Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash still just stood there in the doorway completely dumbstruck at what just happened.
"So tell me Twilight," Rainbow asked the purple pony. "Why didn't you send him packing yourself?"
"Believe me Rainbow, I've thought about it." Twilight deflated. "However, Princess Celestia told me I was going to have to learn how to politely deal with ponies that don't interest me. I don't want to end up being known as the princess who deals with her problems like that!" She waved a hoof at the now empty space.
"Well..." Rainbow grinded her hooves together. "If Random hadn't shut him up, I was a few steps away from breaking his nose."
"Rainbow Dash," Twilight snapped. "We cant solve everything with force!"
"What do ya call that then?!" Rainbow pointed a hoof down the road Random had taken, he was almost out of sight.
"That was... I don't know what that was," Twilight sighed as she turned to go back inside.
"Hey Twilight!" Rainbow shouted after her. "Where are you going?! We're still going flying today, right?"
"I haven't forgotten. But I need to at least send a letter to the princess before Blueblood has a chance to spin the story however he wants. Spike!" She shouted to her assistant. "I need to send a letter to the princess right away."
Spike rushed out of the kitchen, enthusiastically sliding to a stop in front of her, quill and parchment already in claw. "Ready."
Twilight started to dictate, Spike scratching down words as she spoke.
"Dear Princess Celestia,"
"I've just finished having a rather unpleasant encounter with Prince Blueblood. Hopefully this letter reaches you before he has a chance to talk to you. He was being just as rude as he was back in Canterlot and his bad attitude caused things to escalate. Please rest assured it was not I that put him into his current condition, but rather a unicorn that just moved into, or as I think I'm understanding, back to Golden Oaks Library. Which brings me to a question. Do you know anypony named Random Fact? He's a grey unicorn stallion with green eyes and mane and has a scroll for a cutiemark. Normally I wouldn't bother you with something like this, except for the fact I just watched him perform an age spell like it was nothing. Did anypony particularly skilled go to your school before me? He only appears to be a couple years older than me."
"You're faithful student and fellow princess, Twilight Sparkle."
"P.S. Aside from this morning, moving back to Ponyville has been very relaxing. I'm glad you suggested I take a break."
"Ok Spike, send the letter." With a puff of dragon's breath, Spike set the letter alight and the green embers flew out the window and towards Canterlot.
"You finished, Twilight?" Rainbow hovered next to her, shaking her shoulder. "Can we go now?"
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, "yes Rainbow, we can go now. You can push me off a cliff or whatever it is you think is going to help me fly."
"Whatever makes you think I'm pushing you off a cliff?" Rainbow grinned widely.
Rainbow did not push Twilight off a cliff, not once. It was, in fact, several times she pushed her off a cliff, and that was just within the first hour.
"Is this really the best way to learn?" Twilight complained as she pulled herself out of yet another hole in the ground. It seems that at some point Celestia had let it slip to her friends, Rainbow Dash in particular, that Twilight's body could take a lot more abuse now that she's become an alicorn. Part of Twilight was wondering if Rainbow was really trying to help her fly, or was just trying to see if she could make a Twilight shaped hole in the ground.
"My folks pushed me off a cloud and I turned out all right," Rainbow offered unhelpfully after Twilight subjected her to another round of grumbling. "We should actually be a lot higher than this, but you're far too heavy for me to carry you."
"Rainbow!" Twilight growled in her embarrassment. "That's not something you say to a grown mare!"
"Don't give me that look," Rainbow defended herself. "It's not my fault you're learning to fly so much later than pegasi usually do. It'll get better if we keep at it."
Twilight scowled, this was going to be a long day.
The next hour did not get much better. In fact, it got much worse when the Cutie Mark Crusaders had stopped by to watch. Maybe if watching was all they did, it wouldn't have been so bad.
"Try flappin your wings like this!" Shouted Apple Bloom as she stood on her high legs and waved her forelegs in a motion that looked nothing like how wings move.
"Apple Bloom, you look like a chicken," laughed Sweetie Belle.
"Who you calling a chicken?!" Snapped Scootaloo as she jumped at Sweetie Belle.
