“Of course not princess, he told us what happened, but there isn’t much we can do at the moment” Twilight said to the princess, using a more informal tone than Takanuva had expected when talking to royalty.
“I know that we can’t do anything yet, my student, but I must tell you, whenever the magical balance has shifted before, great calamity has usually followed.” the princess replied, “Besides, I have a good idea where he is from, and he is not the first to have ventured here.”
“What do you mean? Has one of my kind been here before?” Takanuva cut in, getting up from his bow.
“Yes, once before, many years ago. He called himself Brutaka, but he did not look as you do, he appeared quite mechanical, as if he was not actually alive. Whether by accident or on purpose, he was followed into our land. I did not understand at first, but it was soon revealed that what had followed him was what your kind call ‘Antidermis’.” she said, talking directly to Takanuva this time, “It caused a lot of havoc in equestria for a long time, possessing many a pony with no way to track it, until we finally found and contained it. Now you understand why I am apprehensive about our new guest.”
“I understand your concerns, for I have received a similar reception on many occasions. But I assure you, I mean you and your people no harm. Although, the people that now have my only means of leaving this land might do.” Takanuva explained.
“All the same, I feel it necessary to make sure of such things, as much can be achieved by a little deception, but I trust in Twilight's judgement.” the princess then turned to Twilight and simply said “Goodbye my student.”
The princess then turned and stepped onto her carriage, and the pegasus guards pulling it took off and pulled it up into the sky towards Canterlot.
“I guess I’ll leave you two to it then, as my education obviously doesn’t extend to flying. Good luck both of you.” Twilight called to them as Takanuva walked over to where Rainbow Dash was hovering impatiently.
“Now then Takanuva, flying is a very easy thing to do, so I won’t spend too long trying to explain it,” Rainbow Dash said as Takanuva arrived on the hilltop, with a surprisingly authoritative voice, “Flying is more of an instinct than a learned skill, it is to feel the wind in your wings, let it guide you and help you, rather than fighting it, and trying to manipulate it.”
“I believe I am acquainted with the basics Rainbow Dash, I am no stranger to flight myself,” Takanuva cut in, stopping Rainbow Dash mid-speech, “It should not be too different to what I am used to.”
“Alright then, give it a try.” Rainbow Dash said to him, in a tone of voice that just screamed of a challenge. Takanuva tried to open his wings, unfamiliar with the appendages he now possessed. With a bit of trial and error, he worked out how to open and close his wings, as well as to tilt them. At the moment he was a bit clumsy with them, but he felt that he was good enough to try a test flight. He ran across the hill, building momentum, and when the slope downwards began to steepen, he opened his wings and leaped.
As he reached the apex of his leap, he felt the wind catch underneath his wings, slowing his descent into more of a glide. As a test, he pushed his wings downwards, against the gathering air. He rose further above the hill, as he fell into a rhythm, rising higher and higher until he was high above the hilltop, higher even than where Rainbow Dash was watching.
He then relaxed his wings a bit, letting himself fall towards the ground, while still keeping them open enough so he had control of his descent. On landing he staggered a bit, adjusting the his legs supporting his weight again, but he still managed to keep on him hooves.
“Nice one,” Rainbow called from above, where she was still hovering, “it usually takes somepony at least a dozen attempts to maintain a flight, let alone land again without falling flat on their faces.” With this encouragement, Takanuva tried taking off and landing again. After several short hops of flight, he felt sure enough of his basics to try slightly more complex things. Firstly, he tried to actually tilt himself in flight, so he was actually flying upwards, rather than being dragged up by his wings.
His first attempts were fairly clumsy, due mostly to inexperience, but after what seemed like an hour of flying and landing, and occasionally crashing, Takanuva was flying around like he had been born with wings, banking and dipping, rolling and diving. Rainbow Dash had even taken to flying alongside him, offering tips and hints on techniques.
“Wow Takanuva, you’re getting good,” Rainbow Dash praised, as they landed for the final time, “But nowhere near as good as me. Although, with considerable practice, you could come close.”
“Thank you Rainbow Dash. Like I said, I am no stranger to flying, but never before have my means of flight been literally part of me. It is, strange, to say the least.”
“No problem, ‘nuva, I guess we should get going, it’s starting to get dark. Come on, I’ll show you the way.” Rainbow Dash said to Takanuva, flying off back towards town, now with Takanuva following her in flight as well, “And by the way, you can just call me Dash, or Rainbow, whichever you want really, no need to be formal. I mean, we’re friends, right?” This caused Takanuva to stop in his tracks, hovering in the air. “Takanuva, you alright?” Dash called to him.
