Thinking fast, Zenith remained calm, or at least did his best to be calm. It was difficult to be calm when falling to one’s death in front of a beloved teacher. He thought about his options, of which there were few. Zenith’s relaxed attitude about magic wasn’t doing him any favours at the moment.

He took the most direct approach to the problem. He was falling down. This was problematic. The fall itself wasn’t so bad, but that sudden stop at the end was sure to be a real pain. So, taking a logical approach, he had to stop falling downwards. Reaching out with his mind, Zenith Zephyr summoned the wind. He felt a powerful gust of wind slam into his body from below.

Too powerful. He shot straight up, borne on the wind, and went shooting past a very surprised looking, wide eyed Princess Celestia. He had the presence of mind to wave as he went rocketing past. Of course she hadn’t done anything to save him, this was something he had to figure out for himself.

Now almost a hundred feet higher, Zenith reached the zenith of his trip upwards. He took a moment to admire the view, which was beautiful, and then he turned his attention to gravity, which was pulling him down again once more. He plunged downwards, not quite knowing what to do next.

With her eyes locked upon her student, Princess Celestia watched as he went plummeting past her, waving as he went down, his mane flowing upwards as he plunged. She watched with calm detachment, as if she was a teacher grading her student on a performance evaluation.

FWOOSH!

With a second gust of wind, Zenith went shooting past her, rising upwards, held aloft by a powerful gust of wind. She watched as he reached the peak of his ascent and then began to fall again. He was remarkably calm for being in such a dangerous situation.

“A little help here?” he asked as he hurtled towards the earth.

FWOOSH!

Again, he shot upwards, propelled by a powerful gust of wind. Celestia’s composure broke. She smiled, unable to help herself. She found herself quite amused by this situation. She watched as he lost momentum in his upwards rise and then began to fall.

“Hey, look at me… I keep falling for you!” Zenith waved as he went shooting past.

FWOOSH!

Oh, that was too much. Princess Celestia began snickering. This was just too funny. As Zenith went shooting upwards, Celestia wondered if he would find some way of saving himself. At the moment, all he had managed to do was delay death, which was impressive.

“Really, a little help here,” Zenith pleaded as he fell once more.

FWOOSH!

As he went sailing upwards, Celestia grabbed him in a telekinetic bubble. Still snickering, she pulled him over, aimed him hooves downwards, and set him down on the small balcony beside her. She was going to have to have a long talk with her sister.

“Thank you,” Zenith said as he peered down over the edge. “I heard you were having some trouble sleeping. I thought I’d come and keep you company.”

It would be dawn soon enough. Celestia could already feel the need to guide the sun along its journey, giving it a little nudge to move it along. The sun was very much like her students, needing just a little guidance to keep it going. She realised that she was staring at Zenith.

And she was still laughing. She took a deep breath, pulled herself together, tried to be serious, and failed. She chortled, snorted, and then, lifting her head high, she restored her outward serene appearance. Inside however, she was still laughing.

“I fear that I might have made a mistake by rescuing you,” Celestia said to her student. “Had you been left to figure this out for yourself, you might have learned something.”

“Oh, I was fresh out of ideas,” Zenith admitted as he turned to look at his teacher. “I wasn’t quite sure what to do next, all I could do was stop myself from hitting the ground.” He paused, thinking of Celestia’s words. “I don’t think that you make mistakes.”

Her smile fading, Celestia lifted her head and looked off towards Ponyville. “I can make mistakes.” Her voice was soft. “I made mistakes with Sunset Shimmer. I made mistakes with Twilight Sparkle. I know I’ve made mistakes with you. I’m not perfect, Zenith.”

“You tell me that mistakes are just unexpected learning opportunities that take us by surprise.” Feeling bold, Zenith moved a little closer to his teacher’s side. “Like stepping on pigeon poop and falling off of a castle roof.”

“I could think of worse mistakes.” Celestia, still looking away, did not see that Zenith was looking up at her, his eyes wide and starry. She did not see him shivering in the cool night air. She did not see the look of adoration upon his face.

“I’ve made plenty of mistakes.” Zenith, feeling cheerful, had no problem admitting wrongdoing. “I’ve messed up all kinds of things… but each mistake has brought me nothing but good things.”

“Zenith, sooner or later, you are going to make a mistake that is going to cost you.” Celestia’s joyful mood settled into one of seriousness. “It happens to all of us at some point in our lives. A mistake is made that we feel that we cannot live with.”

“Hasn’t happened to me yet,” Zenith replied.

Celestia sighed. He was young, so young. He was idealistic. She started to wonder if she had made yet another mistake, the mistake of sheltering him for so long. Perhaps it was time to shove him out into the world, just as she had done with Twilight. He was about the right age. This was a situation fraught with emotions; she worried that Zenith would see this as a rejection. That she was pushing him away. She gave the colt beside her a sidelong glance. There was that foolish, impetuous crush of his. Twilight had the same problem, but had been far too introverted to act upon it, and over, time, she had outgrown it. Mostly. There were still moments where she caught Twilight looking at her, a strange expression upon her face, perhaps wondering what might have been.

