Chapters "All the stuff I could do," Rainbow Dash whispered to herself. "So much stuff that I don't know what to do. Suppose I can just keep wandering randomly and wait for something to drop out of the sky, that always seems to work."
Thus, she kept going without a goal, eyes more in the sky than anywhere else. If she could avoid direct confrontation with ponies that knew her, she could probably squeeze by unnoticed. Perhaps she could claim to be another pony recently arrived from Canterlot Castle to avoid having to explain things. Certainly, her horn would be proof enough of this story, even when fighting against her unchanged mane and cutie mark. Despite this ingenious plan, she kept her head low and avoided eye contact with anypony. Simple tactics were often all that needed to blend in, unless one happened to wear all colours of the rainbow.
Eventually, she ended up in one of the many interchangeable snack businesses in Ponyville. Only when she was already well inside, too far to back out again, did that fact make it through to her brain, however. Determined to take life as it came, she shrugged and sat down. Seconds after, an enormous pink explosion went off, showering her in confetti. In that moment, she felt fortunate to no longer possess wings as she would've gone straight through the roof otherwise.
As it was, she only toppled over from the shock and it took her no more than a few seconds of pain and confusion to figure out in which direction gravity was supposed to go. "Pinkie Pie! What are you doing here?" she asked while picking herself up.
"Uh, I work here?" Pinkie replied. In fact, Dash had wandered straight to Sugarcube Corner without even realising. Sometimes, she could hit herself for her own ignorance. How could she have missed unique blend of homely wood and bright candy colours? Or, for that matter, the endless supply of sweets and smells on permanent display? She wouldn't go unnoticed any more, that much was certain. When her gaze returned to Pinkie, she seemed to be simply bursting with questions which she unleashed now that Rainbow's attention was upon her. "Ooh! Dashie! You look different!"
"Twilight," she responded with her face locked in stoicism. The impact had hurt quite a lot. Of course, it melted into a warm grin right afterwards and she added, "She wanted help testing a configurination and I kinda happened to crash into her window at the right time. Now she's prolly in the sky with my wings while I'm here and don't know what to do with the power I've got."
"So now you have her magic, huh?" The possibilities took a moment to sink into Pinkie Pie. While they did, there was no holding to her eyes which darted to and fro across the bakery. "Amazing! Can you, like, make pastries now? Then I wouldn't have to bake them any more, I mean, not that I don't love doing it, but having more always means more, and Twilight said she couldn't do it, but I'm sure you can!"
Rainbow Dash knew there was a very good reason why her love hadn't obeyed Pinkie's desires the first time. She'd been given a brief introduction to magic as part of the experiment. She already remembered little of it, but conjuring any matter out of the Æther, be it solid, liquid, or dough, was prohibited by at least five laws from three different fields of study. Still, there was nothing speaking against trying to make the earth pony happy. While pondering the best approach, she found one particular spell in the back of her mind. She tried to hide any reactions, but couldn't prevent a smile from growing beyond bonds as she bundled energy for it.
As wide as Rainbow's smile was, as big did Pinkie's eyes grow once Dash released the spell, creating an entire platter of cupcakes stacked into a neat pyramid between them. "Awesome!" Pinkie exclaimed before tossing the top one high into the air. After far too much air time, it arced and landed right in her open mouth. Unfortunately for her, biting down on it yielded nothing but hitting onto her own jaw as the illusion faded from physical stress.
"Sorry Pinks, couldn't do any better." Rainbow let out a small giggle which made her own heart melt from cuteness, if only because it belonged to a certain mare born a unicorn. "Besides, you totally fell for it!"
Pinkie Pie stared at the floor, mourning the loss of what she had never had. "Aww... Dashie, just you wait 'til I got magic too, you're so gonna get payback!" She looked up to Dash with an unmistakable expression of friendly malice on her face.
"Tell me when that is, I'm gonna get to a bomb shelter." Rainbow leaned back in her chair.
"Okie dokie! Hmm, I guess we could market those as extra light cupcakes, guaranteed no calories! And no anything else, too! Super healthy!" A quick counterspell thought out by the unicorn destroyed the remaining evidence, as well as Pinkie's plans for it. "Okay, enough foaling around," she said, all of a sudden serious as never before. "Let's talk business. Like I know Twilight, you won't have this for long, so let's make the most of it."
Dash paused for a moment, wondering if she should play along. Pinkie's ideas were usually anything but normal. Then again, she'd never propose anything dangerous, not by bad intention anyway. Daring perhaps, a bit unsafe, or insane, but never dangerous. "Whatcha got in mind?" she carefully asked.
