Two months of work had created the original temporal apparatus. Three months of work had failed to recreate it. The summer days had gone by, Twilight Sparkle had settled into her role as High Magician, and Sweetie Belle had taken up a hobby that involved less reading.
A pincushion in Sweetie Belle's room held a sewing needle. The eye of the needle met the eye of the filly. Sweetie carefully picked up the thread in her mouth, maneuvering its tip into her field of view. She inched the thread towards the needle, keeping her head as steady as she could. The end of the thread brushed against the needle's eye.
A loud knock downstairs broke her concentration. Sweetie Belle spit out her thread. She marched out of her room and down the stairs. Naturally, Twilight hadn't heard it. When she was in the basement with all of her books and crystals and powders and runes and circles, she'd miss a sonic rainboom in the front hallway.
Sweetie Belle reared up and pulled open the front door. Outside, she found a pair of burly griffons.
"Good morning," the griffoness said, looking down at the filly. "Is your mother home? We have a delivery for her." She motioned at a cart parked on the road.
"Sure, I'll go get her." Sweetie Belle closed the door and trotted to the basement.
She opened the basement door. "Twilight?"
Crystals crackled around Twilight Sparkle, magic flaring around the basement. The gems hummed with energy, and unnamable powers ebbed and flowed through the magic circles drawn on the floor, ceiling, and every wall. Eyes locked on a tome of ancient secrets, the High Magician of Equestria bent reality to her will.
Sweetie Belle sighed and walked across the room, stepping over the lines on the floor. She tugged the mare's tail. "Twilight."
Twilight turned to face Sweetie and the magic quickly dissipated. "I'm sorry Sweetie Belle, I didn't hear you come in. Is something the matter?"
"There's some griffons outside with a cart. They said they have a delivery for you."
Twilight perked up. "Oh! It must be my order from Griffonia! Thank you, Sweetie Belle." She pranced upstairs and out of the basement. Sweetie Belle returned to her room.
---
Sweetie Belle successfully threaded her needle. She took a sheet of fabric that her generous allowance had purchased and carefully laid it out on her table next to another sheet. She ran a hoof along the crease line, working out the wrinkles. Then, propping her hooves in place to hold her work steady, she took the needle in her mouth and carefully began to sew.
Stitch by stitch, her work progressed. Suddenly Twilight opened the door to her room.
"Sweetie Belle, come see what I put in the front lawn!"
Sweetie jerked, sending the needle into her leg just above her hoof. "Ow!"
Twilight rushed over. "Oh my gosh, are you all right, Sweetie Belle?"
Sweetie raised her leg. "I got my pastern with the needle. Ow ow ow."
"Stay right there." Twilight hurried out of the room, quickly returning with a roll of gauze, which she began to wrap around the filly's leg. "Sweetie Belle, you need to be careful with your needles. You bleed easier than you used to, remember?"
"I know, I know. I just... I want to make a dress. For when we go back. I can wear it when we go home, and Rarity will see me in it, and it'll be so beautiful, and she'll be so proud of me..." She teared up. "And... and I miss her. I just want to see Rarity again. She never knew whether we made it... whether I made it. And I want to tell her that I'm okay."
Twilight pulled Sweetie Belle into a hug. "I miss Rarity, too, Sweetie Belle." She pulled back, and looked Sweetie in the eyes. "But I'm going to get us home. And you can wear your dress, and Rarity will love it."
"Y-you think so?" Sweetie sniffled.
"I know so."
Sweetie hugged Twilight again, wincing slightly. Twilight took Sweetie's forehoof in hers, then leaned down and kissed the gauze over her wound. "A kiss makes everything feel better, right?"
Sweetie giggled. "Yeah, thanks Twilight." She paused. "Wasn't there something outside you wanted to show me?"
Twilight stood up. "Oh yeah! Follow me; I have a surprise!"
Sweetie Belle trotted after Twilight down the stairs and out the door. Outside, on either side of the front path, stood a pair of saplings.
Sweetie looked at the plants, hardly taller than she was. "Trees?"
"Apple trees, to be exact. I had to write to every corner of Equestria to look for them," Twilight said. "Eventually I discovered that Griffonia still has all of its larger plant life, so I had them shipped internationally. And now they're here!"
"And you're going to grow them with..."
"This!" Twilight pointed to her amulet, which still had the familiar blue on its upper half. However, its lower half was green, with stylized leaves carved into its face. "The plants feel... I have to show you, Sweetie Belle."
