Sniggering at a perfectly executed wind up job as she’d ever seen, Luna said to Requiem, “Would you like that flight a little later on?”
Slightly disbelieving, Requiem looked up at Luna, her turquoise eyes going very wide indeed at the thought of one of her dreams finally coming true. That it was being done with an alicorn was purely a bonus. “Longshore, baby, do you mind if I go flying?”
From the library, the jet black earth pony stallion laid his book down and looked at his wife with an indulgent smile. “Not at all love, you have fun.” Longshore smiled a smile that easily reached his twinkling brown eyes. “Land safely, please.” He chuckled before once more picking up his book.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Requiem performed a four hooved dance of pure delight, the blue and red painted pony wearing a wide smile as she danced like an overgrown filly, “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”
As Luna was about to break down in giggles, Recital reappeared in a flash of green magic just inside the front door of the ranch, candy bar in her mouth while she held the four galoshes and the other candy bar in her magical aura. Grinning at Requiem’s little dance, she quickly located Mapper in the library and levitated the set of galoshes to her while she sent the candy bar to Luna.
Taking the bar with a word of thanks, Luna turned back to the painted pony with a smile and with a whisper to Requiem, she said, “I hope you like to go fast.” Then, a thought struck her. One she supposed should have occurred to her earlier. “Ah, Requiem, why do you want to fly?” She asked curiously.
Requiem took a deep breath as she prepared to explain why she wanted what she wanted. “I’ve been an actress for years, Luna. On the stage when I play a pegasus, I always have a wire.” She explained quickly, “But, it is just so exciting to fly around. I ah, I can only imagine having no wire.” Then, in a very soft, almost inaudible voice, Requiem asked, “Could I please have some free fall time?”
“You want me to let you fall?” Luna asked incredulously.
Looking around, Requiem made frantic ‘shh-ing’ motions with her hooves, very worried that Longshore had overheard and would put a stop to it. “Not so loud, please!” She hissed, “Yes, yes I do. I might fly like a rock but I'll be actually flying. Just in free fall.”
“Very well then.” Luna nodded her agreement as she saw Mapper trot over to the stairs down to the basement level with the galoshes and a ball gag, “It seems that Mapper has the Pets well in hoof. Hop on, Requiem.”
Unexpectedly, Requiem giggled behind a forehoof, “Teehee, can we go up to the balcony first?” She sniggered, “I'd feel silly riding you around in the house.”
“Of course,” Luna laughed softly, and side-by-side, the alicorn and earth pony alighted the stairs up to the first storey where they trotted over to the – thankfully cleaned – balcony. Once there at the safety railing, Luna couldn’t help but smile as she recalled the amazing rutting her son took on the patio decking below. “Comfy back there?” The alicorn asked as Requiem climbed up on her back and held on tight with all four of her legs.
Behind her, secured on the Princesses back, Requiem couldn’t help but smile in anticipation, “I’m better than I was in the Wet Room.”
Laughing, Luna spread her powerful wings to their full eight and a half foot span and angled her primary feathers for take-off. “I'll ask you again in a moment. Fifteen thousand feet alright for you?” She asked as with a single flap the two mares rose five feet into the clear night sky.
It only took Luna a few flaps of her immensely powerful, not to mention beautiful, wings to rise up quickly into the inky blackness of the night.
Her night. Every downbeat of her majestic pinions took care of another few hundred feet or so, and the pegasus in her loved this sense of sheer freedom she just didn’t experience on the ground. The Princess could never put her hoof on exactly why though, perhaps it was because up here at night she was so close to the very stars she had created.
Behind her, seated firmly on her back, she heard Requiem gasp in wonderment as she looked about herself, literally drinking in the view both above and below her. “Wow…” she breathed, her turquoise eyes as wide as a filly’s on Hearths Warming morning, “The sky is so much prettier up here!”
Luna couldn’t help but laugh at her passenger’s amazement. “So, you like the view from fifteen thousand feet?”
