//------------------------------// // Wings // Story: Necessity // by Tersin //------------------------------// Sunlight streamed through the windows of the Golden Oaks library forming puddles that drifted across the floor as Celestia’s sun climbed higher into the sky. One of these puddles drifted onto a small basket at the foot of a larger bed where a small dragon was curled tightly in on himself struggling to deny the day and the end of sleep for as long as he could. It was a losing battle though as the sunlight struck him and wormed its way through tightly shut eyelids to force wakefulness, the hated state, on the baby dragon they belonged to. Finally giving up Spike stretched in his basket pushing his blanket aside and looking around. A moment later the panic struck as he realized that he’d overslept. Twilight had probably been yelling for him for at least an hour given the sun’s position and he’d some how managed to sleep right through it. As much as he appreciated extra sleep time an irate Twilight was something to be avoided at all costs. He scrambled out of his bed nearly tripping over the raised edge of his basket and bolted for the stairs, “I’m coming Twilight!” He called hoping to convince her that he hadn’t just been sleeping in when he should have been working, “I’ll have breakfast ready in a minute! Don’t worry I’ll just...” Claws dug furrows in polished wood as Spike screeched to a halt at the sight that confronted him in the library proper. Around Twilight's desk was a mess arranged in almost concentric rings. The first and outermost ring consisted of piles of reference books and magical texts left open to various pages that needed to be consulted frequently. Not too frequently though obviously since most of the open books had other open books piled on top of them. The next ring in was stacks of paper, the stacks almost seeming more massive than the piles of books, each covered front and back by Twilight’s neat horn-writing. Arcane formula and, of all things, anatomy diagrams filled the pages. All of which were stacked in something that Spike could only recognize as a form of complex organization due to familiarity with Twilight acquired literally from birth. After that was a ring of discarded quills and ink pots. Each less discarded and more pushed to the side or dropped when no longer useful. In the center of this debris field was a single sheet of paper on which was written out the finished spell formula. Something that Spike only knew from experience, because on top of that paper was Twilight Sparkle. Princess Celestia’s personal student, nominal leader of the Elements of Harmony, her self holding the Element of Magic, genius among geniuses, most powerful unicorn in Equestria, and currently unconscious on her desk and only narrowly avoiding drooling on her brand new spell. Soft steady breathing assured Spike that she was still asleep in spite of his earlier yelling. This was good. Waking up Twilight after she passed out from an all night study session was a delicate process. Twilight her self had constructed a two hundred point checklist on how to wake somepony from such a state. She kept it easily available and made sure that Spike knew where to find it as he had more cause to need it than she did. Spike however had never used the thing. He had his own method of waking his sister/mother/guardian/taskmistress up. A method he had developed over the twelve long years of their association. It had never failed. Never failed to produce the desired result. So Spike carefully worked his way around the tower of research, moving on tip claw to ensure that he didn’t accidentally wake twilight before it was the correct time, and headed into the library kitchen. *** Twilight woke slowly with the pleasant smell of coffee and pancakes filling her nose. A small smile crept across her muzzle, and she indulged in a large stretch. Which led to her indulging in a shriek as a stray hoof impacted one of the delicate towers of the outer most ring of mess and sent the entire thing collapsing like dominoes. Spike popped his head out of the kitchen at the sound, “Twilight?” He called, “Are you okay?” The pile of books were suffused in a lavender aura and raised into the air as Twilight scrambled to her hooves her horn glowing, “Yes Spike. I’m fine. I just...” She scrambled to think of a excuse that wouldn’t be more embarrassing than what actually happened, “I just...” It wasn’t working. “It’s just you woke up, weren’t paying attention and buried yourself in books?” Spike asked suppressing a giggle. “Yes.” Twilight said at last with a sigh. Spike did laugh then but managed to pull himself together quickly, “Well I have coffee ready and breakfast will be done soon.” “Thanks Spike!” Twilight