There the Body Follows

It was the place Twilight Sparkle had come to call ‘home’: shelves of tomes, neither dusty nor old, stood in tightly-packed rows and near obsessive order. A pleasant near-quiet filled the hollow tree, only disrupted by the noises of Ponyville’s hustle and bustle, like Canterlot in slow-motion with the volume turned down. The comparison was particularly clear in the unicorn’s head, having returned from a particularly wild and emotionally-frantic trip to the capital of ponykind.

If she closed her eyes, she could still imagine it, even if her memories had a dream-like absurdity to them. Had the princess not assured her during daylight hours, she would’ve thought it all a dream. Perhaps, just to be sure, I should send the princess-

A disruptively-loud belch accompanied a sudden gout of emerald flame bursting from Spike’s mouth, sending green light and rapidly-coalescing smoke pouring in through the doorway. “Hey, Twilight, you’ve got mail!” With his tiny legs working fast, he ran back into the library holding a neat little square of red paper.

“A letter? Celestia usually sends scrolls,” Twilight Sparkle wondered aloud as she looked up from an old, worn-looking book, its well-eared pages showing years of dedicated reading and re-reading. “I guess reliving Daring Do’s adventures can wait for a few more minutes.” A momentary examination of the envelope revealed very few details - it was unaddressed and lacked any noticeable seal. Still, if it’d come through Spike, it was obviously important enough to-

The envelope, having settled on the open pages of Twilight’s book, suddenly warped, folding itself as if molested by a master of origami. When it finally stopped, the startled unicorn found herself staring at what looked to be a mare’s snout and mouth, constructed entirely from paper.

“Oh, Spike! It’s a Howler, just like in the Far Spotter stories! I didn’t even know that kind of magic really existed!” Twilight Sparkle almost bounced with excitement.

“What’s a Howler?”

“It’s a special, magical letter that- uh oh-”

The mouth sprang to life, paper lips spreading wide to spew forth a sudden shockwave of sound, sending a rain of literature cascading from the bookshelves; “Twilight Sparkle! How dare ye write such perverted filth regarding the royal alicorn of the sun! Has the world lost all sense of proper courtship during Our thousand-year absence?! Nay, I do not know how thine quillwork ensnared Our sister’s attention, but let me tell thee: Thou shalt prove thyself worthy before-”

Pinned to one of the now nigh-empty bookcases, eyes streaming and cheeks flapping, Twilight Sparkle struggled against the thunderous roar of Princess Luna’s further-amplified Canterlot voice with little success. “Burn it! Get rid of it!” she shouted to the tiny dragon clinging to the edge of the table, who was hanging on for dear life as the hurricane-force voice tried to tear him from his perch.

Spike couldn’t possibly have heard Twilight’s command over the bedlam, but the aural assault nonetheless suddenly stopped as the mass of paper went up in smoke and flame. “Good thing Owloysius taught me how to read lips.”

* * *

“-thy receives permission to plunge thine lustful tongue between the royal thighs! We know thou cravest this act most wantonly, and since the laws regarding lesbia-” A gold-clad hoof smashed down on the screaming letter, grinding the increasingly-mangled piece of paper into the carpet moments before a flash of powerful solar magic charred the remains into blackened ash.

“Ah,” Princess Celestia began, face slightly flushed as she turned her attention to the rest of the courtroom and the various stunned dignitaries now staring at the dirty patch at Celestia’s forehooves, “I’m sure we can all agree that absolutely nothing of any interest happened in court today, can’t we?”

* * *

“Well, this day sure proved interesting.” Twilight Sparkle rubbed at her ear, trying to get rid of the persistent tinnitus that’d been haunting her for the last two hours. Her right ear cleared up quite quickly, her left, not so much, which is why the young student neither heard the window open, nor noticed her guest until she announced her presence; “Twilight Sparkle, We would like a moment of thine time.”

“Princess Luna?” Twilight Sparkle whirled around to find the princess of the night standing no more than a ponylength behind her, clad, for some reason, in saddlebags and thick-rimmed glasses. “That letter-”

“-was very unmoderate. We are aware of this, and apologize.” Luna lowered her head, sending the empty frames tumbling from her snout. “We were feeling possessive of our big sister and did not think our actions through. It has made things... awkward at Canterlot Castle.”

