//------------------------------//
// Summer in Ponyville, Part 1 
// Story: The Royal Fillies REDUX 
// by blazikenking 
//------------------------------//

The end of third grade was marked with a celebration. Dad, who had been gone for two weeks on some kind of official business thing, brought donuts from Pony Joe's and mom let Skyla bring some of her friends over to party. She would have let me invite some friends as well, but I still didn't have any, and I was totally fine with that.

While the party was going on inside, I went to the rock garden in the back and sat down on the circular stone in the middle to work on my levitation. I still heard the sounds of Skyla and her friends celebrating, but being outside brought the noise down to a very tolerable, if still annoying level.

Dad showed up while I was trying to get a rock past four inches off the ground. "You're really working hard, aren't you?"

I dropped the rock and took a few breaths. "Yeah. It's tough." Magic was exhausting in a way physical exercise wasn't.

"You know what was even harder?"

"What?"

He levitated a box out from inside. "Keeping this safe from your sister. I've got one last donut in here, and it's yours." The box was placed at my hooves and opened. "Sorry it's just a plain glazed donut. The fancier stuff doesn't handle the train from Canterlot very well."

"That's okay." I picked the donut up with my forehooves and quickly ate it. It was pretty plain, but one nice thing about the glazed donut was how little stickiness it left on my hooves. "Simple can be good."

"That it can. By the way, your mom and I have a plan for you and Skyla for the summer."

"Really?" The seasons didn't mean much in the Crystal Empire, due to the shield and the very stable climate inside. They were more like groups of months than anything.

"Yep."





After Skyla's friends left and dinner was cleaned up, mom made the announcement. "Girls, you will be going to Ponyville for the summer to learn from Auntie Twilight and her friends."

"Summer school?" Skyla groaned.

"Sort of. There won't be any grades, but you will be learning important things from them, including some things you haven't been able to learn in school."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Science. We had to make a hard decision on which academic topic to drop for you two so you could have magic, flight, and general fitness. Twilight will personally teach that material."

Dad spoke up. "We'll be taking you there in a few days. Until then, relax and have some fun."





The trip south was different, aside from leaving at a time we're normally asleep at. The sun came up while we were on the train. After leaving the snowy areas around the Empire, things started looking more lush and green, instead of being snow covered. I had to take my wing covers and scarf off before getting to Canterlot since it was getting too warm to wear them.

The transfer to the Ponyville train at Canterlot was easy enough, and to Skyla's dismay, we didn't have enough time to get anything to eat. As much as I would have liked to get something as well, having only ten minutes between arrival and departure wasn't long enough to go and get anything. Thankfully, the train to Ponyville did have some sandwiches, so we at least had something on the way.

It was late in the afternoon when we arrived at Ponyville, and Auntie Twilight greeted us at the station. "Hi everypony!" She looked down at Skyla and me. "What's going on with them?"

"Would you believe me if I said this is their first time in warm temperatures like this?" Mom asked. "They may need a few days to acclimate."

My fur and wings felt damp and sticky from my sweat, and it was worse around my mane and tail. Apparently, black stuff got warm really fast under direct sun, and I'd chosen to sit on the sunny side of the train. It was making me miserable. Despite that, I stayed tough and on my hooves. Skyla, on the other hoof, let herself collapse on the platform. She looked a lot like I did when I tried to use my wings.

"Well then. . . That changes my science lesson plans a bit, but I can work with that."

"Thanks for doing this, Twi," dad said. "I know you're busy, but this means a lot to us."

"Hey, it's fine, Shining. We're family. In fact, could you and Cadence do something for me while you're here?"

"Name it."

"I was going to give the girls a tour of Ponyville, but given their condition, that's not a good idea right now. Could you tell my friends about the change of plans?"

"I'll tell Rainbow and Rarity," mom said.

"I'll take Applejack and Pinkie, then we can meet at Fluttershy's," dad added.

"Thanks," Twilight said. "To your hooves, Skyla. We've got science lessons and a cool bath ahead of us."





Skyla, Twilight, and I were relaxing in a huge tub in her castle, the cool water cooling us off while Twilight gave a science lesson. I never thought a cool water bath could be so refreshing.

"-and heat energy, like matter, can't be created or destroyed, just transferred from one place to another, such as from you to the water. This loss of heat is why you feel cold."

I raised a forehoof. "What about magic doing those things?"

