“Inova, could you come with me for a bit?” Aunt Luna asked shortly after I entered Canterlot Castle.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I broke off from my family and Aunt Celestia.

“Nothing bad,” she assured as we started down the castle halls. “It’s been nearly a year since we all discovered the human in you. I’ve heard about what happened in the Empire since then with most of your parts going wild, your action when the barrier broke, your departure, and then Sombra’s brief return.”

“Ah. All of that.” The way Aunt Luna described it really made the year feel very chaotic and crazy.

“I simply wish to hear, straight from your mouth, how you’ve been handling it.” We went into an office and sat across from each other at the desk in it. It made me feel like a patient. “Start with the split. Are there any important moments you’d like to share with me?”

“Well. . .” I remembered the anger and vitriol my pony parts spat at my human part, and the fear my human part felt at it. Remembering it from all sides was surreal. “There was the part where mom held me as I cried. I felt really tired after that, but it also made me feel better. I had no idea what was going on and was really scared, but she was there, and I felt safe when she held me. My pony parts were having lots of fun running, flying, and casting spells at the same time, and it was exhilarating. It was like a bunch of weights were taken off of me, but they were all just so careless.”

“An apt analogy.”

“Yeah. After that mess and a long nap, I showed off my human part to my friends a bit, but then the novelty kind of. . . Wore off. That, and I was really busy catching up on the basics of my pony magic.”

“How would you say you’ve progressed since then?”

I gave the question some thought. “I’m a lot better all around. No more tripping, I can fly, and I can cast spells as well. I still feel like I’m behind everypony else though.” Something I’d thought about before came to mind at that moment. “Aunt Luna, how do I apply for Wonderbolt Flight Camp?”

“I can take you to their headquarters during your trip here.” She looked at a calendar on the wall for a few seconds. “That’ll have to be in a few days when the weather’s scheduled to clear up.”

I looked at the calendar and tried to make sense of the many markings and numbers on it. “How do you read all of that at a glance?”

Aunt Luna gave me a confused look for a moment. “Ah, I forgot. You don’t have weather calendars in the Crystal Empire. Let me teach you how to read one.”

A few hours later, Luna met Celestia in their private dining area. Cadence and her family were out in the main dining hall where Flurry was the main discussion and being adored by the castle staff. “Is Inova alright?” Celestia asked.

“Quite fine, sister,” Luna answered as she sat down. “She’s adjusted to her human part quite well, and I had the pleasure of seeing what she calls her battle form for a short time.”

“Only a short time?”

“She said her clothes were a bit thin for the cold and wanted her fur coat back. More importantly, she wants to focus on self-improvement, and to that end, she wants to try out for Wonderbolt Flight Camp.”

If Celestia had been drinking anything, she would have spat some out in surprise. “Did you tell her how easily she could do that?”

“She is well aware that she could just use her royal status to get in. She vehemently insisted on getting in like anypony else: by merit. I will take her to the Wonderbolts office in a few days and make sure that’s clear.”

A smile that was both amused and satisfied crossed Celestia’s face. “That does sound like the way Inova would want it. Just don’t put too much pressure on the evaluator, okay?”

“Of course not.”

A few days later, Aunt Luna and Skyla flew with me to the Wonderbolt office in town. I was feeling nervous about it, but I did my best to stay calm. Getting the guards to stay behind had been a monumental task, but it was much easier to go around the city without them.

There was a line going out the door of the building, and as soon as we were noticed, the ponies by the door parted for us. “Thank you, but we will wait in line just as you have been,” Aunt Luna said. “Do not let us get in your way.” The ponies in line warily got back in their places as we went down the line.

After almost a full block, we found the end and took our place. Moments later, a Wonderbolt flew up to us. “Your highnesses,” he said with a bow. “If you’d like, we can-”

“We will not skip the line,” Aunt Luna firmly and politely stated. “Inova wishes to not use her royal status for her venture here, so we will wait.”

The stallion looked baffled. “Uhm. . . Well, that’s. . .”

“I want to earn a spot like anypony else would have to,” I explained. “Don’t go easy on me because I’m a Princess.”

“I will make sure everypony knows that, then. Is there anything else?”

“Nah, we’re good,” Skyla said. “Don’t rush things just for us, okay?”

“Of course.” With another bow, he left to fly back to the office.

Aunt Luna looked around like she had no idea what to do. “So, Skyla, how have you been this past year?”

“Well. . .” Skyla briefly glanced at me before she answered. “I’ve been having fun with my friends. Mom covered the tickets for all of us to go to the water park one day while Inova was gone.”

