Instinctual

Chapters

Chapter One; Flight Lesson Zero
Chapter Two; Apple Fever
Chapter Three; On Dirty Feathers

Chapter One; Flight Lesson Zero

Alicorns were fascinating creatures. Seemingly immortal beings that combined the traits of all three tribes of ponykind in perfectly balanced harmony, and yet were still somehow more than the sum of their parts. Several scientific and historical fields were endlessly fascinated by them, but through her thousand-year reign Celestia had remained resolutely tight-lipped about her own nature. Offering scholars little more than vague generalizations and a few common-sense answers to their probing questions.

Twilight was starting to wonder if that was because Celestia herself didn’t fully understand her own existence.

Ever since her ascension from simple unicorn to alicorn princess, Twilight had experienced first-hoof what it was like to not know the first thing about yourself. It had taken weeks for her to even gain enough control of her wings to move them how she wanted - and even now they had a habit of springing open on their own, among other peculiar behaviors.

But the physical changes were easy to deal with compared to the mental ones.

Frowning in concentration, Twilight brought her hoof down and gently stroked a small, green leaf. The sprout was young, but to her untrained-eye it looked healthy enough. A watering can held in her magical grasp was brought down to gently shower the soon-to-be flower in water, darkening the soil around it and its brethren.

Apparently, having the magic inherent in earth ponies suddenly shoved into your body resulted in certain… tendencies. Instincts that had not existed within her previously - or were perhaps just laying dormant - were awoken. Thankfully, they were relatively easy to deal with: Twilight had never been a green-hoof, but she’d always carried a passing appreciation of plant life. Heightened by her time spent in the small farming community of Ponyville, as well as her proximity to a certain apple farmer.

Her transformation hadn’t just instilled her with an intense desire to grow things, however.

“Hey, you got… uh, Twilight?” Spike called, poking his head out of a window above her. “You’re doing it again.”

Twilight looked up at him, brow knitting for a moment. She quickly realized what he was talking about when she tried to say, “whmmph rrf mmrrph?” Blinking, her face became a scowl as she pulled her own wing out of her mouth, a few feathers remaining stuck to her tongue that she had to spit out. “Blegh.”

“You - snrk - really like your wings, huh?” Spike asked, barely able to contain his chuckling.

“They don’t even taste good!” Twilight cried, holding the offending appendage in front of her as though to scold it personally. “It’s like they have a mind of their own. And that mind really wants to be chewed on.”

“Have you asked Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy about it?”

Twilight frowned as a slight blush rose in her cheeks. “N-no. It feels… embarrassing. I’ve been chewing on my wings like a newborn foal sucks on their hoof. I don’t know enough about pegasi to tell if this is normal or not.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Which is why you should ask a pegasus?”

“Maybe later,” Twilight said, forcefully putting the subject aside. “What did you need?”

“Oh, yeah. Speaking of pegasi, Rainbow Dash is here. She says it’s time for flight practice.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, and she glanced over at the clocktower standing tall over the town. “Shoot, already? I must have lost track of time.” Indeed, the hands indicated the time was two. A little past two, actually - Rainbow Dash was seemingly allergic to being on time. “Can you let her know I’m back here? I just need to tidy up.”

“Roger that,” Spike said, miming a quick salute before disappearing back inside.

Wiping a hoof across her brow, Twilight looked up at the sky - clear and cloudless, the sun beat down upon her with intense waves of summer heat. There was something satisfying about working outside in such weather, and not just because the gardening scratched the itch brought forth by her new earth pony magic. She probably understood Applejack a little better now.

Making sure the flower bed was fully hydrated - but not too wet, as she had been reminded multiple times - Twilight gathered her tools to be stored away. Just as the door to the small, rickety shed behind the library was closed, the sound of beating wings graced her ears, and she felt a shadow fall over her.

“What’s up, egghead?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering mid-air and striking a pose. “Miss me?”

Twilight made no effort to disguise her eye-rolling. “Yes, a whole three days without seeing you was unbearable.”

“Ha! Don’t I know it?” Rainbow said as she lowered herself to the ground.

“The flowers!” Twilight shrieked. Her horn flared to life and Rainbow could only let out a strangled yelp as she was encased in a tight magic field that moved her a meter over. It dropped her unceremoniously onto the ground, too close for her to catch herself with her wings or her legs.

“Oof,” she grunted as her chest hit the dirt. “What the hay, Twi? Wait, flowers?” Rainbow stood up and dusted herself off with her wings, before turning her attention back to the alicorn, currently fussing over a few small, green sprouts. Was there always a garden behind the library? And since when did Twilight Sparkle, nerd-extraordinaire and gold-medalist bookworm, care about gardening?

Twilight, having ensured there was no damage to her delicate sprouts, turned back to her guest. “Yes, Rainbow Dash, flowers. They’re a type of plant, just like the trees you love to sleep in,” she said dryly. “Please try not to trample them.”

“I know what flowers are,” Rainbow scoffed, sitting back on her haunches and crossing her forelegs over her chest. “I don’t know why you care about them.”

“Why can’t I?” Twilight asked pointedly, though the small spark of indignation quickly flared out as Rainbow simply raised an eyebrow, glancing at the large wooden tree behind them. “Okay, fine, I admit I never took much interest in horticulture previously, but what’s the harm in developing new hobbies?”

Rainbow opened her mouth to comment on Twilight’s usual hobbies involving exactly zero outdoor activities, but stopped when a fleck of bright colour caught her eye. She turned to look, and her face fell when she spotted a few bright, purple feathers in the dirt. “Twi? Are you okay?”

“Okay?” Twilight echoed, caught off guard by the seriousness in the pegasus’s tone. She watched as Rainbow stalked over to the garden bed - stopping on the edge. “I’m fine. Honestly, Dash, just because I’m expanding my horizons a bit-”

Rainbow held up the lavender plumage. “You’re losing feathers,” she said worriedly. “These look fine, did you preen them out?”

“Ah, um… n-no,” Twilight responded shakily, feeling her cheeks warming as she suddenly became much more interested in her garden. “I-I haven’t tried preening yet. I was going to get you to show me- hey!” She yelped as a pair of hooves tugged her wing open.

Rainbow ignored her, running her hooves and eyes over Twilight’s wings carefully. “I don’t see anything wrong,” she mumbled, mostly to herself. “Are you feeling okay? Fever? Soreness?Itchy? Please tell me you’re using that feather shampoo I gave you and not normal coat stuff, it can really screw with your wings.”

“I’m fine!” Twilight insisted, pulling her wing from Rainbow’s grasp - which only resulted in the mare circling around to her other side to poke and prod at that wing. “It’s nothing, really.”

“Twi, losing feathers for ‘no reason’ is a big deal,” Rainbow said. “Because it’s never for ‘no reason’. I don’t see anything wrong, but I’m not exactly a doctor. Have you-”

“I pulled them out!” Twilight shouted, her face burning with embarrassment while she stared at her hooves. “I pulled them out, okay? There’s nothing wrong.”

Rainbow stepped back in surprise. “You… pulled them out? Twi, those feathers were perfectly fine, you didn’t need to-”

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Come again?”

Twilight groaned, sinking back onto her haunches and burying her face in her hooves. “Look, I don’t know either, okay? All I know is that ever since I became an alicorn I’ve been having these… urges,” she said quickly. “Celestia said it has to do with having the magic of all three tribes. It’s like I’m experiencing the most basic instincts of pegasi and earth ponies all at once, and it’s been maddening. I didn’t grow up with them so they feel really strong.”

“So… the flower thing is, like, some kinda instinct for earth ponies?” Rainbow asked slowly, watching as Twilight gave a weak nod. “Okay, that makes sense, I guess. But… why are you pulling out- oh. Oh.”

Twilight peaked a trepidatious eye out from behind her hooves. “What?”

“Twi, have you been chewing your wings?” Rainbow asked, and her words carried with them a hint of suppressed mirth.

Hesitantly, Twilight nodded again.

Instead of responding, Rainbow Dash promptly doubled over, and Twilight cringed as full-blown laughter reached her ears. “H-hey! It’s not funny!” she cried, but her words fell on deaf ears.

“Twi, oh my gosh! You’re adorable! Like a little filly!” Rainbow gasped out between her belly-shaking hysterics.

“Rainbooooow~” Twilight moaned. If her face was burning before it had now reached a temperatur beyond pony comprehension. “What does it mean? Is it normal? A-am I hurting them somehow?”

Upon hearing the concern in Twilight’s voice, Rainbow’s laughter tapered off, and she quickly cleared her throat, putting on what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “It’s fine, you can relax. You’re not gonna cause any real damage. And it’s pretty normal. Well, for foals it is, anyway.”

“Foals?” Twilight ventured, daring to look up and actually see the softer look the pegasus was giving her.

Rainbow shrugged. “I mean, yeah. Almost all pegasi chew their feathers as kids. It’s… well, it’s an instinct, I guess. Most stop doing it when they’re teenagers, though.”

Contrary to the comforting intent Rainbow had, Twilight instead looked even more upset at the news. “Great,” she muttered. “So I’m basically acting like a child.”

“Aw come on, don’t look at it like that,” Rainbow said, stepping up and placing a hoof on Twilight’s wing. “It means you really are part pegasus, instincts and all. It just might take you a while to grow into it. Heck, I’m sure I’d struggle to get used to it if I was suddenly part unicorn.”

“You’d probably be scratching your horn on things constantly,” Twilight said, a small smile coming to her as she pictured a full-grown Rainbow Dash rubbing her horn on a door frame.

Rainbow tilted her head curiously. “Is that a thing?”

“Mmhmm,” Twilight affirmed. “Unicorn foals are constantly scratching their horns on anything hard. It’s a leftover instinct from when we used to shed our horns every year or so. We evolved past that but the habit stuck around. It’s fine, as long as they don’t do it too much. You can tell how much someone did by how bent their horn is.”

For perhaps the first time, Rainbow actually looked closely at Twilight’s horn. “Huh, yours is straight, so I guess you didn’t do it?”

“Not quite,” Twilight corrected, turning her head to the side. “There’s a little bend backwards. My parents were pretty good about stopping me, but they weren’t always around. Cadance was a wonderful foalsitter but she was a pegasus before she became an alicorn so she didn’t know to stop me.”

Rainbow actually had to squint to see the angle Twilight was talking about. True to her word, her horn curved back towards the top of her head ever so slightly. “Weird, I never noticed.”

“You must have noticed Rarity’s?” Twilight asked with a small giggle. “Her’s curves to the right way more than mine does. Her parents didn’t really care, since it doesn’t actually affect us or anything.”

Rubbing her chin with her hoof, Rainbow pictured Rarity in her mind, focusing on her horn. “Nope. Can’t say I have. But I don’t spend all day staring at horns.”

“Probably for the best,” Twilight conceded. “Straighter horns used to be something the unicorn nobility valued. It led to some… less than savory methods of protecting young foal’s horns.”

Rainbow nodded, her eyes still fixed on the slight curve of Twilight’s horn. Now that she’d noticed, she couldn’t stop seeing it. And the more she looked, the more she wondered how she hadn’t seen it. Sure, it was subtle, but she’d spent so much time around the unicorn-turned-alicorn that it was hard to believe something so obvious had slipped past her notice. What else was she missing about her friend?

“Um… Dash?”

Really, she kind of felt bad, in a weird way. Did she really pay Twilight so little attention normally? That couldn’t be true! She loved hanging out with her, especially since they’d started reading together. And now they got to fly together, too? Twilight was, like, her closest friend! And she hadn’t noticed that super-obvious curve? Just look at it! It was so… covered by Twilight’s hooves.

Wait, what?

Rainbow shook herself from her thoughts, realizing how intently she’d been staring and noticing the red hue that had completely overtaken Twilight’s face as the alicorn concealed her horn with a hoof. Her wings had also spread out, standing up from her back.

