//------------------------------// // Methods // Story: The Research of Wing Spell Development and Mechanics // by The Wizard of Words //------------------------------// Twilight had everything just about ready. All of her instruments from yesterday were gathered, cleaned, and laid out across a few select tables in her library. The calipers readjusted, the measuring pads calibrated, and not to mention the most important tools of all, fresh ink and paper. An open area of space had been cleaned out over her library floor, the pillows and other odds and ends moved to far sections of the room. There was just enough room in her open library foyer for a pony to take flight and not disturb a single item. That was exactly the point. The unicorn hummed a happy tune as she went over the final details, her horn vibrating atop her head as last minute precautions were taken. "Bolting spells?" Meant, of course, to keep books from flying off the shelves. "Check. Dampening Agents?" Mainly to prevent any painful impacts along the hardwood floor, or walls and ceiling in the possible scenarios. "Check." Her head looked across the room once more, doing one last look over with her critical eyes. With the library prepared for the experiment at hand, she was left to eagerly await the arrival of her friends. Spike would doubtlessly be quick about going over to Rarity’s first, and then it was a variable amount of time of how long it would take him to convince Sweetie Belle to come over, given the many times he had swooned at the sight of the prim and proper unicorn mare. Twilight held in a chuckle at the thought. Her number one assistant was the absolute worst at hiding how he felt about nearly everything he did. What he didn’t say, he would vocalize with actions instead. It was humorous, in more than one way, how often the young dragon became her voice of reason. He was so young, but he had already done so much. It was doubtless in her mind that he had already done more in his young life than ponies three times his age. Being in direct contact with the princess, helping to save an entire kingdom, not even to mention the number of books he must have read, at least tangentially, by her side. Twilight released a slow sigh. He was just a baby dragon, with his whole life ahead of him, but she was having an exceedingly difficult time imagining what he was going to do when he grew up. Would he become a student like her? An ambassador for the princess? Maybe a guardian like a member of the royal army. The possibilities, for him, truly were endless. A knock on her door distracted her. With a small shake to clear her thoughts, Twilight looked towards the oak barrier. “Come in!” She called to the doorway, watching as the wooden door swung open. What Twilight was expecting was Sweetie Belle trotting in with an eager smile, or even Applejack with a small tip of her hat. What she did not expect was Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom all eagerly galloping into her home, each one trying to fight the other for reaching her first. Scootaloo had pushed Apple Bloom aside, only for Sweetie Bell to jump on and over her. She was swiftly tackled by the pegasus, who was trotted on again by the pink bowed pony gaining the lead. It appeared to be a very well choreographed dance. The unicorn’s eyes opened in small shock at the sight of the fighting ponies, but quickly relaxed as she recognized the characters. Expecting a little trouble from them was as safe and likely as assuming Pinkie Pie was planning a surprise. The three fillies ended their mobile wrestling session in a pile at her hooves, Apple Bloom the unfortunate pancake between her friends and the floor of the library. Twilight was at least moderately impressed. It couldn’t have been easy knocking on her door while all three of them were trying to reach her so quickly. “Hello girls,” the mare welcomed to the trio, welcomed with three faces drawn into wide smiles. “Hi Twilight!” Apple Bloom greeted from her place on the floor. Her hooves pushed against the wooden oak, lifting her friend with her. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both gave startled cries as they were left to drop to the same position their friend was just in. Twilight held in a giggle, but let her smile grow. “Normally, I’d ask how I could help you three,” her smile grew wide as her words went on, “But I’m guessing you all just ran into Spike.” There wasn’t much room for a question in the unicorn’s words. Then again, there wasn’t a lot of room for theory either, not with the clear enthusiasm these three had. “That’s right!” Scootaloo recovered with all the grace and speed of another pegasus Twilight was more than familiar with. “He came up to Sweetie Belle and was talking about giving her wings for some experiment of yours, and we realized that maybe the reason we haven’t gotten our Cutie Marks yet is because we need wings!” The elder mare in the room did her absolute best to keep her features from pulling backing into a grimace. “Scootaloo, I