Twilight pushed herself further down into the welcoming softness below her. She was so happy her partner was there with her in this bed, in this night. Ever since she had met the pegasus, this was her favourite thing to do with her.
The smile on Glimmer's face widened even more. Usually, nopony would be allowed to do such things with her, but Twilight was special, so she had no problem with spreading her wings for Twilight to snuggle into.
"I love you." The unicorn whispered. Glimmer didn't respond, unless one counts loving kisses as responses.
That night, Twilight thought about many things. One of them was how she had met her life's fulfilling. It was on an order of Celestia that Glimmer came into Twilight's home. She may not be an unicorn, but she nevertheless had an extreme interest and talent for magical theory and history.
She surely could learn a lot from the books in the library, as well as from their librarian. Twilight simply was the first a pony should turn to when they needed information about the topic or maybe a demonstration.
But the most important magic she learned from her was the magic of friendship, and later, love. What was intended to be a one month visit turned into a so far permanent stay.
Twilight awoke, the smell of coffee filling her nostrils. She had a habit of sleeping in when there was nothing to be done that day, as opposed to Glimmer's disciplined schedule. Consequently, the pegasus was often the one making breakfast, in case Spike didn't.
Why hadn't Spike, anyway?
Twilight trotted down the stairs, welcomed by her friend with a smile and a cup of coffee.
"Morning, Glimmer. Where's Spike?"
"You promised to lend him to the fillies today, remember?" Glimmer was rarely precise in her speaking, but Twilight understood that she had to mean the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
"Oh right. Thanks for the coffee..." She mumbled after the first sip.
Twilight didn't have any work that day, and Glimmer's work consisted of her unicorn friend, so they decided they'd take a walk around Ponyville to see if there was anything going on.
Their first destination was Sweet Apple Acres. There, the known orange mare was already at work, bucking some apples and transporting them away. She wasn't working herself out too much with it, though. Only a few trees close to the farmhouse had been bucked already and neither her kicking strength nor her speed were anywhere near her maximum.
"Hey Applejack! Need some help with that?" Twilight called out to her while approaching.
"Nah lady. Them apple trees are jus' exercise ta keep me warm fer season."
Glimmer floated over to her shoulder. "You don't even want help from the fastest pony this side of Cloudsdale?"
"That's only 'cause my cloud house is on the other side!" All three ponies looked around for the owner of the sudden call, who soon revealed herself as Rainbow Dash. Twilight wondered where she could have come from, but then spotted a pillow on a nearby tree's strongest branch.
"That's what I said, don't you agree? Although I'm not sure if you're still as good as you say." Glimmer knew how to treat Rainbow. They had come to know each other in fillyhood, but then got separated when she left to study in Canterlot.
"Oh yeah? Want me to prove it? First over to the library and back wins!" Rainbow Dash unfolded her wings again after landing on the ground, ready to take off. Glimmer was still hovering.
"Sure!" Glimmer answered. Twilight rolled her eyes, not unnoticed by her marefriend. Pegasi all more or less loved speed and races, there was nothing to do against that. Glimmer shot her a revealing look. She understood.
The two pegasi took off simultaneously, however the steel coated one turned around a few seconds after.
"I see. She'll be pretty mad when she realises, though." Twilight responded to the trick Glimmer had played on Rainbow.
"Oh, don't worry. I know her much longer than you, she won't even notice I'm not there until she wants to rub her victory in my face."
Applejack chuckled. "Nice one. Now, y'all wanna buck some apples, or didya jus' wanna talk?"
The lovers exchanged looks. "Not now. We're kind of having a look around Ponyville."
"Nothing to say against staying a tiny bit, though. At least until RD comes back." Glimmer flew up to pick an apple, then laid onto the same branch Rainbow had napped on earlier.
"...Yeah. Do you know where the Crusaders are right now? I've got something for Spike to send, and he's with them."
"Ah think they're in tha clubhouse. Tha's what they told me, anyway."
Rainbow Dash returned, eyes closed in triumph. "Hey, where's..." Her gaze fell onto the dozed off pegasus. "Oh, I'm gonna..." She whispered something into Applejack's ears, who smiled and strongly bucked the tree Glimmer was on. Gravity quickly took effect.
"Whowazzawhat?" Glimmer struggled on the floor, disoriented.
