“Blue or green?” Pinkie asked Flash.

“Blue.”

“Chocolate or vanilla?”

“Chocolate. Can we—”

“Apples or pears?”

“I’ve never had eit—”

“Xbox 1 or PS4?”

“Huh?”

“Chimicherry or cherrychanga?

“I don’t even—”

“Hey, Pinkie,” Spike asked. “Blue or pink?”

“Well, pink of course, silly. What could be better than pink? Well, blue is nice too, and green, and…”

And on Pinkie went. Spike winked at Flash, who was personally glad that Pinkie’s endless questions were done for now. After arriving, Pinkie had wanted to know everything about them. And she meant EVERYTHING. But rather than actually letting them talk, she had begun asking an endless barrage of questions about every possible topic.

Thankfully, Flash had enough time to hand Twilight the first of the books she was to read before distracting Pinkie for her. Said purple pony was currently sitting on Pinkie’s red couch and reading the book titled ‘Flying for Dummies: Basics Level.’ Every now and again she would try to extend her wings, but it seemed she could only extend one at a time, something that Flash could tell, based on the frustrated (and yet adorable) look on her face, annoyed her to no end.

“Having trouble?” he asked.

“Grrrrr… YES!” Twilight yelled. “These stupid wings won’t work right! Every time I try to open them, only one opens, and when I try and get the second one open, the first one closes! No matter how hard I try, I can’t hold both open at the same time, even though I somehow did that during ‘plan J!’” She slumped in defeat, facecouching and nearly dropping the book. “Why is this so hard? It’s just moving them. I’m not even trying to fly yet.”

Flash caught the book nimbly, smiling, and joined her on the couch. “It’s probably because you have new muscles and nerves that you’ve never used before, so it would make sense that they take some time to learn how to control,” he said, patting her mane, and then he smirked. “Shouldn’t you know that considering how many biology books you read?”

Her wing extended and slapped him in the back of the head.

“YES, I do know that, but that doesn’t make it any easier, and you being a smart aleck doesn’t help,” she replied, lifting her head. “And I have no idea how I just managed to slap you with such fine control! Ugh…” She dropped her head again, this time facebooking with a groan. Flash gave a sympathetic smile and kept patting her mane and back.

“You’ll get used to it. Maybe you just need to practice actually using your wings.” He gave his own pair a flap, allowing himself to hover above the couch. “I’m sure there must be somewhere we can practice.”

“How about the training field?” Pinkie asked from directly next to Twilight.

“GAH!” Twilight yelled, jumping sideways. Her wings flared out behind her. “Stop doing that!”

“Doing what?” Pinkie asked innocently, sitting on the couch across from Twilight.

“How did she even move that fast?” Spike asked in confusion, looking back at the spot across the room where Pinkie had been less than a second ago.

While Twilight tried to bring her heart rate under control, Flash turned to Pinkie. “What training field?”

“Oh, well, we set up this empty field to the side of town where we can practice fighting,” the pink pony answered, her mane deflating a bit at the word ‘fighting.’ “I don’t usually go there since parties are a much better solution than fights, but we do need to know how to protect ourselves from the forest wildlife, or the occasional soldier that wanders into the forest. The branches from trees keep it hidden from anyone above the trees, but a lot of the area above it is cleared out for pegasi to practice. Dashie is usually there too.” She gave a little bounce at Rainbow Dash’s name. “Oh, but I need to go with you since I’m supposed to watch you.”

“That’s… acceptable, I guess,” Flash said before returning his attention to Twilight. “Do you want to go now? Or would you rather just practice controlling your wings here?”

“Is there a third option where I just go back to reading?” Twilight asked hopefully. Flash just gave her a deadpan stare. “Ugh, fine. Let’s just go to the field. But, um, first, can you help me… close my wings?” She sheepishly gestured to the still-flared wings. “I think they’re stuck like this.”

Flash smirked, reached under her left wing, and poked it right at the joint.

“EEP!” Twilight flinched as her wing snapped shut. ‘Note to self, wing joints are extremely ticklish.’ she thought in embarrassment.

After Pinkie ran to get some snacks from the kitchen, which had all the modern necessities (such as a sink, a fridge and an oven), somehow (though neither Twilight, Flash, nor Spike wanted to ask), the group set off towards the training grounds. Along the way, many ponies turned to watch the group, but Twilight noticed that Pinkie would frown at any ponies that glared at Twilight, catching their eyes and refusing to let up until they looked away. Afterwards, Pinkie would grin again as if nothing had happened.

‘Is she…defending me?’ Twilight thought before sighing internally. ‘Everyone here is suspicious of me at the least, and she just accepts me even though I’m an alicorn? I don’t know whether to be glad or just confused.’