They rolled around in the dirt as Apple Bloom got pulled into their scuffle. "She wasn't talking about you."
The hour after that did start to get a bit better, just not in the way she had been hoping.
Twilight was still having trouble staying airborne for any length of time. However, the landings didn't hurt so much due to ground having been so thoroughly churned up from her previous landings. Somehow that didn't make her feel any better.
"How long has she been at it?" Asked Fluttershy as she watched Twilight crash land off the cliff again.
Twilight was no longer waiting to get pushed off the cliff by Rainbow Dash. At this point she had worked herself into a frenzied routine of jumping off the cliff, flapping her wings like a madmare, crashing, and then teleporting back up to repeat the process.
"I think she's going on four hours now," Rainbow said as she watched the determined Twilight jump again. "It was only in the last thirty minutes that the crazy started."
"It kind of looks like an upset foal throwing their toys down the stairs," Fluttershy commented.
"I wasn't going to say it, but I was kind of thinking the same thing," Rainbow Dash agreed.
After a dozen more attempts, Twilight blinked back to the top of the cliff, collapsed onto her belly, and was now gasping for air. Her mane was sticking out in weird places, dirt coated her body, and several feathers on each wing were clearly broken and now sticking out from the rest of her plumage.
"What am I doing wrong?" She wheezed as she looked over to her friends. "I mean, I tried everything you said and I just keep falling. Not even anything I've read about flying seems to be helping."
"You have a book on flying?" Rainbow asked only to get a flat look from Twilight. "Of course you do."
"You just make it look so easy," said Twilight as she slumped further into the ground, content not to move for the time being.
"Well I am awesome," Rainbow boasted as she struck a pose that quickly turned into a recoil at Fluttershy's disapproving stare.
"Don't worry so much, Twilight," said Fluttershy as she laid a wing across her withers. "You've only had wings for about a week. Nopony going to expect you to start flying so soon. Not even Princess Celestia."
"Thank you Fluttershy," said Twilight, relaxing a bit. "I needed to hear that."
"So Fluttershy," Rainbow cut in. "We missed you at the party."
"Oh," Fluttershy said meekly while twiddling her hooves. "I'm sorry, but Harry wasn't feeling that well and I just couldn't leave him alone."
"That's ok, Fluttershy," said Twilight while sitting back up. "I'm sure you'll meet the new pony eventually. He's actually living at the library."
"Oh my," Fluttershy hid a half of a blush behind her mane. "You have a stallion living with you? I hope he's being a perfect gentlecolt about it."
Rainbow looked at Twilight unsure of herself, "does sending that jerk Blueblood packing count as being a gentlecolt?"
Fluttershy's blush made way for a scowl at the mention of that pony's name, "that big meanie followed you?!"
"He did. However he didn't stay very long. Random Fact, that's the new pony by the way, must've been really bothered by how Blueblood was treating us. He sort of went and turned him into foal." Twilight lifted a hoof to just above knee height, "he only comes up to about here right now."
"So he's a unicorn then," Fluttershy lifted a hoof to her chin and seemed to be lost in thought.
"Something wrong, Fluttershy?" Asked Rainbow.
"By any chance does this Random Fact have a golden colored coat and wears a green cloak?" She finally asked.
The girls looked at each other before Twilight responded, "Random's a grey color. Who are you thinking of?"
"Well," said Fluttershy as she sat ready to tell her story. "A couple hours ago I was feeding my animals, you know how noisy they can get, when suddenly they all got really quiet. They all started staring towards the forest and even Angel Bunny wasn't trying to act all tough. He just started chattering about there being something out there, something that wasn't right."
"This is starting to sound like a scary campfire story," Rainbow noticed. "I thought you didn't do those."
"I don't. This actually happened," she defended. "So I went to the window and saw this unicorn standing on the edge of the forest. I watched him for a few moments before he wandered into the Everfree."
"Doesn't everypony know how dangerous Everfree is?" Twilight questioned.
"Well I didn't recognize him, so I figured he didn't know. So I chased after him. I didn't want him running into whatever had all my animals so scared," said Fluttershy.
"Whoa," interrupted Rainbow. "So you actually wandered into Everfree? By yourself?"
