Little Wing glared at the paper before her, thinking for a moment that if she stared hard enough it will fill itself out. Of course she had no such luck, and all she could do was lean back on the sofa and groan in frustration.
Her apartment was lit only by some gently flickering candles, the main lights remaining switched off for the time being. Outside the window night had already fallen, and the presence of the moon bathed everything in its silvery glow. In the kitchen, several ingredients had been arranged in preparation for what was to come later on in the night, the very same reason that the candles had become Little Wing’s lighting of choice for the time being.
But that was all for later, and to pass the time away she had decided to break out the papers before her and give them a run through. She was regretting that choice, and the headache it had brought.
The papers in question were all practice for a written exam all Wonderbolt hopefuls were expected to complete. It was mostly all about details on the organisation through the years, its history from its founding to present day. It seemed to be about proving your dedication to the Wonderbolts and willingness to do what was needed to get in. So, this meant reading texts and history for many hours in agonising detail.
Sure, some of it was interesting. But after you got several key figures mixed up for the seventh time in a row one might start to get a little frustrated.
Still, whether she liked it or not, it was just something that Little Wing was going to have to deal with. The exam was coming up soon, after all. And if she failed it, she could kiss her spot in the reserves goodbye.
“Not gonna fail… Not gonna fail…” Little Wing gently reassured herself, sitting up and looking back towards the paper. “Easyglider was the leader in the fourth celestial era, not Fairweather…”
Little Wing wrote that answer, before shifting to another sheet of paper to see if she got the answer correct. When she saw the result, the mare’s eye twitched, Little Wing then facehoofing heavily as she gave off yet another groan.
“No, that was Purple Dart. Easyglider was the one who came up with all that flight choreography stuff the bolts still use!” she scolded herself. “Gah! Why is memorising stuff so annoying?”
She discarded the papers to one side, laying down on her back and staring up at the ceiling. Taking a few breaths to calm herself, she then proceeded to close her eyes and rack her brain. She went from the ground up, trying to run a thousand years of history in her head.
“General Firefly split from the EUP to form the Wonderbolts…” she began to say to herself, reciting a few more leaders following their founder before reaching back to Purple Dart. “…And then Fairweather founded the academy. Flair… De’mare, did the thing with the uniforms. Made them all cool and stuff.”
Little Wing sighed, opening her eyes and sitting up as she checked over her knowledge from one of the sheets. She was quite relieved to see she had gotten it right.
“Okay, going well, now…” she bit her tongue, entering deep thought once more. “Princess Celestia’s favourite stunt… Icaranian something… Sun Solution? No, Icaranian Sun Salutation.”
Little Wing nodded resolutely, glad to see that she was finally getting someplace. She still had plenty more to go through, the skull drilling to do if she didn’t want to forget them again when she got to the exam itself. Wouldn’t that just be typical?
She picked the papers up, giving them one final look over. As thrilling as the flying and ridiculous laps Rainbow Dash assigned them were, the written part was definitely less thrilling.
“Altius volantis indeed,” she muttered. “Heh, I’m half tempted to get Misty to dye her coat and swap places with me during the test. Words require smart ponies.”
A knock on the door caught her attention, Little Wing’s head immediately turning to look at her apartment’s main entrance.
“Speaking of…”
Little Wing rid herself of the infuriating papers and arose from her position on the sofa. Stretching her limbs out to banish the stiffness in the muscles, she then trotted over to the front door and had a look through the peep hole. Sure enough, the wonderful sight of Misty Gust sat on the other side with an adorably nervous expression on her face.
Grinning to herself, Little Wing opened the door up wide and set eyes on her marefriend. Misty Gust managed to brighten on seeing Little Wing, offering her a small smile.
“Hey Little Wing, I’m not interrupting?”
“You were meant to be coming round, so not really,” Little Wing replied in bemusement as Misty Gust made her way inside, Little Wing closing the door behind her. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, fine. Just a little nervous.”
Little Wing rolled her eyes. “You act like it’s the first time we’ve hung out.”
“Hm,” Misty responded simply, looking over to the papers by the sofa. “Oh, so I was interrupting something?”
“Just some revision for that test,” Little Wing explained. “No big deal really, unless you want to know about my lack of study skills.”
“Oh I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Misty Gust refuted, giving her marefriend an amused glance. “ Just keep at it and you’ll be fine. I know you’re tenacious enough if nothing else.”
“Hopefully that’s enough,” Little Wing replied, trotting up to Misty and giving her a light nuzzle. “But enough about that, ready to get this night in started?”
“The candles are quite romantic,” Misty noted with a soft smile. “Nice touch.”
Little Wing chuckled sheepishly, a small blush appearing on her features. “Well, I do try. On occasion.”
“On occasion,” Misty Gust jokingly agreed, walking into the kitchen and looking at what had been gathered there. “So, what’s on the menu?”
Little Wing followed her in and began motioning to the various ingredients. “It’s this weird spicy curry thing, but it sounds interesting. Apparently, it’s the speciality of some exotic restaurant up in Canterlot. I got the recipe off Rainbow Dash, who got it off of Pinkie Pie, who got it off of the restaurants owners, who are apparently friends of hers.”
“Of course, who else would you go for advice but your sister?”
“She has yet to disappoint,” Little Wing defended.
Misty Gust hummed. “Fair enough. Anyway, shall we start to get all this ready? I’m quite famished.”
“You? Famished? How do you ever work up an appetite working in a place as calm as a library?”
“You haven’t seen some of the visitors we’ve had to deal with,” Misty Gust said with a roll of her eyes. “Some people don’t understand the concept of silence, or returning books on time.”
“Still haven’t chased down that Daring Do collection?”
“Oh, we did. Some colt who told his parents he’d returned them, when he obviously hadn’t.”