The smile that had crept back on Pinkie's face in the meantime expanded even further with the vague consent. "You know how ponies love to come here to get their cupcakes and stuff? Let's improve on that and give them legs and sentience and we could even make a big one the king, although he'd probably have to be two meters across for that."
"Well, I suppose I could do that, except they'd still be illusions. To make this work properly, we'd need an army of maybe fifty cupcakes at least, plus a full-size kingpin, all of which already modelled out." She met Pinkie's gaze. "Let me guess, you happen to have just that lying around? Where in the heck do you get that kinda thing?"
"Oh, I just have some sources," Pinkie said with a sinner's innocent look on her face. "Now, are we gonna get to baking life or what?"
"Something tells me I shouldn't." Dash pondered the situation for almost three seconds, then stood up and followed Pinkie Pie into the kitchen. "Eh, what could possibly go wrong."
Not too many minutes later, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie sat on the roof of Sugarcube Corner. It was a wonderful place and time to enjoy the sun's warmth, Dash found. Not to mention, of course, that it provided cover from what went on in the streets. Unable to reach them, a mass of baked goods raged on below as their strike teams occasionally stormed nearby houses before rejoining the rest.
"Nice spell," Pinkie said.
"Thanks. Never imagined how powerful Twilight really is. Just imagine holding all this back," Rainbow replied.
"This is your last warning," something called from below. "I, Grand Consul Napastrian the Second, demand the immediate surrender of both my father's reliquary and our yet inanimate brethren, so that we may liberate one and sacrament the other!"
"You can have him when you pry him from my soft, warm belly!" At times, Pinkie could be a true lioness. Ponyville could probably be thankful to whomever that those times almost never came. Losing all aggressiveness and combat spirit visible within her from one second to the next, she then turned to Rainbow Dash. "I always wanted to say that. Should we dispel them now?"
"Yeah, before anypony finds out it's been us," Dash responded. Digging her hooves into whatever grip there was, she concentrated all energy she could muster into a counterspell. Making a magical mess was hard, but cleaning it up would always form the harder part. She could remember Twilight lecturing her about something like that, but now she was experiencing it firsthand.
After long seconds of charging up, she progressed into shaping the spell. Something changed within her as she did, an alternate conscious that not even her greatest efforts could have unlocked before. Her eyes lit up with pure energy as she strid to the building's edge with grace that put Pinkie into genuine awe. Although she no longer possessed wings, she floated smoother than ever as she fired ætherical bolts of pure blue energy down into the rabble.
Watching his people be reduced into deliciousness, the frosted emperor was quick to propose a peace treaty. However, for some reason, the ponies didn't seem to want to accept his offer. Thus, being the generous monarch that he was, he tried again with far more modest demands. Again, though, no success. In the end, he was on his knees, begging for but the freedom of his people when another bolt struck him. With the Consul down, the revolution was over, and his people bent down to be deanimated. They didn't have to wait long for this silent plea to be fulfilled.
After the eradication of an entire people which happened to coincide with an impressive lightshow, Rainbow was depleted of energy. She collapsed right where she stood, causing Pinkie to rush over and pick her up. She wasn't hurt, just exhausted, but also content, carrying a victorious grin on her face. "I need a nap... get me back to the library if you kindly would, and don't mention this to Twilight, alright?" She dozed off.
While Ponyville's streets shook with a frosted revolution, the sky could not show any less change from other days, except for a lavender smear making its way through it.
"Okay, so beacon Eta should be around here," Twilight muttered during her ascent into the higher layers. For a good minute, she hovered on the spot, straining her eyes for the distance, before she turned around and spotted the curved cloud right behind her. "Huh. Simple measures are the best, I suppose. South from here on out, she said. Where– there's the sun. Let's see." She snatched a nearby fragment of cloud. As she scribbled calculations into it, she just so managed to read the local clocktower down on the ground. "Seven past one, on the current date that equals a deviation of... oh, screw it."
She let the figment drift away and simply set course straight towards the sun. It'd still be an accurate enough approximation for the short distance between her and Cloudsdale. For some reason, her wings already reported exhaustion despite an airtime of mere minutes. It had to be the different centres of mass between pegasi and unicorns, she figured. That combined with her lack of practice could explain everything if needed. While most of Rainbow Dash's muscle memory had found a place within her, she still found herself having to balance out after a missed beat every now and again. She just had to keep flying and all of her problems would go away.
