Oh, we’re halfway there,
Oh-oh! Livin’ on a prayer!
I took the earbuds out and continued to walk across Ponyville. Checking the time on my watch, I realized that if I didn’t find exactly what I needed in the library I was going to be flying back to my apartment in the middle of the night, and that was a journey even a fast pegasus like me didn’t want to take. Trains: unreliable ground-based transport things. The wheel was a great idea, it just needed some speed behind it.
Looking on my left I saw the library in which the newly crowned Princess Twilight lived.
“Might as well see if she’s in,” I thought. Maybe if I’m extra lucky, she’ll have a book on history which I could look through and see if there is anything on steamwings or automatons. I trotted over there slowly, wondering if there was any special way I’d have to greet her, or if I had to kneel when I got through the door. There weren’t any royal guards, so that was a bit of a relief.
“…oh, Spike, what should I take? Do you think I’ll be able to store all my books?” I heard from the inside.
“Calm down, Twilight, we’re just moving most of your stuff out to Canterlot. Remember? The place we used to live in with the really big library?”
I opened the door and got hit in the face with a book. “Ow,” I said, more surprised than injured. The inside of the library was a complete mess. Books were stacked miles high on the very of collapsing as a purple blur ran between them frantically while a young purple dragon stood on the wooden table’s centerpiece trying to calm her down.
“I know, Spike, but we’ve found so many books since we’ve come here! Maybe there’s a copy spell and-” the blur put the brakes on and slid inches away from my face.
Instinctively I backed up to give her some room. “Uh, excuse me, Your Royal Highness…”
She stood up, gave a quick look around the place, and then gave a pained smile. “Oh, uh, hi there, welcome to the Ponyville library.” A bead of sweat rolled down her brow to her chin. “Sorry about the mess, we were, uh, just reorganizing.”
Spike jumped off the table. “I’m Spike, Chief Royal Assistant to Her Royal Princess!”
“Um, I’m Seismic Riff,” I said, deciding I should kneel for Princess Twilight. It’s only polite. “And don’t worry about the mess, my apartment’s worse.”
She wiped the sweat away from her forehead and gave me a genuine smile. “Oh, okay, good. Anyway, you don’t have to kneel for me, I might be a princess, but I’m still a pony like you.”
It was still unsettling to be in the presence of royalty, and because of that I nervously beat my wings out. I automatically cursed myself for doing that.
“Wow, look at your wings!” Spike marveled, his dragon claws snaking their way to feel the shiny metal. “That’s so cool!”
Even Twilight was looking at them and examining me. “Wow, I’ve never seen such an intricate design for wings! Are you an Earth Pony?”
“No, I’m a pegasus, it’s just my wings were kind of messed up with this sickness…”
Using her magic, she grabbed a notepad, and quill, and myself and began writing notes while looking at my wings.
“This design is really old, but the science behind it is amazing! It’s like someone modern designed these.” She prodded my right wing and a spike with a rope shot out, barely missing her crown, and embedding itself into a wall. “Eesh, dangerous too! Can you tell me where you got these, Seismic Riff?”
Levitating upside down was unsettling, and I was too busy flailing my hooves. I finally gave up. “I don’t remember. I have amnesia.”
She put me down and I retracted the spike. “Hmm, well that’s too bad. Those are some really good quality mechanical wings you have. Everything about them is aerodynamically sound, too.”
“That’s what I came to ask you,” I said. “Don’t you have any books on steamwing technology?”
“Is that what it’s called?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, flapping her own wings. She magicked the books across her field of vision, flipping through pages. “Hmm, none of these books I have even mentions the word “steamwing” anywhere. I’m sorry, Seismic Riff, I’m afraid I’ve never even heard of it.”
I hung my head a little. The most knowledgeable source in all of Equestria couldn’t help me out. Kind of disappointing. But then again, I haven’t seen many other ponies around who had wings like mine, so it’s not likely a question like mine would come up.
“However, because these wings might benefit Equestria I will definitely ask Princess Celestia when I get to Canterlot!” she stated.
