Starlight's Weekend Off

"The Crystal ponies sure do have their salts up here, how do you not lick the walls?" Starlight commented as they sampled ten different kinds of the Crystal Empire's salt seasonings on hay fries for lunch in the Crystal Castle's dining hall.

"I recall reading a tome of ancient Crystal Empire history awhile back. I do believe that was a problem at one time. and that's why the structures of the city are now made of the most flavorless crystals."

This bit of information made Starlight chuckle as she took her last bite of hay fries.

"Mm. So, what's up first now that I'm settled in your room and we've eaten?" She asked, finishing up her glass of apple juice and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

"For that, we go out back." Sunburst told her, as he took their dishes to the dish cart before departing the dining hall. The pair of ponies made their way down to the rear of the castle. A set of double doors opened to an elevated walkway that took them down three flights of stairs directly to the stadium behind the castle. Empty seating for hundreds of ponies surrounded a running track and grass field with a small pond in the middle.

The two of them walked out into the middle of the field, where a large, ten foot by ten foot gift box was waiting.

"Wow, you go big, I'll give you that." Starlight commented, looking at the box that was more than twice as long as she was and half as tall.

"I'll admit, I had help with this, but when Pinkie gave me the idea last weekend, I knew I had to do it."

"Say, Sunburst. Your first monthiversary with Starlight is coming up. Got anything in mind?"

"Uh, um, no. I wasn't aware that we had to celebrate a 'monthiversary.'"

"Well of course you do silly. There are twelve opportunities in a year to do it!"

As a resident of Ponyville, Starlight was probably much more familiar with Pinkie's celebration antics than he could hope to be. Each one of their weekends had been special, but would she be expecting something extra special for the one-month mark?

"I'm certainly open to any suggestions, Pinkie." Sunburst said.

"Yay!" Pinkie exclaimed, squeeing. "Here's a great idea." She said, coming up to him, leaning in close to his ear.

"Whisper whisper whisper."

Sunburst shot her a confused look.

"Um, that's your idea? All you said was 'whisper whisper whisper.'"

"Well duh. We can't clue the readers into what we're planning. Don't worry. I'll tell you everything you need to know once the flashback ends."

"Wha...?"

"Pinkie certainly has her... Peculiarities... But I can't wait to see what you think. Her idea was great, and once I took it to some others, it got even better."

Starlight smiled and turned her attention to the large box with the red bow wrapped around it. Her horn lit up, and she gently untied it, then took a hold of the lid, and lifted it off, letting the high sun shine down on the gift inside. When she realized what it was, she let out a gasp, and tears immediately started to prick her eyelids as she brought a hoof up to cover her agape mouth.

Inside the box was an eight-foot long diamond kite. The material was a glittering lavender silk. On the left side, her cutie mark had been expertly embroidered, with Sunburst's on the right.

"It's got an Armorweave enchantment. It won't tear if it hits anything." Sunburst explained as the stunned unicorn looked over the incredible gift.

"It looks almost too big to fly alone." She finally said, noticing that she had never flown one this big before.

Sunburst smiled, his horn lighting up.

"That's because it is. This one is meant for two," he began, slowly lifting the large kite up out of the box, revealing two string spools attached, as well as an identical kite half the size underneath. Starlight's smile couldn't get any bigger. She looked over at him, and dove into him, throwing her hooves around his neck as she sniffled. Sunburst returned the hug, thrilled that his gift had gone over so well.

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's take it for a spin!" Sunburst said, parting from the hug and lifting the large kite entirely out of the box.

Starlight wiped her eyes, and magically grabbed the spool on the right side as it unfurled as Sunburst continued to raise it up, taking the left spool as they made their way over to the track. Once it was up twenty five feet, Sunburst turned to his date.

"Ready?" He asked her. She nodded excitedly.

They started to gallop next to each other clockwise around the track, and Sunburst released the kite from his grasp, and it was pulled behind them. All they needed was a good gust.

