//------------------------------// // Dancing with Moonbeams (Twilight) // Story: Tangled Wings // by Short-tale //------------------------------// I was woken by a loud bang that echoed through the castle. Maybe it was more of a bamf than a bang. I didn’t care what it was, I was hoping it would go away and let me sleep. But the thought of danger close by isn’t something I can sleep through.  I pulled myself out of bed but Spike was surprisingly quicker. The slumbering dragon wasn’t normally so spry this early. The pitter patter of dragon feet sharply contrasted the loud bamf from the door.  I stretched and shuffled after him. It was too late. I was up now and Luna knew I couldn’t fall back asleep that quickly.  “Derpy?!” My assistant cried, after the large castle door swung open.  “Hi Spike! Is Twilight here?! It’s important!” Derpy sounded frantic. I couldn’t tell if it was excitement or distress in her voice.  I assumed it was excitement. Derpy was ecstatic after our date and I did my best not to let it bother me. Truth be told it was kind of flattering to see someone so thrilled to have gone on a date with me. I had agreed to a second date but she hadn’t set it up yet.  “It’s just past midnight, is everything ok?” The little dragon sighed. “Yeah, well kind of,” she started to wilt a little bit. I stepped out from the corridor and a large smile erupted on her face. “Twilight! It’s time! Let’s go!” “Go? Where and why?” I asked, a little thrown by the sudden happiness in her voice.  “It’s time for our second date. The moonbeams are dancing now. You said you wanted to dance with them right? I’ve been waiting and watching for them to dance. And now they are! Are you ready?!” The pony sounded dead serious and I was a little concerned for her mental health.  “Uh Derpy, I don’t think they actually dance, it’s late and I’m not ready for a date right now.” I glanced at my unkempt body with its oversized DJ Pon3 sleep shirt covering some of it. I was a mess, definitely not ready to follow Derpy into the night.  “They do Twilight. I want to show you that they do. You said you wanted me to show you what I was talking about for our second date. I remembered. I remember every part of our date. And it’s perfect right now.” She put her hoof out towards me.  I hesitated. Who knows what she was thinking or what sort of things were going on outside. Was I ready to follow her out in the middle of the night? Was this what it meant to date Derpy?  “If you don’t need me I’m going back to bed,” Spike said groggily. “You two have fun.” He shuffled off down the hallway leaving me with the enthusiastic but potentially crazy pegasus at the door. She still held her hoof out.  “Derpy… I’m not dressed to go outside,” I muttered quietly. “You look amazing,” she insisted. “In my pajamas?” “It makes me think of all sorts of happy but scary things.” She looked equally delighted but concerned. Obviously my pajamas were a look she enjoyed. She tried to stop looking at me. Her head turned but her eyes had locked on. An aroused Derpy was something I really didn’t think about but would probably have to, especially if I continued to date her. “Please…” her small voice squeaked out and her hoof wiggled in the air in front of mine. “Ok” I placed my hoof on hers as her face brightened more than the moon. Then she turned then fell down the castle steps, dragging me along with her. On each polished step I crashed onto I remembered I was in my nice soft bed a few seconds ago. We landed in a pony pile at the bottom. “Uhh, maybe we should save this part for another date?” A red faced pegasus asked as I slowly got off of her.  “You pulled me down the stairs,” I defended.  “Oh, sorry. You have to be softer.” She popped up with no hesitation. I checked my body out by moving each limb. Nothing injured but my sense of decorum. “Softer?” I wasn’t sure if I could be much softer, unless she wanted me to be fat. “The ground is hard. Don’t be hard like the ground, you have to be soft and squishy, then the ground holds you up when you fall on it.” She acted like she was giving sage-like advice. Of course she was an expert in crashing so it made sense she would try to share her knowledge.  “Ok...” I said, not really understanding what she meant.  She nodded and smiled. Then realized how close we were and reddened again. I felt my own cheeks burn when I remembered our kiss in front of the restaurant on our last date. She must have been thinking the same because her lips quivered slightly.  “So uh… the moon beams?” I said before her willpower broke or mine.  “Mmm?”  “Dancing moonbeams? You said it was time to watch them.” Her mind was far away, caught up in some fantasy I could only imagine.  “Yeah they are. Oh you wanted to see them. Ok, let’s go.” She grabbed my hoof again and took off into the air. I couldn’t help but follow. The wind was cold in the night sky. As curious as I was, I missed the warmth of my bed. But I couldn’t deny the pegasus her request and soon the air was filled with puffy clouds. “Do you hear the music now?” she asked, shouting a little over the wind. It ruffled our feathers and cut through my pajama shirt to the soft fur underneath. Did I mention it was cold? “I don’t hear any music, Derpy.” I shouted through the roar. The wind was all I could hear and my teeth chattering.  “It’s all around us. We have to shout over it to talk,” she said a little exasperated.  “All I hear is the wind.” “That’s it! That’s the music!” Derpy happily soared through the air as if I had discovered a present she had hidden. “It kind of just sounds like wind to me.”  I admitted. I could play along with her but I was tired and cold. It sounded like it was something important to her, so important she waited for a week for it, and I wanted to see it as she did. But I really couldn’t at that moment.  “That’s the tune, ok, let’s land for a bit.” She guided us to a small puffy cloud and sat on it. I sat next to her, a little surprised she wasn’t more disappointed in me.  “Ok, hear the wind. It’s not the same all the time. It changes. Sometimes it’s higher, sometimes lower. It goes cooooo weeeee coooo.” She made a wind-like sound with her mouth then pitched it higher then low again. I assumed she was showing how the wind got stronger then lessened.  “If you listen long enough, you can hear its beat as it sings. The world up here moves with that beat. The clouds, the rain, and even the sky. That’s how I learned the dance.” She pointed to the patches of light that scattered over the earth below. They moved with the clouds as they drifted through the sky.  “Can you see the dance, Twilight?” The little pegasus asked, hope dripping from her tone. I wished at that moment I could. But it still looked like moving clouds to me. I shook my head slowly.  “Maybe… if you watch me dance with it, you hear it and see.” She took off suddenly and flew towards the nearest patch of moonlight.  I watched, shivering slightly on the cloud. I marveled that the little pegasus wasn’t cold. Rainbow Dash told me that pegasi gain extra down that keeps them warm in the cold winds. I guessed I didn’t go flying at high enough altitudes to develop it. Derpy obviously had. She was smaller in my vision but bobbed slightly as she found some unseen mark. Then she opened her wings vertically and plummeted. I opened my wings immediately. I was just about to kick off when she reappeared sailing upward.  Soon she reached the zenith and dropped again. I watched her full descent, and noted she was adjusting her wings ever so slightly. She rose and fell with the wind currents, bobbing up and down like a cork. It was like she was one with the sky itself. As she hit a moonbeam I could have sworn I saw sparkles around her. It was probably some sort of sediment the wind carried glinting in the moonlight but she looked magical in that moment. Like all the world flowed and danced with her. Her song was the wind, her dance partner was light itself.  After a few moments, she returned and frowned a little. “You’re cold,” she said, wrapping me in her wings. They were warmer than anything I could wear. It made me remember the blanket she made me.  “I don’t have my altitude feathers.” She nodded and placed her head on my shoulder looking at me with large eyes. It was adorable, like a dog trying to look cute for a meal. It made me wonder if she wanted something. “Are you ok?” I asked after a moment or two of unblinking “puppy dog look.”  “Can I ask a question?” Her voice carried an almost flirty form of uncertainty to it.  “Of course.” “How do you know… if if it’s ok to kiss some pony without asking? Roseluck and Doc do it all the time and I don’t know how they ask without speaking.” She looked away but kept her head on my shoulder, squeezing me tighter with her wings.  “I think it’s something that’s talked about earlier. If both ponies don’t mind kissing each other then you don’t have to ask.” I blushed, knowing where she was leading.  “What about us? Do I have to ask? Are you …happy with my kisses? I know there was only the one but I can give more. I’ll get better! I know I will!” She had a fire in her eyes like Rainbow Dash did when she talked of racing.  “You don’t have to rush it Derpy, I’m not going anywhere.” I found myself saying words I hadn’t even attached to feelings yet. Not going anywhere? Did I plan to keep dating her? Was that what I wanted or was I just trying to make her happy? “You have to go somewhere. We can’t stay on this cloud all night and I want to dance with you. If -if you want to.” She tapped her forehooves together under the wing cocoon.  “I would like to try. It looked beautiful and elegant.” It looked like she was floating with the world instead of fighting it.  “Ok!” Her wings unfurled, pulling the warmth I craved from my body. Then decidedly stepped to the edge of the cloud, looking back at me. I followed suit, wishing we had more time to snuggle. Was it just because I was cold? Or was it because it was with her? I couldn’t sort that out yet this late at night. The two of us jumped into the wind. For a moment it took my breath away, the sudden plunge of frigid air sucking the life giving warmth out of my body. I gasped for a few flaps but eventually got used to the temperature.  My partner was a little ways ahead, seeking something I couldn’t see. Then she stopped by a large cloud bank and waited for me.  “Ready?” “As much as I’ll ever be.” I looked down at the far away ground. If I didn’t get this right I could easily plummet to my death. I looked to my companion for instruction. “Ok!” She said, then plummeted from me. She caught an updraft and rode it over my head. Then fell again. I should have known that was coming. I closely watched her wing movements but couldn’t decipher the pattern to them. I wasn’t sure this was something I could do. I hadn’t grown up with wings like she had.  After a while of watching she slowed and returned to my side. “You’re not doing a very good job,” she said, disappointed. “You haven’t told me anything!”  “Why would I tell you anything?” She cocked her to the side. The idea of instruction was something foreign to her.  “Because I don’t know how you’re doing it.” I tried to calm down. She might not be used to others asking her for help. “Really? But you’re super smart, everypony knows that. I’m … not that smart, everypony knows that too.” Derpy looked a little ashamed. “That’s not true. Intelligence isn’t measured by books and tests alone. Everypony is smart in their own way. You might not do great with book knowledge, situational awareness, social skills and anything involving coordination but you can see things in ways other ponies can’t.” I felt a little guilty. It wasn’t the highest compliment in the world. Or really that great of one at all. “Really?! You think I’m smart?!” She quickly hugged me and I fought to keep us both in the air. “If somepony as smart as you says it, it must be true!” “I mean,” I strained a bit with my wings,” yeah, you can float in the air in a way I can’t so you’re smart in that way.” “I can’t believe you think I’m smart! This is the best night ever! The pony I love thinks I’m smart!” She practically shouted the last line and I wondered how many others were awakened by it. Hopefully not many, we were really high up with a very strong wind. She suddenly reddened and backed away from me. She clamped her mouth closed with her hooves and stared at me in shock.  “What’s wrong?” I flew towards her, luckily she didn’t fly away any further. My wings were sore from holding us up.  “I wasn’t supposed to tell you I love you yet. It’s too soon, Doc said. We don’t know each other enough. But I think it’s kind of silly. I know you. You’re the princess of friendship, super smart, really organ… organ.. that word, and love the Hayburger. You save Equestria a lot and you make everypony around you happy. How can I not love that?” She looked ashamed but saddened. “It’s how I feel. I think you’re supposed to tell ponies how you feel right?” “Yes,” I said quietly. “You are. I’m not sure how I feel about you yet. You’re so lively and so different from other ponies, in a good way. You can cause some trouble but I know you don’t mean to. But I’m just still sorting things out.” It was as honest an answer as I could give. “You’re great at sorting, I know you’ll do it! I’m still struggling with that in the mail room.” I opened my mouth to correct her but felt it was best not to.  “We’ll see,” was all I could think of to say. “So how do I do this floating in the wind thing?” “Just like falling, think soft. Soft in your body, soft in your wings. You don’t have to think much, just let them do what they want to do. Ok?” I scrutched my nose in confusion. “D’awww, making cute faces at me already.” Derpy basked in some dream I couldn’t see.  “Sorry I don’t understand.” I wasn’t sure what soft wings and body were.  “Sorry, I’m not a good teacher, uhh maybe I can try it while holding you and you can feel it?” I stared at the little pegasus uncertainly. “Can you hold me at this high and still fly?” I was picturing how often she crashed by herself or carrying a mail bag. I was definitely heavier than a mail bag.  “You’re not fat, Twilight, you’re just floofy.” She grabbed my middle and dove before it could retort.  The wind sheer took any words I had from me. The air friction stung my eyes and the biting cold tore through my layers of “floof”. I tried to instinctively open my wings but they were pinned to my body.  