Twilight's amulet hovered off of her neck and placed itself around Sweetie's. Immediately, white wings appeared on the filly's back. Sweetie looked at them, moving one up and down.
"Now, Sweetie Belle, touch the tree and concentrate on that leg."
Sweetie took her eyes off of her wings, walked to the nearest sapling, and gently placed her hoof against the springy trunk. She closed her eyes, unsure of what she should be feeling for. Then, gradually, she began to feel it. Life flowed under her hoof, from the roots to the leaves. The slow growth of the wood, the joy of the sunlight on the young leaves.
An imbalance in the plant. Sweetie, eyes still closed, slid her hoof to one of the larger branches. The tip felt dull and lethargic despite the light. Sweetie tilted her head. If she could just shift a little of the life force... there.
She opened her eyes in time to see two leaves sprout. She took a step backwards. "That... that was..." As she shifted her weight, the grass underneath her flexed, the little leaves bending and snapping. A breeze blew the grass in an elaborate dance, revelling in the power of the sun. "Is this... what it's like to be Apple Bloom?" The same breeze flowed around her phantom feathers, every tiny eddy as clear as day. "...or Scootaloo?"
"Did you feel the tree, Sweetie Belle?" Twilight took her amulet back. Sweetie's wings vanished, and with them her connection to the plants and the winds.
"Yeah! It was... wonderful!" She shuffled her hoof through the grass, remembering what it felt like from below. "Twilight, I know I can't fly, but can you get me one of the earth pony amulets? I want to be able to do that again." She looked back at the four young trees.
Twilight thought for a moment. "It took a few weeks to get this one, so you might have to wait, but I'll see if I can get one custom-made for you, Sweetie."
Sweetie Belle hugged Twilight's leg. "Thanks, Twilight."
"Don't thank me quite yet, Sweetie Belle. I have another thing for you to try out back."
Sweetie hopped in place. "There's more?" she squeaked.
Twilight walked around the house. "Come and see."
Only grass met the two ponies behind the house.
"Where is it, Twilight?" Sweetie looked around.
"Stand over there." Twilight pointed to the back of the house, then walked to the center of the backyard. She took a deep breath and her horn lit up. Water sprayed out of the ground in several jets ten feet high. Twilight took off, flying straight up among the streams. Hovering at their peaks, she reached out and touched one with her hoof. As Sweetie watched, the spray transformed into a white fluffy mass. Twilight turned, converting each of the streams into clouds, until there was a single, large cloud hovering close to the ground.
Twilight landed in front of her cloud and pulled a hole open in the side, revealing a hollow interior. "Here, Sweetie," she said, bringing out her old solid blue amulet and placing it around the filly's neck. Sweetie's wings reappeared on her back.
"But Twilight," she replied, looking at her new appendages, "the doctor said I'm not supposed to fly, remember?"
Twilight raised a hoof. "No, the doctor said you shouldn't crash into the ground. She didn't say anything about bouncing around a padded room." She picked Sweetie Belle up and set her inside the cloud. The white mass beneath the filly's hooves flexed slightly under her weight.
Sweetie Belle gave an experimental hop, then a larger jump. Soon she was jumping as high as she could on the fluffy trampoline. She opened her wings and began to flap. She quickly tumbled out of control, but the soft clouds easily caught her.
"Thank you, Twilight! This is the best thing ever!" She ricocheted across the ceiling. "Whee!" Sweetie Belle laughed, beating her wings. She could barely control where she was going, but she didn't care.
Twilight vigilantly watched the clouds, eyes peeled for any developing weak points. She saw Sweetie Belle smile; she heard her laugh and shout in glee. Twilight Sparkle found herself wearing a large smile on her face, and tears forming in her eyes for reasons she couldn't explain.
---
The sun sank below the horizon. Twilight finished dismantling the makeshift bouncy castle, the clouds returning to the water from whence they came. She looked at the final remaining cloud for a moment, then moved it out front.
Sweetie Belle entered the house, pulling off the pegasus amulet. Twilight Sparkle entered through the front door.
The filly exhaled. "That was a lot of fun, Twilight. Thanks."
"It was no trouble at all. How did it feel?"
"It was like... I could feel the air. Feel how the wind flowed." Sweetie clumsily attempted to pantomime with her forelegs, waving her leg like a flag. "It was like nothing else I'd ever felt before."
Twilight scratched her chin. "I wonder... do you want to try one more thing, Sweetie Belle? I'm not sure it will work, though."
"I'm pretty pooped, Twilight. Can it be done sitting down?" Sweetie didn't wait for the answer and parked her rump on the floor.
