Saffron Ree

Crouched low, I held a single feather to Goldie's lips in the silence of the living room. She was doing so great I couldn't believe it, but if Dad didn't—

The sound of the front door opening cut my train of thought short. Four hooves then eight walked into the room. Then Dad made a double tap with one of his forehooves. Three. Two. One. "Surprise!"

We all jumped out from where we'd been hiding, Goldie let out a her own squeal of excitement, but it was Riley who rushed forward to hug Mom first. I had to remind myself that though she seemed way smarter than anypony else, she was still just fifteen.

What was I going to do if Goldie was that smart too? Probably hide in Cloudsdale and do pegasus things. "Welcome home, Mom!" It was my turn to hug her. She looked like she'd lost weight and was almost as thin as a pegasus.

"It's so good to be home." Mom still had a foreleg around Riley, but now she hooked me with her left one and pulled me in for a hug. She might be as thin as a pegasus, but she still had more strength than any other creature alive when it came to hugs.

"I'm glad you're home. How did everything go?" I asked, spreading a wing around her.

"We won. The other guys had no leg to stand on to dispute it, but tried anyway. That's all Peter's problem now." She squeezed us both a little tighter for a moment before letting go—her gaze turning to Dad.

"Ma!" Goldie's shout from my back broke Mom's focus. I turned so the squirming unicorn tap-dancing on my spine could get to Mom.

"There's my girl!" Mom picked her up off my back and cuddled Goldie. "I've got some news for all of you, but especially this little angel." She had all our attention now. "I have tendered my resignation. There will be a three-month period while I train my replacement, but I need to spend more time with my family than I have been, and I can't do that in my role as ambassador. Besides, I made a promise."

"Clair, you don't need to—"

"Yes, Philip, I do. This is the best opportunity to do that. Peter is over the moon about his victory. He's in a great mood and is setting up his staff. Resigning gives him another position to fill, but it's just one among many. If I'd let him rely on me being here, and quit later, it would have reflected upon him as a blemish." Mom deflated a little in the explanation, rocking Goldie in her foreleg. "But doing it now I can leave as a diplomat who has served their purpose. Equestria and beyond are moving to a more stable state. The mission is established and I can leave it in new hooves."

"So what now?" Dad asked, walking up to Mom and kissing her cheek.

"Now I beg Saffron to take care of Golden for the night and take my husband out on a date."

With Mom looking at me, I made finger-guns using my wings.

"Are you sure you don't want a night to relax, love?" Dad asked.

"Philip Ree, I haven't been able to see you for months. I'd be a terrible earth pony if I couldn't pull enough stamina to show you how much you mean to me."

I reached out and plucked Goldie from Mom and held her in my wings, keeping her attention on me so Mom and Dad could work things out and go. And they did. Mom practically dragged him out, but once he reached the door Dad seemed to perk up and left under his own locomotion.

For ten seconds we had peace and calm again.

"Ma?" Goldie climbed up my shoulder, neck, and sat on my head to look around. "Ma?"

"Ma and Da are going to be back later." I rolled my eyes up as Goldie looked down into my face from above. "Which means we get to hang out more." The way she looked into my eyes told me she'd rather spend time with Mom. "Do you want to go for a fly?"

"I swear, Saf, she has more pegasus in her than unicorn," Sudden said. "Riley, want to go for a fly?"

Riley knew to hold on and not mess with our wings, but I didn't want to take risks with Goldie. I gave Sudden a kiss on the cheek as I walked past, and walked to the door where Goldie's little harness was. It was simple enough to put on. It hooked around each of my forelegs and secured to my back, then it had set of straps to hold her in place so she could ride my back safely.

Goldie enjoyed flying so much that getting her to put on the harness was both simple and impossible. She jumped into the right place and started making excited squeaks, but then wiggled too much for me to easily get the straps on.

"I got her." Sudden reached up to my back and, with a better angle, used her wings to fasten Goldie in. "There you go, Saf. Riley, you ready?"

