Soaring on Little Wings

by tom117z


33 - The Ever Important Question

Sky Dancer gurgled happily as she held Little Wing’s large hoof in her own tiny ones. Little Wing was pulling all sorts of funny faces in order to amuse the foal, completely and totally doting over her young niece.

The past week had been a tender one for the family, Rainbow Dash and Soarin haven initially taken the foal back to their home in Ponyville to spend the week ‘getting to know the little gal’. Of course Rainbow Dash had introduced Sky Dancer to her friends, all being quite enthused to the new arrival, before bringing her back to Cloudsdale a week later to visit the grandparents.

So there they were, inside Windy Whistles and Bow Hothoof’s home. Little Wing had come over before Rainbow had even arrived, and she’d have been hard pressed to keep her little sister away even if she had wanted to.

Sky Dancer was laid out on a colourful playmat with her aunt and grandparents giving her all of their attention, giggling in delight at all the activity. Rainbow Dash meanwhile was laying on one of the sofas, just watching it all play out with a happy smile of her own. A few foal toys were scattered around the living room, namely a few plushies that were predictably depictions of the current Wonderbolts, including both of Sky Dancer’s parents. Though Little Wing had gifted a few of her own old toys for the little filly to amuse herself with, namely dolls of the four Princesses of Equestria.

Sky Dancer sat up onto her haunches, picking up a nearby Spitfire into her hooves and presenting the doll to Little Wing with a happy little foal babble.

“Oh! Why thank you!” Little Wing chirped cheerfully, accepting the ‘gift’. “And what is Miss Spitfire going to do today?”

Rainbow Dash snorted from behind her. “You make her sound like a schoolteacher.”

“Then she’s a scary schoolteacher,” Little Wing joked in response, before ruffling the foal’s prismatic mane. “But nothing you can’t handle, right Sky Dancer?”

“Bwubbaha!”

“Yeah, you tell her!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Well, at least it wasn’t ‘Bwah’.”

Little Wing smirked. “Actually, I intend to teach her that phrase. It is power, Rainbow Dash.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Bwah,” she simply responded.

“Alright then,” Rainbow Dash announced as she got up from the seat and parked herself down right beside her little sister. “Think I’m just going to sit around while you teach my kid bad habits?”

“She’ll get enough from you.”

“Pfft, I am the face of responsibility!”

“I think she’ll be the judge,” Little Wing replied with a chuckle, tickling the oblivious foal with her wings. “What do you say, Dancer, gonna keep your mama in check?”

Sky Dancer giggled in response.

“That’s a yes.”

“No, she’s definitely sticking up from me,” Rainbow Dash denied, scooping Sky Dancer into her hooves and holding her close. “Don’t listen to your mean aunt, Sky, she’s just jealous.”

Little Wing laughed. “Only a little.”

“Well perhaps you and Misty should get on fixing that,” Bow jabbed slyly, getting the desired reaction of Little Wing blushing so hard the room heated up a few degrees. “Do whatever it is you need to do to get your own rascal.”

“L-let’s get tonight out of the way first!” Little Wing protested.

“Speaking of, you need to get ready!” Windy Whistles pointed out, dragging Little Wing away from her niece and towards the doorway. “You dress is all ready to go. Oh, I cannot wait to hear how it all goes!”

“Neither can I…” Little Wing muttered. “Mum, what if it all goes wrong…?”

“Misty loves you, dear,” Windy assured, draping a wing over her nervous daughter’s back. “Just go through with what you’ve planned, and it will all work out. The best ever, in fact!”

“I thought you might say that,” Little Wing said in an amused deadpan. “Gah, I’ve never been as good at hiding my nerves as Dash. How does she do it?”

“You know how she’d respond.”

“By being awesome,” Little Wing recited, before sighing. “I wish it were that easy.”

Windy gave her daughter a light nuzzle mixed in with a smile of reassurance. “As I said, it’ll all be fine. But first we need to get you ready to go at all.”

“Yeah, alright. What the hay, let’s just do this.”


Little Wing’s insides fluttered alongside her wings as she laid eyes on Misty Gust, wearing a grey dress designed to match her coat, standing a little way from the restaurant’s front entrance. Little Wing herself was wearing a dress more matching her eyes, working up the courage to take the final few steps out into the light and into Misty’s view.

