“What the…?!” Rainbow Dash, Twilight, all his friends’ jaws dropped as they gazed on the impossible!
Midnight had somehow transformed himself into a pegasus, no fake wings of gossamer and morningdew, but actual wings of flesh, bone, and feather. But before they could ask, Midnight started doing stretches, getting rid of cricks one by one, milking the situation in taking his sweet time that finally Thunderlane couldn’t take it anymore.
"Well?" he egged with an impatient smile. "We're waiting!"
“And good things come to those who wait,” Midnight chuckled as he hunkered down, his wings spread.
They heard the beating of his wings as he started to rev it up before…!
*CHOOM, WHOOSH*
Ponies all yelled in shell shock as they fought against what felt like a gale from a hurricane so powerful it blew multiple pegasi skyward while Big Macintosh stood over Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy to keep them from being blown, using his impressive stature to hold his ground. Even Rainbow, Thunder, and Soarin all fought to defy this incredible power.
As it died down, all ponies gaped at Midnight, who had reverted to his true unicorn form, and was looking pretty darn proud of himself as he polished his hoof on his coat and blew it.
“19.1 wing-power!” Spike reported, unable to believe what he was reading on the anemometer.
“What?!” Rainbow couldn’t believe it either, Midnight had outclassed her!
Then it hit her, “You’re the blue blur I saw flying around Ponyville yesterday!”
“Eeyup, that was me,” Midnight admitted as he walked up with sheepish smile, everypony to still gaping at him.
“Midnight, how did you transform yourself into a pegasus?!” Twilight awed.
“This,” Midnight levitated his goggles, “my latest creation, and a personal favorite of mine! It’s imbued with a transformation spell, and the jewels on the sides of the lenses contain pure pegasus magic! It took me forever to figure out the harmonics of the pegasus magic, but I finally got it and took it for its first test-run yesterday!”
“But why didn’t you talk to me?!” Rainbow demanded.
“I… wasn’t quite ready to make the big reveal then,” Midnight admitted sheepishly. “But when I heard about Tornado Day, I just knew this would be the perfect way to unveil these babies!”
“So… with that,” Soarin gathered, “a unicorn or earth pony could transform into a pegasus?”
“Unfortunately no,” Midnight shook his head. “Despite its success, this is still a prototype, as it’s keyed to my own mystic signature. So it only works for me.”
“Incredible…!” Twilight marveled at the goggles, her horn flaring as she reached out to touch its ethereal essence and felt the freedom of the sky, the might of a storm, heard the music of rainfall, and the touch of a summer breeze.
“Midnight, this could revolutionize ponykind everywhere!”
“Let’s take this one step at a time, Twi,” Midnight chuckled as he put them back on. “Add me to the roster, everypony cuz I’m flying on Tornado Day!”
“Yeah!” everypony cheered, almost drowned out by a certain big and burly pegasus stallion’s “YEAH!!!”
Rainbow gaped after them as they crowded around Midnight. She couldn’t believe it – Midnight had not only outclassed her wing-power he’d knocked her completely out of the spotlight!
“I don’t understand it! Midnight’s not a pegasus, not a real one at least. How can he have more wing-power than me?!”
“It’s his magic,” Twilight suggested, “Rainbow Dash, you know that pegasus magic is what really helps Pegasus ponies fly, right? That you use your wings to channel it, giving you the abilities to fly and influence the weather. From what I can see here, Midnight has converted his own magic into pegasus magic, and that’s what gives him such great wing-power!”
“But that still doesn’t answer my question!” Rainbow protested.
“Rainbow Dash, sometimes a pegasus pony’s flying skills, speed, and stamina is actually determined by their innate magical power,” Twilight explained further.
“Simply put, Midnight has more magic than you, so his wing-power as a pegasus is greater.”
“But- I…” Rainbow began to wrap her mind around it all but she still didn’t like it.
“This actually makes sense, now that I think about it,” Twilight commented, Rainbow looking at her while she looked on towards Midnight. “I’ve always known Midnight has great magical power. I’ve seen it plenty of times before, and I’ve always thought at the very least Midnight is my equal in raw magical power.”
That one got Rainbow Dash’s attention – She’d always thought of Twlight, as a unicorn mage, was in a class by herself. To hear her speak of Midnight as her equal was an attention-grabber but then she said, “But there have also been times, mostly at night, where I’ve seen Midnight’s power to go even further. I think, under the right circumstances, Midnight’s magic is stronger by far than even mine…”
Rainbow looked in awe at Midnight, a pegasus again, the goggles resting on his forehead as he stood with the other pegasi as they listened to Thunderlane.
“Alright, everypony, if we’re gonna do our record-breaking best, each and every one of you has to raise their wing-power to at least 10.0 by the end of the week! You do that and not only will we prove ourselves in breaking the record we’ll show all of Equestria that the pegasi of Ponyville are Number One!!!”
