Chapter 1: Brilliant
Morning in Ponyville shimmers
Morning in Ponyville shi-i-ines
And I know for absolute certain …
That everything is going to be … fine.
The words drifted across the valley that held the sleepy village of Ponyville from the climbing spiral of the singer. The brilliant pink-coral and electric-blue bolt of energy that darted cloud to cloud in a soaring crescendo of elation fully had every reason under Celestia’s golden sun to believe every word. Reaching the peak of her ascent the singer paused to look over her shoulder with eyes the color of pigeon’s blood at the picturesque scene below as she let gravity gently drag her to a halt high above the few drifting clouds that shared the morning sky with her. It was the most beautiful morning she could ever imagine, perfect in fact.
Gravity’s insistent tug that had brought her to a halt now beckoned her return to lower skies. Closing her eyes, the pink pegasus rolled over on her back, tipping her nose down slightly, tucking her fore legs and wings tight to her barrel and extending her hind legs full out in back as she let gravity’s caress pull her from the heavens.
Eyes closed, the falling mare began to count slowly in her head. ‘One Thunderstorm… Two Thunderstorm…’ Even with her ears pinned back against her head she could detect the changing air pressure as she fell towards the valley below.
‘Eight Thunderstorm … Nine Thunderstorm …’ The count continued even and steady as her plummeting form streaked towards the valley floor, until … ‘ELEVEN!’
Eyes snapped open as the verdant meadow rushed up to embrace her. Wings opened and caught air. The pull of the force against her wings felt wrenching all the way to their roots as the mare righted herself to the horizon. The grassy embrace of the ground fell behind, again evaded with but a heart’s beat distance to spare, the mare merrily skimming the edge of the natural field.
Dropping one fore hoof slightly she let the cheated ground kiss the tip of her hoof as she sped on, her barrel only a few hoof spans above the ground. Behind her the narrow furrow cut by her one hoof through the top of the grass was pushed out by her own wake into a broad channel curling at the edges that was easily visible from some distance.
She tightened her wide turn through the meadow as she skimmed the ground gaining some altitude as she fixed her sights on the three story cloud tower that hung dreamily roughly its own height above the valley floor. The mare pumped her pink wings hard a few times adding some height and much needed speed as she closed on the island of cumulus upon which the sculptured white tower of stood.
‘Okay,’ the pegasus thought to herself as her flight path brought her altitude just higher than the approaching cloud deck, ‘last one.’
She gave herself a little shimmy in the air then pitched over and back pulling ‘G’s’ while simultaneously rolling laterally. Once, twice, she bottomed out of the first loop and straight into the second. Back and over and around and … Her wings backed air hard as she pulled up out of the last loop, drawing to a complete hover a body length and change above a small cloud formed bridge above a narrow rainbow stream that flowed across the top of the cumulus island the tower sat on. Wings beating, heart racing the coral pink Pegasus gently lowered herself from the air and touched down on the cirrus bridge above the stream, back, back, front, front, left to right, all four hooves came to alight upon the vaporous deck of the bridge. The divine gift of cloud walking that allowed pegasi to stand atop clouds as easily as other ponies stood upon earth and stone prevented her from plunging through the less than a hoof’s breadth of packed white vapor into the liquid rainbow stream below.
The pink pegasus looked back over her shoulder for a moment, a grin of prideful satisfaction stretched across her muzzle. A perfect double inside out loop, her signature maneuver. Pride satisfied, and grin still in place, Firefly trotted off the short bridge towards the tower door only to have it open expectantly at her approach.
From within a pair of golden eyes looked out at her as the stallion stepped forth into the sunlight to greet his mare. The light blue pegasus stallion had just the slightest tint of purple in his coat giving him a striking ‘royal’ appearance. Even more striking was the unruly waves of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo hair that comprised the male’s mane and tail. The by virtue of his coloration alone, Bifrost was a prize beyond value in pegasi society, the mane in particular was thought to be a badge of the ancient pegasi royal family, and many a mare had attempted to attract his attentions. Firefly hadn’t.
In fact their first meeting had opened with her quipping acidicly that the ‘pretty stallion’ was probably a ‘cloud’, all looks and no substance. Bifrost’s response had been a feigned act of ‘Who? Oh me?’ replete with flared wings, exaggerated glancing about, and expressions of shocked, almost effeminate decorum.
When Firefly had finally had enough of the act, and chose to affirm her first insult with a sharply tongued, “Yes, you, pretty-colt.” Bifrost had delicately trotted up in front of her, nose in the air, and then bowed low, wings spread, head level to the horizon. Firefly had rolled her eyes in a condescending expression of ‘Oh Please’ at the actions of the stallion, until she looked down and met his up turned gaze. His golden eyes had become hard, boring into her, his face a mask of focused roguish determination, and then he spoke, firm and even, with a slight northerly hint to his accent, and sealed the game with four words.
