(November 4th: 18th Day Since Capture)

With a shrill whistle, the doors leading onto the Friendship Express closed behind Neil with a firm thunk. Whatever his remaining doubts about visiting Ponyville were, it was too late to heed them. So, he shunted them to the back of his mind as he looked around. For a town that had an accidental weather malfunction go off nearby, it didn't look anything like he was expecting.

He thought he would see excessive damage, or wreckage, with large medical tents and emergency relief at the edge of town. Instead, Ponyville appeared to be an idyllic winter village. Snow had settled on every roof within sight, with snowbanks that caressed the bottoms of cottage windows and plowed dirt roads weaving between the buildings for easy travel.

As he stood there overlooking Ponyville, he heard the struggle of the steam pistons as they chugged and heaved, pulling an untold amount of weight towards an unknown destination southwest along the tracks. As the train built up speed, each cycle became a little less strained and a little more distant until the caboose finally passed by. As much as he wanted to stay and steel himself, he wasn't the only one standing on the platform. Calm and Hearth, both of whom were gleaming in the morning's winter light with their golden armor, stood on either side of him.

Neither pony indicated that they were on a schedule or that the cold air was affecting them in their armor. Both remained professionally passive now in public view, stiffly standing at attention. Unfortunately, or fortunately, if Neil looked at it a certain way, he was on a schedule. Twilight had informed him through a letter that she would be closing off her library today, from nine in the morning until noon, so he could access her Everfree collection without interruptions.

Which, of course, led to his early morning departure by train. There wasn't a clock nearby that he could check. But, if the Friendship Express reached Ponyville on schedule, he had just over thirty minutes to reach Twilight's castle before he was officially late. Plenty of time to be sure, considering from where he stood, he could see the reflective purple, blue, and yellow crystals towering over the nearby cottages to the northeast.

As if it was summoned by his thoughts, a small gust of wind impacted his side, only to uselessly blow over him. It ruffled through his hair and drew his attention back towards his immediate area. A thin layer of loose snow drifted around his hooves, and over the planks he was standing on, blowing in the same direction as the castle. However, just as quickly as it appeared, the small gust faded, leaving a light powdering of snow on the platform and a light shimmering of snow coating his fur and cloak.

"Well, let's get this over with," Neil muttered more to himself than his guards as he shook his body to throw off the loose snow. After that, he went over to the steps that led off the station's boarding platform and disembarked onto the path heading east into the town proper.

It might have been the disorganized cottages clustered around him, partially covered in snow, but he was reasonably sure he had yet to walk through this part of Ponyville before. The homes looked smaller than he remembered, but they made up for it with brighter, more boisterous colors. Behind the loud veneer, he noticed the small gaps between the old warped siding and the chipped paint. Giving him the impression that he was in the older part of town. Not that it mattered much, as the small path he was on soon merged into a well-trodden dirt road favored by Ponyville, which was going north and south.

Given his position to the castle, he turned north, though only for a short time, as the road soon curved east. He also noted multiple points of interest as he walked, which only added to the town's overall oddness. The first point of interest was what he initially thought to be a simple mound of snow. Street cleaners had to pile all that excess snow somewhere, right?

But, as he followed the road and walked around it, he noticed the half-burnt remains of a sign sticking out of the snow and a brass plaque mounted next to it. He was tempted to stop and read what it said, but he suppressed the urge and kept going.

Soon after, a line of larger, more modern-looking homes angled off to the north-west. Leading into what appeared to be a wealthy cul-de-sac, including at least one fenced-off mansion with a wrought iron gate. It felt slightly wrong for a small town like Ponyville to have something that reminded him of Canterlot. Then again, perhaps that was normal.

Even Swift Current had more affluent parts of town, though he never had much reason to visit any of them. Still, he couldn't deny the memory of seeing large, not-quite mansions built at the top of a hill overlooking the Elmwood golf course. Or, he and his Dad driving south of town, passing a pocket of multiple well-kept acreages that screamed of wealth and seclusion.

Perhaps the rich ponies living there kept themselves separate from the town at one point? Only for the town itself to eventually expand out to them? That was a possibility, as his mind kept occupied by drawing comparisons between Ponyville and his home. Lulling him into a feeling of mixed nostalgia and a hint of homesickness, to the point he hardly noticed walking past another, larger building.

He gave the sign in front just enough of his attention to read Ponyville Retirement Village before glancing up to see reflective crystal a distance away in front of him. Once he confirmed he was still on track, his eyes settled again on the road before him.

Only for his musings to be interrupted when he heard Rarity's voice calling out from his right, "Neil, Darling, I'm surprised to see you back in Ponyville so soon!" He immediately looked up, catching sight of the white and purple mare just as she passed a snow-covered tree. Despite the cold, she only wore a two-toned pink scarf while carrying a fluffy-looking quilted blanket on top of her back. "And in the cloak I made for you, no less! I must say, you look divine."

"Rarity?" He called out as she trotted over and closed the distance between them. "I wasn't expecting to see you this early."

"Early? I suppose Rainbow told you about my penchant for sleeping in, didn’t she?" She questioned, looking confused for half a second before a look of annoyance overtook her blue eyes. Before he could say no to her odd accusation, however, she brushed aside her question and expression, replacing them with a more welcoming one. "No matter. What brings you to Ponyville today?"

"Official business, I guess," He admitted, not quite sure what to say considering her odd mood. "Twilight set up an appointment, and since it gets me out of Canterlot, I figured, why the hell not?"

"An appointment?" She asked, only for her eyes to light up with excitement. "This wouldn't be related to your recent promotion to Ambassador, would it? Congratulations, by the way."

"Thanks, I think. I'm pretty sure Celestia did it just to increase my guard and keep me in the castle." He told her, voicing his thoughts on the matter.

Of course, Rarity didn't see it that way as she gave each guard escorting him a polite nod. "Given your ability to attract trouble, I don't think an extra guard or two would be out of place."

"Only in Equestria." Neil groused, "I never had any trouble back home."

Before Rarity could respond, an adorable-sounding sneeze erupted from her immediate area. It wasn't her, though, as a second, higher-pitched voice he vaguely recognized mumbled, "Are we there yet?"

Instead of looking confused or surprised, Rarity simply turned her head and addressed the now squirming blanket on her back. "Not yet, Sweetie Belle. We're almost there."

"Sweetie Belle?" Neil asked, watching as two tiny hooves broke free from the quilt and pulled aside the white cloth covering her up. A mixture of pink and purple hair rose from the blanket, followed by two bleary-looking, abnormally large green eyes that seemed too large for Sweetie Belle's foal-sized face. "Is she your daughter?" He asked, quickly recognizing the filly that managed to fire a round from his tank at the Tantabus.

"Daughter? Oh, Celestia, no!" Rarity denied with a chuckle, "Sweetie Belle is my younger sister. Unfortunately, she woke up with a cold, so I offered to take her to the hospital for a check-up. Say hello to Neil, Sweetie."

It took a moment for Sweetie Belle to blink away any traces of sleep from her eyes. But, once she did so, she eventually focused on him. However, she didn't seem to recognize him without the ODST armour as she offered a tired, if slightly congested sounding, "Hello."

"Hi," He offered, giving her a quick nod before once more focusing on Rarity. "Whatever it is, it seems to be hitting her pretty hard. It's probably best to go before it gets worse from the cold."

"She's bundled up in her blanket, but I understand what you mean." Rarity agreed as her horn lit up. Two small, blue, golf-ball-sized orbs attached themselves to the blanket and pulled the loose sides snugly together underneath Sweetie's chin. "Oh, and if you need me to adjust your cloak, please visit my boutique! I'll talk to you later, Darling."

Just as quickly as she appeared, Rarity trotted towards a large, rectangular, three-story building with pink windows. How he failed to notice such a large building when it was no more than a two-minute walk away, Neil didn't know, but he still called out to Rarity's retreating form, "Talk to you later, I guess."

Thankfully, there was little in the way of interruptions after that. Following the road, as it weaved between an orange-colored cottage and the tree Rarity originally appeared beside.

Neil finally spotted the crystalline trunk of Twilight's castle without, buildings obstructing him. It still amazed and disturbed him how such a structure could withstand its weight without collapsing. He couldn't even imagine how ponies managed to build it.

Neil picked up the pace before he fell into an internal debate about the likelihood of the larger of the two balconies collapsing under specific loads. He was absolutely positive he was still early. But, the sooner he arrived, the sooner he could go over Twilight's collection.

As he approached the staircase leading up to the main entrance, he looked through both of the... purple windows flanking the doors? Thinking back, he could have sworn they were green the last time he was here. Either way, he quickly brushed that detail aside as he tried and failed to spot any amount of movement inside. Shrugging, he made his way up to the large golden doors and easily pushed the right side open.

The entry hall was precisely as he remembered it, sparsely decorated and not a single living being in sight as he quickly walked in. As an official appointment, he half expected a guard of Twilight's, or even her lizard assistant, to be waiting to greet him. Instead, he was greeted by a gust of warmth as he crossed the threshold, which made the castle feel warmer than he remembered. Then again, that might have been due to the greater temperature difference due to winter.