The restaurant itself had some fancy name Little Wing wasn’t going to even try pronouncing, a griffon with a twirly black moustache greeting people at the door and directing them to their booked tables. It had been more than a little expensive to book even just a table for two, though Little Wing considered it well spent if it helped make the night the best it could possibly be.

Misty spotted Little Wing through the shadows.

Misty Gust waved a hoof at Little Wing, giving her a questioning gaze as to why she was hiding in the darkness of the night. As far as she was aware, it was just a normal date Little Wing had set up for a nice romantic evening. She had no idea what Little Wing’s true intentions were, and so had no idea why Little Wing looked well and truly terrified.

But she couldn’t stay there all night with cold hooves, so she imagined a familiar female human teenager kicking her up the rump and towards her date.

“It’s just a normal date so far, nothing unusual…” Little Wing muttered weakly to herself as she trotted on forwards with that new imaginary bruise stinging in reminder. “Just one step after another, that’s right…”

“Are you talking to yourself?” Misty Gust asked curiously, clearly trying not to laugh at the odd display from her marefriend.

“Yes, yes I am!” Little Wing stated, not hiding the twitch of her eye. “So… are we going in?”

“Are you alright?” Misty Gust asked in stirring concern. “You seem a little… out of it.”

“Fine? Me!? Why wouldn’t I be fine!?” Little Wing blurted out. “See? Never better! Let’s go!”

“If you say so, my brave Wonderbolt,” Misty Gust said, taking Little Wing’s hoof in her own. “You look great, by the way.”

And with that compliment, the fluttering overwhelmed the nerves. “You too, Misty. More than great… Awesome!”

“Did Rainbow give you that line?”

“It’s not like she owns the word,” Little Wing retorted as they reached the griffon, giving their names and booked time.

The griffon nodded, bringing up a list and scanning over it quickly and efficiently. It took but a moment to locate their names, and her directed them towards the table for two as he had for countless other customers and would with many yet to come.

They trotted through the moderately filled dining hall, passing by some of the richer Cloudsdale families and other couples out for a night of romance. As they sat down at their table, a waiter very quickly approached to provide their menus and take any immediate requests. Both asked for a simple glass of water for the time being while they browsed, and it took only a minute for the waiter to depart and then return with their requested beverage. Confident that he had done his job, the pegasus then departed to assist other customers.

“You picked the fanciest restaurant in Cloudsdale,” Misty noted, taking a good look around the place. “You’re being awfully secretive about tonight, what’s the reason?”

“Oh, no reason!” Little Wing denied. “Just, you know… I think you deserve it. It’s something nice, and we haven’t done it before.”

“Well, that’s very sweet,” Misty said with a smile, relaxing a little. “Sorry I wasn’t able to come with you to see Sky Dancer. The library has gotten a whole new shipment and they couldn’t spare me.”

“So you said, it’s fine,” Little Wing assured the cute grey mare she loved. “She’s doing really well. And she’s an angel, definitely takes after me.”

Misty laughed. “I’m sure. How is Rainbow Dash?”

“Happy,” Little Wing answered. “I don’t think she ever realised how much she wanted to be a mother until it happened. It actually suits her, believe it or not.”

“I believe it. But I don’t think it’s the father any future coltfriends are going to have to worry about,” Misty quipped. “I can see her being a mama bear.”

“Yeah, I could see that too,” Little Wing agreed. “Celestia help them all.”

The two shared a hearty laugh over the matter, before turning to their respective menus. They ordered a simple shared plate of garlic bread for the starter, saving room for the main course. When everything they desired had been ordered on the waiter’s return, the starter was brought out post-haste before the pony retreated back to relay their wishes to the chefs.

Each took a piece of the bread and took experimental bites. Finding it to their satisfaction, they continued to nibble on it as their conversation continued forwards.

“So, did anything interesting happen while unpacking this shipment of yours?” Little Wing asked after swallowing a bite. “Any books I’d be interested in.”

“Nope. It was mostly romance novels and a whole load for the non-fiction section,” Misty Gust explained. “It was a pretty dull day, really. Though I did hear a few… interesting things from my co-workers.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Eh, I’m not so sure if I should really say it here… Forget it.”

“Oh come on, Misty. Don’t keep me in suspense!”