“S-sorry,” Rainbow stuttered out, pointedly looking away as she coughed into her hoof, a similar blush heating her own cheeks. “I, uh, yeah, I never noticed before.”

“I-it’s fine, just… don’t go around staring at other unicorns like that. It’s pretty rude if you’re not, er, intimate.” Twilight explained, slowly lowering her hoof from her horn and watching as Rainbow’s eyes flicked to it for the briefest moment before being forcibly pulled away.

Rainbow rapidly nodded her head. “Gotcha.” Her eyes instead flicked to the way Twilight’s wings fanned out behind her, and Rainbow’s face grew several shades redder, but she chose not to mention it.

Instead, they lapsed into a somewhat awkward silence, standing around beneath the summer heat. Neither mare was able to look the other in the eye, instead each took a particular interest in either the sky or Twilight’s budding garden. Eventually, when even that failed to distract them, Twilight cleared her throat. Much louder than was necessary.

“S-so, you said it’s not gonna hurt me? T-to chew on my wings, that is.”

“Huh? Oh!” Rainbow scratched the back of her neck, chuckling quietly. “Yeah, no, you’re fine. Just, like, try not to pull out too many feathers or it’ll mess with your flying. Not that you’re flying yet.”

Flying… that sounded familiar. Weren’t they supposed to be-

“Flying lessons!” Twilight declared abruptly. “Y-you’re supposed to give me my first flying lesson today, right? Now that I can control them?” She glanced back at her wings, noticing that they had spread themselves when she wasn’t paying attention as though purposefully trying to make her a liar. She scrunched her muzzle slightly as she forced them to fold back against her sides, noting that it took more effort than it had in a while.

"Flying, right, hehe." Rainbow forced herself not to think too hard about Twilight's wing’s behavior. Reminding herself that she was new to having them, and if her chewing on them was any indication, was currently about as in control as a young filly.

She just wondered if chewing them was the only instinct she would feel.

"Do you really think I'll be able to fly already?" Twilight asked, looking over her shoulder at her own wings. "I mean, according to my books, I didn't even have the right muscles before my ascension. They might not be strong enough.”

“That’s why you aren’t flying yet,” Rainbow said. “Well, that and getting someone who can’t fly into the air before teaching them how to glide is probably a pretty bad idea. So!” She wrapped a hoof around Twilight’s neck and dragged her away from the library - and the garden, lest her precious flowers be harmed - and put her in the open. Then she took a few steps back and stood so they were facing each other. “Flying lesson zero: Wing positioning.”

With a ruffle of her feathers, Rainbow spread her wings wide, feeling the warm summer sun on her feathers. Twilight watched closely, finding herself staring at the way Dash’s perfectly groomed feathers almost seemed to sparkle in the light. She’d always known Rainbow took meticulous care of her wings - especially since getting her own and being absolutely bombarded by advice - but never before had she taken the time to properly appreciate the pegasus’s plumage.

Feeling the eyes on her wings made Rainbow smirk proudly, and she made sure to angle them just right to catch the light and show off her feathers. “If you’re done checking me out,” she said with a cheeky grin. “We can get started. Spread ‘em, princess.”

Twilight was really tired of all the blood in her body rushing to her face, but she did as instructed, unfurling her wings and fluffing her feathers. Very much ignoring the way her subconscious tried to get her to continue staring at Dash’s impressive wingspan.

“Alright, I’m gonna show you a wing position, tell you what it’s gonna do, and you’re gonna copy me, alright?”

“Um, should I be taking notes?” Twilight asked somewhat nervously.

Rainbow just laughed. “Notes aren’t gonna help you when you’re a hundred feet in the air and falling fast. Read all the books you like, Twi, but the only way to learn this stuff is the good old fashioned way.”

The mental image of herself falling from the sky desperately trying to read a note sheet sent a shiver down Twilight’s spine despite the warm summer air. “Alright, alright, I get it.”

“Good. First, basic gliding - wings fully extended and level,” Rainbow said, shifting her wings into position. “If you’re falling, this is the position you want. Start catching the air and you can regain control.”

Twilight nodded as she mimicked the example, glancing between her own wings and Rainbow’s to make sure she got it right.

“Hold it,” Rainbow said, as she dropped the position and stepped up to the alicorn. Twilight raised an eyebrow, but kept her wings in position. “This one’s too high.” Rainbow tapped Twilight’s right wing with a hoof. “And it’s tilted forward.”

Making the corrections, Twilight asked, “Better?”

Rainbow nodded, circling around the alicorn and checking both wings, before seemingly deciding she was content and returning to her original position. “Alright, next…”

They went through several more positions, each playing out the same. Rainbow would describe it, make Twilight copy her, then inspect. Every little nuance and angle was thoroughly pointed out and, if necessary, corrected.

Twilight fell into the routine easily - it reminded her of her time in Celestia’s school. She could spend hours studying a spell demonstrated for her by a teacher, though this was a lot more physical than that had been. It wasn’t long before she could feel a slight burn in muscles she’d never had before from the stress they were being put under. Having only just gotten the hang of controlling them, properly putting them through their paces was quite an upgrade.

“Glide!” Rainbow called loudly, and Twilight’s brain scrambled to understand what was being asked of her. By time she realized, and got her wings in position, Rainbow was already shaking her head. “Too slow, and your wing’s angled again,” she said, pointing to the wing in question.

Groaning quietly as she felt her muscles properly start aching, Twilight corrected her posture. “We’re doing flash cards now?”

“Dunno what those are,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “We’re doing drills, because it’s one thing if that big brain of yours knows what to do, but your body needs to get with the program or you’re gonna have problems.”

“Muscle memory,” Twilight said as she took a moment to stretch. “You’re describing muscle memory. Which, unfortunately, makes sense.”

“I always make sense.”

“Sure you-”

“Bank left!”

Forcing her wings into shape, Twilight glared daggers at her coach. “I’ll get you for this,” she muttered under her breath as Rainbow nodded approvingly. “I’ll make you-”

“Dive!”

Twilight angled her wings down and bent them back like she’d been shown, stretching her body forward and tilting her nose towards the ground. She felt the stretch in her tendons as Rainbow took her wings in her hooves and bent them a little further.

“We’re gonna have to work on your flexibility, too,” she commented idly. “At least, if you wanna do any tricks.”

“Can we focus on getting me off the ground, first?” Twilight asked with a grunt as her wing was released. “I’m not exactly aiming for the Wonderbolts here.”

Rainbow considered the request for a moment, before nodding. “Good point. Let’s see if you can take off.”

When she didn’t say anything else, Twilight frowned. “Um, how do I-”

“Flap, ya big egghead!” Rainbow said. “Let’s see if you really did get the instincts of a pegasus. I wanna see you take off, all on your own.”

“But I don’t know how to-”

“Sure ya do! You’ve seen me take off dozens of times. Just do that.”

Twilight stared slack-jawed at what was being said. Surely it was a joke. “I never paid attention!”

“You never pay attention to me?” Rainbow asked, her mock-hurt tone conflicting sharply with her smirk. She held a hoof over her ‘aching’ heart. “You wound me, Twi. I thought we were friends?”

Growling under her breath - mostly at herself for having walked into such an obvious trap - Twilight sighed. “Fine. Just… catch me if I fall or something?”

“If you even make it off the ground,” Rainbow snickered, earning herself another venomous glare. She held up a hoof defensively. “Yeah, yeah, I promise I’ll catch ya. Just relax and give it a shot - do whatever feels right.”

“Alright…” trailing off, Twilight felt out along her wings, slowly shifting them into a position that felt right to start. She didn’t really have anything to go off, and tried to match Rainbow’s pose before taking off from memory. Then, she started flapping her wings.

It was… clumsy, at first. And she could hear Rainbow sniggering to herself, but tried to block out the noise. Closing her eyes, Twilight focused on the feeling of the air passing through her feathers. She changed the angle and bend of her wings until if felt like she was pushing off the air, and if she didn’t know any better she’d have sworn she actually felt herself become slightly lighter. A little less weight being put on her hooves.

Rainbow watched carefully, her smile slowly shifting from one of amusement to one of awe. Sure, Twilight was very obviously new to her wings, but she was able to find the right position all on her own, and before long, Rainbow saw her front hooves start to leave the ground.

Twilight felt it, but decided she wanted all four hooves off the ground before she celebrated. Keeping her wings as in-sync as possible, she beat them as fast and as hard as she could, and felt her front half lifting higher - but her hind quarters remained resolutely grounded. She wanted so desperately to do it - to impress Rainbow Dash, she realized - but it wasn’t enough. If her wings had been sore from the positions before, they were positively screaming now, as new and unused muscles were forced to go beyond their limits.

From the outside, it was like watching a young filly try and take flight for the first time - and Rainbow fondly compared it to a certain little orange pegasus. It was adorable. However, it was unsustainable, and Twilight was obviously running on empty.

“Alright, Twi, you can stop now,” Rainbow called loudly to be heard over the sound of the princess’s flapping wings. “It’s a good first attempt.”

Panting and struggling to just get a little more lift, Twilight just pinched her eyes shut tighter. She would do this, she just needed-

A hoof touched her shoulder, bringing her front hooves back down to the ground. “Relax, Twi, don’t hurt yourself. You’ll get there.”

Twilight felt something inside her lash out at those words. Some part of her yearning to do better, to impress her teacher and make her proud. But the rest of her knew Rainbow was right, and with a begrudging sigh, her wings slowed, then stopped, and she opened her eyes to find Rainbow looking at her with a beamingly bright smile.

“I’ll admit, I’m impressed,” she said, looking at Twilight’s wings as they folded against her sides. “You did way better than I thought you would. Good job.”

The little filly inside Twilight squealed happily at the praise. The fully-grown mare on the outside just grinned stupidly. “Really?”

“A hundred percent! You totally have some pegasus inside you. Your positioning was almost perfect. You just gotta work on your strength a bit.”

Twilight couldn’t help the way she stood up a little straighter in pride. “I-it just kind of happened,” she said, mentally scolding herself before she could get too carried away. “And I didn’t even get off the ground.”

“Look at it this way; you’ve had those wings for, what, a month?” Rainbow asked. “You’re doing better than fillies who have had their wings for years.”

“The comparison isn’t quite fair,” Twilight pointed out, though it did little to deter her smile. “But I understand what you’re saying. Thank you, Rainbow.”

Rainbow’s face grew sinister. “Don’t thank me yet. Now we get to work on strength training.”

Twilight swallowed nervously.

“Water,” Twilight croaked, laying on her back in the grass. She reached up towards the canopy of green leaves above her, thankfully casting their shadow down and saving her from the worst of the summer heat. Her wings, back, and lungs all burned with exertion, her mouth dry and tacky. Surely, she thought, this was it. Death by overexertion. Sweat drenched her body from the tips of her hooves to the end of her tail, using up what precious liquid remained. She’d be baked alive, all because her demon of a flight instructor was a crazy pony.

Suddenly, the aforementioned demon’s face popped into her field of view. “Alright, sit up ya big baby. Here-” she stuck out her hoof, and Twilight heard the rattling of ice in a glass.

Shooting up like a rocket, Twilight grabbed the offered salvation, taking only a moment to identify it as lemonade before the condensation on the outside of the cup proved too tempting, and she brought the glass to her lips.

Rainbow watched the mare drink like she’d been lost in the desert for days with an idle smile. “You really need to get out more,” she said.

“I’m so sorry my brand new wings aren’t as strong as yours,” Twilight snarked when she had drained her cup. She took a moment to breathe, then popped one of the ice cubes into her mouth, loudly crunching down on it. When she was finished, she set the glass aside and fell back into the grass, chest still heaving.