"Did you really try to show ME? Nopony pranks Rainbow Dash, remember that." She offered Glimmer a helping hoof.
"Yes, now I remember why." Glimmer had to admit in defeat, but her mood was quickly raised by everypony around her laughing at Rainbow's cunning counter.
They set off across the orchard, towards the CMC clubhouse. When they arrived, they found the three fillies deep in thought with Spike sitting next to them, looking concerned. As usual, the table they were sitting around was cluttered with various plans and schemes. Twilight only just then noticed the Rainbow Dash doll in the corner. She'd love to know what the real RD thought about that.
Before anypony could say anything, Spike gave his mistress a desperate look, expressing the need for help.
"Hey girls. What's going on?" Twilight began the conversation.
"Trying to find new activites to try for our cutie marks. We wanted to try defying gravity, but Spike won't let us!"
"It's not my fault. Somepony defined the laws of physics, and now we have to keep to them."
"Who needs gravity defiance when you can fly?" Glimmer tried to cheer them up, especially Scootaloo. Twilight's eyes widened in shock. Flying was a weak point of the little pegasus, both in physical capability and temper. But Glimmer had no way of knowing.
"Uh, I don't want to discourage the other crusaders..." Scootaloo tried to avoid the topic. Glimmer put two and two together in a moment.
"You can't fly, right?"
"I... No. But they say it's just a matter of time until my wings grow strong enough to carry me." She blushed a little.
"Aw, don't say such things. Every pegasus can fly, it's just a matter of faith. If you know you can fly, you can." Glimmer motivated the little filly.
"Really?"
"Sure! Come outside, I can show you some tricks."
It was not long until Scootaloo looked back into the clubhouse, this time from the window, unsteadily hovering. "Look! I really can fly! Oh, uh, aaah!" She had missed a beat of her wings and dropped to the ground again.
Everybody rushed to the window. Scootaloo called up to calm them. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Stretch your legs, but don't tense 'em, and let the impact flow freely through your body." She repeated what Glimmer had taught her right as the first thing after they went out.
Glimmer carried her up to the platform. As they both entered, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, rather, let out a disappointed sigh. "Still a blank flank, Scoots."
"Yeah... But flying really is awesome!"
Twilight pulled Glimmer aside for a private talk. "You boosted her, didn't you."
Glimmer waved the accusation off with a hoof. "I wanted to, but she already flew by herself like a chicken. All she needed was somepony to bring up her spirits and show her some beginner tricks. Front, back, beat." She did the takeoff sequence herself, doing a short round around the clubhouse.
"But she's been practicing with Rainbow forever. Why didn't SHE make her fly?"
"If I should be honest, Rainbow probably just doesn't know anymore how it is to barely hover off your hooves like that. I'm not sure she ever did, such a natural she is."
They both watched the Crusaders plot new adventures for a while, then Twilight remembered why she was here in the first place.
"Spike? Be a dear and send this letter to Celestia." She pulled a scroll out of her saddle bags. The baby dragon wondered why she had written it herself instead of letting him do it, but then just shrugged and blew his magical fire on it.
His question what the letter was about was ignored, but he figured it'd have to do something with the pegasus mare present.
Before leaving, Glimmer took the task of raising the other Crusaders' mood by coming up with something safe but entertaining for them to try. "How about abstract art? Even if it doesn't lead to your cutie mark, it'll still be a lot of fun!"
Spike was relieved upon hearing that he wouldn't have to help the fillies in another ridiculously dangerous activity and gave the mares a thankful look.
Twilight was more than impressed with Glimmer's performance. She just had to know.
"How are you so good with foalies?"
"Dunno. Kind of natural, I suppose."
"Oh well. Where do you want to go next?"
"What's closest?"
"If we continue through the forest that way, we should get to Fluttershy pretty quickly..."
"Sounds like a plan. Alright girls, we'll be off. Try not to kill Spike today."
When they arrived at Fluttershy's cottage, it was just lunchtime for the animals. Thus, the three ponies had a nice time feeding all the critters Fluttershy took care of, as well as the occasional guest from the nearby forest.
After they were done, Twilight and Glimmer realised that they had not eaten since breakfast. Fluttershy wanted to offer them eating with her, but Glimmer refused.
"Oh, I appreciate the offer, but I just noticed I haven't shown Twilight Cloud Candy yet."