"Always!"

Sudden led the way to our yard and launched herself skyward with no apparent effort. It was a trick everypony in the Wonderbolts was taught, though a fair number of civilians knew it too. One, two, plant hoof, pour magic into feathers, lift wings slowly, three, four, slight flap down—

It was like pulling back a slingshot aimed straight up. The magic being just in my feathers meant it caught the air like I had wings ten times larger flapping ten times harder. Canterlot dwindled away below me and I drew my magic back in while I heard excited squeals coming from my back.

Both my sisters enjoyed flying as much as I did. It was such a shame they weren't pegasi too, but at least that gave me one thing I could actually be better than them at. We started off with just a close glide, spiraling around one another—almost nose to tail. If Riley felt like it, she probably could have walked down Sudden's wing and then up mine.

"Hey, Goldie, what are we doing first?" I asked.

"Ro! Ro!!" She was practically bouncing in the harness, though the straps kept her attached and just forward of my wings. "Rooooool!"

A roll—the kind she liked—didn't take a lot of work to do. Turning out of the spiral we'd been gliding in, I pumped my wings and then started tipping my head up and back. When I reached vertical, I twisted around and rolled so that I finished the loop-back to be facing the way we'd come. "One barrel roll. What next?"

"Pin!" She shouted it a few more times, but her voice was quickly lost as—with a little flick of magic and my primary feathers—I entered a tight, repeated roll that ensured that the G-force kept her pinned to my spine. Her shouts of excitement had me grinning wider and, soon, laughing along with her.

"Ive!"

For this I just had to do the simplest thing of all—I tucked my wings in and pointed my snout down to the ground far below Canterlot. Ponies, even pegasi, are not all that aerodynamic, so I flicked out just the tips of my wings to keep us facing downward.

I didn't let us get anywhere near the dangerous point near the ground, but instead snapped my wings out and turned the dive into an arc that shot me (with a little tickle of magic to my wings) higher than we were before.

Her laughter was so infectious. I laughed along with Goldie and started going through a series of twists, loops, and rolls that all utterly failed to stop her joy. There was literally nothing I could do to stop her giggles, and that made me entirely happy.

We kept flying. Zooming around Canterlot, twirling around the smokestack of a train that pulled into the station, and finally did a lazy glide back home—landing about twenty minutes after we started. With ground under my hooves, I looked back over my shoulder and saw a tiny unicorn performing a huge yawn.

"Sleep?" I asked.

She didn't reply except to slump down against my back and neck.

Walking inside, I had a much easier job of getting the straps off her and setting her down in her cot to sleep. I don't think she so much as blinked in the journey from my back to the soft bedding. Running a feather up and over her head, I smiled and made my way back out to the living room.

I barely got the door closed than heard Riley was bouncing around the room. "Hey, careful, your sister is sleeping."

"Oops!" She contained her excitement to just the couch, where she kept bouncing. "That's so cool how you guys can fly like that. I wish I could fly."

"You could get a plane. Or a glider." I sat down on the couch next to Riley, and had Sudden sit down beside me. When she spread her wing out, I didn't hesitate than to lean into her hug. "A glider would probably be easier to build at least. Maybe you could talk to Mom and Dad about it?"

Sudden asked, "A glider? Like the human ones?"

"Well, yeah and no. There's a bunch of gliding aircraft humans have come up with. One you lay in and use your arms to steer, that could probably work fine. Then there's the plane-like thing with huge wings and stuff, but no motor." I hadn't actually studied them much, but I guess I could help Riley out by doing that. We probably had some info on them on the computer network here.

"I could make that my research topic!"

"Volume, kiddo."

"Moon said for me to find something that really interests me and to research it. Find out how to make it happen. Would building my own glider be like that?"

Sudden snorted. "Riley, that's exactly the kind of thing that I'm sure would count. I don't know Moon Dancer as well as you do, but you have so much energy and desire to fly that I think this would fit that description." She rubbed a little circle on my back that made me want to close my eyes.