As Calm and Hearth came up behind him, Neil brushed aside his cloak and reached out with a wing to gently push the door closed. It was best not to let all the hot air out and raise Twilight's heating bill (if she even received a heating bill given her royal status) if he needed to make a second appointment.

At the very least, Neil knew where the library was. Without delay, he turned right towards one of the two spiralling staircases that made their way up into the trunk towards the second floor. As he did so, however, he also gave the large window next to the door a cursory glance. Just like he remembered, the pane of crystal glass was a bright, see-through green instead of the off-purple shade displayed on the outside.

Was it some strange iridescent effect? Why would the designer even make the window different colours based on whether a person was inside or outside? As Neil slowly traversed the stairs, he eventually brushed aside the windows as an inconsequential, rich design. Soon after, his thoughts shifted towards the possible information he might unearth over the next few hours. He could only imagine all the possibilities hidden within those old Everfree books, along with the slimmest of chances that he might discover an actual way home.

As he made his way towards the library, he also took note of the lack of ponies the entire way. Not a single guard or even a maid crossed his path. Was her status as a national hero enough to ward off any malcontents? Or was she also reliant on wards to protect her home? He didn't think either option fit well with what he knew about Twilight and her reptilian assistant.

However, he only had a little time to dwell on the subject as he came upon a pair of green crystal doors encased with gold trim, which he recognized as the entrance to the castle library. He paused before the doors and gave his cloak a quick once over to ensure his wings were appropriately covered. The chances that a random pony was already inside and reading before Twilight had the time to close the library were slim but not zero. Also, he didn't want another Eve scenario cropping up.

However, his cloak laid flat on his back exactly as he expected it to be, without any hint of the wings underneath.

With that worry gone, Neil slowly exhaled and pushed through the doors.

As he walked in, Neil couldn't help but notice how different the room felt. The balloons, streamers, and copious amounts of confetti were gone without a trace, along with the overbearing celebratory banner and the jovial crowd of ponies mingling around the refreshment tables.

Now, the library looked far more regal, perhaps even a little imposing, with its large, jagged crystal structures interposed between the carved, orderly shelves that held countless books.

The main reading area was opened up more as well. During the party, there were at least twenty of the circular low tables where ponies could sit on the floor and mingle. Now, there were only eight of them, with at least fifteen feet between each table to give some amount of privacy. He also noted that two of them were covered in books.

The first table held a modest selection of texts, with three small piles evenly spaced in the center. The second table, however, was a literal hardcover mountain with the highest book peaking at about three times his height.

Twilight was sitting at the second table, with her butt firmly planted on the cold crystal floor with another, far smaller pile of books on the ground beside her. Though a noticeable creak from the door echoed around the room when he entered, she didn't even flick an ear in his direction. Her focus was on the hefty black tome held in her aura, which had golden symbols printed on the cover.

He couldn't make heads or tails of the book's title as he casually walked over to the mare. Ironically enough, he managed to pick out a stylized unicorn's head and a symbol that could be viewed as a waterfall or a tail. He also noted only one extra set of hoof steps on his right. Calm had joined him in the library, while Hearth did not. It was likely some procedure about guarding the door or some such nonsense.

When he closed the distance to about ten feet between himself and Twilight, Neil cleared his throat to alert her to his presence. When that didn't work, he did so a second time, but louder, with the same results. On his third attempt, Neil opted to take a different route. "Twilight? Hello? You there?"

This garnered a response, but not one he was expecting, as she dismissively said, "There's no need to worry, Spike. I already ate breakfast," She flipped to the next page.

Neil couldn't help but chuckle at the familiarity. If Ken bought a new manga, the group had to slap the back of his head to get his attention. Even the morning bell at school failed more often than not to break his concentration, leading to multiple detentions over the year.

"I'm sure Spike would appreciate knowing that if he were here," Neil said while poking Twilight in the shoulder with his hoof.

"Huh? What was that, Spiiii- Neil!" Twilight exclaimed, her voice jumping an octave momentarily as she turned to face him. "I wasn't expecting you for..."

Her horn pulsed, and as she kept hold of the book just above the table, an elegant, wavy script that matched the colour of her aura wove itself in front of her face. It read '8:36 In the morning', even if it was a little hard to understand flipped as it was. However, Neil managed to read it before it dissipated into the air. "... Another fourteen minutes. What brings you here so early?"

"The early morning train," Neil informed her, "It was either that or show up late this afternoon after you reopened the library."

"That would explain it," She said, smiling a little as she placed her open book on the table. "I much prefer the train, over a Pegasus chariot myself, even if it's a slower mode of transport."

'Pegasus chariot?' Neil thought for a moment before swiping the errant thought aside. That wasn't why he was here at all. "Not that I'm here to talk about Equestrian transport. You said you had some Everfree books with information about the Roaming Empire?"

"Of course!" Twilight chirped as she stood up and spun around, facing the only other table with books while also inadvertently whipping her tail in his face. Then, with a certain amount of giddy energy, she pranced to the table without acknowledging what she'd just done.

Begrudgingly, Neil followed at a slight distance after exhaling through his nose. He was here to find a way home, not start a fight with an energetic nerd princess who was excited about books.

Once they were close enough to the table, he picked out seven books within the three separate piles. The first pile held two books, each with a purple bookmark placed inside. The second pile was the largest, though that wasn't saying much with a total of three books, each of which had a green bookmark placed in them. And finally, the last pile held the final two books without any bookmarks.

"I've scoured my entire library for every book that fits your criteria. From the Everfree collection, only seven mentioned the Roaming Empire. These two," Her wing pointed at the two with purple bookmarks, "Each have small passages spanning a paragraph or less. The books in the center pile have at least one dedicated chapter each. And finally, these last two books are historical texts.

One is from the Kingdom of Unicornia, detailing the Roaming Empire's battle tactics, raids, and other interactions between the two kingdoms before the tribes unified. The second is a detailed history of major events from the Roaming Empire."

That she was willing to scour her entire library for a simple request mildly impressed him. However, he couldn't help but say, "That's it?" He voiced his thoughts while looking over the diminutive pile of books in front of him.

"I have plenty of modern texts about the Roaming Empire currently shelved in the history section. But those didn't meet your specific criteria," Twilight informed him primly before she softened her tone with an unexpected offer. "Neil, if I knew exactly what you were looking for, I might be able to help you with your research?"

His first instinct was to tell her no. He couldn't come out and say he was looking for a portal to another world or some form of dimensional rift. Not only would that out him as something not of this world, but he didn't want to imagine how Twilight would react to such news. However, before he answered her, another thought came to mind. He didn't need to tell her precisely what he was looking for. He could tell her his overall research topic without revealing the truth if he explained his reasoning the right way. All he had to do was...

"Neil?" Twilight spoke up, interrupting his thoughts.

"Uh... I could tell you," He started, unsure if he should say anything. Looking around, he settled on the table she claimed, and the pile of books nearly overwhelmed it. That should give him a moment to decide, right? "But it looks like you're already busy enough as it is."

"Oh, that?" Twilight chuckled, following his line of sight. "That's a little side project Princess Celestia asked me to do. She specifically stated I should do it in my spare time though."

Neil couldn't deny that little tidbit of information sparked a minor, if vindictive, part of him to tell her. It wouldn't be much, but delaying a project of Celestia's for a few hours was tempting. But, the most persuasive argument was Twilight's knowledge. She appeared to know every book in her library, even if it wasn't cover to cover. "Fine, just give me a second to get my thoughts in order."

He wasn't going to tell her the truth. But, if Roam and Rome somehow made contact, how would he mislead such a connection? "So, in your history, you have the Roaming Empire, right? In the history I've been taught, we have the Roman Empire. The names are similar, but from what I've gathered, the armor, weaponry, and tactics are almost identical."

"You're focusing on the Roaming Empire because you think it could be a common point in our shared histories?" Twilight asked, more to herself as she cut him off. The tempo of her words was only matched by her excitement. "Fascinating! Besides the other pony tribes and the Griffons, I don't recall the Pegasi at that time making contact with or making alliances with anypony else. But, if what you say is true, this could unearth some of the history lost during Eris' reign of chaos!"

"Easy there!" Neil called out, taking the opportunity to cut off her excited monologue. "I don't expect to find something big or obvious. What I hope to find the most is a little-known trade route or an allusion to... I don't know. Something mysterious. Something a pony could brush aside as useless without the proper context. Otherwise, it would have been mentioned in all those modern texts, right?"

Twilight seemed to pick up right where she left off the moment he stopped. "This is just like the beginning of a Daring Do adventure! I can't recall reading anything subtle like that but double-checking doesn't hurt! Do you want my help reviewing the texts I picked out for you?"

"We have a little over three hours?" He asked, only to receive a nod from Twilight. He was pretty sure he had things covered if what she said was true about the books she picked out. "I think I can handle these books on my own."

"Okay. In that case, I think I might review some modern history texts." With a noticeable hop to her trot, she turned to one of the shelves on the opposite side of the reading area and quickly made her way over. By the time she was halfway, her horn lit up, and she was already pulling books from her shelves. He didn't explicitly recognize any of them, but a few looked familiar just from the colour of their covers.

