Constant

Clouds.

Just by looking at them you can just tell that, if one could only walk on them, they'd be softer than the fluffiest pillows in all of Equestria.  Just ask any pegasus and they'd be able to confirm that as fact, if they didn't feel like messing with your head first that is.  Since most pegasi are born in the clouds anyway, they're pretty used to them by the time they're little fillies or colts on their way to school, so when ponies who've lived their whole lives on the ground start asking them about cloud life they tend to just shrug them off in either confusion at their awe or annoyance at their constant pestering.

Ponies from the earth simply can't help it though.  Without wings of their own, they'd just fall through the otherwise soft substance straight to the ground... of course they could get a unicorn to cast a cloud walking spell or something similar on them, but few unicorns actually know how to use such a spell, so earth bound ponies are just that.

Earth bound.

The only conceivable way for a pony from the ground to suddenly begin walking on the clouds, without the need for magic, would be if they would spontaneously sprout wings in the middle of the night, but that just doesn't happen.  Wings don't simply appear after a good night's sleep, and even if they did then the pony wouldn't automatically know how to fly.  Contrary to popular belief, just because one suddenly has wings it doesn't mean that they'll be able to fly the very next day, nor would they have the natural meteorological skill that most pegasi seem to have, so making everyday sunny just because you can now move clouds would actually be impossible without accidentally making it rain everywhere else.

Nonetheless, it has now been almost a year since I rewrote Starswirl's lost spell.  Things seem to have calmed down since that fateful day, and even though my friends (thankfully) still have their own cutie marks, I'm still getting used to my new appendages. I know that I said previously that growing wings in a single a night just doesn't happen without magic, but then again magic was involved and

I've had them long enough now that flying shouldn't be so hard now, but I'll admit that certain maneuvers are still pretty

I'll be blunt and say that I don't like flying.  Actually that's not entirely true. But I

The feeling of flight is one that I will never forget, but I have to admit that I'm still not that good at

"Ugh..." a disgruntled pony murmured to herself as she crossed out yet another sentence on the scroll she was writing on, "Why is this so hard?  I knew just how to word this a few minutes ago..."  Shaking her head in frustration, the purple coated mare floated up a red quill in the purple aura of her magic to try again.  Setting the tip of the quill on the bottom of the page, she brought up her hoof to brush her dark purple mane out of her eyes, just barely missing her pinkish highlights, before massaging her forehead below the long horn that was just above it.

"How should I write this..." she asked herself out loud in her high voice, more to hear her own thoughts than to actually get an answer, "heck... this isn't even a letter... " expressing a slight sigh, the mare replaced her hoof back upon the soft, white ground, the act of which caused her ink jar to wobble around next to her.  Giving it a brief glance, she lifted it up and out of the white surface to keep it from slipping through to the hard earth below before turning back to her scroll.

Now chewing the tip of her quill, the purple mare pondered how to go about expressing her thoughts before muttering to herself, "Well... it's not like anypony's going to read this..."

"Not unless somepony starts reading it from over your shoulder."

"Well... true... but who's going to do that when I'm up on a-GAH!" the mare screamed, jumping away from the sudden magenta eye that was next to her face, "Where did you come from?!" The owner of the magenta eye, a light blue pony with a shockingly colorful mane, chuckled at the mare's reaction.

"Oh I don't know Twilight..." the blue mare teased in a boyish voice as she took a step back from the startled pony, "Maybe it's on account of the things on my back?" And, without even waiting for an answer, the blue pony had already stretched out the 'things' on her backside to reveal a pair of equally blue wings.  The mare called Twilight gaped at the mare for a few seconds more before snorting her disapproval.

"Rainbow Dash!" she yelled, "Why did you scare me like that?!  I'm in the middle of something!"  Rainbow, however, only laughed at her displeasure as she contracted both her wings back to her sides.

"The middle of what?" she exclaimed between her laughter, "A cloud? 'cause that's what we're standing on!" Twilight only shook her head once more in response, but this time in annoyance as her friend bit off a chunk of the fluffy cloud beneath them to prove her point.