After a few minutes, the houses gave way to a large area of open land filled with ponies practicing with everything from spears and swords to crossbows and wing blades. Up above, pegasi sparred in midair over large safety nets. A few ponies spared a glance at the approaching group, but most just continued on like nothing happened.

“Where did you get all those?” Spike asked, nodding at the racks of weapons lining one side of the field. There were far more than any of them (save Pinkie, of course) expected.

“Oh, well, when new ponies find us they usually have a stolen weapon or two,” Pinkie replied. “And if we ever catch a guard or butler, we usually take their weapons before knocking them out and taking them away from the village. We also had a blacksmith joins us about two years ago, so he helps make more and maintain the ones we already have.”

“Any chance I could get my weapons back?” Flash asked.

“You need to ask Applejack,” Pinkie said. “I’d give her a bit of time though, just so she can come to trust you a bit more first.”

“How long would that take? She doesn’t seem like she’s all that trusting.”

“Oh, she’s always like that at first. But she comes around after a few days. Buuuuuuuuut, since Twilight IS an alicorn, I’d say give it a week or two. If she still doesn’t trust you, I’ll see if I can get your weapons back. What did she take exactly?”

“My wing blades.”

“Can we focus please?” Twilight interrupted. “We were trying to help me with my wings I just got a week ago.”

“Oops, sorry Twi,” Pinkie said. “I’ll just stand over here and cheer you on.” She bounced off to the side with Spike. Twilight blinked at the nickname, but decided it wasn’t worth questioning at the moment.

“Ok,” Flash began, “Lets start by having you open your wings. Should be simple enough.” Twilight nodded before focusing on her new appendages. She tried to open them, but they simply twitched slightly. Focusing on the left one, she managed to get it open, only to have it return to her side as she tried to focus on the right one. She struggled back and forth for a good minute before Flash told her to stop.

“Relax,” he said. “Don’t just focus on one at a time. Try closing your eyes and focusing on only your wings. Nothing else. They’re part of your body now, so focus on how they feel and the muscles that move them, then try again.”

Twilight nodded, closed her eyes, and tried to focus on her wing muscles. They still felt new and strange, so she was quickly able to locate them. There was so much tension in the muscles that she was surprised they hadn’t begun to ache. She took a deep breath and released it, bringing her hoof to her chest to time the movements. It took several minutes, but she felt her wings relax. With one more breath, she tried to extend them.

FWOOSH

“Eep!” Twilight cried. Her wings extended so rapidly she almost overbalanced and fell over. ‘Well, at least they’re both out now’, she thought, before blinking. Despite having them for over a week, she had never taken the time to get a good look at her wings. They were bigger than Flash’s, a lot bigger. In fact, they were bigger than any other pegasus wings she’d seen before. They were built differently too. She had larger feathers and the wing tips had steeper curves.

“I never realized how different my wings were,” she muttered, giving them an experimental flap. It felt awkward and clumsy, but she seemed to have at least some control over them, so that was a major improvement

“You mean you didn’t notice?” Spike asked.

“Between prison, plan J, our journey though the forest, being captured, then trying to learn how to just open them, I would like to think I was a bit preoccupied,” Twilight huffed.

“Fair enough.”

“Ok, now let’s move on to learning how to use them,” Flash said. “As you probably read, our wings can’t naturally carry us. Instead, they serve as a way for us to use our innate magic to fly. When we jumped off Canterlot, we still used magic to glide, though it was much easier due to our adrenaline. Right now, I want to see if you can create a breeze with your wings, not by flapping, but by using your magic.

“In order to do so, focus your magic into your wings just like you would your horn, then try to see if you can move the air around your wings to create a small breeze. Understand so far?”

“I think so,” Twilight said, nodding. “Only one way to find out.” Taking a breath, she tried to focus her magic into her wings, doing her best to remember her earliest lessons from Lady Celestia and Lady Luna. After a minute of contorting her face in a vain effort to channel the magic, she let go, her wings drooping slightly. “This may be harder then I thought.”

“Maybe you need to try looking for your pegasus magic like you did with your wings?” Spike suggested, but Twilight just shook her head.

“I only have one type of magic, Spike. The only thing that changed is that it’s alicorn magic now, not unicorn,” Twilight replied, looking at the ground in thought.

“Welllllll, since alicorns magic acts like all three types of normal pony magic, maybe you just need to find the part of your magic that’s pegasus based!” Pinkie suggested.

Twilight blinked.

Then blinked again.

“How did come up with that?” she asked.