However, that wasn't his problem. He faced the table with the books he was after and finally sat down. Without wasting time, he reached out with a wing towards the top book with a purple bookmark. They would be the fastest to get through, and if they held nothing of interest, the quickest to discard before moving on to the next pile.

As Neil opened the book close to the bookmark's position, he immediately noticed that the page was written in two distinct styles. A quarter of the first page was taken up by a block of small, closely packed, almost Egyptian-like symbols but with an obvious equine theme. Directly underneath that, there was a paragraph of elegantly written unified script. On both pages, the pattern held, with interchanging blocks of symbols followed by text.

Thankfully, the written text wasn't even translated into Old Equish. As he flipped to the bookmarked section, he couldn't help but think, 'Twilight must have translated the text for modern readers. Hopefully, nothing was lost in the translation itself.'

When Neil found the correct page, he pulled out the bookmark. After that, he skipped over the block of symbols, focusing on the text underneath, which read:

Today, I woke to a mottled sky of cloud cover and blue. A blessing, indeed, to me and my fellow mares assigned to the wall. We will not be cooked inside of our armor this day.

It wasn't the most relevant passage, but Twilight marked these two pages for a reason as he skimmed the other blocks of unified script. The paragraph he was looking for was in the middle of the second page, which read:

While I stood alert on the wall, I managed to catch sight of a massive wall of cloud in the distance. At first, I thought it was merely a storm front. In time, I found its structure too uniform, too suspicious, meaning it must have been an outpost in the sky. It was skirting over our land, using the cloud cover laid out the previous night to hide. I did not see much of it, but of what I saw, 'twas both a sight beyond beauty and an intimidating imperial force as the massive walls serenely flew through the air. I was quick to raise the alarm, but nothing came of it beyond putting the entire garrison on edge once the Captain confirmed my sight. Perhaps the feathered rats were plotting to raid the filthy mud whorses beyond our border?

It seemed the mare that wrote this journal had, at the very least, an extreme dislike for the other pony tribes. Unfortunately, that was also the only mention of Pegasi in the book. He skimmed over the next two pages to make sure, but they were completely unrelated to the Pegasus outpost that floated over their Keep.

With one book already a bust, he set it aside and reached for the next one. At the same time, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a large swarm of books held in Twilight's aura as she made her way back to her table. The tower they made wasn't nearly as big as the one already sitting on her table, but it was almost half as tall in its own right. Twilight clearly had more resources than even the Canterlot Library, since he hadn't managed to find that many books related to the Roaming Empire.

Once Twilight was content with the amount of books she gathered, she quickly settled down, picked a book off the top, and flipped it open as her eyes started darting over the pages at an insane pace. Far faster than he could manage, as he flipped to the marked pages. Unfortunately, the second book was written by a noble, apparently, and was even more useless compared to the first:

As I and my underlings reached the edge of the grotesque hovels built by the dirt ponies, we were met not by quivering fools with a cartload of food that is our right, but by smouldering fields. The feathered menace must have beat us here by a day! Two at most, giving them plenty of time to steal our tithe from the common rabble before retreating.

Not that it mattered. To reach my quota, I ordered my soldiers to commandeer a cart, and go door to door. Better for the enlisted to traipse through the flee infested homes, while I waited at the edge of the pig sty, avoiding the mud. Within an hour, two at most, we only managed to collect three-fourths of our tithe. In recompense, we also claimed two pleasure stallions in their prime to pull our cart back to Slatestone Keep.

As he set aside the second book, Neil couldn't help but hope the bastard who wrote that passage got exactly what she deserved in the end. Stealing from and then enslaving two stallions from a town that had already been ransacked? That was a new fucking low Neil had never even contemplated before.

