Saffron Ree

Formation flying was tough. You had to know exactly where you and your wingmates were at all times. The hard part was matching all our flying together. Some of us had bigger wings, some of us had different types of wings, but I was the smallest and that meant everypony should be pulling their flying down to my speed.

At least, that's how it would normally work. The difference was I used my magic in precision flying to keep pace with the next better flier than me so that the whole team could work faster. We were jumping into a Sweeping Advance maneuver when sergeant Slowpoke cruised up alongside me with her wings barely moving. She could out-fly me without trying, I knew, but right now she had fallen-in beside me just like our formation had an extra pony on one end.

Slowpoke gestured down with a hoof and then wiggled her pinon-feather nearest me. This was one of the standard gestures which was a command to fall-in with that pegasus.

Tilting my wings as she did, we turned into a dive that brought us down to Wonderbolts H.Q.'s landing strip and to a screeching halt together. "Canterlot General Hospital. Your mother just had her foal."

Whatever I'd been focused on just evaporated. How could I think about flying when Mom needed me? "Sir, permissi—"

"Go, Saf. Heck." Slowpoke rolled her eyes.

"R-Right. Thanks." Turning toward the edge of the clouds, I pumped my wings and zoomed across and over the edge.

The air barely touched me I was moving so fast. With my wings tucked in at my sides, I shot toward Canterlot and sped up all the while. I knew where Mom would be, since I'd been with her and Dad one time when they went to the hospital, so adjusted my dive so I'd be pulling out of it right at the front door.

Hitting the ground a little harder than normal, I ran inside and looked around the entrance. Hospitals were always kinda freaky to me. Everypony seemed to be rushing from place to place, and all of them seemed to know exactly where they were going.

"Well, look at you in your Wonderbolts outfit. What can I help you with, sweetie?" When I spotted the mare who spoke, I realized she was exactly who I needed to talk to—a nurse.

"My mom, uh Clair Ree, is having her baby." I looked up at the mare who towered over me, and tried to look lost. Whether it worked or not, she reached a hoof out and ruffled my mane. Not that I cared about her messing up my hair right now.

"Let's find her then, shall we? She'll be in maternity… Follow me, please."

I trotted after her as she led the way deep into the building. Eventually she stopped at a desk and asked after Mom.

"The ambassador?" The nurse behind the counter leaned forward and looked down at me. "Saffron, is it?" At my nod she smiled. "Room 7. She only just came in."

More trotting, and I got to count down the room numbers until we reached 7. The nurse used a wing to open the door and I shot through the gap as quick as I could. "Mom?"

"Over here, Saf," Dad said. "Remember how long your mom took with Riley? Well, apparently ponies don't spend anywhere near that amount of time having their foal."

"What do you—No way?" I'd missed it? How had I missed it? They said she just came in! I only had to flick my wings a little and I was into the air and hovering beside the bed. Mom was laying on her side with a little wrapped bundle against her belly—her back leg was stretched a bit further back than normal. It took me a few seconds to realize that's where her boobs were and a few more to remember that they were meant for babies, after all. "Heck."

"Meet your new little sister, Saffron." Mom didn't sound drugged out, like when she had Riley. When I looked up at her, she didn't look drugged out either, just a little tired. "No epi this time, so I guess I have to come up with a name the old-fashioned way."

My attention snapped back to the tiny filly pressed to Mom's belly. Hovering forward, I set myself down on the bed and lay down on my belly beside my new sister. "Hey there." When her tiny ears twitched, I couldn't help but grin. "Welcome to the family. Things might be a little crazy every now and again, but I bet you're gonna fit-in just fine."

She squirmed and pulled her snout out from under Mom's leg, then let out the biggest burp I'd ever heard—well, from something as small as her. She looked up at me with huge eyes and smiled. She also had a tiny horn above her snout.

It was enough to make me giggle. "One of each. Your big sister's an earth pony, I'm a pegasus, and you're a unicorn. I'm sure there's probably somepony somewhere who will find symbolism in that. Not me, though, I'm just a dumb jock fly-boy." I booped her nose—carefully—with my hoof.

Her eyes widened and she fumbled with her forelegs but couldn't get them to cover her nose. When I reached down and brushed her snout with one wing-feather, all her attention swapped to my wing.

"Are all foals this active just after birth?" Mom asked.

When I looked around, the nurse who'd come with me was gone and a new one was fussing with pillows and charts beside Mom. My attention snapped back to my sister, who had one of my feathers in her mouth now. "Well I guess I needed a good preening anyway."

Mom tapped my shoulder with a hoof to get my attention. "You can pick her up if you want, Saffron. By the sound of that burp, she's had a good feed."

Sitting up, I scooped my free wing under her and lifted her into my feathers while she kept sucking on my other wing's primary. "She's so small."

"Mom! Dad!" Riley's voice from the door wasn't that much of a surprise. I imagined she got the same message I did, though she might have been harder to break from meditation. "When are you going to have the foal?"

Dad's eyes flicked to me. "What foal, Riley?"

My little sister's—Guess I can't use that anymore. Riley's mouth had dropped open and she stared between Mom and Dad. She hadn't even looked at me or what I was holding in my wings. "Dad!"

"Riley, get your butt over here," I said, making room on the bed for her.

Dad lifted Riley up onto the bed with his magic and I turned my wing just enough for her to see— "Have you picked a name yet, Mom?"

"She's so tiny. She's smaller than me!" Riley crawled across the bed to me and looked at our new sister. "How is she smaller than me?"

Holding our new sister in my wings, I reached a hoof up and booped Riley on the nose. "Because you're twelve years older than her, silly."

"Yeah, but…" All Riley's attention was on the little filly, and she trailed off when my feather was surrendered in favor of reaching out toward Riley instead.

"I think, given her yellow coat, Golden would make a good first name," Mom said.

Dad tapped his chin with one cloven hoof. "What's the normal naming system here? Should she have Ree as her last name, or do we pick that as well?"

Turning to stick her tongue out, Riley put a foreleg around me. "She's a Ree, Dad. There're some families in Equestria that have consistent themes or last names. There's no reason we can't too."

"Okay then, Golden Ree it is." Mom let out a sigh that sounded very content and happy. She was looking at Golden, so I carefully walked up the bed toward her with the filly in my wing. "Thank you, Saffron."

Passing Golden to Mom, I sighed. She'd never stop calling me by my full name—and I could never tell her to stop. "So. What now?"