don’t thin-” She didn’t get the chance to finish. “Yeah! We could get our cutie marks for being cloud workers, or rainbow manufacturers, or-or maybe even being princesses!” Sweetie Belle agreed with her pegasus friend. Twilight had just enough time to raise a hoof before another voice interrupted her. “Or maybe we could be flight trainers for other baby pegasi, like up in Cloudsdale! Or maybe helpin’ out with settin’ up some of them fancy decorations around Ponyville!” The lavender unicorn shook her head twice before raising her voice to speak again. “Girls-” “Seriously Apple Bloom, you wanna decorate?” The voice of Scootaloo was clearly of an accusing tone. “You could get wings like Rainbow Dash, be able to fly at Mach Rainboom speeds, and you wanna decorate?” “Mach Rainbow isn’t even a speed.” Sweetie Belle defended her Apple Family friend. “And Rainbow Dash did help decorate Town Hall before.” “That was one time, and it was because they had to get ready helping Applejack for her games.” “Girls, you have to pay-” “Not every pegasus has ta race Scoots, just look at Fluttershy. She’s the kindest mare in Ponyville, and she hates doin’ anythin’ fast.” Apple Bloom put herself muzzle to muzzle with the brash pegasus. Neither one was willing to give any ground. “She has a point Scootaloo,” Sweetie spoke as calmly as she could to the duo. Her hoof hovered beside the two, unsure of how to defuse the quickly growing tension in the room. “Having wings doesn’t mean you have to be flying fast. You can do so much more with them.” “C’mon, now girls, listen u-” “You’re just saying that ‘cause you’ve never flown before!” Scootaloo spoke back to her friend, pushing with all her strength. Neither unicorn nor earth pony budged. “Neither have ya, and ya already got wings!” Apple Bloom’s face turned into a scowl. “Well… she can’t fly yet, most fillies our age can’t.” Sweetie Belle spoke again, her previous smile fallen into a grimace of uncertainty. Neither of her friends could see it, their eyes too glued to one another. “Why can’t you buck a tree like your sister then?” Scootaloo accused. “I can kick a bowling ball through the air, but you can’t make one apple fall from a tree? That’s all your family does!” “Ah’m learning how!” The young earth pony shouted back. “At leat Ah am learnin’, all ya’ll do is jus’ flap yer wings around hopin’ ta get off the ground!” “Take that back!” “Make me!” ”GIRLS!” All three fillies jumped. The group turned with wide eyes towards the source of the shout, shivering against one another as they huddled into a pile. Were the only other pony in the room not trying to control them, the scene might have been heart-wrenching. Might. Twilight let slow breaths leave her as she stood tall above the group of fillies, watching each of them with a careful gaze. From the wide eyes, flat ears, and static tails, it was obvious she had obtained a sacred and long rumored treasure. Their full attention. “Thank you,” she lightly began. The heads nodded at her words. Giving a small cough to clear her throat, Twilight focused her vision on Scootaloo. “First of all, I don’t think any spell I cast will be able to help you get your Cutie Mark. That’s something you have to earn by yourself.” The pegasus’ wide eyes grew teary, and Twilight felt her heart skipping beats. “B-But, that doesn’t mean we can’t try, right?” She let out an internal sigh of relief as the filly beamed with the response. “Secondly, you two,” Twilight motioned towards Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. “Are correct that wings are not strictly for racing. There’s no one trait about us that means we have to do something for the rest of our lives.” “Not even Cutie Marks?” Sweetie Belle asked the elder unicorn with a curious stare. Her friends quickly followed suit. Twilight sighed before she gave a response. “No,” she started. “Not even Cutie Marks. Your special talents may be what you enjoy, and what you are good at, but they aren’t what define you.” “I thought that was wha’ they were for.” Apple Bloom interjected. “If they aren’t… then… what makes us… us?” Twilight saw where this was going. It was a long dark road she didn’t have the time or patience to tread. But those curious eyes were evidence enough that it would take a bit more than a mute response to end the conversation. The fillies’ gazes bore into her with a silent plea for knowledge. It was one of the most contradicting feelings Twilight had ever had. Denying others knowledge. She shook her head. It wasn’t knowledge. It was philosophy. Knowledge was facts, evidence, tangible material. Her spells. Her magic. Flight. Wings. Wings! She had to get back on that topic. “I have a better question…” she began without a single other sentence ready in her mind. Twilight felt the pupils of the three fillies boring into her harder than a shovel in the apple orchard. “What… do… you…” Her mind was racing at speeds Dash would have been proud of. Every subject she could think of entered and left her