“Don’t worry, princess Luna. I understand you’re still having a little trouble with how we do things in Equestria these days. From what I understand, in your time, writing fiction of the princesses was grounds for punishm- ah-” Twilight Sparkle coughed. “-how did you end up finding out about... ehm...”

“It is true, in mine time, your quillwork would have been grounds for beheading, but we agree that it is better this way: we would not like to see our saviour with her neck cropped short. As for how we came to read it; Celestia was quite insistent we read thine friendship reports. We believed we had absorbed them all... but then we found thine tale secreted within a scrollcase of intricate inlay in a place not normally associated with friendship reports. Our curiosity as to why our dear sister would give any report such special treatment, we could not contain it. Thine writings have resulted in some... misunderstandings.” There was a pregnant pause there, before Luna continued, “Which is why we must ask a favor of thine, Twilight Sparkle. We would prefer to stay... discreet for a modest time, away from Canterlot. We wish thee to fashion us a disguise of magickal nature. We would do it ourselves, but our sister will be sure to detect such an extravagant use of our royal alicorn magick.”

“You... wish me to use magic to hide your identity, princess?” Twilight Sparkle considered the option, then shook her head, “No, I’m sorry. Whatever it is you did, you should be brave and face up to the consequences, even if Princess Celestia is angry at you. My lessons in friendship taught me that. So, no. There is no way you could convince me to-”

“Wouldst thou do it for a book?” The flap on one of the moon-princess’ saddlebags opened, and with a minor magical flourish, the alicorn drew forth a hardback novel with a brightly-shaded cover.

Twilight Sparkle’s mouth fell open, “D-daring Do and The Crystal Horn?! I... how did you- That one’s not even- I never heard of-... no!” The little purple unicorn shook her head frantically, “You won’t tempt me to keep secrets from Celestia, even if it is a whole new fantastic adventure of Daring... Do...”

“Then perchance thou wouldst do it for... two books?” A second book, shrouded in Luna’s levitation spell, came up to hover right next to the first, its cover adorned with a lightning bolt-marked unicorn stallion.

“F-far Spotter! A-and Daring Do. And Far Spotter. A- I...” Twilight Sparkle’s tongue glued itself to the roof of her mouth, lips quivering as she tried to find either voice or words. Left with neither, the unicorn could do naught but bob her head frantically and hold out her forelegs as if planning to hug a lover. The similarity did not end there, as Twilight Sparkle found herself clutching the tomes to her chest, rubbing her cheek across their cool, papery covers and filling her nostrils with the scent of fresh print. “A-alright. I’ll do it. And I won’t tell anypony.”

The glow of Twilight Sparkle’s horn filled the room with an ever-intensifying light, first to neatly tuck her ill-gained adventure stories away for safekeeping, then to channel her full power into dark mare before her. Soon, the entire room was a sea of white light, pulsing with barely-constrained arcane might. “Hold on to your horn!” What followed might well have been described as a soundless, forceless explosion had there been any witnesses.
A small gasp escaped Celestia’s less-than-entirely-faithful student as the last bit of the spell squirted from her horn. Rising on suddenly-wobbly legs and opening tired, bleary eyes, Twilight Sparkle forced her wavering gaze back to the now-altered princess...

“Twilight Sparkle! Is this thine idea of joviality?! We remain exactly the... wait.” Luna demanded, realizing halfway through that her voice had suddenly acquired a warm rumble; like a civilized, velvet-coated thunder boiling up from within Luna’s chest. The alicorn was still an alicorn, dark of shade and slender-legged, but the princess’ proportions had shifted, her mane and tail had gone sleek and black like a starless night...

...but perhaps most notably, Luna found herself - or rather - himself more ‘Prince’ than ‘Princess’. “This is not quite what we had in mind, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh, I couldn’t really hide your wings or your horn. I mean - I tried, but the spells wouldn’t hold, so I sortof... improvised. It worked, didn’t it? Celestia’ll likely ignore any rumors of a male alicorn walking around, right? After all, gender spells are known to be, well, impossible.” The purple unicorn coughed, “But if you want to be sure, you could... change your behaviour a bit. The way you speak does kind-of stand out a bit.”