"Well, as near as we can tell," the nurse said, "both mother and daughter are doing well. You can head home once you're discharged." She tapped her hoof on the chart. "The doctor left notes that once your little one was fed, you're fine."

Remembering when Mom was in with Riley, she'd been in hospital for a few days after having her. "Really? Aren't there tests and stuff?"

Raising an eyebrow, the nurse turned the chart around. "They've all checked out."

"Saf, they use magic to run tests here. The bed probably does all the tests for them," Riley said.

Getting Mom checked out of the hospital wasn't hard, but there was a lot of paperwork to fill out. Dad took care of that while I held Golden. Wings really were the best, and I can't understand why anypony would want to be anything but a pegasus—though Riley and Dad do pretty well.

I thought back to the filly I was carrying. "A unicorn. Didn't I hear there are all kinds of problems raising a unicorn foal? Like, magic bursts or whatever?"

"I've already got a list of helpful spells for that. One of Starlight's friends helped raise Flurry when she was just a tiny foal. If they work on an alicorn, they should be fine for a unicorn." Dad sounded so confident, which was more than a little worrying.

It was worrying because this was all strange. Sure, Golden was their third kid, but she's their first unicorn. A cute one too, particularly since she was asleep in my wing right now.

I didn't need to be told to take her upstairs when we got home. I headed for Mom and Dad's room, with Mom following me. "How weird is this?" I asked.

"Super weird. I expected to spend a few days, high on drugs, half a day pushing and fighting my own body… Instead I got in there, the doctor told me to give a good heave, then he told me to stand up! I stood up and felt Golden just—just slide out. And don't get me started on nursing her all the way back there." Mom climbed up on the bed and looked over at me expectantly. When I reached out and passed Golden to her, the tiny filly woke up and grabbed onto my wing.

"Uh… What do I—?" She wasn't strong. I could have pulled away easily, but I wouldn't. Using my free wing, I reached to my secondary feathers (some were a little loose anyway) and plucked a few free. They were still longer than Golden's foreleg, and when I tickled her nose with one, she giggled and let go of my wing.

"You're going to spoil her, Saffron." Mom cuddled Golden and reached down to tuck the filly against her belly. "Thank you."

Knowing what she was about, I turned and let Mom have some privacy. "Us Rees have to stick together. There's five of us now, and Golden needs a cool big brother."

"She's got one," Mom said as I was walking out of the room.

What do I say to that? Ugh. I walked down the hall and down the stairs, unsure what to do with myself. Should I go back to Wonderbolts' HQ? I only had a moment of thinking about it when I was crash-tackled by Riley.

When Riley tackled you, you knew about it. "What's up?" I asked, putting a foreleg around her.

"You're the best big brother ever."

"As if that was in doubt." I didn't feel as confident as I sounded saying that, but what else could I say? "I guess we get the rest of the day off school?"

"Yeah. Princess Celestia told me to take the day off. She said it's super important to let our new sister know how special she is." Letting go of me, Riley walked over to the couch and jumped up on it.

Seeing the obvious invitation, I followed her and climbed up too. "Mom's feeding her again. If she's anything like you, all she'll do for weeks is eat, sleep, and make the most disgusting messes you've ever smelled. And, I bet those smells will be worse because we're ponies." I tapped my snout with my right wing's largest primary feather—the one Golden had mangled.

Barking a laugh, Riley closed her eyes and seemed to go a little distant. "Saf, if all we have to deal with is a bit of diaper stink, that won't be much. There's so much we have to teach her. She might not look it, or feel it, but she's still at least a little bit human. We have to make sure she can find out about that stuff if she wants to."

"Even if she does," I said, "we have years and years to help her figure that out. Remember, I'm still a foal for another twenty years, and you are for another thirty. Golden will be for forty years. There's just so much more here in Equestria."

"Yeah, I guess. Princess Celestia has me doing more meditation stuff. The book does too, but Princess Celestia wants me to have it perfect before I move on with the next step. It's going to take me years to learn all this, and even if I have years to burn, I want to do it faster!"

Rolling my eyes, I bopped Riley on the nose. "It's pegasi that are known for wanting to do things faster."

"And unicorns that are known for their magic. I don't care about all that. I want to do all this and I want to do it now." She looked around the room. "Ugh. It's too boring here. I need to go out and do something."

When she jumped down, I followed after her. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know that, Saf. If I knew that, I would have said, 'I need to go out and do that thing.'"

That was a lot of sass for Riley—she must have been really worked up over this. "Dad? Heading outside for a bit."

"Take your sister—your older sister—with you, Saf." Dad's reply made me chuckle a bit.

"Will do, Dad." I looked back at Riley and spotted the smile on her face too. "Okay, that's gotten us the afternoon. Let's go do something."

When we were outside, I let my wings open just a little—enough to feel the breeze. "I think the weather ponies are putting a storm together."

"You can feel that?"

"Yeah. Like…" I thought hard on what I was feeling. "It's like the air is getting more and more wet—humid—and I can almost taste the static of lightning. We haven't done much about weather design yet, just examining what pegasi can do to clouds. You wanna fly up and take a look?"

Riley's answer was to pronk her way onto my back and hold onto my neck.

Spreading my wings, I had to give a few good pumps of them to get us off the ground. There were no thermals nearby, and given the moisture in the air I doubted if they even existed at all right now. Circling higher and higher, I pumped my wings without using magic, and soon we found ourselves in the middle of a group of weather ponies. "Uh, hi!"

"Whoa! Canterlot's a no-high-fly zone right now. What are you—both of you—doing up here?" The pegasus stopped, and with her about half a dozen others that were doing something to a cloud.

Right. Weather report. I'd forgotten to check my flying information for the afternoon. Lying wouldn't be the right thing here. "Sorry, I'll just—"

"Wait. Chief, look at what he's wearing," another of the pegasi said. "Hey, kid, you're a junior Wonderbolt, aintcha?"

Wearing my flight suit was second nature now—probably first. I nodded. "Yeah. Though things kinda got messed up today on account of Slowpoke interrupting my class to tell me our mom was having her foal."

The first pegasus blinked in surprise. "No sh—Really?" When Riley nodded on my back, the mare let out a laugh. "Well, I can't exactly chew you out. I bet you're just giving your parents some space by taking your—sister out for a fly, right? Just bolted right out the door?"

"Something like that. Mom look worn out, and Dad looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and hide for a year. That doesn't excuse me not checking out the weather warnings."