“Well, okay…” Misty said, still unsure. “You remember The Sovereign Empire?”

“What? Those whiny group of griffons that keep poking up?” Little Wing enquired. “Wasn’t Princess Twilight Sparkle dealing with them?”

“That’s the thing, I heard that they attacked her,” Misty Gust replied, catching Little Wing off guard. “Or tried to, they apparently never actually got close.”

“What happened?”

“The Princess was meeting with some griffon representative about the issue when they tried to storm the building,” Misty Gust continued. “Nopony was too badly hurt, not for lack of them trying though. I heard that the Princess was furious.”

“Don’t blame her, they have to put a stop to it all now,” Little Wing replied, before she sat back with a groan. “And I just know the Captain will use this to order extra drills.”

“I’m sure you can handle it,” Misty said coyly. “Anyway, aside from that…”

Their small talk continued on for a good while, before being briefly silenced by the arrival of their main course. They ate through it all at a steady pace, having a glass of wine poured each as they continued to converse. After the main course they even found room for dessert, rich enough in chocolatey goodness to make even the hungriest of pegasi satisfied. And after all was said and done, they gave their compliments to the catering staff and made their exit. Each had a happy smile on their face as they exit, remaining all but glued the each other’s side as they laughed and giggled amongst themselves.

But the night wasn’t over, and Misty was more than a little confused as Little Wing pulled her aside and up into the night’s sky.

“Little Wing, where are we going?” Misty asked as they flew amongst the cool still air, a single cloud ahead of them sitting perfectly in Luna’s light. “The house is the other way, remember?”

“I know,” Little Wing replied. “I need to show you something, I promise that you’ll love it.”

“Okay, now I am curious.”

Little Wing came in to land on the well positioned cloud, taking Misty’s hoof delicately as she followed suit. Bathed in moonlight, the two lovers sat close to each other as Little Wing traced her hoof along the entirety of the city below, showcasing the entirety of Cloudsdale tinted blue by said light.

“Like the view?” the cyan pegasus asked.

“It’s wonderful,” Misty assured, offering Little Wing a small confused smile. “But nothing I haven’t seen before, what’s this about?”

“Well, you haven’t seen anything yet!”

“Little Wi-”

Misty yelped as Little Wing shot off of the cloud and positioned herself beneath it, beginning to rapidly move it higher into the air with Misty still on board. Higher and higher she lifted it, the floating city becoming more and more distant. Other clouds passed them by, and soon enough they were covered completely by a higher layer.

And then there were stars.

The cloud came to a halt, Little Wing gently bringing herself back up the side and next to a wide-eyed Misty Gust. All around them was that majestic kingdom in the sky that Rainbow Dash had shown her little sister many years prior, a landscape of pure cloud spanning for as far as the eye could see. Looking up, you almost got the feeling that you were in the vacuum of space itself when presented with the night’s pure embrace.

“I’ve… never been this far up before,” Misty muttered, looking around the landscape in awe. “It’s beautiful.”

“Rainbow Dash took me up here once, a long time ago,” Little Wing gently explained. “So peaceful and quiet, untouched and immortal. Nopony to bother us, the entire world to ourselves.”

Misty Gust took it all in, breathing slowly as she let the soft breeze wash over her. It was most certainly peaceful, the only other soul in sight was the warm body laying right beside her. Misty let out a breath, and then turned to look her marefriend straight in the eye.

“And what exactly would two ponies do with the world to themselves?”

Little Wing had anticipated this moment for a long time. Playing it over and over, seeing all the ways it could go horribly wrong. She was, at the very least, expecting to choke on her own words.

She didn’t.

“Marry me?”

Misty Gust blinked, and for a moment it seemed like a fuse had been blown inside her mind. The universe was silent and waiting, Little Wing not daring to even breathe as she waited for Misty Gust to process what had just happened. Fear and anxiety began to creep along her body, threatening to explode in an instant.

“Yes.”

Now it was Little Wing who blinked. “Huh?”

“Yes,” Misty Gust repeated, looking upon her new fiancé with enough love to fill a changeling hive. “Yes, so many times YES!”

Misty glomped Little Wing as hard as she could, burying her head in her chest as she shed tears of joy. Soon, Little Wing’s own tears were joining the mix as they held each other in front the entirely of creation itself.

And creation approved.