chirped. “Did you finish?” Spike called disappearing back into the kitchen. “Finish what?” The unicorn was slightly distracted by the need to reshelve everything she’d pulled down before the library opened. “What ever it was you were working on?” “Oh Celestia, I did finish it!” Twilight squealed nearly dropping all of the books all over the library in her excitement. Instead she managed to maintain the levitation after the aura only flickered for a moment as she scrambled back over to her desk to check what she had accomplished before the weakness of the body’s need to sleep overcame her. She quickly scanned over the finished spell twice and then catching the two check marks in the top right corner of the page she squealed again, “And I managed to double check it last night to! It’s ready to test!” “That’s great Twilight. Test it after breakfast? It’s ready.” Spike answered. This caused a momentary tug of war in the unicorn’s mind as her struggle to play with the new spell right now warred with her empty stomach. Quickly enough though her stomach won and Twilight trotted into the kitchen to get coffee and food. *** It was noon by the time Twilight managed to finish up everything that needed doing in the library to the point that Spike could handle the rest. So after a quick lunch she was trotting through the Ponyville streets towards the park, looking for one pony in particular, new spell clutched in her magical grip. The day was beautiful. Only a few clouds in the sky, the sun bright and warm. The park’s green grass and shade trees were popular as many ponies sat or walked together simply enjoying the day. Twilight though was watching the clouds, searching for a prismatic tail draped over the side of one. Or a rainbow contrail streaking across the sky. Scanning the skies she almost missed the pegasus daredevil that she was looking for. Instead of working the weather, practicing her stunts, or napping on a cloud, she was on the ground standing face to face with Applejack. “Hi girls!” Twilight called happy to have found two of her friends but trailed off as neither one of them responded. The two mares were face to face glaring at each other and as Twilight watched Applejack was starting to turn a not altogether healthy blue shade. “Um... girls?” She slowed as she reached them looking back and forth between the two wondering what in Tartarus they’d talked each other into now. She didn’t have long to wait long to find out though as Applejack collapsed to the ground gasping her color quickly returning to it’s natural orange as Rainbow executed a victory back flip. “Ha!” The pegasus crowed, “I win!” “What was the contest this time?” Twilight asked sitting down. Though she already had a pretty good idea what it was. “Applejack bet me that she could hold her breath longer than I could.” Rainbow Dash explained while continuing to celebrate her victor. “Yeah, yeah. Yall won it, fair ‘n square.” Applejack grumbled pulling herself back to her feet, catching her breath. “That was a bad bet Applejack.” Twilight told her slightly amused at the on going contests between the two, “Pegasi have more efficient lungs than the other pony breeds. Combine that with the cardiovascular heavy exercise routines that Rainbow engages in and it wasn’t much of a contest...” “That’s right!” Rainbow Dash declared pointing a hoof at Applejack, “The Dash is just more awesome!” She had no idea what ‘cardiovascular’ meant, but she got the gist of what the Egghead was saying. She was just better. That sounded about right. “... much like the plowing contest you two had last week was a forgone conclusion.” Twilight finished as though Rainbow hadn’t spoken. A week before Rainbow had bet that she could pull a plow at least as quickly as Applejack could, and of course since she was Rainbow Dash, queen of all things speed, she’d do it faster. The pegasus’ downfall had been the dirt the plow had to move through. In the end Rainbow managed a single row, eventually, and Applejack had beat her previous record. The pegasus didn’t like to talk about the incident. Which is why she immediately landed and coughed into her hoof trying to look nonchalant. Applejack just rolled her eyes and turned back to Twilight, “So what can we do ya for, Sugarcube?” Twilight perked right up at the reminder of what had brought her looking for her pegasus friend in the first place, “Oh yes! Rainbow, I just finished a new spell I’ve been working on and I wanted to ask for your help with the experiment that goes along with it.” Rainbows facade cracked and she started to look worried, “Um... I don’t know Twilight.” Rainbow started nervously. Spells she could handle. Twilight knew what she was doing when it came to her magic and her obsessive tendencies meant