//------------------------------// // Discussion; Part 1 // Story: The Research of Wing Spell Development and Mechanics // by The Wizard of Words //------------------------------// Twilight slept soundly on her bed, breath easily passing through her lips. Her slumber was dreamless, mind already overworked from the day she had just left behind. Nevertheless, a smile was set upon her lips, content and satisfied with what she had accomplished. Months of work to nearly a year of preparation, and she had finally managed to perfect a spell that no unicorn before had yet to explore. Her head dug into her pillow, legs shuffling as her unconscious mind adjusted herself across the material. A small sigh left her lips, though her eyes were just as motionless as they had been through her sleep thus far. A discomforting groan worked through her lips as something pushed against her, shaking her peaceful form. Her hooves rose to her head, covering her eyes as she attempted to lure her dreams back to her. Another pushed rocked her body, forcing her eyes to open begrudgingly. They blinked, attempting sorely to wipe away the fuzz of sleep. Confusion topped her confusion as she realized her room was still dark and no light trying to squeeze through the blinds. Her foreleg moved forward, trying to grasp at the scales of Spike. It had to be Spike, there wasn’t any other pony that would wake her up by nudging her. Then again, her little dragon had been her assistant long enough to know how to rouse the sleeping unicorn properly. It still involved a little pushing and nudging, but it also included little reminders of what she had to get done. As tired as she was, the only thing Twilight could hear was the sound of some pony breathing. “Spike?” She spoke the dragon’s name questioningly, a yawn forcing her jaw open to its fullest as she did. Her back arched to stretch itself. “It’s not morning yet. What’s wrong?” Twilight reached her forehoof out, hoping to at pet Spike on his head. As soon as she felt fur instead of scales, she knew something was wrong. Adrenaline started to work through the webs of her mind, batting them aside as she brought herself to full consciousness. One blink more and Twilight was able to see the stranger in her room. Even with the low level of lighting in her room, it was easy for her to see the prismatic mane over the blue fur of a pegasus. Dash was sitting by her bed side, her face unreadable. Twilight didn’t know if it was the darkness in her room or something else entirely. She hoped for the former, but she suspected the latter. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but Dash lightly trotted away, shocking the already shaken unicorn. Rainbow, however stopped. She turned when she was more than a few hooves away from Twilight’s bed, leaving room for the unicorn to move out from under covers. With her eyes still glued to her friend, Twilight did just that, slowly letting her hooves touch down on the wood of her floor. The light clopping of her hooves was the only sound that filled the room, and it worried Twilight immensely. Then, finally, Rainbow spoke. “Twi… We gotta talk.” Twilight didn’t know what scared her more. The hour at which Rainbow had woken her up or the almost-submissive tone of the pegasus. Neither one paid her conscious any good mind. “Rainbow, what’s wrong? Did something happen?” The unicorn trotted towards her friend, lifting a hoof to lay across the pegasus’s side. She froze when Dash lightly pushed it away. Twilight didn’t know what to say, an uncomfortable pain building inside of her. “Yeah,” the pegasus answered. “Something did happen.” Instead of answering with words, Dash motioned towards Twilight’s sides. Twilight followed her hoof, eyes stopping on the pair of wings gripped at her side. They shivered as she looked at them. “My wings?” Twilight questioned, carefully extending them outwards as she spoke. Twilight wished that the pain she saw flash through Rainbow’s eyes was just her imagination. “How… how do you know about them?” “Scootaloo,” Rainbow answered simply, far too simply to be comfortable for Twilight. “She found me just a few hours ago, started showing me how easy it was for her to fly… how easy it was with your magic… how she didn’t even have to try.” Twilight’s mouth was drying fast. “Isn’t that a good thing?” Twilight ventured. “I mean, she and her friends volunteered to help me, and I made absolutely sure it was safe before casting the spell on them. Do you know how she got them?” “Yeah,” Rainbow replied, passive as before. “From the same spell you cast on Rarity for the Young Flier’s competition. You gave them to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, too.” Twilight rotated her lips, unsure of how to respond. Dash was right, but the… snide tone to which she spoke did nothing but put Twilight off. “That’s right,” she admitted. “Spike and I have been working on this for months. We were only just recently able to figure out how to make it work properly. It requires a mental thought to which the pony in question is focused on during the time of the spell’s activation. It’s likely that this thought alters the pathways of the mind necessary to facilitate the wing growth necessary to-” Twilight stopped as a hoof was held out in front of her. “That’s… enough Twi,” Dash shook her head as she spoke. The unicorn couldn’t disagree that she felt off put by the actions, but per her friend’s request she stopped. “I just… do you know, like, really know what