"Magic is a form of energy as well. It's complex, contradictory, and can be confusing to even the most studied thaumaturges."

Skyla raised a forehoof. "What's a. . . What you said?"

"Thaumaturges specialize in the study and understanding of magic via scientific principles. I happen to be a part time one myself. Did you know that friendship actually makes magic more powerful?"

"Really?"

I braced myself for another speech about making friends. "Of course, it's not just about the number of friends, but the strength of those bonds, and that has to go both ways. Skyla, you've got lots of friends, right?"

"There's Arctic Tail, Tricky Arrow, Comet Kicker-"

"Let's start with those three. How well do you know them?"

Skyla put a hoof to her chin in thought. "Arctic Tail likes to go outside the Empire's bubble and play in the snow, and she takes really good care of her fluffy coat. Tricky Arrow is really good at tossing things with his telekinesis, and he wants to become a Crystal Guard someday. Comet Kicker loves to play hoofball, and she has a really powerful kick."

"She does," I groaned. Getting hit in the shoulder by a ball launched by one of her kicks hurt a lot.

"Anything else?" Auntie Sparkle asked.

Skyla started to look worried. "Well, uh. . ."

"Having lots of friends is good, but you need to take the time to care for and nurture each friendship. It may mean you spend more time with some of your friends than others, but that's okay. I sometimes spend more time with Fluttershy than Pinkie, for example. Pinkie is always fun and entertaining, but sometimes, I need to see somepony that's a bit quieter to take a breather from my royal duties. That, and Fluttershy makes a very refreshing herbal tea." She turned to me. "What about you, Inova? Do you have any friends at school?"

"Nope," was my simple response. For some reason, I wanted a hard hat to lift off my head.

"She likes being alone at school," Skyla said. "She's also really smart."

"You know, I used to be that way too," Auntie Twilight said. "I did make some friends in my study groups, but I never really got to know them very well." I rolled my eyes as the friendship lecture resumed. Mom often gave me similar, less detailed ones a couple times per month, so I tuned it out. "-and it could be that one reason you're having so much trouble with basic levitation is because you don't have a friend to encourage you."

"So. . . I should make friends so I can do magic better?" I asked.

"Well. . . Yes and no. Making friends just for power is no way to go about it. It has to be a genuine bond, and that is what will give you power."

I gave her explanation some thought. "I have to make friends to get more power, but I can't want power in order to make the friendship?"

"Something like that."

I put that confusing bit of logic right next to the idea that ponies wanted to be my friend for bragging rights or connections. The reasons to be skeptical had doubled. "Noted."





A few days later, after an outdoor experiment on erosion with a specialized table Auntie Twilight had built for the lesson, the sky began to darken and fill with clouds moved into place by pegasi. Twilight smiled. "Girls, welcome to your next lesson: weather. The Crystal Empire's weather is the same day to day in and out of the bubble, but here, it isn't."

"What's this?" Skyla was nervous about it, but I felt oddly calm.

"It's going to start raining in a few minutes. You see, Ponyville has a lot of agriculture, and the crops need the rain. In fact, nearly every apple in the Crystal Empire comes from Ponyville. For now, just sit under my wings and watch."

Skyla and I left the erosion experiment and sat on the grass under Twilight's spread wings while she teleported it away. The sky rumbled and I moved closer to her. "What's happening now?" Skyla nervously asked.

"It's a thunderstorm. When the pegasi make rain clouds, their magic mixes in to let them better control the release of the rain. The heavier, darker clouds have more of their magic in them. This creates a reaction with the water in big enough cloud structures, which generates electricity, which can come down as a bolt of lightning." As if the clouds obeyed her words, there was a flash of lightning and a huge clap of thunder that hit somewhere in the middle of town, making Skyla shriek. A moment later, the downpour started. Twilight's wings kept us mostly dry. "There's very little that the pegasi can do to direct the lightning beyond going down, so most ponies don't go out during these thunderstorms."

While the storm raged on, I slowly crept out from under Twilight's wing and into the rain. It felt oddly pleasant, despite the cracks of thunder, bolts of lightning, and Twilight calling for me to come back to her.





I examined the model alicorn skeleton on the table in front of me. It was attached to a base with a number of buttons on it, with each one making something on the model appear or disappear. Muscles, organs, blood vessels, nerves, magic conduits, and fur and feathers. The fur and feather layer on my model was Aunt Celestia while Skyla had Aunt Luna.