Fluttershy gave a small pout, "I actually go into the forest all the time. It's not so scary during the day. You just have to know what to avoid. Anyway, I had never seen Everfree so quiet. It was scary, it was almost as if the forest itself was afraid of something. I even spotted a pack of timberwolves in a distant clearing." She got close to Rainbow Dash's face and stared deep into her eyes, "have you ever seen a pack of scared timberwolves? Well I have now."
"That's unusual," Twilight said inquisitively. "Every time we've run into them, they aren't afraid of anything."
"That's what I thought," Fluttershy agreed. "Well I found the pony eventually. I couldn't see much of his face under his hood, but what I did see gave me chills. His face was all covered in shadows except for two glowing green eyes. His head swiveled back and forth like he was looking for something. When he finally noticed me and turned those glowing green eyes on me, I felt a chill run down my spine. I ran as fast as could and didn't stop until I got home."
"You should save that story for the next time we go camping," said Rainbow. "That'd make a great campfire story."
Fluttershy pouted as she glared at Rainbow, "this really happened though."
"Doesn't make it any less of a good story though," she jabbed. "Maybe make it more exciting by having the timberwolves be broken piles of wood. Oh, and on fire. And the pony only has three legs."
"Rainbow," Twilight chided. "That's not exactly fair. Fluttershy sounds really scared."
"Yeah, sorry Fluttershy," she said while looking a bit sheepish. "Anyway Twilight, ready to get going?"
"Do I have to keep trying?" Twilight complained. "I don't feel like I've been making any progress."
"Actually Twilight," Rainbow said while shaking her head. "You need to take a break, we're done for today. Princess Celestia wasn't joking about how much tougher you are now. I would've broken every bone in my body by now."
"You're probably right," Twilight looked relieved to finally be taking a break. "Where are we going then?"
"This is going to sound weird coming from me," Rainbow nervously blushed while absentmindedly rubbing one foreleg with the other. "But..."
"Mmm," Twilight moaned deeply as soft hooves pushed down on her.
"Ah!" She cried out as her fully splayed wings were gently caressed while the individual feathers that made up her plumage were carefully massaged.
A shiver ran down her spine as a particularly sensitive spot was found. Her eyes rolled back as she buried her face in a pillow. A hind leg involuntary making small kicks in her ecstasy.
"Vee are glad vat vu enjoy vur special deluxe ving massage so much, Miss Sparkle." Said Aloe, one of the spa ponies.
"Vu are not the first to ve so vocal avout how much she enjoys it." Said her sister, Lotus.
"How was I supposed to know a wing massage could feel this good?" Twilight said in her bliss.
"Vell, ve important ving is vat you know now," Aloe ran her hooves over a particularly sore spot, eliciting another moan from Twilight.
"Vu just relax and let vus take care of vu," said Lotus as she worked her way to the space between her wings. Twilight felt her mind just melt as she felt more relaxed than she had in a long time.
Twilight left the spa feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. Rainbow had left before they got to the spa, saying she had weather duties to tend to, but Twilight was glad she had recommended the wing massage after the flying practice.
"Hey Twilight," Spike greeted her as she got home. "How was practice?"
"Painful," Twilight begrudging admitted. "Although the follow up spa treatment was amazing," she said with a pleasant shiver. "So has Random come back yet?"
"Nah, I haven't seen him since this morning." Spike reached behind his back and pulled out a scroll, "you did get a letter from Princess Celestia though."
"Ooo," Twilight scooped up the scroll. "I wonder what she has to say?"
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
Once again, let me say how great it feels to call you that. While the trials you're facing now may seem difficult, one day you'll find yourself looking back on them and laugh. As to your new house guest, I can't say I've ever had anypony attend my school that goes by that name. It's certainly an impressive bit of spell work I'm currently looking at on my nephew. I do think I'll let the spell wear off on its own, give him some time to think things over. Other than that, I'm glad to hear that you're doing well with your time away.
Sincerely, Princess Celestia.
P.S. So he's about your age, is he Twilight? Is he easy on the eyes? Is he available? Maybe you should bring him around for dinner sometime.
Twilight scrunched up her face in indignation, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment as she read the post script, "what are you?! My mother?!"