"I'm going upstairs to make a start on this." Jumping off the couch, Riley left the room with a clatter of hooves I hoped wouldn't wake Goldie.

When the room was quiet for ten seconds, I let out a sigh.

"She's hard to keep up with, isn't she?" Sudden asked.

I turned and leaned against her, pushing her off balance and causing her to flop to her back on the couch. Getting comfortable laying on her belly and chest, I nodded. "She sure is. Part of me expects her to have a fully working glider by morning."

"Assuming your other sister doesn't just start flying around with magic first."

Pressing my snout into the soft fur of her neck, I let out a sigh. "Riley's already way smarter than me, and I have this feeling that Goldie is going to be too. My best bet, I think, is to be the cool big brother who does stupid things to entertain them."

But Sudden shook her head a few times. "I'd see that more as a big brother who does amazing things to inspire them." When I tilted my head up to look at her, Sudden laughed. "Saf, you have an earth pony wanting to build a machine so she can fly like a pegasus, and a unicorn filly who can't even talk yet already using aerobatic slang. Definitely inspiration."

I slumped back down and inhaled her scent. It relaxed me more than it excited me—I guess that's something else that will come later. "That makes it even harder to keep up with. I'm doomed!"

She reached her wings up and around me, hugging me to her belly. It was cozy and I relaxed completely, not wanting to have to move or think or be that inspirational big brother. Then I heard a little wheeze come from Sudden. Tilting my head to the side a little, I could see her eyes closed—she was asleep.

Well, why not? Letting my wings droop down to her sides, I too closed my eyes and was—

It didn't take a lot of effort to get one sent from Earth. When Mom heard about Riley wanting it, it became something that would happen.

It hadn't been easy, given how hard I'd started training, but I found a few days off to spend with her to put it together and go flying. Gliding down to Canterlot from Cloudsdale, I did a few lazy circles of home before alighting in the street out front.

Shaking my wings a little, I folded them at my side and stepped up to the door—only to have it open right in front of me with an excited Riley standing on the other side. "I have the rest of today and all of tomorrow off."

"So we can build it today?" Riley's eyes were huge, and I was sure that if I said anything other than yes I might actually get attacked for breaking a filly's heart. When I nodded, though, she bounced around in a circle on all fours.

"I mean, I could, but…"

She froze and stared at me. "But what?"

Raising one wingtip to my forehead, I turned to face the side dramatically. "But there's an excited filly in the way and I can't get inside."

Looking at me, Riley's little frown turned back into a huge grin. "Where? I'll have words with her!"

I walked in and reached out with my wing to ruffle her mane. "Is the bag in the back yard?"

"Mom wouldn't let me keep it in my bedroom."

"It's five times longer than you are," I said and walked through to the back yard with her. The hang glider was sitting on a little stand made of wood. "So, you have the bit you go in too?"

"The flight bag? Yup! Can we really put it together now?" Riley, of course, rushed to the long bag and started to unzip it.

"Not right now. We need to take it to the edge before we can put it all together." Walking over, I grabbed one end and looked back at Riley—who was bracing the other end on her back and tossing the flight bag on too. It was just another reminder that a filly about two-thirds my size could probably carry me and half the Wonderbolts on her back. "Let's go, then."

We weren't far from the edge, but I had a particular edge in mind. Right beside the Guardpony training fields was a small grassed ledge where anypony could go and just chill at the edge of the city. Today it was going to be Riley's takeoff field. "Here's perfect."

Riley had apparently not just read the instructions, but memorized them. She was folding out the metal arm, slipping the wheels on it, and then extending the frame out into the two wings before I could even figure out which end was which.

"Hey, hold up. Do you need me to do anything?" I asked.

Pausing only long enough to look up at me and shake her head, Riley turned back to the glider. "I read the descriptions every day for the last week." The only bit she had trouble with was getting the long strut things put into the wing. "Can you help me with this?"