"Yes, Sweetie, it can." Twilight chuckled. Her horn lit up and a small book levitated over, setting down just in front of the filly.
"A book?" Sweetie prodded it with her hoof.
Twilight laid down next to Sweetie Belle. "It's not the book that's important; it's you. Do you remember how the air felt around your wings?"
"Yeah, like I said, it was amazing! It's a shame I can't fly for real." Sweetie looked at Twilight. "Why?"
Twilight pointed at Sweetie Belle's horn. "What I want you to try, is to concentrate on your horn. Search for the same feeling, or one a lot like it."
"But Twilight, I can't—"
Twilight placed her hoof on Sweetie Belle's mouth. "Just try."
Sweetie Belle closed her eyes, putting her effort into her horn. She steadily breathed in and out. In the stillness she could just barely feel the clicking of her heart valve. Then something happened on her forehead. Her eyes snapped open. "I felt it!" she exclaimed. "I felt something!"
Twilight smiled at her. "Good, good, try it again."
Sweetie excitedly nodded before holding still. "There! There it was again! It felt like... like the wings did, but on my face!"
"Good job, Sweetie Belle! That's the flow of magic in the world you're feeling, Sweetie. It flows around us just like the wind on your wings. I knew I recognized the feeling when I first put my amulet on. Now, Sweetie, when it pushed on your wings, you started pushing back to fly. I want you to try to push back on the magic." Twilight motioned at the small book on the floor. "Push it at the book. Don't worry about the details, just move the magical 'breeze' towards the book."
Sweetie stared at the small paperback, splitting her concentration between it and her horn. The new feeling of magic on her horn flickered around her consciousness. She grunted from the effort. A hoof-full of green sparks jumped off of her horn. Sweetie Belle gritted her teeth.
The book shifted an inch.
Sweetie Belle gasped. "I did it, Twilight! I did magic!"
Twilight swept Sweetie Belle into a hug, squeezing her tight. "You did! I'm so proud of you, Sweetie Belle!" She sniffed away a tear. "Do you know what this means?"
Twilight's eyes met Sweetie Belle's, which had tears of their own.
The filly thought for a second. "Ice cream?"
"Ice cream!"
---
Sweetie Belle fell. Air rushed past her face, and her eyes watered.
The blue amulet fluttered next to her, just out of reach. Sweetie desperately grasped for it with her hooves. She tried to use her burgeoning magic to bring it to her, but her horn would only sputter. If she could just get it around her neck, she could stop falling.
The ground rushed up, getting closer.
And closer.
She pressed her eyes closed and screamed.
Sweetie Belle jerked upright with a shout. She was in her bed, in her house in Canterlot. Outside, the moon shone its light across the landscape. Sweetie wiped the sweat off of her forehead, taking several deep breaths. She unsteadily climbed off of her bed.
She walked to Twilight's bedroom and looked inside. The bed was empty.
Sweetie Belle made her way downstairs and to the basement, pushing open the door.
"Twilight?"
Twilight Sparkle had her back to her, and hadn't noticed Sweetie's entrance.
"...has to be some way to do this. I can't believe that I can't get this right. Why can't I get this right?! I have over a millenium of knowledge more than he did! I'm supposed to be the most powerful unicorn ever, aren't I? Then why can't I reproduce the Nexus? What did he know that I don't? Why is it supposed to be impossible?"
Sweetie Belle froze in place.
"Why did the Princess say I never returned? What am I missing?" Twilight snarled.
The filly whispered, "We can't... we can't go back? Then... that means..."
Twilight didn't hear her, continuing her rant instead. "This is a big joke, isn't it? Starswirl thought it would be hilarious to die before copying any of his notes! And a mule thought it would be the funniest thing in Equestria to kick over a lantern in that library the week after Starswirl died! Well HA, HA, HA! You got me good, Starswirl! I bet you're having a big old laugh at this mare's expense!"
Sweetie Belle walked closer. "T... Twilight?"
Twilight whirled around. "WHAT?" Sweetie jumped back. The anger dropped off of Twilight's face. "Oh I'm sorry, Sweetie Belle; I didn't mean to do that. What are you doing up at this time of night?"
The filly hesitated, shifting her weight. "I... I had a bad dream... can I sleep in your bed tonight?"
"Of course you can, Sweetie Belle. I'll be right up; I don't think I'll be getting any more work done tonight anyway."
Sweetie Belle hugged Twilight's leg. "Thank you...
"...Mom."