

Twilight’s face brightened, nearly destroying the cloud over Rainbow Dash’s mood and keeping her from holding onto the emotion long enough for it to seep out into the weather. “That sounds exciting! You must be…wait, how come your not happy to hear the news?”

The question got a sigh from the former pegasus. “A year ago, I would have been,” she admitted. Hay, after hearing how the wing power record was broken in Fillydelphia, Rainbow had promised herself that when it came Ponyville’s turn to do things, they would smash the record with a 1K’s worth of wing power. Her voice dropped to a pathetic whisper “Now…did they pick Ponyville because I’m here? Am I supposed to do it all myself?”

She could. Using her link with the weather, making a tornado powerful enough to send the water up to Cloudsdale would be…simple. It was a bit of a disappointing revelation. Like the Wonderbolts, another one of her dreams had been taken away. It wasn’t as important, but…it was another thing about her old life that had been bled dry on the alter to her godhood. She might not have demanded sacrifice from other ponies, but her alicorn status sure as hay demanded it of her.

“Well if you don’t want to do it, then don’t,” Twilight told her bringing Rainbow’s heart from out of the dumps. “I remember you saying how you were going to break that record last year and how excited you were about it. If they just chose Ponyville based on you, just do it the old fashioned way and if they have a problem with it…t-tell them to go buck themselves and take it up with Princess Celestia if they want to make a fuss!”

The goddess stared at the unicorn, who quickly blushed under her wide-eyed gaze. Then, her lips curled into a smile. “Yeah! Let’s see…if we’re going to break the record, we’ll need to train, and…hmm, we should probably get something to figure out just how much wing power each pony has.”

Twilight practically squealed in delight. “Ohmygosh! I’ve got an anemometer in my lab we can use to measure the wake each pegasus creates, and I can make an equation that converts it to wing power!” she exclaimed before dancing on her hind legs in delight. “Math! Science! This is going to be so much fun!” Then, her face blossomed into true joy. “I need to go make a checklist! Meet me here after your done working, and I’ll go over what we need to do.”

A second later, Rainbow was wondering if Twilight teleported back into the library, but the trail of dust she kicked up and the door slamming closed her said otherwise. Leaving a slightly confused alicorn just standing in the middle of Ponyville.

“What just happened?”

Chapter 2

Chapter 2: And It Is Your Duty

As the informative movie explaining the basic mechanics of Tornado Day ended, Twilight brightened up the room via the lights in the library with her magic, and noticed that Spike was having a bit of trouble with the film reel. He apparently became tangled in it before tearing the thing in two. Twilight sighed and shook her head while she trotted over to help her assistant unravel himself since the angry glares of the pegasi over destroying the tape. She didn't blame him though, those things were hardly reliable.

Thankfully, Dash came to her little assistant’s rescue by clearing her throat to get everypony’s attention and flying up in front of the projection screen, giving time for Twilight to untangle Spike before she brought out the slide projector. After that, the dragon wisely made himself scarce.

“Okay everypony, if you haven’t figured it out, the Ponyville highlands reservoir has been chosen to provide the rainwater for all of Equestria this year!” the alicorn announced as she looked over the crowd. “Now, I’m sure that those ponies up in Cloudsdale, in their bright cloud offices, sitting on their cushy cloud chairs just want me to fly out there and wave my wings and do the alicorn thing to whip up a tornado like the big Celestial Sun Celebration or something.”

Twilight blinked as she heard a few mumbles of agreement, particularly from the ponies who were not on the Ponyville Weather Team. From the sound of it, most of the pegasi in the room in the room thought that’s exactly what would happen. Hay, they even thought that the whole reason Dash was calling the meeting they were all at was to spread the word that she was going to put on a show, and…Twilight found herself wondering just why that wasn’t the case.

Princess Celestia had the Summer Sun and Princess Luna had Nightmare Night. It seemed like the Tornado Day stuff would have been perfect for a holiday tied to the newest member of the Equestrian Royal Family.

Hay, it would have been the perfect excuse for Rainbow to show off. While Dash had changed a little since she became an alicorn, Twilight still saw the egotistical braggart she befriended on her first day in Ponyville; as well as the insecure filly underneath that the braggart was just a cover for. The fact that Rainbow Dash could do the work of one-hundred pegasi on her own made the unicorn ask: why wasn’t she?

“But you know what? I say buck them!” Rainbow Dash said as she rose higher into the air. “I may be the Alicorn of the Sky, but you guys are Ponyville pegasi! we’ve got the harshest kind of weather in all of Equestria right on our doorstep!”

“Yeah, your sneezes!”

As the pegasi let out a few good-natured chuckles, Rainbow spun and pointed a hoof at Cloud Kicker, who was standing off to the side of the crowd. “I’ve only blown one house down, and we all know Pinkie was just as much to blame for that as me!” she said before turning back to the crowd.

“Now, as I was saying…you deal with the Everfree forest, Hoof-only Winter Wrap-ups, and bucking cotton candy clouds that rain chocolate milk!” she went on with the ponies nodded in agreement and smiled at all the things they had overcome in just the past year. “I say that you guys are the most awesome pegasi in all of Equestria! And now we’re going to prove it by setting a tornado wing-power record that blows all the others out of the sky!”

With a nod from the alicorn, Twilight turned on the slide projector. A second after it finished warming up, a silhouette of a large town with a rising bar graph positioned above it appeared. “Now, last year, Fillidelphia set a wing-power record of nine-hundred and ten. And if a bunch of sissy city ponies can do that after sitting on their plots all day and taking the taxi carts to work instead of using their own wings, then the pegasi of Ponyville are going to blow that number away with a cool one thousand!”