"No harm done. Hey, you wanna give us a wing, hot-shot?" The mare raised an eyebrow and nodded toward the huge thunderhead beside her. "We're trying to push this big-un over the mountain to kick the lightning out of it, then we're going to pack it down for the snow Princess Celestia asked for tomorrow."

"Go on, Saf. You'll never get another shot like this," Riley said from my back.

"Just hold on tight and don't use your magic. Last thing we want is a cloud growing trees or something." I winked over my shoulder at Riley, then turned back to the weather ponies. "Ma'am, what do you need me to do?"

"Get on the side opposite to Thumper there and try to heave that thing as much as you can. It's a big and lazy cloud—it just wants to dump everything it has right here." The mare gestured to where she wanted me and then to where we were pushing it. "What's your name? Never mind, you'll be Hot-Shot. My name is Sunny Day, but you can call me Chief."

Racking my brain, I managed to remember that E.U.P. Guard chiefs were the lowest level of field command. They knew everything about everypony under them and knew how to get things done. "Yes Chief!"

"Hey, Hot-Shot, give your hooves a bit of a kick of magic to start with. I hope you have some pushing power," Thumper said.

I didn't have the wings Thumper had, but I bet I had as much magic as him. Maybe more. "Hey, Riley, forget what I said. Can you give me a jolt?"

Her answer was a giggle and the jolt I'd asked for. It was like a rushing hurricane of magic that started off foreign and weird, but the longer it was in me the more like pegasi magic it became. When I figured it was as converted as it was going to get, I pushed a little into my forehooves and a bunch more into my wings and pushed.

"Whoa! Hot-Shot! Move to the center and swap with Howling." Sunny Day's command had another pegasus rushing to my position and, instinctively, I moved to theirs. "That's it. Now give it another push. I shoulda expected you Wonderbolts had some secret cloud-moving techniques."

This time, when I pushed, my shove was directly through the cloud's center of mass. I gave the bulk of the push while the pegasi around me assisted and guided it. With Riley's magic boiling through me, I wasn't even getting tired.

"Okay, on my mark you're going to stop pushing aaaaand…" Sunny drew out the word, but I knew not to stop pushing until she told me. "Stop!"

Now I stopped and back-winged a little from the huge cloud. Every wing-beat I'd felt how much that thunderhead wanted to go in any direction but the one I'd been pushing it—but all the other weather ponies were always there to keep it on track.

"Hey, Hot-Shot, if you ever get bored of the Wonderbolts, come and check out the weather ponies. We could use some heavy-lifters." It took me a moment to realize she was misjudging my age. I knew there were smaller than average ponies, but it felt great to be recognized as a near-adult despite my size and age.

"I kinda cheated. The little filly on my back? One of Princess Celestia's newest students. She can give you a jolt of magic that lets you do a lot more with your own power than you could on your own."

The pegasi all looked between themselves before Sunny fronted up. "Any chance of a jolt for one or two of us, then? It'd make all this a lot easier."

I looked over my shoulder at Riley. "How're you feeling? Up for a few more?" I could see in her eyes that this kind of situation was what she'd been wanting when she'd said "do something".

She stood up, ignoring that she was just casually standing on my back so far above the ground that we couldn't recognize ponies below. "Just hover close. I don't really need to touch you."

Thumper was first to approach. He winged so that he wasn't far from me and, when Riley gestured to him, his eyes widened and I could see him buzzing with that raw, physical power that she could donate. "Sweet Celestia! That's—That's amazing!"

Once Riley had dished out her jolt to each of the weather ponies, she slumped onto her belly on my back. "It takes a lot of focus to do that without touching them. This is what I wanted, though." She raised her voice. "Will that help?"

"You're kidding, right? I feel like I could shove that cloud around on my own!" Thumper looked at Sunny. "Hey, Chief, we don't need to report them for violating flight rules, right?"

"Report who? Only ponies around here are weather ponies and two deputies. You should probably both head home now. I bet your mom is a bit more relaxed. Maybe you should give her a jolt?" Ruffling my mane with her forehoof, Sunny gestured back down toward Canterlot.

It was kinda an order, and I didn't really want to argue with them since they'd been nice in not reporting me. Giving a salute, I tweaked my feathers to let air rush through them and, with Riley letting out an excited squeal from my back, we plunged back down into low-altitude Canterlot airspace.

It was hard to tell how long we spent with the weather pegasi as we descended toward home.

Watching Riley finding her place was amazing, and it seemed like her magic (like Dad's and mine) was like a muscle—the more she used it, the stronger it got. Every morning before her classes with Moon, she'd trot down to the weather ponies, and after that to the E.U.P. Guard H.Q. It was obvious she'd realized her power was getting stronger with use, but I was pretty sure she genuinely enjoyed helping all those ponies.

Golden was still so tiny, but she'd started both walking and firing blasts from her horn at every opportunity. Dad was quick to solve the latter with those spells he'd learned. Things almost seemed calm and safe. That's why I knew something crazy was coming.

"Narrating in your head? Who do you think is listening?" I knew the voice even before I turned around and saw Discord floating in the air behind me. "Fluttershy told me I should apologize again for our last meeting—I was feeling a bit noodly, you see, and when that happens I just start flipping things upside down."

"Yeah, I noticed. Besides, you turned me back to normal. No harm, no foul. Just ask before you change me into something else… and make sure it has wings." I realized my error the moment after I finished talking. "Ask before you change me at all."

"You're both fun and not at the same time. Your little sister is causing quite the stir. Going around and booping ponies. You know there are rumors starting." Discord leaned back and stretched out on a lawn chair that wasn't there seconds ago. He lifted a mirror up and positioned it under his neck. "If you don't relax, I'll make you relax."

With just a snap of his fingers, or paw, Discord made a second chair appear, lifted me onto it, and positioned a second mirror under my chin.

I just sighed and stretched out a little, trying to enjoy the warmth of the sunlight. "Rumors?"

"Glad you asked. Let's see, there's the one about Celestia losing it and taking an earth pony as her new personal student. Another about a young mare that spends far too much time around a colt. Finally, we have the one about one mare who can tame the desires of a stallion alone.

"That last one has all kinds of salacious postulations about how. Some even combine it with the young mare and the colt one, saying the mare is the second female for the stallion." A pineapple appeared in Discord's talons and he took a sip from it—managing not to impale himself on an uncountable number of tiny umbrellas. "None of the rumormongers suspect for a second that all three are true."

"She doesn't spend too much time with me. For a start, I don't even have those feelings as a colt."