Thinking of mistakes, Celestia said to Zenith, “Stand guard and watch over me until the dawn, my most handsome student…”

“—cuddling releases oxytocin, which has all kinds of benefits; healing, bonding, strengthens the immune system, and is capable of relieving both depression and anxiety.” Professor Twilight Sparkle lifted her chalk away from the chalkboard, turned, and faced her class. “There are many benefits to friendship.” Her ears perked as she heard snickering, snorting, and giggles.

She cleared her throat. “I have homework for you all—” Twilight was drowned out by groans and more than a few sighs. She waited, her wings twitching at her sides, and when the class had calmed down a bit, she continued.

“Break the touch barrier with a close friend.” Professor Twilight’s brows furrowed. “But always get consent.” Her expression relaxed and she smiled. “Give a friend a hug. Walk alongside them and brush up against them. Give them a playful bump. Be affectionate! Let them know that you care.” More giggling. Twilight smiled and then looked at her student, Pumpkin Cake for a moment, and then began to look around at other colts and fillies in the class.

“Spooning leads to forking,” a filly said in the back of the glass, causing the whole class to start laughing.

Twilight cleared her throat, swallowing her laughter. That was funny.

“And then there is sporking,” a colt added.

Curious, but knowing it was a bad idea, Twilight looked at the colt who had just spoken. She had to know. Her ears perked forwards and a feeling of regret settled into the back of her mind. “Excuse me, but since you seem so informed on the subject, would you mind explaining to the class what ‘sporking’ is?”

The colt’s ears pinned back and he blushed. “Um, Professor Twilight… uh…”

“Oh, do go on!” Twilight grinned as she levitated her chalk. She wrote the word ‘sporking’ on the chalkboard behind her. “Come on, don’t be shy… if there is a new kind of cuddle, we all need to know. Proper nomenclature and standardisation of language is important, all part of the greater social contract that we all share.”

A filly coughed, covering her mouth with her hoof as she did so, looked at the stammering colt, and then stared down at her desk. “Sporking is the act of spooning with an erection.”

“Ah… I see… well, that’s wonderful. In our next class, we’ll be talking about that… having friends of different genders and how to deal with various issues of trust and intimacy. How does one acknowledge an erection when having a bit of a cuddle with a colt friend? When is friendship something more? Can a colt and a filly just be friends without it turning into something else?” As Twilight spoke, she wrote out the definition of sporking on the chalkboard behind her.

She stepped away from the chalkboard, smiled, and then announced, “Class dismissed.”

“So… Zenith… can a little colt and a little filly be friends with one another?” Pumpkin batted her eyelashes, which were heavy with mascara, at him. She leaned over her lunch tray, puckered up, and made kissy faces at her friend.

Shrugging, Zenith took a bite of his vegetable casserole surprise.

“Kinda hard to hug a colt when something is stabbing you—”

“Look, that was an accident, okay?” Zenith said around a mouthful of broccoli, cauliflower, and thick cut carrots. “I was trying to hide it and you tackled me.”

“We were pillow fighting.” Pumpkin grinned and she pointed her hoof at Zenith. “You had to be taught a lesson because you hit me in the face. There’s a rule… no face hitting… and you broke that rule.” She gave her friend an accusatory stare. “You violated my trust.”

“That was an accident too… I was aiming at your shoulder when you blocked my attack with your face,” Zenith replied. He saw Pumpkin’s grin grow wider. They were younger then, much younger. Pumpkin’s face wasn’t covered in piercings and she didn’t have a mohawk back then. His face grew hot as he recalled Pumpkin beating him into submission, pinning him down, and straddling him. Something had poked her right below the dock.

That had been the day that everything had changed between then.

In many ways, that had been a sad day, at least for Zenith. He didn’t know what Pumpkin felt about it. But it had been the day when they realised that playing around in certain ways would now call attention to the differences between them and that there were embarrassing consequences for getting a little too carried away.

“You weren’t much more than a yearling when I first met you,” Pumpkin said.

Zenith’s ears perked. There was something strange about Pumpkin’s voice.

“We were always together, you and I. You were my brother away from home… that’s what I used to tell myself when we were little and I came to Canterlot with Twilight.” Pumpkin paused and turned away from Zenith, her face darkening. “We took baths together… we slept in the same bed together. You and I were like peanut butter and jelly.” Pumpkin stared down at her food. “And then, one day, you stabbed me right in the asshole with your dick. Thanks a lot, you fucking prick.”

Zenith almost choked. He coughed and sputtered, slapping himself on his barrel.

Pumpkin’s eyes darted around. “That sounded much worse than it really was. But I’ll be damned if you didn’t almost steal my black cherry.” She glanced at Zenith but could not meet his gaze. “A colt and a filly can still be friends… I think… just so long as they don’t mind a dick getting in between them.”

Author's Note

We learned something important in this chapter. Zenith can go blow himself.

Thank you, thank you, please, tip your sandwich and try your waitress. I'll be here all night.