Standing up at the stadium entrance, Princess Cadance craned her neck up, raised a hoof, and made a circling motion three times. That was the cue. Two hundred feet up, hovered the director of the Crystal Empire's weather team, his head barely poking out below the cloud cover. He gave the princess a salute, then went up above the clouds and gave the signal to the six pegasi waiting on the clouds above the stadium. All together, they started flapping their wings. Not enough to fly or change altitude, but just enough wing power to give the duo below the wind they needed.

Sunburst and Starlight had completed one lap around the track, when they felt the gust of wind behind them. Suddenly, the kite that had been pulled behind them lurched ahead. It had taken flight. They skidded to a halt just off the grass field, and Starlight pulled her spool back towards her and grabbed it with her two front hooves as she sat down. The wind down by them was barely a breeze, but fifty feet up in the air where the kite was flying was another matter entirely. It caught another gust, and Starlight was pulled up to her back hooves as she took a two steps into the grass to avoid falling over. Sunburst wondered for a moment why she was using her hooves and not her magic to hold the kite, but assumed that that's what made it fun.

"Whoo!" Starlight yelled joyfully as the kite caught another gust and she was pulled another two steps forward, Sunburst keeping step with her. Both pairs of eyes were glued on the maneuvers the kite was making up in the sky. Sunburst felt a particularly strong gust of wind blow between them and make it's way upward. Sure enough, two seconds later, the kite lurched again.

"Whoa..." Starlight said, chuckling as she kept an iron grip on both handles of her spool. The wind wouldn't give though, and physics took over as the kite lifted Starlight off the ground and sent her forward ten feet in midair.

"Wahoo!!!" She cried out in glee.

"Starlight look out!" Sunburst yelled out to her when he realized all too late where her trajectory was going to take her.

The airborne unicorn began to arc down as the kite began to give in to her weight, and Starlight landed in the pond with a splash.

Sunburst ran forward, stepping into the shallow pond to make sure Starlight was okay, remembering to magically grab her new kite so it wouldn't take off in the wind, and started to pull it back down to the ground.

He looked down at his drenched marefriend, who was laughing hysterically as she got to her hooves. Water dripping from her horn, mane, coat, and tail, she jumped forward and kissed him.

"Lesson learned, keep an eye on your surroundings near water." She said, getting her laughter under control. She shook herself off while Sunburst re-spooled the string and boxed the kite back up.

"Thank you so much. I can't wait to take that flying with Maud. She's one of the strongest ponies I know, and Rainbow could definitely whip us up some gusty winds.' She said, coming in for another hug.

"I'm so glad you love it, and you can take the smaller one out for when everypony else is busy."

"So since that was short and sweet, what next?"

"Well, let's get you dried off, and get this box back to Ponyville. There's enough space for it to pass through the rune, right?" Sunburst asked. Starlight nodded.

"Yep, I just cleaned, there's definitely enough space on the floor."

The door to Starlight's room glowed, swung open, and Twilight walked in.

"Mm. Well at least she's keeping it nice and tidy. Now where would she keep that book? It has to be in here..." She said to herself.

She walked down her desk, eyeing the small stack of books next to the quill and parchment, and after not finding anything there, went over to the shelf on the back wall.

"Nope, not here either."

With that, she made her way to the other side of the room, where her bed was.

"Was this always this big? Could've sworn it was a twin..."

The Princess checked under the bed, under the pillows, and at last, between the mattress and box spring. Come on, where was it? The very last thing she wanted to do was to actually have to ask her newly graduated student where her book of sex spells went.

"Huh?" Twilight said, turning away from the bed, her attention having been grabbed by a glowing circle with symbols around it on the center of her bedroom floor. She recognized those... That was a transportation rune. But why would she be coming back already when it was barely two o'clock on Saturday?

There was a sizzle, a flash, and a pop. While Twilight didn't find the book she was missing, what she did find was herself under a rather large gift box that had materialized out of thin air.