Flying Buddies

by Carpe Diem

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life
Length: 2217

Twilight learns how to fly

After receiving her wings, Rainbow Dash teaches Twilight how to use them, and race with them.

NOTICE: If someone came up with this idea, title, or storyline before hand, I apologize. I swear that I am not trying to copy anyone's idea. It's just that this idea for a story hit me when I first heard about Twilight becoming an alicorn. And now that the episode came out, I can finally write that story.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-18 00:20:01 UTC

Pegasi of a Feather Flock Together

Early morning rays of golden sunlight penetrated through the thin pieces of plastic that made up the blinds on a window.  Most of the light was blocked, but one devilish little ray was feeling quite naughty this morning and decided to shine right on the eyelids of an unsuspecting pony from a blind that so happened to be off it's hinge and laying horizontally to allow the lights entry.  Said pony grunted in annoyance, mentally begging the delinquent ray to go away.  However, this ray didn't have anything else better to do than torture poor ponies in the wee hours of the morning, even after they had such a long and confusing day before.

The pony laying in the bed had other plans for this ray of sun.  She mentally questioned if her new abilities allowed her to banish things to the moon, but shut the thought down as quickly as it came.  Instead Twilight simply closed the stray blind before yawning, stretching, and slowly opening her eyes.

Yesterday, as well as the night before, had been hectic on the librarian.  It started off as a beautiful morning that quickly turned into a race to get all of her friends cutie marks back on the right pony.  After that, Twilight was teleported via Elements of Harmony to a mysterious, infinite void.  Once there, Celestia revealed that Twilight's destiny was to become the next Princess of Equestria.

The news hit Twilight like a truck full of bricks that fell off the side of a mountain.  Before she could say anything, Celestia had already used her divine powers to manipulate Twilight's DNA to one of an alicorn.  After a few minutes (read: hours) of extreme panicking and hyperventilating, Twilight finally accepted what she has become before sending her back to Ponyville.  Once there, Celestia explained that Twilight is now a princess.  Twilight (of course) had asked if she can still be Celestia's student, as well as other questions.

One of the more important things that ran across Twilight's mind was her friends.  How will she still remain friends with them if she is cooped up in the castle doing...*shudder*...politics.  Celestia knew she would asked this, and reassured her that her duties of princess will not be immediate.  The coronation was only a 'heads up', so to say, that she will eventually become the Princess of Equestria.  For now though, Celestia and Luna are still in power.  Once they are unable to rule, they will step down, and Twilight will step up.

So here we find Twilight Sparkle waking up in her library home after a rather awkward sleep.  Her new wings involuntarily twitched, and she winced from the spike of pain that shot through her back.  Stupid wings, she thought to herself, This is going to take some getting used to...  Folding her wings back to her side, she yawned once again, and started her morning routine.

Once that was done, the first thing Twilight did was go downstairs and get a book.  That book being Avian Anatomy.  If she's going to have wings, she might as well learn everything about them.  Like how to sleep with them and bathe with them, for instance.  Right now, the issue was how to dry them after her shower.

Flipping through the pages and using her mental agility, Twilight was able to locate the typical method for drying wings.  Blinking a few times, she re-read over the paragraph twice to make sure this was the correct method, and surely it was.  Sighing, Twilight closed the book and gulped, praying that it was early enough in the morning that nopony was outside yet.

(\/);,;(\/)

A brilliant rainbow trail followed behind a cerulean mare as she zipped at amazing speeds through the small village she calls her home.  The wind whipped through her prismatic mane, creating a pleasant breeze that felt cool and refreshing against her coat.  The warmth of the morning sun fit nicely with the cool air around her.

With a quick displacement of her wings, Rainbow Dash suddenly descended.  She plummeted towards the ground at an alarming speed.  Right before she impacted, another sharp twitch of her muscles sent her back ascending in a an arc until she made a complete and tight loop.  Smiling at the her simple yet thrilling stunt, Rainbow Dash kept on flying forward with no real destination in mind.  That is to say, until she found a bewildering sight.

At first glance from her distance, she brushed it off as a bird or something.  Until she neared the library that it was situated on, however, she nearly fell out of the sky.  Her jaw dropped as she noticed that it was not in fact a large bird standing on top of the library with its wings to their full extentions, but instead the new winged Twilight Sparkle.