Derpy wasn’t looking at the ground, calculating the exact time to pull up. She wasn’t looking at the clouds that passed by us at Mach two. She wasn’t looking at anything. Her eyes were closed.  The ground was sailing towards us at nauseating speed. There would be no survival if we hit as we were. I tried to shout to my date but it was swallowed by the wind.  I felt a rush of warmth as we passed into the up draft and my captor’s wings fanned out almost instinctively. The rush of warm air from the ground caught her and we began to rise on it. She didn’t need to see, just feel. It spun us as we rode our way to the top of the stream and then we fell again.  This time I wasn’t as afraid. I had to trust Derpy knew what she was doing. I realized that for somepony like Derpy the idea of hurting me would be worse than hurting herself. I wondered how much guilt she had by pulling me down the stairs earlier.  The plummet ended as another jet took us up again. She was just letting the wind control the flight. She trusted it more than I ever trusted anything outside myself. It was impressive to say the least, I wondered if it was something I could do. To have complete trust in a force I couldn’t see or calculate, to just let it take over and be a part of the “dance in the moonbeams.” I unconsciously placed my head on her chest as we dropped again. Her hooves pulled me tighter, a small sniff of my mane, and I wondered how much I could enjoy these smaller things that she reveled in. Even if it sounded hard, was it something I should learn to appreciate? Could she be exactly what I needed? No agenda, no rushing things, allowing the winds of her feelings to dictate her movements. It sounded poetically beautiful.  “Are you ready to try?” She whispered in my ear. It was such a loaded question. I could hear the desire to share fighting the want to keep holding on. I felt oddly safe in Derpy’s hooves as we drifted up and down in the moonlight. But I did want to show my own desire to experience the feeling she had. “I am,” I said, though my own determination was questionable.  “Ok!” She simply let go. I began to wonder about my hypothesis of her keeping me more safe than herself. Perhaps it wasn’t as harsh as it seemed. Perhaps she simply trusted me to know myself.  The ground beneath us started to spin as I waited for the warm rush to save me. As we dropped lower than we had prior I wondered if the jets had stopped. They weren’t a constant, what if this time they wouldn’t be there to catch us? I looked at Derpy who was plummeting next to me, eyes still closed. If this was something she did often she would know when the stream was gone or she would have been dead long ago. I had to trust her. If I couldn’t fully trust the wind I could at least trust her.  I waited, and waited. We dropped together, the ground rushing towards us and still the stream didn’t appear. I couldn’t hold out anymore. I needed to save us both from death. The guilt hit me right before I opened my wings, but enough was enough. The stream found us the second my wings flared out. Derpy opened right after. She started to rise with the column as it rolled me into the air. I caught it wrong and was flung end over end into the sky.  A few seconds later the jet disappeared and I fell. I was backwards trying to flap upside down. There was no way it could work. I reached out, a cloud, a hoof, Derpy? There was nothing to hold on to. My wings slowed me but were constantly bent the wrong way.  A shadow swooped underneath me. I knew who it was, before I could scream her form rose up to mine. She was under me, carrying me in her back. Our wings spread out along the others. We were a mirror. One facing down one facing up. Maybe in more ways than I thought. Here was her world I was just as clumsy and foolish looking as she was in mine. She was the expert, I was the dunce in the air.  “You need to be soft now,” she whispered into my ear. She was so close it sounded seductive. Was that intentional? How was I supposed to be soft? I didn’t understand. Her wings pressed along mine and I felt the gentle nudging on their length. She was trying to adjust my wings for me. I realized she had been talking about muscles. Soft muscles could absorb instruction and blows. I tried my best to relax my wings, allowing my reflection to adjust for us both.  She curled her wings and mine up at a steeper angle and began to tilt the left one down and right up. I matched her. It was a sudden barrel roll that flipped us both, then she continued to roll off my back.  I soared, finally right side up and waited. I didn’t see her. The sky was empty of everything but clouds. I didn’t see her on the ground. I listened for any sounds for help but all I heard was harsh winds.  “Derpy?!” Nothing answered.  “Deeeeerrrpy?!” I shouted through the empty air but only heard my own voice echo back. What happened?  I took a few calming breaths and tried to replay the incident in my mind palace. I looked at each step of her rescue. As I remembered the world righting itself I vaguely caught a glimpse of a white fluffy cloud on the side that Derpy rolled off of. Instantly I knew what happened.  I turned around and lowered my altitude until I was right below cloud level. I flew around each cloud I passed looking for any clues, until I came across one with gray legs sticking out of it.  “Derpy, are you alright?” “Help! Twilight! I think I died! Everything went white and I heard you call my name but I couldn’t shout loud enough! Oh, you probably can’t hear me now. I’m sorry I left you all alone. I hope you find your happiness. Just know I’ll be by your side wherever you are. Even if you can’t see or hear me.” The small Pegasus went limp as she uttered what I could only guess was her final farewell to me.  I grabbed her hindquarters and began to pull her out of the cloud.  “Oh! Twilight! I’m sorry but death is tugging on me! I think it’s time I left! But- but I want to stay with you. I can’t leave yet! No!” She bucked at my face, trying to fight me off. “Derpy! Calm down, it’s me, Twilight. You’re stuck in a cloud and I’m trying to get you out.” I shook her a little to get the point across. “In a cloud? I got stuck in a cloud after I died?! I thought I would float through them.” She froze as I grabbed her again and started to pull. “You’re not dead. You just got stuck. I’ll pull you out.” I gave her a mighty shove and the pegasus pulled free.  “Hi!” She said, like she didn’t know I was there.  “I’m glad you’re safe!” I wrapped my hooves around her and hugged her tight. She immediately curled up and snuggled.  “Thanks! You saved me from death! Best date ever!” She seemed to forget she saved me first. Or that death was really just a cloud.  “I think we should land for now and catch a breather.” I began my descent still carrying the non-dead date in my hooves.  “Sorry you didn’t have a great time on our second date. I tried real hard.” Derpy looked away, doubt and sadness pained her face.  “It was fun. Terrifying at times but fun too. I saw a side of you that most ponies would never see. Thank you for saving me,” I showed my gratitude with a gentle kiss to her lips as we landed. The kiss was still powerful despite it being so light. I still felt shockwaves run through my body and my mind began to stagger around tripping over hormone laden thoughts.  Derpy didn’t help, as she grabbed my head and pulled me in further. I felt her tongue defy glide across mine in a seductive manner. Where did she learn to do that? I decided to reciprocate and gently played her tongue.  Things got fuzzy as the world spun and I felt the soft grass on my back. Derpy’s weight settled on top of me, her hooves tightened around my neck in a passionate embrace. Everything was rainbows and pink fluffy clouds, some of which were muffin shaped. Until my mind poked me by reminding me where we were. “I I think we should stop…” I said in a breathless voice. Derpy’s eyes popped open and took a moment to cooperate.  “Oh! Sorry, Twilight. It just felt so good. I I didn’t mean to…”she scrambled off and tripped over my wing. The bushes caught her as she landed and held her so she couldn’t escape. Her lower legs kicked uselessly in the air. Once more I grabbed her barrel and heaved her out of the situation. I was able to keep a hold on her as she frantically tried to escape once again.  “It’s ok, it’s ok, I’m not mad,” I tried to keep my voice steady and soothing. It’s not easy when holding on to a panicking Pegasus.  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she cried but eventually stopped fighting. She went limp as I pulled her out. “We’ll figure this out together, ok?” I said while petting her mane. “We will?” “Yes.” “Does that mean … you’re my girlfriend now?” She looked back at me, her eyes pleaded for answers.  “…yes, I guess it does.” I couldn’t help but feel giddy as I agreed. I never had a girlfriend before, or any suitors for that matter. It made sense to take the next logical step. “Does that mean I can kiss you without asking?” She brought her face closer to mine, her breath tickled my snout.  “Within reason. Not while I’m trying to talk to some pony or giving a speech, or in danger or reading ok?” I couldn’t help but picture being attacked by an excited pegasus all hours of the day no matter what the activity. “How about now? You’re talking to me.” She licked her lips a little, her eyes darted between mine and my lips. “Now is fine.” The world melted away as we kissed once more. Well maybe a few times more than that.