“Was that a challenge?”
Firefly shifted her view to her now beloved husband in the present. That same roguish smile was again present on his face and curiosity raced her for the answer.
“What has you so happy Frosty?” Firefly asked warmly as she and her mate first bumped noses then moved to passing each other face to flank down the right side in the traditional greeting of married pegasi.
Reaching under his left wing Bifrost drew out a folded letter bound in red ribbon and closed with a silver wax seal bearing a winged lightning bolt. “A couple of cadets dropped this while you were out.”
Firefly’s eyes got wide as she saw the Wonderbolts’ seal. Carefully she took the letter from her mate in her mouth and slipped the seal with the tip of a wing. The letter unfolded as she took it in hoof to read.
“Yahoo!” The pink pegasus pony erupted into a winged back flip of pure exuberation.
“You got in!” Bifrost exclaimed before snatching the now free-floating letter out of the air with his teeth.
“Yup! First attempt, and I broke the record for youngest Wonderbolt ever to make the team by…” Firefly paused her giddy explanation to quickly do some math in her head, “forty-three, no … wait, forty-four days. For anypony to beat that, they’d have to be foaled almost a month early!”
“Three weeks.” Bifrost’s academic side slipped out as he spoke, transferring the letter from mouth to hoof. One didn’t work with advanced weather theory and not have a good mind for math.
“Still, that’s most of a month.” Firefly returned playfully flicking her tail in her mate’s face as he read the letter of acceptance, a smile of pride growing with each second.
Bifrost’s gaze was so firmly fixed on the letter he didn’t notice the tail flick. The moment was perfect for Firefly’s prank-loving soul. She lifted a hoof admiringly, perhaps she might be tempted to go for a hooficure now, though her hooves were ticklish, it was hard enough for her to lay through the one for her own wedding, but on to the point.
“Too bad I’ll have to decline.”
Firefly waited for the words to settle in Bifrost’s preoccupied mind as she continued to contentedly study her right forehoof.
Three…. Two…. One…. Firefly counted down to the inevitable moment of realization that was to be punctuated with a …
“WHAT!” Bifrost reared in shock, jaw agape, wings flared, and eyes wide and set firmly on Firefly.
Firefly moved in close, rubbing her head affectionately against her husband’s belly and barrel, as he remained statuesque in his shock. Moving as high as she could, Firefly nosed Bifrost’s jaw closed before taking to wing and hovering at eye level as she looped her forelegs around his neck and leaned in close to whisper in his ear.
“Yes dear, decline.” She purred happily as Bifrost’s jaw dropped open again.
“But…but…but…” was about where Bifrost’s mind was stuck, his mouth quite obviously along for the ride.
“Why?” offered Firefly as she touched her nose to his.
Bifrost nodded lightly.
“Because I’m pretty sure they won’t permit me to perform advanced aerial displays while I’m carrying our foal now, would they?” Firefly pushed him slightly and the larger stallion toppled onto the cloud deck with a muffled thud.
Settling herself down on top of her fallen lover Firefly crossed her forelegs under her chin and regarded her still motionless husband with a bemused look.
“F-f-f-foal?” The stallion stammered, Bifrost’s vocal track finally having gotten out of the ‘but’ rut.
“Yes, stallion of my dreams. Foal.”
“But…but…but…”
“No, actually it was more of that, other plot, I’ve been letting you till for me.” Firefly grinned as the shock finally was melting from Bifrost’s face, his wings closing around her as she lay atop him.
“What about the Wonderbolts?” coherent speech had finally regained sufficient a foothold to allow the question to be asked.
“Well, since I was only a first year academy student, the chances of being accepted to the team were pretty low, so if you did happen to get me with foal I’d just take a year’s continuance and …” Firefly’s expression faltered in mid explanation, “why are you doing this? Don’t you want me to be happy?”
The odd change in Firefly’s tone caught Bifrost offside.
“Of course, but, aren’t you disappointed about having to decline the Wonderbolts?”
“A little,” the blue maned pink mare sighed, “but the most important thing I’ve ever wanted to be was happy, and right now I’m the happiest mare in Equestria. It’s not every day you have to choose between two dreams coming true the same day. But I get to do just that and not have to discard the other.” The expression of elation on his wife’s face to Bifrost was threatening to outshine the glory of Celestia’s own sun as she spoke. “So why don’t you quit being so analytical and just be happy for us. I’m going to be a dam and you’re the sire.”
Bifrost couldn’t help but smile as he nuzzled his joyful mare at the base of her electric blue mane return as she snuggled deeper into his embrace.
This day was perfect.