Rainbow just shook her head. Though she’d worked up a sweat as well, she was nowhere near the state Twilight was in. That much didn’t surprise her. “Alright, I get it. That’s enough for today,” she said, sitting down next to the panting alicorn. “So, how was your first lesson?”

“You mean besides you trying to kill me?”

“Yes, egghead, besides the exercise.”

Twilight giggled quietly, but took a moment to consider her answer. Eventually, she nodded. “It was good, I actually think I’ll remember most of those positions. And I almost got off the ground, even!” She couldn’t help the small amount of pride that slipped into her voice. “You know, I was worried when you first suggested letting you teach me how to fly, but you’re actually a pretty good instructor.”

“What, you thought I wouldn’t be?” Rainbow asked, only half of her indignation being real.

Twilight just looked up at her flatly.

“Yeah okay, fair enough.” Rainbow threw her hooves out and allowed herself to fall onto her back alongside her friend. “To be honest I wasn’t sure how it was gonna go, either. Like, I know how to fly, but I dunno how to explain how I fly to someone else. I figured starting with the positions will at least help you know what you’re doing once you’re in the air.”

Laughing to herself quietly, Rainbow shook her head. “I was kinda just winging it like usual, but hey, I’m awesome, and you’re kinda awesome, so it all worked out. Right, Twi?”

There was no response, and Rainbow frowned as she looked over. “Twi? Oh.”

Twilight looked back at her, her own wing between her lips as she nibbled gently.

“Twi, you’re chewing it.”

Seeming to snap awake at that, Twilight went cross-eyes as she looked down her muzzle at her wing. She glared at it, forcefully extracting it from her mouth and spitting out another feather. “I really need to kick that habit,” she said. “The last thing I need is to start acting like a foal during a meeting with Celestia.”

“Aw come on, Twi, it’s not that big a deal. It’s kinda cute.”

“C-cute?”

Rainbow felt herself blushing as she looked away. “A little? I dunno, it’s a thing little fillies do, y’know? I’m not saying that you’re cute or anything!”

“Oh, so I’m not cute then?” Twilight asked, her offended tone largely played up for effect.

Rainbow could practically taste the hoof in her mouth. “I-I didn’t mean it like that, just…” SHe trailed off as she heard Twilight absolutely failing to hide her giggling, and turned back to face the smiling alicorn. “Not funny, Twi.”

“Oh, I assure you, it was very funny,” Twilight shot back.

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow allowed the pair to lapse into a comfortable silence, each of them staring up at the canopy of Golden oaks library. With the sun shining through them, the leaves seemed to glow an iridescent green, casting jade-tinged shadows down on them.

But it wasn’t long before Rainbow grew restless again.

“Alright,” she started, sitting herself upright. “I should get out of your mane. I’ve gotta stop by the weather office and make sure there aren’t any problems.”

“Arreephy?” Twilight asked, scowling as the wing in her mouth muffled her question. “Already?” She repeated once the obstruction was removed.

“Twi, it’s been, like, almost three hours,” Rainbow said, nodding her head towards the clock tower.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she noticed the time. “It’s almost five! I have to make sure the returns are sorted and close up the library and get dinner started and-” she was cut off by the rough and scratchy laugh of her friend.

“I’ll let you get to it,” Rainbow said, spreading her wings to take off. “I’ll catch ya later, Twi.”

Finding her eyes drawn once more to the pegasus’s impressive wings, Twilight felt something strange bubble up in her chest. “Rainbow!” She called, suddenly, unsure why she’d done it at all.

Rainbow Dash glanced back at her, an eyebrow raised. “Yeah?”

“Um…” Twilight chewed her lip nervously, desperately trying to figure out why she’d called out. She felt strange, like she wasn’t quite ready for Rainbow to leave. But she had no reason for her to stay, either. Instead, swallowing thickly, Twilight just asked, “Will you be back for reading night this Friday?”

“Huh? Of course,” Rainbow said. “Haven’t missed one yet, have I?”

Nodding, only partially to her friend, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the rumbling inside her settle. “See you then,” she said.

With that, Rainbow kicked off the ground and soared into the distant horizon. Twilight watched her go, a pensive frown stretching across her lips. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt the need to gather a few extra pillows for their reading night. And to make sure her wings were as spotlessly-impressive as Rainbow’s were.

“Blech!” Twilight spat out a few more feathers as she made her way inside.

Author's Note

Written because the mental image of Twilight chewing on her wings is just too adorable and I decided to turn it into an entire fic. Comments below, yeah?

Also happy birthday, Celysus! Hope you don't mind this taking a little while to finish.

Chapter Two; Apple Fever

There were many commonplace sounds that called Golden Oaks library home. Pages being turned was, perhaps, the most frequent and innocuous. It was a library, after all. Second to that and almost as common was a quill scratching ink onto parchment. It was the sound of study, meticulous and purposeful. It was such a constant, in fact, that it seemed to have soaked into the walls, having been absorbed into the very fabric of the building. So it was only natural that its absence left behind an eerie, disquieting silence.

Silent, save for the continual sighs that grew more exasperated as minutes ticked by and turned to hours.

Nostrils flaring as another heavy breath escaped her, Twilight glared down at the open book before her. Its words, unread, seemed to taunt her with the knowledge she sought. It was all right there, if only she could just focus. But despite her efforts, she found her mind wandering, eyes unfocused from their assigned task. She wondered how her flowers were fairing in the summer heat. Did they need more water? Was the tree that made up her home providing adequate shade? Maybe too much shade?

She sighed again, pushing the thoughts away. Worrying over it endlessly wasn’t going to help. Earth pony magic didn’t exactly come with an instruction manual, and beyond something inside her telling her to just grow something, it wasn’t much more specific than that. She’d just have to trust in the books she’d read on the subject to get her most of the way there.

Her wing was in her mouth. She didn’t have to look - she could taste the feather shampoo Dash had given her. Instead of removing it, however, she just rolled her eyes, nibbling gently on her own feathers, rolling them between her teeth. It wasn’t like there was anyone around to catch her, and it did feel nice in a weird way. Like scratching an itch. Maybe it would help her focus.

That idea lasted all of five minutes, whereupon once again Twilight found herself staring out the window at the leaves of her tree home instead of the words on the page.

She sighed. Again.

“Are you going to sit there sighing all day?” Spike asked, voice dripping in irritation, his eyes staring at her flatly overtop of his comic book as he lay reclined on the couch.

Twilight smiled bashfully as she turned to him. “Sorry, Spike. I’m just having a hard time focusing.”

“You’re telling me,” he deadpanned. “I’ve only brought you one book, and you still aren’t finished with it.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me!” Twilight cried, throwing up her hooves. “Princess Celestia herself recommended this book to me, and for good reason. It’s positively fascinating. Or at least, I think it is. I wouldn’t know, because I can’t get past the first chapter!”

Spike turned his page. “Maybe you should take a break? Read something else?”

“Like what?” Twilight groaned, letting her head sink down to lay on the desk. “I don’t think I even want to read anything. Me - I don’t want to read. It’s like I’ve lost my mind!”

“Pretty sure you're just bored, Twilight.”

“Bored?” Twilight echoed, face scrunching in disgust. “I’ve never been bored of reading before.”

“The horror,” Spike grumbled.

Brow knitting, Twilight resolutely turned her attention back to the open book, bound and determined to at least finish the first chapter. She stared intently at the words, daring them to grow out of focus again. With Celestia as her witness she was going to get some studying done today. No matter how hard it was to ignore her wings ruffling anxiously, or her hooves tapping rhythmically against the floor. The beat sounded familiar, actually. Was it a song? If it was, she couldn't place it. Maybe-

“I’m going for a walk!” Twilight declared, her book snapping shut with a spark of magic as she stood from her chair.

Spike waved a claw at her as she marched to the door. “Have fun.” He watched her go with one eye, making sure the door had firmly shut behind her before tossing his comic book aside. He dug his claw into the crack between couch cushions, extracting another comic that was a little more violent than she’d approve of.

Immediately taking a breath as soon as she stepped outside, Twilight tilted her head back and took a moment to bask in the sun. It felt as though the warmth was burning away her tension, fresh air driving away any and all frustrations. The summer heat was still present, though tempered by a smattering of cloud cover and the faintest breeze that blew away the worst of the humidity and made it much more bearable than yesterday had been. As such, she was far from the only one out to enjoy the weather, and the street in front of the library was relatively busy, with ponies walking this way and that. A few stopped to exchange greetings with their local princess.

Before she joined them, she first circled around to the back of her tree home, her lips pressed into a pensive frown as she inspected her garden. The little shoots hadn’t changed since she’d tended them that morning, but she still felt a vague sense of unease. There was a queasiness in her stomach that she just couldn’t shake every time she looked at them, no matter how much she assured herself that she’d followed her book’s instructions perfectly. For not the first time she debated asking for some advice from any of the much-more knowledgeable farmers in town, but she didn’t even know where to begin. There was, as far as she could see, nothing wrong, and walking around asking for advice because ‘I feel like something’s wrong’ wouldn’t do any good. Instead, she made sure the soil was still damp, and pushed those feelings aside. There wasn’t much more she could do for now but wait and see how they grew.

Picking a direction at random, Twilight started off on her walk. With no destination in mind, and no schedule to stick to, her pace was at best a meandering trot. In the back of her mind she worried over how this impromptu break would affect her checklist for the day, but did her best to ignore it. There was nothing important until tomorrow anyway, so what was the harm in postponing a few things?

Potentially catastrophic, a part of her insisted, but she'd learned that part of her was wrong a statistically-significant amount of the time. Almost a hundred percent, in fact. Still, she took its input and filed it away under 'advisory', just in case. She would need a plan should the worst happen.

Suddenly, Twilight glared down at her wing, mere inches from her mouth, and watched as it slunk back against her side. All it took was a single moment of distraction and the dumb things tried to get her to chew them. Thankfully, no one else seemed to notice her near-miss, but she still found her pace picking up slightly. Partially to try and stay occupied by her hooves, partly to find somewhere a little less populated if she wasn’t able to catch it the next time. The last thing she needed was some upstart wannabe ‘journalist’ snapping a photo of her and selling it to one of the gossip rags Rarity raved about.

She wondered how pegasi dealt with the finicky things. Did they not feel the constant need to chew them anymore? Or were they just more used to it than she was? And for that matter, she was starting to feel like that wasn’t the only instinct she’d gotten from her new pegasus magic. Judging by how good the breeze felt on her feathers, how nice the open air felt in her lungs compared to that of the library, she would put good odds on her inability to focus being caused by a desire to be outside. It made sense; pegasus architecture was famously open, with a focus on airflow. In a way, their buildings were designed to make the inside feel like the outside.

The hypothesis was also supported by Rainbow Dash’s seeming refusal to nap anywhere but outside. Even Fluttershy spent a majority of her time outside with her animals. Was this going to become a regular thing? Sure, it was fine right now - the weather was nice, and if she’d thought to take her book (something she was already kicking herself for forgetting) there would be nothing stopping her from hunkering down on a bench and getting some reading done. But when winter came?

Twilight didn’t notice the passers-by growing more sparse as she wandered beyond the town proper and into the farms and fields that covered the hills around Ponyville. She did, however, notice the wing between her teeth.

“For the love of Celestia!” Twilight cried, a few purple feathers falling from her lips. “Would you stop!?”

Cringing inwardly as she remembered where she was, she looked around, ready to see more than a few sets of eyes on her. Instead, she realized she wasn’t where she thought she was, as the only witnesses to her outburst - and her wing chewing - were trees. The relief lasted only a moment, as her attention quickly changed back to the feathered nuisances attached to her back. “How does Rainbow Dash deal with you?”

She recognized that she was currently yelling at her own limb, but found it to be a satisfying outlet for her mounting frustration. And she was alone, anyway. “I use the special shampoo, I make sure you’re dry before bed, I make extra sure not to lay on you, and you’re still driving me nuts!”