this did?” Twilight’s brows furrowed themselves as she thought hard on the question. Through all of her careful testing and research, she was aware of just about every side affect of the spell from its duration to magical level necessary to complete. It gave wings to ponies who didn’t have them, likely increased the flying capabilities of those that did, and to top it off, had a high likelihood of experimentation to see what wings fit each pony best, from size, weight, and even number of if Scootaloo was any indication. But for the life of her, Twilight could not think of why Dash would be so scared of such scenarios. “I… I know what I did,” the unicorn began, trailing her sentence of. “But I’m not sure what has you so worried.” As the ideas naturally flowed through her mind, Twilight latched onto the first one. “Wait, did Scootaloo get hurt?” Her voice carried nothing but worry. Said fears died though when Dash shook her head. Her concern did not, however, as Rainbow continued to wear the same placid face. “She’s fine,” the pegasus spoke with a scoff. “As fine as any pony can be for having all their hard-work being given away.” What Twilight hoped was that Dash’s words would have enlightened her. Instead, they only served to confuse her even further. “What does that mean?” From the sneer Rainbow gave her, Twilight could only assume her friend was waiting for those words. “What do I mean?” She repeated back. “I mean how you took away Scootaloo’s hard work with a single spell!” Her shout made the unicorn jump, her faux-wings expanding at the startle. The sight of them infuriated Rainbow further. “You cast some stupid spell that literally put everything she was working towards in second place. In a single moment, you gave her wings to fly with instead of letting her train on her own!” Twilight was shivering. Dash screaming was nothing new to her. It only took a poke at her pride to get the pegasus yelling in her defense. But this? This was completely different. Dash wasn’t defending herself. She wasn’t arguing how great she was. Rainbow was attacking Twilight. “B-But Dash,” the unicorn stuttered out. “I… All I did was help her in the best way that I could. I mean, right now she only has a simple knowledge of how to fly. She still has to train herself, just like before.” “Don’t you get it?!” Rainbow slammed her hooves on the flooring as she yelled. “She can’t learn how to fly better! She doesn’t know how! Your stupid spell taught her how to fly, now she has no idea how to teach herself! It would be like asking Applejack to make a new dress when all she knows are what they’re supposed to look like!” Dash was in Twilight’s face, her eyes narrowed into slits and lips pulled upwards into a snarl. Shivering breaths were being taken in by the unicorn and huffs of air were being released by the pegasus. They stared at one another, one enraged and the other terrified. Then, with a scoff, Dash turned from the unicorn. “Twi,” she began again, far softer than just before. “I know you casting new spells isn’t anything I should be surprised about. I’m not. What I am kinda shocked at is just… how you didn’t think of what this would do. Were you too wrapped up in your studies to even think a step ahead?” Twilight was being careful. Rainbow was clearly holding herself back right now, doubtlessly wanting to berate the unicorn some more. But Dash had self-control, used only when she most needed it. And Twilight, thankfully, has wisdom. She knew not to press a dangerous button or try and play a word game. “I never thought of what kind of damage this could do.” Twilight admitted, giving her friend ground. “But Dash, that’s because there’s very little that this can hurt. Please hear me out.” She spoke the words in a rush, seeing her friend’s eyes widen with a retort burning on her lips. When Dash shut her mouth tightly, Twilight continued. “I was researching the Wing Spell to see if I could properly use it again with less risk to the pony it was being casted on. Over the weeks however, I found my affinity for it increased and casting became easier.” Dash didn’t miss a beat. “Then why didn’t you stop there? It’s not like you don’t have enough to do?” Ignoring the barb, the unicorn answered. “Because I wanted to know how it worked. Like you said, its one thing to be able to use something, but it’s something else entirely to understand how it works. I wanted to find out why it created different kinds of wings and why the creatures who had the spell casted on them knew how to fly almost immediately. That’s a natural progression of thought and research.” “Then you should have started thinking about something else.” Rainbow shot back without hesitation. “Cause you have no idea how bad those wings are.” “Dash,” Twilight began, her voice imploring. “You know I can’t just throw away something as ground-breaking as this just because there may be a few issues with it.” Her head shook as she tried to smile. It was a vain act. “Rainbow, nothing has ever been made without a few issues.” “And what like this has been made before?” Dash asked back, trotting closer to the unicorn. Twilight wished it was the usual stout posture her friend usually had, full of pride and energy. Right now, she could have passed for Crankey without his wig. “I’m all for new things Twi. I couldn’t stand the idea of never trying new things. That’s half the fun of living! But those?” Her hoof pointed at Twilight’s extended wings. The unicorn pulled them back reflexively. “Those