I walked into the library, sniffing in deeply. I loved that book smell. I figured books would always have their place, however much digital technology advanced. Books were palpable, they didn’t need batteries, and they smelled so nice. I walked up to the central desk, which for once Dust was actually attending. She didn’t look up from the book she was reading as I approached. “Hello,” I said.
Dust just looked at her book. She gasped softly and turned the page. “I have some books to return,” I said.
Dust mumbled something, still reading. I pulled the books out of my saddlebag and started putting them on the desk. That got her attention. “What’s up, Peace?” she said.
“Just returning these books,” I said.
Dust checked them over. “Where’s Identifying Edible Plants of the Forest?” she asked.
“I lent it to a friend,” I said. “But she’ll get it back to me before the due date.”
“Are you sure?” Dust said.
“Technically, I can’t be sure, because it’s not up to me,” I said. “But I’ll be sure to bother her if the due date is coming close. These books were super useful. I’ll probably come back to them for reference. Do you have any more recommendations for me?”
“You mean, other books like these?” Dust said. “If I had more, wouldn’t I have given them to you the first time?”
“Alright,” I said. “I don’t suppose you could get me in contact with the unicorns who wrote these books? I still want to collect more information. I’m thinking of composing a book that summarizes the botany of Bridlewood Forest in pegasus scientific terms.”
“You didn’t find anything useful in the herbarium?” Dust said.
“The. What?”
“Is that not what they call it in the pegasus lands?” Dust said.
“I know what an herbarium is,” I said. “You have one in Bridlewood?” My voice went higher as I got excited.
“I didn’t mention the herbarium before?” Dust said.
“No!” I squeaked.
“Shh. Have you seen the stairs that lead down to the basement of the library? What did you think was down there? Isn’t there a sign that says ‘herbarium’?”
“I don’t remember seeing it,” I said. Dust stood up and gestured for me to follow her.
She walked to a staircase. “No sign?” she said. “Where did it go…?” She trotted down the stairs, and I followed. She unlocked a door at the bottom. I thought maybe there were angel choirs as I stepped into the herbarium! There were rows of filing cabinets with family names labelling them. Confusing unicorn family names, but I knew most of them at this point. I opened a filing cabinet and pulled a file out. A beautiful, purple oak leaf, perfectly pressed on the mounting paper.
“Who mounted all of these?” I said. “Who takes care of the herbarium?”
“Who else but I?” Dust said. “As for the collectors, umm… aren’t they usually amateur naturalists? Where does the pony that wrote The Field Guide to Bridlewood Forbs live? Is it Sparkleton?”
“So, you don’t know any professional botanists in town?” I said. That would sure be useful.
“Didn’t I just say that?”
“Not exactly… Do you do any collecting yourself?”
“Umm… Does it look like I’ve seen the sun in the last dozen moons?” Dust said. “Who likes the sun, anyway? Can’t it burn you? Why would I ever leave my precious library?”
“Okay, not a collector then,” I said. “If you know any of the ponies who do collect, I’d like to get in contact with them.”
“Do you have a notebook?” Dust said. I pulled one out of my saddlebag, along with a pen. Dust started writing in it. She passed it back to me with magic. She wrote in very neat cursive. She had written several names, along with addresses and brief physical descriptions.
“That will be useful,” I said. “Also this.” I gestured around the herbarium. It wasn’t very large, but it was certainly more samples than I had collected so far.
“Shall I leave you to it, then?” Dust said, walking towards the exit.
“Sure,” I said. “Thank you!” Dust trotted up the stairs, closing the door behind her with magic.
* * *
The train was leaving the station as I arrived. “Oh, great,” I mumbled. In a snap decision, I ran and took off. I pumped my wings as hard as I could, rapidly picking up speed. The train accelerated more lethargically. Already breathing hard, I caught up to the back car of the train. I caught the railing next to the back door and folded my wings away. I opened the door and stepped into the train car, taking a seat.
Life in Zephyr Heights was havoc. It was always a bit of a shock, returning to the city after a long trip of field work. Even though I had been staying in a population center in Bridlewood Forest, it was still jarring to come back to ZH. With their blaring advertisements, instant messaging, and pop crazes, the ponies of Zephyr Heights were going nowhere in a hurry.
I was back for a short break, but I would soon return to Bridlewood Forest to continue my work. I had taken my samples back to the university lab and visited my family. The worst part of this “break” was hooking up to the grid again. 89 texts and 219 emails. Why? Just why?
I was on my way to see a Wonderbolts performance. I didn’t know if Zipp would recognize or remember me, but I was still interested in seeing what they could do. I was really happy to have flight back, like a lot of pegasi. What could be more irking than having wings but not being able to fly? Oh, I know, I thought. Watching as the royals flew while nopony else could! I still couldn’t wrap my head around why in Equestria the royals had sold that insulting, classist lie for so many years. It had made me resent them for years. My opinion of them actually mellowed out when I had learned that they had been lying the whole time. I still wouldn’t have forgiven them if the princesses hadn’t pressured the queen into pursuing a policy of intertribal friendship. They could say whatever they wanted about how magic was restored—it could just as easily be a lie, too—but dissolving these racist barriers was a tangible good the princesses were working towards. Overall, for now my political opinion on the princesses was neutral.