With an enraged exhale, Neil tossed the second book on top of the first. At the very least, he was done with the anecdotes. Perhaps he could now get more substantive information that wasn't from a Unicorn perspective?

~~~

Three hours later, and much to Neil's displeasure, he learned the only prolific writers of the time appeared to be Unicorns. Whether it was the journals he started with, which contained small snippets of insight into the writer's life. Or the structured manuals with dedicated chapters regulating how the average soldier should respond to a Pegasus attack. Those books even included instructions on properly binding a Pegasus' wings without impairing their ability to do certain... tasks. Clearly, each book was written by a soldier or a Unicorn of higher status, biases included.

Then, there was the smaller of the two history texts titled Barbarians of the Sky. The book was written years before Unification by a Unicorn noble, High Chancellor Platinum Plume. When Neil first skimmed through the contents, he wasn't shocked to see the writer focused almost solely on the one-sided victories earned by the Unicorns and the turbulent ceasefires in between. Extolling the pride and power of Unicorn virtues while blaming the Kingdom's problems almost solely on the Pegasi raiders.

However, not all of the information held within was useless. Much to the writer's chagrin, some of the Kingdom's losses were too large to ignore. Early on in the book, the first loss Neil read about was a major raid on a Unicorn fortress called Crystal Keep. A patrol of soldiers was sent to procure their tithe from a large Earth Pony town in the south. While collecting their tithe, they learned of a large food stockpile, half of which was reserved for a payment to the Pegasi. Instead of one cart, they returned with three, seeing it as a decisive strike against their flying foe.

Instead, it was the opening blow to an otherwise quick and dishonourable loss. One week later, when the Roaming Empire did not receive their payment, they blitzed the Keep instead of punishing the Earth Ponies. In the end, the raiders struck three significant blows to the keep. First, they took almost all of the food. Second, the inept Noble in control of the keep was permanently disabled. The most significant blow, however, was also what caught Neil's attention. An artifact known only as the Veil of Inspiration was also stolen from the fortress.

What was the artifact, and what did it do? Neil had no idea, and the history text didn't go into detail. However, from the name alone, Neil was intrigued and put a metaphorical pin in it for later research.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book wasn't as lucrative when it came to the information Neil was looking for. There was no mention of stalking Pegasi patrols to a secret location or even a hint that the floating Empire had any secret alliances with unknown creatures. The closest Neil found in that regard was the odd accusation of the Pegasi and Earth Ponies colluding against the noble Unicorns on occasion.

Once he finally finished with Platinum Plume's book, all that was left was the thickest and strangest book of the bunch. Instead of being written in sky-writing, as one would expect from a Pegasus of the time, the title of the book was written in Earth Pony runes, allowing Neil to read the title and the author, Flight and Duty by Captain Defiant Thunder, without Twilight's translation.

Inside, the structure was just as strange. From the fall of Timbucktu and the formation of the Roaming Empire, which was the start of the first era, to the Unification of the Three Tribes, the fourth era, the book was split into multiple eras. Each detailed important battles and interactions of the time, both wins and losses that had to do with monsters, Griffons, Unicorns, and Earth Ponies from the Pegasus point of view. Stranger still, after each detailed battle report or event, if a new term or tactic was mentioned, there was an added paragraph explaining things in detail afterwards. Almost as if the book was also partially written as an interview.

It was in this book that Neil learned more about the Veil.

Soon after the Southern Armada raided the Crystal Keep, the artifact was transferred to the city of Roam, formerly called Trot, the capital of the newly founded Empire. By appearances alone, it was an odd, square piece of furniture carved and shaped from the finest oak. One could almost mistake it for a four-poster bed, the Unicorn nobility's preferred way of sleeping, except it was impossible to pull aside the four veils covering each side. Each veil was painted with a different tranquil scene. As shown by the sketch inside the book, one of the veils was a painting of a slow-flowing river, while the other was a breezy meadow.

When nothing came of it, the Admiral of the Armada decreed that the Veil be treated as an art piece and placed it in the public baths for everypony to enjoy. Strange timing indeed, as soon after the Veil was placed, advancements in weaponry, armor, battle tactics, city improvements, and more came to be in rapid succession. When asked, every pony said they were struck by a sudden bout of inspiration while relaxing in the baths.

Over the next decade, Roam prospered from many great ideas. After, however, though the sudden zeal of inspiration slowed, it never wholly ceased either. And that is where the Veil of Inspiration was kept until the Unification of the Three Tribes. After that, the Roaming Empire, the Kingdom of Unicornia, and the Earthen Dominion; Defiant Thunder presumed all of it to be lost to the Frozen North after the Wendigos struck, and the snow blocking off their old homelands refused to melt.

However, Neil wasn't interested in that part. Advancements in armor and weaponry that mimicked Roman style? From a mysterious artifact that was barely understood? Neil felt excitement for the first time in what felt like quite a while. Was it his ticket home? Probably not. But, if it was somehow connected to his world in a manner that could transfer ideas... Then, theoretically, he could somehow reverse the connection, right?

First, he needed to know more about this thing. And, if ever there was a pony who already knew about something like this, it was probably Twilight.

As he turned to ask Twilight about the Veil of Inspiration, however, an Eerie sense fell upon him. Causing his body to freeze and his sight to turn the oddest shade of... unreality? He couldn't even begin to comprehend his vision before a voice whispered into his ear from apparently nowhere. "Boy Toy, you're barking up the wrong tree." The strangely familiar female voice told him with a giggle. "That tacky little trinket was destroyed over a millennium ago, Mon Capitaine!"

And then, in the blink of an eye, everything was over. His sight reverted to normal, and the sudden sensation of locking his muscles in place ceased. Which also caused him to over-exert mid-turn and topple onto the cold, hard, crystal flooring. "Fucking hell!" Neil growled under his breath, trying to comprehend what happened while lying on his side. Hopefully, Twilight didn't notice. Or, if she did and pushed the issue, perhaps she could figure out what was happening to him. He distinctly remembered hearing Mon Capitaine! before, but from where?

"Neil!" A familiar but distinctly masculine voice called out from nearby, soon followed by metallic shoes trampling on crystal. Bulk's white, helmeted visage came into view while looking down at him worriedly.

Seconds later, Twilight was standing next to Bulk with a similar look of worry. "Are you okay?"

Opting to ignore their worry for the moment, he changed the topic to something equally as important. "Bulk?" Neil asked, more to himself as he pushed himself back into a seated position. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?" Bulk asked, giving him an odd look as his worry deepened. "I've been here almost half an hour while you and Princess Twilight were reading. Shift change is at noon, remember?"

Of course, he knew that, but was it almost half past noon? Had he been that oblivious while reading that he missed the changing of his guard? It would seem so. "Must have lost track of time. Did anyone enter while I was reading besides you?"

"Nopony entered under my watch, Neil," Bulk told him, as the Pegasus returned to his stoic guard mode. Still, Neil could tell there was a glint of worry in the stallion's eyes.

A glint that Neil brushed aside for now. "Good. I can't afford any more ponies knowing about my wings," He said out loud while slipping his appendages underneath his cloak once more.

"The library is still closed, Neil. Until I open it up, only Spike would have entered," Twilight informed him before reverting to the previous subject. "I can also tell you're avoiding the question. How are you feeling? Your horn isn't hurting, is it?"

"No, my horn isn't hurting. I haven't felt a thing from it since I crashed into Bulk," He admitted, which was a good thing, according to the nurses. He then raised a hoof towards Bulk, cutting him off just as he was about to speak. "And no, there's no need to apologize again."

"Well, if it isn't that, are you feeling sick?" Twilight asked before throwing another suggestion out. "Maybe you have an ear infection? That could be affecting your balance."

Neil rolled his eyes at both of her suggestions. He knew he wasn't feeling sick. You don't have a sudden acid trip or hear voices out of the blue. It took a severe fever to suffer anything remotely similar from what he heard, and he wasn't feeling feverish at all. "Listen. I found something, turned to tell you, and lost my balance. That's it."

... Which must have been the right thing to say. Twilight's eyes widened as if he had flipped a switch, and her worried frown slowly morphed into an excited grin. "Did you just say you found something?"

"Yeah, something called the Veil of Inspiration," He quickly informed her, taking advantage of her sudden shift. "Have you heard of it?"

Twilight closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath. Then, as if reading directly from a textbook, she said, "I have. Its creation earned Artistic Charm a place in the Kingdom of Unicornia's court. It elevated her lineage as House Charm, a minor noble family. Little is known about the artifact's true purpose, only that it was passed down through multiple generations as a family heirloom. And then, it was stolen during the raid of Crystal Keep."

"You might want to read Flight and Duty then," Neil suggested, surprised that she hadn't read it yet. "The Pegasi figured out what it did by dumb luck and took advantage of it."

"Very interesting; I'll bump it up on my list of books to read," She told him with a questioning look. "But I still don't see how the Veil of Inspiration ties in with your home?"

"Remember how I said your armor and weapons are eerily similar to the Roman Empire?" He asked, waiting for Twilight's nod before he continued. "The Veil inspired weapon smiths and armourers, leading to multiple rapid advances in crafting techniques and technology. What took the Romans and the Greeks before them hundreds of years to create, your Pegasi did in a decade. What if, instead of a trade route, or any direct communication, this Veil somehow formed a connection to the Roman Empire and siphoned those ideas here?"

"It's definitely a plausible hypothesis," Twilight agreed before she let off an excited squee! "If what you say is true, this could be one of the biggest historical discoveries of the century, Neil! But, how do you expect to prove it without the Veil of Inspiration?"

"Honestly, I have no fu-uh, idea." He admitted, cutting himself off before breaking one of Twilight's home rules. "First, I would have to find it in the ruins of Roam. Then, I would have to somehow trace the connection. And..." He trailed off, finishing that sentence with a thought, 'Hope that the voice was lying about the Veil's destruction.'

Unfortunately, Twilight must have heard that last part. After a few seconds of silence, she parroted him, "And..?"

"Nothing," He told her immediately, "It's nothing, just a random, stupid thought."

Surprisingly, this earned a gentle laugh from Twilight. "Neil, it might sound stupid now. But when it comes to discovery, every single thought could lead-"

She never got to finish what she was saying as the double doors leading into the library burst open with a booming crack! In the following fraction of a second, a rainbow blur circled around the open reading area of the library, not-so-closely followed by a red and gold blob doing its best to keep up.

"Hey, Neil!" The rainbow blur said, turning back into Rainbow Dash half a second later when she stopped beside him. "I thought you might be here."

However, the red and gold blob did not stop as it growled, "What part of no pony is allowed in, don't you understand?"

At that moment, Neil recognized Squall, with all four of his legs and wings spread wide, in an attempt to tackle Rainbow Dash and pin her to the floor. It looked like he was about to succeed, only for Rainbow Dash to vanish as the unlucky Pegasus passed through the previously occupied space.

Squall's bad luck didn't end there as he slammed chest plate first into the crystal floor. At most, he slid three feet. The friction slowed him down a little before the metal underside of the plumage on his helmet hooked the table's edge and killed the rest of his momentum. "Owww."

"You need to work on your speed if you plan to catch a Wonderbolt," Rainbow chided with a chuckle, her voice suddenly coming from Neil's right side.

"Miss Dash, we all know you're fast," Bulk spoke up with a disgruntled sigh as he trotted over to Squall. "Just, don' make our jobs any harder than they already are, please?" After asking, he bit down on Squall's tail and pulled him away from the table.

Much to Neil's surprise, there was only a small chip in the crystal where Squall's helmet impacted against it. As for the helmet itself, Neil couldn't make out a single blemish. There wasn't even a scuff on Squall's chest plate to indicate any sort of impact had occurred as he stood up.

"Fiiiiine," Rainbow groaned petulantly as she watched Squall get back up. Once he stood up, she looked around the rest of the reading area, pausing only a moment on each pile of books. "I'll try not to bust my way into the library from now on. Looks like you were doing boring stuff, anyway."

Ignoring his flight trainer, Neil turned to Squall, looking him over for possible injuries. "You okay, Squall?"

"I've had worse landings; don't you worry about that, Neil," He said reassuringly as he rubbed an unarmoured section of his leg against his immaculate chest plate. Once that was done, he addressed Rainbow as officially as he could. "As for you, Miss Wonderbolt Trainee, I won't fine you this time. But in the future, please listen when a guard tells you to stop."

"A fine?" Twilight asked worriedly as she diverted Bulk and Squall's focus on her. "There's no need for a fine, is there? Everypony is welcome in my castle..."

Before he could listen in on their conversation further, he felt Rainbow's hoof poking him in the shoulder. Looking back around, her default cocky grin was back in place. "Anyway, I saw your two guards flying into Ponyville during my shift. Now that it's done, want to do some training?"

Neil quirked an eyebrow at such a ludicrous offer. He could only imagine how awful it would be to run circles around her training spot in the snow. "As much as I enjoy your training, I don't see myself running laps in chest-high snow right now."

"More endurance training?" She snerked loudly, unintentionally interrupting everyone else as Twilight, Bulk, and Squall turned to look at her. "Heh, you're good. We're moving onto the next step now, take-off!"

No running? That automatically made her offer viable in Neil's mind. Still, it was best to make sure... "And the snow won't affect that at all?"

"Nope. It'll be exactly what I showed you on the balcony, without the crashing bit. If you're good enough." She stated, her grin morphing slightly into a non-verbal challenge. "If not, then the snow might act as a cushion," She added with a shrug.

'If she thinks I'm going to back down,' Neil thought as Rainbow transitioned from a shrug to a hover with a single, lazy flap of her wings... "Fine. I can't read while the library's open any way."

"Good," She said with a hint of excitement as she turned a few degrees and waved at the other group. "Hey, Twilight! Want to join us? I know you've put off flight practice lately."

"No thanks, Rainbow," Twilight answered with a hint of excitement all her own. "I have some previously unknown information about a mysterious historical artifact that I have to document!"

Playing that over in his head, Neil would have thought such a statement would have sounded boring to Rainbow, given her reactions so far. Instead, it seemed to gain Rainbow's attention as her ears perked up. "Wait a second, that sounds like-"

"The opening chapter for Daring Do and the Treasure of Saddle Madre?" Twilight answered before Rainbow could even finish what she was saying. "Yes, it does! And it's all thanks to Neil's research that I have the opportunity."

"Huh," Was all Rainbow had to say, at first, as she turned and looked him in the eye. "Maybe you aren't the boring kind of Egghead after all. But that still doesn't get you out of training!"

~~~

With Rainbow's badgering, Neil didn't take long to exit the castle. Once they were outside, Neil noticed that the streets of Ponyville were just as deserted as they were that morning. Perhaps even more so, with most of the sane ponies opting to stay inside their warm cottages compared to braving the relatively mild cold. The few ponies forced to leave their homes could be seen darting from one shop to the next. Peeking through the storefront windows as they passed, he could see ponies spending more time talking with the shopkeepers and warming up than doing any actual shopping.