A wave of…something washed over Twilight, and she could practically feel the level of excitement in the room begin to rise as the pegasi talked amongst themselves. She had to admit, it would be a pretty neat thing to see Ponyville go into the record books for something like that.

From what she could tell, living on the edge of the Everfree, with the threat of timber wolves and other things wandering into town, Ponyville had become quite the…athletic town. Applejack might not have won a blue ribbon at the Equestrian Rodeo, but the records had shown that nopony had even come close to matching the sheer amount of awards she had picked up from all the events. Then there was Rainbow Dash, who had claimed the title of Best Young Flier with a legendary move no other pegasus could do. Of course, she wasn’t that much of a slouch either, but…Twilight had only lived in Ponyville for about a year, it wasn’t right to count herself amongst the populace quite yet.

“But its not going to be easy,” Rainbow Dash said as she smacked one hoof into another. “Everypony in Ponyville is going to have to train and get themselves into top shape if we hope to get the amount of power needed to put Ponyville on the map!”

There was a chorus of cheers, and once again, the crowd of pegasi broke into an excited rumble. At least, until one of them asked a question that brought all the excitement to a halt.

“But…Ms Dash? Wouldn’t it just be easier to have you do the tornado for us?”

Every single pony in the room went silent, along with the dragon. Although Twilight couldn’t tell who had spoken since she was at the back of the room at the moment, she could tell the voice came from a male. Then every pegasus in the room took one giant step backward, and Twilight teleported onto the stairs to see who had just ostracized himself from every winged pony in town.

In the center of the circle of pegasi, stood the golden-orangish-yellow pegasus Twilight had seen the other day. His name was…Brash…something. In all honesty, Twilight had been paying more attention to the dark pegasus that had been standing beside him. There was just…something about her that made Twilight’s magic senses tingle.

But at the moment, she was more focused on Brash Something to concern herself with trying to figure out the puzzle of Starry Night. Unfortunately for Brash, there was one other species in the room that was giving him a look of contempt: and that species was divine alicorn.

“What did you just say?” Rainbow asked the new weatherpony as she glared down at him.

“I just don’t see why we got to work our flanks off when you can just flap your wings and do the job for us,” Brash explained with a shrug and half-closed eyes as he looked away from the goddess towards the end. “Who cares about some stupid record?”

Twilight winced as the rest of the crowd became a collection of angry murmurs focused on Brash. She had to admire his ability to speak his mind, but…even though Twilight was a unicorn, she knew that the pegasi were the most proud tribe of all the ponies thanks to several experiences with the royal guard. Even Fluttershy would brag on and on about something with a manic amount of excitement in her eyes as long as it was in her comfort zone when Twilight let her.

Her first three weeks with the pegasus had taught Twilight more about animals that the unicorn had ever wanted to know; and that was really saying something.

The fact that there was a pegasus who didn’t seem to share that trait was a curious oddity. Twilight had to wonder if it was caused by something that happened in Brash’s past, or was there something on a genetic level that made him different than other pegasi? The unicorn looked up at the ceiling and tapped her chin in thought as she tried to think of how to proceed with discovering the answer to her query.

“OW!” Brush cried out, making Twilight down at the group and see Raindrops had left the herd to do…something to the other pegasus who was currently rubbing his cutie mark. “What was that for?”

The irate mare let out a loud humph. “Just checking to see if that was your real cutie mark. A pegasus as lazy as you should have a couch.”

“Tch please, I’m probably the fastest pegasus in this room!” Brash declared as he practically shoved his flank in Raindrops’s face. “See this lightning bolt? Only the fastest of fliers get a cutie mark like this, and my parents didn’t name me Flash for nothing.”

As several of the pegasi began grumbling amongst themselves, Twilight noticed Cloud Kicker speaking with Rainbow at the edge of her vision. But before anything could come of it, Starry Night stepped forward and struck a hoof to the ground so hard it seemed to make a bang. “If you do truly believe that, then I look forward to changing your opinion come practice on the marrow.”

“Okay, okay! Break it up everypony!” Kicker shouted as she flew over the crowd. “Now, since this is tornado duty, we’re going to be calling on ever single last one of you to do your parts one week from today. So get some sleep, and we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning!”

A second later, the local alicorn flew up next to Kicker after doing a quck loop around the room. “Cause we’re gonna train hard, right?”

“Yeah!” several of the pegasi exclaimed.

“And are we gonna make that tornado?” she went on.

“YEAH!” more of the pegasi joined in, including an overly large white one with small wings that made Twilight uneasy about just what type of juice he was using.

“AND ARE WE GONNA BREAK THAT RECORD?” Rainbow Dash shouted to the crowd.

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

All of a sudden, Twilight’s ears felt like they exploded, and then her whole body tumbled through the air. A second later, she blinked as she felt a pair of forearms envelop her, and looked back to see Rainbow Dash had caught her.

A quick glance around the room told the unicorn that the other pegasi hadn’t fared as well as her, what with several of them embedded in book cases, handing from the library’s chandelier, or run through the projection screen. Down at the center of the room, Starry Night gave an embarrassed cough.

“My apologies. Um…I should probably be going now. The stars are out and I have work to do...sorry once again” she said with a look of contained shame before quickly cantering out the door.

With that, it seemed the emergency mandatory pegasi meeting had come to an end.

One by one, the pegasi righted themselves and slowly left the tree-house. Thankfully, none of them were injured beyond a headache here and some air sickness there. As the room managed to be cleared out except for one last pegasus and the blue alicorn, Twilight managed to catch the tail end of their conversation.