‘Fifteen thousand feet? Buuuuck!’ The innate earth pony in Requiem wanted to shut her eyes tight shut and stay that way until they were back on the ground and she had the familiar feel of the earth beneath her hooves. The thrill seeker in her however wanted to go higher and never stop. “Yes!” She cheered, and then considerably quieter at Luna’s smirk, added, “Manehatten has a lot of light pollution. I guess Canterlot doesn't use modern lighting.”
At that Luna scoffed out loud, “Ha! Canterlot hardly uses much of modern anything.” She laughed as she flew onwards, flapping her wings steadily. Her statement was certainly true. While the rest of Equestria had been more than happy to move with the times, Canterlot seemed determined to stay in the past. Gas lighting still outnumbered electric, and only the Financial District could really be called ‘modern’. Indeed, there was no such thing as electricity when she had been sent to the moon, and she laughed now when she remembered a few days after her return asking Celestia what ‘elastic-trickery’ was.
“I can see forever yet it feels like I could reach out and touch the stars!” Requiem’s exclamation shook the lunar alicorn from her reverie and bought her back to the moment.
“Would you like to go a bit higher?” Luna asked eagerly, only too happy to have a new playmate.
Requiem nodded her head so hard she was sure the Princess could feel the movements. If she did she gave no sign, just flying steady. “Sure, I don't mind the cold.” The painted pony smiled, in fact she hadn’t stopped smiling since they’d taken off, and her muzzle was starting to hurt, but she didn’t care in the slightest. “Good earth pony stock here.” She giggled, patting her black megaphone cutie mark with a forehoof as she looked down at the ground far below her. “So many lights.” Indeed, with the sky and the ground the same blackness, the stars seemed to mirror the bright lights of the enormous city underneath her. Were it not for the moon adding some illumination to the horizon, the effect would’ve been quite disorienting. “I think that is where I live.” She pointed with a red and blue hoof, “So tiny from up here.”
Luna nodded, flapping her perfect wings harder, gaining new altitude quickly before levelling off once more. “Here we are, Requiem. Welcome to eighteen thousand feet, if my guess is right.” With seemingly very little effort at all, Luna held them both aloft on her spread open wings.
Without meaning to, Requiem shivered a little bit. “It is a bit chillier than I thought it would be.”
Feeling the painted earth pony shivers as vibrations through her barrel, Luna turned her head and asked over her shoulder, “Are you alright back there?”
Rubbing her forelegs over her chest and her belly, the earth pony replied, “Yeah, I'm fine.” With a force of will Requiem shut out the feeling of the chill breeze and concentrated solely on the view in an attempt to etch the scene both above and below her permanently in her memory. “It's so beautiful up here, all those lights and all those ponies…” still, blocking out the cold didn’t stop her from leaning forwards and huddling tight into Luna’s back and mane. ‘If you have the chance to spoon an alicorn, why not?’ She thought to herself with a grin. “Hmm…Luna, you're lovely and warm.” She almost purred.
Luna, entirely aware of what Requiem had just said, pretended not to notice. She was acutely reminded of the first time she had taken her beloved Octavia flying, then of course her cherished Sky Dive before her. Her heart burned with the thoughts of her love and memory of her past love. “Ahem…I'd say you're the highest earth pony ever right now.” She said, none too subtley changing the subject. Her niece, Cadance, had told her after her return that it was love that kept the departed in our hearts. Luna had disagreed. It was grief.
“I should be in the record books then!” Requiem squealed with sheer joy. “I took an air ship to Prance once.” She said in the alicorn’s ear, considerably more subdued, “I don't think it was more than a thousand feet above the water, and the balloon blocked all the stars.” She added a little sourly.