Not that he had much time to dawdle with Rainbow in the lead. As was becoming routine, Rainbow chose to fly in front of their little group while keeping her altitude just above eye level. Thankfully, she wasn't zipping back and forth fast enough to make her tail whip around and reveal anything. Though Neil was hard-pressed to call what she did actual flying. On average, Rainbow flapped her wings once every ten seconds to keep herself in the air. She was somehow hovering mid-air the rest of the time as if gliding forward without any descent.

It was vexing to be reminded yet again how ponies blatantly disregarded the laws of physics. As they walked through town, Neil couldn't help but think of a way to make Rainbow's flight pattern make sense. Unfortunately, by the time they passed city hall, he was forced to give up. Every single physics equation he could remember from high school failed miserably.

'Abby could figure out how Rainbow does it,' Neil mentally groused, since she took every available math class, including Physics 30 and Calculus, which he conveniently skipped.

Immediately after he thought that, Neil steeled himself as he shunted the memory of Abby to the back of his mind. As much as he focused on getting home, he did his best to avoid thoughts of what he left behind. They always brought about small waves of homesickness that swelled within his chest. And, like a vicious feedback loop, those feelings would dredge up memories of all the other people he left behind if left unguarded. Memories of his Dad, his grandparents, and his friends while imagining their reactions to his sudden disappearance. It was a depressing experience he did not want to suffer through in public, let alone in front of others.

He thought he was doing an excellent job of it, too, as they passed beyond the outskirts of Ponyville. As they crossed over the southeast bridge beyond the town's border, Squall chose to intervene.

As the group transitioned from solid stone underneath their hooves to the packed dirt road leading towards the Everfree Forest, Squall broke into formation with the group. He shifted a whole step forward and half a step closer. Close enough so that he could whisper, "Are you feeling okay, Neil?"

"I'm fine," Neil confirmed just as quietly, if a bit pointedly. "I'm just thinking about stuff," Was all he was willing to admit, hoping Squall would accept what he was given and back off.

For a few seconds, Squall appeared to do just that. He didn't respond immediately, but he didn't fall back into formation, either. Neil was just starting to think this would be the new normal for the rest of the trip when Squall continued. "Okay, but if Rainbow's training is too intimidating, just say so. We'll make her tone it down since you're still new with your wings."

'Really? He thinks I'm worried about Rainbow's training?' The thought alone was absurd. While he absolutely despised how he felt at the end of each training session, he couldn't argue with the results (the morning after, at least). Squall was so far out of the ballpark that he was forced to attempt, and fail at suppressing a snort. "That's not what I'm worried about. She can throw whatever the Hell she wants at me, and this freakish Alicorn body can take it. I'll be perfectly normal by tomorrow morning."

Thankfully, before Squall continued, Rainbow decided to chime in. "You know I can hear you, right?" She asked, looking over her back and watching the three ponies behind her as they continued walking.

Latching onto the distraction, Neil stared her in the eye as he answered with a bland, if sarcastic, "Yep."

Which earned an almost Cheshire-like grin in return. "Get ready then because we're almost there," Rainbow warned with excitement and glee. "Under my training, you'll be flying in no time flat. It'll be the most awesome thing you've ever experienced!"

Flying was great, sure, whether it was with a machine or under his own power. But, the best thing ever? Neil immediately thought of a few things that were better than flying as he challenged her with a snarky comeback, "Even better than sex?"

Given her reaction the last time anything sexual was brought up, Neil expected Rainbow to turn into an awkward, slightly blushing mess. Instead, she seemed to roll with it as she veered into the woods. "With anypony but me? Definitely!"

He had no idea whether the sudden shift of her tail was intentional or an accidental byproduct of her seemingly impossible ninety-degree turn. But Neil quickly ejected the image of her blue nether lips from his mind as his chest plowed through the cold, soft snowbank piled high along the side of the road. Beyond that, however, the unblemished snow in the forest itself was only knee height.

The final stretch to Rainbow's forest clearing took less than ten minutes to reach as most of the group plodded through the snow. Rainbow was oblivious to their plight the entire way as she lazily hovered through the air. As Neil and his guard entourage stopped at the edge of the treeline, he couldn't help but admire how serene the clearing looked. A fresh, untouched layer of snow covered the entire area. Masking all the damage he'd done previously with his training.

Along with the wall of dormant, leafless trees covered in a blanket of snow, Neil could easily see the scene on the back of a postcard or a calming desktop background.

Rainbow, however, clearly thought differently as he entered the area. As if a switch was flipped in her brain, Rainbow manifested about five feet in front of him. She took up most of his vision with not only her body but her rainbow after-image as well, as she harshly blew on a whistle that seemingly manifested from nowhere.

"Okay, recruit, this is how things are going to go. You are going to stand right here," She ordered loudly, pointing at the spot right in front of her. "Then, just like you did on the castle balcony, you are going to push off the ground as hard as you can and take off. The only difference is, instead of crashing face down and rump up like a whorse out of Los Pegasus," Without looking away, Rainbow paused her tirade for half a second as she pointed a hoof towards the opposite side of the clearing, "You are going to glide to the other side and land. Do you understand me!?"

The first time she pulled this routine, he had to admit he was caught off guard by her sudden shift in attitude. Now that he had more experience with her drill sergeant persona, Neil expected her bossy shouting. Begrudgingly, his wings shifted from underneath his cloak.

He had to remove his cloak first; otherwise, it would hamper his ability to fly and cause a crash. Once his feathers released the clasp, he quickly passed his only article of clothing to Bulk and broke off from the tree line. Afterward he made his way over to the point Rainbow designated, alone.

Bulk and Squall remained in the tree line as the larger of the two folded up his cloak and set it on his back. As was expected, they would stay out of his way as they settled down to watch over him for the next hour... or five.

As he trundled into the spot Rainbow wanted him in, she flapped her wings and drifted to his side. Just out of the reach of his full wingspan, as she repeated her previous question. "I said, do you understand me?"

"Loud and clear, Blue Leader," He responded with a smirk. He didn't know or care if she was still confused by the unofficial nickname or just accepted it at this point. He wasn't even looking at her as he focused on the other side of the clearing. By now, he knew the basics of his wings. If he desired for something to happen, like a semi-autonomous machine, his wings would do precisely that. Of course, he could also manipulate how they did the task if he put his mind to it.

The question was, what was the best way to manipulate his wings to finish his objective? He hadn't had the chance to practice on his own. His suite was too small and too dangerous to practice in private (slicing his jugular as he crashed through a window wasn't something he wanted to experience). And, the risk of exposing himself as an Alicorn was too great while he was outside of the castle. His only other option was to trust his wings and allow them to react independently. But could he trust them? He still remembered his first take-off, and his landing afterward wasn’t the greatest...

Exhaling, he lowered himself a few inches and tensed. For his first attempt, he'd just have to trust his wings as he unfolded them to their full wingspan. If things went wrong, then he'd just have to focus on not crashing with his ass up in the air.

'Three, two, one,' He counted down mentally, noting once more the odd, deep pulse of his blood as it echoed faintly in his ears, 'Jump!'

He released all the tension in his muscles, pushing off the frozen ground with all his might. His wings also gave a mighty assist, grabbing hold of the air around him as they pushed it all downward. With his eyes open and focused on his distant objective, he easily picked up on the sudden, if mildly disorientating, upward acceleration. Strangely, it felt more like a phantom sense. Like something he should be feeling, compared to the real pull of acceleration across his body.

Beyond the sudden weightlessness of his body, the only thing he could confirm feeling was the tantalizing caress of wind rushing over his feathered wings as they were bent toward the ground. In the short time given, Neil watched it all. First, with an odd sense of elation at his success, he quickly ascended into the sky. In a matter of seconds, however, his momentum began to slow down, lessening the feeling of temptation brushing against his wings. As he neared the apex of his leap with anticipation, unbridled joy soon morphed into a calm expectation as he focused his desires towards gliding.

Even after he came to a complete stop and gravity started pulling him down, he remained calm, trusting his wings to do the right thing as the wind tickled their underside. The first hint of worry came as he felt his downward momentum increasing, along with the drag against the underside of his wings. Faster than he expected, his wings blew past the optimum position for gliding as the wind pushed them toward the sky.

After that, Neil only had a second to experience full-blown panic as the white blanket of snow (and the frozen ground underneath) rapidly approached. He attempted to forcefully wrench his wings back into the proper gliding position. And he almost succeeded as he forced one wing to go nearly horizontal mere feet from the ground. Ultimately, all that managed to do was cause him to involuntarily twist mid-air. The next thing Neil knew, he was on his right side, skidding face-first through the snow until he finally came to a complete stop.

Even with one ear fully submerged in the snow, the other could still hear Rainbow's boisterous laughter. Neil slowly rolled onto his uninjured belly, doing his best to ignore her. Contrary to his expectations, the only pain he felt from the crash came from his pride. His body felt perfectly fine as his legs gathered beneath him. As he stood up, however, he spat out the half-melted snowball that had packed itself into his mouth before looking back. Somehow, his fall built enough momentum to slide ten to twelve feet through the snow.