As she approached the floating city and corrected her course, Twilight sped up her wing beats by the lightest margin. She wasn't afraid of being seen as a pegasus, of course. She just had plans and diddling around pretending to care about other pegasi wasn't part of them. Thus, she kept her fair distance away from anypony who could recognise her.
Eventually, even her extremely disciplined mind got bored of watching sky and clouds and she risked a look down. To say that she was amazed wouldn't be an understatement, albeit just barely. At long last, she truly understood Rainbow's love for flying as Ponyville stretched out beneath her. Any pegasus could detail the feeling better than she would ever be able to, but she found a strict difference between telling and experiecing. None of their descriptions could hope to match the true awe that she felt in this moment. Since they saw the same each day in their lives above the clouds, it was but a matter of habit to them. To Twilight, it was a novelty unmatched by anything she could even imagine.
She'd been at such heights before. Looking down from Canterlot Castle, riding the carriage into Ponyville, she'd even been to Cloudsdale itself a few times. Not one of those times had she had wings of her own, though. She felt like she'd at long last broken chains that she'd been carrying her entire life, shattering the constraints of gravity to achieve true freedom. Once that freedom's full extent dawned onto her, she was hard pressed not to cry out in joy. Instead, she could settle for flying a few loopings to express what she felt deep inside.
As she pulled into the third however, she felt an abrupt break in movement speed, accompanied by softness instead of air surrounding her. As it seemed, during her excited maneuvers, she'd flown into the exact cloud that had been her goal the entire time. Scanning around to ensure nopony had seen her crash, she pulled herself free, traveled to the top, and laid down in its fluffy whiteness. She didn't need a break of course, but the view was at the very least as breathtaking as Dash had made it out to be, so she could just as well stay for a moment and enjoy it.
In such a situation, many ponies would expect Twilight to fall into deep philosophy. She'd been one of them, until this moment. She wanted to ponder life and everything, but it felt wrong in some mysterious way. There was no true explanation for it, but the peace and quiet above the clouds seemed to want to put her away from reason. None of her scientific method or objective analyses counted any more, not this high up. Lulled by the sun's warmth gently invading all of her coat and surprisingly sensitive wings, she decided to test the common cloud's usability as a mattress.
As with all things, time passed, faster for some than others. Twilight Sparkle returned to her home tree just on the break of night as she had always meant to do. The air was still warm and the insects were singing to any audience who happened to be around. At least almost all of them did. For some reason that'd continue to baffle entomologists around Equestria for years after, the dreaded Sugar Hunter colony remained silent on that one night. Although she was studied in many fields, including that one, Twilight could not care much for insects right now. She was too overwhelmed with relief as her hooves made contact with solid ground again, granting her tired wings the rest for which they'd been screaming.
She trotted inside, finding everything as she'd left it except for one room. Over in the kitchen, Rainbow Dash was busy preparing two portions' worth of salad in a display of magic worthy of herself. A reasonable thought, considering it was her own magic after all. With a combination of hooftips and wings to minimise noise, she made her way towards her loved one.
For obvious reasons, few ponies knew, but Dash could be ignorant as a packed mule at times, and this was one such time if there'd ever been one. Thus, when Twilight leapt in for a surprise hug from behind, she managed to catch her entirely off guard. "I'm back, Dashie," she whispered in a tone sweet as poison before jumping back down.
"Took ya long enough. Should we reverse the spell now?" Rainbow didn't turn around, for good reason. As ignorant as she could be at certain times, she would always deny with equal passion that she'd been startled, even if her adorable squeaks spoke otherwise. Celebrating her success with herself, Twilight led the way back to the main room where the runes were still glimmering with energy. Once there, Rainbow didn't speak a word, instead lowering her head and flaring magic into the configuration.
To say the reversed spell's effects were disappointing would be an understatement to put Equestria's greatest politicians to shame. There were no tendrils of magic, no moving mysteries, only a plain flash of light. Once the blinding wore off, they found themselves restored to the way they'd been born. Releasing a small disappointed sigh, Twilight erased the runewriting spell. "I hope you had fun as a unicorn?"
"Sure." With discreet pushes thinly disguised as affection, Dash worked on directing her love back towards the kitchen.
"Didn't make trouble?" Twilight inquired while her body obeyed the silent commands.
"Ah, how would I. Still, I'm glad to be back as a pegasus, even though you did wear 'em out. Well, you've got a... healthy unicorn's body, I suppose." Dash literally dodged the topic, bending down and stretching her wings out again as if they hadn't been used in weeks.