Twilight was confused by the weird name, but Fluttershy, a pegasus from Cloudsdale herself, only smiled and nodded. That confused her even more.
"What's..."
"It's a delicious dish you get only in Cloudsdale. It's actually less of a candy type and more of a normal meal."
"Great idea. Just one problem." Twilight pointed towards the empty spot on her back, where a pair of wings was not present. They both stepped out of the cottage
"But you can make yourself able to walk on clouds, right?"
"Um, yeah, but I'd still have to get the balloon from the library, and that's across Ponyville!"
"Do you?"
Glimmer grabbed Twilight with all four legs, flying just slightly above her.
"Oh. Are you sure I'm not too heavy for you?"
"You could never be."
Glimmer had landed them near the border of Cloudsdale. It was a part of the cloud town Twilight had never been to, so she was dependent on Glimmer to bring her wherever she wanted to go.
The pegasus walked somewhat unsure, though.
"You do know the way?"
Glimmer smiled. "Of course. It's just that 'Dale is as shifting, yet consistent as the clouds themselves, and I haven't been here for some time. Everything's where it was, but the way is a different one every day."
At last, they arrived at the restaurant Glimmer had been looking for. It looked like a cozy little place to eat. Most of the tables were taken by pegasi happily chatting over their meals. Being a unicorn, Twilight felt a little out of place, but she suppressed that and entered alongside her friend. They sat down at a table for two not too far away from the exit.
"What can I bring you?"
"Two servings of Cloud Candy, please."
"In a moment, miss."
It had not missed it's effect on Twilight. Cloud Candy was made of any kind of watery substance with something to give it taste. Small portions of it were cooled down past the critical point, where they formed small clouds. They weren't made of pure water, so they were minimally denser than the air around them.
Still, the little clouds fell at a surprisingly low speed. Twilight had spent the last five minutes playing around with her portion, giggling like a schoolfilly. She was halfway through with forming them into a representation of the local night sky, when Glimmer interrupted her.
"You know you can also eat them?"
"Oh, yeah." Twilight instantly stopped and felt terribly embarassed.
"It's normal to be fascinated by it the first time you see it. At least for earths and unicorns." She indicated around them. Nopony paid any attention to Twilight's behaviour.
She just chuckled and threw a little cloud ball into the air, ready to catch it with her muzzle. Twilight hadn't calculated for their low density, however, and had to bring it back down magically, which brought an annoyed expression to her face.
After lunch, they had a look around Cloudsdale. The marvels of the floating city never ceased to amaze either of them. Before long, a streak of rainbow pulled across the sky, spotted them and stopped on a nearby cloud floating above their position.
"Hey you two. Whatcha doing in Cloudsdale?" Rainbow Dash called down. She could have just landed next to them, but that was too easy for her. Also, the seperate cloud provided her with some privacy.
"Heya. We'll come right up!" Glimmer called back. She signaled for Twilight to climb onto her so that she could fly both of them over to the cloud Rainbow was on.
"Hey look, it's Shlimmer!" Glimmer closed her eyes in annoyance. She knew that stallion.
"Long time, no see. Oh look, you finally found your destination! Carrying around ponies too stupid to grow wings themselves is totally something everypony dreams of, right?"
"Or are ya practicing for tonight?" These three idiots from her foalhood hadn't gotten any smarter in the meantime. Glimmer sighed.
"How about YOU finally stop using words from another language you don't even know how to pronounce. Maybe if you went to Marelin, you'd finally learn how to say "Schlimmer". Not like that'd be my name, anyway." Glimmer had heard that nickname so often from ponies that had no idea of the language it was from. Most likely, they didn't even know what it meant.
"As for you, I wouldn't call other ponies stupid if I couldn't read myself. Or did you finally do something about that? Finally, you. Let me tell you, that's not how we do it."
The skilled counter had shocked the three bullies. Glimmer was thinking of a followup, but Twilight took the initiative herself. She began casting.
"Look, her fillyfriend is teleporting away! Such a baby, can't take it!" The leader of the three called.
Twilight finished the buildup and let the spell finish itself. All she said was one word. "No."
While the pegasi wondered what she'd done, the cloud under them began to thinnen and dissipate. All three dropped, screaming in shock.
After coming back up, they only murmured insults and retreated, clearly outclassed.