“Of course Rainbow,” Takanuva said as he shook his head, “It’s just, I’ve never really had a friend, I’ve had team-mates, and we’ve got along fine, but I’ve only ever had one friend who didn’t need to be around me, and I’ve barely seen him for ages.”
“Gee, Takanuva, that sounds, well, dull really. But hey, you’ve got friends now. You’ve got me, I’m sure Twilight would agree with me, and Pinkie, who I gather you met at sugarcube corner earlier, well, she just likes anypony.”
“Thank you Rainbow, this means a lot to me. Now, where in fact is it we’re heading, we just seem to be getting higher and higher.”
“Oh, you’ll see.” Rainbow Dash said mysteriously to Takanuva, as she turned and flew off towards what, at that distance, looked like just a gathering of clouds. Takanuva flew after her, until the clouds that they were headed towards started looking less like a random gathering of clouds, but a deliberate sculpting of them into a grand looking structure. As they reached the edge of the clouds, Rainbow Dash descended to the surface of the clouds, and as her hooves made contact with them, they merely depressed slightly, and Dash just walked along up to the door.
When Takanuva reached them, he landed more hesistantly, not used to being able to walk on clouds, and his first steps were shaky, until his body got used to it and was able to walk properly. The inside looked just as lavish as the exterior, and was currently decorated with all manner of decorations, banners and streamers, balloons and confetti. The room was currently occupied by five ponies, two unicorns, two earth ponies and a pegasus.
He recognised four of them, but he hadn’t met the fifth, a unicorn mare with a luxurious purple mane and tail.
“SURPRISE!!” they all called out as he entered the room, startling both him and Rainbow Dash with the sudden appearance of these ponies.
“Hey there! Sorry about having to leave you earlier, but I had this absolutely great idea for the party, which I just had to do, before I forgot! Anyway, I set up this party just for you, because when I saw you, I knew you were new in town, so that meant you hadn’t met anyone yet, besides Twilight, and that meant you didn’t have any friends, so I threw you this party, but since Rainbow lives in the clouds, Twilight had to use her cloud-walking spell, and she couldn’t use it all the ponies I wanted to invite so it’s just us five, and Dashie and you, of course!” the hyper pink party pony said to Takanuva, so quickly that he couldn’t believe it was all in one breath and he was unable to keep up fully.
“What she means to say is, we set up this party for you, to help you get settled in better.” Twilight said as she walked up to Takanuva, “It’s sort of a tradition in Ponyville. Well, for Pinkie at least.”
“Hey! You could have let me in on it.” Rainbow said indignantly, before softening up moments after, “You guys scared the hay out of me.”
“That’s the point you silly filly! It can’t be a surprise party if nopony’s surprised. Duh.” said the hyperactive party-pony now bouncing all over the room. Takanuva took another look around, taking in all of the lush decorations around the room. There were several tables in the room, all piled high with many different types of food, cake and sweets, punch and soda, and many more. It all looked delicious and then Takanuva remembered that with the arrival of the princess, he hadn’t had the chance to have his slice of cake, which was now most likely sitting on the floor outside the bakery. Thankfully, there was no shortage of choice about what to eat, so he more than made up for the slice of cake he had missed earlier.
Throughout the rest of the afternoon, the seven of them ate, played games, and generally had fun. The yellow pegasus that he had met earlier, Fluttershy, gradually became more open and confident around him, being particularly vocal when he mentioned Pewku, getting him to tell her about all the other wildlife back on Mata Nui. The white unicorn that Takanuva hadn't met introduced herself to Takanuva as Rarity, and soon mentioned the tussled state of his mane, scolding him for not taking better care of it.
"Sorry about being so forceful darling, I just can't help trying to intervene when I see somepony not taking proper care of their appearance. Anyway, just come down to my boutique sometime soon and I'll make sure to come up with something to make you look magnifique. On the house of course, just think of it as my welcome gift to you." Rarity said after introducing herself.
The party wound on late into the night, until Twilight and the other non-pegasi had to leave, as the cloud-walking spell seemed to be wearing off. Fluttershy had to get back to her cottage to check up on all her animals, and make sure they were all OK. Rainbow Dash led him over to a room near the back of the house, with a reasonably sized bed, and a small chest of drawers off to the side. The bed was made out of pure cloud, separated from the floor by a small frame of some unsure material.
"OK Takanuva, this is your room. Feel free to use it as you want, but try not to disturb me, I'm just across the hall and I've got to get some rest if I'm going to get good enough for the Wonderbolts." Rainbow Dash said to him, as he looked around the room, and took in the view from out the window.
Rainbow turned and left the room, leaving Takanuva by himself. He settled down on the bed, marvelling at how soft, yet supportive it was, and closed his eyes. As he started to fall asleep, he couldn't help but feel he had forgotten something...