mind. Magic, farming, teaching, books, animals, parties, fashion, galas, military, technology, fantasy, science fiction, manticores, dinosaurs, humans, timber wolves. Nothing was sticking! She needed an idea, and fast. Fast… fast speeds… flying… wings… Twilight suppressed the urge to put a hoof to her horn. “What kind of wings do you think you girls are going to get?” From the expression that split across their curious features, Twilight knew she had struck nothing less than solid gold. “Oh! Oh!” Sweetie Belle cheered first. “I hope I get a pair of silver butterfly wings like my sister did. She loved them so much, and she still keeps telling me how many ideas she had for fashion dresses with them. I’m sure she’d love them!” “That ain’t nothing compared to what I hope ta get.” Apple Bloom challenged. “Ah bet if Ah got a pair of big ol’ dragon wings, Ah’d be able ta blow the apples straight from them trees without no hassle! It would be the best!” Twilight was forced to nod at the ingenuity of the filly. She was very much an inventor, even if she refused to admit it. “And I bet I get an awesome pair of pegasi wings. They’ll make me fast enough to keep up with Rainbow Dash!” “But Scoots…” Sweetie Belle interjected. “You already got wings.” “Yeah? So?” Scootaloo asked back. Apple Bloom watched her unicorn friend before turning to the pegasus beside her. “Well… how’s a wing castin’ spell gonna give ya wings… if ya already got ‘em?” The realization of the situation hit Scootaloo swiftly and without mercy. This time, however, Twilight was prepared. “Actually,” she began, earning the swift attention of the three fillies. “Testing a wing spell on a pegasus would be an interesting variable to consider. It could do nothing at all,” Scootaloo’s face fell with her short wings. Twilight, however, never let her smile falter. “Or it could give you a new pair larger than the princess’s.” As she predicted, the pegasus nearly broke her face with the smile she gave. All of her friends joined suit. Their eyes looked from one another, the level of glee scarcely hidden within each of the orbs seeming to increase exponentially with every passing second. They took in a simultaneous breath of air, lifted their hooves from the ground, and shouted out a phrase the eldest pony in the room would have been a foal to have not seen coming. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Wing Testers!” Their hooves slammed into one circular high five. “Glad to see your all excited to get started. Spike should be getting here soon.” Twilight led off with a smile. “It can’t be the easiest thing trying to find Applejack across all of Sweet Apple Acres.” And the mare knew that from experience. “Oh, my sis can't come.” That statement stopped the unicorn still. “What?” She asked the young earth filly. “Then, what is she doing? Is she helping Pinkie Pie with a new recipe?” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Then maybe with Fluttershy and a new animal friend.” Another shake, another wrong question. “Then what?” “Applejack said she's gonna be workin' the field all day!” The filly nearly bounced as she spoke the name. Twilight’s brows rose in tandem with the high-pitched voice. “She an' Big Mac got behind yesterday, so they told me ta play with the girls today. She said she ain't gonna stop till the orchard is emptied of every single apple!” Twilight was left scratching her head. “So… then where is Spike?” Twilight asked the trio. “You three probably galloped ahead of him, but I don’t think he’d be this far behind.” The unicorn watched as the three ponies exchanged glances to one another, joined with shrugging shoulders and half raised brows. “We thought he was right behind us.” Sweetie Belle ventured first. “Yeah, he seemed really excited about it, for some reason.” Scootaloo agreed. “But as soon as he told Sweetie ‘bout the plan, we all just jumped the cart n’ barrel ta get over here.” Apple Bloom finished for the rest of her friends. It all left Twilight with a hoof to her chin. She wasn’t too worried about him. As long as he didn’t go outside Ponyville, it was pretty unlikely he was late for any reason but his own. Her lavender eyes scanned over the Cutie Mark Crusaders again. They looked up at her with attentive gazes. “Well, where did he find you girls?” “Oh, we were helping Rarity with her fashion designing.” Scootaloo threw out the words like a moldy rag. “It was no fun, and we got no Cutie Mark either.” A tired sigh left Twilight’s lips. It wouldn’t have been the first time in the world Spike would be distracted by Rarity, and it wasn’t hard to see the generous mare asking him for a bit of help designing a dress. She always did love to have an extra pair of hooves or claws a… wait… “Wait,” Twilight held up her hoof. “Didn’t Rarity… banish you three from helping around her store?” Without any hesitation, they all nodded. That only made her brow rise in confusion. “Then how were you helping Rarity?” “We weren’t helpin’ her in the store,” Apple Bloom began. “She says we’re a “walking catastrophe waitin’ ta happen”.” The cheer in the filly’s voice seemed rather out of place given the way she had just described herself. Sweetie Belle, however, picked up where her friend left off. “My sister wanted a few ponies to help her collect some materials for one of her tiaras. Really, it was just an excuse to help her dig up some gems and jewels.” This time, Twilight’s head connected with the end of her hoof swiftly and without hesitance. The three fillies looked up to her with unbounded confusion. “Twilight?” Scootaloo asked carefully. “Are you… okay?” A deep, concentrated sigh left the unicorn’s lips before she responded. “Fine, just…” Her mind searched for the appropriate word, careful as to just how deeply these fillies would read into what she said. “Tired of Spike’s little escapades.” That would do. “Oh, is he trying to escape from something?” Sweetie Belle asked the elder unicorn. Her confusion was shared among her friends. “No, more like…” Twilight let her hoof circle in the air. “Trying to escape to something.” Their curiosity was undiminished. Twilight, however, had other priorities to worry about then explaining hormonal responses to a group of young fillies. “You know what? Why don’t we just start the testing now?” For what was easily the third time in an hour, the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked up with beaming eyes. “Who wants to go first?” Twilight may as well have opened the doors to Tartarus. “Me!” “No! Me!” “I wanna!” The three fillies jumped up and down in front of the unicorn, causing her to back away with a dramatically increasing sense of dread. Their small bodies jumped one another, each attempting to raise their hoof high into the air as they stood atop their friends. Twilight winced far more than once as one of the fillies was subject to the full weight of her companions. It was like watching matter trying to roll itself into a ball. Disastrous, horrifying, but somehow leaving one pony incapable of stopping it. The grunts and small cries of disapproval only increased the level of shock Twilight had. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she was growing used to such antics, either among her friends or around them. “Hold on girls!” Twilight spoke with a raised tone. The fillies looked up to her, but continued to push on one another. Their pace was only slowed. The unicorn worked fast. “I’m thinking of the latest work by Mythril the Mythic. First to tell me her theories on magical resonance and universal Ley Lines gets to go first.” The fillies stared up at her with wide eyes and open mouths. They had stopped fighting, but it looked like they had also stopped breathing. Twilight winced. She may have thought too fast for them. “Okay, second try,” she began. “I’m thinking of a number between one and a thousand. Closest gets to go first, ready?” Like a whistle had been blown, the trio of friends jumped off one another, landing in a horizontal line, looking up to Twilight. Each of them gave a fierce nod of determination. “Go!” “Thirty-four!” Called Apple Bloom. “Number one!” Shouted Scootaloo. “Six hundred sixty six!” Sweetie Bell followed suit. Twilight’s raised her hoof, aiming at the tan coated earth pony. “The number was forty-two. Apple Bloom wins.” The small filly cheered into the air, rearing on her back hooves and she swung her forehooves through the air in delight. Scootaloo grumbled beside her, mumbling about how first place was always on her mind. Sweetie Belle pouted, but didn’t say a word otherwise. But they weren’t fighting, and to Twilight, that was definitely a victory. “Alright,” she began. “You’re up first then.” Twilight’s hoof shifted away from the filly, motioning towards the center of the room. “Just stand over there and follow my instructions, okay?” “You got it Twilight!” The filly nearly skipped to the center of the room, reaching it quickly and sitting on her flank as soon as she had, tail swaying from side to side in eager anticipation. Twilight was sure that if it wasn’t for the promise of wings, Apple Bloom wouldn’t have been able to hold still. “So...” Scootaloo mumbled as she trotted up to Twilight. Much like her idol, she didn’t have the slightest understanding of hiding how she felt. “What’s gonna happen now?” “Now,” Twilight began, “I explain to you three what’s going to happen.” Her words earned the attention of the eager Apple Bloom and pouting Sweetie Belle. Twilight looked them each in the each, making sure she had their undivided attention, before continuing. “The advanced mechanics of the Wing-Spell are still something I don’t completely understand. However, with Fluttershy's and Spike's help, I’ve been able to develop a few theories regarding the actual means by which a pony obtains a certain set of wings. At first, I thought it was a variable tool that was dependent upon only chance, but know Spike and I have been able to establish a solid hypothesis that the wings are granted based specifically off the thoughts of the pony in question. More