"Shee?" The pegasus said through the cloud chunk only to spit it out to laugh some more.

"Rain-MPH!" Twilight tried to yell again, but before she could the cloud chunk flew straight into her face, now muffling her own voice.  The poor mare struggled with tearing away the large ball of cloud now stuck to her face while Rainbow paused in her laughing to see what she had done, only to practically fall over in hysterics.

"HA HA HA! T-TWILIGHT!"  She exclaimed between her fits, "Y-YOUR FACE! HA HA-"

BLAM!

"RAINBOW DASH!" Twilight finally yelled again as the cloud quickly dissipated into nothingness from being blasted apart from the now sizzling horn atop the enraged mare's head, "WHAT do you WANT?!"  Upon seeing the anger clearly written on the purple mare's face, the pegasus wisely rolled back onto her legs and stood up, but she was still wearing a rather coy smirk.

"Oh chill out, princess," she said to the mare as she quickly walked up to her side and wrapped one of her blue wings across her back, "I was only seeing what my flying buddy was doing up here."  Dash smiled and opened her mouth to say something else, but before she could a pair of large, purple wings exploded out from beneath her blue one on her friend's back and pushed her away.  Twilight gave the wings on her back a brief look before contracting them back to her own sides.

"If you must know," the alicorn stated in a less than cheerful tone, "I'm writing in my own journal about my recent experiences."  Rainbow, furling her eyebrows in confusion, gave the mare a quizzical look.

"You're... huh?"

"I'm writing a journal!"  Twilight now exclaimed as she turned on her friend, "What's so hard to get?"

"Oh no... I get that part..." Rainbow quickly explained while scratching her head with one of her wings, "What I don't get is why you're doing it.  I mean..."  she paused and trotted over to the edge of the cloud, "Don't you, and I, and rest of us, do that anyway with the friendship journal?"

"Well... yes."  Twilight agreed as she sat down into the cloud, "But recently I've found it easier to just get my thoughts out on paper rather than just talking to myself.  I would have put them in the friendship journal, but I didn't want to bother you guys with my ramblings." As Twilight looked over at Rainbow she found that she was giving her a deadpan look.

"Er... again."  She added with a sheepish grin.  Rainbow smiled at her once more before she also sat down.

"Well... okay then!  Gives the rest of us some more writing space anyway!"  Twilight chuckled at her friend's joke before she reached out to pick up her scroll once more...

...Only to grab up a single, red feathered quill and some loose cloud.

"Huh?"  Twilight asked as she looked around herself for her missing scroll.  Rainbow, being oblivious to Twilight's confusion, noticed something else just then.

"Hmm..." she mumbled, "You know... writing that journal by quill might be hard without a jar of ink... you don't have some sort of ink spell now do you?"

"Wha..."  Twilight asked as she stood up to look around the cloud some more, "n-no of course not... it would definitely be handy... but no such spell..." her voice trailed off in thought, she suddenly jerked her head up with wide, purple eyes.  Dash, finally noticing this, opened her mouth to ask what the matter was, but before she could the alicorn had already taken to the air below the cloud.

"T-Twilight?" Rainbow asked, "What's-"

"Oh NO!" Twilight exclaimed just below the pegasus.  Without wasting a second, the blue mare had already leaped off of the cloud and was racing toward's the ground below to see what was up... only to find Twilight staring at what had, unfortunately, come down.

"My Cloud Ink!" She proclaimed to nopony in particular.  Rainbow, landing next to the distressed mare with a small puff of sand, frowned at the small, black puddle in front of them.  Upon closer inspection, however, she realized that there was broken glass in the middle of it which, she assumed, was the remains of the former ink jar.

"Oh... I knew this would happen..."  Twilight pouted next to her, "Why didn't I just go write in my library or out in the field?  No... I just had to fly up to a cloud to write it and... and... speaking of which... I've lost that as well!" Stamping her hoof in frustration, Twilight nickered to herself and slumped onto the sand covered trail they were standing on.

Rainbow, now looking a little guilty, stammered, "C-cloud ink?  Isn't that stuff...expensive?"