Rainbow Dash blinked at the strange sight.  Twilight was standing on top of the library with her wings extended for some odd reason.  To her, it was actually quite an amusing sight to say the least.  Tip-winging from behind, Rainbow successfully snuck up on the perched lavender alicorn, startling her to nearly falling off of the tree-roof with a scream.

Rainbow Dash clenched her stomach to attempt to stop the laughing her throat was emitting.  She opened her eyes to see Twilight glaring daggers at her with a tree branch stuck in her mane.  "Rainbow Dash!"  She scolded.  "You scared me half to death!"

The cyan mare wiped a single tear from her eye and halted her laughing.  "Sorry, Twi.  I just couldn't resist!"  Rainbow landed on the branch that Twilight was standing on before.  "What were you doing anyway?  Standing up here all high and mighty looking down at your loyal subjects?  HAH!"  Rainbow's could barely contain another laughter attack.

Twilight rolled her eyes.  This is only the first of many teases she will receive about being an almighty demigod.  "No, Rainbow, I was not 'standing here all high and mighty looking down at my loyal subjects'."  Twilight climbed up to sit next to Rainbow on the branch.

Rainbow mocked a gasp.  "Oh great and mighty Princess Twilight Sparkle!  A thousand apologizes for my offence!"  She bowed down before Twilight, snickering of course.

Twilight growled, then sighed.  "Could you please not do that to me?"

"Do what?"  Rainbow asked.

Twilight looked to the still rising sun in the east.  "Treat me like I'm so high and mighty.  I know you were just joking, but I still don't want you or any of our friends acting different around me.  It makes me feel like I'm...better than them.  Like I'm different...I want to be treated the same way I always did."

A strong sky blue wing wrapped around Twilight's shoulders.  She was then pulled into a half-hug by the mare sitting next to her.  "Come on now, Twilight, don't say that!  We still now you're the same pony on the inside.  Those new wings ain't got nothin' on whats in here."  She poked her chest where her heart is.  "We still love ya all the same Twi."

Twilight shifted to turn the half-hug into a full hug.  "Thank you Rainbow."

"Don't sweat it."  She said, returning the hug.  "But I'm still gonna joke around."  A smirk crawled to her lips at that.

Twilight rolled her eyes.  "Fine.  Just please keep it between us, I don't want you doing it in public and making ponies think I'm self-centered, or abusing my power."

"Deal.  Now, what were you doing anyway?"

Twilight blushed and looked down.  "O-oh that?  I was um...just...drying my wings..."

Rainbow struggled to keep her snickering under lock and keep.  "D-drying your...your wings?"

"Y-yeah...I um...after I took a shower I couldn't get them dry from the towel alone...so I read a book on avian anatomy, and it said to uh...stand in the sun with your wings extended to help dry your feathers.  It also stated that sun bathing is important for keeping your feathers healthy, and to keep parasites out of them."

Rainbow Dash started to allow a scarlet tint to taint her cheeks.  "O-oh you were sun bathing!  Oh um...uh...yeah that's not something you should be doing in public...It's kinda like a private thing."

Twilight could tell that this was starting to become really awkward really fast, but for some reason, the learning part of her brain wanted to know more information.  "O-oh?  Then how should I..uh... properly do this?"

"Oh uh...y-you were doing it right!  It's just that...you shouldn't do it while standing on top of the library..."

Twilight tried and failed to make eye contact with the other mare beside her.  "Well uh..."Stop it brain, don't ask this next questio-- "H-how do you do it?"

All the blood suddenly rushed to Rainbow Dash's face.  Her cheeks and muzzle shared identical looks to the coat of Big Macintosh.  "Umm...i-it's k-kind of...e-embarrassing to talk a-about..."

Twilight's eyes widened.  "Oh my gosh!  I'm so sorry, Rainbow!  I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable!"

Dash slowly inhaled through her nose, and exhaled through her mouth.  "No...it's fine.  You need to know this stuff if you're going to have wings."  She paused for a second.  "What I do is...I have this UV light that I turn towards my back...and it kinda feels like the sun.  I also um...put a fan beside it to help air them out."  She gave an involuntary flap of her wings.