“Oh, I once snuck into my Lady’s library to see if she had any book on party planning, which she did, but I also found this book that told me all about alicorns,” Pinkie said, smiling. “It’s weird though, because no one else there could see anything, not even the head library lady.”

This just confused Twilight more.

The book Pinkie was talking about was most likely the Book of Alicorns, a book each house had a single copy of. The original alicorn survivors created them to insure the knowledge of their species would be passed on. The books were enchanted to be nearly indestructible, but they were also enchanted so that only alicorns could see what was written inside, and those enchantments couldn’t be removed. She had tried to read the book and remove the enchantments, but had failed miserably.

“Don’t think about it too hard,” Rainbow Dash called out from across the field, seeing the look of utter confusion on Twilight’s face. “It’s Pinkie, and as much fun as it would be to see you question every little thing she does, I’m not that cruel. Just accept that she can do the impossible and move on.”

“I…um…ok,” Twilight said, trying to shake the impossibility from her mind and focus on her magic again. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on her new magic pool and see if she could find the magic she needed to fly. Surprisingly, finding a bit of magic related to her wings wasn’t too difficult. It was actually separating the pegasus magic from the rest that was the challenge. She struggled with it for several minutes, before she gave up trying to gather it all and channeled what she could into her wings.

After half a minute, she opened her eyes and saw a continuous trial of dust passing slowly beneath her wings. She could feel the air moving, rustling her feathers and making her shiver.

“Well done,” Flash said, walking over. “I think you’re ready to start flying.”

“So soon?” Twilight asked. “But I just learned how to use the magic. Shouldn’t I practice it more, or maybe read more from the book?” She looked at him hopefully, only to sigh when he shook his head.

“Pegasus magic is best learned through doing,” Flash said. “The book was just a way for you to learn what to do once we began practicing. And based on your normal reading speed, you already covered the section on hovering, right?” He flashed her a knowing smirk.

“Yes,” Twilight grumbled.

“Good, now watch,” Flash said, spreading his wings and flapping them to hover a foot off the ground. “Now you try. Just do what you did before, but this time move your wings and try and force the air down. Use more magic when you want to go higher, then ease off to come to a hover.”

Nodding, Twilight reached back into her magic and tried to flap her wings while channeling it. As it turned out, flapping her wings made the magic flow much faster, causing Twilight to shoot a good two feet into the air on the initial flutter. She panicked, flapped unevenly, flipped upside down, and fell flat on her back with a grunt. Of course, Rainbow and some of the other ponies nearby found this to be highly amusing. So did Spike and Pinkie.

“Owww…” she moaned as Flash quickly moved to help her. “What happened?”

“You used a little too much magic,” Flash said. “That, and the uneven flapping of your wings caused you to have more lift on one side than the other, causing you to flip over and then propel yourself into the ground.”

“Credit where credit is due, Flash. You make this look easy,” Twilight said as she stood up.

“Thank you, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll see it’s nothing too difficult. Once you get it, you’ll never forget.” He smiled. “Now try again, but this time try to keep a steady rate of flapping. Maybe try counting to four like a conductor.”

“Just without the weird hoof movements,” Spike chuckled.

Rolling her eyes, Twilight began waving her wings again, this time trying to use less magic and counting steadily in her head.

‘1, 2, 3, 4...’

Slowly she began to rise…

‘1, 2, 3, 4…’

She reached one foot in height…

‘1, 2, 3, 4…’

She eased off her magic…

‘1, 2, 3, 4…’

‘I did it! I’m hov–‘

“AHHHH!”

“EEK!” Twilight cried in shock. The sudden scream startled her so badly she instinctively tried to move away from it, causing her to lose her focus. Immediately she lost control, spinning mid-air, only to come crashing down directly on her right wing.

Twilight winced in pain, but somehow managed to avoid crying out.

“BAHAHAHAH! That was priceless!” Rainbow cackled, and the ponies she’d been training with laughed as well. Twilight realized it was Dash who cried out, though her wing hurt too much for her to care. Spike and Flash, however, were glaring daggers at the rainbow-manned pony while Pinkie moved to help Twilight stand. But before any of them could say anything, a new authoritative voice cut through the noise.

“RAINBOW DASH!”

Rainbow and the others immediately stopped laughing and looked at the approaching pony in terror. Approaching was a yellow pegasus mare with a long pink mane and a cutie mark with three butterflies. She held a white box with a red plus on the side under her wing, and was glaring at Rainbow with her big blue eyes.

“H-hey, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said with a nervous smile, taking a step back as the other pegasus continued her approach.