“-going to be a problem?” Cloud Kicker said before both her and Rainbow looked over to the unicorn.

“Hey Twi, thanks for letting us use the library for the meeting,” the alicorn told her.

“By the way, who was that pegasus from before the one with the blue mane?” she asked.

Cloud Kicker was the one who answered. “Starry Night?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “I thought you met her yesterday? Well…guess meet was too strong a word. Heck of a pair of lungs on her, and I haven’t seen anypony with her amount of flying talent…since my princess here of course.”

As the light purple pony’s looks turned a little…amorous, and she moved to nuzzle the alicorn, Twilight found a few very interesting book titles just sitting on the shelves. Then the temperature dropped a good ten degrees and she glanced back in time to see Rainbow giving the smaller pegasus a glare.

“Remember what happened the last time I banged you CK?” the alicorn grumbled.

“That wasn’t banging! You hit me with a table after offering to get it on in the middle of the restaurant,” she said before her voice took on a whiny tone. “Come on Dash, you’re you and an alicorn now! That puts you on my list twice! You got to let me at least have one night.”

Although she usually kept far away from the local…whatever Cloud Kicker could be considered, the mention of a list perked Twilight’s interest. “What list?”

The smile that CK gave her had Twilight immediately regretting her decision. It was the same look that she got the first time Kicker had approached her with the proposition for sexual intercourse. “The list of ponies Blossom will join me in banging of course!”

Twilight simply groaned and hit her face with her hoof. I walked right into that one, she told herself. Cloud Kicker’s rather…open relationship with Blossomforth, and pretty much anypony who wanted in on a night of passion just made no sense at all to Twilight. According to Cadence, everypony had their own special somepony out there somewhere that they were meant to be with and could make them the happiest pony in the world. It was the simple math of 1+1=2.

Cloud Kicker’s relationship equations looked more like 1+1+X=>3/2 on Tuesdays*Toys/#number of ponies involved per week.

She just didn’t get it.

Before things could get even more weird, Twilight teleported Cloud Kicker off of the alicorn and dropped her off a foot from where she disappeared before turning her attention to Rainbow. “Oh Dash, I was wondering about that one pegasus from before.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow before flexing her wings and returning the surrounding temperature to normal. “Uh, Twilight…we just had all one hundred and three pegasi in Ponyville in this room. You need to be a bit more specific.”

“Umm…the one with the yellowish coat and blue mane,” Twilight specified. “What was his name? I’d like to talk with him about something.” She remembered Rainbow calling him Flash, but she would need a full name to get an address. Just because the Ponyville population only numbered in the triple digits didn't mean everypony knew everypony else.

Well, except for Pinkie Pie...but she didn't count!

The expression on the alicorn’s face fell from one of amused curiosity to something a little more downcast. Twilight couldn’t see where it ended, as Rainbow looked away from her a moment later. “Uh…look Twi…I need to get going. Haven’t eaten yet. Uh…CK, what was that guy’s name?”

Cloud Kicker’s eyes moved back and forth between the two a couple of times. An odd look of uneasiness in them. “Uh…Flash Sentry,” she replied before trotting up to Rainbow to give a raised eyebrow to Twilight. “Why? He seems a little…” Once again, Cloud Kicker spared a look at the alicorn before continuing. “Kind of a jerk.”

“Oh…just curious,” Twilight replied before shrugging off the insult to the pegasus who wasn’t in the room. Just because he didn’t go with the herd like the others didn’t make him a bad pony. It was actually the main reason Twilight was interested in him. “He kind of reminds me of you, Rainbow. I mean, he’s got that lightning bolt cutie mark, and from the way he talked, I bet he naps a lot too.” She snickered at the last comparison.

When she looked back up to see the play-filly stretched her wing out to tap Rainbow on the back, then motioned for them to head out the door, Twilight frowned. She wished that Cloud Kicker would leave the alicorn alone when it came to her advances.

Twilight knew that when pegasi touched each other with their wings, it was very serious business. Not nearly as serious as it had been when they had their own society of course, but it was still pretty high up there when it came to the intimate contact scale. Under some circumstances, one pegasus placing her wing over another winged pony was an even more of a more showing sign of devotion than sex!

It wasn’t right that Cloud Kicker was doing that sort of thing when Rainbow clearly wasn’t interested.

“Come on Boss, we’ve got to uh…work out those last minute details,” the pegasus told the alicorn.

“Deta-oh…uh, yeah, details,” Rainbow mumbled when Kicker gave her a leading expression. “Right.”

Coming by to dump some of the feathers that had fallen in the multiple crashed in the dumpster bin, Spike looked over at the pair of winged ponies. “What details? I thought you guys got everything worked out.”

The pegasus rolled her eyes. “Obviously not, if we need to do more work.”

“Well, Twilight’s great with details, take her with you. She could help out."

Ignoring the frown Kicker gave to her number one assistant, Twilight looked over to Rainbow Dash’s slumped shoulders as everything fell into place. Obviously, whatever work she had left to do was…well, considering it was Rainbow Dash, it was probably a lot. The alicorn probably did everything like her weather work, last minute rush jobs. But this time she didn’t have her athleticism to fall back on.

However, she doubted Spike’s motivation was completely benign. In fact…

“You just want to get out of cooking dinner, don’t you?” the unicorn asked her assistant, who shrugged before giving his response.

“It’s eight at night Twilight.”

“Come on then Twi, we’ll go to the Hay Bar, it’s always open late,” Rainbow told her without her usual energy. Apparently, the alicorn’s rush of adrenaline was wearing off. Considering she had set up the whole meeting in less than two-and-a-half hours, run through some paces with two new weather ponies, and just put on that exhilarating performance, Twilight figured she had to be crashing from whatever had been keeping her going like mad all day.