The old me—the snarky human teen—would have come back with some kind of biting comment. That me was long gone. "Sure can. Here"—reaching up with my wings, I threaded the struts into the wing—"we go. Are there more of these?"

"Yup!" She passed me each one of the struts and I fitted them one at a time.

We were just done with those and a few more wires when I felt the presence of someone else. Turning my head, I looked back to see an earth pony in armor standing off to one side. She had a perplexed expression.

Then she noticed I was looking at her. "Sorry! I don't mean to interrupt. I was just curious what you're building."

Riley was busy adjusting something, so I figured I'd explain. "Well—Uh…"

"Broad Strokes," she said.

"My name's Saf and this little pegasus wanna-be is Riley. We're putting together her glider so she can fly on her own rather than me carrying her around."

Broad looked between me and Riley then back again. "Isn't she too young for this kind of thing?"

I snorted. "Hey, Riley, you want to have some fun before we fly?"

Trotting over from where she'd been working on the glider, Riley looked up at me. "What do you mean?"

"Why don't you stand there and let Broad here try to push you backward?"

Broad held up a forehoof to wave me off. "Hold up. That's not fair. She's just a little—"

"Sure!" Turning to face Broad, Riley held up her right forehoof. "Try pushing."

I felt the rush of magic almost like a wind around me. So much power was pouring through Riley that it was like a tornado and she was the middle—sucking it in.

"This is crazy." Broad pressed her big hoof to Riley's little one and started to obviously lean on it. Her bewildered expression quickly turned to shock, and even when I could feel more magic now flowing into her, Riley didn't move—nor did her foreleg so much as flex. "How are you doing that?"

"She's actually an ancient spirit of mystic power that has been stuck in the form of a little filly for ten-thousand years," I said.

Riley giggled and stuck her tongue out at me. "I'm just really good with earth pony magic."

"Really good nothing. There's only a few ponies in the Guard who could stop me like that." Walking over to the glider with Riley, Broad slowly walked around it. "So these bits are like the wings of a pegasus, but how do you make them flap?"

"She doesn't need to flap them. This is a glider, it works by managing your speed and any thermals you can find—or a helpful pegasus." I held out my hoof to Riley, who deftly clopped it back. "We got it from America."

"That portal world? How'd you get something like this from there? I'd heard that there were some ponies traveling back and forth, but—" Clamping her mouth closed, Broad looked like she was desperately trying to take back the words she'd just said.

"Relax. Our mom used to be the ambassador from America to Equestria. We used to be humans." Riley had the thing together now, and I watched her turn her attention to the flight bag, unrolling it and revealing there was a helmet with it. "I found a pony helmet. Check it out, Saf!"

Broad just sort of blinked at us, shrugged, and walked away. I wonder if they'd been briefed on humans or not. Either way, she was out of the picture and I should be paying more attention to Riley. I mean, I had to check out all her equipment. I'd promised Mom and Dad I wouldn't let her fly without going over everything and being with her. I cinched the chin-strap up a little more and nodded to Riley. "I think you're ready. So you know how to fly this thing?"

She gave me that sassy look she used whenever I questioned something she'd spent days or weeks studying. The difference was this time flying is my thing. "What do you think?"

"I think you need to get your fluffy butt into that and we'll see how good you are at flying. Most important rules: if something seems to be going wrong, aim your glider out into open air and hold it level—and if something seems to be going very wrong, get your butt out of that thing and I'll grab you." I booped her nose for good measure. "Got it?"

"Try to level out and fly away from the mountain, if that doesn't work out, get out of my favorite new toy in the whole of two worlds and let it crash. Got it." How did she manage to still use sarcasm but I just can't? Oh well, time to get this going.

When she was in the sleeping bag thing, and it was secured and she had a good grip on the control bar, I lifted a hoof to touch the tail of the glider. "You ready for this, Riley?"

"Yes! Goooo!"

Bracing, I started pushing and kept moving after the glider even as it left the edge of Canterlot—I just spread my wings. Keeping a little behind her, I watched as Riley worked at the control, tilting things and flexing the wing just a little at a time. "Left, Riley! Away from the mountain!"