than likely, it has to do with the afferent and efferent pathways of the nervous system, specifically relating to the advanced synapses that occur within the brain, at least proximately to the-” “Uh, Twilight…” Scootaloo interrupted the lecturing pony. “I meant, what do we have to do.” The unicorn’s train of thought broke. “Oh…” Twilight trailed off. She raised a hoof to sheepishly rub the back of her head. She didn’t bother trying to hide the red blush that glowed through her coat. “Sorry about that.” “Don’t worry none Twilight.” Apple Bloom told her from her space in the center of the room. “I just wanna know what I gotta do ta make this work!” The little filly’s enthusiasm was contagious. “Alright, good to hear.” Twilight put a hoof to her temple and explained. “All I need you to do is to think of something really hard. Something you either want, or admire, or anything else you can easily focus on.” The unicorn watched as the young earth pony shut her eyes, pulling her face into a grimace as she strained her mind. Twilight did her best not to release a coo of admiration at the sight. “Ah think… Ah got it.” Apple Bloom spoke through a shut mouth. Twilight nodded her head before looking towards the filly at her side. “Sweetie Belle,” she began, earning the young unicorn’s attention. “I need you to ask Apple Bloom what she is thinking of. But, you have to do it so I don’t hear, okay?” “Why’s that?” Sweetie Belle asked, ever the curious one of her friends. Fortunately again, Twilight was prepared for that. “Because I have to limit the variables during the experimentation. If I know what Apple Bloom is thinking of, it could affect the spell when I cast it.” The alabaster unicorn gave a nod of understanding before trotting over to her friend. “Then… why don’t you just use the spell on all of us at once?” Twilight twisted her head to see Scootaloo looking up at her with her own curious stare. The unicorn was almost never in a mood to not answer a question. “Because spells like this are semi-dependent upon the number of subjects. Think of it like… a group of ponies.” The pegasus’ head remained twisted and eyes squinted in confusion. “One pony can do a lot of work, but there are some things one pony can’t do alone. But if more and more ponies work together, they can start to do things that they never could have been able to do alone.” A spark of understanding flashed through Scootaloo’s eyes. “You mean like the Elements of Harmony?” Twilight couldn’t have felt prouder. “Exactly!” She cheered, watching the filly cheer as well, the small wings on her back buzzing with delight. “Um, Twilight.” The unicorn turned to see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in the center of the room. The tan coated filly looked like she was about to start sweating. “Oh! I’m so sorry!” Twilight hastily apologized, turning to give the two her full attention. “Sweetie Belle, do you know what Apple Bloom is thinking about?” The filly nodded, wisely keeping her lips tight. “Then stand back a little sweetheart, I’m going to need some room for this.” With another nod, the young unicorn stepped away. It was impossible to miss the look of excitement haunting her eyes. “Are you ready Apple Bloom?” Twilight asked again. The young earth pony nodded stiffly twice. “Uh huh,” she confirmed. “Just makin’ sure Ah’m thinkin’ hard.” The unicorn nodded in understanding. “Alright, Twilight began. “I’m going to cast my spell now. Make sure you focus on the object you’re thinking of. When I say stop, you can relax, but until then, please try and remain still.” Another stiff nod from Apple Bloom, then she was still as stone. Twilight took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly. Her horn flared to life with the buzz of magic, lavender aura surrounding the twisted bone protruding from her skull. Her mind ran through the proper mechanics and internal Ley Lines, guiding her magic down the proper channels. She reached out, touching what she knew was Apple Bloom in the center of the room. She felt the filly squirm in her grasp before stilling herself again. Twilight swallowed on a pool of saliva collecting in her mouth, taking a deep breath of air before releasing her magical spell. The essence of her power reached out to the young filly, lifting her into the air as the lavender aura swirled around her, cocooning the earth pony with it’s density and strength. A few ‘oo’s and ‘aa’s reached Twilight’s flattened ears, but she paid them no mind. She was focused, completely and wholly, on finishing the spell. She felt the final rush of magic traveling through her inner channels, swirling through and around the contours of her horn. It materialized into her lavender aura, shining like a bright light. With one more grunt, she pushed the magic towards the suspended filly in the air. The room was consumed with light. Twilight cut off her magic as she lifted a hoof to her eyes. She knew it was coming, the moment she began her spell she knew it was going to fill the room, but