Her wing didn’t respond.

“Honestly,” she huffed, ruffling her feathers as she firmly folded it back against her side. “Are you even worth it?”

Sure, flying sounded nice, in theory, but it wasn’t the be-all-end-all that certain pegasi made it out to be. And she had a hot air balloon, anyway, and magic! Who needed to fly when you could teleport? Not that she could even get off the ground yet, she was forced to acknowledge. Still, the more she thought about it the more she wondered how much she was actually getting out of this deal. It was starting to feel like she got the short end of the stick here.

Her wings seemed to disagree, as she felt the breeze in her pinions and looked back to find them fully spread out behind her. She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t deny that it did feel pretty nice. Humming happily, she continued forward with her wings spread, enjoying the way the air flowed over them and between the veins of her feathers. She gave a little flap, and felt a small, satisfying tingle run up her spine. Spurring her to do it again, to move a little faster, to really feel the wind beneath her wings.

She was running forward before she knew it, an involuntary giggle slipping out between her lips, carried on her breath as she breathed harder. Heart beginning to race. Her wings spread wide, stretching out to feel as much as she could. Okay, if this was what flying felt like, maybe they were worth it after all.

Twilight’s hooves slammed into the ground, and she jumped, wings flapping hard to boost her as high as she could go - and she went high. Higher than she expected. Not quite reaching the tops of the trees, but enough that she’d have hit a branch if she wasn’t on the path.

“Glide!” Rainbow’s voice called in her mind, and she did - snapping into the position drilled into her the day before, Twilight glid along the air, extending her jump beyond anything possible before her ascension. By time her hooves touched the ground she was full-blown laughing, a smile stretched from ear to ear across her muzzle. She tilted her head down and broke into a sprint, as fast as she could. Her wings cut through the wind almost effortlessly - though she could feel a few points of drag, a couple patches of rough, turbulent air, and something in the back of her mind told her she’d need to learn to preen herself. But for now, it didn’t matter. For now, she was content with just this facsimile of flight.

Again, she jumped - higher, this time, and she could have sworn she felt magic in her legs, strengthening her muscles. Earth pony magic, maybe? She didn’t have time to think about it - she was almost above the leafy canopy. Another flap, harder than before. She was still going higher. Almost. One more burst of height, and… no, not quite. Her muscles were burning again, and she knew she was approaching her limit for now. Her momentum stopped, then reversed as she fell back down, though this time instead of gliding she took the dive position. Watched as the ground rushed at her. Heart pounding in her chest as she braced herself, hooves outstretched to catch her - and there it was again. That fuzzy warmth in her legs, the tell-tale sign of magic. Reinforcing her tendons and bones.

Dirt and dust was blown up around her as she landed, and Twilight was surprised to barely feel any strain at all. In fact, she felt lighter than normal. She bounced on the spot a few times, raised up onto the tips of her hooves. She’d never felt so strong before! Another laugh flowed out of her, and she bounced from side-to-sighed as though she was on the moon. Giggling and flapping her wings and-

“Ahem.”

Twilight froze as though she’d been dunked in a bucket of liquid nitrogen. Not unlike a glacier she turned her head to the side, her eyes meeting with those of an orange mare, and she felt herself shatter. Her gaze trailed up, and she realized that the trees around her were not just any trees, but in fact contained bright red fruits, ripe for harvest.

Clearing her throat, Twilight straightened herself out, tucking her wings back against her side as she turned to face her audience properly. She stood a little taller, back straight as a board. “Applejack,” she greeted, tone flattened out into a professional cadance. “What will it take for you to forget you saw that?”

The corner of Applejack’s mouth twitched upwards. “Tax exempt status for the farm,” she said, her voice carrying no hint of sarcasm or humour.

Twilight nodded. “It’s been around since the founding of Ponyville. We could probably have it declared a place of historical significance. You’d also have access to government funds for repairs, provided you only bring it back to its original state.”

“Hah! This old place? Naw, ain’t worth the paperwork.” Applejack reached up to adjust her stetson, leaning against a tree. “Ah suppose I could keep this here incident between the two of us. If’n that’s what you’d like.”

“Very much so, yes,” Twilight said, as her smile came back to her slowly.

Applejack just smiled and nodded. “Just as well. Don’t think anyone would believe me anyway.”

Humming to herself thoughtfully, Twilight forced the smile off her face. “If I remember correctly, there’s a law against slandering royalty. I could have you thrown in jail if you ever made up such lies about me. Hypothetically, of course.”

“Noted,” Applejack chuckled. “What brings her highness out to these parts, anyway? Aside from skippin' about like a school filly. We’re a decent walk from any books.”

“Just out for a walk," Twilight answered sharply, fighting down an embarrassed blush before it could manifest.

“Uh-huh, I can see that. Well why don’t you take your walk over this way and come have something to drink at the house? Granny and ‘Bloom are prepping the cider equipment, I’m sure they’d be keen on prepping some lemonade.”

Twilight raised her eyebrow as she fell in line next to the farmer. “Is it almost that time already?”

“Just about. We work them tools hard, so it’s our responsibility to maintain ‘em just as well. Plus cleanin’ out enough barrels for it all. Pretty sure Granny caught RD licking a few from last year, so also gotta deal with that,” Applejack said as she walked, leading the pair through the field of trees with no path in sight and any landmarks obscured by the canopy above.

Twilight was reminded vaguely of a homing pigeon. “You’re kidding.”

“Wish I was,” Applejack said shortly. “Dang critter can’t control herself around the stuff. There’ll be hell to pay if she ever sneaks a cup, but she knows better. Granny can sleep with her eyes open.”

Shuddering at the mental image, Twilight shelved that particular factoid in a deep, dark corner of her mind, hopefully never to be remembered - or needed - except in her nightmares. “Well, you won’t see me slobbering over some old barrel, but a regular drink sounds wonderful.”

“Ah thought as much.” She squinted up through the leaves above, gauging either the time or their direction.

They fell into a comfortable silence, the ruffeling of the treetops setting such a calm atmosphere that it seemed almost rude to break it. Twilight felt surprisingly at ease in the orchard, and with how constant it had become she noticed the lack of her wing between her teeth. In fact, looking over her shoulder, her wings seemed quite content to lay flat against her sides. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she silently thanked them for behaving themselves.

“Oh, by the way, how’s your little flower project coming along?”

Twilight jerked her head back around to look at her friend. “Huh?”

“Ah, sorry, was it supposed to be a secret?” Applejack asked, her apologetic tone sincere.

“N-no, not really, it’s just… I don’t remember mentioning it, is all,” Twilight explained awkwardly.

Applejack shrugged. “Ya didn’t. Not to me, at least. Roseluck, Lily and me were shooting the breeze in the market the other day, and they mentioned you came ‘round asking for some ‘beginner friendly’ flowers, as they put it.”

“I see,” Twilight said. She should have known the infamously-gossipy flower sellers would have word spread through the entire town by sundown that day. “Yes, I started a small garden at the library - nothing fancy.”

“I’ll admit, I never pegged you for the gardening type.”

Sighing, Twilight hung her head slightly. “I’m not, really. Celestia suggested I try it after I wrote to her regarding some weird cravings I was having.”

“Cravin’s?” Applejack echoed. “Ya mean, like, Pinkie Pie and cake kinda cravings?”

Twilight giggled quietly. “Not quite. Apparently the earth pony magic I got when I became an alicorn really wants me to grow something.”

"Oh?" Applejack leaned in slightly. "What's this about our magic now?"

"I don't know how else to describe it," Twilight muttered, mostly to herself. "It's just, like, my body needs to grow something. I was getting really fidgety and uncomfortable before I got the flowers."

“Huh, well I’ll be darned, yer getting hit with Apple Fever, ain’t ya?”

Looking over at the other mare with a raised eyebrow, Twilight asked, “Apple Fever?”

Applejack nodded her head once. “Yep. Sounds like it, anyway.” She chuckled under her breath. “I didn’t consider that ya got more than just the fancy wings when that whole kerfuffle went down.”

“What’s Apple Fever?” Twilight asked, more pointedly this time.

“Right, right, sorry. Apple Fever is… well, it’s what yer feelin’,'' Applejack said, somewhat lamely. “That strong desire to grow somethin’ else ya feel like you’ll lose yer mind. ‘Course, Apple Fever is just what we Apples call it, but pretty well all of us earth folk go through it when we’re young. The Carrots call it Carrot Rush, the Pears, Pear Panic, and so on. There’s probably some fancy science word for it them scholarly types thought up, too.”

Twilight blinked in surprise. She’d known it was coming from her new earth pony side, but she didn’t know it manifested in such an acute form for others. “So… you all go through this?”

“Pretty well. Some of us multiple times. Heck, my brother, born workhorse that he is, caught the Fever three times. Myself included, o' course - speaking of…” Applejack trailed off, and steered them off into a slightly different direction, weaving through a few trees before stopping in front of a seemingly-random patch. “This here’s my little neck of the woods from when I felt the Fever.”

Looking over the dozen or so trees she’d gestured at, Twilight was taken aback. “You… grew all of these yourself?”

“Hah! I wish,” Applejack laughed. “Nah, not all by myself. But ah did seed ‘em all and raise ‘em into saplings by my lonesome. After my Fever ended the rest of the family helped take care of them like the rest. But that first burst of growth? Why, I still remember the first leaves on each of ‘em!”

“That’s… amazing,” Twilight admitted, thinking back to the stress she was under with just the small batch of flowers she was trying to wrangle.

Applejack tilted her hat down to cover her face. “Aw, it ain’t nothin’.”

“Certainly more than I could do. Lily sold me Zinnias and Coneflowers - she said they were the easiest to grow in our climate - and I still feel like I’m failing at it.”

Popping out from her cover, Applejack tilted her head. “What makes ya say that?”

“I don’t know!” Twilight grunted loudly. “They look like they’re growing fine. I’m probably just worrying over nothing, like usual.”

Applejack reached over and put a hoof on the alicorn’s shoulder. “Well hold on a sec there. I don’t really know how this whole magic thing works, but from what you’re telling me it sounds like you got a little earth pony in ya now, right?”

Deciding it best not to try and correct the statement, Twilight nodded silently.

“Well, from one earth pony to another, ya gotta trust your instincts. If yer gut is tellin’ ya there’s somethin’ wrong, there’s probably somethin’ wrong. Just ‘cause you can’t see it doesn’t mean the problem ain’t there.”

Twilight found herself thinking back to her flight lesson. “You know, Rainbow Dash said something similar.”

“That bird brain? Maybe I’m losin’ my touch if I sound like her,” Applejack said, blanching at the suggestion. “Point is, you should probably take some time and listen to what them flowers are tellin’ ya.”

“AJ, flowers don’t talk,” Twilight deadpanned.

Applejack just rolled her eyes. “I ain’t speakin’ literally. Just… here.” She pointed at a seemingly random tree. “Go on over to this fella here and listen to what he’s sayin’.”

Looking between the tree that had been pointed out and the orange mare watching her expectantly, Twilight frowned. “AJ, trees also don’t talk.”

“Just go touch the dang thing!”

Skeptically, Twilight approached the tree, glancing back at Applejack once and receiving and encouraging nod, and she reached out a hoof. Feeling its rough and sturdy back, she closed her eyes. She felt… nothing. And she opened her mouth to say as much, when she realized that actually, she did feel something.

She felt the same calm, lazy atmosphere she’d felt since she entered the orchard. Just stronger, and more identifiably coming from the tree itself rather than the environment as a whole. It seemed to radiate out along her hoof and through her body, calming her nerves and slowing her thoughts.

“It’s fine,” the feeling said without words. “Everything’s okay.”

“I’m happy.”