"Okay!" She flexed the wing way too much and I watched it go into a dive—but at least it did so away from the mountain. "I got it!"

And she did. She pulled the nose up a little and turned the dive into a proper turn. Following her, I inverted and flew under her. "Get ready to go back up."

"Saf?"

"Are you ready?" It didn't take much work to keep myself in the air upside down, just a little trickle of magic to my wings and I had all the lift I could ever need to glide.

"Okay! Go!"

I flapped my wings and brought them up with magic pouring into them—tossing a huge amount of air under the glider and sending Riley shooting up into the sky like she'd hit a thermal. I lost some altitude, of course, but all I had to do was roll around and give a few quick flaps and I was back with her—no soaring above Canterlot city's height, but well away from the city itself.

"Saf! This is amazing! I'm really flying!" Riley dipped the nose of her glider forward, gained some speed, and then did a quick spin in the air. It cost her altitude, but that didn't matter—we had thousands of ponylengths of height to play with and I could always use my magic to push her back up again.

I kept up with her, mirrored her stunts with my own, and it almost felt like dancing in the sky. I don't know if what she was doing was meant to be possible with a glider, but in Equestria it definitely was. Equestria loved flying things—and Riley was now one of them.

"Hey, wanna see the house I gonna move into?!" I asked.

"Yeah!"

I didn't need to invert this time. I led Riley right into one of the major thermals coming off Canterlot city and we both shot into the sky as it caught both of us up.

Higher and higher, we soon got level with Cloudsdale and finally a little above it. Aiming us at the auxiliary filed at Wonderbolts' HQ—the one reserved for visitors—I led Riley into a landing that she bounced her way through, but didn't do any damage to her glider.

"Saffron Ree, and who is this you have with you in some kind of flying contraption?" I knew the voice of Commander Spitfire—as did anypony that had anything to do with the Wonderbolts.

I knew well enough to snap a salute with my wing. "This is my sister, Riley Ree. She just got her wings." I said it, of course, just as Riley slipped out of her bag thing and revealed she lacked wings.

Spitfire looked a little dumbfounded for a minute, then let out a laugh. "Figures that any sibling of yours would want to fly—wings or no. Where'd you get this thing?"

"It's called a hang-glider. They're—well, not common, but at least not hard to get—from Earth. This was one made specially for younger fliers." Reaching over to her, I ruffled Riley's mane up a good bit.

"And you landed here because it's the only part of Cloudsdale that has a large, non-cloud spot that you won't fall through. Good thinking." Spitfire reached her wing up and flexed the wing of the glider. "Most of these kinds of machines use rigid wings—this is way different."

"It lets me control how much air I'm holding and where. With my strength I can bend it as much as it'll go." Riley sounded so proud and excited. She was literally showing off her favorite new toy to an adult who was impressed with it. I'm pretty sure I'd be prancing around a bit too under the same circumstances.

"Well, I'm impressed with the design of it, now impress me with your flying, newbie." Gesturing off the end of the runway, Spitfire reached up and adjusted her sunglasses. "Well?"

Not waiting for an invite, Riley climbed back into her glider and looked back to me. "Can you give me a push?"

"I got this one, cadet." Spitfire walked up beside the glider and spread her wings. "Hold on, newbie, you're about to get airborne." She only gave a single flap, but every exposed feather on my body felt the rush of air get sucked toward Spitfire and shove under Riley's glider. "On my wing, Saf!"

I had to jump forward, bounce my four hooves on the ground, then spread my wings to take off just after Spitfire. Wings spread, my second bounce shot me into the sky beside and just behind her as we flew after Riley.

With all the practice I'd been getting with The Best Young Fliers, my formation flying was really on-point. I kept in Spitfire's pocket and used her own airflow to keep track of her.