Rainbow Dash laughed on her cloud, peeking down on them over the border. "THAT is how you do it. So, you gonna come up now? It's getting boring all alone up here, and I still have to do four seconds' worth of work."
This time undisturbed, Twilight climbed onto Glimmer's back and had the pegasus carry her to Rainbow.
"Better. Now, what are you up to?"
"I showed her Cloud Candy. Why didn't any of you do that before me?"
"Don't you know? Bringing a non-pegasus to Cloudsdale for Cloud Candy means confessing your love to them."
"Oh. Well, I suppose..."
"You could bring me here every day and it still wouldn't be enough to express our relationship, don't you agree?"
"Yeah. I love you." Glimmer embraced her marefriend in her wings.
"...Could we please come to another topic? I didn't expect such a thing to happen. I mean, I'm happy for you two, but watching you snuggle up against each other almost makes me feel like I'm a filly fooler myself... Err, sorry. Didn't mean to say that..."
"Of course. How's your day going?" Twilight ended Rainbow's awkward moment.
"Awesome, of course, like me. At the rate I'm tearing through weather duty right now, I'll probably be done before another hour passes. I'll have to go see Fluttershy, though. One of the clouds I'd usually just speed through was frozen over and now one of my feathers looks off. It's probably nothing serious, but I'd like a second opinion and possible treatment.
"Rainbow Dash, flying into frozen clouds in the middle of summer." Glimmer whispered, just loud enough for Rainbow to pick it up however.
"Like a boss." Twilight added.
"What?" Rainbow Dash was confused at that addition.
"I... Don't even know why I said that."
"...Yeah. So, what are you two up to today? Please do me a favor and just skip the mushy stuff, okay?"
"Neither of us has any work today, so we figured we'd go on a small trip around Ponyville. Before Glimmer came up with the Cloud Candy, at least."
"Should I and ol' cloudmobile drop you anywhere? I think if I go this direction, you'd be little more than a dive away from Sugarcube Corner. Er... Or you could just float down together because not everypony is blessed with wings, I suppose."
"That'd be lovely. As well as if you finally cleared the sky." Glimmer teased Rainbow Dash.
"I'm through with it mostly! As I said, four seconds of work flat left." Rainbow pushed the cloud over to the bakery.
"Here's your stop. And come again!" After Twilight was securely on Glimmer's back, Rainbow bucked the cloud into dispersion. "You're welcome!" She called down to the falling couple and resumed her work.
This was nothing. Even as fillies, they had made games out of who could dive longer. But with a nearly panicking unicorn on her back weighing her down, Glimmer decided to play it safe and unfold her wings into a glide much earlier than needed.
They lost speed that way, but Twilight didn't seem to mind that when they finally made contact with the ground and she jumped off, trying to catch her breath.
"You do that kind of thing for fun?"
"It's not so bad when you have wings of your own, I promise!"
"Well, I don't. The next time I meet Rainbow Dash, she's going to feel how funny I found that. She's going to feel like After the Storm, I swear!" Twilight left out the emotions from her fall after the landing.
"Er, Twilight, why did you capitalise those two letters?"
"What are you talking about? I can't capitalise letters unless I'm writing them, you know? Sometimes, you make as little sense as Pinkie. What's next, some kind of alternate timeline where Dash gets hit by lightning, breaks her leg and picks up reading while in the hospital?"
Both ponies just blankly stared at each other for a second.
"Yeah. That's just ridiculous, don't you think, Twilight?" Pinkie broke the silence by hanging down from a nearby tree. "It's like our author is trying to get more views to one of his underviewed works."
"Who's that? More views? Pinkie, you're so random, even Discord couldn't match you." Twilight spoke out a thought she had only half been wanting to express.
"I know. But while we already shattered the fourth wall, why not have a little fun while it rebuilds? Hey, you, take that hand away from there! Yes, you. Stop clopping."
Twilight didn't even try to make sense from what Pinkie said. Sometimes, she could get even more random, talking things that did not even make the little sense she usually made.
Glimmer opened her muzzle, but was silenced by a purple colored hoof stuffed into her face.
"That's right, don't ask and I won't lie to you. But back to topic, what grants me this honor?"
"We're just having a look around Ponyville. Right now, it seems rather quiet. Not like recently, when there was basically a crisis daily. Good thing we solve most of them in little more than twenty minutes, or else there'd be hay to pay."