"Pegasus wings, as you can see, are laced with magic conduits, outnumbering blood vessels by approximately a 3 to 1 ratio," Twilight explained.

Skyla raised a hoof. "Auntie, why are there so many more conduits?" When the gray conduit layer was on, it made a dense cage around each wing, covered most of each hoof, and practically recolored the horn. The conduits also covered the rest of the body, but were more spread out.

"The conduits are a ghost layer, as there's no physical way to interact with them. This lets them spread out past the wing and feathers, though not by much. It's what lets pegasi fly at all, as the wings alone can't allow more than a controlled glide at best. Rainbow's magic conduits in her wings extend out about an inch around them, which is the world record."

"Then how does Pinkie do what she does?"

Twilight's expression turned serious. "That is something I don't want to explore again, and I'm not going to use the conduit vision spell to find out. I'm honestly afraid of what I might see. There's no questioning Pinkie or what she does. All you can do is accept that she takes the laws of physics and magic as suggestions." A pink hoof went into the air. "Yes, Pinkie?"

"Twilight, did you forget to get your balloon ready for their trip to Cloudsdale?"

Skyla and I both shared looks of confusion. Pinkie was not with us when the anatomy lessons began, the door had been closed, Twilight only had two models, and Pinkie's model looked like mom with the fur and feathers on.

"I knew I was forgetting something." She turned back to Skyla and me. "I'll be back in about half an hour. For now, Pinkie will teach you a bit about laughter."

As Auntie Twilight left, Pinkie took her place. Before she could say anything, I asked the question that was on my mind, and probably Skyla's too. "When did you get here?"

"At the exact time it was expected of me," Pinkie answered. "And no, Twilight didn't tell me ahead of time."

"Who expected you?" Skyla asked.

"The readers, duh. But that's enough seriousness. It's time to get silly!"





After Pinkie's lesson and all its eccentricities that left me more lost than laughing, the balloon ride was nice and quiet. As it ascended, the air got a bit cooler, which was a welcome relief from the heat down below.

During the flight, my vain hopes that Cloudsdale might have just been the name for a town on the ground that made clouds were dashed. It was a city made of clouds, and I could feel the fur on my back rise in fear. The ground was much further away, and I could feel my chances of becoming a pancake rising. "Auntie?" I nervously asked.

"Yes, Inova?" She brought the balloon down for a gentle landing on a cloud platform.

"Can I take more science lessons with you? Science is fun."

"As much as I'd like to, I promised your parents that I would bring you here. This is as much about loyalty as it is learning to fly. Most of what I learned about flying, I learned from Rainbow. She'll have you flying in no time."

"But. . ." The side of the basket opened up and Skyla walked out onto the clouds, letting me see some ground that was far away and a long way down. "I can't even glide yet."

"You'll do fine." I felt Auntie Twilight's magic pushing me from behind, and as much as I tried to push back, my hooves couldn't get enough traction on the basket, and I was sitting on the cloud very quickly.

Rainbow appeared a moment after the basket closed behind me. "About time, Twilight."

"I got a little caught up in one of their science lessons," Twilight admitted. "Let me know if I need to come get them."

"I'll be fine, and so will they. You have my word."

"Alright. See you later." Twilight left, and as much as I wanted to try and jump into the basket, I was more scared of going splat, and my wings were folded so tightly in fear against my body that it hurt.

"Alright you two, I've got your first mission," Rainbow barked at us. I turned around to face her. "You see that cloud down there?" She pointed down to a cloud a moderate distance away and lower than ours. "I want you two to glide down there. Once we're all there, we'll go get lunch."

"Lunch!?" Skyla leapt into action and off the cloud. She opened her wings and smoothly glided down to the cloud. "I'm ready!"

I looked down over the edge of the cloud and backed up. "I can't!"

"It's just like gliding in your flight class," Rainbow assured. "Just higher up and further away."

"She hasn't gotten to gliding yet!" Skyla called out.

Rainbow looked to her, then back to me. "Really?"

"I don't wanna go splat, I don't wanna go splat, I don't wanna go splat, I don't wanna go splat. . ." I muttered from my safe area laying in the middle of the cloud. As long as I didn't look or think down, I felt alright.

Rainbow landed in front of me. "Alright, Princess. To your hooves!" At her order, I got to my hooves and looked up to make eye contact. "Now work up your courage and spread those wings!"

With some effort, I managed to fully extend my wings, but I couldn't keep my forelegs straight and faceplanted into the cloud. "This again. . ."