The lavender winged unicorn mentally took note of this information while failing to hold her blush in check.  "O-ok.  Thanks Rainbow.  And sorry for making you uncom--"

Dash playfully slapped the librarians back.  "I told ya Twi, don't worry about it.  You need to know this stuff.  If you have any questions about pegasus anatomy, just come talk to me alright?  I won't leave ya hanging."

Twilight leaned in and nuzzled the prismatic pegasus.  "Thanks Dash.  Although,"  she said, pulling back, "I do have one question."

"Shoot."

Looking back at the placement of the sun, Twilight estimated that it was around 7:32:21.67....but that was only an estimate.  "Why are you up so early?"

"Hmmm?  Oh yeah!  I always get up at sunrise to get some practice in!  Why do you think I nap in Applejack's trees all the time?"  Twilight nodded, it made perfect sense.

Rainbow Dash was just about to say goodbye when a brilliant thought occurred to her.  "Hey, Twi?  Do you even know how to fly yet?"

The lavender mares wings shifted a bit.  "Well, I was able to fly up here, somewhat...."

A wicked grin plastered itself on Dash's lips.  "Well guess what.  On behalf of me and my awesomeness, I hear by dub you, Twilight Sparkle, my honorary wingmare.  I'll teach ya how to be a pegasus.  From basic flying to manipulating clouds, barrel rolls and even more advanced tricks!"  Rainbow was practically beaming with enthusiasm.

A tear was almost brought to Twilight's eye.  She was touched by how Rainbow actually wanted to teach her how to fly!  She can see it now, learning and studying under Rainbow Dash's wings.  Manipulating clouds and studying weather patterns, learning aerodynamics and calculating wind speed and velocity to determine the perfect angles and speed to perform advanced flying tricks!  Oh this will be so much fun! Twilight almost contained her squee's of excitement.

Almost.

In a swift motion, Twilight clutched onto Rainbow once again in a heart filled embrace.  "Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you!  I can't wait to start learning and studying how to fly!  This is going to be so exciting!  I'll get my quills and parchments, and I can take notes on what you teach me, and we can go over the notes, and you can give me a test, and--"  Twilight's schoolfilly outburst was interrupted by an outburst of Rainbow Dash.  This one being the name of Pinkie Pie's Element of Harmony.

"O-oh my gosh!  T-Twil-light!"  She struggled to say in between laughs.  It took a few seconds before her composure came back.  "Wow you are such an egghead!  When I said I was going to teach you how to fly, I didn't mean like...school.  I mean like...how the cakes first taught Pinkie how to bake!  Or when Granny Smith taught Big Mac and Applejack how to buck apple trees!"

Twilight's ears flattened against her skull as her jaw hung loose.  Studying under somepony without taking notes or tests?  Blasphemy.  It wasn't scientifically possible.  It goes against everything Twilight was ever taught in her entire life!  How can you learn under sompony without actually learning?!  Closing her jaw and widening her almost tear filled eyes, Twilight looked at Dash with a pleading expression, one that will make the manliest of tears flow from any stallion.

A sudden realization dawned upon Dash.  This still is the same the same Twilight Sparkle.  The same eggheaded-bookworm-teacher's pet-Twilight Sparkle.  The look in her eyes was enough to break Dash.  Try as she may, and failing epically, Dash submitted under the intense (and heart-breaking adorable) stare.  "Ok ok fine!  I'll give you one test."  Good Dashie, you are learning that you cannot resist a cute pony giving you puppy dog eyes, it's theoretically impossible.

The frown on Twilight's lips suddenly flipped into a smile that would make Pinkie faint just by the sheer smile power.  For the third time today, Twilight crushed Dash into a hug, to which the latter groaned in annoyance.

"So when can we start?!"  Said Twilight enthusiastically.

Dash placed a hoof to her chin and looked out to the morning sun.  "I don't have anything else to do today.  Now is fine."

Twilight tilted her head.  "Now?"

"Yeah, now.  Well, if you want to."

"Umm, sure we can start now!  I'll go get my quills and flashcards to take notes!"  After a high pitched sqee, Twilight stumbled down the tree and sofly glided down to the earth below.

Well, that's what she was aiming for.  In actuality, Twilight miscalculated the angle of her wings, and ended up crashing to the ground on her back.  A rainbow colored head poked out from the edge of the tree canopy and started to laugh.  "Look at that!"  Dash said.  "You're learning from me already!"