Riley, unlike me and Spitfire, was breaking out all her moves. She twirled and twisted, doing stalls, spins, and rolls—now I realized how much she'd been watching me, she literally did all the moves from the last show The Best Young Fliers put on. Admittedly, she was doing it about ten times slower than we did, but the moves were pretty good.

"Has your sister been practicing long, Saf?" Spitfire asked, only she had to shout a bit because of the strong wind up here.

"This is her first time flying in this thing—second if you count the flying up here!"

Spitfire turned her head toward me and flipped her sunglasses up. "You taught her all this?"

Relying on my feel for Spitfire's airflow to keep me locked into formation, I watched Riley do an aileron roll. "Yes ma'am!"

I felt the power Spitfire sent to her wings a moment before it started taking effect. Juicing my own up to match, we both turned hard and shot up toward where Riley was riding a thermal and then inverted to fly under her—facing her.

"Nice moves, newbie. Why don't you bring it down to the airstrip again?" When Riley nodded, Spitfire rolled off to the side with me tight in formation. Screaming down through the air, we both hit the airstrip moments before Riley landed behind us. Turning, Spitfire waited for Riley to slip out of her sack thing. "That was some pretty trick flying up there, newbie, but I want you to promise me one thing."

Riley straightened, looking up at Spitfire. "Sure?"

"Don't you ever—ever—land on the Wonderbolts' airstrip without Saf, or unless there's an emergency, got it? Until you pass the airstrip rules and regs test, got it?" Spitfire turned to me. "Since she's flying now, it's your job to get her ready for that test and also make sure she knows what parts of Canterlot she can't fly over."

"Castle, castle ground, E.U.P. Guard fields, and within twenty ponylengths of the castle's edge of the city," Riley said.

Spitfire turned her head and looked at me from the corner of her eye, then turned back to Riley. "Just study up and pass that test. Anypony who can pick up flying that quick deserves some flight time around Cloudsdale."

Riley snapped to attention, something she'd seen me do plenty enough to mimic it.

"And, Saf, see that she learns all that. Bring her back when you know she's ready to pass." Spitfire saluted us both, which forced me to snap-to, then she released her salute. "Now get back to flying."

"Ma'am!" I turned back to Riley while Spitfire turned away. When I was sure Spitfire was far enough gone to not overhear us, I let out a relieved sigh. "That could have gone worse."

"Shouldn't we have landed here?" Riley asked.

"No, here is fine so long as you had me with you. She just likes to drill that in." I nodded toward her glider. "It's just something new you've given her to think about." Rolling my shoulders and letting my wings rotate in their joints, I felt like flying more. "Race you back home?"

She was climbing back into the glider just as I reached the edge of the strip and started opening my wings. It was the first time I'd left her to her own devices to take off, but just after I flapped my wings and got airborne, she was in the sky and after me—I didn't have to look to see that she'd caught my own displaced air to fly, I could feel her there.

I stooped into a dive, but Riley raced past me with the nose of her glider down. Laughing, I took off after her, having to bend a little magic around me to cut through the air better and barely catch up with her on the edge of the field. We both had to slam back in hard stalls to kill our speed, but Riley seemed to have that figured out pretty well.

She jumped out of her glider and was laughing like crazy. "I almost beat you!"

"You're going to need to practice a lot more to beat me, Riley." I helped her take the glider apart and put it back into the bag. We walked home with it on my shoulders and Riley bounced around me recounting everything again and again.

"What do you need to teach me? Is there a book? Do I get to read another book?" Yeah, that's my sister. Read anything you put in front of her and become a genius at anything she puts her mind to—even flying.

We got to the front door of the house before I interrupted Riley. "Riley?"

Her head shot up to look me intently in the eyes. "Saf?"

"Don't—just don't—tell Mom or Dad what I let you do. Just tell them we had a nice, relaxed flight for your first time. Okay?" I looked at her confused expression and sighed. "Mom and Dad aren't pegasi. They wouldn't get how much you enjoy flying or how safe it is to fly once you get way up in the sky."