Twilight recoiled from the tree like she’d been shocked. Staring wide-eyed up into its branches.

“Well?”

“It… what?” Twilight shook herself, holding a hoof to her head. “I... I heard it. It spoke. Applejack, a tree spoke! That’s… that’s not possible! I-I have to report this. I need to tell someone! Applejack the tree spoke! It... it might be sentient. Sapient, even! We have to-”

“Whoa there, hold on a second!” Applejack called, wrapping a hoof around Twilight’s neck and directing her vision back at the plant in question. “It’s just a tree, Twilight. You’re right - trees can't talk. What ya heard was yer gut - or, well, I guess you would say it was your new earth pony magic, or what have you.”

Twilight blinked. “What?”

“I don’t know how to explain it in the sciencey terms you like, but that’s what it is - it’s yer gut. Your earth pony gut. You felt how the tree was feelin’. So, how did it feel?”

Taking a moment to digest this new information, Twilight looked down at her hoof, half expecting to see some kind of literal green-hoof to symbolize this new ability. “It… It’s happy, and healthy. And… kind of slow and calm?”

“Heh, yeah, trees are like that. And we take good care of our boys, so it had better be nice and healthy.”

Twilight stared at the tree’s canopy hard. “I think I need to go lay down.”

"Alright now, take it easy," Applejack said gently, stepping up the tree. In a flash she pivoted on her front hooves while one of her hind legs shot out. With a solid thwack she kicked the tree, catching the singular apple that fell in her outstretched hoof. She offered it to Twilight, who accepted the offer graciously.

"How do you do that, anyway?" Twilight asked, biting into the crisp fruit.

Applejack chuckled mysteriously. "We Apples don't reveal our secrets so easily, ya know."

"And here I thought I was officially family?" Twilight shot back with a smirk around a mouthful of apple.

Thinking on it for a moment, Applejack conceded. "Fair enough. Ain't really nothin' to it. Just gotta listen to what the tree's tellin' ya, and put the right amount of oomph into it."

Twilight assumed 'oomph' in this instance referred to earth pony magic. Which she'd only just started to feel at all. "I think you're making it sound easier than it is."

"Why don't ya give it a try?" Applejack asked, motioning to the tree again.

"A-are you sure? What if I hurt it?"

Applejack laughed roughly. "Trust me, Twilight, ya ain't gonna do any harm. Just give it a go."

Chewing her lip, Twilight stepped up to the trunk again. "Okay, if you're sure." She reached out and laid her hoof on the bark, focusing on the feeling from before. It was the same, only a vague feeling of calm contentedness, and she wasn't sure how that was supposed to communicate how much magic to put into her kick.

Twilight's brow knit as she struggled to extract any other information from the feeling, but came up empty. Annoyed, she stepped back and turned, planting herself firmly on the ground and lining up her kick before-

Thump.

“Ah!”

Her hind hooves connected with the tree, and she yelped as the reverberations traveled back up her legs and through her body, right to the tip of her horn. She lurched forward from the shock, knees buckling.

"Twilight! Are you alright?"

Shivering as small aftershocks ran through her bones, Twilight nodded as she stood up shakily. "Y-yeah, I'm fine." She frowned as she looked back - not a single apple had fallen from the tree. Which didn't surprise her, since she hadn't felt any magic in her buck at all.

"Don't sweat it, sugarcube. You'll get the hang of it," Applejack said gently, picking up on the alicorn's dismay.

"I thought I did…" Twilight trailed off as she looked down at her hooves. She knew she'd felt it before. If only she could figure out what had triggered it and bring it back.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by Applejack playfully bumping their shoulders together. "Come on back to the house and have a cider with me."

Twilight’s soured mood evaporated quickly at such a prospect. "Alright."

"And hey, if'n ya wanna practice, you're always welcome to help out on the farm."

Twilight smiled. "I think I'd like that. Thank you."

The sun was starting to set by the time Twilight finally started down the path back to Ponyville. One bottle of cider had turned into two, which in turn had become dinner and then dessert, and there was no chance of moving more than a few steps for at least an hour after an Apple Family meal. So it was with a full stomach - and a heavy gut - that she found herself trudging along, waving back at the gathered Apples on their front porch.

"Don't be a stranger, now!" Applejack yelled. "And good luck with them flowers!"

"Thank you!" Twilight shouted back, immediately regretting it as she held a hoof over her mouth before her dinner could come back up.

Turning forward, she grimaced slightly as she beheld the long, winding path home. With no better option than to keep moving and hope the exercise helped her digestion she pushed forward. Her wings were, seemingly, content to rest against her back, and in fact had remained that way through her entire visit. She wondered if that meant something, but was far too full and sleepy to think on it much.

Instead her mind turned forward - while today had been nice, she had an entirely un-checked checklist to contend with, all of which would need to be rescheduled. And tomorrow was also her reading night with Rainbow Dash, which further limited her time.

On top of the usual prep work such events took - making sure there were adequate snacks and drinks for them both being paramount - she also knew she needed to see about fixing her wings. She wasn't quite sure why, exactly, but the idea of Rainbow seeing her with her wings in any state except perfect made her anxiety spike like an upcoming test.

Probably some pegasus instinct, she reasoned. Likely a social thing. Was group preening a thing in pegasus culture? Some birds displayed such behaviors, but she'd never read about it being a pegasus thing.

Though she did like the idea of having Rainbow help her preen. She'd never done it before to begin with. Having someone so skilled at it would be a huge help. After all, Rainbow's wings were the absolute image of perfection. The perfect wings on the perfect pony to nest with for the winter.

Had Twilight not been borderline-comatose from her meal, she may have examined that particular thought a little closer. As it was, it escaped her grasp as she belched in a distinctly non-royal way. She blushed and glanced around, waiting for a group of paparazzi to spring out and catch the moment on film.

When that didn't happen, she breathed a sigh of relief, and continued on her way. Feeling a little lighter as thoughts of her upcoming reading night, and the pony she would share it with, lured her forward.

Author's Note

We interrupt your Twidash to bring you this very important Applejack chapter. Brought to you by apples: Apples! Go buy 'em!

Anyway, Apple horse is not one I write often, so you'll have to let me know how I did. Also more lore, because it's fun.

Chapter Three; On Dirty Feathers

It was, perhaps, foolish of Twilight to think that a single afternoon with Applejack would suddenly make her an expert on all things earth pony magic. And really, she hadn’t expected to be an expert. No, all she’d expected - all she’d even hoped for - was some small amount of insight. Just a little nudge in the right direction. A clue to follow, or a lead to tug on. Instead, her impromptu magic lesson had only made her more aimlessly worried about her garden. It had become evident that the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach was more than just her usual anxieties. And that just made her more desperate to find a cause. Unfortunately, the little green sprouts seemed unwilling or unable to give her a straight answer.

Her scowl deepening, Twilight reached out a hoof and gently touched the small leaf on one such seedling. The feeling she got from it was far more subtle than the one from Applejack’s tree - perhaps because the plant was smaller, or younger, or any other of a thousand reasons - and it was hard to focus on. One thing she could tell was that the flower was far more active than a tree; its thoughts, if she could even call them that, were much faster and more active, bouncing from sensation to sensation. Through the connection Twilight could feel the singular leaf basking in the sun - a different kind of warmth from how she felt it on her coat - and felt the stretch in her own tendons as the flower reached up towards the light.

She could also feel a slight tension in her back, and closer inspection revealed the beginning of a new leaf sprouting from the stem. It seemed the sensations she felt were somehow translated from the plant’s form onto hers. Which made the slight roiling she felt in her stomach all the more confusing. Plants didn’t even have a stomach, or anything analogous to it. Well, these plants didn't, at least. It would have been obvious if she was dealing with a pitcher plant. Then the stomach ache she was getting would make some kind of sense.

In fact, it almost reminded her of heartburn. Which given the flower’s lack of esophagus was an even more utterly nonsensical proposition. Perhaps it was attempting to communicate something was wrong in either the xylem of the phloem, responsible for the distribution of nutrients and water. Some kind of infection, maybe? Fungal? But there were no outward signs to help narrow down the culprits and find a treatment.

If Twilight’s brow knit any more she’d have a sweater on her forehead.

A book was summoned from a stack that stood as tall as she did. Its pages rifled through at a speed that would make Rainbow Dash blush. Pictures and diagrams of all manner of flower, fruit, and vegetable whizzed past Twilight's studious gaze. The breakneck-pace halted as soon as she spied the chapter she was looking for, entitled Identifying Infections and Infestations. These pages were flicked through at a much more restrained pace, her eyes trailing over the depictions of various fungi and insects that might do harm to a plant. She worked through the chapter like a checklist, identifying a possible cause, and checking for the signs on her budding flowers before moving to the next.

By the time she finished the chapter, Twilight's glare had become lethal.

"Augh! This is useless!" She shouted as the book was snapped shut and cast back to where it came from. "There's nothing wrong!"

She touched a different flower, daring it to return the same feedback as the first.

The plant was not intimidated by her.

Catching her teeth grinding together, Twilight forced herself to relax her jaw and take a few calming breaths. In, and out, letting her anger fade. In, and out, shaking out her tension. In, and out, and she opened her eyes to look at her garden.

Her eye twitched as her stomach twisted.

"Just tell me what's wrong with you!" She shouted, crouching down and getting eye-level with the tops of the shoots. "Is it the fertilizer? I made sure it was the right balance of nitrogen and phosphorus for your species. The climate is perfect for you - I triple checked - and you have the exact recommended amount of water every day."

The flowers-to-be swayed in a gentle breeze.

Twilight let herself fall back onto her haunches, her hooves coming up and running through her mane almost manically as her body sought to vent her frustration. "I don't understand! What is this feeling? Why are you so… so…" she trailed off. What was the word? It was there just a moment ago, sitting on the tip of her tongue, and now she couldn't remember and she wanted so desperately to spit it out but she couldn't and it all just made her anger worse.

"Stupid!" She shouted finally. Her forehooves came down and stomped into the ground, and too late she felt a surge of unintentional magic run through them. A cloud of dirt and grass was blown up around her, stinging her eyes and causing her to cough. In the haze of debris the light of her horn shone through and an artificial gust of wind cleared the air, allowing her to take a clear breath.

Looking down, Twilight's eyes widened as she saw the twin craters her hooves were sitting in. Each had a diameter twice as wide as her hoof, and were deep enough to make her slouch forward. Her mind buzzed with equations, calculating the force required, and the numbers she was coming up with shouldn't have been possible. Her hooves were relatively light, with not much mass behind them, had the magic translated to velocity? But she hadn't felt like she'd been moving that fast - and there hadn't been a sonic boom, which meant she stayed below the speed of sound. That shouldn't have been possible unless her hooves weighed several tonnes at the moment of impact.

Hesitantly she lifted them, one at a time, and shook them gently. They didn't feel like they were as massive as several large elephants.

"Earth pony magic is weird," she summarized to herself, stepping out of the crater and sighing as she examined the damage. "Great, one more thing I have to fix."

She also inspected herself - once lavender fur now coated in a layer of soil that turned her a purplish brown. Her eyes refused to look back at her wings. Already she could feel the clumps of dirt between her feathers.

"And now I need a shower," she grumbled, shooting a withering glare at her flowers to let them know this was entirely their fault.

The flowers did not wither.

Dusting herself off with her hooves the best she could, Twilight turned to make her way inside, and froze. Her books, stacked down-wind of her, had been plastered with a thin but solid film of dirt and grass on the side facing her. Following this realization, a screech of; "my books!" was heard all across Ponyville and the surrounding area.

Far away on the edge of town, a snoring cyan pegasus shot upright, her bleary eyes glancing around confusedly until they narrowed on the clocktower.

“Well I’m up now,” she growled, stretching languidly. “Guess I could check on the cloud report before I have to head to Castle Egghead.”