"I know what you're saying. All those things that always seem to happen to one of us six..." All ponies briefly stared in one direction, where there was nothing to be seen, away from Sugarcube corner. "Oh look, it's back up! For now."
The visit to Pinkie Pie had been even more confusing than it had been brief. The lovers were already on their way back to the library, when Glimmer was brought out of balance by a filly running by, fell and tore the silken butterfly she wore in her mane.
"Doesn't look too good, but Rarity should get this back together with only a few stitches. We owe her a visit to complete today's journey, anyway."
"Good evening dear, what brings you two to the boutique?" Rarity set aside the fabric she was working on when Twilight levitated over Glimmer's decoration.
"Glimmer fell to the ground and ripped her poor butterfly."
"Ungh, what a sin to let such beauty be able to be destroyed. I'll have it fixed in a second, just you wait. Dark Silver, it should be..." Rarity's voice trailed off as she chose a thread matching the butterfly's color, then bent over her work.
When she turned back to the other ponies, she had not only fixed the butterfly, but also worked a Moonstone into it.
"Gee, thanks! You shouldn't have..." Glimmer said as the decoration was levitated back into her mane, where it belonged.
"You deserve only the best, darling. Both for yourself and for Twilight."
The sun had already disappeared behind the horizon when the two ponies arrived at the library. Their day had been long and tiring, if simply from all the walking. So after dinner, Twilight didn't do much more than reshelving the books Spike couldn't put back without a ladder and checking the business summary, then dropping into her bed.
She was soon joined by Glimmer, similiarly, if not more tired from carring a fully grown unicorn to Cloudsdale and back.
"Kiss me, you."
The six friends were once again collected.
Ponyville had been pretty calm in the recent past, so there had been little reason to assemble all six of them. There was now, though, so they all sat in the warm grass somewhere near Ponyville, yet private. There was a tree nearby, but nopony felt the need to avoid the sun. They all preferred to enjoy its warmth instead.
Everypony had their own special companion with them. Pinkie had Gummy attached to her head, Fluttershy had taken the opportunity to get Angel out of the house, Applejack played with Winona, Twilight had brought a slightly overweight Glimmer.
She had done that for more than the simple reason of being with her. When she cleared her throat, everypony looked up from their pet.
"Lemme get this straight. Y'all been foolin' 'round and now she's... with foal?" Applejack hadn't fully grasped the long and embarassing explanation yet. "How?"
The blush on Twilight's face intensified. "Erm, you know what they say about unicorns?"
"They're all fill..." Applejack spoke her mind freely, but was interrupted by Rainbow Dash. "That's just bad rumors, and we all know it."
"It's kind of true. When a unicorn loses control of their body, they may release bursts of energy. As it turns out, magic is so specific to one pony that it even carries their DNA."
"You... you..." Fluttershy was past her zone of comfort. As was Rarity, who backed up from the group a little from the revealed unicorn secret.
An awkward silence followed. Glimmer was fully hiding behind her wings. Rainbow Dash broke the silence.
"C'mon girls, don't act like that. You make it look like that was the first foal in centuries. My offer to help you lose those extra pounds still stands, by the way."
The months passed, with Glimmer showing ever increasing temper in any direction. Before too long, the mothers were together for a special moment, overwatched by a purple unicorn nurse.
"You can do this, Glimmer. You're the strongest mare I've ever seen, don't let such a tiny little thing get you down." Twilight attempted to encourage her love.
"Tiny little? How about you have the next one, I'll show you how tiny they are when they're ripping you apart from the inside. Or, better, why don't you just have this one?" The only thing that could make Glimmer sound more threatening would be if she had fangs for snapping after Twilight like she did vocally.
"Let's focus on what's ahead of us right now."
"Kinda hard to concentrate. Do you have any idea what this feels like?"
"No... But..." An idea came into Twilight's mind. It might work, but would mean a true test to her devotion to the pegasus mare. "Fetch me a good seat, now!" She adressed the nurse pony.
After sitting down, Twilight cast a complicated spell, hoping it would work as intended and not backfire, causing twice the pain to both of them.
Glimmer's mind was freed. All of her senses were still screaming out in overwhelming pain, but it had lessened for some reason. Looking to her side, she saw the unicorn clenching tightly in her seat, and understood.