“Don’t you ‘hey Fluttershy,’ me, missy,’ Fluttershy said. “I saw what you did. Now just because you lost your wings doesn’t mean you can pull such a mean prank on someone who just got them. Not to mention that you made her land on her wing, which could have seriously hurt her.”

Rainbow tried to hide it, but Twilight saw her gulp.

“I want you to apologize,” Fluttershy said. Her eyes narrowed even further. “Now.”

Rainbow nodded quickly before looking over towards Twilight. “I-I’m sorry for scaring you. I-It wont happen again.”

“Good girl,” Fluttershy said in a much softer and soothing voice. “Now go back to training while I tend to my patient.” And with that, she walked over to Twilight, using her wings to open the first aid box and pull out equipment. “I’m sorry about Rainbow,” she said to Twilight, motioning for the purple pony to and gently extend her wing. “She loves to pull pranks, but I don’t think she realizes the harm they can cause sometimes.”

“I-It’s no problem, miss…” Twilight replied nervously.

“Oh, um, I’m Fluttershy.” She began to look at Twilight’s wing. “I’m sorry if I frightened you. Rainbow sometimes goes overboard with her pranks, so I sometime need to be tough with her to remind her not to hurt anyone.” Her own wings shifted, as though she was uncomfortable. “I’m not usually that assertive.”

“Well ‘shy’ is in your name,” Spike replied, earning a glare from Twilight and a slight giggle from Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus wrapped a bandage around Twilight’s wing.

“There, your wing should be fine by tomorrow so long as you don’t use it anymore today,” she replied. “It was just a simple sprained muscle.”

“Thank you for your help,” Flash said, helping Twilight stand up. “I’m Flash Sentry, and this is Twilight Sparkle and Spike. Are you the only medic here?”

“No, there are a few others. I, um, got experience with animals, so learning to add ponies wasn’t so hard.” She swallowed nervously, looking at her hair as though she wanted to hide behind it. “I still prefer animals though, if I’m honest. I’m…not the best at talking to ponies.”

“You seem to be ok with us,” Spike said.

She smiled at him. “Well, um, that partly because when I see a hurt pony, I tend to just focus on the injury. But also, um, it’s because of, well, you.”

Spike blinked. “Me?”

“Oh yes. I’ve never seen a baby dragon before. And you can talk!” she (quietly) exclaimed. “Oh, I have so many questions.”

However, before Spike could answer her, a loud voice yelled out from above.

“Fluffy incoming!” a watchpony called.

“Fluffy?” Twilight, Flash, and Spike asked.

“Oh, he’s just a friend of mine,” Fluttershy replied, walking towards the nearest wall. The other three just looked at each other in confusion before moving to follow the pegasus. Pinkie trailed behind them, giggling.

“You guys are in for a surprise,” she said, only serving to deepen the confusion of the group. Before they could ask anything, a large shadow leapt over the nearest wall.

Twilight gasped, Flash leapt protectively in front of her, and Spike ducked behind them both. The creature that had just jumped over the wall was a large lion with bat wings and a scorpion tail. A Manticore.

And then they noticed a bunny sitting calmly on top of its head like he was king of the world.

“Hi, Fluffy,” Fluttershy said in a motherly voice, walking right up to the Manticore. It lowered its head and allowed Fluttershy to pet it, purring and giving the pegasus an affectionate lick. “What are doing back so early, you silly kitty. Did you find any ponies to help?” The Manticore nodded and began to grunt and growl randomly, but Fluttershy just nodded in understanding and looked over at Rainbow and the others. None of them seemed to be the least bit surprised by what was occurring.

“There are two escaped ponies about two miles south,” Fluttershy said. “They don't smell like they escaped from Thorn’s estate, but we should probably send somepony right away just in case. At least, if we have anyone to spare.”

Rainbow nodded before turning back to her group. As she began to give her orders, Fluttershy began petting the Manticore’s belly, causing it to roll over with a slew of happy purrs. The bunny hopped off its head and settled on Fluttershy’s back with barely a blink. Twilight, Flash, and Spike just stared at the spectacle in pure shock.

“I…that’s…HUH?” Twilight stammered, trying as hard as she could to understand what she just saw. For a minute, she thought she was hallucinating, until Pinkie started giggling again.

“Fluttershy can talk to animals,” she explained. “Fluffy was the first one she met here. After she helped get a thorn out of her claw, Fluffy took a liking to her. Now she goes out and tries to find lost ponies, or warns us if guards are coming.” She darted behind the three of them and pushing them towards Fluttershy and Fluffy. “Come on, I know Fluttershy would love to introduce you.”

“Pinkie, wait!” Twilight cried, trying to backpeddle away from the approaching Manticore, but it was too late. The Manticore looked up and let out a growl at Twilight and the others, but Fluttershy patted her reassuringly.