Back at the library several things had been put in motion. Each and every book that had been affected was lifted in a magic glow and very, very gently shaken out. The largest chunks of dirt and grass fell away, but smaller particles remained stubbornly stuck to the pages. A conga line of dirty books followed Twilight inside, pausing only a moment as she wiped her hooves on the entrance mat.

"Spike!" She yelled, already gathering several brushes and feather dusters. "Clear my desk, it's an emergency!"

The dragon in question appeared from around a corner, arms stacked with books, inkwells and quills. "Yeah, I heard. Desk is cleared and dusted, all books, papers and otherwise have been removed from the immediate area." He paused, looked at the dirt-stained alicorn that frantically marched past him, and decided not to ask.

"Thank you!" She called almost as an afterthought, finding her desk in the exact state she needed it. A single book was laid down gently on its spine, the rest remained floating around her. If she set them down carelessly the dirt would be pressed into the pages. Instead, her magic gently held them up by their spines while she worked on the first.

A wide painter's brush was brought forward, its soft bristles brushing away the soil without harming the pages. Then a small brush to slip down between the pages where they were bound together. A final visual check was performed before the book was set aside - far enough from her workspace to be safe from any debris - and the next was brought down.

Each page of each book, one by one, was cleaned and checked and, if needed, cleaned again.

By the time she was half way done, a few beads of sweat had amassed on Twilight’s forehead. The magic required was small in amount, but the constant strain and precision needed to avoid harm was beginning to take its toll on her. Although the growing stack of perfectly clean books brought with it a sense of pride that pushed her on. Then another was laid before her, a few tufts of grass sticking out from its pages, and she grimaced. Her work continued at a slightly slower pace.

She wasn't sure how long it took, exactly, for the last cover of the last book to be snapped shut. Its pages spotless and its dust jacket free of dust, grime, and that stain that looked an awful lot like someone had been eating chips while reading it. She would have to have a word with Blossom Forth about that. But, at last, the job was done, and she gave a weary sigh as her aching horn dimmed and grew dark. Somewhere in the back of her mind a small spark of anger flared - anger at the flowers that had caused this mess in the first place.

The knowledge that it was her own inability to control herself acted as a bucket of water, thoroughly dousing the flame. She would need to ask Applejack about it.

Throwing her hooves over her head and leaning back in her chair, Twilight groaned quietly as she stretched, feeling her joints pop pleasantly. She gazed fondly at the results of her work, stacked neatly off to the side. Strictly speaking, not all of the tomes required such intimate care - several of them were newer volumes that the library housed multiple copies of, while others weren’t particularly hard to replace should the worst happen. A few were older and rarer, however, with one in particular hailing from an earth pony settlement before the unification of the tribes.

But, in Twilight’s mind, they each deserved the same level of care, and under her watch they would all receive just that as long as they resided in her library. Now, though, the time for book maintenance was over, and judging by the muddy streaks running along her forelegs - probably from wiping away sweat - it was well past time for some alicorn maintenance. Her eyes cast to the clock on the wall, and she winced. She had made great strides that morning in catching up on her lingering tasks from the past few days, but this recent venture had all but set her back to square one. What was supposed to be, at most, a half hour of research into her flower conundrum had instead become an hour of glaring at them and two hours of cleaning.

Rainbow Dash was due over any minute for their reading night - which, in true Rainbow Dash fashion, meant she probably had up to a half hour before the tardy speedster would show up. Usually a point of contention between the two, Twilight was, for once, grateful for it. She would at least have time to shower off and make herself somewhat presentable. The thought of Rainbow seeing her wings in their current state almost made her nauseous.

Turning towards her bathroom, Twilight made it all of three steps before pausing. Her head tilted, and she stepped back two paces.

A cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane was staring at her through a window.

Twilight looked at her. Then back to her own wings. Then at Rainbow Dash again.

Rainbow waved.

In a burst of magic the window was locked and the curtains were drawn.

“Hey!”

Twilight didn’t notice the affronted shout from outside over the sound of her thrumming heart. She checked the clock again. Not only was Rainbow on time, she was - in an act that seemingly defied the very fabric of her character - five minutes early. Why, of all the possible days both past and future, had she chosen today to develop a sense of timing? The odds of such a rare event occurring were so infinitesimally small that for it to happen with such an uncanny precision on the worst possible day was surely a statistical near-impossibility.

There was a tapping at the window.

“C’mon, Twi, lemme in already.”

She needed more time - time to finish cleaning up, and to shower, and to groom her wings so at least she didn’t look like she’d been rolling in her garden rather than studying it. How could she show herself before a pegasus whos feathers seemed to shimmer in the sunlight while her own were in such a state and-

And…

And why was she so worried about her wings, again? Sure, she didn’t exactly look great, but that was hardly a reason to have a full blown panic attack. Why was she so scared of being seen with messy wings? This wasn’t some kind of formal event, she wasn’t about to attend a meeting with the other Princesses. Rainbow Dash was a friend! And a close one. Looking a little haggard was fine. All she needed to do was invite Rainbow inside, explain the situation, and excuse herself for a few minutes to take a quick shower before their reading night. There was no need to-

“So, uh, do I wanna know why you were rolling around in the dirt?”

Twilight turned. Rainbow Dash was in her home - in her bedroom. Looking at her expectantly. Eyebrow raised. A slightly amused smirk on her muzzle. Wings so flawlessly preened Twilight swore she could see her own reflection in them. Could see the mud and sweat and dirt that clung to her coat. Her messy, frazzled mane. She looked at the shuttered window. “H-how-”

“You know you have a front door, right? Spike let me in,” Rainbow answered with a small snicker. “Seriously, Twi, what happened to you?”

Twilight had a traitor in her home. “Oh,” she said. The logical part of her mind was screaming at her to just use her mouth and talk normally. Like a normal pony who could talk normally. Instead, what she said was, “I got mad at my flowers,” as though that would somehow make her look less crazy.

Rainbow’s eyebrow managed to ascend even higher, until it ran the risk of lifting off her face entirely. “Uh-huh. So did you, like, get into a fight with them? And… lose?”

“I didn’t lose!” Twilight argued, before realizing her implicit admission that Rainbow’s accusation was correct. “A-and I didn’t fight them! I just… got a little worked up. And stomped my hoof. And… poof,” she said, gesturing about herself in a pantomime representation of a cloud of dirt.

“And… poof?” Rainbow echoed, mirroring Twilight’s motion.

“Poof.” Twilight confirmed with a resolute nod, relieved that her explanation had gotten through. She was just being silly, wasn’t she? There was no reason to get so worked up over how horrible her feathers looked caked with grime. So what if she was an absolute mess? What did it matter that Rainbow was seeing her wings so packed with dirt it looked like she’d been using them as shovels. It was fine! It was totally okay and not at all panic-inducing!

“Twilight, what are you-”

“Shower!” Twilight shouted, sprinting for the bathroom so fast Rainbow was left looking at a Twilight-Sparkle-shaped dust cloud.

“What?”

Hiding herself behind the bathroom door, Twilight relaxed slightly now that she was out of sight. “I-I’m just going to take a quick shower!” she called. “Um, th-there’s some snacks in the kitchen and lemonade in the fridge! Help yourself!”

The door slammed shut, and Rainbow found herself standing in Twilight’s bedroom, alone and confused. She took a moment to examine her surroundings, and upon spotting nothing out of the ordinary, shrugged. Twilight being Twilight was not a new experience for her, but this might have been one of the most Twilight-ing Twilight’s she’d ever seen. There was definitely something going on.

The shower sprang to life, and Rainbow thought better of interrupting to get any sensible answers. Instead, the word ‘snacks’ had lodged in her brain, and she allowed her stomach to guide her down to the kitchen.

Twilight’s forehead, meanwhile, was rhythmically thumping into the wall of the shower, her eyes staring down as murky brown water spiraled the drain.

“What is wrong with me?” Her stomach felt like a clown had gotten hold of it and turned it into a balloon dog. Her heart thundered in her chest. All because her wings were a bit messy, and Rainbow Dash saw her?

Her head hit the wall again and stuck there. "It has to be a pegasus instinct," she reasoned. "Some social impulse that makes me overly self-conscious about my wings." She looked back at the limbs in question, spread slightly to catch the water. "And it's not very helpful."

Her wings did not reply.

She held a hoof to her neck, feeling her pulse. "It has a strong physiological effect, whatever it is," she mumbled, her analytical mind beginning to kick into gear. "I didn't feel like this around Applejack. Maybe it's only pegasi that cause it?" Would Fluttershy trigger a similar reaction? Or an unknown pegasus? Would the effect be stronger if it was a first impression?

A basic test procedure was already being drawn up in her head, and it wasn't until Twilight tasted dirt in her mouth that she realized how far she'd let her mind wander.

"Bleck!" She spat out her wing - along with a mouthful of soil - and sighed, grabbing several bottles in her magic. She would have time to run her experiments later. For now, she had a guest that was known for an extreme lack of patience waiting, and probably gorging herself on the snacks that had been meant for both of them.

Seven minutes and thirty-two seconds later, a sparkling clean alicorn emerged from the bathroom. It would have been faster if she hadn't spent so much time cleaning between her feathers, but if it eased whatever was causing her anxiety about them then it was worth it.

Somewhat predictably, the bedroom was empty, her guest having vacated it in favor of greener pastures. Specifically, the green pasture of a plate full of snacks prepared earlier that day, and Twilight braced for the worst as she descended the stairs.

“No, look - they screwed up his mask, it keeps changing.”

“It’s supposed to change. It’s based on those ink-blot pictures where you have to describe what you see.”

Twilight came around the corner to see a plate that was, thankfully, only half empty. Rainbow Dash was leaning over the back of the couch, eyes transfixed on a comic held open by Spike.

“Wait, you mean those pictures that always just look like me flying, or me doing tricks, or me napping?” Rainbow asked, batting Spike’s claw away to stop him turning the page. “They kept showing them to me at school.”

“You always see yourself?” He asked, then paused as he held the book up for her to get a better look. “Nevermind, that makes sense.”

“He’s pretty cool for tracking down the killer like that.”

Spike shook his head. “Just wait till he finds them. He’s not really a good guy.”

“But… it's his story, right? He’s the main character?”

“Just because he’s the protagonist doesn’t make him the hero. He’s-”

Twilight cleared her throat loudly, and Spike nearly jumped out of his scales as he shoved the comic that he knew he wasn’t supposed to be reading between the couch cushions. “T-twilight! I-I was just, uhm…”

Rainbow waved a lazy hoof. “Heya, Twi,” she said, shooting a glance down at the panicked dragon. “I found this cool-looking comic on the shelf and asked Spike if he knew anything about it.”

“Oh really? You found it?”

“Yep.” Rainbow patted Spike’s shoulder. “Little dude was helping me out. So, hey, now are you gonna tell me why you were wrestling your flowers?”

Twilight’s train of thought wasn’t so much derailed as it was sent careening off a cliff. “I told you I didn’t fight them!”

“Right, right,” Rainbow said, nodding her head slowly as she circled around the couch - conveniently providing cover as Spike slipped the comic into a nearby stack of returns. “You were just rolling around in the dirt after getting ‘a little worked up’.” Her air quotes couldn’t have been missed by a blind pony.

“I was not!” Twilight gasped indignantly. “I told you what happened.”

“Oh, of course.” Rainbow made a not-at-all cloud-like gesture with her hooves. “Poof, right?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Yes,” she said, performing the correct gesture. “Poof.”

“Was that before or after you tackled the poor things?”

“I didn’t!”

“You know I’ve never seen Roseluck try that in her garden. Maybe I should suggest it?”