"Well yes Rainbow.  It is." Twilight impatiently explained, "It's actually a small byproduct from the rainbow making process.  Usually the colors of a rainbow are individually created first using water and sunlight.  Once each color has been created, they're each carefully poured into a vat and boiled together while arcane magicks from various Spell Runes coalesce them into a single liquid, but in a way so that each color is still visible.  Of course..."  She paused as she shot her friend a short glare, "You would already know this since you work in weather."

"I... of course!" Rainbow tried to say, "But-"

"HOWEVER," Twilight continued on as if she hadn't spoken, "Sometimes, under specific circumstances, the colors actually mix instead of staying separate and turn into a thick, black ooze.  Ordinarily, this would be carefully thrown out, but through a certain process of mixing and refining, this black ooze can be converted into some of the richest ink in all of Equestria, but since the process is very time consuming and costly, the ink is rather rare and is indeed very expensive."  Now finished with her explanation, the alicorn gave a short huff and crossed her forehooves over her chest.  Throughout all of this, the ink in question had stopped spreading in front of them and was now slowly seeping into the ground.  Rainbow gave it a quick glance before waiting for Twilight to go off again, but when she didn't, she stepped forward to inspect the black puddle.

"So then..." she muttered out loud, "Who's going to clean this up?"

"Augh!"  Twilight suddenly screamed, making Rainbow jump into the air, "I'll figure that out later!  First I have to find my journal entry!"  And with that, she, too, jumped up and turned around to look for her scroll, but then Rainbow landed in front of her.

"Not now, Dash..." Twilight told the cyan mare, "I need to find that scroll before-"

"Maybe you wanted to write that journal thing on a cloud, "Rainbow quickly interrupted, "because you were writing about clouds anyway...?"

"I... yes..." She admitted, "But... how did you..." Twilight stopped and stared as the pegasus sheepishly slipped out one of her wings and used it to pull out a roll of parchment from the last place Twilight had expected.

Her tail.

"I'm... I'm sorry!"  Rainbow quickly explained, "I swiped it from you when I kind of jumped you earlier... I was going to give it back!  I swear!  I uh... just wanted to read it first..." Twilight continued to stare at her friend, barely even registering what she had said as a storm of questions flooded her mind.  Now with her thoughts everywhere at once, she quickly shook her head and began to massage her forehead once again.

Deciding to ask the obvious first, the studious alicorn asked, "How... how did you hide that... in your tail?"

Raising her eyebrow at the odd question, Rainbow stared at the scroll in her wing's grip to her tail and back again before simply stating, "Pinkie Pie showed me how the other day."  Twilight, realizing Pinkie was behind it, gave up her held breath through a rather long sigh.  "It's actually pretty easy!" Rainbow continued, unhindered by the mare's reaction, "Apparently she's been doing it for the last couple of months herself.  You'd be surprised by how much junk she keeps in that thing!"

"I... okay fine..." Twilight managed to accept before recollecting herself, "Better question then... why did you want to read my scroll?  Even if you didn't know that I'd be transferring it to my personal journal later, you could have just asked to read it."  Rainbow, now blushing a little, began drawing circles on the sandy ground.

"I... well... you see..." she stammered trying to come up with an answer.  Twilight, seeing that she wasn't going to get anywhere soon, sighed before raising a hoof to stop her friend.

"Whatever your reason," she told her in a calm and collected voice, "I appreciate that you've told me the truth in the end anyway."

"I... yeah... okay..." Rainbow muttered after a bit more stammering.  Now smiling, the alicorn held out her raised hoof towards the pegasus and, albeit reluctantly, she hoofed over the scroll.  Finally, with scroll in hoof, Twilight carefully rolled it up and set it alight in green flames using her magic.  Rainbow jumped back from the sudden light show, but quickly calmed down as she recognized the color.

"Straight to Spike, huh?"  She asked her as she began to regain her composure.

"Straight to Spike." Twilight confirmed.  Once the scroll had completely burned up in her magic, both mares turned around to look at the ink puddle.  Strangely enough, though, it appeared to be mostly dry already despite being a blatent stain on the earth.