that she was usually over prepared for anything that could go wrong. She could handle experiments, because usually when those happened Twilight was sure to keep them out of the blast radius. The two combined though seemed like asking for a crash. Twilight just smiled wider, “Relax Rainbow. The spell will only be cast on me. It’s a modification of the wing spell I used on Rarity. I altered it to give me more pegasus like wings. All I want from you is to teach me how to fly, and manipulate the weather.” “I’m in.” Rainbow said instantly. “Now hold on a second there, Twi.” Applejack cut in, “Even if’n ya gave yerself feathers as ‘posed ta those butterfly things that Rarity had, ya still aint gonna be a pegasus, how do ya expect RD ta teach ya how to do her weather thing when ya ain’t got the magic for it?” Rainbow Dash groaned and face hoofed as Applejack triggered what was sure to be, given Twilight’s excitement, an epic lecture, “Doesn’t matter. I said I’m in.” Rainbow said again, trying to derail the inevitable. “That’s just it AJ! I think I do have the magic required!” Both of the other ponies glanced at each other and blinked, “Sugarcube,” Applejack said carefully, “Ah think, maybe, you’ve been the lab too long again.” “I’m not losing it AJ.” Twilight rolled her eyes, “I’m testing a theory I call the unified magic theory. You remember how when we all got our cutie marks thanks to Rainbow's rainboom, I Pinky and Fluttershy had an upsurge in our magic. I had that magic surge, Fluttershy started talking to animals, and Pinky’s mane... poofed.” She finished lamely, but plowed on anyway, “But why is that? The rainboom is pegasus magic! By current theories it should have had no effect on any of us except maybe Fluttershy. So why did it?” She was getting excited now dancing back and forth between her two front hooves, “I think it’s because what our wellsprings produce is all actually the same! It’s just the different focuses that allow us to express it differently. So if I have a pegasus focus...” She trailed off inviting them to follow her to her conclusion. “You’ll be able ta do pegasus magic.” Applejack finished slowly, “So if you can do all the stuff a pegasus can do then yer right?” “Doesn’t matter, still in, why are we talking and not flying?” Rainbow tried to get them back on to, what was for her, the point. “Well the theory will be a long way from being proven, but it will be a good first step.” Twilight hedged. “Well then Ah got jest one more question afore Ah sit back and watch the show.” Applejack scratched her head tilting her hat out of the way, “Why’re yall doin' it this way? Why not give RD a horn ‘r some thin?” Twilight stared at at Applejack flatly for a long moment before answering, “Aside from how bad the idea of giving one of Ponyville’s premier pranksters magic is, I’m rather sure that I’m more interested in learning to fly than Rainbow is in learning spell formula.” “Sounds about right! So lets do this!” Rainbow’s impatience had reached the point where she had to hover around the other two in circles to try and vent some of the energy. Applejack chuckled, “Ah reckon so. All right, you be careful Sugarcube.” the farm pony waved and headed over to a tree to lay under and watch what was sure to be prime entertainment. *** Twilight cast the spell and soon enough she was panting on the ground with two brand new feathery appendages flopped out gracelessly on either side of her. Rainbow landed and paced around the flat unicorn examining what she had to work with. “Well you’ve got good feathers, and they look to be in good shape, structure and shape of the wings is about right...” Rainbow hesitated for a moment before continuing, “But Twi, I don’t think this is going to work.” “What?” Twilight’s head jerked up as she craned to get a look at her back, “What’s wrong with them? I worked so hard! I double checked the spell and everything.” The spell complete with two check marks in the corner was thrust into the cyan speedsters face, “See?” Rainbow gently pushed the paper out of her face, “Calm down Twi. I don’t know about the spell but you don’t have the muscle to fly right now. It’s no problem, I’ll give you some exercises you can do and we’ll work up to it.” As Rainbow spoke Twilight flopped down in the grass, her shoulders shaking. Rainbow was getting ready to try and be more comforting, uncool but for her friend it was a sacrifice she was prepared to make. Besides she could sympathize, to be all ready to fly then discover you couldn’t... Rainbow shuddered. As she was getting ready to try and calm the hysterical mare down she leaned down and discovered that Twilight was laughing. Rainbow cocked her head confused, “Um.. Twi?” “Oh sorry, Rainbow.” Twilight gasped out through her