it didn’t make the brightness any dimmer to her sensitive orbs. She could barely make out a surprised squeak from beside her, undoubtedly from one of the younger fillies being caught off guard. Slowly though, as she knew it would, the light began to grow dim. The bright light dissipated as the rest of the library became clear again. Every book was still firmly attached to the shelves, as her spell had ensured they would be, and the furnishings safely kept off to the side, as she had left them. A small cloud of smoke, however littered the floor, dancing through her hooves in puffy chunks. “Magical instability,” Twilight noted absently as she lifted and dropped a hoof on one of the white clouds, pounding it into oblivion. “Dissipation through small forces, nothing to worry about.” She spoke only to herself though. Raising her head, Twilight looked to see Apple Bloom, hoping to see the fruits of her labors. Apple Bloom still stood woozily in the center of the room. She pushed each one against the floor, rocking herself from one leg to the other, testing the muscles in her body. She didn’t feel different, wasn’t thinking any differently, and was pretty sure she could remember everything. Then her eyes turned backwards and saw something new. Along the opposite sides of her back, close to her lateral plane of symmetry, protruded two new limbs. They were extended out to their fullest, hanging out twice as far as the filly could reach. They shadowed the ground with the leathery skin, reflecting the soft light of the room with their orange scales. Apple Bloom’s smile nearly cracked her jaw right off. “Ah got wings! Ah got wings!” She cheered as she jumped into the air. Her draconic wings flapped in tandem with joy. “You got wings!” “You have wings!” Her friends cried in tandem as they rushed their newly dubbed avian friend. Scootaloo pounced onto the Apple Filly, playfully tackling her to the ground. Sweetie Belle jumped on top of the two with laughter of her own. Apple Bloom was giggling with unbounded delight, her fresh wings reaching out and wrapping themselves around her two friends. “These things ‘er strong!” She happily declared as she effortlessly moved Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle from her. Both gave small squeaks of surprise before falling back into giggles of delight. Twilight watched on with a content smile of her own. “So, Apple Bloom,” she began, approaching the group of fillies. “How do your new wings feel?” The young foal was only too happy to talk about it. “Amazin’!” She declared, jumping to her four hooves, wings out stretched again. “Ah mean, it feels like Ah’ve had them mah whole life! There ain’t nothing ‘bout them Ah’m not used to.” As if to demonstrate, the filly flapped her left wing, watching with beyond satisfaction as the scaly top cycled in a flight pattern, pushing her weight to her right side. “That’s excellent.” Twilight noted happily. She levitated a quill and paper from a far off desk to her, looking over the filly carefully as she eyed the measurements of the newly attached wings. Apple Bloom had gone back to talking to her friends. “No cell or scale proliferation, seamless integration between fibers of coat and scales, matching color tone,” Twilight whistled off all the visible details as her quill set to work jotting down all that she saw. Her eyes didn’t blink. “Excellent muscular strength, proper synapses established with efferent fibers…” Twilight reached out and ran a hoof down Apple Bloom’s wing, letting her hoof glide between the bony protrusions. “Definitely matches the anatomy of draconic species,” her eyes turned to the filly she had cast her spell on. Apple Bloom hadn’t made a motion or spoken a word of acknowledgement towards Twilight’s contact on her wing. “Unlikely establishment of afferent nervous system, however…” Her eyes looked at her parchment, double checking her details to make sure nothing was mislabeled or spelled. Everything checked out. “So, Apple Bloom,” Twilight began again, making sure the filly was looking at her. She didn’t have to check twice. “What were you thinking of?” With her grin unchanged, Apple Bloom answered. “Mah brother!” That wasn’t the response Twilight was expecting. Though to be fair, what she was thinking of hardly qualified as an expectation. “Your brother?” the elder unicorn questioned. “Yeah!” Apple Bloom spoke again. “Ah was just thinkin’ tha’ he works tha’ hardest on in the farm and in the market, ‘cause he’s so strong. He can pull houses righ’ ‘cross the ground!” Twilight could recall that incident with rather vivid detail. She could name two other ponies who could as well. “So… you were thinking about how hard he works… or about how strong he was?” “Neither really.” She spoke on. “Ah, was just thinkin ‘bout him. The rest is just… kinda stuff that comes with thinkin’ bout another pony, ya know?” Twilight did know, in fact. It was hard to think of anything without remembering what they were related to, or what they were capable of. “Interesting.” She