My Own Wings

by Tatsurou


The Years Turn

With Sunset's perspective of her 'family' firmly established, it wasn't long before a routine set in. With the ACSU installed throughout the ship, anyone could handle tending to Sunset's physical needs, and she would actively seek out whoever she desired for her emotional needs now that she was fully mobile. With the ship absorbing her magical energy at a steadier rate, she spent less time in the air levitating herself and more time crawling or toddling around as her movements became more sure. The sounds of her hooves on metal quickly became a common sound on the ship, one which everyone became fond of...just as they became accustomed to ducking if they saw the bright glow of her magic out of the corners of their eyes.

For her magical needs, Krystal focused on trying to teach Sunset control. On her world, youngsters with strong magical fields were taught at an early age - training began younger the stronger the field - so she saw no reason why she shouldn't try to start early with Sunset. Unfortunately, meditation proved to be incompatible with Sunset's mind, at least at this point. Any attempts at teaching Sunset meditation led to one of three outcomes: one, Sunset would start vocally complaining about being bored just as soon as Krystal started to enter her own trance state; Krystal would come out of her trance state to discover Sunset had ditched her to find something fun to do; or Krystal's meditation would be disturbed by Sunset's snores. Despairing at that, she settled for using the spell books she'd managed to translate as bedtime stories, reading off the magical formulae. Sunset certainly enjoyed that, even if Krystal had trouble wrapping her mind around some of the concepts in the books. Since the book that had been completely translated had been labeled 'Magic for Kindergartners', Krystal could hardly imagine just how magically advanced the world Sunset came from must be.

...it was honestly rather terrifying to picture, especially if Sunset was a typical example of their infants.

With things more or less stabilized, everyone was able to grow used to the routine and Sunset's presence, and it no longer proved a complete drain on their energy. As such, many of them went back to the activities they'd enjoyed before Sunset's arrival, scheduling them around engaging with Sunset. Peppy mostly caught up on his reading, doing his best to relax and recuperate. Slippy focused his attention on repairing the Great Fox and the four Ar-Wing model fighters that made up its complement. Now that magic-matter conversion was providing them with plenty of credits, he had all he needed to work on them...not to mention the magic-matter converted materials were much purer than anything he could get planetside or from asteroids, making them ideal for repairs and crafting. The only difficulty was keeping Sunset out of the repair bay, as she was constantly sticking her horn in the circuitry...sometimes literally.

Falco began spending less and less time aboard the Great Fox. He still made time to rile up Fox or entertain Sunset while he was there, but he'd often be gone for days at a time as he sought out his own sort of company at various parties, making full use of the rather large bankroll the Great Fox's situation provided him with. He largely ignored the expressions of disgust sent his way by Peppy and Krystal when he returned from such excursions, though he did clean himself up after each before meeting up with Sunset. Whether that was out of respect for propriety or fear of Sunset's insatiable and stubborn curiosity was impossible to know.

The biggest change was with Fox. Now that he had energy to do more than chase after Sunset, he turned to his own life. Re-enrolling in the Academy was completely out of the question. He'd missed classes for too long to slip in as if he'd never left, and any accommodations made for him would rub him the wrong way, especially if it was out of 'understanding' for his 'bereavement'. With the Great Fox's Ar-Wings still under repair, he couldn't practice combat or maneuvers, and the other vehicles were an even lower priority for maintenance as they were environmentally limited in their usefulness. Instead, he focused his attention on the absolutely gorgeous girl living with them...and her equally gorgeous Mom/Nanny.

Since he'd taken the time to get to know Krystal somewhat while everyone's main focus was taking care of Sunset and making sure the little filly didn't accidentally destroy everything in her surroundings, Fox's initial forays into flirting were not as awkward and embarrassing as they could have been. Rather than the usual pick up lines, platitudes, or failed attempts at looking cool, he focused on those areas he already knew they had in common. Their somewhat similar situations - both recently orphaned, both dealing with responsibilities they weren't ready for, and both dealing with a situation they'd never imagined - created a certain kinship from the start, and Fox tried to build on that by introducing her to things he enjoyed. Games, movies, shows, books...they were all brand new to Krystal, and he was able to parse which of them might be to her interests by the way she talked about stories from her own world. He also made sure to ask her plenty of questions about her old world, letting her reminisce...always stopping before she started to become depressed, and distracting her with something he thought she'd like.

...if only Sunset would stop popping up in the middle of them every time Fox tried to make a move turning things towards physical. Seriously, couldn't she keep herself entertained long enough for him to even get one kiss? Or hold hands for that matter?

Before long, however, the Ar-Wings were ready to take out into space, and the four pilots - Fox, Falco, Slippy, and Peppy - began taking practice runs against each other. Using tagging lasers for mock dogfights. Krystal watched these engagements with interest, impressed at the skills three academy dropouts and one aging veteran could demonstrate...

But her interest was nothing compared to Sunset's. From the moment the first Ar-Wing flew against the starry backdrop of space, the little filly was completely enthralled. She watched every moment of the mock dog fights, tracking each and every arc of flight. Krystal didn't need telepathy to read her mind when she saw that.

More than anything else, Sunset wanted a pair of her own wings.