“We suppose we could make this work for us. Hmmm... We remember a stallion of ages past whose behaviour we could adopt. He had quite the crush on my sister, if we remember it well, to the broken hearts of many a mare - alas, from what we heard, he never did manage to tell her of his love. Or at least, my sister never did mention him since our return.” Luna shifted her- nay, his stance slightly, and coughed once. “Lady Twilight Sparkle, my gratitude would be boundless should you be willing to grant me your knowledge of the environs.”

A dark, starry aura of magic enveloped the door, and opened it to unveil the world outside awash in the fiery oranges of evening.

* * *

The familiar rhythmic rattle of the sewing machine echoed rapid counterpoint to the steady ticking of the clock, a symphony of clicks both entrancing and horrifyingly boring. Rarity, caught in thoughts that drew her attention to places far from her art, never even noticed. The last few days’d been quite the distraction, first the artistic effort of crafting her purple unicorn friend a suitable pyjama for a Canterlot slumber party - and now Twilight Sparkle’s mysterious behaviour since her return to Ponyville. Oh, but Twilight wasn’t as good at keeping secrets as she thought she was; Rarity recognized well enough that saucy little extra sway to the bookworm’s hips. There was no doubt of it in the fashionista’s mind: Twilight Sparkle had found herself a coltfriend.

Now, she was well aware it was impolite to spy, but it wouldn’t be inappropriate for the hard-working unicorn to just happen to be sitting at the window that gave the best view of Twilight Sparkle’s library home, now would it?

And perhaps... perhaps she would just happen to glance in that old tree’s direction when Twilight Sparkle’s suitor came knocking.

But for days, naught hide nor hair was seen other than the occasional guest to the library. No mysterious strangers, no furtive glances. The increasingly dreary days of fall left the dirt outside a muddy mess, and there hadn’t been a single guest to the library today. With a sigh, Rarity set her work aside and walked to the window, magic blossoming from her horn to grasp and close the curtains. “Perhaps I was wrong. For all I know, she was simply excited over some old book she found.”

That’s when the library door opened; A dark, masculine snout appeared first, led only by an impressive length of fluted horn and followed by a luxurious, flowing mane. Rarity’s mouth fell open at the sight, “Oh dear. Is that..? Could that be..? Oh my, Twilight sure knows how to pick them. That’s quite an impressive specimen of-” Powerful, yet well-kept hooves stepped out onto the dirt, and turned with precise steps to expose the little bookworm following him. A wing, feathers gleaming like polished blue velvet, swept out to gently bring the librarian to a halt before she stepped in a mud-puddle.

“- a-alicorn? R-royal blood? T-true royal blood? Why didn’t I know about this? W-why wasn’t I informed?!”

For a moment, the stallion spoke to his unicorn companion, too far away for Rarity to make out, and stepped into the puddle. Sweeping out his wings wide, he lowered them until their edges lay on dry land. Twilight hesitated, but took her next stride onto the silken feathers. Muscles flexed and rolled under the stallion’s skin to catch the sudden weight, but his wings barely trembled as Twilight Sparkle made her way across the feathered bridge, and to the other end of the puddle.

“So... so chivalrous. It’s...” Rarity’s eyes widened and shone brighter with every one of Twilight Sparkle’s steps, until the purple unicorn finally met dry ground, and turned to meet the alicorn’s graceful bow. “H-how - I -” A familiar light-headedness swept in and drew the strength from her legs. For a moment, all went black, but determination and more than a hint of anger sent new power to her limbs. “H-how could she? How could she keep a treasure like that for herself? She knows it’s my dream to marry a stallion like- No! No time to swoon again! As Celestia is my witness, I, Rarity, will not squander this chance!”

The arcane glow of the fashionista’s magic drew forth a swarm of grooming tools. Perfume, brush and currycomb swarmed around her like busy bees as she half-galloped to the door, “Nay! My chance of joy will not escape me! Twilight Sparkle will tell me!”

With the experience of years of daily preening, the white unicorn rushed through her primping routine without even so much as slowing down and half-cantered to the library, where her new rival (now sans mysterious stranger) had just settled in to start reading.