"So you do know something of this?" Discord removed a pair of sunglasses I swore he wasn't wearing a moment earlier. "Then what, knowledgeable colt, is the answer? How about this—I'll give you a single wish if you unravel all of these for me."

Excitement built for all of four seconds, then I remembered who I was chatting with. "Like I'd do that."

"Oh dear. Have ponies been talking about little ol' moi?" The attempt at an innocent expression Discord made was a good one, but he was already behind the eight-ball.

"No. We have stories on Earth about genies that offered wishes that always had ironic consequences."

He huffed. "I wouldn't make any consequences ironic."

"Right. You'd make them silly. Like, I'd wish to be older, and you'd make me one day older. Or I'd wish to be the same age as Sudden Turn, and you'd make her my age." When I looked over, I saw Discord writing something down. "Taking notes?"

"Goodness yes. These are great ideas!"

"Okay, I'll answer your questions. Are you sure you want these ones answered? You seem to know them already." I completely ignored whatever visual gag he was likely to perpetrate and closed my eyes to relax a little more.

"You're too kind, Saffron Ree, did you know that? Questions, questions, questions. Goodness there are a lot of things on my mind lately. What's your favorite color?"

"Light blue. It's relaxing without seeming to try. What next?"

"What do you want to do with your life?" I could still hear him scribbling something, but wasn't sure what he was writing down.

"Easy enough. I wanna fly. I don't think I'll ever get bored of it." As I waved a wing in the air, I felt a round weight settle into it. Lifting what was obviously a coconut to my lips, I tasted it. Apple cider, and it didn't taste alcoholic. "Thanks."

"That's something I like about you. You take things at face value. The way some ponies around here act, you'd think I was some kind of ancient, mad chaos god seeking out playthings to torment—well, until recently I might have been, but I changed!" Discord sounded like he might have been trying to convince himself more than me. "Last question, what's the capital of Abyssinia?"

It came right out of left field, which I had to assume was normal for Discord. With a sigh I opened my eyes and looked over at him—took in his shit-eating grin—and made sure to sip down the rest of my drink before replying. "You know I don't know that."

"Well, yes. I like to cheat a lot, and this was the best I could really manage. Of course you wouldn't know—"

"Panthera," Riley said. "Saf doesn't study geography, but I do."

I looked back at her and smiled at my little sister. "Hey, thanks for the assist." Turning back to Discord, I could see there was still mirth on his face. "Kookamunga."

For a second Discord just stared at me, then he laughed aloud and actually fell off his sunbathing couch.

Staring at me in shock, Riley stomped both front hooves at me. "Saf! Why'd you screw it up for?!"

"I wanted to see what he'd do." I leaned back and pulled the sun-reflector up under my chin again—while Discord kept laughing. When I checked my drink, I found it full again. I took a sip.

It took Discord another minute to get over his laughter and climb up on the lounge. "And that's why I like you so much. Are you sure you don't want to be a princess? You could be princess of chaos, and we'd have so much fun."

"It's tempting, if only for a day." I shook my head. "But fun as it would be, it wouldn't be me. This is who I am."

"And this is only you because you got used to it." Discord's voice was really close. So close that I could feel him on my shoulder—dressed as a tiny demon. "He's right. You should try it for a day."

I figured it was an angel on the other side, but when I turned to look it was another devil-Discord. Of course it was. "So long as I turn back to my normal, pegasus self after one day—sure."

"Saf! You can't—"

Riley's words were lost to me. I felt Discord's magic wrap around me and pour into me. There was that snapping sound of his paw's fingers coming together, and then it was done. I could feel different. I was bigger, since I guess I didn't tell him what age I was okay with, but I still had my wings so it wasn't a complete loss.

I used one wing to adjust the mirror under my chin and the other to hold out my coconut. "Can I get a refill?"

"I'm going to go tell Mom on you, Saf!" Riley turned on her hooves and marched back toward the house.

"And just like that I know I'll get in trouble for this." My voice, I realized, was a little higher than normal. I didn't want to think about what else was different, and didn't really care either. If I hadn't said yes, I'd probably be wondering about it for the rest of my life.

"Just blame me. Everypony else does," Discord said.

"Saffron Ree!" Mom's voice made my ears tuck down at the volume and tone. It was my full name, so this could be me getting grounded for the next thirty years. "If what Riley told me is true, you're in big—Oh." She stopped when she realized Discord was still here. "Is this—?"

Time to test this chaos thing out. "Pull up a seat, Mom. This is Discord. He's the spirit of chaos, and—"

"A spirit of chaos. There are others, but they don't tend to hang around here very much." Discord tilted his head and looked up at Mom. "I don't believe we've been fully introduced."

Mom froze as Discord took her hoof and gently kissed it. "Well, I—You turned my son into a princess?" She looked over at me.

"It was a bet, Mom, and it only lasts a day."

Reaching down to his feet, Discord pulled on a pair of miss-matched running shoes. "You'll excuse me, but I plan to be at minimum safe distance before any of the others find out about this." He took off at a run when another Discord fired a starter's gun.

"Why did you say yes?" Mom asked, sitting on the second sun couch.

"Because why not? This is a magical world, and despite that we've been avoiding all the magic. Also, like it matters what I have for one day, I'm still me. Also, I'd be kicking myself if I didn't try it." Focusing my mind, I made another of the coconuts appear beside Mom. "This is good cider."

"So it's really just a day?" Mom asked as she sipped her cider. "Hey, this is good."

"Just a day. I kinda felt sorry for him, too. He goes out of his way to do funny stuff, but ponies seem so wary of him that he hardly gets any fun and"—I gestured to myself with a wingtip—"this is fun for him. He'll be watching, somehow, while everypony freaks out about it."

"Riley was freaking out. You probably want to reassure her you're still you, Saffron." Slumping a little onto the couch, she drank more from the coconut. "And for the love of little green apples, Saffron, you better learn how to make this without magic."

I rolled over and started to stand up, only to find there was a lot more of me to stand and a lot more leg to stand on. I wasn't just an adult, I was a tall adult—an alicorn. "My mane isn't swooshing like Celestia's, right?"

"I'm a little surprised he didn't go that far. Your father is sleeping upstairs with Golden, try not to wake them or cause Riley to wake them."

That was a golden rule with a little baby—don't wake the baby. Waking the baby meant someone was going to lose what little sleep they were already getting. It felt good to have some height again. I know it's only temporary, but I couldn't wait until I was this tall again all the time. "Riley?" I poked my head in the door and looked around.

"I'm not talking to you, Saf!"