The pegasus looked back and forth between the two. “Uh…if you two are going, maybe I should just head home.”

“Oh well-”

Twilight frowned at the pair. “Oh no, you are not dumping all that work on her,” Twilight said, not sure if she was speaking to Kicker or Dash. “Now come on and let’s go.”

As she walked past the air, Twilight noticed the stars had been covered up by a gloomy group of clouds. Weird, I thought tonight’s skies were supposed to be clear, she thought to herself before looking back to spare a glance at Rainbow Dash while the pegasus was giving the alicorn an odd look, half-way between apologetic and encouraging.

Twilight gave the pegasus a frown and told them to come on. Although she didn’t know how much work those two would be getting done tonight, at the very least she would be able to keep the hussy’s hooves off her friend.

Author's Note

Obviously the personality of the CK of this chapter/story is based off the Winningverses's Cloud Kicker from Life and Times of a Winning Pony. It's not going to be a carbon copy character, but let's face it people...she might as well be cannon at this point.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Prolific Problems of Ponyville Pegasi

It was an hour past dawn when Cloud Kicker landed at Ponyville’s old relay practice field to get everything set up for the tornado drill training. Thankfully, the small town took competitions seriously, so the public field wasn’t covered in leaves and branches or anything. However, she did see a problem in the presence of a purple unicorn and her slumbering dragon.

It wasn’t the fact that Cloud Kicker hadn’t been expecting Twilight to show up, more like dreading it really thanks to the activities of what had gone on the night before.

The pegasus gulped, and trotted over to where Twilight was calibrating what looked like a fan with a speed gauge on it. She’d spin it with a hoof, look at a notepad that was floating nearby, then adjust something in the back with a wrench. Supposedly, the thing could measure the force of a pegasus’s wake, and spit out that number in wing power. Twilight had explained it in detail the night before, but the fast paced explanation had left Cloud Kicker in need of a stiff drink to stop her head from hurting.

“Umm, hey Twilight…about last night,” she began with an apologetic smile. The line was always a good way for her apologies to start, although it was the first time in awhile the activities Cloud Kicker was apologizing for didn’t involve rope, cuffs, a crop, and some bridles.

“I’m not talking to you.”

Cloud Kicker winced at the tone of the irate unicorn’s voice and let out a nervous laugh. “Eh-he… Come on, it was just a harmless prank.” And it didn’t even go off before she noticed.

When the unicorn looked up at her, Cloud Kicker winced at the glare. However, as the world didn’t suddenly enlarge in perspective, change into another location entirely, or go completely dark for about one thousand years, she was able to thank Celestia for Twilight not turning her into a toad, banishing her beyond Equestria’s borders, or making a statue out of her.

All Twilight did was talk. Loudly...with some anger in her tone and fire in her eyes. “You tried to get me drunk!”

“It was one drink, in a bar! We thought it would help you loosen up a little,” she tried to defend herself. It had been Rainbow’s idea, and it really had only involved one drink, but Twilight seemed to shift the blame onto the pegasus because Kicker had been the one to suggest the location.

But after the first drink, as in sip, Twilight had noticed the odd taste of the cider in her mug, as well as the fact the ‘Hay Barn’ took down the N on it’s sign after dark and put two and two together.

“I could feel my brain cells dying!” she stressed in a fashion only somepony who had consistently avoided alcohol her entire life could. “Now I’ll need to take an IQ test just to see how much damage I’ve undergone!”

Cloud Kicker could only watch as the unicorn’s eyes widened in horror, and she sat back on her haunches to hold her head for her forelegs. “Oh no! What if I drop below two-hundred and sixty? Princess Celestia won’t want me as her student anymore!”

“Twilight,” the pegasus said while the unicorn kept going.

“And my-my life in Ponyville! The only reason I’m here is because I’m studying the Magic of Friendship! If I’m not her student, then I can’t live at the library! And I’m too old to live with my parents, and-and since I never completed my studies under Princess Celestia, I won’t be able to get a job! I’ll be destitute, living out of a cardboard box and eating grass just to get by! AND IT’S ALL. YOUR. FAULT!” Twilight shouted after rounding on a slightly terrified Cloud Kicker and drawing the attention of some of the early arrivals.

Oh Celestia…where’s an alicorn when you really need one? Kicker thought as Twilight snorted at her in a way that had Kicker wondering if the unicorn would actually charge forward like a bull.

Then, her salvation arrived in the form of a flamboyant orange stallion that zoomed by fast enough to cause Twilight’s air…thingy to spin around before said stallion looped back around to land in a trot that put him next to Twilight. Then Flash Sentry smirked at the both the unicorn and Cloud Kicker before asking the obvious question. “So, how’d I do?”

The whole presentation seemed to shock Twilight out of her rage spiral, and made the unicorn’s whole body jump a bit before becoming all happy as she looked down to check the readout. “Let’s see…Oh! Thirty-um…that’s as high as my meter goes actually,” she mumbled before looking back to the stallion. “That’s…wow, that’s really impressive Flash!”

With her boss’s/deity’s/friend’s crush one step away from going gaga about some stallion she just met, Cloud Kicker quickly decided to step in and save the day in her best ‘rain on your parade’ voice. “And completely irrelevant,” she said with narrowed eyes. “Wing power is measured after a thirty meter dash. That’s real wing power, not something assisted by inertia and wind. Anypony can fly fast when they hit a jet stream, and even Rainbow Dash needs time to build up speed before she blows up the sky. The tornado has a base of thirty meters, so that’s the length everypony has to show their stuff with.