"Huh... "Rainbow pointed out, "I knew this stuff dried quickly, but that's a bit... uh..."

"Ridiculous?"  Twilight offered.  Nodding her head, Rainbow agreed.  After a moment's silence, Twilight used her magic to pull out the broken glass and wrapped it in a magical bubble.

"I'll just take this home and dispose of it there then."  She explained, and with that she turned tail and began to trot along the road.

"Um... wait... what about the ink?"  Rainbow asked as she quickly caught up to her with her wings.

"What about it?" Twilight asked while the bubble of broken glass floated next to her, "It'll dry up eventually and will just become yet another stain on the road, albeit more obvious than most."  Shrugging as if that made perfect sense, Rainbow landed and began to trot next to her friend.  After a few minutes of silence, though, Twilight had to ask, "How did you know I was up there anyway?"

"Hmm?"  Rainbow asked back in mild contemplation.

"How did you know I was up on that cloud?" the alicorn reiterated.

"Oh... that?"  Rainbow snickered, "I saw you from my bedroom pushing that cloud up there earlier.  I was curious, so I followed you."  Twilight slowed her trot a little as her face began to blush.

"Y-you saw that?"  She stammered a little at Rainbow's backside.

"Yeah!" the oblivious mare confirmed despite Twilight's quickly reddening cheeks, "You were hilarious just trying to move one cloud!  I practically had a heart attack just from laughing!"  And, to emphasize her point, she once again began to laugh at Twilight's expense for, apparently, the third time that day.  Twilight, now blushing incredibly hard, decided that it was high time that she left.  Aiming to just quickly say good bye to her friend and race off, Twilight slowed down even more and began to get ready to-

"So... I take it that you need more ink?"  Rainbow suddenly asked, throwing Twilight off her hooves for a second.

"Wha-I... uh... what?" The mare stammered while trying to regain her balance.

"Ink," Rainbow repeated without turning around, "My house is nearby, so you can take some of  the Cloud Ink that I got from my dad last week.  You can even throw out that broken jar while you're there and... Twilight?"  She asks, now realizing that her friend is no longer with her.  Turning on her hooves to look around, she found her not too far behind on the road they were on... with her jaw practically on the ground in front of her.

"Um... what?"  Rainbow asked her with a look of concern.

"You... you have Cloud Ink?"  Twilight managed to get out once she had picked up her jaw.

"Well... yeah." Rainbow explained as she rubbed the back of her head, "You remember that my dad works in Rainbows?  Apparently his company was hired to make some of that ink, but they made a bit more than intended, so he sent me some of the surplus."

"That's... generous... how much did he send you?"

"Oh... it's not too much... just a box full... well, unless these jars really are that expensive, then-"

WHOOSH!

Twilight had already taken the initiative and had taken flight.  She was already aiming herself in the direction of Rainbow's house, the small ball of broken glass barely able to keep up behind her, as she yelled back, "Then what are we waiting for?  Let's go!"

<> <> <>

Clink!  Clink!  Clink!  Clink!

It was now early afternoon, and, after having thrown out the broken ink jar and collected several more courtesy of Rainbow Dash and her rather generous dad, Twilight was now carefully flying back to her tree home with a pair of blue saddle bags full of the precious black liquid.  Since Twilight didn't think it was wise to be flying around while telekinetically floating so many small objects around her, Rainbow offered up her old saddle bags from a couple of years ago.  They seemed a bit worn, but they would do perfectly for a short run like this, and even though Rainbow had said she could just keep them if she wanted to, Twilight aimed to return them by that afternoon.

Of course, she had questioned her about why her dad thought sending his athletically-inclined daughter a box of expensive ink was a good idea, but just like with why she had wanted to read her scroll, she refused to explain, so Twilight was once again left confused.  Deciding that she'd figure it out later, the young princess finally alighted upon the front lawn of her oak wood, tree house, library.  She briefly admired it from the outside, noting that the various branches were still in full bloom from the spring time air and the warm heat from Celestia's sun.  Although she had seen this sight a million times already, she never got tired of the fact that she lived inside of a literal, living tree house that also happened to be a library.