Rainbow was surprised into silence, or so I imagined. With my face in the cloud, I couldn't see her. "Skyla, is this normal for her?"

"Mom's been trying to help her with that, but she always falls forward!" Skyla answered. "So, yes!"

A frustrated sigh escaped Rainbow. "Alright. Inova, get back to your hooves." I got my wings to fold up before I got my hooves back under me and to a standing position. "We're going to do some experiments later. Not Twilight's kind. For now, take the long way around and meet us down there." She flew off and sat down next to Skyla.

I looked around and began figuring out the best hoof path through the clouds, starting with where Rainbow and Skyla were and working my way backwards. Once I had that figured out, I began my walk.

It took fifteen minutes to get to the cloud. What had looked simple wasn't as easy as I'd thought. Paths that looked straight from the landing platform had long curves, and the thinner paths slowed me down since I really didn't want to fall. Despite the challenges, I didn't give up and I made it. "Okay, I'm here now."

"About time. Since Inova's got some control difficulties, we're going to walk, and I'll tell you all about loyalty, especially how you can take it too far. Don't do that."

"How does that work?" Skyla asked as we started walking along the paths I'd just taken to get down to the platform.

"Have you ever heard of blind devotion? Following and supporting without question is terrible. For example, in Daring Do and The Third Crusade. . ."





Skyla and I sat in the middle of Rainbow's cloud house's living room. It was experiment time, she had a clipboard, and we were to follow her orders. "Wings out!"

Skyla smoothly opened her wings. I could easily imagine the sound of straining metal as I worked to get mine open. As before, my forelegs gave out when my wings were open.

"Wings in!"

Closing her wings took Skyla no time at all, while I took some time to get mine closed before I could get my forelegs working again so I could sit up.

"Wings out and stand!"

Skyla got to her hooves and spread her wings. I spread my wings and flopped down again. Instead of closing them, I got to my hooves, leaving my wings hanging from my sides.

"Wings up high!"

My forelegs gave out and I faceplanted when I followed the order.

"Hover!"

I felt the downdraft from Skyla's wings as she hovered in place. I tried flapping my wings, all in accordance with what I'd learned in school, but it didn't do anything except push me forward a few inches and put my flanks higher up while my forelegs dragged along the cloud floor.

"Land!"

There was a soft 'pompf' as Skyla landed, and I got my wings to close before I stood back up.

"At ease! I think I have everything I need to know." There was a knock on her door. "Right on time." She opened it. "Hey, Twi. We just finished the experiment."

Auntie Twilight walked in. "What kind of results did you get?"

"Skyla's just fine, but Inova can't work her wings without her forelegs giving out or just not working."

"Really?"

I demonstrated, voluntarily faceplanting. Clouds really weren't so bad for that.

"It's almost like she wasn't born with wings," Rainbow said.

"Well I wasn't, but I did learn from the best."

"Inova, stand!" At the order, I got to my hooves with my wings hanging again. "And then there's that. Wings in and stand!"

"Must be something psychological," Auntie Twilight concluded as I faceplanted, got my wings in, and stood back up. "I'm not aware of anything like this, though." Her horn lit up and I felt a tingling sensation along my shoulders, wings, and upper back. It was a scanning spell the doctors sometimes used on me.

"Even Fluttershy could do the basics at Inova's age. I mean, only when she couldn't see the ground from up here, but she could do it."

Twilight's horn glow cut out and the tingling faded a moment later. "All her nerves and conduits are fine, so that's out."

"I think she needs a more physical method to learn how to fly, and I know just the place for it." Rainbow's statement filled me with the dread of going splat.





My remaining time in Cloudsdale was mostly spent in flight training places, with falls from one cloud to the next as Rainbow dropped me and I tried to achieve a simple glide. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep my wings stable and my legs in position at the same time, and if I had my legs in position, I couldn't keep my wings straight enough to glide. Seeing the ground far below through the gaps in the walls did nothing to help my nerves either. What little awkward gliding I did manage often ended with my head in the cloud walls or just landing on the floor.

Skyla, meanwhile, was flying from cloud to cloud. She did her best to encourage me, but no matter what, I just couldn't get my wings to work the way I wanted them to. It was frustrating, but I kept my cool throughout the whole ordeal. Knowing that Cloudsdale was the only flying place we’d be in helped a bit, and I was all too happy to go when Auntie Twilight showed up with her balloon again.