The pegasi all cheered and took flight, a nervous Fluttershy hunkering down.
Over the next couple hours, everypony took a turn to determine their level of wing-power, which Twilight and Spike jotted down and tallied, until finally…
“Fluttershy, your turn!” Rainbow blew her whistle.
Fluttershy shakily stepped up, nervous as she felt all eyes fall upon her.
“Show `em what’cha got, Sugarcube!”
She looked to Big Macintosh, giving her a supportive smile, and she felt some of the pressure fall from her wings, took a deep breath before taking off. As she flapped, Fluttershy felt more tension fall away, and thought that just maybe she could do this.
But then as she passed Cloudchaser and Flitter, her ears perked at their laughs, sounding derisive, and she could hear it. That mocking chant from when she was a nervous little filly in Flight Camp!
She felt the tension return, causing her to slow up, as she passed the anemometer by. Twilight gave it a look and Rainbow noticed the look on her face.
All eyes turned to them, particularly Fluttershy as they heard…
“Tell her!”
“You tell her.
“No, you!”
Then they noticed Fluttershy looking at them expectantly.
“Uh… great job, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said hesitantly. “You… measured, uh, 0.5.”
“0.5?!”
They flinched and looked at Spike as he blurted out, “Isn’t that less than 1?”
*THWACK*
“Ow!” Spike rubbed his head as Twilight gave him the stink eye.
Hearing that pitiful level of wing-power, seeing those eyes on her, hearing that awful chant in her mind, Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel as though she were surrounded by gaping eyes, watching, just waiting for her to slip up!
She galloped off, crying, Rainbow Dash and big Mac chasing after her, the former yelling, “Fluttershy, wait!”
As they caught up with her, Rainbow said, “So some punks poked fun at you when you got stage fright, big deal! You’re not gonna quit just because of that, are you?”
But then Fluttershy turned to face Rainbow and she felt her heart sink at her friend’s face, stained with tears as her voice broke, “Ye-he-hes!”
“But… I need you!” Rainbow insisted, Big Mac suddenly standing in her way.
“Nnope!” he said firmly.
“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, but-” Fluttershy sobbed, “I… I just don’t have the courage!”
She ran off, sniffling, Big Mac going after her, and Rainbow stood there, conflicted between her emotions. Disappointed in Fluttershy being a quitter and feeling guilty to being insensitive to her fears. She finally growled and bucked at the dirt before walking back to the training track.
Twilight, Thunderlane, Soarin, and Midnight saw Rainbow Dash come back, looking down. Soarin felt his heart hurt a bit at seeing Rainbow that way but Thunderlane said, “I’m gonna have a talk with her.”
He went over, saying, “Dash?”
She looked up at him, as he said, “Fly with me.”
As they flew up over Ponyville, Thunderlane asked, “So Fluttershy’s too scared, huh?”
“I can’t believe it, Thunder…” Rainbow sighed. “The one time I really and truly need her she chickens out! I mean, I get that she had a bad experience back in Flight Camp but that was years ago!”
“Some scars just never fade, Dash,” Thunderlane said patiently, “and when it comes to ponies like Fluttershy, they can go very deep.”
“But this is our big chance, Thunderlane! Our chance to make Ponyville proud, to rise up and claim everlasting glory!” Rainbow insisted. “I mean, if I can show Spitfire something so awesome as breaking this record…!”
“It’s all about you, isn’t it?”
She spun around at him, seeing his eyes narrowed at her. But what got her goat was the way he was looking at her, his tone of voice.
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” she demanded.
“It’s always about you,” Thunderlane said disapprovingly. “Always having to be the best, always having to be in the limelight... I saw the look on your face when Midnight registered a greater level of wing-power than you!”
“He doesn’t deserve that wing-power!” Rainbow argued, “He’s never trained as hard as I have, flown for as long-”
“You should be grateful, Dash!” Thunderlane snapped, “With Midnight’s wing-power combined with ours, we stand a whole lot of a greater chance of breaking that record, like it matters!”
“Whattya mean by that, of course it matters!” Rainbow insisted.
“To you maybe,” Thunderlane went on. “But this is not about you breaking some record to impress somepony, it’s about getting that water from the reservoir to Cloudsdale so everypony in Equestria can get rain, I can’t believe that is not enough for you! And you’re putting your own goals before Fluttershy’s feelings!”
“Because every little bit counts!” Rainbow insisted.
“Rainbow Dash, for the last time!” Thunderlane snapped. “This is not” – he punctuated the following words with a flap each, going over Rainbow’s head – “About” – “YOU!”
The co-captains/rivals glared into each other’s eyes, daring the other to break eye-contact first. Finally, Thunderlane scoffed and said, “I have better things to do than argue with an immature egomaniac…”
He flew off, leaving Rainbow Dash to fume and rant over her mixed priorities.