“How’d you catch him?”
“We keep very specific records, all we had to do was find them and knock on their door,” Misty Gust explained. “I actually kinda felt bad for the colt, he’s so very grounded.”
“Maybe next time he won’t try and steal.”
“Though, it’s ironic since Daring Do is all about stealing things.”
“She doesn’t steal anything!” Little Wing defended. “She just liberates artefacts from old abandoned tombs!”
“And yet for an archaeologist she gets into a serious amount of world ending threats.”
“So does my sister, your point.”
Misty Gust laughed. “Well, one is but a fictional character. Wasn’t Rainbow in one of those books?”
“Yeah, she was,” Little Wing confirmed. “Apparently she knows AK Yearling. She never did go into detail though.”
“Being friends with a Princess, I bet she knows a lot of people,” Misty noted, finally turning back to the ingredients and the recipe next to them. “Anyway, enough procrastinating! Let’s try and figure this out.”
“After you.”
With Misty Gust reading off from the instructions, she told Little Wing what to put where and when. Slowly but surely, and with only once incident of a food fight, the meal began to come together. Spices and various vegetables were mixed in with the source, along with some added paneer, and cooked atop the oven. It certainly added a spicy smell to the air, though the couple just enjoyed doing it together.
And not catching fire, that was always a plus.
When it was done, they deposited the pots and pans in the sink before serving their individual portions up onto a plate. They brought their meals back over to the largest sofa, where they sat and snuggled closely together before turning to eat. Little Wing had even surprised Misty Gust with a pricey bottle of wine that had been originally bottles in Zebrica. Little Wing wasn’t so sure if it was a decent vintage or not, hardly being in the know about fine wines, but Misty was touched all the same.
Their meals were soon consumed, the plates contently put to one side while each had a refill of wine poured into their glasses. With the drinks sat to the side, the pegasi sat contently up against one another on and sofa.
“Ah, that was nice,” Misty stated. “Good recipe. Maybe we should go to Canterlot one day and try out their own version.”
“Hm, maybe,” Little Wing replied. “I’m glad you liked it. I don’t usually cook things that… complicated.”
“It was more filling that simple hay burgers. Though you’ll probably still be smelling our efforts for days.”
Little Wing laughed. “Probably. For months maybe, unless I’m not here in those coming months…”
Misty Gust looked towards her marefriend. “You want to continue that discussion.”
“Is there a better time?” Little Wing asked rhetorically. “I mean, I would still like to. We’ve been together for so long now… And it would get Silver Breeze off my back.”
“I don’t know, I like seeing you blush.”
Little Wing stuck out her tongue. “Yeah yeah, laugh it up. But seriously, are we ready to actually… live together?”
Misty Gust sighed. “I’m not opposed, as you said we’ve been together for years. We’ve been living here going on three soon enough. It’s just… daunting.”
“Would living together be that bad?”
“I never said that!” Misty Gust protested. “It’s just… you know. Big.”
Little Wing sighed. “Yeah, I know. But… I want to take that step sometime. And have an actual big house like my parents. And, you know… we can take things from there.”
“And where do we go from there?” Misty Gust asked. “I love you, Little Wing. And once we’re under the same roof, it’s like a whole new step…”
“I’d like to get the whole Wonderbolt thing achieved, that’s for sure,” Little Wing answered. “But after that… one day at a time. I don’t know.”
“Well, whatever the case, we could start looking tomorrow,” Misty Gust stated. “I’m sure our families would be willing to help in the hunt. Something not too far from our jobs, but maybe closer to our families than we currently are. Somewhere in the middle.”
“It’s not like it would be a long trip even if we become my parents’ next door neighbours,” Little Wing deadpanned. “We can fly, remember?”
“It’s all about convenience,” Misty retorted. “But I suppose you do have a point. Well, we can see what’s available. I’m sure we can find the perfect place.”
“I hope so…” Little Wing muttered. “I want everything to go right, you know?”
Misty Gust smiled, kissing Little Wing on the nose. “I know. And it will, I promise.”
Little Wing responded with a small smile, though that steadily morphed into a slight smirk. “You know, if we’re living together, we’ll have to share a bed…”
Misty Gust raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? Well then…”
Misty got up from the sofa, much to Little Wing confusion. She then turned around and stretched out her hoof, offering it to Little Wing.
“We might as well get the practice in now…?”
Little Wing’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. “You mean…? Are you sure? I’m mean, we’ve never…”
“I am,” Misty Gust replied gently. “I am very sure.”
Little Wing stared on with that bewildered expression, before allowing it to fall away into a happy little smile. She took Misty Gust hoof and got up from the seat, letting herself be led towards the bedroom.
The first rays of Celestia’s sun were creeping across Cloudsdale and seeping into one particular apartment directly in the centre of the flying city.
Inside that apartment, two mares began to stir as the morning came. Both held the other in a loving embrace, awakening from their pleasant dreams. Little Wing’s eyes opened first, looking towards the half-asleep form of her marefriend. She gave her a small lick on the nose to help rouse her, the grey mare’s own eye fluttering open.
“Morning,” Little Wing happily greeted.
“Hm, morning,” Misty Gust greeted in turn. “You okay?”
“Never better,” Little Wing replied honestly. “You?”
“Heh, ditto,” Misty Gust stated, before giggling. “I can’t believe we did that.”
“Neither can I. But not a word to anypony for a while, they’d want all the details.”
“Well they can keep their noses out,” Misty replied with a roll of her eyes, though remained content in their embrace. “You know, I’m actually looking forward to getting a proper house.”
“So am I. Especially with you.”
The two lovers remained in their cuddle for a while longer, but as the sun continued to rise so did they eventually have to. They had house hunting to do, and a shared life to live.