'Congrats! You've unlocked a new personal worst.' He snarked internally as he turned around and stomped back to his starting spot. Then again, a small part of his mind couldn't help but cheer. The age-old saying, 'Any landing you can walk away from...'

At least Rainbow managed to get her laughter under control by the time he came to a stop and turned to face his objective once more.

She even went so far as to compliment him with a mischievous grin plastered on her muzzle. "Not bad for the first time," She told him with a half-suppressed snerk. "As far as crashes go, sliding to bleed off your energy is better than a head-on impact. But! We're not here to learn how to crash, are we? Back into the air, and remember to lock your wings this time!"

'If they locked in place when they should have, that wouldn't have happened.' Neil mentally countered, while in reality, he groused, "Sure thing, Blue Leader."

At the very least, he learned he couldn't rely on his hacky, desire-based auto-pilot for everything related to his wings and flight.

Once he centred himself for the second attempt, he followed the same steps. His wings were poised, ready to push against the air and soar into the sky. The muscles in his legs tensed with energy. When his mental countdown reached zero, he once more shot himself into the air. He experienced much of the same things he had before, but this time, he didn't allow his wings to flutter at the mercy of the wind. The moment he reached the apex of his downward stroke, he twisted his wings close to vertical. After that, he wrenched them back up until they were horizontal with his body before finally flattening them out.

Oddly, it felt similar to doing a breaststroke as a human. Only he had to fight against the wind's attempt to push his now flattened wings down, which also had the side effect of killing his limited acceleration. Then, after he bled all of his momentum, he had to fight against the wind trying to push his wings towards the sky from underneath. With seconds to spare, he eventually tensed the correct muscles and locked his wings into position. After that, the rest of his extended flight was a breeze, figuratively and literally, as he glided toward his designated landing spot.

'Ha! I did it! I fucking did it!' Neil mentally cheered, nearly euphoric in his success as the wind slipped between his electrified feathers. Once more, he was reminded of the feeling, the desire, and the longing to go higher and faster. To shoot through the sky like a bullet or pierce the sky itself into the very heavens beyond! Anything but the safe, lazy glide he was currently experiencing. If he knew how he might have caved into his instinctual cravings. But he didn't, so he kept his eyes locked on his designated landing point as it slowly grew closer, both in distance and height.

Given his legs were already hanging below him, all Neil had to do was brace himself for impact when the snow brushed against his hooves. After that, his landing was quick, if a little rigid for his tastes, as his legs plowed into the snow. Still, he could count that as his second successful landing, which was a far better alternative than his crash from just a minute ago. As the tension in his muscles released, he exhaled, releasing the breath he'd inadvertently held in his chest...

Only for the whistle blow to go off next to his ear and shock him into standing straight. "Not too shabby compared to your first attempt," Rainbow applauded without any hint of teasing, "But! You lost half your height before you pulled into a glide. For any self-respecting Pegasus, that's completely unacceptable! I will need you to do this a few more times until you manage a glide without falling; you get me?"

He knew his glide hadn't been perfect, but dropping halfway down before managing to lock his wings? He didn't think that was right. Then again, he had been a little preoccupied with fighting his wings. At least she thought he could manage gliding without falling with only a couple more attempts... unless... "By a few more times, you mean...?"