I still liked some of Pipp’s music and Zipp’s pioneering flight research, regardless of my political opinions. The train arrived at the station next to the stadium. I got through security and flew up to my seat. The arena—usually used for hoofball—was far from full. Although everypony was happy to be flying again, aerial performance was apparently still a niche interest.
The performance started with a fanfare from a band in the stands. It was a peppy tune, like the sort I played in marching band during high school. But these were royal guards, much better than a high school band. They had very clean double-tonguing, and the lead player hit an E at the end of the song. Then out of a tunnel came the Wonderbolts, in blue uniform with goggles. They flew a lap around the stadium, low to the ground. At the front of their formation was a pegasus with multicolored wings and a short mane. Wait, was that Zipp? The leader flew lowest of all, practically touching the ground. In fact, she was touching the ground, doing a passage trot as she zipped around the stadium.
After that showy opening, the leader—at this point I was pretty sure she was Princess Zipp—became more a part of the formation. They performed a series of daring stunts, coordinated patterns, and elegant maneuvers. I did notice a few formations that didn’t quite line up—all these ponies were new to flying. But there were no collisions, and the crowd was sufficiently wowed. I certainly couldn’t do anything like that. I guessed most of these ponies were already athletes when magic had been restored, ponies with the strength, coordination, and practice habits to get so good so quickly.
At the end of the performance, Zipp shot up into the air out of an aerial flower formation. She climbed straight up, quickly becoming a small speck in my vision. Then she dove. She picked up speed so quickly, it was over in a few seconds. She pulled up just before hitting the ground, barely clearing the rising bleachers of the arena. The ponies in that part of the audience first ducked in terror, then wildly cheered. I joined in, stomping my hooves on the bleachers. That stunt took some guts. If she had messed that up, at those speeds she surely would have died.
With that last stunt and another fanfare, the performance was over. I took to the air to get out of the arena. “Hey, Peace!” a voice beneath me called. I banked left to circle, looking down for who had called me. I saw a pony with a long, blue mane waving at me from an audience box. Izzy. I spiraled down towards her. I saw Sunny, Hitch, and Pipp in the box next to her. Noticing the royal guards, I landed on the bleachers outside the box. Izzy slipped past the guards to greet me.
“I didn’t know you’d be here!” she said. “I thought you were still in Bridlewood.”
“I’m just here for the weekend,” I said. “I’ll be back in Bridlewood, still for a long time. I’m surprised to see you here.”
“I’m just here to support a friend,” Izzy said. “This was Zipp’s first Wonderbolts performance, you know?”
“She must have worked hard,” I said. “In less than two moons, she went from never having flown to high-speed trots and daring dives. Flying isn’t as easy as she makes it look.”
“Seriously, though!” Pipp said. She had parted the guards. “I could never do what she does. Although wing shape matters, too. I can make tight turns easier than Zipp.”
“Her wings have more of a high-speed profile,” I said. “She was really zipping by the end of that dive. One moment she was just a dot in the sky, and the next she was already whooshing over the audiences’ heads.”
I heard wings behind me. “Thanks, Peace,” the approaching pegasus said. I turned to see Zipp land next to me. She was still in her blue Wonderbolts uniform, although she had removed the goggles. “That dive didn’t really go as planned, though.”
“Really?” I said. “I don’t know how you could have done better. That was a stunning finale.”
“I was trying to pull off a maneuver called a sonic rainboom,” Zipp said. “Have you ever heard of it?”
“No,” I said.
“There are legends of a Wonderbolt who flew so fast that she broke the sound barrier,” Zipp said.
“That’s not possible,” I said. “A pegasus doesn’t have the aerodynamics to—”
“Fly at all,” Zipp said. “We fly with magic. When she broke the sound barrier, her magic basically exploded, causing a rainbow to appear at the same time as the sonic boom.”
“Interesting,” I said.
“It’s nearly impossible to do,” Zipp said. “Hard enough that none of the other Wonderbolts ever managed it. I thought I could pull it off in a high-pressure situation. I perform well under pressure. But I wasn’t quite there.”
“You’ll get it, Zipp,” Pipp said. “Practice makes perfect.”
“Thank you all for coming to see our performance,” Zipp said.
“You always see mine, so it seemed fair,” Pipp said.
“I mean, you’re basically making history,” Sunny said. “This is the first Wonderbolts performance in hundreds of moons!”
“Well, I’m off,” I said, stretching my wings. “It’s good to see you all again. I’m going back to Bridlewood, so I’ll see you again, Izzy.”
“Great!” she said.
“And me,” Sunny added. “My home… got wrecked. So I’m staying with Izzy until they, uh, fix it.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. “Well, I’ll see you in Bridlewood.” I leapt into the air and flew off.