"Yes, I think that's our respective best."
"I'm just glad you came back at last." Rainbow finished her brief exercise and came back onto head height. "'Cause now, Sparky, you gotta make dinner."
Everything had to find its end somewhere, as did this day. However, Twilight couldn't sleep, not just yet. She had a duty to fulfill, no matter how much her surroundings enticed her. The gentle glow of the moon illuminated the sleeping beauty who had drifted out with her head gently pressed against Twilight's shoulders. She couldn't resist stroking her wonderful mane every now and again while drafting the next letter she'd send.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today, Rainbow Dash joined me in a novel experiment, granting her flight to me and my magic to her. It was a very valuable lesson to learn, and I am glad that she could see it with me.
We do not like our friends because of what they are or what they can do for us. If anything, what they are helps us comprehend who they are, and it is important to never forget that nopony is quite the same in any way. Only today, for one day, I was allowed to go into the sky, to see freedom beyond gravity, and it has taught me more than months of friendship study.
Ponies cannot be reduced to being objects with a single purpose. Although we will never be able to do so to a satisfying extent, it is important that we at least try to imagine the other's life, to understand what might drive them, what they could be struggling with. Be it Rainbow's endless freedom limited by where her wingless friends can reach, my balance of power and appliance, or the darkness of Midnight 's past, every pony is a new utopia to discover, a new war to win.
And never should anypony have to be measured by standards which are not her own. As the Sun and every star in Your sister's night sky are alike in kind, so is their purpose and being as different as any two ponies, even siblings. In the same manner, she should never be judged without respect to what she is, but never solely by that either, for nature and life may give us unexpected changes which we must encounter in unity and never forget that beyond what we encounter in our physical forms, that never changes who we truly are.
Your faithful student,
Before Twilight could finish with her mental signature, she was overtaken by an attack of the wonderful foe of sleep. Princess Celestia could wait. All that mattered was that Twilight still had her dearest pegasus, no matter what they'd go through.
"I think this should work. Do you see any errors?" said the unicorn, inspecting the tree of glimmering blue runes drawn out on the floor in front of them.
Secluded from the sun's blessed warmth desperate to reach them, two mares were located in Ponyville's library, called Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash respectively.
"Uh, Twilight?" Rainbow paused, thus assuring herself full attention. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but I don't know any runes. So it's kinda pointless to ask me, don't'cha think?"
"I suppose you do have a point there. Well, let's see, we've got Change here, Mirror, Target plus Self... this should be functional." She primed the runes and looked up. "Official protocol demands that I give the subject another chance to back out. Do you wish to do so?"
"You said it was safe," Dash said with slight uncertainty creeping in from a corner of her mind.
"I can almost guarantee you that it probably will be. So I take it you're not objecting? Wonderful!" Twilight lowered her head again and funneled energy into the configuration, her horn flaring up to match the flow of power.
"Wait a minute," Dash objected, instinctively taking a wing flap's distance as soon as the thought crossed her mind. "How are we gonna undo that? I mean, I don't think I'm gonna be able to do that myself."
"Ah, don't you worry," Twilight said in a well-chosen, soothing tone. Upon hearing her confidence, Rainbow landed back on the couch and she continued her work. "The configuration will save up energy. Even an earth pony could retrigger it, as long as we're back before the end of today."
"I guess that's a relief then." Dash hopped off of the couch and into the instructed position directly opposing Twilight just as she finished charging the runes.
"For a brighter tomorrow." She released the energy. The immediate effects were disappointing due to their near invisibility. As time passed however, bands of energy of each pony's respective colour emerged out of the ground, growing until they covered the two ponies. Rainbow already felt a strong desire to follow her flight instincts again, but decided against it, perhaps against better judgement. While she was at that, another instinct overcame her and she proved her love for the unicorn again by drawing her into a long, sensual kiss.
It lasted until long after they were both entirely encased in pure spell power, preventing them from noticing how the bands connected and started to flow one into the other, mingling until each mare was surrounded by colour which was not her own. Once they did break apart, all trace of spell casting that remained in the area were the agitated runes on the ground.
Twilight was first to reopen her eyes. She only had a few seconds' lead on Rainbow, but those proved enough to investigate the results. "Success!"
"Really?" Dash tried to extend her wings to check for herself, but the lack of feedback itself told her all she needed to know. Instead of from her own side, they extended outwards from her friend's, adapted into the same lavender colour to prevent silly appearance. "Awesome!"