"Huh? Why not?" She looked so dang innocent. Not for the first time I had to remind myself that smart as she was, she didn't always have that foresight to know when to stop talking and save herself from a bunch of problems.

"Because they'd freak out. I was meant to keep you safe and stop you doing crazy—that is, fun—things. They probably expected us to do slow circles and then come home again. Just don't tell them."

She groaned. "But Saf!"

"You trust me, right?"

After a moment of glaring at me, Riley nodded.

"So trust me. I'll take this stuff around the back, you head inside." I left her to enter the house while I carried the glider stuff around to the back of the house and set it down on its rack. Looking at it, remembering how Riley was able to fly in it, I was lost in an idea of opening a glider training school and selling earth ponies and unicorns gliders.

Then I heard Mom. "Saffron Ree!" It was my whole name, and worse, at high volume.

She'd definitely told Mom what we'd done. Marching in the back door, I froze in the middle of the living room at the sight of Mom and Riley both smiling. "Uh, what did you need?"

"I needed to thank you for helping Riley. This wasn't something your father or I could do for her, and it reinforced how reliable you are, Saf." Mom's words surprised me, but it was the last one that was a real shock. All my life she'd called me Saffron—I think this was the first time she'd shortened it.

Covering my surprise with a snort, I shook my head. "Mom, Riley and Goldie will always be a weakness for me. She wanted to fly, she got a glider—there was no way I could stop myself from helping her." I looked at Riley. "Please don't take advantage of this superpower."

Jumping down from the couch, Riley walked up to me and reared up to catch me in a big hug that I returned. "Saf, you are the coolest big brother ever."

Did that mean I was doing it right?

Author's Note

Bonus Question (I really liked the headcanon for this that I was working off, it just never came up as being something I could explore from any of the 4 PoVs in this story, so here it is):
How wealthy is Twilight Velvet? Are they something like high nobility, that just live simply?

Twilight Velvet's focus has always been business. She'd attended Celestia's school, honed her intelligence to a point, and took a small inheritance and invested it wisely in local businesses. Growing that investment portfolio, she had a knack for finding the right ponies to put in charge that would take a an otherwise functioning business and make it bloom into a gem.

Celestia took careful note of her when Twilight Velvet started buying up several local brothel-bars and making them not just successful, but far more inviting and friendly. Co-investing, using the kingdom's treasury, Celestia watched as Twilight Velvet doubled, tripled, and more the state's investment.

In short, Celestia found a mare whose business acumen wasn't just good for herself, it was good for Equestria. She also decided that said mare needed to have a family to spread her wealth and genes onto future generations. Listening to the winds of harmony, Celestia ensured that Twilight Velvet met up with a talented stallion named Night Light—whose love of the stars was matched with his love of any pony who walked in his bedroom door.

It wasn't a whirlwind romance. The two took things slow, and when Twilight Velvet made the decision that she'd like to have a foal, Night Light was more than happy to supply the love needed to ensure that. She was two years into raising Shining Armor when Night Light finally could take no more and proposed to Twilight Velvet. For several years he kept up his work, and even now sometimes finds his way into his old haunts—now the part-owner of them—and puts smiles on ponies' faces.

To Sudden Turn, what do the other Wonderbolts think of your relationship? (Not that it's any of their business, of course.)

"Surprise is annoyed. She was my main squeeze for a while, but I kinda dig the whole monogamous thing that humans seem into." She let out a sigh. "I got a few looks at first. One of the new recruits made the mistake of calling me a foal-chaser and—Of course I didn't say anything at the time, but I reported it up to Lieutenant Soarin. I don't know what the idiot said to him when he took them aside to talk about it, but they were out of the Wonderbolts after that.

"Most ponies who know what Saf is, get it. He is nothing like a foal except in body. He thinks like an adult and speaks like an adult—but we're still waiting, you know? We have hugs and all that, and I've seen him make a mess in his flight suit once or twice, but he takes care of his needs himself."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any character 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 character to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post!

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