"No! Don't do that, cancel it, I can do this on my own!"
"All... For you." Twilight had trouble speaking, not yet accomodated to what she was experiencing.
"Couldn't you just take the pain and push it somewhere nopony can feel it?"
Twilight slowly began to be able to repress the pain. "You tell me."
Glimmer was not at her height for obvious reasons, but she wasn't dumb that day either. "Fifth rule... Matter, energy and magic cannot be destroyed or created, they can only be moved. And since this is both energy and powerful magic, it could cause serious harm if not put into the same place in a new host."
"And thus, the only way to help a pony in pain..."
"Is to split what it's feeling and transfer a part of it over to another."
It came without complications or, thanks to Twilight's spell, serious pain for Glimmer. A beautiful, healthy pegasus foal. As a surprise visitor, the princess herself came in shortly afterwards, to catch a glimpse of her priced pupil's offspring. At least that was what she officially claimed, but she had much more important business with Twilight Sparkle.
Overflowing with joy from all that happened that day, Twilight came back into the room where her family was located. Only then, she remembered she hadn't dispelled the earlier spell, then her mind went blank.
"Looks like she's coming back. Nasty, that's what it is."
Twilight could barely make out her situation. It didn't feel like she was standing or sitting any more. The lower half of her vision was white. In the upper half, there were some figures in front of her.
She attempted to speak, but all that came out of her was a distant mumble.
"Sure thing she is! Who's the storyteller?"
"Applejack! She most likely can hear us, you'll worry her unnecessarily."
Twilight slowly opened her eyes fully. As she did that, the chatter continued.
"What's this fuss about?" An unknown voice called from the right.
"Looks like she over here's coming back to us."
"Looks like she's already here to me. Hey Twilight!" Pinkie Pie eagerly waved a hoof to welcome Twilight.
The new pony came into Twilight's view, carrying a small flashlight and shining it into her eyes. Even with the blinding light, she still recognised her as the same nurse as before.
"Whe..."
"Why do they always have to ask that. 'Where am I?' What happened?' 'Who are you?'. Why can't they ask stuff like, I don't know, 'How are you doing?'." The nurse quickly remembered her customs and continued with a friendly voice. "Aw, excuse me. Good morning dear, I'm nurse Midnight, you're still in the hospital, and for the what..."
She seemed to pick up something nopony else noticed.
"Come ON! As for the what, it seems like you'd best ask your friends. I'm sorry, but I have to go, everypony's just too busy around here." She rushed out the door as quickly as she had come in.
"...Yeah. Now, take it slow, dear. That hit was nothing to just walk off." Rarity picked up the conversation again after the unicorn had left.
"How's the baby?" Twilight wanted to jump to her hooves and search for Glimmer, but she was pushed back into her bed.
"Take it slow, I said. The little treasure's fine."
Twilight attempted to struggle, but was stopped by a throbbing headache. "Nnnngh. What happened to me?"
"When you came back after talking with the princess, you somehow lost balance and hit your head on one of the bars of the furniture. That's what the nurse told us when she brought us to you."
Her memories slowly came back to Twilight. "How long have I been out? Where's Glimmer?"
"Not too long. Glimmer's resting right now, but she looks pretty nice again already. Almost twice as good as you'd expect."
With her chain of memories nearly complete, Twilight explained to her friends what they couldn't know about what exactly had happened.
Nearing the end of her explanations, Twilight was interrupted by Pinkie. "Is this the part where you explain those?" She pointed a hoof at Twilight's side, which was completely concealed by a blanket.
Four ponies looked to where the hoof pointed, then up the foreleg to Pinkie, then to Twilight, all with a confused look on their faces.
It took much of Twilight's concentration, but she eventually managed to expand them. The blanket was pushed away from her as a pair of lavender wings took their deserved space.
They were not cheap, one-day wings like Rarity once had. They were made of flesh and feathers, nerves connecting them to Twilight's spine.
Needless to say, everypony in the room, including Pinkie Pie, despite the fact that she had seemingly known of the wings beforehand, was plainly stunned.
Twilight chuckled. "Aren't they lovely? Gift from the princess, since, you know, my family's made of pegasi now. And they say pegasi have some of the most amazing magic in Equestria, so I could research that too."