Luna sniffed indifferently. “Air ships are alright, I suppose.” She hated them, personally, while her sister insisted on using them on foreign travels. “You can't beat wings though. Pegasi take them so much for granted.” Spying a large Altocumulus cloud up ahead, she smiled and sped straight for it. “Hold on, Requiem, this will be a bit wet.” With no further warning, Luna flew straight through the cloud, thrilling at the feeling of the condensation on her muzzle and fur, not to mention the leading edges of her wings.
Seeing the cloud fast approaching, Requiem was reminded of a really cheesy love movie Longshore had taken her to see on one of their first dates many years ago now, and in an effort to recreate one of the more memorable scenes, she sat up on Luna’s back and stretched out her forelegs to either side of her body like a cross and closed her eyes. “Woot!” She cheered once they had passed through it, “That was like, really refreshing!”
Luna glanced over shoulder back at Requiem and let out a loud giggle at her passenger’s pose. Having been introduced to the wonder that was the cinematograph, or cinema as it was called now – something else that just didn’t exist before her long absence – she was familiar with the movie that the earth pony was recreating. ‘Celestia and Cadance insist on watching the damn thing every time they get together…’ she thought ruefully as she flew over to a nearby cloud, this time a slightly higher Cirrostratus. “This might tingle a bit.” She warned a she lit her horn and cast a cloud-walking spell on Requiem. “Now, step onto the cloud.”
Feeling the strange tingling sensations coursing through her hooves left Requiem deeply unsettled at first. Being an earth pony she had a connection to her magic through her hooves, but at the very least it was a pleasurable sensation. “Um…o-okay,” Not that she didn’t trust the Princess of the Night, but this was totally weird to her. Tentatively, she first placed a hoof on the very edge of the cloud to test it was indeed solid, then she stepped off of Luna’s back, amazed that the thin cloud – so thin she could see the lights below through it quite clearly – was supporting her weight.
Hovering effortlessly by the thin cloud, Luna asked, “How does that feel?”
On the cloud, Requiem was utterly overjoyed, “This is way better than the Mare’s Room!” She exclaimed happily as she started to bounce around on the cloud, unable to contain herself any longer.
Seeing her unbounded enthusiasm, Luna couldn’t help but smile. ‘Just like Sky, just like Tavi…’ she thought, smiling even wider. “Clouds really are the best thing, aren’t they?” She asked somewhat rhetorically, “They also make excellent beds.”
“Hmm…yes, they are comfy,” Requiem agreed, “But this is even better, it has no cover.”
Luna’s mind wandered then, to a night not all that long ago when she and Octavia had shared a cloud far above the Royal Palace in Canterlot, of wine, roses and the best night sky she had ever created… “Now,” she said, bringing herself back to the moment at hoof, “I recall somepony saying she wanted to freefall?”
“Yes!” Requiem looked so excited, it was infectious, “So, what? I just jump?”
Luna giggled, “Of course, but,” A look of complete seriousness clouded her muzzle at the moment. As always, risk aware at all times, was her motto. Just like when Octavia asked to be her Pet. Just as Celestia had taught her. Safe, sane, consensual. She took a breath, “Requiem, before you do, I want you to know that I will of course do my best to catch you, but there is the degree of risk. Are you wholly sure you want to do this?”
Requiem didn’t answer straight away. Instead the painted pony trotted to the very edge of the thin Cirrostratus cloud away from the Princess. After a long moment of staring down she said eventually, “This is a once in a lifetime chance. I’m not going to miss this even if it is the last in a lifetime chance.” Turning suddenly on her hooves she galloped past Luna to the opposite edge of the cloud and lept off the edge, screaming, “Caaaaaaaaannonball!”
Jumping from the cloud in a pulled up ball, after a second Requiem had extended her front and rear hooves pointed straight out front and rear, her head tucked tight against her forelegs and her blue and red tail wrapped snugly around her right hind leg in a picture perfect power dive.
Stunned at her brazenness it took Luna two full seconds before she grunted, “Sweet Mother’s flanks!” Tucking her wings in tight to her barrel she rotated about her horizontal axis and dove like a midnight blue bullet after Requiem, pushing the limits of her speed to catch her up.
