chapter 12

"This is serious news." Celestia said and walked up and down the room, "I'm sorry that you have to endure this, sergeant, but I can't really do anything about it. My sister is actually the guardian of the dream landscape, or should be."
"I will take it and go on, your highness." Swift said, bowing his head as low as the pain allowed, "Destiny made me an offer. I'm more than willing to endure anything thrown at me."
Celestia stopped and looked at him in surprise. "She did? Usually she's the one holding back the most."
Swift nodded, got up and beat his hoof on his heart, which was incredibly painful, but he didn't show it. He was about to prove something: "Your Highness, this soldier is ready to do anything to defeat Nightmare Moon and save your sister."
Electric looked at him in shock, then stood up and made the same gesture as Swift: "I'll do everything I can to ensure that Sergeant Swift is successful."
Celestia looked at both of them in surprise, then smiled. "Thank you very much, my little ponies. You don't know what that means to me." She continued to smile as she stopped at her writing: "actually ... I have something here that I actually wanted to send out tomorrow. The Stormbreaker Squadron, the Wonderbolts, the crew of the airship and you, Electric Swing, are invited to join a small festival. Although we lost Manehattan, your work saved the lives of so many ponies.
"It would be our honor, your majesty." Swift said bowing his head again, this time accompanied by Electric.

"What was that just now?" Electric asked when they were out again.
"What? The salute? An old custom in the Royal Guard. Usually intended for the better-armored soldiers. You offer your superior everything you have. To be honest, I have no idea why I did that." Swift said honestly, "but it felt right"
"But you are injured! You are certainly in pain again." Electric said with a serious expression on her face.
"Yes ... very much ..." admitted Swift and briefly held his chest, "broken ribs are really no joke. But for your concern for me, how about I compensate you?"
"How do you mean?" she cocked her head when he took her hoof and pulled her behind him. He moved her to the city center, there on a street that was lined with good restaurants and street cafes.
"What are you after for our first official date? What nice? What simple?" he smiled at her, whereupon she blushed slightly again.
After thinking for a moment, she asked: "Aren't we over at this point? We've already kissed and ... and almost ..."
Swift put a hoof on her lip, said softly, "so what? You deserve to be treated right. And after all that has happened, I want to use the recovery time to at least do something right."
Inwardly, Swift realized that Destiny was probably involved.
well, he would play along. Electric really deserved it.

A little later both were sitting in a small street cafe, Swift with a good, strong coffee, Electric also had a piece of cake.
"That's really good! Don't you want to?" she raised the fork for him.
Swift smiled, then leaned over and put the piece in his mouth. "Ah ... pretty sweet ... But yes, quite good. Next time for sure." he said with a smile.
"Why next time?" Electric asked with a confused expression on her face.
Swift grinned, "That's something we soldiers like to do." He leaned forward as far as his broken ribs would allow, then said seriously as he took her hoof in his, "Next time I have a cake here, I'll have to survive and come back. Same with debt." He winked at her, "If I only pay my debts after an order, I'll have to come back as a gentle colt, or I'll break a promise."
Electric's eyes grew bigger than she understood, then said with a sly smile: "Then it would be better to come back here, sergeant. The cake is really good."
Swift saluted. said: "By your command, Madam General. This soldier is making an effort to get home. And if I have to go through Tarterus."

It was the evening before the little party that Celestia wanted to hold. In the meantime it was clear that it was a matter of handing out awards and praising them for their work.
Swift was standing at Rarity's little accommodation and had the unicorn help him into his best uniform.
"You look just amazing Swift!" she said and looked at everything carefully, "The uniform is just a bit tight around the shoulders and with the wings you can tell that they are not actually made for the metal wings. But I have an idea ..." She began to summon her magic to get needle and thread. In a few moments two seams were opened and sewn again, then the hole around the wings was imperceptibly adjusted with scissors and sewed here too.
"Wow, you are really good." Swift said and looked fascinated in the mirror, "Sometimes I envy you unicorns."
"And I'll tell you Pegasie. It must be nice to be able to fly through the air. Lift your wings, please." she answered.
Swift raised his wings so she could continue working.
"I mean, fly over the clouds, just glide over a sea of white, land on it and walk, snuggle up in the clouds and feel Celestia's sun on your back." Rarity sighed. "I've often dreamed of it ..."
Swift smiled narrowly, then breathed: "Yes, that's nice. But it isn't always higher up. Winds, we call them ripper currents, can break the wings of a pegasus and drag you along with them, and you will never be found again. Thunderstorms Out of nowhere like the Everfree Forest were already dangerous. For me now twice because metal attracts lightning. "
"The badges please." interrupted Rarity.
Swift handed her his wounded badge and she started putting it on the front.
"Ouch, please don't press so hard." Swift said and flinched away from her.
"Oh dear, the needle? Or the ribs?" Rarity asked worried.
"Ribs." replied Swift.