That didn't help the hanging jaws of the assembled ponies. Rarity regained her composure. "But you said earlier that magic couldn't create much more than my morning dew ones. How come you now have such real wings?"
"That's still the princess herself we're talking about. And... Well, she didn't actually cast that much of a spell. All she did was focus my desire to be together with Glimmer and the foal. So that it'd manifest and give me the power of flight."
"You can do that better! Spread 'em wide, and beat them like a hate.. I mean, dough." Rainbow Dash was giving Twilight flight lessons. She was progressing fairly quickly, but still had trouble with coordination. Fluttershy floated next to Dash, watching Twilight attempt to take to the air. Rainbow had foreseen her troubles and brought her to a spot some way out of Ponyville where the airspace was clear of any buildings she could crash into.
The only object nearby was a tree, which, upon closer inspection, looked very much like the one they had ignored during the announcement so many months back already.
Twilight focused, spreading her new wings as far as she could and then beating furiously. Once again, she took off a few feet above the ground, but lost balance, swung over and landed on the ground on her back, legs stretched high into the air.
"Better. But you still lose synch. Focus on beating both at the exact same time."
Twilight groaned. "Gah. That's like suddenly adding a third pair of legs. Just how am I supposed to control them?"
"You'll get used to it, I suppose. Is this really the farthest you can stretch?" Rainbow rubbed along the lavender wings with a hoof, extending them by a clear additional hoof length. "If you're having problems with the outward movement, try retracting them a bit and then going back out."
Twilight noticed that she could probably do much better with a proper start, then remembered the tips Glimmer had given Scootaloo. She decided to try it. Taking off properly was at least close to the hardest thing about flying, aside from keeping balance.
She took some momentum, brought herself to correct angle with a quick push from her forelegs, pushed off with all her might from her back legs, closed her eyes and took a heavy beat with the outstretched wings.
Twilight hadn't expected to stay airborne for more than a few seconds. When she opened her eyes again, Twilight was more than surprised to see herself on level with Rainbow Dash.
"Perfect! Now, easy does it. Keep up the rhythm for a bit. Imitate mine if you feel like you need to."
Next up were balance exercises. Twilight had gotten into the rhythm of beating her wings, but she still would eventually shift her weight incorrectly, try to compensate for it, and end up tumbling over in the opposite direction.
Needless to say, for a unicorn that was used to balance on no less than three legs for all of her life, it was extremely hard to keep her balance when reduced to a single axis and nothing but wings gained only recently to correct.
Twilight, after a long time of exercise, managed to keep her body orientation at last.
"Good. Now that you can fly without falling, let's fly."
"Huh?" Rainbow's choice of words was above Twilight, who still sacrificed a lot of her concentration to stay in the air.
"You know, like, tip forward and move?"
"Erm..." Twilight didn't feel nearly confident enough to start flying around already. An idea of how she'd get out of this situation until she could practice later sparked her mind. "... Sure!"
As discreetly as she could, she took herself into a magical grip and pushed forward slowly. It worked, but then, eyes closed, Twilight noticed that she had forgotten to keep her wings synchronised. Faster than she'd expected, she fell forward and onto the welcoming ground.
She looked up to see a satisfied-looking Rainbow Dash above her. Fluttershy helped Twilight up, then looked up to Rainbow with a confused look."What was that for?"
"When I say fly, I mean fly, and not magic. I didn't do anything but speed up the inevitable, anyway." Her eyes wandered to the horizon. "Not like anything could have happened. You were barely two ponies high above the ground, remember? Now, I see you want to practice, so I'll leave you. There's some work coming for me. On the other hoof... Stay here for a minute."
When she returned, Rainbow carried a small cloud from the Everfree forest. "Try landing on this. We should know if you can stand on clouds like us real pegasi before you come to Cloudsdale, drop right through the floor and never be seen again."
The cloud was out of reach for Twilight, so she jumped up into an unsteady flight and just so managed to land safely on the small cloud presented for her.
"Surprising how often things go right all of a sudden when you stop paying attention to them, huh?"
Twilight noticed that, in order to reach the cloud, she had obviously had to move while flying, something she hadn't expected to be able to do yet. The movements necessary had just happened subconsciously.
"Practice what you've learned today. Maybe... Maybe practice using magic while hovering. Then come see me again when you don't have problems staying in the air."