"About a hundred more," She stated, her grin curling upwards as she dropped that unexpected bombshell on him. "At least."

~~~

It was confirmed. There was no way in Hell, in Neil's honest opinion, that Rainbow wasn't some BDSM Bitch of a dungeon mistress. Not after the hours of training she put him through.

Despite her troubling promise initially, things went smoothly, if a little predictably. Neil would jump into the air, shift his wings into the proper position, glide to the opposite side of the clearing, and repeat. Rainbow would be hovering there each time he landed, ready to tell him how much height he lost and to do it again. Near the beginning, it was a mixed bag. Sometimes, he lost a third of his height; other times, he didn't, and rarely, he even improved.

After forty-something leaps into the air, Neil lost his exact count due to the repetition. Still, around that mark, his consistency improved significantly, losing only two feet on average for each jump. However, it was somewhere in the seventies when he finally discovered the arbitrary limit Rainbow was looking for. After transitioning into a glide, bleeding off his altitude, and landing next to his two guards (Thankfully, his landings also saw some much-needed improvement), Rainbow surprised him with a pat on the back and some good news, in her opinion. If he managed five glides in a row without losing more than a foot in altitude, they could move to the next step of his training.

From then on, she didn't call out the exact distance he fell. Only that his attempt was a pass or a fail, as she watched him like a hawk. Sometime after his one-hundredth glide, at least he thought he'd passed one hundred of them, Rainbow finally called out his fifth successful glide in a row. Instead of telling him what came next, she only told him to continue his glides. Rainbow's next step in his training became obvious after his next launch. She began following him up into the air.

When he took off, she would also give a light flap of her wings and follow along with him. Each time, she would focus her attention solely on his wings and his chest. She studied each shift and pull of his muscles, where he kept his various limbs, and every twitch of a feather along his wings. At first, it was completely unsettling to be observed so closely. It also didn't help when she called out one minor mistake after another.

She called out with lethal accuracy every muscle shift or over-exertion of his wings, which was wrong, in her opinion. His only consolation about her sudden interest was that her gaze never went below hip level or behind them as she flew alongside him.

He also couldn't deny that each call-out, once he fixed it to her satisfaction, made the transition into a glide both quicker and slightly easier for him.

Once more, after five consecutive attempts without Rainbow calling out any apparent flaws in his technique, she changed things up.

As Neil landed in the center of his well-abused landing area, Rainbow called for a break. After telling him to rest up, she paused long enough to ask Bulk and Squall if they needed anything before shooting off toward Ponyville.

Without Rainbow around to watch him and judge his every movement, Neil collapsed back first into the snow. Allowing the cold to seep into his overworked flight muscles helped ease his soreness. He also found it calming that the sky was blanketed with an unending grey snow cloud beyond the treeline. If he didn't think about where or what he was, he could almost mistake the sky for a regular Canadian skyline during winter.

His opportunity to rest and relax didn't last long, though. Not even ten minutes later, Rainbow returned, still bursting past the treeline but at a slower speed than usual while holding multiple brown bags in her hooves. This was going to be their lunch break, as Neil quickly rolled onto his belly.

It was his last nice reprieve from training before things started to get nasty.

After lunch, she told him to do precisely what he was doing before. Expectantly, he leaped into the air, only for Rainbow to follow him again. What he did not expect, however, was a blaring whistle not even six inches away from his ear as he transitioned into a glide. The distraction not only caused him to freeze but also locked his wings in a way that caused an uncontrolled downward spiral. A spiral he wasn't able to break before crashing into the dormant branches of a tree just above Squall's chosen position.

Embarrassingly, he also needed Rainbow's help getting out of said tree.

After she set him down, his next attempt wasn't any better. If she wasn't blowing her whistle unexpectedly in his ear, she randomly poked him in the back or side, or worse yet, lightly batted at his wings with her hooves. Anything to distract him at the most inopportune moment and cause him to falter, leading to more than one crash that tore up the previously tranquil clearing. That, more than any other aspect of her training, pissed him off to no end.

Still, as time passed on, he learned how to react to her abuse. Sometimes, he had to relax the muscle she was going for and absorb the attack with whatever ability prevented him from being hurt during a crash, all with minimal loss of height. Other times, he had to shift his wings to dodge her punches or dip just low enough for her to graze his fur.

Although they couldn't see the sky or the sun's position, the day must have passed into the early evening when Rainbow blew her whistle for the final time.

The clearing and some of the surrounding trees were an absolute mess, thanks to all of the impacts and trails caused by his failed attempts. But, the encroaching shadows and the dimming of visible light caused the clearing itself, along with the surrounding forest, to gain an almost subdued, eerie feeling.

"Not bad, Neil," Rainbow told him as he touched down. "You managed to take five hits without flinching. The whistle's also pretty useless at this point. And you even managed to dodge me even if I was flying at a snail's pace."

Honestly, that was the most praise she gave him all day, even if he wasn't feeling keen toward her. Still, he shifted in place, cracking his muscles and joints in preparation for her next addition to her training regime. "Yeah, well, if you play hockey, you quickly learn how to take or dodge a hit. What's next on your list of horrors? Gonna start punching me below the belt now?"

The only answer he received, at first, was an odd look. Making him think that wasn't a normal saying around here before Rainbow skipped back to his first question. "Nothing. You passed gliding with flying colors! Good job getting through it all in one day."

Neil had to replay her statement a second time before a faint smile unconsciously found its way onto his muzzle. He was done. Free from her training for another day. As part of his victory, he slowly leaned forward until his balance passed the point of no return, and he dove into the cold, soothing snow. The only thing that could have made his newfound position any better would have been some snow covering his sore back and wings, but that would have required him to roll over and expose himself, so he didn't.

After a minute of rest, his ears barely caught the sound of Rainbow landing next to him in the snow. Why she even deigned to sully her hooves for the first time that day by touching the ground, he didn't know. But he soon found out as she leaned close to his ear. "But, we still have an hour of daylight left if you want to learn how to really fly."

His first instinct was to tell her a big 'ol Hell No, only to settle for an uncommitted grunt as he considered her offer. He was tired and sore. But, not to the point where he could barely walk, unlike his first endurance session or his first day in Ponyville, where she ran him into the ground. On the other hand, wasn't he learning all of this so he could fly? Yes, Celestia pushed him into flight training for safety reasons. But the freedom he could gain with it was also tempting. He obviously couldn't fly during the day; otherwise, he would have exposed himself. But, flying over the wall at night had to be way easier than sneaking past no less than fifty guards stationed in the castle, right?

'Only if you can avoid your Thestral entourage,' The pessimistic side of his mind answered for him.

In the end, after a minute of back and forth in his head, having the option of flight in his escape toolbox won out.

As he slowly moved his hooves underneath him to stand, his eyes glanced towards the mare beside him. "You think I can learn to fly in an hour?"

"You already have most of it down. You can get the rest in an hour, easy," Rainbow told him as her familiar, challenging smirk appeared again, "If you're good enough."

"Fuck it," He grunted, pushing against the ground as he slowly stood up. He also caught Rainbow's wings flutter involuntarily at his choice of vocabulary, earning a ghost of a grin on his muzzle by the time he reached his full height. "I'm already sore as Hell. Not much more you can do to me, Blue Leader."

"I can think of a few things, but enough joking around," She chided as she hopped in front of him with a light flap of her wings. When she landed, instead of folding her wings, she extended them to their maximum length while looking back.

"You already know how to take off and go into a glide," She stated, only to start going through the motions of gliding with her wings without putting any force behind her actions. She cycled through the motions a few times before Neil caught on and started to copy her movements.

After four complete cycles, while watching his wings, she stopped with her wings resting on top of the snow at the end of a downward stroke. "Flying is almost the same. Angle your wings and raise them as if you were going into a glide," She instructed, pulling her wings in and angling them both upwards, before slowly lifting them. He copied her movement, although she didn't extend her wing or flatten it out like you should for a glide when her wings became level with her back.

"Now, instead of stopping them here," She wiggled her wings, only to raise them high into the air like his wings had been while at the mercy of the wind. "Keep lifting them until you make a V shape. At that point, extend your wings completely, grab the air, and curve your wings forward and down." She ran through the cycle six times while he followed along, doing his best to copy her new wing movements. "Pretty close to the standard take-off, right? And the best part is you can do this!"

The next thing he knew, Rainbow shot off like a bullet into the sky. The only reason he could follow her movement was the fading rainbow trail left by her tail and mane. It started inches above the ground right in front of him and angled up in a straight line, barely missing the top of the snow-covered trees before circling around.

"Awesome, right?" She asked as she came to a near-instant stop right next to him.

He couldn't deny her speed was awesome, but he wasn't going to admit it. So, he simply shrugged as he brought his wings up high. "Just keep repeating those wing movements?"

"Yep, now giddy-up!" She yelled, slapping him on his right flank without warning.

His response was more instinctual than deliberate as his wings tore through the air and threw him upwards into the sky. The angle of attack wasn't nearly as acute as Rainbows, either, being closer to fifty degrees. But, it wasn't vertical as he somewhat closed the distance to the other side of the clearing. Still, it took a second for him to regain control of his wings and get them properly moving again.

Thanks to Rainbow's unprompted slap, he lost more altitude than he should have. But he was still technically flying when his wings dug into the air a second time. He saw, more than felt, the increase in altitude and speed as the treeline grew closer. Two more flaps after that, and he was consistently staying above the treeline as the edge of the clearing quickly approached. Which brought up his first problem.

Usually, he would land about five to ten feet away from the tree line. But, at his current speed, the angle of descent would be nearly impossible to land without crashing. He also didn't know how to turn while keeping his altitude. It wasn't like he was a fixed-wing aircraft with flaps or a rudder.

Then again, with feathers... The moment the thought entered his head, he shook it out. He was not going to experiment. In the end, as he soared far over the treeline, he locked his wings into a glide and gently banked to his right. It wasn't a fast turn, but it worked as he eventually curved back towards the clearing where a waiting Rainbow was grinning from ear to ear.

"Did you have to do that?" Neil all but growled as his hooves touched the ground, his legs slightly bending, absorbing the last of his momentum.

"No," Rainbow admitted, though her smile shifted towards something more mischievous. "But a certain somepony challenged me to do worse, so..."

He felt his eyes narrow as he focused on her shit-eating grin. "I'll remember that. Now, show me how to turn mid-flight."

"Can't wait to see how you try and fail to get back at me. As for turning, there's not much to it," Rainbow admitted with a shrug as she held her wings up again. "You already figured out the newbie way. It's safe, slow, and boooring," She admitted, angling her wings as if mid-turn during a glide. "After that, speed is the main factor you need to get a feel for, as well as increasing the angle of your wings. You can also bend your feathers like this," She added, curving some of her feathers exactly like the flaps of a fixed-wing aircraft...

Once her demonstration was over, Rainbow took a minute to stretch, looking almost cat-like, before hopping into the air with a slight flutter of her wings. "Think you can catch me?"

A second of silence fell between them as Neil contemplated her ludicrous question. The answer was Hell no. Before he could tell her that, however, she was off. Flying towards the tree line at an average cruising speed he'd seen most Pegasi in Ponyville flying at. However, when she reached the tree line, she stopped and spun in place, looking at him expectantly. It must have felt dreadfully slow for her. Still, if this was another one of her training exercises, he was begrudgingly obligated to follow after all the help she gave him.

His second, proper take-off went a little smoother than his first as he flew towards her. She turned northward and flew off before he closed even a tenth of the distance. Just like that, the chase was on.

Neil already knew he was outclassed, but as he pushed himself and altered the angle of his wings for a more front-to-back motion (without losing too much altitude), he soon found himself gaining on her lackadaisical flight.

Of course, the moment he was within shouting distance from her, she would egg him on, kick her speed up a notch, and pull away again in a random direction. It was annoying as hell, but if this is how she wanted to train up his flight speed and maneuvering, then so be it. It also reassured him when he saw Bulk and Squall taking off soon after he did. He didn't have the option of looking back, lest he lose his target, but he sometimes caught a glint of gold after some of the turns Rainbow forced him to make.

He also couldn't deny the feeling of jubilation coursing through his wings as the chill wind teasingly flowed through his feathers. If nothing else, that feeling alone could fuel him to chase Rainbow to the ends of the Equestria. As he banked to the right, barely keeping Rainbow's frantically fluttering tail in his distant sight, he couldn't help but think, 'For all the bullshit I've been put through, the ability to escape the harsh pull of gravity under my power...'

As he pulled out of the turn, however, he felt a strange, emotional twinge of unknown origin centered around two of those words. And, before he could drudge up the sense to stop himself, he mentally repeated them, 'Escape gravity,' Only for the twinge to be stronger, more inviting this time. Out of the blue, he felt as if he was back home, anticipating a good friend would show up at any moment, only for there to be a familiar knock on the door. That, plus the feeling from his wings? He felt far too euphoric from his success to ignore such a little thing as he whispered, "Escaping Gravity," to himself.

A flute's distant, cheerful notes began to play through the wind rushing past his ears. Only to be joined by a folksy, pan-flute-like instrument that offered an alternative direction, if only he would take it. He knew what this was. This was similar to the musical feeling he experienced at the Brass Bells. A smaller, serious part of him wanted to ignore the feeling and stay focused on the goal.

But, the rest of him, in his flight-induced euphoria, was tempted to see where it would go. As he relinquished control, he thought, 'Perhaps this might even give me an edge against Rainbow?'

In response, his body immediately banked away from Rainbow towards a darker, thicker part of the forest canopy.

~
Walking the frozen lands, nopony’s innocent,
Hoof to mouth I've lived life homeless.
Stuck in the phantom zone, lost in a thunder dome,
Sisters rule the day.

I found the impossible, now I'm unstoppable,
Taking off, the world beneath me.
Strong under pressure, I'll make it forever,
The universe will change!
~

As he straightened out on his new course, he couldn't believe the manoeuvres he was pulling off in time with the music. After all, he might have relinquished control to the music, but the music came from inside of himself. Thus, it was him in the end, right? Not that he needed to worry about that now, and give himself a headache as he excitedly pulled off a perfect aileron roll just in time to start the next verse.

~
Freedom looking down a telescope.
Forest's never been so beautiful.
The whole world waiting for me, time to go,
Escaping gravity.
~

Suddenly, mid-chorus, he felt the need to loop-de-loop, so he did with a mighty flap of his wings. Just in time, too, as a rainbow trail cut above him. Allowing him to figuratively wrap around the after image in time with the second half of the chorus before entering a slight dive towards the closer but still distant and dark canopy.

~
We’ll be rising high above the rain.
Sunset's never going to be the same.
Thunder calling us to touch the clouds,
Escaping gravity.
~

Which transitioned nicely into a lengthy, if happy-go-lucky instrumental interlude as Rainbow slowed down for a second nearby pass. She appeared worried about his sudden change in behavior for a moment, but once she acquiesced to the music, that changed. Where once was a solo stunt flyer, now there was a duo. Flipping and twirling around one another to the whims of the instruments themselves.

Rainbow also surprised him as they neared what he now recognized as the Everfree Forest. She had a surprisingly delightful singing voice as she trilled, "Escaping gravity!"

This not only led him into the following verse of the song but signaled both of them to fly even lower.

~
Straight to the Everfree, faster than sanity,
Left behind a land forsaken.
Zebras and manticore, Skating the canopy,
Fearless like my dreams.
~

Compelled by the first half of the verse, Neil and Rainbow traced their hooves along the snow-covered leaves as if they were figure skaters performing for a crowd. But just as quickly as they started, the first half of the verse finished, and so were they as they rocketed upward, towards the clouds.

~
Reach out with newfound flight, wings of the Pegasi,
Free myself from limitations.
Fighting for liberty, raising the energy,
Bursting at the seams.
~

As they shot towards the clouds, swirling around one another, Rainbow's singing voice joined with his as they both took on the chorus.

~
Freedom looking down a telescope.
Forest's never been so beautiful.
Whole world waiting for us, time to go,
Escaping gravity.

We’ll be rising high above the rain.
Sunset's never gonna be the same.
Thunder calling us to touch the clouds,
Escaping gravity!
~

As the words gravity were sung by both of them, they reached the cloud cover at the same time.

Rainbow broke through cleanly as if the clouds were little more than air to her.

Neil, however, wasn't so lucky. To him, it felt as if he dove head-first into a pool from the highest diving platform. Killing the music and his momentum to the point that only his head, neck, and shoulders breached through to the other side of the cloud cover. Suddenly, regaining complete control of his body after an unfinished heartsong was also quite disorienting.

In contrast, however, the view was awe-inspiring. An expansive, clear evening sky unmarred by a single cloud with millions of tiny, multi-coloured stars. Not to mention the colourful nebula of pink, purple, green, and blue in the background, as if they were painted by a master. Despite his predicament, Neil could have stared into the sky for hours... If not for a swirling blue blur above him that grew larger and larger until Rainbow landed next to his head.

It took an entire two seconds before Rainbow's restraint crumbled. Much to his displeasure, she collapsed onto the cloud next to him, laughing uproariously at the situation he found himself in.

