3. Starships (cover) – Megan Nicole and Lindsey Stirling
He met her out on her balcony. She wasn’t expecting it. She had thought she was going to see him the next day. Tired, rumpled and still in her travelling clothes, she slumped on the balustrade and closed her eyes.
“Hey.”
Her eyes snapped open and she nearly tumbled on her butt. “Sh-Shining?”
He hovered in front of her. In the empty air in front of her. Six feet on the wrong side of the balustrade. “You look surprised.”
“Shining … you have wings!”
“Like them?” He fluttered the elaborate butterfly wings he most definitely had not had before she left. “I found the spell for them in a book in the library.” He grinned. “Apparently Twiley’s study habits are genetic. Want to take them for a spin?”
“I … I …” Cadence looked around. “I … just got back …” Her hoofmaidens would be along soon to unpack her bags, take her clothes away for cleaning and the dozens of other things they did for her as a princess. She was supposed to go to bed, to be fresh and ready for her interview with Celestia in the morning. She was supposed to –
Shining dipped, as if he wasn’t quite used to his wings, but worked hard to cover it. His dashing smile became fractionally more strained as her silence prolonged.
Screw what she was supposed to do.
Using her telekinesis, she unzipped the dress she was wearing and stepped out of it. After a moment of reflection she kicked off all four of her shoes and jumped up onto the balustrade. Shining’s smile infused with renewed delight.
“Think you can keep up, flyboy?” she asked coyly.
“Oh, I think so. I’ve been practising?” He turned an awkward circle to prove it.
Cadence flared her wings and leaped off the balcony. He caught her hoof and kept up with her as she soared upward, out of Canterlot, into a sky empty of anything except stars, the moon and two laughing ponies.