spoke, noting down the details of Apple Bloom’s thoughts. “Thinking of Big Macintosh. Unspecified, but may correlate to large wingspan and strength. Draconic wings may be only avian species capable of possessing both qualities in tandem.” It wasn’t an idea she could test, but all ideas must be written down, or so Twilight had drilled into her own mind. That left just one more test. “Apple Bloom.” Twilight spoke, earning the attention of all three fillies. “Do you want to try a test flight?” “Ya mean like outside?” The unicorn quickly shook her head. “No no no!” She spoke quickly. Judging by the way the fillies leaned back, and Apple Bloom’s draconic wings retracted, maybe a bit too fast. “Sorry, but I don’t want to risk you flying too high or too fast for me to be able to properly watch out for you. Just in here is fine. And don’t worry, I cast several spells over the place. There won’t be any harm done to you or around you.” The filly didn’t need to be asked twice. Her large wings expanded to their fullest, silently asking Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to give her space. They complied, back pedaling away with wide eyes on their friend. Apple Bloom took a few deep breaths, adjusting her hooves on the ground as her neck craned upwards. She looked to the top of the library, biting her lip as her eyes traced the walls of the small wooden home. Twilight watched on, eager herself for what fruits would come of the labor. The tan scaled wings slowly retracted, enough to earn a small gust of air across the wooden floor, but not nearly enough to lift the filly from the ground. Slowly though, the tempo increased, fighting the force of gravity with greater and greater effort. With one last push, Apple Bloom was off the ground. “You’re flying! You’re flying!” Scootaloo cheered beneath her friend, watching as the dragon winged earth pony rose higher and higher into the library with every beat of her wings. While the smile had yet to fade from her lips, it was more than clear she was not comfortable being off the ground. Twilight took action. “Just relax Apple Bloom!” She called up to the filly, instructing her as best she could. “You don’t need to go any higher. Try… try gliding, like Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash.” The filly didn’t respond with words. Instead, her large wings extended to their fullest outwards. She slowly began to move herself through the air. “Ah’m doin’ it! Ah got it!” Apple Bloom eagerly shouted as she glided through the air. Her legs pumped up and down as if she were jumping from the ground, her wings matching each motion she made. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo continued to applaud their friend from the ground, watching her with one part admiration, two parts anticipation. Twilight continued taking notes, lavender eyes transfixed on the filly as her quill followed her levitating spell. “Excellent motor control, intuitive responses, suggests either some amount of smooth muscle components or memory implantation. Memory implantation less likely due to lack of knowledge regarding flight instincts between either subject or caster.” Quickly, she moved the page into her eye sight, reading over the scribbled words to make sure they were properly written as dictated. Once through, with a satisfied nod, she returned the page to some area of space outside her field of vision. When she looked back up, Twilight let out a gasp. “Apple Bloom! Watch out!” She didn’t speak fast enough. The newly winged filly hit the far wall of the library. Hard. All three grounded ponies hissed in a breath of air, watching with discomfort as the once filly earth pony slide down the library wall. Her rump landed on the ground with a light thump, followed by the filly falling backwards, eyes spinning. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo trotted quickly to her side, flanking her as they looked down at their friend. Twilight wasn’t far behind. “Apple Bloom, you okay?” Scootaloo asked as she put her muzzle just above her friends. She watched the green eyes of the Apple Family member spin in opposite directions, head swaying from side to side. Then with a small shudder, and a large shake, the filly blinked a few times before looking back up at the pegasus. She had the broadest smile she had given so far today. “That was awesome!” Apple Bloom cheered to her friends. A sigh of relief fell from Twilight’s lips, one she wasn’t aware she was holding. She watched the earth pony jump back to her feet, not a part on her even scuffed by the impact. Instead, in fact, the filly jumped back into the air, only too eager to try flying again. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo watched on in amazement, following their friend’s second attempt at using her newly granted wings. The elder mare, however, had something else on her mind. Even better, she knew how to make it happen. “Alright girls,” Twilight announced proudly, looking over the next two fillies below her. “Who’s next?”