“It’s ok, Fluffy. She’s not a big meanie like the others.” Fluttershy said in a motherly voice. “Be nice. That goes for you too Angel.” She turned her head at the bunny, who was giving Twilight a surprisingly unnerving death glare. Angel begrudgingly relaxed somewhat, but not before giving Twilight an ‘I’m watching you’ gesture with his tiny paw.

Fluffy stood back up and began to approach Twilight, only for Flash and Spike to interpose themselves between her and the Manticore. Fluffy growled, but stopped as Fluttershy walked forward.

“Please let Fluffy meet Twilight,” she said reassuringly. “I promise everything will be fine.” Despite their reservations, they didn’t stop her as she grabbed Twilight hoof and gently guided her to Fluffy. Upon reaching the Manticore, Twilight gulped and looked up into the eyes of the Everfree beast.

“H-hello,” she barely managed to choke out. Fluffy lowered her head and immediately took a sniff of Twilight, causing her to freeze in place.

‘Ok, don’t move, everything is ok. You’re ok, You’re not about to be eaten, or mauled, or stabbed by its big huge stinger full of toxic venom or—‘

She was immediately snapped out of her panicked thoughts when Fluffy gave her a huge, wet lick right in the face, nuzzled her, and started purring.

“Awwww, she likes you,” Fluttershy said, clapping her hooves excitedly.

“Um…yay?” Twilight said, still trying to comprehend being licked in the face by a creature that could easily swallow her whole.

‘Ok, didn’t see that coming. Also, EEEWWWWWW! Please tell me this village at least has baths! Please!’

Meanwhile, Rainbow and Pinkie were on the ground with laughter, and Spike was biting his lip, looking just as amused. Flash just looked relieved. But when Fluffy gave Twilight another lick before turning around and moving into the village, the Butler started snickering and Spike joined the other ponies on the ground, cackling.

“Where is she going?” Flash asked once he regained his composure.

“Oh, um, Fluffy has a den on the south side of the village. She just came to tell me about the ponies lost in the woods first.” She beamed. “And I’m glad she made a new friend today.”

“Yay… Friends,” Twilight said dryly, wiping some of the saliva off her face and leaving a long hanging trail of it from her foreleg. She grimaced. “I think that’s enough for today. I just want to have a bath and go to bed. Please tell me you have baths.”

“We do,” Pinkie said. “I can show you when we get back to my house. Buuuuut I think you also need to do something about your wings first.” Blinking, Twilight looked down to see what she meant. After her multiple bad landings, her wings were dirty and had a few feathers out of place. She recalled having learned the pegasi needed to preen their wings to keep them healthy, but the book had said absolutely nothing on how to actually do it.

“Fluttershy,” Flash asked, drawing Twilight from her thoughts, “would you be willing to teach Twilight how to preen her wings?”

“Oh, um, I guess so. At least, if its ok with Twilight,” she said, looking nervously at the alicorn.

“I…guess?” Twilight said with a hit of confusion in her voice. “But why can’t you do it Flash?”

Rainbow facehoofed and Flash blushed slightly.

“You never ask a STALLION to preen your wings, dummy,” Rainbow said. “The only time the other gender preens your wings is if you’re in a relationship with them, or if it’s an emergency like the feather flu.”

“And how am I supposed to know that? The book never mentioned that or anything about preening!” Twilight replied, angry at the insult. A lot could be said about her, but no one insulted her intelligence.

“Both of you stop,” Fluttershy said, stepping between the two ponies. “Rainbow, she doesn’t know about how pegasus traditions work, so be nice. And Twilight, please don’t be mad at her for calling you a dummy. She does that to everyone.”

“I do not!”

“Yes you do,” everyone else on the field called out, causing Rainbow to frown and grumble to herself. Smiling in satisfaction, Fluttershy agreed to help Twilight with her wings after she had cleaned up. So with that, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Flash, Spike, and Twilight began walking back to Pinkie’s house.

Author's Note

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Interrupting Rainbow...

Also, we now meet Fluttershy and her pet Manticore, Fluffy. Why Fluffy? It's Fluttershy, what else would she name it. As to how and why? Both to be answered later. Sorry, but they will be a part of a later chapter that I won't spoil, but it will be relatively soon.

In other news, I'm already making a lot of progress on chapter 8 now that chapter 7 is done. I doubt that this super fast trend will continue, but one can hope.

Please leave a comment and tell me what you thought, as I am always looking for feedback. See you all in a week, and a special shoutout to everyone who chose to like this and watch me. THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT (I think obsessed with these little emotes