“Twilight Sparkle!” The library door struck the inner wall with an audible boom, “Why did you not tell me your coltfriend was an alicorn?! Do I mean so little to you? How could you keep such a thing a secret? How could you!”

“What? I...” The startled student forcibly pulled her nose from the book’s spine, “Who? Oh, ehm... I see, you saw that? Well, I’m not actually his fillyfriend, s- he’s just a friend.”

“Just a friend? You didn’t snag him while you were in Canterlot? You know a royal alicorn stallion and he’s ‘just a friend’? Wait, does that mean... he’s available?” Rarity wobbled for a moment on suddenly-unsteady legs. “So the- the nightwear I made, it wasn’t for his benefit? Do you think he’d like it? S-say, speaking of said nightwear, could I, ah, have it back now? I mean, I made it for you, but since there was no payment involved and...”

Twilight Sparkle’s cheeks flushed visibly as she rose to her hooves, eyes lingering on one of the books, “Well, Rarity, I, well... I’m sorry, I lost it. It got thrown into the crowd and I think one of the ponies I slept with now has it.”

“One of the ponies - Twilight Sparkle, I hope I don’t come across as unforgivably-rude, but how many ponies did you sleep with on your trip to Canterlot, exactly?”

“I don’t know exactly. Twenty-five, maybe thirty-five, I didn’t count.”

Rarity could feel one of her eyes begin twitching. “One after the other?”

“No, silly! I only had one night in Canterlot, after all. I slept with all of them at once!”

“I... I...” The fashionista’s train of thought was skipping its rails faster than the poor lady could keep up with.

“Oh, I was so nervous at first,” Twilight Sparkle cheerfully announced, clapping her forehooves together. “Can you imagine, me sleeping with a whole roomful of strangers?”

“I must confess, the thought had never occurred to me before,” Rarity admitted, “but now I can imagine it quite vividly, thankyouverymuch. Very, very vividly. I guess there’s some truth in the whole ‘It’s always the quiet ones’ thing.”

Twilight Sparkle frowned and rubbed her still-buzzing ear, a little unsure if she’d heard that correctly. “Oh, don’t be silly, Rarity. You don’t need to be any particular kind of pony to enjoy a night in Canterlot. In fact, Fluttershy is a lot more quiet than me, and she’d probably outperform me by an order of magnitude. If she ever gets over being shy, I’m sure every single pony there will thoroughly love her.”

The poor white unicorn’s imagination took a sudden ninety-degree turn off of ‘hedonistically deviant’ straight down into ‘unprintably depraved’. “I guess that I won’t be getting my innoc- I mean the pyjamas back. That’s a shame, I was rather proud of the design.” Rarity inhaled deeply and shook her head, taking a moment to gather her mental bearings. “Let’s get back to the matter at hoof, shall we? This alicorn stallion, tell me all about him!”

“Rarity, I... I promised the prin- ah, I promised I wouldn’t tell anypony, Rarity. He’d rather not cause a fuss right now.” Twilight sighed, “I’m sorry. But if it’ll make you feel any better, I suggested he head to the Carousel Boutique to get some clothes fitted for his time here in Ponyville.”

Rarity squeaked. “I knew it: He -is- a prince!
…Wait, you mean I missed him?! Oh dear! Sorry Twilight, got to run!”

* * *

Bathed in the resplendent gold of the sun’s last fading light, the mystery prince stood like a velvet shadow at the Carousel Boutique’s door, apparently patiently waiting. As Rarity slowed her hurried trot to a steady walk in order to arrive with the appearance of a casual approach, he turned turned to face her. The sun at his back cast a halo around his head and struck gleaming highlights off his coat, even as an ethereal breeze toyed gently with his flowing mane. “Lady, if I am correct, this establishment is thine, is it not? It is an honor to meet you. I hope I have not come at an inopportune time.”

“I - Yes, I’m Rarity, and of course it’s not an imposition. Come right in, prince...” Rarity trailed off politely, giving the prince a moment to fix his minor faux-pas.

“Ah! I apologize. I’m...” A momentary hesitation, but the dark prince quickly recovered, “Prince Midnight Rendezvous, would’st thou be so understanding as to keep my presence here discrete, it would find my favor.” The dark prince glanced away from Rarity’s face, “...Ladies first?”