Not wanting her good mood to go to waste any longer, the purple mare quickly walked through the single oak door and stepped inside as she announced, "Spike!  I'm home!  Did you get my journal scroll?" but she received no answer.  Not only that, but, for whatever reason, the place was completely dark.

"Why is it so dark in here?"  Twilight asked out loud as she closed the door behind her, shutting her in near perfect darkness, "Even the curtains are closed.  Are you sleeping or some-"

"Earth bound."  A voice suddenly announced from the darkness, "Just by looking at them you can just tell that, if only they could read their minds, then they'd know that they longed to be free."

"Wha-Who's there?!"  Twilight asked as she flared up her horn to allow her to see again.  Her horn glowed with her natural light-purple aura, but for some reason, as the light from her horn lit up the room around her and gave each object her light enveloped a pinkish tinge to them, it only made the room that much creepier.

"Ponies from the earth simply can't help it though," the strange, deep voice continued on, "With only the ground to stand on, they end up becoming bored out of their minds!  They soon long to be free of this boredom and to have the ability to be truly free!"

"W-Wait..." Twilight tried to say as she looked around to try to pinpoint the source of the voice, "This sounds... kind of like-"

"Clouds," the voice continued anyway, "The only conceivable way for a pony from the earth to be free would be to go past the clouds, but that's impossible, not even for a pony with wings..."

"Wait a minute..." Twilight noted, finding that the voice was coming from upstairs, "That sounds a little like my journal entry... but you're just changing around the order of it!  And some of the words are-"

"Especially for a pony with wings," the almost sinister voice called out, "Even though they've mastered the very fabric of weather, they still refuse to go further up.  In fact, they believe that it is much better to go further down instead.  Why is this?  Nopony, griffin, zebra, or otherwise knows..." Now scaling the stairs leading up to the second floor step by step, Twilight carefully edged closer and closer to the voice, and even though it was starting to sound annoyingly familiar, she pressed on until she was standing right in front of her bedroom door.

"Perhaps," the voice, much louder this time, thought out loud, "it is because they believe that the answer to becoming free lies deep within the very earth itself rather than being high above their heads, but somehow even they knew that their efforts would quickly become a fruitless charade..."  The door wasn't locked, so she slowly pushed it open and walked to the center of her room.  There, she noticed another source of light, this one almost as pink as her own, emanating from just above her head.  One last set of stairs separated her from her bedroom loft where the strange intruder likely was.

"Just ask any pony and they'd be able to confirm that as fact.  Despite this knowledge though, they still have yet to figure out what true freedom would be..." With careful hoofsteps, she climbed the last of the steps until she was looking into her darkened loft.  Although there was a window right there, Twilight noticed that it had been sealed shut by some unknown magic, but despite this she spotted a small, soundly sleeping lump that was gently moving up and down inside of what appeared to be a basket, a lump that the mare quickly realized was just Spike sleeping in his bed, but the lump that she didn't recognize was the one on her own mattress... or at least, the one floating just above it.  A small glint of pink bobbed around just then, the source of the other pink light that Twilight had noticed earlier, before settling over a familiar parchment that, if she could just get a good look at it, would have several lines crossed out at the bottom of it.  Whoever, or whatever, it was that was holding it carefully caressed the scroll with a singular yellow clawed hand that was similar to that of a griffin, although Twilight seriously doubted that it belonged to one.

"If ponies were to discover a way to be free," the now familiar voice announced, "then they'd know what true happiness would be, but then again, this happiness happens to be something that they shun so dearly that... that it almost hurts to talk about it."  Twilight, already feeling the incoming groan from deep inside her, quickly climbed into her bedroom and began a deliberate trot towards the figure on her bed.

"You know... there's a reason why we tend to shun your kind of happiness..."  She told the figure with more of an annoyed voice than an angry one, "But you wouldn't understand that now would you?"  The figure on her bed clearly smiled a sharp, toothy grin in his own pink light, a light, which Twilight noted, was coming from a small, pink cloud, before leaning forward so both twilight's magic and his cloud's light could clearly reveal his face.

"Long time no see Twilight Sparkle," announced Discord, "How've you been?"