A low growl bubbled up in Twilight’s throat as her jaw clenched. “I said-”

“Pretzel?” Spike asked, holding up a bowl between the two mares. Both of them shrugged and took one, the tension in the air fading almost instantly.

Swallowing the salty snack, Twilight sighed. "There's something wrong with my flowers," she explained, much more calmly.

"Besides you fighting them?" Rainbow asked with a snicker, reaching back for another pretzel.

Twilight shot her a look, but thought better of taking the obvious bait. "I don't know what. Applejack taught me a little about using earth pony magic to feel how a plant is doing, but what I'm feeling from them doesn't make any sense. And they still look to be growing fine - maybe a little slowly, but that's it."

"Sounds annoying."

"Gee, thanks," Twilight muttered flatly.

Rainbow just shrugged at her. "What? Don't look at me - I don't do the plant thing. Most pegasi don't. Dirt and feathers don't exactly mix."

"I noticed."

“Speaking of, how are the wings going?” Rainbow asked, the corner of her mouth twitching upward. “Still chewing them?”

Twilight blushed slightly, finding her eyes trailing along the floor. “A-a bit, yeah. It’s more common when I’m frustrated or distracted. It, um, seems to help.”

“Maybe you should do it more - you’re a little, ah, uptight,” Rainbow pointed out, frowning as her hoof passed through the pretzel bowl that was no longer there. Spike glared at her from the couch, the half-empty bowl held protectively in his lap. She stuck her tongue out at him.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I have plenty of time to unwind, thank you very much.”

“Riiiiiiight, because body-slamming a flower is totally a sign of being relaxed.”

“I-”

“Glide!” Rainbow shouted suddenly, cutting off Twilight’s indignant protest before it could start. The alicorn yelped in surprise, but her wings snapped into position behind her.

“What was that for?” Twilight asked indignantly, though she held her pose as Rainbow stepped up to inspect.

“Still too high,” Rainbow said, tapping the wing that was always off-level. “I gotta make sure you’re ready when we do finally get you in the air. Also - it’s fun.”

A retort tickled the tip of Twilight’s tongue, but she was stopped as she tried to fold her wings by a pair of hooves grabbing the leading edge and holding it up for a more thorough inspection.

“Plus, I was curious about something, and it looks like I’m right.” Rainbow released the wing, stepping back to face Twilight properly. “You aren’t preening, are you?”

“Oh, no,” Twilight confirmed with a shake of her head. “I haven’t tried yet. I’m not really sure how to. There weren’t any books on it in the library. I ordered some from a shop in Cloudsdale but they haven’t arrived yet.”

A bark of laughter shook Rainbow’s chest. “Hah, of course, I shoulda’ known. You and your books.”

Twilight scowled at her. “Hey, it’s not like my parents taught me when I was young.” Her eyes lit up, suddenly, and her sour look quickly melted away. “Oh! That’s right - I was going to ask you to show me.”

“Show you?” Rainbow echoed warily.

“I thought, since I don’t know what I’m doing, and you take such good care of your wings…” Twilight trailed off, looking between Rainbow’s face and the aforementioned plumage. “Well, I was hoping you would teach me.”

"Oh." Rainbow took a nervous step back, rubbing at the back of her neck with a hoof. "I-I dunno Twi, that's kinda…" she trailed off, not quite sure how to phrase her objection. However, before she could settle on a word, she made the mistake of looking up. What she saw was Twilight Sparkle, recently-minted alicorn and newest Princess of Equestria, pouting.

"Please, Rainbow?" Twilight asked.

There was not a soul in Equestria who could resist the persuasive power of Twilight's puppy-dog eyes.

Rainbow wilted as she sighed. Whatever doubts she had in mind were nothing in the face of that. "Fine."

Instantly Twilight's weaponized pout evaporated, replaced by a giddy smile as she clapped her hooves excitedly. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you, Rainbow! I've been so stressed about my wings being messy and worried about doing something wrong and now I don't have to since your wings are always so clean and soft looking and… and pretty and…" she trailed off like a train running out of steam, the last few puffs of her enthusiasm bringing with them the dawning realization of what she'd just said. A blush raced across her face as she turned away and coughed awkwardly. "U-um, thank you," she mumbled.

Rainbow just blinked at her, still trying to process the explosion of words that had just washed over her. "Um, y-yeah, don't mention it," she said uncertainly.

There wasn't another sound except for the occasional scraping of a hoof against the floor, and even that seemed to be smothered by the oppressive silence. Neither mare could muster the strength to look at the other, nor could they help the matching scarlet hues on their cheeks.

"Awk~ward," Spike sang, elongating the word for emphasis.

Both ponies snapped their heads toward him "Spike!" They barked together.

The dragon shrugged. "What? It was."

"Augh!" Twilight grunted angrily, turning away and marching towards the stairs. "Come on, Rainbow. My room is more private."

The red glow coming from the pegasus's face could have lit up the dark side of the moon, but she followed along.

"And no ice cream!" Twilight called, shooting a glare over her shoulder as Spike froze mid-step towards the kitchen. "I'll be checking." With that, she flicked her tail and continued up the stairs, a somewhat meek-looking Rainbow Dash following in her wake.

Once they were upstairs - and out of earshot from a certain Nosey Nelly - Twilight's gait slowed, and she smiled awkwardly at her companion. "I'm sorry about that."

"Huh? Oh!" Rainbow laughed uneasily, waving a dismissive hoof. "Don't worry about it - it's just Spike."

"Not that," Twilight said, a darkness coming over her face for a moment. "I'll deal with him later. I meant, um, what I said. Making things weird like that," she clarified. "A-and trying to lock you out when you showed up."

"Oh."

"It's just…" Twilight sighed as she led them into her bedroom, closing the door behind Rainbow in purple haze. "I don't know what's wrong with me - well, I have a pretty good idea - but I've been really self-conscious about my wings around you. And really, really aware of how much better you are at taking care of yours compared to me," she explained, spreading a wing to show her obviously misaligned feathers. "I think it's another instinct I'm getting from my pegasus side, and it's driving me nuts."

Rainbow's eyes widened as she took in what her friend was saying. It made sense, of course - the wing chewing was an inherited instinct, so it followed that others would come with it. Plus it also explained the way she'd caught Twilight staring at her wings during their flight lesson. Somewhere in that Egghead's egghead was a pegasus version of herself telling the rest of her how awesome Rainbow's wings were.

And it was right, they were awesome.

But the nerd was being all flustered and nerdy about it, instead of just allowing herself to appreciate the glory that was Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow smirked. "Hey, Twi, relax," she said breezily, subtly fluffing up her feathers. "I get it - I'm a prime example of a pegasus, and you just didn't realize it until you became part pegasus too."

"Uh, what?"

"I mean, it's obvious, isn’t it?" Rainbow asked, strutting towards the alicorn and unfurling her wings, putting them on full display. "You're feeling a little, ah, bothered by my wings, right? A little hot under the collar, maybe?" She watched as Twilight's eyes seemed almost magnetically drawn to them, flicking back towards her face but always being pulled away before too long. "Don't be shy," she said, craning her neck forward so her mouth was right next to Twilight's ear as she whispered; "you can look all you want, but don't touch."

Twilight launched herself back, her rump quickly hitting the back wall as her face erupted in red, stuttered and stammered false starts pouring from her lips. "N-no! I-i-I d-didnt… I-I mean I'm not- i-i don't…"

And then Rainbow's mask broke, and she doubled over laughing, clutching her gut and falling onto her side. "Oh-oh my gosh, Twi! Twi your face! Y-you you need… you need a mirror! Oh Celestia!" She cried around peals of hysterical laughter that echoed around the room.

Still glowing with embarrassment, Twilight’s shock melted into a deadpan stare. “Are you proud of yourself?” she asked flatly.

Rainbow managed to look up at her for all of two seconds, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes, before once more losing control of her mirth. “Twi you’re redder than AJ’s brother!”

“Very well,” Twilight said, turning away and sticking her nose up - partially to hide her crimson cheeks. “I had planned on letting you pick the book tonight, since we finished the new Daring Do last week, but if this is how you’re going to be I’ll choose instead.”

As though she’d been prodded by a hot iron, Rainbow’s laughter abruptly ceased and she bolted upright, a look of abject horror on her face. “No, please! Don’t make me read another textbook!”

Twilight, fighting to keep the corner of her mouth from drifting upward, sniffed disdainfully. She peered down the end of her muzzle. “You owe me next pick, remember? I let us read those copies before their shelf date - I could get in trouble if the publisher found out.”

“I’m sorry!” Rainbow shouted, a sliver of desperation slipping into her voice. She remembered - vividly - the last time Twilight had picked their book as a way to get back at her for a prank. Rainbow Dash was not supposed to know words like ‘mitosis’ and ‘semi-permeable membrane’ - she was still trying to forget that the mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell.

“Oh don’t be dramatic,” Twilight chastised lightly. “We just got a new edition of the calculus textbook from Celestia’s School. I’ve been meaning to brush up. It’ll be fun.”

An icy fear gripped Rainbow's heart. “Wait, please, I’m sorry, okay? I’ll do it - I’ll teach you everything you wanna know about preening.”

Twilight gave her a sidelong glance. “You mean it?”

“Absolutely!” Rainbow confirmed with an enthusiastic nod. “By time I’m done your wings will be just as good as mine. Promise.”

Holding her disinterested posture for a few seconds more - enjoying the mixture of fear and pleading on Rainbow's face - Twilight gradually let it fall away. "Very well," she said, and her face split into a genuine smile. "Thank you, Rainbow - you have no idea how much this has been stressing me out."

"Heh, I do have some idea," Rainbow said, visibly relaxing now that the looming threat of learning something boring had passed. "You aren't the only one with a pegasus's instincts."

“Honestly, I don't know how you deal with it. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack when you showed up at my window."

"Well, that just sounds like regular old unicorn you," Rainbow said, smirking slightly at the glare she received. "But seriously - you'll get used to it. And until you do, taking proper care of your wings will probably help you feel better."

“Which is why you’re going to teach me how to preen myself, right?” Twilight asked hopefully.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I promised I would.” Rolling her eyes, Rainbow spread out one of her wings and held it up for Twilight to see. “There’s not much to it, all you really gotta do is make sure your feathers aren’t crooked or anything, pull out any damaged ones, and check that they’re laying flat.”

"Wait, wait!" Twilight cried urgently, and Rainbow snapped her wing back against her side.

"What?"

Instead of answering, Twilight all but dove over to her desk, which Rainbow only now noticed was covered in paint brushes as well as a fine layer of what looked like dust. A few drawers were ripped open in a lavender glow and several items floated out - namely, a quill, an inkwell, and a fresh stack of parchment.

"Okay," Twilight said, now fully equipped with all the necessary tools for note-taking. "Ready."

"Egghead," Rainbow muttered, cutting off Twilight's complaint by once more unfurling a wing. "Look, you just gotta start by fluffing them up-" she shook her wing to ruffle up all her feathers. "And you work from the bottom up."

Twilight's quill dutifully scribbled away, the alicorn's eyes never once leaving her instructor.

"And you just… kinda…" Rainbow trailed off as she took a random feather between her lips and made a show of running over it from base to tip, making sure it was straight before laying it neatly atop the ones below it. "Straighten them," she finished lamely as she released it.

"Hmmmmm…" Twilight's eyes narrowed on the wing displayed before her, and she glanced back at her own. "I wonder if that's how birds do it."

Rainbow's glare went ignored. "I wouldn't know. Pegasi aren't birds."

"No," Twilight acknowledged, leaning forward to get a better look. "But you are very bird-like in some respects. Your feather structure is remarkably similar."

Bristling as Twilight got a little too close to her wing, Rainbow shuffled back. "Hey, watch it."

"Could you show me again?" Twilight asked, entirely unphased as her quill scribbled away.