"Hey, keep it down, we don't want to wake up Dad or Golden." Her voice had come from the living room, so I headed through to it. Riley was on the couch with her face buried in the cushions.

I walked over to the couch and sat down on it. Everything was a little different with this much leg involved. I had to fold my limbs a lot more. "I'll let you braid my mane."

Riley pulled her head out of the gap between cushions and looked back at me. She looked annoyed, but braiding was an offer she would never skip. "You're huge."

Turning, I laid down on the couch and stretched my neck out so Riley could get at my hair. "Yeah, it's kinda awesome to get a taste of being an adult here." As her hooves started to work, I thought about that. I was going to get treated as an adult by everypony!

"Yeah, but you're going to get treated as more than that. Saf, you have a horn and wings. If you go outside, everypony will freak out." I could feel her hooves working in my mane, but there was a worrying thing—there wasn't much tugging. When Riley braids, and your hair is short, she has to tug a lot to get enough hair to work with. "You've got so much mane here. I'm gonna be busy for hours on all this."

That only confirmed it. Well, at least we'd get some time to talk. "I guess princesses get lots of mane and tail to go with their size."

"You haven't looked in a mirror yet, have you?" Riley was giggling. "You have more mane than Princess Celestia."

"What?!"

"Shh. Baby, remember."

Ugh. I can't believe she got to use that back on me so quickly. "How much is there?"

"I'm going to be busy for a while. You really think I'd have given up my grouchiness for only a little plaiting?" She snorted and climbed up on my back so she could get a better angle of attack—or something. "I'm tempted to ask him if he can leave your hair this long even when you turn back."

"You need to be really careful when talking to him. Remember the thing about genies and how they twist your wish around to mean something different? If you asked him to leave my hair like this all the time, he'd probably reason that as 'to have alicorn hair, he needs to be an alicorn' and bam, I'm stuck like this." That had me wondering about my wings. Were they different as an alicorn? Trying to remember, all I could picture was Celestia's wings spread wide—they weren't pegasus wings.

"Really? Is that why you were so careful about saying how long this would last and you returning back to yourself and stuff?"

"Pretty much. He's a nice guy, but he seems to have his own rules to follow, even if he thinks he's all about chaos. I probably shouldn't bad-mouth him, like everyone else he's just doing the best he can with what hand he got dealt."

Neither of us spoke for some time. Riley was busy plaiting my mane and I was pondering all the differences in my body. I felt more solid, but there was other stuff. Unicorn magic and earth pony magic were a thing I could poke at, but I had a feeling if I messed with those, something bad would happen.

Come to think of it, something bad happening is probably exactly what Discord wanted. I wouldn't want to disappoint him, but going out of my way to cause a problem wasn't going to happen. I'd let fate and harmony work it out for me.

"Hey, Riley?"

"Yeah, Saf?"

"Try not to tug too much, but go as wild as you want. I think I might take a nap." Yawning, I relaxed more and sank a little into the couch. Despite Riley's insane giggles, her weight on my back, and slight tugging at my mane—I managed to drift off to sleep.

It probably took a while for me to reach the point where dreams could start, but when I did it was surreal. I was floating in space with stars around me—and then there was other ponies there too. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, Lieutenant Flurry Heart, and Princess Twilight. All of them looked a little surprised, but each and every one had a huge smile on their faces.

"Welcome!" Princess Celestia said. "It's not every day we have a new alicorn ascend, and rarer still one we don't recognize." She looked aside to Cadance for a moment before back at me. "May we have your name?"

All of them looked eager to find out my name except Princess Luna—she was staring at me as if she'd seen a ghost. Right, dream magic was her thing, of course she'd know who I was. I smiled at her and winked. "My name," I said, enjoying the moment, "is Saffron Ree."

Now they were a matching set. Each shared Princess Luna's terror, but none seemed capable of talking.

"I guess you want an explanation?" I asked.

Princess Celestia was the first to recover. She closed her eyes and in a soft voice said, "Discord."

"Yeah. We got to talking, and he asked if I'd like to be princess of chaos for a day. I figured why not? Like I'll ever get the chance to do it again, and it's not like I'm stuck. He said it will wear off after a day." The sound of five hooves connecting with five foreheads was strangely musical. "What?"

"Discord will lie if he thinks that's what you want to hear," Princess Celestia said.

"Well, he doesn't lie all the time," Princess Twilight said, "and that's part of why dealing with him can be such a headache sometimes. He can lie, tell half-truths, and give you the honest truth in the same breath."

Crud. Well, now what do I do? Should I even try to find him before the time is up?

"Discord!" Princess Luna's voice shook the stars around us. It was the level of voice you hear at rock concerts—and only after lots of expensive amplification. "DISCORD!"

I folded my ears back and closed my eyes. Even if I'd just been a foal that would have been loud.

There was a popping sound, and I heard Discord make a hrmm sound. "You didn't have to yell. Look, poor Saffron is positively startled. Why, I don't—"

"Discord." Princess Twilight walked up to him and used a wing to prod him in the chest. "Turn Saffron back to normal right this second!"

Turning to me, Discord flashed a smile before looking back to Twilight. "You didn't say the magic word."

Huffing, Twilight stared at Discord with the most deadpan and dry look I'd ever seen, then asked, "Please turn Saffron back to his old self."

With a rub of his chin, Discord shook his head. "If I did that, he'd explode. You remember the mice, don't you?" To demonstrate, Discord turned himself into a rather small mouse that promptly exploded.

I couldn't help myself, I giggled.

"See! He likes it!" Discord was suddenly beside me again, his cat-arm around my neck. "Besides, I can't turn him back even to his horsey-self. You see, there was an agreement. When you make an agreement with chaos, you are bound to it—and chaos is bound to you."

Princess Twilight furrowed her brow for a moment before a look of excitement made her perk right up. "What you're saying is that the time delay is built into the magimorphic field you built?"

Rolling his eyes, Discord nudged me with his elbow. "Here I am bending the very forces of reality, and she tries to sum it all up in one sentence."

"Is she right?" I asked.

"Well, yes, but she could have gone to a little more effort to make it seem amazing." Turning back to the princesses, Discord gestured to me. "As you see, it will last exactly a day from when I changed him—no more, no less. Honestly, this was just a little fun. I wasn't going to punish him for letting me have fun, now, was I?"

Princess Twilight sighed and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Discord, but we did ask you to leave visiting dignitaries alone, didn't we?"