After roughly twenty seconds of glorious, wondrous freefall, in which Requiem forced her turquoise eyes open to watch all the twinkling little lights below her become gradually bigger and bigger as she neared the ground at close to her terminal velocity. Thrilling of the wind rushing past her mane, through her very fur, she spread her legs wide and tried to do some gymnastic tumbling moves. Forward and backward she span in summersaults and, buoyed by these successes she tried and failed to do a loop. Utterly lost in the moment, Requiem flipped over and had a grin without end as she saw Luna come alongside her and she waved a hoof at the lunar alicorn.
Noticing the ground, the rather large, rather hard and rather solid ground approaching rapidly at close to ninety miles per hour, Luna returned the wave to the falling earth pony to get her attention and began to light her horn in order to grasp her in her magical field so she could begin to slow down the falling mare.
Seeing Luna moving in to slow her down, Requiem waved her off and shook her head. As she flipped and tucked her right legs in tight while spreading her left and using her tail as a rudder to perform some spirals the painted pony knew she had more time yet. Any by any Goddess who was listening or watching, she wanted to enjoy this for as long as it lasted.
Dissipating her magic, Luna grinned and, angling her wings just so, the Princess performed spirals opposite to Requiem’s. For a brief moment the filly in her pretended they were a display team in the old Equestria Games.
After what felt like an eternity, but was in reality only another seventy seconds, of freefalling and flips and tricks, Requiem finally beckoned Luna with a red and blue hoof to come closer as with open legs she flipped again. Grinning like a mare possessed, the alicorn flew over and as Requiem came out of her latest flip flew with perfect timing into the earth pony’s open legs. “That was fantastic!” Requiem shouted at the top of her lungs. “I orgasmed so I might be wet. I know I'm good down there!”
Sliding a hoof up between the other mare’s hind legs, just to check, of course, Luna giggled then shouted back, “Yep! Definitely wet!”
Falling in Luna’s tight embrace, Requiem looked down at the ground which was by now very, very close indeed. Almost at the point of no return, the painted mare had never felt freer in her whole life. ‘I'd give up hooves for this.’ She thought with a huge smile on her face. While there was a very real and very tempting urge to keep falling, she whispered in Luna’s ear, “Catch me, please.”
Luna lit her horn and, using her magic, shrouded them both in a glowing turquoise aura that gradually arrested their descent while she spread her powerful wings to their full eight and a half foot span and began to level out, turning their fall into flight once more.
When the Princess had begun flapping her wings again, roughly five or so feet above the treetops, and they could converse at normal volumes, Requiem – held firmly in Luna’s well-toned forelegs – said over her shoulder, “I cannot think of words on how good that was! Thank you so much!”
Luna smiled, “You are most welcome, Requiem.” Taking the painted pony in her turquoise aura once more she levitated her back onto her back. “Home?” She asked with a grin, “Your chariot awaits, Ma'am.” She finished with a snicker.
Leaning forward as far as she could, Requiem nuzzled Luna’s ear with her cheek. “If you ever need a drop tester, I'm your mare.” She giggled, still rather high from the adrenalin rush from what they’d just done. “Yes, home, please. I messed up that loop, but the tumbling was a lot of fun!” Wrapping her forelegs around Luna’s neck she was still trying to vocalise her experience. “Being weightless was like, ‘where did my stomach go?’ Then it was like, ‘I don't care, it can find me later’!”
Entirely understanding, as she’d done this before, Luna merely giggled. “Home it is.” Flapping her wings in a steady rhythm, she turned to head back to the ranch, giggling harder as a memory came to her. “Octavia wet herself the first time I took her flying.”
“Oh, believe me, I would have.” Requiem snickered, “But alas I was empty.” As she sat back to simply enjoy the now low level flight, the earth pony found she just couldn’t keep from trying to put her experience into words. “It was just, wow! Have you ever just fell, properly fell, not used your wings for a bit?”