Did he..? The fashionista found herself wondering what he’d meant, momentarily bemused by the hint of uncertainty, only to be distracted by the steady glow of unicorn magic smoothly opening the Boutique’s door for her.

It took but a few hurried moments to fill the boutique with the warm glow of oil-lamps, flickering flames sending gleaming echoes of light dancing across the prince’ coat. “Prince Midnight Rendezvous, if you would please be so kind as to stand on the podium? I can start taking your measurements while we discuss your new clothes.”

“Of course, Lady Rarity. And please, call upon me as ‘Midnight’ if it is your pleasure. My full name, ‘tis long on the tongue.” the alicorn replied, closing the door with a gentle click before stepping onto the platform. Rarity could almost hear the capitalization of the word ‘lady’.

“So, discrete? Then how about something dapper, yet capable of concealing your wings?” the fashionista suggested as she levitated her tape-measure to the barrel of his chest. Curiosity, or perhaps her heart, clawed at her throat like a feral fiend as she held back her questions, slowly, almost sensually trailing her measure along the length of the prince’ spine.

“That sounds like an admirable suggestion, Lady Rarity. ‘Twould be remiss of me to understate your fashion sense - I’ve been told it is impeccable.” The words sent a pleasant little tingle down Rarity’s spine, settling in her dock just as she started measuring his. The prince stood still as she measured his forelegs, the girth of his surprisingly-elegant neck, the width of his shoulders - only when she began measuring his head and snout did he turn his gaze to her for a moment, flashing a slightly-nervous-seeming smile.

Down his back again, along the smooth curves of his sides, to his flanks, his hindquarters, tape-measure lightly brushing through the prince’ coat. With a hint of trepidation, Rarity set about measuring Prince Midnight Rendezvous’ inseam, resting her measure against the inside of his hindleg. After a worried glance at the seemingly-distracted prince to ensure he wasn’t looking, Rarity could not keep herself from sneaking a peek. What she saw pulled her breath from her;

So... refined. Perfect, not too large, not too small - and so clean, it’s almost as if it’s actually new. I- No, Rarity. Now is not the time to even hint at impropriety, and tongue-bathing a stranger’s testicles might, under some rare-and-unusual circumstances, be misinterpreted as inappropriate.

With the sudden urge properly throttled, suppressed and disciplined, Rarity managed to pull her eyes off of the prince’ intimates, and straight to his eyes. “Is everything well, Lady Rarity?”

Rarity quickly jerked the tape-measure from where it was tucked between the prince’ stifles, “O-of course, prince. Why wouldn’t it be? I mean, I’m almost done.”

“Thank you.” The slightly-awkward silence stretched as the prince turned his gaze away again, eyes trailing the nearby shelves while the pearly unicorn sought to finish (and record) her measurements. “It would seem you have many books of romance, Lady Rarity.” the prince finally remarked, tracing the covers of a few of her less well-hidden pleasures.

“I do enjoy a bit of reading, majesty. A mare is surely permitted her little distractions, isn’t she?”

“I meant no offense, Lady Rarity. In truth, I find it rather admirable. I’ve recently found that skilled wordsmithing can often conquer a pony’s heart like no army can. It’s a shame our- ah, my attempts at such have met with... limited success..”

“A-at writing?”

“At ro- ah, at writing, yes. Perhaps...” there was a hesitation there, “...if she were willing, the Lady Rarity would be so kind as to make some suggestions as to the better novels?”

Rarity went silent for a moment; Romance. He was going to say romance. Why, any pony who’d miss out on the prince’ eager heart wouldn’t know romance if it gently caressed their cutie-marks! I, however... With her voice fading to a hopeful near-whisper, the fashionista suggested, “I could... teach you..?”

“I would enjoy that. Should I prepare some kind of pay-” Prince Midnight Rendezvous found himself shushed by the white unicorn, her hoof mere inch or so from his lips.

“It’s on me, please.”

* * *

The heavy chair barely moved as Daring Do jerked her legs against the rigid bonds. “You’ll never get away with this, Bellcock!”