"Technically his mother is the visiting dignitary. Saf here is just another citizen of Equestria—even if he might hold dual citizenship with a little country on another world." As he spoke, Discord produced birth certificates and the royal warrant that proclaimed me a citizen of Equestria. I think he even had a copy of my 3rd grade homework I'd claimed a dog had eaten (it was covered in peanut butter). "He is certainly the most adventurous of my recent acquaintances. Why, we even sunbathed together. Do you know how hard it is to find a pony that calm in my presence?"

"They told me you were probably lying," I said.

A whole studio audience of Discords gasped—they were apparently just off to the side.

"You told Saf that I would have lied to him about something as important as this?" Discord looked around the assembled princesses. "For shame!"

"Yeah! You tell 'em!" somediscord in the audience shouted.

Princess Twilight scoffed at this. "Discord, you lie all the time. You told me yesterday that Fluttershy had exploded and wouldn't be coming to tea."

"Yes, well, she may not technically have exploded, but she wasn't altogether emotionally." He held up a talon to hide our conversation—then spoke normally. "She didn't manage to stop her latest animal friend, a very large snake from the Amarezon, from finding the little field mice she'd been rehabilitating. Tragic little story, but far easier to explain that she'd exploded than she was in pieces emotionally."

A collective awww came from the crowd now, followed by applause. It was everything I could do to keep from cracking up laughing at Discord's antics.

"So you see, I might lie from time to time, but never about important things. Not anymore. And I absolutely, positively, wouldn't lie to Saf about his week as an alicorn princess." It took me several seconds to realize what he'd said. When I spun around to glare at him, Discord held up a paw and a talon placatingly. "A day! A day! Come on! I was joking!"

Lifting my hoof, I bopped Discord in the side. "You better be."

"See? SEE!" Discord pointed at me. "He gets me!"

"Not that I'm ungrateful for worrying about me and everything, but I'd like to get back to my normal dreams about now." I looked to Princess Luna, pleading with my eyes to end this silliness.

"You're right, Saffron Ree." Princess Luna's horn started to glow blue and the brighter it got, the more alone we became. Each of the other princesses (and Discord) popped out of my dream one by one until only Luna remained there with me. "When you wake, please come and see me."

I was about to reply when she too vanished and the dream returned to my regularly scheduled flying fantasy.

The best thing about flying dreams is that they don't have to end. I woke up, still feeling a weight on my back. When I looked, I saw Riley was there snoozing. It was night time—or at least it was dark outside—so I stood and carefully walked upstairs and to Riley's room.

Crouching low beside her bed, I tipped to the side a little and used my wings to make it more of a slide than a roll.

"Huh? Wha?" Riley half-woke and looked up at me.

Now I could actually reach her with my wings, I pulled the covers over Riley and tucked her into bed. "Just getting you in bed. Go back to sleep."

Her answer was to roll over and start making little snoring sounds.

Princess Luna, I knew, slept through the day and was up at night, meaning that now was the best time to go see her. Also, being night time, less ponies would be out and about. Feeling confident, I went back downstairs and out into the cool night air.

Despite what I'd hoped, there were ponies around, but none seemed to notice me. Well, the best way to not be noticed was to be invisible and soar above them. Stretching out my wings, I realized they were different to my pegasus wings. Nothing else for it I guess. Spreading them into full readiness, I launched myself upward like a missile.

Never before had it been so easy to fly. I could feel the extra mass my body possessed, but it seemed more than balanced by the stretch of these wings. Was this what it would be like to fly as an adult pegasus or was this more specifically an alicorn thing? I had so many questions, and some of them led to places I really shouldn't be poking around.

Would the Wonderbolts allow an alicorn to join?

Yeah, like that one.

Forget it, you idiot, this is just one day and no more. A bit of fun.

Angling my wings for a glide, I turned toward the castle and started to descend. This. This was why my dreams never ended. I dreamed about flying, but when I wake up I get to fly.

As I got closer and closer to the castle, I realized there was a lot of guards and they were all very awake. Remembering the warnings I'd gotten about not flying over the castle, I landed at the front gate. "Uh, hi. Princess Luna asked me in my dream to meet her."

It was idiotic to believe that the guards would just wave me through and not point their big, dangerous spears at me, so of course they smiled and waved me in. "She left word that an alicorn would be coming. Go right in."

What else should I do than walk in. Trotting up to the front entrance of the castle, I became aware of my hooves, or more specifically that they were split now. I looked down at them and saw the two-part hooves of my forelegs take my weight with each step.

Also strange was, when I looked back over myself, that my tail was long, thin, and furred with a puffball of hair at the end. My mane was braided into an elaborate fountain of loops and waves of hair, but that was Riley's doing.

"You only picked now to investigate what Discord did?" Princess Luna's voice made me snap my head around. "Relax, Saf, it is not you I have issue with but that capricious noodle."

"Noodle?" I asked, following Luna as she turned back toward the castle. How she'd known to find me outside I don't know. Maybe it's like the thing with dragons in stories how they could always know when people were around their hoard.

"Discord and I were once friends. It's a pet name for him." As we entered the castle, I was aware that the guards were all looking at me strangely. Like they were anticipating something. "Please ignore them. They are likely anticipating another coronation."

Had she really just—? "Huh?"

"The Guards. Things got exciting the last time we had a new alicorn come to visit—Twilight Sparkle—and if I remember correctly there was a book running on what she'd be princess of the moment they found out about her." Luna looked to one Guardpony who had a lot of decorations on his armor. "Stiff Peaks, this is a temporary condition."

Stiff Peaks didn't straighten or even twitch—he was already standing tall and proud. "Your Highness, that is accommodated in the book and makes no difference."

Princess Luna snorted and her horn started to glow. "A thousand bits on this being over by tomorrow evening." In a pulse of her blue magic, a bag of coins appeared—and then disappeared as Stiff Peaks tucked them away.

I continued to follow Princess Luna all the way through the castle. Twists, turns, staircases, and even a hidden tunnel were all passed without her saying so much as a word, but then a spiraling staircase led a winding path all the way to what I assumed was the top of a tower. There was no door at the top, and when we exited the top of the stairs we were standing on the tallest tower in Canterlot.

Turning slowly, I looked out upon Canterlot and then Equestria itself. The view was amazing, but what was most amazing was there was magic here. I couldn't just see a far way, I could see other cities, other towns. I could see all the way to a huge desert in the south and an icy city under a dome of magic in the north. "All of Equestria?"

"And a little beyond." Luna sounded smug. "There're few ponies who know of this place and fewer still that have stood where you are."