“And aren’t you still calibrating that thing?” she asked Twilight with a raised eyebrow as the unicorn just stared into Flash Sentry’s eyes. “Something like that little stunt probably just messed up all your work.”

That little bit if info snapped Twilight out of her stupor and widened her eyes. “Oh my gosh! You’re right!” she said before whirling around to mess with the twirly-speedometer.

Crises averted, the pegasus told herself as the pretty-colt gave a pensive frown to Twilight Sparkle’s plot while she used her magic to mess with her thingy; probably because she was shaking it in his face a little while humming a tune to herself. Get used to it boy, because that’s all you’ll ever see.

Job done, she turned to go check on the other pegasi who were starting to show up and patted herself on the back. Figuratively speaking of course.

While Cloud Kicker had no idea whatsoever just what Rainbow saw in Twilight, or even what a pony like Dash could see in Sparkle beyond some cute nerdish charm, the pegasus wasn’t about to let some play-colt come and snatch her from the alicorn’s hooves. Friendship aside, which was a good enough reason for Cloud Kicker to help out Rainbow on its own… She didn’t want to see what would happen to the weather around Ponyville if Rainbow Dash got her heart broken.

“Anything I can do to help?”

Kicker stopped and looked back at Flash as Twilight regarded him quizzically for a second before speaking. “Well…I suppose I could use a real pegasus to help me test my readouts with. If you know your actual wing power, that is. I’ve been using mathematical equations to calculate my force and spinning the propeller at a speed of two. At least it should be two.”

A snort came from Flashes mouth. “Sure I know, it’s…fifteen…point…three!”

Cloud Kicker let out a single laugh at the obviously fake score. There was no way Twilight would-

“Great! Let’s get started then!”

As the showoff took to the air again, Cloud Kicker’s eye began to twitch. Now, she needed to come up with a way to disprove the stallion’s claim while trying not to step on the tail of a unicorn who could juggle houses with her mind. The things I do for friends.

Just where the buck was that burning alicorn?

“Okay Fluttershy, what’s wrong?”

The concern in Rainbow’s voice made it easy to ignore the fact that with the added height, Fluttershy’s oldest friend had the tendency to loom over her by just standing next to the shy pegasus. Of course, that by itself didn’t frighten her, but after getting rained on in her house when Rainbow washed off Fluttershy’s fake pony pox, and the sound of a thunderclap scared her into the air when she faked a wing injury, the alicorn’s glowing hair that seemed to twitch on its own made her look kind of…menacing.

“W-Well, um…its just…I can’t go out there and fly!” she exclaimed before sinking down to the ground.

Despite some of the books she had read saying that the first step to fixing your problems was to admit them, the shame Fluttershy felt when she, a pegasus, whose life was supposed to practically revolve around flying, actually spoke those words made her want to cry.

“Fluttershy, what’re you talking about?” the alicorn asked before helping the pegasus up and looking at her in the eyes. “I’ve seen you fly plenty of times. You’ll do fine!”

Rainbow’s words of confidence in her abilities didn’t help at all next to the reality of the situation. “Don’t you remember what happened back in flight camp?” Fluttershy asked while some of her worst memories clawed their way up from the depths of her mind. “I couldn’t gallop hard or fly fast.”

“Well yeah,” Rainbow agreed, “you were pretty pathetic back in the day.”

With her friend’s agreement, Fluttershy just felt her whole body want to give out before the tears started to come. Of course Rainbow wasn’t going to argue with her. Princesses had to be honest, right? And the honest truth was that Fluttershy was hardly a pegasus at all! An insult to the entire tribe!

The whole race would just be better off is she put on a cape and spent her whole life covering her wings so that nopony would ever know that there was a pegasus like Fluttershy. She could live in a hole in the ground with that filly Scootaloo. At least until her wings started working better than the ones destiny saw fit to give the shy pegasus, then she’d be making fun of Fluttershy as well, and a new home would have to be found.

It didn’t matter than she’d helped save Equestria from Nightmare Moon!

Discord hadn’t even bothered tricking her when he came around just ‘poof!’ and mean Fluttershy came along.

So what if Rainbow Dash had picked her up and was giving the smaller winged pony a…hug and a nuzzle?

Fluttershy blinked in confusion when she noticed her position. Rainbow Dash was holding the pegasus in her hooves, letting Fluttershy rest in her lap while she cried into the goddesses mane and Rainbow stroked her pink hair. “Rainbow Dash?” she asked before sniffling in some air through her runny nose.

Princess or no, Rainbow Dash was not a hugger. Having her friend act in such a way was a little unsettling. But at the same time… This feels nice, Fluttershy decided as she rested her head on the alicorn’s shoulder.

A few seconds later, Rainbow made Fluttershy pick her head back up and look at her so they could talk face to face. “So, got it out of your system?” the alicorn asked.

When Fluttershy nodded in the affirmative, Rainbow Dash gave her a smile.

“Good,” she said while gently wiping away Fluttershy’s tears with a hoof, then picking up the pegasus to carry her to the full body mirror she had in the corner of her room. After setting Fluttershy down, Rainbow stood next to her and pointed to the mirror. “Now tell me what you see.”

Fluttershy looked in the mirror and let out a whine. “It’s me,” she said. It was the image of a pathetic pegasus who could hardly fly, with red eyes and the worst kind of cutie mark a flying pony could have.

After she tried lowering her head in shame, Rainbow yanked it right back up, and pointed to the mirror before looking back down at Fluttershy. “Yeah,” she agreed. “Adult Fluttershy. Foal-you was a shrimp, with spindly little legs and wings that stopped working when you got all panicked.