~~~

Twilight couldn't remember the last time she was this excited!... Okay, that wasn't entirely truthful. Solving the chest given to them by the Tree of Harmony, defeating Tirek, and receiving the Castle of Friendship as a gift was exciting and exhilarating, given the amount of power she was wielding at the time. But there was also the bittersweet sorrow of losing her home to contend with that day.

Thanks to Neil, however, she had the opportunity to live out one of her Daring Doo fantasies, and the best one at that! After all, the beginning of every good adventure starts with lots of important research! And to think, she was sitting on all of this undiscovered ancient history without doing her due diligence!

That would be the last time she assumed everything she collected had a copy stored in the Canterlot archives. However, that begged the question of why these books weren't copied over. After all, Celestia had over one thousand years to do so. She could have moved them over to Canterlot Castle or made copies anytime.

Summoning her checklist of Curious Inquiries for Celestia to Answer at an Unspecified Later Date, she added that question to the list. Once she dispelled the scroll back to its place of rest, Twilight took a tally of all the books she'd collected from her shelves. Of the four-hundred and seventy-six books she catalogued and copied from the Castle of the Two Sisters, thirty-seven were unavailable on the Canterlot Castle reading list. To think, she had thirty-seven new books that nopony had read in a millennium or more, minus the small collection that Neil had read.

Now that she thought about it, would it be best to start with the books Neil already looked at? She could start with the same baseline knowledge he did. Or would it be more beneficial to sort all thirty-seven books in chronological order and work her way from the oldest tome to the newest?

Before she could settle on the proper methodology for her newest side project, Spike's young but clearly masculine voice interrupted her thoughts. "Twilight?"

"Yes, Spike?" She asked, confused, as she turned to her Number One Assistant. Soon after Neil had left, she took some of her limited free time to eat lunch. She was also reasonably sure it wasn't dinner time yet. Unless there was an unexpected emergency, she had the day already booked up with her research. Something must have happened if Spike was bothering her with an unscheduled interruption!

Oddly, he wasn't acting like that was the case as he scratched the back of his flexible head spikes. She also noted the faint blush colouring his cheeks as he spoke up. "Rarity dropped by to see you," He admitted.

"But I can also see that you're extremely busy at the moment, Twilight." Rarity conceded, her voice coming from the library's entrance as Twilight turned to look her way. "If you want, I could drop by later today?"

"Oh! Don't worry about that, Rarity," She faltered apologetically, as her magic pushed aside the books closest to her and towards the pile they belonged to. "I can put off my research for a bit. What brings you here today?

"Thank you, Darling, and thank you, Spikey-Wikey, for guiding me," Rarity told both of them as she trotted closer. "To be frank with you, I've been having one of those days. Sweetie's currently in the hospital, sleeping off an illness that reared its ugly head this morning."

The fact that Rarity was here instead of the hospital immediately set off warning bells in her mind. With but a thought, her horn sparked to life as she pulled one medical text after another from the shelves. "Oh no! Is she doing alright? It isn't life-threatening, is it? Do you need access to my medical texts?"

Rarity immediately shook her head in the negative, causing her curled main to bounce (and attract Spike's focused adoration). At the same time, Twilight put a pause on collecting more texts. "Good gracious, no, Darling, but thank you for the offer. Nurse Redheart diagnosed her with a fever and gave her a proper dosage to clear the whole thing up by this evening. However, it made Sweetie a bit drowsy."

"I'm glad to hear that," She told her friend honestly while breathing a sigh of relief. As she placed the medical texts back in their rightful place, she couldn't help but ask, "If you don't mind me asking, why aren't you waiting at the hospital?"

"Well, I offered to stay with Sweetie as she slept," Rarity admitted, with the barest hint of her frazzled state of mind leaking into her voice. "But, Celestia bless her heart, she knows how busy this time of year can get. She told me to go home and get some of my orders done. The problem is, I'm so worried about Sweetie Bell, I can’t focus!"

"That's not a problem, Rarity. I can help you with your orders if you need it." Twilight offered, thinking that was why Rarity came over.

Rarity was quick to decline her offer again before explaining the real reason she came by. "Oh, no, that's not why I'm here. The truth is, I was hoping to discuss a few topics of interest with you over a cup of tea. Just an hour or two, at most, to calm my worries before I go back to the hospital and watch over Sweetie as she sleeps."

"I think I can accommodate that," Twilight told her with a gentle smile. If Rarity needed a friend to calm her nerves, she was more than willing to oblige her. "Spike, do you mind bringing some of the leftovers from lunch to the map room?"

It was always amusing to predict how long Spike would take before he eventually overcame the distraction Rarity caused him. Today, it took seven-point-six seconds before finally addressing her request. "I'll be right on it!"

It took him about the same amount of time to rush out of the library.

"Thank you, Twilight," She said, exhaling appreciatively. After that, a moment or two passed in silence before Rarity spoke up again. "If I may say so, I'm also quite curious how well your meeting with Equestria's newest Ambassador went?"

"Equestria's newest Ambassador?" Twilight asked, confused. After all, Rarity was there to see how everything turned out. "The last Ambassador I met with was Prince Rutherford, and you know how well that went."

"The Yak envoy?" She questioned before she shook her head politely. "Oh no, I meant your meeting with Neil, Darling." Neil? Her confusion must have been apparent because Rarity continued after a second. "Haven't you heard? Princess Celestia elevated him to the status of Ambassador. However, the article I read declined to share which country he's an ambassador of."

No, she hadn't heard about that. Neil and Princess Celestia declined to share the news with her, though she could somewhat understand Neil's reluctance. He appeared to be a very private sort of pony, the kind that was reluctant to share information unless they needed to. "Interesting. Neil failed to mention that during his time spent researching."

Twilight thought Princess Celestia would have shared that kind of information with her. Or, maybe the Princess felt she was overburdened as it was? After all, she was already running out of options regarding her task to find Canada... 'No. Don't make assumptions about ponies you barely know.

Just because Neil refuses to share his country of origin and the Princess asked me to find a previously unknown country doesn't mean they're related. Remember what happened with Zecora... and to some extent, Eris. Even if Neil's new title boosts the probability that both topics are intertwined to a ninety-four-point-three percent chance.'

Still, heeding her advice, she turned to Rarity and asked, "Do you mind if I teleport both of us into the map room? Or would you rather walk down?"

Author's Note

Well, this is officially the latest chapter I've posted so far. However, it's technically still within my once a month posting schedule! I've also already started on the next chapter, as well. Hopefully I post that before the 23rd of next month?

Also, I'm hoping the flight training scene isn't too decisive. It was supposed to be a solo song, but with Rainbow as a trainer, she just had to come back and check on him. Which turned it into a stunt duo, and led to the sudden, if humorous ending to his second heartsong.

Also, also, the song:

After having Neil humming to some FatRat, I found it oddly amusing to use this song even though it hasn't been released yet in his timeline. XD

Also, also, also, if for whatever reason you want to rant or rave at me, there's a Discord! :P
https://discord.gg/JhhwM89VPY