"So why show me?" The question jumped out of my mouth before I realized it. "I'm only going to be like this for a day."

"Because you are a princess, if just for a day. That and you have shown a lot of trust and support for Equestria, as well as tolerance for our little foibles. Discord's little antics aside, you handle yourself better than some ponies I know." Lifting one hoof, Luna pointed into the distance. As if reacting to her focus (and it probably was) the magic narrowed our vision in on a little town at the edge of Equestria's far north. "No ponies there remember the legends, but that's where my sister and I were born and raised."

The town she was pointing at had maybe a few hundred ponies, or so I guessed. With the magic we could watch them walking around and talking—though we couldn't hear them. After a few minutes of watching, I let out a sigh. "Has this caused any problems?"

"No, actually. If it lasted longer than a day it might, but we can keep you safe here for such a short period."

"Safe?" I asked.

"Saffron—Saf—you are an alicorn without any knowledge or experience in using your power. There are many who would like to acquire you if only to ransom back to us—if not with more dire intents. We have been invaded in the past by one who wanted to take our power." Her voice seemed to harden as she spoke. "It was once that this was the only lookout of its kind. Now the E.U.P. Guard have several that are manned at all times—and theirs are more powerful."

She sounded a little jealous. "Want the full truth?" When she just raised an eyebrow at me, I continued, "I just wanted to be an adult again. Just for a little bit. It's tiring being small."

Princess Luna's wing settled over my back for a moment, then she let out a laugh. "But you can fly. Come, let us visit that village!" She pushed me with her wing, and though I could have resisted and remained standing on the ledge—I didn't.

Feeling wind rushing past my face, I only extended the tips of my wings and used them to guide my fall into a dive. Princess Luna's laugh above me came a moment before she caught up. Together we pulled out of the dive at huge speed and sped north.

Flying was always fun—full stop. Flying with a full-sized body with somepony else made it even more fun. Trees, streams, even railway tracks zoomed past under us as we sped toward the town. Though it started getting colder and colder, my coat of extra-fluffy fur was more than enough to keep the chill off.

Tipping her wings, Princess Luna arced into a spiral. As I followed, I realized she was dumping speed while she tightened it, so I followed suit.

When she pulled up and let herself drop, I mimicked the maneuver too and we each planted four hooves on the ground. And, in doing so, I was reminded that my hooves were split, like Dad's, rather than proper horse hooves. There were a lot of little changes like that.

"Princess Luna!" The shout went up all around us and ponies rushed over to get as close as they could to her. "Princess! Princess! Why have you come here?"

"I was showing my friend here around Equestria." Easily cutting through the crowd, Princess Luna put a wing over my back. "May I present to you Princess Saffron."

The heck? Oh, that's not fair. The worst part was my wings jutted out in shock—and I know it made me look exactly like the classic alicorn pose. "Uh?"

"Go on, Saffron, say a few words." She was smiling, damn it. This was a setup.

A cheer rose and then quickly subsided as they were all waiting for me to speak. Clearing my throat, I tried to strike a similar pose to what Princess Luna had used. "Greetings everypony! Princess Luna was giving me a tour of all Equestria to show me why a princess must stand tall—and she said she had to start here with the most amazing and friendly ponies she knows!"

A huge cheer went up, and I managed to catch a wink from Princess Luna.

We spent the morning walking around the town, letting the ponies there show us their pride and joy—each and every one of them had something that made them unique and amazing, and I found myself enjoying every second of it from one mare's unique cake recipe to a colt's first balloon animal (that was actually alive and danced around).

"You have to stay for lunch!" somepony shouted, and was then lost in the crowd of agreement.

It was crazy to think they just put on a feast out of nowhere to celebrate having Princess Luna and me visit. I mean, Luna maybe, but I was a nobody. They didn't even know my name before today, and they likely wouldn't remember it once Princess Saffron never appeared again.

"That meal was magnificent!" Princess Luna declared when we'd eaten as much as we could of the mountain of food. "And now, before we leave, I believe we need to show our appreciation for your hospitality."

"Oh no. Your majesties don't need to—"

I recognized the slip in address, but it was Princess Luna who cut in. "It's only a little thing. Something small to show our appreciation." She led the way out of town to the first field just bordering the village. Everypony was silent as they followed her—well, they followed both of us, but I was mostly just keeping pace with her.

Bracing her hooves in the dirt, Princess Luna began to channel magic. Her horn was glowing, but after spending so long with Riley, I knew earth pony magic when I felt it. "Saffron, follow along."

Rather than try to mirror her channeling, I instead tried to pass my power on to her to use. It kinda worked, though I think I was wasting a lot by doing it. But that was where things were crazy—I had so much magic!

Well, Princess Luna was just building it up and up, and then she channeled it down through her legs. I felt it rush through the soil and out in all directions.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"What we did was supercharge their crops for about the next hundred or so years. Where did you learn to channel that much power?"

"Uh, watching Riley. If you wanted to move a bunch of power, you should have brought her." That's about when I noticed the plants—I have no idea what they are, maybe some kind of corn—were growing while we watched them. "How long did you say this would last?"

"Maybe we overdid it," Princess Luna said, then cleared her throat. "Ponies! We have used our magic to enhance your fields! Look how fast your crops are growing!"

The ponies started cheering in excitement, and we all watched as heads of corn grew. Wait, heads? Ears? Noses? Bushels? Ugh, I have no clue about this stuff. "Are we leaving now?"

"We probably should. If anything comes of this, I'll blame it on you and let 'Tia fix it." Looking back at the townponies, Princess Luna spread her wings into a position more specialized for flight than showing off—I mimicked her. "And now we must return to Canterlot. There are so many towns we need to visit next!"

Everypony cheered as we took off. I kept at Princess Luna's wing-second position as we flapped and brought ourselves altitude with muscle-power. She directed me into the first thermal and we shot almost straight upward.

It was odd. Princess Luna started flying through a normal stunt-training routine. I matched her, of course, knowing the gestures and patterns as well as having the wing-power to keep up.

Loops and twists, acrobatic stunts that I couldn't believe I got to fly with a princess all made my heart pound in excitement. It took us nearly three times longer to fly back to Canterlot than it took to reach the village.

We had to work our wings to get above the lip of Canterlot, and more work still to get to the same level as the castle, but we got there and Princess Luna brought us in for a landing right in front of the castle. I was always nervous about flying around the castle's airspace, but with a princess guiding the way, I had nothing to fear.

"Half a day and still like that?" Stiff Peaks seemed to appear from nowhere. "How long until twenty-four hours is reached?"