giggles, “I just thought something was really wrong.” She took a few deep breaths before continuing, “I didn’t include the muscles in the transformation spell. It would have made the whole thing much more complicated. The wings a magically motivated as opposed to muscularly.” Rainbow blinked at her friend, “...What?” Twilight looked up at Rainbow and smiled, “I means I’m going to be using magic to move my wings, not muscle.” “Oh...” Rainbow thought for a moment then shrugged, “They’ll move right... right?” “Yes, Rainbow. As far as you’re concerned there should be no difference.” “All right then!” And Rainbow was back in the air, “Lets get started.” *** Twilight had no illusions about how complicated flight was. She had read a great deal both for the spell and because not knowing something about a subject that she’d chosen to study was just unacceptable. Because of this Rainbow found she could skip explaining a lot of things. Wing positioning, how to turn, bank, catch a thermal, hover, take off, land. All of this Twilight knew how to do. Getting her to do them at the right time, and quick enough was proving to be a tad more difficult. “Cup your wings Twi!” Rainbow shouted as the purple unicorn flailed her way through the air, trying to keep in mind everything that she had to keep track of, “That’s a thermal! Cup your...” Frantically Twilight tried to drag her wings into the cupped position. She was finding that getting her wings into any position aside from fully spread was far more difficult that it should have been. In retrospect doing without muscle structure could have been a mistake. Well practiced spells could be reflexive, but in general unicorn magic was a conscious effort. The result of focus and formula. In other words much slower than muscles would have been. She managed to get one wing half cupped before hitting the thermal, and being flung sideways, spinning. She tried to flap but found another argument for muscles as the disorientation made it hard to coordinate. The ground came rushing up at her as Twilight frantically tried to flap at the same time she flooded the one large leyline she’d built with in her wings to try and correct her self that way. In the end that only made things worse as Twilight Sparkle overloaded the fragile leyline and her wings, unable to take the magical strain, simply unraveled. Rainbow Dash saw the thermal coming. She saw the tail spin coming too given how the purple unicorn had been flying up until that point. Which was terribly. So terribly that Rainbow had been, for the last few minutes, trying to figure out how to tell her friend that her theory was clearly wrong and she should probably never try this again. Because what she was seeing was probably what would happen if the Cutie Mark Crusaders tried to get their flying cutie marks. So heading towards Twilight to help the unicorn steady herself was a the logical next step. Which was good because what Rainbow hadn’t seen coming was the tail spinning unicorn’s wings simply vanishing into rapidly fading motes of purple light. Twilight fell like a stone, the air ripping past her ears blotting out any other sound. The ground grew closer filling up her vision. She narrowly avoided her first instinct, which was to teleport straight to the ground. The part of her mind that never stopped analyzing, inferring, and extrapolating informed her that she was already going too fast to survive hitting the ground, and shortening that trip was ill advised. That part of her mind speculated idylly on what the splatter pattern would look like and how far various parts of her would spread from the point of impact. Most of her was gearing up for a good panic though. At first she didn’t notice the strong hooves wrap around her barrel. She did notice when the forelegs grew tight around her as Rainbow’s wings snapped open in a desperate bid to halt their plummet. Rainbow could carry another pony easily, even two without too much strain. Without the added magic of a rainboom though challenging the inertia of two fully grown mares that were hurtling towards the ground as fast as they could wasn’t something she was sure she could pull off. The cyan pegasus’ wing muscles screamed and her chest burned as she strained against the air. Her magic blazed through her wings, calling the air into a powerful updraft directly beneath them. It seemed to be working much to Rainbow’s relief the were slowing. A moment later they’d slowed enough for the pegasus speedster to pull their headlong dive into horizontal flight again. The air shrieked around them which is likely why Rainbow Dash didn’t hear the loud wet pop just as she managed to pull up. She heard Twilight’s scream though, and felt the mare go limp in her grip a moment later.