“But adult you? Just look at yourself!” Rainbow commanded her with a gentle nudge. “I see an amazing and strong pegasus who can wrestle bears, and fly fast enough to catch up with me of all ponies! So stop remembering the scrawny little foal you were, and start recognizing the beautiful mare that you are.”

Fluttershy blushed at the compliments before looking back into the mirror and seeing…the pegasus who could only teach baby birds how to fly because older ones could outrun her. “I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, I…I just…”

A large foreleg pulled Fluttershy into another hug. “I know that confidence can be hard to come by at all sometimes Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash told her softly. “And believing in yourself when you’ve had problems is hard, but…look…you believe in me, right?”

Thrown off by the question, Fluttershy could only nod. “Yes.”

“And you know I’d never lie to you, right?” she went on.

Fluttershy titled her head, still confused. “Yes?”

Rainbow Dash took to the air and frowned at the shy pegasus. “You don’t exactly sound all that honest yourself there Fluttershy.”

“Oh! I’m sorry,” Fluttershy apologized before taking in a breath. “I know you’d never lie to me Rainbow Dash.” Which was hardly a platitude, the former pegasus had picked up a brutal level of honesty since getting her horn.

The alicorn landed and grabbed Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Good! So if you have problems believing in yourself right now, then believe in me!” Rainbow Dash said as she pulled her hoof away from Fluttershy to pound herself in the chest. “Because I believe in you!”

Fluttershy blushed at the attention, and the faith that the alicorn was showing her. “Rainbow…”

“And it works Fluttershy,” Rainbow said as she lifted the mare’s head to meet her loving gaze. “Because whenever I was scared at flight camp, with all those eyes looking at me, all I had to do was remind myself that you believed in me, and that belief let me know that I could do anything.

“I’m just sorry that it’s taken me so long to see that the pony who lifted me up needed a helping hoof too,” she went on. “Now come on and leave that filly in the past where she belongs, and lets go show everypony the mare that she’s become.”

A tiny spark felt as if it ran through her body, and Fluttershy felt her heart quicken from Rainbow Dash’s words. The terror of performing was still there, but…if her oldest friend thought Fluttershy could do it, then…maybe it wasn’t so hopeless. “Okay,” she breathed out. “I’ll try.”

Rainbow Dash leapt back into the air with a smile. “Great!”

Then, her expression sobered a little as she lowered herself back to the ground. “And I am sorry for not helping you with this sooner Fluttershy,” Rainbow went on. “I remember how you used to do so many amazing things back at camp, like sing the most wonderful songs I’ve ever heard, and I still have that old scarf you knitted for me tucked away in my house. And when I think about how a bunch of bullies made you hide your voice and throw away your needles, it just makes me want to…!”

She took in a deep breath, and let it out through her nose in an angry snort. “Sorry. It’s just makes me want to kick myself when I see the friend who's always support me, never got the help from the mare who should have been giving her the most.”

Fluttershy just gapped at the alicorn’s words. Seeing Rainbow beat herself up like this was terrible! “What are you talking about?” she demanded in a panic. “You’ve always been there for me! I wouldn’t have made it in Ponyville without your help. Rainbow Dash you…you’re the most supportive friend I’ve ever had! And don’t you dare tell yourself otherwise!”

If anything, the fact that Rainbow Dash was here helping her just made Fluttershy feel guilty. “I just hope this doesn’t cut into anything important, like your princess duties.”

Rainbow Dash let out a laugh. “Princess duties…yeah. If you saw what I-oh! Hey there’s an idea! You should come with me when I go to Canterlot tonight!” the alicorn exclaimed. “You can meet my mom, and we can talk about what it was like when we first moved to Ponyville. It’ll be awesome!”

The nonsense Rainbow was spouting threw Fluttershy into confusion again. “Rainbow, your mother has been gone for-wait!” she squeaked as Fluttershy realized just what pony the alicorn was going on about came into her head. “You mean...Princess Celestia?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she looked down at Fluttershy, who was a few trots away from absolute panic, then turned away as she led the pegasus out the door. “Ugh, I talk about you girls so much that she’s probably dying to meet you all. I can’t believe why I didn’t think of this before!” Then she floated back down to the ground and walked a little in front of the. “And I can get Applejack to go next time, I’ve been needing to get that farm pony to do something with me! Rarity will probably want to wear a stupid dress…”

Fluttershy stopped listening to the alicorn as she followed behind her friend and tried not to think how badly her day was going to go when they got to Canterlot…

“You drag my daughter away from her studies for your own selfish, cowardly needs, and DARE to call yourself her friend?” the golden alicorn with eyes as bright as the sun shouted as her hair danced like a wild flame that threatened to consume anything that came too close. “She’s not your friend, she’s your crutch! The pony you drag around to look at butterflies with because you're too scared to do anything on your own! And I’ll make sure she finally sees you for the leech you are!”

All of a sudden, Tornado Day didn’t seem all that scary…in comparison at least.

The murmur of the crowd dragged Twilight attention away from putting the finishing touches on her anemometer to look up and around when Rainbow Dash arrived with Fluttershy next to her and kept up the sky while the pegasus landed. So that’s where she was, the unicorn told herself.

Considering the fact that Rainbow was helping out a friend with something, Twilight decided to forgo the punctuality lecture. Although, she did have to wonder if Fluttershy would be able to overcome her problems in time for Tornado Day.

Cloud Kicker had been afraid the yellow pegasus wouldn’t have been able to fly with all the other pegasi. Rainbow had just thought she needed a little self-esteem. Considering all the other things Twilight had seen Fluttershy do since coming to Ponyville, she sided with the alicorn.