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow repeated the motion - this time taking two feathers at once. She raised her eyebrow as the pace of note-taking increased. “Twi it’s really not that complicated.”

“Says the mare who’s had them since she was born,” Twilight pointed out, pausing to re-ink her quill. “Some of us only figured out how to move our wings as an adult.”

Forced to concede the point, Rainbow sighed and continued preening herself - making a show of slowing her movements for the Egghead to absorb as much information as she could. It was hard to slip into the unfamiliar rhythm, nevermind trying to ignore the fact she had an audience. And that constantly scratching quill. It was starting to grate on her nerves in the otherwise-silent room. Repetitive and just loud enough to be unignorable, Rainbow had made it just barely through half her wing before it was akin to someone scratching a chalkboard in her head.

What was she even writing, anyway!?

“Twi,” Rainbow grunted quietly.

The scratching paused. “Hmmm?”

“Do you really need that many notes?”

Twilight’s eyes widened, taken aback. “Of course I do! How else am I supposed to remember all this? Reference material, Rainbow Dash, is important. Look-” she turned her notes around for the pegasus to see, the quill tapping against the page to highlight a diagram of a feather with various arrows and notes attached to it. “This kind of resource is paramount to the learning process.”

Blinking, Rainbow leaned forward to get a better look. She held up her own wing for comparison. It was actually… really impressive. Was Twilight secretly good at drawing? The page was shuffled out for another - this one with a picture of Rainbow’s entire wing, complete with detailed feathers and basic shading.

Twilight Sparkle was secretly amazing at drawing.

“Wow, Twi… these are really good?”

The alicorn’s smile beamed with the radiance of the sun. “Notes are important, and I make sure to do them right. I didn’t think you’d appreciate-”

“Not the notes, the drawings,” Rainbow clarified, oblivious to the way Twilight’s smile melted away.

“They aren’t ‘drawings’,” Twilight huffed, turning her notes away from those who wouldn’t appreciate them. “They’re diagrams. Anatomical diagrams, for exclusively educational purposes.”

“Aw come on, don’t be like that. Oh, oh oh wait wait wait-” Rainbow ducked her head below her wing and in a series of rapid, flowing motions, skillfully preened the rest of her feathers back to their nigh-perfect state.

A single tear rolled down Twilight’s cheek both at the lost opportunity for note taking as well as the beautiful elegance on display. Both were quickly forgotten, however, as Rainbow Dash reared up on her hind legs and struck a pose that would fit right in amongst the statues of famous pegasi that lined the streets and plazas of Cloudsdale.

“Draw me,” she said, with all the confidence and self-absorption of a hunter gazing into a pond.

Twilight’s eyebrow climbed her forehead like the sun crawling over the horizon. “You want me to draw you?”

Momentarily breaking her pose to turn her head, Rainbow nodded rapidly. “Yeah, yeah! You totally should! You’re really good, and I keep trying to convince Rarity to draw me but she’s always saying sketching dresses and drawing ponies are entirely different things and that if I want to be drawn so badly I have to wear one of her frilly dresses. But you drew my wing perfectly! So, draw the rest of me.” As soon as she was done her head snapped forward back into perfectly-rigid lockstep with the rest of her pose.

“I'm not an artist,” Twilight said, setting her notes aside. “I'm no good at drawing.”

With a grunt Rainbow fell out of her pose. “Twi, come on, I saw what you can do. You can't tell me you're bad at drawing after those ‘diagrams’ of my wings.”

“Trust me, Rainbow, you don't want me to try and draw you.”

“Trust me, Twilight, I do.”

Bristling, Twilight shook her head. “Just because I can do an anatomical diagram to aid my notes doesn't somehow make me-”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Rainbow interjected, waving a wing dismissively.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“I didn't want to play this card, Egghead, but you leave me no choice. In return for teaching you how to preen, I want you to draw me.”

In an instant Twilight's relief was washed away by the endless tide that was Rainbow Dash's stubbornness.

But she was prepared with sandbags and wave breaks. “And here I thought it was in return for not picking a textbook for our reading night?”

Rainbow was given a moment’s pause - but only a moment, as she weighed her options. “Draw me, and I'll read anything you can throw at me.”

“Really?” Twilight asked, genuine surprise lifting her brow. “Anything?”

The tone in the alicorn’s voice told of the dangerous ground she was treading, but the mental image of her awesomeness fully captured on paper, forever, spurred Rainbow on. Her image would be held in the same galleries she’d visited on field trips, where she’d marveled at the great sculptures of legendary pegasi.

She planted her hooves firmly. “Anything.”

Twilight took a step back, the sheer determination burning in Rainbow’s eyes seeming to physically knock her off balance. It was a fool's errand to try and dissuade the mare when she got like that, and Twilight was no fool. She knew any attempt to refuse would, at minimum, string up a sour cloud over the rest of their reading night as the stubborn mare spent the evening sulking, pouting, and generally being a nuisance.

In the name of a peaceful night of knowledge, Twilight sighed. “Pose.”

Rainbow lit up like she'd been electrocuted. “You’ll draw me!?”

A piece of paper peeled itself off the desk. “I will draw a diagram of you,” Twilight said, as her note taking tools were drawn forth. “Pose.”

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, okay okay okay. Um. How do I…” Rainbow trailed off as she struggled to think of a pose. She wanted it to fit in amongst the other great pegasi, but to be unique to her. Even among legends, she should stand out.

“And after that we'll read Encyclopedia Floria. Maybe I'll find what's wrong with my garden.”

“Uh…” Rainbow trailed off. Suddenly, she didn't feel like being drawn or diagramed as the weight of her choices hit her. “Twi, maybe we-”

“Too late,” Twilight said, inking her quill. “Pose,” she repeated in a tone that made the pegasus curse her own big, stupid mouth.

Rainbow posed.

Twilight’s quill scratched against parchment.

The noise very quickly became unbearable.

“So, uh… that book you want to read…” Rainbow started hesitantly, turning her head to watch her friend.

“Don't move,” Twilight hissed, and Rainbow’s head snapped back forward so fast she heard something pop. “What about it?”

Rainbow’s muzzle scrunched as she stared into the far corner of the bedroom. “It uh… it sure does sound… interesting…”

The quill paused for only a moment. “It does, doesn't it?”

“I'm just not sure if it's really for me, y’know?”

There was a longer pause this time, broken by a quiet giggle. “I'm not going to make you read an encyclopedia tonight, Rainbow.”

“Oh thank Celestia,” Rainbow breathed, almost falling out of her pose entirely were it not for the glare she felt suddenly burn into the side of her head, daring her to relax.

“But,” Twilight started as the scratching of her quill slowed. “You do owe me after this.”

Rainbow bit her tongue so hard she thought it might fall off the next time she opened her mouth. So instead she kept her lips shut and listened to the sound of her likeness being committed to paper, basking in the flavour of her own hoof.

It wasn't that much longer before the final stroke of the quill left the room in complete silence.

“I'm done,” Twilight said.

Rainbow dropped back onto all four hooves. “So… what do I owe you?”

“I haven't decided yet. Here,” she said, offering the parchment.

“Because like, if you wanna make me read a dictionary or something, you've gotta do at least two more of these drawings.”

Twilight laughed quietly, waving the offered picture. “I promise I'm not going to make you read anything you don't like, you showed me how to preen myself, after all.”

“And I'm teaching you how to fly,” Rainbow added brashley. “That's gotta count for something.”

“Yes yes, you are the flight instructor of Equestria’s newest Princess. Even if you are annoyingly you sometimes.”

A rough bark of laughter punctuated Rainbow snatching the paper out of the air. “All day every day,” she said, shooting a cheeky grin and a wink at Twilight before looking down to a near-perfectly drawn ‘diagram’ of her posing. Her eyes widened slightly as she took it in - she’d seen what Twilight could do with smaller pictures of wings and feathers, but this was something else! If she didn’t know any better, she’d have sworn the picture was cooler than she was in real life. She did know better, of course, but it was still impressive.

At least it was, until she looked at the drawing’s face.

“Twi, why don’t I have eyes? Or… a mouth?”

A mumble was all she got in response, and when she looked up, Twilight was very sharply looking away. “Twi?”

“You… don’t want me to draw your face. Trust me.”

For a moment, Rainbow was confused, but that quickly melted away to a snicker. “Really? You’re this good at drawing but you can’t do faces?”

Twilight’s face erupted in a fiery red glow. “Diagrams! I can draw diagrams for my notes! I’ve… never been good at faces. Last time I tried it looked like someone glued googly eyes to one of Rarity’s mannequins.”

“Pfft, oh come on, now I’ve got to see it!”

“No, no no no. No way.” Twilight said, shaking her head firmly. “I already drew you - that’s the end of it.”

Rainbow made a show of pouting, but she was above pleading, and it seemed Twilight’s wasn’t about to budge on it. “Fine,” she sighed, large and exaggerated. “I guess this is good enough.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “It’s really not that good.”

“Nah, it is. Super awesome, actually. Almost as awesome as the real me, but y’know, not. Oh-” Rainbow’s eyes brightened with an idea in a way that made Twilight swallow nervously.

Making her way over to the small desk, Rainbow searched through drawers and cubbies at random, making the alicorn wince at the thought of cleaning up but too morbidly curious to stop her.

“Ah!” Rainbow pulled away, having found what she was looking for, and Twilight put two and two together as Rainbow examined the wall, picture in one hoof and a tack dangling from her mouth.

“Hey, I thought you wanted the picture for yourself?”

Shrugging, Rainbow flapped her wings and hovered up into the air. She glanced back down, gauged her height, and moved a little higher - easily out of reach of anyone standing on the ground. The picture was tacked to the wall there, and she floated back to admire her work. “I did, but I had an idea. No magic or ladders allowed - when you can take this picture down and give it to me, we’ll consider you graduated from basic flight lessons.”

Twilight looked up at the paper - hung far out of reach, with the stipulations Rainbow put in place the only way she’d be able to reach it was with her wings.

“Besides, I already get to admire myself every day - now you can admire me every day, too!” Rainbow declared. “It’s a win-win.”

Shooting her friend a glare, Twilight ruffled her feathers on instinct. “That picture is coming down.”

“Good, Egghead, that’s what we want,” Rainbow chuckled, pulling her wings into her sides and letting herself fall back-first onto Twilight’s bed. “But you can worry about that later. Isn’t it about time we do some reading, or something?”

Twilight glanced at the clock, cursing under her breath as she realized how late it had gotten. “You’re right. Let me go get the snacks from the kitchen. And I’ll choose the book while I’m down there - I have something in mind.”

Rainbow grimaced. “Not a text book, right?”

Twilight shot her a smile over her shoulder as she left the room.

“Twi? Twilight!?” Rainbow shouted, running to the door and watching the alicorn descend the stairs. “Please!”

Author's Note

And you all thought this story was dead. I'm not gonna take up much space here, but if you're curious about the delay, you can read this blog. But basically life exploded for a bit and now it's back to normal.

As for comments on the chapter itself - is the mitochondria joke too much? Is it too old, too meta? I don't care I think it's funny. Also - I very much picture Twilight as an almost renaissance-era great enlightenment capital-S Scientist, of course she'd be good at drawing diagrams.

Anyway, sorry for the delay, hope the chapter was worth it, and hopefully the next one does not take as long. Thoughts in the box, yeah?

Below is a list of changes made to previous chapters as of the posting of this chapter. Some plots points of this story have... not changed, but shifted over the past months, so I went back and made some changes to keep everything consistent. Shouldn't be anything major, but I figured I'd leave this changelog here just in case.

Changelog:

Chapter One;
- Minor spelling and grammar fixes
- Minor flow improvements

Chapter Two;
- Minor spelling and grammar fixes
- Removed/altered mention of a certain apple-related beverage to keep things chronologically consistent with future events