I brightened up considerably. “Thanks, Princess Twilight.”
“You don’t have to call me princess,” she said, a little exasperated. “But you must do me a favor and let me measure your wingpower."
* * * * *
Fwooooooooooooosh!
“8.2 wingpower!” I shouted. I applauded. “For someone who just got their wings, you’re really good.”
“Thanks, Riff!” she replied. “Spike, get the recorder ready, you’re up, Riff.”
I wondered how I had gotten into this, but I should have known when I saw the mad gleam in her eye that if I refused she would have weaseled her way into me doing it anyway. And that’s how I found myself on the Ponyville track, stretching my wings and putting them into Dogfight mode, which with some whirs, clicks, and hisses, put them in the most fast and agile state possible, I was just about to take off when I heard the sound of rushed wind fly past my face and a rainbow streak.
“Hey, Twi, whatcha doin out here?” a playful voice asked.
A light blue pegasus was hovering above Twilight’s head. She looked calm, collected, but most of all, she had an air of being better than everyone and pretty much everything. That was Rainbow Dash for sure, the girl who believed she would be the captain of the Wonderbolts.
“Rainbow Dash, I’m busy doing scientific research on wings!” Twilight snapped. “Spike, don’t record her!” The young dragon was busy pointing the lenses at Rainbow Dash while she did poses in the air.
“So, who are you?” Rainbow dash finally asked, hovering down to the ground, looking at me.
“Um, I’m Seismic Riff,” I said, extending a hoof. “We went to flight camp together, but uh, we really didn’t talk much.”
“Oh really?” she said, shaking it and grinning. “Well, how about a little competition? Let’s see who’s got the fastest wingpower!”
She revved her wings up after stretching and blew by the anemometer. There was so much wind behind it, it nearly blew me off my feet. Spike actually tumbled away, but didn’t lose the recorder.
“Ho, ho, that was great Rainbow Dash!” he praised her, checking the device. “16.5 wingpower, just like last time!”
“Awww, yeah!” she shouted, pumping her hoof and beating her wings. “Now you go!”
I was kind of nervous, since this was now some sort of competition. I stretched my wings, again causing somepony to panic.
“Hey, no special wings allowed, that’s cheating!” she told Twilight, but the princess shook her head and told her that those were my wings and explained why they were like that.
I rolled my eyes and revved them up. I shot forward at what felt like an impossible speed, the hydraulic pistons pumping and the gears whirring. I blasted by the anemometer, nearly knocking it over from the sheer force of my back draft. I shot straight up to lose speed so I didn’t kill my hooves.
All three had open mouths when I trotted back over. “So, how did I do?”
Twilight stammered for a minute. “S..S..17.9 wingpower…”
I looked at the anemometer, and sure enough there it was. Spike had recorded the whole thing. “Whoa, Seismic Riff, you’re crazy fast! You’re faster than Rainbow Dash!”
The blue pegasus just refused to accept it, rubbing her eyes and shaking her head. “B-b-b-but…th-th-that’s just impossible…no way!” she stomped her hooves. “I’m the fastest flyer in Equestria!”
I shrugged. “I’m sorry?” I said.
She snorted. “If I cut my mane, I would have had less drag.”
I rolled my eyes. My mane and tail were way longer and bushier than hers. “Sure.”
Twilight sighed, obviously annoyed that Rainbow Dash was getting in the way of her important research. Just leave, Dashie, I have science to get back to!”
Rainbow Dash looked me in the eye. “We’ll have a race next time and we’ll see who’s the best flyer in all of Equestria!” she zoomed off, leaving a rainbow blur behind.
Twilight looked at me and I shrugged. “I’m from Pegasauria, actually, just to the northwest of Equestria’s borders.”
“Ooh, can you tell me about your land? What’s it like? Is it cold? Who’s the ruler there?” Twilight’s questions rolled over her tongue like cookies off the factory treadmill.
“Um…I don’t remember.”
“Can I please take your steamwings off? Pretty please?”
“What, no, princess!”