Luna thought very carefully before she answered. “Of course, it is most...exhilarating.” She replied, somewhat diplomatically.
“Yes!” Requiem squealed her agreement in the Princesses ear, although ‘exhilarating’ was hardly the word she’d use. “It was way better than I thought. I mean, wow! I think my stomach is still looking for me!” She was aware she was babbling on like an excited filly on her first date, but she didn’t really care.
“You've done very well Requiem,” Luna affirmed with a smile, “Even some pegasi lose their stomachs doing that.” Then, with just a tiny bit of introspection, that only slightly clouded her usually bright clear turquoise eyes, she said, “I usually free fall from higher, it’s very relaxing, especially after a hard day like today…” to herself she added, ‘As long as I remember to pull up’
On her back, Requiem shrugged her broad earth pony shoulders. “I do all the crazy amusement rides at the carnivals, plus I don't want to upchuck Thespian's awesome cooking!” Catching Luna’s slightly darker tone, she added, “I can't imagine not wanting to be caught or to pull up. I mean, I'm okay if that happened, but it’s not my plan A.”
“Oh, trust me,” Luna said darkly, most of the good humour gone from her voice, “The temptation is there, not all my duties are nodding and waving.”
Suddenly concerned, both for her new friend and for one of the nation’s rulers, Requiem felt the psychologist in her start to wake up. “So, what was so hard about today?” She asked, gently probing the waters, as it were. She knew full well that the Princess was under absolutely no obligation to talk to her, in spite of her otherwise ‘open’ demeanour that she’d demonstrated all night thus far. “I thought you liked that attention and stuff. I know I had fun.”
Luna shook her head, “I meant before coming here, taking care of the Tartarus-damned care home with Dusk.”
“Oh. Oh yeah, that is a shame.” Now Requiem’s interest was piqued, both professional and otherwise. Ever since Dusk had disappeared in that spectacular rainboom earlier, to his and Luna’s sudden reappearance later in the day and then the bizarre events in the Dungeon, speculation had been rife amongst the herd as to what had happened. Professionalism though, which she prided herself upon, called that anything Luna chose to disclose to her remain between them. ‘Okay, Requiem, it’s just like any other patient…nopony special…you can do this.’ She told herself sternly. Never mind who it was, it was clear she had baggage she needed to unload. “It is times like that I wonder if I should be using my degree to help ponies instead of strutting around on a stage. Young Wildfire is pretty messed up, but I think she has the right mares to help her out.”
“Yeah,” Luna agreed darkly, “She's messed up alright. You are right though, Requiem. She has the help she needs, and nopony else will ever be threatened by those wardens ever again...” a definite shadow crossed her eyes then, something which did not go unnoticed. “We saw to that.”
Letting go of Luna’s neck, Requiem instead crossed her forelegs on her back under her ethereal mane and laid her head down to get comfy. “It’s just sad, that’s all, that ponies who should help other ponies don't care about their responsibilities.” She laughed a little then, at the mention of responsibilities, “Then again, I act some teenager so I work in the theatre, at least I'm not hurting anypony.”
Luna sighed, “What's sad is that it goes unnoticed. I shudder to think the life Wildfire and the others lived in that horrible, horrible place.”
“Find it. Fix it. Move on. Yeah, things could have been better, but if you don't do the first two it will be a lot worse.”
“Yes indeed,” Luna agreed softly, then in a more determined tone, said, “As I said, where they are now they can’t hurt anypony ever again.”
“They can't,” Requiem nodded, “But how many of those facilities are there?” She asked kindly but firmly. “Something like that happened here in Manehatten about ten years ago. The ponies that ran the facility paid the inspector to not inspect. That stallion was in an accident so they sent in a sub to inspect in his place.” Requiem sniggered harshly as she recalled the scandal in the newspapers. “That place was so busted. Now, inspectors are rotated and inspected themselves.”