“Hey everypony,” Rainbow said from the air as she moved to address the crowd of gathering pegasi. “Sorry I’m a little late, had to help Fluttershy with a little animal emergency. But now that everypony’s…wait…” She looked around and frowned. “Anypony seen the newbie?”

“I’m right here.”

“No, you’re the plebe,” Rainbow corrected Flash Sentry, getting a frown from the pegasus before she went back to addressing the crowd. “Hasn’t anypony seen Starry Night?”

As the crowd of pegasi shook their heads in the negative, a bit of light on the edge of Twilight’s vision caught her attention, and she looked over to see…the pegasus in question stumbling around as if she had just suffered a jarring landing.

“Apologies, apologies I…” the dark coated pegasus stopped to yawn loudly before moving to work a crick out of her neck. “My work lasted late into the evening.”

“Ooooo late night huh? And still up this early? She must have some stamina, or maybe a quick recovery.”

Twilight looked over to frown at the banging golem, then smacked Cloud Kicker in the shoulder while the pegasus was licking her lips. When Kicker looked over at her to frown, Twilight pointed to her freshly awoken reptile standing nearby. “Keep it under your tail around Spike,” the unicorn ordered.

Luckily, the little guy was still looking through her little checklist to mark off Starry Night’s name and then turn the pages on the notepad she had provided him to get to the part that was meant for writing down the wing power of the pegasi. “Still say the first checklist I a waste of time if we can just write absent on the chart.”

Rainbow gave the dark pegasus a blank look. “Oh, I didn’t see you fly in,” she said before shaking off her stupor. “Okay so… Listen up everypony! If you’re ready to do your run now, I want you lined up inside the inner track for the test. Everypony else, head to the outer track and fly a slow lap to get the blood flowing without tiring yourselves out. Then come and wait. If you feel a tingle in your wings while in line, just hover in place till you’ve worked it out.”

As the ponies separated into groups, the alicorn came by Twilight’s anemometer and gave it a quizzical look. “Is that thing working right?”

Happy to show off her accomplishment, the unicorn nodded and spun the propeller at the exact amount of strength she had calculated to produce 2 wing power. “Yep!” Twilight assured her best friend before drawing Rainbow Dash’s attention to the meter. “See it’s…hmm, two-point-five. I must have put a little too much force into that one.”

“Or your setting are off,” Cloud Kicker interjected, getting a glare from Twilight for daring to insinuate her mathematical calculations were wrong! She had tested it with a pegasus who knew his exact wing power. The anemometer spat it out three times in a row during tests. It was fine!

Rainbow let out a chuckle. “Oh please, Twilight messing up on math is like a sign of the end times,” she assured the pegasus as the unicorn looked away in embarrassment.

Still, Twilight managed to catch Cloud Kicker rolling her eyes at the alicorn’s praise, and that got her another frown from the unicorn before Kicker spoke. “Hey Boss, you know your wing power right? Maybe you should take the first run to um…show everypony how its done? I mean, you’ve got a wing power of sixteen something, right?”

“Um…not anymore,” Rainbow said reluctantly before looking back to her wings and flexing them.

Since she doubted the alicorn cared to elaborate, or even knew everything to talk about, Twilight decided to help her out. “Because wing power is measured by the wake a pegasus creates while flying, Rainbow’s extra size and mass gives her a boost, along with the increased size of her wingspan and alicorn magic that adds to the amount of force she used to generate than when she was a pegasus.” Of course the extra size also meant she needed extra power to get off the ground, so mechanics-wise, it kind of balanced out when it came to power for normal pegasi who were a bit heavier than average. Alicorns…not so much.

“So…it’s not just the whole alicorn thing giving her more speed, but her size that also ups the readings?” Cloud Kicker translated. “But…that would still be good for making a tornado, right?”

Rainbow sighed. “If I could participate, yeah. But…no alicorns, remember?”

Getting the alicorn depressed earned Cloud Kicker another scowl from Twilight. Do you have to remind her about that? Twilight mentally shouted at the light purple pony.

“Well, maybe you could…you know…give us a demonstration,” Cloud Kicker suggested. “To…show all the ponies how its done.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Flash has been doing that all morning Cloud Kicker. The pegasi know how close they’re supposed to fly to the anemometer, and what they’re supposed to do.” He had actually been doing it so long, the poor colt needed to rest in the line that was set up to run the anemometer before moving into the rest of the training Rainbow had scheduled. “Now come on, we’re wasting time.”

Thankfully, Rainbow cut the conversation short and told Cloud Kicker to go monitor the pegasi running laps to make sure they didn’t tire themselves out before she looked back around the field for a minute. Her gaze fell on the larger than average pegasus. “Hey Starry Night! Last one to show up, first one to go up! Let’s see what you’ve got!”

As the crowd of pegasi started to cheer their newest mare, Twilight nodded to Rainbow that she was ready and the alicorn gave Night the go signal by clapping her hooves together at the same time she released a lightning charge. The thunderclap that came from the move made the dark pegasus bolt into action.

Starry Night became a blur that zoomed past the anemometer, and actually had Rainbow holding onto Twilight to keep her from being blown over while Spike took shelter behind the pair of ponies. Although, even the strength of an alicorn was unable to save the unicorn’s mane from the wake over the overgrown pegasus.

“Wow, that was…um, Twilight…what was that?” Rainbow asked.

The unicorn looked down at the meter. Its reading caused her eyes to widen. “Wow! Nineteen-point-five! That’s really impressive Starry Night!” Twilight complemented the pegasus as she landed to the cheers of the crowd.

Rainbow did seem very happy about the reading for some reason. If anything, she looked a bit…disturbed.