"Alright. Thanks for the lesson, Rainbow. Oh, one more thing."
"Anything, sweet. What's on your mind?"
Twilight's face formed a sinister grin. She flew just barely off the cloud she and Rainbow were standing on. "Revenge." Twilight kicked the cloud into small pieces. She barely managed to land on her hooves afterwards, but was satisfied when she saw that Rainbow had been taken completely by surprise and had landed on her side.
"That's for dropping me all the way from Cloudsdale that time."
Twilight's hooves connected to solid ground. Quickly after, a young, gray filly jumped off her back. She usually flew little Dawn Light to flight class, for more reasons than she admitted.
Officially, the way would simply be too dangerous and long for her daughter, especially with the many obstacles that made the path be an easy two times as long on hoof as the direct line.
But she also did it because she liked to meet Scootaloo, the young pegasi's teacher, and maybe stay for a while and watch as she, the pony who had had to learn how to fly harder than anypony else, instructed her class with great joy and motivation.
There was a third reason, as well. Nopony but Twilight herself and Glimmer knew it, but they strongly believed that there was nothing better to help their daughter develop into a proper pegasus than to take her to the air, to let her feel the flight wind and flap her little wings in excitement, despite not even coming off her hooves.
That excitement was missing, however, and the mare couldn't help but notice it.
"Why so down?"
The filly sighed deeply. "You wouldn't understand..."
Why can they never make things easy? Twilight thought. "I'm sure I will. What's on your mind?"
"All the others in my class can do things like jump thirty feet or do a backflip from the ground and land on their hooves. I can't even slow my fall. I'll never be able to fly!"
Twilight extended a foreleg to keep the two of them out of earshot of the other ponies already assembled. "Great talent doesn't come right at the beginning, Dawn. You never know when you might discover how good you're at something you thought impossible to you. Do you know when Scoots over there first took off into real flight?"
"On my second birthday. She doesn't really make a secret out of it, anyway. But how is that supposed to make me a better flier?"
"Okay, secret time. I wasn't born with those wings, you know. Do you want to know how I got them?"
"Wha? Tell me, please!"
"It was on the day you were born. Glimmer always was a pegasus, but I was okay with that, even though I couldn't keep up when she took to the sky. But when I saw those wonderful little wings on your side, all I wanted was to be with you two, to protect you while you'd soar through the skies. And as magic works, when I didn't give up my heart's desire, I was granted this gift."
She pointed towards her outstretched wings. "Now, what do I and your teacher share?"
"Functional wings, unlike mine?"
The tenacity of keeping her point was surprising. Twilight wondered where her daughter might have gotten that from. "Ye... No! We both faced an impossible task, but even then, before the seemingly impossible, we didn't give up. Where would you think I'd be today if I had just surrendered to the logical borders?"
Dawn Light was visibly thinking, so Twilight pushed her point further. "Don't be discouraged by what your classmates do or say. The only thing important is what you are. You'll become the finest flier of all of your year. Believe it or not..."
"Mom..."
"When I had freshly gotten my wings, I was much worse with them than you are now."
"Mom."
"... So don't give up. Just that something is impossible doesn't mean you can't do it."
"MOMMY!"
"Huh?"
"That's great and I think I've learned my lesson, but look, now we're late!"
Indeed, Scootaloo caught Twilight's look and waved them over, waiting to begin her lesson.
Before she went to attend other business, Twilight had a short talk with the flight teacher.
"Is she already in that age where every peggy gets their personal crisis 'cause they can't fly?"
"Sure is. If only they knew how common it is. Have a nice lesson with her!"
"I will, I'm sure. Make sure to tell your wife how grateful I am for her to help me over mine!"
With those words, Scootaloo turned towards her class, and Twilight flew off.
"Oh colt, they sure get old so fast. I wouldn't have expected her to bring up the topic of flying so early, would you?" Glimmer had made tea while Twilight was gone.
"It's those early starters in her class. But again, her teacher is Scoots. I don't think there's any pony better suited for teaching young pegasi in that stage of their lives."
"That reminds me so much of how you learned to fly."
"Funny that you mention that. I had to tell her of it to cheer her up."
"She'd have figured out sooner or later anyway, right?"
"Maybe. Kind of how I figured out you had a crush on me?"
Glimmer blushed, but giggled shortly afterwards. "Kiss me, you."