"Ah okay I'm careful." she went on.
After that they were quiet for a long time, she worked on his uniform, he obeyed orders.
But at the very end, Rarity couldn't take it anymore: "How's it going with Electric?"
Swift allowed himself a quick grin before answering, "Very well. We finished our first official date a few days ago, our second the following evening, and I'll cook for you on our third date tonight. Tomorrow's funeral. " he chuckled when he saw Rarity's shocked face and said, "I can't cook, but Electric insisted."
That made Rarity giggle too.

The evening went all right, but as Swift said, he couldn't cook. The food was far from good and Electric decided to help him on the second try. both were working side by side in a comfortable silence when she suddenly turned around and blushed.
"What's that, Electric?" Swift asked, a little worried.
"Oh nothing ... I just realized what happened in romances after the third date." she said and shuffeld her hooves.
It took Swift a second to think, then leaned over to her, breathing in her ear, "only if you want to." he kissed her gently on the cheek.
"Do you want?" she asked back.
Swift took a moment to reply, but when he did he was sure: "Yes. Normally I would wait until after the mission." He held his chest, "But ... other than a missed cake or outstanding debts ... I don't want to regret not having done that."
Electric was silent, but then nodded and went on with her part of the work.

She was very quiet during the meal, and Swift blamed himself for it. He was probably too honest, or too direct.
He was all the more surprised when Electric got up after dinner and headed for her bedroom. Usually the two of them still lay together on the couch for a while, enjoying being close to each other.
In the door, Electric looked over her shoulder, lifted her tail a little and asked: "Are you coming too?"
she blushed. he blushed.
But like a piece of metal to a magnet, He was drawn after her. In the door he caught her up, looked at her, looked deep into her eyes, leaned down and kissed her full of love.
Both only had eyes for each other as they continued on their way to bed.

Swift woke up next to Electric late in the night. He should actually sleep, but he couldn't. He was too happy to just close his eyes. It was also a beautiful full moon night. He gathered up his clothes after getting up as quietly as possible and looked at Electric for a long time with a smile on his face. Then he crept out into the street and took off.

He flew for a while through the cool night air, first in the direction of the south, then again in the north, without a destination. Over Canterlort he then found a small lonely cloud on which he carefully landed.
well, the cloud held his weight.
He sank down on it and looked at the moon, the stars and the empty space in between.
What a wonderful night. and what a wonderful moon.
It was nights like this where he always wondered if you could just fly up to the moon.
Hey, probably a bad idea with that nightmare up there.
He heard the flapping of his wings, then a small impact on the cloud on which he was sitting.
Surprised, he looked over the corner of the cloud to see a pegasus that was stuck in the cloud and seemed to have problems getting out.
"Wait a minute, I'll help!" said Swift and flew behind the pegasus.
Then he began to pull

After a bit of dragging, the other end of the Pegasus came out and Swift realized it was a mare.
"Sorry, miss, I would not have been so rude if I had known you were a mare." he said and looked at her, "Everything okay?"
The gray mare shook her head to clear him up and to get rid of a bit of the cloud, then looked at him with golden eyes.
Or zimundest with one, the other eye squinted somewhere else.
"Th-thank you." she said uncertainly, then raised her hoof to him, "My name is Dizzy."
"I'm Swift, nice to meet you. But why are you still out so late?"
Dizzy seemed to react to the question with discomfort and only replied: "Night shift ..."
Swift was about to ask what night shift, but he'd seen the look before.
A young mare who had to do everything for her to survive. Back then he was too young to understand, now he knew.
"Ah ..." he just said and both flew next to each other in silence.
in the distance you could hear the bells.
"Oh buck ..." said Dizzy then, "I have to go to the 24/7 store!"
"Why the hurry? It's always open." Swift asked, surprised that he was asking the question that way.
"I have to be home before the little ones wake up." replied Dizzy.
"The little ones? Fillys?" Swift asked, somewhat shocked.

Dizzy nodded, "I take care of a couple of Fillys whose parents disappeared or who died in the war."
Swift's mouth was wide open before he said, "oh ... and ... and then why the 'night shift'?"
"So that I can provide." was Dizzy's embarrassed answer.
"But ... if you take care of fillys of fallen soldiers, then wouldn't the army have to provide money until the families come to pick them up?" Swift asked wide-eyed.
"Yes, but it's very little. And the job as Mailmare doesn't bring in that much." she rubbed her elbow.