are going to change a lot more than a few expectations.” “Like what?” Twilight challenged, feeling her coat bristle slightly as her nerves were tweaked. “I can understand there is a high possibility for training involving this spell being required, licenses likely being a possibility. There’s also a great chance that it drastically change the flight schools in Cloudsdale. Other than that, I can only see great things happening.” “Then you’re dumb.” The comment was so blunt, Twilight wasn’t sure how to respond. “I-I’m what?” Dash didn’t need any more than that to continue. “I said you’re dumb if you can’t see how bad this could get.” The unicorn opened her mouth to argue, but was silenced as the pegasus rapidly extended her wings, taking the few trots necessary to stand nose-to-nose with the mare. “These wings, I was born with them. I trained them every single day since the moment I could fly. Everything they can do is possible only because I put the effort into it. It’s the exact same thing with your magic.” To push her point, Dash pushed Twilight’s horn. The unicorn yelped at the contact, unready for the sudden force. Her neck bent with the push, her wings flapping to draw her back. It made Rainbow snarl, arguable the first sign of her old-self since she set hoof in Twilight’s library. “You read just about every book in Canterlot before you were half as good at magic as you are now. You weren’t just born with it, you made it yourself.” Twilight swallowed at the words, unable to deny what her friend was saying. “Just like my wings, and just like any of our friends. Rarity and her dresses, Fluttershy and her animals, Applejack and her farm, heck, even Pinkie Pie and her parties. I’m not gonna say there was never any talent, but I could fly circles around my filly self and your head’s probably twice as full since you were little.” “Dash,” Twilight started patiently. “What’s your point?” “My point?” The pegasus snorted to the side before answering. “None of us got anything, we earned it.” It wasn’t enough for Twilight. “And I didn’t just stumble across this Dash,” she argued in turn. “I’ve been studying this spell for weeks, working out every little detail about it to make sure that it works properly.” The longer she spoke, the faster the pegasus’s head shook. “I’m not talking about just this Twilight,” Rainbow seethed. “I’m talking about years here. Years of hard work, training, studying, and making sacrifices for the sake of improving yourself! Your stupid spell just took all all of that from Scootaloo and possibly every other pegasus younger than her.” “You’re not making any sense.” Twilight replied back, her normally broad patience being worn. “Like you’ve already said, she’s been training for so long. This spell gives her just what she needs to be able to fly now. Now, you can teach her the rest.” The phrase was supposed to stroke Rainbow’s Ego. Instead, the pegasus deftly turned it back and slapped it across the unicorn’s face with a single question. “What can I train her to do that your spell can’t give her?” The words struck Twilight hard, stopping her cold. Dash saw it and, much like her nature, she drove it home. “I get you were trying to help her. That’s what you do Twi, it’s what you’ve done since the moment you came here. But now you’ve gone and helped too much.” The pegasus looked out into the night sky as she spoke on. “Fillies and colts won’t ask for flying lessons, they’ll ask for your magic. They won’t need special training, they’ll need special unicorns. They won’t need me, they’ll need you.” The silence that fell over the room was unbearable. It weighed down on the unicorn and choked the throat of the pegasus. They both continued to stare at one another both looking for what to say, but neither able to conjure up an answer. “Do you think…” Twilight began to speak, if only to beat away the tension of the hush. “That will really happen? My spell will, effectively, remove the need for pegasi?” Dash slowly took in a breath of air, most likely to calm her agitated nerves. Her heart wanted her to scream the answer, to make sure Twilight couldn’t possibly ignore her. But her mind told her to do otherwise. And, she was speaking to Twilight Sparkle, so she did as her mind suggested. “Your spell, Twilight, will replace just about every major field of work that pegasi are needed for. It will make us next to useless compared to the unicorns that can cast the spell or the earth ponies that that can grow any kind of food. All we pegasi have are our wings. If those can just be given away, then what use is their in training them?” Dash could see the unicorn shake in the darkness, her eyes wide as plates and mind likely frayed. It was odd to Rainbow, even through her curtain of now hardly-concealed rage. She wanted to make sure Twilight understood exactly what she had just done, but she couldn’t help but think she may have done something more. “Rainbow,” Twilight spoke her name carefully, softly, coldly. “I… I need time to think. Can you please go?” The pegasus stared down at her. “Please, go find Scootaloo. I… I-I need to think about this.” With a sigh, Rainbow relented. “Fine,” Dash allowed, already trotting towards the window as she spoke. She stopped just before the windowsill. “But Twilight, please think about this. I don’t want everything to change.” With a beat of her wings, she was gone, leaving Twilight alone in her room to ponder. And to think, all the unicorn wanted was to share the sky with Dash.