“How many friends did you have with you?”

“All 120 of them.”

Aunt Luna’s eyebrows threatened to go to the tip of her horn in surprise. “You’ve got that many friends?”

“Yep. If there’s something I don’t know, I know somepony that does know it.”

“Surely this isn’t all one-sided, right?”

“Nope. I help my friends too. One time, Comet Kicker needed me to help her with hoofball practice, so I decided to split myself so she could train against three different opponents. . .”

Skyla had enough stories of things she’d done for and with her friends to make waiting in line much more tolerable. It also made me realize how little I knew about what she did. If Auntie Sparkle didn’t already have the title, I’d have called Skyla the Princess of Friendship.

Finally, it was my turn for evaluation. Fortunately the stallion was the same one that met us in line earlier. “Princess Inova, if you’ll come this way.”

I looked back at Skyla and Aunt Luna. “Do you want us to wait for you?” Aunt Luna asked.

I gave it some thought. “If you want to. If I don’t see you here, I’ll head back to the castle.”

The stallion led me downstairs into a well lit and very spacious area. “Prin. . . Inova, why do you want to go to Wonderbolt Flight Camp?”

I kept walking behind him as I answered. “I want to make myself stronger. When I was saving Flurry, I had to stop to catch my breath and rest my wings partway through the castle.”

“Really? I’ve never heard that detail.”

“That’s my motivation for being here. I can’t really help anypony if I get worn out so easily.”

“Suppose you get accepted into our flight camp. How do you think you’d compare to the other campers?”

“I’d probably be towards the tail end of the rankings. I have some pegasus friends that are better fliers than me and their cutie marks have nothing to do with flight.” I noticed that our path was going around a long area in the middle of the cavernous space.

“Why not just practice flying at home on your own?”

I wasn’t expecting a question that pushed me, but it felt like I had a good answer for it after a few seconds of thought. “If I go to camp, I’ll be more motivated and focused on improving my flight skills than by practicing at home where all my distractions are.”

He nodded at my answer, and I hoped he thought it was a good one. “It would take place over two months in summer. Can you be away from home for that long and wait that long as well?”

“Yes and yes.”

We walked a bit further and stopped between two lines against a wall. The lines went from one end of the space to the other. “The first thing we’ll do is a wingpower test.” He hit a button on the wall and I felt a soft breeze from the far end. “Fly into the wind as far as you can, then come back here.”

I took off and flew as directed. It was pretty easy at first, but as I flew further along, the wind got stronger. Eventually, I hit a point, not even a third of the way across the huge room, where my efforts and the wind balanced out. The feeling of flying without moving anywhere was strange.

I caught the wind under my wings and flew backwards to the evaluator. “What’s my wingpower?”

He hit the button again and the wind died down. “2.5. Slightly below average. We have one more test. Follow me.”

As I followed him, I thought about my wingpower score. I wasn’t surprised that it was below average, yet hearing it had hurt a bit.

We stopped in a corner of the cavernous chamber. “As I’m sure you're aware, we can’t simply accept anypony into flight camp because they have wings.” He pulled a lever coming out of the floor and lots of glowing red orbs appeared in the room, along with a single green one. “Hit the green orb, it will disappear, and a red one will turn green. Hit a red orb, it will disappear and two more red ones will show up. Try to clear all the orbs as fast as you can.”

I did a few stretches and limbered up before flying to the green orb in the center of the room. As soon as my forehooves hit it, it vanished, and a red one in my sight turned green.

The task had sounded simple, but it wasn’t. The orb that turned green wasn’t always within immediate sight, they all started moving around after the third green orb, and I hit some red orbs while I was going around. It was more intense than the simple glides and flights I made in the Empire, and I had to land after a while to rest my wings and catch my breath. “How did I do?” The number of orbs was down, but there were still plenty floating around.

“Not bad.” He wrote some things down on a clipboard. “You hit thirty green orbs and seven red ones in just under fifteen minutes, which is a decent score.”

“Is there anything else I need to do?”

He reset the lever and the orbs disappeared. “I’ll need your address so we can send you your letter of acceptance or denial. After that, we’ll head back up, I’ll answer any questions you may have, and you’ll be free to go.”

I gave the stallion my address and followed him back upstairs. Skyla and Aunt Luna were waiting for me, so I went to them. “How’d you do?” Skyla eagerly asked.

“I think I did okay, but I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll find out later.”

“Sometimes, that’s all that can be done,” Aunt Luna said. “Would you two care to have lunch in town with me?”