“Sadly it is more commonplace than I'd care to admit. Needless to say, we shall be taking every measure to fully inspect every facility in Equestria after today.”
“That's how it is though.” Requiem said simply. “Change needs a force, and more often than not, that force is suffering. Most don't want a pony to suffer, but until you rub their nose in it they just don't see. In a few years you can let Wily know that her time was not wasted as she has ultimately helped countless others. By then she should have her head on straight and understand. Maybe even forgive the ones that did it to her.”
Luna raised a forehoof and wiped her wet eyes, a moisture that had nothing at all to do with flying through the chill night air, “That's the silver lining in all this Requiem. However, I fear she'll forgive them long before I do.”
“Forgiveness is about yourself, not the other pony.” Requiem said gently in the alicorn’s ear, “Holding on to the hate isn't good for anypony. Forgetting that past will just have it repeat itself. Forgive. Learn. Keep vigilant.”
Now, Luna couldn’t help but smile, though a little self-deprecatingly, “Requiem, I am quite aware of what holding onto hate does to a pony.”
“I'd like to think so, you know.” Requiem smiled back at the lunar alicorn. “I mean, your own sister stuck you on your own moon. You forgave her though, right?”
“Eventually, yes.” Luna replied as the large white ranch hove into view in the distance behind the tall trees. “But, Tia had no choice. She merely did what had to be done to protect Equestria from the monster I had become.”
Requiem shifted her position on Luna’s back, and also shifted tack with the alicorn under her. “Caffy says it was you who did what was best at the time. Still, those small fries got their jolly’s abusing ponies. Forgiveness doesn't free them from the consequences of their crimes. So, forgive those offspring of fleas and let them rot wherever they are. Hate in the heart crowds out the Love. You don't want that, do you?”
“No...definitely not.” Luna agreed with a warm smile, thinking of everything she had that she stood to lose. Octavia, Dusk, Celestia…they were far more precious to her than hating a bunch of ponies that were now less than nothing to her. “Oh...” she gasped with a brighter smile, “We're almost back. Going to tell your somepony about your fall?”
“Who is going to stop me?” Requiem asked with a giggle, “You lost your chance when you caught me.”
Luna laughed out loud, her mood switching up almost instantly. “I just want to see his face.”
In reply Requiem giggled again, “Longshore is the one watching me on the thrill rides.”
As she approached the ranch Luna spread her wings to effectively slow down her gliding descent. “Well, there are thrill rides and then there are eighteen thousand foot death drops.” She smiled as she flared her wings wide and landed softly on the balcony of the ranch.
Waiting for Luna to fold her wings away, Requiem slid off of her midnight blue back and trotted inside the first floor. Taking a few steps down the stairs, the red and blue painted pony paused at the bottom on the ground floor and stomped her hoof in utter outrage. “Oh, for the love of the Sun and the Moon I've been upstaged by a stallion!”
Behind Requiem, Luna took a moment to realign a few feathers and then followed her new flying buddy down the stairs, eager to see what had caused her outburst. Joining the earth pony mare on the main floor, Luna didn’t have to look very far as arrayed before her, still sleeping from his rutting on the decking outside, was Dusk. This however, wasn’t the Dusk she had left behind. This Dusk had been given a considerable makeover. Everything from the burgundy hoof paint, to the lip gloss to the hickies on his sheath, her son looked a picture. “Oh my...” Luna barely contained a snigger behind her forehoof. “Who invited Vocal Chord?”
As she sniggered, Longshore walked into the U shaped hallway. “Welcome back love, Luna.” The jet black earth pony stallion greeted the two mares without an ounce of shame. “While you were flying the rest were chatting in the dining area, and well, some of them got bored.” He waved a hoof over to Dusk as if that was explanation enough.
Taking another look at her son, Luna didn’t even try and hold her laugh in anymore. “So I see Longshore!” She barely managed to say as she erupted in snorted giggles.