I just rolled my eyes and walked beside Princess Luna into the castle. When he was out of earshot, I sighed. "You know what, I can't wait to be my normal self again."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Just nobody special, a colt who can walk around and look at whatever he wants without being crowded with attention." Okay, so it was only partly true. I loved the huge wings, and flying with Princess Luna had been amazing.

"You don't enjoy being an alicorn at all?" Her voice was unreadable except for the mild curiosity it carried.

"Well," I said, "I'm not going to lie. Flying with you was just about the most fun I've ever had while stunt flying. Where'd you learn to fly?"

"When I was young I loved to fly with the Cloudsdale Royal Legion. Those formations weren't just stunts, those were attack patterns for a pair of pegasi to take on a vastly larger number of foes. You should ask Flash Magnus to give you some pointers sometime."

I'd heard that name before. It took me a few seconds of silence to remember where. The guy Sudden had used me to avoid. "Wait, I know him. How old is he?"

"Would you believe there was an accident involving a mysterious realm called Limbo and a huge misunderstanding about a nice young stallion that caused them to miss out on thousands of years of time?" At my stare she just grinned. "It's true. I've also heard he's a bit of a mare's stallion, if you know what I mean? Perhaps you could ask him to commit to some training lessons before you change back?"

"Take advantage of his nature?" The idea both intrigued me and filled me with dread. How much flirting would it take for him to show interest? Could I even handle that?

"Trust me, Saf, he deserves it. But the most important thing is he will honor his word. How much time do you have?"

"It was just on sundown when I was chatting with Discord. We've probably got an hour or two left." I didn't have to look at the position of the sun to know the time. There was a sense that pegasi had that let them know exactly when they were. "You'll back me up?"

"You wingmared for me. It wouldn't be fair if I didn't return the favor." Princess Luna really smiled as she said it, and for some reason that made me feel proud to have been her wingmare.

As it turned out, finding Flash wasn't hard. He was drilling a bunch of Guardponies around in circles and yelling at the top of his lungs. When we landed nearby, his eyes practically locked onto us.

"At ease everypony. Take a ten minute break and meet back here in a half hour." Flash's voice was smooth and supple, and I'd heard a hundred pickup artists who were far worse at sounding a tenth as warm and inviting.

Wait, warm and inviting?! Where the buck did that come from?

"Evening, Your Highness, who's your fr—" Flash froze a moment and I saw his eyes now tracing up to the top of my head. "A new princess?"

"More or less," I said, trying to calm myself down. "We were just looking for you."

His eyes widened a little and I watched as he struck a pose that was right off the Wonderbolts' posters (though maybe it was the other way around). "Let's see, there's usually three reasons a princess comes looking for me." Ugh, he sounded so sure of himself. "The first is that there's a disaster and they need all the Pillars. The second is they want a handsome stallion to take on a date. The third"—he looked directly at Princess Luna—"is they want flying lessons, though it can be related to the second."

I turned my head and looked at Princess Luna and saw a blush on her cheeks. That's when it hit me—they'd been an item! "Uh, I was after some flying lessons." The thing was, this would be the best trick to play on him ever—and get some great training from somepony who really knew their stuff.

"Oh ho?" Flash walked closer and then dodged to one side and started walking around me. "Let's see those wings. Some alicorns are built for gliding—I could never teach Princess Celestia anything—but some have that edge of a pegasus who revels in speed and control."

When I lifted up the wing nearest to him, he took hold of it with his own and started inspecting my feathers. "You've been flying hard today, but I can teach you to fly harder." For a moment I thought he was going to preen my wing, but just before his snout made contact he let go. "Want to start right now?"

"How about tomorrow?" I fluffed my wings a little and turned. Yeah, it was a cheap shot, but I had a feeling Flash Magnus deserved everything he got.

His eyes were tracing my back and I realized how into wings he was. Ha! It was going to be fun to reveal my true self to him tomorrow. "I'll be looking forward to it. Anything in particular you'd like me to show you?"

Trying to skip past how crazy this situation was, I said, "Princess Luna was showing me some evasive air-combat maneuvers. I think it'd be a good start toward not being a huge target in the air."

"Sorry, Flash, but we really must be going." Princess Luna sounded genuinely sad, though I'd heard she was a bit of a prankster from Flurry, so she might just be that good at carrying out a gag. "You know how it is—it's not like when I was a young mare and nopony relied on me."

It was a not-so-subtle reminder that it was getting late and—if Discord really did keep his word—I'd be returned to normal soon. We took to the air to get away quickly, and sure enough halfway back to the castle I heard a popping sound, kinda like a balloon going off, and I was tiny again.

I had to pour a bit of magic into my wings to keep up with Princess Luna. "Well, looks like that's over."

Princess Luna looked over to me and raised an eyebrow. "I'll admit I forgot how small you still are. You should probably go and reassure your family that everything's back to normal. Come and see me tomorrow, and we'll go see Flash together."

"You just want to see his reaction."

"Indeed."

I kept pace with her all the way to the castle itself before I pumped my wings, gained altitude quickly and did a perfect barrel-roll-attack maneuver and shot back in the direction we'd come from.

Luna (she'd started insisting I not call her princess, so in my head I focused on not using it) was giggling up a storm. She'd just introduced me to Flash Magnus for a second time, and had sworn to him that I was the princess he'd promised flight lessons to.

He seemed like he would continue arguing, then just shook his head. "I agreed, and I should have known better than to let a pretty set of wings distract me from your usual pranks, Lulu." For the second time in two days he marched around me. "You're small, but that's an advantage when you're flying evasively. You won't have any striking power, but that's okay. I promised, but you were both being a bit deceitful, so I will only do this on one condition."

"And that is?" I asked.

Turning to look at Luna, Flash gave her the same smile that had almost derailed my thoughts yesterday. "A kiss?"

From Luna's smile, I think I just worked out exactly what angle she was playing all along. Well, so long as I got my lessons I don't think it matters what she and Flash do—they're both adults after all.

Author's Note

Princess Twilight, Now that you've spent some time on Earth, learning about its customs and history, what are your opinions on the various unpleasant periods in human history where, among other things, books were burned?

"It's true that all nations have their roots in"—Twilight grimaced a little—"unfortunate past events, but it's much better to look at where a nation is now and more importantly, where it is going. America has its share of skeletons in the past, but I can't help but look at where it is going and smile. Such freedom for every citizen is something I'd like to discuss with Princess Celestia."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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