“I’d love to!” Skyla happily said, not surprising me at all.

One place immediately came to mind. “Have you heard of the Switchyard Diner, Aunt Luna?”

“This is where you came up with the Switchyard System?” Aunt Luna asked as we got a booth overlooking the tracks and the trains below.

“This exact spot.” Memories of that moment came back, and it made me feel a bit of excitement as I looked down through the window.

“Welcome, your Highnesses,” a waitress said as she came by with menus. “What would you like to drink?”

Skyla and I opted for hot chocolates while Aunt Luna got coffee. After our drinks arrived, it was time to order. Aunt Luna ordered a big bowl of chili, which I was not expecting. Skyla was confused about what a bread bowl was, so she got a railway salad in one. I decided to have a railway salad of my own, though served normally.

“I must say, this place has a certain charm to it,” Aunt Luna said. “It feels. . .” She started waving a forehoof as she tried to figure out what she was trying to say.

“Cozy?” Skyla suggested.

“Yes, but that’s not quite it. The smell, the decor, the way the very table and seat feel. It feels. . .”

A new voice made a suggestion. “Authentic, Princess?”

“Yes! Authentic! Thank you, Fancy.” She turned to the good noble. “Pray tell, when did you get here?”

“I’ve been here all day, Princess. It’s employee evaluation day, and things are looking good. Please let me know what you think of my diner once you finish.”

“I shall do that.”

After a few minutes of idle chatter, our food arrived, and I watched Skyla. “So. . . This is a bread bowl?” She levitated it and inspected it. “I wasn’t expecting it to look like this.”

“What were you expecting?” I asked.

“I don’t know. . . Maybe a bowl lined with bread slices or something.” She angled it towards her and took a bite from the open edge of the top. She chewed slowly before swallowing the bite. “Inova?”

“Yes?”

“Next time we have soup for supper, can you and mom make bread bowls for it?”

I smiled as I smacked her shoulder with a wing. “I make no promises.” I started on my salad and it was really good. It was filling, satisfying, and hearty all at the same time.

It was amusing watching Skyla try to keep her salad in the bread bowl as she worked on it. Her idea of serving soup in one sounded better and better as I thought about it more, especially since it would mean fewer dishes to wash and she could just eat the leftover bowls.

Due to Skyla’s challenge with the bread bowl, she was the last of us to finish, which was unusual. The waitress came by shortly after. “Can I interest anypony in dessert?”

“I’m good,” I said.

“Thank you, but I will decline,” Aunt Luna said.

“I really want some dessert,” Skyla said. “But we have to be back at the castle soon, right?”

“We can always come back later.”

“Here’s your check.” The waitress put it on the table. Aunt Luna picked it up with her magic, glanced over it, then teleported a stack of Bits on the table. “Thank you for coming in, your Highnesses.”

As we approached the door, Fancy came over. “How was your experience, Princess Luna?”

“It was quite nice, Fancy,” Aunt Luna responded. “You’ll have to tell me more about this place later.”

“I’d be honored.”

We stepped outside and took off towards the castle.

“So, how was the camp exam?” Dad asked me after our return.

“I hope I did okay,” I answered as Luna and Skyla went elsewhere. “There was a wingpower test and an obstacle course thing with red and green orbs.”

“How did you do?”

“2.5 wingpower and alright on the course.”

“2.5 wingpower?” Dad asked in surprise. “I’m amazed you have that much.”

It was my turn to be surprised. “Huh?”

“Think about it.” He started walking down the hall and I followed. “Twelve years of no wing use or flight experience and little in the way of effective practice after that? For all that you couldn’t do after all this time, it’s actually impressive.”

I gave it some thought, and realized he was right. There was only one question I had. “What’s the average wingpower for a filly my age?”

“3, or so one of Skyla’s friends said. You know, you could get some practice in with your pegasus friends on days you don’t play H&H.”

“Well, I could, but Soprano has to help Mr. Slice with the pizzeria and Quick Quip. . . I’m not actually sure what he does.”

“Would you help them if they needed your help?”

“Of course I would!”

“Then ask and see if they'll help you. There’s nothing wrong about asking your friends for help.”

I suddenly felt stupid for not thinking of that obvious option before. “I’ll try that when we get home.”

“That’s the spirit!” Dad happily said.

Author's Note

The reasons/excuses for the delay are as follows:
-Other writing projects
-Model kits (Lego and Minipla)
-Laziness
-Maybe thinking too much about a future chapter