Bellcock laughed, a surprisingly-pleasant sound had it not come from the stallion who shamelessly stole credit for several of Daring Do’s discoveries. “But Daring Do, I haven’t done anything! Well, at least, not yet.” Leaning unsettlingly-close, the tan stallion slowly ran his hoof along the crystalline length jutting from the heroine’s forehead. “It’s a good thing my... friends caught you before you got on the train. The Crystal Horn would’ve been wasted languishing in some dusty old museum somewhere, especially when it’s power can be mine.”

Twilight Sparkle hesitated. Did the world-famous author of the entire Daring Do series, an author probably aided by a small army of editors, just make an its/it’s error? “This... is probably an unedited preview copy! No wonder Princess Luna got one so soon. I wonder if I should even be reading this...”

“It’s a shame you had to go do something so foolish as to merge the horn with your own skull,” the earth pony continued, “and while it does bring out the stars in your eyes quite nicely, it’ll be naught but ornamental without the ancient ritual to empower it. And that will never happen without my help.”

“I don’t care,” Daring Do spat at her tormentor, “I don’t need any powers to defeat you.”

“Defeat me? Oh, I’m afraid that particular option is off the table. I’ll either simply saw the horn from your head... or you will join me.”

“What?! Never! How can you even think I would-”

“Ah! Don’t be too hasty now. The thought of becoming the mightiest unicorn of the world sounds rather pleasant, and I won’t hesitate to end you if that’s my best option. But I still have a better one; why become a unicorn... if I can own an alicorn?” The earth pony’s hoof slowly ran down the length of Daring Do’s body, across her chest, down her side, to come rest directly upon her cutiemark, “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Daring Do. You’ve run away from me so often, won so often, that I’ve rather come to admire your spunk, your daring, and above all, your beautiful, magnificent moon.” He slowly began to knead at the naked flesh, distorting Daring Do’s cutiemark with every press of his forelimb. “I know you’ll say ‘no’ now, but after I’m done with you...”

“We doth not know that of which you speak!”

“Then let me show thee.” Bellcock’s hot breath washed across the sensitive skin of prin Daring Do’s throat, lightly nibbling his way down the length of her neck as the heroine fought the sudden surge of heat in her cheeks. The nibbles soon became kisses, akin to those delivered ‘pon a betrothed of a marriage pact. The alicorn writhed lusciously within the uncompromising bonds--

Twilight Sparkle burst out laughing, “Oh! This is terrible! I never realized just how much editors have to clean up the Daring Do books before publishing them. This is almost pornography! I really shouldn’t be reading this.

...well, maybe a few more pages wouldn’t hurt. Since I’m already this far in.”

An hour later, Owloysious used a dexterous talon to twist a knob on the nearly-empty oil-lantern, plunging the room in darkness. With a quick fluff of his wings and a wiggle of his tail, he settled in for a boring, but relaxing night watching his bossmare quietly snore, cuddled up to a book as usual.

* * *

Large eyes opened to a radiant dawn, blinking blearily as the shade of a feathered wing pulled away. A tiny little beak yawned wide, exposing an equally-tiny little tongue within. Sleepily, she nuzzled into the mass of feathers of the white form next to her, trying to coax the warming maternal wing back across her body for a few more dozy minutes in the morning sun.

Great golden talons lightly combed through the purple gryphlet’s fluffy head-down. “Good morning, Twilight Sparkle. Rise and shine,” the large, nearly-luminescent white gryphoness churred to her gryphlet in a voice so familiar the tiny purple thing immediately jerked to full awareness.

“P-princess Celestia?” Tiny claws scrabbled at the cliff-perched mass of twigs and branches that made up their nest. “Why are you a gryphon?!” little Twilight Sparkle squeaked, before making an even more startling discovery; “Why am I a baby gryphon?!”

“You’re dreaming, my faithful little student,” Celestia replied with a little laugh, making a wide gesture to the horizon and the rippling waters of the still, gold-dappled sea far beneath the cliff’s edge. “You’ve always had such a lovely imagination,” the princess-gryphoness said as she turned her attention back to the downy little gryphlet in her nest, “It doesn’t surprise me your dreams are too.”