Twilight rose into the air until she hovered a bit above Rainbow's head. It was plain unbelievable how she could retain her limitless grace in all situations, even when life presented her with previously unthinkable situations. "I could never have imagined how this feels. Thank you for joining me in this experiment."
Dash waved away the acknowledgement with a hoof. "Any day. I gotta admit, I was kinda curious too. Although, wait a minute, how are you such a good flier already? How am I supposed to do anything? I didn't spend, what, five years studying magic, you know."
"One point seven on my own, then the usual eight under guidance, plus a few months." It appeared that there were no numbers which Twilight had ever encountered and not memorised. "You see, down here." She landed again and indicated towards a rune in the lower area of the configuration.
"It's Mind, applying indirectly into the physical stuff," Rainbow commented without thinking. "Whoa. So you've both switched our races and exchanged memory to actually let us use those things, huh? You really never stop amazing me."
"Not all of it, though. You could say I just gave you a piece of my mind. Where the spells lie. Besides, magic is a lot about feeling, too. Try it."
To test her powers, Dash commanded a nearby flowerpot to come to her. It took her only a thought to make the pot obey her order with but a ruby glow as trace of the energy at work. "Fantastic, y'know." She pulled her friend close so that she could whisper into her ear as desired. "I really feel like I should kick you in the wings for making such a pun, but since they're mine, I'm gonna let you slide on that one. Besides, I guess it's enough to tell you that you also gave me your memories of what really happened at Canterlot."
Even though Rainbow Dash's grip was far too tight for escape, Twilight certainly attempted it, thrashing her wings while her face slowly transcended into the red side of the spectrum. Once she realised resistance was pointless, she muttered, "Uh, I love you?"
Rainbow giggled and released her. "Not gonna hold it against ya, don't worry. But, seriously, her?"
Once freed, Twilight took a good step's distance. A pegasus' value of space seemed to have already sunk into her. "Well, you'd been slow to admit your feelings back then. I'm just gonna say I had to test if she was proper for Applejack. Princess Celestia bless the two... anyhow. I suppose we should get to work. Any ideas on what I should do?" She moved towards the door, towards the freedom to fully utilise her new mastery of the third dimension.
As always, Dash didn't miss a step at her side. The sounds of periodic wing beats which were not her own dampened her mood by the least bit, but knowing they served a greater purpose more than made up for it. Her expression brightened further once an idea crossed her mind. "Oh, I know a pretty awesome spot where you can see everything. Of course, I'd have to be a pegasus to get there, so I can't show it to you, and you don't know where it is, and neither do you know any kinda names for directions–" Twilight audibly cleared her throat. "Oh, excuse me, I meant of course you do." She magicked open the door, mentally high-hoofing herself for two successful spells in a row. They both stepped outside, Twilight gaining altitude now that she had room above her. "It's really easy to find, too, you just gotta head to beacon Eta, head south, start tilting left around Cloudsdale's sentry cloudposts... aaand then it's basically just going up. There should be a stationary cumulus in that spot. See, can't miss it."
"So, what are you going to do?" Twilight asked, hesitant to truly take off before their conversation was finished. To one experienced with pegasi, it was obvious that she was itching to take the summer skies for herself, to join flocks of birds and pegasi as an equal, to discover the grace which the Sun had to welcome those who would ascend and meet it above the clouds.
They continued her journey in a random direction on Rainbow's lead. "Go around doing stuff, I guess. Stuff that you can do on the ground. Ah, I already regret that decision, can't we change back? Just kidding, enjoy it. I suppose I could sit down with a good boo– wait, how much of your mind did you give me? I think I'm gonna be rifling through your spells in the meantime. Ooh, isn't this her signature?" Dash paused and evocated energies, appearing a few paces forward the moment she released them. "Awesome!"
Twilight chuckled. "Yes, that one is really handy. Glad she taught me it. Still, take care. I don't want to see you get hurt through the use of my magic."
Rainbow snorted. "Please, when am I ever not being careful?"
Twilight bent her head down in front of her fillyfriend's. "Oh, stop talking and kiss me." Dash obeyed as soon as the order was issued. Unfortunately, their time together was limited as neither of them could see the way ahead of them. Thus, to avoid crashes, they disconnected far too soon for anypony's liking. "Back at the library before sundown, remember. Take care." Without a chance for further ado, she departed, leaving behind nothing but a shower of sparks in her wake.
"Well, now I'm alone and Ponyville lies before me." A few sparks burned out on the ground as Rainbow Dash considered the possibilities. "Yup, I think it's gonna be a fun day."