A little concerned from the odd look she was giving Night, Twilight looked over to examine the pegasus. It didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with her…besides the oddity that Twilight had picked up on last night. She was just a slightly bigger than average pony with a dark, blackish-blue coat and light blue hair with a…normal cutie mark.

Not seeing what Rainbow Dash was so unnerved about, Twilight looked back up to the alicorn’s face. “Something wrong Rainbow?”

“…it’s um…nothing Twilight,” the alicorn mumbled barely loud enough for the unicorn to hear. Then, she looked back to the line. “Okay, next up!”

It didn’t take a genius to see that there was something indeed wrong, but Twilight decided not to press the issue in front of a crowd. Instead, she sighed at the obvious fact Rainbow was holding something out on her, and motioned for the next flier.

As Raindrops walked up to the start point, Night trotted over to the alicorn with a happy smile on her face, and bags under her eyes. “Is there anything else you need me to do, Captain?”

“Um…no Star,” Rainbow told her in an uneasy tone. “You look like you need a nap or something anyway and…you really don’t need to work out so…take five.”

After Rainbow was done speaking. Starry Night’s face became concerned. “Is there something amiss? Did I do something wrong with the exercise? We… I could try again if you so wish it!”

“No, you um…” Rainbow stopped to take in a deep breath. “You did great! Fastest…Fastest pegasus I’ve ever seen. Happy to have you aboard.”

Although her words didn’t help relieve the look of distress on the pegasus’s face, Starry Night bowed her head to Rainbow, which only made the alicorn more uncomfortable. “Understood Captain.”

Despite the fact that time moved at a constant rate, the morning did seem to go by quicker as things fell into the routine Twilight worked to establish from early on as to improve efficiency. More and more pegasi got their speeds, then met up with Cloud Kicker to be placed in whatever exercise was best. Apparently wings weren’t the only thing that needed to be worked on. Some pegasi needed to work on their flank-based wind drag.

“Okay Fluttershy, you’re up!” Rainbow called out enthusiastically.

Then, her expression changed and she motioned one of the pegasi, a yellow pony with light lime hair that Twilight had only seen flying around Ponyville a few times during the rainy season to come over. “Hey Raindrops, we went to flight camp together, right?” she asked.

Raindrops raised a quizzical eyebrow at the alicorn. “Um…yeah?” she said while turning her head to view Rainbow with only one eye. “So what?”

“And you used to pick on Fluttershy, right?” she got out through gritted teeth.

The pegasus’s eyes widened, and she held up a hoof. “What? Whoa, time out Boss. That was years ago!” she said before her expression turned into a frown. “I’m not the nicest pegasus around, but I don’t pick on other ponies. You know that.”

Rainbow’s expression softened a little, but their was still an edge to her voice when she spoke. “Just making sure. Took me forever into talking Fluttershy into coming out here. It’ll crush her if somepony laughs at her score.”

The unicorn looked over to her friend, and smiled when she saw Rainbow Dash wasn’t looking Twilight’s way. Rainbow’s horn and memories hadn’t been the only thing she had gained since becoming a princess. Twilight was finding layers under the alicorn’s usually hard shell that she didn’t even knew existed all those months ago. It was…well, she didn’t quite know what to call it.

Then, Fluttershy got the signal to begin, and flew as fast as she could along the track at a leisurely pace. At least, until she got towards the end, then…something seemed to distract the pegasus, and she slowed to a floating crawl that barely turned the anemometer.

Twilight looked to the readout of .6, and gulped. Oh…that’s not good.

Then she noticed Raindrops took a look at the speedometer, and gulped. “Whelp…back to doing laps for me!” she said before speeding off.

Rainbow Dash just looked devastated. “Oh no.”

“So, how’d I do?”

A chill ran up Twilight’s spine, and Rainbow didn’t fair much better.

“Tell her,” the alicorn ordered out of the side of her mouth.

“No, you tell her,” the alicorn’s teacher commanded. Sorry Rainbow, but you got the horn and the wings, so you get the hard jobs.

Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a pleading look, then gulped and looked back to the pink-maned pegasus with the yellow coat. “So um…great job Fluttershy! You got a whole point six!”

While the somewhat dirty tactic of fudging the announcement of Fluttershy’s numbers seemed to pay off, Spike spoke up as he wrote down her score. “Wait, did you say point six, as in…less than one?”

Twilight didn’t bother to fight the urge to smack the dragon upside his head, and Spike was forced to chase the quill that slipped out from behind one of his ear-fins. Then, she could only watch as Fluttershy showed all the familiar signs of an onset of panic, and turned to run away.

Rainbow Dash flew up to talk to her, but it didn’t seem to help much because she actually managed to stop the alicorn from chasing after her with a few words and tears.

Then, the alicorn whirled around to zoom back to the middle of the training grounds, and Twilight could feel the air around her become charged with magical energy. Blue skies turned to dark clouds within seconds, and a thunderous boom rattled Twilight’s brain with the sheer force the thunderclap caused. Unfortunately, as loud as that was, Rainbow’s mana-infused voice was even worse as its magic caused the sound to practically swim through her whole body.

“OKAY WHICH ONE OF YOU IDIOTS LAUGHED AT HER?”

As pretty much all the pegasi on the field fell from the sky to cower at the appearance of the irate alicorn, Twilight felt a feather poke her in the shoulder. The wing it belonged to was Cloud Kicker’s. “Sparkle. Please tell me you have some kind of contingency plan for stuff like this.”

“Aside from the usual duck and cover?” Twilight replied before trying to think if she really did have something. But…nothing came to mind. “Nope.”