Swift felt an impulse, and before he could think about it he asked, "Is there anything I can do to help? I've saved a few bits in the last few months while I was on the job. I could give you something."
Dizzy blushed and didn't look him in the eye anymore when she said: "M-my shift is over. But I can make an exception."
At first Swift didn't understand, then grinned: "No, I didn't mean that. I have a marefriend. I was thinking of a kind of donation for the Fillys." He reached into his saddlebag and handed her a hoof full of bits, put his hooves on hers: "My job as a soldier is to protect good ponies. And you are such a good pony. Please take good care of the little ones."
Dizzy's eyes seemed to focus briefly, then she wriggled around his neck and hugged him stormily and shouted: "Thank you! Thank you very much! I promise that the little ones will come first."
Swift wanted to cry out in pain, but held it back.
"no problem." he uttered suppressed, "You are pretty strong."
"oh sorry." Dizzy let go, "I have to go to the shop. The Fillys will be happy if there is a real breakfast tomorrow!" she shot straight ahead and towards the city.

Swift shook his head with a smile, then flew back onto his cloud.
"Who was that, Swift?" Electric asked curiously.
"Oh, that was apparently a mare with ..." he started, turned around and saw Electric standing there.
on the cloud. he almost slipped down in shock.
Was he just dreaming all this?
Electric giggled, asked, "Surprised? I worked on it with Twilight." she indicated some sort of backpack with mechanical wings, but lighter than Swift's, that was probably steered with a kind of control into the one on the left hoof. She also wore horse shoes that shone slightly, "The horseshoes ensure that I can stand on clouds, and I can fly with my backpack."
as proof, she took off and flew around.

Swift stared after her, fascinated, even if her wings looked more like the one of a batpony than of a Pegasus.
She did a lap around and Swift let go of the cloud, flew over to her. He watched her fly there and she beamed at him.
"You are amazing, Electric! Not only can you get wingless pegasi to fly again, no earth ponies too." with slight adjustments of his wings he began to rise up, to fly over her, then down on the other side and under her back again to the other side, then again at the same height, then he turned and flew with his back down further, under hers and raised his hooves so that she could put hers on his and they could hold each other.
How much Swift would have loved to tell her that he loved her at that moment. But he just couldn't. Instead, he kissed her, held her in a hug for a moment, before letting go of her and straightening up again.
"come on, I want to show you something!" he climbed steeply and Electric managed to follow him.

Above the clouds, which were just rolling in the direction of Canterlot, both flew back level to the ground.
"Welcome to a sea of clouds." Swift whispered, and pointed. It actually looked like a sea. It was also very calm and the moon was shining very brightly, which gave everything a supernatural touch.
"Oh wow ... that's beautiful! I wish I could stay up here forever." said Electric in disbelief.
"Yes that would be nice." Confessed Swift, "But at some point we'd both run out of magic in the MCUs and fall down like rocks."
"yes we would." Electric said, "But we can still enjoy it."
"We can ..." Swift flew forward and began to swing back and forth a little, then, with a tremendous flap of his wings in front of a cloud, made a tunnel for Electric into the cloud.
"What a gentlecolt." Electric said with a giggle.
"oh just wait till I start showing off." Swift replied, "I always wanted to be an aerial acrobat before I joined the army."
"Show me!" Electric said with a bright grin, and landed on a cloud. the runes on their horseshoes began to glow again.
Swift smiled and grabbed some cloud, then did simple and complicated maneuvers. Sometimes he climbed very high, folded his wings and let himself fall, looping, rolling, while the cloud in his hooves gently left a trail behind it like an aerial acrobat.
Electric enjoyed the show and applauded, so Swift bit his lip and suppressed the pain

After a while both lay on one of the clouds and continued to look at the stars. Well Swift looked up, Electric was sleeping snuggled up against him under his wing. Unless she took off the horseshoes, the magic inside would allow Electric to stand on the cloud.
There was a shooting star!
Swift secretly wished for nothing more than that he could find the elements of harmony and end this war so that he could start a new life with Electric.
And ... that he could finally tell her that he ... loved her.

Author's Note

Electric Swings Invention:

After the success with the EPS in the wings of two Pegasias, one with absolutely no remaining wings and one with a lost wing, Electric Swing and Twilight Sparkle worked on a non-Pegasus variant. The first prototype is in the test phase and requires an MCU, is built relatively lightly and is not intended for combat use, rather as a proof of concept. MCUs still need to be charged by Pegasie.
Possible uses: search and rescue missions, as a parachute replacement and for the use of earth ponies and unicorns behind enemy lines.
Wearing special horseshoes that have been enchanted with magical runes allows the wearer to even stand on clouds like a Pegasus

Previous problems are the very light construction, which makes them very vulnerable, and the problem that if an MCU is damaged, the Pegasus magic can be mixed with the magic of earth ponies or unicorns, resulting in an explosive mixture because it overloads the gem inside.