“But princess, you’re an alicorn! You’re a princess! You shouldn’t be a gryphone--”, Twilight Sparkle’s confused little wail came to a sudden halt as the princess’ golden talon pressed against Twilight’s little beak.

“It shouldn’t matter what we are, only who we are,” Celestia interrupted, “Besides, this opens up many options otherwise closed to us.”

“Huh? What do you mean? What are you going to do?” Twilight Sparkle’s looked on with confusion, eyes trying to follow Celestia’s golden talons as they encircled her tiny, fluffy body, and lifted her to her pearly-white chest.

“What every gryphoness mother is love-bound to do, my faithful little student.” Great white wings spread wide, stretching to their very trembling limits. “I’m going to teach you to fly.” With a boom of displaced air, Celestia launched herself over the cliff’s edge, sending the ground spiraling away in a dizzying rush.

Twilight’s terrified scream came out as a long, distressed peep, little foretalons pressed to her eyes as she felt the wind pulling at her face.

...and then nothing. Cautiously, Twilight peeked through two of her little talonfingers, only to find herself no closer to the water’s dancing surface than before. Celestia’s talons gently embraced her body, leaving her hanging beneath the white gryphoness’ chest, great wings spread wide as they soared over a seemingly-endless sea. “Don’t worry, my little student. I won’t let go until you’re ready.”

“I’m... I’m flying.” A giggle rippled through Twilight Sparkle’s little, downy belly, eyes wide, beak gaping slightly in a smile.

Celestia looked down at her student with a vaguely bemused expression, “You’ve never had a flying dream before..?”

“I... I was always too afraid of falling to fly. But... with you here... I trust you.”

The white gryphoness smiled, turning her gaze to the horizon once again. “Nothing will harm you, my little student. Not while I’m around. Especially not here. Besides... you have wings here too, Twilight Sparkle. Remember, gryphon?”

Twilight blinked, then turned her head to look down the length of her spine. She could feel her blush even under her feathers, “Oh, I... heh, oops.” The little wings twitched, then spread, instinctively catching the air. “I can move them too!”

“Now, faithful student; eyes front, and fly!” Slowly, almost unnoticeably, Celestia began loosening her claws, first gripping, then cradling the little purple gryphlet soaring beneath her, watching the tiny wings pump whenever she showed signs of slowing.

And then her claws were gone, and Twilight Sparkle, for the first time, was truly flying. “I’m doing it! I’m doing it!” The little gryphlet’s peeping laughter became a squeal of joy as the great white gryphoness came to fly at her side, smiling proudly.

“Then come, fly with me,” the princess said, banking into a sudden dive.

“Celestia, wait for me!” Twilight squealed, suddenly panicking as she plunged in after her teacher. A pearly-white feather fluttered past the gryphlet as she raced down in gravity’s embrace, followed by another, and another, escaping from Celestia’s plumage in an ever-thickening cloud. In time, the white feathers were joined with purple down, molting away from Twilight Sparkle’s tiny frame, lingering behind her in a fluffy wake as near-fell through the blizzard of white...

...only to be caught by a familiar yellow glow. As the wind caught the loose feathers and pulled them from her vision, she found herself face-to-face with Celestia again, rainbow-maned and golden-shod. “Princess! You’re an alicorn again!”

“As are you, my little student.”

The little purple alicorn blinked, quickly looking back to see the steadily-beating pegasus wings sprouting from either side of her pony spine. “I’m an alicorn! Why am I an alicorn?”

“I don’t know, Twilight Sparkle. This is your dream, after all.” Celestia laughed, her magic drawing her little student up against her body. Her warm breath mingled with the fragrant sea air as she exhaled across Twilight’s face, lightly pressing her nose to her student’s. “My faithful little lover...” The kiss was sweet, gentle, slow, a meeting of lips and snout, followed by a whisper; “Are you familiar with the sea-ponies?”

Blushing and a little confused by the sudden change in topic, Twilight Sparkle’s response was little more eloquent than ‘Huh?’. “I... I guess I read a little?”

Long, elegant forelegs embraced the purple alicorn and brought a royal snout to her ear, “You’re about to meet them.”

As they fell the shrinking distance to the water’s surface, the world filled up with sea...